Emsis Blue captures a very specific flavour of surreal horror I call 'Nightmare Logic." Rarely do its events make literal sense, but they ALWAYS make a horrible sort of _emotional_ sense, just as they would in a nightmare. A good example of this is the Russian Roulette scene. Once Spy has handed over the only gun, the others have no reason to go along with the game. Yet they continue to play along even against their own will, because that's what you do in a nightmare.
15:34 I've gotta disagree on Soldier feeling hollow (I disagree with this about Fritz, too, but Soldier has a bit more character in my opinion). He definitely has connectable character, but unlike Scout, I'd say it's pretty hidden among Soldier's actions. Take the scene in chapter five for example. Soldier has a conversation where he asks Fritz about the Conagher brothers. When Fritz reveals that he killed the Conaghers, Soldier's first question isn't to ask why Fritz did it but to ask "Who gave you that order?" Soldier is more kind than he's given credit for. He immediately gives Fritz the benefit of the doubt, automatically assuming that it wasn't his fault and it was the fault of some higher power. Soldier being a soldier, this makes sense for him to assume that. This also explains why he became friends with Demo so easily. Soldier doesn't hold any blame or malice to Demo even though he's on the enemy team, Soldier immediately understands that Demo is a soldier in a war just like him and just following orders. He spends a good chunk of the movie being pretty altruistic despite the horrifying situations he finds himself in, from comforting the dying Scout in his war flashback, to attempting to reassure Fritz when they're playing Russian roulette. But on top of being more kind compared to the other characters, Soldier also feels lowkey suicidal at times, like he genuinely doesn't think his life matters too much. Soldier, once again, being a soldier probably isn't a stranger to being just a pawn. Expendable for someone else. He risks taking a fatal shot to the head just to get past Sniper, he always seems to be walking into danger, yet keeps finding reasons to stay alive when the truth of what's really going on slowly gets revealed to him; Soldier has to stay alive because his death would be the death of the truth. So it makes sense that he's the only character to survive by the end of the movie. EDIT - After watching some more videos on this, I think the true crux of Soldier's character development is the same reason we see his eyes more and more as the movie goes on and truth is revealed to him; Soldier is a blind follower. That doesn't necessarily mean he personally LIKES the people he follows, but he often follows orders in the belief that what he's being told to do is for a higher purpose or cause that he isn't supposed to understand. Despite being arguably the most helpful character to the investigation, Soldier suffers constant abuse from Spy who barks order after order at him and then blames Soldier for every shortcoming they have. Soldier shoots Stalingrad to save Spy but immediately gets chastized. Soldier discovers the radio's use and Spy immediately dismisses him. Soldier tackles Spy to save him from a fatal shot by Sniper only for Spy to immediately pull a gun on him a few minutes later. Soldier points out he literally took a bullet for Spy, not even just to save his life but JUST to get past Sniper and Spy's response is cold and dismissive and angry; "I should have shot you myself." Soldier knows somewhat that his superiors don't care personally about him, but Soldier comes to understand just how dehumanizing it gets and how dehumanized he himself is. He starts off the movie with some niavity and optimism about his situation and the people he follows. He has a romantic idea about his position as a soldier, but then the horrifying truth slowly settles in. These people not only don't care about him and soldiers like him, they are regularly expended, killed, and tortured in a vicious cycle for greed. Soldier goes from literally taking a bullet for Spy to walk forward to laughing in Spy's face at a funeral and killing Blutarch himself and for a VERY good reason.
A little detail a like is the line from Scout: "Doc, if they ever hit you with something, you hit back twice as hard." the doctor was shot once, and he shot back twice
The truth about Emesis blu is that it is not about war or the effects of substance abuse but in fact a visual representation of the average 2fort match
For me, the real selling point of this film is the quality of the animation... Really, it's made in SFM and if you ever tried SFM you know what purgatory it is. On a side note, for me, this film occupy an uncanny valley position, cause, my brain is so used to associate this characters to a cartoony and funky reality and seeing them die, go crazy, hallucinating, being in a some sort of reality more similar to our... I think, though, that spy disguise really did this right with the uncanny aspect.
