#RE is doing something different with the story in these remakes
Note
another broke take i keep seeing is that ashley develops feelings for leon but that it’s not mutual, which is dumb bc even if leon isn’t as open about it (the ‘running from creeps’ and ‘good company’ lines notwithstanding), his body language is very telling imo.
holding on to her a little longer than he needs to during the church escape, touching her shoulder to check on her (when they’re saved by luis) or in reassurance (post-stabbing), gently cupping her head and tracing his fingers down her arm, reaching for her face again when she’s on the altar, grabbing her hand to pull her into the lift, and the way he always stops to help her up with both arms when she’s downed by enemies
even the fact that he’s literally being paid to protect her can’t justify the tenderness of all these little touches. i highly doubt “touch the president’s daughter like she’s the only thing that keeps you going” was in his job description. don’t even get me started on his boyish, almost bashful, “i can catch ya” like literally what the fuck
I think, after being forced into the shadows for eighteen fucking years by this fandom -- and by Aeon fans especially -- I've been hesitant to make any definitive statements on Leon and Ashley's relationship outside of its effects on Leon's character arc (and reaffirming over and over and over again that Ashley disappears from the series, as though to soothe people's reactions??).
But I was on discord talking to @godtier earlier, and once I actually said it out loud and then actually got an agreement from someone who could not be paid to give a fucking shit about this ship -- I'm just going to go ahead and say it for the wider fandom.
Resident Evil 4 Remake was written as a romance, and the romance is between Leon and Ashley.
With the new scenes they've added in, it's literally structured like a romance story is. I'll even outline it for you.
1) Call to Adventure / The Meet Cute
Literally their first meeting in the church, culminating with the catch and that moment of longing as they lock eyes while Leon continues to hold her just a few seconds too long.
2) Refusal of the Call / Rejection of the Relationship
At first, Leon treats Ashley solely as his mission objective. ("Hey can we take a break?" "Sorry, we need to keep moving.") And Ashley, for a good bit, doesn't trust him at all but goes with him because she has no other choice. ("Seriously, this cannot be happening.")
3) Acceptance of the Quest / Giving the relationship a chance
The escape from the cabin sequence up to the "seems this isn't your first time running from creeps." line. This is where we see them actually start to warm up to each other, and Ashley, for the first time, believes Leon can and will really get her out of there.
4) Trials and Temptations / Three Dates
The three dates are:
1) Ashley busting the window open after the Mendez boss fight, helping brush the embers off of Leon, and helping to pull him to his feet
2) Salazar's introduction ("The girl's just fine. With me.")
3) The road to the Water Hall (Leon jumping across the chandeliers + this is the first time the "knight and the princess" allegory is stated)
5) Midpoint Crisis / I-need-you-but-can’t-have-you
The stab followed by Ashley running away in tears, terrified of hurting Leon again and horrified that he saw her like that. This is also the second time that the "knight and the princess" allegory is stated.
6) The Road Back / Pulling Back Together
The pep talk. Leon is openly vulnerable for the first time ever in this game, and Ashley is grateful to have him with her. Note that Luis calls Leon "Prince Charming" immediately following this scene.
7) The Fall
Ashley stating "I won't run. Wait for me, Leon." And then Leon following up with the "I can catch ya" line.
8) Dark moment / The Break Up
Leon sitting at Ashley's bedside waiting to turn and ready to shoot himself. He's already half given up, and some part of him has started to believe that they won't actually make it out of here -- not together, at least.
9) The Sacrifice
"This time, it has to be different." Leon is forced to challenge the assertion by Ada and Krauser that he hasn't changed, and he even has to prove it to himself. He destroys Ashley's plaga, holding her hand the whole time, smiles breathlessly, then collapses to the floor.
10) Declaration
"Hey... we're a team, right?"
"Keep this up? I'll be out of a job."
11) The HEA
Leon and Ashley literally ride off into the sunrise together towards a happily ever after.
The original RE4 is not structured this way. Even if I tried to, I couldn't slot Leon and Ashley's scenes from OG into this outline.
And the romance angle is reinforced over and over and over again through repeated use of the "knight and the princess" allegory beyond what I've even listed in the outline. You know, the fairy tales about the knight who saves the princess and they fall in love and live happily ever after. In addition to Salazar saying it, there's the "Prince Charming" line from Luis, Ashley references it when she jokes that Leon should literally put on the knight's armor -- and, on a meta level, Leon has a fucking fantasy hero costume.
There's even goddamn dialogue in the game where Ashley says to Leon, "I knew you'd come" -- which is basically just ripped right out of the Princess Bride.
And to continue the meta reinforcement of it, Leon and Ashley literally have a matching set of alternate costumes called "Romantic" -- and they are fucking Romeo & Juliet inspired. Come the fuck on, man. They couldn't have been more on the nose about it if they'd tried.
And this is in addition to all the other shit you already pointed out in your ask.
And there's the fact that they completely removed any hint of Ada possibly even remotely being a love interest for Leon in this game. The focus remains solely on Ashley and the bond that she and Leon build together.
Leon and Ashley's relationship in RE4 Remake is canonically romantic in nature, and I'm so fucking tired of pretending like it's not.
#resident evil 4#leon kennedy#ashley graham#meta analysis#i'm tired of tiptoeing around legitimate literary analysis of RE4make's narrative#just for the sake of not upsetting a subset of the fandom who have had their ship be canon for 25 goddamn years already#RE is doing something different with the story in these remakes#and this is one of the changes they've made#and it's there whether y'all fucking like it or not#i have had to put up with aeon for 25 fucking years#y'all can deal with ONE version of ONE game where the romance angle went in a different direction#because it did go in a different direction in RE4make#RE4make binned leon/ada in favor of leon/ashley#and you really can't make an argument otherwise
73 notes
·
View notes
Text
Arrrghh. People are finishing up Rebirth and looking up the different localizations, and the inevitable wave of hate for the English version is starting to gain traction again just like with Remake. I guess I just get super defensive about it because I have worked on large translation projects before, and it's not as straightforward as players seem to think.
It's not like the good ol' days of "This Guy Are Sick." They don't write the JPN script first, and then just send it out for translation anymore. Nowadays the different language scripts are all written simultaneously, with the teams working back and forth together, to check over each ofher's work and make sure that no one sentence is under- or overshooting a goal. Like it or not— everything is checked over and approved.
There's a lot more being translated than just words. There's so much to take into account— tone of voice, the cultural context, the lip sync and corresponding length of each line (which isn't allowed to run over by more than 0.2 seconds which is CRAZY). It's a messy process and it's a lot of goddamn work.
And then there's the audience, too. Different languages' audiences are often going to have wildly different interpretations of a character. A really good example from FFVII would be Yuffie. In the JPN version of the OG, Yuffie is written to be a confident girl who's dead serious about her ninja training. The ENG translation didn't do that justice... she instead comes off as a silly annoying kid pretending to be a ninja. Remake's DLC was testing the waters to see if they could write Yuffie in a way that's still faithful to both of the strikingly different regional perceptions of her character. And they nailed it.
The same thing happened with Cloud, and continues to influence the way he's written in the Re-trilogy. It's much more subtle than with Yuffie, but it's still noticeable, and I think it's why a lot of people get up in arms about his dialogue.
Cloud has always been written as having a stark disconnect between his tone of voice and his choice of words. It's just that the two major languages get it swapped! JPN Cloud has a harsh, mean tone, but his choice of words is polite and easygoing. On the other hand, ENG Cloud says a LOT of nasty shit out loud, but his true feelings are betrayed by his soft voice and gentle body language.
The difference goes unnoticed by the average player who isn't so invested to give a damn. But if you're actively searching for "bad translations" to get mad at, then you'll find them where one version's Cloud comes off a bit too strong. It's only natural that English Cloud is the one that pisses people off more often— after all, he's literally saying stupid shit to to piss other characters off constantly. His character is so convincing that players want to reach into their screens and wring his neck, and I think that's glorious.
But that's why it upsets me to see people turn that frustration at the localization teams. They didn't "ruin" a character's dialogue— they were just barely able to make something work, all things considered. Character, line length, culture, story context, facial animations, voice acting, for MULTIPLE languages, like... holy shit. It's a miracle that most of it is really really good, and that the bad is only a little bit bad.
Idk where this rant is going. Just... c'mon people. Have some respect for such an insanely complicated art form.
#look dude. some of the shit cloud says in ENG is awful yes. THAT'S THE POINT THAT'S THE POINT THAT'S THE POINT#it's supposed to be jarring!! it's supposed to make you want to fucking bite his fingers off!!!!!!#it's his shitty asshole coping mechanism and it's The Point Of Everything#the ENG and JPN versions may be different but The Point gets across nonetheless. and that is GOOD.#ugghhh ok just get this outta my system. seeya lol have yourselves a wonderful me gongaga monday tuesday#ffvii
161 notes
·
View notes
Text
There's still a haunt on the hill...
In my previous post, I dug through the ghostly chain of adaptations of Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" starting by its various movie incarnations. But I am not done...
Because in 2018, Mike Flanagan released on Netflix his massively successful television series, "The Haunting of Hill House".
Flanagan's television series was strongly influenced by "The Shining", another major haunting-story of the 20th century, first marking American literature under the pen of Stephen King...
... Then marking American cinema by the movie adaptation of Stanley Kubrick.
Mike Flanagan never hid his passion and love for "The Shining", both the Kubrick and King versions, and it is for this reason he was the man behind the 2019 movie "Doctor Sleep"....
... an adaptation of Stephen King's sequel-novel to The Shining.
And fascinatingly, a lot of details and ideas of Flanagan's "The Haunting of Hill House" (or its sister-series, "The Haunting of Bly Manor") were reused for his Doctor Sleep movie...
But, speaking of Stephen King, did you know he made his own "The Haunting of Hill House"? Well, almost... He and Steven Spielberg worked on a project in the 1990s: a remake of The Haunting/a new movie adaptation of "The Haunting of Hill House". Unfortunately this movie never came to the light of day, as the two men split apart due to creative differences...
However this did not stop Stephen King from reusing the unused/unfinished script/concept for his "Haunting of Hill House" adaptation, throwing in a lot of elements from his own "The Shining", with several nods to the real-life Winchester Mansion, and tadaa! The result was 2002's mini-series "Rose-Red".
Stephen King has very often praised Jackson's novel. In fact, in his eyes it is one of the two greatest ghost stories of American literature... Alongside Henry James' The Turn of the Screw.
