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sensitivehandsomeactionman · 26 days ago

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Inside ‘Supernatural’s’ Evolution From Monster-of-the-Week to Psychological Horror

by Danielle Turchiano | Oct 1, 2020 | Variety

A little boy sits alone on the floor of his bedroom. Backlit by a window, he leans over pages of construction paper on which he is obsessively drawing. A platoon of little green Army men guards the pages, and ultimately the boy. As the camera pans around him, he does not speak — in fact he has not spoken at all since his father drowned in a local lake the year before.

This is not the first time the audience, or even the main characters of “Supernatural” are introduced to this boy, as the moment comes a little less than half-way through the third episode of the series. But through the scene setup and shot style, it is the first time the audience gets a glimpse of the boy’s psyche, which will prove to be indispensable as the Winchester brothers work to solve the case of the mysterious lake deaths. It is also a turning point for a first-season show that would eventually run for 15 years.

“I watched Kim [Manners, director] set up this one shot and I thought, ‘That’s the way the show should be shot. This is the look we should be going for,'” executive producer Bob Singer tells Variety.

Creator Eric Kripke originally pitched “Supernatural” to studio Warner Bros. and eventually then-network the WB as a monster-movie-of-the-week drama about two brothers (Dean and Sam Winchester) who travel the backroads of America hunting the things the audience would remember from urban legends. But his main goal in his original pitch document was that “the weekly stories have to be SCARY AS S—.” (And yes, the all-caps was his emphasis.)

While he wanted to make “this series as scary as I can,” he wrote at the time, not all fear comes from an external source. Soon enough, it was the characters’ own trauma and internal struggles that were driving story and adding rich complications to an already well-known genre.

“We set out to make a horror show, and those were the initial stories we wrote. But you learn and adjust as you start watching the film, and a few things conspired to tell us, ‘We have to focus a lot more on the characters than we’re currently doing,’ which is we realized the actors we had,” Kripke tells Variety now. “We saw that they were just both wildly charismatic and emotional and were knocking everything we gave them out of the park. So we were like, ‘We should start giving them harder things to do because they can handle it.'”

The pilot introduced Dean (Jensen Ackles) and Sam’s (Jared Padalecki) trauma briefly, first by revealing that their mother died under mysterious circumstances in a house fire, resulting in their father devoting his life to hunting what killed her — even when it meant dragging his school-aged kids on the road and leaving them alone for days on end in rundown motels. When Sam’s girlfriend dies in a similar way in the present-day portion of the episode, a deeper, psychologically-scarring mythology is hinted at — but the focus of the first few episodes of the series is really more on the “task at hand” of taking out whatever creature is right in front of them — from a Woman in White in the pilot, to a wendigo in the second episode and a ghost in the third.

“When you get hired as staff on a first season show, you get handed the documents they used to sell the show, and that included some of the family secrets and what was going on with Sam. But it’s more like it was a headline that these children had been through a lot because of, we’ll call it, their unconventional life — and the details come when you start to have more space to tell the story,” says Sera Gamble, who penned “Dead in the Water,” the pivotal third episode of the first season with Raelle Tucker, and later went on to run the show in the sixth and seventh seasons.

When breaking the story for “Dead in the Water,” Gamble recalls a conversation with Kripke about how “most young children, especially who have been through something, [are] not just going to open up and give you all of the procedural information you need as an [exposition] dump in the scene.” In discussing how it needed to be harder to draw information out of that child, Gamble says she was inspired to “dig deeper into the psychology of the characters in that script,” which became a baseline for episodes going forward.

“Now I can’t imagine approaching anything with a fantasy element without starting from that place,” she says. “These stories were scary to us because they feel like they tap into something true. Your road as a writer to something that’s going to terrify the audience is through human psychology.”

What each audience member finds scary can vary — and often comes from factors outside a show’s control, from the person’s own upbringing and experiences to the kinds of other stories they consume. In order to to make sure to deliver unique horror elements in each episode, Singer says that from the beginning, “one thing we always said was that the shooting style should be commensurate with what the monster was or what the tone was, so we didn’t feel like we were doing a cookie-cutter horror [show].”

The characters within each of those episodes also had to be unique, even if the type of creature the Winchesters were fighting was something they’d encountered before. “Halfway through Season 1, the first run of the scripts, we realized we were going to run out of monsters in a hurry,” if we didn’t, Singer says. “So if we did a vampire story, each version would not be what you’ve seen before — each version had their own story.”

Often these characters had traumatic backstories of their own, such as Gordon (Sterling K. Brown), a hunter who was on a one-track mission to eradicate the supernatural from Earth after his sister was taken by a vampire when he was just a teenager. (In the most heart-wrenching twist, he later was turned into the thing he hated the most.) Sometimes they even brought out complicated issues for the main characters, such as when Sam fell for Madison (Emmanuelle Vaugier), a werewolf who he was going to have to kill, reigniting the fears he had about losing the women he loved.

And as time went on, those issues and fears began to pile up and often go unresolved. Dean never truly mourned his mother and Sam didn’t fully get to grieve his college girlfriend Jess (Adrianne Palicki) and both had complex feelings about their father and the way they were raised. But then Dean traded his life to save Sam’s, sending the older Winchester to Hell (literally), while the younger one had to carry on alone. Being the true vessels for Michael and Lucifer could have pitted the brothers against each other but ultimately this time it was Sam who went into the pit to Hell, leaving Dean to move on. Sam also lost his soul, got addicted to demon blood and never quite could shake his PTSD from his time with Lucifer (Mark Pellegrino); Dean ended up with PTSD after getting back from war-like Purgatory. Both brothers struggled with wanting to believe in Team Free Will, even when learning they are literally God’s (Rob Benedict) favorite television show and their lives have been manipulated for it. And of course along the way they’ve lost countless other friends and loved ones, from surrogate uncle Bobby (Jim Beaver) to Charlie (Felicia Day) and even their mother (Samantha Smith) again after she was brought back from the dead, only to eventually be killed by Lucifer’s son Jack (Alex Calvert).

“Sam and Dean both went through a ton of trauma. Sam probably had more reminders of his trauma because, obviously Pellegrino remained as Lucifer for many, many years, and Sam had to be facing his No. 1 offender in causing his PTSD,” says Padalecki. “The writers, obviously, always were aware that Sam had been through what he’d been through with Lucifer so they peppered that in [but they] allowed me to take it further if I needed to.”

While Kripke acknowledges that the broadcast format — especially back in 2005 — lent itself well to a slow burn on mythology in the beginning, he also believes characters are more interesting if you “peel back those layers one at a time” as the show goes on. But there is also a more pragmatic reason behind easing the audience into the more psychological horror of “Supernatural” according to Dr. Lynn S. Zubernis, a licensed clinical psychologist, professor and author of several “Supernatural” books, including this year’s “There’ll Be Peace When You Are Done: Actors and Fans Celebrate the Legacy of Supernatural.”

She explains: “One of the reasons that we as humans have so much trouble processing trauma is that we literally store those trauma memories in a different way to store our regular memories and then we can’t get to them and they just end up split off and unprocessed and we don’t want to go there. So we have a lot of defenses against looking at our own trauma. That’s why projecting onto fictional characters is such a great way to do it. But if it came at us all at once, our brains would be like, ‘No, no, no no; we’re not going there.’ You have to go slow in the beginning and then be hooked in and trust the storytelling, in a way, before it goes that deep.”

The same was true for the actors. “Early on, we maybe had to use some techniques or some tricks of the trade to get to a certain point emotionally, but as time went on and the seasons went on, we didn’t have to use those tricks,” says Ackles. “Living with this story — not just living with the characters but living with this story — when things happen, we’re able to really feel it from a character’s perspective because we have lived with it so long and we understand their hurt and their pain and their laughter and their joy.”

Adds Padalecki: “We lost so many characters, I feel like we had a lot of chances to deal with what Sam and Dean would go through with the loss of a character or friend, and so, after the 30th time, it was like, ‘OK I remember what Sam goes through; I remember how he feels; I remember how to be and where I want to be in the storyline as a whole.’ If God forbid there came a situation where they were like, ‘Hey we need to shoot this scene tonight, it’s two pages, it’s you and Dean and Lucifer, then I could have done it — and Mark and Jensen could have done it as well.'”

As the show evolved, the type of horror it delivered week after week would consist different ratios of a combination of jump scares and more of a “disturbing fear that doesn’t leave you — the kind of fear that gives me chills, instead of making me want to scream,” as Zubernis puts it.

“I remember getting a note from Eric that changed the way I wrote the show and kind of cracked the show open for me,” Gamble says. “It was [for] an episode where a demon in the body of a woman has, I want to say, Bobby tied up and they are snarky back and forth but he is her prisoner. And what Eric said was, ‘You’re writing these lines where the demon is very witty and funny and smart, but the thing that is so terrifying about a demon, even as you are entertained by it is that they can see straight into your soul.’ So this thing that they will say to you will be the thing that hurts the most. And so, that was the guiding principle for writing the bad guys: They had to be incredibly insightful to find these guys’ Achilles heels.

“It was also the guiding principle in writing Dean, who was very much going to say the funniest lines in episodes, but he’s never trying to crack you up — he’s actually speaking from a deep well of pain and his way of processing that is to say something hilarious like he’s tough and it doesn’t matter,” Gamble continues.

“We knew the guys had deep trauma and deep pain and were frequently struggling quietly with something, and we always held the monster peril or the danger to a high standard of, ‘We’re not going to make this a joke. This is going to really be life or death.’ So if you have those pieces of the puzzle where the life or death stakes are there, the emotional truth is there, and then you have characters who crack a joke in the face of death, then you can go a lot of places tonally.”

