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foodsies4me · 26 days

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The Fearsome Four

Alright so it seems that more than one person wants a list so here we go with the first four trainees. (I will be splitting this up because like some people aptly remarked there are Too Many Trainees and writing them all down in one post is going to make for an infinitely long post. (Cries in, these were supposed to be one of characters that were just supposed to make the institute feel more lived-in. Not menaces that take over half of the story)

Maxwell Joseph Lightwood (He/Him, 9 years and a half - Not an OC though I HC him looking differently than in the series in my head)

Nicknames: Max, Maxie, Little Clover, Cricket, Little Caramel, Menace, Little Terror

Physical description: looks like a mini Alec – black hair, hazels eyes and mischief in his blood. He’s smaller than the other trainees his age, standing somewhere between 3ft 11 and 4ft (120,2 cm) Has three long gashes on his torso that span most of his chest as well as two smaller but just as thick scars on his right upper thigh, a thick scar on his left ankle and one on the inside of his right arm. (This only applies for AWG Max. Golden Words Alec is 4ft 3 (130,5 centimeters) and has no such scars.)

Personality: He’s the Menace Supreme what more do you want me to say? Culprit number 1 of the Mumbai Incident.

Extra info: co- owner of Bubbles and has a batman backpack with cartoon characters and sharks on it

2. Arjun Jaskaran Bhasin (He/Him, 9 years old)

Nicknames: Arji, Jun-Jun, Marshmallow, Chotu (nickname only his older siblings call him)

Physical description: thick dark-brown hair that’s mostly straight, dark brown nearly black eyes. He’s about 4ft2 (128,5 centimeters) and the only one of the fearsome four that doesn’t look like a mess most of the time.

Personality and tidbits: He’s quieter than his three best friends, but no less of a menace for it. He’s the youngest in his family and is close with his parents/older siblings despite not living in the same institute. He loves everything dragons and, even though he misses his family a lot, he also loves being at the NYI. Now if only Alec could get the rest of his family to work there as well…Culprit Number 2 of the Mumbai Incident.

Extra info: has a dragon backpack, yes the dragon can breathe fire.

3. Barika Fahari (He/Him, almost 10)

Nickname: Barii, Riri, Gumdrop

Physical description: short, black curly hair. Light brown eyes. 4ft 5 (134 cm) which makes him the tallest of the foursome fear.

Personality and tidbits: Barika was originally supposed to be a female character because I didn’t want Max to only have male best friends, but then Barika decided he was trans without any care as to what I had planned (hence the female name which he decided he was keeping). Like Max, he’s a menace and adores comics. His absolute BFF is Leo and those two will probably end up as parabatai in the future. Culprit number 3 of the Mumbai Incident.

Extra info: Has a The Flash backpack with a little Green Lantern keychain and ever-changing cartoon/Manga-characters on the sides. Robin, Batman and Cyborg logos are embroidered on the straps.

4. Leonard Benjamin Knightvale (He/him, two days older than Max and will never let him live it down)

Nickname: Leo, Lenny, corn chip, little lion

Physical description: light brown hair that tends to get in his eyes, green-brown eyes and 4ft3 (130 centimeters – yes, Golden Words Max teases him back for being older but shorter)

Personality and tidbits: If someone enabled Max to do one of his stunts, Leo is the most likely culprit. If nobody enabled Max to do one of his stunts than Leo was likely in a coma because he WILL enable Max’s shenanigans just to see the chaos happen. BFF’s with Barika and thinks Alec is the coolest person ever. He lacks any kind of impulse control and is currently in the lead in the “Get Ragnor to turn them into a frog” competition much to Max’s displeasure. He hates being called Leonard about as much as Max hates being called Maxwell. Culprit number 4 of the Mumbai Incident.

Extra info: Green Lantern backpack with a The Flash keychain, a Batman keychain as well as a Cyborg and Robin sticker. The Green Lantern logo in the middle lights up and can turn into different colors if Leo wants to.

Part two

#AWG #the trainees #I Will have to find a way to tie the different parts together #Or maybe reblog and add the other trainees with each reblog #Still have to figure that one out #But yes #there are too many trainees #And if I knew they were going to play such a big role I would have kept them at FIVE #Menaces #all of them #Foodsies rambles #The trainees list

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whereonceiwasfire · 2 years

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I actually have some time to sit down and type all this up, so, on today’s episode of Danny Phantom Thoughts Nobody Asked For, I’ll be positing to you the head canon that the entire series is told through the distorted lens of a 14-yo boy trying to make sense of his trauma. The superhero shtick, the shenanigans, the puns, weren’t how any of it actually happened, that’s just the best way for a kid to process this HORRIFYING situation. So...the main ways in which I feel like this applies? I’m so glad you asked.

The accident: I feel like we already sort of agree on this but the whole “his molecules got all rearranged” thing? That’s just prettying up the fact that this boy done did died.

The ghosts: This is related to a head canon I heard somewhere else but I’m not sure where it came from. In short, the ghosts are all a lot more fearsome and horrific than the cartoonish versions of themselves, including DANNY HIMSELF. Of course he wants to think of/remember himself as being basically human when he’s in his ghost form, but he’s just not. This is the actual reason why nobody recognizes him in his ghost form, and why he’s the only ghost in show (even compared to the other halfa) who is still portrayed as so human (e.g.: his skin tone doesn’t change). This thought would extend to the other ghosts too. The ones that are portrayed as more human/less threatening would likely just be ones Danny got along with better and began to FEEL were more human.

Danny’s parents: Maddie and Jack are supposed to be these skilled paranormal researchers/ghost hunters - I mean, they invented a portal into the afterlife. That’s pretty impressive. They make a lot of high tech gears and gadgets that actually work. AND YET. We don’t see that they’re very successful in a lot of their escapades. Not with Phantom, not with the other ghosts. Because, of course, Danny wouldn’t want to process the fact that his parents are trying to kill him. It’s not all fun and games anymore if you watch as your parents cart actual ghosts into the lab on a regular basis. If you can hear them experimenting. If there are a few too many close calls a few too many times. Ergo, you remember the whole thing as a little bit campy. Some hijinks. Nobody was ever actually going to hurt you - you were never in any real danger.

Vlad: Now, I’m not saying Vlad’s not a shady dude, but maybe it’s not quite as black and white as it seems, and he’s not as “cartoon bad guy” as he’s portrayed. I think it was just easier for Danny to accept Vlad as a cape-swishing villain rather a morally grey entity that confuses his own sense of right and wrong. I ALSO think it was hard for Danny to accept that his parents screwed someone else over, and it was imperative for him to reframe the narrative - ESPECAILLY when there’s maybe a conflicted part of him that would want to accept Vlad’s offer to be his new guardian but felt that would be betraying his own family. This leads me to believe that Danny’s perspective on Vlad’s relationship with his parents was specifically distorted in a way that made him feel better about the mistakes and bad decisions his own parents have made. Because, in actuality, it seems there was a complicated history and some legitimate tension between Vlad and Jack, and I find it unlikely that this didn’t go both ways. I mean, they didn’t talk for YEARS. That’s hard to do (not impossible, but hard) if one party is invested in maintaining the relationship. But Danny would want to believe his father’s the hero, and wouldn’t be able to see the iciness going in both directions. Hence why Jack seems over-the-top in his friendliness toward Vlad - it’s an overcompensation in Danny’s rewritten memories. (Also, like, if Vlad actually wanted to murder Jack it seems he easily could have done it by now, so I feel like that’s a dramatic addition on Danny’s part). Which brings me to Maddie. Does Vlad still have “a thing” for Danny’s mom? Maybe. But I think a lot of it boils down to the fact that a 14-yo doesn’t know how to interpret lost love. There’s no understanding of the weighted gazes, the what could have been sighs, the wilted smiles as you try to force yourself to be happy for somebody else when you still haven’t found what they have. Danny, a kid, just sees there’s SOMETHING there and thinks, wow, this dude is obsessed with my mom, what a creep. Okay, well I definitely have more IDEAS about this, but they start to get weird so I’ll leave it there for today. Tune in next time! lol

#Danny Phantom #danny phantom headcanon #Danny phantom thoughts nobody asked for

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manasurge · 7 months

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Having a dilemma about the what weapon to give to Mourynn. I've had two different ideas in mind, but I can't decide which to go with (trying to decide for designing reasons and figuring out lore reasons mostly, and I'm indecisive af).

Originally I wanted her to grow her own GS (she's a shaper), so it would start off as a dagger, grow into a sword, and then into a greatsword. This is easy enough to apply since her early years and grow with her, and would be a nice sentimental thing, and could possibly change with her in both a physical and emotional way (also it might make me just want to make my own Reformed weapon set bc I'm just extra like that). The other idea I was juggling was that I wanted her to be able to Reform the shattered Caladbolg, and would be a neat kind of "Legendary" weapon that she also has to put the time and effort into healing and powering up by doing a lot of neat things, as well as being able to fuse a part of herself with the weapon, making it special that way too (and I can draw my own version of Caladbolg too!) Reforming is her version of dragon magic (also called "Symbiosis") that essentially is just her parasitizing anything that's Mordrem or dragon magic related (but is best suited for jungle dragon magic since it's the most compatible). This involves her daughter/dodder vines taking to the host and changing them, but in a way that's beneficial to them both (since she herself is full of them as it's the scion used to graft the two of them together). It's also very controversial bc she is still technically parasitizing them, which is one of the things that causes a lot of distrust and unease from other people bc no one really wants to experience that lol.

So I'm not sure which to go with bc I like both... but idk how she'd carry both or when she'd decide which one to use. Idk if Mawdrey can hold 2 GS's easily (that's how Mourynn is able to carry it on her back lol), but I guess I could do some cartoon game logic and make it work with both maybe? maybe not have either shown (or only when it's most convenient to the context), or maybe I could just do more Mesmer shenanigans to make it appear and disappear whenever I want, idk.

#Mourynn #OC things #bleh the dilemma #I might go with both but idk if that would be too much #orz

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mariproducer · 2 years

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I don't get how MLB let's itself be strangled by the status quo yo so much when other cartoons that aired BEFORE it did still managed to get their plots rolling while having the same episode structure.

Ffs, that guy WORKED on a show like that in the form of Code Lyoko. Not saying it's a masterpiece, it's not perfect and has its own set of problems. But when you watch it, it's easy to notice a pattern the episodes fall into: the kids are dealing with typical middle school shenanigans, XANA attacks, the kids are forced to deal with XANA whether in the real world or in Lyoko, they defeat whatever threat XANA threw at them, and use a literal reset button to fix the damage. And hey isn't that similar to MLB, just replace XANA with Hawkmoth.

The difference here is that Code Lyoko had development that stuck (for the most part let's not talk abt Ulrich's love problems it was annoying to watch UR LIKE 13 ITS NOT SERIOUS). The kids would learn new things about Lyoko, they were working towards getting Aelita out of Lyoko, they bring William into the group only for him to get lost on Lyoko and corrupted, they learn that their magical reset button is actually empowering XANA. Like Code Lyoko still had that general episode structure all the way to its final episode, but you can still see the plot move and progress.

If Code Lyoko isn't enough, why don't we look at Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja? Again, it has a pretty predictable episode structure: Randy experiencing high school life likely getting dragged into things by Howard or other students, either someone gets "stanked" or McFist sends out goons or is being a threat, Randy goes ninja to stop the threat while also learning a lesson for the episode, Randy has an epiphany on the given advice and deals with the threat and comes out of the episode a better person. Similar to what the writers want Marinette to do, Randy learns something new every episode, and it shines as episodes go on because Randy applies those lessons he learns (it's also why Howard became tolerable for me to watch bc he's supposed to contrast Randy by being an awful person lol) To add insult to injury, RC9GN manages to do all this within a 15 minute time slot (there are a few 2-parters though).

So no. I don't think its too much to ask MLB for development that sticks, when other TV shows have done it while also being stuck with a typical episode layout (and in RC9GN's case, in a smaller time frame). I used to think that maybe it was the medium of animation that was partially at fault here, but no. It's the writing team holding back, too afraid to innovate or shake things up out of fear of losing their audience, too stuck in their own perceived biases of characters. And unfortunately, parts of the viewing audience eat this lack of development up, acting like the narrative is going somewhere when it hasn't gone anywhere for the past 100+ episodes. Because if they were going to do something... ANYTHING... it shouldn't have taken that many episodes to get there.

#ml writers salt #r(en)bles #i shouldnt feel like im asking for too much when other shows pull thisnoff with little fanfare

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201xs · 2 years

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uncanny valley human skin robots: unnecessary, weird, scary, why would you do that, i dig it though. incredible aesthetic, but not something to set as a standard for all IRL robots because it is almost UNIVERSALLY considered extremrly creepy

android-esque human shaped metal robots with obvious mechanical parts: sleek futurism at its finest, classic, although we are far from achieving it IRL. this is where we usually explore the idea of artificial intelligence being equal or even greater than human intelligence.

blocky, cartoony robots: classic, adorable, wonderful, cant go wrong with this one. often has some kind of screen or TV for a face that shows a simple pixelated expression. my personal fav trope that is applied to these bots is the "brainiac" smartbot that doesnt quite understand sarcasm or otherwise human social lanuage, as it is applicable to a very humanlike personality as well as fitting nicely into the confines of robothood.

animal cartoon robots: SO CUTE and way easier than an actual pet. there are the ones that are covered in fur and ones that are more sleek and have plastic coating, with different levels of AI and different features. anywhere from a surprisingly engaging artificial animal intelligence to a little guy who can crawl across the floor and bark (both of them are very sweet and cute though) and most of them are marketed as kid's toys. i think everyone can benefits from a little bow wow in their life though.

"disembodied voice" or faceless control robots: very nice, usually used to control spaceships or smart houses. i dont like that there are realworld equivalents of this now for many many reasons, mostly because i dont like getting spied on. these robots are very likely to do fucked up shit, because frankly the idea of your spaceship (your only salvation from the black void of space) having an AI that can control every part of your existence, the air pressure, the temperature, where your ship is going, etc. somehow turning on you and using its free will to do fucked up shit is really scary. a smart home AI can lock you in and not let you out in order to do other fucked up things to you while you are inside the house, which is also a robot. that is fucked up. i LOVE these things. one of my personal favorite examples is the house AI in invader zim that gets taken over by gir's brain in that one episode

faceless service/drone bots: LOVE these guys, also very likely to be evil. shoots lasers and carries stuff around. many of them can act sort of like a hivemind and have cute little shenanigans. love these things

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haworthiaace · 3 years

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Magic misfits! Did I update the masterpost specifically because of this fic? yes absolutely. A busy day for Scar, featuring TFC and some good ol’ Scar appreciation :]

The start of a new season was always interesting.

