‘Game of Thrones’ Season 8 Trailer Breakdown: All Men Must Die

After what seems like an eternity of rabbit-punching the refresh button on the HBO YouTube page, the Game of Thrones Season 8 trailer is finally upon us. I am both thrilled to finally have it before our eyes and a little sad. As the FSR overlord Neil Miller said in our Most Anticipated Shows of 2019 article, “Game of Thrones is no longer a tv show” but “a pop culture superstorm that blots out the sun, covers everything in icy/fiery darkness for 6 weeks, and steamrolls everything in its wake.” Now that the final season is here, everything else in our lives takes second place. Yes, even you Avengers: Endgame.

Season 7 left its audience trembling as the Wall came tumbling down under the catastrophic flame of the White Walker entranced Viserion. Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss devilishly rubbed their hands together, delighting in the fact that they beat George R.R. Martin to the punch. Season 8 closes the book on A Song of Ice and Fire, and I think we all are suffering from a wide range of emotions. Let’s not get into it here, let’s just watch the damn thing, and then we can break it down point by point.

First screaming thought: Tormund Lives!! Second squinting thought: this is a pretty dang dark trailer. Ah, but what do you expect when the Night King strolls up to your front door. Things are bleak, and these visuals simply match the mood we’re feeling. This is the end. We better prepare ourselves.

The first sounds we hear are of Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) out of breath. She’s beaten. Bloody. A serious wound hangs over her eyebrow. The last time we saw her, she was sticking it to Littlefinger, but now fear scars her face. This is a sight we’re not used to experiencing from the young warrior. She has encountered the many faces of death, what is the harm in meeting one more? All men must die.

Arya charges down the corridor. Where is she? Winterfell, my guess. In flight from White Walkers? Possibly. I can’t imagine her running hellbent for leather from any man or woman we’ve encountered so far. Maybe The Mountain could strike such fear. While we see her with a dragonglass blade later on in the trailer, the weapon seen in her left hand here appears to be metallic and most likely the catspaw blade she plunged into Littlefinger. Honestly, though, just witnessing Arya in flight sends shivers down your spine.  She’s not afraid of anyone. To see the terror on her face is troubling, and brings deep concern. HBO, if she goes down, we riot. Can’t happen.

Davos (Liam Cunningham) patrols the walls of Winterfell. As usual, looking pretty grim, and in the process of preparing for the worse. Just as it has been for the rest of us, it’s been a long wait between seasons for Davos.

Deep in the bowels of Winterfell, Lord Varys (Conleth Hill) cowers. Above the White Walkers rage, and our master schemer is reduced to a pathetic puddle of a man. In this scenario, Varys has nothing to offer. Only selfish prayer. No one will fight to save him here. He can only wait.

Yes, this is the Arya we all want. She’s seen the many faces of death, and she looks forward to meeting a new iteration so that she can ram a chunk of dragonglass in its wretched brow. The Night King is just another cretin to face the tip of her dagger. Bring it.

The fleet of Euron Greyjoy (Pilou Asbæk) sails across the seas. Towards the end of last season, Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) sent him, in a last-ditch effort, to retrieve the mercenary squad known as The Golden Company. He has succeeded.

Looking over The Golden Company is Harry Strickland (Marc Rissmann), the soldier commander. These tough nuts are meant to give Cersei a bit of an edge, but they’re most likely just faceless cannon fodder. I doubt the final season will get much into their backstory, so, if you’ve got some free time, they’re a fun fan wiki blackhole to fall into.

Tormund lives! Plus Dolorous Edd (Ben Crompton) and Beric Dondarrion (David Michael Scott) and his flaming sword! Nice to see. I’d watch an entire series just about these three contradictory heroes. The Lord of Light holds a special destiny for them.

Cersei is seriously decked out in armor, and looking proud despite the hell she’s gone through and put others through to get to this moment. Her only friends on the planet are The Mountain (Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson) and Qyburn (Anton Lesser). What are they looking down upon? Probably The Golden Company coming into the harbor. She’s feeling good for now. That sensation won’t remain around for long.

Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) and Jon Snow (Kit Harington) march their unsullied army into Winterfell. They’re a united front for now, but sooner or later Sam (John Bradley) will have to spill the beans regarding their incestuous connection. If I’m not ready for that, they certainly are not. One of this season’s many questions is where it will leave Daenerys and Jon emotionally – and yeah – physically.

The dragons Drogon and Rhaegal fly over Winterfell. Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) stares skyward in wonder. The last time these magical creatures flew over the North was hundreds of years ago. This quick shot represents a colossal change in the status quo, and it is not lost on Sansa.

Gendry (Joe Dempsie) working as a smith again. Once Jon learns of his new heritage, he’s also going to learn that Gendry’s dad is actually responsible for his father’s death. That revelation might be a minor one compared to the one involving Daenerys, but it’s just another example of the psychological hell Jon will face in season eight. Prepare your ears for lots of screaming matches.

The trailer takes a moment to relish a smooch between Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel) and Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson). As death hangs above everyone’s head, we’re going to need a few reminders as to why everyone is fighting in the first place. Human connection between the most unlikeliest of places is everything where fiction is concerned. Their enemy doesn’t stop; it doesn’t feel. The White Walkers are soulless creatures, whereas humans are defined by their emotions. Enjoy them when they rear themselves.

Now we see Cersei in a totally different headspace. Her eyes are welling with tears, and she’s got a tight grip on a glass of wine. Hmmmm. Isn’t she pregnant? Yeah, that kid can’t stick around. I’m guessing a miscarriage happens early on in the final season. Although, is that a tiny smile right before the cut? Pleasure and pain often mix together where Lannisters are concerned.

