#we get it. you want a fantasy fulfilled and not an actually working actor/actress

[suuho]

twitter kdrama stans would rather take a recycled romance drama over a well-written, well-executed, fascinating genre piece, and it never fails to annoy the fuck out of me. they would rather have a boring y/n fantasy than allow an actor to expand their career and do something fundamentally more interesting than just kissing their co-star in three slow-mo scenes. they behave like it's a failure if actors don't choose romcoms/romance dramas, and i wonder when this obsession will end, and we can finally make room for more interesting career trajectories.

[flying-elliska]

Shadow and Bone Season 1 Review

Ok so I got distracted by a need to watch all of Ben Barnes' filmography (lmao) but here is my review : It was really fun to watch and it was clearly made with love which is already the main thing with YA fantasy, which is often turned into a soulless moneygrab when put on screen. The actors were GREAT. I did think that the Crows suffered from being mashed up with the Shadow and Bone story, but they were still a highlight. I also think it was a bit rushed, esp. when it came to Alina's training. The costumes were beautiful, I want a kefta now. Plus the crossover fanfic interactions btw the SaB characters and the Crows were just pure joy. Also Milo, obviously <3 I'm in hyperfixation mode so here, have an essay :

The "Shadow and Bone" Characters :

- Jessie Mei Li !!!!!! She really made me like Alina so much more than in the books, she absolutely is the 'human embodiment of literal sunshine' and she was a joy to watch. Her character's arc is cliché but her acting is so expressive and endearing, I really felt for her all the way through. (maybe I'm biased bc Jessie talking about her ADHD and seeing her thrive at the same time is like!!! i love them they deserve all the best.) I like that they made Alina more proactive - even though she does make some stupid decisions... but I just don't understand people who put that down as bad writing, like ??? have you ever met a real person who only makes wise, good decisions ?? a character like that would either be at the end of their story or just in the background because that makes them static. The things with the maps in the beginning does a good job of illustrating how she is just this one girl making rash, erratic decisions out of fear and loyalty and doesn't have a sense of the bigger picture, caught in the tide of bigger events. It works for her character. When it comes to the choice of making her half-Shu, I do think it really makes sense re: her character feeling like an outsider but I do understand the criticisms that the microaggressions felt too relentless and one-note. I am really looking forward to them introducing Tamar and Tolya and hopefully connecting to them over her heritage in a more positive way.

- Mal in the books was one of the most annoying YA characters I've ever come across, so I really liked that they made him much more of a loyal, devoted friend. I found his relationship with Alina cute, it really gives us the sense that these are two orphans who found a home in each other, childhood best friends (and potential sweethearts) separated by war, two army grunts and ordinary people caught up in the wheels of power and war that usually crushes people like them, it's a great way to introduce the dynamics of their world and it's a trope that always makes me emo. It felt a bit too one note to me, though, and too heavily on the nose, like Mal's only personality was his attachment to Alina (and his resentment towards the Grisha) and too much of her emotional arc also relied on him. Them hitting us over the head with the meadow scenes felt like pure telling instead of showing and it ended up being super repetitive and kind of annoying. I am willing to like this pairing, but I wanted more scenes of them just having conversations about things and really understanding why they like each other beyond the whole childhood friends bond that we're asked to accept exists at the beginning. So I hope there's more depth there in next seasons.

- Ben Barnes!!!! Just jksdfhgkdjghdf. I'm not a big villain stan usually and I hated the Darkling in the books but DAMN his performance is just amazing. They managed to make him more sympathetic and human while at the same time making clear the stuff he does is deeply horrible. There's the Magneto-aspect of 'well clearly his methods are fucked up but he's addressing a terrible injustice nobody is doing anything about' that makes it very tempting to root for him ; and again, well, like, Ben Barnes is so hot and charismatic it feels uncomfortable (which I guess is part of the point lol). His loss of humanity is, up to a point, understandable, brought about by despair, loneliness, grief and a sense of powerlessness - living so long he starts to see other people as disposable, losing so many people he stops caring, seeing over and over how hate never seems to stop, etc. It's a logical explanation for going insane.

But the hunger for power is also very much present as a motivation and this ambiguity is there constantly. Does he maybe come to genuinely care for Alina or is it totally bullshit ? I think he does, he's just so fucked up that it comes out as possessiveness and a need to control her. He wants Alina to be his equal but he's incapable of treating her that way. It's tragic, in a sense, but the show doesn't excuse his actions either. Like his monstrosity is a product of this world full of injustice, yes, and that warrants some compassion, monsters are always a symptom of their environment in some ways and dehumanizing them completely is an excuse ; but at the same time, he sabotaged his own cause anyway the moment he started to treat other people like things, as he does with Alina, because that just perpetuates the cycle of violence and hate. At some point he started feeling like he was the only solution and he was owed power for his sacrifices, and he's using his cause as an excuse. When Alina came to him, there was a possibility for redemption, taking down the Fold, and it's a test because there is finally someone on his level of power. But instead of seeking to remedy the power imbalance between them, he made it worse, by lying to her, manipulating her, etc, and the antler collar is the ultimate sign of this.

I love those scenes towards the end (the antler-based body horror has big Hannibal vibes, so messed up). I like Alina telling him they could have had this, that she had compassion for him and his cause, that they could have worked together, and he's the one responsible for screwing it up and this time his claim that he's the misunderstood victim ("Make me your villain") appears delusional and self-serving instead of somewhat justified. The almost-lovers to enemies vibes, the sense of lost potential, and the angst of the whole 'oh you could finally have been loved by people, too bad you fucked it up !', very juicy. There is this fundamental idea that power/respect/love is not something you are owed no matter how good your intentions are or because you're strong or you have suffered or you're willing to commit horrible drastic actions, you have to keep proving you deserve it, and trying to claim power without responsibility of care turns you into a monster. The thing with the stag was an excellent metaphor of the fact that there's things you can't take, they have to be given to you, and the wonderful power there is in understanding that is what allows Alina to harness the stag amplifier's power. This is really when she escapes his grim utilitarian outlook and a different way forward and owns her own power fully on her own terms.

Anyway I hope Alina gets to beat the shit out of him at some point that would be very sexy but I'm also looking forward to see how their arcs parallel and diverge from each other as Alina starts to grapple more with the implications of her power and the harsh dilemmas of war and her own dark side. I want to see him become scared of her, and I feel it will be more visible than in the books where he just has this cold aggressive facade all the time. This one feels a lot more openly emotional which is just a lot more interesting.

- As for the other characters ; Zoya mostly made me sad. The actress has the perfect vibes but I'm not sure I love their take on her character so far, it does make sense in terms of the later books - that she has internalized prejudice regarding her mixed-race heritage, that she is jealous of Alina because of how hard she's fought to get where she is and Alina kind of takes it away from her, etc. But I would have liked to see a bit more of her being badass and sharp-tongued in a clever (even if mean) way instead of spending most of her time being rejected by men and being racist towards Alina. I did like the ending though, of her actually seeing the monstrosity of the Darkling in action and the mention of her aunt. And her brief bonding with Inej was great, just because it was badass but also maybe because it could be a part of Zoya learning to accept her Suli heritage in turn, maybe not right away but in time, when thinking of that part of herself, she won't only think of her parents' ruined marriage and all the pain it caused, but also of that badass and brave acrobat girl who went toe to toe with these really scary monsters without even having any powers and !!!!!

- Also Leigh's cameo was so cute and as an aspiring writer this is just such wish fulfillment

- I honestly think that having the Crows there actually made the S&B story better ? Not only in terms of the much needed levity breaks but also in terms of themes. For instance, Matthias and Nina's story gave us a really raw and visceral view of how the Grisha are hunted. And Inej's relationship to Alina really gave us a sense of what Alina actually means to people who believe in the Saints in a way that doesn't feel just like 'ugh those superstitious people' because we know that Inej's faith is part of what makes her who she is and a person with morals, and something that saw her through the worst moments of her life. It feels so special that she got to meet Alina and given a sign that maybe the world is not completely shitty. And Alina's kindness towards Inej really gives you a sense that she might be, or become worthy of that belief in time, or at least that she wants to, that she's figuring out her power to really touch people's lives might be a good thing, and that she's starting to accept this responsibility more fully. And her arming Inej is a nice parallel to that. I'm very emotional about this scene, because one of the first things we see of young Alina is her taking out a knife to defend Mal from the bullies, because she's protective and brave, but she's also aware the world is a shitty place, and so her giving that knife to Inej is a sort of spiritual transmission and recognition of sorts, that she trusts Inej with that fighting power, that she'll use this knife to defend herself and her loved ones and not abuse it. It's so interesting. And a counter point to the Darkling's fucked up relationship to power that Alina might at some point get afraid she'll replicate. That you could see Alina trying to gather followers and using people's admiration for her like he did but instead she sets them free and empowers them. It's great. And I feel that when Inej takes to the seas, she'll think about Alina. (I do hope somebody tells her Alina's not dead at some point though god). Girls giving each other knives is my spirituality, honestly.

- And I also noticed an interesting parallel between Kaz and the Darkling in terms of being two emo dudes who like to wear black, are prone to violence and have a thing for two very powerful women they think are special and want to have at their side, but of course, they go about it in very different ways. The Darkling comes at it from a place of power while Kaz comes from a place of utter powerlessness, first of all, and he understands why it's important to set Inej free. Him spending the entire season trying to earn enough money to pay off Inej's indenture is the opposite to the Darkling putting that collar on Alina and while I do have issues with how the show portrays him, I do love that. Love is about setting the person you love free !!!! And that confrontation scene was so powerful, when Kaz tells the Darkling Alina was tired of being a captive ! Drag him !

- As for Genya, I liked the actress and her chemistry with Alina, but I'm not sure they did a great job of making her arc very clear, for instance what it means for her to get that red kefta, her relationship with the other Grisha, etc. Her and David are already very cute though. Also very much looking forward to see where that goes.

So yeah I think they did a great job with this bit actually, I enjoyed a lot more than I think I would and even though it is a very tropey story, there's plenty of depth there too.

The Crows :

- I'm a bit more nitpicky about this because I care about these characters so much. I think overall the problem is that the SaB story in the books happens on this massive scale with enormous stakes, and that next to that the Crows' issues feel less important ; it's like their impact is distorted by the gravity of the much larger story. Like for instance, Kaz in the books is very much at the center of everything, this larger than life trickster figure who knows and controls almost everything by sheer cleverness, and he has this sense of allure and mystique that can't happen here, and so his aura just shrinks. On top of that they're not on their home turf. Being introduced to these characters before they've reached their full levels of badass is weird - there is a reason why prequels generally happen after the main stuff, because they count on the love you have for these characters at their full potential to make you interested in their story when they were less badass and interesting. So I had several moments where I was like 'oh this feels wrong'. Tbh the idea that they would even volunteer to kidnap Alina in the first place, what with Inej's backstory, feels kind of wrong, esp since they had no idea of what would happen to her if they succeeded.

- But I still enjoyed a lot of it though, especially the fact that they were this force of chaos in the midst of this bigger narrative that's a lot more self-serious. The bits with the train, or the circus acts were very clever. A lot of the best moments in the show happen when they come to disturb the other plot in unexpected ways. I'm still dead over the whole 'Alina jumps into their carriage' scene, that was fucking gold. The team up at the end !!!! Alina and Kaz making a deal ! Inej stabbing the Darkling !!!! Them stealing the Darkling's carriage !!! They don't give a shit that the story is supposed to be super dramatic it's great.

