#this includes movie specific spoilers under the cut

[billpottsismygf]

I just went to see the Wicked movie and I was absolutely blown away. Like many other fans of the stage show, I was skeptical and wondered why they couldn’t just give us a proshot instead. However, this film is real proof of the value in properly adapting this story to film, rather than just giving us the stage show again. There are unique possibilities in every medium, which for film is things like editing, cinematography, scale, close-ups etc., and Wicked uses all of these to great effect.

Spectacle is at the heart of both The Wizard of Oz (with its cutting edge use of technicolour) and the Wicked stage show (which is notable for its incredible costumes, stage design, lighting etc.), and spectacle is also very much at the heart of this film. My jaw quite literally dropped in the opening moments as the camera flew over the land of Oz, and it stayed open throughout most of the first number. I’m so glad I got to see it at the cinema; it’s absolutely worth seeing it on the big screen. I might even go again!

I was also worried about the run time, given that its 2 hours and 40 minutes cover only Act 1 of a stage show which runs that length in its entirety. However, the length felt entirely justified. It didn’t even feel like they added that much! What they did add – bits of dialogue, exposition, reframing of scenes, flashbacks etc. – I loved, but for the most part it just felt like it was faithfully adapting the first act of the show.

This was a phenomenal piece of cinema and I'm only sad that I don't get to watch part two for another year! This might even end up being the definitive version for me, which is so far from what I was expecting. Obviously nothing is quite like live theatre, but nothing is quite like this either. I’ve included more detailed and spoilery reactions to specific parts below, but I can only recommend this movie!

SPOILERS BELOW! (And I mean spoilers specific to the movie. If you’re a fan of the stage show already but don’t want to have some surprises ruined, I really recommend going in without knowing!)

No One Mourns the Wicked

I’ve already mentioned that my jaw was dropped throughout this song, but I was also sobbing copiously.

It does such a good job capturing the celebratory nature and then shifting to show the darkness at the heart of this celebration.

The way the camera cuts back to Glinda’s face at certain moments really heightens the emotional kick for anyone who knows how the rest of the story goes.

The effigy is so sinister and horrifying, as is Glinda’s face as she’s made to be the one to light it.

We all knew Ariana Grande could hit those high notes, but goddamn.

Dear Old Shiz

Not much to say about this one, but such great costuming and I love how all of the arrival scene plays out.

The Wizard and I

This is one of the songs that benefits the most from the filmic medium.

We can see Elphaba’s face in close up as she begins to have this revelation.

The way the lighting changes to show her de-greenified when she’s singing about that!

The fact that she (and we) really can very hazily see ‘a vision, just like a prophecy’! The dissonance between the hope in her eyes and what we know is happening made me cry again!

That run up to the cliff at the end is so exhilarating! Slight Maria von Trapp vibes, but also it’s the scale and spectacle again, and this huge drop that will be mirrored at the end of the movie.

What is this Feeling

Ahhh! The editing in this one!

That initial split screen as they’re writing the letters works so well.

The cuts between shots and things happening on the beat are delicious.

It’s so clever to use this song as a montage!

Something Bad

All of the stuff with Dr Dillamond and the animals was very effective.

I really like the way this scene is located and the way shadows are used to represent things happening.

There seems to be a little cut in the music so we don’t get ‘under the surface, behind the scenes’, but that doesn’t feel like much of a loss.

Dancing through Life

This is one of the longest sequences in the musical and it’s used very effectively here.

Firstly, I love how bisexual this Fiyero is with his flirting, and how both male and female students are shown to be into him.

Setting it in the library is funny and I love the set design with those spinny bookcases, as well as how the song develops to have the choreography on them.

God, the emotion of the silent dance sequence. They’re really not afraid to let it play out in its full awkwardness and I’m so glad.

The chords underneath when Glinda starts to dance along! I know it’s the Dancing Through Life music, but the way it sounds like the start of For Good had me sobbing yet again!

The dance itself! The close ups on their hands and faces! Ahhh!

Popular

Not much to say here, but beautifully done.

I’m Not That Girl

Lovely visuals, beautifully sung.

One Short Day

I love the extended introduction, especially as we’re treated to the spectacle of the outskirts of the city and then the city itself.

Of course, the hugest thing has to be the Wizomania section.

THIS IS MAYBE THE BIGGEST SPOILER IF YOU’RE STILL HERE AND DON’T WANT TO KNOW

Because holy shit!!!!!!

The little additional Wizomania bit started and I thought ‘oh cool! They have written new music’ and then!

I’m soooooo happy that Kristen Chenoweth and Idina Menzel got their cameos. It was entirely unexpected and I sat there with my hands over my mouth in excitement - I'm so glad I didn't see any spoilers about It! Also Kristen got to do her high notes and Idina got to do her Defying Gravity riff.

The Wizomania addition was also valuable in giving the lore behind the Grimmerie, though I was too excited by Kristen and Idina to pay that much attention to the lyrics.            

A Sentimental Man

There was a slightly weird cut into the start of this number, with them suddenly all sitting down. It would have felt slightly more natural to lead into it from where they were, but maybe they cut something out there.

Defying Gravity

I was not expecting the balloon to come into play like that!

So well played between our two leads. It hits all the emotional beats it needs to and has such a sense of scale and excitement.

Again, it all comes back to spectacle. This is one of the most spectacular moments of the show and they don’t back down from the challenge here.

I’ve obviously always adored that moment where Elphaba is in the air at the centre of a green star, and I always will, but there are things here that film can do that stage shows can’t.

That drop to the ground really ratchets up the drama, as does her flight up and then back down again. It actually reminded me of that famous moment in the first Spiderverse movie – so exhilarating!

That enormous cloak! The lighting!

That extended unlimited bit with the cuts to people learning about Elphaba’s new status as a fugitive! So good!

I wanted to applaud!

Other

I love Elphaba and Fiyero meeting in the woods initially.

I love that we actually see Elphaba learning magic.

Madam Morrible’s presence is also really well used. She’s nowhere near as sinister a figure as she is in the book, of course, but I like how well she’s introduced as a maternal figure to Elphaba, or at least as an adult who actually believes in her, and then the mask finally slips as soon as Elphaba stops doing as she’s told. Michelle Yeoh gives a really understated performance, but she’s not a cackling villain and so it works well to see this other side of her come forward in this way.

It’s interesting that whenever the Grimmerie is read from it's only spoken aloud rather than sung. I wonder if that will continue into No Good Deed and Wicked Witch of the East in part 2.

Hell yeah, I just realised we should finally have an official recording of Wicked Witch of the East when part 2 comes out!

Anyway, what an amazing film!

[bridoesotherjunk]

Okay, so it's been a handful of days since I've seen Venom 3.. and I think I've finally got my thoughts together.

This review will have spoilers, so it will go under the cut.

these are all my opinions, so don't take my word as gospel or anything...

Anyone who knows me and my blog knows how much I've loved these movies since 2018, so to see me not ranting about the third Venom movie should be evidence enough how I feel.

I... don't feel like this was a satisfying conclusion to the Venom franchise. I really feel like there was so much more that could have been done, and should have been, instead of what we got.

I truly feel that introducing Knull into the story was a mistake. The first 2 films were so much smaller scale. Expanding all the way to the fucking symbiote god after only having done Carnage just felt like such a massive leap. And they really didn't do much with him anyway.

It felt like they included Knull because they were obligated to. Like Sony made them in order to have a weird spin off involving Knull trying to kill stuff. I don't know. He didn't do much besides tease future movies where he's the villain again. And that's kind of boring...

I will sound so narcissistic saying this, but I truly feel that the story I came up with, where the villains of Venom 3 are former Life Foundation employees angry at Eddie for ruining their lives, made way more sense. In terms of scale, you know? Much less "huge universal threat" and more of the small scale "threat to Eddie and Venom specifically" type story. Even Riot, being a threat to the Earth, was smaller scale than Knull. Knull is just too much. Too big. Too unfocused. It felt like too wide of a net. It felt generic, i hate to say it. It just felt like every other dumb ass gritty movie where the bad guy wants to destroy all life as we know it. (And quite frankly, he could have been taken out of the movie and not much would have changed. Venom and Eddie could have been hunted by the xenophages for any number of reasons.)

The part of the movie that I enjoyed most was the beginning. The part that felt like Venom. Where we saw Eddie and Venom working in sync to free those dogs. I loved that. I loved seeing how far the two of them have come and how well they work together. .. seeing their journey in a montage later? That felt... lackluster. After seeing them literally working together just an hour earlier in the movie, it felt kind of cheap. The way the story ended for these two didn't feel like a victory. It felt like the Avengers Endgame "well we gotta get rid of this character because their contract is up" situation.

The movie was definitely a fun time. I enjoyed myself watching it. But I was left feeling a sense of "That's it?" That I haven't felt since Avengers Endgame.

I'm happy that Tom Hardy got to do these movies. I absolutely will forever adore the first 2. They're fun, they're goofy, they're gay, and I love them. .. but this third one just... yeah. I'm disappointed.

I will always love Venom. That much is not going to change. I love these two gay losers and I'm so happy I got to have them in my life. They brought me so much joy, and so much brainrot, and I will miss the fuck out of them.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

why them??

Whenever we visit a new location, there's an in-game reason given for why it's these specific four characters chosen to go! I was eager to see why Vil had Jamil, Azul, and Ace come along with him to an acclaimed film festival... and I was not disappointed 😂

***Tapis Rouge in the Shaftlands spoilers under the cut!!***

So as it turns out, Vil has been invited to the International Film Festival in Fairest City (a significant location for the entertainment and beauty industries). He’s going to promote a movie he’s in that’s releasing next year.

The original plan was for the Film Research Club to accompany Vil and take the chance to learn more about movie productions. However, the club is in the middle of filming for their own project and a change in weather has led to their shoot next week being cancelled. The filming they would have done next week now has to be done this week, so Vil’s club members cannot go on the trip. (Vil himself still has to attend because he is contractually obligated to.)

