#it could be like symbolic of the old generation letting the new generation of heroes take over or whatever. you know

[tsubasaclones]

whatever man im just waiting for all might to die

#not in an 'i hate him' way though dont get me wrong. hes fine #in like... a 'ever since the very beginning ive felt like he will die at some point' way #it could be like symbolic of the old generation letting the new generation of heroes take over or whatever. you know #em.txt #i feel bad saying it because like... i have nothing against him i quite like him as a character but LMAO

[alpaca-clouds]

Why I am blocked on Thick as Thieves

Or: Help! I need help! 😫

Okay, you know what? I hear you. I did the NaNoWriMo poll and you folks really want me to finish Thick as Thieves. And like, I get it. So, let me tell you about why I am right now blocked on the story and what stops me from continuing on it.

The answer is short: Xenk. Xenk is stopping me. Or rather... the lack of more official backstory for him is. Or to be even more specific: My lack of knowledge of Faerûn's history is stopping me a bit.

Let me explain.

One of my framing devices for the romance in the story is supposed to be about the "Ballad of Xenk Yendar". Basically: Ed, crushing on Xenk, starts the story out writing this ballad about Xenk. Given what he knows from Xenk himself, he focuses mostly on the tragedy, which Xenk then is not much of a fan of.

The general idea was, that there were going to be four total versions of that ballad, that kinda symbolize Ed getting to know Xenk better. The first one (at the beginning, where they have not interacted since Neverwinter has been saved) focuses on the tragedy, the second one was going to focus on the hero Xenk, the third one on the paladin (mixing both tragedy and hero), and finally the last one on the man that at that point Ed admits to loving.

Soooooo, the next chapter is supposed to feature the second version and herein lies my problem.

I need some good heroic stories about Xenk (that are not played for laughs) that I could write verses for. But I cannot think of any. Because there is no official stuff on him for the most part - but, well...

I am still fairly new to DnD. Like, I have played some DnD, yes, but always with homebrew worlds, never with Faerûn. Sure, like back before 2010 I played the old Baldur's Gate games and Neverwinter Nights, but... Look, I would lie if I said I remembered much more than the general feeling. Like, I for sure do not know anything about the story of those games.

Now, yes, I am very aware that the general rule for worldbuilding in DnD is: "Just make shit up!" Buuuuuut... My brain blocks me on that front on regard of feeling to badly informed. (This is a general hang up of mine, mind you. It is the general reason why I always had a hangup about writing for giant fandoms with lots of lore like Marvel of Star Wars, because I felt there was too much I didn't know.)

Like, by now I have a general feeling for what the Sword Coast looks lke in the late 15th century. Alright. But that does not help me much with Xenk and what his life looked like between "Szass Tam takes over the Thay" and "plot of the movie happens".

So, yeah... This is what is blocking me right now.

And even with all my nerd friends... I somehow do not have a single one who is super into the lore of Faerûn, whose mind I could pick about this.

Soooo, what I am saying is: Say, is there anyone here, who knows a lot of shit about Faerûn and the Sword Coast, so that I might pick their brains for ideas?

Or alternatively: Do you have any great ideas about heroics that Xenk Yendar could've gotten into prior to meeting Ed, Holga and Co.?

#dungeons & dragons #dungeons & dragons: honor among thieves #dnd:hat #xedgin #fanfiction #dnd:hat fanfiction #dnd #faerun #sword coast #lore help #thick as thieves

[phantomskeep]

Editing to add (again): This is using the bastardized wendigo from popculture. It's not using the wendigo in the context of the spirit, more in the context of the Hannibal "Ravenstag" or even Antlers' wendigo. Check the Anon link near the end of the post for more information regarding my thoughts on the subject :) I didn't mention the deer-like qualities until the tags, which I understand some people don't fully read. That's my bad, so here I am with the full context ahead of time. This is not the Algonquian version of the wendigo spirit. i really want to write a DCxDP fic where Danny gets trapped in a different form (like either true form or just gets cursed, something like that) and can't get out of it. That form? A wendigo. Somehow he ends up in the DC universe - either through already living there or Ghost Zone shenanigans.

Being a wendigo, Danny feels the need to eat flesh. Preferably human, but even in his screwed-up state he knows that's wrong of him to do. So he takes to killing the bare minimum amount of wildlife he can to sustain himself. Eventually he realizes that "oh wait, what if I just raided a store?" So he stumbles out of the woods and into the nearest grocery store after they had closed. He ends up eating enough to settle his stomach before going off to hide to wait for this whatever to wear off.

However, this catches the attention of [insert local hero]. [Insert local hero] goes to the Justice League about this - maybe this creature is a new villain's scheme? Or just a new villain? Members of the JL + Justice League Dark then go out to [insert town Danny was spotted in] to do some investigating. Batman being one of these people, plus Robin because Damian would not let Bruce go without him. A wendigo could be like a shark after all, just a big ol' puppy.

They get to [insert town here] and start cracking down. They compare the old footage to the location, tracking where the wendigo went. Finally Batman, Robin and [insert characters here] are able to get to the wendigo's den... only to find out the wendigo is a lot more ghost-like than they thought it would be.

There's a big fight because Wendigo-Brain!Danny thought these random dudes were the GIW coming for his undead ass that ends with Danny taking off. Unknowingly to Danny, Damian has grabbed onto him and is basically riding his soon-to-be pet into the sunset.

... I just want to 1) see Danny suffer and being confused 2) Damian trying to get a new dangerous pet and 3) get Damian trying to tame a feral Wendigo!Danny like any normal person would try to befriend that feral orange cat living in the dumpster.

Adding this just to cover my own butt about this haha, here's a link that contains a post which covers the research I have done on the topic of the wendigo: Anon Ask Post Here. I am not trying to culturally appropriate, offend, or harm anyone with a prompt post about Danny taking the form of a wendigo. It's a cool concept to me as I believe it is a bit ironic. The wendigo, as seen in the culture it originates from, is a symbol of greed and a harsh winter and are often a sign of cannibalism. They have hearts of ice and an "unseasonable chill might precede its approach".

I think this is ironic because 1 - Danny is a sweet little bean and being stuck with cannibalistic cravings is a Hannibal Fic trope that will forever rot in my brain + Ghost King!Danny having to eat Pariah Dark's core is a headcanon I adore, 2 - the chill preceding a wendigo's approach reminds me of Danny's ghost sense, 3 - Danny is the LEAST greedy person I can think of in the entirety of DP (even if he does have his selfish moments at the worst times ever), and 4 - wendigos possess human beings. In Native legend a wendigo is a "malevolent spirit" which possesses humans - technically if you are going to stick with the general wendigo legends then it does not have antlers, horns, or is even a beast. It's just a giant human. Which, if using the correct/original version of a wendigo, makes this 10x funnier to me, because Damian that is clearly a giant person what the fUCK ARE YOU DOING--

Anyways, long story short if you have issues with me using a wendigo for a "haha funny" prompt please DM me with any sort of articles, legends, documentaries, ect. on why using a wendigo is a Bad Thing. Like I said in the linked post, I'm always willing to learn and adjust my behavior. I just want proof that the changes I'm going to make are the correct ones to be making, as my years on the internet have ALWAYS told me to fact check anything :)

#dcxdp prompt #dcxdp #dpxdc #danny phantom #batman #let danny be feral #please #i want him and damian to be besties #also if hals the person who first finds out about danny? #god that would be so funy #or even better!! #a villain #harley quinn introducing this cool deer-thing to her hyenas #hey boys! this is your new brother :D #hes different but its cool #while ivy is sitting in the living room with her head in her hands #... actually fuck it danny is found by harley #and they become besties #while damian is trying to be her arch nemesis and failing #but hes kind of okay with it because Father can I please have a cool deer like harley's?

[anniebear-92]

Could u do all might having a daughter which he neglects?

Of course I can! That is an interesting ask!

I honestly see All Might being a parent could go two ways, either the child would feel extremely neglected and in the biggest shadow ever or he would be the most loving father ever based on his interactions with his students. If anyone wants to read one of how I think All Might would be as an actual dad? Let me know :)

Warnings: SFW, talks of depression, sadness and divorce. All Might is a shit dad. Her last name is Yagi because she is All Might's daughter.

She stared at the statue before her, darkness of the shadow surrounded her like the hug she rarely got. The figure envisioned by the artist continuously showed that big smile similar to her own if anyone was privy to see it.

The plaque at the base read a blurb about "The Symbol of Peace." How great this man is and was to this day. What about the people he had to step on to get to this place? To have his status in the middle of a shopping square?

Someone like, you.

His own flesh and blood that rarely got a phone call but on birthdays or Holidays. Even then she could hardly remember the last birthday he HAD called on. It was always a quick "How you doing kiddo?" or "I just called quick to say Happy birthday."

He was always quick to call and just as quick to disconnect the line because "Duty calls," Before you could even tell him about the great gift your mother always got you. Unlike your absent father your mother was always there, quick with a tissue or shoulder for your falling tears. A band-aid for the scrape you had gotten, cake to make you feel better, kind words and exciting stories before bedtime.

Not from him.

The day your doctor told the happy couple their daughter was quirkless was the first of many, those ocean blue eyes you shared with the man gave you that look of pity. That perpetual look that you were something to be protected, fragile, nothing. How can a quirkless person be a hero?

It had been the first day he stopped coming home at night, returning your mother's calls asking when he'd be home for dinner. Justice was always the answer. Cold nights in a bed alone, her seven year old daughter crawling in her lap to wipe the tears from her mother's cheeks.

Finally your mother had enough, the stack of papers from her lawyer were left on the table indicated he was going to be alone. When she received the notification he would not fight she knew the battle was lost, he no longer cared... If he did at all.

Your mother took you away from Tokyo where his agency was based, moving to the new city of Musatafu. He came to see you from time to time but it seemed only when he was already there for a non you reason. There was always seemingly an event in town, a mission he was taking care of to help out another agency.

Regardless of your absent father you never let it get you down. Your father was All might! The coolest hero in the world, right? When you started primary school and made friends of course you would boast about who your father was! Though their sneers and jokes about how you lie started to tear at the fabric of your heart, you slowly began keeping that information to your self. Who cared anyway? Not like the man ever called or stopped in unless it was convenient to him.

In middle school a miracle occurred, you developed your mother's quirk suddenly. A late bloomer the doctor had said. Testing your limits they discovered it was an even stronger version of her own with the next generation. Energy Manipulation, a strong quirk.

The word had gotten to your father and it was as if a switch flipped. He was always calling, always stopping by. "Hey kid, want to come on patrol with me and see how heroes work?" Your hopes had never been higher! Until he didn't show... again. Villain attacked he had blamed.

It was about age fourteen when you finally had enough, he had shown up to drop off a gift. A gift you promptly smashed to the floor.

"Why are you here? You rarely call, you only show up when you FEEL like it! I'm sick of you only having time for me when it's good for you! I developed a quirk late and now suddenly you want to be my dad? Go be the symbol of peace. Why don't you tell everyone how you stepped on your FAMILY to do it?"

Your teeth were bared, nostrils flaring as your chest heaved at finally giving him the piece of mind he deserved. His eyes had widened and not a word was said. He simply turned and left, no phone calls, no surprise visits. He simply disappeared.

Years passed and you decided with great resolve you were going to become a great hero and if you ever had a family, they would be your priority. You were going to become a better hero than that man ever was! You aced your tests, got good grades and trained day in and out. Your mother helped with quirk control and when time was ready, you applied for UA.

The entrance exam was decent, your fingers stretching towards the machine and feeling the crackle of the electricity inside. Lifting the unit you smashed them into another, shorted out, smashed, tore apart until finally the buzzer rang out.

Your acceptance came a week later, so did the buzz about someone becoming a new teacher. The one and only All Might. The first couple weeks were rocky, but you proved to him and everyone you deserved to be where you were.

"Yagi!"

The voice tore you out of your thoughts, head turning to find a messy haired, green eyed boy standing with your fellow classmates of 1A. They all smiled as you stood before that stupid statue.

"Let's go! It's time to be heroes!"

Adjusting your hero gear, you took the hand of the boy who idolized your father more than anyone else. His fingers interlaced with yours as his bright smile earned one of your own in return. He may have your father's quirk, he may have thought your dad is the greatest guy since sliced bread.

He had watched since the day you joined his class in Aldera Middle, the bright girl who rose from the shadow and brought her own light to the world. Whose smile outshined any that the "Symbol of Peace" had to offer.

If someone were to ask him today, "Who was the greatest hero who ever lived?" He'd smile his own thousand watt smile and without any hesitation he would give one name.... Yours.