This included expanding the world out to get inside the heads of other core characters — from Castiel’s (Misha Collins) own struggle with how he allowed power to corrupt him, to Jack’s guilt over killing Mary, to diving into memories of Bobby losing his wife and Jody Mills (Kim Rhodes) losing her own family. In some cases, it meant quite literally spending the majority of episodes inside characters’ heads, as well — from Season 2’s “What Is and What Should Never Be,” in which Dean’s psyche is in an “apple pie” alternate reality while he is losing his life to a djnn, to Season 4’s “The Rapture” when Sam is detoxing from demon blood, to Season 7’s “Death’s Door,” which sees a dying Bobby trying to outrun his reaper.

In the latter episode, Gamble reminds, the show was “exploring his core wounds by seeing the memories that are the most important to him.”

“We observed from just watching so many shows in this genre that the Big Bad gets bigger and bigger every season and the war gets more massive and pretty soon you’re a tiny little Lego guy and you’re literally facing God,” she explains. “So part of our job from very early on was to slow down or to avoid running into plot that was so massive that you’re just little specs in a giant galaxy. The way to approach that is always to come from what is personal inside of the story to the boys.”

After all, at the core of the show was always the Winchesters — whether the danger they were in was because of a literal demon in front of them or an internal demon they had yet to conquer.

“If you put them in real jeopardy — believable jeopardy for our world — then the scares will take care of themselves,” Singer says.

(Pictured: Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki in “Supernatural,” which returns with its final seven episodes beginning Oct. 8 on the CW)

#eric kripke #sera gamble #robert singer #jared padalecki #jensen ackles #spn #spn bts #just wanted to save this article #ptsd #childhood trauma #psychological horror #long post

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raincode-archives · 5 months ago

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Chapter 1 Glossary

Postcognition Halara's Forte.

A crime scene can be witnessed as it existed when the first person on scene discovered it. The first person on scene refers to a third party who wasn't the culprit or the victim.

What is seen with Postcognition cannot be touched.

Kanai Ward Buses The buses follow routes that run through all of Kanai Ward. They're the primary method of transportation for residents.

A sightseeing bus that took visitors to tourist attractions once existed, but was discontinued due to the isolation.

Golden Path Cafe A cafe with an open terrace located in Ginma District. It is popular among office workers on break and female students on their way home from school.

A cup of coffee costs 800 shien.

Kamasaki District Th liveliest, most bustling area in Kanai Ward. Many people reside here, and a variety of shops and stalls line the streets.

Church The only church in Kanai Ward. It's also the location in which the Nail Man urban legend is set. A dark forest sits behind it.

Ginma District The high-class commercial area of Kanai Ward.

There are cafes and restaurants, as well as a large art gallery and clocktower.

Nail Man The culprit behind the serial murders occurring in Kanai Ward. The Nail Man's crime scenes are always locked rooms filled with nails.

This individual is suspected of being the Nail Man: Name: Jiei Colan Age: 48 Occupation: Unknown

Shien The currency used in Kanai Ward.

A luxury car can be purchased for five million shien.

World Detective Organization An extra-legal, extra-privileged organization devoted to eradicating the world's unsolved mysteries.

With branches located throughout the world, the key players in their activities are known as Master Detective.

Creed of the WDO "A detective must never overlook a mystery. Any and all truths must be exposed."

"A detective must always prioritize solving a case."

"Emotions must be discarded to reach a perfect solution through a perfect deduction."

Detective Deed An identification card.

The World Detective Organization grants this only to a detective who has demonstrated exceptional ability.

In addition to being a functional form of identification, a Detective Deed allows a detective to receive various forms of support from the WDO.

Forensic Forte Those exhibiting innate talent for special powers like clairvoyance or mindreading are trained by the WDO to develop a supernatural investigative ability called Forensic Forte or simply, Forte.

Detective in Training A person currently being trained by the World Detective Organization to become a detective.

Master Detective Among the detectives belonging to the World Detective Organization, this is a detective with a specialized power called Forensic Forte that aids in their investigative activities.

Currently, there are approximately 1000 Master Detectives in the organization.

Special Autonomous Zone of Kanai Ward Though initially a regional city, Kanai Ward developed alongside Amaterasu Corporation.

Because of its isolation form the world, Kanai Ward is free from the influence of the Unified Government, but is still under Amaterasu's control.

Detectives are unpopular and not allowed to establish agencies anywhere in Kanai Ward.

The rain has been constant for about three years, and it's rumored that something in the rain adversely affects the human body and local environment.

Clocktower The giant clocktower looming over Ginma District.

There are clocks set in all four of its sides, so the time of day can be seen from anywhere.

Coalescence The ability to share someone else's ability. Forensic Fortes can be shared as well.

There are two conditions for its activation:

1. The person must grant permission to share their ability.

2. The person's hand must be held while the ability is active.

Art Gallery The premier art museum in Kanai Ward, located in Ginma District. It's also the crime scene of the third locked room in the Nail Man case.

The space in front of the art gallery is decorated with a giant dinosaur fossil (replica).

Secret Club An illegal, members-only casino located in Kamasaki District. It's also the crime scene of the first locked room in the Nail Man case. The owner is an old man named Suguma Iho.

One can enjoy slots, roulettes, and card games. But many games have obscene rates and cheating is rampant.

Sun & Moon Hotel A hotel located in Kamasaki District.

Since Kanai Ward's isolation from the world three years ago, the number of guests has dramatically decreased.

Nocturnal Detective Agency The submarine anchored at the riverbank is home to Kanai Ward's only detective agency, headed by Chief Yakou Furio.

Inside this detective agency are a kitchen and shower. Yakou lives here.

Mansion A mansion located in the high-class residential district on Montclair Street. This is also the crime scene of the second locked room in the Nail Man case.

The owner of this mansion is a man around 30 years old. He accumulated his wealth through real estate dealings. However, much was made through aggressive land sharking and other illicit transactions. There were also rumors of shady deals with Amaterasu Corporation.

#mdarc #master detective archives rain code #rain code #raincode #rain code archives #halara nightmare #yuma kokohead

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ladyloveandjustice · 2 years ago

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Anime Recommendation: Raven of the Inner Palace

I said I wanted to give this one more attention since it got lost in the shuffle of last season, so here we go! Raven of the Inner Palace is a supernatural mystery series set in a fantastical version of ancient China. It’s bursting with ghosts, bloody demises and courtly intrigue. It’s fast-paced, dramatic, beautiful, and has some heartwarming character development at its’ core. If you want an extra reason to give it some love, it’s an adaptation of a story aimed at women, which is increasingly rare in the modern anime landscape.

The series follows a mysterious woman dubbed “The Raven Consort”. She’s isolated and confined to the inner palace, and (as the intro narration likes to remind you), she’s skilled at the mystic arts and does not have any nighttime duties despite her title (meaning she doesn’t have to sleep with the Emperor, or even answer to him). Even the new Emperor, who only just recently retook the throne after being ousted by a spiteful relative, has no idea who she is or what her true role in the court is, but he’s understandably intrigued.

If you like ghosts, episodic supernatural dramas that form a larger mythological arc, cut-throat palace politics, careful character development, and/or sweet romances that develop from a strong friendship, this a show for you. The general premise of the series is the Emperor or another court official will come to Shoxue, the Raven Consort, with news of a ghost, and she’ll figure out how to help the ghost cross to the other side (or in some cases, forcefully exorcise them). As Shoxue solves these problems, we learn more about her, how she came to be the Raven Consort, and the terrible truth behind her role.

If you know anything about ancient Chinese imperial history, you have probably accurately guessed the show gets very dark. There’s tons of suicides, beheadings and other executions, people being persecuted, servants being tormented and so on. Probably the biggest thing to warn for is that one of the eunuch’s backstories involves csa. The show always treats it seriously and rarely gets graphic all about it, though the show’s final episodes have a few surprisingly bloody moments. (Also one of the problems of the week involves romanticized sibling incest- it’s easy to miss the line referencing it, and it doesn’t end well for them, but still something note).

It doesn’t feel like edginess for the sake of edginess though, just an acknowledgement of the consequences of the rigid social roles the characters adhere to, and a natural extension of the commentary on the rigid role Shoxue herself is forced into. When her backstory is revealed, it definitely feels like there’s some commentary on how women with power are punished, though we don’t get far enough in the story to see if the anything meaningful will come of it.

And amidst all the drama, there’s something sweet going on here- throughout the show, we see Shoxue slowly go from someone who’s completely isolated to someone who forms warm connections with not just the emperor, but a variety of new friends who see past the creepy stigma surrounding her. Seeing Shoxue awkwardly navigate her new relationships is part of the charm of the series.

Also, they do this cool thing where the little flashback tales are done like Chinese shadow puppets:

The Emperor is definitely set up as Shoxue’s love interest. The first episode has him act a little pushier than he will for the rest of the series (they do the ‘it seems like he’s going to come on to her in bed but he actually just falls asleep” thing). During the rest of the episodes, he seems to want to be her friend first and foremost before going further and tries not to push her too much. It just becomes a sweet underlying relationship where they try to understand each other. Shoxue leans a little into mild tsundere stereotypes at times, but there’s good reasoning given for why she’s so prickly. And there’s hints at the Emperor having his own emotional struggles, and that the power he wields might cause issues that divide them down the line, so it would be interesting to see where that goes.

It's overall an elegant, slightly spooky character drama. The anime has a quick pace- often throwing a lot of information at you and insisting you keep up- but that also means it’s never boring, and the animation can be quite nice and fits the ethereal nature of the show. If anything in here sounds like your jam, I strongly recommend you check it out!