Drogon and Rhaegal swoop over a forest (The Haunted Forest???) and then descend through a canyon that looks to exist beyond The Wall. We cut to Arya staring up into the sky. While there is certainly a scene-change between these two cuts, it’s likely that she is looking at Daenerys’s children. Her look equals shock, but also one of promise. She could slay a brute or two with a pair of dragons backing her.

We hear Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) proclaim, “I promised to fight for the living.” Jon stands before a weirwood tree. The old religions have meant very little to Jon in the series so far, but his newfound connection to the Targaryens may change all that. Has the time come to pledge himself to forces he previously dismissed?

A quick cut to The Hound (Rory McCann). The fire that once scarred him brings no fear today. He’s surpassed it. The time has come for him to confront The Mountain. Revenge. Burn that big bastard to ash.

Jaime in Winterfell finishes his thought, “I intend to keep that promise.” He has come to warn Jon and Daenerys of The Golden Company. That confrontation will need to be wrapped up pretty quickly so that they can all face The White Walkers together. Or not.

Jon and Daenerys approach Drogon and Rhaegal, who have finished feasting on a whole heard of animals based on the pile of bones beneath their claws. Jon has yet to mount a dragon. He’s got to do that right? Just picture it: Jon atop Rhaegal squaring off against the Night King riding Viserion. Spray it on an 80s van mural stat.

Another character looking up. Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) spots a dragon. Ah, that’s old news to him. His expression is much more melancholic; the stressed cynic doubtful that these fabulous beasts can save them from their impending doom.

Gulp. Jora Mormont (Iain Glen) looks at the legion that has gathered to face off against the White Walkers. They are a mighty army with brave warriors like Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie) and Podrick (Daniel Portman) on their line, but they’ve never faced anything like these demons before. I’ve put my money on Jora in the past and lost, but I want him to come out of this fight victorious. However, he’s not wearing the face of a confident man.

Ah, but who can blame his weak expression. The trailer ends with a pair of undead hooves coming into frame. Eight seasons in the making, Winter is Here. We know that this battle begins in the third episode of the season. We are all ready for it. Now, the big question this trailer doesn’t even bother to address is who will ultimately end on the Iron Throne. We got to get through these White Walkers first, and then we can start worrying about the royal victor.

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Game of Thrones: The Final Season begins on April 14th on HBO.

The post ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 8 Trailer Breakdown: All Men Must Die appeared first on Film School Rejects.

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We Can’t Let Physical Media Die

Samsung recently announced that they won’t be making any more Blu-ray players for the US market. Some of you may think that’s not a big deal. Other companies make Blu-ray players, after all. Why should we care if one focuses their resources on other products? And you are correct — other companies do churn out Blu-ray players and will continue to do so for years to come. Regardless of that, though, this development is yet another blow to the long-term survival of physical media.

It’s no secret that disc sales have been declining for years now. According to Statista, streaming and digital formats have been surpassing home media format sales since 2016. Furthermore, Blu-ray sales dropped a further 15% in 2018, which further proves that the warning signs of physical media potentially dying are there. As a pop culture enthusiast, this worries me.

Here’s the thing: I’m a big fan of streaming and digital platforms. They’re convenient, and the streaming services I subscribe to every month are giving me my money’s worth with their selection of original content and pre-existing favorites. There’s definitely a place for these online entities in today’s consumer climate. However, as the recent deaths of Filmstruck and Ultraviolet proved, streaming and digital services aren’t always reliable.

This unreliability was further confirmed last year when movies that people bought on iTunes just disappeared. This was due to some legal agreement that meant the service could no longer host certain movies. Of course, Apple’s user agreement states that if you buy a film on iTunes you might not be able to own it forever. But who even reads T&Cs when they just want to buy a movie? Perhaps we should, but most of us don’t.

The good thing about physical media is that it’s permanent. This means that we don’t have to rely on online services to see movies that we want to access at any given time. Streaming services and digital platforms tend to only host movies for a limited period anyway, which isn’t ideal for when you’re in the mood for something specific and can’t find it anywhere to watch on the internet.

Another thing that online services don’t regularly provide us with is a wide selection of special features. In recent times, discs have also been severely lacking in this department, especially when it comes to insightful commentaries and meaty making-of featurettes. Extras have been valuable tools for filmmakers and fans to gain the behind-the-scenes knowledge they crave. Commentaries also inspire one of the most popular ongoing features on this very website. I’d hate to live in a world where such features are a rarity.

Of course, some features are included exclusively with digital purchases. In the physical realm, the new trend is for different features to be included with discs that are sold at certain stores. For fans who want to see every feature included with a movie, they’d need to buy it several times — digitally and physically. That’s pricey, and special features aren’t as substantial as they were during the DVD boom, when you could buy one disc and have the full array of extras available to you, for the most part. If more people bought physical media, perhaps companies would be more inclined to stop striking exclusive deals with multiple outlets and give us everything in one package.

Buying physical media also supports the business that sell these products. In the UK recently, several HMV and Fopp stores were forced to close because keeping them open was no longer financially feasible. It’s only a matter of time before more stores experience a similar situation. People will lose their jobs, and movie fans will be deprived of the joy of spending hours scouring through shelves for treats. There’s a great social aspect to buying movies from shops that online entities can’t provide. One time I bought a copy of Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer at the behest of a random stranger I met in a DVD aisle and it was the best decision I ever made.

On top of keeping stores in business, physical media also supports specialist home media companies that go out of their way to ensure that their releases are deserving of our hard-earned money. Arrow, Scream Factory, 88 Films, Criterion, Vinegar Syndrome, and other like-minded labels stack their releases with groovy features that are entertaining and educational. Still, those companies target their releases towards niche audiences. But if physical media was thriving in general, everyone would win.

Blu-rays and DVDs aren’t going to disappear overnight. That said, if we want to keep physical around then we need to support it. Maybe you prefer streaming and purchasing digital copies for whatever reason, but movies and shows existing on these platforms relies on them sticking around and hosting them. Neither is guaranteed. But a tangible disc on your shelf will always be there, provided you take good care of it.

