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cloudofash · 4 years

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The Future of the Destiny Islands Trio - Part 2

Please read Part 1 here.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

Kairi and Riku : Now

So this section will be far shorter than the last one simply because, once again, Kairi and Riku barely interact throughout the entire game so there unfortunately isn’t much to analyze. I won’t go too in-depth into Kairi and Riku’s relationship in past games since I already wrote a detailed analysis of their relationship in my Jealous Riku series, but I’d like to highlight some points for those who are new to my posts. For one, Riku and Kairi’s relationship has had some tension since the very start of the series. A few cutscenes into KH1, Kairi suggested to Sora that she wanted to take the raft, leave the island and abandon Riku because she sensed that he was “changing” (which was most likely his growing darkness). On the other hand, Riku used Kairi as a tool to guilt Sora for running around the worlds with his new companions, Donald and Goofy, whom he felt replaced him. The conclusion of the analysis of how they treat each other is that they are in the middle of a silent tug o’ war with Sora in the middle. Silent because they don’t outright say they’re against each other but their actions reveal the truth. There is a lot of evidence to support this throughout the series into KH3, even symbolic evidence which I’ll get to towards the end. We will focus on KH3 for this theory but I will reference past games to show that their behavior towards each other isn’t new.

So in KH3, the first time we know Riku and Kairi interact is during the paopu fruit scene. We don’t get to see them interact directly, but when Sora asks why Riku is all alone Kairi responds that he said he needed time to himself so the two must have spoken. Kairi then uses this time to offer Sora a paopu fruit, leaving Riku out of the equation. If we are to believe Kairi and Riku are good friends, wouldn’t she have wanted to share a paopu fruit with him too? Contrary to popular belief the paopu fruit isn’t just a romantic symbol. The paopu fruit intertwines destinies which can be completely platonic as proven by the Wayfinder Trio, their wayfinder is based on the paopu fruit. Even if she intended to share the fruit with Sora romantically, she could have waited until Riku was done spending time with himself to invite him over so he could also share a fruit as a friend.

Say what you will but this behavior is only present in the Destiny Islands Trio group. Aqua, Terra and Ventus all have their own Wayfinder and they all laid them together on Eraqus’ grave, no one was left out. The Twilight Town gang all ate popcicles together, not just the Trio but Hayner, Pence and Olette as well. They even included Isa after kicking his ass around. Yet the Destiny Islands Trio finally have their moment to share a paopu fruit together and Riku is excluded? This was clearly intentional, it’s further evidence of the hidden strain between Riku and Kairi. They’re barely speaking to one another. Kairi acts like a complete opportunist and waits until the exact moment Riku is by himself to share a paopu fruit with just Sora, which mirrors how she wanted to take a raft and runaway with just Sora. When Kairi gets slashed into pieces by Xehanort Riku gasps but barely moves, yet he leaps into action when Sora is blown back by Xehanort. How are we honestly supposed to believe these two are even regular friends, let alone good friends? The story does not set these two up as friends in even the slightest way, at most these two are associates because they both hang around Sora.

Even after Sora is sent off to Limbo, there is no evidence that these two are speaking much. When Leon asks Riku how the others are doing, Riku tells him about the Wayfinder Trio, Twilight Town gang and even Mickey, Donald and Goofy and literally stops there. It takes prodding from Aerith for him to even speak on Kairi.

This isn’t a small, insignificant detail. Riku doesn’t even think to mention Kairi, could you imagine this happening with any of the other trios? Aqua, Terra and Ventus couldn’t shut up about each other, and neither could Axel, Roxas and Xion once they remembered her. How could Riku “forget” to mention Kairi’s progress, a member of his Trio? These two aren’t thinking about each other at all. We saw Kairi exclude Riku from the paopu fruit scene and now Riku doesn’t even bother to mention her unless someone else brings her up. Aerith isn’t even a part of the Trio, nor has she ever met Kairi in person (that we know of) yet she thinks of Kairi before Riku does? Riku’s connection to Kairi, if there is even one at all, is so weak that characters outside of the Trio seem to have a stronger bond with her than he does. In fact, Riku has a stronger moment with Terra than he does with Kairi. Terra acts like a proud big brother to him when he marvels at how much Riku has grown and that he has gained the strength to protect what matters.

Hell, Riku has a stronger moment with Roxas than he does with Kairi in the entire game - he literally played tag with him and Terra on the beach in the ending cutscene. This comes after he and Roxas beat the crap outta each other in 358/2 Days, and we never really see the two reconcile or apologize but they seem to be okay enough with each other to race and play.

Sorry for the crappy screenshot quality, it was hard to get since they move fast!

These are the kinds of interactions we need to see with Riku and Kairi. It’s not enough to say they’re friends, if they are truly meant to be friends then it’s time to show it.

Riku vs Kairi: The Symbolism in Their Names

Aside from the growing amount of evidence in the games that there is subtle tension between Riku and Kairi, we can also point to evidence in their names. No, this isn’t a stretch. Nomura is very careful about naming his characters and Nomura himself explained that he named Sora as he did because the sky represents Sora as a character and his personality. He named Riku and Kairi “land” and “sea” to go along with Sora’s naming convention and to represent their relationships with Sora.

If we look at the KH3 title screen, we see Sora and Kairi eating their separate paopu fruits and walking off….into the sea. Kairi’s name means “sea/ocean”. What happens when you walk further and further into the ocean? You get further away from land. Riku.

The further Sora goes into the sea, the further he is away from land. The more Sora chases Kairi and centers his world around Kairi, the further Riku is from the trio. And we literally see this in the game. Kairi shares paopu fruits with Sora and leaves Riku out, Sora goes off to save Kairi alone and leaves Riku behind. Both of them have alienated Riku in some way. Riku is accepting this, we see him taking a step back and believing in Sora and Kairi’s relationship.

Riku clearly believes Kairi is what’s best for Sora now, but this goes completely against Riku saying “Sora needs me” in DDD. If we go by the original Japanese dialogue, Riku’s entire journey was finding the strength to protect his “precious person” (the word used in Japanese is “taisetsu” 大切 which can also translate to “someone dear, beloved”. Ring any bells?), not his friends as a whole but a specific person. That person is obviously Sora, Riku’s journey has been centered around saving Sora. Riku is now at a point where he believes Kairi is the one who is better suited for Sora, to protect him and keep him happy, not him. He’s taking this well and not stooping to jealousy like he did in KH1 but this doesn’t mean that Riku is completely happy about being left out. I will go further in depth for the next part where I’ll focus on Sora and Riku’s relationship.

Kairi and Riku : Future

So where does Riku and Kairi’s relationship go from here? It’s honestly hard to say. If Kairi comes out of her sleep and helps Riku look for Sora, then maybe they’ll finally have moments where they talk and behave like friends. This is assuming Riku decides to include her. After you view the Fairy Godmother scene in the LimitCut episode if you go back into Radiant Garden you’ll have a chance to speak with the FF crew. If you speak to Aerith once or twice she will say “Are you going to tell Kairi?” in reference to his dream being a key to finding Sora. This is an interesting piece of dialogue and it begs the question: why would Aerith ask this unless she had doubts that Riku would tell her? Just something to think about.

There are two ways this can go. Either Riku will not tell Kairi about his dreams and go off on his own to save Sora, or he will tell her and the two will go together. In other words we could end up with either a Riku and Kairi game, or a solo Riku game where he goes to save Sora again possibly Dream Drop Distance style. We will have to see. Thank you all for taking the time to read Part 2, Part 3 will be coming soon!

#kingdom hearts #KH #KH3 #kh3 remind #Re:Mind #destiny islands #destiny islands trio #sora #kairi #riku #relationship

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kingdommad300 · 5 years

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The Hidden Journal

Just a quick fic for SoraXKairi week.

Sora yawned on one of the pilot seats, a seat that is normally occupied by Goofy, before he closed his eyes to try and get some rest before they reached the Eclipse Galaxy. He could only look over to his friend, Riku, who was chuckling at how Sora was stretched out of the chair, like a dog with one leg tucked in and the other one going over the armrest. He sat up and wiped his eyes and looked over to Donald’s seat, only to see Ven occupying the space, reading on the Gummi Phone.

“You know,” Riku spoke up as he piloted the Gummi Ship, doing his part of the journey before Sora, Donald and Goofy take over control when they reach the Eclipse Galaxy. “The whole part of us taking turns driving was so that you could get some rest.” He quickly turned to look at him. “Maybe in your room.”

Sora yawned once more. “Like I can get to it.” He whined slightly. “It’s so crowded on the bridge.” The gummi ship that Sora, Donald and Goofy wasn’t big, it would deal with four to five people at its max. It wasn’t anyone’s surprise when the Gummi Ship had to take off with nine people on board instead of it’s usual three. Since there were only three small rooms, a lot of the team were spread out in the bridge, making it a little cramped. “Besides, I gave my room to Kairi and Aqua.” Sora reminded the silver head.

Ven smiled at Sora’s good gesture. “That was very nice of you, Sora.” Ven said before adding, “It is a bit too cosy down there.” He looked back at the Gummi Phone.

“Well, if you start yawning later when we reached the Keyblade Graveyard. That’s on you.” Riku told him, shaking his head as Sora yawned again. “So, tell me, sleepyhead, what was it like?” He asked as he focused on the path again.

Sora stood up, stretching out his arms before looking at his friend in confusion. “What was ‘what’ like?” he questioned.

Riku kept his gaze on the path. “You know what I mean.” He simply said. Quickly looking the see that Sora still that no idea what he was talking about, Riku gave a blunt hint. “The Paopu fruit?”

“Oh.” Sora took a seat.

Ven looked at the two with curiosity. “What’s a Paopu fruit?”

“It’s this star-shaped fruit that grows on our Islands.” Riku explained. “There is a legend that goes with it. They say that if two people share one, they remain part of each other’s lives no matter what.”

As Ven quickly showed Riku his Wayfinder and asked if the people from Destiny Islands make Wayfinders to, Sora was deep in thought. He had taken a bite out of the star-shaped fruit and it surprising tasted similar to a mango. He wasn’t thinking about the fruit though. He was thinking about the redhead girl he shared it with, the feelings that came during that moment came rushing back to him once more.

“I’ll keep you safe.”

“Let me keep you safe.”

There was something about Kairi that he just can’t put his finger on. Despite all of the doubts he was feeling from most of his journey, just being around her again made him feel at ease, made him feel powerful again. All she had to do was give him that heart-warming smile that she gave him and all of the courage and strength he needed for this final fight came back. She means a lot to him, sharing the Paopu fruit showed that. But what did it mean? His heart feels completely different around her…

…..

Did she……

……

Does he……

“Sora!” The Keyblade Master jumped in surprise as he looked back at Riku, who looked like he had been trying to get his attention for a while. “So, what’s it like?” He asked again.

Sora wasn’t sure how to answer, so he stuttered as he looked over to Ventus. “Hey, Ven! What are you reading?” He changed the subject abruptly, making Riku roll his eyes as he focused on driving once more.

“Jiminy had shared his reports of your adventures on our Gummi Phones so I wanted to have a read before we landed.” Ven showed the reports of his phone before he started to scroll through the reports again. “All this information of Heartless and Nobodies are handy going ahead to the battle.”

“Wait! You never fought against Heartless?” Riku piped in.

“That’s all we mainly fight.” Sora added, surprised by Ven’s statement.

“I had thought them once…. but that didn’t end very well.” Ven said as he held his hand to his chest. “I’ve mainly fought the Unverse.” Ven continued to scroll through the reports. “Sora. I was just wondering. Did you see me appear at all during your adventures?”

