#bit weird

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Oh yeah, I remember reading that a while ago. Like... two years ago?

This is a loaded question. And considering how much I love the movie, I might be biased. So, uh, keep that in mind.

The way they originally wrote some of the characters and their relationships definitely threw me for a loop. The fact that Emmet and Lucy were originally written to be exes was... a choice.

I wouldn't say it was a bad choice per se, but Emmet and Lucy being strangers from the get-go makes that trust she develops in him a lot more powerful from a storytelling perspective.

Her first impression of Emmet is a generic guy who she believes shouldn't be the special. She thinks that there is nothing about him that could help them against Business, nothing to set him apart from any other person in Bricksburg. And maybe there's a bit of jealousy there

But then, as they go through more and more together, running from gcbc, the destruction of Cloud Cuckoo Land, getting saved by Emmets double-decker couch (Proving the ideas he comes up with aren't the worst), and infiltrating Octan. She learns to trust him enough to tell him her real name. And that scene is when you really feel that shift in their relationship.

So, for them to have previously known each other enough to have dated? It could have worked in some ways, I suppose, but I think their being strangers makes the care Lucy develops for Emmet so much more impactful.

I do somewhat like the idea of Doris being a part of the movie, but maybe less as a main character. I think the way she was handled kind of watered down Emmets character development.

I like her. I like the idea of Emmet having a mom and a dad, even if he's implied to be dead. And the whole 'I need to save my mother from this evil person' is a stereotype among many that ended up being included in the movie.

But I think his mother is mentioned enough as the 'most powerful person in the universe' that it kinda dilutes Emmets purpose a bit. Vituvius ignores his asking for help until Lucy says who his mother is.

I guess the whole "your mother did this" "your mother did that" ends up making Emmet seem 'less important' somehow. She shows up in the script just enough that I would consider her as a co-main character.

Here's the thing about Emmet as a character.

Emmet is introduced as a guy who follows the instructions to the letter because he wants to fit in with everyone around him. And he follows the instructions without much effort. Which could be said that he's just really brainwashed like everyone else in Bricksburg, but I do think he likes the routine.

In a scene with Lucy, it's shown that he also really doesn't know anything else outside of the instructions and President Business. He lists off a bunch of things about Octan that he thinks are 'great', but are actually just things he's been brainwashed to believe in.

And when Lucy and Vitruvius enter his mind, this idea of him just being a random, uncreative, brainwashed guy is reinforced by the blankness of his mindscape.

In the original script, Emmet still follows instructions to fit in, but this time, it's his mother who reinforces these beliefs that not following the instructions is wrong. Instead of the things around him influencing him (Because he is lonely as hell), he has someone -his family- to constantly tell him that being creative is bad. Even if it's to protect him, you can admit it is a bit messed up if you think about it.

It's also shown in a few scenes that he gets these 'sparks' of creativity that lead to him being shunned by his classmates and arrested on his first day as a construction worker. This is a stark contrast to the unnoticeable genericness that makes up Emmet in the movie.

Script Emmet was written as a far more memorable person compared to the movie. Emmet is actively invited out for lunch with his new coworkers, while in the movie, they ignore or even forget about him.

And as much as it hurts me to say- Nothing about Emmet was particularly special. Compared to all the other characters that showed up throughout that whole beginning sequence, Emmet didn't have anything that made him stick out.

That's a big part of his character. He's written as a forgettable character that no one notices, which led to that painful interrogation sequence, but also the manhunt for him, since his face was too generic for any of Business's systems to find him.

So, for him to originally have more of a presence, and even need to be told to be normal, when in the movie it comes naturally to him, it is one of the biggest differences I noticed.

But something that hasn't changed in either version is his want to have friends and fit in. In both the script and movie, he does a lot to make himself as appealing as possible to his coworkers, so that he can hang out with them. (Again, lonely.)

It's his first day on the job in the script, so he wants to have a relationship with these people. The movie implies that he's been working with all the other construction workers enough that they should know him, and he thinks they do. But as we know, they don't. So that whole 'not special' thing starts there.

Actually, the movie revolves around the idea of people being special a lot more than the og script.

I have a few problems with the villain they originally wrote, and most of these problems are probably only because Business exists.

I think Business brought that more 'adult' element to the movie that gave it so much more depth. The Lego Movie did really well as a kids' movie, the jokes were on point, and there was a whimsical childishness that I really love, but Business gave so much to the movie with his role as a villain.

Black Falcon leans a lot more towards what a kid thinks a villain would be like. His name, the way he acts, the flare, the insults he uses, it's all written to appeal to children, to their imagination. I mean it's a kids movie what did you expect?

Business is also built on a child's imagination, but now it's a kid who's projecting his father onto this minifigure, making a strict president-businessman that sucks the fun out of life, and makes all of these dumb rules people follow. And this is basically what Finn thinks his father is doing whenever he says no to Finn playing with his 'orderly' lego worlds.

The Black Falcon and Business both want to freeze the world into what they think is perfect. But their motivations, and the people they represent in Finn's life are different.

Falcon is a reflection of Finn's Uncle, who is apparently going through a rough patch in life where his girlfriend left him, every job he takes makes him hate himself, and he has to babysit Finn while his mom goes partying.

Business is a reflection of Finn's father, and while we don't get a whole rant from him about what is wrong with his life, we can gauge that he's probably a businessman of some kind, and that he likes to maintain order and keep things where they're 'meant to be'.