#raven of the inner palace #kokyu no karasu #anime #my reviews #anime overview #fall 2022 anime #recs

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celepom · 2 years ago

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Spectacle

By Ro Salarian (FKA Megan Rose Gedris)

--BOOK ONE--

Pragmatic engineer Anna works as a psychic in the Samson Brothers Circus, but she doesn't believe in anything supernatural—until her twin sister Kat is murdered and comes back as a very demanding ghost. Sharing a room with her sister was hard, but now they're sharing a body while trying to identify the killer. With few leads, a troupe full of secretive folk, and strange paranormal occurrences popping up around the circus, solving the case seems near impossible. But the murderer in their midst may be the least of their problems...

--BOOK TWO--

A murder is tough thing to solve, even without temperamental performers, supernatural occurrences, and the ghost of the victim giving commentary. But as Kat's only link to the living world, it's up to scientifically-minded Anna to figure out who killed her sister—before any more murders rock the small traveling community. Yet as she gets closer to finding a lead, even more unbelievable events obscure the truth: roustabouts start sprouting horns, performers grow forked tongues, and a demon visits Anna's sleep at night. Does Kat know more than she's letting on? And can Anna keep the circus—let alone herself—safe?

--BOOK THREE--

From fake psychic to true believer, circus performer Anna finds herself dealing with the supernatural more and more, and is determined to use her growing powers to confront her sister's murderer. Has she finally figured out whodunit, and can she prove it before a demon does her in?

--BOOK FOUR--

Anna's supernatural powers are increasing, but so is her worry that they come from a terrifying source. Everyone in the circus has developed mutations, and they're dropping like flies. Anna thinks she's found a cure, but a smooth talking faith healer insists he can save everyone... for a fee. Can she fix things before anyone else dies?

--BOOK FIVE--

At long last, sideshow performer Anna comes face-to-face with her sister's killer, and she is not in a forgiving mood. But there's a far more sinister enemy behind everything; one Anna and her friends might not be able to beat, one they might not even be able to reach. Only Anna is determined and ready for a confrontation, while everyone else is eager to put it all behind them.

---

A supernatural murder-mystery with a canon Aro-Ace protagonist in Anna. The cast is full of a wide variety of misfits with their many quirks and talents. The setting of a circus troupe / freak show it really interesting. I don’t wanna go into details because it’s fun to read an experience the details as they come.

#book rec #book recs #graphic novel #comic #asexual #aromantic #lesbian #wlw #queer #LGBTQIA #murder mystery #horror #supernatural

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meanypunches · 1 year ago

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I was recently rewatching the Marc Smerling documentary series A Wilderness of Error, based on the book of the same name by the famous film director Errol Morris, about the Jeffrey MacDonald murder case. Up front I will say it is my opinion that the physical evidence in this case and inconsistencies in oral testimony from a variety of observers point ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’ to Jeffrey MacDonald as the guilty party. After multiple unsuccessful appeals including to the Supreme Court who refused to hear the case, it is also clear that the legal system views this decision to be correct. Still society wants to peer into the ‘unmarked space’ of the event itself. Society it could be said is unreasonable. Perhaps society likes to entertain unreasonable doubts. One could call the entertainment of such doubts the ‘unmarked space’ or the horror implicit in modern society. This is often expressed as folklore or the stories we tell ourselves about terrible events that include both the true crime tales as well as the urban legends (or other modern non-oral / non-traditional media forms such as horror films and documentaries). Such events as the MacDonald murders become like scars rippling over the surface of the unmarked space as far as society can observe, and they will never fully heal. Society likes to pick at its most sensational and lurid scars. Ultimately all we have is the physical evidence and the testimony of those involved or connected to this case. While such evidence may satisfy the legal system, this is simply not satisfying from the human perspective, from the perspective of ‘the folk’, forever outside of these social subsystems like the law. The court has made its decision but somehow for such cases of wild destruction of innocent life this is never enough. The folk are restless! We want to see what lies at the heart of these dark woods, the mysterious empty hole at the bottom of the dark well. Absent a full confession, we want to peer into Jeffrey MacDonald’s heart and see if he is really a monster or not…

Fiction (and horror) like Twin Peaks solves this problem of the monstrous heart concealed within the mundane world of ordinary life by making it supernatural. The unmarked space becomes a supernatural other and in many ways this is a more satisfying view of the unknown (unmarked) space than human efforts to accept this terrifying uncertainty. We want to see the reality of what is hidden by the dark woods of the human heart, what lies beyond the limits of human knowledge and society’s scribblings in the form of legal opinions.

The other connection I have to this case is more personal. As a law student circa 2012 while interning at the DOJ I did legal research and wrote a short memo for Brian Murtaugh, who is the famous Asst. US Attorney who has dogged this case from its beginning and who successfully has repelled the appeals by MacDonald. At the time, I was excited to work on such a famous case - I saw Fatal Vision as a kid and was obviously interested in the outcome of MacDonald’s appeal. My memo was on a somewhat obscure and not so important issue regarding the Jimmy Britt story - Britt’s story turned out to be a lie as detailed in the documentary I would note. I will admit I didn’t understand who Brian Murtaugh was when I worked for him, and I now regret that I was too ensconced in my own law school worries to really appreciate it. Having read more about Murtaugh now I wish I had been more aware. I recall I misspelled the name MacDonald as “McDonald” in my memo and only noticed it later after I’d already turned it in. It was only a minor error in a sense - this memo was not going to the judge after all, but still I wish I had been a more thoughtful student. Sometimes in our youth we misunderstand the opportunities given to us and only feel it full force much later. I am not now an active member of the State Bar (so if you need legal advice all I can say is “hire an attorney” haha) but this legal training and my experience in law school certainly inform my views on society and the unmarked space.

My review below of the documentary series about the MacDonald case:

“We are compelled by narratives, much more by narratives than by evidence. Evidence invariably takes second fiddle to narrative,” says Errol Morris, in the final episode of the documentary series Wilderness of Error. Besides the specific folkloric phrase ‘second fiddle’, is this all really about folklore (stories, rumor, gossip and innuendo even)? Earlier in the last episode Morris suggests that the more people get involved in a story the more it turns into a mess, which cuts against folkloric stories that have survived over thousands of years. To quote Morris exactly, he says, “This may prove a different kind of principle, that if you wait long enough and you involve enough people in telling any story, you’re gonna end up with a mess on your hands.” From the perspective of a legal matter, in the short term (of half a century!) perhaps this is true. It may be that over longer historical timeframes the stories tend to solidify in structure due to certain significant features (“motifs”) that are memorable or more recognizable. Morris is the emperor here no doubt, and he may have no clothes. I think the director here mostly treats Morris with kid gloves, to continue the metaphor. There is only one point (and not until the final episode) where there is a direct challenge to Morris’s narrative, and the famous director does admit he ‘doesn’t know’ the truth. There are many other pieces of evidence (such as the blue pajama top and the blood evidence) to which it would have been more challenging for Morris to respond, but these items are mentioned but delicately sidestepped in the way this is put together. If you look at the disconnected pieces of this documentary objectively, it is not inconclusive. I also would want to say the only reason that various critics call it ‘inconclusive' is that heaven forbid any shadow be cast upon the darling Errol Morris! This movie destroys Morris, but in a subtle way that allows for, shall we say, ‘plausible deniability'. At the end of this, after watching the video interviews with Helena Stoeckley, there is little denying that she was likely delusional, or at best easily suggestible at the hands of Prince Beasley or others interested in a meal ticket from the MacDonald case. All the other evidence marshaled in favor of MacDonald’s innocence is either outright fabrications (as in the Jimmy Britt tall tale) or else unsupported by any corroborating (physical) evidence. The follow-up interview with Errol Morris after the last bit with Stoeckley describing the alleged intrusion on the night of the murders is awkward to say the least. Her story fails to match MacDonald’s version of events and also does not conform to the physical evidence. Like many visionaries, Mr. Morris can't seem to admit he was wrong, but more importantly, he will never admit that the system he seems to abhor so much was actually right.

#horror #true crime documentary

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featherxquill-yuletide · 1 month ago

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Dear Yuletide Writer 2024

Dear Yuletide Author,

It's been a while since I posted one of these! (holy shit 2016 how does that feel like half a lifetime ago). Thank you for offering one of the fandoms I requested this year! I'm excited to play again and I'm glad we matched.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of things I like: worldbuilding, small character moments, atmospheric setting, casefic, crackling dialogue, missing moments, unlikely pairings (romantic or otherwise), older women with rich interior lives, realistic bodies, things unspoken but very much felt.

I don't really have any major DNWs (I'm pretty game, or pretty stupid? idk) and I'm open to everything from gen to full-on smut (except where otherwise noted). I prefer romantic or sexual interaction of any variety to have a sting in the tail (I'm not super into fluff in general) and I prefer for any smut to come from a place of character, but yeah, have at it. I don't think I really need to say 'keep all characters over the age of 18' given who I've requested, but yeah, that.

Onto my individual requests:

Request 1

Slow Horses (TV)

Characters: Catherine Standish, Jackson Lamb, Louisa Guy, Roddy Ho

DNW smut in this fandom, please. I don’t mind flirting or shippyness if you see it, but I’ll need convincing, so do the fic equivalent of buying me a drink first, yeah?

Things I love about this series: the whip-smart dialogue, the unlikeable characters that sneakily trick you into loving them, the moments of humour and unbearable tension. The character I’m most drawn to is Standish, so please make sure she is included in the story. You may add any or all of the other characters as you wish.

