#who i consider LOST's 5th (and most traditional) hero | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

purplesurveys · 5 years ago

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Where was the last place you drove to? Other than home, I drove to Bonifacio Global City with Gab for a day out. I also drove to her dorm to drop her off after. What is your favorite move franchise? The Twilight Saga or Toy Story. What was the last fast food you ate? We had Wendy’s earlier. I was honestly kinda relieved to just have fast food for lunch because I just needed something greasy as fuck to shed off the hangover from last night, and something quick because I was so tired and was in no mood to even go out to begin with. What is your zodiac sign? Taurus. Do you think you're a good dancer? When I’m drunk enough and when it’s dark, yeah. Hahaha

What is the saddest book you've ever read? I don’t know if I’ve read any sad fiction; AJ’s memoir was sad enough though. I remember having to take breaks every so often because some of the content was just too heavy to take in one go. How old will you be this time next year? I will be 22. What subject do you think you are best at? History. I have a number of relatives who have worked/are working as researchers and historians, so I’m not surprised I got bitten by the bug too. Do you prefer heroes or villains? Heroes, unless the villain’s story is endearing or if the role is played good enough. That’s the case with a number of heels (wrestling talk for bad guys) who are AMAZING at being assholes, like CM Punk or Triple H. What is something you think is overrated? I love milk tea, but it’s definitely hyped up way too much in the Philippines. A lot of people like to brag how they skip water in favor of milk tea and it’s just? what? How are you genuinely proud of that? I mean whatever floats your boat and all, but still????? What political cause are you most passionate about? The SOGIE/anti-discrimination bill that for some reason is being debated on to begin with. How anti-discrimination is still a cause of conflict is the most Filipino thing I’ve ever seen and it’s shameful. What country would you most like to visit? Morocco, Turkey, or India. What is the worst job you've ever had? I haven’t had any so there’s nothing to rank. Who was your best friend as a child? We would change sections every year so my best friends used to change often. There was Kaye, Jaynie, Raegan...but it was Angela for most of my childhood. What is the hardest thing you've ever had to do? Having to keep going when my grandfather died mere days before the UPCAT. That, or seeing Nacho in his coffin. His slight smirk made it easier to deal with, but I still had a good cry about it. Have you ever considered having children? Yeah, I’ve thought about it more and more as I got older - a far cry from my hatred of kids when I was a frustrated 13 year old lmao. If you ever took field trips as a child, which was your favorite? I’ve always been a museum lover so our field trip to Intramuros/various Manila museums in 5th grade, and our field trip to Ayala Museum/The Mind Museum in freshman year were amazing. Do you have any weird family traditions? Not really. I will say that my mom’s side has a very weird, very distinct humor that takes some getting used to (but once you do you’ll realize they’re all funny as fuuuuuuck on that side) but it doesn’t really count as tradition, so idk. Have you ever considered acting? Not at all. I never liked having to do it. Who was the last person you slept next to? Gab. Do you think you can be in love and still cheat on your S.O.? That’s messed up, dude. Do you subscribe to any streaming services? I have a Netflix and Spotify but other people pay for them. Do you consider yourself a crafty person? That’s a big fat nope for me. What is your ideal weather? Cold enough that I don’t need to turn on the electric fan. If there’s a thunderstorm, even better. Have you ever been in a physical fight? With my cousins when we were kids, yes. What is the most embarrassing thing anyone has on video of you? Angela has questionable footage of me when I got too drunk at Gabie’s party last year; she’s tried showing it to me but I’ve always refused to know what she caught on video lmao. She can keep it if she wants; I just don’t ever want to see it hahaha. Gab also took a video and photos of me all hunched at the toilet and throwing up after drinking too much from earlier this year.

I’m clearly not the best drunk; in the same way, my best friends clearly know their priorities lol. Did you ever get lost as a child? No. If I got ‘lost’ it was only because my parents would intentionally hide from me at malls to see what I would do when I realized I was lost/to mess with me. What is your favorite condiment? Mayonnaaaaaaise. On a scale of 1-10, how attractive do you think you are? I’d give myself an 8 tbh. Minus two points for my two crooked teeth and frizzy hair. Do you prefer horror or romance movies? When it comes down to it, romance. I feel like they have more leeway since romantic comedies (which if you still don’t know by now, is my favorite genre) is under that genre, whereas horror can be just right or way too corny or cheap for my liking. What was the last film you saw in theaters? Hello, Love, Goodbye last August(?). But I think that’ll change soon because I plan to see Charlie’s Angels this month - and can I just say, only for Kristen lol.

Have you ever been to a concert? Sure, I’ve been to several, but I keep my ticket purchases to artists I have REALLY been wanting to see, like One Direction and Paramore. There’s a bunch of acts who’ve gone to Manila but I wasn’t religiously obsessed enough to want to see them, like Troye Sivan, The 1975, The Japanese House, etc. Have you ever had an existential crisis? No. I try not to think about that stuff. Where is the farthest from home you've traveled? Bali. Do you like country music? Ugh, no. Can you play any instruments? Other than the basic recorder, which I don’t really count, no. What color are your eyes? Black. What color are the eyes of the person you love? The same. What is your favorite kind of flower? Idk I don’t have one. Baby’s breaths are cute though. Have you ever had your heart broken before? For various reasons, yes. What town were you born in? I was born in, if I’m not mistaken, the district of Sta. Mesa in Manila. Do you believe you had a good childhood? I know my elders tried to shield me from harsher realities, and I’ll give them credit for that. I had the latest toys and gadgets and we had cable TV, so I had access to the cool shows of the time, to give a few examples. I’m grateful for all of those, but nothing could ever protect us from acknowledging the reality that I had alcoholic relatives who also happened to wake me up everyday with the smell of their cigarette smoke; and relatives who would resort to physical fights and screaming whenever they got too drunk, which always made our house a hot topic within the small neighborhood and a source of embarrassment for me, my siblings, and cousins. What was the last dream you had? I’m not sure. I think I was just hanging out with Gab in it. Do you know how to play any card games? Other than solitaire, no. Have you ever taken a taxi before? Yep but I can count those times on one hand. I’d rather use a ride-sharing app to get a driver than hail a Filipino taxi driver. What is something about your childhood that you miss? Half-days in school. What are you currently most looking forward to? Sleeping tonight, tbh. I want to stay up for a bit but I can’t wait to sleep too. Did you ever have MySpace? Do you miss those days? I had, very briefly. It was never a big trend in the Philippines so I didn’t see the big deal. I was more attached to Friendster (which I never got to have because of the 16-year-old signup requirement, which my parents made sure I followed) and Multiply. What is the best television show you've ever watched? Breaking Bad. Are there any songs you can't listen to because they bring back memories? I can’t listen to O by Coldplay anymore because it was the song I kept on repeat when I repeatedly harmed, starved, and tried to kill myself a couple of years ago. Have you ever saved someone's life? I hope I have in some form or another. I know I failed with Nach, though. Do you tend to sleep well at night? Sure, unless I had reason not to. What do you believe is your weirdest habit? I lock my car doors three times before I feel comfortable. When was the last time you were sick? This question is on almost every survey, along with the what-instruments-do-you-play one. Uhhhhhh 2017. What color are your parents' eyes? Black. Do you have any credit cards? I don’t. Have you ever broken any major bones? Nope, thank goodness. Have you ever had a surgery before? ^ Same. Are you ever afraid people will just stop talking to you one day? I never thought about that, no. Can you tell me the last deep thought you had? Meh, it’s too triggering to go back to at the moment. Are there any websites you've used for over 10 years? Twitter, Wikipedia, and YouTube, for sure. Do you have any siblings? If so, what are their ages? Yeah, they’re 19 and 16. What is the best movie you've seen this year? Liway. Did you ever make straight a's in school? Sure. What color is the shirt you are currently wearing? White, with maroon text.

#survey #surveys

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lokis-lady-death · 6 years ago

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Stark Tower Layout

Lady Death: This is a little snippet I did which originally began as a reference for some future snippets I’ve been working on for a Loki x Reader (Ice Mutant).

If you’re interested in a story this is based on: Click Here and read the first installment.

It’s been months since Thanos’s defeat and Tony Stark has built a second Stark Tower for the Avengers in Brazil, deep in the forest. It’s built similarly to the tower in New York, but has less of a skyscraper feel. The outside is coated in a reflective material manufactured similarly to the camouflage used to hide the kingdom of Wakanda and was specially developed with Shuri’s help. This feature, however, is only to keep it from being seen from above by satellites as the facility itself is not in a secret location.

1st Floor: The Entrance

As anyone could expect, the entrance to Stark Tower is incredible and, simply put, extraordinary. Entering the main floor, the first thing visitors see is an arc reactor the size of a car along with words illuminating across the top in bright fluorescent “Avengers Assemble”. Tony said it was cheesy but it puts a smile on Steve's face every time he sees it. Elegant glass staircases on either side of the arc reactor lead up to the second story. It is all completely open and bright with massive windows that let in the brilliant sun rays, even showing a beautiful sky when it was taking thanks to specially manufactured glass invented by Shuri.

2nd Floor: Tourist Center

Stark had specifically chosen to create a tourist center in the lowest levels of his complex for the simple reason that he knew the Avengers needed to maintain face (and Pepper insisted it was a good idea to keep up appearances without holding press conferences on the regular basis). They were icons, symbols, and most of all heros. All profits made go towards hundreds of different charities around the world, usually those pertaining to Avenger related missions. Once of the most popular destinations at Stark Tower for visitors is the world renowned gift shop that houses random images taken of the Avengers with unrelated daily quotes they have made. The most notable include: Black Widow “I can’t, I’m afraid of spiders”, Captain America “You can’t do the fondue unless you have protection”, Spiderman “Oh, geeze guys, I don’t know”, Ironman “ Excelsior “

3rd Floor: Accounting Department

Because a building this large, this full, and this advanced requires money. It is nearly entirely made up of Tony's own pocket change, but sometimes a grateful nation or wealthy family the Avengers saved will make a donation to housing (but that secretly gets donated back to the community around the Stark facility, such as orphanages and hospitals).

4th Floor: Loading Dock and Med Bay

This is the floor where most of the Avengers tech is kept (beside things that are personal such as Sam's wings). It also houses a well stocked armory that contains anything as weak as bean bag shotgun shells (used for low level crooks) to much more lethal high caliber assault rifles (for more complicated cases). Any weapon repair would happen here, as well as any medical treatment that the Avengers could need. It can be used in emergency cases for the rest of the workers at the tower but so far that has not been necessary.

5th Floor: Training Rooms

This floor contains a fully loaded gym, a jacuzzi tub, steam room, and stall showers that are accessible to everyone at the tower. There were however, rooms separated for special training that was only used by the Avengers that included a holographic simulator that, while not as physical as the microbots, could use a projection on an android dummy, perfect for one on one training when you don't have a partner. As a joke, Tony had programmed the only reflection the dummy was capable of to be Secretary of state Thaddeus Ross. As an extra joke, someone (no one knows who but suspects Bruce) reprogrammed the boys to instead show Tony, repeating sarcastic comments and rolling his eyes. Steve said he had never had such a great workout partner.

6th Floor: The Simulator

The simulator, which takes up the entire sixth floor, requires special access passes not every Avenger has. This floor is most notably used for team training and uses microbots to create simulations of different villains and scenarios. Only Bruce or Tony themselves are capable to turning on the simulator because of its complexities. This rule came after a near disastrous event with Sam nearly creating a lethal replica of Thanos in with the Simulated Microbots, an event Steve brings up regularly. “You’re just mad cause the giant eggplant kicked your ass. Again,” Sam would snapback.

7th Floor: Avenger Academy(because Tony couldn’t think of a better thing to call it)

The classrooms are more technical than academic, but make for a good show for when Aunt May allows Peter to come stay at the tower. It has several computers set up for any of the Avengers team or Stark Tower’s employee to use. There is also a small library tucked away, because while Tony insisted everything be electronic, Pepper thought some of the tower inhabitants could use the nostalgia of a good hardback book.

8th Floor: Individual apartments (Dubbed the Geriatric Floor) Bucky, Steve

Because, let's face it, they're lost without each other so of course they're on the same floor. They insisted on having the lowest level apartments in the complex so “If someone attacks” they would be the first defense. Their apartments are very similar in style, with simple amenities, painted in patriotic colors, and decorated with several old pictures and framed special news articles the old school men enjoyed. Even the electronics in their apartments are simplified, with Friday always there to help the boys with any questions they had for new age tech.

9th Floor: Individual apartments (Dubbed the Experiments-gone-wrong Floor) Wanda and Vision, Bruce

Wanda and Vision were apprehensive about moving into the tower at first, but once they officially had their apartment set up, they couldn't imagine calling anywhere else “Home”. Vision especially enjoys Bruce being across the hall whenever he is in the mood for discussions, usually ending with some bizarre, other world innovative ideas that they would run by Tony when he comes by the tower. Wanda has come up to join young and Nat in your late night lounging.

10th Floor: Individual apartments(Dubbed the Deadly Women Floor) Reader, Natasha

You weren't sure what living on the same floor with Black Widow would be like, but it turned out the two of you made fast friends. It was nothing for you to go over to her apartment in the late hours of the night to enjoy some wine and girl talk, or for her to come by so you could both binge watch murder mystery shows, almost always challenging each other to guess the murderer by the end of the shows. The two of you go on a girls’ nights out with Wanda and Pepper every other weekend, usually spending your time comparing the men you had to put up with on a regular basis. Everyone agrees Pepper is a saint for dealing with Tony. On rare occasions, Gamora and Shuri join you, but those stories never get shared with the rest of the team. There is a rumor, while out enjoying one of these legendary evenings, your small group overthrew an evil dictator and liberated a country in the throws of civil war, but that never made the news so no one could confirm it. Viva la revolution.

11th Floor: Guest rooms: It is strategically located in the middle of the avengers team so they are secured at all times.

