#which is a commentary in itself

[mythalism]

hmmm. thinking about how veilguard seems to subscribe more to the more traditional "video game as personal power fulfillment fantasy of heroism" than any other dragon age game, except perhaps origins, though origins does it more artfully.

[chiropteracupola]

And come awa' wi' me...

[wolf-antonia and her uncles - requested by @seaglassandeelgrass]

[weallpartyatybcpatricksfuneral]

ngl smile for the paparazzi is a genius song and I'm tired of pretending that cobra starship wasn't a genius band at times

[macchiatosdumptruck]

.

[givepie]

Hm! I feel a rant coming on! Everyone duck!

MY THOUGHTS ON THE HYPERIA STORY AND ITS THEMING. ALSO A GENERAL RANT ON COASTER THEMING.

Let start with a general question: what counts as theming?

To me, theming is the set pieces, pre-show, and anything laid out in a rides area to help develop a story. Most of the time this helps world-building more than anything. To me, even music can be a piece of theming because it helps to set a tone. For example, when riding Smiler, the laughter sounds almost manic and it makes you realise straight away that something is off, before you even step foot into X-sector.

Anything that DOESN'T fall into this classification such as website and app pages, falls into "storytelling". In a theme park, it is almost impossible to tell the entire story from one repeated instance inside of said story. To tell a complicated story like that of the Smiler, it would take so much exposition, which is very much not the point and would take away from the experience as a whole.

So storytelling isn't a bad thing, it's how they handle it.

To me, there are three behemoths of theme park theming and storytelling worldwide. That I know of.

Baron 1898, X-Sector post-Smiler, And Forbidden Valley post-Reborn.

Baron 1898 is pretty easy to grasp while you're there, even as a non-speaker of the language. You're going on a mine tour and 3 ghost ladies are PISSED that you're going down there. The actual theming is downright impressive ans I would love to see it in real life. You can then look up the story to find out who the ghosts are, who the Baron is, and how the mine came to be. Really good treat for people who decide to look.

Forbidden Valley has a story that has remained relatively consistent throughout the years. It has wondering actors that establish the world in a realistic yet entertaining way rather quickly. There are an official operation; there are people opposing the operation so there is something sneaky going on; there is a tour group taking advantage of the centrepiece so the Alien is a tourist attraction in this universe, too. Just little things that help put together a bigger picture.

Of course this starts coming apart a little bit when the audio starts explicitly telling you what is happening, but it still holds. You see someone's office, a crashed helicopter, weapons for warding off the alien. All things to help build up this universe you are now ankle-deep in. And then there's the 3 pages on the Internet that break down the story for you, which can also be seen in the shop.

Finally, of course, there's X-sector. It doesn't usually have roaming actors, and the theme suits better that way. Without the roaming actors, you see that the Ministry are secretive. Trying to stay out of the limelight, except for the skeleton crew they send out to keep the coaster safe and operational. It shows a tone.

However, people casually wondering what this is about can never get an easy answer. Cause the answer is spread out across what remains of a decade-old marketing campaign. Fun for people who want a deep dive, not so fun for people who are just lightly curious. The website barely tells you anything either.

But, on a positive light, the story is so complex it keeps a fandom. Not many coasters have that. It's an insane accomplishment.

And I have a theory as to why. Now, stay with me here I think I'm about to upset some people:

It has aspects of social and political commentary. "Not everything is political" ALL GOOD ART IS A COMMENTARY ON THE TIMES AND CIRCUMSTANCES YOU WERE RAISED IN SIT YOUR ARSE BACK DOWN.

RIGHT, so, Smiler is a story about the government dedicating an organisation to keeping people artificially content to keep people compliant. What are Brits notorious for doing, in comparison to the French?

Doing fuck all. This wasn't always the case. We would riot, we would strike. Now we strike but while the other half of the country complains and just tells the strikers to sit back down and take the mistreatment. We are miserable, we complain, and we go about our day. And that's the joke. Its funny. So why bother changing it?

And if we can't be bothered changing something cause it's funny, what happens if they make everything purposefully funny? They'd never have to deal with the strikes in the first place.

The government functions off of our social compliance, which can come from making jokes at our own expense. We even see it now with our drowned-rat-faced PM as he continues to make a fool out of himself so he's funny. If he's funny, we want to see him more. That's a valid strategy nowadays.

Smiler. Is about how Keep Calm And Carry On is a stand against progress.

Smiler. Is a political and social commentary on the people of Britain. You're welcome.

Anyway!

HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO THE NEW WORLD-STAGE COASTER IN STAINES?

The problem is: it doesn't. Instead of taking inspiration from its sister park, Alton, Thorpe decided to take inspiration from Icon and its shoebox station.

Where is Fearless Valley taking place? When is Fearless Valley taking place? What point in the story are we looking at here? The issue [only issue, really] with Hyperia, is it entirely relies on storytelling and a few bits and bobs in the queue.

Remember the shortcoming in Nemesis? Where you can get a good grasp of the story without it being blasted in your ear? Yeah here they straight up tell you the story, too. The theming has BECOME the storytelling.

Next question: what is Hyperia, the coaster, supposed to be? Yes, we know the story is that a goddess called hyperia overcame her fear of the sea by building wings and escaping the island she was trapped on [for some unspecified reason. Is hyperia evil?], but what IS the coaster supposed to be?

Smiler is the Marmaliser, the machine that transforms you into a smiling advocate. Nemesis is the tentacles of the monster overtaking the metal that pins it down. Baron is the track the drill takes to get into the mine.