#all might #bnha imagine #bhna x reader #izuku midoriya #bnha izuku #all might imagine #UA imagine #Absent father #All Might is a butt in this #I can see Bakugo cursing out All Might for hurting his classmate #Izuku is petty after getting OFA and finding out how he was a bad father #Todoroki and her are besties and share father trauma

[dalaamclouds]

Hidehiko “Brown” Uesugi pages from the Megami Ibunroku Persona club book (1997)

Next: Eriko Kirishima

Last: Yuka Ayase

Notes and certain translation explanations under read more -

Brown’s scribbles in case they are be hard to read:

I can’t just let you have a copy of all my secret data!

Birthday - Japan’s New Year. It’s 1/1, of course!

Sign - Asakusa France Club. My sign’s pretty old, no?

Blood Type - 4A-G. Seems like I have a car engine in me! Nah, the truth is I’m type-O.

Favorite Food - Hay. Though, I guess I also like hamburgers and curry.

Favorite Color - Brown, duh…

Fashion of Choice - I always look good no matter what I wear, unlike Mark.

Subscription - I read Bombom just to make fun of it! I swear!

Family Members - An ultra mom, dad, and king (me)

Hobby/Special Skill - Persona Wonderful Bomber

Personal Accessory - I feel I should trade the goggles out for something else soon. Though, I still love showing off my boots.

What do you do in your spare time? - I strive for world peace!

Wild how these boots neglected the tide of the times! They’ve withheld 62,000 kilometers!

I have such beautiful legs! Like that of a woman!! But that should be obvious, hmm? Hahaha!

Gotta wear a watch to make sure I don’t miss my date with a cutie!

Nothing beats my amazing style! Or should I say my good looks!!

Head: Well, I can’t lose to Mark. Bahahaha!!

Hair: You know my hair’s actually a wig, right? I gotta replace it with a new one every day. Maybe I’ll get a mohawk next.

Eyes: 200

Heart: Very healthy! Loving

Skin: My skin is so so so so so soft because I take great care of it every day! Why not give it a feel?

Body: Special Excellent Super Ultra Nice Body - Looks like I’m impossible to measure!! (Forgot to write this last part in; oops )

Height: 57 Meters

Weight: 550 Tons

Bust-Waist-Hip Measurements: 99.9/55.5/88.8 It seems I’m Fujiko Mine. Sorry… that was a lie.

Intellect: [Quick] <- crossed out

Underwear: Ah, so tight, I’m bulging out of this bikini bottom!! I’m a Calvin Klein kind of guy, could you tell? Pretty sexy, right?

Fujiko: Lupin <3

Foot Size: Jurokumon kick!!

Sock Color: Of course, they’re brown.

If it’s not brown, it doesn’t matter to the marvelous me

Super hero / Great Dangerous Cool Guy Brown-sama !!!

Star Sign Meaning: An old performing arts theater in the special wards of Tokyo. It’s mostly known for being a theater for various performances (mostly comedy) with the history of having originally been a strip theater. Brown here is making a pun in the original Japanese as the Japanese name for the theater is “浅草フランス座” which directly translated is “浅草 Asakusa (the location of the theater) フランス France (the name of the original strip club that was here; france is used a lot in various places in the world to symbolize sexuality and/or promiscuity e.g. french kissing) 座 Place”. The character 座 can mean both place or an ender for star constellations; like 天秤座 (libra). Brown is using the Toyokan theater specifically for this joke because it ends with 座 like star constellations do, while also alluding to something with a sexual comedic history.

Reading of Choice: monthly Japanese manga magazine targeted at elementary-school aged boys. Each issue was around 700+ pages. Was discontinued in 2007.

Hobby/Special Skill: a reference to “Super Ultra Great Delicious Wonderful Bomber”. A move by the character Rocky Hada from the 80’s manga The Burning Wild Man.

Foot Size: 16キック 16文キック（じゅうろくもんキック) The 16-sentence kick (Jurokumon kick) is a type of professional wrestling technique and is classified as a kicking technique. Famously used by Giant Baba. This is a joke playing with a wrestling name that involves a unit of measurement and the use of feet.

Above Name/General: Brown is writing these long titles to make him seem like a Shonen-hero, as in Japanese they often have very long exaggerated names.

[Page 2]

Koitsu/コイツ - a phrase Brown shouts in the Japanese version of the game which translated roughly to “Hey, you!” in a bit of a more vulgar, rough way.

[Page 7]

US Brad: I think Satomi is annoyed because Brown’s name is already in English and they could still use the same story with the Japanese “name” but they didn’t keep it.

#persona #persona 1 #megami ibunroku persona #club book #hidehiko uesugi #translation #brown

[unit-zero-two]

My first event in Arknights (after Rewinding Breeze) was the Maria Nearl event. I somehow managed to beat it and I really enjoyed the story. Mostly. The ending where Margaret comes in and takes over was a little unsatisfying, but a lot of that was because it then became one big “To be Continued”. The event didn’t end, the conflict wasn’t really resolved. After playing a lot more Arknights, I get why that is though. Arknights is about systemic issues. It’s not generally just one villain causing problems, it’s the world that is fundamentally broken, rules of society shaped to oppress. In this context, it makes sense that the Maria Nearl event ended in the way that it did, despite her best efforts to survive and win, she wasn’t prepared or even able to go against the system. Instead she needed to be a symbol, a beacon to kick start change and get the protagonist into the story. She had to lead by example and get Margaret to return. Now, the system could be challenged.

But it couldn’t be toppled, not quite. Margaret doesn’t come in as a hero, she comes in as a symbol. A banished Knight champion returning not for revenge but honor. An “infected” knight. Most of her energy is focused not on action against the council, but instead just winning the tournament. By doing so she is making a very visible stand. She’s a non-club aligned knight, she refuses commercial endorsement (not even from Rhodes Island), she’s proving that despite her banishment she’s still the Radiant Knight and giving people a non-commercialized hero. She’s doing something that neither the Candle Knight or the Blood Knight were able to do. In a way, that means her and the Nightmare Knight are more alike than might seems. They’re both fighting for honor and an older way of life, free from the Companies that run modern life.

And it’s not like Margaret isn’t taking some direct action. She saved Maria, she saved Flametail and the infected from the Armorless Union, and she brought Rhodes Island who are caring for Infected and trying to change laws. In a way, she’s acting as a beacon that distracts the dangerous forces of Kazmierz away from these other groups that are struggling to make a change in the system.

Because in the end, Margaret can’t topple the system either. Not by herself. She’s just a person and everything is automated to oppress. Even the people who run the system are easily replaceable with a phone call that elects whoever answers first. But, she can inspire others to stand up, to demand change and take action. She’s both a symbol of the old knights traced from her family lineage and creed, and as the youngest champion in competition history. Maria and the bar squad, The Candle Knight, Pinus Sylvestris, the Adeptus, Campaign Knights, the Followers and Rhodes Island are all inspired by her before the story starts and her appearance spurs them all into action. And all she does, all she needs to do, is hold strong in the path. Show that she will win the competition by her rules, not the council’s. She takes control of the narrative.

Which is why, in the moment she wins the competition, the Council tries to retake the narrative by revealing that she isn’t actually infected. They admit their lie from years previously meant to remove her from winning the previous competition, but they blame it on people who have long been removed. “We’re not like those old lying council members, you can trust us. Isn’t it great that our new champion isn’t really infect? Let’s celebrate the deceiver of your trust and dreams.” But even in the face of this Margaret holds strong, she doesn’t make excuses or even try to argue with the council she ignores them and starts marching to the hall of champions on her own initiative to make a statement they can’t control.

And when she starts her march and her life is threatened, all of these forces she inspired come to her aid. If any single group had not stepped up to help her, she would’ve failed, her life forfeit. They fight, they stand strong, they take on the foes and block the arrows meant to strike down Margaret. They heal and care for the sick. They pass legislation and move the needle of public perception away from the council. This is a revolution fought slowly, over many years, on many fronts by hundreds of people standing by their own beliefs in a better future.

But the truly heroic deed Margaret did, the stand she took, was taking the Blood Knight and carrying him with her. Because he is the one who changed society for her return. This is important, so I’ll repeat it again. If the Blood Knight, an infected foreigner, had not fought, and paved the way for infected to be knights, Margaret would’ve never been able to compete. As much as Margaret inspired the infected knights of Pinus Sylvestris, so too were they inspired by the strength of the Blood Knight. He is a true inspiration and champion of the infected and despite not being of Kazmeirz is worthy of being a knight in their culture. And if it hadn’t been for his infection acting up, he probably would’ve won. It was a fraction of a second and that’s all Margaret needed to secure victory. So, when she wins, she ignores the council and talks to the Blood Knight. She compliments him and holds out a hand to him, knight to knight.

And that’s when I started to tear up. Because this act of sportsmanship, chivalry and basic human decency is what Margaret has been fighting towards. All of her actions have been to hold out a hand to this infected knight and walk him to wear he belongs, the Hall of Champions. This is what she wanted to show the people of Kazmeirz. So, when everyone comes to fight the Armorless Union and protect her, they’re also protecting the Blood Knight. Together they get an escort of glittering silver Pegasus Knights. Together they enter the Hall of Champions to great the Grand Knight. Together they take the pedestal and claim the title for the infected. They bring good, honest chivalry back to the land, if only for a moment.

They’re both smiling. This is moment that they can both be proud of. That brings joy to their hearts. They’re two competition knights who have engaged in the greatest fight of their lives. A worthy battle, and one that will have a worthy end. Margaret carrying Dikaiopolis to the Hall of Champions flipped the script, broke the rules and managed to be a major act of defiance. More importantly, it was the right thing to do. And while it will not defeat the system, it has allowed change to begin. It won’t be certain, it will be painful, and it will be a long fight, but it is now possible.

And that is what they’ve both been fighting for. That’s what we’ve been fighting for through all of these events. And that’s something to be proud of.

#Arknights #There was so much reading in this event #but it was all worth it

[autisticcassandracain]

Batkids ranked from best to worst candidate to take over the Batman mantle according to my very objective (/sarcasm) opinions:

Cass: Cass is loyal to the bat symbol before all else; the bat pulled her out of an aimless, guilt-ridden existance and gave her purpose, a chance to help others, and she takes this very very seriously. She's canonically the most similar to Bruce out of everyone, and values the no killing rule more than him. She wants the job so bad, because to her, Batman is everything she could ever hope to be. Continuing the bat symbol into a new generation, to help and inspire others like her, would be the greatest honor for her. Becoming Batman would be the natural conclusion of her arc.

Dick: Has canonically been Batman and did very well at it, better even than Bruce, canonically. But Nightwing fits him better. He adapted to the Batman mantle, and eventually stopped being miserable in it, but it was a choice made out of necessity, not personal drive. Nightwing was his own creation and fits him like a second skin. He can do Batman, he can do it well, but it won't be natural for him like it would be for Cass.

Steph: There's a fucking curveball for you. Honestly Steph is here bc other than Cass and Dick I don't think there's a good choice for Batman, if Bruce kicks it and neither of them are around I think Batman should just die, but for the sake of this list we will look at how much I'd enjoy seeing the other kids take up the mantle in canon. Steph becoming Batman would be so funny. It'd be a great storytelling opportunity because there's no way she should even be in line so what happened? How does she deal with it? But most importantly, once again, it'd be SO FUNNY if Steph got the mantle of Batman after Bruce treated her as shittily as he did. That's what you get old man.

Tim: idk he'd handle the job badly and would be miserable but this is my list and I don't really care about him so he's here as a placeholder. If Tim became Batman I'd be annoyed but not enraged. So there.

Duke: Perhaps an unpopular opinion among Duke fans but I fucking hate the idea of Batman!Duke. It can work in very specific Elseworld circumstances like Dark Knights Metal but in the mainline continuity? Absolutely tf not. Duke's whole Thing is a radical departure from the batfam's status quo. He's thematically and literally attached to daylight, he has superpowers. Both of those are already wildly antithetical to Batman. In addition: his current hero identity is an homage to his mother. Why would he throw that away? Batman!Duke could be interesting for an arc or two, because all this WOULD make for interesting narrative conflict, but permanently? It'd be a wild misuse of Duke's character to take a character designed to defy the status quo and stick him in a mantle that exists to uphold it. If Bruce dies and Duke's the only one that could take over, Batman should die and Signal should take his place.

Damian: FUCK Batman!Damian all my homies HATE Batman!Damian. All those arcs and character development about how blood doesn't define him only for him to let blood define him, just on the other side of his family? You're all so fucking boring and you should feel bad. And while we're here, no he shouldn't be Nightwing either, that's only slightly less bad, why would stepping from one Dick Grayson legacy mantle to another denote character growth? I have OPINIONS on this. Damian should create his own identity to show that he's grown into his own and found his own path outside of his families. Also 90% of the arguments for Batman!Damian hinge on blood relations which is weird and creepy and also very very very boring.

Jason: I don't think I need to explain this.