“No. Why do you ask?”

“Well, the journal says that you kept seeing Kairi on your first journey.” Ven found the part of the report that he was referring too. “’We went to an empty house to try and find a wizard called Merlin. When we were looking around, Kairi appeared in front of me once more. She was saying that this empty house reminded her of the secret place back home and asked if I remembered the drawings on the wall. ‘” He read out loud.

Sora’s eyes went wide as he pulled out his Gummi Phone. “Oh no.” He looked at the reports only to realise that Jiminy had not just shared his reports and findings to the others. He had also shared Sora’s personal journal. “Nonononono!” Sora started to pace around the pilot room.

Riku looked at him with concern. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Jiminy shared my journal,” Sora said in a slightly panicked voice. “All of my personal thoughts and worries were in that journal.”

Riku looked quite surprised about the journal. “You’re normally open to expressing your feelings.” He pointed out.

“It was just something I could write into so I didn’t worry Donald and Goofy too much.” He explained. When he started his first journey, Jiminy had suggested writing his thoughts on a piece of paper if he wanted to get something off his mind, something that came in handy when he was looking for Riku, Kairi and the King. “And when I was missing you guys.”

“It says here that you thought that Riku was stupid for siding with the Heartless.” Ven pointed out.

Riku only shrugged, “He’s not wrong.”

“Guys. If Ven can read it then the others can too.” Sora explained to them.

Ven looked at him questionably. “Is it that bad?” He asked him. “I get to know you on a deeper level. That and I can connect my dreams to your adventures.” He smiled.

“I think he’s more worried about what Kairi thinks.” Riku chipped in. Ven replied with a simple ‘ohhhh’ while smiling.

“Kairi can read it. I don’t care.” Sora crossed his arms, looking out into space.

“Yeah sure.” Riku huffed on Sora’s blatant lie. “Ven. Is there anything on Kairi?” He smirked as he received a glare from Sora.

Ven scrolled through until he found a section of the report. “Here we go. ‘It started to snow in Halloween Town and Jack had asked Sally to dance with him. As they danced, I started to wonder what Kairi would want for Christmas—”

“Right. I’m outta here.” Sora went over to the hatch door and started to climb down to the bridge, ignoring Riku and Ven’s calls that they were just teasing.

Reaching the bridge, Sora couldn’t help but smile as they saw Donald and Goofy sleeping on the sofa while Axel decided to kip on the floor, half in the kitchen, half in the hallway. He can only assume that Kairi, Aqua and King Mickey were resting in the bedrooms. Being careful not to wake the others up, Sora took a seat by the window as he looked out at the galaxy they were leaving, seeing the colours slowly change. The sight of deep space reminded him of staring out at sea, seeming endless, calm, peaceful. It always gave him some sort of comfort.

“I think this is the first time I found you awake.”

Sora turned away to see Kairi giggle slightly as she leaned against the wall by the window. “You should have come to me ten minutes ago.” He grinned, grabbing a vacant seat next to him and placed it in front of the window next to him. Kairi took the gesture and sat in the vacant chair, enjoying the view of deep space. “Did you get a chance to rest?” He asked her.

She shook her head. “With what’s up ahead, I couldn’t sleep. So, I decided to read some of Jiminy’s reports.” She told him. She turned to him, noticing that Sora was looking intently out into the emptiness. “I didn’t realise how many people you ended up helping while you were looking for me and Riku.” She admitted, grabbing Sora’s attention. “I know from your stories that you went to many worlds but when you actually read it, you take it all in.” She smiled back at him. “You’ve had quite an adventure, Sora.”

“There’s been funny moments.” He smiled.

Kairi pulled out her Gummi Phone and started to read something on her screen. “’Me and Donald had a huge fight today. Why can’t he understand that I just want a five-minute nap!’” Kairi read out before giggling, “Now that’s the lazy bum, I know.”

Sora groaned at this. “So you did get it.” He sighed.

She nodded. “I can imagine you reading it. It’s like having a piece of you no matter where we go.” She told him.

Sora smiled at this. She was doing again. Just being herself and his worries disappeared just like that. “Once we bring everyone back, and I have a long-deserved nap on the beach…” He enjoyed Kairi’s soft giggle to that. “We’ll go on our own journey. The one we always wanted to go on.” He proposed.

Kairi nodded to this, “It would be good to meet all of the friends that you have made, dance in the snow, learn how to fly, see all of the magical things that you got to see.” She smiled. “The three of us. Me, you and Riku.”

“Actually, I asked Riku a while back. He said that he would give it a pass.” Sora told her.

“But he wanted to see the other worlds the most out of the three of us.” Kairi said in disbelief.

“Tell me about it.” Sora said with the same disbelief before he chuckled. “Besides, didn’t you want it to be just the two of us last time?”

Kairi groaned into her own hands. “Don’t remind me.” Remembering her abruptness on her comment on her and Sora taking the raft and leaving Riku behind. She looked back at Sora, smiling at the soft smile he was giving her. “I look forward to our adventure together.” She leaned forward and grabbed a hold of his hand as she turned to look at the view again.

Sora could only focus on the hand that was holding his. This was the first time she has done something like this. Just feeling her soft hand against his rough skin made his heart heat up once more, similar to the evening they shared the Paopu fruit. He wanted to know what this feeling was and he will fight as hard as he can in the battle to come to figure out what it is that he’s feeling whenever he is around her.

#kingdom hearts 3 #sora and kairi #sora #Kairi #ven #Riku #friendship #sora and kairi week #sora x kairi

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timeagainreviews · 5 years

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A Loch back at a Zygon Era

Hello friends! I've had quite the week! Monday was my birthday, so my boyfriend and I took a road trip around Scotland. We saw lots of things from the Beatrix Potter Garden in Birnam, to the Cave of Caerbannog from Monty Python, to the Devil's Pulpit in Dumgoyne. But our main destination was Loch Ness! We settled into our hotel by watching "Terror of the Zygons," which seemed appropriate considering our surroundings. Naturally, I decided to review it here. Before I do, however, I would like to thank all of you who have been liking and reblogging my stuff lately. It means a lot to know I'm connecting with people. Thank you for your support!

On the surface, "Terror of the Zygons," appears to be just like any other serial of its era. However, if you do a bit of digging, you'll discover that there are some interesting facts about its production. Did you know that there was a sort of "real-world," tie in with the story? No, I don't mean Nessie. Think closer to Mickey Mouse. In 1975, Tom Baker played the Doctor for the August "Disney Time," bank holiday special. After introducing several clips from Disney films, he is called away by the Brigadier to the events of Terror of the Zygons. I can't help but wish this information was known to me before writing my Doctor Who and Disney article! You can watch the clips on youtube. They feature Tom being suitably bizarre.

Along with having an unusual prequel, the story also had a deleted scene from the beginning which was later colourised by YouTuber "babelcolour," for the DVD release. This edited version is the one I rewatched for today's review. The scene begins with the TARDIS materialising invisibly. The Doctor walks out from nothingness, wearing a matching tartan tam and scarf, replacing his usual fedora and scarf. Not far behind are Sarah Jane and Harry Sullivan wearing said hat and scarf respectively. There's something rather humorous about the Doctor using his companions as human hat racks. Considering Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart's name, it seems appropriate that the Doctor is sporting the Royal Stewart tartan. I can't help but wonder if the costume department did this on purpose. After rematerialising the TARDIS to "fix," it back to it's usual broken police box state, the three continue their journey to answer the Brigadier's Disney Time summons. It seems an oil rig off the coast of Scotland has crashed into the sea just shortly after having lost radio contact.

After hitching a ride from the eccentric Duke of Forgill, the three meet up with a kilted Brigadier in a small Scottish inn where the landlord, Angus, plays bagpipes ad nauseam. They're really driving the Scottish shit home, which makes sense when you consider they filmed the episode in Sussex. Also gathered at the inn are Sergeant Benton, various UNIT soldiers, and a man from the oil company named Huckle. The Duke has some curt words with Huckle, informing him that any crewmen found on his land will be shot. After leaving in a huff, we see one of these crewmen wash ashore, seemingly alive. Over the past month, three different rigs have all met their demise. The gang splits up Scooby-Doo style. Dr Harry goes off to check on the injured crewmen, while Sarah stays behind to get the scoop from the locals. And the Doctor goes off to be the Doctor.

Back at the inn, Sarah mentions the odd nature of the Duke to Angus who promptly defends the duke as a good man. However, even he has to admit that the Duke has been acting strangely since the oil companies came. After letting go most of his servants, the only real bit of interaction he's had lately was gifting the inn with a goofy looking stag head. Nowadays the Duke keeps mostly to himself at Forgill Castle. The surrounding area of Tulloch Moor seems steeped in mystery. People go missing as the mist comes in, Angus tells Sarah as they're being spied upon from a distance. Eavesdropping in on the conversation over a veiny, bio-mechanical screen, an unknown figure watches from the shadows.

While driving alone, Harry spots the washed-up man from the rig and jumps out to help him. Believing him to be yet another trespasser, a beardy fellow by the name of Caber shoots the survivor and wings Harry across his brow, rendering him unconscious. Back in the bio-mechanical ship, alien villains twist and caress a fleshy panel in the weirdest form of nipple play ever seen on Doctor Who, causing the destruction of another oil rig near Ben Nevis. While trying to decipher the signal that has been jamming the oil rigs' radios, the Doctor learns of Harry's brush with death.

After checking on Harry, the Doctor goes out to inspect the oil rig wreckage where he discovers strange holes in the foundation. After taking a cast of the holes with plaster of Paris, the cast reveals what looks like the shape of an impossibly large sharp tooth. During a call with the Doctor, Sarah is attacked by the previously seen alien hand, which belongs to none other than a fearsome Zygon! I've always loved their design, especially in this scene. Something about the shape of its mouth is particularly disturbing. I was slightly disappointed about the redesign from the new series. I'm a big fan of the Zygon cat nose. I almost named one of my cats Zygon due to his dark orange fur and similar nose shape, but my partner at the time vetoed that idea. I named him Rory instead.

After discovering both Harry and Sarah missing, the Doctor discovers Sarah in a decompression room for divers, the door slightly ajar. I was annoyed by the fact that the Doctor fell for such an obvious trap, but it also led to an intriguing sequence. Harry's nurse, Sister Lamont, closes the heavy door behind the Doctor and seals it shut for decompression. Running out of air, the Doctor hypnotises Sarah and enters into a trance to conserve air. I'm a big fan of any time the Doctor acts like a bit of a mystic. I'm a meditator myself, so it's cool to see the Doctor tap into the innate powers of thought control. One of the side effects of certain meditations is a slowing of breathing. It was nice that the scene doesn't overly explain this. It allows Tom the chance to really play up his weird alien charm as his eyes roll back and he howls toward the ceiling. Moments like these are why I love Tom Baker so much. He's not afraid of being utterly bizarre.

It's around this time we begin to learn a little about the Zygons. Having taken Harry to their ship, their leader, Broton, tells him a bit about their history. After they crash-landed centuries ago they awaited rescue while subsiding on the lactic fluid of their giant Nessie-like cyborg pet known as the Skarasen. That's correct, you did not misread that- they feed off of cyborg breast milk. Only with a show like Doctor Who can you get a sentence like that. You've kind of got to love that. After discovering their planet was destroyed by a cosmic event, they redirected their efforts toward getting their suckers on Earth. The Skarasen is to be the form of Earth's destructor, as no human weapon could hope to penetrate its augmented skin. In order to move their plan into motion, the Zygons gas the village, knocking the Brigadier and the UNIT soldiers out cold, thus allowing them to move in secret. Luckily for the Doctor and Sarah, Sergeant Benton was on the lookout for them where he saves them from death by asphyxiation.