Emesis Blue stands as my favorite thriller movie ever. It's not perfect, nothing really is. When compared to a lot of other works, it's hard so see where it stands on its own, but you can tell where the strengths are if you get aquainted with some of the lore and background of the creation tools the animators worked with. All the moments that intended to scare you work perfectly the first time, and the immersive element is some of the best in all of movies. I fucken love this movie.
I STRONGLY disagree with the take that Emesis Blue suffers from a lack of "narrative cohesion" or that the fact that the movie is hard to understand on a first watch through is to its disadvantage. I think Fortress Films intentionally wrote the film in an unclear way to create a sense of mystery and intrigue and encourage attentive viewing. The fact that certain plot points are unclear and certain scenes is what unexplained peaks the viewers interest, encourages them to think about it more deeply, and stay in the audience's mind. The reason this movie stuck with me so much is because of the vague way it tells its story, not in spite of it. I also disagree with the idea that the film has a lack of introspection. A big part of this is what I said before about leaving room for the audience to fill in the gaps, but I also think that it's just not that type of movie. Emesis Blue is not supposed to be a film where you attach yourself to deeply relatable characters because you're deeply aware of their personalities and desires. They are meant as a vehicle to explore the film's themes and concepts. This is an approach to characters common in horror and sci-fi and I believe this is what the filmmakers were drawing from. Because I wrote counterarguments for 2 out of 3 of your main criticisms, I guess I'll give you credit where it's due and say I also found the references in the movie to be pretty egregious. I'm more forgiving to it compared to other movies because it's a fan film so it's not like total originality and creativity was expected. Still, it does feel like it uses them as a crutch and gets in the way of letting the film form it's own identity.
I always love it when a film or piece of media leaves some things intentionally vague or unresolved. It allows fantastic water cooler talk. One of THE most famous examples of this is the ending to John Carpenters "The Thing". Where its intentionally vague as to if either survivor is a thing or human. The atmosphere of doubt and distrust fully set in as the normal by the end. How could you trust anyone at all after that? You're own dog that you live alone with could be a monster eager to assimilate you.
Every piece of art deserves criticism, because there is almost always room for the creators to improve. Well done making this video, especially willing to face potential backlash by the TF2 community (which can be quite "passionate" at times). Also quick correction, Soldier's name is actually Jane Doe, not John Doe. Seen in the WAR comic on page 16. Jane Doe is commonly used for unidentified females nowadays, but its actually a unisex name that was used before John Doe caught on. (Not sure if they changed it in Emesis Blue tho, I didn't see any mention of it)
i watched emesis blue two weeks ago, god is it fucking amazing. i fully understand all of your criticisms. and i understand your praises too. i think that giving the viewer questions in the end is what makes them hungry for more. to watch it again. i’m watching this movie for my second time with my father. this will be his first time watching it. he’s a very experienced movie writer/ producer and i am very intrigued to see what he thinks of it. will update with what he says after we watch. edit so he said that the plot was really incoherent which i 100% agree with but he wholeheartedly thinks it should be in theaters. its actually a fucking honor that my dad really enjoyed watching this film. :)
First of all, I have to say that you have a really great voice, and it made this a very enjoyable vid to listen to. But more to the point, I considered your criticisms after listening, and I realized that none of these things actually bothered me when watching EB. I think the reason why is that I've consumed a lot of ARG/unfiction media, in which information is not given as freely as it would be in a traditional movie, and the audience is forced to extrapolate information about characters, location, and story from very little. While Emesis Blue is clearly a movie first and foremost, I feel as if it provides information to the viewer more like an ARG. It provides the viewer a puzzle box, to be fiddled with, sorted through, and hopefully solved after the initial watch is over, with anywhere from one to several rewatches in-between. The necessity of rewatching and extrapolating information from small details is just part and parcel with that particular style.
