#MY FAVORITE 1 HERO DESTROYER

[animehouse-moe]

Best Anime Openings Spring 2023

With the Spring season winding down, I thought it might be a fun time to share my favorite openings from this season (may or may not do an endings one as well). Initially I had thought about doing a tier list, but that's far too arbitrary for my tastes at this point, so we're gonna stick with the ones that stood out. I'll just go ahead and get started.

Mahou Shoujo Magical Destroyers - Magical Destroyer

I don't really need to say much about this one, I already wrote about it in depth once. But yeah, damn good opening that has the perfect mix of everything Inagawa, and tells a self-contained story about the journey of these magical girls and Otaku Hero. It's a wildly impressive affair from start to finish, though not quite for the faint of heart as the music choice may be abrasive to some (personally, I love it).

Heavenly Delusion - Innocent Arrogance

Really, this and MAD are interchangeable as my openings of the season/year. In most cases though I give the edge to MAD for the insane style of the latter half, but Innocent Arrogance is far tighter affair. Its themes and stories are more apparent and accessible to fans of the series, and it has a more unique style throughout with the harsh highlights and lighter/softer color palette through most scenes.

Hells Paradise - Work

I might avoid the anime like it's the plague, but you do have to give credit for the opening. Solid on all fronts, it has a unique style that sells the characters and world incredibly well, all tied together by very fluid and dynamic camera movements. Plus, Millenium Parade on an opening is always appreciated. I would still say it's comfortably below the first two in terms of quality though. The stories told through visuals in the above are just out of this world.

Skip and Loafer - Mellow

The song title for this one is very fitting. It's an incredibly comfortable, fun, and warm opening that does a lot with how little it shows. As expected, the color design is wonderful and has the perfect vibe for being a slice of life. The icing on the cake though is the dance sequence. Full of energy and joy, it tops off the wonderfully full feeling that this opening gives viewers.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury - Slash

Potentially hot take for this one, but while the opening is solid, it's how it teases the story that allows it to be superior. The pieces that are placed in plain view that we're only able to understand in hindsight is where the appreciation for this one comes from. The pieces that aren't directly tied to that comparison are solid, but I wouldn't say they're amazing. The best non-teaser though has to be the scenes of Miorine underwater and in a fractured crystal, as they reflect her mental state without placing anything in front of the viewer to compare it to.

The Legendary Hero Is Dead - Shinda!

This one really surprised me, between Masayoshi Ooishi performing divorced from the other half of OxT and a relatively unknown pair of directors for the opening, a very impressive effort was given for something incredibly memorable. Aggressive colors and storyboarding, a campy feel that plays right into the spiraling shots and lower quality CGI. It presents something incredibly memorable but without an incredible amount of effort expended in pursuit of it. Great example of a solid OP on a (resource) budget.

Ranking of Kings: The Treasure Chest of Courage - Gold

There's not much to say here other than the geniuses over at WIT did it again. A wonderfully executed opening that chronicles the journeys of our various characters as they join Bojji on his adventures. It's incredibly cute and heartwarming, and one of these days I'd love to break down how perfectly it rehashes the story of Season 1 into an energetic and hopeful opening that punctuates the intermediate stories of this season. Also, WIT is yet to miss on song choices for these openings.

Dead Mount Death Play - Nero

I think this opening is the one with the most wasted potential out of the ones I've seen this season. There's some really incredible shots and ideas through it with stuff like looking through the eyes of characters and what they see, but at the same time there's quite a few bog standard pieces that fill out the build up to the crescendo of this OP. I wouldn't say I'm disappointed as I wasn't expecting anything out of this world, but I think if the team pushed themselves a little more they could have had a huge creative breakthrough.

Also, you should 100% go watch the MV that was made the song itself. It's animated by a single person and is entirely out of this world in execution. Amazing work.

And that's about all the very notable ones I have to talk about. There's some I was disappointed with like MahoYome's new OP that was rather restrictive, or the unremarkable nature of Demon Slayer (Zankyou Zanka >>> Akeboshi >> Gurenge >>>> Kizuna no Kiseki ) or Dr. Stone's latest openings. While there was certainly let downs and disinteresting openings, there was also evidently quite a few surprises and dark horses that appeared through the season. Overall, it's really enjoyable seeing how much a lot of newer shows are finding inventive ways to deliver creative and memorable openings.

#mahou shoujo mad #mahou shoujo magical destroyers #heavenly delusion #tengoku daimakyou #hells paradise #jigokuraku #skip and loafer #skip to loafer #g witch #the witch from mercury #gundam witch from mercury #witch from mercury #kidou senshi gundam: suisei no majo #suisei no majo #gundam suisei no majo #yuusha ga shinda #the legendary hero is dead #ranking of kings: the treasure chest of courage #ranking of kings #ousama ranking: yuuki no takarabako #ousama ranking #dead mount death play #anime and manga #anime #anime ranking #anime opening #spring anime 2023 #Youtube

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super 037

Vegeta vs. (yawn) Cabba.

So this is the one where Vegeta teaches Cabba to turn Super Saiyan.  There are some good points to this episode, but for my money, it fails to overcome its most critical flaw.  This is supposed to be a tournament match, but it ends up becoming a training session.  Vegeta even points this out himself when Cabba asks for the lesson.  He goes ahead and teaches him anyway, though, which I can understand, because he already knows he can’t get a decent fight out of Cabba, so he may as well use the time constructively. 

But as the viewer, I feel ripped off.  The thing is, this scenario could totally work if it were part of a card full of banger matches.  But let’s look at what we’ve seen so far.

Match 1: Goku vs. Botamo.  Goku wins when he drags Botamo to the edge and judo-throws him out of the ring.

Match 2: Goku vs. Frost. A complete mismatch.  Frost cheats to win, the decision is later reversed.

Match 3: Piccolo vs. Frost. A complete mismatch.  Frost cheats to win, the decision is later reversed.

Match 4: Piccolo vs. Frost.  A rematch after Vegeta requests Frost be reinstated.  Vegeta demands that Piccolo forfeit so he can fight Frost himself.  Piccolo agrees.

Match 5: Vegeta vs. Frost.  A complete mismatch.  Vegeta knocks Frost out of the ring with one blow.

Match 6: Vegeta vs. Auta Magetta.  A shitshow.  Vegeta float around for ten minutes dodging lava until he finally remembers he can just solve all his problems with ki blasts.  Also, insults wear down Magetta’s resolve so this was actually another mismatch. 

Match 7: Vegeta vs. Cabba.   Another complete mismatch. 

Tell me, dear reader, which of these is your favorite?  Probably Vegeta vs. Magetta, just because it wasn’t a one-sided rout.  And yeah, it’s the best fight of this saga so far, but it still isn’t very good.  It’s what Jim Ross would call “bowling shoe ugly.”  But at least Magetta made his opponent work for it, which is more than I can say for his teammates or Piccolo. 

Now, there’s still three more matches to go after this, and we do see an uptick in quality, but there’s also another mismatch in the bunch.  To put it simply: the Destroyer Invitational Tournament is a one-match show.  That sucks ass, because it’s a tournament!   There are supposed to be lots of good matches!  Maybe all of them should be good!  I mean, why is that not something to aspire to?

All right, so let’s talk about the good aspects of this episode.  The main thing Cabba brings to the table is Saiyan lore, and I’m always down for that.  This arc did help me iron out some details about the Saiyan history I wrote into Luffa.  For example, even though the U6 Saiyans are very different from the U7 Saiyans, and they seem to have very divergent histories, Cabba still uses the same fighting stance Vegeta used when he first fought Goku on Earth.  And Cabba uses the Gallick Gun, which indicates that these aren’t just things Vegeta invented himself, or even something he picked up from his royal family.  No, if Cabba has the same knowledge, then that means Vegeta’s style is based on something far, far more ancient.  And this scene led me to conclude that Luffa should know the Gallick Gun and Vegeta’s DBZ Episode 30 stance as well.  If they date back to ancient Sadala, then that knowledge would be commonplace among Saiyans, even a thousand years ago. 

Recently, I was thinking about the history of the Universe 6 Saiyans, and it occurred to me that it kind of makes sense that Cabba has never heard of the Super Saiyan form.  According to the Battle of Gods movie, the Super Saiyan God ritual was used to empower one righteous Saiyan so he could wipe out the wicked Saiyans of his era.  He failed when the form wore off.  Later, Akira Toriyama declared that this ancient Saiyan hero was named Yamoshi, and he was the first Super Saiyan, as well as the pioneer of the Super Saiyan God form.  The Super Saiyans who followed Yamoshi would arise every thousand years, and supposedly their transformation was awakened by his vengeful spirit.  I think that’s how it was supposed to go. 

So what does that have to do with Cabba?  Well, in his universe, the Saiyans are all good guys.  They don’t have tails anymore, and they don’t terrorize planets.  Instead, they hire themselves out to defend weaker planets from powerful aggressors (something else I cribbed for Luffa.)  Cabba even said that the Saiyans in Universe 6 still live on their original homeworld, Sadala. 

In that case, the conflict Yamoshi fought in Universe 7 must have turned out very differently in Universe 6.  Maybe Yamoshi’s counterpart won in that world.  He wiped out all the wicked Saiyans, and retired, never using the Super Saiyan God ritual again.   Or mabye Yamoshi’s counterpart never had to fight at all.  The Saiyans of his era were cool guys, so he never needed to become a Super Saiyan God in the first place.  Either way, there was no “vengeful spirit” to trigger the rise of Super Saiyans in Universe 6.  And without that, there was no Super Saiyan Legend.  Which means Cabba would never know about the Super Saiyan form until he saw Goku and Vegeta in this tournament. 

This kind of ties into something else this episode helped me work out for Luffa.  A big question about the Super Saiyan Legend is why none of the ancient Super Saiyans taught anyone else how to do it.  Goku taught Gohan, after all, and Trunks and Goten were so gifted that they learned it on their own.  So why was there only one Super Saiyan every thousand years?  Sure, some of them might not be inclined to share their secret, but some of them must have craved a worthy opponent.

This episode gives us an idea of the answer to that.  Cabba begs Vegeta to teach him the transformation, and Vegeta is disgusted that he would even ask such a thing from an opponent, during a fight.  So he turns Super Saiyan and whoops Cabba’s ass for a while.  Cabba tries to surrender, but Vegeta refuses to let him.  He threatens to kill Cabba, rules or no rules.  Also, he threatens to destroy Planet Sadala, and kill Cabba’s entire family. 

And that does the trick.  Cabba goes wild and seems to turn the tables on Vegeta for a bit...

But it soon becomes clear that Vegeta was just letting Cabba run loose for a while to get him acclimated to the form.  Then he tells Cabba to transform again, and he seems to have the form under control. 

The point of all of this is that it’s not exactly an easy thing to teach.  Vegeta had to resort to physical attacks and threats against Cabba’s loved ones to push him over the edge.  A Super Saiyan altruistic enough to share their knowledge with others might not be so eager to engage in that kind of cruelty.  In DBZ, Goku got Gohan to Super Saiyan, but he had to shoot at him with a Kamehameha to do it, and Goku was kind of reluctant to push it that far. 