Most often used for Clint and his family during family friendly events such as Christmas and Thanksgiving. Everyone, including Scott and his daughter,come every New Year to watch Stark light up the sky with his endless supply of iron suits. Dr. Strange has also stayed, but only after a party since he is usually plastered and goes around asking guests if they would like to watch him conjure a demon. So far the answer has been no but Clint's kids have asked him to pull a rabbit out of his hat. He normally goes to bed after the jokes are made. The Guardians have stayed once after a party, but no one is allowed to talk about that night. Ever. T'challa and Shuri come to every single party and even the tower has, but it always ends the same way: the brother and sister in a head to head match on one of the many competitive games in Sam's apartment. And every single time, Shuri wins at the last second. Peter Parker comes during family events with his Aunt May, but has been known to sneak into the tower during the more adult parties. He has even started a tradition of “Movie Night” where they set up a projector screen on the balcony and play movies (usually big name classics that Peter annoyingly quotes halfway through, but every once in a while they play The Notebook because Clint cries every. Single. Time).

12th Floor: Individual apartments (Dubbed the Bachelor Pad) Sam, Thor, Loki (newly moved in)

Sam and Thor always got along well and once they found something they enjoyed in common, they became quite the unexpected besties. Turned out they both enjoyed video games. Sam keeps an assortment of gaming consoles that he regularly plays through with the god of thunder between missions (and anyone else that dares challenge their gaming skills). Sam was, however, less than thrilled when Loki took the apartment across the hall from him. He has a hard time getting along with the god of mischief and they would constantly bicker, a fact that was not made better when Loki consecutively defeated him and Thor at Super Smash Brothers. Loki tends to either stay locked away in his room, but every once in a while he will sneak away to the library.

13th Floor: Tony Stark’s Closet (named by Pepper)

It’s really more of a workshop for Tony's suits but Pepper considers it Tony's closet (and was quite adamant that they were not to be kept on their living foor). It also houses the main lab. Tony only allows full access to Bruce, Vision and Shuri because he thinks any other Avenger may “mess up the intricacies of the numerous sensitive technological advances” he has made in that lab. Steve doesn't take the secrecy personally, just makes comments that they better not be working on an Ultron 2.0 (he is extremely proud of this 21st century tech joke).

14th Floor: Tony and Pepper’s Penthouse

This is where the Avenger’s have their major get together. It opens up to a wrap around balcony and is the only access to the rooftop Helipad, which is mostly for Tony and Pepper's personal use when getting to and from Stark Industries in New York. Though they don't live at the tower full time, Pepper come at least once a week to check on things. Tony comes so often it's easy to forget he doesn't live there. He has been known to come in the early morning hours to work on new suits, but Pepper doesn't know that.

Floors located under the compound:

Garage: where every type of vehicle you could imagine is stored, nearly all of them donning the Avengers logo. There are anything from motorcycles (including a special edition Harley-Davidson RL 45 Steve picked got for Bucky), ATVs, cars, trucks, and one massive speed jet used to transport the whole team. The garage is only accessibly to the Avengers team and has a massive ramp that opens up 100 meters away from the normal front entrance of the tower.

Basement: Located an extra 50 meters below the garage, no one ventures this low in the tower. It is used to mostly house old tech Tony has developed, unused suits/weapons the team has no use for that is too dangerous to dispose of, and even some left over alien artifacts collected over the last decade.

Like my garbage? Read more of it! Master List

Let me know if you wanna be tagged if I decide to do a sequel!

I tagged anyone who might like the story this will be used in. It won’t be some intricate, detailed story line sort of thing, more like random snippets of stories that happen in the tower, but they will all be based on Loki x Reader (and won’t all involve Jotun Loki)

LOKI TAGS: @socialheartbreak @kcd15 @maladaptive-ninja-returns@nephalem67 @jessiejunebug @woodyandbuzz20-01 @bambamwolf87 @kitsuneharo12 @yzssie@macbetheliza @lokilvrr @lokixme @li-ssu @j-u-s-t-4 @letskillthefuhrer

#loki #loki x oc #loki x reader #loki x you #loki odinson #loki laufeyson #marvel #loki (marvel)#marvel fanfiction #marvel smutt #avengers #stark tower

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sol1056 · 6 years ago

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three contagonists in one

another two-parter anon:

...while many people [note] Lotor's lack of a relationship with Keith, I find infinite wasted potential in what could've been an interesting arc with Shiro. Both leaders, explorers, abused by the empire, and --- this was stressed for some reason in the Kral Zera episode --- both being a special object of Sendak's hatred.

You just knocked right on one of the few truly fascinating aspects of S3-S6, and one VLD seems to have completely overlooked: Lotor’s positioning as a mirror contagonist.

There’s something you’ll find in a lot of the Gundam series that I haven’t seen too many other series do, and it’s become my favorite way to flesh out a cast. Although most Gundam series have a nominal protagonist, there’s usually a core group of pilots. Each will step into the main spot for a few episodes, and each has a secondary character who acts as their foil. This is their mirror contagonist.

I first noticed the pattern in Gundam Wing, where it was most stark. Heero had Relena, whose innocence balanced his brutal backstory yet whose political savvy balanced his ignorance of the bigger picture. Duo had Hilde, who’d become a traditional soldier while Duo acted alone. Trowa had Cathy, whose compassion and extroversion matched his detachment and isolation; Quatre had Dorothy, whose ruthlessness and game-playing echoed Quatre’s darker side. And Wufei had Sally, who refused to mope, but grabbed the bull by the horns. Even the antagonists had mirror characters.

A mirror contagonist is also an impact character: they’re the only one the protagonist can’t ignore, even when no one else can get through. Done right, it’s an intriguing way to highlight a character’s internal conflict. But boy, do mirror contagonists take a lot of planning.

First, they must have a goal of their own, or they’re just a plot device to artificially force the protagonist into plot-movement. Some walk-on just happens to say the right thing to make the hard-headed protagonist think twice? Gee, how convenient. Nope, the mirror character must have their own trajectory, or it won’t be believable that their words/actions could shove the protagonist’s trajectory onto a new course.

Second, as a contagonist, their trajectory may run parallel to the protagonist’s, but it must differ in the details, whether means or ends. The contagonist is a makeshift ally (as much as they align with the protagonist), but there must also be conflict, and that’s where the quasi-antagonist role comes into play.

Third, the contagonist personifies either the lie the protagonist believes, or the truth they must accept. Since that points back to the protagonist, you really have to nail down exactly what wound lives in the protagonist’s backstory, what their self-protective lie is, and what truth they need to recognize. Otherwise you end up with a mirror character who’s more like a broken funhouse than a solid reflection.

Really, you’re creating a secondary character who is tailored to be the only one who can force the protagonist to face the truth. If a secondary character works as a mirror/impact for multiple protagonists in your story... your protagonists need some serious switching-up in their lies, their truths, or their goals. Or all three.

And that brings me to Lotor.

He’s a match with Allura, by virtue of his Altean obsession, and their respective parents. He’s also clearly set up as an impact character, with his words changing Allura’s trajectory like no other character manages. He also seeks peace, with similar means (a sentient mecha) but differing goals (taking over the empire rather than dismantling it).

Although Keith and Lotor never actually meet except for two short scenes, Lotor’s also rife with parallels to Keith. Their respective backstories are shot through with implied neglect, abandonment, distrust, and isolation; Keith’s near-obsession with Lotor underscores that parallel, of like calling to like.

And yeah, you’re right: there’s a third set of parallels with Shiro. In terms of leadership styles, they’re both inclusive of their teams, fond to a point but always with an edge of distance. They’re strategic thinkers, rather than tactical, and they tend to take the long-range view over short-term gains. And yes, it is rather odd that Sendak seems to have especial contempt for both of them.

This is actually where my original thesis -- that Lotor would make a great mirror contagonist -- falls apart. Because it makes no sense for him to be the mirror for three separate characters. As a contagonist, yes, but to mirror each of these? I mean, we’re supposed to see Allura, Keith, and Shiro as separate entities, so creating someone so well-rounded they can mirror all three...

Lotor is actually a protagonist.

I’ve alluded to this before, and others have come right out and said it, but this also presents somewhat of a problem. First is that this is too late in the game to be introducing major repeating characters (let alone a seventh protagonist). He should’ve been introduced --- even in passing --- no later than S2. And he should’ve at least been mentioned in S1, so we were aware of the chance he’d enter the fray.

The second (and larger) problem is that despite being characterized as fully as a protagonist, he swings in and out of being a plot device. Frankly, it’s like the story has no idea what to do with him; he takes up too much room. (Honestly, he would’ve been an amazing protagonist by himself, but I guess that’s too much of a complete reboot to flip the tables like that.)

In S3, Lotor isn’t aligned as a true antagonist; the resulting interactions end up more like protagonists from overlapping stories. Lotor needs a goal that either opposes the team (ie, attack vs defend the empire) or competes with it (both racing to capture the same comet).

Instead, the team is focused on defeating the empire and Lotor is like, well, whatever. The entire reason they meet is because Lotor manipulates them for his own ends, but these aren’t ends that (at that point) seem to impact the team beyond annoying them. Putting Lotor front-and-center thereby shifts the story to him, which makes the sudden swerve away from him around S4 just as jarring as the original shift to him.

By S5, Lotor hasn’t lost that layered characterization... and the story still isn’t sure how to balance him with the paladins. He shows flashes of being a true contagonist, in that his objectives are loosely parallel to the team’s, but their ends (overthrow Zarkon) are his means, not his ends (take command of the empire).

This is where Lotor’s positioning as a quasi-protagonist reveals some major story problems: mainly, that the core team has never expressed what will happen after. The entire coalition storyline --- from the end of S2 to the end of S4 --- drops out of sight, and in the gap, Lotor’s goals become the team’s goals. That’s not a mirror contagonist; that’s a protagonist taking over the story.

Only one scene ever veers close to doing what it should with a contagonist, or even a mirror: have a discussion. Instead, we get Lotor saying, “this is what we need to do,” the team argues yes or no (but not why), Shiro snaps at Lance, and the debate is over.

That closed the door on Lotor ever being more than an exposition fairy and plot device. The purpose of a contagonist is to poke holes in the heroes’ plans. Shiro and Lotor (or, in the non-clone version, Keith and Lotor) should’ve gone head-to-head over the (expected) divergence in their respective goals.

When the story doesn’t go there, it’s a sign the team has no end-goal. There’s nothing, at that point in S5, to indicate what any of the paladins consider criteria for success. What must happen, or be in place, for the team to say the war has ended and been won? Who knows; it’s never discussed or even implied.

Without a goal on the paladins’ part, Lotor has to be stepped back: no meeting with Keith, no exploration of the parallels with Shiro. He’s limited to a plot device that enables Allura’s power-up, provokes conflict for Lance, and provides a ready-made Next Step for the paladins. That is, ‘support Lotor in reforming the empire.’ Which actually just boils down to ‘become the empire’s lackey,’ including vrepit-sa’ing people. (Ugh.)

This, I suspect, is also the reason Lotor had to be stripped of his generals before the story let him meet the paladins; the generals would’ve been four more contagonists (one for each paladin) and the story could barely handle Lotor. It wasn’t up to interrogating each paladin’s individual reasons for being in the story, especially when 3/5ths didn’t seem to have explicit goals.

There’s no doubt Lotor was a compelling character, with damn good personal reasons for wanting his parents overthrown. He was far more interesting, too, when he had little inclination to rule, as this implied some larger scheme separate from simply gaining power. But that also made him an awkward character for contagonist or mirror purposes. Compared to his strong motivations, the paladins became cardboard in their own story: no goals, no tensions pulling at them (other than Lance’s jealousy), no outside pressures forcing them to act, no internal needs pushing them to choose.

The very nature of Lotor’s personal vendetta revealed, in comparison, the paladins’ complete lack of personal motivation. For that reason, he had to be reduced first to an exposition fairy, then to a plot device, and then to a pawn tossed one way then the other and finally to a villain shrieking madly. Letting him retain the strength and depth of a protagonist only made clear how little the true protagonists filled that same role.

I should add: Shiro is the one exception to this, as anon points out. Of the team, barring possibly Allura, Shiro is the only one with a personal connection to all three major antagonists (Sendak, Zarkon, Haggar), and the only one with a personal reason to make the empire pay. Contrasting Lotor and Shiro would’ve made sense, as respective leaders, and would’ve been a strong argument with no right answer and serious emotional beats.

The story veered away, I think, because that would’ve returned Shiro’s motivations to the forefront. By S5, I suspect the EPs were already trying to downgrade Shiro and minimize his personal stakes. With Lotor’s parallels to Shiro, the easiest way for the story to dismiss Shiro’s unanswered questions was to diminish the one character whose presence could raise those questions again.

#vld #voltron #lotor #characterization #contagonists #protagonists #analysis #sol thinks about stuff

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strigital · 6 years ago

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Headcanons: Hero of Kvatch - Kassandra Saryn

‘tis about time i did something like that with Kassie. so here we go!

Kassandra is a halfbreed: she’s got a Breton father and a Dunmer mother. She looks very much human in almost every way, from the shape of her face and complexion of her skin, to the Nibenayan accent of her speech and a preference for simpler, less posh things. The only elven things about her are her pointed ears, predisposition to magical arts and slower aging.

Kassie’s got heterochromia: her left eye is bright blue and her right eye is vibrant green, which is believed to be the result of mixed blood. Her unique physical traits are also attributed to her vast and complicated genealogical tree, which includes centuries worth of interracial marriages, infidelities and all sorts of blood mixing between men and mer you could possibly imagine.

Her natural hair color is chestnut brown, not pearly white. Her hair was bleached by exposure to strong magical energies at a very young age, when her mother used a teleportation spell on the girl and her twin in order to relocate them from Morrowind to High Rock, to their father’s family.

