Tumgik
#this early part of the Jodie arc is not my favorite
crookshanks23 · 11 months
Text
Season 1, Episode 49: Contact
Favorite moment: Grant and Darryl inch-worming across the ground. It's a beautiful visual moment for an auditory medium.
General thoughts:
Welcome to Jimmy! It is weird to hear someone else start the podcast, though.
So, this is a fun episode, if a bit slow, because it helps establish how all of the characters are going to interact with Jodie.
There are some great hilarious moments, like the dad huddle in the woods, all of Ron's lines and asides, and the funny (yet sad) conversation that Darryl has with Grant. I can just imagine them both inch-worming their way back to the campfire as they both cope with the new situation that is Jodie.
Then we get the joy of Glenn's workout routine and the start of his time at the Meth Bay supermax, which is great. They are totally right - if there was some sort of xp-gaining workout program thingy (which I'm sure exists), I bet a lot of people would hop on that. (I guess Zombies, Run is like that, which is a super fun running app with a story built in. Highly recommend if you're looking for something like that).
Next time... Off to the supermax to break Glenn out.
8 notes · View notes
runfive · 4 years
Note
either Simon or Sam for the character ask thing. Or both. You do you 😘
thank youuu ❤️ I’m gonna do my fave trash son Simon and thank you so!! much!! also to @nokki1 and @siriusmistake who also sent me Simon you all are literally the best these have been so fun to do and very much lifted my quarantine mood 😭💖 
favorite thing about them: most of what I love about simon contains major spoilers so I’m gonna give a non spoilery answer which is that he’s always like ‘zombie apocalypse but make it fun’ like the zombie whack a mole game he invented or how he’s saying dumb things to get five to smile in that early s2 mission like he genuinely does his best to make other people have a good time despite the apocalypse and it’s the BEST 
my abridged spoiler filled answer (kelly don’t look) is that GOD what a redemption arc like s3 simon who’s trying despite everything to crawl his way back to the light who understands the damage he’s done and risks it all to try and do the right thing i’m gonna be forever crying about it 
least favorite thing about them: ***s2 spoilers*** i’m like you can betray ME all you want simon whatever but to betray JANINE like that??? fuck u simon what the fuck you don’t deserve her 
favorite line: ****s3 spoilers**** “I’ll always come for you Runner Five” i’m just *clutches chest* *clutches chest harder* 
brOTP: five and simon, they're the best chaotic duo I like to imagine they just lose all brain cells when they’re together and do so much stupid stuff and Janine is constantly yelling at them but they’re having too much fun to care 
OTP:***s2 spoilers*** ok ok this one is hard because I love simon and janine together a LOT but like knowing that he was lying to her all that time :(((( idk they’re the otp minus the part where simon betrays her but also besides the fact that I don’t like it when janine is sad i love the drama of simon/janine like (***s3 spoilers ahead**) “I didn’t betray you, Jenny” oof ouch my heart 
nOTP: I don’t have a notp, but I remember a popular ship was simon/jody and I think that’s cute but I don’t ship them at all, I am here for their friendship though!! 
random headcanon: in Five’s early days at abel Simon was bothering Five (as he does) and Five didn’t grasp yet that Simon is just Like That and Five just decked him and they were friends from then on (in the ‘there are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them’ sense except instead of fighting a mountain troll it’s just five knocking simon to the floor)
unpopular opinion: I don’t have an unpopular opinion I think all my opinions of simon that are negative are shared asdjaklsd
song i associate with them: take me to church or anything by hozier let’s be real 
favorite picture of them: @nokki1 I love your simon design so SO much (actually all your character designs are perfection like I’m looking at that post and like that janine!! and wooowww all of them!! SO perfect) 
13 notes · View notes
gffa · 5 years
Note
hi! i really want to get into the EU stuff, but i have absolutely no idea where to start. can you point towards a few good books, maybe? thank you, and i absolutely love your account btw!
Hi!  Thank you for the kind words, I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog.  ♥  Recommendations for EU stuff often depends on what you’re interested in, because there are a lot of books I really enjoyed, so I’ll organize them by era, since that’s how fans are often divided.  I’ll also include comics, because often times the comics are some of the absolute best stuff!If you haven’t watched The Clone Wars and Rebels yet, those are absolutely the places to start as they’re key to the fabric of the bigger story, imo.  Not that you can’t understand the movies without them or anything, but TCW is especially important for understanding just how grueling the clone wars really were.  And Rebels is important for showing the fates of a lot of the TCW characters and seeing the Empire vs the Rebellion (it does a lot to flesh that out, too).PREQUELS:
Any of the Star Wars Adventures comics that contain the prequels characters are great.  Well, ALL of the Adventures comics are great, but the prequels ones are adorable, funny, and yet really well-told.  They’re light-hearted and largely oneshots, but the IDW comics have been incredible for still being some of the absolute best SW content out there.  Especially a not-miss is #12-13 and the 2019 Annual for the Padme&Leia&Breha story.
Obi-Wan & Anakin comic by Charles Soule.  A five-issue mini series that has the most stunning art of all the comics I’ve ever seen pretty much, it’s also a really good look at the time of Anakin’s apprenticeship and provides some interesting glimpses into their early days together.
Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith comic by Charles Soule.  This comic was an absolute phenomenon to read month to month and one of the comic series that I’ve spent the most time analyzing and felt it’s really held up to scrutiny, which shows just how much thought went into it.  It’s 25 issues of Vader fresh off Revenge of the Sith, over the span of a couple years, and really does an AMAZING job of exploring Anakin Skywalker as Darth Vader, all the choices he made and the themes of the comic are all about showing he can’t admit to the HUGE mistakes he’s made.  It was incredible.
Choose Your Destiny: An Obi-Wan & Anakin Adventure by book Cavan Scott.  I’m not usually a fan of Choose Your Own Adventure style stories, but this one was worth it to me to get an absolutely DELIGHTFUL book with Obi-Wan and Anakin, who are cranky with each other, but ultimately show that they can come back together and obviously care about each other.  Sprinkle in some other cool stuff (Jedi details, Bant Eerin being recanonized) and it was lovely.
Dooku: Jedi Lost audiodrama by Cavan Scott.  If you’re interested in Dooku, Asajj Ventress, or the Jedi at all, this drama was pretty amazing, it gave a ton of worldbuilding detail, but also did a lot to fill in the backstory of Dooku and gave us a long look inside Asajj’s head as well.  Qui-Gon makes some appearances, he has an amazing dynamic with Dooku, and my heart as always skips a beat for how much I love the Jedi.
Age of the Republic comics by Jodie Houser.  Holy shit, these comics were SO GOOD.  They’re a series of oneshots about the various heroes and villains of the time, a glimpse into the lives of all of them, and Houser really nailed it here.  My favorite is the Obi-Wan one, because the conversation he has with Anakin about Qui-Gon is a must and delves deepest into the characters’ stuff, but all of them are worth reading.
Jedi of the Republic - Mace Windu comic by Matt Owens.  A five-issue mini series that, okay, the art is Like That but the storyline really worked for me because it’s a really good look at Mace’s character and his belief in the Jedi Order and how he came to master himself and how the galaxy looks at Jedi.  It’s woven around a fairly typical action plot, but one of the things that always strikes me is the compassion the Jedi show one of their own, even when they’re falling into darkness, as well as this is a comic about Mace Windu’s faith and his work to master himself and it’s SO GOOD.
