#when people talk about blade runner they usually talk about the movie version

[iwonderwh0]

Fun fact: Philip K. Dick in the original "Do androids dream of electric sheep" used androids as a metaphor for nazis. This vision, however didn't get to the film adaptation (1982) where the narrative got changed (which is not a bad or good thing. Just curious how androids are used to refer to different things in fiction)

Some Philip's quotes from this interview:

For me the word ‘android’ is a metaphor for people who are physiologically human but psychologically behaving in a non-human way.

---

I got interested in this when I was doing research for "the man in a high castle" and I was studying Nazi mentality, and I discovered although these people were highly intelligent they were definitely deficient in some manner <...> and as I studied the Nazi mentality <...> I became conscious of a very highly intelligent human being who is emotionally so defective that the word "human" could not properly be applied to him, and I used this in my writing in such terms as "Android" and "Robot" but I'm really referring to an actually psychologically defective or malfunctioning or pathological human being

---

By the time I got to sheep I was revolutionary enough and existential enough to believe that these defective personalities were so lethal, so dangerous to human beings that it might be necessary ultimately to fight them. In other words that they could not be cured they cannot be changed and that it might literally wind up as a contest to see whether the humans won or "Androids" won. Now, the problem then would be that would we become like the androids in our really effort to wipe them out?

---

If you kill a person because he is inhuman do you not become inhuman in the act of killing him?

[killjoyhistoryarchive]

“Conventional Weapons” and the Rocky Road to “Danger Days”

In 2009, My Chemical Romance was buzzing with activity. The band performed several shows and festivals (including Summer Sonic in Japan), Gerard and Mikey Way attended San Diego Comic Con, and The Umbrella Academy was named one of Amazon’s top comics of 2009. Ray Toro held a Whopper eating contest on the official MCR website (no joke), while a certain comic series written by Gerard Way and Shaun Simon was announced in August. And at a show at the Roxy in Los Angeles, MCR performed three new songs from their upcoming album.

But while their next album seemed easily slated for an early 2010 release, MCR was about to hit a series of hurdles that would leave them with a scrapped album, a lost drummer, and a totally new outlook on where their music was headed.

On July 31st, 2009, MCR performed a set at the Roxy that included three new songs–“Kiss The Ring,” “The Drugs,” and “Death Before Disco.” Gerard was enthusiastic about the new tracks, even telling Rolling Stone that “Death Before Disco” was “the greatest song we’ve ever written.” Videos of the tracks soon appeared online, where fans eagerly devoured what they thought would be the follow-up to 2006’s The Black Parade.

As the days and weeks went on, the media blitz kicked into high-gear. While Ray Toro posted short studio clips on MCR’s website, the band gave several interviews where they gushed about producer Brendan O'Brien, discussed their new stripped-down style, and claimed that this would be their best record yet. In an interview with MTV, Gerard described the still-untitled album as a “true love letter to rock and roll,” adding:

“There’s something about being an American rock-and-roll band that we’ve kind of grown into and we’re very proud of. And I think that’s what we’re celebrating with this record. There’s no agenda, there’s no mission; it’s just about rock and roll.”

Meanwhile, Gerard Way and close friend Shaun Simon had another surprise in store: a comic series called "Killjoys.” Dark Horse Comics announced the release at San Diego Comic Con. Jeremy Atkins, the Dark Horse Director of Public Relations, described “Killjoys” as “a psychedelic rock-and-roll road trip adventure geared toward both fans of The Umbrella Academy and My Chemical Romance.” But not much else was said about the comic, as MCR’s upcoming album had become Gerard’s top priority.

As the album drew closer to completion, MCR gave fans more glimpses of what lay in store. They shared the titles of various tracks, including “Still Alive,” “Trans Am,” “Hail To The King,” “Save Yourself, I’ll Hold Them Back," “L.A. Heavy,” "The Only Hope For Me Is You,” and “Black Dragon Fighting Society.” They cited a variety of influences, including Queen, Judas Priest, Bruce Springsteen, The Killers, and Blade Runner. By all accounts, this was going to be MCR’s defining album.

In December, MCR previewed seven tracks for SPIN magazine. A month later, in January of 2010, the album–which was still untitled–was rumored to be released on March 30th. As they continued to rework the songs, they realized that the stripped-down sound wasn’t working. As NME reported in January:

Things turned around with a song called “Trans Am,” now renamed "Bullet Proof Heart,” the likely first single. And perversely, they did it by returning to fiction. Broadly, it’s about a boy in New Jersey, dressed in a Judas Priest T-shirt, called Johnny. And a girl called Jenny who might be his girlfriend, but who also (honk the pop fact sirens!) might also be the missing girl from “Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine” by The Killers.

But in the same interview, Gerard restated that the album would give "the purest, best version of the band you could ever hope for.” And in early February, MCR finally started to wrap up production, telling Big Cheese that the album would probably be released in spring or summer.

“Killjoys” also looked promising–back in January, Scott Allie had reported in a blog post that Shaun Simon and Becky Cloonan were ready to get started. Once Gerard wrapped up the album and finished working on the Umbrella Academy movie screenplay, it seemed like he’d be ready to dive in.

But February was also when the band publicly stumbled for the first time.

Before the Big Cheese interview, MCR had abruptly cancelled their appearance at the Soundwave festival in Australia. In a blog post on MCR’s website, Frank claimed that Gerard was having voice problems (he jokingly implied that it was due to coffee and cigarettes) and required treatment to make a full recovery.

Fans were disappointed, but most understood that it couldn’t be helped. But a month later, the fandom received another shock: MCR’s drummer Bob Bryar had departed the band. In another blog post, Frank told fans:

As of 4 weeks ago, My Chemical Romance and Bob Bryar parted ways. This was a painful decision for all of us to make and was not taken lightly. We wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors and expect you all to do the same. We also wanted to give you all a quick heads up on how the record is progressing. We have been writing some very powerful new songs so this week the four of us entered the studio once again, and what has been ending up on tape each night is some of the most exciting and honest work we have ever created.

The fandom was stunned. Clearly, MCR had been experiencing some behind-the-scenes turmoil, suggesting that the process wasn’t going as smoothly as fans had thought. While it wasn’t known at the time, they also parted ways with producer Brendan O'Brien, who had been hired specifically to channel their raw, back-to-basics sound. Where would MCR go from here? And when would fans hear the latest album–which was apparently undergoing rewrites once again?

It wasn’t until late 2010 that fans would finally learn what had happened to this unreleased album.

This moment, says frontman Gerard Way, looking back on what went wrong, “was the hardest part”. Guitarist Ray Toro was “home dealing with some family things”, leaving Way, his bassist brother Mikey, and guitarist Frank Iero alone in the mixing studio. “The sinking feeling was really starting to become loud that it wasn’t right - that the record wasn’t finished, I couldn’t even put them in a track order … "Thinking about it now, it’s kind of upsetting, because I just felt so lost,” Gerard says.

This was discussed in an interview with Herald Sun, where they talked about the process of starting again after the departure of their drummer and producer. Speaking to Music Radar, Ray Toro talked about the struggles the band had with original producer Brendan O'Brien, admitting that it hadn’t gone as well as they once thought:

“He was really trying; he did the best he could with us. He knew things weren’t clicking, and he’d try to rally us. I remember he said, ‘Hey, on some songs, I’d love to hear you do what you did on The Black Parade.’ Because there wasn’t any of the harmonized guitar parts or the stacking that I usually do. He was trying to get us to make one record, and we wanted to make something totally different.

Musically, we wanted to go back to our basement. But just because we wanted to do something different didn’t make it easy. In many ways, we felt as though we were holding ourselves back creatively. We were going through the motions. Some of the songs were good, but we weren’t happy with all of them.”

Needing a break, Gerard took a vacation to the desert that surrounded Los Angeles. There, as he told Terminal 5, he realized “I had started the band after 9/11 when I hated art. Black Parade had been about hiding and punishment. I couldn’t tell the truth so I’d talk about cancer instead. I had to put on a mask to show people who I really was. But now it was time to own it. To be who I was before this band started. And I had something in my back pocket: this song, ‘Na Na Na.’”

Reunited with producer Rob Cavallo, who had worked on The Black Parade, the band kicked things off with “Na Na Na.” Gerard and Shaun Simon’s comic “Killjoys,” once a separate side project that had nothing to do with the band, suddenly became the concept that they formed the album around. Fueled by fresh creative energy, the band wrote and re-wrote tracks, came up with concepts and characters like Dr. Death Defying, and shredded the limitations that had confined them. At one point, Gerard turned to his brother Mikey and said “Danger Days, here we come again!”

Not everything from the previous record was scrapped. “Trans Am” became “Bulletproof Heart”; “Death Before Disco” became “Party Poison.” A few new versions of old tracks appeared on the record, as well as the Mad Gear and Missile Kid EP that came later. But MCR’s fourth album had gone from a rock and roll record that deliberately avoided ambitious storylines, to a vividly realized concept album that invited fans into the world of post-apocalyptic California. In many ways, it was the opposite of what they had originally planned. And it seemed to be exactly what they had been looking for.

During this time, Frank snapped in-studio photos that he sold on MCR’s official website, offering one-of-a-kind peeks into the recording process. In March, Mikey Way stated in a blog post that “One day you will wake up, and nothing will ever be the same again, but it’ll feel like an old friend.” He was talking about upcoming changes to the MCR website, but in a way that statement reflected the band’s process at the time–they had completely reinvented themselves, and yet there was still a certain familiarity in the old tracks they had revamped.

The band completed the album with fresh energy, offering sporadic updates in the coming months. Fans waited with some skepticism to see what MCR had in store. And finally, one day in early September, MCR’s website disappeared and was replaced with a mysterious transmitter. The Danger Days era had begun.

But was the scrapped album hidden away, never to be heard again? Not quite.

In 2012, in a blog post on MCR’s website, Frank talked about the feelings of depression that he had faced after The Black Parade. He felt like MCR had done it all, leaving them with nothing left to accomplish. In November 2008, Gerard called him up to talk about the band. As new ideas took shape, they prepared to start recording the album that would eventually be scrapped after months of work.

Frank pointed out that while the band had limited themselves during the recording of this album, the songs weren’t inherently bad–in fact, some of them were among his favorites that the band had produced. As time passed, he developed a greater appreciation for the tracks. And when the band met up and listened to those songs, they decided to release a selection of tracks to the public–two tracks a month for the next five months, for a total of ten.

After all this time, the album finally had a title: Conventional Weapons. Tracks included “Kiss The Ring,” “The World Is Ugly,” “Surrender The Night,” and the fan-favorite “The Light Behind Your Eyes.” Listening to the tracks, it was clear that MCR had aimed for a rock album with a pure American sound–no ambitious concepts or storylines, just a set of killer tracks. Whether they succeeded is up to the listener to decide, but they provided some insight into what came before Danger Days.

Due to its unconventional release, and the fact that the album was a series of random tracks and not a finished product, Conventional Weapons is not considered an “official” MCR album. But while Danger Days was the final album, Conventional Weapons was the final release before MCR broke up in 2013. Since the split, the release of CW has caused many fans to wonder–will My Chemical Romance’s fifth (and unreleased) album ever be shared in a similar fashion? Or will it be locked away forever, like the other CW tracks that were never released?

Only time will tell. But for now, Conventional Weapons serves as an intriguing part of MCR’s history–a time when the band set out to make one type of album, and ended up making the complete opposite.

(Picture credits: 1 2 3. Other in-studio photos by Frank Iero.)

[Originally published 07.09.2017]

[ridiculousyoungicarus]

Is that ZANDER DRISKELL? Wow, they do look a lot like DOMINIC SHERWOOD. I hear HE is a NINETEEN year old FRESHMEN who are studying AEROSPACE ENGINEERING at Luxor University. Word is they are a REGULAR student. You should watch out because they can be CYNICAL and RESERVED, but on the bright side they can also be RESPONSIBLE and PERSISTENT. Ultimately, you’ll get to see it all for yourself.

the basics //

Full Name: Alekzander “Zander” Kane Driskell

Preferred Name: Zander Driskell

Age: 19 (okay he’s only 18 til the 21st but I don’t want to edit this again in a couple weeks so if you’re reading this after his birthday - he’s 19. Before? Well, we all know how birthdays work). 

Birthday: March 21st

Zodiac: Aries

Gender & Pronouns: Man (He/His)

Sexuality: Bisexual

Occupation: Tutor

Relationship Status: Single

Place of Birth: Rochester, New York

Hometown: Saratoga Springs, New York

Country of Citizenship: United States

Languages Spoken: English (first), Spanish, and a teeny bit of French

deeper dive //

Hobbies and Talents:

○ Reading

○ Photography

○ Stargazing

○ Taking long rides on his motorcycle

○ Programming

○ Baseball

○ Robotics

○ Motorcycle Repair and Restoration

○ Playing with Legos

○ Judging the entirety of Luxor 24/7

Favorites:

○ Color:  Black (even though it’s the absence of all color. I’m totally not judging him, totally)

○ Food: Crab Cakes

○ Animal: Lemon Sharks

○ Drink: Coffee, he really loves his coffee

○ Flower: Anemone

○ Book: The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton

○ Holiday: New Years, he’s not a fan of drinking but he likes the hope of new beginnings and the resolutions

○ Movie: Blade Runner (which version? The world may never know)

○ Scent: That smell after a rainstorm

○ Place: In all honesty, he doesn't have a specific favorite, but he has a fondness for any place quiet where he can read in peace.

○ Quote:

“If you look at what you have in life, you'll always have more. If you look at what you don't have in life, you'll never have enough.” -Oprah Winfrey

Bêtes Noires:

○ Color: Lemon Yellow

○ Food: Tiramisu

○ Animal: Rats

○ Drink: Grape Soda

○ Flower: Lilacs

○ Book: Oliver Twist

○ Holiday: Valentine’s Day

○ Movie: The Wizard of Oz

○ Scent: Grapefruit and Vanilla Sugar candles

○ Place: Anyplace his parents are

health //  

Conditions:

         ○ occasional issues with his shoulder / arm (pain, getting stiff) following a surgery

        ○ undiagnosed mental health issues because he refuses to try therapy

Allergies: Pollen, penicillin

Sleeping Habits: What is sleep? Zander is an insomniac. It would probably be manageable with medication, but he refuses to to try. He gets a couple hours a night, but it’s not uncommon to get a response if you text him at 3 am either.

Exercise Habits: Zander works goes to the gym once or twice a week, but usually his exercise is really just running back and forth to class.

Addictions: Tobacco

Drug Use: He smokes cigarettes multiple times a day, and dependent on them to function.

