#I know those films are about mice but have you considered I don’t care

[inbetweenhours]

WIP of Rats SMP Lizzie and Scott because I watched Scott’s video about the smp and now I have to figure out how to watch this withought keeling over trying to keep up with streams

Anyways heavy inspiration from The Rescuers and The Great Mouse Detective I spent like half an hour finding character pages for those films before even attempting to draw these two. Might draw more later, might not. Would recommend though it is very fun

#I know those films are about mice but have you considered I don’t care #I did also briefly consider referencing the Geronimo Stilton character designs but ultimately the films had more of the energy I wanted #hourspost #hoursart #wip #ldshadowlady #rats smp #smajor #squeaksblr #EHAT IS THE TAG HELP

[phoenixstartedthefire]

Coraline analysis

Okay so I may be obsessed with Coraline and fallen down a rabbit hole of the lore behind it and I find it super interesting and very cool. I’ve seen and heard a lot of theories about it and I wanted to talk about it. Most of these theories aren’t my original ideas. This will mostly be a mix of other theories I’ve seen that I like the most/make the most sense. Because some of them are just completely outlandish and make no sense. This will probably be a multiple part thing and I’ll probably add onto it as I delve deeper into the universe and have more thoughts. Don’t take these as facts as they are only theories. I just think it’s cool to delve deeper into the meaning behind these things. I would also be happy to hear some of your thoughts as well! Also trigger warning because I will be discussing death in parts of this so don’t feel pressured to read this if that makes you uncomfortable. That being said, get ready for some extreme over analyzing and a very unnecessary essay that I started at 4am. But if you follow me, you should know that I do that quite a lot. Essays are fun when you actually care about the subject.

Okay the first thing I wanna discuss is the idea of three universes of sorts. In which Coraline never returns to the real world. We know of the existence of the real world and the other world but what about the existence of a third world that you enter once you go return through the door? I’ve seen the third world called a limbo so that’s what I’m going to calling it as to be as clear as possible. In this limbo, the other mother still controls but doesn’t directly intervene as she does in the other world. We know that the doll that Coraline gets in the beginning is a spy for the other mother so she can see what’s wrong with Coraline’s life and manipulate the other world to solve those problems. But Coraline didn’t have the doll with her when she went clothes shopping with her real mother so how would the other mother know that she wanted interesting clothes? Also consider that Coraline never interacts with her neighbors until after she enters the other world for the first time. I believe that once she enters the other world and travels back through the door, she enters a limbo of sorts where the other mother can see her at all times. She only needed the doll in the beginning. And at the end, we see Coraline’s ideal world. Where her parents are loving and spend time doing things with her and her neighbors are eccentric but overall lovable. They pretty much do a complete 180 from the beginning of the movie. What caused the change of heart from her parents? They aren’t as perfect as they seemed in the other world. They’re just flawed enough to seem believable while still making her want to stay in the limbo. I hope that makes sense.

Now for the reason the other mother wants children in the first place. The film makes you believe that she eats the children after she sews buttons in their eyes but that’s not true. She doesn’t eat them in the physical sense but feeds on their souls. The reason she tries to lure them in by being their ‘mother’ is because she feeds on the love they feel. And that’s why the other mother is fine with Coraline staying in the limbo. Her ‘real’ mother doesn’t exist there but Coraline still believes she does and loves her like a child would love a mother. And the reason she doesn’t lure adults in is because they a) have more common sense and b) don’t rely as much on feelings like that. They’ve outgrown them for the most part. I’m not saying that adults can’t love their parents. But they don’t feel the same love for them that they did as a child. She of course would rather Coraline stay in the other world with her because it’s easier to feed on her that way but she is still content with her staying in the limbo place and puts up a big fight to make Coraline believe she’s going back to the real world and she can’t feed off her anymore.

I also want to discuss the button eyes. I think the main reason for them is so Coraline thinks she can tell the other world from the real world. There’s a point in the movie where the other mother poses as Coraline’s real mother with normal eyes so we know she’s capable of producing people with normal eyes. It’s all a trick. Now I don’t think that other than the trick the buttons are useless. We’ve established that the doll Coraline is given is a spy and uses the button eyes as a look into the real world. But once they’re in the other world, the buttons are just used as a trick so Coraline thinks she can distinguish the real world from the other world. 

Now for my second theory that’s pretty much confirmed if you actually pay attention to the movie but still a theory technically. That the well is another portal to the other world. Wybie says in the beginning that the well is so deep that if you fall down it that you’ll see a sky full of stars. It’s always night in the other world. Also the well is surrounded by mushrooms in a circle. There’s a belief from some people outside of the Coraline world that a formation of mushrooms in a circle is supposed to be an entrance into a magical world. It also has a negative connotation that it’s an evil magical world and it’s referred to as a fairy circle. So the other mother doesn’t actually die/get defeated in the end. Coraline essentially gives the key back to her. This theory is probably the most plausible one supported by the movie and general common sense that I’ll talk about here.

My next theory is about the other mother. I have a lot of those. The idea that she has complete control over everyone in the other world. Even the ghost children. Now you’re probably thinking, “but the other father, Wybie and the ghost children warn her about the other mother and help Coraline”. That’s kind of the point. The other mother is very smart and cunning. If she didn’t want that idea put into Coraline’s head that she was evil, why would she deliberately put her in the mirror with the ghost children? Why would she not stop Wybie from letting Coraline escape? And if you accept those, it’s extremely likely that the father was also under her complete control. She purposefully made it seem like they had free will so Coraline would trust them. Coraline would think that if the other mother controlled them, it wouldn’t make sense for them to rebel against her. The other father gave Coraline one of the eyes but we all know that even if she fullfilled the rules of the game, the other mother wouldn’t let her go.

I also think that the cat is under her control for the most part as well. I don’t think she fabricated him as she did with all of the other people but I think he serves as a sort of double agent, more so than the other father and other wybie. As with the mice but I won’t get into that now. The cat is there to trick Coraline into thinking the other mother has limitations to her powers. He takes her across the world and shows her that the pink palace is all she can make. But if you accept the limbo theory, you know that she can also fabricate the town/shop Coraline and her mother go into and the well which she seemed incapable of making in the other world. It makes the other mother seem less powerful and more easily beatable even though she had a grasp on Coraline as soon as she entered the other world. He is also the one to show Coraline the mirror with her parents in it and the doll of her parents to lure her back in the other world. He says that the other mother tries to keep him out of the other world but we never see this happen. There are a lot of theories about who the cat is. A lot of people think she might have been a human at some point. Which I’ll discuss in my next point.

Now I want to discuss the bowls of taffy that Miss Spink and Forcible show Coraline when they give her the seeing eye thing(I don’t know a better term for it). There are three bowls and all have different dates. 1921, 1936, and 1960. These are the dates the ghost children were taken. The pioneer girl in 1921, the boy in 1936, and Wybie’s grandma’s sister in 1960. Now a lot of people believe that there must have been another child between 1936 and 1960. That’s where the cat comes in. A lot of people believe that the cat was the fourth child but the other mother couldn’t successfully feed on him for some reason. So she turned him into some sort of spy. Some people speculate that it was Wybie’s great grandfather since we know his grandmother grew up in the pink palace and it would explain why the cat is so close to Wybie. He’s protecting him. I’m not sure where I stand on this as it makes the timeline a bit messy but I think it’s interesting nonetheless. 

Wybie says that his grandmother won’t let families with kids move into the pink palace. So why would she let the Jones family live there? I think the most plausible and most easily understandable theory I’ve seen is that she’s protecting Wybie. He is around the age that her sister went missing and while I don’t think the grandma knows about the other world, I think she does know that there’s more to it than her sister running away. So she was willing to let another child, Coraline, be taken if it meant that Wybie was safe. 

Now for the origins of the other mother. Some theorize that she’s a fairy, of course not in the traditional sense with wings and a magic wand, and that she created the other world. Others believe that she was once human and discovered the other world. The human theory is the one I find the most interesting. We know that the pink palace was built around 150 years ago when the movie takes place. It was confirmed that the story takes place in Ashland, Oregon and we can assume that the town was settled around 150 years ago. A lot of people believe that the other mother was the original owner of the house. It would explain why the garden is in the shape of her face which later takes the characteristics of Coraline. She was obviously very wealthy. Some believe that picture of the ‘boring blue boy’ that Coraline finds in the study is a picture of the other mother’s son. Some believe that he died and the other mother either was called to the well by some magic of the other world, accidently fell in the well, or purposefully jumped in the well. And we’ve established that the well is a portal into the other world. And the reason she lures kids in by pretending to be their mother is in part because she is trying to replace her dead son. She discovered the other world and took it over.

And now for the parents. The other mother seemingly ‘captured’ Coraline’s parents. Yet the parents have no recollection of it. And while her parents seem a bit neglectful, it’s unlikely that they would write the ‘help us’ message on the mirror. They wouldn’t put their 10/11 year old daughter in danger on purpose like that. She made it seem like she kidnapped the parents to give Coraline more incentive to go back to the other world. And again, if we accept the limbo theory, the snow on the parents’ clothing when they return would’ve been put there by the other mother to make it seem like she really did kidnap them. If she can control the limbo word, she would have been able to do that. 

Okay, that’s it for now. I have a lot more theories but this is very long already. I hope this was comprehensible. A lot of these are very complicated but I did my best to explain them. 

#coraline #movie analysis #coraline jones #wybie lovat #film theory #tw// death #other mother #coraline analysis

[pines-troz]

Weekend With The Warners Chapter Two - Animaniacs & Pinky and The Brain

Summary: When the CEO tasks Pinky and The Brain with the important assignment of watching over the Warners for the weekend, Brain is prepared for any antics that the children have in store. What he didn’t take into account was forming a familial bond with the kids. 

Word Count: 3,017

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27849962/chapters/68388166 

The mice continued on their way through the studio lot, holding hands as they went. As they found themselves alone near the lot entrance, Brain decided to discuss his latest plan with his partner.

“Listen close, Pinky, for I have devised a surefire plan to take over the world. Your ingenious decision of choosing The Iron Giant as our date night movie the other evening has greatly inspired me, Pinky. We will build a giant robot to assert our dominance over humanity!” Brain eagerly declared, choosing to ignore the pacifist message of the beloved animated movie. “I’ve already made calculations for our finances, and we would need exactly five million dollars to buy the necessary parts. Fortunately, I’ve come up with a brilliant way to acquire the funds.” 

Brain pulled Pinky closer as he explained. “We will start a family-friendly crafts tutorial channel on YouTube, teaching children how to make slime among other wholesome DIY-projects. After we grow a substantial following, we’ll shamelessly peddle overpriced merchandise! Once we make a fortune from selling our wares, we will then purchase the necessary materials to construct our mech which we will use to intimidate the Canadian Prime Minister and ascend to power!” 

The Brain began to chuckle evilly, and Pinky joined in with his eager giggling. 

“But first, we must purchase filming equipment from the electronics store and return to the lab!” Brain commanded. 

“Say Brain, how do you spell DIY?” Pinky asked, taking out a pen and notebook. 

Brain blushed furiously upon hearing his boyfriend’s moronic question. “Pinky, you are without a doubt the most imbecilic mouse I’ve ever met. But, by Ptolomey, I am madly in love with you.” 

“Aw Brain!” Pinky cooed, moving his tail into the shape of a heart. 

As the lab mice were about to exit the movie lot, they were stopped by Ralph the security guard. 

“Uh, hold it right there.” The bumbling guard ordered. “The CEO wants me to bring you two to her office by cone, duh-I mean drone!” 

The mice were immediately swooped into a net and carried above by the drone. Ralph had some difficulty controlling the drone, but he managed to fly the rodent actors over to the main office building in the middle of the studio lot. 

“This is utterly mortifying.” Brain commented as he tried to prop himself into a more comfortable position. 

“Oh cheer up, Brain,” Pinky consoled. “Think of it like we’re on a magic carpet ride!” The taller mouse wrapped his arm around Brain, pulling him close as he began to sing. “I can show you the worl-”

But Brain clapped his hand over Pinky’s mouth while wearing an indignant frown. “Don’t.” The smaller mouse spat.

As the drone flew through an open window in the office building, the mice were immediately greeted by the company CEO, Nora Rita Norita. The businesswoman brought out a pair of scissors, cutting through the net. Upon liberation, the mice fell down onto one of the leather chairs facing the front of her desk. 

“Good afternoon, gentlemen. Thank you for taking the time to meet with me.” Ms. Norita addressed. 

“Frankly I would have preferred some prior notification about this emergency meeting, such as an email or a text message, as opposed to being captured in a drone and flown over against my will, but here we are.” Brain soured. 

“Are we in trouble?” Pinky asked worriedly. The taller mouse paced back and forth on the chair as he started to panic. “I swear I didn’t do anything wrong! I’m innocent, I tell you! Innocent! You can’t make me go back to the big house!” 

“No, I can assure you that you’re not in any serious trouble.” The CEO told the buck-toothed mouse.

Pinky was immediately relieved by the news. “Oh thank goodness.” He sighed. “Sorry if I got a little carried away there.” 

“A little?” Brain snapped sardonically. 

“Gentlemen,” Ms. Norita curtly alerted the mice, who gave her their undivided attention. “I’ve called you here because I have an important task for you to complete over the weekend. I have a very important business conference with some very important people in the Warner Brother’s office and I don’t want the Warner children to cause any problems. And since I became aware of your friendly rapport with the Warners, I have decided to give you two the important task of watching over the Warners starting tomorrow afternoon, where you will take care of them outside of the movie studio until Sunday evening.” 

Pinky stood up and cheered. “Oh, we’re going to have so much fun with the little angels over the weekend!”

Brain, on the other hand, was shocked that the CEO would disrupt his regular routine and plans for world domination, one of the few things he had complete control over. 

The CEO confidently smiled, happy that at least one of them was on board. “And to sweeten the offer, I already booked a nearby hotel with five-star accommodations and you can use the company credit card for any additional payments over the weekend that aren’t related to world domination.” She said, showcasing the golden credit card. Pinky’s eyes glistened as he gazed at the card, clearly enamored by how shiny it was. Brain, however, let out a defeated groan since he couldn’t use the card for his own selfish purposes. 

Ms. Norita continued to speak. “I sent you all the information in an email, and-”

“Why are you assigning us to complete this task?” Brain interrupted. 

“Because I noticed how well you and your partner get along with the Warners.” The CEO answered with feigned enthusiasm. “And who can do a better job at watching those troublesome kids than people who could put up with their antics.” 

Brain cringed when she referred to the energetic kids as mere troublemakers. He genuinely enjoyed being around the Warners ever since the original run of Animaniacs. He recalled the days where he and Pinky spared some of their free time to check in on the Warners. From sharing the same table during lunch hour to visiting them in their home in the water tower before sunset, when the mice had to leave for Acme Labs. Even though the kids had a knack for craziness, the Warners were genuinely good kids who craved validation and attention. 

But despite being on good terms with the children, Brain was far too upset that his usual schedule had been suddenly modified by a force outside of his control. He didn’t want another chance to take over the world to skip off into the sunset. 

“But Pinky and I already have plans for the weekend!” Brain argued. “And besides, shouldn’t you recruit a more qualified candidate like Bugs Bunny?”

“He’s busy filming for the Looney Tunes Cartoons and the new Space Jam movie.” Ms. Norita explained. “And what, may I ask, did you have planned for the weekend that’s so important to you?” She asked dryly. 

“We were going to take over the world by making a crafts YouTube channel for the little kiddies!” Pinky answered. 

“I think you can put your little pet project on hold,” Ms. Norita explained to the smaller mouse. “So I suggest you accept the task like the grown-up that you are or I’ll fire you, inform the press it was a matter of ‘creative differences’ and have Edgwin on board as your replacement.” 

The two mice exchanged shocked and horrified glances at the sheer audacity the CEO had for even considering the idea of messing with their brilliant chemistry. 

“Why would you do something so cruel!?” Pinky remarked, but Brain gently took the taller mouse’s hands into his own. 

“Please, ignore my partner’s outburst, for I’m more than happy to cancel my weekend plans!” Brain exclaimed with a nervous chuckle. “After all, we do have the previous child-rearing experience, making us more than qualified for the job!” 

“That’s what I like to hear.” The CEO got up from her desk and walked over to the door, opening it up and gesturing the two mice to make their leave. “Have a fun weekend.” 

Brain grabbed Pinky by the hand and they made their jump from the chair onto the floor. The pudgy mouse tugged his lanky partner as they exited her office. 

Once the mice were gone, Nora Rita Nortita retrieved her cell phone, scrolled through her contacts until she found the name she was looking for. 

Inside the water tower, Wakko and Dot were watching a competitive baking show on Netflix while Yakko was snug in his ball pit bed, watching a shounen anime that Wakko constantly infodumped on his tablet while eating a bag of potato chips. While he initially watched the show so he could better connect with his sibling, the eldest Warner became emotionally invested in the story. As the big fight scene was about to start, he felt his smartphone vibrate in his pocket. The eldest Warner fished out his phone, saw Nora Rita Nortita’s picture on the home screen. He pressed pause on his tablet and quickly answered the call. 

“Yello, Warner residence! Totally responsible young adult Yakko Warner speaking!” He answered, trying to sound as mature as possible. 

“Hi, this is Nora Rita Norita.” The CEO answered. “And I have some rather exciting news to deliver.” 

“Oh?” Yakko replied in a casual tone. 

“As you may know, I will be holding an incredibly important conference this weekend, so I assigned Pinky and The Brain to watch over you and your siblings at a five-star hotel this weekend.” 

“Really!?” Yakko asked with child-like enthusiasm. “Pinky and The Brain are taking us to a fancy hotel this weekend! Oh man, that’s fantastic news!” 

Wakko and Dot paused their show and immediately rushed over to their brother’s bedside upon hearing the words ‘Pinky’, ‘The Brain’ and ‘fancy hotel’. 

“The mice will pick you up tomorrow in front of the water tower at noon, and you better not come back to the studio lot at any point before Sunday evening.” The CEO informed him. 

“You kidding? We rarely get to hang out with those guys, considering how busy they are trying to take over the world. So we intend to cherish every waking second with those two!” Yakko answered. 

“Great,” Norita drawled. “I’m sure the five of you will have a grand old time this weekend. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a power-meeting to attend.” 

Yakko heard the phone click on the other end, but he was too excited by the news to care about the CEO’s rude behavior. “Hey sibs! We’re spending the weekend with Pinky and the Brain!” The eldest Warner proclaimed. Wakko and Dot cheered uproariously, bouncing up and down with excitement. 

“Say, do you two remember during the original run of Animaniacs when those two would usually hang out with us on the studio lot whenever we weren’t filming for the show?” Yakko asked his siblings, feeling rather nostalgic. 

“Like how we’d sit at the same table at the commissary during lunchtime and they’d swing by the water tower?” Wakko reminisced. “Or how Pinky would make us bowls of macaroni and cheese, and Brain would read me my favorite picture books!” He reached into their hat and took out The Very Hungry Caterpillar and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. 

“Or the times I’d give Pinky makeovers, and how we would pester Brain into taking us to McDonald’s!” Dot added as she eagerly clapped her hands. 

“Ah, those were the days!” Wakko blissfully sighed. 

“And not only do we get to relive those days again, but we’ll be staying at a luxury hotel! It’ll be like having a weekend-long sleepover!” Dot exclaimed. 

“Well sibs, I think it’s best if we start packing!” Yakko declared. The three siblings immediately took out their suitcases and began to pack away their essentials for their weekend vacation. 

Yakko put in a dozen pairs of brown slacks into his brown suitcase. Wakko took the refrigerator and stuffed it into their blue suitcase. Dot placed her finest attire into her purple suitcase. 

As the Warners continued to pack, they fondly remembered the good times during the original run of Animaniacs. While Yakko, Wakko, and Dot were mostly on their own, there were a handful of adults who spent quality time with them. Bugs Bunny, Slappy Squirrel, and Pinky and The Brain were their usual suspects. Bugs and Slappy usually entertained the kids with stories from the golden age of their careers and gave them helpful advice on thriving in the industry. Pinky and The Brain, however, proved to be a rare exception, since they’re genetically-altered lab mice and not technically toons. Regardless of their status, the mice would usually check in on the kids, make friendly conversation and share gossip, and indulge in their interests. But the mice always made sure to leave before the twilight, since they had to return to the lab and develop their schemes for world domination. And, like Bugs and Slappy, the mice never talked down to them and always treated them with kindness and respect. 

The Warners were eager to spend quality time with the mice once again. 

-                     -                       -                         -                       -

By the time evening rolled around, the mice returned to Acme Labs. When they arrived in their humble abode in the green cage, Brain decided to take some time to cope with the drastic change in his routine schedule by engaging in his deep breathing exercise. During his moments of self-reflection, Pinky looked on at his partner with loving eyes, proud that he was applying the techniques he learned from therapy through his own volition. The lanky mouse then put on his frilly green apron and scurried outside the cage to make his world-famous no-bake cheesecake for his roommate. 

Once Brain completed his mindful exercise, he came to the realization that he can make the most out of the weekend. He would receive some fulfillment from seeing Pinky happy. Additionally, spending time with the Warners would guarantee to bring some excitement to his nearly absent social life, and there was also the possibility that some of their antics could be a source of inspiration for potential plans for world domination. Everybody would win in this situation!

The mouse immediately went over to his tablet and began to conduct his research on the hotel and potential activities to do over the weekend. Finally accepting his role as weekend guardian, he was not going to do a sloppy job with the task he was assigned. 

“What common activities do most American families engage in during the weekend?” Brain pondered aloud. “Oh, I know, a trip to the library or an afternoon at the local park,” He muttered as he jotted down his thoughts on notebook paper. Then there were activities that required monetary exchange. Knowing that he would have full access to the company credit card, he was definitely going to have a field day with treating everyone to expensive spending sprees. Trips to the mall if the kids wanted anything in particular. Even splurging on the finest toy clothes that Pinky and himself would love to add to their wardrobes. Brain was also wildly determined to have at least one fancy fine-dining experience over the weekend!

Just as Brain neared completion in devising his plans and contingency plans for the weekend, Pinky arrived, carrying a big plate of cheesecake over to the wooden spool. 

“Oh Brain, I made you your favorite!” Pinky called out whilst flirtatiously fluttering his eyes. 

The pudgy mouse placed his work aside and eagerly rushed over to the makeshift table, where Pinky finished setting two additional plates and silverware. The lanky mouse gave his roommate a generous slice of cheesecake before taking a smaller portion for himself. Taking a fork, Brain scooped a piece of his cheesecake and ate it. The mouse was in a state of euphoria, savoring the scrumptious dessert. After allowing the cheesecake to melt into his mouth, he swallowed the pastry and let out a contented hum. 

“Pinky, your pastries are simply divine!” Brain complimented. 

Pinky blushed at the praise he received. “Aw Brain, I’m just happy that you like my cooking. Zort!” 

Brain took a napkin and wiped away the crumbs from the sides of his mouth. He decided to engage in some amiable small talk. “So Pinky, are you looking forward to our mini-vacation tomorrow?”

“Oh yes! I’m going to have a fun-fun, silly-willy time watching over the kids!” The lanky mouse cheered. But his grin slowly faded into a worrisome frown. “But Brain, while I was preparing the cheesecake, Jerry the Gerbil dropped by and he told me that the scientists were planning a big, month-long separation experiment starting Saturday!” 

“A month-long separation experiment?” Brain repeated with great concern. 

Pinky nodded. “He said that the scientists would take some of the rodents that roomed together and place them in different parts of the lab, where they would write about our emotions and stuff!” 

“That’s terrible news.” Brain remarked. “And what serendipitous timing…” 

“What do you mean, Brain?” Pinky inquired. He was surprised to see his roommate take his hands into his own. 

“Since we’ve been tasked to supervise the Warners over the weekend, we needn’t worry about the experiment.” Brain consoled his roommate as he caressed Pinky’s hands. “We would be outside of the lab during the beginning phase of the experiment and by the time we return, the scientists would have already selected the other poor souls residing in the lab as their test subjects, and we would avoid any emotional trauma that would come from participating in the cruel test in its entirety.” 

“Oh, that’s a relief!” Pinky sighed.

“So there’s no need to dwell on such things, Pinky.” Brain soothed. “Try to divert all of your energy and attention on preparing for our little trip.” 

“Right-o!” Pinky concurred with renewed enthusiasm. The mouse released himself from Brain’s hold and retrieved his floral printed suitcase. 

“Now make sure to pack all your essentials,” Brain commanded. “I have a feeling that we are about to have an unforgettable weekend.” 

AN: Another quick chapter that’s essentially build-up for what’s to come. When it came to writing Brain’s initial refusal to take the job, I felt like having him freak out over not having control over his regular routine is more in-character to him, plus with the added stakes of the CEO threatening to fire him. So he just swallows his pride and tries to make the most out of the situation. 

I also included one of my other headcanons where The Warners had a handful of toon guardians who checked in on them on a regular basis (Pinky and the Brain, Slappy Squirrel, Bugs Bunny) because they’re well aware of how poorly the industry treats people like them and they want to make sure that the kids are okay. 

Jerry the Gerbil was actually a reference to the Pinky and The Brain episode ‘The Family That Poits Together, Narfs Together’. We don’t see him at all, but Brain and Pinky reference him. Plus it seemed like the most logical choice to have Pinky get the news of the experiment from another rodent in the lab. And yes, this plot point will come back into play later in the story. 

And I also wanted to have a scene where Pinky makes cheesecake for Brain, as a nice little nod to Future Brain (which is easily my favorite segment from the reboot) and I love the idea of Pinky baking food for Brain, and it gave me a great excuse to write some domestic bliss between the two!

And I want to give a special thanks to @themurphyzone for beta reading this chapter!

The next chapter will be considerably longer, so it may take a bit to post it up, but it’s full of fluff and fun bonding scenarios. 

Thanks for reading!

#animaniacs #pinky and the brain #fanfiction #brain #pinky #yakko warner #wakko warner #dot warner

[purplerose244]

Lighten up

Here’s my fic for the @mlsecretsanta! So happy I joined in this year too, it’s one of my favorite events!! 😍 Hi @xlexicx! ❤ I’m your secret santa! Here’s my present for you, I hope you like it! Merry Christmas!! 😊😊

Summary: Take the high road, do not intervene. That was what Adrien said, to his friend and to himself. Then again, Chat Noir said none of that. And he really didn't like seeing Marinette sad.

Also on AO3

How to make the worst Christmas Eve, by Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

Ingredients.

Seven days filled with plenty of akuma attacks, as fresh as possible, dripping with exhaustion. A couple of extremely busy hours to finish the dress to bring to the party, whipped consistently with stress and pressure considering all the important figures that were going to see it. And a big handful of disappointment, because while trying her best to ignore how out of place she was feeling during such an event – at least without wearing her special pois suit –, Marinette had almost forgotten the golden boy to add to the situation, or to be precise it was Adrien himself that hadn’t been able to come. Because that was what gave this terrible night its distinct disappointing taste.

“I can tell you all about him, he’s even more charming when he’s not into his suit!” A whistle in his ear. Lila was marching in the middle of the ballroom, waving around her black dress, the feathers on the hair pin over her head, and her long innocent eyelashes, followed by some of Marinette’s most precious friends. “He said he got in like a breeze even without getting recognized, I guess this party could only be that exclusive since even Marinette could get the tickets! Oh, but I’m still grateful!” She waved at her, grinning widely.

Right, she forgot one important part of this disgraceful recipe, an extremely generous sprinkle of lies all over. Better of hypocritical origins. She clenched her hand around her glass, the drink raised up a little. She was starting to wish he got the Cat Miraculous.

Just for the sake of a good old Cataclysm.

Marinette forced her grimace into a smile, for the sake of Alya, Rose, Nino and Juleka all orbiting around the star of the night. Yeah, of course she was. Even though it was the stylist who got the tickets from Jagged as a little Christmas present, it was all about that liar once again. She didn’t even know why she was surprised anymore.

“You’re welcome…”  More unique was, the latest idea the brunette had come up with to grab attention. And that one was even more out of the line than her usual.

“You guys, I’m really thirsty, and I saw Chat pretty tired too. I’m gonna take a little break, have something to drink.” Lila snapped at her friends one of those insanely studied, absurdly accurate, innocent smiles. “I would never want my date to get tired, especially since he’s a superhero in disguise! Oh, sorry, I raised my voice but remember that this stays between us, right?” She did her bat of eyelashes, she did her little wave of her hair that was meant to be annoying only to those who knew her – ergo, only this everyday Ladybug at the moment –, and leaving her excited friends behind she headed straight towards the drink station.

