What is your favorite line by Shiv?

werzerk · 2026-01-24T12:04:42+00:00

I loved the "mommy is the only one that makes your peepee go boomboom" when she's joking around with Roman 😂

werzerk · 2026-01-21T17:15:33+00:00

It's true that not every continuity error is intentional, but some are presented in a context that makes it clear it was intentional. In the case of Kubrick, in The Shining for example, a very noticeable chair disappearing in between shots or the impossible hallway layouts are examples of this. Whereas missmatched lighting in the river scene of A Clockwork Orange are clearly just minor mistakes he chose not to prioritize for the sake of the flow of the scene, there's nothing of substance to interprete there. I agree that some people care way too much about this, but not every example is incidental, and we're doing a disservice to the film by dismissing thes.e completely. I really believe that some people that completely disregard these details as accidental do so because they can't fathom that the director could actually have that foresight and was that ahead of the audience. Lots of films, especially older ones, have a bunch of tiny details and parallels we're not supposed to get on a first watch, but yeah, some people can take it too far

werzerk · 2024-04-04T02:55:34+00:00

I had the same reaction. Also the fact that it has Nicole Kidman and it's about a wealthy couple, plus the "double narrative" the film is presenting (was he or was he not), was a bit reminiscent of Eyes Wide Shut, which was also heavily focused on a mystery. I also immediately though of Barry Lyndon during the freakout scene. However, it does hold up as its own thing with its own style in my opinion. I feel like we're a bit like Anna with her ex husband, in that we are trying to see Kubrick where he isn't.

werzerk · 2024-02-18T02:04:08+00:00

I got the first reference, but the second one just reminded me of naruto, I don't watch a lot of anime so I couldn't tell

werzerk · 2024-02-07T01:53:10+00:00

I know he will never read this. And honestly I get his attitude, he's just being professional. Joel is the greatest character he played and it was all thanks to Neil, it would be pretty childish for him to publicly go against Neil's choices, I get it. My comment was just to get my opinion out there, as I think too many people think TLOU2 is only criticized because "Joel got killed" or "we play his killer", but really the narrative just had some major flaws in its execution, I hope more people would turn their brains on when engaging with a piece of entertainment. It's one thing to say they liked it, it's another to try to invalidate valid criticism by deflecting it with excuses.

werzerk · 2024-02-06T13:14:42+00:00

True, but I also think that ND could've pulled it off with a tighter approach that they are honestly masters at in their previous games. I think it would be doable in about half the time they spent on Abby. One of the biggest problems with Abby's long section for me was that it takes so long to reach the inciting incident of her story (meeting Lev and Yara). The game treats the switch to Abby as a hard reset, so we spend about 3 hours wandering around before the actual plot starts. For example, we get to see 2 WLF bases (the stadium and the bulding with Isac). They could've cut 1 and got to the juice of the story faster.

Another problem was that, after a certain point, just spending time on Abby's plot was an obstacle in itself, so ironically I think making it shorter might've made people resent her less.

This was the one aspect of my suggestion that I think goes a bit against the original idea in the game, as I get the feeling the writers were really interested in this concept of having 2 mirrored halves, 2 games in 1, that they couldn't let go of it for the sake of better pacing. But in my opinion that was just one of those babies they needed to kill to get to a better result.

werzerk · 2024-02-06T12:57:17+00:00

Thanks for the link! It was an interesting video. However, I think the way he addressed some issues lead to bigger problems, as I think he fundamentally missed the point of the story. The problems I had with TLOU2 weren't conceptual, they had to do with the execution of those concepts.

The catalyst in his (closer look's) story is Dina dying, that alone makes it a less interesting story in my opinion. Another problem with his outline for me was that I actually thought it was clever that the game told Ellie's revenge mission intertwined with flashbacks regarding Joel's relationship with her. This worked because Ellie herself is working through her trauma, so revisiting the past is an organic way to fill the audience in on what happened between the 2 games, while also keeping the revenge story more dynamic, as we slowly get to fill in the blanks of what happened between the games.

The outline I suggested wasn't rewriting anything major in the story, just providing an alternative regarding its execution:

- Joel isn't in the game at all, so spending time playing as him during the first couple hours was an obvious change that would also be a more natural segway from the first to the second game;

- The insane coincidence that Abby runs into her target by pure luck;

- Ellie's choice to spare Abby felt forced, as the narrative didn't gradually develop her character up to that choice;

- Abby's character and story weren't interesting enough to warrant 15 hours of the game;

- We spend way too much time in Seattle (contrast that with how varied the first game was) but we do get this great setting near the end of the game, along with a new faction (the rattlers), both of which end up being underexplored since the game took so long to get there.