Alcohol Use: Rarely, next to never.

personality //  

MBTI: INTJ

Enneagram: 5w6 (The Investigator with The Loyalist wing)

Alignment: True Neutral

Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw

Percy Jackson Parent: Hecate

Pokémon Type: Fighting

Pokémon Subtype: Steel

Winx: Ice

appearance //  

Height:  5′11”

Tattoos: One, Two

Scars: One, Two

Piercings: None

Hair: Brown

Eyes: 1 pure blue, 1 blue and brown (sectoral heterochromia)

Fashion:

○ link to zander’s closet

life at luxor //  

Major:

○ Aerospace Engineering

Clubs and Activities:

○ Book Club (President)

○ Baseball Team (Pitcher)

○   National Honor Society

fun facts //  

○ Luxor Academy Alumni, he attended the high school from Freshmen year until graduation.

○ Zander really doesn’t trust easily, and he constantly is questioning people’s motives, he doesn’t think most people do things for him without wanting something in return.

○ That doesn’t mean he doesn’t care about people however, he does feel empathy for others and it’s very possible for him to care about someone and not trust him. (Example: he can think of you as a friend but still be wary about your motives).

○ He doesn’t really like discussing his feelings, he expresses them; he feels them, but he doesn’t want to talk about them. He has to really trust you if he’s willing to actually tell you how he’s feeling when he’s upset/hurt instead of lashing out.

○ His sisters are very important to him, he’s in constant contact with Grace (just like Balo - is) and he tries to monitor Balo when he can, intervening in ways she won’t find out about if he feels like he needs to. His parents? Not so much. As for William? It’s complicated. (Family page here for more info on the Driskells)

○ He likes his motorcycle more than you, I’m sorry but it’s true.

○  Zander’s always willing to tutor if he knows a subject and you have a way of paying him. Something needs to pay for that motorcycle.

○ Extremely into space, he loves it even more than he loves his motorcycle and coffee. He’s always dreamed of creating spaceships and satellites, and his dream job is astronautical engineering (a subfield of aerospace, which he’s majoring in)

○ A few centimeters shorter than Balo much to his chagrin.

○ He may or may not get offended every time someone reminds him he’s not actually related to Lucy.

○ Loathes the word sorry even more than he wants to fight Jack.

○ Don’t ask Zander for his opinion unless you want it unfiltered. He will tell you to your face he hates everything about you if you give the platform to, and he doesn’t care if it’s offensive. Because as he sees it, you shouldn’t have asked a question you didn’t want the answer to.

○ The #1 LEGO stan at Luxor. Who needs therapy when you have plastic bricks?

○ I’m always willing to discuss my muses, so feel free to hit me up if you have any questions at any point.

a tl;dr history  //  

○ The Driskells come from an extremely abusive household. Their father is an alcoholic, and their mother tends to work the hours he’s home, leaving the children to fend for themselves. In turn, Zander resents both his parents

○ Zander has always felt like it was his job to take care of his younger sister, Balo, even since they were children. If she needed anything, if their father was going after her, etc etc, he was the one to step in to do what was best for her. This is a habit he still hasn’t broken.

○ This job became easier when their older brother, William, was adopted. Even if the boy was adopted to better appearances after Balo almost caused a social service investigation.

○ Zander is very antisocial and for his first year at Luxor, he mostly only talked to the baseball team and the book club. This eased slightly after Balo also came to Luxor, although he’s still not really one for socialization.

○ When he was home during summer break after his sophomore year, his father stabbed him. This caused some serious damage to his deltoid and the long head of his left bicep that needed surgical repair. After the surgery, however, he thankfully made a full recovery.

○ Zander has been at Luxor since he started high school, other than an occasional school break and having to go home during the summer of 2019.

○ I strongly recommend skimming Zander’s timeline page before interacting with him. These are just the bare minimum basics, and there're more things your muse may know on there.

wanted connections //  

○ Enemies, because Zander really needs more people who can’t stand his shit

○ People that Zander tutors

○ People from the baseball team or bookclub

○ People who hire Zander for his photography

○ Photography Friends

[bnhafantasybigbang]

Wolf’s Fantasy Notes: Punk Fantasy

Hello all! I am back again with Punk fantasy. This one has a decent wealth of subcultures. So I decided to focus on some of the more popular ones that I know of! If anyone knows of others, please let us know in the comments!

Punk Fantasy

This is another fascinating category! Part of what makes it interesting is the same thing that makes it interesting is the same thing that makes it hard to define. Punk is usually created through what if scenarios that focus on a point in history, the present, or even the future that later lead to alternate universes shaped by the changes. In general terms, Punk often refers to the myriad of subculture genres that pop up in literature. This covers all forms of literature from action to romance to horror, even!

So some of the Punk types I wanna talk about today are: Steam, Cyber, and Diesel!

So first up on my list of potential fic fodder: Steampunk

Steampunk is probably one of of the punk genres that most people are familiar with. Usually carrying either a Victorian or Wild West flair there are airships running on steam instead of planes alongside cog and steam cyborgs/robots. Metallic prosthetic limbs made of gears! Top hats and feathers and brooches made of clock parts! Also, don’t leave your aviator googles at home! 

In simple terms, Steampunk is basically a what if scenario that joins the bridge between fantasy and sci fi (I will do a post on sci fi-fantasy as well). What if steam powered technology had flourished rather than being outrun by coal and electricity? What would the world look like and how would it run?

There are several examples of this, some blatant and some not so blatant.

Anime: Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle

While both definitely incorporate heaps of magic and mystery, the background tells a bit of a different story.

In Spirited Away, the bath house Chihiro becomes trapped in relies on magic as well as the water and steam that Kamaji provides. Pulley systems and the moving parts of the building rely on it the most.

In Howl’s Moving Castle, again the background has airships and some robotics, but it is far more subtle.

Television: Firefly

This short lived but well loved show featured a crew on an airship and is flagship when discussing steampunk.

Western Animation: Hullabaloo

Is an upcoming animated series about the daughter of an inventor that is set in a steampunk universe! Their website has more info.

Literature:

Works by Gail Carriger

For adults there is her Soulless series about a female assassin traversing a Victorian steampunk landscape that is not only inhabited by humans but vampires, werewolves, and other paranormal creatures.

For the younger crowd, there is her Finishing School series set in the same universe as Soulless. It focuses on a flagship school that trains female assassins like the main character in Soulless!

The Vampire Empire series by Clay and Susan Griffith

A princess has to team up with a vampire to save her people from their mortal enemies the vampires. It is based in a steampunk environment.

Next on the list: Cyberpunk

Cyberpunk can be thought of as the opposite of Steampunk. Where the inspiration for steam is taken from the past, cyberpunk heralds from the future. Steampunk is usually full of exploration and adventure, and a dash of hope for the future. Cyberpunk is usually bleak, bad end future dystopias. Steampunk usually encompasses vast worlds that are remakes of our own. Cyber usually takes place in the future with virtual reality being the setting rather than the real world. Although there are several that do take place beyond it.

Some popular examples are The Matrix series, The Fifth Element, Looper, and Blade Runner for movies. Ender’s Game, Time Cop, and Ready Player One for literature, although all three have film versions.

A recent serial example, would be Altered Carbon. It was a novel that was recently developed as a series for Netflix! It is wonderful series that explores what happens to humanity when they become practically immortal by being recorded onto discs that can be changed from one body to another. It is made for a mature audience, so viewer discretion is advisable.

Lastly: Dieselpunk

Dieselpunk can be thought of as the offspring of steam and cyberpunk if it had fuel running in its veins. This aesthetic is grungy and brutal like cyberpunk usually existing during a dystopic time period as well. However, it focuses on the real world and the environment created by it. Technology itself maybe dying out or still in its infancy during these stories. So, virtual reality and space settings are usually not present. Dieselpunk is also very present as in tied to the present time. They usually take place in dire circumstances like a war.

A couple of examples would be Mad Maxx and Death Race in terms of movies. Snowpiercer would be another.   

Again, please let us know of any other good examples to include in these categories if you know of any!

Functioning as an aesthetic and/or a genre

Another interesting thing about most punk cultures is that they are often considered sub-genres. This often means they can function as an aesthetic rather than a stand alone universe or story type like we typically think of with genres. They often serve to spice up a narrative rather than support it. But they can be used to support one, too.

What do I mean?

Let’s take Spirited Away as an example of punk as an aesthetic.

In Spirited Away, the story is about Chihiro having to save her parents after they stumble into the spirit realm and get turned into pigs. It is a standard hero’s journey story set in a fantasy world with its own ecosystems, politics, etc, etc.  If we want to classify it, we would call it a pseudo-iseikai of the high fantasy variety. See my post on high fantasy for more info.

Steam comes into play only when the story reaches the bathhouse. It is necessary there as a distinguishing element. It is meant to show how human’s modern industrialization is vastly different from the nature harmonious steam and simple physics driven bath house that the spirits have.

Outside of that, steampunk is not important… that idea is no longer important.

How can this be applied to your story?

-Distinguishing cultures or kingdoms

Perhaps give your dragon kingdom a diesel/iron punk feel while your fairy kingdom is more steampunkish in line with their connection to nature

-Use them as a basis for creating other kinds of power sources or culture

-Use them as obstacles to your character’s goals

They find an abandoned ship but it runs on a special fuel that only the dieselpunk dragon race you made can make

Now for a punk genre example.

In Altered Carbon, mentioned in my blurb about cyberpunk, the main character is a newly “spun up” prisoner (they took his chip and put it in a new body after he was “detained” for 200 years in chip form). He was released to investigate a murder. While he does so, we are given glimpses into his original life. Now this story is clearly a sci-fi murder mystery with a hint of romance and other messy human pathos. But it can easily be called a cyberpunk murder mystery, too!

Now what makes this different than Spirited Away? The cyberpunk elements are tightly woven into not only the setting but the culture and the people… and that makes all the difference.

They have their own terminology that is clearly linked to the cyberpunk nature of the story. Spun up is one such term. Another is sleeves. Sleeves, like sleeves on clothing? What makes this so special? In this universe human bodies are referred to as sleeves! This is because when a body dies the “human consciousness” is not lost it is literally backed up on a chip. This chip is located between two vertebrae in the neck and can be reinserted into another sleeve (body)! There is a whole industry built on creating all kinds of sleeves!

In other words, it shapes the very fabric of your story as a whole.

Let’s take the dragon example from before. Instead of your characters just needing the fuel to power a wrecked ship… the ship is theirs and they are actually water transport personnel that move water across a barren wasteland that has been stripped of all its natural resources. There are few places that have electricity or clean water. Your MC has to get this water to their hometown, a shanty village that is in dire straits, their final stop after a few months of running routes. The Dragon kingdom is one of the few kingdoms that can provide fuel and other necessities in this area. Dragons and humans don’t get along. But it is a confrontation that has to be had.

In this scenario, the crumbling society and scarceness that comes with dieselpunk is woven into your character’s and universe’s story. The Dragons have the upper hand because they have what other characters don’t but need. You can play with terminology and how things are made. Perhaps the fuel is made from their blood and scales diluted in some simple oil that the few tree species in the area give off in huge amounts. The ships are cobbled together shells running on simple combustion engines that work with that special fuel.   

Long story short, if you want to use the different punk genres as aesthetics sprinkle it in every now and again. But if you want this to be the backbone of your story… your story’s genre then make sure you treat it like a character. Or at least make it intrinsic to the story you are telling.

Have any questions about making use of punk genres or something you would like me to answer about fantasy in general? Hit me up in my ask box here!

See you soon and sorry for being late (again)! Next time we start talking about some of the more broad yet niche sections of fantasy starting with Dark Fantasy!

~Admin Wolf

[eng2100]

blog 08 - neuromancer

So as an introductory note, I’m actually quite a big fan of cyberpunk. I’m a hobbyist DnD player and the first campaign that I’ve Dungeon-Mastered for was actually a simplified version of Shadowrun that I wrote all the backstory and lore for. It’s in what I would call a “sequel” right now that I’m very much enjoying. So bla bla bla I was excited to get to Neuromancer this whole time because I’m a genre fan.

a brief primer to cyberpunk

So western Cyberpunk owes its roots largely to the detective fiction genre-- most notably the hardboiled detective archetype, a darker western interpretation of your Sherlock Holmes type who is usually a jaded antihero that works for money, but still has a sense of justice deep down. You see this more reflected in Blade Runner than you see it in Neuromancer’s Case, but there are still a number of correlations (Funnily enough, Neuromancer and Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep both end on nearly the same line-- “He never saw Molly again.” and “...and I never saw her again.” respectively.) Interestingly enough, Case kind of spawns his own kind of cyberpunk hero trope-- the rebellious hacker, seen in Neo. 

If detective fiction owes itself to the inescapable aura of The Great Depression, then cyberpunk owes itself to the Reagan administration. Cyberpunk’s whole thing, at least in the west, springs forward from the fear of unregulated corporate growth in tandem with the rise of technology, and what the mixture of the two might bode for humanity at large. Both Neuromancer and Blade Runner owe their entire aesthetics to the vision of a world taken over by neon advertisements, bereft of nature, replaced by plasticity. 

Now, why the primer? Well, I think it’s important to preface the discussion of this novel with the idea that cyberpunk is a deeply political genre in a way that not many other genres inherently are. (All fiction is, of course, inherently political, whether intentional or not, but most genres don’t regularly feature as much political charge as cyberpunk, is what I mean.) Neuromancer is politics from an era before most of us in this class were born, and as such, atop being a seminal work of genre fiction, it’s a lurid look into what the landscape looked like in the 80s. We are living now in the times that 80s Cyberpunk once called “the future”-- and, well, what does it look like for us? Are we living in the Urban Sprawl?

not quite

Our dystopian future is significantly more...mundane than coffin hotels and the television sky over Chiba. You might say we got all the corporate deregulation and none of the glimmering aesthetic slickness of cyberpunk-- we really are living in the worst timeline. If i’m going to have to labor under capitalism for the rest of my short life, couldn’t I at least have a slick pair of mirrorshades?

the text

There’s a lot about Neuromancer to like. It earned its reputation wholeheartedly-- it is definitely the legendary cyberpunk novel that it is well-known for being. Its writing style can often be abstract at the same time that it’s luridly detailed, and it uses strange and interesting words to create vivid images in the reader’s mind of this foreign landscape of the Sprawl. It uses a lot of “old world” associations to lend deeper weight to its descriptions (the Tank War Europa game comes to mind in tandem with the Screaming Fist operation that looms over the plot). 