They both don't want Finn to mess with their Lego worlds; that much is the same. Script uncle feels that that is the one thing in his life he has control over, his perfect world. Finn's father thinks of it as his space, one that Finn shouldn't touch or mess with, because everything will then be put in the wrong place.

Falcon and Business are opposites in some way. Falcon has a lot of chaotic qualities, while Business gives a corporate vibe. Falcon stays in the shadows, while Business is the president, who makes public appearances.

They're the same but different. Business I think, ends up being a character that adults think/relate to more. Movie for all ages everybody

Then we get to the scene where Emmet is thrown into the reality of the man upstairs ('The Makers' in the script), and that was a wild scene.

Script Emmet just walks towards a portal that brings him to the 'real world'. He does this because it is apparently 'calling to him', and then he just disappears in front of everyone. The only reaction from that is "Well that was weird"-and then he's in the 'real world', where he is apparently able to move easily and speak out loud. Cue a lego minifigure and a grown man screaming at each other.

The movie instead goes down the route where Emmet throws himself into this swirling vortex of doom to save all of the master builders. This one act makes it seem like he dies rather than just disappearing for a bit; it's also a lot more dramatic and gives a more solid reason for him to switch realities. This time, when he's in the 'real world', he can't move. He shouldn't be able to because he's a toy in the hands of Finn.

Emmet not moving makes more sense. He has a whole existential crisis, and watches this massive guy -who actually looks a lot like Business- kragle all of his friends. Then he has a chance to get a good look at Finn, to get that confidence with Finn's belief in him.

Wayyyyyy different than what the script had. The script had Emmet talk to script uncle, that was weird.

It's... Okay, a big reason I love The Lego Movie so much is because of the way you can find parallels in Finn's relationship with his dad, with the way Business and Emmet interact.

Business is redeemed by Emmet, because Finn's dad ends up accepting that maybe a bit of chaos is okay by talking with his son. Finn's script uncle is redeemed because Finn and Emmet talk to him, but Black Falcon stays the same.

Look, I have no idea if the script planned to have Black Falcon be a direct parallel to Finn's uncle in the way Business is to his dad. Most of this are the ramblings of a crazy person that likes legos.

That's interesting, because Black Falcon has the same wants as Finn's uncle, but the way he acts isn't a reflection of the man. From what I read in the script, Finn's uncle is actually pretty nice to his nephew, but even after Emmet goes back into the lego reality, Black Falcon is still an evil bastard. And then he gets chucked into a volcano and dies.

I hate that ending. Little too reminiscent of how they killed off Rex Which I will admit is only because I'm comparing it to the movie ending, but I still don't like it. It's just a "Oh yay he's dead now." kind of ending.

"If the construction guy... said something to President Business... What would he say?"

Finn's dad asks him that, and this question allows Finn to tell his father how he feels about his rules through the lego minifigures, through his imagination. But it also smoothly transitions from that scene to Emmet and Business. That speech Emmet gives to Business is a direct reflection of what Finn is probably saying to his dad.

"You don't have to be the bad guy." THIS QUOTE, I SWEAR TO GOD- IT DOES THINGS TO ME. I think this was one of the first times I ever saw a kids movie handle a villain like that, telling them they were special as well, that they could be like the hero of the story. It goes to show that even kids can understand topics that adults might claim are too 'complicated' for them.

The producers knew what they were doing when they planned that scene. Business losing the platform boots as Finn's dad crouches down. Both of these authoritative figures come down to Emmet/Finn's level. And then they hug? My Feelings.

And it's this ending that they wrote, which is what I think makes The Lego Movie such a good movie. The ending of the script doesn't even compare to that masterpiece.

Both the script and the movie have different messages being conveyed. And that is a direct influence by how exactly the story plays out.

The script is trying to say that change is a good thing, that building upon something can lead to amazing things. There's also a message somewhere in there about how letting your kids go and make mistakes is good for them or something.

One time I dreamt... 

Dreams, dreams, dreams. Such mysteries. Like one of those few funny pockets in life that not even science can truly explain. They can be profound, elusive, frightening, and often downright weird. They can disappear in an instant as you wake with a jolt, overwhelmed by what you have just experienced (and experience would be the key word here) but not entirely sure what it is. Is there a greater significance to dreaming? Is there a message or sign to be deciphered? Is it simply your brain's mechanism for processing the mass of information and noise it has processed over the day? If someone appears to you in a dream, is that a form of communication?

There is surely nothing stranger than dreaming of someone known, perhaps someone close, who is there, in the dream, yet not themselves: whether by appearance or by character. It's them, but it isn't. Questions, questions. And questions without answers. Luckily, @one-time-i-dreamt has been rounding up a few of the dashboard's stranger after-dark experiences, and they make for a, uh, read. They make for a read.

We hope this will please the dashboard's vast army of dreamers. But it's important to say that while @one-time-i-dreamt deals with the world of dreams, it doesn't deal entirely with the world of dreams. Sometimes it deals in frustrated dads who use their 6ft sons to shame councils into fixing deep potholes.

So arm yourselves with all the 6ft sons you can muster x

Well anyone can do drag so of course the icon himself can.

I also want to address some feelings about Peter Davison that I have personally. This man is a great actor in everything but I do HAVE to disagree with some things he says. I have been watching the DVDs of season 20 blue-ray and just some of the things he says like:

“From now on I will be only looking at yours and Sarah’s bottoms”

OR

When Sarah mentions not wearing a bra, he immediately says “can you rewind it?!”

I know this can be a joke but this man just CONSTANTLY does this in different special parts of the DVDs.

Like in Planet of Fire commentary, the suggestive “nice bikini…” just puts me off from him.