Getting such a dose of raw magical energy not only made her hair standout in the crowd, but also awoke her own magical talents. Kassie got predisposition to Destruction and Illusion, while her little sister’s magic leaned towards Restoration and Alteration.

Kass considers herself a self-taught mage like her mother, though anyone at the Mages Guild would call her incompetent, unskilled and dangerous to both herself and her surroundings, especially after you learn that this girl favors Fire spells over anything else. She’s chosen fire not so much because of her Fire Resistance inherited from her mom, but rather because of many ways she finds instant fire out of nowhere useful in the wilds. However, Kass is NOT good with her spells: most of them aren’t even real spells, just random conjurations of magical fire and as such, most often than not, she ends up burning something. Usually herself. A nasty burn scar on her left arm and a frequent smell of burnt hair are constant reminders that she's in a dire need of a tutor. On the other hand, her skills in the arts of Illusion are a lot better. The only spells she knows from this school are a Candlelight and a somewhat effective Chameleon which are quite useful and help her out far more often that a little wild magical fire. Lucien believes that the reason why she’s far more successful as an Illusionist, rather than a Pyromancer is because one of her signs is the Shadow, which is known to favor anything that has to do with invisibility and sneak.

Kass was born under two signs, which even Uriel Septim VII himself believed to be of prophetic significance. She was born during the season of the Shadow, on the 5th of the Second Seed, 410 of 3rd Era, yet a wandering sign with no assigned season, which is known to pop up on the night sky every now and again - the Serpent - was also present on the night of her birth. Kass believes that the Serpent is responsible for all the misery in her life, but the Shadow is the one which allowed her to dodge all those miseries despite all odds.

After her daring escape from an orphanage as a kid, Kass ventured to the Imperial Reserve, where a huntsman from Chorrol named Honditar took her in as his apprentice. She’d spend summers at his lodge, learning the secrets of survival in the wilds and would leave before winter, when he went back to the city ‘till next spring. Kass then would go to the Gottlesfont Priory, where kind nuns gladly took her in and taught her about herbs and traditional medicine. Those were the best days of her life.

Years spent living in the wilds made her quite an aloof. She developed a strong dislike for cities and civilization in general, preferring thick woodlands over cramped streets any day. She would only leave the woods and go to the nearest town in order to trade furs and occasional treasure for soap or new clothes. If a certain winter happened to be a bit too harsh she’d find a job at a farmstead as a shepherd or a maid, but as soon as thaw began she’d disappear into the wilds once more. On the other hand, she became a real pro at all this survival stuff. She could make a trap out of anything, track down almost any living being and never get lost in the woods. One look around and she’d immediately know where’s the north, how far is the nearest river and what kind of predator frequents this place. Unfortunately, this also means that she’s absolutely helpless in a city. The streets confuse her, the people annoy her, the guards scare her and there’s no way of telling which way is the exit! Her life in the cities became easier once she discovered a way onto the rooftops though.

Because the wilds are never truly safe, Kass learned to sleep like a rabbit, with her ears perked up and listening. She’s such an incredibly light sleeper, that even Lucien couldn’t sneak up on her during the night of their first official meeting. On the other hand, she has serious troubles getting well rested and can’t stay asleep for longer than four hours without a cup of strong chamomile tea or a sleeping potion. That makes her the second insomniac of the Cheydinhal family right after the Speaker.

Since she’s the wild hermit from the forest, Kassie is an absolute tragedy when it comes to high class socializing. She can’t do small talk to save her own life, doesn’t understand when someone is flirting with her or how to pay back a compliment and most of the jokes totally fly over her head! She is polite, however, mostly due to her having some experience working as a servant girl. Also because of her uncivilized way of life, Kass never had a lesson in courtship. Poor baby does not understand all those sexual innuendos and metaphors people keep telling, has no idea what sexuality is and is absolutely clueless when it comes to sex and/or making out. Madam Josele finds her innocence irresistibly adorable and more than once scolded Lucien for attempting to use his charms on the poor girl.

As such, Kass was never in love before joining the Brotherhood. Lucien Lachance was her crush since day one and he, knowing that, deliberately manipulated her with his charms in order to make her a loyal little puppy by rewarding good behavior with a smooch or a suggestive smile, but punishing undesirable actions by giving her a cold shoulder or talking in harsh professional tone. That being said, Kassie felt that her feelings towards her boss were doomed and so she kept her options open. During one of her contracts she met a rather dashing Dunmeri merchant from Wayrest, with whom she exchanged letters for quite a few months after he went back to High Rock to his boring wife. However, Vicente was the one who pushed Kassie towards Lucien and when she insisted that he already had a mistress, the vampire said something that made her change her mind in an instant: “she gives him what he wants, but you give him what he needs.”

Later in the future, when she becomes a mother to Lucien’s only child and a future High Listener - Lawrence - Kass won’t stay to rebuild the Brotherhood after the civil war. She’ll disappear beyond the mysterious blue door in the middle of Bravil’s lake to never be seen again.

Kass may have a very simple taste in clothes, but boy does she know how to make them! Even though her auntie and a step mother died before the girl was five, she learned quite a few things from her before her demise. Sussana Saryn was a quite popular tailor in Anvil and did miracles with all those fabrics her husband brought to her from across the seas on his ship, and Kassie was always there to help with sewing. Give the girl a piece of cloth, a few needles and a thread and you’ll have a simple but cute dress in less than a day!

Kass is crazy for simple, energetic folk dances, which she learned whilst working at farmsteads during harvest seasons. Nothing gets her feet moving as much as a violin and a handsome farmer’s boy with whom she could spin under a linden tree in the late afternoon ‘till she loses her breath. Ah! Truly happiness lies in small things like these.

Because most of her adolescence she was malnourished, Kass has fallen victim to stunted growth. Even at the age of twenty she’s got thin limbs, small hips and little to no volume in her chest area. Because of this she looks unthreatening and small, which in some cases greatly helps her with contracts in crowded cities and other places where the ability to be unnoticeable is crucial to the success.

Kassie dislikes people, because for the most of her life they were cruel to her and indifferent to her miseries. For this reason she always preferred the company of animals, because in her eyes an animal will not lie, betray or deceive: if it wants to kill you it growls and does not pretend to be your best friend, and if it is truly your best friend then it will gladly follow you to Oblivion and back. Even after joining the Brotherhood she remains quite introverted, preferring to play with Schemer when everyone else is gossiping at the dinner table, or go for a walk with Ragnar rather than have dull conversations with other members of the Black Hand.

For some reason Kass dislikes felines. Maybe it’s because she has to constantly compete with wild big cats for food in the forest, or because she was robbed by Khajiiti highwaymen so many times... She just doesn’t like felines: housecats, wild senches, Khajiits or anything in-between she doesn’t like. The only exception is Vicente’s cat, who lives in his mansion in Blacktown. She’s a fluffy gray Alfiq named after the Queen-Wolf, who somehow managed to win over Kassie’s heart with her big eyes and melodic meows. Must be her magic!

That being said, Kass only makes friends with a few people at the time and stays loyal to them ‘till the end. Her best friend is, of course, Vicente, whom she found very likeable since their first meeting. Monsieur Valtieri became like a father figure to her, a mentor and a friend in one person. She always found vampires fascinating, because they live for so long and most certainly must know a great deal of things! Even in times when she’d doubt Lucien’s decisions, her trust in Vicente’s wisdom would remain absolute.

Kassandra may be polite, shy and unnoticeable, but she certainly can make her own decisions. It is often believed that she’ll do anything for the Brotherhood and will never disobey an order, but in truth she always does things as her heart says. If she’s given an order which doesn’t make sense in her mind and just screams “not right!” at her, she’ll do things her own way. The job will be done, but the contractor may be left displeased.

Her favorite season will always be spring, because with thaw comes warmth, longer days, first harvest of berries and mushrooms, prey comes out from hiding... With spring she can breathe easier, knowing that hungry winter is behind and for the next few months she’ll be busy hunting, gathering and exploring away from those pesky humans and their suffocating cities. Her favorite weather happens to be heavy rain in summer, when the sun is brightly shining from behind the clouds, whilst a wall of warm water falls from the sky, rejuvenating vegetation and washing away dust and sweat. On the other hand, she hates storms. Lightning and thunder were always scary, but in the middle of the woods at night? Absolute nightmare.

Kassie’s favorite food (and beverage) will always be milk. Just your simple milk straight from under a cow. Since most of her diet usually consists of roasted game, raw berries and an occasional fruit, the “normal people’s food” like bread, milk and soup are rare commodities in her life. A glass of warm milk is all it takes to make this lil’ elf a happy camper.

However, ever since becoming Lucien’s agent Kass developed a taste for apples, specifically those big red ones the Speaker always orders from Bretoni merchants. They’re big, sweet and juicy and most importantly they keep both her and her horses well fed.

Once she learned that everyone and their mother in the Brotherhood have their own postal pets, be it a bird, a bat or a magical construct, Kass didn’t hesitate to get her hands on her very own courier. After many hours spent walking about the animal market, she chose a small but witty flying fox, brought to Cyrodiil by poachers from the jungles of Elsweyr. She named her Chestnut.

After some phenomenal events in her life, Kass became heavily involved in Brother Martin’s life. Despite her constantly running back underground to deal with the Brotherhood’s problems, she and Martin became good friends. In fact, she was the only one the prince was not afraid to share his secrets with. At some point she even brought him the Rose of Sanguine so he could destroy it in his ritual and through this, symbolically, destroy his own dark past. He never forgot this gesture.

Kass is one of the few living people who knows that the last Septim did not die at the battle for the Imperial City. She made sure that nobody ever learns of what truly happened on that terrible night and provided Martin, who was no longer in possession of Dragon’s blood nor the Amulet of Kings, with quiet, safe and anonymous life somewhere in the meadows of the newly rebuild county of Kvatch. She’d visit him once every few months up until her journey to the Shivering Isles.

whoo boy, another long one, eh?

welp, y’all know the rules: if you made it to the end have a cookie and praise our Dark Lord while eating it C:

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northcountryprimitive · 5 years ago

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“Some Songs Need Words, Some Don’t.” An Interview With Wes Tirey

This interview originally appeared at North Country Primitive on 5th April 2015

It’s not all about fingerstyle guitar here at North Country Primitive. We have a massive soft spot for a human voice - the more human the better - wrapped around a well crafted song; even more so when the singer tips a respectful, but far from obsequious, hat in the general direction of established folk tropes and traditions. Wes Tirey is quite simply one of the best songwriters we’ve come across in a long while: his music evokes the spectral presence of the Old, Weird America, filtered through the prism of the more wayward of the folk troubadours of the early 60s. This is not to say his music is merely an exercise in nostalgia for the ghosts of folk past - Wes is a modern day fellow traveller rather than any kind of pastiche artist. And did we happen to mention that he’s also a rather excellent fingerstyle guitarist? Our thanks to Wes for taking the time to answer our questions.

Can you tell me about the journey that has taken you to where you are now as a singer and guitarist, both in terms of your own musical history and your influences?

These kind of questions are kind of hard to answer, because I think the influences that lead to doing something creative aren’t always creative ones. The musical stuff is obvious. I think I owe more to the Lone Ranger, Daniel Boone, and Davy Crockett being my heroes when I was a kid than discovering Bob Dylan and John Fahey. Playing baseball was influential. My mom reading to me and my sister was influential. Going to church with my Grandma was influential. Those are the kind of things that shape your conscience long before you start writing songs. For me, without them there’d be no songs.

I’ve been finding your lyrics a real joy to listen to. You seem to revel in using slightly archaic words and phrases – you also appear at times to make quite free use of the archetypal language and themes of folksong. If I’m not completely wide of the mark, is this a conscious approach on your part or is it simply how your songwriting turns out?

Thank you. I think it’s a little bit of both, really. Old Ohio Blues is based on the old folk song East Virginia Blues ––with some verses being lifted from it. But I’ve also been obsessed with that particular song for a long time now, and wouldn’t use words or images from it without being deliberate about it.

Other times, I think it’s just how it turns out. I like to be very deliberate about the words I use, but I feel like I’m not always in control––meaning, some things just eventually reveal themselves in a song after being buried in my mind for a while. At least I think that’s how it happens. It’s all kind of a mystery.

I think when I was younger that I’d be much quicker to answer a question about songwriting, because I thought I knew exactly what I was talking about––or could be precise about it all. I don’t think that’s the case anymore.

I wonder if there’s a particularly Southern sensibility to your language and themes? I’m sure I can hear echoes of the great Southern Gothic authors and their present day followers in your writing. Do you consider yourself as being influenced by this literary lineage? Or as a listener, am I simply been seduced by the fact that you appear to be a Southerner singing in his own voice and using the everyday language of the South?

To be clear, I’m not actually from the South. I was born and raised in Ohio and moved to Black Mountain, North Carolina, about four years ago. That said, both of my blood lines run to Kentucky and I do feel a natural affinity towards the South. I feel comfortable here.

Flannery O’Connor was a rather revelatory discovery, and I read her work to this day, still. I love the Southern Gothic aesthetic as a whole, but I’m not sure how exact the influence is. I don’t exactly recall those influences or find myself in the middle of engaging with them when I’m working on a song. I’m taken more by the imagery than the words, I’d say.

A song like Blue Ridge Mountain Blues could almost come straight out of the repertoire of a string band from the Old, Weird America, albeit filtered through the sensibilities of, say, the New Lost City Ramblers. Do you feel any great affinity with the American folk tradition? Is something like the Harry Smith Anthology any kind of touchstone for you?

I think the Harry Smith Anthology is the Alpha and Omega of American music, as far as I’m concerned. Other than Geeshie Wiley’s Last Kind Words Blues and the music of John Fahey, I’m not sure I’ve had a more rattling musical discovery.