Also, imagine using this teaching approach on a Saiyan like Turles, who doesn’t care about anyone but himself.  What loved ones can you threaten?  Which world can you destroy?  It wouldn’t awaken anything in him because he doesn’t care.  The irony is that the U6 Saiyans are a lot easier to train in this sort of thing, but they have no concept of the Super Saiyan to aim for.  Meanwhile, the U7 Saiyans had the legend but generally lacked the compassion to understand how to get to it.  And that’s why there was only one every thousand years. 

Of course, later on, Cabba will teach Caulifla how to turn into a Super Saiyan, and that’s where the whole “tingly back” thing got started.  But that’s the exception that proves the rule.   Cabba was willing to teach the form and Caulifla was eager to learn, but he still had a hard time explaining it to her, and he lacked Vegeta’s talent for inspiring righteous fury.  Caulifla understood how to get to the bottom of the matter, but she’s a rare talent.  Most Saiyans wouldn’t ask such perceptive questions. 

Anyway, back to the fight.  Vegeta turns Super Saiyan Blue to show Cabba where the road leads next.  Then he one-shots him and wins the match.

Cabba thanks Vegeta for his instruction, and tells him that he’s a lot like the Saiyan King on Planet Sadala. 

Goku is surprised that Vegeta would do all this for an opponent, and Piccolo suggests it’s because Vegeta wanted to spend some quality time with another Saiyan.  Goku points out that he’s a Saiyan, and Piccolo’s like, yeah, but he hates you, Goku. 

I mean, yeah, Goku’s Different, no doubt about that.  Vegeta can bond with Cabba in a way that he can’t with Goku.  But I think Piccolo’s got it wrong.  Vegeta has a similar desire to support Goku, I think.  I mean, they hang out a lot.  Goku doesn’t need much mentoring, and his Earthling traits probably irritate Vegeta, but who else has he got?   He’s the Prince of All Saiyans, and that includes the big orange goofballs like Goku.

So the next match is Vegeta vs. Hit, and as they prepare to face off, Vados informs Champa that she had to promise him the Hexahedron to get him to join the team.  Champa is upset to hear about this, because the Hexahedron is a vehicle of gods, capable of travel between universes.  But he had told Vados to get Hit on the team by any means necessary, so here we are. 

#dragon ball #dragon ball super #2023dbapocryphaliveblog #vegeta #cabba #hit #goku #piccolo

[anicomicgeek]

Kevin Conroy and Jason David Frank

 I don’t look it, but I’m 37, soon to be 38, years old.  I’m a child of the 1990s and I’m a geek.  I grew up with the DCAU and Power Rangers – and the past couple of weeks, reality took a baseball bat to my childhood’s balls. First with the death of Kevin Conroy, then the death of Jason David Frank.

 Batman and Tommy Oliver are dead: By cancer and possibly suicide respectively.

 I didn’t even get the chance to meet either one – but it still hurts knowing they’re gone.  It’s taken a bit of time to compose my thoughts on these events, so I feel like I should share them.

 Everyone who’s known me for a long time knows I’m a massive DC fan. But Conroy, believe it or not, wasn’t really my first Batman.  Believe it or not, thanks to reruns, that’s Adam West.  I remember wanting a Batman action figure from the toyline based on the first Keaton Batman movie due to it color scheme matching the suit West wore (and the comics) and despite him not being in the film, being happy that Robin got a figure in the Batman Returns toyline. Speaking of the latter film, that’s where Batman: TAS comes in, since it was a tie-in for Returns.

 Like a lot of people my age, I watched Batman: TAS.  I wish I could say that even as a kid, I knew how special it’d be when I first saw it – but while I did like the show, my first impressions, due to familiarity with the West show and the Keaton films were “Why do Alfred and Commissioner Gordon look like this?” (unaware that’s how they looked in the comics) and “This doesn’t sound like what I was expecting.”  Of course, that went away after watching the show a bit more and the DCAU grew.

 Like most kids, I also grew up with Power Rangers, though thanks to the local channel airing the show in the morning, I missed out early on until they shifted it to the afternoon some months later, so I missed out on quite a bit, including Tommy’s introduction and wouldn’t learn his origin until reruns.  Still, he was part of the team when I really got into the series and I was saddened the first time Tommy left (imagine what’d happened if they’d actually had Tommy die like his first Sentai counterpart Burai), and then again during season 2 before the mysterious White Ranger kids were waiting all season for turned out to be him.  Unlike his costars, he lasted until midway through Turbo, but I kept up with the series until the end of In Space, leaving only with the start of Lost Galaxy.  In fact, the Wild Force episode “Forever Red” was the only time I made an effort to watch the show – and it was due to him, Jason, TJ, and Andros.

 Back to Batman, I didn’t really tune out of the DCAU, though I did most of Batman Beyond after season 1 and The Zeta Project and Static Shock, but that was due to wanting to sleep in as opposed to waking up in the morning.  Still, I did see most of the crossover episodes of Static Shock and I did tune in for Justice League.  In fact, my favorite DCAU show was JL due to seeing multiple heroes appearing, even after stupid mandates affected Batman’s supporting cast and villains’ appearances on the show (look up the term “Bat-Embargo if you’re interested in stupidity).  After the JLU finale “Destroyer”, that seemed to be it for Conroy as Batman himself; he appeared in the first episode of season 4 of 2004’s The Batman cartoon as Dick Grayson’s dad.

 Then came the animated film Batman: Gotham Knight, a tie in to The Dark Knight – supposedly set between Batman Begins and TDK.  Supposedly being set in that universe, Batman wasn’t voiced by Christian Bale like one would expect – but by Conroy.  Then came the Superman/Batman films, Justice League: Doom, the Arkham games, the Injustice games, the Killing Joke adaptation, Infinite Crisis, Justice League Action, LEGO DC Super Villains, Scooby-Doo and Guess Who, even the recent MultiVersus, all featuring Conroy as Bruce Wayne, along with a number of his DCAU co-stars (though it varied based on what we’re talking about) in tow including Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker himself) as the Joker, Tim Daly or George Newbern as Superman, Susan Eisenberg as Wonder Woman, Ed Asner as Granny Goodness, Clancy Brown as Lex Luthor, and Michael Ironside as Darkseid. Hell, even the DCAU itself did get revisited with a mobile VR game and two sequel films, Batman and Harley Quinn and Justice League Vs. the Fatal Five.  While I liked a lot of the other DC productions, a lot of the times, the DCAU, Arkham, and Injustice casts were the voices I heard.

 While I didn’t actively tune into Power Rangers anymore, I did occasionally watch it if it came on the TV and didn’t feel like changing channels.  That said, I did go out to see the remake movie in 2017, which featured Frank and Amy Jo Johnson (Kimberly) in a cameo at the end.  The post-credits stinger even set up an appearance for Tommy in a sequel – one that, due to the film’s performance, would never come.  Even for all of the film’s issues (including the recurring problems of Power Rangers films barely featuring scenes of the heroes in costume), I liked it.

 One of my hobbies is fanfiction (fan-written stories) and another is fancasting (hypothetically “casting” actors in roles).  A fanfic idea I’d been kicking around, but never actually gotten around to writing, was something called “Multiversal War”, where different things I’d like would meet each other to stop threats from each other’s universe – ad as you can imagine, a lot of my “casting choices” for DC characters were DCAU voice actors, including, yes, Conroy as Batman.  Even had Frank “as” Tommy and the Emissary, a character from the Transformers: Prime Wars web series.

 Granted, a lot of deaths of other actors also affected my “choices”, but truth be told, Conroy’s passing is what made me tempted to just give up ever writing Multiversal War.  I could respond to the passing and retiring of others by sliding someone else in the role, but even trying it with Batman, maybe it’s due to me being the Spectrum, it didn’t feel “right”; it felt off.  Every time I think I got something workable, it didn’t feel right.

 Granted, I could work around the passing of Frank as well (just replace the Emissary with Spike Witwicky for Fortress Maximus as it was with the earlier Headmasters stuff and write out Tommy), I still grew up with Power Rangers for a long time and Tommy was still my favorite Ranger.

 There’s a lot of actors I thought whose passing we’d talk long before Conroy and Frank, including Peter Cullen (Optimus Prime from the original Transformers cartoon, the live-action movies and even some recent stuff), Peter Weller (the original RoboCop), Patrick Stewart, and even Arnold Schwarzenegger, but as of November 10 and 20 respectively, that’s no longer a thing.  There’s been speculation that Conroy was sick for years, but given it was years of speculation, I didn’t put much thought into it recently anymore than I did then.  And, as someone who suffers from depression myself, it’s still hard to accept that even famous people can also suffer from it and as I generally don’t keep up with actors’ daily lives, I didn’t know Frank lost a stepdaughter nor that he was going through a divorce.

 So, like a lot of people, their deaths took me by surprise and I was in a state of shock after reading about them when I woke up.

 So, how do I feel after writing all of this?

 Still hurting (after all two of my childhood heroes died), but feeling a little better writing it and sharing my thoughts.  Hopefully, this helps me and hopefully, I didn’t ramble too much.

#Kevin Conroy #Jason David Frank #Batman #Tommy Oliver #Power Rangers #DC Animated Universe #Batman: Arkham Series #Injustice

[gavillain]

I just saw your post on recommended Doctor Doom stories a while back and I will definitely read some of these in the future. Thank you. What Loki (Marvel) stories would you recommend?

I'm gonna try to do this in chronological order, but, as always with comics, read in whatever order you want. Comic continuity is very fluid that way.

Loki's initial appearances in Journey Into Mystery and Thor's self titled run are pretty good early comics stuff (and like with Doom, I recommend reading just any of them), but his first appearance is Journey Into Mystery #85, his backstory is in Journey Into Mystery #112, and the initial Destroyer arc is Journey Into Mystery #114 – 119.

He was also in Avengers #1 as the first villain they ever fought, and it's important context. He and Dormammu also are the main villains of the Avengers/Defenders war in Avengers #115 – 120 & Defenders #8 – 11. You get the direct follow up story for Loki in Thor #232 – 234.

I personally feel like Loki really came into his own when Walter Simonson came on board as the main Thor writer in Thor #337 (Loki is in Simonson's debut story in Thor #337 – 341, which introduces Beta Ray Bill). Everything Simonson writes for Loki is top tier, but in particular I recommend Thor #344 (Malekith's first appearance) and the iconic story of Loki turning Thor into a frog in Thor #363 – 366.

Avengers: Loki Unleashed is set during this time period. If you've ever wanted to see Loki fighting God, this is the issue to pick up XD

Marvel Fanfare #34 - #37 is one of my favorite Loki stories. It's very fairytale esque with Loki going full Maleficent mode over not being invited to a wedding and later straight up turning it a dragon. Very good standalone classic story.

Thor #400 has Loki's backstory with Eldred the sorcerer, showing how he learned his dark magic and came to be in the position he is today. It's short, but it's one of my favorites and the art is really cool.

Loki's the main villain of the Acts of Vengeance crossover event that encompasses a lot of different titles, though he mostly plays a behind the scenes role until Avengers West Coast #55.

Avengers: Heroes Reborn is a fun arc where Loki is the main villain. The art starts out terrible because it's Rob Liefeld, but Simonson comes on board for the back half so it's great classic Loki stuff that culminates in him growing giant and becoming all-powerful.