- Jesper is the one character they completely nailed from start to finish and he's probably my favorite part of the whole show. He's very funny without being reduced to the role of comic relief ; he's just so! damn! cool!!!!!!! I honestly feel this is a thing they actually did even better than in the books, or at least Six of Crows where I felt Jasper kind of disappeared behind Kaz and they insist a lot on his flaws and issues. So before we dig more into those problems I love that they gave him time to be this ultra badass who saves the day several times ; while at the same time, hinting at further developments like his powers or his gambling issues. Kit Young is just perfect, confident without being arrogant, a bit cold when it comes to crime while at the same time being so obviously caring with Inej - I loved their friendship, that was so sweet. My main criticism is that they should have made it clearer he was bi because there are already people calling him gay and that's very annoying. I know some people had a problem with his hookup and like...I can see it's a bit of a cliché...the charming badass bisexual adventurer....it's a trope I kind of love though lmao and the scene itself felt kind of cute and fun. He's not the only person who is shown to have an active sexuality and he's also not the only queer person around and we know he's going to have a more substantial romantic arc later so eh. On a larger note I loved the little casual hints of completely normalized queerness - Nadia thirsting over Zoya, Fedyor and Ivan, Poppy, etc. Having grown up with fantasy where queerness was either completely erased or very tormented and problematic, this was refreshing as hell.

- Inej and Kaz...my faves... They have a kind of relationship which feels so rare and unique in terms of what exists on TV and while I don't feel they entirely replicated it, the core is still there - the mutual respect and building of trust, the longing, the repression, the trauma, etc. One thing I really like is their arc around faith - in the books, Kaz is dismissive of Inej's faith in ways that often feel really shitty and I like that he learns to be more respectful of it. It's very much linked to hope/survival ; Inej keeps this token from her parents and she hopes to find them again ; Kaz tells her it's no use and she'll survive better if she gives up. He believes Alina is a fake, while Inej wants to believe that myths can come true and there is hope for good things in the world. Kaz comes to accept that Alina is the real deal and, out of respect for Inej's faith, to stop pursuing her. I loved the bit about Inej struggling to kill as well - it's the dilemma of what her survival and that of the people she really cares about are worth in such a shitty world - her compassion is a good part of her but so is her survival instinct, and that's the part Kaz represents - that even after she's been through hell, broken in unfathomable ways, even if she gave up all hope and faith in the world, even she becomes dangerous and ruthless to survive, she will still deserve dignity, and to be treated better. And meanwhile she is willing to break her principles, which she holds so dearly, to save him, when he's never had anyone who cared for him like that - enough to keep him alive. That bit in the church !!!!! God !!!!!! Bye !!!!!!! And then him basically calling her his own version of a Saint, that he doesn't believe in miracles but he does believe in her !!! It's very emblematic of their whole arc ; he empowers her to survive in a ruthless world and loves her at her most dangerous ; but he loves her laugh too, he finds her a ship and her parents, he honors her capacity for love and hope even when he can't share it. And she sees that he's capable of doing better, that he's worth caring for. This whole thing kills me honestly and I can't wait to see where they take this next. I'm not mad they're a bit more soft and obvious than in the books, Kaz would just have come across as an an asshole otherwise.

- That said, there are bits of how they introduced their backstories I don't like. I get that making it so Inej was still tied to the Menagerie gave them a very powerful reason to want to kidnap Alina beyond greed so that they wouldn't look like very shitty people. But in the books Inej is terrified by the idea of simply seeing Heleen or the Menagerie and the way they have her interact with her feels weirdly casual and dismissive of her trauma. Also, in the books, the fact that Kaz had to convince Per Haskell to buy Inej's contract through a lot of effort, that he wasn't the one holding that above her head either, made the power dynamics more palatable. I especially disliked the scene where Kaz says he won't free other girls because just Inej is special, it makes him look like he has the power but he's just too much of a callous asshole to do it, and that he just freed Inej because he liked her which is absolutely not what their relationship is about at the start, it's a lot more about seeing Inej's dangerous side behind a facade of powerlessness and relating to her, in a sense, and this scene made it all feel cheap.

- Also, what was that about Inej having a brother ? Not a fan of that either. I'm afraid they're going to make her story all about finding what happened to him, and that's 1) too on the nose similar to Kaz's story and 2) it kind of cheapens her own arc, a female character realizing that what was done to her was wrong, reclaiming her own power and dignity and then making sure it doesn't happen to anybody else, harnessing her personal experience to save strangers, that's so powerful - making it about a family member at first, especially if it's about revenge, it's so much more simplistic and unoriginal and the perspective really annoys me.

- Also not a fan of Per Haskell not being there because he's a very important part of Kaz's evolution, so I hope he shows up eventually - and the way they introduced Pekka Rollins was kind of like...weird and out of place. I just found the Crows' introduction scenes stilted and not as cool as they should have been - well, Jesper and Inej were very cool, but we needed to see Kaz in action first, we needed to see why he's such a menace before we see him flounder later, and I just...I don't know exactly but it didn't work for me. Also this is a very petty thing but I wasn't crazy about the Ketterdam sets, I know this is probably a budget thing but in my head it looked like this incredible mix of Amsterdam and Venice - specific locations in the book directly remind me of parts of Amsterdam I know very well - and instead what we got felt like this very generic London-ish fantasy setting....so boring. Also a lot of scenes that felt to exposition-y. I don't mind that Kaz was a bit softer than in the books, like many people have said some things work in books and don't work on a screen, and you need to make the character's inner dynamics more explicit. But I do agree that, at the same time, he should have been more ruthless towards people outside of his group. Loved that scene where he faces the Inferni though, and how well they illustrated his disability and aversion to touch.

- I don't have that much to say about Nina and Matthias ; I'm still not super sold on the whole 'haha misogyny!' thing and I dislike that so much of Matthias' change of heart relies on the fact that he finds Nina hot. But I did think that the actors had enough chemistry to make their scenes together interesting and cute ; I loved the waffle scene. Even though it's disappointing that they didn't find an actress who was more clearly plus size for Nina, I still think Danielle does a good job bringing her bold, unapologetic energy. I'm really looking forward to seeing the Crows as a whole team.

So yeah, even though the season didn't feel like a perfect, coherent whole, it was just a lot of fun and I really hope they get renewed. In particular I feel like tying the first trilogy to the Crows' story could create such interesting parallels in terms of themes, about power, the cost of survival, hope, trauma, etc etc

[optimistic-dinosaur-nacho]

The Landlord - Requested

Chris Evans x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Language

Summary: You and Chris are famous actors with a 18 month old baby who’s dreams will be fulfilled when she does a small audition for a movie. The video for their audition became a popular hit for a remake of Pearl, the Landlord. 

I somewhat changed the age, just around 1 and a half years old.

This was sooo late, and I’m sorry!

~~~

You were playing with your daughter, Rosalie. You were waiting on a message from your manager who was updating you on auditions. You waited for a few weeks. You weren’t impatient. It wasn’t for you.

It was for Rosalie.

Rose had insisted to be an actress like you and Chris. She has a big fantasy and could easily learn as a one-year-old. She barely spoke proper words, but it was adorable to see her stumbler her words.

Chris would even teach her a few tricks. She got some treats from her momma by acting like a sweet girl even though she’d laugh like the devil and scatter off. Chris taught her how to be a good liar, too.

Even though he was bad himself.

“I wah za, mama,” Rose points to the toy on the ground and you reached over to take the toy in hand before giving it to Rose. She giggles, “Tank you.” You smiled as Chris comes in.

You hear your phone go off and Chris notices, nodding at you. “You go answer, I’ll take over,” He says. You nod, getting up as you reached for your phone. Your manager had called you.

You turned to Chris and Rose who both sat in the room, playing with the toys. Smiling, you walked into the other room. “Hey, Kathryn.”

“Hey, Y/N. Guess what I found?”

“You found an available spot?” You asked. You could tell Kathy was smiling. “I did. And so far, they aren’t asking much for the part. If you could do something, I don’t know a video of her audition. They said that will do, since they didn’t want you to fly over. You know?”

“No, no, I got that. Should I send the video to you?”

“I can give you the director’s number. Adam Mckay is available anytime,” She said, you smiled as you nod. “Thank you so much, Kathy. Rose is gonna be so happy. This means a lot to her.”

“No problem. Tell her I said good luck!” You said bye and hung up. Walking over to Chris and Rose again. This time Scott was there, too. 

The two boys stare up at you, confusingly. “What’s the matter?” Scott asked. You bite your lip and smiled, “Guess who gets to audition for their first movie?”

Chris and Scott gasp as they turn to Rose. “You hear that, Rose?” Chris asked, he picks her up and placed her on his hip, “You get to be in a movie!” Rose smiles as she shakes the toy in her hand.

“Yay!” She says, you all laugh. “How does she audition?” Chris asked. You shrug, “Just a simple video. Nothing specific.” Chris furrows his brows, “What were you planning on doing?”

You shrugged again, “I don’t know, actually.”

Scott gasped loudly. “Guys! You’ve heard about that one video?  The little girl and Will Ferrell?”

Chris furrows his brows, “The little girl and Will Ferrell-? Oh!” Chris starts laughing as the boy confused you and Rose so much. “What video?” Chris grabs his left pectoral as he turned. “I’ll show you the video.”

After a while, you were shown the video and you couldn’t stop laughing. “You want her to play Pearl the landlord?” Chris nods, “I’m sure she can do it.”

“You know what kind of parents we’d be to have her say bad words?” You asked, Chris and Scott laugh. “Oh, sure everyone would laugh, come on.” You thought about it and softly sighed.

“All right.”

.

You stood there with a camera in hand as you smiled.

Scott sat on the couch, reading through the magazine. “It says here, Chris Pine is a Man of Style.” Chris looks over as he tries to open a beer in front of him. Chris nods once, “One heck of a man,” He says. Scott drops the magazine from his face. “Hey, did you get a letter from Russos?”

“Yeah.”

“What’d they say?” Scott asked. Chris looks over and sighs, “They can’t have the America’s ass no more.” Scott puffs out a sigh, “I’m sorry, man. I guess they couldn’t handle how much ass you had.”

Chris shakes his head till the door gets knocked on. Chris groans, “Ugh, it’s my landlord, Rosalie. I’m really late on my rent.” Scott shakes his head, “Oh man, I should go, she’s the devil man. You know how she is? I’m leaving.” 

Chris walks over to the door, “No, Scott. Stay, I’ll handle this.”

Chris opens the door and shows Rose on the other side of the door waiting. Chris leans on the door, “Hey, Rose.”

“Where’s the went!” Rose shouts. You were lucky Chris stood there without laughing. Chris holds his hand up, “You don’t have to raise your voice,” He says. Rose looks at you and you nod at her.

She looks up to Chris, “You pay now!!”

You were glad Chris kept his straight look, “I can give you half?”

“You pay... now, bish.” You knew Chris laughed at that once you took it, it was one of the outtakes of the video. “Hey, don’t talk to me like that, okay?” Chris says.

Rose drops her skirt in anger, “I’m tired of dis... crap...”

Chris sighs, “Look Rosalie, I thought I was clear in my email, that we needed a couple of weeks?” You smiled as Rosalie stomps her feet, “I work too hard!”

“Can we skip two more weeks?” Chris asked.

Rosalie picks at her dress, “I want my money.” Chris points at her, “Rose, you need to relax.”

“You’re an ahwhole...” She mutters, you snicker. Chris shakes his head, “Am not.” Rose stomps her foot and glares at him. “I want my money, bish.”

“Hey, don’t call me bitch I’m a grown man!” Chris says, Rose spins around as she mutters the word. “Bish, bish, bish, bish.” Chris pouts, “God, you’re mean.”

You knew when Chris fake cries in front of Rose when they play with the toys, she’d laugh. So she laughed at him in the video. Chris silently sobs and Rose looks up and cackles.

“Don’t make fun of me crying,” Chris sobs.

“You’ll be evicted...” She says. Chris wipes the fake tears as he shrugs sadly. “I’m not doing so well, Rose.”

“I pu you on da sweets,” Rose says. Chris holds his hands out, “Rose, I’m gonna pay you. I’m working three jobs now. Working nights...I’m-” Chris sighs. “I’m driving a cab. I just lost my title to America’s ass. My brother and I are going over my resume right now.”

Rose lifts up her hand and smacks it against the other, “I’m gonna shmack you.” Chris lifts up his hands towards Rose, “Okay. You need to relax, okay?”

“I want my money!!” Rose squeals.

.

Chris and Scott burst in laughter as the video stops there and you couldn’t help but grin at the two. “This is amazing!” Scott says. You held Rose in your arms, “You’re gonna be a star, mamas.” She laughs and plops into you for a cuddle. You waited for Kathy, your agent to give the news, so Scott and Chris had already posted the video on Twitter.

And everyone blew up.