Right where Marinette was. Oh no, not another war declaration. When she had decided to come to this party despite knowing her sixth ticket would had gone to her, she had promised herself not to cause an argument and to stay as far away as possibly from her. Something that Lila had deliberately decided to ignore considering how she was pondering on what to drink while giving her the smuggest look, like she had just discovered Hawk Moth’s identity and wanted her to beg for it.

Hawk Moth had to be busy today. With all the evil intentions that the stylist was feeling right now, she could had become three different akumas. Then, her phone vibrated from her purse. She read the name, and all darkness dissipated immediately. Her heart was melting way before reading.

“Getting to my rescue, my prince?” She whispered, checking the new notifications.

Adrien had sent her Nino’s video first, that alone brought a smile to her face. The DJ had been absolutely adamant that he made at least a little film about the party, to show the blonde that they were all hoping he was going to recover soon. For once that he would had been allowed to attempt to an event that had happened to include a few friends of his, he had to faint a day after the end of school for Christmas break. Exhaustion. If it hadn’t made so much sense she would had been so much angrier. And she was fuming. She was mad, and furious, and sad, and all of the sudden Christmas felt so unfair. Like after being unfairly negated so many things in life, Adrien had to be stopped by a cold.

More messages followed.

Adrien: I’m glad everyone’s having fun.

Adrien: I hope the night gets better for you, you look tense.

Adrien: See you soon :)

Of course, she had made quite a face, since Lila had started to talk about her supposed relationship with her partner. Also of course, complete goo heart. Along with a deep sadness.

An angel. Even now, while forced under the cover of his bed – with those lovely cheeks all red and lucid gorgeous eyes and perfect lips and dang Mari stop it –, like he hadn’t been stuck into his own room enough to last him for a lifetime, even now he had taken the time to worry about her. He was worried about her. What a wonderful, sweet, caring, so lovable, unbelievably kind-

“Well hello Marinette, grabbing something to drink too?” Awful, hypocritical, incredibly annoying liar that had dared to interrupt her mental praises towards her beloved Adrien. Lila put herself right next, grabbing a glass herself, wearing that smirk on top of her lips. “I am too, I’m so tired, you have no idea! I didn’t know admitting my relationship with Chat Noir was going to cause all of this fuss! I guess these people really drink whatever you tell them…” It had to bring some kind of relief to her, not having to lie to Marinette since she was perfectly aware how little integrity the brunette had in her. Then again, who knew if even this manipulative face wasn’t another lie. If it turned out under all those veils there was absolutely nothing underneath, the stylist would had believed it.

She knew engaging her was a bad idea. Take the high road, like Adrien said.

But then she noticed a little necklace hanging over the black dress. With a round bell on it. And it was enough. She put the glass down to not crush it out of frustration.

“What do you want to get out of this?”

“I’m so glad you asked, you know what feels even better than seeing you hopelessly trying to prove to everyone that I’m wrong?” Yep, good call on the glass. “Thinking of that pathetic pois superhero discovering on the Ladyblog, because let’s be real Alya can’t keep her big mouth shut even for a second, that her beloved partner is going out with the girl she hates so much.” Lila hummed with satisfaction, sipping her drink, sighing delightfully. “Two birds with one stone, bella! She won’t be able to prove it wrong either, because the stupid doesn’t even know Chat Noir’s real identity!”

Marinette had always thought that her normal life and her superhero life were separated by one giant wall in between. Then this girl had come along, managing to get all the hate from the both of sides, making her feel like double herself, and double the need for vengeance.

She tightened her fists, glaring at her.

“This is dangerous, Lila! Their identities are important, their lives are! It’s one thing messing with me or our classmates, but they’re the heroes that save us every day!”

“So glad to hear your opinion, the one I don’t care about. Well then, I think I’ll go meet with my date, Chat Noir.” Lila giggled, pointing at a random guy. “Could it be him? Or maybe him? I’m the only one who knows, after all!” She laughed, Marinette grunted. “Maybe him? How about him?”

Not her kitty. Not her partner. Not her l-

“I might have a good guess.” One cheerful, sassy, unmistakable voice erupted between them. “But please keep going, don’t let me stop you. After all, when the cat’s away, the mice will play!” Chat Noir winked at Marinette, most likely hinting at that short time of her as Multimouse. Which would had been very annoying yet kinda witty, if she hadn’t been this shocked to see him.

To see him… like this.

The mask was there as usual, the ruffled hair and the pulsing eyes too. But that wasn’t his usual costume, at least not completely. He was rocking a full black suit tailored like it had been made just for him, yet the gentle shine over the cloth and the clawed gloves still present gave it away that it was still part of his normal superhero attire. He had a bright green tie with a minuscule fantasy that looked like many tiny Cataclysms one next to each other, and his usual reinforced shoes looked less rough and more refined.

He looked good. Something about Chat Noir’s confident attitude and that certain egomaniac tendency gave it away how in a proper suit he would had looked pretty great, but this was real. This was actually happening, and Marinette found herself catching her breath.

Luckily – for once in her life and only this once –, Lila was there as well.

“Chat Noir?!?” Oh, that horrified, overwhelmed face made the stylist’s night. That perfect satisfied face cracked violently, and she was frozen on the spot.

“Oh my, it is him!!” Unluckily, for once for Lila, Alya had a special filter in her ear for scoops and even from the other side of the room she managed to hear – also the brunette had erupted into a pretty impressive and delightfully scared squeak. “You actually showed up in your costume, what happened to the secrecy? Don’t worry, I know about yours and Lila’s situation, and I promise it’s between very close friends!” She had the recorder out already, pointed out like a weapon, looking oh so hopeful.

Chat Noir grinned, flashing a wink at the phone Nino was holding up to record the scene.

“You know I’m always up for a special interview for the Ladyblog, Alya.” The holder of the fox Miraculous brightened. “But I’m gonna need a heads up, because I have no idea what you’re talking about.” And just as fast the glimmer died down, turning into a frown. She put a hand over her hip, her peach-colored dress wrapped tight around her torso.

“Come on, do you really have to make it difficult? I don’t actually know your identity, although I did have a look around knowing you were somewhere.” A snort.

“Yeah I was somewhere, somewhere else. You do realize I just arrived, right?”

“Of coooouuurse, you just arriiiiived.” Alya winked at him. The cat superhero stared at her blankly, taking his time to fill a glass and empty it pretty quickly. He did look pretty tired now, like he did quite the run. “… you were here as a civilian, right? You even sent those little notes to Lila, saying how beautiful she was and all the rest!” The journalist held the recorder with one hand and picked up something from her pocket. A little green note saying ‘love the feathers, you look like a queen. CN.’. And wow, Marinette could at least compliment how shameless the brunette had been.

Chat Noir peaked over it, frowning.

“… Alya I signed stuff for you, you know that’s not my handwriting.” The journalist hummed uncertainly, like she did have that thought. “Besides, as I said, I wasn’t here. I arrived now.”

“Oh you don’t have to lie Chat Noir!” At last Lila came back from whatever world she had been stuck on, pulling off that obnoxiously wide smile right towards her kitty, huh, this kitt- the kitty! “But I understand that you’re not ready, so don’t make too much of it, forget about it and enjoy the night!” Of course she couldn’t give up, it was never that easy with her.

The cat superhero simply smirked, filling his glass again.

“Thank you Lila, a very warm welcome. How about you give the same to Officer Roger and Mr. Ramier over there?” Next to the mayor, chatting happily, where the two named that had in fact appeared only in that moment. Sabrina was greeting her father with a big hug. “We had a pretty tough moment back there, they got into another argument over pigeons and laws, luckily we managed to arrive to a compromise before things escalated. Bet Hawk Moth bite his Miraculous over this one!” He snickered, emptying another cup with a satisfied sigh.

Trying to solve a conflict through words and a plan instead of destroying everything, that sounded like the Ladybug way. And there he was, her – the – kitty, looking all happy about it like he was thinking of her proud owner petting his head.

A smile came on its own, Marinette couldn’t help it, and maybe didn’t want to.

“Great job, Chat Noir.” The superhero beamed at her. Adrien’s eyes were pure and breathtaking, but the unnatural beauty of these was impressive too. So very pretty.

Alya looked like she had half the forehead from how hard she was frowning.

“But Lila said you’ve talked all night together…”

“We did! He’s just covering it up!!” Lila’s voice raised of one octave at least, judging from how hard Chat Noir had winced being right next to her. The brunette smiled at him, batting her deer-like eyelashes. “Chat, I know what’s going on, you still feel like you own something to Ladybug. But you got hurt so much by her already, and this is not fair! Don’t you think you deserve better?” She scooted closer, raising a hand over him. “Come here, come to someone that can give you what you want.” Okay was Marinette really the only one who thought this was getting weird?

Apparently not, from how promptly the cat superhero had dodged the touch. He was suddenly extremely tense, a very wary smile on his face, hands raised like he was surrendering. Somehow his usual goofiness looked almost charming today…

Or that was the suit. Yeah, definitely the suit.

“Now there, I know I’m irresistible, but I really don’t think you should get any closer.”

“Why would you get away? Do you hate me? Prove me you don’t and get over here!” Lila tried to grab him again, but it was too easy for him. “Ladybug doesn’t even love you, why all this fuss??”

“Lila, I’m telling you, it’s better for you to stay awa-”

“I said get back here!!”

“Nope, no way!”

What a weird scene, an angry fox chasing a cat in the middle of the ballroom of the most luxurious hotel of Paris, surrounded by guests now very aware of the commotion happening. Their friends, guests, celebrities, even the mayor was starting to get worried. Marinette spotted Rose and Juleka, with the former all saddened by the fight between two people that she knew and probably wanted to get along – predictable –, and Luka along with Chloe and Kagami, with the rich girl absolutely living through this – predictable and relatable.

As a fairly common scene, Chat managed at the end to step on his own tail and struggle to stay up, right as Lila finally managed to land onto his chest with a grin.

“See everyone? It was simply a little fight between sweethearts, nothing to-”

Marinette could confidently say that, in her life, she had witnessed plenty of extremely satisfying moments. Saving her city every day along with her trusty partner while helping the people she loved? Awesome. Stepping up as her own person thanks to the confidence given from being Ladybug and getting to leave a mark into her life? Incredible. Spending occasional but so precious time with the love of her life knowing that with every single moment spent together, the chance of becoming something more became at least somehow possible? Priceless.

But this one, this very specific moment when Chat Noir scowled visibly and then sneezed, loudly and very grossly, right into Lila’s face, this one could take the cake. She had never seen such a perfect sequence of moments happening in her life.

The brunette screamed, panting in pure shock, as the hero wiped his nose.

“I tried to warn you, achoo!” He took two steps back, waving his hand at her. “I’m super allergic to feathers, and you’re wearing a hair pin full of it! I couldn’t stay near you if I wanted to!” It had some weird effect, this suited up Chat sniffing with his head up in desperate search for a tissue. Both extremely him and endearing, to the point Marinette cracked a laugh when the research was fruitful and the superhero blew loudly into a paper towel.

With the white feathers on her head, the nasty green of her eyes and the absolute flushed face of her, Lila looked one with the flag of her country. For a second. One extremely Italian second.

Then, of course, the waterfalls arrived.

“That was so mean of you, you should’ve at least warned me!” Chat Noir’s simple retort was a large grimace that said ‘I tried to’ quite clearly, but the brunette was into her part now. “I thought you were kind and special, but you’re just a jerk! You wanna make me look bad! I should’ve known! Right Alya?” She turned around to get her friend’s support.

Only to meet with something that for luck of fate, when she had first transferred in their school, Lila Rossi hadn’t managed to encounter: Alya Cesaire’s inquisitory glare.

“Wait a second.” She lowered her recorder without switching it off, stepping forward with one foot. “If he’s allergic there’s no way he talked to you or even got close to you tonight! All along you told me you were chatting with him… Lila… were you lying?”

Marinette could hardly believe it. She stared, agape, but never as much as the actual liar.

“I wasn’t! Of course not, he’s making that up to make me look bad! I don’t know why he’s pulling up all of this act, he’s probably getting manipulated by Ladybug to make me look bad! And here I thought she was a friend! Besides, I bet he’s pretending the allergy!”

“Excuse me, miss.” Completely out of nowhere none other than Mr. Ramier appeared, along with Roger and Sabrina, with the latter immediately running towards Chloe – with eyes sparkling like stars at the sight of her best friend’s two chaperones. “But if I may interject, there’s no way Chat Noir is lying about his allergy. I would know, since I get akumatized quite often and he’s forced to endure my pidgeons all the time. Very sorry about it by the way.” The gentleman looked at the cat hero, who got another tissue kindly offered by Rose and simply waved his hand like it was not a big deal. Which was fair, Mr. Pidgeon wasn’t nearly the most menacing threat ever – a bit of routine in the mess that was their lives was actually nice sometimes.

That same sweet blonde and helpful girl with the pink dress gasped all of the sudden, tears shining in her eyes. Actual, genuine drops, unlike someone else’s.

“You said the feathers were artificial, that your grandma was running a charity association that wanted to erase everything made by animals in the fashion world!!” Her lip covered in peach gloss quivered vividly. “I can’t believe you would lie about that, Marinette was right!” She turned to the stylist, who couldn’t believe this was actually happening. “I’m so sorry Marinette, I should’ve known!” Juleka from behind her nodded, looking sorry.

Lila gasped, again in her overly dramatic way, shaking her head.

“How could you say that? You know I would never lie, you know me! I… I…” Marinette should had seen it coming, as soon as those vengeful eyes got stuck on her. “It’s all Marinette’s fault!” Crocodile tears once again, the stylist didn’t even have it in her to be annoyed. “She wants to make me look bad, she did ever since I came here! I don’t know why she hates me so much!” There was such a long list into her diary, but the stylist felt like it wasn’t necessary. Her friends looked doubtful. Like they were on her side again. “And you’re trying to make me feel bad, I could get akumatized! How could you?”

“You do realize I’m right here, right?” Chat Noir grinned at her, getting closer to Marinette. “I could easily take care of you while Ladybug gets here, no problem. So go along, get crazy.” Wow, Ladybug would had not approved that. Good thing she wasn’t here.

“Did Marinette drag you into this?? She is the worst!!”

“No way, Marinette’s the best! She made these awesome shades of mine!” Out of nowhere Jagged Stone interjected, cocking a wink to her favorite designer who couldn’t help the little giggle – the frequency he showed those glasses reminded her of her dad whenever she accomplished anything. “Girl the way you’re talking to her is totally not rock and roll, who do you think you are??” The Rockstar glared. And so did Fang behind him, showing all of his teeth.

All colors drained from Lila’s face, as she pointed at the rockstar.

“What- Why- He isn’t supposed to…!”

“Oh yeah, didn’t I tell you?” Chat Noir seemed to be trying his best to contain his smug aura. “Another reason I got here this late, I thought of inviting Jagged and prince Ali! Isn’t it great? They’re usually super busy and not really into random celebrations, but it turns out they’re more than happy to participate knowing one of their heroes is here. What do you know?”

Lila was at loss, going with startled eyes from the celebrity in front of her, to the royalty not too far, to the people staring judgily at her. She opened her mouth to speak, try more covers, but Alya’s lips smack interrupt her. The journalist looked like she finally had enough, turning to Jagged.

“A question. You don’t know Lila, do you?”

“This girl? Definitely not.”

“So you never wrote her a song because she saved your cat?”

“Pff, a cat? I’m allergic to cats, and I hate them, they’re so unfriendly! Well, most of them, Chat Noir is pretty cool.” Another wink was thrown at the superhero, who cocked finger guns at the superstar. It looked oddly appropriate between these two.

Alya grabbed her head between her hands, groaning loudly.

“I can’t believe it, I… I’m so stupid. Marinette.” Her eyes were so gloomy, so different from her usual self. It made them trustworthy, despite everything. “I’m so sorry, I should’ve believed you right away. I promise I’ll make up for all I did. In the meantime…” With a quick gesture, as quick as Rena Rouge would had done it, Alya grabbed Lila’s arm and dragged her forward. “We’re gonna make sure you don’t know prince Ali too, and find out where in the world where you during your vacation since, you know, it looks like you missed school without a reason! And all of my interviews on the Ladyblog, ooooh, you’re in big trouble girl!!”

“No!! Let me go!! Marinette’s lying!!” The image of the perfect girl crumbled right away, as Lila started to pull such a tantrum that Manon would had felt embarrassed for her. “It’s all Ladybug’s fault! Or Marinette’s! Or both!! And Chat Noir’s!! It’s their fault, not mine, they’re the liars! I’m not a liar! I’M NOT A LIAR!!” And like that she was dragged away without mercy, like a criminal finally getting brought to justice.

People followed the scene, Rose and Juleka still looking sorry, Nino as well while making sure his girlfriend wasn’t going to straight up murder Lila. And Marinette stayed where she was, looking at them as the prince turned around, and another tantrum was born from the exposed liar.

After five full seconds of silence, Chat Noir blew his nose into the tissue once again, so loudly nearby guests gave him weirded out looks.

But not Marinette, no. She burst into laughter.

“Oh my gosh, it actually happened! Karma happened! A Christmas miracle!” She had to wipe a tear, more relieved than happy in reality. “If this is a dream please don’t wake me up, I wanna live in this world forever!” And in that precise moment the music changed, a slow rhythm that made her smile incredulously. “Wow, really? This night everything is meant to go just right, huh.” She giggled again, pushing a lock of her hair behind her ear. She turned towards the hero, her actual hero, finding him staring at her. The mask covered most of his face, but was that a blush?

“… then it would be a pity going against the flow, right?” Chat Noir smirked, bowing in front of her and extending a gloved hand. “May I have this dance?”

Marinette gaped at him.

“Me?”

“This superhero has every intention to dance with the prettiest girl of the night, yeah.” Curse this flirtatious little kitty, looking like he had everything under control after pulling such a stunt against that liar. Curse herself for letting it work, as she was led in the middle of the dance floor.

The lights got softer, the song too. Even with the confrontation happening not that far in the room, Marinette found it extremely easy to simply live in this moment. Especially given that her – the… alright her – kitty turned out to be quite the dancer, pulling her along gently, a hand over her hip and the other clenched around her hand. It felt like her goofy partner was miles away from this elegant person, but at the same time something told her that this made sense. For some reason him being so kind and sophisticated made her feel like it was perfectly normal.

Marinette smiled softly, moving slowly. Savoring this instant.

“I didn’t think it was going to end up like this.” Chat Noir hummed questioning. “Dancing with a superhero after the defeat of a villain without akuma, that’s something.”

“You got pretty lucky, huh? Especially on the first part.” And there he was, ruining the mood, pulling her along as he laughed. Maybe a little too much? “… oh! Sorry!” He straightened up, snickering nervously. Looking dizzy. “I’m a little out of it tonight.”

The stylist frowned in worry.

“If you weren’t feeling good you shouldn’t have come.”

“Bet Ladybug would tell me something similar, along with the scolding of my life for getting involved into civilian stuff.” She was pondering about it. Mm, maybe she could let this one go. “I understand it, I do, and I usually would’ve been on my own without interacting with anyone, but I couldn’t keep it shut anymore… not after seeing how sad you looked.” And suddenly his eyes were serious, focused. Like there was actually a guy underneath all the jokes.

It was supposed to be a shock. It felt more like a surprise to her. A little push in an unknown right direction, unexpected yet somehow helpful.

“You did it for me?”

“I think Lila getting busted helps everyone, but yes, mostly for you.” Again with the red on his cheeks, this time it was undeniable. “I thought I could let it go, but I saw how it got on your nerves, and after a while it got on my nerves because it got on your nerves, and I guess I couldn’t get my paws out of this one huh? I thought that fox needed a little less- Oh.” Huh, apparently this kitty did have an off button. And Marinette actually grinned while holding him, her cheek over his solid chest, hands around his neck. Feeling comfortable, happy.

… familiarly happy? She frowned a little.

“How did you know I wasn’t okay? You said you just arrived.” She could feel him swallow from this close, after finally putting his hands over her back. And again that warm lightning shocked her over the skin, a pinch in the middle of her brain. Like this was a dream that had happened before.

Chat Noir snorted softly.

“Let’s say a friend told me.”

“Let’s say I don’t believe you.”

“I would never lie to you. I… I really don’t want you to be sad, ever. You’re so amazing, you deserve all the happiness you can get.” And with that he let himself go with the movement, less shy, more him as he led her through the dance.

The music was lovely, Chat was lovely, and one by one other people were joining the dance floor like they were all part of the same fairy tale. She could spot Juleka and Rose holding each other, Kagami pulling forward the arm of a very flushed Chloe with a giggling Luka following behind, Alya clearly satisfied of the dealt situation with Lila dragging her boyfriend in, who looked way too into it to say anything, putting quickly his phone in his pocket.

His phone… the video… everything.

Marinette gasped, her mind finally unlocking that everything.

The film of the party that only one person had managed to see besides the DJ. The same allergy to feathers. The same golden hair, the same gorgeous green eyes. The confidence in his ways, the poor health of tonight – he was here while he should had been recovering, this dumb reckless kitty, she so wanted to slap him and smooch him. And this emotion, this undeniable feeling of belonging that came whenever she was between his arms, dancing like they had at Chloe’s party when he had made all of her dreams coming true with one single moment.

It was so obvious. The more she thought about it, the more she felt stupid and unbelieving and so, so incredibly happy. So much it was making her tear up, so much it was burning her heart violently. So much she wanted to scream it, tell all of Paris, tell the entire the world that it was happening.

“It’s you.” It came with a whisper, without her realizing.

“Mhm? You’re kinda shivering.” She untangled herself from him, missing the warmth, melting into his big, confused eyes. “Are you okay?”

There really was no one else.

“… could you come to my house tomorrow night?” Marinette tried her best to hold her voice together, tightening her hands onto him. She could see his smile. She could see him, under the mask or with it. “I’ll have a Christmas present for you. As a thank you gift.” And just like every time with every single akuma she had met, a specific plan formed into her head, with Chat Noir by her side.

Only this time, it was a complete solo mission. The most important one.

 ***

 How to make the best Christmas night, by Adrien Agreste.

Ingredients.

Seven days filled with plenty of akuma attacks, as fresh as possible, dripping with exhaustion. One or two – two – very generous pinches of scolding from father because of ineptitude at being absolutely flawless. And kwami, possibly cat kwami, fallen asleep on his pillow with his cheesy smelly breath directed towards him all night. Let it all fall onto the ground because of exhaustion, making him miss the Christmas Eve party where he was supposed to meet with his friends and have a great night – black cat, bad luck, har har.

Then… pick up the bowl and start over. Add an abundant thirst of revenge after watching one blue-haired girl all gloomy – and pretty, that dress wow, she really was unbelievably talented –, a fulfilled vendetta that hopefully wasn’t going to generate more troubling problems than the major one that got solved, and an invitation from said blue-haired girl for Christmas.

An actual, proper Christmas.

Chat Noir grinned widely, jumping right into the freezing air, way less fatigued than yesterday. He slept all day, regaining the strength, getting constant smug eyes from Plagg for some reasons. His father had even checked on him, maybe even sad that this year they hadn’t had Christmas at all. So he brought dinner to his bed, and they had it together. It had been somehow unsettling and nice at the same time. Last Christmas, his escape had caused a major problem, yet the solution to everything. Adrien really hoped it was going to be the same, especially for his feelings.

He stopped over a building. He could see the Dupain-Cheng’s bakery from there, and a sudden surge of worry caught him off guard. What was he expecting from this? Marinette was incredible, being invited felt like an honor alone. Was that why he was out of breath? What else was coming? His heart was for Ladybug, then why did it not doubt about helping Marinette?

A breeze caught his right under his neck, making him shiver. Ah, he was here in any case. And he was pretty sure his social skills still weren’t developed enough to let him come to a conclusion.

He jumped over the railing and landed on the small terrace at the top of the bakery, feeling his entire being immediately burst into amazement: it was beautifully decorated with Christmas lights and plants, little Christmas balls, stars, bows and little angels all over. A little table was settled with two chairs, with plenty of sweet goodness like bonbon, macarons, brownies and one wonderful Bouche de Noel. It had stopped snowing this morning, so the night was as clear as ever, shining of stars and wonder.

This was too much. It was so much that Adrien felt himself coming out of the costume in form of little tears, that Chat Noir quickly rubbed away. He faced a bully for a girl the other night, and now he was getting emotional because this precious little corner felt so comfortable he wasn’t used to it? He had to pull himself together before-

The door of the terrace opened. He took a deep breath. Play it cool, thank her, enjoy the moment. So he turned towards the sound with the widest smile Chat Noir had.

“I have to admit, this is pretty paw-some, Mari-” His voice got stuck into his throat.

This was a dream. This was the most vivid and lifelike dream he had ever had. Ladybug was stepping up from the door, eyes glimmering under the mask, wearing a majestic red dress covered in black dots. Long black gloves covered her elegant arms, her blue hair fell gracefully over her shoulders, and her pink lips were curved in the sweetest smile possible. With her flushed cheeks and the lights framing her figure, she looked like a queen.

And she stepped forward, her highness, looking pleased and even endeared by the kitty’s reaction, that still couldn’t move a single muscle.

“I’m glad you like it, I know you have a bit of a sweet tooth. And you seemed to really dig dad’s vol-au-vent that time we had Sunday brunch, so I asked him to make some. Without telling him why of course.” Dad…? Before…? “Ah, but you’re here for this, aren’t you?” Hadn’t he been completely out of himself from the daze of this apparition, maybe he would had noticed the little box into her soft hands. It was covered in a green wrapping paper, with a black bow on it.

Chat Noir blinked. Adrien blinked, because his brain was returning to him incredibly slowly but he could still hear the echo of what was happening. And he didn’t know if he was going to be able to take it. So without looking at it he grabbed the present, lips shivering.

“L… Ladybug?” And she dared to blush, like she didn’t look breathtaking already.

“J-just open it, okay?” And she dared to ask him to do something, alluring to the possibility to move or think or act – honestly it was asking a little too much from his little feline brain.

Nonetheless, after what felt like an eternity, Chat managed to trace the wrapping of the present with his claw, gently cutting the paper in the process. He grabbed an edge and discovered another box, black with a red cover. It was already perfect. But shivers caught him as he was pulling up the top, because Ladybug looking at him so intensely, so incredibly involved with him, that every movement felt meaningful. And when he finally peaked inside, his poor heart thought it was going to stop right there, just for the sake of passing away this happy.

A green branch, tender leaves, and white berries. A little mistletoe plush was waiting for him inside the box, soft looking and well made, like only one person he knew could had done with such care and dedication. So there was no stopping the gears inside his head anymore, not when everything was making this much sense all of the sudden, not while Ladybug was stepping close, putting her hands on his over the box.

Those hardworking hands, those hair as dark as night, those pretty bluebell eyes – blindness, thy name Adrien Agreste – that desire to get her closer and more comfortable with him. That feeling of ease that he thought was only meant for the closest of friends.

Ladybug smiled. Marinette smiled.

“Tikki, spots off.” In the cold night of Christmas, a red glimmering light manifested over the girl of his dreams, revealing the one he had been looking for all along. And through her lucid eyes, her goofy smile, her flushed cheeks, he could still see all of her. Because this was her. Beautifully her. “I-I thought this was the best present I could give you, after what you did yesterday and always did for me.” She laughed when Tikki flew over the present and picked it up, right over their heads. He loved that kwami. “I hope it’s good enough…?”

Her eyes fell, the slightest fear shaking the hands that were still covering his.

And Adrien felt appalled, so outraged, looking at her straight into her beautiful eyes, smiling so much he probably looked silly. But she didn’t seem to care.

“Plagg, claws in.” She knew, he didn’t know how, but she knew. Perhaps he was going to ask later. Right now, while Plagg reappeared and gave his fellow kwami a hand, still showcasing that same irritating smirk, all Adrien wanted was to take this miracle and hold on to it as long as he could. “It’s the best present of my entire life.” He let the box fall, gently grabbing her hands.

She laughed, and all of Paris felt envious of such beauty.

“Silly cat.” Marinette beamed at him. She then leaned forward, shy, glowing. And Adrien did the same, meeting her in the middle, finally kissing the girl of his dreams, feeling the glimmering joy inside of his heart outshining every single light of Christmas.