What is Hyperia? Are we following Her as she soars, were we stuck with Her; the Icarus to her Daedalus? Are we following in her footsteps as part of a ceremony Her followers reenact for her blessing? Are we supposed to be Her? It's never really specified.

The station is chocked full of a last-ditch attempt of theming, which in comparison with the whole lotta nothing you get from the queueline? It feels cramped. It feels cheap. It barely feels like it belongs on a stage alongside Taron, Velocicoaster and Voltron Nevera. If they didn't have the budget to do the storytelling and the theme, they should've gone for theme.

Any story with no theme feels cheap and artificial. Any theme with no story still stands out and has breathtaking scenes. If they focused more on the white-gold colour palate and maybe had a few statues around and about they could pass it as some sort of pantheon, like climbing Olympus.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm disappointed in all aspects of the Hyperia theming. It feels lazy, tacky and underwhelming when you consider Swarm is a 5 minute walk away. I'm hoping it improves at some point.

I geniunely think the stone head of Collosus is much better than anything in Fearless Valley and its inconsistencies. The Black and gold buildings feel very sleek and out of place for a story ultimately about a goddess who forged. She forged her own wings. She forged her own bravery. Shouldnt the building look a little home made? Where are the bolts? The soldering? I want to see her anvil and hammer pride-of-place, not shoved in the corner of the station.

Cmon thorpe. Get your arse in gear.

[wackpedion]

smth smth about how the musical took the plot of Heathers and injected amatonormativity into it

[writhe]

ok like the analysis is really good / important but this video like has to be fetish content right

[pulchrasilva]

I am Not normal about how much the cyclops saga is just a repetition of the troy saga both thematically and musically. And dont get me started on how different beast is just a repetition of the cyclops saga. And how the whole musical is constantly referencing and commenting on itself, building up thematic layers by comparing and contrasting each new character and situation

[gowns]

i love that the trajectory of tom and shiv's relationship is like. you show me respect, i'm disgusted. you trust me, i think you're naive and stupid. you degrade me? now you get it. now you can have access to me. it took a minute for tom to figure that out. shiv is repulsed by his sweet speech on the stairs (underscored with the unexpectedly sentimental music, a move that reminded me of twin peaks and its tribute to / ironic remove from soap operas). but flicking her ear? talking to her like he talks to greg? biting? yeah. that's it. i'm reminded of logan roy, who demands to be roasted; then is disgusted at the weak attempts at insults. or kendall, who is spurred into actually giving a great presentation from being chewed out by karl. these roys need to be hit below the belt to function.

the ongoing cycle of degradation that is the foundation of capitalism... even when you're at the top you can't function without the degradation.... and that's why the figures who have power subsume all satire... they thrive on it... the king needs the jester... !!! "humiliate me!" it's the libidinal thrill of knowing you're trying to hurt me but i still have the upper hand!

[iphigeniacomplex]

obligatory note that i know very little about ancient greek culture, stories, & beliefs beyond my greek mythology phase from ages 8 to 11 but i get sooo pissed off abt arachne bc she literally WAS better than athena. like sorry a bad bitch said she was a bad bitch and then was able to actually prove it?? WHAT happened to sisterhood. & then when arachnes like guess i’ll kill myself after literally being humiliated by a goddess in front of everyone — for being better than her — it’s STILL not enough so athena decides to i have no mouth and i must scream this woman for literally committing the crime of 1) understanding her own skill and refusing to undermine her art 2) factually challenging authority even to the face of a god and 3) being better than she is. athena was up on olympus hating from a cracked screen on an empty stomach literally disgusting.

[vamptastic]

watched american psycho for the first time. it's really funny and hits the right level of confusing surrealism. very good.

[starchanged]

"Being a 'good person' or being a 'bad person' doesn't matter in the end. Long as you do what's right, it doesn't matter what kinda person you get labelled as."

[levitanias]

thinking about frankenstein's monster again, not anything in particular just kinda brain rotating him like he's the well liked side character of a bad shonen anime

[maraschinotopped]

minecraft 👍

[princessofshazabah]

A tiktok comment from 2022 basically summed up how I feel about you're welcome vs blue

"Blue trusts the audience to have common sense and know that SA is bad, while You're Welcome has to spell it out"

[alexiethymia]

wtf Mr. Ji? I mean I think almost everyone could tell by the first time someone got murdered, but it only solidified when Seung Jae’s hyung got introduced as a red herring. ‘Consort Ji’ and all. It was just a matter of finding out why. Although I think it’s a twisted mix of obsessive affection, and also the want to torment Chi Yeol to make sure he remembers his sister because perhaps Chi Yeol was the only meaningful person left to remember his sister along with him so if Chi Yeol was at peace, what did he have left? Perhaps it’s also a sort of twisted duty towards his sister, to make sure the most important person to his sister wouldn’t replace her.

Despite that Chi Yeol’s love for Haeng Seon was obvious from the get go, he was still nice to Haeng Seon at first because they both thought she was married, so even if Chi Yeol would pine for her, Mr. Ji rightly thought that Chi Yeol would never want to trouble Haeng Seon so they’d never end up together. It even works for him because Chi Yeol in that sad and vulnerable state would only end up relying on him more. But the moment that Haeng Seon was revealed to be single, and Chi Yeol is now at peace with her, Mr. Ji turns about face so fast, becoming so double-faced and gaslighting Haeng Seon to that point that it’s really scary. I mean kudos to the actor, he played the subtle shifts of yandere Mr. Ji so well.