The post We Can’t Let Physical Media Die appeared first on Film School Rejects.

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Alternate International Version of Latest 'X-Men: Dark Phoenix' Trailer

"Whatever happened up there made her stronger." Fox has released an alternate "international" version of the latest, second official trailer for the X-Men: Dark Phoenix movie, titled simply Dark Phoenix now. Sophie Turner stars as Jean Grey, telling her story as she becomes the ultimate evil "Dark Phoenix" character. This international trailer is much better than the official second trailer, thanks to better editing and a bit more polish overall. It's still connected to the previous X-Men series, and brings back a few of the characters from the most recent set of movies. The full ensemble cast includes: James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Evan Peters, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Alexandra Shipp, plus Jessica Chastain, Ato Essandoh, and Scott Shepherd. I'm still not sure what to make of this - the Dark Phoenix saga is a good one, but it's hard to be excited about another X-Men movie anymore.

Here's the alternate international second trailer for Simon Kinberg's X-Men: Dark Phoenix, on YouTube:

You can still watch the first official trailer for Kinberg's Dark Phoenix from last year here, for more footage.

Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) begins to develop incredible powers that corrupt and turn her into a Dark Phoenix. Now the X-Men will have to decide if the life of a team member is worth more than all the people living in the world. The next saga in Fox's X-Men franchise of movies. X-Men: Dark Phoenix is directed by industry veteran, English writer-producer Simon Kinberg, making his feature directorial debut with this film after producing various superhero movies for the last 20 years, including X-Men: First Class, Days of Future Past, Logan, Deadpool, and The Martian. The screenplay is also written by Simon Kinberg, based on the "The Dark Phoenix Saga" comics storyline by John Byrne, Chris Claremont, and Dave Cockrum. After being delayed from first opening this summer, 20th Century Fox will finally release Kinberg's X-Men: Dark Phoenix in theaters everywhere starting on June 7th, 2019 this summer. Looking any better? Still excited?

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First Trailer for 'J.R. 'Bob' Dobbs and the Church of the SubGenius' Doc

"If you want to sell a religion, you have to kill the deity. That's how you do it." Ahahah genius, indeed! A festival promo trailer has debuted for a new documentary titled J.R. 'Bob' Dobbs and the Church of the SubGenius, which is premiering at the SXSW Film Festival down in Austin starting this week. This fascinating historical documentary examines a religious group known as the "Church of the SubGenius", created in the 1970s as opposition to normalcy. But it got out of hand. The film "explores the underground movement that has galvanized the imaginative, the artistic, the nerdy, even the deranged - to examine the simmering dystopia in their culture, and do absolutely nothing about it - except, maybe, poke fun at it all." This looks like a perfect double feature with Penny Lane's Hail Satan?, which also profiles a religious group with similar motives to disrupt (and mock) religion in America. If you're going to SXSW, don't miss this one.

Promo for Sandy K. Boone's doc J.R. 'Bob' Dobbs and the Church of the SubGenius, via Indiewire:

Description from SXSW: "What started out as an inside joke amongst two self proclaimed weirdos in Ft. Worth, Texas soon becomes much more than they bargained for. Frustrated by the rising consumer-driven culture, out of work pals Douglass St. Clair Smith and Steve Wilcox decide to turn their conservative southern ideology on its head and invent a new religion all their own (the "Church of the SubGenius"). Spurred on by the overreach of religion and zealous televangelists of the day, the pair concoct religious monikers (Reverend Ivan Stang and Dr. Philo Drummond), a newly minted prophet (J.R. 'Bob' Dobbs), and devise a crusade to expose the conspiracy of normalcy by using humor as the ultimate weapon." J.R. 'Bob' Dobbs and the Church of the SubGenius is directed by filmmaker Sandy K. Boone, making her directorial debut after producing a doc films previously. This is premiering at the SXSW Film Festival this month. The film is still seeking distribution, so no other release dates are set. For more visit the film's official website.

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Teaser Trailer for Ari Aster's Pagan Cult Horror 'Midsommar' from A24

"You can't speak… you can't move… But this opens you up… It breaks down your defenses… Trust me." A24 has unveiled a teaser trailer for Ari Aster's new cult horror film Midsommar, the follow-up to his highly acclaimed feature debut Hereditary. A24 teamed up with Aster to develop and produce this after releasing Hereditary, and will drop it in theaters in August in the summer (of course). Midsommar is about a woman who reluctantly joins her boyfriend on a trip to a small Swedish village, where the encounter a pagan cult conducting a "violent and bizarre" ritual. Florence Pugh and Jack Reynor star as the couple, along with Will Poulter, Julia Ragnarsson, William Jackson Harper, Björn Andrésen, Anna Åström, and Liv Mjönes. This is nuts!! I dig the bright colors, and all the floral elements, despite how horrific it looks.

Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Ari Aster's Midsommar, direct from A24's YouTube:

Florence Pugh & Jack Reynor play a couple that travels to Sweden to visit their friend's rural hometown for its fabled mid-summer festival. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre experience at the hands of a pagan cult. Midsommar is directed by American filmmaker Ari Aster, his second feature after the hit horror film Hereditary previously, and numerous short films as well. Produced by Lars Knudsen and Patrik Andersson, co-produced by Beau Ferris. A24 will release Aster's Midsommar in select theaters starting August 9th this midsummer. First impression? Who's freaked out?

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‘Shazam’ Trailer Breakdown: Zachary Levi Saves the Day for DC

We are ready for The Big Red Cheese. The one-time Captain Marvel who now goes by the copyright-friendly moniker of Shazam! is here to smash down the wall of gloom established by Zach Snyder’s Man of Steel. We want color; we need color. Wonder Woman and Aquaman broke free from Justice League and reminded audiences that joy could fill spandex just as well as a scowl. For Warner Bros. to compete in the market, they have to embrace other emotions as well as genres within the superhero framework. Director David F. Sandberg and star Zachary Levi are here to mix it up.

