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nono-bunny · 2 months

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Thoughts from watching the ATLA live action!

I initially wanted this to all be one post but. It got too long and also Tumblr accidentally posted it once instead of just drafting as I asked while I was writing it and I had to reconstruct the whole thing so I'm just going to make one post per episode I think.

So, episode 1!

Oh my god the show really opens on just showing the letters "Capital City", genuinely that's kind of hilarious?? I kinda always thought of it as Caldera City collectively because Capital City sounds dumb (very The Hunger Games of them, ngl) but like... I do recognize that it's only technically the rich district- even so I feel like maybe they should've reimagined that one in particular because honestly it's always been confusing for the capital to have two cities in it (Harbor City is the other one, basically the poor people district). Anyway not a big deal overall, just... Kind of funny to not change this

Truly a weird way to start the show with just some random Earth Kingdom revolutionaries, but based on the fact that I've heard they're not in it I'm just headcanoning it to be Haru and Tyro lmao otherwise it's just. A truly bizarre choice

Oh never mind they're??? Opening before the war??? They literally have Ozai in the first season, why wouldn't they just have a menacing Sozin in a war room, with like maybe some very subtle hints to him grieving someone who died disagreeing with him, and him going forward with it anyway? Idk it's genuinely very strange to open a show with such iconic and recognizable characters by focusing on some random mostly irrelevant people you're never gonna see again because the story takes place a hunder years in the future. I mean, it was a cool fight scene (when I could see it lmao, I wish it wasn't so dark- would've looked great in a cinema but this should have been made for people watching on home screens) but?? Why should I care about these people or what they're doing, either as a veteran who knows they don't matter or as someone new to the story who DOESN'T know that they're never going to see them again?

Oh shit wait, AGAIN??? They keep zagging on me lmao this is like. Exactly what I wanted!! I read they started things off with a lot of fighting and showing the war so I thoght this was what it was but no!! The random guy meets non other than Sozin... Who genuinely looks incredible and does a fantastic job at portraying exactly what I wanted!! I think there's something in the eyes specifically? Like, there's a certain sadness mixed with idealism there, which works really well with how determined, calculating and cold he otherwise is. He feels 100% like the sort of guy who'd reasonably be the ancestor to the mess that is the Royal Family we see during the rest of the show, and I'm genuinely really happy about it! Sozin feels like the sort of madman who believes in his own just and it's perfect, like, the exact vibe I got from him in the original!

Is Gyatso talking to Bryke rn or...?? Lmao fr Aang never learned any of the things he mentions which is why he was a bad Avatar, and why in the end I don't like canon OG Aang. Addressing it in the first episode is extremely bold of the LA tbh, but you know I love to see it! Also everyone was talking about how Aang wasn't silly enough, but literally in the OG he was too silly and never learned to take responsibility or work with others so?? This Aang that is already blending a whimsical air with what seems like a degree of emotional intelligence the original lacked is!! Such an improvement in my eyes, actually! I'm hoping they manage to properly resolve these things this time around, but already their direction with him just within minutes of meeting him feels a lot more palatable to me. Also they rewrote that scene in a way that makes Gyatso infinitely more likeable because now he actually GETS it, OG Gyatso was a kind man but in the end... He was wrong, he coddled Aang too much. Here, in a universe where the Air nomads want to help defend the rest of the world, he recognizes that while Aang is needed, he genuinely isn't capable of helping yet which!! Also feels like an improvement in terms of co-nation relations, it feels like there actually used to be a harmony of sorts before! It will help make the Air Nomads feel less out of place and "out of sight out of mind" in the bad way they were in the original. The Air Nomads already planning to get involved also feels like a way to rid Aang of his idealistic and childhish views of his own culture in a much more direct way than the more subtle approach just showing Gyatso surrounded by skeletons of people he likely killed. Also, again, saw people complain aboit the Air Nomads wanting to get involved being ooc and?? Okay, so? Have you maybe considered that them being so insular that their loss was barely felt in the original whenever they didn't need to make Aang have an emotional moment was a bad thing??? Like, I get that it isn't in line with their characterization, but personally? Them choosing not to get involved in an attempted genocide was always a bad look tbh, and as far as I'm concerned, this is a fix and a way to make them look much better than just like. Hermits unconcerned with the world- they care, they want to help! Honestly overall everyone in the Air Nomads looks so much better here, this feels like a net good in terms of like... Idk Air Nomad publicity lmao. Also, showing the different temples coming together to celebrate is!! Incredible, I wholeheartedly love that addition to the lore!

Ngl tbh so far this feels like a fanfic I'd read, in like. Literally the best possible way

Yo the "Gyatso and Roku were friends" theory looking realll possible rn with that "you will always be my friend" line 👀

Ah so I see what people meant about Aang's characterization in this episode being a bit tell-y rather than show-y, that's fair. That said, it was a really nice scene that established the bond between him and Appa quite well imo! Also now I'm genuinely curious as to whether they'll have him get a bit drunk with power like in the original considering the focus they're putting on how much he needs to NOT do that!

To everyone saying Aang running away was important and should not have been cut- no, it fucking wasn't, it was one of his biggest unresolved character flaws that got ignored when the destroyed his character arc in season 3 and I'm fucking glad it's gone. I do find it interesting that here Aang basically only just finds out about being the Avatar before getting frozen rather than having a bit more time to get used to the idea and see how it changes things for him- it makes it that in a way, this Aang has both a lot more and a lot less baggage! Essentially his entire journey of discovery of what it means to be pronounced the Avatar will happen alongside people who never knew him as anything but, it's an extremely finite and dramatic closing of the chapter of his life where he wasn't the Avatar- it kinda shows he has no room for confusion anymore, he must now become The Avatar because that's essentially his people's last request of him. It's a very different sort of vibe from "I wasn't willing", it's "I wasn't ready", and that is much more easily fixable in a shorter show! Also the og literally just "solved" the willingness issue by having him enjoy the benefits and refuse to do any of the work so. Not sad to see it go at all

Battlefield Sozin?! Firebending rockets?! Wilhelm scream?! Cool battle scene all around tbh, really heartbreakin and difficult to watch, which means they did a good job with it! I do still wish it was brighter though lmao

Uhh forgot to type anything for a while because I was crying but. Yeah I generally really liked the portrayal of life on Wolf Cove! There are definitely some very noticeable changes with our two leads here, and I actually don't think they're necessarily bad, they just feel very strange and might take a bit to get used to. Katara actually isn't passive, which is weird considering that's how a lot of people described her? She's just extremely cautious. All of her defining traits feel like they're still there, but some of them do feel like they're lying a bit under the surface due to her situation which! Makes sense as an alternative way of writing her! Sokka genuinely feels like such a big brother here, I like the emphasis on his sense of responsibility and how he doesn't quite know how to be a real leader yet- it goes very well with a Katara who desperately wants to be a fighter but can't and has to try and blend in. Both of them have very clear aspirations and the traits that will eventually allow them to get to where they want to be, but they're very far from reaching them at the start. A lot of the scenes do feels kinda awkward tbh, but idk, I think they do a fine enough job at what they attempt to.

Now, hearing that Katara wasn't the one to break Aang out in a fit of anger wasn't a deal breaker for me actually, but? Honestly the way he gets out is just needlessly confusing here, genuinely unclear if Katara did it or he just... Idk somehow reacted to another bender's presence or whatever. Idk, it felt extremely weird and I think just like? A bit of clarification here as to what happened could've saved this scene without it having to happen via anger if that's the way they wanna go with Katara, and specifically her relationship with Sokka (which, again, does really feel authentic and well done here imo!)

Aang saying that Katara is the only one who tried to fight for him is fucking wild, but I guess that's the impression he got given that Gyatso told him he had to go away and he didn't hear the meeting about him here. Still a wild thing for him to say, felt really weird right alongside Sokka being the bravest person he ever met. Idk that whole exchange was off and awkward and just... Strange

Iroh doing his best to help and teach Aang when he can is very sweet. Idk how to feel about how hard he's already going in on the whole "your daddy doesn't love you" thing with Zuko tbh, because it does make Zuko appear much less lost when he's got someone who's giving him the answers rather than leading him to them, it's kinda a book 2 vibe from them? It's strange. Also a straight talking Iroh feels so strange in general, literally his only "eccentric" quality so far is loving Jasmine tea and very clearly not being down with the war, it's... Certainly A Choice, but not one I'm really enjoying so far tbh

There's something really interesting about Katara immediately relaxing and allowing herself to be silly and mischievous around Sokka here, it's kind of a flip from their dynamic in the original but there's something really fun and sweet about seeing those hidden aspects of her come out around the one person she knows and trusts to accept and protect her just as fiercely as she would him. It's definitely different, but I'm genuinely really enjoying the unique spin they put on their relationship and how it correlates with their own individual personalities and how they perceive and present themselves.

Taking the burden of always being the only one who can bring Aang out of the Avatar State away from Katara feels like a big relief. Also in general I like the way they still kept Aang's attachment to Gyatso and his parallels with Katara, while also solidifying Sokka and Aang friendship which wasn't really... A thing in the original? Having Sokka protect and reach out to Aang feels much more personal here in a way than it did originally, I think maybe the weird scene where Aang praises them kinda worked to serve that? Idk I've read people saying they don't feel like a family but more like friends here but. They never did in the original in season 1 either tbh. If anything there's a sense of everyone being equal here which the original lacked in places, I like how both Sokka and Katara support and save Aang in equal measure here and how they look out for each other as well. Aang is kinda naturally a mess this whole episode but here's hoping he returns the favor for them for once in the future!

Edit: dammit Tumblr literally just did it again I didn't mean to post this yet, but I'm kind of at the end of the episode so fuck it, it stays I don't wanna reconstruct it in the drafts again. If I have anything to add it'll go after this.

#avatar the last airbender #atla #atla live action #avatar the last airbender live action #natla

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greyshigh · 2 years

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Diablo 2 resurrected switch release date

#Diablo 2 resurrected switch release date Patch

#Diablo 2 resurrected switch release date pro

#Diablo 2 resurrected switch release date Pc

#Diablo 2 resurrected switch release date series

Everything's here for the complete experience, including Paladin, Necromancer and Assassin. Fans may remember only five character classes in the original release, but D2:R includes the Lord of Destruction DLC, which adds two more classes (and the fifth and final act). There is no further customization your character class and the gear you find completely define your stats and which skill trees and abilities are available. That's probably why you're playing Diablo II anyway.Īt the beginning of our adventure, we can choose one of seven character classes. What the plot may lack in excitement, it makes up for with interesting visuals and enemy designs. If you don't, the story can stagnate in the later acts, and if it weren't for the otherwise solid D2 gameplay, I wouldn't have been enticed to see it through to the end. There is quite a bit of lore here, but the way it's told is archaic and easy to ignore. The five acts that comprise the story of D2:R, which takes place in different areas and biomes, each correspond to a story beat about demons bleeding into the real world and how your adventurer unravels the cause of it. I was experiencing most of the game for the first time, and it was all right. I must preface this by saying that I have played the original release but have never completed the story campaign before. The narrative is largely told via cut scenes and minor expository dialog during gameplay. I'm pleased to say that the same is largely true for Diablo II, with some minor caveats.

#Diablo 2 resurrected switch release date Pc

While PC has always been the best place to enjoy the series, 2019's Diablo 3 port on Switch proved that the handheld was fully capable of providing a close enough experience on the go. If your only concern is whether D2:R will fulfill your Diablo nostalgia, you won't be disappointed by this polished reimagining. Polish up the visuals to a degree where they're undoubtedly better across the board but feel oddly familiar if you played the original, all while keeping the original gameplay largely unchanged except for a few quality-of-life improvements. The approach for D2:R is essentially the same.

#Diablo 2 resurrected switch release date pro

We played the Switch port of the demon-slaying action-RPG to see how well the isometric action plays on Nintendo's handheld.ĭiablo II: Resurrected was developed by Vicarious Visions, a studio that has proved its talent with the recent Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 and Crash Bandicoot N. More importantly, Diablo II: Resurrected is one of the few titles that released day and date on the Nintendo Switch alongside all other major platforms. It had to fight the usual server issues at launch, which feels like a depressing routine that all major releases have to go through nowadays. Diablo II: Resurrected is the first major release since then, so there's a lot riding on the title.

#Diablo 2 resurrected switch release date Patch

Of course, if anything about this changes in the meantime, we will let you know.Blizzard has been going through a bit of a rough patch of its own creation, both in terms of recent game releases and workplace climate. When we take time conversion into account, depending on where you live, this means that the game will become available at 11 am ET, 5 pm CEST, or 4 pm BST. The global release time is going to be at 8 am PDT.

#Diablo 2 resurrected switch release date series

It will have a simultaneous release on all platforms (Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X) at the same time. The release date for Diablo 2: Resurrected is scheduled for Thursday, September 23rd 2021. When is The Diablo 2: Resurrected Release Date & Time Now, the release date of this much-anticipated remaster is almost here, and our comprehensive Diablo 2 Resurrected Release Date & Time guide will tell you when you can expect the game to be available. Diablo 2, especially, is considered by many to be the pinnacle of the genre, and it has inspired countless clones and inferior knock-offs during its heyday. It’s no wonder that this is the case, seeing as the Diablo franchise is one of the most iconic action role-playing games ever made. Ever since Diablo 2: Resurrected has been announced, players have been eager to learn the exact date & time when it will finally release.

