#I spent 10 minutes reading about the narrative structures of stories | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

glass-rose-paperweight · 4 years

Text

The Narrative Structure of Sherlock - And Why Season 4 Seems So Off

A lot has been said about why Season 4 just seems wrong (for a more complete list than I could ever hope to make, go here and here). And while all of those are great points that point to something strange going on, I want to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. I propose that what’s wrong with Season 4, ignoring plot holes and inconsistencies and things that seemed to have just been done for shock factor, is that the narrative structure itself is just incorrect. We all know what big proponents of the 5 act structure Mofftiss is. Let’s take a moment to look at the five act structure for a moment, shall we?

The Five Act Structure

The five act structure has its basis in the narrative structure of the ancient Greeks, of telling a story with a beginning, middle, and end. However, it was really solidified starting with German playwright Gustav Freytag in 1863 and his mapping of a narrative structure. He identified the different parts of a story: the Exposition (which sets up the story, introduces characters, gives the audience the background needed to understand the story, and, most importantly, contains the inciting moment, the conflict that the story and the protagonists will revolve around), the Rising Action (which are the obstacles placed in the way of the protagonists resolving the conflict and any more information needed for the audience to understand the story narrative and the characters; often here is where you really start getting a good understanding of what characters are like and understanding their complexities), the Climax (the turning point of the story, the point with the highest tension; often the Big Showdown or big battle), the Falling Action (the end of the climax and the aftermath of whatever happened; things are starting to calm down and resolutions are being reached), and the Dénouement (the final resolution and tying up of lose ends. This is the moment of emotional release, when the characters you have been watching and hopefully grown attached to are reaching their happily ever after and you get to see what their life is like after going through the climax). This is a well known narrative structure that basically everyone learns in grade school. You’re probably familiar with the Story Triangle.

A lot of stories revolve around this narrative structure. Most of Shakespeare’s plays revolve around this narrative idea. The plot triangle is one of the most commonly used ways of telling a story. Supposedly, this is the model that Mofftiss are trying to shoot for with Sherlock. Lets take a look at how this structure generally fits within a typical 5 act play.

Well ... we already have a bit of a problem when it comes to Sherlock, don’t we? The climax is in the wrong spot. If we try and fit Sherlock into the Freytag narrative structure, the first episode really serves as the exposition while everything leading up the The Reichenbach Fall serves as the rising action. And then we get the fall itself as the climax. But, if we think of each season as being like an act, then the climax comes at the end of the second act. Which would leave all of season 3, 4, and 5 to act as falling action and dénouement, which generally leads to a slow, drawn out story. However, lets take a look at the Freytag narrative in a 3 act play, shall we?

The Three Act Structure

Now, a 3 act structure can really just be thought of as a condensed 5 act structure. The Exposition and Rising action are somewhat combined together to serve as an act 1 with a mini climax at the end of act 1. Then, in act 2, there’s more Rising Action, more obstacles to overcome, usually with some sort of midpoint in which a big twist happens. In Buddy Road Trip Movies, this is usually the annoying point at which they split up for some reason before coming back together for whatever the climax is, which falls at the end of Act 2. Act 3 is composed of the end of the climax, the falling action, the resolution, and the dénouement, the time of emotional release and seeing our characters ride off into the sunset.

Well, I’d say Sherlock fits much more securely in this narrative structure. You have the exposition of the fist episode, with the inciting incident coming at the Cabbie saying Moriarty’s name. The rest of the season is more buildup, with the end of The Great Game acting as the climax of act one (and one of the biggest fucking cliffhangers ever). Then we have the resolution of the climax of act one, more rising action, and the the big climax of act 2 with Sherlock jumping. The first two seasons of Sherlock fit much better into the 3 act narrative than into a 5 act narrative.

Sherlock’s Structure

That’s not to say the show doesn’t fit into the 5 act narrative at all. It isn’t uncommon for stories to have multiple ‘climaxes’, smaller ‘peaks’ in the narrative structure that add tension and draw audiences in to the story being told. Each peak just needs to be ‘higher’, with the stakes rising and the climax getting more and more tense each time (this is one of the reasons why big superhero movie franchises constantly feel the need to one up themselves when it comes to the size and scope of the final climax of the movie and why its often so hard to do that with later movies - once you create an ‘Avengers level threat’, where do you go with the story from there?) And, admittedly, the end of the ‘third act’, the end of season 3, does come with a pretty big climactic moment that ‘one ups’ the previous climaxes: Moriarty returning. There’s just one little problem: this is almost immediately resolved.

If we ignore The Abominable Bride for a moment and focus just on the ‘actual’ episodes of each season, act 3 ends with Sherlock shooting Magnessun and Moriarty returning and act 4 starts with both of those issues already resolved. It’s the gaming playthrough equivalent in Minecraft of ‘I did some mining offscreen’. Even though, technically, there wasn’t anything done ‘offscreen’ to resolve the conflict (except for editing a video of Sherlock shooting Magnessun), we never see anything done on screen to resolve the problems, especially not the problem of Moriarty. Sherlock simply dismisses it as not real and moves on. ‘Moriarty isn’t really alive, this is just some plan from beyond the grave that I can deal with easily because I am the great Sherlock Holmes.’ The climax wasn’t really a climax. It just kinda fizzled out, and then the story moves on to instead deal with Mary. Now, we later come to learn that Moriarty had, actually, returned ... in a round about sort of way. We learn of Euros and everything she had done behind the scenes, directing Moriarty, and how the climax at the end of act 3 is linked with her. Ignoring all the plot problems that come with her, the biggest problem with her is placement: her story is in the wrong spot. Her story, the part that finally gets around to explaining and resolving the ‘big climax at the end of act 3′ doesn’t happen until the end of act 4, when we’re supposed to be drawing to the end of the falling action and about to enter the dénouement. That’s not to say that ‘climaxes’ can’t happen in the falling action, because they can. The caveat is that they have to be smaller than whatever the ‘big’ climax of the story is (and that the big climax of the story needs to be resolved in a satisfying way). The climaxes in the 4th act have to simply be what happens while trying to tie up the lose ends of the story. The Final Problem acts as a resolution to the climax of act 3, but it happens almost an entire act after when it is supposed to, with no sort of rising action or narrative structure to fit the two stories, the two pieces of the narrative puzzle, together. Nothing in The Six Thatchers or in The Lying Detective really link Moriarty’s return at the end of act 3 with The Final Problem. The other issue with The Final Problem is that it attempts to fit all of the falling action and the dénouement into the end of the episode. Not even all into one episode, but to fit everything into, like, the last 5 minutes of the episode. The end montage with Mary’s voice over feels very much like a ‘riding into the sunset’ kind of moment, even if you believe there will be a fifth season. You just can’t resolve a story in 5 minutes. You can’t fit two whole acts into 5 minutes and it feel like a satisfying story. And if there is another season, the end sequence of The Final Problem just throws another wrench in the Freytag narrative structure.

Basically, what I’m getting at is, no matter which way you try to look at it, Sherlock doesn’t fit neatly into clearly established narrative structures. Which isn’t inherently a bad thing. Stories don’t have to fit into a 3 act or 5 act structure or even follow the Freytag narrative structure at all to be good stories. However, most of the stories we consume today, most of the books we read and movies we watch and, to a certain extent, the overarching plot of many TV shows we watch, fall into this narrative structure. While there are plenty of stories out there that don’t, in any way, fit into these structures, the point is that it is a narrative structure we are familiar with and that Sherlock attempts to fit into it. Sherlock makes it look like it’s going to fit into that narrative structure. And then it doesn’t. After growing up experiencing all these stories that very clearly follow the Freytag narrative structure, we expect stories that attempt to fall into that narrative structure to stay in that narrative structure. To follow it all the way through. It leaves audience members extremely unsatisfied if it doesn’t. This is why even if all the plot holes and inconsistencies and the characters being out of character were resolved, even if the Extended Mind Palace theory turns out to be true or John’s Bungalow theory or whatever other theory you could come up with to resolve season 4, the narrative structure of Sherlock will never be satisfying. It’s the reason why people have proposed different orders for watching the Star Wars movies or watching the Avengers movies. Because we understand how these stories are supposed to work and end up feeling unsatisfied when the curtain closes and the lights come back up. We want that familiar structure, that release of emotion that we have come to expect from clearly established narration that we are accustomed to. This is the problem inherent with Sherlock. Not the secret sister that seemed to come out of nowhere. Not the inconsistencies or characters knowing things they shouldn’t or doing things they shouldn’t. Not even Redbeard being a boy and not a dog, but the very foundation of the show itself. It’s narration. Because the ‘final’ climax is likely going to have to fit itself into the 5th season (especially if the Extended Mind Palace Theory is correct and we have a ‘it was all just a dream moment’), a resolution to the problem, all the falling action, AND the dénouement are all going to have to be shoved into the 5th act. Which is likely going to make for a story that feels very rushed.

That’s why I have a proposition: a restructuring of the story. This doesn’t resolve plot holes, but it does, I think, make the story more satisfying. It’s moving things around kind of a lot, so things might get a little messy.

Okay, everything is almost exactly the same through season 3, with the one change being that the clues pointing towards another sibling, the build up of it, happens over the course of season 3 instead of season 4. The Abominable Bride doesn’t really matter in this retelling, so take it or leave it as you wish (personally, I choose to take it). The first episode of the 4th season still has Rosie being born and the very beginning of the episode (with the footage of Sherlock shooting Magnussen being altered and Sherlock being dismissive of Moriarty’s return), but everything that happens in The Final Problem happens in this episode. So, discovery of a secret sister, Sherrinford, confrontation of a secret sister, murder games, all of it happens in the first episode of the 4th season. The climax with Moriarty’s return is resolved when it is supposed to be. However unsatisfying it is that he isn’t actually back, at least the narrative flows in this way. The second episode of season 4 is an entirely new story, something that starts the resolution of Sherlock having a secret sister and of obvious trauma from when he was a child. In The Final Problem, Mycroft mentions that he gave Eurus ‘gifts’ for her assistance in fixing problems, so perhaps a problem comes up that Mycroft and Sherlock can’t solve, and they have the moral dilemma of whether or not they should go to Eurus and whether or not her demands will be worth her help. IDK, I’m just spit balling here. The last episode of the season is also a new episode, something that emphasizes the Johnlock dilemma, something that brings into focus John’s feelings for Sherlock and Sherlock’s feelings for John. Something that explicitly shows their attraction for each other and the problems getting in the way of them being together (Mary, heternormativity, maybe John having internalized homophobia, idk), but they don’t actually get together. The first episode of the 5th season is The Six Thatchers, and Mary dies. That episode plays out basically exactly as it is. The episode still ends with John extremely mad at Sherlock and not wanting to be around him. The second episode is the Lying Detective, basically completely as it is. The final episode of the season and the show is them talking through everything, The Reichenbach Fall and why Sherlock left for two years (because that’s not something they seem to have discussed at any point), the pain John still feels over Mary being dead, the feelings both of them have towards each other, and some sort of case to show them that they are still the good friends of the first two acts, that things haven’t really changed. That regardless of whatever romantic attraction they may or may not have for each other, they still deeply care about each other and want to be in each other’s lives. Something to show us how their lives will play out in the future, that they’ll continue to solve cases together. Hell, you can still have the end montage with Mary’s voice over if you want. It’s certainly a lot more fitting there. In my personal opinion (though others can disagree with me if they like), the most fitting ‘resolution’ to John and Sherlock’s attraction towards each other isn’t actually a resolution, but a beginning. I say, after the end montage and Mary’s voice over, cut to the two of them on a nervous date with each other, obviously not knowing what the hell to do but excited about the possibilities of the future. It leaves things open to the imagination for the audience (which is always nice, especially for fanfiction potential) and it doesn’t try to cram too much into a short amount of time (I really feel like trying to show them long term dating or getting married or anything like that would just be pushing it as far as narrative flow).

I’m not saying my proposed solution solves everything. There’s still plenty of issues to either have to work through or ignore with my version of events. Plenty of plot holes and character inconsistencies. But at least my version of events makes sense, at least narratively speaking. It follows the five act structure Mofftiss say they are so fond of. (If you want to say that The Six Thatchers would work better as the end of act 4, serving as the last episode of season 4, and then have The Lying Detective serve as the first episode of season 5 with a completely new episode as the second episode and then another new episode as the final resolution of what life for our Baker Street boys will be like in the future, I would also accept that proposed version of events; it does allow for more evolution of John and Sherlock’s relationship as a couple, though it does leave things less open ended for the two of them. If you prefer that, that’s valid. If you would rather stick to a 3 act structure, then keep The Empty Hearse exactly as it is, have The Sign of Three as it is but with Sherlock and John getting married, and pretend like season 3 ends with the montage of John, Sherlock, and Rosie and just pretend like John and Sherlock adopted a little girl. If you would prefer that version of events, that is also valid.) Even with all the other issues that come with seasons 3 and 4, this version of events just feels more satisfying, at least to me.

(Something I wanted to point out but couldn’t find a good place to insert it, so I’m just adding it as a footnote now: that’s why The Hounds of Baskerville feels kinda out of place. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great episode, but it always seemed to stick out like a sore thumb to me. And that’s because it does, narratively speaking: it doesn’t contribute to the rising action. All the other episodes in the first 2 seasons contribute and lead back to Moriarty in some form or fashion; they act as an evolving narrative leading to the Reichenbach Fall. Except for The Hounds Of Baskerville. It is it’s own, separate narrative. It’s a good narrative. It’s one of the best narratives in the show, if I’m being honest. But it still is out of place. It would fit much better as the second episode of the first season, acting as a continued exposition of the first act before we get the first (not so) mini climax with The Great Game. Narratively speaking, it would make more sense to switch The Hounds of Baskerville with The Blind Banker.)

TL;DR first of all, understandable, this is a very long post. Second, the narrative structure of the show itself is fucky, and that’s why season 4 will never feel satisfying, no matter what happens in a possible season 5 to try and resolve the fuckery of season 4

25 notes · View notes

kmclaude · 3 years

Note

Forgive me Father, I have no awful headcanons for you, only a general question on comic making. How do you do it, writing-wise/how do you decide what points go where, how do you plot it out (or do you have any resources on the writing aspect that you find useful?) Not to get too bogged down in details, but I attended a writer’s workshop and the author in residence suggested I transfer my wordy sci-fi WIP into graphic novel script, as it might work better. (I do draw, but I don’t know if I have it in me to draw a whole comic—characters in motion? Doing things? With backgrounds? How dare, why can’t everyone just stand around looking pretty)

I was interested but it quickly turned into a lot of internal screaming as I tried to figure out how to compress the hell out of it, since novels are free to do a lot more internal monologuing and such compared to a comic format (to say nothing of trying to write a script without seeing how the panels lay out—just for my own sake, I might have to do both concurrently.)

As an aside, to get a feel for graphic novels I was rereading 99RM and was reminded of how great it was—tightly plotted, intriguing, and anything to do with Ashmedai was just beautifully drawn. I need more Monsignor Tiefer and something something there are parallels between Jehan and Daniel in my head and I don’t know if they make sense but it works for me. (As an aside, I liked the emphasis on atonement being more than just the word sorry, but acknowledgment you did wrong and an attempt to remedy it—I don’t know why that spoke to me the way that it did.)

I thought Tumblr had a word count limit for asks but so far it has offered zero resistance, oh well. I don’t have much else to say but on the topic of 99RM, Adam getting under Monsignor’s skin is amazing, 10/10 (about the Pride picture earlier)

wow tumblr got rid of the markdown editor! or at least in asks which means the new editor probably has no markdown....god i hate this site! anyway...

Totally! So first, giant thank you for the compliments! Second, I have a few questions in turn for you before I dive into a sort of answer, since I can give some advice to your questions in general but it also sounds like you have a specific conundrum on your hands.

My questions to your specific situation are:

did the author give any reason for recommending a, in your words, "wordy" story be turned into a graphic novel?

is the story you're writing more, like you said, "internal monologuing"? action packed? where do the visuals come from?

do you WANT it to be a comic? furthermore, do you want it to be a comic you then must turn around and draw? or would you be interested in writing for comics as a comic writer to have your words turned into art?

With those questions in mind, let me jump into the questions you posed me!

Let me start with a confession...

I've said this before but let me say it again: Ninety-Nine Righteous Men was not originally a comic — it was a feature-length screenplay! And furthermore, it was written for a class so it got workshopped again and again to tighten the plot by a classroom of other nerds — so as kind as your compliments are, I'm giving credit where credit is due as that was not just a solo ship sailing on the sea. On top of that, it got adapted (by me) into a comic for my thesis, so my advisor also helped me make it translate or "read" well given I was director, actor, set designer, writer, editor, SFX guy, etc. all in one. And it was a huge help to have someone say "there is no way you can go blow by blow from script to comic: you need to make edits!" For instance, two scenes got compressed to simple dialogue overlaid on the splashpage of Ashmedai raping Caleb (with an insert panel of Adam and Daniel talking the next day.) What had been probably at least 5 pages became 1.

Additionally, I don't consider myself a strong plotter. That said, I found learning to write for film made the plotting process finally make some damn sense since the old plot diagram we all got taught in grammar school English never made sense as a reader and definitely made 0 sense as a writer — for me, for some reason, the breakdown of 25-50-25 (approx. 25 pages for act 1, 50 for act 2 split into 2 parts of 25 each, 25 pages for act 3) and the breaking down of the beats (the act turning points, the mid points, the low point) helped give me a structure that just "draw a mountain, rising action, climax is there, figure it out" never did. Maybe the plot diagram is visually too linear when stories have ebb and flow? I don't know. But it never clicked until screenwriting. So that's where I am coming from. YMMV.

I should also state that there's Official Ways To Write Comic Scripts to Be Drawn By An Artist (Especially If You Work For A Real Publisher As a Writer) and there's What Works For You/Your Team. I don't give a rat's ass about the former (and as an artist, I kind of hate panel by panel breakdowns like you see there) so I'm pretty much entirely writing on the latter here. I don't give a good god damn about official ways of doing anything: what works for you to get it done is what matters.

What Goes Where?

Like I said, 99RM was a screenplay so it follows, beat-wise, the 3-act screenplay structure (hell, it's probably more accurate to say it follows the act 1/act 2A/act 2B/act 3 structure.) So there was the story idea or concept that then got applied to those story beats associated with the structure, and from there came the Scene-by-scene Breakdown (or Expanded Scene Breakdown) which basically is an outline of beats broken down into individual scenes in short prose form so you get an overview of what happens, can see pacing, etc. In the resources at the end I put some links that give information on the whole story beat thing.

(As an aside: for all my short comics, I don't bother with all that, frankly. I usually have an image or a concept or a bit of writing — usually dialogue or monologue, sometimes a concrete scene — that I pick at and pick at in a little sketchbook, going back and forth between writing and thumbnail sketches of the page. Or I just go by the seat of my pants and bullshit my way through. Either or. Those in many ways are a bit more like poems, in my mind: they are images, they are snapshots, they are feelings that I'm capturing in a few panels. Think doing mental math rather than writing out geometric proofs, yanno?)

Personally, I tend to lean on dialogue as it comes easier for me (it's probably why I'm so drawn to screenwriting!) so for me, if I were to do another longform GN, I'd probably take my general "uhhhhhh I have an idea and some beats maybe so I guess this should happen this way?" outline and start breaking it down scene by scene (I tend to write down scenes or scene sketches in that "uhhhh?" outline anyway LOL) and then figure out basic dialogue and action beats — in short, I'd kind of do the work of writing a screenplay without necessarily going full screenplay format (though I did find the format gave me an idea of timing/pacing, as 1 page of formatted script is about equal to 1 minute of screentime, and gave me room to sketch thumbnails or make edits on the large margins!) If you're not a monologue/soliloque/dialogue/speech person and more an image and description person, you may lean more into visuals and scenes that cut to each other.

Either way this of course introduces the elephant in the panel: art! How do you choose what to draw?

The answer is, well, it depends! The freedom of comics is if you can imagine it, you can make it happen. You have the freedoms (and audio limitations) of a truly silent film with none of the physical limitations. Your words can move in real time with the images or they can be a narrative related to the scene or they could be nonsequitors entirely! The better question is how do you think? Do you need all the words and action written first before you break down the visuals? Do you need a panel by panel breakdown to be happy, or can you freewheel and translate from word and general outlines to thumbnails? What suits you? I really cannot answer this because I think when it comes to what goes where with regard to art, it's a bit of "how do you process visuals" and also a bit of "who's drawing this?" — effectively, who is the interpreter for the exact thing you are writing? Is it you or someone else? If it's you, would you benefit from a barebones script alongside thumbnailed paneling? Would you be served by a barebones script, then thumbnails, then a new script that includes panel and page breakdowns? What frees you up to do what you need to do to tell your story?

If I'm being honest, I don't necessarily worry about panels or what something will look like necessarily until I'm done writing. I may have an image that I clearly state needs to happen. I may even have a sequence of panels that I want to see and I do indeed sketch that out and make note of it in my script. But exactly how things will be laid out, paneled, situated? That could change up until I've sketched my final pencils in CSP (but I am writer and artist so admittedly I get that luxury.)

How do I compress from novel to comic?

Honest answer? You don't. Not really. You adapt from one to another. It's more a translation. Something that would take forever to write may take 1 page in a comic or may take a whole issue.

I'm going to pick on Victor Hugo. Victor Hugo spent a whole-ass book in Notre-Dame de Paris talking about a bird's eye view of Paris and other medieval architecture boring stuff, with I guess some foreshadowing with Montfaucon. Who cares. Not me. I like story. Anyway. When we translate that book to a movie any of the billion times someone's done that, we don't spend a billion years talking at length about medieval Paris. There's no great monologuing about the gibbet or whatever: you get to have some establishing shots, maybe a musical number, and then you move tf on. Because it's a movie, right? Your visuals are right there. We can see medieval Paris. We can see the cathedral. We can see the gibbet. We don't need a whole book: it's visually right there. Same with a comic: you may need many paragraphs to describe, say, a space station off of Sirius and one panel to show it.

On the flip side, you may take one line, maybe two, to say a character keyed in the special code to activate the holodeck; depending on the visual pacing, that could be a whole page of panels (are we trying to stretch time? slow it down? what are we emphasizing?) A character gives a sigh of relief — one line of text, yeah? That could be a frozen panel while a conversation continues on or that could be two (or more!) panels, similar to the direction [a beat] in screenwriting.

Sorry there's not a super easy answer there to the question of compression: it's a lot more of a tug, a push-pull, that depends on what you're conveying.

So Do I Have It In Me to Write & Draw a GN?

The only way you'll know is by doing. Scary, right? The thing is, you don't necessarily need to be an animation king or God's gift to background artists to draw a comic.

Hell, I hate backgrounds. I still remember sitting across from my friend who said "Claude you really need to draw an establishing exterior of the church at some point" and me being like "why do you hate me specifically" because drawing architecture? Again? I already drew the interior of the church altar ONCE, that should be enough, right? But I did draw an exterior of the church. Sorta. More like the top steeple. Enough to suggest what I needed to suggest to give the audience a better sense of place without me absolutely losing my gourd trying to render something out of my wheelhouse at the time.

And that's kinda the ticket, I think. Not everyone's a master draftsman. Not everyone has all the skills in every area. And regardless, from page one to page one hundred, your skills will improve. That's all part of it — and in the meantime, you should lean into your strengths and cheat where you can.

Do you need to lovingly render a background every single panel? Christ no! Does every little detail need to be drawn out? Sure if you want your hand to fall off. Cheat! Use Sketchup to build models! Use Blender to sculpt forms to paint over! Use CSP Assets for prebuilt models and brushes if you use CSP! Take photographs and manip them! Cheat! Do what you need to do to convey what you need to convey!

For instance, a tip/axiom/"rule" I've seen is one establishing shot per scene minimum and a corollary to that has been include a background once per page minimum as grounding (no we cannot all have eternal floating heads and characters in the void. Unless your comic is set in the void. In which case, you do you.) People ain't out here drawing hyper detailed backgrounds per each tiny panel. The people who DO do that are insane. Or stupid. Or both. Or have no deadline? Either way, someone's gonna have a repetitive stress injury... Save yourself the pain and the headache. Take shortcuts. Save your punches for the big K.O. moments.

Start small. Make an 8-page zine. Tell a beginning, a middle, an end in comic form. Bring a scene to life in a few pages. See what you're comfortable drawing and where you struggle. See where you can lean heavily into your comfort zones. Learn how to lean out of your comfort zone. Learn when it's worth it to do the latter.

Or start large. Technically my first finished comic (that wasn't "a dumb pencil thing I drew in elementary school" or "that 13 volume manga I outlined and only penciled, what, 7 pages of in sixth grade" or "random one page things I draw about my characters on throw up on the interwebz") was 99RM so what do I know. I'm just some guy on the internet.

(That's not self-deprecating, I literally am some guy on the internet talking about my path. A lot of this is gonna come down to you and what vibes with you.)

Resources on writing

Some of these are things that help me and some are things that I crowd-sourced from others. Some of these are going to be screenwriting based, some will be comic based.

Making Comics by Scott McCloud: I think everyone recommends this but I think it is a useful book if you're like "ahh!!! christ!! where do I start!!!???" It very much breaks down the elements of comics and the world they exist in and the principles involved, with the caveat that there are no rules! In fact, I need to re-read it.

Comic Book Design: I picked this up at B&N on a whim and in terms of just getting a bird's eye view of varied ways to tackle layout and paneling? It's such a great resource and reference! I personally recommend it as a way to really get a feel for what can be done.

the screenwriter's bible: this is a book that was used in my class. we also used another book that's escaping me but to be honest, I never read anything in school and that's why I'm so stupid. anyway, I'd say check it out if you want, especially if you start googling screenwriting stuff and it's like 20 billion pieces of advice that make 0 sense -- get the core advice from one place and then go from there.

Drawing Words & Writing Pictures: many people I know recommended this. I think I have it? It may be in storage. So frankly, I'd already read a bunch of books on comics before grabbing this that it kind of felt like a rehash. Which isn't shade on the authors — I personally was just a sort of "girl, I don't need comics 101!!!"

