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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Static Shock: Shock to the System and Aftershock Review

“You know what? 13 years ago, me and some friends sat in a restaurant all night and daydreamed about the kinds of stories we would tell if we had the chance. We wanted to expand the concept of superhero to include characters that kind of looked like us, who had some of the same background, experiences and dreams as we did. We wanted to create something fun that a new generation would respond to the same way we responded to our childhood heroes -and damn if we didn't succeed beyond my wildest dreams. Today, Static Shock is a household name with millions of fans of all ages (Is there stuff I'd do differently? Yeah, almost all of season four but why nitpick?) Static is the most successful thing I've ever helped create and I'm both proud and gratified that people have taken it into their hearts. “

Dwayne McDuffie, Co-Creator of Static and Writer for Static Shock

This review is dedicated to Dwayne McDuffie and Robert L. Washington III. Rest In Power Static Shock is awesome. I grew up with the show watching it both first run on the WB and second run on Cartoon Network and loved it as much as I did other large parts of my childhood courtsey of DC like Batman the Animated Series, Teen Titans and both Justice League Shows. What makes this unique among the DC Properties is that Static wasn’t really a big name when he got a show. He wasn’t even part of the DC Universe.

See as I had no idea for probably a good decade, Static actually came from Milestone Comics, a company ran by and focused on african americans. The goal was understandable: While black heroes existed at the time, and there were some fantastic ones like Storm, Jim Rhodes and Steel... these guys weren’t the center of their universes. The big faces of the big companies, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Hulk, Iron Man, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash.. were white. So milestone was a shakeup of that with the main teams and heroes all being black, from Icon, an alien who’d lived among man but rather than end up in kansas like say superman ended up imprinting on a slave woman centuries ago and has been with us since, who was encouraged by an energetic teenager named Rocket to put on a costume and do something with his powers and his community, Hardware, a tech genius who had his work stolen by a white asshole and wanted to fight back and BLood Syndicate, a group of gang members all caught in the “The Big Bang”, a huge fight between all of Dakota, the midwest city where the comics take place, that ended when the police released a bunch of experimental gas that gave them all super powers.

As most of you who have watched the show already know, this is where Static comes from. Static was the company making their own Spider-Man, i.e. a nerdy teenager who suddenly gets super powers, in this case Virgil Hawkins who at the prodding of a friend took a gun to The Big Bang to get revenge on a bully. .but ultimately couldn’t go through with it, decided it wasn’t him and got rid of the gun and ran.. and still ended up in it, becoming Static, a young hero dedicated to using his powers to fight other “Bang Babies”.. a term that dosen’t really sound that great and they really should’ve thought through. But Phrasing aside the character was great and I look forward to reading more and only haven’t because I have to buy the issues gradually, but DC is currently re-releasing the individual issues of Static, Icon, and Hardware weekly in anticipation of a reboot of Milestone Coming in May digitally on Comixology at only 2 bucks a pop, and rereleased the original print collections that were long out of print for 10 bucks each, though i’m getting static on it’s own since i’ts really not that much less expensive as it only collects four issues while Icon and Hardware both collect 8, so I can wait a bit there on Hardware and already own Icon: A Hero’s Welcome.. and really need to review it at some point.

While Milestone’s output was good, at least from the two books i’ve read, with Robert Washinton III, who sadly not only ahs also passed but was fucking homeless for a while in the 2000′s.. what the actual hell, writing Static alongside Dwayne McDuffie, whose later moved onto animation writing tons of Static episodes all of them classics including the school shooting episode, the first three rubberbandman episodes and both Anasazi episodes. Point is it had good writers and artists and even had a distrbution deal with DC, so they had a leg up on the glut of other comic book companies.. but happened to start at the start of the comic book crash, a huge downturn in sales in the 90′s as the speculator boom, i.e. a bunch of people assuming every number one would be worth golden and silver age money, forgetting a character has to BUILD INTREST and this stuff takes time, and whose attempts to sell fast flooded the market with comics no one wanted,, caused the roof to cave in and with a bunch of assholes pegging milestone as a “Company for black people” rather than you know, a company trying to add fucking diversity and represntation to the comics industry, and that simply wanted a unvierse that was centered around people of color instead of white guys. The company eventually had to shut down, and was left to lisencing. This is where the show comes in. Producers HAD been trying to make shows based on Milestone for a while, as far back as the mid-90s and the company was was all for it but the closest it got was an x-men style team series using various characters whose first draft was terrible and whose second draft by Alan Burnett, a producer on various DC Animated shows who’d go on to produce Static Shock, that McDuffie and others really liked but sadly did not get picked up. eventually though with presistance Static ended up getting a series and as I said McDuffie went on to write for it though he did not develop it. Some changes went into place naturally to make it work for an early 2000′s kids show and while i’ll probably miss so since again, only read one issue as we go. But due to Milestone coming back my intrest was peaking, hence finally reading the copy of Icon I had to buy from the library years ago due to keeping it overdue but am now EXTREMLEY glad I own as i’ts incredibly rare and really damn good, and wanting to read static, doing so lately since it’s finally on digtiial and again not too expensive. So join me as I give you a shock to the system and revisit this hell of a series to see if it holds up.. which just to cut that short it does and i’m only holding off binging MORE because I want the first two eps to be fresh enough in my head to review properly.. and also go over the various voice actors because that’s a thing with me now and charcter co-creator dwayne mcduffie because he’s awesome.

As I like to do when covering a series first episodes, let’s run down the voice cast.

First up is an UTTER LEGEND, and I use the term voice acting legend a lot, and mean it every time and have good reason to use it when I say it, and Phil LaMarr is a GOD in the buisness, having done a metric ton of voice acting roles, and being easily the most proflific black voice actor in animation. He’s also done some acting work, mostly in pulp fiction which I have not seen, but his true staying power and talent is in animation so here’s just the roles I feel are most notable or may not be very notable but i’m bringing up anyway because it’s my list.

His roles besides Virgil include Lester Payton the Texas Ranger who showed up for one very good episode of king of the hill to be badass and show up the hickish, stupid and very punchable local Sheriff, Gearld’s obnoxious older brother Jamie O on Hey Arnold, Hermes Conrad from futurama, Carver from the Weekenders (PUT IT ON PLUS DISNEY), Axel Foley for exactly one bit in Clerks the Animated Series, but anyone whose seen it will know exactly which one, Micheal on the Proud Family, Black Vulcan on Harvey Birdman (In His Pants), Hector Con Carne and Dracula on Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy and Evil Con Carne, Jack on Samurai Jack something I didn’t know for decades (and I didn’t know about the carver thing till today though i’ts obvious in hindsight), John Motherfucking Stewart on Justice League and later Steel and Adult Static in the Unlimited seasons, Osmosis Jones on Ozzy and Drix, Bolbi Strogofski on Jimmy Neutron (And yes i’m just as shocked as you are.), Wilt on Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Marcus on Life and Times of Juniper Lee, Bull Sharkowski on My Gym Partner is A Monkey and Also a Sociopath Please Help God My Life is a waking nightmare..... okay the rest of that title is implied but we all watched the same show, we all know in our hearts that was the title

Moving on, he was also, and yes there’s MORE: Maxie Zeus on The Batman, Philly Phil on Class of 3000, Both Robertsons AND Fancy Dan on the Spectacular Spider-Man, Jazz on Transformers Animated, Kit Fisto and Bail Organa on Star Wars the Clone Wars, Gambit and Bolivar Trask on Wolverine and the X-Men, Aquaman I, L-Ron and Green Beetle on Young Justice, J.A.R.V.I.S. and Wonder Man (Simon Williams) In Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Gabe and Carny on Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters (Really miss that game and have been snapping up what cards I can get lately), Baxter Stockman in the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (And there’s also an awesome photo of him with 2003 Baxter... the two best together in one place. I got chills), Dormammu (I’ve come to bargin) in various Marvel Shows, Noville in Mighty Magiswords, Zach’s dad Marcus in Milo Muprhy’s Law, Craig’s Douchey Brother Benard on Craig of the Creek, showing he’s clearly come full circle, And Mr. Scully on the Casagrndes. And given It took about two paragraphs to cover all of this, yeah, I MEANT legend.

Next we have Kevin Micheal Richardson as Virgil’s Dad Robert, and it’s the first time since I started introducing Voice Actors on a show that i’ve overlapped. I already covered him during the second episode of legend of the three caballeros, but for the short version he’s also very acomplished, very damn good and I somehow missed he played the old blind guy in hey arnold> Needless to say the dude is awesome.

Virgil’s Sister Sharon is played by Michele Morgan who was in the rap group BWP and did some smaller roles outside of this the one exception being Juicy on the PJ’s, which I have not watched much of but REALLY do not like, though i’ll at least give it credit for being a decently long lasted black claymation sitcom at at time when there were, and hoenstly still aren’t, many black animated shows.

Back to long casting sheets, next up is Jason Marsden, who is one of my faviorites as i’ve realized recently as Ritchie. As I also found out only recently he started on the Sitcom Step By Step and while that show is .. ehhhhhhhhh, he is great in it because he’s great in everything. He also apparently has his own internet variety show which I have to watch now. His roles include Max Goof, ironically given I was just talking about that role a few days ago, Haku in the english dub of Spirted Away, Micheal, the kid being yelled at by a bunch of 80′s cartoons characters not to take drugs in Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue!, Nermal in the DTV Garfield movies and The Garfield Show, Tino on the Weekenders (SERIOUSLY DISNEY), Snapper Carr on Justice League, Rikochet on Mucha Lucha! for the last season (Why I do not knkow and while I love the guy he was not the right choice), Felix on Kim Possible, Chase Young on Xiaolin Showdown (WHich I did not realize was him and now I do easily his best role and I REALLY should’ve), Red Star and Billy Numerous on Teen Titans, Speedy on Batman Brave and the Bold, Impulse/Kid Flash II on Young Justice, and Fingers on Kaijudo. He hasn’t done as much lately which is a shame but hopefully i’tll pick up again.

Next up is Hotstreak, Virgil’s brutal bully turned unhinted pyromancer played by DANIEL COOKSY, another actor i’m happy to talk about and another faviorite I haven’t seen much of lately. Daniel was an actor from childhood, playing Budnick on Salute Your Shorts, but he quickly gained a long and storied catalogue of VA Work: His first big roll was as Montana Max on Tiny Toon Adventures and if there is a god he’ll be back for the reboot, Stoop Kid on Hey Arnold, the incomprable Jack Spicer on Xiaolin Showdown, far and away his best role and part of why Chronicles sucked so bad was he was he didn’t get to reprise the role, The titular Dave the Barbarian, Django of the Dead on El Tigre (Had no idea), Kicks utterly insufferable big Brother Brad on Kick Buttowski and apparently he’s back at it again after laying low for a bit as he’s voicing Snag in Long Gone Gultch.. which I already really needed to watch but hot damn, I missed him. Sign me up.

Frieda, Virgil’s crush and close friend who in the comics was his main confidante and love intrest but here is eventually pushed aside, is voiced by Danica Mckeller whose work didn’t seem all that familiar.. until I found out she was Ms. Martian on Young Justice. Hello, Megan. Very talented and she did get a major role in a dc show eventually so good for her. Can’t wait for season 4.

So with our major players out of the way, let’s talk about Dwayne. McDuffie is an AWESOME man and my respect has grown for him more and more with time. A writer and editor at Marvel, McDuffie has a decent resume doing smaller but awesome books, which I got most of for free last year when Marvel was giving out free digital collections due to the lock down, like Damage Control, a sitcom set in the marvel universe about the company that picks up after superhero battles and the logistics and antics that insue and Dethlok, about a pacfist trapped inside a cyborg zombie. He was as mentioned one of Milestone’s founders, and wrote Icon, Hardware and co-wrote the first few issues of Static. He’d go on to a pretty stacked career in animation, writing on this show and Justice League before becoming story editor and show runner for Unlimited , even making a return to comics as a result writing the Marvel miniseries beyond and an arc of Fantastic Four in which Black Panther and Storm filled in for Reed and Sue while the two of them worked on their marriage after Reed did.. pretty much everything he did in Civil War. He also became head writer and show runner for Ben 10: Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, revamping the franchise a bit, and Alien Force, at least the first two seasons are awesome and I feel people overreacted on the changes. Ultimate Alien is okay, but has it’s problems but the finale was awesome and left the man’s legacy on a high note.. as he sadly passed in 2011 due to heart complications. He is truly missed and produced some utterly amazing stuff whlie he was alive. So on that melacholy note let’s see what happens when his creation hits the tv screen shall we?

Shock to the System:

This episode is written by Christopher Simmons, who is apparently a huge art designer guy.. but i’m not sure that’s the same chirsptoher simmons. Much more notable is the writer of the episode after this Stan Berkowitz, who was showrunner for season 1 and has done a LOT of DCAU work and is suprising talent, having written a lot of awesome Justice League episodes including Secret Society and The Royal Flush One. Point is we’re in first class hands. Before the episode itself I want to talk about the intro and how it’s unique among DCAU shows. Like most Western Animation the intros for DCAU shows didn’t change much over the seasons with the most I can see is JLU changing up the footage to preview the current episode and later adding Hawkgirl to the intro after her return to the team. I THINK superman the animated series changed some of it’s footage too, but I can’t confrim it and may of just been imagining it. As i’ve talked about on my blog it’s normally a pet peeve of mine, mostly because shows you know, change after season 1, characters get added some one shot characters used for the intro never return, and after a while it can feel dated especially in more recent shows where the status quo is not at all set in stone and things change quite a bit. But sometimes it can be good enough that either the dated elements don’t matter or general enough that you don’t need to change it and i’ts just that good.. and given Batman the Animated Series has both in spades, you can see why i’ts probably my golden standard for intros and after superman the animated series DC mostly followed suit. But being part of the teen superhero boom of the 2000′s Static is unique in that it splits the diffrence: It’s intro gets the character across perfectly like a good intro should starting with Virgil getting out of bed and running a comb across his head before showing off to his sister to bug her and literally running into his dad who hand shim his bag and smiles, silently showing off his family. He then runs to school and runs into some trouble.. and said trouble changes for each intro, with Rubberband Man for season 1, Kanga (Whose name I only know because I happened to run across it) for season 2 and your guess is as good as mine for seasons 3 and 4, though Hotstreak is a constant. They still save some money for seasons 1 and 2 by recycling some animation.. but that’s alright with mea s it was good animation, and the improtant thing is cycling out old villians for new ones, while Season 3 is the only out and out redo to show off Richie taking on the Gear identity, adding about 10 seconds of intro to let him show off. Seriously it’s an utterly great intro and like the other DCAU intros outside of superman, stuck in my brain.

The other change that’s ENTIRELY diffrent from the rest of htem is that the music changes each time. The first two have the same formula just with a difrent vocalist and backing track: a superhero theme but with some hip hop beat boxing over it. The first intro is fine enough, not specattcular but stilll god. The second song.. is eh. Not really great and feels like a marked downgrade from season 1 and just dosen’t blend an ocrehstiral superhero theme with the beatbox elements NEARLY as well. The third song though is my faviorite.. even if I HATED Little Romeo as a kid because I really did not like his nick show, it’s more a straight up rap song, but it has a faster beat that fits the intro better, and Romeo’s bragging fits Virgil’s character and penchant for Spidey quips perfectly. I also find it ironic that the theme that blends in with the dcau the most, the first season’s, is the one from BEFORE they decided to put it in the same universe. Still this season’s intro slaps, I just like the LIttle Romeo one a bit more. The opening scene is picture perfect. Some masked crooks looting a warehouse are loading some stolen TV’s into a van when suddenly the lights come on one by one above one of the crooks before his tv switches to various channels before going haywire. Cue our heroes’ entrance. Let’s tak ea good look at him

Static’s Costume is awesome. While I prefer the season 3 redesign, and clearly DC agrees as the redeisgn was used for both pre and post new-52 when they used him, and while he’s getting a fresh design for the reboot, said design takes a lot of cures from said outfit. As for how the outfit differs from the comics itself this is the design he had in the comics

It didn’t change much from the first issue, with the exception of his now iconic big puffy jacket which was added pretty early into the character’s history but I was unaware of that and just assumed he had the bodysuit the whole time. The more you know. But as you can see outside of the cool puffy jacket over a costume the two couldn’t be more diffrent. While the Dakotaverse outfit is more a standard superhero outfit, with some regular clothes touches on top the first cartoon outfit comes off more realistic, looking fantastic, but still coming off as something two teenagers could realistically have thrown together with what clothes they could buy, while still looking awesomely superheroy. IN short it’s perfect and only topped by the season 3 onward look...

But the slicker look, with an even cooler jakcet and the new colors all fitting the lighting ascetic better, but fits: not only has Virgil come along farther since he started, but with Richie now having a genius brain as Gear, he can provide a far slicker, far more professional superhero outfit on the budget the two have. This show is just great at costume design.

So getting back to the episode at hand, Static puts up a huge sign in elecrticy saying “Bad guys here”, PFFFT, and then hides away and narrates that a few days ago he’d be the last person anyone would’ve expected to be a hero. Cue Flashback.

We meet Virgil Hawkins on an average day: rapping into his razor, getting into a petty argument with his older sister Sharon, as a younger brother myself I relate to this, and talking to his dad who tries to get them to cut that out. We find out his mom has passed via his sister making really terrible eggs and saying that’s how mom made them. Exposition! Though we do get a great bit through this as when his sister gets distracted by her boyfriend calling, he uses the opportunity of her leaving the room to dump the eggs.. after having earlier jokingly prayed to his mom for a way out of breakfast. “Thanks for looking out for me mom” That’s both very sweet and very hilarious.

This is a change from the comics it turns out as I was utterly flored to find Virgil’s mom alive and well when reading the first issue of Static. Turns out this was a change made during development and one Dwane McDuffie admitted in the interview I got the tribute quote from to not liking as he had a good reason for having Virgil have a nuclear family, as most black families in media at the time were just one single parent and a kid or two with the other having either left or died. He wasn’t too bothered by it as while he preferred what he came up with in the first place, the show DID get some really good stories out of her being gone and didn’t just have her be absent because shut up. Virgil is still working over her death and the way HOW she died ends up playing an important role in this episode and gives Virgil a dislike of guns, as she died to gang violence. So the change wasn’t for stupid or racist reasons, but likely both to keep the character count down while giving them something to work with for storylines. Or it could’ve been for stupid reasons and the writers simpily made lemonade out of that very dumb lemon, either way it ended up working. Virgil also plans to ask his friend Frieda out. Frieda was a bigger deal in the comics, being Virgil’s friend and confidante as well as his ocasional love intrest, but here while she was inteded to at least be his love intrest here, that sorta fizzled out. As for the best friend role we meet her replacement in Richie, which McDuffie conceded was the kind of change a studio would make swapping out a female character for a male one. That being said the crew made the best of it and Richie is awesome, a bit of an overcompensating dipstick at times, but a good sounding board and pal for virgil and funny as hell too. He was also gay, something only revealed post series by McDuffie.. but unlike say Dumbledore, it’s a bit easier to swallow here: The early 2000′s were an even worse time for gay characters in tv let alone cartoons, and if they couldn’t kiss or have sex scenes on regular tv, there was no way we were getting any representation in a children’s show. So it was largely just hinted at by Richie overcompensating in how “into girls” he was and i’m once again fine with this being word of god as it was literally the best they could do and his counterpart in the comics was also gay, if not as relevant. Ritch encourages Virgil to work on his opening to ask her out as it’s awkward as heck, hits a bit close to home.. but I do appricate the show just .. having him try and ask her out from the first episode. They likely would’ve drug thigns out a bit granted had they used Frieda more, i’m not blind to the convetions of the time. .but as someone who got the very wrong idea from tv that just waiting around meant a girl would like you eventually, when no you need to actually try even if rejection happens, I honestly wish we had more of this in media than the other garbage morals at the time.

So he prepares to , not helped by her mentioning guy after guy is asking her out.... but before he can F-Stop, the future hotstreak, shows up. F-STOP

That being said...... it’s not as bad as the original gangster name for the comic’s version, Biz Money B. Yes BIZ MONEY B

So yeah while F-Stop is no more intimidating, it at least means I can stop laughing. Francis, because I can’t type F-Stop without laughing and this review is already behind, shoves Virgil out of the way and agressively hits on Frieda, even saying “you smell good”, the international sign your a douchebag and also to call the police. Virgil steps up to the guy and gets PAINFULLY slammed into the lockers, something I give the animation team a lot of credit for, as you can FEEL how fucking painful that was. Virgil is saved by Wade, another local gangbanger who in the comics was a close friend of Virgils but here saves him seemingly just because.. seemingly.

On the way home though Virg’s problems don’t end as naturally, the giant sized asshole with nothing better to do has his goons corner virgil before VIOLENTLY beating him.. off screen but the noises, and the clear brusies including a black eye, on virgil afterwords.. just holy damn i’m suprsied they got away with this but it shows just how horrifing it was and that this is a step above regular bullying, which make no mistake is absoluttley terrible and the series would later do an episode on it and school shootings, into straight up gang violence. Wade shows up again and gets the bastards to flee.. but also makes it clear he can’t keep doing this.. and forces Virgil to meet him at his base under the bridge. And it’s a tense sequence, with Virgil KNOWING this is a bad idea but having no real choice and Wade making it abundantly clear that he wants Virgil to join his crew, and makes a chilling point: while Virgils dad RIGHTFULLY dosen’t want his son to join a gang as Virgil points out.. he can’t be there for him all the time and eventually one of those times, Francis will be around. And he may not surivive that. Virgil nods noncomittaly. At home it gets even more grim as he dosen’t open up to his family, understandably as his dad would jsut say to call the police and well.. we’ve seen how the police treat black people. At best they’d just try and use Virgil as an informant and that likely wouldn’t end fucking well for Virgil. Ritchie points out he can’t join a gang, virgil’s mom died that way.. see told you it’d be important to the plot.. but I like how the story dosen’t offer an easy answer.. well okay he gets electric powers soon enough but without the fantastic element this is just an innocent kid caught between either joining the very thing his mom hated or hoping a system not built to protect him will keep him alive. It’s utterly saddening and chilling and holy shit is it amazing a cartoon in the early 2000′s was able to get away with.. ANY OF THIS, and they handle it great, paired down a bit from the comics but even then it’s still incredibly balsy they got THIS much in.

Naturally Wade calls in his favor and our hero is forced to come running.. and soon finds out Wade’s brought him in for a massive gang war. Welcome to the big bang, baby. He hands Virgil a gun as things get started and Virgil.. drops the thing and tries to escape, in a harrowing sequence.. and runs into Francis because god apparently REALLY hates this kid today. As if to prove that the police show up and while that prevents a beating, they demand they disassemble. then release untested gas on them because of course they do.

As a result the big bang truly begins, with the various gang members getting mutated.. and naturally so does virgil. Though he wakes up the next day seemingly fine. How’d he get home? Does his dad know where he was?

I don’t know and we’re not getting any answers, but Virgil soon finds weird stuff happening like his clock shorting out, change being attracted to him and his razor going wild. It’s only once he get sback to his room he gets an inkling of what’s going on and calls Ritchie to meet him at the Junk yard.. though it is a bit of a dick move as he dosen’t you know, tell him anything about Wade or Francis right away. He does at the yard though.. and that he has powers, having finally figured out how to use them to a point. And the series does provide a decent justification later as to why he’d get this so quickly: Virgil is a smart kid, gets great grades at school and apparnetly there’s even an episode later where he gets a scholarship to a fancy genius school. So him getting how elctromagntisim works or being a quick study on it makes perfect sense.