~~~

This was sooo late and I feel bad, hopefully the anon can forgive me! I was running into so many writer’s blocks!

TAGS:

@jtargaryen18​ @joannaliceevans-fanficblog​ @chrisevans-imagines​ @princess-evans-addict​ @ifuseekamyevans​ @patzammit​ @bucksgoat​ @axen-gers​ @captain-a-rogerss​ @nbarnes​ @iguessweallcrazyithinktho​ @stop-obsessing-over-those-actors​ @sweater-daddiesdumbdork​ @rororo06​ @donutloverxo​

[dunderklumpen]

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau interview: Lannister’s greatest battle yet — defending the Amazon

The Game of Thrones star is now a UNDP goodwill ambassador on climate change. It’s hard to care about dragons when the rainforest is burning, he says

Was Nikolaj Coster-Waldau — best known as the “Kingslayer”, Jaime Lannister, the sexy, incest-loving baddie (turned goodie, turned . . . it’s complicated) from Game of Thrones — devastated when the hit television show ended this year?

The Danish actor shrugs. “No, I was fine.” After eight series, though, many of the cast were apparently inconsolable. “Yes, I heard that, but I wasn’t. I don’t want to sound ungrateful, I really enjoyed it, but at the end of the day it was just a television show. I would work on it for a maximum of 30 days a year, then I would do other stuff that I would spend more time on. Of course it was a bit sad, when you’ve spent 10 years with a group of people, to know you won’t be seeing them regularly any more, but the job was over. It had run its course — you couldn’t really squeeze any more out of it.”

When he was cast in Game of Thrones a decade ago, Coster-Waldau, long a jobbing actor on both sides of the Atlantic, had no clue that the production he had signed up to would become a cultural phenomenon.

“Actually, when the show started there was a lot of stigma. When I told people I’d got this job with HBO, they were like, ‘Oh my God, it’s going to be amazing — is it about gangsters?’ And when I said, ‘No, actually it’s a fantasy with dragons’, they were like, ‘Oh well then, good luck.’ A lot of people had to be almost forced into watching it before they realised the supernatural stuff is really not what it’s about.”

If Coster-Waldau sounds dismissive about his part in TV history, it’s because, post-Thrones, he has been busy. As well as finishing a couple of Danish films, the 49-year-old is making a documentary about the nerdy world of “comic cons” — comic-book conventions. He keeps in touch with a handful of Thrones pals, especially Gwendoline Christie, who played his non-sororal love interest, Brienne of Tarth.

He has also become a goodwill ambassador on climate change — and on gender equality — for the UN Development Programme. Why do actors seem compelled to bang on about climate change, even when the public makes it clear they don’t enjoy receiving lectures from luvvies whose job consists of jetting around the world to prance around on sets with carbon footprints greater than most of us will produce in a lifetime?

“I acknowledge 100% that actors talking about climate change annoys people. It is ridiculous. I understand why people say, ‘Why should I listen to him? — he’s a f****** actor’,” he says.

“They’re right. You shouldn’t listen to me. It’s what I’m saying: don’t listen to me, but do listen to the experts, the scientists, the people who actually have their feet on the ground and know what they’re talking about.”

Coster-Waldau, 6ft 2in, understands the public are more likely to pay attention to him than to a group of scientists. Dressed in sensible Scandi weatherproof gear, he is determined to talk about his recent visit to the Amazon rainforests of Peru, which have been devastated by fires set by farmers and loggers.

“There’s a huge spotlight on Game of Thrones and I’m happy to use that, because I believe climate change is a global problem and we all have responsibility for each other,” he says. “The UN is a very flawed organisation, but I still think it’s the way forward.”

There is a pleasing Nordic frankness to Coster-Waldau’s refusal to provide simplistic or patronising narratives about the cause of the fires and how they can be prevented. “Fires are very scary and very visually stunning, and there’s no question the deforestation of the Amazon is a huge problem. But when you’re actually there, you realise that everything is complex.”

The actor has long been an activist. When he was a child, his mother “dragged” him on anti-nuclear marches (his late father was an alcoholic).

“In my teens I was very involved in the anti-apartheid thing and we did a lot of ridiculous stuff. There was one night called Close the Doors of Power, when my friend and I went round at night putting sealant into all the locks of every bank and every insurance company. If I saw it today I’d be like, ‘You kids are so stupid. One guy will have the job of cleaning this all up, and nothing’s going to change.’ But at the time it was very fulfilling.”

Coster-Waldau is mindful of what happened when another do-gooding star meddled in complex local issues. “When I was a kid in Denmark, there was the big campaign by Brigitte Bardot and Greenpeace to end seal-clubbing. I remember those posters of her with the cute baby seals. We were like, ‘How can anyone kill them?’ Well, that campaign succeeded, but it also pretty much destroyed the livelihoods of the Inuits in Greenland, so Greenpeace is hated in Greenland. They destroyed a community. That’s what can happen when f****** actors tell us what to do.”

Coster-Waldau is big on Greenland, where on a previous UN trip he witnessed the rapidly melting ice caps. His actress wife, Nukaka, is a former Miss Greenland. She has never seen an episode of Game of Thrones. “She promised me she was going to sit down with my mum [to watch it], but it’s a long series. It requires some dedication.” So his mum hasn’t seen it either? “No, it’s not her thing,” he giggles. “Nor have quite a few of my family. Actually, it’s quite nice when there’s so much craziness surrounding it.”

At least his 19-year-old daughter has watched it. “My 16-year-old has started, but she finds it weird to see me as someone else. I mean, in the first episode I’m having sex.” And not just with any woman — with Jaime’s sister. “Yeah, exactly,” Coster-Waldau sighs. And Jaime then pushes a 10-year-old boy who catches them in flagrante out of a window. “Actually, for some reason people find that bit OK. It’s always the sex that gets people going. But without those scenes, we wouldn’t have had a show.”

No matter how deep into the rainforest he travelled, Coster-Waldau was recognised. The indigenous people had watched the series on the internet — which is also where they had educated themselves about climate change.

“In my own ignorance, I assumed they wouldn’t have much knowledge about it, which is really embarrassing because of course they did. They have a very clear understanding that what is happening to the Amazon is not great. This is their home, which they love and have real interest in seeing preserved, but it’s a question of people doing things to survive. You can’t say to them, ‘Why don’t you go and do something else?’ They have got to feed their families. There are no other jobs — it’s an impossible choice.”

Does Coster-Waldau, who was rumoured to be earning more than $1m (£760,000) an episode for the final series of Game of Thrones, plant trees to offset his hefty carbon footprint, like his fellow eco-warrior Emma Thompson?

“Yeah, when I buy a flight I do that thing of paying extra [to offset]. I just got an electric car. But listen: I don’t have a leg to stand on. I have two homes, one in Denmark and one in Los Angeles, which is absolutely horrific. But we also have to live in this world. I just don’t believe that anyone can magically transport themselves back to living how it was 100 years ago. We need to move away from that guilt thing.” Is he attacked for hypocrisy? He snorts. “I don’t read the comments.”

It is important to be optimistic, he adds. “If we can come up with so many amazing inventions, surely we can find solutions to this. I hate to believe we are so stupid we are just going to destroy ourselves.” This may all sound a bit woolly, but — as Coster-Waldau has made abundantly clear — he’s only a f****** actor.

By Julia Llewellyn Smith December 22 2019, 12:01am, The Sunday Times

[fostersffff]

Trials of Mana Demo Impressions

The Bad

Hoo boy, this voice acting is something. I’ve become a lot softer on criticizing voice acting over time, accrediting the majority of bad performances to bad direction, but in this case I really think it’s a mix of lackluster direction and performance. I think Kevin is the prime example, where the actor is attempting to do the stilted caveman speak, but isn’t committing all the way. Reisz’s voice actress also has a handful of lines that sound like they were her reading the script for the first time and wasn’t sure how to inflect. The Japanese audio sounds a little better in terms of “feel”, but considering Square-Enix’s track record with good voice acting, this is slightly disappointing.

The new soundtrack is hit or miss. Some of the songs got the love and attention they deserve, like Where Angels Fear to Tread and Powell, but Left-Handed Wolf and Nuclear Fusion use some really crappy sounding electric guitar samples. I don’t feel compelled to switch over to the original soundtrack, but I’m glad the option is there.

I’ve done a lot of bitching about FE3H since its release for lackluster animations, but Trials of Mana is right up there with it. It’s a problem I notice in a lot of anime styled games where the way the characters move just doesn’t match up with the way they look, and that’s certainly the case here. What’s most confounding is how little facial emoting there is, but so many close ups on characters faces, highlighting exactly how little facial emoting there is.

All of these complaints are tied to the fact that this is definitely a medium budget game. It probably had more money to play with than the last few Tokyo RPG Factory games, but less than something like Octopath Traveler. I can’t really even be too mad about this considering the way the Secret of Mana remake turned out, because I was utterly convinced the options for a Seiken Densetsu 3 remake were something like that or nothing at all, but it is noticeable. But I can tell you where they probably spent the bulk of that money:

The Good

Combat is REALLY good!

All characters share a universal combo system. You have a weak and a strong attack, and they can be combined to either perform a repel attack (knock away a single enemy and interrupt them from attacking) or an area attack (self-explanatory). You can also string together three weak attacks, or charge up a single strong attack, and you even have some basic air combos. It’s simple, but it feels very good.

Because there’s now a proper combat system in place, your class skills are now essentially Super Moves. In the original, three/four hits would charge your meter enough so that you could do a slightly stronger attack. In the remake, you have a minor risk/reward system where using power attacks that require a little more commitment (especially charged power attacks) will reward you with more meter, but they also leave you prone to taking more damage. It’s terrifically implemented.

One of the biggest and best things about the combat system is the integration of MMO-style warning indicators. When an enemy is preparing to use a special ability or spell, a bright red indicator appears on the ground. They come in different shapes and sizes, and they gradually fill themselves in. Once full, the attack happens and if you’re still standing in it when it does, it’ll deal a ton of damage. This is where your dodge comes in: as far as I can tell, the dodge in Trials of Mana doesn’t have any invincibility frames like other action games, because the dodge is literally just to help you quickly evacuate from standing in bad. I’m thrilled to see MMO-style warning indicators make their way into something other than MMOs, and an action RPG feels like the perfect fit. Like, as much as I enjoyed the Final Fantasy VII Remake demo, it really feels like it could use something like this.

Not sure if this is limited to Hard Mode, but some enemies will be shielded, requiring you to use charged power attacks to break the shield before you can actually start dealing damage. I’m hoping it’s featured in at least Normal Mode, because it forces the player to not just mash weak attacks.

Now that I’m done gushing about combat: the character designs and general aesthetic of the game is also great. The main character designs all look great in 3D, and I’m glad a lot of minor characters have had their designs tweaked to make them stand out more, like the Beast King, Ludgar, and Bil & Ben. The environments are designed to match the characters in terms of color saturation, which makes every feel right.

The addition of a jump button has expanded out exploration to include some very light platforming. You’re incentivized to explore every nook and cranny not just of the wilderness but towns and cities to find treasure chests and loose items. The jump is a teensy bit floaty, but considering you don’t go very high and air combos don’t require precision positioning it all works perfectly well.

The map and objective markers are really welcome additions to the game, especially since multiple areas are considerably larger by virtue of being combined into one. However, if you’re a masochist, the game also includes the option to turn both of those off, so if you want to fumble around in the dark like the Super Nintendo original, you’re more than welcome to.