The 2004 Loki miniseries is really great and worth reading since t's basically a whole character study on Loki set after he's won the throne of Asgard. It was adapted into Thor & Loki: Blood Brothers motion comic that you can watch if you don't feel like reading. The 2010 Loki miniseries is pretty good too! I don't like it as much as the 2004 one, but it's a good take on the classic mythology stories. These two can be read at any time because they're disconnected from main continuity altogether.

Thor: Son of Asgard came out around this point, but it's set when Thor, Loki, Sif, and Balder are all kids. Loki is in Thor: Son of Asgard #1, 2, and 4 – 9. All of it is worth reading, but #7 - 9 is the best Loki content and shows him and Amora being sassy besties together XD

Thor vol.2 #68 – 79 is the Thor: Lord of Earth arc. Loki is in it as Thor's treacherous advisor figure. If you want some additional context, Thor vol.2 #55 and Thor vol.2 #64 both feature Loki as well and are worth reading.

Ragnarok happens in Thor vol.2 #80 - #85, but Loki himself is only in Thor vol.2 #80 – 81 and #84 – 85. Loki causes it, and it's a great big important moment in Thor history.

In general everything pertaining to Dark Reign and Siege is just GREAT Loki content. In particular, I've gotta give it up for Thor vol.3 #5 - #12 and then #601 up through the end of Siege. My favorite all time Loki issue is Siege: Loki. It has the best writing, the best characterization, and it's awesome!

I do NOT recommend reading anything set post-Siege with Loki because he gets resurrected and rebooted as a totally new character, and I don't feel like Marvel has generally done him justice since then. Spare yourself the trouble and just don't.

However, Marvel has an alternate future verse called the MC2, which is most famous for having Peter Parker's daughter becoming Spider-Girl. Loki is the main villain of the Last Hero Standing miniseries. It's worth checking out and is kind of a good "finale" arc for Loki.

#Loki #Loki Laufeyson #comic Loki #comics Loki #Loki comics #Marvel comics #comic recommendations

[alienzgenixyt]

Dragon Ball Super Heroes VS Moro Arc, which one is more interesting?

Now, even though, Dragon Ball Super Heroes is just an advertisement of Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission, produced by Dimps Corporation on Nintendo Switch and any kind of PC and its abbreviations and released by Bandai Namco Games, it still produced some of the greatest moments. Same applies for Moro Arc. It's in manga, and fan-animated, but showed the first extremely powerful non-god destroyer, surpassing Jiren by tens and thousands the power. Sometimes called The All-Destroying God, he was able to best Son Goku, or Kakarot, even when he was in SSJG (Super Saiya-jin God or Super Saiyan God), and bested Vegeta in Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Evolved or Super Saiyan Blue Enhanced. Putting all of this aside, the main question at hand is, is Dragon Ball Super Heroes more interesting, or does that apply to the Moro Arc?

Reviews by individuals for the Moro arc: -"At first, I didn’t think much of it, but with each chapter it just gets better and better. If it wasn’t for the Goku Black arc this would be my favorite and it is better than the Black are objectively speaking." So was quoted by omega_king13

"It's okay, not terrible but far from DB/DBZ arcs. I like Vegeta being the main focus but I feel this story would fit better right after Buu. It's weird to come back to single universe exploration and villains when just not so long ago we had a multiverse tournament taking place." So was quoted by Gaoron

Reviews by individuals for Super Dragon Ball Heroes: - "As 'Dragon Ball Super' temporarily ended with the Tournament of Power arc in March, fans were elated when news came of a new anime to hold them over until the main show returned. As pure filler fluff and glorified advertisement for the currently Japan-exclusive arcade game of the same title, "Super Dragon Ball Heroes" does its job but ends up being kind of a detriment to the rest of the franchise as it basically spoils us." Quoted on IMDb by DJ Pilkington. Total Review here: - Review 1. This review gave it a 5/10 despite the fights

"Episodes are too short but the concept is amazing the throw everything in together. Lots of enemies versus lots of Heroes is great but wish you would turn into a bigger series like super and z" Review by fear20. Link for review here: - Review 2. This person gave this a 9/10

So, you are here to hear about my review. Captivated by the reviews, I decided to watch the fan-animation and manga of Moro arc, as well as the official anime for Super Dragon Ball Heroes. Links for accessing them are given below: - mangareader.io (For Moro Arc, manga 43 to 67), Fan-animation for the same (YouTube), Official Super Dragon Ball Heroes from Episode 1 (Zoro.to, Subtitles, Japanese). Oh boy, were they right! The manga itself was enticing, fan-animation on another level! Whereas the same can't be said about Super Dragon Ball Heroes. It was pretty boring, except for the fights, which were, meh alright. They never showed Goku in his normal behaviour. The only good part was when Goku was in Grand-Ultra Instinct. So there you have it folks! The title "More Interesting" goes to Moro Arc. This is it. This was small, but hope it suffices. Do follow me for more posts. Meet you later!

#dragon ball #anime #dragon ball super

[daniel306gaming]

¿What if Thanos fought the MCU Villains?

To: Josh Brolin and Marvel Studios

Intro

¿What if events went differently in the MCU? ¿What if Thanos fought the MCU villains? In today’s fan fiction we’re going to be exploring what would have happened if the heroes of the MCU lost against their respective enemies. ¿How can this affect the future of the MCU going forward? This will be a dark story so if you’re unable to accept the fact that your favorite Avengers will be killed then this fan fiction isn’t for u. This an original what if created by me following the mythology of Thanos and the Marvel villains and the timeline of the MCU. Without wasting anymore time sit back and relax and enjoy this very dark fan fiction. 

                                                                                           Prologue

Since the beginning of time, the age long argument has been whether man gets to control his future or not. The answer is yes and no. Man gets to control his future by the choices he makes. An individual alias a third party, can alter the future of another man by changing his choice slightly. Even if a choice is made a few minutes or seconds earlier this results in a whole new story for the individual and the people who his choice affects. Today were going to be seeing a completely different universe where the Avengers didn’t exist and Thanos tackled the MCU villains instead so for those of u who are fans of the MCU villains this fan fiction is for all of u my fellow Watchers. I am one of the Watchers and i am ur guide to these vast new realities. Follow me and pounder the question. What if...

                                                                        Act 1 (Formation of Hydra)

Our story will begin during the final battle between Captain America and Red Skull on the aircraft in the 1st Avenger with the events of the film playing out the same as in your universe. Captain America and Red Skull were fighting in close quarters combat and they would knock out the Tesseract which created a wormhole. Our story begins with Steve Rogers being sucked into the wormhole instead of the Red Skull. With Steve gone Red Skull manage to bomb the American cities changing the entire course of the war. Shield was never formed and Hydra ruled over the world with an iron fist for the next 6 and a half decades. Arnim Zola transferred his consciousness into a artificial computer after his death. Hydra was everywhere and became the world police. 

                                  Act 2 (Formation of the Dark Avengers)

In the current present day universe at Stark Industries Obadiah Stane became the new CEO after Tony Stark was killed in a terrorist attack in Afghanistan. According to the reports Tony was hired to make more Jericho missiles for them and he refused being executed alongside Doctor Yinsen who originally saved his life. With Tony dead Obadiah continue to develop the weapons program and killed Rhodey and Pepper.  A.I.M. under Aldrich Killian made a joint partnership with Justin Hammer of Hammer Industries. Together with Stark Industries they were the main 3 competitors of the world. Hammer even approached Ivan Vanko to join them to which agreed and became Whiplash. However, he didn’t have vengeance in him since Tony was already dead. The following year in 2011 the events of the Incredible Hulk 2008 were playing out the same but the only difference was that Hydra wanted to capture the Hulk and Abomination this time would be much stronger and powerful than the Hulk. Our story resumes during the final battle at Harlem as with Abomination being superior than the Hulk managed to grab the Hulk by the neck and choke him to death before turning back into Bruce Banner. Abomination then ripped apart Bruce Banner killing him for good much to the horror of Betty Ross. Abomination then returned to the military after killing Hulk. In New Mexico a banished Thor and the Warriors 3 were fighting the Destroyer who was sent by Loki to kill Thor. However, the blast of the Destroyer was too much for Thor causing him to be pulverized alongside the Warriors 3 and would then continue to destroy the town while Black Widow and Hawkeye were killed by Taskmaster in Odessa. A year later in 2012 the Other would meet with Loki and grant him an army to rule over the world and began his invasion on New York. Loki also invited Laufey and the Frost Giants to help him invade Earth. Hydra who were the defenders of Earth fought off Loki’s army with the help of Iron Monger, A.I.M., Abomination, Taskmaster and Hammer Industries. However, as there wasn’t enough heroes with that caliber on their team Loki would easily win over his invasion and would fight off with the Red Skull who he easily defeats and kills him for good decimating Hydra and all their bases. All the other heroes survived while the Destroyer defeated the Abomination and was about to kill him when Loki possessed him making him his new bodyguard. With Hydra gone the World Security Council attempted to end the invasion by sending a nuclear missile in Midtown Manhattan. Iron Monger would be the one to make the sacrifice play and make a successful return with Abomination saving him. Loki won the Battle of New York but he decided to betray Thanos as he wanted to take over Earth making it his new home. The villains would later become known as the Dark Avengers. 

                         Act 3 (The Dark World and Winter Soldier)

A year has passed since Loki subjugated the people of Earth to his rule and it’s now 2013. Obadiah Stane has made a new armor much better than the original and made a much bigger version of the Iron Legion known as the Iron Mongers while Ivan Vanko made more of his drones for Justin Hammer and Aldrich Killian formed an Extremis army of his own. Loki enjoyed being the King of Earth and Asgard simultaneously while having the Scepter and Tesseract alias the Mind and Space Stone with him and he would be aware of the Infinity Stones since Thanos told him his plan the year before right when he invaded New York. Abomination and the Destroyer were Loki’s bodyguards and they found a new ally in the form of the Mandarin. In London a convergence was going on and Jane Foster who was still grieving from the death of Thor 2 years prior went to investigate it getting herself infected with the Aether which was the Reality Stone itself. Malekith was released but this time Loki would deal with him explaining to him how Thor has died and is now the new king of Asgard. Malekith and Loki would fight and would end with Loki defeating Malekith and using the scepter to control him and Algrim not before Malekith removed the Aether out of Jane but in this universe it would kill her and Malekith would wield the Aether going forward. Loki then named Malekith the new king of Asgard while Loki himself kept being the ruler of Earth. The following year in 2014 the Winter Soldier would emerge but with no Hydra the idea of Project Insight would never happen. Bucky himself would later join forces with Loki becoming part of the Dark Avengers and Loki gave him the mantle of Captain America or better yet Captain Hydra with a green uniform. Elsewhere, in space the events of Guardians of the Galaxy were playing out the same but this time during the final battle with Ronan Drax and Rocket tried to fight off Ronan and they defeated him but the Power Stone was too much for them causing them to be obliterated instead of Ronan. With the Guardians dead Ronan did what he said he would do and he decimated Xandar. Ronan then reported to Thanos on his success but the Mad Titan was furious as he had killed Gamora and the 2 battled in close quarters combat that ended with Thanos grabbing Ronan by the neck choking him to death obtaining the Power Stone. Nebula asked Thanos what the next course of action should be and told him that with the betrayal from Ronan and Loki he would have to find the Infinity Stones himself. Ego the Living Planet found out about this and vowed to take revenge on Thanos for the death of his son. 