Richie suggest the obvious.. to become a superhero. And the thought.. hadn’t occured to Virgil. It’s honestly a nice twist on the old trope. That he hadn’t thought of it, not because he’s selfish or any of that or needs to learn a hard lesson, those have been done.. simply because the rush of getting his powers, and implicitly of having a way out of his current predciament, a way to keep Francis off his back and keep Wade from pulling him in further. His own path. But once i’ts brought up.. he jumps on it. Part of it is being a nerd like you or I, of course he wants to.. and being a good intetioned one, he knows this is the right thing to do. It’s waht makes a superhero a hero: Anyone can get powers in a universe like this, esepcailly the dcau, but it takes true courage and heart to use them selflessly and knowing you’ll be in danger. It’s why I love surperheroes: they often didn’t ask for this but they do it anyway because somebody’s gotta. We also get an intresting wrinkle is superman is, at least I think in this episode I could’ve missed it or misremembered things, mentioned as a fictional character. That’s because originally like the comics this wasn’t part of the DCAU.. but eventually the crew decided it shared staff from it, shared a network, both first run and on reruns, why not just make it part of the DCAU proper. I fully support this decisionf: While i’m midly annoyed unlimited never really used anything from static shock outside of Static himself in the time travel episode, despite you know Static and Gear having BEEN to the tower and not being much younger than Kara and defintely older than Courtney, I chalk it up to weird rights issues or something like that. But having Batman, Batman Beyond, Superman, Green Lantern and the Justice League itself all guest star was a good idea, and expanded both static’s universe and gave the DCAU something differnt as most heroes in it were older and more experinced in contrast to the up and coming virgil. Again really would’ve been nice if he and gear could’ve been a part of the expanded league but production might of just been too far ahead or, given he had his own series, they might just have wanted to stick to toher characters. Also begs the question why Icon or Hardware wasn’t adapted for the expanded League but hey, questions for later and the tricky logisitics of the milestone rights might’ve been the issue. I don’t know I wasn’t in the room.

So we get a costume montage, including Black Vulcan from Superfriends, who again ironically would be voiced by Lamarr not too long after this, though weirdly they DON’T use his outfit from the comics for this montage. I mean why not? It fits the gag and would’ve been a good second to last choice.But what could’ve been aside we get our winner and cut back to present day...

Thanks boys. Static finds out one of the things in the warehouse is a shipment of computers for the school and can’t help but show off, showing up to the school, where Frieda and Richie are setting up for the dance, and dropping off the computers, and even saying his catchphrase for the first time “I’ll put a shock to your system” (Which Richie chimes in with awesome line and I agree, great catcphrase), before helping set up and flirting with frieda.

Though as Richtie says he’s a natural. He’s not wrong as he can work a crowd. .but back it up too as his first run out had him easily taking out the crooks, and as many teen superheros and fans of heroes of hte type, myself included will tell you, getting it right in one is not easy. Not even Miles MOrales was immune. All Static needs now is a villian.

And the end of the episode provides one as we see, in horrifc and once again damn suprising detail most of hte new metas aren’t doing so good and are melting and other stuff and we catch up with Francis whose burning up.. and naturally given that hair, though given he named himself F-Stop it’s the least of his problems, he’s got fire powers and escapes to “Have me some fun”

So with that we end episode 1. And it’s excellent, a great way to introduce the hero and while the warehouse opening is a bit superflous, it is a decent addition, showing our heroes first outing in costume and giving us a bit of an action scene to get us through the very heavy rest of the episode. But the rest of the episode is no less grippping, telling the tale of a teen caught in an unwinnable scenario who suddenly finds a way out. And speaking of which waht of Wade? Will we see him again? Is he perhaps Ebon, the series big bad as I thought when I was a kid? What comes of the man who directly caused static’s origin?

Yeahhh that’s the one mistep I think the pilot makes. Frieda is understandable as that was likely a simple change in creative direction. This though? Why build this guy up if your not going to bring him back. I mean where he went was probably the grave, as he probably did due to his mutation, but it’s still VERY weird to spend a whole episode focusing on this guy, building him up as a big personal threat to our hero.. and NOT have him become the series big bad. And maybe he WAS supposed to be ebon and they just changed their mind. I don’t know but it bothers me it bothers me a lot. Otherwise though flawless. ONe more to go.

Aftershock: We open outside an electronics store, as our heroes watch the news reacap what happened in the first episode, with the media dubbing it the Big Bang and revealing their could be hundreds of “Metahumans”, as Virgil dubs after deciding the media’s term “Mutant” dosen’t fit, a nice wink to the fact that that’s the term used in dc comics and I believe milestone but could be wrong there. Me I like the term, has a nice ring to it.

At the store while Richie mulls over waht this means Static finds out he’s a human CD player.... this was before mp3 players and streaming on your phone made them horribly obsolete mind you and if you don’t know what one is congradualtions you live in some sort of bubble and you made me feel really old junior.

Frieda happens to be there and Virgil quips “What’s the matter they run out of britney cds”. Dude she’s not bad. Also be careful what you wish for man. Nickeback returned the year after this. You have not truly suffered through bad music yet my young friend. They spot a kid looking feverish, and he soon turns into a purple werewolf, as you do. It’s a bang baby.. those are richie’s exact word and you may not want to start a panic there bud. Just saying your best friend is one. THeir not all like this. Our heroes book it only to run into Francis who naturally refuses to let them leave and only doesn’t try to beat up Virgil because Virgil points otu the werewolf and nonplussed, he goes to fight it, scarring it off by revealing his own powers. He’s now dubbed himself Hotstreak which points for getting an actually good name kid. No points for what happens next as unsuprisingly getting powers did NOT mak ehim a better person and he attacks Virgil who blocks with a garbage can lid and thankfully is blasted into an ally. Richie tries to guard frieda for damn obvious reasons but gets hsi shirt burnt up because shut up Thankfully Static shows up, and we get our firsdt full on superhuman fight as both fight each other with aplomb, and it’s a damn good fight.. and one that goes pear shaped for Virg as he’s caught off guard when he finds out Hotstreak can use his powers to fly, and tackles him and his previous trauma causes him to freeze up. Thankfully , as Frieda put in a call earlier, the fire department arrive and HOt streak has to retreat, though Virgil is bummed that he “Choked”. And I love this as it not only shows Virgil’s inepxerince, as this is his first time fighting a bad guy but that just because he HAS power now dosen’t mean trauma and his previous fear of Hotstreak goes away or you won’t freeze up from time to time. It dosen’t make him weak or anything like some assholes would call it .. it makes him human. Humans make mistakes, and it makes him all the more relatable that he’s not pefect and that he did freeze up as I know I certainly would at last once in the circumstances.

Things don’t get better at dinner as Sharon and Pops argue over the bang babies with Pops calling them a meance and Sharon pointing out Static exists so they can’t all be bad. See assuming a group of superhumans are bad because a handful of them ar edick sis why the x-men had to get their own island nation. You can only save an ungreatful populous so many times before you say “fuck it i’m getting my own island, pay me for life saving drugs, save your damn selves and stop doing genocides on us. Kay thanks”. But he does bring up a valid point that rattles his son: We don’t know anything about the Bang Babies or their biological structures and it’s likely they might further mutate into monsters, Static included.

Virgil, understandably, wants to check this and thus he and richie compare blood samples in science, to no real conclusion. She he checks out with his doctor who assumes he’s sexually active in a great getting crap past the radar bit and a bit of realisim, but he agrees to the test though if something came up he would have to tell Virgil’s dsad and is up front about this. Nice dose of realisim.

That night City Council has a meeting and the Mayor TRIES to deflect Papa Hawkins questions about the bang babies which again, while being a judgmental ass as not every person hit was a gang member (Virgil, and as we discover later some others), and not every gang member is there by choice, some by circumstnace some, like virgil almost was, because they HAD no other option. Again years of reading x-men may of just made me a bit touchy on assholes admitely assuming superpower people bad. But it’s clear the public is upset and while she says an investigation is underway... Virgil and Richie are not only not convinced, but figure she’s actively covering it up. And unlike everyone else there who probably suspects the same, they can do something about it and tail her. It’s during this, and cleverly as I didn’t realie till writing this using similar skills to his human cd player act, Virgil listens in and discovers whose behind it: Edwin Alva, whose apparently richer than bill gates and a beloved phinarophist Alva, as it turns out, was actually the arch enemy of Hardware in the comics, taking advantage of the guy in his civiliian idtentiy and thus casuing him to launch a war on the asshole. He does transition into this series well though, being the one behind the gas that caused it and with the mayor agreeing to back off, planning to simply dump the info about the big bang on a disc then destroy everything for now till the heat dies down. Yup sounds like a corprate douchebag.

Static tails him, finds the lab and infiltrates it, stealing the disc.. but getting caught by Alva’s goon, and trapped in a glass prison, forced to use ALL his power to escape and barely getting out alive, but not before bouncing off alva’s car. Still he now has the proof.. and meanwhile Hotstreak, who I was wrong did get captured, is forced to take pill sbut spits them out once the orderly is gone. Dude.. WHY DIDN’T YOU WATCH HIM. Make sure he swallows that shit especially since, as he has no powers right now and can’t harm you.

Hotstreak escapes off screen and our heroes discuss the disc before he shows up, and we get a REALLY fucking amazing scene: Virgil ducks into an Alleway and ritchie is worried.. and Virgil disarms him with just one word responses Ritchie: Virg you can’t take him. Virgil: Gotta. Ritchie: Well at least wait for the fire department Virgil: Can’t. It’s simpile but it gets the point across: This is his fight, he can’t wait for help, and people need him. And this is what makes a true hero: It’s easy to be a hero when everythings going well.. but it’s the true ones who stick it out against the odds and fight anyway. And he’s going to. So we get one hell of a fight, though naturally Hotstreak burns up the disc. And I do like this as it dosen’t feel contrived.. yes Static could’ve left it with ritchie.. but he wasn’t thinking in the moment and dind’t really have time to think abotu the disc, only that people were being hurt and he was all they had between them and Hotstreak. It was no choice at all. Still that pisses Virgil off that the last night’s work is now worthless, and he fully charges up and curbstomps francis who retreats into a clearing. Hostreak brags when static follows, as even he’s figured out Static needs to be around metal, as he’s usually on his disc or the street, and in the park there suppodsidly isn’t any. But he’s not THAT smart as Virgil points out two things: one, he hoped to do this on PURPOSE so they wouldn’t be around people and no on e would get hurt and 2).. this is a city, there’s metal everywhere.. and he awesomely and cleverly proves it by unlodging a sewage pipe with his powers and dousing his foe, winning and proving his stuff. I love this solution, it’s a clever spider-man type way to disarm him, using smarts and the einvroment instead of just brute forcing it. Though the sewage part wasn’t intetional our hero still won and gets praise from the people dumb enough to follow the fight.

However at home Virgil points out it was Pyrrhic Victory and shows off his smarts by telling the tale behind it, which I didn’t know,because tv tropes didn’t exist yet: king pyrhus fought the romans and WON.. but had so little armies left that he still lost overall. That’s what this feels like to Virgil: he beat hotstreak but any chance at a cure for Bang Babies and Alva going to jail for causing them is gone. His mood does get a boost though as the doctor calls and reveals he’s fine, he just has a bit too much elctrolytes and just needs to lay off teh salt. He celebrates, we get a quick gag and the episode ends

Aftershock is another stellar episoe, giving us Virgil’s first super foe and a personal one at that, while showing some growth. As richie tells him he’s not virgil anymore he’s static and he can’t let his past get to him.. and he does’nt going from cowering in fear to easily beating his foe with simple logic. It’s a good followup that answers questions you may have from the first ep, like what does this do to virgil’s body, who supplied the gas, and why has no one done anything about this, and sets up another villian for Static in Alva. Great stuff. I highly recommend these episodes and the show as a whole: it’s fast paced, grounded and enjoyable, having just enough levity to not be too dour but just enough tension and stakes to be intresting. A throughly fantastic superhero show and one that i’d certainly love to revisit on this blog If you have an episode of static or the dcau in general you’d want me to cover, my comissions are open and details are on a tab on my blog or can be gotten simply by asking me via ask or dm. Tommorow we’re going deeper underground, there’s too much damage in this town as the Lena Retrospective continues. So expect gay ducks, straight ducks and some terrfirmains. See you next rainbow.

#static shock #static #virgil hawkins #richie foley #robert hawkins #sharon hawkins #hotstreak #milestone comics #dc comics #dc animated universe #dcau #dwayne mcduffie #robert l washington IIII #kids wb #hbo max #2000s #animation #black lives matter #black history month

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sorry-apsalar · 3 years

Text

I Kissed a Bot and I Liked It

I started watching Futurama recently on a whim (currently only a few episodes into season 4 so if things aren't consistent with stuff that happens later in the series, that's why) and I'm really enjoying it so far except for a few things. Mainly the compulsory heteronormativity that's present in every episode (that I've seen so far) that deals with romantic relationships (with sort of one exception but it doesn't really count in my opinion). Which is mostly whatever, it's to be expected, especially since it's an older show but the Fry/Leela stuff is frustrating because personally I feel like they don't have good romantic chemistry (I'm open to this changing later but I doubt it will) and this is just another case of 'there's a male main character and a female main character and they're friends, therefore they must have romantic feelings for each other' that I've seen a hundred times before. It's aggravating enough that it spurred a fic idea for an AU where Fry is a repressed gay man. I decided to make it an Xmas gift for myself for reasons and because why not?

So Merry Xmas everyone, especially me!

The future was great. Everything about it was grand and exciting and Fry had friends now. Yeah, sure he was still a delivery boy but he was delivering a variety of things across space alongside his friends. And yeah, sure his living area was smaller than he would’ve chosen and it was technically a closet but he was roommates with his best friend and despite being a closet, it was still a little bigger than his old apartment had been. So, the future was great in every possible way even if parts of it made little to no sense.

Luckily, he had friends so some of those things that made no sense, he could ask about and have explained to him. Sometimes they didn’t even make fun of him for not knowing. There was one thing though that he was afraid to ask about. What exactly made it a scary thing to ask about he wasn’t sure of but it wasn’t because he worried they’d think him stupid because everyone already thought that and honestly it was true, brains weren’t his thing. The more often it popped up though, the more he wanted an explanation. He finally reaching a breaking point on that one evening when watching TV with Bender after returning home from work.

In an episode of All My Circuits two of the side characters ended up hooking up. Which wasn’t weird in itself, it was a soap opera, everyone was pairing up and breaking up all the time, but what was odd was the fact that it was two dudes. It was far from the first time Fry had seen such things in the past month or so he’d been here for, in other shows, movies, and even in prior episodes, same-sex couples popped up fairly frequently and if there was ever any issue with the couple, that was never one of them. So…

“Hey Bender,” he said as the credits for the episode rolled, glancing over at Bender sitting on the couch next to him, “those two robots that got together at the end there are both uh… men, right?”

The look Bender gave him reflected how stupid of a question that was. But how else was he supposed to broach the topic? He wasn’t good with words. “Man-bots yes, what else would they be?” Bender replied, sounding annoyed as he looked.

“Well uh… I don’t know but…” Unable to maintain eye contact, Fry looked away, instead focusing his gaze on one of the many crumbled cans of Slurm on the floor by the coffee table. He shouldn’t have brought this up because it was… uh… awkward or something. But it was too late now and he needed to understand because he just did. “If they’re both man-bots then why are they a couple?” And why wasn’t that viewed as remarkable by anyone else? “Isn’t that a thing normally only men and women are supposed to do?”

“Wow Fry, of all people I didn’t expect you to be homophobic.”

“What?” Fry snapped his gaze back to look at Bender. “I’m not… whatever you just said, I don’t even know what that means.” Which meant it could describe him but the context made it sound bad so it wasn’t him… probably. ‘Phobic’ meant fear, right? What did ‘homo’ mean though?

“It means you hate gay people,” Bender said as he pulled another cigar out of his casing. “Though I suppose that was common back when you came from now that I think about it.” After lighting up, he blew a cloud of smoke in Fry’s general direction. “I forget how primitive you are sometimes. That’s fine though, I hate humans so we both harbor hatred for an entire group of people. Though my hatred’s justified while yours isn’t.”

Fry coughed, waving a hand in front of his face to clear the smoke. “I don’t hate gay people.” He never had even if that’s what he’d been lowkey taught at the church he’d been forced to go to as a kid and young teen. “I just… it’s supposed to be a sin, right? Like… you go to hell forever if you chose to be gay. Though… I guess I don’t really believe in God anymore so… I don’t know. But still… that’s normal now? Or uh… or least acceptable? To choose to be gay, I mean?”

The look Bender gave him this time might’ve been a concerned one if it had come from almost anyone else. “You don’t ‘choose’ to be gay. Did you meatbags really used to believe it was a choice?”

“Uh… that’s what I was always taught. Or that like… gay people are confused and think that being able to recognize that another man is attractive means you’re attracted to him.” And that that was wrong and shameful and should never be admitted to once one was cleared of that misunderstanding. Because marriage and love and all that was supposed to be between a man and a woman for the sole purpose of making babies or whatever. The fact that that viewpoint was no longer common a thousand years later wasn’t surprising now that he really thought about it but somehow it seemed significant.

Bender took another puff from his cigar before replying. “Well, it ain’t a choice. Now shut up, the next episode’s starting.”

Fry sighed as he pulled his legs up onto the couch to hug to his chest as he turned his attention back on the TV. But now that the topic had been brought up, he didn’t seem able to fully focus. The fact that the episode dealt with the gay romance and treated it like every other side romance in the show made it even harder not to think about. Not that there was even a whole lot to think about, just that that kind of thing was socially acceptable now. Which was… a good thing, yes, definitely a good thing. It didn’t affect him any of course, he was attracted to women and only women, but it was good for the people it did affect. …

“What about robots?” he eventually asked.

“What about them?” Bender didn’t even look away from the TV.

“Is it a choice for you? Or are you manufactured that way? And if so is it a choice whatever or whoever is making you makes or is it like random or something?”

“Oh, you’re still thinking about that, huh? That kind of thing develops at the same time as our personality so it’s not a choice anyone makes. It’s complex stuff, you wouldn’t understand.”

That was undoubtedly true but before Fry could drop it, he wanted to know one more thing. … “What about you? Are you uh… you know?”

With the start of the ad-break, Bender finally turned his head to look at Fry again. “Are you asking if I’m gay?”

Fry nodded. How rude was it to ask that kind of thing? Surely it had to be mostly chill since it was socially acceptable now.

“What’s it’s to you? Why do you want to know?” Oh no, he seemed offended. Though that might just be him being him.

“I’m just curious.” There was no harm wanting to know that kind of thing about one’s best friend, right? “We’ve been best friends for a whole month now and I don’t even know what kind of people you’re into.”

“Very well,” he relaxed, seemingly taking that as an acceptable answer, “if you must know, I’m pansexual.”

“Um… does that mean you’re attracted to pans?” What else could it mean? This was the future and lots of things were weird and Bender was a robot so maybe that was just a thing.

“No! What kind of idiot would even think that? It means somebody’s gender plays no role in whether or not I find the attractive. For me the only thing I care about is if they’re a robot.”

“Okay, I guess.”

“What about you Fry?” Bender pointed an almost accusing finger at him. “Now it’s your turn. Are you gay?”

“Uh… no.” It almost sounded like a question even to his own ears. But he wasn’t gay, he was normal, always had been even if he had been picked on in middle and high school with accusations of being gay.

Bender gave him a skeptical look but seemed to shrug as he turned his attention back onto the TV; the ad-break was over. With a sigh, Fry followed suit. He was more than ready to stop talking about that subject now.

Later that night

“Wake up Bender,” Fry said, shaking Bender by the shoulders.

Bender groaned as the metal flap that covered his eyes when he slept lifted. “Huh? What?” Understandably he both looked and sounded sleepy. Which Fry felt bad for but this was urgent.

“If I was gay, which I’m not, but if I was, it’d be okay with you, right?” After the thought that it might not be okay with Bender had come to him while he lay in bed, waiting for sleep, he hadn’t been able to get any rest so he needed to know for sure.

“Are you kidding me? That’s what you woke me up for? To ask a dumb question like that? Man, Fry get out of her and go back to bed.” Bender put a hand on Fry’s shoulder to push him back into the closet, hard but nowhere near as hard as he was capable of so really it probably counted as gentle.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Fry said, putting his foot in the door before Bender could close it. “You didn’t answer my question.”

Bender rolled his eyes. “Yes Fry, if you were gay, I’d be fine with it. Happy?”

“Uh yeah, thanks pal. Sorry for waking you up, I just wanted to know. Even though I’m not gay so it doesn’t really matter, I just wanted to know if you’d accept me even if I was because… I don’t know. I just wanted to know I guess.”

“Yeah, whatever. Go back to sleep meatbag.” With that Bender pulled the door closed, seemingly little caring that Fry only barely managed to get his foot out of the way in time.

A few months later

‘~ I kissed a guy and I liked it…~’ Fry had to admit it was a bop. More so than a lot of the other songs he’d found while trying to catch up on some of the music he’d missed in the last thousand years. Who would’ve thought so much bad music would be what persisted throughout the years? Yeah sure it was one of those opinion things but his taste in music was great and no one could convince him otherwise.

As the second chorus hit, he found himself half singing along with it as he resumed scrolling through the song list on the tablet, searching for more titles that caught his eye. … What would it be like to kiss a guy? Would it be like kissing a girl? (Not that he had much experience with that even despite having had a girlfriend once upon a time. The few kisses they had shared had been meh at best.) Probably not, right? It had to be different. … He kind of wanted to find out for sure now that he’d thought of it. Maybe it would even be not terrible. Who could he kiss to try it though? …

The sound of the door opening prompted him to look up as Bender strode in. Ah, he’d be perfect because he was a guy. And they were best friends so there wouldn’t be any confusion about intentions.

“Hey Bender,” Fry said as he placed the tablet, still playing music on the coffee table and hopped up off the couch. “Would it be all right if we kissed?”

Bender froze mid-step as the door swung shut behind him. “Uh… what?”

“Well, I’m listening to this song here and it’s about a guy kissing another guy and liking it and it got me thinking what that would be like. It has to be different from kissing a girl, right? But like how different? So I’m curious and I want to find out and you’re a guy so… yeah. It’s fine if you’d rather not, I know it’s a weird request. I could always ask someone else, I’m sure it wouldn’t be…”

“Yes!” Bender interrupted with a surprising amount of intensity as he lowered his foot. He let out a nervous chuckle as his eyes darted away. “I mean if it’s just one kiss, it should be fine. Nothing wrong with experimenting a little and satisfying some curiosity, it’s not a big deal.”

“Yeah! This is the year 3000, things like that aren’t a big deal anymore.” It was so freeing and wonderful. So without further ado, Fry pranced over to stand in front of Bender. Hmmm… he was a robot though so kissing him wouldn’t be like kissing any human – or humanoid alien – guy or not. But he was still a guy so the basic idea was still there so…

Fry put his hands on Bender’s shoulders as he leaned in for a kiss. Bender’s mouth was cold and unsurprisingly tasted of booze, in a good way though. A slight tingly sensation hit Fry’s lips as Bender’s hands reached up to light touch his sides. Odd but not necessarily unpleasant, he could probably easily get used to it.

They lingered like that for several long seconds before Fry pulled back, letting out a shaky sigh. “Uh… that was interesting, huh?” he said, tugging at his shirt collar a bit because it was suddenly a bit hotter in here for some reason. They were still standing a bit closer than they normally did too. How had he never noticed that Bender was just a tad shorter than him? … The perfect height for a forehead kiss if Fry were inclined to do so.

“Eh, I’ve had better.” Bender avoided eye contact as he stepped back. Which seemed to release the sudden tension in the air as if an important moment had just passed by them.

Fry looked away too, lifting a hand to rub the back of his neck. “Yeah sorry, I’m not a great kisser. I don’t really have much experience.”

“So, curiosity satisfied?”

“Uh… yeah. Thanks.” It had been nice actually if a bit weird. … That meant he was into guys though, wasn’t it? …. Oh well, that kind of thing was perfectly fine now so yeah, he was into guys and not ashamed of it.

“Good, now… let’s move on and pretend this never happened, okay? We don’t want anyone thinking we’re dating when we’re not.”