Do you recall Henry James? Sure you do! From the previous post... He wrote the "Ghostly Rental" story, that itself got adapted in 1999 into a horror movie called "The Haunting of Hell House" - confusing Jackson's "Hill House" with Matheson's "Hell House".
Do the links stop here? NOT AT ALL! Flanagan's "The Haunting of Hill House" was supposed to be the first season of an anthology series about ghost stories. This project got cancelled, but not before a sister-series to "The Haunting of Hill House" was made... a second season called "The Haunting of Bly Manor", which is a loose adaptation of "The Turn of the Screw".
AND THERE'S MORE! Because you see, before being re-adapted by Mike Flanagan, "The Turn of the Screw"'s most famous adaptation was a 1961 movie called "The Innocents". A movie which also became a classic of black-and-white haunted house horror movies, just like "The Haunting" that was released two years afterward... Film critics, cinema theoricians and movie enjoyers all agree that the two movies have to be compared, with something of a sibling relationship to each other.
"The Turn of the Screw" - and more specifically the 1961's "The Innocents" movie - also had a huge influence on one of the greatest Spanish moviemakers of the 21st century: Guillermo del Toro. In fact, it was to pay homage to both the classic of Gothic that was "The Innocents", and the behemoth of the traditional horror that was Kubrick's The Shining, that he decided to create his own Gothic horror movie... The wonderfully horrifying "Crimson Peak", released in 2015.
And not only does Crimson Peak unites The Turn of the Screw with The Shining (Guillermo also invoked the influence of other massive horror movies, such as The Omen or The Exorcist) - but this movie also is the final union, the ultimate blooming of Jackson and James' works. Because del Toro's original intention for this movie was to pay homage to the "two grand dames" of the haunted house movies... 1961's The Innocents, and 1963's The Haunting. The two ghostly tragedies finally united in one Gothic movie...
Well... To be fair, the uniting of "The Haunting of Hill House" and of "The Turn of the Screw" had already happened long before del Toro's Crimson Peak, but with a much less famous and successful movie: 1971's Let's Scare Jessica to Death... A cult piece (despite its lukewarm reception), it was created with only one goal in mind: recreating a psychological horror story with ambiguous implications, in the style of James' The Turn of the Screw, and Robert Wise's The Haunting.
(Think we're done? FOOL! Just you wait...)
#the haunting of hill house#mike flanagan#stephen king#shining#the shining#horror movies#rose red#guillermo del toro#crimson peak#let's scare jessica to death#the turn of the screw#the innocents#the haunting of bly manor
77 notes
·
View notes
Text
Earlier, I made some broad predictions for Walpurgis no Kaiten, but now it's time for a few more granular ones. One of the great things about PMMM thus far is its use of repetition, which allows for some pretty obvious guesses about what's to come:
An unknown amount of time has passed between Rebellion and WnK; the story opens in media res at the moment before the current system is irrevocably changed. Thus we will not fully understand the world Homura has created until it's about to disappear; however, the seeds of its destruction were present from the beginning, as will eventually be made clear.
The original series opens with a cryptic and as-yet-unexplained prologue, followed by a battle scene that segues into Madoka waking up and going about her morning routine before heading to school. Rebellion follows the same pattern, with a cryptic explanatory monologue from Homura, the first Nightmare battle, and an almost shot-for-shot remake of Madoka's morning routine.
Thus, I think it's reasonable to assume that WnK will do the same; my guess is that we'll have a cryptic Homura scene that may or may not explain what has come before and which will probably hit differently in hindsight, followed by a battle sequence (my guess is Mami, Kyouko, and Sayaka getting their asses kicked when the wraiths start going haywire and/or something with the mysterious hybrid magical girl) followed by Madoka waking up and going about her morning (but animated in the new style and with a few key differences to mark that things are the Same Yet Also Different).
It's unclear to me whether Madoka is in this "dream" or not because I'm not sure what her role is/if she's a magical girl at this point. Based on the previous two installments, the answer is "yes", but we'll see.
Likewise, there will be a Thematically Relevant Conversation between Madoka and Junko in the bathroom while they're brushing their teeth. Would be hilarious if it involved mirrors or reflections (literal or metaphorical) in any way; ditto for teamwork and cooperation, since I suspect they will be major themes in this installment. Also phones and communication.
Is Kyubey initially around? Again, TBD. Could go either way, depending on his circumstances now. My guess is no, though it would be funny to see him watching in the background.
Madoka leaves the house, meets up with Sayaka and Hitomi, as per usual. (You can see in the trailer that Sayaka has bandages around her neck in this scene, which is one reason why I think she's in Madoka's "dream"/fight sequence as described above.) Some playful & thematically relevant banter ensues. The three of them then encounter parasol!Homura as seen in the trailer.
I think the big mystery for the first 20-40 minutes is "What is going on with Homura??" There will be a number of scenes with her where she looks/acts different, and something is clearly off, but it is not immediately clear what it is or even that there are two of them at first, because only one Homura visible in any given shot. This will eventually change, of course, and the reveal where they appear together will be very dramatic and artsy, but until then, I expect SHAFT to milk the confusion and the ominous dread for all it's worth
There will also be a Thematically Relevant Saotome rant once Madoka et al. get to class, of course.
Nakazawa gets one (1) line.
the OTHER established pattern is that there's always a new transfer student on the Day Everything Changes, which raises the FASCINATING question of whether parasol!Homura is just going to roll up and start attending classes now, too. If that's the case, will the "real" Homura be present for this (doubtful, given my speculations above) or is she missing/absent? It would be so funny if WnK pulled a Rebellion and had the "real" Homura in a coma for half of the movie, but somehow I don't think that's where this is going. How does parasol!Homura explain herself? Is she here in addition to Homura (i.e., as a student in her own right) or to take Homura's place entirely? What does Madoka think??
(to be clear: there's no question in my mind that the movie's plot kicks off with the arrival of the doppelganger here, the only question is how they choose to play it. In technical terms, this is the story's "inciting incident", and, in keeping with the established pattern, it's Homura--a Homura, anyway--entering Madoka's world yet again.)
Those are my guesses for the first part of the movie, based on previous structure and established patterns. It's possible the creators might switch it up, but I feel reasonably confident WnK will continue with them, at least at first, if only to lull us into a false sense of security before dropping the ground out from under us. In both the TV series and the movie, this section I've just described is approximately 10 minutes long, which still leaves plenty of time for surprises.
After that point, it gets a little murkier because I'm missing so many pieces, and there's no guarantee WnK will follow the same structure as Rebellion beyond those required by their shared two-hour movie format. That said, here are few things I expect to see at some point:
Mami, Kyouko, and Sayaka reconvene, but they are losing their powers--probably to the hybrid magical girl, who appears to be using Mami's ribbons. Sayaka is missing her healing powers, which is why she's all bandaged in the trailer. Kyouko is probably also missing powers, which is why she looks so pissed. If WnK follows the same beats as Rebellion, this will be at about the same point as the second Nightmare fight, otherwise who knows. The point is that the world is breaking down and nothing is "normal" anymore.
Meanwhile, Homura is being haunted/taunted by her double, who is actively interfering with her and her system. I would like a jaw-dropping reality-bending fight sequence between them a la "Absolute Configuration", but we'll see if I get my wish.
I expect the double to have a lengthy monologue explaining what is going on, though in classic PMMM fashion, this will raise as many questions as it answers. (This could also be Kyubey's job, but tbh I'd rather have the double do it.) But there's no question that there were unintended consequences to Homura's actions in Rebellion and someone has to explain them to the audience.
One transformation sequence for each of the main cast, though one or two might have multiple ones.
By the end of the film, the universe is rewritten again and a new system is made. If we're lucky, this will be the happy Final Ending in which Madoka and Homura are reunited forever; if we're unlucky, it will be Rebellion Cliffhanger Hell all over again, only worse.
But, having established patterns, it's also possible to break them. I don't necessarily expect this for a lot of the big picture/structural stuff, but I can see it happening in a few places, like:
Sayaka tries to spray Homura (original or double) with a fire extinguisher, but it backfires somehow--either exploding in her face, or she hits the other one by mistake. Alternately, she does it and it SEEMS like it worked, only for Homura to loom up unexpectedly out of nowhere and gloat.
Also, this is not a structural thing, per se, but based on Rebellion, I expect there will be 2-3 major twists of ratcheting intensity, at least one of which will make a large percentage of the fandom incredibly angry, but for dramatically different reasons: one camp will claim that it "came out of nowhere" and/or "ruins Homura's character", and the other will argue that it was "too predictable" and "contrived" and therefore bad. Eventually, everyone will calm down and grudgingly accept it the way they've done with Rebellion (if only because the people who hate it the most leave the fandom, or if it's truly the end of the series).
As for me, I feel very agnostic about the whole business--while I certainly have no end of guesses about what is likely and the things I would like to see (two separate but related circles), and it would be very satisfying to be right, I'm not wedded to the idea of canon as this absolute monolith that determines whether something is interesting or not. If I hate WnK (doubtful), I'll write fanfic about it; if I love WnK, I'll write fanfic about it. No matter what happens, fanfic will be written and I will shape the established narrative as needed to suit my needs--I engage in this speculation before the fact primarily because it's fun and a useful exercise for a writer.
60 notes
·
View notes
Text
leon s. kennedy [re: 4 remake]
💌 leon gets jealous.
💌 warnings&tags: fluff, flirting, teasing, jealousy, platonic!leon and platonic!reader, no use of pronouns, friends to lovers (kinda), luis is mischievous, leon likes to talk a lot in this, and more in the story! enjoy. <3 | wc: 1.5k | masterlist.
