#see no evil 1971
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helloo since we're on the topic: top historical fiction (or adjacent) ? can be any time period I just really love your taste in shows/games/etc and am always on the lookout for history inspired media !
thank you!!! im rly glad im like. inspiring other ppl to engage w things im insane abt hudofajsdfdassfsad. anyways. i will probably expand that list bc i literally forgot every single thing i ever read. also i havent watched that many movies so far
ancient times: i havent really watched a lot of movies/series set in ancient times so far :(
rome HBO (2005-2007) (tv series) - OF COURSE. i personally think its one of the best series ever made. they combine political, miliatry history with the lives of every day people in an incredible way. they never let you once engage with the series through modern lenses. according to my teacher (a historian, archeologist & self described 'romaphile') its incredibly historically accurate, mostly the clothing, set designs, characterization, military practices, etc. except for the things they straight up made up, of course.
i really enjoyed gladiator (2000), i think its a masterpiece.
prince of egypt (1998) i guess?
all the asterix movies of course, all the animated ones and most of the live actions. but i wouldnt really call it historical fiction
ok i havent actually finished watching it for now but sebastiane (1976) - an erotic, x rated, gay interpretation of the martyrdom of st sebastian. its in latin also.
wait i cant believe i forgor about assassin's creed odyssey - so far the only one ive played. its so fun and incredibly immersive visually. especially pour moi who cries into the pillow about how ill never experience the ancient world. also you can b a faggot which is always fun. i have things to say about their portrayal of same-sex sexuality and slavery in classical greece but i get why they did that considering its supposed to like. appeal to a lot of people, and a more "historically accurate" portrayal (for example of pederasty or how common slavery was etc.) would b v difficult for a lot of their target audience. alas.
medieval and early modern era:
the name of the rose (1986) - my medieval history teacher literally showed us bits of this movie to teach us about monasteries and monks fhdosiasdjasd.
the borgias (2011-2013) - incredibly messy, lots of political intrigue, and so so fun to watch. about the history of the borgia family. filled to the brim with drama.
the three musketeers (1993) - my favorite adaptation, also coincidentally the one i grew up on. casting tim curry as richelieu was genius. he slays so hard.
i also like bbc's the musketeers (2014-2016) - a neat little series. very fun and entertaining to watch.
outlaw king (2018) - like i dont think most ppl heard of this movie. its about robert the bruce's fight to reclaim the throne of scotland. starring chris pine
vikings (2013-2020) - its fun. i havent watched the entire series tho. dont expect anything resembling historical accuracy
the northman (2022) - you will see something resembling historical accuracy
mihai viteazul (michael the brave) (1971) - a fun movie. very much romanian propaganda tho.
1670 (2023-) - such a fun series!!! incredible cast, shows respect to the actual history and the lives of historical people. really cute and funny.
caravaggio (1986) - a biopic about caravaggio.
wait i also forgor about pentiment - an intriguing, immersive, and incredibly beautiful video game! it has a lot of 'the name of the rose' vibes, with it being a medieval murder mystery taking place in a monastery. its incredibly touching and made me cry, and in the last few years i very rarely cry. also im 99% sure its an indie game? go support the creators!
vaguely-medieval/early modern fantasy:
mirror mirror (2012) - a retelling of snow white. a very fun movie imo, with incredible costume design. julia roberts plays the evil queen and she SLAYS. armie hammer is unfortunately in that movie.
stardust (2007) - one of my fave movies growing up. more modern-inspired but still.
the green knight (2021) - controversial i know but i actually loved this movie! i liked it both as a standalone movie but moreso as a 21st century adaptation to sir gawain and the green knight.
galavant (2015-2016) - !!!!!!! one of the most series ever! they manage to tackle such difficult concepts and conversations with a hilarious wit. so fun to watch. i listen to a lot of the songs still, and rewatch every once in a while.
disenchantment (2018-2023) - very fun to watch, especially the first season.
i also really liked the novel uprooted by naomi novik. its a polish-inspired fantasy.
modern era:
killers of the flower moon (2023) - of course. a masterpiece
aferim! (2015) - a romanian movie set in 19th century wallachia, about two officers, a father and son, who were sent by a nobleman to retrieve an escaped enslaved romani man. a lot of the people in the comments were calling the movie humorous and funny, maybe im missing smth (as im watching with subtitles n dont understand the original language) but it was a very difficult watch for me??
the handmaiden (2016) - need i say more
black sails (2014-2017) - a prequel to the famous novel 'treasure island'. not an easy series to watch. incredibly good.
the favourite (2018) - need i say more pt 2
the rabbi's cat (le chat du rabbin) (2011) - animated movie set in early 20th century algeria. a rabbi's cat learns to talk overnight.
the nice guys (2016) - a fun murder mystery set in the 1970s
o brother, where art thou (2000) - a retelling of the odyssey set in the southern us in the 1930s
victor/victoria (1982) - set in early 20th century paris. julie andrews pretends to be a man and takes on a job as a drag queen. extremely fun, extremely gay movie.
lady chatterley's lover (2022) - very much porn for moms but it was a nice watch imo
amulet (2020) - set in like. idk. sometime in the 20th century. this is a horror movie, deals a lot with misogyny, sa, and so on. i really like it, personally. a lot of people, mostly weird men, dont tho.
the great (2020-2023) - i have mixed feelings about this show. on the one hand, its really fun to watch. on the other hand, its basically ofmd for girls who have public mental breakdowns whenever someone claims corsets were oppressive. and theyre so weird about russians, jesus christ.
disses:
domina (2021-) - i just couldnt get into it, esp since i tried right after finishing rome hbo. it was kind of silly, and not in a good way. takes itself wayyyy to seriously.
i didnt like spartacus (2010-2013) - the dialogue was almost grotesque and the editing, especially the transitions, straight up killed me
damsel (2024) - holy fuck what a trainwreck of a movie. absolute waste of angela basset and robin wright. the only good thing were the costumes.
lancelot du lac (1974) - i just didnt like it at all. couldnt get into it. i guess it was way too french and artsy fartsy for me. a movie that was trying to say both too little and too much at the same time.
i didnt rly like bram stoker's dracula (1992) - i mean. it was a fine movie. it was definitely not the godfather. the movie itself was meh. the visuals tho? absolutely stunning
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Inside the Mind of Coffin Joe will be released on November 28 via Arrow Video. The five-disc Blu-ray box set collects 10 films from Brazilian horror icon José Mojica Marins, better known as Coffin Joe.
It includes: 1964's At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul, 1967's This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse, 1968's The Strange World of Coffin Joe, 1970's Awakening of the Beast, 1971's The End of Man, 1972's When the Gods Fall Asleep, 1976's The Strange Hostel of Naked Pleasures, 1977's Hellish Flesh, 1978's Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind, and 2008's Embodiment of Evil.
Each disc has its own Blu-ray case with reversible artwork by Butcher Billy. They're housed together in a slipcase with a book featuring new writing by Tim Lucas, Carlos Primati, Jerome Reuter, Amy Voorhees Searles, Kyle Anderson, and Paula Sacramento, a double-sided poster, and 12 double-sided art cards.
All 10 movies have been newly stored in 4K from the best available elements with original lossless mono audio (except Embodiment of Evil, which has lossless 2.0 and 5.1 audio). Special features are listed below, where you can also see more of the packaging.