Kanan: The Last Padawan comics by Greg Weisman.  Stunning art plus a look at some of the characters/relationships that I want so much more of (TELL ME EVERYTHING ABOUT DEPA BILLABA) and more glimpses into life at the Jedi Temple, as well as telling the story of how the character went from Caleb Dume to Kanan Jarrus, all of it heartbreaking and so, so good.
While the Revenge of the Sith novelization by Matthew Stover is no longer canon, but it does an absolutely phenomenal job of breaking your heart all over again for the characters and expanding on everything that was going on during that time and really, really gets into the headspace of Anakin’s character in a way that was line-edited by George Lucas himself, so I think of it as having a lot of emotional truths to it, rather than being part of canon (which it’s specifically said as not being).
ORIGINALS:
The ongoing Star Wars comic (by Jason Aaron, then Kieron Gillen) + the original Darth Vader comic (by Kieron Gillen) are the absolute best place to start, they’re an incredible addition to the characters’ journeys between ANH and ESB.  The two comics are meant to be read concurrently, so I recommend them together, they often show the same scenes from different points of view, but you can roll with either of them if they’re going well for you.  They’re my favorite for what they add to the story.
Star Wars Battlefront II’s storyline can be watched on YouTube like a movie, which is about two hours long, has some fantastic characters (Iden Versio and Del Meeko are amazing, but also the brief storylines the OT trio have in the game are fantastic) and it does a really great job of helping to bridge the gap between the OT and the ST, explaining a lot about Jakku’s significance and how the First Order popped up.
From a Certain Point of View novel by various.  MY FAVORITE BOOK IN THE EU, FULL STOP.  A series of point of view stories from various supporting characters during A New Hope is exactly what it sounds like and, okay, not all of them worked out for me, some of them are very skippable if you’re not enjoying it, but the Obi-Wan one, the Qui-Gon one, and the Yoda one are all must-reads because they are HEARTBREAKING and fill in so much of what’s going on with those characters in the OT with regards to the PT events.  Also the Motti one is the single funniest thing Star Wars has ever put out.
Lords of the Sith novel by Paul S. Kemp.  While I’ve only read about a third of this one so far, I’ve enjoyed it a lot, as it’s a look at some of the worst parts of SW’s timeline, where Vader and Palpatine are at their worst, where Ryloth is suffering, but it’s done with deftness and gravitas, imo.  Possibly better after you’ve seen TCW and Rebels because Cham Syndulla’s character will have more weight then.
Legends of Luke Skywalker novel by Ken Liu.  This book came out around the time that The Last Jedi came out (or at least that’s when I read it, iirc) and it was a balm for my soul that needed Jedi Master Luke Skywalker.  It’s an in-universe series of myths, so it’s not literal, it’s stories told about Luke Skywalker as he travels the galaxy trying to understand the Force and the Jedi.  It’s lovely!
Thrawn novel by Timothy Zahn.  I still think the first Thrawn book was really good (even if the shine came off the apple after that) and it does a fantastic job of setting up the character’s backstory, intro into the Empire, and creating the character of Eli Vanto, WHOM I LOVE.  It’s a great read and some of the best of Zahn’s Thrawn work.
ROGUE ONE + SOLO:
The Rogue One novelization by Alexander Freed.  I had trouble connecting to Jyn Erso when I first watched the movie, but the way Freed wrote her as this messy, complicated, thorny person who was trying to do the right thing was perfect for making me fall in love with her.  (Freed is really, really good at writing messy, complicated, worthwhile women, imo.)
Most Wanted novel by Rae Carson.  I loved this book a lot, where it’s a young adult novel set before the events of Solo and helps tell Han and Qi’ra’s backstory and is a great space adventure at the same time.
Catalyst novel by James Luceno.  This does a really great job of bridging the Republic era with the Empire era, how the galaxy went from the Clone Wars to what we see in Rogue One, AND expanded a ton on Galen Erso’s character, his relationship with Orson Krennic and Lyra Erso and Jyn, so it made the R1 experience just a ton more valuable for me.
SEQUELS:
Bloodline novel by Claudia Gray.  This book still does the absolute most to bridge the gap between the OT and the ST, to explain the events of what happened in that time period.  Gray’s writing is best when she’s writing Leia as a character and this book works as a novel for her and as a story about the rise of the First Order and some of the problems of the New Republic.
Spark of the Resistance is a young adult novel (so about 200 pages) by Justina Ireland.  I only recently read this one and I just thoroughly enjoyed it, it was Rey and Rose and Poe off on their own adventure, which was typical cute Star Wars stuff, but the chemistry and adorable banter between these three was so good I could have read an entire series for them!  (I also liked her Lando’s Luck YA novel, if you’re interested in his character.)
Poe Dameron comics by Charles Soule.  Soule’s writing is some of the best stuff in SW so far and he does an absolutely phenomenal job of capturing the charisma of Poe’s character, while also giving him an actual character arc to work through.  The comics just fly by, they’re so good and so smoothly easy to read and so damn charming.
Cobalt Squadron novel by Elizabeth Wein.  If you get the audiobook of this, it’s narrated by Kelly Marie Tran, who does a love job of reading it, and was a book that helped me just utterly FALL IN LOVE with Rose Tico.  It’s a book that does a lot to explain her back story and who she is and it’s just absolutely wonderful.
The Last Jedi novelization by Jason Fry.  If you really, really hated TLJ, this might not be the book for you, but I found it to be a book that helped fill in some smaller details that made the movie work better for me and got inside the characters’ heads just enough to help grease the wheels to put me in a better place with the movie, so I always really like it.
41 notes · View notes
saintsurvivors · 5 years
Text
SPN Questions Game!
Tagged by  @sealionfoam thank u bby <3333
1. When did you start watching Supernatural?
oh god, when it first came out? i was only young, pretty freaked out and it was awesome
2. Who is your favorite in TFW?
straight up sam, is this even a question???
3. Who is your least favorite in TFW?
....i don’t dislike any of them, i just have certain. feelings.
4. Tag your top 5 Supernatural blogs.
oh god. this is difficult. i’m gonna and try not to tag people who’ve already done it sdkjfsaklgs @mooningsammy​, @theboykingsam​, @boykvngs​, @earnestsam​, @cridenbel​
5. Who is your favorite character (not including TFW)?
uuuuuuuuuuugh. i really like hannah tbh. 
6. Who is your favorite woman in Supernatural?
rowena, or jody. i love them.
7. John or Mary?
half and half tbh. but mary though overall.
8. What were your first opinions of Sam, Dean, Cas, and Jack?
i’m too old for that
sam was my immediate love, because i identified and still identify so hard with him, that he was brave, and kind, and that i immediately took to him
dean was a sweetheart, and im still very mixed up with my feelings about him, but i loved early seasons dean
castiel was literally b a  d a s s. i remember thinking that when i grow up, im gonna be an angel like castiel alas, that has never happened. fuck.
jack was. oh my god. i watched with like, not very high hopes? because the writers can be shitty like that, but ive only had my son for a few seasons, but i’d kill everyone in the world and then myself if anything happened to him.
9. What’s your favorite season?
i don’t think i’ve really got a favourite season? but i loved the aesthetic and the fantasy of season one. 
10. What’s your least favorite season?
hmmm… the one that took me the longest to get through on my rewatch was s6 or 7 but rly that’s relative. ive got things i like and dislike from each season lol
11. Opinions on Destiel?
no thank you
12. Do you believe Supernatural queerbaits?
i think it’s a matter of opinions and how people read into the text, but no, i don’t.