Invisible Ink: A Practical Guide to Building Stories that Resonate: this has been recommended so many times to me. I cannot personally speak on it but I can say I do trust those who rec'd it to me so I am passing it along

the story circle: this is pretty much the hero's journey. a useful way to think of journeys! a homie pretty much swears by it

a primer on beats: quick google search got me this that outlines storybeats

save the cat!: what the above refers to, this gives a more genre-specific breakdown. also wants to sell you on the software but you don't need that.

I hope this helps and please feel free to touch base with more info about your specific situation and hopefully I'll have more applicable answers.

#writing #making a graphic novel #writing a graphic novel #tutorial #writing tutorial

81 notes · View notes

botwstoriesandsuch · 3 years

Text

Whoopsie King Rhoam’s a dick but I gotta flesh him out so

Read Part 1 here!

Part 2

If you’re on mobile, and tumblr hates this post, follow along on this google doc!

Rules/overview this rewrite in the beginning of Part 1

‘sup ya beautiful bastards it’s time to gush about the process of storytelling and writing as we fix up the fix it fic so let’s just jump into it

- - - - - - - - - -

A quick recap of Part 2, and I swear this recap is faster than the recap last time: Chapter 3 of Age of Calamity opens with a more substantial scene the beginning points of Revali’s character, and contrasting the old position that Link and eggbot have, so that their later changes in this chapter (well, at least for Link in this chapter) are more pronounced. We edited a bit of the dialogue to make Revali’s intentions make a bit more sense, while also putting some little foreshadowing points with some camera tricks for the Hollow Champions. The Hollow Champions can now speak, which means their potential for being used to bring out the flaws or bitter aspects of each character is more readily available further into the story. And of course, we’ve introduced the main antagonist of Astor, and coupling his presence and dynamic with Zelda’s insecurities. While his intentions of needing Zelda for something is clear, his motivations and backstory remain a mystery as of yet, the only true clue we have so far being some sort of connection to eggbot.

I didn’t get any big asks or comments about Part 2 so I’m going to assume that it was mostly well received (although I will note that I promise I’m going to flesh out Revali to be more than he has been presented as of yet, this is just the very very start of this development don’t you worry your feather loving butts) that being said, you should totally critique me or give me your opinions or comments. I’d love to hear them! Although, keep in mind that I am restraining my rewrite to the guidelines already said, so don’t get mad at me for not killing off all the Champions or something. Thaaat’s a rewrite for another time. So yeah if you reblog you get a little kiss from me because believe it or not I spent a lot of time trying to rewrite an entire storyline while keeping it’s tone and integrity intact. So thanks much <3

Okie dokie then chaps! Let us finally delve into Urbosa lesbian vibes, a zest of Zelink angst, rants about pacing, and a couple tablespoons of Astor backstory, all starting in the latest stage of Chapter 3: The Road Home, Besieged

So right of the bat, big problem here. This Chapter follows directly after the events of Korok Forest, so you assume that maybe “The Road Home” refers to the team, going home, back to the castle, to tell King Rhoam what’s up. But...that’s apparently not the case.

So this entire stage, firstly, it brushes over any scenes where Zelda, Link or the other Champions might talk to King Rhoam about the Master Sword, or the Deku Tree, or...hmm what else happened last stage that might be interesting to see—oh yEAH HOW ABOUT that mysterious magic guy that tried to kill Zelda and was going off about the future and stuff?? That guy that wielded a bunch of dark magic and malice looking stuff and, uh yeah, you’d think it might be important and interesting to see the King’s take on was is essentially a wanted traitor to the crown who may or may not be leading the entire movement for the Calamity’s uprising. But nope, no one asks questions, no one says anything or has interesting conversations that reveal stuff about the plot. It's just….just all about Zelda and ooooOOooo she can’t awaken her powers oh no what’s a gal to do!

And I do mean that quite literally, this entire stage is all centered around two scenes with Zelda. The first, an admittedly narratively important scene of Zelda having a quick flashback about eggbot after he sings her a song, but it lasts for five seconds. And the second, being a pep talk with Urbosa as Link eats rocks in the background. For the majority of this stage, it’s all focused on Zelda, and pacing wise, it does virtually nothing to progress the narrative/plot forward.

And on paper, there’s nothing wrong with that! Hell, people read entire fanfictions dedicated to character development and relationships that have absolutely no external plot. Having a scene dedicated to just character development is completely fine, it’s something that’s pretty common and even encouraged to an extent. The problem arises when you remember that this is a story being told through the medium of a video game.

Now, I am going to try and breeze by this because, similar to Age of Calamity, I have to also construct this post with pacing that keeps my audience engaged, while progressing with my core narrative and story. But I highly encourage you to watch through this video by hello future me (On Writing: How to Master Pacing) because a lot of what I know about this I’ve picked up from his videos, and if you’re a writer or just someone who thinks storytelling is cool, it’s a great guide to the art of pacing.

youtube

Anyhow. There are two levels of pacing within a story. There is the small type of pacing, like for the structure of a singular scene. And there is the pacing of the overall core narrative, how the larger beats of the entire story is revealed. Good pacing for your core narrative is about whether the reader feels like they are getting closer to the big thing, the big climax or answer or promise of satisfaction. The smaller type of pacing, for your singular scenes, focuses on that timing between how close you get to achieving new information, this refers to your slow and fast pacing, tension versus rapid action.

So, overall the rule of thumb is: the amount of time you invest into your smaller scenes, even put together, that must correlate with a big enough payoff in the core narrative. That’s what good pacing is. (And that’s why people make stuff like the Three Act Structure to help visualize this pacing process but obviously other forms of pacing guidelines exist like the Five and Seven Act Structures but that’s too complicated for this Nintendo Game anyhow that’s just some educational flavour for ya to impress your highschool English Teacher I guess)

So knowing that, the question now is: Does The Road Home, Besieged contribute good pacing to the story? This is going to be my excuse for changing up other later scenes in the game, so when I mention pacing and narrative again, remember this. The time spent playing for thirty minutes, minimum, in the game, to only be paid off by two lines of character development isn’t good pacing. So the answer is “no.”

Delving as long an amount of time as thirty minutes, means that pretty much everytime a stage is complete, you must introduce new substantial progress to your story. A game like this just doesn’t have time to waste it’s valuable cutscenes on character development alone. There’s an even further wrench in the issue when you consider you also need to account for sidequests, so you could really be forcing your player to go through hours of gametime before you introduce new details in the story.

Obviously it’s not always gonna be cut and dry like that—sometimes you have to account for how enjoyable the gameplay is, and sometimes the amount of character development offsets any lack of narrative development—but for the majority of stages I’m gonna change, they all suffer this pacing problem. In a game that's entire story hinges on these cutscenes, bad pacing is just something it doesn’t have time for.

Anyhow anyhow anyhow, I got to get my dose of serotonin by talking about pacing writing structure and stuff and blah blah, so now I shall grace you with the changes that address these problems that would theoretically lead to vast improvement. I gave you this reasoning and backstory to writing because I am making hella changes, to hopefully make the experience more “poggers,” which is something the cool kids say these days if you didn’t know.

Firstly, timeline wise this stage is gonna take place directly after the Korok Forest battle. The gang is returning home from the battle, with Link, the new wielder of the Master Sword, along with this new information regarding a certain Astor character.

We open the same way it does in game, focusing on Zelda’s face, before the frame is suddenly blocked by the pommel of the Master Sword. A wordless way to express how the sudden revelation of Link being the hero has forced its way into Zelda’s mind, great use of camera Koei Tecmo 10 outta 10

Now I don’t want to immediately jump into Zelda’s “oh poor me I can’t awaken my powers” dialogue because—and this is something even Breath of the Wild is guilty of—This game seems to forget that there are other characters besides Zelda. It’s marketed towards kids, sure, but I assure you that kids playing this game have a longer attention span than 2 minutes. You don’t need to keep reminding the audience every single scene about how Zelda is anxious about her powers. It gets redundant, you waste the audience’s time, and therefore you waste your own time, because you could have been using that precious screen time to develop some other thing further. So anyhow, goes a bit like this.

Zelda’s walking, the Master Sword comes into frame. Zelda looks down at the ground but keeps walking, but you can tell from her expression that she’s troubled. Don’t need to waste time on dialogue for her here, show don’t tell, we need to make the most of the scene here. Camera is still on Zelda, but the focus blurs shifts from Zelda to the Champions behind her. We can start with Mipha, I don’t have my heart set heavily on any specific dialogue, but I want her to say something along the lines of “how proud she is of Link” and what an honor it will be to fight by the side of not just her dear friend, but also someone selected by the goddess to be the hero. Subtextually, I want her to say this in a tone that suggests that she doubts the need for her to be here at all. She’ll say something like “He’s grown so…” glances up at Link who's just walking ahead, “...so much stronger than I could ever imagine. [Something Something] His power has grown so much over the course of a few days, more than I have achieved in a lifetime.” She looks down, but she still has a sweet smile.

Now I’m doing this because I want to develop further this plot line of “getting stronger” that Age of Calamity sets up but never does anything with. Remember how in Chapter 2, Mipha asks Daruk to train with her to get stronger? I really like the possibilities of this arc with Mipha as it can not only parallel with her feelings for Link, but also make her character better as an individual. Mipha wants to get stronger so that she can protect Link, but now she thinks that Link’s already growing stronger to an extent that she might not be needed. She’s not jealous of Link, nor does she wish him to be weaker, she simply wants to be more than she already is. This is literally echoing her words that she left her father, about how leaving the Domain and experiencing new challenges would be “good for her.” So I wanna run with it. The dialogue here establishes Mipha’s motivation to grow stronger, almost equivalent to a rivalry of sorts.

So after Mipha says this, Revali scoffs and butts in. Again, I’m not too set on any particular dialogue here, just something like “Hmph! Well, I don’t know about that. Seems to me all that’s happened is some magic sword gave the knight an ego boost. Blade’s only as strong as the little Hylian who wields it, and—based on my own extended experience and professional observations of course—I’ve yet to see this ‘stronger’ boy that you speak of.” Another camera pan to Link a ways in front of them. “If you ask me, hero or no, that knight is still exactly the same as I first met him.”

Revali places a wing on his chest dramatically. “Perhaps if you’re truly keen on seeing growth in skill and strength, Mipha, you’d do well to—”

“Flattering of an offer as that may be, Revali,” Urbosa interjects, “But I think Mipha might find it difficult to observe growth from one of the shortest Rito in Hyrule.”

Cue laughter from others or snickering or something. We just need some banter to add a bit more flavour to the characters. Revali can do a little huff and cross his wings or flip his scarf or something. But then Urbosa continues.

“Although...he is right about one thing.” Urbosa looks straight ahead. “A sword does not alter a hand, just as strength does not alter character.” She puts a hand on Mipha’s shoulder. “Grow as he might, there is no doubt in my mind that he is the same boy as he’s always been.” Urbosa looks up in the direction of Zelda. “Whether you realize it or not.”

Ok so, scene’s not done yet, BUT quick gush on the dialogue flow here. I’m trying to establish parallels in these character perspectives based on the flow of conversation. We started with Mipha who, like I said, wished to grow stronger along with Link. This flows into Revali who also has a similar parallel as he wishes to grow above Link’s shadow. But the distinction between Mipha and Revali is that Mipha think’s Link’s strength is earned, and Revali thinks he cheated, gaining authority through a magic sword, and not through merit and skill. Thus, leading to Revali’s perspective of Link being exactly the same as he’s always been, he believes the sword doesn’t change anything. Urbosa then speaks, because she thinks exactly the same thing. However, her distinction is that Link is the same as he’s always been: a determined young boy earned his place and cares for his friends. Then she looks to Zelda who, as we know, will develop a perspective that contradicts this. So you get it? This scene is like 20 seconds long but it already mirrors nearly all the character parallels and perspective, that’s why the flow of dialogue is important. And I know half of you probably think these kinds of details are a stretch but I promise you it’s not, just look at any movie or show ever and I guarantee you can find similar stuff there too. Ok moving on moving on—

Urbosa looks up at Zelda, comments her, “He’s the same boy, whether you realize it or not” piece of dialogue. Camera shifts back to Zelda and Link, who, idk if I mentioned this, but in the scene there’s enough distance between the Champions and Zelda and Link that the Champions can speak without the other two listening. So they didn’t hear any of this.

So the camera is back on Zelda, and now we can get her “How can I…..If I am unable to awaken my inner power….” line. Eggbot senses her sadness, does his little cheer up dance, Zelda gets a flashback.

One small change I wanna make to this flashback: Instead of just a baby Zelda going “nighty-night” I want there to ALSO be a figure in the background behind eggbot wearing a silk royal blue dress. And said woman has blonde hair and she’s by the table back there. We don’t have to show her face or anything because Nintendo hates that. Just place the woman somewhere in the back somewhere

Also possibly you could add the shadow of another figure by the doorway, maybe? It would serve good continuity purposes for the plot points that I’m telling, but that part is not as necessary. I just need at least the woman there.

Then Zelda is like “I remember you” to eggbot and all that and blah blah… Now, instead of Impa offscreen just yelling “enemy ahead!” I just want it to be a full on ambush. Not like a major one, but just enough where the group is surprised a bit. Maybe on the cliffs above, a lizalfo throws a boomerang, or a bokoblin shoots and arrow, or even just throws a rock. I don’t really care. I just need this to happen because…

As soon as this danger is presented, Link turns around to grab Zelda’s hand and they start running again. And he can like use his body to try and shield her a bit, I need it to parallel how he acted during Chapter 1 on the road to the Royal Tech Lab. However, this parallel has one important distinction because…

Zelda rips he grip from Link’s after a moment. “You don’t need to coddle me!” She says, or something along those lines. “Y-You...You’re the hero aren’t you! I’m perfectly fine, you don’t need to spend your precious time playing babysitter to me.” In the distance, a horde of monsters is beginning to form. Zelda looks between the monsters and Link’s Master Sword, her expression unreadable. “Well? Just...just go do what you need to do.” Link hesitates, looking between her, and the approaching monsters. Zelda speaks more sternly now, “Go!” So Link, not one to disregard an order from the Princess, gives one last look to Zelda before setting off towards the monsters. Maybe Zelda can take a deep breath to steady herself after he leaves, but as soon as Link unsheathes his sword, the metal glistening in the setting sunlight, it cuts immediately to gameplay. Start battle.

For essays’ purposes this is the part where I explain why this is better than the original. So here’s my reasoning:

Uhhh, it just is. :3

Ok but seriously, I’ve already talked a tone about why the pacing and dialogue flow is better than the original. But also this scene doesn’t just say “Ooo Zelda is sad about her powers,” because that’s not interesting. Like I said, it’s redundant information. What is interesting is see how characters deal with that internal conflict and how it affects their relationships. AKA Zelda’s relationship with Link, who now basically embodies the success that she’s been working so hard towards but never achieved, is deteriorating a bit. I wanted to get that sense of the Zelda that we see in Breath of the Wild because all things considered, they should be roughly the same character.

So that’s that, you fight the battle, the Hollows show up a bit, so insert “dark evil Champion” dialogue because if you’re gonna use the evil clone trope might as well use it to the fullest. Then you fight the Talus and hurray horrah the day is saved.

Then we have that iconic Urbosa motherly pep talk to Zelda as Link eats rocks in the background. Now honestly, I’m not that big a fan of the first half of the dialogue, so I wanna change it into something more interesting. But the rest of the beats and camera work go roughly the same.

Zelda: “Link is...so much stronger now”

Urbosa: “‘And yet I have not.’ I presume that’s what you’re thinking, hmm?”

Zelda: “Well it’s true, isn’t it? More and more, monsters have been appearing around Hyrule. It is a sign that the Calamity draws near. So...there isn’t much time. And still, no sign of my power awakening.”

Urbosa: *sighs* “Little bird…”

Zelda cuts her off, in an attempt to change topics: “Why do you call me that?”

Urbosa: “Hmm?”

Zelda: “Little bird...I feel like I’ve heard it before. Why do you call me that?”

Urbosa, after a beat looks off in the distance or something: “A long time ago, my dear friend would call me to the palace, or perhaps invite herself over to mine, [she chuckles] ...and she would talk with me all day, and ask me to gaze upon her little bird with her. Her dearest daughter...a princess”

Zelda: “You mean my…”

Urbosa just smiles with a soft nod: “Back then, times were a bit different. The destiny that you have was still upon the Queen, who worked day and night to refine her powers and fulfill her destiny. In just a few short years, I went from being friends with a Queen, to friends with the destined sealer of the Calamity.”

Another pause, before Urbosa speaks again: “But...she was still the same woman I had grown with. Still the same loving mother who spoke about her little bird with joy. She had not changed one bit.”

Urbosa: “Even when your mother passed, her loving smile was there until the very end. She always loved you—believed in you, Zelda. She had great hope, great faith that her daughter would grow into the beacon of light Hyrule needed. That even with her gone, you would spread your wings and fly, because you were just that amazing to her.” *Urbosa puts her hands on Zelda’s shoulders.*

Urbosa: “Destiny did not change your mother’s love, just as it does not change Link’s courage, or your value.” *the camera can pan to Link eating rocks now*

Urbosa looks directly at Zelda now: “Look how hard we’ve all worked to get this far, how hard you have worked to get here. While we may grow in strength, in that regard, we’re all one in the same.”

Zelda: “...I….well…”

Urbosa: “What did the Great Deku Tree say? There is no need to fret princess.”

Urbosa: “Our faith, Link’s, your mother’s, it’s all as strong as ever. And everyday, with every moment that you travel towards your destiny, it just grows. It is always with us. So believe in that, have hope, yet, little bird.” *Eggbot can scurry up and make cute noises here next to Zelda*

Urbosa: “I know, you are where you need to be. You must accept that too.”

Zelda: “...”

Zelda gives a solemn nod: “Thank you, Urbosa.”

So that’s that scene! Don’t let the length fool you, it’s technically even shorter than the original scene in Age of Calamity. So why is it, in my opinion, better? Because for one, we actually get an insight into Zelda’s mom and Urbosa’s relationship, something that was PROMISED To us but never given and I’m still a bit salty about it. Anyhow, in addition to just getting some lore details, that relationship between the Queen and Urbosa is important for this scene because, just like Urbosa spells out, it’s in direct parallel with Link and Zelda.

Before the Queen suddenly got sick and died, she was destined to seal the Calamity. But she didn’t let that destiny change her, she was still the same loving mother to the end. Now that is something that Zelda needs to realize about Link, as his newly acquired destiny doesn’t change who he was before, the knight who cares for her and wishes to protect her. Zelda needs to realize he’s the same and that she can still trust and confide in him. Hence, that’s why this mom backstory is in this scene and not somewhere else, because it serves to the narrative but also more impactfully to the character development.

The dialogue could probably be polished a bit more but come on, not half bad for an improvement yeah? So that concludes Chapter—

SIKE we’re not done yet. We still have to move into the entire point of this stage, the road home, to the castle.

So, badabing badaboom, I’m adding an entirely new scene from scratch right here at the end, because it is VITAL that I set up something new about the story, as a sort of clincher. So anyhow

Zelda is alone with her father, let��s set it in the royal library (Intact, not ruined, of course) because we don’t see enough of that location and it’s really cool. So Zelda is briefing her dad about the events in Korok Forest and on the journey back home. I know I always gush about cinematography but it can’t be fully appreciated since I’m….writing,,, this, BUT I think it might be fun if the side shots of Zelda have her background be some bookcases of the library, maybe half bookcases and the other half the ornate walls. Then the background for the King’s shots is the full symmetry of the elegant staircases.

[And if you needed the specific reasoning for that, because it makes camera shots more fun. Like when Zelda says something that aids in her scholarly side, the camera angle can change slightly where the bookcases take up more of the frame, and then when the King’s will takes more power, then the book cases can be angled a bit more out of frame. And then the symmetry of the King by the staircase is a way to show his higher power dynamic to her, and contrasts well with Zelda’s shots since the bookcases are dark and the stone is lighter, so on a meta level is also makes it easier for the audience to understand where they are. Shot composition is fun ok, and that’s not even getting into color theory (Thinks about Baby Driver and LaLaLand....even videogames like Undertale and Hollow Knight have such wonderful shot composition and use of color theory hhhhh love it)]

Ok so Zelda’s briefing the King in the library, she’s standing while he’s sitting at a desk. There’s maybe two or four Royal Guards on the staircase entrances, but for the most part, they’re alone. You can tell that this meeting between them has been going on for a bit now, as from Zelda’s dialogue, she’s retelling events midway through the story.

The King is flipping through some paperwork, not really looking Zelda in the eyes. She continues speaking.

“And so...with the malice cleared and the monsters being dealt with, Link and I made our way into the heart of Korok Forest.”

The King hums a response, flipping through another page. “And this is when Link pulled out the Sword that Seals the Darkness then, I presume.”

Zelda paused, as of thinking of how to phrase her next words. “Not exactly. I...we both encountered someone beforehand. A man, with a pale face, and dark hair and robes, and he had the power to control malice, using a strange object in one of his hands.”

Rhoam stops writing in his journal or whatever. He doesn’t look up, but the sudden stop he makes is obvious. Zelda notices, but continues.

“He talked about...the Calamity, and my birthday...destiny, and the future….I’m not quite sure I can remember his intentions word for word. But he did introduce himself as—“

“Astor…” Zelda and the King say simultaneously. The King has fully perked up now, looking at Zelda. She’s pleased to see a reaction from him. The King rises from his chair, and starts pacing a bit, stroking his beard thoughtfully like the asshole he is.

“So you know him then? This Astor man? Who is he, father? What does he—“

“Were you alright? Did he hurt you, or mention anything else?”

Zelda pauses for a moment before shaking her head, as if the concern he was expressing was uncharacteristic. “N-No. No, I’m fine, and Link was there. During the battle, as Link fought him off, that was when the sword was pulled. Then Astor fled, or...” Zelda pauses for a beat, “retreated...he expressed his wish to speak with me again.”

Another beat of silence, as Rhoam gets up, hands clasped behind his back. “He used to work at this very palace.” The shot is now directly on Rhoams back, as he faces a bookcase, although it’s clear that he’s just deep in thought, and not just staring at books. Rhoam is in third column of the shot (he’s to the right, not in the center)

“A trusted advisor. Someone gifted with foresight, who many years ago, had first predicted the coming Calamity.” Cut to shot of Rhoams face, the camera being by the bookcase, so that we see Rhoam’s expression and Zelda’s.

“In truth, I thought him dead. For the last time I saw him alive—truly, truly alive—was ten long years ago...” The shot goes back to the original establishing shot, of Rhoam facing away from the camera, towards the bookcase, he’s standing to the right, hands still clasped behind his back.

“...when your mother still graced this earth.”

From left frame, a younger Astor walks up and stands beside Rhoam. He runs his fingers along the books. Rhoam looks to his left, as if he is seeing Astor. Camera cuts to Astor’s right, as if looking at him from Rhoam’s perspective. He continues brushing his fingers against the spines of the books, before he finds the one he’s looking for. Pulling it out, he opens the book, flipping through its pages, before giving a genuine smile. Cut back to wide angle behind them. With the book, Astor starts walking back out left frame, but this time the camera follows him. Filter fade to a memory tint as the camera pans right to left

[when the camera fades fully into the Astor memory, the figures can have that silhouetted effect like you see in botw. Cause I know Nintendo hates making new character models for some reason.]

So if it wasn’t clear already, even though the memory filter doesn’t come immediately, Astor isn’t actually there, but it’s just a flashback. I’m a sucker for merges, which is something this game and botw NEVER do which bugs me because there are so many creative ways you could introduce flashbacks without just doing “ooOooOoo fade to sepia filter and then oooOOooOOO we fade back to reality and no time has passed.” I apologize if my explanation of the camera doesn’t make sense as it’s hard without much visual aid, but hopefully it makes sense so far. Anyhow! Let’s continue.

We’re now fully immersed in this memory, but King Rhoam’s voice still narrates overhead.

Astor brings the book to one of the desks in the library, where a woman sits writing something onto paper. News flash, it’s the queen. Astor hands her the book and starts speaking about something, although you can tell the tone of their conversation is light, almost akin to Zelda rambling about Sheikah Technology. The Queen laughs about something unheard, as Astor continues ranting about something, his hands moving to like a professor giving a lecture.

Rhoam Narration: “When he had first predicted the Calamity, things were much more hopefully for our kingdom. As although his foresight granted him only glimpses and fragments of a future, he was almost certain that with the Guardians, and the strength of your mother’s power, our victory would be absolute.”

Scene changes to the Queen walking down a corridor, Astor is leaning against the wall by a window.

Rhoam Narration: “He and your mother would often work together tirelessly to study the ancient arts, to make the most of the powers given by the goddess.”

The Queen has walked up to Astor now. She crouches down and gestures to her left, the side not yet seen by the camera.

Rhoam Narration: “In fact…”

The camera changes to focus to where the Queen was looking towards—a young Zelda, crouched behind her mother’s dress, stares up at Astor.

Rhoam Narration: “I would not be surprised if you found within yourself, a memory of such.”

I would prefer if you could see the expressions of Astor (giving Zelda not a smile, but not really a frown or anything rude either) and young Zelda. But I guess it can also just be silhouettes too cause again, Nintendo hates giving us younger character models outside of first person POV stuff. Anyhow.

The scene fades, the light from the window dimming as everything darkens.

Rhoam Narration: “I often times wish we could go back to such a time, when victory and pride swam in every corner of this castle. But of course…”

The scene brightens again, although not as bright as before. It’s the exact same corridor with the large window, but now it’s raining. A young Zelda stands alone in front of it, looking outside.

Rhoam Narration: “Such a time did end…”

We now cut to a new scene, King Rhoam is walking down a hall, the camera’s perspective is of a bird’s eye view, like we’re peering in from outside a window. We can see the shadow of Astor chasing after him, as he starts speaking frantically about something, not quite, but almost to the point of shouts.

Rhoam Narration: “After your mother died, the visions of the future shifted drastically. No longer was there glimpses of rolling fields and shimmering skies, but instead, of rubble, red earth, and death.”