The other NRC students start to argue over who Vil should take in his club members’ places. The people vying for spots include:

Cater (because the Fairest City is so trendy and always popular on Magicam)

Azul (many famous brands are sold in Fairest City; he has a financial interest in this research)

Lilia (has visited the city before, but never the film festival)

Jade (the city is close to old mines, which he is interested in)

Ace (he loves the idea of going to a fashionable city and “tasting” the celebrity world)

Rook (a lover of movies and dramas; he is curious about the movie studios)

Floyd, Epel, Deuce, Grim (lol it sounds fun to them; Epel also says he has not traveled a lot so he wants to go this time)

Ruggie (FANCY FOOD)

Jamil (wants to take advantage of Vil’s presence to see behind-the-scenes things they don’t normally show; he usually prepares snacks for when Kalim watches movies at one of three at-home theaters but hasn’t had the time to really appreciate the films for what they are himself)

DKJLBHASILYFAYFVQEFIFQEPI; I love the added detail of Jamil telling the others they're inconveniencing their senpai but then Azul cuts in and implies the behavior is a manipulation tactic to show off to Vil how reliable Jamil can be (thus increasing his odds of going while he still maintains his "humility")... Those two just cannot stop getting at each other's throats, I swear 💀 (In part 2, they continue the pettiness when Ace comments that they’re both quick to tease him together, so do they actually get along? Jamil says no but Azul says yes… and the two of them are STILL bullying each other about their personalities once they get their new outfits. Truly not a dull moment with them…)

BUT THIS IS THE REAL STINGER

So since Vil can only pick 5 people to take with him, he says they'll have to prove that they somehow excel over the others. It's then that Azul cooks up a scheme on the spot and recruits Jamil and Ace for it: a lottery! Azul proposes it, has Jamil pitch in, and has Ace prepare the drawings. THIS WORKS ON MULTIPLE LEVELS BECAUSE:

Azul can present the idea as "random" and "fair". This makes him appear like a kind problem solver not wanting to give anyone, not even himself, a leg up.

It would come off as shady if he gets one of the twins (known to be his henchman) to agree with him... so who does Azul get to back him up? Jamil, someone from another dorm, and someone who was passive aggressive with him earlier. This creates a false illusion that others beyond Azul and his dorm believe in the "fairness" of the lottery.

Ace has deft fingers; he a cut a deck of cards--and he can easily rig a lottery since he's in cahoots with Azul, the guy who suggested it to begin with.

This creates a situation where Azul, Jamil, AND Ace get to go to the event. These bitches are mutually benefitting from being collectively sneaky (According to Ace, Yuu and Grim pulled the remaining two slots by coincidence, so they just happen to be "lucky") 🤡 AND THE FUNNIEST PART OF IT ALL IS THAT VIL SUSPECTED THEY WOULD PULL THIS SHIT, BUT HE LET IT HAPPEN ANYWAY SINCE IT'S TECHNICALLY STILL THEM DEMONSTRATING THEIR TALENTS TO HIM...

Truly, bravo... That deserved a standing ovation, gentlemen 👏

[cuntyglam]

alien romulus, andy, racism, and why robots are autistic

this is an introspective into how the alien series treats artificial humans, also known as synthetics, and how sci-fi portrays androids in general. alien romulus spoilers under cut. written by a native autistic and disabled fan <3

andy from alien romulus is an artificial human that is constantly being seen as less because of his race (artificial human) and who often portrays autistic characteristics. these characteristics include an aversion to loud sounds, difficulty reading social cues, and a special interest in dad jokes.

his behavior is explained by him being a “damaged” artificial human, which is somewhat disappointing. it’s disappointing that these traits that so many of us autistic people have are considered flaws in the context of the movie.

his sister, who is human, takes him for granted and chooses her life over his, even though he shows emotions and was apart of her family. even though it isn’t outright stated, this kind of reminds me how sometimes we as autistic people are seen as a burden on our families, despite us being able to care for ourselves.

once andy gets rook’s chip inserted he becomes “better”. “better” motor skills, “better” intelligence, and “better” everything. but yet, he still portrays autistic characteristics. he doesn’t go from autistic to not autistic, he just starts displaying different autistic traits. he is very knowledgeable about tech, aliens, and the human body, while being very objective about what the right thing to do is. instead of being a very empathetic person, he is a very practical and calculating person, which i think is super interesting.

honestly, i think it would have been really interesting to see him be the sole survivor. to have him get his revenge on the sister that betrayed him and the world who bullied him for his raise and ability.

okay now to androids, synthetics, and robots as a whole. robots are seen as cold and emotionless, similarly to how autistic people are seen, so many ai and robot characters are autistic coded. robots don’t have compassion or empathy in the eyes of the general public, same as autistic people. many autistic people have reclaimed robot characters to represent us, and i think that’s fantastic !!

i specifically love artificial humans in the alien franchise because they showcase so much depth and empathy, while still displaying autistic traits. and beyond that, most of these artificial humans are enslaved by a corporation (weyland yutani), and despite direct programming from their oppressors, most artificial humans end up doing the right moral thing in the end, further proving their humanity. despite being technically non human, i genuinely think they’re good autistic representation. do i like the way that the characters around them treat them ? no. but i think that might be the point. the point is that these characters are ableist and racist and shouldn’t be considered morally correct. i think that the writers could convey this in a better way though.

okay. racism discussion time. several times throughout this series we encounter artificial humans, and almost every time they have to correct their peers on the right terminology to use for them. as a native person who has had to tell multiple people (coworkers, professors, etc.) not to call me an indian, this really stuck with me growing up, and i still think it’s interesting to this day. in alien: romulus andy’s sister uses “synthetic” to refer to him MULTIPLE TIMES, after he’s stated that he prefers artificial human. this is important, because even though he’s family she still does not fully understand what he goes through and she does not respect his identity or boundaries.

there are also multiple instances throughout the series where characters (our beloved ripley included) have prejudice against artificial humans because of bad experiences with artificial humans in the past. this causes human characters to attack and/or harass artificial humans who they have just met for no other reason than their race. in alien: romulus we see a character be hostile towards andy because another unrelated artificial human made a choice to save the many over the few, and his mother died. this is a choice that many humans would make and would not be blamed for. this reflects the real world, where people of color are blamed for almost every choice they make, while white folks can make the same choices and not be criticized.

in conclusion, i love the character of andy and i think him and the alien franchise as a whole is so interesting. let me know if you want a deep dive into the themes of sexual violence, birth, and motherhood in the alien series !! i’ve done a whole research paper on it, and my college admissions essay was about the alien queen, so i know quite a lot !! i hope this drives a lot more fans towards the alien fandom and i hope a bunch more merch comes out !! yippee !!

[pompadourrguy]

❕ This post contains spoilers for Transformers: ONE.

Transformers ONE edit

⤷ Plastique Noir - Catedrais em Chamas

This song matches with D-16 / Megatron's vision of everything that happened during the movie, including his relationship with Orion, Sentinel's betrayal, the new upcoming Cybertron in war era and the consequences of everyone's actions.

If you wanna know the translation and my whole ass rant about why I chose each scene for each part, everything is under the cut!

Again, this should be all interpreted in D-16 / Megatron's point of view.

[Millions in despair, I don't understand]

This phrase can be seen in two ways: Representing how he wants to destroy the Cybertron that Sentinel built, all that Sentinel ruled and owned, and Megatron doesn't understand why everyone got so desperate as he destroyed it all. In his vision, they should be grateful that he's destroying everything that someone as bad as Sentinel, the Betrayer, built and took care of. Megatron also doesn't understand how all Cybertronians, mostly the low-class who suffered the most, could follow Sentinel's system for so many years without noticing his antics and behavior.

[Putting your faith in the wrong guy]

Pretty self explanatory. Everyone on Cybertron trusted Sentinel "Prime", only to be betrayed by him. Once Megatron learned about the truth behind Sentinel, he got furious that he put so much faith in him.

[Talking about merit doesn't make sense]

This shows how Megatron would think that Orion Pax / Optimus Prime getting the Matrix of Leadership and speaking like he deserved it shouldn't make sense. D-16 wanted Orion by his side, he believed that Orion would join him to rule Cybertron, and then Optimus Prime appeared once he got the Matrix, leaving Megatron in disbelief.

[If a dark past creates an arid future]

This is about his view on Sentinel's situation in specific. How Sentinel killed all the Primes in the past, and how he's finally getting what he deserved. This would be his arid future, according to Megatron.

[I wish there was a tsunami over the cathedrals]

[The skies would be gained by dark smoke]

[It would also rain ashes]

The "cathedrals" here would be all those things that Sentinel once ruled, including the entirety of Cybertron. How Megatron wanted to destroy it all, to rule it all, to cause a revolution and be the one true leader. This is the beginning of everything, of a new era, a new revolutionary group called Decepticons.

[I wish there was a tsunami over the cathedrals]

[The weight of all the aces]

Now in this line, the cathedrals would be his relationship with Orion. A tsunami destroys everything, and D-16 / Megatron's actions destroyed absolutely everything they had, even if he never wanted it to end like that. Their bond being friendship or not, it's all over now. About the aces, ace cards either begin or end a match, depending on the game. In this case, Megatron is reflecting about the weight of ending everything he and Orion once had. The impact, the weight, the consequences, and how it would now change everyone's lives in the upcoming war.

This was fun to create, thank you if you read it this far! If it's not too much trouble, I highly encourage reblogging this post, I put a lot of thought on this edit lol. Again, thank you <33

[felassan]

remember that wild Dragon Age theme park ride (Dragon Age: Flight of the Wardens), originally located in Dubai until it randomly turned up years later (now also oddly-rebranded as "[Not Dragon Age We Swears It]: The Guardian") in, of all places, Skegness England? well, I had to satisfy my curiosity and obsession with obscure pieces of Dragon Age media & archival thereof. and so - actually quite some time ago now - I finally got around to going on a pilgrimage there (which was this whole, like.. heinous harrowing in and of itself, that I will not go into), and I rode it

and to my surprise the original Dragon Age in-ride movie is still part of the ride experience! - complete with references to darkspawn, a Pride demon, dragons, green "rifts", Discount Anders (a Grey Warden[?] mage called 'Eldron'), Discount Yavanna (a Witch of the Wilds called 'Alexia') and Dragon Age: Inquisition soundtrack music. there is also now a new pre-ride movie which replaces the old Dragon Age pre-ride movie as part of the ride's rebranding, and i simply ?¿?

there are also still quite a lot of identifiable Dragon Age props in the fantasy-themed queue-area of the ride (so these must have been part of the whole purchase between parks), including multiple iconic Inquisitor helmets, Grey Warden shields, a Dragon Age dragon (now with DA-dragon identifiable horns.. sawn off??), and several Dragon Age banners, including the Inquisition hairy eyeball, the templar symbol and the Circle symbol. here's some pictures.

