Jab’s Builds! (Miss Piggy! The Swedish Chef! Sweetums! Gonzo!)

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Woodclaw
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (King of Fighters Builds Complete! Fist of the North Star!)

Post by Woodclaw »

Ares wrote: Thu Dec 19, 2019 6:13 pm I've got a soft spot for the Fist of the North Star series. It's a nice showcase of how martial arts as a genre can easily be mingled with other genres, creating an interesting setting that is two parts Bruce Lee, one part Mad Max and one part Conan the Barbarian.
That's a pretty accurate description of the setting.
Ares wrote: Thu Dec 19, 2019 6:13 pmMy introduction to the series was the awesomely 80s animated movie, which opens to Kenshiro punching a skyscraper in half, the building falling on his shoulders (which doesn't slow him down at all) and he proceeds to keep walking while his neck cuts through the building before it just breaks off of him. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTDy8XVdRSk

I'm always amazed that the thugs SEE Kenshiro do this and then feel secure in trying to attack him with knives and crossbows. Like, guys, he just cut a building in half with his neck. Run. For God's sake, RUN!
As awesome as it was, the animated movie are notorious among the fans of the series for being absurdly over the top, up to the point of looking as something out of a different continuity or setting. While many characters pulled out some kind of superhuman stunts over the series they rarely went that bonkers.
Ares wrote: Thu Dec 19, 2019 6:13 pmOne thing fairly unique about FotNS compared to a lot of other series that, regardless of how macho and manly the main character is, the series is unashamed to do things like let the main character cry openly, get emotional about things, etc. Kenshiro is like the iconic "manly tears" guy. And the series had a lot of moments to allow for it.
That's very true and I think those tear-jerkers were made even more poignant by the general super-stoic and macho attitude of the characters. My personal tear-jerkers are the deaths of Fudoh and Ein. In particular the second being one of the few badass normal character in the entire story and yet managing a feat that would have challenged many masters.
Ares wrote: Thu Dec 19, 2019 6:13 pmAnd yeah, 90% of the time, whether Kenshiro will win isn't in doubt, but that just makes the times when he does lose or need to work all the more impressive.
In general Kenshiro & Co have a really easy time against characters that, in the settings are upscaled minions at best. In the RPG I mentioned the deciding factor in many situations was the Aura score. If you had it you could try to do something against a martial arts master, otherwise you were toast... or you had to be extremely clever. In M&M terms any character without a aura score would be a minion (i.e. 99% of the world) and in the official stats the only non-martial artist with Aura were Yuria, Lyn and Kokuoh (Raoh's horse).

Ares wrote: Thu Dec 19, 2019 6:14 pm
Woodclaw wrote: Thu Dec 19, 2019 5:37 pm Also, for all of you crazy people, there is actually a licensed Hokuto no Ken RPG (Nexus Editore 1995), which was published only in Italy and France and based on Pierre Rosenthal's SimulacreS system. I've played three short campaigns with that system (one was a hack by yours truly to play Saint Seiya) and I have to say it was terrible. The big martial arts schools (Hokuto, Nanto and Gento) were detailed to a crazy level, with each attack or move ever mentioned in the manga or anime considered a separated skill.By the time a martial arts master would get to a decent level of skill, any other character would become a Mr. Terrific level polymath (if he manages to survive... I did).
I am intrigued.
In and of itself the SimulacreS was a pretty weird system based on rolling 2d6 under a score assmepled from a number of stats that usually ranged between 0 and 3 or 4. For example attacking with your bare hands was a roll of Body + Attack + Human + Skill (either brawling or a martial arts technique), doing so using a weapon would be Body + Atack + Mechanical + Skill. One interesting tidbit was that if your skill was raised above 0 (which you could do only if your Aura score was above 0) your chance of a critical hit would improve as well.
The basic system was iffy, but workable, the problem was the disparity in XP. To give you an example, in my last campaign I played a thief/courier, by the time one of my pals (a Nanto warrior) reached a good power level I was already am expert driver, shooter (I had pilfered a shotgun), smooth-talker and mechanic.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (King of Fighters Builds Complete! Fist of the North Star!)

Post by Spectrum »

I just figured that the 'You're already dead' was just a use of insidious.
We rise from the ashes so that new legends can be born.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (King of Fighters Builds Complete! Fist of the North Star!)

Post by Woodclaw »

Spectrum wrote: Thu Dec 19, 2019 7:56 pm I just figured that the 'You're already dead' was just a use of insidious.
Yeah, one few I can think of.
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Frozen II

Post by Jabroniville »

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FROZEN II (2019):
Written by:
Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee & Shane Morris

-Disney Sequels stopped being a thing during John Lasseter's run as Chief Creative Officer, but with the runaway success they were having with their New Renaissance, it was perhaps inevitable that a couple would come out. Curiously, it wasn't Disney's BIGGEST recent hit that got the honors, but its predecessor Wreck-It Ralph- nonetheless, Frozen II followed it the next year. Now HERE was a seriously difficult prospect- though two animated shorts had come out in the preceding intervening years, they were more akin to cute asides (and all the short novels & comics created in the interim were of a similar nature- more domestic issues and hill-climbing than real danger)- here they had to come up with an actual THREAT again. And where do the characters go from here? Naive Anna, Grumpy Kristoff and the Terrified, Insular Elsa underwent complete character arcs the first time around. The story was complete and "Happily Ever After'd". What do you do now?

WELL, what happens is the writers combine an Origin Story (it irked some that we never DID find out where Elsa's magical powers came from) with kind of a "Hearing The Call" story, combined with a Detective Story, while other characters try to keep the status quo. To that end, we start out with the characters literally SINGING about how rad the status quo is, at which point we kind of get the "new normal"- playing family games with their weird family unit, Olaf making goofy asides (he assumes he's maturing rapidly and everything will make sense), Kristoff wanting to take things to the next level with Anna, and Elsa being... Elsa. Always a bit distant and introverted, she's still not your standard "Outgoing Disney Princess"- I think part of what made Frozen (and Elsa) so big was her quirky, oddball nature making her a truly unique figure.

We get a flashback to the girls' younger days, and their father tells them the story of when he entered the Enchanted Forest, found a mysterious battle going on with his father's army and the Northuldra people (Inuits, sorta- more on them later), the battle made the Spirits (of air, water, fire, and earth) angry, and he wound up back in Arendelle, with his father dead, and others lost behind a barrier nobody can bypass. This, obviously, is explained later. Meanwhile, their mother, now given a real character beyond "worried person", sings them a lullaby about a mystical river that knows all secrets, but at great cost ("Don't go too far or you'll be drowned"- remember that). Back in the present, Elsa starts hearing this mystical call (spoken with an eerie, yet beautiful quality by the Norwegian singer Aurora), and when she pulls a Let It Go by belting out a showy song about how part of her "LONGS to go... into the UNKNOWWWWWWWWN!", sure enough, bad things start to happen- this awakens the Ancient Spirits, and immediately Arendelle is threatened. The Trolls from the first movie arrive, and Grandpabbie does his usual "Speaks In Metaphor" stuff with a scary light-show, suggesting that they must find the secret of the past. And so the Main Cast is off to the Enchanted Forest.