We’re just weeks away from finally seeing how (or if) they’re going to pull it off, but I have high hopes from one of the most delightful characters in comics. This new trailer goes a long way in earning that enthusiasm and gives a few hints at how it connects to the larger roster of heroes. Like most properties, Shazam has swung in every stylistic direction. I appreciate that Sandberg is looking to eat his cake and have it too with this film. Characters can be more than one attitude. Badass can balance with silly.

First thought – look at all those smiles. This is pure, wish-fulfillment fantasy.  How would your childhood self react to a sudden burst of strength and invulnerability? It would be wonderous. There is no coming down from such a high. Zachary Levi’s cartoon face taps into that glee just as well as, if not better than, Tom Hanks as Josh Baskin in Big. That’s the gag they’ve been selling since Geoff Johns, and Gary Frank relaunched the character with DC Comics’ “New 52,” and they are leaning hard into that homage with the film.

We open as the best superhero sagas do – the city. Here is the battleground in which young Billy Batson (Asher Angel) will prove himself a champion worthy of the name Shazam. Philadelphia is not Gotham City. It’s not Metropolis. It’s not a New York or a Chicago stand-in. We crave its cheesesteaks, and we can go there whenever we want. Over this god’s eye view, we hear The Wizard (Djimon Hounsou) call out our young protagonist’s name.

We saw this shot in the last trailer, placing the tough kid literally on the other side of the tracks. The film takes place a few years after the Justice League’s battle with Steppenwolf. Why should a kid like Billy care about anything like that? He’s an orphan, recently set up with another foster family. He’s got his own worries, his own sorrows. Doesn’t matter; Billy Batson is chosen.

Magically called down to the Rock of Eternity, Billy encounters a being he can barely comprehend. The Wizard steps from his throne and gets into Billy’s grill. The other council seats behind them are empty, the result of a great war that cost their owners their lives. “Say my name,” says The Wizard, “so my powers will become yours.” S represents the wisdom of Solomon. H for the strength of Hercules. A equals the stamina of Atlas. Z for the power of Zeus. A for the courage of Achilles. M for the speed of Mercury.

“Shazam,” The Wizard whispers. Billy responds like most do when they encounter such ridiculous comic book hokum. He giggles, “Are you for real?”

“SAY IT!” The Wizard screams. “Ok!” Billy apologetically responds. Cut to a shot towards the end of the film when Billy prepares to go into his final battle with an archnemesis he didn’t even know he had a few weeks earlier. As far as effects go, this one is fairly rad. A confident leap, a magic word, and a heroic transformation into The Big Red Cheese. Mock him all you want, he knows he’s a little silly, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t going to smash you in the face when the time comes.

When a kid is gifted superpowers, the first thing he’s going to do is run off bragging to his best pal. Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer) is Billy’s disabled foster brother and all around superhero aficionado. Think of him like his Yoda, guiding him through the dos and don’ts of capes and cowls. Freddy eggs Billy on, pushing him to test his abilities.

Step one: you gotta learn to strike a pose.

Step two: you gotta learn how to take a hit.

Step three: go get that paper.

Step four: beer, and lots of it.

Um, yeah. So, Peter Parker, he is not. Billy Batson does not have the weight of Uncle Ben’s death on his conscious. He’s a kid with no parents, who was pushed from one random home to another practically since birth. The world has done nothing for him. However, The Wizard saw something in Billy. Maybe it was a good nature or a bright human spirit, but he knew that Billy would do right by this gift. Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s not going to stray a little before push comes to shove.

That shove comes in the form of Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong), a megalomaniacal scientist who might have a serious grudge against The Wizard that granted Billy access to Shazam. Similar to our hero, Sivana manipulates electricity into lightning bolts and can fly above the clouds. Mark Strong is practically a mirror to the character as drawn by Gary Frank, and while I’d love to see the actor pull himself away from villainous typecasting, I can’t be top mad about it here either. The dude looks good.

In his first encounter with Sivana, Billy accepts his appearance with as much seriousness as he does his superpowers. “Oh, you’re like a bad guy, right?” Well, Shazam has nailed being a superhero so far, might as well knock this guy down and move on with his day. Yeah, no. Sivana makes quick work of the child.

Freddy chastizes his friend, “You literally did the opposite of what a superhero is supposed to do.” As much fun as they had stealing money and scoring beer, Freddy wants Billy to live up to his potential. They can fight for the little guy; they can make a difference together. Superman is cool. Batman is cool. Wonder Woman is cool. Shazam can be cool too.

Meet the Shazam Family. The other foster kids Billy lives with have cracked the mystery. “You’re him,” says Mary (Grace Fulton), “You’re the hero.” At the climax of the “New 52” comic, Billy’s foster family snap off a piece of Shazam’s energy and use it to transform themselves into powerful allies against Sivana. While we don’t get a glimpse of that epic fight here, I’ll bet dollars to donuts that’s where Sandberg ultimately takes this story.

Billy calls down the lightning knocking Dr. Sivana to the ground. The North Pole Fishing Hole was briefly seen at the start of the trailer after Billy’s rooftop proclamation. Notice that he appears to be carrying The Wizard’s staff, which channels the energy of the gods that make up S.H.A.Z.A.M.

The brawl between Billy and Sivana takes them inside a toy store where a desperate hero tosses Justice League merchandise as a weapon. Nice to know that the Ben Affleck and Ray Fisher likenesses continue to thrive in the DCEU.