[^this image is taken from the video linked below]

I also captured the new pre-ride movie, and you can see it along with the Dragon Age in-ride movie here ⬇️. and so now, with this epilogue to the.. most odyssey of all time, more than two years after the first message about the ride was ever sent to Ghil Dirthalen, this adventure in obscurity and the strange fever-dream meta story of the Dragon Age: Flight of the Wardens era in Dragon Age history is finally complete.

Ghil Dirthalen: The Guardian??? {Overview. - Spoilers All}

[video source & link: Ghil Dirthalen, posted here w/ permission]

some further notes, thoughts and commentary under the cut -

there's a few seconds missing from this capture of the in-ride movie. for the sake of the curious and completion: in them, you're still in the fort and you see lots of 'Wardens' walking and milling around.

a camera in the ride takes two photos of the riders during the ride, which are displayed on a screen on the way out. you can choose to buy these from the Fantasy Island merchandise store. you know those photos of people on log flume rides? it's like those, only of the four riders in a row in the seats. the photos have Fantasy Island branding on them and fire along the bottom, then in two corners there's a bit of a dragon's head and that's about it. the ride photo is the only Guardian-specific merch available at the park.

some of the queue area props appear to be from random other places. like there was a barrel which had something like "1850 distillery" written on it, which is obviously temporally/thematically and universe-ly out of place (not that that's at all unreasonable given the rest of the rideworld lore, there's totally a way it could have gotten there easily hh, see below), and I guess it's a spare or leftover prop from a Western-themed ride or something? others were generic sword'n'sorcery fantasy props (some of these are from the ride's previous life in Dubai though). there are also some pretty random props, like a dead stuffed roe deer's head on the wall and a.. comically large spoon.

there's music playing in the queue area, but it's not DA music, it's generic ye olde fantasy world music.

some folks there mistakenly thought that the long themed lead-up (it was pretty darn long) queue area with the props was the entrance to or start of something completely different, like a haunted house or maze type thing, or was the ride 'experience' in and of itself.

the ride attendant gives you the option of watching the new pre-ride movie or not. I guess they get sick of putting it on and listening to it 9000 times a day (valid), and also cutting it out reduces queue times as it's about five minutes long. it's screened in a little enclosed room at the end of the queue area. you go in and sit down, they show it to you, then you go through another door to the chair machine.

the in-ride movie is blurry and poor quality. I heard someone else who rode it say that it was so blurry that they had no idea what was going on hhh

Now about the new pre-ride movie. first of all, here's the transcript.

Pre-ride movie transcript "Welcome, my friends, to the gates of our kingdom, and the start of your adventure. I know your journey has been a long and arduous climb to get here, but we are grateful that you are the ones that have stepped forward to help us in our quest. I should probably start at the beginning. My name is King Aethelswyth [sp?] and I am the ruler of Elvia [sp?] - at least, what's left of it. You see, six months ago, our world was invaded by giant demons and creatures from another dimension, which now plunder our lands, and continue to destroy our kingdom piece by piece. They came, through a time-rift, from another world, leaving much destruction in their wake. Ever since they came, our people have defended as best they are able, but, we were once a peaceful race, and sadly no match for the giant demons and dragons. Luckily, a few days ago, help arrived. They came through the rift, human in form but with incredible powers, and the ability to not only fly but transform into dragon-like creatures. That's where you all come in. You see, not only have they brought hope to our lands, but also gifted us with technology, the likes of which we have never seen before. This communication device for example - it enables us to talk to each other from great distances without being in the same room. And there is something else, and the reason why you are here. They provided us with plans to create our own machine, which as we speak is being prepared for your mission. I should explain. The machine, although made of metal and advanced technologies we can't even begin to understand, requires biological matter to function; a very specific amount of oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and calcium, all of which you are made from my friends. Once you are connected to the machine, you will be lifted into the portal and instantly dropped into the outer world. You'll be able to fight alongside the guardians and help close the rift once and for all. I won't lie. The mission will be dangerous, but with your help, we can defeat the giant demons, close the rift and save the kingdom. Hahahaha! [dragon roars] Ah, do not be afraid! This is Mia [sp?], one of the dragon guardians. She will help you on your quest and guide you to the rift. There it will be up to you to find a way to close it. My friends, it is almost time for you to enter the machine, and become the guardians! [inaudible] a safe journey. Save Elvia, become the heroes you're destined to be! The gates will open momentarily, as soon as the machine is ready for you. Good luck my friends, and I'll see you on the other side!"

in the linked video, the start of the new pre-ride movie isn't included in full at normal speed as it seemed to be a compilation of whatever random fantasy-themed stock footage the video creator could find, stitched together. but again for the curious and the sake of completion: it starts out panning randomly around SPACE, like at the solar system and of planets and at the Milky Way. for a sec I wondered if it was made up of random old Mass Effect assets. then it shows dragons (FROM SPACE) invading an Earth-like planet where I suppose the Ferelden-y kindgom (formerly called "Noathen", now called "Elvia" or something) setting in the rideworld is now supposed to be set. these invading dragons invade either from space or.. another dimension?? or maybe from the future or both?? [see below], entering through a big green rift. (and they still have the green coloring for the rifts and call it/them "rifts" like in DA, which was honestly so funny to me for some reason). the whole panning in from space start to the movie reminded me a lot of the Easter eggs in the DA and ME games that, while they're just Easter eggs for fun and I don't subscribe to this theory myself (as DA is its own great, self-contained thing), could light-heartedly imply that the planet with Thedas on it is a planet in the MEverse (like the krogan head in the Winter Palace in DAI or the ogre in that ME dlc).

in the pre-ride movie, the kingdom of "Elvia" might have actually been called "Albion", which is the earliest-known name for the island of Britain. (it was hard to make out exactly what the king was saying there) the new pre-ride movie seems like it was made in England and ofc thats a common fantasy setting, so I could see it, especially since the king character's name was something like Aethylswyth, which sounded very "Old English". for me personally, if it was "Albion", it adds fuel to the fire of Caitie's cracktheory/"trying to make this fit"-headcanon for the ride story/lore (see Caitie's original video on the ride's previous life for this), that it's set somewhere obscure and backwatery in Ferelden, which is kinda England- or Britain-inspired. (dont take these thoughts or other thoughts in this post about the lore/canon etc too srsly pls hh, it's just crack for fun and I know tis just an off-brand themepark ride)

on the whole the new pre-ride movie is pretty random. there's a giant in it, but it doesn't look like a DAI giant. (is it his big spoon??) it shows a fortress in part of it which looks a bit like Skyhold if you squint, with the long bridge approaching it as the entrance. at one point one of the dragons that pops up is a dragon designed more in the style of a dragon as they are sometimes depicted in, for example, Chinese mythology and folklore. the "communication device" the king described had me rolling, it's exactly like a Dragon Age Skype Crystal or a working set of eluvians from Thedas.. I wondered if the video creator was inspired some by DAI promo images and took cues from the Inquisitor's green hand/the Anchor, since the king has a green glowing thing on (or in?) his chest. and when the king started listing the elements humans are made of, I was reminded of Fullmetal Alchemist.

also, "through a time rift".. I mean technically Dorian's involvement in DAI DOES show green space-time magic right? Where is this other dimension? ofc I know it's not literally Dragon Age, but it's funny to think about and to try and make it "fit" skhskdhfjhe. is it the Fade? the Void? from somewhere in-between like Tevinter Nights implies exists? or is it the dimension which has Thedas's mundane world itself in it - like maybe the dragons are invading this poor guy's kingdom dimension from Thedas? if so what tf is going on in Thedas?? did Solas' explosion at the Conclave ripple through spacetime and rip holes in the fabrics of other worlds as well - like is Solas out here accidentally causing interdimensional Space Dragon invasions? like, theoretically.. the new pre-ride move does reference the in-ride movie, and in turn the in-ride movie is still Dragon Age (!), so technically the new pre-ride movie IS.. kind of.. weirdly.. canon.

((the pre-ride movie references an "outerworld", implying that even in THAT dimension there's an outer world and an inner world, definitely more than one at least. and back on the dimensions thing, I'm not clear - are the dragons coming from Thedas dimension? or are they coming to Thedas dimension? "they came through the rift, human in form but with powers, the ability to fly [that's Eldron] and the ability to transform into dragon-like creatures [that's Alexia]" implies that the dimension on the other side of the rift - if the helpers came through the same rift as the invading dragons - is Thedas, because that's Eldron and Alexia from the Dragon Age in-ride movie being referred to, and Noathen where they're from is in Thedas somewhere. so some Thedosians have travelled to another world to save it?? Dragons are escaping out of Thedas? but.. from space? but also - the narration is telling us that Eldron and Alexia and the other Guardians brought with them from where they came from, as a gift, incredible advanced technology that the people of Elvia have never seen before. he then gives the example of "this communication device" which could be read meta-ly as meaning the television screen, and of plans to build a machine made of metal and advanced technology (meaning the ride machine you go sit on, which is a themepark machine irl obviously and in the 'world' of the ride, some kind of flying machine). so like.. are Eldron and Alexia from Future Thedas (think Avatar Aang/Korra, when by Korra's time there's like lots more machinery and a more modern feel), a Thedas which has advanced complex machines like idk, AEROPLANES? is that what they mean by "time-rift"? because they specifically did say "time". is that to try and explain the modern machinery? does that mean the invading dragons also came from the future, not just from space or another dimension? the other option: Eldron and Alexia came from alternate universe Thedas, which has more modern technology in it. but Thedosians Time-Travelling From The Future And Also Space And Another Dimension is so funny to me so lets go with that. my headcanon is that on the way to Elvia they also timetravelled through a Westernthemed time period and thats why theres a recent-modern period whisky barrel)).

