#predacinemateca

[i-gwarth]

watching iwtv2 and I sure hope there's no overwhelmingly insane Armand reveals forthcoming that I'm in no way prepared for

[i-gwarth]

oh this was phenomenal

"The rules are shades of grey when you don't do as you say"

This? THIS, IN WINTER 2023-2024? An animated show cutting right down to the core hypocrisy of liberal institutionalism? Swinging for the throat of a rules-based order?? Now, of all times?

Are you fucking kidding me?? This is so perfect it makes me think it's divinely ordained. They couldn't have hit the target any better in a million years.

Maybe this isn't a surprise to everyone. I joined this bandwagon late in the process. I never followed the show's creator or the development process prior to NDA's shutting down character details or any indicators of where the narrative might go. I didn't know what to expect or what Viviene Medrano thinks about things.

Mainly I saw a very pretty show with a very blatant and unique tension at its core: How can the concept of redemption (or even any definition of sin) exist as a legitimate thing under authority of a Heaven that sanctions regular, coordinated genocide? Who writes these rules, anyway? How aware are they of what's going on? How real are the rules at all?

Turns out Hazbin Hotel chose the most compelling answer it possibly could: the rules are as real as everything else - they're a fake pretend make-believe of accountability and righteousness designed to sanitize realpolitik, prevent the upending of the existing order and keep the people already at the top at the top. You know, just like in real life.

Just like how the global system of international law can condemn one violent genocidal assault from a fascist regime but condone another, even longer-lasting one just a few parallels away.

This thing! It's just like that other thing!!

[i-gwarth]

lmao get enthroned idiot 😭

Well that was a pretty special ending. Throughout his appearances in the comics, Loki has been one of those characters that were obnoxiously brought back to life after being killed, again and again, at neauseam.

What the comics did differently in his case was that they made him aware of it. Of how he caused the death of his own family and his whole world, and how he didn't ultimately amount to much of anything but another megalomaniac. They gave him that perspective on his past.

It's like stepping outside of his own narrative, and starting to notice the little themes and threads tying it all together. Of course he'd be changed by that.

What initially seemed like chaos started looking more like a story.

I love that this series, in its own way, did exactly that. Kinda looking forward to seeing how other MCU writers will either completely ignore or backtrack on this very profound change of character.

[i-gwarth]

X-men 97: Thoughts I had on Episode 5 aka The One Where Everything Goes Wrong

Spoilers beyond.

Am I grasping at straws when I feel a very distinct thematic buildup in this series? It started out almost like the Conclusion of History (appropriate, since it's building from the Actual Conclusion of the old show), and then proceeded to dismantle that notion.

It's taking place in the 90s. You see it in the clothing, the music, the aesthetics, but it's also glimpsed in a geopolitical parallelism. This story takes place inbetween the previous Grand Narrative of the Cold War and any new one that might arise; a Global Intermission, much like how we remember the 90s today (not that this is how they were, but this is how they are remembered. Much like how this show sells itself as "not the old xmen show as it was, but as you recall it").

Mutants and genoism are the topics of the day but they don't seem to be galvanizing world politics in the same sense as the event that broke the IRL intermission (9/11). You see efforts being made to turn genoism into the new global narrative via a rhetoric of "survival of the species" but people don't seem to be buying into it. There is just enough restraint that the intermission holds. Hell, it even looks like the world might avoid another destructive Grand Narrative - UN regulatory bodies are legislating Sentinels out of existence, and those things were originally funded by the US government. There's almost a glimpse of an attainable peace. Dialogue. Integration. The rejection of Magneto's absolutism and the embrace of Xavier's coexistence-and-compromise.

Which makes this episode a straight up 9/11 parallel for its own setting.

[i-gwarth]

Carnival Row: closing thoughts

Carnival Row is like a pressure point in my heart. Everything about its aesthetics, its world and its characters appeals to me. It feels like it was made specifically and exclusively for me.

And yet I can't say that it's perfect. It frequently frustrates me. It feels like it has a limited vision, a palette of what is possible that is confined by the views of its writers, and more broadly, perhaps the shared trauma of our common history. It can only see things in a certain way.

And to some, that way will be both-sides-y, centrist, insufficiently radical. Offensive, even. It insists on "get along" politics. To some extent I share the frustration. The times we live in call for radical art, for pushing the envelope. A more leftist show would have been closer to perfect for me; one that showed, perhaps, an third path to peace, less apocalyptic than a Stalinist takeover and less agonizingly slow than incremental liberal electoralism.

But... you know... who the fuck has ever made the perfect TV show? Has there ever been a perfect piece of art, or a fully comprehensive political take? If anyone tries to tell you that such a thing exists, they're selling a religion.

And you know what's funny? The show knows that. It's not trying to be a political thesis, or to offer a blueprint for the future. It's a fucking TV show; it's at best trying to ask questions and show why the wrong answers are wrong. An open-ended, "I-guess-we'll-see-what-the-future-holds" type ending is exactly what you do when you know you don't have all the answers.

Ultimately I think the people who made Carnival Row tried their best. Within their limitations, whether they were aware of them or not, they made something genuine. Something earnest. Sometimes, even stupidly earnest. It wasn't the best thing since sliced bread.

But fuck it if it won't stick with me, me specifically, for years. It reached one person. I fucking loved it.

[i-gwarth]

Oh, thank fuck! At least the new season of Loki is phenomenal

[i-gwarth]

So... G.I. Joe, huh?

[i-gwarth]

Just got done watching the 1983 movie Danton and...

You know, I'm all for having a movie poster that matches the atmosphere of the movie. This film struck me as rather grim and cynical. It's about a fairly grim period of history after all. The original poster is over-the-top, presenting a controversial historical figure as something of a saint, complete with a halo

Maybe it's okay to take issue with that, and choose something a bit less idealistic for the Bluray re-release. But...

There is such a thing as overegging your pudding