#Diablo 2 resurrected switch release date

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dalekofchaos · 3 years

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Few simple things I believe would’ve improved the Re3make

Jill looks something like this art by Litoperezito See, this looks more like Jill Valentine. What we got was alright, but this looks like a mixture of Classic and Re3make Jill combined, the best of both worlds really

Jill and Brad go to the RPD. Nemesis kills Brad. Jill has the chance to investigate the RPD for evidence and clues about Chris’ investigation and Irons’ corruption and we get to see Nemesis make many encounters with Jill in the RPD and see Nemesis make the holes and damage to the RPD that we see in the RE2 remake. Also as Jill leaves the RPD, Jill will witness Brad biting Marvin and having to put Brad down. It’s more impactful if it’s Jill and not Carlos

Make Nemesis a constant presence and menace. The defining thing that made the Nemesis terrifying in the original is his penchant for turning up at unexpected times, sometimes following you through doors to add more terror too. The sad thing about RE3make’s version of the Nemesis is this mechanic was utilised for Mr. X in last year's title, stepping him up from his planned routes in the original. So had they done the same with the Nemesis, fans would complain he was the same as Mr. X was, albeit occasionally armed. Yet why would that have been a bad thing? Mr. X was a constant, lumbering menace. Having that ramped up with a faster Nemesis would have been perfect. Instead, we just got predictable set pieces and easily spotted "jump scares" in its place. The power station is a prime example: see that massive brick wall and open space on your way there? The real fear of the original was hearing a door open or crashing through a window and the music swell, as he catches you unawares. So what you do instead is to have Nemesis appear at random. WHen you are exploring the city and trying to save as much people as possible, you hear a door open, followed by the chilling sound of “STAAAARS” then we are forced to either hide or fight him. But the slightest sign of being spotted and you are forced to fight. That fake rumor of Nemesis breaking into safe rooms? Yeah, bring that idea into the game because nothing would be scarier than for Nemesis to destroy your only place of safety. Have Nemesis use the rocket launcher more frequently. Do you know how fucking terrified I was when I was a kid and that I was chased by a Tyrant with a rocket launcher? Having Nemesis using the rocket launcher throughout the game would’ve been great and not being confined to the chase sequence would’ve been better imo And wanna know what would be great? There is no pattern or sense of his attacks. Honestly, I the thing I find most terrifying about Nemesis is his ability to cancel attacks if they miss. You think “Oh, now’s my time to attack.” But then you see him stop mid-way and he starts to sprint at you as you raise your gun. His unpredictable nature makes him a genuine threat and the best antagonist of the RE series, in terms of enemies. Keep the feeling of dread, fear and suspense for Nemesis.

Nemesis looks more like the classic look and just get rid of the nose lol

Carlos saves Jill in the diner. This writes itself as it was the perfect introduction to Carlos and then we see Carlos and Jill going to the train station.

More costumes for Jill and Carlos

Clock Tower. I don’t know why the Clock Tower was not fully accessible or accessible at all. It was one of the most iconic parts of the game. For the first game it was the Mansion, for RE2 it was the R.P.D. station. For RE3 it was the Clock Tower. In the 2020 reimagining of Resident Evil 3, the Clock Tower is nothing more than a nice backdrop for a fight with Nemesis and something that fans of the original will remember. This is kind of a major disappoint for the Remake as by basically cutting the games most iconic location, Capcom have cut some of the heart from Jill’s time to shine. Not only that, but it seriously harms the run time of Resident Evil 3 Remake, Capcom didn’t replace this location at all and for some gives the feel as if this game was rushed to market. This also means that the fight with Nemesis has fewer stakes to it overall. It is just another fight and not a climactic ending to the first half of the game. You do go to the Clock Tower. But you don't get to go into the clock tower. You don't get to explore it, nor do you get to solve the puzzle of the time manipulating goddess paintings. You don't get to test your music intuition and sync a melody up at the height of the tower section. That is a problem and with an open world Raccoon City, that problem would be corrected. If Capcom put the Clock Tower in this game then it might’ve quelled a lot of negative reception the Remake has received. You can’t just move these plot points to the hospital with a shootout and hope for the best.

Raccoon Park. In the original, you would head here after curing Jill, and it served as a passage to the Dead Factory. It wasn’t a huge location, but it was a fun change of scenery. It was also the location where Nikolai’s true motives are revealed, and where the boss fight against the Grave Digger takes place. So basically add in the park before going to find Nikolai and we’d get the Grave Digger boss fight

Grave Digger Boss fight. Basically what they should’ve done was give us a Grave Digger Boss fight in the park. OR. Have the Grave Digger accidentally save Jill from Nemesis during the first encounter, the poor worm could just be after a quick meal. Then have Nemesis crash the second encounter with the Tyrant squashing or absorbing the giant T-Virus infected bug. This literally writes itself and is a damn shame that now the Grave Digger is forever lost to time.

Jill’s Nightmares in the Mansion. After Jill is infected, before Jill awakes we should get a sequence of events where Jill is back at the mansion. Taking inspiration from the Marhawa Jill would have a nightmare sequence where she’s back at the mansion where she must face off against her worst fears yet again

Have a scene showing Nemesis absorbing a tissue sample of the G-Virus from Birkin in order to properly explain Nemesis final transformation.

Keep Barry in the ending. Okay what they could’ve done is Barry is waiting in the chopper and as Nicholai thinks he’s about to get away, BAM, Barry shoots Nicholai and as he’s gasping for air, we get the same talk “who are you working for” speak but Jill leaves Nicholai to die. And Jill, Carlos and Barry escape as Raccoon City explodes

But instead, Capcom was cheap and lazy with the Re3make and didn’t want to put in any effort and took out about 50% of the original game

#Resident Evil #Resident Evil 3 Nemesis #Jill Valentine #Carlos Oliveira #Nemesis #Brad Vickers #Nikolai Zinoviev #Barry Burton

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christhehoff · 2 years

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Kicking Acts and Taking Names

Review: Actraiser Renaissance

It's hard to improve upon greatness. Admittedly, the name ActRaiser might not mean a lot to modern gaming audiences, but when it was originally released 30 years ago for the Super NES, it was widely lauded for its unique combination of side-scrolling platforming action and top-down world-building simulation, held together by a captivating world-reviving premise and one of the most impressive, technology-defying soundtracks ever created. Rarely imitated and never duplicated, ActRaiser gained a cult following and for years was revered for its innovation, accessibility, and rewarding gameplay.

As such, the dev team behind Actraiser Renaissance - a from-the-ground-up remake of ActRaiser - doubtlessly faced an unenviable challenge: making the game relevant to contemporary players while still retaining the elements that made the original such a standout. And make no mistake: Actraiser Renaissance is a remake in the truest sense. Though the game uses the same concepts and components as the original, they are thoroughly rebuilt, remixed, and reassembled in news ways. The core gameplay and structure remain, as do the general maps, level themes, set pieces, enemies, and even the dizzying drop from the heavens - but very little is the same as it once was. Some levels are greatly inspired by the architecture and design ideas of the original, while others expand upon upon their 16-bit predecessors in a number of ways. In other regards, Renaissance feels like a whole new game - despite looking familiar, for example, bosses use completely different tactics and require entirely new reprisals.

What's important, though, is that the sword-swinging fantasy action is still satisfying and fun. It's simple enough to jump into an action stage and start slicing away at enemy beasts, now with combat options that have grown considerably since the original game. Movement is more fluid and responsive, and your repertoire now includes a rising sword strike and diving slash, along with an evasive dodge that's essential for survival in the Normal and Hard difficulty settings. Enemies also now drop crystals that increase your power and boost your chances of survival, plus you can now switch magic abilities during action stages instead of being stuck with whatever one you've chosen beforehand. The reimagined levels are diverse and well designed, with multiple routes and permanent stat boosts hidden off the beaten path to encourage exploration and replayability.

While the action stages don't stray too far from the original 16-bit concepts, the simulation segments have expanded considerably - most notably with the inclusion of new tower defense/real-time strategy segments. In the vintage game, the simulation segments were light and breezy affairs; you'd guide the direction of village construction, shoot enemies as an angel, solve a few problems with elemental miracles, and have a new civilization ready to go in 30 minutes or so. Not the case in Renaissance - you can expect each region's simulation scene to take a couple of hours, much of which is spent placing and upgrading three types of defensive constructs to protect against enemy hordes that attack at mostly predetermined points in the civilization's growth.

Unfortunately, these RTS sections feel half-baked; critically, you don't know where the enemies will be coming from in advance, and you can't move your emplacements during enemy assaults, so it comes down to luck or playing, failing, then retrying after repositioning your defenses - but even then, it can be hard to determine enemies weaknesses (which dilutes the strategy), and there are often arbitrary placement restrictions that make these segments needlessly convoluted.

More successfully, the simulation scenes also introduce new hero characters. They can be guided much more directly and are essential for stopping the enemy onslaught, but perhaps more importantly, they are integral to the game's more fleshed-out story and inject an appreciated dose of humanity that was absent in the original ActRaiser. Though these heroes are initially specific to each region, they can eventually be summoned to participate in other areas' RTS battles should the need arise (and it will). And it isn't just these new heroes that add to the game's personality. Tanzra's minions - the enemy bosses - have become full-fledged characters as well.

The game has changed in numerous other areas too. New, brief action stages occur when you seal monster lairs, adding variety to the now-lengthy simulation segments. And diehard fans will notice countless minor adjustments to the story beats and play mechanics, with some aspects more transparent and others more obtuse: for example, your performance in action stages no longer dictates the maximum size of your community, experience is now gained by completing quests rather than simply based on total population, and accomplishing certain tasks tends to reward you with EXP boosts for the hero characters rather than key items like in the original game. (In fact, the opportunity to use and share "offerings" is overall quite diminished.) But the best change, without a doubt, is an entirely new area at the end of the game after the credits roll, which includes both a new action stage and simulation map, and comes complete with a new boss.

Aesthetically, Actraiser Renaissance is pleasing to look at. The action-stage visuals are solid if not especially spectacular, but the game truly shines during the simulation scenes, which now boast a level of detail never previously imagined. The overhead maps now actually resemble living, breathing, thriving communities rather than the comparatively primitive approximations from the original.

And the music, thankfully, absolutely soars. The awesome symphonic soundtrack by Yuzo Koshiro was one of the standout features of the 16-bit game, and it continues to impress in Renaissance. All the classic tunes have been updated and remixed for this version of the game, and numerous new tunes have been added. Better yet, you can choose to play with either the original 16-bit sounds or the modernized versions - and yes, even the new tracks are available in both styles. If you've never played ActRaiser before, this game is worth trying for the soundtrack alone.

Ultimately, Actraiser Renaissance is an experience that's deeper than the original, offering modern accoutrements, more complexity, and longer playtime in exchange for some of the charm and pick-up-and-play simplicity of the vintage game. It isn't necessarily better than its 16-bit predecessor, nor is this game a replacement for it. But that's OK. Instead, Renaissance stands beside the original as a welcome re-interpretation of a true legend of the Super NES era, and as a fine way to celebrate this genre-blending classic, particularly if you don't have an SNES or Wii Virtual Console version handy.

#video games #square enix #actraiser renaissance

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mellowasinyellow · 3 years

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100daysofwriting - Day 1

So I thought for the first day I might just briefly outline all of the WIPs I have actually made a start on and that might help me to decide where I want to focus some energy. I have some for Katniss/Peeta in THG fandom and some for Natasha/Clint in the MCU.

Everlark

folklore series - so I started this series of fics inspired by songs from Taylor Swift's album folklore because honestly those songs just immediately bring to mind so many scenarios that made me think of Katniss and Peeta. I made a start on chapters based on peace, my tears ricochet, invisible string, this is me trying, and mad woman. I also have a bit of an outline for continuing the story that was started in 'the 1'.

I've had this one WIP ongoing since about 2015(?) which is a bit of a monster that has grown beyond me but basically it involves Katniss and Gale being raised in the Capitol in relative poverty after their fathers are conscripted into the peacekeepers because of traitorous activity. Mrs Everdeen is still from 12 but was moved to the Captiol to be married (this part is sketchy) and she still had a little childhood romance with Mr Mellark. Peeta gets reaped and Mrs Everdeen reacts to this as he looks like his father. Katniss gets a crush on him as she watches him prepare for the games. She hates herself for it but finds herself checking up on how he is doing even during non-mandatory viewing.

Arranged Marriage - I feel like this is such a cliche for thg fandom, but I just imagined my own way that the pairings happen but I'm so bad at writing slow burn so this will probably never materialise, but if you want a semi-decent thought out pairing/arranged marriage system I would be happy to lend you mine.

Miscarriage fic - I will never post this, but it's in my WIP folder. It's full of nasty feelings that feel a little better when they are written about.

Modern AU Pandemic Quarantine! - ofc, this is essential. Katniss and Peeta end up as the only people not to move home from their dorm for the quarantine. Slow burn that I can't fucking write should ensue.

Canon Pandemic Quarantine AU - pandemic a few years after the end of the war forces Katniss to admit she wants Peeta as more than a friend with whom she hunts, bakes, rebuilds the district. Cue sexy pandemic times and a resentful Haymitch that keeps accidentally breaking the rules.

Divorced but co-parenting Everlark - obviously finding their way back together

Another classic of their children being reaped and dying - I don't know why I write things this depressing. They just tend to come out in one big rush and then I never address them again.

Real weird teen pregnancy modern day AU - don't know where it's going or why...

Modern day AU dead Prim - Peeta and Katniss just met each other through mutual friends and are kind of flirting. Peeta is a bit infatuated. Katniss stops going to mutual friend parties and he finds out it's because her sister died. Instead of staying away he gets tangled up in her grief and does all sorts of practical things while Katniss wallows. Also it's E rated but not that much fun... can't entirely explain where this one came from either...

Single Parent AU where Finnick and Annie play match maker. Probably my fave Everlark in the works but it's another one that has grown so big for the 20 minutes I can dedicate to it each week.