#mlb secret Santa #miraculous ladybug #marichat #adrienette #ml fanfic #fanfiction #fic #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng #lila rossi

[fandomlurker]

A Ponderous Rewatch: Bubba Bo Bob Brain and Cameo

Can I just say that I think I’m somehow getting worse at keeping the screenshot count down?

Neither the cameo nor the main episode in this post are animated by TMS, so that’s not the reason for the surprisingly high screenshot count. However, the regular episode is animated by Wang Film Production, who are the same folks that animated the very first PatB segment and have done most of the episodes I’ve covered so far, including the previous one. I can tell they’ve gotten a better handle at animating our main duo in the skit we’re looking at today, especially Brain. Wang Film Production is no TMS, but they’ve gotten very, very good at expressions. They’ve also seemed to settle into a rounded and soft design for Brain, something that they’re kind of known for among fans if I recall correctly. Pinky can still be a little…off at this point in time, though.

Moving on, the cameo that we’re starting with is animated by Akom Film Productions. They’re the folks who usually do the animation for the Chicken Boo and Goodfeathers episodes, and they usually do a pretty good job with those characters. As far as our mouse duo go, though, Akom has only done “Opportunity Knox” so far. You know, the one with the oddly nightmarish Brain close-ups. Thankfully we get none of that since it’s only a short bit.

So yes, onto the cameo in “Noah’s Lark”!

So this is actually a Hip Hippos episode, but luckily we don’t have to deal with them at all right now. The premise is the story of Noah’s Ark, obviously, but the character of Noah is done as a parody of the stand-up comedian Richard Lewis, who was somewhat popular in the 80s. The most modern and notable media he’s been involved in that people on Tumblr might know him from (or at least, what I think folks here might recognize, it can be a little hard to gauge that since both millennials and gen z folks are the main demographic of this site) are Robin Hood: Men in Tights where he played Prince John, and Curb Your Enthusiasm where he plays himself.

Noah is rounding up two of every animal to go onto the ark (which is a popular depiction of how the story goes, but is actually false: it’s supposed to be seven male and female pairs of “clean” animals of each species and one pair of “unclean” animals of the same species, but that’s as far as I’m going into that topic). He’s nearly finished the list and has just been mauled by the wolverine pair, and…

“Lab mice?...”

The fact that he’s specifically asking for a pair of lab mice raises a lot of questions that I don’t think we have time to unpack.

The pair of lab mice that he gets is, of course, Pinky and the Brain.

And Pinky is, for the very first time in the series, crossdressing, presumably to pass as a female mouse so he and Brain can survive the great flood by boarding the ark.

…This is also a lot to unpack.

“Check!” they both exclaim, although Pinky does it in a very deep voice for some reason.

Wow, look at the surprise and then hostile suspicion on Noah’s face there!

Their outfits are very 1950s, with Brain even carrying a suitcase. Anachronisms aside, these two really went all out for the “we are a normal, heterosexual pair” ruse, didn’t they? Not only is Pinky in a dress and a blonde wig, but Brain even put on a little bowler hat. Why did he feel the need to do that? Did he feel left out of dressing up otherwise? Was he afraid he wouldn’t look “manly” and hetero enough without it? I have so many questions…

“Whew! These pantyhose are killing me, Brain!”

Wow, for once it’s Pinky physically hurting Brain, even if it’s a relatively minor tug on the ear.

“I think I prefer knee-highs…”

…Pinky, you’re not even wearing pantyhose. What the hell are you talking about?

Assuming that this is just the result of an animation oversight (which, honestly, I’m certain it was), we now know that his disguise went so over-the-top as to include pantyhose which Noah wouldn’t normally see…and also it’s a type of pantyhose that Pinky doesn’t even like wearing, which implies to me that this is something Brain acquired for him.

There is just so much going on in cameos like these if you think about them for even a few seconds.

Also, I agree with Pinky. Knee-high pantyhose are much less uncomfortable to wear.

BONK!

So the mice are allowed to board and the audience is left to think that their little ruse worked, but immediately after the two run off and are out of listening range Noah rolls his eyes and says

“Who am I to judge?”

Heavily implying Noah completely saw through it and let them on anyway. Wow.

That’s the end of their cameo. Who’d have thought that this little scene would be the precursor to Brain having Pinky crossdress to disguise him as Brain’s wife so many times in the series? And who’d have thought that this very first time wouldn’t fool anyone at all?

But now let’s move on to the meat of this rewatch post:

We open to Acme Labs at night, as usual, though I’ve never noticed until now how lonely and eerie the place seems if you ignore our mouse duo.

“Pinky… I believe I have conceived my most brilliant plan to date!”

Oh boy, we have another first for today! Brain is very much a fan of using temporary mind control for his plans. It’s the method he falls back on the most, which is very interesting when you consider his various psychological issues involving having control taken away from him all his life.

“I shall use subliminal mind control to take over the world!”

“…Pinky?”

The hand-on-hip pose here is great.

“Today’s inside story is country mega-star Willie Ray Cypress!”

Uh, Pinky? Considering that this is pretty much the expression you had while looking at Pharfignewton, I am very, very worried about you looking at the Billy Ray Cyrus parody the same way.

“Don’t tell my head, my empty hollow head!~”

“You know I wouldn’t understand!~”

Same, Brain. Same. It’s just like Pinky to enjoy a song as earworm-y as this (not to mention how relevant this parody is to his everyday experience with Brain’s plans), but lord was the real song this is making fun of annoying as hell back in the day. Like, I was a small child at the time this song came out, and I still hated how often this would be played on the radio.

Luckily, Brain pounces on the remote’s off button and puts an end to the nonsense.

But oh, the look of sad betrayal on Pinky’s face is heartbreaking! I’m sorry, sweetie!

“It must be inordinately taxing to be such a boob.”

Heh, Brain said “boob”. /inner six year old

“You have no idea…”

“Pinky, do you know what a subliminal message is?”

“Something you leave on a subliminal telephone answering machine?”

Nice try, Pinky.

“No. It is a recorded message perceived only by the subconscious human mind.”

Two things here:

This diagram bothers me because my mind always interprets the way they’ve drawn the bottom of the cerebellum as the person shutting their eyes extremely tightly.

Brain using his own tail as a pointing stick is very, very cute and I love this detail.

“I have recorded such a message.”

He’s still holding his tail, aaaa!~

“Citizens of the world, you are under my control. You will do whatever I say…”

“Nice mix, but it’s not exactly danceable, is it?”

Oh, Pinky. Only you would sincerely compliment Brain’s incredibly dry mind control message and then immediately point out a flaw that has nothing to do with its purpose. Bless you, you stupid and wonderful little mouse.

I like how Pinky’s interjection startles the hell outta Brain for a moment, too.

“If people heard this message enough times, they would succumb to my control and we could take over the world!”

Notice that despite Pinky being a minor annoyance and despite the fact that Brain claims that everyone will be under his control, yet again it’s still both of them taking over the world.

“What do you think, Pinky?”

And he still wants Pinky’s input. It’s small and scattered and very, very subtle, but in my opinion this is Brain’s most frequent way of showing that he cares about Pinky. Brain likely isn’t even aware that he does it. Pinky might not be aware, either.

“I think I’m getting dizzy and I rather like it! Ahahahahahoo!~”

“Sometimes you hurt my head, Pinky…”

And yet, Brain. And yet…

“The only problem: How to get this message repeated worldwide airplay…?”

Offscreen, Pinky turns the TV back on and startles Brain again, but only for a moment.

Another great pose and expression here: Mildly annoyed, but interested and on the verge of an idea.

“I just adore Willie Ray!”

“I listen to his song twenty times a day!”

I…really don’t know why they chose to have this shot done with Brain walking over the “camera” towards the TV so we get a brief close-up of Brain’s mousey behind. It made me laugh, though, so I thought I’d share.

“Pinky… Are you pondering what I’m pondering?”

I’m also kind of obsessed with this brief expression of Pinky’s I unintentionally managed to capture. It’s a bit of a smug, knowing, and yet endeared look. I’m sure it’s completely unintentional on the animators’ part, but I love the idea it gives me of Pinky knowing exactly what Brain’s thinking but purposefully saying something entirely unrelated to playfully tease him.

“Well, I think so, Brain, but burlap chafes me so.”

To be fair, Pinky, I think burlap chafes everyone. And were you thinking about doing a potato sack race? That’s the only connection to burlap I can think of that would be in any way relevant...

“Country music, Pinky. I will go to Nashville and become the biggest country music star of all time! Everyone will hear my record and my subliminal message and I will take over the world!”

In all honesty, that would probably be easier to do in the early 90s when this takes place since country music wasn’t such a…well, “dead” is a bit of an exaggeration, but country music as a genre is incredibly unpopular nowadays with the occasional notable exception. In the early 90s? Not so much.

“Egad, Brain!”

This is the most enthusiastic swoon I’ve seen and heard from you yet, Pinky.

“Oh! But no, no… It takes people years of hard work to become famous, Brain.”

Well, that or they’re born into a famous family. Or they’re just rich.

“Why, take Kathie Lee Gifford for example: She did community theatre, and—“

I actually can’t find anything via Googling about Kathie Lee doing community theatre before she became famous. She seems to have studied music and drama in university, and had a folk music group in high school, but the only reference to theatre I can find is professional musical theatre in the late 90s.

It’s possible Pinky’s right, though.

BONK!

BRAIN! …Wait, where did you even get that tiny club?

“Stop talking, Pinky, I must think.”

You… Brain, I think I’m starting to see why some fans believe you may be as neurodivergent as Pinky is, but in a different way. I can’t in good faith elaborate on that myself, since I haven’t been diagnosed as such and it would be completely disrespectful of me to do so, but if anyone wants a good little theory on that, try here.

“I have calculated every ingredient necessary to become a country music mega-star. Read me the list, Pinky!”

He’s typing by hopping from one key to another, aww!

Eeeh, the lettering work on that computer is pretty bad, though.

“A cowboy hat.”

“Check!”

“A southern dialect.”

“Check, ya’ll!”

“Nice, Brain.”

The way Pinky says “nice” here reminds me of this meme. Also, aww, Pinky’s always ready with the compliments.

“Working class values…”

“I enjoy beef jerky and the comedy stylings of Gallagher. Check.”

His visible cringe at having to say he enjoys Gallagher is wonderful. I first heard about Gallagher through My Brother, My Brother and Me, but for anyone that doesn’t know, Gallagher is a frankly terrible prop comedian whose most famous act was smashing things on stage (usually fruits of increasing size) with a large mallet that he called the “Sledge-O-Matic”, ending with smashing a watermelon. It was apparently a mildly popular bit of comedy in the south. Does that sound entertaining? No? Yeah, that’s…that’s why Brain is cringing so hard.

“A song.”

“Check!”

A song titled “A Song”. Brain, sweetheart, I think you’re going to need to put in a little more effort than that.

“A name consisting of not less than three words.”

“From now on, I shall be ‘Bubba Bo Bob Brain’. Check.”

I would make fun of him for this name, but honestly it’s kind of genius in its bland simplicity.

“And…a height of at least six feet!”

“Aaa--guebuh…”

Whoops. Forgot about that one, huh?

“Drat!”

“There must be some way for me to increase my height…”

Gee, if only you had a fully operational mechanical human suit just laying around.

“Hmm, let me think…”

“Don’t hurt yourself, Pinky.”

He is trying his best!

“Faster, Pinky! Faster!”

…Why does Pinky have to spin the thread? The whole point of sewing machines like this is that they’re powered electrically, Brain. Are you just making him do this so Pinky feels included?

Oh. Oh no…

Brain’s “WTF?” face is great. He’s surprised and yet not at the same time, because things like this just happen when you have Pinky around.

“You amaze me, Pinky.”

“I do my best…”

A very cute exchange.

So instead of using the mechanical human suit they usually fall back on in times like these (maybe it’s under six feet tall?), the mice instead come up with…this.

“Proceed, Pinky.”

I have to give them some credit, regardless of how ridiculous this is, as sewing denim to make a very bizarrely thin and tall pair of jeans must have been an absolute nightmare.

“Ki-yi-yippee-yi-yo. How do I look?”

I’m getting flashbacks to the similarly deadpan singing of “Camptown Races” from last episode. Brain’s really on a western kick lately, isn’t he?

“Oh, very nice, Brain!”

Your finger-framing may be focused on the back of Brain’s head for some reason, Pinky, but your pupils are definitely pointed a bit…lower.

“It’s ‘Bubba Bo Bob Brain’.”

“You are my manager, Colonel Pinky.”

This is a reference to Elvis Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, who was honestly quite the bungler when it came to managing Elvis’ career. I honestly don’t think Brain’s making a subtle jab at Pinky’s competency here for once because Brain’s grasp of pop culture he’s not already interested in is surface level at best most of the time.

“You discovered me playing the guitar on the front porch of my humble pig farm. Any questions?”

“Oh, just one: When you farm humble pigs, how far apart do you have to plant them?”

“…If I could reach you, I would hurt you.”

Hey now, you’re the one that asked, Brain.

“But for now, on to Nashville!”

“On to Nashville!”

BONK!

“This is a pain that is going to linger…”

That’s what you get for rolling your eyes at Pinky’s enthusiasm.

No perilous car trips this time! Instead, the boys are getting bus tickets to Nashville.

“Two tickets to Nashville, please.”

“Ooh-wee!~ You’re a tall drink a’ water, aint’cha, darlin’?”

…Ma’am? Excuse me, ma’am? Ma’am, are you flirting with The Brain?

Like, sorry, that “tall drink of water” saying is not just to point out that someone’s tall. It’s specifically for flirting with someone who is tall and gorgeous and a refreshing sight to see, like a tall glass of water on a hot summer day.

This lady is flirting with a mouse on stilt legs.

I know that Brain’s disguises are prone to inexplicably work even when by all rights they shouldn’t, but…

“Actually, I am a lab mouse on stilts.”

Brain does his usual bold and plain truth shtick and I’m a little surprised that he didn’t react to what she said beyond that. Then again, this is Brain and he’s quite terrible when talking to women in general, so maybe we dodged a bullet here.

“…At least he didn’t ask me to pull his finger.”

I’ve worked in retail and food service for years, ma’am, and if that’s the extent of your experience with unpleasant men, consider yourself lucky.

“EGAD, Bibby-boo-bop-Brain! Round trips are so exciting!”

“It’s ‘Bubba Bo Bob Brain’, Pinky.”

“Right! Sorry. Zort!”

Honestly, Pinky’s version is much cuter.

“Concentrate, Pinky, concentrate!”

BONK!

“YES! This pain will definitely be with me a while.”

Brain out here looking like a bad Minecraft texture.

Hello again, Warner Siblings! Gosh, that little fringed western skirt on Dot is cute.

“’The Rowdy Ranch Nightclub’… What are we doing here, Boobie-baa-baa-Brain?”

I checked the official subtitles for this and yes, that is exactly what he mistakenly calls Brain here. We have had both of these two call each other “boob” or some permutation of it this episode.

Pinky and the Brain sure is a show that exists.

“…It’s ‘Bubba Bo Bob’ Brain. And according to statistics, and inordinate number of country western superstars have gotten their start at this very establishment.”

You probably didn’t need me to tell you this, but there’s no Rowdy Ranch Nightclub in real life. There is, however, “The Rowdy Ranch”, uh, ranch in Texas.

“Egad! [gasp] Do you suppose Minnie Pearl performed here?”

“One can only hope…”

Man, Brain, you are really laying the sarcasm on thick this episode. Come to think of it, he’s been slightly more sassy towards Pinky than usual this episode as well. I suppose he’s still sore about the end of the last one. You know, for reasons.

BONK!

At least he’s getting some karmic punishment for it, I guess.

“I am a telephone repairman from this area!~”

This little ditty this man is singing has bugged the hell out of me for quite a while, as it certainly sounds like it’s a reference to something but I never knew exactly what it was referring to until just now thanks to an old Animaniacs Usenet group from way back in the day: It’s a parody of the song “Whichita Lineman” by Glenn Campbell. The writers are really giving it their all with the pop culture references this time.

“When I give the signal, play the subliminal message tape.”

“Right-o, Bippie Bebop Balloola!”

“…Sometimes you frighten me, Pinky.”

Why, though?! Despite it being a mistake it’s honestly a goddamn adorable one. Why must you fear affectionate, innocent, unknowing malapropisms, Brain? Pinky’s still going to do what you told him to.

Anyway, Brain is ushered onto the stage as a newcomer and he’s…not exactly any more eloquent than Pinky was just now.

“Howdy, you all. Here’s a little…ditty I wrote. Hope you enjoy it…you all.”

Here’s the thing: Brain’s not one to get stage fright, and while he’s not the best actor he’s still usually better than this. He was saying “ya’ll” and getting the country-isms perfectly fine beforehand, although he was still doing it in his deadpan Brain way.

Now, suddenly, after hearing Pinky cutely screw up his fake name and going on stage he’s starting to mess up. It’s like Pinky’s error is still in the back of his mind and flustering him enough to throw him off for a bit.

He gets back into the swing of things when he starts singing his song, though.

“I am a lab mouse, I escaped from my cage

Never had a job, never earned minimum wage.~”

“He ain’t half bad.”

“Ain’t half good, either.”

OUCH. That’s a little harsh. Sure, the lyrics are kinda blah but he’s a decent singer here. Really, it’s just not a genre of music that his voice fits very well.

Also, lady? You’ve got a suspiciously busty doppleganger in the back there. That’s got to be a bad omen for you.

“But you will respect me, YES, once my plan is unfurled!~

You will call me your leader, I’ll be king of the world!~”

Careful, Brain. Your complicated emotional complex is starting to show in those lyrics.

There’s some more nice facial expressions here too. I can’t really capture it with still images, but Brain’s got a very tender demeanor when he sings about being king of the world.

“Now, Pinky!”

…I just noticed that Pinky’s wearing a completely different outfit here at the nightclub than he was when boarding the bus to get to Nashville. He was previously in an all-white colonel outfit and now he’s in a more generic yet very sweet cowboy get-up. Did you make yourself an entire wardrobe, Pinky?

Another minor detail is that while Pinky’s cowboy hat is a generic tan colour (although before, it was white), Brain’s hat is completely black, which as per western film traditions marks him as a clear villain.

You and I know he’s not really a villain and is, at worst, an anti-villain…but I thought this was worth pointing out anyway.

“Citizens of the world, you are under my control. You will do whatever I say.”

I love how he does this completely unneeded strum on his guitar in the middle of his subliminal message. It's for the drama!

“Buy my record and listen to it twenty times a day.”

Corporations be like…

Who am I kidding? Corporations nowadays would have you pay a fee monthly to have a song on your phone playlist and you would never really own a copy.

“Let’s buy his record…”

“And listen to it twenty times a day…”

Lady, that doppleganger is still over there. Do you need a distraction while you sneak out the back?

This smug lil’ jerk. Gotta love him, though.

And so Brain’s cassette tapes fly off the shelves at record speed.

Man. Cassette tapes. I feel so fuckin’ old…

“I don’t know ‘bout ya’ll, but I can’t get enough of Bubba Bo Bob Brain. Let’s hear it again!”

JFC, that spittoon. Blegh! And just what do you need that rope for?!?

“Well, he’s the hottest thing to hit Nashville since my mama’s jalapeno grits! Here’s Bubba Bo Bob Brain!”

Having just recently learned what exactly “grits” is, I am very disturbed by the idea of jalapeno grits.

“I’m your biggest fan! What d’you say to that?”

Hi, Dolly Parton! I’ve gotta say that the animators nailed the caricature of 90s Dolly here pretty well. She’s instantly recognizable, unlike some other celebrity parodies Animaniacs does. It’s not just because of Dolly’s, uh…most renowned physical characteristics, either. That’s a very Dolly Parton smiling face.

Not much to say here other than that Dolly’s a sweetheart of a woman, from what I know about her, especially for a celebrity. She’s a staunch supporter of Covid relief and Black Lives Matter as well.

That said, she’s sadly—both in the 90s and now—most well known for…

“I’d say puberty was inordinately kind to you.”

BRAIN!

Well, yeah. That.

I guess now you can see what I mean about Brain not being very good at talking to women. Like, he’s definitely not ogling her here. In fact he’s just kind of…stating something he’s noticed and looking absolutely done with this whole celebrity thing. But Brain you don’t just make a joke like that about a woman’s bust size no matter how deadpan you do it, you ass!

“Haha, go on.”

She takes it well, though, just like Dolly seems to in reality.

Still, though! Brain, you retroactively deserved all those run-ins with doorframes.

Continuing on the buxom southern women thing this episode has decided to run with (seriously, what’s going on here?), we now have a brief parody of a Hee Haw skit.

“Hahahahaha!”

“Hey, Bubba Bo Bob Brain, I just got back from France!”

“How’d you find it?”

“I used a map.~”

“Hahahahaha!”

Yeah, that’s an accurate depiction of Hee Haw style humour.

“And the Country Tune Award for best male vocal goes to…”

“Bubba Bo Bob Brain!”

Here we have Garth Brooks and Crystal Gayle emceeing this awards ceremony. I had to look up who these two were supposed to be, though, since the caricatures are pretty vague this time.

“EGAD! YIPPEE! Narf! Ah hahahahahaha!”

Aww, he’s so happy for Brain! And oh, is that yet another outfit I see? And a much more appropriately sunshine-y yellow and flamboyant one at that! Pinky really went all-out for this.

Again with the tongue hanging out too, except this time it’s more understandable.

“You’re embarrassing me, Pinky.”

And you’re continuing to be a jerk, wow. Someone needs a nap or something.

“Pardon my effervescence, but your accolade is more than any bucolic mouse merits.”

“What’s he sayin’?”

“I don’t know.”

Yes, Brain just used the word “effervescence”, much like in that one Tumblr Twilight meme. To those reeling from the fact that this compares Edward to Brain via their shared pretentiousness: You’re welcome.

Also, a Brain-to-common English translation: “Pardon my bubbly enthusiasm, but your award is more than any countryside mouse deserves.” Would that have been so hard to say, Brain?

“…I’d like to thank my mama and Elvis.”

I wouldn’t thank Elvis. He was an asshole. But that’s probably not wise to say at a 90s country music award show, so I guess it’s understandable.

“Oh, how nice!”

“Well isn’t that nice!”

“I’m outside the Grand Ol’ Opry, where tonight’s concert featuring country music sensation ‘Bubba Bo Bob Brain’ is being televised worldwide.”

“In two words: Bubba is hot!”

I… That’s twice in this episode where a human woman thinks a tiny, big-headed mouse on stilts is hot.

Furries, come get these poor, confused women.

“You gotta know how to cut ‘em

Know how to shuffle

Know how to deal the cards, before you play Fish with me.~”

Hello, Kenny Rogers. I only know the song parodied here, “The Gambler”, again through “My Brother, My Brother and Me” and the long and hilarious conversation about it.

It’s kind of weird to have a song that was made famous by Rogers in 1978 sung like it’s a recent hit in an early 90s awards show, but ehh. Maybe the shelf life of hit country songs is a lot longer than songs of other genres.

And then you die in your sleep~

“Do you realize what will happen if the world hears my song just one more time?”

“An angel will get its wings?!”

If only, Pinky.

“NO, Pinky!”

I think all this country stuff is really getting on Brain’s nerves. He’s being snappy and irritable and lashing out an abnormal amount ever since arriving in Nashville, and there’s not a lot of joy in the minor successes he’s had so far. Like, compare Brain smiling and praising Pinky for his work during the alien encounter spoof they did together, the last episode with Brain cheerfully singing to himself when he was certain he’d win the race…to now where he’s yelling at Pinky for minor mistakes that no one but himself is aware of and being joyless and faking pleasantries and rolling his eyes at the country stars he’s surrounded by. This mouse is crabby as all hell, and I don’t think it’s just because he finds the whole country western thing stupid and below him. This is a mouse who’s done and will continue to do degrading things to achieve his goal of world domination without this much jerkishness.

I think he’s still fuming about the whole Pharfignewton and Pinky thing, and the current plan being a very rural, country-focused plan like the last one with the Kentucky Derby is just exacerbating it by reminding him of it. Like, you don’t even have to take it in the gay way I am and instead take it in a “how dare that goddamn horse take the complete attention of my friend/world domination partner away from me and my plans, this sucks and I can’t believe Pinky’s just being his usual dumbass self like everything is fine and the same” sort of way.

But the gay way makes way more sense, fight me.

…Okay, don’t fight me, I’m tired and old and I really don’t want to get in internet fights about cartoon mice.

“My subliminal message will take permanent hold, and the world will be under my control!”

Ooof! We’re back down to “my” control and not “our”. Jeez, Brain. You really are spiraling right now, aren’t you? Your attitude has quickly devolved from the beginning of this episode...

“Oh, that.”

And dang, even Pinky’s enthusiasm is starting to get deflated.

“Now, do you remember what you have to do?”

“Yes. I need to make a dental appointment. I have horrible plaque buildup!”

Pinky, you do realize that unlike a regular, non-sapient mouse you can just brush your teeth, right?

“The tape, Pinky, the TAPE!”

“Oooh, right! When you give the signal, I play the tape.”

“And now, I’d like to introduce…”

“This is it, I’m on.”

“Good luck, Booba Bip Bop Brain!”

Folks, I swear to you that I tried to get a decent screencap of Pinky slapping Brain to figure out if he slapped his back or his ass and for the life of me I could not get it. The slap goes by just that fast and I’d honestly have to go frame by frame if I wanted to get it, but my video player will not go that slow.

Either way, Brain is certainly startled by the contact but is fixated more on the continued mangling of his fake name.

“How many times do I have to tell you, my name is--!”

Uhh, Brain? Getting a liiiittle close there.

“—Bubba Bo Bob Brain!” exclaims Kenny Rogers. And oh boy are these screencaps exploitable. Again, you’re welcome.

“Yee-haw! Let’s start this hootenanny!”

Better than last time you came out on stage to sing at a show, at least.

This time the crowd even sings along with him, and they’re not even hypnotized yet. Much better.

“Now, Pinky!”

“You are under my control, you will do whatever I say…”

“I will do whatever he says… Whatever he says… Whatever he says… Whatever he says…”

A confusingly consistent detail here: Every woman in the crowd has swirly red hypnotized eyes and every man in the crowd has swirly green hypnotized eyes. Why? Who knows!

“Way to go, Blubber Boo Bean Brain. Narf!”

Heh, that hand flip.

It looks like Pinky is trying hard to suppress his verbal tic here for some reason? Or maybe he’s just realized that he’s messed up the name again and is cringing in anticipation of Brain yelling at him? Either way, poor guy… You really don’t deserve any of what’s coming.

And what’s coming? Well, given Brain’s heightened pissy attitude and his mental issues with not having things go exactly the way he wants them to, plus his obsessive need this episode to correct Pinky on this one thing that doesn’t need to even be addressed because no one else hears it, plus other repressed emotions…

“Do me a favour and forget my name. While you’re at it, forget you ever knew me!”

Holy shit.

…Now you fucked up, Brain. Now you fucked up.

Man, I hate the one thick facial hair on the dude in the middle. It’s so unsettling.

“Hey, who’s that skinny guy on stage?”

“Who is he?”

“Get him off!”

“Boo!”

“We wanna see someone famous!”

Yup. Look at what you did. You messed this up all because you were having a temper tantrum about Pinky messing up your stupid false name. You hang that head in shame. And you apologize to Pinky.

Later...

“Tonight’s inside story: A complete unknown somehow made it on to the stage at the Grand Ol’ Opry.”

“…Turn that off, Pinky.”

You know what? Keep it on for a bit, Pinky. Let Brain wallow in this humiliation just a bit more. He needs to have the lesson set in.

“I’m trying to concentrate on a better plan for tomorrow night.”

“Why, Brain? What are we going to do tomorrow night?”

“Same thing we do every night, Pinky:”

“Try to take over the world!”

Hey wait just a minute! You can’t just reuse this excellent ending from “Win Big” on this episode! Brain doesn’t yet deserve to get back to being cocky and determined after being such an ass!

Ahh well. He does get better, folks, I promise. This is just a rough patch. Brain is… He’s going through some things, I think. He’s not processing his emotions in a healthy way and it’s really coming back to bite him.

Listen, I understand this whole thing with Brain being extra grumpy and hostile after the whole Pinky dating Pharfignewton thing is largely coincidence. We don’t actually know what order these episodes were made in, after all, and the Animaniacs writers were not big on continuity.