After coming to, Huckle gives the Doctor a bio-emitter that attracts the Skarasen, which he found among the wreckage of the rig. Having bugged the inn, the Zygons reveal to Harry that they use the psychic imprint of humans in order to mimic their form. He sees the likes of Sister Lamont, Caber, and the Duke, stored in hibernation chambers, maintaining a link to their Zygon counterparts. They use Harry's form to slip back to the inn where they may fetch the emitter. But he is intercepted by Sarah who is concerned by his odd behaviour. She chases him into a barn where they scuffle in a manner that had me weirdly thinking of “Super Vixens.” Russ Meyer's Doctor Who is not something I ever expected to imagine. After a bit of trouble, Zygon Harry falls from a hayloft onto his own pitchfork, killing him instantly and revealing himself to Sarah as a Zygon. However, the crafty Zygons completely evaporate his remains to hide any evidence. I wondered why they didn't just do the same thing to the emitter in the first place, but I guess the answer is "it doesn't do that." Ok, sure, whatever. Now free from his psychic link with the Zygon, Harry is able to sneak about on their ship unabated.

After realising the Zygons were working from the shadows, the Doctor assumes they must have bugged the inn somewhere, so the lads go about searching the place from top to bottom. I love Angus' indignant response to the idea that his inn might have actual bugs. Angus Lennie's performance as Angus is a true highlight in the story. Afraid of the humans discovering that the goofy stag head must be the bug, the Zygons decide to send the Skarasen to rid themselves of these tiresome humans. After figuring out the secret of the emitter, the Doctor draws the Skarasen away from the village only to find it has fused itself to his hand. But Harry's meddling with the ship's systems allows the Doctor the ability to toss the emitter in the path of the Skarasen, destroying it in the process.

The Doctor and friends meet up and go to Forgill Castle to ask permission to drop depth charges into Loch Ness, the source of the signal. Their hope is to draw the Zygons out. Meanwhile, the Sister Lamont Zygon goes to fetch the stag head and fights with Angus in the process, killing him. It's a sad ending for one of the more likeable characters, but it's also kind of wonderful in its simplicity. I never quite understood why the Zygons needed to turn people into electric balls of something I might pull out of my hairbrush, as they did in "The Zygon Invasion." If anything, I much prefer the updates they received in Mark Morris' "The Bodysnatchers." Using venom from their suckers matches their physiology far better than superpowers. Morris really fleshed out the Zygons in a way I wish the show would. Seeing them in their initial incarnation using brute force seems far more practical to me. I think sometimes, more is less.

After discovering a way into the Zygon ship, they save Harry, but the Zygons flee with the Doctor still onboard. The Doctor gets a wonderful opportunity to match wits with Broton in a speech that includes my all-time favourite Fourth Doctor line- "You can't rule the world in hiding. You've got to come out on to the balcony sometimes and wave a tentacle." Evidently, that line was ad-libbed by Tom Baker, only further solidifying my love for the man. He makes a good point though, the Zygons have mostly been working from the shadows, in secret. The Zygons fly away, masking their trail from UNIT, still hiding. I must admit, it's not abundantly clear what their plan actually is. Sure they intend to use the Skarasen against earth's weapons, but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of explanation as to how the oil rigs play into everything. There's mention of turning the Earth into something more habitable for Zygons, but I'm honestly not sure. I asked my boyfriend what his impression was, and he couldn't quite figure it out either.

There's a lot of what happens at this point in the story that seems like happenstance. The UNIT crew and Sarah end up going to London, which also happens to be where the Zygons have set their next target. They plan to swim the Skarasen up the Thames to wreak havoc on Westminster Abbey. In my review for "Castrovalva," I mentioned how the Fourth Doctor's super-heroics were oftentimes overstated, and what comes next is nothing shy of extraordinary. After rigging some ventricle type wiring from within his cell, the Doctor uses his own body to complete the circuit, allowing UNIT to see past the Zygon's scramblers and pinpoint their location. I loved that it was Benton that did this, by the way. This was twice in one story where Benton got to play hero. They pinpoint the ship's location to be a disused quarry, which made me ugly cackle. Classic Doctor Who used quarries so often to make up an alien planet, that the idea of them saying "This actually is a quarry," seemed almost cheeky. Broton, thinking the Doctor has died, uses his Duke disguise once more to go plant another emitter in Westminster. After releasing the human captives aboard the Zygon ship, the Doctor sounds an alarm and sets off the self destruct killing the remaining Zygons onboard. Yay, murder!

The UNIT soldiers dispatch Broton after a fumbling fight scene between him, Harry, and Sarah. All the while, the Skarasen is working its way up the Thames. It's a brilliant little bit of puppetry mixed with stop motion animation that I found completely charming. Even if it does look a bit naff, it's effective enough to be a suitable set piece to end such an episode. It's very much within the tone of the story to have the Loch Ness monster stomping through London. The Doctor manages to trace the emitter and toss it into the open jaws of the Skarasen. It nom nom noms the emitter into nothingness, causing it to lose all interest in the Abbey. The Doctor casually supposes that it will most likely return to its home of Loch Ness. I loved that the show kept the Loch Ness mystery intact. After all is said and done, "Nessie," may still be out there. It wouldn't have felt right killing off a beloved cryptid that brings so much wonder to many. Such feelings of wonder are what Doctor Who thrives upon. Sadly, while we got to keep Nessie, we say goodbye to some regulars. This marks the last regular appearance of both the Brigadier and Harry. With the Doctor no longer relegated to the Earth, UNIT begins to play a much smaller role in the story. And Harry, now back in London, hasn't a lot of need to continue travelling with the Doctor. It's an almost unceremonious end of an era for Doctor Who.

All in all, I really enjoyed this story. While I feel like it somewhat falls apart in the final act, the mystery and intrigue in the first few episodes really draw you in. Even my boyfriend, who is a casual fan, was drawn in by the atmosphere. You can see the beginnings of what was to become the more horror-themed stories such as "The Talons of Weng-Chiang," or "The Horror of Fang Rock." The Zygons are, for me at least, a classic baddie. They may not be as popular or iconic as the Daleks or Cybermen, but I think they work as their own kind of threat. Bringing them back has also proven to be successful. The Big Finish audio "The Zygon Who Fell to Earth," is well worth a listen. There's a lot of care put into this story that I think makes it stand out from others. Geoffrey Burgon's beautifully haunting music was a nice change of pace from Dudley Simpson's usual work. The track "A Landing in Scotland," is particularly memorable. The Zygon ship interior being organic was a unique touch that we rarely see in Doctor Who, save for maybe "The Claws of Axos," and the model work was also pretty damn charming. Having recently been to both Loch Ness and Ben Nevis, it really added something to the experience as well. There is a surprisingly low amount of episodes that take place in Scotland, which is unfortunate. If there's anything this trip has taught me, is that Scotland has a lot to offer. There are so many peaks and valleys covered with lush greenery and deep dark waters. It's easy to imagine that somewhere, something is lurking down below. Hats off to Robert Banks Stewart and Robert Holmes for seeing this potential, and turning out something magical.

#doctor who #fourth doctor #tom baker #sarah jane smith #elisabeth sladen #nicholas courtney #BRIGADIER LETHBRIDGE STEWART #zygons #harry sullivan #ian marter #Time and Time Again #tardis #bbc #loch ness #nessie #loch ness monster #skarasen #terror of the zygons

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upontheshelfreviews · 5 years

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And now we come to the final piece of Walt Disney’s original animation trifecta, Fantasia, and it’s one I’m both anticipating and dreading. Fantasia isn’t just one of the crowning jewels in Disney’s canon, a landmark in motion picture animation, and second only to Snow White in terms of influential music and storytelling in the whole medium, it’s one of my top three favorite movies of all time. Discussing it without sounding like an old history professor, a pretentious internet snob, or a hyper Disney fangirl is one hell of a daunting task.

“Did someone say hyper Disney fangirl?! I LOVE Disney!!”

“I thought you only liked Frozen.”

“Well, DUH, Frozen is my favorite, which makes it, like, the best Disney movie ever! But Disney’s awesome! There’s a bunch of other movies I like that are almost as good!”

“And Fantasia’s one of them?”

“Yeah!!…Which one is that again?”

“The one with Sorcerer Mickey?”

“Ohhhh, you’re talking about the fireworks show where he fights the dragon!”

“No, that’s Fantasmic. I’m referring to Fantasia. Came out the same year as Pinocchio? All done in hand-drawn animation…has the big devil guy at the end?”

“THAT’S where he’s from?! Geez, that’s some old movie. Why haven’t I heard about ’til now?”

“Probably because you spend twelve hours a day searching for more Frozen GIFs to reblog on your Tumblr.”

“Ooh, that reminds me! I need to go post my next batch of theories about the upcoming sequel! Toodles!!”

“Thanks. Another second with her and I would’ve bust a gasket.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Anyway, it’s no surprise Sorcerer Mickey is what people remember the most from Fantasia, and not just because he’s the company mascot. “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” was the reason we have the movie in the first place. It began as a pet project between Walt Disney and renowned conductor Leopold Stokowski.

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“Yep. THAT Leopold.”

However, between the upscale in animation and the use of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the cost grew too high to justify the creation of only one short. Over time more sequences featuring animation set to various pieces of classical music were added in what was initially dubbed “The Concert Feature”. Later it was wisely changed to the more memorable “Fantasia”. It works not only because it’s derived from the word “fantasy”, but because “fantasia” is a term for a musical composition that doesn’t follow any strict form and leans towards improvisation. Combine the two meanings and you get the whole movie in a nutshell.

And this leads us to –

Things Fantasia Fans Are Sick of Hearing #1: “It’s SOOOOOO boring! Nobody’s talking and nothing ever happens!”

You know, few recall that decades before Warner Brothers was known as that studio that made rushed prequels to beloved fantasy franchises and a hastily cobbled together superhero universe, it had humble origins in the music business; their Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes shorts began as music videos made to sell their records. Disney’s Silly Symphonies followed in the same vein, though they focused more on pushing the envelope in animation technique and character resonance than selling music, as did the lesser known Harman-Ising Happy Harmonies.

And if that’s the case, then Fantasia is the Thriller of animated music videos. It’s the result of years of technological advancement and trial and error, all culminating in the flawless weaving together of visuals and some of the greatest music mankind has created to tell seven stories and elicit an emotional response for each one.

Let me repeat that: FANTASIA. PREDATES. THRILLER.

“And unlike Thriller, Fantasia has the advantage of NOT being directed by a man who literally got away with murder or involving an artist whose pedophilia accusations are still discussed a decade after his passing…at least as far as we know.”

By the way, if you’re watching the current version of Fantasia that’s available, do me a favor and pause the movie to watch the original Deems Taylor intros; while they’re shorter than the ones on the blu-ray, they have Deem’s original voice. All later releases have him dubbed over by Corey Burton because the audio for these parts hasn’t held up as well over time. Now Corey Burton is a phenomenal voice actor who’s done countless work for Disney before, but there’s a problem I have with him taking over these segments: One, he and Deems sound nothing alike, and Two, he makes him sound so dry and dull. Not to mention the longer intros practically spoil everything you’re about to see whereas the cut versions give you just enough to build some intrigue for what’s to follow.

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Regardless of whichever one you’re watching, Deems gives us the rundown on what Fantasia is all about and lists the three categories that the sequences fall under.