in the ride's previous life, the explanatory hook was that Eldron made you a special harness or saddle thing with which to ride a dragon, which was what the ride machine was simulating. however now, the hook to explain the machine is that it's a gift of advanced technology powered by carbon, hydrogen, organic matter (Big Oil lmao?) etc. (I enjoyed that this explanatory hook got wackier between eras of the ride's life, much like the whole meta story of this piece of media itself. it was already weird because riding dragons isn't really part of DA. though I don't understand meta-ly speaking this convoluted explanation for the machine. dragon-riding isn't an identifiable or key part of the Dragon Age franchise, so they could have kept the idea that you're sitting on a dragon's back and flying around on that in instead of having this wacky explanation about a flying machine gifted from magical strangers from Back To The Future and it would have been fine. I love it though bc its so absurd)

And Tiny Dragon Alexia from the original ride experience is kinda referenced (unintentionally?) when the king introduces the dragon "Guardian" "Mia", as when she comes on-screen her size or scaling looks small/kinda off, so maybe Tiny Dragon lives on. so now we have Tiny Dragon Alexia, Tiny Dragon Mia, and Tiny Dragon queue prop. it's a Tiny Dragon Conference.

and like I just have so many questions. in her original video on the ride, Ghil Dirthalen wondered at length where in Ferelden/Thedas Noathen could be. where is Elvia? why does the pov of the pre-ride movie proceed downstairs into the room where the king is - like why does the king have his throne in a basement? is he in an underground bunker for safety because of the Space Dragon invasion? why does he say we "climbed" up when we have just gone down into his dungeon? why is the tiny dragon introduced as "Mia" when the tiny dragon witch lady in the in-ride movie is called "Alexia"? does the king's green glowing chest thing work like the Anchor - does he have a chest Anchor.. a Chanchor? where did they get Discount Gandalf from the queue area and why is he exactly like the Ghil Dirthalen Stock Theatre Wizards in her original video? why did they change the kingdom's name from "Noathen" to "Elvia" in the pre-ride movie when "Noathen" was already non-existent in Dragon Age lore? why did they scrub Dragon Age from or avoid Dragon Age in the pre-ride movie but leave the whole Dragon Age in-ride movie intact? are the "Guardians" Discount Grey Wardens? is the king's whole schpeel secretly an evil plot so he that can use our bodies for like necromancy-alchemy? why does the ride run on your flesh and are we about to be sacrificed in a blood magic ritual? do we end up like the husks in Mass Effect after our organic forms are broken down into compounds to fuel the King of Elvia's flying anti-dragon defense tank? is the actor of the king a park staffer who is into larping, or someone's fun nerd uncle who likes DnD? does Caitie not in fact agree that I am very handsome and smart, indeed the World's Most Interesting Guy? 😤 why go to the trouble of sawing off the dragon's DA-dragon horns when the in-ride movie is still Dragon Age?? why are the dragons invading from space anyway like what do they want??? how can I obtain the king actor guy's autograph? where are EA's lawyers? and why is there a giant spoon?

[vickyvicarious]

To anyone who is interested, here is my thoughts on Nosferatu (2024). In briefest sum: it's not my thing. I didn't really like it by large.

To be a little longer, but still remain mostly spoiler-free: There are several elements running throughout the movie. There's stuff taken directly from the original Nosferatu, there's stuff added in from Dracula, and there's also some elements that appear to me to be informed by other adaptations or reputation, as well as more modern tastes in the way horror movies operate. It is definitely still a horror, and for people who like this style of horror, I think a lot of them would enjoy it. Personally, I'm not super into gore or sexual horror scenes. There are definitely several of both. In general I like more subtle psychological horror, and in a lot of ways I think this movie is pretty in-your-face about what it does. That is a personal preference for me, though, and definitely not universal.

Also, while I find the combination of elements interesting, in several places I personally feel like it weakens characterization or at least my interest in the characters. That said, some character things that fans of Dracula like would probably include: Orlock is definitely still evil/hated by all. Thomas and Ellen (the Harker figures) are in love, and both protagonists we're meant to root for. There are also a lot of added scenes that call back to various events in the book. On the other hand, there is some degree of Ellen/Orlock that is likely a major turnoff for a lot of people, and also Friedrich (the Arthur figure) is definitely not our Art. Also, many of the callback scenes involve similar events, but almost inevitably twisted in some way, either to fit the changed place in the plot, the different characters, or to feed in to horror scenes that are more gory/sexual than you'd see in either original book or movie.

Finally, more specific spoilers under the cut:

Sorry in advance but this is more of a ramble than any specific progression throughout the plot.

I think that the story wanted to have its cake and eat it too a little bit in regards to the original book, the original film, and to pop-culture derived interpretations of Dracula themes and characters. I also think there was a degree of playing in to more typical modern horror expectations. Some of my thoughts on this are pretty suppositional because I don't actually like watching horror movies much and also haven't seen any film adaptations of Dracula (aside from the original Nosferatu and now this one). So feel free to disregard me if I'm wrong on any of those points. But I feel like there are several scenes that either alter events or add in gratuitous nudity or violence just because that's expected.

Like, for example, when Thomas arrives in the town near the castle. There's a whole odd scene where a bunch of people are dancing around and then kind of mocking him before he gets into the inn. Once there, we have a scene more like in the original movie (OM from here on out) where there's horrified reaction to him saying he's going to the castle, and also similar to the original book (OB) where he is given a crucifix. Then we have a scene that seems like a "queer dreams" reference (but when he wakes his shoes are muddy showing it really happened) where he follows a bunch of locals leading a naked virgin on a horse to a grace where they then stake a vampire. I think this is the same group who were outside the inn mocking him, though I'm not totally sure.

The staking scene irked me more in hindsight because it seemed to be suggesting a possible alternate ending, with the virgin potentially 'distracting' the monster's attention while its body was staked. I kind of wondered near the end if this was going to happen to some extent with Ellen taking out the shadow and Orlock's spirit while the men staked his physical body. Now, that too would be off from both originals and was entirely my own theory so it not being fulfilled isn't really a knock on the movie, but... While I guess we can see the connection here, the actual way the whole "pure woman offers herself to the vampire to kill it" plays out later has nothing really to do with this scene. So it still feels kind of like there was no point having her there, since all she did was ride naked on a horse, and so it felt more contrived to show a boob than really relevant to me. The people also are weird because of this. Are they in Orlock's employ and scornful of Thomas? Are they opposed to vampires and want to protect him? There's a weird mix, only increased when everyone is gone when he awakes (including the innkeepers) and have stolen his horse. I didn't feel like their behavior made sense.

OrlocI did like several of the trippy bits about Thomas' journey to the castle (though the empty carriage reminded me more of Curse of Strahd, haha), and some of the parts of him being there. The scenes where he is eating with Orlock and where he's being pressured into signing a contract he can't read are pretty good moments of him having to try and keep calm and polite while freaking out hugely internally, though it's all much more condensed and quick to become blatant attacks on him than the OB. But that itself is more similar to the OM. The scene when Orlock makes him say "my lord" instead of "sir" is pretty funny. I also quite liked the way Orlock turned his excuse to leave ("I've been having horrible dreams since getting here, I think I'm ill") against him into a reason he must stay ("It's not good to travel when you're sick, you must stay here until you get better"). From the book, we get scenes like Thomas asking about local traditions and being shut down, running frantically about after learning he's trapped, being threatened by wolves, and escaping out the window. But the way it happens is typically very different, with Orlock just having some wolves in his crypt apparently. Thomas going in there and opening up the coffin to see him isn't really led up to in any way, other than him running around searching for an exit. We do get an attempted shoveling, except it's not a shovel but a pickaxe, there's no apparent reason for it to be sitting there, and Orlock (who apparently sleeps totally naked) physically repels the blow and then chases after him/shadows him and then drinks him while also humping him. He wakes up in his bed afterwards, and escapes out the window while fleeing wolves that have been sent to attack him after Orlock (presumably) leaves. Then he falls into the river.

I think in general his character is closest to the equivalent OB character. He loves his wife intensely, and is determined to return to her and to protect her/kill the vampire who harmed her. There are still some really unfortunate moments where he tells her to ignore her creepy dreams and basically be normal (as well as disregarding her warnings not to leave, though that at least I seem to remember happening in the OM), and he's the one to say of course she'll be left behind when hunting vampires. But he never seems to think about leaving her, and definitely loves her a lot throughout. I also like him getting a limp after his escape from the castle, showing some lingering physical effect. Though he also apparently has bite marks since he shows them to people later on.

Von Franz is shown to be more lost in his 'crazy' theories than Van Helsing. He also is too willing to sacrifice others, and kind of has a crazy monologue while setting a bunch of stuff on fire which feels super out of character. But he plays a smaller part and I liked both him not being shown as a super vampire hunter (the one scene when Friedrich asks him how to kill the demon he's talking about and he's just like "I dunno, I've never actually seen one of these before" was funny) and him having respect for Ellen. He insists she not be tied up and empathizes with her psychic nature being preyed upon, being clear that the results are not her fault. Dr. Siever plays a really small role, and Knock (the Hawkins/Renfield medley) is just as comically evil as he is in the OM. He does get naked in a pentagram and gnaw on animals/people onscreen, but doesn't have a huge role. I had fun laughing at Orlock carrying his own coffin in the original but sadly no luck in that regard thanks to Knock escaping to help him.