I'm always so impressed by your editing and scriptwriting. Your videos are very well crafted and it astonishes me that you started less than a year ago. This level of production wouldn't be out of place in a channel with hundreds of videos and millions of subscribers. I'm excited to see where you go from here!!
To take a piece of art seriously, you have to criticize its flaws. And ALL ART will have flaws of some kind. By criticizing Emesis Blue in an honest fashion, you elevate it above "silly tf2 movie" into a serious art piece. the right kind of criticism is a compliment. I think Emesis Blue is a love letter to both TF2 and the authors favorite movies--its chock full of references and homages, and yeah some of them feel a little distracting just in how MANY references there are. I like the movie a lot, but in the end, I need the story to make sense. Leaving so many questions unanswered is fine--its not like its illegal--but for me to truly love a story, I need to understand what it's trying to tell me. emesis blue is so caught up in NOT answering questions, in making you guess, that it doesn't really say anything. Ok, i get that the respawn machine makes the monsters. But...why was there time travel? What's inside the briefcase? Who is the plague doctor? How does Medic keep regenerating? If medic can regenerate, why does the respawn machine need to exist? Can medics regeneration be replicated? If not, why not? why did the conagher brothers have no eyes? Why did they kill scout's mom? Just for fun? A certain balance needs to be struck between raising questions and answering them. Answer too many questions, and the movie loses its mystique. But Emesis blue (in my opinion) raises SO MANY QUESTIONS and answers maybe three of them, and that doesn't really do anything for me. I do think the movie is a technical masterpiece, and I love that it exists. But I prefer movies with a beginning, middle, and end, as opposed to this, which feels like its all the middle.
Adding my two cents into this, Chad Payne actually did a QnA for Emesis Blue in the Patreon Discord server, I think. So, some of the things that were left unanswered in the movie was explained in the QnA.
Is there a transcript of the Q&A or at least a decent summary? Wouldn’t want to be tricked into believing they said one thing when actually they said another.
@@ripleyjlawman.3162 another TF2 RUclipsr, Richter Overtime, did a video on Emesis Blue which includes some of the QnA transcripts used for explaining some of the stuff happening in the movie. I do have to warn you that the video is 2 hours long.
As a fellow content creator, this video was Amazing!!! Really high quality script writing and editing, Bravo! I'm sure this channel will be big some day. I think Emesis Blu might be the best horror movie I have ever watched
15:34 Coming back to this, I should have talked about Fritz more so I'll say it now; I don't think Fritz is hollow, either, but he's probably the most difficult of the characters to connect the dots with. Although, this strikes me as being something intentional. Fritz' most important dynamic is with himself and the Undertaker. But I think the mistake that gets made a lot is looking at these dynamics through grounded and logical reality rather than the possibly more metaphorical meaning behind these relations. After all, this is a movie where reality is constantly being warped and played with like silly puty, its kind of hard to actually nail it all down into something comprehensible. However, its worth noting that when you go metaphorical this means that things can be taken in many different and unique ways, but this is also likely one of the intentions of Fortress Films. Here's my interpretation; Fritz and his alter ego represent two sides of the same man. One who is uncomfortably complacent and trying his damndest to help the people around him but one who also recognizes the horror that is around him and wants to rebel or lash out, represented in a more literal sense of having two split personalities. Like Jekyll and Hyde, but far less voluntary and self-inflicted. One part of him wants to be helpful, to fix and mend the broken parts of a bad situation to the best of his ability. But the other part wants to burn it all to the ground like it should have been a long time ago. The Undertaker is not necessarily a direct reflection of Fritz himself, but rather the results of his own inner conflicts. The pain, the fear, the death, and ESPECIALLY the guilt. The Undertaker haunts Fritz like the lingering possibilities of what he's done, what he's witnessed, and what he's allowed to happen. The Undertaker is a force of nature type of character that, in some way, compells Fritz to address what needs to be done. He may not be a blind follower like Soldier, but he is still blind nonetheless. He sits in a cushy higher up job as a hospital administrator, not spending as much time on the front lines as the rest of the cast. Even Scout says it himself: "You need to get out more often, Doc." Despite knowing the harm he's witnessing, Fritz is silently complacent and disconnected due to being farther away from it all. Up until he's forcefully dragged into the fray, that is, and is forced to (metaphorically) play chess against what may very well be death itself. Fritz can't ignore the suffering and horror anymore, he HAS to do something about it. Towards the end of the movie, Fritz doesn't seem as fractured anymore. One side isn't panicking as he tries desperately to rescue his friend and himself and the other isn't maniacly and sadistically power tripping on kicking the asses of those around him. He's calm, unexpressive, calculated and sure. Like both sides agree on something, which is what Spy said at the funeral; This corruption needs to end once and for all.