A concrete story

Clearly defined images with something of a narrative

Music and visuals that exist for its own sake

And the very first of these parts falls directly into the last one.

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor – Johann Sebastian Bach

Some hear this tune and attribute it as stock horror music, but for me it’s the start of a grand, dark, fantastical journey through realms of the imagination. While it is intended as an organ piece, this full orchestration blows me away. Capturing the orchestra in bold hues and shadows with colors specific to certain highlighted instruments was a brilliant move, setting the stage for what’s to come.

And if the previously referenced Bugs Bunny cartoon was any indication, the real Leopold Stokowski is one of the main draws to this segment. Stokowski’s claim to fame was that he ditched the traditional conductor’s baton and used his hands to guide the orchestra. His passion and restraint is plain for all to see, even in silhouette.

Ultimately Stokowski and the orchestra fade away into the animated ether. The idea behind Toccota and Fugue was to show a gradual transformation from the conscious world to the subconscious, providing a literal and figurative representation of what you see and hear with the music. That’s why the first animated images resemble violin bows sweeping over strings. Over time those distinct objects evolve into abstract geometric shapes.

Honestly, no amount of stills can capture what it’s like to watch this sequence play out. It’s a radically unique experience, almost like a dream.

Things Fantasia Fans Are Sick of Hearing #2: “It’s the world’s first screensaver/musicalizer!”

This is something I hear often from people (ie. the people making the complaints I’ve chosen to highlight). First, read the previous Thing. Second, Toccata is not so much about recreating a story as it is capturing a feeling. And yet a story isn’t out of the question. I always saw at as glimpses of a battle of light versus dark, heaven versus hell, albeit not as overt as the opening of Fantasia 2000. That’s the beauty of this segment. It’s all up for interpretation. You can let the images and sounds wash over you as if you were dreaming it, or attach whatever meaning you find.

And on that note (ha) –

Things Fantasia Fans Are Sick of Hearing #3: “God, all these animators must have been so fucking high to come up with this shit.”

I tell ya what, if you’re one of those people who think that, take whatever drug is handy, grab some crayons or whatever you feel comfortable doodling with, and when you’re comfortably high, draw one full second of animation. That’s 24 consecutive drawings that need to flow, squash and stretch into each other realistically. It doesn’t have complicated; it can be a ball bouncing, a flower blowing in the wind, an eye blinking, but it has to work.

Not so easy, huh?

Classic Disney animators who lectured at art schools received comments like this all the time. While there were some like Fred Moore who would go for the occasional beer run on breaks, there’s no record of narcotic or alcoholic influence on the animators’ turnout. I’m pretty sure Walt would’ve fired anyone who turned in work produced while high because it’d be awful. Animation was still a fairly new medium at the time, and Disney was constantly experimenting with what it could do, which is why we got things like this, the Pink Elephants, and other delightfully trippy moments throughout the 40’s, not because of drugs. Isn’t that right, classic Disney animator Bill Tytla?

“Of course! I’ve never done drugs, and I never drink…wine.”

The Nutcracker Suite – Pyotr Illich Tchaichovsky

Things Fantasia Fans Are Sick of Hearing #4: “Yawn. Nutcracker is SO overplayed. Of course Disney had to jump on the bandwagon with their version!”

Ironically, the extended Deems Taylor intro has him mention how nobody performs Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker; in light of its modern seasonal popularity, the sentiment is rendered archaic. True, the ballet wasn’t an initial critical hit and Tchaikovsky himself virtually disowned it, but much of its ubiquity is largely due in part to Disney adapting it for Fantasia. It eschews the title character in favor of a nature ballet portraying the cycle of seasons. Initial planning included the overture and the famous march featuring woodland critters, though they were eventually cut. Walt considered pumping scents into the theater during this part, but was unable to figure out how to do it naturally. If they had Smell-O-Vision that might work, but what scents would you have to scratch off for the other Fantasia segments? Wood resin? Wine? Wet hippo? Brimstone?

The sequence begins with The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. In the night a group of fairies dance like fireflies, gracing spring flowers and spiderwebs with delicately timed dewdrops.

“Any of you girls seen Tinkerbell?” “She ditched us to hang out with that obnoxious flyboy.” “Again?! That’s the third time this month!”

The scene is atmospheric with beautifully rendered pastel backgrounds. After the fairies comes The Chinese Dance performed by a group of little mushrooms. It’s a cute number, and just another that was parodied more than a few times in other cartoons – wait do those mushrooms have slant eyes? And they’re prancing around nodding like extras in The Mikado…

You fungi are lucky you’re so darn adorable otherwise I’d sic the self-righteous side of Twitter on you.

Dance of the Reed Flutes follows. Lilies gently float on to the surface of a pond before inverting themselves to resemble twirling dancers with long, flowing skirts. And since I’m not always one to take the easy route, enjoy this niche reference instead of “You Spin Me Right Round”.

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A gust of wind blows the spinning lilies over a waterfall into some moody underwater caverns, where a school of unusually sultry goldfish perform the Arabian Dance.

Cleo, does Gepetto know about this?

A novel idea, using the basic swimming motions of a goldfish and their naturally diaphanous tails and fins as veils to resemble exotic dancers, though like other animated characters in a similar vein, this has led to some…”interesting” reactions from certain people.

Right, well, bubbles transition us into the penultimate movement, the Russian Dance. Thistles and orchids resembling dancers clad in traditional Russian peasant clothing spring to life in this brightly colored energetic minute. You’ll be chanting “hey!” along with it.

And finally, the Waltz of the Flowers. As a little girl I would often hold my own “ballets” to this scene, which mainly comprised of me in a ballet costume or fancy nightgown spinning around in circles for family members with this playing in the background. Top that, Baryshnikov.

Fairies similar to the ones from the beginning transform the leaves from fresh summer green to autumn orange, brown and gold. Milkweed seeds blossom forth and float through the air like waltzing ladies. This piece above all else is what really shows the beauty of nature. I feel more emotion watching the leaves pirouette in the wind than any plain live-action drama.

Fall turns into winter, and the fairies, now snow sprites, skate across a pond creating ice swirls while even more spiral down from the sky as snowflakes. The secret of animating these snowflakes was nearly lost to time. Several years ago a notebook by technician Herman Schultheis was rediscovered, revealing how many of the special effects in Disney’s early films – Fantasia in particular – were brought to life. The snowflakes were cels on spools attached to small rails from a train set that were filmed falling in stop motion and black and white, then superimposed on the final picture.

In conclusion, The Nutcracker Suite is a lovely piece of animation and music, and I’ll pop in Fantasia at Christmastime just to watch it. This was my introduction to The Nutcracker, and it’s an excellent and unique one.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – Paul Dukas

The symphonic poem of the same name now gets a proper name with Mickey Mouse stepping in the title role. It’s impossible to imagine any other character in his shoes, but for a time there were other considerations.

“Nope. Too wooden.”

“Too angry.”

“I’m sorry, but you’re just too darn loud.”

As we all know, Mickey was given the part since his popularity needed a boost. He doesn’t talk here, and I know those who find his voice grating wholeheartedly embrace that fact, but what we’re given is proof that Mickey works just as well silently as he does speaking. Very few cartoon characters can pull off that kind of versatility.

And while we’re on the topic of sound, Walt was so determined for the sound quality to match what was happening on screen that he devised a system he dubbed “FantaSound”, where it would seem as though the music would move around the the theater instead of just blare out from one speaker.

You read that right. Fantasia is the movie that invented SURROUND SOUND.

But that’s not the only technological leap Fantasia is responsible for – this is the first time we see Mickey with sclera.

That’s the white of the eyes for those who don’t speak science.

Before Fantasia, Mickey had what we refer to today as “pie eyes”, a relic of the era he was created in. As the art of animation progressed, animators found it increasingly difficult to create believable expressions with two little dots. Fred Moore is responsible for the mouse’s welcome redesign. Mickey as the apprentice serves the sorcerer Yen Sid, named after his real world counterpart.

“Hey! I didn’t teach him that!”

Mickey’s craving a taste of his master’s power, so he borrows his magical cap after he goes to bed and enchants a broom to finish his work of gathering water. It’s fun and bouncy, though the part where Mickey dreams he can control the cosmos, seas and sky is something to behold.

“The power! The absolute POWER!! The universe is mine to command! To CONTROOOOOOL!!!”

But Mickey is jolted from his dream of ultimate conquest when the broom begins flooding the place. Unfortunately the sorcerer’s hat doesn’t come with a manual so Mickey doesn’t know how to turn it off. He resorts to violently chopping the broom to pieces with an axe. The animation originally called for the massacre to happen on screen, but was altered to showing it through shadows instead. I think it’s much more effective this way. The implied violence is more dramatic than what we could have gotten.

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One of my favorite stylistic choices in Fantasia is what follows. The color is sucked out, drained if you will, mirroring Mickey’s exhausted emotional and physical state after committing broomslaughter. But it slowly returns as the broom’s splinters rise up and form an army of bucket-wielding drones. They overpower Mickey and catch him in a whirlpool until Yen Sid returns and parts the waters like a pissed off Moses.

“You! Shall not! SWIM!!!”

Mickey sheepishly returns the hat, and I have to give credit to the animators for the subtle touches on Yen Sid. He appears stern at first glance, but the raised eyebrow borrowed from Walt? The slight smirk at the corner of his mouth? Deep down, he’s amused by his apprentice’s shenanigans. Even the backside slap with the broom, while rendered harshly due to the sudden swell of music, is done less out of malice and more out of playfulness.

The piece ends with Mickey breaking the barriers of reality to congratulate Stokowski on a job well done.

“Hey! I didn’t teach him that!”

If you haven’t already guessed, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is easily one of my preferred sequences. It’s energetic, perfectly matches the music, and features my favorite mouse in one of his most iconic roles. I joke about the scene where Mickey controls the waves and the sky due to Disney’s far-reaching acquisitions in the past decade, but within the context of the film it’s one of the most magical moments. Some theorize that The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is an allegory of Walt’s journey to create Fantasia itself, and there’s some merit to it – Mickey’s always been Walt’s avatar after all, and here he dreams big only to wind up way in over his head. But you don’t need to look for coincidental parallels to enjoy this part.

Rite of Spring – Igor Stravinsky

Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring is admittedly my least favorite part of Fantasia, though I don’t hate it by all means. Thematically it’s the furthest from the original work’s intent: instead of a pagan ritual involving a virgin sacrifice, we witness the earth’s infancy. I was never really into dinosaurs as a kid (I didn’t even see Jurassic Park until I was in fourth or fifth grade), and the thundering, threatening music put me off. I found it too long (twenty-two minutes is an eternity in child time), uninteresting, and dour compared to the other sequences, with the exception of one moment. I can appreciate it now that I’m older, though.

A solitary oboe echoes through the vast darkness of space. We soar past comets, galaxies, suns, and down into our lonely little planet still in the early stages of formation. Volcanoes cover the earth. They spew toxic gas, but their magma bubbles burst in precision with the music. Once again this is due to Herman Schultheis. He filmed a mixture of oatmeal, coffee grounds, and mud with air pushed up through a vent, and let the animators go to town on it.

The volcanoes erupt simultaneously. Lava flows and the ensuing millennia of cooling form the continents. But deep in the sea, the first protozoan life wriggles, divides, and evolves into multi-cellular organisms. One of them crawls up on to land, and finally we’re back in the time where dinosaurs weren’t just confined to zoos.