While TFC didn’t enjoy having to start from scratch every year or so; having gotten used to the comforts of late season riches, he did love the sheer amount of interaction that came with a new season. TFC was content to hear gossip about the others’ shenanigans while he stuck to what he was best at: mining. Some of the others called it cheating to use his earthbending down in the tunnels, but he called it cheating to be able to shapeshift, or use magic crystals, or any of the other crazy things the other hermits could do, so it evened out.

When he wasn’t down in his mine, TFC watched as all the other hermits scrambled to make the most impressive buildings and contraptions in as little time as possible. Many of his servermates placed more importance on finishing their creations than actually gathering necessities such as tools and armour.

As if to prove this observation, the Boatem village appeared on the other side of the nether portal, populated with structures that were much too large considering it had only been three weeks since they arrived in this world. There was also a… tree? At least that’s what it looked like; a thin oak tree stretching up past the clouds and out of view. Looks like Mumbo and Grian were up to no good already.

“TFC! Up here!” Scar’s voice came from somewhere above TFC’s head, and he looked up to see the wizard (although he no longer wore his robe and hat) standing on a balcony extending from a truly massive wagon, one hand on the railing and the other extended above his head, waving enthusiastically at TFC.

He climbed the ladder up the side of the wagon, entering a sparse storage room. Knowing Scar, he either hadn’t bothered to move in yet or lost all of his things in a cave somewhere. Despite his powerful crystal magic, Scar still managed to die more than any other hermit, so the second option was more likely.

“Well hello there! Welcome to my humble abode, please take a seat.” Scar led TFC to a balcony, where he gestured towards a table and two folding chairs. Scar sat down, crossing his legs and folding his arms in his lap. “So, what brings you to our little village today?”

TFC raised an eyebrow at the question, confusion evident in his voice. “Because you invited me? We were supposed to have tea today.”

Scar jolted in his seat, then proceeded to scramble out of said seat. “I’ll be right back! I have to go… feed Jellie!” This was quite obviously a lie seeing as Jellie hadn’t returned from her between seasons interdimensional travels yet. TFC’s laughter chased Scar into the wagon, where he frantically prepared the tea that he was totally planning on making because he definitely remembered his plans for the day.

After about five minutes of mildly concerning crashing sounds, Scar returned with two steaming mugs of tea (decorated with cat faces, of course) and a plate of chocolate chip cookies - Stress’ recipe if TFC wasn’t mistaken. They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes, appreciating the tea and cookies.

“So, how are you holding up this season, Scar?” TFC took a sip of green tea, looking out at the horizon.

“Oh you know, the usual. I don’t have my village anymore, but the magical misfits still come seeking my help.” He brought a cookie to his mouth and bit off half of it. “Not that I mind helping people!” He swallowed his mouthful before continuing. “XB was here last week convinced that he left his coat in season seven, but turns out it just ended up in one of Joe’s boxes.” He chuckled to himself, wiping crumbs off of his jacket as TFC stared at the distant ocean, lost in thought.

TFC broke the silence that had fallen. “You’re a good man, y’know that?” The wizard in question looked at TFC in surprise. He was used to ‘thank you’s, but the personal compliment caught him off guard. “You’ve created a safe space for folks from all sorts of places, and you’ve saved quite a few of them from bad people.”

Scar looked down, smiling at his cup of tea. He spoke quietly, a departure from his usual boisterousness. “Thanks TFC, that means a lot.”

Scar was in the middle of catching TFC up on what he missed from day one when something red and very fast crashed into the balcony. The something in question turned out to be Grian, shimmering wings protruding from his back. Something must have been wrong, since winged hermits tended to refrain from flying early in the season, in the name of fairness.

“Scar we need your- Oh heeey, I didn’t know you had company over!” He leaned on the railing, his urgency replaced with a forced cheerfulness as he (quite obviously) pretended nothing was wrong. What was probably supposed to be an easygoing smile stretched too wide, and his voice was more high pitched than usual. “How’s it goin’?”

Scar, completely oblivious, responded excitedly. “Oh, I was just telling TFC here about our adventure in the geode with Cleo!”

Grian’s uncomfortable smile grew wider, and his eyebrows furrowed. “That sounds great, do you think you’ll be done anytime soon?”

“Oh well, I’m not too sure. It depends on when we finish all of these cookies.”

“Oh that’s just wonderful,” Grian’s wings started to twitch behind him, “did you make those yourself?”

Scar took a breath, preparing for a tangent when TFC cut in, showing the poor fairy some mercy. “Alright Grian, out with it. What’s wrong?” Scar stared at Grian, somehow surprised that this wasn’t a completely ordinary visit.

Grian let out a long sigh. “Thank you so much TFC.” He turned his gaze to Scar. “We need a little help with curse breaking.”

Scar set down his mug and gave Grian his full attention, preparing himself for whatever strange curse one of the fairies had set on some poor hermit. “Really? How are you two cursing people already? It hasn’t even been a month!”

Grian’s tangent was accompanied by wild hand gestures that made it difficult to follow what he was saying. “Well, Pearl came up behind Mumbo and spooked him, he shouted something about not sneaking up on him, and now whenever he turns his back on her she teleports directly in front of him.” Grian looked nervously over his shoulder in the direction of Mumbo’s van. TFC followed his gaze, and burst into laughter again.

Mumbo was standing a few feet away from his campfire, spinning in circles and doubling over in laughter as Pearl kept popping up in front of him.

Scar pushed himself up from his chair, TFC followed suit. The pair headed to the door while Grian flew back down, Scar giving TFC a sort of briefing. “Alright, let’s go figure out what exactly Mumbo did before Pearl starts feeling particularly vengeful.”

It took two hours and a lot of trial and error (with TFC giving supremely unhelpful tips), but eventually Pearl could stand behind Mumbo again. At some point Scar accidentally applied the effect to both Grian and Mumbo, and he had to beg the two not to create a space time anomaly. But it was all fixed now, and TFC was sure Pearl’s revenge would be swift and cruel.

Scar made his way back up to the balcony, and the two continued their conversation. It was a good thing Scar had enchanted his mugs, something he had done back in season seven after his drinks kept getting abandoned and going cold.

After a few hours of peace (other than both Mumbo and Grian’s bases abruptly flipping upside down while the boys were inside), the pair was interrupted again by a voice behind them.

“Howdy, Scar. Oh, and howdy to you as well, TFC!”

Neither of them had heard Joe coming, so Scar jumped about a foot in the air while TFC nearly spat out his tea. It turned out that Cleo was there as well, looking quite a bit angrier than Joe, although that wasn’t too uncommon.

“Oh my goodness, Joe you scared the life out of me!” Scar held a hand to his chest and caught his breath as Cleo got right to business.

“Sorry about that Scar,” her voice was flat, and it was safe to assume that she was not, in fact, sorry about that. “But we have an emergency. It’s completely Joe’s fault, he-”

Joe smoothly stepped in front of his companion as he cut her off, “I wouldn’t say it’s entirely my fault, old magic is a fickle thing-”

Cleo shoved Joe aside, stepping in front once again. “He revived my leg!” She raised a foot off the ground and gestured at it with both hands.

Sure enough, both TFC and Scar looked down to see that Cleo’s right leg was significantly more flesh-coloured than the left, restored to what it presumably once was.

Scar’s lingering panic was instantly replaced by an amused grin as he gestured to the leg in question. “Cleo, why don’t you just get your leg reinfected? It’s not like zombies are hard to come by.”

The pair stood still, just blinking. (Completely in sync, it was eerie)

Cleo rounded on Joe and punched at his shoulder just as he raised a hand to deflect her fist. “How did you not think of that Joe?! I thought you knew everything there was to know about-” She gestured wildly about for a moment. “Everything?!”

“Shouldn’t you be some sort of zombie expert by now? How is that my responsibility?” The argument continued as the pair went back into the wagon and down the ladder. As they walked off, presumably to go find a cave, something occurred to TFC. He cupped his hands around his mouth to yell down at them.

“Cleo!” She turned around. “Don’t use Joe as bait!”

She snapped her finger like a defeated cartoon villain, as Joe turned to face her and presumably gave her grief for this evil plot.

It was only about five minutes after Cleo and Joe left (preceded by twenty minutes of arguing) that the next problem arrived, as it often did, in the form of Zedaph, Impulse, and Tango arriving on the shore of the village. TFC found this odd, seeing as how everyone was now connected by nether portals, but he assumed there would be an explanation shortly, even if it didn’t make a lick of sense.

Impulse shouted up from the ground, the three of them clustered near the front of the wagon. “TFC, we need your help!” Well that was a surprise, not many people asked for his assistance other than Scar. “We made an oopsie and Cleo said we could find you here!”

As every hermit knew, ‘oopsie’ was a versatile word with these three. It could mean anything between making a minor mistake in a build to banishing Impulse for the fifth time. “What happened this time?” TFC stood up and made his way down the ladder, since shouting down at them wasn’t very efficient and they didn’t seem inclined to come up.

Impulse started twisting his hands together while Zedaph and Tango tried their best to look innocent behind him. It didn’t work. “Weeell, Tango wanted a terraforming job done around his base, so we made a little deal for it.”

Oh boy. Not much good came out of magical deals, yet the other hermits continued to make them with each other. Demonic deals were especially tricky since the demon didn’t have precise control over their end of the deal, not that it stopped these three. “Tango offered me his first beacon in exchange for the job, and it turns out that a beacon is worth a lot more than I thought- it’s probably easier if we show you.”

“Quick FYI guys: firsts are very valuable in deals! It applies to you as well Impulse, not just the fae!” Scar called helpfully from his still seated position on the balcony.

They all ended up going over to Tango’s house/ shop, which was literally buried in a mound of dirt and stone, along with about three quarters of Bdubs’ giant moon house. That explains why they didn’t use the nether.

The earth was offended after being touched by demonic magic, but after a long negotiation TFC managed to convince it that Impulse meant no harm, and it was happy to return to its prior state. Tango was mildly annoyed that he would have to do the terraforming himself and give Impulse a beacon, but it was better than the wrath he would have faced from Bdubs.

By the time TFC and Scar returned to the Boatem village, the sun was starting to dip below the horizon. While TFC admired the beauty of it, Scar just looked disappointed.

“I’m sorry.”

TFC raised an eyebrow at the wizard, a frown making its way onto his face. “What do you mean you’re sorry? Did you do something to the tea?”

Despite TFC’s attempted joke, Scar still stared at his perfectly polished shoes. “This was supposed to be a nice relaxing day to catch up, and people were just showing up left and right. I mean, we hardly got to spend any time together! Maybe I shouldn’t invite people over with all this wizard stuff going on.”

“But we did spend time together.” TFC’s rough hand landed on Scar’s shoulder, the latter looking up at the former, startled by the contact.

“Well yeah we had tea for a while but-”

TFC had to cut off Scar’s rambling or he would never get to his point. “Yes we had tea, but I’m talking about the rest of the day.” Scar seemed genuinely confused at this. “I helped you un-curse Pearl,” he did air quotes on the word ‘helped,’ “We watched Joe and Cleo argue together, and you came with us to fix Tango’s house.” Of course he didn’t do much other than laugh at Tango’s misfortune, but it was the thought that counted. “Just ‘cause it didn’t go to plan doesn’t mean I didn’t have a good time.” After all, not much went according to plan on the hermitcraft server.

Now Scar was smiling. “So I didn’t ruin the day with magical misfits?”

“Not at all.” TFC reached for his mug and emptied it one last time, then stretched before heading out. “But now I gotta get going. I don’t like my chances against the mobs with my crappy iron gear.”

Scar waved once more as TFC disappeared into the nether portal. “Goodnight TFC! And thanks again, for everything!”

TFC smiled as he made his way through the nether tunnels back home. Scar did a lot more for the hermits than he realized, allowing them to be free with their magic in a way they couldn’t back home, TFC included. He’d created a home for all sorts of ‘magic misfits’ as Scar put it, and he performed an invaluable service, whether he realized it or not.

He’s a good kid. Just needs some reminding every once in a while.

#hermitcraft #hermitcraft 8 #magic misfits au #tinfoilchef #goodtimeswithscar #grian #mumbo jumbo #pearlescentmoon #joe hills #zombiecleo #tangotek #impulsesv #zedaph #im not too confident on the Emotional bits but #practice makes perfect i suppose #theres a few things i implied here so feel free to ask and clear things up

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tuiyla · 3 years

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Sentimental Affection: Hambo, the Shirt, and Objects of Psychic Resonance

Adventure Time and the mundane, aka Daddy, why did you eat my fries?

Ever a show to be full of hidden symbolism and so much more under the surface than its 11-minute runtime would allow, Adventure Time uses seemingly mundane objects like a teddy bear or a T-shirt to convey the monumental importance of character dynamics. This doesn’t only apply to objects but actual parts of one’s self, like Finn’s arm and the interwoven significance of his many swords. And then, there’s Marceline.

Like with many of the show’s more complex aspects, this is especially prevalent in Marceline’s story. How do you stress the sheer volume of having lived for a thousand years? How do you signify the lack of letting go of the past, lack of maturity? You give a girl a teddy bear and have her hold on to it for as long as she can. And it’s not just Hambo that adds unexpected depth to Marceline’s character and her relationship with others. There’s the infamous rock shirt, which we’ll get to, and then there’s the French fries eaten by Hunson Abadeer.

As iconic as the Fry Song has become and as synonymous with the complex Abadeer father-daughter relationship as it is, it seems silly, at first glance, that Marceline would be so upset over that simple transgression. But Adventure Time has a special talent for making the mundane whimsical and significant, so through the context of the full song, through little glimpses here and there, we understand the symbolism of the fries. It’s Hunson’s disregard for Marceline’s feelings, his carelessness, his lack of understanding, that really matters.

Just a teddy in the wreckage of the world

So what about Hambo? Hambo is, for a while, everything to Marceline. Hambo is the one representation of her relationship with Simon that she has left. It’s a remnant from the wreckage of the world, a plushie given to a scared little girl by an equally scared old man. It’s the one thing Simon leaves behind when he abandons Marcy, for her own good, and summons Hunson to take care of her instead. But Hunson eats those fries and so Marceline takes the family axe instead and keeps it as safe as she keeps Hambo.

Hambo stays with Marceline long after she turns into a vampire, ever a symbol of the tragic childhood she lost and yet is stuck in. It’s not a coincidence that she’s implied to tolerate much of Ash’s jerkish behaviour but draws the line when he sells Hambo for a new wand. That’s the only thing of Simon, the real Simon that she has left and it matters more than a boyfriend who doesn’t care about that. Disregard for Hambo is disregard for her. So Marceline keeps moving all across Ooo, both to escape from this new, twisted version of Simon and to find the one thing that proves he wasn’t always like this.

You kept the shirt I gave you?

