Covert Communiqués

In terms of establishing the fundamental aesthetic of the 1990s strand of cinematic cyberpunk, the 1993 Super Mario Bros. adaptation is probably up there with Johnny Mnemonic and Lawnmower Man influence-wise, as much as we all hate to admit it.

Welcome to the "learned from this post that the first major live-action feature film adaptation of a pre-existing video game franchise was a dystopian cyberpunk AU of Super Mario Bros. for some inexplicable reason" club.

I do believe the stink of this movie saved us from some far worse projects. I have no idea what those would have been, but I believe.

Are you kidding? This film was the vanguard; it may have tanked in theatres, but the novelty of it led to a number of bandwagon-jumping projects in following years. After Super Mario Bros. dropped in 1993, we had Double Dragon and the Jean-Claude Van Damme Street Fighter in 1994, then Paul W S Anderson's Mortal Kombat in 1995; the unexpected commercial success of the latter film was reportedly the deciding factor when Angelina Jolie accepted the lead role in Tomb Raider a few years later, which in turn kicked off the second wave of major live-action video game adaptations in the early 2000s that gave us the Resident Evil films

Don't forget the 𝘋𝘰𝘰𝘮 Movies

I prefer to focus on positive outcomes.

In terms of establishing the fundamental aesthetic of the 1990s strand of cinematic cyberpunk, the 1993 Super Mario Bros. adaptation is probably up there with Johnny Mnemonic and Lawnmower Man influence-wise, as much as we all hate to admit it.

Welcome to the "learned from this post that the first major live-action feature film adaptation of a pre-existing video game franchise was a dystopian cyberpunk AU of Super Mario Bros. for some inexplicable reason" club.

I do believe the stink of this movie saved us from some far worse projects. I have no idea what those would have been, but I believe.

Are you kidding? This film was the vanguard; it may have tanked in theatres, but the novelty of it led to a number of bandwagon-jumping projects in following years. After Super Mario Bros. dropped in 1993, we had Double Dragon and the Jean-Claude Van Damme Street Fighter in 1994, then Paul W S Anderson's Mortal Kombat in 1995; the unexpected commercial success of the latter film was reportedly the deciding factor when Angelina Jolie accepted the lead role in Tomb Raider a few years later, which in turn kicked off the second wave of major live-action video game adaptations in the early 2000s that gave us the Resident Evil films

Don't forget the 𝘋𝘰𝘰𝘮 Movies

I prefer to focus on positive outcomes.

i do think theres something sad about how largely only the literature that's considered especially good or important is intentionally preserved. i want to read stuff that ancient people thought sucked enormous balls

I've spent a ridiculous amount of time on Project Gutenberg sifting through forgotten old fiction and lemme tell ya. a lot of that stuff sucks ass.

Tremendously comforting, really.

i do think theres something sad about how largely only the literature that's considered especially good or important is intentionally preserved. i want to read stuff that ancient people thought sucked enormous balls

I've spent a ridiculous amount of time on Project Gutenberg sifting through forgotten old fiction and lemme tell ya. a lot of that stuff sucks ass.

Tremendously comforting, really.

The reason you can't be the next J R R Tolkien isn't because you don't have the talent, but because you're not the right kind of unwell. Tolkien wasn't bent for fantasy worldbuilding; he was bent for constructed languages, and got into fantasy worldbuilding in order to provide a material context in which to ground the notional evolution of the languages he invented. If you want to be the next Tolkien, you can't start with the worldbuilding; you've gotta find something extremely specific to fixate on, and develop it in such depth that inventing a world to contain it is genuinely the most logical next step.

if the butch woman doesn’t receive tenderness and good faith, it’s not a community space. if the brown woman doesn’t receive tenderness and good faith, its not a community space. if the trans woman doesn’t receive tenderness and good faith, it’s not a community space. and if the brown butch trans woman doesn’t receive tenderness and good faith? it’s about as good as an insurance company with a pride sticker smacked on top of the logo

You've heard of multi-shipper now get ready for multi-headcanoner: where multiple interpretations of the same character coexist in your head and they are all great.

Unless you were a tech at NASA back in the day, when one time some hydrogen a) escaped in a particular building, and b) caught on fire. This was extremely difficult because hydrogen does NOT burn on the visible spectrum humans evolved to see (and flee). Rather, it technically does, but it’s so pale that in practice, no one could see it. Additionally, pure hydrogen burns without smoke and with so little ambient heat that you can’t really sense it till you walk into it. So, per the lore, for a few days all the techs in that building just walked around brandishing brooms in front of them like lances. If your broom lit on fire, congrats! You have located more burning hydrogen! Do not proceed!