Things Fantasia Fans Are Sick of Hearing #4: “Dinosaur inaccuracies…brain melting…”

True, most of the dinosaur and plant species here never shared the same period of existence, but try telling that to the animation studio or John Hammond. They mostly went for whatever looked cool and prehistoric regardless of scientific accuracy. Some of the designs themselves are a bit off, but the animators did their best considering how much we knew about the creatures in the 30’s and 40’s. Heck, we’ve only recently discovered that most dinosaurs were covered with feathers or fur, and I don’t see anyone harping on Jurassic Park for omitting that detail. Thank God Steven Spielberg doesn’t harbor George Lucas’ affinity for reworking his past movies with extra CGI.

Believe it or not, this scene was once considered the height of accurate dinosaur depictions on film, because nobody else had done it before with this level of research and care in animation. Without Rite Of Spring, we wouldn’t have The Land Before Time or Jurassic Park in the first place. Look at Land Before Time’s bleak, orangey atmosphere and the Sharptooth fights and tell me this didn’t influence it in any way.

The dinosaurs themselves have little character and, while fascinating to see how they might have lived, are not particularly engaging. Until…

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Yes, when the king of all dinosaurs makes his entrance, bringing a thunderstorm along with him no less, all the others are wise to run and hide from him. I would hide under a quilt but still peek through the holes in awe. He snaps about throwing his weight around, but when it goes toe to toe with a stegosaurus? That’s when things get real.

This battle, by the way, is animated by Woolie Reitherman, who had a knack for bringing gargantuan characters to life. He was responsible for animating Monstro in Pinocchio, and was behind Maleficent’s dragon form in Sleeping Beauty.

Though what follows is far from triumphant. The earth has become a hot, barren wasteland. The dinosaurs trudge through deserts and tar pits, their fruitless search for water turning into a slow death march. Not even the mighty T-Rex can survive this.

California: present day.

Some time later, the dinosaurs are all gone. Only their bones bleaching in the sun remain. Without warning, a massive earthquake hits and the seas flood through, washing away the remains of the old prehistoric world. The sequence comes full circle as the lonely oboe plays over a solar eclipse, which sets on an earth ready to step into the next stage of life.

If Walt had his way, the segment would have continued with the evolution of man and ended on a triumphant note with the discovery of fire, but he was worried about the possible backlash from zealous creationists. And I don’t blame him for wanting to avoid a confrontation with that crowd.

“It’s bad enough he makes a mouse act like a people with his dadgum pencil sorcery, but propagandizin’ evil-loution in mah Saturday mornin’ toon box? That’s just plum un-okkily-dokkily!”

“…You wouldn’t happen to have a dictionary on hand, would you?”

“DICTIONARIES ARE THE DEVIL’S BOOSTER SEAT!!”

Subsequently, those edits made to Stravinsky’s score pissed off the composer so much that he considered suing Disney for tampering with his work. He opted not to, yet the experience turned him off animation for good. A crying shame; Stravinsky, apart from being the only classical composer alive to see his work made part of a Fantasia feature, was excited to work with Walt. The two deeply respected and recognized each other as artists ahead of their time. Who knows what else could have come from their collaboration if things ended better?

With that knowledge, it makes sense that one of Stravinsky’s most famous pieces, the Firebird Suite, was included in Fantasia 2000: perhaps on some level Disney wanted to apologize for how the finale of Rite of Spring was mishandled by making Firebird the grand finale (though knowing Stravinsky he would have hated the little changes made to his music there as well).

Following the intermission, the orchestra reconvenes and has a fun little jam session. Deems Taylor takes a moment to introduce us to the most important – but rarely seen – figure that makes Fantasia and most music in movies possible, The Soundtrack.

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Once again, Disney does what it does best and anthropomorphizes what no one thought was possible. Think about it: giving personalities to animals is one thing, but they’ve successfully done the same for plants, planes, houses, hats, and here, sound itself. It may seem silly and out of place, but I think it’s brilliant and charming. The visuals it creates to represent different instruments are perfectly matched; some of them harken back to Toccata and Fugue. This, combined with the improv from the orchestra, is a good way to ease us back into comfort after the harshness of Rite of Spring.

Pastoral Symphony – Ludwig Van Beethoven

There’s a famous story about Walt Disney while he was pitching this segment. When met with complaints that it wasn’t working, he cried out This’ll MAKE Beethoven!” In a way, he was right. This was the very first piece of Beethoven I ever heard, even before the famous “da da da DUUUUUN” of Symphony #5. And as far as I know, it was for a good many Disney fans too. We still get a romantic depiction of the countryside as was the composer’s intent, but instead of an rural utopia, we see the Fields of Elysium at the foot of Mount Olympus. It’s home to a variety of mythical creatures from the golden age of Greece: fauns, unicorns, cherubs, centaurs and Pegasi.

If there was ever a Disney world I wanted to spend a day in, this would be it. It’s so innocent, laidback and colorful; it takes me right back to my childhood. A great portion of this sequence was used in my favorite music video in the Simply Mad About the Mouse anthology album, “Zip A Dee Doo Dah” sung by Ric Ocasek from The Cars. Whether that was my favorite because it featured Pastoral Symphony or Pastoral Symphony was my favorite because it was featured in the video I don’t know. There’s nothing that could ever destroy it for –

Oh son of a…

Things Fantasia Fans Are Sick of Hearing #5: “RACIST. FUCKING. CENTAUR. EQUALS. RACIST. DISNEY… RACIST!!!”

Yes ladies and gents, that image is real. Meet Sunflower (or Otika, I’m not sure which one she is) one of the the censored centaurettes (for very obvious reasons). I’m of two minds when it comes to their inclusion. First off, yes, they’re crude and demeaning blackface caricatures that have no place in a Disney movie, let alone one of the best ones and in one of my favorite sequences. But my inner art/film historian that despises censorship feels that erasing these depictions is the same as pretending they and other prejudices of the time never existed.

Thank you, Warner Bros.

As time and the civil rights movement marched on, all traces of the Sunflower squad were removed from later releases of Fantasia. The downside to that was editing techniques at the time weren’t as high-tech as they are today; I was lucky to see a film print of Fantasia at the Museum of Modern Art in 2015 that must have dated as far back as the ’60s because she wasn’t there, but the cuts were very noticeable. Sad to say the amazing remastered tracks done by Irwin Kostal in the 80’s used a similar print because the shift in the music is very jarring at points in this segment. It wasn’t until Fantasia’s 50th anniversary that they were able to zoom in and crop the scenes that had Sunflower in them while recycling other pieces of animation over parts where they couldn’t get rid of her, eventually managing to digitally erase her from some of the film entirely (look carefully at the part where the red carpet is being rolled out for Bacchus on the blu-ray. Unless he got it from the Cave of Wonders, carpets normally don’t roll themselves…)

I completely understand the reasoning behind Sunflower’s removal, but can also see why animation aficionados would try to pressure Disney into bringing her back with each new re-release for Fantasia, possibly with one of those great Leonard Maltin intros putting everything into context like in the tragically out-of-print Disney Treasures dvds – though the chances of that happening are as likely as Song of the South being made public again (the Disney+ promo should have made that clearer when they claimed Disney’s entire back catalogue would be available for streaming, but I doubt the tag line “We have everything except Song of the South” would hook people). It’s an issue I’m very torn on. So if there was ever a chance that a version of Fantasia with a restored Sunflower was possible, either through Disney themselves or fan edits, my thoughts on it would be a very resounding…

The first movement of the symphony is “Awakening of Pleasant Feelings upon Arriving in the Country”, and this part does just that. As the sun rises and we get our first glimpse of the technicolor fantasyland. Pan flute-playing fauns and unicorns frolic with each other while a herd of Pegasi take to the sky. Again, going back to other notable movies taking cues from Fantasia, Ray Harryhausen carefully studied the movement of the Pegasi here when creating his stop-motion Pegasus for Clash of the Titans. They canter through the air as they would on land, but in the water they move with the grace of a swan.

And look at the little baby ones, they’re just too cute!

The second movement, “Scene by the Brook”, takes place exactly where you think it does. A group of female centaurs, named “centaurettes” by the animators, doll themselves up with the help of some cupids (and the aforementioned Sunflower) in preparation for mating season.

“”I used to like the centaurettes not just because they were pretty but because each of them having different colors could be interpreted as women of all colors hanging out together and finding love. But no, having Sunflower there confirms that they’re all supposed to be lighter-skinned ladies. Racism given context makes it no less of a pain in the ass.”

The male centaurs arrive and hook up with their conveniently color-matching counterparts. The cherubs help set the mood for their flirting interludes until they discover two shy, lonely centaurs (Brudus and Melinda, because I’m that big of a Disney nerd that I know their actual names) who haven’t found each other yet. They lure them to a grove with some flute music a la The Pied Piper and it’s love at first sight.

One of my favorite details throughout the Pastoral Symphony is that we keep coming back to Brudus and Melinda. They’re a cute couple, one of the closest things we have to main characters in this sequence, and it’s nice to follow them.

Our third movement is “Peasants’ Merrymaking”. The centaur brigade prepare an overflowing vat of wine for Bacchus, god of booze and merrymaking. Bacchus, forever tipsy, arrives backed up by some black zebra centaurettes serving him. Maybe they were considered attractive enough to avoid being censored.

The bacchanalia is in full swing with everyone dancing and getting loaded. But Zeus, who appears more sinister than Laurence Olivier or his future Disney counterpart, crashes the party with a big thunderstorm. I used to think he was a jerk for endangering his subjects just for kicks, but in light of recent revelations maybe he had ulterior motives.

“Feel the wrath of the thunder god, you fucking racists!”

“Come on, dad, you used to be fun! Where’s the Zeus turns into a cow to pick up chicks?!”

“He grew up. Maybe you should too, son. Now EAT LIGHNING!”

“The Storm”, our fourth movement, provides some stunning imagery against the torrential backdrop, from the centaurs being called to shelter to the pegasus mother braving the gale to rescue her baby.

Ultimately Zeus grows tired and turns in for the night, ending the storm. Iris, goddess of the rainbow, emerges and leaves her technicolor trail across the sky. The creatures revel in the effects it has on their surroundings, then gather on a hill to watch the sunset, driven by Apollo and his chariot. Everyone settles in to sleep, and Artemis, hunting goddess of the moon, shoots an comet across the sky like an arrow that fills the sky with twinkling stars.

Pastoral Symphony was the one part of Fantasia that always received the most derision from critics, but racist characters aside I simply don’t get the hate for it. It may be longer than Rite of Spring but feels nowhere near as drawn out. I love the colors, characters, and the calm, bucolic fantasy world it creates. This was my first exposure to Beethoven and the world of Greek mythology and I still hold plenty of nostalgia for it. I admit it’s not perfect, and not just for the reason you think. Out of all the Fantasia pieces, this is the one whose quality is closest to an original Disney short than a theatrical feature. It’s a bit more cartoony and there’s some notable errors, particularly when the baby Pegasi dive into the water and emerge different colors. Also, Deems and the animators flip between using the gods’ Greek and Roman names, and the stickler in me wants them to pick a mythos and stick with it. But for all it’s flaws it’s still among my very favorite Fantasia pieces and nothing can change that.

The Dance of the Hours from the Opera “La Giaconda” – Amilcare Ponichelli

Like I said before, Disney was a master of the art of anthropomorphism. And nowhere is this more true than Dance of the Hours. Animals portray dancers symbolizing morning, noon, dusk and evening – only they’re the most unlikely ones for the job. The characters of our penultimate act are as cartoony as any you’d see in a Disney short from the era, but what puts the animation above it is the right balance of elasticity and realism. The exaggeration is on point, but there’s enough heft and weight to the animals that I can buy them being grounded in (some semblance of) reality. The animators studied professional dancers and incorporated their moves and elegance flawlessly. Half of the comedy derives from this.