Some ideas I’d love to see, if they take your fancy: missing moments at Slough House between these characters. I’m currently reading Mick Herron’s book series alongside watching the show, and I’m charmed by the connection between Catherine and Roddy that the books hint at but the show doesn’t really explore, but I’d also love to see Catherine bring her particular understanding of people to any of the residents of Slough House - what kind of understanding does she have with Louisa, or fellow addict Marcus (though he’s obviously at a quite different stage in his journey), or touchy and damaged Coe? Explore that twisted codependency between Standish and Lamb some more - I like the dysfunctional parents vibe they have and would love to see it played around with over time. How has their dynamic shifted as people cycled through Slough House? Do they have a history before that? Feel free to bring in characters not at Slough House, too - what would a lengthier interaction between Standish and Taverner look like if they got stuck in a car or lift together for some reason?

If you prefer a more ensemble cast, give me a case fic - the team solving a mystery despicable or benign, dealing with another brilliant idea of River’s, or maybe even dealing with something supernatural, if you care to invoke a bit of Ben Aaronovitch or Neil Gaiman. The slow horses fucking over the Park is also always a delight.

Request 2

Butchered Tongue - Hozier (song)

This request is very open. Basically, I adore this haunting little number. It evokes for me stories of travel and homecoming, violence and trauma, protest through voice and language. The narrator could be a person meeting people and collecting stories, or a witness to colonial violence. It could be a story of voices silenced and found, of people searching for the idea of ‘home’. I love the juxtaposition of earth as both a place of burial and a place for growth, of places close and distant that all have similar stories. I’d love for you to write about whatever journey this song takes you on.

Request 3

Hamlet - Shakespeare

Honestly, make this one as fucked up as you like. Hamlet is my favourite Shakespeare play, and although I’ve taught it as many times as I can, my interest has never been all that academic. I love the way it’s one big soap opera, all the dysfunctional relationships in it and the different possible motivations of the characters.

Gertrude is consistently the character I’m most drawn to, so I chose those three characters because I’d like some combination of Gertrude/Claudius, Gertrude/Hamlet or Gertrude/Claudius/Hamlet in all their fucked up glory.

Some questions/prompts: why did Gertrude marry Claudius, and how is that working out? Was it purely to avoid the power vacuum that her husband’s death left behind, or did she really want him? How is the rank sweat of that enseamed bed? Is it all she ever wanted? More than she bargained for? Was that poisoning plot all his idea, or is she the master manipulator?

And what is Hamlet’s obsession with his mother’s sex life? How much more intense have interactions between them been? Is Hamlet jealous of Claudius? I am absolutely here for all the twisted mother/son dynamics you can come up with.

If it helps, my preferred staging of this play is the 2009 RSC production with David Tennant (currently available on YouTube). I would love to read something both kinda hot and deeply discomfiting.

Request 4

Arc of a Scythe - Neal Shusterman

Scythe Curie, Scythe Faraday, Scythe Rand

I love this series! I love this world, the it's not-really-a-dystopia-actually of it all. I love the politics of Scythedom and the complexity of feeling around the idea of taking human life, the rituals the various scythes have for coping with the moral burden of their duty (or not, as the case may be - pretending that there isn't any moral burden and this thing should be fun).

I've chosen all the characters for this tagset because, with these three characters, why not? That said, you don't have to include all three of these characters. I'd like my gift to involve Curie, who is my favourite, but you can decide who you would like to write about her interacting with.

Some ideas: I love the canonical relationship between Curie and Faraday, so if you'd like to write me a moment from their seven-year affair, I'm all for that in whatever form it takes. I love a good bit of angst, too, so what was the first time they saw each other again after 70 years like? Make it emotionally fraught and achey and full of longing, or make it adult and moving on and finding closure, whatever appeals to you. BUT. These two were done DIRTY by canon, so I'd also love it if you FIXED THAT. Are there, somehow, two copies of Curie now in existence? Did she get revived somehow on earth in a way that the Thunderhead/Cirri never learned about, so now there's the version 2.0 we met in Gleanings, but also the OG revived on earth and getting to have her retirement off grid somewhere with Faraday? MAKE IT HAPPEN. My only note here is that I'd prefer to see these characters as adults with a bit of life experience, like we see them in canon or at least after their first turn-of-the-corner or two. I'm not really interested in Curie's years as an apprentice, so I'd prefer if you avoided that.

If you're more interested in Rand, I'd love to see an interaction between her and Curie. Have they interacted at Conclaves over the years, or was there a time when Rand considered breaking away from Goddard, sought out a more old-guard mentor and got rebuffed? If you can make me believe a femslash moment between them, I'd be into it, or could there be a time where Rand was involved in raising new apprentices that Curie had something to do with? Does she have a special skill she has demonstrated to terrified new apprentices?

I absolutely welcome treats, my main is featherxquill, and you'll also find me on Twitter by that name. Thank you for writing for me!

#yuletide #yuletide 2024 #dear yuletide author

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boxfuleventsau · 5 months ago

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Unravel the Mystery: The Allure of Murder Mystery Board Games

Murder mystery board games have captivated players for decades, offering a unique blend of suspense, strategy, and storytelling. These games transport players into the heart of a thrilling whodunit, where they must use their wits and deductive skills to uncover the culprit. Let's delve into the world of murder mystery board games and discover what makes them so irresistibly engaging.

The Thrill of the Unknown

At the core of every great murder mystery board game is a gripping story. Players are plunged into a scenario where a heinous crime has occurred, and it's up to them to piece together clues, interrogate suspects, and solve the mystery. The sense of the unknown keeps players on the edge of their seats, creating an atmosphere of tension and excitement that is hard to match.

The Art of Deduction

Murder mystery board game challenge players to think critically and strategically. Every detail matters, from alibis and motives to physical evidence and witness statements. Players must sift through this information, identify red herrings, and connect the dots to deduce the true identity of the murderer. This intellectual challenge is immensely satisfying, making the moment of revelation all the more rewarding.

Social Interaction and Role-Playing

One of the most appealing aspects of murder mystery board games is the social interaction they foster. Players often assume the roles of different characters, each with their own secrets and agendas. This role-playing element adds depth to the game, as players must not only solve the mystery but also navigate the dynamics between characters. It’s a fantastic way to bring friends and family together, encouraging teamwork, communication, and a bit of friendly deception.

Replayability and Variety

Many murder mystery board games offer multiple scenarios or cases, ensuring that the game remains fresh and replayable. Some games even allow for the creation of custom mysteries, giving creative players the chance to craft their own stories and puzzles. This variety means that no two game sessions are ever the same, keeping players coming back for more.

Popular Titles

Several murder mystery board games have become household names, each offering its own unique twist on the genre.

Clue (Cluedo): A classic game where players must deduce the murderer, the weapon, and the location of the crime.

Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective: Players work together to solve intricate cases by gathering clues and following leads throughout Victorian London.

Mysterium: Combines elements of murder mystery and supernatural themes, where one player acts as a ghost providing visions to help others solve the crime.

Chronicles of Crime: Integrates modern technology with traditional gameplay, allowing players to scan QR codes and explore virtual crime scenes.

Conclusion

Murder mystery board games offer a captivating blend of suspense, strategy, and social interaction. They challenge players' deductive skills, encourage role-playing, and provide endless hours of entertainment. Whether you're a seasoned detective or a newcomer to the genre, there's a murder mystery board game out there that will keep you guessing and engaged until the very end.

#Mystery Board Games

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sam4samina-blog · 1 year ago

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Howdunit (inverted detective story, also known as a "howcatchem"): Inverted or Howdunit novels begin with the reader witnessing the murder, thus the plot revolves around how the perpetrator will be caught. There may also be subsidiary puzzles, such as why the crime was committed, and they are explained or resolved during the story. This format is the opposite of the more typical "whodunit", where all of the details of the perpetrator of the crime are not revealed until the story's climax. The Demolished Man, The Crossing

Locked Room: Also known as puzzle mysteries or "impossible crime" mystery, this is a subgenre of mystery in which a crime is committed in a location that seems impossible to enter/exit without being noticed. The protagonist must use careful observation and extraordinary logic to solve the mystery. And Then There Were None, The Sign of Four

Noir fiction: Noir fiction (or roman noir) is a subgenre of crime fiction. In this subgenre, right and wrong are not clearly defined, while the protagonists are seriously and often tragically flawed. While related to and frequently confused with hardboiled detective fiction—due to the regular adaptation of hardboiled detective stories in the film noir style—the two are not the same. Both regularly take place against a backdrop of systemic and institutional corruption. However, noir (French for "black") fiction is centred on protagonists that are either victims, suspects, or perpetrators—often self-destructive. A typical protagonist of noir fiction is forced to deal with a corrupt legal, political or other system, through which the protagonist is either victimized and/or has to victimize others, leading to a lose-lose situation. Eddie Duggan discusses the distinction between hardboiled and noir fiction, claiming that "psychological instability is the key characteristic of the protagonists of noir writing, if not the key characteristic of the noir writers themselves". A Gun for Sale, Blood on the Moon

Occult detective fiction: Occult detective fiction is a subgenre of detective fiction that combines the tropes of the main genre with those of supernatural, fantasy and/or horror fiction. Unlike the traditional detective who investigates murder and other common crimes, the occult detective is employed in cases involving ghosts, demons, curses, magic, vampires, undead, monsters and other supernatural elements. Some occult detectives are portrayed as being psychic or in possession of other paranormal or magical powers. The Dresden Files, Later

Police Procedural: The police procedural, or police crime drama, is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasizes the investigative procedure of a police officer or department as the protagonist(s), as contrasted with other subgenres that focus on either a private detective, an amateur investigator or the characters who are the targets of investigations. While many police procedurals conceal the criminal's identity until the crime is solved in the narrative climax (the so-called whodunit), others reveal the perpetrator's identity to the audience early in the narrative, making it an inverted detective story. Whatever the plot style, the defining element of a police procedural is the attempt to accurately depict the profession of law enforcement, including such police-related topics as forensic science, autopsies, gathering evidence, search warrants, interrogation and adherence to legal restrictions and procedure. In Death Series, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache

Private Detective: A subgenre in which a private investigator—whether professional or amateur—solves a crime or locates a missing person. Hercule Poirot series, IQ

Whodunit: A whodunit or whodunnit (a colloquial elision of "Who [has] done it?") is a complex, plot-driven variety of a detective story in which the puzzle regarding who committed the crime is the main focus. The reader or viewer is provided with the clues from which the identity of the perpetrator may be deduced before the story provides the revelation itself at its climax. The Sentence is Death, The Cabin

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afterdusk-if · 3 years ago

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After Dusk is an interactive novel set within our world that may be a little different than you recall.