                                                                      Act 4 (More new members)

In 2015, Loki decided that he needed someone else on his team but this time he wanted someone that wasn’t human. Therefore, in collaboration with Arnim Zola and Obadiah Stane they created Ultron but would be controlled by Loki and Ultron would create dozens of Ultron Sentries. Darren Cross alias the Yellowjacket managed to kill Scott Lang alias Ant-Man along with Hank Pym and Hope van Dyne meaning that Janet would stay imprisoned in the Quantum Realm and Darren would then join the Dark Avengers. In 2016, thanks to the Avengers’s non existence Sokovia wouldn’t fall from the sky thus the idea of the Sokovia Accords never came to be but Baron Zemo would still join the Dark Avengers nevertheless.  In Wakanda, Killmonger killed T’Chaka after stabbing him in the heart during their duel for the throne and in the final battle at the end of the original film he would go on to kill T’Challa, Ramonda, Shuri, Okoye, M’Baku, Nakia and Everett Ross becoming the king of Wakanda. The Dora Milaje and Jabari Tribe submitted to Killmonger and Klaw and decided to hide themselves from the world for the next few months to avoid being spotted by Loki. However, it would soon not be enough as Ultron and his drones arrived at Wakanda being sent there by Loki to kill Killmonger. However, Killmonger managed to make a deal with Wakanda which was that Ultron would gain all the vibranium and in return Killmonger and Klaw would receive a spot in the Dark Avengers team. The deal was made and Ultron upgraded himself with vibranium while Killmonger joined the Dark Avengers alongside the Vulture who had just killed Spider-Man. Elsewhere, in the Sanctum Sanctorum in New York City the Ancient One became the sole guardian of the Time Stone after Doctor Strange ended up being killed in his car accident. Wong fought Kaecilius but was easily killed. The Ancient One retreated temporarily to the Himalayas but Kaecilius found her killing her for good taking the Time Stone. Kaecilius then became the new Sorcerer Supreme and the guardian of the Time Stone joining the Dark Avengers along with Mordo. 

                                Act 5 (Ragnarok and Infinity War)

The following year in 2017 Loki went to Norway to see his father who has awoken from the Odinsleep. Odin told Loki that his sister Hela and Ragnarok was coming after his death adding that without Thor, Asgard and the Nine Realms are doomed. Loki was doubtful about this before he gave his final goodbye to his father dying going to Valhalla. Loki then returned to Asgard only to see Malekith and the Dark Elves all slaughtered. Hela then appeared before him telling him how he has taken over Asgard and the conquest of the Nine Realms has begun. Loki then decided to join her but only on one condition and that was to not destroy Earth. She accepted and thus they began to plan their next course of action. Asgard survived therefore when Thanos retrieved the Power Stone after decimating Xandar he decided to launch an invasion of Asgard as Hela and Loki were on Asgard and they had the Space and Reality Stone. He also obtained the Soul Stone after sacrificing Nebula earlier on Vormir after making the exchange with Steve Rogers (who in this universe became the guardian of the Soul Stone) before he got the Power Stone. Thanos and his armies arrived on Asgard. Loki approached the Mad Titan and told him what he needed when Thanos told him that he did not repay his debt years ago after the Battle of New York which infuriated him. Hela and the Asgardians prepared to take on the Mad Titan as they saw Loki from afar. Thanos then grabbed Loki by the neck and choked him to death in front of all of Asgard. Thanos send down the Black Order and all of his armies to take on the Asgardians while Thanos himself fought Hela. Hela became furious with the death of her brother and instead of fighting him she unleashed Surtur but it didn’t stop Thanos from stealing the Reality Stone while she escapes with the Asgardians and Skurge who became the guardian of the Bifrost after Heimdall was killed years ago by Loki. Thanos would then fight Surtur who then destroys Asgard but Thanos and Surtur continue fighting it out in Niffleheim. Thanos eventually used the Power Stone to destroy Surtur and thus told his army that now they will now be heading to Earth for the final battle against Earth’s defenders. In 2018 Hela and the Asgardians arrived at the Sanctum Sanctorum telling them that Thanos was coming soon and that Surtur failed to stop him. She also told him how their leader Loki has died Kaecilius thought of this and realized that if they lose he would have to call Dormammu but years ago he had made a deal with him in which if he helped him stop the Ancient One then he would leave Earth alone. Dormammu agreed to the deal and Kaecilius afterward imprisoned him. Kaecilius contacted the Dark Avengers telling him about Loki’s death and Thanos’s arrival. The team was devastated to hear about Loki’s demise but at least they had his sister Hela to take his place. Ultron decided that the best place for the final battle would be Wakanda as he had equipped it himself with vibranium over the last few years and Killmonger and Klaw were residing there. With that being said they traveled to Wakanda to meet with them and when they were preparing the sky turned black. Everyone saw as the Mad Titan had arrived. The Dark Avengers, Wakandans, Asgardians, Masters of the Mystic Arts, Ultron Sentries, Stark Industries, A.I.M., Hammer Industries, Kree, Pym Technologies, the Frost Giants, the World Security Council and the U.S. Military were all ready for the battle and the wormhole with Thanos and the Black Order and their armies opened and the final ultimate battle for the world soon began. 

                                                                                          Final act

The battle was humongous and it was not ending. Thanos fought Klaw, Ultron and Hela while Yellowjacket, Killmonger and Abomination fought the Black Order and everyone else fought Thanos’s armies. Amidst the battle something much bigger came and it was none other than Ego the Living Planet himself. Ego told Thanos that he would pay for killing Quill indirectly and started attacking him. Thanos fought with Ego temporarily giving Hela the chance to easily kill the Black Order with ease. Thanos was shocked to see his children die in front of him. Ego then turned into Pac-Man injuring Thanos badly. Thanos knew that fighting head on with a celestial is dangerous especially if he is a living planet. Thanos knew that he can kill Ego by demolishing his brain. Thanos tried to do so but Ego defended it but in the process injured himself severely. All the other villains fought Thanos hard but even with their numbers they were easily defeated. Thanos then grabbed Ultron ripping the Mind Stone from his head killing Ultron for good and destroyed the Tesseract obtaining the Space Stone. With all 5 stones now all he needed was the Time Stone. They could not believe it. Their main defender has just perished and the drones went offline. Hela knew that without him all hope was lost but Kaecilius still having the Time Stone could reverse time. Kaecilius than reversed time to the moment Thanos defeated them. Kaecilius then immediately brought Thanos to the Dark Dimension before he could get tot Ultron. Dormammu saw him and Thanos was horrified to see him. They both dueled in a Goliath battle. Dormammu won and slained Thanos by imprisoning him in the Dark Dimension. Karcilius thanked Dormammu and he would always be grateful to have him by his side. He then returned to Earth and the Dark Avengers knew that they had to destroy the Stones. The Black Order had been killed by Hela while the rest of the armies were decimated from the bombardments from the military and the Ultron Sentries. However, when they were deciding their fate THANOS RETURNED. Thanos had somehow slained Dormammu. Kaecilius was horrified to see that not even the Dark Dimension but he somewhat looked older. Thanos then introduced himself as King Thanos and attacked the villains at a faster speed. Hela who was not attacked told Ultron to quickly perform the Snap. Ultron then became his Infinity self from What if… and attacked King Thanos before engaging in a close quarters multiversal battle. The Victor became Ultron before telling him that “This will be peace in our time” before finally snapping his fingers and King Thanos dusted away. 

                                                                                        Epilogue

It was over but the stones were not destroyed so they decided to spread the stones away with the Kree having the Power Stone, Hela having the Space and Reality Stone, Abomination having the Soul Stone, Kaecilius having the Time Stone and Ultron with the Mind Stone. Ego and Yon-Rogg would eventually join the Dark Avengers. The world became a safe place again with the Dark Avengers returning if any threat like Thanos retuned. Ultron then to hear a voice in his head saying “¿What if you conquered and destroyed the multiverse?” Ultron then grinned realizing that it wasn’t a bad plan after all thus setting his eyes on the Dark Avengers with the intent of destroying them…

                                                                                           THE END!

And that is going to be ¿What if Thanos fought the MCU villains? This was a really big MCU fan fiction and very hard to complete but all of the MCU villains pre phase 4 were in here shut i wanted to leave it on a cliffhanger to see what you’ll would think can happen. ¿Will Ultron turn on the Dark Avengers? This is the last fan fiction of 2022 and I can’t think you’ll enough for all the support. It’s been a great 6 months and there is tons more to come but I will post one more thing before the year ends so be on the lookout for that and more what ifs coming soon. Take care guys and have a fantastic day. Peace out! 

#marvel studios #infinity saga

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Sunday, October 23

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

"Big Bad" (Spike, G) by Dynames2308

No Free Passes (Buffy, Spike, Tara, T, Anti-Spike) by rottenwraith

All Worked Up (Angel/Spike, E) by girlpire

By A Thread (Buffy/Spike, G) by Willow9124

Judgement City (Angel/Cordelia, T) by VergeofChaos

In From The Cold (Buffy/Spike, T) by Redbone135

[Chaptered Fiction]

Rebel Yell, Chapter 2 (Spike/Reader, E) by faeriemoon

Once Upon A Slayer: The Gift, Chapter 1 (Multiple crossings, T) by BrennaLynn

Aftermath, Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, E) by RavenLove12

When in Rome, Chapter 67 (Dawn/Spike, T, French language) by OldGirl-NoraArlani

If at First you don't succeed, Chapter 1 (Ensemble, T) by Serenity'sVision

The Great Destroyer, Chapter 3 (OCs, T) by Yosoy Panqueques

Why Are There 26 Letters?, Chapter 23 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Indi_Shaw

Everything Has to Go, Chapter 4 (Buffy/Spike, R) by rkm

If Only, Chapter 18 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by MixSaysRawr

The Thing About Being on the Road, Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by scratchmeout

Bound, Chapter 22 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by RavenLove12

Anything You Can Do, Chapter 9 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Daxeah

i'm only a man (with a candle to guide me), Chapter 4 (Buffy/Spike, R) by trevino

Magic Man, Chapter 11 (Buffy/Spike, AO) by Touchstoneaf

Fade Away Again, Chapter 3 (Buffy/Spike, PG) by Willow25

It's Easy Time, Until It's Not, Chapter 2 (Buffy/Spike, AO) by hulettwyo

Use It or Lose It, Chapter 32 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Dynamite

You Can't Fight Fate - But You Can Piss Him Off, Chapter 48 (Crossover with Batman, FR13) by Hermionetobe

March of Faith, Chapter 21 (Crossover with March Upcountry, FR15) by batzulger

We don't need another Hero... or do we?, Chapter 13 (Crossover with Black Panther, FR18) by CrazyDan

Lex Marks the Spot, Chapter 31 (Crossover with Justice League, FR21) by dogbertcarroll

The Road to Hell...., Chapter 12 (Spike/Buffy, NC-17) by All4Spike

Waiting On My Spaceship, Chapter 3 (Spike/Buffy, NC-17) by Chelle

Echoes of Beljoxa, Chapter 7 (Spike/Buffy, 18+) by myrabeth

What Makes a Monster, Chapter 9 (Spike/Buffy, 18+) by SleepingTigress

[Images, Audio & Video]

Artwork:BTVS “Every Outfit” “Superstar” Xx by whatshisfaceblogs

Artwork:buffy the vamper slamper by invasato

Artwork:she is the worst girl ever created and i am deeply in love with her (Faith) by xxriotgrrrlb0yxx