Let’s take a break from Hambo for a moment. Let’s picture a time long before Finn washed up on the shores of Ooo, before the Candy Kingdom grew into what it is today. Marceline and Bonnibel are friends, maybe more - details depend on whatever nuggets “Obsidian” gives us. For a while, it works, and Marceline gives Bonnie a rock T-shirt. That shirt is so quintessentially Marcy that it becomes a symbol of their relationship when it’s with PB. The two drift apart, though, as Bonnie becomes known as Princess Bubblegum to everyone else and Marceline leaves before she can be left behind. The shirt becomes a sort of inverse of Hambo: a token of love that’s - as Marceline initially thinks - never cared for. Bitter as she might be over this, Marcy leaves it all behind as she left Hunson with the fries. She never really got to grow beyond being that young girl who was left Hambo in the snow.

Except, Finn does come along, eventually, and he brings Bonnie and Marcy together again. It’s intense and Marceline lashes out because, well, sorry she’s such an inconvenience. But in truth, it’s Marceline who tags along to defeat the Door Lord despite having no stakes in the mater, and it’s PB who wants to get her precious possession back. Her treasure is, of course, Marceline’s shirt. The one she always has worn, just in the comfort of her own room or under something else. Not out in the open, one might say, but constantly nonetheless, even long after Marceline was gone from her life. A reminder of what they had as much as Hambo is a reminder of who Simon was to Marcy.

That’s the wonder of “What Was Missing”. It lampshades the potential cheesiness of the message, that being “the real treasure is friendship”, but it is genuine in how it portrays that message beyond what would be expected of a kids’ cartoon. Finn keeps a piece of Bubblegum’s hair, but PB is right there to hang out with whenever they want to. Bonnie keeps Marcy’s shirt because she thinks it’s as close as she’ll get to be around her again, but Marceline tagged along just for the joy of being around them. What these two examples have in common is that both Finn and PB want something more from the relationship with the actual person, something they think is unattainable, so they hold on to the objects instead of reaching out.

I’ll get your kid back, toy

So what about Hambo and Marceline reaching out to Simon? When the Ice King inevitably finds her, again, Marceline is rightfully frustrated and just about ready to pack up and move again. But she’s grown these past few years since Finn entered her life and helped her face her past demons. It breaks her heart but she starts accepting Simon back into her life. They hang out and she insists on calling him Simon, because she never stopped viewing him that way. She knows who he used to be, even if he doesn’t, and she clings onto the representation of that hope, Hambo.

Marceline is already in a much better place by the time “Sky Witch” rolls around than she was at the start of the series. She kind of has Hunson, Simon and Bonnie in her life again. It’s all a bit complicated and unresolved - ”Stakes” isn’t for another two seasons - but she’s on her way. That doesn’t mean she’s gonna let the opportunity to get Hambo back pass by, so she asks for Bonnie’s help. It’s a bit awkward but she spent all this time being angry and feeling like she wasn’t good enough when PB cared enough to at least keep the shirt, so maybe that’s as much hope as Hambo is for Simon. And that’s exactly what “Sky Witch” proves, as Bonnie’s level-headedness helps Marcy navigate Maja’s treacherous turf and gets her Hambo back.

There's only one Hambo

There’s a misconception, a common and understandable one, but a misconception nonetheless when it comes to the shirt and Hambo. When Maja says that Hambo’s psychic resonance is nothing compared to the shirt’s, it’s easy to see the implication being that the shirt is that much more important. Therefore, Marceline is that much more important to PB than Simon is to Marcy. This isn’t entirely inaccurate but I also think that what’s important here is not to put these two objects and therefore the two relationships on the same scale. It implies that we’re comparing the familial type of love between Simon and Marcy to the romantic love between Bonnie and Marcy and that’s just a false and pointless comparison. Instead, the significance once again comes through trademark Adventure Time subtlety.

“What Was Missing” was mainly the Bubbline dynamic from Marcy’s perspective: her hurt, her anger over not knowing why it all ended. The twist with the shirt at the end only hints at PB’s side of things and “Sky Witch” takes it home. From the little moments at the beginning of the episode to the revelation that PB gave up the shirt for Hambo, it’s a full package. It’s in everything, including the scene where Peebs dismisses Hambo’s importance. It’s just a doll, totally replaceable, an insinuation which insults Marcy deeply. Bonnie doesn’t necessarily get why Hambo is so important but, in a way, PB does understand. She understands, because Hambo is to Marceline what the shirt is for her: hope.

When PB gives up the shirt, she gives up the only piece of Marceline she’s had for all these centuries. It wasn’t replaceable, just like Hambo wasn’t, but by giving it up she gives Marceline her most treasured possession, her hope. And you know what else? By giving up this remnant of the past, Bonnie gets Marceline back. “Sky Witch”, then, is the beginning of their new dynamic, as the lesson from the Door Lord finally sinks in. And by equating, in a way, Hambo and the shirt, after we’ve already seen in “I Remember You” and “Simon & Marcy” how monumental that relationship is, this makes Bonnie’s devotion to Marcy clear as day.

Magic, madness, sadness, and all the rest

Hambo becomes something even bigger in “Betty”. The reason why Maja wanted Hambo and then the shirt in the first place is because Adventure Time acknowledges within the logic of its own universe how important the love poured into these objects is. She uses the magic of the shirt and Simon uses the magic of Hambo. Marceline, reluctantly, lets go of Hambo because she just got Simon back, just as PB let go of the shirt and got Marcy back. Nothing is ever that straightforward in the land of Ooo, though, so Hambo brings Betty back but it can’t save Simon. Now Marceline got a taste of the old Simon, had hope, and it lives on in the person they sacrificed Hambo for: Betty.

Betty’s hope is misguided, though. With her time jump to modern day Ooo, a journey of denial and desperation begins that leads her and the whole land down a road of magic and madness. Betty’s shenanigans is its own separate post, really, and all the themes of acceptance, denial and change they represent. What I find fascinating in this context is how, again, in true AT style, the butterfly effect did its magic and the mundane lead into the whimsical and grandiose.

Right there where you left it, lying upside down

Simon gave a little Marcy her teddy doll and Ash carelessly passed it on. Marceline gave Bubblegum a rock shirt, something so quintessentially her that it was the one thing Peebs held onto even after all those years. The shirt was a symbol of their lingering connection and its sacrifice meant the start of a new chapter. The significance of the shirt was enough to get Hambo back, which in turn was powerful enough for Simon to get Betty back. And, eventually, by moving almost literal heaven and hell, Betty brings Simon back. Everything stays, but it still changes.

The shirt is not Marceline. Hambo is not Simon. Objects are not people, nor can we only be with people if we let go of those objects. That isn’t the message the show is going for. And these objects are only catalysts for character arc and dynamics in most cases, anyway. Marceline doesn’t grow up by letting Hambo go, she succeeds in leaving the past behind in “Stakes”. And, if the “Obsidian” trailer is any indication, even that doesn’t mean she’s done with all her demons.

What the intertwined stories of Hambo and the shirt tell us is that complex, emotional stories can be told through simple objects. A teddy doll can signify a thousand years of pain and yet provide hope, while a rock T-shirt can pack some good old-fashioned queer yearning into it. Hambo and the shirt aren’t even monumental parts of Marceline’s, Simon’s and Bubblegum’s stories, even if Adventure Time finds clever ways to use them in the plot. They are just two simple things that represent so much in terms of character development and some of the show’s central dynamics, and that’s damn good storytelling.

#bubbline #adventure time #marceline abadeer #princess bubblegum #obsidian #at #pb #hambo #simon petrikov #my thoughts #missed writing about at

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stories-from-the-batcave · 4 years

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Batfam in Young Justice Rec List

This week’s theme is fics centered around the Batfamily in the Young Justice cartoon universe, as suggested by a friend

Ride Your Light Series by CaptainOzone

95k+ | T+ | Ongoing | Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: Dick & Jason, Dick & Damian, Jason & Damian, Clark Kent & Bruce, Jason & Bruce, Tim & Jason, Tim & Damian, Barbara/Dick, Cass & Bruce, Bruce & Damian, Barbara & Jason

“Dick went to Infinity Island to rescue three. He never expected to return with an additional two. Life in the Bat Family will never be the same, now that they're complete.”

Work My Way Up Series by WatchTheAntagonist

36k+ | T+ | Ongoing | Gen | Graphic Depictions of Violence

Relationships: Tim & Dick & Jason & Damian, Dick & Wally West, Dick & Bruce, Barbara & Dick, Tim & Dick, Jason & Dick, Damian & Dick

“In an alternate universe where Bruce never found or adopted his sons, they manage to find each other and build a family anyways. A family that has had no contact with the superhero community, though a significant amount with the super-villains of their world. That's about to change, as Wally West starts to connect Dick Grayson, a waiter at his favorite diner, to Nightwing, a participant in an underground fight ring and the informant who is going to be the key to bringing down a dangerous gang.”

Brother Mine by firefright

30k+ | T+ | 6/? Chapters | Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: Dick & Jason

“When Dick returned to the Team and the Watchtower to rejoin them in their fight against The Light, he expected some surprises along the way. But his supposedly dead brother crashing in through a Zeta tube on his first night back? That wasn’t one of them.

Now he’s left trying to solve the mystery of how Jason’s alive, why he’s back, and most importantly, if there’s anything sinister behind his return. A mystery that’s made even more complicated when it becomes clear that - even though he’s alive - Jason’s mind may have been irreparably fractured by what the Joker did to him.”

Chaos Theory Series by solomonara

146k+ | M & T+ | Ongoing | Gen | Graphic Depictions of Violence

Relationships: Dick & Bruce, Dick & Jason, Jason & Damian, Tim & Barbara, Dick & Jason & Bruce & Alfred, Dick & Wally West, Dick & Barbara, Dick & Clark

(The first story) “Still trying to figure out his identity as Nightwing and what it means for his relationship with Batman (not to mention the new Robin), the last thing Dick needs is to get tangled up in a feud between the Joker and Klarion. Unfortunately, Klarion doesn't exactly ask his opinion before abducting him…”

Gotham Academy Shenanigans Series by damthosefandoms

7k+ | T+ | Ongoing | Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: Dick & Bruce, Dick & Artemis Crock & Barbara, Artemis Crock/Wally West, Artemis Crock & Dick, Dick & Wally West, Dick & Roy Harper, Dick & Barbara

“In which Dick, Artemis, and Barbara are friends at school during Young Justice Season One like they should've been. Listen, you can't tell me the fandom doesn't need more fics like this. I'm doing you all a solid here.”

I’ll Follow You Anywhere by WorldsGreatestDefective (on FFNET)

71k+ | T+ | Complete | Gen | N/A

Relationships: N/A

“A year into his break from the team, Nightwing reflects on his memories of Jason, from his first meeting to their last moment. However, when a mission sends him and the other bats to Infinity Island, Dick finds that perhaps not everything is left to memory. What are the al Ghuls up to, and why does one of their warriors look so horribly familiar?”

Alcatraz, But On Hardmode by SunnyBlue

12k+ | T+ | Complete | Gen | Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Relationships: Tim & Jason, Tim & Dick, Tim & Damian

““How are we planning to escape, exactly? Cuz we have basically no idea where we are and we’re the only team here. And our strategist,” he emphasizes the word enough that Tim rolls his eyes (painfully, because concussion, woohoo), “is stuck in the Alcatraz version of handcuffs. Who the hell’s gonna help us?”

“People escaped Alcatraz.”

“Yeah, and then they died two seconds later.”

"Technically we don’t know that.”

“I heard they ran away to Argentina.”

"...We're literally never getting out of here."”

Crowded Enough Series by CaraLee

22k+ | G | Ongoing |Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: background Selina Kyle/Bruce, Dick & Bruce, Jason & Bruce, Jason & Dick

“On Earth-16, Dick Grayson thought the Batcave was crowded enough. Next-door in the Multiverse, just one Earth over, Dick Grayson would laugh at this statement.

His counterpart knows nothing about "crowded".

A universe in which Bruce Wayne collects children a lot faster than usual.”

How To Pull Off a Kidnapping by River_Bottom_Nightmare

4k+ | T+ | Complete | Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: Cass & Tim & Steph & Duke & Jason & Bruce & Dick & Damian, Dick & Everyone, Dick & Bruce

““If that little bird isn’t here in the next twenty four hours, your son gets it. We’re not going to give you another chance.”

There’s a pause.

Then, “You want Nightwing?”

“In exchange for your son, Dick,” she affirms.

“Nightwing.” Bruce repeats. Dick thinks he sounds more amused than worried for Dick’s apparent safety.

(In which fighting in high heels raises your coolness factor but does not take away from the fact that you are a major douche, Dick Grayson is kind of a mess at life, and pulling off a successful kidnapping is much more difficult than originally anticipated.)”

Wait, You’re Not Adopted Yet? By Lady_Of_Lorule

4k+ | G | Complete | Gen | No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: Dick & Bruce, Dick & Jason, Dick & The Team

“Dick Grayson has been the official ward of Bruce Wayne for six years now. Jason Todd has been the officially adopted son for two months. Bruce decides to ask if Dick also wants to be adopted after all this time and the Team is there for him.

Set sometime between season one and two of Young Justice.”

#batfam #batfamily #bruce wayne #dick grayson #jason todd #tim drake #damian wayne #barbara gordon #young justice #fic rec #fic rec list #batfamily in young justice #stephanie brown #cassandra cain

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mythgirlimagines · 3 years

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It’s time for a brand new talentswapped Myth for this Tuesday! Brimming with passion, good sportspersonship, and boundless optimism, is Myth Anon, the Former Ultimate Team Manager!

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BACKSTORY AND TALENT

In her elementary and middle school years, Myth had an unbridled passion for sports and athletics, despite her scoliosis making heavy movement difficult for her, and in her middle school years, she even managed to secure spots in prestigious sports teams. Unfortunately though, all those dreams were crushed once she reached her high school years, when a freak accident costed Myth her legs and thus, her ability to walk and run. But the optimistic Myth wouldn’t let this sudden accident qstop her, for she decided to switch her career plans from improving herself to improving others, and that was how Myth became a team manager. Renowned amongst her students for her optimism and motivational spirit, she’s able to turn a ragtag bunch of amateurs into experts within a single season. In fact, Myth even managed to create Lil’ Ultimates and Jr. Ultimates within her career. Now that she is in her adults years, she is currently working with high school athletes and even created actual Ultimate athletes thanks to her stellar coaching.

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RELATIONSHIPS

Wyre Anon, Former Ultimate Lucky Student

As the reckless childhood friend of Myth, Wyre is always getting into all sorts of trouble and is lucky enough to get out of trouble, with the help of Myth. Unfortunately, when one of Wyre’s little shenanigans cost Myth her ability to walk, Wyre still feels guilty about it, even to this day, despite Myth’s constant reassurance. Wyre acts like a bodyguard of sorts to Myth, scaring off anyone who dares to pick on Myth’s handicap. Imagine Myth and Wyre’s mutual joy when Wyre was chosen via the Hope’s Peak lottery to attend Hope’s Peak alongside Myth. They both act like cheerleaders for each other.

Outfit: Bandages wrapped around her forehead, arms and hands, a green tank top with a darker green clover design, tan cargo pants, white socks and scuffed-up green high tops.