Elsa naturally breaks through the barrier, which closes behind them, and we're thrown into the issues with the past already- the Arendelle Army has a few soldiers left! They've been trapped there all this time, along with the Northuldra clan, and they still aren't friendly- each blames the other for the battle in the past. And the Spirits immediately attack, and Elsa has to use her powers on each of them, literally battling them into submission. The sisters discover their mother was the Northuldra girl in their father's story (why the whitest woman ever was in a tribe of Inuits is not explained), and one Northuldra girl explains that there's a "fifth spirit" and then even the dumb kids figure out what THAT'S about. Then the cast gets split off- Kristoff & Sven are separated from the crew, making it an "Anna & Elsa" story again- he doesn't show up again until the end. Elsa then pushes Anna & Olaf away for their own protection, going through a spiritual awakening on her own, as is usual for her- the memories of the past (like in their mother's song said, in the mystical frozen glacier "Ahtohallan") teach her the truth about what she truly is- the Fifth Spirit. Elsa finds out the truth of the past- their grandfather betrayed the Northuldra, fearing their use of magic, setting off the whole war.

Delving so far into Ahtohallan's river of memories cause Elsa to freeze solid (ELSA. FREEZE SOLID), and with this, Olaf also meets his demise to Anna's horror ("I don't think Elsa's okay..."). Almost paralyzed by grief, she sings one of the most horrifyingly-dark Disney songs ever ("Hello darkness, I'm ready to succumb"), but manages to get back on her feet and fight on to do "The Next Right Thing". She ends up saving the day, realizing that the dam the Arendellians built "in friendship" is actually causing harm to nature. Anna cleverly gets rid of it, thus saving the day herself once again. Ultimately, Elsa discovers that she HERSELF is the "Fifth Spirit"- one mentioned in passing by Honeymaren, who describes the way the original four worked. And when the dam is broken and the barrier between lands fades away, they decide that Elsa should stay among the Northuldra and the Spirits- Anna herself is crowned Queen of Arendelle.

Things end... safely. They didn't seem to want to do anything TOO risky, though there's a fairly solid change to the core canon from this point on, what with the ultra-close sisters separating after only three years together. What's funny is this ending could be ultra-bittersweet (to the point of being depressing and against the nature of the first movie, which centered around putting them together), but they practically blow it off by showing how easily Elsa can send messages (through the Wind Spirit; Olaf nicknames her "Gale") and show up in Arendelle whenever she wants. Hell, they didn't even do what I was expecting repeatedly- the breaking of the dam promised to destroy Arendelle, but Elsa just stops it in one of those bad-ass moments that only she can create. TWO Disney Deaths happened and were averted, and more! I guess they didn't want to send anyone away unhappy, but it's funny how they didn't even do a "I'm really going to MISS you" or anyone grieving about possibly being apart. Though I guess Ralph Breaks the Internet came out literally THE YEAR BEFORE, and ran through an entire movie with that premise, and Toy Story 4 was about the exact same thing, so they didn't want to repeat themselves utterly.

OVERALL:
-This ends up being a very... MYTHICAL sort of movie. While the first one was more interested in character and the relationship between two sisters (and Anna's love triangle), this one is more about this journey into a spiritual world. There's no "bad guy" at the heart of it, different from almost any other Disney movie- if anything, this is Miyazaki-like, as his pictures tended to be more about people's relationship with nature and the world around them. It's also more or less a SUPERHERO story, as endless setpieces are created just so Elsa can do something awesome- three of the four Spirits are only tamed by Elsa frickin' FIGHTING them, and she continuously does more and more awesome things as the story goes on. "Look at how awesome Elsa is!" seems to be part of the reason we're here.

The original Frozen ended up being an "Empowerment Movie" almost by accident, with Elsa's coming to terms with herself being a stand-in for any number of shy/ashamed/marginalized "othered" people, but was actually SUPPOSED to be about the relationship between two sisters, and the nature of shutting oneself out- Anna was too open & trusting, while Elsa was too closed-in. Frozen II is different- the writers have mentioned that the theme of the movie is more about "Finding your place in the world". Though that's never really mentioned at length, and probably why the movie felt unfocused to some- Elsa mentions it in song, and Anna later goes "I don't want to stop you from being WHATEVER it is you need to be!", but it feels like less of a "human story" this time around, because Elsa's dealing with stuff way beyond what normal humans ever encounter- while Show Yourself has empowerment aspects (it's more about how you ARE the one you've been searching for, and ends with the lovely Iduna/Elsa bit), and it's about Elsa completing herself as a person... her completion comes by way of becoming a Magical Elemental God Of Ice, ya know? And her "incomplete" state and thoughts about "I'm not where I'm meant to be" are funny when she's the queen of a whole freakin' kingdom (a tiny one, but still).

All of this leaves the movie quite... BUSY. There are many bits of character "Exposition Dumps", people theorizing things (why Elsa was given powers is openly mentioned by Anna, likely so SOMEBODY lays it out and they're not dealing with annoyed fans for years), and mysteries unlocking other mysteries. Because of this, they skip over certain character bits, and some threads seem to develop that are never answered- Anna has a thing where she feels Elsa's going too far and being too reckless; it's literally shown later that Elsa was CORRECT, so technically Anna was unintentionally holding her back. We meet a quartet of new characters AND deal with four Elemental Spirits, and quickly move on from each of them after a modicum of focus.

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THE STORY OF ELSA:
-The movie doesn't really, REALLY beat you over the head with its core plot, largely because the pace is too quick and there's so much going on, but it's fairly clear that the major crux here is "What Elsa Wants" vs. "What Elsa Needs", as well as the secrets of her power (and, of course, her complete identity). A lot of plots run like this (Anna wants romance, but what she NEEDS is her sister, for example), but in this case, what Elsa wants is to stay at home and maintain the status quo ("I can't freeze this moment, but at least I can go out and seize this DAAYYYYYYYYY!"), but what she NEEDS is to accept her destiny and become her true self. It's fairly linked to the first movie, which devoted most of her 12 minutes of screen-time (seriously, go check) to her identity issues- after years of restraining her own nature, she explodes forth in this frenzy of joy, truly accepting who she was. This movie provides a bit more of that- her first song gives the hints that she's not feeling whole and seems alone in the world ("Or are you someone out there, who's a little bit like me?"), and another completes her ("I am FOUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNDDDDD!").

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THE NEW STATUS QUO:
-This is kind of an interesting one for fans and anyone who was reading or writing the stories set after Frozen came out- the status quo is now VERY different. Anna is now the Queen of Arendelle, Elsa having abdicated to become the guardian of the Forest- it's not clear what she's guarding it from, but seeing as how the last time stuff happened in there, it created a powerful mist that blocked out all access, I guess that's important. So anything set after Frozen II is going to have to showcase this- Elsa living apart from Arendelle, but still with people... and the Spirits, I guess (so she's not quite a "Bedazzled Ice Hermit", as one YouTuber described her). And she can still come by to visit once a week or something.

It was one of the hardest things for me to accept when I first saw the movie, oddly- the entirety of Frozen I is about the sisters' relationship and them coming together, and then after three years they live apart? But to be fair, they live closer than many REAL siblings do, and it's made particularly clear how little really separates them (Elsa's steed outran a freaking TIDAL WAVE to get their first). But it's kind of weird. Though when I thought more about it, I realized that almost every single thing set after the first film is very... dull. It's all domestic tidings and hanging around, setting up celebrations, or dealing with the citizenry in what is apparently a town of only a few hundred, tops. So like... guarding a magical forest and the river "full of memory" is a lot more epic and "fitting" for a character who's become unto a God than farting around and leading ice-sculpting contests and finding a lost reindeer calf.