When action figure projectiles fail to defeat a foe, you better rely on your sparkle fingers. Hopefully, all that montage-training encouraged by Freddy will have prepared him properly for this final fight smackdown. Don’t cross the streams.

After a few exchanges with The Big Red Cheese, Sivana gets the impression that the beefcake may be younger than his body suggests. “How old are you?” he askes. Um…”Basically 15.” To ram that maturity home the trailer cuts to Billy showing off his astonishing powers to a flock of iPhone phone onlookers. You’re better than this, Billy.

The trailer ends on the heart of the movie. Freddy schooling Billy on what it means to be a hero.  It’s not hard. If there is a cat in a tree, you get it. If there are men robbing a convenience store, you toss ’em through the glass. You’re a good guy; you fight bad guys. “You leap tall buildings in a single bound.” That’s what you do. Go be the best Superman you can be.

Billy pounces to prove his worth, and yeah, doesn’t quite make the leap. He crashes into the office building terrifying the hapless cubicle occupants. Living up to the Justice League will be hard work, but anything worth doing is damn hard. It’s good to have a pal like Freddy to keep you honest.

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Shazam! opens in theaters everywhere on April 5th.

 

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‘Adventure Time,’ Ice King, and What It Means to Heal

Beware: serious spoilers below for the entirety of Adventure Time. 

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Adventure Time is a gift of a show. It’s remarkable for several reasons, not least of all its near-perfect series finale last year.

But maybe its most striking claim to fame is its growth in scope and maturity from a fun kids’ cartoon to an emotionally rich saga. And its most effective — and most enduring — leap in this direction is its empathetic treatment of Ice King, the erstwhile goofy villain.

Ice King begins Adventure Time‘s run as the bad guy, a crazy old wizard obsessed with kidnapping and marrying princesses, whom our heroes Finn and Jake perpetually beat into submission. He’s a little bit evil, but mostly he’s ineffectual, silly, and sad.

In Season 3, however, his tragic backstory begins to unfold. It’s revealed that he was once Simon Petrikov, a kind and brilliant academic who stumbled across a magical crown a thousand years ago. The crown kept him alive through the nuclear holocaust that wiped out most of humanity (bad news for us, since it becomes apparent that this devastated past is our present), and it gave him the power to protect Marceline, the orphaned child he adopted in the wasteland of the world. Every time he wore the crown, however, his grip on his sanity loosened a little more, until he completely lost his sense of self and became Ice King.

This information is doled out in remarkably few episodes, and they are arguably the show’s finest. Marking some of the earliest forays into more serious themes, they succinctly and elegantly tell a story of loss and sacrifice that delivers more character development than you can shake a stick at.

It is also helped, in no small part, by the incomparable voice work of Tom Kenny (yes, SpongeBob) who plays both Simon and Ice King with beautifully subtle differences that are all the more striking when you witness his transformation from one to the other.

In the present, adult Marceline has trouble coping with Ice King’s madness and memory loss. Their relationship has all the notes of living with a loved one who has dementia, except both Ice King and Marceline are immortal, and she’s been living with it for a thousand years. It’s enough to make anyone balk.

After the stellar Season 4 episode “I Remember You,” however, Marceline warms toward Ice King. She begins to appreciate the person he is for the sake of the person he was, and as she shares his story with her friends, they do too. Finn and Jake treat him much more kindly, calling him Simon, inviting him to parties, and even letting him move in with them. This change has a profound effect on Ice King — he stops kidnapping women, his desperate loneliness wanes, and he all but loses his position as the show’s villain.

He’s still goofy and sad, but he’s a real person. And a sympathetic one at that.

It’s a change that’s born out of pity — Ice King’s friends treat him well for Simon’s sake — but it has the unexpected effect of encouraging him to be less pitiable.

Because, importantly, Ice King never remembers his past identity. A handful of times we see Simon’s consciousness trapped inside, but Ice King is unaware of him to the end. They are, for all intents and purposes, two separate people. So when Ice King responds positively to kindness and friendship, it’s completely his own doing.

This creates a bit of an odd loop. Ice King’s friends treat him better because of the person he used to be, but in doing so they help improve the person he is. Through their pity for someone they see as a product of madness, they reveal that madness’s humanity.

But that’s a hard pill for people to swallow. Whenever Ice King shows signs of reform or growth, they tend to see it as Simon shining through. This only increases the intensity of the loop, as treating Ice King more like the person he was as Simon allows him to slip more easily into the role. It’s a clear lesson in empathy that’s signaled strongly by the show, even if the characters often miss it.

No one is more guilty of missing it than Betty, Simon’s fiancee, whose obsession with curing him consumes her life.

When Betty first enters the show in Season 5, her presence is a glimmer of hope, a wildcard tucked away in the background, ready to change things radically just as soon as she’s called upon. She vows to reverse the crown’s effects, and she seems capable enough to do it. And Simon, in a fleeting moment of clarity, agrees to keep living as Ice King for as long as it takes her to figure out how to save him.

But somewhere along the way, Betty’s efforts sour. She sacrifices her past, her present, and even her own sanity all in the name of restoring his memory, and none of it works. Meanwhile, Ice King flourishes on his own, becoming a vital (if still goofy and sad) part of Ooo, and one of the show’s most beloved characters.

These conflicting arcs come to a head in the Season 9 “Elements” miniseries. Ostensibly a straightforward struggle to save Ooo from a bad case of magic-gone-wrong, at its core “Elements” is about Ice King’s personal growth clashing against Betty’s insistence on restoring him to what he was.

After years of failed attempts, Betty decides to try “the direct approach,” asking Ice King out on a date. Immediately responding positively to the attention, he gets himself a bespoke suit, he stops visibly wearing his crown, and he even gets a pair of little round glasses he wears low on his nose.

He looks, for all the world, like he did when he was Simon.