“Um… yeah.” Fry nodded, holding his smile even though for some reason Bender’s words made him a bit uncomfortable. If it wasn’t a big deal, why did they have to pretend it had never happened? “Let’s watch some TV, huh? All My Circuits should be starting soon.”

~~~

Despite how it was supposed to have just been an experiment and not a big deal, Fry thought about that kiss a lot. He wanted to do it again and do it better so that maybe Bender would like it too. How did he even go about that though?

That wasn’t all he thought about. Now that he was comfortable and willing to accept that he liked guys like that he allowed his mind to go to other places to. Like dating and holding hands and cuddling and sometimes even sex. What would all the be like with another guy? A robot? Specifically Bender? He wanted to know. He lay in bed at night thinking about it more nights than not. Often it turned into barely remembered dreams that left him more unsatisfied than anything.

He’d never find out though, would he? Because Bender didn’t like humans like that. He’d said so himself directly and had implied it in other instances too, always insisting he hated humans and all that – even if he didn’t really act like it most of the time. So… Fry didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell with him.

Damn! He was finally in a place where he was comfortable with his sexuality and in a time when he wouldn’t be persecuted for it and the first man he fell for was unattainable. That was just his luck, huh? … But then again, this was the year 3000 and almost anything was possible with today’s technology, right? …

Waking up early and getting out of bed was absolutely terrible, even worse was going into work that early. But he had no choice if he wanted some time to talk to Professor Farnsworth without Bender around or hopefully anyone else.

As he knew from the handful of weeks he’d lived at the Planet Express building, Farnsworth should be one of the first people here. He typically went straight to his office … and lo and behold, that’s where Fry found him this morning; asleep in his office chair.

Fry walked over to prod his shoulder. “Hey Professor?”

The only response was a loud snore. How he slept so soundly faceup in his desk chair like that, Fry would never understand. But it was important so Fry poked him again, harder this time.

“Wake up, I got something important to ask you about.”

With a grunt, Farnsworth jerked awake. “Huh? What?” He looked blearily around for a few seconds before his gaze settled on Fry. “Oh, you’re here early… I think.”

“Yep because I got something important to ask. You see I’m uh…” Fry gulped, suddenly regretting this a little bit but he’d already come this far so putting his hands behind his back, he soldiered on. “I think I’m gay, well uh… I don’t just think, I know… I think. I’m not entirely sure yet but do I do know I like guys and I’ve never really got girls, you know? Like I thought I was supposed to so I would flirt with them and stuff but it never really felt good even when one finally agreed to date me, you know what I mean?”

“That’s what’s so important you came to work early to tell me about? Well earlier than normal. This is the year 3000, no one cares if you’re gay Fry. The fact that that was ever viewed as a reason to hate people is astounding when there’s so many more actual reasons, such as their taste in music or sports teams.”

“Uh… that’s only part of what I came here to tell you. What I need to ask you is um… well in discovering that I like guys I also discovered that I got a thing for Bender. A kind of big thing. I’ve never felt this way before so I don’t really know what it is for sure but I really want to kiss him and hold his hand and stuff. I know that probably sounds weird because he’s Bender and…”

“Just get to the point,” Farnsworth interrupted.

“Oh uh… sorry. I don’t think he likes humans, not like that anyway. So I was thinking would it be possible to upload my mind into a robot body so that I might have a real chance with him?” Fry had seen such things in movies and stuff a few times, surely that was possible with today’s technology, right?

“Hmmm…” Farnsworth lifted a hand to tap a finger on his chin. “I suppose we could give it a try. You’d be more useful as a robot anyway.” … Wow he’d agreed to that without any need for convincing.

“Awesome, let’s go.”

With a grunt and crack of his old bones, Farnsworth pushed himself off the chair and led the way out of his office. He seemed to know where he was going so Fry followed. In the hallway, they ran into Leela.

“Oh hey Fry,” she said, “You’re here on time for once, good job.”

“Thanks! The Professor’s about to turn me into a robot, you want to watch?”

“Uh… what?”

“I’m turning him into a robot,” Farnsworth replied. “Now come along Fry, we need determine what kind of robot will be most useful to us. I’m thinking one with built in weaponry.”

Leela fell into step with Fry as Farnsworth resumed leading the way presumably to the lab. “Why exactly do you want to be a robot?” she asked in her suspicious voice.

“Because um… well uh…” Fry wasn’t ashamed to admit it or anything but he wasn’t ready for her to know especially when she was looking at him with that looks of hers she always had on her face whenever she caught him doing something stupid.

“He’s in love with Bender or some such bull crap,” Farnsworth said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

“Is that true Fry?”

“Uh… I think so, yes. I don’t really know what love feels like but… regardless he won’t be interested in me as long as I’m human so… I’m becoming a robot. Don’t tell him though please. I want to be the one who tells him.” … What if even becoming a robot didn’t work though? What would Fry do then? He didn’t have time to think on that much as they reached the professor’s lab.

“All right Fry,” Farnsworth said. “You go sit on the table while I work on getting you a good robot body and then when Doctor Zoidberg gets here we’ll call him in to help remove your brain from your skull.”

Oh! Fry didn’t like the sound of that. Before he could voice a protest though, Leela did. “Uh no, that’s not happening. Come on Fry.” She grabbed Fry by the arm and dragged him right back into the hallway. She then closed the door, cutting off Farnsworth’s groan of disappointment.

“But Leela,” Fry tried only to be interrupted as she kept pulling him away.

“Have you even tried talking to Bender and telling him how you feel yet?”

“Well, no but…”

“That’s what I thought. Try that first before going and doing something dumb like having the Professor turn you into a robot. Seriously what were you thinking? It’s the Professor, there’s no way that could ever turn out well. Now come on, we’re going back to the main room and when Bender shows up, you’re going to tell him how you feel, okay?”

Before Fry could even try to answer…

“What’s this about Fry telling Bender how he feels?” Hermes asked as they entered the main room.

“He’s in love,” Leela replied as if it weren’t a big deal.

“Really?” Oh great, Amy was here now too. “I guess that makes sense though, huh? Since they’re roommates and all, the romance practically writes itself. Congrats on realizing it sooner rather than later though Fry.”

With a groan and free Leela’s grasp at last, Fry slunk over to sit at the round table so he could hide his burning face in his arms. He was never going to live this down. Basically everyone knew now and it was only a matter of time before that ‘basically’ was no more. His only solace was the fact that Bender wouldn’t be arriving at work for at least another hour or two so he had some time to figure out what he might say… not much though, nowhere near enough.

The next couple hours were awful. Hermes lectured him about the risks and dangers of workplace romance and what was and was not allowed as if proper romance were a foregone conclusion and not the vain hope it actually was. Amy quizzed him about what he even saw in Bender because Bender was an ‘egotistical kleptomaniac’, whatever that meant. Zoidberg came in and was immediately told and expressed joy that his friends were ‘in love’ and that it was beautiful, again as if it wasn’t just Fry with these feelings which was far more likely to be the case, right? Leela was the only one who left him alone about it despite the fact that she was the one that let the cat out of the bag to everyone else.

The awfulness of all that came to a point when Bender finally arrived. Everyone in the room froze as they looked up at him. Amy let out an excited giggle that made Fry kind of want to die.

“Uh… hey guys,” Bender said as he strode into room. “Why’s everyone looking at me?”

“No reason,” Leela as she stood up. “Fry’s got something important to tell you though. Come on guys, let’s give them some privacy.” She led the way out of the room, quickly followed by everyone else, leaving Fry and Bender alone together within a matter of seconds.

Bender looked after them as they closed the door for a few seconds before turning to look at Fry. “All right, that’s weird. What’s this you want tell me?” he said as he strode over to sit at the table next to Fry. He bent legs up to rest his feet on the table as he pulled out a bottle of booze.

Unable to maintain eye contact, Fry looked away, focusing his gaze on the table instead. He rubbed his finger idly over the little scratch on it that he somehow hadn’t noticed before. What was he supposed to say? He wasn’t ready to tell Bender… more like wasn’t ready to be rejected. How badly was this going to hurt their friendship?

He couldn’t brush it off as nothing, could he? … No, now that Bender knew there was something, he’d probably take offense to any attempt to keep it from him. He’d likely assume the worst too – whatever that might be in his mind – and thus be quite angry. So Fry either had to come up with a convincing important thing to tell him or the truth. The former would be difficult but…

“Out with it meatbag, what is it?”

“Uh… um… it’s uh…” Fry had never been good with words.

“Just spit it out. Am I fired? You don’t want to be my friend anymore? You moving out? … That’s what it is, isn’t it? You hooked up with Amy or Leela and you’re going to move in with them now, huh?”

“What?” Fry jerked his gaze back up to meet Bender’s angry glare. “No, no, no, that’s not it at all.”

Bender didn’t seem much placated. “Then what is it?”

Fry had never been very good at lying or coming up with convincing tales so… with a deep breath he stood up. “You um… remember a couple weeks ago when we kissed and it was supposed to be an experiment to see what it was like to kiss a guy and nothing more?”

Bender’s expression softened a little, though the suspicious anger didn’t leave completely yet. “Yes.”

“Well uh… I’d like to do it again sometime if that’s okay with you. Maybe uh… multiple times.”

“Uh…”

“What I’m saying,” Fry quickly interrupted before he could be shot down before even really saying what he meant, “is that I um… really like you and stuff. So uh… do you maybe want go on a date sometime and like… see what happens?” Fry forced himself to meet Bender’s gaze again. He seemed more surprised than angry now. Was it pleasant surprise though or the opposite? It was hard to tell.

Before replying, Bender took a long drink from the bottle still in his hand, finishing it off and slamming it onto the table as he stood up too. “Is this some fetish thing? You want to fuck a robot and I’m the only one you know so you’re getting all sweet on me to try to get in bed with me?” Right back to being angry, suspicious, and wanting to believe the worst. Why was he like that?

“No, Bender, that’s not it. I like you for you.” Fry pointed at him to emphasize his point. If he were in a less delicate situation he might’ve pointed out how Bender kind of resembled a walking trashcan and therefore wasn’t exactly sexy enough to be worth going to so much trouble for just the purpose of sex. “You’re great and you’re my best friend. And I love spending time with you whether we’re off on a space adventure or just lazing around the apartment watching TV together. So, I’d like to be more than just friends if that’s what you want too. If not, that’s… okay too, I’d understand.” And hopefully this confession wouldn’t hurt that any.

“Oh, hmmm… what else do you like about me?” Well, he was chill now and even grinning, that was good.

“You’re always fun to talk to and you’ve got great ideas for ways to pass the time when we’re bored. And even though you steal my wallet all the time, you always give it back eventually. And you’re a robot and that’s still super cool even if I’m used to robots by now because you were the first one I met and I wasn’t lying when I said I’d always wanted a robot for a best friend. So really by being my pal, you’re fulfilling a lifelong dream of mine. I’ve never thought about dating one before now though, it just never occurred to me until after that uh… kiss experiment we did.”

“Go on,” Bender said in the pause that followed, leaning in eagerly.

Fry sighed. “You’re also very confident, especially in yourself.” Too the point of annoyance at times but even during those instances Fry still wished he could have even a fraction of that level of confidence. “And you’re also super strong, you can bend metal like it’s made of paper which is super cool. And sometimes you use that strength to open jars for me and sometimes you don’t even make fun of me for not being able to open it myself. Also, even despite our occasional disagreements, we always make up eventually and then we’re friends again like nothing ever happened and… that’s really nice.” Fry had never had a friend that would do that for him before, normally one disagreement was all it took for someone to decide they didn’t want to hang out with him ever again. “So… will you go out with me?” Forcing a grin, Fry held out a hand in hopes of Bender taking it.

Bender stared at him in silence for a few horrible seconds that seemed to drag into eternity before finally speaking. “Well, if you’re going to butter me up that much, I suppose we can go on one date and see what happens.” Looking away awkwardly, he even put his hand into Fry’s.

With a rush of giddy relief and grinning so wide his cheeks hurt, Fry use that grip to pull him closer so that their bodies were almost touching, earning a small but very satisfying surprised gasp from him. “Can I kiss you again? For real this time, not just as an experiment?” One was always supposed to ask before doing such a thing, right?

“I just agreed to go on a date with you meatbag, what do you think?”

Fry didn’t answer or make a further move because he didn’t know what to think. He’d never done this before, not with someone he actually wanted to be with.

Bender sighed. “Yes moron, you can kiss me again.”

Fry did so before any self-doubt could get in the way. Bender’s mouth plate was still cool, the taste of beer even stronger than last time. The slight tingling buzz was still there too, just as odd but nice.

“Better than last time?” Fry said, letting out a heavy breath as the pulled apart a few seconds later. He was a bit lightheaded and wanted to sit down but that would mean letting go of Bender’s hand and moving away from him.

“A little.”

Fry took a breath, intending to suggest maybe he needed some more practice but he didn’t get a single syllable out before a small squeak to their right drew his attention. He glanced over just in time to see the door close, silently as whoever was on the other side did so carefully.

Bender had clearly noticed too; he let go of Fry hand and left him to sneak over fling the door all the way open. Perhaps not so surprisingly Leela, Amy, Hermes, Zoidberg and even Professor Farnsworth were gathered in close on the other side. The looks of guilt on their faces made it quite clear what they were doing there.

“Uh, hey Bender,” Leela said with a slight grimace. “What you up to? We were just uh… passing by.”

“And we’re quickly moving on,” Hermes added before turning to flee. The others wasted no time in following suit, Amy dragging away Zoidberg and Leela dragging away Farnsworth.

Bender sighed as he turned back to Fry. If he were as embarrassed as Fry, he was doing a good job of not showing it – though as a robot he couldn’t blush so maybe that had something to do with it. “They’re a bunch of disgusting voyeurs, ,” he said with a scoff as he walked over back over to Fry. “Let’s go to the break room and watch some TV. They should be ashamed enough over being caught spying to not yell at us to go back to work for at least an hour or two.” He put an arm around Fry’s waist to guide him out of the room. Fry was more than happy to go along with it. And maybe, just maybe, they could practice kissing during the ad breaks.

#my writing #futurama #Frender #Mentions of homophobia #internalized homophobia #Fry is gay AU #Bender is pan #kissing #Leela is mom-friend

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beatsfortheillperth · 4 years

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Words with Sadiva

Photography by Kim Summer

SADIVA is the premise of our following words, a female beatsmith hailing from Melbourne, Australia, the soul of female comradeship, and the essence of Australian Boom Bap - SADIVA, is inspiring fellow female creatives and is not only sewing but intertwining creative relationships between both male and female.

This only seems to inspire beat-makers to continue to arise in confidence and support all over the globe and SADIVA is continually pushing this atmosphere, something we here at beatsfortheill completely embrace.

Curating over the years, some of the best musical treats with the release of her Compilations "Women of the World" Volumes 1 and 2. With appreciation, these releases mean,

SADIVA allows anyone to have a master's ear.

It also must be said that this Melbourne local can have all heads bopping to samples that linger for days, with soothed souls and a conscious understanding - SADIVAS' WoW compilations have helped a lot of women in need, which brings with it, a certain sense of honesty, something SADIVA'S personal catalog, in all its calming abilities captures minute by minute.

Developing her craft at home and beyond, whilst establishing a name for herself through her time stilling numbers on Lethal Chops back in 2017. This girl shares, with her music, art nothing short of a beachside sunset or a wine on the riverside.

SADIVA is a chillers delight, and with that, I am glad to announce words with the beat-making wonder and "When U Cared" creative brainchild.

Much Love.

Hey, SADIVA thanks for taking the time to share words.

Let's start with some quick general questions to get things flowing.

Last song you listened to:

10% - Kaytranada

Favourite Beverage:

Beer haha (Brooklyn or Moon Dog)

Favourite Food:

TACOS

Views on Time Travel:

I wish I could travel at the speed of sound.

Futurama makes me believe.

A childhood memory in regards to music:

Buying my first CD “Around the world” by Draft Punk and singing it to the store clerk so I got the right CD,

Also, my dad used to take me to all the free concerts at highpoint and I got to meet Blue, who was my favourite when I was younger, they sang into my yakti yak and it made my childhood lifetime haha.

Favourite Place to chill:

Dandenong Ranges with my dog

A track to chill to:

Fall in love – J Dilla

A track to break it down to:

Galvanize – Chemical Brothers

Just - Bicep

A childhood role model and why you looked up to said person:

My Dad has always been my role model cause he just taught me to be myself no matter what.

Favourite Location/ Why:

New York, it's my home away from home and has always inspired me throughout my journey

Any Hobbies away from music:

Hanging with my boy and my Lil floof - Toast

Putting on local events/workshops.

I love cooking.

Going out in nature and to art galleries (when not on lockdown)

Favourite thing to do when you have down-time:

Go for a walk with the pup, watch trash tv, have a bath with a glass of wine

All Time Favourite Album:

Bicep - Bicep

J Dilla – Donuts

Gangstarr – Moments of truth

Underoath – They’re only chasing safety

Artwork work by Jasmine Ioppolo @iops on Instagram

Thanks for that, so I'd like to start by asking, what got you into producing music in the first place? Was it a solo finding or were you encouraged by others to give it a go?

I feel deeply in love with classic Hip-Hop when I started working at a shoe store and, this was where I discovered J Dilla and his story which blew my mind and inspired the shit out of me.

I was also hanging out with some friends who had tried the art of beat-making so I got intrigued, to say the least.

Why the name SADIVA? And what does it mean to you?

SADIVA just clicked for me. I was smoking weed in my room whilst making beats and, I was like,

“okay, I have to come up with some sort of name for this project”

and I love the strain SATIVA so I thought I’d just wordplay it with diva.

How long have you been producing? Also, what is some of the attributes you find producing helps you strengthen within yourself that you find other avenues don't cover?

I have been producing for about 5 years now, I have been very unmotivated lately just due to my own reason.

I always like to have a smoke and a session to find my samples and then I like to sit and get down to the nitty-gritty.

Lately, I’ve been experimenting with a lot of different samplers and sythn’s just to get an idea of expanding my sound, it’s so interesting.

There’s so much I really don’t cover but DJing is helping me to understand a lot of genres of music that I thought I hated but I love them, which is making me expand more.

What inspires you to continue making beats?

I just love making music, its therapy for me.

Being able to go around the world and meet the scene too has been a

truly special molding for my 20’s and I’m blessed I’ve had these experiences,

I’d be silly to stop cause I’m really living my dream and that’s what keeps me going.

Let us go back to 2017 and discuss what's responsible for the creation of Lethal Chops? What pictures were you trying to paint with the tracklist? And also what was it like putting Lethal Chops together?

At this point I had been writing solidly for 2 years with only a few beats on compilations and SoundCloud, I had always wanted to put an album out cause I was proud of my work and after my trip to NYC in 2015/16

I met Soul Journal (one of my best friends) and he pushed for me to release something and did the masters and truly helped me with the whole process of the tracklist so he deserves a huge shout out cause without him who knows if I would have released anything.

Lethal Chops by Sadiva, Artwork by - Kitchen Wizards

Not much over a year later you released "Minutes" on Vinyl, through Inner Ocean Records.

A masterpiece of works that let everyone know you are here to stay. Somewhat like another Melbourne producer - Amin Payne, who nearly went on hiatus, but I believe he was someone like yourself who was drawn in by a mutual love to create, perpetuating goodness and works of art.

Thanks for this, Minutes is something you want to listen to for prolonged hours so again thank you.

What were the major differences between putting together Lethal Chops and Minutes? Also, how do you feel you had grown as an artist when releasing Minutes? Finally, what atmosphere were you trying to put together for your listeners with this second album release?

Thank you so much for saying that, I couldn’t be happier knowing that’s how you feel about a piece of my work. The major difference I guess was I had a bit of an idea of how I pictured Minutes and it had a bit more time and meaning go into the project.

With lethal chops, I just wanted to release something as I had been making so many beats at that point in time.

Minutes was very break up heavy also, I was heartbroken when finishing minutes, and a lot of last-minute tracks got added cause they just felt so much for me.

Plus, I just wanted to put something together that I was proud of and that people would find interesting, I wanted to make it like watching a film with your ears if that makes sense?

"Minutes" as said before, was made available on vinyl as previously Lethal Chops on Cassette. What is it about putting together and releasing physicals that you love most? Also, did Inner Ocean Record impact your appreciation for physical releases?

Physicals have always been really important to me, I’ve always collected cassettes, CDs, vinyl since I was young so to have something that was my own on vinyl was insane for me, I cried the day it arrived cause it was such a great achievement for me.

Do you have a close relationship with the artists that create your cover art and videos?

If so what allows that relationship to stay solid?

Ps, blessed stuff by the way.

Zomkashwak, STLNDRMS, and Lily.ingram (EN:recent name change) know what is up!

I have definitely got some amazing connections with the artists I work with, Lily was my housemate for a few years and we became close friends through that and I couldn’t have been anymore over the moon than to have her amazing work featured as apart of the WOW series, plus she’s an incredible woman I look up to.

As for Zomkashwak and STLMDRMS we became friends through artist nature and sharing the same love and passion’s, Zom did that album cover for Minutes and it was like he saw what was going on in my brain.

When I met STLNDRMS in Atlanta he hosted me for Controllerise and just showed me the most wholesome hospitality, I was stoked to be able to work with him on the video for “WIT U” and also do a live set on his channel beats and chill, he’s a huge inspiration not only to me but everyone in this community and to give back as he does is incredible, STLNDRMS is gonna be huge and he deserves it more than anyone in the scene.

I also have many close connections with a lot of the people I work with and I’m blessed to have that network of people.

You work closely with the collective and platform Inner Ocean Records based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada a fair distance from Melbourne, Australia.

What inspired this long-distance relationship between yourself and Inner Ocean and how do you guys keep present?

When I started making beats they were one of the first labels I looked up to, it was a goal of mine to release something with them, I just loved what they were doing for the culture.

I got my first self-released tape manufactured through them and after that, we worked on WOW and Minutes together and Cory and I just had a great bond, I feel honoured to have worked with them so closely for a few years.

Inner Ocean Records, being inspired by their surroundings, (In their own words Calgary "is a city surrounded by hundreds of kilometers of prairies, mountains, and forest") did that connect with you when you decided to link up for projects like "Minutes"?

Also, how do you feel your surroundings in Melbourne impact and inspire the beats you create?

I’d say Minutes was most inspired in New York and Melbourne.

Melbourne and New York both have a gritty feeling with all the graffiti and live music going on everywhere and every time I go to NYC I start writing so much.

I was also going through some heartbreak at the time and a lot of what I was listening to was sampled in the album, a lot of the lyrics just spoke to me and It was curing me.

Minutes by Sadiva, Artwork by Zom Kashwak

What environmental factors in your home life bring out the best in your music?

When I’m at home I sit down with a joint, put some nice lighting on and I have a lot of plants in my studio, I need to have a chill environment to start writing and since minutes I’ve moved to a new room in the house, I have been writing so many different genres and it's crazy how a new environment can start sparking something different.

I also wanted to bring up something new to myself [lofi.family] a collective via Facebook and Soundcloud that is dedicated to positive interaction between artists and listeners within the lofi community.

You released two tracks for [lofi.family] "When U Cared" and "Substance" both truly well received. How did this interaction come about and what was it like for you making both these tracks?

Check [lofi.family] out here -

Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/lofifamily

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/lofi.family/

I have been friends with Griff since he started lofi.fam, I was one of the first members in the group and Griff has always just greeted me with open arms,

He asked me for a couple of beats and of course, I had to support what he was doing because he supports everyone, I cant wait to meet that man.

Does either of them hold any personal meaning? As sound-wise, I feel the tracks seem to pull you in opposite directions if you get what I mean? Mellow chords opposed to boom-bap head nods.

Was this intentional?

When I made “When you cared” it was actually a flip I originally did for a 21 savage song, just a bit of fun and then the lofi.fam wanted a track so I sent that over

And with substance, I said to myself ill make a really lofi sounding song instead of boom-bap and I thought that suited the vibe for Lofi fam ps: LOVE YOU GRRIFF!

I guess it was intentional for lofi.fam but when I made them I didn’t really have a concept.

Photography by Kim Summer

We have to discuss WoW Volumes 1 and 2 your "Women Of The World" compilations released on cassette followed by vinyl that ever so sweetly showcases over 30 Female Beat-Smiths world-wide, much love.