Here’s the thing, though: I still find it fascinating that these episodes were aired one after the other…especially with a random cameo with Pinky and Brain disguised as a married couple in between. It makes for the beginning of a strange sort of arc that occasionally reminds us that, hey, these two mice are a duo and something is amiss when that duo is broken up or there is a strain put on that relationship.

I’ve read that after a while, network executives at the time tried to push for these mice to settle down and have families and for the skits and the eventual spin-off to largely abandon the whole world domination thing. They wanted it to be more sitcom-like to rival and imitate shows like The Simpsons.

That obviously doesn’t work. It can’t work. The writers, especially Peter Hastings, very much pushed back against the idea. When you have a duo of characters who fit together and play off one another so well, when the basic premise of a story is of a pair of characters working together to achieve a goal, and when those characters just mesh so perfectly and basically complete one another…trying to add another main character just puts the entire story completely out of wack and/or changes it into something unrecognizable. You can add reoccurring characters off to the side, sure. You can have a nemesis or two pop up and return every now and again. But with something like Pinky and the Brain where the main story is a small pair against incredible odds working towards a singular goal, disrupting that core relationship is going to cause a domino effect that will ruin the whole thing.

All this to say that I like this approach that’s going on here much more, even if it was completely unintended by the creative team: There is the element added of Pinky, off-screen, dating someone. It’s not something that’s brought up a lot and whenever it is brought up, Brain is irritated. We’ve seen at the end of the last episode where this development was introduced that Brain is unusually snappy, and now in the next episode he continues to be angry more often than he was before. It’s a more subtle and smooth way of seeing how these characters react if something or someone threatens to come between them, in a way that doesn’t immediately break the entire premise to pieces. Of course, it helps that Pharfignewton is…largely absent for all this and is only brought up every now and again. It’s not a perfect way to explore this kind of thing, but it’s preferable when compared to something like Pinky, Elymra, and The Brain.

However, after this episode Brain’s temper begins to de-escalate, and we won’t pick back up on this accidental “arc” for a few episodes. So to folks who are maybe a little bit bummed out about his behaviour here: don’t worry. We’re getting quite the breather next time with a very odd alternate universe skit courtesy of the Warner Siblings  messing around with character placement, as well as an entire Animaniacs episode devoted to a Pinky and the Brain skit…fantasy style!

#Pinky and the Brain #PatB #Bubba Bo Bob Brain

[recipeforme]

C7: Somehow I’ll Be Strong

Book: A Good Kid

It was a tradition in our friend group that once a month we would gather at Patton’s house to have a movie night. I’m sure that if it was up to Patton it would be at least every two weeks. But Patton’s Dad, Mr. Thomas, said that we could only do it once a month during the school year.

If it had been up to me we would do a movie marathon of some kind every month. But once again, Mr. Thomas said we could only watch one movie and that it couldn’t be longer than ninety minutes. The last rule was made after I tried to get everyone to watch ‘The Sound of Music’ which is two hours and fifty-five minutes.

The way our movie nights worked was that we rotated each month on who got to pick the movie. Last month it had been Logan’s turn which meant that we watched some boring space documentary. But this month it was my turn!

-----

I walked up to the front door of the Sanders’ household with five different DVD cases in my hand. I know that we were only allowed to watch one film but I still like to get Patton and Logan’s opinion on which to watch.

Standing on the front porch I rang the bell. I could hear Patton’s joyful yell and the sound of running footsteps, I smiled as he threw open the door and flung his arms around me.

“Roman! You're here!” He yelled “I missed you.”

“You just saw me at school.” I laughed, hugging him back.

I chuckled lightly as I pulled away from the hug and Patton led me inside and to the kitchen where Logan was. “Hey Nerd,” I said.

Logan rolled his eyes, keeping them in the book he was reading.

“So I see that Roman’s here.” I looked over to see Patton’s dad standing in the entryway that led into the kitchen.

“Hello Mr. Thomas,” I said with a smile.

The man laughed “Roman, how many times do I have to tell you? It’s just Thomas.”

“Sure thing Mr. Thomas,” I replied with a cheeky grin.

Thomas playfully rolled his eyes at me and moved to the kitchen table where he opened his laptop. Most likely to get some work done, not like that’s any of my business. I started chatting with Patton before his foster brother came downstairs.

“Well, if it isn’t the Emo Nightmare!” I said with a smirk. Virgil looked over at me with a scoff of annoyance before moving to the fridge and pulling out a water bottle.

“So,” Patton said, returning to our conversation. “What are we watching tonight Roman?”

“I haven’t decided yet but I do know that it will be one of these movies,” I said pulling out the DVD cases I had brought.

Logan set his book aside and looked at the cases “why do you always choose Disney movies?”

“I don’t always choose Disney!” I protested “sometimes I chose a musical.” I heard Virgil snort and I turned to him “what? You have a problem with Disney?!”

“No,” He said. “I, too, am a Disney fan.”

“You?” I laughed.

“What? Why is that so hard to believe?”

“Disney movies are the embodiment of goodness and purity, something you would know nothing about!” I said, still laughing.

“Be nice kiddo” Patton scolded.

“Disney movies have such wonderful and empowering messages!” I said to Virgil.  

Virgil gave me a dark smirk and leaned up against the kitchen counter, still holding his water bottle.“You must not be watching the same movies then.” He said, “because the movies I know have much more sinister undertones.”

He looked over at Logan and Patton “Come on, you must sense it. I'm just making sure you're alert to all of the messages in those films, whether they were intentional or not.”

“Actually, this is kind of intriguing,“ Logan said.

“What?” I cried.

“So you think every movie has a darker meaning or a misleading message?” Logan clarified.

“Oh yeah.”

“This is ridiculous!” I yelled “you besmirch the name of Disney. This time, you have gone too far!”

“Really?” Virgil raised an eyebrow, setting aside his water. “This is where you cross the line?”

“Well, how 'bout this?” Patton cut in “Logan and I will throw out some Disney movies and you two tell us what we’re supposed to learn from each movie.”

The two of us agreed and Patton got started. I’m sure I’ll win. There was no way that evil villain will be able to find anything wrong with such perfect movies.

------

“Okay, movie one. Cinderella.” Patton said.

“Ha! Easy.” I said, “believe in your dreams and one day, they will come true.”

“Sure, just literally wait around your entire life, subjecting yourself to the cruelty of your ungrateful, ignorant family members, until some magical fairy comes along to save you.” Virgil said sarcastically “don't take action yourself.”

“She had mice, too!” I protested.

“Not to mention, men can't memorize the face of a woman they've been dancing around with for hours, they have to rely on the shoe.” The darker teen added, “ergo... men are idiots.”

“He was a very busy prince! He had a lot on his mind!”

“Let's just move to another.” Patton said, “um, Snow White!”

“Okay, so this time the message is to not do what the princess did.” I said, “don't accept random fruit from strangers.”

“Or, don't eat fruit...?” Patton said.

“No,” Thomas called from the kitchen table.

“No?”

“The bigger message is to just run away from your problems and become the housekeeper for seven men,” Virgil said.

“Sometimes the best solution is to get out of a bad situation!”

“Not to mention, a prince comes out of nowhere and plants a kiss on a seemingly sleeping girl?” He adds “I guess consent isn't really that important.”

“I never did understand that,” Logan said to himself.

“He thought she was dead! It was a farewell kiss!” I yelled, “what's with all the prince hate?”

“I wonder,” Virgil said in a sarcastic tone that I’ve grown to hate.

“Well, how about something a little bit more recent: Frozen,” Patton suggested.

“A sister's love triumphs overall!” I said.

“And don't trust random princes. I can get behind that” Virgil added.

“I swear…”

“Also, when Elsa passes away, Olaf's gonna die too, 'cause the magic will be gone. So just prolong the inevitable?” Immediately Patton and I cried out about how dark that was. Virgil just shrugged saying that he’d warned us.

“How about we lighten it up with Peter Pan?” Patton suggested.

“Don't let your childhood spirit ever die” I said.

“Also, it's totally fine to believe a random stranger when they tell you to jump out the window after they've broken into your house.” Virgil said “but I would guess that's how your whole being would die.”

I groaned “urgh…”

“Okay, how about Aladdin? My favorite!” Thomas said, moving to lean up against the table. Watching us with interest.

“The value of a person is not determined by wealth.” I told them “a diamond in the rough can be found anywhere, even someone who may be considered a street rat.”

“And they can get what they want by lying and deceiving their way right into the castle and getting the princess.” Virgil smirked.

“Oh, come on!” I cried “he came clean in the end! He even freed the Genie!”

“Yeah, he did.” Virgil agreed “but not before his way lying and deceiving right into the castle and getting the princess.”

“How about Fox and the Hound?” Patton asked.

“True friendship overcomes any boundaries set by society.” I said, folding my arms and glaring at Virgil.

“But then that friendship will be immediately be terminated by that society, and the two must learn their place in the world.” He added.

“Beauty and the Beast” Logan suggested.

“Okay, I know what you're gonna say, you're gonna say--”

“Stockholm Syndrome.” Virgil and I said in unison.

“But,” I said “it is more than just a prisoner falling in love with her kidnapper! It is about a love that transcends outward appearance. Even a beastly, hairy, animal-- you're right, that doesn't sound much better.” Hums of agreement floated around the room “But come on, can you really look down so harshly on these movies?”

“I still like them,” Virgil said “there's just some darker messages that we don't first see.”

“Bambi?” I asked.

“Man is dangerous.”

“Pocahontas!”

“White man is dangerous.”

“Sleeping Beauty!”

“Well, now we're back to the lack of consent with sleeping women.” He responded with a smirk.

“It was to lift a curse!” I yelled.

“The Little Mermaid?” Thomas asked.

“Don't just sign a contract without having your mer-lawyer look over all the fine print and stipulations. That one's just common sense.” Virgil said.

“Or learn to write, or use sign language.” Logan added “there's more than one way to tell the prince you're the girl that saved him.” I couldn’t help but silently agree with both Virgil and Logan.

“Well then, how about we just concede that Disney movies have a lot of different, interesting messages within them” Patton said.

“Duh, that's what I've been saying.” Virgil said “I never said Princey was wrong.”

I was surprised “you didn't?”

“No.”

“Well,” I said slowly “then I suppose I shall concede a few points to you.”

“Great.” Virgil began to leave the kitchen, water bottle in hand, when I called out to him.

“Wait,” he stopped and slowly turned around “there’s one movie you forgot” I said.

“Which one?”

“Tangled.”

Virgil stiffened “there are those in your life who are supposed love and care for you but sometimes all they do is hurt you.” He answered quietly.

Everyone in the room went silent. Virgil ducked his head and flipped up his hood, hiding his face from view. And he quickly disappeared down the hall.

#A GOOD KID #isabel's books #virgil sanders #thomas sanders #patton sanders #roman sanders #logan sanders #foster care #foster family #disney debate #sander sides #sander sides fanfiction

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #300

that’s a lot of time wasted, lmao

If you were a witch, which animal would be your familiar? Could I have like, a melanistic barn owl? That'd be dope. They're fuckin gorgeous. If there's a design on your shirt, what is it? Ha, speaking of owls... Would you ever visit a ghost town? MOTHERFUCKER would I. Bringing my camera, too. What would you do if you found out your life was only a simulation controlled by someone else? I have a very much Detroit: Become Human (phenomenal game, btw) outlook on this: I think, therefore I am. It honestly wouldn't affect me terribly. I sure would hate my creator though, jfc, lmao. What's the scariest thing you've accidentally found on the internet? Okay so there is this one video filmed by some guys who had this really strange, sulking guy in black stalking them, and it ends with the suspected murderer slinking over to the guys (who were by this point finding it almost funny, due to how the man was acting) and charging with a knife, I think, once he was very close. I believe the men were never found afterwards. It is SO goddamn unnerving. Is there anything bothering you right now? Not to be a Negative Nancy, but when isn't there lmao. Thinking of every Halloween costume you've had, which one was the most creative? I never had creative ones, really. What's the picture on your calendar for this month? I don't have a relevant calender, just old meerkat ones on a wall in my room. If you were a mythical creature, which would you be? As much as I love dragons, they're targeted too much in fantasy to kill, so let's not, haha. Being a dryad would be cool. Or druid. Either/or. If you were an animal, which would you be? A housecat, ig. Were you ever bullied when you were younger and how did you handle it? I consider myself very lucky to have not been. Have you ever thrown something away and then wanted it back? Okay so it's "deleted" versus "thrown away," technically, but there are two senior prom pictures in specific I desperately want back because fuck my low self-esteem, I look beautiful in them and so damn happy. I even tried Facebook restore programs that supposedly recovered all pictures you ever removed, but I couldn't salvage them. I'm still pissed about it, haha. What's one random city you want to visit? I don't have a specific city, per se. More so just countries in general. If you owned a store, what would you most likely sell? I think owning a pet supply store would be really cool, with some animals that are actually very well-cared for, unlike chain pet stores. I HATE those, vehemently. So unspeakably ignorant and neglectful. If you had a garden, what sort of plants would you grow? I don't want a garden, but hypothetically, I'd love orchids, dahlias, tiger lilies, a weeping willow tree, some strawberries... What's your favorite phase of the moon? Full, of course. What's the song for your life right now? I've felt extremely connected to Seether's "Weak" lately. Do you believe that when you die, you get to see all your loved ones again? I hope so... Who would you be the most excited to see? DO I ACTUALLY NEED TO ANSWER THIS QUESTION?????????? Do you enjoy reading National Geographic magazines? If I'm like, sitting in a waiting room and they're available, I'll go for them. Do you know anyone who's serving in the military right now? Welcome to the South, baby. The boys graduate, they're going straight for the military. I only have one real friend who was one but left tho because he fucking hated it. Does or did either of your parents serve in the military? No. Has anything in your house ever caught on fire? Not in this house, no. As a small child, did you ever feel as if you were different or weird? Absofuckinglutely. I have A LOT of bad memories of instances where I felt like "the weird kid." Can you say "happy birthday" in another language? Omg... I forgot the German phrase. Wow, I'm rusty. What subjects do you or did you get the worst grades in? Math. Do you have photos to go with all of the contacts in your phone? I don't have pictures that go with any. Who was the last person to comment on one of your photos on Facebook and how did you meet that person? I just checked, and it was my friend Summer. I met her because she was actually first friends with my younger sister in pre-k, but we grew closer than they did in our teen years. What career paths are you considering? I just want to be a photographer. So badly. But I've felt super, super discouraged lately. Do you watch music videos? I pretty much never do, but rather listen through the artists' Topic uploads or lyric videos. I don't generally like official music videos because they tend to have other sounds/parts/breaks/etc. in them that distract from the song. Have you ever clicked on those banner ads that promise a prize for clicking? Probably by accident at some point in time. What kind of computer are you using? Acer Nitro. What kind of computer do you wish you were using? I'm fine with what I have. Have you ever had a weight change so drastic you went to the doctor? .-. How cold does it have to be before you put on a sweater? Depends on how long I'll be outside, but in most situations, in the 50s. Do you eat things off the floor? Um, ew. Who do people say you look like? My sisters. Do you usually get your homework done on time? When I was in school, I was very serious about having my homework finished by the date it was due. Have you ever framed your old movie ticket stubs? I've kept some, but never framed any. Do you have a digital camera? A Canon, yeah. Have you ever stuck something inappropriate in an electrical outlet? Bitch I ain't tryna get electrocuted. How many days has it been since your last birthday? My b-day is actually coming up soon; the 5th of February. Do you want any more siblings than you have now? Well, considering both my parents (and stepmom) are in their 50s... How easily shocked are you? VERY. I am extremely jumpy and on edge at like all times. You like the color blue, don't you? I mean yeah. Particularly the lighter tints. Who was the last person who asked you something that made you think? My therapist REEEEAAAALLY makes me do this. She's an absolute pro at getting me to dig deep into myself. Ever fired a gun? No, and I don't want to. From 1-10, how would you rate your cooking skills? Is 0 an option? Do you notice the heat or the cold more? HEAT, JESUS FUCK. It can be one or two degrees above what I consider stable and I'll be sweating. I'm hypersensitive to it I know from being in such a consistent temperature in my room like 24/7. Do you believe in miracles? Probably no. What hurts more: scratches or bites? Bites, if you're talking serious ones. Do you prefer rabbits to mice? No, mice (and especially rats) are absolutely amazing, intelligent animals. Bonus points for being mega cute too, though I do find rabbits cuter. Who out of all the people you know reasonably well is the most "dark?" Sara, haha. Favorite chocolate-based candy? Reese's. Do you call anyone babe or baby? My pets sometimes. Name me a food you used to like that you now don't: Peas, olives. Name me a food you now like but never used to: Mashed potatoes, IF prepared very well (by my standards, obviously). Would you rather live in Europe, The US, or Australia? By this point, take me to Europe. If it wouldn't be such a huge life change and leaving so many people, I would 120% move to Canada, but out of these, Europe will do. Would you rather have a big house, a lot of kids, or a high flying job? Give me the high-flying job, 100%. I don't want kids, and I have no need for a large house. Is crime a big problem in your area? Oh yes. What’s your town/city most well-known for? By the locals, being the crime hub, actually, lol. Name 5 objects that you don’t have but would like right now: Hmmm... I want a 40g tank as an upgrade for Venus, a gaming chair for when I turn the extra room into my "office" so I don't destroy my back sitting there, new glasses and a driving permit, and don't forget a gd tattoo needle pounding my skin. :^) If you were given the choice to choose your child’s gender, would you? Yes, I would absolutely want a girl just because IF I wanted kids, I'd want a daughter named Alessandra. Do you get along well with your family doctor/your doctor? Yeah, she's nice. What types of soups do you like? None. If a color could reflect your current mood, which would it be? Grayish blue. The last time you saw fireworks? I really don't know; it's been years, at least. Have you ever gone to a movie premiere? Possibly for Silent Hill: Revelation, but I'm not certain. Who was the last person to make you laugh out loud? My mom, because she made me remember something funny. What was the last commercial you heard selling? *shrug* Do you prefer fairly common names or a bit out of the ordinary ones? Oh, definitely rare and unique ones. Would you rather have a pet cat, dog, horse or tortoise? At this current time, a dog for Mom, which we're actually probably getting. She misses having one super badly. Is your laugh loud, normal or very silent? My laugh is loud and obnoxious as fuck. What are you interested in that most people would be surprised to know? Tarantulas, probably. I love them, even though spiders kinda scare me. Last movie you watched the whole way through? Elf, I think, with Sara's fam. What's your favorite fruit? Strawberries are where it's at. Last time you drank coffee? I've only ever sipped coffee to try to see if I liked it. Never have. I THINK I last took a sip of Sara's when we went on a breakfast date? Has anyone ever called you rich? Calling me rich would be entirely ludicrous. What makes you feel beautiful? Nothing. How many bathrooms are in your house? Two. Last time you were on a plane and where did you go? A couple years ago, coming home from Illinois. Favorite flavor muffin? Uggghhhh chocolate. Do you prefer stripes or polka dots? Polka dots. I tend to find circles visually appealing. Did you take Music when you were in school? I think all the elementary school students did. I was also in band in middle and high school; I played the flute. Why did you last feel like crying? I'm just sick of how my life is going. Do you find being alone with strangers scary, interesting, or indifferent? I find it either awkward or terrifying, depending on the gender. It's not a willing thing or intended sexism whatsoever, I'm just naturally afraid of men. Do your initials spell a legitimate word? If so, what? No. Does someone’s background affect whether you'll be friends with them or not? Well, it depends on what they've done. How about their religious background? No. If someone admitted cheating in a past relationship of theirs, would you trust them? Nope, bye. Did you ever want to be a cook as a kid? No. How about a fashion designer? No. Do you prefer fire or ice? Fire aesthetically, but ice is certainly less intimidating. When happy, do you become more talkative? OH yes. Are you offended easily by non-politically correct language? No, really. I wouldn't say derogatory terms, but I really don't understand why most people put so much weight into a single made-up word. But again, you won't hear that language coming out of my mouth because I understand that it just does hurt some people, and I respect that. Do you think the censors/fcc go a bit too far or are just right? It's gone overboard, imo. What's your I.Q? I don't want to know, haha. Have you ever taken a martial art? Which one{s}? No. Do you know anyone who is scared of you? Um, no. What person who has died would you bring back and why? Probably Steve Irwin. His children have done FUCKING FANTASTIC at carrying on his legacy and purpose, but I feel he could've taught the world so much more than he had time to... Do you like watermelon? No. Too watery. Can you remember the month of your first kiss? Yes, actually. March. What do you think is the most interesting thing about you? I'm unsure, really. Do you like being complimented or does it make you uncomfortable? Both. What artist's paintings do you find the most beautiful? This is an impossible question. What about the most disturbing? Oh man, I watch this one person on deviantART that makes especially creepy artwork. I follow a loooot of dark artists, though, so it's difficult to pick. Have you ever gone to a camp or summer school? A church-related summer thing, yes, as a kid. What was your favorite cartoon as a child? Pokemon was/is where it's at. What was your biggest fear as a child? Thunderstorms, holy shit. Would you rather be able to fly or breathe underwater? Be able to breathe underwater. What about invisibility or mindreading? Definitely invisibility. Mindreading would just... suck. Hurt. Especially if you couldn't control it. Which stereotype do you dislike the most? Good question, considering I hate a shit ton. Can you remember all your past teachers names? No, not all of them. Do you like talent shows? Which ones? I don't mind watching 'em. I particularly used to love America's Got Talent. Have you ever failed an important exam? In what? Yes; I failed horribly at my final math exam the last time I was in school. Are you on any meds? Too many. Just way too many for someone my age. I'm really starting to think I'm over-medicated to where it's dulling my senses, feelings, and also destroying my memory. But I kinda need like... all of them. I'm talking to my psychiatrist in just a couple days though, actually, and I'm going to talk to him about maybe trying to wean me off my OCD med, since I haven't had big symptoms in a long time. I wanna see how I deal without it. What color is your razor? Black and orange. What is your fave frozen treat? Just the classic ice cream. Which supermarket do you like to shop at? We tend to get our groceries from Wal-Mart. Do you struggle to say ‘no’ to things you don’t want to do? YESSIREE. Are you friends with someone a lot of people dislike? I don't think there's anyone that is widely disliked, no. Have you ever had to deal with someone close to you going off to war? No, thankfully. Other than yourself, who did you last buy something for? Mom. What's something you complain about frequently? My legs hurting. It's hard to ignore when taking one step is painful. Have you ever talked about your period with a guy? Were they okay with it, or grossed out? I certainly haven't talked about it in-depth, but it's been mentioned in some way when I was with Jason. I mean we were together for three and a half years, sexually active (and I ain't doing jackshit if it's that time of the month), and I spent as much time with him as possible, so... it woulda came up. I'm sure he was indifferent about it, he was a mature guy. Have you ever been to an Asian (any type) market? If so, what is the closest one to you? No. I've never even heard of one around here. Have you ever slept with a member of the opposite sex without having sex? Back up two questions, haha. That was normal. How would you feel if your significant other had tattoos? Shit man, I love tattoos. I'd obviously not care. How have you been feeling today? Depressed. Where’s your phone right now? On my chest. I'm lying down. Is there a certain person that makes you feel safe? ugh When you drink alcohol with friends, do you play drinking games? I never have. What are the best kind of Girl Scout cookies? I don't remember their names, honestly... but the chocolate and peanut butter ones come to mind.

#survey #surveys #questions

[pergimelaut]

Books I read in 2020.

I was once platonically attracted to a friend. Not only did he tell me the name of the person he liked (not me, of course), but also the reasons why. I could’ve mentioned two or three, but one reason sank me in was, “Because she likes to learn.” He didn’t say that to offend me since that night was one of those meetings in which he is the spotlight of our conversations, yet I couldn’t help but feel offended. I thought, “That certainly can’t be me. I don’t like to learn.” I never did, actually.

It was a wake up call that, all this time, I had been stuck in the peak of Mountain Stupid, one of the stages of Dunning-Kruger effect—a phase where you were filled with nothing but arrogance and overconfidence, before the realization “you didn’t know anything at all” hit you like a bucket of cold water.

Well I didn’t change myself after that, though. But in my defense, I decided to read 70-something books in the third year of my student press organization’s membership (which I later failed) long before I had had the conversation with him. I had had my own reason at first, but whatever it was, it was slowly but surely shifted with an ultimate goal created due to that very night, “I want to like to learn.”

Long story short, I was able to read 33 books in 2020.

It’s nowhere near an achievement to be proud of, so I cancelled my plan to write about it and upload it on a platform where I could gain a higher chance he would read it. I know, I know, I shouldn’t seek validation from another person besides myself—after all 33 books were quite impressive for someone like me who don’t really like books, so I shouldn’t be embarrassed about it nor should I be disappointed with the fact that the plan must be cancelled as I was miserably failing, but, welp, so. Okay. In this post, I would like to tell you the books I read in 2020, sort by chronological order.

Yeah, I uploaded it on my personal blog instead, what a dramatic turn of events.

Manifesto Flora was the first book I read, finished it on 2 January 2020. I believe I started to read it on the last couple days of 2019, so it was kinda cheating. It’s a compilation of short stories. All of them were amazing but there was a short story that I really enjoyed titled “Bekas Teman Baikku”. The author had written a short story for a yearly student magazine organized by a student press organization I later joined.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez was an amazing novel it earned 5 stars on my Goodreads account. My teacher had been telling us about it as he taught magical realism in Creative Writing class. I finished it in three days—I remember those days where I didn’t do anything besides reading; I woke up in the morning and started to read. That was the only thing I did all day. It almost felt like reading was my hobby. (Spoiler alert: It’s not.)

Hidup di Luar Tempurung was the third book I read. I wasn’t in the best mood to read at that time, but I pushed myself, ended up finishing it but also regretting it since I knew that this book deserved to be treated well. After that I read Bagaimana Tuhan Menciptakan Cahaya by Raka Ibrahim and O: Tentang Seekor Monyet yang Ingin Menikah dengan Kaisar Dangdut by Eka Kurniawan, ended up disliking both by simply because I didn’t enjoy them, I gave them 2 stars. 

Then, well. Global pandemic left me shell-shocked as everyone else, really.

One month nearly passed but thankfully I managed to finish the first e-book titled Filosofi Teras by the end of March. I liked the book at first, even for a short period of time I felt like I could rely on the book as I was trying to cope with anxiety, but turned out it’s a false hope since I simply couldn’t become that rational LOL. But topics about stoicism still got my attention though—perhaps it’d remain as something I could admire. Pulang by Leila S. Chudori was a really good book, another one with 5 stars. Later I learned that having 1965-ish as a setting for novels is mainstream, but since I hadn’t known that, it left me in awe.

Then I got tired.

I wasn’t in the mood to read any books, so I turned into Japanese books—my admittedly guilty pleasure. I read Naruto Secret Chronicles: Shikamaru’s Story: A Cloud Drifting in Silent Darkness, a light novel from Naruto based on Shikamaru’s perspective. Although I wouldn’t mention it as one of the books I read in 2020, it was surprisingly a good book. It taught me about Naruto’s universe beyond what I knew, such as politics and government involved. It helped set the mood, so I continued with Ichigo Doumei, another Japanese novel. It was a book mentioned in Your Lie in April, one of my anime recommendations. It’s a good, simple wholesome story that taught us to treasure the life we had. I disliked the female lead character, though—I still do.

I read Kubah by Ahmad Tohari, a novel my teacher once mentioned, which I dislike, and much hate later on, since it gave people wrong assumptions about PKI and what’s surrounding the 1965 tragedy. After that I fell into Kagerou Daze fandom where I spent a lot amount of time consuming the songs, manga, anime, and also light novels—making me successfully adding Kagerou Daze Vol. 3: The Children Reason, Kagerou Daze Vol. 4: The Missing Children, and Kagerou Daze Vol. 5: The Deceiving to my Goodreads’ bookshelf. The latter was my favourite among them. As I hyped with Japanese authors, I thought it was best to finish Before the Coffee Gets Cold, a Japanese novel I found from a post about, well, Japanese novel recommendations. It’s a fun experience; an enjoyable story with a heart-warming ending.

Four Japanese novels in a row brought me to cursed loop as I realized I had not “learned” enough. Whereas I did learn something with each Japanese novel I read, it wasn’t “learning” that I’d planned in the first place. 