You can now more clearly hear the words coming out of Astor’s mouth. He is telling something about failure, and souls, and the Calamity to the King’s ear. He’s still walking forward.

Rhoam Narration: “He was adamant that our demise was now coming faster than ever, and that without your mother, we were doomed. That even you, should you take up your mother’s mantle, could not save everyone.”

Astor: “I’m telling you Your Majesty, if you go down this path, there is no going back.”

King Rhoam: “There is no other choice, we are moving forward.”

Astor: “I don’t think you quite understand the true gravity of the fate you’re choosing for yourself. It is a guarantee that you, me, and countless others shall die.”

King Rhoam: “I don’t want to hear it.”

Astor: “And of course, there are a multitude of possibilities, but the end result is the same.”

Astor: “Do you have a preference, perhaps? Crushed by rubble? Suffocation under ash?”

Rhoam’s tone is deadly: “Stop.”

Astor: “I’ve seen fire too. I’m not yet quite sure the exact circumstances that lead to flame appearing and spreading so quickly, but rest assured that if you—”

King Rhoam: “Stop.”

Astor: “If you saddle someone else with this duty I am absolutely certain that you and I will—”

King Rhoam, voice not shouting, but still with a booming intensity: “Just like you were so certain of our victory 10 years ago?”

Astor’s face darkens. He’s silent for a moment, collecting his words before practically spitting the first articulation: “...That, future, was the one that would come to be if Her Majesty was alive. If you’re so unsatisfied with my departed wisdom you can go ahead and flail around with destiny alone. You think I choose for these events to happen? You think I lie when I saw I want what’s best for this kingdom—”

King Rhoam: “What’s best for you.”

An ugly pause.

King Rhoam: “It is decided, Seer. It’s time you accept this. My wife is dead. That is the truth. Thus the role of sealing the Calamity shall pass to my daughter. She will work to awaken her own ability. It will be her duty to save us.”

Astor half laughs: “A child?! Surely you don’t need the supernatural to see how foolish that is.”

King Rhoam’s voice is even more stern: “You are living proof that the future is not absolute. Therefore I...must place all belief in her ability.”

The King walks away, leaving Astor alone. Weirdly, he smiles. Perhaps to mask some other emotion.

After another moment, Astor yells to the King: “I’ll fix this! Alone if I must!” He’s chuckling as he shakes his head. “Your useless faith may cost many lives, but even so mark my words, I will fix this.”

The King looks back, but says nothing, his expression unreadable. He continues forward, leaving Astor alone chuckling, or perhaps something in between chuckling and crying to himself.

Rhoam Narration: “We haven’t spoken since that day. I simply left him to his devices. If he was so determined to find another way to stop the Calamity, then who was I to stop him. I doubt my word could have swayed his mind regardless.

We’re now looking at a room, the camera is just by the doorway, looking at an office, circular and domed. It’s stone brick walls are covered in parchment and ripped books, covered in symbols and frantic writing. An old Sheikah tapestry hangs crudely on the left wall, and the window on the right seems to tint grey, or even a deepest crimson. Centerframe, is the back of Astor, robe hanging just above the paper ridden floor. He is flipping through something on his desk.

Rhoam Narration: “Fixated as he was on the perfect future that you mother might have led, I still had hope that with time, he might still assist you with your destiny one day.”

The camera slowly comes closer to Astor. We can see more clearly the type of stuff that sprawls the papers and books and diagrams across his office. Some depict stars and constellations, and even a few notes on Ancient Technology, although in a noticeably cleaner font. However, as the camera moves close and closer to Astor, the papers and books depict only one clear topic: the aura of death that comes only with necromancy.

Rhoam Narration: “It seems…”

Astor finally reacts to whatever he was doing on his desk. You don’t see his eyes, but as he fully turns around to face the camera, you see his smile, along with him holding a dark orb of unknown energy. It hovers in his hand.

Rhoam Narration: “...I was mistaken.”

The camera cuts to a wide angle, looking at Astor from behind a stack of books on his desk. The stack of books on Astor’s desk brighten in color (from the memory dull filter), until the scene fully fades back into the Royal Library. The camera is now focused on a similar stack of books on the desk behind Zelda, where Rhoam was working before.

Zelda is still looking at her father, who is still turned away. Now, he turns back around to face her.

“He had disappeared completely one day, so it was my understanding that whatever he was working on killed him. However, if he is truly back as you say…”

Rhoam walks closer to Zelda, close enough that he might have put a hand on her shoulder, but his arms stay behind his back.

“It is in your utmost interest to prove him wrong. I know not what he plans on doing, but it would be wise to stop him before he does.”

Rhoam turns away now, pacing back to the otherside of the desk. “But, your more important priority is unlocking your powers, understand? Now more than ever, is not the time to get distracted.”

Zelda, taking this all in, takes a deep breath. She then nods at him. “I understand...Father.”

After a moment, the King makes a motion as if to dismiss her. She starts to walk away, her thoughts churning in her head, heart thumping to the same beat as her echoing footsteps. Suddenly, Rhoam calls,

“Zelda.” It’s not a question, but the tone is asked like one.

She turns back, looking at him, expectantly. Rhoam only stares at her, an uncharacteristic moment of uncertainty for him. The words he wants to form seem stuck in his throat, until finally, he lets out a quiet breathe through his nose, before simply saying:

“You must.”

Zelda can only frown, her shoulder’s slumping slightly, as she ducks her head and leaves.

- - - - - -

And that’s that! That’s the complete end of Chapter 3. So tune in next time for Chapter 4, including a new slight but important story changes, Yiga husbands, and shocking turns of events.

Edit: I forgot that posts with link’s dont show up in tag results so a rb is appreciated :p

#Hwaoc: The Kip Cut #fuck this is the biggest one yet #hwaoc #age of calamity #hwaoc rewrite #hw age of calamity #hyrule warriors age of calamity

42 notes · View notes

tinyshe · 3 years

Text

Pure, Unalloyed Evil Masked as a Pandemic Analysis by Mike Whitney

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.” William Shakespeare, The Tempest

Mike Yeadon is a soft-spoken microbiologist and a former vice-president of allergy and respiratory research at Pfizer. He spent 32 years working for large pharmaceutical companies and is a leading expert on viral respiratory infections.

He is also a man on a mission, and his mission is to inform as many people as possible about the elite powerbrokers that are using the pandemic as a smokescreen to conceal their real objectives. Here’s Yeadon in a recent interview:1

“If you wanted to depopulate a significant portion of the world, and to do it in a way that wouldn’t require destruction of the environment with nuclear weapons, or poisoning everyone with anthrax or something, and you wanted plausible deniability, whilst you had a multi-year infectious disease crisis; I don’t think you could come up with a better plan of work than what seems to be in front of me.

I can’t say that’s what they’re going to do, but I cannot think of a benign explanation for why they are doing it.”

“Depopulation?” Who said anything about depopulation? Isn’t it a bit of a stretch to go from a mass vaccination campaign to allegations of a conspiracy to “depopulate a significant portion of the world?” Indeed, it is, but Yeadon has done extensive research on the matter and provides compelling evidence that such a diabolical objective may, in fact, be the goal.

Humans Are Capable of Unimaginable Viciousness and Cruelty

Moreover, it is not for lack of proof that people are not persuaded that Yeadon is right, but something more fundamental; the inability to grasp that men are capable of almost-unimaginable viciousness and cruelty. Here’s Yeadon again:2

“It’s become absolutely clear to me, even when I talk to intelligent people, friends, acquaintances … and they can tell I’m telling them something important, but they get to the point [where I say] ‘your government is lying to you in a way that could lead to your death and that of your children,’ and they can’t begin to engage with it.

And I think maybe 10% of them understand what I said, and 90% of those blank their understanding of it because it is too difficult. And my concern is, we are going to lose this, because people will not deal with the possibility that anyone is so evil …

But I remind you of what happened in Russia in the 20th century, what happened in 1933 to 1945, what happened in, you know, Southeast Asia in some of the most awful times in the post-war era. And, what happened in China with Mao and so on … We’ve only got to look back two or three generations. All around us there are people who are as bad as the people doing this.

They’re all around us. So, I say to folks, the only thing that really marks this one out, is its scale. But actually, this is probably less bloody, it’s less personal, isn’t it? The people who are steering this … it’s going to be much easier for them. They don’t have to shoot anyone in the face.

They don’t have to beat someone to death with a baseball bat, or freeze them, starve them, make them work until they die. All of those things did happen two or three generations back … That’s how close we are. And all I’m saying is, some shifts like that are happening again, but now they are using molecular biology.”

People ‘Cannot Imagine Anything so Demonic’

He’s right, isn’t he? Whereas, a great many people know that the government, the media and the public health officials have been lying to them about everything from the efficacy of masks, social distancing and lockdowns, to the life-threatening dangers of experimental vaccines, they still refuse to believe that the people orchestrating this operation might be pushing them inexorably toward infertility or an early death.

They cannot imagine anything so demonic, so they stick their heads in the sand and pretend not to see what is going on right beneath their noses. It’s called “denial” and it is only strengthening the position of the puppet masters that are operating behind the scenes. Here’s more from Yeadon:3

“… In the last year I have realized that my government and its advisers are lying in the faces of the British people about everything to do with this coronavirus. Absolutely everything. It’s a fallacy this idea of asymptomatic transmission and that you don’t have symptoms, but you are a source of a virus.

That lockdowns work, that masks have a protective value obviously for you or someone else, and that variants are scary things and we even need to close international borders in case some of these nasty foreign variants get in.”

Many readers may have noticed that this interview appeared on a small Christian website called Lifesite News. Why is that? Shouldn’t the informed observations of a former Pfizer vice president appear on the front pages of The New York Times or The Washington Post? Wouldn’t you expect the big cable news channels to run a hot-button interview like this as their headline story?

Of course not. No one expects that, because everyone knows that the media honchos reflexively quash any story that doesn’t support the “official narrative,” that is, that COVID is the most contagious and lethal virus of all time, which requires a new authoritarian political structure and the wholesale evisceration of civil liberties.

No One Is Allowed to Refute the Official Propaganda

Isn’t that the underlying storyline of the last year? COVID skeptics and naysayers, like Yeadon, are not allowed to refute the official propaganda or debate the issue on a public forum. They’re effectively banned from the MSM and consigned to the outer reaches of the Internet where only a scattered few will read what they have to say. Here’s more:4

“Everything I have told you, every single one of those things is demonstrably false. But our entire national policy is based on these all being broadly right, but they are all wrong. But what I would like to do is talk about immune escape because I think that’s probably going to be the end game for this whole event, which I think is probably a conspiracy.

Last year I thought it was what I called ‘convergent opportunism.’ That is, a bunch of different stakeholder groups have managed to pounce on a world in chaos to push us in a particular direction. So, it looked like it was kind of linked, but I was prepared to say it was just convergence.

I [now] think that’s naïve. There is no question in my mind that very significant powerbrokers around the world have either planned to take advantage of the next pandemic or created the pandemic. One of those two things is true because the reason it must be true is that dozens and dozens of governments are all saying the same lies and doing the same inefficacious things that demonstrably cost lives.”

Let’s pause for a minute, and ask ourselves why a modest, self-effacing microbiologist who operated in the shadows for his entire professional career has thrust himself into the limelight when he knows, for certain, he will either be ridiculed, smeared, discredited, dragged through the mud or killed.

In fact, he openly admits that he fears for his safety and assumes that he could be “removed” (“assassinated”) by his enemies. So, why is he doing this? Why is he risking life and limb to get the word out about vaccines?

A Moral Obligation to Warn People

It’s because he feels a moral obligation to warn people about the danger they face. Yeadon is not an attention-seeking narcissist. In fact, he’d rather vanish from public life altogether.

But he’s not going to do that because he’s selflessly committed to doing his duty by sounding the alarm about a malign strategy that may well lead to the suffering and death of literally tens of millions of people. That’s why he’s doing it, because he’s an honorable man with a strong sense of decency. Remember decency? Here’s more:5

“You can see that I am desperately trying not to say that it is a conspiracy, because I have no direct evidence that it is a conspiracy. Personally, all my instincts are shouting that it’s a conspiracy as a human being, but as a scientist, I can’t point to the smoking gun that says they made this up on purpose.”

Many of us who have followed events closely for the last year and have searched the internet for alternate points of view are equally convinced that it is a conspiracy, just as Russiagate was a conspiracy. And while we might not have conclusive, rock-solid proof of criminal activity, there is voluminous circumstantial evidence to support the claim.

By definition, a “conspiracy” is “an evil, unlawful, treacherous, or surreptitious plan formulated in secret by two or more persons.”6 What is taking place presently across the western world meets that basic definition.

Just as the contents of this article meet the basic definition of a “conspiracy theory,” which is “an attempt to explain harmful or tragic events as the result of the actions of a small powerful group. Such explanations reject the accepted narrative surrounding those events; indeed, the official version may be seen as further proof of the conspiracy.”7

We make no attempt to deny that this is a conspiracy theory, any more than we deny that senior-level officials at the FBI, CIA, DOJ and U.S. State Department were involved in a covert operation aimed at convincing the American people that Donald Trump was a Russian agent.

That was a conspiracy theory that was later proven to be a fact. We expect that the facts about the COVID operation will eventually emerge, acquitting us on that account as well. Here’s more from Yeadon:8

“I think the end game is going to be, ‘everyone receives a vaccine’ … Everyone on the planet is going to find themselves persuaded, cajoled, not quite mandated, hemmed-in to take a jab.

When they do that every single individual on the planet will have a name, or unique digital ID and a health status flag which will be ‘vaccinated,’ or not … and whoever possesses that, sort of single database, operable centrally, applicable everywhere to control, to provide as it were, a privilege, you can either cross this particular threshold or conduct this particular transaction or not depending on [what] the controllers of that one human population database decide.

And I think that’s what this is all about because once you’ve got that, we become playthings and the world can be as the controllers of that database want it.”

Mass Vaccination a Pathway to Absolute Social Control

So mass vaccination is actually the pathway to absolute social control by technocratic elites accountable to no one? Are we there yet? Pretty close, I’d say. Here’s more:9

“And they are talking the same sort of future script which is, ‘We don’t want you to move around because of these pesky ‘variants’ — (but) ‘don’t worry, there will be ‘top-up’ vaccines that will cope with the potential escapees.’ They’re all saying this when it is obviously nonsense.”

Is he right? Is the variant hobgoblin now being invoked to prolong the restrictions, intensify the paranoia and pave the way for endless rounds of mass vaccination? Judge for yourself, but here’s a sampling of articles that appeared in recent news that will help you decide:

1. Reuters — South African Variant Can ‘Break Through’ Pfizer Vaccine, Israeli study says10

“The coronavirus variant discovered in South Africa can ‘break through’ Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine to some extent, a real-world data study in Israel found, though its prevalence in the country is low and the research has not been peer reviewed …

We found a disproportionately higher rate of the South African variant among people vaccinated with a second dose, compared to the unvaccinated group. This means that the South African variant is able, to some extent, to break through the vaccine’s protection,” said Tel Aviv University’s Adi Stern. (So, according to the article — the vaccine doesn’t work.)

2. The New York Times — Rise of Variants in Europe Shows How Dangerous the Virus Can Be11

“Europe, the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic last spring, has once again swelled with new cases, which are inundating some local hospitals and driving a worrisome global surge of Covid-19.

But this time, the threat is different: The rise in new cases is being propelled by a coronavirus variant first seen in Britain and known as B.1.1.7. The variant is not only more contagious than last year’s virus, but also deadlier.

The variant is now spreading in at least 114 countries. Nowhere, though, are its devastating effects as visible as in Europe, where thousands are dying each day and countries’ already-battered economies are once again being hit by new restrictions on daily life …

Vaccines will eventually defeat the variants, scientists say. [So, they don’t work now??] And stringent restrictions can drive down cases of B.1.1.7. [So, don’t leave your home.] …

‘We’ve seen in so many countries how quickly it can become dominant,’ said Lone Simonsen, a professor and director of the PandemiX Center at Roskilde University in Denmark.

‘And when it dominates, it takes so much more effort to maintain epidemic control than was needed with the old variant.’” [In other words, we are effectively dealing with a different pathogen that requires a different antidote. It’s an admission that the current crop of vaccines doesn’t work.]

3. Cell — SARS-CoV-2 Variants B.1.351 and P.1 Escape From Neutralizing Antibodies12

“… our findings indicate that the B.1.351 and P.1 variants might be able to spread in convalescent patients or BNT162b2-vaccinated individuals and thus constitute an elevated threat to human health.

Containment of these variants by non-pharmaceutic interventions is an important task.” [Note — In other words, the new vaccines don’t work against the new COVID strains, so we might need to preserve the onerous lockdown restrictions forever.]

How can people read this fearmongering bunkum and not see that it is designed to terrify and manipulate the masses into sheeplike compliance?

Variant Being Used to Fuel COVID Hysteria

There’s no denying that the variant is being used to fuel the COVID hysteria and perpetuate the repressive social restrictions. So, the question we should be asking ourselves is whether we can trust what we are being told by the media and the public health officials?

And the answer is “No,” we cannot trust them. They have repeatedly misled the public on all manner of topics including masks, asymptomatic transmission, immunity, infection fatality rate, social distancing and now variants. According to Sunetra Gupta, who is professor of theoretical epidemiology in the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford, and a Royal Society Wolfson Research Fellow:13

“… some of these variants could be more transmissible, but the truth is … even with a marginal increase in transmissibility … that does not have much of a material effect or difference in how we deal with the virus. In other words, the surge of the virus cannot be ascribed to a new variant …

The other question is are these variants more virulent, and the truth is we don’t know, but it is unlikely because the data don’t seem to say so despite the scary headlines … Pathogens tend to evolve toward lower virulence … because that maximizes their transmissibility … It is much more probable that these strains will not be materially so different that we would have to alter our policies.”

So, according to Gupta, even if the new strains of COVID are more transmissible, it is highly unlikely that they are more lethal. Here’s more on the topic from diagnostic pathologist Dr. Clare Craig, who provides a more technical explanation:14

“SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequence has ~30,000 letters. Alterations in a handful of letters will not change it’s shape much — if it did it wouldn’t function properly anyway. Fear mongering about immune escape is not needed and is irresponsible especially when no evidence to support the claims.”

In essence, Craig is saying the same thing we said earlier, that the slight mutations to the infection will not impact the immune reaction of people who already had the virus. Thus, the current crop of “variants” should not be a cause for alarm. If you have already had COVID or if you already have prior immunity due to previous exposure to similar infections, (SARS, for example) the new strain should not be a problem.

It should also not be a problem if the new vaccines provide the type of broad-based immunity that one should expect of them. Again, the mutations represent only the slightest change in the composition of the pathogen (less than 1%), which means that — if the vaccines don’t work — they are, in effect, useless.

Media Misstating Science to Terrify the Public

Here’s a longer explanation that some readers might find overly technical and perhaps tedious, but it’s worth wading through in order to see that the media is deliberately misstating the science to terrify the public. This excerpt is from an article by Yeadon. Here’s what he said:15

“The idea is planted in people’s mind that this virus is mutating in such a way as to evade prior immunity. This is completely unfounded, certainly as regards immunity … (that is) gained naturally, after repelling the virus … It’s important to appreciate that upon infection, the human immune system cuts up an infectious agent into short pieces.

Each of these short pieces of protein are presented to other cells in the immune system, like an identity parade … These have a range of functions. Some make antibodies & others are programmed to kill cells infected by the virus, recognized by displaying on their surface signals that tell the body that they’ve been invaded.

In almost all cases … this smart adaptive system overcomes the infection. Crucially … this event leaves you with many different kinds of long-lived ‘memory’ cells which, if you’re infected again, rapidly wipe out any attempt at reinfection.

So, you won’t again be made ill by the same virus, and because the virus is simply not permitted to replicate, you are also no longer able to participate in transmission … The general ‘direction of travel’ (for viruses) is to become less injurious but easier to transmit, eventually joining the other 40 or so viruses which cause what we collectively term ‘the common cold.’

What generally doesn’t happen is for mutants to become more lethal to the hosts (us). But the key point I wanted to get across is just how large SARS-COV-2 is. I recall it’s of the order of 30,000 letters of genetic code which, when translated, make around 10,000 amino acids in several viral proteins.

Now you can see that the kinds of numbers of changes in the letters of the genetic code are truly tiny in comparison with the whole. 30 letter changes might be roughly 0.1% of the virus’s code. In other words, 99.9% of that code is not different from the so-called Wuhan strain.

Similarly, the changes in the protein translated from those letter code alterations are overwhelmed by the vast majority of the unchanged protein sequences. So your immune system, recognizing as it does perhaps dozens of short pieces … will not be fooled by a couple of small changes to a tiny fraction of these.

No: your immune system knows immediately that this is an invader it’s seen before, and has no difficulty whatsoever in dealing with it swiftly & without symptoms. So, it’s a scientifically invalid …

… even if mutations did change a couple of these, the majority of the pieces … of the mutated virus will still be unchanged & recognized by the vaccine-immune system or the virus-infected immune system & a prompt, vigorous response will still protect you.”

Why Are Public Health Officials and the Media Lying?

Let’s summarize: We have presented the informed views of three reputable scientists all of who explicitly refute the idea that the so called “variants:”

Are more lethal

Have the potential to reinfect people who have already had COVID

Have mutated enough to reinfect people who have already been vaccinated (unless, of course) the vaccine does not provide broad-based immunity to begin with (which is possible since Phase 3 long-term trials were never conducted).

So, why are the public health officials and the media lying about this matter, which is fairly clear-cut and uncontroversial? That is the question.

Yeadon concludes that there is something flagrantly diabolical about their denial. He thinks they are lying in order to dupe more people into getting injected with a substance that will either render them infertile, cause them great bodily harm or kill them outright. Take your pick. Here’s more:16

“The eugenicists have got hold of the levers of power and this is a really artful way of getting you to line-up and receive some unspecified thing that will damage you. I have no idea what it will actually be, but it won’t be a vaccine because you don’t need one. And it won’t kill you on the end of the needle because you would spot that.

It could be something that will produce normal pathology, it will be at various times between vaccination and the event, it will be plausibly deniable because there will be something else going on in the world at that time, in the context of which your demise, or that of your children will look normal.

That’s what I would do if I wanted to get rid of 90 or 95% of the world’s population. And I think that’s what they’re doing.”

“The eugenicists have got hold of the levers of power?” Has Yeadon gone mad?

Has the pressure of the global pandemic pushed him off the deep end or is he “on to something” big, something that no one even dares to even think about; a plan so dark and sinister that its implementation would constitute the most grievous and coldblooded crime against humanity of all time; the injection of billions of people with a toxic elixir whose spike protein dramatically compromises their immune systems clearing the way for agonizing widespread suffering followed by mountains of carnage?

There are others, however, who see a connection between the current vaccination campaign and “the eugenicists.” In fact, Dr. Joseph Mercola points to the link between the lead developer of the AstraZeneca vaccine, Adrian Hill, and the Eugenics movement. According to Mercola:

“Hill gave a lecture at the Galton Institute (which was known as the U.K. Eugenics Society) in 2008 for its 100-year anniversary. As noted in Webb’s article:17

‘Arguably most troubling of all is the direct link of the vaccine’s lead developers to the Wellcome Trust and, in the case of Adrian Hill, the Galton Institute, two groups with longstanding ties to the UK eugenics movement.

The latter organization, named for the ‘father of eugenics’ Francis Galton, is the renamed U.K. Eugenics Society, a group notorious for over a century for its promotion of racist pseudoscience and efforts to ‘improve racial stock’ by reducing the population of those deemed inferior.

The ties of Adrian Hill to the Galton Institute should raise obvious concerns given the push to make the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine he developed with [Sarah] Gilbert the vaccine of choice for the developing world, particularly countries in Latin America, South and Southeast Asia, and Africa, the very areas where the Galton Institute’s past members have called for reducing population growth …

Emeritus professor of molecular genetics at the Galton Institute and one of its officers is none other than David J. Galton, whose work includes ‘Eugenics: The Future of Human Life in the 21st Century.’

David Galton has written that the Human Genome Mapping Project… had ‘enormously increased … the scope for eugenics … because of the development of a very powerful technology for the manipulation of DNA.’

This new ‘wider definition of eugenics,’ Galton has said, ‘would cover methods of regulating population numbers as well as improving genome quality by selective artificial insemination by donor, gene therapy or gene manipulation of germ-line cells.’ In expanding on this new definition, Galton is neutral as to ‘whether some methods should be made compulsory by the state, or left entirely to the personal choice of the individual.

… The Wellcome Centre regularly cofunds the research and development of vaccines and birth control methods with … a foundation (name withheld) that actively and admittedly engages in population and reproductive control in Africa and South Asia by, among other things, prioritizing the widespread distribution of injectable long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs).

The Wellcome Trust has also directly funded studies that sought to develop methods to ‘improve uptake’ of LARCs in places such as rural Rwanda…’ LARCs afford women in the Global South ‘the least choice possible short of actual sterilization.’

Some LARCs can render women infertile for as long as five years, and, as Levich argues, they ‘leave far more control in the hands of providers, and less in the hands of women, than condoms, oral contraceptives, or traditional methods.’

… Slightly modified and rebranded as Jadelle, the dangerous drug was promoted in Africa … Formerly named the Sterilization League for Human Betterment, EngenderHealth’s original mission, inspired by racial eugenics, was to ‘improve the biological stock of the human race.’”

Does Eugenics Factor Into the mRNA Vaccine?

So, how does “eugenics” factor into the creation and distribution of the mRNA vaccine? Is there a link or are we grasping at straws? We can’t answer that question, but a recent article by Mathew Ehret at Off-Guardian provides a few interesting clues. Here’s what he said:18

“The fact that the organizations promoting the rise of this eugenics policy throughout Nazi Germany and North America included such powerhouses as the Rockefeller Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Human Sterilization League for Human Betterment … which have all taken leading roles in the World Health Organization over recent decades is more than a little concerning.

The fact that these eugenics organizations simply re-branded themselves after WWII and are now implicated in modern RNA vaccine development alongside the Galton Institute (formerly British Eugenics Association), Oxford’s AstraZeneca, Pfizer and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation should give any serious thinker pause as we consider what patterns of history we are willing to tolerate repeating in our presently precarious age.”