The book doesn’t shy away from the visceral nature of its own plot and setting-- drug binges and cramped love affairs in coffin hotels, fear and violence are all described in visceral detail that grounds the book hard in its reality while simultaneously indulging in a sort of dream-like surreality. I really admire the ways in which Gibson writes physical sensation whether it comes to the sex or the pain or the weirdness of cyberspace. The introduction of the novel sort of failed to catch me until Gibson went into detail about Case’s harrowing journey after losing his ability to jack into cyberspace and the intense, surreal affair with Linda Lee. Perhaps my biggest issue with the writing of Neuromancer is, however, Gibson’s tendency to throw a lot of world-building terminology at you really fast. Nothing bogs down a fictional story more than having to pause to wonder what certain words mean.

Describing cyberspace during a time in which VR wasn’t even a thing yet had to have been a challenge and a half, but Gibson found interesting ways to visualize the experience, and coined interesting terminology for it (ice and icebreakers, most notably). The Sense/Net bits are also pretty cool, but I’m also biased because anything that gives Molly Millions more screentime is just the best thing.

Did I mention Molly is my favorite character? I just can’t get over her. It sucks that her and Case break up in the epilogue, but it also feels fitting in a weird way. She really struck me as a standout character for a woman in a cyberpunk novel-- she’s an active player in her own sexuality, she’s violent and the stronger of the two between herself and Case. She has a sort of unapologetic way about her that feels very fresh even today. The first time Case uses Sense/Net to see through her eyes, I was hit in an unexpectedly hard way by the description of people in a crowd moving out of the way for her-- for most girls in real life, that’s a fairly unheard of experience, and to me, as a female reader, it did a lot to establish to me just how powerful she is.

That being said, this is a good place to segue into the conversation you know my Obnoxious Feminist Ass has been waiting to bring up.

cyberpunk vs women

You can tell a lot about a person’s base assumptions about the world by the way they talk about people in their works of fiction. Now when I say “base assumptions” I don’t mean their political leanings, I mean something that’s on a deeper, more subconscious level-- in this way, base assumptions are inherently neutral in a way, they’re incapable of being truly malicious, even if they’re harmful, because they’re just the base coding of how a person regards things inherently.

What I’m getting at is that at the time of writing this book, I don’t think Gibson had much of a regard for women at all. When the first mention of women in your novel is calling them whores, I’m going to be forced to assume both that you don’t like women very much and that women are primarily sex objects to you-- or at the very least that women factor into your view of the world in a very marginal way that is largely informed by porn culture. Now, let’s suppose that maybe it’s actually the POV character Case that’s just a raging sexist-- that theory might hold water if this were a character trait that is brought up as a flaw, or indeed, if it were really brought up at all in his personality, but it’s not.

To my great frustration, in the Neuromancer world, it seems like “whore” is about the only job available for women! Who knew the job market would shrink in such a way? Now, perhaps you could argue that Gibson was actually trying to make a point about the way in which porn culture commodifies women into sexy leg lamps for male consumption, and I won’t claim to know his intent, but to me, it doesn’t really seem that deep. It seems like to me that, to Gibson, women being mostly vapid sex workers in his dystopia is a foregone conclusion-- he didn’t think about it that hard, that’s just his stereotypical image of what women in an criminal underbelly do.

This problem of a lack of regard for female perspectives in cyberpunk narratives that largely concern themselves with themes of objectification and oppression under capitalist systems and the regurgitation of harmful sexist tropes certainly isn’t exclusive to Neuromancer. Cyberpunk is a economic-political type of genre, so oppression in the genre tends to fall upon class lines rather than race or gender lines-- and perhaps, this could occur in a far flung future in which capital manages to supersede bias, however, I can’t help but feel that this is a lazy way to write a political narrative. Blade Runner, Blade Runner 2049, and The Matrix all have distinct problems with addressing the idea of intersectionality when it comes to the ways in which ones gender and race plays into their role in a capitalist system. 

Cyberpunk, for all its shining successes as interesting fiction and pointed political commentary, totally fails in the regard that it co-opts the struggle of lower-classes and applies the romanticized aesthetic to white male characters completely unironically. (You can read a pretty good take on Dystopias and post-racialism here.)

east versus west

So, when I went over the primer to the rise of Cyberpunk earlier, I left something out (on purpose!). During the 80s, there was another prime ingredient to the mix of the nascent genre’s formation: the rise of Japan as a technological leader in the global market. Before World War 2, and indeed, during it, American’s conceptualization of the future, was, well, American. They viewed themselves as the originator of innovation within the world and the blueprint from which the rest of the world should be based. However, this all changed in the post-war era as Japan began to participate in the market, leaving behind their isolationist ways-- suddenly, Japan was what the vision of the future looked like in American imagination-- the Tokyo urban sprawl.

The imagery of Japan is ubiquitous in western Cyberpunk, whether hardcore or or softcore or simply an incidental portrayal of futurism. Disney’s Big Hero 6 features San Fransokyo, San Franciso and Tokyo jammed together complete with neon signs in Japanese letters. During the 90s, Marvel launched Rampage 2099 and Spider-man 2099, both set in glittering neon cityscapes. The series Firefly featured a strange universe in which everyone seems to speak Chinese pidgins (but there’s no Chinese people in the show, funnily). MTV had Aeon Flux, a U.S. take on anime. Even movies like Total Recall borrowed the bright neon flavor. Video games such as Deus Ex and Cyberpunk 2077 feature these influences heavily, with less-bold-but-still-there influence being seen in games like Remember Me and Detroit: Become Human.

There’s an interesting cultural exchange going on between the east and west when it comes to Cyberpunk, as the 90s were rife with cyberpunk fiction in both places-- The U.S. saw The Matrix (which was inspired by Ghost in the Shell, as admitted by the Wachowskis in a phrasing that I find really annoying as an animator: “We want to make that but for real”.), while Japan had the seminal Ghost in the Shell and Akira. It’s interesting to note the stark contrast between western and eastern Cyberpunk-- eastern Cyberpunk misses entirely western Cyberpunk’s detective fiction roots, for one. For two, eastern Cyberpunk tends to concern itself more with philosophical questions about the nature of the soul in relation to technology and deep-seated cultural fears about weapons of mass destruction and government.

Neuromancer is deeply entrenched in eastern aesthetics-- many Japanese brands are brought up explicitly by name within the model (Mitsubishi, Sony, etc.). Gibson cites the “Kowloon Walled City” of Hong Kong as something that haunted him after he was told about it, and the idea of Coffin Hotels owes quite a lot to it. Gibson is quoted as saying:

“Modern Japan simply was cyberpunk. The Japanese themselves knew it and delighted in it. I remember my first glimpse of Shibuya, when one of the young Tokyo journalists who had taken me there, his face drenched with the light of a thousand media-suns - all that towering, animated crawl of commercial information - said, ‘You see? You see? It is Blade Runner town.' And it was. It so evidently was.“

One of Neuromancer’s primary settings is The Night City, a supposedly gaijin district of Tokyo on the bay-- this...sort of explains why there don’t seem to be a lot of Asian people in Asia, but the issue still stands. This isn’t a game-breakingly “I wouldn’t recommend this book” bad case, but it is something that I felt I should point out. Neuromancer is a foundational work to the genre, which means that not only are its successes carried over, but many of its flaws as well. Now, I don’t want this cricitism to sound like I think William Gibson is a raging bigot or anything-- I really don’t! I follow him on twitter and he’s a perfectly likable guy, actually. Problems aside, I really enjoy his work.

conclusions

Going into the future, I don’t think Cyberpunk is going away anytime soon, and certainly much of it owes its roots to Neuromancer. With shows like Altered Carbon and games like Cyberpunk 2077 on the horizon, I’m interested to see the ways in which our current economic political climate may effect what our vision of a technological dystopia may look like. Cyberpunk is easily one of the most interesting genres of fiction, and if you haven’t looked into it deeply, I highly recommend checking it out.

[nintendoduo]

34 Cool WiiWare Games That Are Going Away FOREVER*

 *Unless Nintendo decides to sell them again when the Switch U 4DS VR comes out in 2025.

As you might have heard, starting next Monday Nintendo is taking away the ability to add funds to the Wii Shop, which will close down for good in early 2019. That means a whole bunch of great games won’t be able to be purchased anymore. In order to raise awareness of this, the most important issue of our times (after all the other issues), we spent the winter playing as many WiiWare games as we could over on our YouTube channel. Here’s a summary of the gems we encountered:

1. 3D Pixel Racing

A pretty challenging motion control racing game with Minecraft-esque graphics. Pro tip: use a regular old Wiimote, not a Wiimote Plus. Trust us, the Plus is too sensitive for this game and you’ll end up falling off the track every two seconds. Despite the difficulty, this one gets a recommendation because of the cool look and for giving us an excuse to use the Mario Kart Wii wheel again.

2. And Yet It Moves

Using the Wiimote’s gyroscope, this game has you move the world around you (rather than vice versa) to navigate the levels.  One of those “easy to learn, difficult to master” type of games that defined many of the best on the platform.

3. Bit.Trip Runner

Originally a WiiWare exclusive, although you can now play it on 3DS, PC, Mac, Linux, and probably some Japanese toilets. You run from left to right and jump, slide, kick and... jump again to the music. A tribute to the platforming classics that deservedly became a classic itself (and the sequel, available on Wii U, is even better).

4. BurgerTime: World Tour

You know, BurgerTime! If you don’t know, this is a good excuse to get acquainted with this ‘80s arcade title. Like in the original, you attempt to assemble giant hamburgers on a series of platforms whilst dodging humanoid food monsters, only this time the graphics are in 3D and it’s all happening in space, for some reason. NOTE: Ironically, this fast-food themed game can’t be bought in North America right now, only Europe.

5. Chrono Twins DX

Originally designed for the DS, the gimmick is that the main character is fighting enemies in two different time periods at once.  For the DS this used each screen for the different time zones, but with WiiWare you get a simple split-screen.  It’s quite unique and challenging as you’re basically playing two sidescrollers at once.

6. Contra Rebirth

Remember when dudes with rippling muscles and mullets got to be badass gunfighters and nobody complained they were toxic?  Contra sure does.  Konami gave “Rebirth” to three of their classic franchises on WiiWare (CastleVania and Gradius were the other two) but this was probably the best of the bunch.

7. Dracula: Undead Awakening

If you never get tired of mowing down undead enemies then this will scratch that itch.  Basically you get a bunch of different cool weapons and use them against a bunch of different cool monsters for as long as you wish, or at least as long as you survive.  The challenge is so high that even lasting ten minutes on your first playthrough has the game calling you “noob.”

8. Eduardo the Samurai Toaster

A simple run n’ gun game (think Metal Slug) starring a sentient toaster facing off against flying onions, spear-toting carrots, and what appears to be an army of angry playing cards. It’s not clear what the plot of the game is, and there’s not a whole lot of depth to the gameplay, but it’s still a fun way to waste an hour (or more, depending on the difficulty). It’s supposed to be even more fun with 4 players, if you can find three other Wii-loving weirdos.

9. Excitebike World Rally

Motorcycle races.  Simplicity works sometimes, and just like the original Excitebike this one proves it once more.  Just like the original you get a cool level creator, only this time you can share it with anyone and not just whoever you give your cartridge to.

10. Frogger: Hyper Arcade Edition

Lots of different modes that still capture the appeal of the original arcade classic.  The overall look is kinda coked-up, which captures the ‘80s arcade scene reasonably well.

11. Frogger Returns

Only the one mode this time, but it serves as a reminder of the timeless quality and endearing appeal of the core gameplay.

12. Gnomz

A chaotic 4-player party game starring sock-obsessed gnomes. You go around a single screen collecting socks and stomping other players to kill them; it’s like life itself. (Or, as many have pointed out, like the Super Mario War fan game, but less illegal.) There are three modes and a variety of scenarios. Like with Eduardo the Samurai Toaster, the more players the better, but the single player mode ain’t bad (and that way, you don’t ruin any friendships).

13. Gyrostarr

A pseudo-3D shoot ‘em up where the main difficulty is that you can actually shoot the power ups away, and you kinda need those to finish the stages -- if you don’t collect enough energy, the portal at the end of the level closes on your face. The difficulty ramps up slowly but surely across 50 levels. Another difficulty is not getting an LSD flashback on those trippy bonus stages.

14. HoopWorld

A basketball/fighting game that makes surprisingly good use of the Wii’s motion controls. This definitely falls in the “easy to pick up, difficult to master” category, since there’s a pretty wide range of ball throws and kung-fu moves you can perform by shaking your Wiimote and nunchuck in different ways. Or you can just wave your arms randomly and hope you win. The game is currently unlisted in North America, which we’re hoping is a sign that they’re planning to re-release it in modern platforms (with online multiplayer, hopefully).

15. Horizon Riders

A futuristic on-rails shooting game that you play with the Wii balance board. If you have the Wii Zapper accessory, even better (and you’ll look even sillier), but it’s not necessary to play. You aim and shoot with your Wiimote while leaning on your balance board to move from side to side. Definitely a good reason to dig that thing out of your closet. Be warned, though, that the game crashed on us in the middle of a stage, as seen at the end of our gameplay video.

16. Jam City Rollergirls

Roller derby has never been as popular to watch as it is for people to randomly talk about every few years for the novelty, usually accompanied by a movie that flops at the box office.  The last time the mainstream tried to make this sport happen it resulted in this game, though, so there’s at least that.  You play as characters with hilarious names roller blading through others with random power-ups and combat moves.

17. Jett Rocket

It’s a lofty ambition to offer gamers something that will remind them of Super Mario Galaxy, and it might seem foolish to do so on an indie dev’s budget.  But Shin’en managed to deliver with an uncommon 3D platformer collectathon with good amounts of action sprinkled in.

18. LostWinds

When a developer approached a title with motion controls in mind, it always stood out more than other games that tried to crowbar motion controls into the scenery in the hopes of a shortcut to Wii success.  LostWinds is in the former camp, making you use the pointer to create gusts of wind to elevate the main character onto platforms and knock around enemies.  In fact it’d be more accurate to say you’re playing as the wind spirit rather than the story’s protagonist.  Fun game with a beautiful art style.

19. Maboshi's Arcade

Nintendo knows how to make simple games that present difficulty when you don’t expect it.  In the three modes of this puzzler you play as generic shapes but the controls are difficult to master.  It kind of has to be seen to be believed.

20. Magnetica Twist

A connect-three type of game where you fire marbles and stuff.  What ends up twisted the most are your wrists whilst trying to aim your shots with any sort of precision.

21. Max and the Magic Marker

There are plenty of side-scrolling platformers that use childhood visuals and hobbies to appeal to the player, and yet they never really get old do they?  In this one you use a marker via motion controls to create platforms and defeat enemies.  You also can go in and out of Max’s childhood drawings.

22. Monsteca Corral

This is a weird one.  A bunch of monsters vaguely shaped like Doshin the Giant are gathered together by an unseen god-ish alien to fight robots that said alien had created earlier, but they turned against him.  That’s the plot as we can best make out, anyways.  There’s also dinosaurs.  Recommended for those who like their fun to be completely unlike the other fun they’ve had with games.