Surprised you don't have more subs. You give a well-rounded take here. I agree with your criticisms of the film. It's definitely not perfect. While I appreciated The Shining segment with engineer at the bar, it also felt a little too similar in my eyes as well. Hope to see more vids like this. Kudos!
I think the problems that have been lobbied here in terms of the references stem from the fact that, pop culture reference are easier nodes to convey what the story tellers are trying to say. It also keeps the viewer engaged because they basically go become the pointing soyjak meme when there's a reference. Because there's a lot of original ideas, the whole movie is in general. The thing is, its a movie about TF2 or at least an aspect of TF2 and its hard to keep an audience glued throughout the movie without dangling little treats as I like to call them to the audience, most people expect a TF2 SFM to have action, guns blazing etc, this has little to none.
Amazing review! I watched Emesis Blue for the first (and so far only) time earlier this year, and really enjoyed it. Your critique is valid though. Even as someone who considered himself pretty good at weaving my way through obtuse storytelling/unreliable narrators, I found parts of this film to be a little too obtuse for me. Particularly when the references started coming hard and fast. Not being too familiar with most of those films made it hard to understand the themes at play. I think that would be where I draw the line with such things. A reference is fine, but become self indulgence when you have to have the full context of the original to enjoy the work before you. Though I've watched breakdowns that explain those segments, the “if you know, you know” is a bad film habit in my opinion. Regardless, it's still one of my favorite projects i've seen for TF2! Its story felt grounded and nightmares all at the same time, and Scout's mom scene still gives me chills just thinking about it!
I just want to throw this out here, but I think that introspection in the film would take away from it. If the characters slowed down to reflect on the chaotic confusing points in the movie, they'd be less chaotic and confusing, meaning you wouldn't think about them more, and you wouldn't watch the film again to try to understand things more. Like if at any point Franz were to reflect on Scout's mom's murder or the respawn machine, It would give us more information on them yes, but it'd take away what makes those things scary. Is Franz insane and killed Scout's mom? Maybe. You don't get to know.
I feel as though you gave the film a fair critique, you weren't dismissive of it's positives whilst highlighting the negatives of the overall presentation of the story.
![EMESIS BLUE [SFM]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/V0ODG8bFme0/mqdefault.jpg)
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
holy tf2 glaze (me too tho)
Emsis Blue captures a very specific flavour of surreal horror I call 'Nightmare Logic."
Rarely do its events make literal sense, but they ALWAYS make a horrible sort of _emotional_ sense, just as they would in a nightmare. A good example of this is the Russian Roulette scene. Once Spy has handed over the only gun, the others have no reason to go along with the game. Yet they continue to play along even against their own will, because that's what you do in a nightmare.
15:34 I've gotta disagree on Soldier feeling hollow (I disagree with this about Fritz, too, but Soldier has a bit more character in my opinion). He definitely has connectable character, but unlike Scout, I'd say it's pretty hidden among Soldier's actions.