Disc 1: At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul
Audio commentary by José Mojica Marins, filmmaker Paulo Duarte, and film scholar Carlos Primati (Portuguese with English subtitles)
Video essay by Lindsay Hallam (new)
Damned: The Strange World of José Mojica Marins - 2001 documentary
Bloody Kingdom - Marins’ first short film with director’s commentary
Excerpts from early works by Marins
Trailer
Disc 2: This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse / The Strange World of Coffin Joe
This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse audio commentary by José Mojica Marins, filmmaker Paulo Duarte, and film scholar Carlos Primati (Portuguese with English subtitles)
The Strange World of Coffin Joe audio commentary by José Mojica Marins, filmmaker Paulo Duarte, and film scholar Carlos Primati (Portuguese with English subtitles)
Interview with film historian Stephen Thrower (new)
Video essay by Miranda Corcoran looking Coffin Joe as horror host (new)
The Strange World of Coffin Joe alternate ending with commentary by Marins
Trailers
Disc 3: Awakening of the Beast / The End of Man
Awakening of the Beast audio commentary by José Mojica Marins, filmmaker Paulo Duarte, and film scholar Carlos Primati (Portuguese with English subtitles)
The End of Man audio commentary by José Mojica Marins, filmmaker Paulo Duarte, and film scholar Carlos Primati (Portuguese with English subtitles)
Interview with Guy Adams on Marins’ esoteric aspects (new)
Video essay by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas on the gender politics of Marins’ films (new)
The Awakening of the Beast alternate opening titles
Trailers
When the Gods Fall Asleep / The Strange Hostel of Naked Pleasures
Interview with Virginie Sélavy on surrealism in Marins’ work (new)
Interview with Jack Sargeant (new)
Interview with Embodiment of Evil co-writer Dennison Ramalho (new)
Footage of Marins at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival
A Blind Date for Coffin Joe short film
Trailer
Disc 5: Hellish Flesh / Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind
Hallucinations of a Deranged Mind commentary by José Mojica Marins, editor Nilcemar Leyart, Paulo Duarte, and Carlos Primati (Portuguese with English subtitles)
Interview with Andrew Leavold on Marins’ place in '60s & '70s Marginal Cinema (new)
Video essay by Kat Ellinger (new)
Trailers
Disc 6: Embodiment of Evil
Audio commentary by producer Paulo Sacramento and co-writer Dennison Ramalho (Portuguese with English subtitles)
Interview with Dennison Ramalho (new)
Interview in which Ramalho pays tribute to Marins
Footage of Marins at the film’s premiere
Making Of featurette
Experimental Making Of featurettes
Multiple featurettes with commentary by Marins
Trailer
Additional contents:
Collector’s book with new writing by Tim Lucas, Carlos Primati, Jerome Reuter, Amy Voorhees Searles, Kyle Anderson, and Paula Sacramento
Double-sided poster with artwork by Butcher Billy
12 double-sided art cards
Cultural icon, anti-establishment statement, sadistic lord of carnival horror! With his long fingernails, top hat and cape, Coffin Joe was the creation of Brazilian filmmaker José Mojica Marins, who wrote, directed and starred in a series of outrageous movies from 1964 to 2008.
Pre-order Inside the Mind of Coffin Joe.
#coffin joe#horror#foreign horror#brazilian film#brazilian horror#arrow video#dvd#gift#butcher billy#jose mojica marins#60s horror#1960s horror#70s horror#1970s horror#horror movies
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Some cool Easter eggs I caught watching My Adventures with Superman that I want to show to people so they can be in on it with comic book readers:
Episode 1 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here
Episode 2 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here
Episode 3 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here
Episode 4 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here
Episode 5 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here
Episode 7 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here and here
Episode 8 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here
Episode 9 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here
Episode 10 of My Adventures with Superman Easter Eggs and references is here
(SPOILERS if you havent seen it obviously)
About 3ish minutes into the episode we see Clark be affected by red sun radiation, one of the non-Kryptonite weakness Superman has.
In the comics we first learn about this weakness in Action Comics #300 (1963), cover art by Curt Swan, George Klein, and Joe Letterese, where Superman is transported to the future by the Superman Revenge Squad, where the sun turned red thus losing his powers and has to find a way back home.
At the place where Jimmy was captured, we meet Monsieur Mallah and the Brain, at least MAwS version of these characters. I talk more about them in here. The episode has them depicted more like an old married couple with no supervillainous intentions compared to their comic counterparts...
who often associate themselves as enemies to the Doom Patrol and affliated with the Brotherhood of Evil. Also the Brain is usually French in the comics, here in MAwS, the Brain is German. The cover is from Outsiders #37 (2006) cover art by Daniel Acuna.
Back outside we see where Monsieur Mallah and the Brain took Jimmy, Cadmus Minefield.
Cadmus/Project Cadmus/the DNA Project, is known for its genetic engineering projects. The organization makes its first appearance in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #135 (1971) created by legendary comic book creator, Jack Kirby. Cadmus is pretty well known for cloning Superboy/Kon-el/Conner Kent. Like in MAwS Cadmus is a government sanctioned division that's located outside of Metropolis. Ironic since in MAwS the government disavows Cadmus. You can read more about it on these two pages from Who's Who in the DC Universe #12 (1991), the art is done by Dan Jurgens, Dennis Janke, and Anthony Tollins.
Later in the forest we see Lois and Clark have to deal with the OMACs.
In the comics, Jack Kirby created OMAC, at the time, the acronym stood for One Man Army Corp. Buddy Blank of Earth-AD (a future post-apocalyptic Earth) was selected to be part of the OMAC program where with the help of the Brother Eye satellite grants him powers of super strength, stamina and density control. The cover art here for OMAC #1 (1971) was done by Jack Kirby, Mike Royer, and Gaspar Saladino.
Years later OMAC gets reinvented to be a cyborgs of Brother Eye that was developed by Batman thanks to his paranoia about super powered heroes turning evil. The page here is from the OMAC Project #5 (W: Greg Rucka, P&I :Jesus Saiz, C: Hi-Fi, L: Phil Balsman). This iteration of OMAC uses the acronym for Omni-Mind and Community. These Cyborgs make their first appearance in the OMAC Project #1 (2005). MAwS's OMACs are a lot more robotic and Evangelion-esque designed compared to how they look in the comics. Note the mohawk/fin designs on OMACs heads in both iterations of the comics and how the robots are designed in MAwS.
Someone on the MAwS team is a fan of Gurren Lagann.
Monsieur Mallah name drops Task Force X. I talked about the organization here
Monsieur Mallah mentions one dimensions in the universe where he and the Brain can be accepted. This brings to mind...
DC's multiverse. The multiverse makes its first appearance in the Flash #123 (1961) where Barry Allen and Jay Garrick meet for the first time. DC's multiple Earths have changed over the years from having only 52 distinct Earths to now infinite. The Multiverse map created by Grant Morrison and Rian Hughes, here is from Multiversity comic series.
Someone on the MAwS crew is a fan of the ED-209 design in Robocop.
After the fight with the OMACs, the Brain talks about the General. The only person in DC comics who usually goes by that moniker is...
General Wade Eiling. The panels here are from Captain Atom #1 (1987) (W: Cary Bates, P: Pat Broderick, I: Bob Smith, C: Carl Gafford, L: John Costanza). General Eiling is often associated with Suicide Squad/Task Force X. So it's possible that much like Parasite and Ivo, the MAwS team are combining characters by having...
him be a combination of General Eiling and General Sam Lane, Lois's dad. But who knows. Gotta wait for confirmation if this is either Eiling or Lane.
Thank you for taking your time reading this and making it this far down the post. If you want to see the other posts of easter eggs and references for past episodes:
Episode 1 is here
Episode 2 is here
Episode 3 is here
Episode 4 is here
Episode 5 is here
Episode 7 is here and here
Episode 8 is here
Episode 9 is here
Episode 10 is here
#My Adventures with Superman#Clark Kent#Lois Lane#Jimmy Olsen#Red Sun#Action Comics#Monsieur Mallah#The Brain#The Brain DC#The Brain DC Comics#Doom Patrol#Cadmus#Project Cadmus#OMAC#Brother Eye#Buddy Blank#OMAC Project#Gurren Lagann#DC Multiverse#Multiversity#DC Comics Multiverse#ED 209#Robocop#General Eiling#General Lane#Sam Lane#Wade Eiling#DC#DC Comics#MAwS
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KAMEN RIDER MEGAPOST
I've been deep in the Kamen Rider hole after taking a blind chance on it about a year ago and it's been one of the most rewarding discoveries I've had, so I'm doing a megapost where I try to convey what's so interesting and unique about this series that you can literally just start anywhere. There's a Kamen Rider series for everyone, and I hope to convince you of it and point to where you can give it a try for yourself. Click on the read more to see more!
WHAT IS KAMEN RIDER?
Kamen Rider is a superhero that rides a motorcycle who's often bug-themed, but not always. The Kamen Rider franchise started in 1971 and, with the exception of a few periods of dry spells, keeps making new yearly series to this day. It's part of Japan's many, many decades old craft of special effects-focused TV shows and movies, called "Tokusatsu" (literally, "special filming"). It was conceived and spearheaded by Shotaro Ishinomori, an incredibly famous mangaka in Japan, responsible for not only Kamen Rider, but also Super Sentai, Cyborg 009, Zubat, Kikaider, and many other TV series and mangas. The amount of works he has produced in manga and TV is incredibly huge, and his works have been incredibly influential to Japanese culture as a whole. Kamen Rider can be argued that is his biggest, most important contribution.
A consistent theme in early Kamen Rider series is that he's a lonesome, grieving hero, in which his sadness fuels his righteous anger at the evils that he's fighting against. He's been transformed into a monster against his will, and now must fight against the very forces that created him. In every Kamen Rider series, the power that the protagonist wields is the same power that fuels the evil forces he fights against. In a way, you can see it as a metaphor for Kamen Rider's production itself: It must use the evil power of mass media to carry its anti-authoritarian messages that go against the very forces that even allow it to exist. It's the tale of every artist trying to create something earnest and culturally and artistically enriching in the cynical mass media space.