Friedrich irks me the most because he's got a larger role and it's so different from Arthur. While Emma (Lucy) doesn't do too much, she's at least still a good friend to Ellen. He clearly doesn't like her from the start and just kind of puts up with her weirdness because of other people. He's a loving husband and father and that's where the most sympathy for him comes in, but also skeptic who hates the influence on his life that Ellen brings and has a hard time believing Von Franz about supernatural causes. While Siever apparently suggested it in the first place, he still is the one who approves tying Ellen up, and he's a jerk to her about her not being normal and not doing what he tells her. Not to mention kicking the Hutters out in the middle of a plague! As well as trying to flee when his wife is already suffering from the plague. He does traumatically lose his whole family, and he gets the shadow keeping him asleep while his children were killed, which originally happened to Jonathan while Mina was attacked. The scene of the nosferatu carelessly dropping a dead child reminded me of vampire!Lucy tossing aside a child in the graveyard. And in fact, having Emma be the only one awake rushing about to try and save her family and having to face the vampire alone is sort of similar to the night of Lucy's memorandum if you squint. I absolutely hated Friedrich's ending - he's visibly caught the plague and wanders off to the graveyard where he then has sex with his dead (not undead, just dead) wife and then dies doing so? Euch. If they just left out the necrophilia then it would feel much more coherent to his character, just kind of selfish and very intentionally 'normal' but still deeply loving his family and losing it after their loss. But that just seemed kind of thrown in there to add to the erotic horror to me, and since I don't like it, well. I didn't like it.

Ellen, now... it's hard to talk about her character in this without also talking about Orlock. But let me start with just her and then get to that after. They lean way in on the psychic Ellen from the OM, which I initially quite liked. She also seems to deeply love Thomas, though there are some later scenes that add a weird dynamic there. One being she only became 'normal' when she met him, and so he seems kind of like an escape from her psychic dreads. I initially really liked her connection to him when he was on his trip. She gave him a token of her hair in a locket, which she cut while staring psychically out into the night, and it seemed like it was linking her to him. Then, when Orlock took the locket, the connection seemed to contribute with her sometimes overlapping with Orlock in a way I initially thought was kind of cool. I really liked the way the actress did her own version of the clawed hands and the Orlock walk/silhouette, she embodied that really well.

The sexualized trances/dreams and seizures were definitely not to my taste thought, and the whole more Exorcist-style scenes where she seemed almost outright possessed didn't really make full sense to me most of the time. I really disliked what the story behind them and her connection to Orlock ended up being. Apparently she psychically reached out to something dark in her lonely youth and ended up waking him/making some sort of marriage pact with him? This is what aroused his interest in her all along and seemed to drive many of his actions. And while we do see that she hates him consciously, and outright rejects and insults him to his face in one scene, there's all this stuff where she seems very drawn to him despite that. I really hated the Hutton sex scene. It was bound up in an argument between them during which she seemed to at least partially believe Orlock's words about Thomas selling her (this was apparently the contract he couldn't read but signed because Orlock was menacing him) for a bag of gold. She also throws in his face that he's never satisfied her like her dream lover (the nosferatu). She seems to be getting partially possessed or something throughout this fight. She takes on the nosferatu posture and uses a different voice, but it's not made clear how much of this is some influence against her or her own inner darkness or her actual thoughts. Thomas looks scared of/for her and also freaked out by how crazy she seems, and then she crawls up to him begging for no doctor and then they have aggressive sex while she commands him to kiss her heart. That in particular makes it seem like she's trying to emulate her dream sex with the nosferatu, since he's always shown to bit the chest/over the heart. So that left a bit of a nasty taste in my mouth.

Again, we do see that she loves Thomas and wants to save him. But the eroticization of the vampire feeding (once again, they are clearly having sex while he drinks her blood. The only reason I wasn't a hundred percent sure this happened with Thomas is because he at least was wearing clothes thought Orlock was naked at the time) combined with the visual horror of making Orlock look so open-wound and corpsey combined to have a really weird feel of just wanting to show a woman having sex with a horrible monster. The sexual horror thing... but she agreed to it, yes as a plan to kill Orlock, but what with the dreams thing and her making sex noises and whatnot it kind of seems like she's enjoying it too. Then when they find her body there's this kind of weird detail where she has a hand holding Orlock to her chest (she drew him back down and asked him to drink more blood when he started to notice the onset of dawn) and Thomas takes her other hand, and it feels symbolic somehow. Her lover being death and her husband reaching out for her but her clinging death closer... I dunno. The whole sex and dream connection/prolonged haunting aspect made it seem a lot less resigned sacrifice than it did in the OM, and definitely way more of her being drawn to him in return than in the OB.

Orlock himself was a pretty nice mix of Dracula and OM Count for most of it I think. I liked when he called himself nothing but hunger, it feels like it leaned in more to his OM counterpart. Using Thomas's fate against her (and before that, the Hardings) was very much something OB Dracula would do too. But his whole past with Ellen and consequent fixation on her kind of took over everything he did. And since I didn't like that element... I did love the shadow stuff, and enjoyed when he did the classic nosferatu walk with the hands reaching out, though it wasn't as often. His design was definitely creepy as well.

I liked the plague elements. I also liked the shadow of the vampire, and kind of wish there had been more emphasis put on that. I feel like in the OM, more horror was shown in his movements and his physicality partially just due to the medium. But it was also really iconic, especially the shadow, and I liked the instances when it was used to reflect his influence.

Not a fan of all the thrashing about (sexually and also just seizing/shaking) and drooling/vomiting/blood spilling from mouths. But those are more personal preference and again feel like more modern horror staples to various degrees. My biggest grief is the Orlock/Ellen stuff and how that infects other things around it.

BUT... if you like this sort of story, as I imagine many do, and if you are able to see it as its own thing enough not to get upset with the divergences (for example Orlock/Ellen, or Friedrich vs. Arthur) then I think a lot of people would enjoy this movie.

[electronickingdomfox]

"Dreadnought!" review

Novel from 1986, by Diane Carey. There have been other books before this one, that focus on original characters instead of the usual crew. But those characters tended to be either a "lady of the week" or a scientist, on the same level as Kirk and the others. For the first time, this story presents the viewpoint of the underdogs: a group of junior officers that look up in awe (and sometimes amused) at their superior officers from the Enterprise. And it's a refreshing change of perspective.

The protagonist, and first-person narrator, is Lieutenant Piper, just transferred to the Enterprise from the Academy. She gets accidentally involved in a plot to steal a new Starfleet super-ship, and avoid a coup d'état, and needs to hone her commanding skills against the clock. Her friends include Sarda, a Vulcan who's initially hostile to her due to a past grievance, Merete (a medical student) and Scanner (a technician, with a southern accent I think). Together, they form some kind of lesser-scale triumvirate, with Piper being clearly a younger, inexperienced version of Kirk; Sarda being an emotionally immature Spock; and Merete and Scanner forming together the McCoy (including Scanner bothering Sarda with his constant touching and emotionalism). They aren't carbon copies of the originals, though, and have their own dynamics and conflicts. Piper is a fun, relatable protagonist, and some of her remarks are pretty hilarious. I don't understand why so many reviews label her as a "Mary Sue". She isn't anything like that, and very often shows insecurity, or is a bit clumsy. It's just that she has good potential as a leader, the ability to improvise and follow her intuition in seemingly desperate situations, and a bit of luck on her part. That's just literally Kirk! Including her tendency to body slam on security guards.

Leaving aside the characters, the novel expands on some types of ships (the dreadnought and destroyers), that up to this point had only appeared in technical manuals, or as very brief mentions in the movies. It also presents a less-than-flattering view of Starfleet, at least in substantial sections of the top brass. And it's neat that the book includes an organigram of Starfleet and some drawings of scout ships. Another thing that was elaborated on are the Eugenic Wars from the 90's, here blamed on the ascent of communist dictatorships all over the world (after all, this novel was published before the fall of the Berlin Wall).

Overall, it's a fairly good book with likable characters, and the portrait of Kirk and co., as seen from outsiders' eyes, is actually more spot-on than that of many other novels. Besides, it includes one of the most exciting ship battles to ever grace the pages of these TOS books.

Some spoilers under the cut:

Lieutenant Piper impresses Kirk at the Academy, by almost beating the Kobayashi Maru test through some unorthodox tactics, and he request her to join the Enterprise crew. There she meets her new roomates: Merete, Scanner and Sarda. The latter is a Vulcan who's currently struggling to reach Kolinahr, and at first doesn't want to even talk with Piper. It seems that she made a serious blunder at the Academy, recommending Sarda for his proficiency at weapons. Even though she was well-intentioned, this fact ostracized Sarda from his Vulcan colleagues, that didn't approve of his interest in weapons due to their pacifistic philosophy.

The Enterprise is soon assigned a new mission: the new dreadnought Star Empire has been stolen by terrorists, and they have requested a rendezvous with Kirk's ship (the fact that Starfleet has been developing such weapon-heavy, offensive ships like a dreadnought, and that it's called "Star Empire", should already be a red flag). However, the specifics for the rendezvous have been encoded in such a way, that only Piper's biocode can decrypt them. Due to this reason, Piper is called to the bridge, in time to see Star Empire being surrounded by Klingon ships. Kirk orders her to take the helm, but Piper is terrified and can't respond accordingly, which makes her doubt her abilities for command. Star Empire takes a bad beating from the Klingons, and is seemingly crippled. But just then, the real dreadnought emerges from its hiding place behind some asteroids, and destroys the enemy ships. As it turns out, one of the new capabilities of the dreadnought is projecting fake copies of the ship to lure enemies. Now surrounded by copies of Star Empire, the Enterprise decodes the message using Piper's bio data. Her boyfriend Brian appears on the viewscreen, speaking on behalf of the rogue commander, Paul Burch. He assures Kirk that their mission is one of peace, and that they're not terrorists, and requests a party to come aboard Star Empire, including Piper and at least one Vulcan. Suspecting Piper to be on league with the hijackers, Kirk arrests her on her quarters... without much in the way of security (which makes Piper wonder if Kirk actually expected her to escape).

Using an easy trick that she learned from Brian, Piper escapes her confinement, and steals a fighter ship from the hangar. Sarda unexpectedly joins her, since he also wants to know what's going on in Star Empire. The Vulcan had designed the dreadnought's projector, but Admiral Rittenhouse, the mastermind behind the whole project, took all the credit. From this point onwards, Sarda will warm up to Piper little by little, as they come to understand each other. They escape the Enterprise in the fighter, but never reach Star Empire. Rittenhouse has arrived in the destroyer Pompeii, and captures their fighter in a tractor beam. Aboard Pompeii, the Admiral tries to convince the cadets that Burch has gone insane, and explains his plans for the future of the Federation. A future without wars, or Klingons, or Romulans, or any kind of dissension... And Piper starts realizing that Rittenhouse's plan is a road to hell paved in good intentions, and how the new dreadnought fits into all this. Left alone for a moment, Piper and Sarda investigate the computers, and find out a disturbing pattern, where all the key positions in Starfleet have been filled with Rittenhouse's minions during the past years. They try to warn Kirk about the conspiracy, but Rittenhouse discovers them and puts them in the brig.