"in the end, you are not the only one who is good with ladies, huh, amigo?" luis said, hitting leon's shoulder with his, crossed arms, eyes directed at you, a smirk on his face while leon had a straight expression like the one he always had but this is a bit different - he was annoyed, probably from the fact that the man liked you and hearing luis' speech, he began to thought you liked luis, not him.
seeing leon's tensed body, luis for sure understood that his plan was working, so, he added, "what do you think? should I go and talk about my wonderful abilities?"
leon rolled his eyes, "sure." was all he said before turning to gather some loots from the abandoned house you all were in.
when luis made a move to you, leon tried so hard not to look at your direction to see what would be your reaction to luis' pick up lines, trying to get you closer to him.
this all was a mission, saving ashley together. he knew you quite well now after doing a few missions side by side but he couldn't tell whether you really liked luis or not.
there were lots of times in which leon and you became flirty to each other, teasing, joking around and even touching. however, he never had encouragement to say he liked you and ask whether you had same feelings for him or not.
knowing you well, he guessed you would be friendly with luis, nothing more, but when the curiosity burned him, he picked a good look at you and luis who were talking happily, chuckling and even leaving a few laughs. he lost himself when luis held your hand, putting a gentle kiss on it and winking at you while saying something that you smiled at. maybe it was a compliment made you smile - maybe it was his silliness - maybe something different. leon didn't care - he couldn't because raising heat, a dangerous one, on his chest made his eyes and mind dizzy with sweats on palms. he never wanted punch a man so hard but now, he sure wanted to kick luis' ass.
turning to the door angrily, he only said, "I'm out." with a cold tone, trying not to think about what you would do afterwards but hoping you will come to him, not stay with luis - all alone.
`
"hey," you said, touching leon's tensed shoulder gently, only to want him to look at you rather than empty lake surrounded with heavy air. "you okay?"
he shrugged, not looking at you but neither doing a move to make your hand drop from his built shoulder you always like to touch - feel, well, you always like to touch every part of him.
"why shouldn't I?" he asked.
you chuckled, "well, we are in a place in which people lose their minds, become puppets of others clearly and we are trying to get out from here with the daughter of president. so there are a lot reasons for not being okay."
taking back your hand, you crossed your arms, leaning towards the wooden railing beside leon, looking at his face directly, "but I know these are not something you can be bad about. so, why, leon, why you are looking - sad?" you chose to say sad instead of bad because from the way he looks at the lake, you knew he had something on his mind to make it cloudy - making him sad.
leon's ice blue eyes found yours, spending some time to look at them intensely 'till he decided to go back inside after saying, "I am okay, don't worry." when he was about to get into the house, he added lowly like he was trying to say it to himself, "go and have fun with him."
it took a few minutes for you to understand who he was referring to and when you understood it, you rushed towards inside, stopping when you saw leon talking with the merchant you saw from time to time.
luis was nowhere near and you were glad. you really liked the guy but because he was fun to talk with and he was making you go calmer with his 'I don't care about anything' attitude. that was all. nothing more. however, seeing leon like this you really couldn't hide your little happiness about all this - he was jealous and you found it amusing, very amusing.
with a smirk on his face, you went to his side, leaning to the wall this time with crossed arms once again.
leon looked at you from corner of his eyes while waiting merchant to fix his knife.
"leon," you said, playfully and as a warning. you continued when he only said 'hmm' in response. "I didn't know jealousy was a perk of yours."
his pale face flustered, showing a light color of pink on the cheeks, making you smirk wider.
contrary to his face, he sounded calm when he spoke, "what are you talking about?"
you waited for him to take back all his items from the merchant and beginning to walk again. "well, I am talking about you and your jealousy -"
"why should I be jealous of?" he asked, stopping on his truck and making your head pump into his back.
holding your forehead, you saw him turning to you, looking tall and glorious. seeing him standing hot but cold at the same time was giving you chills. whether he was close or away, he found his own way to get under your skin with only his piercing gazes.
"you didn't?" you asked, hoping to see you were right, he was jealous and when he simple answered, "no." you saw him looking other way to avoid your eyes. that moment, the rightness of your thought happened to be true, giving you right to tease leon.
taking a step forward, you challenged him to take a step back but he stood like a stone, not giving any emotion away. however, you wouldn't stop.
"then, I can speak with luis however I want, I can allow him to touch me whenever he want, he even can kis -"
leon suddenly held your cheeks with his big palms, squeezing them gently, making you stop to talk and look right into his eyes filled with moving sparkles, giving you butterflies.
"l-leon? -" you tried to ask but you couldn't continue because after a second, his lips found yours, caging them with his that had beautiful taste - a taste you believed you never could forget.
contrary to his looks - all icy, his lips were warm, hotness of them flowing to yours, making your mouth open for more air and leaving him place to use his tongue inside your mouth like he had their rights.
moaning lowly, your hands founds his shoulder, holding them tightly in order to get enough power to hold still, on your feet.
"oh, leon." was all you could say when he left your lips for a second for breathing, only to get back to kissing you mindlessly again. he was using a great strength on holding your lips. including your own hands, you began to shake due to the affect of him - his lips. he was kissing you like there were no tomorrows, maybe there weren't, and you were glad you finally had a chance to feel and taste him, especially from this closeness.
after some time, he left your lips free and you knew they were puffy, red and messy now thanks to him.
"l-leon -" you said. his name was a melody coming out of your pretty lips, both you and him realized this.
and he suddenly remarked, "I knew this would shut your senseless brain down."
you closed your eyes, lips darting towards him with pure instincts, making him leave a low but sharp chuckle enough to make you want to close your thighs together in pleasure.
he then continued, caressing your cheeks now. "to think that I will allow you to speak like this in front of me." he was a silent guy in most of the time. however, he sure liked to talk a lot right now, after getting confidence because of your body's response to him. "let's get over this and have time to add some sense to your mind."
opening your eyes, you smirked, showing brat side of you, "so, that means you were jealous indeed. I was right."
leon rolled his eyes.
"it was all bait and it worked."
you nodded your head, smirking proudly. leon's right hand's forefinger positioned on your chin, picking your head up, he knelt lower 'till his nose touched yours. "I am glad you did because now, you know only I can touch you." he then kissed your deeply, a short one but sure had its own heavy force on you. "only I can kiss you. right, my lady?"
with a happy soul, a fast beating heart and an excited brain, you smiled. nodding, you said, "right, my leon." before kissing him again.
challenging leon was the perfect move after all.
the end. 🍦
#re:4#re:4 remake#resident evil#resident evil 4: remake#leon#leon s. kennedy#leon x reader#leon s. kennedy x reader#re x reader#games#video games#resident evil stories#<3#vom#rose#written by me#resident evil 4#thanks for reading! ^^#luis#leon x you#leon x y/n
343 notes
·
View notes
Note
What don’t you like about the remake? I gotta know
anon i fear you are going to open pandora's box with this question.
since it was revealed in 2022, i will say that my very passionate, fiery, and searing hatred for its very existence has definitely simmered, and what i hold now in my heart for it is a very... cautious disdain.
i'll do my best to break it down for you.
PART ONE: BOOBER TEAM LOL
so... for starters, bloober team, the developers behind the remake, has had something of a muddied history with riding off the coat tails of games past, airlifting concepts from them wholesale, and layers of fear was no different in that respect. there's also the can of worms that is their survival horror title "the medium", which is basically bloober's silent hill 2 before the sh2 remake.
spoilers for the medium, but what can be gleaned from it thematically deeply concerns me as a sh2 fan, i.e. the notion that a victim of csa is simply too far gone and either the player character has to kill her or herself with the adage "you cannot save everyone". not to mention the fact that said victim's abuser was framed in a far more sympathetic light than she was, framing his predatory behavior as a monster controlling him from the inside. it's disgusting and insensitive, simply put.
this theme of "if you're mentally ill or suffer from trauma, you're beyond help and simply better off dead" also appears in their blair witch game, which is... great. from jump, i have had less than favorable opinions on bloober team, not for the quality of their visuals or their gameplay, but what stories they're most interested in telling, and how they go about telling them, exactly.
now, to blanket state that every single person on bloober team are hacks and frauds and don't have a shred of integrity telling the stories that they do would simply be ignorant and incorrect. i wholeheartedly believe that there are individuals working on the sh2 remake right now who want it to be the best that it can be and Very Much Want It To Be Good. it's a shame that these individuals who don't have much in way of creative control are getting thrown under the bus, too.
i can, however, maintain that opinion while also finding their backlog of games prior to the upcoming remake very disconcerting and have that inform my overall level of distrust in their integrity wholesale.
PART TWO: PRESS X TO CRY
i don't think there's anything that makes me more miffed than thinking about when the first remake trailer dropped.
so, we see our friend jim rush into the bathroom, seemingly out of breath, and wash his hands in the sink. we then get a shot of those hands, trembling with fear. he then takes thumb to palm, rubbing circles into them, presumably as a means to soothe himself. we then get him looking into the mirror, seemingly confused and out of place. he touches his face, much like he does in the original.
now, i understand that the notion of jim's emotionality has been a hotly debated topic. some people like it. some people don't. and i'm one of those people who doesn't. at least in this particular vein. in the original sh2, the cold open we get with james slowly approaching the mirror, shrouded in shadow, running his hand over his face as if he doesn't think he's real immediately sets the tone. we don't know who this man is or why he's here. as far as we know, he's just a random guy looking for somebody. namely: We Do Not Know He's Guilty Of Anything.
jim, however, is OOZING of guilt. he literally washes his hands, for christ's sake. anxiously washing his hands of his deed. the fact that it's more obvious that he's a guilty man from the start rather than further re-contextualizing his behavior throughout the narrative and to the reveal is a very classic blooberism.
bloober has a very bad habit of being... heavy-handed when it wants to implicate. saying what something is without saying it outright. this can be found in the most recent release date trailer, where angela desperately tells james that "[she'll] be good for him" ('him' being her sexually abusive dad, of course) in a scene which looks like she's in front of the giant mirror. in the original, it's apparent that Something's happened to her, but we're not sure what until the abstract daddy boss fight later in the game where she says "or you could just force me. beat me up like he always did."
it's not that sh2 wasn't ever blunt or heavy-handed with its storytelling, of course, but it's a matter of when it's appropriate to forego subtlety. eddie, for example, doesn't make vague allusions to or sugarcoat the abuse that he experienced as a fat person, and that's fitting! being candidly violent and more outward in contrast to angela who for the most part is very withdrawn and meek works very well. sometimes, being blunt is the best course of action for optimal characterization/narrative progression.
also, on the topic of jim... i call him jim simply because he does not read as james to me. he's a new individual that's operating within a james-like role; he's just... simply a different person. he's very, very gritty, and VERY visibly neurotic. to me, he's very much anxiety tunnel-visioning: hyperfocused on one thing that everything else seems to fall by the wayside.
i never got the implication that he was dissociating like the original james is, of which i think is a core trait of his, and probably informs a lot of why i do not read jim as james. this is a very take it or leave it kind of opinion, and it's not that i feel super negatively about jim's characterization, either. it's just... idk i don't think screaming and crying while falling to your knees is a very james thing to do. james fell to his knees silently after he screamed, comparatively. shrug.
it's like... james is a herding dog and jim is a sighthound. same animal, different kind.
and then there's maria. but i wrote a whole post on that already, so you can read that here. people have also written numerous think pieces about why her redesign is so nothingburger, too, so i'm not the only one who thinks this way, either.
angela in the remake is alright. i have my gripes, but she's okay. what concerns me the most is the VERY PERTINENT lack of eddie. he has been very notably absent throughout this whole song and dance, and it's getting fucking ridiculous. WHERE IS HE BLOOBER. I KILL ANOTHER HOSTAGE THE LONGER YOU KEEP HIM FROM US.