13. Seasons 1-7 or 8-14?
ive rewatched the newest series, and season 12 is definitely where it gets really good, but i’d have to pick 1-7
14. Favorite villain (plot wise)?
azazel overall, but fuck, ruby stole the fucking show okay, if it could have ended on her monologue at “being the best of those sonsuvbitches” god i would’ve died happy.
15. Do you think they should end the Lucifer plot line?
oh god yes please. he was a really good intimidating villain in the older series, and i liked the arc with sams hallucination, but tbh pl ease e nd it.
16. Who do you think has gone through more trauma (Sam, Dean, or Cas)
i mean, i don’t think you can really quantify the amount of trauma each one has been through? there’s definitely been coding to which trauma goes to which character, with sam having recieved more of the sexually coded trauma, or at least what would usually be placed upon a “feminine” character,, but i’ll love my feminine coded sam theory outta this. 
17. What’s your favorite Supernatural episode?
red meat is a definite favourite, but it waivers between all hell breaks loose parts 1 & 2, swan song and red meat
18. Do you like case episodes?
please, we need more. we need more monsters of the week cases again
19. Who do you relate most to in TFW?
 s a m
20. Why do you like Supernatural?
im a fucking sucker for found families, and i definitely first got into it because of that old school horror aesthetic and the mythology, and the emphasis on faith? and sam’s quote of “it doesn’t who you are, it matters what you do”
21. If you could bring back one character and kill off another who would they be?
i’d like to bring jess back? if not, eileen definitely, she deserved so much fucking better :(((
5 notes · View notes
ponett · 6 years
Text
i haven’t posted a compilation of Super Lesbian Animal RPG related questions from my curiouscat in a while, so here’s one of those
anon asked: is there a character you didnt think would work out but did to your surprise?
believe it or not? jodie. jodie's probably changed the most out of any of the characters in the game
for the longest time she was going to be a dog, and i didn't really have a clear idea of what she'd look like. with her having much less screen time than the other party members in the early parts of the game, it also took me quite a long time to figure out how exactly she'd fit into the story, what her role would be, and how to make her an interesting character. she's still, admittedly, the hardest main character for me to write, and in my story plans her character arc is less clearly defined than melody, allison, or claire's. but i've definitely got her figured out a lot better these days
needless to say, it makes me very happy to see people love jodie so much, but it also means i've got a lot of pressure to write her well. i've gotta work extra hard to make her not feel like a minor character--she IS a fan favorite, after all
anon asked: have main the characters lived in Greenridge all their lives? or have anyone them moved there? if you can't answer this very specific question than uhh hi I like your game thanks for games
melody, beverly, and faith are from greenridge. allison moved there when she was little (like early elementary school), so she's basically lived there all her life, and known the other three for just as long. but jodie and claire only moved to greenridge as adults (jodie first, claire later)
anon asked: hey bobby i was really blown away by how funny and great the writing is, finding all the flavor text was so much fun! i was curious as to how long it takes to write, how you decide what jokes to cut, etc.
it's hard to say how long it takes to write the game because my writing process is so sporadic! i'll honestly jump all over the place based on when i have good ideas for how i want scenes to go or just what areas i feel like could use a little more dialogue like, some of the dialogue in the basement dungeon was written as early as 2015 (or 2013, if you count the original version of the game, but all of that stuff has been pretty drastically rewritten since then). the conversation holly has with you if you chose to become a resolute paladin was written sometime in 2016, while a lot of the optional dialogue with her and rhett in the paladin hq was only written a few weeks ago. a LOT of the random flavor text only exists because a funny idea randomly came to me one day i also find myself going back and revising my dialogue a lot. sometimes i'll think of a funnier joke, or just a better way to word something for the sake of characterization/flow/etc. a lot of the time i'll also write a dialogue scene to be completely linear, only to later come up with a way to insert some dialogue choices and make the scene diverge really, the most important part for me is finding the right balance between jokes and drama. the higgledy piggledy's scene, for instance, was inserted pretty much entirely to have some serious character establishment stuff with melody and allison early on, to establish what the stakes are for them and let players know that things will get real at times. so sometimes i have to tone down the humor a little to make sure players can still take the characters seriously, while other times i have to go back and add some jokes to keep a scene from being too dry writing a game is nice though because i can just hop around and add random flavor text to things without having to worry so much about story flow
anon asked: please tell me Beverly has a mid western accent
honestly? probably
CrashFu asked: I love the magic-book-store family; aside from being a shop in the full game, will any of them play any further role in the story?
thank you! they continue to pop up throughout the game but i can't really say they play a large role in the story, no. i may have a little sidequest or something with them though
anon asked: How the fuck is Lady Provence under 40
provence is just very talented and very dedicated to her job. she feels like she has a lot to prove because she's the new kid, and that's like the entire reason why she takes her job way more seriously than holly and rhett (who've been doing this for years) and why faith quickly promoted her to captain
anon asked: tbh with you bobby Allison strikes me as the person who was REALLY into roleplaying when she was younger but hid it from her friends because she was embarrassed by it.
allison was absolutely huge into shit like naruto and dragon ball as a kid, and i don't think it's hard to imagine her going from pretending to go super saiyan on the elementary school playground and doing jutsu hand signs to roleplaying that stuff online and always making her characters impossibly cool and strong 
anon asked: sorry if you’ve answered this before, but how long have jodie and faith been together and how did they meet and start their relationship? if it’s spoilers no worries! i just love them!
jodie's been living in greenridge around 4 years and i'd say she's been dating faith for most of that time--so, over two years. part of the reason they met is because they were both friends with allison. i'm not sure i'd want to go into more detail than that since it is a story i'm interested in telling properly someday!
anon asked: Catherine is a bad mom she should never smoke around her easily impressionable child!!!!!
sorry you're right i should patch it so she's vaping instead
anon asked: What kind of dogs are the paladin brigade? Or is there no set type
provence is like some type of hound (anthony says basset hound but i don't think she's droopy enough), rhett's a miniature pinscher, and holly's like a sheepdog
anon asked: Will there be other towns in the full game besides Greenridge?
there are a couple spots outside of greenridge with a couple NPC's each and one (1) other actual town. i cannot, however, promise it will be as large and content-packed as greenridge is
anon asked: bobby tbh with u the fortune teller is one of my favorite npcs in the game I love him
thanks he's my boyfriend's fursona so i love him too
anon asked: what are the gang's families like? are they accepting of the party's genders/sexualities?
i couldn't really tell you about ALL their families (some of that's spoilers! other stuff i just don't have planned out), but i can tell you that allison's mom is very cool and nice beyond that i'll just say it's easy to assume that, like in real life, some of them have very supportive families, while others have had to look for that support elsewhere
anon asked: Holy shit I just noticed Claire's book in the banner art.
i was wondering how long it would take someone to notice that ;-)
35 notes · View notes
rpgmgames · 7 years
Photo
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
July’s Featured Game: SLARPG
DEVELOPER(S): Bobby "ponett" Schroeder ENGINE: RPGMaker VX Ace  GENRE: RPG, Fantasy SUMMARY: SLARPG is a short, turn-based RPG following the story of Melody Amaranth, a kindhearted but meek transgender fox who’s decided to learn healing magic and become a paladin. She’s joined by her adventurous girlfriend Allison, as well as their friends Claire (a sarcastic, rule-bending witch)(she is also trans) and Jodie (a dependable, somewhat motherly knight). Over the course of the story, our inexperienced heroes will meddle with forces beyond their control and find themselves responsible for the fate of their quaint little hometown. They’ll also fight some spherical frogs, travel to a forgotten land in the sky, befriend a robot or two, and anger the local librarian. But that should go without saying. 