Finally, I love what they’ve done with the level up and skill system. You get exp bonuses in combat for fulfilling certain goals, like beating all the enemies within a certain timeframe, not taking damage, or using your class skill, which is another incentive for skillful play. Leveling up earns you points you can allocate towards your stat of choice, just like the original, but now hitting certain point totals will give you actual bonuses. The bonuses are either character specific- Charlotte gets one that causes her to gain meter whenever she uses a healing spell, for example- or “chain” bonuses, which you equip to one character but apply to the entire party. None of these (at least for the base classes) are tremendous and game changing, but I imagine these are going to be substantial for class changes.

The Rest

As expected, the Switch version runs worse than the PS4 and PC versions. I’m not an expert at distinguishing resolutions, but since the art style isn’t super photorealistic, the game looks quite good on the Switch outside of a handful of instances where textures popped in late. More importantly, the game is locked to 30 frames per second, compared to 60 on PS4 and up to 120 on PC. This isn’t as huge a deal as it could be since the game isn’t super reflex based the way other action games like Devil May Cry or Bayonetta are- even on hard mode you have adequate time to respond to enemy attacks- and I didn’t notice any severe framerate drops even during crowded battles or the boss fight, but the game definitely feels better at 60 FPS+.

The default movement speed feels a little slow, but you do have a dash. I get the impression that the game’s speed was designed around the combat first, which was probably the right decision.

I expressed a little concern after watching one of the gameplay demonstrations about the voice clips, and I hoped there wouldn’t be a voice clip after every combat encounter. Thankfully that appears to be the case. There are also different possible voice clips, and divided amongst three characters it seems like it won’t be grating, or at least not immediately.

Another thing I was worried about was the length/amount of disruptive animations, but in addition to only occurring on class skills and summons, there’s an option to disable animations entirely.

Some enemies will still explode into a pile of bones, which is just terrific.

You’re given the option to actually play through the unique opening segments of your chosen party members, as opposed to just seeing them in a brief flashback scene.

Speaking of the introductory segments, I love that they altered Kevin’s journey to Jadd so that instead of taking a boat he tries to swim across the ocean.

With the exception of some inter-party banter during gameplay, the script is exactly the same as the original version included in Collection of Mana, confirming my suspicion that the only reason we finally got CoM was because they were bringing this script over anyway. I’m ultimately glad that’s the case because I’m glad to have CoM, but there are certainly moments I wish they would have massaged out the script to accommodate for the fact that they can do much more with the story than on the Super Nintendo. It’s got me really curious about whether or not that newly announced post-game story is going to stick out like a sore thumb against the rest of the game.

If the opening credits are anything to go by, it looks like this game is being developed for Square-Enix by a company called “Xeen”. I can find literally no information on them whatsoever, so if they are a brand new studio, fucking big kudos to them.

[rivengard]

1-60!

1. selfie I'm not sure if I posted this one but fuck it lool

2. what would you name your future kids? something Elvish for sure

3. do you miss anyone? nahh

4. what are you looking forward to? my erasmus programme

5. is there anyone who can always make you smile? idk not always

6. is it hard for you to get over someone? it's not, I'm actually really good at controlling my feelings and such

7. what was your life like last year? i was a bit unhappy bc of my choices in life but I also had good times, good relationships, ups and downs like the usual..

8. have you ever cried because you were so annoyed? oh boy hell yea I did

9. who did you last see in person? couple of friends

10. are you good at hiding your feelings? lol yea

11. are you listening to music right now? no

12. what is something you want right now? we ain't going there mate xD joking aside it would be nice to have someone to talk, hangout all night and make out

13. how do you feel right now? I feel pretty emotional due to the finale of oitnb

14. when was the last time someone of the opposite sex hugged you? two days ago

15. personality description umm a self-destructive bitch, realistic enough to believe in fantasy worlds, sarcastic and full of stupid puns I'd say (I have a good sense of humour I swear)

16. have you ever wanted to tell someone something but you didn’t? I mean yeah, like everyone at some point

17. opinion on insecurities. OH I HAVE MANY WHERE SHOULD I BEGIN..to be honest everyone has them, we should either accept them or make a change if there's an option and if it'll make us feel better in the end

18. do you miss how thing were a year ago? not at all

19. have you ever been to New York? noO I WISH

20. what is your favourite song at the moment? I can't choose just one :( there are too many

21. age and birthday? I'll be 20 on Nov. 11

22. description of crush. I don't have one :(

23. fear(s) not achieving anything, ending up all alone and also FUCK clowns

24. height 5'7 or 5'8

25. role model I don't think I have one..

26. idol(s) idk

27. things i hate racist people, abusers in any kind, my relatives, the country I live in, being broke...

28. i’ll love you if… you buy me swords, ohh and make me laugh lots

29. favourite film(s) lotr, the great gatsby, the wolf of the wall street, the departed, pride and prejudice, hobbit, leòn the professional, django, colette, spider-man into the spiderverse, coraline, a nightmare on elm street...I have too many ffs

30. favourite tv show(s) black sails, sense8, sherlock, good omens, lost, b99, poldark..

31. 3 random facts I recently quit my job due to health issues, I started rewatching Doctor Who and I love Leonardo DiCaprio a lot

32. are your friends mainly girls or guys?equal

33. something you want to learn lots of languages tbh

34. most embarrassing moment Idk I can't think anything

35. favourite subject art, english and literature related

36. 3 dreams you want to fulfill? graduating from uni, moving abroad and be covered in tattoos

37. favourite actor/actress Leonardo DiCaprio, Benedict Cumberbatch, Johnny Depp, Jack Nicholson, Michael B. Jordan, Lily Collins, Keira Knightley..

38. favourite comedian(s) Ricky Gervais and Stephen Colbert

39. favourite sport(s) basketball and working out in general

40. favourite memory this would take a long ass time to write tbh

41. relationship status single

42. favourite book(s) the silmarillion, lotr, fahrenheit 451 and currently reading the great gatsby I'm pretty sure this will be one of my faves too

43. favourite song ever I CAN'T CHOOSE

44. age you get mistaken for 12 lol jk most ppl tell me I look younger

45. how you found out about your idol I didn't I guess

46. what my last text message says "lmao same"

47. turn ons it's 4.46am and my brain stopped functioning idk, neck kissing, being kind, good humour, loving lotr, kinkyness...

48. turn offs rude assholes..

49. where i want to be right now ENGLAND

50. favourite picture of your idol I really should choose an idol right..okay let's say it's Leo

51. starsign horny one lol (if that's not clear enough it's scorpio)

52. something i’m talented at I used to think I'm talented at drawing but now idk

53. 5 things that make me happy My cat loki, finally being able to workout properly after injury, making playlists and listening to them, shopping (shocking because I'm broke yet I insist on being a stupid hoe) and hanging out w my best friend

54. something thats worrying me at the moment how am I suppose to wake up and go to gym, I can't sleep n it's basically 5am so...

55. tumblr friends @celiacelestial @wonderinghobbit @all-together-run-for-cover @asylumsammet @kingsmill and you! (i most likely forgot lots of ppl I'M SORRY YOU GUYS)

56. favourite food(s) zucchini noodles, baked mushrooms, pizza and spicy foods in general I guess

57. favourite animal(s) cats, dogs, rabbits, wolves..I love em all tbh

58. description of my best friend she's an actual hobbit, cutest bean, would kill for Freddie Mercury and Benedict Cumberbatch, stans way too many shit which makes our conversations even more enjoyable, a great listener and she has a great sense of humour lol

59. why i joined tumblr about 7 years ago I heard it from my cousin and was curious about it lmao thank god it helped me improve my English, humor, variety of interests...as well as making me spend countless hours of reblogging :::))))

Thank youuu!💕

[cleverflowerperson-blog]

The Flash: Screenwriters X Public (part III)

Why did Patty enter the narrative but was misused? Is it?

Well, Flash ended its first season full of serious problems, DC was in the jugular, in addition to being running against time, so it is necessary to make interventions in the narrative. The solutions to the Barry problem were complex, but they had a good point, Grant Gustin. He was talented, any investment in the script, he would account for it at the time of selling, that was reassuring. For Barry the writing was enough. Caitlin's conversation was another. The first season left writers and producers with a disturbing question in their hands; Caitlin did not set the tone for Killer Frost because the actress was technically limited or was she, influenced by her audience and popularity of the series, sabotaging the character?

Why did they formulate this question? The actress's behavior created this environment. Throughout the first season she did not sell her narrative to the public and to the press. In most of her interviews and postings there was the exercise of associating Caitlin with Barry and the Flash Team, she was the girl in the little boys' group, but she did not correct the questioners who asked their questions in the light of this perception. And this attitude has diverted attention from the actual narrative. The story of Caitlin was Ronnie, she had no home, car, family, pet, professional pretensions, musical, literary, etc. preferences. She is not the character, her story consisted of her bond with Ronnie; her loss would destroy her and she would become Killer Frost. Ready. That's what she had.

However the actress chose not to strengthen and enhance Caitlin's connection to Ronnie, instead she diluted it into something bigger, the Flash Team. As Ronnie was missing in the first half of the season the audience could not visualize the story, so it was up to her to campaign. She had to let the public, constantly, aware that Ronnie's loss could lead Caitlin to make disastrous decisions. Or that Caitlin was emotionally dependent on him and that his loss could influence a change in her behavior. That is, prepare the audience to be aware of the events that would affect the couple and thus instigate him to observe Caitlin's reactions. This is also the work of the actors, provoking the audience. Has anyone seen this? What was seen? One - there is no Caitlin without Ronnie (who exists is Killer Frost) or does Caitlin have a lot of fun with the boys?

Her decision to deal with what she had was real and what she did not have raised suspicion. If made a part of the public, who had not a minimum of information, raise eyebrows, what about professionals who have been in the market for years and who knew exactly what she was hired for ?! This was their scenario for her: if she was sabotaging, they would find a way to make her cooperate. If it was technical constraint they would need a plan B. What did they do to solve this?

They divided Caitlin into two worlds, real and fictional. In reality they would take measures to restrict it, in the fictitious they would test it. Patty gets in there. Thought I'd forgotten what the question was, right? No. I give you long answers so that you can see the reasoning applied and so you can develop your own analysis.

In the real world they did the following: a) they warned the public that Flash would be true to comics. b) brought Patty Spivot to the series. c) announced that she would be to Felicity Smoak by Barry Allen. d) informed her contract time. What were the objectives of these measures? Use the character? No, that's why people said it was misused. No one saw Patty, she added nothing to the narrative. At what point did she go to Felicity?

What we should look at this information is the date the contract ends. If they were informing the date on which she would leave the project, she notes that Patty's entry was not to lure the Caitlin audience who saw her as a competitor to Iris, giving her a more viable option, since Patty had a loving relationship with Barry in the comics, and Flash would be true to its origins. It did not make sense. Why direct an audience to a character who could fulfill his desire to replace Iris, making it clear that it had an expiration date? The account does not match. Would the public migrate to Patty for ten episodes and be left empty-handed? The public who hates Iris? Not even. And they knew.

Patty did not enter the narrative to fight the Snowbarrys, they were no concern, when Caitlin become Killer Frost, he would be dead. Or to add to the narrative. Just as she entered, she left, without leaving a finger. Patty entered the series to restrain Danielle. Not to the public, but to the press. There was a section of the press that used the academic title of Caitlin to value her and ignore Iris, creating a favorable environment for the actress. As attention is a dangerous pet, there was no guarantee that she would not be dazzled by all that exposure. Caitlin was regular, Frost was not. The transformation of her into a villain would put her in the position of being only triggered in the episodes in which Frost was active. So she was trying to extend the frisson?

For them it was so. How they would bring Caitlin's story with Jay (which would be developed for the same purpose as Ronnie's) and their time to create Killer Frost was running out. They could not take the risk that the actress would spend another season selling; the only girl in the little boys' group or anything other than the actual narrative. If she was dreaming, they would expel her from the dream. It was simple, they knew that intensifying the writing of Iris, was not going to serve, why? Caitlin was a non-character who was still being poorly illustrated, what was the reason for such excitement? Even worse than Iris's writing, she was a character, Caitlin was not. So to end the excitement about Caitlin they had to bring something similar. Devilish, is not it? They are fantastic!