Any variant of sharing the mantle: Every time the 'who should be the next batman' debate comes up there's always SOME motherfucker insisting that x and y can just share and two things to that: 1) coward, are you gonna hand out participation trophies next? 2) Batman should not be a status symbol. The batfam should not be a hierarchy with Batman at the top. That's the most boring way possible to approach the Batman mantle. I get that's what DC does in canon, but in canon, they won't ever let Bruce die permanently anyway, so what canon does is kinda a moot point. And frankly? Pretty much all 'x and y should share' arguments seem to be based in the idea that Batman is automatically a better, more prestigious mantle than all others, and that being deprived of it means you're worse than whoever took it. They want everyone to hold the mantle simulaneously because they don't want their fave(s) to 'lose'. It's not a competition of skill, it's a matter of narrative satisfaction. And the only character whose arc would be actively strengthened by becoming Batman is Cass. She shouldn't get it because she's the best fighter, or lose/share it because she's not the best detective; she should get it because it would be a perfect bookend to her arc of self hatred and self determination via the bat. Everyone else is better off with a solo identity or a different legacy mantle. So no, sharing is not a magic solution; it's a cop out.

#Batman isnt a competition but if it was cass would win #My posts #Infodumping #Cassandra cain #Dick grayson #Duke thomas #Stephanie brown #Damian wayne #Tim drake #Jason todd

[uptoolateart]

I keep thinking about the theme of transformation. Butterflies are well-chosen as the akumas because they induce transformation from your average person into a temporary villain...but also because they force Marinette and Adrien (and friends) to transform into superheroes - not to mention Gabriel’s transformation into whatever villain persona he’s chosen for himself this week.

So, bear with me here, but - when caterpillars turn into butterflies or moths, they digest themselves one cell at a time, even the brain cells. There are only three cells remaining at the end of the process, which mutate and spawn the growth of the creature’s winged form.

A few years ago, I looked into whether or not we know if the final insect remembers its time as a caterpillar. In other words...did the caterpillar die? Naturally, people have done some very cruel experiments involving electric shocks and determined that such bugs do, in fact, retain some memories from their previous form, despite their old brains completely dissolving. There’s a lot we could say on that, but the point is....

The journey from caterpillar to butterfly parallels the human coming-of-age process (minus the self-digestion and wing sprouting) - and transformation sequences in any show symbolise this, too.

It takes time to grow. We never really stop. So what we see in shows like Miraculous is our heroes gradually increasing in self-confidence and assimilating their superpowers into their daily lives. At the same time, villains start letting their evil slip through their carefully molded facades. In other words, each character’s dual nature starts to blend into one persona.

This process of transformation mirrors alchemy - and if you bear with me again, I really do think the writers are aware of this, particularly because of how many times we hear / read about the need to ‘purify’ the akuma (which I’ll get to in a bit). 

When we hear about alchemy, we usually think of the magical practice of turning lead into gold. However, this is largely metaphor for self-actualisation / personal transformation. Beyond physical chemistry, alchemy was (and still is) a sort of philosophy expressed in code.

There are 7 stages of alchemy, which are noted below. For our purposes, I’m going to explore how they each relate to Miraculous and the general subject of personal growth. When thinking about story / character arcs, bear in mind that these 7 stages occur over a long period of time, rather than overnight / in a single episode.

1. Calcination - Burning the ‘prima materia’ (your starting material) into ash. In other words, relinquishing our attachments to the physical world, e.g. desires for fame, glory, money, etc.

Marinette is forced to let go of her dreams of being a ‘normal’ teenage girl, instead having to take up responsibilities she never asked for.

Adrien lost his mother and started school for the first time. At the end of Glaciator 2.0, he understood that he needed to drop the act he’d slipped into and simply be himself...whatever that might mean. He’ll have another big calcination moment when he finds out his father is his enemy and he has to make the choice to let his mother go.

For akuma victims, I believe calcination is the moment when they first get taken over by Monarch.

Monarch’s calcination moment could be when he lost Emilie. It changed the course of events forever.

2. Dissolution - Taking the ashes left from the calcination process and dissolving them in water.

Water is traditionally a symbol for the unconscious, i.e. dreams, hidden desires, our shadow side - everything we don’t want to admit about ourselves, for one reason or another. Dissolution is therefore when we delve deep into the parts of ourselves we have previously ignored.

Adrien spent a lot of Season 4 stuck in this stage, dealing with his attachment to Ladybug and his spot in the team, not to mention issues with his father. In Kuro Neko, he actively broke out of the Cat Noir persona, trying on new skins, as it were.

For Marinette, I think the key moment was her breakdown at the end of Strike Back, when she was forced to admit that she couldn’t do it all on her own. Dissolution can be wonderful, because it clears the way for something better. We also saw a breakthrough at the end of Perfection, when she finally understood what was holding her back from speaking normally around Adrien.

For akuma victims, it’s worth noting that when they transform their old form appears to dissolve before our eyes, before being replaced by what I always see as their shadow form. They don’t become ‘evil’ - they simply give in to their worst selves, rather than keeping all of that in balance. Think of Cat Blanc - he’s tragic rather than evil, the embodiment of all the anger, sorrow and doubt Adrien carries inside, without any of Adrien’s optimism to keep it in check.

I think Gabriel has been stuck in this dissolution phase throughout the series. He’s so entrenched in his own misery and lust for power that he’s allowing it to consume him.

3. Separation - Separating and filtering the products of dissolution. Symbolically, this is sifting through the qualities we have uncovered within ourselves, to determine what we should focus on and what we should let go of.

Adrien went through this in a big way in Kuro Neko, as he actively tried to work out who he truly was. This took shape at the end of Strike Back, and it came to a fore in season 5 when he finally told his father he doesn’t want to be a model. He has literally been separating from his father and, in a way, from Ladybug. He stopped letting others dictate what he should be and started focusing on what he wants.

Marinette is still working through all of this, but after her revelation at the end of Perfection, she’s primed to move forward.

Regarding the akumas, we could see this as the moment when the akuma is removed and the victim is freed. They have separated from Monarch / their controller.

Gabriel seems to have decided he wants to keep the darker aspects of himself and relinquish any good he may have previously had. In season 5, when he tells Nathalie he has to succeed because he has nothing left to lose, this is him declaring that he’s leaving his former self behind.

4. Conjunction - Combining the elements we decided to keep at the separation stage and mixing them into a new substance. This is the process of reintegration within ourselves, when we become something more than we were before. We have dropped the masks we once wore and are now more honest and whole.

In Season 5 especially, we have seen both Adrien and Marinette act more like their alter egos, even without the masks. Similarly, we have also seen Cat Noir and Ladybug behave more like Adrien and Marinette - because ‘Adrien’ and ‘Marinette’ are a kind of costume, too. When they fully integrate both aspects of themselves, they will be more complete individuals.

Similarly, Gabriel has begun behaving more like Monarch. For example, I noted in a previous post that we saw him do his evil villain laugh as Gabriel, for the first time. He’s letting his darkness show, and that means people will begin to see through him, at last.

For akuma victims, this is the stage we never get to see because we don’t see most of them after they’re freed. But we see some, like Alya, Nino and other friends. Based on this, I like to think every victim learns something from the experience and take steps to integrate their shadow side and outer persona to become a more whole person.

This whole subject is a Jungian idea, which I’m really into. I wrote a whole thing about Adrien accepting his Cat Blanc ‘shadow’ side in my fic Breaking Free. I’m a big believer in the need for this, to maintain mental health.

5. Fermentation - Adding bacteria, etc. to the substance to aid the breakdown process. Symbolically, this means new experiences and trials we go through as this new, more complete self, each one adding to who we are and shaping us further.

6. Distillation - The substance is boiled and condensed for purification. Similarly, we self-reflect and ‘purify’ ourselves as we evolve.

As I mentioned earlier, in season 1 we learn that it’s not enough just to free a victim from an akuma. The akuma will fly around and spread the negativity it previously brought. Left unchecked, it multiplies. In life, this is seen when we haven’t truly dealt with a problem but only put a temporary salve on it - a plaster on a broken leg.

Purifying the akuma - visually shown as the butterfly turning white again - symbolises that moment when we let go of all the things that bring us down and hold us back in life, even if it means letting go of aspects of ourselves. It’s a moment of self-cleansing and refreshment.

7. Coagulation - The substance is crystallised into a solid state once more.

In other words, we’ve come full circle and can begin the whole process anew - because we never stop growing. Even when we reach the end of Miraculous, if these characters were real they would continue to grow over and over and over.... Likewise, each and every one of us will go through the transformative process again and again, taking memories from each previous form and carrying them with us into our next metamorphosis.

#ml meta #mlb meta #ml analysis #mlb analysis #transformation #butterflies #alchemy #miraculous #ml s5 #mlb s5 #ml adrien #ml marinette #ml gabriel #Gabriel Agreste's A+ Parenting #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng #ml ladybug #ml cat noir #ml chat noir #cat noir #chat noir #chat blanc #cat blanc #LadyNoir #adrinette #adrienette #ladrien #masks #identities #dissolution

[not-souleaterpost]

Fire Force as a One Piece ending prediction?

During my "research" for the iceberg, I did read all of Fire Force and thought quite a lot about it - a lot of the thoughts connect to Soul Eater, so I leave them for the Iceberg - but this specifically is such a weird thing I noticed, that I had to write it down - guess spoilers for both One Piece and Fire Force

Before we really start, I wanna make clear this won't be one of these 2009 "wow this generic story is like this generic story images"

But some comparisions that are simmilar to that will be needed (while keeping in mind that they may be common tropes and or cultural ideas, picked up through osmosis - which may even count into the more "plausible" explanation in the end)

So anyways, the whole premise of Fireforce at the start is "hero kid who everybody sees as a devil and can't stop smiling" - and one can ofcourse make the whole "Pirates with Devil fruit that smile comparison"

You may ask why I chose those images to represent that - because they tie in with my next point - because at the beginning of both stories the smiles had quite different meaning - Shinra's anxiety forcing his face to contort seems kinda different to the whole "Will of D, facing ones death with a smile because you lived your fullest life and know that your will is gonna be carried on" So what changed to make it not such a stretch - well this pun is what changed - the change from stretching gum, to stretching being a metaphor for imagination freeing reality, making one free - AKA the Gum gum fruit to Joy Boy retcon - aka, Luffy basically being a quasi reincarnation of a messiah figure, like somebody else...

One could say "well, Luffy rejects being called a hero" - but that still leaves the "unlikely person is the messiah" thing by instead of the one who looks like the devil being it, it's the one who doesn't care about it and wouldn't mind being called a devil.

But anyways, one could say, who cares, the "shonen hero becomes a japanese Jesus" thing is very common (one could write a whole essay on that) so what's the point, gonna pull in Naruto too? (enen thought there are some connections for Soul Eater with that, but I'll leave it for the iceberg) The answer is the thing I mentioned about imagination - Fire Force basically ends with Shinra using imagination to recreat a quasi perfect world free of the vows of the current world (which was cartoonified already) - and what does Luffys new power do?

Turning everything more goofy and cartoony... Emphasis on more, because One Piece allways was cartoony... (We get more into what that could mean later) I would put some pictures, but its literally to common to point out, so I better leave some space for more relevant shit. So both storys focus on the freeing aspect of using one's imagination anad dealing with death (i.e. the Will of D is realising in a way the imagined future to motivate the present to overcome the past) ((Maybe it literally means Will of Death instead of Dawn, Devil or Downloading pirated things is actually good))

One could say that is an coincidence too, but why then all the Sun God Symbolism? The sun as a symbol of hope, like the laughing sun of Soul Eater in contrast with the Mad Moon cackling in despair... And trust me, One Piece has enough of it's own Moon symbolism

So here we are - the era of the Moon as being the time of Madness and Oppresion, in both Fire Force and One Piece - yet the Sun is both despair and hope, destruction and creation - because that's what Shinra uses to get his stupid power scaler bait (like literally people on youtube see the ending and think "is he stronger than Goku", man if storys for 10 year olds are too complicated for you...) creation powers (his name literally meaning "Of All Creation") that let him in a blink destroy and recreat the world - while Luffy is also prophecied to destroy atleast an island, and probably the current "world" of artificial borders (probably creating the All Blue and shit but that doesn't matter at the moment)

But if still not convinved, lets talk about the other stuff that started matching up with Fire Force - a new super villian above all of the others that many think is a woman, while shrouded in shadow - is this the Evangelist or IMU? Devil fruits being revealed to be the dreams becoming real, like Adola being the collective unconsious, dreams and hopes. The Goverment is around something called "the mother flame" which is said to be both an amazing powersource and a nuke-like weapon - just as Ametarasu looks like a literal nuclear powerplant while also being a weapon that could explode and cause the literal cataclysm.

Also the whole point of an outsider force goverment ruling the world - especially with the early fire force hints of them being literal aliens, while there are alien hints in one piece too (and the real world metaphor of outsiders rulling your country, as many Japanese people may feel after losing WW2, but that is probably a controversial topic, even if certain weirdly nationalistic details in Fire Force make one have a double take...)