Introduce yourself!  Hi! My name's Bobby "ponett" Schroeder. I have a background mainly in visual art and writing, and I've been working in RPG Maker VX Ace since 2013 after being inspired to try making my own game by Splendidland's masterpiece Megaman Sprite Game. I'd always wanted to go into game development, but this was the first time it felt like it was actually feasible for me to make something fun on my own. By the end of that year I released a much rougher freeware version of SLARPG, originally known as Super Lesbian Horse RPG.
I do most of the work myself, but I have several people helping me with some NPC and enemy design work including my boyfriend Anthony Field (@exclamationpointman on Tumblr) and my friends Thomas Landon (@schloogywoog), Gee (@fattoads), and Thom (@sidewalkwitch). My lead composer is the incredibly talented BEATR!X @neutralnewt) with more music contributed by other friends such as internet pop icon blacksquares (@blacksquares).
Tumblr media
What is your project about? What inspired you to create your game initially? *Bobby: Super Lesbian Animal RPG is primarily about a timid transgender fox named Melody. At age 22 she's sort of coasting along on autopilot with no clear idea of what she wants to do with her life. One day, she and her girlfriend Allison get roped into a new adventuring guild founded by their friends Claire and Jodie. Melody sees this as an opportunity to impress Allison and to make herself useful by becoming a paladin and learning healing magic.
At its heart, the game is about the relationships between four girls in their early 20s. They're all trying to define themselves as people, they all have their own personal baggage, and they all have their own motives for seeing this dinky little adventurer's guild as a life-changing opportunity. And now, thanks to the trouble they get themselves into, they also have to figure out how to be heroes. It's also a game where you can have an anthropomorphic rabbit with a mohawk kiss her girlfriend and then swing a sword made of zircon at a magic tumbleweed
As I said, the game was originally released in a much rougher form under the title Super Lesbian Horse RPG. It started out as a cute, goofy little game where Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic were dating (of course) and went on a bizarre adventure, but it soon turned into a genuine RPG with a more sincere story. It also got much, much more attention than I ever expected. My use of copyrighted characters made the game difficult to distribute, though, and in hindsight I was holding myself back by presenting it as a fangame. So in 2015, I decided to radically overhaul and flesh out the game with a new, expanded cast that I have full creative control over. And now here we are today, with a game that's probably got more new material in it than old, but still hopefully has the same charm if you enjoyed the original.
How long have you been working on your project? *Bobby: Work on the original project lasted the entirety of 2013, with me foolishly releasing the 1.0 version on Christmas 2013 (my 20th birthday—I spent most of the day frantically squashing bugs). I returned to the project in 2015 and have been working on the new version on and off for about two years now.
Tumblr media
Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *Bobby: The humor is definitely inspired in part by Mother and Paper Mario, although my talkative protagonists might make it closer to something like a point-and-click adventure game. I've also always loved really casual comedy that skews towards normal conversation in stuff like Home Movies or Homestuck. Adventure Time has undoubtedly been a big influence, too, as one of my favorite shows, with its "anything goes" fantasy world and colorful cast of characters—but also because of its focus on grounded, introspective character moments in a surreal, fantastical setting
Gameplay-wise, early Final Fantasy titles are a big influence for sure, and I'm trying to take a page out of Zelda's book when it comes to exploration and level design. But tabletop RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons are also having an impact on the way I design encounters. I think tabletop games are still the gold standard for RPG battles, because they're often less about stats and repetition and doing what the designer wants you to do and more about improvising a fun story. Of course, an RPG Maker game can't compete with having an actual DM there to run an encounter, but I'm trying to give players lots of fun little "hey, what if I tried this?" moments with unexpected consequences.
Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them?   *Bobby: Honestly, the big thing for me is always time management. As development continues and my skills improve, I often find myself polishing areas and assets I'd already worked on before. If I didn't force myself to work on new stuff too I'd probably spend three years just polishing Greenridge to a mirror shine.
Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *Bobby: Developing the protagonists further has really broadened my horizons writing-wise. I always wanted the game to have a nice emotional arc on top of all the jokes and surreal dungeons, but over time I've fleshed out Melody, Allison, Claire, and Jodie more and more, making everyone feel less like charicatures and more like real people with relatable motivations. The graphics have also gotten a lot better after several years of pixel art practice, and the level design has gotten less linear.
What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don't have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *Bobby: It started out as just me. Friends on Tumblr quickly showed interest in contributing designs and music to the game just because they liked the project, and before long a lot of different people were putting their own little mark on the game. Some of my favorite characters in the game have been designed by friends, and I don't know where I'd be without the absolutely phenomenal soundtrack.
Tumblr media
What was the best part of developing the game? *Bobby: I love designing characters, and writing in all these little details to make them feel real, and figuring out how they talk to each other, and seeing my audience pick out their favorites. It's a very rewarding process for me. The second best part is getting to listen to the soundtrack and realize "Wow... this is gonna be in a game that I'm making. And it's gonna be SICK."
Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *Bobby: Without a doubt, Melody. She differs from myself in a lot of major ways, so I wouldn't call her a self-insert, but she was created to give myself the relatable fat bisexual trans girl protagonist with anxiety that no other piece media was ever going to give me. A lot of her insecurities in the game are even loosely inspired by stuff I've been through in real life.
I also have a ton of fun writing the villains, but they're spoilers.
Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Bobby: I wish I'd been more consistent about my work ethic in the past. I worked EXTREMELY inconsistently on SLARPG throughout 2015, and I probably could've gotten a lot more done back then. But hey, live and learn.
Once you finish your project, do you plan to explore game's universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *Bobby: Oh, I'm absolutely hoping to revisit this world! Part of the reason I'm putting so much effort into revamping a game I already released is so that I can work with this new cast and setting again in the future. I'm not planning too far ahead right now, but I do have some vague ideas for more games I'd like to make in this world, possibly through the eyes of characters other than Melody.
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
What do you look most forward to upon/after release? *Bobby: I'm looking forward to being able to play some longer games in my backlog without feeling guilty about it, haha. I've been dying to play stuff like The Witcher 3, NieR: Automata, and Final Fantasy XV, but I'm always worried it'll just take time away from my work. It's a wonder I managed to finish Breath of the Wild this year.
Is there something you're afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game?  *Bobby: This answer is gonna be a bummer, but I'm worried about is the harassment I'll have to deal with for putting out a game about LGBT characters. I've already dealt with this on several occasions, although thankfully it hasn't progressed past slur-filled anonymous messages. This toxic state of the gaming community is why I'm currently planning to release the game exclusively on itch.io, rather than exposing myself to Steam's hostile userbase. But it's a story that I think is worth telling, and for every piece of hate mail I get 20 messages from people telling me how excited they are, which is why I haven't given up.
Question from last month's featured dev: Is there any portion of your development that's gotten you outside your comfort zone? *Bobby: I think it's easy to say that most of it has been outside my comfort zone, actually. Working on SLARPG has really pushed the boundaries of what I previously thought I was capable of as an artist. When I first started I literally made a dungeon that was just a straight line with one 90 degree turn because I had no idea what else to do with the canvas. Now I can make dungeons that are actually slightly fun!
Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *Bobby: Study the games and stories you love, and find out what really makes them tick. Don't just mimic surface level things, but study the mechanical, structural, and thematic elements that make them so memorable. Oh, and don't put too much effort into a fangame if there's even the slightest chance it'll get taken down, haha. Make something original loosely inspired by the things you love instead.