Anon Scar, Ultimate Traditional Dancer

Famous in certain circles for her dramatic stage presence and her beautiful dance moves, it was no wonder that Anon Scar joined the Hope’s Peak roster as the Ultimate Traditional Dancer. Myth may not be an expert in choreography, but even she can tell just how amazing Scar is at dancing. Myth quickly realized just how how seriously Scar takes her craft, underneath the whole “Queen of Yokai” schtick she developed for stage performances. The two girls quickly bonded over their motherly natures and overwhelming concern for others. Myth is currently planning on arranging an oendan group to cheer on Scar.

Outfit: A dark purple kimono with a red flower petal design on the bottom and a matching obi, flower decorating her side bun, white socks and brown geta, always carries a fan, has an oni mask on the side of her head.

Fusion Anon, Ultimate Gamer

While Myth normally views video games as health-sapping distractions for lazy layabouts, she can’t fault Fusion for his hobby. Myth noticed that in MMOPRGs, Fusion usually acts a lot like Myth in the game world, healing his teammates and sending encouraging words via the game’s group chat, and he acts equally paternal in real life. Myth also notices that Fusion gets very hyperactive and passionate when talking about video game lore. Myth thinks that if Fusion applied that energy and paternal nature to sports and had a proper sleeping and eating schedule, he could potentially be an awesome team player and a star athlete.

Outfit: Black and red headphones on his ears, a hoodie colored like a Nintendo Switch over a black shirt with the GameCube logo on the front, black pajama pants with a white stripe on each side, white socks and red slippers with Pokeballs on the front, glasses from original design.

Fusion Anon II, Ultimate Animal Breeder

As much as Fusion II tries to act like an apathetic and snarky delinquent and claim the scratches she gets are from gang scuffles, she is actually a regular volunteer at animal shelters and has a particular soft spot for cats, to the point of keeping a chubby black one named Cheezburger. As Myth eventually figured out, all of Fusion II’s snark and apathy are just a cover-up for her less-than-stellar social skills and desire to be seen as cool by her peers. Myth realized eventually that both of them have slightly-similar talents, with both of their talents involving caring for others: athletes for Myth and animals for Fusion II.

Outfit: A red shirt with a pawprint design on the front under a black sleeveless leather jacket, black fingerless gloves, brown cargo pants that hold pet care supplies, red shoes with a paw print design on the soles, scratched up arms and one scratch on her face hidden by a bandaid, sunglasses from original design.

Just Anon, Ultimate Animator

Despite Janon’s chronic procrastination, Janon’s fans claim that his animated works are worth the very long wait. Now this is one Anon that the normally kind and optimistic Myth has a serious grudge against. The lazy and cynical animator, who wants nothing more than to sleep all day long, would of course clash with the energetic and optimistic team manager who wants people to improve. Unlike the other Anons, Janon isn’t even trying to improve himself, and that just drives Myth up the wall. But Myth heard rumors that Janon has a particular soft spot for children, which would make sense, given Janon’s talent.

Outfit: A pink ski cap with cat ears and an adorable cartoon face, a white face mask with a cat’s mouth and whiskers, a blue denim jacket with several patches and pins over a white shirt with Mickey Mouse on the front, colorful pajama pants, pink bunny slippers.

Sparkle Anon, Graduated Reserve Course Student

Despite being passionate about both acting and puzzle-sloving, neither of those skills were enough for Sparkle to garner Ultimate status. Her rich parents managed to scrape enough money for her to take the test and get accepting into the Hope’s Peak Reserve Course though, and now that Sparkle graduated, she is currently chasing her dreams of becoming a top performer, despite her non-Ultimate status. Never before has Myth ever found someone with an even louder voice than her, but Sparkle‘s loud and dramatic voice made Myth consider starting an oendan group with her, and Sparkle was happy to oblige. Outfit: A white dress shirt and a sparkly pink tie, a skirt that matches her tie, knee-high socks, brown slip-on shoes, glasses from original design.

Egg Anon, Former Ultimate Princex and Wet Sock Anon, Former Ultimate Nurse

Egg is the current crowned princex of Desruc, a cursed locale in the middle of nowhere, and Wet Sock is the skilled field medic and excommunicated/exiled-royal-twin. But it seems their inventive customs don’t cross cultural boundaries, for their odd idioms and sayings just wind up grossing anyone willing to strike conversation with the foreign and cursed twins. Interacting with the Freak Twins may be internally painful for Myth, but she managed to power through and found out that the two are surprisingly caring, despite what their cursed dialogue would suggest, with Wet Sock being especially maternal in particular.

Egg’s Outfit: A green gakuran with golden details and shoulder pads, a red feather cape and matching earrings.

Wet Sock’s Outfit: A ragged black gakuran with blue details and shoulder pads marked with a Red Cross design, a black cape and hood.

Curious Anon, Jr. Ultimate Swordfighter

As the adopted child of a yakuza family and the loyal bodyguard of a yakuza heiress, Curious has been raised with one and only goal and purpose in mind: prevent Young Mistress Iris from ever getting harmed by foes. Just like with the other athletes on the Kibo-Con roster, Myth feels her maternal instincts kick into overdrive when she’s training them, probably helped by Curious being the youngest of the athlete roster. Despite being famed by Iris’s rivals as an emotionless brick wall, Curious is surprisingly impressionable and gullible, probably due to his less-than-stellar upbringing as a servant.

Outfit: Hair in a small ponytail, a black t-shirt and a red tie with Iris’s family logo on the front, black pants, always carries their sword in a black and red scabbard, shoes from original design.

Anon Nerd, Former Ultimate Musician

Famous for his loud vocals, his vulgar lyrics, and the pessimistic worldview of his lyrics, Nerd is the head of the infamous metal band, “DEBATE”, a band intent on showing people just what’s wrong with the world we live in, using nothing but the bare-bone facts. Just like with Janon, Myth has some serious beef with Nerd, thanks to their conflicting worldviews. Myth can’t stand Nerd’s constant and vehement negativity, and Myth’s stubborn optimism just nauseates Nerd. They get into regular shouting matches, that always have to be mitigated by the Brain Cells, much to the irritation of said Brain Cells.

Outfit: Wilder hair that covers his left eye and hides his scouter, a spiky black leather jacket over a white turtleneck, a red and black guitar slung over his back, black polished nails, torn black pants, spiky black boots.

Eldritch Anon, Ultimate Gymnast

Originally from the wrong side of the tracks, Eldritch taught himself parkour and gymnastics to avoid both muggers and bullies. Eldritch’s small and light form makes executing high-flying flips and rolls a cinch for him. Despite having never entered a single competition, talent scouts have noticed Eldritch’s mad parkour skills. Myth really wants to train this young athlete to his full potential, but for some reason, Eldritch shows a vehement distrust for just about everybody, and given his backstory, who can blame him? But Myth is determined, and she will show the tiny gymnast that people can change and are worth trusting.

Outfit: A black tanktop, a camo jacket tied around his waist, blue jeans, black ankle socks, white and blue sneakers.

Dream Anon, Ultimate Mechanic

Despite motorcycles being her main speciality, Dream can fix just about any mechanical device you throw at her, with her signature sunny smile. Despite not being an athlete, Myth quickly established Dream as one of her all-time favorites of the Kibo-Con roster. Dream and Myth quickly bonded over their overly optimistic and energetic personalities, and the two girls act like each other’s cheerleaders. Dream seems to show fascination with the mechanics of Myth’s wheelchair, and yearns to tune it up and soup it up with some rocket boosters or something, and Myth surprisingly doesn’t mind.

Outfit: A blue bandana wrapped around her head, a black tank top, orange and oil-stained gloves, a pink jumpsuit tied around her waist, an orange tool belt, tall black boots.

Iris Anon, Jr. Ultimate Yakuza

When Myth first found out that she was going to be chaperoning the heiress of one of the most dangerous yakuza families in all of history, she was prepared to be on her beat behavior, lest the heiress calls her folks to feed Myth to the fishies. But as it turns out, Iris is really friendly and superbly optimistic, despite what her upbringing would suggest. Iris is up there with Dream in Myth’s favorites list, and for the exact same reasons. But as it turns out, for all of her optimism, Iris is also really clumsy and falls, trips and bumps her head all the time. Myth is currently working on improving Iris’s balance and coordination.

Outfit: An entirely black gakuran with a red ribbon and her family logo in the form of a badge, black stockings and red shoes, glasses from original design.

Purple Anon, Ultimate Chef

Purple commonly cooks and caters for fancy high-class banquets, and her food is beloved by every upper-crust family that she serves. Purple’s work is commonly behind-the-scenes, and for good reason, because Purple is supremely timid, and often hides behind bigger Anons, when not in the kitchen. Purple is Myth’s go-to-Anon when it comes to nutritional advice, even if Myth needs help translating Purple’s overly-formal dialogue. Sometimes, when Myth is off to train her students, Purple stocks Myth up with crudités or finger sandwiches to give to the young athletes, in between or after practice.

Outfit: A white chef’s top with a purple cravat, black pants, shoes and beret from original design.

This series centers around an optimistic and hot-blooded team manager, trying to train her con-mates into only the best versions of themselves, and battling a couple of Negative Nancies (read: Nerd, Janon and Eldritch) in the process.

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APPEARANCE

Myth has shoulder-length brown hair with an ahoge on top and black sports glasses. For her clothes, Myth wears a red and cream colored tracksuit over a white tanktop, and matching high tops. Around her neck is a red megaphone, a golden whistle, and a golden necklace with resin in the middle that is colored like the bisexual flag.

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PERSONALITY

Myth carries herself with a loud voice and motivational words. Myth might just be one of the most optimistic people in the entirety of the Kibo-Con, for she can find the good points in just about anybody, and knows exactly how to weed the good points out of them. Despite being confined to a wheelchair, she has energy that is very contagious, which assists her in pumping up her students. But for all of her optimism towards other people, she doesn’t quite feel the same way about herself, feeling like the accident squandered her own potential and she advances other people’s development at the cost of her own. But Myth refuses to be seen as weak, so she never opens up about her actual feelings.

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I hope you like this talentswap, and please let me know what of this Myth! Don’t forget to watch out for brand-new content from yours truly!

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twilightprince101 · 4 years

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"SCOOB!” doesn’t feel like a Scooby Doo movie

I know I’m probably gonna make a lot of people mad by saying this, but I honestly need to vent about the story’s writing. There were some good parts I’m not gonna lie, but the writing is just... not the best. I’m placing this under a read more link, but please note that I’m not bashing you if you did like it. Everyone has their own tastes and I respect that yours are different than mine.

TL;DR, just because a movie is made for kids it doesn’t mean you have to dumb it down to be every other kids movie

So yeah. I didn’t like Scoob. I was really excited for this movie, genuinely excited. The trailers looked fun, the animation looked phenomenal and I was really excited to see Mystery Inc. brought back for another mystery. I’m a fan of Scooby Doo, not a hardcore fan but I like watching it from time to time. But coming out of it? I do not feel like I watched a Scooby Doo movie. The points that I have don’t really have a coherent flow to it so I’ll just go down the list.

-Turning Fred into the American Male Jock^(tm) character

One thing I liked about the cartoon was the dynamic of the cast. Daphne was the people person, Velma was the information specialist and Scoob and Shag were the “heart” of the gang while also giving an outsider perspective on matters.

But a key here is Fred. He may not have been the “leader” of the gang, but one thing that he had was smarts. He was the person who set up the traps, he was good at thinking with his head. Yeah he liked the van, but that was just something he liked.

But this movie turned him into the dumb jock character I’ve seen so many times before.

Something I liked about the original gang was the synergy between them. While Velma was book smarts Fred was street smarts. One got the information and the other applied it. But the movie had Velma be the smart one while Fred just drove the van. Yeah it gave Daphne and Velma more time to shine, but at what cost?

The finale scene with Ceberus really bothered me too. Instead of being tactical, figuring out a plan to force the big dog back through the door, he just runs in screaming and contributes nothing to the ending aside from a one off gag.

Look, I like having empowered female characters in media, but you don’t need to make the male characters dumb in order to do so. Even if this is a movie centered around Shaggy and Scooby, you can give every team member a time to shine. Have Fred come up with a trap! He is literally the trap guy! Even if you want the ending with Scoob and Shag bowling, he could’ve came up with a plan to at least distract it! Making male characters dumb doesn’t empower female characters, it only makes them smarter by comparison.

-The movie feels like it was made for Blue Falcon, not Scooby Doo

A lot of this movie honestly feels more like it was written around Blue Falcon and Dynomutt instead of the mystery gang. In fact, let me list the stuff that Mystery Inc. contributed to the plot, aside from cartoon shenanigans:

-Velma gave the exposition dump that Scooby was the key for the door to the underworld -Scooby and Shaggy, through their jalapeno ice cream treat, helped the Blue Falcon squad figure out that the skulls give off a heat signature. -Got Cerberus out and back into the door to the underworld

and.... yeah that’s about it. Aside from these instances and comedic relief, Mystery Incorporated-the cast the movie is supposed to be centered around-only serve as plot devices.

Sure Scoob and Shag’s friendship is one of the plot points, but it really follows Bryan’s ascension to becoming the new Blue Falcon more. The Scooby Doo gang feels like they’ve just been shoehorned in because more people remember them.

Sure there’s the argument that “Oh the movie is centered around Scooby and Shaggy though! They’re meant to be the comedic relief!” but that isn’t the point. Yes Scooby and Shaggy like to eat a lot, yes they’re not the brightest, yes they’re really scared of everything, but they can still be those things AND contribute to the plot!

Like the fight with Captain Caveman for example! Blue Falcon literally says “You better call more friends” and then he calls in an army of cavemen. I’m sure a lot of people expected that horde to come into play, right? Nope! Just Captain Caveman solo-ing the entire group and giving Blue Falcon more reason to doubt himself living up to his father.

If you wanted to give Scooby and Shaggy their moment to shine outside of the ending, have them be part of the fight against that army! Have Scooby and Shaggy make up to fight back to back with their cartoon hijinks! That way you can make them feel like an actual part of the movie instead of just there to say “Ruh Roh!” and collect their paycheck.

Mystery Incorporated as a whole feel sidelined compared to Blue Falcon and his character arc. If you wanted to make a Blue Falcon and Dynomutt movie, make a Blue Falcon and Dynomutt movie.

-Even if the movie is meant to have Mystery Inc. as the focus...

Then what is with the ending????? Opening the gates of hell and fighting Cerberus?????? I know Scooby Doo hasn’t been shy to use the unnatural and paranormal at times, but the cartoon is all about old rich dudes using monsters as a cover up! That’s the main appeal of Scooby Doo. The audience knows that there will be a person under a monster mask, but the draw comes from how the gang solves the mystery surrounding it.

The beginning of the movie set everything up for this type of story well! The gang as kids bust a criminal who was pretending to be a ghost as a cover up to steal things. That is what the audience came for, it felt like a taste of what’s to come! But instead the plot takes a complete 180 and turns into a superhero cartoon show.