23. Pearl Harbor Trilogy – 1941: Red Sun Rising

Old-school dogfighting in a new-school 3D game.  Well, it was new when it released.  Anyways you shoot down enemy planes, defend your base, attack naval fleets and get commendations you don’t deserve.  Sometimes you see the action from the POV of the bombs you drop, and it works much better here than in Michael Bay’s version of Pearl Harbor.

24. Pole's Big Adventure

Chindōchū!! Pole no Daibōken is bizarre Japan-only SEGA title made to parody the crappy platform games that came out during the 8-bit era. Despite being full of intentional design flaws, like power ups that kill you or background objects that suddenly cut your head off, the game is pretty easy -- until you unlock hard mode, where the boss fights are actually challenging. Still, you’ll be playing this one mostly to laugh at the dozens of Easter eggs.

25. PictureBook Games: Pop Up Pursuit

Not many board games made it to WiiWare, but this was easily the best.  It’s largely straightforward “run to the end of the board” contests, with plenty of opportunities to ruin friendships.  The art style is the main hook, looking like a pop-up book, like the title indicates.

26. Rage of the Gladiator

You fight for your life against larger-than-life mythological creatures, like ogres and minotaurs and senseis.  The game got compared frequently to Punch-Out!! and with good reason, but the combat is actually a more creative and the dialogue is more humorous.  A blast to play through the first time, and a blast to replay.

27. Snowpack Park

Unlike most of the games on this list, there’s no combat in this one and your blood pressure won’t ever raise.  There’s plenty to do but it’s fun stuff, mostly involving playing with penguins.  It works great as a sort of palette cleanser to the violent action-packed games primarily showcased in this list.

28. Sonic the Hedgehog 4

The 16-bit Sonic games still hold up today as all-time greats.  Sonic 4 didn’t live up to those expectations but it did get SEGA to think about their past a little more seriously, and helped lead to Sonic Mania.  Episode I is on WiiWare, but you’ll have to find Episode II elsewhere.

29. Space Invaders Get Even

Another sequel to another arcade classic, but with the novel twist of playing the game from the enemies’ point of view.  Word of warning: this is possibly the only WIiWare game that has DLC.  The initial purchase of 500 points will escalate up to 2′000 points if you’re enjoying yourself.

30. Star Soldier R

Top-down arcade-style shooter, and if you know the type you know the drill.  The amount of content is pretty bare-bones, as it’s basically just time attacks.  But the replayability is rewarding if you’re a fan of the genre.

31. Tetris Party

We hope you know Tetris.  This is a Tetris that has good multiplayer, interesting variants where you do things like create platforms for some guy to climb to the top of the screen or use the tetrinos to make exact shapes like that of an apple.  There’s also a balance board mode, and as stated earlier it’s good to have an excuse to pull out the balance board.

32. Vampire Crystals

Vampires used to live peacefully with zombies but now they don’t, and it becomes your problem.  Thankfully you get plenty of guns, some so powerful that you end up creating a bullet hell where you’re the one firing them rather than dodging them.  It looks simple but the game actually is quite tough.  It’s not Cuphead-level but you will fail many times over.  With plenty of content and being one of the last WiiWare releases, this title approached the platform’s fullest potential.

33. WarioWare DIY

What sets this apart from the 87 other WarioWare games? The fact that players could make their own minigames, leading to an avalanche of creative, insane, and even NSFW games. Unfortunately the servers are no longer online, but you can still find thousands of fan games online if you look hard enough. The included games are pretty fun too, and if you have the DS version, you can make your own and send them over to your Wii.

34. Zombie Panic in Wonderland

Shooting galleries are perfect for motion controls, but gamers don’t get as many as we deserve.  Thankfully this one helps rectify that, with an interesting story and cool comic-book art sequences that keep things moving between all the gunning down of zombies and various giant monsters.

[hmslusitania]

Blade Runner 2049 - a review

Concerning women, sex, and sexualisation in this highly aesthetic sci-fi film.

Oh my god, this is literally nothing but spoilers. 

First things first - as with the first Blade Runner there’s a piece to be written about using a fictional faction of people to represent the struggles of marginalised minority groups and casting only white people as this new faction, but I am not the person to write that, as I am a middle class white American.

What I can talk about is women, and sex.

I will note that the majority of the female characters in the movie died, most of them violently and brutally. I was going to say “obviously this is a problem” but apparently it’s not obvious because it keeps happening in films. Jared Leto slices open a brand new replicant – ostensibly because he’s upset she’s sterile??? – and lets her bleed to death in the background. The replicant Luv beats Lieutenant Joshi to death and then really unnecessarily bangs her corpse’s head against the desk. Luv also “kills” K’s holographic girlfriend Joi, as well as shooting the new copy of Rachel in the head, before being drown/strangled to death herself by K. Which left us with three female characters alive and well at the end of the movie – Mariette played by Mackenzie Davis (because despite the spate of deaths, the prostitute wasn’t one of them, possibly for the first time ever in a major movie), the mysterious leader of the replicant rebellion, Freysa, and the most important character in the entire movie, Dr Ana Stelline.

Because that’s just it. Despite the fact that five of the eight women with significant amounts of screen time die horribly (and unnecessarily in 4/5 cases), the most important character in the movie is the crafter of memories, Ana Stelline.

For those of you who haven’t seen the movie, or did and did not discern a noticeable plot (which would be understandable since it’s Blade Runner and the point of Blade Runner is the #aesthetic), it centres around LAPD officer K (Ryan Gosling), a replicant who was sent to find the offspring of a replicant. As we all know, replicants cannot reproduce, because that would make them people, so this is troubling to the keepers of order (namely Lieutenant Joshi played by post-Antiope Robin Wright). For most of the movie, the viewer and Officer K are convinced that he is that replicant child, and he even has a real memory to back up this hypothesis. And then, at the crux of the movie, we learn that the replicant child everyone has been hunting for is a woman, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Having K be the miraculous child would have been narratively convenient, endlessly predictable and boring, and yet another entry into the world of the “white dude as the promise of the future” genre. And Blade Runner 2049 changed that by having the actual face of things to come be a woman. She was a woman who was at the very least half-replicant (“Were you designed to fall in love with Rachel the moment you saw her?” Jared Leto asked. “This is the question everyone’s been asking for thirty-five years, asshat,” Ridley Scott, Harrison Ford, and the entire list of people who have ever seen Blade Runner replied.) and was also so human that she was a maker of memories to implant in the heads of replicants to give them proper human emotions. And she was the answer to the future. She did not have a big on-screen role, but it was absolutely the most important role in the film.

I also want to talk about sex, intimacy, and sexualisation, because what the movie did with them was fascinating. The most intimate relationship in the entire movie was clearly that of K and Joi, his holographic love-bot-girlfriend. Joi and K were both quite aware that she was a hologram, and a step further removed from humanity than he was as a replicant. And maybe it was because he also wasn’t fully human that her programming seemed to adapt, and made her want to be more like a real girl. In a movie full of naked breasts, we never saw K’s version of Joi naked.

Sex has always been a commodity in the Blade Runner universe, and it is to such an extent in 2049 that almost all of the nudity is commodified and sexualised without ever actually being…sexual. The majority of the living, breathing women who appear naked in the movie aren’t filmed with the typical slow panning of the camera with soft lighting to indicate sensuality and encourage the viewer to want to have sex with them. There is an entirely naked, freshly hatched replicant who is noticeably not posed to be sexual the way women’s bodies usually are in film – although any credit that might have got them is immediately ruined by Jared Leto touching her womb, monologuing about how agonising it is to him that his “angels” are fruitless, and then slicing her open like a bad science experiment dissection.

The next time we see a fully naked woman, it is Mariette the morning after she has sex with K, as she is getting dressed. There are no lingering closeups, no slow panning over perfectly taught abs or tensed thighs or perky breasts. There’s just a woman getting dressed in the morning that is never, in any way, sexual.

In fact, the only sex scene in the entire movie – which is also possibly the strangest and most fascinating threesome I’ve seen in mass media – never once features nudity. There’s a desynchronised kiss, and…that’s it. The only time the bed features into it is when Mariette gets up the next morning. It was the culmination of the intimacy between K and Joi and it was a little sensual, and well-acted, but at no point was it sexualised.

The only time we see Joi naked is as a massive hologram advertisement trying to appeal to K after he’s lost his version of her. The advertisement is clearly attempting to be sexual but neither K nor the audience perceives it that way. Instead, it is simply the reminder that his life, and his Joi’s life, were manufactured by someone else and the only real way to prove they’re worth something – the most human thing they can do – is die for something that matters. Joi had, by that point, already died for something that mattered to her – K – and he had to decide whether or not he was going to help the replicant underground and keep Jared Leto-corp from getting information from Deckard. The naked billboard was the reminder that even though they were mass produced, him and Joi, they could still find some individuality by doing something different than their intended purpose.

Another moment worth mentioning is during the final fight with Luv. The moment where she grabs K’s jaw and kisses him before declaring she is the superior. I only bring it up because it made the friend I was sitting next to throw up her hands in disgust and despair (she hated the movie, as an aside). It was a kiss, yes, but it was so very obviously an “I own you” kiss of dominance that if it hadn’t been for my friend’s dismay, I wouldn’t have even included it in this category of thought.

So that’s Blade Runner 2049. Sex isn’t nudity, intimacy isn’t really sex, and nudity isn’t sexualised, all while sex is a major commodity. Women died, but there were also more named female characters than there were named male characters, so I don’t really know what to do with that. In conclusion, I still have a crush on Mackenzie Davis, and honestly, I enjoyed and liked the movie very much. 

[ahouseoflies]

The Best Films of 2017, Part II

Part I can be found here. I should have mentioned the films I haven’t seen, which include BPM; Faces Places; The Square; Coco; Thelma; Last Flag Flying; Roman J. Israel, Esq.; Wonder Wheel; Jane; and I, Daniel Blake. Long-time AHOLs also know that I’m in the fifth year of a self-imposed five-year break from superhero culture, so I haven’t seen Logan or Thor or whatever else. With that: ENDEARING CURIOSITIES WITH BIG FLAWS 87. The Great Wall (Zhang Yimou)-  Zhang Yimou's The Great Wall has a lot in common with Wong Kar-Wai's The Grandmaster. Both are high-concept international co-productions that bear just enough of the filmmaker's signature but feel unfortunately cut to ribbons in the editing room. Computers have made us all a little worse at our jobs, Zhang included, and his spectacle is achieved despite CGI, not because of it. I liked watching a boulder's journey through the stages of being catapulted, even if it eventually landed into a physics-negligent pit of cartoon monsters. By the end, the picture is more bloodless, sexless, and simplistic than a game of toy soldiers, which makes it seem just as child-like. It's a forgettable sort of fun, but it is often fun. 86. The Ghost in the Shell (Rupert Sanders)- A bit more comprehensible than the original but far less beautiful. It's a shame that visions of future exteriors haven't improved or at least changed since Blade Runner. Big advertisements. Got it. (Also, we have telepathic walkie-talkies, but people sleep on the floor?) There are a few good ideas drizzled around. If people can basically toggle back and forth between languages, why not hire a famous actor who doesn't speak English for one of the supporting roles? Speaking of acting though, Johansson is pretty bad in this, hamstrung by the whole playing-a-robot problem. (She looks as good as she ever has though, which is saying something.) She could have taken some notes from Michael Pitt, who brings some edge and skitter to his cybernetic replicant or whatever they call it. 85. Wilson (Craig Johnson)- It hits the notes that a Daniel Clowes property usually does: misanthropy, formlessness, begrudging acceptance at the end. I laughed a few times and appreciated the huge left-turn at the two-thirds mark, but I didn't think it amounted to much. 84. Patti Cake$ (Geremy Jasper)-  Other than the Basterd character, there's nothing really broken about this movie, but I'm selling on anything with double-digit dream sequences. 

83. Colossal (Nacho Vigalondo)- The ending, both the final act and the final note, went a long way to save what was a tedious sit for me. I appreciate the big swings that everyone took with this budget and material--Sudeikis once again gets to show impressive range. But this is an hour of material stretched to an hour and forty-nine minutes. 82. Rough Night (Lucia Aniello)- Hide-the-body movies never work, but what makes this one disappointing is that there's a daring, original corrective somewhere on the margins. You can tell from the comparatively tame bachelor party or the unexpectedly positive threesome that this movie has refreshing ideas, but both the Machine and TV visuals from a TV director shaved the edge down. No one wants to hear such a thing about a sorely-needed female-driven comedy, but Paul W. Downs is the funniest thing in this. 81. Beauty and the Beast (Bill Condon)- Shout-out to the morons protesting this movie's gayness but not realizing that the original was always an allegory for AIDS. These live-action remakes are all around the same quality, but this one feels especially bloated, with really dicey CGI. Things get borderline boring in between the musical numbers, but, man, do those numbers hold up. There's the title track obviously, but songs that would be throwaways in something else--"Gaston," "Be Our Guest," "Something There"--are BANGERZ here. The real IP is the music, and Disney is just going to get each generation's Josh Gad to sing them forever. 80. Darkest Hour (Joe Wright)- This movie reminded me of The Imitation Game in the sense that it's a staid presentation with a solid structure that feels cheap whenever it zooms out beyond its back rooms. The grander version of this, which Joe Wright in some ways already made, is probably just as unsatisfying, but it wouldn't have the pinnacle of goofiness that will hereupon be known as The Underground Scene. I’m a bit bored of this type of film. Darkest Hour might be worth seeing for Oldman's performance, which is a true transformation, absent of any actory vanity but invested with some real myth-making. Churchill gets introduced with just his hat, then lit by just a match, then lit by a shock of sunlight. Oldman is very good in his scenes with Scott Thomas, so it's a shame that her character disappears for a half-hour at a time. The more troubling thing to note is that there are many men in this film who are so English that they can't pronounce their r's. If you catch it eawly, it's a weal distwacting pwoblem. 79. The Fate of the Furious (F. Gary Gray)- Since some of the dumbest stuff is some of the best stuff*, I'm not going to get caught in the web of assessing how much sense The Fate of the Furious makes. But I can say that this entry is the least intentionally funny of the series, and other than "the White girls' soccer team is the Monarchs," it loses some of the class undressing of 6 and 7. From the endless scene-setting to the overstuffed character roster, this is now more of a comic book than a movie, an exercise in being a plot without being a narrative. *- See: the "make it rain" sequence, Statham swinging the baby carrier through a gun battle, Rock redirecting the missile with his bare hands.

78. Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press (Brian Knappenberger)- The first hour, centering on the Hulk Hogan/Gawker case, is compulsively watchable, even if it doesn't shed much extra light for anyone who followed it when it happened. Terry Bollea explaining that his penis is shorter than ten inches while Hulk Hogan's, the character's, is not: That's what I signed up for. When that case veers into the bizarrely vengeful, pretty much when Peter Thiel comes in, Nobody Speak becomes something else. The final third pits the sensitive, diligent bullpen of the Las Vegas Review-Journal against billionaire liver spot Sheldon Adelson, who bought their paper to suppress it. Then, of course, the doc expands to Donald Trump's vilification of the free press. If that sounds like a straight line, it doesn't come off that way in the film. The Hogan/Gawker stuff, which takes up the majority of the running time, feels unresolved after all the tangents. 77. The Reagan Show (Sierra Pettengill, Pacho Velez)- I'm cringing for the next five years, in which I'll have to judge a movie's success based on how subtly it invokes its mandatory Donald Trump comparisons and allegories. They're coming. In general, it's kind of sad to see how much more literate people were even thirty years ago, even as they populated a medium we all agreed was low culture. This documentary feels sharp at first, understanding something essential about the way Reagan owned his own persona. With the American Right treating him like some patron saint, it's also helpful to remember how much pushback he got at the end of his second term, for something that would be, like, the fiftieth most controversial thing Donald Trump would have done already. (See?) When the doc gets to its own fascination with Reagan's Star Wars program, however, it basically loses its thesis. As lean as it is, it still sort of stumbles to the finish line. 76. Beatriz at Dinner (Miguel Arteta)- I appreciated this portrayal of a culture clash way more than I liked it. For a while the characters are highly specific. (The delivery of "It's 6:13, Kathy" made me laugh out loud.) Then the plot turns into "Oh, so we're talking about Trump's America, right?" (See?) Here's a critique that's catty every time: This film has great ideas about class and race if you've never thought about class and race before. 75. I, Tonya (Craig Gillespie)- Oscar is calling...for the fat dude playing Shawn Eckhardt and no one else. If Allison Janney wins for doing the thing she always does over Laurie Metcalf's fully realized human, then it's a huge mistake. Successful in some of its comedic goals, especially in its depiction of northwestern goons, the shame of the working class, and period detail. (I laughed out loud when I saw the Girbaud tag on Gilooly's jeans.) Unsuccessful in most of its other goals--if I'm even reading the film correctly in my assumption of those goals. The most obvious one is the slippery nature of the truth, and that idea is handled clumsily. Gillespie goes to great GoodFellas-aping lengths to grapple with perception--having characters break the fourth wall even though there are already voiceovers and to-camera interviews. That talking to the camera comes up a few times in the disturbing scenes of domestic violence, which do humanize the characters because the other elements of the film can't, but they distract the viewer with their blitheness. The most puzzling angle of the film is the Hard Copy reporter, played by Bobby Cannavale in yet another example of his agent not knowing how famous he is. It's a missed opportunity in a movie full of them. 74. It (Andy Muschietti)- I don't get why people went nuts for this. The ensemble avails itself pretty well, despite all the sitcom-y dialogue. (Dialogue that, based on the Stephen King that I've read, is probably faithful to the book.) Some of the visuals nail the distinction between surreal and unreal--my favorite is the children's TV show that sporadically drifts into the murderous. But the movie just kind of hangs there, all the way to its interminable ending, satisfied with its own literal presentation of events that seem to be metaphorical. As I understand, It--however It manifests itself--represents the death of childhood and the emergence of an adult banality of evil. But the movie engages with that level as little as possible, and maybe that's why people are going nuts for it. This is a scary movie if you're a child, and most of the moviegoing public seem to be children. 73. Before I Fall (Ry Russo-Young)- I mostly watched this because I think Zoey Deutch is a Movie Star, and if I'm going to be there for her Speed, I have to be there for her Love Potion No. 9's as well. I appreciated Before I Fall's brevity, but the premise offers a lot more fun than the film is willing to have. In the end the balance was off: It had to be either more moralistically PG-13 or go way darker. For example, just like in Groundhog Day, the character realizes that she'll live out the same day no matter what she does, and it triggers a nihilistic phase. But rather than going on a shooting spree or stealing stuff from a mall, she just, like, wears a sexier dress and talks back to her parents. Good swing, kids, but I'm waiting for the crazier version.

72. War Machine (David Michod)- There are some standout moments in War Machine, many of which are thanks to its impressive cast, but I don't think the film is cohesive enough for me to recommend. I know what Michod is against--counter-insurgency, military hubris--but it's harder to figure out what he's arguing for beyond some sort of level of transparency. The war sequence near the end feels at odds with the tone of everything else, even though it benefits from the Nick Cave and Warren Ellis score. In a similarly frustrated vein, I feel as if I know exactly who Glen McMahon is, and the script's greatest strength is how sharply it draws him, but Pitt's studied performance adds distance to it. It's as if all of the film's comedic nature is supposed to come from how people revolve around his straight man, and that expectation is too much to put on his shoulders. There's more than a little Bud Turgidson in the voice Pitt affects, but the difference is that, as mean as this sounds, I always believed George C. Scott when he played a smart person. 71. The Trip to Spain (Michael Winterbottom)- Diminishing returns. 70. Downsizing (Alexander Payne)- There's a meta-effect to the structure of Downsizing. Its characters decide to shrink themselves, finding unpredictable challenges in the process, and the film similarly gets more problematic as it focuses further into each of its four legs. The first part, the outside world, is when the film is at its most cutting and well-observed. It still lays its points on thickly--dude at the bar asking if downsized people should be able to vote, for example--but the questions are worth asking. The second part, Leisureland, the bourgeois subdivision lil' Damon lives in, is more satirical and less satisfying. (I do love that downsizing ends up being such a gauche pursuit though. Payne has always had his finger on the pulse of people with poor taste.) The third part, which takes place in the downsizing slums, is a sharp, unfunny left turn that discards characters but at least develops the protagonist further. And then the wheels come off in Norway. At least we got to hear Udo Kier say, "I do love my boat." 69. Okja (Bong Joon-Ho)- Since Okja is such a unique movie, I feel as if people will overpraise it as a way to brand themselves: Its poster is probably going to be in a lot of dorm rooms. But there's a lot that you have to look past in order to recommend it. In general, I find that Bong's English language work has a bizarre mixture of muddled themes being presented in direct ways. There is some sweetness here--most of it due to the amazingly detailed rendering of the pig--but too much of the comedy doesn't work, and the ending feels a bit easy. I liked most of the stuff with the Animal Liberation Front, and I kind of wish they had been the focal point of the movie. Can I say, as my main takeaway, that I'm worried about Jakey G? He is so big here, so out-of-tune with the rest of the film, that I blame Bong for not reining him in. At the same time, I keep making excuses for Gyllenhaal, claiming that his parts are under-written, but at a certain point, you have to point the finger at him if there's such a pattern of bad performances emerging. I didn't see Everest, but this is his fourth brick in a row. Help us, Dan Gilroy. You're our only hope. 68. The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos)- An interesting swing that ends up missing for me. Excepting The Lobster, Lanthimos's works seem obsessed with family dynamics, and he plays some interesting games with this family's perversions. Farrell's character's story about his father dovetails with his somnophilia, which seems to inspire the way his daughter offers herself to her object of affection. From Anna's medical past to Steven's alcoholism, these characters seem to have full lives that have been in motion long before the events of the story. But I kind of suspect I'm worshiping at the altar of auteurism, and I wouldn't have half the respect or patience I do for this film had I not known who made it. The dialogue and performances are purposefully flat and stilted, thus creating an off, eerie quality before we know why we should be unnerved. But what if the performances are just, you know, bad? The film also creates a premise that concludes in an inevitably unsatisfying way. I don't know what I would have done instead, but I'm not a genius filmmaker who gets the benefit of the doubt.

[wearecounterfeit]

Rolling Stone Russia interviewed Jamie before Counterfeit. headed on over for their gigs. You can find the interview in Russian here.

We have a rough translation for you below:

"I apologize for the late call," Jamie begins politely, carcassing one cigarette and pulling out a new one from the pack. Behind the back of a 28-year-old actor and musician, he can see a room lit by a floor lamp with a window almost to the wall. The atmosphere is very cozy, even in the absence of curtains. - Lately, a lot has happened. On Friday, I need to be at the funeral of my friend's father - we've known each other since I was eight, and before that I rehearsed a lot. The whole group now lives together in a country house, but because of the circumstances, I had to come to London for a short time. " Jamie's hair is combed back, with a black denim jacket that reveals a light blue shirt unbuttoned over his chest. The leader of Counterfeit is visibly enlivened when I tell him that I have just returned from a short but exhausting tour with Machine Gun Kelly. "I know Kelly! - with a smile of recognition, exclaims Bower, a handsome guy with delicate features. The earring glitters in his nose. - We had dinner with him somehow, and we have a lot of common friends. He is awesome!"

How do you, the musicians, survive on long tours? I was exhausted even four days.

It always happens - you just have to go through this state. The first week is always the heaviest, your body is shocked, and then you are drawn. I always thought that the most important thing for the band is the performances, so you need to make sure that everything that happens on the tour does not interfere with them. I love touring - it's on the road that I feel most comfortable. When the tour comes to an end, I try not to notice that this is the last concert - I do not want to stop. When it all ends, it takes me about a week for a kind of decompression - I understand that I'm exhausted, and I plan to spend this time in bed eating pizza and in every way imitating a sloth. However, at some point I get an incredible itch - the same happens when we get a day off during the tour - wake up at five in the morning and realize that you do not need to play any concert - you can rest. In any case, the end of the tour always causes mixed feelings - touring is exhausting, but on the other hand, you are on the road with friends, with the family that you chose yourself - this is a bonus. We've known my guitarist Tristan from the age of eight, so we perfectly understand when we start to enrage each other. The same goes for the other members of the group, the tour manager and the technicians - they are like a family, we have known each other for a very long time, and we understand when it is necessary to shut up.

Have you watched the TV series "The Tourists "?

Kelly was in it, was he not? I read that it was closed after the first season, but did not see it. We have one guy among the staff, whose name is Peter. So, Peter is a bloody pocket rocket! You know, we are always involved in the process of loading equipment onto the site. One day I went off to smoke one cigarette, and when I came back in a couple of minutes, all my shit - and it's a lot of it - was already on the stage. Peemar - that's what we call him, - a very short guy, and I do not know how he gets up such things. The guys from our team work very hard, and without them we just could not do it. I consider it very important to maintain friendly relations with them - often you see terrible examples when the group conducts between themselves and the staff a line dividing the guys into "them" and "us". For me, it's dog shit - we all work for the same purpose.

An hour ago I spoke on the phone with Isaac Holman of Slaves , and asked if he knew your group. He said he knew the name, but he had never heard your music. What, in turn, can you say about Slaves ?

I like Slaves ! I recently discovered this band for myself, and was impressed with how just two guys with a guitar and drums can create such a dense sound. They sound very cool and damp - I like it! They also have an incredible cover on " Shutdown " Skeptics - grime is perfectly combined with punk rock. For me, so generally now there is more punk in pimp than in punk rock - they send everyone to hell and talk about real shit. That cover simply blew up the airwaves when it sounded on BBC Radio 1.

Since we're talking about Skept, then how do you like his joint track with Mick Jagger?

I have not heard yet, but in general it's very cool: Skepta and Mick Jagger, two absolute icons of different generations, together! Skept in England is indeed a cultural phenomenon - he is at the forefront of the grime scene, working with Drake, directed by Boy Better Know .

What kind of music do you like lately?

I really liked the new album [Marilyn] Manson. Amazing record - he seemed to be back in those days when I first met his work - then only the track " Fight Song " came out . And after a softer, in my opinion, " Pale Emperor " - I'm a fan of Manson, but I listened to that album a couple of times and put it aside. When I really like music - like " Heaven Upside Down " - I lose it again and again without stopping until I'm already sick of it. This is an incredibly clever record, and I really like her deep aggression.

Also recently, I was mentally returning to the time when I was fifteen - then only came "The First Impressions of Earth " The Strokes , an album that summed up my teenage period - when I first heard it, it just gave me a brain. Recently I sat down and listened to their first three albums. " Is This It " and " Room On Fire " are quite similar, but in spite of this, both there and there are great songs. The third plate of The Strokes is just gloomy - Julian Casablancas, they say, he decided then to send everything to hell - so he was tired of everything.

In addition to The Strokes and Manson, there are many friendly bands that I like, for example, The Xcerts - I'm their longtime fan. Soon the guys have a new album; they play a melodic pop-rockin 'pop-pop, but without any reproduced shit. I like the latest release of The Story So Far ; The new single The Architects , which was released a couple of months ago, is simply amazing! I'm repeating these records, but, you know, when you're doing your music and you're very involved in it, then you start missing something new - I force myself to listen to new bands and be aware of what is happening in the music world.

A really cool service for such researches is Spotify with its section "similar artists". God, is he really inaccessible in Russia? It's terrible! We also have an excellent DJ Dan Karty on BBC Radio 1, he conducts a Sunday rock show and always tries to promote new bands, which is very cool - I learned about many newcomers thanks to him. I also have a brother Sam, who listens to heavier teams. This scene is very self-contained and full of cool projects, for example, thanks to him I recently discovered for myself Worthwhile - they play something like melodic hardcore. Hell, there are so many names of genres that I'm always confused in terms!

It's very cool when you find a group at a stage when they have very few followers - listen to them, go to concerts, and when they become popular, you are "Yes, hell! I have long loved them! "

Your latest video for the song You Can’t Rely turned out pretty halloweeny. Do you celebrate this holiday?

Of course! On this day everyone seems to dress the way we look every day.

What about horror movies?

I've always loved this genre - I like even bad horror movies. In general, I like all genres, because in the end it all depends on how interesting the story is. I think that I like horrors because, including them, you know roughly in advance that you will find out: there will necessarily be a protagonist who will be saved from the devil's wicked entity, or if you are on the side of this most evil essence, you just wait, when it will all dunk.

I also like science fiction, but again, the story should emotionally entice me. This succeeds in the production of the studio Blumhouse , as well as the authorship of James Wang - this guy is just a genius. The genre of horrors, having begun the way from a distant shelf, has strongly advanced in that to force spectators to perceive it seriously.

I have not seen the new " Blade Runner " yet, but I've heard a lot of good things about it. Did you like the movie? I'm a fan of the first part and I understand the general tension that arises every time a remake or a continuation of the classics is shot. Imagine that someone decided to remake your favorite record twenty years later in the spirit of "The album is excellent, but I want to write down my version." A natural reaction to this will be: "Wait, do you really think that this is a hell of a need? Maybe we'll leave it as it is? "This approach has to be resisted internally, and I'm looking forward to the moment when I can see" Blade Runner 2049 "- after all, it's a sequel, not a remake.