And his coherence increases tremendously. He rescues the kidnapped Betty (a telling reversal of his original M.O.), he’s committed to restoring order to Ooo, and he’s genuinely helpful and pulled together — if a little loose around the edges. He looks and acts the part; it’s so tempting to believe that his memories are resurfacing and that Simon is coming back.

Betty’s certainly tempted to believe it, and who could blame her?

But it’s not true, and Betty’s attempt to accept him crumbles into disappointment and desperation as she realizes that even this sane-ish man in a suit is not the fiance she used to know. That desperation leads her to betray Finn and use the magic gems he’s collected not to set the present to rights, but to alter the past. She can’t come to terms with the person Simon has become, so she makes a last ditch effort to make it so he never changed.

“People say you shouldn’t live in the past. But I say: Why not!” Betty preaches. She has big plans to open a portal to the past and drop Ice King’s crown in a volcano, making it so he never existed. She really gets on a roll with her plan to make everything better, speculating that she might even avert the Great Mushroom War, the nuclear holocaust of a thousand years ago.

Our favorite inter-dimensional losers Prismo and the Cosmic Owl are horrified by this last point, and we should be, too. We don’t need to worry as much about paradoxes and timelines, but the implications of a world without that cataclysm are dreary. (We even saw it at the beginning of Season 5). The war may have been a real bummer for everyone involved at the time, but something beautiful eventually came out of it. It’s how we got Finn and Jake. It’s how we got magic. It’s how we got Adventure Time. Things got better and the world healed itself, not by going back to what it once was, but by becoming something different.

Changing history so drastically would do away not just with Ice King, but with everyone we know and love.

And so Betty’s insistence on altering the past, rather than saving the present, is inherently backward. It comes from a place of love, and it’s hard to fault her for it, but within the show, it simply can’t stand.

The person who realizes this and saves the day is, fittingly enough, Ice King. Possessed with newfound self-worth (born out of everyone’s new efforts to take him seriously) he stands up for himself and delivers the most moving line in his long history:

“Lady, this Simon sounds cool, but I’m Ice King. I guess I’m a special person, and I am worthy of respect.”

He short circuits Betty’s magic and saves himself and Ooo, blowing up his bespoke suit in the process. His go-to blue muumuu bursts back out into existence, revealing the bizarre fact that he had it on underneath the whole time. It’s a fun gag, but it’s also proof that Ice King was himself all along. Simon’s memories were never informing his actions; he was just responding, as people often do, to being treated well. He was shown respect, and he found respect for himself, and that respect is what saved the day.

When he returns to his “Ice King Classic” look as he calls it, he’s no less the person he was. If anything, he’s much more.

Meanwhile, Betty’s obsession with curing Simon becomes even more destructive. In the series finale, she summons Golb, an all-powerful being of chaos, and very nearly ends life in Ooo, thus completing her transformation from a signal of hope to ultimate villain, the final boss in a decade-long string of dungeon fights.

As always, Betty’s intentions are good, but the show insists that no good can come of them. Restoring Simon, while a noble cause, is tantamount to killing Ice King, a character we started to love for Simon’s sake but have since come to love for his own. It’s a theme of saving-turned-murder that’s extrapolated several times into the destruction of the world as we know it.

This brings us to the interesting question of what it means to heal someone at all.

Eye color is a telling feature in Adventure Time. Most characters — humans, in particular — have black dots for eyes. It’s a pleasantly simple design that carries a lot of weight when it varies, such as with characters who’ve had their minds altered by magic, whose eyes are always white.

Magic Man has these eyes. So does Peppermint Butler (always a devout student of the Dark Arts). So does Ice King, and so does Betty, after she acquires Magic Man’s power and starts to lose her grip on reality.

And, critically, so does Simon. The very first time we see Simon in “Holly Jolly Secrets Part 2,” his eyes are white, while in an old photo of him and Betty, they’re black, suggesting that the crown has already started to transform him.

But every other time we see Simon — when the crown’s powers are negated, when he’s in his own head, even when we flash back to his life with Betty before he found the crown, his eyes are still white. Simon was a scholar of arcane magic, after all, and this flashback, in particular, suggests his mind was already being altered without any help from the crown.

But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. 

In the series finale, Ice King, Betty, and Finn are swallowed by Golb and slowly digested down to their “most essential forms.” Betty loses her magic and madness, and Ice King reverts to original Simon — pocket square, bowtie, elbow patches… and white eyes. It’s hard to qualify just what it means to be your most essential self, but for Simon, that apparently means being just a little bit unhinged.

And it makes sense. Magic or no magic, this pure form of Simon has still lost the woman he loved, wandered through a post-apocalyptic wasteland, sacrificed himself in increments to save his adoptive daughter, and spent a thousand years trapped in a labyrinth in his head.

Betty may have lost her mind over a short time by force of will, but Simon has had some serious life experience.

In a similar vein, Finn’s missing arm isn’t restored by this digestion process, either. One of Adventure Time‘s more fascinating threads of continuity is the fact that no matter the timeline or incarnation, the essence that is Finn always loses his right arm. And that’s okay. Just like Simon, he isn’t “made whole” in an easy sense, and the things that have made him who he is aren’t expunged.

The show has a clear lesson to teach: your most essential self might not necessarily be your simplest or your earliest iteration. Trauma can be edifying, and change can be a vital part of becoming who you are.

But if Simon’s essential form is already altered by magic and by ordeal, then who exactly has Betty been trying to save? It’s an added layer of futility to her struggle, a reminder that achieving her goal wouldn’t only kill Ice King, it would alter the person Simon has become, too.

Both of them may have changed, but neither of them is in need of changing back.

The fact remains, however, that Simon and Ice King can’t exist at the same time. They are two unique consciousnesses in one body, and prioritizing one would doom the other. Whether by accident or by design, Adventure Time‘s greatest lesson in empathy backed it somewhat into a corner. One of the audience’s oldest and most fervent wishes is to see Simon restored, but to do so would essentially kill Ice King, a character the audience knows and loves much better.