Anyways, there are too many circumstantial references to name and in the end one can just go "well they are just common tropes and cliche's" But if they are - that's kinda interesting in its own way - as outsiders, we look at these weird comics as if we get them, but if all these things are common enough to not be anything special, how clueless are we? Is so much interesting japanese discourse and thought lost to us? Maybe even some of the people considered "shizos" by the fanbase are actually on to something?

But so we have basically two possibilietes - either it is a very common idea in current japanese media (maybe influenced by Jungian stuff, or things like Devilman ((never read it)) or Berserk ((listened to some summary of it for 20 hours while drawing lol)) - or Ohkubo specifically picked up on all the hints, forshadowings etc and went "yeah I'm gonna do the same" - either because he got tired of waiting for the end of One Piece or because he wanted passive agressivly one up Oda maybe lol (he did say that he doesnt want his stuff go on forever like One Piece, so maybe its to show how to do it a lot quicker?) Anyways, in the end its not really a theory one can falsify, and not even one that may be "literally" true - but just realising the connections, even if they just exist do to a common culture and "canon" of works, maybe even works not read by either author but absorbed by osmosis, seem to lead one to a deeper understanding for why certain choices are made. And oh about the "more cartoony" world hint - well if fire foce was once the real world, and the bible exist in One Piece if really countries dont, what if that isn't the void century - the time when the world was like ours, or closer to it - basically all the sciefi stuff and metaphysical bullshit could lead to that - with the One Piece treasure being the literall One Piece manga (an old joke theory I had on some long banned throaway account, but people seem to keep now mention more and more...) - basically the guide of salvation, the power of imagination leading one beyond the fear of death and despair - maybe even why Ohkubo did the Soul Eater connection - he couldnt just copy One Piece one for one, so instead of the solution being the story itself, he went back to his own older story to get the same effect. But maybe thats too deranged even for my standards.

Anyways, I probably forgot a lot of stuff that would make it more convinving, like the out of nowhere "Flame Emperor Sabo" thing, and that the first candidate of the Messiah had a fire power with Sun themed attacks etc or that Luffys mom is unknown or that Ace was supposed to be killed in a simmilar way King Herod wanted to kill Jesus etc. Maybe this all just seems inchoherent, but Idk I had to dump it somewhere, maybe someone can work with this info and pull out something better, but if this all just feels like a waste of time:

Yeah... Sorry

#Fire force #one piece #thematic analysis #conspiracy #theory #analysis #atsushi ohkubo #explanation #coincidence #pseudo essay #idk it is what it is #spoiler

[crimson-ace-reviews]

Crimson Ace Reviews: Power Rangers Samurai, a Nostalgic Translation

Let's be honest, if you're a fan of tokusatsu, Power Rangers is most likely one of the franchises that got you hooked in the first place. It's hard to deny the cultural impact the franchise has had in its nearly thirty-year run, in spite of its various ups and downs. Today, we're going to take a dive into one of the entries in the franchise that sparked a new generation of fans of Power Rangers, myself included. But first, let's go into the history of the circumstances behind this installment.

In 2001, Disney bought the rights to the Fox Family Channel, which Power Rangers was airing on at the time, leading to a lot of major changes behind the scenes. Despite the recent acquisition, the higher-ups wanted almost nothing to do with the franchise, and were about to cancel it until they were convinced that they could lower production costs if future installments were filmed in New Zealand as opposed to filming in California like it had been since the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. In addition, Disney decided to make the show non-union, meaning a lot of the old crew was let go.

These changes, in addition to action scenes relying more on pyrotechnics, questionable performances from actors trying their hardest to hide their New Zealand accents, and a lack of strong continuity compared to when Saban Entertainment was running the show, ended up alienating a lot of long-time fans of the franchise, and causing a major divide in the fandom. And don't even get me started on how much of a nightmare production was. However, common consensus has changed over the years, and the Disney Era is looked back with more fondness than when it was first airing, though there's still debate on whether its better than the Saban era overall.

Eventually, after Power Rangers RPM finished airing in December 2009, Disney decided to officially pull the plug for a number of reasons like low toy sales, production costs increasing, and a general lack of interest in working with this franchise. However, in May 2010, Haim Saban, the man behind Power Rangers in the first place, bought back the rights to the franchise. He even managed to hire back one of the older executive producers for the franchise, Jonathan Tzachor, to aid in production.

This all sounds awesome, right? After almost a decade, Power Rangers is back in the hands of its creator, one of the older producers is coming back to work on it, and it can get a fresh start on another network. How can this lead to anything going wrong? Well...

Because Saban wanted the next season to premiere in February like most seasons did, the production team only had about six months to film the whole thing, coupled with Nickelodeon having weird rules for the franchise that would affect the airing schedule until the end of Dino Fury's first half, but I'll get to that later.

For now, let's take a look at Power Rangers Samurai

THE STORY

Centuries ago in Japan, Nighlok monsters invaded our world, but samurai warriors defeated them with power symbols passed down from parent to child. Today, the evil Nighlok have risen once again and plan to flood the Earth with water from the Sanzu River (which hydrates them but is deadly to everything else in the human realm) by causing human misery. Luckily, a new generation of heroes stand in their way. They are the Power Rangers Samurai.

This team consists of Jayden (Played by Alex Heartman), the charismatic, yet quiet Red Ranger with control over fire, Kevin (Played by Najee De-Tiege), the team's stoic Blue Ranger with the most traditionalist mindset and control over water, Mia (Played by Erika Fong), the Pink Ranger who is the most compassionate of the five and has control over wind, Mike (Played by Hector David Jr.), the Green Ranger who is arrogant, but still has a good heart and control over the forest, and Emily (Played by Brittany Anne-Pirtle), the Yellow Ranger who was actually forced to fill in for her sick older sister, and has control over earth. Later on, they're joined by Antonio (Played by Steven Skyler), a childhood friend of Jayden's who forged his own gear and becomes the Gold Ranger, with control over light.

The Rangers main ally comes in the form of Mentor Ji (Played by Rene Naufahu), a stern, but caring man who acts as Jayden's primary confidant and father figure. In addition, while they don't directly interact with the team for most of the season, we occasionally follow the comedic antics of returning Mighty Morphin' character Farkus “Bulk” Bulkmeyer (Played by Paul Schrier), and his young nephew, Spike (Played by Felix Ryan), as the two train to become samurai themselves.

As for the Nighlok, they consist of Master Xandred (Voiced by Jeff Szusterman), an angry warlord who spends most of his time waiting to be free while he drinks alcho—I MEAN MEDICINE, Octoroo (Also voiced by Jeff Szusterman), a more intelligent general who orchestrates a few of the group's schemes, Dayu (Voiced by Kate Elliot), the snarky female general whose music is able to help Master Xandred calm down, Deker (Played by Rick Medina), a human/Nighlok hybrid seeking to break his curse by finding a worthy opponent in battle, and Serrator (Voiced by Derek Judge), a deceptive intellectual with an agenda of his own.

Due to the rushed production, a lack of original Ranger footage, and Jonathan Tzachor generally being a huge fan of the Super Sentai season he was adapting, Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, the writing for the episodes fluctuated in quality. There would be some times where the dialogue didn't match the Sentai footage or story it was adapting, like in the very first episode, where Jayden tells the other Rangers that it's important they work together... right before charging off into battle on his own. The show generally tries to make Jayden out to be a more open leader without really acknowledging the struggles his Sentai counterpart had to go through while accepting the help of his teammates.

Then there are the episodes that try to adapt Shinkenger plots without understanding that there are moments where they tend to fit the Sentai characters more instead of making more of an effort to tweak the writing. “Forest for the Trees” is an episode that is supposed to portray Mike as lazy and not worthy of getting to pilot one of the new Zords on his own, but it doesn't work because in Shinkenger, Mike's counterpart was shown to slack off and didn't take things as serious as his teammates did, which justified the plot of the Shinkenger episode.

There are also times where even without the use of Sentai footage, episodes that adapt stories from Shinkenger tend to be iffy, either with the conflict or dialogue. A particularly glaring example comes from the episode “Jayden's Challenge”. Basically, Jayden runs away to fight the Nighlok on his own because he doesn't want the other Rangers to get hurt for his sake (long story short, only the Red Ranger can use the sacred sealing symbol to defeat Master Xandred for good, so the Nighlok start to target him more when they find out), but once the other Rangers catch up with him during the next Nighlok attack, Jayden says “I don't like putting you in danger, but someone has to stop the Nighlok... and I'm glad it's us.” The teamwork message isn't bad on paper, it's just that it doesn't really resolve the guilt Jayden feels regarding the other Rangers being willing to sacrifice themselves for his sake. I feel like the episode could have worked more if the conclusion he came to was that if he didn't want to endanger the other Rangers, he needed to focus on being a better leader instead of running away from his problems.

That's not to say all of the episodes are bad, as there are a handful of gems like “The Team Unites”, “There Go the Brides”, “Team Spirit”, and a few others in the second half. But before we get there, let's talk about the reason why I need to clarify the second half of this show is different: Nickelodeon.

For some odd reason, not only did the higher-ups at Nickelodeon mandate that that Samurai be split into two different twenty episode seasons, they also mandated the two part pilot episode, “Origins”, aired last in the first half when it's crucial for establishing the conflict of this season and introducing the characters. Seriously, even though the first episode that aired was called “The Team Unites”, the team is already united, and if you watched this as it premiered like I did, you were just thrown in and forced to understand what the hell was going on from the brief narration that plays at the beginning of every episode.

Then there was also how the writers tried to loosely connect the two seasons by extending an arc in Shinkenger and making it continue into the next season. When the battle with the Nighlok intensifies in “The Tengen Gate”, Mentor Ji suggests obtaining a mystical, yet unfinished talisman called the Black Box for Antonio to unlock the powers of. With how the conflict is framed, you would assume that the next episode, “Boxed In”, would focus on that power being on display, wouldn't you? Unfortunately, this concept gets dragged out/abandoned for the next few episodes since Antonio fails to complete the Black Box so it can be saved for the first episode of the second half of Samurai, Super Samurai... Except the one hour special that aired inbetween the two halves, “Clash of the Red Rangers”, not only featured the Black Box in action, but it also revealed another powerup that hadn't been revealed yet either, meaning that all that effort to make the premiere of Super Samurai all the more exciting was once again a case of Power Rangers getting screwed over by the network it airs on.

Thankfully, Super Samurai is a much-needed improvement in the writing department. There's more original footage and deviation from Shinkenger, character dynamics are explored more, and the stakes are higher, leading to more drama and more interesting conflicts. We even get more episodes where Bulk and Spike interact with the Rangers for more than a few seconds like “Runaway Spike” and “The Strange Case of the Munchies”.

The final arc is very hit or miss in my opinion, as while it does have some good moments, there are a lot of problems related to certain characters and how they act that impacts the story, but I won't give anything away. For now, let's tall about...

THE HEROES

In my opinion, Power Rangers Samurai has one of the more underrated casts in the franchise. While I wouldn't call the characters outright phenomenal, there's still a great deal of effort put in by the cast where you can see how strong their chemistry is. Compared to later entries like Megaforce or Ninja Steel, the characters still display a lot of personality, and you can tell the actors are having a good time.

As a Red Ranger, Jayden is a bit of a mixed bag. I like how Alex Heartman gives more of a relaxed performance around the others, showing he can be open, but is more than capable of playing the role of the serious leader. He's somewhat friendly, but when faced with the slightest challenge, he won't hesitate to jump into action, a trait that is put in a new light with a reveal late into the series. “Day Off” is an episode that really shows off his acting chops, as you can really see the struggle Jayden goes through trying to master a new technique.

At the same time, he also doubts his skills more than most Red Rangers, even his predecessor, Scott from RPM. He worries about the good of the team, and will go off on his own if it means they'll be safe... even though he's the one to talk about the importance of working as a team in the first place. This is the biggest problem I have with Jayden as a character. Some episodes, he's the one who tries to rally the team together and does a decent job at it, but other times, he'll abandon them if his ideals are challenged in the slightest.

I feel like making Jayden more friendly also messes with some of the moments where he tries to be more aloof, but I don't mind what this show does with the character. He's nowhere near my favorite Red Ranger, but he's still a serviceable lead.

Kevin is arguably more dedicated to the cause than Jayden is and gets more development as the series goes on. Before the Nighlok attacked, Kevin had dreams of being an Olympic swimmer, and he had to give it all up to fight for the greater good. He's so dedicated that he doesn't hesitate to find ways to keep training. When the Rangers get a day off in “Day Off” (I know, shocking, right?), Kevin's first thought that it was a test of their loyalty because “A samurai never takes a day off”, and while he's bedridden after several injuries in “Jayden's Challenge”, he spends his time coming up with a new Megazord combination instead of just resting. In a way, it's like he wants to put as much effort into this role as possible after giving up his dream, and it's why he has the most traditional views on being a samurai.