This creative pursuit was put together to also raise awareness and funds for organizations dedicated to helping re-home and comfort homeless women (due to various circumstances) in America and Australia.

So much respect for your innovation on this continuing project.

With these releases, you have raised over $8000 for charity and with that, have inspired so many to stay true to the gift of giving, thank you.

What inspired you to branch out and curate WoW? How did you go about making this idea a reality? And what is the overall message you are trying to get across with "Women Of The World" an all-female Tracklist?

I was sick of seeing shady comments about the rise of women in the community, I’m thankful our Lofi community is so open to everyone but not all beat communities are and it was bothering me.

I see women as very powerful people and I love all women pursuing their craft for them and no one else.

I wanted to share these incredible women’s tracks with the world and our beautiful community and give something back through that.

It’s important to make everyone in community shine and I wanted something for the ladies as it was around International Women’s Day and that inspired me to just push forward, and I thought this is something I really want to push and I could not have expected to go as well as it did, it has been incredible.

Finally on the subject, what do you feel WoW's creation tries to inspire most in both males and females creating and listening within the beat scene?

I just hope WOW inspired women to put their stuff out there and for men to be accepting and support that,

I feel like that was successful, I saw so many people just bigging up each other when wow was released and creating that sense of community and safety is so important to me.

Volumes 1 and 2 featured artists like handycat, Yourself, Eevee, India On Da Track, and Seneca B, all artists that show lofi and production, in general, allow so many opportunities to be diverse.

I saw recently that you are taking in submissions for Volume 3 which I am sure will encourage head bops world-wide.

Can you give us a sneak-peek into the curator's mind as to what we can expect with Volume 3? What feels and approaches will you be going for with this release?

I’m not going to lie, This year has fucked me uup with WOW,

I just couldn’t focus on it, I have a lot going on with my own career, and its really taking away from my time with WOW which I’m really upset about but I need to take one thing at a time.

I have to give a huge shout out to Emy Zulazna for helping me with everything this year.

I am feeling way more motivated now I’m getting used to the lockdowns but I’m not even sure I’ll get VOL.3 out this year, but I hope I get to.

Just remember that when you're focusing on a project you can get caught up so hard in other people, you need to remember to take some time out for yourself when focusing on these projects cause it can get quite overwhelming.

Going back to 2016 I have to mention your [Episode 2] Ride With It Set. Along with Amin Payne and ohwell's sets, yours is often bouncing through my speakers so thank you for doing Australia justice with your sensei ways <3

How did that opportunity come about and what was it like performing for an online audience, in a moving car opposed to a live set on stage?

Thank you so much, ride with it was so much fun, but it was the day after I had been to a grand final that Western Bulldogs won so I was very dusty in the car that day.

The opportunity arose as I knew the guys who started it prior to them doing it and they approached me and asked if I’d be keen and I was already there haha.

It was super strange being in a car doing beats, people in other cars wondering what you're doing and not being able to see the SP buttons cause of the light was a little struggle to, I wish ride with it was still around! RIP RIDE WITH IT!

Ride with it Episode 2 - SADIVA -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC1cICa4cUc&t=2s

You've performed in venues all over the world now, and with each performance, I am sure you learn something new about not only yourself but also your environments.

Can you share what it is like being on stage and also how you keep your nerves in check when you're tweaking those buttons?

Being on stage for me is like another persona, I go to another planet, it’s like when Usagi/Serena turns into sailor moon.

When I'm Djing or playing beats live I become one with the music and its more than a show to me, this is me representing my feelings on stage.

Each city I play also is like learning something new about the culture,

I am so lucky with the opportunities I have.

What environments do you like to create through your live shows?

And also what has been your favourite show to date and why?

I like to create a safe environment where anyone can feel like we can chat after the show, when people come out to see me I am so grateful and it always turns into a bit of a party towards the end of the shows.

I’ve had so many amazing shows but up to date, I’d say when I played in Turin, Italy with my good friend Siccarone beats, that was life-changing.

It was an illegal warehouse party and it was packed, I couldn’t believe the show and it was just so much fun I can’t wait to go back after all of this is over

Musical Recommendations?

At the moment I’m really just feeling a lot of different stuff, I have a few playlists made on Spotify which is probably best to see what I’m really into cause holy dang it’s a big ol mix bag.

Recommendations Away From Music?

Look after your loved ones, your animals, and please look after each other.

The world is in a crazy place so let’s make everyone feel safe in these crazy times.

Any New Releases or Shows coming up that we should keep an ear and eye out for?

Look, since corona, all my big announcements have kind of been put on pause which is a real shame because I was really looking forward to this year.

However, I do have some really big news coming and I am not allowed to say much more than that. I hope this new thing I’m working on really helps our community shine, even more, I wanna talk so much more about it but I can’t, so stay tuned!!!

If so can you share a few details?

My lips are sealed but I’ll be able to announce soon.

Any Last Words?

Chicken butt..

youtube

Music Video for WIT U from “Minutes” by - STLNDRMS

Support SADIVA here:

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/artist/4N5uaLp0vHh7627UsS9GoG

Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/sadiva

Bandcamp - https://sadiva.bandcamp.com/

Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYamcq0cmp62-pxY2XHmnkg

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sadivaa/?hl=en

#beatsfortheill #Sadiva #interview #onlinemagazine #soundcloud #spotify #bandcamp

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joyofcrime-elinorhigh · 5 years

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Rick and Morty REVIEW: (With MiketheHuman113)

... ... Ahem... To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Rick and Morty. The humour is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theo-

Hello everybody, my name is JoyofCrimeArt and welcome to my first review of Deviant-cember year two! In case you aren't aware what Deviant-cember is, it's we're I post one regular upload every Monday and one cartoon review every Friday for the entire month of December. Why am I doing this? Well, consider it a Christmas present from me to you, as a way to thank all of you for helping me get this far. I've done a lot in my three and a half years on this site, and want to keep doing better and better things as the years go on. But I never would of gotten this far without all of your support. You have no idea how much I appreciate all you guys do for me, but hopefully this can give you all somekinda idea. Anyway what can be said about Rick and Morty that hasn't been said already? Ever since the series premieres on adult swim back in 2013 it has blown up in popularity and has become a GIGANTIC hit in not just the animation community, but also in main stream nerd culture as well. T-shirts, figurines, stupid twenty four hour Youtube livestreams that Youtube just won't stop recommending me no matter how many times I click the "uninterested" button, the show is everywhere. Even the big M themselves have taken notice. Clearly there's something about this show that really resonates with people. But what is it? What is it that makes people love Rick and Morty so much? I don't know. Cause I don't like this show. At all. Okay, maybe "at all" might be a bit strong, as there are a lot of elements of the show that I very much like. But as a whole, I really don't get why so many people love this show so much! I tried to like it, I really tried, but no matter what I could never give the series more than just an "okay" at best. And this isn't just hype backlash either, I've been watching the series since episode one, before the show had the recognition that it has now. I just don't like this show! But why don't I like this, you may ask? Is there something there that everyone else see's that I just don't see? Man, if only I had someone semi-notable to help me answer these questions, perhaps in some kind of "collaboration" style situation- WUBBA LUBBA DUB DUB!

*Gasp!* MiketheHuman, from MiketheHuman Deviantart reviews? (PLUG!) mikethehuman113.deviantart.com… Here?! In my review? What a simply preposterous concept, if I do say so myself! I’M MR. MIKESEEKS! LOOK AT MEEEEE! *pause* Yeah, I’m not gonna do that voice for the whole review. But it’s still great to be here, man! Right. So let's dive right in, and talk about the adult swim smash hit, Rick and Morty. Also light spoiler warning for the series ahead. Though we'll try to leave a spoiler warning before we talk about any important plot points...let's say beyond the season two finale. Just in case you havn't seen the show yet and want to check it out for yourself. Let’s do it! So grab your plumbus and a bowl of Eyeholes because it’s time to get schwifty in here! I apologize for nothing. Rick and Morty, created by Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland, follows the adventures of Rick Sanchez, an amoral, narcissist, alcoholic mad scientist who, after twenty years of being mysteriously absent from his families life, shows back up into there lives out of nowhere. The series follows Rick, along with his neurotic yet somewhat snarky grandson Morty, as they go on a wide array of sci-fi adventures. Along for the ride is Rick's vapid yet spunky granddaughter Summer, his emotionally repressed daughter Beth, and his idiotic loser of a son in law Jerry. Galaxy and Multiverse spanning shenanigans ensue. Now normally this would be the part where I would go into more details about the characters, but I want to save that for a bit later. As for now I want to talk about the elements of Rick and Morty that I personally think work the best. One thing about Rick and Morty that I have to praise is the way that the show handles it's voice acting. If there's one thing that people think of when they think of Rick and Morty, it's the shows trademarked use of adlibs and retroscripting. Characters stutter and fumble there words when they talk, (A staple of co creator Justin Roiland's work.) and while it may sound like it would get annoying very quickly, it actually gives the show and by extension the comedy a very naturalistic feel, as well as gives a uniqueness to the shows dialogue. The characters talk like how real people, and it's refreshing to hear when compared to the way characters talk in tv shows. Also because of this process the show lends it's self to some really good improved lines. I have to praise co creator Justin Roiland, who does an excellent job voicing both Rick and Morty. He manages to make the two characters sound completely different from each other and the fact that he voices both characters also makes it all the easier for chemistry to build between them, in the same way some cartoons have all the actors record in the same booth to give there characters a dynamic between the characters. It really is impressive how a single man can create two insanely iconic characters with two distinct voices that are still both very much his own. He’s certainly not the first to do it, or even the first to do it in the realm of adult cartoons (Trey Parker and Matt Stone from South Park and Seth MacFarlane from Family Guy), but still, if you were to close your eyes and listen to either Rick or Morty speak, you’d immediately recognize them. And the improvisational style of comedy and dialogue shines through in a vast majority of the show’s episodes, especially both episodes revolving around Interdimensional Cable, in which the writers and voice actors just have a blast throwing whatever they can at the wall and seeing what sticks. Trust me, it’s a lot funnier than it sounds. The rest of the case also deliver good performances as well. Particularly Chris Parnell as Jerry, who plays the character in a very similar way to the way he plays Cyril from Archer. (However, not so similar the point where it feels like the exact same character.) My only criticism with the shows voice acting is that, while Justin Roiland is able to give two characters completely different voices, he's can't really do a third. This results in a lot of the shows side characters sounding very similar, as Justin Roiland plays a lot of them. Sometimes it works in cases where he goes really out there with the voice and comes off very funny, but it's hard to deny that characters like Mr. Meeseeks, Noob Noob, and Mr. Poopybutthole pretty much all have the exact same voice, and it can be a bit jarring. And to be fair, this is an issue Justin Roiland’s had in several other shows he’s done voice work for. Lemongrab from Adventure Time and Blendin Blandin from Gravity Falls both pretty much share the same voice as Mr. Meeseeks and the other previously mentioned characters, for example. It’s a type of voice that I can totally understand if you would get easily annoyed by, and if you see the first episode and you’re already sick of the voices, then this show likely isn’t for you. But if, like us, you find an earnestness and charm to both Rick and Morty’s voices and verbal tics, then it’s just one extra detail to appreciate about the uniqueness of this show overall. The comedy of the show is also pretty strong. While many lines do feel like there improvised (and improved well) a lot of the jokes in Rick and Morty feel very layered in terms of the way that they are written. And considering the sometimes over year long break between seasons it would be hard for me to believe that multiple drafts and rewrites and weren't used when writing these jokes. The shows humor feels very well thought out. This combination of both deeply written layered jokes and off the cuff drunken improve works well in tandem to make the humor really work the majority of the time. I admit that I'm not the biggest fan of dark humor, and that does hold me back from loving the shows comedy, but I completely acknowledge that that's a personal preference, and doesn't take away from the shows writing on an technical level. I feel the show does best when it delves into absurd surreal humor, which it often does. The comedy of Rick and Morty is extremely quoteable in the same way that say The Simpsons and Futurama are. Not to mention the way the shows surrealist style of humor melds so well with modern meme culture. Weather or not that's a good thing or a bad thing I'll leave up to you...

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

Well, especially given the universally negative reaction to the fanbase lately, I’ll just assume most of you find it a bad thing, so moving on. However, if I had to pick the element of Rick and Morty that I think works the best, it would be the series creative way that the series satirized and subverts the tropes of science fiction genre. Without going into to many specifics, it's clear that the writers behind this series know there sci fi lore and the series is constantly doing new and creative things with it's sci fi premise. This is where the show really shines, with episodes like "Total Rickall." "Auto-Erotic Assimilation" and "A Rickle in Time" while not necessary being the best episodes of the series per say, are the episodes where we see the series at it's most creative, at least in my opinion. Not to bring up the Futurama comparison again, but the series does sort of remind me of Futurama in the way that it satirizes the science fiction genre. Though Rick and Morty's take on the genre is a lot darker, and this does help a lot in differentiating the series and stop it from feeling like a rip off. Even in the show’s weaker episodes, which tend to vary from person to person, you’re almost always guaranteed to encounter something you’ve never seen before. This all comes down to, as previously mentioned, the creativity of the ingenious writers. Even if an episode’s concept has been seen before, the writers will throw enough twists at it to make it feel fresh and new. “Anatomy Park” isn’t a great episode because it’s a parody of Jurassic Park, it’s great because of all the areas explored and the creatures encountered, and the overall unique conflict. “Look Who’s Purging Now” isn’t just great because it parodies The Purge, it’s great because it takes that concept and kicks it up to eleven in the best and most creative way possible. This extends into the episodes that aren’t just straight-up satires, but if I were to list them all, we’d be here all day. This series has this massive scale to it, in terms of the scope of it's story. The world and adventures of Rick and Morty exist on an entirely cosmic scale. The series goes well out of it's way to make you feel the unimaginable scope of the multiverse. It's not something that you see much in many other series. It's one of the shows greatest strengths, but it also may be one of the series biggest weakness too too. But I'll go more into that later. Unfortunately one of the series flaws is that while the writers are able to give the science fiction elements this massive scale, they aren't really able to do this with the more mundane elements. Weather it be Morty's crush on Jessica, Summer's boy troubles, or Beth and Jerry's struggling marriage (which to be fair I don't think I hate as most Rick and Morty fans seem to, and I personally think did improve a lot in season three...) these elements just never seem to be as interesting as the sci fi adventures, which is probably why the series tends to focus less and less on these elements as the series progresses. And to be fair, while it can be a bit frustrating that these plot points are rarely touched upon, there is always a chance that they will be touched upon in future seasons. Even if they aren’t, the focus of the show is still primarily the bizarre, downright insane adventures that Rick and Morty themselves go on. The more mundane elements can kind of be considered a cherry on top of the ice cream sundae that the writers sometimes forget to add. I also want to briefly talk about the show's animation. I've heard a lot of people call it bad. And yes, while it isn't the greatest looking series (I mean it's adult swim after all) I think the the animation does what it's suppose to do. While the art style may not be as crisp and clean as say Steven Universe, I don't think the show would of worked if it was. The world of Rick and Morty is alien, dark, bizarre, and ugly. And the animation reflects this. Sort of like the story the mundane Earth elements is where the animation feels the weakest. But when the series goes into the weird alien worlds and the artist get to just fun with it, that's where the art really shines. It uses creativity to make up for any of it's other shortcomings, and most of the time it works out pretty dang well.

And unlike other “edgy” adult shows like, say, Mr. Pickles, Ren and Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon, King Star King, and the like, Rick and Morty’s style of somewhat ugly animation isn’t ugly for the sake of ugliness. As Anthony said, it helps that the worlds visited are usually quite varied, unique, and at times even beautiful. No two areas look the same, and it's just another thing to look forward to with each new episode you choose to watch. This applies to both the worlds visited and the creatures encountered, even if most of them end up looking like penises and testicles, whether by accident or on purpose. You make the call! I also want to give the series credit for being, to my knowledge, the first adult comedy cartoon to have a fairly thick continuity. Where actions in one episode has a direct effect on other episodes. (And yes, I'm sure there was some adult comedy series before Rick and Morty to have a continuity, but I'm talking specifically about series with a fair bit of continuity, not just occasional status quo changes or references.) However this show does suffer a bit from what I call Adventure Time syndrome in terms of it's plot points. What I mean with this is that the series will introduce interesting concepts for new plot lines, and just reset to the status quo. Like (Spoiler Warning) the family being intergalactic outlaws after "The Wedding Squanchers." Aliens colonizing the Earth, also in "The Wedding Squanchers." Or the entire Season three divorce plot line. All things that would have been interesting to expand upon, but are just undone to return the series back to the status quo. (Spoiler's Over Now) However, luckily not all the changes are like that, and there are some series changing elements still present in the show, which works to keep the series fresh. It can be quite risky for a show like this to have a non-floating timeline, as it poses the risk of alienating the audience, but Rick and Morty pulls this off quite well. True, there are some episodes that you pretty much can’t skip if you choose to watch this show, like the aforementioned “Wedding Squanchers”, “Total Rickall”, “The Rickshank Rickdemption” and most notably “Rick Potion #9”, but for the most part, the show doesn’t punish you if you’ve missed any of these episodes. The plots themselves are mostly self-contained and if there’s a plot point from a previous episode that makes a return, it’s generally not the main focus of the episode, but more something for the dedicated watcher to pay attention to. But with all of that said, I think it's time that we go back and talk about all the stuff that I said we'd get back to. Let's start with the characters, particularly Rick. Because, while this show may be called "Rick and Morty" the show is really about Rick. Not only is Rick the most popular character in the series BY FAR, but he is also in the A plot of every single episode of the series as of the first three seasons, while there are several episodes where Morty is given the B plot. Your opinion on Rick will make or break this show for you. I will say that Rick is by far the most interesting character in the series. I also think that he is the funniest character, with most of the series's best lines coming from him... ...But honestly, I frickin' hate Rick. And frankly I think about ninety percent of the reasons why I don't like this show come down to how the show treats Rick. WHAAAAAAAAAT?! How could this be?! Rick is an amazing character! This revelation comes off as totally shocking to me and not as though we had planned it weeks in advance! Please go on, I need to hear what you have to say!

Rick's just a really unlikeable character to me, and he becomes more and more unlikeable each and every season. Really, I don't quite get why so many people like him. He's honestly not anything I haven't seen before. He's the same token jerk who you see in every other adult cartoon. You see, ninety percent of all adult American animation tends to fall into two main camps. They'll either have a cast full of jerks, (Like most Seth MacFarlane series for example) or they will have what I refer to as the "token jerk." Y'know, the jerky character who usually becomes the fan favorite because they say what's on there mind and usually have the best lines. Often times the character is an alcoholic, a womanizer, a cynic. And don't get me wrong there's nothing wrong with this type of character at all! I don't want you to get that impression. It's a character trope, and there is nothing wrong with character tropes if you use them right or do something different with them, and in all fairness Rick does have a bit more depth than most other characters that fall into this camp. The problem though comes from to way that the show treats Rick. And to explain my problem with Rick, allow me to present this graph I made to help illustrate my point! God, you're a loser. Hey, who the heck said that?! Oh, sorry, that's my TRADE. The fu*ks a TRADE?! Oh, just my Totally Real Assistant that Definitely Exist. Don't worry about her. (She doesn't do much.) I have a name you know. It's- Oooh, side characters interrupting the review. Okay. Nice lore, Linkara. You wanna be the victim of my next satire? I'll...I'll be good s-sir. Yeah, this'll make no sense to any of your watchers you know. Anyway don't you have a graph to show off or something? Ah, right. You're both idiots.

So as you can see by this graph, there tends to be a scale that most "Token Jerk" adult cartoon characters fall under. There's an axis of how likeable vs how evil the token jerk will be. The farther left you go, the more likeable or sympathetic the character is. There the characters who are jerks, but aren't too jerky to the point that we stop rooting for them to succeed. And the farther right you go, the more unlikeable the character is. These are the character who we want to watch fail. We want to watch them be jerks, but then get there just desserts at the end of the episodes. It gives us a sense of schadenfreude. And characters don't just have to be on one side or the other, they can kinda dance around the line depending on the situation, but overall they tend to have some general point that they fall under. And both types of characters can work. One side is not better than the other. It all depends on how well the character is written and how the series presents the character. Okay. So if that's the case where does Rick fall on this axis? Well see, that's my biggest problem with Rick. The show wants to play it both ways! If we're going by moral standards Rick would be WAY on the right side of the graph. He murdered countless people, destroyed several civilization, supplies assassin's with weapons, literally owns slaves, and he also steals cable. Overall, he's a very bad bloke. And again, there's nothing inherently wrong with that. The problem comes from the fact that the show also wants us to sympathize him. And I don't. His actions are horrible, and the fact that this show has continuity makes it even worse, because it makes it a lot harder to look past his actions. Cause basically what were watching over the course of the three seasons that are out so far, is the story of an abuser slowly conditioning his family to take his abuse, and it get's really bad in season three. Again (Spoiler Warning) But if you pay attention it's fairly easy to see how twisted Rick is. He abandons his daughter for twenty years, causing her to grow an almost stockholm syndrome-esq dependency complex, doing anything Rick wants in order to prevent him from leaving. He then purposely let's himself get captured in the season two finale as part of his plan to get rid of Jerry, and not only reawakens his daughters fear of abandonment issues, but passing this fear onto Summer as well. Resulting in her gaining a hero complex regarding Rick. Rick pressures Beth into divorcing Jerry, and due to her newly revived fear of parental abandonment she excepts even after admitting she love's Jerry seconds before. Then Rick either replaces Beth with a clone that he could destroy at any time, or a version of Beth that thinks she's a clone and THINKS that he destroy at any time. All as a ploy to take over the family by manipulating his families abandonment issues that he himself caused. Cause if they don't do what he says doesn't he can just leave again. Who knows, maybe that's why he left twenty years ago in the first place. I mean the creators have said we're never getting any kind of backstory on Rick. All so he can forever force his family to be his assistance, weather they want to or not. (Spoiler's Over Now)