PART THREE: CONCLUSION, AKA NEVER TRUST A COMPANY WITH YOUR HAPPINESS
all and all, i don't have very high hopes for the sh2 remake, not because it doesn't look good, play good, etc.; the way that a game plays, and even more so how a game looks doesn't matter to me so much as how the narrative is executed. the remake, photorealistically, looks great! the environments are very rich. that's all well and good.
but, again, looks alone cannot sway me. it's nothing that i haven't already seen before done by games past. i'm not excited for a sh2 that looks like a re2r or a re4r, simply put. there was a style developed within the limitations of what the ps2 could handle, and with the massive upscale in technology and photorealism above all else, it's undoubtedly lost. while a matter of taste, of course, i just find myself very straight-faced looking at what teasers we have of the remake. i'm not amazed, nor am i amused! it's as simple as that.
and also, we should mention that at the helm of it all, konami has been milking the silent hill franchise for all it's fucking worth. maybe the members of bloober team are trying to genuinely make a good game for once, but konami wants that money at the end of the day, if the spectacular failures of games past, as well as silent hill themed experiences such as ascension are anything to go by.
also also, this remake is never gonna satisfy every single sh2 fan. that's just the truth of the matter. i think some people are really gonna love it and some are really gonna hate it. realistically, i'll be very meh on it. i can find some things to like about, but that's really it. if i'm cherry-picking things i enjoy about something i'm largely reticent on, i wouldn't call that enthusiasm in the slightest. would you?
anyways, thank you for reading. i hope these answers suffice and satisfy.
#anonymous#answered asks#stormy shouts#enough of a shoutfest to warrant that tag#silent hill 2#silent hill 2 remake#sh2 remake
20 notes
·
View notes
Text
Im not going to say you cant remake an animation in live action and it work. There is always value in retelling stories and looking through different lenses. But I will say most live adaptations dont respect the orginal medium. They see it as childish. Think themselves above; mature. And in doing so they miss what works in the original stories. This isnt just about Netflix's atla. But it IS about Avatar the last Airbender.
Avatar is quite possibly the closest thing ro a perfect television show out there. Its a compelling, timeless narrative; so perfectly molded for episodic animation. I truly do not see what a shorter live action adaptation could do that the original couldnt. So much would have to change to refit for all that would be lost.
The wonderfully choreographed and animated fight sequences. The magic system so well thought out and drenched in real martial arts and culture it doesnt feel magic. Neither of these things can be captured the same with cgi or practical effects. One could say theres value to be had in the real martial arts being done in real life. But enough to recreate the whole show? I think not. I think one would have to move much further from the original medium. Such as a stage play, or ballet. Something off the small screen. A television show made of real people is vastly different from one made of cartoon, but in the end it follows the same structure. And what of the way you tell the story is to change if the structure doesnt? A large issue with tv readaptations from cartoon to live action is it is both to different AND to similar.
Cartoons are animated for a reason. Anything can be imagined into them. And so their stories take the shape of magic and colors and movements no human could ever achieve.
No artform is invalid. Pinocchio has been told countless times since it was created. Many stories hardly even resemble the orginal serialization. Its been told in every art form you could think of. On tv; in your books! Animated; in real life! Stop motion; video games! But the most striking to me a version ive never been lucky enough to see myself. A atage production where everyone but the titular puppet is a puppet themselves. Pinocchio sits in stark contrast to these huge life sized puppets as a human.
You might be wondering where this little tangent came from. We've been talking about atla. And I bring up Pinocchio because I would have personally never conceived of making such version of that story. A truly unique take on such an old tale. And if someone could make a new moving version of a story thats been told so many times then whats the sin of retelling a newer tale of a new story? Whats the crime of remaking Avatar?
Atla is nearly a perfect story. but that does not mean there is not value in re-exploration. I just wish people would reexplore it in a more interesting way.
31 notes
·
View notes
Text
Soooo are we going to talk about that?
The devs wouldn't just re-use Goddess!Jessie's model without a good reason. So the Goddess in "Loveless" is apparently Jenova.
Knowing how the story goes, doesn't seem unlikely as the 3 guys do kind of mirror Zack, Cloud and Sephiroth: the traveler is Zack who traveled between timelines, the hero is Cloud who is supposed to defeat Sephiroth, and the prisonner is Sephiroth who after being wounded in battle (learning the truth) is taken into the care of a woman from the opposite side (Jenova, even if that wouldn't make her the Goddess there, unless we go the metaphorical way with the Goddess being any woman).
Also, considering Sephiroth as of "Rebirth" seems to be all for people feeling only dark emotions (rage, pain, etc...), a story called "loveless" seems... oddly fitting?
Which makes Genesis search for the Goddess and her blessing have a very much different meaning. But we should have seen that coming, as Genesis himself said that to stop degrading, he needed the Jenova cells.
Also:
The Whispers didn't had that white orb in "Remake", but now that Aerith's materia is "empty", they do.
Don't what they want us to understand with that but... maybe it's artistic liberty or something? But that seems unlikely. Idk.
25 notes
·
View notes
Text
Mothy RealSound interviews for Miku Symphony (2023)
A summary of the key points of two interviews for the 2023 Miku Symphony linked here and here
(September 22nd)
-Mothy is pretty chuffed (positively) that the series has lasted as long as it has. He began making songs in the early days of VOCALOID, well before it was profitable (people hadn't even done CD releases yet), so it was really just a hobby he did for fun. He cites this as the reason he's been able to go on for this long (as it was low-pressure for a while).
-He didn't have this huge story in mind at the very start, but he did come up with the characters' stories over time--part of this is because he noticed back in the day that songs with good illustrations tended to be more popular, so he also wanted something that could have good illustrations (talking about Servant of Evil specifically). VOCALOIDS were easy to use for his (and other people's) stories because they didn't have concrete stories of their own (he even cites how Rin and Len are weren't even strictly twins, but a lot of people think of them as such because of his series).
-He doesn't think Servant of Evil would have been as popular if he'd released it today, citing his success to it being the early days of NicoNico (and shortly after Rin and Len were released, when their popularity was high), as well as a lot of luck.
-Early on, mothy would come up with the songs first and make the story for it later, but around the time of Judgment of Corruption he began to make songs with the whole story in mind first.
-Mothy was in a metal band in college, and was also very influenced by the metal bands he was listening to the at time, a lot of them having fairy-tale and fantasy themes in their work (Scandinavian and melodic speed metal). He again also references Makihara Noriyuki, who he liked in highschool.
-For his stories and plot twists, mothy mentions inspiration from novelist Tsutsui Yasutaka, especially his short stories, saying that he's always liked the way they'll have a twist at the end. He also thinks it's more impactful for the songs as well, that they leave more of an impression on viewers of his videos on NicoNico. He's walked back on this a tiny bit though to keep it from becoming too overdone, so sometimes he will have things end the way people expect them to. He intends to make his new series a bit less dramatic along those lines, although it'll still be with the same tastes as his other work.
-mothy feels there's benefit both to mechanical sounding VOCALOIDS and ones that sound human--that each have their own uses in making music. He essentially views voice software as a type of musical instrument.
-He's gotten the impression that games like Prosekai have increased his audience, and that while most of his fans have been women, he's seeing more men getting into the series from it too. He's also seeing a lot more diversity in the age-range of his fans, seeing some people who were kids when they started and are getting closer to middle-aged now. This is a little complicated for him because he wants to appeal to both new and old fans alike. He's been thinking about re-releasing some of his old music, but it's tricky for him to do alone.
-While he doesn't currently let his fanbase influence him much, in the past he would usually take into consideration the fact that a lot of his fans were female when working on the story. As he's a man, though, this had its limits, and ultimately he decided to focus on what he wanted to do instead. He can do things as requested, but ultimately prefers his work to be free of limitations.
-He's excited for the Miku Symphony, thinking it's perfect for the tone of his work and that it'll get a large audience for the songs. It's also important because it's just about the music itself, rather than visuals or story.
-He considers the orchestral remakes a learning experience, since they sound nothing like the original music used to make the song. They also sound different depending on each performance, as well. Classical music is also considered a much more respected medium, so he was also happy to get that recognition as a songmaker. Essentially, he enjoys them a lot and it's a fresh take on the series.
-He also talks about the other symphony performances that have actual VOCALOID singing in them--he uses a lot of technical language I'm not familiar with here but essentially he was skeptical it would work and was pleasantly surprised by how it sounded.
-mothy feels that while those who like his work are often very devoted to them, he does not view himself as being or able to become popular. He's fine with that. It's not a matter of him disliking popular stuff, he's happy VOCALOID has become mainstream, but he doesn't desire popularity for himself. He just wants his work to be remembered after he's gone.
-More of him being humble--essentially he seems to view himself as filling a niche rather than being a great player in the VOCALOID landscape, and he encourages the interviewer (and reader) to see some of the other work out there that's been getting popular as well. There's so much content out there that someone's bound to like some of it.
2 (December 6th)
(note, this interview was done alongside MitchieM, who was also involved in the symphony--I am not summarizing anything in here's strictly about MitchieM, focusing only on things that are relevant to mothy)
-MitchieM talks about how inspiring mothy's work is in the creative story genre, which is something they've been interested in doing more of lately. mothy talks about realy impressed with MitchieM's work as well, such as their tuning of Miku and the wide variety of musical styles they do.
-There's a bit of contrast between them, as mothy works on one story while MitchieM does multiple, but MitchieM points out that mothy also likes to experiment with genre a lot (which mothy insists is to keep himself from getting bored doing just one thing all the time)
-mothy talks a little about the making of his two new songs, how he wanted them to feel a little orchestral since it's on the symphony album, but since it's a digitally made song and not a live performance he gave it more of a rock-like feel. "Thousand Year Vow" is intended more as a series synopsis to capture its tone overall, while Grim the End is more of a nod to long-time fans who know more of the story. They're both intended to stand on their own without feeling like a continuation of the series, necessarily.