Patty would attract the attention of this media. That it was the ones who fed on Danielle and gave her space, and so take the actress out of fantasy and condition her in what she really had. As an aspiring scientist and policeman, Patty had the perfect profile for these journalists to devote themselves to her and continue to ignore Iris, without blame. That is, they brought a focal point to be explored by the press, reducing the media's interest in Caitlin. Taking the actress to be only triggered by the events of the narrative, she could no longer defuse the audience. A subtle and very efficient strategy.

If they go back to the second season they will see a cooling on Caitlin in the first part, mainly because, in addition to Patty, they flooded the media with information, Wally, Francine, Jay, Terra Two, a new version of Harrison Wells, and she was the most insignificant, her story would repeat itself. Patty's length of stay matched the time they had calculated in the narrative, for Caitlin to make the transition. As time went by, they scheduled the events in Caitlin's life toward Jay in the first half of the season, because if the actress did not live up to expectations, they would give up on Killer Frost and go on to plan B. What happened eventually . So, Patty was not badly used, according to the objective of its introduction in the project, it was very well done.

Why did the producers and writers want Killer Frost so much?

The reason is very cool, a pity not to have worked. This, without a doubt, should be one of their greatest frustrations with Flash. To understand the relationship of producers and writers with Killer Frost, it is important to know another principle of adaptation, the Principle of Twisting, it is directly linked to the Principle of Perception. What does he mean? To use a character not belonging to a mythology, one must attach it to a point where twisting is possible, but not decharacterization. How does it work?

Open the mythology of the character you will adapt. And highlight all the striking elements. Let's open the Flash - Nora, CSI, Iris, Reverse Flash, Wally West, Central City, Rogues, Speed ​​Force, Justice League, Hal Jordan, Jay ... - There's more, but for what we need these are enough. Now we choose a non-mythological character. Killer Frost. Where can I put Killer Frost into this mythology without creating a decharacterization? Because it does not belong to this world, so de-characterization is easy. Simple, look within the mythology for a character who has the same characteristics as her and make the substitution, thus you provoke a twist, but not a de characterization. This is the Principle of Twisting.

In this case, we only have one place for Killer Frost within Flash mythology. The place of Leonard Snart. Captain Cold. He is a villain who manipulates an ice gun. Frost is a target villain who manipulates ice. That's it. The reason for the introduction of Killer Frost in the narrative, was because Snart would not be in the series, he would go to the Legends and later would be dead. The Rogues are a team. But how can he be a team if he does not have a leader? And the leader of the Rogues is a villain who manipulates ice, to change it to mean to characterize them.

This was the big surprise they were preparing for the public, a woman leading the second largest gallery of DC villains. It would have been epic if it had worked. But it did not. They fought. They were already considering her love affair with Barry for, perhaps, the painful end, she'd react. But with each episode Caitlin was killing Frost. All Caitlin's emotions were so empty, there was nothing left for Killer Frost, she died of malnutrition. Two seasons writing down his motivation, carving out his malicious nature, to the public question: Why Killer Frost Bad? Why did she attack the Flash Team? Why did she join Savatar so fast? Ruined! Total and completely ruined!

She is not the leader of the Rogues, she has no truth. His wickedness has no basis. How will others accept your leadership? Intimidated with what? Does she have what to offer them? Articulation? Strategy? Cruelty without limits? Total lack of scruples? Killer Frost is just a grumpy version of Caitlin. It is not threatening or shocking. She's just a woman who puts ice in her hands. Unfortunately, Killer Frost no longer serves the purpose for which it was incorporated, but that does not mean that it has become useless, after all Caitlin is a non-character who has been in the narrative for so long, it's a Record. But that has an explanation and I will tell you when to answer about Caitlin's death.

I promised amazing revelations. I hope to be fulfilling.

* The Flash is getting ready to solve your problems

Before continuing to answer questions I have to do a review of the second season, because from it Flash enters a new cycle. That is the current moment of seriousness and that the public reacted negatively. And I will show that this is not justified.

If you got here in this series of posts, you already know that Barry and Caitlin are big problems, each in his own way. The second season was all articulated so that producers and writers had everything defined in the first half. Because? If something did not work they would use the second half to prepare the territory. Caitlin, what was your narrative? The same exercise of the first: pain, euphoria, pain: Ronnie dies (pain), returns (euphoria), dies (pain). Jay is dying (pain), she finds healing (euphoria), a version of him dies (pain). They were breaking Caitlin, again. Jay became involved with Caitlin because he wanted to get closer to Flash, steal the powers of Flash, and kill Flash. Again, the motivation of Killer Frost's rivalry with Flash.

And again, it did not work again. The illustration was still poorly made. Only, this time they would not take any more chances. When it became clear that the actress did not reach high marks they gave up on Killer Frost as leader of the Rogues and departed for Plan B. As Barry's narrative was also being copied: Flash team, the great villain disguised as ally and Caitlin to make Killer Frost. His exercise was the same as the first season. After discovering who the Reverse was, he would isolate himself emotionally, becoming a solo superhero, Caitlin would become a villain, what would be left of the Flash Team would be only Cisco, which would be migrated to CCPD. Flash was thought like this. So they played the first season. When Barry found out who Zoom was, he would lose confidence in people, he would act alone, the team would sum up to Caitlin and Cisco, she villain and he would gain more space in the CCPD, Wells was from Terra Two. But as Killer Frost was lost they had to abort everything and reorient themselves.

 Writers and producers got together and made the list of problems they had to find the solution. From there, Flash would live up to its goals. That were:

 -Made and automate Barry Allen;

- Kill the Flash Team; 

-Deleting the paternal figures of Barry; 

-Find a new leader for the Rogues;

-Deactivate Caitlin Snow;

-Zero issues hinted at the first season.

The final half of season two no longer has to be publicly attractive or coherent, it now functions as the basis for what lies ahead. Flash prepares for your Flashpoint. The last episodes of the season bring elements necessary to achieve all the objectives, which were:

 - The creation of the concept of remnant of the time, fundamental for the arc of Savatar; 

-Barry loses his powers and recreates a new exposure to dark matter, key to Jesse's bow. Jesse's transformation into a speed, has a great goal;

-Barry goes to Speed ​​Force, they create a very important concept. The Speed ​​Force has the power to debug Barry. This concept is essential for controlling the tone of the series.

-Henry is dead, eliminating a paternal figure (now there are three) and provoking Flashpoint.

The Flashpoint series is not exactly how people think it is. It's not an episode of Season Three, but rather the time period when Flash closed to solve its problems, planning has accused the need for three seasons to put everything in place. In this case, Flashpoint is seasons 3,4 and 5. Flash is still experiencing Flashpoint.

So far I answered the questions under the angle of the show's problems, from here, since we are in Flashpoint, I will respond under the angle of the applied solutions.

To be continued…

Original source https://omundonarrativa.tumblr.com/

[permian-tropos]

Thought about how Finn and Poe are depicted in TLJ: 

I don’t think Johnson was deeply racially biased in the way people think, though I think he might have a racial bias that’s not malicious, but also worth pointing out, since I always butt heads with that bias as a white writer. 

I think Johnson wanted to give Finn and Poe solid character arcs to fit with the theme of overcoming failure, and I don’t think he wrote them as if they were Other, because I do feel somewhat familiar with what it feels like when characters are Other. I’m very alert to women being framed as Other, and in SW most droids and aliens are framed like that. also, old mentor figures can be Other, definitely maternal figures, most villains, expendable side characters, NPC-type folks in the plot who help the story along.

Stories have to be full of Others of one sort or another, and you can be Other in a sympathetic light or a negative light. You can be revered or reviled or ignored. You can be reduced to a stereotype or an archetype. And some stereotypes are more harmful than others because of their connection to real world structural oppression. 

The only characters in a story who aren’t Other are characters who get POV time -- that’s just how it works, if the movie makes you see through a character’s eyes, they want you to project onto that character for those scenes. Finn and Poe are POV characters, so they’re not fully othered. Something else is probably going on. 

I think Finn and Poe are written in ways that white men would comfortably project onto, if the characters were white men. Take Finn and his running away. It’s not as if male characters who have to learn to care about the cause are deeply disliked. Han Solo is a scoundrel with a heart of gold who spends a lot of time in ANH being reluctant to help the heroes, and then he finally shows his true goodness and saves the day. Finn being a bit jittery and focused on saving a girl he likes might seem less flattering, but think about all the awkward, foolish white male protagonists who get dunked on a bit for their flaws, but ultimately win girls’ hearts and save the day. I’m thinking Emmett from the Lego Movie as a key archetype. That’s... clearly something that white guys find relatable and enjoyable to project onto. Self-deprecating, but ultimately a power fantasy. Part of the power fantasy is watching someone who’s a bit of a loser become a hero through adversity, it makes you feel like you too could take adversity and turn it into positive change as well. And Finn isn’t even such an overstated example, but he does have a lovable-loser thing going on in TFA and TLJ. And then of course he gets to be fantastically heroic and good and brave, because we (lovable losers in the audience) would like to be that way as well.

Poe’s behavior in TLJ gives me very... uncooked Captain Kirk dough vibes. I love me some Kirk, and he’s such a passionate guy who breaks rules and defies authority whenever he thinks it’s right. And sometimes he gets it wrong, and misjudges the situation, but the narrative usually doesn’t punish him too much. And the reason for this is because Kirk has Spock and McCoy and the rest of his crew with him and he deeply trusts their advice and expertise. Spock will almost always tell Kirk to cool his tits, so Kirk feels safe getting hot-titted when he thinks it’s called for. He knows he has a limiter. That’s what makes him a good leader, he knows his shortcomings and surrounds himself with close friends who can balance those shortcomings out. He’s also a seasoned captain, wiser from having dealt with a lot of messy situations. But (forget the reboot movies lol cause I do) if you imagine a younger Kirk, you can imagine him getting all riled up about injustice and hatching one of his daring million-to-one gambits to save everyone -- and it turns out to be a bad move. It turns out he was wrong. And he gets a lesson about that, and this helps him grow into the good Kirkboy we love and respect. 

The fact that Poe wants to rush out and save the day, but needs to learn patience, is something white men can find relatable and sympathetic.

But the thing is, I can understand people seeing Finn and Poe being written in this way, and understandably perceiving it as race-blind. Johnson put all these bits of character into them, but because he’s a white male writer who does in fact want to write Finn and Poe as likable and dynamic and engaging, he seems to have written things for them that are endearing when a white male does them. 

People see the expressed interiority of Finn and Poe in The Last Jedi and get White Male vibes from it, not because they were written to be disposable or Other, but because they were given White Male interiority.

Now, arguably, Star Wars seems not to discern human races, and since so much of White Male interiority involves seeing yourself as the default and not ever questioning that status, while existing in an industrialized Westernized capitalist society, the idea that Finn and Poe would at least reflect some of that attitude kind of isn’t... entirely unrealistic? 

I say this as a woman who had a lot of weirdly externalized misogyny and mistrust of feminism as a kid because I grew up in a bubble where I was free to express my gender however I liked, and adult women made all the decisions, and had status and value, and men were kind of just there also. I didn’t actually understand the feeling of not being default, of being Other, of being secondary, and when I was first exposed to feminism I was angry because I didn’t like to be told that I was oppressed. I didn’t want to be oppressed, so don’t you dare imply it could happen! I grew up without a lot of the social pressures women get, and now I actually recognize male-privileged attitudes ingrained in myself. I feel like aspects of masculinity (but certainly not all of them!) are just the gendered appropriation of Human Default, which women would default to if they weren’t pressed out of it (and aspects of femininity are extremely Human Default too and denying them to men is very damaging to them). So Finn and Poe being written by a white man trying to make them Human Default (or at least Male Default since gender disparities do exist in SW), could come across as infused with whiteness. Also humans in SW have heavy privilege over aliens and droids so they probably would act like privileged people when you think about it......

Still, I don’t and can’t begrudge anyone (particular a person of color) who doesn’t like that, because it’s probably not relatable and it’s missing a lot of nuance and perspicacity that a writer of color would infuse the situation with, in portraying a fictional fantasy world that’s relatively blind to race to an audience in a racialized society. You have to balance both fiction and reality.