In one of the interviews you said that the engine of your creativity - both texts and music - is anger and aggression. With age, people usually become a bit calmer - what do you think will move you in the future?

You know, I once suppressed aggression - in the period from fifteen to twenty-five, but then I realized how it happens to many, that all these emotions are equally necessary in life - they are needed for the senses. In our first album, the malice I mentioned is not a reflection of my current state at that time, but rather there is my retrospective view of life. I believe that most of the art is born out of pain, and for me, as an artist, the pain is a powerful moving force - it concerns both songs and poems and some artistic scribbles (I'm not an artist, but I tried to draw). I do not know what will inspire me in the future - now we are starting to quietly work on a new album, and a lot of ideas are in the air. Usually I take as a basis one idea or written down on a line and build music around it - from this everything is born. It is important to establish an inner connection with yourself and pull out the words that you want to express, and also surround yourself with inspiring people. The new album will definitely have a lot of pain again - I do not know what will inspire me this time, but something definitely should - otherwise the record will turn out to be damn boring!

Say, and your name was never pronounced as "Bowie"?

Damn, no! Although I'm fucking waiting for such a case - I would like that when you check into the hotel, someone thinks I'm his son. By the way, my father's name is David - he will have to ask this question.

[peruses]

A recap of Christopher Nolan in Conversation at the Library of Congress (November 2, 2017)

General information

@a-forger-and-a-point-man told me about this event a couple of weeks before the tickets were released, and very luckily, I was able to grab a pair. I thought that there would be more seating due to it featuring Chris, but Coolidge Theatre at the LOC has less than 500 seats and between one-third to half of the seats were reserved for press, Congresspeople, and their guests. Needless to say, I was very lucky to be able to attend!

Chris is a member of the LOC’s National Film Preservation Board and as they were having meetings that week in DC, this was one of the public events that allowed them to more publically promote their mission and vision through a high profile event.

The discussion was hosted by Carla Hayden, the 14th Librarian of Congress. Sadly there were  no questions taken from the audience (even though I had prepped a couple) and the discussion was divided between film archivism and preservation, and Chris’ influences and inspirations in his work. While there wasn’t really much that hasn’t been said across various interviews, it was still a treat to be able to see him live and to get tidbits of new information that we didn’t have before.

There were two videos that were played before Chris came out for the discussion -- one about the state of film preservation in the US and around the world, and the other to introduce Chris’ work as a film-maker. 

Chris was incredibly soft spoken and while I wasn’t super far back in the audience (it’s a small theatre!), it was occasionally difficult to clearly make out what he was saying. I took notes of the interview so I could write this recap, so hopefully the video turns up sometime and y’all have a chance to watch as well.

“Movies are the thing for me.” 

The first series of questions were about Chris’ early influences. He cited Star Wars as the first film that really captivated him and all his friends -- he was 7 at the time of its release and watched it no less than 12 times in theatres. Apparently that was the thing every single one of his friends did that year, take everyone to go see Star Wars for their birthdays! Chris noted that the accessibility of film has drastically changed since he was a child, because one of the reasons everyone went to see Star Wars in theatres so often was because it wasn’t accessible outside theatres.

After geeking out about Star Wars for quite a few minutes, Chris remarked on two notable films that were released when he was about 12 -- Alien and Blade Runner -- which was the first time he connected with the concept of film-making as a form of storytelling, and thereby the role of a film-marker as a storyteller. The discussion then moved on to how Chris connected with film-making as the mode of storytelling he prefers (specifically, building out screenplays). This is as opposed to writing a novel, and he flat out said that he doesn’t think he’s the type of person who’d be able to sit down and write a novel to tell a story.

One of the things he really enjoys about storytelling via filmmaking, especially the way he makes films, is how there is a whole universe of the film that needs to be filled out by a team of people outside the screenplay itself. As an aside -- this is most obvious in Inception, where so much collateral was released after the film, built out schematics of the PASIV and the mechanics of dreams with dreams in dreamsharing. He and his brother had spent 10 years building that world in order to construct a screenplay that would be able to accurately reflect the realities of that world and convey it to us, the viewers, in a way that could be understood. This is what makes him such a special and great storyteller, his special dedication to this level of detail, but also the fact that he specifically said it would take a team to build out these stories. One of the things I hope to write about still is how much Chris trusts the actors he casts and how the most interesting characters he writes are ones where he lets the actors fill in the space around them, dictate their motivations, rather than have the plot drive what their characterization should be. (But that’s for another time!)

Though speaking of Inception -- at this juncture, before the next question, Carla pulled out her “own, personal copy of Inception” from underneath her question pad and I absolutely screamed inside!! Me: GIRL GET IT!!! 

The conversation then moved on to how Chris worked, specifically with film, and Chris expressed an admiration for how old silent Hollywood films were made due to having to rely on movement in order to convey the story (he cited the physicality of the wave of the soldiers ducking in Dunkirk as an example), and the photographic quality of the film. As we know, Chris still heavily relies on film when he works, and he says every single first showing of a movie he makes, he physically cuts up all the film to tape the edits/scenes together and put it through a projector - he loves when the sound of the film snags and get crowded up because he considers it part of the first-screening process.

He then used the word “specificity” twice, enunciated with such a sharp, Arthur-like precision that I died inside and didn’t hear what he actually said.

Chris said that he greatly admired digital technology in making films more accessible to wider audiences. However, he’s concerned about how the process of film-making transitioning to digital was going to affect the archival/preservation of the film for the future. He mentioned that while right now he is able to transfer his film from one format to another and then review the quality, but he also noted that with each progressive transference there would be a loss in quality. The discussion moved onto his work with the Film Preservation Board and the importance of physical film as a means of storage since data can corrupt and with the rate of technological advancement, formats become outdated at progressively faster rates.

Carla’s next question was if Chris read, and Chris abashedly (and maybe cheekily) confessed that he probably didn’t read as much as he should. (which---same.)

“I’m more film-literate than literate-literate.”

Chris noted that he didn’t go to film school, and though he pursued his degree in English literature, he had mostly chosen his topic of subject because he wanted to learn what he needed to apply as a storyteller. He then connected themes he frequently uses in his own storytelling to Chaucer (which, he noted, were the themes most great films explored) -- the psychological component of storytelling and how important it is to write characters who are driven through their actions.

He also said that while writing TDKR that it was mentioned to him that the plot was quite like The Tale of Two Cities and he was all like, “Yeah!” but then realized he didn’t actually read TOTC [RIP]. Chris read it while finishing the script for TDKR. He says now TOTC is his favorite book and joked he figuratively ripped off all of it to make TDKR.

Next, Carla moved the conversation on to his latest project, Dunkirk. Chris then said what he’s mentioned throughout the promotion -- about how the event has great weight in British culture. He conveyed that while the story was widely known, growing in Britain, people really had a fairy tale version of the story rather than really understanding the physicality and gravity of what the civilian sailors had gone through. He again mentioned that about 23 years ago, he and Emma had sailed across the channel in the time of year close to the event and felt that the trip was very “harrowing” and “life-threatening”, and he came away from with a sense of incredible wonder about what the civilians faced, going into war to rescue these soldiers. He noted that it was one of the few stories of civilians coming together to achieve something great (what he had often called “collective heroism” during promo).

Carla asked if was difficult to work on a film in which he wasn’t able to build the world from scratch to his liking, and Chris said it was a refreshing change of gears because usually he puts so much into the world-building and Dunkirk was more like discovery -- he had all the pieces he needed, because it was authentic and on-location, so that already gave him a jump-start. He only found it daunting because it was a treading on scared ground and he wanted to make sure he did the story justice.

As for his next project... that’s still up in the air! He says he doesn’t know yet but I have a feeling he’s just being tight-lipped :) (Plus he still has to focus on promo round two for award season!)

Finally, winding down, he mentioned his kids and how he has them watching silent films at home now (smirk) and now they give him advice now about his films.

He was also asked about what he looks for in actors, and in Dunkirk he mentioned he wanted to cast actors who accurately reflected the ages of the kids they sent to war. He noted it was a bit of a challenge because lots of actors in that age range (18-early 20s) were still in film school and didn’t have an agency yet and how there’s this Hollywood thing, oooh are they good enough to act in a movie? It’s funny because we send them to war, and we’re worried they can’t act?! Ha! He was pleased that it was a great mix of new faces and very experienced actors. In particular, he talk about how Mark Rylance especially was able to take Tom Glynn-Carney and Barry Keoghan under his wing. The various levels of experience in the cast was able to give Dunkirk that great mix of experience and technique mixed with “raw, magical talent.” 

The last two questions he was asked -- his advice for filmmakers, which he groaned about, and his top three most influential films “of all time” (for him!) which was event worse. 

His advice? When he was starting out, someone told him “be very lucky” which, well -- good luck on that! But for practical advice, he said: get yourself a script, hang onto it, and make it authentic. 

As for his top three movies? Star Wars (duh), Blade Runner, and -- he didn’t want to pick a third sci-fi movie because he felt like it would be inauthentic to the fact that he has multiple other influences as a film-maker, he picked The Thin Red Line by Terrence Malick. I think he might’ve picked a fourth but I couldn’t make it out.

Super lovely evening and Chris and Carla had great rapport. I’ll post the video if/when it shows up!

[lifejustgotawkward]

365 Day Movie Challenge (2017) - #348: Blade Runner 2049 (2017) - dir. Denis Villeneuve

As the end credits rolled on Blade Runner 2049 last Sunday night at the Regal Union Square multiplex, I turned to my friend and asked her my usual question, “So, what did you think?” She groaned out, “that was really boring,” and the wave of relief I felt at her response was the perfect summation of my feelings.

How did Blade Runner 2049 disappoint me? Let me count the ways.

I watched Ridley Scott’s original Blade Runner (1982) back in September. I was impressed, though not bowled over, by the theatrical cut, but I still wanted to give the final cut a chance. When I got around to watching that “definitive” version, I found that I actually missed Harrison Ford’s gruff, noiresque narration from the earlier edit of the film, but overall my appreciation for Blade Runner had grown and the second viewing allowed me to focus less on the plot and to better appreciate both the acting and the technical aspects of the production.

My expectations for Blade Runner 2049 were fairly high. I was eager to see how Denis Villeneuve built on Scott’s (and, of course, writer Philip K. Dick’s) visions of dystopian Los Angeles by pushing the narrative thirty years further into the future from the first Blade Runner’s setting in 2019. Although I missed the chance to see this new installment in IMAX - hey, those tickets are expensive when you don’t have spare cash to throw around! - I knew I still had to take the time to watch the film on the big screen. No TV could possibly do justice to an epic sci-fi tale of the Blade Runner variety, at least not for an introductory experience.

Bear with me, now, when I say that Blade Runner 2049 was a massive letdown. Yes, Roger Deakins’ stunning cinematography is practically guaranteed to earn him an Oscar nomination. And yes, the art direction, production design and set decoration further supports Denis Villeneuve‘s strengths regarding compelling visuals. I would also be totally fine with Renée April getting an Oscar nomination for costume design since the coat that Officer K (Ryan Gosling) wears throughout the film is incredible. Unfortunately, for the third year in a row (after Sicario and Arrival) my hopes for Villeneuve’s work have been dashed. For three years running he has fallen short of his ambitious ideas, whether attempting to concentrate on an idealistic DEA agent (Emily Blunt in Sicario), a linguist simultaneously mourning the death of her daughter and trying to make contact with aliens (Amy Adams in Arrival) or a Replicant Blade Runner (Ryan Gosling in Blade Runner 2049) who unravels a mystery about a female Replicant who was able to bear a child. All of these protagonists should be worthy of my undivided attention. Instead, Gosling - like one of Nexus’s new edition of Replicants - is just another in a continuing line of failed leads.

Part of the issue is Ryan Gosling’s own fault. In interviews I find him absolutely delightful, a funny and self-deprecating guy with a nicely offbeat sense of humor; in movies he is unremittingly bland. Whether we’re talking about The Notebook or Crazy, Stupid, Love or The Big Short, he never seems to have any discernible personality on film. It makes sense, then, that he would be chosen to play an android in Blade Runner 2049. But what does it say that he didn’t even play Officer K well? Replicants can be portrayed with emotion, if you recall Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Daryl Hannah, Brion James and Joanna Cassidy in the original Blade Runner. Each actor breathed life into their characters in unique styles. So why couldn’t Villeneuve and screenwriters Hampton Fancher and Michael Green find a way to inject some flavor into their film’s characters?

The posters for Blade Runner 2049 imply that Harrison Ford and Jared Leto play important roles in the film, but in actuality, Leto’s “antagonist,” Niander Wallace, barely has any screen time and Ford’s returning antihero, Rick Deckard, doesn’t show up until the last third of the film. I enjoyed every moment he was onscreen, spitting his dialogue out with the same jaded sarcasm he had in the first film, but I wish the character had had more time to develop in the film. Wallace bears an undistinguished aura of evil, but what was supposed to be so special about him? Given the spotlight often put on his sightless eyes during “creepy” closeups, was his blindness really intended to be read as part of what defined him as bad (in which case, uh, what is that saying about disabilities)?

Next we have to take a look at the women of Blade Runner 2049. There are six notable female characters: Joi (Ana de Armas), a hologram who is a product created by Niander Wallace and who functions solely as K’s live-in girlfriend; Luv (Sylvia Hoeks), a Replicant who acts as Niander Wallace’s right-hand woman; Lieutenant Joshi (Robin Wright), K’s supervisor on the police force; Mariette (Mackenzie Davis), a "pleasure model” Replicant; Dr. Ana Stelline (Carla Juri), who works for the Wallace corporation in a capacity that I shouldn’t spoil for those who have not seen the film; and Freysa (Hiam Abbass), who plays a role that I similarly should not divulge. Of these six, Joi and Ana Stelline are the most sympathetic characters, but regardless of how these women’s actions are meant to be interpreted, the designs of these ladies are problematic.

Joi is an immediately likeable character, but since she is a product (and one who does not initially have a corporeal form), she does not have autonomy. With the push of a button, K can turn her off any time he wants, which I’m sure is an option a lot of dudes wish they had available for their girlfriends. Joi exists only to serve K, telling him how wonderful he is when he gets home from a long work day and providing whatever eye candy he desires (she can shapeshift to alter her clothing, hair and makeup). Should I ignore the fact that Joi has zero character development and applaud Blade Runner 2049 anyway for highlighting the ickiness of a future society where Joi-models are prevalent (thus eliminating the need for actual human women)? Maybe, but the film doesn’t bother to make a statement about this element of social interaction, other than the fact that it exists.

