Been snooping your blog. Please explain how you enjoy the animation in this episode? They are all drawn poorly and horribly off their character sheets. The plot is enjoyable but besides that, this animation studio is up there with the worst!

yeakuaf:

dvdfairy:

I thought I had explained this already. I think the movements are very fluid, the characters very expressive, their rendering unique. I find it quite charming overall, in fact, and it’s among one of my favorite Mozenrath episodes with regard to overall animation.

I definitely don’t think it’s the worst or anywhere close to the worst. That distinction is reserved in my heart for “The Lost City of the Sun,” which is poorly animated to the point of being laughable, which is a shame because it features a big character reveal (for which they brought in another set of animators — for the whole ten seconds this takes place — and then switched right back).

You’re allowed to disagree with me, certainly, but just look at it.

image

That’s not even a between frame. That’s how he looks for that whole shot.

I dunno, agreeing that Dagger Rock is among the worst animated because it looks different as opposed to actually sloppy (Lost City) would mean agreeing that different is necessarily bad, which it’s not. Take Mirage’s dramatically different design in “The Lost Ones” — different, not conforming to character sheets at all, but also? Superior. Cleverly animated, more expressive, unique, and just pretty to look at.

Dagger Rock also had a lot more angles and motions than other episodes did. Like, when Mozenrath was flying around the rock to reveal it was a giant crystal of Ix, they wouldn’t have done that in another episode. They probably would have just had the thing unveil all at once with crumbling rock or something, without much dramatic flair.

And all the times that Mozenrath’s cape swooshes with his motions. Or all the various degrees of expression the characters have. Or when Aladdin is getting pulled and flung around when he’s in the black goop stuff.

I completely agree that this episode’s animation is better than episodes like Lost City (what were they even doing in Lost City, omg).

YES. They get so creative in this episode, and they take so many risks, and this was on the budget they had for TV episodes, not the movies! Is it polished? Of course not, but it’s still really clever in its own ways. All my love for this episode, seriously.

The fact that I can go through the scenes with Mozenrath in this episode frame by frame (which I’ve been doing – I’m making icons) and see that every single word he says is fully articulated is amazing. I can’t do that for characters with most other episodes of this show. They don’t have the time. They have to take shortcuts sometimes.

Been snooping your blog. Please explain how you enjoy the animation in this episode? They are all drawn poorly and horribly off their character sheets. The plot is enjoyable but besides that, this animation studio is up there with the worst!

I thought I had explained this already. I think the movements are very fluid, the characters very expressive, their rendering unique. I find it quite charming overall, in fact, and it’s among one of my favorite Mozenrath episodes with regard to overall animation.

I definitely don’t think it’s the worst or anywhere close to the worst. That distinction is reserved in my heart for “The Lost City of the Sun,” which is poorly animated to the point of being laughable, which is a shame because it features a big character reveal (for which they brought in another set of animators — for the whole ten seconds this takes place — and then switched right back).

You’re allowed to disagree with me, certainly, but just look at it.

image

That’s not even a between frame. That’s how he looks for that whole shot.

I dunno, agreeing that Dagger Rock is among the worst animated because it looks different as opposed to actually sloppy (Lost City) would mean agreeing that different is necessarily bad, which it’s not. Take Mirage’s dramatically different design in “The Lost Ones” — different, not conforming to character sheets at all, but also? Superior. Cleverly animated, more expressive, unique, and just pretty to look at.

Damn, Moze. That was almost slick.

image

Look at how he just snaps into that stance, and that’s not because frames are missing in the GIF. In the actual animation, he really does just snap into place.

That’s a learned move. It takes him a second to realize he should be using it, but when he does, damn.

This would be an awesome moment for him right now if Jasmine hadn’t been waiting all day to kick him in the throat.

Get it, Jasmine.

So Jasmine has come full circle as she arrives at Dagger Rock

I appreciate how her transformation was represented in costume. She went from demure, not-for-fighting at all, to having to disguise herself as a soldier to do what she intended to do, to finally back in her usual garb to finish the job. Because she doesn’t need to be a palace guard to defeat Mozenrath.

She just needs to be herself.

Also this face.

Your posts got me thinking – I always wondered how Jasmine managed to get from from being forbidden to leave the palace at all to going out on extremely dangerous adventures all the time. I’m surprised she doesn’t meet resistance from her dad about running off on dangerous quests more often.

I think he trusts Aladdin to take care of her at this point, and it’s as simple as that. And over time I also think he’s come to accept that she has been out in the streets of Agrabah and it’s done nothing but increase her ability to communicate and empathize with her people.

What’s your head canon regarding Mozenrath’s sexual orientation? Fandom’s all over the place on this one and personally, I think he’s bi and gives no fucks what other people think about it.

When I’ve RP’d straight from the end of the series I’ve always had him undecided on that point, because he’s “married to his work.” Necromancers in old folklore and stuff tend to be celibate, so I’ve always written him as celibate, especially toward the end of the series when the effects of the gauntlet weigh a little heavier on him. Especially devoted practitioners, depending upon traditions, would likely involve a lot of ritual and fasting, which if overdone can do things like kill your sex drive. (And yes I have written him recovering from that.)

Mozenrath is kind of a mixed bag and seems to dabble all over the place, so he’s not by any stretch of the imagination strictly a necromancer, but one thing we do know about his necromantic practices is that by the time his run of episodes is in full swing he is maintaining a pretty sizable contingent of Mamluks.

In the show, he’s only shown interest (read: been a creep at) Jasmine in any way that might be deemed sexual in nature, and that could be his genuine perception of things or one Hell of a front, since we’ve already discussed that he’s not a reliable storyteller.

However, based on all of that? I think it could go either way and have always tackled it in a rather ambiguous fashion in writing or RP, that way that anything that happened to him could happen organically, during the story. Hell, he could just as easily be asexual or fall onto any point in between. Sexuality, even if you take a dominant role, runs the risk of placing you in too vulnerable a position or at the very least reveals vulnerability. He’s too busy, too sensitive about being seen as anything other than powerful, and overall too untrusting of other people to take that chance with anybody.

Strictly from a series standpoint? I don’t think he’s interested enough in people to think about it. And I’d also posit that not only is he a virgin, but also that he wouldn’t know what to do with any person that expressed sexual interest in him. He might know enough to fake it for a while, so as not to lose face, but that flight’s gonna crash and burn sooner or later 😐