Clintasha

Red Room Take Down - Nat and Clint are retired and living a quiet family life with their child. SHIELD appears asking for Nat's help in taking down the red room and dealing with the fall out, specifically what to do with the girls that they get out. Nat is torn but chooses to go. Chaos ensues with the 'rescued' girls. I need to actually develop some OCs a little if I ever want this to be good but tbh the pending Black Widow movie is kind of holding me back on this one too because I hope we find out more about the red room.

So I have a weird habit of writing from Lila Barton's POV. I can't explain it. I have AoU and like to pretend it never happened but anyway I have a WIP about Lila detailing the collapse of her parents' marriage after Clint retires and he and Laura actually have to spend time together without Natasha. She then goes on to describe the custody settlement and her utter joy that Auntie Nat sleepovers with them at her dad's place. She feels utterly betrayed when she finds out they are getting engaged.

Fluffy AU - Clint and Natasha in an established relationship with a son born between infinity war and endgame. Natasha still sacrifices on Vormir, but Steve gets her back no bother and it's so nice and happy and fluffy and Clint and Natasha are together and they have a son who has both parents back and Steve gets to make all this happen and he is so happy too and they have a barbecue and go swimming in a lake and clint/natasha have private time, and their kid wants to be captain america, and did I mention how HAPPY everyone is?

Another fic similar to the above just about everyone being so HAPPY. Endgame reverses the snap and instead of weird farm family coming back Clint and Natasha get their daughter back and it's just a cute moment about her reappearance and their race back to the spot she disintegrated from. (Steve/Bucky go to Vormir and Steve is sacrificed, but that fucker CHOSE to leave).

This is another one that has just grown bigger than my brain. it's based off the idea that Natasha helped with coordinating fosterings during the blip time. Clint loses his mind when he loses his family and crashes in BedStuy but finds a neighbour girl (Kate Bishop) who is fending for herself in post-apocalyptic Brooklyn. He helps her out and tries to get children's services involved but it has collapsed. Finds out Natasha is the one getting everything in order. He gets in touch. She's at the end of her tether and asks why he can't keep looking after her. In the end he does and she ends up getting involved and all three get overly attached to each other. I haven't got as far as the events of endgame and idk what's going to happen. It might be tragic.

Pregnant Natasha but nobody knows what is wrong with her because they don't even suspect her being pregnant is possible. Just a real vivid description of the early unpleasant pregnancy symptoms.

Another absolute monster - Sort of canon compliant to begin with aside from before the farm family disappear. Clint and Laura are in the middle of separating and tensions are running quite high at the farm. Snap happens. Nat and Clint accidentally run into each other while both a bit low during the blip and get drunk and share home truths. Begin working together from HQ and both get a little less sad. He convinces her she doesn't have to be responsible for the world's fate every moment of every day. Clint has a break down at Morgan's 1st birthday and realises that things will have to change. Nat has this realisation later. They begin sleeping together. Accidental pregnancy. More feelings come out between them. They enter a more conventional relationship and have baby. Baby is really hard work (colic) and they struggle with comparisons and feelings of inadequacy. Pepper helps them to identify the colic and improves everything greatly. Happy times with baby while also running the avengers. Opportunity to reverse snap. Some good scenes between Nat and Tony. A big conversation between Nat and Clint about what it will mean. Steve and Nat end up going to Vormir together. Nat is obviously about to commit suicide. Steve over powers her and gives her a pep talk about the situation she is running away from and how to deal with it. He self-sacrifices. Clint goes back to farm fam and Natasha goes back to BedStuy with baby. Clint has to tell Laura and then the kids about the last 5 years and their new siblings. Nate is super into it. Cooper is a bit aloof and cynical. Lila is confused. Laura is quietly seething. Clint helps put the farm back together about 5 years of neglect and the kids meet baby. Family gets happier. Laura and Nat eventually meet again and it's civil/friendly.

My own version of what happened in Budapest.

The Call - inspired by a post here on tumblr. Nat calls Clint as she bleeds out. Just needs a beta reader and then I would consider publishing.

AoU reimagined but with Clintasha - I'm not sure where this one is going it's like a massive spider web right now with lots of ideas shooting off, but basically it is inspired by this post and just involves a lot of hoodwinking the other avengers.

Accidental Baby Acquisition - Natasha becomes Yelena's child's legal guardian after Yelena gets taken out. Natasha and Yelena are estranged at this point and Natasha things the whole thing is a trap and brings Clint along. He is surprisingly good with the baby so she ropes him in to teach her. The three of them end up bonding.

5 times there's only 1 bed + 1 time they choose to sleep in the same bed.

non-superhero AU Clint and Nat both think they have adopted a stay cat but actually the cat has owners and just likes strokes and eats a lot so has many 'families'. They get into an argument over which of them the cat belongs to only to find out the cat has owners and they are moving away. They decide to adopt a cat between them as both are not hope that much and the shelter refused them as single people. Slow burn ensues, which I am shit at writing.

#100daysofwriting #everlark #clintasha #thg #mcu #clintasha fanfic #clintasha fanfiction #clintasha fic #everlark fic #everlark fanfic #everlark fanfiction #natasha romanoff #clint barton #katniss everdeen #peeta mellark

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comradesalazar · 3 years

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2020 Creator Wrap: Favorite Works

I will admit I got a lil Emotional that I got tagged in this but I’m so excited to go through it because this year has been SO PRODUCTIVE for me when it comes to writing. Thank you to the legend @that0negayslytherin for tagging me and the other legends, you the real MVP (and also thanks again for setting up the LV fic discord bc that place... really b Wild and really b a wonderful place to motivate each other to be our best.) Legends only!!

Anyhway! Onto this thing... I’m excited.

[rules: it’s time to love yourselves! choose your 5 (or so) favourite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought to the world in 2020. tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!]

So. Most of my works from this year have been Venji related because I’m still in the deep pit of Love, Victor obsession and idk when that’ll go away. Hopefully not anytime soon because I’m having a great time and fic was an amazing way for me to improve my craft. I do have one piece of original work on this list, but the rest is fic. It’s difficult to choose favorites so I think I’ll go chronologically. A couple of these have graphics but not all of them. Anyway... let’s get into this, shall we.

Arakhne of the Floating Mountain

So this the first work I completed this year. It’s an original novella I wrote for Wattpad’s Open Novella Contest and it’s a very fun, character-centric story that reimagines Arakhne/Arachne (the one from the legend who gets turned into a spider after challenging Athena) as a lonely lesbian who lives alone on, you guessed it, a palace on a mountain in the sky, until three sisters drop by asking for her to create their coronation dresses for when they become the queens of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory. The sisters (Soledad, Luna and Estelle) basically try to court her and it’s a good time. Obviously, I didn’t win the competition but it was still a really fun story for me to write and part of my journey of realizing I can create a writing habit and work on something over the course of a long time, since the only other completed long work I had was for NaNo, which was just binge-writing over 30 days before I had the chance to get bored. If you’re into magical lesbians, check it out!

The stars will love me even if you don’t

I have so much to say about this work. I started it just on a whim in August after I watched Love, Victor in July and began wanting to actually contribute to the works of fandom. Little did I know that I would be embarking on a journey of 120k words and counting, with 33 chapters. This story deals with a whole random of issues -- from long-distance relationships, substance abuse, mental health problems especially around anxiety and depression/suicidality, toxic relationships, codependency, self-harm, the project of becoming oneself and being able to manage life and navigate the world in a healthy way, all the things. In a lot of ways, it is a personal project. But also in a lot of ways I wanted to correct a lot of ideas we have about what constitutes a healthy relationship and what love should look like. There were many times when I wanted to give up on this project due to frustration and exhaustion, but I continued to work at it. I learned so much about my own capabilities, about developing a writing habit, and about what it’s like to write a behemoth of a story. It isn’t perfect by any means but I appreciate the people who have reached out to me and told me that they learned some things about themselves from reading. This is truly a labor of love and I can see that it already accomplished the goal I set for myself which was to help people. It’s lit. And thank you so much to @callmevenji for the lovely cover!! She’s a legend!!

The Thousand-Eyed Wraith (TTEW)

This was a little one-shot I wrote for the Halloween Venji Fic Fest and it takes place in the world of my original work, The Thousand-Eyed Crow. Basically, it’s about what would happen if Venji ended up in that world and had to deal with some spooky nonsense and eventually ended up joining a cult. It was fun for me because it was more stream of consciousness and post-modernist, which is very different to how I normally write but it was a really fun experiment tbh.

You Only Live Forever (YOLF)

This was another one-shot I wrote for the Fic Fest, but this one was much smuttier and mature than TTEW. I was really inspired by Beyonce’s “Partition” (the song and the video lmao) and thought it would be interesting to put Venji in a world similar to Greendale in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina but with s*x magic, so it was essentially a Love, Victor and CAOS cross-over for grownups lol. Apparently it worked out well, though, and they ended up trying to summon Satan which went... questionably. But I had a lot of fun writing this, as well, especially when it came to sorta balancing the old-timey setting with the modern day and the smutty scenes with the softer, fluffier ones.

Part of Your World

So one day I had an idea to write a Little Mermaid-inspired Venji story that would be so sweet and romantic... And so I did. I took a lot of inspiration from several sources -- one, of course, was the Disney version of the Little Mermaid, as well as the original version which is a lot darker and more sinister, as well as mythology around sirens and selkies and just, I guess like, class warfare. So I ended up with a sorta more adult-version of the Little Mermaid where Benji gets attacked by humans and is distrustful of them until he meets Victor who is “not like other humans” and helps patch him up, and they embark on a bit of a whirlwind romance. This has been a treat to work on even though it’s probably one of my least popular fics because I imagine people are coming for something a bit more light-hearted but I’m incapable of writing something that is 100% fun and not chock full of imagery and meaning. I think this has also been the work that showcased and tested my imagery-writing and dialogue-writing abilities the most and brought out my inner poet. And once again a huge thank you to @callmevenji for the fanart, if you haven’t already followed her you should bc she’s a legend.

Dead Men Feed the Fish

Finally, my last and most recent work is also the story I worked on for NaNoWriMo this year. 63,000 words completed in less than a month, depicting the initial meeting of Venji and the way their romance develops and deepens over time. It’s just (chef’s kiss). I had originally had the idea for pirate!Venji and really wanted to write it because I was inspired by That One Scene in Pirates of the Caribbean, which is probably one of the most romantic scenes I’ve ever seen and between the only het pairing I stan. So I just had to write a story that included this scene and that allowed me to write my dream scenario of Venji out on the open seas being gay and having a good time and going on adventures and having homoerotic sword fights. This story has basically everything -- romance, action, adventure, magic/fantasy, a lil bit of spice/kink, good communication, tension, cute animals, everyone is gay, what’s not to love. I’m also looking to edit and publish traditionally so I’m in the process of fixing all that up now. And once again, thank you to @callmevenji for the brilliant fanart!

Anyway, that was that, and I hope that if you have the time and you get the chance, that you give some of my works a shot because I would be very grateful and I think you will have fun.

I’ll tag @kateis-cakeis, @g531, and I guess anyone else who wants to do this!

#long post #writing #fanfiction #love victor #venji #author #my writing #gay literature

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nerdy-bits · 3 years

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Ghost of Tsushima and PlayStation Prestige Storytelling

There is an unspoken, yet constantly spoken, expectation that exists in the game industry that demands that games change over time. That they evolve. Yet, it is an expectation that is demanded hypocritically, or perhaps misguidedly.

When I started writing about games I remember holding a firm stance that Call of Duty was actually garbage, because it was all just recycled gameplay with minimal facelift year-to-year. There is this unspoken standard in games, it seems, that demands a distinguishable improvement over time. Yet, it never seems to quantify its own qualifications. What does that improvement entail? Surely graphical and mechanical improvements, yes? Do those expectations also include things like gameplay evolution? Does Last of Us II need to feel different than its predecessor or is it possible to just build on the framework that its priors have already laid?

None of these questions seem to have answers. At least I have never seen anyone take the time to sit down and build a more specific set of guidelines with which one can view a game’s…”uniqueness”? See, I even struggle to find the right word for the concept as a whole.

So let me start over, if not for you than for myself.

When I sat behind my desk to start playing Ghost of Tsushima, I was immediately confronted by a feeling of familiarity. I knew how to play this game already. Combat was simple, light and heavy attack, parry, counter-attack. It all felt very Assassin’s Creed 2, or perhaps even Arkham Asylum. Truthfully, I haven’t played the game in close to three months, but the mechanics are so easy to pick up that I have no doubt it would be a breeze to return.

Ghost of Tsushima, for the last AAA exclusive release on the PS4, is largely a summary of the genre for the last generation and a half. It’s both extremely appropriate and - in a sort of way - unavoidably disappointing. See, Sony has realized its version of what we call Prestige Television. Allow me the short diversion to explain myself.

In 200, 2008, and 2010 AMC discovered that it could deliver a version of television that bordered on the production value of film, but also allowed its storytellers the ability to tell a story over ten or twelve hours. Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead all established that television need not only be a procedural drama focused on serialized formulaity. They established that building a prolonged narrative arc could pay off, and draw record viewership in the process. Were they the first to do this? No, of course not. The Sopranos, The Wire, and before them the likes of Hill Street Blues, or Wiseguy. But see, the difference between the latter examples there and the former, is the accessibility. Hill Street Blues airing on NBC and Wiseguy on CBS. The Sopranos and The Wire continued the tradition of stellar television but on a far more exclusive stage. HBO wasn’t and still isn’t in most households. Then, at some point in the late 2000s, cable television stepped to the plate, and prestige television reemerged, and this time it propagated outward in every direction. Now nearly every network wants its own prestige show.