August was a month where I thought, “Eh, maybe I like books,” because I read 8 books in one month. I read Setan van Oyot by Djokolelono, a book published by Marjin Kiri. The novel was well-constructed from the start to the middle part, but unfortunately NOT until the end. Another note: it didn’t bother giving us the translation of both the local and foreign languages used in the story, which is good! I also had the energy to consume Of Mice and Men, a classic book mentioned in Pulang. 

I had spent days in library and bookstore when I finished Hidup Begitu Indah dan Hanya Itu yang Kita Punya—it made me aspire to achieve the ability to write articles like Dea Anugerah, the author. I also read Ketakberhinggaan di Telapak Tangannya by Gioconda Belli which easily became one of my favourite books of the year.

I read The Heart is A Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers, another book with a writing style I would aspire to achieve. It’s a good social-realism novel covering racism towards black people, the life of a curious little girl, a perspective from a blind-deaf man, and the socialist guy—everything was set around the 1930s, written by a brilliant 23-year-old woman. It has some translation issues, unfortunately. Then I continued with Kekerasan Budaya Pasca 1965: Bagaimana Orde Baru Melegitimasi Anti-Komunisme Melalui Sastra dan Film. I’ve been wanting to be able to convey my thoughts in a well-constructed thesis like what the book did.

Tango & Sadimin by Ramayda Akmal was the next, and it was enjoyable even though not satisfying—at least it helped me discover my tendency towards social-realism novels. Then I read Xenoglosofilia: Kenapa Harus Nginggris? by Ivan Lanin—it didn’t help me that much despite its educational contents, but perhaps I just didn’t find what I was looking for.

September was a shameful month as I didn’t read any books AT ALL. I planned to read at least one book per month, that’s why I set 12 books in my Goodreads. My goal wasn’t to read books, but to like them, so what I set up was simply the habit. Looking back at what I did—finishing One Hundred Years of Solitude—I could read book all day if I want to. But I want to become someone who, even if for a few pages, read books every day. And I considered myself failing when September passed without any finished books added to the list.

November came and I read El hablador by Mario Vargas Llosa, a book I had been desperately looking for that my friend finally lent to me. I gave them 5 stars because it greatly helped me in understanding indigenous people and how important it is to support their rights.

Then I desperately turned back to another Japanese novel, this time The Kudravka Sequence by Honobu Yonezawa. It successfully made me fall in love with one specific character because I feel represented, then I looked up Wikia and the synopsis of the next novels, and ended up disappointed LOL. I got tired again and read Sebuah Pertanyaan untuk Cinta by Seno Gumira Ajidarma, a book which I couldn’t believe had written by the Seno Gumira Ajidarma LOL(2). Then in order to set up the mood, I bought my friend’s self-published short stories, Dongeng Sebelum Tidur: Kumpulan Cerita Pendek. It was the first time I added a book to Goodreads. I told her that I uploaded a review and gave her 5 stars. She was really happy and I too was happy because of it.

December approached as well as final exams. So many papers with short deadlines, and despite that, I read books instead on working with my papers—procrastinator as its finest, you see. I read two Agatha Christie’s books, The ABC Murders and Five Little Pigs, two novels I had really wanted to read in years. After exams passed, I somehow gained my energy back. I read Kisah Seekor Camar dan Kucing yang Mengajarinya Terbang by Luis Sepulveda, an enjoyable novella reminding us to take care of animals and protecting the environment from pollution. I wrapped up 2020 with two classic books, No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai and Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell.

 Yup, that’s it!

Now that I’ve just tracked back all the books I read, I realize that my reading experience has its ups and downs. I ain’t good at keeping my mood stable to do the same activities  for a long period of time, and I earned the energy back by—apparently—switching into Japanese novels or light-themed books.

Long story cut short, I failed to read 70-something books. But I also recovered from the heartbreak I guess (LOL), and that’s good news! (Although maybe I forced myself to move on, since the goal was the indicator whether I’m worth it or not, and I failed.) (I shouldn’t have done that to myself, but I had no chance at all in the first place, though. That’s why if I could move on by setting an impossible goal, failed in the process, and helplessly gave up, so be it!)

Thank you for reading.

(And thanks to Anggy who beta read the post! <3)

#english #tentang saya

[takaraphoenix]

Disney for the ask game

Thanks for playing! I’m gonna go ahead and assume animated movies only. xD”

Top 5 favourite characters: Aurora, Fa Mulan, Flynn Rider, Hades, Hiro Hamada

Other characters you like: Marie (Aristocats), Bagheera, Tod (The Fox and th Hound), Tinkerbell, Judy Hopps

Least favourite characters:E L S A

Otps: Maleficent/Aurora, Shere Khan/Bagheera, Moana Waialiki/Merida, Fa Mulan/Aurora, Copper/Tod (The Fox and the Hound), Eugene Fitzherbert/Rapunzel, Tarzan/Jane, Tiana/Charlotte LaBouff

Notps: Jack Frost/Elsa, Nick Wilde/Judy Hopps, honestly probably a lot of others too but nothing I can think of right now or may not even be aware of - though generally, I am very on board with canon Disney ships, surprisingly enough

Favourite friendships: Tiana and Charlotte are great, I love Bagheera and Baloo, Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps too!

Favourite family: Clearly the found family of Lilo & Stitch - Nani, Lilo, Stitch, David, Jumba and Pleakley!

Favourite episodes: mmmh doesn’t really apply here

Favourite season/book/movie: damn, you can’t just ask my favorite. When it comes to Disney movies, it’s more of a tie than a clear Top Five that can be sorted, because all are equally good to me, in different aspects. Sleeping Beauty, Mulan, Lilo & Stitch and Hercules

Favourite quotes:sooo not a quotes kinda gal

Best musical moment: ...why would you do this to me? *distressed sounds* Okay, so, this doesn’t ask best musical number but best musical moment. Now, do bear in mind that I’m German and watch these movies in German. So do not ask me what the English names of things are. But Hercules when Hercules had that moment of wanting to prove himself, like that song was the antheme of my childhood, I still feel that song vibrating in my heart. There are a whole lot of strong, good musical moments in the long history of Disney movies, but this one is just so very dear to me and speaks to me hard...

Moment that made you fangirl/boy the hardest: I MEAN SHIT CLEARLY WHEN ALL OF CHINA KNELT BEFORE MULAN LIKE, THAT IS THE BEST

When it really disappointed you:when they said “fuck creativity, gimme that nostalgia money” and dialed back on original movies in favor of lame shallow live-action remakes of animated classics YOU CAN STILL WATCH. You can LITERALLY just put that Cinderella in and watch it, no need for that horrendous remake (I swear, these fucking hyper-realistic mice with those gigantic cartoon eyes are terrifying and were a not good decision)

Saddest moment: Mufasa’s death, hands down

Most well done character death:...Mufasa’s death, hands down xD”

Favourite guest star: yeah no this is asking too much of me and let’s be real this is gonna be useless to y’all non-Germans even if I know the answer xD

Favourite cast member: seriously I am not good with voice actors and remembering names of those; actors, when I actually get to see faces, sure, but voice-actors...

Character you wish was still alive: SO MANY MOTHERS. Seriously, they killed off so many moms to have Single Dads take care of their daughters... -_-

One thing you hope really happens: I wished they would go back to making fairy tale adaptations. But... I mean ACTUAL adaptations. Not that shit they pulled with Frozen where they took the Snow Queen out of The Snow Queen and literally only kept that one around and changed EVERY SINGLE ASPECT of the story. And it’s not even the first offender; Tangled had barely anything to do with Rapunzel at all. Princess and the Frog was at least up-front about it with the book and the comparison. But let’s... let’s go back to when Disney actually adapted fairy tales and gave half a shit about said fairy tales? Because otherwise, you could just make ORIGINAL MOVIES! :D”““

Most shocking twist: uuuuuuuuuh I got nothing

When did you start watching/reading?: I mean... when I was a tiny kiddo? xD

Best animal/creature: Bagheera! *^*

Favourite location: Atlantica?

Trope you wish they would stop using: killed off mom :D”

One thing this show/book/film does better than others:I does great story-telling usually and it’s beautiful animation most of the time?

Funniest moments: there are a lot; I don’t really have a favorite

Couple you would like to see: I... I am past the point of wanting to see a gay Disney couple, tbh. They showed how little they care about the community and how cringey and offensive their version of ““representation”“ is so... I got nothing

Actor/Actress you want to join the cast: again; would be useless to you and I don’t really know anyway xD”

Favourite outfit: AURORA’S DRESS *^*

Favourite item: uuuhm Triton’s trident?

Do you own anything related to this show/book/film?: lol too many things, yes xD” I have a large variety of Disney figures! ^-^

What house/team/group/friendship group/family/race etc would you be in?: I would be a Flounder-like fearful sidekick xD

Most boring plotline: recent sequels - Incredibles 2 and Finding Dory - because old sequels sure were cringey and weird but shit happened. These new sequels are literally just the exact same shit reheated... =_=

Most laughably bad moment:Pocahontas II going “you know what this needs? This needs a sequel where she goes to England to fall in love with a whole different male character and forcibly try to be an English Lady!”... It was so cringey that the thought someone thought this was a good idea is downright funny??

Best flashback/flashfoward if any: Let’s translate that to prequel/sequel, okay? Then I’d go with Rescuers Down Under - I love that movie. The only case of “sequel is actually better than OG movie”

Most layered character: This may actually be asking too much, tbh. There are just too many characters to judge that...

Most one dimensional character: Probably a whole lot, considering how many characters there ARE...

Scariest moment: the whole entire fucking Nightmare Before Christmas. Damn that thing haunted me for months and I watched it for the first time when I was sixteen (...it’s mainly because stopmotion is my absolute Kryptonite...)

Grossest moment: Fart jokes

Best looking male: Eugene Fitzherbert? xD

Best looking female: Maleficent! *^*

Who you’re crushing on (if any): I mean. Maleficent. But please do note ANIMATED NOT THAT SHITTY CRAP REMAKE. Not because Angelina Joulie isn’t absolutely gorgeous but THEY DIDN’T EVEN GIVE HER GREEN SKIN

Favourite cast moment: Don’t know any of that ^^°

Favourite transportation: The flying carpet?

Most beautiful scene (scenery/shot wise): The opening of The Lion King is so incredibly stunning *^*

Unanswered question/continuity issue/plot error that bugs you:oh Frozen left me with a lot of those. But definitely not enough to put myself through that sequel and also that shit shoulda been explained in the first movie so there is that :D”

Best promo: ahahaha *weeping* when they claimed that Maleficent was going to take my favorite villainess and give her the Wicked treatment. You... You REALLY had me fooled there and got my cinema going money to see that pathetic excuse of a “woman was abused by man and turns evil” crap like holy shit this has nothing to do with Wicked get that away from me, Mal had SO MUCH potential and you did nothing with it ;-;

At what point did you fall in love with this show/book: I mean, as a little kid. Probably around The Lion King?

IN DEPTH FANDOM QUESTIONS

#Disney #In-Depth Fandom Ask Game #send me asks #elements1999

[shadowthrone-ammanas]

So the first thing with the tiny Hat Kid/Borrowers AU that I came up with was that originally it was based off of the visual of a mod level I was playing where there was a lantern the size of Hat Kid. I didn’t start it thinking about the Borrowers as “humans but tiny” I was thinking of them as like Hat Kid’s species. 

So when I later decided Mu was also tiny that resulted in having Mu be also distinctly not just a tiny human and it had ripple effects on the borrower species design

So, background details: Most of the characters are still the same. However, the locations are different. Mafia Town isn’t on a little island, it’s on a larger one with both underground-undersea Metro tunnels and shipping routes. There is a large forest- Subcon- and some mountains, the Alpine Skyline, which then have a desert in their rainshadow. 

So that’s all the chapters except Arctic Cruise on one reasonably sized landmass, instead of scattered all over the planet, much more accessable to tiny Hat Kid

I’m gonna put a ‘read more’ right here for the sake of people’s dashboards. I hope that’s okay.

Borrower biology notes: inspired a little bit by ruffs and also my attempts to work out having Hat Kid, Bow Kid, and Mu as members of the same species

3 or 4 sexes in a similar way to ruffs or white-throated sparrows; about all I have pinned down is that Mu’s facial-hair-no-ponytail-and-long-bangs/tendrils/flaps combo is associated with one of them, bow kid’s no-ponytail, no-hair-flaps, no-facial-hair combo is another, and hat kid’s ponytail-and-flaps-but-no-facial-hair is a third (yes this means two of them are trans)

The Borrowers, as they sometimes call themselves, are the result of an incredibly powerful spell a few centuries back. They used to be about the size of humans, before the spell; and pretty much all of them lived on two islands.

The Mafia wanted to move to those islands, so they gathered up all the Time Pieces they could get into one spot on the island and had a sacrificial Mafia member do A Thing involving the time pieces and a great deal of other magical items to remove the islanders; faking a wild magic surge. The result was that as far as the rest of the world was concerned the entire species simply vanished, turned into these tiny little echoes,and also this was much less scary than it should have been. There is still a spot on the island Hat Kid is from that will likely have nothing grow there for thousands of years.

The Time Pieces exploded into much smaller fragments, time shards, which scattered all over the world, and the shrunken islanders started to try to adjust to their new lives. 

Which was made a lot harder by the Mafia moving in; they spread false information claiming that the tiny post-transformation islanders weren’t sapient anymore and were pests, like large mice, to be dealt with with poison and rat traps. 

Some Borrowers start using time shards to power things; others do the dangerous thing of tapping electricity from wires; others use tiny candles and other pre-electric style technology or magic.

Their society adjusts to a world where “eaten by a seagull” is a plausible cause of death, everyone can double-jump, most people can carry more than their own weight, and an umbrella is easily enough to completely stop all fall damage. Square-cube law! Luckily the magic helps keep them warm, but Borrowers still have a faster metabolism than they did pre-spell and need to eat more often. 

Amongst other details, it’s common for a Borrower to end up on their own due to being separated from their clan or having the rest of their clan die. Solitary borrowers don’t tend to last long, so they generally try to get adopted by the first clan they come across, basically just showing up and starting to pitch in; there’s always something to be done.

Also Borrowers are a little more scent-focused than humans, most noteably being more able to notice the scent of borrowers than a human is able to notice the scent of other humans; this is really helpful for lost borrowers finding other clans.

Hat Kid is the kid of someone relatively important in a borrower community on the other island. They treated her poorly/were neglectful, so she ended up falling in with, basically, the local borrower criminals. (Not many places have enough clans living closely enough together to really have borrowers that are criminals by borrower standards; stealing from the taller folk is not considered a crime but rather just survivial, and attacking the taller folk is basically considered lunacy.)

Eventually Hat Kid, at age 11 (okay actually older, like 16 or so, but she maps to a human 11 year old), decided to fake her death and entirely leave her old clan. Due to various shenanigans including her not being out to her old clan, the fake murder, a real murder done by Hat Kid, and paranoia she managed to be accused of murdering herself and got exiled which is a Big Deal. She stole the one local aircraft (that she had helped build) and fled, exploring far beyond her family’s reach (especially now they didn’t have a timeshard-powered aircraft).

In between her ‘ship’, her skills with an umbrella and movement, audacity, and sheer dumb luck Hat Kid managed to live alone for quite some time, eventually landing in Mafia Town due to an incident involving a Mafia with a bugnet, losing the time shards that powered her ship in the process. She meets up with Mu and is like. FRIEND! Sure, I’ll join up with you!

…aaaaand then Mu wants to use the time shards that powered Hat Kid’s airship thingy to hurt the Mafia more. And Hat Kid is like, no, no I need those. Result: Mu leaves in a huff, Hat Kid is alone again. 

Hat Kid’s ship, by this point, has been repaired enough and has enough time shards to fly a little, so she goes and recklessly lands on the local above-ground train and hitches a ride, ending up at Dead Bird Studio. Grooves finds her and is like, this borrower-mouse is wearing decent clothing and a hat. Whose escaped pet is this.

Hat Kid is semiverbal but definitely literate and manages to get her hands on a writing implement and explains that she is nobody’s pet. The Conductor and Grooves decide to hire her for movies.

Directors: a sapient borrower-mouse who wants to be an actress and is actually good at it just when we need a new actor and fresh movie ideas! Perfect!

Hat Kid: This weird clan has lots of infighting and mostly trades in movies? I get to be adopted and to use my skill in acting for things that aren’t lying to people? Perfect!

So that’s a good month or so for Hat Kid, with the culture clash never being clarified, whoops. Both the Directors think Hat Kid is going home to her family when really she’s doing stuff like looking for that time shard she thinks might be present or fixing up her ship more or getting food that isn’t provided by the Directors. (At least they recognize that providing lots of snacks to the tiny child is a good idea.)

Then the movies (both of them) are finished, and the directors are like. Thanks for working with us. There’s no more movies for you, kid, stop showing up to filming there’s no more filming involving you. (Grooves never really started seeing Hat Kid as fully a person and is pretty cruel about kicking her out from his side of the studio, too.)

In the Director’s culture: “Seriously kid contract is done, the movies you starred in have no more filming, wouldn’t mind working with you again later but uh we are not currently working on a movie right now why are you here?”

In Hat Kid’s culture: “We’re exiling you. Again.“ 

So she goes to Subcon Forest. Yes, this is stupid and risky. Hat Kid does not care.

Snatcher sees this absolutely tiny person and is like. You’re too small to be a threat. Also too small to have a soul worth the effort of eating it. 

So he hires her to do stuff like detail work on repainting the Subconites’ houses and other stuff a tiny person can do. 

He proceeds to assume she’s being cuttingly sarcastic when she calls him "dad” or “dadcher”. Instead of 100% serious. (Her perception of this as an adoption is helped by Snatcher making an effort to dig out old books and old memories on what of the local flora and fauna is edible and provide Hat Kid with fresh local food, which is a Special Effort as, well, subconites and dwellers feed off of ambient magic and abstract stuff while Snatcher eats souls.)

After maybe about two weeks he’s out of work for Hat Kid and tells her so, like, “No more work for you, kiddo. You’re free to leave.” Then is mystified when Hat Kid leaves in tears. Like what did he do wrong??

I have no clue what Hat Kid would be up to in the Alpine Skyline. Something. Probably trying to impress random nomads and goats and not understanding why they’re impressed but still leave her. 

Eventually she finds out that Mu has gotten her hands on time shards and is managing to use them to set places on fire. Hat Kid goes to stop her because no!! You do not just indiscriminately set Mafia Town on fire! Even aside from all the tall folk living there you don’t know how many borrowers are living in the walls! 

So she stops Mu, then realizes that pretty much everyone watching her has either ‘exiled’ her or has been known to hunt borrowers before (eg the Mafia) so she flees down a subway tunnel and lives in the Metro for a few days before meeting the Empress. By this point Mu’s very public yelling about how the Mafia were killing her people has gotten on the news, so she’s aware that at least some borrowers are sapient and people, and is like. You work for me now.

Hat Kid is like, my greatest fifth chance!

Eventually, though, Hat Kid manages to annoy the Empress. By this point she’s gotten used to the idea that something is wrong with her, people really don’t care about her, and at any point she could be abruptly betrayed and exiled, so she panics, assumes she’s going to be kicked out very soon, and ends up deciding to preemptively betray Empress by stealing her time shard. Empress is throughly baffled and also very upset and puts out a bounty of a few thousand or so on Hat Kid’s head; time shards are valuable damn it but also…only one?? she’d been known to bring back five or six at once? 

(Time shards aren’t very tangible to most people by default. Borrowers can interact with them always and make them solid to everyone. Hat Kid could’ve easily reversed that and forced Empress to use magically charged tongs to pick up her time shards and hire another borrower to fix them but she didn’t. The longer Empress thinks on this, the more confused she gets.)

At some point during Hat Kid’s time in the nyakuza Mu ends up adopted by Cooking Cat. She shows up on TV sometimes, joining in an episode with stuff like running commentary while perched on CC’s shoulder or butting in to help frost cakes or whatever. 

Hat Kid’s confused upset post-nyakuza wandering ends up leading her to where the Conductor is just coming back from a cruise. Conductor is like LASSIE I HAVEN’T SEEN YOU IN FOREVER! Hat Kid is like ??? and then decides that maybe…maybe kicking her out was entirely Groove’s idea and Conductor still likes her? Maybe?

And then in the ensuring confused discussion Conductor begins to realize the culture clash. Conductor ends up adopting Hat Kid, and later takes in Bow Kid as well because she was separated from her family and saw Hat Kid riding on Conductor’s shoulders and just sort of. Jumped on his other shoulder, startling him, and was like “HI”.

At some point Hat Kid and Bow Kid end up guest starring alongside Mu (they made up) on Cooking Cat’s show. Possibly several times. Hat and Bow are adorable and while they don’t really say much unscripted and it’s usually sentence fragments they’re still popular for a mixture of Adorable and their sense of humour eg Bow Kid insisting that duck is actually “quackers” in a dish involving duck and cheese to set CC up for a terrible “cheese and quackers” pun. 

Mu, Hat Kid, Bow Kid, and the TV Trio end up working together a lot to try to change things for the better for the Borrowers. Meanwhile Snatcher is off doing his own thing, having heard of the culture clash (Mu explained it on TV at some point) he works out a schedule for when Hat and Bow are staying with the Conductor and when one or the other or both are staying with him. He ends up with a few borrower clans living in his forest (they followed Hat Kid) and is just like, sure this works. 

I greatly admire people who can just come up with AU ideas and build on them and then come up with a whole story for the AU. I love that it has a happy ending too. :)

[film-focus-mind]

my essay on autistic representation in the media

I wrote this for three months for my usem class, it’s just my opinions on what is wrong with most autistic media representation

Abstract

The representation of those with autism in the media is, simply put, stereotypical and deeply flawed. From depicting people with autism as eternal children, rude, idiotic, or genius savants, the media portrayals play into and perpetuate harmful stereotypes. This portrayal affects how society views autism, despite how consciously some people realize that the autistic representation is not accurate and socially harmful. If a character with autistic traits is shown in a negative light, people will form implicit biases and associate autistic traits as being wrong and bad. Media representation of those with autism has to change to be more accurate and less abusive and stereotyped. There needs to be better autistic representation for the sake of both neurotypical people and people with autism. Stereotypes need to be rejected and replaced with people with autism as being people.

Keywords: autism, media representation, stereotypes, Autism Spectrum Disorder

My interest in autistic representation is personal. My little brother Leo was diagnosed with autism at age three. Despite this diagnosis, he never knew he had autism until he was thirteen. Around that time, the popular kids show Sesame Street started featuring an autistic character named Julia (Cohen, 2017). Julia talked like my brother did: in short incomplete sentences and sometimes repeating what others had just said, she got upset when there were loud noises, and she could not stand the feeling of paint on her fingers. As Leo and I watched the show and the character’s interactions with others, it dawned on me that Leo didn’t know what he and Julia had in common. My parents never told him because they didn’t want Leo to feel different.

“Leo, do you know why you’re like Julia?” I asked.

“Why?” Leo replied. “Why” in Leo’s case also meant who, what, where, when, and how. 

“It’s because you both are autistic!” I explained. “Your brains both work just a little bit differently.”

Although the Julia of Sesame Street was created as a caring and positive role model, she’s one of the few instances of positive representation of people with autism on television. Most autism representation shows people with autism as rude, child-like, dumb, or worse. Many characters who are on the autism spectrum are quite one- dimensional. Having autistic traits has been portrayed in a negative light or in an overly simplistic way. Autistic represetation hardly factors the experiences of actual people with autism. If the media portrayed people with autism as equals, there would be dozens of Julias in mainstream media (Safran, 1998). How is the media portraying people with Autism Spectrum Disorder? How can things improve? What does this say about society’s views on autism? 

For clarification, the terms ‘high functioning’ and ‘low functioning’ are problematic and will not be used in the context of this discussion because those words hold a very discriminatory view of autism, one that prioritizes the neurotypical ways of functioning over other ways of functioning. In this paper, the terms autism and Asperger’s syndrome will be used to differentiate between the two distinctly different types of ways that autism affects people. It is important to remember that Asperger, the doctor whose name is used to describe a branch of autism, was a Nazi (Baron-Cohen, 2018). That historical association speaks great lengths about how autism is/was viewed, considering how Asperger describes autism. Asperger’s opinions on autism would be considered very outdated and insulting to contemporary people with autism (Draaisma, 2009). 

Portrayals of autism in terms of fictional characters can be split into two distinct tropes, which are infantilization (Stevenson, Harp, & Gernsbacher 2014) and the savant (Draaisma, 2009). The former usually applies to autism generally, while the latter applies to those exhibiting the characteristics of Asperger’s Syndrome. Tropes are different character archetypes that group characters by their believed-to-be stereotypical traits. In a few cases of media representation, both tropes can apply to the same character, but for the most part they do not overlap. Both tropes only give a glimpse at the complexities of autism, usually leaving out autistic traits that can be seen as good.

To start, there’s infantilization (Stevenson, Harp & Gernsbacher, 2014), or for a better term, the eternal child trope. This trope portrays characters with autism of any age as child-like, and usually also naive or idiotic. These characters can be either autistic or have Asperger’s, but they act the same, naive, unable to focus, throwing tantrums, and generally interacting with the world in “innocent” and “unsophisticated” ways. Also, these characters typically have a special “obsessive” interest that they love talking about, some of examples of obsessive fixations are classical music, science, outer space, cartoons, trains, and dinosaurs. It is more harmful when adults are portrayed with this trope, as a person can be an adult with autism, and a mature autistic adult. We often think of neurotypical children as also having obsessive interests or naïve qualities, so the stereotype is not as blatantly discriminatory. Yet, when these are the only traits an autistic character has, that becomes problematic. This child trope creates a stigma of autism disappearing when one turns eighteen, or that people with autism are incapable of mental growth. Some examples of this trope that can be seen in mainstream film, television and book portrayals are Kirk from the television show Gilmore Girls (Palladino, 2000), Lenny from the great American novel Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck, 1965), and Amelie from the French movie Amelie (Jean-Marc, 2001)

Multimedia tropes are not the only case of infantilization of those on the autism spectrum. Most autism-based charities only show children with autism, effectively branding it as a children’s disease and leaving out the reality that many with autism are mature adults. In a study done in 2014, only eight out of 170 autism based charities had pictures that included adults with autism (Stevenson, Harp & Gernsbacher, 2014). When only children with autism are shown, it leaves out adults from the picture. Such absences also contribute to the man-child stereotype. When one only sees children with autism, and then meets adults with autism, they won’t be seen as the adults that they are. Adults with autism then get treated like children. Infantilization ultimately restricts the definition of what a person with autism is like, and the next trope does that as well. 

The next difficult trope is the savant (Draaisma, 2009). The definition of savant is someone who is good at one particular subject, at an almost unnatural level, but that other-worldly savant syndrome seems to come at a price. Characters with autism who fall under this trope are smart beyond their peers, but are depicted as being very rude and as lacking in key social skills. This character trope, like that which focuses on  infantilization, will show people have a special interest, like physics, medicine, drawing, learning languages to name a few examples, which they pursue with genius intensity and knowledge. These characters have friends, but are often depicted as being overly blunt and difficult or not nice to their friends. This kind of portrayal brands people with autism as being bad people and antisocial. Thus, the general public are led to believe that all people with autism must be rude (Safran, 1998). All people with autism are expected to be a know-it-all in one area, but are thought of as idiots if they are not. Some examples of the savant trope are Sherlock from the BBC’s television show Sherlock (Moffat, 2010), Paris from the sitcom Gilmore Girls (Palladino, 2000) and Sheldon Cooper from the tv show the Big Bang Theory (Cendrowski, 2007).

Sometimes, the savant trope is combined with the eternal child trope to create a doubly stereotyped character with autism. Typically these children are beyond their peers, but have trouble making friends, with a tendency to be alienated. An example would be Max from the tv show Parenthood (Holton, 2013). Max enjoys talking about beetles, wearing pirate costumes and he doesn’t like candles. When his parents find out about him being autistic, they resolve not to tell him of his diagnosis. Not telling kids of their diagnosis is bad because the children may be already feeling as if they are an outcast among their peers, but they don’t know why (Sinclair, 1999). Sometimes having information about what makes someone different can provide comfort in challenging situations. Keeping information like that from children with autism does more harm than good. It would deprive an understanding of themselves necessary to overcome their disabilities.