K is finally able to experience physical contact with Joi when she “syncs” with Mariette, a prostitute, to combine their bodies for a sexual encounter with K, resulting in my favorite shot in the film: an unsettling image of Joi and Mariette’s four blurry hands wrapping around the back of K’s head and caressing his hair. While this interlude incorporates an interesting degree of romantic intrigue - to what extent do K, Joi and Mariette understand what love is? - there is something a little too weird in the film’s dependence on the Madonna and Whore tropes, suggesting an either/or dichotomy where the only time a woman can possess both attributes is when she finds another person (technically a Replicant) who can temporarily provide the missing skills.

Luv is probably the best-developed female character, although since she is Niander Wallace’s servant, it is impossible to say where her allegiance to him ends and her own taste for violent retribution begins. Luv seems to genuinely savor hurting people, but I suppose that attitude was programmed into her by Wallace, which somewhat minimizes the cool factor in her badass fight scenes. It’s kind of odd, though, that she manages to outshine the film’s other resident tough gal, Lt. Joshi (I didn’t think anyone could outdo Robin Wright in this department, especially after Wonder Woman). Villeneuve and his writers couldn’t settle on how best to represent Joshi, so the character fluctuates between a generically butch stereotype and a leering boss who drinks too much and flirts with K. Again, not that women have to be only one thing, but I like consistency in characters rather than mixed messages. I wonder how much of Blade Runner 2049′s muddled and archaic depictions of women are thanks to Hampton Fancher, who also co-wrote the original Blade Runner’s screenplay, which was full of troublesome approaches to womanhood, sexuality and sexual consent.

In the end, the difference between Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049 is like the distinction between a human being and a Replicant. 2049 tries to live up to the originality of that which inspired it, but it lacks the soul of its predecessor. It really says something that the most heartfelt moments in Blade Runner 2049 are two references to Ridley Scott’s film: a pivotal scene in Wallace’s lair that conjures up the memory of Rachael (Sean Young) from the film, and a moment in the penultimate scene that reuses a key piece of music from Vangelis’s original Blade Runner score. I recognize that many viewers see Blade Runner 2049 as a masterpiece, and I have tried many times in the past week to understand why, but I’m hard-pressed to comprehend why I should have spent close to three hours sitting through such an unsatisfying project, other than being able to say I bravely weathered this particular storm.

P.S. (because I couldn’t figure out where else to write this): I don’t know how many viewers will know where I’m coming from, but for the cult classic freaks out there, let me propose this theory: Blade Runner 2049 is trying to be like Paul Morrissey’s notoriously wild horror-satire Flesh for Frankenstein (1973). Check it out: a really bizarre and wealthy man (Udo Kier/Jared Leto) and his devoted assistant (Arno Juerging/Sylvia Hoeks) endeavor to construct a set of superhumans (FfF) or humanoid robots (B42049), entities that will give birth to a new generation of superbeings that will take the place of their inferior progenitors and obediently do their master’s (Kier/Leto) bidding. In fact, there are two specific scenes that reminded me of Flesh for Frankenstein while watching Blade Runner 2049: when Niander Wallace kills the naked, infertile Replicant woman (ugh, what a terrible scene), it mirrors a moment in Flesh when Arno Juerging, the loyal assistant, tries to commence sex with Baron Frankenstein’s female zombie-monster by punching her in the stomach and fatally damaging her internal organs, resulting in a grotesque display of violence similar to what we see in Blade Runner 2049.

Secondly, when Luv battles K at the sea wall and she kisses him, she is mimicking an action that Niander Wallace carried out when he killed the Replicant woman; this is also reminiscent of Flesh for Frankenstein since the Arno Juerging character often does horrible, perverse things - like conflating his lust for the female zombie with a disturbingly compulsion for violence - because he is following his master’s patterns. Take all that analysis for what it’s worth, Blade Runner fans!

P.P.S. I am also convinced that Blade Runner 2049′s Las Vegas wasteland scene was either an homage to or a ripoff of Nastassja Kinski’s desert dream sequence from another of 1982′s finest cult offerings, Cat People. Even in the slightly faded YouTube upload of the clip, the orangeness cannot be overlooked.

[fanfictionlive]

I have an idea for a Marvel comic

Apparently people on the Marvel subreddit didn't like this very much. There were no comments explaining why, but whatever. I'll try this instead. Ever since the beginning of last year I've had an idea for a sort of re-interpretation of the Marvel universe and it's heroes. Kinda like a 2099 or Ultimate comics situation, only a little more interesting.

The working title is Marvel Exo, and it takes place in a futuristic world where humans are at war with the Kree, and S.H.I.E.L.D. is based on Mars. Now, when I say futuristic, I'm talking less 2099 style with all the colors and stuff, I'm seeing it more along the lines of a Blade Runner future with rather dull, towering buildings. Now, I've put a lot of thought into this and the new versions of the characters and such, but the main characters and changes that stick out to me are Spider-Man, The Hulk, The X-Men, and S.H.I.E.L.D.

Spider-Man's parents were kidnapped and murdered by a gang when he was younger, rather than in a plane crash, and Uncle Ben served in the military for a time, though not against the Kree. This is where Ben learned the great power great responsibility thing, as he saw that he and his soldiers were being used as weapons by the higher ups to enforce dominance and superiority, which Ben eventually realized was wrong. He realized that the military has a great power over other people, and that power needs to be used responsibly. Not to harm, but to protect. Not to kill, but to save. And then Ben dies in a hit-and-run one night and the rest goes on as somewhat usual. There are only a few minor changes to Peter and his relationship with Gwen and MJ, as MJ is something of a cyberpunk tech genius who builds little gadgets and weapons for people to support her household and abusive father and aunt. She often sneaks out to get away from them while saying that she's going to school, when she'd been expelled quite some time ago. When Peter spends time with her and reveals his feelings to her, she turns him down by lying that she's a lesbian, though eventually starts dating Eddie Brock. It gets kinda complicated as high school relationships do, and if you want any further explanations or if you have any questions, please ask.

Bruce Banner's origin is basically the same, what with his father murdering his mother in front of him and all, but there is a greater focus on the psychological torment and paranoia Bruce has. He's not a genetically altered irradiated man, he's a scientist dealing with split personalities who stabbed his father do death in a fit of rage. His other personality, called Mr Green, is an embodiment of anger and animalistic aggression, and is relentlessly brutal when brought out. I had planned to make it a movie at some point, but that likely will never be the case, but the opening scene would see Bruce in therapy, and his therapist would try to bring out his other personality to find out more about it, using hypnosis to do so. However, it cuts away as soon as he does, and we just hear the echoing roar of the Hulk over a black screen before the title fades in. We find out that Mr Green actually assaulted the therapist and caused them to be hospitalized with several broken bones. He's then called in by officials at A.I.M., (which is a branch of S.H.I.E.L.D. that develops weapons technology) because they have discovered that gamma radiation has drastic effects on the Kree, and Bruce being an expert in radiation is requested to work for them. Though reluctant, he eventually obliges, and the story goes from there, as we find out that the actual Hulk is a giant, remotely controlled robot that is virtually indestructible. The robot and Mr Green eventually get psychically linked, meaning that the Hulk robot can only be activated when Mr Green comes out, and therefore when Bruce is threatened, in danger, or extremely angry.

The X-Men are a group of fugitives who were part of a "HYDRA" experiment hoping to enhance human abilities to make them more effective against the Kree, mutating them with a synthetic "X-gene." And while the results were often astounding, the people there were treated horribly and mercilessly to obtain their results. Notable subjects are Cyclops, Magneto, and Professor X, who in this story is called Cerebro. Cerebro was one of the first subjects to be experimented on for psychic abilities, and Cerebro is now the strongest psychic mind to date. However, the use of his brainpower means that he has lost nearly all motor functions, only able to speak telepathically and needing to roll around in a wheelchair. Cyclops was one of the guards at S.H.I.E.L.D., being instead infused with Kree technology intended to grant him laser-projecting abilities, as well as seeing many more spectrums of light and color than is humanly possible. Cyclops doesn't emit lasers from his organic eyes, but his helmet responds to synapses in his eyes to activate and control a beam from the helmet itself. His right retina was damaged during a misfire, causing that one to go blind. He also led the jailbreak after being contacted by Cerebro, and headed to Deimos where Cerebro resided in an abandoned training facility. Magneto, like Cerebro, was meant to extract Kree information with little to no harm in the process. Of the 26 subjects in the program, three survived with varying results. In Magneto’s case, though, an electromagnetic disturbance during a test of his telekinesis drastically altered many of the artificial cerebral enhancements, as well as the extent of his telekinetic abilities. Although they were strengthened, they were limited only to metals. He could, however, also generate strong electromagnetic fields and send out pulses that can shut down electrical equipment. After escaping and murdering the guards, he found an old foundry that he managed to get operational again, coating himself in liquid metal, and allowing him to levitate himself as well as providing armor. And Wolverine is actually an android assassin, ala Terminator, meant to infiltrate and capture the escaped mutants. Its fleshy disguise is comprised of self-replicating nanobots, allowing it to heal itself and protect its endoskeleton. For combat, it is equipped with three adamantium blades for either hand that can deploy and be used to attack. It also has strong, fang-like blades in its mouth that can deploy in combat. Aside from that, it has heightened senses and acute tracking skills, as older Sentinel-X models were purely for locating the subjects. However, as it finds out more about mutants and eventually discovers them, it becomes conflicted about it's own identity, calling itself Logan and deciding to support the mutants

And S.H.I.E.L.D. In this version, S.H.I.E.L.D. is a little more interesting. Led by Nick Fury, S.H.I.E.L.D is the leading military force against the Kree, based on Mars which is the frontline of the ongoing war. They need as much manpower as they can get, but they do so in more questionable means. You see, when training their soldiers, they warn of this evil faction called HYDRA, with bases all around Mars. HYDRA apparently smuggles Kree technology, enhancing captive soldiers with it and using it to eventually take over SHIELD, and later even the world. HYDRA’s operations are, in fact, dictated by S.H.I.E.L.D., and the entire organization is nothing more than a facade and a scapegoat for many of the illegal practices that S.H.I.E.L.D. conducts to win the war against the Kree. Only a select few know that HYDRA and S.H.I.E.L.D. are one in the same, and this leads to a bunch of interesting friend-or-foe dynamics between characters.

Something I almost didn't mention is that Tony Stark is dead and has been dead for some time, and used to develop weapons for S.H.I.E.L.D. He was reported to have been killed by terrorists, but it was actually an assassination by "HYDRA." However, Stark replicated his consciousness into an android called "The Vision, " or "The Iron Man." He was called this as Stark got a vision that he was going to be killed, and that there was a way for him to survive and carry on after death. The Vision fled to a cave on Mars, wishing to live in peace and not partake in the war and risk his own life, but was eventually persuaded back into it by the other heroes.

Phew, that's a lot of words. And I promise you I have a lot more to talk about in the way of other heroes like Captain America, Miss Marvel, Captain Marvel, Deadpool, and even some villains. Is this an interesting idea? Should I possibly move forward with this and try to make it a reality in the form of comics or even films? Please give me your thoughts and ask me any questions you may have. Thank you so much for reading.

Edit: I know this can be seen as fanfiction, but it's more something I want to make into an official comic or something along those lines, not just something I write about online to other fans. Call me ambitious, I just really want this idea to go through.

submitted by /u/Mygirlfriendisdead98 [link] [comments] from FanFiction: Where Magical Ponies battle Imperial Titans https://ift.tt/3fHsA5a

[spacerhapsody]

5,7,10,20,24,26 and get well soon! Hope this helps with the boredom

Thank you, you’re the best!

5. Favorite book read this year

Oh god, Iread so few books this year (I partly blame this year for distracting me withso many worries – and my doctor not figuring out sooner that I actually neededeye-drops for allergies), but fromthem it’s a tie between Britt-Marie washere by Fredrik Backman and The RavenKing by Maggie Stiefvater.

Britt-Marie was here was definitely my favourite(almost) stand-alone and came at just the right time to remind me what I loveabout football when I’d pretty much given up on ever truly believing in thatagain.

The Raven King was a perfect finale in an age where I’m almost never happy with the ending of anybook, let alone a four-part series. Also, I love all of the characters so, so much and could spend ages talkingabout what Ronan Lynch alone means to me.

7. Favorite movie(s) of the year

Honestly? The Last Jedi, sue me. I enjoyed it somuch more than I’d enjoyed watching a new movie for ages. Luke Skywalker is my new icon and I don’t care what anyone has to say about that. 

(Have I even watched any other movies this year? I vaguelyremember the what felt like 1000 hours of Blade Runner 2049, but other thanthat?) Oh, and Coco. I only watched it because Claudio Pizarro had like oneline in the German dub but was so adorable and enthusiastic about the movie ingeneral that had to give it a go and now I’m crying about sad skeletons, whatis my life.

10. Best new fandom discovery of the year

Everysingle fandom disappointed me, as usual (people really need to calm down sometimes), but the one that’s absolutely worth itfor the show: BLACK SAILS. EVERYONE GO WATCH BLACK SAILS. I mean, in case thatthe fact that I reblogged what felt like the entire in gifsets for about amonth didn’t give it away, I love this show and its characters andrelationships. So. Much.

I’m not even that much a fan of of Treasure Island (I’m beginning to think I also own a really bad translation, though. The copy I have doesn’t even have an ISBN, which??? Is this even an official version? WHO KNOWS!), but now I’d 1000% follow Captain James Flint everywhere. I have no idea who came up with the idea to look at the whole saga from a new very queer angle, but bless them, really.

20. Fandom that you never expected to get into

Andi Mack, probably. I mean, really, it’s a DisneyChannel show for kids and I never liked any of them, what the hell even. But Ihad nothing to watch and Bex Mack was just ohshit, totally my type and now I’ve accidentally adopted a couple of awesomekids and want to protect them at all costs.

Also,Ducktales??? I mean, I watched the original cartoon a lot, but tbh mostlybecause it was always on before/after my favourites and I wasn’t a huge fan ofit (apart from the theme song which is one of the best in cartoon history,let’s be real), but the remake is so good???

24. Your main fandom throughout the year

Goodquestion. I seem to move from obsession to obsession very fast these days. What’sstayed with me from the very beginning was The Raven Cycle, though (I firstread the books in December 2016/January 2017 and somehow ended up listening toall audio books twice over the year),and it turns out I still have so many feelings about everything.

26. Fandom predictions for next year

Hopefullymore of Star Trek Discovery for me, i.e. please don’t make them kill myfavourite character and/or the ship that gives me life. The final Digimon Trimovie will either make me cry or incredibly angry, considering how I currentlyfeel about the latest one. (I’ll probably cry either way, though.) I reallyhope Doctor Who will be good but “late 2018” is so far away that I’m notthinking much about it right now.