But what does any of this have to do with the Ghost of Tsushima and PlayStation? I think that Sucker Punch is another studio swallowed up by this generation of Playstation Prestige Storytelling. If swallowed up sounds a bit negative, that is on purpose. Last of Us started something, and after seven years of AAA exclusives focused on telling mature stories, Tsushima feels like the perfect bookend to this generation. A generation of exclusives full of prestige storytelling but not particularly full of unique or revolutionary gameplay experiences.

Look at both Last of Us titles, God of War, Uncharted, and Horizon Zero Dawn. It’s hard to find better single player experiences over the last 8 years. Each game is well written, expertly acted, and smartly directed. I deeply enjoyed each one. But over time it was hard to not realize one similarity: PlayStation exclusives don’t really push any boundaries outside of delivering highly manicured story and stunning visuals.

The toughest part about writing this is making clear that my opinion, despite sounding critical, isn’t. I own my PS4 for these titles. I lap them up hungrily. I feel I’ve just recognized what they are for me. Beyond a way to stay relevant, they act as a window into some of the best writing in the industry.

Ghost of Tsushima is a beautiful game complimented by an equally beautiful story. That story resides in the most refined version of recycled gameplay mechanics I have ever seen. And what’s more? It absolutely works. Tsushima is the summation of open world games for the last decade. It does very little new, but everything it does, it does markedly better than its predecessors. Arguably its most unique feature is its navigational breeze. Removing the non-diegetic quest marker and dotted-line trail for a more diegetic system that draws the breeze to guide you. The flourish of foliage is stunning almost always, and by hour three I had forgotten that it was a mechanic completely, and felt it more as a system of the world’s design.

But the combat is Arkham, the exploration is Assassin’s Creed, and the stealth is Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell. But the cutscenes. The attention to detail in exposition and composition is deliberate and masterful. In the opening moments Jin finds his family katana in a dark room. After a flashback, showing you his first moments learning under Lord Shimura, he unsheaths the blade over his head. The high moon shining through the torn walls casting a brilliant silver glare on across the folded steel. He positions the blade in a Jodan Kasumi stance, flaring the light of the moon across his face. This extremely good shit is painted across every scene in this game.

As much as I found myself quietly laughing at the novelty of a game made of a generation of parts, it wasn’t long before I absolutely didn’t care anymore.

That’s the trick. The conceit. Prestige television ostensibly didn’t change what film had been doing for decades. Rather it took that formula and drew it out, carried it over to a different medium, and used viewers’ desire for a good story to leverage their attention. God of War takes the Dark Souls formula for combat and boils it down, hones, and tunes it to its purposes. Uncharted is Tomb Raider with a heaping spoonful of Indiana Jones. Last of Us is almost literally apocalyptic Uncharted. Bloodborne is, well, Lovecraftian Dark Souls. You see the point. PlayStation’s story based exclusives, have built upon what has come before to hone something truly special for each of its games. Just not unique.

Podcasting and writing about games independently means you play a lot of games to stay relevant. A lot of games. I end up putting at least a dozen hours into most releases. When I like a game it generally means mainlining it to make way for the next game. I put 110 hours into Valhalla in the month and a half since it has been out. Playing that much means that when games are similar it can start to drag on you. It almost impacted my enjoyment of Ghost of Tsushima.

I started extremely critical of Tsushima’s willingness to borrow. I thought it cheap and lacking imagination. The story even immediately impacted me as a bit of a general take on very mainstream ideas of Japanese culture. I saw the combat and, though thoroughly enjoying it, kept reminding myself that it is just recycled mechanics. The first five hours of the game I tried so hard to convince myself that Ghost of Tsushima was too much of a copycat to be enjoyed. I’m honestly not even sure what it was that changed my mind. All I know is, around hour six, I realized what was really going on under the hood of Tsushima, and I fell in love with the notion of paying homage to what has come before. And that brings me closer to my point.

Ghost of Tsushima is Assassin’s Creed 2 made better. Logical visual update afforded by the passage of time aside, it’s combat is smoother, systems more diagetic, design more nuanced. It’s the culmination of a generation of games striving to be more. But it’s not the end of that pursuit. While Tsushima is incredible it’s not perfect. There are small flaws. Some persistent, some one off.

But it’s another step forward. In the journey of PlayStation Prestige Storytelling it is a logical step. An investigation of further leaning on established systems as an avenue for improvement. Expect future titles to do the same. We are definitely getting a second Tsushima game. Count on that. We also know we’re getting another God of War.

PlayStation exclusives refined themselves this generation. They are heightened storytelling experiences with a tremendous amount of good writing, jaw dropping visuals, and reimagined mechanics. Have they been a consistent wellspring of innovation? No. But then neither has prestige television. It’s a familiar system, twisted and turned, made to look fresh. And it’s perfect, and learning.

@LubWub ~Caleb

#ghost of tsushima #playstation #exclusive #article #readable #review #sucker punch #ps4 #games #nerdybits

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irhinoceri · 3 years

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So I read the Ed Brubaker Captain America comics yesterday, the ones that mainly deal with the Winter Soldier reveal etc (what I read was called The Winter Soldier Ultimate Collection which included “Man Out of Time” “The Lonesome Death of Jack Monroe” and “The Winter Soldier”) and it’s the first Marvel comics I’ve ever actually read. (Purely been a 90s era cartoons/mcu bitch since I was like... 12 years old). I enjoyed it, and have three to five thoughts about it as it relates to the MCU adaptations:

1. Sharon Carter was such an important character in that comic run and I wish that she had been a bigger character in CATWS even though it was her introduction and obviously she did not have the pre-existing history with Steve that comics Sharon Carter had with him. However CATWS also introduced Sam Wilson and gave him a lot to do... so looking back I wish Black Widow had not been included in the movie and that Sharon Carter had taken her role in the adventure. All the pseudo romantic stuff between Steve and Natasha would have made more sense between Steve and Sharon. I feel like the only reason Sharon got a marginalized role in the story is that Natasha/ScarJo was a bigger character in the MCU already. But... eh. Emily Van Camp > Scarlett Johannsen.

2. On the other hand, I much prefer Anthon Mackie’s Sam Wilson to the comic Sam Wilson in that run because comics Sam Wilson just kind of showed up near the end and he was fine and all but Mackie’s Sam had a much bigger and more impactful part in the story. Plus his MCU costumes are just cooler. But I noticed that in the comics he seems to have a psychic connection with actual birds, like he’s Aquaman of the sky or something. Idk I’d have to read more Sam Wilson centered comics to figure out what’s going on there.

3. Thank Fucking God they aged Bucky Barnes up and made him Steve’s childhood friend in the MCU. Props to Ed Brubaker for reimagining the 1940s era hokey boy sidekick into something darker and more complicated but I’m still glad they just throw out the whole premise of the kid sidekick and replaced it with a different dynamic entirely. If Bucky was still a kid who was also secretly an assassin assigned to Cap specifically to do the dirty murder work that would tarnish Cap’s image in the propaganda films, that changes who Steve Rogers is fundamentally as a person. Can you imagine MCU Steve Rogers being remotely okay with any of that... no you can’t. I’m not going to say that in the comics it’s bad... it’s just very different. And I personally loved the dynamic established in The First Avenger... the way Bucky starts out as the bigger stronger more confident guy who could seem like a jerk except that he is best friends with the runt everyone else overlooks or bullies, which kind of reveals the heart of gold underneath the stereotypical big man on campus exterior. But the fact that he’s used to the power dynamic of him being the stronger more popular one means he could theoretically really resent Steven later on when Steve eclipses him by taking the serum and becoming a bona fide celebrity... but instead he reacts by becoming Steve’s loyal follower and hypeman. There’s an initial bit of “what the fuck what happened” especially in the scene where he tries to hit on Peggy but she completely ignores him and only has eyes for Steve... but he very quickly just rolls with it. He accepts the new Steve and his new role as the sidekick. That’s so great. I love that. A friendship that endures through drastic changes and role reversals sets up The Winter Soldier perfectly because the loyalty is so deep it transcends super soldier serum and 70 years of brainwashing. Having him get his memories back through the sheer power of friendship versus Steve just using the cosmic cube as a magical dues ex machina is.... chef’s kiss.

Funny, I sound like a Stucky on main (when I’ve always been more of a Steggy and Sambucky shipper) but just comparing Steve and Bucky in the MCU to Steve and Bucky in these particular comics reinforces to me that this was one of the best decisions the MCU writers ever made. There is definitely still a theme of “Bucky was my only friend” but thank fuck the weird child soldier thing is excised.

That said, Disney/Marvel needs to pay Ed Brubaker because hot damn without him reimagining Bucky as The Winter Soldier there would be no MCU Bucky the way we know him. I doubt they’d even have thought to bring his character back for the MCU at all if The Winter Soldier character and storyline didn’t exist. They improved on the WWII era backstory IMO but 100% we only care about Bucky at all because of what Brubaker did with the character.

4. This just reinforces to me why I had such a negative reaction to Spider-man: Far From Home. Peter Parker is an actual child in the MCU and while it didn’t bother me so much in the previous movies, it’s so glaringly weird in Far From Home. All these adults forcing Peter into a super soldier role is weird as fuck and reflects badly on all of them, especially Tony who is dead. He’s fucking dead and RDJ is done and yet the MCU is still making Tony a literal villain from beyond the grave. Amazing. Someone needs to call child protective services and have him taken away from Aunt May who is not only totally okay with this but is actively enabling it. God! Make it stop. Look what they did to my boy.

(Full disclosure I was obsessed with Spider-man when I was a kid, for years he was hands down my favorite superhero character, but that was all based on the mid-90s cartoon that aired on UPN Kids and then the Tobey Maguire movies.)

5. I had a 5th thought but it is gone now.

#you know what i'm not tagging this #it's all underneath a cut #so don't complain at me

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happylittlemarmite · 3 years

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Creative Journal

4/1/21- Week 11

Session themes: In this weeks session we refreshed over the topics we studied throughout the year. I found this very useful as it allowed me to rehash any key points i may have missed out and link together some of the ideas we’ve discussed in class having seen it all connected in one bigger picture. I’m sorry its a bit long but I’ve jammed all my notes in here for me to refer to.

1.Theories- What is creativity: theorising and defining

Big C and little c creativity

Big C- grand creative expression (painting, writing, music piece etc)

Little c- “everyday creativity”- every day creativity (organising a calendar, making a recipe etc) (Kozbelt et al.)

Everyday creativity - “...making something which is novel in context, and is a process that invokes joy” (David Gaunlett)

Creativity as a process-

Convergent and Divergent thinking-

Convergent- Logical, leads to a single answer

Divergent- Curiosity, risk taking, willingness to make mistakes, making connections, innovation.

-Fluency, originality, flexibility + elaboration

“The best way to have a good idea... is to have lots of ideas” (Linus Pauling)

Techniques + exercises for thinking differently

Alternative uses

reimagining the familiar

2. Creativity and techniques

Brainstorming (Alex Osborn 40s-60s)

Generation of ideas, problem exploration + concept evaluation

Can be done at any stage in the creative process

Free/open environment- encourages participation

opportunity to build upon unusual ideas

4 Rules-

Go for quantity

Withhold criticism

Welcome wild ideas

Combine + improve ideas

Reverse Brainstorming - as above, instead of asking “how to solve problem”, asking “how to cause problem” and reverse engineering

6 Thinking hats (De Bono)

Tools approach

Software for thinking

Important- All thinking with the same hat at once in order for parallel thinking to occur

Parallel thinking

All thinking on the same path

one at a time, unlike brainstorming

Originality

Importance of building from others

read only culture vs creative commons

Simplicity

Elegance? Good taste? Goal of creativity?

Fetishism of simplicity- hiding complexity is a privilege

Complexity

3. Creative Tools- are they a help or a hindrance?

Editing

Keep editing 🢂 endlessy editing 🢂 endless indecision 🢂 never finished, always in a flux

Planning

Commit to creative choices

Build on + work around mistakes

Paradox of choice

Creative limitations- embrace

Environment- inspiring, playful, freedom to try + fail

DSD: For my do something different activity I’ve been trying to read a little. I dont have a lot of time to sit and read and i have a very short attention span, but at school i was always big into reading books. I was always at the library and wanted to be an author, but i grew out of it at college. For Christmas i received a book named The Diary of Two Nobodies, an autobiographical piece written by my favourite Gogglebox couple, Giles Wood and Mary Killen. I’ve been wanting to pick up reading as a hobby for a while now as i have noticed recently that my vocabulary range is extremely slim. I often can’t find the proper words to use in place of slang and go a long way around explaining myself when I’m sure if i knew the right words i would be more concise. Even looking back at my school work sometimes, I find myself having to look up what some words mean. As I’ve said before I’m always super busy, so sitting and reading isn’t really viable for me. I’ve just been reading in placement of listening to music when i travel at the moment; the bus to work is only around 20 minutes but it’s still something.

Inspiration: An interesting piece of media i have consumed this week is the Netflix drama Ratched. It’s a psychological thriller made as a prequel to Saul Zaentz's 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (based on Ken Kesey's 1962 novel of the same name). It follows titular character Nurse Ratched’s story before the story its based on. I have not seen the original film to compare, but the Netflix drama is incredible. I do not like scary films, so there are some gory scenes that weren’t really for me but they weren’t enough to put me off. What i found particularly compelling about the series are the amazing visual aesthetics throughout. Being set in the late 40s/early 50s, the fashion, the hair, the music and the set design is very appealing to me. I’m not sure what kind of style i could consider this, maybe late art deco, 40′s pin up or modernism? There’s a lot of colours and patterns i would’ve previously attributed to the 70′s in this show that have made me so interested in post-war fashion. The blues and yellows especially are so vibrant it’s a beautiful show. I found the fashion and interior design to be the most captivating, although i believe the gory and surreal nature of some of the show may have given me some spooky dreams.