Take the scene in chapter five for example. Soldier has a conversation where he asks Fritz about the Conagher brothers. When Fritz reveals that he killed the Conaghers, Soldier's first question isn't to ask why Fritz did it but to ask "Who gave you that order?" Soldier is more kind than he's given credit for. He immediately gives Fritz the benefit of the doubt, automatically assuming that it wasn't his fault and it was the fault of some higher power. Soldier being a soldier, this makes sense for him to assume that.
This also explains why he became friends with Demo so easily. Soldier doesn't hold any blame or malice to Demo even though he's on the enemy team, Soldier immediately understands that Demo is a soldier in a war just like him and just following orders.
He spends a good chunk of the movie being pretty altruistic despite the horrifying situations he finds himself in, from comforting the dying Scout in his war flashback, to attempting to reassure Fritz when they're playing Russian roulette.
But on top of being more kind compared to the other characters, Soldier also feels lowkey suicidal at times, like he genuinely doesn't think his life matters too much. Soldier, once again, being a soldier probably isn't a stranger to being just a pawn. Expendable for someone else. He risks taking a fatal shot to the head just to get past Sniper, he always seems to be walking into danger, yet keeps finding reasons to stay alive when the truth of what's really going on slowly gets revealed to him; Soldier has to stay alive because his death would be the death of the truth. So it makes sense that he's the only character to survive by the end of the movie.
EDIT - After watching some more videos on this, I think the true crux of Soldier's character development is the same reason we see his eyes more and more as the movie goes on and truth is revealed to him; Soldier is a blind follower. That doesn't necessarily mean he personally LIKES the people he follows, but he often follows orders in the belief that what he's being told to do is for a higher purpose or cause that he isn't supposed to understand.
Despite being arguably the most helpful character to the investigation, Soldier suffers constant abuse from Spy who barks order after order at him and then blames Soldier for every shortcoming they have. Soldier shoots Stalingrad to save Spy but immediately gets chastized. Soldier discovers the radio's use and Spy immediately dismisses him. Soldier tackles Spy to save him from a fatal shot by Sniper only for Spy to immediately pull a gun on him a few minutes later. Soldier points out he literally took a bullet for Spy, not even just to save his life but JUST to get past Sniper and Spy's response is cold and dismissive and angry; "I should have shot you myself."
Soldier knows somewhat that his superiors don't care personally about him, but Soldier comes to understand just how dehumanizing it gets and how dehumanized he himself is. He starts off the movie with some niavity and optimism about his situation and the people he follows. He has a romantic idea about his position as a soldier, but then the horrifying truth slowly settles in. These people not only don't care about him and soldiers like him, they are regularly expended, killed, and tortured in a vicious cycle for greed. Soldier goes from literally taking a bullet for Spy to walk forward to laughing in Spy's face at a funeral and killing Blutarch himself and for a VERY good reason.
Excellent take.
A little detail a like is the line from Scout: "Doc, if they ever hit you with something, you hit back twice as hard." the doctor was shot once, and he shot back twice
This one’s great
@@wekasuwi they put in little detail like this all over and if I were a smart man I'd probably find more
I'm so glad you're talking about this film! Emesis Blue was what got me to play TF2 for the first time and join the fandom.
Same thing bro, Emesis was ma introduction too
Oh hi ! Good to see you here
@@flowerpotmadeofclay Heya! Nice to see ya too.
The truth about Emesis blu is that it is not about war or the effects of substance abuse but in fact a visual representation of the average 2fort match
"It's eternity in there"
For me, the real selling point of this film is the quality of the animation...
Really, it's made in SFM and if you ever tried SFM you know what purgatory it is.
On a side note, for me, this film occupy an uncanny valley position, cause, my brain is so used to associate this characters to a cartoony and funky reality and seeing them die, go crazy, hallucinating, being in a some sort of reality more similar to our...
I think, though, that spy disguise really did this right with the uncanny aspect.