The other half comes from how seriously the mock ballet is treated. We’re never informed who the dancers will be, leading anyone who hasn’t seen this before to assume they’re people. The ballet itself is a parody of the traditional pageant, but the performers carry on with the utmost sincerity. It doubles the laughs when it comes to moments such as Ben Ali Gator trying to catch Hyacinth Hippo in a dramatic pas de deux or an elephant getting a foot stuck in one of her own bubbles as she prances around. The familiar lighthearted refrain of the dance provides wonderful contrast to the caricatures on screen, particularly if you recall its other most famous iteration beyond Fantasia.

No one ever told me Camp Grenada was this Arcadian or zoological.

Morning begins with a troupe of uppity ostriches in ballet gear waking up, exercising and helping themselves to a cornucopia of fruit for breakfast. They fight over some grapes only to lose them in a pool. Something bubbles up from beneath and the ostriches run away in terror, but it’s only the prima ballerina of the piece, Hyacinth Hippo. She prepares for the day with help from her handmaidens and dances around a bit. Then she lies down for a nap, but no sooner do her ladies in waiting leave than some playful elephants come out of hiding and dance around Hyacinth unawares.

Elephants blowing bubbles in a Disney feature…nah, it’ll never catch on.

The elephants are blown away by a gust of wind (must be a really strong breeze), and with the coming of night a sinister band of crocodiles sneak up on Hyacinth. They scatter at the sudden arrival of their leader, Prince Ben Ali Gator, who immediately falls in love with Hyacinth. Surprisingly, the feeling is mutual.

I’m calling it – first body positivity romance in a Disney flick.

The climax of the piece has the crocodiles returning to wreak havoc on the palace and pulling the ostriches, elephants, and hippos back into a frenzied dance which brings down the house.

No bones about it, Dance of the Hours is a comic masterpiece and one of Fantasia’s crowning jewels. And the moment it ended was always the signal for younger me to stop the tape and rewind it to the beginning, due to what follows making a complete and terrifying 180…

Night on Bald Mountain – Modest Mussorgsky / Ave Maria – Franz Schubert

At last we come to our final part, two radically different classical works that blend perfectly into each other. And brother, what a note to end on.

Composer Modest Mussorgsky passed away before completing his masterwork “Night on the Bare Mountain”, a tonal poem depicting a witches’ sabbath from Slavic mythology. His friend, the great Rimsky-Korsakov, finished it for him while adding his own personal touch. The result is some of the most iconic and terrifying music ever created, and the accompanying animation, with the exception of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, is the most faithful to its source material.

The scene takes place on Walpurgis Night, which is the closest thing Europe has to a real-life Summerween (those lucky so-and-so’s), on the titular mountain. The mountain’s peak opens up revealing Chernabog, the Slavic deity of darkness.

Chernabog is a masterclass in design and form. It’s easy to mistake him for Satan himself – Walt Disney and Deems Taylor both refer to him as such – though considering he’s technically Slavic Satan, there’s not too big a distinction. Chernabog radiates power, terror and pure darkness from his intro alone. You can imagine him influencing all other Disney villains to do his will, essentially filling in the horned one’s hooves. Chernabog was skillfully handled by Bill Tylta, an early Disney animator with enough talent to create characters as diverse as Stromboli and Dumbo. Bela Lugosi, the original Dracula, posed for reference pictures in the early design stages, though Tylta ultimately discarded them in favor of some different inspiration – sequence director Wilfred Jackson as model, and Tytla’s own Czech heritage. He grew up with folktales of Chernabog, which served him well during the production.

“Soon, master. The one known as Jackson shall take up your mantle and we shall feast upon humanity yet again.”

Chernabog unleashes his might on to the sleeping village below and raises the dead from the cemetery. A cabal of witches, wraiths and demons gallop on the wind and take part in his infernal revelry. Yet they are but playthings to the evil being. He transforms the creatures into alluring sirens and wretched beasts, sics harpies on them, condemns them to the flames, and lustfully embraces the hellish blaze. It’s an in your face pageantry of pure malevolence that you can’t look away from

Things Fantasia Fans Are Sick of Hearing #6: “This is too scary for kids!! What the hell were they thinking?!”

I think it’s time we made one thing clear: Fantasia was NOT made for children – or to be more accurate, not EXCLUSIVELY for children. While Disney movies are made to be enjoyed by both kids and adults, Fantasia is the only one who dared to appeal to a more mature audience, and Night on Bald Mountain is proof of that. It had the audacity to explore some of the most darkest, ancient depictions of evil in a way that no Disney feature has before or since. Most importantly, it’s not done for shock value like any random horror movie you could name. It’s meant to show the juxtaposition between the darkest depravity and purest good; combined with Ave Maria it makes for the perfect symbolic climax to Fantasia. Light versus darkness, chaos versus order, life versus death, profane versus sacred, and the quest to master them all are the themes that unify the seemingly disparate sequences, and this finale is the apotheosis of that.

I stated in my Mickey’s Christmas Carol review that Bald Mountain was one of my first introductions to the concept of eternal damnation at the tender age of…I wanna say four, five? It was easily one of the most petrifying things from my childhood, but at least I could avoid some exposure to it thanks to its position at the very end. Though now I adore Night on Bald Mountain for how bold and striking it is. Tytla’s animation, Kay Nielsen’s stunning demon designs, and Schultheis’ effects culminate in harmonious diabolical artwork that’s impossible to extricate from the music. It’s a shame Schultheis left the studio after Fantasia. He met a mysterious, tragic end in Guatemala, right around the time Bill Tytla left too as a matter of fact…

“He knew too much…about the secrets of animation, I mean. Nothing at all about das vampyr walking the earth. No sir.”

Yet at the height of his power, one thing stops Chernabog cold – the sound of church bells. Disney historian John Culhane saw Fantasia during its original theatrical run (lucky so and so…) and he recalled how much having FantaSound affected his screening: when the bells rang, he could hear them coming from the back of the theater and slowly course their way up front as their power grew. It was an awe-inspiring moment that took the Bald Mountain experience one step further into reality.

The bells and the rising sun drive Chernabog and his minions back into the mountain and the restless spirits return to their graves. In the misty morning a procession of pilgrims glides through the woods like a parade of tiny lights, and thus the Ave Maria begins. It’s one of the rare times Disney has gone overtly Christian. Maybe Walt wanted to get back into the God-fearing American public’s good graces after the sorcery, paganism, devil worship and evolution theory we’ve witnessed in the past hour and fifty minutes. It does relieve the tension from the previous turn of events.

The first pitch had the march enter a cathedral, but Walt didn’t believe recreating something people can already see in Europe. So instead they move through a forest with trees and natural rock formations resembling the Gothic architecture of a cathedral. It’s the stronger choice in my opinion. The implication speaks greater volumes than a specific location, subtly connecting nature to the divine. It’s difficult to make out most of the hymn’s words, but regardless it sounds beautiful, especially those final triumphant notes as the sky lights up over a view of the verdant hilltops.

“When the sun hits that ridge just right, these hills sing.”

And with that, Fantasia comes to a close.

Really, what else can I say about it at this point. I keep forgetting this movie came out in 1940. It’s virtually timeless, and a must-see for anyone who loves animation and classic film and wants to jump into either one.

Fantasia was a critical and box office success…sort of. Despite the praise and high box office returns for the time, it sadly wasn’t enough to make up for the cost of putting it all together. Like Pinocchio before it, the war cut off any foreign revenue. And not every theater was willing or able to shell out for that nifty surround sound so the effects were lost on most people. Then there’s the audience response, which is the most depressing of all. The casual moviegoers still viewed Walt as the guy behind those wacky mouse cartoons and called him out for being a pretentious snob, while the highbrow intellectuals accused Walt of debasing classical music by shackling it to animation. The poor guy just couldn’t win.

Fantasia marked the end of an era. Never again would Walt attempt a feature so ambitious. His plans of making Fantasia a recurring series, with old segments regularly swapped out for new ones, would not be seen in his lifetime. There’s been the occasional copycat (Allegra non troppo), a handful of spiritual successors (Make Mine Music, Yellow Submarine), and of course the sequel which I’m sure I’ll get to eventually, but through it all, there is only one Fantasia. And no amount of my ramblings can hope to measure up to it. Fantasia is one of those movies you simply have to experience for yourself, preferably on the biggest screen available with a top of the line sound system. I know it’s a cliche for Internet critics to name this as their favorite animated Disney movie, but…yes, it’s mine too. It opened a door to a world of culture and art at a young age. The power of animation is on full display, and it’s affected the way I look at the medium forever. Fantasia was, and still is, a film ahead of its time.

Thank you for reading. I hope you can understand why this review took me nearly three months! If you enjoyed this, please consider supporting me on Patreon. Patreon supporters get perks such as extra votes and adding movies of their choice to the Shelf. If I can get to $100, I can go back to making weekly tv show reviews. Right now I’m halfway there! Special thanks to Amelia Jones and Gordhan Ranaj for their contributions.

You can vote for whatever movie you want me to look at next by leaving it in the comments or emailing me at [email protected]. Remember, unless you’re a Patreon supporter, you can only vote once a month. The list of movies available to vote for are under “What’s On the Shelf”.

Artwork by Charles Moss. Certain screencaps courtesy of animationscreencaps.com.

To learn more about Fantasia, I highly recommend both John Culhane’s perennial book on the film and The Lost Notebook by John Canemaker, which reveals the long-lost special effects secrets which made Fantasia look so magical.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to be spending the rest of the month with my handy dandy garlic, stake and crucifix and pray Bill Tytla doesn’t visit me this Walpurgis Night. I suggest you do the same.

March Review: Fantasia (1940) And now we come to the final piece of Walt Disney's original animation trifecta, Fantasia, and it's one I'm both anticipating and dreading.

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keytextsfromkh · 5 years

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Dream Drop Distance: The World That Never Was/End Game

- Look who's back with a brand spanking new theme song.

- And this is why I enjoy Gothic!Dick Roman, he's nice enough to walk us through his entire plan. There'll be no getting confused tonight.

- That move I just did there? Took hours of practice, but the look on the players face? Totally worth it.

- I don't like this Kingdom Hearts: VR experience game.

- Oh boy, looks like Sora's heart is kind of going through a breakdown.

- It's ok Sora, she's used to being forgotten.

- Hey, look who's here just for the paycheck.

- (Roxas thinking Sora is the more important of the two) And honestly, I kind of wish it was the other way around.

- (Roxas deserving his own self and identity) A sentiment that people are still rejecting to this day.

- That's right Sora, listen to the black sky, don't go chasing your dreams, wait until they come to you.

- I don't know if this game is trying to out-mindfuck the previous games but it sure is succeeding

- And in one cutscene, a good chunk of pre-2012 fanfic suddenly becomes hilarious in hindsight.

- (Why lie to the original Organization) Easy, for the lulz.

- Well at least this story is open about it's whole assimilation plot rather than trying to be vague about it like Mass Effect was.

- Oh no, you've angered Dick Roman, now you've really fucked up.

- Oh shit, he's going all Magneto on your ass.

- I would love if the game just ended there. Sora has been taken by the Darkness, his Heart has been protected by Ventus and we have to wait until the next game to see how he gets saved. It would have gone totally "Infinity War" on us and I would have been happy.

- But sadly no, now we get Riku's little journey.

