iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Quark

daryl "rupert pumpkin" b 🏳️‍⚧️ @hypercubexl.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

GDT's reddit AMA spitting fire www.reddit.com/r/movies/com...

reddit comment:

Hello! Did you intend the ending of Pan’s labyrinth to be real or in Ofelia’s mind?

Guillermo Del Toro's reply:

My interpretation, and it's exclusively mine, is that it's real.

Because there's two things. One is what people call “The Shining Question.” The Shining Question is, Who opens the door for Jack to get out of the fridge? And Ofelia is in an attic with a guard outside her door, and she draws the door with the magic chalk, and she shows up in the labyrinth. So, the only way she could have gone into the labyrinth is the magic chalk. And the flower is real at the end. The flower that blooms in the dead tree. And the reason I think it’s real is because—and this is why I'm in favor of the human factor in art—I think that art does transform the world. You know?

Think about it for a second. One of the goals, with all this movement, is to make you believe that art is vulgar. That art is nothing special, and anybody can do art. That is like me telling you that I'm faster at running than Usain Bolt but I “run” in my motorcycle. Well, that's not the same. That’s not the same at all.

Art is important, and they want you to believe it isn't. It's part of the idea of control. The goal is not to have artificial intelligence. The goal is to foster natural stupidity. The goal is to foster you not looking for answers, and to trust yourself entirely to an engine. Look at the way we are dipping our toes into these things. We are starting to ask the machine, Is this true? For now, there's a correlation between reality and what the answers of the machine are. For now. But soon, we won't even investigate further. We will be told it's true. And if the machine is in the hands of somebody who should not be trusted, then your reality has been completely and utterly fucked. Because your intelligence ends at the question. You don't seek the answer. It's given to you.

Q: You recently mentioned that AI creates 'semi-compelling screensavers' and that you'd 'rather die' than use it. As a filmmaker who relies heavily on practical effects and creature design, what do you think is the biggest thing lost when a computer generates an image instead of a human hand?

GDT:

The three quarters of the process that gave you the chance to think of the idea that people don't think about without that process. Meaning, AI can get you to the middle really fast, but there's a dialectic with the process that gets you to that top 10%. I'll give you an example with the Pale Man.

We sculpted it as an old man, with a face. And then I said, Let's take out the face. This happened because I saw a photo of a manta ray and the poster for Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm. That combination, which happened at two different times during a week or a month, are not permutations that are chemically part of an equation. They are alchemy. And then I said, Take out the face, and then I said, Let's put the eyes on the hands. This triangulation happens because I spent a month or two months living with the idea of this creature. And it's not linear.

AI is like a super-fast engine that makes semi-sentient permutations of things that are already done. Creation is things that have never been done. Coming to exist.

And the second thing is the loss of the apprenticeship that one has as an artist. You're never a master; you're always an apprentice. This is a kinship I have with, for example, Chris Nolan. When he showed me The Odyssey, there’s a scene when Matt Damon is floating in the stormy ocean and I asked him—because we were talking about practical effects, and how great it is and that we both always use a maquette or a model—and I asked him, How did you do it? He said, “We put him in a storm in the ocean.”

And you're gonna find that 30% of a great image occurs accidentally. You know, either a drop of water hits the lens, or the camera shakes. I remember when in 1993, '94, Jim…

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Yeah, I was always really baffled by this level, but... I don't think I hated it. It's just weird.

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

If you understand how magnets work, it may be too late.

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

It's the taste. The smell, the way it sounds, the texture, even the idea of it is all great, but... I just don't like eating bacon.

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

I don't like to admit it, but yeah I usually do. However, if it's narrative satisfying, I just let it happen.

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Like Batman and Joker?

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

I think a lot about the character of Waymond Wang in Everything Everywhere All At Once. The concept of being kind in the face of things you don't understand really resonates with me.

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Oh. I had forgotten. My year, is thus also ruined. This might be an information hazard.

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Every single person is my enemy

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

Yeah, and I would know because I play a lot of video games and NEVER use my consumables. Video games are more like magic artifacts.

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Dude, I've had this exact same thought looking at this exact same rug, lol

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Truthfully, you're not wrong. I love my gaming group.

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Love Remnant 2. Been wanting to play it again; haven't touched the DLC yet.

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Oh man that's so me when im thirsty

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

All these men are just too big

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Yeah, I got this exact one. Excellent shade of pink

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

I really enjoyed watching this, I need to see it again sometime soon.

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Ah yes, I didn't realize it until now, but those shelves are completely empty. A missed opportunity.

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Oh wait, I love this though

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

This was such an awesome cover. If you plan on making your own music in the future, I look forward to hearing it.

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

I've been getting a lot of Maphra reactions in my feed recently and a lot of them have been from non-metal fans. Interesting indeed, lol

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

At gradually increasing speeds, he sank into the earth, then burned to atoms in the planet's core. No one even noticed.

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

Yeah. But I also feel the same way when a song comes on that I like, but don't feel like listening to in the moment.

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

Wtf Like I never listen to that song, and on a whim I listened to it a few minutes ago, and then I click blusky and this is the first thing I see. Coincidences are silly

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 16/11/2025

Damn fine indeed, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I feel like it's about time I give it a second watch-through.

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

If God is real, and omnipotent, and *good*, then why is he always absent in the words and works of his followers? If you see someone who genuinely believes in God act this way, you can only take it as evidence against either God’s existence itself, or (at the very least) his goodness.

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

As much as I love Twin Peaks, I've never actually seen the Missing Pieces.

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Reposted by Quark

mrbyll @mrbyll.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

Listen to the end. www.tiktok.com/@sadbeige?_t...

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

I don't care how good it is, I'm not exploding the strawberry part.

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Reposted by Quark

Lex @lexicon42.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

and art, and weed, and flower bushes with little birds in them

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

As a former night person who is now a morning person, I feel I can boast about being the best of both of these. I am very awesome

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

Maybe the reason no one's getting raptured today is because there's no one worth saving.

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

Blue Prince is turning me into a crazy person.

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

I love how he suddenly becomes the bad guy in a Disney movie

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

I feel like this is a real problem that most people don't realize is a problem. The best I've managed is a weekly tabletop game, but that's hardly an entire community. Just like 5 or 6 regulars.

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

I think that's a fair assessment, glad you liked it! I think I generally agree, but at the same time I do like the ending a lot. I also didn't predict the exact way it resolved (being vague for spoilers), so it was at least a little surprising for me.

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

Have you seen Heretic? I watched it recently and quite liked it, though it's quite different from most religious horror I've seen.

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

I haven't seen all of these, but Saint Maud was amazing. That ending lives rent free in my brain.

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Quark @dynwyk.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

This would have been the saddest thing I've seen all day if I hadn't watched Homeward Bound earlier. The waterfall scene still affects me.

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