Setting: New York City

Genre(s): Thriller, Mystery, Supernatural, Low-Fantasy.

Warning(s): This story is rated 18+ for depictions of alcohol consumption, strong language, murder, blood, sexual themes, and horrible puns.

Scenario and NSFW asks are welcomed.

DEMO (TBA)

The year is 1947…

You’re one of the most reputable private investigators within the great establishment that is New York City. Having solved dozens of cases— from the simplest cheating spouse jobs to tracking down people that don’t want to be tracked— you were the go to person for anyone in need of help.

If said person was of the supernatural variety, of course.

After all you’re one of the only few humans that know of their existence; of the world within your own so to speak. Having taken the reigns of your grandfathers legacy after his passing.

Everything was going good— albeit your caseload was getting rather dry— and you were even thinking about buying the new loft down on Fifth. You never expected how drastically your life was about to change.

And then your next client walked through the door…

Play as a PI within the sprawling landscape of 1940s NYC; where mobsters and monsters roam the streets.

Try your best to uncover all the facts within your new case… as it could very well be the last thing you ever do.

Interact with a variety of different characters. From humans to werewolves to witches; nothing is off the table.

Customizable MC: name, gender, sexuality, appearance, some background choices, and a smattering of other things that may crop up during the story.

Romance 1 of 6 possible options that will offer unique experiences for your MCs. (4 being gender selectable, 1 being male, and the other being female.)

Will you be able to solve the mystery that has entrenched you so?

Or will it be lost in the night?

Colton Jones [M] - The Journalist

31 [5’8” | Light Brown Eyes | Dark Brown Hair]

Species: Human

With a dashing smile, Colton has always been able to worm his way into even the most hard to reach places. His skill of charm— the ease in which he can speak with people— is the exact reason why you need him to help you; as you also need all of the possible sources he can bring to the table too. Maybe it could turn into more?

Vera Hayes [F] - The Singer

29 [5’10” | Hazel Eyes | Golden Brown Hair]

Species: Witch

The star of the affluent Empire Room— a hotspot for the richest, and sometimes dangerous, individuals within New York City— that has a witty retort to everything you may throw at her. You knew that you needed her as she was an excellent source to have on the inside. You just need to make sure the lines don’t blur too much.

Nathan/Natasha Sinclair [M/F] - The Client

200+ [6’4” | Emerald Green Eyes | Light Blonde Hair]

Species: Vampire

Your newest client— the one that started this entire thing— with a story you know isn’t the complete truth but who’s willing to pay you triple your normal rate. A price that you’re certain they’d be able to pay in full; if their outfit and demeanor is anything to go by. Their aloof attitude, mixed with the seriousness in which they hold themselves, would be show-stopper to some but you couldn’t but be intrigued.

Tyler/Taylor Avery [M/F] - The Partner

32 [5’5” | Golden Brown Eyes | Auburn Hair]

Species: Werewolf

Your pseudo-partner that has helped you for as long as you could remember; someone you always know you can count on in your time of need. This time isn’t any different as they’re by your side the moment you call them with information about the new case. Their ever-present smile and can-do attitude already brightening up the dreary morning.

Ethan/Emily Clarke [M/F] - The Detective

33 [6’0 | Slate Grey Eyes | Ash Brown Hair]

Species: Human

Not technically having any jurisdiction within most parts of NYC, you need to have help from Detective Clarke every now and then. Something that’s always met with a patented eye roll, a shake of their head, and the slightest quirking of their lips; a threat to leave you stranded escaping their lips as they help you out for the umpteenth time. It’s a threat that they never followed through on… this time isn’t any different.

Leon/Lena Barone [M/F] - The Mobster

33 [6’2” | Sapphire Blue Eyes | Raven Black Hair]

Species: Half-Breed

The Barone Crime Family is one of the most infamous families within all of NYC; nothing, and no one, can ever come close to touching them. Partly in thanks to the heir of the entire family. An heir that you know you need if you’re going to make the waves you need within the Empire Room. You just hope that the stories about them aren’t true. As you don’t particularly wish to wind up in the Hudson come daybreak. Beggars can’t be choosers, however.

#after dusk #demo tba #interactive novel #interactive fiction

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docgold13 · 2 years ago

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365 Marvel Comics Paper Cut-Out SuperHeroes - One Hero, Every Day, All Year…

September 20th - Howard the Duck

Howard heralds from Duckworld, an earth like planet in another dimension where intelligent life evolved from waterfowl. Howard found himself mysterious transported to earth of the 616 Universe by way of the machinations of the demonic entity known as Thog the Nether-Spawn. Thog had used his magic to shift the axis between dimensions, hoping to create a chaotic cascade that would destroy all of reality. Yet all this ended up achieving was transporting a single talking Duck into the human world.

Finding himself marooned in this strange new realm, Howard ended up teaming up with Man-Thing and Jennifer Kale in order to put an end to the threat posed by Thog. These heroes were able to defeat the villain yet Howard remained stranded on earth unable to ever return home.

He made the best of it, establishing his own private investigation firm. The cases Howard would take on saw him matching wits against a progressively more bizarre collection of menaces, monsters and madmen; threats that have included HellCow, Dr. Bong and The Space Turnip. All the while, through cleverness, persistence, and a great deal of good luck, Howard has managed to defeat or escape each of these adversaries and always solve the case.

He has additionally endeavored on multiple adventures aimed toward being able to return home to Duckworld. Sadly he has yet to succeed and, of late, has come to terms with earth and the human world as his new home.

Howard earned great acclaim for his investigatory work on cases with supernatural elements. This has led to numerous team-ups with a variety of superheroes, including Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, Squirrel Girl and many others. Howard has additionally acted as the investigator on-call for She-Hulk’s law practice as well as for The Strange Academy.

Actor/comedian, Chip Zien, provided the voice of Howard in the 1986 movie, Howard The Duck; while actor Seth Green has voiced Howard when he made a cameo appearance in Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 1. The hero first appeared in the pages of Adventure into Fear #19 (1973).

Happy Birthday to Steve Gerber!

#365 Marvel Comics Heroes #Howard the Duck #Steve Gerber #cut-out #paper art

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vintagerpg · 3 years ago

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A Wicked Secret (2020) is a book of scenarios for Vaesen. They all build on the central idea that human civilization and the creatures of the supernatural are inherently, disastrously incompatible. All these scenarios involve people (some bad, some foolish) attempting to harness the supernatural for a variety of reasons. In all cases, the creatures act according to their nature — trolls keep their ancient rules of bargaining, a church grim guards its churches, a mermaid beguiles fishermen. The uses people put these creatures to have webs of unintended side effects, though. In every one of these scenarios, there is no truly good ending. Removing the supernatural, leaving the creature be, something in between: all roads lead to disaster. Its a matter of choosing your preferred tragedy.

This is pretty great! No other horror RPG is like this. And I quite like that solving the mystery is only half the problem — once all is revealed, players have to make decisions that impact everyone involved, and more. They don’t get to just call the cops and leave someone else to clean up the mess. In this way, Vaesen feels very much of its place, tapping the vibe of Nordic Noir stories, which often involve the unearthing of deep secrets and end with everyone worse off and sadder than they were at the start.

#RPG #TTRPG #Tabletop RPG #Roleplaying Game #D&D #dungeons & dragons #Free League #Vaesen #Johan Egerkrans

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impostoradult · 4 years ago

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Media Market Research (and why its undermining all the things you love)

Trying to understand what is dysfunctional about Hollywood is an epic task, and the answers are like the stars – arguably infinite. Hollywood is dysfunctional for literally more reasons than I could count.

But market research plays a fairly heavy role in its dysfunction (IMO) and the time has finally come for me to add my professional two cents about this issue. (This rant of mine has been building for a while, FYI. Hence why it is so...comprehensive. There is a tl;dr section towards the bottom, if you want the high level summary)

*** For the last 4+ years I’ve worked in the field of market research, almost exclusively with major media makers like Warner Bros., NBCU, AMC/BBCA, Viacom, FOX (before Disney acquired them), A+E, etc. (this past year I quit the job where I was doing this work for a variety of reasons, many of which will become clear as you keep reading, but I am still listed as a consultant on the company website): https://www.kresnickaresearch.com/who/ (Rachel)

And just for comparison, here is a Halloween selfie I took 4 years ago and posted on my blog, so you can see I am who I say I am.

I know a fair amount about how market research on major media franchises is conducted and how it influences production, and a lot of these choices can also be at least somewhat tied back to the massive flaws in the market research industry and its impact. *** First, at the highest level, you need to understand market research in general is not well-conducted much of the time. Even the people doing a reasonably good job at it are VERY limited in doing it well because of financial constraints (clients don’t want to spend more than they have to), time constraints (clients want everything done as fast as humanely possible) and just the inherent problems within the industry that are decades old and difficult to fix. For example, all market research ‘screens’ participants to make sure they qualify to participate (whether it is a mass survey, a focus group, a one-on-one interview, etc.). So, we screen people based on demographics like race, gender, age, household income, to get representative samples. But people are also screened based on their consumption habits. You don’t want to bring someone into a focus group about reality TV if they don’t watch reality TV. They aren’t going to have anything useful to say.