Artwork: thinking abt 80s dru by spikedru

Meme:Buffy the Vampire Slayer as tumblr text posts 22/? by layer-of-slayers

Meme:fuffy textposts 1/? by incorrectmultis

Gifset:BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER 6.05 | LIFE SERIAL by charmedbuffy

Gifset:SPUFFY + Labyrinth by Taylor Swift by mulderscully

Gifset:RUPERT GILES Buffy the Vampire Slayer | (2.20) “Go Fish” by whatisyourchildhoodtrauma

Video: Buffy the vampire Slayer - Cover [OPENING] by Jose Carmona Estudio

Video: lookbook d’automne inspiration buffy contre les vampires / 9 idées de tenues 90s / pocket tiger by pocket tiger

Song: Buffy Buffy (inspired by the show) by Dominick Girraputo

[Reviews & Recaps]

Slayer Sunday-Choices by Jane Talks Reel

Buffy 3x16 Dopplegangland - REACTION! Willow The Dominatrix by Big Time Knights

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER S3 EP10 (REACTION) - 'TIS THE SEASON by CLC Reacts

Bel Watches Buffy 2x14 "Innocence" Reaction by Sisnerdly

One more thing to lose | Buffy the Vampire Slayer 2x22 "Becoming (Part 2)" REACTION AND REVIEW by Haarute

Buffy The Vampire SLayer 4x08 - "Pangs" Reaction by DodoReactions

Buffy S02E09 What's My Line (Part 1) REACTION by Cyber Manor

CRYING YET AGAIN - Buffy the Vampire Slayer Reaction - 5x2- Spiral by TheLexiCrowd

PODCAST: Spiral S5 E20 by Buffy and the Art of Story

[Community Announcements]

2022 Sign Up dates! via calendiles-secret-santa

West of the Storm blog has moved! via sleepingtigress24

[Fandom Discussions]

Five Classic vids (for Buffyverse Top 5) by Sparrow2000

C/A Week Day 6: Favorite Cangel Centric Episode by moistvonlipwig

Re: Angel in BTVS. The fan theory that the gypsies actually cursed Angel with the soul of the girl he killed instead of Liam’s soul, um, makes a ton sense? by mysharona1987

References from Shakespeare's poetry by Nothing13

Short Story Contest Voting! by Plasma

What's the consensus on Buffy's fashion choices in this season? by multiple authors

Angel Season 5 Rewatch - #20 The Girl In Question by Involvere and Nina

POLL: AtS 5 Villainy - Vail v Hamilton by multiple authors

Characters' average screentime per episode by Tuxedo_Mark

POLL: You can only save one by floppy-socktopus

POLL: Who was creepier? by Opening_Knowledge868

POLL: Who was Giles' true love? by jdpm1991

Darla Questions by multiple authors

An Alternate Ending by multiple authors

New viewer - Spike's accent by multiple authors

The sounds of kissing this show are wild. by multiple authors

Rewatching Killer In Me: Explain this dialogue to me by multiple authors

Help explaining Dawn to a new watcher by multiple authors

What throw away line did you want to know more about? by multiple authors

First Time Watcher by multiple authors

with Halloween coming soon and season 2 happened where everyone turned into their costumes, what would be yours? by multiple authors

In show reason - Why didn't Wesley call Buffy to help him protect Connor in season 3? by multiple authors

Some thoughts: We should’ve had a full season of Faith being good, and half of a season where Buffy and Faith were a duo. Yes, I understand the plot could’ve only really taken place in s3,, but Faiths villain arc felt a little rushed. by multiple authors

They just don't make shows like these anymore. by multiple authors

Illyria vs glory by multiple authors

[Articles, Interviews, and Other News]

PUBLICATION: Buffy The Vampire Slayer: 10 Memes That Perfectly Sum Up Dawn As A Character via ScreenRant

PUBLICATION: Buffy The Vampire Slayer: 10 Most Wholesome Relationships On The Show via ScreenRant

PUBLICATION: Buffy Celebrates Huluween by Revealing the Scooby Gang's Coffee Orders via CBR

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Join the editor team :)

[alisonygocorner]

My favorite decks and series in YGO

Starting with the anime, I like Duel Monsters, mostly for the characters’ sake since I’m a Puzzleshipper for life! BUUUT I honestly only really still love parts of that particular show. I like the bridging episodes between Duelist Kingdom and Battle City, I like the tournament arc between Dartz and the final adventure in Egypt, and just whenever the series focuses on Yugi and the Pharaoh’s relationship, and a few scattered duels here and there, But most of the stuff in between all of that just doesn’t hold my interest like it used to. That being said, the Ceremonial Duel and Darkside of Dimensions are pretty spectacular, and they’re the parts I go back towards the most! And I have seen most of DM, GX and 5D’s, but it’s only really recently that I started seriously watching the English subbed version of 5D’s on Hulu, and it’s probably my favorite series ever in terms of writing, presentation, dueling and characters (I love Yusei so much gldsf) AT THE MOMENT that’s as far as my relationship with the anime goes. As for the cards, I’m just going to list my favorite decks that I’ve been playing pretty consistently over the past few months! 1) Despian Darklords 2) Blended HEROs 3) Super Quantum 4) Cyber Dragon 5) Thunder Dragon With a bit of Floowandereeze and Eldlich thrown in! And if you twisted my arm and forced me to pick a main, it’d be HEROs. they’re my babies lol Speaking of, I know everyone is probably sick of Destroyer Phoenix Enforcer, but I have to say, it’s been amazing actually having a Phoenix Enforcer as a Destiny HERO, considering he was the ace of the dude who first had them!

[turnedinto-themoon]

EVERYONE SHUT UP!!! It’s his day

#HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY KING #MY FAVORITE BOY #LOOK AT HIM #dabi #touya todoroki #mha #bnha #my hero academia #mha dabi #HES SO PRETTY #MY FAVORITE 1 HERO DESTROYER #MY FAVORITE LIFE RUINER

[wisteria-lodge]

Not the finale, but can you talk about what you mean with Supernatural being basically three seperate shows?

Phase 1 (Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 )

Eric Kripke Does Star Wars. It's a Joseph Campbell-style Hero's Journey. And it's effective. I mean, the Hero's Journey formula *works.* It's nice to see the world open up, see the hero increase his powers and knowledge. Tonally, it's going for sort of exaggerated Stephen King-esque horror, or modern Western.

Thematically, this is a story about Personal Choice vs Dictated Roles. (I mean. "Team Free Will," the heavy motif of possession, the anti-possession symbol that doubles as the logo of the show...) The characters are trying to throw off the identities given to them by their various parental figures - God the father, John the father - and by end of this part of the show, they do.

Phase 2 (Seasons 6, 8, 9, 10, 11)

(not 7, I'll get to it)

The Gang Goes to Therapy. The characters go from dealing with external problems to problems inside their own heads. Almost every *issue* during this period is just... one of the main characters. Soulless!Sam, Wall!Sam, Hallucifer!Sam, Trials!Sam, Gadreel!Sam. Purgatory!Dean, Mark of Cain!Dean, Demon!Dean, God!Castiel, Insane!Castiel, Human!Castiel, Grace Vampire!Castiel, Brainwashed!Castiel, Lucifer!Castiel... Villains who aren't *literally* our main characters are metaphysically tied to them in that gothic, Doctor Jekyll/Mr. Hyde sort of way. Structurally, the show isn't about the plot anymore. (Like... the plot of these seasons is just that Heaven and Hell have civil wars, but no one is able to grab enough power to meaningfully change anything.)

The show digs into what *exactly* is wrong with each of these characters, and the toxic relationships they have with each other. Then they start the long, messy work of healing. I cannot think of another show that focuses on that, not to this degree. Season 11 ends with Dean symbolically confronting his Id/Anima for the first time - and the Creator and Destroyer gods of the universe set the world back into balance.

Because it goes in a more gothic/noir direction, and because it is SO focused on character, this part of the show gets a lot more morally grey. And weirder. People who don't like this period use words like "messy" and "repetitive" and "unstructured," and that isn't quite fair. Sam and Dean aren't cowboys anymore. They're noir detectives - so you have to watch these seasons like a more slowly paced psychological neo-noir. You do that, and it's honestly my favorite show.

Phase 3 (Seasons 12, 13, 14, 15)

The Jack Show. Sam, Dean and Cas deal with a pregnancy - then a kid - and learn how to be good parents and authority figures. (Like, Jensen Ackles is in his 40s now, you can't write the same kinds of stories for him that you could when he was in his twenties.) Coming from a show that has always been interested in exploring the psychological complexities of bad parents - this is a really responsible direction, honestly.

Dean is worried about becoming his father (which is why he gets possessed by Michael, who has always been symbolically linked with John.) Sam is more interested in becoming a responsible *leader* who does not self-destruct, and Cas gets this coming-out-later-in-life / queer kid storyline. And Mary is here of course, because in order to be a responsible authority, you can't idealize authority. The show becomes a lot less angsty, as Sam and Dean are written more and more as mentors for the younger characters. Any backsliding they do is treated as a problem, not business-as-usual. Tonally, Phase 3 gets *bigger* than Phase 2. More operatic.

Phase 3 also gets more of a plot. We get a lot of status-quo changing worldbuilding with factions like the witch covens, the British Men of Letters, the American Hunters, and the alternate universes. The *president* is a character now. Heavy-hitters like Michael, Lucifer, and Chuck are back. Sam and Dean go up against 'nothing you do matters' toxic authority one last time - and they win because they did a damn good job raising Jack.

Season 7... feels wrong because it's a Phase 3 storyline stuck in the middle of Phase 2. It's campier and sillier than the seasons surrounding it, and it's about a large-scale societal villain, not a personal, internal one. Season 12 hit a lot of the same beats much better using the British Men of Letters (who are also way more fun as villains.) The Phase 2 style aspects of Season 7 - Bobby's insecurity and struggle with becoming obsolete, Sam's mental battle with his own inner darkness - feel really out of place next to a main villain literally named Dick who wants to poison MacDonalds happy meals.

#supernatural #supernatural meta #dean winchester meta #sam winchester meta #castiel meta #jack kline meta #spn retrospective #spn three show thesis #joseph campbell

[hiddles-and-skittles]

Top 5 Seb roles please 💕💕

I would like to preface this by saying that any single one of his characters can get it🥰

It's so weird, in middle school I had a crush on Jefferson but I never even put together that he was Bucky-and I'd known Bucky longer!!! And, I didn't pay attention to Seb until around this time last year (a little earlier). So Bucky's been my sweetheart for a year now💙

#1 Top role HAS to be Bucky. A prisoner in his own mind, but a hero in all of ours. I love this sweet boy inside and out. 40's Bucky is my favorite and it's hard to find fics with him💔

#2 Currently gunnin' for Steve Kemp! If you take away the uh, cannibalism, he's not so bad...right?

#3 Okay listen, Lance Tucker can fuck me up I don't even care. That arrogance is everything. Shit. I bet you I couldn't make eye contact with him.

#4 Tommy Lee-shit, rockstar Seb. Jesus Christ. The tattoos. The...the piercings. Size doesn't matter to me, let me (gently) tug at those nip piercings please🥺 THE EYELINER OKAY, IT WAS A THING WITH JEFFERSON AND NOW I'M HERE

#5 I'm also a hoe for Lee Bodecker😅 I want to be ass end out the sheriff's car front end in, you know how it goes😏 I'm just a Pepsi cup, sir.