WHY WATCH KAMEN RIDER?
I was never really sold on Kamen Rider at first. I remember watching a bit of Kamen Rider Black when I was very young, so I was always nostalgically curious about it. But whenever I saw the newer Kamen Rider stuff pop up on Twitter or whatever, I had always dismissed it as "eh, whatever bug bit you I guess made you interested in that". Something about the super toyetic costume designs and super fake CG just never really inspired my attention, and it was easy to dismiss it as something for kids, something in that same place in my mind as "what shonenheads are into". I guess what I mean is that I saw newer Kamen Rider as "low art". It's easy to categorize it as such, people in silly suits selling toys, doing really silly comedy, with silly CG. I've seen Power Rangers before, it's just that. It has to be cynical!
I had never done such a big 180 before. Yes, Kamen Rider is "for the kids" (with some exceptions), yes it has a ton of silliness to it, but there's also a lot of good cinematography, fantastic stunts, and really great, serious drama. Kamen Rider is seen as a cultural institution in Japan for all those reasons. It's a way to keep a lot of theater traditions alive in a modern space, a way to have many young, extremely talented actors have a big break, a way to keep tokusatsu traditions and craft (analog special effects, stuntmen, martial arts actors) alive, employed, and continuously evolving, to create something that bridges the gap across all generations in Japan.
It's difficult to explain, but Kamen Rider has the important positive qualities of extremely good older television like Star Trek and Columbo. A TV show that doesn't want to aspire to be a hollywood movie like Netflix series cheaply try to do, but that sees the value of theater and theater skills in television.
Another thing to note is that because Kamen Rider is such a huge cultural institution, if you enjoy anime and japanese video games, there's so so much about what you love on your favorite anime and games that are directly inspired by Kamen Rider. Every japanese action game you've enjoyed? Ninja Gaiden, Shinobi, Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, Hagane, Bayonetta, they -all- have an incredibly huge amount of Kamen Rider in them. Nearly everything Gainax, Hideaki Anno and Studio Trigger made. Pokémon, Digimon, Dragon Ball, One Piece, Yu-Gi-Oh (especially on the superb monster designs), Taiyo Matsumoto, every japanese character that has ever stricken a dab. It's not just references, there are fundamental things about pretty much all of these games, mangas and animes I've listed that are directly attributed to Kamen Rider. So if you enjoy anything I've listed, you ought to give it a try.
OKAY, WHERE TO START?
One of the greatest things about Kamen Rider is that since every series is its own closed continuity (there are crossover movies but they largely don't matter), you can pretty much start anywhere you'd like. Of course, with this many ice cream flavors, one can't help but become paralyzed by the abundance of choice, even though, and I can't emphasize this enough, every Kamen Rider series I've watched so far have all been pretty good to fantastic. I'm sure there's a couple of stinkers I've avoided, but a hitrate like this feels miraculous, I don't understand how does Kamen Rider from so many different eras can keep such a consistent quality even when they can feel so different from one another and be spearheaded by such different creators. You can maybe look them all up and decide what theme you're most attracted by, or, I can maybe help you and tell you about the ones I've watched!
So, here's a list of the Kamen Riders I've watched, with short descriptions of each of them and what makes them appealing, and a mini-list of recommended episodes to sample, in case you're still not sure whether to jump in:
SHOWA ERA (1971 - 1994)
KAMEN RIDER (1971)
The original, and also the least I've watched so far, haven't even gotten to 10 episodes yet. It famously started with an incredibly small budget and it's magical to see what tricks the production employed in order to make it work and be exciting and fun while spending as little money as possible. The stunts are very dangerous but very cool to see. A long, very episode-by-episode affair, but if you get excited on cheap sets and cheap cinema tricks and special effects used very cleverly, this is going to light you up like a christmas tree. It also employs some thriller-inspired cinematography that is very exciting. The writing doesn't offer much substance, but it has this quality where it really believes in itself and in the ideals that Kamen Rider is supposed to represent that is very easy to feel wrapped up in. Might bore you if you're not already sold on the appeal of old tokusatsu.
RECOMMENDED EPISODES TO SAMPLE:
Episode 6: The Grim Reaper Chameleon!
Episode 7: The Grim Reaper Chameleon Showdown: Old World's Fair
KAMEN RIDER AMAZON (1974)
It's basically just the 1971 Kamen Rider but the main character is Tarzan. It runs only half as long as other Kamen Rider series so if you wanna do a whole Showa-era KR series quickly, it's a very solid recommendation. It's very violent for a children's show, with Amazon often slicing and mauling his monster opponents in bloody messes, and it looks really sick. The suits and special effects are better than how the original Kamen Rider starts off, but it still has that appeal of being old and budgeted for a TV show, which in this case is a huge positive, imo. Also again, the writing isn't much to write about, so don't expect big narrative payoffs or anything like that, you really have to enjoy it on an episode-by-episode basis, which is fine, because the monsters and special effects are extremely cool, the characters are charismatic, and the little episodic plots are fun.
RECOMMENDED EPISODES TO SAMPLE:
Episode 4: Run! The Raging Jungler!
Episode 11: The Golden Snail is the Grim Reaper's Envoy!?
Episode 16: Garanda's Tokyo Sea of Flames Operation
Episode 17: Mt.Fuji Big Explosion?! The Tokyo Fry Pan Operation
KAMEN RIDER BLACK (1987)
This was supposed to be a revival of Kamen Rider into public interest after being dormant for a while, so it also feels like a retelling of the first Kamen Rider in a sense, has a lot of common elements, but with slick 80s production and sensibilities all over. If you love how 80s action, sci-fi and thriller movies look like, you'll love the cinematography and production of Kamen Rider Black. It's edgier, sleeker, and even scarier, borrowing a lot of horror/thriller elements that were in vogue at the time, while still being a hopeful, heroic and uplifting presence for children. Has an overarching plot that develops over time but it's, again, really about enjoying it on an episode-by-episode basis, as the overarching plot develops veeeery slowly and in very small portions. I supremely love how this series looks, I love the special effects, I love the suits, and it has my favorite transformation sequence.
RECOMMENDED EPISODES TO SAMPLE:
Episode 1: Black!! Transformation
Episode 2: Monster Party
Episode 18: Sword Saint Bilgenia
Episode 20: Rider's Grave
Episode 23: Marumo's Magic Power
Episode 24: College Girl's Nightmare
SHIN KAMEN RIDER PROLOGUE (1992) (MOVIE)
This doesn't have anything to do with the Anno movie, the Shin here is written differently. A movie that celebrates the series' 20th anniversary that tells its own story with its own Kamen Rider, so it feels like a "reboot" or "re-interpretation" of Kamen Rider. It's darker and scarier, with a Kamen Rider that looks much more like a monster than an armored hero, and leans more into the horror side of Kamen Rider, being more adult-focused. Very violent and very cool.
KAMEN RIDER ZO (1993) (MOVIE)
This was supposed to be a full-fledged Kamen Rider series but the 80s bubble popped and they decided to shift production into a short movie instead. Might be a good introduction point, since it's a short 1-hour watch, and has a ton of really great special effects. Everything that is great about Black's cinematography, propwork and special effects apply here, except since it's just one movie, they're really throwing everything they've got into it
HEISEI AND REIWA ERAS (2000-Present)
Kamen Rider went dormant in the 90s until it was revived back into its TV format by Kamen Rider Kuuga, which was a major success. Since then, there's been yearly new Kamen Rider series on Japanese television, non-stop.
The difference between the Kamen Rider of old (Showa era) and the Kamen Rider series past this revival (Heisei, Reiwa) is that newer Kamen Rider series, despite also being monster-of-the-week romps, tend to have a more complex overarching plot which they tend to lean more into, and less of dangerous stunts and practical effects. Episodes also tend to be two-parters, so maybe calling them monster-of-the-week is innacurate, it's more like monster-of-every-two-weeks. This shift is fine because their reliance on denser plots with a much larger supporting cast of characters, more than makes up for it. It feels less that they're stretching episodes into two-parters and more like they're filling these episodes with so much other stuff that making them 2-parters makes sense.
Also, to note, as modern Kamen Rider goes on, there's more reliance on CGI, but all the monsters (and Kamen Riders) are practical suits and there's still plenty of practical effects, so don't let the super artificial candy-colored videogamey CGI effects trick you into thinking that that's all there is to modern KR.
