I Didn't Want To Draw The Other Eye

This is the first time I’ve ever posted an actual drawing of mine (if I post drawings again, it’ll probably be in paper tho).

Anyways, my man Liu Kang deserves more love. He’s also been rotting my brain, so the parasites in me decided that I should sketch him a bit. (The line art didn’t convinced me, so it’ll just stay as sketch for now)

Not me scrolling through the Conclave tag only to see no one talk about the deliberate positioning and framing of the women in this movie.

Pulling up this movie I completely expected to only encounter Sister Agnes as the one woman we see in the trailer, the conclave a space that has been kept from the female members of the church. Now, color me surprised when I started the movie and most of the establishing shots we got were focused on all the women working in the Vatican.

And it is such a deliberate choice, it does the film a disservice not to talk about it.

Because while Cardinal Lawrence is having his fifteenth breakdown during sequestering and Bellini finds the ambitious asshole within himself, Ray does all the leg work, and Bel---- we see the women work.

We see the kitchens, we see them cook, we see them stand aside. Most of the time when the Cardinals are conspiring it is the women who interrupt because they are busy working, walking, running errands.

And there is power in that.

I think it is very deliberate how often (and with such lingering gaze) the camera shows us the lives of the other half - partially to connect to the wider themes of the movie, on how Bellini asks for women to get more power but never thanks them, and how Benitez stumps them all by thanking the women preparing their meals when asked to say the prayer (considering his own probably tumultuous relationship to gender within the church).

But it also stands in direct opposition to a long tradition in story telling: servants don't exist. How often the heroes of a regency romance are "alone" because the two hand maidens and three maids don't really count.

Conclave doesn't do that.

It doesn't let us look away.

Between all the petty drama, the politics, and the real life consequences of the conclave, we never stop looking at the people doing all the work.

Yes, we follow the ups and downs of Lawrence and Co, but in doing so the movie reminds us again and again of the women working the kitchen.

And that was just such a powerful artistic choice in a movie about a famously misogynistic church... I loved it. And I had to talk about it.

Wait, then what does it mean to “rotate” them? I mean, I know what rotate means, but how do you rotate a character? What even is rotating a character?!

rainy day

Same happened to me, and I kid you not, I was genuinely talking. Specially during our final battles on the indigo disk. I think something about how he went from this cute, shy kid who genuinely enjoyed the battles even when he lost, to this teen with dull, dead eyes that only cares about winning against us might have something to do with it.

Maybe this is a little silly, and maybe I’m being too meta about it, but while I was playing through the DLC I kept getting this urge to talk to Kieran through the screen like “no, no matter how hard you try, you’ll never be able to win against me, but it’s not because there’s anything wrong with you — it’s only because I’m the protagonist, and if I don’t win, the story can’t move forward.”

I don’t know what it is about this guy that makes me wanna break through the fourth wall and explain to him his narrative purpose, but his arc really compels me — maybe it’s the way his obsession completely, dramatically overtakes him

Do you think that Liu Kang made everyone 100 times hotter than in his original timeline, that he banned all ugliness in his creation because he had been through so much that he deserved beauty in his timeline?

Mk1 incorrect quotes pt. 5:

Shang Tsung: “In prior timelines, I held power?”Geras: “Not once did you put it to good use”

Heroic Titan Shang Tsung: “AYO WTF?!”

(Not)Friendly reminder that [SPOILERS FOR MK11] Takeda never knew that Hanzo, his adoptive father figure died. Before the reset, he might had been wondering what was happening. Where was his mentor?

Did Takeda and Kung Jin even knew about the whole Kronika thing? I don’t think so.

Im still searching and hoping for Gravity Fall’s third journal with the black light, the attached photographs and Alex’s signature

You didn't pre-order that figure that had a pre order window of 2 weeks 6 years ago and how it's $700 on ebay

EPIC: The musical is such a great source of media. The characters are fucking well written, it’s such a genius and creative adaptation. The designs that every artist makes are chef kisses. And the music itself feels like it’s being sung to me by a chorus of angels right from my ears to my heart.

That’s it. That’s all that I wanted to talk about. EPIC is amazing.

Happy New Year.