Bonus: Charles Blackwood!!! The fluffy hair! The yelling🤤 Had a weird thing with his cousin but, still!

Sadly I haven't seen all of his stuff! Haven't watched Endings, Beginnings. Or Political Animals, Kings, The 355, Monday, The Last Full Measure (had this recorded but lost my cable), Destroyer, I, Tonya, I'm Not Here, The Covenant, and several others. Not for lack of trying, I just don't know where to find any of them!

#asks🥺 #🖤 #this took a while to find the gifs lmao #bucky barnes #sebastian stan #lance tucker #charles blackwood #lee bodecker #rockstar seb #steve kemp #fresh #we have always lived in the castle #the bronze #pam and tommy #the devil all the time

[erin-gilberts]

Do you have any favorite scenes from the original Ghostbusters films?

I definitely need to rewatch Ghostbusters 2 to remember what all happens in it, but -

1) Undoubtedly the courtroom scene from the second film is one of the most entertaining scenes from all four films. It's just a fucking delight. The guys look so excited to be back, and the sound of them switching on their proton packs after a long absence while they do that oh-so-very-autistic "do re Egon" thing is like a crescendo without music. It builds and you hold your breath while it does. Makes the audience feel like kids again. SO good. And the judge just hollering like a jackass until the ghost attacks him is very funny to me.

2) I think time has made us misremember the team from the first film as these badass heroes, but really? In GB1, they were just some guys. Doing their best. Often failing stupendously at it. Very average guys even if they were very smart. When they roll up to the Shandor to a crowd of New Yorkers and reporters cheering them on and hoping they succeed, they're immediately swallowed up by a sinkhole like, oh sorry, these guys you were counting on to save the world were instantly, immediately killed. They don't die, of course - and then they have to take dozens and dozens of flights of stairs up to where the action is even happening. They're not heroes who know everything is going to work out for them because they're the main characters of the story, they're just Some Guys doing their best because it's the right thing to do. I find this super endearing about them.

3) "When someone asks if you're a god, you say YES!" - Winston Zeddemore

4) The whole scene where Gozer tells them to choose the form of the destroyer. The fact that Venkman technically chose J. Edgar Hoover. The way they all turn on Ray and he sputters that it just popped in there; he tried to think of something that could never hurt them - the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

5) "I lOvE tHiS pLaN! I'm excited to be a part of it!" - actual leadership behavior from Peter Venkman! Him encouraging his team about a plan he's not enthusiastic about one bit because it needs to be done.

6) Walter Peck is a goddamn delight in every scene. I love when Janine basically tells him to get a warrant, follows him down the stairs shouting "I tried to stop him!" and joins Egon in defending the power thing from Peck. I love when Stay Puft steps on the church and the person on the ground having a real bad day looking at this is Walter Peck. I love when the marshmallow fluff starts falling from the sky and he just lets out the most frustrated scream you've ever heard in your life. He's having a bad day by his own design.

7) The citizens celebrating them at the end of GB1. Answer the Call holds my favorite "we believe you" response from the citizens because it's so subtle and so powerful - the lights on the buildings demonstrating how the impact you have on the people who matter the most can far outweigh the official recognition or gratitude you deserve but may never receive, can far outweigh that they might call you crazy for doing the right thing. We know, those lights whisper, we always will, and our knowledge of what you did for us can't be censored away, as much as others may try. The crowd response in GB1 strikes a different tone; it's much more openly celebratory and relieved, but it's all-in-all pure and wholesome af. I love seeing the city come together to validate and celebrate them. I love how they cheer for the Ghostbusters and they seem crushed when they think the team has been sucked into the sinkhole.

#erin is talking #asks #ghostbusters #ghostbusters 1984

[reallivegeekgirl]

StanQuest

Something clicked on in my brain a couple months ago and suddenly Sebastian Stan became the hottest man alive. So I decided to watch everything he’s ever been in. A friend and I called it StanQuest.

Here are my spoiler-free reviews for anyone considering something similar (in inverse chronological order starting with latest works and going back in time. The stars are an overall rating of the work, not of Sebastian’s performance.

This only lists things I could find streaming for free or a price I was willing to pay. It does not count after credits scenes, music videos, or works in which he was uncredited.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021) - TV show - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - This started it all. I very much enjoyed it. Good balance of humor and action, heart and heroics. I’ve watched it four times already, and will watch it again. Bucky Barnes is my favorite character of his and this is my favorite story of Bucky's so far. I can’t wait to see what he does next. (And I have a lot to say about how they treat his trauma in this show. I’ve definitely written about it before and may again.)

Monday (2020) - Movie - ⭐⭐⭐ - This is the one where he gets naked. If that’s all you’re looking for, enjoy. It was a very realistic portrayal of a relationship between two deeply flawed people. It can get depressing. But hey, penis.

The Devil All the Time (2020) - Movie - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - If you think Monday is depressing, this movie says “hold my beer”. But something about it is just captivating. It’s really disturbing, and if you’ve ever been screwed over by American Evangelical Christianity it might be more disturbing. Still, I’ve watched it twice. And as much of a bastard as Lee Bodecker is, he also looks really cuddly. He’s just barely in it.

The Last Full Measure (2019) - Movie - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - You will cry. A lot. It’s based on a true story. Sebastian plays a man who cares more about his career than this weird quest dumped on his desk by his boss, but changes his mind and his heart as he investigates why a war hero was denied a medal of honor 34 years before. Definitely recommend.

Endings, Beginnings (2019) - Movie - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - One of two love interests in the complicated life of Shailene Woodley’s Daphne, Sebastian is an adorable mess. The editing is interesting and fresh feeling. Watch it and you’ll see what I mean. Fair amount of sex in this movie, and you see his butt. It’s a very nice butt. I’ve watched this one a few times so far.

Avengers: Endgame (2019) - Movie - ⭐⭐ - There is no reason to watch this movie if you’re not familiar with at least most of the rest of the MCU. It plays merry hob with the rules of time travel, and only makes sense if you don’t really think about it. In my opinion, the ending is really freaking stupid comsidering his character’s history, but at least it sets up TFatWS, which was amazing.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle (2018) - Movie - ⭐ - If you’re into movies that are creepy but also almost nothing happens for most of the movie, this is the one for you. Sebastian is handsome as hell, but also a complete asshole. As fine as he is, I’m not gonna watch this again. I fucking hated it.

Destroyer (2018) - Movie - ⭐⭐- I had a hard time paying attention to the plot because it seemed like they made this movie just to get Nicole Kidman an Oscar nomination for wearing ugly makeup and playing a complete mess of a person. It’s a fine movie, and all of the performances are good. Sebastian looks surprisingly good with the short hair and goatee. Ultimately, the plot is depressing and the whole movie seems kind of pointless.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018) - Movie - ⭐⭐- Again, no reason to watch this if you aren’t already familiar with all the movies leading up to it. It’s long and the villain looks like Grimace and a California Raisin had an evil baby. The ending made me scream with frustration that I had to wait until the next one came out. Now I just watch them back-to-back if I watch them at all. It’s not a good movie, but it is part of a long-form story that I enjoy in general.

I’m Not Here (2017) - Movie - ⭐⭐- Another depressing one. Told over the course of one man’s terrible life, it’s a sad account of how much your parents can fuck you up. Sebastian portrays the middle part of the man’s life. J.K. Simmons plays the current day part and unreliable narrator.. Do not watch unless you are fully prepared to be sad for a really long time after.

I, Tonya (2017) - Movie - ⭐⭐⭐- This movie is hilarious. I mean, the true story is insane and really stupid. The spousal abuse is hard to watch, and Sebastian’s mustache in this is a war crime. But the acting is great and it’s a very engaging movie. The parts that aren’t horrifying are pretty funny.

Logan Lucky (2017) - Movie - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Watch. This. Movie. Sebastian Stan is only in it a little, but it’s a really fun, clever caper/heist movie and everyone in it is fantastic. I don’t want to say anything else about it if you’re going in fresh. I’ll be rewatching this one a lot

Captain America: Civil War (2016) - Movie - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - If you ignore how kind of silly the conflict over the Sokovia Accords is, this is a good Marvel movie. Sebastian gets a lot of screen time because Bucky is the more pressing concern/urgent point of contention than the Accords. Bucky is my favorite character of his partly because of this movie.

The Martian (2015) - Movie - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - I’m watching it(again) as I’m typing this. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve watched it. Sebastian Stan isn’t in it very much, but he’s very cute and so is his little story arc. Mostly I watch it because Ridley Scott made a fantastic movie. If you can get your hands on the Blu-Ray, it comes with a ton of extras. They made a very complete story that isn’t all seen in the movie. A lot of it is stuff about Mars, but there are also extra “crew” interviews, so there’s another chance to see more of Sebastian’s character.

Ricki and the Flash (2015) - Movie - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - He’s not in this very much, but he’s very cute when he does appear. It’s all about the relationship between Ricki and her daughter. Definitely rewatchable. Meryl Streep is fantastic, because she’s Meryl Streep.

The Bronze (2015) - Movie - ⭐ - This is not a good movie. It’s about Olympic gymnastics, so it might be slightly more interesting right now while the Olympics are happening. Sebastian isn’t in it a lot, but his performance is certainly… memorable. Weirdest sex scene I’ve ever seen. Worth watching just for that.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) - Movie - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - This is the one I can watch over and over. I bought a Winter Soldier face mask for when I need to feel like a badass. Bucky’s story is really sad, but he’s also extremely sexy with the metal arm and determined walk.

Once Upon a Time (2012-2013) - TV Show - ⭐⭐⭐ - This show is so stupid, but it’s also fun. If you haven’t seen it, the premise is that fairy tale characters are real and live in another land. Snow White’s Evil Queen casts a spell to transport a bunch of them to a town she creates in Maine called Storybrooke, and gives them all fake memories so she can be mayor and watch them all not remember who they are. Sebastian plays Jefferson, a.k.a. The Mad Hatter. He’s in a few episodes in season 1 and 2, and doesn’t get a ton of screen time, but he’s really cute and tragic as Jefferson. It probably helps to watch the whole first season just to understand his episodes, but that’s up to your tolerance for weird shit. Note: IMDB says he’s in an episode uncredited, but I’ve watched it and didn’t see him anywhere in that one.

Labyrinth (2012) - TV Mini-Series - ⭐⭐⭐ - Two episodes that tell a complete story. Sebastian isn’t in this one a whole lot, but he is adorable. It’s a strange story about religious stuff and a sort of Holy Grail that’s three books. It’s hard to describe. It’s on Amazon Prime right now, but they’re taking it down August 8, 2021, so watch it while you can.

The Apparition (2012) - Movie - ⭐ - If you like horror movies, you might like this. I did not. From what I understand, it’s not a very good horror movie. Watch with caution and expect it to suck.

Political Animals (2012) - TV Mini-Series - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - I had to buy this through Apple and watch it on a Mac, but it was worth it. Sebastian plays TJ Hammond, the out gay son of a former American president who is clearly based on Bill Clinton. Sigorney Weaver plays the former first lady and current secretary of state. TJ struggles with addiction and relationship problems. His performance is heart-wrenching. The whole show is pretty great. I wish there was more of it.