Nonetheless, a brief power malfunction opens the brig's force field a while later. Piper and Sarda escape, in time to see Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty entering the briefing room of Pompeii, to discuss the situation with the Admiral. They hide in a secluded part of the ship, and use their communicators to signal their friends, still in the Enterprise. Merete and Scanner materialize next to them, and they get a link to the briefing room, to spy on the conversations. They see Kirk objecting to Rittenhouse's plan of killing the hijackers without even meeting with them first. And the Admiral arrests Kirk and his men, putting one of his pawn-captains in charge of the operation. Piper and her friends rush to the rescue, and use some wacky tactics to distract the guards (the bunny hop!?)... Just to find out that Kirk had already freed himself without their heroic assistance (of course, that's the value of experience). Kirk and his senior officers leave for the Enterprise on the transporter. But just when the juniors were about to follow them, the Pompeii transporters are deactivated. Then, the cadets have to make a last-ditch escape in a couple of fighters from the hangar.

Evading the Pompeii's weapons by staying close to the hull, Piper and the others reach at last Star Empire. There, they meet with Burch and Brian, who stole the dreadnought to stop Rittenhouse's totalitarian schemes, and are trying to man the starship with a skeleton crew. The last part comprises a pretty intense battle, with Star Empire and the Enterprise facing Rittenhouse's destroyer and his loyal ships. While the inexperienced crew aboard the dreadnought try to learn how to maneuver the mammoth ship, under such extreme conditions.

Spirk Meter: 3/10*. The relationship between Kirk and Spock doesn't escape Piper's observations. She notices that both of them share some kind of silent understanding, where a look to each other is enough to communicate their intentions. There's also a humorous bit, when Piper is surprised to learn that Spock is literally half-human. All this time, whenever she heard about Spock's "human half", she thought they were referring to Kirk himself!

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.

[rorykillmore]

if you have been as intrigued as i am by oz perkins' LONGLEGS (2024), here is a very preliminary shot by shot breakdown of its teaser trailer! will we discover anything profound? probably not, but there are some spoilers and speculation/potential spoilers under the cut, so if you want to go in completely blind, be mindful

maika monroe herself in our opening shot, standing in front of her crime board. which seems to mostly feature a cipher (one of what appears to be several that this movie and its marketing are using).

are we to assume that something Bad is happening in this car? probably.

next shot is cut as though this little girl is reacting to whatever is happening outside. i was squinting at whatever is on her desk because i have a feeling it may be important (for reasons mentioned later) but it is difficult to tell.

someone (maika monroe?) is doing research on what appears to be demonology or something related to it. titles of the books are 'a guide to the nine circles of hell' and 'the dark lord's hand' (both books were presumably created for the movie as they don't come up in any searches). beneath the books are notebooks in which she seems to be attempting to decode that cipher (maybe the killer is leaving our protagonist coded hints)

this opening of the book is intercut with a shot i did not include (to save space/because i had little to say about it individually) of the investigators opening a door to a dark room (murder scene?), which is a cool thematic thing. it also precedes...

also this shot is more heavily featured in this teaser with a cipher that when translated reads "hail satan" (check out the decoding work this person has done). well! if we had any doubt that these killings have some kind of religious motivation.

this is the 'guide to the nine circles of hell' book, but i can't make out the text with any clarity. to the right, perhaps another decoding effort is happening -- but i actually think this is maika trying to figure something out about the victims here. the order in which they're going to die, maybe? their locations/how they are chosen? there's a list of people's names beside a field of numbers, and she's drawing a line through some of the numbers.

starting to notice something odd with the aspect ratio - pay attention to how it swaps between standard widescreen and this more voyeuristic type of shot (you also saw this earlier, in the winter shots of the car and the girl), and we'll see if there seems to be any logic to that.

our first look at nic cage! is it scenes involving him/related to him specifically which are shot differently? maybe to induce said voyeuristic quality surrounding him and his kills? regardless: he's busy in his little workshop here. there's a nic cage interview floating around that seems to indicate that his character kills via creating cursed dolls or puppets which drive families insane in a sinister-esque fashion, which would check out here

something wicked is afoot in this hardware store (?) (i can't actually tell what is being sold here)

in presumably the same store, we see an unknown figure offer this girl some kind of small figurine (???). possibly nic cage planting one of his dolls (this is also why i was paying attention to the other girl's desk in the earlier shots, to see if she had anything similar). does he work here? (worth noting however that this is shot in the regular widescreen aspect ratio)

maika is finished with her triangle recreation.... but perhaps she is not alone

few interesting things to note here. 1) woman is getting hit in the back with an axe (in her own home, seemingly not expecting it, lending credence to the killer's MO). her murderer (husband? unsure) appears to be covered in blood. 2) she bears a resemblance to this woman, from a promotional poster and the setting looks as though it's the same one from this teaser. (cipher reads: "stood upon the sand of the sea", referring to a quote from the book of revelation describing a HYDRA, hmm)

3) a change of aspect ratio again, which immediately intercuts with....

maika flinching backwards as though bearing witness to this. could be just some misleading trailer editing, but the implication here is that she is 'seeing' these murders take place somehow. actually, maybe THAT explains the change of aspect ratio? it happens when we're seeing her "visions"?

gonna cover these quicker shots a few at a time: a shadow stumbling/dragging itself through a house as though wounded (not sure if it's the axe-in-the-back woman, because the house looks a little more modern, plus - different aspect ratio), an eerie figure in the woods (feels strangely out of place), another shot of nic cage in his workshop(?) (again with the aspect ratio switch - so if we follow the theory that these are maika monroe's visions, she definitely has some kind of direct connection TO him and not just a voyeuristic connection to his victims).

a person (i initially thought a woman, but that could actually very well be nic cage with his long, scraggly hair) slamming their head into a desk. the shot has interrogation room vibes (to me) but is too bare bones to make out for sure. maika is either... watching/interviewing (that's a camera beside her?) or this is another intercut reaction shot implying their connection.

(i didn't capture it but these shots are also intercut with images of red, gurgling blood, which seems a bit more deliberate than just an edgy choice - if there is a ritualistic element to these murders, perhaps it has something to do with blood)

i think this is nic cage again, but why is he upside down? interesting. unless i AM wrong, they actually show him a lot more in this trailer than initially assumed.

we're in maika-vision (calling it that until further notice) here again, this time to look at some kind of demonic entity (the same one we saw in that earlier shot of the woods?). this calls into question the objectivity of this voyeurism-whatever-it-is, although... obviously this film does have very clear supernatural elements, so hell, maybe nic cage IS being instructed by a demon.

another very clear intercut between maika and nic cage. is that nic cage?! it REALLY does not look like him from this profile angle, but it is possible that they've done some prosthetic work on his face (which they have been very careful not to show in full quite yet - nor do i think they should, since he is such a well known guy. you don't want your audience getting comfortable with him in this role before they actually see him.)

but i digress: another moment where the editing is implying an important connection or parallel (maika seems to be losing it a little - which i would too if i could no longer separate my identity from a killer's and/or their victims)

going forward i would pay attention to how promotional material for this movie is edited In General because they are using it as a very deliberate communicative tool at least in this teaser!

another couple of notable shots. in the first one, a woman (a nun? she seems to be wearing a habit, similar to another woman we will see later) fires a rifle into what seems to be an already blood-splattered car. then (which i didn't include) we see Maika With A Gun (hi maika), and what appears to be a car chase.

in maika-vision again, a man who has seemingly just got done slaughtering all of his cows. probably safe to call an animal harm content warning for this one, pals

ah! that WAS nic cage in the car paralleled to maika -- look at how he's dressed here. yet again they are deliberately hiding his face (also note the background - it would seem that yes, he is working at some kind of paint/hardware store).

two more maika vision shots. the first is the woman we see featured in this poster. the second is a small child who is closing a door to avoid watching whatever they're looking at. neither is having a good day!

there is a targeted amount of religious violence here, which makes sense if our killer is demonically motivated

and last but not least, nic cage murdering a guy (gender neutral) (interesting though because i hadn't assumed him to be the hands-on type given his rather indirect MO).

anyway: that's the longlegs trailer! the most telling takeaway here, in my opinion, is: how much it does actually focus on this sort of duality between maika monroe and nicolas cage and some apparent connection between them. my instinct is that that's going to be the meat of the story (although there is clearly a deeper mythology to explore too -- the cipher, the demon, the nature of the kilings).

one more thing to note: this movie seems to take place over the span of several decades. the teaser posters/captions released by neon are dated by year and reflect as much, and if you're looking for it you can see the aesthetics shift around a bit in the trailer as well.

send me your theories/observations! eager to see if anyone puts some pieces together that i might have missed.

[clownakai]

Bleh. Pinned post time 💥

Hi! I'm Atlas and this is where I'm very neurotypical about DetCo :)

Here's a helpful guide to the things I will probably talk about the most:

☆ My favorite clown in the whole wide world (Akai Shuuichi/Okiya Subaru)

☆ The Akai siblings in general

☆ Movie 24 <- guy who is extremely neurotypical about this thing

☆ The "Shuuichi and Conan as absolutely unhinged unofficial father and son" agenda

☆ The "Shuuichi and Jodie as the best friends they deserved to be" agenda

☆ Whiskey Trio Era 💥💥💥

☆ Whiskey Trio (OT3 edition), Scotchrye, Akam

☆ my WIPs

More info under the cut :)

Character tags!

☆ #! [character name] -> I can and will assign random posts to characters. This is how I keep track of them

☆ #subaruposting, #shuuichiposting -> I get gender envy sometimes okay. Leave me alone (explodes)

Miscellaneous tags!