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Also, here's Ice Knight Elsa

THE POSITIVES:
-The movie is EPIC-looking. Almost the best overall part of the movie is the depth of the scenery, the incredible graphics, and the set-pieces created. Elsa's twin songs get these gorgeous "bright lights to all-black backdrops", coming off like the Northern Lights come to life, showing great images. The various Spirits have terrific-looking powers, and Elsa comes off as a huge bad-ass. I mean, they give her moment after moment that looks great. The autumnal environment looks amazing, the water is among the best-animated ever (all CGI movies now include water scenes to show off as much as possible because everyone in animation knows it's hard to animate water), and more. Nearly every review, even the negative, gushes over how beautiful this movie looks- if anything, this may be the prettiest animated feature in history- NOTHING looks like this!

Elsa is also a TOTAL GODDAMN SUPERHERO here, becoming almost a living god in the Disney Pantheon- during the course of the movie, she beats the shit out of a tornado, a wildfire, and THE GODDAMN OCEAN in her quest for identity and searching for the mysterious call. During Show Yourself, she launches massive ice pillars out of the way, bursts into a closed room, creates huge stands for her to run on, and more- and once she turns into the winter-white Snow Queen, it's like some sort of Anime Final Form, and she's stopping entire tidal waves. It's purely insane and utterly magnificent. In many ways, while Frozen was big on character and light on adventure (the Wolf Chase & Castle Fight are almost all we get), Frozen II assumes we know the characters and turns it into an Avengers film but with pretty, pretty dresses.

The character animation is some of the best I've ever seen. Anna's exaggerated reactions feel even more intense than ever (her faces when arguing with Kristoff are hyper-animated, especially around the mouth), and Elsa now has a ridiculous amount of "Idina Menzel" in them- when they animated Let It Go in the first film, they based a lot of Elsa's reactions on Idina's movements in the recording studio, and it shows frequently here- the "thin-lipped when uncomfortable" thing (once she's interrupted by Anna going on and you see her move and flit about trying to get a word in), the way she swirls her hands, defiant character touches ("And if I hear you, which I DON'T" with a dramatic finger-point), and everything- it's like they turned her into a snow-white plantium-blonde 20-something with huge eyes and a tiny mouth. Anna is hyper-animated as always, and Elsa remains this poised, stoic character- much more closed-in than Anna, but confident and regal, even when being smashed about by demonic kelpies.

The outfits are spectacularly detailed, with Elsa's nightgown and travel suit being the best examples. Her nightgown is covered in shiny velvet (another thing CGI animators use to show off), and has that transparent outer layer and even tiny jewel work just to be EXTRA fabulous, while her travel gear is covered in TONS of delicate linework (so much that I actually got distracted a few times when her shoulder pads came into view).

Olaf's random trivia thing is meant to come off as annoying for the others while being funny for the viewer, and that works, and best of all- IT PAYS OFF. REPEATEDLY. When he suggests that "Water has memory" it's meant to be more of his endless chatter, but when he emphasizes how it works (water passes through different people), Elsa learns to use her powers to bring back images from the past, as well as their WORDS. And then it's paid off in the movie's climax, where Olaf's "Disney Death" is reversed thanks to his spirit returning from the water into which he melted. And while some adults are sick of him and annoyed by all of his dialogue, the fact that it's consistently dark makes it hilarious to me. In what other family movie are you gonna have a snowman cheerfully state "provided we aren't stuck here forever and you starve and I give up"? And really, every single time I've seen the film in theaters, it's either Olaf or Kristoff's Power Ballad that draw all the laughs.

The emotional moments are done very well, but often you're like "Hey, hold that scene a little bit more". Elsa's character is largely maintained through the original film by keeping bits and pieces of the old flaws in her personality- she keeps things to herself, is overwhelmed by guilt, and has powerful emotions, yet is introverted and quiet about them (part of the contrast that made her so alluring to audiences). Her keeping secrets from Anna comes off well, and when she discovers why her parents had left Arendelle (to find the source of her powers, or otherwise deal with them), she is shattered by the realization. Her protectiveness of Anna manifests itself in various ways, like pushing her away and trying to protect her (Anna is furious at most of these, in a nice bit). The unbridled joy at losing herself in magic is the same as the first movie, as both her big songs feature bits and pieces of "Holy crap this is so awesome", especially the second one. I mean, Elsa singing a perfect duet with her late mother? AMAZING, and probably one of the most beloved moments of the entire thing to audiences. "I AM FOUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDDD!" will definitely go down in history- just look at her FACE!

The acting is quite top-notch, as usual- Elsa isn't as fascinatingly-quiet as the first movie, and Anna isn't as dumb, making them a bit less "extreme", but they're still very well done ("You can't just follow me into FIRE!" "Then don't RUN into fire!")- close, but occasionally still frustrated by each other. Elsa's recklessness at diving into magic worries Anna, and Anna's constant leaping in after Elsa worries the Queen. Curiously, Pabbie's warning about "Magic is very alluring- it's easy to lose yourself to it" from the trailer is completely absent from the actual movie, because... well, it turns out she was SUPPOSED to lose herself to it.

The songs are very good, and I like them more with time (I wasn't as taken with them on a first listen-through)- I don't think anything will prove as Ear Worm-y as In Summer, Love Is An Open Door or especially Let It Go, but there's at least three real bangers, a sweet Mother-Daughter song, and a truly HILARIOUS song featuring Kristoff and a backup band, complete with 1980s rock video cliches. Though they double-up so much we get TWO "Loud Elsa Songs", each of which have wild animation, great special effects, and "bright stuff on a dark background", to the point where I think they were like "Well, we have two potential Let it Gos here, which one do we use?" "uuuhhhhhhh..." and just went with both, and separated them by an hour so it wasn't as obvious. Show Yourself in particular does the "slow opening, faster beat as she gets into it, loud yelling" part very dramatically.

SO OVERALL:
-I REALLY liked it. And that wasn't just pre-established bias or my love of the characters- having read some semi-spoilery material of the girls fighting the Spirits and stuff, I was REALLY REALLY WORRIED that this movie was going to be dull and disappointing, and that they wouldn't handle my beloved characters properly- the wrong kind of sequel could Highlander this franchise! And I wasn't as taken with the songs, especially at first- I still don't find them quite as catchy, to be fair. But overall, it was amazing, and got better on further re-watches, as I could go "ah, that's right", read more properly into the dialogue instead of being distracted by pretty dresses (SHUT UP! THEY'RE PRETTY!), and more. It's a "busy" picture, almost to the point of being a flaw, so you REALLY have to pay attention and think- they really don't low-ball you many of the answers, either- Spirits remain mysterious.

Honestly, the more you see the movie as an Adventure Film than a standard Princess Movie, the more you'll appreciate it. Like I said, Frozen was a movie about Characters, this one is more an Adventure movie with the characters you remember from last time- the set-pieces look astonishing, and moreover, the action sequences are the stuff of legends- Elsa looks like the most bad-ass female character ever put to film! And just for that it ends up a positive.

Assorted Great Bits:
* Elsa's hilarious "see?" face when she's trying to play charades (awkwardly sticking her hands out to showcase the "item", or standing on one foot for some reason), or trying to make a telescope for a child. The character has so much poise and dignity that little things where she looks silly are great, so long as they're rare. That's CLASSIC "Idina Menzel" stuff, so the animators were probably basing it on her expressions.