#journal

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cryptovalid · 4 years

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Watchmen: My favorite show of 2019

Now that I’ve watched HBO’s Watchmen in its entirety, I can safely say that it is by far my favorite show I’ve seen this year. The more I think about it though, the less it seems to offer a coherent statement about vigilantism, power and violence the way the original graphic novel did. I don’t think this makes it any less clever, bold or satisfying to watch, but Watchmen is more interested in playing with the weight and drama of themes than actually expressing a clear, useful thesis about them.

The show is a sequel to the graphic novel, taking place in 2019, when the fallout from the 1987 story finally comes home to roost.

To give you some more context, I’ll be talking about Alan Moore’s 1986-1987 maxiseries of comics first, and then comparing it to the new television series narratively. In terms of acting and production values, I’d say that the show is great across the board, although your mileage may vary. This is doubly true of its narrative: I’m curious if the show is too confusing for people who’ve never read the comic, and the show doesn’t show a lot of reverence for the characters of the original. In my opinion, this is for the best and actually completely in the spirit of Alan Moore’s work. From here on out, There be Spoilers for the comic, movie and the tv series.

Watchmen (1987) by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons is by far my absolute favorite superhero comic. It is the only graphic novel to be named as one of Time’s 100 best novels of the twentieth century. It’s certainly not true that it is the only graphic novel that deserves that kind of honor, but it is not on that list for bad reasons. This post would be too long if I listed all of Watchmen’s many achievements, so I will just say this: Watchmen investigates how the existence of masked vigilantes and superheroes would change the real world, and its answer is not positive. No matter how you slice it, in order to inflict violence on strangers or save the world based purely on your own moral compass, you have to be either hopelessly naive or narcissistic, sadistic, fascistic, fetishist, manic, or untethered from human experience in one way or the other. However you imagine them, superheroes escalate danger. They are not cooperative or peace-loving by their nature, the comic says. ‘Superheroes’ will do terrible things in the name of ‘saving the world’ or ‘doing the right thing’. In this sense, the book is thoroughly anti-utopian but also anti-superhero, and it commits to this by depicting all of its ‘protagonists’ as deeply flawed, ultimately dangerous or inept people.

In terms of plot, the big twist that effects the show is that the smartest man in the world, the vigilante Ozymandias, predicts that nuclear armageddon is inevitable unless he convinces the global superpowers that there is a massive alien threat, making their feuds appear petty and risky by comparison. He literally kills millions of people with a genetically engineered giant monster that he teleports to New York, not including the dozens of murders to prepare the ground and cover up this fact. The fear that more monsters like this could appear prevents nuclear war at the last second, but another vigilante named Rorshach figured out Ozymandias’ plan and wanted to expose it, which would undo its intended peacemaking effect. He was killed, but his notes survived.

In the end, the only vigilante with actual superpowers, Dr. Manhattan, is so far removed from human experience because of his godlike powers and his nonlinear perception of time, that he seems to retreat from Earth itself, expressing a desire to create life elsewhere.

This is the backdrop against which Watchmen (2019) frames itself: what would that alternate history look like about 20 years later? But instead of focusing on the evils that vigilantism and superpowers would create, this sequel puts race and policing at the core of its narrative. The main protagonists: Angela Abar, Will Reeves, Laurie Blake and Wade Tillman are all cops and all of them are at one point in their lives masked vigilantes. They are also pitted against white supremacist terrorists, and the show depicts them as regularly violating the constitutional rights of suspects and killing lots of people in justifiable situations. The show depicts both cops and civilians in both real and historical race riots.

But the more I think about it, the less I can identify a coherent thesis about the origins or nature of racism or the morality of extra-judicial violence. It seems to say ‘violating a person’s human rights is alright as long as they’re racist’, and I mean, I can’t be too mad about that, but it also implies that the cops are basically good, that it is possible to root out specific racist conspiracies and that’s all that’s needed to set things right. There’s a definite assumption that most of the time, we can just trust cops to have integrity. The show rarely frames unmitigated violence as a systemic issue; even when the government is implicated. The protagonists are also relatable and sympathetic, and their victory against the white supremacist conspiracy is without any real moral complications or ironic personal costs. This show, unlike its source material, is pro-vigilante. Or at most neutral on the subject.

Its message about racism is more straightforward, but also a little hollow. Racist violence is shown viscerally, but also roundly condemed, ridiculed, and avenged by the protagonists. But that’s really as deep as it goes. All racists in this show are openly and stereotypically Southern whites. There is very little exploration or covert or insidious racism: there is a clear divide between literal neo-KKK types and antiracist avengers, with little ambiguity in between. We are not really shown what drives racists to be racist. The most motivation racists are given is a resentment over two attempts at improving the world: Reparations for the Tulsa Massacre, and the aforementioned plot to stop the Cold War by faking extradimensional invasion. Not that I’m begging for a humane portrayal of racist terrorists, but it does make it extremely easy for actual, less obvious white supremacists to ignore any criticism because ‘at least they’re not like the Seventh Kavalery’. It in short, doesn’t give viewers any special insight into racism and how to deal with it in the real world.

What Watchmen does do beautifully is representation. The first masked vigilante, Hooded Justice, who in the comic was a clear reference to a Klansman, is reimagined as the victim of a threatened lynching, who fights his attackers still wearing the noose and hood they put on him. He then pretends to be white to gain the support and cover he needs to be a vigilante. This man, Will Reeves, named himself after his childhood hero, the historical inspiration for the Lone Ranger, Bass Reeves. As a child, he was smuggled out from the Bombing of Tulsa in the trunk of a carriage, much like Moses or Superman. We later discover that HJ is bisexual and is essentially strung along for years by the media-savvy Captain Metropolis for publicity purposes and sex, and ends up desillusioned by his white allies. We also learn that Angela Abar, the de facto main character, is in fact his granddaughter, and she becomes involved in his decades-spanning plans to root out the racist conspiracy that the plot revolves around.

Perhaps even more interesting is the decision to integrate Doctor Manhattan into this sequel as a jewish and a black man. Rather than simply recasting the part, the show frames the revelation in a way that Dr. Manhattan might experience it: out of order, but also clearly telegraphed. The show uses this to characterize Dr. Manhattan as someone whose decisions do not adhere to standard causality. Why does he start to woo Angela Abar in the first place? Because from his perspective, he’s always been in love with her. Just like nothing ever ends, it doesn’t really begin from his perspective either. One day, he walks into A Bar and starts explaining to Angela Abar that they will be in a relationship for ten years, which wil then end in tragedy. While she is understandably skeptical, Regina King and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II really manage to sell both the frustrating absurdity and the transcendant romance of this idea. In the end, Osterman chooses to take the shape of a dead man based purely on the fact that Angela is most attracted to, and goes to great lengths to lose is powers and become human again, as a black man named Calvin Abar, who we first meet as Angela’s charming stay-at-home husband and father to their adopted children. The fact that he is Dr. Manhattan all along is revealed to us in my favorite sequence in the whole show. We, the audience, fall in love with both the husband as well as the God, Jon Osterman, as both are vulnerable and honest about who they are. Even though everyone knows it can’t last. These scenes are both heartbreaking and beautiful, and are foreshadowed masterfully from the beginning. This is what I mean when I say the show is clever.

The dialogue is witty and the cinematography, editing and plotting do a subtle job of worldbuilding. There are very few exposition dumps and characters rarely do or say things just to help the plot along; they are always driven by their own motivations rather than those the viewer might prefer in their hurry to learn more.

As a result, characters feel smart and their personalities and relationships develop more naturally. From Jeremy Irons’ Ozymandias to Hong Chau’s Lady Trieu to Jean Smart’s Laurie Blake, they all come across as clearly defined assholes with a charismatic competence.

The world and its history also unfold at their own pace. This can be confusing in the first couple of episodes. It isn’t explained why cops wear masks, what ‘Redfordations’ are, or why squids rain from the sky often enough that a siren goes off whenever it happens. Instead, viewers piece a lot of it together from context. The details make it feel very believable. It makes me feel like I’m discovering an alternate history the way a lost time traveler might.

In the end, it is not the themes that make this version of Watchmen so enjoyable. Its the intricate details of its world and the interactions between its characters that make Watchmen 2019 so fun to watch. And as far as on the nose messages go, ‘vaporize as many racists as possible‘ isn’t that bad.

#Watchmen 2019 #Watchmen HBO #reviews #fave shows #fave show of 2019 #Dr. Manhattan #Angela Abar #Hooded Justice #Cal Abar

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nightslain · 4 years

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So I guess it’s that time of day where I get up on my soap box to once again talk about the incongruities and gaping chasms in the Netflixvania plot that have yet to be addressed, specifically those that strengthen the case for why shoehorning Leon into this mess divorced of his supporting cast and story is probably a Bad Idea.

TL;DR I am perpetually tortured by the fact nothing makes sense right now so I am going to whinge exhaustively in a post to exorcise myself of misery and potentially spare my poor friend’s ears.

So. The show’s version of the origin story has not been properly detailed in any meaningful length except for the fact that a) Leon is indeed the patriarch of the Belmont family and b) he entered Wallachia specifically to hunt for Dracula. Sounds like the same story beats from LoI at face value, but just like everything else about this house of cards, it completely falls apart under the faintest bit of scrutiny. I’ve beat the dead horse of Mathias no longer being canon enough as it is, but Mathias is arguably the most pivotal character in the entire story. You cannot make a Castlevania adaptation that excludes his history and expect it to make actual sense. If you remove Mathias, you dismantle every facet of the plot in one fell swoop, especially if you’re going to try and wedge Leon Belmont into your story without him. The two are mutually exclusive, you cannot have one without the other unless you completely rewrite the canon to follow a wholly different trajectory that is free of those trappings (i.e Lords of Shadow, which I do not like, but I appreciate that it was trying to do something totally different and therefore don’t take great issue with it.)

And I would have accepted this level of reimagining was the show’s intention, if Leon wasn’t paid such a heaping dose of aggressive lip service to indisputably assert him as this universe’s Belmont patriarch as well. But put in context with the rest Ellis’ interpretation as is, this just ends up making no God damn sense.

Dracula has been explicitly stated to be the first vampire to exist in this universe. That solidly affirms that Mathias is not canon, so therefore Leon’s history with him is also non existent. So in turn, that logically means Walter Bernhard also never existed, Mathias never hatched that elaborate plot with him to betray Leon, Sara was never kidnapped, Leon never had to rescue her, she was never bitten by Walter, her soul was never sacrificed to make the Vampire Killer. So what did happen, then? If Dracula was never Mathias, then what the fuck was he up to in the 11th century? Getting his distance mirror apparently, which he made an oddly specific point of mentioning he acquired 400 years prior to the events of season two, which would have been approximately 1075. This would leave us 19 years prior to Lament of Innocence, so presumably Dracula was already a vampire when Leon was just a child. Which in itself just more effectively dispatches any expectations of their history together being the same or even just similar to what it was in LoI.

Albeit, Trevor treats us to some pretty loaded exposition in saying that the Belmont family hailed from France, moving to Wallachia when “the dark things all moved into the east”--followed by Alucard affirming that Leon was in Wallachia looking specifically for Dracula. So Dracula and his monsters were obviously in France at some point in this canon causing a stink that attracted Leon’s notice--we also have evidence of this with one of the storyboard artists drawing Leon in his knightly garb slaying said monsters. But if Dracula was never Mathias in Ellis’ interpretation, what was he even doing dicking around in France in the first place? And furthermore, what did he do to convince Leon to chase him into the east as well as devote his life and the life of every Belmont after him to killing Dracula specifically? Because it’s gonna be a pretty weak downgrade in motivation from the original story if he just wants to kill Dracula because Vampires Are Evil ™, or Dracula just offhandedly killed someone important to him without nary a drop of history behind them to give it weight.

Also another discrepancy between these two canons is Leon is still a knight when he goes into the east whereas he gave up his knighthood in the games; this is quite boldly showcased by his depiction in that big ass painting as well as the fact his sword is present in the Belmont hold--which is also coincidentally the thing that kills Dracula, not the Vampire Killer. And oh yeah, how the fuck is the Vampire Killer here if the whole plot behind its existence has been effectively erased? I repeat, it’s going to be a weak downgrade if it came from anything less than the tragedy of Sara Trantoul’s sacrifice--which its starting to seem like it will be, based on everything else that’s been exorcised from the show canon.

There’s just no sensible way to knit these two interpretations together at this point if Ellis is going to dig in his heels and maintain that Dracula’s history as Mathias is not part of his vision, so I really can’t say I’m sure what in God’s name he’s going to inject into the story to fill this gaping hole he’s gnawed into the canon. I strongly believe Leon should just have been quietly excluded if the most vital elements of his story have been erased along with Mathias as well. I would not be here complaining about this at all if Leon hadn’t been forced into this version of Castlevania unnecessarily, which then just opened up a black hole of inconsistencies. Why even add him? Why have your main cast keep talking about him? Why sprinkle in fresh lore about him? Why make his sword the thing that kills Dracula? Why do all this if he’s going to be either a non-entity in the future of the show, or you’re going to just ignore the entirety of the canon that he is inextricably attached to?

This is why I’m kind of in a purgatorial relationship with the show right now as we wait for season three; I have no idea if there’s going to be even a molecule of exposition showing off the “New and Improved” vision for Leon’s and Dracula’s backstory--a part of me finds their constant chatter about Leon a little too heavy-handed for his character and history to just be swept under the rug thereafter, but another part of me is pretty solidly convinced the show isn’t even going to attempt to address that elephant in the room from here.