We mods would like to thank Bobby for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved! 
Remember to check out SLARPG if you haven’t already! See you next month! 
- Mods Gold & Platinum 
2K notes · View notes
rcrantz · 7 years
Text
Reviewing Doctor Who: What Have We Learned, Class?
Now that I’ve watched every Doctor Who there is to watch, you may be surprised to learn that I have some opinions! So, since you’re all here, I suppose I may as well share.
The Classic Era. You know that old cliche about the one constant characteristic of Doctor Who being change? It’s absolutely correct. It started its life as a low-budget show about a grumpy old man with a very inaccurate time machine and became . . . a lot of different things over the years. But it started to feel like Doctor Who pretty early on in its run--much like the character of the Doctor, the themes and faces change, but there is a core idea that never quite goes away.
As such, it’s hard to give the classic era one defining trait--each Doctor is very different from most of the others--but I think it’s safe to say that characters are handled differently. In the classic era, character arcs are less of a thing. We seldom meet the friends and family of our companions, and there are very few character-driven stories. That’s not to say there aren’t excellent characters and excellent character dynamics, but the focus is generally elsewhere. (There are, of course, exceptions.)
The interesting thing is how casual this makes some of the companions’ departures. Modern Who won’t let a companion leave without giving them a whole climactic episode (and Moffat won’t let a companion leave without having them pretend to leave six times, then have them seem to leave forever only to come back and travel through space and time with some random interstellar badass); in contrast, many of the companion departures in classic Who are fairly abrupt. The Doctor ditches Susan so she can get married to the dude she was hanging out with; he leaves Sarah Jane Smith in the wrong city because humans aren’t allowed on Gallifrey and he’s been summoned; Nyssa decides that she’d rather stay and help plague victims than keep traveling; and so on. Sometimes they decide to leave, sometimes the Doctor leaves them behind, but the show seldom dwells.
On the one hand, if you don’t like a companion this is fantastic. Classic Who relies much less on continuity (due, I think, largely to the format): if a character is gone, chances are we won’t hear about them again. But it does mean that some interesting character dynamics aren’t fully explored.
All told, I had a lot of fun with the classic era, and I think a lot of it is worth revisiting. Due to the episodic nature it’s pretty easy to just drop in wherever; you’ll probably figure out what’s going on without too much trouble. (I think Romana is the only companion who benefits from a bit of explanation, and even then all you need to say is “Romana is also a Time Lord.”)
The Davies Era. When I started watching, of course, Davies was all there was. I think I picked it up right after the End of Time had aired, before Moffat’s era started. Davies loves his character drama (see also my “rose is sad” tag), and lingers a lot on the effect the Doctor has on the lives he touches--and on the lives of their family and friends. Though this sometimes goes spectacularly badly (see: Father’s Day), for the most part I appreciate it. The companions feel more real, and it adds a layer of complexity to the Doctor’s character and his relationship with his companions.
He also likes big explosive finales where the fate of the world/universe is in balance, and meta-arcs which aren’t so much story arcs as they are a series of references that make you go “ah-ha” when you finally hit the finale. I actually like that, for the most part: if the finale is bad, you don’t feel that the whole arc is ruined; if it’s good, it adds a little bit of extra satisfaction to the resolution.
Early on in Davies’ run, the Doctor was usually an unknown character. He later starts running into people he’s encountered before, and of course the Daleks have a personal vendetta, but only once (during a Moffat-penned episode) during the Davies era does the Doctor save the day by just saying “I’m the Doctor, look me up.”
The Davies era is still firmly in the classic style: the Doctor and his companions live on the TARDIS. In the modern era they now visit their homes with some regularity, but they’re still primarily travelers. On some level, even if they’re expecting to be able to go home again, they give up their lives to travel with the Doctor.
The Moffat Era. I was actually pretty stoked to hear Moffat was the new showrunner when time rolled around, because his episodes thus far had all been top-notch. And while doing this rewatch I did not dislike it nearly as much as I’d remembered. So why was it frustrating my first time through?
I think most of it is that Moffat likes to set up interesting mysteries without having a good resolution in mind. Sometimes he simply fails to resolve them, sometimes the resolution is a cheap cop-out, and sometimes it’s just unsatisfying. And the seasons are now woven into the meta-plot to some degree or other, making it harder to extricate.
Moffat’s meta-plots are more involved than Davies’ were, which also means they’re less subtle. They will regularly feature brief segments, usually at the end of an episode, where the ongoing mystery happens: In Series 5, it would be a shot of a Crack in Time; in Series 8, we had Missy; etc., etc. I didn’t like most of these meta-plots, as you can probably see from the fact that I gave most of their conclusions relatively poor grades.
Moffat is also much more focused on the Doctor as a character, and especially early on it’s focused on the Doctor as the Most Important Being In The Universe. This leads to some really goofy situations (the Pandorica Opens), and there’s a lot more reliance on “I’m the Doctor, look me up” as a resolution to plot devices. (There’s also a lot more reliance on “time travel!!!” as a resolution, which Doctor Who actually usually tries to avoid, I think because it’s usually not as clever as Moffat thinks it is.) He tries to back away from this later on, but there are still some lingering traces. (He literally makes the Doctor the President of Earth. This is wrong on so many levels.)
It also seems Moffat does not particularly like two-part episodes. So, so many of these stories I’ve had the thought on initially watching them that “if this had a second part, it would have been great.” The pacing feels rushed. Worse, often when we do have two-parters, they frequently follow the “part one is a completely different story from part two” formula. This is fine occasionally, but often it makes it feel like, rather than resolving the cliffhanger from the previous episode, we’re just assuming that was resolved off camera and we’ve got a new, related story going on. 45-ish minutes is not a very long time to tell a good story; it’s doable, but many of the stories want us to care about characters we’ve hardly had time to get to know.
For some reason partway through Amy and Rory’s time on the TARDIS, Moffat decided that his companions now lived primarily at home, and the Doctor only stops by occasionally for Adventure Purposes. I don’t think this decision made anything better.
Still, though I have many critiques of the Moffat era, it’s still Doctor Who. It produced some fantastic episodes, and Twelve is probably my second favorite modern Doctor (despite a seriously rocky start).
Stray Thoughts. Doctor Who experiments. I think that’s at the heart of the show. Sometimes those experiments fall flat, and sometimes they accomplish great things, but despite being a show with a strong formula, it’s never afraid to innovate. It’s true we’d probably have missed out on some of the less enjoyable stories if the show had been more conservative, but we also wouldn’t have stories like Midnight. (Hell, we probably wouldn’t even be here. I don’t know if I would have made the decision to have the Doctor transform from a grumpy old man into a bumbling clown way back in the day, and I think that change, more than anything else, helped bring us to the modern era.) It’s a show with the spirit of an explorer, and even when it falls flat it doesn’t diminish the effort.
By the time this gets published, it’ll only be a few months til the Christmas special airs, which will be the end of the Moffat era and the end of Twelve, and very probably will be our first “official” glimpse at Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor. The show’s about to change--that’s what it does. That’s why it’s still here, fifty-odd years later. I, for one, am looking forward to it.
3 notes · View notes
comiccrusaders · 7 years
Text
This spring, the Valiant Universe’s brightest light will finally meet her match – the ultimate super-villain revenge squad! 