Most of Kevin's focus episodes revolve around testing his will as a samurai, whether it be finding a Zord to heal the Rangers with in “A Fish Out of Water”, growing to accept Antonio to the team in spite of his differences in “The Blue and the Gold”, and struggling to accept the fact that he had to abandon his swimming career to fight as a Ranger. Granted, that last example is kind of muddled by how the episode ended with Kevin subbing in for someone on his old swim team, but I digress. He honestly goes through the most development of everyone on the team, still maintaining the high standards he puts on himself, but still finds ways to open up to the others more. Overall, a decent character in my opinion.

I'm probably going to get accusations of copying what Linkara said during his review of this season, but Mia is honestly my least favorite character in the team. While she's compassionate and tries to serve as the heart of the team, more often than not, you can boil her character down to “likes to cook, even though she's bad at it”. So many episodes mention Mia's inability to cook, and even when a Nighlok with the ability to hurt people with his insults points it out, nobody ever flat out tells her how they feel, instead choosing to make quips about how bad she is at cooking behind her back. Because that's a good lesson to teach kids, right? They don't even do anything funny like exaggerate how terrible her food tastes. There could have been a really nice episode where Antonio tries to give her some advice on how to improve her cooking, given that he's no stranger to food himself.

She also has a bit of a rivalry with Dayu, which I'll get to later, but other than that, she arguably gets the least amount of focus out of the cast. Most of her major roles in Super Samurai basically involve her being the target of Spike's affection, but that never goes anywhere. The only episode she gets that really focuses on her is “He Ain't Heavy Metal, He's My Brother”, and even then, it focused more on her relationship with her brother Terry. The conflict of the episode revolved around Terry starting a rock band while his family tried to get him to focus more on getting into medical school. Instead of actually supporting his dreams and being happy he can do what he wants since she's in a different position being forced into life as a Ranger, she decides to tell him to “be realistic” and blows him off for most of the episode. You would think this would be a conflict where Mia helps her brother achieve his dream, but instead, she just repeats what she was taught since she was a child, only instead of being forced to be Ranger, she tells Terry that he has to be a doctor. To be fair, she does come along, but the episode never draws any comparison between their lives, which is a real wasted opportunity.

In general, this season just brushes over the idea of the Rangers being trained for this mission since birth, not really going into how unethical this can be. I wouldn't outright call them child soldiers, but the writers honestly needed to have more moments where the Rangers talked about how their lives have been, especially in comparison to someone like Antonio. A really interesting idea you could have done with the cooking gag was to show how strict the regimen was for the Rangers growing up. Imagine if out of all the Rangers, Mia is the only one who has almost no life skills outside of being a samurai? Show her struggling to cook a basic meal or even drive a car because she was focused so much on training, being a samurai is the only thing she's good at. But no, instead, we got easily one of the most boring Pink Rangers in the history of the franchise.

Mike is another character I have conflicting feelings on. Hector David Jr. gives a good performance showing how easygoing Mike can be at times, making him out to be a really chill guy to hang out with. The problem lies in how the focus episodes highlighting how “lazy” he can be don't really work because Mike is never shown to be behind any of the other Rangers in battle. My best guess is that the reason Mike tries to outsmart his opponents more than the others is because he's aware he isn't the best fighter, and needs to resort to trickery more, sort of like what he did in the cold open to “A Sticky Situation”.

But again, as creative as his fight scenes can be, he isn't really shown to be any less competent than any of the other Rangers. I feel like if you wanted to show Mike as the outlier of the team, maybe the writers could have made him be the one who comes into conflict with Jayden's leadership the most due to having arguably the least amount of dedication to the cause compared to the others. Have him be the one to question why he got roped into a war he never wanted to fight because he happens to be the descendant of a samurai, or call out Mentor Ji for not immediately accepting Antonio into the team because he isn't a descendant of a samurai. Basically, make Mike a cynic who isn't afraid to talk back to Jayden, but at the same time, begrudgingly places his trust in him because he's aware that Jayden is still a good leader for all the problems he has with this whole situation. I'm not saying I hate Mike, as I still enjoy his character. I just feel like out of all the Rangers this season, you could have done so much more with him.

Emily is honestly my favorite Ranger this season. The idea of her not being the first choice for the Yellow Ranger on top of having a lot of self-confidence issues leads to some really interesting focus episodes. Yeah, she can be clumsy and has a habit of needing to be helped, but she isn't really shown to be less capable than the rest of the Rangers. Like Mike, she can be very clever when the situation calls for it, like in (Sticks & Stones, Trading Places, A Strange Case of the Munchies). At the same time, the others tend to act like she's less of a Ranger due to her vulnerability, so she has to prove herself in response. Just because she appears to be harmless, it doesn't mean she's a complete coward or liability in the battlefield.

The one problem I have with Emily is how her backstory is handled. It's a minor nitpick, but I think it would have been a little more interesting if we got to know Emily's sister, Serena, a little more outside of a single flashback. Maybe there could be an episode where Emily goes to visit Serena and tells her about her adventures as a Ranger and see how their relationship could change as a result of years of training for Serena amounting to nothing. There's also a huge plot twist later on that really could have been used in comparison to Emily's backstory, but the show never acknowledged the connection.

Ironically, Antonio gets the silver medal as my second favorite member of the team. He's full of energy, genuinely wants to help people, and his friendship with Jayden is very believable. The fact that he managed to barge into the team by reverse engineering Zord technology and helped them unlock several new upgrades as a result of his skills with technology makes him stand out from the traditional setup we all came to expect for the first half of Samurai. At the same time, his overbearing nature makes it easy for others to underestimate him, like in “Room for One More” and “The Blue and the Gold”.

Generally, Antonio's computer knowledge helps one of the underlying themes of this show, finding new ways to work with tradition. It's because of him that the Rangers gain access to forms and weapons that none of their predecessors had access to. While Kevin and Mentor Ji initially struggle to accept Antonio into the team thanks to his use of technology and unorthodox fighting style, they realize that he is just as much of a samurai as the others are. For a show focused on bloodlines and destiny, Antonio's introduction was surprisingly well-done, and it adds to the appeal of his character.

As for the allies, we only have three: Mentor Ji, Bulk, and Spike.

Mentor Ji is honestly a pretty forgettable mentor, all things considered. The Rangers already spent their entire lives training, so why is he even there? We don't get a lot of scenes where he helps them train, and unlike other mentors like Master Splinter or Sensei Wu, he doesn't get to help the Rangers on the field as much as he should. Yeah, he doesn't have powers, but he's still shown to be a pretty capable fighter regardless. He just doesn't have as commanding of a presence that a mentor has compared to Zordon, Doggie Cruger, or Doctor K.

The most we really know about his past is that he pretty much raised Jayden since he was a kid, and that he has a motorcycle (implying he was a rebel in the past), and that's it. We never see how deep his relationship with Jayden goes despite being the only one to know an important secret the latter has. For the most part, he serves more as a yes-man for Jayden who occasionally scolds the other Rangers. Even Gosei was memorable for how boring he was and how he gave his Rangers power-ups every day, but Mentor Ji? I still can't really tell you much about his personality other than that he's strict.

It's pretty clear that the return of Bulk was meant to be a selling point for older fans who hated the way the Zordon Era had been forgotten by Disney, but the problem I have lies more in how not much is done to draw connections to older seasons, and even the plot for this season. Remember, this was the first season of Power Rangers I ever saw as a kid, and thanks to the incompetence at Nickelodeon preventing me from seeing the actual pilot until the first half was over, I never got a proper introduction to Bulk. Even “Origins” just casually has him mention that has a history with the Power Rangers, but he doesn't say much beyond that.

With Tommy's reintroduction in Dino Thunder, more emphasis was placed on how important of a character he was in the franchise, and how much of a surprise it was for the new team to find this out. With Bulk and Spike, you could easily replace them with any other two characters, and not much would change. You could have had made all kinds of jokes with Bulk having lived through so many monster attacks, like have him note that samurai-themed Power Rangers is a surprise, or that he's not even surprised by monster attacks at this point. I know Linkara made this a joke in his video, but you could have had a funny running gag where Bulk goes off on tangents about things that actually happened to him, like the time he and Skull got turned into monkeys, only for Spike to brush him off due to how ridiculous they sound.

Another thing I don't get is why Bulk suddenly wants to be a samurai. I mean, it's not completely out of the ballpark, considering he and Skull pretty became police officers on a whim, but at least there, it was established that they did it to attract girls. Here, it's never explained what made Bulk want to become a samurai, much less train Spike to be one too. He said that he's watched a lot of samurai movies in “Origins” (meaning that Bulk is canonically an Akira Kurosawa fan), and another line right after that slightly implies that he was inspired by the appearance of the Samurai Rangers, but there's not much of an explanation beyond that. I just think if you wanted to make this the main focus of their plotlines, there should be more of an explanation behind Bulk's sudden interest in samurai culture, and that he and Spike should actually get to spend time with the Rangers. Most of the time, they just do their own thing that's vaguely related to being a samurai or wanting to help people, and it feels like you're watching an entirely different show. Even in Mighty Morphin, Bulk and Skull regularly interacted with the Rangers in their civilian lives like supporting characters should, but they don't start to talk with the Rangers in person until Super Samurai.

That being said, Bulk and Spike's antics are still pretty fun to watch. I like the idea of Bulk being this exasperated uncle to someone like Spike, and while I have some problems with the motivation, it's nice to see Bulk take Spike under his wing and teach him about the code of honor a samurai has. Yeah, he still sees being a samurai in a superficial light at times, but at the same time, he still encourages Spike to do the right thing with no ulterior motive, like attempt to fight the Nighlok themselves in a few episodes (Sticks & Stones, Test of the Leader, Stroke of Fate). You can tell that Bulk wants the best his nephew, and when Skull (once again played by Jason Narvy) makes a cameo in the final episode, he's grateful that Bulk watched over Spike.

Spike himself is a decently written character. He's hyperactive and has a laugh that SpongeBob SquarePants would find annoying, but he very clearly wants to help people. I honestly think the show would have been more interesting if the subplots with Bulk were building up to Spike creating his own Morpher and becoming the Gold Ranger instead of Antonio, because Spike clearly has the heart of a Ranger.

Overall, this was a pretty okay cast. There were some who were more memorable than others, but I never outright hated anyone. The Samurai Rangers in particular are a lot more memorable than future Neo-Saban teams like the Megaforce Rangers or the Ninja Steel Rangers.

THEIR ARSENAL

The Samurai Rangers morph using the Samuraizer, a cellphone capable of utilizing Symbol Power. Since this is the source of their powers, they can do things with it other than transform, like create elemental attacks, access their Megazord, and pretty much do whatever the plot needs them to do. Unlike Shinkenger, the Samuraizer doesn't transform into a brush while in use, which is kind of weird, since it makes the Rangers look stupid waving their flip phones in the air. Even Antonio's Morpher, the Samurai Morpher (real creative name, fellas), doesn't resemble sushi like its Sentai counterpart, and looks like a more modern take on the Samuraizer. Either way, it's still a weird change to make, especially since another character just uses the same kind of Morpher the Shinkengers used anyway.

I really like the design of the Samurai Ranger suits. There's a nice balance of black and their respective colors, and the symbols on their helmets are unique. The way their suits are designed after samurai robes is also a nice touch.

The core five Rangers' primary weapon is the Spin Sword, a standard samurai sword with the ability to use different elemental attacks depending on the use of a Power Disk. The Spin Swords can also transform into each Ranger's signature weapon. Jayden gets the Fire Smasher, a giant sword that can transform into a cannon to fire disks with, Kevin gets the Hydro Bow, a bow that can fire off energy arrows, Mia gets the Sky Fan, a fan that can create gusts of wind, Kevin gets the Forest Spear, a spear capable of extending to serve as a pole vault, Emily gets the Earth Slicer, a giant shuriken that can be thrown like a boomerang.

Instead of a Spin Sword, Antonio gets the Barracuda Blade, a backhanded sword that he can use to attack enemies at high speeds, something none of the other Rangers can do. In Super Samurai, Antonio gets another weapon in the form of the Lightzord, a lantern capable of shooting disks that comes with a sword, and can even form its own Megazord.

Speaking of Super Samurai, once Antonio unlocks the full power of the Black Box, the core five Rangers are able to access Super Samurai Mode, a pretty elegant-looking new form which boosts their elemental powers and gives them the ability to access more Megazord combinations, but can only be used one at a time. Jayden in particular gets a new weapon to go with his Super Samurai Mode, the Bullzooka, a blaster that can be combined with the Spin Sword. They also get one more mode, Shark Attack Mode, which gives the user a red version of the Super Mode and a sword that stretch around like crazy.

Overall, this is a pretty solid arsenal. There's plenty of variety to what the Rangers can do, but it doesn't feel too overwhelming to keep up with. They saved that for the Zords.

