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.
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.
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
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. :)
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.
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!!
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 TH-camr, 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.
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.
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
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
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.
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!
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 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.
![EMESIS BLUE [SFM]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/V0ODG8bFme0/mqdefault.jpg)
![EMESIS BLUE [SFM]](/img/tr.png)
![[BAEMON NEWS 7] NEW ALBUM COMING IN](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wtVeAPimOyo/mqdefault.jpg)
holy tf2 glaze (me too tho)
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.
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
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.
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.
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
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. :)
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.
alternate title for emesis blue
Medic has schizophrenia after we pressed E too much
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!!
War, war never changes
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 TH-camr, 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.
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.
THANK YOU OH MY GOD THANK YOU SO MUCH
I'm late... TH-cam didn't notify me...
*pootis*
ITS YOU
@@wekasuwi Yeah... It's me... Again
thank you for making this video!!!!!!! i need more emesis blue videos in my life
I like phrases like It's eternity in there or Longer than you think.
Very glad to see you cover this
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
Your editing is incredible!
Hell yeah fuckin love this movie
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
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.
underrated video
FANTASTIC episode
weka back lesgo
I love emesis blue
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!
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!
For every moment the war went on that 1% become more likely
Awesome video
Keep doing what you love :)
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.
MOTA🗿🗿🗿