Valiant is proud to announce that April’s FAITH #10 will begin the FIRST ISSUE of “THE FAITHLESS” – a sinister new jumping-on point introducing The Faithless, a terrorizing team of foes sworn to eliminate the one and only Faith “Zephyr” Herbert! On April 5th, join acclaimed writer Jody Houser (Mother Panic, Star Wars: Rogue One) and stratospheric artists Joe Eisma (Archie, Morning Glories) and Marguerite Sauvage (Shade The Changing Girl) as they send Valiant’s high-flying hero headlong into a deadly gauntlet of unstoppable adversaries hellbent on wreaking revenge and ruin!
The villains are coming! Faith’s most ruthless rogues – superhero actor-turned-real-life villain Chris Chriswell, high-tech burglar-for-hire Murder Mouse, the incubus-inhabited feline Dark Star, and undercover alien saboteur Sydney Pierce – have finally united, creating an unstoppable coalition of evil with one singular goal: Destroy Faith Herbert! Together, they are The Faithless…and if Los Angeles’ greatest hero doesn’t think fast and fly even faster, they’re going to ground the sky-soaring psiot for good!
“Building up a unique rogues gallery for Faith was important, which was my focus early on. I always knew I wanted Chris Chriswell to come back, as he’s one of my favorite characters I’ve ever created, but a villain team-up is definitely the way HE would want to come back. So that was a big impetus for this story,” series writer Jody Houser told ComicsAlliance. “I love this evil ensemble, and working on this story is more fun than anything else.”
#gallery-0-4 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-4 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
On April 5th, the skies belong to “THE FAITHLESS”! The Valiant Universe’s criminal cabal takes root right here as Jody Houser, Joe Eisma, and Marguerite Sauvage bring their master plan to fruition, only in FAITH #10 – featuring covers by Kano (Daredevil), Jenn St-Onge (Jem & The Misfits), Elsa Charretier (Unstoppable Wasp), and Rian Gonzales (Betty & Veronica)!
FAITH #10 (ALL-NEW ARC! “THE FAITHLESS” – PART 1) Written by JODY HOUSER Art by JOE EISMA and MARGUERITE SAUVAGE Cover A by KANO Cover B by JENN ST-ONGE Cover C by ELSA CHARRETIER Variant Cover by RIAN GONZALES $3.99 | 32 pgs. | T+ | On Sale APRIL 5 (FOC–3/13/17)
For more information, visit Valiant on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and ValiantUniverse.com.
For Valiant merchandise and more, visit ValiantStore.com
Houser, Eisma & Sauvage Lead “THE FAITHLESS” in FAITH #10 – Coming in April! This spring, the Valiant Universe’s brightest light will finally meet her match – the ultimate super-villain revenge squad! 
0 notes
cover2covermom · 4 years
Text
*Books included in this batch of mini book reviews: The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin, Call Down the Hawk (Dreamer Trilogy #1) by Maggie Stiefvater, Red, White, & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston, & Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
#gallery-0-6 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-6 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 25%; } #gallery-0-6 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-6 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
» The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin
» The City We Became is an urban fantasy that felt like an ode to New York City.  While I’ve never had the pleasure of visiting NYC, Jemisin paints a vivid picture of this beloved city that made it very easy to imagine I was there.  Jemisin’s passion for New York really shines through in this story.
» The City We Became is such a unique concept: the idea that each borough of NYC comes to life in human form to join forces to dispel evil forces.  This is why Jemisin is one of my favorite fantasy authors, she’s one of the most imaginative authors out there.
» I appreciate how Jemisin takes contemporary issues – racism, sexism, gentrification, etc – and illuminates them in a fantastical setting.  Despite the social issues being a bit heavy handed here, I thought HOW she wove them into the narrative was compelling.
» The way Jemisin writes and how she constructs her stories is unlike anything I’ve read before.  In my opinion, she is one of the most unique and clever authors out there today.» This story did not grip me in the same way Jemisin’s Broken Earth series did.  The pacing felt off in The City We Became.  I felt like I was trudging through this story, which didn’t make me want to pick it back up after putting it down.
» The large cast of characters did not work well here.  All the different perspectives and individual subplots made the overall story feel jumbled.  Instead of enhancing the main plot, the subplots took away from it.  Also, I never fully connected to any of the characters, which impacted my investment in their plight.
› Recommended to ⇒ NYC fans; Urban fantasy fans
› Trigger/content warnings ⇒ racism; gentrification; sexism; xenophobia
» Call Down the Hawk (Dreamer Trilogy #1) by Maggie Stiefvater
» Could you read this book without reading The Raven Cycle?  Possibly… but I would not suggest it.  I think you will appreciate this story more within the context of the original trilogy.
» Ronan is one of my favorite fictional characters EVER.  I love that he’s a bit rough around the edges, but really a cupcake deep down inside.  Ronan’s witty, and sometimes brash, dialogue never fails to put a smile on my face.
» Stiefvater’s characters are everything.  She has such a unique way of writing such dynamic and interesting characters.  I LOVED all the new characters we met in this first installment of this spinoff series.  If I had to pick a favorite, I’d probably go with Jordan being a new favorite.  I also loved seeing more of Ronan’s brothers, Declan & Matthew.
» Call Down the Hawk had just the right amount of romance to enhance the story without becoming the focus.  I enjoyed seeing Ronan & Adam’s budding relationship that we didn’t get much of in The Raven Cycle.  We really see a more vulnerable side to Ronan in this story as he has insecurities about not being good enough for Adam.
» Stiefvater’s writing is deliciously atmospheric, which paired with her whimsical plots, makes for a mesmerizing reading experience. 
» I listened to the audiobook (like I did with The Raven Cycle) because Will Patton’s voice suits Stiefvater’s writing perfectly.  I will always listen to Stiefvater’s books via audiobook because her writing just translates so well to audiobook, especially with proper narration.
› Recommended to ⇒ fans of The Raven Cycle; those that enjoy atmospheric writing 
› If you liked this book, try ⇒ For atmospheric writing, try Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
» Red, White, & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
» This was a steamy, and highly entertaining, M/M romance.  For some reason, this was YA in my mind, but it is definitely NOT.  I’d classify this as new adult.  Our main characters are in their early 20s, and the steamy scenes are very steamy.
» One of the best aspects of this story was the delightful cast of characters.  The secondary characters were just as lovable as our main character.  I appreciated the inclusion of positive relationships outside of the romance.  Red, White, and Royal Blue features some wonderful friendships & familial relationships.
» Speaking of characters, Alex was my favorite character of course.  I loved his ambition, wit, and sass.  I really enjoyed watching his journey from the start of this book to the end.
» I love a slow-burn romance, and this was exactly that.  The enemies to lovers trope worked well here.
» I’m going to call it now, there will be sequels or spin offs of this book following the other characters.» This was WAY too long for a fluffy contemporary story.  This probably could have been a good 100 pages shorter and been just as good.
» I think telling this story as a dual perspective, with both Alex and Henry perspectives, would have enhanced this story.
› Recommended to ⇒ those looking for a M/M romance
› Trigger/content warnings ⇒ homophobia; racism; drug addiction; sexual assault
› If you liked this book, try ⇒ For cheeky characters, try The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee or My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, & Jodi Meadows
#gallery-0-7 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-7 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-7 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-7 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
» Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
» Queenie is one of the most honest & realistic portrayals of a character in the throes of depression that I’ve read to date.  It was harrowing to watch the slow self destruction of our main character, Queenie.  I also think this book brings to light the fact that not everyone experiences depression in the same way.
» I love a good redemption arc.  I was really rooting Queenie as she fought to climb back from her lowest of lows to get herself back on track.  I also appreciated that her road to recovery was long & challenging instead of a unrealistic quick fix that we sometimes see in books with mental illness.