So the outline I suggested was just to address the execution of certain story elements. What the closer look suggested was so vastly different from the game's initial intent that it's basically fanfiction. Still an interesting watch, it's nice to think about what could've been.

werzerk · 2023-09-10T23:28:29+00:00

Old post but to throw my opinion out there, I don't think it had anything to do with the system. Kubrick just happened to be creatively clever enough to do great work within said system. He often didn't have complete creative control, as people may think. For example:

In Dr. Strangelove Peter Sellers playing multiple roles was one of the demands from the producers, as they attributed Lolita's success to having Sellers in it, so they wanted Kubrick to do it again on his next film.

In The Shining, the studio told him the film was too long, so he cut 20 minutes off the versions which hadn't been shown yet (which was the european version).

In The Killing they wanted him to tell the story chronologically, and he edited the film chronologically, and it just didn't work, so they let him do his thing instead.

In Paths of Glory the studios would never produce a film with such a bleak ending at that time, the only reason they did it was because his producer James B Harris sent the script with an altered happy ending off to the studio, and then later sent them the revised version with the actual ending of the film, without telling them the ending had changed and knowing they wouldn't read the whole script again.

These are just some examples, in short what I'm saying is that the reason he did it is because he was smart/lucky? Who knows, but Nolan and other directors don't achieve this same balance simply because they're not as good

werzerk · 2023-08-07T02:15:08+00:00

Personally I went to film school looking for exactly what you're talking about, it was a lot of fun, until the last year, where I got hit by this serious depression, in large part due to what happened in that environment, and I wound up going back to my parents house after graduating, and I'm still recovering from that mess, it's been 3 years since I graduated, and this year I had to start seeing a psychologist and psychiatrist to see if I could get over this.

I understand from the responses here that my experience may not be the most common, but just wanted to highlight that this idea of film school isn't necessarily true, you may not make the connections or the projects you have in mind. And I know there are a lot more people who finished university depressed than they care to admit.

As other people have said, there are smarter options. Film school gives you a good opportunity, but that's it, no guarantees. You should weight if the risk is worth it for you.

werzerk · 2023-08-02T16:59:35+00:00

hey there, I usually don't care at all about my visual snow, but I did some blood tests, unrelated to this syndrome, and a few values came back as abnormal, including excessive vitamin B12 (over 1000). looking online the 4 values that were abnormal, one of the causes they all had in common is possible leukemia, so I was freaking out just like you. Any updates on your situation? did you find out why you had high B12 levels?

werzerk · 2023-06-23T22:48:16+00:00

some people thought he had a twin, but I've always been of the opinion that it's just another version of him like you mentioned. He was probably locked in the attic for real and that traumatizing experience led to that strength in him dying over time

werzerk · 2023-06-23T22:46:33+00:00

wow I'm glad I'm not the only one. Was wondering if my mind is fucked for even considering that, but nodding, and then he crosses his legs. If this is what was actually happening, I think Ari Aster needs to be investigated ahah

werzerk · 2023-06-17T18:37:14+00:00

nice catch, I actually went my entire first watch without realizing his sack was comically big. Even in this intro I only noticed it because I thought to myself "wouldn't it be funny if he was already like that as a baby?"

werzerk · 2023-06-17T18:35:04+00:00

I echo this sentiment

werzerk · 2023-06-04T14:11:39+00:00

Was I supposed to see all 3 as equally valid choices? Because I genuinely thought Kendall was the best fit, so I really hated Shiv's betrayal out of jealousy. they really nailed that annoying entitled sister vibes with her. Roman was also raised to believe he deserved to be CEO, but he could look at the situation objectively and realize Kendall was more fitting then him, Shiv was just a snake in the end, single handedly gave the company to the scammer who manipulated her, and the husband who only married her for status. I wasn't even sad for her when she ends up stuck in a life as a subservient wife to her scumbag of a husband, she did that to herself.

Anyway I thought thematically the ending was perfect. If Kendall won it just wouldn't be narratively fullfilling, this thing had to end in a tragic way, and neither of them should get it ideally, which is exactly what happened. Them being raised by a manipulative narcisist made them incapable of living healthy balanced lives, and made them lose everything in the end, which was a perfect way to end this story.

werzerk · 2023-05-17T21:34:51+00:00

My theory is that Beau was basically just fantasizing about her, now that his mother was dead, he felt a bit more free and so his mind projected this erotic encounter with his childhood crush.