* Elsa's annoyed and defiant "and if I hear you, which I DON'T"; with that emphatic finger point. Again- Menzel at work.

* Anna setting off the weird shippers's dreams by cuddling up to Elsa in bed, singing her a lullaby, and calmly swishing a finger down Elsa's nose to get her to fall asleep. Elsa singing along with "Dive down deep into her SOUUNNDDD Iknowwhatyou'redoing" is great, too.

* The sisters sleeping next to each other is HILARIOUS- Anna goes right into her classic "snoring and drooling" mode, meanwhile Elsa's lying on the other side of the bed, completely silent, unmoving, and with her mouth ever-so-delicately opened, in full makeup. Impossibly perfect, and it's a great contrast between them.

* The fantastic light-show during Into The Unknown, as well as the subtle character bits about her secret desires and wants.

* People have taken issue with the dumb way Anna & Kristoff get into "mistaken point" conversations (though you'll recall neither was particularly good with people in the first film), but I LOVE Anna's "Wait, you never said I was crazy- YOU THINK I'M CRAZY!?!" with the most psychotic expression ever on her face. Her lower jaw jutting out like nuts while her eyes blaze with fury drew a lot of laughs in the theater. Kristoff making a proposal sound like a fatalistic view of their chances is great, too ("YOU THINK WE'RE GONNA DIE!?" "I mean, maybe not now, but [... Anna runs off to chase Elsa] some time in the future, WE WILL DIE...").

* Anna deciding that Elsa & Olaf going to sleep is a perfect excuse to make out with Kristoff in the sled.

* Olaf being terrified of all the bizarre spiritual shenanigans, but blowing it off by suggesting it all makes sense. His denial is entertaining, and then he goes and says some INCREDIBLY dark stuff in a cheerful tone, which is really what makes his humor "work" to me- "at least until you starve and I give up".

* Elsa's geeky little dance-along to the ice-memory of the Duke of Weselton. And then her upturned nose and casually disintegrating snow-Hans.

* Elsa's noticeable CRINGE at seeing herself at the end of Let It Go- some people I know were PISSED at that scene, and it's an obvious in-joke to how overplayed that song became (the Broadway Lion King show replaces "It's a Small World After All!" with that song for the same reason), but I think it still fits in-character- she's cringing at her old self- given how uncomfortable Elsa can be in her own skin, it fits.

* Anna's "ugly cry" when she sees Elsa return- we never saw her lose it completely in Frozen (Elsa did, in the big finale), but watching her sniffling and snorting with tears pouring out of her eyes drew a great reaction.

SONG AS EXPOSITION:
-There's also a weird bit that major plot and characterization notes are mentioned only via song, so if you're distracted by all the shit that's flying around in the musical numbers, it'll take you a second to figure out why certain things are happening. Elsa shows no signs in the dialogue of the film that she's feeling incomplete- it's mentioned in SONG ("or are you someone out there who's a little bit like me? Who knows deep down I'm not where I'm supposed to be"). You'd never pick up on her being dissatisfied being the Queen of Arendelle or striving for identity without that. It took me two watches before I realized why Elsa was frozen in Ahtohallan, because I'd glossed over Queen Iduna's song's lyrics a little, even though they were repeated in that very scene- she'd "gone too far", as Olaf later said.

MINOR ISSUES:
-The only prominent issue I take with the movie is its rapid-fire pacing, which kind of makes some things have less impact than they possibly could, and creates a lot of "wait, why did that happen?" moments, and under-developed characters and situations. You can FEEL the writers' room elaborate upon "Okay, so we need an Olaf bit here, Kristoff needs to do something, and we need the Northuldra to say SOMETHING so they're not just empty faces..." and blow through it all because there's a LOT of story here.

The plot moves VERY quickly, much like the first, and oftentimes I think later "hey, what ELSE is going on there?". Like in Frozen, the castle gates are closed so Elsa limits her contact with people, leaving Anna in with her, but we never really learn if they're never allowed outside or what. It's just glossed over, leaving endless wondering about "Why was ANNA trapped there, too?"- things that could be figured out, but aren't even given a bit of exposition. And in Frozen II, you see the Arendellian Army and the Northuldra, and it's clear they aren't friendly, but... they were hanging out right near each other? For 34 years? Were they still fighting? Were they living apart as rivals after the battle? Iduna was Northuldra, but why doesn't she look it? They also throw out the "Did Agnarr know about Iduna's past?" answer so rapidly that I missed it the first time. The plot is just BANG BANG BANG and we're done and moved on to the next thing because there's a runtime here, people!

A HUGE part of the movie centers around the girls and their relationship with their mother- we thankfully open with a sweet bit about them as children, which centers that aspect the story. However... that's really all we get. Considering this is a character that had one speaking line in the first movie, it's kind of surprising and... odd, that we're left with so much to assume about their relationship.

Emotionally, it's tricky- a big argument between the sisters is that Elsa is being too reckless and launching herself headlong into danger ("You're not being CAREFUL!" "I don't want you DYING trying to be everyTHING to everyBODY!"), but ultimately... that doesn't matter, and Elsa's sacrificial attitude here is actually directly responsible for saving the day, so it's fine? I guess? Like, they don't even come to terms with it because Anna's too busy grieving, and is then happy when Elsa returns. Ultimately, the takeaway is that Elsa was correct and needed to become the true "Snow Queen". I feel like there's a first draft there where Anna was more "NO YOU CAN'T LEAVE US!", but they went back on it because so many other animated movies were doing that same story in 2019.

Another issue is the side characters that are barely written at all. I swear we know more about OAKEN in Frozen than we ever found out about the three named Northuldrans, and Lieutenant Mattias is similarly given only a tiny bit to humanize him. It comes off a little like "HEY LOOK WE HAVE MINORITIES NOW!" because Mattias is black and the Northuldra are Inuit-looking, but like... Honeymaren got a toy and she only shows up for like one scene, and Ryder has one conversation with Kristoff, reveals he's awkward around women, and tells Kristoff his people's engagement tradition... and then is gone from the story. Mascotty the Fire Spirit, Gale the Wind Spirit and even the Water Nokk (which is NEVER NAMED) are run through rapidly as well.

And the pacing results in situations like Elsa crossing the ocean and wrestling the Water Nokk into submission, learning the truth about their past and getting a MAGNIFICENT new Snow Queen Dress... and then immediately being frozen solid, leaving Anna with the rest of the plot. So there's these amazing scenes with Elsa riding the freaking water horse and getting a magnificent new dress, looking like the most glorious thing ever... and we move along right away to the next thing and so the scene loses a bit of impact when it's arguably the movie's highlight- like, her big triumph is IMMEDIATELY reverted to her death? Even her resurrection and saving the day kind of gets brushed aside and we don't get the full panning shots of her outfit "in the moment". A bit more cinematrography or proper music could have made this the "Elsa does a hip-shaking walk to the balcony of her ice palace and hits a mega-note and proclaims her true identity to the world" moment, but I fear it didn't get "plussed" far enough- the closest we get is a dramatic "Swirling vortex of ice crystals" finale to Show Yourself with a REALLY faraway shot of Elsa. That said... "Elsa with her hair down" has become a big meme already, as people are gushing about how AMAZING she looked like that.