This and the fact that people can come up with infinite explanations for the film
Trying to get something working properly in SFM often feels like an eternity.
Emesis Blue stands as my favorite thriller movie ever. It's not perfect, nothing really is. When compared to a lot of other works, it's hard so see where it stands on its own, but you can tell where the strengths are if you get aquainted with some of the lore and background of the creation tools the animators worked with. All the moments that intended to scare you work perfectly the first time, and the immersive element is some of the best in all of movies. I fucken love this movie.
I STRONGLY disagree with the take that Emesis Blue suffers from a lack of "narrative cohesion" or that the fact that the movie is hard to understand on a first watch through is to its disadvantage. I think Fortress Films intentionally wrote the film in an unclear way to create a sense of mystery and intrigue and encourage attentive viewing. The fact that certain plot points are unclear and certain scenes is what unexplained peaks the viewers interest, encourages them to think about it more deeply, and stay in the audience's mind. The reason this movie stuck with me so much is because of the vague way it tells its story, not in spite of it.
I also disagree with the idea that the film has a lack of introspection. A big part of this is what I said before about leaving room for the audience to fill in the gaps, but I also think that it's just not that type of movie. Emesis Blue is not supposed to be a film where you attach yourself to deeply relatable characters because you're deeply aware of their personalities and desires. They are meant as a vehicle to explore the film's themes and concepts. This is an approach to characters common in horror and sci-fi and I believe this is what the filmmakers were drawing from.
Because I wrote counterarguments for 2 out of 3 of your main criticisms, I guess I'll give you credit where it's due and say I also found the references in the movie to be pretty egregious. I'm more forgiving to it compared to other movies because it's a fan film so it's not like total originality and creativity was expected. Still, it does feel like it uses them as a crutch and gets in the way of letting the film form it's own identity.
Thank you for your counter arguments! I see where you’re coming from. Criticism is often a form of sparking discussion, which I’m happy it did.
I always love it when a film or piece of media leaves some things intentionally vague or unresolved. It allows fantastic water cooler talk. One of THE most famous examples of this is the ending to John Carpenters "The Thing". Where its intentionally vague as to if either survivor is a thing or human. The atmosphere of doubt and distrust fully set in as the normal by the end. How could you trust anyone at all after that? You're own dog that you live alone with could be a monster eager to assimilate you.
Every piece of art deserves criticism, because there is almost always room for the creators to improve. Well done making this video, especially willing to face potential backlash by the TF2 community (which can be quite "passionate" at times).
Also quick correction, Soldier's name is actually Jane Doe, not John Doe. Seen in the WAR comic on page 16.
Jane Doe is commonly used for unidentified females nowadays, but its actually a unisex name that was used before John Doe caught on.
(Not sure if they changed it in Emesis Blue tho, I didn't see any mention of it)
i watched emesis blue two weeks ago, god is it fucking amazing. i fully understand all of your criticisms. and i understand your praises too. i think that giving the viewer questions in the end is what makes them hungry for more. to watch it again. i’m watching this movie for my second time with my father. this will be his first time watching it. he’s a very experienced movie writer/ producer and i am very intrigued to see what he thinks of it. will update with what he says after we watch.
edit so he said that the plot was really incoherent which i 100% agree with but he wholeheartedly thinks it should be in theaters. its actually a fucking honor that my dad really enjoyed watching this film. :)
alternate title for emesis blue
Medic has schizophrenia after we pressed E too much
First of all, I have to say that you have a really great voice, and it made this a very enjoyable vid to listen to.
But more to the point, I considered your criticisms after listening, and I realized that none of these things actually bothered me when watching EB. I think the reason why is that I've consumed a lot of ARG/unfiction media, in which information is not given as freely as it would be in a traditional movie, and the audience is forced to extrapolate information about characters, location, and story from very little. While Emesis Blue is clearly a movie first and foremost, I feel as if it provides information to the viewer more like an ARG. It provides the viewer a puzzle box, to be fiddled with, sorted through, and hopefully solved after the initial watch is over, with anywhere from one to several rewatches in-between. The necessity of rewatching and extrapolating information from small details is just part and parcel with that particular style.