Gone (2012) - Movie - ⭐⭐⭐ - More of a psychological thriller than a horror movie. Sebastian has a small amount of screen time as the worried boyfriend. Amanda Seyfried is good. She carries the film well on her own.

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) - Movie - ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - If you haven’t seen this yet, I’d like to know what it’s like under your rock. This is a movie I can rewatch a lot, and have. I 100% cried in the theater. Sebastian looks fantastic in uniform as Bucky Barnes. This is his introduction and the start of his ultimately tragic story (before he’s saved by his best friend, again).

Black Swan (2010) - Movie - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Sebastian is barely in this. He’s basically just in one scene in a dance club. But I watched it to try to complete StanQuest, and I had seen it before. It’s a good movie, but might induce some nightmares, depending on what scares you. If Natalie Portman didn’t at least get a nomination for an award she was robbed.

Gossip Girl (2007-2010) - TV Show - ⭐⭐ - Carter Baizen is a little shit. The episodes with Sebastian in them might have made more sense if I watched the show from the beginning, but I didn’t want to. His character is an asshole, but a very cute one.

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) - Movie - ⭐⭐⭐- The people who made this movie are bad at math, and their rules of time travel are sketchy at best, but it is funny and entertaining. Sebastian plays a ski patrol bro who’s paranoid about the Russians, which is hilarious irony to me. Worth watching if you want to laugh at something dumb.

Kings (2009) - TV Show - ⭐⭐⭐- Sebastian plays Jack Benjamin, the closeted gay son of the king of a fictional place. It’s loosely based on the David and Goliath story from the Bible. Sebastian is so sad and so gay. His family makes his life a living hell. Ian McShane is a force of nature in this. It’s only one season. I’ve watched it twice. I will watch it again.

Spread (2009) - Movie - no stars - This movie was practically unwatchable. It stars Ashton Kutcher and Anne Heche as a romantic couple, I guess? I ended up just skipping to Sebastian’s scenes and only watching those. Still painful.

The Covenant (2006) - Movie - ⭐⭐⭐ - This movie is so fuckig stupid, and I will watch it a ridiculous number of times. It’s about magic and teenagers, like The Craft for boys. Nothing about it makes sense. It’s terrible, almost irredeemable, but an evil Sebastian with magic powers is a siren song that will make me steer my boat right into the rocks.

And there you have it. There are a bunch of earlier things on IMDB that I just can’t find or don’t want to pay to rent. Maybe some day I’ll watch them and add them to this list.

#sebastian stan #bucky barnes #the winter soldier #the falcon and the winter soldier #james buchanan barnes #monday: movie #the devil all the time #the last full measure #we have always lived in the castle #destroyer #endings beginnings #i'm not here #i tonya #logan lucky #ricki and the flash #the martian #the bronze #once upon a time #the covenant #spread #kings: show #Labyrinth: show #hot tub time machine #black swan #gossip girl #gone: movie #political animals #the apparition #movie reviews #celebrity crushes

[shadlad24]

Tumblr Master Post

(Third Mensiversary)

Hey, guys! So, instead of the usual monthly post, I decided to consolidate everything. From now on, I will update the following list and reblog it every 22nd. Enjoy!

Please note that Tumblr either cannot or will not preserve my formatting. So, I have used Google Docs as well. Please click on this link if you’d prefer that. It’s open to all. Thanks!

My posts are almost XWP-related and can be categorized into eight main categories (The pic below is merely for record-keeping and visualization purposes; scroll down for the actual links):

Questions

Curious— Why does everyone think Gabrielle/Renée O’Connor has green eyes?

A Favor to the God of War?— What in the world was the favor Ares wanted from Gabrielle during “Sacrifice”?

Smoking Gun?— Why did Hope knowing Solan’s name give her away as his killer?

Good Luck, Kid!— Why was security so bad in “Maternal Instincts”?

The Love of Your Love— Wasn’t the second verse of this song frustrating and hurtful to Gabrielle?

The (Many) Problem(s) with Ares— Why does so little about Ares’s character make sense?

Hard Ask— Can I PLEASE get a willing, able, AND reliable beta-reader for my Xena fanfic???

The (Many) Problem(s) with Ares [Reblog]— Three more questions about the god of war

No Way— Is the titular image of “Xena: Warrior Princess” what it seems?

Episode Reflections

Random Thoughts While Watching XWP— funny moments from “A Family Affair,” “Them Bones, Them Bones,” “Married with Fishsticks,” and “Coming Home”

Observations from “Sins of the Past”— fifteen things I noticed while watching the episode for the second time (first after completing the series)

Running Commentary on “A Family Affair”— just what it sounds like XD

Concluding Thoughts on “A Family Affair”— a defense of Hope and Gabrielle

Echoes Across the Years— how Solan’s last conversation with his mother echoed Gabrielle’s first with the warrior princess

Redeeming “Fishsticks,” Part 1— how the adults and themes in Gabrielle’s dreamworld held great significance

Redeeming “Fishsticks,” Part 2— how Crustacea’s monstrous children were re-imaginations of Hope and The Destroyer

Fault— my thoughts on the series finale

Good Luck, Kid! [Reblog]— a fun little extension of the original post showing the impression Gabrielle made on Hope

Original Fanfic Excerpts

The Mother of Hope, a collection of one-shots exploring Gabrielle’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences with/about her daughter

Disparity— Hope’s and Gabrielle’s conversation during the final commercial break of “A Family Affair”

Somewhere— Gabrielle searching Tartarus for Hope while Ares was harassing Xena and Solan in “God Fearing Child”

Super Challenge— the entire Rift Arc summed up in a single conversation, the lines of dialogue coming from each of the twelve Rift episodes of season three

Aperture— Gabrielle’s thoughts the night of her wedding

The Daughter of Duality, Hope’s life story from her perspective

My Great Hope— Seraphin prepares her goddess for childbirth

Hope Rising— Baby Hope makes a terrible mistake

“Tears of a Goddess: Blood Rain,” a one-shot exploring “Motherhood” from the goddess of love’s perspective

Useless— Aphrodite agonizes over what to do when alone with Gabrielle and Eve

Tears of a Goddess, a story in which Aphrodite comes clean about the large part she played in Gabrielle’s life behind the scenes

Gabrielle Rages against Xena— the bard finds herself at Aphrodite’s temple, heartbroken and lost after the series finale

Aphrodite Ribs Gabrielle— Aphrodite complains about Gabrielle’s mishaps throughout the show

Rapprochement, a story about Xena and Gabrielle hashing out The Rift Arc before finally coming together as a couple

The Answer— Xena reminds Gabrielle of who she is

Divine Intervention— Aphrodite blesses Xena and Gabrielle’s union

Adventures in Moving Forward, a chronicle of Aphrodite’s and Gabrielle’s adventures together post-AFIN and all my other XWP stories

Stranger— Aphrodite protects Gabrielle from a mob in Brittania

The Betrayer, Gabrielle's untold experience during “The Deliverer.”

Disturbance— Xena makes an unexpected suggestion on how to stop Gabrielle’s recurring nightmare

Deception— Khrafstar fills multiple voids in Gabrielle’s heart

Defilement— Reality slips away from Gabrielle with the loss of her blood innocence

Desecration— Gabrielle becomes one with darkness

Dissolution— The return of Gabrielle’s hero brings about only more tragedy

Fan Theories

Soul Orbits and Psychic Echoes— how Xena and Gabrielle got their children through equal and opposite people and circumstances

Shazam!— how Xena might be able to come back after the series finale

Man-Killer— what really happened to Toris

An Unsung Hero— Aphrodite being Gabrielle’s guardian angel throughout the Rift Arc

Infamous, Infuriated— why Xena engaged in the GabDrag (and BardBraining)

Solving Some Problems with Ares— answering two of my own questions about the god of war

Odd, Sort of Beautiful Symmetry— how we ended up with Annie and Harry

Soul Orbits and Psychic Echoes [Reblog]— an extension of the original theory that focuses more on Solan and Hope themselves

Solving More Problems with Ares— answering my next questions about the god of war

Episode Cracksubs

The Comedy of Amphipolis— “The Haunting of Amphipolis”

What in the Gurkhan?— “Who’s Gurkhan?”

Them Bones and Boneheads— “Them Bones, Them Bones”

TL;DRs— cliff-notes version of longer posts

TL;DR #1: Soul Orbits and Psychic Echoes

TL;DR #2: Infamous, Infuriated

TL;DR #3: The (Many) Problem(s) with Ares

Funny Little Moments— (Five:) a series highlighting overlooked silly things from each episode, illustrated in pictures and cracksubs / (More:) summation posts showcasing additional funny moments from each episode, in half-season chunks

Five Funny Little Moments #1: “Sins of the Past”

Five Funny Little Moments #2: Chariots of War

Five Funny Little Moments #3: Dreamworker

Five Funny Little Moments #4: Cradle of Hope

Five Funny Little Moments #5: The Path Not Taken

Five Funny Little Moments #6: The Reckoning

Five Funny Little Moments #7: The Titans

Five Funny Little Moments #8: Prometheus 

Five Funny Little Moments #9: Death in Chains 

Five Funny Little Moments #10: Hooves and Harlots

Five Funny Little Moments #11: The Black Wolf

Five Funny Little Moments #12: Beware Greeks Bearing Gifts

Miscellaneous

Golden Ticket— Renee O’Connor’s initial responses to me on Instagram

Bath Time— a fun self-challenge involving making a story from recently downloaded/screenshot images in just a few minutes

Mensiversary— review of my first month on Tumblr

Confirmation/Affirmation— Steven L. Sears’s essay of support for my Furies theory

K.O.— Renée O’Connor liking my comment about ^

Hooray!— The Mother of Hope is finished (kinda)

Aww…— a quick picture post to try something new while I was bummed about the deadly tech bug that obliterated my posts for weeks

Second Mensiversary— review of my second month on Tumblr

NOOO!— a lamentation related to The Mother of Hope

The (Many) Problem(s) with Ares [Reblog/Response]— answering a reader

More Funny Little Moments #1: Season 1, Episodes 1-12

*Other

Black Hole— a poem about depression

It’s Nothing— a poem on invalidation

What the?— the beginning of the bug :(

#xwp #xena warrior princess #xena #xena and gabrielle #gabrielle #link post #fan theory #fanfic #fanfiction #xena fanfiction #gabrielle fanfiction #cracksubs

[superworldunkown]

G-Unit

AN: I was so excited to see my ‘Wash Day’ and ‘Hair Dare You��� stories get to 100 likes! It makes my heart, and my kinky, curly, coily, hair so full! <3 So, in continuation of all things Black Hair, I came up with this one right after my new unit came in the mail. 

Summary: You can’t be stopped when you put your mind to it, despite how much Class-1 A tries. But when Mineta gets a little too creative...heads - and hairs will roll. Bakugou x Black Reader (Mans loves his Melanin) 

It was Tuesday, and that meant, practice day! Your favorite day of the week. Putting hero students in their place. How could you not love it?

Recently, General Studies students trained with the Hero course students; it was unfortunate that since All Might’s retiring that villain attacks were on the rise, but better for the entire student population as everyone knew some general self defense tips and tricks. It also gave the hero students some additional training. You were delighted by it. Even though you were a general studies student, your focus was on hero psychology and trauma support, and up until this point you rarely had some live heroes to study and look after. And, Class 1-A was notorious for having unique quirks, and even more unique personalities.