There probably won't be anything quite as epically-repeated as the dialogue in the first movie, though- nothing really rolls off like "Do you wanna build a snowman?", "I don't have a skull. Or bones.", or "Some people are worth melting for". The lines here are fine, but workmanlike and often just get the plot rolling along. Even having seen it multiple times, I'm not getting the lines implanted into my skull- my fifth time seeing Frozen, I'd memorized EVERYTHING. Again, a function of this movie being more about adventure than character interaction.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Fri Dec 20, 2019 2:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (KoF Builds Complete! Fist of the North Star! Frozen II!)

Post by drkrash »

Part 3 of KoF comments that no one but Jab cares to read. But a promise is a promise.

I left off on Athena. My son hates Athena and will actively avoid playing her. I like her. I’m a sucker for different outfits – especially in 2D fighters – and I also find her pretty easy to play. I could do without the rest of her team though. Bao is especially stupid. I have no use for literal child characters. Momoko was OK.

Since KoF ’96 was my fave, that also makes Goenitz one of my fave villains. I like his design and his wind powers were cool.

I don’t have a lot of comments on the New Faces team, other than to say that I didn’t find them as awesome as Jab did. They’re OK, but their “rock band” motif seems about as plausible as The Archies. That comment might get me in trouble.
Jab posted some very cool fan art of the New Faces though.

Zarina is kind of a stupid character, but I am impressed by her constant dancing throughout a fight.

Jab clarified a lot of the plot of the NESTS saga for me; I only knew it as “the plot with all the clones.” I wanted to like it more, but K’ is a lame character to me. I liked Orochi and Ash much more – plus those two stories are basically linked.

My son loves Maxima for the same reason he loves Chang. Probably worth noting that my son is skinny. I like Whip is a character, but man, I hated fighting her, especially when she would drag me towards her with a whip while laughing at me.

I like Kula as a character, though I never understood the women who attended her. The occasional sexualization of Kula (seen even in some of the fan art Jab posted) seemed odd. The character is supposed to appear like a teenager? Maybe? But she talked like a child.

Zero’s black lion is awesome. ‘Nuff said.

Vanessa is possibly one of my favorite fighting game designs of all time. She looks cool, her fighting style is cool, she is older and married. I mirror Jab’s thoughts on her. Two of the iconic characters in the Fight! 2nd edition art were deliberate homages to Vanessa.

That’s all I got for now.
Shadow Ops - cinematic espionage action RPG - Kickstarter live now!
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Frozen II- cont’d

Post by Jabroniville »

MARKETABILITY:
-Oh, Jesus. First off, there's like four new characters named- expect to see Honeymaren & Mattias repeatedly in merch, despite a lack of lines. Elsa & Anna get a TON of new outfits to attach to dolls, as well- criminy, I didn't even realize it until I got home, but they never wore their clothes from the original movie ONCE. Elsa literally never wears her ICONIC ICE DRESS AT ALL! Like, that lilac dress she wears in the beginning (and for Some Things Never Change is apparently her new "regular outfit", and it doesn't look all that regal.

Instead, we get the gang in clothes just for the lead song. And then BOOM- right into different clothes for their charades game! Elsa's shiny, velvety nightgown is one of the best things Disney ever animated, and shows a TON of skin (were they worried about backlash over the "Pantsuit" outfit she got for most of the movie?), and lasts for that and Into The Unknown, then is gone. And then it's the "Travel Outfits" for the majority of the film, but then Anna ditches most of hers for a darker look (ooh! Symbolism!), while Elsa gains a whole new look AGAIN in something that wasn't even hinted at in the trailers- Disney's only major "SWERVE!" here is to give her a new dress!

Oh, plus there's the Water Nokk, which can sell horse toys (there's now plush AND standard toys for it), the ridiculously-cute Fire Spirit, which has plush for it too, and hell, maybe the Earth Giants will show up in stuff. Ultimately, there's so much stuff here to buy that you can't watch the movie and NOT think about the Merch-tastic reasons for its origins- there is no way Anna & Elsa had to wear four costumes each (FIVE, if you count them dropping bits- Elsa loses the cape and boots too look more "mystical" and something more than human, while Anna drops her wet cape for a darker look), and we had to meat eight new characters, if not for reasons of selling stuff. Someone I talked to at the Disney Store actually pointed out that the multiple outfits for the girls "detracted from each of them", making each one look less special.

TRAILERS ALWAYS LIE:
I can't be the only one who noticed all the stuff dumped from the trailers for the movie, lol. Here's the ones I recall:

* The shot of the boy & girl playing in the winds. This one led to a LOT of speculation when the first trailer dropped ("is this a girlfriend for Elsa?") but then it came out that it was Iduna & Agnarr, and then the movie didn't have this scene at all. Probably dropped because it telegraphed the reveal of Iduna being Northuldra even harder. Similarly, a shot of Young Iduna carrying a reindeer never made it in- all we got was a faraway shot of her flying about in the forest.

* Anna grabbing Kristoff's sword and slashing at whomever was sneaking up behind them. Anna never does anything so violent, Kristoff spends the whole movie unarmed, and more. Probably just there to have an exciting moment in the trailer. And because there's no real villain worth stabbing to death.

* Pabbie's dire warning to Anna: "Magic is very ALLURING. She may LOSE herself to it". Clearly never happened, but was probably made for an earlier draft... except that trailer was VERY recent. Made funnier because Elsa was now SUPPOSED to lose herself to magic.

FROZEN II- RECEPTION & CULTURAL IMPACT:
-The movie's a bit too new to truly discuss its cultural impact, especially as Frozen I is still as big as it ever was in terms of merchandise and imagery. It's kinda just "more of the same", with the same big characters from the first being shown again, and just being given some new outfits. I'd imagine they'll change around some of the "Generic Imagery" of the characters, but they've been bouncing around their outfits since Frozen Fever came out (Elsa's green dress variant shows up in a few "outdoors" stories).

Its critical reception was a bit iffy, however- it's lurked around the upper side of 77% or so on Rotten Tomatoes since it came out. The "Typical Disney Movie" score is nearly universally an 89%, so this is a big downturn, more akin to what Brave got, well below the high-tier Pixar 98% scores, and higher than stuff like Cars. Generally, critics took issue with the jumbled story (which, to be fair, has a LOT of stuff going on), the unfocused nature, and how kinda weird stuff was.
Last edited by Jabroniville on Fri Dec 20, 2019 2:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (King of Fighters Maximum Impact & EX Complete!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Grenzer wrote: Thu Dec 19, 2019 5:04 am On Kyo's personality, it is strange that Jab thinks he is a bland shonen hero-type because Kyo Kusanagi is one of the biggest s***talkers in the whole fighting game pantheon. His arrogance and sharp tongue are some of his most defining traits, and while he undoubtedly is a very good guy underneath that, he still manages to often annoy even his closest friends with his ego and pointed comments. It almost justifies how much Iori dislikes Kyo and wants to beat him into a pulp all the time.
Well, that's interesting! The Wikia page doesn't seem to indicate much of that. It's also pretty common for shonen guys to be either idiots or braggarts, I think, but I didn't realize that Kyo was big on smack-talk. Thanks for continuing to add to these :).
drkrash wrote: Thu Dec 19, 2019 11:07 pm Part 3 of KoF comments that no one but Jab cares to read. But a promise is a promise.
Now you know my pain posting months of these and finding most of the most-interested parties being busy and thus not dropping comments like they used to, lol. But I definitely appreciate this. And judging by the reception, I think others are probably reading and enjoying your take, just not saying so.
I don’t have a lot of comments on the New Faces team, other than to say that I didn’t find them as awesome as Jab did. They’re OK, but their “rock band” motif seems about as plausible as The Archies. That comment might get me in trouble.
BLASPHEMER!!!