As far as feeling an affinity with the tradition itself, I’m not sure. I think that it’s just the music that I internalise the most. It’s the stuff that sticks with me. I listen to a lot of other music other than stuff from the folk tradition––but I experience it much differently. I love Bitches Brew––but I don’t internalise it like I do with the music of someone like Roscoe Holcomb, for example.

I’m also picking up a certain sort of folk revival vibe from some of your songs. The Final Resting Place, for example, could have come from the pen of one of the better early 60s folk troubadours. Specifically, I’m put in mind of the more untamed, ploughing-their-own-furrow side of that movement – artists like Michael Hurley or The Holy Modal Rounders. Do you see these artists as part of your own musical hinterland?

Well, thank you for the kind words. I’d never dare put my name next to Michael Hurley’s!

I love Hurley’s songs. I listened to a lot of his music when I was writing O, Annihilator. I think there are songwriters that I feel a natural affinity towards, though––their aesthetic environment is just comfortable to be in. As far as being part of a movement, I don’t really have any concern for that. As soon as you start thinking about those things you’re distracted from writing songs.

There seems to be a sly humour in some of the songs, too. Brand New Cadillac, quite apart from borrowing the title of the rockabilly classic, puts me in mind of the sort of scenario Bill Callaghan might have set up when he was writing songs like Dress Sexy at my Funeral. Is there a deliberate twinkle in your eye when you’re writing songs like these, or is it more of an accidental humour?

Thank you for the kind words, again. Bill Callahan is a big hero of mine. I’ve been listening to his music all day today, actually. That’s interesting that you found humour in that song––might have something to do with the six-pack I bought before recording that night.

I can’t say there’s a deliberate twinkle in my eye when writing. For me, my songs are more or less all concerned with concepts that I take seriously. But I’m not always such a serious person. Most nights I’m at my apartment with my cat watching Bob’s Burgers––and I’m brutal when it comes to Cards Against Humanity.

I can’t help but be reminded of early Vic Chesnutt on some of your songs. Was he an influence on you? Or am I being blindsided by the occasionally similar phrasing?

Thank you––that’s a high compliment. I’m not very familiar with Vic Chesnutt’s music––but what I’ve heard has blown my mind. I need to explore his stuff more.

You seem to take a somewhat different approach to each release: to these ears, I Stood Among Trees seems at least in part to reference the 60s folk troubadours; O, Annihilator resonates with the sounds of the Old, Weird America; Home Recordings takes the American Primitive approach as a springboard for something more exploratory. Meanwhile some of the arrangements and settings on the new cassette, Journeyer / Forward, Melancholy Dream, appear to be more abstract and understated. Do you take a conscious decision to take a different approach with each album? And is it a deliberate decision to largely keep your song-based and your American Primitive-influenced material separate? Do you see yourself primarily as a songwriter who also releases some solo guitar stuff or vice-versa? Or are they simply two sides of who you are as a musician?

I don’t really have an “I’ve down this, now I need to do that” approach when it comes to writing. I think of things in terms of their whole aesthetic and how it relates to the concepts that the songs deal with.

As for the songwriter/solo guitar question, I think it’s more of the latter. Some songs need words, some don’t.

Your releases tend to be fairly lo-fi, stripped down affairs. Is this about aesthetics or necessity? If you were offered the chance to go into a top flight studio with a bunch of musicians, a gospel choir and a string section, would you go for it?

Man, I’d love to record with a gospel choir! I’d be so intimidated, though. The lo-fi approach is both an aesthetic and pragmatic decision. I like the sound of it all, and it’s always free to record at home. It’s also just more comfortable for me––I’m not on a clock and can be uninhibited. That said, I’m not opposed to recording in a studio. When I was younger and had a band, we recorded in some great studios, and I recorded I Stood Among Trees at an amazing studio in Asheville. Recording at a studio has its virtues, and recording at home has its virtues, too. I hope to do my next full-length in a studio with a bunch of great Asheville musicians.

There seems to be a pretty healthy outpouring of my kind of music in your part of North Carolina: people like Shane Parish, Tashi Dorji and Sarah Louise are also doing interesting things. Is there any kind of scene – shared concert bills, collaborations, mutual support, encouragement and friendship? Or are you all beavering away in your own silos?

Shane, Tashi, and Sarah are all exceptional musicians. I envy their talent so much and encourage everyone to explore their music. I’ve had the pleasure of sharing the stage with all three of them, and seeing them play live is nothing short of a beautiful experience.

What are you listening to at the moment? Any recommendations, old or new?

I snagged the new Jessica Pratt tape recently and think it’s beautiful. I also got the recent Loren Connors reissue of Airs and the LP Zachary Hay released under the name Green Glass. There’s a great cassette label out of the UK called Death Is Not The End Records, and I ordered some of their tapes––gospel/blues/spirituals stuff.

Recommendations: listen to Maharadja Sweets––tell your mother and father, sister and brother, neighbours, dogs and cats, all the fish in the sea. He’s the best. My pal Andrew Weathers makes beautiful music. Ohioan is my buddy Ryne Warner’s project, and it’s epic stuff. Scissor Tail Editions is my favorite label––Sarah’s new tape is gorgeous and the Scott Tuma reissue is so beautiful I can barely describe it.

What’s next for you? Do you have any future projects in the pipeline?

I got a lot coming up, actually. Some sound artists from Italy approached me about adding some improv bits to their new works. I’ll be adding some guitar work to a cool project that Maharadja Sweets is working on. I’m working on a short piece for a guitar compilation that Cabin Floor Esoterica will be releasing this summer. And this September I’m doing a weeklong residency at an artist retreat where I’ll start writing my next full-length album.

Is there anything I should have asked you but didn’t?

These questions were great! It’s been a pleasure.

https://westirey.bandcamp.com/

#wes tirey #american primitive #fingerstyle

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calamity-writes · 8 years ago

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The Peoples of Entropic Horizons

Read Entropic Horizons here

Humans

By far the most powerful and most populous of all the Peoples of the Thedas system, humans vary widely between size, colouring, build, aptitude, and religions. They are the ruling class of every planet and major colony in the Thedas system aside from the Par Vollen flotilla, Orzammar and Skyhold.

Compared to the other peoples, humans reproduce at rapid rates, allowing them to adapt to new habitats and skills much more quickly than the ancient peoples of the elves and dwarves. How they compare to the relatively new arrivals to the system, the Qunari, remains to be seen.

Only humans are able to become official rulers in the main nations, and non-humans are not able to serve directly in the Chantry or the Templars.

Basic Traits

Roles are Rarely Gender specific outside of the Chantry

heights average between 5'6'' and 6'' but not uncommon for outliers, builds muscular to slender

Round ears, hair that varies from blonde to red to black, skin from very pale pink to near black-brown

eyes that do not have a tapetum lucidum (reflective lining on the retina that improves low light vision and glows like a cat's)

Age relatively quickly

Aka

Shems - Elven, 'Quicklings'

Shemlen - Elven, 'Quick children'

Basra - Qunlat (derogatory) 'useless thing'

Magic Ability - Present but still rare. Genetics play a factor but not guaranteed.

Notable Humans

Rythlen Theirin (Hero and Queen of Ferelden) & Alistair Theirin (king of Ferelden)

Empress Celene I and General Gaspard, the warring Lions

Captain Frederic Rousseau formerly of the Chevaliers and his son with Milliara, Nils DuLion

Former Champion of Kirkwall, Garret Hawke and his brother, Senior Warden Carver Hawke

The Advisors to the Inquisitor

Maeve Trevelyan, one of the Heralds of Andraste

Haylan the Enchanter, doctor within the Inquisition and former Hound of the Templars

Theseus Trevelyan, former Templar Knight, now Knight of the Inquisition

Almost everyone in power, really.

Elves

The elves have a poor lot in Thedas. once a thriving nation of near-immortals, now elves live either under the thumb of humans in slums called alienages, as slaves in Tevinter or as nomads that call themselves the Dalish. They have no true home, having lost each they founded to human empire builders.

No longer immortal, they still hold some characteristics of their ancient ancestors such as skin that can range from purple to golden, eyes that are inhumanly bright and can see more clearly in the depths of deep space than any human or dwarf can. And of course, their ears.

Recently, an elf has come to prominence as the Inquisitor and a Herald of Andraste. This has stirred elven populations throughout the system, to stand up against the injustices they face. A surprising number of elves also seek out the Qun, appreciating the transparent rules and roles.

Basic Traits

Roles are never Gender specific among the dalish, but city elves follow the human societies that they live in.

Eeights average between 5'0'' and 5'9'' but it is not uncommon for outliers, and Dalish tend to be slightly taller as they are less likely to grow up malnourished.

Their builds vary but elves are more slender by nature than humans.

Elves have pointed ears, hair that varies from white to red to black and gem-coloured skin that ranges from blue to golden.

Dalish elves have luminescent markings tattooed on their faces called vallaslin. The markings will often flicker in time with the elf's mood

In addition to having large eyes, elves have a tapetum lucidum that causes their eyes to glow like a cat's in low light. Apparently it can be unnerving.

Elves age and reproduce at rates comparable to a human (though slightly slower) however whenever an elf has a child with a human, dwarf or Qunari, the child appears to be fully the same race as their other parent.

Aka

Knife Ear - common insult

Rabbit - Orlesian insult

Elvhen'alas - 'Dirt Elves', a Dalish slur for City elves

Flat-ears - a slur for elves too friendly with humans

Basra - Qunlat (derogatory) 'useless thing' for non-Qun affiliated elves

Magic Ability - Slightly more prevalent in elves than in humans, however whether this is due to the reduction of policing of mages among the Dalish, or a genetic trait is unclear.

Notable Elves

Dalish Elves

Milliara Lavellan - A Herald of Andraste, Inquisitor, Former Orlesian Bard, former city elf

Fiowyn Lavellan - Cousin to Milliara, part of the Inquisition

Kalieth Surana - Grey Warden Enchanter, half sister to Aldes and Karya

Aldes Lavellan - A hunter, older brother to Karya and incorrigible flirt

Karya Lavellan - the First of what used to be Clan Lavellan.

Other?

Solas

City Elves

Briala, former lover of Celene I

Sera of the Red Jennys

Dwarves

While at first they might appear to be short humans, Dwarves are a distinct people from humans and incapable of interbreeding. Traditionally, Dwarves live underground on sub-planet Thaig. However many dwarves have ‘ascended’, leaving Thaig to seek fortune elsewhere. Traditional dwarven life relies on a strict caste system, Once a ‘true’ Dwarf sees the sky, they are considered to be casteless, and cannot return to their past role.

To travel between planets, Orzammar dwarves use windowless ships and shuttles to ensure that they do not lose their caste, although such trips are exceedingly rare.

The Carta is a dwarven cartel that dominates the grey and blue (lyrium) markets, ruthlessly defending their business holdings with less than legal methods.

Basic Traits

Built short and stocky, Dwarves barely reach over 5′2″ but are dense with muscle and sturdy bone from developing as a people on sub-planet Thaig which has a super-dense core, and increased gravity compared to the human planets.

In terms of colouring, Dwarves take after humans in range of hair, skin and eye colours, which is curious despite their ancestors living underground for so many thousands of years.

Dwarven reproduction rate is slow, and the population has been in decline for centuries, aggravated by the attacks by Darkspawn on former strongholds.

Dwarves have exceptional hearing, and Dark dwarves often speak about the ‘song’ of the stone which allows them to find veins of minerals and other important geolithic features

Aka

Surfacers - Ascended Dwarves, dwarves who have seen the sky, stars or sun

Dark Dwarves - ‘True dwarves’ who have not ascended

NugScats - Casteless Dwarves

Magic Ability - None, although Dwarves are skilled at enchanting magical effects into items they are completely unable to perform magic or even dream.

Notable Dwarves

Surfacers

Varric Tethras - famous author, blogger and podcaster

Dagna Smith - formerly of the Smith Caste, now a renowned researcher and enchanter

Deep Dwarves

Orzammar’s King

Qunari

The Flotilla known as Par Vollen arrived in the Thedas System some time ago, but still not much is known about the People known as the Qunari. Initial scans appear to show that Qunari are the result of gene splicing, but such technology has never been known to produce viable individuals, let alone a fertile species of people.

Basic Traits

In the Qun roles are specified by Gender, but Gender is not specified by the sex one is born with. Qunari men hold martial roles such as Sten, Arishok and Ben Hassrath while Qunari women hold spiritual and guidance roles, and are considered to be the true power behind the Qun. Tal-Vashoth and Vashoth however tend to follow societal norms of the area they live.

Qunari are the tallest and most muscular of the people in Thedas system. Averaging 6-9 feet, their size is made more impressive when one considers the horns many of them grow.

Like elves, Qunari have pointed ears, though they are smaller in relation to the Qunari’s skull. They also have inhuman skin tones, but while elves are ‘gem’ toned, Qunari tend to have skin the colour of metal.

Qunari often wear body and face paint made from substances that offer special protection against the hazards of space and battle. A trait unique to them, Qunari are able to survive in the void of space for brief periods of time with little side effect.

No one is certain about the aging rate of Qunari, as most met by non-Qun forces are killed in action or some other violent means.

Aka

Ox men - common insult

Magic Ability - Minor, seen as extremely dangerous, mages in the Qun are referred to as Saarebas and mages in the Qun are harshly treated if not outright killed. However mage Qunari exist among the Tal-Vashoth and Vashoth in small numbers.

Notable Qunari

Of the Qun

Sten, Veteran of the Fifth Blight

The Arishok of Kirkwall

The Iron Bull

Vashoth (not of the Qun, and never were)

Peanut and Tanim Adaar

Darkspawn

There are many theories and legends that surround the origin of Darkspawn and the Blight, the truth is that no-one knows for sure how the Blight or Darkspawn came to be. A true Blight occurs when Darkspawn rally around an Archdemon, developing a hive-mind. The Darkspawn horde then launches an attack upon non-infected populations, poisoning the land they inhabit and infecting or killing the individuals they find there.

