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Damien - Blog Posts
The Oscars & La La Land
Many passionate people were worried this year that Damian Chazelle’s La La Land would steal the award of Best Picture from the daring project, titled Moonlight. To their great avail, it did not happen but I was rather confused by the arguments they presented as ground for Moonlight to win. Surprisingly it never came up that it would be simply a quality film, worthy in its own right to win. The main reason was its theme.
While I myself am decidedly left-leaning, for me the Academy Awards are about excellence in film. Yet, I see a multitude of people, sharing my convictions, being completely biased toward or against certain artistic creations based on said convictions. For example, a loud outlet of ideas and opinions, Vox, made a video, which highlighted that the current voting system of the Oscars favors the films that have the highest general esteem, as opposed to other ones, which may be polarizing but have the most individual votes. While either way would be legitimate and fine, the preferential voting system might be a bit more precisely geared toward rightly selecting victors. The basic concept is key: we are looking for the best film of the year. If we get a polarizing winner, there will be a powerful minority--even more, since we’re not having a choice of 2 pieces but of multiple, so probably a majority that opposes the winning movie. Thus this system of selection can prove completely erroneous, since the largest minority deems a movie good, while the majority may say it is actually a product of poor filmmaking.
Now I am happy for Moonlight to have won the award but it has to be absolutely clear what its victory means: it is the best picture of the year from an artistic-commercial standpoint. As trivial as it sounds, most advocates of this film called it worthy and important for political, or human rights reasons. It seems progressive to award movies with politically progressive themes but Moonlight’s excellence cannot lie in the skin color of its actors. It can win awards for that but not by the Academy but by organizations or political agents.
In fact I posit a film’s political merits are unimportant details, when it comes to the Oscars. And if for many more decades we wouldn’t see black crews getting the award for best picture, it wouldn’t matter from the perspective of the legitimacy of the Academy or the prestige of the prize. It would and should mean that there are no good enough films made about this subject matter. Moonlight was this year’s best picture, according to the Academy, for its cinematic merits. Even so, were the case different, had they won because of the theme of the lives of people of color, their achievement would be nullified--their Oscar would become meaningless.
In my opinion La La Land was a rightful contender. The fact that it dealt with life in Hollywood was not a red flag of being Oscar bait. The truth of the matter is, most mainstream directors are actually passionate about the industry and the place, they wake up with it on their minds and go to bed with it--it permeates their everyday, they get their joy from it, even their bread from it.
Damian Chazelle is well-known for his love of films akin to his own creation, so its his genuine love-child. It, in a way, goes against Hollywood shallowness by depleting the idea of easy living presented by classic musicals and generic rom-coms in a witty, satirical way. It is an achievement. But that is just one facet of the movie, designed for people who breathe that in daily. On a deeper level there is a very unique, yet old idea explained to us in great fashion: the dreams and passions define people’s personalities.
Its truth can be argued but it hit a chord with many a viewers. The general expectation toward any musical is that it should be light and alleviating from the pains of the real world. In La La Land we get just the opposite: we have to face our internal conflicts and routine compromises that corrupt us and make our lives mediocre. Of course, there is a great narrative balance: we get something to learn and we get a little escapade. The profound idea and conflict is our lesson and the shimmering sets, combined with the ghastly beauty of the music is our break from reality.
La La Land reverberates the old American way of grand gestures and grandiose ambitions. It slowly died out from the everydays in the ‘60s but they are surfacing again in the works of this writer-director.
Finally, I cannot end without praising La La Land’s ending. There are almost as many interpretations as there were audience members. One can easily find convincing and intelligent opinions, which certainly seem to coincide with the creator’s vision. However, returning to the underlying concept of the film I think the strongest side of it is how it shows the characters’ humanity, idealized but torn down to the ruins.
The most obvious thought about the final sequence is that “it should have been” their story. At the end of the movie we have a lot of sympathy toward the protagonists and we are greatly saddened by the failure of their relationship. However, we should try to step outside from our perspectives, after all, that is what immersion is all about... From the characters’ point of view we find the same summary of “it should have been”, but it means more than from the mouth of someone sitting in a movie theater. It means “I have erred, I should have done it differently.” I think this is a great addition to the already intriguing basic concept.
The main characters have cultivated their dreams and passions and thus their personalities have become the amazing thing they always wanted--it is inspirational, yet not unrealistic. It is actually a viable route in life to develop ourselves in fields we are passionate about, people do not lose their fortunes because of their dreams or passions but because of external hardships or internal flaws. But this inspiring journey is contrasted with a personal failure. Love is undeniably an important part of life--it is argued against only by the cynics. On the forefront of human happiness we find both personal growth and love. These both determine our happiness and it is not a zero sum game, where we must choose one of the two. But it is true that we can be successful at one and lose tragically on the other.
i’ve been drawing The Boys for a while now but haven’t uploaded any of them for some reason
Veil
So I completely forgot to post this months ago… but its almost Halloween again so? The timing is better now. Enjoy! Don’t forget to reblog!
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Demons weren’t meant to be confined to the tight space of a van, and especially not for hours on end. At least that’s how Matthew tried to convince Mika to pull over so he could stretch and get Suzu off his bladder.