KAMEN RIDER KIVA (2008)
Kiva is the only "Heisei phase 1" series I've watched so far (early to late 2000s), and I absolutely love it, one of my favorite Kamen Riders. It's considered to be a bit of a black sheep of Heisei phase 1 Kamen Riders but I think fans severely overlook and misjudge Kiva. Kamen Rider Kiva is vampire-themed and is about this shut-in, extremely shy boy who, mysteriously, is also the heroic Kiva, that springs into action whenever Fangires (vampire monsters) are about to kill humans. However, it also takes place 20 years before, in the 1980s, where Fangires are also attacking, but there's no Kiva around to stop them. Instead, humans have created a secret vampire-hunting association and are developing their own technology to stop them. What's the connection between the characters from each time era? Mysteries...!! It has a large cast of characters and incredible soap opera drama and romance that'll keep you heavily invested in all of its twists and turns. It's a very narrative affair which makes it difficult to recommend episodes out of order since it can be confusing to catch things out of context. The fact that it takes place both in the 2000s and in the 80s means every episode has both an A-plot and a B-plot, which avoids the pitfall of some modern Kamen Riders of two-parters that don't have enough going on, because Kiva is absolutely overstuffed with great characters and narratives. The drama is great, the romance is great, the comedy is superb, and the fights are awesome too. I really can't recommend it enough.
RECOMMENDED EPISODES TO SAMPLE:
Episode 1: Fate: Wake Up! and Episode 2: Suite: Father and Son Violin (2-parter)
Episode 17: Lesson: My Way and Episode 18: Quartet: Listen to Your Heart's Voice (2-parter)
(I have trouble recommending more episodes out of order because this series is very narratively-involved!)
KAMEN RIDER W (2009)
W is a very well-received and loved series, and it's easy to see why. It's one of those things that if you watch it you immediately go "oh, if I watched this as a kid I would be so so into it". It has fun, charismatic characters that you want to see every week, simple to understand and easy to like. It's detective-themed and the Kamen Rider is actually comprised of a fusion of two people - Shotaro, who wants to be a tough, hard-boiled detective but is unintentionally kind of stupid and goofy and isn't seen very seriously by people around him, but has a heart of gold, and Phillip, who is an androgynous autistic introvert that basically has the entirety of Google inside his mind, and uses this to help find information to solve cases. Together they transform into Kamen Rider W (W as in "double", get it?), with each controlling a literal half of the suit (right and left), that they can switch properties of and create different combinations. They're great characters but who really steals the show is the comedy relief sidekick, Akiko. She's an immensely funny actress and character.
RECOMMENDED EPISODES TO SAMPLE:
Episodes 1 and 2: W Search
Episodes 9 and 10: S Terror
Episodes 23 and 24: L on the Lips
Episodes 25 and 26: P's Game
KAMEN RIDER OOO (2010)
OOO is another extremely beloved Kamen Rider series, and the one I actually started with. Its themes are "desire" and "currency", and the evils and necessities of living in a world that depends on them. The main character is a lovable homeless hippie (Eiji) who's egged on by his extremely androgynous edgy greedy demon boyfriend (Ankh) to collect "medals", because said demons are greedy for them and require them for power. These medals also allow Eiji to transform into Kamen Rider OOO (pronounced "Os" or "Osu"), and different medals can be slot into his transformation belt to create different combinations. Other demons, that are not Eiji's demon babygirl, want to use humans' desires as piggy banks to generate more medals for their own greed, at the cost of these humans' lives. Eiji needs to stop them and collect all the medals before they do. Again, easy to enjoy, easy to see why it's beloved. Filled with a light-hearted fun energy that you can feel as soon as you watch the ska-inspired opening. There's a small stretch of it that feels a bit by-the-numbers, but the drama ramps up and pays off immensely well as it goes on. An extremely fujoshi Kamen Rider series.
RECOMMENDED EPISODES TO SAMPLE:
Episode 1: Medals, Underwear and a Mysterious Arm
Episode 2: Desire, Popsicles and Presents (2-parter with Episode 1)
Episode 13: A Siamese Cat, Stress and the Genius Surgeon
Episode 14: Pride, Surgery, and a Secret (2-parter with Episode 13)
KAMEN RIDER FOURZE (2011)
Fourze is written by Kazuki Nakashima, the Studio Trigger writer responsible for stuff like Gurren Lagann, Kill la Kill and Brand New Animal, so that may be something that's either going to extremely excite you, or make you very wary of it. I personally feel he's not a very good writer, but that's okay, because the rest of the production is fantastic, and I still enjoyed Fourze a good amount! The main character is an extremely likeable and charismatic school delinquent that wants to befriend the entire school and creates his own Kamen Rider school club after being bestowed with the Kamen Rider Fourze technology thanks to, uh, a portal that sends him to a space base on the moon? So it's a half-and-half school theme and space theme Kamen Rider. The school club has a large cast of characters but the show doesn't really know what to do with them unless the episodes focus on a specific club member. Fourze really, really drags in the middle (this is when the problem of two-parters feeling stretched out when the writing isn't very strong hits hardest), but as it crescendos to its finale it gets -very- good again. This might be the weakest Kamen Rider out of the ones I've watched, imo, but still, I think there's quite a lot to enjoy here.
RECOMMENDED EPISODES TO SAMPLE:
Episodes 1 and 2 (Youthful Transformation and Space Superiority) (2-parter)
Episodes 5 and 6 (Friendship, Inside and Outside and Electric Shock, Steadily) (2-parter)
Episodes 13 and 14 (School Refusal and Stinger Onslaught) (2-parter)
KAMEN RIDER AMAZONS (2016) (WEB SERIES)
Wait, didn't I review this one before?! No, no, this is AMAZONS, plural! It doesn't actually have that much in common with the original Amazon, being very much its own thing, and what it borrows from Amazon is mostly just to help frame this series as a more adult, violent affair, since Amazon, despite it being very much for kids, was back then known as "the violent Kamen Rider". It's also an Amazon Prime-exclusive series, so they did it for Branding, too. A very dramatic, violent, adult Kamen Rider show that's spearheaded by my favorite Kamen Rider director, Hidenori Ishida. He's a supremely good director that brings his A-game to this series. It follows an extermination team that hunts terrifying man-eating monsters called Amazons. There's two Kamen Riders, Alpha and Omega, that are also Amazons but they largely fight against other Amazons. Alpha is set on killing every Amazon, while Omega has just awakened into an Amazon and a Kamen Rider himself, and has to decide what he wants to do and who and what to fight for. At least this is the premise of Season 1, Season 2 I will not spoil but it is the production going "oh, Amazon season 1 did well enough for us to do whatever we want, and we'll do exactly that". It's the most well-equipped artists in tokusatsu breaking off their shackles and doing a dramatic magnum opus. It's dark, edgy, but also earnest and sentimental. It's my absolute favorite Kamen Rider show. Also, the fact that the monsters are called "Amazons" is used for extremely pointed stabs at Amazon (company), which is hilarious.
This series is completely narratively-driven, so I can't recommend episodes out of order! Watch the whole thing!
KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE (2019)
Robot-themed! Zero-One takes place in a future where robots and humans live together, like Megaman or Astro Boy. It's about the struggle of humans and robots to live in harmony with one another, and it develops those themes and its world extremely well. The main character (Aruto) is very goofy and wants to be a manzai comedian but his lame puns always bomb. He is, however, also the heir of a massive company that builds all the robot people! Aruto is suddenly, unexpectedly, thrown into the company as its President after his grandfather dies. This responsibility is too much for him, but he decides to take on the mantle as he wants to bring a smile to people's faces, and that he legitimately cares about robots, as he was raised and saved by one as a kid. With this in mind, he takes on his grandfather's KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE technology and uses it to attempt to stop a terrorist robot faction (METSUBOUJINRAI.NET) that's bent on killing all humans, and corrupting other robots for that goal. All while also trying to advocate for a harmonious relationship between humans and robots. This is honestly fantastic, and may seem super goofy at first but gets very complex as it goes on. Very great balance of lighthearted comedy and serious drama, and another one of my absolute favorite Kamen Rider series, right up there with Kiva and Amazons.
RECOMMENDED EPISODES TO SAMPLE:
Episode 1: I'm the President and a Kamen Rider
Episode 2: Is AI an Enemy? Ally?
Episode 5: His Passionate Manga Path
Episode 6: I Want to Hear Your Voice (2-parter with episode 5)
KAMEN RIDER GEATS (2022)
Battle-royale themed Kamen Rider, with a lot of inspiration on korean dramas and reality shows. It definitely feels inspired by, say, Squid Game. Gods select people to compete in a Kamen Rider battle royale, and the winner of the final round gets to remake the world in whatever way they see fit. The production is a bit cheap after the last two KRs before Geats underperformed, and they had to scale the production down. The fact that the series tries to convey the excitement of extremely high stakes so often only for those stakes to completely deflate thanks to how the premise works, creates a situation where you don't know what to care because anything can get undone and completely changed so often anyway. Near the end the series gets particularly bad with this. Still, it has some good characters, some nice drama and some fun comedy, so it's not bad, but definitely on my lower tier of KRs alonside Fourze. Again: No KR I've watched was bad! So, even the ones that might sound that I'm down on them I still very much enjoyed.