☆ #yapping time -> welcome to Atlas Reading Too Much Into Irrelevant And/Or Largely Inconsequential Things (may or may not be backed by actual manga/anime screenshots) ^_^^

☆ #brainworms time -> writing tag!

☆ #my sandbox now -> general headcanons tag!

☆ #m24 my beloved -> I'm normal about this movie I promise

☆ #atlas.exe -> memes/shitposts/you name it

☆ #detco rewatch, #detco reread -> what it says on the tin

☆ #detco text posts -> meme format specific tag (I like scrolling through these :3)

☆ #detco spoilers -> recent manga chapters tag!! Beware!!

List of WIP/AU tags!

☆ #genderfuckery AU: none of the Akai siblings are cis 💚 unfortunately for everyone they have to figure that out first. Specifics are as follows:

#genderfuckery: the slut shirt fic -> Akai Shuuichi

TBD -> Haneda Shuukichi

TBD -> Sera Masumi

☆ #almost people AU: general vaguely eldritch fuckery re: various characters. Specifics are as follows:

#almost people: soliloquist -> Akai Shuuichi

TBD -> Miyano Shiho

TBD -> Vermouth

TBD -> Edogawa Conan

#almost people: golden -> Hagiwara Chihaya

☆ #amnesiac akai AU: what it says on the tin 💚 things go wrong at Raiha Pass, and Shuuichi ends up actually scarred and amnesiac, disappearing from everyone's radar— including the good guys'. He's fine though, just living his best life out there. Camel suffers as a direct consequence of this. Also, Shuuichi and Subaru are separate people here, and this may or may not be a slight crossover with something else (purely for comedic potential). No real plot tbh, but I do find it funny to build upon it from time to time

☆ #pokemon AU: also what it says on the tin 💚 originally started as me assigning teams to detco characters and immediately devolved into whiskey trio angst + general clownery. Mostly a silly little AU I occasionally write snippets for

Dynamic-specific tags!

☆ #unofficial father and son -> anything Shuuichi & Conan adjacent

☆ #the fucking akai family -> exactly what it says on the tin

☆ #we could have had it all -> Shuuichi & Jodie agenda save me

☆ #nagano gang -> exactly what it says on the tin

☆ #OTP: they keep me sane -> Yumi/Shuukichi tag

☆ #OTP: divorce of the century -> Rei/Shuuichi tag

☆ #OTP: they make me sick -> Scotch/Rye tag

☆ #OTP: literally married -> Hiro/Rei tag

☆ #OTP: insane soulmateism -> Heishin tag

‼️ Disclaimer: I use OTP very loosely here— more for tag format convenience than anything. Shipping is less important to me than you'd think.

💥 This post may be subject to future changes! 💥

[shiggy-my-babygirl]

Shiggy Simps Alliance discord server

Hey everyone! I'm making a discord server for shigaraki Simps and I'm looking for mods who are willing to help!

Server info under the cut:

Server info:

Server is SFW and discussion of NSFW and Comship/proship isn't allowed as there will be minors there and it can potentially trigger people as well as being problematic, so just keep it SFW and no proship/commshippers pls (or at least no talking about it in the server, pls respect boundaries 💗) this also includes in VCs

I am the owner and mainly operate during the hours of 3pm-12am GBMT so I would be rlly grateful if anyone who is online outside of those hours is willing to step up to help moderate, it would help a lot!

No vent channel, and no venting allowed in the public chats and VCs as it's not rlly something I like to have in my servers because it's hard to mod in terms of what needs to be spoilered and potential triggers for people.

Thinking of doing mha 'movie nights' where I'll put on a few episodes of mha and maybe one of the movies occasionally and we can sit and watch them together if enough people are interested :)

There will be a channel for promoting your writing, art and any other forms of media that you would like to share, as well as a channel for sharing others art that you like, all that we ask is that you credit the og artist when posting it

Of course, there will be channels specifically for simping for our boy, shiggy, as well as ones for sharing shiggy related media.

There will be a manga spoilers channel and and anime spoilers channel, all I ask is that you specify what chapter/episode you are referencing and that it is spoilered.

Please ask any questions in the comments :)

[notquitedeadpod]

What do you think about interview with the vampire (both the books and series)?

As briefly mentioned in my audio essay Based Vampirification, I got pretty into the movie when I was a teen, and then read a couple of the books.

I'm going to waffle for a bit about this, so I'll put it under the cut. CW discussions of blood, sex, and rock and roll. No really.

Spoilers for: IwtV, Queen of the Damned

TL;DR: dead blood is stupid; let gay vampires fuck; i want to put Lestat under a microscope

Please note in addition that the following is all just my opinion and should not be taken as anything but such.

There are some interesting limitations on the vampires in that series, and some things I find frustrating about their mechanics. What is, for example, 'dead blood'? This is a nonsensical concept. It does feel vaguely folkloric to me, and I think primarily is there to explain why vampires don't simply drink the blood of the recently deceased. It irritates me. They lean towards being more magical beings and that's okay, but the introduction of such a mechanism as 'dead blood' troubles that and implies-- it just annoys me. We'll be here all week if I go on.

I also find it frustrating that they can't fuck. There's a lot of discomfort about the idea of two men having sex, and the mechanical changes which happen when an Anne Rice vampire turns canonically (in the books) mean he can't get it up in most instances. Whilst I don't think sex between two cis queer men begins and ends with dicks, discomfort about this precise thing is rife, so I find it annoying that these are men who are unable to connect in this way not through choice, and with biting and drinking each others blood - acts of violence and exploitation - serving as a substitution. This stands in sharp contrast to Lestat's escapades with Vampire God Queen Akasha, where he goes out of his way to specifically note that sometimes male vampires CAN get it up.

This is all troubling to me for what it infers about how the text views mlm vs wlm romantic and sexual connections. It should also be made clear that whilst the recent TV adaptation shows Louis and Lestat as explicitly queer in text, in the OG IwtV, this was not overt and space was left for doubt as to the real nature of their relationship. This is partly because of when the novel was written, but it also strikes me as pretty cowardly.

I've enjoyed what I have seen of the recent TV adaptation. I'm interested in how it's exploring the toxic back and forth between Lestat and Louis, and how it makes explicit a lot of things which were left implicit in the book and in prior adaptations. I really like that they've taken the choice to make Louis black, too. Textually this is really fascinating for his character. I think he's extraordinarily well cast as Louis and is now the default Louis I picture in my head. Plus I'm always thrilled when an adaptation takes the initiative to include more people of colour in major roles.

I find Lestat as a character MOST intriguing. He's unpleasant, abusive, and entitled. He goes on to become a rock star and attempts to out vampires to the human world and I'm fucking obsessed with that as a concept, have been for years. He's a horrible little man, and I love that for him. So does he, tbf. He's properly vile. I really enjoy it, not because I think his actions are good but because I enjoy watching him be horribly wrong. It's fun for me.

Anyway there are my fairly comprehensive thoughts on Anne Rice's vampires as far as I know them.

Hope this was illuminating!!

--- Eira xxx

[trainsinanime]

The Movie

Under a cut because I don't know how to spoiler tag this, and I will spoil all of it. I know it's called "Awakening" in some markets, but not where I watched it so it wouldn't occur to me to block it if I were wanting to avoid spoilers, and it's a stupid title anyway.

What I will say without spoilers is: The concessions area in the Belgian cinema I was in was something else. They scan your ticket, and then you walk essentially into a small supermarket full of all sorts of snacks, including popcorn and nachos, but also bags of chips, sausage, cheese, sushi and some merch. Then you walk past cash registers and pay there before you get to your actual movie. Fun experience, but sadly the nachos didn't taste great and, according to my sister, the popcorn was kind of stale.

After that, there was a huge activity area where small children could take pictures together with cardboard cutouts, and makeup artists were painting Ladybug and Chat Noir masks on their faces. That was very adorable.

On to the movie!

Yeah, it was fine! I had a good time watching it. I really recommend watching it on a big screen if you have the chance (RIP to Americans), because the main point of the movie is that it looks really pretty. And it does! It's all so, so pretty!

The characters are all adorable. The city is way more beautiful, and it feels big and alive in a way the show could never match. The special effects are great, the fights are really nice, the scenery is amazing and the animation is so full of life!

Story-wise, I'd say it's okay. I know there are people on Twitter who say that the movie is way better than the show. These people are insane. The movie story is good, but to fit it all in, it has to squash and compress everything in ways that don't always make sense. It's very clear that this material wasn't meant for a movie. For example, exactly one character gets anything approaching a full character arc, and it's Gabriel Agreste of all people. Happens very randomly, too.

In a lot of ways, I feel like you could have done more with this. The bit of conflict that Ladybug and Chat Noir briefly develop is kind of stupid and easily forgotten. The songs (you knew this was a musical, right?) are beautifully animated, but they feel a bit perfunctory. Many of them feel more like "Let's put an I-want song here because that's how musicals go" rather than really motivated based on characters.

I don't think that's a huge problem. The charming qualities of the movie easily carry it over all the stuff that isn't that well developed. But if you ask me what the point of the movie was, the specific main story or the specific main idea, I couldn't answer. The movie doesn't really have anything like that. It is Miraculous Ladybug: The Movie, for better or worse, and it's mainly an excuse to give us beautifully rendered charming sequences tied together with the bare minimum of string to make the plot work.

Again, all that sounds so negative, but that's just because it's easier to write about the things that didn't quite work in the story department than about the great visuals and how much I just loved seeing the characters. The reality is that this movie isn't a big revelation, it isn't a much better reimagination, it's just a nice, very pretty movie that shows us stuff we already like done exceptionally well. In my opinion it was well worth the admission and the drive to Liège, and I can totally recommend it.

[kuroppiii]

DON’T FILE THOSE DIVORCE PAPERS. but i thought emma was boring i desperately need ur full take geek out plz tell me what I don’t see

i would NEVER divorce you pookie??