Another autistic stereotype is that autism affects more boys than it does girls (Lai, Lombardo, Auyeung, Chakrabarti, & Baron-Cohen, 2015, pp. 11-24). Most portrayals of autism on television are of males, effectively erasing autistic women from the narrative as well. This erasure actually has an effect on diagnosing autism because many believe that girls do not “get” autism. This also happens on a social level because females do not have the diagnosis that might help them understand their behaviors and social interactions at younger ages. With the bias of being a mostly male disorder, women with autism get diagnosed at a later age than their male counterparts (Bargiela, Steward, & Mandy, 2016). Many autistic women are not diagnosed until adulthood, which can set them back multiple years of working to get help with their disorder. Women being autistic is seen just as much of being an oxymoron as an autistic adult.

Autistic misrepresentation occurs even though characters are not explicitly stated as being autistic. When characters are portrayed with stereotypical autistic traits, they are understood by viewers as being autistic. When people see these traits being portrayed as dislikable, that may cause people to see those traits in a very negative light. This happens even before people with autism have a chance to prove those stereotypes wrong. In short, it doesn’t matter whether the word autism is used. Only the traits matter, not the label. 

How do autistic stereotypes affect people with autism? For starters, when people meet someone who shares traits with a negatively portrayed autistic character, people think that having those traits are linked with being a bad person (Safran, 1998). This leads to isolation, ostracization, and bullying. Stereotyping of any sort can be quite harmful. People will tend to judge all persons with autism they encounter in real life based on the examples they see in media. The general public will see what’s on tv and believe it to be true, even if subconsciously. It predisposes persons to negatively prejudge people with autism before meeting them.

People without autism are also hampered by these stereotypes by causing people with autism to struggle to find their respected and credible voice in social, educational and work settings. Successful interactions with people with autism require an unbiased and accurate understanding of them. These successful interactions are rendered less likely by stereotypical portrayals, which foster disrespect and distrust of people with autism encountered in real life. Everyone should want to treat everyone with respect, and correct their behavior if it is wrong.

People can actively undertake many strategies to make autistic representation more like Julia from Sesame Street, and less like every other character fuelling misunderstanding. The first solution is hiring actual people with autism as consultants for a show (Huws & Jones, 2010, pp. 331-344; Holton, 2013), ensuring the screenwriting matches up with the real experience of autism. Another way is to try to make a multidimensional and meaningful character, not a character who is merely a foil based on comic relief or being a challenge for the other characters. Autistic characters must exist as themselves, not as plot devices for other neurotypical characters.  

Another solution is to approach rectifying harmful stereotypes by using a character to educate non-autistic people about the realities of autism (Behind the Scenes, 2017). Upon seeing a character as a learning opportunity, research is done into the subject, and a more accurate portrayal occurs. People have a tendency to learn from engaging and considering fictional characters. Thus, making one accurate fictional character would do the most good when it comes to opening up people to the nuanced realities of autism spectrum disorder.   

.In conclusion, autistic representation in books, films and televisions shows negatively effects or influences therefore society’s general views of autism. These tropes are discriminatory and harm people with autism by spreading misinformation. There are many years of poor autistic misrepresentation that those in the media industry must work to undo.

References

Bargiela, S., Steward, R., & Mandy, W. (2016). The experiences of late-diagnosed women with autism spectrum conditions: an investigation of the female autism phenotype. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 46(10), 3281-3294.

Baron-Cohen, S., Klin, A., Silberman, S., & Buxbaum, J. D. (2018). Did Hans Asperger actively assist the Nazi euthanasia program? Molecular Autism, 9(1). doi:10.1186/s13229-018-0209-5

 Bringing Julia to Life [Behind the Scenes]. (2017, March 20). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhzfHVmSLRU

Cendrowski M (Director). (2007). The Big Bang Theory [Television series]. Los Angeles, California: CBS.

Cohen E (Director). (2017). Sesame Street, season 47 episode 15 [Television series]. Los Angeles, California: PBS

Draaisma D. (2009). Stereotypes of autism. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences 364(1522), 1475-80. Retrieved from https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rstb.2008.0324

Holton, A. E. (2013). What’s wrong with max? Parenthood and the portrayal of Autism Spectrum Disorders 37(1) 45-63. In Sagepub. Retrieved January 29, 2019, from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0196859912472507

 Huws, J.C. & Jones, R.S.P (2010) ‘They just seem to live their lives in their own little world’: Lay perceptions of autism, Disability & Society, 25:3, 331-344, DOI: 10.1080/09687591003701231

Jean-Marc D. (Producer), & Jeunet J. (Director). (2001). Amelie [Motion Picture]. France: Canal+.

Lai, M., Lombardo, M. V., Auyeung, B., Chakrabarti, B., & Baron-Cohen, S. (2015). Sex/Gender Differences and Autism: Setting the Scene for Future Research. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 54(1), 11-24. doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2014.10.003

Moffat S, (Executive Producer). (2010). Sherlock [Television series]. London, United Kingdom: BBC.

Safran, S. P. (1998). Disability Portrayal in Film: Reflecting the Past, Directing the Future. Exceptional Children, 64(2), 227-238. doi:10.1177/001440299806400206

Steinbeck, J. (1965). Of mice and men: With an introduction. New York: Random House.

Sherman Palladino, A (Director). (2000). Gilmore Girls [Television series]. Los Angeles, California: the WB.

Sinclair, J. (1999). Don't mourn for us. Autistic Rights Movement UK.

#autism #autistic #autistic representation #my writings

[littlemisssquiggles]

RWBY Musings #73: Happily Ever After. A Squiggle Meister’s Views on the fates of Cinder Fall and Neopolitan for the Future of RWBY

yellow-eyed-green-crocodile asked “Do you think Cinder would be the equivalent of General Jinjur? Not only does it rhyme, but they are also somewhat similar, in a way. Jinjur used both violence and charm to gain what she wanted, just like Cinder uses both force and temptation. Also, Jinjur had a catchphrase, which was "there's not an ugly face in my entire Army", which would parallel Cinder's disfigured body. One interesting thing to note is that Jinjur's army got defeated by mice and she was too cowardly to face them. 

I wonder if this could hint at a possible backstory for Cinder. Maybe she used to live in a village when she was little, and that village got overrun by a plague caused by mice. Since she was one of the very few that didn't contact the disease, she wad tasked with taking care of the patients, but the plague was so bad that they had to resort to killing all of them. Among the pacients, there were also Cinder's parents. 

Cinder dreaded the villagers who killed her parents and felt like a weakling for not only not being able to stop them, but also for not being able to enact revenge. Unless maybe this is how she discovered her Semblace. Because of these events, Cinder wanted more power, enough to snuff out that of others. The power never felt enough, so she eventually met Salem, who groomed her into becoming what she is now. And the rest is history. I'm sorry that the ask got so long, but what do you think? ”

Squiggles Answers: 

@yellow-eyed-green-crocodile​ Hey there Yellow. Sorry this answer took so long. I decided to answer your question as a new musing because while thinking up my response, I did my own research on General Jinjur and in doing so you made me come to a very interesting realization that I think you might like.

Cinder and Mombi

I think you are definitely onto something with Cinder possibly inheriting some traits from General Jinjur. I like this concept because it would provide Cinder with a connection to Oscar considering that General Jinjur made her first appearance in the Marvellous Land of Oz sequel story where Princess Ozma was also first featured.

I can definitely see the charm part and I can also see Cinder building herself an army and using it to overthrow or antagonize General Ironwood. Isn’t that what Jinjur did? According to Wikipedia, she was the self-appointed general leading the Army of Revolt---an all-woman force seeking to end the reign of the Scarecrow and take over the Emerald City.

Perhaps…we might get something similar to this for the Atlas Arc. What if…Cinder follows in Salem’s footsteps back in Ancient Remnant where Salem manipulated mankind into forming an army which she then led to take down the Gods but failed.

Oh! Perhaps this will be Cinder’s role in the Crimes of the SDC storyline of the Atlas Arc. Imagine if…Cinder ends up gathering and leading a revolt formed of all the oppressed and abused Faunus under the SDC in an attempt to overthrow the Atlas Council including General Ironwood. Either that or perhaps Jinjur will be an original character inspired by her fairy-tale counterpart from Oz that Cinder ends up manipulating into doing her bidding.

One thing I’ve been curious about is how the CRWBY Writers are going to handle the Crimes of the SDC and the oppression of the Faunus in Atlas without Adam Taurus. If you’d allow me to deviate here for a second, I’d like to voice this point. I’m not one of the Adam fans who were heavily disappointed or should I say, firmly disgusted by this death in V6. 

On the contrary, I actually found Adam’s death to be fitting. Adam went out exactly like how I pictured he would---defeated by Yang and Blake working together to take him down while paying homage to the Beauty and the Beast.

In the Beauty and the Beast, the Beast was stabbed in the back by the villainous Gaston before Gaston fell to his death below Beast’s Castle. I thought that was a nice detail that RWBY had Adam more or less go out in a similar fashion considering that he was a fusion of the Beast and Gaston.

My one gripe with Adam’s death is Yang and Blake killing him in cold blood while suffering no further emotional/psychological repercussions from the experience---something that I’ve voiced before. It’s not the fact that the two killed Adam that’s disappointing. It’s the fact that here we have an example of two hero character slaying a villain and it’s treated as nothing beyond a victory for the Bumblebee relationship by both the series and its shipping community. Don’t get me wrong, conquering Adam was a triumph but it was one that came with a price.

I understand that people wish to take the positive away from this moment where Yang and Blake together overcame the man that caused them both so much strife for the past few seasons. That’s fine. However, it’s hard for me to focus on just the positive aspect of what transpired when it’s not as black or white as people believe it to be.

This victory is stained. At the end of the day, Blake and Yang killed another person. Let that sink in. They took another character’s life. Nevermind that it was done in self-defence. A kill is still a kill. Not to take the joy away from the folks who love Bumblebee as a romantic pairing and took this triumph as the signal fire for their beloved ship becoming canon, but this squiggle meister, on the other hand, didn’t see that. I didn’t see two girls professing their love for one another. I saw two friends who claimed to have failed each other in the past rise up and take down the personification of their turmoil but at a price. The price being that now Yang and Blake share Adam’s blood on their hands. They both killed him and…afterwards, the series acted like it didn’t matter. I’d like to believe that Adam was a first time for kill for both Yang and Blake.

That kind of thing could be detrimental to someone especially if it’s their first in a lifetime of being the hero and using your skills to save lives; not end them. But Yang and Blake appeared fine after the fight and what was worse was that their comrades accepted their nonchalance with their own. I understand that they were all mostly relieved to see their friends safe following what went down with Adam but nonetheless, Blake and Yang killing Adam could’ve been something the heroes could’ve  discussed with how far they are all willing to go to protect themselves and defeat the forces of evil as huntsmen. No one questioned the morality of what transpired. Didn’t even give it a second thought. It just happened and the story moved on.

Again, not an Adam fan but I still found that bit bothersome in a way because it highlights that the heroes could simply kill off villains and feel nothing. When the villains killed off heroes, we got to see the aftermath of how it affected their psyche. Following Pyrhha’s death, we got to see how it affected the rest of her teammates and the same can be said for Ruby with how she’s still being plagued by flashbacks of the moments she failed to save both Pyrhha and Penny.

But when we have our first villain being slain by a hero, it’s handled with as much expressive feedback as when the heroes take out the Grimm. I know we got Blake completely breaking down after stabbing Adam with Yang comforting her to the best of her ability. I thought this would have jumpstarted something else that Blake now had to overcome giving Yang something to help Blake work through.

When Blake ran away after Adam took down Yang, Sun was there to help her through her turmoil. Imagine if…Blake hadn’t meant to legit kill Adam and only did it as a last resort as a means of protecting Yang. Imagine if…the fight hadn’t ended with Adam being overpowered by Yang but was the complete opposite where Adam blindsides Yang and subdues her after she thought she’d won; similar to how Gaston double crossed the Beast in the animated film. Imagine if…Adam had once again placed Yang in a vulnerable position like before, despite her training forcing Blake no choice but to do what she failed to do before for Yang in V3.

Imagine if…Blake was left completely traumatized by dropping to Adam’s level, using violence to take the life of another---his life in the sheer attempt of desperation to protect the friend she promised she would protect. Imagine if…Adam’s death at Blake’s hand left her just as emotionally scarred as the aftermath of their encounter after V3.

Imagine if…Adam’s death had left Blake with another chapter of guilt and pain that this time Yang would be present to help her work through. And from that interaction, their bond could’ve blossomed, rekindling the closeness they shared from previous seasons, which could’ve ultimately led to Blake genuinely falling in love with Yang from this interaction. It is for this reason why I haven’t bought into the notion of Bumblebee being officially canon.

Even though I’m a BlackSun shipper, I neither hold any animosity towards the Bumblebee pair and its shippers nor would I get butt-hurt if the CRWBY Writers chose to steer Yang and Blake’s relationship in that direction. My issue is not the pairing itself but the execution and handling of it (and at times the attitude of its shippers).

My personal justification for thinking Bumblebee isn’t canon (yet) is because regardless of how many Yang and Blake moments the CRWBY attempted to spoon into V6, I didn’t see it as romantic at all. There actually weren’t that much Bee scenes when you think about it to be honest. At least not in the sense where it felt they were trying to set them up as lovers apart from the glaringly obvious ones like for example, Yang grabbing Blake’s hand and running off with her alone during the terrifying moment with the Apathy back on Brunswick Farm, while leaving Ruby alone to pick up Uncle Qrow with Weiss.

As appetizing as those small moments might’ve been for the Bees, it doesn’t excuse the fact that Yang and Blake have only just reunited with each other after going two full seasons of zero interaction. If anything, I would consider  the development of Bumblebee from friends to lovers after V6 incredibly forced if true since personally, I think their relationship could benefit from at least one or two more seasons of focus and growth before making the leap into romantic status. 

They could’ve spent V6 re-establishing the comradery between Team RWBY before delving back into the issues that caused the rifts between them before while going hard to build up the Bees’ recovery post Adam. At the moment, in all honesty, I don’t know what to make of Bumblebee. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if the Writers do wish to make them officially canon as a couple and that’s perfectly fine. I just don’t think they’re there as yet. But…y’know, that’s just me. Please don’t bite my head off if you’re a Bee shipper that happens to be reading this post.

Anywhozzits, that’s not really what I’m here to discuss. Let’s get back on track. My main issue with Adam’s death is that I think the CRWBY missed a real golden opportunity to use him for the Atlas Arc. Adam Taurus would’ve been the ideal antagonist to lead the audience into the Crimes of the SDC storyline that’s coming up.

His scar reveal clearly highlighted that he had an unknown history with the SDC. We’ve known about the White Fang’s war with the SDC since Weiss’ brief mention of it back in V1. As a matter a fact, I believe her words were that the White Fang has been in war with the Schnee Family for generations and this war actually featured bloodshed. We discovered this information yet we never received any more info to suggest anything further. Now fast forward five seasons later and we got a sense of why the White Fang targeted the SDC.

Adam’s scar hints at the possibility of Faunus abuse at the hands of the SDC. This is a sign that the SDC don’t just treat their Faunus labour as employees but as property. Who’s to say that Adam was the first Faunus to be branded? Of course Adam must’ve been scarred this way as punishment for an action we’ll never know more about but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that his scar is a brand. This must be a common thing or at least that’s the theory.

That being said, the Writers could’ve used Adam as a third accomplice to Neo and Cinder going toward Atlas. We know that the Faunus in Mistral had fallen out of Adam’s reign after learning of his actions at Haven Academy. But what of the Faunus in Atlas? With the CCT still not functioning, there’s no way the Faunus of Atlas could’ve gotten wind of the news of Mistral. So even if Adam found himself without an army in Mistral, he could have easily built himself a new one in Atlas especially given his clear connection to the SDC.

Adam could’ve lead a Faunus revolution in Atlas and use that as the cover fire to instigate Neo and Cinder’s act of revenge against Ruby and the other heroes. Adam could’ve been the General Jinjur in this sense, appointing himself as leader to the new regime that led the Faunus of Atlas to rise up against the SDC and their oppressors. And it would have fit in with his story since as we learned in V6, Adam has an untold past with the SDC. If the Writers desired to keep Adam in the story, they could’ve had this be his final curtain call. They could’ve still had him die in battle against the Bees but they could’ve used the Crimes of the SDC subplot as the much better build up to his inevitable climax.

After V5, the CRWBY Writers could’ve had Adam decide to go full rogue---going on a personal vendetta to enact revenge on all who wronged him in the past. Not just Blake. Not just Yang but everyone starting with the people who cast the first stone to send him spiralling into becoming the bloodthirsty revolutionist he was striving to be.

They could’ve had Adam return to the place where his trauma all began. He could’ve returned to Atlas to start his revolution over there, using the wayward Faunus employed under the SDC to enact his revenge on the people who wronged him.

And along the way, Adam could’ve met up with Neo and Cinder and the three could’ve formed the Trinity of Vengeance whose actions would pave the first chapter of the Atlas Trilogy. Adam Taurus may not have been one of my favourite RWBY characters but I’d be lying if I said his fans weren’t wrong about him being a missed opportunity.

As I’ll repeat, Atlas would’ve been the perfect setting to end Adam’s story. It would’ve been the right place. Adam magically showing up in Argus after going episodes without knowing anything of what he had been up to since his first appearance in the first episode of V6 was admittedly not the right place to have his final showdown with Blake and Yang. Not only could it have provided a chance for the audience to uncover more about Adam’s past but the Writers could’ve killed two birds with one stone by tying Adam’s story to Weiss’ story through the SDC. Adam revealing his scar would’ve tied him to Weiss.

Imagine if…Weiss had been present to see Adam’s scar. That could have set off some things. Or…imagine if… Blake never saw Adam’s face in the entirety of their relationship so when the reveal happened, she is genuinely shocked to learn that it was the Schnee Dust Company---the company that one of her dearest friends is connected to that was partially responsible for the creation of Adam Taurus.

There are ways the Writers could’ve kept using Adam in the plot particularly for Atlas but…they didn’t. Not going to lie, Adam was the epitome of a missed opportunity.

But… it’s not to say that his potential involvement for the Atlas Arc couldn’t be handed over to another character. Since the Adam fans claimed that Ilia took Adam’s characterization following V3, I guess you can see this as a sign that another current or new character could gain the remains of his potential role for Atlas Arc, right?

With Adam gone, this could provide Cinder the chance to take his place with the Crimes of the SDC subplot. It wouldn’t have the same impact as it would’ve had with Adam  however it can still work. Cinder has proven herself to be a master manipulator. She’s no different than Salem back in her younger years. I guess this could explain why she was more or less made to be Salem’s faithful apprentice.

Salem must’ve seen much of her old self in the young girl and wished to nurture it. Jinn did comment once that the hearts of man are easily swayed. This is inclusive of the Faunus as well. So maybe Cinder will be like Jinjur in this sense where she forges her army or… at least, she’d play a key catalyst to the potential Faunus Revolution for the Atlas Arc.

But get this, I actually think Cinder has way more in common with the Oz character of Mombi as opposed to Jinjur. It was said that in the Marvellous Land of Oz story, Jinjur summoned the witch Mombi to aid her in keeping her kingdom in check after she gained control. Perhaps this can play into Cinder’s story for Atlas in V7.

What if…RWBY’s incarnate of Jinjur would be an oppressed Atlesian Faunus employed under the SDC who gets manipulated by Cinder. It was also stated that Jinjur secretly feared Mombi. Perhaps this is how Cinder will get Jinjur or the Faunus of Atlas to listen to her. By flexing her Maiden magic which would force them to view her as some kind of sovereign that can aid them to their freedom or worst a witch who can smite them if they cross her.

Similar to how Jinjur called upon Mombi in Oz, what if…Cinder helps Jinjur start and maintain her Faunus Revolution in exchange for aiding her in luring out the target she most desires: Ruby Rose. Jinjur the Faunus will have great reason for working with Cinder since Cinder’s target is Ruby. Ruby is friends with Weiss Schnee and who is Weiss Schnee connected to?

Imagine if…Jinjur agrees to work with Cinder on the grounds of the two using each other to get what they want. Jinjur wants Weiss Schnee to use her as collateral to bribe the SDC into fulfilling the Faunus Revolution’s demands (not to mention that it would provide Jacques Schnee with an interesting opportunity to show his true colours with who he cares about the most---his company or the safety of his own child). And Cinder of course wants Ruby. If Cinder helps Jinjur get Weiss then chances are this will lead to Ruby showing up to rescue her friend.

This could paint a great way for Cinder Fall to have an involvement in the Crimes of the SDC plotline which would lead her to her eventual reunion with the heroes and confrontation with Ruby. That could be an intriguing storyline.

As you can see, in this case, Cinder would be the Mombi in the story. While she may share some traits with Jinjur, I see more Mombi. I feel like Cinder is more an antagonistic hybrid of Cinderella and Mombi. But unlike Cinderella, who had a happy ending at the end of her story, I highly doubt Cinder will for hers.

Obviously, Cinder is going to be killed off soon. I’m calling it now…Cinder Fall will be defeated for the Atlas Arc and following her demise, her maiden magic will return to Oscar since he is Ozma’s current incarnate and from there, Oscar’s own magical abilities will finally be awakened. That is my theory.

I’m definitely banking on the idea of Cinder being the Mombi to Oscar’s Princess Ozma based solely on her obsession with gaining more power. Mombi was obsessed with magic as well. So Cinder previously trying to steal Raven’s Spring Maiden magic only fuels my hunch that she might try to pilfer the little remainder of Ozma’s magic from Oscar as soon as she learns that the powers originally came from his predecessor; granted that she doesn’t know this already.

Perhaps this moment might even lead into my new Pinehead headcanon for Oscar’s semblance---the ability to take back Ozma’s magic from the Maidens. Picture…Cinder with Oscar pinned underneath her with her Grimm hand piercing into his body in a similar manner to how she killed Vernal. She tries to absorb Ozma’s magic from Oscar while simultaneously forcing him to watch Neo attempt to finish off killing an unconscious and very defenceless Ruby. 

I’m with every Rosegardening Pinehead who believes that Oscar will awaken his semblance to save Ruby. And what better way to do that by making Oscar wipe the smug overconfident smile off Cinder’s face when he unlocks his semblance and starts absorbing magic back from her.

Now that could be an awesome semblance reveal. But as always, these are just my theories. So yeah, in this sense, Cinder is definitely more Mombi than Jinjur. However do you know who I think might surprisingly share better equivalence to Jinjur: Neopolitan.

Neo and Jinjur

And here is the real meat of my musing. My theory is that Neo will be the Jinjur to Cinder’s Mombi based purely on her potential to be redeemed. I don’t see Neo being killed off. If the Writers decide to kill Neo after bringing her back a whole two seasons later out of the blue in V6, that would be quite frankly a foolish move that they wrote themselves into. I don’t even see it being a case where Neo gets defeated and ends up being locked away in jail for her crimes, either.

If anything, my theory for Neo is that she is going to have a fairy-tale endgame. Her very own happily ever after. And part of that is due to my assumption that Neo will have some essence of General Jinjur added to her character inspiration.

Here’s something interesting: I think both Cinder and Neo will be the two sides of the same coin, in the sense that Neo will be the version of Cinder Fall who gets the good ending. In the Marvellous Land of Oz series, Jinjur was described as ‘not evil, just misguided’ and I think the same description applies to Neo. I don’t think Neo is entirely a bad person at heart. She’s just fallen into this archetype based on the people who she has followed in her life. If what us RWBY theorists have speculated about Neo being the little girl who survived the Fall of Brunswick Farms turns out to be true then Neo came from a reasonably good and happy upbringing that sadly turned tragic.

Following that experience, she and Roman, as the two possible lone survivors, turned to life a crime as a means of survival. But despite their nefarious background, Neo and Roman still maintained their love and comradery from when they were kids. Roman seemed to care a lot for Neo and Neo in turn cared a lot for Roman. I wouldn’t be surprised if Neo was, at some point, in love with Roman. Whether or not he felt the same way, we’ll never know.

But Neo has always been good. Destined for good things because naturally she had a good heart. I’d like to think that at some point in their past, before he became the big crime boss that we knew him to be, Roman possibly approached Neo with the intention of convincing her to cut her ties with him. Imagine if…Roman personally didn’t want Neo to be pulled into the immoral lifestyle along with him because he didn’t wish to tarnish the one good thing he still had in his life, y’know what I mean.

However Neo stubbornly stayed at Roman’s side since she in turn possessed a strong desire to stay by his side. She wanted to be there for him. That was the extent of their bond. I’m looking forward to listening to the full version of Neo’s theme from V6. I feel like there could be more potential clues to shed light on her relationship and past with Roman that the series never will get the chance to delve into. Not unless we get a unforeseen Neopolitan Character Short for V7. 

I’d imagine that Roman and Neo were the ultimate ride or die pair. But picture there being a underline twist where deep down, in his heart of hearts, Roman always wanted Neo out of the crime lifestyle. He appreciated her loyalty and didn’t argue when she became his accomplice but deep down, it’s not what he wanted for her. It’s not what he thought she deserved not like he ever admitted that to her face. Or at least that’s how I’m starting to look at it now.

So here pegs the question. If Neo is to be redeemed, how can the Writers redeem her character? Well here’s this squiggle meister’s take one that. I think part of her redemption arc might involve an unexpected romance that causes her to become very conflicted and to rethink her choice of lifestyle.

Yes. I’m not pulling your leg. My idea for a redemption arc of Neopolitan is a love story. Allow me to justify why.

One Neopolitan headcanon that I wanted to toy with is the idea of Neo unintentionally finding love in Atlas; meeting the person who would ultimately cause her to drop her criminal ways and turn a new leaf. I never shared this theory before so this musing post provides the chance to do so.

The hunch I had was Neo falling in love with someone---her own Prince Charming whose allure and confidence reminded her a lot of what infatuated her about Roman and it is this person who would force to Neo to become very torn between her loyalty to Cinder and their revenge plan against Ruby Rose and her chance at a possible new life with this new love interest.

This is where I think Neo will share commonality with General Jinjur. At the end of her story, despite her previous escapades Jinjur ultimately settled down and lived a contented happy life with her husband. Here’s what I’m thinking. While this may be a very big stretch, what if…and this is a huge ‘if’…Neo’s Prince Charming will be none other than Henry Marigold.

Yeah that’s right, him again. Bear with me on this one alright. I don’t know how it could be done but…I have this idea of Neo using her shaft-shifting abilities to impersonate Weiss stuck in my head for the longest time.

In terms of following the plot, there is no real reason I can think of for Neo to mimic Weiss. Unless it’s in the form of her using it to infiltrate Schnee Manor to commence the Faunus Revolution against the SDC or something like that.

But beyond that I don’t see the possibility of Neo shapeshifting into Weiss becoming something canonically possible. But in spite of this, me being me, I’m still going to toy around with this concept because like many hunches I tend to hold on to, I kind of like it a lot. I like the idea of Neo using Weiss’ form especially if it leads into her charming Henry.

For Neo to be paired off with Henry as her intended prince, it would surprisingly fit and I’ll tell you why. Neopolitan is a play on Neapolitan which is a type of ice-cream. Ice cream is a dairy product. Coincidentally, Marigold is a real life brand of dairy products. In the Marvellous Land of Oz, General Jinjur’s future husband was a dairy farmer. You see where I’m going with this, right?

And since Henry was introduced as part of Weiss’ story from V4, I still think he’s going to be brought back for her arc in Atlas. For whatever reason, what if…Neo bumps into Henry on coincidence and falls for him. However since Henry showed an interest in Weiss, for whatever reason, Neo uses Weiss’ likeness to charm Henry.

I can’t help but sort of like this theory because I’m seeing both a bit of The Little Mermaid and Cinderella III in this. In The Little Mermaid, after she gave up her voice to Ursula the Sea Witch to become human, Ariel was tasked with making her love interest---Prince Eric fall in love with in a few days otherwise she’d turn back into a mermaid.

Ariel had to woo Eric without the use of her voice which was what Eric remembered most about her after she saved him from drowning. I found this titbit kind of cool. Weiss, as we know, has a tremendous singing voice and the first time she and Henry met was right after her concert hosted by the SDC back in V4.

Back in V4, Henry Marigold showed an interest in Weiss. ��Perhaps Neo will impersonate Weiss on a scheme for Cinder but ends up meeting Henry Marigold who recognizes Weiss. From there, Neo secretly starts using Weiss’ form whenever she’s with Henry. Neo falls for Henry and Henry himself falls deeply for Neo but doesn’t know that it's really Neo and not Weiss.