However, a lot of the people who participate in market research have made a ‘side-gig’ out of it and they know how to finesse the process. Basically, they’ve learned how to lie to get into studies that they aren’t a good match for because most market research is paid, and they want the money. So, a lot of TV and film market research is being done on people who don’t actually (or at least don’t regularly) watch those shows or movies or whatever but have learned how to lie well enough in these screening processes to make it through. And because of the aforementioned time and money issue, clients don’t want to spend the time or money to actually find GOOD participants. They just accept that as an inevitable part of the market research process and decide not to let it bother them too much. So, a fair number of the people representing YOU as a media consumer are people who may not be watching Supernatural (for example) at all or who watch a rerun occasionally on TNT but haven’t been watching consistently or with ANY amount of investment whatsoever. You can see why that creates very skewed data. But that’s just the tip of the skewed iceberg. *** Second, media market research is conducted in line with the norms of market research more broadly, and this is a huge problem because media is a very atypical product. How people engage with media is far more complex and in depth than how they engage with a pair of jeans, a car, or a coffee maker. There are only so many things that matter to people when it comes to liking or not liking a coffee maker, for example. Is it easy/intuitive to use? How much space does it take it on my counter? How expensive is it? Does it brew the coffee well? Maybe does it match my décor/kitchen aesthetic? Can I make my preferred brand of coffee in it? The things you as a consumer are going to care about when it comes to a coffee maker are limited, fairly easy to anticipate in advance, and also easy to interpret (usually). How people mentally and emotionally approach MEDIA? Whole other universe of thing. Infinitely more complex. And yet it is studied (more or less) as if it is also a coffee maker. This is one of the many reasons I decided to leave the media market research field despite my desire to have some ability to positively influence the process. As so often seems to be the case, I fought the law and the law won. I could never make the other people I worked with in the industry understand that the questions they were asking were not all that useful a lot of the time and they weren’t getting to the heart of the matter. They were just following industry standards because they didn’t know any better and none of them want to admit they don’t REALLY know what they’re doing. Which leads me to point 3. *** Most of the people doing this research don’t have any expertise in media or storytelling specifically. They are typically trained as social scientists in the fields of psychology, anthropology, sociology, or math/statistics. And many of them do not have any kind of specialization or education in media/storytelling beyond the English classes they took in high school and the one Media Studies course they took as an elective in college. Most of them have a very unsophisticated understanding of narrative structure, thematics, tropes, subtext, etc. They mainly think in terms of genres at the VERY broadest level. Also, not infrequently, they don’t watch or have much knowledge of the shows they are supposed to be doing research on, beyond what they’ve read on IMDb or Wikipedia or what is generally common knowledge. Unless they by chance happen to watch the shows themselves (which often they don’t) they often know very little about the shows they are crafting these questions about. Again, partly because they think it is like the coffee maker, and you don’t need to understand it in any depth to research it. (I know this must sound insane to you as avid media consumers, but that is the general attitude among those who do market research) There is such a lack of sophistication in how people in the business side of the industry understand media and storytelling. Most of them are either MBAs or social scientists and their training has not prepared them to examine fictional works with the kind of depth that people in the Humanities (who are specifically trained to study texts) have. Somehow, despite the fact that the Humanities is all about understanding texts, that is the one discipline they make almost no use of in the business side of Hollywood. And boy howdy does it show. *** Point 4 – average consumers CANNOT ARTICULATE WHY THEY LIKE THINGS. Particularly media things. I know this sounds condescending, but it is my honest observation. It is unbelievably hard to get people to have enough self-awareness to explain why they actually like things, especially things as mentally and emotionally complex as media. What typically happens when you ask people why they like a TV show or movie, for example? They will tell you what they most NOTICE about the TV show or movie, or what is distinctive to them about it (which may or may not have anything to do with what they actually LIKE about it). They will say things like “I like the genre”, “I think it’s funny”, “The car chases are exciting”, “I want to see the detective solve the puzzle.” Sometimes you can get them to talk about what they find relatable about it, if you push them a little. But often they leave it at either the level of literal identity (young black woman), basic personality traits (she’s a social butterfly and so am I) or situations they’ve personally experienced (I relate to this story of a man losing his father to cancer because I lost a close family member to cancer). But the vast, vast, vast majority of them can’t go to the deeper level of: a) Why X representation of a young black woman feels accurate/authentic/relatable and Y representation doesn’t b) Why it matters to me that X,Y,Z aspects of my personality, identity, experience get reflected in media whereas I don’t really care about seeing A,B,C aspects of my personality, identity, or experience reflected in media c) How and why they are relating to characters when they can’t see the literal connection between their identity/experience and the character’s identity/experience. (For example, many people have argued that women often relate to Dean Winchester because a lot of his struggles and past negative experiences are more stereotypical of women – being forced to raise a younger sibling on behalf of an actual parent, being seen and treated as beautiful/sexually desirable but vacuous/unintelligent, his body being treated as an instrument for a more powerful group to quite literally possess, etc. Part of the reason Supernatural has always been such a mystery/problem for the CW and Warner Bros is they could never crack the code at this level. Never.) Part of the reason they can’t crack these codes is average people CANNOT give you that kind of feedback in a survey or a focus group, or even an in-depth interview (much of the time). They just don’t have the self-awareness or the vocabulary to get it at that level. Let alone asking them to articulate why Game of Thrones is compelling to them in an era where wealth disparity is creating a ruling class that is fundamentally incompetent at maintaining a just/functional society, which is especially concerning at this particular moment, given the existential threat we face due to climate change. And the truth is, that IS part of what people – even average people – are responding to in Game of Thrones. But what they’ll tell you when you do market research on it is: they like the dragons, they like the violence, they relate to Tyrion Lannister being a smart mouth, maybe they’ll say they like the moral ambiguity of many of the conflicts (if they are more sophisticated than average). But the ‘Dean Winchester is heavily female coded despite his veneer of ultra-masculinity’ or the ‘Game of Thrones is a prescient metaphor for the current political dynamics and fissures of modern western society’ is the level you ACTUALLY need to get to. And most market research can’t get you that because the people ASKING the questions don’t know what to ask to get to this level, and most of the respondents couldn’t give you the answers even IF you were asking them the right questions (which usually you are not) And I’m not saying average people are dumb because they can’t do this. But it requires practice, it requires giving the matter a great deal of in-depth thought, and most people just don’t care enough about it to do that while taking a market research survey. (I know this is going to feel counter-intuitive to people on Tumblr. But you have to remember, you are NOT average media consumers. You are highly atypical media consumers who have far more self-awareness and a much more sophisticated engagement with media than the average person watching TV. If you didn’t, you probably wouldn’t be here talking about it in the first place) Point 4.1 – People also lie/misrepresent their own experiences to market researchers because they want to maintain certain self-narratives. You have no idea how many people would get disqualified from our surveys for saying they watched less than 5 hours of TV a week. And sure, that might actually be true for a few of them. But if you watch TV with any regularity at all (which most people in modern America do) you probably watch more than 5 hours a week. The problem is, people think it makes them sound lazy to say they watch 15-20 hours a week, even though that’s about 2-3 hours a day (which actually isn’t THAT high). People lie and misrepresent their behaviors, thoughts and feelings because it can be socially uncomfortable to admit you do what you actually do or feel how you actually feel, even in the context of an anonymous survey, let alone a focus group or a one-on-one interview. People want to make themselves look good to THEMSELVES and to the researchers asking them questions. But that makes the market research data on media (and lots of other things) very questionable. For example, one finding we saw more than once in the surveys I was involved in conducting was people would radically downplay how much the romance elements of a story mattered to them, even large portions of female respondents. When we would ask people in surveys what parts of the story they were most invested in, romances ALWAYS came out among the lowest ranked elements. And yet, any passing familiarity with fandom would tell you that finding is just WRONG. It’s wrong. People are just flat out lying about how much that matters to them because of the negative connotations we have around being invested in romance. And never mind the issue of erotic/sexual content. (I don’t mean sexual identity here, I mean sexy content). The only people who will occasionally cop to wanting the erotic fan service is young men (and even they are hesitant to do so in market research) and women frequently REFUSE to admit that stuff in market research, or they radically downplay how much it matters to them and in what ways. There is still so much stigma towards women expressing sexuality in that way. Not to mention, you have to fight tooth and nail to even include question about erotic/sexual content because oftentimes the clients don’t even want to go there at all, partly because it is awkward for everyone involved to sit around crafting market research questions to interrogate what makes people hot and bothered. That’s socially awkward for the researchers doing the research and the businesspeople who have to sit in rooms and listen to presentations about why more women find Spock sexier than Kirk. (Which was a real thing that happened with the original Star Trek, and the network couldn’t figure out why) Aside from people not have enough deeper level self-awareness to get at what they really like about media content, they also will lie or misrepresent certain things to you because they are trying to maintain certain self-narratives and are socially performing that version of themselves to researchers. *** Point 5 – Qualitative data is way more useful for understanding people’s relationships to media. However, quantitative data is way more valued and relied upon both due to larger market research industry standards and because quantitative data is just seen as harder/more factual than qualitative data. A lot of media market research involves gathering both qualitative and quantitative data and reporting jointly on both. (Sometimes you only do one or the other, depending on your objectives, but doing both is considered ‘standard’ and higher quality). However, quantitative data is heavily prioritized in reporting and when there is a conflict between what they see in qualitative versus quantitative data, the quant data is usually relied upon to be the more accurate of the two. This is understandable to an extent, because quantitative surveys usually involve responses from a couple thousand participants, whereas qualitative data involves typically a few dozen participants at most, depending on whether you did focus groups, individual interviews, or ‘diaries’/ethnography. The larger sample is considered more reliable and more reflective of ‘the audience’ as a whole. However, quantitative surveys usually have the flattest, least nuanced data, and they can only ever reflect what questions and choices people in the survey were given. In something like focus groups or individual interviews or ethnographies, you still structure what you ask people, but they can go “off script.” They can say things you never anticipated (as a researcher) and can explain themselves and their answers with more depth. In a survey, participants can only “say” what they survey lets them say based on the questions and question responses that are pre-baked for them. And as I’ve already explained, a lot of times these quantitative surveys are written by people with no expertise in media, fiction, or textual analysis, and so they often are asking very basic, not very useful questions. In sum, the data that is the most relied upon is the least informative, least nuanced data. It is also the MOST likely to reflect the responses of people who don’t actually qualify for the research but have become good at scamming the system to make extra money. With qualitative research, they are usually a little more careful screening people (poorly qualified participants still make it through, but not as often as with mass surveys, where I suspect a good 35% of participants, at least, probably do not actually qualify for the research and are just working the system).