(us actually)

everyone gets film freaky in their own way!!! its ok!!!

two film essay posts in less than 24 hrs by ro, someone needs to sedate me or something

( sort of spoilers for emma (2020) under the cut , but nothing explicit , really )

!!! disclaimer i think to really fw regency-ish movies, kind of inherently calls for being into things like their original source material. and trust!! i know its not for everyone!!!

personally, i'm actually a big fan of reading those old and classical kind of books. as in, i have a full, clothbound, BOX SET, of jane austen's novels (emma being one of them). my literature teacher recommended me to read pride and prejudice ONCE and i've been hooked ever since.

yknow people joke that back then that it was all "oh my god you can't show your ankles!!!" and yeah, that's pretty much what it's like when you get down to reading novels from that time 😭 but that's what makes it so entertaining for me! the bridgerton series (which i also really like by association) is an easy example of this. i once saw someone say bridgerton plays out like a kdrama and YES!! that's the level of yearning and pining and slow burn i feed off of

upfront, i liked the movie–even from when its first trailer came out–because its aesthetics visually were just so nice. like yes!!! pastels!! pretty flowers!!! hats with feathers!! tea parties!!! big poofy dresses!!! (and anya taylor joy)

but it was when i watched it for a second time, i found a lot of why i like this specific adaptation of emma is because i think it really got across the vibe of jane austen's writing–especially the humor.

ok now stay with me: i'm not saying you have to read the whole original novel to get it, bc basically i would summarize the reason why the humor is so dry (when usually you would think this rich and old-fashioned vibe of a story should be much more over-the-top and dramatic) is because jane austen was always trying to make fun of all the social constructs of her time. especially for women! (heavy on how her works were ones of satire!)

like it all plays out so bare-bones that you just can't ignore how ridiculous everything sounds, which is what austen felt about all the rules and expectations emma and the other characters were trying to uphold the whole story. i also find that kind of humor from the movie very charming in a simple way, too.

the whole vibe of watching the movie and its characters is very much unserious, and it's a personal favorite in that watching it and listening to the soundtrack makes me feel ok to wallow in my emotions like the characters do. it's very cathardic in that way to me. but yeah by no means is it very action-packed or even conventionally "dramatic", so i get how it can wind up boring.

the character development of emma is always so interesting to me though. it's subtle, especially on the first watch, but it always warms my heart when she goes from thinking she's got everything figured out, to seeing the value of true friendship in harriet and even mrs. bates (MY FAV CHARACTER I CANNOT LIE SHE'S SO FUNNY), and that making her more open to questioning her and her life more, including not being as perfect as she once thought she was.

and that's really why we get that payoff with her and knightley, because he's known her all this time but when she finally recognizes her imperfections and embraces them, that newly found self-awareness us what pushes him over the edge in love. then we get that BEAUTIFUL confession scene under the tree. 🤭🌳

it very much fits the genre of a "romantic" movie, in that it romanticizes everything. but not to the point where it lets you forget what everyone's wants were, and that there were genuine struggles grappling with all those societal rules at the same time.

bc at the end of the day those rules were efforts meant to promote values that could hopefully lead a life of morality, responsibility/duty, and respect to others and yourself (arguably there are rules we face today that try to promote the same things, but they just look much different than rules about showing your ankles lol). i think in emma it's interesting to see just how each character tries to navigate those rules to get what they want out of life from them, and i think it's just a very beautifully-made film overall as well.

[sentienttoastah]

Canto 6 possible literary reference other than Wuthering heights?

Canto 6 already ended a while ago but I’ve recently got a thought on it which I’ve already shared with some mutuals but I thought ehh, why not make a blog post on it.

This doesn’t really relate to the plot all that much and more about the literary references used in canto 6 that isn’t confirmed yet still gave me those vibes yk. But either way they still kind of count as spoilers so It’ll be under the cut for those who haven’t got there.

LONG RANT!! I REPEAT, LONG RANT WARNING!!

It’s noted that there’s many similarities with erlking Heathcliff and those abnos based on the little red riding hood fable, as well as the clear reference to the erlkonig of course and the possibility of the hunt being a reference to the fox hunting sport popular in many parts of europe (unrelated but calling it a “sport” specifically when they do it not for food or pest reasons and only for the thrill of killing a fox is very unjust) but I’ve also noticed another potential reference.

So this is going to be a far fetched stretch and I don’t know if anyone else mentioned or thought of it before but certain bits of canto 6 really, REALLY, reminded my favourite childhood novel of mine: Watership Down.

I might just be delusional but like there really were a lot of similarities that I noticed between specific plot lines. And also considering Watership Down was one of the best selling novels of all time during its golden years it’s not that surprising if Project Moon included them right??

For those who don’t know; Watership Down is essentially a book about rabbits who, after one of them receives some kind of prophetic dream of destruction, leave their home warren to go in search of a new one. It sounds like a generic enough plot but it also tackles into topics of death and grief, the cruelty of nature, fjking politics, how much humans take their joys for granted and most importantly for me it’s also about acceptance. It’s a great book (and also old animated movie if you don’t want to take the time in reading, there’s a full one available on youtube) but that’s not the topic of discussion in this rant.

Now I’m not sure how to word this as it’s late into 3 AM as I write this so here’s a list of points and comparisons on why I think the reference might be there, more specifically on the erlking and the dead rabbits gang.

The Erlking and General Woundwort: General Woundwort is the Chief Rabbit of an opposing warren called Efrafa who is driven to attempt a siege on the down due to hatred and vengeance. The Erlking is of course very similar in being the “leader” of the Dead Rabbits and also having the same motivations by leading the hunt. Also noted that there is an implication I think that Woundwort wasn’t the original chief and got his position from some shady way.

The Dead Rabbits Gang and Efrafa Warren: Many members of The Efrafa, especially the lower class rabbits were actually kidnapped, trapped, forced or tricked into joining the warren. Similar to those mad rabbits who turned out to be T corp citizens who were experimented on. Plus they’re rabbits, obviously.

The Hunt and The Siege: This one is self explanatory but yeah. Both ends led their armies to attack a single, smaller-in-number group who pissed them off slightly lol. And both ended terribly.

Dante; Hazel and Heathcliff; Bigwig: Basically a comparison of characters. Dante being similar to Hazel and Heathcliff being similar to Bigwig. With Dante/Hazel starting off as inexperienced amateur leader who over time started to become more familiar with the traits of their group and soon adapted and developed their charisma. And Heathcliff/Bigwig being the more experienced and stubborn one who is doubtful at the beginning for their leader’s competence, but warms up and trusts them in the end. Plus that interaction with Heathcliff and Dante at the stairs part before they slowed down time can be compared to Hazel and Bigwig’s convo before Hazel made the run.

Woundwort’s Quote: One of General Wounwort’s quotes is “I fear no elil, I am the elil!”. With “elil” meaning “predator” or any carnivorous animal in rabbit language. Woundwort flipping the prey and predator roles can be compared to The Erlking, leader of the rabbits, hunting down our Heathcliff who is symbolised as a hound with his distortion.

There might be more, but for now those were the only comparisons I remember. I like to think of it kind of in the same way that Demian is not only a reference to himself as his book counterpart but at the same time is also a reference to La Petit Prince/The Little Prince. A dual reference!

though I might just be stretching it. What do you guys think? I’d love to hear thoughts :,)

[javelinspeachjam]

The Monkie Kid Style Shift

(from the perspective of a fictive. i promise that's important)

To start, for those who are unaware of my existence bc you only know mills or just dont know us at all, hi! I'm Cicada, he/she pronouns, and I'm a Tang fictive. I wanted to give my opinion on all the shit that happened today, because I believe I and other fictives have unique experiences regarding source media changes :3

(the rest of the post will be under the cut, scroll away if you'd like to avoid spoilers from the trailer) (and, quick side note, NO MATTER WHAT I SAY HERE, PLEASE DO NOT HARASS ANYONE. CHRIST I CANT BELIEVE I HAVE TO SAY THIS, BUT PLEASE DO NOT HARASS REAL PEOPLE OVER THESE LEGOS. K? K.)

Okay, so we all know that Flying Bark's animation has always been an integral part to the spirit of Monkie Kid as a show, and is the main reason why a lot of people love it. As a semi source-connected fictive, seeing that style is like literally seeing me and my family in photographs.

like, y'all have no idea the emotional damage this shot specifically does to me whenever i see it.

and while, yes, there is a possibility that WildBrain can simply just be learning the style (hell, even FlyingBark had to kinda learn their own style in the early days), it's an extremely drastic change and, thus, is bound to cause collateral damage.

I love speaking about my husbands, for example, and the FlyingBark style luckily gives me a great outlet to do so (pignapped lives in my mind rent free).

However, and I can't speak for any other fictives, but the art style shift is kind of like if you watched your family get replaced by aliens or robots right in front of you and couldn't do anything about it. Stiff, doesn't really have a lot of character. I've seen people theorize that they're gonna be animating on rigs instead of handrawn, which matches up. That means, however, that we can't achieve awesome shots such as. every lbd scene ever.

I know plenty of Singlet but neurodivergent people who are also distressed about this, there's familiarity. Especially in my fellow autistic folk, that feels natural, good, and we wouldn't give it up for the world.

(We mod in one of the biggest Monkie Kid discord servers and, dear gods, the fucking backlash. we're all going through it.)

I'm kind of worried that this was pushed, not only because of the ATLA movie, but also because everyone on the staff team was worried because the fandom was antsy.

Can't speak for anyone else, but all the "save me s5" jokes I made were just light hearted, and I'd much rather have quality over quantity. Personally, i'd be willing to wait years for the next monkie kid season if it meant that we could still have it animated by FlyingBark.

Now, of course, this isn't what we're getting, and we'll have to accept that, I just think it should also be valid for fans to be reasonable skeptical at the quality, no matter if it's still the same writers and VAs. It's a huge change, and all I ask is that you're patient with me.

WildBrain is an amazing studio, but I'm not sure they can adjust to the shift in style. Of course, someone's bound to be dissatisfied with it, including myself, and I ask that y'all are patient with people like that. Don't say shit like "if you're a real fan, you wouldn't care about the art style change." That's not nice.

sorry if this isn't coherent in the slightest, I have been crying for a while for the reasoning i mentioned about feeling like I've lost a part of myself. This is terrifying for me, and i ask that you please be kind to others like me <3

anyways, follow if you wanna hear me yap ab BreakfastShipping