So yeah, between all of that I just don't find myself liking this character. Just because he has one or two sympathetic moments doesn't make up for everything else. What doesn't help is the fact that, despite all of his horrible actions, he always comes up on top. In all thirty one episodes out so far there are only two episodes where Rick really loses. "Auto Erotic Assimilation" and "The Rickchurian Mortydate." You could also make an argument for "Meeseeks and Destroy" but he chose to lose in that one. Other than that, he always wins. He's always right. He always get's his way. It get's to the point where he really comes off as a real Mary Sue character, where he always has something that can fix the situation at hand. Even if it's not set up or even explained, we're just suppose to buy it because it's Rick's and he's the smartest person in the multiverse. Well, the Mary Sue argument is one that I’ll gladly defend against. While yes, Rick does end up winning in a majority of the show’s episodes, it’s not always something he does effortlessly. He has to use his wit and scientific skills to figure his way out of the terrible situations he finds himself in. There’s even some instances in which he has to rely on others to bail him out of an episode’s conflict. He was the only male on Gazorpazorp in the episode “Raising Gazorpazorp” and had to be bailed out by Summer, he lost a ton of IQ points in “The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy” and only didn’t die because of pure luck, “Get Schwifty” shows that he doesn’t work well under pressure, hell, even in “A Rickle in Time” not only is he one of the main contributors of the episode’s conflict due to his own uncertainties, but the episode ends with Beth and Jerry laughing at how ridiculous he looks. I’d hardly call that a win. Plus, I think he has more sympathetic moments than you give him credit for. We find out at the end of “Ricksy Business” just how sad and lonely he is with the revealed meaning of his catchphrase, there’s a really subtle scene in “Something Ricked This Way Comes” that displays just how lonely he is without the rest of the family, he actually apologizes to Jerry for interfering with him and Beth’s Marriage in “The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy”, and both “Big Trouble in Little Sanchez” and “Pickle Rick” explore how self-loathsome and flawed of a person Rick is, especially with the speech delivered to him by Dr. Wong in the latter episode. The latter two examples may not be sympathetic moments, per say, but they do at the very least prove that he’s not a Mary Sue, or Marty Stu, if you will. And (Spoiler Warning) while I will admit that it’s a pretty despicable action to try and force two people into a divorce, I think the audience can make an exception for Beth and Jerry. Prior to season three, everyone wanted them to divorce. Just ask any fan of this show and they’ll say they wanted them to divorce, I guarantee it. True, but it's how it was handled that bothers me. If Beth and Jerry decided to separate on there own, I wouldn't of minded it. It's the fact that it was Rick, the man with all of the emotional power over Beth, that pulled the strings to make it happen. (Spoiler's Over Now) The show makes many parallels between Rick and God, and I admit that the idea of a person who has all the power of a god, but all the flaws and vices of a human is interesting. But it doesn't really work in the way that the series presents it. We know Rick's going to win in the end, and there's no tension as a result. Also because of this there are a lot of easy ways that problems can be fixed, but aren't because of the plot. Like in "The Rickchurian Mortydate." (Spoiler Warning, Again) Why doesn't Rick just leave and find a universe with a more submissive family? It's not because he loves them, because he's reality hoped before. Also, why doesn't he just use the mind blower from "Morty's Mind Blowers" to just erase Beth's memory of possibly being a clone once it started becoming a problem for him? That's just one of many examples of plots that could be solved WAY easier then they are. (Spoiler's Over Now) The shows nihilistic philosophy also helps make it hard to care about anything that happens. When there are an infinite number of realities, and the show goes with the idea that anyone can easily be replaced by one of the infinite possible versions of themselves because nothing matters, then why should I be invested? Who cares if someone dies, they can just go find another version of them, or clone them, or whatever. It doesn't matter. Nothing matters, which I guess is the point of the show. But to me what it really comes down to is that Rick and Morty is the story of an immoral, emotionally abusive all powerful God, who always wins and exist in a universe where nothing matters. And we're suppose to be emotionally invested? How am I suppose to relate to a God? I'm sorry, but it just doesn't work for me. At all. Again, I would disagree that Rick always wins, but I think you just hit the nail on the head on why people relate to Rick and, by extension, this show. It is purely nihilistic, but, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, so is this latest generation of millennials! I know, I know, there’s a lot of stereotypes surrounding this group, but I’m not kidding when I say that nihilism in this day and age is more prevalent than ever. All you need to do is go to any news channel to figure that out for yourself. But that’s why people can relate to Rick. He’s the ultimate in nihilism. He has all the power in the universe and yet he’s absolutely miserable. He can create anything he wants at any time he can, but he’s lonely; he can’t relate to people, he’s harsh to the people that love him the most. A lot of people around our age have found themselves in very similar states of depression that Rick is going through. Obviously a majority of the people I’m referring to aren’t super geniuses like Rick, but that nihilistic aspect of his character just makes it that much more relatable that even a character as godlike as Rick can be as bitter, unhappy, and lonely as a lot of people find themselves these days. Maybe that’s why a lot of people can identify with him and look past the terrible things he’s done that have either been seen or alluded to. That is an interesting perspective. I guess I can see how some people could relate to this. And if Rick and Morty has helped people like with these problems realize that there not alone, than I can't fault it for that. I guess part of it comes from the fact that, I'm not a nihilist. I try to be an optimistic person and see the best in things, so maybe that's why I have trouble relating to Rick. As for why he doesn’t just switch universes, he did say in “Rick Potion #9” and “Morty’s Mind Blowers” that it’s something he can only do a limited amount of times, so there’s at least a bit of an explanation for that. Yeah but they never explain why he can only do it a couple of times. If there are an infinite number of universes then there should be a infinite number of universes at any given moment that he could switch to. It's not like traveling between universes is at all difficult for him. It honestly just feels like a line thrown in to try to give the show more stakes, even when there aren't any. Honestly this may be something that we might have to just agree to disagree on... The rest of the cast range from meh to okay personally. Though they all commit the same kind of terrible acts that Rick do, though to a much lesser extent. This, again, makes them hard to like. Also several characters like Summer and Beth seem like there written pretty inconsistently between episodes. If I had to pick a favorite out of the main cast I'd probably say Jerry. He's flawed, he's by far the most likeable, and I'm actually rooting for him to win. Sure he's not perfect, and has his fair share of jerky moments too, but when it comes to character motivations all he wants is a normal life. It's hard not to root for that. I also do kinda like Morty's character act of learning how to manipulate Rick and becoming more and more disillusioned with with him. Someone that doesn’t loathe Jerry with a fiery passion of a thousand suns? I thought people like that didn’t exist! It’s nice to know SOMEONE doesn’t despise this harmless character. Yeah, he’s not perfect and he can be manipulative at times, but WAY too many people treat him like he’s the most unlikable character ever conceived. To that I say, really guys? Is he really that bad? I will give you Summer and Beth, though. Summer can be cool but wildly inconsistent, and Beth is just….the worst. Never funny, always bitchy, and always unlikable in every episode she’s in, with the exception of the final two episodes of season 3. Hell, when she was threatened into making a choice of saving one of her two kids, she INSTANTLY chose Summer. Right in front of Morty! Why does a majority of the fanbase hate Jerry when Beth exists in this show, exactly? I know. I personally don't get it. Personally I think a lot of my points I pointed out above are why so many (Not all, keep in mind.) of the people in the Rick and Morty fan base are so toxic. Because while yes, the show does try to show that you shouldn't be like Rick, they never really show any negative repercussions for acting as such. The show gives off this vibe that, as long as your smart, nothing else matters. Which is a real philosophy that I think is becoming more prominent by the day, as I think that there are people who hold intelligent at a higher value then just being a good person. And I think this attitude is what attracts these types of people. Because it's easy for someone to decide that there smart. (SOME PEOPLE KEEP IN MIND. I'M NOT SAYING ALL RICK AND MORTY FANS ARE LIKE THIS. IN ACTUALITY IT'S PROBABLY ONLY LIKE ONE OR TWO PERCENT. I'M JUST SAYING.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GC5rAX0xHg

You're really using that clip? Yes. There. Now that we've referenced every Rick and Mortmeme I think it's time we start to wrap up this review. I believe you forgot about "Show me what you got." Mr. CrimeArt. Damn. Well anyway, Mike, since you are my guest I'll let you go first. Any final thoughts? And do you recommend the series to anyone reading this who's yet to watch Rick and Morty? (Who somehow got this far into the review.) I can totally see where someone like you would be coming from in your dislike of Rick. I may love him, but I will fully admit that there are a lot of things to hate about him, and his writing isn’t always the most consistent. But that’s certainly not enough for me to dislike him. To me, he’s the prime example of doing a “jerk with a heart of gold” trope perfectly. Sure, he’s done hideously heinous things in nearly every episode of the show, but something about his not-give-a-fu*k attitude, his charm, and his sheer badassery are enough for me to look past his, at times, pure dickishness. He’s funny, he’s sympathetic, and despite displaying all these godlike abilities and powers, the show does a fantastic job at showing that he’s very much a flawed individual, unlike say, Roger from American Dad! Rick may be the most flawed person on the show, in fact, but that’s all up for debate and this review is long enough as is. In short, Rick is amazing and I love nearly every second of the show when he’s onscreen. Though I can understand where others would disagree. As for the show itself, I absolutely recommend it to anyone that hasn’t seen it yet. Though I would advise starting with the first four episodes and seeing if you like what you’re presented with. This is not a show for everyone and if the first four episodes don’t convince you, the rest of the show likely won’t. But if you find yourself enjoying those first four, I can almost guarantee that you’ll fall for this show head over heels. It’s unlike any show that’s come before it, with its unique plots, fantastic characters (even if we happen to disagree in that regard), beyond clever writing, and bizarre yet somehow beautiful visuals that just get more and more impressive with each season. Easily one of my favorite adult shows, if not my favorite, as well as one of my favorite cartoons of this decade, which is certainly saying a lot. Yeah. As for me, as odd as this may sound after my long tangent, I also do recommend that you check out the series for yourself. Wait, Really? Yes. Because, while I do personally have a lot of problems with the show, I've been around the internet long enough to know that I am in the minority. Almost everyone else I've run in to love this show, and I do kinda get why. The comedy is really clever and funny. The worlds they create is interesting. And I admire that the show has the guts to deal with things like philosophy and existentialism. Also the season three finale seems like it'll be making some changes to the status quo that I think would help improve the show for the better, though honestly I have my doubts that it'll stick, but only time will tell. I get why people like the show. There are elements of the show, and even whole episodes that I do enjoy. I also can see how people can like Rick, and just find him more charming and how endearing than I do. I can also see how he can be seen as a power fantasy character. I mean who wouldn't want to be a all powerful godlike jerk who can do whatever they want while still having a heart of gold? There's nothing wrong with power fantasy characters, if there was then Superman wouldn't be a national icon after all. Honestly, I think it's just a personal thing. Something about this show just doesn't click with me, and while I'll probably never one hundred percent understand how so many people can love the show, that doesn't mean that my opinion is anymore valid than there's. So check out the show and watch it for yourself. You'll probably like it. Or maybe you'll be like me, and just not get what all the hype was about... Thanks for coming to help me on this colab, Mike. Any Parting Words? It was great to collab with you, Anthony. I wish the best for your page and to those of you that want to see more of my stupid shit, I do reviews of TV shows and movies and I also do satires of some of the biggest assholes ever to taint the website of DeviantArt! Links to some of my favorites of each down below. SHAMELESS PLUG!!1!!111!11! So that's our thoughts on Rick and Morty. What do you all think of the series. Leave your thoughts in the comments down bellow. I would love to start a conversation, even if your opinion is completely different from my own. Also tell me what you think of the collaboration format. It's something I want to try experimenting with, so I would love your input. And if I were to collab with another deviantart review, which one do you think I should do? Leave all of that in the comments down bellow. Please fav, follow, and comment if you liked the review and don't forget to check out MiketheHuman's page for more reviews from him. And come back next week as Deviant-cember....get a lot more Super. ... Is it Dragon Ball Super? Frickin' TRADE...(Sigh!) Have a great day. (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/Rick-and-Morty-REVIEW-With-MiketheHuman113-717900990 DA Link

https://www.deviantart.com/mikethehuman113 Check out MiketheHuman113

#Review #collab #Rick and Morty #Pickle Rick #schezwan sau

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thisislizheather · 5 years

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January Jewels

Forgive the lateness of this post! Here are the highlights from January.

Still using the Origins GinZing Eye Cream and I think it’s working, so I’ll keep at it. It doesn’t leave those red circles under my eyes (that other eye creams have done to me) when I’m using it either, which is a huge plus.

I can’t remember if I’ve ever mentioned how good this ArtNaturals shampoo & conditioner is for hair growth. I’ve been using it for a few months and it obviously takes a bit to start working, but it definitely does. I’ve also tried their Himalayan salt scrub, which is also pretty great.

Again, I’m not sure I’ve ever mentioned it, but I’ve been in love with this perfect tinted moisturizer from AmorePacific for about a year now. I know that it’s too expensive, but I really try to make it last at least a year to make it worth it.

Nobody told me how good orzo is! I may have told Nathan it’s a kind of rice so that we can continue to eat it regularly?

I watched about three or four episodes of Tidying Up with Marie Kondo since every person on the planet did as well, and I think I’m good and don’t need to watch more. Although I did see this one Buzzfeed post about actually helpful insights from her whole deal.

Did you know that if you have an iPhone, you can literally shake it to undo typing? Layla just taught me that, so great.

I tried the burger at Beebe’s and it was good! Especially if you’re in the mood for something quick & tasty.

Read & loved Busy Philipp’s new book.

Sampled some of the donuts at Dough and… oh man. Too doughy! I know, don’t kill me. And there were barely any poppy seeds on a supposed “lemon poppy seed donut.” Go home!

I’ve been using Kiehl’s Buttermask For Lips for a few weeks and even though it’s pretty decent, I think the Laneige Lip Mask is a slightly better product in terms of how soft it makes your lips in the morning.

Finally ate at Emily in the West Village. Didn’t realize they took over the old Blue Ribbon location, it’s such a beautifully small spot. The food was fantastic, it’s still unclear to me what exactly a Detroit-style pizza is, but it’s lovely and weird and so good. The burger was great too, just definitely not worth $27, that’s insanity for meat on a bun, I’m sorry.

Oh! I tried this awful salmon recipe off of Half Baked Harvest, which usually has amazing recipes. I kind of like that that woman isn’t perfect now.

Had the best hot chocolate of the season so far at Boro Hotel.

My friend Dave Merheje has a stand-up special on Netflix that is crazy good and he’s the best and you have to watch it.

So I’m all caught up on This Is Us and man. It’s a lot. When William told Randall, “Take me to meet your father” and he starts talking to Jack at the tree? I haven’t cried that much at a scene since Tom Hanks lost Wilson. Good christ. I think one of the best parts about this show is that it covers all the years of a life of someone and I feel like no show has tried to do that, it’s so crazy good at times.

Tell me you’ve seen the Futurama episode Jurassic Bark about Fry’s dog. I wept.

I’ve been hearing about Xi’an Famous Foods forever, so I made it over there and ate the spicy lamb cumin noodles, which was huge and really good, definitely enough for two people. It was super spicy and the lamb was incredible.

Finally tried Smith & Cult nail polishes and they last a pretty decent amount of time. In love with the colours Stockholm Syndrome & Doe My Dear.

Also in love with Cara Cara oranges. Find them. Eat them. Love them.

There’s this wicked new pizza place in my neighborhood, Massa’s, which definitely has a hint of what is so good about Patsy’s in the city.

Obviously I watched both Fyre Festival documentaries because none of us are individuals in this age and while the Hulu one was good for showing the terrible-ness of the financial specifics, and the Netflix one was good for showing the bigger picture of what a scumbag he is and the specifics of people who were screwed over - BOTH really were the same fucking movie. Dick guy. Dick advertising company. Dicks all ‘round.

I’ve been watching this 100 Baby Sims Challenge (a new one comes out each week roughly) and they’re so addictive to watch. I don’t even feel the urge to play, it’s weirdly enjoyable just to watch.

Watched the Ted Bundy tapes and after seeing the whole “series” on Netflix, I’m officially on board with the death penalty. I used to be against it more or less, but definitely on board with it now. Another thing? I can’t watch these types of series anymore. Not because they’re too horrific to think about or because they’re such awful crimes (they are, both of those things), but it’s infuriating to watch these pieces that treat these vile human beings with such dignity, who are thoughtfully studied and analyzed while each victim simply has a name, a photo and how she was brutally murdered… and that’s it. It’s demoralizing to everyone who suffered as a result of those crimes and disgusting that these despicable men are treated as celebrities with any kind of rights. It’s sick.

Tried Cadbury’s Royal Dark Chocolate and I swear it doesn’t even taste like dark chocolate, it’s so good. It’s like what all other dark chocolate WISHES it tasted like.

Went to Tavern On The Green in Central Park for the first time! This place will forever remind me of Ghostbusters, it’s amazing that it’s even still around. The service was great, the light inside the place is so bright and lovely, the food was fairly average, but I am glad I went.

Finally ate at The Dutch (somewhere I’ve wanted to try for years) and it was perfect. Look, I have a soft spot for steak tartare and their wagyu one was phenomenal. Even the jalapeño cornbread with whipped butter that comes before the food was amazing. Although bad cornbread is hard to find. The kale Caesar wasn’t anything to write home about, but that’s okay. The service was stellar and the hostess even said, “Goodbye Ms. Heather!” on my way out, which I loved. I will definitely be back here.

I made two new recipes from Chrissy Teigen’s second cookbook: the salted maple granola and the cheesy spicy breakfast hash. Both were crazy good! Some notes: ignore the microwave instruction on the hash. And lessen the granola ingredient amounts unless you want to be eating this granola for a year (it also tastes amazing unbaked).

I returned to Augustine inside The Beekman for Restaurant Week for lunch and even though it was day 1 of having the flu, the food (that I ended up taking home) was delicious. A decent steak tartare and a roast chicken that would put all others to shame.

I was in Starbucks on my laptop recently and since I forgot my headphones, I had to listen to the Hamilton soundtrack that they had on for at least an hour. Aaaaannnndddd I feel like you know where I’m going with this. Hamilton sounds like it fucking suuuuhuuuucks. I promise I’m not just hating for the sake of hating something successful. It actually sucked hard. I can’t imagine sitting through the actual performance, good god the patience you’d have to have.

Read The War of Art upon Nathan’s insistence.

So excited for the Big Mouth Valentine’s special next week.

youtube

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vincent-marie · 7 years

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Chicken Run Review

Back when I was a kid and we got "Prince of Egypt" on VHS for Christmas, one of the bonuses on the tape was an early trailer for "Chicken Run". At the time I was a huge fan of the Wallace and Gromit shorts, and seeing the same studio working on a feature film was enough to make me want to see it.

I saw it in the theaters, and it was a very fun experience for me. I got it on VHS, and it was my favorite movie for a while. I recall I watched it so many times to a point where it annoyed the hell out of my sibling.

It not only has a very special place in my heart as something nostalgic, but it's also pretty cool looking back on Dreamworks animated films when the studio was still trying to find its niche. Before "Shrek" became such a very literal monster hit and the studio built its identity on "subverting" Disney while at the same time stealing their thunder.

"Chicken Run" was the first major project Dreamworks had released in conjunction with Aardman, and was enough of a hit that Aardman would continue making films while under the Dreamworks umbrella.

But after almost seventeen years I'm finally able to take off the nostalgia goggles and ask: Does it hold up in the long run?

I'd say… yes and no.

At first I thought since it was Aardman's first film that they might have been a little rusty at doing a feature because they had previously only done shorts and TV shows. The transition to theatrical movies can be a hell of an adjustment.

However it turns out that "Chicken Run" has a lot of very solid elements on its own merits. It just has one major weak link, and it wasn't Aardman's fault. I'll get to that later.

The overall execution of the film is effectively cinematic. Even back when Aardman was only making the "Wallace and Gromit" shorts, a lot of us forget just how much they elevated stop-motion animation from just a cute little novelty like holiday specials to something that could be like a Hitchcock film. With "Chicken Run", the music is excellent, the character animation is fantastic, the voice acting top-notch, the models, props and sets well-crafted, and the majority of the characters are quite memorable and charming. (Everybody loves Babs, she's such a sweetie.)

A few things haven't aged so well about it, though, particularly the dynamic between Mr. and Mrs. Tweedy. Due to the current awareness of the abuse of men at the hands of female partners, the old Henpecked Husband routine really isn't funny anymore. On top of that there's Mrs. Tweedy insisting that the chickens organizing is "all in [his] head", and that just has a faint stink of gaslighting.

With that said, it could be read as just how vicious and ruthless Mrs. Tweedy is as a villain. That it adds a layer of pure evil; if that's how she regards her husband, then she's an even bigger threat to the chickens.

I've heard her compared to Cruella DeVille, and that's not an invalid comparison. Though with the way her chicken pies are advertised as being something warm and down-to-earth while she is vicious and greedy at heart, it reminds me a bit more of Mom from "Futurama", except not as humorously foul-mouthed. Interestingly, she too has a habit of casually slapping her sons, though that's more effectively framed as irreverent slapstick as opposed to being dark and menacing.

There really is something pretty crazy about how Tweedy's farm is run like a prison camp. Or the fact that Mr. Tweedy comes from a long line of egg-farmers but we can safely assume they didn't have any troubles with escaping chickens.

What's more is that Mr. Tweedy is right all along about the chickens being organized. I find it interesting that if the Missus hadn't been so focused on trying to make a quick profit and telling her husband to shut up, the mass chicken escape, and the waste of money spent on the pie machine that goes up in smoke, could have been prevented. If she had just not been a greedy, abusive spouse.

Now I'm going to move on to what I believe to be the very best part of the movie, and that is our main character Ginger. I daresay she's probably a one of the most underrated female badasses in animation. She's established from the start that she's clever, she's determined, and she doesn't let all that solitary confinement in the coal bin crush her spirit. And even during those times when she is at her lowest there's always something that gives her an idea or inspiration and she gets right back up.

It's also very clear that her fellow chickens are klutzes and they don't believe in her. Her escape plans could theoretically work if she just escaped by herself without the others tripping up all the time. But she doesn't. Instead she's determined to come up with a plan that could get all of the chickens out at once. Why? Because she really does care about them enough that she wants ALL of them to be safe. She may roll her eyes at them fouling up one of the plans again, and she has every right to be frustrated with them enough to want to just leave, especially after Bunty shoots her down at one of their meetings.

But she never does. She's staying with them and seeing to it that they get out as well. Towards the end of the movie when the crate takes flight, she's not even concerned that she's not on it. She's in awe because the plan worked. They are going to be okay.

On a certain level she's always reminded me of Lisa Simpson and her own sense of kindness, justice and integrity. Except that series often framed her as being obnoxious and self-righteous and therefore needed to be taken down a peg by the end of the episode. (I love the first eight seasons of "The Simpsons", but it has its problems.)

Ginger, however, is clearly in the right for most of movie. When Rocky is coaching the phony flying lessons she seems to be the only one who sees through his BS. And save for the unconvincing romantic subplot, she doesn't take any of his smug, condescending crap.

Again, the only thing that really gets her down is the physical impossibility of getting the chickens out. And, like I said before, there's still always that spark of determination that keeps her going, that gives her new ideas, that gets her back up. Nobody can hold her down.

I have to attribute a lot of Ginger's strength as a character to the voice performance. Julia Sawalha really helped to bring out a sense of sweetness and warmth to her, but also a lot of determination and a no-nonsense attitude with just a hint of snark in response to Rocky's self-serving BS.

Not to mention her integrity kindness makes for an excellent contrast to Miranda Richardson's selfish and sinister take on Mrs. Tweedy. (Who besides me would actually like to see Miranda Richardson play Cruella DeVille?)

But now that we've gone over the strongest link, we come to the weakest one in the entire movie, and that is the very existence of Rocky the Rhode Island Red.

Really what bothers me about this character is that he gets shoehorned into the story even though he does not fit the tone of the rest of the movie. Yet he becomes a major crux of the plot, and, for some reason, winds up a love interest for Ginger.

Even when I would say "Chicken Run" was my favorite movie, I never bought the romantic chemistry Rocky and Ginger are supposedly having. Their rom-com style bickering only made it apparent that they should only be friends, and nowadays the trope of "tough girl just needs a man to get her to loosen up" really pisses me off.

What's more is the whole Pie Machine Rescue sequence feels like an unearned opportunity for Rocky to "save the girl".

Now, I actually like the Pie Machine escape. The machine itself always reminded me of the sheep-shearing contraption in "A Close Shave".