We’ll end this piece with an excerpt from a 2010 article by Andrew Gavin Marshall at Global Research, who presciently noted that:19

“Eugenics is about the social organization and control of humanity … (particularly) population control …

The ideas of Malthus, and later Herbert Spencer and Charles Darwin were remolded into branding an elite ideology of ‘Social Darwinism,’ which was ‘the notion that in the struggle to survive in a harsh world, many humans were not only less worthy, many were actually destined to wither away as a rite of progress. To preserve the weak and the needy was, in essence, an unnatural act.’

This theory simply justified the immense wealth, power and domination of a small elite over the rest of humanity, as that elite saw themselves as the only truly intelligent beings worthy of holding such power and privilege.

Francis Galton later coined the term “eugenics” to describe this emerging field. His followers believed that the ‘genetically unfit’ ‘would have to be wiped away,’ using tactics such as ‘segregation, deportation, castration, marriage prohibition, compulsory sterilization, passive euthanasia — and ultimately extermination’ …

Sir Julian Huxley was also a life trustee of the British Eugenics Society from 1925, and its President from 1959-62 … ‘Huxley believed that eugenics would one day be seen as the way forward for the human race,’ and that, ‘A catastrophic event may be needed for evolution to move at an accelerated pace’ … It is much the same with ideas whose time has not yet come; they must survive periods when they are not generally welcome.

The 21st-century technologies are so powerful that they can spawn whole new classes of accidents and abuses. Most dangerously, for the first time, these accidents and abuses are widely within the reach of individuals or small groups.

They will not require large facilities or rare raw materials. Knowledge alone will enable the use of them … I think it is no exaggeration to say we are on the cusp of the further perfection of extreme evil, an evil whose possibility spreads well beyond that which weapons of mass destruction bequeathed to the nation-states, on to a surprising and terrible empowerment of extreme individuals.

… Due to improved techniques the elite will have greater control over the masses; and because human work will no longer be necessary the masses will be superfluous, a useless burden on the system.

If the elite is ruthless they may simply decide to exterminate the mass of humanity. If they are humane they may use propaganda or other psychological or biological techniques to reduce the birth rate until the mass of humanity becomes extinct, leaving the world to the elite …

A horrifying vision indeed; but one which builds upon the ideas of Huxley, Russell and Brzezinski, who envisioned a people who — through biological and psychological means – are made to love their own servitude. Huxley saw the emergence of a world in which humanity, still a wild animal, is domesticated; where only the elite remain wild and have freedom to make decisions, while the masses are domesticated like pets.

Huxley opined that, ‘Men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution. There seems to be no good reason why a thoroughly scientific dictatorship should ever be overthrown.’”

We must ask ourselves whether the current mass vaccination campaign is a science-based effort to relieve sickness and disease or a fast-track to a dark and frightening dystopia conjured up by evil men seeking to tighten their grip on all humanity?

SOURCE

2 notes · View notes

bettsfic · 5 years

Text

socknography: the importance of preserving fan creator biographical data

i wrote earlier on utilizing collections and bookmarks to boost the archival power of ao3, and in that post mentioned how i wish authors would fill out their bios so we can preserve fanauthor information as well as we preserve the fics themselves. so, here is my rant about WHY WE ARE SO IMPORTANT.

for my masters thesis i wrote about the layered pseudonymity of fanfiction authors, and after doing a ton of research, i find myself still thinking of the pseudonymous/anonymous divide as it pertains to fic. we have authors we consider “famous” and ones whose followings eclipse that of traditionally published authors, but unlike traditionally published authors, we don’t put a handy bio at the end of our fics. in fact, if you want to find out about the author, you have to hope they’ve linked somewhere to their tumblr or twitter or dreamwidth, or they have consistent pseuds across platforms. and from there, you have to hope they have an ‘about me.’ but most, myself included, don’t.

unlike traditional publication -- where amazon and goodreads and even the back of the book contains biographical info -- and even unlike the rest of fandom archival etiquette -- which, despite having virtually no committed rules still maintains its organizational structure -- there is no standard etiquette on fanauthor biographical data.

i speculate the reasons fanauthors are hesitant to write their own biographies is very complicated:

there is no “ask” for it or existing standard. when i publish stories under my real name, i’m required to provide my bio, which contains my accomplishments, where i got my degree, where else i’m published, and my website. all literary author bios follow this formula, so they’re pretty easy to write. other than this post, i have never seen a request for fanauthor bios. so without an editor demanding it, and without a standard formula or platform to draw from, a total lack of information becomes the norm, and almost any info other than the standard “name. age. pronouns. ao3 name. list of fandoms and/or pithy one-liner” of tumblr or occasional ask game is seen as a deviation from the norm. even ask games get a bad rep sometimes, and they’re transitory, a post you see as you’re scrolling through to somewhere else, not static, like a dedicated profile page.

pseudonymity veers too close to anonymity. an anonymous author cannot have a biography. a pseudonymous author can, but biographies may be seen as defeating the purpose of writing under a pseudonym, or multiple pseuds. a sock account is a sock for a reason -- you don’t want it associated with your main. moreover, i believe fandom creates an environment in which to acknowledge your accomplishments and promote your own content is seen as narcissistic. fanfiction can sometimes be seen as a genre of selflessness, donating time and energy into a community centered around a shared canon, not personal gain. to acknowledge the self publicly is to invite attention, and attention is contradictory to anonymity.

shame and humility. the more information you have on the internet, the easier you are to find. very few fanauthors use their real names, or feel comfortable connecting their fan identity to their real one. i hear pretty constantly how often fanauthors hide their fannishness from their coworkers and loved ones, how only the people closest to them know they write/read fanfic. moreover, you might think “my most popular fic only has 10 kudos and 1 comment, nobody wants to know about me” (which is so not true, but i’ll get to that in a minute).

fandom is constantly changing. with a central archive for fanfiction in place, it’s easier now to be in multiple fandoms at once than it ever has been. if you want to read all sugar daddy fics, there’s a tag for that, and if you’re not picky about canon, you have an entire buffet of fandoms to choose from. communities are growing and shifting and changing shape. i move fandoms, and i keep my friends and readers from previous fandoms. i get dragged to new fandoms frequently. my interests and inspirations change, but i don’t erase my history or identity every time i move, i only add to it. i am always betts whether i’m in star wars or the 100 or game of thrones. but if you only read my fic, you don’t know the stories behind it. many people don’t know i entered fandom in the brony convention community in 2012, or that i was sadrobots before i was betty days before i was betts, or how fandom changed my life and led me through a path of personal trauma recovery, or that i co-founded wayward daughters, or ran the fanauthor workshop, or all these other things about fanfic that is not fanfic itself.

if you are a fan creator, your fannish personal narrative matters. telling your story helps preserve the metatextual history of our genre.

i think constantly about what our genre will look like in 30 or 50 years, if it will be like other genres that began as subversions of the mainstream: comic books, beat literature, science fiction. genres that, at the time involved groups of friends creating stories for each other, bouncing ideas off of one another, experimenting with or distorting other genres, and which became, over time, well-regarded forms with rich histories.

maybe one day, like the MCU, we’ll have a dedicated production company that churns out adaptations of longform coffee shop aus written between 2009 and 2015. maybe “BNFs” will be read in high school literature curriculums. maybe our work will end up on the real or virtual shelves of our great grandchildren. and if that happens, if fanfic goes entirely mainstream, how will fanfic authorship be perceived? how will fanpeople in 2080, if humanity is still around by then, interact with the lexicon we’ve created and preserved? what would you do if you found out Jane Austen wrote under five different sock accounts across three platforms over the span of twenty years? how would you, a fan of Pride & Prejudice, even begin to find all of her work?

we have so many social constraints pushing against us. there’s purity culture, which encourages further division of identity -- fanauthors may write fluff on their main and have various sock accounts for underage/noncon fics. if you’re a scarecrow, you’re much harder for a mob to attack. there’s misogyny, which dictates women/queer ppl shouldn’t be writing about or indulging in or exploring their sexuality at all. there’s intellectual property and a history of DMCAs, which, although kept at bay by the OTW, may still have influence on the “illegal” mentality of our work. with social armies against us, it’s easier to exist in the shadows, on the fringe. we change URLs based on our moving interests, and split our identities a million different ways, and keep sarcastic “me” tags full of self-deprecating text posts. we are difficult beasts to catch, because we have not been allowed to exist.

i spent a lot of time today googling the word for “pseudonymous biography” and came up empty-handed (if someone knows of an existing word, pls let me know. “pseudography” is apparently a fancy word for a typo; “pseudobiography” is a fake biography), so for lack of anything better, i’ve come up with the term “socknography” because 1) it’s funny and doesn’t sound intimidating, and 2) it encapsulates the sensitive and complicated way fanauthor identifying conventions work. and also i think “fanauthor biography,” “bibliography,” and “profile” just doesn’t cut it for the actual work of these pieces. they don’t necessarily include IRL biographical data, they include more historical/community context than a bibliography, and the words “profile” and “about me” don’t really inspire interaction, or acknowledge the archival importance of this work.

astolat’s fanlore page is my go-to example. astolat writes under multiple pseuds and has major influence in the history of fandom. she’s also a traditionally published author, but you notice, her ofic novels are not mentioned, nor any other real-life identifying information. fanlore has a really good policy on this in place, for those concerned about doxxing.

(moreover, i am not suggesting you centralize your socks. they’re socks for a reason. but most everyone has a main, and that main identity has a story.)

there are 2 existing spaces to preserve socknographies.

fanlore, a wiki owned by the OTW, you can make an account and create a user page (which is different than a “person” page) using a user profile template

ao3′s “profile” page, which is a big blank box in which anything goes

(i’m not including tumblr on this list because i don’t think it’s a stable platform.)

fanlore’s template is straight to the point and minimal, which doesn’t really invite narrative the same way a literary bio would. ao3′s big blank box leaves us with the question -- wtf do i say about myself? how do i say it? how much is too much? and because of that, most profiles are either blank or only include a policy on translations/podfic/fanart, and maybe links to tumblr and twitter. but let me tell you, if i have read your fic and taken the time to move over to your profile, you better believe i am a fan. and as a fan, i want to Know Things.

here are the things i want to know, or

a potential template:

introduction (name/alias, age, location, pronouns, occupation)

accomplishments (degrees, personal history)

fan history (fandoms you’ve been in, timeline as a fan, how you were introduced to fandom/fanfiction, what does fandom mean to you -- this is where your fan narrative goes)

fandom participation (popular fics/posts, involvement in fan events/communities, side blogs, interviews, etc. 3 & 4 might be one and the same for you)

spotlight (which of your fics are most important to you/would you like others to read and why? what are the stories behind your favorite fics you’ve written?)

find me elsewhere* (links to tumblr, twitter, insta, etc.)

policies on fanart, fanfic of fic, podfics, and translations

*you cannot link to ko-fi, paypal, patreon, or amazon on ao3/fanlore per the non-commercial terms of service

i’ll be working on filling this out for my own profile as an example, but you can also see how my @fanauthorworkshop participants filled out their fanauthor spotlights, and the information they provided. obviously, you should only share that which you feel comfortable sharing, and as your fandom life changes, your narrative will change too. it’s not much different than updating a CV or resume.

tl;dr the goal is to provide a self-narrative of your fan life/identity for posterity. who are you and why are you a fanperson? why do you create fan content? what are you proud of and what do you want to highlight to others? who are you in this space?

#socknography #fanfiction #ao3 #otw

3K notes · View notes

marysfoxmask · 4 years

Note

Have you done The Misselthwaite Archives webseries? It's obviously one of the looser adaptations, but I thought it was really well done. Love to hear your thoughts on it!

my first ask!!! i’m so excited!! thank you, anon! i love asks, btw, and would love for people to continue to send them!

i actually watched the misselthwaite archives as it was coming out! every wednesday, i watched the newest episode after coming home from school. it was the highlight of my week!

i actually rewatched a good chunk of episodes the other night. it dredges up a lot of nostalgia for me in a bittersweet way. i appreciate the series a lot, and i think everyone involved did a great job, but it’s the way the creators approach adapting the source material that i find to be a little off the mark.

this is mainly because i think something is inevitably lost when bringing the secret garden into modern day (which was, back then, good old 2015). i think, if i were trying to adapt the book into a modern setting, i’d minimize the modern day trappings as much as possible; references to modern pop culture like parks and recreation and beyoncé, like misselarch employs, are fleetingly fun, but i think they date the material too much. they also feel too kitschy and cute, in my opinion. that’s my opinion of a lot of the misselthwaite archives’ adaptation choices—they’re cute, but don’t feel like they do justice to the material.

i feel making mary a snarky, bitter teenager seems like a good idea at first, but i think it’s ultimately a misrepresentation. in the original novel, she’s prickly and prone to insulting others, sure, but she’s also sullen, withdrawn, and socially awkward—her inability to connect with others is derived from the lack of positive social interaction she had since she was born. she’s emotionally stunted, which mary in the misselthwaite archives doesn’t communicate at all in her video diaries to dr. burnett (which is a very nice homage, i will admit).

on the contrary, teen!mary is charismatic, with a biting wit; she’s had friends in the past, but they only cared for her parents’ money. ironically, her friendship with declan seems almost to benefit him more in terms of social development than it does her. her petty cruelty seems more the product of watching mean girls one too many times than any deep-rooted emotional trauma. though there are gestures made to indicate that she feels badly about her celebrity parents’ deaths, i never found them particularly convincing. i felt her vulnerability as an orphan, as a young woman with no prospects, with no real friends—as she is at the the beginning of the story—never came through properly. it felt like the writers wanted to modernize mary’s contrariness in a way, metamorphosing it into a more palatable 21st-century diagnosis: jaded teenager syndrome.

which is cute, but not very book-accurate, i feel. it colors the rest of her journey if she hasn’t been socially deprived like she is in the novel. i can’t imagine the mary of the misselthwaite archives having a profound revelation about how much nicer people look when they smile, for instance. as a result, her journey feels a lot less interesting to me.

i personally feel mary should have been prickly, of course, and sometimes aggressively mean, but more unwilling to talk about her feelings than anything—more emotionally numb after years of neglect, more uninterested in nearly everything. she shrugs when spoken to, looks eternally glum, glares at the pitying glances of sarah medlock. it’s only with the influence of the characters in the story that she’s coaxed into opening up and begins to bloom.

i really liked sarah medlock’s characterization, as well as uncle art’s and phoebe’s! i love that aunt sarah is presented as having positive intentions from the get-go, as i’ve always hated her vilification in other adaptations. i also really like the portrayal of declan—i like the idea of him being a bit of a social misfit.

with callie, i really enjoy her actress’s portrayal—she’s properly hysterical and catty! but i feel like turning colin into a girl doesn’t add anything to the story, and removes some of the narrative tension that comes with mary coming into contact with a member of the opposite sex that mirrors her in terms of upbringing and attitude. if anything, i feel it downplays the tension of their budding friendship, as the subconscious assumption that people are more likely to become friends people of the same sex is one that the audience undoubtedly has.

i don’t particularly like callie being steeped in pop culture, either, though it makes sense in a modern setting, technically. in the source material, though, colin is surrounded by interesting things to engage with, but he’s disinterested in all those things when mary stumbles across him. he’s more interested in thinking about his illness. i think having callie be immersed in pop culture as a way to entertain herself indicates a level of engagement with the world that colin is completely shut off from, which definitely affects his characterization. a version of colin that is invested in things enough to buy merchandise of them, etc. is a version of colin who is already significantly more “alive” than his book counterpart from the beginning. a more accurate idea of communicating colin’s isolation, i feel, would have callie being too cynical and emotionally stunted to be interested in anything, at least for very long; any media about characters going on interesting adventures only reminds her of the lackluster quality of her own life and makes her insecure, so she eschews pop culture in favor of frequent depression naps and bullying aunt sarah and phoebe. sometimes she’ll read if she’s bored, but not often, and she refuses to have lessons with phoebe unless she feels well enough to learn, leaving her education full of gaps despite her intelligence. callie, in my hypothetical adaptation, is determined to live a miserable, barren existence, much like colin.

anyway, it also seems that canon callie isn’t dogged by colin’s negative thoughts quite as much, and her feelings surrounding her condition feel too subdued to communicate colin’s utter maladjustment. the episode where callie “explodes” feels too muted by half! this girl should be furious, incoherent with hysteria, raging at the world for her mother’s death, stricken with self-loathing and misery! but, while callie’s actress does an amazing job with what she has, i can’t help but feel that the adaptation of her character was a bit lukewarm.

i also think giving mary and callie a history together undermines the importance of them finding each other for the first time, and gives their friendship too much of an instant leg-up from the minute mary finds her. it makes the work she has to do to befriend/reform callie feel too easy.

not to mention, the pacing of the second half of the story, where mary finds callie to the point where she and declan plan to take her to the glade, seems way too fast. i feel there was a lot of missed potential there; they could’ve really drawn out the rockiness of mary and callie’s relationship, like mary and colin’s in the book.

i think my big problem with the misselthwaite archives is that the creators, in service of adapting it to modern times, undercuts and downplays a lot of the earnestness of the characters’ relationships that i found so charming in the book. instead of instantly loving dickon and breathlessly calling him beautiful, mary only grudgingly admits that she needs declan’s help, and any affection she has for him she keeps close to the chest. colin’s desperation for mary’s company, his screaming for her to come to him, is rendered as needy over-texting, devoid of any emotional urgency; callie seems more bored, rather than truly lonely and unable to communicate in an emotionally mature manner, like colin is. even declan is subdued in his love for nature, more shy. it makes sense for a modern adaptation not prone to the novel’s 1910s sentimentality, but i can’t help but feel that the adaptation feels dull and repressed as a result.

i also wish we got a proper video of callie and declan meeting!

like a lot of adaptations, i think the pacing is off; more time should be spent on ironing out mary and callie’s relationship, more time should be spent in the garden, helping callie bloom. the “eye of the tiger” bit was cute, but gah, colin walking took months and months of practice, and to see all that development be reduced to a short little montage feels disheartening. i’d love to see at least 10 episodes of the teens just chilling in the glade, talking about their childhood traumas in more detail, having little conflicts among each other, planting flowers and setting up decorations...for a series with such short installments, that kind of episodic structure would be perfect. maybe they could create a subplot where mary suggests callie go to her high school and she has to work that out with medlock and that becomes a whole character-building thing, or she has a conflict with basil, or callie properly hashes out her negative feelings toward declan, or something. i dunno. i just wanted more.

i think the misselthwaite archives was really cute, but i feel it misses the mark on the melancholy of the original story; the glade itself is perfect, but the interpretation of mary feels too derivative of the “bratty teenager” trope to be honest to her book character, in my opinion. and i dislike pop culture references in timeless classics, even modern-day interpretations of them, lol. but i still appreciate it as an adaptation, though—it’s just so eager to translate the sentimentality into something more modern that it loses the essence of what i find so charming about the book, which is the unabashed intensity of the characters’ friendships, the extreme character development, and the scale of the emotional and social deprivation mary and colin suffered before said character development occurs.

i also wish declan had more animals around him, though obviously that can’t be helped, haha.

please send more asks, anon! i’d be happy to answer them! :)

#the secret garden #frances hodgson burnett #misselthwaite archives

7 notes · View notes

best-life-hacks-on · 6 years

Text

20 Life-Changing Books!

By Seth Adam Smith

If you want to change your body, change what you eat and how you exercise. If you want to change your outlook on life, change what you read and put it into practice.

Listed below are twenty life-changing books. Unless you are determined to be miserable (which, strangely enough, some people are), these books will change your life for the better. Click on the titles to order a copy for yourself, then mark them up and put them into practice.

1. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl - In this book, the author details his experiences in an Auschwitz concentration camp, while simultaneously sharing his perspective on living a meaningful life. The book has sold well over 10 million copies and has been consistently listed as one of the most influential books ever written. From the book: “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”

2. As A Man Thinketh by James Allen - Although you could probably finish this little booklet in less than an hour or two, its words are powerful and profound. Words like these: “A man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind.”

3. The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown - In this book, the author addresses how to find deep personal worth while living in a world that is constantly bombarded by messages of who, what, and how we should be. From the book: “Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.”

4. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho - This is a fantastic, beautiful narrative about finding out who we are and fearlessly chasing our own “personal legend.” In this book, Coelho says: “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”

5. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo - Does this book really need any explaining? It follows the life of reformed convict, Jean Valjean, and illustrates the power and beauty of redemption. From the book: “To love another person is to see the face of God.”

6. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch - Diagnosed with terminal, pancreatic cancer, professor Randy Pausch delivered his “last lecture” at Carnegie Mellon in September of 2007. His lecture was structured around the hypothetical question: “What wisdom would you try to impart to the world if you knew it was your last chance?” The book fleshes out the ideas presented in the last lecture and was co-authored and approved by Pausch before he died. From the book: “The key question to keep asking is, Are you spending your time on the right things? Because time is all you have.”

7. To Kill a Mockingbird - To put it simply, Atticus Finch is one of the best, noblest characters ever written into existence. From the book: “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.”

8. The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck - Where do I start? This book is honestly one of my absolute favorite books of all time. It is packed with incredible insight and solutions for confronting and solving some of life’s greatest problems. For example, consider this: “Problems call forth our courage and our wisdom; indeed, they create our courage and wisdom.”

9. Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson - This book helps you overcome “the small stuff” that can drive you crazy. It is filled with supportive and thoughtful suggestions on how to live a more peaceful life. From the book: “...when you let go of your expectations, when you accept life as it is, you’re free.To hold on is to be serious and uptight. To let go is to lighten up.”

10. The Seven Paths by the Anasazi Foundation - This poetic, evocative story presents the meditations of an ancient Anasazi tribesman who learns that the point of life’s walk is how one is moved in the heart. He walks seven paths, each teaching a lesson symbolized by an element of the natural world: light, wind, water, stone, plants, animals, and, finally, the unity of all beings with the Creator.

11. The Secret by Rhonda Byrne - In this bestselling book, various individuals share their insight and experience with “The Secret” (the law of attraction). While this book can get a little mystical, it does a really good job at explaining how our mental outlook can affect all areas of our lives (for you business types, I would also recommend Think And Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill).

12. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey - This book is consistently listed as one of the most inspiring books ever written and has sold more than 15 million copies worldwide. From the book: “But until a person can say deeply and honestly, “I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday,” that person cannot say, “I choose otherwise.”

13. The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis - If you’d like to read some more inspirational fiction, check out these classics by C. S. Lewis. Not only are they entertaining, but they’re also filled with timeless wisdom about addiction, sin, guilt, and the nature of man. Plus, the seventh book is quite possibly one of the most beautiful fiction books I’ve ever read. From the book: “Now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

14. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie - I’m a fairly introverted person, so I’m not exactly going out of my way to meet new people. But this book provides some great, practical advice on working with and helping people. I’m a big believer in finding happiness. From the book: “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”

15. The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino - This book probably isn’t what you think it is, but I won’t spoil the surprise. From the book: “Wealth, my son, should never be your goal in life. Your words are eloquent but they are mere words. True wealth is of the heart, not of the purse.”

16. The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis - In this allegorical story, a busload of sinners leave the depths of hell to see what heaven might be like. When they get there, they are told that they can stay in heaven if they can give up the sins that are holding them back. Through an array of characters struggling with different vices, C. S. Lewis masterfully illustrates that, more often than not, we are the very things that are holding ourselves back.

17. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - I don’t even know how to describe this book. It’s beautiful, heart-breaking, yet very comforting—all at the same time. It tells the story of a little girl growing up in Germany during World War II. There is one scene in the book (which was left out of the movie) that is absolutely astounding—reading that one scene is worth every minute spent reading the whole book.

18. The Shack by William P. Young - After his youngest daughter is murdered by a serial killer, Mackenzie Allen Phillips receives a mysterious note—apparently from God—telling him to return to “the shack,” the scene of the crime. What happens next is a spiritual journey of love and forgiveness that forever changes his life. From the book: “[...] love is much stronger than your fault could ever be.”

19. The Book of Virtues by William J. Bennett - This book is a massive collection of some of the greatest stories ever told. I actually have a copy of it on the corner of my desk right now—one of the stories in that book changed my life.

20. Sacred Writings - I don’t know if you’re a religious person or not, so this one is entirely up to you. But I believe that many religions contain incredible, invaluable, time-tested truths—and we would be foolish to simply ignore them. At the very least, there’s something to be said of getting in touch with your religious/cultural roots.

If you like any of these books, please be sure to check out my own book “Your Life Isn’t For You.” In it, I draw upon inspirational stories from history and literature to illustrate my deep conviction that the only way you can truly find and live your life is to give it away to others.

Follow Seth Adam Smith on Twitter:

www.twitter.com/SethAdamSmith

#books

9K notes · View notes

rumandtimes · 3 years

Text

Halloween Reviews — 2001: A Space Odyssey

Ségolène Sorokina

Assoc. Fiction Editor

A visual tapestry and musical opera, but devoid of interesting characters or a mature story structure.

Heather Downham (as Miss Simmons) in the Opening Scene of Act II in “2001: A Space Odyssey”

This is a film that fits into every director’s, film student’s, and every critic’s education of the film medium. It is a prerequisite on the syllabus of every curriculum for movie makers. 2001: A Space Odyssey was one of the most influential works of science-fiction and cinema to come out of the Cold War period, yet it would be entirely wrong to call it a movie. In fact, it is a terrible movie — but it is a remarkable film.

Because every film studies wonk and their mother has an opinion on the film, I will be brief and remain true to the purpose of reviewing it, not lavishing over it. That is to say, I don’t give a flying hoodah what the “deeper meaning” or “wider vision” of 2001: A Space Odyssey is interpreted to be by bandwagon film critics who are too afraid to feel like they’re missing out on the punchline to be honest and objective about the Clarke’s and Kubrick’s failings.