-They talk a little about the Miku symphony performances they like, their impressions of it, etc. Mothy mentions that it's not really something you listen to while dancing, but more something you listen to while relaxing. Also the importance of it being a performance with live instruments rather than being purely digital like a lot of music out there now (furthermore being a performance in a proper auditorium with all the acoustic benefits that provides).
-Also apparently the symphony this year is being recorded on an SACD, which is a super fancy CD that can record more nuanced and delicate sound than traditional CDs?
40 notes
·
View notes
Text
hold on i'm having a thought i think
okay here it is
re: the problem (just one?) with hollywood
Entertainment is always in a delicate position because Entertainment is the Business of Art
Art looks at previous Art that was successful (well received) and tries to do that again but in a new way, a different way, a unique way. Whether it's the same artist or a different artist, if the next art produced is not in some way fresh and unique, we tend to consider that a failure of the art. Originality is a big deal in art
however when Business looks at previous Business that was successful and tries to do that again, it tries to do EXACTLY that again.
So when you make art a product, you get hollywood: making the same movies over and over again, whether that's marvel's "bad guy has same powers as good guy plus big CGI disposable army" formula or just straight up remaking and remaking and remaking already existing popular works -- now it's live action, now it's animated, now it's a different kind of animation, now it's this famous persons take on the story, now it's with your favorite current actors....
because the purpose of Art is to connect with people by showing them something about life through a unique lens, but the purpose of Business is to provide you the same product you bought last time, and originality is nothing more than a big risk
and sure you can be in the business of art, but when the business becomes a whole Industry, it stops being controlled by artists and starts being controlled by corporate interests and bottom lines and quarterly profit reports, but decisions about art have to be made by humans or it's not art
19 notes
·
View notes
Text
Remaking "Fire Emblem: 3 Houses"
(Spoilers ahead, obviously)
The time has come for another rewrite! I'm an amateur (re)writer, and I KNOW people are gonna be picky about this rewrite since many consider this entry the Holy Grail of the "Fire Emblem" series, but I hope you'll still be open to my changes, anyway! This is purely subjective and not something that reflects the fandom's opinion or me saying how to make the game objectively "better" (even though the term itself is subjective). I don't remember every single aspect of the game, so if I mention something that I wanted from the game that they actually DID do, be sure to mention it!
General
DON'T RUSH US!--From the get-go, you're on a fixed schedule. Once you become a professor, you've got one day out of the week to explore the grounds, fight battles/do paralogues/xenologues, or another activity. Every Monday, you've gotta do instruction for your student, and the other days literally breeze by until you get to your next story arc. Letting us go at our own leisure would be awesome, particularly since it'd give us more time to get to know our characters via more missions and xenologues. Between school and war, it can get a bit monotonous.
2. Give us impactful dialogue options instead of the illusion of choices--I have the same issue with "Pokemon: Mystery Dungeon." Throughout the game, we're given dialogue options, but most of the time the choices are identical or offer no affect other than a character's approval/disapproval. It felt annoying to have the option to tell the Flame Emperor that you'd join them, only for them to say they could tell you were lying. It's annoying stuff like that that makes it feel like you don't really need dialogue options at all, just cutscenes with Byleth speaking for themselves.
3. Those Who Slither in the Dark being keeping us in the loop--It's wild to me that the people who did the most damage are the most underused in the game. Someone said that making their deeds more pronounced/known would ruin the point, but I disagree. In Crimson Flower, their role in the Tragedy of Duscur is revealed, but Edelgard defeats them offscreen before restoring peace. Dimitri never learns the full truth of this in Azure Moon, and if I recall, the organization does get more attention in Silver Snow (for like 2-3 chapters) and Verdant Wind, but I can't recall for certain. Either way, I feel like each route should feel complete, given that you're playing completely different stories, rather than it feeling like you're missing some information depending on the route you play. Not to mention, Kronya deserves better, even if I'm retconning her actions (more on that in a second)...
4. Don't make us forget about marriage--having to find a ring sucks. After Jeralt dies, you have a certain amount of time in order to find his marriage ring (which I completely forgot about in my first playthrough) that you NEED if you want to reach S-supports with anyone. I'd prefer if Jeralt just gave it to Byleth rather than us having to go to his office and find it.
5. Change the confusing Byleth bloodline--I'm fine with Sitri being either Rhea's daughter or (if you wanna romance Rhea and Sothis without ethical concerns) simply working at the church where she met Jeralt. The family tree above makes things a lot more confusing than what it needs to be.
6. Marriage to (mostly) whoever, whenever--In the game, you have to wait until after the war is over to be married, and out of them, you only have 5 romantic same-sex options for female Byleth--2 of which are route-exclusive--and 3 options for male Byleth--2 of which are either DLC or route-exclusive. I'd rather make it a free-for-all, save for Gilbert and Alois, who are married, and should've never prevented you from a romantic relationship with another character.
7. Keep Jeralt alive--I'm just...I'm just TIRED of the "dead parent/evil parent" storyline that "Awakening," "Fates," and "Engage" have done, along with "3 Houses." I'd enjoy having Jeralt kept alive, in this version. Nevermind, this is probably the longest a protagonist has gotten to keep their parent in one of the recent FE games. Having him stand by Byleth similar to "3 Hopes" would be awesome.
8. Let us have Child units--As someone who got into the series via "Fates" and "Awakening," it disappointed me greatly that child units were removed. While I prefer "Fates" using the Deeprealms, I think an "Awakening" approach fits best here. Perhaps Sothis' time manipulation is more powerful than she knows, having sent the child units from the future to avoid their dark fates. Since it's story-related, perhaps it's Byleth's child who comes from the future first, referencing Chrom's daughter Lucina coming to save him and Emmeryn in "Awakening," only the child comes to save Byleth and Jeralt. Personally I made a lsit of fanmade child units almost a year ago.
9. Recruit Jeritzia outside of Crimson Flower--"3 Hopes" allowed us to do so as long as we had Mercedes in one of our routes, and I'm confused on why that couldn't be done here. Recruiting Mercedes would be the wakeup call Jeritzia needs to join our side, rather than being the opposition.
10. Keep Byleth's hair color--This is a nitpick, but I'd like being able to change Byleth's hair color back to the way it was before becoming one with Sothis. I'm fine with keeping the hair color, though.
11. A 3 Houses United Route--I mentioned in another post about a route where Jeralt survived, TWSITD as the main antagonists. What'd make this route unique (since I'd want the other two changes to be changed in all routes) is that the almost-death of Jeralt would inspire Byleth to leave the church and become a mercenary again, only getting involved years later once they see how the war has affected their students, and they can still recruit others based on their stats, and since they're not tied to a particular "side" in this concflict, they could recruit the house leaders and their aides rather than having to kill them.
12. Fix Dimitri's turnaround (Azure Moon)--It's probably just me, but it felt like Dimitri's vengence and sudden change of heart following Rodrigue's death felt...too quick? I know this is a hot take, but I'd have thought Rodrigue's death would've fueled Dimitri's anger. Plus I didn't feel like Dimitri's redemption (so to speak) was earned. It was just kinda "sorry for being a jerk, guys" even though the whole team seemed to back him. I'd have enjoyed seeing more moments of his sanity and morality kick in amidst the chaos rather than being one-track-minded. I feel like a lot of poorly done villain arcs do this (even if he isn't the villain of this route, per se). Since in my rewrite we learn about TWSITD, it's quite possible that Dimitri's anger is focused elsewhere in any case. Maybe Rodrigue didn't even have to die...
13. Utilize 3 Hopes designs--This may not be a popular opinion, but I think some of the characters looked better halfway in 3 Hopes than in 3 Houses. It would be nice to have the option to switch their costumes to their 3 Hopes looks instead (even though I know they're older in the 3 Houses timeskip than they are in 3 Hopes).
14. NO IGNORANT BYLETH--Instead of other installments that use the amnesia subplots, Byleth is simply kept in the dark about their parents' pasts, the world, and the church (which is kinda the same thing). I'd alleviate this entirely so we can have a mature and well-learned protagonist rather than a teacher who's just learning how the world works and about the tension in the land.
Hope you're not too upset with my version of the game! Lemme know what you think and if you have any questions. The next FE rewrite I do (whenever I get around to it) will be "Engage," which is the last FE game I've played.
#fire emblem#fire emblem three houses#fire emblem 3 houses#3 houses#three houses#claude#claude von riegan#dimitri#dimitri alexandre blaiddyd#edelgard#edelgard von hresvelg#blue lions#golden deer#black eagles
16 notes
·
View notes
Text
Resident Evil 4 vs 8, and Ludonarrative Resonance
Having fallen so very hard for RE8 late last year, I’m incapable of talking about the new RE4 remake without comparing the two – especially when RE8 now occupies the bizarre position of being simultaneously the remake’s immediate predecessor, canonical-later-sequel, and also other pseudo-remake of RE4.
And it’s hard to appreciate just how much RE8 draws from RE4 until you’ve played them both – in broad concept (sinister bioweapon cult in isolated European village, lengthy castle section, awkward shift towards military-shooter-itis at the end – heck, did you know RE8 was even supposed to have Ada Wong showing up with a sniper rifle to rescue Ethan from cutscenes in early drafts? Because that was definitely going too far) and its initial chapter especially. I’d osmosed the broad strokes, but not, for example, the degree to which the first lycan attack in 8 is basically just the first village assault from RE4: mobbed by an endless stream of regular enemies and the one big guy (who you can defeat, but should probably just try to avoid) in an open environment until an invisible timer runs out and everyone goes home.
It’s not a one-way street: it’s only fair to say that by the time of RE4make, Capcom was re-integrating a lot of what worked in 8 back into the new RE4. But as many elements represent a conscious step back from the reinventions of RE7 in favour of recreating gameplay elements of the original: 3rd person view, visible health bar, etc. The same basic arsenal of pistol-shotgun-sniper-rile becomes available to you in that order, but trying to play Leon as you would Ethan is not going to come off seamlessly.
Leon he can’t block, for one. He can parry, but that’s not the same thing. His knife works very differently, many of its uses contextual. You have to aim before firing now – hitting fire without aiming first makes Leon slash with his knife instead (very annoying when I have the sniper rifle equipped, the enemy is too close for the scope to be useful, and failing to get a round off in a hurry is about to make my life a lot more uncomfortable) – and if you’re aiming, you can’t parry. The gameplay in the RE4 remake is honestly my favourite thing about it (the story is... more of a mixed bag, but we'll get to that), but coming to it directly off RE8 is just a little frustrating until you get your head around it. GDI, Leon, Ethan can make a decent mine that doesn’t go off on its own if it’s not tripped in 30 seconds, why can’t you?