Of course, you realize that The Archies had the #1 song during the Summer of Love. Unless you're referring to them supposedly being a big act TODAY... which would be fair enough.

But the "Visual Kei" look was and is pretty big in Japan, which would justify the New Faces being big stars in that country, at least.
Jab clarified a lot of the plot of the NESTS saga for me; I only knew it as “the plot with all the clones.” I wanted to like it more, but K’ is a lame character to me. I liked Orochi and Ash much more – plus those two stories are basically linked.
What's your issue with K'? I find it a bit odd they had to literally clone their LAST Main Character to make a new one, but at least he looks different.
My son loves Maxima for the same reason he loves Chang. Probably worth noting that my son is skinny. I like Whip is a character, but man, I hated fighting her, especially when she would drag me towards her with a whip while laughing at me.
Haha, now I'm recalling my fascination with Big Fat Wrestlers as a scrawny young kid. Some of my favorite stars from childhood are guys like Typhoon, Mabel, and more. And yet today I'm a workrate snob :).
I like Kula as a character, though I never understood the women who attended her. The occasional sexualization of Kula (seen even in some of the fan art Jab posted) seemed odd. The character is supposed to appear like a teenager? Maybe? But she talked like a child.
The funny thing is, to me, I only saw the character in Fanart and not in the game, so I assumed she WAS supposed to be mega-hot. The Maximum Impact games featured this attractive-looking young woman, too. So I was a bit stunned to actually see gameplay footage and see her with a tiny body, huge head and a squeaky "little kid" voice.

... It's Japan. What can you do?
Vanessa is possibly one of my favorite fighting game designs of all time. She looks cool, her fighting style is cool, she is older and married. I mirror Jab’s thoughts on her. Two of the iconic characters in the Fight! 2nd edition art were deliberate homages to Vanessa.

That’s all I got for now.
Sweet! I'm glad she has more fans :). And more longevity than her partners.
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Frozen I's Cast

Post by Jabroniville »

CHARACTERS FROM FROZEN I:
PRINCE HANS:
-Literally all we see of Hans is a flashback in Elsa's "Ice Memories", with Elsa humorously turning up her nose at him and "crumbling" him as she walks by. He's referenced twice, in a game of charades and in Olaf's re-telling of the original story, but curiously never reappears. His final appearance is being thrown into a pile of horse feces in Frozen Fever, which is perhaps fitting. Though it's funny that the price for ATTEMPTED REGICIDE is just slave labor.

MARSHMALLOW:
-Marshmallow and the Snowgies appear as a gag, and again in Elsa's "Ice Memories".

THE DUKE OF WESELTON:
-"Ice Memories" only- him dancing, with Elsa humorously dancing along, laughing at the memory.

OAKEN:
-Now this one's a bit funny- Oaken is seen in a couple of scenes, but never speaks on camera. He gives Kristoff a foot massage in his "wandering trading post" (obviously to keep him close to Arendelle- in the original, he's WAY out in the woods), then shows up in backgrounds with the other citizens, at one point hugging a man in joy. This could lead credence to the "Oaken is gay!" theory that fans have kept up for years, since most of the scenes with his "family" involve an adult-looking male. But they don't even lead the character through standard jokes or anything- both the EPCOT ride and Animated Shorts feature him, so it's a curious thing. Probably cut for time.

THE TROLLS:
-Now HERE's the big one. The Trolls are almost universally the least-liked thing about the first movie, having the most pointless, needlessly funny song when the plot's getting far more serious (though you'll note that the song contains most of the actual points the movie was trying to make- "Throw a little love their way, and you'll bring out their best!"). And Pabbie's notes to the King & Elsa in the movie's opening provide some of the biggest "Hey, what?" criticisms of the plot (WHY are they removing all memory of magic? Why did Pabbie not give the King any ACTUAL advice and instead just worried them with talk of fear?). So when it came time for the SEQUEL...

Well, Pabbie's back, and we briefly see Kristoff's adoptive mother, but his role here is much smaller- he simply points them on the right way- he doesn't know what the voice Elsa's hearing is, nor the purpose of the damn, just that some "great wrong must be righted". So here it becomes more clear that Pabbie doesn't just automatically come up with the answers, which actually helps explain why he was so vague in the first one- he says "Let's see what I can see" and just draws out symbols.
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The Enchanted Forest

Post by Jabroniville »

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THE ENCHANTED FOREST:
-Called "The Enchanted Realms" in an early trailer (where Pabbie says a LOT more than he does in the movie), we're led to a SPECTACULARLY-designed region of autumnal paradise, with giant aspen trees (with the leaves way up top so they don't distract from the important stuff below them). One thing that's irked many reviewers about the movie is how... SMALL... this forest seems. The first trailer showed an absolutely stunning "pan shot" of this enormous forest going on for miles, while the movie itself only shows the tip of it, then Anna & Elsa seem to have walked out of it in like, an hour (she runs from the Earth Giants to the dam in no time at all). But I think that ended up being on purpose- its small size justified the Soldiers & Northuldra being close enough together to have arrived around the same time, and helped create more of a sense that the forest truly IS a prison- a sprawling vista kind of takes away the tragedy of their exile.

The Forest sure isn't far from Arendelle, though- this "long journey" apparently only takes the majority of a night & day- the characters pass by the North Mountain (and Elsa's Ice Palace from the first movie), taking various cliffside pathways to a mist that apparently has stood there for "34 years, 5 months and 22 days"- of course this is the first time we've heard of it. Granted, there's no reason why it WOULD have been mentioned in Frozen I, which is light on lore (though it's just accepted that people know Trolls are a thing, and Elsa's sorcery is seen as terrifying and shocking, but not unknown to the world). But it's funny that the sisters are told of its existence when they're children, and that it's this big deal... but it's only a day or two's travel away from the friggin' kingdom.

The short distance is of course integral for a few bits later on- the floodwater and Elsa's triumphant rescue of the city wouldn't have quite the drama if it took hours for the water to come down, and it'd make the separation of the sisters MUCH too sad, and damage the point of the first movie, which was to bring them TOGETHER.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (KoF Builds Complete! Fist of the North Star! Frozen II!)

Post by Grenzer »

There is a lot to unpack here tonight, so I will divide it over two posts: one for more KOF observations, and another for Kenshiro's build and some preliminary comments about Fist of the North Star.

Team Japan (Benimaru, Daimon, Shingo): A good supporting cast should be defined by its ability to play off the main character, and by that standard these guys are solid foils to the brash but heroic Kyo. The original team was built around the idea that their powers, personality, and physical appearances would contrast and compliment one another based off the old Japanese idiom "The lightning (Benimaru) strikes the earth (Daimon), allowing the flame (Kyo) to ignite." They were a package deal and I have grown to appreciate them only more as the years have gone by.