Most commonly, when market research gets reported to business decision-makers, it highlights the quantitative data, and uses the qualitative data to simply ‘color in’ the quantitative data. Give it a face, so to speak. Qualitative data is usually supplemental to quant data and used more to make the reports ‘fun’ and ‘warm’ because graphs and charts and stats by themselves are boring to look at in a meeting. (I’m not making this up, I can’t tell you how many times I was told to make adjustments on how things were reported on because they didn’t want to bore people in the meeting). (Sub-point – it is also worth noting that you can’t report on anything that doesn’t fit easily on a power point slide and isn’t easily digestible to any random person who might pick it up and read it. The amount of times I was told to simplify points and dumb things down so it could be made ‘digestible’ for a business audience, I can’t even tell you. It was soul crushing and another reason I stopped doing this job full time. I had to make things VERY dumb for these business audiences, which often meant losing a lot of the point I was actually trying to make) Point 5.1 – Because of the way that representative sampling works, quantitative data can be very misleading, particularly in understanding audience/fandom sentiments about media. As I’m sure most of you know, sampling is typically designed to be representative of the population, broadly speaking. So, unless a media company is specifically out to understand LGBTQ consumers or Hispanic/Latinx consumers, it will typically sample using census data as a template and represent populations that way. Roughly 50/50 male/female. Roughly even numbers in different age brackets, roughly representative samplings of the racial make-up of the country, etc. (FYI, they do often include a non-binary option in the gender category these days, but it usually ends up being like 5 people out of 2000, which is not enough of a sample to get statistical significance for them as a distinct group) There is a good reason to do this, even when a show or movie has a disproportionately female audience, or young audience. Because they need enough sample in all of the “breaks” (gender, race, age, household income, etc.) to be able to make statistically sound statements about each subgroup. If you only have 35 African American people in your sample of 1000, you can’t make any statistically sound statements about that African American cohort. The sample is just too small. So, they force minimums/quotas in a lot of the samples, to ensure they can make statistically sound statements about all the subgroups they care about. They use ratings data to understand what their audience make up actually is. (Which also has major failings, but I’ll leave that alone for the minute) With market research, they are not usually looking to proportionately represent their audience, or their fandom; they are looking to have data they can break in the ways they want to break it and still have statistically significant subgroups represented. But that means that when you report on the data as a whole sample – which you often do – it can be very skewed towards groups who don’t make up as large a portion of the show’s actual audience, or even if they do, they don’t tend to be the most invested, loyal, active fans. Men get weighted equally to women, even when women make up 65% of the audience, and 80% of the active fandom. Granted, they DO break the data by gender, and race, and age, etc. and if there are major differences in how women versus men respond, or younger people versus older people, they want to know that...sometimes. But here’s where things get complex. So, if you are doing a sample of Supernatural viewers. And you do the standard (US census-based) sampling on a group of 2000 respondents (a pretty normal sample size in market research). ~1000 are going to be female. But with something they call “interlocking quotas” the female sample is going to be representative of the other groupings to a degree. So, the female sample will have roughly equal numbers of all the age brackets (13-17, 18-24, 25-34, etc.). And it will have roughly 10% non-heterosexual respondents, and so on. They do this to ensure that these breaks aren’t too conflated with each other. (For example, if your female sample is mostly younger and your male sample is mostly older, how do you know whether it is the gender or the age that is creating differences in their responses? You don’t. So, you have to make sure that all the individual breaks (gender, race, age) have a good mix of the other breaks within them, so groups aren’t getting conflated) But what that means is, Supernatural, whose core fandom is (at a conservative guess) 65% younger, queer, women, gets represented in a lot of statistical market research sampling as maybe 50-100 people, in a 2000-person survey. 50-100 people can barely move the needle on anything in a 2000-person survey. Furthermore, usually in the analysis of data like this, you don’t go beyond looking at 2 breaks simultaneously. So you may look at young female respondents as a group, or high income male respondents, or older white respondents, but you rarely do more than 2 breaks combined. And the reason for that is, by the time you get down to 3 breaks or more (young, Hispanic, women) you usually don’t have enough sample to make statistically significant claims. (It also just takes longer to do those analyses and as I explained in the beginning, they are always rushing this stuff). To do several breaks at a time you’d have to get MUCH larger samples, and that’s too expensive for them. And again, I want to stress, this type of sampling isn’t intended to sinisterly erase anyone. Kind of the opposite. It is intended to make sure most groups have enough representation in the data that you can make sound claims about them on the subgroup level. The problem is that it can create a very skewed sense of their overall audience sentiment when they take the data at ‘face value’ so to speak, and don’t weight segments based on viewership proportion, or fandom engagement, etc. Point 5.2 – Which leads me to my next point, which is that fandom activity that doesn’t have a dollar amount attached to it doesn’t make you a ‘valuable’ segment in their minds. One of the breaks they ALWAYS ask for in data like this is high income people, and people who spend a lot of MONEY on their media consumption. And they do prioritize those people’s responses and data quite a bit. And guess what – young women aren’t usually high-income earners, and although some of them are high spenders on media, high spending on media and media related merch skews toward higher income people just because they HAVE more disposable income. Older white men are usually the highest income earners (absolutely no surprise) and they are more likely in a lot of cases to report spending a lot on the media they care about. Having expendable income makes you more important in the eyes of people doing market research than if you’ve spent every day for the last 10 years blogging excessively about Supernatural. They don’t (really) care about how much you care. They care about how much money you can generate for them. And given that young audiences don’t watch TV live anymore, and they give all their (minimal) expendable income to Netflix and Hulu, you with your Supernatural blog and your 101 essays about Destiel is all but meaningless to many of them (from a business standpoint) Now, some of them kind of understand that online fandom matters to the degree that fandom spreads. Fandom creates fandom. But if the fandom you are helping to create is other young, queer women with minimal income who only watch Supernatural via Netflix, well, that’s of very limited value to them as well. I don’t want to suggest they don’t care about you at ALL. Nor do I want to suggest that the “they” we are talking about is even a cohesive “they.” Different people in the industry have different approaches to thinking about fandom, consumer engagement and strategy, market research and how it ought to be understood/used, and so on. They aren’t a monolith. BUT, they are, at the end of the day, a business trying to make money. And they are never going to place the value of your blogging ahead of the concrete income you can generate for them. (Also, highly related to my point about people lying, men are more likely to SAY they have higher incomes than they do, because it’s an ego thing for them. And women are more likely to downplay how much money they spend on ‘frivolous’ things like fandom because of the social judgement involved. Some of the money gender disparity you see in media market research is real, but some of it is being generated by the gender norms people are falsely enacting in market research– men being breadwinners, women wanting to avoid the stereotype of being frivolous with money) *** In sum/tl;dr: Point 1 – Market research in general is not well conducted because of a variety of constraints including time, money, and the historical norms of how the industry operates (e.g., there being a large subsection of almost professionalized respondents who know how to game the system for the financial incentives) Point 2 – Media is a highly atypical kind of product being studied more or less as if it were equivalent to a coffeemaker or a pair of jeans. Point 3 – Most of the people studying media consumption in the market research field have no expertise or background in media, film, narrative, storytelling, etc. They are primarily people who were trained as social scientists and statisticians, and they aren’t well equipped to research media properties and people’s deeper emotional attachment and meaning-making processes related to media properties. Point 4(etc.) – Average consumers typically don’t have enough self-awareness or the vocabulary to explain the deep, underlying reasons they like pieces of media. Furthermore, when participating in market research, people lie and misrepresent their thoughts, behaviors, and emotional responses for a variety of reasons including social awkwardness and preserving certain self-narratives like “I’m above caring about dumb, low-brow things like romance.” Point 5 (etc.) – Quantitative data is treated as way more meaningful, valuable, and ‘accurate’ than qualitative data, and this is a particular problem with media market research because of how varied and complex people’s reactions to media can be. Also, the nature of statistical sampling, and how it is done, can massively misrepresent audience sentiments toward media and fail to apprehend deeper fandom sentiments and dynamics. There is also a strong bias towards the responses of high income/high spending segments, which tend to be older and male and white. Side but important point – Research reports are written to be as entertaining and digestible as possible, which sounds nice in theory, but in practice it often means you lose much of the substance you are trying to communicate for the sake of not boring people or making them feel stupid/out of their depth. (Because god forbid you make some high-level corporate suit feel stupid) *** What can be done about this? Well, the most primary thing I would recommend is for you to participate in market research, particularly if you are American (there’s a lot of American bias in researching these properties, even when they have large international fanbases). However, some international market research is done and I recommend looking into local resources for participation, where ever you are. If you are American, there are now several market research apps you can download to your smart phone and participate in paid market research through (typically paid via PayPal). Things like dscout and Surveys On the Go. And I know there are more. You should also look into becoming panelists for focus groups, particularly if you live near a large metropolitan area (another bias in market research). Just Google it and you should be able to figure it out fairly easily. Again, it is PAID, and your perspective will carry a lot more weight when it is communicated via a focus group or a dscout project, versus when it is shouted on Twitter. However, that’s merely a Band-Aid on the bigger issue, which I consider to be the fact that businesspeople think the Humanities is garbage, even when they make their living off it. There is virtually no respect for the expertise of fictional textual analysis, or how it could help Hollywood make better content. And I don’t know what the fix is for that. I spent 4 years of my life trying to get these people to understand what the Humanities has to offer them, and I got shouted down and dismissed so many times I stopped banging my head against that wall. I gave up. They don’t listen, mostly because conceding to the value of deep-reading textual analysis as a way to make better content would threaten the whole system of how they do business. And I mean that literally. So many people’s jobs, from the market researchers to the corporate strategists to the marketing departments to the writers/creatives to the C-level executives, would have to radically shift both their thinking and their modes of business operation and the inertia of ‘that’s the way it’s always been done’ is JUST SO POWERFUL. I have no earthly idea how to stop that train, let alone shift it to an entirely different track. BTW, if you want the deeper level of analysis of why I can’t stop rewatching Moneyball now that it’s been added to Netflix, the above paragraph should give you a good hint