What can you do?

You do precisely what Adventure Time does in its series finale. Unable to abandon Simon or destroy Ice King in good conscience, it splits them. Simon is digested by Golb just long enough for his body and mind to be restored, and then he’s rescued. And so the world is without an Ice King for all of 30 seconds, until the crown, in search of a new master, finds Gunter the penguin.

And Gunter’s deepest, truest wish is, it turns out… to be Ice King.

It’s a lovely echo of the original Gunther, a little dinosaur whose wish millions of years ago to be like his teacher started this whole crown business.

And more importantly, it’s a chance for Ice King to live on. He may look a little different, but he’s got the same voice, muumuu, and penchant for drumming. And since the first words out of his mouth are “Say, where’s Gunter?” it’s clear that his penguin memories and identity are gone.

As far as we need to be concerned, he is Ice King.

If the show’s addition of Ice King’s backstory was its first sign of maturity and depth, this conclusion is a sign of something much greater. Rather than adhering to the knee-jerk solution (and possibly the original goal) of healing Ice King and reverting him to the person he once was, it respects the worth and the autonomy of both characters, and it gives them both a chance at a happy ending.

And they both get it, to an extent. Whether the new Ice King is a little better with the ladies, or it’s just a logical step in his improving self-respect, he finally marries a princess. Simon has a tougher break (Betty sacrifices herself to save him and Ooo) but his memory and sanity — whatever that means — are restored for good.

Glimpses further into the future suggest trouble — Ice King eventually turns into a monster and a new kind of antagonist, and Simon launches his own impossible crusade to save Betty — but that’s in keeping with the spirit of the finale. There are no true endings, happy or otherwise. Things change, people evolve, and no one time is more real than another.

And while the future of Ooo is dark and uncertain, the end of the finale shows the more important peaceful and quotidian present — Ice King and Simon living side by side, having a nice night in with their family.

It’s about the happiest ending we could wish for, and the only reasonable solution to a mounting problem that the show built for itself as it matured by leaps and bounds over the years.

Adventure Time did a lot of things superbly over its 10-season run, but its compassionate and evolving treatment of Ice King might be its best. It’s one thing to give your mad villain a tragic past… it’s another to use that tragedy to cultivate his madness into its own viable character. Its commitment to Ice King’s growth is beautiful, and its answer to his and Simon’s autonomy is perhaps the greatest example, among many great examples, of just how much the show grew up, and how much it had to teach us.

The post ‘Adventure Time,’ Ice King, and What It Means to Heal appeared first on Film School Rejects.

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The Amazing Story Behind The Latest Episode of ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’

“There’s a very real woman here whose career and life are going to be affected by you pursuing this case.” In last week’s episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Rosa Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz) delivers a hard truth to Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero) as the latter investigates a report of workplace sexual assault that, for her, hits quite close to home.

At once sensitive and comedic, the episode, titled “He Said, She Said,” is a great piece of television that grounds a discussion of the #MeToo movement in the experiences of characters that fans have come to know and love. And on top of that achievement, Beatriz’s performance as Rosa is not the only way she contributed to the narrative. “He Said, She Said” also marks her directorial debut and shows her skills in striking a perfect tonal balance between humor and sincerity.

From The Fugitive-style encounters between Captain Holt (Andre Braugher) and his aging nemesis, “The Disco Strangler,” to Amy’s throughline of handling the sexual assault case alongside her partner Jake (Andy Samberg), Beatriz manages to capture the essence of the show’s usual antics while delivering on moments that are at once quiet and moving. Written by Lang Fisher and anchored by a powerful performance from Fumero, the success of the episode just goes to show the viability of stories written by, directed by, and about women.

In a personal essay published in Glamour, Beatriz wrote about her directing process, attesting that the recent revival and renewal of the series gave her a second chance at something she always wanted to achieve. “I outlined my case for directing and told [showrunner Dan Goor and producer David Miner] what I knew to be true, that there are very few female directors in television and even fewer women of color,” she stated in the essay. “I wanted to join their ranks.”

Indeed, Beatriz’s comments here factor into a wider discussion of how Latina directors face limited visibility in the industry. As film critic Vanessa Erazo identified on Twitter this weekend, Latinx creators — especially those who are US-born — still struggle to get their stories told, and have faced little to no advancement even in progressive, independent spaces.

There are ZERO US-born Latinas on this list. I'm tired. American Latinos are invisible in this industry. We're begging to be seen to no avail. Talk abt diversity hasnt helped our community at all. (Latin Americans have it a bit better. There's 3 on this list) https://t.co/eHDBmGDz3H

— Vanessa Erazo (@infoCinelandia) March 3, 2019

While Beatriz bridges the gap between the identities discussed by Erazo (she was born in Argentina and arrived in the US at the age of three), it is still powerful to see her vision guiding the story at hand. As she wrote, “I started having a very strong feeling that I had a point of view that could add something to the work that was happening on television, that my voice and sensibilities and sensitivities and brain could add something to a show and help tell a story.” Really, an American Latina framing the story of an American-born Latina is an unfortunately rare feat on network television, and so it is something to be celebrated.

To that point, part of what makes Brooklyn Nine-Nine so great is its sensitive approach to representing women and people of color; indeed, the show has been rightly praised for its diversity, including the fact that it features not one but two Latina leads in its ensemble cast. However, what really makes the inclusion of Amy and Rosa so important is that, while their identities do intersect along lines of race and gender, they are also two completely distinct people who often hold opposing points of view.