- (Anti-Black Coat) And winner for creepiest fucking thing in this entire series...this guy.

- Well I guess it's better than belonging to the fattest part of my ass.

- Something tells me that Nomura saw Inception before writing the plot of this game.

- (The Dream Eaters helping Riku get to the castle) Well that just ruined the mood

- I know this place. It brings back memories.

- Organization XIII-2

- (In Mickey voice) It's fine now. Why? Because I am here!

- I guess it was kind of silly to use time powers against a Chronomancer.

- I'm starting to wonder if the Mysterious Figure we fight in Birth By Sleep wasn't /this/ version of Xehanort but a slightly older one, one who existed between this version and Ansem. Because while this Young Xehanort can use the same time powers, he's not nearly as overkill with them as he was in BBS. So maybe we fought a more experienced version of him.

- Mad Watch! There's only one way to stop a mad watch.

- Two days slow, that’s what it is.

- Old Man Xehanort, back from the dead.

- Fuck, now's not the time for a big damn heroes moment. This is all meant to end on a downer note.

- (Lea has the worst timing) Yes, the worst!

- Well, everyone else is here. Why not, let's bring these guys in too. Maybe Pence and Olette will join us in a few minutes.

- I thought it was Muriel

- Welcome to Sora's Heart, the happiest place not on this Earth. Please be aware that in the interest of quality, your journey may be recorded If you know your party’s Heart, please call for it now For Roxas, press 1 For Xion, press 2 For Ventus, press 3 For Vantias, press 4 To repeat this menu at any time, press 5

- So now it comes down to this, who will win, a former asshat or one inky boi.

- I guess we'll call this one Symbiote!Sora or possibly Symbiote!Ventus, it's a bit hard to tell.

- And the winner is, the asshat.

- He is pure pureness in it's purest form.

- So does that mean that between the events of Chain of Memories, right up until the end of KH2, Ansem never knew Riku by name?

- No, it's drink your /goddamn/ tea. Get it right. You of all people should know better.

- All good questions that won't get answered I'm sure.

- Yeah Donald, why don't you just shut the fuck up for once?

- Called it

- But that wouldn't be very "Dark Rescue" of you.

- And that's probably the biggest twist in the game.

- The more I think about this game, the more I can see how it could have been greater and more sinister and unsettling, especially considering the end. The general plot seems to be about breaking Sora down mentally while lifting Riku up and showing him how much of a hero he really can be. This is sort of reflected in the stories of each world but falls short with the bosses. I think the only time they get it right is during one of the few actual Disney villain fights with Sora against Rinzler. Imagine if Traverse Town worked to show Sora that not everyone who works with him is going to help him, Hunchback could have shown him that through Frollo, not everything that's considered "morally right" is actually good. They get it right with The Grid by having both something (the world) and someone (Tron) that he developed a connection to being corrupted and twisted. Prankster's Paradise would have been the idea of Sora's child-like personality being perverted and a dark take on the concept of childish innocence. The Musketeers comes across like a breather episode when you think about it, it's not too harsh and it does drive the point home that Riku is more of a hero than he believes he is. The Fantasia world seems to be a culmination of it all and as others have pointed out, the symbolism of Sora and Riku's worlds reflect their characterization; Sora goes from being in the clouds, in a heavenly location to the ground below while Riku goes from a dark, secluded wooded area into the open, beautiful snowy night (the music helps this even more) and then they just drop all sense of subtlety and have him fight the Devil. You could even view the final bosses that Sora and Riku fight as more of this, Sora fights Xemnas (and to a lesser degree Xigbar/Braig) while Riku fights the Anti-Black Coat, Ansem, Xehanort and finally "Sora". With Sora's battle, he faces against two characters who were also corrupted by Xehanort, Terra and Braig (although how evil Braig was to begin with is up for debate) and in fighting Xemnas, Sora becomes corrupted himself (or at least is placed on the edge and saved at the last possible second) while Riku's battles are him fighting manifestations of corrupted Darkness and Xehanort himself in a series of sequences that feel like Riku is finally dealing with his inner demons. The battle with "Sora" at the end could even be seen as a reflection of the Riku fight in KH1.

#Kingdom Hearts #Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance #Mock Liveblog

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thorinkingoferebor · 5 years

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Some thoughts on the horse accident simulator and sad outlaws :(

okay, so this is the big old game impressions post I promised. don’t know how organized it’ll be since I’m still in a state of grief but here we go. First part is spoiler free, whenever there’s a number after a comment you can scroll down to the end to find a more in-depth comment containing spoilers. There’s a clear separation between the spoiler-free part and the rest with a lot of empty lines so you can stop ready before it gets dangerous^^

General comments:

in case you somehow managed to miss this despite me screaming about this game for 3+ weeks: I loved it. So freaking much! I don’t want to rank it cause it’s all still fresh and it wouldn’t be a fair competition atm but it’s definitely in my top 3. there are so many things this games just gets right. Granted, others might disagree but to me, it was the perfect mix of main missions, side missions, RPG elements, perfect map size, dramatic dialogue without overdoing it, etc.

I actually wasn’t planning on buying this game, I was saving money for the new Fallout game (that was before that whole mess) and then more or less bought it on a whim because a) it looked amazing, b) I’d had a rough week and I wanted to shoot virtual things and c) my favourite online news website trashed it and whenever they trash an open world RPG I just know I’m gonna love it cause they have the absolute worst taste in games^^

I bought rdr1 a couple of years ago but never got around to actually playing it. I still know almost nothing about it apart from who the main character is and where it’s set. I’d like to keep it that way so I can enjoy that at some point as well :)

If you haven’t finished yet, I really recommend getting a good horse early on and sticking with it. The final scene with your horse will be even more emotional if you’ve had it for most of the game :))))))))))))))))))))

I suspected this game would wreck me and it did :)))))))) I think the only game that affected me more was ME3. But yeah, I cry easily when I watch stuff and I was gone from the moment Arthur put on his head in Chapter six to the end (which is quite a while and it involves fight scenes and everything! Try shooting people when you’re busy crying!) and then again through the credits after the epilogues.

This game is HUGE! Not because the map is big or because the plot takes so long, it’s just so full and alive. Very hard to describe but it’s just so big!

Stuff I liked:

THE HORSES! Absolutely amazing! That (and landscapes) are probably what people talked the most about when it was released and it’s understandable. The animations and the handling is just unbelievable. I can’t even imagine how much work went into this and that’s probably not even the most impressive thing about the game!

The landscape is stunning but honestly, HZD was just as stunning, had the same kind of diversity regarding climate zones and yet RDR2 does something I haven’t seen to that extent in any other game so far: It makes the land around you feel alive! That’s down to tiny things like being able to see the individual rain droplets in the fog when you hold up a lantern, the way a bush moves around you when you walk through it (the first time I saw that I literally gasped!), rockslides and avalanches, wheel tracks in the mud, localised dirt on Arthur or the horse when you fall down. And then, of course, there are the bigger, scripted additions like railroads being built, houses burning down or being erected as the game progresses, trees being taken down or burning after a thunderstorm, animals around you interacting with other animals, animal carcasses decaying if you leave them, predators hunting prey (like have you seen this stuff? It’s insane!). Then you have NPCs that remember you and make references to your last meeting, NPCs are repulsed when you still have some blood on you, people you beat up sporting a bandage the next time you see them, having to remember to cut your hair and beard and take a bath, someone you captures freaking out when you place them too close to water because they might drown, a farmer fixing their fence after you accidentally rode through it a couple of days ago, Arthur quietly singing when you ride for too long without doing anything, your fellow outlaws having interactions that don’t involve you at all! There is so much detail in this game and it’s not like other games haven’t done a similar thing but not to this extent. It generates an immersion that I think is currently unparalleled. Absolutely incredible and you can tell that (despite the frankly unacceptable working conditions that were reported) people put their heart and soul into it.

I loved the fact that there weren’t too many side quests as there often are in RPGs (and most of the times they are somewhat repetitive). I felt there were just the right amount of additional quest markers on my map at any given time and apart from like “Hey mister race me!” quests every single one of them was unique! And most of the time you met well-developed NPCs you could later meet again! (Mickey and Hamish and the widow whose name I can’t remember right now stand out here <3)

The lighting in this game is out of this world! I think there was only one scene in which it didn’t quite work but apart from that every in-game scene might as well have been a cutscene for its beauty

It’s utterly heartbreaking and since I apparently love being sad this is perfect for me ;)

I loved the fact that they took accidental dialogue interruptions into account with the whole “right, where were we” thing

The motion capture and voice acting is brilliant! And as far as I can tell many of the actors haven’t even really done anything big but everyone was so stellar and Arthur’s actor really delivered!

Love my outlaw gang so much :’) especially the relationships between Arthur and John, Dutch, Sadie, Hosea, and Charles

and I LOVE Arthur! What an incredible main character and what a fantastic character journey! [1]

(connected to the point above) probably my absolute favourite thing about the entire game: The game objective changes drastically 3/4 of the way through and suddenly things that used to be a disadvantage are the opposite and the other way around. It’s brilliant! [2]

The music is so stunning! Both the background ambient music during free play but most importantly the songs they recorded and worked in so seamlessly. I still get goosebumps thinking about “Might I (Stand unbroken)”

Stuff I didn’t like:

I don’t think I’ve had any bugs (which is really surprising for a game of this size) except two instances of the dialogue disappearing for like a minute or so. It didn’t bother me that much, just turned on the subtitles for a bit and it was fine but yep, I did find some bugs

I feel like a horse that is able to bolt if it sees a snake or a predator should be able to not hit a solitary tree that I obviously did not want to ride into ;) like I get the collisions in dense forest areas but in open planes I feel like the horse should be smart enough to take a step to the side without me prompting it ;)

it’s really easy to accidentally murder someone :( and I feel like the bounty system needs an update. If I accidentally walk into someone who gets offended and then starts shooting at me even though I’m apologizing then I shouldn’t get a bounty for knocking him out so he won’t kill me :/

I really did not like the “supernatural” stuff... I know they were just easter eggs and not relevant in any way but they just threw me off completely

There was one character I think I was supposed to connect to and I just didn’t which was a bit of a shame [3]

I wish there was a mission to the west (think Arizona, Utah landscape) I would have loved to ride through there with Arthur

I’m sure I missed quite a bit and I haven’t done everything in the game by far (only like 80% completion). I didn’t hunt much apart from the first two chapters, I didn’t craft much, I didn’t explore as much as I wanted to and I waited until like Chapter five before spending money. So there’s lots of stuff I still want to do and even more, I want to do again and really take my time now that I don’t have to be worried about accidentally reading a spoiler^^

So yep, second playthrough (albeit a much slower one) is about to start :)

SPOILERS WILL START BELOW! STOP READING HERE IF YOU HAVEN’T FINISHED!

SPOILERS APPROACHING!

THERE BE SPOILERS BELOW!

[1] Arthur’s Character:

Arthur Morgan is definitely one of my all-time fictional characters now. It was an amazing journey from someone who clearly has a moral code but doesn’t (want to) use it for various reasons to someone who (probably for the first time in his life) takes charge of it and stands up to the people who want to make into something he’s just not. I’m an absolute sucker for character growth and rough characters becoming protective and selfless and trying to make the world a better place before they go. For me, that’s what separates a good movie/tv show/game from an excellent one and RDR2 delivered!