Questionable nitpicks aside though, having gotten the hang of RE4’s combat, the more I think about it, the more the differences between how Ethan and Leon handle do actually work for me, and even make sense from a character-centric POV. Intentionally or not, there’s a kind of ludonarrative resonance to it all.
If you’ve read any video game critique in the last decade or so, you’ve likely run into the term ludonarrative dissonance: coined to highlight all those times when the story a game tells via dialogue and cutscenes clashes with the ‘ludonarrative’, or story created by the gameplay. The classic example is something like the Tomb Raider reboot, where cutscenes linger on the trauma of Lara's first human kill, but gameplay will still see her easily mowing down enemies mooks by the dozen barely five minutes later. See also: any time a character is a total badass in gameplay, but can be easily overpowered by a single opponent when necessary for a cutscene. This kind of narrative inconsistency is to some degree the nature of the medium – it’s a rare game that can avoid it altogether, but it can still throw you out of the experience.
For a more Resident Evil specific example, consider that minor plot point from RE6 which reveals that Sherry (one of the many playable characters) has an Ethan-like healing ability as a result of her exposure to the G-virus back in RE2. This has no effect on gameplay, before or after the reveal: Sherry’s health bar works the same as any other character’s. Even the RE4 remake hits this problem: letting Ashley be carried too far away by an enemy mook is an instant game-over in gameplay, but you’d better be prepared to see the exact same thing happen in multiple cutscenes at specified plot points, with no way to avoid it (c’mon, game, I know they’re just gonna stick her in a room with no guards somewhere, lemme go find her!)
You could arguably find a similar problem to Sherry’s in RE8, where Ethan very-canonically comes back from the dead after having his heart ripped out in a cutscene, even though he can absolutely be killed in regular gameplay. And yet, here, I’m inclined to cut the game some slack – because there is arguably an explanation provided, and it’s suitably horrific.
Ethan may be able to reattach severed limbs and walk off falls from great heights, but having his heart ripped out puts him down long enough to convince Chris he’s really dead – definitely down for the count. And if you pay attention to the (many) death-scenes that play after Ethan is killed by a lycan or moroi, you may notice that most monsters immediately start eating him as they light fades away. Ethan may come back after having his heart ripped out, but being digested may be a step too far.
And Ethan can get eaten a lot in this game. Moreau can eat you. The mould-foetus-monster can eat you. Dimitrescu makes pretty-fucking-clear her own desire to eat you too. Sturm doesn’t, but is certainly equipped to reduce Ethan to a fine, pink mist. Whether those final-moments were included specifically to fill that plot hole or whether they were just thrown in for ‘ordinary’ horror value I can only speculate, but it’s always nice when all those little, gory details tie together, isn’t it?
If we’re going to take games to task for all those probably-accidental moments where the gameplay and the story clash, it’s only fair to note a few of the ones where they do the opposite (likewise-accidental though they may be). Ludonarrative resonance, if you will.
On a basic level, pointing out that gameplay differences between RE4 and 8 make sense for Ethan’s vs Leon’s respective strengths and weaknesses may be a little too obvious. Leon can stagger an enemy with a bullet and then rush in to finish him off a roundhouse kick or a supplex because Leon is a certified badass with way more training than Ethan (who makes one vague mention of having had military training, presumably as an excuse for why he aims so much faster in RE8 than 7).
But it goes so far beyond that.
There’s the issue of blocking, for one. Ethan can block – roughly holding his hands up in front of himself to reduce incoming damage – but Leon can’t. This was initially annoying, but the more I thought about it, the more I liked it as a logical change. Sure, Leon can’t block, but Leon doesn’t secretly have mould-powered super-healing, and trying to tank axe-blows to reattachable parts of his body probably isn’t a viable strategy. What he can do is parry with his knife: a more skill-dependent strategy for a more-skilled guy. Timing is much trickier, but only his knife takes damage – Leon doesn’t, so when it works, it’s much better than blocking. And given Leon has this whole backstory-thing about being trained by a knife-obsessed nutjob, that all adds up too.
Then there’s the thing with ladders. Ethan can fall any distance without taking damage, but convincing him to take a gravity-shortcut doesn’t always work: if there’s a ladder nearby, he’ll take it. Leon, by contrast, clearly sees ladders as a waste of time. Ashley will use them to get down from high places, if there’s one available, but Leon, to my joy, prefers to jump. And again, there’s an arguable logic there that appeals to me: Ethan may be immune to falling damage, but he’s badly in denial about it, and would much prefer to take the stairs. Leon isn’t superhuman, but he knows parkour, and he’s damn well going to use it.
Health arguably follows similar logic. Ethan doesn’t get a proper health bar (maybe you need training to accurately judge how dead you are? IDK), just various colours to tell you roughly how bad this is going, and Ethan will be reduced to stumbling through a distorted red haze if you let him go too far into the red zone. Stumble around long enough without dying though, and Ethan will eventually walk it off, automatically returning to about half-health. Notably, Leon doesn’t get this same power (unless you’re playing on the very easiest difficulty – Ethan remains auto-healing right up to Village of Shadows level). But for a dude who canonically has healing powers, you can’t argue that makes a lot of sense.
The same rules apply to Mia too, when you’re playing her in RE7 – but given she’s been infected with the mould too, that tracks (and even if you did choose her for the cure, who’s to say how well such a haphazard cure even worked?)
This logic does break down a bit in RE8 when you play as Chris, and blocking and walking-it-off remain core mechanics. And if you wanted to get really nitpicky, you might even point out the same mechanics are available to Ethan in his very first fight with Mia in RE7, where he’s (presumably?) not infected yet. But there comes a point where you have to admit that expecting the devs to change gameplay so much for one brief section of a much longer game isn’t really realistic (and would be that much more annoying to get used to for this one tiny section anyway).
Amusingly though, in the Mercenaries DLC, Chris has been reworked somewhat, and now can’t block anymore: hitting the ‘block’ button throws a left hook instead. Which is only too appropriate for Chris Boulder-Punching Redfield – but it’s interesting to note that Lady Dimitrescu (another new playable character) can’t block either.
The only other character in Mercenaries mode who can block is Heisenberg, and he does so by raising a literal wall of sheet metal. Intentionally or otherwise, Mercenaries does kinda seem to cast Ethan’s ability to substantially reduce damage just by holding up his arms as pretty unique.
Speaking of health, Leon and Ethan can both increase their maximum HP – Leon by using yellow herbs, Ethan by eating food cooked for him by the Duke. Ethan, however, can also decrease the damage he takes while blocking and increase his running speed this way. This is the sort of game mechanic it’s probably not worth thinking too hard about, but even so, the idea that mould-man Ethan can enhance his own powers by eating food from around the village where the mould originates (and specially prepared by the nigh-omniscient Duke himself) is something I raised already over in my post on Mia and Miranda – and it fits here too. Leon, meanwhile, can only increase his own durability by buying body armour, then paying even more to keep it repaired (there is a case charm that increases his speed a little too, but it’s bloody hard to get).
There are other little details that follow the same pattern too – whereas in RE8, I found myself mostly using the pistol to finish off any enemies who didn’t quite go down in one shotgun blast, in RE4, I found myself relying on my basic pistol a lot more, even when not going for kung-fu finishers. Mostly, that’s down to enemy speed and ammo availability, but you can’t argue it makes sense that the better-trained Leon would be better-equipped to get the job done with lower-calibre weaponry.
Now, to be clear, I doubt most of these little differences are down to the devs going “okay, this new game is about a mould-superman, how do we work that into gameplay?” when RE7 came out – and I’m pretty sure a lot of how the new RE4 plays is down to an earnest attempt to include as much of the old RE4 as still makes sense. Leon has a visible health bar and can supplex enemies into the dirt because people loved the original, and we’re not here to completely reinvent the best features of the wheel. Half the stuff that screams ludonarrative resonance to me is probably more happy accident as design.
But when, for example, you’re being irritated by the discovery that the only mines available to Leon will just go off on their own after 30 seconds if not triggered by an enemy, it’s nice to be able to tell yourself “bloody hell, guess you need a real engineer like Ethan to make a half-decent mine!” and treat that like an excuse. It doesn’t fundamentally change the way either game plays, but it feels like there’s some rhyme and reason to it, and that’s just a little bit more fun. And they’re both great combat systems in their own fun way.
YMMV, of course.
#Resident Evil Village#Resident Evil 4#Resident Evil#Ethan Winters#Leon Kennedy#meta#obsessive nerd over-analysis of gameplay differences and how they make Total Sense Actually#and the fine significance of who does or doesn't get to block
67 notes
·
View notes
Note
A little outsider's rant to the EagleOne fandom... particularly you younger fans.
Y'all are really getting upset about your ship because Leon and Ashley possibly never being shown together again? After all that wonderful material you got in re4 remake? Guys, most ship survive on crumbs... and y'all had a pretty decent meal there!
Like!! At least she's fucking alive! Look at how strong Serrenedy is... and Luis is fucking dead! Doesn't stop them from writing a ton of fix it fics and AUs and what if scenarios.
You guys aren't Aeon! You don't need the fucking "kiss make canon and valid" mentality. YOUR SHIP IS FUCKING VALID AND GOOD!
"But... I wanna see them together..."
WRITE THE FIC THEN! DRAW THE FANART! MAKE THE EDITS!
"Oh, but I'm not very creative."
SHUT UP AND DO IT ANYWAY!
Flood the world with it! Show everyone what the ship means to you! You'll get better at it the more you practice!
And you know what? Maybe Leon and Ashley don't ever see each other again in canon... but maybe some of you get real good at writing and maybe someday, more original stories starring characters with their archetypes start showing up... and being together. All because y'all knew a good thing when you saw it.
So don't roll over and die so damn soon. Yes it fucking sucks possibly not seeing Ashley in the games again.