White writers sort of have to learn that. A writer wants to engage with their audience authentically, and writers can’t get that if they pretend their audience won’t be hyperalert to racial dynamics. “But I didn’t know people would have that reaction” yes you did, or you should. “But I want to live in a world where people don’t have to have that reaction since it’s coming from so much suffering and injustice” me too buddy, but one movie can’t change everything overnight. Obviously if you care about marginalized people, what you want to do is make them feel appreciated and comfortable for the space of time your movie is playing. But I understand you do also want to write in your style. All the characters you write will be coming out of your own heart, that’s inevitable. 

It feels like the “why didn’t Johnson listen to the actors” anger is because people kind of wanted to see the actors’ takes on the characters, so they didn’t have to see Rian Johnson interiority throughout all of them. Except... the thing is. If Lucasfilm really begged Johnson to write and direct their movie, he’s allowed to put Rian Johnson interiority into it. Even the characters of marginalized identities -- ultimately, wanting to project onto and empathize with characters of color is not at all bad. Johnson feels like Rose is his self insert. She’s a woman of color, and he specifically wanted KMT for the role. He felt like he could deeply relate to this character. It’s not that he identifies as an Asian-American woman, it’s that he did actually think that distinction wasn’t a barrier to relatability. (On top of that, I think Rose is written to have some backstory elements that strongly parallel her actress’s Vietnamese heritage, and I think it’s a pretty big deal and I wish more people cared about that but we’ve been brainwashed to forget the Vietnam War I guess.)

White writers do need to take care not to project too much of their own interiority onto characters of color, to the point where audiences feel like they’ve been pushed out, like they’re seeing someone who looks like them but clearly is not like them on the inside (an uncanny, unnerving effect). But at the same time, I can’t imagine writing that doesn’t come from the writer. And white writers absolutely need to project onto and relate to characters of color. It’s always going to be a mess and there’s a lot of work to do to get it right but the alternative where you’re convinced you could never relate is not at all better. 

TL;DR: Rian Johnson did indeed fall into a white male writer pitfall, but I think it’s not malicious and it’s also both problematic and potentially a good thing. Also JJ Abrams basically did the same thing it’s just that he didn’t have to write “overcome my fatal flaw” arcs for Finn and Poe.

Johnson also definitely put a lot of work into prioritizing female perspectives and female fantasies and female wish fulfillment and female POV, and I think (as a Female... or. something approximating female lol) the film is a lot better about it than any other Star Wars movie to date. Or that may be because he sat down with Carrie Fisher for hours and hours brainstorming ideas and took her suggestions seriously enough to have notebooks full of them. I imagine he should have done the same with non-white script doctor but when it came to script doctoring and a deep connection to SW, Carrie was kind of without equal.

[sambart93]

2017.08.10 Soukai no Tiida Review!

I went to see Hiroki-kun again ^_^ and this one I was super excited about because of the story (it’s a fantasy set in the Sengoki era) and when the costume visuals came out, they looked freaking amazing! The colours are beautiful, look!

I was a little worried at first because the site announced that it was going to be a lot longer than I was expecting, and I went on a school night too so I was a little worried it’d affect my work the next day BUT you do these things for the people you like, right?!

Official Site here Official Twitter here Press Coverage 1, 2, 3

CAST AND CHARACTERS

Oshima Ryo as Nakijin Tiida Kuryu Mina as Zan Ukai Mondo as Kyan Zoui Nagahara Masaki as Ganeko Temi Tanaka Hiroki as Nakijin Kaji Ichikawa Miki as Nakajin Maaji Mizuki Momoko as Teruya Rami Maruyama Raiden as Ganeko Uusu Oguri Ryo as Kagushi Kanyuuji Yamamoto Teppei as Kaihara Tenyou Yoshida Munehiro as Motake Jakotsu Akaba Mio as Eshirdera Nekomaru Mochida Chihira as Seimatsu Yoshino Teppei as Eriguchi Teraji Hiroya as Riisu Kamikoshi Sho as Giya Akiyoshi Aya as Lala Hanaoka Meika as Rei Miri as Ion Ogura Erika as Akari Araki Miyu as Senado Shimozuki Yukari as Watashimi Yamamoto Mayu as Sofi Funaoka Saki as Mao Ichiose Hidekazu as Ganju

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As expected of ASSH: a freaking HUGE cast.

STORY

Set in the country ‘Yamato’ in the midst of the Sangoku (Three Countries) period. We have a royal family in the land of “Ryuusa” who’s prince, Tiida, doesn’t really have an interest in inheriting the throne. One day, he accidentally finds and rescues a mermaid -- a very rare creature that pirates will track down and kill in exchange for a lot of money. Thus conflicts arise; people who want to protect the mermaid, people who want to kill the mermaid, we also have conflict between the royal family and it’s servers, as well as Tiida refusing to take responsibility.

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REVIEW

I ended up being third row and SMACK in the middle! The theatre (CBGK Shibugeki) is actually really nice and the seats are super comfortable!! At first I was worried because the play was set to be over 2 hours without a break BUT because it wasn’t boring at all, I enjoyed the full 160 minutes(!), it didn’t feel long at all.

This was very, very similar to D-Boys’ Yuhiden - probably because it’s the exact same story/history in terms of Tiida being someone who doesn’t want the throne and runs away from his responsibilities, as well as in the end deciding he needs to go out on an adventure and finally getting onto the sea to see what’s out there. But it’s different enough what with the mermaid aspect and I think this one had a lot more fantasy and fantastical elements such as mermaids, gods with magical powers, summonings and spells etc. -- also Yuhiden had like corpses coming back but this one just had human against human fighting instead. 

The set was really cool for this, especially when they pulled out the massive boat that came out to the very edge of the stage! It was super close! And it was a little scary whenever they were leaning out over it!

Also they used a little projection mapping when the mermaids were in the sea which was cute -- I also loved the delicate touch of the two actresses swaying slightly when they were underwater as if the current was pulling them a little.

I already talked about the costumes a little above but I really did like the costumes in this! I especially loved Sofi, Teruya and Zan’s land outfit.

ASSH (alongside LiveDog and Odd Entertainment) always do such a good job of having strong female characters, and ones that kick ass to! This stage was no different! We had quite a few badass females in this; especially Sendao and Seimatsu!

The action was once again very, very good and crapped myself for most of the stage beause of how close I was (third row) to everything! Especially when we had giants spears and swords - like Kaihara and Nekomaru had!

Also there were a lot of story lines; some I cared for, some I didn’t but there weren’t too many.

I want to get into characters, actors and individual scenes now...

Oshima Ryo as Nakijin Tiida - not going to lie... I think he was the weakest character and actor. For some reason I just couldn’t warm up to Oshima and his acting. Also the other characters were far more interesting; I really didn’t care about his infatuated love with the mermaid; I really didn’t care for this storyline even though it was the main damn point of the whole show xD I was more interested in the pirate group and the other country’s group fighting each other for HER because her meat is so valuable. I was also more interested in the pirates groups’ relationship, the hate and turmoil between the Ryuusa brothers, the plot to kill Tiida and take over the Ryuusa family, as well as Kaihara and Mao’s relationship. Kanjyu was a character who I definitely wanted to know about too. So unfortunately his character and the stages main plot line were the weakest parts for me personally, especially because...

Kuryu Mina as Zan - at the end, she decides to change back into a mermaid, after all the witchcraft and crap Tiida went through to give her legs(!), and be with her sister, even though they’re probably going to get caught and killed and sold off eventually. But anyway... I think Mina did a good job! I think she covered a naive mermaid very well (even I’m laughing at this sentence). I really loved it after she got turned into a mermaid, we got this The Little Mermaid twist where she got her legs BUT in return she lost her voice and she did a very good job with trying to force herself to speak and just squeaky exhausted noise would come out. Also she sang the theme song at the end and her voice is beautiful. I already mentioned above too; her outfit when she was on land was gorgeous! It was this white tweed-light dress. I really liked it.

Ukai Mondo as Kyan Zoui - Mundo always does such great roles. He always does such a good job and his action and fighting is always great too! He always looks so damn cool too! I was a little surprised at how little stage time he got this time around and that he was a side character rather than a main, but I still loved his character. He was playing Tiida’s childhood and best friend, and I loved his dynamic with Tiida; he was trying to be serious but Tiida was just being airy-fairy and not listening to him so he got stressed a little >.<

Nagahara Masaki as Ganeko Temi - Unfortunately I don’t remember him all that much. I remember he was cute and he played the guy who wanted the throne and to take it from Tiida. Also he had a crush(?) on Teruya who was only ever interested in the other two boys. He was a cutie!

Tanaka Hiroki as Nakijin Kaji - Here’s my boy!!! He played Tiida’s younger brother who clearly felt he was more ideal for the throne and did have remorse towards his brother and even fought with him, but once it turns out they’d be manipulated and there were bigger things to worry about, they managed to figure it all out ^_^ As usual Hiroki got to do action scenes and look very cool! Also his costume is gorgeous! I love the colours. BUT I’m sad he had such a small role -- I always want him to have more stage time xD BUT!!! Dang his voice! He used a deep voice this time around -- which I am not used to! I’m so used to his normal high pitched voice <3 it’s so cute... but this time around, the deeper, low toned voice made him sound so sexy ^_^ well MORE sexy. And I got his tokuten at the venue so here’s that:

It’s cute right!

Ichikawa Miki as Nakajin Maaji and Maruyama Raiden as Ganeko Uusu - These two worked as a pair because Ganeko is sort of like her son’s teacher but he’s also somewhat of her butler. Also they ended up having a romantic relationship together. It was cute how at first she was like ‘I can’t be with you! What would the kingdom think! It’s not very queen like!’ but at the end she’s liken ‘I love him and that’s all that matters!’ and it was cute seeing them get together in the end. He was so sweet and supportive of her.

Mizuki Momoko as Teruya Rami - This bitch! She was all nice and loveydovey in front of Kaji, Temi and Tiida but it very soon came to light that she was just manipulating them all and only wanted to be with the son that would ultimately get and take the throne from the other brothers. She was the one who set it all up that turned Temi against Tiida and why Kaji also ended up fighting his brother at one point. She was just crazy and horrible in the end. Her costume was gorgeous though! Oh and she wouldn't dare get her own hands dirty

Oguri Ryo as Kagushi Kanyuuji - FINALLY a role where he doesn’t die! He’s died in freaking EVERYTHING that I’ve seen him in! And I went into this one thinking ‘I’m gunna see him die, and cry again ain’t I?!’ BUT he didn’t! I really liked his character in this one too! He was more of a minor character this time around but I really enjoyed that his character just completely trusted and supported his friend no matter what. Kanyuuji’s relationship with Kaihara was so great! I really loved their dynamic and their relationship and their end scene was great too! In the end they set out on the sea and Tiida goes with them. Ryo’s costume was ALSO great and colourful and beautiful.

Yamamoto Teppei as Kaihara Tenyou - I already said I loved his relationship with Kanyuuji, BUT, unlike Tiida and Zan’s relationship, I really enjoyed his relationship with Mao. His main objective is that, a few years ago, the goddess Mao appeared to him and asked him to fulfill her wish. When he asked what he wish was, she said her wish is to die and he promised her that he would be the one to kill her. So his objective this entire stage is to find Mao once again and kill her. And this is why I love his and Kanyuuji’s relationship; Kanyuuji’s could’ve simply been like ‘a god? You’re gunna kill a god? That’s ridiculous!’ but instead he’s like ‘okay! You go do that but I’m coming with you!’ and just completely trusts him! This duo were so interesting! They’re both cuties too so that helps >.<

Yoshida Munehiro as Motake Jakotsu - his character was pretty interesting. At first he just seemed like a typical, crazy bad guy BUT once the fighting kicked in, he started using unearthly god-like power (if I remember correctly, he controlled thunder or electricity) and after Tiida attacked and stabbed him, he somehow came back to life (after Nekomaru somehow sacrificed himself and gave his life to Motake) which means some sort of magic or godlike power is going on with him which was super interesting. I also really liked the scene between him and Nekomaru around the beginning of the play when they’re making their plot to get the meraid and the scene ended with Motake on top of Nekomaru and going to kiss him as the scene faded to black -- of course(!) that made me happy! xD

Akaba Mio as Eshirdera Nekomaru - I’ve seen Akabe quite a few times now; both on stage and in person; he’s definitely someone who’s very comfortable as he is and always does roles very similar to himself and he does the type of roles that I too enjoy. So this character was no different. He was this beautiful, somewhat feminine character who was in love with his boss and had this sexy air to him. He also knew how to use a spear in such high skill and he made that also look sexy. And when his boss was attacked he was very sacrificial and thought his lover and leader more important than himself which was beautiful too! I really liked his character in this too.