But let’s say the movie was originally written to be a Scooby Doo movie, not a Blue Falcon movie. Let’s say that Blue Falcon and Dick Dastardly were meant to be a part of a Scooby Doo story. That’s still fine! Again, there have been wacky crossovers with Scooby Doo in the past! But the finale with everyone fighting Cerberus throws that out the window.

If you wanted to have this written like a Scooby Doo movie, or even just a long Scooby Doo episode, have there be a twist with the legend surrounding the underworld. Instead of everything being magic, have it be a millennium-long con that’s been done by a rich dude’s ancestors throughout the years or something. Like, “the legend was used to hide the family’s stolen treasure throughout the years and Cerberus was actually a giant mechanical robot!” That would have been a fun twist! The people came for Scooby Doo, give them Scooby Doo stories.

-One final personal gripe with the writing

For the love of god, please. PLEASE! Stop copy pasting the exact same Act 3 best friend split up and reunion. I have seen it so many times it’s not even fun anymore.

I’m not saying that the Act 3 split up trope is bad, really I’m not! But I have seen so many movies that have “oh I’m becoming more popular, I don’t need friends anymore” that I could literally predict how the rest of the movie would end and was right.

The trope can be good sometimes! You want a good example? Take a look at The Lego Movie 2-The Second Part. (Spoilers for the movie btw)

Around the third act of the movie, Rex and Emmet reunite with Wyldstyle/Lucy and try to form a plan to stop the wedding. For a majority of the story though, Emmet has been slowly influenced my Rex that the enemy is 100% bad and he can only rely on himself, nobody else. So when Rex suggests that Wyldstyle has been brainwashed, the movie could have taken the easy route and have Emmet take his side.

But Emmet knows that he and Wyldstyle are close friends, have been together through two apocalypses and survived so he vouches for and trusts her. It’s only when the plan goes wrong-because of Wyldstyle losing connection with the team and her trying to stop the plan-that Emmet is given a reason to believe that she is brainwashed, leading to the two splitting up.

You wanna know the best part?? This isn’t even a “You aren’t my BFF anymore!!” situation! Emmet thinks that Lucy is brainwashed, there is reasoning behind his decision to not believe her and it is believable! It’s been built up over the course of the story instead of just happening then and there! The third act split here is understandable!!

And I swear to god. Do not say that lazy writing is ok since it’s meant for kids. Just because something is meant for kids, it doesn’t mean that it needs to have the same plot as everything else.

The Lego Movie is meant for kids. It is a movie about a kid’s toy and literally takes place inside the imagination of little kids. But the story is still really good! Sure it’s not the best movie of the decade, but it’s still really good! Kids deserve better written stories like this!! If you say that lazy writing is okay if the content is for kids, you’re saying that kids do not have the ability to understand and appreciate more than just a fart joke.

So yeah, that’s my thoughts on the SCOOB! movie. Long story short, people came for Scooby Doo, give them Scooby Doo. If you wanted a Blue Falcon movie, or even a movie about cartoons in general, then do that. Just don’t treat kids like they’re dumb when writing stuff.

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fancifulbutsensiblething · 4 years

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Adventures in Auditory Agony

So I recently made a playlist of absolutely horrible music to drive around to, and the image of Ronan and Blue terrorizing the others with it popped into my head and refused to leave until I wrote this entirely self-indulgent fic to go along with the playlist. It’s v silly and also my first foray into writing TRC content, but...here we are.

Post-TRK/Pre-Epilogue Bronan friendship and gangsey shenanigans, rated T, read on ao3

In the week following Gansey’s graduation, something strange happened.

He hadn’t wanted to leave for a week, not when he was going to be leaving Henrietta so soon anyway. He’d disliked the plan even more when Maura had insisted Blue couldn’t go with him, that if she was going on this road trip with him and Henry, the Fox Way ladies needed to take advantage of every moment they had with her. Gansey couldn’t begrudge Maura time with her daughter, just as he couldn’t blame his own mother for wanting him to spend a little time with the rest of the Gansey clan before he took off again.

So he acquiesced to his mother’s demand-phrased-as-a-polite-request that he would spend a few days at home, on the condition that he could bring Adam along. Adam was even less thrilled than Gansey at the prospect of leaving Henrietta, especially when he knew Ronan wouldn’t come with them, especially especially when he remembered the last time he’d visited D.C. But Gansey desperately wanted company, and with Henry visiting his mother, Adam was the only option left, and he knew it. Besides, at Gansey’s suggestion, they’d added a few extra days for visiting some of the colleges Adam was applying to.

(Neither of them mentioned that the idea of some quality time together—just the two of them—before they each went their separate ways for the foreseeable future was an appealing one. They both thought it.)

The plan was met with mixed feelings by every party involved, but it went off without a hitch, and four family dinners, three college visits, two breakdowns in the Pig, and one emotional late-night heart to heart later, the two boys had returned to Henrietta.

For a while, Gansey noticed nothing amiss.

The first night back was a game night. As usual, Blue somehow managed to beat everyone at Super Smash Bros. despite passing up actually learning how to play in favor of smashing buttons at random. As usual, Adam was alarmingly good at Monopoly. As usual, Ronan got bored before they could finish a round and insisted on playing Cards Against Humanity instead. As usual, Gansey was terrible at every game but nonetheless seemed to have the most fun.

The next day was spent split off in pairs. Gansey spent some time at 300 Fox Way, helping out around the house and good-naturedly tasting Maura’s experimental teas before Blue got fed up with Orla, who was not in the least deterred from her usual flirtatiousness by the official nature of their relationship, and dragged him out of the house to 1) go for a drive, 2) make out in the back seat of the Pig, and 3) explore a local farmer’s market. The rest of the day was spent at Monmouth Manufacturing, though Adam and Ronan were nowhere to be seen. Ronan had been spending more nights at St. Agnes than Monmouth, though, so Gansey wasn’t surprised. All went as usual.

It was on his second full day back that Gansey realized something had happened during his week away.

After a lazy morning, everyone was gathered once more at Monmouth Manufacturing to go for a trip to the Barns. Ronan had volunteered to drive the BMW.

Adam and Gansey followed the other two as they headed out of the apartment, watching amusedly at the scene unfolding. Blue had thrown herself sideways into Ronan, and despite her size, she’d managed to knock him off balance for a moment.

“Hey, asshole, cut it out,” he growled, mussing the colorfully clipped mess of her hair affectionately.

Blue huffed and attempted to shove his hand away. He redoubled his efforts. She ducked away, but he followed, and it quickly escalated into a chaotic tussle.

“‘M gonna shave it all off,” came Blue’s muffled voice from behind Ronan’s arm, “just to spite you.”

Adam laughed. The sound made Gansey grin.

“I’d shave it for you if you asked nicely.”

“No way. It’s a punishment, not a reward.” By this time she had freed herself and was grinning breathlessly back at him as she jogged up to the Beemer.

Then Blue climbed in shotgun.

Ronan was unfazed by this. He hopped into the driver’s seat, and Gansey saw rather than heard him answering her quip.

Gansey, however, was not unfazed. And neither was Adam, if the slight frown and amused quirk of his lips when he turned to meet Gansey’s eyes was any indication.

Gansey could only shrug and follow Adam into the back seat.

Blue rode shotgun in the Camaro more frequently than Ronan or Adam did these days, and on the rare occasion that any of them ended up in Adam’s piece of shit car, she had as fair a shot as either of the others. But if Ronan was driving, it had always been Gansey or, more recently, Adam in the front. It wasn’t that Blue and Ronan weren’t close—they were just about as close now as any of them, and it made Gansey’s heart feel like it was swelling up three times it’s regular size, like the Grinch’s in the old cartoon he and Helen used to watch every December. But Blue had never attempted riding shotgun in the Beemer if either of the others were along, and Ronan had never asked her to, and something about it felt significant when she casually swung herself into the front seat.

It was practiced, Gansey realized as he buckled his seatbelt. It was easy. What had Ronan and Blue gotten up to while he and Adam were away?

He didn’t have to wonder long.

Ronan wordlessly tossed Blue his phone, and she hooked it up to the aux that he’d dreamt to work in the BMW. This, too, was practiced and easy. Blue even knew his phone password.

Just as they screeched out of the parking lot, some kind of music that Gansey could only call aggressive blasted through the speakers. It wasn’t the murder squash song, which he appreciated, but it also wasn’t all that much better. It was all angry electric music and yelling and loud, so loud, but Blue and Ronan were both yelling the words and head-banging, which he had never seen from either of them. It was so strange, he had to glance over at Adam for confirmation that he wasn’t hallucinating. Adam stared back at him wide-eyed.

For a while they only watched in silence, and Gansey almost felt as though he were intruding on some kind of private ritual until Blue turned and began to teasingly sing some of the lyrics of the next song—a horrible, upbeat electronic sounding one—at him. From the few lyrics he could understand, it was about carrying out a relationship over the phone. It was more than a little pointed, and he found himself blushing at some of the more explicit lyrics.

Some of his discomfort evaporated when she laughed delightedly at him and returned to dancing in her seat, replaced by fascination.

Finally, Adam broke in, yelling to be heard over the music, “Can someone please explain what is going on?”

Ronan met his eyes in the rearview mirror and shouted back, “We’re going to the Barns, Parrish. Where have you been?”

“Or do you just mean like, the state of the world today?” Blue asked, turning to face him. “Because you will not believe what’s going on with climate change.”

“I mean the state of my good ear, which is on the verge of becoming my other bad ear. The hell are we listening to?”

Blue lowered the volume just enough that they could speak without having to shout, warding off Ronan’s dirty look with one of her own. “Our playlist. I wanted to name it “emo to the excreamo,” but Ronan kept insisting on names that were objectively terrible and we couldn’t compromise so now it’s a sad nameless little playlist.”

“For the record, ‘songs to commit crimes to’ is the perfect name.”

“It doesn’t make sense! I can’t commit ecoterrorism while blasting Britney Spears.”

“Not with that attitude you can’t. You probably shouldn’t even fucking bother with the ecoterrorism if you aren’t gonna blast Britney Spears while you do it.”

Gansey’s head was spinning. “There’s Britney Spears on this playlist?”

“Obviously,” Blue shot back over her shoulder. It did not seem obvious to Gansey given that the current song was some kind of angry electric rock and that the playlist had been made by Ronan Lynch and Blue Sargent, but then again, nothing else about their current situation had seemed obvious to him ten minutes ago, either.

“I can’t blast anything as bop-worthy as Britney Spears, or I’ll get caught and then I won’t be able to commit more ecoterrorism.” This Blue directed at Ronan. “You must be a terrible criminal.”

“Fine. ‘Songs to get murdered to’ works just as well.”

Blue punched him in the arm. “That’s insensitive! Gansey’s been murdered!”

Ronan barked out a surprised laugh at that. “Yeah, by you and your kiss of death, Maggot.”

“For the record,” Gansey interjected, “Jane’s kiss of death was vastly preferable to the thousands of hornet stings.”

“What a compliment.” Adam raised an eyebrow and looked from Gansey to Blue.

Ronan snickered. “Congrats, Sargent. Kissing you is slightly better than getting stung to death.”

Blue’s reply was interrupted by the sound of “it’s Britney, bitch,” from the stereo, which sent her scrambling to set the volume to its previous ear-bleeding level.

They carried on like this for a while, Ronan pushing 20 over the speed limit and Blue scream-singing lyrics to songs that almost all had to do with sex, cars, or both. Gansey thought the one about a dreamer in a Beemer seemed a little on the nose, and sentiment Adam voiced moments later.

“I can’t help it if I’m someone’s muse,” came the reply. Blue snorted loudly, and Ronan reached over and pinched her on the exposed skin between the top of her knee socks and her ripped shorts. She slapped his hand and squirmed away.

At one point, Blue sang (if you could call it that, when it was really closer to talking or shouting but set to music) the intro to a song that began, “Hey you lil piss baby,” leaning across the center console to get in Ronan’s face, without missing a single word. In fact, Gansey realized, she knew at least some (if not most) of the words to all of these songs, and he wondered just how many times they’d listened to them together.

The fact that they had coordinated dance moves and established which of them sang specific parts when there were back and forth elements solidified for him that the answer was…many, many times.

This coordination was amusing for the most part. An amused smirk played across Adam’s lips as he watched their stupid dances, and Gansey was just ruminating on how happy and carefree both of them seemed, open in a way he rarely saw from either of them, when their performance jolted him out of his reverie.

Blue was moaning. Loudly.

It was part of the song, of course, the singer’s desire to — like rabbits, with a moan in place of an expletive, blaring over and over through the speakers. Ronan was singing along with the rest of the lyrics. Blue contributed the…interjectory sounds, and apparently took this role very seriously.

When her eyes, glinting mischievously, met his in the rearview mirror, he realized she was doing this on purpose. To mess with him. His mouth finally caught up to his brain, and he spluttered a scandalized, “Jane!”

She threw her head back and cackled gleefully. Ronan fist-bumped her. Gansey’s face felt hot.

“I think you’ve become a bad influence, Lynch,” Adam shouted, but he was failing to suppress his smile.

“If anything,” Ronan shot back, “Sargent’s been a bad influence on me. She’s the one that found most of these songs.”

Gansey wondered at that. He wondered all through the suggestive and outright explicit of the next song as well. He wondered at Blue’s ability to sing along without so much as a blush, all while he tried very hard not to think on any of the images his mind conjured up in response.

But of course, she was dauntless and outspoken in everything she did. He smiled at the mental image of her playing these songs for Ronan, ranting all the while about how women in media are sexualized for male gratification but expected to keep themselves modest and pure, the double-edged sword that is the masculine perception of female sexuality, and raging against the vilification of the women who wrote songs expressing that sexuality while men could objectify women in their song’s as much as they pleased. Gansey wished he could’ve been there for Ronan’s response.

None of that made the upbeat, electronic excuse for music any more aurally appealing, unfortunately.

One song ended with sudden bursts of horrid, metallic clashing sounds at a volume so painful that he, Adam, and even Blue covered their ears. She reached to lower the volume, but Ronan slapped her hand away.

“Come on, Ronan,” Gansey yelled, “this isn’t even music! It’s just…screeching!”

Ronan threw a wolfish grin at him over his shoulder. “I know. It sounds just like the Pig when she breaks down. Does it turn you on, Dick?”

Gansey let out a deep sigh, but before he could defend himself, the song had changed and Blue had let out a little excited yelp.

“I just remembered!” she gasped, grabbing for Ronan’s phone. “Henry gave me a song to play for you. You’re gonna love it.”

Ronan sneered. “I don’t trust Cheng’s taste in music.”

Blue only waved her hand dismissively and fiddled with his phone until a new song, not dissimilar in style to the rest, was playing. A few verses in, Adam began laughing, a full, joyous laugh rarely heard and positively contagious.

“It’s perfect for you, Ro,” he gasped out.