And then there’s the’s the huge TB bombshell in chapter 5 which changes everything and accelerates what’s been coming for a while. I’m such a big fan of this, honestly. Normally you get that kind of stuff at the beginning (e.g. Breaking Bad, Deadpool, etc.) to motivate some kind of change but in RDR2 you get all this time see Arthur not be who he clearly should be but getting closer and closer and then the dam just breaks. I mean I hate it with all my heart because up until then I thought he might get out alive but damn what a wonderful character arc!

[2] Game Objective:

So this is the big one, very subtle I think but again something I don’t think I’ve ever seen a video game do and I’m just stunned!

I started writing a list for this post when I was in Chapter 2 and I had “Honour system” on my “stuff I don’t like list”. The reason for that was, I thought it was pointless and not well thought through. Sure it’s a nice idea (and not a new one) to give the player the option of being a very nice or a very bad guy and then depending on that some interactions might change. That’s the whole nature of RPGs. But the thing is, it should be equally easy to play as totally good or totally bad. And it wasn’t! For most of the game, you were at a severe disadvantage if you were trying to get high honour. You can’t rob people to get some money, you can’t rob carriages or trains to train for the larger missions and gain experience, you can’t refuse to collect a debt instead you have to beat people! Sure, now and then you can help someone and they give you some money or some supplies but that doesn't compare to what you’d get by looting corpses. And even if you somehow do something really good and your honour improves, you will still have to take part in Dutch’s raid so you fall back down to some area in the middle. I thought that was frustrating and I thought I was missing out on a big part of the game experience because my objective to be nice got in the way.

But then Arthur got sick and from that moment the rewards for being nice were insane! And I realized that the game objective was directly tied to Arthur’s internal struggle. He wanted to be a good man but life made it seemingly impossible so he kept stealing, he kept killing, he kept turning back to bad habits. But once he broke free of that, once he started to see the good in the world it was suddenly so easy to get high honour because for once the game (aka Dutch’s influence on Arthur) didn’t force you into dishonourable situations anymore. It’s so neat! Turning something that used to be a disadvantage (wanting to be good) into an advantage more than halfway through the game. I’m honestly so impressed by the total gear change that achieved!

[3] Mary:

Here’s the thing: I really want to like her and it’s not even that I dislike her, I’m just really indifferent. It’s obvious Arthur loves her a lot and it’s obvious she loves Arthur quite a bit as well but all I saw in the game are two people who might like each other but who are clearly not compatible. And I was wondering if the game wants me to root for them, to hope that they’ll make it and basically have the life John and Abigail have at the end of the epilogue but I kept thinking: “That will never work”. I think it’s mainly because we see so little of her and like 40% of what she says is “Oh, Arthur” (which gets old real quick the same way “I have a plan, Arthur!” gets old after 20 times). I feel like if she’d been around for more missions I might feel very differently. Or some flashbacks might have been nice. But with about 60+ hours of gameplay and about 30 minutes of Mary I just couldn’t connect. It seemed like a relationship that was way past it’s prime just like their outlaw lifestyle and just like the outlaw lifestyle Arthur just didn’t want to believe it.

That being said, I don’t think Mary shouldn’t be in the game! I think she has a purpose and I did her first mission very early one, so that was the first time that I saw Arthur display complex emotions which was great! But as the story went on I just cared so much more about the other outlaws and I honestly think Arthur would have been happier being Jack’s weird uncle who drops in from time to time than Mary’s proper, upstanding husband. So in the end, some outlaws standing next to Arthur’s grave would have made more sense to me than Mary :/

#text posts by thea #thea plays rdr2 #ok here it is #it's a long one ;)#i have many emotional opinions ;)

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harrison-abbott · 7 years

Text

Metro Driver - Short Story

METRO DRIVER

Peter’s friend from Security radioed him in the driver’s cabin.

“Hey, Petey?”

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“I’ve just seen Bill Turnball at your next stop. He should be getting on your train!”

“Who’s that?”

“Bill Turnball – you know – the singer, the famous guy.”

“I don’t know who that is.”

“You will when you see him. He’s got a whole party with him on the platform. I dunno why he’s even taking the metro rather than a limosine.”

“Should make him pay extra then.”

“Ha. Well, just you wait and see him. Don’t crash your train.” He hung up the radio.

Peter drove the subway to the next stop. Anyone else would’ve marvelled at the zoom of colours through the tunnels from his front seat perspective. But Peter had seen it too many times. He was old, and it was near midnight. His train was the second-last subway journey in the city before the service shut for the night. Only three stops to go, and then he could go home.

Apparently, he’d pick up this famous singer at the next platform. He tried to guess which face it would be, but couldn’t. When he reached the platform he gazed out the window idly. There was a gabble of people. Looked like they were young, and drunk, which was never a good mix. But he didn’t see much because the train was too fast, and didn’t recognise any familiar face. When he stopped at the end of the platform, he could have leaned out the window to try again. But he didn’t .

He waited 50 seconds for the people to board, then flumed through the tracks once more. Two stops to go. Maybe he’d just make his TV show, if he walked home quick from Central to his apartment.

Suddenly a gargling sound spat from the control box. A red button began to flash, projecting the words ‘ENGINE MALFUNCTION’. The train then lurched forward obscurely in a single ejaculation, and stopped. The entire subway lost power.

Peter sat blinking at the desk. The emergency-substitute lights came on on the ceiling in dim yellow. Everything was quiet. Peter tried a few of the electrics at his desk, but it had all gone dud. This had never happened before: losing power. An entire train busting its engine in the space of seconds? Peter had never even heard about anything like this happening.

But, oh, well. ‘The passengers are probably panicking already,’ Peter figured, ‘but there’s no need for that.’ Peter arose, and left his cabin to meet the people in the first carriage behind him. He couldn’t make an announcement to them through the speakers, because the electricity was bust.

There were about five people in the carriage, wide-eyed and fluttering nervously. They looked up at Peter hopefully as he entered.

“Okay folks,” he said to them, “we’ve got a little technical fault here. We might be stuck for a short while – but don’t worry: I’ll contact my colleagues and we’ll get it fixed. Is that alright?”

One lady nodded. That was the only response he got. He looked down toward the end of the carriage windows, which led on to the next carriage. There were much more people in there. He hesitated, wondering whether he should go and tell them the same message. But decided not to. There was no real problem, yet. So he returned to his cabin.

The first thing he tried was to radio his security friend who he’d spoken to minutes before. Peter needed to alert somebody on the service. His train was stuck roughly half-way between two platforms. The danger was that there was another train due behind this one, running on the same track. It was due in about fifteen minutes. The driver of that train needed to be warned to stop at the previous platform, or else the two trains would collide, one at top speed and the other stationary.

Peter’s radio wasn’t working. It wouldn’t turn on. He tried removing the batteries and shaking it about, but it was shot. Instead, he pulled the emergency distress-signal on the control desk; he’d never had to use it before: but when he tugged it, nothing happened. No alarms, nothing.

‘Wow,’ Peter thought, ‘the emergency electricity doesn’t cover the distress signal: what’s the point in that?’

He pondered what to do, needing to act rapidly. Since his radio wasn’t working, he needed to reach a distress phone to make the warning call. There were distress phones located at every platform, and he judged that his train was closer to the previous platform rather than the next. Thirteen minutes until the train would be here. There was nothing else to do.

Peter found his big old hand-torch and put his scarf on. He left his cabin and joined the passengers in the first carriage. They were whispering to each other when he came in, and stopped as he addressed them.

“Change of plans, people. I have to dash along to the nearest platform on foot. From there I’ll make a call. Then we can get the technical team out and have you all home soon. It won’t take me long to walk round, and we’ll get the train powered-up again in no time. You all understand?”

This time nobody responded. Peter opened the carriage door and left the train, stepping down onto the murky tracks below. He turned his torch on and began to walk back towards the platform. The passengers back behind the windows were staring at him; he dealt them a friendly thumbs-up and walked on.

There was about a yard of space beside the train which he could walk on. He’d never been on the tracks before. ‘I thought it’d be colder out here …’ But then he was sweating heavily. He looked at his watch: ten minutes left.

He neared the second carriage, and then remembered that the famous person was supposed to be in there somewhere. He turned his torch off, not wanting to be seen by the gabble of people inside. It was stupid, because they were bound to see him, but he didn’t want their attention, especially not from young glamorous people. Nor did he feel like explaining to them what was going on. ‘Okay, they’re probably freaking out for real now. But, they’ll be okay.’

He bowed his head and sped up as he passed the windows. Somebody spotted him, alerted the others, and began banging on the glass. He could hear them shouting at him through the panes, so he turned and raised two fingers in a V-shape, and mouthed “Two minutes” to them, alongside a “Don’t worry”. He mouthed these phrases with his lips multiple times but they didn’t seem to understand. Peter didn’t feel heroic, or important, only stupid, with all these people watching him.

There were about 20 people inside; all of them were pressing against the window hysterically. Peter tried to guess which one of them was the famous singer. But all the faces seemed similar, almost identical. Even the men and women seemed interchangeable, not belonging to either sex.

The metro driver passed this carriage and then the next, which was empty, and reached the end of the train. He hopped onto the main tracks and quickened his feet, thrusting the torchlight forward. Seven minutes.

‘I’ll probably miss my TV show now,’ he thought, ludicrously.

The tunnel was moist, funky, frosty. His torch cut synthetic beams into the void and leaking walls. Peter remembered reading about folks who used to hide from Nazi bombs in the London underground during World War Two. ‘Maybe this is what that must’ve been like.’

But this was New York, in the winter of 1964. Maybe the two didn’t compare.

He reached a curve in the track, and as he continued, the train’s glow behind him disappeared. He progressed further into the pitch-black frame. The only noise was his rough breathing, the lungs wincing. God, he hadn’t exerted himself like this in a long time.

Another minute passed and he saw the lights from the platform ahead. He’d already reached it, easy. But something abruptly made him stop walking, and he looked back in the direction of his broken train. He thought about what would happen if he didn’t make the rescue call. Of course, he knew what would happen, but he imagined the actual details. What would the crash be like? Sparks, torn metal, thick petrol smoke. How many people would die? Scores, probably. ‘But I’ll still be alive …’

Peter smirked, and dispelled these mad thoughts.

He turned and began jogging along, and reached the platform. He threw his torch up onto the platform, and then jumped up and over after it. The place was empty. He ran across to the distress phonebox, unlocked it and dialled through to his colleague driver. He knew the call would go straight there, because it was the final train of the night.

“Hello,” came a response through the radio fuzz. Peter recognised the voice.

“Mickey – is that you? It’s Peter. I need you to listen to me, and stop the train at East Central, okay?”

Peter then explained the situation speedily. Mickey was stunned, and confirmed that he would definitely stop the train, swearing excessively down the radio. Mickey had never been involved in something dramatic like this.

Peter hung up the phone and waited for Mickey’s subway on the platform. It was just like being a normal commuter. Four minutes elapsed and it arrived. Peter spotted Mickey’s serious expression in the front cabin windows. It made him grin, to see his concerned face. Mickey was never serious about anything. Peter waved to him as the train stopped, and walked down to speak to him.

The dilemma was over. They got the technical team out, and restarted Peter’s metro, and everybody’s life was preserved.

Eventually they shut down the subway for the night as usual. When Peter got home he stayed up a while, watching TV – it didn’t matter what was on. He fell asleep quickly.

The next morning he went to his usual café for breakfast, buying the Daily News as he went. He sat reading it with a cup of coffee. By the middle pages, he found a little gimmick article, which had the headline:

SINGER STRANDED OVERNIGHT ON METRO TRAIN

Peter laughed, and didn’t bother to read the article. He skipped through to the next page, and drank his coffee.

12th Jan 2017

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