But Ginger had already proven herself to be resourceful and quick on her feet, and yet she still apparently needs a man to save her. She probably could have rescued her own damn self out of that metal leviathan.

She still sort of does. At the very least, she saves Rocky's ass in the end before he gets roasted in the oven. She even does the Indiana Jones bit of going back for her hat before the door closes.

Yet afterwards even she gives Rocky all the credit for sabotaging the machine. Sure, he shoves the carrot in the gravy dispenser and causes pressure in there, but she also sabotaged it with a literal wrench in the works. Why is she giving him all the praise? She's well within her right to claim some credit too. Apparently the film just needs to further elevate and glorify Rocky.

I will say this, though. The whole "Strong Woman Who Needs To Be Saved By A Man" trope in this case still doesn't piss me off NEARLY as much as it did with Maid Marian in "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves". In that movie it felt like it was making Marian superficially strong to make the movie look more modern and forward-thinking than it really was. Ginger, on the other hand, was already strong and well-developed in her own right and isn't just validation for Rocky's existence.

If anything, Rocky's the one who needs to be constantly propped up by the more interesting characters. He's not even very fun or interesting on his own. He is, as a friend and I have dubbed, generically cocky. He's no cheerful rogue with a heart of gold like Disney's take on Robin Hood, he's no girl-crazy, ego-driven goofball like Lupin III; he is, at best, a loose idea for a character that needs a lot more work done before the final draft of the script.

I think part of the problem may have been the casting. Not that Mel Gibson's voice acting for the character is necessarily bad, but with the way the character was written one would need a real force of personality to elevate him to an entertaining level of sleazy and egotistic.

During a streaming of the movie someone suggested that the late Phil Hartman would have been a far better casting choice, and we in the chat unanimously agreed. Yet another reason it's a crime against the natural order that we lost Phil Hartman when we did.

And there is an a very real behind-the-scenes reason for why Rocky feels so half-assed as a character compared to the rest of the film.

The short version is that while "Chicken Run" was in production, Dreamworks decided to stick their hands in the pot and Americanize it.

They introduced an American breed of chicken, played by a big name movie star who could pull off an American accent, and he even flies into the movie wearing an American flag cape.

The minute he makes his entrance the whole story becomes the tired "Liar Revealed" plot line that's been used in several lame-at-worst/passable-at-best US family features. "A Bug's Life", "Oz, The Great and Powerful", "Road to El Dorado", need I go on?

Why is that? Why has that story kept popping up in hackneyed mainstream American screenplays?

Might it be because of a subconscious social anxiety that most Americans in power keep getting rewarded and showered with praise in spite of not doing a day's work in their lives? And they're secretly afraid that they're going to be exposed as the undeserved, over-privileged phonies they really are?

Nah! That can't possibly be it.

Anyway, in the grand scheme of the plot, Rocky is ultimately useless. There's a well-known criticism of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" that Indiana Jones himself makes little to no real impact on the plot, and if he hadn't intervened, the Nazis would have still found the treasure, and still gotten their faces melted off.

Rocky is kind of like that, except he's not just a useless spectator. His whole part in the movie takes a huge chomp out of the screen time with other characters expecting great things of him, all amounting to nothing in the end, save for an narratively convenient last-minute rescue. (Which could have been avoided if he hadn't just outright ditched the chickens like the jerk that he is.)

Though, I do have to give that scene some credit: Mrs. Tweedy being thwarted by "Tricycle to the Head" is kind of funny.

Also in the scene when it's revealed Rocky could only fly because of a circus cannon, the overall execution is actually very good. There has no dialogue, just suspense. The audience doesn't see what Ginger sees when she unfolds the paper, but the look on her face indicates it's something big and not good. We don't get to see it until Ginger puts up the second half of the poster, and the revelation drops like a bomb as the thunder crashes above. The music, the camera work, the use of rain all makes for a very dramatic revelation.

I find it interesting that the one good thing to come out of the plot culdesac with Rocky is when he has already left the farm.

But not long afterwards Ginger comes up with the idea to build a flying contraption. She doesn't come up with it based on anything Rocky said, did or left behind. She's inspired by Fowler's stories of the Royal Air Force, which he had been going on about since the very start of the movie. She very well might have come up with the idea even if Rocky never flew into the coop.

While watching this movie during the streaming session, my friend who hosted it, Devon Baxter, theorized that a better story would have been if there was somewhat of an underdog theme going on with Fowler. That he could have just been seen as a joke to the other chickens but Ginger sees some value to his stories and get the idea from him to build the crate.

And now that I think of it, Mac, with her convoluted contraptions, could have also been an underdog with the way the other chickens fearfully cringed after her little catapult demonstration. Maybe like how they see Fowler as a crazy old coot, they could have seen Mac as a nut who "is gonna get us all killed".

Both Fowler and Mac could have been characters who weren't taken seriously by the others, while Ginger would be the one to see their value and encourage them to do this ambitious project of making a crate and flying them all to safety.

One can only speculate what the story could have been like if Dreamworks had just kept their mits off the story.

But with all that said, this is still a pretty good movie for Aardman's first feature film. And if this hadn't been a success, they wouldn't have been able to make the far superior "Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit".

I'm always going to love this movie for its stronger elements. You really don't come across surprisingly well-written female characters like Ginger in mainstream movies very often. And I applaud Aardman for being one of the few studios left who haven't caved in to doing all CG animated films the way Disney has.

#chicken run #dreamworks #aardman #animation #movie review

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deeranger · 7 years

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I was tagged by the lovely @l-p-r-o-c-k - thank you dear and sorry for being late at replying! 💋

Nickname: I don't really have any nicknames, sadly. Other than D/Dee I guess or probably "weirdo" or "perv" or something like that. LOL. Damn it, I need a cool nickname! Any suggestions?

Star sign: Cancer (only 12 minutes away from being Leo though)

Height: 169 cm which equals 5ft 6½

Time Right Now: 6:20pm

Favorite musical artist: I can't choose just 1!? Errr.... I can try to narrow it down maybe, but it's hard! Mm, my list would include Lush, CKY, Árstíðir, Massive Attack, Byrta, Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Eivør, TÝR

Song stuck in your head: Currently the song "Going Home" by Marius Ziska is repeating itself in my head...

Last movie watched: "Allegiant" - or part of it... I kinda got distracted somehow and ended up in front of my computer. SURPRISE!

Last Tv show watched: "Futurama", I love that shit.

What are you wearing right now: An awfully girly coral pink-ish top with fabric roses sown on to it and with purdy crocheted details... and black denim shorts. What the fuck has happened to me!?

When did you create your blog: I'm actually not sure, but my first post seems to be from January 6th 2015.... Holy crap, has 2½ years already passed????? But... how?

What kind of stuff do you post: Loads of Cherik & McFassy and James McAvoy.... that be fics, fanart, GIFs and the like. Also some random stuff like this questionnaire.

Do you have any other blogs: Nope! I'm monogamous blogger.... errrrr....

Do you get Asks regularly: *Sigh*.... Oh god, I wish I did. *Sniffle*

Why did you choose your URL: Because I thought it sounded kinda cool and I DO post kinda deranged stuff... and my English nickname would be D/Dee, so I was basically just trying to be clever with it. Deeranger.... Get it? No? Okay, nevermind. *Blush*

Gender: Female, but my mind often feels like it's male.

Hogwarts House: None, because I don't fancy Harry Potter. But I'd probabaly be in whatever the "evil" house is called.

Pokémon Team: No. Just... No. Unless there's a team where they're all brutally massacred and sacrificed to some malicious deity so I never have to look at them again or hear their annoying noises. *Wipes nose aggressively and snorts*.

Favorite color: Purple. Definitely purple. It's puuuurdy!

Average hours of sleep: Depends. If I'm being responsible and muster up all of the common sense buried somewhere deep inside my soul I can get it down to around 8-10 hours a night. If I have been drinking or otherwise wearing myself out, then I can sleep 15 hours straight. Yeah. I like sleeping. Too much. Lucky number: 7. I just like the sound and shape of it. And it somehow feels good.

Favorite characters: Charles Xavier, Erik Lehnsherr, Bruce Robertson, Brandon Sullivan.

How many blankets do you sleep with: 1 during this time of year (summer). A thin, pink one! WTF.

Dream job: Journalist/documentarist or professor (linguistics) or doctor.

Following: 114 lovely people. Thanks for posting awesome stuff.

I will here by tag: @fa-nfiction and @a1kitkat and @timelosser and @apocherik

#questionnaire #personal

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glowyjellyfish · 7 years

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Random thoughts about the next few episodes of Star Trek TNG that I watched:

-Data and Geordi cosplaying/roleplaying Holmes and Watson was amazing

-they reminded me very strongly of Troy and Abed in that episode, and according to Mark Watches comments and a tumblr that was linked, I'm not the only one. Hooray!

-I was kind of disappointed that the episode wasn't just about Data blowing Pulaski's argument out of the water, and was actually shocked that the sentient holodeck Moriarty was like... not evil? He just attained consciousness (because a program had to achieve consciousness in order to challenge Data, and the holodeck computer is magic) and wanted to continue living and understand things! I think Futurama may have misled me; that or he comes back and is evil later. (...I expect he will come back, I don't know what to expect about his alignment) On that point, I am tickled that a program had to attain sentience in order to be a proper match for Data, because duh Pulaski, that is what makes Data a living being, stop casting aspersions on whether he has a soul, you're a doctor, not a priest.

-As the above mini-rant makes obvious, I still kinda loathe Pulaski and wish I didn't but.. god, she is just terrible. I'd like to appreciate that an older woman is a main character who gets to wear fancy costumes and get charmed by Holo-Moriarty, but she is not allowed to call Data a machine and tell him he doesn't have a soul and then go on holodeck adventures in a cool costume and eat crumpets. NO. I would guess that she was an attempt to create a Bones-Spock dynamic, but I think the heart of why it fails is that Spock was not bothered when anybody drew attention to his Vulcan attributes, much less a close colleague who we saw shared mutual respect, and they cheerfully traded barbs and mockery with each other indiscriminately. Meanwhile, we spent a season getting to know Data as sweet and earnest and basically just the best, Pulaski attacks the one thing he is constantly striving to achieve and/or improve in a way that smacks strongly of bigotry, and shows little respect for him, and Data does not retaliate because that is not who he is. On top of that, Pulaski replaced another amazing character who had just begun to have some great development and UST and the like. It's like they wanted everyone to despise her.

-I swear to god, that Fake Han Solo guy flirted with Data. And Worf. ...I'm probably just seeing a gay mirage oasis in the desert, because I am used to shows at least having an almost-married bromance (cough cough McShep), if not actual gay people, but I also don't think the Star Trek future utopia Enterprise would have cared if he was, so I choose to believe it. :P

Geordi: have you noticed Data has been acting a little insecure lately?

Me: what, really? It couldn't have anything to do with the new crewmember who disrespects his sentience every time they're in a room together?

Me: okay, but star trek is probably not having that as a real plot, right?

Star Trek: not exactly, but proceeds to have a plot involving Data and consciousness, including several conversations about what he can experience and what he misses out on and that he deserves respect as a living being.

Me: ...okay, but that wasn't, like, on purpose, right? They aren't going to address the Dr. Pulaski situation or talk about how she is causing Data stress/insecurity, right? Because the writers seem to feel that it's just bantering and don't recognize it as bigotry because it was the 80s?

...omg I actually don't know what to expect from this, I seem to keep setting my expectations too low. It couldn’t be a real arc, right? Because that’s interpersonal conflict and that wasn’t allowed?

...are there at least fanfics for this?

ETA: I forgot to mention, I loved the random Vulcan doctor that appeared. Could we have gotten more of her instead?

ETA2: Personally, the conversation Data had with the Creepy Misogynist Asshole Grandpa felt much better and more interesting than any time Pulaski has talked to him. Because this was an actual conversation. There was give and take, and they asked questions of each other. He could discuss and criticize Data’s construction, but Data seemed more cautiously curious than anything else. CMAG was a little dismissive of Data, but most of his disrespect was not to Data’s face. While Pulaski just drops “oh, you’re just a machine, you don’t have a soul” bombs into what should be regular conversation, and it’s not exactly a topic that she is an authority on, or one that invites discussion. Bring back Dr. Crusher ASAP.

And did I mention this week that Brent Spiner is amazing? Because that. In less than two seasons, he’s played two utterly distinct creepy versions of the character he plays every day. Two characters with very different personalities who are creepy in entirely different ways, who are both trying to pass themselves off as Data, and all three believable and unique. Bravo.

Also, I didn’t have much to say about the Riva episode, although overall I think it was good; it didn’t strike my fancy very much, but I liked what it was saying by the end. Knowing that it was written by and starred a deaf man makes it even better.

#star trek #star trek tng

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robdwebster · 7 years

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Stuff of the year, 2016

Y’alright peeps. Don’t mind me, just shitting out a thing.

Game of the year: 01. Pokémon Sun & Moon 02. Stardew Valley 03. Pokémon Go

A rather threadbare year for games I was actually interested in, but I never really noticed because the Pokémon train just kept rolling. Pokémon Sun & Moon are comfortably the best-designed and most creatively fertile games in the series, and it feels absolutely berserk that this 20 year old franchise, this silly little monster-catching game that people told me I’d have grown out of by the age of ten, is continuing to snowball.

Side note: I’m looking at the release schedule for 2017 right now, and between... (big gasp) Mass Effect, Splatoon, Zelda, Cuphead, Thimbleweed Park, Ever Oasis, Lady Layton, Sonic Mania, Fire Emblem Heroes and Yooka-Laylee (...!) I may never have to leave the house.

Other games I liked: BoxBoxBoy!, Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, Pokkén Tournament, ReCore

TV show of the year: 01. Orange is the New Black 02. Taskmaster 03. Stranger Things

Orange is the New Black kicked it out of the park this year. It’s always been very solid television, but each series had been a little weaker than the last up until 2016, where it whipped up a perfect storm. The amazing, loathsome villain in C.O. Piscatella did well to kerb the show’s increasing cosiness, and I have never known a show that empathises so well with villains without forgiving their actions or playing down the horror. A new high.

Meanwhile, Taskmaster has very quietly become the most reliably hilarious show on television, and treated us to not one but two full-length series. It’s not just that Taskmaster is reliably funny, it’s that it makes me laugh until I hurt a little bit. The silliest and best show on UK television.

Other shows I liked: BoJack Horseman, Black Mirror, Dave Gorman’s Modern Life is Good-ish, Designated Survivor, Dragon’s Den, Penny Dreadful, Robot Wars, Siblings, The Apprentice, The O.A.

Album of the year: 01. Frost* - Falling Satellites 02. The Heavy - Hurt & the Merciless 03. Dream Theater - The Astonishing

A very ambitious but very flawed offering from Dream Theater this year made space for two smaller artists to take the top spots. I’ve been flapping on about Frost* for the best part of ten years, now, and although Falling Satellites is a little more conventionally “prog” than I was expecting, there’s still plenty of that defiant spirit, they’re continuing to rail against the clichés of the genre. Or maybe it’s just that Jem Godfrey’s talent for writing memorable, infectious and crucially modern songs is irrepressible - Numbers, Towerblock and Lantern are personal favourites.

The Heavy came to my attention more recently, and while Hurt & the Merciless doesn’t rip up their rulebook it did produce a couple of their very catchiest songs ever. What Happened to the Love? was my most-listened track of the year, according to Last.FM. It may never leave my head.

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Other albums I liked: Errrr...

Film of the year: 01. Your Name 02. 10 Cloverfield Lane 03. Deadpool

I cried. Not even embarrassed. Your Name is gorgeous, and works best if you know as little about it as possible. It’s a body-swapping fantasy film, and it’s mesmerising. I gather it’s only just opening in the U.S. in 2017 - you are in for a treat.

10 Cloverfield Lane was a brilliant film in its own right, and if tying it in with the Cloverfield universe was what it took to put my bum on that seat, fine. Besides which, I rather like the idea of sequels that aren’t sequels. I hate the idea that each film in a series needs to compete with its daddy’s shadow, so I think it’s quite neat that 10 Cloverfield Lane was an altogether different beast.

Other films I liked: Dr. Strange, Fantastic Beasts..., Finding Dory, Money Monster, Star Trek Beyond, The Jungle Book

Late discovery of the year: 01. Spirited Away (film) 02. Rick & Morty (TV) 03. Undertale (game)

Rick & Morty was the more immediately satisfying of the three. I love the loose, improvisational feel, and the focus on quantity over quality means I am not at all concerned about it exhausting itself the same way The Simpsons, Futurama and Family Guy all eventually did (some sooner than others) - but we’ll see how it goes.

Undertale didn’t quite catch my imagination in quite the same way it did many others, but I love how much it makes the interface part of the story by revealing characters through its bullet-hell elements, and how playing as a pacifist isn’t boring - it doesn’t cheat you out of any gameplay. Smartly written.

Spirited Away was a funny one, because I didn’t immediately adore it. I enjoyed the film when I watched it, went away and thought, “Okay, that’s about a 7/10, 8/10,” but it just sort of... played on my mind. There’s something very special and haunting about it that goes far beyond the story itself - the world ensnared me. It stole my heart, a little bit, in a low-key way that’s very rare. I love it dearly.

#pokemon sun and moon #orange is the new black #taskmaster #frost*#the heavy #your name #10 cloverfield lane #rick & morty #undertale #spirited away

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Mission Hill Review: Plan 9 From Mission Hill or I Married a Gay Man From Outer Space!

Commission for @weirdkev27. Hallowen Havoc marches on! For my first commission ever, I take a look at the cult classic mission hill’s final produced episode and one of it’s most loved. Kevin’s visit to an x rated movie pays off less with boobs and more with a friendship with his elderly gay neighbor and film buff wally and a new appreciation for cinema, only for this new friendship to nearly end over Kevin’s good natured attempt to spotlight Wally’s only film, the man from pluto. Gay spaceman, a touching gay love story, and a surprisingly likeable guy with a neckbeard insue. Spoilers and full recap FROM PLUTO, under the cut.

Well this was a nice suprise. After the utterly draining process of my review of “Let’s Get Dangerous”, it was a nice suprise to find out one of my handful of fans had tried to comission me a while back and I hadn’t realized it, and I was happy to oblige him. I was even happier when I found out what his commission was: Plan 9 From Mission HIll, an episode i’d planned to cover for pride but got squeezed out due to how little i’d planned the month out in advance, a lesson I still REALLY need to learn. Regardless not only was it a nice, funny, and heartwarming ep to cover after the sheer amount of analysis and recapping the last one took, I realized it ended up fitting the spooky season, as there’s just as much fun to be had in truly fantastic horror movies like “Nightmare on Elm Street”, “Get Out”, “Child’s Play”, “Tales from the Hood” and “The Thing” as there is from so bad it’s great horror films like “House (The Japanese one), C.H.U.D. II: Bud The Chud, Terror Toons and House Shark. Seriously watch House Shark i’ts hilarious. Hell I fully plan on watching the Gary Busey film Hider in the House tomorrow. I mean it’s a film about hollywood’s favorite nutball living in the walls and attic of someone’s house. What’s not to love? Maybe it might be entirely boring but that’s the risk you sometimes take to find so bad it’s gold filmaking. Plus cheeestastic films like these are the reason we have the classsic and incomprable mystery science theater 3000 and it’s succesor rifftrax. So while I need to watch more of them, I have a spot in my likely overtaxed heart for this kind of film, and as a result this episode resonated with me on rewatch in a way it didn’t the first time around, even if it was still my faviorite.

Backing up a bit as usual I like to give my history with a show first time covering it: Mission HIll was one of a handful of shows picked up by Adult Swim in it’s early days. Since most of Adult Swim’s early originals were 11 minutes at a time when this was still a new and radical thing they were doing having 11 minute shows that weren’t sold as half hour pairs of 11 minute episodes, they likely needed more shows to fill up the air and clevelry simply bought the rights to several shows that had only had one season, along with Family Guy and Futurama which as history would bear out both made the shows into huge names in the animation industry but brought both back.. though in Family Guy’s case sometimes dead is better. Point is, several shows got a second life thanks to Cartoon Network if sadly not more seasons, with the sole exception of the utter classic Home Movies which I really need to talk about at some point, and thus are really more associated with Adult Swim than their original networks. Hell before doing this review I genuinely didn’t know what Mission HIll’s original networks. But now you know the framework this show came out in what IS Mission Hill anyway?

MIssion Hill was a cartoon from the wonderful brains of Bill Oakely and Josh Weinstein, no relation to the MST3K one who due to this confusion now goes by J. Elvis Weinstein instead, who showran the simpsons and did some great episodes, my faviorte of there’s being $pringfield, aka the casino one.

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The show was about Andy, a 24 year old slacker whose happily lazing about after college in his loft with his friends Jim, a stoic but friendly stoner played by Brian Posehn, and Posey, a sensitive hippie. However when he goes to pickup his childhood dog he ends up with an unexpected roomate: His nerdy, sheltered and neurotic brother Kevin, who has a love of sci fi, a type a personality and a habit of going bling blong to focus when studying or just whenever. He’s also voiced by future robin and future psychopath claming to be robin Scott Mellinville. Also in the building are Carlos and Natalie, an unemployed artist and college professor and their baby Nameless. I forgot they existed. And of course saving the best for last we have the brother’s neighbors, and a very early gay couple for animated television Wally and Gus, played by the legendary Tom Kenny and Nick Jameson who hasn’t done much of note but does a great job anyway. Wally is a fastudious, Gus is angry and very brooklyn, but the two genuinely love each other, makeout frequently, with their first showing off the two as a gay couple, and are an adorable but very beliviable couple. It’s part of WHY I wanted to spotlight them. The late 90′s/early 2000′s, the show originally aired in 99 and into 2000 and aired on adult swim in the early 2000 for the curious, were not a great time to be gay in animation with most gay characters used as punchlines and hardly any queer stories. Not only that but just a year earlier will and grace had to have one overly camp chracter and one “regular” gay character in order to get made. Granted that show has it’s issues but still, the point stands having a gay couple that plays fairly realistically, is shown to both be sexually active and love each other and who’ve been together for decades was a hell of a step for a medium where Family Guy around the same time had a joke with the punchline “Whoa transvestite back off!” Granted Family Guy would do far worse to both the gay and trans communities, but we’ll get to that someday. Or sooner if you commission me, but I swear if you do I will pull a gary busey on your house. Point is not only is it INCREIDBLY forward for it’s time but it holds up even now. There’s a reason the creators are working on a spinoff/revivial focused on the two and a reason these two tend to be one of the most talked about elements of the show. That and frankly their hilarious having realistic banter.. and also having one episode where Gus has a knife in his head for a whole episode. It helps that this episode, their spotlight one and the last one produced, is also one fo the series best. So with all that build up let’s take a look shall we?

We open with Kevin passing a theater showing x rated movies and are shown, over a bunch of times of him passing it him condeming it publicly but his tone clearly telegraphing the classic battle between a teenage boy and his dick. Dick wins and Kevin heads inside and gives us... this.

.... If you will excuse me, please enjoy the musical stylings of the late great Zorak while I go shower the “EeEEEEEEUUUUGGggggggHHHhhuuuuuuggghhhhhhhhewwwwuuuuugggghhhhggooooodddddddwwwyyyyyy” off me.

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God rest his soul. Okay i’m good now. Thankfully this isn’t an episode about Kevin getting addicted to x-rated theater, and they already did an episode about him masturbating. No really it actually had a good message as Kevin was so embarassed about the incident, he nearly let two other guys, granted not remotley good people who were stealing from there anyway, take the fall. Andy even ends up giving a great speech coming to his defense

“People, you mock this boy, but it's your fault he's here today. Your hypocrisy has made this boy a prisoner, terrified of his own sexuality. So much so that he'd rather send two relatively-innocent men to prison than admit he looks at pornography! He thinks his natural urges are filthy and perverted, and why? Because of your conspiracy of silence! Nobody dares admit the truth - that you're all just like him!”

IT’s a damn good moment and a good message. That sadly is still relevant as America still views sex as worse than violence for some weird reason. At least he has the internet now. Anywho when Kevin goes to see what’s up he runs into Wally who explains the confusion: He’s just showing old “X-Rated films”. Now some of you are probably wondering “Wait non-porn films used to use that?” Or “Wait what’s an x-rating?” Well while I knew some films did used to do that I was honestly curious myself as to why it was retired and why porn films got to use it and took a quick hop to google to find out reading both the wikipedia article for the rating and this vulture article on the subject to get a slightly deeper look at it.