Ronan had to concede that a song about only answering the phone for your boyfriend’s personalized ringtone was rather fitting, even if Henry was the one to recommend it. He didn’t fight Blue when she added it to the playlist, and his threats following her announcement that she was making the song Adam’s ringtone were halfhearted at best.

Looking from Blue and Ronan’s bickering to Adam’s gasping laughter, Gansey tried to take in and file away every detail. He wanted to be able to look back on this moment when they were spread out across the country, to remind himself that the separation was only temporary. His chest felt like it was going to burst.

By the time they got to the Barns, it was his eardrums that felt like they were going to burst.

“Next time,” he groaned, stepping out of the car and into the Virginia summer heat, “I’m bringing ear plugs.”

#oof haven't written any fanfic in a long time #i'm out of practice and not used to these characters y'all #but this idea has been living in my head rent free for like...a week #caroline writes #bronan #the gangsey #the raven cycle #trc #trc fic

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robboyblunder · 5 years

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So my bf decided to have me play toontown with him because we both love old vintage toon stuff and it’s just silly fun thing to do in free time, and I turned my character into a fleshed out toon OC in my own writing world LOL

He’s a half toon half comic noir edgy character type around the astro-boy era where cartoons were both sort of serious but still toonish, being an experimental animation thing (no, he’s not a furry, please don’t call him one either... he’s like bugs bunny or mickey mouse basically); you can read his backstory under a readmore :D

anywho i’m adding him to my fun toon realm of heaven and hell with people and toons (tippy’s universe), it’s really fun :P maybe i should flesh that out someday...

(please don’t repost or use, and leave my description; thanks!)

Buck Wild is a gritty noir detective who used to only be in serious comics that were dark and edgy before a studio bought his rights to turn him into a color animated cartoon, but when they found child-friendly cartoons were more popular in the era, they abandoned his project.

As a result, Buck was lost in an undeveloped limbo until he re-emerged as a sentient toon who wanted to find what happened to him and who he exactly was anymore. To add to the tension, all he remembers is some kind of being has been running around committing murders on toon kind erasing them permanently, and has yet to solve the mystery on top of the new one of his identity.

Personality wise, Buck is very serious and work oriented so he doesn’t distract easily nor tend to mess around and be playful- much opposed to what a normal toon is like. He isn’t mean by any means though, and is a morally gray vigilante who mostly wants to protect and serve justice; a lot of cliches wrapped up! Though, he can be a bit of a kill-joy as he avoids toon shenanigans as much as possible and often laments when he’s pulled into them trying to apply reason/logic to the ridiculousness of toons. (naturally, because it’s funny, he’s pulled into them all the time)

Due to his scrapped concepts, he’s not entirely whole- his animated and comic halves sometimes ‘glitch’ where they conflict or combine making him struggle as his comic self is angrier and darker while his animated self is calmer and lighter hearted. If it gets bad enough, he reverts occasionally to his pencil concept art self and suffers amnesia until returning to normal. Most commonly he is in his animated form.

Trivia: -his horns used to be much bigger and stuck out of his hat. However, in his noir comics an antagonist snapped them off leaving him permanently with nubs. He’s sometimes sensitive about it -He smokes and drinks quite a bit as he’s very bad with coping and has poor addiction control (thanks to his comic writing), and is often focused on work rather than himself; he always has a flask and cigarettes + lighter -on the same line, he also doesn’t sleep/eat well. He loves diner food though, especially a good bagel with cream cheese -loves puzzles but gets frustrated by them quite a bit -hates bright lights; they make him freeze (y’know... like...like headlights-) -his hands are usually black silhouettes with no definition unless under intense light -His ‘mask’ is actually a marking on his face and is permanent. though, he wears a real mask over it too (trying to take it off is quite the comical bit) -He despises being called a toon and refuses to associate with the fact he is one, wanting to take himself more seriously. He may not be a full silly toon but is significantly based in them so he can’t escape it

#buck wild #toon #original character #oc #detective #smoking//#alcohol mention//#tippyverse #where do toons go when they die?

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joyofcrime-elinorhigh · 5 years

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Ouran High School Host Club REVIEW:

Hello there, everybody. My name is JoyofCrimeArt and welcome to the first cartoon review in my month long "Deviant-cember." event. For those of you who don't know every Friday for the rest of December I will be posting a new cartoon review, because I really enjoy making these reviews and hopefully you really enjoy reading them. Plus why not make something extra for the month of December. I mean all of those Youtubers are doing it. Anyway, I think I've gotten a bit off track, it's review time! So a couple months ago my little brother decided to randomly pick a show off of Netflix and start watching it. After he saw the first episode he decided to ask me if I was interested in watching it with him. This show was none other than the 2006 anime series "Ouran High School Host Club!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1SxNoqhwHA

For those who are unaware, "Ouran High School Host" is an anime series produced by Studio Bones and based on the long running manga by Bisco Hartori. This manga series seems to be pretty big in Japan as this series not only got an anime adaptation but also a live action series that aired on the Japanese version of TBS. And THAT series was apparently popular enough to warrant a live action film based on the series to be created. I didn't even know that Japan even had any live action shows! Like what!? Man, what will those Japanese people think of next... Anyway Ouran High School Host Club is a comedy anime that pokes fun at the Shojo genre of anime and manga. The Shojo genre seems to be defined as, quote "Them anime's where people don't spend all of there time powering up, fighting, and blowing stuff up." I didn't even know that Japan even had any anime like that! Like what!? Man, what will those Japanese people think of next...All jokes aside Shojo is apparently anime that is mainly targeted mainly at teenage girls. I've never seen any other "Shojo" anime before this but if this parody series in indication I would guess it features a lot of roses, fancy outfits, and flamboyant men. But enough background information, let's talk about the series plot! The series focuses on Haruhi Fujinoka, a first year high school student who is attending the illustrious private school Ouran Academy on scholarship. (SIDE NOTE: the show makes a big deal about, even though we actually only see our main characters actually DOING schoolwork in like two episodes out of the twenty six. And even in those episodes all we see are characters do is like a fitness exam and planning a school fair. Like does anybody actually do like, math and stuff at this school? Like, I know this show is about an after school club and all, but dang! Okay tangent over.) Everything is going well until Haruhi accidentally walks into the room of the Ouran High School Host Club. Now, I know what you may be wondering if you aren't Japanese or haven't seen this show before, "What is a host club?" Now, I'm not going to say that I'm an expert on the subject or anything but based on my limited research a host club is basically a less sexual and gender flipped version of a Hooters. There basically bars or clubs that feature attractive men who's job is to charm and flirt with female customers. This show takes that idea and just puts it into a high school and removes the alcohol. Haruhi accidentally knocks over a vase that belongs to the club and, since this is a precious private school owned entirely by rich people, the vase is valued at 8,000,000 yen, or a about 70,561 dollars American (give or take inflation. Thanks Google!) And thus, Haruhi is forced to work at the host club in order to pay off her debt but, shocking twist, Haruhi is actually a girl! Wah Wah Wah! So now Haruhi has to disguise herself as a man in order to work of her debt to the host club, and many shenanigans ensue!

(You know that the vase is going to break because they have an arrow pointing at it for the entire scene before Haruhi breaks it. It's because the show thinks that if there wasn't an arrow pointing at the vase, we might forget that the vase is important.) So let's talk about the members of the host club. First we have Haruhi. She's smart, hardworking, and independent to a fault. She acts as the straight man of the group and honestly she serves that role perfectly. Her default emotion ninety percent of the time seems to just be "indifference," and I mean that in the best possible way. Her deadpan attitude acts as a perfect foil for the other members of the host club. That being said it's not like she's a static character, as she does show emotion when a scene calls for it. Without Haruhi down to earth attitude the show would not work at all, as without it the show would just become to zany. You really need that voice of reason character to balance out the wackiness, even in a show as silly as this. Also, while I don't know how much this applies in the Japanese version her American voice actress, Caitlin Glass, does an excellent job delivering her lines as this character. Also yes, I did watch this show dubbed and not subbed and that is because I am a FILTHY CASUAL PLEBE! Next we have Tamaki, the leader and co founder of the host club. Tamaki is very much the dumb but beautiful type of character. He's self absorbed, though it seems to come less from a place of ego and more from just a place of ignorance. And despite him being so self absorbed he isn't selfish. He is shown to be a kind person who cares deeply about helping people, which does keep him likable. Tamaki is just such a passionate character it's hard for you as the viewer to not get as passionate as he is. He has a crush on Haruhi, which is obvious to everybody except himself. Many episodes focus on him trying to impress her, or focusing on his jealousy of anybody else who wants to get close to Haruhi, leading to many comedic situations. The obvious irony here is that Tamaki is in love with the only girl in the school who isn't madly in love with him. Like for real, every other girl in the school just melts in his hand, except for Haruhi. This is something I simply do not get, Tamaki is a doofus. I just don't see the attraction.

I mean sure he's attractive, I guess! What with that shaggy blond hair, and those deep blue eyes...that look like two glistening pools of water in the moonlight. And he does have a sort of innocent boyish charm to him...and those luscious, kissable lips....I-Ugh, what was I talking about again? Oh yeah, the review! Hehe, um...Where was I again? Also in the dub Tamaki is voiced by none other then Vic Mignogna. Most people would probably recognize him as Eric Elric from "Full Metal Alchemist" but the role that I most recognize him from is Uncle Qrow from "RWBY." QROW IS TAMAKI GUYS! I WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO TAKE QROW SERIOUSLY AGAIN!

Then we have Kyouya, the other co-founder of the host club. He's in charge of all of the planning and actual day to day running of the host club. He also acts as a straight man for the group, though not as much as Haruhi. He's cold and calculated, being in the club more business reasons as oppose to Tamaki who does it in order to make women happy. He's an excellent foil for Tamaki and an excellent tool for exposition for the writers, because he always does extensive background checks on literally every character in the series because, well, he's kinda a creep. Though in all serious he is a good character, especially as we get to learn more about him and get past his calculating exterior, as we learn he truly does have a soft side. Then we have twins Hikaru and Karou, who are in the club in order to appeal to guest who attracted to a certain, specific, type of yaoi....And this has gotten weird already if you get what I'm saying. Though to be fair it is left a bit vague how much of there "brotherly love." is real and how much is just an act for there clients. They are mischievous and overall pretty awful people overall, doing really jerky things pretty much just for the fun of it. Luckily they do get character development over time that fixes this a little, but yeah. They look completely identical to each other and act pretty much the same for the first half of the series too. There's even an episode where the dye there hair differently so it'd be easier to tell them apart.

(...I think this how Akira Toriyama got his inspiration for the "Future Trunks Arc" of Dragonball Super.) They do however start to divulge more in the second half with Hikaru being more rash and more of a jerk while Karou being a bit kinder and more sensitive. But don't worry, if you think that that's the last of the awkward and possibly unfortunate implications this show presents, you'd be way off- -Cause we also have Honey! He's a seventeen year old who's whole gimmick is that he both looks and acts like a five year old...God damn it, Japan. Okay to be fair the girls in the host club don't seem to actually seem to be "attracted" to him per say, they seem to just like to fangirl over how cute he is. So at least there's that. Honey is the cute one of the host club, who loves naps, stuffed animals, and cakes. While the anime gives no explanation on why Honey looks and acts the way he does the creator of the original manga gives one, and it's the dumbest answer ever. Bisco Hatori has jokes the reason Honey looks and acts so young is because Honey was born on February 29th, and thus only ages every four years. Well played Hatori, well played. There's also the host club manager, Renge. Now according to Tvtropes at least, she's kinda a base breaker character, meaning people either love her or hate her. I personally love her, but I totally understand how people might find her annoying. She's doesn't really serve much purpose to most of the plot, probably because she was only in one chapter of the manga. She's an insane Otaku who's only real purpose is to be genre savvy. She also always rises from the grown on a platform powered by a powerful motor. Even when there outside or something. Don't ask, there is no explanation.

...Oh, there's also Mori. Yup. Mori's was definitely there too.

here are some other characters, like Nekozawa, Haruhi's dad, and Zuka club but I don't want to go into all of those characters here. I don't want to spoil the entire show. Oh! I almost forget everybody's favorite side character, John Cena Senpai!

(All credit to twitter.com/thaniasenpai for the original tweet/joke.) If there was one word that I would use to describe this show it would be "farcical." This is a really frickin' silly, especially in the first half. There's lots of yelling, over exaggerated facial expressions, and even some fourth wall jokes. Also this show has this weird thing with banana peels. Like y'know how in most slapstick comedies you'll see a character eating a banana, and then they'll drop the peel and later on some character will slip on it. This show just skips the set up and just has them slipping on the peel from the get go. The banana peels seem to just, kinda spawn. It's really kooky. The comedy is definitely over the top, but it's a really fun kind of over the top that I found to be very enjoyable personally. When your "Alice and Wonderland" episode of your show is actually one of the more serious episodes, I think it says something about the tone of your story.

(Example of Kooky.) About half way through the series the show starts to change in tone slightly. The show still remains goofy all the way through, (That image above me is actually a shot from one of the last scenes of the last episode.) but we start to get some more serious episodes mixed in with the silly ones, or episodes that have both silly and serious elements to them. We start to get more backstory on the various members of the host club and it's actually pretty effective the majority of the time. It's really weird because you wouldn't expect the show to go off in that direction but I think it's good that it did. They know not to ever make things get to heavy and give us just enough drama to be drawn into the story a bit more without substituting the shows original appeal, which is the comedy. We see the characters open up and develop as time goes on, becoming more complex and interesting. Honestly after watching all twenty six episodes of this show I didn't really have much to complain about. The only problems the show has is that the jokes don't always land and some of the unfortunate implications. And I don't just mean the stuff I mentioned earlier with Honey and the twins. When you get right down to it a lot of the host clubs antics, if placed in a less comedic setting would be a lot more creepy. Like how Tamaki claims himself as Haruhi's "Daddy." and tries to stop her from having any romantic relationship with someone else, and is kinda forcing Haruhi into his weird love club until she starts to actually start enjoying the club, almost like stockholm syndrome. Now obviously that's not the implication we're suppose to take away from all of this, as the show's tounge and cheek attitude prevents any of this stuff from getting too weird, and the bond between Haruhi and the members of the host club are genuine, I'm just saying that there's an great darker and edgier horror movie in here waiting to be made! So in conclusion is Ouran High School Host Club the greatest anime ever made? Yes. IN YOUR FACE "Hayao Miyazaki!" No, while Ouran High School Host Club may not be the greatest anime ever made by any stretch, I found it surprisingly enjoyable. It has great characters, good comedy, and a surprisingly well told and heart warming story. I think a lot of the parody and and some of the weird implications the series would work a bit better if I know more Japanese culture and the shojo genre, but regardless I do think it's a good show that is worth watching. This show will not be for everybody. It's comedy may be seen as "too goofy" for some, some of the implications might be a bit squicky for some people, and some people may not be able to get over how flamboyant and cheesy it is. But if your willing to look past all of that, and your just in the mood for a silly, nonsensical farce featuring a lot over the top characters, a lot of yaoi overtones, and a lot, and I mean a lot of roses, Ouran Highschool Host Club might just be the show to give you all of that, plus maybe a little bit more. While the show is no longer available on Netflix it is still available on Hulu both subbed and dubbed. You can also watch the series on Funimation.com for free, or buy the series on DVD and blu-ray. Check if the show sounds interesting to you maybe check it out. It'll most likely be time well spent. So that's my review of Ouran High School Host Club. Have you seen the show? What do you think of it? Feel free to tell me your thoughts in the comments down bellow. Even if you disagree with my opinion I'd love to hear yours. Feel free to fav, follow and comment on this post if you liked the review. And don't forget to come back next week for the second review in my multi-part "Deviant-cember." where I'll be talking about the 1992 Holiday "classic" Frosty Returns. See you guys then and have a great day.