So keep her alive and present outside of them.
you know @godtier and i were actually talking about this earlier today, and it's this whole thing that's like
kind of like what leon is going through in my fic, where he thinks that it's worse to have had it and lost it, because he now knows how good it was for him and how good it made him feel and that he can't have it anymore -- so now, he wishes he'd never had it at all, because then he wouldn't have to mourn it.
like, serennedy fandom operates under no illusions. they know exactly how that connection started, progressed, and ended. same thing with metaltango fandom. and, being slash ships, they never expect to become canon anyway, because that's unfortunately not the world that we currently live in.
and then you have something like jilleon fandom, who never anticipates their ship becoming canon, so there's no reason for them to get super invested in how the canon portrays them, because the heart of that fandom has always been fanfiction to begin with.
but with eagleone fandom, it's like...
people feel like something is being taken away from them. especially the eagleone people who came into RE through RE4make. because they did have it. for that one game, they had this ship that meant so much to them and was clearly written to be taken as romantic...
... and then to learn, no actually, you don't get to have that?
that sucks. it feels like a breakup.
like, there's a big difference between old guard like me, who looks at it as: "holy fuck i can't believe we actually got this, are you kidding me????" because i understand just how shocking and unexpected it is, considering how the rest of the series goes -- and new fans who are going "wait, what do you mean she gets written out of the series?"
i went into RE4make already knowing that leon's character progresses into the future without ashley. and so i'm just delighted that they got to have what they had for the time that they had it.
new fans are coming in and seeing a canon romance and not understanding why someone would say that it won't be followed through with, because that runs antithetical to their personal experiences with the game.
and that's why i don't fucking feud with aeon fandom, man. i mean, other than the fact that i'm a 34 year old adult who has better things to do with my time than argue with teenagers about fictional relationships.
they're dicks, but i feel bad for them, because they're going through a breakup, too. and theirs is way harder than eagleone's is because the relationship lasted a lot longer. they've had this for so long, but now it's like "fuck you, pack your shit, we're over."
now, with that all being said
there's no excuse for either side of this to be fucking toxic the way that they've been, either. i get that you're disappointed and you need some time to mourn and it feels even shittier to have someone from the other team go "YOU NEVER ACTUALLY HAD THAT THING YOU'RE MOURNING IN THE FIRST PLACE" but like
basically just this
12 notes
·
View notes
Note
You heard about Ada Wong's new voice actress being harassed?
No, but after a cursory search on the subject, I can't say I'm really surprised.
Sounds like the usual doldrums of racism, and in specific, anti-Asian racism. Lily Gao (Welcome to Racoon City's Ada Wong), who might be the first Asian actress to actually voice act for Ada, isn't doing what I would call a "stilted" or even "horrible" job. I don't even think she's been given bad direction.
I like her performance better than the previous voice actor, Jolene Anderson (RE2R). For me, Ada just sounds like an incredibly guarded and controlled (or closed-off) woman. She's more "secret agent (dragon lady)" than a "sultry sexy secret agent (dragon lady)... in a red dress". She also doesn't have the same history (or romance) with Leon S. Kennedy, so, of course, her whole demeanor is going to be different.
(If I could complain about anyone, I feel like Leon's voice actor, Nick Apostolides, is doing his best to imitate RE4's Paul Mercier, something I've said about RE6's Paul Mercer as well.)
This is the video gaming community we're talking about, and specifically, the Resident Evil fandom - which has a pretty storied history of racism when it comes to the franchise's non-white characters (and actors). When Resident Evil 5 came out, one of the complaints lobbied at Sheva's voice actor (Karen Dyer) was that she was "awful" and "annoying".
The sticking point (or motivation behind) the harassment here is that I suspect that Gao is simply just not Sally Cahill (Ada Wong from RE2C to Darkside Chronicles). This was also something RE fandom gnashed their teeth about in the RE2 remake (which IIRC, used non-union actors).
Things also aren't helped by the fact that there's a pre-existing subset of [OG] RE4 die-hards that are against the remake on principle, so, of course, they're lashing out at the Asian actress.
The accessibility of actors on social media is the only thing different about Gao and Dyer's circumstances, and perhaps, the mainstream visibility of fandom itself. I can imagine Gao's harassment going under the radar or outright ignored if this happened in 2009.
I'm not all that interested in boiling this down to a moment of "fandom was a mistake", because this is a very specific behavior (racism) that extends beyond the chambers of gaming fandom and exists also in gaming media.
It sucks that Gao has to deal with this.
#resident evil 4 remake#resident evil#videogamesincolor#lily gao#ada wong#resident evil 4 reimagined#resident evil series#voice acting#online harassment#gaming culture#meta: asks#cbros5
55 notes
·
View notes
Text
Finished Reading Felix Salten's "Bambi"
MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK, IF YOU ARE ONE OF THESE PEOPLE WHO HAVE ONLY SEEN DISNEY'S ADAPTATION AND NOT HAVE READ THE SOURCE MATERIAL, THIS POST MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS SO PLEASE BE WARNED.
So I have recently finished reading the Original Book of Bambi after being in such a Cervine mood when re-watching the Disney films for the Past Two Months.
I felt like that when reading a Non-Fairytale Book for the very first time felt like something that I wanted to try on something new to rely on reading some books. Even after taking a brief look at The Russian version of the Source Material, it seems like something from what I knew when watching the Two-Part Movie live action adaptations that Human Ballet Animal version felt a more accurate approach than Disney's version when visiting the book.
For starters, I am not really a big fan of the Upcoming Soulless Disney Remake nor the Upcoming Garbage Horror B Movie (nor would I even want to see it) as I have been in the Bambi Fandom Two Years ago as I've seen that "Half" of the Fandom cares more about Fetishization or Crossovers in General for that Matter (*cough*, *cough*, Stephen King's Carrie, *cough*) while the Side of the Fandom are the ones who have read the Source Material and even done their own interpretations of the Other Characters (most likely the Deer characters) that never been fully adapted and were left out in the Disney universe (with the exception of Geno, Gurri, Boso, and Lana in the Comic Adaptation of "Bambi's Children").
But I really wanna talk about the Original Book version since a lot of People don't really know much about it since whenever we tend to think about "Bambi", most people would only think of the Popular Disney Version (yes, there are others that have seen Other Adaptations as I am aware that there are possibly more Bambi movies out there than both the Soviet and Disney ones).
Without any further, here are some personal plot points in the OG Book that were completely left out or missing (again, major spoilers to anyone who has never read it before);
So the Book actually has a lot more Story Plots than the Movie itself to make it more easier, simpler, and even shorter than how the book handles the story (presumably I believe that's the reason as to why that the Midquel exists for a reason as a suggestion to a "Part 2" of the story). In the meantime, both the Book and the Movie take a huge approach through a Deer's POV of Wildlife (that being Bambi himself) since both versions do teach Kids the Lessons and the Values of Life (how it can be Beautiful in both of a Dark and in a Light way) since Life can take you through many strange places around the world as you go to blend within the feels of reality.
Aside from the fact that the Disney movies has its Supporting Animal Characters, the Book has a lot more Animal Characters that haven't been fully adapted or were just left out (in terms on how that some of them might've been replaced). There's a Hare called "Friend Hare", in the Movie, it's Thumper. There is an Owl in the Book but he's just known as "Screech Owl", yet, in the film, it's "Friend Owl".
The Other Characters from the Book that we've never seen are the Magpie, The Two Jays, The Pheasant Couple, A Squirrel, ect. Did I also mention for a fact that there are actual other Deer characters that were also completely left out with the exception of a few?
The Book however explains that the Stags that we see are actually known as "The Young Princes" with Bambi's Father (which we all know him as "The Great Prince of the Forest")'s actual title is "The Old Stag" (which is more different than what Disney changes his title in the adaptations). On the other hand of the differences of being Titular Ruler of your own Animal Kingdom, while the Movie explains that being a Prince means you'd have to watch over and protect your own People, the Book however does it quite differently that being a Prince of the Forest doesn't mean that you have to be a Watcher but rather, it's something more different as the book explains to gain more wisdom as you grow.
Also, I wanted to say on how funny it is when people tend to ship Bambi/Ronno as crack, when in the book, Ronno was actually a lot older than Bambi as he was actually a Good Guy and hold no hated guts nor was a bully like how you once thought he always was (Aka, in akin on how the film portrays). However, as Bambi and Faline grew, he did challenge Bambi to see on which Buck would be the perfect mate for Faline (similar in nature on how Deer mate in RL) (but I'll get to that point later on). Ronno also had a Partner named "Karus", in which that both Ronno & Karus were actually the Young Princes in the Stag group, being very respectful towards the Animals in the Forest (including Bambi) until when Bambi grew older (again, gonna get to that part very soon).
Aside from the fact that we all know who Bambi's BFFs are in what terms that Disney tries to suggest us of a Bunny and a Skunk, Thumper and Flower were sadly never a thing in the Book as Bambi's friends were mostly Fawns around his age. However, while Friend Hare was turn into Thumper for a reason with Flower being an Original Character for the Film, Faline and Another Deer (who was her Brother), "Gobo" were actually long childhood friends of Bambi as their own Mothers actually have known in each other for a very long time. That's right, you heard Me, in the Original story, Faline had a Brother and that Brother was indeed a Very Friendful Deer (much to his sister's dismay of being more "childlike"). Gobo was actually the only Deer who was captured by the Hunter as a Fawn, but was brought and carefully raised by the Hunter as he grew up living with the Human (believing in the fact that not all Humans are bad since Half of the World that we all live in is filled and invested by Half of the Good/Bad of Humanity as our Neutrality is still running even to this day).
Now, for the Part about their own Mothers, needless to say is that Faline and Gobo's Mother is called "Aunt Ena" (suggesting that somewhere down the line that perhaps Bambi's Mother and Ena are Sisters, making both Bambi, Faline, and Gobo equally as Cousins). Granted, I'm not too sure about the "cousin" part as I am deeply aware of the fact if Salten was trying to do the whole "Blood Relation in Nature of Animals is not Illegal because Animals have No Laws unlike How We Humans have" thing, but I am assuming that Bambi's Mother and Ena are perhaps long-time friends, therefore, it wouldn't specifically make Bambi and Faline cousins if you're one of the few that's gonna think it's too much of nature with incest, but I believe that the relation between the Two Mothers is left completely unexplained in the Book (so I don't think that Bambi and Faline are truly cousins are not as some would suggest that).
On the topic of Bambi and Faline's romance, I will say in the least that like Simba/Nala from "The Lion King", it's sad that we don't get to see enough of Bambi's romance with his love interest (Faline) in the Disney films when technically the book version expands more on their relationship.