» I loved the dry humor sprinkled throughout the narrative.  I found myself laughing out loud on more than one occasion.  It definitely helped to break up the heaviness of the story.
» I appreciated that Queenie had a wonderful support system in her friends and family.  While her grandparents were not totally supportive of Queenie seeking help at first, they eventually come around after seeing Queenie’s mental health improve.  I also LOVED her group of gal pals.» It took me a LONG time to become invested in this story.  Queenie wasn’t exactly a likable character for the first 50% of the story, which made it hard to connect to her.  Once I understood what the author was trying to do here, around the 50% mark, I started the enjoy the novel.  The payoff is worth it if you can push through the first half of the book.
› Recommended to ⇒ redemption arc fans
› Trigger/content warnings ⇒ domestic violence; mental illness; racism
› If you liked this book, try ⇒ Normal People by Sally Rooney
Have you read any of these books?  If so, what did you think?
Comment below & let me know 🙂
        Mini Book Reviews: July 2020 - Part 4 #BookBlogger #BookReview #Bookworm #Bibliophile *Books included in this batch of mini book reviews: The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin, …
0 notes
mrmichaelchadler · 5 years
Text
SXSW 2019: Adopt a Highway, The Art of Self-Defense
Two socially stunted men tried to find themselves on Sunday in world premieres of very different films at the South by Southwest Film Festival. Both protagonists are the kind of men who go through their daily lives with a heady dose of fear. One tries to do something about it; one is thrust into a surprising chain of events by life and forced to adapt.
The better of the two is the directorial debut of “The Invitation” and “Upgrade” star Logan Marshall-Green, “Adopt a Highway.” With yet another anchored, character-driven performance from Ethan Hawke, Marshall-Green’s film has echoes of one of my favorite shows of the ‘10s, “Rectify,” a program about a boy sent to prison and asked to be a man when he’s released. That arc is similar here, as is a slightly off-center, almost quirky tone. Appropriately for a film about the unexpected places we find ourselves on life’s journey, the power of “Adopt a Highway” is cumulative. It’s an odd film, but it greatly rewards viewer patience, culminating in the only scenes at my SXSW so far that brought tears to my eyes.
Russell Millings was a victim of a three strikes law that sent him to prison for 21 years when he was really just a kid. He had an ounce of weed on him, an amount that’s basically legal everywhere now. And he was sent to prison for over two decades, cut off from a world that should have been teaching him how to grow into a man. Consequently, he’s almost child-like, remarkably fragile and awkward, as if he was forced to grow up in trauma. Of course, Hawke excels at this kind of emotionally stunted character, finding the humanity in Russ where other actors would have overplayed the archetype of the bitter ex-con.
Russ has a simple life with a job at a fast food burger joint and a lonely room in a motel. One night, after closing up the store, he finds a baby in a dumpster. The beautiful child is accompanied by a note that says only “Her name was Ella.” Russell does not call the cops, which may seem like something unbelievable for a grown man to do but not if you consider that this is basically a stupid teenager in a man’s body. He takes Ella home and he cares for her. He literally doesn’t know any better. He goes to an internet café and Googles if one can keep a baby they find, shocked to learn that it’s frowned upon.
If you’re thinking that you know where a movie about a con and what could be called a benevolent crime is going, don’t get ahead of this movie. The movie take a turn that I really wasn’t expecting and almost becomes something else, and I think that’s part of Marshall-Green’s point: major events can come completely out of nowhere and change the trajectory of our lives. Russ was a beloved kid one day and a criminal the next. Everything can be normal and then you find a baby in a dumpster. Chance encounters and events often shape our futures. They sure do for Russ, one of the most unforgettable characters of this year’s South by Southwest.
I won’t soon forget the characters of Riley Stearns’ “The Art of Self-Defense” either, but with less positive shading to my memories. These are broad caricatures, the kind of overdrawn personalities we’ve seen in comedies by Jody Hill and Jared Hess, two other directors interested in how modern men navigate the rocky terrain of modern masculinity. Like both Hill and Hess’ films, this one is a piece for which phrases like “your mileage may vary” are made. There's a very distinct brand of humor on display in “The Art of Self-Defense,” and it’s one that wore out its welcome for this viewer incredibly early. Whether or not you find the core ideas at play in “The Art of Self-Defense” funnier than I do, I can’t help but think that even fans of this movie will be frustrated by its often slack pacing and repetitive writing. It’s ultimately a piece with funny moments sprinkled throughout but that never comes together in a satisfying way.
Eisenberg leans into his nervous persona with Casey, a lonely accountant who is mocked at work and seems to have no friends outside of his dachshund. After being beaten by a band of motorcycle-riding bad guys one night, he goes to a buy a gun, but stumbles onto a karate dojo nearby at the same time. The studio is run by a walking ego who calls himself Sensei (Alessandro Nivola), the kind of guy who constantly shouts the rules of his studio to his students and pits them against one another. There’s one other teacher there, played by a relatively-wasted Imogen Poots, but this is Sensei’s dojo, and he inspires Casey to find his inner karate expert. Before you know it, Casey is throat-punching his boss and learning German instead of French because it’s a tougher language. But then he learns that Sensei’s brand of masculinity is toxic.
Clearly, there’s enough ambition in “The Art of Self-Defense” to allow it to stand out. At its best, it reminded me of films like Hill’s “Observe and Report,” another movie that challenges the concept of what makes a guy “tough.” However, there’s something about the rhythm of this movie, including several long scenes of Sensei monologuing, that allows the mind to wander. And this is the kind of piece that immediately falls apart if you can’t stay on its wavelength from front to back. Broad comedy is tricky in that way in that if it doesn’t keep you, it can be hard to get you back. To be fair, the final act of this one is so over the top that it win me back to a degree, but mostly just to wish I liked the whole tricky project just a bit more than I did. 
from All Content https://ift.tt/2tYZ4Bz
0 notes
snarkyoracle · 7 years
Text
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
As revealed today at ComicsAlliance, Valiant is proud to announce that April’s FAITH #10 will begin the FIRST ISSUE of “THE FAITHLESS” – a sinister new jumping-on point introducing The Faithless, a terrorizing team of foes sworn to eliminate the one and only Faith “Zephyr” Herbert! On April 5th, join acclaimed writer Jody Houser (Mother Panic, Star Wars: Rogue One) and stratospheric artists Joe Eisma (Archie, Morning Glories) and Marguerite Sauvage (Shade The Changing Girl) as they send Valiant’s high-flying hero headlong into a deadly gauntlet of unstoppable adversaries hellbent on wreaking revenge and ruin!
The villains are coming! Faith’s most ruthless rogues – superhero actor-turned-real-life villain Chris Chriswell, high-tech burglar-for-hire Murder Mouse, the incubus-inhabited feline Dark Star, and undercover alien saboteur Sydney Pierce – have finally united, creating an unstoppable coalition of evil with one singular goal: Destroy Faith Herbert! Together, they are The Faithless…and if Los Angeles’ greatest hero doesn’t think fast and fly even faster, they’re going to ground the sky-soaring psiot for good!
“Building up a unique rogues gallery for Faith was important, which was my focus early on. I always knew I wanted Chris Chriswell to come back, as he’s one of my favorite characters I’ve ever created, but a villain team-up is definitely the way HE would want to come back. So that was a big impetus for this story,” series writer Jody Houser told ComicsAlliance. “I love this evil ensemble, and working on this story is more fun than anything else.”