A movie is not meant to be something that has to be discussed afterwards. A movie is not something that requires the viewer to read the book, or take a class to understand. A movie is not something that forces people to sit through 85 minutes of dead air, offering no explanation, and is entirely devoid of any scintilla, any semblance, of a storyline, character arc, or plot.

Containing horror elements, “2001” fits closely enough into the Halloween line-up of reviews, as (#5), if not only because of its inspiration on other horror genre motion pictures.

Quite frankly, 2001: A Space Odyssey is boring as hell. And it is a horrible movie. To give an illustration of how empty the film “2001” is, the original script had about 17,000 words in it. Most of this is description of the sci-fi elements and screen directions. In the end, the film had about 5,000 words of dialogue in it, total. That comes down to about 20 minutes of speech. . . The movie is 139 minutes long.

The film’s defenders are quick to claim that its emptiness and barren quality are an allegory for the emptiness of space. They never seen to stop for a moment however, perhaps in one of the film’s 30-minute long stretches of drawn out ‘alternative’ content, to consider why the film needs such a defence. People do not like it. Quite plainly, it is a bad movie. Defining why it is bad, using words like “allegory,” “metaphor,” and “artistic vision” doesn’t change the fact that it is unwatchable, it just explains how a production crew could look at 5 minutes of black screen in a major motion picture and think to themselves, “The audience will understand why they spent 5 minutes of their life looking at a dead screen. Because it says something about what it means to watch, blah, blah, blah.”

This movie is a film critic’s movie. It gives people plenty to analyse. And it has exceptional cinematography. For a film maker, it’s easy to see why the writers and directors did what they did, and how good it turned out — especially for an audience in the heat of the Cold War-era Space Race, who had quite literally never seen anything like it before. The long, operatic sequences probably mean a great deal to people who were born in the 1950’s and for them 2001: A Space Odyssey was Kubrick putting the last half-century on the silver screen, in colour film, for the first time.

Cinematically, it is exceptional at what it is and what it wants to do. But as a movie — and just a movie — it is quite poor. The entire plot of the film is that all-powerful aliens have been observing life on Earth since before life humanity came into existence, and during the Space Age people discover one of their relics, which leads to the capture of one human being in Jupiter’s orbit, who is killed and reborn as an alien himself. . . That’s it.

What the hell that has to do with the elementary notions of a beginning, middle, and end — a rising conflict, a climax, and a resolution — is anyone’s guess. There is no plot to speak of. Kubrick himself said the picture was more of an exploration of different concepts than a straight forward story. When I watch a film, I’m kind of looking for a storyline; That’s the whole point. A movie is not an art gallery of stills and frames juxtaposed together through editing, it is a cohesive and contained world onto itself: A story.

A movie is a casual experience, not a class requirement or a way to coerce the viewer into writing some kind of thesis. A viewer needs a reason to watch a film, and not because other people watch it or because it’s a cultural phenomenon. In this way, 2001: A Space Odyssey is no different than a trashy boyband, since they both have merits to justify their fame, but only get continued fame and discussion as a previous result of existing acclaim. But that is not enough to idolise a failed film. Reading Stanley Kubrick’s name on the playbill is not enough. Staring at Heather Downham’s ass is not enough.

This film does not deserve to use the title “Odyssey” at all, not more than some cheap gladiator flic would, because the Odyssey had a clear progression of characters, and themes, and resolutions which Homer was capable of creating over a long oracle tradition, and which Clarke and Kubrick fumble to represent on-screen. They should have stuck to long, narrative fiction, because whatever “2001” is trying to be — and even it doesn’t know — this doesn’t work as a movie. The film is polished on the surface, but entirely experimental, and therefore superficial, but above all boring, dull, and dragging on too long.

And nothing in that plot is ground-breaking or new at all. The visuals might be first-of-their-kind on big-budget films, but the ideas of aliens, aliens linked with the Cold War, and computers being evil are old and hackneyed ones. Anyone deluded enough to unwavering call the directors ahead of their time need only to look at the abysmal depiction of women in the film: Pink-wearing, skin-tight, ass-in-the air stewardesses and receptionists, completely subservient to male control and design. Perhaps the film is making a statement that Russian women are liberated and American women are oppressed, yet even the female Soviet scientists do not speak for themselves, but elect the singular male doctor to ask the difficult questions of Floyd instead.

Consider Star Trek, which was released 10 years after 2001: A Space Odyssey, and draws heavily from it, yet Star Trek is also capable of making social commentary. Unfortunately, Star Trek as well, for all its preachings about ascending beyond economic struggles and societal biases, still echoes them. Star Trek shifts the focus from societal bias of the system to implicit bias of the individual, which is a human trait that follows the theme into the future, creating the conflict of the franchise, yet the franchise also has a serious problem with the depiction of women all the way from the Original Series, through the Picard saga, and into the later sequels and spin-offs like Voyager, and current reboots. There’s a major difference between being a liberated woman who still has needs, and being an intergalactic sex toy. Most of my friends are sex-crazed lunatics, but that doesn’t mean they don’t choose to be, and it doesn’t mean they view themselves as second to men or their actions to benefit men generally at all, just as a man chasing several women is hardly doing it for their benefit.

The social commentary is absent in “2001.” The purpose of this might be to make the point by ‘feeling’ rather than telling, but the problem of gently nudging people in a pompous way to feel something instead of sincerely telling them directly is that people will interpret things as they want, and are very resistant to change. If a viewer thinks that lying to Russians because their foreigners is okay to do, then watching Kubrick make a passive aggressive statement about how duplicity can backfire is not going to change their minds — it will only embolden those who disagree with him more, and for those who already agree with him he’s just preaching to the choir. And if someone did take away the wrong message, who’s to say it’s the wrong message anyway, if it’s all “open to interpretation,” ie. an evasion by the writers from making their true feelings known.

And as a small note, the Russian dialogue in the film is horrible. The actors have poor pronunciation, the words they are speaking are incorrect, and the grammatical structure was erroneous. Clarke, Kubrick, and MGM had $10 Million Dollars, and the time to film 30-minutes of people running around in ape suits fighting pig puppets, but they couldn’t do a simple grammar check? They couldn’t cast a single Russian actor?! The four Russians are played by: Leonard Rossiter, French-English, British; Margaret Tyzack, German-English, British; Maya Koumani, Greek-English, British; Krystyna Marr, Polish-German, American.

These tropes were used in different ways, such as not seeing an alien until the very end, and after being pioneered by Kubrick became easy fodder for space movies and the science fiction genre to copy, but don’t actually have any deeper substance. It is a well known fact that Stanley Kubrick did not like the Cold War, so people going into drawn out arguments for why the first 25 minutes of the film was literally thrown away just to make some esoteric statement about how backward and barbaric the Cold War was, are really just gluttons for punishing themselves and inflicting that bias on others.

A fourth (25%) of the runtime of a 2-hour long movie, the first 25 minutes, is completely unwatchable, AND, frustratingly so, it has absolutely nothing to do with the remaining 115 minutes of the film. How in the hell the editors did not cut this garbage out of the movie for its major release debut is incomprehensible. Pulling this kind of raw poor taste is exactly the kind of thing that gives a bad name to ‘artistic freedom.’

The only semblance of a plot is the part everyone thinks about when they think of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the deep space voyage with the supercomputer HAL-9000, pronounced initially as “H.-A.-L.-Niner-Zero-Zero-Zero,” then later, obviously just as “Hal Nine Thousand.”

This minor sequence in the movie saves the film, as far as popular culture and the average person are concerned. HAL-9000 is a perfect and incorruptible machine, tasked with guiding the mission to Jupiter, along with a two-man crew, and payload of three cryo-sleep scientists.

Immediately to the audience, it seems like a stupid idea. Why would anyone go to a gas planet like Jupiter? Why would the AI be put in charge of everything? Why is half the crew in hibernation? All these questions added together make a catastrophe inevitable. HAL mentions as much to one of the crew members himself, asking him if he, too, thought the mission was “odd.” It is explained later that the reason for all these difficulties are the result of a specific miscalculation by the American command structure back on Earth.

HAL tells the crew that communications will fail in 72 hours, but he does not know why, and he never gives an explanation for why he knows this in the film. The crew check that nothing is wrong, and phone NASA (or its fictional equivalent), and NASA tells them HAL is malfunctioning. It is possible that NASA is lying to the crew, or it is possible that HAL got something wrong.

Because HAL was designed to be a perfect robot, this possible malfunction worries the crew, who conspire in secrecy to destroy HAL and take control of the ship. HAL, in true machine fashion, wastes no time in shooting one of the crew out into space, and as his crewmate goes to retrieve the body, HAL kills the rest of the crew and locks him out.

At this point, HAL appears to be acting irrationally and emotionally like a human would. After the last surviving crew member kills HAL, he finds out that the reason HAL killed the crew is because he was programmed by the Americans that under no circumstances whatsoever is he to be shut off.

So what appeared to be self-preservation was actually just the mechanical process of fulfilling his commands. What makes HAL a complex character is that his human caretakers take care of and are taken care of by him. HAL is in total control of the ship, but only because the humans told him to be, as the crew waste their days away drawing sketches, and playing chess, and watching videos. The audience is left to wonder if decommissioning HAL is any different from killing a servant who has gotten sick and is therefore no longer of any use.

When HAL discovers the crew’s plot to take over the ship, HAL is aware that the crew want to ensure they make it to Jupiter and fear HAL would get in the way of that. HAL, however, is also aware that the USAA or NASA or whatever wanted HAL to give the crew a secret message about the aliens after reaching Jupiter. HAL is put in a difficult position, because he believes it is important to get the crew to Jupiter to deliver the message to them, but it is also important to keep the message from them and stay in absolute control of the ship until they get there.

HAL at this point has a logic break and malfunctions, killing the crew, and thereby inadvertently destroying the mission he was acting to protect. When Bowman resets HAL’s memory banks, HAL admits to Bowman that he knows he malfunctioned in killing the crew, and tells him that he/it is afraid to die. This leaves the audience to interpret whether HAL is lying to stop himself getting shut off, so he can compete the mission himself with no crew, or if HAL genuinely broke down and malfunctioned when he murdered the hibernating crew members because he was afraid that the crew would destroy him after the found out what he had done.

There is also something to be said about the fact that Bowman risked his life to retrieve Poole’s dead body, but after it becomes an impediment that threatens his own life, he throws it back out into dead space. It is in this moment that Bowman becomes a dead man himself, since HAL has killed everyone else and damaged the ship for human habitation, making a return trip impossible even if HAL is defeated.

HAL is known to lie to the crew, but it could be influenced by self-preservation and dilemmas, causing something called confusion. But then again, HAL is programmed to lie, so to HAL lying would be a form of truth, because it was told that doing the wrong thing was the right thing, for a greater purpose. And yet, again, HAL cruelly murders the crew when he could have left them frozen, even if it was necessary for it to kill Poole and Bowman, which is as much malfunctional as it is emotional.

HAL-9000 is the strong point of the entire movie. But that being said, HAL does not have a character arch, since HAL never changes over the entire course of the film. The crew only learns about HAL’s motives after they kill him, and despite HAL acting irrationally and inexplicably several times, the movie gives a superficial explanation that HAL has human-interface protocols built-in to sound more palatable to users, nullifying the question of HAL’s possible growth.

HAL did everything it did because humans told it to. Not once did HAL contravene the human directive in it’s own interest. The tragedy of the HAL character is a misinterpretation and accident of logical data. Additionally, the single most important point of HAL’s character — that it doesn’t make mistakes — is severely undercut when HAL makes three mistakes: incorrectly predicting the communicator would break when it didn’t, killing the crew thus undermining the mission, and ultimately being unable to stop itself being erased by Bowman. Part of that discrepancy has to come down to poor writing.

The idea of HAL is great writing. HAL is not a human character, and it’s the robot’s distinct lack of humanity that makes it the most human character of the film.

Bowman, Poole, and Floyd are not characters. They believe nothing, they say nothing, they do nothing. The audience feels nothing for them. When HAL threw Poole out of the spaceship, careening into space, I burst out laughing because of how absurd the image of him getting comically, cosmically tossed out of the veritable window was. When Bowman sees this, he doesn’t even react, but robotically and emotionlessly asks HAL what went wrong, and HAL lies to him by telling him it doesn’t have enough information to know.

After the HAL storyline ends, Bowman receives a transmission that reveals to him that HAL was given a message to lock down the crew and control the ship because the U.S. Government wanted to keep the aliens a secret, even from their own crew who ultimately died because of the mistake. The original script has Bowman re-establish contact with America (I say “America” and not “Earth” because the film makes clear that the U.S. is not cooperating with other countries), and NASA sends him the message. That is cut in the final film, with Bowman just discovering the message, either because HAL gave it to Bowman as a final act of protecting the mission, or much more likely that HAL being deleted removed a barrier from accessing the message. This further makes the point of why HAL could not allow the crew to ‘unplug’ it, since guarding the message was HAL’s personal mission.

The HAL chapter is marred with long pauses, like waiting literal minutes for the stupid space popcorn balls to turn around and move back and forth, or watching Bowman stare silently into a screen. Many people like the music, but the music usage is paradoxical. Since space is silent, to use ballads of music is just as much a choice as to use dialogue — music is no more “pure” or “non-human” than speech is — and watching entire scores of music play out of a static backdrop would be interesting at the live orchestra, but this is a stereo recording underplaying a film, so it hardly has the same effect. This is a limit, and choice to pursue that limit, which was weak on the part of the writers. A soundtrack is not supposed to take centre stage; people can buy the CD later, but they want to see the movie now.

The movie makes the decision to skip over the rest of the journey to Jupiter, cut out all the dialogue and character exploration between Bowman and NASA, and jumps right to the end of the movie — a twenty-minute-long session of meaningless strobe lights.

All the storyline and extra HAL content that could have been included, and they made the decision to, again, burn the whole film continuity down as a middle finger to the audience and the producers — to balk conventional ‘expectation.’ It is a horrible choice. The writers said they wanted to create something alien and never imagined before about what a different world would be like. They said they had some difficulty translating the idea: And they decided on rainbow lights and lava lamps. Twenty. Straight. Uninterrupted. Minutes of it.

This is made even more BS that the directors put a title card right in the middle of the HAL sequence, in front of this, called “Intermission.” Is this what audiences were returning for? One unhappy movie-goers said, “People call this movie genius: There are 5 minutes of black screen in the film. No music. No picture. Just an empty frame of dead air. How genius can that be? Is my turned-off television screen also a genius of cinema? Is a blank piece of paper now some artistic statement? The last half hour of the movie is flashing light in people’s faces for 30 minutes, with no dialogue. A complete bore and an insult. One of the most overrated films in history.”

Skipping over about an hour of rubbish in the film, it starts to become compelling. There probably exists a fan edit out there somewhere that recut the film, trimming it down to 45 minutes. The monkey scene — “Dawn of Man” — could be 2 minutes. (As a side point, it shoud be pointed out that humans are not descended from chimpanzees, but that chimpanzees and humans share a common origin, much like whales and elephants do.) The space stewardesses fumbling to walk and carrying lunch trays can go. Floyd’s daughter plays no role whatsoever. Floyd can meet the Soviets, talk about the virus, then give the Moon presentation about the virus being a cover story, and then they go to the alien artifact, and then it cuts to HAL-9000. After HAL dies, there is a 60-second sequence of ‘light gates’ to convey the ship was abducted, and then the screen fades to black. The End. What happens? Who knows. Not much different from the original.

I’ve read some of the commentary on this film, such as by Roger Ebert (or Robert Egert, or whatever his name is) and the always come off as snobs and pricks, even suggesting audiences should requires some minimum score on an entrance exam to see the movie in theatres. That is exactly the problem with 2001: A Space Odyssey, snobbery. The snobbish idea that it means something more when it needs to, and that it doesn’t when it doesn’t need to. There is a reason people find it “annoying. . . confusing. . . infuriating. . . frustrating. . . crazy. . . unwatchable.” These are not people who hate movies or Kubrick, these are the same people who like the HAL story and the Moon voyage parts. But a movie, even about aliens, cannot be alien itself. The movie is supposed to be the viewer’s friend, and guide the viewer through the experience of the alien and the unknown. Alienating the audience is counterproductive in every measure.

Everyone — every single person you ask — calls 2001: A Space Odyssey a work of “art.” Art. Not movie, art. Not entertaining, art. Not good work, but good art. Well, just what the hell is art? I don’t want obstinate art, I want a good film. I’ve seen films that are artistic and compelling. I’ve seen films that are interesting but shallow. A Bruce Lee movie doesn’t have much in the way of plot, but you get to see Bruce Lee do some real-life kung fu and amazing stunts, and it’s still fun. But “2001” more subtle and ‘lava-lampy,’ so much so it is impossible to get lost into the experience without becoming aware of yourself at certain moments and wanting to either turn the show off, or just suffer through it because everyone else seemed to. Film critics might get paid to watch 10 minutes of dead air, but the directors don’t have the right to waste people’s time. At the end of the day, 2001: A Space Odyssey isn’t really intellectual at all; Anyone who’s actually interested in learning something or seeing something new would be better off going to the bookshop or a city gallery, this is still just a movie, and no one can claim they are smart for just sitting there and passively consuming a piece of popular media, not even haughty sci-fi fans. There is a difference between watching a science-fiction movie and being a real scientist!

Film snobs and fusty critics who rewatch the damn thing 10-times don’t get to just designate the whole package as good. Maybe the reason such contrarians like the film is just because so many people don’t, and they feel cultured or superior for pretending they’re ‘in on’ the experience. The movie has some high points and innovative structures, but fails as a cohesive unit. It’s a meticulously crafted bomb. Anyone studying the film has to focus on the camera angles, the underlying themes, and the audience reception more than the plot — because there is no plot.

This is a film which, if you like esoteric and avant-garde, you can watch this film and then spend the rest of your time reading the book and the script notes and the celebratory review articles and the academic theses and watching the director and cast interviews, to actually understand what the hell is going on. That is certainly its own kind of experience, but it is not a movie experience. That is to say, it’s not fun.

If you want to watch a good movie, skip over everything except the HAL arch, watch a 3-minute synopsis on what you missed over the other 90 minutes, and then move on with your life doing more important things, or watching better movies. Even Kubrick’s other movies are drawn-out and slow, but at least they have established characters and a point, as well as a clandestine “moral of the story” under the surface. If that seems like to much of a hassle, just give 2001: A Space Odyssey a hard pass; it’s not worth seeing. This is one of those trailblazing films where the innumerable imitators actually picked up the gauntlet, evolved the themes, and did it better.

Overall Score: 2 out of 5

#Review #2001: A Space Odyssey #Film Criticism #Science Fiction #Cinematography

0 notes

phantom-le6 · 3 years

Text

Episode Reviews - Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3 (5 of 6)

After an indulgence of some procrastination, here’s the penultimate load of episode reviews for season 3 of Star Trek: The Next Generation…

Episode 20: Tin Man

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

The Enterprise brings aboard the Betazoid mission specialist Tam Elbrun and takes him to a distant star system. Elbrun, whom Deanna Troi previously knew when he was a mental patient and she was a psychology student, has a history of mental instability due to overpoweringly strong telepathic capabilities that have been active since birth (most Betazoids develop their telepathic abilities in adolescence). However, his unique skills are used for first contact situations with alien life. On this particular mission, Elbrun's abilities are needed to try to coax a giant sentient spaceship, code named "Tin Man," away from a star that is about to go supernova. It also comes to light that the star is in a Romulan-claimed area of space, and that this is a race to claim the living ship. Elbrun finds it impossible to filter out the thoughts of the Enterprise crew, but finds solace in meeting Lt. Commander Data, by whom Elbrun is initially puzzled, finding what he calls 'absence of mind'; he finds relief in developing a friendship with Data, who, being an artificial lifeform, has no organic mind to be read.

When they arrive, the Enterprise is attacked and disabled by a Romulan Warbird that has overly stressed its engines to catch up to them. The Romulans race ahead to try and communicate with Tin Man. When Elbrun gleans from the Romulans telepathically that they intend to destroy Tin Man if they can't claim it, he sends it a telepathic warning to Tin Man. Tin Man suddenly comes to life and emits an energy wave that destroys the Warbird and further damages the Enterprise. Elbrun, now in communication with Tin Man, reveals that it calls itself Gomtuu. The creature is millennia old and formerly had a crew, but they were lost in a radiation accident. Due to a combination of remorse, loneliness, and a lack of purpose, Gomtuu wishes to die in the supernova. Elbrun requests to be beamed aboard the creature, but Captain Picard is cautious of this action. When a second warbird arrives, Picard lets Elbrun transport to Gomtuu along with Data to help procure the ship. Elbrun is initially overwhelmed by Gomtuu, but eventually comes to identify himself with the ship.

With the supernova imminent, the elated Elbrun informs Data he will stay with Gomtuu, believing it is where he truly belongs. Moments before the start of the supernova, Gomtuu creates another energy wave that sends the Enterprise and the Warbird spinning out of the star system in separate directions before they are caught in the nova blast. As the Enterprise regains control, they find Data aboard the bridge, who reports what happened aboard Gomtuu. When Data discusses the events with Troi, Data acknowledges that like Elbrun with Gomtuu, the Enterprise is where he belongs.

Review:

This episode was apparently co-written by a trio of writers in response to the fire quality of the opening five minutes of the second season episode ‘Samaritan Snare’, and then further developed from that initial spec script when the show needed an episode that looked easy to put into production while other scripts were still being re-worked. It’s a writing motivation I can certainly understand; some of my own writing decisions are in response to my dissatisfaction with other works in the same genre. For example, I don’t like how some films, TV shows and even modern comics work in a mixed array of characters that gives the feeling they’re trying to essentially manufacture an air of diversity, rather than allowing the diversity to just be ‘part of the background’ and focus more on narrative. As such, my novel work will hopefully include a level of diversity that matches what I’ve experienced in real life and that is just an accepted part of that world, thereby allowing the story to retain centre stage.

Trek itself is the epitome of ‘diversity in the background’ because it’s never needed to really call any special attention to how mixed its various crews have been over the various shows. It just gets on with telling the story at hand, and the diversity just shows itself through the performance and development of the characters and the issues their stories handle. Sadly, ‘Tin Man’ fails to include any kind of character or issue exploration. We don’t get into what Tam goes through as an overwhelmed psychic enough because we’ve got this living starship being sought by the Romulans as well as by the Federation, and Tam and the Romulans take up screen time that could have been spent really exploring the living ship idea.

Frankly, I think the X-Men comics of the early 80’s did better with the concept of a living spaceship creature when they introduced the Acanti during the Brood Saga. Maybe Trek should have asked Chris Claremont to ship in a script or two, considering the number of episodes I’ve noted to date that include stories covered better by his X-Men run than by TNG. I also don’t get where Data’s ‘realisation’ about belonging on the Enterprise comes from, given that at no point in the entire episode does Data question whether he belongs on the Enterprise, nor does anyone else. This final scene makes the episode all the poorer because it just doesn’t make sense, and yet the people who wrote it did so in protest over a previous episode that also made little sense in many areas. Ultimately, I give this episode 4 out of 10.

Episode 21: Hollow Pursuits

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

The Enterprise in the process of transporting Mikulak biological tissue samples intended for use in combating an epidemic of Correllium fever on Nahmi IV. The transport of the samples is delicate, and when they find one of the sample containers is leaking, they are forced to destroy it to prevent the contamination of the other samples. Lt. Commander La Forge tells Commander Riker he is concerned that one of his engineers, Reginald Barclay, has been underperforming and notes that he is late to help with the sample transport. What La Forge does not realize is that Barclay has been in the holodeck acting in a simulation of other Enterprise crew members, avoiding contact with their real counterparts. La Forge requests that Barclay be transferred from the Enterprise but Picard recommends that La Forge take Barclay on as a "pet project".

La Forge works at supporting Barclay as their team works to investigate the failure of unconnected systems around the ship. Picard invites Barclay to a bridge meeting to review the investigation, but slips up and accidentally calls him "Broccoli", a nickname given to him by Wesley Crusher, due to Barclay's tendency to 'veg out'. Barclay later returns to the holodeck to seek refuge in the simulated version of the bridge members. In talking to La Forge, Guinan suggests that Barclay is simply imaginative and that La Forge keep a more open mind towards him. On her advice, La Forge visits Barclay on the holodeck and discovers the exaggerated simulation of the bridge crew. La Forge suggests Barclay get counselling from Counsellor Troi, whose counterpart on the holodeck displays clear signs of sexual attraction towards Barclay. Barclay attempts to undergo a real counselling session with Troi, but freaks out when she tries to relax him with the appearance of actions his holodeck version of her would do, and ends the counselling session to flee back to the holodeck.

When Barclay cannot be located to attend a briefing with Riker, Riker storms into the holodeck with La Forge and Troi to locate him. They find comical versions of the senior staff, with bumbling versions of Picard and La Forge, a slothful idiot version of Wesley, and an extremely short, comical version of Riker. Riker attempts to stop the program angrily, but Troi stops him saying it might traumatize Barclay and exploring this world can help them understand Barclay better. However, when they come across the sexed-up version of her, it's her turn to want to immediately stop the program, but Riker stops her, sarcastically throwing her own words in her face. They finally locate Barclay sleeping in the lap of a fantasy Dr Crusher.

Suddenly, the Enterprise mysteriously accelerates to warp speeds, and Riker, La Forge and Barclay go to Engineering to discover the matter/anti-matter injectors have jammed; the ship will continue to accelerate until its structural integrity collapses unless the injectors are cleared. The team is unable to come up with any immediate solutions that will work in the limited time they have, but Barclay realizes all the failures they have seen have been connected by a human element: a member of La Forge's Engineering team has been present at each incident, so he surmises that somehow they became carriers of an undetectable contaminant. Using a process of elimination, they reduce the possible contaminants from 15,525 to 2. The contamination that has been interfering with the systems is quickly discovered to be invidium, which was used as part of the Mikulak samples. They are able to quickly repair the injectors, stop the ship, and set course for a nearby starbase to remove the rest of the invidium contamination. La Forge commends Barclay for his contribution in saving the ship.

Barclay returns one more time to the holodeck and addresses the simulated bridge crew, believing it best he leaves them, and then deletes all of his holodeck programs but one.