(Too narratively-driven to recommend episodes out of order! Try the first couple of episodes!)
SHIN KAMEN RIDER (2023) (MOVIE)
Hideaki Anno's film! Hideaki Anno is a huge Kamen Rider fan and it really shows throughout the movie, with a lot of pulls from the Kamen Rider manga specifically, while also being nostalgic for a lot of the original Kamen Rider TV show from 71. Still, it ends up feeling less like "a Kamen Rider movie" and more like "an Anno movie" with a Kamen Rider-theming to it. It doesn't put its focus on the stunts and the fight choreography that you'd see in other Kamen Rider productions, but more on Anno's style of cinematography, his sense of timing, special effects and animation. It also retreads several of the themes and elements that he's drawn from before, a lot of Evangelion is in this. It's good, I like it!
KAMEN RIDER GOTCHARD (2023)
Currently ongoing! Very Y2K nostalgic, with a Kamen Rider suit that has that Y2K aqua color to it, and is themed around... Pokemon cards? There are these creatures called Chemys, that are contained inside alchemical cards that have been let loose and need to be captured again, or at least kept away from the villains. The main character is this super earnest, almost helplessly naively optimistic schoolboy called Ichinose that has been unexpectedly thrown into the secret world of alchemy and given the power to become Kamen Rider Gotchard, as a powerful benevolent alchemist dies in his arms. As a promise to him, he vows to find the Chemys. Ichinose also believes that they're extremely good-natured beings that are only corrupted by human malice, and really believes in the friendship of Chemys and humans, while other alchemists feel Ichinose's ideas of Chemys are too naive and soft-hearted. It's, uh, I don't know what to think of it, honestly! The first couple of episodes really did not sold me on it, but it gets better and better as it goes on, though, it's also, like, a lot of Big Important things keep happening in rapid-fire in a way that I can't tell whether the show has a higher plan for all of it or if it's just throwing things for easy hype. Nearly every episode there's a new Kamen Rider transformation, it's kind of insane. Still, this is preferrable than the stretches of not much happening that plague some other KR seasons. I've been enjoying it a good amount, honestly!
RECOMMENDED EPISODES TO SAMPLE:
Episode 5: Burn! Fight! Wrestler G!
Episode 7: Goodbye, Saboneedle
And those are all the Kamen Riders I've watched! Something else that can help you decide on which series to try out, is that the NHK made a public popularity poll of Kamen Rider series, with the results being found here! From here, you can tell which KRs are most beloved and well-remembered in Japan, and use that as a guidance for yourself, if you'd like. But again, I must emphasize, you can really start most anywhere, so feel free to do exactly that!
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What are some of your favorite novelas, Petty? I grew up loving them too and personally I will ALWAYSSS show up for anything Fernando Colunga is in!
Anon, I'm not giving you some of my favorites. No. I'm giving you my favorite - If you know this bitch (affectionate and derogatory), you KNOW where this is going!
For all the BL people, this is why @italianpersonwithashippersheart, @lukaherehelp, and I are having no qualms about Twins or Playboyy.
Telenovelas, soap operas, y lakorns have trained us well for these shenanigans and hijinks.
Why y'all can't remember twenty-two people's names is beyond me, but I had them down the first episode.
Why y'all don't like the tonal whiplash is odd to me because for me, ten minutes on one couple is TOO MUCH TIME. Six minutes, TOP, and move on to the next one.
Someone getting stabbed in one scene then the next scene being someone celebrating at a birthday party is the way I like my shows, and don't let that person be getting stabbed AT that birthday party because that is my bread and butter.
Oh, and TWINS!
My favorite show includes all of these fine points, and it's the 1998 Mexican telenovela called
La usurpadora
Somewhere in fictional hell, Soraya Montenegro from María la del Barrio is pissed as fuck.
The plot: Paola is a rich bitch and wants to leave her husband for her evil lover but can't figure out how.
¡Sorpresa, cabrona! She meets a worker who looks just like her while on vacation or some shit.
Paulina is the other woman and she is too poor to contour. Therefore, rich bitch Paola convinces kind and caring Paulina to be her stand-in. Paola tells Paulina she will live the best life and be rich, while Paola can be free. It's a win-win.
¡MENTIRAS!
Paulina refuses! So Paola blackmails her into doing it, and with her mother dead, her fiance gone, and no job (since she was fired as part of Paola's blackmailing scheme), Paulina is forced to take the offer. This is like episode 2 out of 102.
In the next 100 episodes, we get forty-five other characters who are all important to the plot, amnesia, cheating, murder attempts, Paola pretending to be paralyzed, Paulina GOES TO PRISON, someone discovers they are actually twins (no duh!), and a crap ton of more drama.
Oh, and the car crash!
But God got Paulina, so she good. Even in the sequel when she had cancer, pero no, she was just pregnant.
The show is based on a 1971 Venezuelan telenovela that was adapted from the book La Intrusa, and has since had several remakes. One was in 2019, which made Paulina Colombian (or was she always Colombian?), and A MUSICAL THIS YEAR!
It holds a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes because the people know this was a 🎁🎁🎁 from God, and it is not up for debate because it featured men dancing around singing Celia Cruz's "La vida es un carnaval" y Selena's "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom." This movie is the moment.
The lead is Cuban actress Isabella Castillo Díaz who played in America and México's co-produced telenovela ¿Quién es quién?, which is basically the boy version of La usurpadora because of the twins plot. Do you see the theme?
But back to the musical, which also features Drag Race superstar, Valentina. If you know this bitch (affectionate and derogatory), you KNOW!
The 1998 version and musical both embrace the camp of it all. The music in the original 1998 version was peak telenovela, and even if you don't speak Spanish, readers, just watch the first minute of this video. I promise you it will be worth it, and it will give you three perfect examples of the *vibes* I'm always rambling about.
youtube
So, yeah, Anon, I hope this explains a lot of about my taste in BLs. I'm here for a show, not the show. Soraya understands.
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little things in the wonka score/soundtrack that get me every time: a post made by a music major with severe brainrot (seriously it’s getting bad)
• even though i’m not sure how to feel abt what they did orchestrally to pure imagination when it was sung in full, i loved the way it was interwoven until then-the opening credits, the clock tower chiming its intro, etc
• when the intro to hatful of dreams ends and the instrumental HITS. that was the moment i was sitting in the theater like “…oh i’m going to be so charmed by this movie huh”
• something abt the way timmy sings “i’ve put everything i’ve got into my choc’late”. see above bullet point
• welcome to scrubbit’s has no right to be that much of a banger
• the low brass in scrub scrub HELLOOOOO?!?!? the chromatic slides. the muted trumpets. abacus’ bass moments (go off king). the song is literally about laundry and yet IT GOES SO HARD
• walk into the club on a friday night like FIRST YOU PICK UP THE APPAREL AND YOU
• the instrumental of ynhclt that plays while everyone’s flying is so cheesy and so golden-age-of-hollywood-children’s-musical and i cannot help but smile
• the cuh-lassic “one instrument at a time” opening of sweet tooth
• mathew baynton’s voice. that’s it that’s the bullet point.
• #GiveTheCartelMoreTight3PartHarmonies2k24
• well we’ve got lots and lots and lots and loTS AND LOTS AND LOWHY AM I SINGINGGGGGGG
• somethin about how the “noodle noodle” countermelody is a sort of arpeggiated outline of each chord, like a vocal warmup, like he’s letting her take the melody bc he knows she will in time. i’m gonna sob they’re literally family
• the orchestration of for a moment, esp while they’re dancing on the rooftop, just SOARS. idk if anyone here has seen mr magorium’s wonder emporium but that movie shaped my childhood, it’s probably my favorite film score ever, and this instrumental bit is SOOOO reminiscent of it
• clock tower. a fifty-second masterpiece
• CHOCOPOCALYPSE. (for those of us who were on the theatre kid side of the internet in 2018, i think chocopocalypse should be the new calculust. hear me out)
• mat’s voice gets a second bullet point bc what the hell man. literally the sonic embodiment of dark mint chocolate. h e l p m e
• …#fickelgruberisathinmint2k24
• noodle’s portion of ynhclt, while she’s teaching willy to read, has a few instrumental nods to mozart’s famous sonata in c, a typical piece for piano beginners-kids-to learn. in the 1971 film mrs teavee incorrectly identifies mozart as rachmaninoff. this MOVIE
• i wish there could have been more, and more involved/complex, ensemble vocal moments
• charlotte ritchie <3 (okay i’m biased sue me)
• the new orchestration for the oompa loompa song is straight fire
• the LEITMOTIFS the fucking LEITMOTIFS!!!!!!!! the opening fanfare that became the basis of hatful of dreams popping up here and there. the melody to a world of your own playing whenever he thinks of his mom. every time we think willy’s safe from the cartel, ope there’s that descending major sixth again.