On April 5th, the skies belong to “THE FAITHLESS”! The Valiant Universe’s criminal cabal takes root right here as Jody Houser, Joe Eisma, and Marguerite Sauvage bring their master plan to fruition, only in FAITH #10 – featuring covers by Kano (Daredevil), Jenn St-Onge (Jem & The Misfits), Elsa Charretier (Unstoppable Wasp), and Rian Gonzales (Betty & Veronica)!
For more information, visit Valiant on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and ValiantUniverse.com.
For Valiant merchandise and more, visit ValiantStore.com
FAITH #10 (ALL-NEW ARC! “THE FAITHLESS” – PART 1) Written by JODY HOUSER Art by JOE EISMA and MARGUERITE SAUVAGE Cover A by KANO Cover B by JENN ST-ONGE Cover C by ELSA CHARRETIER Variant Cover by RIAN GONZALES $3.99 | 32 pgs. | T+ | On Sale APRIL 5 (FOC–3/13/17)
Coming Soon: FAITH #10 As revealed today at ComicsAlliance, Valiant is proud to announce that April’s FAITH #10 will begin the…
0 notes
cbilluminati · 7 years
Text
Houser, Eisma & Sauvage Lead “THE FAITHLESS” in FAITH #10 Coming in April! 
This spring, the Valiant Universe’s brightest light will finally meet her match – the ultimate super-villain revenge squad! 
As revealed today at ComicsAlliance, Valiant is proud to announce that April’s FAITH #10 will begin the FIRST ISSUE of “THE FAITHLESS” – a sinister new jumping-on point introducing The Faithless, a terrorizing team of foes sworn to eliminate the one and only Faith “Zephyr” Herbert! On April 5th, join acclaimed writer Jody Houser (Mother Panic, Star Wars: Rogue One) and stratospheric artists Joe Eisma (Archie, Morning Glories) and Marguerite Sauvage (Shade The Changing Girl) as they send Valiant’s high-flying hero headlong into a deadly gauntlet of unstoppable adversaries hellbent on wreaking revenge and ruin!
The villains are coming! Faith’s most ruthless rogues – superhero actor-turned-real-life villain Chris Chriswell, high-tech burglar-for-hire Murder Mouse, the incubus-inhabited feline Dark Star, and undercover alien saboteur Sydney Pierce – have finally united, creating an unstoppable coalition of evil with one singular goal: Destroy Faith Herbert! Together, they are The Faithless…and if Los Angeles’ greatest hero doesn’t think fast and fly even faster, they’re going to ground the sky-soaring psiot for good!
“Building up a unique rogues gallery for Faith was important, which was my focus early on. I always knew I wanted Chris Chriswell to come back, as he’s one of my favorite characters I’ve ever created, but a villain team-up is definitely the way HE would want to come back. So that was a big impetus for this story,” series writer Jody Houser told ComicsAlliance. “I love this evil ensemble, and working on this story is more fun than anything else.”
On April 5th, the skies belong to “THE FAITHLESS”! The Valiant Universe’s criminal cabal takes root right here as Jody Houser, Joe Eisma, and Marguerite Sauvage bring their master plan to fruition, only in FAITH #10 – featuring covers by Kano (Daredevil), Jenn St-Onge (Jem & The Misfits), Elsa Charretier (Unstoppable Wasp), and Rian Gonzales (Betty & Veronica)!
#gallery-0-4 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 25%; } #gallery-0-4 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
For more information, visit Valiant on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and ValiantUniverse.com.
For Valiant merchandise and more, visit ValiantStore.com
FAITH #10 (ALL-NEW ARC! “THE FAITHLESS” – PART 1)
Written by JODY HOUSER Art by JOE EISMA and MARGUERITE SAUVAGE Cover A by KANO Cover B by JENN ST-ONGE Cover C by ELSA CHARRETIER Variant Cover by RIAN GONZALES $3.99 | 32 pgs. | T+ | On Sale APRIL 5 (FOC–3/13/17)
THE FAITHLESS Comes to FAITH #10 this April
Houser, Eisma & Sauvage Lead “THE FAITHLESS” in FAITH #10 Coming in April!  This spring, the Valiant Universe’s brightest light will finally meet her match – the ultimate super-villain revenge squad! 
THE FAITHLESS Comes to FAITH #10 this April Houser, Eisma & Sauvage Lead “THE FAITHLESS” in FAITH #10 Coming in April!  This spring, the Valiant Universe’s brightest light will finally meet her match – the ultimate super-villain revenge squad! 
0 notes
outright-geekery · 7 years
Text
Houser, Eisma & Sauvage Lead “THE FAITHLESS” in FAITH #10 Coming in April! 
This spring, the Valiant Universe’s brightest light will finally meet her match – the ultimate super-villain revenge squad! 
As revealed today at ComicsAlliance, Valiant is proud to announce that April’s FAITH #10 will begin the FIRST ISSUE of “THE FAITHLESS” – a sinister new jumping-on point introducing The Faithless, a terrorizing team of foes sworn to eliminate the one and only Faith “Zephyr” Herbert! On April 5th, join acclaimed writer Jody Houser (Mother Panic, Star Wars: Rogue One) and stratospheric artists Joe Eisma (Archie, Morning Glories) and Marguerite Sauvage (Shade The Changing Girl) as they send Valiant’s high-flying hero headlong into a deadly gauntlet of unstoppable adversaries hellbent on wreaking revenge and ruin!
The villains are coming! Faith’s most ruthless rogues – superhero actor-turned-real-life villain Chris Chriswell, high-tech burglar-for-hire Murder Mouse, the incubus-inhabited feline Dark Star, and undercover alien saboteur Sydney Pierce – have finally united, creating an unstoppable coalition of evil with one singular goal: Destroy Faith Herbert! Together, they are The Faithless…and if Los Angeles’ greatest hero doesn’t think fast and fly even faster, they’re going to ground the sky-soaring psiot for good!
“Building up a unique rogues gallery for Faith was important, which was my focus early on. I always knew I wanted Chris Chriswell to come back, as he’s one of my favorite characters I’ve ever created, but a villain team-up is definitely the way HE would want to come back. So that was a big impetus for this story,” series writer Jody Houser told ComicsAlliance. “I love this evil ensemble, and working on this story is more fun than anything else.”
On April 5th, the skies belong to “THE FAITHLESS”! The Valiant Universe’s criminal cabal takes root right here as Jody Houser, Joe Eisma, and Marguerite Sauvage bring their master plan to fruition, only in FAITH #10 – featuring covers by Kano (Daredevil), Jenn St-Onge (Jem & The Misfits), Elsa Charretier (Unstoppable Wasp), and Rian Gonzales (Betty & Veronica)!
#gallery-0-4 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 25%; } #gallery-0-4 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
For more information, visit Valiant on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and ValiantUniverse.com.
For Valiant merchandise and more, visit ValiantStore.com
FAITH #10 (ALL-NEW ARC! “THE FAITHLESS” – PART 1)
Written by JODY HOUSER Art by JOE EISMA and MARGUERITE SAUVAGE Cover A by KANO Cover B by JENN ST-ONGE Cover C by ELSA CHARRETIER Variant Cover by RIAN GONZALES $3.99 | 32 pgs. | T+ | On Sale APRIL 5 (FOC–3/13/17)
THE FAITHLESS Comes to FAITH #10 this April Houser, Eisma & Sauvage Lead “THE FAITHLESS” in FAITH #10 Coming in April!  This spring, the Valiant Universe’s brightest light will finally meet her match – the ultimate super-villain revenge squad! 
0 notes