And in the end, Neo is afraid to tell Henry the truth. That she isn’t the person he thought she was and she believes Henry to be in love with Weiss. But in actuality Henry fell in love with Neo for her. I just really love the idea of Henry and Neo going through a similar scenario from Cinderella III.

I know not a lot of Disney fans tend to enjoy the sequels to their classic films but in the case of Cinderella, I actually really enjoyed both Cinderella II and III. I loved Cinderella II because it completely changed my perception of the evil stepsister, Anastasia.

Her love story with the baker was my favourite side story from Cinderella II. I just wished that Disney had given the same opportunity for development with Drizella, the other stepsister. My one gripe with Cinderella III is how they missed a chance to develop Drizella too. I know III takes place right after the original Cinderella but before Cinderella II in terms of storyline. Nevertheless, I feel like they shouldn’t have made Anastasia the focus sister again---they could have done it for Drizella to have both former evil stepsisters be redeemed. But I guess since Anastasia was made likeable by Cinderella II, they decided to roll with her for the third movie again.

Anyways, in Cinderella III, there is a part where Cinderella is supposed to marry the Prince but the Evil Stepmother, still determined to get Anastasia to marry the Prince instead uses the magic of the wand to turn Anastasia into Cinderella.

In the end, it takes Ana stepping up for herself and Cinderella to foil her mother’s plan. I enjoyed Cinderella III because I liked the take away lesson of what the King taught Anastasia about love because there is a moment where the King has a heartfelt chat with Ana and tells her about the day he fell in love with the Prince’s mother---the Queen. I know it was a small scene in a sequel that probably shouldn’t have existed but dagnabbit, the hopeless romantic in me just couldn’t help but gush at the whole idea of the Prince knowing he loved Cinderella from just holding her hand. Even when Ana was temporarily turned into Cinderella, the Prince instantly recognized that she wasn’t his Cinderella because of how she made him feel.

Something as simple as a touch of a hand is used as an expression of love and I dig that.

Strangely enough, I can see something like that being done for RWBY in the form of Neo impersonating Weiss and Henry falling in love with Neo as Weiss. But when he meets the real Weiss, he becomes conflicted, not because she doesn’t reciprocate his feeling as Neo did under her guise but purely because she doesn’t feel like the woman he fell in love with. Real Weiss doesn’t make Henry feel the same way Neo did when she was using her face. So in the end, Henry doesn’t care what Neo looks like. It’s how she made him feel that matters. He fell in love with her for her. Her loves her for her and she did it without needing a voice.

Every bit of joy Henry experienced with Neo was done through touch and gestures. Not through words making it genuine and pure. That sounds like an interesting dynamic. I feel like that’s an essence from the Cinderella story that could be translated into RWBY, if that is the Writers’ intention.

It's funny. When we first met Henry, he was portrayed like all the other guys who pursued Weiss. Appearing to only be interested in her at face value. But I think this was mostly a misunderstanding on Weiss’ part since I didn’t think Henry wasn’t that big of a jerk despite Weiss’ reaction to his remarks about Vale and her charity painting.

While I don’t think Henry is necessarily a bad guy, I feel like he will make a return for Atlas. Whether or not, he will somehow play a part in Neo's story, seems extremely unlikely right now. Nonetheless, I’m going to roll with it; canon or not. Thus I shall christen this tiny sail boat of mine as Milky Way---the unofficial pairing of Neopolitan and Henry Marigold.

I know romantic subplots is pretty much tertiary in RWBY to the point that some FNDM fans even complain when the show takes its time to drop romantic hints of their favoured pairs. My one gripe with the romance in RWBY is that I wouldn’t mind if the CRWBY Writers were more assertive with it. I don’t necessarily need a full episode of characters dating or snogging. However I am hoping for the series to handle its love stories in the same manner as A:TLA did. Avatar found an exceptional way to balance its romantic subplots with the rest of the story to the point where it felt natural.

I’m not a viewer who believes that romance should be omitted from a story just because its key genre is action/adventure and/or fantasy. Relationships are a part of life and when a story takes its time to develop the bonds between its characters, romance is a natural expectation. It doesn’t need to be the focal point of a story especially if you’re looking at a single standalone piece of media like a film.

However in the case of a series that is ongoing and has an overarching plot where its cast of characters are likely to grow and progress to fit the narrative outlined by the writers then…romance between characters should neither be omitted nor do I think it can be avoided nor …should be if that makes a lick of sense. Because romance is a type of relationship. Relationships can be either romantic, platonic, family-orientated and so forth and as I’ll say again, relationships are a part of life so it happens.

That being said, this is why I genuinely don’t understand when people complain when RWBY takes a chance to develop the relationships between its characters, particularly if its romantic. These kids are teenagers of mixed genders, ages and sexual orientations.

Naturally I would expect a romance to blossom among some of them. I actually think RWBY could benefit from taking some time off from all the action to focus on the bonds between its characters from time to time. But as always, this is just my opinion.

 Neo and Oscar

Another interesting thing about Jinjur’s character is her connection to Princess Ozma, next to Mombi. After Emerald City was liberated, Jinjur was captured but on promise of good behaviour, she was sent home to her mother like all the girls in her army.

General Jinjur swore her loyalty to Princess Ozma and became an ally, promising her that she would behave herself.

Now some Pineheads have asked me before about the possibility of Neo and Oscar becoming friends and I think having Neo share inspiration from General Jinjur would be a nice way to tie her to Oscar.

Neo could be Oscar’s General Jinjur. From what I read on the Marvellous Land of Oz, Jinjur’s interactions with Ozma seemed rather friendly for the most part, even when she was still Tip, her male persona.

Perhaps…Neo will unintentionally befriend Oscar but neither will know each other’s true identities until their final confrontation. A part of me strongly believes that Oscar will definitely be most present during Ruby’s rematch against Neo. If Ruby is going to fight Neo again then surely Oscar should fight Cinder again. I mean, Cinder is the one who murdered Ozpin so imagine the two clashing on those terms.

After all, as I said in this answer post right here, Oscar has the remaining 10% of Ozma’s magic and if Cinder is the megalomaniac that she’s been painted as then picture her challenging Oscar to a duel in an attempt to try to steal the rest of Ozma’s magic from him.

Imagine…Cinder and Neo kidnapping Oscar to get to Ruby. Or…imagine if this leads into Ruby and Oscar possibly tag teaming against Cinder and Neo. That could be a cool way to satisfy us Rosegardeners hungry for our Rosebuds fighting side by side on the battlefield.

Even though Cinder and Neo agreed to allow Neo deal the final blow to Ruby, my hunch is that when Neo overpowers Ruby and goes to kill her, Oscar will stand bravely in front of Ruby to protect her. Picture Neo raising her weapon to Ruby and Oscar cradling Ruby’s unconscious body pleading with Neo to not kill her.

Imagine if…it’s Oscar’s desire to protect Ruby that results in Neo turning on Cinder. Because Oscar sees Ruby as someone very important to him. Someone he cares about deeply and wishes to protect, this sentiment could remind Neo of Roman. The good version of him anyways.

What if… as children, Roman used to protect Neo and seeing Oscar protecting Ruby reminds Neo of that. And so,  Neo decides to spare Ruby and turn her weapon on Cinder instead. An alliance between Neo and Oscar is another alternative way to her possible redemption especially if it ties into my hunch of Neo drawing inspiration from Jinjur.

Another trait of General Jinjur that reminds me of Neo is that Jinjur was a native Munchkin girl. Munchkins are a race of short people in Oz and right now, Neo is physically one of the shortest characters in RWBY so far. She’s even shorter than Oscar I believe. If you put her next to Jinjur, I think it could fit.

So in conclusion…

I hope this answers your question Yellow. I know I went off topic on certain parts, again (as usual) but for the most part, I hope there was a sprinkle of an appropriate response to your curious inquiry among all my jibber jab. Let me know your thoughts on my thoughts if you can. To reiterate and summarize, I do see an equivalence to Jinjur in Cinder. But I see it more in Neo.

In terms of Oz characters, Cinder’s motivations screams more Mombi to me more than Jinjur. This is why I think Neo is a good candidate to take influence from her character. At the moment, Neo is a blank slate. She is the one RWBY character in the current main cast for Atlas who doesn’t have a fairy-tale counterpart to draw inspiration from.

From what I know about her, she was originally meant to only be a female counterpart of Roman Torchwick. That’s what I was told that one time I made a comparison to Neo being like Tinkerbelle in reference to her bond with Roman who I saw as being the Peter Pan in her story.

I still would like to stick with my idea of Neo being inspired by Tinkerbelle. Her illusion semblance is the closest thing to pixie dust I’ve ever seen and when she transformed the Mistralian airship into the guise of an Atlesian airship, it reminded me of how Captain Hook used pixie dust to make his ship fly.

Beyond that, Neo has no true fairy-tale equivalent which is why I’m fancying the idea of Jinjur being hers instead of Cinder’s. I’m also starting to love the idea of Neo and Cinder sharing influence from Cinderella only with Neo gaining what Cinder will never have---a happy ending.

We know Cinder desires power and revenge against Ruby; but what does Neo want? I know right now she shares Cinder’s hatred for Ruby Rose and aspiration to kill her. But beyond that, what else does Neo want for herself? After she kills Ruby, what’s she going to do next?  Based on her theme, Roman apparently was her life. She lived for him.

After he died, she returned to Mistral to do who knows what with herself but didn’t miss an opportunity to get her revenge on Cinder, believing her to be the reason Roman fell. Cinder, of course convinced her that Ruby is to blame and now that has become Neo’s drive. But once that deed is done, what’s next? What is going to be Neo’s story? What’s she going to do after avenging Roman?

I ask these questions because this is something I want a character in the series to ask Neo herself. If Neo dedicated her entire life to Roman then she needs to create a new one for herself now that he’s gone. A better life.

This is why I’m loving the idea of her gaining Jinjur’s happy ending and settling down with a man who will love her unconditionally and vice versa. This is why I’m loving the idea of Neo meeting Henry Marigold with him becoming her prince. The man she will marry and settle down to start a new life with in Atlas. I’m fully on-board for this Milky Way ship especially if it goes in accordance to everything I just shared in this theory.

It’d be nice if Neo gets her happily ever after. Especially since Cinder surely ain’t gonna get that luxury. She’s too far-gone. But Neo still has a chance. A chance for change and redemption. A chance to learn to behave herself.

Plus I like the idea of Neo promising Oscar to ‘behave herself’ in a similar fashion to Jinjur’s promise to Princess Ozma. I don’t know what the CRWBY Writers’ future plans for Neo will be. But for the most part, I hope it’s satisfying especially to her hardcore fans who were pining for her return.

More Squiggles’ RWBY Content 

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

#yellow-eyed-green-crocodile #squiggles answers: rwby #oscar pine #cinder fall #neopolitan #rwby theories #rwby volume 7 theories #rwby atlas arc #rwby musings #rwby rosegarden #ruby and oscar #oscar and neo #cinder and oscar

[imagitory]

Review: The Nutcracker and the Four Realms [Spoilers]

Hey, everyone! So today I decided to go see Disney’s newest release, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms!

Some of you may recall that I’m a rather big fan of the original ballet and was quite disappointed about how little the trailers and promotional materials for this film resembled that very ballet, so I went in with my expectations ridiculously low. Because of this, I was able to see some good in the film, which I’ll go into under the cut, but for those of you who wish to avoid spoilers, I must be frank that The Nucracker and the Four Realms is a mixed bag at best. Those who love the original ballet and book will likely hate how little the movie respects its characters and story, and those who don’t love the ballet and book might find it to be a rather standard action-adventure fantasy film for kids with few elements that weren’t done better in other movies. It’s not as god-awful as The Nutcracker: The Untold Story was or anything: there were good ideas here and there...but overall, I’m afraid I can’t recommend The Nutcracker and the Four Realms to anyone.

For those of you who don’t fear spoilers...a cut!

The Good!

+For the most part, the first fifteen minutes of this movie (taking place in London) felt the way a Nutcracker film adaptation should. There were nice Christmas colors, sparkling holiday decor, and an elegant party full of swirling gowns and happy children. Admittedly I probably would’ve preferred it if the story had taken place in Russia (like the ballet) or Germany (like the book), or even a vaguely European-ish setting without naming a specific city, but hey, can’t win ‘em all.

+All of the actors chosen I thought were pretty good choices. Morgan Freeman made a great Drosselmeyer (though I wish he’d had more of a role in the story), Helen Mirren and Keira Knightley are always good talent (though I’ll come back to problems I have with their characters later), and even the actor they chose for the Nutcracker, Jayden Fowora-Knight, was good enough that I wouldn’t mind seeing him in something else. But for me, the actor I loved seeing the most was Matthew Macfadyen as Clara’s father, who was easily one of the best parts of the movie. This could also be considered a bad thing, as he’s criminally underused, but it doesn’t change how nice it was to see him. (I can only hope that Keira and Matthew were happy to see each other on set again, even if they had no scenes together -- garg.)

+The music was pretty well-handled. James Newton Howard did a good job of not just running all of the usual tunes into the ground -- he gave us a nice haunting remix of the Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy during an eerie scene in the Fourth Realm, used the Battle track excellently during a confrontation with the mice, and arranged the Overture perfectly in the opening panning shot (which admittedly looked too CG for my taste, but still communicated the location and mood well).

+Misty Copeland’s ballet performances were excellent. She truly was a joy to watch every second she was on screen.

+The costumes for the most part were well done, as were a lot of the visuals. I have some issues with them that I’ll come back to, but honestly, the majority of them worked well for the characterizations and mood the film was going for.

+Directly connecting Clara to the magical world she enters is, in principle, not a bad idea, nor is the idea of her arrival in that world being more than just a fun finale. A battle in a magical realm will always be more interesting than one done in your living room. I also like the idea that Clara’s facing her real-world problems through her fantasy and that she’s more active in the story...I just would have written those ideas very, very differently.

The Not-So-Good...

+The script. And I mean absolutely everything about it. There is so much wrong with this script and the concept behind it that I will have to make separate bullet points in order to go through all of the problems I had with it:

The characters are beyond underdeveloped. Although I think Helen Mirren, Keira Knightley, and Jayden Fowora-Knight were good casting choices, they honestly had very little to work with. Mother Ginger was supposed to be a villainous sort, but from the very beginning, she never came across that way, despite the script’s and the actors’ best efforts -- hell, in a flashback we see that Clara’s mother actually sort of resembled Ginger! That sure isn’t a hint to who’s really trustworthy or anything. The same can be said for Sugarplum -- honestly, did anyone really not guess that she was the fake-out villain all along, especially after how long Disney has been beating that particular dead horse of a trope? As for our “Nutcracker” Phillip, he really has little autonomy in the story given that he basically follows Clara’s orders as a princess and then, mid-way through the story, we’re supposed to believe that he’s now following her out of real devotion and caring, even though their relationship isn’t given the time and scenes needed to show their growing bond. Drosselmeyer as I said was barely around: we learn that he basically raised Clara’s mother, which you would think means he had a role to play in the Four Realms, but nope! He doesn’t appear anywhere until the end except through his owl familiar that...does absolutely nothing during the entire story. I barely remember any of the side characters in the Four Realms, and I just finished watching this movie about an hour ago. Despite being some kind of a mechanical genius, Clara is amazingly bland. She says she doesn’t know who she is or what her place is, and yet Phillip goes on about how confident she is and basically everyone around Clara showers her with praise. She’s smart enough to teach the great inventor Drosselmeyer himself how to fix something and also tough enough to kick a tin soldier in the face during the climax...but that, in the process, kind of makes her boring and one-note. I never feel like Clara is in any danger or puts herself at any great risk because we never see her in a situation she can’t handle. Even when she’s “trapped” by Sugarplum, it’s at the top of a tower decorated with a chandelier and windows she can easily get out of, so she just jerry-rigs herself and her fellow prisoners a way down after a pointless touch of moping. (I mean seriously, you couldn’t lock her in a dungeon?? With LOCKED DOORS AND WINDOWS??)  And really, hasn’t this archetype Clara’s fulfilling been done to death already? Rather than have her be yet another “girl ahead of her time” (one basically just like her mother, which doesn’t exactly make her special, then), why not have her be nothing like her mother? If Clara had been more like her sister Louise and yet expected by everyone around her to be like her mother, wouldn’t it have made her realizing she has everything she needs inside of herself mean that much more? Wouldn’t it have shown her the value of her own worth if she’d failed to live up to everyone’s expectations at first, rather than her be heralded as “truly being her mother’s daughter” and clearly being so from the beginning?

The Four Realms itself doesn’t really make that much sense. Not only does it resemble Narnia (snowy magical forest that you enter through a magical doorway, time moving differently than in our world, lost human ruler returning to ascend to the throne) and Oz (being split into four parts and, like Oz the Great and Powerful, a ruler of one of those lands being painted wrongly as the villain by another who actually wants to take over everything) a little too much for my liking, but I can’t even figure out its rules. For one, the film can’t seem to decide whether Clara’s mother Marie (nice nod to the original book, actually) created the land or discovered it. In all of the summaries I’ve read, it says that Marie created the Four Realms, and her identity as an inventor would seem to justify this, but in the dialogue, Sugarplum says she discovered each land, and brought its citizens to life through her engine invention thing. Yet if they’re all dolls brought to life and made large by the engine, why are they all doll-sized when they go through the clock to peek in on Drosselmeyer’s party? And how much of that world is actually based on our real world? The film at some points tries to make connections to Clara and her mother’s real life by having Clara and Fritz try to catch a mouse in their attic, depicting a Nutcracker ornament in a flashback, and showing Fritz receive a Nutcracker that resembles Phillip for Christmas, but the film drops the ball in having any of those touches actually mean anything. There are ways you can weave the real world into your fantasy land in a meaningful way -- the film could have had Marie taking inspiration from her real life when she made this make-believe world or even represented Clara’s inner turmoil by making the Four Realms completely make-believe, but instead it just comes across as muddled and odd.

Speaking of Clara’s mother Marie, I really don’t like the fact that I have to insult a dead woman, but...screw this woman! She makes this entire world and then, as her dying wish, tells her adopted father to only have her middle child discover it by leaving the key to her music box there? What, did Louise not deserve to be a princess too? Did Fritz not deserve to be a prince? Your husband, who called you the LOVE OF HIS LIFE, doesn’t deserve to know? Oh, but they’re not like Clara -- they’re not clever and special and different like you and Clara. That’s why you told Drosselmeyer that Clara was your greatest invention, because clearly your other two non-main-character children don’t count. Bite me.

The story crafted doesn’t fit the constraints that a Nutcracker tale must operate inside -- namely, the film sets up the fact that this family is mourning the loss of their matriarch, and yet the entire story focuses solely around Clara. Yes, the original Nutcracker tale is supposed to be about Clara, the Nutcracker, and the Mouse King...but by adding the mother’s death and the arc revolving around Clara and her family coming to grips with it, the story’s basically torn between what it should be about versus what it is about. This family is broken and must be fixed: Clara going into another world that has no connection to anyone but her dead mother to “find herself” isn’t going to fix that. Therefore the central conflict and the driving plot have no connection. The film either needed to take out the family part of the plot or have the entire family discover this world together and connect through their adventures in it in order for this choice to make sense.

On the note of focus, “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms” is a misleading title. A better title would be “Clara, Sugarplum, and Their Dead Mother,” because that’s all that gets any real attention here. Phillip, rather than being a prince cursed into the form of a Nutcracker, is a toy brought to life that serves Clara (the real princess) and has no animosity for mice excluding what has been indoctrinated into him by Sugarplum. He even BEFRIENDS the Mouse King at the end. Yes -- THE NUTCRACKER BEFRIENDS THE MOUSE KING. ARE YOU F**KING KIDDING ME --?  As for the Mouse King, oh ho ho....wait until you hear this. The Mouse King is not a monstrous, fearsome creature locked in battle with his foe, the Nutcracker: instead he’s just an ordinary mouse that fuses together with his subjects into this monstrous giant mouse shape. But they’re not really the bad guys -- no, they’re underlings of Mother Ginger, who’s a good guy. So the Nutcracker plays second-fiddle to Clara, and the Mouse King plays second fiddle to Mother Ginger. TWO OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS OF THE STORY ARE REDUCED TO GROUNDLINGS OVER HERE.

Sugarplum’s motivation doesn’t really make sense. She claims she’s taking over because Clara’s mother Marie left them and that hurt her, but...how do you go from feeling betrayed by your mother figure to “taking over the world”? Is it because the world is one your mother created and you want to destroy it because it reminds you of her -- wait, no, Marie didn’t create it, though, she discovered it, and you only really seem interested in going after Mother Ginger with any great passion rather than any of the other Regents...okay, is it that you were hurt by your mother figure and so you want to create an army so strong no one could ever hurt you again -- wait, but everyone seems to like and trust you, so there’d be no reason for you to fear that and it’s not like you built up that lack of trust earlier...okay, is it that your mother figure chose her real family over her make-believe family and so you want to get back at the family she chose over you -- wait, no, you locked Clara up but you’ve barely even tried to take any vengeance out on her and you looked almost horrified when Clara outsmarted you... Yeah, what I’m trying to get across is that Sugarplum as a villain really doesn’t jive.

Because of the lack of character development and the many disparate plot elements fighting for your attention, no relationship in this movie comes across as particularly heart-felt or genuine. We get almost no build-up for Clara and her father’s disagreement before they part ways (and that confrontation has very little fall-out, so it feels hollow); Sugarplum’s affection for Clara seems so cloying and she is so obviously the villain that it makes it difficult for the audience to see any kind of bond forming (honestly, wouldn’t a kind of buried-deep resentment been more interesting, given that Sugarplum knows all about Clara but Clara knows nothing about her?); and there are so few moments building up Clara and Phillip as equals and friends that the scene where Phillip encourages Clara to stay by saying he didn’t follow her because she’s the princess basically comes out of left field. Even the relationship between Clara and her mother, which is so central to the movie, doesn’t ring true for me because they are so similar. Everyone remarks on how much Clara is like her mother, but that means that there’s no interesting interactions between them. Clara is just a Marie 2.0, rather than her own person, and Marie’s advice to Clara almost seems obvious: if Clara’s so much like the mother she admired, there’d be no reason for her to be as self-doubting as she is. If the film even just tried to show how much Clara still has to learn at some point, that relationship would’ve been that bit stronger, because it would mean that Marie saw something in Clara that no one else did, not even herself.

+Moving on, even though the ballet routines were pretty, they came out of nowhere. Rather than integrate dance seamlessly into the plot by having Clara be interested in ballet or something, the sequences only served to be fluff pieces plopped down into the middle of scenes that don’t connect to anything else going on. It just felt like the filmmakers were trying to remind you that “oh yeah, this is based on the Nutcracker -- I know it doesn’t resemble the Nutcracker in plot at all, but it’s definitely based on the Nutcracker!! 8D”

+The editing at points in this was really choppy and messy. There were quite a few tracking shots that got way up into the actor’s personal bubble, even in scenes that weren’t supposed to be uncomfortable or weird. For example, there’s a moment when Louise, wearing her mother’s old dress, comes to check in on Clara and their father -- the camera keeps the reveal of what she looks like a surprise until after showing the father’s awed reaction for a long moment, but because we the audience have never seen this dress or even a picture of the mother wearing it, we feel nothing when the dress is finally revealed. There’s no emotional gut-punch that would’ve been there if we saw a familiar dress on someone else, so the editing choice seems pointless.

+Even though most of the costumes were pretty, the hair and make-up choices were sometimes bizarre, even for characters that were supposed to be pretty. When Sugarplum does Clara’s hair up all princess-y, it’s supposed to glamorous, but it just looks ridiculous. I also wish that the Regents for the Flower and Snowflake Kingdoms had looked a little less cartoonish -- did we have to have the Snowflake guy have icicle bangs messily dribbling into his eyes? Admittedly both him and the Flower Regent were pretty useless, but their silly designs didn’t exactly make them more appealing. There were also two unfunny “comic relief soldiers” with their hair drawn badly onto their heads, and I don’t know, it just wasn’t a particularly appealing look for characters we theoretically are supposed to like watching. Louise also has a rather odd hairstyle in her first appearances that doesn’t communicate her supposedly feminine and mature character, which is supposed to be a contrast to Clara, but still likable -- instead it makes her look over-the-top and silly.

+Even though many of the visuals were nice enough to look at, there wasn’t much that I haven’t seen before. If you edited footage of the Four Realms alongside Wonderland from Alice Through the Looking Glass and Oz from Oz the Great and Powerful, I think you’d be hard-pressed to tell where one starts and another begins at points. The Christmasy colors you see in the “real world” really should have been dialed up for the fantasy sequences, but instead, there’s not much of a shift excluding seeing people with pink cotton candy and flowery vines for hair. Many of these supposedly doll characters don’t even . resemble toys with hinges or knobs or anything: they basically look like oddly dressed humans. Even a color palette shift would have been helpful in separating the two worlds -- for instance, having a more white/brown/yellow color scheme with pops of red and green for the real world and more of a pink/purple/blue/white color scheme for the Four Realms might have made each one more visually distinctive. It also would have made Clara pop out more if she’d been dressed in a more “ordinary” color scheme (like a pale yellow) that made her stand apart from the most fantastical backgrounds (perhaps touched with a cool lavender or light blue).

At one point I tried to pretend that this film wasn’t an adaptation of The Nutcracker. I asked myself, “if this wasn’t based on the famous ballet you love so much, would you like it? Could it stand apart as its own thing?” And unfortunately, the answer I kept coming back to was, “...It can’t be its own thing, because it’s taken too many ideas from other sources that did them much better.”

A young girl discovering a magical world while wandering around a strange house? The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

A whimsical land of fantastical creatures that can only be saved by a special child? The Neverending Story.

A coming-of-age story where a girl navigates a world of fantasy and adventure to find herself? Labyrinth.

A world of magic and science where good and evil are not what they seem and an ordinary girl can be the princess of a lost kingdom? Castle in the Sky.

And honestly, if all I can think of when looking back on the movie I just saw are the ballet it took its title from and other better movies...what does that say about The Nutcracker and the Four Realms? It breaks my heart, as I so wanted Disney to adapt this classic story, but I wanted a full-length animated musical -- something in the vein of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty -- where any changes made to the plot and characters enhanced the story as opposed to distracted from it. Maybe someday, way down the road, Disney will realize their mistake and do The Nutcracker the right way...whether they do or don’t, though, I’m afraid this Nutcracker movie is doomed to fade from public consciousness, and even though there clearly was hard work put into it, thanks to the overall vision and script, the finished product is so forgettable that I can’t say it deserves better.

Overall Grade: D

#the nutcracker and the four realms #reviews #disney #spoilers #opinion #oh boy here i go #analysis #the nutcracker #the nutcracker and the mouse king #fairy tales #ballet

[kaleidographia]

[Analysis] The "Weird" One: Where The Last Jedi Fits

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I have a confession to make.

This may be a weird way to start what is essentially the first post of a new media critique blog, but I consider it to be essential knowledge. Every reviewer and analyst brings their own unique perspective to their writing, and I am no different; sooner or later, this truth will make itself known. To know this fact about me is to gain a new understanding of what makes me tick as a consumer of art, and it is one that it best to get out of the way as soon as possible, for it is better for a reader to lose interest now than to string along until the awkwardness of hiding such a secret reveals itself.

Here it is:

I LOVE the Star Wars prequels.

Oh, not only do I love them, completely and unironically, I actually do not care much for the original trilogy. It’s all right. But it doesn’t make my heart sing.

Attack of the Clones does.

Okay, okay, I can already hear the groans of disgust and the clicks of mice leaving my blog to the wilds of the web, but I promise this is going somewhere. I am not unaware of the many flaws the Prequel trilogy has, and I can’t in good conscience call them cinematic masterpieces, but I think this opinion derives itself not from poor taste, but the relative lack of blockbuster quality movies that tap into very particular themes and structural quirks that I appreciate. I may dive into those specifics at a later time, but the reason why I am bringing this up now is because it inextricably ties into my feelings about the most recent film in the franchise’s main series, which would be impossible for me to discuss without addressing this aspect of my formative film influences.

The Last Jedi has already received tons of coverage, controversy, and counter-controversy, so if you’re interested in picking apart the finer aspects of the plot and characters, feel free to look those up — I am sure there is a brilliant video essay on Youtube tailor-made just for you. I am more interested in the meta-narrative surrounding its position in terms of fanservice to what is an enourmous empire of not only fans of the original trilogy, but fans of its many derivations, spin-offs, and cultural foundations.