• (now that i think about it. sweet tooth is in g major of all keys, rather atypical of a villain song. most of the intervals are major too. it’s the trembling strings that give it that “evil” sound. and it fits so well-like, “we’re not completely immoral! time for a fun little tango! there’s colorful lights! killthisguyplsOH LOOK CONFETTI!” they’re so sinister i love it)
• the way that the intro to a world of your own echoes the intro to pure imagination
• THE ORCHESTRATION DURING “chocolate bushes, chocolate trees” etc AND THE WAY IT BUILDS OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOD. MY HEART JUST BURSTS. EVERY TIME. I AM NOT IMMUNE TO CHEESY MUSICALS.
• the!! chromatic!! basslines!! in!! that!! song!!!!!!!!
• the fact that the bridge comes before the second verse-name any other songs where that happens i dare you. just another example of willy changing the narrative in every way
• the fact that sorry noodle is AN ENTIRE *OTHER* COUNTERMELODY that then falls back into the for a moment melody at the end what the FUUUUUUUUUUUCK
• the monks chanting “giraffe. a massive giraffe”. so fucking funny
• stripping down pure imagination to its essence while willy sings it to noodle was a thousand percent the right decision. and the lyric changes for the situation are sooooooo clever
• as someone who grew up with the 71 movie and has been utterly enamored with its music her whole life, i’m not the world’s hugest fan of this version’s pure imagination orchestration; i get they felt they had to do something different, it just feels slightly too modern/disneyesque, but it had the vibe that they intended for the end of the movie
• anyway god i love this score
#wonka 2023#wonka movie#wonka#neil hannon#joby talbot#timothée chalamet#calah lane#mathew baynton#charlotte ritchie
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Wordgirl Villain Birthday Headcanons
Okay so, I'm going into this with the assuumption that the show starts in 2006 since that's when it came out.
Let's start with Tobey since he's the only one with a canon age, also he was my favorite when I was a kid.
Theodore "Tobey" McCallister
Birthday: October 3rd, 1995
Age: 10
Reason: Just strikes me as a fall baby. I think his birthday would be 7 months earlier than Becky's. I headcanon that her earth birthday is the day that the Botsfords found her since they wouldn't know her real birthday and I assume that Lexicon has a different year length and month cycle, so Bob wouldn't be able to translate it to Earth's.
Bonus Headcanon: Tobey's parents are separated. He and Claire left England when he was 4 or 5 while his father remained.
Let's keep the ball rolling with the child villians.
Victoria Best
Birthday: January 1st, 1996
Reason: Of course she would be a New Years baby, it's the ~best~ birthday of course.
Bonus Headcanon: Her and Eileen met at a villian convention and became sort of besties.
Eileen the Birthday Girl
Birthday: Everyday
(Real) Birthday: September 17th, 1995
Reason: It's revealed in one episode that her real birthday is the same as Violet's (this doubles as my Violet birthday headcanon), the season ain't obvious in the episode, but I would say September just cause of ✨️vibes✨️.
Bonus Headcanon: Her last name is O'Neil. Her parents are business people who don't see her often so they substitute real parenting for lavish gifts and a birthday everyday (she gets an extra bonus headcanon because it's her birthday).
Captain Tanget
Birthday: June 15th, 1989
Age: 17
Reason: His wiki says he's a teenager and his behavior backs that up. Summer birthday because that's the best birthday for piracy.
Bonus Headcanon: I saw a fic where they made his government name Connor Read and I like it and think it really fits, so I'm adooting that headcanon too!
Now onto the adult villians!
Amazing Rope Guy
Birthday: April 13th, 1984
Age: 22
Reason: In 1984, April 13th was a Friday! This man got some chronic bad luck so I thought it would be funny.
Bonus Headcanon: He was in marching band in high school and played the Clarinet.
Chuck the Evil Sandwich Making Guy
Birthday: November 3rd, 1981
Age: 25
Reason: November 3rd is Sandwich Day.
Bonus Headcanon: He and Brent share a birthday (Brent's being 5 years earlier) and Chuck HATES it.
The Butcher
Birthday: July 19th, 1960
Age: 46
Reason: Middle aged king, he also says he hasnt even lived 50 years so I assume he was at least in his late 30s. Also July 19th is hotdog day!
Bonus Headcanon: His government name is Butch Agricolo.
Lady Redundant Woman (A.K.A. Beatrice Bixby)
Birthday: March 3rd, 1973
Age: 33
Reason: LDR seems to love doing things in threes so I assume it's her lucky number, and 3/3 makes it redundant.
Bonus Headcanon: She only watches movies that have remakes.
I'm running out of steam, so imma end it with Two-Brains, we're running with Steven's birthday since Squeaky won't tell me his :(
Dr. Two-Brains (Formerly known as Dr. Steven Boxleitner)
Birthday: August 13th, 1971
Age: 35
Reason: It is confirmed that he is middle aged and he also canonically has at least one PhD and a Masters so he'd have to be at least 30. August 13th was a Friday in 1971 and I think it funny that he also has an unlucky birthday.
Bonus Headcanon: He is a Physcist and an Engineer!
That's all for now, folks! I'll do a part 2 eventually for the rest of Fair City's Rougue's Gallery.
#wordgirl#tobey mccallister#victoria best#eileen the birthday girl#captain tangent#amazing rope guy#chuck the evil sandwich making guy#the butcher wordgirl#lady redundant woman#dr two brains#Wordgirl headcanons
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I was actually just thinking of a variation on the Escaped Nazi plot thanks to rereading a few different series’ TVTropes pages and that is the “Escaped Nazi specifically hiding out in the guise of a Holocaust survivor” and while I’m sure that specific variation predates the Magnum P.I. episode “Never Again, Never Again” which is I think the earliest I’ve personally seen that variation, I am 99% certain that the CSI: NY episode “Yahrzeit” has got to be one of the last instances that was a then-contemporary set piece of media. Curious if anyone knows how common or uncommon of a variant that is, cuz it honestly feels like a really misguided plot idea so I kind of hope the reason I haven’t seen it as often is because it’s genuinely not common.
That specific plot comes from a great stage play called "The Man in the Glass Booth" from 1971, which was widely seen and influential. It's about a Nazi prisoner who is captured and sent to Israel, awaiting the death penalty for war crimes. The longest serving actor in this play was none other than Leonard Nimoy.
When he is a prisoner, instead of being conciliatory, he is defiant, gloating over his crimes and genocide and taunting his captors. He refuses to apologize and dares his captors to execute him, not particularly caring about his own life. Nearly everyone sent to interact with him is convinced he is the very incarnation of evil and without any redeeming qualities. It must have been a shock to see a man best known as the ethical and stoic Mr. Spock as a sneering, taunting, haranguing villain.
But in the third act, there's a twist. An old woman identifies him. She says that while he was at a death camp, he was actually a Jew. You see, he hoped that in their heated frenzy to condemn him right away, they would eventually realize they were executing an innocent man. it was also implied, particularly by Nimoy's performance, that he had survivor's guilt, and wanted to die at some level with everyone else and was ashamed to be alive when others were not.
To understand TV of the 50s-80s, you have to look at theater. Even more so than cinema, and this play is a great example of this. Theater and early TV had similar limitations in terms of sets and action and camera flexibility, and which TV imitated far more than movies. With the fixed camera, TV in the beginning was more of an actor's medium than it presently is, (cinema of course is a director's medium). "The Man in the Glass Booth" was not only the inspiration for a number of TV episodes, since like many plays, it had minimal sets and so could be duplicated cheaply for drama.
In fact, it specifically inspired a Star Trek episode, "Duet," which is generally considered the best episode of Deep Space 9 (or at least among them).
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i wanted to do the "favorite first time watches of 2023" thing :-)
Pin (1988)
...And Justice for All (1979)
Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996)
Feeders (1996)
See No Evil (1971)
Ginger Snaps (2000)
Dirty Harry (1971)
Die! Die! My Darling! (1965)
Breakdown (1997)
#watched a LOT OF BAD MOVIES THIS YEAR AHHA#all the ginger snaps posters suck#but the dirty harry poster is PRIME amazing 70s design i love it#LB
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this is kinda weird, but with stuff like Skibidi Toilet (a web animation that's really popular among the kids these days, about toilets with heads in a war against people with technology for heads), where do characters like TV-woman (woman with TV for a head) and Speaker-woman fit into the headless-woman art? On one hand, they are headless women when viewed in isolation, but on the other hand, everyone else in the Skibidi Toilet world, that isn't one of the evil heads-in-a-toilet, also have their heads replaced with technology. (e.g. Camera-men are men with cameras for heads.)