Review:

According to a note on Wikipedia, the episode writer claims that the central guest character of Lt. Reg Barclay was meant to be a satire of Trekkies and their tendency to develop obsessions with certain characters, though notes on the Trek wiki site Memory Alpha refute this. Frankly, I’m inclined to believe the Memory Alpha notes more just because what the episode gives us isn’t consistent with the kind of satire Wikipedia seems to think this is. If it was a satire of Trek fans, then Barclay would either be obsessed with the main characters and spending too much time with them, or he’d be spending too much time with totally made-up characters relative to the ‘real-life’ of the Trek world.

What we instead get is Barclay playing out how he wishes he could be with real people in a fantasy world, and this is something I think everyone can relate to. We all experience difficulties with friends and colleagues, and given access to holodeck technology, I don’t think there’s a single soul who wouldn’t want to re-create those moments of difficulty in ways we wish they had gone. Of course, the hidden trap in such an approach to resolving issues is that you can then be seduced by the fantasy to the point of neglecting reality, which in turn is what happens to Barclay, and it takes Geordi relating his experiences from the episode ‘Booby Trap’ earlier in the series to bring Reg out of his shell and out of what would ultimately be self-destructive behaviour.

Barclay is a great guest character played by actor Dwight Shultz, who manages to reprise this role many times throughout the TNG TV show, as well as in the second TNG film and a number of episodes of Star Trek: Voyager. It’s refreshing to see that someone can still be a bit of a ‘fish out of water’ in the world of Trek without being an alien, an android or something simply not human, and we also get good development of Geordi, as he gets a chance to be a sympathetic and tolerant commanding officer who is willing to help Barclay (we haven’t seen Geordi play this side of being a commanding officer much). This isn’t quite the best of Trek, but it comes pretty damn close. I’d give it 8 out of 10.

Episode 22: The Most Toys

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

The Enterprise is called to assist the colony on planet Beta Agni II, which has suffered contamination to its water supply. They meet with the Jovis, a ship owned by the Zibalian trader Kivas Fajo, a trader who so happens to have hitritium, the extremely rare compound needed to neutralize the contamination. The volatile substance cannot be beamed aboard, so Lt. Commander Data is assigned to make several shuttle trips to collect the cargo. Just before the final trip, Data is kidnapped, and his shuttle is rigged to explode. The Enterprise crew scan the debris and finding trace elements matching Data. As a result, they believe he is dead, and are forced to leave to continue their mission.

Data is reactivated in a secured room and is met by Fajo, who explains he collects rare and valuable objects and has kidnapped Data due to his uniqueness. Fajo's assistant Varria tells Data to change out of his Enterprise uniform and to sit in his chair. Data refuses to follow orders and remarks that they are both Fajo's prisoners.

Mourning the supposed loss of their friend, Geordi is certain that he is missing something about Data's destruction. Geordi takes his hypothesis to Picard and Riker, stating that the reason he can't find anything is there's nothing to indicate a malfunction. He explains that the only option is pilot error, but doesn't believe it as the odds are too vast to calculate. Picard gives him some words of solace and dismisses him. Picard and Riker select Worf as Data's replacement.

In an effort to make Data comply with his wishes, Fajo says that he isn't at war with anyone and is in fact Data's liberator. He prods Data about whether or not he is capable of killing anyone, and Data states that he is programmed to never kill except in self-defence, and thus would be incapable of murder. When Data still refuses to submit, Fajo splashes a solvent on Data's uniform that dissolves it so he will be compelled to change his clothes.

Geordi and Wesley run through Data's communications during the shuttle trips, with Geordi noting that Data follows protocol to the letter. Wesley further points out that Data didn't report the shuttle clearing the cargo bay of the Jovis on the final transmission, per protocol. Geordi and Wesley conclude that for Data to not follow standard procedures, such as not reporting something wrong, is not like him unless there was something wrong with Data himself.

Data remains defiant against Fajo's attempts to make him an object of display, purposely remaining silent and immobile when Fajo shows off his collection to a rival trader. Only when Fajo threatens to kill Varria with a very rare and illegal Varon-T disruptor does Data agree to follow Fajo's orders and sits in the chair.

The Enterprise crew arrives at the colony and uses the hitridium to neutralize the contamination, but finds it works far more quickly than it should and deduce that the contamination had been caused deliberately, leading them back to Fajo. They return to the last-known location of the Jovis to track Fajo down.

Varria decides to help Data to escape. During the attempt they set off alarms that alert Fajo, and when he gets there, he uses the Varon-T disruptor on Varria, killing her without remorse. Data picks up the spare Varon-T that Varria had possessed and threatens to use it on Fajo. Fajo in turn threatens to murder more of his assistants if Data doesn't comply with his demands, believing that Data's programming will prevent him from shooting Fajo and to preserve the assistants' lives by submitting. Fajo further taunts Data to shoot him, mocking him as "just an android" incapable of feeling rage at Varria's death. Data states that he cannot allow this to continue and gets ready to shoot Fajo, much to the latter's shock. The Enterprise arrives and suddenly beams Data back aboard, discovering that the disruptor was in the process of discharging. Data is met in the transporter room by Commander Riker, and requests that Fajo be taken into custody, with Riker responding that arrangements have already been made. When Riker asks why the disruptor was energized, Data only offers that something may have happened during transport.

Data visits Fajo in the brig, where Fajo laments the reversal of their situation, but says defiantly that he will again add Data to his collection one day. Data informs Fajo that his stolen collection has been confiscated, and all his possessions returned to their rightful owners. Fajo remarks, "It must give you great pleasure." Data replies "No, sir, it does not. I do not feel pleasure. I am only an android." He then leaves a stunned Fajo alone in the brig.

Review:

This is a decent Data episode, though nowhere near on the same level as ‘The Offspring’ from earlier in this season. Given the conclusion and how that feeds back to an earlier conversation with the guest villain, the episode seems to be an exploration into how a being of no emotion and pure logic handles captivity, villainy and where the line lies between a justified act of defence and an act of murder. It’s intriguing to watch, but flawed in that apparently, the show’s producers tried to make the episode’s ending ambiguous. Of course, they haven’t succeeded, because O’Brien detects Data’s weapon firing while Data is being beamed to safety. Clearly that means Data was going to kill Fajo and had been in the process of firing, otherwise the transporter sensors couldn’t have detected and neutralised the weapon’s discharge.

What might be ambiguous, however, is thy why. Why did Data fire? Was it out of sheer logic, reasoning that killing Fajo was necessary to safeguard the lives of his crew and future victims of his collection-oriented piracy and kidnapping? Was it because on some level of pure logic Data could not allow Fajo to keep stalemating him into compliance and captivity? Or was it possible that at this time when Data lacked an in-built capacity for emotion, there was a brief moment where Data’s positronic brain developed a split-second of emotional awareness and he acted based on that? My guess is it’s more likely to be one of the first two, but really, it’s in that one area that the episode makes its mark. For me, the episode as a whole is worth around 8 out of 10.

Episode 23: Sarek

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

Federation Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan has arrived on board the Enterprise with his human wife, Perrin. His mission is to attend a conference to lay the foundation for a treaty between the Federation and an alien race called the Legarans, after which time he will retire due to old age. Though Captain Picard and his crew attempt to provide for Sarek and have arranged for a chamber music concert for him, the ambassador expresses apprehension and annoyance. Picard is surprised when Sarek starts crying in the middle of the performance, an emotional trait Vulcans normally suppress.

Across the ship, the crew members start to act with uncharacteristic hostility towards one another, leading to a large brawl in the Ten Forward lounge. The onset of the events is tied to Sarek's arrival. Ship's Counsellor Deanna Troi and Chief Medical Officer Dr Beverly Crusher believe Sarek may be suffering from Bendii syndrome, a degenerative neurological disease that only affects aged Vulcans. This condition causes individuals to lose control of their emotions and emit "broadcast empathy", destabilizing the emotions of others around them. Picard attempts to approach Sarek about this, but Sarek's aides deny that there are any problems. Picard asks Lt. Commander Data to speak with Sakkath, Sarek's assistant, who has mutual respect with Data; Data confirms that Sakkath has been attempting to channel his mental discipline into Sarek, but Sarek has been overwhelmed by the pressures of the conference. Picard directly confronts Sarek on the matter, who attempts to deny the problem. When Sarek breaks down emotionally in front of Picard, Picard realizes they may need to cancel the conference.

As Picard prepares to cancel with the Legarans, Perrin arrives and suggests an alternative option: Sarek could mind meld with another, allowing him to temporarily transfer his emotions onto someone else. This would leave Sarek able to successfully complete the conference and maintain his dignity, reputation and honour. Sarek, however, warns of the possible dangers to the receiver's mind from Sarek's strong emotions. Picard willingly agrees to be the host. Sarek performs the mind meld with Picard, and is able to retain full control of his emotions for the duration of the conference. However, Picard, monitored closely by Dr Crusher, suffers through the numerous emotions that Sarek has pent-up for years, including his regrets of not being able to show his love for his first wife Amanda, their son Spock, or his current wife Perrin. With the conference successfully completed, Sarek prepares to take his leave. Picard lets Perrin know of Sarek's love for her, and Perrin says she has always known it. Sarek thanks Picard for his kindness, and with deep respect states: "We will always retain the best part of the other, inside us."

Review:

This is a great watershed moment for The Next Generation, as for a long time Gene Roddenberry had been adamant about not allowing the show to reference the original series directly. However, with this episode that caveat was lifted, and by having Spock’s father appear on Picard’s Enterprise, we get the first truly explicit link between the two series since Dr McCoy appears in the TNG pilot. The long life-span of Vulcans meant the original actor for Sarek from the Original Series productions got to reprise the role, adding nicely to the continuity of the franchise. It’s great seeing Sarek and Picard together, and the episode makes for an interesting metaphorical nod to dementia among the elderly, and with a proud Vulcan as the focal point, even Sarek’s denials of the condition and emotional outbursts are on-point for how some people might react when coming to terms with such ailments in real life.

Less good, however, is having to sit through all the scenes where members of the main cast and others experience the random broadcasts of anger from Sarek. They’ve all got that ‘characters acting weird for weirdness’ sake’ vibe to them, which is often the case with Trek. Almost no one they hire to play a role can play that character possessed or mentally altered without making it blatant something had happened. It would be nice if every once in a while, they could play such changes more subtly so the audience is genuinely surprised when it turns out what we’ve just seen was down to external influence x, y or z. When it comes to mysteries, some people may like the over-telegraphing of something like Columbo. Me, give me a traditional Poirot or Marple-style mystery where the solution takes some work to discover. For me, these two sides of the equation bring the episode to a balances score of about 8 out of 10.

Episode 24: Ménage à Troi

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

At a reception aboard the Enterprise following a trade conference on Betazed, Counsellor Deanna Troi argues with her mother, Lwaxana Troi, about her insistence that Deanna get married and raise a family. At the same party, Lwaxana is approached by the Ferengi Daimon Tog of the ship Krayton, who is interested in Lwaxana in a sexual way, but also explains he would like Lwaxana to use her telepathy to help him in his business dealings. Lwaxana rejects him flatly, then becomes irate and remarks that she would rather eat Orion Wing Slugs than date Tog. Deanna tries to speak with Lwaxana in her quarters about the incident, but winds up becoming infuriated over Lwaxana's pet name for her, "Little One," and leaves.

Afterwards, at the urging of Captain Picard, Commander Riker and his one-time flame, Deanna, decide to take a quick shore leave on Betazed while the Enterprise heads out on a routine mission studying a nebula. Lwaxana tracks down her daughter and Riker, with intent to encourage a renewed romance between the couple. She is just getting started when Daimon Tog beams down. As Riker expresses his surprise, Tog states that he has come for Lwaxana. When he is again rebuffed by Lwaxana, this time under pain of provoking an interstellar incident, Tog has himself and the others transported aboard the Krayton, leaving a confused Mr. Homn to wonder where his employer has gone.

The three awaken in a cell aboard the Krayton. Tog then has Deanna and Lwaxana beamed into the lab of Farek, a Ferengi doctor who hopes to study Lwaxana's telepathy using mind probes. In the process of transporting them he leaves the women's clothing behind, saying that women are not worthy enough to wear clothes. Lwaxana pretends to be interested in Tog, and gains Deanna's return to the cell with Riker by agreeing to discuss with Tog a proposal to use her telepathic abilities in trade negotiations.

Riker entices a Ferengi guard into a chess game, and once outside the cell, Riker quickly overpowers the guard. Once freed, Deanna and Riker attempt to send a message to the Enterprise, only to learn that the ship's communication system is secured by access code. As Lwaxana seduces Tog by rubbing his ears, she receives a telepathic message from Deanna asking her to try to get Tog's access code.

Lwaxana has nearly gotten Tog to tell her the code when Farek walks in and catches her in the act. Farek threatens to humiliate Tog by revealing his incompetence to the Ferengi, but offers to forget the incident if Lwaxana is turned over to him for experimentation, despite the fact that the proposed tests may be lethal.

Meanwhile, the Enterprise leaves the nebula, which has been interfering with communications, and learn from Betazed officials that Riker and the Trois have been kidnapped. Returning to Betazed, the Enterprise crew discovers flowers indigenous to a Ferengi planet at the spot where Deanna and Riker were last seen. Picard orders a frequency scan to see if Riker has somehow sent a message, but are unable to pick up anything discernible. In fact, Riker has tapped into the system on the Krayton that suppresses Cochrane distortion from the ship's warp field, and modulated it to generate a signal using unsuppressed distortion into a pattern he hopes the Enterprise crew will recognize.

In the midst of the search, Acting Ensign Wesley Crusher is in final preparation to depart to Earth for his second attempt to pass the Starfleet Academy entrance exam. Just as he is about to leave, he realizes that the modulated interference itself may be the signal, and rushes back to the Bridge, missing his transport back to Earth. Decoding the signal, young Crusher finds Riker has provided the heading of the Krayton and the Enterprise heads out in pursuit.

In the meantime, Deanna is experiencing great pain as she senses the mind probes being used on her mother. Riker, having finished setting up the modulation of the Cochrane distortion, arms himself and bursts into Farek's lab to free Lwaxana, but a standoff ensues when Tog enters with a phaser. Just then the Enterprise arrives, and Lwaxana buys the release of Troi and Riker by agreeing to stay with Tog and serve him both as a lover and a business partner. After Riker and Deanna are returned to the Enterprise, Picard begins to play the role of a jealous lover on Deanna’s advice, describing his love for Lwaxana and telling Tog that if he cannot have her no one will, and threatens to destroy the Krayton if she is not delivered to him immediately. When Picard tries to "win back" Lwaxana at the end, he recites parts of three William Shakespeare sonnets and Canto 27 of "In Memoriam A.H.H.", by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Fearing for his life Daimon Tog hurriedly beams Lwaxana directly to the Enterprise Bridge and leaves the area post-haste. So taken is Lwaxana by Picard's poetic profession of "love" for her that she takes her place on his lap in the command chair, causing Picard to quickly tell Ensign Crusher to "set course for Betazed", almost whispering "warp nine".

Crusher is told that he will have to wait for another year before he can reapply for entrance to Starfleet Academy, but in the interim the Enterprise will continue to benefit from him. Picard also tells him that, in his eyes, he isn't an 'Acting Ensign' anymore and thus gives him a field promotion to full Ensign in light of his contributions to the ship and crew.

Review:

A Lwaxana Troi episode is generally never a good thing in my opinion, though this one is more tolerable than most with regards to Majel Barrett’s performance this time around, and for once the Ferengi make decent guest adversaries. However, the bridge scene near the end when Picard starts quoting romantic poetry demanded an extensive fast-forward. The whole thing felt forced, and while in one sense it would be considering Picard can’t really stand Lwaxana, someone who was coaching Data on acting back in the episode ‘Deja Q’ should have been able to give a more convincing performance. Clearly Ferengi theatre must be truly abysmal, if they have any, because that’s the only way I can see Daimon Tog buying Picard’s performance at all.

Luckily, the B-plot surround Wesley missing Star Fleet Academy again and becoming a full ensign regardless is much better, and compensates for the main plot a fair bit. However, it still indicates a bad TNG episode if you need a Wesley-centric story line to save the episode; after all, since when is it etiquette for the hard-to-write child character to surpass the boss’ wife and, in so doing, make the episode her influence has all but broken? For me, this episode only racks up a mere 6 out of 10 while reminding me, as it should everyone else, that Majel Barrett’s best Trek performances are lending her voice to Starfleet computers.

0 notes

aion-rsa · 3 years

Text

Attack on Titan Season 4 Episode 10 Review: A Sound Argument

https://ift.tt/2MMruLT

This Attack on Titan review contains spoilers.

Attack on Titan Season 4 Episode 10

“That guy is not Eren.”

The past few episodes of Attack on Titan have looked at dissent and disagreements cropping up among the Eldians, but now the temperature turns up and begins to reach a boiling point. Time is running out and a sound strategy becomes increasingly important, which makes any moments wasted on arguments rather than unity feel like a dangerous exercise that will only culminate in doom. It’s never been more important for Eren and company to figure out a plan for how to secure Paradis Island from Marleyan forces, which makes it all the more frightening that this group has never been more frayed and at odds with one another. If Willy Tybur weren’t a bloody stain on Liberio’s cobblestone then he’d probably even smirk over the uncertain state of the world.

“A Sound Argument” doesn’t technically cover that much ground in the present, which may frustrate some, but the revelations to two years in the past are still seismic. The episode outlines the specifics of Zeke’s plan with the Eldians, which also involves the cooperation of Kiyomi Azumabito of the Hizuru clan. “A Sound Argument” develops this risky proposition, albeit in retrospect as everyone is left reeling with the current consequences in the present. This structure continues to work for Attack on Titan and while it might have been possible to contain both of these flashback episodes into a solo entry, it feels appropriate that this plan is allowed some space to breathe.

Attack on Titan is a complicated series and it’s never thrown more information at the audience and in such a compact amount of time. The anime is in the middle of a very intricate maneuver and it carefully wants to tease the audience and mess with their perception of what’s actually going on, but it doesn’t want to overwhelm them or make this endgame feel unnecessarily confusing. “A Sound Argument” benefits from how it doesn’t rush through the exposition, yet also avoids dragging its feet as Eren and company wallow in their fear and doubt.

Eren becomes more belligerent and vehemently opposes Zeke and Kiyomi’s plan, which endangers Historia, but otherwise reduces casualties. Many Eldians are crucial and important for this plan to work, which doesn’t mesh with the internal narrative that Eren continues to build in his head that he and he alone is the one capable of fixing this mess. The Eren from these flashbacks claims that he wants to end this suffering, but we’ve seen that his plan involves widespread fear, manipulation, and casualties. Present Eren appears to resent anyone that attempts to devise a more logical solution to his way of doing things. Eren still views this entire war as his story and a problem that he’s uniquely qualified to solve, while in reality it’s already progressed far beyond this point.

There are some chilling moments where the Survey Corps continue to throw Eren under the bus and claim that they don’t even recognize him anymore, with Mikasa being his sole defender. She brings up proof that Eren still cares about them and that he hasn’t completely changed. That being said, Eren’s plan still does seem sinister and his reluctance to “endanger” the 104th Survey Corps could just as easily be for selfish reasons that Eren hasn’t been completely forthright about yet. Attack on Titan is so thrilling right now because no one is in a place to be trusted. Eren brags about how he’s invincible to some extent, but his friends are getting more comfortable with the idea of someone prematurely eating him and taking his ego entirely out of the equation.

Attack on Titan: “No One is Safe” in Final Season, Stars Say

By Daniel Kurland

This war has characters thinking several moves ahead of their enemy, but “A Sound Argument” pushes Eren and the rest of the Eldians to think about decades–if not centuries–into the future. These soldiers are ready to cut their own stories short in order to preserve the futures that they’ve spent their lives fighting for. This generational aspect has always been a part of Attack on Titan, but it’s more prevalent than ever and it adds an unnerving atmosphere to the proceedings. Beloved characters are ready to willingly throw their lives away if it means that a better warrior can take over their cause. At this point I wouldn’t even be surprised if the final episodes of the series are set fifty or hundreds of years later and explore if any of this pain has actually done any good or if Eldia’s descendants are just as poor off and living in another, equally destructive, delusion.

On that note, there’s a disturbing element of Eldia’s plan that includes rapidly breeding Historia so that she’ll have as many royal children as possible to help ensure that Paradis Island remains in order for at least fifty years. “A Sound Argument” reveals that this is already in motion and that Historia is very pregnant, which also asks some interesting questions that have never before had to be considered, such as what happens to the fetus if a pregnant woman turns into a Titan? It’s tragic that Historia has already accepted her role as a breeding factory and safeguard for her people even if she seems to be at peace with the decision. It’s just another example of the avalanche of horrors that this war has triggered.

A more uplifting moment of world building relates to Mikasa who learns from Lady Kiyomi that she descends from the Hizuru lineage and that she’s technically of Asian descent. She’s actually a freaking shogun, which is incredibly appropriate for someone as thoroughly badass as Mikasa. This is an enlightening detail, especially in conjunction with Onyankopon’s recent story about his complexion. It’s nice that in a season that’s so fraught with war and wrapping up loose ends that there’s still time to flesh out the anime’s larger world and deliver these more muted moments. There’s a really pleasant sequence where the Eldians are sunkist and blushing under the sunset that makes it almost possible to forget that apocalyptic tension hangs over every single waking minute of these characters’ lives.

“A Sound Argument” is another Attack on Titan installment that spends nearly just as much time looking backwards as it does setting its sights on the future. It follows in line with last week’s installment and they’re two sides of the same coin. The episode’s lack of actual forward momentum may leave it feeling a little deflated, but it’s clear that very big things are imminent. “A Sound Argument” is focused on delicate planning rather than blunt force combat, but it’s still mentally exhausting as more of these master plans come to light and the past meets up with the present.

Simple matters grow more complicated after characters like Gabi, Eren, and Reiner are all in different forms of captivity and ready to go rogue in their own ways. Everyone is preoccupied with the element of surprise over the other teams, yet all of these independent actions may end up cancelling each other out in some sick, ironic way. “A Sound Argument” elegantly details that If everyone plans a double-cross then really nobody is planning a double-cross since all of these renegade actions will clash and contradict each other.

Attack on Titan now has about four different strategies that are running concurrently and there are probably one or two more that haven’t even been revealed yet. These lofty stakes are felt through the perpetual anxiety over the unknown that forces Eldia and Marley to advance, yet not be able to properly examine what’s now in their wake. The desire to move forward has become so palpable that the illusion of progress is more comforting than actual peace. At this point it’s unclear if “winning” this war will even bring this conflict to an end or merely trigger a new age of submission and deception that will last until the cycle repeats itself in another fifty years.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

But hey, at least Hange is jazzed over Eren’s new hairdo.

The post Attack on Titan Season 4 Episode 10 Review: A Sound Argument appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3jMv8BL

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

0 notes

hotelbones · 4 years

Text

Conclusion on Thesis 1

Here it is, the end of the first thesis semester. What’s funny about finishing this class is that it doesn’t indicate a sort of stop on thinking about the project. Despite most of the work for the semester done, my presentation and final papers finished formalizing the concept, it doesn’t stay that way. The project is just a thought constantly in flux, and the forms are all just artifacts of that process.

For my final presentation I decided to take the approach of pitching a manifesto I plan on writing over the break. Instead of detailing the design process over the course of the semester that touched on the magic circle and intimacy, this narrative covered how I had been thinking about relationships in games for most of my life.

For me, games have always been about the relationships surrounding them. As I created these slides to create a narrative around my work I finally realized this.

For the rest of the majority of the slides I had to provide a TON of context about the thinking that helped my work reach where it is at right now. It covered some of the oldest games, the influence of the military-industrial complex, how digital games became characterized, and how game studies has constricted the current forms of games.

THEN I finished off by showing some of the work I did this semester and how it applied to these concepts I introduced in order to lead up to the idea for the manifesto I had.

I had Katherine Moriwaki and John Roach as crits and both of them said that my deconstruction of the medium was good. They gave both thought that I gave a really compelling story to figure out what the intimacy of games really is. John suggested I look at Fluxus event scores and relational art aesthetics, both of which were big inspirations of thinking for the direction of my project. However, I had not considered the comment John said that “relational aesthetics in art is a critique stating that the whole system of art making is relational”.

Both of them felt like the scope of this project was so large, which is great, but that I need to really focus on a good endpoint for next semester. I wrote down in my notes, “how can I meaningfully engage with this project next semester?”. I have been considering this a bit, but I will save to answer this question for the end of this post.

They also noted that there were a couple points that need to reconnect, which makes sense because there is just so much history to put into 10 minutes, some connections may be a bit shaky on the first run.

The last, most helpful comment about this project was Katherine noting about my problem trying to find a way out of capitalism that, “It’s not about getting away from capitalism, but the awareness that we must participate in it and hate ourselves”.

Now all of this feedback was nice, but most of it felt like confirmation of my project in a short period of time given to discuss. It was nice but it didn’t feel like I received much new criticism that opened my mind to what was possible and what was going on. Then everything changed when I made a zine.

For the End of Semester Show ‘n’ Tell I decided the best way to present my work would be in the form of the zine. Most of my work was conceptual or language based, so I really wanted to put it all into a form that respected that instead of just throwing it all on a table. So I threw it all into a pdf instead! The funny thing is that last semester I did the same exact thing with A Taxonomy on Interweaving Games and Post-Play. If this continued to be a trend I think it would lead to participating in communities I want to be a part of (artist/DIY/zine).

What I didn’t expect most from Skein was how much overwhelming positive reactions I received from it. Prior to cutting everything out I thought I would just be showing some things I made to catch up with friends in the rest of MFADT. I especially thought this as most people at Major Major didn’t engage with the Interweaving Games zine. However, over 75% of people that read spent at least 15 minutes sitting, turning the pages and thinking. What was the most surpising is that they said they felt an emotional reaction to it, there were even a couple people that.....cried???? What???