“He Said, She Said” brings that sense of uniqueness into the forefront, as Rosa and Amy argue about how best to advise the person most affected by the assault case: the victim. This standout scene gets at the double bind that persists for people who choose to speak out about their experiences: is publicly acknowledging one of the most vulnerable moments of your life truly worth facing more discrimination in the court of public opinion? The two ultimately agree to disagree on the subject, but as Amy exclaims towards the end of the episode, “We can be different and still have the same cause!”

Still, Erazo’s main point should be acknowledged here: talk about diversity doesn’t always will equitability into existence. In other words, these important examples of positive representation still do not eliminate the gaping disparity that persists in the industry at large.

But this acknowledgment—that there is much more work to be done—is also what makes “He Said, She Said” such an effective milestone. Once the assault investigation is closed, Rosa and Amy share a bittersweet exchange as they reflect on the relative gains and losses sustained by their particular case. In the end, Rosa gets at the core of why challenging injustice is still worth the fight, ultimately assuring Amy that “Two steps forward and one step back is still one step forward.”

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Steven Spielberg Has A Long History of Opposing Streaming

The debate over streaming services and theatrical releases was reignited last week when IndieWire reported director Steven Spielberg would bring the issue up at an upcoming Academy Board of Governors meeting. Spielberg, who represents the director’s branch, intends to propose a ban on Netflix releases and other films distributed through streaming services that would bar them from Oscar contention. The news has naturally prompted both support and criticism from filmmakers and film lovers alike, as it was one of the most contentious issues of the 2018 awards season.

This isn’t the first time the director has vocalized his distaste for the streaming model. A year ago, Spielberg told ITV News, “I don’t believe that films that are just given token qualifications, in a couple of theaters for less than a week, should qualify for the Academy Award nominations.” He doubled down on this stance at the Cinema Audio Society Awards last May, stressing to his peers that “the greatest contributions we can make as filmmakers is to give audiences the motion picture theatrical experience.” Instead, he leveled, these films should qualify for Emmy Awards, as the streaming format makes them more akin to a TV movie.

“Steven feels strongly about the difference between the streaming and theatrical situation,” a spokesperson said last week in response to IndieWire’s report. He’s certainly not alone; a number of other high-profile filmmakers have recently pushed back against the streaming model popularized by Netflix. Widows and 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen said earlier this year that there is “[n]o point looking at a movie on your laptop on your own at home. The thrill of cinema is to be in an audience with 200 people, 500 people, or a thousand people and watching something.” Dunkirk director Christopher Nolan and actress Helen Mirren have expressed similar dismay.

Of course, there are two sides to this debate, and both have reasonable concerns and arguments. Spielberg has received blowback from other distinguished filmmakers, including Ava DuVernay and Alfonso Cuarón, whose film Roma, some have alleged, ultimately lost Best Picture to Green Book because voters were reluctant to reward a Netflix film. Writer and director Paul Schrader recently wrote an insightful post on his Facebook page about the debate, acknowledging that platforms such as Netflix often take chances that other major studios do not. Although the theatrical experience is worth preserving as much as possible, there are a number of reasons why Netflix and other streaming platforms are an essential part of a healthy, thriving filmmaking landscape too.

Dear @TheAcademy, This is a Board of Governors meeting. And regular branch members can’t be there. But I hope if this is true, that you’ll have filmmakers in the room or read statements from directors like me who feel differently. Thanks, Ava DuVernay. https://t.co/DFBLVWhiJj

— Ava DuVernay (@ava) March 1, 2019

As Schrader briefly pointed out, Netflix has often been the first to pick up films made by women and minorities where other distributors wouldn’t. Quite a few of its original releases are films starring or made by women and minorities, including Beasts of No Nation, DuVernay’s 13th, Okja, and Private Life. As Cuarón said of the decision to distribute Roma through Netflix (in conjunction with an abbreviated theatrical release), “How many theaters did you think that a Mexican film in black and white, in Spanish and Mixteco, that is a drama without stars — how big did you think it would be as a conventional theatrical release?” The truth is that Netflix is willing to take risks that a lot of other major distributors aren’t; one example is Brie Larson’s film debut Unicorn Store, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2017 and went a year and a half without a distributor until Netflix picked it up this past January.

The idea that a film released through a streaming platform should be disqualified from major awards contention puts minority filmmakers at a disadvantage. That’s why Spielberg’s hardline stance is seen as narrow-sighted by many — in a studio system that favors big, reliable names like his, where do marginalized voices fit in? Platforms like Netflix and Amazon have filled a vacuum by including those voices. Penalizing filmmakers who work through a streaming service ultimately shuts them out of an esteemed position that is already nearly unattainable.

The other upside to streaming services is that it gives audiences access to arthouse and independent cinema when many don’t have the privilege of seeing those films in theaters. This is especially true of limited releases, which are usually contained to Los Angeles and New York, a regional bubble that simply doesn’t reflect the geographic scope of film lovers. More frequently, we see Netflix and Amazon releasing work from auteur directors like Noah Baumbach, the Coen Brothers, and even Martin Scorsese, whose highly anticipated The Irishman is set for a Netflix release as well as a limited theatrical run. Netflix clearly understands the advantages it can offer to filmmakers, as they released this statement in response to the news about Spielberg:

We love cinema. Here are some things we also love:

-Access for people who can't always afford, or live in towns without, theaters
-Letting everyone, everywhere enjoy releases at the same time
-Giving filmmakers more ways to share art

These things are not mutually exclusive.

— Netflix Film (@NetflixFilm) March 4, 2019

It will be interesting to see whether Spielberg’s appeal for a ban will garner support from the rest of the Board of Governors, as this could drastically change the awards season dynamic. As he is one of Hollywood’s most powerful and prolific figures, some have questioned whether this is an issue that Spielberg should be pressing further when he could instead address the disparity of minority filmmakers in this industry. Others believe that the streaming takeover is ultimately inevitable. Only time will tell.

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