The only known way of ending a Blight is to kill the Archdemon, and the only way to do that is to sacrifice a Grey Warden... until the 5th Blight when the Hero of Ferelden managed to slay the Archdemon without losing her life.

Darkspawn have overrun most of the sub-planet of Thaig save for a few holdouts like Orzammar, and now inhabit the deep caverns and mines on most Thedan planets. As a result any subterranean ventures deeper than a kilometer

Basic Traits

Savage, varying vastly in size, shape and ability

inhabit most of Orzammar

Magic Ability - Present in a few darkspawn, but these type of individuals are rarely seen outside of true Blights.

Notable Darkspawn

The Archdemon of the 5th Blight

Broodmothers

Corypheus

Red Lyrium

Spirits

The Chantry teaches that all spirits are Demons waiting to trick unwitting mages into allowing themselves to be possessed. This is absolutely not true, although it is a belief that continues to be pervasive and colour the perception of the any contact with spirits even if they’re benevolent.

Spirits reside in the fade, and while some do twist into demons either of their own will or through mangled summoning rituals, many spirits are happy to stay in the Fade.

Basic Traits - Vary too wildly to specify. Spirits represent an aspect of the physical world.

Magic Ability - Innate and extensive. Spirit are magical beings by nature, and reside in the fade. They can become demons if they are summoned into the physical dimension and are twisted against their nature.

Notable Spirits

Faith/The Divine

Knowledge

Justice

Cole/Compassion

Demons

Basic Traits - Vary, but tend to follow the 'sins' taught by the Chantry: sloth, despair, pride, rage, desire (too often thought of as lust), but there exist others not yet known. The Inquisition has only recently identified Fear demons as being distinct from despair.

Magic Ability - Innate and extensive. Demons are magical beings by nature, and exploit their abilities to possess or ensnare a mortal to experience life through them.

Notable Demons

The Nightmare

Imshael

Golem

Golem are exceedingly rare. Aside from the deep roads and the golem serving Minrathous, only archival footage exists of the Golem that once served with the Grey Wardens in the third blight.

Basic Traits

Not squishy, no obvious gender roles but always best to ask the golem which pronouns they prefer. They hit hard

Inorganic, crafted by Dwarves from lyrium, crystsal and metal with a soul bound to them to animate the otherwise dead object.

Very tall, Golem are said to get as large as 20 feet tall, but modern history shows they range from 7 to 12 feet

Often (but not always) paired with a control mechanism. Either in the form of a non-replicable program or, in the case of truly ancient Golem, a rod mad of the same crystal as the Golem’s ‘heart’.

Magic Ability - None, but inherently magical beings as dwarven souls are enchanted into the Golem's body.

Notable Golem

Shale

Caridin

#the world of entropic Horizons #peoples of Eh #dragon age in space #AU #long post #gif warning

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theonyxpath · 6 years ago

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We’ve got a ton of Scarred Lands content for you this week. Starting with the Scarred Lands DM Screen for 5e, available in PDF and print from DriveThruRPG. I think this is the first time we’ve done a GM screen in print, albeit as inserts for a customizable screen, like this one.

A Land Where Legends Walk

Drawing enthusiastically on Greek mythology, the revised and re-imagined Scarred Lands nonetheless retains its place as a modern fantasy RPG setting. This is a world shaped by gods and monsters, and only the greatest of heroes can expect to be counted among them. The most populous continent of Scarn, Ghelspad, plays host to vast unexplored regions, hides unsolved riddles from ancient cultures, and taunts adventures with the promise of undiscovered riches hidden among the ruins of older civilizations.

Yet the myths of the Scarred Lands are relatively recent events. The effects of the Titanswar still ripple through the world, and the heroines and villains of many of these stories are part of living memory, if not still living.

A useful reference tool for all Scarred Lands GMs, whether printed out or kept on a computer or tablet!

A four-panel GM screen features all of the tables a Scarred Lands GM needs in one place for handy reference.

See the Slarecian Vault section below for related material!

Also available in ebook and print from DriveThruFiction: Vigilant: Through Shadows and Dreams, Book One! This book is also available via Amazon Kindle and B&N Nook.

Eochaid Lenahr is dying…

… having given everything to protect one of Scarn’s most dangerous artifacts. But how did the young son of a Venirian farmer ever come to be fighting on the side of the enemy, the nation of Vesh?

Meet the brave, driven Veshian vigilants who stand between a recovering nation and the poisoned, half-mad wilds of Ghelspad. Learn the story behind the Scarred Lands’ dramatic Serpent saga, one of the most significant events of the post-war era.

On a world as devastated as Scarn, what does it cost to become a hero?

Vigilant is set in the fantasy world of the Scarred Lands campaign setting, currently available in both Pathfinder and 5e OGL editions from Onyx Path Publishing.

Indie Press Revolution now has the full selection of Scarred Lands Kickstarter products, including:

Scarred Lands Player’s Guide (5e OGL)

Scarred Lands Player’s Guide (Pathfinder)

The Wise & The Wicked 2nd Edition (5e OGL)

The Wise & The Wicked 2nd Edition (Pathfinder)

Scarred Lands d6s

And finally: Our RedBubble store now has a Map of Ghelspad available for posters, canvas prints, and more!

Kickstarter Update

The Kickstarter for a prestige traditional print run of Chicago by Night for Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition has two weeks remaining! We funded in about 15 hours! So far we have 1121 backers pledging $79,643 — 199% of our $40,000 goal. Closing in on 200%! So far we’ve unlocked nine stretch goals:

Chicago Folio: Includes the Camarilla Record and the Anarch Accounts

Old Traditions PDF bundle add-on: Chicago Chronicles vol 1, Chicago Chronicles vol 2, Chicago Chronicles vol 3

Let the Streets Run Red: A Chicago chronicle featuring characters absent from CbN, and rampaging across Chicago, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, and the rural Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana areas. A second chronicle, set in weird, rural Illinois.

Discounted Backer T-shirt

Digital Wallpaper

Beckett’s Jyhad Diary PDF add-on

Beckett’s Jyhad Diary Digital Wallpaper

Did you miss one of our previous Kickstarters? The following Kickstarted products are still open for preorders via BackerKit:

Dystopia Rising: Evolution: Dystopia Rising: Evolution rulebook

Scion: Scion 2nd Edition (Origin and Hero)

Trinity Continuum: Trinity Continuum (core rules and Trinity Continuum: Æon)

Exalted: Dragon-Blooded: What Fire Has Wrought

Chronicles of Darkness: Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras 2

Changeling: The Lost: Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition

Geist: The Sin-Eaters: Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition

Community Spotlight

The following community-created content for Scarred Lands has been added to the Slarecian Vault in the last week:

Slarecian Vault Character Sheet

Game Master Companion and Adventures to go with your new DM screen!

Your product could be here! Have you considered creating your own to sell?

The following community-created content for Realms of Pugmire has been added to Canis Minor in the last week:

Your product could be here! Have you considered creating your own to sell?

The following community-created content for White Wolf games has been added to the Storytellers Vault in the last week:

World of Darkness: Small town eschatology

Vampire: The Masquerade: Preview of War for São Paulo – Cainites and Other Sinners

Mage: The Ascension: Paradox: The Brainstorming

Exalted: Genocide Buzzsaw Style

Your product could be here! Have you considered creating your own to sell?

#Onyx Path Publishing

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mythandritual · 8 years ago

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“Some Songs Need Words, Some Don’t.” An Interview With Wes Tirey

This interview originally appeared at North Country Primitive on 5th April 2015

It's not all about fingerstyle guitar here at North Country Primitive. We have a massive soft spot for a human voice - the more human the better - wrapped around a well crafted song; even more so when the singer tips a respectful, but far from obsequious, hat in the general direction of established folk tropes and traditions. Wes Tirey is quite simply one of the best songwriters we've come across in a long while: his music evokes the spectral presence of the Old, Weird America, filtered through the prism of the more wayward of the folk troubadours of the early 60s. This is not to say his music is merely an exercise in nostalgia for the ghosts of folk past - Wes is a modern day fellow traveller rather than any kind of pastiche artist. And did we happen to mention that he's also a rather excellent fingerstyle guitarist? Our thanks to Wes for taking the time to answer our questions.

Can you tell me about the journey that has taken you to where you are now as a singer and guitarist, both in terms of your own musical history and your influences?

I wonder if there's a particularly Southern sensibility to your language and themes? I'm sure I can hear echoes of the great Southern Gothic authors and their present day followers in your writing. Do you consider yourself as being influenced by this literary lineage? Or as a listener, am I simply been seduced by the fact that you appear to be a Southerner singing in his own voice and using the everyday language of the South?

Well, thank you for the kind words. I’d never dare put my name next to Michael Hurley’s!

I can’t help but be reminded of early Vic Chesnutt on some of your songs. Was he an influence on you? Or am I being blindsided by the occasionally similar phrasing?

Thank you––that’s a high compliment. I’m not very familiar with Vic Chesnutt’s music––but what I’ve heard has blown my mind. I need to explore his stuff more.

As for the songwriter/solo guitar question, I think it’s more of the latter. Some songs need words, some don’t.

What are you listening to at the moment? Any recommendations, old or new?

What’s next for you? Do you have any future projects in the pipeline?

Is there anything I should have asked you but didn’t?

These questions were great! It’s been a pleasure.

#wes tirey #american primitive #troubadour #singer songwriter #folk #north country primitive

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thenicedolphin · 8 years ago

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Oscars Analysis With Biting Commentary: 2017 Edition!

Better the day of than never, amirite??? The 5th annual Oscars post from The Nice Dolphin (see links here for 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013), where Matt always provides excellent, impressive, insightful, groundbreaking commentary, and Alex comes in flaccid, flubbing around, rambling about James Harden, Andy Dalton, and some scary movie that no one watched. It’s a tradition for the ages! Matt will be in regular font, and Alex will come in with the bold font.

Okay, first of all, say what you want, but if there’s one thing my takes AREN’T it’s flaccid. Anyhow, fun production note: Matt emailed me his musings at like 3am last night in hopes that I wouldn’t have time to take his shoddy, poorly-reasoned, informed-by-Buzzfeed opinions to task. Bad news, Matt -- ya boy is WIDE awake and ready to talk Oscars!

Best picture:

“Arrival”

“Fences”

“Hacksaw Ridge”

“Hell or High Water”

“Hidden Figures”

“La La Land”

“Lion”

“Manchester by the Sea”

“Moonlight”

I’ve seen all nine films this year. I think I once was sorta embarrassed by that, but at this point, I don’t care… I WANT THE WHOLE WORLD TO KNOW. We got some classics in this field, and I would say I generally appreciated all of these films, but we gotta hand some critiques out too. Buckle up.

I’ve seen five out of the nine nominees: Arrival, Hell or High Water, La La Land, Manchester by the Sea, and Moonlight. I’m watching Hidden Figures as I’m writing this, so that should tell you all you need to know about my level of interest in Fences, Lion, and Hacksaw Jim Duggan.

First, I want to talk about the 3 films that were originally the top contenders before La La Land took the frontrunner perch solo on a storm of bright colors and happy dancing. Leading into the season, we had La La Land, Moonlight, and Manchester by the Sea.

I watched Moonlight first (out of all of these films actually, cool story bro). Moonlight was hyped in the critic circles and fairly unknown to the public… this made for an interesting watch at a fairly general Regal theater. Let’s just say the crowd was NOT expecting it to be an indie film about a gay black man in Miami struggling with his identity and they were NOT digging it. Sorta a weird atmosphere to sit in, but that didn’t stop the movie from shining through with its brilliance. Moonlight is a great, great film. It’s a beautiful study of a tragically hurt and isolated lead character. It is full of unique, fully-breathed characters.

Moonlight is a film of three acts following the life of our main character Chiron, and in each act, we have Chiron played by different actors portraying different ages of his life. That shouldn’t work as seamlessly as it does, but Barry Jenkins somehow pulled that magic trick off. The actors look enough alike, and they have enough similarities in their wounded souls, to show that they are Chiron. It’s remarkable. As much as I love Boyhood, it sorta makes that film’s structure feel more like a gimmick. Who needs to film scenes over 12 years when you have a vision as strong as this?

More importantly, Moonlight’s story is so powerful, and so well-told. This isn’t just some story about a gay black male who is bullied and conflicted about his sexuality. This is that story, done in such a poetic and powerfully told way. The patience it has telling its story. The way each of the 3 acts ends. Moonlight is a film that haunts me when contemplating its best scenes. I don’t think it’s for everyone. It certainly wasn’t for everyone in that theater when I watched it. But I would vote it for Best Picture.

Moonlight is a FANTASTIC film and if there was any justice in the world (there’s not), it would win Best Picture. Director Barry Jenkins is a master behind the camera, showing the audience everything we needed to see and nothing we didn’t. Moonlight is at once heartbreaking, uplifting, uncompromising, and relatable. Nothing is phoned-in or painted in broad strokes. Jenkins withholds judgment as he lets his characters’ lives unfold against one of the harder backdrops in recent memory. Plus, I’ve always wondered what 50 Cent looked like as a child.

Also, I gotta hand it to the bully in the second act for mocking Chiron’s jeans for being “too tight,” even though they were your typical straight-leg variety. Taking something completely innocuous and turning it into a source of mockery is a classic bully move. Outstanding work here.

NOTE: as I’m writing this, our hip-hop correspondent Kavi D. texted me the following: “Moonlight > La La Land. But like Adele beating Beyonce, we know what’s going to happen tonight. Such a joke.”

But Moonlight probably won’t win. La La Land will. And I’m ok with that too! I really loved La La Land! I love the vision of Damien Chazelle (Whiplash was aces). I love musicals. It was really fun. The love story was pretty good! La La Land has flaws to be sure. The white-man-saves-jazz issue is hard to deny, even if you try to justify it with the fact that well, John Legend’s character is cooler than Gosling’s, and their band’s song is pretty good! Gosling and Stone aren’t Gene Kelly or Rita Moreno in terms of their singing and dancing abilities. In the end, I was still enamored with the film’s joy along with the story’s emotion. And that ending was great. How is Chazelle so good at ending his films?