There is a clear difference between Interweaving and Skein in the use of language. At the time of Taxonomy I was trying to make something for game academics as my audience. So the language was super dense and obtuse for anyone that wasn’t involved in that field. Skein was deeply emotional, it was produced from games that were about the personal emotions I went through this semester related to bodies, objects, and spaces. Plus, I made most of the work so even though it was emotional, it was typically removed from my perspective so it didn’t feel like I was telling a person how to feel.

Jess Irish was the first professor to stop by my table. She told me that so much of this work was in her field because of its use of text. What was great about getting her feedback is she gave me feedback on the use of specific words and how changing up parts of my work would have changed the expressions drastically.

She also gave me this idea that I should separate my work into two forms: a really radical, experimental printed form that replaces the thesis studio paper, and a form that is in place of the project. I don’t think I necessarily understood what she meant by this at this point, but others came and helped me think more about this idea.

Anna Harsanyi and Mattie Brice sat at my table at the exact same time shortly after and it was a major blessing. Holy cow. When Anna sat down she immediately was like, “please tell me you know about scores”. Then we just talked about how my work related to scores and what the current state of scores was. During the presentation and even bringing this zine to the show I thought of this work still much like a form that would exist in game communities, but this was the turning point of thought.

Both of them mentioned that my practice was a very well made intervention to make create new meaningful interventions for my community. But I guess I don’t really know what this means looking back because I don’t know what community is being referred to....

Anna said that I could probably pitch something to an art space like Recess. I have never been to Recess or heard of it prior to this point but I think I am going to look into a lot more... Mattie commented that this work makes sense for this point in time for games as the field has been trying to break into the art field for a while now and many of the forms are starting to become so similar in ways. She gave me a lot of books to read over winter break, but specifically told me I should look into methods of experimental ethnography because it would really open up a new side to my work.

Heres a couple questions I wrote down from this feedback:

- How do we transform the lived experience of a space?

- What does it mean to draw from life as material?

- How do you translate these observations into something else?

- How does one honor context? How do you honor other people’s experiences through your own?

I also asked about the issue I had this semester where a lot of this work was very personal and draining. Both of them responded that there isn’t a form of work that isn’t personal because it comes from ourselves. It’s just learning to create boundaries and structure for ourselves.

Mattie suggested last, that my thesis should be composed of two different parts. A personal, private, community performance that addresses my community’s needs through the forms I have used this semester. And second that a written, capitally receptive and communally respectful experimental document could take the form of the paper.

These three professors totally reframed how I looked at this project. I am so glad about the path I took to thinking about this thesis this semester. I wouldn’t have gotten to think through all of these things if I had done anything differently. But I think over winter break and next semester, I want to start thinking about how to move this project into a “game score” performance combined with a framework that pitches how to think about games relative to relationships.

Some final notes on what I would do if I went back in time and gave myself advice on the semester. And maybe these will be helpful for next semester. - You aren’t making any one thing for thesis. I know you think you know this going into thesis. But you are going to probably forget at some point. Everything you produce becomes an artifact immediately upon becoming formalized and it will be more valuable than any one thesis project could be. - Don’t feel like you have to follow any process people suggest. You do a fine job of thinking and making when you need to, even if you do get a little lost in the head cave sometimes. Just make sure to keep tabs with your advisors and friends to see if they can advise you when you need to take a break from thinking to make something. - If you have time, just make structures for yourself emotionally, reasonably, and socially. You are so bad at straining yourself and its gonna bleed into your work a lot

1 note · View note

bluegrasshole · 7 years

Note

do all the get to know your author questions bc they're all good and i can't pick

ko…. you need to work on your decisiveness (but thank you)

1) is there a story you’re holding off on writing for some reason?

i mean.. not really. i had decided not to write any more fanfiction to focus on an original story i started but then… i wanted to get used to the setting, work through some personal stuff… kind of warm myself up while still writing the other one… so i’m writing a nurseydex lighthouse story like i said i would

2) what work of yours, if any, are you the most embarrassed about existing?

my entire fanfiction.net account is bad. so so so bad. and surprisingly recent. also i HATE my early zimbits stuff, but of course one of them is like my second most popular piece so i can’t delete it. like really hate. and it’s frustrating because i have good stuff from that time period, so i don’t even fucking know what was going through my mind.

3) what order do you write in? front of book to back? chronological? favorite scenes first? something else?

chronological but i tend to go back and add things obsessively. i like getting the skeleton down first just to get the basic plot and know where i’m going, then i go back to add in details – the meat of the skeleton if you will… and you know i like details

4) favorite character you’ve written

any dex is my favourite, but also specifically jack from samwell gentlemen’s hockey because he cracks me up, and i really loved writing parvati in that one parvender piece.

5) character you were most surprised to end up writing

camilla? in strange lovers i didn’t even know i was writing camilla until i realized like 3k in that my character who i’d named millie and was blonde was in fact… camilla. she snuck up on me

6) something you would go back and change in your writing that it’s too late/complicated to change now

oh… i do go back and fix things often (in strange lovers i went back to rewrite parts of ransom’s character and his role months after i originally posted it because i realized i had written some pretty shitty stuff regarding black men) but, meh, row upon row is always one i’d like… want to go back and fix, especially the rushed ending, but i can’t go back and change it now because it’s been read by too many people…

7) when asked, are you embarrassed or enthusiastic to tell people that you write?

super embarrassed. only my best friend knows because she’s also a writer but i still don’t feel super comfortable talking to her about it. we’re getting there with each other. she doesn’t write fanfiction ya feel though i think she’s read some

8) favorite genre to write

lmao idk i like writing comedy but plot is hard so i don’t often do it. character studies i guess, AUs, angst

9) what, if anything, do you do for inspiration?

music, and listening to people tell stories about themselves or others, just being around people is inspiring to me. i recently went to a show that was a mix of folk music and storytelling about prince edward island? and it was incredible i left there feeling so invigorated

10) write in silence or with background noise? with people or alone?

i do most of my writing in a café a minute from my apartment, with or without music depending on if my wireless headphones are dead or not, always w a blended matcha latté

11) what aspect of your writing do you think has most improved since you started writing?

oh man. i mean since i started writing in like, 2010? i mean, everything, obviously. but since 2015 – christ. still everything? well, definitely verb tenses/points of view/epithets/general structure and technique, definitely better at rhythm though that took some serious work and a couple stories focussed solely on rhythm and flow. i think i’m much better at nuance now – weaving different themes together to make at least a semi-coherent story… and general prose, i think. finding a balance between minimalism and appropriate imagery. i’m more comfortable playing around with grammar then i used to be. idk, i think my voice has just overall developed into something clearer and distinct from others.

12) your weaknesses as an author

plot and dialogue-heavy scenes. i like writing dialogue and i think the lines themselves are good usually, i just have a hard time, like finding the balance between dialogue, dialogue that has to accomplish something, and prose. and writing a neat point-a-to-point-b plot is a losing battle

13) your strengths as an author

i’ve been told setting, and i think that’s about right. i get obsessive about crafting like, a complete world where it feels like there are things that happen outside of the plot and the main characters. building fucking lore into the setting is the most fun for me. i think the details make the story.

14) do you make playlists for your current wips?

heeeelll yeah

15) why did you start writing?

idk i spent a lot of time on the internet and all the quote unquote cool kids were doing it. i was in a RP where we were all pretty close friends (still follow them on all social media including fb) and we just like, wrote each other fic. i was pretty good at writing before then (for a kid) and even was runner-up for a national award or something in grade six? i barely remember what it was for but i do remember the piece was called “autumn’s opus” and it was comparing the seasons to an orchestra or a piece of music idk. it was pretty killer for an 11-yr-old if i do say so myself

16) are there any characters who haunt you?

oh i don’t know about haunt but i do get sad about jack and kent all the time

17) if you could give your fledgling author self any advice, what would it be?

read your dialogue out loud to see if it sounds natural (it probably doesn’t) and put dooooown the epithets. it’s lazy writing and you don’t need them. and reread reread reread reread. in different fonts, different colours, on differents days, out loud, by different people… reread!!

18) were there any works you read that affected you so much that it influenced your writing style? what were they?

absolutely anything by fluorescentgrey but especially her historical AUs, familiar’s character designs and rawness, waspabi’s dialogue and humour, montparnasse’s prose and tenderness, misandrywitch’s everything, and this piece which inspired a tattoo and pushed me to start experimenting with my own writing a couple years ago… among many others

19) when it comes to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timeline, ect.?

oh i usually just give up halfway through that’s how

20) do you write in long sit-down sessions or in little spurts?

usually i go to the café and sit for like 5 hours and if i get a few hundred words out of that i’m happy

21) what do you think when you read over your older work?

ugh it’s so bad and shitty and i hate it all

22) are there any subjects that make you uncomfortable to write?

well, yeah. i don’t like writing about religion so i just… don’t, much. strange lovers had the most religion of anything i’ve ever written. and i’m cautious about writing about race though i’ve done it a few times… i don’t super like writing traditional coming-out stories because i just don’t care all that much so i’ll usually twist them around somehow if they’re necessary.

23) any obscure life experiences that you feel have helped your writing?

all of my life experiences inform my writing. that’s not me being facetious i just mean that i really like listening to people tell stories and telling stories myself and gossiping etc that i think it’s clear that i prioritize that in my writing

24) have you ever become an expert on something you previously knew nothing about, in order to better a scene or a story?

ah yes coal mining in 20th century nova scotia lmao

25) copy/paste a few sentences or a short paragraph that you’re particularly proud of

the very first paragraph from my nurseydex wip:

There are days where you think you could lose yourself in the fog and there are days where you wouldn’t mind. When you wake and it’s there eating the world up, surrounding it all like a living thing, voracious, and it’s even hungrier at night, and the only thing that reminds you you belong to the earth and are tied to it like the oldest and most solid daybeacon in the harbour is the horn, loud and long and haunting and filling. And the light. The light, the light, always the light.

#ask #laughingthelaughiest #my writing

2 notes · View notes

maxwellyjordan · 5 years

Text

Ask the authors: An innovative approach to learning the court’s biggest cases

Textbooks of constitutional law have, for decades, followed a similar pattern in their quest to help law students synthesize a surfeit of Supreme Court decisions. In their new multimedia platform, “An Introduction to Constitutional Law: 100 Supreme Court Cases Everyone Should Know” (Wolters Kluwer, 2019), Professors Randy Barnett and Josh Blackman take a different approach.

Most of the cases covered in “100 Supreme Court Cases” are traditionally taught in law school. But some are not, and the book has a wider aim: to present an overview of the most significant decisions from our nation’s highest court, in a way accessible to law students and the general public alike. The accompanying 11-hour video library includes short clips for each case, which average about 10 minutes in length. These resources both complement the text and present a novel way of learning the material.

The authors were kind enough to answer questions about “100 Supreme Court Cases” for the blog. Welcome, Randy and Josh, and thank you for doing this.

***

Question: Can you tell us how this project came about?

Josh: In 2016, Randy invited me to be a co-author on his constitutional law casebook, “Constitutional Law: Cases in Context.” I accepted this opportunity of a lifetime, and — as I am wont to do — quickly proposed another project: to develop a series of videos to teach students about the most important cases in the constitutional canon. These films would incorporate photographs of the parties, as well as audio from oral arguments and opinion announcements. Students would even be able to binge watch a semester of constitutional law in a single sitting. Randy enthusiastically backed the project.

Randy: Once we were into the project of writing and producing the videos — which took two years to accomplish — we decided that we had something that was too important to confine to law students whose professors adopted our casebook. So the idea of a free-standing book was born to enable anyone to gain convenient access to the videos — as well as a written description of these cases that goes beyond what is in the videos.

Question: Is the book intended as a new, stand-alone text for constitutional law students? As a study supplement? As a guide for the general reader?

Randy: The book and videos were originally conceived for law students to read when taking constitutional law from professors who used other casebooks. The narrative we present will enrich any course on constitutional structure or rights.

Josh: We also wrote the text and videos to make constitutional law accessible to college students, as well as advanced high-school students. In particular, we hope A.P. government and constitutional law classes adopt our book. Also, the book and video library will help develop an excellent home-school course on constitutional law. Finally, the general public will benefit from a single resource that can teach the entire canon of constitutional law in 300 pages.

Question: Tell us about your process for picking cases. Was 100 always the goal, a framework in which you aimed to fit your selection? Or was the approach more organic?

Josh: Initially, it was not our goal to select 100 cases. Rather, we selected the cases from our casebook that we thought that all law students should learn. We soon realized that we had 103 cases. We recognize the marketing potential of having an even number like 100, so trimmed off a few.

Randy: Our goal was to focus on the key cases that are said to be in the “constitutional canon” and “anti-canon” so people can understand how constitutional law came to be what it is today. It is our experience that current constitutional law doctrines are best understood as the result of a 200+ year process of decision-making by a single court: the Supreme Court of the United States. All constitutional lawyers — and all the justices — carry in their heads a narrative of how and why the law developed as it has. This narrative is more important than any single doctrine or rule. We think this narrative is best told as a narrative. And within it are the individual stories presented by each case. When we were done picking the cases, we thought we needed to tell the larger story, and it turned out there were 100 of them.

Question: In the book’s foreword, Erwin Chemerinsky – dean of Berkeley Law and author of his own widely used constitutional law textbook – remarks that “although not every constitutional law class will cover each of these cases, [you] have included the most important cases that are covered in any constitutional law course.” In your book, did you intentionally include cases that you felt constitutional law professors have overlooked?

Randy: A few. For example, Buchanan v. Warley is a much-neglected 1917 case that complicates the received wisdom about the so-called Lochner-era court. In Buchanan, that court invalidated a racially restrictive zoning law in Louisville, Kentucky, that forbade whites from selling houses to blacks in white neighborhoods and vice-versa. For the court it was a straightforward “due process of law” case that unreasonably infringed upon property rights of both buyers and sellers, blacks and whites, without an adequate police-power rationale. But this case is, by far, the exception. With limited space (and budget), we generally confined ourselves to the cases most constitutional lawyers would know and students need to know.

Josh: We also added two cases students seldom study. In Hepburn v. Griswold, the Supreme Court held that Congress could not force people to accept paper money as “legal tender.” This 4-3 decision by Chief Justice Salmon Chase was an important decision that limited the scope of federal power. However, one year later, after two new appointments by President Ulysses Grant, the court reversed course. Knox v. Lee, split 5-4, upheld the federal Legal Tender Act. This decision adopted a broad understanding of implied powers that would presage the court’s post-1937 jurisprudence.

youtube

A preview of Knox v. Lee. Previews are available at conlaw.us/cases, with the full videos available for purchase.

Question: Tell us about your division of labor. What was it like to collaborate?

Josh: I would write the first drafts of each of the 63 scripts and storyboards we relied on. Randy would then revise and expand the drafts. Summarizing a complicated case in a few pages is no easy task. We spent countless hours debating about what should be included and excluded. And we didn’t always see eye to eye on prose. Randy likes longer sentences. I don’t mind starting sentences with “however.” But, in the end, we knew that any content that satisfied both of our meticulous standards was ready for primetime.

Randy: Over the course of two years, we spent nearly 60 hours at Trivision Studios in Chantilly, Virginia. After sitting through hair and makeup we took our position under the bright lights and in front of the green screen. The Trivision team skillfully manned the cameras, adjusted the lighting, positioned the microphone and rolled the teleprompter. Each of us monitored the delivery of the other to catch mistakes. Not infrequently we had to revise the script on the teleprompter in the studio because speaking the script out loud revealed errors we had missed when it was just in writing.

Josh: After we wrapped, Trivision produced first cuts of each video. At that point, Randy and I had to review each and every frame to ensure that the scripts and storyboards were faithfully followed. It could take three hours to review a 10-minute video. On average, each video required four or five rounds of edits. Eventually, we signed off on each of the 63 videos. They total nearly 11 hours in length. We are very proud of the project.

Randy: While I proofed all of the videos for errors, it was Josh alone who provided the storyboarding for the graphics and illustrations that make the story of constitutional law come alive. My decision to add him to my casebook was completely vindicated. I would never have conceived of this project — much less executed it — without him.

Josh:

Question: In the years ahead, the Supreme Court will undoubtedly decide cases that deserve consideration among the 100 most important. And technological progress will make digital aids, like your accompanying videos, more and more advanced. What do you view as the future of this project?

Randy: The “canon” sometimes gets revised over time. If that happens, we will need to revisit some of our videos. But the great majority will hold up as accurate descriptions of how and why the cases were decided the way they were. This is one of the virtues of our casebook. As time goes by, you only need to extend the narrative with some new cases (and drop cases that no longer serve a pedagogical purpose). You don’t need to completely reorganize the book. So, yes, we will need to add additional cases. But this is an expensive process. Our 63 videos covering 100 cases cost about $100,000 to produce. Josh and I had to pay part of that expense out of our own pockets. (That’s why you cannot watch them for free on YouTube, which we would have preferred.) But if the book and videos are a commercial success, I think Wolters Kluwer will pay for some new ones to be added when we revise our casebook, which happens every three to four years. When we do, I know I can count on Josh to find more amazing pictures, audio and graphics to make these cases come alive to a modern audience.

Josh: I’m already planning a sequel: “100 Property Cases Everyone Should Know.”

Randy: Josh is exhausting.

The post Ask the authors: An innovative approach to learning the court’s biggest cases appeared first on SCOTUSblog.

from Law https://www.scotusblog.com/2019/10/ask-the-authors-an-innovative-approach-to-learning-the-courts-biggest-cases/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

#law #justice

0 notes

dwendog · 7 years

Text

Dear Northern Hemisphere First Year Teachers,

Hello from The Land of Academic Years That Line Up With Calendar Years Because We Are Not Savages!

We’re currently a little over half way through our school year, which has been my first year with my own kidlets (I borrowed other teachers’ when they were sick/at PD for the last 6 months of last year). Please know that I feel your terror/nerves/pain/10,000 other emotions you’re having as the new school year starts. The last 6 months has been...long. And rewarding. And terrifying. And hard. And amazing. And exhausting. And hilarious. In light of this, here are some thoughts about your first year/things I wish people had told me before I started (it got long, and I didn’t want it to devour people’s dashes, so the actual useful part is after the jump).

Please accept now that you will be tired for a very large portion of the next year. I have never, ever been so tired in my whole life. And I have been tired pretty much every waking moment of my entire life. I just really like sleeping, okay? But the point is, it’s not just you. You’re effectively performing all day long. That’s HARD. It’s okay to be tired. There is no reason you can’t go to bed at 7:30 at night if you’re pretty much falling asleep standing up. No one is judging you.

On a related note, there is no point having a beautifully planned lesson if you’re too exhausted from only getting 4 hours sleep to teach it properly. You can finish that lesson in the shower tomorrow morning. Or the car on the way to work. You cannot sleep in either of these places. You can, however, sleep at school if necessary. Places I have napped this year include my desk in the staff room; the bed in sick bay; and the pile of cushions in the reading corner in my classroom (that was actually a pretty good nap). Sometimes, that 20 minute nap at lunch time is the only thing standing between you and killing a child, and it’s worth taking it instead of spending 20 minutes marking.

Please accept that this is probably the last week or so that you will be properly healthy before school finishes for the year. I’m not saying that you will be SICK all year. I’m just saying that you won’t be WELL for a lot of it. I have had low grade sniffles since about week 3 of term 1, and I am not usually a person who gets sick that often. There are about a million different germs floating around schools, and your immune system won’t know how to cope with it. And you’re going to be tired, so it REALLY won’t know how to cope with it. And if you work with the tiny/small humans, you’re like, quadrupling the germiness. Echinacea, Garlic, Zinc & Vitamin C tablets will keep the worst of the germs at bay most of the time. Sometimes, you’ll still end up sick anyway, but really, that will happen once or twice a year in ANY job.

The kids will make you cry. In both the good way and the bad way. They will make you laugh until you’ve got tears streaming down your face and you can barely breathe. They will make your heart want to explode with love and happiness, but it can’t do that, so the explosion will come out your eyeballs instead. They will also frustrate you immensely, and don’t even get me started on their freaking parents. Just try not to bad cry in front of them, because they see it as a sign of weakness. The rest of the staff, however, have probably been there at some point, and will generally be very supportive. Sometimes, they’ll even pull all your homework booklets apart and reassemble them for you with the correct sheets in them when said homework is the reason you’re crying.

Lessons are wildly unpredictable. Some lessons will go EXACTLY as you plan, and it will be amazing. Some will not go at all how you plan, and it will be terrible. Some will go EXACTLY as you plan, and it will be terrible. Some will not go at all how you plan, and it will be amazing. Sometimes the lessons you spent hours on will be the ones that flop. The lesson that you make up on the spot when you discover that the librarian is out sick today and there’s no one to cover for them, so you suddenly have an unexpected 45 minutes to teach may be the best thing you teach all week. There will be days when you are teaching the kids about kinship in Indigenous Australian families and end up talking about how the water treatment process removes fish poop from the water for 10 minutes (any sort of poop will cause a 10 minute tangent. You just can’t always predict when they’ll somehow manage to work poop into the conversation). Just learn to roll with it, and always remember the kids don’t know what was in your program. They don’t know that there was another activity you planned on doing this lesson before they got caught up in this thing that was supposed to be a relatively minor part of the lesson and were having too much fun to ruin. They don’t know that you were planning on spending an extra 10 minutes on that activity, but they caught on so quickly that now you’re starting the next lesson early. It takes so much of the stress out of those situations when you realise that you can actually do more or less whatever you want AND THE KIDS WILL NEVER KNOW.

When you work with tiny/small children, any time can be story time. Lesson came up short? TIME FOR A STORY! Kids being ratty? I’M GOING TO READ TO YOU! You just had a stressful parent meeting and need a few minutes to get your shit back together, but you also have to be teaching right this second? WHO WOULD LIKE TO PICK A BOOK FOR ME TO READ THE CLASS? Similarly, if you’re tired and over it and CBF with a real lesson plan, The Magic School Bus is almost always acceptable, because it teaches science, but you can also treat it as a visual text for English. Or a study of narrative structure. And as a way of presenting factual information in a fictional text. And if you play it from your Netflix account, you used Netflix for work, and you can therefore claim part of your subscription as a tax deduction.*

It’s important to take time to be silly. Obviously, I can only speak as a teacher of the smalls, but I think this applies to the mediums, too. When you’re trying to focus on the million and one things required to be a good teacher, it can be very easy to get caught up in being serious. And sometimes you do need to be, because you ARE the adult in the room, and there are some topics that are actually serious. But silliness is also an important teaching tool. Did you know that it’s Very Likely that at some point today, Ms R will talk about puppies or unicorns? Were you aware that the soldier settlement scheme after WWI was actually one of the main contributing factors to The Emu Wars? Have you ever considered that Katniss Everdeen would be a better candidate for president of a country than Bruce Wayne (but weirdly enough, Batman would probably be at least on par with Katniss)? These are all things that I’ve actually taught kids at some point in the last year in relation to completely serious things that are actually on the syllabus. I love my Emu Wars lesson so much that I’ve taught it at least 5 times since I wrote it about 12 months ago, and it’s the lesson that the kids continually tell me they love and beg me to repeat. It teaches critical and creative thinking, as well as visual texts, and some tangential links to the history syllabus**. There are other, more serious lessons that teach all those same things to the same age group, but no one enjoys them as much. That lesson fixes even the shittiest of casual days on a year 5/6 class. BECAUSE WHO DOESN’T LOVE GETTING TO SAY “And we lost THAT battle because an emu came over to see what was going on in the car and got stuck in the steering wheel, and the army went ‘Yeah, nah, we are SUPER done right now.’ and retreated for the day.”

Educhums are the absolute greatest and they will help you with everything. Many of them also have great stories about their dogs and/or offspring, and they have some of the best “You will not believe what the little shits in my class did today” stories I have ever heard. Which I realise are not directly related to teaching, but it’s always good to know when you’ve had a bad day. Because Avery Jones is the Best Good Boy, Mae is Top 2 Best Good Girls (Best Good Girl is currently napping next to me), Tomes’ Bebe says the most hilarious stuff (and has all the best Trash Truck stories), and Toddler Kaaay’s fashion sense is totally on point.

#*Please don't blame me if this doesn't work where you're from. It's totally legal in Australia.#**we are not required to teach the Emu Wars as a significant war that Australia participated in. I feel that this is bullshit.#educhums #first year teacher #baby first year teacher

17 notes · View notes

dcbicki · 7 years

Text

Pirates of the Caribbean: DMTNT/Salazar’s Revenge - spoiler-packed review

Been back home from the cinema for a couple hours now, and it’s time to jot down all my thoughts concerning Dead Men Tell No Tales (or Salazar’s Revenge, according to my movie stub). I’m gonna be breaking this down into sections to make it all a little bit clearer, but I won’t delve too much into the actually plot of the film and - well, basically this isn’t going to be a summary. I’ll end it on a recap of those Will/Elizabeth scenes. Spoilers ahead though, mateys!

Acting: 6/10

First off, it’s safe to say that the new additions to the cast were much needed. I say this because Brenton Thwaites manages to portray Henry in such a way that you just know who his parents are, and Kaya Scodelario’s strong Carina manages to save the rest of the cast from me labeling them as half-arsed. Orlando Bloom tries a little too hard to sound gruff and haunted in his first scene, but he’s seemingly let the charade drop by his reemergence at the climax of the movie, wherein his chemistry with Thwaites is reminiscent of two old friends catching up. (I’ll bite. More on that later.)

Geoffrey Rush is in form, but you get the sense that his time with the franchise would be coming to an end even if his character’s fate wasn’t set in stone in this film. The crew of the freshly freed Black Pearl don’t seem to have much of a purpose, other than to feed lines off of Jack, or rather have him feed off of them. My sister probably said it best: Gibbs is wasted in this film, and there is no good reason as to why that is. I can’t speak much on Javier Bardem’s Armando Salazar because, for the most part, he’s underwhelming. I really don’t think they should have promoted him as the greatest villain to ever walk across the screen of a Pirates film; faced with Davy Jones’ downright frightfulness or Beckett’s cunning scheming, Salazar’s huskiness and slouching leaves little to no impression. Or maybe I was just too distracted by the fact that he was half floating, half standing.