To top it off, you were Hella competitive, even the soon to be heroes couldn’t keep up. Today’s practice was similar to the last few weeks, dodge and evade. General Studies and Hero Studies students were split into two groups. The task was simple, Offensive teams had get to the other side of the Battle Training Grounds. Defensive teams had to stop the offense in their path. You loved this game. You were a natural zig-zagging, dip dodging destroyer on the course. Teams would get delighted when you were on their side, and pissed when you weren’t. Bakugou even cracked a ‘hmph’ of approval when you were assigned to his team at the beginning of training. 

You couldn’t help it, you were a little smitten by the aggressive little demon. Something about his outward pride and boisterous attitude always made your heart skip a beat. He was a rather curious student, and your analytical side was also fascinated. Also, the mans was very, very good looking in his hero uniform. Even if he screamed at you for being a ‘reckless idiot’, you’d let him save your ass any day. 

Point Being, it was a real treat being paired up with Bakugou.

You two always had weird energy around each other. Mina - The matchmaker as she liked to call herself, would often send you text messages between classes with ‘facts’ that Bakugou was into you:

‘Sis! Bakugou called you by your REAL NAME today in class when he and Kirishima were talking about joint training...he did follow it with ‘is sucha slowpoke’ but TRUST me, its a sign!’ 

“Oi! You gonna keep starin’ or get movin’?!” Bakugou called a few feet ahead of you. His gauntlets lit as he zoomed past Sero and Mineta on the defensive team. 

You smirked, dodging a flash of white tape, “Hah! Not all of us have the advantage of a quirk, let alone high ground, BoomKat.”

“And Stop calling me that!” He retorted. 

“Huh? I can’t hear you over the victory speech I’m rehearsing in my head. Once again Y/N, undefeated in the joint training courses. A victory of eleven to -” 

Before you could finish your rather ill time victory speech, your body careened to a metal wall, hitting you with an extra sting. Now you were pissed. With determined eyes you tried to throw your body into motion you were slammed back towards the wall by a sticky stubborn force.

“See if you try to get outta that one m’lady.” 

Oh...you knew that voice. That dreadful, nasally, shrilly, perverted voice. Mineta stood in front of you, the purple balls atop his head wiggling with excitement. 

You turned to the side, noticing your long, beautiful, EXPENSIVE box braids were currently held against the wall by several infamous purple orbs. 

“There’s no way I’m letting you cross the finish line,” Mineta spoke, “Yaoyorozu and Uraraka are on my team, and if we win...maybe they’ll let me in on a victory hug! So don’t move...not that you can anyways.” He finished with a laugh.

The sound of your angry screams sent shockwaves throughout the training grounds. Mineta got the hint, and scurried off towards the finish line.

Now you were pissed. Just like your crush (dare you say it) you had a bit of an ego and you didn't’ like to lose. But, you didn’t like the only solution that came to your mind. You just paid for this unit! It was brand, fucking new! 

“You better run, Mineta.” Your eyes were practically glowing as you reached towards the tip of your fake hairline, tugging at the lace. 

“Where the hell is Y/N?!” Bakugou barked from across the finish line.

“I don't know, I thought she was right behind you.” Mina answered while staring at the training field, “It’s not like her to be this late.” 

“I wouldn’t worry about her Pinky.” Mineta let out a small laugh, “She got a little caught up in my sticky ba-”

“BASTARD!!” Mineta had barely any time to protect himself as you burst across the finish ling in a flying kick, punting the small boys body into the air and directly into a water tower. 

Everyone stared at you as you huffed in anger, catching your breath. Sweat pooling down your wig cap and onto your forehead. 

“Umm,” Kaminari spoke softly and nervously, “Y/N...what happened to your hair?”

“That was a 3,400 Yen, fresh out the box unit you perverted asshole!” You screamed to towards the water tower, “You owe me a brand new one by this time tomorrow or I’ll cut off every single one of your sticky balls in your sleep! All of them!” 

Your turned your head towards the rest of the students, all of them, even Bakugou, jolting upright at your angry glare, “Tokoyami, give me your cape, NOW!”

The dark prince whipped off the black fabric faster than the night itself. You quickly whipped the fabric around your head into a semi decent hair wrap and stormed off before anyone could question you, not that they wanted to.

“What just happened?” Kaminari asked, still confused and terrified.

Mina let out a low whistle, “Mineta messed with her wig? Damn, he should be lucky he’s still breathing right now. Alright, let’s draw straws on whose getting him out.” 

Bakugou stared at the carnage you left behind and then back towards you. Damn, you were ambitious, scary, and strong? To some, you were a nightmare. 

But to him, you were a dream. 

#bakugou katsuki #bakugou #mha #bnha #bakugou x black reader #mha poc #my hero academia #bakugou fanfiction #boko no hero academia

[askmerriauthor]

Star Wars: Visions thoughts and discussion

Been on a bit of a Star Wars binge lately. Getting ready for the Book of Fett and the return of The Mandalorian soon, just finished playing the Jedi: Fallen Order game, and recently "Star Wars: Visions" dropped on Disney+ (not to be confused with the, like, half-dozen other Star Wars properties that use "Visions" as their title). If you've got the streaming service and haven't watched the series yet, I can honestly suggest you should do so. The whole thing is a series of very short episodes and is entirely non-canon to the setting, so you don't even need a hard understanding of Star Wars to enjoy it.

In fact, it's actually better if you don't know anything about Star Wars going in. Spoilers and brief episode discussion after the jump.

Episode 1: The Duel As soon as I saw a lightsaber umbrella and a R2 droid in a hat, I knew this one was going to be a must-watch.

I REPEAT. LIGHTSABER. UMBRELLA.

Solid kick-off for the short series. Dig the aesthetic, dig the classic samurai vibe (even if it's more of an homage than a direct application of the style), dig the simple story. The particular animation style they chose here was a little wonky but I quickly got used to the visuals and loved a bunch of the design choices too much to care. This one was very action/style-focused and clearly chosen as the leading episode for that reason, which I don't fault them at all for.

Episode 2: Tatooine Rhapsody I'm sorry, I don't recall giving Star Wars permission to be this fucking adorable, how dare you.

The tale of a Padawan survivor of Order 66 who makes a new life for himself not with the power of the Force, but with the power of Rock and Roll and Friendship. Bitchin'. Super adorable, semi-chibi art style that's honestly ringing, like, a dozen different bells in my head for trying to figure out all the different styles it's drawing from. Good fun, if a bit bland in the end. The biggest problem is the music. The story relies on "using music to save the day", which is fine. But when you use that trope you need an absolutely face-melting banger of a performance, which this just doesn't have. An enjoyable entry all the same though. Not bad, not great, cute designs; the quirky story of how Jabba the Hutt got a new slave band to play at his den.

Episode 3: The Twins This entire episode is animated by the team who brought us Kill la Kill and that should really tell you everything you need to know.

You know how if you get a bunch of little kids together, they'll start playing make-believe games where they just invent stories and plot twists and super powers like "I have whatever you can do, but infinity plus 1 better!" shit like that? That's what this short is. It has only the vaguest allusions to the setting proper and immediately hurls every semblance of consistency, logic, and sense out the window with both hands. It is 1,000,000% style over substance.

Okay, y'know what, no, that's not enough to describe the utter insanity this episode is. All I can find online is pictures of the main villain character pulling a General Grievous impression or the protag snaring lightsaber whips on his lightsaber, but that is fucking tiddlywinks compared to where this episode goes.

There is a scene in this short where the protag, who is ghost-riding the hood of his X-Wing upside down in space without a space suit, super-charges his lightsaber into a giant rainbow of FUCK YOU GEORGE LUCAS with the power of familial love and fabulousness, using said rainbow super saber to CUT AN ENTIRE STAR DESTROYER IN HALF WHILE ACCELERATING TO HYPERSPEED, all to save his twin sister's life by making her explode in a somehow non-harmful manner.

This short is utterly nonsensical drivel and yes I would like more right the fuck now, please and thank you.

Episode 4: The Village Bride Wait, we're actually trying to tell a reasonable story in this series? Sorry, I was still on a sugar high from the previous episode. Lemme sit down.

The Village Bride is great. Excellent short that's just dripping with atmosphere and a slow, purposeful pace to its writing. It's short and sweet with little focus on the Force-using characters themselves, which actually serves to its credit. Even in the Star Wars universe, the Ainu people can't catch a fucking break. Easily one of my favorites in the whole run.

Episode 5: The Ninth Jedi The fact that two characters in this short have Sasuke's haircut was extremely distracting. But I actually really enjoyed this entry overall.

Despite playing extremely loose with the established lore around how lightsabers work, this episode over all others really embraces the original setting and tells a slow-burn story about the potential revival of the Jedi Order. A little meandering at times, but it's a solid piece and well worth exploring. Of all the shorts in the series, this one has the greatest potential to actually continue on as a standalone series or be folded into the canon franchise. Main protag is an adorable bean and I love her.

Episode 6: T0-B1 This episode is simultaneously a love letter to Astro Boy and a giant middle finger to Star Wars lore purists.

The tale of an imaginative Droid named T0-B1 who dreams of becoming a hero like the Jedi he's heard so many stories of. This short gets extra credit for being so unyieldingly stylish and charming. On the surface of its presentation and story choices it seems like it doesn't know anything about Star Wars lore, but it's actually packed full of some pretty deep cuts that show the folk behind it do know what they're talking about and just don't fucking care what purists have to say. The entire thing is just "Yeah, I'm ignoring your lore, but I'm doing it in a fun way that makes the setting more interesting, and I'm so genuine about it that you can't be mad at me". I can respect that. Plus the old dude in that screenshot is an armless Jedi who's retired to be a botanist and that's just fucking cool.

Episode 7: The Elder I'm Episode 1, but better.

This one. This shit right here. This is the good shit.

I'm sure y'all have heard before that Star Wars is directly inspired by Kurosawa and samurai films in general, but The Elder really digs into that hard. Where Episode 1 styles itself after a samurai tale, Episode 7 is a samurai tale. Subdued, methodical storytelling, slow-burn pace, charming dialogue amid believable characters, and a truly intimidating villain who provokes a brief but striking duel. This is my vibe. I crave more of this. Far and away the best short of the entire series.

Episode 8: Lop and Ocho Oh for fuck's sake, there's going to be so much porn of this bunny girl character, isn't there?

This entry is another that kind of meanders with the story it's trying to tell and plays very loose with the lore. It reimagines a lot of what we know of the Jedi/The Rebels and Sith/The Empire into a feudal faction-based conflict akin to what you'd see in a period samurai drama. Modernization and callous industry crushing the spirit of the people and breaking apart families. A decent work overall, but nothing really all that impressive in the end. It takes too long to get going and then peters out halfway through its pay-off for some reason.

Episode 9: Akakiri The fact that I had to look up this episode's name and scenes online and still could not remember anything about it should tell you a lot.

The series ends on a downer with the dramatic tale of a fallen Jedi who sacrifices himself and succumbs to the Dark Side. Turning evil for... the greater good? Wha? Had some pretty neat visuals, but I genuinely cannot remember a damn thing about this episode or its characters. Big swing and a miss in terms of impact.

#star wars #star wars visions #sw visions #animation #anime #spoilers