La La Land’s other backlash is that it’s another movie about Hollywood, appealing to the Oscar voters. Some also think it’s winning on a gimmick, as the first original musical in a while, sorta like how The Artist was the first silent film of note in a while. Well let me tell you something… The Artist? Sucked. La La was way better.

The amount of love La La is getting does annoy me. I mean, I’m cool with it winning Best Picture in the end, but getting like 10-11 Oscars? Some of these other films deserve some love too.

/Locks the door

//Looks out the window

///Takes the phone off the hook (lol landlines)

////Re-checks the locks

I gotta be real here: La La Land SUCKED. Before we get into it, let’s cover the positives:

1. John Legend’s song - that was sick!

2. The montage at the end - that was real!

3. La La Land did manage to be a very serious movie while keeping the tone light and bouncy, which is no easy feat, so I can give it some respect for that. Everything else though…?

The music was terrible. I’m not a big musical guy to begin with, but I can certainly appreciate a catchy showtune. Here? Not a one to be found. Gosling’s creaky-ass voice grinding out a third reprise of “City of Stars” doesn’t cut the mustard.

The dancing was shitty. Whether it was those losers rolling on the hood of their cars in the opening number, Stone’s way hotter roommates bumbling around their apartment, or the leads irritatingly floating in the planetarium, everything looked stilted and unrehearsed. The “Dick in a Box” video had sicker moves.

The leads had zero chemistry and were completely unlikable. Fishface Emma Stone and Jazz Hero Seb were such bores, I couldn’t find it in my cold, black heart to care about either one of them.

Also, do we really need white-as-a-sheet Ryan Gosling lecturing us about saving “real” jazz music? Here’s the thing, Seb: Jazz is/was all about innovation and being on the cutting edge of music. So the fact that he’s obsessed with sticking jazz inside some snow globe time capsule is actually 1000% more harmful to jazz than John Legend freshening things up and pushing jazz into a new, modern direction.

Chicken on a stick up my ass, gump!

Personal note: each year on Christmas, my family goes to the theater to watch a flick. The past few years we’ve seen joints like The Wolf of Wall Street, Django Unchained, Fury, and The Hateful Eight. Real family-friendly stuff. Well, this year we let my sister pick and of course she picked La La Land.

For the record we ALL hated it, even my sister. This is only the second movie I’ve ever seriously considered walking out of (shout out to Adventureland, you piece of crap). Anyhow, I would like to thank La La Land for giving me this nugget to hold over her head for the rest of eternity.

The last of the original top contenders, Manchester by the Sea, made me cry numerous times. I mean, I thought that shit was gonna be sad, but that trailer definitely made me figure there was a little more levity in it than there was. This ain’t Good Will Hunting. I thought Manchester had some great acting, a story that really weighed on you, and had several scenes in particular that really devastated me.

Matt must’ve fallen asleep during the last third of Manchester because for about forty-five minutes it becomes a network TV sitcom, with Affleck helping lil buddy get laid and selling enough pints of blood (BAC .08) to buy a new engine for the boat.

But hey, this is a good-to-great flick, although it could’ve used a re-edit -- what, was Billy Walsh too busy working on the new season of Johnny’s Bananas? Manchester suffers from what I call the “Boston bloat.” Any film set in New England is automatically twenty minutes too long because it has to constantly remind the audience that it takes place in New England. It’s already called Manchester by the Sea! We don’t need close ups of analog TVs showing the Celtics or slo-mo shots of ugly white guys in various shades of grey and khaki shooting Irish Whiskey.

SPOILER ALERT: (Matt’s note: the next paragraph has massive spoilers)

Also, uh, is it just me or does Lee get off kinda light (in reality and in the movie) for essentially murdering his three kids? Like hey motherfucker, you did an awful thing maybe you should at least TRY to atone for it? The cops are like “you burned your house down in a drunken stupor and it claimed the lives of your three children -- we’ve all been there!” “Yeah! I torched my place last spring, lost two kiddos and the dog, a real shame.” I get that you’re tortured bro, but maybe think about someone other than yourself for once?

Also if this movie (and most NE-set movies) are to be believed, women are only good for banging; otherwise they’re shrill nags, out to ruin a good time. Exactly none of the women in this movie are given any sort of depth or character beyond “I want to fuck her” or “She won’t stop bothering me.” The movie even kinda blames Lee’s kids’ death on the mom!

And the climactic conversation between Randi and Lee? The crux is that even after all this time, she still wants to fuck him! She can’t resist his grubby, down-home, chawm! Pathetic.

Arrival is my favorite film that didn’t ever get in the talk for Best Picture. And why the hell not? It’s loved by many who’ve seen it, it was a popular box office hit. Arrival got on my radar early 2016 when I heard about the film starring Amy Adams and the guy (Villeneuve) who did the superb Sicario. I checked out the short story Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang, and it blew me away. Arrival takes a pretty challenging high-level concept and somehow manages to portray it well onscreen. When I read it, I thought damn, how are they gonna make that a film? But they did. Villeneueve is a true talent. Arrival is intriguing sci-fi with an ending that truly impacts you.

Arrival was the bomb! Great flick and an amazing adaptation of “Story of Your Life.” Matt’s right about the movie breaking down an insane concept into something that’s easy to understand while still delivering that emotional gut-punch.

Amy Adams had better rapport with the fuggin aliens than Stone did with Gosling, just sayin.

I’ve seen a few pieces mention Hidden Figures as a possible late surprise winner. While there’s no real chance at that, it’s cool to see the box office love it’s gotten. When I first saw the trailer for Hidden Figures, I thought it came off to me like standard Disneyfied civil rights fare (like 42, if you will). But then the critics’ reviews came out, and then my friends spoke of how good it was. And it is good! Hidden Figures has 3 strong leads in Henson, Monae, and Spencer. They have well-developed characters. They don’t need to have strong white heroes saving them – the white characters (primarily Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Parsons), aren’t overly white saviors or overly mustachioed villains. There’s some prejudice. There’s some goodwill from good people like Costner’s character or John Glenn. But these are supporting details surrounding the main stories of these brilliant black women facing the shit they had to deal with at the time. That’s good cinema.

Hidden Figures is sounding pretty good in the background right now, so I’ll probably go back and actually watch it at some point. I was initially put off because it looked like The Help in Space and I didn��t need to see another scene where Sandra Bullock tells a black mother what’s what. Apparently it’s not like that? That’s good.

Fences is a well-acted adaptation of a powerful play by the great August Wilson. Fences covers the story of a black family dealing with their issues, primarily stemming from the father, Troy Maxson, during the civil rights era. Maxson is a stubborn, difficult man, and that causes some strife in the family. It’s uncompromising and tough stuff to watch, and it’s really a challenge, in a good way, to the viewer. I’ll have more thoughts on it below with Best Actor, but I thought that it had a great story and a somewhat limited vision with its adaptation. The direction by Denzel could have been more creative, but its lacking transcendance from the stage reminded me too much of the Doubt adaptation.

Fences looked like Denzel sitting on a porch for two hours. That’s cool for Denzel, but I’d just as soon sit on my own damn porch.

Hell or High Water was a really solidly done film. Jeff Bridges, Ben Foster, and Chris Pine basically are the film, and they’re great. Really glad to see Pine get to do something good outside of his always strong role as Kirk. The story’s pretty straightforward - Foster and Pine play brothers trying to rob banks. Bridges and his partner are going after them. But it’s not Point Break, and the nuances of the clever dialogue, the creative characters, and the way the movie builds - that makes the film a special quality film.

This is a movie right here! I love me a modern western, and Hell or High Water delivered! The cinematography was gorgeous and bleak at once, really bringing home the message of the movie. It was good to see Pine bounce back from that atrocious Star Trek 3 film, and the banter between him and Ben Foster really pushed this movie to the next level.

I gotta be real though, the audience I saw this with was laughing a little too hard at Jeff Bridges’ racist-ass character. Kinda uncomfortable.

I was pretty dubious about Hacksaw Ridge. I think I found it to be somewhat cheesy and somewhat excellent. The first half of the film is basically cheesy goodhearted Andrew Garfield as he decides in life that he doesn’t want to hold a gun during WWII but still wants to help, and the struggles he faced trying to convince the Army to let him do that. At this point, it felt pretty cliche and lame to me. Then the battle scenes began, and I was pretty impressed and enthralled… what Garfield’s character, Desmond Doss, did was heroic and incredible. The film is strong when showing those aspects. It’s just a little held back by the stuff around that.

Hacksaw Ridge, the Finest Hours, Deepwater Horizon -- can we tell any of these movies apart? Do we care? Really happy for Mel Gibson though, getting to film another critically-acclaimed gratuitous bloodbath.

Lion was my least favorite film, and I’ve seen a few friends here and there who disagree with that. But I found it to be lacking. The true story is amazing, the emotions of that conclusion are powerful, and Dev Patel is my boy. But the story is poorly paced for me; at times, just a little too much focused on his childhood. At times, a bit slow and clunky in his search. That being said, that film made me cry still, because that story is sad and moving. And I got love for my girl Rooney Mara. But it was the least of the 9 for me.

Just go back and read my rationale for skipping that awful Life of Pi remake. I’m sure all the same arguments apply here.

I can’t speak too much of Best Picture snubs this year. I was pretty content with this field. EXCEPT FOR CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR; WHERE’S DA LOVE.

Captain America: Civil War was great...as long as Cap was off-screen. Dude is the most vanilla-ass leading hero we got out here. More Iron Man, Black Panther, Spider-Man, Ant-Man, really anyone else, PLEASE.

Allow me to play to type and suggest that The VVitch got snubbed! Along with The Lobster and Deadpool, some real contenders got left at the altar. Also, let it be known that Matt had a huge bone for The Accountant despite it looking like trash from day one. Apparently some non-studio-plant redditor promised it would be great. Once the reviews started trickling in though, Matt was inconsolable.

Best director:

“La La Land,” Damien Chazelle

“Hacksaw Ridge,” Mel Gibson

“Moonlight,” Barry Jenkins

“Manchester by the Sea,” Kenneth Lonergan

“Arrival,” Denis Villeneuve

Chazelle is the likely winner here, and it would be well-deserved. He had a great vision for La La Land, and his visuals and energy are such strengths in the film. I would also wholly support my dude Villeneuve getting some love here. He really put together a great film for a short story that deserved it. He has lots of patience getting to the points he wants to make, and he treats the audience as adults, not holding their hands.

Jenkins’ direction of Moonlight leads to some damn good poetry, so I gotta give him props too. Lonergan does good work, but I don’t really consider the strength to be in his direction but more for his writing (to discuss later). Gibson put together some awesome battle scenes, but man, he had some corny scenes building up to it.

If Jenkins doesn’t win this, I’m jumping out my window like dude from the Mad Men credits.

/moves into first-floor apartment

Matt touched on it earlier, but how stupid does Richard Linklater look now? It took him like two decades to make Boyhood, and Jenkins knocked out a better version in like a month! It’s like Linklater, bro, we have actors for a reason..

Apparently Chazelle winning is a done deal, but cmon! Jenkins told three PERFECT stories, tied them together with the exact right amount of narrative tissue and knocked it out the f’n park! But yeah, Chazelle sucked off Hollywood and made the smog-trap that is LA look halfway redeemable.

Lead actor:

Casey Affleck, “Manchester by the Sea”

Andrew Garfield, “Hacksaw Ridge”

Ryan Gosling, “La La Land,”

Viggo Mortensen, “Captain Fantastic”

Denzel Washington, “Fences”

This race has come down to Affleck and Denzel. I haven’t seen Captain Fantastic and have heard Viggo is pretty good. Garfield does good work in Hacksaw, though his accent is a little spotty, and I can’t get over how corny he is at times in the film. Gosling was better to me than Stone in La La Land, but I can’t quite say that either of their lead performances screamed “Best Actor/Actress” to me. I think the race should come down to Affleck and Denzel.

Casey Affleck was the frontrunner for a while until Denzel Washington won the SAG award, which shifted the momentum in people’s mind. Affleck’s history of sexual harassment has come up a bit leading up to the Oscars, and some think that has affected his chances here. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I think the accusations were likely true. I think if so, it’s fair to make the argument that you don’t vote for him here. It’s an award for who’s the best actor, but there isn’t strict criteria, and these are voters who have a right to show support for who they want to. If that means denying a vote to a sexual predator who was privileged in what he got away with, then maybe that’s what people should do. Constance Wu broke it down pretty well, as you can read here.

If I somehow had an Academy vote, I don’t know what I’d do. I think I might vote for Casey in the end. But that debate aside, I wanna talk about their performances now, and I’d say I thought better of Casey’s.

His performance as Lee Chandler really really impressed me. It’s one of my favorite acting performances of recent years. I’d take this role over other recent winners like my boy DiCaprio in The Revenant or McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club. Affleck embodies this character, full of subtle sorrow and guilt and pain. I felt for him every step of the way, and I never felt like it was done with cheap acting or overly acted emotion (see: Sean Penn; Mystic River). Lee Chandler is the film, and Casey Affleck is the film, and he carries it all on his tortured shoulders.

I gotta agree with Matt. The entirety of Manchester by the Sea rests on Casey Affleck’s shoulders and he absolutely crushes his role. The pain and the patheticness that define Lee Chandler come through even in the film’s happier moments and Affleck never fails to show how Lee’s grief is hardwired into his DNA and informs all of his decisions, from where to live, to whether he should punch out the drunk Santa lookin’ guy at the bar (he does).

That being said, Affleck is a sexual harasser! So I’m not shedding any tears if he loses to Denzel, who is great and keeps me in good hands, insurance-wise.