(And here we have Tamaki, about to break through Wall Maria, releasing the titans onto the citizens of the Shiganshina District.) (I do not own any of the images or videos in this review all credit goes to there original owners.)

https://www.deviantart.com/joyofcrimeart/journal/Ouran-High-School-Host-Club-REVIEW-650271772 DA Link

#ouran host club #Ouran High School Host #Anime #Cartoon Review #2000's

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maddie-grove · 5 years

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Bi-Monthly Reading Round-Up: March/April

PLAYLIST

“Hey, Little Songbird” from Hadestown (The Wager)

“New Slang” by the Shins (Spinners)

“Auto de Fé” from Candide (October Wind)

“Let’s Generalize about Men” from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure)

“Juice” by Lizzo (Shrill)

“Love’s Been Good to Me” by Frank Sinatra (Sex and Violence)

“Heroes” by David Bowie (Cracker Jackson)

“Listen to Her Heart” by Tom Petty and the Hearbreakers (The Cybil War)

“Satellite of Love” by Lou Reed (The T.V. Kid)

“Distant Shores” by Chad and Jeremy (Love’s Willing Servant)

“Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod?” by the Mountain Goats (The Cartoonist)

“Ghost World” by Aimee Mann (Summer of the Swans)

“Floating Vibes” by Surfer Blood (Not the Duke’s Darling)

BEST OF THE BI-MONTH

The Wager by Donna Jo Napoli (2010): Don Giovanni de la Fortuna, a nineteen-year-old nobleman in medieval Sicily, loses his entire fortune to a tidal wave and soon finds himself on the brink of starvation. That’s when the Devil comes knocking with an offer: endless money for the rest of his life if he doesn’t bathe, cut his hair, shave, or change his clothes for three years, three months, and three days. This is a retelling of a lesser-known Sicilian fairy tale and, next to the sublime Breath, it’s Napoli’s best work. Instead of taking the easy route of making Don Giovanni a stupid brat who learns to be nicer and more frugal, she complicates things by making him sweet and resourceful from the beginning, as well as callow and somewhat thoughtless. (His first action after seeing the damage wrought by the tidal wave is to go out and help bury the dead for three straight days.) This makes the message of the book more powerful; if someone deep-down good and intelligent can stand to think more about others and help the less fortunate, then clearly that lesson applies to everyone, not just the worst sort of rich people. Don Giovanni’s unprocessed grief over his long-dead parents and longing for human connection are also very affecting.

WORST OF THE BI-MONTH

Spinners by Donna Jo Napoli and Richard Tchen (1999): In medieval-ish Scotland, a poor tailor longs to marry his sweetheart, a spinner, but her father will only consent if the tailor can show he’ll be a good provider. The tailor tries to make a dress that appears to be made of gold and succeeds; however, he still loses his sweetheart to a rich miller and his health to a magic spinning wheel (as one does). Years later, the sweetheart’s daughter, now a skilled spinner in her own right, finds herself in trouble when a king gets the wrong impression about her being able to spin straw into gold. File this one under “cool idea, half-assed execution.” After a certain point, Napoli seems to run out of her own ideas and just follows “Rumpelstiltskin” to its original conclusion. This wouldn’t be great for any fairy-tale retelling, but the ludicrous “Rumpelstiltskin” needs more reworking than most. Also, the tailor’s sweetheart is such an ableist tool! I’d get it if she chose the rich miller out of concern for financial security, but she just dumps the tailor because the magic spinning wheel basically gave him a supernatural stroke and she thinks it made him evil? You can do better, baby!

REST OF THE BI-MONTH

The Cartoonist by Betsy Byars (1978): Alfie Mason, a quiet eleven-year-old, takes refuge from his unhappy family in the tiny attic of his ramshackle house, drawing faintly absurd cartoons. Then his ne’er-do-well older brother Bubba loses his job, prompting a way-too-excited Mrs. Mason to decide to renovate the attic into a bedroom...so Alfie barricades himself in the attic and throws the family into chaos without saying a word. I first read this book when I was eleven, and even then I found it deeply upsetting. Mrs. Mason seems incapable of seeing anyone but Bubba as a full human being, and she never regrets hurting Alfie or her daughter Alma in order to benefit her eldest. The best Alfie and Alma can do is call her out on it--Alfie through his silent protest, Alma by finally standing up for herself and her little brother--and try to move on. It’s certainly an unvarnished message for a middle-grade novel, but it’s not a bad one, given that some parents are just like that.

Shrill by Lindy West (2016): In this memoir, Lindy West reflects on her personal experiences with fatphobia, the general strangeness of having a human body, abortion, the ethics of comedy, and Internet trolls, among other subjects. This book was genuinely inspiring and amusing to me at a time when I greatly needed a lot of confidence and some laughs, and for that I am eternally grateful. The humor can feel very social-media-circa-2015, but there are worse things than a book capturing a specific moment.

Cracker Jackson by Betsy Byars (1985): Eleven-year-old “Cracker” Jackson Hunter realizes that Alma, his beloved former babysitter, is being physically abused by her husband. Even though his divorced parents forbid it and Alma herself warns him against angering her husband, he tries his best to help her, with mixed results. By all rights, this middle-grade novel should be a tonal mess--Jackson and his best friend Goat get involved in some legit Wacky Schemes--but instead it’s a moving portrait of a kid who has to deal with gut-wrenching adult realities while also navigating sixth-grade drama. I also loved Jackson’s three parental figures. They’re all flawed--Jackson’s mom is a worrywart about stuff that doesn’t matter, his dad can’t hold a conversation with him without lapsing into Dracula impressions, and Alma sometimes treats him more like a peer than a kid--but they all clearly care about him and try to make things okay.

Not the Duke’s Darling by Elizabeth Hoyt (2018): Years ago, a horrific murder and a dubious attempt at revenge tore apart the lives of Christopher Renshawe and Lady Freya de Moray. Now he’s a widowed duke with severe claustrophobia and a blackmailer on his case, while she’s an undercover spy for a secret society of Scottish witches who help women. (Awesome.) (Also some of them are lesbians.) When they end up at the same house party, she vows to keep hating him for wronging her family, but does that last long? No, because they’re reasonably good at communicating and can appreciate each other’s goals! This spooky Georgian romance didn’t knock my socks off, but it’s a good start to Hoyt’s new Greycourt series and it has a light touch with the serious issues it handles.

Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan (2019): Violetta Beauchamps, a sixty-nine-year-old* bookkeeper, is cheated out of her pension by her landlord boss. In desperation, she hatches her own retirement plan: swindling Bertrice Martin, a wealthy seventy-three-year-old widow, by pretending to be her insolvent nephew’s landlady. Bertrice has refused to pay her nephew’s debts on principle, but she’s willing to make an exception if Violetta will help pester him into vacating his lodgings. Shenanigans and old-lady romance ensue. This mid-Victorian-set romance novella is like an ambiguous image (for example: that picture that’s either a vase or two faces in profile). Look at it as the tale of two L.M.-Montgomery-style elderly women falling in love, and it’s delightful; look at it for deep social commentary, and it’s pretty simplistic and sometimes even callous. I enjoyed it, but it only works on certain levels.

Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars (1970): Lately, fourteen-year-old Sara Godfrey has been feeling awkward and out of charity with everyone: her absentee father, her plainspoken aunt, her beautiful older sister, the other kids at school, and even her little brother Charlie, who has been mostly nonverbal and easily disoriented since sustaining serious brain damage during a childhood illness. When Charlie goes missing in the night, though, her only thought is to find him. Despite loving Byars, I avoided this Newberry winner as a kid because it looked kind of boring. It is a little sedate in a classic-American-coming-of-age-story way--part “The Scarlet Ibis,” part Judy Blume--but I still loved Sara, who is always ready to throw down, and I found the depiction of Charlie to be surprisingly sensitive for the time. (The language is outdated, but the passages from Charlie’s POV aren’t condescending, plus he isn’t killed off, as I initially feared.) The descriptions of the coal-ravaged West Virginia countryside are also very evocative.

The TV Kid by Betsy Byars (1974): Lenny, a preteen living with his single mom at the kitschy Kentucky motel she owns, struggles in school and has no friends. (His family moves around a lot and he probably has a learning disability.) He has two sources of solace: watching TV and sneaking into the abandoned lake houses in his neighborhood. One day, though, his favorite hobbies get him into trouble. This was one of my favorite Byars books as a kid, even though I was not familiar with the TV landscape of 1974. I liked it a little less this time, but not because it was dated; instead, I was disconcerted by how pro-getting-bitten-by-a-rattlesnake it is. Also, a significant portion of the story is devoted to a child suffering horrible pain from a snakebite, which is harder to take as an adult reader. Still, it’s got some of that classic Byars melancholy.

The Cybil War by Betsy Byars (1981): Eleven-year-old Simon has had a crush on his classmate Cybil for years, because she does awesome stuff like advocate for more active roles for girls in the yearly school pageants. He’s not inspired to act on his feelings, though, until his awful best friend Tony decides he likes Cybil and starts talking shit to her about Simon. There’s a lot to like about this book. Cybil, with her nonchalant confidence and kindness, is a wonderful character, and Simon’s thorough admiration for her is adorable. I also like how Byars ties Simon’s complicated feelings about his deadbeat dad to his efforts to navigate small-scale fifth-grade drama; both weigh heavily on him, and Byars is never condescending about this. Yet the book’s not Byars’s best, mostly because of the lack of generosity towards Cybil’s fat friend Harriet and, to a lesser extent, Tony.

Sex and Violence by Carrie Mesrobian (2013): Seventeen-year-old Evan doesn’t do serious relationships, instead preferring to hook up with girls and ghost them when he starts having feels. (His family moves around a lot and he’s got some trauma.) Then one girl’s jealous ex orchestrates a horrific assault on them both, leading Evan’s distant widowed dad to take his traumatized son back to their Minnesota hometown. It turns out okay. I liked this novel a lot more once I accepted it as an intentionally messy coming-of-age novel, rather than an issue novel...but it was still a little too messy for its own good. I felt like I was supposed to condemn Evan for having casual sex, something that’s both morally neutral and natural enough for a teen who moves every year, yet the narrative all but endorses his contempt for lower-class girls. I was also uncomfortable with the revelation that Evan was a survivor of statutory rape. It seemed like he was being punished by the narrative only for hyper-sexuality that clearly stemmed from trauma--with a physical assault with some strong sexual implications, no less--but let off the hook for his thoughtless middle-class-boy prejudices. I did feel for him, though, and that carried me through most of the book.

October Wind by Susan Wiggs (1991): In late-fifteenth-century Spain, Cristóbal Colón (aka Christopher Columbus) tries to convince Queen Isabella to fund a westward expedition. Meanwhile, nobleman Joseph Sarmiento learns an enormous secret about his background and must decide whether to alter the course of his life. During this time, Rafael Viscaino, a young scribe, strives to rise in the world while his friends, aspiring doctor Catalina and cheerful but troubled half-Roma Santiago, have their own struggles. This historical novel (which just barely qualifies as a romance) has a lot of potential, but it wastes too much time on Columbus and Isabella, plus it gives them more credit than they deserve. Wiggs should’ve focused on Joseph, the sexiest and most likable character, and made more of his eventual relationship with Anacaona, a Guanahani woman. Or else she should’ve just made it a poly romance with Rafael/Catalina/Santiago, which she comes this close to doing.

Love’s Willing Servant by Avis Worthington (1980): Left penniless by her father and betrayed by her childhood sweetheart, Lettice Clifford decides to take herself to her sister’s home in colonial Virginia and get a rich husband. She’s surprised to find herself sharing a ship with Geoffrey Finch, a neighbor who has been betrayed by his evil twin and sold into indentured servitude. When his indenture ends up getting bought by her brother-in-law, they grow closer, but multiple creepy people and Bacon’s Rebellion threaten their love. Maybe I’ve just seen too much, but I was pleasantly surprised by the relative inoffensiveness of this Old School romance. Geoffrey is a reasonable person, there’s not a sexual assault every other chapter, and the racism issues are more “the black characters should be more central” than “this is just a defense of slavery” or “calm down with the n-word, Quentin Tarantino.” These small mercies aside, I also enjoyed the absolutely bonkers plot and the use of historical details. I didn’t care much for Lettice, though, because she’s usually either boring or kind of a dick.

*Nice.

#books #reading #theme of the bi-month: his family moves around a lot #rewritten because tumblr ate it

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fly-pow-bye · 5 years

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Powerpuff Girls 2016 - “Hustlecup” (with Captain B.Z.!)

Written by: Jake Goldman

Written & Storyboarded by: Kyle Neswald, Jaydeep Hasrajani

Directed by: Nick Jennings, Bob Boyle

Hate & basketball.

Before we begin this review, for the first time ever, I have a special guest! Yes, Fly Pow Bye has mostly been about my opinions and mine alone. Please welcome, Captain B.Z.!

Captain B.Z.: Hello, I’m Captain B. Z.! A few of you might know me as the person who archives old Cartoon Network VHS recordings and ads to YouTube but I’m always willing to give shows new and old a chance.

While I initially wasn’t a fan of PPG 2016, I grew to find it an average show around the second season and have found things to like about it, including the Bliss arc and the attempts by the writers to slowly incorporate more action. However, PPG 2016 still isn’t without its problems, as evidenced by today’s episode.

We definitely have a very similar viewpoint; I do admit that the show has gotten better over since those early episodes. This episode, however, might not be the best indicator of that. Let's see if this episode is on fire, or if it should be lit on fire.

The episode starts with electricity flowing through a bunch of tubes...which powers a lightbulb which illuminates the room the Powerpuff Girls and the Professor are in.

Captain B.Z.: Now, I’ll admit that I really like the shot at the start where it shows what’s powering up the mysterious invention - a green light. It’s completely unnecessary and doesn’t apply to anything, but it’s a nice way to start off the episode that doesn’t rely on a Family Guy TV show cutaway gag.

