Project: Shadow

Hunters on Amazon Prime is not the show it was advertised as. The trailers made it look like a Quentin Tarantino style revenge fantasy focused on Nazis in America. While there is some of that, the show itself is more of a deep meditation on what should happen with people that are willing to devalue human life to the point of genocide, but it also looks at topics of petty revenge from various angles as well.

Through the dialogue, it is clear that this show wants to be a conversation of what makes a hero and how do we obtain justice when the system fails us.  All of those are interesting questions, but the show is far more interested in its own cleverness than it is at answering those questions.

The two major twists that take place in the story don’t add much of anything and detract from the show overall. One is so obvious that it shouldn’t count as a twist, and the other The other comes out of no where and re-contexts earlier reveals into hollow, heavy handed foreshadowing that guts the heart of the story.

The complexity of this series make it worth talking about, but I am not sure it deserves a second season.

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Dragon Quest: Your Story is a 3D animated retelling of the story of Dragon Quest V, but it is so much more than that. Without going into spoilers, which I will in the episode itself, this movie is a mediation on the place that content, particularly video games, have in our lives. I am not sure that the method they use to discuss this theme works, it does a good job not only capturing the feel of fandom, but also the current state of internet fandom itself.

This movie is a bold experiment, not only in how to retell a video game story, but in how to have a meta conversation about the topic at hand. In many ways, I think the Lego Movie did a better job addressing some of the same themes and ideas, but it comes at the topic from a very different point of view. 

In all, it was a good movie with an interesting message. I wish more people would take risks at this scale with stories that have this much resonance within the target market. With so many films feeling like remakes and formula fare, this film takes a wild swing that may or may not have worked for you, but I have to admire the bravery to try something this different when they could have phoned it in for a more guaranteed success.

If you want to support the work that I do, you can join the project on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cedorsett

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Site: https://www.projectshadow.com

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Project: Luminous has finally been revealed as Star Wars: The High Republic, and I want to be excited about this, but there were two parts of the announcement that concerned me.

1. There are NO High Republic movies planned.

2. It is a connected story that will cover different types of media.

I will dig into those things a lot deeper in the show, but I have to say that I am still tentatively excited about this. Jedi Knights of the Round Table? Sign me up.

If you want to support the work that I do, you can join the project on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cedorsett

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Site: https://www.projectshadow.com

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On episode 6 of 10 of Star Trek: Picard, we finally have the band together with the heroes and the villains established until the inevitable twist when we learn that we were all wrong the whole time and Soji is the real villain… I hope it doesn’t go there, but I see the signs that they have set up a “The Romulan were right the whole time” twist in the finale.

I am more convinced than ever that this series is going to be about who created V’ger and why they have been in hiding all this time. I am also expecting it to explain where the Borg came from, because that is a story no one asked for.

Having said all that, I loved this episode. The most difficult part of this episode is how many choices it made that I don’t like, but the acting and story was so enthralling, I am still willing to go along with it. I am just afraid that at some point the spell will break and the magic will fade. I don’t have faith in the writers have an interesting end game because they keep choosing the most obvious plot point at each step along the way. I want to be wrong. I want to keep loving this show. Please don’t let me down.

If you want to support the work that I do, you can join the project on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cedorsett

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Site: https://www.projectshadow.com

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When we are working on a project we have to be honest in each stage of the project. 

Stage 1: Be fascinated in development. When you are figuring out what the project is, follow your fascinations and test as many possibilities the story could take and trim off everything that doesn’t make you want to know more or find out what happened next.

Stage 2: Fall in love in drafting. It is so important for us to turn off the analytical and judgmental aspects of our personality and have fun.

Stage 3: Be ruthless in revision. Turn that judgmental, analytical beast back on and beat the work into shape.

If you want to support the work that I do, you can join the project on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cedorsett

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Site: https://www.projectshadow.com

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Queer people and characters have had to do something that most cis, heterosexual people haven’t, questioned who they are and why they are who they are. This isn’t a knock against cis, heterosexual people, it is just a fact that when you are the same as the default presentation of people in your society, you don’t have to ask yourself any deep questions about your identity.

While not all LGBTQIA+ stories are about this kind of soul searching, this aspect of the character’s background will affect who they are, how they act and interact with others, and the decisions they make.

It is also important for people to learn to see themselves in the lives of people different from them. Let’s discuss on today’s Project: Shadow.

If you want to support the work that I do, you can join the project on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cedorsett

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I just finished reading How to Date your Dragon by Molly Harper, and I have to say I enjoyed it, but I wanted more than I got. World building is so important for me, and I wish the story would have gone deeper into the setting.If you want to support the work that I do, you can join the project on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cedorsett

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Dragons, unicorns, tropes, and nostalgia are placebos for connection, but they are no substitute for the real thing. They are signposts of the type of story being told and flares to attract attention. Once they have done their job, there has to be something else to retain that attention and connection.

Some try to substitute trauma and pain for the various elements that would actually connect people to the work, the characters, and the setting.

Let’s talk about hollow fiction on today’s Project: Shadow.

If you want to support the work that I do, you can join the project on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cedorsett

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Site: https://www.projectshadow.com

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With the events of Star Trek Picard: Star City Rag, it is clear that the series wants to be as different from the series that preceded it as possible to the point where it no longer looks classic Star Trek, which is obviously a thing of the past.

Gene Roddenberry and many others who worked on and guided previous series wrote a lot about how the problems that center in the stories need to be universal. If they were transferred to any other genre, the story should be able to happen with minimal changes.

Star Trek Picard has rejected this to the point of parody with its focus on Borg technology and Artificial Intelligence is moving it farther away from relatability as the show could be.

I have a lot to say about this episode, but I can’t without spoilers, so join me on today’s Project: Shadow.

If you want to support the work that I do, you can join the project on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cedorsett

YouTube Channel= https://www.youtube.com/user/cedorsett/

Site: https://www.projectshadow.com

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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projectshadowsite/

How to take an idea and turn it into something that can become a novel or other type of story.

If you want to support the work that I do, you can join the project on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cedorsett

YouTube Channel= https://www.youtube.com/user/cedorsett/

Site: https://www.projectshadow.com

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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/projectshadowsite/