Benimaru is an interesting case, being a near clone of Jean-Pierre Polnareff in terms of appearance and personality, although the exact extent has varied greatly over the years. In King of Fighters: Destiny he was merely Polnareff by another name, to the point of borderline copyright infringement. In the games, he and Kyo started out disliking one another because Benimaru saw himself as the natural choice to lead Team Japan, but because Kyo defeated him in a tournament to decide that question he was regulated to second banana. Over the course of the Orochi arc, he matures into a true friend of Kyo who helps him through their constant battles and learns to let go of much of his vanity (so... like Polnareff to Jotaro). That he forms his own posse to look for Kyo and rescue him from NESTS in the next arc is very touching, and he is the one to give Shingo a chance to compete in many of the subsequent tournaments. Benimaru is very much a hero in his own right by this point, and his team were apparently the canonical winners of the 2000 KOF tournament, giving him the character to be on the most winning teams in KOF history. Most of his subsequent appearances have been as Kyo's loyal Lancer, and he has not changed that much since the beginning of the Ash arc, but it is really not a KOF game without Beni on the roster.

As far as playing style, I always like Benimaru's fast, hard-hitting attacks. He was what Andy Bogard should have been in terms of effectiveness. It should be pointed out in XIV that Benimaru and Andy filled similar roles on their team, and both were top-tier characters, so perhaps there is a convergence on that front.

Goro Daimon: I like grapplers in general, and Daimon is no exception. Although I find him harder to use than most, and that limits my effectiveness in using him. Daimon has the thankless task of being the straight man on Team Japan, balancing out the wilder personalities of his younger teammates. In the backstory, Kyo first thought of Daimon as being boring and unremarkable; but later came to greatly value the older man's wisdom, kindness, and common sense. I also think it's cool that Daimon's day job is as a professor teaching Judo and general fitness at the University of Osaka, his wife is also a professor there and that is how they met. Not many fighting game characters get a chance to put their skills to a practical use, but that is Daimon for you.

Also, Kyo and Benimaru affectionately refer to him as Goro-chan. This name causes Daimon no small amount of embarrassment (which is why Kyo continues to call him that), but he takes it in good stride.

Shingo: This guy use to be really popular back in the day, but not having a playable appearance since 2005(!) has sort of regulated him to the background. I would say Shingo is a joke character done right: funny, awkward to use in battle, but still effective in the right hands. In the manga, short stories, and other related material, Shingo had a real chance to shine. His hero worship of Kyo evolved into a real friendship, and Kyo has come to see him as the annoying kid brother he never had... although don't try to make him admit that.

Shingo's crowning moment had to be when he got between a berserk Orochi Iori and a seriously pissed-off Kyo during the climax of XI. Having made a promise to Chizuru to keep Kyo and Iori from fighting each other, he pushed himself beyond his limits to hold the two back and succeeded. Although it was at a terrible cost to his body, the injuries he sustained from that confrontation were used as an excuse why he never appeared in XIII. Maybe XV will be Shingo's lucky number...

As an aside, Shingo was voiced by the amazingly prolific voice actor Takehito Koyasu in a performance that was very much against 'type'. Koyasu tends to play these brooding, solemn bishonen types and Shingo is anything but that. SNK actually put a lot of thought into their character's voices, and that is one of the reasons I feel that their creations are so memorable.
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (KoF Builds Complete! Fist of the North Star! Frozen II!)

Post by Grenzer »

Ah, Kenshiro. And he's pretty amazing by any standard and quite faithful to the manga in terms of powers. Some stuff seems toned down, like his strength. In the manga Ken lifted a bolder that was at least 300 tons and chucked it into a raging river, and later lifted an even bigger rock for what seemed to be a few miles to drop on top of some vile mooks asking to be humbled. He never seem winded by either stunt. Also missing are his skill in melee weapons like nunchucks, and animal empathy (he tamed a tiger with a single glance. To be fair, it you really went all out with Ken and took his powers to their logical conclusion he would theoretically be able to kill the likes of Thor with a single well-timed blow; and that just seems absurd on the face of it even for a fanboy like me.

To be honest, I balked at the idea of Fist of the North Star when I first heard about it. Dragonball fanboy that I was in those days, Ken seemed like a cruel meathead killing other meatheads, and the stakes seemed so much lower than Goku versus Frieza that it was not worth my time. But I realize now the huge debt so many other manga series and video games owe to FotNS, and Ken seems like such a well-realized character. With how he is depicted, he should be a Marty Stu that no one can relate to, but his great compassion and humility combined with the great pain he feels over the suffering the world has endured in the wake of nuclear war makes him very relatable. And he does fail, he knows many innocent people died because he was not around to save them, and sometimes they die even when he is around. He loses Yuria twice, and the second time sent him into a years long depression that took the death of a brave young man to shake him out of.

Another point that always amused me was the filler in the anime. Ken did some pretty outrageous stuff in those episodes, including surviving being hit by a wrecking ball (and then smashing said ball with a single punch), wiping out a whole squadron of attack helicopters, kicking a tank to pieces, and surviving being bombed by an attack airship. This was nowhere near a complete listing of these incidents, but the crazy thing is that unlike other anime filler where the characters did things that seemed normally impossible for them to do, it never seemed implausible for Ken. Being who he was, they were just natural extensions of his powers.

My next post will probably focus on Raoh, and his tremendous influence over the development of anime villains in the decades since his debut. That should be fun.
Last edited by Grenzer on Fri Jul 31, 2020 5:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
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The Northuldra

Post by Jabroniville »

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THE NORTHULDRA:
-Peculiarly, Frozen II introduces us to some mysterious folk to the north of Arendelle- racially, they clearly seem to be Inuit, but their dress is akin to the Sami people of Norway. Indigenous to the region, they are actually Caucasian, racially, but are nonetheless somewhat stereotyped and an "other" to Norwegians, typically seen as shorter and dark-haired. Curiously, KRISTOFF is actually modeled after the real Sami people as well. But in any case, this is just a pretend tribe of Inuit-seeming people... but they talked to the Sami people to depict them properly, and even filmed a version of Frozen II in their native language! And made Queen Iduna Northuldra! Even though she looks 100% white. Like a real Sami. Like, they coulda showed a couple white-lookin' ones in the background and prevented any confusion, but I guess they missed that in their drafts or somethin', I dunno.

I feel like there's an early draft out there somewhere where these folks are REALLY important to the story, but it seems like they're made solely to get the plot moving (they're integral to the actions that closed off the Enchanted Forest), and their few scenes exist to showcase them as friendly, charming, and trustworthy. That's far preferable to them just being glossed over entirely as window-dressing, but it's funny that they're not really a big part of things. In the end, Elsa seems to live among the tribe in the Enchanted Forest.

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YELANA: Yelana is the stern, serious, stand-offish leader of the Northuldra people, having taken over sometime after the death of their leader years ago. Her adversarial relationship with Lt. Mattias marks the struggle in the forest right away, and she appears aghast- "Why would the spirits reward a Queen of ARENDELLE with MAGIC!?". Once it's clear that Elsa means no harm, and that the girls are actually descended from Northuldra, things work out, and she properly greets them in a friendly manner. Her last "important" bit in the story is the hilarious way Kristoff proposes to her, thinking she's Anna. Her flat "... no." is hilarious, as is her shudder as she walks away- stoicism in the face of embarrassment is great.

About the Performer: Martha Plimpton has been acting for years, largely in stuff I've never seen, but she was Stef in "The Goonies", was in "Raising Hope" for years, and is a very well-respected Broadway actress.

