Talk:So That's How It Is/@comment-35434444-20181122215005

(Very minor spoilers for anyone who wants to read this.) I'll venture to say that the episode was extremely well directed with dynamic shots showing off lots of subtle character animations in a way that felt like it was constructed around the drama.

Previous episodes of this nature where emotionless and forgettable. Salem was mostly just aloof and prone to childish outbursts like a Saturday mourning cartoon villain and there was no context in which to understand her frustration.

This episode however launches itself right off of The Lost Fable and tries to re-evaluate who Salem has become in the time between the dissolution of her and Ozpin's joint dynasty and Remnants present state as, once again, a godless world.

The writers seem to have grasped the idea of dramatic tension in that Salem is now much more subdued in her actions, but her features are written with the inner contortions of her mind, like the body horror of the God of Darkness, such that she exudes the brooding menace that I get the impression she was always intended to have. She's like a rubber band permanently on the edge of snapping but has lived with her own insanity long enough that she doesn't simply come off as a kook like Tyrian.

Her outbursts still leave much to be desired. But the comparative economy of her actions and the emotional weight of her new backstory to much to make them feel at least appropriate even if they don't quite strike that sweet spot of, "Oh dear god don't hurt me!"

How could it be improved to make Salem truly awe-inspiring?

The dialogue could use further refinements, but that's the kind of thing that only comes with experience and intuition. As far as technique goes, we need to understand the structure of a one-sided conversation.

The person who controls a conversation is the one who talks the most bluntly and asks all the questions. Salem waggles her tongue a lot and speaks in a way that seems intended to convey eloquence, but if enough force is packed into each line, the sheer imperiousness will impart that sense of lofty eloquence on it's own.

The biggest area for improvement is how everyone else in the room responds to her. She needs to come across as a walking mass of nitroglycerine that'll go off if you so much as direct harsh language at it. They should speak quickly and deferentially, prevaricating around subjects likely to upset her as much as possible -- Ozpin being that which must not be named in her presence -- and find themselves spewing forth information they don't even need to divulge in an effort to appease her. This is intuitively understood by Japanese speakers because dominant patterns of speech are always the shortest, while the more humble a sentence construction is, the longer and less direct it gets. The audience learns how afraid they should be about something from how characters in the story react to it, so don't forget to factor them in as well.

Salem is smart enough to play on other people's emotions and relishes in doing so as a means of catharsis from the cruelty of her imperishable existence. When she is so angry that she cannot resist tearing someone limb from limb, she always smiles first, and doesn't loose the sword of Damocles until the object of her rage is totally reassured that they have been absolved from blame.

On that note, Hazel's torture wasn't very convincing to me. The hands looked more like they were trying to reassure him rather than restrain him. If pulling and scratching is awkward because it involves disfiguring the models, try electrocution or strangulation as was done with Lionheart.

Even with all that said, the improvements easily outweigh the progress left to be made, even if it doesn't feel that way right now. Each subtle point of drama mastered will magnify the effect of the scene exponentially.

I'm not entirely sure what it was about Ozpin's reappearance that made Salem rage so hard, but it was sicker than the fall of the house of Usher. If that part had capped off the kind of scene I have in mind, I'd be dancing the Thriller with joy.