#kaidanovsky

OKAY I CREATED SOME SORT OF THE PLAYLIST ON KAIDANOVSKIE. IT'S NOT FINISHED YET BUT IT EXISTS

Inktober week 1

1) Ring (Phantasy Star — Chaz Ashley)

2) Mindless (Resident Evil 6 — Chris Redfield and Piers Nivans)

3) Bait (The Dragon prince — Ezran and Bait)

4) Freeze (PROMARE — Lio Fotia)

5) Build (Pacific Rim — Sasha and Alexis Kaidanovsky)

6) Husky (Voltron: Legendary defender — Shiro)

I made this video after reading @roguepythia’s emotional and very heartfelt response to having watched “Pacific Rim Uprising” for the first time, hoping to cheer her up a bit, by gently reminding her that no matter what people choose to take away from the original, or what they do with the characters, it can never take anything away from what was, and very much still is.

Yes, I will never quite forgive them for how they chose to “continue” the original characters’ stories, either. Mako, most of all, but also Newton.   He’s probably not the worst offense, all things considered, because there could eventually be a way out of it (assuming they make a 3rd one).  But I know a lot of neurodivergent people who strongly identified with him (while, as an adult with ADHD, oddly enough the one whose behavior reminded me the most of my own was Raleigh), and Guillermo Del Toro himself had told the actor that, since his character left such a profound emotional impact on the fandom, he was dropping the idea of what they finally went with (trying to avoid spoilers is so hard!  Lol!). Also, they removed any mention of Raleigh that could have given fans some sense of closure (especially in relation to Mako) in the very off-chance that a) there’s a 3rd one and b) Charlie Hunnam will still be interested / available. It almost felt like they included original characters from the first movie simply to ensure a sense of continuity, while not being interested in who they are, nor what they represented and symbolized in that universe, and for people in the fandom. Still, I remain confident that it won’t prevent people who deeply connected with Guillermo Del Toro’s original movie from fully enjoying, appreciating, and loving what, to me, will forever remain a masterpiece, and up until this day the greatest movie of all time! This fanvid is thus dedicated to those of you who fell in love with a young boy – his loss carved deep into his skin – who, when faced with the strength, resourcefulness, and potential of another human being, chose to value her goals and dreams, use his pain to help her overcome her own, and in doing so allowed her to help him heal and save himself.

A young girl with kaiju-stained hair, carrying her little red shoe in her hands – filled with the powerful drive to fight back against the monsters that tried to take her heart from her – who, when faced with someone who’d lost his own will to fight and believe in himself, allowed him to connect with her own, share her goals, become responsible for her (as the more experienced co-pilot), and readily accepted and valued his support and guidance, while accompanying each other on their respective and shared journeys.

 A young woman who – by being willing to rely on him the same way he used to rely on his big brother to guide him – ended up putting that young man in a position of having to make the conscious choice of sacrificing his own chances of survival to keep the one he’d chosen to become responsible for safe.  

Yancy didn’t die because Raleigh failed to save him.  And even if there had been time for him to decide which one of them would live or die, chances are that, had his little brother’s fate been in his hands, Yancy would still have chosen to keep Raleigh safe.

“Anyone can fall.” Bad things happen to good people. Life is unfair, and rarely is it about what one does or doesn’t deserve.

Things are simply what they are, you do the best you can do with the resources and the opportunities you have, ideally while trying to find some balance between your needs, skills, objectives, and those of the other people around you.

To me, this quote was at the very core of the message I took from the movie.  

Beyond Mako and Raleigh’s own stories, I also fell in love with all the parallels that could be drawn between Raleigh and Chuck, Mako and Chuck (who, in many ways, possessed many of both Raleigh and Mako’s character traits and issues, but was paired with a father that didn’t know how to properly help his son address and manage them), Herc and Stacker, Newton and Hermann, Raleigh and Newton, etc.

And yes, through it all, we were offered scenes that were splendidly filmed (I could watch the rain fall on Mako’s umbrella, just before she adjusts it to reveal herself to the audience for the first time while Stacker and Raleigh’s helicopter is landing all day!), treated to one of the most amazing movie theme and score I’ve ever heard…

Not to mention the absolute joy of watching those giant robots facing off with giant monsters! But those were the icing on the cake rather than the core of the movie to me. 

End of the day, it’s not the Jaegers that had me in awe, and turned “Pacific Rim” into my favorite movie of all time…  It was the Drift between co-pilots, and the way emotional empathy and trust between a group of people and misfits with various backgrounds, cultures, stories, traumas and issues was shown to be the most effective way for humanity to vanquish its monsters.

It was how the movie ended up with a “main lead” in a very strong supportive role, that merely contributes to the success of the mission by choosing to get involved with the skills and resources he has, rather than being the big hero of the story with something unique that couldn’t have been done by anyone else but him.

It was how the whole movie was presented as this great human mosaic with flawed and complex characters that people could easily related to – heroes of the story rather than hero of the story – in a world filled with heart and symbolism.

And sadly, after watching “Pacific Rim Uprising”, where suddenly a bunch of cadets are randomly thrown into Jaegers without us ever having been given a chance to learn more about them (ex: what motivated them to join the post-war efforts with the PPDC…  What connects them to their given co-pilot(s)?  How do they relate to each other?)…

I found myself echoing Hannibal Chau after the credits, and wondering: “Where is my goddamn (little red) shoe?”

I am now very much in the process of coming to terms with the fact that, what made me hopelessly fall in love with Guillermo Del Toro’s movie in the first place apparently wasn’t what the people that were ultimately put in charge of the sequel perceived as being the most important for it to succeed (and doing videos as a coping mechanism).

Is it to say “Pacific Rim Uprising” is a terrible movie?  Perhaps not.  Perhaps if it had been my first introduction to that universe, and I didn’t know any of the previous characters and the Drift, I would have enjoyed it the same way I enjoyed watching “Jason X”, or “Piranha 3D”!

But I made the mistake of falling in love with an Australian father and son duo, that have such trouble showing each other affection outside of the Drift that, all the love they can’t directly express each other, they express towards their dog.

It’s all those little details that made the first movie so fascinating and more and more exciting to watch with each renewed viewing! Sadly, I’m reasonably sure I wasn’t the type of audience the sequel had in mind. 

Hence why I can’t say that “Pacific Rim Uprising” is “bad” for what it aimed to be this time around.   Nor do I wish to imply that “Pacific Rim” can’t be enjoyed as mindless “big robots v.s. monsters” entertainment, too. 

Or, you know, anywhere in the spectrum between “dumb fun” and “deserves an Oscar”.

I don’t think there’s ever a right or wrong way to enjoy a movie. 

Just that the way I personally enjoyed this one didn’t seem to carry on in the sequel at all.

It is what it is. Anyone can fall.  Or rise, depending on what you like.

Yes, I am disappointed that I couldn’t find my little red shoe in the new installment.

But, on the plus side, it has inspired me to reconnect even more strongly with the original, revisit some of my writings, feelings, and thoughts about those characters, etc.