I'm always so impressed by your editing and scriptwriting. Your videos are very well crafted and it astonishes me that you started less than a year ago. This level of production wouldn't be out of place in a channel with hundreds of videos and millions of subscribers. I'm excited to see where you go from here!!
To take a piece of art seriously, you have to criticize its flaws. And ALL ART will have flaws of some kind. By criticizing Emesis Blue in an honest fashion, you elevate it above "silly tf2 movie" into a serious art piece. the right kind of criticism is a compliment. I think Emesis Blue is a love letter to both TF2 and the authors favorite movies--its chock full of references and homages, and yeah some of them feel a little distracting just in how MANY references there are. I like the movie a lot, but in the end, I need the story to make sense. Leaving so many questions unanswered is fine--its not like its illegal--but for me to truly love a story, I need to understand what it's trying to tell me. emesis blue is so caught up in NOT answering questions, in making you guess, that it doesn't really say anything. Ok, i get that the respawn machine makes the monsters. But...why was there time travel? What's inside the briefcase? Who is the plague doctor? How does Medic keep regenerating? If medic can regenerate, why does the respawn machine need to exist? Can medics regeneration be replicated? If not, why not? why did the conagher brothers have no eyes? Why did they kill scout's mom? Just for fun? A certain balance needs to be struck between raising questions and answering them. Answer too many questions, and the movie loses its mystique. But Emesis blue (in my opinion) raises SO MANY QUESTIONS and answers maybe three of them, and that doesn't really do anything for me. I do think the movie is a technical masterpiece, and I love that it exists. But I prefer movies with a beginning, middle, and end, as opposed to this, which feels like its all the middle.
Adding my two cents into this, Chad Payne actually did a QnA for Emesis Blue in the Patreon Discord server, I think. So, some of the things that were left unanswered in the movie was explained in the QnA.
Is there a transcript of the Q&A or at least a decent summary? Wouldn’t want to be tricked into believing they said one thing when actually they said another.
@@ripleyjlawman.3162 another TF2 RUclipsr, Richter Overtime, did a video on Emesis Blue which includes some of the QnA transcripts used for explaining some of the stuff happening in the movie. I do have to warn you that the video is 2 hours long.
War, war never changes
THANK YOU OH MY GOD THANK YOU SO MUCH
As a fellow content creator, this video was Amazing!!! Really high quality script writing and editing, Bravo! I'm sure this channel will be big some day.
I think Emesis Blu might be the best horror movie I have ever watched
thank you for making this video!!!!!!! i need more emesis blue videos in my life
Your editing is incredible!
15:34 Coming back to this, I should have talked about Fritz more so I'll say it now; I don't think Fritz is hollow, either, but he's probably the most difficult of the characters to connect the dots with. Although, this strikes me as being something intentional.
Fritz' most important dynamic is with himself and the Undertaker. But I think the mistake that gets made a lot is looking at these dynamics through grounded and logical reality rather than the possibly more metaphorical meaning behind these relations. After all, this is a movie where reality is constantly being warped and played with like silly puty, its kind of hard to actually nail it all down into something comprehensible.
However, its worth noting that when you go metaphorical this means that things can be taken in many different and unique ways, but this is also likely one of the intentions of Fortress Films. Here's my interpretation;
Fritz and his alter ego represent two sides of the same man. One who is uncomfortably complacent and trying his damndest to help the people around him but one who also recognizes the horror that is around him and wants to rebel or lash out, represented in a more literal sense of having two split personalities. Like Jekyll and Hyde, but far less voluntary and self-inflicted. One part of him wants to be helpful, to fix and mend the broken parts of a bad situation to the best of his ability. But the other part wants to burn it all to the ground like it should have been a long time ago.