The core five Samurai Rangers have a Folding Zord, these tiny shapes that can grow and resemble animals to fight giant Nighlok with. Jayden gets a pentagon/lion, Kevin a hexagon/dragon, Mia a circle/turtle, Mike a square/bear, and Emily a triangle/monkey. These five Zords combine to form the Samurai Megazord.

While it's a little blocky, I really like the design for the Samurai Megazord. The sword and helmet really make it stand out among other base Megazords, and I think the basic finisher, Katana Power is one of the coolest attacks in the entire series.

The rest of the Zords are themed around the various disks the Rangers use. The Beetle Zord is the first auxiliary Zord Jayden unlocks (though he later hands it down to Mike), and it can combine with the Samurai Megarord to form the Beetle Blaster Megazord, with the ability to fire energy blasts from its helmet.

It's a pretty simple looking upgrade, but I dig it. I especially like the finisher, Rotating Beetle Blaster, where the beetle head spins around and shoots a huge fireball.

Kevin's auxiliary Zord is the Swordfish Zord, which can fly around in addition to swimming, be used to cure any poison, and can even shoot torpedoes at enemies. Wow, this is a really solid Zord, so surely, the Megazord combination should be really cool, right? Well...

Because a majority of the Swordfish Zord is on the back, the Swordfish Fencer Megazord doesn't look that impressive, and is one of the combinations that sees the least action. It doesn't help that the finisher where he sticks its sword in its head and swings it down looks ridiculous.

The final member of the original three auxiliary Zords is the Tiger Zord, which Jayden unlocks. It doesn't really get to do a lot on its own, and mainly serves as a centerpiece for the other Megazord combinations.

The Tiger Drill Megazord, a Megazord which can drill through enemies, isn't that impressive, though I feel like it's more because it doesn't get to do much compared to its other combinations.

The Beetle, Swordfish, and Tiger Zords can all combine into the Samurai Battlewing, which in turn, can combine with the Samurai Megazord to form the Battlewing Megazord. All things considered, I think this is one of my favorite combinations in the series, because there's a good balance between all eight Zords combined, and giving it the ability to fly helps it stand out.

Antonio's first Zord is the Octo Zord, which naturally, looks like a giant squid.

What? Octopus, squid, they're the same thing, right? This Zord can combine with the Samurai Megazord to form the Octo Spear Megazord, giving it a freeze ray and an electric lance.

It's simple, but I like the way the Octo Zord forms all these weapons for the Megazord.

One last auxiliary Zord that only really appears twice, but is still worth mentioning, is the Shark Zord, basically a giant version of the Shark Sword in Shark Attack Mode.

It can combine with the Samurai Megazord to form the Samurai Shark Megazord, using the Shark as a giant sword.

Not much else I can say there, other than that it exists.

Antonio's primary Zord is the Claw Zord, a lobster that can transform into the Claw Battlezord. Unlike most Megazords, it has four different modes based off what head it has. East is the default mode that can weaponize the Zord's claws, South uses twin katanas, West has a fan for a weapon, and North is the only mode that can combine with the Octo Zord, using it as a giant spear.

Once the Rangers unlock the power of the Black Box, they can combine the Samurai Megazord and Claw Battlezord to form the Claw Armor Megazord, while the Beetle, Swordfish, Tiger, and Octo Zords can combine to form the Samurai Battle Cannon.

While I think the cannon looks cool, the Claw Armor Megazord is pretty disappointing. It just looks like the Claw Battlezord with the Samurai Megazord's legs with the Turtle and Ape being reduced to sword holders.

The last Zord the Rangers unlock is the Bull Zord, a giant bull armed with cannons, and can transform into the creatively named Bull Megazord.

I really like how the design for this Megazord emphasizes the strength of the animal it’s based on, as well as the focus on ranged attacks. All eleven Zords can combine to form the Samurai Gigazord.

To say I'm not a fan of this combination would be an understatement. So many Zord parts just look like they were stuck on somewhere because the designers didn't know where else to put them, like the Samurai Battlewing on the back, or the Turtle and Ape Zords at the bottom.

Overall, there are a lot of cool Zords in the Rangers' arsenal, and the only real problems I have lie in the last two major combinations. Well, those and the dreaded Megazord cockpit forms, which would be common for most of the Neo-Saban seasons.

In order to access their Megazords, the Rangers transform into Mega Mode, and their Spin Swords become Mega Blades, which can be used to control the Megazord... when it's never explained why they need to use this form in the first place. Yeah, this franchise is no stranger to promoting toys, but why spend this much money on a form that adds nothing to the team's arsenal? This season has already gotten a lot of flak for just copying Shinkenger's story, so a lot of the Mega Mode scenes could have easily been cut to focus more on original fight scenes.

And it gets worse. The super modes have a Mega form too, and they're just as pointless. There's not much I can say other than the Super Mode vest gives them more armor, but I don't see the point of giving them more armor when they're not fighting a Nighlok head on. You could have easily said something like this form is necessary because a lot of Symbol Power is needed to control the Megazords, and this form is the safest way to channel it in a high amount. But instead, there's never any real explanation for this form.

And that's not even getting into Shogun Mode. After Jayden unlocks the Bull Zord, a Ranger in Super Mega Mode can access Shogun Mode right before the Megazord's finisher... and nothing changes. You could at least argue it's necessary for the Bull Megazord and Samurai Gigazord, but then Mia goes Shogun Mode in a later episode to use the Samurai Battle Cannon with no changes. They don't even try to edit the finisher to make Shogun Mode seem more powerful.

The only time any of these forms get action outside of the Megazord cockpit is in the finale, when Jayden can suddenly use Shogun Mode, but it's not explained why he can do that. Later seasons with original Megazord cockpit scenes and Megazord cockpit modes would at least use the footage to get more creative with the setting by involving characters who weren't involved in the Sentai originally, like in Dino Charge and Dino Fury.  As a whole, these forms just don't add much to the arsenal or story compared to later entries.

THE VILLAINS

While I think these villains have an interesting idea behind them as a whole, the Nighlok as characters really leave a lot to be desired.

Coming off the heels of Venjix, arguably one of the scariest and most successful villains in the franchise, to say Master Xandred is a letdown would be an understatement. We're supposed to see him as this unstoppable demon lord, when most of his screentime consists of him sitting around and drinking booze—I MEAN MEDICINE. THIS IS OBVIOUSLY HEADACHE MEDICINE HE IS DRINKING. When he's not slacking off, he's just yelling at his subordinates for breathing wrong, all while it's impossible to take him seriously when he sounds like someone doing the world's worst Alex Jones impression. Yeah, he's shown to be pretty damn strong when he's on the surface, beating up the Rangers with ease while he's weak from Sanzu River dehydration, but there isn't really a lot of emotional drama or connection to him on the Rangers' front. The show doesn't go into detail about how brutal the war has been over the years, and even the idea of Jayden's father being the person who sealed him away originally doesn't really change how he sees Jayden, or any of the other Rangers for that matter.

I just feel like if you wanted to show how strong he was, have him fight the Rangers earlier in the series to give the audience an idea of how deadly he is, long before the Rangers even get the Black Box or any of their other Megazord combinations. It would put more incentive for the Rangers to get more upgrades instead of his growing power doing nothing but occasionally sending out hordes of footsoldiers. There's actually another villain who really should have taken his place as the leader of the Nighlok, but I'll get to him later.

Octoroo is arguably the second most competent of the Nighlok, and the most loyal to Master Xandred. He actually comes up with plans that would benefit his kind in the long term, like targeting Jayden to make sure he doesn't use the sealing symbol (Unexpected Arrival, Fight Fire With Fire), trying to refill an old gate with Sanzu River water for the Nighlok to travel through (The Blue and the Gold), and risking his life to power up a Nighlok to create extra misery before they get sealed away for good (The Great Duel). Of course, all Master Xandred does is, as I mentioned before, yell at the only one of his generals to not betray him in some way because he's a really stupid demon lord. I think it would have been interesting for something to happen that would test Octoroo's loyalty to Master Xandred, or at the very least, expand upon their relationship in some way.

Dayu is honestly a pretty interesting character, mainly due to the way her backstory was handled compared to Shinkenger. Without giving too much away on either side, Dayu is much more sympathetic than her Eastern counterpart, and it also connects her to Deker in an interesting way by making her half-human as well. The way her instrument (it's called a harmonium, but it looks and sounds nothing like one) is connected to her backstory gives her a much more tragic element to her, and when it's broken by Master Xandred, not only is it enough for her to leave the Nighlok out of spite, her desperation to get it fixed is given greater meaning because of how much it means to her past. She's been through so much, and her instrument is the only thing she has that can remind her of her past, when she was far happier, but it's shown to be a very self-destructive lifestyle.

She's so dependent on reliving her past where she was about to start a happy life with her loved one, she's willing to go back to Master Xandred if it means she can get it fixed, and as soon as the reality that her loved one is gone sets in on her, she feels like she has no choice but to give into her Nighlok side and help Master Xandred reach the surface. It's a pretty tragic character arc, all things considered, and I feel like the changes made from the Sentai really help to make her stand out.

Unfortunately, I can't say the same for Deker. Despite being billed as Jayden's main rival, Deker doesn't really have a lot going for him other than his backstory and how often he likes to talk about his sword, Uramasa. And don't worry, he says it all the time so you don't forget the name. Again, without spoiling Shinkenger for newcomers, Deker's Sentai counterpart is arguably more deranged than even Dayu's, and the problem here is that this show wants to have the best of both worlds with Deker as a villain. The writers clearly want him to be held in the same level of disdain as even Master Xandred, but also want him to be a more sympathetic villain. I'm not saying you can't do that, but even with Zen-Aku, he did plenty of evil things before we learned he was cursed.

With Deker, the show spends so much time trying to remind the audience of how tragic of a figure he is, they forget to have him actually do anything evil to balance that out. Yeah, he interrupts a Nighlok fight to duel Jayden (Test of the Leader), but he never really does anything else like that. The closest he comes to being evil is when he temporarily operates under Serrator's faction, and even then, it's so he can get Uramasa fixed. When he fights, all he talks about is how he wants to break his curse, but we never see him go to any extreme measures to break the curse. Instead of a noble demon, show Deker as someone who will threaten Jayden into dueling him so he can break his curse, and resort to dirty tactics so he can find a way, any way to break the curse. He's lived for over a century, but he never really shows any desperation or drive to end his misery like what we see with Dayu. It ultimately makes it hard to get invested in his final duel with Jayden because he's not too big of a threat who needs to be stopped like Jayden claims.

Again, not to parrot Linkara's views on the show, but Serrator really should have been the final villain. He's easily the most deceptive, has a bigger role in the backstories of Deker and Dayu, and he has a bigger plan in general. You'd be forgiven for thinking that Master Xandred was a red herring and that he only existed as a placeholder until Serrator took over. He has a much more unique arsenal of soccer balls, giant bladed gauntlets, and even his own personal footsoldiers, showing how he is able to keep up with the Rangers on his own. The fact that he almost came close to achieving his goal only serves to show how effective of a villain he was.

You could have easily changed the story for Serrator to take over. Show how weak and pathetic Master Xandred has become after generations of battles with the Samurai Rangers, and the first time the current generation of Rangers sees him surface, he isn't this threatening juggernaut they were taught to see him as. Instead, Serrator kills him and asserts himself as the true master of the Nighlok, throwing the Rangers through a loop as he plans to do something worse than flooding the Earth with the Sanzu River. Unfortunately, we’re stuck with Master Xandred instead.

The Nighlok's footsoldiers, the Moogers, have some pretty cool designs. I like the demonic look to them, and they have a pretty cool arsenal. They also get giant variants to fight the Rangers with in their Megazords, alongside the Spitfangs, these walking crocodile heads that can breathe fire.

The standard Nighlok monsters also have some unique designs to them, as well as some really cool powers that show a noticeable flaw in the Rangers' training. Because the Rangers are trained to be samurai, they struggle against Nighlok they can't match in sword combat. There are Nighlok like Rofer, who can extend his arms to punch enemies, Dreadhead, who is immune to sword strikes, Madimot, who can brainwash people, Steeleto, who can manipulate the blades on his body to attack enemies, Armadeevil, who has a near impenetrable shell, and Maldan, who leads a squadron of Moogers armed with laser blasters.

A lot of these Nighloks are pretty intimidating, and thanks to their abilities, prove to be a real challenge to the Rangers, which makes them finding ways to beat them all the more cathartic. If I had to pick my favorite, it would either be Dreadhead for his entertaining cowboy voice, or Robtish for his design.

Overall, these villains can be very hit and miss. While they're far from the worst villain group in the franchise, there was a lot of room for improvement.

HIGHLIGHTS

Top Five Worst Episodes

#5: Boxed In

After being poisoned by Octoroo, Jayden is abducted by Deker while the other Rangers are injured by the treacherous Nighlok, Arachnitor. So not only does Antonio have to continue working on unlocking the power of the Black Box, he also has to find Jayden, while the rest of the Rangers have to fight against Arachnitor, who had recently been mutated by Master Xandred.

