Jet2TheMoon

Crow wings and eyeballs everywhere. Messes of limbs sticking out every which way. Tentacles for some reason, since humans really seem to like those.

But hold on, that monologue still might work. Cassius is directly addressing Brutus in that scene in order to get him to join the conspirators, and his argument comes down to "Caesar isn't any better than Brutus so why should Caesar get to be in charge?" So the language of Gretchen's monologue holds up really well.

Not only that, but when you track Gretchen's modern english translation of the monologue (the first part at least), it holds up very well. It gets some of the general language while still conveying the overall emotions and tone of the monologue.

What's more, when you go to the average person, they probably don't know who Cassius is but they will know who Brutus is. It's also likely people have at least vaguely heard of the Colossus speech (though if they haven't, there's a prior scene where the teacher offhandedly catches the audience up so they have context here).

All in all, this was honestly kind of the perfect monologue they could have chosen for the movie. It fits the context and the characters.

Get ready because this is a long-ass post (read: essay).

This is something that's been bugging me for the longest time, and that's how indie animations (mostly series on YouTube) have such high quality, sometimes surpassing the animation from actual professional studios. That's not a problem in of itself, but I feel like there are several effects that can arise from that. Allow me to explain.

Quick Disclaimers - This isn't knocking indie teams. They're all doing amazing work. Also, I'm just one person with opinions, so take what I say with a grain of salt. I'm laying this out here so I don't need to put "in my opinion" in front of every sentence.

Time constraints - One reason a show with a bigger budget and a larger workforce might have "worse" animation (stiffer motion, less lighting/shading, etc) is because they're often working with deadlines. Meanwhile, indie studios usually set their own schedules and can be more flexible with deadlines. On one hand, this means series can get the time and attention they deserve. On the other hand, the audience can be left hanging for long periods of time.

This really is a YMMV issue and doesn't just apply to indie animation (I'm waiting for updates from several abridged series). It just depends on whether you prefer a show with higher quality that releases one episode every year or a show with slightly lower quality that releases monthly. Also, some teams do manage to release high quality episodes on a frequent basis, but I'll get to that (see: The High Bar).

What I find annoying is when deadlines are constantly getting pushed back or are straight up ignored, although everyone under the sun is guilty of doing this (myself included).

Restrictions - One big pro of indie animation is that there aren't any censors or restrictions imposed by major studios/corporate executives, which means creators are free to make their dream show how they like without having to compromise for the sake of appealing to the widest demographic possible or meeting a bottom line. The indie animation community does a good job of blowing past the cash-grabbing shovelware in favor of propping up passion projects with something to say.

If I did have to mention one con, it's that sometimes restrictions can push a person creatively and those same executive curveballs can shape a show for the better. However, for all the good that comes from studio meddling, it's vastly overshadowed by the bad, from the censorship of the LGBTQ+ community (which indie animation has gone lengths to correct) to turning what might have been a decent project into an absolute mess (*ahem* Suicide Squad, 2016) to outright cutting down/canceling amazing series (we've all got our lists and Inside Job is at the top of mine). Plus, I've noticed indie teams often make an effort to include diversity (race, gender, sexuality, history), but without the added baggage of a major corporation constantly peering over their shoulder, tallying up how many brownie points they've earned so far.

Plus, the biggest restriction a lot of indie shows already have to work with is resource availability (budget, staff, skill, time), which leads me to my next point...

The High Bar - I think the expectations people have of indie animation keeps getting higher and higher, and that's not necessarily a good thing. With huge projects constantly pushing what can be done with a small team and a couple of dreams, it's becoming harder for people who just don't have the time, the artistic skills, the manpower, etc to keep up.

For me at least, some of the initial charm of indie animation comes from janky anatomy, weird audio quality, awkward movements and all those rough edges you can only get from one guy in a closet with an old Wacom and a cheap mic. I'm not saying indie animation has to start downgrading. Not by a long shot. Please funnel that smooth animation right into my equally smooth brain 😁.

What I mean to say is that as the bar gets raised, more people struggle to keep up and end up falling behind, kind of negating what I see as the point of indie animation: to give people with less skills and resources a chance to prove themselves and build up a community.

(Also, in my personal experience, I've ended up discouraging myself from starting projects I'm passionate about due to the anxiety of getting compared to an indie series with fluid animation and shading that wasn't done exclusively with the airbrush tool on a multiply layer. I only bring this up because I'm pretty certain I'm not the only one.)

One Small Personal Gripe - Okay, this is very much a "me" issue, but the constant smooth animation and the fact that motion almost always seems to be happening at all times really grates on me. Characters don't have to always be moving. They can just be static for a few seconds, y'know?

Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk swap control of Facebook and Twitter.

Because I just found out "angel w/shotgun" is actually a thing.

For those of you not taking AP Art History, allow me to introduce you to Archangel with Gun, Asiel Timor Dei (by Master of Calamarca, oil on canvas).

Seriously, look this up. It's an actual thing, and it's really interesting.

Not just, like, full on Blockbusters. I mean going to the library, borrowing a DvD of a movie, having a DvD player to play the movie, all of that.

Because right now the alternatives are either pay a bunch of money for streaming services or pirating on laggy sites full of malware.

Because in Season 4, during one of the flashbacks to the Serpentine Wars, we see this guy with white hair and a robe who is obviously the elemental master of ice. I don't think this is Dr. Julien because he's never shown any signs of ice powers or fighting skills. And this probably isn't one of Zane's super distant ancestors because Kai and Nya's parents are there, as well.

Logical conclusion? Zane had two dads: one to build him and one to give him his elemental powers.

(I'm talking about the guy to the right of Maya. He's obviously ice-power coded, right? It's not just me?)

The only detail that throws a wrench in my theory is that in that same flashback, the elemental master of Earth shows up, and it isn't Cole's mom, meaning there goes the timeline doing whatever it wants to do. Granted, the Ninjago timeline in general is a bit weird, we don't really know exactly how long ago Dr. Julien spent in the lighthouse. He had white hair when he built Zane, just like the ice man here, so for all we know Dr. Julien was around for the Serpentine wars and was just super duper old by the time he shown up and Zane post-initial-memory wipe was just wandering around for a while.

Okay, I'm like 99% sure I'm missing something here, but in case of that 1%, here's what I think solves the Fermi Paradox.

You know how when we look at other planets, we're technically seeing them billions of years in the past because that's how long it takes the light to go from there to here?

And you know how it took life on Earth billions of years to evolve?

Maybe we're just looking at a bunch of planets in the unreleased beta stage and not the early access alpha like we think we are (if that makes sense)???

So if lightspeed, were, like, instantaneous, we would be able to see what's happening on those planets at the moment and then we would find more life?

Also, for the people who actually passed their physics classes, do light/radio/sound waves just go on forever if they don't have anything slowing them down like air or whatever?