Mochida Chihira as Seimatsu - She was badass! She was very Hijikata like; all about the samurai-ness. Also she always had this samurai stance and lowered her voice to make her more powerful and intimidating. I loved just how stereo-typically samurai she was! I loved her fights and her final scene was badass too! She was like ‘I’ll die fighting!’ and that’s what she did! She gave it her all! Bad. Ass. Super, super loved her fight with Senado!!

Yoshino Teppei as Eriguchi Teraji - A huge apology but I don’t remember this guy at all! as he even in this? I don’t remember him!

Hiroya as Riisu - His was basically Japanese Jack Sparrow. He did the exact same walk, exact same hand gestures; everything was the spitting image of Jack Sparrow, which made me a little disappointed. I kind of wanted Hiroya to add something to it. It’s fine if you take inspiration from Sparrow and use parts of him in your character but to pretty much copy him and not add anything new or different was a let down. It was okay and interesting in the beginning but I very soon got tired of his performance in this one. Which is sad because I’ve seen Hiroya act a number of times and he can act but why he decided to just be Japanese Jack Sparrow... it makes me sad and disappointed.

Kamikoshi Sho as Giya - ShoKun!!! This little cutie!! His character was like the baby of the group, naturally, and he was protected by the rest of the people in his group. I really liked this one scene though, where he finally gets his hands on a gun, like he’d been wanting to, but at the moment, he got so scared and full of fear that he couldn’t shoot and closed his eyes and miss the shot etc. It felt rather realistic, especially because this happened in the middle of a battle sequence too! Sho is always such a cutie <3

Akiyoshi Aya as Lala, and Hanaoka Meika as Rei  - These two were cute! They were similar to Sho’s character in that they were very new and didn’t really know much about fighting and it was a huge shock of reality when all of a sudden all this fighting is going on and they have to somewhat grow up and get involved in the fight in order to help each other and Riisu.

Miri as Ion, Ogura Erikerina as Akari, and Araki Miyu as Senado - They played the queen’s bodyguards/henchmen. Unfortunately, I don’t really remember Miri, BUT I do remember thinking that Erika played almost the same character in this role as she did in Soul Flower, so nothing interesting or exciting there for her unfortunately. I really enjoyed Senado though. She had an interesting fighting style - she was like duel wielding two wooden blocks, used more for defense rather than to attack with. Like I said before, her fight with Seimatsu was badass!

Shimozuki Yukari as Watashimi - He’s just this random god that shows up to talk to Mao now and again. His visuals are both awesome AND terrifying at the same time because of that almost fully dark blue / black eye going on.

Yamamoto Mayu as Sofi - She played the worrying older mermaid sister when Zan disappears and goes to the human world. There’s a few scenes with her and her sister and she’s just pleading for her sister to come back to her but her sister in like ‘no sorry I’m going to stay and live here with the humans’ which is pretty damn harsh, leaving her sister all alone int he ocean! But luckily Zan comes to her sense and joins her sister again. Although I feel like her sister should’ve been more pissed when Zan came back - she was going to abandon Sofi! At least be annoyed THEN be happy your sister is back! her costume was gorgeous too! Especially the top half, it was like this light blue laced dress top.

Funaoka Saki as Mao - Mao was both a sweet but sad character. Sweet because she was kind enough to help Tiida turn Zan into a human - but with a price. Tiida ended up having this almost black poisoned veiny tattoo up his left arm and while it allowed him to also use godly powers - like with Motake - it also turned him crazy and evil and unable to control the power when it was unleashed. But it’s sad because all she wants to do is die and she’s unable to due to being a god.

Also now I feel super bad for the actress! I thought she was in her early thirties but, looking at her profile, she’s only two months older than me! Do all us 24 years look that old?! Damn... I feel real bad and feel real old now.

Ichiose Hidekazu as Ganju - this guy was so cool! I super loved him! I wish we had a stage JUST about his backstory and about him! He seemed to be this old, mystical guy who just knows what the hell was going on, and would offer his help, but at the same time, would not tell anyone about his past nor who he really is. We know he trained Tiida and Riisu so he really is this old, wise Yoda-like character. He was super sexy too! And his fighting was awesome! His visuals alone made him look badass! I really want to know more about this character!

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The ending was left open ended too! We had the pirate gang going back out into the ocean, as well as Tiida, Kaihara and Kanyuuji out off on an adventure together. We don’t know much about Ganjyuu at all(!), and I’d quite like to see if any shit happens now that Tiida is gone and Temi and Kaji are left to rule the kingdom without him.

GOODS

That’s all I think I have to say! This is another ASSH production that I want on DVD! And I feel like this stage could be or is part of a series so I am very open for a sequel and more stages in this world! Especially if it’s got my boys like Hiroki-kun Sho-kun, Mondo, and Ryo in it!!

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Hope you enjoyed this! Have I interested you in some of the lesson known actors in the Japanese stage world? Y’all know my love for Hiroki-kun anyway xD and Sho-kun is a newbie I super love too! Some regular faces popped up here too that you should all be just as familiar with as me! ^_^

[tunneybakerfan]

Here’s the interview from summer 2016 for the Givenchy launch of Gentlemen Only Absolute in Dubai by Mojehmen! https://mojehmen.com/culture/film-tv/simon-baker-mentalist-his-directorial-debut The Mentalist On His Directorial Debut Peter Iantorno February 13th 2017

Best known for his star turn as charismatic crime investigator Patrick Jane in The Mentalist, Simon Baker has spent the best part of two decades lighting up our screens. Fresh from filming his directorial debut, Breath, the star spoke to us about everything from his celebrity chums to his love for gardening. As movie stars go, Simon Baker is most definitely one of the nice ones. He has appeared alongside the likes of Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Jeremy irons and Demi Moore to name a just few, and he counts Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts amongst his closest friends; yet when we meet him for the first time in his suite at Dubai’s One&Only Royal Mirage, he immediately jumps up from his seat and offers to make us a cup of coffee. “Chivalry isn’t dead, mate – it’s totally kicking,” he quips as he hands us a freshly brewed espresso and points in the direction of a rather impressive platter full of cakes and biscuits.

Baker is in Dubai to promote Givenchy’s new Gentlemen Only fragrance – quite fitting really, considering the first impression he gives us is that he’s nothing if not a perfect gent. “I think it’s a willingness to be aware and considerate of others,” he says when questioned on what he thinks it takes to be a gentleman nowadays. “It’s all about putting others in front of yourself, and that can be with the opposite sex or with the same sex; it’s just common courtesy.”

As we sit down and tuck into our refreshments, The Mentalist star begins to fire questions at us at an astounding frequency – how do we like Dubai? Where are our offices? Is his wife [fellow Australian actor, Rebecca Rigg) likely to get a good deal if she buys jewellery from the Gold Souq? It’s refreshing to speak to a celebrity on such a normal level, yet with time ticking away, we are conscious that at some point or another, we really should get down to business and discuss something that we can publish.

The first point on our agenda is the news that Baker has just finished filming his directorial debut – the upcoming film adaptation of Tim Winton’s 2008 novel, Breath. Here, we get the lowdown on his inspirations, the pros and cons of being a director as opposed to and actor and how the tough jobs he did in the past have taught him the value of a good day’s hard graft.

MM: What made you decide to take the leap into directing, and why did you pick this film in particular?

SB: It was a combination of things, really. The main reason I chose this film in particular was that I knew it; and by that I don’t mean that I knew the book itself, I mean I knew the environment the book is set in – the whole Aussie surfing subculture – I grew up in it.

When I was a kid, around 15 or 16, I distinctly remember having these weird little fantasies of making a film about that particular time of my life and a lot of the characters that populated that time of my life. This was even way before I knew I was going to be an actor. It was my lifestyle – that little subculture I lived in – that was intriguing to me. Through that time growing up you’re making these decisions, a lot of the time unconsciously, and that helps define and shape who you are and what your identity is.

So when did you first read the book?

It was around seven years ago. I remember I was on the set of The Mentalist at the time and a producer friend – a guy by the name of Mike Johnson – gave it to me. I read it and it really affected me in a lot of different ways; it really struck home, so I called Mike straight away and asked if he’d like to make the film.

It must have been a big leap for you to go into directing, especially considering how well The Mentalist was doing at the time…

Well funnily enough we didn’t initially take the thing on as something for me to direct – I was just going to play one of the roles. But we started meeting a bunch of different directors, all of them with different ideas and none of them really matching up with my vision, and one day Mike said to me, ‘has it occurred to you that you should direct this film, because you talk about this film and this story like you’re the director?’

So that’s what happened. We developed it slowly over the time that we had the rights and then when I knew that The Mentalist was in its last year I started to turn my attention to developing the script. As soon as we finished the show I went straight into filming for Breath, and we finished shooting it last week!

Congratulations! It must feel good to be finished. The cast for Breath seems really interesting. You’ve got established stars like Elizabeth Debicki [The Night Manager, The Great Gatsby] but also a couple of newcomers, Samson Coulter and Ben Spence, who play the young surfers. How did you go about the casting process?

Yeah the two boys – the two main characters – had never acted before in their lives. In fact, there are four non-actor roles in the movie. I grew up surfing and I knew that it was impossible to try to get actors to learn how to surf; directors have tried to do it a million times and it’s never worked. So I figured that I would try the opposite – it’s got to be easier to teach surfers to act than actors to surf, right?

And was it easier? Do you reckon the lads are going to keep at the acting?

It depends how well the film turns out I suppose. They’re pretty great kids and when they get it right it’s because they are not actors. It’s really beautiful, it’s really real and they don’t feel like actors at all. They were just really willing. Physically they had to do some stuff where I was like, ‘Are you OK with this?’ and they were like, ‘Yeah, sure – let’s go!’

What kind of stuff?

Oh you know, jumping off cliffs into the water, stuff on dragster bikes and then the surfing stuff – there was some pretty heavy water out there some days but they always wanted to do it.

What are the main differences for you between being an actor and a director?

The most difficult thing as an actor for me was that you were always playing into someone else’s vision and there’s a certain element of trust involved. That’s fine when you get the opportunity to work with some of the great directors and I had the opportunity to work with some pretty good ones, but there are also a lot of emerging directors that you work with who are often the least experienced people on the set.

Saying that, this particular movie probably had all the earmarks of a potential disaster for a first-time director because some of the set pieces were incredibly difficult – we had to rely on the ocean and the weather, which means we sometimes had very difficult circumstances to film in. Thankfully we got pretty lucky and managed to pull it off.

You must have been delighted to get Elizabeth Debicki…

Absolutely. She is such a fantastic, beautiful, complex, strong actress who is on the rise at the moment and she was willing to put her trust in me and I’ll be forever grateful for that.

You’ve appeared alongside some amazing actors in your time – Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Jeremy irons, Demi Moore – who has really stood out?

To be honest at the moment I’m kind of in love with these two kids I just worked with – they are pretty phenomenal. It was extraordinary to see how steep their learning curve was and how brave they were considering that they had never walked on to a set before and they had no idea what they were in for. They had no idea at all and they were up for it, man, really up for it.

I think the experience with those two kids put a lot of people who I have worked with – myself included – to shame. I was really genuinely impressed. There’s just nothing but willingness. No pretense, no idea self-awareness – it was just pure. And it’s freakishly exciting when you catch that on camera.