This episode isn't necessarily bad, but the problem lies in how it tries to extend the Black Box arc for Super Samurai. With the way its set up, you would think Antonio borrowing the other Rangers' Power Disks would mean he would make more progress on the Black Box, but then it never comes into play during the climax. The Rangers don't even beat Arachnitor, as he just gets away while they say that he did multiple times to make sure the audience knows.

The Megazord fight at the end with the Giant Moogers is just poorly edited, blatantly reusing footage from earlier and future episodes that doesn't even match up with the current events, like Jayden's control panel having the Beetle Zord emblem when he gave it to Mike a while ago, Antonio's cockpit showing the Claw Battlezord is in South mode when it stayed in East for the entire battle, or having Claw Battlezord East's finisher lead to the footage of Giant Moogers being taken down by the Claw Armor Megazord's Double Katana Strike in “Super Samurai”.

As a whole, the episode just feels like padding because nothing is really accomplished other than a little more knowledge on Deker's backstory, and this leads to the fight scenes in the next two episodes being heavily edited thanks to the Rangers not having the Black Box yet. It's at the bottom of the list because its flaws are more in how the writers chose to handle the Black Box in general by dragging out the debut.

#4: The Blue and the Gold

While trying to adjust to his new life with the team, Antonio starts to spy Kevin to find a way to understand him better, the two accidentally uncover a Nighlok plan to refill an old well with Sanzu River water so they can use it as a portal. In addition to Octoroo's barrier blocking their cell signal, his accomplice, Antberry, uses his Sanzu Slime to make it hard for them to actually use their weapons. Kevin and Antonio have to put aside their differences and find a way to deal with the Nighlok without the help of the other Rangers.

Like “Boxed In”, this episode isn't really bad, as it's some good character focus for Kevin and Antonio, and hearing Octoroo say “The Red Ranger's gonna fry your boo-tay!” near the end was pretty funny. The problem lies in how it adapted the Shinkenger plot. In the corresponding Shinkenger episode, the villain's plan was still to use a well as a portal for his kind, but he planned to sacrifice several schoolgirls to do so. How does Saban handle this? Their plan is to break a bunch of stolen toys. I am not making this up.

Okay... first, how would breaking toys cause a lot of sorrow if the kids who owned them aren't around to see them being broken? Second, how does the axe Octoroo gave Antberry work, and why does it need to be used to break toys instead of any old weapon? Third, why does the axe need to be sharpened if it's only being used to break some plastic toys? Fourth, why would Octoroo recruit a Nighlok with the most conspicuous powers for a covert operation? And finally, why was stealing toys from kids to cause sorrow “Plan A”?

The whole story just has so many plotholes, and the idea of stealing toys just makes the Nighlok look inept instead of the fearsome demons the show wants us to see them as.

#3: A Sticky Situation

Epoxar, a Nighlok with glue powers, glues both Mike and Kevin's hands together, making it hard for them to actually fight. When the other Rangers are incapacitated by the Nighlok, it's up to Mike and Kevin to put aside their differences and take down Epoxar.

I'm not a fan of the “two characters get glued together” plot a lot of TV shows do, so as you can imagine, I'm obviously not a fan of this episode, and most of it boils down to how the story is handled. First off, the Rangers only try to get rid of the glue once, by having Jayden swing his sword at the makeshift handcuffs. Nobody tries using their Symbol Power to melt the glue or maybe make it easier to stretch a little. Second, both Mike and Kevin think that they can work together while stuck like this, and the scenes of them trying to train in this state just drag on. Third, even though they know what the Nighlok's powers are, the Rangers don't even think to be careful while chasing him, and fall victim to his glue trap.

This episode is just full of poor decisions, and it isn't even that funny. It doesn't help that this was the last filler episode before the final two arcs, and it was a pretty bad filler episode at that. Also, there was a scene where Kevin had go to the bathroom while he and Mike were still stuck together, and now all I can't get that horrible image out of my head.

#2: The Great Duel

While the Rangers get used to a new addition to their ranks, Jayden faces off against Deker for the final time.

I don't want to give too much away, given that this episode is during the final arc and involves a new character, but a lot of the problems I have with the episode boils down to how this new character is treated by the other Rangers. They don't really do anything wrong, yet all the other Rangers do is judge them for no reason.

Another problem I have lies with Jayden's final duel with Deker. Like I said earlier, there's no real drama between the two that makes you get excited for this fight, and what should be an important moment for Jayden's character arc just comes across as filler.

It's just not a good episode because even though we're this close to the end of the series, nothing really feels important here.

#1: Something Fishy

After he was almost eaten by a cat while he was in the body of a fish in the previous episode (I'll explain later), Antonio develops a crippling fear of fish to the point where he can't even draw his Barracuda Blade. When it seems like the Rangers can't snap him out of his fear, they go to face Serrator for the first time, while Mentor Ji tries to help Antonio find a new weapon to use.

While I like the idea of a Ranger having to deal with the trauma of a monster attack, the way it's handled just doesn't work. It's framed as a standard “face your fears” episode while not really acknowledging what caused Antonio to develop a fear of fish: association with a negative incident. Most of the team's attempts to help Antonio amount to “I'm going to force myself to do something I don't like so you can eat fish and overcome your fear”, and before that, they pretty much tell him to grow a pair and get over it.

In general, Antonio's fear is treated as unreasonable and even the way it's resolved feels like an insult to anyone who struggles to face their fears. Mentor Ji just goes up to Antonio, shoves a piece of sushi in his mouth and tells him to just deal with his crippling fear of fish that he only got after a near-death experience.

This could have been a great character focus episode for Antonio. You could have explored why he chose to follow his father and become a fisherman himself instead of what we got. And the worst part is with the debut of Serrator and the Light Zord, this episode is very relevant to the plot. They seriously made an episode where a major villain debuts at the same time as an annoying subplot that fails to actually explore fear, and that's just one of the reasons why I think this is the worst episode of the season.

Top 5 Best Episodes

#5: Super Samurai

When Arachnitor returns and overwhelms the Rangers, Antonio has to hurry and finish the Black Box as soon as he can and give the team the power boost they need, all while water from the Sanzu River starts to seep into the human world.

While I had a lot of problems with how the Black Box arc was stretched out so it would start in Super Samurai, this episode honestly does a great job showing off the new powers and setting the stage for the second half of this season. The scene where the Rangers see a puddle of Sanzu River water is seen as bad because we know the Nighlok need it, but the simple image of a stick catching on fire as soon as it's dipped in the water is honestly pretty chilling. It pretty much tells the audience, “You thought the Sanzu River flooding the world was bad? Wait until you see what the water does to anything that isn't a Nighlok.”

The stakes are raised even further when the Rangers encounter Arachnitor, and thanks to Octoroo's meddling, can't morph to fight him or the Moogers. We even see some of Mia's hair get singed thanks to touching some Sanzu River water. It's some pretty tense stuff, which is what makes the Rangers getting their powers back in addition to Jayden's first Super Samurai Mode transformation all the more triumphant.

I also really like the ending where Jayden acknowledges that they'll need to use the Black Box more to keep up with the growing threat of the Nighlok, as it really shows how things have gotten more serious. It's a great way to open up the second half of this season.

#4: Trading Places

Switchbeast, a Nighlok under the command of a mysterious benefactor (later revealed to be Serrator), uses his powers to switch the minds of civilians with everyday objects, including Jayden, Kevin, Mia, and Antonio, so it's up to Mike and Emily to stop on their own.

Body swap episodes are a hallmark of TV shows, especially ones aimed at children, and unlike “A Sticky Situation”, which played the cliche plot straight, this episode tries something different with the body swapping. Instead of the standard conflict of the Rangers needing to get used to each other's powers, the swapped Rangers are taken out of the conflict entirely due to being stuck as inanimate objects, leading to a more character-focused conflict with Mike and Emily being the only ones able to stop it, where earlier episodes just left one Ranger out of commission at a time (Team Spirit, The Great Duel).

Another interesting thing is the way the conflict is treated. When you first think about the plan, it's pretty tame by Nighlok standards. It's not stealing and breaking toys dumb, but it's up there. But then the episode reveals Switchbeast's true plan. Why did he place the minds of random people in inanimate objects? Simple, all so the objects could be taken out and disposed of, killing the people inside while their bodies remain emotionless husks, causing all kinds of sorrow. It's honestly a pretty demented plan, and it makes sense when you remember this Nighlok works for Serrator.

This episode also does a good job showing off how far Mike has come as a character. He and Emily have both been underestimated the most out of the team, and even when Emily brings up the events of an earlier episode where Mike tried taking on a Nighlok by himself, Mike is more focused on the fact that Jayden had to save him at the end. Even when Mentor Ji gives him the Black Box to use, Mike isn't sure if he can handle the power. It's pretty interesting to see Mike doubt himself when the stakes are so high, which only makes his and Emily's eventual triumph over Switchbeast all the more satisfying.

I also have to give credit to the actors who were playing the victims this episode, specifically the scenes where Mike and Emily are talking with Mentor Ji while the others are standing there as inanimate objects. It must have been really hard to keep a straight face, especially Najee De-Tiege when Mike put Kevin in a tutu while standing still as a joke.

It's just a really fun episode with really high stakes.

#3: Runaway Spike

When the rent on Bulk's home is overdue, Spike goes out and tries to get a job to help raise money. Meanwhile, the Rangers have to deal with Duplicator, a Nighlok who can create clones of himself.

Despite being billed as important characters in the opening, Bulk and Spike never really got a lot of focus episodes. Thankfully, that changes here. While this is still a rather lighthearted filler episode, it's a good character study for both Bulk and Spike. Spike generally wants to help his uncle out, and while him screwing up on multiple jobs is played for laughs like you'd expect, we see how it affects his self-esteem to the point where he doesn't even notice Duplicator's first attack due to how down he's feeling. After the attack, Spike vents to Mia (who went to make sure he was okay after Duplicator escaped) about how much of a loser he thinks he is, and it's some pretty engaging stuff.

It's also a great episode for Bulk. When he sets out to look for Spike once it gets dark, it really shows how much he cares for his nephew. He doesn't ramble about any ulterior motive like saying Skull will kill him if anything happens to Spike. He chooses to let Spike go out and get a job on his own, but when it gets late, he decides to go looking for him. It's subtle, but it's a great way to show the level of trust Bulk has for Spike, and when it's hinted that Spike got fired from his last job as a security guard, he tries his best to reassure him that he did his best. I really wish we got more episodes like this that explore the relationship between Bulk and Spike, because the two are great here.

Spike's brief interaction with Mia is the highlight of the episode, as not only is a clever follow-up to the running gag about him falling for the Pink Ranger (like father, like son, am I right?), but it's one of the few scenes where Mia can really shine as a character with her, an actual samurai, telling the samurai-in-training to never give up. While I never really shipped Mia and Spike, I can honestly see the two hanging out and becoming close friends after the events of the series. There was also a real missed opportunity to have Spike be one of the few people to actually enjoy Mia's cooking.

The climax here is also one of the more visually stunning fights in the series, using a lot of shadows and clever lighting. Like Duplicator says about himself multiple times in the episode, it's really cool. It's just a great episode that manages to have a fun monster fight while expanding on the characters of Bulk and Spike.

#2: Unexpected Arrival

Octoroo sends Vulpes, a Nighlok with mirror and illusion spells, to spy on Jayden to learn more about the sealing symbol, while the other Rangers try to investigate a mysterious fisherman who sent a message about seeing them soon.

This is the only episode of Samurai's first half on the list, and oh boy, is it a good one. The first half is full of suspense and intrigue as to what the Nighlok's plan is. There's a real sense of uneasiness, especially with how the Nighlok seems to target Jayden specifically. He becomes so paranoid, he actually comes close to accidentally harming Emily in one scene.

The episode also does a great job at introducing Antonio. With how it's structured, you would initially believe that he's connected to the Nighlok's plan, which makes his appearance as the Gold Ranger just as surprising to see as it is for the other Rangers. Granted, Nickelodeon's promo outright spoiled that Antonio was the Gold Ranger, but it's the thought that counts.

After how uneasy the first half felt, Antonio's debut lightens up the tone and makes it incredibly satisfying to see Vulpes get his ass handed to him while showing how eccentric Antonio can be. At the same time, it sets up the next episode where we learn more about Antonio as a character, introducing him but not giving everything about his backstory yet, making the reveal that he and Jayden are old friends intrigue audiences. The episode featuring the debut of the Gold Ranger clearly lived up to its title, as it was clearly a golden one.

#1: The Strange Case of the Munchies

Jayden, Kevin, Mia, Mike, and Antonio are all afflicted with an insatiable hunger thanks to Grinataur, leaving Emily the only one capable of stopping him and keeping the others in order. Meanwhile, Bulk and Spike find Mia's wallet and try to return it by going to the Rangers' home, only to get roped into “Samurai training” by Emily as a diversion.