It’s actually quite intresting as I genuinelly also didn’t know when the MPAA ratings started for films: When the rating’s board started in 1968 there were four raitings: G, GP (Later flipped to PG), R and X. X was the modern equivlent of today’s R really, and films like Last Tango in Paris, Midnight Cowboy and a Clockwork Orange, with Orange even having a poster up at the cinema in this episode and Midnight Cowboy being part of the plot very soon. We’ll get to that in the moment. Point is it allowed filmakers to push the envelope break barriers all that good stuff and makes me curious about those very films, which is a good thing as i’ll admit to not being exactly a film buff. But as Kevin’s confusion here shows, eventually the porn industry took a hold of it, using the X as a way to get sex movies into regular cinemas and have an air of legitimacy, hence why Debbie Does Dallas was a mainstream hit.. and yes that’s an actual film that I only know about thanks to I Love the 70′s. If your wondering why the MPAA just couldn’t you know, tell them to know or why they didn’t take over other ratings it turns out for some weird reason why the G and R ratings were owned by them, and later PG , they forgot to trademark X and by the time they even thought of it it was too late. Hence terms like XXX rated and what not or the ungodly stupid XXX porn parodies. Just.. just give them actual names and slap “A porn parody” ont he end if you want to avoid a lawsuit. Naturally the film industry struck back and X soon went from a way to have daring, interesting films.. to basically a threat by the MPAA that your film wouldn’t be carried by any major distributors if it had one, with Dawn of the Dead having to just go unrated just to get distributed. The 80′s brought the killing stroke: With the rise of big theater chains, mall theaters with restrictions I wasn’t aware of, and big home video outlets like blockbuster that didn’t carry porn, the x rating was well and truly dead and the MPAA lukewarmly added NC-17 which serves the same bullshit purpose as theaters still refuse to carry them and the MPAA still uses it for essenitally the same reason. Nothing changed! If your wondering why people sometimes have problems with the MPAA, yeah there’s your answer, as they could’ve campaigned harder for NC-17 but clearly enjoyed having a raiting to hold over films heads.

So yeah if you don’t know, know you know bud, let’s move on. So yeah Wally explains the confusion and decides to educate Kevin on film by showing him Midnight Cowboy, with John Voight “Before his head looked like a radish” and Dustin Hoffman. Also Andy brings up Sphere.. a film I also know nothing about. Hang on... checking Letterboxd and okay. It’s a Dustin Hoffman starring Sci-Fi film about a research team investigating a mysterious sphere at the bottom of the sea. Huh.. I prefer Cube myself but to each his own. But once Kevin clams up he really enjoys it. Will grant the episode lays it on a tad thick, with Kevin comparing the film to , of all things, Armageddon. I mean I get MIcheal Bay is a good metric for crowd pleasing schlock but still, even nerds have standards. My standards aren’t very high at times mind as I still want to watch this sometime today.

But I still think even awkward teens have better standards. Then again one of my faviorite films at the time was Saving Silverman which while I can’t hate it due to nostalgia , having watched it from 5th grade well into my teens, I can see was not very good. Though it did have R. Lee Ermy being both really funny and turning out to be gay so that was awesome.

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And he does make a good point that heroes like Ratzzo Rizzo don’t go well on Taco Bell cups.. though it also feels weird to me in 2020 where while not big sellers films with deep stories and unlikeable heroes are some of the biggest on tv and one of them was one of the greatest animated series of the last decade, so things must’ve been pretty damn bleak in 1999. The two also run into Gus who wants dinner and a fight ensues between the couple about the fact Gus owns a restraunt, could just bring his lunch etc. It’s hilarious and as I said I like how they feel like a couple you’d meet in real life. Sadly I don’t have an elderly gay couple in my neighborhood but here’s hoping. Or maybe i’ll be the neighborhoods wally when I grow up who knows. Also Tom Kenny’s delivery is great.

Kevin later relays his fun day to his loftmates, with Andy expressing genuine suprise at Wally’s job and love of art house cinema, as none of them knew what he actually did. Andy’s genuinely shocked and mildly appalled they’ve lived near Wally for so long but having no idea what he does.. but really I had a sweet old lady, Delores who lived next to me for almost my entire life before she moved to be closer to her family, visited her house frequently pet her cats, went to her house after school at one point.. and I cannot tell you what he did, so it’s incredibly relatable. However in a scene that’s both hilarious but also really, really sweet, the three relate that they do know him well and due to being neighbors after all and know Gus and Wally’s morning routine: They wake up at 8, Wally brews the Coffee, Gus reads him the funnies, then they shower together while singing college fight songs, and then, with Jim saying this part so picture it in Brian Posehn’s voice please you won’t regret it, argue or have gay sex and then it’s off to work. It’s really sweet, both in showing off their well worn dynamic with each other, and the fact that the loftmates really DO know these two even if they dont’ know everything and they are close in their own way. Kevin can only give out a “Hm” in response... which is probably the closest he can get to saying touche without breaking into nerdy giggles.

Cue the good times montage as Wally introduces Kevin to Ingmar Bergman, who I have heard of even if i’ve never seen any of them, and some director I never heard of who made old timey comedies apparently. IT’s a really nice sequence. Kevin also shows 2001: A Space Oddesy to his friends, who are bored to tears by it while Kevin’s enraptured. Which I would say was another heavy-handed swipe at late 90′s cinema but being a teen myself who had mostly watched things like Star Wars, I did not gel with 2001 and need to rematch it at some point, so I totally relate to his friends utter boredom and confusion with it given it’s rep. It’s a visually stunning film. I will however stand by not liking Star Trek: The Motion Picture, as that film TRIES to be 2001 but is instead just really, REALLY boring.

But naturally things can be entirely good natured bonding between an elderly gay man and , as Wally puts it in the best line of the episode “The son god never wanted me to have”, as Kevin notices a film coming up that Wally apparently made, and looks to star gus. Wally panics and shoos his young protégé away... which yeah he could’ve just you know told him he doesn’t like the film or anything else and prevented this episode but then we wouldn’t of seen the gay equilvent of plan 9 from outer space so fair enough.

At the Gus’ Diner, the loftmates and their neighbors I mentioned earlier look over the poster, and we find out from Gus that that is him, and he starred in a movie.. and naturally Wally explained never showing it to his husband in the simplest way possible: By claming a shark ate it. You know while I watched the show I didn’t quite get it when I was younger and it’s probably why it took me decades to revisit it.. but I wish I had sooner this show is REALLY damn funny and i’m really looking forward to that spinoff with Wally and Gus.

Wally continues to dodge Kevin, so Kevin, trying to find info about the film and it being lost, goes to the video store.. back when those existed. Something I have to give the show is honestly the use of vhs, visits to video stores, and the movies Kevin mentions are the only things that really date this film. While swapping another Dustin Hoffman film in proved impossible, it is plausible Kevin would see it streaming somewhere. and it’s easy enough to swap Armageddon for Rise of Skywalker given that film’s just as good.. Last Jedi was excellent though. Point is this story REALLY holds up, which is the sign of a good story: where even if some elements are stamped to the time, the story itself could easily be told again with few changes. It’s also why i’m not AGAINST Reboots, as my coverage of ducktales makes obvious: As long as stories can still be told or you can retell a story in a unique and intresting way, it’s fine to reuse something. I do think hollywood overdoes it, but I’ve never thought there was genuine harm in it or reviving old franchises. It’s all in how you do it. But yeah while the local video store dosen’t help at all, Andy happens to know just the man for the job, though Jim and Posey nope out of going with them. Also something to note is the series animation: It’s animated like an old 30′s cartoon or a comic strip, modernized a bit in color and realisim, but still having comic strip stuff like shaking head lines, heat lines coming off coffee that sort of thing. I really love it.

Anyways the brothers head off to a funky out of the way video store, I wish there were more hole in the wall used media stores where I lived. We mostly have chains like Vintage Stock and Half-Priced Books, though I genuinely love both of those stores and VIntage Stock is the modern equilvent of places like blockbuster honestly. Anyway after Beardo confuses Kevin for an Employee kevin asks him about the man from pluto which Beardo reveals he knows about but is very rare and has few prints. I like Beardo.. he’s a neckbeard who seems more liable to complain abotu some reboot on the fact their rebooting it again rather than “gasp” women are involved. I prefer my neckbeards just a tad pretentious rather than you know, sexist, homophobic, deranged assholes with nothing better to do. I mean i’m still living at home and didn’t get out much before the pandemic either but you dont’ see me bitching every time a franchise gets a female lead.

Anyway, Kevin is inspired by that and with help from everyone gets the word out about the film. As you’d expect though this can’t end well, as Wally tries avoiding the premire entirely (And we get a great bit where Jim happens to see him trying to flee down the fire escape and Wally’s expression is priceless)

Huh.. I bet that’s what Rob Reiner when North had it’s premire. As you can probably guess the showing dosen’t go well: The film itself is a hilarious combination of the day the earth stood still (the general plot as we’ll find out more in a second) and Plan 9 From Outer Space (A cheestatic no budget film with a hulking man brute who can’t act as the lead), and in catching the feel of a b-movie it’s utterly perfectly done. This film would go perfect on MST3K and the audience’s howls of laughter agrees with me.

Wally however is utterly humiliated and doesn’t want to speak to Kevin which.. yeah is about the only issue I have with an otherwise marvelous episode. While I get Wally’s humiliation was Kevin’s fault.. Kevin GENUINELY meant well. While Kevin is book smart at his core he’s a dumb kid who didn’t know any better and didn’t realize Wally hated his film and it’s Wally’s own damn fault for not telling him. Sure Kevin should’ve picked up the hint, but given the kid is oblivious and didn’t even know what an x raiting is it’s clear he’s not the sharpest crayon in the box when it comes to life experince. Wally had every opportunity to just explain his story but didn’t. And I put most of the blame on Wally when he’s you know, the adult. He’s a 60 or so year old man. He should know better. But it really doesn’t take away from the episode entirely. But the loftmates clearly love the film and are quoting bits from it, with jim having a fishbowl on his head, when they run into Wally, though Wally is fine with them admitting it’s crap and he knows it is. We then get what REALLY makes the episode and really makes me primed for a spinoff: Wally and Gus’ backstory, which also makes it obvious the crew was probably going to use the two more had the series got another season.

Anyways it was the 50′s, Archie Andrews was an average teen and not shredded both in muscle and by a bear that one time, Fonzie was out and about and eyying, and Wally was a first unit director given a shot as the studio asked him for a script having utter faith in him. HIs script was a day the earth stood still esque parable on the Cold War.. until he met Gus who, naturally for Gus, was outrunning a ton of police having stumbled on set and likely defeated them all bare handed because Gus is as incredible as the hulk and likely also comes back through a glowing green door when he dies. So Wally made the tragic mistake of mixing his love life with his career, and lost both Kurt Douglas, who he bumped down from lead for Gus, and Charleton Hesston who just walked off and they got a dinkier stage and worse actors as a result. The resulting film ended Wally’s career but he was able to sell the rights to cinemas to make enough for them to start over in mission hill and buy the diner.. and at least they had each other. It’s a really great story that explains why it upsets Wally so much: This was his baby and while he dosen’t even for one second regret meeting gus or the life they’ve had, he regrets that his one film was a total trainwreck and goes off to the theater to mope as he plays his film for laughing crowds, as it was naturally held over. I mean when you get the next plan 9 from outer space, this was a bit before the room mind you, you hold onto that shit.

Kevin, who heard the whole thing, goes to mope by watching what is likely a MIcheal Bay film, who was a target even then folks. Oh you poor poor fools you knew not how much worse it could get... i.e. robot testicles. Just.. robot testicles. And their MAKING A DELUXE MOVIE DEVISTATOR. Why. Just.. why who wanted this after that scene. He’s sworn off good movies as he feels he no longer deserves them. Andy however bluntly tells him to cut the pity party, while he’s moping his friend really needs him and when you love somebody, you put your pants on for them. When you love somebody you see it to the end, when you love somebody the conclusions forgone when you love somebody you put your big boy pants right onnnnn! ... I’ll put the song at the end. Point is Kevin goes to help his friend, and as Wally is moping in the projection booth and wonders what he was thinking Kevin tells him the obvious truth: He was thinking of how far he’d go. “You taught me the best films are personal stories.. and this film is your valentine to Gus” While Wally starts to break a little, he does point out it doesn’t make it good.. but Kevin rightly counters that he’s not so sure of it. Wally sees the audience enjoying the film and goes down, with all of them carrying red light bulbs like the one gus has to show when he’s mad in the film. And Wally finally realizes waht I got to in the beginning: It doesn’t matter if a film’s good or bad, what matters is someone enjoys it. A film can be utterly terrible, and still be good. It can be a mess and still have merit. And Wally finally realizes it doesn’t matter if it’s the film he wanted, it’s the film he made for his future husband, it’s a film that brings laughter and sticks in people’s heads and really brings them a godo time. It’s a film worth remembering and Wally finally accepts that and his film as his own. Later that night Kevin and Wally exit the theater, with Wally no longer mad at him and the two still friends or as Wally puts it in the second best line of the episode “As close as an elderly gay man and a straight boy can be” Awwww. The two depart and we get a touching final scene as Wally comes home and finds a bottle of wine and a note from gus saying he has a suprise for him> Turns out Gus put on his old space helmet.. but fell asleep in it. So we get a really nice tender moment as Gus takes the helmet off, smooches his husband on his bald head and smiles brightly as the episode ends.

Final Thoughts on The Man From Pluto or I Married a Gay Man From Outer Space: Before you ask each episode had two titles for funzies, the first one to get past the censors and the second for fun and likely what they would’ve gone with if they could. As for this episode.. it’s spectacular. It holds up well even 20 years later, it’s touching, sweet and really damn funny and makes me want to rewatch the show as a whole again. I highly recommend seeking it out and hope mission hill is eventually made officially available somewhere. Till then you can find the whole series including this episode on YouTube and despite being the last one you could easily watch this one first if you want and it’s a decent enough intro to the show as a whole. I highly recommend it, an utter pleasure to watch. If you liked this review, you can comission your own by PMing me on this very blog, just mention you want to do a comission and we can talk it out. As this review proves, it dosen’t have to be a show i’ve done before or even one that’s remotely recent. Hell i’d gladly do Fonz and The Happy Days gang, the animated happy days spinoff that’s like dr. who but with the Fonz. Yes really. Whatever you want i’ll do it as long as it’s not porn for just 5 bucks an episode and 10 for a movie. YOu can also join my patreon, and for 2 dollars a month get acess to my discord (that i’ll start once I get patreons) and once I get enough patreons exclusive polls or 10 bucks for all of that and a review of your choice each month. You can find said patreon right here. And even 1 buck a month would be apricated if you can spare it and if not simply reblog this and share it around. You can also follow this blog for weekly ducktales, loud house and amphibia coverage as they come out. I’d also personally thank WeirdKev27 for both being a long time fan of this blog and for the comission.

Until we meet again say safe, wear a mask, check your atttic for Gary Busey and happy Halloween! Play us out Mr Heere!

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amorremanet · 7 years

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11, 14 & 17? ^.^

asks for fanfic writers.

I did 17 over here, but!

11. do you listen to music when writing?

Sometimes, yes! It sort of depends on what I’m writing and what kind of mood I’m in, but I pretty much always listen to something. It’s more just a matter of whether I’m going to listen to music or TV/movies.

And then in each case, there’s the issue of like, “do I want to listen to the Twilight Princess OST or the Silent Hill 2 OST?” (because video game OSTs are great at both evoking mood and increasing focus), or, “do I want a video game OST, or my playlist for [character, ship, project, the mood I’m in, whatever; I have playlists for everything]”

—or if I’m going to listen to TV/movies, then it’s like, “TV or movies?” and then, “Disney movie or superhero movie? Marvel movie or DC movie? Pink Flamingos, Hairspray, or Female Trouble? The Prince of Egypt or Crimson Peak? Star Wars” or in TV Land, it’s more, “Well, I can’t work and listen to something relatively new [which is one of the biggest reasons why I’m perpetually late to everything new on TV], so… House or Criminal Minds? Yuri on Ice dub [because I can’t watch the subs and write at the same time] or SVU reruns? Firefly or Futurama?”

14. easiest character to write

Oh gosh, that’s…… hard. And it often depends on the fandom, and sometimes it depends on what kind of mood I’m in, but…

Barty Crouch Jr. has always been really easy for me (partly because he has Favorite advantage, and partly because I’ve put 16+ years into his character at this point, so like. JKR could drop all of her notes about his family and backstory and everything on us tomorrow — not that I really think said notes exist, but if they did — and I’d probably just go, “Yeah, that’s nice, but with all due respect, Mum? My version’s better, and I’m just going to continue treating it as if it’s canon because bite me, that’s why”).

AlSev Potter and Scorpius Malfoy are both really easy, too, but tbh, I think that’s because my versions of them are essentially glorified OC’s, since my attitude toward Cursed Child with regard to characterization is, “*nods mildly* That’s nice, but I’m going to pick and choose at my leisure, thanks. No offense, but I’ve been working on these kids since DH first came out, and I much prefer my headcanon Scorpius who is the biggest, loudest, gayest Drama Princess you have ever met in your life and has been trying to shock Lucius into having a heart attack and dying since he was like six,

“and my headcanon AlSev who’s sometimes Ruby Minerva Severus, most often genderfluid but sometimes a binary trans girl and other time a gay cis boy, loves Ginny but has a complicated and often strained relationship with her (but in fairness, AlSev-Ruby talks to Godfather Neville and Hagrid about their problems more than they talk to either Harry or Ginny), has a complicated relationship with Harry too but for other reasons and when Harry and Ginny eventually divorce each other, AlSev-Ruby is going to stay at their Dad’s more often than their Mum’s, and never lets anyone forget that their middle name is Severus because AlSev-Ruby likes pissing them off with that fact — especially their Weasley grandparents

“Ron but AlSev-Ruby usually feels bad about this because they know on some level that they’re usually lashing out at Ron unfairly because it’s not about their name in most of these scenarios and entirely about other emotions that AlSev-Ruby has no earthly idea how to handle or express in a healthy or constructive way, and they boil over very easily when people needle them about their name (and if it weren’t Ron on the receiving end of this, it would probably be James)

“and Snape’s portrait, whom AlSev-Ruby accidentally made respect them by going, ‘You’re a painting. You are oil on canvas, magically imbued with the real Severus Snape’s personality and memories. Snap at me all you want, but you can’t do anything to me that’s worse than what Rita Skeeter and Molly have been doing for my entire life so far. If you want to get to know me, instead of using me as some conduit for all of your lingering issues with my Dad, then cool, I’d like to get to know you, too. You’re the closest I can get to getting to know my real middle-namesake instead of the myth of him that’s been built up since the War. But if you’ve got nothing interesting to say, then please shut up and let me wait for the Headmistress in peace’ in their first year, if not as eloquently because they were eleven and being Sulky™”

As much as I still hate being compared to her, even accepting that I totally deserve it, Hermione Granger is another easy one for me to get into and always has been. The hard thing with her is not reducing her to either Perfectly Perfect Hermione (which JKR can even fall into some times, like when Hermione hexed the DA sign-up sheet and it scarred Marietta’s face without regard for how Umbridge is the one to blame in that situation and not Marietta) or some joke about some of the times in canon when she was Over The Top about something, in ways that Harry didn’t entirely get so the narrative treats them as Totally Hilarious, even though SPEW (for example) is actually not funny when held up to scrutiny and Hermione works so hard at school out of deep-set fear of failure and being dispensable, and probably also fear that maybe she doesn’t belong in the magical world

Luna Lovegood is also pretty easy for me, though the hard thing with her is trying to make sure that I write her thought processes honestly but in a way that makes sense for the reader (it’s a variation on the big problem of stream of consciousness writing, where writing actual facts stream of consciousness looks like Finnegan’s Wake and is tedious as fuck to read, so Luna has to be close to stream of consciousness but tamed enough so that the experience of reading anything written from her POV is more likely to be enjoyable, and less likely to be like getting hit upside the head with a tire iron labeled, “IT’S ART OKAY, IT’S NOT FOR YOU”).

Then, Remus Lupin is by far the easiest of the Marauders for me to write, and Andromeda Black Tonks can actually be pretty hard for me sometimes, but she’s easier than either of her sisters and still one of the easiest MWPP-era characters for me, period.

And as far as non-HP characters go: well, my other biggest source of fandom writing in the past while has been Teen Wolf, and the top five easiest kids for me there are Scott McCall (to the surprise of no one ever), Kira Yukimura (#still bitter),

“Camden Lahey (but lbr, he’s pretty much just an OC with a canon name because literally all we know about him in canon is, “Isaac’s older brother, on the 2005/6 swim team, died in the military” so the rest of it is shit that I wholesale made up and of course he’s easier for me to get into character with than, say, Allison — who is probably the third easiest of the ladies for me to get into character with, after either Braeden or Malia but it depends on the day — because Allison has, like, actual canon shit to deal with and Cam…… kinda doesn’t.

Like, all of the vaguely Actual Canon shit that he has to deal with is stuff that’s off in the realm of extrapolation, interpretation, and, “Hey, nothing in canon says that he DIDN’T visit Derek and Laura in New York on his way back from his first visit home during his service, or that he DIDN’T drag Derek uptown to see Patti Lupone as Mama Rose because Cam is a Fanboy for reasons relating to his and Isaac’s late Mother, or that they didn’t argue at the intermission about how IT’S A MUSICAL DEREK STOP TRYING TO QUESTION WHY THE CHARACTERS SING JFC IT’S LIKE I DON’T EVEN KNOW YOU”

or, “lbr, Derek is as subtle as a brick hitting you in the face at 5,000 mph and Paige canonically figured out that he was a werewolf anyway, so I don’t think it’s entirely implausible that, if we accept the idea of him and Cam being friends — and Cam being one of the only people who, like, genuinely likes Derek, instead of tolerating him because he’s okay at basketball and his family is rich — then Cam probably figured out that Derek and Laura are werewolves, and if that’s the case, he probably got trotted over to the Hales’ place so Talia could give him third-degree about whether or not he’s with the Argents or any other hunters.

“And, because he was like fifteen and had literally just found out that supernatural shit is real, Cam probably showed that he wasn’t a hunter by getting way too excited about hearing which magical creatures are real and temporarily shelving his hate-on for Talia to be all, ‘oh my god, are vampires real? can they infect werewolves? could Derek be like, a vampire werewolf, how would that even work’ or, ‘so silver bullets don’t hurt you, but what about someone saying your True Name? is True Name magic real?’ or, ‘do seances actually work? I’m totally not asking because I want to try and perform one to contact my dead Mom, I just want to know, like. For curiosity’s sake. Yeah……’”

[spoilers: Cam was TOTALLY asking because he wanted to try and use a seance to contact Eleanor. Derek and Laura had to stop him from trying to do the thing no fewer than eight times before Cam and Derek graduated. To his credit, Derek at least skipped trying to give Cam any kind of lecture, but tbf, he did that because he knew Cam would argue back at him about how Derek had no right to tell Cam that he was doing something stupid and dangerous and playing with things that he didn’t understand, and that Cam’s argument would probably be more than fair.

This did not stop Laura from giving Cam the lectures that he completely deserved, though, because: 1. he was essentially walking up to a big red button labeled, “do not push” and trying to push it without even reading the owner’s manual or the informational plaque on the wall that had a full explanation of why you shouldn’t push the button, and he KNEW that he was doing this, but he felt like it was all going to work out TOTALLY FINE because he wanted his Mom to be not dead and in lieu of that, why can’t he have a seance, Laura, UGH;

and 2. because, unlike Cam and Derek, Larua generally doesn’t do shit that’s too horribly stupid or that has completely awful consequences (…mostly), so she had an actual high-ground from which to give Cam these, “don’t screw around the magic, what the fuck are you thinking” lectures and wasn’t intimidated by Derek’s loudmouth little friend who, like, actively repels everything that even vaguely resembles chill.]

—so, anyway, the point is that I can pretty much do whatever I want with Cam and it makes him a lot easier to write. Laura is a similar case of, “this character is easy for me to write because I made her up,” and in fairness, a lot of my characterization for Braeden is headcanon, too. It’s just headcanon that has more of a basis in canon than Camden and Laura do.

I mean.

Except for parts like Braeden’s twin sister Belladonna who is a ballerina because fuck Jeff Davis, that’s why and also the only family member Braeden still talks to on any regular basis, and their parents who teach at Miskatonic University because I’m pretty sure it’s in the public domain at this point so nyeh, I’m gonna use it, and also they’re in the know about the supernatural but part of a group who has a policy of strict non-intervention, which Braeden thought was bullshit so she set out to do her own thing, which initially involved more plans to help people…… but then she learned that a girl’s gotta eat, and the mercenary work got started.