The Undertaker is not necessarily a direct reflection of Fritz himself, but rather the results of his own inner conflicts. The pain, the fear, the death, and ESPECIALLY the guilt. The Undertaker haunts Fritz like the lingering possibilities of what he's done, what he's witnessed, and what he's allowed to happen. The Undertaker is a force of nature type of character that, in some way, compells Fritz to address what needs to be done. He may not be a blind follower like Soldier, but he is still blind nonetheless. He sits in a cushy higher up job as a hospital administrator, not spending as much time on the front lines as the rest of the cast. Even Scout says it himself: "You need to get out more often, Doc." Despite knowing the harm he's witnessing, Fritz is silently complacent and disconnected due to being farther away from it all. Up until he's forcefully dragged into the fray, that is, and is forced to (metaphorically) play chess against what may very well be death itself. Fritz can't ignore the suffering and horror anymore, he HAS to do something about it.
Towards the end of the movie, Fritz doesn't seem as fractured anymore. One side isn't panicking as he tries desperately to rescue his friend and himself and the other isn't maniacly and sadistically power tripping on kicking the asses of those around him. He's calm, unexpressive, calculated and sure. Like both sides agree on something, which is what Spy said at the funeral; This corruption needs to end once and for all.
Very glad to see you cover this
Surprised you don't have more subs.
You give a well-rounded take here. I agree with your criticisms of the film. It's definitely not perfect. While I appreciated The Shining segment with engineer at the bar, it also felt a little too similar in my eyes as well.
Hope to see more vids like this. Kudos!
I like phrases like It's eternity in there or Longer than you think.
Hell yeah fuckin love this movie
I'm late... RUclips didn't notify me...
*pootis*
ITS YOU
@@wekasuwi Yeah... It's me... Again
I think the problems that have been lobbied here in terms of the references stem from the fact that, pop culture reference are easier nodes to convey what the story tellers are trying to say. It also keeps the viewer engaged because they basically go become the pointing soyjak meme when there's a reference.
Because there's a lot of original ideas, the whole movie is in general. The thing is, its a movie about TF2 or at least an aspect of TF2 and its hard to keep an audience glued throughout the movie without dangling little treats as I like to call them to the audience, most people expect a TF2 SFM to have action, guns blazing etc, this has little to none.
Amazing review! I watched Emesis Blue for the first (and so far only) time earlier this year, and really enjoyed it. Your critique is valid though. Even as someone who considered himself pretty good at weaving my way through obtuse storytelling/unreliable narrators, I found parts of this film to be a little too obtuse for me. Particularly when the references started coming hard and fast. Not being too familiar with most of those films made it hard to understand the themes at play.
I think that would be where I draw the line with such things. A reference is fine, but become self indulgence when you have to have the full context of the original to enjoy the work before you. Though I've watched breakdowns that explain those segments, the “if you know, you know” is a bad film habit in my opinion.
Regardless, it's still one of my favorite projects i've seen for TF2! Its story felt grounded and nightmares all at the same time, and Scout's mom scene still gives me chills just thinking about it!
weka back lesgo
I love emesis blue
FANTASTIC episode
Awesome video
Keep doing what you love :)
underrated video
For every moment the war went on that 1% become more likely
tell santa truth
I just want to throw this out here, but I think that introspection in the film would take away from it. If the characters slowed down to reflect on the chaotic confusing points in the movie, they'd be less chaotic and confusing, meaning you wouldn't think about them more, and you wouldn't watch the film again to try to understand things more. Like if at any point Franz were to reflect on Scout's mom's murder or the respawn machine, It would give us more information on them yes, but it'd take away what makes those things scary. Is Franz insane and killed Scout's mom? Maybe. You don't get to know.
I feel as though you gave the film a fair critique, you weren't dismissive of it's positives whilst highlighting the negatives of the overall presentation of the story.
Emesis Blue, aka Least Painful 2Fort Experience
MOTA🗿🗿🗿