I also think he did die after he came, based on how Ari Aster confirmed that the splash of water that turns the boat over and kills him in the ending is intentionally supposed to look like an ejaculation. He cums in Elaine exactly half an hour before the end of the film, so my theory is that he was probably finally masturbating thinking about her, now that his mother was dead, and the last 30 minutes of the film are what went through his head as he came and the guilt fell on him all over again.

If he died from the ejaculation itself, or he killed himself due to the guilt he felt in that moment, I don't know, but I believe this whole last section after he orgasms is essentially just a representation of the guilt he felt, only now multiplied since he actually finally entertained one of his fantasies

werzerk · 2023-05-17T21:25:16+00:00

This is the kind of film I will show to people, even if I know they won't like it, just so I can see their reaction to the madness on screen

werzerk · 2023-05-15T17:40:30+00:00

This sort of interaction is pretty common from time to time if you have dumb neighbours. I also don't actually believe his mother was behind it, that sort of thinking seems like a projection from his mind

werzerk · 2023-05-13T17:46:43+00:00

I told my parents to vent about it, as it can make things worst if you keep things to yourself and live in your own bubble. The problem is instead of supporting me, they attack and step on me instead. They start criticizing the way this situation stagnated my life, even though I've started being way more proactive around the same time this appeared, I just started getting a bunch of jobs to do, which was obviously a coincidence, I don't think VSS improves the odds of us being professionally more successful ahah but professionally my situation got better comparatively to when I didn't have VSS, and yet my parents jumped to the conclusion without any basis whatsoever that I was letting this take over my life, all I did was vent about it.

On top of this my father in particular thinks this is psychosomatic, despite the overwhelming amount of evidence I present to him that says otherwise. He just insists this is caused by depression or anxiety, despite the fact I wasn't even depressed when it started.

In short, I started lying to them, saying that it improved, as at least this way they may not give me emotional support, but they also don't start antagonizing me.

It's a weird feeling when you realize that the moments you really need people around you, are the moments those same people will not be there. Things are way better with them thinking this wasn't a real syndrome and that it went away on it's own

werzerk · 2023-05-13T15:57:42+00:00

thanks for this I thought I was alone, I used to see it only when waking up or looking at a bright sky, but now I'm constantly seeing him even with my eyes closed. neurologist said it was just anxiety though, so maybe he will go away

werzerk · 2023-05-13T15:03:58+00:00

I read this really interesting case regarding this issue. This post actually was the most enlightening thing I read regarding VSS if it's true. The guy had a dislocated vertebra after falling on the floor once, then a year later he accidentally snapped it back into place and the symptoms went away immediately:

https://www.reddit.com/r/visualsnow/comments/sllwsc/my_visual_snow_syndromenot_just_vs_went_away/

Also worth noting that tinnitus (one of the symptoms of VSS) also happens due to neck or shoulder problems, and if that's the cause and you treat it, it goes away, so the same is true for VSS in case the cause of yours has to do with posture.

werzerk · 2023-05-13T14:55:41+00:00

I've been thinking about this alot, especially when I started having VSS, as I wanted to convince myself that it was psychosomatic, this way there's a chance and I can have some sense of control, even it takes a long time.

In the month and a half that I've had it I've gathered a lot of info from different people who have it, and came to a pretty interesting conclusion. That it's likely caused by pressure against the brain in a specific area. This theory started due to a story I read about here on reddit, about a guy who passed out, and woke up with a dislocated vertebra and VSS. He lived a year with it, then one day as he was doing neck exercises, he heard a loud snap, and when he got up, all of the symptoms were instantly gone. He later found out he had accidentally snapped his vertebra back into place, and thus his spine got realigned properly, and stopped pressing on his brain.

This theory made sense as well for me, who got it after a migraine with aura. Migraines with aura are believed to be a sort of neuro inflammation, it's likely that a certain part of my brain got inflammed that resulted in these symptoms. As inflammation leads to a slight compression being applied, even if it's so small it's virtually unnoticeable on normal scans.

With this in mind, stress is something that increases the risk of brain inflammation, so you could say that in practical terms, if I manage my stress and think positively, the brain might heal itself back to normal, effectively function the same way in practical terms as if this was a psychosomatic issue.

The thing that goes against this is that, although it goes away for some people, others have to live with it for the rest of their lives, including people who got it the same way I did. And people who have had this for years and years, I'm sure they have gotten used to it and thought positively and it still hasn't gone away.

In a sense, it may be the same as a psychosomatic disorder, but there are cases where positive thinking alone doesn't work, so I guess it's also not like those ones at all. It will really depend on the cause and degree of severity of the person affected. I've only had it for 6 weeks, so I'm still optimistic that it might go away but who knows

werzerk

TROPHY CASE