There must have been times when they messed up though, being so inexperienced?

Oh yeah, don’t get me wrong – that happened all the time! You know, they are teenage kids. When they were on the set together they were constantly messing around, pranking each other. It was like trying to wrangle cats at times, but when you get it right it’s so, so worth it.

Sounds like a tough job. Speaking of which, is it correct that you used to be a bricklayer?

I was never actually a bricklayer, but I did have a lot of different odd jobs and I there was a short stint I had as a brickie’s labourer. So not quite a bricklayer, but almost there!

That must have taught you the value of hard graft…

Yeah, and I don’t mind a bit of hard graft; it’s good, it keeps you honest. And I still don’t mind it actually. I enjoy building stuff.

Is that what you do in your spare time then?

Yep. I like a bit of gardening too – it’s very fulfilling. The great thing about gardening is that it’s a combination of physical labour, imagination and there’s a long-term nurturing process to it, and I get satisfaction out of that.

Are we right in saying that two of your children’s godparents are Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts? That must be interesting at parties…

Yeah that’s right, but it’s not really as interesting for us as it probably is for you guys. My wife went to school with Nicole so that all predates us being actors, and Naomi has been one of my wife’s best friends since before she was old enough to get arrested, so it’s pretty normal to us. We spend time together when we can but we’re always in different countries and stuff so it’s hard.

Since you’re here to promote a fragrance, have you got any grooming tips for us?

I do like a bit of moisturiser. I spend a lot of time in the sun so moisturiser is definitely a friend. There’s not too much more than that for me though; it doesn’t take me too long to get ready in a morning.

The Mentalist was hugely successful, as have been many TV series’ in recent years. What do you think is behind this increase in popularity of the TV series?

Well, if you really look at it, it’s not actually that recent; it’s just that we have different ways of watching TV now so it reaches a much wider demographic much faster. Before, if you wanted to watch something you used to have to be at a certain place at a certain time, but now you can watch your favourite show on a laptop, tablet – whatever – so it reaches much further nowadays.

Game of Thrones is basically a soap opera. They create this world, we get to know all the characters and things develop slowly over the time. Downton Abbey was the same. It think right now we’re seeing a period where there are so many different types of shows available and I think what it shows is that there’s always an audience for that.

There’s not as much drama being made in cinema nowadays. Films are all Marvel and DC Comics superhero flicks, but people still crave that drama and TV is really filling that void. We as humans still want to get engaged in something and it’s also pretty fashionable to talk about it too, even though I’m guilty of never being up to date with these programmes.

Have you got any favourites?

I really liked the Danish version of The Bridge – it was bloody good. I like the French show, The Returned, too. But I’m not up to date; I’m not a House Of Cards guy, I never saw an episode of The Sopranos, I didn’t get into Breaking Bad. I loved the podcast Serial, and then the TV equivalent Making A Murderer, but then I spent all that time watching the whole thing and at the end I was left unsatisfied. It’s simple really: If a joke is too long for how good the punch line is, then it’s not worth telling.

Nice motto… Have you got a personal motto you try to live by?

Not really, mate. I’m definitely a cock-eyed optimist, though – a very optimistic person, maybe sometimes to my detriment. Sometimes I get a bit optimistic with time and I overcommit to doing too much stuff that’s just not realistically going to happen. That always gets me a telling off from the missus.

[its-thatching]

Six Degrees of Separation: Kilala mo ba si Lilia Cuntapay?

Antoinette Jadaone’s first feature film that focused on the legendary extra Lilia Cuntapay, hailed as the “dakilang extra” of the local horror scene. The mockumentary played with the line between truth and fiction that the distinction between them didn’t matter. Lilia Cuntaplay played herself as she spent the last three decades as an extra in horror films, first discovered by the great Peque Gallaga in Shake, Rattle, and Roll II. He, among all the others, said that Lilia is the perfect woman to play an aswang and from then on, she mostly took on ghoulish roles. Now, for her role as “mamasang” in an indie film, she got nominated for best supporting actress. The film followed her journey as she prepared for the awards night. We saw her write her thank you speech, get a dress from a local tailor, and solicit the advice of her loved ones. We saw her as a mother just wanting her doctor daughter to go home to her so they could be with each other again, a giving neighbor who donated trophies to the kids in the barangay, a hardworking actress who is willing to get up at 6 am in the morning despite her old age just to practice her lines which she didn’t get at the end. As the film progressed, we saw her speech get longer and longer, as she encountered many people who had helped her one way or another, only to be (spoiler alert!) disappointed and let down by the people from the local entertainment industry by not giving her the credits she deserved.The title “six degrees of separation” comes from the theory that everyone knows each other through a chain of people with six or less intermediaries. This was portrayed in the film when they explained how Nanay Lilia was connected to Kevin Bacon, who was said to have worked with every rising star in Hollywood. Nanay Lilia, who has existed mostly on the fringes of celebrities and the whole showbiz glamour, is connected to everyone in showbiz because of her 3-decades long work experience. 

Explicitly, the film embodies the journey of a prominent horror extra, Lilia Cuntapay, who often played roles of aswangs and other monsters or ghouls in Filipino films and TV shows, when she receive a best supporting actress nomination for a role where she played as a “mother” pimp. As the film progressed, we see Nanay Lilia become less and less hopeful, beaten down by the instances and failed promises by people from the film industry: the director who initially promised to give her a speaking role but backed out because she’s been type-casted already and her presence would ruin the feel of the shot, the TV patrol crew who interviewed her but failed to put her interview in the final edit, and many more.

Implicitly, it shows how this capitalist culture has poured over into the entertainment industry, where people like Ms. Lilia are rarely given a chance to grow and develop, and are often just taken for granted because they have nowhere else to go. Even though these people work tirelessly to give their best shot for just 10 seconds of screen time, they get rewarded with so little in return because they are not the stars of the show. From the celebrity cameos like Kris Aquino, we can assume that even as an extra, she has left a big impact in the industry. One thing that the audience has to constantly remind themselves of is that the film is a mockumentary--- and Jadoaone did such a good job of making the audience forget this. The heart that this film offers is beyond the narrative it portrays. It is a universal truth: that even with all the effort you put into your passion, to create something with your heart and mind fully into it,  it does not guarantee that it will be rewarded or recognized. The line between self-fulfillment and the desire for recognition is not as defined as we all think it is. After all, as Aristotle proposed, we are all social beings, and it is a natural tendency to want to be affirmed by others for the work that you’ve done. In the film industry, these two things often go hand-in-hand. The existence of award-giving bodies and the whole fiasco during awards season is a proof of how much recognition helps with one’s self-fulfillment. The most prolific and famous actors are often those who are hailed and awarded in Hollywood ceremonies like the Academy Awards and Emmy Awards. Once you have been recognized as an intelligent and adept actor, screenwriter, director, etc., the opportunities will most probably come flooding in. The spectrum of self-fulfillment and desire of recognition are overlapping. For someone like Nanay Lilia, who has been type-casted as an “aswang” and has not had the opportunity for growth because she wasn’t classically trained or her looks are not as versatile as the others, recognition means a lot. As audience members, we were programmed by the film to root for her every step of the way because we got to see how earnest and dedicated she was with her art. Having said those, we feel some sort of attachment with Nanay Lilia because we all experienced a similar struggle like hers. 

Symptomatically,  I believe that the film showed the universal fear of dying and not being remembered. It also shows how a lot of Filipinos exist in the margins of society, no matter how hard we work, there is a bigger chance for us to just be taken for granted by those above us. The glamor behind the life of the stars would not exist without people like Lilia, people who don’t get mentioned in awards but who nonetheless work and wait tirelessly. I think that we all feel like underdogs sometimes, one way or another, and this feeds into the fear of just disappearing from this world completely, making life feel so minuscule and insignificant. For Filipinos, especially, we have this tendency to crave for fame and recognition. It is evident from the way we treat Filipinos or Fil-ams who make it big overseas. We tend to glorify showbiz culture and the whirlwind of gossip or chikas it brings for celebrities. Of course, this doesn’t mean that when one is famous, one is already a stellar and legitimate actress, and vice versa. We have actors like Mercedes Cabral and Arnold Reyes, who normally work with independent film companies, but are not commercially well-known in showbiz, but who are nonetheless amazing. Nanay Lilia herself is a living testament of this. For 3 decades she always played small roles in different films, that even when she was filling out an information sheet for a medical exam makes her think deeply about who she is: should she call herself an “actress” on the occupation line, or just an “extra”. 

I believe that the movie is realistic but way too nihilistic in its approach to show the harshness of reality. Even in the ending the reward isn’t even technically hers but was given to her by the actual winner. But it does play with our greatest human fear of being invisible towards everyone.

I don’t think the film followed any moralistic principles. If anything, it mostly portrayed nihilism showing how futile lilia’s determination is when working. She did everything right just to earn a reward that isn’t hers.

In terms of coherence, I personally think the film was consistent with showing Nanay Lilia’s struggle to get lead roles. The film has two realities: one that follows Lilia as she goes through the whims of her everyday life, and one where she is in her own fantasy where she already won the award with the whole set-up that makes her look a  tad bit crazy and senile. The latter’s quality is dependent on the scene that is shown in the former. For example, when she got disappointed by TV Patrol’s failure to include her interview in the news after she invited everyone in the neighborhood and even her daughter who is living far away from her, her speech in the fantasy sequence was short and she looked so forlorn. 

I found it somewhat really complex with its storytelling. The movie would send you through a spiral of emotions through and through as the audience follows along the journey of lilia to earn just a sliver of recognition among his colleagues and friends. The way it brought awareness to the predicament of lila using a mockumentary is smart. It shows us the vast acting skills and talents of lila and shows us her experiences through a more digestible cut in the movie. The movie pulled on the heart stings of the audience in such a great way that it left a deep mark that the audience will bring through their lifetime. So they’ll become more appreciative with the work of people like lilia with each scene that shows how no one even recognises lilia with each scene and only a select few do. 

The film is brilliant and original on all levels. I don’t think this has been done in the Filipino cinema before. Even though Mockumentary is a genre that has been thoroughly explored internationally (i.e., borat, what we do in the shadows, the office) and often in the context of comedy, I believe this film is unique for its Filipino context. It is full of paradox: it is both charming but angering at the same time, out-of-touch but also so grounded in its narrative. The way Jadaone treated fact and fiction by creating a storyline that is so realistic and universal but is essentially scripted from start to finish is just disconcerting. The pop culture references and cameos are just a sprinkle on the tragicomedy-esque script about the life of the “dakilang extra”.  Lilia Cuntapay was such an amazing actress in this film. The tears she shed, her outer contemplations about her life, her random pondering made her so human in the eyes of the audience that we end up feeling like she’s just our friendly next door neighbor lola. 

I believe that the whole movie is an insult to Lilia as a hardworking person. Even though i said the film being a mockumentary is smart i still think she deserved better. The mockumentary shows she has the talent and skill to bring the audience emotion just as any good actor can. But for her to  just be a joke the whole movie is just sad and mean to her. They made her look like a senile old woman even though shes way better than that.  One of the things she said that struck me the most was “Ang mga extra, simpleng characters lang. Walang past, wala ring future.” I think this encapsulates the underlying conflict portrayed by the film--- that some people are employed just to fill up the space, to bring others up, but ultimately, they are simply forgotten. Underdogs like Nanay Lilia will wait forever just to have the glimpse of success that privileged people have. 

 It can be said that with every fictional narrative, there is a seed of truth that the whole narrative grew from. This is what made Six Degrees of Separation so great: it allowed the audience to attach and, dare I say, see themselves in Nanay Lilia and her struggles as she clung to little triumphs in a career that gave her very little recognition. Opportunities are very limited for people who never started with privilege. Like most of us, she had to work twice as hard just to get so little in return. All in all, Nanay Lilia Cuntapay, bless her departed soul, brought such warmth and heart to the film as she delivered a reality that has no veneer or narcissism.