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HONEYMAREN: Honeymaren is the pretty, large-eyed female Northuldra who briefly chats with Elsa over an open fire, setting off a thousand shipping dreams. It's she who points out that Queen Iduna's old scarf is "from one of our OLDEST families", marking Iduna as Northuldra, and then helpfully observes that the repeated pattern indicates the four main Spirits, but also "a FIFTH Spirit- a bridge between worlds!". Later in the movie, she's seen teasingly bumping arms with Ryder, and she & Yelena have their hands held by Elsa once she attains her true self.

About the Performer: Rachel Matthews is a very new actress with only a few major credits, appearing in "Happy Death Day" and its sequel, and she's the Magpie in the new "Batwoman" TV show.

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RYDER: Ryder only has one real scene in the movie, and his job is to pair off with Kristoff and have a small chat- it's actually really cute and is important to make us humanize the Northuldra as something other than "those guys", as he confesses "I know NOTHING about women, but..." and introduces Kristoff to their crazy, reindeer-based method of proposing.

About the Performer: Jason Ritter is the son of famous comic actor John Ritter, and has been acting for ages- he was in "Freddy vs. Jason", "Raise Your Voice" and a ton of other minor, forgettable things, but his biggest role to nerds is probably Dipper Pines in "Gravity Falls".
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Lt. Mattias

Post by Jabroniville »

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LIEUTENANT DESTIN MATTIAS
Played By:
Sterling K. Brown
Role: Arendellian Soldier
PL 6 (75)
STRENGTH
2 STAMINA 4 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 6 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 3 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Athletics 4 (+6)
Expertise (Soldier) 8 (+10)
Insight 3 (+6)
Intimidation 2 (+5)
Perception 5 (+8)
Persuasion 2 (+5)

Advantages:
Equipment (Sword, Shield), Evasion, Leadership, Ranged Attack 2

Offense:
Unarmed +6 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Sword +6 (+5 Damage, DC 20)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +6 (+8 Shield, DC 18), Parry +6 (+8 Shield, DC 18), Toughness +4, Fortitude +6, Will +6

Complications:
Rivalry (The Northuldra)- Mattias appears annoyed when Yelena engages in "invading my dance space", and suggests that the Northuldrans betrayed Arendelle and attacked first. There exists great distrust, Mattias suggesting "May the truth be found."
Relationship (Halima)- Mattias appears soft on Halima, who had served in a favored restaurant back in Arendelle. When he discovers she hadn't ever married over 34 years, he bemoans "Oh wow- how come that didn't make me feel better?".

Total: Abilities: 50 / Skills: 24--12 / Advantages: 5 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 8 (75)

-An interesting, and fairly under-written, Side Character in Frozen II is Lt. Mattias, who kind of represents our "See? We're not COMPLETELY empty of minorities!" allotment in the big sequel. Mattias, who'd been assigned as Prince Agnarr's personal guard during the trip to meet the Northuldra people and celebrate their alliance, was trapped behind the Impenetrable Mist once the fighting started, and has remained till this day. In the movie, he represents the "Arendelle Side" of the people stuck in the Enchanted Forest (none of the other soldiers- four in all- get significant lines beyond issuing warnings and the like), adding to the mystery and compounding the tragedy.

-I actually REALLY LIKED the bits and pieces he got- Sterling K. Brown gave fantastic delivery, appearing both perturbed by things in a funny way ("Thaaaat was magic- did you see thaaaaat?"), getting emotionally invested in Olaf's re-telling of Frozen I ("Guess what- I'm the bad guy!" "WHAT?!"; "Anna freezes to DEATH!" "Oh no, Anna *cries*"), and more. Like, he had very few lines in the movie, so it's like he made the most of them, creating a likeable character out of very little. He has a heart-to-heart with Anna about the goings-on of modern Arendelle ("Is Halima still over at Hudson's Hearth? Is she married?") and generally acts kindly... and delivers an important, and prescient, bit of advice: his father used to warn him that "Just when you think you've found your path, life throws you a new one".

-The character animation was TERRIFIC with Mattias- the girls had more expressive faces and mouth movements in the sequel, Mattias's face appeared CREATED just for the purpose of expression, with his strong eyebrows, cheekbones, teeth and mouth all sort of acted as one to create some very fun, emotive expressions. When Anna suggests that the answer when life throws you onto a new path is to "do the next right thing?" he gets the most delighted smile, softly going "Yeah!".

-After that, his part in the story is minimal- he's left behind with the Northuldrans (shown helping out their children during the Earth Giants' arrival, so we KNOW he's probably not a "Hans Situation"- helpful to the story in just this tiny bit), but when Anna returns and gives him the order to destroy the dam, he actually listens. He's doubtful at first, but the revelation of what Elsa had to do to find the truth is all it takes- he and his soldiers alert the Earth Giants to their position, causing the thrown rocks to end up destroying the dam, breaking the enchantment separating everyone. And he's the one who grabs Anna's failed jump off the end of the dam, so he basically saves her life, too. And then there's a cute bit where he and Yelena walk arm in arm across the divide, both having memorized the time they spent trapped there.

-Mattias, now made a General, appears in the finale, flirting with Halima (it's suggested they're together) to show that life's moving on, and he assists Queen Anna in her duties. I don't imagine much of a lifeline for Mattias as far as toys & dolls go, but hell- Oaken never got any either. I liked the character, and I feel there's another draft out there where he did a lot more.

-Lt. Mattias "may be getting on in years", in his words, but he's quite physically capable, rescuing Anna once, and saving one of his men from a gigantic boulder at another point. And he still looks pretty dapper, despite wearing the same clothes for three decades.

About the Performer: Mattias is played by Sterling K. Brown, who, despite his character being much older than Anna & Elsa, is actually younger than Idina Menzel. He's best known for playing one of the leads on "This Is Us", a popular prime-time soap opera with an ensemble cast. He was Gordon Walker on "Supernatural"
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (King of Fighters Builds Complete! Fist of the North Star!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Spectrum wrote: Thu Dec 19, 2019 7:56 pm I just figured that the 'You're already dead' was just a use of insidious.
I guess that's another way to go, though I almost never us it, lol. Hell, even in the show it's a temporary thing- more of a quirk that it takes a second to start, and occasionally sent out as a warning, like when a guy arrives to say "He said my body will be a warning" and then he immediately explodes in gore.

Heck, Kenshiro ruins the "Insidious" nature almost immediately by going "You are already dead" or giving a guy a timeline as to his exact death.
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Woodclaw
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Re: Jab’s Builds! (King of Fighters Builds Complete! Fist of the North Star!)

Post by Woodclaw »

Jabroniville wrote: Fri Dec 20, 2019 4:41 pm
Spectrum wrote: Thu Dec 19, 2019 7:56 pm I just figured that the 'You're already dead' was just a use of insidious.
I guess that's another way to go, though I almost never us it, lol. Hell, even in the show it's a temporary thing- more of a quirk that it takes a second to start, and occasionally sent out as a warning, like when a guy arrives to say "He said my body will be a warning" and then he immediately explodes in gore.

Heck, Kenshiro ruins the "Insidious" nature almost immediately by going "You are already dead" or giving a guy a timeline as to his exact death.
According to the series lore, the fact that all the Tsubo activated in seconds was something that depended on the user and the actual pressure point. In a couple of moments, it was implied that a sufficiently skilled master could set them to activate after a while and only another Hokuto practitioner could try to defuse them.
"You're right. Sorry. Holy shit," I breathed, "heckhounds.”

WareHouse W (main build thread for M&M)
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