#market research #Hollywood #media studies

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loonatism · 3 years ago

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WHAT IS THE LOONAVERSE? PART 2 – THE NARRATIVE DEVICES

LOONA is special among K-pop for its immersive storyline. These girls are not just k-pop idols performing a song, they also perform a story and that story is what we call the Loonaverse.

So, what is the Loonaverse? In a few words: The world and story that LOONA inhabits.

Yeah. Duh. But what is it?

Well… it’s complicated.

The Loonaverse is a fictitious story that borrows elements from real science and fantasy to build its world but also uses allegories, metaphors, allusions and other literary devices to tell its story. Our job as spectators (and specifically us theorizers) is to look beyond those devices to understand the message they are trying to send. In this post I’ll attempt to explain the numerous literary devices used to narrate the story of the Loonaverse.

So, these 2 things are LAW:

Each girl has two conflicts: an external one and an internal one.

The LOONAVERSE story is one of fantasy and mystery.

INTERNAL CONFLICT VS EXTRNAL CONFLICT

Or as I like to call it: UNIT vs SOLO

I’ve explained how the girls are trapped in a time loop and how escaping it was their overarching goal. This is the external conflict of the Loonaverse. The progression of this storyline is seen mainly in the Sub-Unit MVs and LOONA MVs but also in some teasers and other videos like Cinema Theory. The conflict is external because: 1) It comes from the outside. 2) The characters not have power against it, at least not at the beginning. 3) The conflict has effect over multiple people.

Also…

Every character has an internal conflict. A personal story. Each girl perceives the world differently and that changes the way they act and interact with each other. It is internal because: 1) It comes from within the person. 2) They themselves may be the cause for the conflict. 3) The conflict has effect on only one person: themselves. This Internal conflict is presented to us in the Solo MVs. Every solo MV is a window to the character’s mind. While the solo MVs are tangentially related to the main external conflict, they mostly focus on the internal conflict of the character.

External and Internal conflicts often mix and interlace each other to create a wider story. We will see how the external conflict fuels the internal conflicts of the girls and how their internal conflicts will shape the way they act towards solving the external conflict.

FANTASY AND MYSTERY

What is fantasy? The genre of fantasy is described as a story based in a world completely separate from our own. It usually features elements or magical/supernatural forces that do not exist on our own world. It is not tied to reality of science.

Wait a minute. You just spent an entire post explaining the science of the Loonaverse. You can’t call it fantasy now. Well yes, yes I can. Since most of the scientific elements I explained are theoretical, unproved in our world but in the world of LOONA they are a reality, a scientific reality. A reality that differs from our own, and thus a fantasy to us. But regardless of that the reason I call the Loonaverse a fantasy is because of the themes it explores.

Fantasy is a broad genre, it is one of the oldest literary genres, being found in old myths. Some of the themes often found in fantasy stories include: tradition vs. change, the individual vs. society, man vs. nature, coming of age, betrayal, epic journeys, etc. All of these themes are very present in the Loonaverse. But I’ll delve into each one as we encounter them.

What is Mystery? The mystery genre is a type of fiction in which a person (usually a detective) solves a crime. The purpose is to solve a puzzle and to create a feeling of resolution with the audience. Some elements of a mystery include: the Crime that needs solving, the use of suspense, use of figures of speech, the detective having inference gaps, the suspects motives are examined in the story, the characters usually get in danger while investigating, plus these:

Red herring. something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important question and leads the audience to a false answer.

Suspense. Intense feeling that an audience goes through while waiting for the outcome of certain events.

Foreshadowing. A literary device that hints at information that will become relevant later on.

I just though you should know these definitions.

In the Loonaverse, the “crime” is the time loop itself, and the mystery is finding a way to break it. Or so we think. In reality, the “How do we break the loop?” question is solved rather easily. But can we really call this a mystery if the main question is already answered? Yes! It may no be a mystery story for the characters themselves but because BlockBerry uses various mystery genre tropes while telling the story, it is a mystery TO THE AUDIENCE.

That’s right! WE are the detectives!

In a classical mystery, the detective examines all clues, motives, and possible alibis, for each suspect, or in our case, each character. The same way we analyze every MV, every interaction, every possible clue to where and when everything is happening.

The Loonaverse differs from a classic ‘Who done it?’ by establishing that no suspect is actually guilty. The crime IS the loop, but no girl is responsible for it (or so we think). Our job as detectives is not to figure out who is doing this but to explain how and establish an timeline of events that shed a light to what really happened. In that sense, our job resembles more closely a real crime investigation than a mystery novel.

LITERARY DEVICES

There are many literary devices an author can use to tell its story. Too many to cover them all in here, so I’ll focus on the most recurrent ones in the Loonaverse:

Allusion. Referring to a subject matter such as a place, event, or literary work by way of a passing reference.

Archetype. Reference to a concept, a person or an object that has served as a prototype of its kind and is the original idea that has come to be used over and over again.

Faulty Parallelism. the practice placing together similarly structure related phrases, words or clauses but where one fails to follow this parallel structure.

Juxtaposition. The author places a person, concept, place, idea or theme parallel to another

Metaphor. A meaning or identity ascribed to one subject by way of another. One subject is implied to be another so as to draw a comparison between their similarities and shared traits.

Motif. Any element, subject, idea or concept that is constantly present through the entire body of literature.

Symbol. Using an object or action that means something more than its literal meaning, they contain several layers of meaning, often concealed at first sight.

Genre. Classification of a literary work by its form, content, and style.

Some other literary devices worthy of your private investigation are: Negative Capability, Point of View, Doppelgänger, Flashback, Caesura, Stream of Consciousness, Periodic Structure, THEME, Analogy.

About Genre:

Genres are important because they give a story structure. They help an author tell the story in a way that makes it simple for the audience to understand what kind of story is being told. The classic genres of literature are Poetry, Drama and Prose. Some scholars include Fiction and Non-fiction.

In film there are a variety of accepted genres: Comedy, Tragedy, Horror, Action, Fantasy, Drama, Historical, etc. Plus a bunch of subgenres like Contemporary Fantasy, Spy Film, Slapstick Comedy, Psychological Thriller, etc. What defines a genre is the use of similar techniques and tropes like color, editing, themes, character archetypes, etc.

I point this out because the Loonaverse uses many genres to tell its story. Sure, the main story is a fantasy/mystery but every MV or Teaser has its own genre (especially the solo MVs). So, when I point out later that Kiss Later is a romantic comedy or that One & Only is a gothic melodrama, this is what I mean.

TLDR:

The Loonaverse is the world and story that LOONA inhabits. It borrows form real life science and fantasy elements to better tell its story. Each girl has an external conflict (escaping the loop) and an internal conflict (portrayed in the solo MVs). Both conflicts interlace to tell the story. The Loonaverse is a story of Fantasy because it takes place in a different world from ours and it is a Mystery because it is told using various mystery tropes. The story uses multiple literary and visual devices to tell it’s story and fuel the mystery.

REMEMBER: This is all my interpretation. My way of comprehending and analyzing the story. You don’t have to agree with everything. I encourage you to form your own theories. Remember: every theory is correct.

After all that you may be wondering what the story even is. And we’ll finally be getting to that. While I have my own interpretation of the timeline, themes and who did what. I think it’s more fun to slowly explore every brick instead of just summarizing it in one (incredibly long) post. I’ll do that much, much, much later. The journey will be just as interesting as the destination. I hope you’re in for the ride.

Let’s get to the real deal: The MVs. I’m going in chronological order so let’s start with girl No. 1!

Next: The bright pink bunny of LOONA: HeeJin’s ViViD.

#yeah i know its been months #life's tough kids give me a break #loona #loonaverse #loona theory #loonatism #heejin #hyunjin #haseul #yeojin #vivi #kim lip #jinsoul #choerry #yves #chuu #go won #olivia hye

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