Star Wars is no longer just a film about a space farmer who learns he’s a space wizard and goes on a perfect beat-by-beat hero’s journey. It encompasses more than that: two sequels, an expanded universe of books upon books, comics, videogames, pinball machines — a holiday special (and no, I have not watched it) — toys, cartoons, parodies, reiterations, iconic images, phrases, cinematic touchstones, and, of course, the Prequels.

When the new Sequel trilogy was announced, the filmmakers had a real challenge to contend with: How can one follow up on not only a legacy of films, but also a legacy of expectations of what such a sequel would be like? I am not just referring to the fact that Disney, post acquisition of Lucasfilm, decided to just toss out the previous expanded universe, label it “Legends”, and start afresh with a new canon. I am also referring to the literal millions of fans who were already thoroughly familiar with not only the films but also their cultural impact. How could one possibly please them, especially when the Prequel trilogy was so universally mocked?

It was clear that Disney needed to win the crowd over, and to do so they leaned heavily into a safe bet: the Original trilogy. The Force Awakens released with a sort of wink-and-nudge, reflected in its story beats, characterization, and practical effects, that said “hey, we hear you. We know you’re scared because you don’t trust us to do this material justice and we know you love the original films, so we’re gonna give you exactly what you’re looking for”. It’s hard not to see the fanservice and whether or not it was successful has already been discussed to death, so I won’t get into it here, but the point is — and I am sure this wasn’t really intentional — to someone like me, who actually liked the prequels and a lot of the expanded universe, this approach felt incredibly alienating. Everyone was having fun with the new film, but to me it felt like it was saying, “all those things you love about Star Wars are not the reasons why anyone else loves Star Wars,” and I’m not gonna lie, I was pretty hurt, but at the very least The Force Awakens gave me a cast to fall in love with.

This is why when The Last Jedi was in production, I was intrigued to hear that this film was going to be “weird” and “unlike any other Star Wars film”. My expectations were tempered by the fact that ultimately this was going to be a Disney movie anyway, so it was probably not going to reach my standard of Weird (my dad showed me Koyaanisqatsi when I was 7, to give you an idea). Nevertheless, after the very safe rehash of Episode 4 that was The Force Awakens, I was just hoping for anything that might show me the franchise still had room for creativity.

I was in fact happy with the result, although it doesn’t surprise me at all that it attracted controversy. Some of my close friends, whose opinions I highly respect, hated the film for various reasons and I can even agree with them on some points. Others, like me, loved it. Overall, however, what I like most isn’t necessarily anything about the film itself, but its position as a nod to fans who wanted their corners of the Star Wars universe acknowledged. To put it bluntly, as a Prequels fan, I felt represented.

Going even beyond the Prequels, The Last Jedi contains themes from my favourite piece of Star Wars media, the Bioware-produced videogame Knights of the Old Republic and its Obsidian-produced sequel, which layer critique of what it means to be a Force user and what the role of Jedi and Sith are in the grand scheme of things. “Jedi” does not necessarily mean “good”, a fact Luke highlights in his role as reluctant mentor to Rey, and while there are some things I would change about his portrayal here, this perspective is absolutely one I wanted to see more of in the main series. Even as a kid, good-vs-evil stories bored me; it’s one reason why the Original trilogy failed to speak to me, because even though I wouldn’t have been able to articulate why at the time, the setup was just too easy. It didn’t challenge me to think that there’s a side that’s inherently good and a side that’s inherently evil, but when Knights of the Old Republic put decisions about when and how to use the Force in front of me, that was a much more interesting proposition, and the idea that doctrine about the nature of the Force could be wrong or even damaging was outright enticing. I honestly can’t remember whether playing the games or watching the Prequels came first, but I get the feeling it was the games, because that malleable view of what the Force means and who the Jedi and Sith are has carried through for me ever since.

The Last Jedi does kind of play it safe in some ways, ultimately being a Disney property that has to sell lots of merchandise and bring people to theme parks, but it also boldly rejects just about every expectation one might have of a “Star Wars Film”, characters make mistakes, they fail, things go wrong at the worst possible times, some act selfishly or foolishly, and by the time the credits roll there’s actually very little to be excited about, as the heroes are in a much worse position than they were when the film started, which was already very bleak. But in a way, that was the most exciting part to me, as someone who grew tired of the popular culture perception of Star Wars and who felt shut out of the Sequel trilogy by its first film; The Last Jedi may have been agonizing, but it was agonizing in a way that promised more, giving hope to those of us who were looking for a less straightforward narrative at a time when powerful politicians can be comically villainous in public and yet people would bend over backwards to excuse their actions as if an “evil empire” didn’t already exist. Over the last couple of years I have seen people post a gif of Padmé Amidala’s iconic line, “So this is how liberty dies… with thunderous applause”, saying this was the only part of the Prequel trilogy that aged well, and yet to me the truth was already glaringly obvious back when the film was released, contributing strongly to my own critical interpretation of it. The Last Jedi is a film that picks up on the thought that people can make foolish and terrible decisions and runs with it, but it is by no means the first in the series to approach this theme.

(I should note that as a Brazilian, whose country was freshly out of a dictatorship when I was born and which is now hurtling towards another at full speed, my views on what counts as an Evil Empire and how and why a democracy dies may be somewhat sharper than the average American’s. This is by no means the only reason why I’m into this kind of storytelling, nor is it exclusive to me, but it is a big one, and it would be short-sighted to ignore it.)

Ultimately I understand why The Last Jedi is so polarizing; it doesn’t pull punches and some of the punches it throws are even a bit misaimed, thus the description of it as “weird” and “unprecedented” makes sense. It just isn’t quite as weird or unprecedented when compared to previous attempts at broadening the scope of the Star Wars narrative both within the main film series and the expanded universe (at least pre-Disney; I haven’t engaged with any post-Legends canon aside from the Rebels cartoon, so I can’t say for sure). It also serves as a complete 180° turn from the Sequel trilogy establishing itself as a safe haven for Original trilogy fans and a middle chapter leading into a final film we still know nothing about, so whether its narrative leaps will pay off are still a mystery. In any case, The Last Jedi rejects superficial concerns in favour of theme, leading to a certain degree of dissatisfaction from fans who really wanted to know Rey’s parentage and what exactly was up with Snoke, but I think this is a good thing, because they gave new meanings to previously established Star Wars tropes and drove the whole thing into uncharted territory. I for one am glad the franchise has freed itself of these particular burdens; it simply remains to be seen whether the conclusion will maintain this momentum.

All this to say, I like the Last Jedi because it likes the things I like about Star Wars, and now I know I’m not the only one.

#Analysis #film #Star Wars #The Last Jedi

[pftones3482]

Pillow Fight

Second commission for @kriss-the-writing-nerd (who I still can’t tag for some reason). They requested Pidge fluff, so Pidge fluff I wrote. More like “team member family bonding that we never get” fluff, from Pidge’s perspective. 

Under a cut for length.

Lance found Pidge sitting in the dark in their room, fingers flying furiously over their computer keyboard. Their tongue was peeking from the corner of their mouth in deep concentration, and for a moment, Lance just leaned against the doorjamb and watched them with a fond smile.  

When Pidge finally noticed him standing there, they jumped a good foot in the air, nearly flinging the laptop at him. "LANCE!" they snapped, chucking their pillow at him and walloping him solidly in the face. He kept laughing, and Pidge allowed an irritated smile to curl over their lips. "What do you want?"  

Lance, still chuckling, bent down and swiped the pillow from the floor and threw it back at them, shaking his head when they dodged it nimbly. "Hunk and I were trying to get Keith to join us for an all-night movie party. We haven't had one of those since..."

He trailed off, eyebrows furrowing, and Pidge sighed, slipping off the bed and moving to rummage through the dresser by the door. "Since the Garrison," they murmured, lifting a sleep shirt in hand and sniffing at it thoughtfully. They ignored Lance's wrinkled nose. "We haven't done that since the Garrison."

"Simpler times, eh?" Lance teased.  

Pidge shot him a finger and Lance snorted, ruffling their hair. "So what do you say?"  

They sighed, shoulders slumping. "I really should finish this code for Allura. She needs it to-"

"Code, shmode, she's joining us too. Everyone is," Lance informed them. He grinned at their look and winked. "No excuses now!"

"I...yeah, that'd be nice," Pidge admitted finally, allowing a small smile to cross their face. "Just give me a few minutes to gather up some stuff, okay? I take it we're sleeping in the common room?"  

"Oh yeah, Hunk is with Allura right now. He's trying to explain to her what a sleeping bag is for the fabricator. It's...not going well. There's holes where holes should not be."  

Pidge snorted and shooed him from the room at that, assuring him that they would be down within the next hour to help prep a movie set up, and Lance left, the door sliding shut behind him.  

If Pidge were to admit it, they enjoyed Lance's little late-night sleepover movie parties. They had rejected them several times in a row when Lance had first offered at the Garrison, opting instead to search for Matt instead of hanging out with him and Hunk.  

One particular night, when Pidge had hit yet another dead end and had been having a full-blown melt down, Lance had walked into their room to borrow a stapler. He had seen the way they were curled in on themself, the way Pidge hugged their knees to their chest, the tear lines down their face, and he had thrown aside the paper (due the next morning) and had instead guided Pidge back to his and Hunk's room with a gentle hand.  

The Disney movie marathon had lasted hours, popcorn battles and pillow fights lasting long past curfew, when Pidge was forced to spend the night with them or be written up, and by the end of the night, Pidge was still upset at how little they knew about Matt's whereabouts.  

But they didn't turn down a sleepover offer after that.  

Actually, from that moment on, Pidge had gotten closer to Lance and Hunk. They hadn't told them the whole truth, about Matt, who they were and what they were doing at the Garrison in the first place, but they had disclosed their pronouns to both boys, who had immediately been supportive and changed their speaking style.  

Pidge smiled fondly and dug through their drawers, pulling out shorts and a t-shirt and tossing them onto their bed. They grabbed their toothbrush and toothpaste from the bathroom and tossed everything into a small bag before ducking into the hallway and practically racing towards the common room.  

They grew more excited as they entered, finding Hunk and Allura already sitting on the floor in their pajamas, pillows and blankets fluffed up around them. They must have foregone the sleeping bags, because there were none in sight. 

Hunk was describing something in great detail to Allura, his hands gesturing as he spoke, and she was leaning forward with a look of awe on her face. The mice were perched on both of their shoulders, noses twitching as they listened to the conversation.

Hunk broke off as he spotted Pidge, a grin sliding across his face as he waved them over. "Pidge! I was just telling Allura about Earth cryptids."  

Pidge blinked, dropping their bag onto the couch and staring at Hunk for a long moment. "Who are you and what have you done with the skeptic I know as Hunk?"

Hunk shrugged, spreading his hands and jostling the mice. "Hey, aliens turned out to be real, right? Changed my whole world view."  

"This....Big Foot," Allura said carefully, her eyebrows furrowing. Pidge had to clap a hand over their mouth to keep from laughing. "He truly has large feet? That is the only reason for the name?"  

"Well, there are variations," Hunk admitted. "Sasquatch, things like that."

"No, no, no," Pidge said, shaking their head instantly and plopping down next to them. "Bigfoot and Sasquatch are two different cryptids. And don't even get me started on the Yeti."  

"Yeti?"

"Guysssss," Lance groaned as he trudged into the room, an amused looking Shiro and Coran behind him. "Don't tell me you ALREADY started on the cryptid nonsense!"  

"What's a cryptid?" Coran asked curiously. He was in pajamas as well, a pair of long pants and a long sleeved, loose top.  

"Oh, they are creatures that most Earthlings do not believe exist! There is no proof of them," Allura explained in excitement, her eyes glinting. "They are like dooflaxes!"

"Excuse you, they were very real," Coran protested, sitting between her and Hunk. Shiro settled cross legged next to Pidge and Hunk and Lance left again, presumably to find Keith.  

Pidge leaned against Shiro, settling their head on his shoulder as Hunk launched into how mermaids had been considered cryptids as well. Pidge still couldn't quite believe that he and Lance had actually met mermaids, and they had missed it.  

"So what exactly do we...do at one of these sleepovers?" Shiro asked.  

He was directing the question at them, Pidge realized, seeing as Allura and Coran were still occupied by Hunk's stories. "Well, usually half the time we were trying not to be too loud, so that the hall monitors wouldn't catch us. But like...movies, popcorn and pillow fights, ice cream sundaes, stuff like that."  

"How did you guys get away with all that?" Shiro demanded with a shake of his head. "Matt and I could never get more than an extra scoop in the cafeteria, and even that was a stretch."  

Pidge grinned. "You and Matt cared about asking too much."  

"Touche."  

Lance returned, this time with a disgruntled looking, pajama wearing Keith in tow, and he plopped down unceremoniously in front of the large screen monitor in the room. "Pidge, show me how to work this thing. We're finding an Altean movie to watch if it kills me."  

"Actually, I have every single Disney movie ever made downloaded to the castle system," Pidge informed him.  

Everyone stopped talking, turning to look at them, and they grinned and shrugged. "They were all on my computer illegally, it didn't take much rewiring to transfer them here."  

"You're telling me I could have been watching Atlantis and the Little Mermaid on repeat this whole time and you DIDN'T TELL ME?" Lance yelped.  

Pidge chuckled and shifted until they stood next to him, pulling up their movie selection and glancing back. "We should do a vote. So it's more fair. Most popular go first, and we work our way down the list."

Coran raised his hand slowly. "Uh...what are these films about?"  

"Quiznak."  

~~

After almost an hour of explanation on basic movie plots, Hunk passed out sheets of paper and ordered everyone to pick their top three movies. Pidge collected them, organized them into groupings, and grinned at some of the similarities.  

"Okay, so literally everyone put Lilo and Stitch on their list in one spot or another, so that one is definitely first."  

"It's a movie about aliens!" Allura said in delight. "How could we not choose it?" 

Pidge shook their head, smiling. "Second was Atlantis."  

"Hell yeah!"  

"Lance, language," Shiro chided.  

"Rapunzel and Aladdin tied, so we'll watch those one right after the other," Pidge said, scanning the rest of the list. "And then, in this order, The Little Mermaid, Big Hero Six, Moana, and Brother Bear."  

"Really?" Lance asked in surprise. "No one ever picks Brother Bear with me! You guys always say it's lame!"  

Pidge side eyed Keith with a smirk, and he shrugged sheepishly. "I've...never seen it. It sounds kinda cool."  

"Keith, my MAN!" Lance whooped. "You DO have a Disney side!"  

Keith scoffed. "I'm not heartless, anyone who doesn't like Lilo and Stitch and Big Hero Six isn't a real person."  

Pidge cued up Lilo and Stitch while Hunk and Lance bolted to the kitchen for space popcorn, which was the same as Earth popcorn, except it had a green tint to it and an almost peppermint flavor. They returned with a massive bucketful and passed out bowls to everyone before settling back down while one of the mice scurried to the lights and bopped them off with their nose.  

The moment Stitch appeared on screen, Allura shrieked in delight, making Pidge nearly fling their popcorn into the air in surprise. "HE LOOKS LIKE A CALEENOON!"

"A who now?" Hunk winced, rubbing at his ear.  

Coran also looked delighted. "They were a small race of aliens that had the same general look to them as this creature does. Except they were the size of houses."  

The humans in the room glanced at one another, biting back smiles, and Pidge settled back against Shiro's chest, tossing a minty piece of space corn in their mouth and allowing themself to sink into the movie.  

They continued the pattern for Atlantis and Rapunzel, leaving Allura and Coran slack jawed at Lance and Hunk's dramatic recreations of the music. Pidge could swear they even saw Keith mouthing the words to most of the songs, the tiniest of smiles on his face as he watched Hunk and Lance's antics.  

"You did this with them back home, why not now?" Shiro asked at one point, when they were halfway through the 'I Have a Dream' song.  

Pidge shrugged, shifting so that they were looking at him. "It's nice to just watch. Plus, you'd fling yourself out of the castle if you heard me sing."  

"Lies, all lies!" Lance declared, draping himself over Pidge's form and pressing at their cheeks with his fingers. "Pidgeon is a lovely singer."  

"Said no one ever," Pidge deadpanned, grabbing a couch cushion without looking and thwapping Lance in the face.

He screeched in outrage, grabbed another pillow, and that was the end of sanity. For the next ten minutes, the room was utter chaos, pillows and blankets flying, people shouting, Hunk attempting to explain what was going on to Allura and Coran and Allura completely ignoring him in favor of picking up a massive, poofy pink pillow and slam dunking it straight onto Shiro's head.  

Even Keith joined in, though he was more strategic in his fighting than everyone else, taking well placed hits and ducking and weaving through the carnage. He hopped over Hunk at one point, who had collapsed to the ground, only to fling a pillow in his face at the last second, leaving the paladin on the ground squawking in protest.  

At some point, Pidge registered the computer monitor blinking, indicating an incoming message, and they hit the "Accept transmission" message without thinking.  

"Hey guys, was just calling to...are you having a pillow fight?" Matt asked, eyebrows shooting up.  

Pidge turned back to see what he was seeing and nearly choked.  

Lance was sitting on top of Shiro's shoulders, a pillow frozen mid-swing at Keith, who was holding two pillows in each hand. Shiro was clinging to Lance's legs with a ferocity that Pidge hadn't seen since their last battle, and there was a blanket tied around his neck like a cape.  

Hunk was being pinned by Coran, but was still shoving a pillow into the man's face and squishing him back, using his position to thrust upwards easily.  

Allura was five steps behind Keith, another pillow frozen mid-swing, ready to smack the unsuspecting victim.  

The mice were cowering on the couch, munching on bits of popcorn and taking in the whole spectacle with wide eyes.  

"Um....yes," Pidge finally answered their brother.  

Matt studied them for another second before nodding seriously. "I'm sad you didn't invite me. Carry on."  

The transmission blacked out, returning Rapunzel to the screen, and for a moment, the only sound in the room was the clanging of Rapunzel's frying pan. 

Chaos ripped loose the moment that Allura slammed into the back of Keith's head with her pillow, sending him flailing to the ground.  

Pidge grinned, gripped their pillow tighter, and dove back into the battle.  

~~

Three in the morning found the group finally winding down, Phil Collins wafting through the background as the end credits for Brother Bear rolled across the screen.  

Coran was already out, snoring on the couch with an arm slung over his eyes and a blanket haphazardly tugged up to his chest. One of his legs was draped across the back of the couch, and the mice were curled up on his stomach.  

Hunk and Allura were curled up next to Pidge, Allura resting her head on Hunk's chest as his hands tangled with her hair, tying it up into loose braids and buns and twists. She was nearly asleep, a fond smile on her face.  

Keith and Shiro were shoulder to shoulder on Pidge's other side, Shiro slumped over and snoring with a blanket drawn up to his shoulders. Keith and Lance were talking quietly about Brother Bear's plotline as Lance moved about the room, cleaning up most of the mess and draping blankets over people as they fell asleep.

Pidge had missed this. Missed the long nights and the soft tones of Lance talking about his favorite movies while he cleaned up, much more responsible than people gave him credit for. Missed sleeping in a group of people, snores and deep breathing reminding them that they were surrounded by trustworthy individuals: their father had always said that if someone could fall asleep around you, they trusted you, and vice versa.  

They could feel their eyelids getting heavier as Lance finally shut off the monitor, sending the room into darkness, and shimmied in between Pidge and Keith, handing both of them blankets. Pidge yawned and twisted, curling around until their head rested on Lance's lap. He tapped their head a moment later and they lifted obediently, long enough for him to cover his legs with a blanket and then settle a pillow down for them to lay on.  

"Thanks," Pidge mumbled, rubbing their eye sleepily and dragging the blanket Lance had handed them up to their shoulders. "For the...for the movie night."  

"It was fun," Keith murmured into the night. "Never done that before."

"We should do them more often," Allura agreed, and Pidge jumped, because they hadn't realized she was still awake.  

Lance chuckled, and his fingers slid into a comforting place in Pidge's hair, his blunt nails scratching at their scalp. They hummed happily and settled into a comfortable position. "It'll definitely become a regular thing," Lance promised.  

Content, even despite knowing they were going to have a crick in their neck in the morning, Pidge drifted to sleep with fingers dragging through their hair and the sound of Keith's humming.  

#my writing #voltron #vld #voltron: legendary defender #voltron fanfiction #fluff #writing commissions

[contextualstudieslorena]

Interviewing Emma Quick on Taxidermy

Have you ever been interviewed?

Erm, yeah actually few times now for some bands that I used to play (guitar and bass) in and also for a taxidermy magazine... that doesn't make this any easier though. I definitely prefer the role of the interviewer, although this is my first time doing that!

Have you ever given an interview before?

What/Who got you into Taxidermy?

Well I have to say that my magic 8 ball never saw this ever being something that I would do as a job once 'grown-up' but like mosty people who get into it, I've always been fasinated by Taxidermy since I was a kid. I think that interest stems back to a local Bradford museum that my mum used to take me to when little, which had a big glass display full of all sorts of native animals. That question of 'how did they get in there' really stayed with me. I didn't have a clue! I had been working a pretty serious and well paid corporate job up until about 5 years ago but thanks to an major extitenial crisis, I deciced to leave the industry, go travelling (again) and try and find a more creative path for myself once back. I booked myself in for a taxidermy day course thinking it would be nothing more than a small distraction and an opportuinity to learn but I got on so well with the two women running the course that they asked me to come back and be a part time apprentice for them. Everything just sort of took off from there.

What are your family’s/friends opinions on Taxidermy?

My family are all very supportive as are my friends but I did have a few people asking me when I would get a 'proper job' again during the first couple of years. People views on taxidermy can be quite polarised and the problem with that can be that people just don't know enough about the process or how things are procured. The main difference between a friend and an angry finger-pointing stranger is usual just that they are more comfortable to ask questions and find out more. Believe me, I had a steep learning curve there myself and a lot of moral questions around it but realising it's no longer just all men out shooting for throphies and now largerly a female based craft using only natural death and bi-products makes a big difference, for a start.

How do you think Taxidermy changes the world, what idea would you like to bring when you do it?

I don't think I would say it changes the world now but I think it's fair to say it did. I have very strong feeling against early traditional taxidermy as the animals were nearly always hunted and killed for purpose which just makes me so sad and angry but I guess I can see some ductional value in what the Victorians were trying to do in term of documenting natural history.

What are the good and bad things about Taxidermy?

The good is taking something that would usually be throw in the bin, incinerated or just rot away and making it into something that someone will love for years to come. The bad is the awful history of early taxidermy and the few people who still see it as ok to hunt in order to mount their animals (I'm looking at you, America).

What is your opinion on people who hunt animals with the purpose of Taxidermy?

Oh my god, well if you can't tell already... these people absolutely disgust me. Thankfully it very rare that I come into contact with them. My biggest consideration around what I work on is around trusted supply - nearly everything I use comes from registered conversationalist, animal sanctuaries and vets, and the rest is either found or brought in by my cats/friend's cats. I was very careful to seek out and interogate any contacts I was put in touch to ensure any animal I work on is from unavoidable death. I don't pay anyone for animals, only the postage costs so I can be sure there are no gains to be made from their death. This doesn't stop the odd person offering me something for money that I can feel in my bones has been killed, or the odd yank making some comment on my instagram thinking i'm down with hunting too. Blocked!

How do you think Taxidermy impacts the way people see animals?

I'm not sure about that but it definitely did make me see animals, and even humans in quite a new light. Learning about anatomy first-hand was so interesting to me and you really do start to look and see bodies differently once you get into that. We all seem a little more fragile now than we did before.

How do people's opinions on Taxidermy affect you?

Hmm, this is a tricky one for me. I'm naturally very sensitive and empathic by nature so I don't like to see anyone upset by what I do. I also totally understand that without delving into the subject and learning about the more modern side of the craft, that I expected most people to have some issues with it. I've had a few people contact me through my shop to tell me how evil I am and that i'll burn in hell etc etc (also, usually American) but I never retaliate with negativity. On the few occasions this has happened I have taken the time to write back and explain a little about how I obtain my animals and to my surprise, nearly all of them came back later to thank me for 'opening their eyes' and explaining. A couple even offered to buy something after! You can't write this stuff! I'd much rather people fire questions at me than get angry because they don't understand how it's all done or what my ethics are.

What, in your opinion, makes a good Taxidermist?

Someone who sincerely cares about animal protection and conversation.

What is your own opinion on people who stuff their own animals?

Have you ever had a bad experience with Taxidermying an animal?

Well I get them in all sorts of states, sometimes in terrible conditions. ie: Nearly every fox i've ever received has been hit by a car (bloody humans again!) or too far gone re decay. I never really get over the feeling of sadness if something is too rotten to work on but on the otherhand, i've managed to restore so many animals to their former glory that it sort of makes up for it, it's such an amazing and emotional feeling to bring something 'back'.

Do you feel a certain weight/responsibility when Taxidermying?

Always. Everytime I receive and work on something. This is the most important part of taxidermy for me. It also matters who my customers are and if they share the same ethical beliefs. I've found that nearly all of them do too.

How does the pandemic affect you as a Taxidermist? #

Yeah, it's been a struggle as most of what I receive is found so less people walking, less supply. I've really noticed an increase in people trying it out over this past year though - i guess the pandemic has been a good time for hobbiests.

Is there something that you would like people to know about Taxidermy?

I guess what I didn't realise is how much emotional attachment people make to the finished pieces. If i'm having a bad day I might take a look at some of my reviews as customers really do gush over what i've sent out and am bowled over about how much love there is for them. I often get people's life stories when working commisions and found that people don't see them as just a dead animal. They can hold all sorts of emtional ties to lost pets and lost loved ones and other such things. I'm often asked to make memorial pieces, or something that marks a certain stage in their lives. I couldn't have continued doing this if i just thought they were seen a a cool 'prop' for the mantlepiece.

Also, that it's really not as bloody, smelly or dirty as you might think (if you are any good, that is).

What are some stereotypes about Taxidermy that upset you?

Ha, there is no such thing as a positive taxidermy sterotype in film and tv tropes. We are always the murderers and phsycos! God i could list off a hundred films which include a sinsiter blood-splattered taxidermist with evil intent, and i'm sure some do exist but in real life, try and get to know us and you'll generally find good-hearted people. I won't say this upsets me because again, I understand how the craft is perceived and plus, I have a pretty dark sense of humour so it's easy enough to laugh this kind of thing off.

Have you always been interested in animals?

Yeah I've been a real nature girl ever since I can remember, certainly my first and last love. I'm definitely one of those weirdos who prefers animals to people and have had loads of different pets around the home throughout my childhood - Dogs (dog i love dogs!), cats, mice, gerbils, rabbits, ferrets and snakes to name just a few. My sister and I were brought up to love and care for creatures as much as my mum does - she is bascially like Ms Doo-little, taking in strays and injured animals and making sure they find homes and the treatment they need. It made me chuckle to myself reading Lorena's answers as very simiarly, me and my sis were young members of all sorts of wildlife groups when we were little and were always reading some sort of wildlife encycolpedia or heading off to the woods while our mates were more interested in mum's lipstick etc.

Was it hard for you to be interested in such a different form of art when it comes to finding materials to use?

Are there any Tv shows/artists/documentaries, etc that you recommend people watch to learn more about Taxidermy?

Erm, yeah this can be hard given how we taxidermist are perceived but I am starting to see a few documentaries pop up about modern day practices which is a welcomed change. I remember the bad film portrayals better than the few doc but i think even Netflix has one film called 'Stuffed' on it currently which does help provide a more realitic view of the craft.

Why do you think a lot of people see Taxidermy in a negative way?

What would you tell someone if they want to start practising Taxidermy?

That there is so much to learn and you'll never really stop learning. It's a difficult thing to do right and does take years of practice. I've spoken to people who have done it for over 30 years who still consider themselves as ameatures. My main tip would be to ensure your supply is a clean one and you are not adding any more unneccessary pain to the world.

What is something you would like to tell people about Taxidermy (a random fact or just a curiosity)

I once read that taxidermy started because of the Platypus. The explorers who found it did not believe it was a real animal and that someone had artifically created it so they disected one and sent it back to scientists to validate the strange (and very lovely little) creature, or so the story goes....

Please add here any additional information or commentaries that you find that are interesting to people who aren’t very familiar with Taxidermy.