They started off as childhood friends (like in the film) but only when do the Two Fawns are in a Trio with Gobo, playing with other Fawns and even having some playful time in the woods. There were also Other Deer such as Old Nettla and even Marena were also part in their lives as they did play an important role in the story (Old Nettla is an elderly figure who doesn't deserve to have fawns of her own while Marena ended up becoming Gobo's Mate until his Death by the Hunter).
Eventually (like in the film), Bambi and Faline do see each other again when they're both Adults when Bambi starts to recognize his childhood friend while instantly being in love with her but unlike in the film, Faline was unaware of Bambi's blossomed crush on her. If Disney wants you to believe that Ronno is the Secondary Antagonist, you might want to re-think again because during Mating Season, Ronno and Karus were also in love with Faline as well as they even challenged Bambi for a duel for Faline's love just in the movie until Bambi eventually wins. Aside from what I believe was cut down from the original story is that (if I do remember correctly) was that Bambi and Faline were on their Mating Night during their Honeymoon.
So to speak on their behalf of their Romance, it was actually a lot more generically more "Lovely" rather than "Cute". Considering that Faline has been described as Playful and Childlike, there always has been a potential for Bambi and Faline to become Lovers given on how that their Chemistry was really sweet and innocent when Faline was like the special one to be friends with a Prince like Bambi as when they met again as adults, Bambi did grew fond of her as the Book clearly states that He loves Her "with all of his Heart". So you can say that in the least that their Dynamic does heavenly work as the "Childhood Friends to Lovers" trope like Christine and Raoul from Gaston Leroux's "The Phantom of The Opera".
Anyways, back on Track; I think that we seriously need to take about the Most Important Character of what Most of the Animals fear and see him as "The Devil" would none other be "Man" himself.
Given through the concept of the idea based on what Nature tends to portray Humanity through an Animal's POV, An Animaltaker is a Caring Angel Guardian. A Hunter is a Huge Threat. But what is that Man has in common with both in the Book and in the Film?
While we never get to see on what Man is truly like as a Character, he is only referred by Two Options;
A Regular Hunter whose just doing his own Hunting Job.
The Audience, in which this is what we are aware if our own Kind is the Main Villain of the Story.
The reason as to why I'd bring Man up is because the same thing cannot be said towards this Hunter from the Book (or at least, what he was originally referred to similar in the film).
In the book, Man was actually only referred to as "He" is what most of the Many Animals referred to him in the book. Only then, do "Man" and "He" whom most of the Animals call to is quite similar in how Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book" when the Animals simply refer to "Fire" as "The Red Flower".
While Man was probably one of the few Disney Villains that scared a lot of our childhoods, the He in the book was actually describe pretty neutral. Just a regular human hunter just doing his own hunting job.
What's interesting though is that while a Hunter is still the biggest threat to all of the Wildlife, he was actually the one who raised Gobo after when he found him straitened during the Winter time (yeah, compare to the One who burnt down all of the Forest by stupidity, this one on the other hand takes up a caring approach towards an Animal after he tried to shot it), as it turns out, Gobo was actually taken care of through his new life with Man. So there's like this "Conflict" between One whose raised by Humans and the Others who are shocked but are still feared/hated by Men. There's also a part where one of He's hunting Dogs is scolded by the Animals for being one of the domesticated ones to obey their own Human Master, while catching a Fox.
I think we can all agree that this would possibly be the most accurate depiction of Reality of what Half of Nature's Animals could see the Neutral Complex in Humanity whenever we Humans hunt or care for a creature. And how life is up to you to make your own decisions.
As for the plot of the Original Story itself, it's almost the same as the Disney movie, but the Source Material does take its own Nature story in an Individual way while still exploring the Harsh Reality of Nature within how an Animal's Life deals within the Animals themselves. With its many characters and more plot points, the Story is more of a re-telling of a Child's life from both Childhood and Adulthood as half of the Book tends to explore both Bambi's Childhood and Adulthood alike as well as his relationship with his own Parents (something that Disney gave his own Childhood more screen time as we only see Bambi's Adulthood half through the movie, which cuts down the Whole Last Part of his Adulthood). As both endings due have Bambi becoming a Father with the birth of his Children from Faline (Geno & Gurri).
However, the only man difference is how on what Disney is telling you what their own version of how a Great Prince of the Forest is vs. How Salten tells you truly on how being a Ruler of the Forest is like to gain Wisdom in order to gain Power while being Protector of the Forest.
In conclusion, while so far that the Many Changes within Disney's classical film compare to the Other Bunch of Disney Movies (that most of them are drawn from the Old Century Stories that Disney popularize to this day), I would say that Disney's take on Salten's Bambi is the largest of the pop culture today with Most People not knowing the Original Story (in fact, it's sad to say in the least on how that the Popular Adaptation overshadows the Source Material. With the Disney version still taking a Dark approach with a Cutsey Animal feel to it inside of a Mashup, the Book's approach on Nature is much more Accurate and More Realistic without any Adorable "Feel" behind to it.
However, aside from the fact that both Books are Good, does that mean I'll prefer the Book over the Famous Adaptation that is more familiar with? Well...Not really, tbh, in fact, while both can be flawed in their own way, they can actually be both unique in their own way.
So for the Book's Rating, I'd give it a 8/10, because it's still a Good Story compare to the Movie (which is still a Cinematic Masterpiece) IMO.
8 notes
·
View notes
Text
Random rant on Rob Zombie's halloween movies:
Many fans of the franchise were critical of the film, claiming that Zombie ruined Micheal Myers by humanizing him and giving him a childhood backstory, thus ruining his mystery and scariness, and hurting the franchise.
Firstly I don't think those who argue this seem to understand that Rob Zombie's Michael was his own version of Michael Myers not a continuation of the Carpenter's Myers hence why they both have different personalities and carry themselves differently. I'm stating this given the scene in the 2007 Halloween film where Michael shows Laurie a picture of him and her as children. In that moment, Michael Myers was clearly not the "Shape" or "The Boogeyman '' Loomis had portrayed him to be. He was a damaged person with severe mental health issues that was mistreated by society, and this is the image of Michael Rob Zombie wanted to convey.
Secondly, if I'm being honest with y'all, giving Michael Myers a believable backstory was refreshing after the ridiculous directions the Halloween franchise had previously taken during that time.
Lastly, does changing Michael's character hurt the franchise? In all honesty, I doubt it. As a matter of fact, I believe the change added more subtleties to Michael Myers than simply being the epitome of evil. Compared to his original counterpart, RZ Michael is much more complex and nuanced. His backstory, motivations, and personality make him more interesting than just a white mask wearing killer. As a result, he managed to be both the most brutal and softest version of Myers I have ever seen. I think the franchise benefitted from the little nuance.
Regarding Rob Zombie's Myers, I want to explain the reason as to why Rob Zombie changed up his character, and the answer is simple:
He didn’t want his version of Halloween to be stylized or continued in Carpenter's vision, but his own. Thus he created his own version of Michael Myers.
I believe the reason for people's disdain for this version of the character can be traced back to this, the fact that Rob actually went on to follow his own artistic vision rather than the traditional one.
His remake wasn't a remake it was supposed to be in the eyes of fans who expected a traditional Halloween remake. He acknowledged that there was no point in approaching the story of halloween the exact same way because honestly what would be the point of just doing the same thing as the original again when the original is already a classic?
A good remake should always aim to re-imagine things and show us something different than the original in my opinion; otherwise there is no point for the remake to exist.
It might seem pedantic but his Halloween was a reimagining- so he was taking it from the perspective of "what if this is how things played out"
His film didn’t erase any of the previous films or lore. Through his version of Michael and showing how his character affects others, he takes a different approach to Halloween that is more grounded on emotion and tragedy.
This is best illustrated by how Zombie portrayed the death of Michael's victims. Zombie chooses to linger on the pain and fear of Michael's victims and not just make quick and easy deaths people would enjoy. He never wanted viewers to enjoy the death Michael causes but be uncomfortable by it as they witnessed how his horrific acts caused havoc among those around him. The first instance of this is in Michael's fatal confrontation with his bully, in which the kid begged Michael to stop, but Michael ended up beating him to death. Even after Michael's brutal attacks and killings, in the second installment, people are left with mental, emotional and/or physical scars.
Rather than a quick slasher flick about a man in a white mask killing off babysitters at night, Rob Zombie's Halloween movie seems more like a story about trauma.
All in all, Rob Zombie has a very specific type of film, and if you're not for that style, his duology probably weren't going to float your boat. His Michael Myers take was deliberately designed to be a real-life-grounded serial killer because his goal was to build a real life, "nurtured" psychopathic killer from the ground up rather than Evil possessing a random kid one day. You know, a massive storytelling difference on purpose.
I feel like Zombie's version shouldn't honestly be compared to the original since he wasn't trying to follow what the original Halloween did because he never wanted to copy and paste what John Carpenter did. He wanted to go through his own vision. I actually appreciate that it deviates from the original because John Carpenter told RZ to make the movie his own, and I'd rather a movie try to be different.
Seeing how this is the end of my rant, I also want to add that Studio interference certainly affected the movie since the backstory was actually supposed to be one complete movie that he was forced to shorten and fit into the completed movie. The second movie was going to be the actual Halloween. Which would have been so interesting to see!
This does not mean I think the movie is without fault . In fact a major criticism I myself have for the movie is more about the writing itself. There were times when the dialogue seemed forced and cheesy, like i lowkey feel like Zombie shouldn't be writing his own scripts or at least have others to edit the script. And god don't get me started on the unneeded and disgusting sexual assault scene that was there for "realism" or shock value. I really preferred the prison guard scene that displayed Michael's brute strength and unstoppable nature, especially the scene where he let all the other patients out.
If you didn't agree or like this rant, then tough shit...I’m fucking with you, I’d like to read your thoughts, just don't crucify me. I don't expect people to agree honestly because there is more hate than love for this movie, but i do want y'all to understand this movie is Rob Zombie's own thing, not a continuation of the orginal Michael Myers.
If you did like this rant then here is a really good analysis of both Rob Zombie's Halloween movies, this guy did a really great explaining shit I couldn’t put into words:
youtube
#rz michael myers#rz!michael myers#halloween 2007#michael myers#og michael myers#halloween 1978#Og!michael myers#rob zombie#john carpenter#slasher fucker#don't ask about the second to last tag#rob zombie halloween#Halloween 2009#tyler mane
45 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
staticrain
Untitled
smokingnonstop
lulu
christingho-blog
Untitled
flamingoplinko
Meow
theblissmusing
The.blissmusing