Denzel is really good too. Casey is better. Denzel has a tough character to grapple with here. I think he might be hurt a little for me just because I don’t very much like the character of Troy Maxson. I felt like this when I first read the play for a class in high school, and I feel that way now. It makes it tough. Maxson is not a likable character. I like him less than your usual villain, and I think that’s always somewhat hampered my view of the story. Maxson is not good to his family, and he infuriates me in several ways. I know that in some ways that’s supposed to be showing the effects the time period had on a man like him, but some of his decisions in the story are too much for me to overcome.

That’s somewhat the brilliance of the story by August WIlson. It’s uncompromising and brutal. But it’s always been a tough pill for me to swallow and affects my view of Denzel’s performance. When I separate that take, I do think Denzel was excellent in the role though. One of his best roles in recent memory.

Lead actress:

Isabelle Huppert, “Elle”

Ruth Negga, “Loving”

Natalie Portman, “Jackie”

Emma Stone, “La La Land”

Meryl Streep, “Florence Foster Jenkins”

This category is hampered by the lack of Viola Davis, who pushed to be labeled as Best Supporting even though she’s very clearly a lead. Stone is the frontrunner, and she’s pretty good, but she didn’t blow me away. As mentioned before, I liked Gosling’s work more. I saw Jackie, and Portman was quite good in her portrayal. I would support her getting it too. But I’d be surprised to see the Academy give her a second Oscar this early on.

Amy Adams got robbed of a nomination here. She was the heart and soul of Arrival, and Louise Banks is a great protagonist. I thought she was wonderful in it. Why again is Streep nominated for everything she does? I feel like she could voice a 5-minute role in an animated film and still win Best Actress. Was she really better in Florence than my girl Amy? I’m dubious.

I haven’t made it to Loving yet so I don’t have a take on Ruth Negga. Huppert is apparently a dark horse for Elle; a film I haven’t gotten to yet that has a fascinating premise.

What the hell is always up with the movies the Best Actress noms come from? With a few exceptions, they’re always floating out on their own, like “Best Actress” is its own movie genre. Needless to say, I haven’t seen any of these besides La La Land, and that’s one I wish I hadn’t seen.

Supporting actor:

Mahershala Ali, “Moonlight”

Jeff Bridges, “Hell or High Water”

Lucas Hedges, “Manchester by the Sea”

Dev Patel, “Lion”

Michael Shannon, “Nocturnal Animals”

Mahershala is all you gotta know here. After some solid turns in House of Cards and Mockingjay, this charming-ass mofo is magic in Moonlight. Juan is one of the best supporting characters in recent memory. He has several brilliant scenes, not requiring overacting but just sheer nuance and charm. He makes such an impression on the film in not much time. He’ll win, and he’ll deserve it big-time.

After this year, they should rename this the Mahershala Ali Award for Best Supporting Actor. Ali is amazing as Juan, Chiron’s unlikely father-figure. He commands the screen in every scene he’s in, but like Matt says, it’s not with overacting or scenery-chewing, but with the amount and specificity of emotion resonating from his character.

Bridges is his usual awesome self in Hell or High Water, and I really dug what he brought to the table. Hedges is a quality support role to Affleck in Manchester, and he does good work as the young nephew struggling through his father’s death. He’s Boston as hell and he does it well. Dev is great too, even though he’s clearly a lead role. Glad to see him getting continued work after Slumdog and good to see him knocking it out of the park. Dude is jacked now! He ain’t no babyface lucky punk anymore.

I’ll give props to Hedges for staying focused on banging out two chicks at the same time despite his dad randomly dying. I love that speech he gives Affleck (“I don’t care that I’m an orphan! I can’t move to Boston -- I’m banging two chicks!”).

Bridges was cool; I always wondered what Bad Black would be like if he were on the other side of the law.

I love Michael Shannon. I haven’t seen Nocturnal Animals. But Shannon could make any role magnetic. He’s just sheer willpower tour-de-force. I don’t know what that means, but it makes sense to me.

Supporting actress:

Viola Davis, “Fences”

Naomie Harris, “Moonlight”

Nicole Kidman, “Lion”

Octavia Spencer, “Hidden Figures”

Michelle Williams, “Manchester by the Sea”

Viola Davis is remarkable and is so key to Fences. She’s great. I hope she gets the Oscar. And she probably would have won for best Lead too. Rose is a tough character to portray to me. She’s often reactionary to her husband, and she doesn’t have as much stage presence per se. But Viola brings that necessary gravitas and strength to the role to make it not just a one-person show. She’s lovable, tender, compassionate, etc. AND she does a good job explaining how she deals with/puts up with Troy. It’s a hell of a role.

If not for Viola in supporting, I would give the win to Michelle WIlliams. She’s really good in some key scenes in Manchester by the Sea. She’s emotional, tortured, hurt, and so relatable in the things she says and does. Otherwise, Naomi Harris really nailed it as Chiron’s mom during Moonlight (and in only 3 days of filming apparently!). Spencer was quite good in Hidden Figures (though I loved Monae more; I also just love Monae in general, what can I say). Kidman is good in Lion, but I can’t say she really knocked it out the park for me.

From what I understand, Viola Davis probably deserves an easy win here, but man, Naomie Harris was raw as hell in Moonlight. That scene where she shakes Chiron down for cash nearly made me call in sick to work the next day.

Michelle Williams in Manchester by the Sea was...not great, though I blame the material more than her. “But but but Lee! I still wanna fawk you! Let’s have lunch! We can get ya favorite chowdah!” She tried her best, but the dialogue was never going to let her rise above Southie Harpy #2.

Adapted screenplay:

“Arrival,” Eric Heisserer

“Fences,” August Wilson

“Hidden Figures,” Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi

“Lion,” Luke Davies

“Moonlight,” Barry Jenkins; Story by Tarell Alvin McCraney

Moonlight is bizarrely marked as adapted even though it was based off an unpublished play. Whatever. It’s an excellent story. I think it’s supposed to win, and I’ll approve of Barry getting his Oscar here.

Damn, I gotta agree with Matt again! This is truly a weird spot for Moonlight to be in. It’s like “oh shit, I adapted this movie from an idea I had once -- okay!”

I do wish Arrival could win too, because Heisserer’s feat is impressive considering the degree of difficulty here. Story of Your Life (Arrival’s short story) is a lot simpler than the plot of the film. Heisserer had to develop more of a global conflict to the story and had to figure out how to take plot elements from the short story and make it work on film (the short story is a lot more first person narrative; he did a lot to adjust that for the screen).

Still, no one has to be madder about Moonlight’s odd placement than the Arrival folks. They took an impossible-to-adapt short story and fuckin flamed it out into an amazing motion picture. Really impressive stuff.

Fences is cool because Wilson had that screenplay around for a while, and it got made after his death once a black director (Wilson stipulated that the director be black) finally was able to put the project together. And it’s a great story. Just not as deserving to me as Moonlight/Arrival.

Original screenplay:

“20th Century Women,” Mike Mills

“Hell or High Water,” Taylor Sheridan

“La La Land,” Damien Chazelle

“The Lobster,” Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou

“Manchester by the Sea,” Kenneth Lonergan

I still haven’t seen The Lobster and want to. I think Alex will vouch for it. Otherwise, this is a category where La La won the award at the Golden Globes, but I really hope it doesn’t win here. Manchester’s screenplay is so good to me. The way it intercuts between past and present, the way it slowly reveals different plot points, and the way it writes dialogue of sad scenes - that’s some good stuff right there.

I gotta go with The Lobster here. To call it’s screenplay efficient is a severe understatement. I previously lauded Barry Jenkins for showing audience exactly what they needed to see. In The Lobster, Lanthimos strips the entire endeavour down to the bare essentials. Why use three words when one will do? Shit, why even use words at all? Beautiful stuff, b.

On the other end of the spectrum is Manchester by the Sea, where every possible scene and/or conversation gets its moment to shine. This leads to a lot of great moments and conversations, but also to a fair number of middling ones.

Cinematography:

“Arrival,” Bradford Young

“La La Land,” Linus Sandgren

“Lion,” Greig Fraser

“Moonlight,” James Laxton

“Silence,” Rodrigo Prieto

Bradford Young can get it.

Dayum.

That Linus dude will probably win for La La, and it’ll be deserved. I just thought Moonlight had some hella cool shots. Also, Silence gets a nom here. I wanna see that at some point, even if it ended up not getting the love it expected to get.

La La Land will win here because Hollywood loves seeing itself glammed up for the silver screen and not as the tepid, plastic cesspool it is (note: I actually love LA, but am I wrong?).

Film editing:

“Arrival,” Joe Walker

“Hacksaw Ridge,” John Gilbert

“Hell or High Water,” Jake Roberts

“La La Land,” Tom Cross

“Moonlight,” Nat Sanders and Joi McMillon

Another La La win, probably suggesting its best picture victory.

I already burned my Billy Walsh joke, so I’ll just say this HAS to be Moonlight, right? I mean, it won’t be, but it’s economy in telling such a resounding tale defines Oscar-worthy.

Best documentary feature:

“13th,” Ava DuVernay, Spencer Averick and Howard Barish

“Fire at Sea,” Gianfranco Rosi and Donatella Palermo

“I Am Not Your Negro,” Raoul Peck, Remi Grellety and Hebert Peck

“Life, Animated,” Roger Ross Williams and Julie Goldman

“O.J.: Made in America,” Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow

Really strong year for docs. I still haven’t gotten to the long, really-a-TV-documentary-series OJ, but I’ve heard such incredible things about it. The 13th was brilliant and would certainly deserve a win too. And I can’t wait to see I Am Not Your Negro.

Gotta confess, I haven’t seen any of these, but this looks to be one of the strongest years for docs in recent memory.

Animated feature:

“Kubo and the Two Strings,” Travis Knight and Arianne Sutner

“Moana,” John Musker, Ron Clements and Osnat Shurer

“My Life as a Zucchini,” Claude Barras and Max Karli

“The Red Turtle,” Michael Dudok de Wit and Toshio Suzuki

“Zootopia,” Byron Howard, Rich Moore and Clark Spencer

Zootopia appears to be the winner here, and it really was an impressive animated film to me. As I watched it, I was like damn those themes got a lot deeper than I expected for a kid’s film! Moana was really enjoyable too, though it didn’t quite reach the highs for me that some other recent animated classics have (I would put Frozen ahead of it, for instance).

Zootopia is my JAM. Love that sloth at the DMV. Moana was fine, but did nothing to distinguish itself from any other generic-ass cartoon.

No love for Sausage Party? Damn.

Best foreign language film:

“A Man Called Ove,” Sweden

“Land of Mine,” Denmark

“Tanna,” Australia

“The Salesman,” Iran

“Toni Erdmann,” Germany

The director of The Salesman, Asghar Farhadi, was not allowed to come to the Oscars after the executive order a few weeks ago, and then he decided not to come too out of protest. He also directed the incredible A Separation, which I finally recently saw. That film was so devastating and moving to me, and if The Salesman is comparable at all, it would certainly deserve a win here too.

Toni Erdmann is apparently going to be remade with Jack Nicholson, so I’m for sure curious about that too.

Give it up to Tanna, man. It was filmed in Nauvhal, which has like 4,500 native speakers.

Original score:

“Jackie,” Mica Levi

“La La Land,” Justin Hurwitz

“Lion,” Dustin O’Halloran and Hauschka

“Moonlight,” Nicholas Britell

“Passengers,” Thomas Newman

Original song:

“Audition (The Fools Who Dream),” “La La Land” — Music by Justin Hurwitz; Lyric by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul

“Can’t Stop the Feeling,” “Trolls” — Music and Lyric by Justin Timberlake, Max Martin and Karl Johan Schuster

“City of Stars,” “La La Land” — Music by Justin Hurwitz; Lyric by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul

“The Empty Chair,” “Jim: The James Foley Story” — Music and Lyric by J. Ralph and Sting

“How Far I’ll Go,” “Moana” — Music and Lyric by Lin-Manuel Miranda

La La will definitely win for best score, considering it’s a damn musical. Arrival should have gotten some love here, but the Academy dqed it because they were worried that this brilliant song used in the film would get confused as part of the original score. But the score is great on its own!

La La Land will win, which is garbage! As a Houston native, I will no doubt be pulling for Moonlight, as the whole f’n thing was chopped and screwed.

Two La La songs are nominated here, and City of Stars should likely win. I would love to see Lin-Manuel get the win here and complete his EGOT. How Far I’ll Go didn’t really stay with me the way other classic animated film songs have. Heck, I would rather have seen You’re Welcome get the win here.

Yeah, the two songs in Moana worth a damn (“You’re Welcome” and “Shiny”) got robbed, and both those LLL songs are trash. I gotta take a moment and recognize the special kind of horrible that is “Can’t Stop the Feeling.” I dare you to find a more written-by-committee, “Happy-”humping piece of corporate garbage that polluted the airwaves this year.

Does this mean I’m cheering for Sting? Fuck.

Also, Sing Street should have DEF got some love here. It was robbed. Sting got a nom instead? FOH.

Sound editing:

“Arrival,” Sylvain Bellemare

“Deep Water Horizon,” Wylie Stateman and Renee Tondelli

“Hacksaw Ridge,” Robert Mackenzie and Andy Wright

“La La Land,” Ai-Ling Lee and Mildred Iatrou Morgan

“Sully,” Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman

Sound mixing:

“Arrival,” Bernard Gariepy Strobl and Claude La Haye

“Hacksaw Ridge,” Kevin O’Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie and Peter Grace

“La La Land,” Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee and Steve A. Morrow

“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” David Parker, Christopher Scarabosio and Stuart Wilson

“13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi,” Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Mac Ruth

Kevin O’Connell apparently hasn’t won after 21 nominations, and he’ll probably lose to La La Land here. Well, I hope he somehow gets a win.