Also, she will wipe the floor with you at karaoke. Because I felt like it, that’s why.

Yeah, that’s all pretty, “this is not even remotely implied by canon and I wholesale made it up because canon wasn’t giving me like any damn Braeden backstory beyond the barest implications and I fucking felt like it, so there. PS: fuck Jeff Davis.”)

Derek Hale (I’m not always proud of this fact or entirely thrilled about it because when I get into Derek’s head, I take a lot of things from his canon characterization — especially in earlier episodes, before he started trying to be less of a jerk and discovered that: 1. he sucks as an Alpha, and 2. he loves Scott sooooo much — to their logical conclusions and his head is usually not a very pleasant place to be.

Like, he’s my werewolf disaster and I begrudgingly love him but we’re still talking about a guy who, when I write him, makes leaps of logic like, “Well, Cam said to look out for Isaac because he’s not here to do it himself. That is totally the same thing as giving me verbal permission to stalk his baby brother and manipulate him into accepting the Bite, very good plan, way to go, Derek!! :D” and thinks that, “Scott kissed ME first and didn’t explicitly SAY that he’s NOT 17, therefore I’m totally not obligated to ask him shit about shit or consider whether or not he’s having sex with me as a form of emotional self-harm” is a completely valid conclusion and way of doing things

He’s also a guy who would do things like cheat on Braeden with Cam and Cam with Braeden, while telling neither of them about this, and then when he gets arrested for doing something ridiculous, he would call both of them to come get him at the Sheriff’s station because he’s pretty sure that one of them will be mad and decide to just leave him there to think about what he’s done this time — which would end up in both of them coming, and figuring out that they’ve both been getting cheated on, and skip right past the, “being mad at the other cheated upon party” part to the part that’s more like,

“going for coffee and complaining about the fuck-up they’ve both been dating and making fun of things like his secret One Direction blog, or the Star Wars fanfic he writes where his blatant self-insert OC gets to bang Han, Leia, Mara Jade, Lando, both of the Solo twins, and Padmé (in some wonky shenanigans involving time travel) — oh and sucks for Derek, but Cam and Braeden decided to tell Parrish to just leave him in his holding cell because fuck him, they’ve been getting cheated on so he can just call Laura and beg her to come save his ass tonight”

negl, one of my favorite places to put Derek in non-supernatural AUs is prison. How he wound up there usually involved him killing Peter, and it sometimes involved him panicking and hiding Peter’s body under the floorboards because he’s a loser who thinks Edgar Allan Poe is actually a good model for How To Handle Murdering Someone, and…… yeah, I just. I love Derek, he’s easy for me to write, but he’s a disaster in ways I don’t always feel like dealing with, so sometimes, he gets to just go the fuck to prison so I don’t have to deal with him today.)

and……… ugh, I can’t pick between Danny Mahealani and Jackson Whittemore for the number five spot, but both of them are really easy for me, and like. Jackson, I am still vaguely ashamed of, but I don’t feel that bad about it because I got here by virtue of writing him when Astrid and I RP’d TW stuff together and she didn’t want to just talk to herself for ages by writing Isaac and Jackson, and I refused to half-ass it with Jackson and found a way into his head and here we are.

And Danny as I write him is, in a lot of ways, only somewhat less of an OC than Cam and Laura, so…… basically, that.

And bonuses, because I like talking about my legitimate OC’s, oops: Margot, Pete, and Sebastian are the easiest for me to write at the moment but in fairness, that’s largely because I’ve done the most work developing them as characters, relative to everyone else in the cast.

Like, Todd (who is officially Seb’s “it’s complicated,” and Seb’s Gawain Stacy, if you ask Pete — or sometimes even if you don’t ask Pete, because he will totally tell you this whether you like hearing it or not, especially if your name is Sebastian) — Todd has this notion that he, Margot, and Seb are basically gay boy!Hermione (Todd), lesbian!Harry (Margot), and, “Ron but like what if his family had Malfoy money and he was gay” (Seb). He’s not entirely wrong (and their Houses map onto the Trio’s secondary Houses because of course I know my OCs’ Hogwarts Houses, like why would I not know that)

(This whole Thing of Todd’s actually STARTED because I knew that he is a Ravenclaw, Seb’s a Hufflepuff, and Margot’s a Slytherin, and went, “lol, it’s like the Golden Trio in an AU where none of them wound up in Gryffindor, heh”)

and it makes sense that this is how Todd sees things with them because the three of them found each other in undergrad (though Seb found Margot when their RA paired them up for some “getting to know you” thing during orientation because they were the tallest and the shortest people on the hall, and he found Todd at the first meeting of the campus LGBTIQ students organization, had a crush at first sight on the cute chubby guy in the hot pink t-shirt with the screenprint of the Pink Flamingos poster, and totally meant to go be Super Cool about asking Todd out……

……buuuuuut he got excited and instead it came out like, “Hi, oh my god, I love your shirt, you like John Waters, I love John Waters, he’s my hometown hero, oh my god hi hi hi, my name’s Sebastian what is yours do you want to go get coffee, please be my friend, do you like Rocky Horror too? there’s a theatre a couple blocks from here that does a regular shadow-cast, we should totally check it out, I have just met you and I like you please be my friend” instead of like an actual date invite. And he totally called his Mom later that night to go, “MOM, I MADE ANOTHER FRIEND. TWO IN TWO DAYS, MOM. yeah no i still kind of hate my roommate he’s a jerk BUT I HAVE TWO NEW FRIENDS MOM”

………He was very lonely before undergrad because his only constant friend who wasn’t one of his siblings and didn’t shun him after he got outed at Catholic school [though technically, he sort of outed himself in an attempt to spare his boyfriend/best friend from being outed because Seb’s parents already knew he was gay and were totally cool about it, but Damian’s parents believed in reparative therapy and his uncle was the priest at their Catholic school, so him getting outed was really not an option]? Yeah, that only friend was Pete. But I digress.)

Anyway, Todd’s view of things is a little skewed by how he’s lived them, and strictly speaking, trying to map any of my kids onto the Golden Trio and Company is going to end up being a discussion of archetypes and tropes more than anything else because…… But they’re not the Golden Trio and Company.

There are some similarities, but they are mostly in the realm of archetypes AND the ones that aren’t quite as trope-y happened by accident (like, when I noticed that Seb actually does have quite a few similarities with Ron, aside from having Malfoy money — right down to his dad having an A name (Abraham) and his mom having an M name (Marceline) — I went, “well, FUCK” and started trying to get some of those similarities to be…… less so? Because…… Seb’s not Ron. And I don’t want him to be too overly similar to Ron because I want him to be himself, in his own right.

Fortunately, though, Ron isn’t a filthy rich, gay recovering addict who’s been living with undiagnosed major depression for his entire life and sort of accidentally stumbles into finding his mutant superpowers, and whose abusers aren’t his parents — because Abe and Marceline are pretty chill and have been fab to all four of their kids — but rather a series of douchebag ex-boyfriends who [unlike Molly and Arthur] are for real in-text acknowledged as being abusive jerks, and that’s a pretty solid start on Seb Is Not Ron)

But if you were going to try to do the Golden Trio And Company map here, then Todd would probably be Ginny, actually. They don’t have a lot in common, but there are some points of crossover, and the biggest one for me at the moment? Is that right now, I’m guilty of something that I bag on JKR for doing all the time, which is, “Ginny is a great idea for a character but you didn’t fully actualize her like she deserved in the text, you regularly reduced her existence to being Harry’s Significant Other, and it’s frankly bogus, Joanne” — and I’m aware of this, so I’m trying to fix it by working on Todd as a character

But I’m also trying to not spend forever fine-tuning every last detail about a story and then not having a draft of it so much as I have a two-foot stack of print-outs about different parts of it that kinda sorta look like a complete picture when you arrange them just so and tilt your head slightly to the left. So, basically, at the moment? Getting Todd to be more fully realized is on my List Of Shit To Do, but it’s way less of a priority than, “actual complete draft of this train-wreck” because I can do some of this work in revisions and rewriting

But since I opened this door anyway and want to complete the thought for the amusement factor:

Seb, obviously, is Harry in the bigger picture, even if this is mostly based on, “Harry is The Protagonist of his series, and although MY series is ultimately going to be more of an ensemble cast thing, Seb is the focal character for the first book because, in fairness to all the others, he was here first”

Todd is Ginny for the reasons that I just said

Pete and Margot both have very fair claim to being either Ron or Hermione, so they could arguably take turns, and ultimately, the big reason why I’m going to say Pete’s Ron and Margot’s Hermione?

is that Pete has two older siblings and some Issues with both of them (though he’s working them out with his sister, and not so much with his older brother) and has been Seb’s friend longer

while Margot’s an only child and they have totally used the, “we’re both gay, we love each other like brother and sister” line when they don’t feel like explaining their no romo soulmates kind of relationship to people (and sometimes when trying to make Seb’s siblings be less…… not pleased that Margot is so important to him, because to varying degrees, all three of them kinda sorta blame her for some of his problems in ways that she doesn’t entirely deserve)

Lucy is Neville but, like, a plucky ginger lesbian. This is probably one of the comparisons that looks a lot more like reaching, because on the surface, Lucy has a lot more in common with Ginny outside of their roles in the plot — but the thing is?

Even once I get Todd to be more developed, and even if he and Seb aren’t endgame (which was my original plan and I might stick to it but they have a LOT of shit to work on before they can go there so we’ll see how that goes), Todd is still going to be Ginny’s closest analogue to me because the ideas of them and their arcs are closer than anyone else’s (though in fairness, my idea of Ginny and her arc isn’t necessarily anybody else’s because JKR botched writing Ginny so much that this is almost, “room for wild mass guessing” instead of, “room for interpretation”)

Whereas…… yes. Lucy comes on strong, she’s a plucky go-getter who would probably try to fight the sun if she thought the sun was looking at her girlfriend funny, she’s a complete loudmouth and not always in ways that are conducive to anything, she’ll call you on your shit but usually without realizing that she’s saying something she needs to be hearing too, she tries too hard to do everything on her own and usually needs to experience some kind of big setback before she’ll consider accepting help with anything, and she will probably shout at someone while telling them to go calm down because they told HER to calm down.

Also, she’s the only one in my main ensemble cast who’s a legit Gryffindor, for better and for worse (Pete is a Slytherin — though in fairness, Gryffindor is his secondary House [he is aware of this, thanks to an ex of his who made him get Pottermore Sorted and was dead shocked when he wound up in Slytherin, but he has no idea what this means but he’s offended by it because Gryffindor’s colors are red and gold and no thanks, he doesn’t like how he looks in red and gold. He loves how he looks in green and silver, though] — and Josie’s a Ravenclaw)

—but a lot of how Over-The-Top Extra™ she is? that comes out of insecurity and trying to be various things that aren’t true to herself, because she deeply believes that she isn’t good enough. Granted, a big difference between her and Neville is that, while Neville spends a lot of time in the early books being terrified of his potential because he might screw up and prove right everyone who’s ever called him useless, Lucy instead tries to outrun her all of feelings of self-doubt and self-loathing instead of dealing with them, and basically plays a game of, “if I ignore them and just act like the popular idea of me — or like the me I want to be — but louder, maybe they will go away!!”

She’s going to be shocked when this catches up to her, because when she first shows up in the story, she’s of the mind that hey, she has accepted that she’s a lesbian — even if she’s only out to a small handful of people because…… uh, she’s Damian’s baby sister and their parents are still Not Really Very Safe to come out to. Their dad is probably going to die without Lucy coming out to him and she has VERY fair reasons for being afraid that he’d disown her for this — but!!! She has still accepted this!!!! Clearly it was the ONLY THING in her life that she wasn’t at peace with and now she IS so everything is going to magically be ALL BETTER NOW RIGHT!!!!!

No, not really, Lucy. Your sexuality is just one of the things about yourself that you aren’t at peace with.

Lucy’s response: *throws herself even harder into trying to outrun her self-doubt and being completely disingenuous to herself in the process, while trying to smile and laugh like nothing is wrong even though it really blatantly is*

So, that’s all going over about as well as you’d expect (i.e., not very well, not even a little bit whoops), and a lot of her arc in the series is going to be about finding peace with herself and finding her own ways of being a hero that may not necessarily line up with any more conventional expectations thereof, or even her own preconceived ideas of How To Hero Good, and yeah. She’s Neville, but like, a plucky ginger lesbian.

Also, she and Seb are foils for each other in a loooooot of ways that make them mapping onto Harry and Neville make more sense than trying to make Lucy map onto Ginny, in structural terms

Josie is Luna, and I’m short-changing my genderfluid empath child a lot right now but I’ve also been writing this post for WAAAAAY longer than I intended and ahahaha, everyone’s probably bored

And Conrad is Draco Malfoy, but absent any of the excuses that fans love making for Draco (especially not the age thing, like. Draco behaves in a LOT of ways that are completely unacceptable for any person of ANY age, but I will acquiesce that his age is a contributing factor in some instances because he’s a freaking CHILD. Conrad’s not, though. Like, Conrad is 46 and the oldest member of the main cast in the first book. Conrad gets no excuse for his bullshit based on his age.

He also doesn’t get to claim anything about being terrified for the safety of the people he cares about, because…… uh. While I think that the HP fandom oversells that point re: Draco in HBP because at first, he was completely gung-ho and proud of himself for joining a group of Pureblood supremacist domestic terrorist fascists, Draco was still abused and manipulated by Voldemort here — and during the entirety of HBP and DH — and…… well. Conrad was lied to and played by people who are even bigger douchebags than he is, yeah. But he wasn’t sold on joining the neo-fascist supervillains by having his loved ones threatened; he was sold on it by having his ego stroked and only giving a fuck about how this could benefit him)

So, basically, Conrad is Draco with even fewer redeeming qualities

Given that I think Draco only has, like, TWO redeeming qualities, or maybe three on a good day (and that’s debatable because at least one point here is, “it’s not really a quality of his own so much as the fact that I hate victim blaming more than I dislike Draco”), uh

Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaah, no.

Conrad is only not The Literal WORST EVER because there are other douchebags in his neo-fascist supervillain club who are even worse than he is.

i just love my oc mutant weirdos a lot, thank u for reading

#bizeke #that story with the mutants that i should find a working title for fml #mine: asks #memes for ts #mine: writing #mine: teen wolf #mine: hp #mine: headcanons #mine: meta #(for a very very loose definition of the term 'meta' oops)#sebastian moncrieff: mutant disaster #pete arden: dramatic disaster #lucy murphy: hemokinetic disaster #todd burroughs: art film disaster #josie quinn: empath disaster #margot gabriel: chainsmoking disaster #kassie hush #opinions for ts #asks for fanfic writers

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wahn-x-shuttles · 4 years

Text

Teaser-- 3.6k words

“You know, I’m surprised we haven’t heard back from Cassie yet,” Wahnthac said, as he emerged from the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist. “I know she said that she wanted to explore Bethesda, but I assumed she would be back by now.” He stepped out into the hotel room to see Shuttles lounging on top of the bed, completely naked and looking at his phone with a bored expression on his face. “Relax, Wahn,” Shuttles said, setting his phone down on the nightstand. “She’s probably getting double penetrated by two different guys and just lost track of the time.” “Shuttles! Language!” Wahnthac yelled. “What? Cassie is a whore. It’s fine. I’m a whale biologist.” Wahnthac stood in the bathroom doorway, with his mouth agape. “What are you— That’s not— Shuttles, I know what you do for a living!” “I was quoting Futurama, obviously,” Shuttles said, rolling his eyes. “I call them like I see them. And I see that Cassie is a whore.” He smiled, spreading open his legs to reveal his semi-flaccid cock. “And she’s not the only one. Are you ready for round two of paying off your Lavendar debt?” Wahnthac could feel all of the blood rushing to his cheeks. “Shuttles, what the fuck!?” he yelled, turning around to face the blank wall. “Did you seriously not get dressed for the entire time I was taking a shower?” “No, why would I?” he said. “It’s not like you haven’t seen anything before. Or have you forgotten that time fifteen minutes ago, when I was scrambling your guts like an egg?” Wahnthac sighed, feeling the weight of Shuttles’s sardonic glare. “Alright, fine,” he said, sitting down in the cheap leather armchair in the corner of the room. “But I’m not climbing into that bed next to you.” Shuttles chuckled softly to himself. “You are if you want your phone back,” he said, pointing at the nightstand opposite where Wahnthac was sitting. “I bet you would have heard back from Cassie a lot sooner if you would actually check your phone.” “Wait, was she trying to text me? Fuck, bro!” Wahnthac let his arms fall against his lap in frustration. “Why didn’t you tell me?” “I was a bit preoccupied with slurping the santorum out of your anus with a bendy straw,” Shuttles said, with a shrug. Wahnthac smacked his forehead in disbelief. “Shuttles! That’s so gross! Why would you do that?” “Because I am a man of culture, Wahn. Do you expect me to use a cheap, plastic McDonald’s straw like some sort of pleb? Now hurry up and answer Cassie’s text message so you can come back to bed and service my body.” Wahnthac let out a deep sigh. “Shuttles, I’m not…” He paused, looking at Shuttle’s majestic male form, delicately posed and spread out across the bed in some sort of perverse mockery of a Renaissance painting. Where the great masters preferred slender, lithe young men with pale skin and muscular frames, the body on display before him was decidedly… not that. Growing up, he had always been one of the thinnest, gangliest boys in his grade. He’d never spent much time up close to a body that was so rich and full. Any attempt to look away from Shuttles’s massive member resulted in a bare, hairy limb. A thick layer of fuzz covered Shuttles’s arms and legs, while an entire carpet of fur coated his chest and stomach. And yet, all roads led to Rome, as if Shuttles’s entire body was one large happy trail, leading to his massive cock. “God dammit, Shuttles,” Wahnthac muttered under his breath, walking over to the nightstand to grab his phone before sitting down on the bed. Or, more accurately, he squatted low to prepare to sit on the bed, before Shuttles kicked him square in the low of the back. “Ouch, what the fuck, bro?” “Don’t you put that nasty-ass wet towel down on this nice, clean bed,” Shuttles said. “A nice, clean bed?” Wahnthac replied. “Dude, we jizzed all over that bed. There’s no way it’s clean. Besides, what else am I going to wear while I dry off from the shower?” “Nothing, obviously,” Shuttles said. “I’ve shoved my dick in your ass. I’m telling you, once you have sex with someone, you don’t have to wear clothes around them ever again. So sit your ass down, without the towel around your waist, and get your shit together.” Wahnthac bit his lower lip in frustration. There was something… exciting about the way that Shuttles kept barking instructions at him. He sat down on the bed next to Shuttles, crossing his legs in an attempt to maintain some level of privacy, and unlocked his phone to see what Cassie had been trying to tell him while he had been… preoccupied. While he had been having sex with Shuttles. God, what a fucked up sentence that was. Having sex with Shuttles. He never would have imagined such a thing before today, but now… He sighed, trying to peek over at Shuttles’s body out of the corner of his eye. “The sooner you finish texting, the sooner we can have round two,” said Shuttles, grabbing his dick and letting it flop against his thigh with a loud plop. Wahnthac cursed silently under his breath. He had hoped to sneak a glance or two without him noticing. He really should have known better— nothing escaped Shuttles’s watchful eyes. Too late to do anything else about it now. He unlocked his phone, and scrolled through Cassie’s last several messages. “Shuttles…” Wahnthac said, reading message after message of what looked to be a rage-fueled texting rant. “What did you tell Cassie?” “Why are you asking me?” he asked, playfully stroking his penis. “The transcript is right there.” “I mean… okay, but… look at this! Cassie, ‘Hey, I don’t have my hotel key, are you guys in your room?’ Next message, ‘Where are you guys?’ You, ‘Can’t answer my phone right now, Shuttles is currently sipping the sweat, spit, and semen out of my once-virgin anus, can I call you back?’” Shuttles shrugged, not bothering to hide the smug grin on his face. “I don’t know why you’re reading them out loud, I know what I wrote. Personally, I thought the alliteration was a nice touch. You can practically imagine me holding a straw with my pinky raised. It’s called sophistication, Wahn. Look it up some time.” “Shuttles, what the fuck!” he said, placing his phone back on the nightstand. “She’s going to break up with me. You know that, right?” Shuttles replied by slapping Wahnthac across the ass with a loud smack. “Oh, so what. Cassie’s just a ball-breaking bitch. And a bird-erer. Now get over here and pay off some of your debts, or I’ll show you my own Doom Fist.” Wahnthac bit his lip. Was this real life, right now? There was a part of him that felt like all of this was crazy— he was supposed to find a nice girl, get married, and have two and a half kids in a nice suburban home somewhere. And yet… was that really what he wanted? It wasn’t like he was planning to marry Cassie anytime soon. Maybe… maybe he was only having sex with women because people told him that was what he was supposed to do. His mind drifted to thoughts of Fry’s not-grandfather in ‘Roswell That Ends Well’ and he couldn’t help but laugh. Getting blown up by a nuclear weapon would probably solve most of his problems. “Fuck you, Shuttles,” he said, straddling his legs between Shuttles’s hairy torso. “You and whose penis?” he asked, wrapping his hands around Wahnthac’s waist. “Also, Jesus Christ, Wahn, how is your ass so damn bony? You’re gonna fucking slice my stomach open with that pelvis.” Wahnthac shifted his weight onto his knees, and placed his elbows onto Shuttles’s chest so that he had more freedom of movement. “Oh yeah? Well, if you can’t handle the twink, stay out of the bedroom.” He started playing with Shuttles’s nipples, rubbing and tweaking them between his fingers as they grew more erect. “Oh hoh, you like that, do you?” he said, as Shuttles let out an involuntary moan of pleasure. “Maybe you’re not such a terrible monster after all.” “Shut up, Wahn, you don’t know me,” Shuttles said, reaching up to smack Wahnthac across the ass again. “I’m more monster than you can handle. Also, my body is not a Sound Voltex cabinet,” he added, lifting his head slightly up off of the bed. It was Wahnthac’s turn to flash a shit-eating grin. “Are you sure about that?” he asked, playfully slapping out a rhythm on Shuttles’s chest. “Seems to me like I’m playing Neon Love Potion. You think I can get Ass rank?” Shuttles responded by grabbing the back of Wahnthac’s head by the hair, and yanking it down near the bed. Wahnthac barely had time to scream in pain before his mouth was smothered by Shuttles’s body— by Shuttles’s mouth, he realized, his eyes opening wide as he felt the heat from Shuttles’s breath enter his throat. Wahnthac felt his body grow limp, resting his weight on top of Shuttles’s hairy body as they kissed, their tongues rubbing and exploring each other as they swapped spit. It was hard to formulate words, let alone thoughts, so Wahnthac was grateful for the opportunity to let his body do the talking for him, for once. Wahnthac shifted his legs into a more comfortable position while maintaining the kiss. Laying there, completely naked in a strange hotel, resting on top of Shuttles’s warm, furry body… there was something that just felt… safe. It was Shuttles who broke the kiss first. “Getting a bit greedy, are we?” he asked, panting for breath. “Hey, if you can’t keep up, just let me know. We don’t need you breaking your hip, old man,” Wahnthac said. “Oh, you are asking for it!” Shuttles yelled, grabbing Wahnthac by the arms and rolling sideways to slam him onto the bed next to him. “And get your bony ass elbows off of me before I get impaled. You’ll never be invited back to another GDQ event if you killed someone.” Shuttles paused for a moment. “Actually, after that pitiful excuse of a performance, you might not get invited back anyway…” “Hey, fuck you,” Wahnthac said, staring directly back into Shuttles’s eyes as they laid in bed next to each other. “Besides, I know that my weight on top of your elderly body was just too much to handle. It’s okay Boomer, we can take it easy.” Shuttles responded by grabbing his jock strap off of the floor, and shoving it in Wahnthac’s face. “Less snark, more service,” he said, making sure that the cloth straps were right up against his nose. “Your mouth is not for speaking. Your mouth is for servicing the cocks of real men.” “Yes sir, Sound Bot,” Wahnthac said, crawling up into a crouching position so that he could kneel next to Shuttle’s crotch. He grasped the shaft of Shuttle’s massive manhood in his hand, thankful that it was already mostly erect from their passionate kiss. He started teasing it with his tongue, tracing the veins with his tongue as he tried to steel himself for deep throating the pop can… soda can… cola can that was Shuttles’s cock. “How are you so bad at this?” Shuttles asked, propping himself up on his elbows. “Don’t you also have a penis? Stop trying to tickle it and use your mouth.” Wahnthac paused, taking a moment to steel his nerves before trying to deep throat as many of the eleven inches as possible. The sooner Shuttles came, the sooner this would be over, he reasoned. He started moaning with pleasure as he tried not to gag on the solid mass of masculinity in his mouth. It was impossible for his tongue to avoid the salty taste of precum as it leaked out of Shuttle’s cock, but hearing Shuttles’s heavy breathing become more and more panicked gave him the strength he needed to overcome his gag reflex. Wahnthac had finally gotten into the rhythm of thrusting his lips up and down Shuttles’s shaft when a torrent of cum splattered against the back of his throat, flooding his mouth with semen as he started coughing uncontrollably. He swallowed, and then spat out the remaining spunk as he gasped for breath. Wahnthac looked up at Shuttles, who was giving him a rare, sincere smile as he basked in the afterglow. “Now you’re just wasting it,” Shuttles said, looking at the puddle of semen that had leaked out of Wahnthac’s mouth and onto the mattress. “You’re sleeping on this half of the bed tonight.”

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