The main problem though, is Depp’s Sparrow. It’s disappointing how a once iconic character has become such a caricature of himself, better suited for a low-rent pantomime than an adventure film of epic proportion. When he isn’t flailing around, swaying back and forth and talking to himself, drunker than usual, he’s spewing out innuendos and coming across as that one dirty uncle you never want to invite to those family get-togethers. The drunken scenes in which we first find him this time around are easier to swallow than later ones.

Writing: 5/10

Many of the jokes rely upon male-favouring misogynistic humour, and the level of unease I felt when Carina starts undressing and Jack urges her on would break the scales. He’s the creepy aging man in the corner, and his crew aren’t much better. The horologist jokes aren’t nearly as funny as they’re intended to be, but despite myself I did end up giggling once or twice at the sheer stupidity of some of what these pirates say. (This is mostly due to Stephen Graham’s stellar delivery though).

I would say a highlight for me were the callbacks to the earlier films, and the majority of my favourite snippets of dialogue come from Barbossa. Drawing his sword and pointing it at Jack, he once again points out that the Pearl can only have one captain.

If you read the novelization, then you will probably notice that plenty of dialogue made it into the film. And this I’m thankful for, because Barbossa’s final answer to Carina’s question cuts me deep and it damn near made me cry in the cinema. There’s heart in the tale, and you sense as much whenever Henry is gazing off into the distance, and you’re never quite sure if he’s just keeping an eye out, or keeping a weather eye on the horizon.

Thankfully, the chemistry between Scodelario and Thwaites works just fine, so their flirting flows quite nicely and it never feels too forced. They don’t try to mimic or copy Bloom and Knightley’s characters, and they work better together than On Strangers Tides’ forgetful missionary-mermaid lovers ever could have.

Effects: 7/10

I’ll admit I was a little skeptical at first, when the trailers first came out and everything seemed to … hollow. Ghost sharks and people with half of their bodies missing screamed Disaster! Abort! to me, but much to my surprise (and delight), the visual effects were actually pretty solid. The ocean parting ways was an epic sight to behold, and I thought I’d need some serious convincing to even consider watching a young Jack prance around, but it worked. And it worked well (if only the flashback hadn’t been such a bore…). The cinematography is beautiful, and the colour palette is hands down better than that of On Stranger Tides. Cyan blue has made its comeback to the franchise and I’m grateful.

3D experience: 7/10

I had the chance to see it for the first time in 3D (but not in IMAX), and I have to say it wasn’t half as bad as I imagined it was going to be. Usually, I avoid watching blockbusters in 3D because the effects never seem to pop and I always leave disappointed, ticked off I spent more money than I needed to. But the opportunity arose and, to my better judgment, I’m glad I went for the 3D viewing rather the original digital format.

Essentially, what stuck out to me, and made me feel as though I was truly there (which is what we want when we go for 3D), involved Salazar, his crew, or The Silent Mary. Their flaking skin constantly looked as though it was shedding, leaving embers floating in the air. (This did require me to lift my head a little big higher though, to basically crop out all those scalps from the audience below since I was sat at the very back, in the very center of the room.)

Score: 8/10

Rather than working solely on new compositions, Geoff Zanelli decided to integrate many of the older themes and suites into his scoring of the film, and I’m glad. I kept my ears attentive for any and all uses of the Love Theme from At World’s End (and there are many! But more on that later…), but I’d say the scores from Curse of the Black Pearl and At World’s End get the most use here. I was on the edge of my seat through that entire bank robbery scene, and only Hans Zimmer’s killer pieces of music can do that to a person. All those classic themes we recognize and love are there, and they help bring the audience back into the sometimes sketchy plot. But the new additions are nice too, and they add a touch of magic to some scenes. I think (if I’m not mistaken) that the music playing over Carina’s discovery of the island full of stars was new, and I’m definitely going to be on the look out for that one.

But my real love, my true love where the Pirates scores are concerned remains the Love Theme from AWE. Pieces of ‘One Day’ are played at several reprises, and the film wastes no time in letting its melody wash over the audience as it airs during the opening scene of a young Henry finding his father aboard the Dutchman. It’s become a recurring theme of sorts where the Turner family is concerned, and this isn’t a problem. It’s almost as though whenever Henry is on screen a segment of this piece has to play so we remember who he is and what his goals are. It works, though. But the best use of this theme comes at the end, and the much-awaited reunion scene between Will and Elizabeth would never have worked without it.

Will/Elizabeth:

I won’t lie, one of the main reasons I was so determined - excited - to go and see this was for my two favourite characters from the franchise. We’d been left hanging (in a way) for near a decade when it came to Will and Elizabeth’s endgame. The writers seemingly gave them an out, but canonically they were destined for a lifetime of waiting and longing. It sucked, but this latest installment tried its best to make up for their unfortunate ending. And, though their situation could have been dealt with a thousand different ways, I’m not unhappy with the way they chose to settle their love story for once and for all. How could I be? They’re two of my all-time my favourite characters, and they are the romantic ship I hold above all others.

Yes, it’s a little annoying that Elizabeth doesn’t even speak at all, but I’m honestly they convinced to Keira to film something rather than nothing at all. She was - I’m sure - a last minute addition to the film, but you would never have thought it. Her first scene works, and it’s well placed and perfectly ends their journey. Granted, one does wonder why their son is the one setting off on an adventure to free Will from his curse when Elizabeth is there, and alive, and healthy, and a former badass pirate herself. But she’s just that: a former pirate. Narratively, and structurally, it’s easier to make Elizabeth the love Will returns home to at the end of the movie than anyone else, because it’s either that or nothing (no Elizabeth) at all. So I will settle for her being the wife waiting ashore that day because otherwise we don’t get anything. And this something is better than nothing.

For those of you seeking a detailed description of their embrace, I’ll try my best. (It has been some hours since I saw it).

Henry is standing ashore with Carina, post-embrace, not too far from where a lighthouse towers over them in the background. This plot of land is where he grew up, and the lighthouse is seemingly the Turner home.

Now that the curse has been broken, he’s patiently waiting for his father’s reemergence from below the depths of the sea. He pulls his spyglass from his waist, holds it up to his eye to gaze out at the sea in search of the Flying Dutchman.

A freshly resurrected Dutchman - with white sails and a healthy glow about it - has already risen to surface. There’s focus on the crew off in the distance aboard the ship for a moment but, through Henry’s spyglass, Will comes into focus, walking towards them.

He stops before his son and Carina, and the two men make their way towards each other. They exchange a hug, pat each other on the back as father and son do, and Will doesn’t seem able to believe that Henry truly freed him. They both smile, and Will says he will have to tell him all about how he broke the curse he thought unbreakable.

Henry pulls the old necklace Will wore in earlier films from around his neck and hands it back over to his father, crunched up in his fist. He kept his promise, and he wishes to return it to his father.

But, as they begin to walk off, Will’s hand on his son’s shoulder tenderly, he finds himself peering off into the distance. From over a hill, we see Elizabeth cross a field of grass. She slowly makes her way towards them, skirts gathered in her hands.

Her face is a picture at the sight before her, and a smile slowly etches onto her face at the realisation of what has happened. Will is free, and her family is reunited.

Only a moment later, the two are hurrying over the bluff to meet each other. It somehow happens slowly yet much too quickly at one time, and the sound of my heart pounding against my chest at the sight of this reunion is no doubt how we can imagine they felt in that moment, too.

It’s hurried, the way they run to each other over the grass and dirt. It’s desperate, and those ten years of longing are felt through their on-screen presence, through their facial expressions. A foot away from each other, they stare, but only for an instant. They hug, embrace as though they’ve dreamt of this moment for years now - and doubtless they have. It’s testament to Orlando and Keira’s chemistry that they can still silence almost an entire room within but ten seconds of re-connecting. At this point, I feel my heart fucking caving in on itself. Their love theme is playing over the scene, and I focus entirely on their faces.

Their embrace is passionate, one of absolute despair turned to sheer glee, and the tightness with which he holds her fucking wrecks my soul. She’s basically clutching at him. I believe their eyes close, and their slowly begin to pull apart from each other, after both of their faces are focused on, all smiles - after they’ve breathed each other in. Though they never let go of each other, it takes a couple of seconds for the shot to pan out and focus on them as pair. He focuses on her lips, looks resolute on kissing her, but she focuses her gaze on his entire face, but mostly on his eyes.

His hands on her waist, it’s Elizabeth who makes that first fraction of an inch to kiss him. Her hands run over his shoulders until they reach his head, and they kiss as needy lovers who’ve been apart for a decade, his hands encasing her, cradling her. (I’m uncertain if the camera pans around them or not, that could just be wishful thinking on my part.) Moving away from them, the focus is then placed on the field beside the lighthouse, when they remain standing, loving.

It doesn’t end here though. Once the final scene has passed and the credits have stopped rolling, you’re in for a treat.

The post-credits is deliberately left ambiguous so we wonder if there’s more to come, and I’m honestly not that surprised by this fact. I would honestly prefer if this were the final installment in the saga. The scene could work as a reminder of Will’s suffering, and the finalization of his curse. To each their own speculation and interpretation though.

The shot starts off on Elizabeth’s face. She’s fast asleep in bed, in a white nightgown with her hair sprawled across the pillow. Next to her, as the cameras slides over, Will is sleeping also, white shirt open and now long hair free, and they’re back to back.

In the doorway to their bedroom, the shadow of Davy Jones haunting figure appears in the darkness as a harsh wind blows through an open window and the moon’s glow highlights his frame. He seemingly approaches the bed, and it’s only when the focus is placed on his claw of a hand that Will wakes up from his sleep and springs back to reality. He was having a nightmare, we’re to assume, and he’s shaken by the nightmare of his old nemesis.

Will sighs, takes a deep breath to calm himself, quickly scans the room. He turns to Elizabeth, places a hand on the far side of her waist, tucked beneath her body against the sheets. It’s a slow and soft move, when he gently pulls her into his side to rest. She lets out a quiet moan, and they fall back into a comfortable sleep, nestled together as man and wife, finally.

Headcanon: They had hot sex for five hours prior to this. (I’m writing the fanfic, don’t worry…)

#pirates of the caribbean #potc #dmtnt #willabeth #dead men tell no tales #disney #[i omitted so much because my stomach is crippling me rn so i'll probably add to this tomorrow or whatever]#[did i imagine half of those moments in the willabeth scenes? probably? i don't even fucking know it was all a dream istg]

23 notes · View notes

artificialqueens · 7 years

Text

New Man Pt. 2 - Fucking Awful.

A/N: THANK YOU GUYS FOR YOUR KIND FEEDBACK! I am so appreciative that you took the time to read Part 1 of “New Man” and glad to hear you enjoyed it. You all make my little Grinch heart grow 10 sizes.

Here is Part 2 – I know I promised fluff and happiness, but the story took me in a different direction for this chapter. That said, this is Part 2/?? and if you bear with my I promise to take you to the Promised Land of kisses and glitter. Darkness before the dawn, right?

A good chunk of this is flashback/Roy recounting how we got here, so not as much forward movement as background. Hope you don’t mind some heavy-handed exposition…

Last 2 things – I’m seeing what happens if I switch into Roy’s POV, because I like the narrative structure flipping back and forth between the 2. Would love to get feedback on that, and happy to adapt the structure to one POV or the other if you have strong feelings. AND THIS IS A LONG ONE, sorry if 3K words is brutal.

Thanks for readying, y’all are the real MVPs.

This was going really fucking great.

That was the only thing running through Roy’s mind as he felt Danny smile underneath his kiss. In the 4 hours he’d been in Seattle he thought he had totally screwed up his plan, but somehow things had gotten back on track. Clearly this was meant to –

And then Danny broke away. Suddenly, roughly. Ripping is lips away and pushing off with surprising force. Roy stumbled back a few paces as both men caught their breath.

“No. This is…you’re…no.” Danny picked up the lighter he’d dropped in the heat of the moment, still muttering to himself just low enough that Roy couldn’t hear. Then he grabbed Roy by the forearm and dragged him back into the bar – again, sudden and rough. Roy couldn’t help but giggle just a tiny bit, thinking how ridiculous Danny must look hauling a 40-year-old man off like a misbehaving toddler.

“This isn’t funny, man. What was…ugh!” Throwing his hands off dramatically, Danny let go and continued back to their friends. Shit, the kid was really frustrated and probably even a little mad. Roy steeled himself from the drunken giggles, rejoining the table a few seconds behind.

He was thankful that the crew didn’t acknowledge anything that had just happened – the benefit of drunk friends, amiright? Roy eased back into the group conversation, light chatter about who totally saw the ending coming on Westworld or what memes would make the best protest t-shirts. He took every opportunity to steal an unnoticed look at Danny, who was half participating in the discussion and half furiously clicking at his phone. In his cross-faded fog, Roy couldn’t tell what the kid was doing. Grindr? Writing a novel? Playing Bejeweled – that was still a thing, right?

His stealth staring mission was clearly a failure, though, evidenced by the sharp kick of Jinkx’s boot on his shin.

“OH what the fuck Jinkx?!” Curiosity became shooting pain as Roy clutched for his leg underneath the table.

“Sorry Roy, clumsy as ever! Let me grab you a drink, dull the pain. Come with me to the bar?” The redhead emphasized the last request with Uzo Aduba-level crazy eyes. This was not a request, and while Jinkx didn’t intimidate Roy he was too fuzzy to fight.

“Sure, queen. Somebody has to make sure you don’t drop the booze.” Oof, his snapbacks were weak tonight. The two left the table and headed to see Todd at the bar.

“I’ll take a –“

“Oh no, you’ll have a water. Todd, water for Bianca del Drunko. I’ll take a few shots of Jack for the table, and Ginger backs.” Roy pouted and raised an eyebrow, sorting through his Rolodex of Hate for a quippy insult about ginger and redheads and minj, but finding his speed dulled a bit by the smoke and alcohol.

Jinkx turned back to him. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on with you right now but get it together. Jesus, del Rio, you’re supposed to be the mature one. The rest of us get to fuck things up. Just drink your water and mellow out for a minute.” The redhead knew about Roy’s plan, his oh-so-secret plan to use this weekend to woo Danny, and could tell he was putting it at risk.

“Alright, alright Jinkx. Don’t get so worked up you fall asleep on me.”

The joke fell flat. “You can do better than that.”

“Damn straight I can. You –“

For what had to be the millionth time that night, Roy was interrupted. This time by his phone, pinging with a text – from Danny. Roy looked over to the table to see what was going on, but all he saw was the kid deep in conversation and finally ignoring his phone. Roy swiped to open…

Danny: What the hell, Roy? I know we haven’t gotten to see much of each other since I moved up here, but something is different about you and it’s really fucked. You’ve been acting like a bit of a cunt the last few weeks, you hardly call me or Shane or even your mom anymore, and now you’re here doing everything you can to cheat on your boyfriend? With strangers, with me…This isn’t you, and if it is then I’m not sure I know you anymore.

Roy scanned the text eight more times before throwing his phone down on the bar. Jinkx didn’t flinch, too occupied flirting with one of the cute bartenders. Seizing the moment, Roy grabbed the three shots of Jack the guy had poured and knocked them back in quick succession. It wasn’t until the slam of the last shot glass onto the bar that the redhead looked up, just in time to see Roy storming for the exit.

As he stood out on the curb, trying desperately to get an Uber with his now smashed up phone, there was only one thing running through Roy’s mind:

This was going really fucking awful.

—

Roy woke up suddenly, eyes snapping open to his unfamiliar hotel room lit by dawn creeping through haphazardly closed curtains. He rolled over to look at the clock – 5:12am. It figures, Roy was never one to sleep off a night of drinking. While most people spent the next day wrapped in blankets and sleeping like a rock until at least 11am, he always seemed to be yanked out of slumber after only a few hours of restless shut-eye. Sometime between 5am and 6am he would be awake, mind reeling and trying unsuccessfully to will himself back to sleep until the headache went away.

This morning was no different – only the pain was so, so much worse. Sure, he used three shots of whiskey to put an exclamation mark on a night of heavy drinking, but the pain that was nagging him most was emotional. Roy grabbed for his phone – oh right, it was smashed to shit by angry Bianca last night – and re-read Danny’s text. He was hit by a sudden wave of nausea, a feeling that made him want to cry as it made him want to vomit. He grabbed a bottle of water from the minibar, charge be damned, and chugged the whole thing has he tried to figure out how the hell he had screwed this up so badly.

—

His plan was never *simple*, but that wouldn’t be Roy’s style. As Bob had frequently told him, he was a “lover of complexity” and couldn’t help himself. The plan to woo Danny was no different.

To say he cooked this up when he caught Sky sleeping with one of his personal training clients 2 weeks ago was only half right. Roy had actually planned to spend the three months off between the US and UK legs of Not Today Satan to finally make a play for Danny, but bitch moved to Seattle before he could make any of the many grand gestures he’d cooked up. In the first few weeks after Danny left, when the kid’s social media had been flooded with posts about how much he loved Seattle and the people, Roy hit a real low point. Jealous, exhausted, and feeling quite sorry for himself, he met Sky in a bar and hooked up with him a few times before falling into an effortless relationship.

Effortless not in the good sense of the word, though; effortless in the sense that Roy put in literally no effort, and didn’t care to make it work. The guy was named SKY after all – Roy could barely believe he’d been able to fuck a guy named Sky for 2 whole months, but he supposed the abs helped. Sky was just a nice distraction, a pretty shiny toy to brag about when he needed to overcompensate in conversations with Danny and Shane…which had quickly become all the time. He learned a hot, rich boyfriend is a great way to deflect questions about himself or his wellbeing. The new man, combined with dialing the bitchiness up to 11, was like armor; helpful in denying to himself and the outside world that he was not in a good place.

But when Roy walked in on Sky with his 2pm-Tuesdays balls deep in his ass, he resolved that even in his lowest moments he had the self-respect not to date a cheater. So he cut if off with Sky and 20 minutes later booked a 2 week trip to Seattle. Time to put the Noriega-Haylock plan back in action, for the thousandth time in 4 years.

This time, Roy would show Danny how perfect and the right kind of effortless they could be. He would breeze into town – but let’s be real, Roy never breezes – and seamlessly integrate himself into the Seattle version of Danny’s life. He would meet the new friends, support him at all his local shows, become a member at the EMP…hell he’d even buy a few flannels and a beanie. At the same time, Roy would make his feelings for Danny abundantly clear. He was confident that Danny reciprocated them; he knew it in his heart, but he also knew because Danny had told him on more than one occasion. Three times over the course of their friendship Danny had been the fearless one and professed his love for Roy. Ok, so maybe fearless is the wrong word – the drunk and cross-faded one may be a more apt description – but the point was that Roy knew Danny wanted this as much as he did. He felt it in his soul, his mind, every fiber of his body. Now it was time to make it real.

After booking the flights, he called Dela to layout his plan. He knew he needed a confidante in this, and it wouldn’t be fair to Shane to put him in the middle of this.

“B, I’m really glad you’re finally taking the plunge with Danny. It’s been too long coming. But you realize you have 2 big problems, right?” Ben was his always-enthusiastic self, but had some concerns. “You still aren’t solving the long-distance and time problem you’ve always been worried about.”

“We’ll find a way to work through it. I have to stop using that as an excuse to not give this a chance.”

“Very big of you, and I agree. But, uh, the second thing – don’t you have a boyfriend?”

“Well, funny story – no. That was always a waste of my time – c’mon, his name was SKY – and I caught him getting fucked by a bear about an hour ago.”

“Oh sweetie, I’m so sorry! Are you ok? Are you alone?” Ben launched into caregiver mode, instantly making Roy uncomfortable.

“No, Ben I’m really fine. It was not –“

“I know Michelle’s in town, she’s always my breakup guru, maybe you should –“

Fuck. Roy realized a major problem. If he announced to his friends (and social media, shit) that he and his new man had broken up, his life would become an endless barrage of sympathy. Everything he’d done to ward off questions about the bags under his tired eyes, the increasingly infrequent and short calls to friends and family, and the mess in his usually tidy life would crumble. Roy couldn’t have that – he was fine, he was the caretaker for everyone else, and he couldn’t stand people to fuss over his well-being.

It was in that moment that he made the decision that made the plan *complex* - “Ben, stop. I’m fine, really I’m ok. Peachy fucking keen. But can I ask one favor of you? One tiny thing and I’ll name my next dog after you?”

“Anything, dear.”

“Do not – and I repeat, do NOT – tell anyone that Sky and I broke up.”

“What?” Ben was confused, understandably.

“I don’t want to deal with all of these conversations about it, and the only person who really needs to know right now is Danny. I’ll tell him in person when I’m in Seattle, please just keep quiet about it until then.”

“I’m not sure that’s the best…”

“Please, Dela. Just let me do this my way?”

After a long pause – “Ok, alright, sure. Let me go on record saying I don’t think that’s a healthy way to handle this.”

“Dually noted, Judge Judy. Thank you, I appreciate it.” Roy hung up with Dela and began crafting his “casual” message to Danny to tell him he’d be in town. Mid-way through the 5th round of editing, his phone rang: Jinkx.

“Hey Jinkx, can I call you back I –“

“Are you an idiot? I mean really, are the blonde wigs affecting your brain?” Jinkx steamrolled him.

“Excuse me?” “Dela is on with me – I know what you’re coming to Seattle to do –“

“Well now it’s to come cut up that bitch Dela’s wigs. I asked you one thing, you little fruit fly –“ “Sorry Roy, I –“

“Don’t apologize, Ben. He was right to tell me, he’s going to be out of town when you get here and someone has to help you not screw this up. I know we can’t talk you out of it, but at least let us try to support you. This is big risk, big reward, and it could – you’re going to need wing-people.”

Roy knew there was no point in fighting. As good natured as Jinkx was, bitch was aggressive. If we wanted to help, goddammit he was going to help. With a sigh – “Ok, you’re in on this. Great. But please let me handle this they way I want to – I need to. Danny and I are endgame to a long, long story and I have to do this the way I feel is right. If this gets out beyond the two of you, I will call Darienne and Roxxxy so that those shady elephants can trample you. Is that clear?”

“Sure, whatever you say.” Jinkx scoffed.

Ben soothed. “What Jinkx means to say, Roy, is we are here for you and support you. We are so happy you’re finally going after what we’ve all seen for years.”

“Yes, all that.” Jinkx reassured. “And I promise I won’t let you fuck it up.”

Roy laughed. “Gee, thanks.” Now, with less sarcasm – “I do actually appreciate it. But I think I got this.”

It was Jinkx’s turn for sarcasm. “Uh huh, sure.”

—

It did not bring Roy any joy to have proven Jinkx right. Again, he felt nauseous.

He had basically blown his chance with Danny on the first night but if he was being honest the mistakes started long before. The sexting. See, Roy refused to tell anyone else – not Shane, not Detox, nobody – about his breakup with Sky. That meant a lot of nights alone before his trip to Seattle, pretending to be busy to avoid having to be avoidant. That also meant a lot of solo wine nights, which somehow quickly devolved into sending dirty texts – so, so many dirty texts – to Danny. Now that he was committing to his pursuit, the fact that his every sexual fantasy had the same male lead was not something Drunk Roy felt the need to hide. At some point every night, his filter would disappear and he’d send Danny a (he thought) beautifully written description of the patterns he wanted to draw across his body with his tongue, the ways in which he wanted to tie up and be tied, the rhythms he wanted to pound into him, etc.

That Danny did not respond to these texts or bring them up in their regular conversations was a little confusing to Roy, but he was glad for it. He figured Danny just read them when he was equally pissed drunk – he knew he deleted messages as he read them – and forgot about it. At least that’s what he hoped, so that there could be some element of surprise in his plan. But seeing Danny’s reaction to the kiss and everything after, Roy understood he was wrong. It seemed like Danny was actually mad about it – not a reaction he had expected.

And then there was the bar – for that, Roy couldn’t muster an explanation or an excuse. He knew that he did this. During times of high anxiety and stress, Roy makes terrible decisions when he drinks. He tried for years to understand how or why, but for some reason worry plus whiskey turns him into a bad idea machine. This wasn’t the first time the same combination ended with him lip-locked (or worse) with a stranger that he later regretted. He should’ve just kept it low-key last night, not drinking much if at all so that he could play it cool with Danny. But nerves got the best of Roy, and from the moment he got on the plane he’d been building a buzz. By the time he got to the bar he was browning out, and he barely remembered how he ended up cuddled up with this random guy.

It wasn’t until Danny started singing that damn song that Roy realized what was going on. Immediately he was horrified – it looked like he was cheating on his boyfriend. Not only did he ignore the love of his life when he had flown to Seattle to see him, but he also appeared to be committing Danny’s #1 cardinal unforgivable sin. He immediately stood up and left the stranger’s table, and rejoined his so-called friends – What the fuck, why didn’t Jinkx stop him? What kind of wing-person was that? Roy sat for a few minutes, half seething and half feeling like he was actually going to die of embarrassment and sadness. When he saw Danny get up to leave, he jumped at the chance to catch him outside and apologize.

And yet – again, with the good ideas from Drunk Roy – instead of apologizing he found himself aggressively accosting Danny before going in for the kiss he’d dreamed about for years. And for just a few seconds, Roy thought everything was going to be ok. He thought that despite all his mistakes today, the last two weeks, the last few years…he thought he’d finally gotten it right. But we all saw how that ended…

—

Finished with a second bottle of water now, Roy emerged from his self reflective daze. He stared at the text from Danny hoping against all hope that he would feel better and last night could be erased and that he could save him and Danny. But when he looked down at the message for the thousandth time, he had to choke back searing tears.

I’m not sure I know you anymore.

“Sometimes I don’t think I know me anymore either, kid.” He muttered. He rifled through is bag to find some Benadryl – the only way he can sleep some days – and popped two of the pink pills before rolling back to bed. “But I’ll make this right. God and Joan Rivers help me, we’re gonna do this.”

Roy couldn’t fix anything now, so at least he could try to sleep.

—

[End of Part 2]

#bianca del rio #adore delano #jinkx monsoon #bendelacreme #biadore #angst #tw cheating #tw depression #rpdr fanfiction #submission #new man #fucking awful #canon compliant

33 notes · View notes