In the trunk, wedged between luggage, Suzu and Damien had sprawled over Matthew’s lap while still technically wearing their seatbelts. They were sleeping soundly, while Matthew was stuck as their prisoner with his hoodie over his face like a blanket and his knees pressed together. In the back seat, Erik, Naomi, Andrew, and Sam had all managed to squeeze in together with the brothers in the middle and their lovers at their side. Andrew and Erik were sharing earbuds, and Sam and Naomi were curled up together, humming soft little notes to each other. James had shotgun with a number of books at his feet, some literature and some puzzle books with sudoku and pictographs. He had removed his glasses and let his eyes rest.
Mika was at the wheel, GPS hooked up, radio murmuring away at the lowest volume, bags under her eyes weighing her down but never stopping her. Her mind had passed the tired threshold into autopilot, locking her gaze on the interstate in her headlights, sole job of staying in her lane and looking out for the next exit.
Seven hours, from midday glare in her eyes to the sunset throwing violet and amber watercolors over the clouds, to midnight. Seven hours on the road. She was dead inside.
In one mile, stay in the left two lanes and take Exit 108 onto I-90 East
She tapped her turn signal with her pinkie and glanced up at her rear view. No headlights anywhere near them. She glided over two lanes.
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I WANTS THIS!!!
I honestly don't care if it ends at the end of wkm. Darkie is hot anyway!
the feminine urge to write damien x district attorney from their days back at university (silent yearning, a drunken kiss they both pretend to not remember, confiding in each other & taking care of each other in small ways no one else would notice) but knowing it would all end in tragedy anyway
Drawing of my two dnd characters turned ocs, Aria and Damien ^_^
The Characterization of Damien
So a lot of people seem to be interpreting DAMIEN as a redemption of sorts for Dark. I don’t agree with this. I think this addition to the story is a way of making Darkiplier more of what he already was: a sympathetic villain.
Dark’s motivation comes from a just source: he wants to avenge the people he lost and take down this evil, manipulative bastard that is roaming around in his body, who stole everything from him. Unfortunately, he doesn’t use just means to go after him. Dark is more than willing to brun everything in his path to the ground as long as Mark dies; he’ll fight fire with fire, manipulating, torturing, and destroying absolutely everything and everyone to get to Mark, with no regard for the consequences. Somewhere along the way, that just motivation became a blind rage, and he stepped into the role that Mark put in front of him, the role of the villain, with too much zeal and enthusiasm. He fully embraced the darkness around him because he saw nothing but the power it would give him, and not the corruption that would overtake him.
In this way, he shares a fatal flaw with his twin: he has a completely one-track mind. This isn’t even totally surprising; wasn’t his one ambition to make the city he presided over greater than any other? Wasn’t his one goal at the party to make sure that justice was served and the past was put behind us? Damien is very good at strategy in that he can get what he wants with ruthless efficiency, but he cannot see the consequences of his actions, and that, ultimately, is where Dark’s vilainy comes from. Dark would be a good guy if his actions didn’t cause destruction wherever he went, in a dark shadow of Actor Mark’s actions.
DAMIEN
In case you’re missing the oddball excitement that’s going on right now. Also, @markiplier is hanging out in the chat with us now!
LAST MINUTE THEORY LET’S GO
Okay, so in the last 90 minutes before the video comes out, let’s discuss what we know so far.
DAMIEN is the story of everyone’s favorite unfortunate mayor POST-Who Killed Markiplier. Now this immediately brings up two questions: Are we following Actor Mark in Damien’s body, Damien in the DA’s body as he becomes Dark, or a combination of the two? My guess is that we’re following Damien, but we’ll encounter Mark, and/or we’ll watch Damien spiral out of control obsessed with finding him.
From what we’ve seen so far, Damien is wandering in the woods. Are we just outside of the House? Are we lost? (I say we because there’s got to be some element of the DA in Dark, which might be why he’s so unsettling.) As seen in the little teaser clip here on tumblr, and in the audio from Twitter, Damien is questioning what to do next, who he is now and why he’s still here. The lines between life and death have blurred for him, but not to the extent that they have for Wil. I think this is going to be what causes him to spiral, this need to finish Actor Mark but not knowing if it’s possible because to them, no death is final.
Final thoughts: I’m in love with the fact that this is an animated project. I’m also curious as to whether we’re going to run into Wil. I’m also also enjoying the pre-premiere chat full of memes and singing.
LET’S GOOOOOOO
BITCH MORE WHO KILLED MARKIPLIER LORE I AM SO FUCKING READY
So... I totally forgot that I made this a few months ago but...
This is my D/A - Sona for WKM with Damien. I tried to keep the 20's style but my dumbass completely forgot this existed so might as well share.
Go back to sleep
I have remade an old piece of art ;v;
Err @pamelahorton13 @markiplier I will leave this here for you.
Okay I am sliding out~
Finally
Dark kicking Actor's ass at last.
So @skxtchyghost and I have made this cool ass collab today. UwU
Annihilation of a mind
Based on the movie Annihilation and DAMIEN I have made this piece.