Let’s revisit a Matt quote from the top of the article: “Matt always provides excellent, impressive, insightful, groundbreaking commentary.” You’ve really outdone yourself here.

Last fall I was at WB Studios and they explained the difference between sound editing and sound mixing and I was like “Finally! I’ll have a real opinion when the Oscars roll around!” Well, I don’t remember what I learned that day, so let’s just give these awards to Arrival for that little pewpew sound of the aliens squirtin’ their ink.

Production design:

“Arrival,” Patrice Vermette, Paul Hotte

“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” Stuart Craig, Anna Pinnock

“Hail, Caesar!,” Jess Gonchor, Nancy Haigh

“La La Land,” David Wasco, Sandy Reynolds-Wasco

“Passengers,” Guy Hendrix Dyas, Gene Serdena

Visual effects:

“Deepwater Horizon,” Craig Hammack, Jason Snell, Jason Billington and Burt Dalton

“Doctor Strange,” Stephane Ceretti, Richard Bluff, Vincent Cirelli and Paul Corbould

“The Jungle Book,” Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones and Dan Lemmon

“Kubo and the Two Strings,” Steve Emerson, Oliver Jones, Brian McLean and Brad Schiff

“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” John Knoll, Mohen Leo, Hal Hickel and Neil Corbould

Rogue One had some good visuals, bro.

Damn, my X-Men couldn’t get a nod here? I guess the Academy is saving all their mutant love for Logan next year. Hail, Caesar! Is such a joke of a movie and represents Hollywood’s masturbatory tendencies at their worst. So it’ll probably take home an Oscar here.

I’ve heard Doctor Strange is like trippin off acid without trippin off acid, so if you’re trippin off acid when you watch it, it looks pretty normal. Yeah, I’m certain that’s how it works.

Makeup and hair:

“A Man Called Ove,” Eva von Bahr and Love Larson

“Star Trek Beyond,” Joel Harlow and Richard Alonzo

“Suicide Squad,” Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini and Christopher Nelson

Costume design:

“Allied,” Joanna Johnston

“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” Colleen Atwood

“Florence Foster Jenkins,” Consolata Boyle

“Jackie,” Madeline Fontaine

“La La Land,” Mary Zophres

Apparently Matt died before he could finish this? Anyhow, Star Trek for makeup and hair? Except for that one chick, who was really lookin all that different? Give it to Suicide Squad, I guess.

Is the real Florence Foster Jenkins still alive? I wonder how she’d feel knowing that, in a twisted way, her awfulness was winning all kinds of awards. She’s probably dead, so it doesn’t matter, but still.

#by Alex and Matt #Oscars #Jimmy Kimmel #Moonlight #La La Land #Manchester by the Sea #Hidden Figures #Lion #Fences #Denzel Washington #Ryan Gosling #Damien Chazelle #Barry Jenkins #Emma Stone #Natalie Portman #Viola Davis #Lin-Manuel Miranda #movies

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darkot · 8 years ago

Text

Today was a good day.

Well... yesterday was a good day. It is currently 9am, the morning after the day I was referring to.

I went up about 100 SR in Overwatch last night. Got on a 4 game win streak, and was really close to a 5th, but we lost our next match after that. But, it didn’t feel as bad as many of the final games of the night have lately. Which is odd, because we DEFINITELY could have tied it.

In that last match, we had a Widowmaker that did not switch until the very end--at which point, it was too late. It was pretty frustrating at the time, because they weren’t doing a whole lot, and they were taking up a DPS role slot. So, most of the damage dealing was left up to me. Not to mention that the enemy team had an absolutely INSANE Widow. I am not even exaggerating that, they might have been the best Widow that I have ever played against. And this guy on our team faced their Widow in a previous match where he was getting destroyed by them, and he STILL didn’t switch! I mean, I get it. He had something to prove. He didn’t want to concede defeat to that enemy Widow by playing something else. But for the love of god, man. Do you want to lose SR??

Despite that disadvantage, we actually did really well. We were playing on Volskaya. Both teams captured both points in their first offence round. We ALMOST managed to capture both points on our second offence round, but just fell a little short of that (we had 2 ticks on the cap, and were really close to a third. But they respawned too fast, and we ran out of time). Then, on that defence round, we almost held them at first point. We stopped about three of their pushes, but they got through on the fourth. So, we were fighting for a tie, but.. I don’t know what happened, really. We just couldn’t hold them off. Our comp just didn’t have the damage to wipe them, which we desperately needed. But, despite that being a disappointing end to the night, it still didn’t feel awful. I was absolutely DESTROYING during that session, and that made me happy.

I got what I believe was my first competitive sextuple kill as Pharah. Here is that, for anyone interested:

https://gfycat.com/splendidclearcutbubblefish

(tried to embed the gif in a post, but Tumblr’s stupid)

You have no idea how good it felt to hear the announcer yell “SEXTUPLE KILL!” Technically, that was eight eliminations. And you better believe that got play of the match, with one of them being an environmental!

Pretty much all of my games yesterday were like that. There was this one Ilios match where I just kept knocking the Reinhardt on the other team into the pit over. And over. And over. He seriously must have been getting sick of me. I did it about four times. Got a quintuple on that match as well. Reinhardt knocked in the pit + Ana & Pharah killed with a single rocket + Soldier 76 and Lucio killed in an ult. Not as impressive as the one above, but it was nice.

I REALLY would have liked for that last match to have been a tie a least. A win preferably, but I would have settled for a tie with our handicap. It doesn’t feel good losing SR because of somebody else. But, all in all, I’m okay with it. 5 wins would have been nice, or 4 wins and 1 tie, but I can say that I was preforming amazingly. Even in that Volskaya match, I was giving them hell while essentially being a solo DPS. I can live with 4 wins and a loss, knowing that I was playing great.

I’m participating in a tournament with the rest of my team this Monday as well! This time, I intend on bringing home the gold! We’ve improved a lot since our last tourney. I think that we still aren’t ready for another “Team Silky”, with three top 500 players. But, barring that, I’m actually really confident that we can win this outright.

So.. yeah, that’s that about Overwatch. But, that wasn’t the only good thing to come from today. FIVE new episodes of Steven Universe were released, and holy fuck were they amazing!

I’m not going to go into too much detail about them, but they were really plot heavy episodes, which I LOVE! Everything was so intriguing. I was on the metaphorical edge of my seat the whole time! Yellow Diamond’s song was incredible, and the art direction was amazing! I loved the tone of the music. It felt reminiscent of old Disney villains, but with a more realistic touch. And something about seeing the scale of Yellow Diamond and Blue Diamond moving around while Steven and Greg were hiding was really powerful. Their height felt appropriately intimidating. They are colossal in comparison to the little bundle of preciousness that is Steven. I could easily see that being a video game level, haha. Trying to hide behind pillars whenever Yellow Diamond is looking in your direction. That’d make a great stealth level!

On top of that, episode one of BOTH Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapter and Dragon Ball Super english dubbed came out! The kid inside of me was so excited to see my childhood heroes in action again! While the DBZ Kai episode was meh, the Dragon Ball Super one was surprisingly awesome!

DBZ Kai’s episode felt very filler-y, even though it sets up a plot point later. It revolves around Gohan going to highschool, trying to limit his powers to blend in with the humans and failing and... well, that’s about it. It wasn’t bad. I laughed at quite a few moments in that episode. I also REALLY liked Videl. I had almost totally forgotten how amazing she was around her introduction. Aside from finding her incredibly cool though, overall it just wasn’t fantastic. It’s just nothing in comparison to the core Majiin Buu arc. I really want it to get on to that whole story ASAP. I’ve been waiting for it since DBZ Kai proper ended with the Cell Saga. I was so disappointed by that! I just hope this doesn’t dwell on the “Great Saiyaman” shit too long. I have never been a fan of that, or Hercule. Some hardcore fans would lynch me for saying that, but I just can not stand the Great Saiyaman’s goofiness or Hercule's arrogance. However, in the Dragon Ball Super episode, I must admit that he’s been redeemed a little in my eyes...

Now, THAT was a good episode. It’s pretty filler-y in its own right. Goku is working as a farmer at ChiChi’s demand that he get a paying job, Goten (ugh) and Trunks are trying to get “toilet water” from a hotspring to give to Videl as a wedding gift now that her and Gohan are married.. Didn’t mind it. I had heard that DBS is very “slice of life” oriented, so I’m a little worried about how I will feel about it in the long run. It was good, but in a similar fashion to the DBZ Kai episode, I really want to get to some core plot and action. However, there WERE two very impressive highlights from this episode.

First, as I had alluded to earlier, Hercule has a moment that actually makes me like him a bit more. I still can’t stand how outrageously pompous he can be, but they follow up on the events of the Buu saga a bit. Hercule (ugh) wins a noble peace prize (uggggh) for saving the planet from an apocalyptic disaster (ugggggggggggh), and is awarded 100,000,000 Zeni (uggggggggggggggggggh), BUT, in the end, he gives the money to Goku (awwwwww). Honestly, it was a pretty touching moment. He admitted that Goku deserved it more because he was the one who actually stopped Buu. Perhaps there is another good moment like this in the Buu Saga that I just don’t remember (I guess we’ll see later into the ongoing Kai episodes!), but this felt like the first humanizing moment that Hercule has had since he was introduced in the Cell Saga. It was nice seeing that, behind that massive ego, he can be humble.

The second highlight outdoes that one, though. And that’s our first taste (pun intended) of Beerus. The tone that they set for him is amazing. At his whim, a planet’s (presumably) greatest chefs gather to cook a feast for him, to appease his appetite for delicious food. He admits that it is pretty delicious, but is displeased with a greasy feeling that one of the dishes leaves in his mouth. And just like that, BOOM, he destroys half of the planet! And that’s what he considers merciful! It was such a strong introduction to a character that is silly but at the same time scary powerful. It was honestly pretty chilling.

I know he’s not a villain in the traditional DBZ villain sense, but it feels like there are more long term goals for him to eventually be Goku’s next big enemy. That is really what I look forward to the most in the Dragon Ball franchise. Every saga ups the ante in incredible ways. Aside from the original Dragon Ball, which was AMAZING in its own right, we start off with a brat of a tyrannical overlord who is feared throughout the entire galaxy, a biomechanical android obsessed with perfection to feed his narcissism, who is created with the cells (ha) of that previous villain PLUS every major protagonist thus far, and then a primordial being who is the embodiment of evil and rage itself! DBZ may be more oriented around action than a complex story, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t have some of the most hype, iconic villains around. And for good reason! Every one sets the bar higher and outdoes the other. They continually create a greater and greater challenge for the main characters to overcome. And now, we have a GOD of nonchalant destruction who is entirely neutral in terms of personal morality. If they do have larger, long term plans for him to be a main villain in the series like I’m thinking, then I’m glad that they’re not jumping into that immediately. I don’t think that the bar can go much higher than a god, but that’s fine. Because if they are setting him up to be a major antagonist at some point, then they made that bar faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar out of Goku’s reach. I believe that even at the point that DBS is at in Japan, Goku isn’t even remotely as strong a Beerus. He can’t hope to defeat him right now. So, they have to continue to appease him. If there is a point where he becomes a serious threat to earth and Goku has to stop him, then that will be much later on. Unless they have no intentions of making him a villain and he is just a main character now, then they are really playing a long con with him. So long in fact, that another main villain appears and is beaten. Who even knows how many more will come before it’s Beerus’ turn? Regardless, I find it brilliant how (in my speculation) a core villain is being kept around for multiple arcs in the story, as a looming threat and ultimate milestone for the protagonists to slowly reach.

On another note, my laptop is totally fucked. While typing all of this, it has been an absolute pain trying to keep it up. Currently, I have a big box on my bed from a heater that my mom got for Christmas, propping up the screen of my laptop. The hinge that keeps the screen anchored to the base is broken. So, now, it doesn’t stay open on its own. Either it falls back all the way, or it will fall closed if I pull it too far forward. On top of this, the screen is horribly cracked, like those Iphones you see that still work despite the glass being broken (the screen was protruding out from the shell of the laptop, so I tried to push it back in. Turns out there was a magnet out of place behind it that was supposed to go in this indent in the shell, but.. well, wasn’t when I tried to push the screen back in. So, the screen pressed against the magnet and now I have five or so long cracks across my screen). It has a LOT of trouble turning on too. Like, I’m scared to turn it off, because every time I turn it back on, it takes about 30 minutes to boot up the OS. It’s also missing 3 keys, the touchpad no longer pushes in (I don’t know what happened to it, but it’s raised now o.O), and it is INSANELY slow.

These are honestly probably the last couple weeks of this laptop’s life. But, that’s understandable. I’ve had it for a little over five years now. It’s had a really good run. What I’m dreading more than its eventual failure however, is getting its replacement.. I’ve had my eyes on Wacom’s “Mobile Studio” since it was revealed late last year, as a replacement for this laptop once it goes, as another portable computer. But, I’ll have to drop about 3 grand to get it. It’s an investment, I know. But I just.. really don’t want to spend that kind of money right now. I’d certainly be drawing more often if I had it. I’d probably be more productive overall, because it would be faster. I could take it around with me. Work from anywhere, unlike with my laptop in its current state of falling apart. I don’t know.. I’ve wanted a mobile tablet for years now. The spiritual ancestor to the Mobile Studio, the “Wacom Companion” was what I had my eyes on since this laptop started showing problem. This has been something a looooooooong time in the making. But, at no point since I wanted the first Wacom Companion in 2013, to now when I want the Mobile Studio in 2017, have I been willing to bite the bullet and pay that $3000 pricetag. It seems my hand is going to be forced soon, however...

Wow.. I’ve been typing for almost two hours. It’s 20 minutes to 11am. I should get some sleep. At this point, it might be a better idea to just stay up through the day and go to bed early tonight. Either way though, I’m ending this here.

#personal #long as fuck

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