However, if Alucard’s going to be left by his lonesome with nothing but his father’s castle and the Belmont library, then he better be busting his ass down there reading up on some Belmont family history. Because honestly? There really is no other purpose his character can serve when isolated from the rest of the cast, the action and the plot, besides acting as a vehicle for exposition. I’d like to believe that this was the intention behind that very sudden and very off-handed plot point of Trevor bestowing his family’s library upon him in season 2. Why else do that and then just leave him there? If Alucard is just going to be steered back into the fray early into the new season, then what was even the point of having the team go their separate ways?

Anyways. I’ve said before I really wouldn’t mind if the staff decided to rewrite Dracula and Leon’s history together a little due to the bizarre and convoluted nature of LoI’s plot which definitely needs a fresh coat of paint, and I still maintain that; but they seem to be both borrowing the outline of the premise while erasing the primary facets that made it work, and I’m entirely confused about how they’re going to actualise such a shaky narrative structure. Not very well, judging by this janky mess of plotholes they’ve dug for themselves--if they don’t just conveniently forget to ever address it again, I’m half sure their answers to these questions are going to be some wacky nonsense that probably even further diminishes the symbolic importance of the story as a whole.

If the show completely erases any meaningful relationship between Dracula and Leon as well as the gravity behind the Vampire Killer’s origins, then it will have truly sunk to a whole new depth. These are the only things I am begging Ellis not to fuck up. You know, the entire crux of Castlevania’s plot as we know it, and the entire reason this story is even playing out in this universe the way it is.

There’s no shortage of us already frustrated with his treatment of the canon as it is, and its a damn shame. I really like a lot of things about the show. The animation is still gorgeous, the music is wonderful, the atmosphere is great, and I felt genuinely moved by some of the scenes they curated for us. I appreciate the hard work the team as a whole has poured into it in the limited time frame they have to complete every season. There’s no taking away from the fact that the show has value in many areas. But Ellis to date has sadly cocked up more facets of the story than he has improved, which is what is consistently holding the show back. As much as I crave answers from this series though, I’m equally as afraid that I am not going to like them when I get them. Or that Leon’s character is going to get dragged backwards through a thorn-bush should he ever appear in the flesh.

I would love nothing more than season three to blow me away and restore my faith in the future of the series but at this point, I’d honestly settle for a few minutes of icon material and whatever answers there are so I can finally leave this bespoke Silent Hill Ellis’ writing has crafted for me, amen and good night.

#⚜ :: OOC┊Person of Sinterest #{sin complains; the thrilling novel you didnt know you needed}#{you dont need it LMAO BUT I HAVE TO SCREAM INTO THE VOID BC THIS IS DRIVING ME INSANE}#{u know that conspiracy theory meme from always sunny thats me}#{s3 or any consequent seasons will probably never answer my questions tbh ill just have to live here in this hell forever}#{also god damn please just release season 2's ost so i can enjoy that if nothing else}#{i hope s3 airs on my birthday so i can just really be kicked in the balls}

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rayofspades · 5 years

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Everyone in the World Forgot How Remakes and Sequels Work and I Have to Talk About It Because I’m Losing My Mind

I tried very, very hard to make this a coherent and somewhat organized post, but it’s still gonna sound like the ravings of a mad woman, so...prepare yourself.

Also, this isn’t gonna be an analysis of why remakes and sequels are so popular, because it’s exactly as simple as it seems: people like things that make them feel nostalgic and creators have caught on to this and realized that by remaking a familiar property, their new product has a built in fan base.

Great.

What I want to talk about is how the concept of remakes/reboots/sequels/whatever has been kind of destroyed. Both audiences and Hollywood have created these weird perceptions that are flooding the market in a way that is exhausting to audiences and confusing to creators.

So, I’m here to discuss all the different types of remakes and why they work or don’t work and how this culture has been conditioned to support them regardless of quality.

Alright,

let’s do this.

Part 1: Cross-Media Remakes:

I find it somewhat impossible to criticize the existence to book--> movie remakes too much because they’re a vehicle for both creativity and audience expansion, even in cases where they’re motivated by money. Harry Potter and The Hunger Games made for some pretty solid movies, and that’s largely because those books just translated well to film. Obviously some changes had to be made to account for time constraints and visual storytelling, but they can get away with having a similar structure and still feeling entirely new based on the hard shift in presentation from book to film.

I would make a similar argument for Marvel movies. From what I understand, those movies change more from their source material, and there are a lot of them, but it makes perfect sense to adapt comic books to reach a wider audience. I feel like the main reason people are becoming tired of Marvel movies is their overwhelming quantity, not so much the fact that they’re remakes.

I would also love to talk about the popularity of GoT and LotR, but I don’t think I’m familiar enough with those franchises to properly discuss them, so I’ll leave that to someone else.

But there is something else I want to talk about.

While Harry Potter and The Hunger Games translated really well to film, the same isn’t true for some other cross media adaptations.

Part 2: Adapt or Die:

In the late 70s, Stephen King wrote The Shining. I’ve read the book and I really enjoyed it, largely due to King’s writing style (the prose, the internal monologues, etc.)

The thing is, The Shining doesn’t really translate well into the film format; it’s really long and a lot of what makes it good is tied to its presentation.

So when Stanley Kubrick adapted The Shining into a film in the early 80s, he changed a lot.

a lot.

The setting and characters remain pretty much the same, and the story follows similar beats, but certain events and themes have been drastically altered to the point where I would consider it a different story.

(Brief aside; the three most famous/iconic scenes from the film (”Here’s Johnny!” “All work and no play”, and Jack frozen in the snow) are ALL exclusive to the film.)

Regardless, both the movie and the book have maintained their own popularity with their own audiences. Both are considered good and both are considered classics.

Although, from what I’ve heard, The Shining film did receive criticism back in the day for being needlessly unpleasant. Interesting.

It’s a somewhat similar story with John Carpenter. If you ask people to list good remakes, 90% of the time people will list The Thing (1982). It’s practically the poster child for “hey, not all remakes are bad, guys.”

In this case, Carpenter was working from both a previous movie (The Thing From Another World) and the prior novella (”Who Goes There?”). Carpenter’s film definitely borrows more from the novella, but it was obviously going to be compared more to the previous film, and it is v e r y different from the previous film. Carpenter’s film (like The Shining) received criticism for how gross and unpleasant it was, but became the definitive version of The Thing and stood the test of time to become a horror classic.

Basically, if you need to change the original product when remaking it, do it. That is the best thing you could possibly do. It gives the creator a chance to actually create their own unique product that just happens to be based on or inspired by an existing property. This is actually a legitimately cool phenomenon; taking preexisting stories and altering them to fit a new cultural context or simply expanding and improving on ideas. It’s a similar concept to “old wives tales” and fairy tales, and how those stories are constantly changed and retold and in doing so become timeless. Gee I wonder if fairy tales are going to come up later in this post.

Part 3: Bad Changes are Bad

*Strums guitar* This one goes out to all audience members out there who have convinced themselves that bad remakes are bad because they’re too different from the original. *Strums guitar*

Stop.

Please stop.

Look, comparing a remake to an original to showcase how bad the remake is is perfectly valid criticism. It can highlight how an idea can be botched when it’s not handled properly. Sure. That’s fine. I highly encourage people to compare the dialogue, characters, and world building of Avatar: The Last Airbender and M. Night Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender. It’s important to recognize how one story is an utter fucking masterpiece and one is a poorly told train wreck.

Here’s the thing:

people seem to criticize the film on the basis of “it’s different” and, I mean, sure. But it’s not just that it’s different, it’s that it’s different and....um....

bad?

Like, one of the “complaints” I saw about the movie was that firebenders now need actual fire in front of them in order to bend it, and I consider that to be just a neutral change. It’s not really better or worse, it’s just different. And please don’t comment on this post with “skflsfjsf NO it’s because in the original firebenders used the SUN as their source of fire” like yeah I know I get it it’s still an inconsequential change.

Now, saying that the earthbenders being held on land as opposed to the sea is a bad change? Yes, that is valid criticism because it makes no goddamn sense within the movie’s universe and just makes everyone look dumb.

That movie is an utter fucking disaster. It’s poorly directed, it’s poorly written, the casting decisions are baffling, the acting is horrible, it’s poorly paced, and it’s bad.

It’s a bad movie.

I would apply the same logic to the new Death Note live action movie (the American one). Putting aside the racial controversy for a minute, I’m fine with changing things about the plot and structure to properly adapt it into a movie. But...yeah. The plot is bad. It just comes across as really dumb and weird.

So yeah, bad remakes are bad, but it’s not as simple as just being “different.”

If y’all keep complaining about remakes making changes, then you’re only encouraging the products I’m about to talk about in the next few Parts.

Arguably the worst and most prolific products of them all...

Part 4: Sometimes, Things That Are the Same.......Are Worse

Alright, I’m gonna start with a really extreme example, but it perfectly captures the essence of what I’m trying to say.

In 1998, Gus Van Sant made the incredibly confusing and brave(?) decision to remake Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. And I do mean “remake,” as in, it is shot for shot the same movie. It’s some sort of bizarre cinematic experiment.

I really like the original movie, so you would assume that, since this movie is literally the same movie, I would like it too.

I don’t.

No one does.

It’s the same movie but with worse performances.

It’s pointless.

Its existence is both unnecessary and confusing. Watching it was a bizarre experience that just made me wish I was watching the original.

(The best part about this is that 15 years after this remake came out, Carlton Cuse and Kerry Ehrin solved remakes forever by making Bates Motel; a contemporary prequel/reimagining of Psycho (1960). This show takes the characters and key events from the Hitchcock film and puts them in a different setting with an altered version of plot points. The creators openly and repeatedly state that they did not want to just remake Psycho and instead wanted to tell a tragedy/thriller using the framework of Psycho. To me, this perfectly encapsulates what remakes are supposed to be. It’s a good show and it’s severely underrated. Please go watch it, just ignore like half of season 3 and you’re gold.)

Unfortunately, the most common and (arguably) the most frustrating type of remake/sequel/reboot/whatever is the “let’s do the same thing...but different” type. They can be a retread of the original plot or just take the title and elements of the original and use them while adding nothing substantially new.

Independence Day: Resurgence, Alien Covenant, The Thing (2011), and proooobably most direct sequels in any popular franchise (like the Transformers movies) fall under this category.

The most notable ones in recent years are D i s n e y r e m a k e s, but those get their own section.

Also, I’m hesitant to talk about these because it might just be a cultural difference, but it deeply bothers me when I see Japanese live action films that are based on anime and they just...keep everything the same?

Like, in a live action remake of FMA, why the fuck wouldn’t you make up some grotesque and upsetting monster thing for the Nina Tucker scene? Why would you just use the design from the manga/anime??? WHY WOULDN’T YOU ADAPT IT TO MAKE IT WORK FOR LIVE ACTION?????????????????????????????????????

But hey, what do I know. It might just be a culture thing.

From what I’ve gathered and experienced, people have the following problems with these types of overly-faithful and/or pointless remakes:

1) They’re boring because it’s just a retread that feels inferior.

2) They try to replicate elements of the original without understanding the actual appeal (aka the tangible details are addressed while the underlying ideas get sidelined or misunderstood).

3) They just...don’t adapt well.

Even if we were to take The Last Airbender and give it to a competent director who has a decently written script, that’s a case where you probably should have changed a lot more to properly make the jump from animated show to live action movie. Obviously, a lot of things would need to be cut or moved around in order to properly pace it.

I’m gonna talk more about this type of movie in a different section so for now let’s move on to the most recent remake craze that’s driving me up the wall.

Part 5: “I’ve got the power of remakes and anime on my side”

Fuck.

So part of the appeal of anime for me has always been its creativity. While some of it is pretty derivative when looking at specific genres, I’ve always found there to be a significantly wider range of creative ideas and concepts in anime than in any other medium.

But now the industry’s running on fumes and someone let it slip that you can make a quick buck by just remaking a popular IP.

Fuck.

And I don’t wanna rag on the new-ish trend of readapting old anime for the sake of following the recently completed manga. This has had unbelievably successful results with FMA:B and Hunter x Hunter (2011) becoming massive critical hits (and two of my favourite shows).

(Although it hasn’t escaped my attention that studios have, in fact, used this gimmick to make half-baked and poorly crafted products with the knowledge that the existing fan base will buy that shit anyways. I’m looking directly at Berserk (2016) and Book of the Atlantic.)

But now they’re also adapting/sequel-ing shows purely for the sake of cashing in on the original (or adapting pre-made sequel products that were already made with that mindset in the first place).

Clear Card was boring as fuck and transparently existed to sell toys.

I dropped Steins;Gate 0 after around 8 episodes when it become abundantly clear that it took the “let’s take elements of the old plot and just....do stuff” route without keeping any of what made the original cool and unique.

The Evangelion movies seem really antithetical to the original show, and the third one feels like it was made by someone who thought they understood Evangelion and hated it. (But luckily the original is coming to Netflix next year so who even cares. Give me that 10/10 show.)

Although I will admit, Devilman Crybaby’s existence kind of falls under what I was saying earlier in this post. It’s one of many adaptations of an old manga that is changed substantially to fit the current cultural climate, with some unique aesthetic changes thrown in there for good measure.

It’s pretty okay.

But um...

Oh boy...

We’re about to get into it lads.

Part 6: Production IG Broke My Whole Brain. Brain Broken. Dead. No Brain.

Hooooooooo boy.

So, FLCL (also known as Fooly Cooly) is one of my favourite shows. In fact, it’s the only show I’ve ever watched that I have absolutely no problems with. None. Not even nitpicks.