Is it different when headless women are in animation because now they are actual characters with thoughts and actions they can take, instead of a passive static object?
On another note, I've always found blocking/changing the head of a character as a way to make them anonymous or deidentifying them into an everyperson, or like with Skibidi Toilet does, a method of making someone seem otherworldly. Like she can see you, but you can't see her face and you don't get to know her. But looking through your headless woman tag, gee, seeing all the butchered and sexualised women together like that makes it feel so creepy. I have to confess, I am a former fan of object-head women because I liked the fact that they seemed mysterious and you didn't know what these strange women might be thinking. But now it's like that same factor, that you don't know what thoughts they might be having, if they're even capable of thinking at all, that's putting me off!
Also, do you think the Onceler in the original depiction by Doctor Seuss or in the 1971 TV special gets to (mostly, because his eyes are seen once through his boarded up windows, but otherwise his head and face are always hidden) count as a headless man? I don't know where I'm going with this, but the 2012 Onceler that got popular on tumblr was given an actual face, and an explosion in popularity too. i think people started identifying with him even more, despite being given a face instead of being a faceless everyman.
… I’m not gonna lie anon, I don’t really understand what any of this means, but thank you so much for sending it in! I’ll pop it into the tag for other women to consider and respond to xx
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June/July 1971. A vital aspect of Jack Kirby's original Fourth World books is that they were, for all their strangeness, often urgently topical. There's no more forceful example than THE FOREVER PEOPLE #3, which introduces the sinister Glorious Godfrey, preacher of the church of Anti-Life. Godfrey was inspired by Evangelical preacher Billy Graham, and Kirby's feelings about him were not subtle:
Oof. A crowd of blank-eyed, self-stigmatized believers, eager to surrender their individual will in pursuit of scapegoats upon whom to vent their rage. As we'll see, this is a call and response, part of a sermon by Glorious Godfrey:
In later, non-Kirby appearances of Godfrey and the Justifiers, DC has presented Godfrey as having supernatural powers of persuasion and the Justifier helmets as electronic mind control devices that can immediately overcome the wills of even determined anti-authoritarian types like Oliver Queen. Kirby walks a finer line in this story: Godfrey is using his high-tech pipe organ (pictured above left) to drive his believers into an ecstatic frenzy and "stimulate the brute instincts." However, everyone in his church is there because they believe in his horrifying message: "Life will make you doubt! Anti-Life will make you RIGHT!"
As for the Justifiers, the helmets in this story don't work by Mad Hatter-derived mind control circuitry, but by something much scarier: the promise of power in anonymity.
Godfrey's Justifier captain, for one, may be a dupe, but he's clearly not mind-controlled:
Godfrey's facial expressions in this story make the skin crawl. Look at his unctuous smile, full of utter contempt! Kirby, who watched a lot of TV while drawing, had undoubtedly seen Billy Graham's televised sermons, and the revulsion he obviously felt is palpable here.
This is a harrowing story — the Justifiers murder, bomb, burn books, and round up whole neighborhoods of "Others" to be carted off to concentration camps run by Darkseid's henchman DeSaad — but perhaps its most unexpected twist is the revelation that at the end of the day, Godfrey is really just a huckster. He sells Anti-Life, but not only is his pitch not driven by the supernatural force of the will-destroying Anti-Life Equation Darkseid is seeking, Godfrey doesn't really even believe the Equation exists.
Kirby draws an important contrast between Godfrey's church and the Source Wall on New Genesis, where Highfather receives the word of the Source directly, written in fiery letters by the disembodied hand of the Uni-Friend. In THE NEW GODS #1, Orion declares, "The moving hand appears! The Source gives us the irrevocable counsel!" Highfather corrects him, saying, "But it does not decide! The right of choice is ours! That is the Life Equation!"
The central conflict in Kirby's Fourth World saga, then, is not good versus evil, or belief versus nonbelief — it's choice versus subjugation, Life versus Anti-Life. Those who would remove or willfully abandon that choice are servants of Anti-Life. This is something later writers have dropped or obfuscated (particularly Jim Starlin, who can't resist filtering Kirby's Jewish ideas through his own lapsed-Catholic world view), but it's the conceptual spine of the Kirby stories.
#comics#forever people#fourth world#new gods#jack kirby#vince colletta#glorious godfrey#darkseid#“it can only be induced through inventive selling”#double oof
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With gore and such in horror movies, particularly where the victims are women, where do you typically draw the line between genuine horror and just torture porn? I've seen a lot of debate about the Terrifier franchise in light of the new one - I've not seen any of the movies, and I'm also not super well-versed in horror film in general. What do you consider gore/slashers done well?
this is going to be long and a tangent. apologies ahead of time.
1 - i rarely, if ever, use the term "torture porn." i think it's a means of classifying movies that needs to be retired.
this is not a criticism of you, just to be clear. it's just that:
i have seen people apply it to fantastic movies solely because they disapprove of/dislike gore. this unfairly maligns films while perpetuating the idea that violence is always cheap, tasteless, and without purpose or meaning.
i have also seen it used to frame horror fans as twisted "degenerates," which is very ugly when you consider horror is often used to challenge societal norms, and many horror fans are marginalized people. additionally, liking gory movies =/= approving of real violence or being turned on by it.
on the flip side, using it as a classification can also lead people to overlook issues present in many horror movies. calling Cannibal Holocaust, for example, "torture porn" is reductive in its own way. it ends the conversation. it says, "this was bad because it was shallow violence," when, in reality, it is so much worse than that as a deeply racist and misogynistic piece of media that exploited indigenous people and facilitated real animal abuse.
2 - i can't really draw any kind of universal line. the necessity of gore is a film-by-film issue. rather than asking, "is this movie too violent," i typically ask "why does this movie feature graphic violence? what does it do with it?"
graphic violence can be:
used to portray horrific historical events honestly (ex: Come and See),
used to drive home points about violence, those who perform it, and/or those who endure it (ex: Pan's Labyrinth, Lady Vengeance)
used to evoke strong emotions from shock and disgust to grief and rage in audiences (ex: Oldboy, The Sadness)
exaggerated for comedic effect (ex: Evil Dead II)
and/or implemented solely to show off impressive effects work and artistry (ex: Terrifier 2).
3 - women being victims of violence in horror movies is not inherently misogynistic. i'm not saying you're implying this, just pointing out that this is a fact worth keeping in mind. i've seen people act like violence is inherently anti-woman solely because it's happening to a female character, which is ridiculous.
i can also personally watch movies with problematic elements, like misogyny, if i enjoy other aspects of them. what matters is that i consume them critically.
4 - i do want to clarify that i dislike Terrifier. i find its plot shallow and most of the performances bad. it's just a vehicle for violence that, imo, is far too directed at women. it left a bad taste in my mouth.
at the same time, i enjoyed Terrifier 2, which i thought was flawed but sincerely funny with a great villain and some awesome special effects. (even then, there is an overly-long torture scene that i found weirdly mean-spirited and uncomfortable to watch as a woman).
5 - i'm not the best person to ask about slashers! i like some but it's far from my favorite sub-genre. off the top of my head, some good proto-slashers are:
The Virgin Spring (1960)
Psycho (1960)
Blood and Black Lace (1964)
and some good slashers are:
Straw Dogs (1971)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Deep Red (1975)
Alice, Sweet Alice (1976)
Halloween (1978)
Opera (1987)
Scream (1996)
Inside (2007)
Sweeney Todd (2007)
Eden Lake (2008)
Midnight Meat Train (2008)
The Loved Ones (2009)
Dream Home (2010)
The Woman (2011)
Green Room (2015)
Don't Breathe (2016)
Hush (2016)
Revenge (2017)
Halloween (2018)
Darlin' (2019)
Pearl (2022)
as always, i recommend checking for trigger warnings before watching films.
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See No Evil (1971)
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Ok I’m asking this question in the most polite way I can. I’m very very new to the fandom and just the Beatles in general and I just have to know the pure truth on John and Cynthia. Any time John is ever posted on anywhere, like TikTok, insta, ect, people are always flooding the comments saying John beat his wife and kid. Why is that such a popular belief when that didn’t happen? I know he slapped her once or something but people are alway saying it and I just want to know why if it’s not true. Again I’m asking this in the most respectful manner I can. Thank you !
Hello nonny!
I can tell this is an important and emotive question for you, and I hope I can respond in a way that is helpful to you without avoiding the truth.
I don't like the way that John's violence is often discussed---people do like to make complicated things out to be simple---but we can't avoid the fact that John was a violent man. He said it himself [1], Cynthia said it [2], May said it [3], Yoko sat next to him while he said it and she didn't deny it [4].