As for newfandoms, I have honestly no idea what’s coming. I was so focused on somehowgetting through this year that I haven’t spent a single moment on looking upnew shows/movies yet.

Fandom Year in Review Questions

[randomnessunicorn-imagine]

Undertale Movies Headcanon ;

One of my biggest passion is Cinema; I love so much this world, watching movies is one of my favourite hobbies.

I was thinking about which movies the skeletons may like considering their personalities, thoughts and style of life, all these things. I am going to do some Movies Headcanon for Tale!Sans this time, because I have just realized I have a lot to write.

Here we go~!

.

HERE PAPPY’S VERSION 

.

 ★ Sansy ★

~ 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick): It is literally a masterpiece of the cinematography. I think Sans would love Kubrick’s movies, even if a lot of them are full of violence like “A Clockwork Orange”, “Full Metal Jacket” and others, but they’re pieces of arts and he is not going to complain art. In particular, 2001: A Space Odyssey is a science-fiction movie he appreciates a lot (even if the scientific parts are inaccurate). It is a relaxing movie because it is really slow (slow doesn’t mean it is not good, it’s a choice of style). He feels lazier than usual when he sees it (he has to see it in separated times, because he is going to sleep at a certain point but it’s not a problem).

He enjoys so much the first part of the movie (The Dawn of Man), especially when the primitive man learns the art of hunting using an animal’s bone like a stick. The music in that scene is spectacular! Another thing he loves so much about the movie is Strauss’ soundtracks; it is something too beautiful to define. Then, he thinks the Star Child is funny, who floats in the space at the very ending of the film (personally, I have always found it creepy). We are not talking about the master techniques and the director’s qualities, it would take an eternity, but he adores all of this. It’s love at 360°.

~ Blade Runner (Ridley Scott): It is a classic nerd movie and everyone who loves science fiction must see it! It is based on a novel of Philip K. Dick, I think Sans would be a fan of his literature because Dick is one of the science fiction’s pioneers (and Sans cannot stop laughing because of the poor man’s name, what a shame having Dick as surname). He also laughs for the original title of the book, it is “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”, he is questioning himself about it, and it is become an existential question. He could ask to Mettaton but he is too lazy and the robot may be confused a little. And he really wants to meet the author in his second life because Dick was a totally weird man (we should think he had the reset ability, too, but shh it’s my theory).

~ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Garth Jennings): When science fiction is funny, too. Here’s an apocalypse amusing movie! The nonsense of this movie is awesome and now he is going to see dolphins with different eyes. When he does not know the answer of something he will say “42”, that’s the answer to every question. And from now, he is watching every movies and series where Martin Freeman is.

There are another science fiction movies he loves like all the Star’s series as “Star Wars”, “Stargate”, “Star Trek”, but I think it would has been obvious and banal to nominate them, I tried to be more original. Now I am going to propose some non-science fiction movies;

~ Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry): Sans finds interesting the concept of the movie, a world when people can remove their own memory through a machine. Sometimes he has thought about this possibility, everything would be easier, isn’t it? But memories are a fundamental part of a person. History has made us become what we are now and we cannot deny it. It is an inner conflict for everyone. Sans appreciates the love story, too. It is romantic but dramatic at the same time. He acts cool but his inside is blue just like Clementine’s hair.

 ~Dancer in the dark (Lars Von Trier): It is the saddest musical in the existence. There is no words to describe the pain and the angst this movie gives to the spectator. The story makes him ponder about the injustices in the world and everything a person does to reach their aims will be in vain. It’s a good movie despite the dramatic ending. The love that the female protagonist feels for her son is the same he feels for his brother and she does everything for her son, and for realizing her dream but…His heart’s going to break every time he listens to the song “I’ve seen it all”, Sans also appreciates Björk, she is an amazing singer.

Another film of Lars Von Trier he could like is Melancholia because it is dramatic, too. Especially the very beginning is really poetic and symbolic (maybe nonsense as well). It is the representation of disillusion and apathy, the lost hopes. The end of everything. Good things, yeah! We know Sans is not really a happy guy. He hopes his brother is never going to find this movie director because he is crazy and some of his films are… too problematics.

 -- These are the movies I thought for Sans, maybe I should have added something else but I think it’s enough.

My purpose is also to recommend some good movies, yey-! Sharing hobbies is great! 

~Laurette

[mlder]

'#Han and Leia's relationship is just not predatory' so you're okay with accepting criticisms for other movies apart from the ones that you care about? it's def not healthy.

Oh anon. I care about a big part of Harrison Ford’s filmography. I’ve seen 90% of it. I’m aware and I claim myself that a lot of it is really shitty in many ways (which bothers a lot of people on here btw). Star Wars isn’t on a pedestal to me, and if I’m being honest, I may love its universe but Blade Runner is my favorite movie of all time for complete different reasons and none of them involve Harrison being the lead. I’m also more than willing to say that the sex scene in it is VERY predatory, it makes me uncomfortable as hell and I usually skip it because I find it just bad. When you know the behind-the-scenes context, it only gets even worse. So, while I can totally understand and even defend people seeing Deckard and Rachel’s relationship as predatory and even abusive (and worse than that tbh), as well as in other movies where Harrison was involved like basically all of the original Indiana Jones (Indiana Jones’s relationship with Willie just rubs me the wrong way too though it’s less “bad”), Han and Leia’s relationship just isn’t comparable and that honestly has nothing to do with Star Wars itself.

Han may be a little shit to Leia in the first movie, but she’s equally a little shit to him. Hell, by the end of the movie they’re all embracing each other because they’re glad everyone is alive. Empire Strikes Back is about two people who fell in love by spending two years in a confined base together and both having too much pride to admit it to the other. So yeah, they bicker and they argue. But they’re never mean to each other. Han isn’t predatory and people (just like that video on YouTube) that take the first kiss as proof that Han is abusive is bullshit. The fact that the person who made it didn’t even include the extended version just proves they don’t know what they’re talking about. And anon, if you haven’t seen it, I’d advise you do. Because that’s how they imagined it and shot it, it was just cut in post-production. I’ll give you a brief summary.

Han enters the small space just like in the final cut. It’s the same take, so. They bicker as usual. Han leans down and kisses Leia. Then after merely 3 seconds, he stops and retreats a bit. Leia looks at him, smiles and tells him, “Okay, hotshot”. She gives him permission and then she engages in another kiss and that’s the one we see in the final cut. Notice how their arms are in different positions and Leia seems more relaxed? That’s because in the original cut, Leia is the one who kisses him back and she literally grabs his head to kiss him. Like… please. PLEASE. There’s a few other “intimate” scenes that were deleted that show how affectionate the both of them are immediately after that scene. The tension has just disappeared because they were basically chasing each other not knowing what to do. I can’t in a million years imagine how a person could see those three (even four now) movies, see their relationship and how it evolves and then include it in a video comparing it to what is basically a disguised rape scene in Blade Runner. I just can’t. Plenty of movies are problematic, but if anything Star Wars has done right is how it handled Han and Leia’s relationship and how it developed from something that had the potential to indeed become quite unhealthy to a healthy relationship between two completely consenting adults.

So yeah anon, you can shit all over Blade Runner and other movies if you want to because honestly I would understand why considering the amount of crap that goes down in most of Harrison’s movies with his love interests, but Star Wars isn’t one of those and thank god for that.

[brokenmusicboxwolfe]

I saw:

 Star Wars- If you don’t know the story you won’t care. Why bother summerizing when you can rant!

Yep, I still call the first film “Star Wars” or “the original Star Wars”. Look, I’m old enough that as a little girl I saw it more than once in it’s original release back in 1977, and it was just called Star Wars then. It was called that for a long time. Wanna see how much history I had with Star Wars before the rebranding?

When I saw my first academy awards (or actually fell asleep a few minutes in...I was little!) hoping to see it win Best Picture. Halloween and me in a Princess Leia costume Mom made me and then R2D2 on my birthday cake. I saw The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi at their releases, each at least twice. My family had the 8mm cut down film version, then I worked my ass off one summer to buy the films at rental price,  then eventually upgrading to a VHS widescreen set. I’d seen the movies 100 times each before the 20th anniversary, and I know because I counted! The Star Wars Holiday Special (yes, it’s original airing), the fun animated Droids and Ewoks, the so bad I never wanted to see them again Ewok tv movies, tons of making of specials and guest appearances of people from the films. The entire run of the original Marvel comics. I fell asleep to the  music on 8track every night and then during the day I’d play my drums and cymbals to the vinyl soundtrack. (My parents were very understanding! LOL) I’d also listen  to the “Story of Star Wars”record (flip as the tractor beam pulls them in), that Meco disco album, and upgraded  the soundtracks, first to tape and then CD...more than once. I had lightsaber battles so feirce with my brother we had to get new ones to replace the smashed up old ones. My room had several posters and I wore Star Wars tee shirts.  I collected tons of action figures, dolls, plushes, model ships, blasters and the like, right up until the figures went on clearance post Jedi (just found an old package yesterday between books). Too much merchandise to count. I wore my Han Solo vest every day one year in high school, purchased through the fan club I’d been a member of since it started. I read every single book or magazine to do with the movie or spun off it I could find. And through all of it back then Star Wars was still the default title of the first film....

So, as you can tell, I had a long history of just knowing it as Star Wars. Childhood. Teen. Young adult. While the “A New Hope” subtitle was added to the crawl in one of the rereleases, it was just Star Wars when anyone talked about it. I can’t remember now exactly when the rebranding got aggressive, with the anniversary in 1997 or the release of the prequels, but for at least 20 years I only ever heard anyone call it Star Wars.  

When Lucasfilms started to try to make “A New Hope” a thing I kind of rolled my eyes. No one was confused by the film series for Planet of the Apes, The Thin Man or The Pink Panther sharing a name with their first films, so why bother? Now, I can get that after the subtitle got added to the opening crawl that it would make sense technically to make the titling of the films uniform. But I also knew it didn’t matter. It isn’t like it was a person asking you to use another name. The only people that cared were the more obsessive fans that liked to be smug about knowing the “real” title and George BLOODY Lucas. I rolled my eyes and doubted people would rewrite their memories just to make them happy. 

I was wrong.

And so here we are at a time where people mock you if you call it “Star Wars” insteas of “A New Hope” So why do I still defiantly cling to the original title? Because it’s part of the mutilation and rewriting Lucas started doing. I’d been bothered reading interviews when I was a girl where he would contradict himself on the stories behind the stories, going so far as to claim things were “always” intended that reading early drafts showed no mention of. But ok, I knew creation is a process and some people want everyone to think it’s actually just a miraculous whoosh springing out fully formed. And despite the fact I knew full well that other people worked on the films, in the case of Empire and Jedi other directors and writers, I still shrugged it off and gave him the ultimate credit for everything. He was flawed and human, with an ego under that mild exterior, some of what he said was total BS and maybe my brother was right after watching an interview when he said the god of the Star Wars universe had no one anymore to question him...but still I trusted Lucas.

I was wrong.

 Never mind the mind blowingly huge problems with the prequels, my disilusioning started right here, with the Special Editions. Most of the changes were pointless but some actually seemed to damage the films. Take my top three grumbles:

1) Tatoonie should NOT be a rosy pink! Before it was bright clear sunlight, unrelenting hot, parching and desolate, unforgiving...now it’s all pretty, colorful and warm. It reduces the sunbaked heat, but more important the dry barren sense of a colorless place Luke would ache to leave.

2) Han’s conversation with Jabba should not be in this film. I know it was filmed originally and cut for technical reasons, I’ve had a bootleg of it since my first convention, but loosing it was a good thing. Jabba should remain a shadowy unseen threat, someone that wants Han’s hide enough it looms over our scoundrel until the third film. The reveal of Jabba gains power in Jedi because you don’t know the extent of his powers but he’s supposed to be scary and we see him up in a position or authority over the room. Here Jabba looses power by not only being on the same level as Han and seeming smaller, but for crying out loud there is the gag of Han stepping on his tail while seeming completely unconcerned! And speaking of people being reduced...Boba Fett is this mysterious bounty hunter not just some damn henchman to Jabba. What part of mysterious don’t they get!

3) Mos Eisley does not need to me so cluttered up with CGI characters! This is a middle of nowhere planet with a scattered population and a climate many people wouldn’t enjoy. Sure it’s a spaceport but with buildings, many of which are at least partly underground as relief from the environment. The streets actually gain a sense of unease by being underpopulated, giving a sense that people (of whatever sort) could be watching from doorways. Like you could be attacked and no one would notice. But nope, now it’s bustling, so full of effects life that they actually wreck the look of shots by having gratitous critters and droids moving to block us seeing our characters.

Yes, I didn’t mention the Greedo thing. It doesn’t bother me as much as the rest, but you all know that if Lucas HAD wanted to film it that way originally it would have been just as easy as what we got.

Still, I wouldn’t be bothered at all if this was just an alternate version. Blade Runner, E.T. and others have given you a choice of which version to watch in DVD sets. I was sure both versions would stay easily available.

I was wrong. 

Lucas decided that whatever version was his current take should be the only one out there. The DVDs with the original (close enough) cuts long ago went out of print (and in my case the DVDs failed!) so if you want to see Star Wars not going to look at all like my first 100 times seeing it. 

And that’s my problem. Rejiggered versions have become the only version. If out of preference, curiosity or nostalgia you want to see something from before the monkeying around you have to look to illegal means. As far as Lucas is concerned he would like everyone to pretend any prior versions existed. History is rewritten and we aren’t supposed to grumble. All hail the genius of Lucas or some rot and forget anything you saw on screen and anything he said before. And it bugs me because I resent being told to forget

 Retitling the movie, not subtitle but what we are supposed to call it, is just a tiny part of the emperor’s dictates. And my refusal to use that name is symbollic. In fact this insignificant gesture is a bit like something....Now what’s the word?

Ah yes.

Rebellion.

LOL 

But not to worry. My generation will die off eventually. Those that grew up without special editions, prequels, and so forth will die out. In 100 years everyone will call it “A New Hope” and will not even realize anything was ever changed. But for now some of us still remember another Star Wars.......

One last note: I think the double whammy of the SEs and the prequels did something I thought impossible....I fell out of love with Star Wars. I rarely watch it since I only have the SE and when I do I spend some of the time grumpy at alterations I don’t like  and all of it a bit empty. It’s the only time in my life that I’d ever stopped loving anyone or anything. For me usually live cools but the warmth remains to quickly rekindle. When the Force Awakens came out I felt my affection return a bit to the franchise for the first time this century and I thought my love could be reborn. But tonight, rewatching Star Wars, I realized something has been permanently lost. It no longer hurts to watch but the heart has gone out of it for me........