I’ve watched it 6 times, including with director’s commentary. It has an utterly perfect and unique/fluid aesthetic and I wish its visuals were just playing in my brain all of the time. It’s an arthouse comedy, which is a...rare (nonexistent?) genre, and it pulls it off perfectly. Its cool, its beautiful, its silly, its poetic, its creative, it has great themes that can reach both teenagers and adults, and there is literally nothing else on the planet like it.

So when it was announced that they were making a sequel 18 years later with a different cast of characters, I was...weirdly excited. Like a pavlovian happy response. I got even more excited after seeing the trailer.

Only a short while before the show aired did it dawn on me.

Wh...what are they doing?

From the trailer, I could see that they were taking some familiar plot elements (Medical Mechanica, Haruko, N.O., Atomsk, etc.) and adding some different protagonists.

who gives a single fuck about the plot of Fooly Cooly?

The plot elements...don’t matter. It’s just a vehicle for cool and amazing things to happen.

So the show came out, and I saw more clips on youtube. While it is cool that they’re using different episode directors with some different art styles, the difference in quality between the directing and overall visual presentation is shockingly noticeable. I partially blame the fact that the anime industry isn’t as financially stable as it used to be, but this is also a Production IG show that’s based on an extremely popular property, so that’s barely an excuse.

It mostly just looks like an anime with some cool stylistic elements, whereas the original looks stunningly perfect, dynamic, unique, and beautiful in every single solitary shot.

I’ve read and watched many reviews of the sequel, both positive and negative, and from what I can tell it’s a textbook example of a “lets take components of the original and just...use them...while kind of missing the point and appeal of the original show.” Fooly Cooly is made of 100% intangible details. That thing is lightning in a bottle, and by taking the tangible details (plot elements and callbacks) and putting them in your show, you’ve already proven that you’ve completely and 100% missed the point.

Also:

this is the new show’s MAL score. While I consider anything between a 6 and a 7 to be “okay,” MAL scores tend to be higher since people rate on separate components of the show.

Like, a 6.7 on MAL is probably a 3 for everyone else. Yikes.

But honestly, the quality of the show is completely irrelevant, because that’s not the actual problem.

The only way to make a new FLCL product would be by accident. Have a director make a deeply personal product in which they do whatever the fuck they want. Have it be stylistically wild and make it look amazing. Create some sort of arthouse comedy with resonant themes and then just get Production IG to slap the FLCL brand on it to appeal to people’s nostalgia.

And that’s when it hit me.

That’s when my whole brain broke.

That accidental, spiritual sequel product can never happen.

Because it looks like a huge risk to producers.

Somehow, by remaking one of the most original and generation defining pieces of media ever created, Production IG proved that we do not live in a world where that type of product is allowed to exist. It can’t exist.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

Part 7: Disney and the Culture of Hype(rbole)

When I was young, my family owned two versions of Cinderella on film. The 1950 Disney animated version, and the 1997 live-action version with Brandy.

Obviously, they’re the same story. They follow the same beats and have the same characters. However, there are some major differences in scenes, character portrayal and, most notably, the songs. Both are musicals, but with completely different soundtracks.

If we want to go even further, we also owned Ever After, which is a completely different retelling of Cinderella with a whole new plot made for an older audience (and it’s also very good. Check it out)

In other words, I have nothing against live action Disney remakes, In fact, I think Disney movies based on fairy tales have become their own type of fairy tale; classic stories that are being constantly retold and reshaped to remain both relevant and timeless. It’s beautiful.

What the fuck is Disney doing in the 2010s?

Right now, the trend seems to be completely recreating older Disney classics, only making them live action and, um, “fixing” them.

If you want a detailed analysis of this, go watch the Lindsay Ellis video about Beauty and the Beast. I’ll briefly sum up, but you should definitely watch the video.

Look, I personally don’t hate Beauty and the Beast (2017), but once you notice that the Beast’s character arc doesn’t really exist...

and that there are a bunch of plot threads that either don’t go anywhere or are just kind of pointless...

and that there’s a weird trolley problem with Belle and the servants that completely botches the moral of the story....

and that by adding a bunch of logic to a fucking fairy tale you’re stripping it of its appeal and also just creating plot holes...

and that the singing isn’t nearly as good as the original...

and a bunch of other problems with acting and characterization....

you start to notice that “hey, they made the exact same movie....but worse.”

But, people are okay with that.

Most people didn’t even really notice. And that’s fine, like what you like. I enjoyed the movie well enough, even though I definitely prefer the original. But...I would probably also like a different retelling of Beauty and the Beast if it was a good product. Except, then it would also be...new? And potentially better? Or at least a lateral move.

I just watched the trailer for the new Lion King (2019), and it looks...kind of good. But even thinking this...I kind of long for death, because the entire trailer is just “hey, remember THIS from the original.”

I’m just...I’m just done. I’m burnt out. I’ve had it.

When are we gonna stop making the same movie over and over again?

Or when are the changes actually going to make sense? I’ve seen most of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland and it just goes in the opposite direction of changing everything, but the changes are just.....uggggh. Not good. Bad changes are bad.

The thing with Disney is that they are also a hype generating machine, especially after purchasing both Marvel and Star Wars. I once heard someone say in a video that, back in the day, people were trying to make the best possible product so it would sell and get popular. People...don’t really need to do that anymore. If you get 304958493093 billion people excited about the next movie in their favourite 80s franchise by promoting and hyping the shit out of it, then you’ve already secured tons of butts in seats before the movie even comes out. Every movie is an event movie if it comes from Disney and is part of one of their big franchises. Every new thing based on an old thing is the new “best thing.”

Even a new sequel that I actually liked, The Incredibles 2, was weirdly hyped up. (Also, even though I liked it, it didn’t escape my notice that there were a bunch of plot problems with the villain and the script proooobably needed another draft. Just saying.)

So, the big questions are, in this current culture, are we ever going to get another original sci-fi property, like the 80s Star Wars trilogy? Are we ever going to see a boom in a genre outside of Disney owned properties? Are we ever going to get another insane, passion-project smash hit like Fooly Cooly?

No. I don’t think so.

Not in the current state of things. 10 years from now? Maybe. 20 years from now? Probably.

Part 8: Concluding Thoughts

I don’t know, man.

People are still making original things, but they’re not as popular and/or creative as they need to be to change where we are right now.

The very existence of Get Out does lend me some hope. It was a creative and original movie and a very large audience of people (including myself) really liked it.

Yay.

More of this please.

So, um, yeah.

I’m going to go watch Fooly Cooly for the 7th time and scream into a void.

Mmmm bye.

#movies #Disney #flcl #the thing 1982 #psycho #the shining #beauty and the beast #cinderella #update:i fixed the video link

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readablenoise · 5 years

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Flowers, Fabric and The Brutal Nature of the Florida Scene- An Interview with Donzii

The Miami band discuss their inspirations, a frank, honest and necessary discussion of the South Florida music scene, and saving a Cure CD.

Miami- The building is actually humming.

Tucked in a discreet part of Downtown Miami, amidst the shadows of reflective buildings that mirror and intimidate the sky itself, the 777 International Mall is unlike anything the city, and perhaps the state, has ever built. What was once a strip mall has now become a hive for artists. Clear and spray painted black windows of the individual “booths” give a brief and captivating look into each individual process. On the bottom level, there is a bookstore, a DJ spinning records at the very edge where the ghost of what a small convenience desk might have been and a band, banging on an 808 pad and various drumheads, wrapped in green screen fabric as a cameraman films it an projects what can only be described as the type of strange, hypnotic and bizzare films you might see on adult swim at 4 in the morning on a Sunday night.

And it’s truly incredible. Reimagined and refurnished into the unexpected, it provides a home for artists, bands and people who want to immerse themselves into it.

(Photo: Jenelle DeGuzman)

It’s here that we find Jenna Balfe and Dennis Fuller of Miami post-punk group Donzii currently inhabiting, expressing themselves in the best ways possible.

With an onstage prescence and performance within the group that commands the attention of all those in radius, they also possess an energy that feels as if it were taken directly, with permission from the late 70′s. From Balfe’s Poly Styrene-esque vocals to the general feeling of community the band generate, it is something hypnotic. The world feels in muted colors or just pure black and white as you can almost smell the sweat, leather and pure electrical buzz that came from the heels of performances from those bands such as David Bowie, The Runaways, Joy Division and more.

And perhaps, most intriguing of all, is that the band do not have a clear cut sound. It is something powerful, something fierce, potent and exciting but it doesn’t necessarily exist in the realms of what has already been. It is an edge shaped by experience, hope and most of all, the promise of something better. That dreams can be achieved, from the smallest of towns, to the biggest of cities. All you need is a little faith, a little angst, and a pinch of punk.

I just want to say, the energy you guys have live, is incredible.

Jenna Balfe- Thank You! We’re having fun with it and I think that’s the main thing for us.

You’re one of the only bands that are bringing post-punk back in a good way, and it’s serendipitous because today is actually the 39th anniversary of Ian Curtis, from Joy Division’s passing.

Jenna- That’s crazy.

Are there any local acts, or even international that you guys look up to in the genre?

Jenna- There’s so many bands. I like Section 25 a lot. I really like Lizzie Mercier, and she’s more on the no-wave type of vibe but there’s elements of post-punk. What else do we like, Denny?

Dennis Fuller- Locally, there’s a few interesting emerging artists. I think Ghostflower is very interesting with their kraut-rock kind of style. There’s a band from New York-we used to live in New York; Donzii actually started in Brooklyn. I was playing drums in a band called On Oui, which has since dissolved, but after that project, myself, the singer and the bass player, and Jenna, we were throwing around ideas for about a year and a half. None of those things really materialized into a band because we moved back to Miami but the seeds were planted for Donzii to kind of go on this path, this style of music. The band that I was getting to (laughs) was The Wants, and they’re from there. They’re very similar to us because we started diverging from what we were doing, that style and being influenced by that New York city style life: very stressful, and hectic and cool…

Jenna- Too cool!

Dennis- Yeah, too cool. That’s another reason we moved back here, because they’re there still being cool and we’re….

Jenna- Not. Not cool. (laughs)

Cool is a construct though, you’re only as cool as you think you are, and you guys are doing a great job of keeping that level of confident cool.

Dennis- Thank You. And, I have depression and I don’t think I’m that cool. You know what I mean? I’m just there, constantly kind of like ‘what the fuck? I’m not doing the right thing…” There’s a lot of stuff that we think of as influences, apart from music. And a lot of that has to do with the state of political climate, our own mental states.

Jenna- It’s kind of an environmental thing.

And being from New York, how has that influenced the way you play? Though Miami is still a large city, you turn the corner in New York and there’s always a venue. Down here, it’s becoming scarcer and scarcer for bands, and fans, to find a place to play. Has that inspired you to try harder, to get that music out more?

Jenna- I feel like because there’s so few places, it’s like it can get old fast. I feel like both for audiences and bands, because you play the same places over and over again. So for us, it’s motivated us to get our music out of Miami more. Because we’ve done the circuits, it’s a cool community and we’re grateful people want us to play, but (the Miami scene) has just become so saturated. So we’re focusing on getting some tours out Miami, up Florida. We want to do an L.A. EP release, our EP is months away. It’s recorded, we’re working on the album art and it just needs to be pressed. So we’re super close to that and we wanna hit the road!

And do you have a name for the record?

Dennis- (jokingly) EP 2.

(Photo: Jenelle DeGuzman)

When I saw first saw you guys perform at iii Points, which is the definition of Miami, in a way. You have indulgence, you have emerging bands; you have the arts in one corner, something for the music lover in another, so there’s something for everyone. How did it feel to perform there, alongside all these major and more localized acts?

Dennis- I was definitely an honor to be asked to play there. We felt very fortunate and taken care of.

Jenna- I felt stoked to be playing before John Maus. Like, for me, when they first told us the line-up, I was like, “Oh, I guess it’s just the only time left.” But eventually, I owned up to how awesome this was and realized that these time slots are strategic! Festivals are competitive, strategic environments. So eventually, I owned up to the fact that no, this isn’t a fucking accident, this is an honor! They’re saying that ‘You guys are a good fit here, you’re a relatable act’. And for me that was like…because I fucking love John Maus, I look up to him, like, awkwardly.

Dennis- I feel like the festival listens to the feedback, like what the audience says, and follows that advice. It felt like it flowed really nicely. It was a warm experience…like feng shui. *laughs* My other favorite part of it, besides the music was our friend had a stand called the Little Spati. It was a little shop that our friend Tara Long set up and it was such a nice little place so… go Tara *laughs*

What would be one thing you wish you could take from New York to Miami, in an artistic sense? Because artists and people compare major cities, they can never really describe what the other lacks, or what could improve the scene they are in. Because the South Florida scene does need a lot of improvement.

Jenna- For me, I think it would be the…level of commitment. I feel like here, the commitment is very wavering, you know? There, it’s competitive to get someone’s commitment, whether it’s a friendship, an artistic relationship, but once it happens, you know it’s going to be there, it’s solid. Whereas here, it feels very “I’m not sure”. I feel like, where’s my real team in this?

Dennis- The level of commitment, not in the sense of commitment of art, in a way. There are committed people in South Florida, there are certainly people that really do support the scene and keep the scene alive. But I think in general, the commitment to…(pauses) dedication to the craft. But other than that, everyone down here is really sweet, and means well.

And that’s what makes me curious, because you have that outside perspective. Being in this scene, involved in it, the artists I’ve spoken with know the issues: that it’s both open and closed off, everyone wants to be part of something they want to lock into and they can’t. It’s frustrating, you can feel that and it’s hard.