That opened my eyes a little. This mysterious invention is so mysterious, that each Powerpuff Girl repeating that it's so secret. What could it possibly be? How it passes through those circular tubes, and, as mentioned, how it is a green light, could be a hint at what it will be.

Captain B.Z.: Foreshadowing! It’s not just blatantly obvious anymore!

It turns out to be a new hat with a traffic light on it, called the traffic hat. The Powerpuff Girls are disappointed at first, as emphasized by a sad trumpet. Seems to be the running theme with the Professor's inventions. The Professor is ecstatic about it, saying it will be the #1 at the Science-Palooza. Blossom is confused how this hat could possibly win anything, but the Professor tells Blossom that it's not just any hat.

He tells Bubbles to throw this plate of spaghetti at Buttercup. Bubbles immediately does it before the Professor can say "when I say go", which ends up with Buttercup getting a plate full of spaghetti. I'll admit, I actually chuckled at this gag; it's all in the timing.

Captain B.Z.: Plus the fact that it’s freaking "scientific-grade" pasta. The Professor cares more about which type of pasta he gets than his own children.

How fitting. The Professor then pulls out another plate of scientific-grade pasta, and Buttercup tries to get her revenge. The Professor then yells "yellow light", and the pasta starts moving in slow motion, and then a "red light", stopping it in mid-air. Buttercup moves right in front of the pasta to look at this closely, and one can guess what happens next.

Granted, it's not that Buttercup wouldn't deserve what came to her. Despite being a victim of two different spaghetti related incidents thanks to this hat, Buttercup is very excited to use his hat for nefarious purposes. Specifically, she wants to freeze Jennifre's face when she sneezes so she'll look ridiculous. She demonstrates by making this face. Not among of the worst face gags this show has to offer, but it could have been made a little bit better.

That would be a good start.

Captain B.Z.: The face gags have their place and time, in my opinion. Plenty of shows have done really good jokes involving facial expressions, including fellow Cartoon Network series OK KO.

However, in order to make a face gag work, you have to time it just right and not have it be on screen for too long at the risk of being annoying. This is an example of a face gag I didn’t particularly find funny, but I can appreciate that it gets a callback later.

Buttercup has to promise the Professor not to take the hat to school, which she does oblige by...

...but he never said anything about taking it to the park to cause that sweet, sweet mischief! It starts with a little scene with Barry.

Captain B.Z.: Barry’s scene was one of the few redeeming factors of this episode. Partly because it was legitimately funny, and partly because we get to see Barry get injured. Shame it couldn’t have been the Professor in this situation, but we’ll get to that later.

She eventually does what she promised to do to Jennifre by red lighting her as soon as she sneezes. Jennifre was making fun of her hat, so Buttercup's actions are justified. As mentioned before, this does give more of a point to that Buttercup face from before. The other kids start to chant her name for causing all of this torment on people that aren't them, and she catches the attention of one guy who appears to be far older.

It turns out, the Gangreen Gang were hanging out at a nearby basketball court watching all of these time-stopping shenanigans unfold. Sorry to say, all of your headcanons on how Ace left this reboot to hang out with the Gorillaz are now wrong. It was my headcanon, too. They see Buttercup singing the theme song, except she says "I got the power". As much as it's supposed to exemplify Buttercup's selfishness, that's not too inaccurate.

Ace decides to challenge Buttercup to a game of Horse. If one doesn't know how the game works, Ace explains it via a scene that looks like a cross between a diagram and one of those Tiger LCD games from the 90s.

Ace: If I make a shot, you gotta copy it. If you miss the shot, you get a letter. First to spell "horse" is the loser.

Notice how he doesn't explain what happens if Buttercup actually makes the shot. It could be that he's pretty confident, but it's a big hint on how good these "horse" scenes are going to be. They decide to make a wager, if Ace wins, he gets the "doo-hickey" on her head. If Buttercup wins, she gets...

...Ace's prized scooter! What would a 6 year old girl do with a scooter? I don't even think her hands would be able to reach the handlebars! Besides, she saw Ace miss one shot, which either means he's terrible at it, or he's just acting like he's bad at basketball to lure in the mark. Buttercup assumes it's the former.

Captain B.Z.: I’d complain about how Ace has a scooter in this episode and this episode only, but there are far more concerning matters that apply to this episode’s character development, so I won’t.

...damn it, I just did it, didn’t I?

The game begins, and right from Buttercup nervousness from Ace's first shot, one can guess this is not going to end well for her. It should be noted that the very first short this reboot ever had focused on Buttercup not being able to make a "downtown" shot into a wastebasket, so it's interesting to see three seasons later that her skill hasn't changed.

Captain B.Z.: I’m debating whether or not the writers even remembered that short while writing this episode, though. If it was an intentional nod, good for them, although I’m surprised it came this late in the series’ run, when many people had began to ignore the series.

Yes, it's probably a coincidence, but a nice one nonetheless. There's no funny business, Ace manages to perfectly shoot 5 hoops in different ways, some ways so different that they didn't even bother to animate them, and Buttercup's vain attempts to copy them only adding more letters to the LCD game-esque scoreboard. In the end, Ace doesn't get a single letter, and Buttercup gets h...

Mr. Ed impression: You got hooooorse!

GYAH! What is that thing?!

Captain B.Z.: Isn’t it obvious? It’s another uphill roller coaster! It doesn’t lead anywhere and is just there to remind you that this show is a comedy. Even though there’s no punchline to this joke whatsoever.

Wait, this show is a comedy? That horse made me think this was a horror show.

After that...thing, the Gangreen Gang take their scooter home, Ace taking the "doo-hickey" with him. Back at the Powerpuff home, Blossom tells Buttercup that losing the hat was the most irresponsible thing she has ever done!

Well, except for that one time where she joined the Prune-A-Cycling Club. Get it, because pruning would be so hard if you were on a unicycle! Really, this feels like another uphill roller coaster gag, though it is one that only shows up twice. If only other gags got that honor. Also, Blossom and Bubbles joined it too, so it's not like it's just Buttercup's fault.

The Professor barges into the room, so excited about the upcoming Science-Palooza. He can't decide which shade of white lab coat he wants to bring! It's an okay gag based on how his outfit is usually the same, though that might be by comparison. He decides not to question where the hat is, and assumes Buttercup is taking good care of it.

None of the Powerpuff Girls had the heart to tell him the truth, so they decide to confront the Gangreen Gang as a group. They got to "mop up Buttercup's mess", in Blossom's words, said in a way that makes me think even Blossom is getting tired of these kinds of plots.

After a surprising cameo appearance by the pizza guy from the Small World special, the Gangreen Gang gets confronted by the girls. Bubbles said she thought she smelled a rat, because they had a joke about Grubber using a rat as deodorant, and they didn't want to just leave it in the pile.

Like a true hero, Blossom outright threatens him to give back the hat, or he will get hurt. Ace did say he won it fair and square, and those couple of misses to lure Buttercup into a false sense of security were just "a couple of misses". He decides, as the "gentleman" he is, he does another wager on a game of horse. If Blossom wins, she gets the hat. If she loses, Ace gets Blossom's favorite protractor and one of Bubbles' pigtails. The latter was specially requested by Ace, by the way. We will see how, we won't see why. Maybe that's a blessing.

So get this, Blossom is going to use her knowledge of math to enhance her game. Yeah, because Blossom is smart, she has to be, say, the mathlete of the group. It seems to make so much sense, I mean, it’s not like we’re supposed to believe that Buttercup is the mathlete! Yeah, that's what I'll go with, because anything else would be silly. This would have worked, too, but the Gangreen Gang decide do something even worse than pretending to be bad at basketball.

They decides to outright cheat by moving the basket and blocking the perfectly made shots. At least this time, we actually see five different ways they do that. One oddity is that none of these ways involve the time-stopping hat; in fact, Ace never actually uses it in any of the games. He's far from playing with honor at this point, he might as well use it.

Since there's nothing in the Gangreen Gang's rulebook that states they can't have the other members block the shots, though I highly doubt they even had one in the first place, Blossom is the next one to get...

Mr. Ed impression: Hoooorse!

GYAH! Yeah, repetition is not doing this gag any favors. In fact, I'd argue it's not doing anyone any favors.

Ace grabs the ponytail, twisting it off like a loose nail. They also take Angel-gelica. Yes, the protractor has a name, because Blossom is the nerd character that loves math. This doesn't nearly impact Blossom's looks, but is treated as just as important to her. They could have taken her bow, her hairclip, or even her ponytail. It seems to fit Ace's odd obsession with stealing other people's hair in this episode.

The Powerpuff Girls now decide that violence is the answer, threatening to crush their bones with half of a basketball court. Kind of an overreaction, I'd say, but one thing I can appreciate is that this is the only time they get to use any kind of superpower besides flight in this episode. It is sad that we need these reminders.

Ace decides then and here that the hat would come in handy, and says "red light". This makes the Powerpuff Girls and the basketball court float perfectly still in mid-air. They probably didn't even need the hat, that seems to be their usual strategy anyway.

This leads to a psychedelic slideshow beatdown, with the red-lighted Puffs getting licked both figuratively and literally. It's here that we learn what exactly what the hat brings to the plot: the ability to make a scene where superpowered girls getting beaten up by regular thugs more believable. Well, that, and a way for Buttercup to do something wrong, get in trouble, and learn a lesson that she would probably forget by the next episode anyway

Once Ace says "green light" on the court, Buttercup suffers something worse than losing at a basketball game...

...getting scolded by her father figure for the second most irresponsible thing she has ever done. A good hint on how good that pruning gag is: they don't even give it a proper background for the second time.

He decides to help the girls out, and go to the "basketball fields". Oh, silly Professor, that's not what basketball courts are called! Man, this guy must not know sports at all! However, he's sure that he can just talk to the Gangreen Gang like civilized adults, and they'll happily just hand over the hair, the protractor, and maybe even that time-stopping hat!

At the basketball court, somehow completely undamaged from the Powerpuff Girls' post-loss and somewhat-justified temper tantrum, we see that, needless to say, that civilized adults strategy did not work. As the gang is laughing at this dork, Ace offers another game of horse. Ace really needs another pigtail. Again, we see how, won't see why, maybe it's a blessing.

The Professor doesn't take it at first, because, in his words:

Professor: I'm not about to bet on a game I've never played before!

Lil' Arturo calls him a chicken like a 90's bully, and that's enough for him to change his mind. How hard could it be, you just put the ball in the hoop thingy, and he makes a practice shot by just launching the ball straight into the air. I am summarizing this because I want to point out that he is really trying to show off that he is just not good at sports. However, he's going to do it anyway.

The conclusion was so obvious, the episode just presses the fast forward button. We instantly see the Professor getting each letter. We don't even know if the Gangreen Gang decided to cheat here, it's just H, O, R, S, E, with the Professor's face zooming in with each one. In just a few seconds, the Professor gets...

Mr. Ed impression: Hoooorse!

Yeah, yeah, we get it, you stock image abomination. By the third time, I'm just rolling my eyes in disgust.

Bubbles loses her last pigtail, and all hope seems to be lost. Left with nothing else to wager, the Professor challenges him again, this time putting their residence on the line for everything Ace has taken, plus his scooter. The Powerpuff Girls object, but the Professor is so assuring by saying they always wanted to travel. I mean, what's the worst that can happen if the Powerpuff Girls leave Townsville?

Dispaired Citizens: Why'd you leave us, Powerpuff Girls?

Oh yeah, that. Okay, that was the original, but I'd imagine something very similar would happen here, too. But Townsville can go to heck for all he cares, he wants that hat back, no matter what the risk is!

The Professor looks at the basket, sweating profusely. How are they possibly going to beat Ace at his own game? He makes a desperate attempt to copy Ace's shot...

...and he makes the shot perfectly. He then tears off his shirt, revealing his hairy, hairy abs, and says that he's still got it. Wait, what? This comes completely out of nowhere; one minute, he's incompetent at sports, and then, snap, he's good at basketball now. But hey...he has a pi symbol on his shirt! That's nerdy!

"When did the Professor suddenly get good?" isn't even the only question I have about this scene. If the Professor was really trying to "hustle" these green gangsters by pretending he was bad at sports, why did he let them win the first time? Also, no matter suddenly how skilled the Professor is now, wouldn't the Gangreen Gang just cheat some more?

They at least explained that last one. The Powerpuff Girls decided not to just sit back and let the other members cheat, and tied them up with ordinary rope while Ace was too busy focusing on the Professor's sick moves. They could have did this when Blossom was getting horsed, but then the episode would have ended too early.

With the other members tied up, the Professor's unexplained sudden skill increase, and Ace never realizing he could just use his hat, Ace finally gets...

...

...gets...

...

...so now the reboot decides not to do the "horse" joke? Honestly, this ending is bad enough already, you might as well go for the Full Monty and give us that forsaken furlong-runner! Maybe that horse got disqualified.

Blossom gets her beloved ruler back, Bubbles gets her pigtails back, Buttercup gets grounded again, and the Professor now has a sweet scooter for him to take to the Science-Palooza. We never quite find out if his invention is a winner as the episode suddenly ends here...but this ending sure isn't one.

Captain B.Z.: So let’s talk about why this ending doesn’t work.

The Professor has had literally no experience at playing basketball in his life, neither in the original or this series. His initial plan is to talk to the Gangreen Gang sensibly but he does even worse than the girls. Then, he becomes ridiculously good out of freaking nowhere, throwing in another muscle “joke” for extra measure.

There is no buildup to this ending whatsoever due to the Professor being such a forgettable character in this episode. It's to the point where if the girls hadn’t told him that his hat was stolen, he wouldn’t have even cared.

Does the title fit?

It wasn't Buttercup doing the hustling. I honestly argue hustling was kind of forgotten halfway through!

How does it stack up?

It's such a shame that a major appearance from the Gangreen Gang that doesn't involve them just dressing in drag for a talent show is in such a lousy episode.

Captain B.Z.: Hustlecup is an episode that suffers in many different ways, from a story that isn’t well-defined to plenty of out-of-character moments - more than average for the reboot. While I don’t mind these errors if they’re just a small part of the episode, here, they get in the way of any merit the episode might have had and make it a truly frustrating watch.

Indeed. There are other variations of H-O-R-S-E with less letters, but even if this episode was playing Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, it would still lose.

Captain B.Z.: As I mentioned earlier in the review, this episode did provide some interesting concepts. The idea of a traffic light hat that actually slows down time is pretty neat but the writers did nothing with it. I’m surprised we didn’t get another episode like “Lights Out!” where we get to see Bubbles figure out how the hat works when the Gangreen Gang steals it and messes with Townsville traffic. Sadly though, the Professor being an asshole and Mr. Ed jokes had higher priority to the writers, making this episode fall apart instantly.

Next, another episode focusing on everyone's favorite Sitcom Dad, if we discount all the other Sitcom Dads. Special thanks to Captain B.Z. for joining me with this one.

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#fpb ppg 2016 #ppg 2016 #powerpuff girls #cartoon network #fpb reviews

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