In her 2005 book, Cynthia claimed he only ever hit her once [5], but four decades earlier she told Hunter Davies a different story [6]. The way I interpret this inconsistency is some combination of personal revisionism (as we all do when we look back on our lives) and choosing a particular version of John to publicly remember after his death.
So what are we to do with this knowledge? This may be controversial of me, but I don't believe in dividing the world into Abusers [irredeemable] and Non-abusers [decent].
If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?
-- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956
John was violent, yes, but he also recognised that about himself and worked on changing. None of the Beatles were (or are) pure, and as fans we each need to decide for ourselves how much we engage with that reality, and how it affects our relationships with them and their work.
It's also worth noting that John was a notorious revisionist himself, and that whatever he said later, he really did love Cyn.
[1] "I used to be cruel to my woman, and physically — any woman. I was a hitter. I couldn’t express myself and I hit. I fought men and I hit women."
--- John discussing the song Getting Better in an interview with Playboy 1980
[2] "Molly, the cleaning woman, once caught John hitting me, really clouting me. She said I was a silly girl, to get mixed up with someone like that."
--- Cynthia to Hunter Davies in the official biography (chapter 7)
[3] "He was drunk and looked very confused. Slowly he reached out, put his hands to my throat, and began to strangle me. As his hands closed tighter I screamed out and I tried to pull away, but he was incredibly strong."
--- May Pang in her book Loving John (chapter 14)
[4] https://amoralto.tumblr.com/post/46083471661/september-5th-1971-st-regis-hotel-new-york-in#notes
[5] "The next day at college he followed me to the girls' loos (toilets) in the basement. When I came out he was waiting with a dark look on his face. Before I could speak he raised his arm and hit me across the face, knocking my head into the pipes that ran down the wall behind me,". She goes on to claim that John promised never to hit her again and he kept that promise.
[6] See note 2 above. These don't sound to me like they could be the same incident.
#sorry for the delay responding to this anon#i was in london to see the yoko ono exhibition#i have many thoughts and will be writing them up soon#i hope this was useful to you#please feel free to send followups#john and violence#anon ask
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By: Wokal Distance
Published: May 7, 2024
Want to know how Woke activists take over buildings, smash windows, trash university campuses, and still have the press call them "non-violent"?
Well, as it turns out these are well trained activists using intelligent, highly developed tactics. Here's a primer:
First off: none of this is spontaneous.
IE: The protestors in the video going around have shields. (pic 1)
In 2020 we learned these shields can take hours to make and are made by volunteers working all day. You don't do that spontaneously. It takes planning. (pics 2 +3)
Here's a thread on the shields used during the 2020 Portland protests. They are well built and are distributed to those wishing to engage in "direct action" (AKA violence and vandalism).
Not all shields are built like this, but this is typical:
Another clue that this is all VERY well planned is the fact they tend to all have the same tent.
This is because the organizations that run and fund the protests purchase the tents in bulk and then give them to the protestors as needed.
Again, It is all VERY well planned.
Further, these are NOT "student protests."
Lisa Fithian is a 63 year old professional protestor, not a student. She's planned protests for decades.
According to the NYPD 1/3 of the people arrested at Columbia, and most of the people arrested at the CCNY, were not students
Now we need to understand the TACTICS that are being used here.
The first strategy is to put their target in a "decision dilemma." This is where they select a method of protest that leaves the person with no good options. No matter how the target reacts they look bad.
As John Searle explained in his 1971 book "The Campus War," the strategy is to leave the University with no good options:
They either let the protestors take over, or call police and then students play victim and use the optics to look like sympathetic martyrs for the cause.
The decision dilemma strategy is paired with: "the real action is your targets reaction." You use someone's reactions to your protest against them.
IE: Taking over a building. If the police arrest you, you film it and play the martyr. If they don't, you control the building
Those two strategies are used hand in hand to create actions which activists can turn to their advantage.
When they do this correctly they can paint themselves as the sympathetic powerless underdogs even when they are the aggressors.
It's social and political jiu-jitsu
This is performative, but not in "look good to your peers" kind of way.
The principle is "play to the audience that isn't there." Activists protesters want to LOOK good to the people on Youtube or watching the news.
It's the OPTICS that matter.
Please pay careful attention to this:
Activists want to LOOK like they are trying to change the minds of people they protest against, but that's just for show. They see their targets unrepentant evil doers that are just props in the drama they are staging.
This is awful.
The point of the protest is not to change the mind of the people whose building they have taken over, the goal is to use the protest as a way of building social and political pressure against the people they are trying to make give it.
THAT is the goal.
This next strategy is self-explanatory: "do the media's work for them."
This is where activists find press releases and film footage that make them look good get into the hands of sympathetic journalists. This explains a lot of what gets on TV
So how do they do all this and still get sympathetic coverage?
The strategy is: "lead with sympathetic characters." It's EXACTLY what it sounds like. They put sympathetic people out front to garner sympathy and create the APPEARANCE of underdogs fighting against the powerful.
This is why in the coverage of these protests you rarely see the images of smashed glass, trashed buildings, broken doors, and blood on the street, but you will often see pictures of the people below which are meant to make the protestors look sympathetic.
The protestors have a highly developed theory of protest optics. They understand videos can be sliced and diced to tell any story, and the story that "resonates" with people most, wins. So they are intentional in trying to create moments on video that can go viral...
That isn't to say they aren't also intentional in doing damage. They are. The book Black Bloc, White Riot: Anti-Globalization and the Genealogy of Dissent by author AK Thompson is the starting place for their theory of what counts as violence, and when violence is justified.
Here is Alex Hundert writing is rabble defending "a diversity of tactics" which is a euphemism for allowing violence at protests. Hundert explicitly states a commitment to non-violence is "dogmatic" and "stifles debate" about which tactics to use.
So the violence and vandalism at these protests is intentional. Where the elderly protestor is meant to win hearts, the black bloc is there to intimidate. If police react to the violence with arrests protestors claim the police "attacked students."
See how the game works?
The point is that none of these protests are happening spontaneously.
These are well planned protests, using high level tactics that are given to people supported by a well organized protest infrastructure (where did you think the tents and shields came from?)
These radical protestors have organized an infrastructure to, in their words, disrupt, dismantle, and deconstruct your society.
I don't want to scare any of you, I just want you to know what's happening because you can't push back against what you don't understand.
Every single one of these protests operates according to a set of methodologies, principles and tactics and theories that have been created with the specific goal of allowing the radicals to gain social and political victories by creating and controlling the narrative.
As @realchrisrufo points out, the conflict at Harvard is reaching a "decision point," but Harvard can't end the conflict without looking bad and damaging their own reputation.
This is the result of activist tactics applied perfectly against Harvard.
Do not underestimate the ability of radical leftist protestors to win the narrative battle, particularly since we have a media complex sympathetic to leftist causes.
The goal here is not to scare you, but to show you what's going on under the hood of these protests....
Beating woke activists means understanding their tactics are so you can anticipate them and respond in a way that is effective. If universities had anticipated the Activist tactic "occupation" They would have known the goal was to put them in a "decision dillemma" (pic 2)
And the activists will explicitly tell us that these occupations are "well planned" (that's why I keep using that phrase" and that they want to expose the "power holders" (in this case universities) inability to enforce the rules. That's literally the whole point...
Had universities known this they would have understood that the right move is to eject the encampments the minute they start. There was not way to negotiate with the protestors because, as the activists themselves tell us, negotiating is not the point. The point is to create a situation where the University has no good option and expose the university as weak, and then use that to extract concessions and make the university fold because they have ZERO good options.
Knowing that this is the strategy allows you avoid the trap by taking the PR hit and ejecting the protestors and tearing down the encampments on day 1. You're taking a PR hit no matter what, so take the hit day 1 and then ride it out. The longer the protests last, the bigger a story they become, so end it quick and kill the momentum.
Instead universities did not know the tactics, thought they could reason with the protestors or negotiate in good faith, and now they are in exactly the bind that @realchrisrufo lays out here:
Learn how the woke activists operate, learn how their tactics function, and learn how to respond accordingly when they seek to impose their will on you using these tactics.
Thanks for reading.
/fin
==
Honestly, this seems pretty freaking obvious. Hamas can't defeat Israel by firepower; the way they win is by fighting the propaganda war and manipulating the rest of the world into fighting against Israel instead.
Still, it doesn't matter how much you quote their own words, there's still certain people who will say right to you that it isn't true, it's not happening.
#Wokal Distance#antisemitism#campus protests#student protests#college protests#pro palestine#palestine#pro hamas#hamas supporters#terrorism supporters#manipulation#decision dilemma#propaganda#hamas propaganda#religion is a mental illness
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