Jenna- It feels like…it’s weird, I think about- and it might seem like I’m going on a tangent but I’m not- I feel like, before Instagram was something I really gave a shit about, I felt like I was a likable sort of person! I like people, they like me. And when I became more into this band, into my art projects, I had to be more on Instagram, because I had to promote myself, I have to promote my band. And then, I started noticing things. Like, certain people unfollowing me, or just these things that felt like shade and I’m like “People don’t like me? People don’t like me.” and you start to wonder what is real, especially within that. And I feel like, as an artist in the scene this kind of contention, and it’s always there. We’re all competing in a way, but it just feels like people are really quick to be like “Ah, fuck them.” And I feel it, and I don’t like it.

And it goes back to something I touched on with another band, where it’s that feeling of almost being from a small town; it’s competitive, and it’s fierce and it’s frustrating because all of you screaming at something but no one wants to care about everyone else screaming. There is a feeling of distrust amongst local artists sometimes and it’s difficult. In New York for example, I feel the difference is yes, everyone’s competitive but everyone’s there to listen. You have management, record labels, promoters, all eager to do their jobs

Dennis- New York itself is almost considered like some kind of pedigree. Since the time of the 70’s and CBGB’s, bands from New York is a thing. It’s almost like a university for independent bands. If you’re an independent band and you’re from New York, people are going to listen to you because you’re from New York. Whereas if you’re from pretty much anywhere else…the feeling from most people is “who cares?”.

And I don’t know if that should be true. I do think if a group is from New York, then there’s definitely something to be said for that because to live there is a struggle, and so to pursue any sort of artistry is going to be difficult and it means that you’re obviously very passionate about this, about what you’re doing. And I think that’s a valid statement for everywhere else too. And for Miami, I wish in some way there would be this sort of expectation…Seattle is another place I can think of, that has a very niche sound and that you would expect good things to come from. And, I don’t think people are necessarily on the edge of their seats waiting for the next Miami band to take the world by storm. We don’t have that here, that level of expectation.

And so that’s been kind of difficult. We’ve been playing our asses off here in Miami a lot. And…for someone that gets paranoid very easily, like myself, it just becomes crazy, to keep playing the same places. Even though that’s what The Ramones did and that’s what the Talking Heads did, they played at CBGB’s every week, and they played every night. And the thing is, it’s not the 80’s anymore, not everywhere is like CBGB’s. And for anyone who wants to say “you get better by performing”, I don’t disagree with that. But at the same time, it affects me mentally, and what I think about myself, and what I think about my art. When I play, six shows a month in my hometown, three of them at the same venue, and there’s seven people at the last one, it gets…I’m $50,000 in debt for a music education, and so it really makes me crazy. Paranoid, depressed, whatever you want to call it, it messes with my head. And the times I am happiest, I am playing music, and I’m playing it everyday. I’m presumably, hopefully playing shows every day. Just not at the same venue, and the same city (laughs).

(Photo: James Jackman)

And that’s what I want these conversations to be. To be open, to be frank about what it is for a local artist to perform in this state. And it is brutal and it’s difficult because every time a great venue comes up, like Grand Central for example, it’s replaced by real estate.

Dennis- I’d like to also segue into something else, if I may. Coming from someone that studied music…in the band, there’s two of us that studied music out of five. The way that we started the band was the things that we were taught as strict, we did not want to play upon those things. We wanted to do something different so that the result came out differently. I studied performance percussion, so this was a group where I did not want to do percussion because I wanted to create something that felt authenthic; that was not safe- that was out of my comfort zone creating music, which is behind a drumset. And that goes for everyone in the band, the other member that studied music is a performance bass player; he plays keyboard in the band. And Jenna is really a dancer, and a dance therapist, she has a Master’s Degree in dance therapy, and she’s singing. She’s singing poetry.

Jenna- I have a degree in creative writing too, but I started singing- I was involved in a few projects in my early 20’s but they didn’t really go anywhere. So I started doing other stuff, and then we started dating. …And I actually auditioned for this other band he was in, and I fucking bombed it.

Dennis- She tanked it.

Jenna- I tanked it.

Dennis- I was pretty bad.

Jenna- Like, no one could really look at me after.

Dennis- It’s that thing though being from Miami, where you don’t want to tell your friends that “you’re not very good” so it was very “We’ll see if that works!”

Jenna- I knew it was horrible.

Dennis- It was cool though, it was like “C’mon, let’s go get a drink.” (laughs)

Dennis- But then fast-forward four months, he was in this project and they said “Come on over, just fuck around a bit” it was more calm, and then I found something. Since then, my voice has just been growing. I’ve always wanted to be a singer, so it’s been life-changing. I’ve been discovering new things and I love it.

And dance and music go hand in hand with each other. As a performance artist, it flows wonderfully. And with your voice Jenna, it’s very Poly Styrene, punk and visceral but not overtly loud.

Dennis- We love X-Ray Spex, by the way. They were one of our original influences when we started the band, it was them and Lizzie Mercier.

Jenna- I think Siouxisie and the Banshees is in there for me, too.

Jenna, coming from that performance artist and dance background, do you feel that music needs more of that visual art aspect on stage, and not just, like 4 or 5 people being on stage?

Jenna- I do. And that’s kind of been a big contribution from me for this band, I’m always getting everybody to do things out of their comfort zone. I’m like, “wear a costume” and it varies from playing a recorder or we’re gonna dance around and then lift me up and it’s all these weird…

Danny- It takes some convincing of some of the other guys.

Jenna- But then they do it, and they end up having fun! Now, they’re starting to get that it’s a part of having fun, and they’re having fun with it, letting go more. And everyone in our band is very good humoured.

And there is a lack of visual contribution in music, it isn’t as expected and that’s partly what drew me to you guys in addition to the performance itself, was the things going on in the background, it was immense and wonderful all at once.

Jenna- Oh, we love to ham it up. I’m just a natural born ham. *laughs*

Dennis- If we’re not counting rent, that’s what a lot of our resources go into. Dog leashes, collars…

Jenna- Flowers, fabric…

Dennis- We definitely spend a lot of our resources into making our entrance and the whole performance, something different.

Jenna- I love it.

Dennis- And that’s Jenna bringing that side of things. I sort of start the fire with the music, I come in here and start making music with a drum machine or a bass line. The building blocks of the music are my responsibility, and then we come in here, we collaborate. Jenna’s definitely in charge of that performance side, that recognition, because she is a performance artist.

Jenna- We did co-write a bassline. *smiling*

Dennis- *jokingly* ….Okay, alright.

Jenna- I’m never letting go of that, by the way. I think it’s special for me because I’m not playing instruments.

Dennis- ….Can I circle back to something regarding venues?

Of course.

Dennis- One of the issues I’ve found from talking with musicians, young and old, in different cities is that a lot of the times venues in Miami in particular, and probably all over the country- are not really taking care of the artists.

They don’t see the necessity of a live musician. Because right now, we really do live in a world where music is everywhere, at all times; it’s readily available and it’s pretty much expected to be free. Especially if you’re not watching musicians play, if you just wanna listen to it, the expectation is “Why should I have to pay for it? And I don’t disagree with that, I love music and I’m glad I don’t have to put a dollar into the radio everytime I turn it on.

But at the same time, it would be helpful for a band.

Dennis- Yeah! And I’m talking with other musicians, especially older ones from Miami, and they ask “You guys seem to be doing pretty good, what are you guys getting paid?” And I say, well, maybe $150-$200 for a show. And they kind of look at me like, well “I was in an 8 piece band in the 90’s and we were each getting $200” And it’s funny to me because, there’s got to be more money in the world. The price of things has certainly gone up and yet bands are getting paid like, a fifth of what they were years ago. And I get it, DJ’ing has become a lot easier with digital technology. You can hire a DJ that doesn’t have to bring 50lbs of records anymore, you can just show up with two USB drives and that’s okay. And they can play that one guy $300 to entertain your clientele. If you want to have a band that plays for an hour, the thinking is now, why not a DJ that can play for six hours? And I love DJ’s, this isn’t some anti-DJ campaign or diss. We just have to decide how we value music as a society, what we’re willing to pay for art. Art as a lifestyle, is that something we’re willing to contribute towards

And again, this isn’t a diss to the audience either, like a person who just has five bucks in their pocket. I have friends like that, like “The show’s $5 but I don’t even have cash right now” so I know those people too. I’m just speaking in general that venues should really step it up, and respect artists and pay them a livable wage. Especially when (a band) puts years of work and dedication, they invest in a year’s worth of equipment and even that goes back to the idea of people in bands really fine tuning themselves, which I think is something missing from Miami.

If we all critiqued each other in a way that was constructive, and weren’t taking things personally, we could have all these fined tuned bands and acts going on and then there’s no way that venues would be paying us what they are now. They would have to see that we live in a great city, with great talent. And we do.

Do you feel that it’s easier, or better to play with a small town mentality, or a big city mentality? In the sense of approach?

Jenna- I’m trying to go more bombastic. I’m trying not to sweat the little stuff as much and, big picture. That’s where I’m trying to be right now. And being from a small town, there’s people that I love but I don’t love their music because it’s not my type of thing. And I love them and I want to support them and my scene but you don’t want to dishonest and I realized recently, I’m not going to think about that anymore, because it was bringing me the fuck down. I just want to focus on being large, dressing crazy, having fun, giving people good energy; being my best self. Because I’m not in this to be a motherfucking “rock star” and all the negative excesses, that’s not me. I’m into nature and nice and kids and…I’m wild! And I just want to think big, like that. I want to get out of here, I want to play bigger shows.

To reciprocate that energy and to give someone that fire and realization that “I can do this too.”

Jenna- Exactly! “I can do it, I can perform.”

Dennis- It’s very interesting when you play a venue that’s much bigger, than you’re used to? It’s actually easier to perform, and to get-

Because you have the emotional response?

Dennis- Not only that, you definitely get that emotional response but everything is much more facilitated. If you need something, it’s there for you. Versus, a lot of the times you’re stuggling with sound issues or vibe issues, not enough people or the wrong kind of audience… And then you play these places that you’ve never played before and someone’s there to coordinate, knows what to do and it’s very quick, very easy and it sounds good. You get to focus a lot more. Some of the most stressful shows have been, some of the most smallest. Not even in Donzii, just in every band I’ve played in. There just can be so many external factors going on that don’t let me concentrate on my performance.

It also attributes to an artist struggle that I think everyone feels, I feel it as a writer. I’ll write six drafts and trash all of them even though someone else is saying that it’s good. As a creator, you only ever hear the fault in the art you did, versus other people just hear the recording or see what you made.

Jenna- It’s true. I’ve been suffering so much creating this new EP. We had a little record party of the test pressing, we didn’t make it a big deal, we’re just like hey, come by if you want to hear it. And I was just suffering the whole time. Everyone’s saying “Wow, I like this!” and I’m just like “I sound too much like a robot.” It’s crazy, it’s so intense.

With this record, was there any genre or direction you went into that you hadn’t covered before?

Dennis- I’d say the song we’re most excited about, is more of a darkwave track. The tracks we have released are a little bit more new wave/post punk style. They’re kind of edgy, that have that drum machine sound.

Jenna- One of the new tracks is kinda funky, and nothing like we’ve released before.

Like a tropical, Miami kind of funky?

Dennis- We’re definitely…not tropical. Ever. *laughs* We try to be?

Jenna- I don’t know how to describe it, cause it is funky!

Dennis- Tropi-goth.

That’s it, you’ve created a new genre!

Dennis- It sounds like if-if you wanna order everything black and brown at Pollo Tropical, get me the “Tropigoth”.

Just black beans, that’s all it is.

Dennis- Black beans, Coca-Cola-

Jenna- Oh gross, dude!

Dennis- That’s it! Just extra large Coke, extra large rice, extra large beans, that’s the Tropigoth. That’s what you order on a Sunday night, just before the new shipment comes in, it’s all they have left.

Is there any venue that you’d like to perform at, both in or out of Florida?

Dennis- Respectable Street. Definitely.

And is there a band you’d like to tour with, or like to collaborate with? If you had the opportunity, if someone gave you a kind of magic pass and said “Okay, you can use this to open for any band on their national touring cycle, who would it be?”

Dennis- You go first.

Jenna- Me?! …..I’d like to open for Geneva Jacuzzi. …John Maus would be cool. Maybe someone like Black Marble…

Dennis- Magazine is another one, that would be great.

Jenna- The Poptone band! That would be awesome!

Dennis-Yeah, definitely. I’d want to make it an interesting pairing, someone that doesn’t sound like us. It would have to be a sort of crossover.

The Cure did something similar when they came to Florida years back, they had 65daysofstatic open for them and that’s not a band that would immediately come to mind when you think The Cure but it was incredible.

Jenna- The Cure!

That would work! Robert Smith is a big supporter of new acts.

Jenna- How crazy would that be? That’s like the type of thing I wouldn’t even say because it’s so insane. That would be-

Dennis- That would be a dream.

Jenna- Yeah, that would be like, ultimate dream.

Dennis- ...The last car we had, as it died, we had to sell it for $200 and the last thing I had to get out of it was a Cure CD.

What album was it?

Dennis- The album was Wish.

Okay, that’s definitely a sign.

Dennis- I…would quit every job I ever had.

Jenna- Okay! New goal! Opening for The Cure!!

And to finish it off, I always like to do something with every band. If you could choose one lyric to sum up yourself, what would it be?

Dennis- “Nothing takes the place of you, because time is material”… I think is how it goes?

Jenna- “Nothing takes the place of you, because time is material and I’ve gone through you and back to me.”

Here’s to wishing, wherever you are.

-Jenelle DeGuzman

#donzii #post-punk #new wave #no wave #punk #miami #local #local music #local band #readable noise #jenna balfe #dennis fuller #music #interview

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