This is honestly my favorite episode of Samurai just because of how wacky it can get. The sheer amount of energy put in by the actors as they try to eat whatever they can get their hands on is just hilarious, especially Najee De-Tiege, who tries to eat flour from a bag. Even Mentor Ji gets a few good lines in as he tries to keep up with the insanity, seeing how he's the only one besides Emily who wasn't hit by the Nighlok.

The way Bulk and Spike were used was also really funny. When the two come to the Shiba house to give Mia back her wallet while the Rangers are stuffing their faces, Emily pretends to be a drill sergeant to keep Bulk and Spike occupied with a bunch of rigorous training, and she basically channels her inner R. Lee Ermey to scare them away. It's just a riot.

There's not much else I can say about the episode. There's so many funny jokes and slapstick, it's hard to really describe what I like about it. If you watch any episode of Samurai, it should be this one.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Samurai... is a very mixed bag. While its relatively standalone nature makes it a good starting point for newcomers, there are a lot of moments where the writing can be confusing when it comes to what they do and don't change from Shinkenger. At the same time, there are still a lot of good performances from the cast, and some interesting characters that, while not fully used to their full potential, are still enjoyable in their own way. Compared to later Neo-Saban seasons, you could tell there were some growing pains here, and the rushed production didn't help things at all, but honestly? I still think the writers did an okay job with what they had. Yeah, you can probably chalk some of it up to nostalgia, but I still thought this was a pretty decent show. It's nowhere near my favorite in the franchise, but it never reached any of the lows future Neo-Saban entries like Megaforce or Ninja Steel reached.

I'd say if you're someone looking to get into Power Rangers or tokusatsu as a whole, this is a pretty decent starting point. It wouldn't be my first choice for beginners (I'd go more with Lost Galaxy, Wild Force, or Dino Thunder if you were curious), but compared to other Neo-Saban shows, there's still a clear sign of effort here in spite of the rushed production schedule. Even if you've already seen it, or have seen Shinkenger before, I'd also say it would be fun to check out a few episodes of Samurai and see how the source material was handled, either with what was changed, or with the moments blatantly copying scenes from the Sentai.

Although if you were looking to get into Super Sentai, Samurai Sentai Shinkenger is still a great season to start on. It's over ten years old, and it's still considered one of the best entries in the entire franchise. If you grew up with Power Rangers Samurai and want to get into Super Sentai, I highly recommend watching Shinkenger.

#crimson ace reviews #power rangers #power rangers samurai

[ultimate-muscle]

Since Kinnikuman is getting a new series, I've had some concerns. The property is understandably a product of its time, and it's chocked full of outdated stereotypes and unsettling imagery (Brocken Jr. and Geronimo's messy heritage comes to mind), which is one of the reasons why it was never fully localized in the west, to begin with. So I'd wonder if they'll ever try to fix those problems or consider possibly hiring sensitivity readers for their works. Sadly, I doubt it would ever happen; but I honestly wish the authors could work around some of their cast to adapt to current times. What do you think should happen?

I think the old work should stand.

It was a product of its time and culture, and it's been edited as necessary by the authors over time (current volumes have been censored accordingly, and the worst has already been removed). The manga is problematic, but I agree with companies like Warner Brothers and Disney; better to keep things as a record of the past than to remove them or change them. That being said:

A new anime needs to make changes.

The issue I have answering this is more 'do I talk about ideal changes for us in the West' or 'realistic and needed changes for Japan'. I think really it's two different questions, so I'll talk about what I think should happen - and will probably happen - for Japan. That is to say . . . not much. I don't think much is needed.

It's easy to remove Nazi symbols from Brocken, and his current design lacks those symbols anyway. They can easily just remove references to him being a Nazi, and instead he can just be a 'soldier'. Kinnikuman Great can go back to his original red design. Ramenman cannibalising a person can just go back to the original gore (or a broken back). The "Roots" arc can be generally edited or left out.

I think if people have a problem with how nationalities and ethnicities are depicted, and we're talking about Japanese modern standards of racial sensitivity . . . they might be disappointed. For the culture in which it's written, I think it's been pretty great with diversity and representation. We have a black man as a hero. We have a native American as a really inspirational character. We have Americans and Russians shown in positive lights. We have people of all sorts coming together under the banner of 'friendship'.

I think Geronimo is still going to have his headdress and go "owahahaha" in battle, and Ramenman is still going to have stereotypical eyes like a South Park character, and . . . while I don't agree with it, I think we just have to accept that it's a Japanese anime, and that for a Japanese anime (bar the situation regarding female characters), it's going to be pretty ideal.

Now, in terms of the West . . .

I think the best option is to leave the animation exactly as it stands (unless they somehow did keep the swastikas and such), and edit the dialogue in the dub to make it more appropriate. The "owahahaha" cry can be something else. The inappropriate jokes or comments can be made more palatable. The references to Nazis (if left in) can be changed to comments about soldiers.

Now, don't get me wrong, this raises a whole other debate about whether to be true to the source and whether this would be censorship . . . personally, I'm a massive fan of Hetalia and Ultimate Muscle, so I wouldn't even an object to a total script change (so long as it kept true to characters and story), but I think it's the best option to avoid overly being offensive. Let's face it, though, there's not much anime out there that's perfect with different ethnicities and nationalities, and none of them get changed for the west.

That's not to say it's right, but it's also not to say it's wrong. I don't really feel comfortable judging Japan by Western standards, and - even then - I remember things being acceptable in Spain (as one example) that would never be acceptable in Britain, so even 'the West' is an extremely vague and not too useful term.

tl;dr I think designs can be tweaked, and - keeping close to the manga, and not the original anime - a lot of the worst will be absent anyway, especially if they stick to the edited manga. If I'm going to be completely honest, I think if people get offended by Ramenman and Geronimo, they probably are better off reading/watching a different source than lamenting what could/should be in a perfect world. It's not so much a product of its time, but also its country, and I think we all get a bit too sensitive in modern day. Brocken is a whole can of worms, but the rest just . . . is. I'd personally keep it as it stands.

#kinnikuman #anime #ultimate muscle #I want to stress that people obviously have the right to be offended and I don't judge them #and that the manga is problematic as anything #but just that I personally don't think extensive changes are needed #now if it were being rewritten from scratch? I'd make loads of changes #but the manga already exists and is already written #speaking for myself - and only myself - I'm fine with a lot of what's in there and don't think much needs to be removed or changed

[justiceshot]

Inspiration

There’s been this phenomena bothering me for a long time now, and I’ve never spoken up about it because I didn’t feel like I had the authority to do so or the right words to articulate just what about it made me feel so hollow inside. I was doing meal prep today on my lunch hour and the words finally hit me. Like, “Holy shit I get why recipe blogs start with an 85 page thesis on country living before you get to the recipe” level of Hit Me.  

While I was chopping onions I noticed how I was holding my knife (badly) and an old scene from Good Eats popped up into my mind. Immediately it made me smile and I corrected the way I was holding my knife. I used to know the words to every episode of that show--and there were many seasons. I don’t anymore. I couldn’t remember the words to the scene and it made me a little sad before I moved on with the chore.

Why bring this up?

Let me dredge up some old, old tea to give you an idea of when I first noticed it acutely and how it’s changed the way I view media in general. There was a scandal years ago now. Might have been 2016 for the First Trump campaign even where donor information got out on a bunch of celebrities and Alton Brown was on that list as having donated sizably to the Republican party. This was about the time when fear at the LGBTQA community online was at an all time high. I follow a Lot of artists on Twitter and there was just this chorus of despair and dismay. Mr. Brown gave the predictable confusion as to why he was getting backlash and why his decisions should matter and all manner of very logical defensive statements as to why he should do exactly as he did. 

I’m not sure if he ever understood why an entire generation of people who grew up naming him as possibly a childhood hero or at least the reason they gave a passing shit as to why they’d care what they made for themselves suddenly turned away from him. Fast forward a few years and it’s the same story for the creator of Five Nights at Freddy’s (Scott Cawthon, I think?). And again and again there’s this tone deaf confusion from the people I and a lot of other people had kind of put on a bit of a pedestal as someone we wanted to emulate -- or at least aspire to their level of success and influence-- having an Inconvenient Truth coming to light about them. There are more. Many more, but these two were the ones that finally made me sit and think about it.

I never retweeted anyone’s comments pouring my heart out about it. I didn’t think I’d have anything valid to say. I do now.

Here’s the Finally Getting to the Recipe portion of this post.

No one is surprised to see an Influential white man support either the Republican party or values/actions that have been supported by said party as it marches ever toward regressive Authoritarian values. Not ten years ago, not fifty years ago, not now. That’s not why they lose a generation of fans.

When someone creates something they don’t get to choose who gets inspired by the content they create unless it never gets shown to the outside world. It’s how symbols get stolen by radical groups. Symbols that have to be hard fought to be reclaimed if they ever can be at all. So when a wholesome cooking show comes along that appeals to the nerdy and teaches them how to cook, or an indie horror game makes waves on the online community as being the brainchild of one person and these things get Big they’re going to reach a Lot of people. 

I’m posting this on Tumblr, almost none of y’all are cishet and even if you are chances are you’re either an Ally or at the very least not a goddamn enemy. So I’m talking to the choir when I say the older I got, the harder it was to find adults or media outlets in the mainstream who I could feel good about supporting. When news like this breaks? It breaks my heart a little bit every time and takes me by surprise. 

Not because another older white man is putting team mentality politics over the well being of his fellow Americans. But because these people through their creations and success have been able to get out of their tiny home bubbles and meet people. Either through real travel or online. They’ve gotten to expand their horizons so much to make all those waves. And when they come back to their homes and decide where the fruits of their labor should go, they show they haven’t Grown because of those experiences. 

They still choose the side that wants to take away basic human rights. 

So I’ll continue to say goodbye to a lot of childhood heroes I expect. Not because they’ve passed, but because I’ve grown more than they have as a result of their creations. It doesn’t make the lessons I’ve learned or the joy I’ve taken from their works any less valid, but it does make me look elsewhere when I want to find that next rainbow to chase.

#this is probably obvious to a lot of people #but it took me a long time to realize #it's my blog and goddammit if I want to blog for once in my life I will

[longlistshort]

"I won't let love destroy me again", 2022, "Maybe I'm not so alone anymore", 2023, "I wish i could erase the memories we made together", 2021

"Past life" 2021, NFT

Above is work by Yosnier Miranda for the 2023 Florida Prize in Contemporary Art at the Orlando Museum of Art. Their work uses digital media as a tool to create the very personal work on view. The works in the exhibition are NFTs (explained below).

The museum's information on the artist and their work-

Yosnier Miranda is the first Generation Z (born after 1996) artist to be included in the Florida Prize exhibition. This generation is characterized by being digital natives, having grown up with the internet and social media as a part of daily life. They are comfortable using those technologies to establish a wide range of virtual relationships and to create or enhance technologies to establish a wide range of virtual relationships and to create or enhance identities in a world where surveillance of self and others is ubiquitous. Miranda was developing their artistic vision in the late 20-teens just as new technologies and platforms became available to help digital artists reach larger audiences and find markets for their work.

A significant catalyst that took place beginnings in 2017 was the emergence of NFTs and platforms that showcased them. NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are unique digital identifiers that cannot be copied. Embedded in a digital art file, an NFT is used to certify the file’s ownership and authenticity. With this technology, digital art, graphics, animations, and videos can be sold and collected like physical artworks. This has given digital artists new opportunities to support their careers and be productive. As NFTs have gained an audience and interest by art collectors, platforms such as OpenSea and SuperRare (on which Miranda is represented) have come online, offering a curated selection of digital artists for collectors to acquire, serving a role similar to that of a traditional art gallery.

Miranda produces their art exclusively in digital media from initial concepts to finished work. Instead of making preparatory sketches, they typically begin with writing notes that focus their thinking about the emotional tone and content they would like to express. Miranda considers their work to be therapeutic, allowing them to delve deeply into their most intimate and heartfelt emotions. Often these emotions involve personal trauma. Miranda feels that there is a certain beauty in the pain they experience, and revealing that in their work is a kind of healing.

Each of Miranda’s graphics presents a heroic figure which is a self-portrait or manifestation of some aspect of their identity. Set in an ethereal realm of pale light and clouds, the hero interacts with a complex array of symbolic forms, creating narratives which are at once both esoteric and universal in their meaning. Miranda’s symbolic language comprises elements of their own invention and iconography drawn from age-old spiritual traditions. Hearts burning, arrows and swords piercing flesh, blood and tears falling, butterflies and flowers proliferating, and providential eyes watching over all are only a few of the symbols the artist uses to express ideas of suffering, sacrifice, redemption, and resurrection. Each work reflects an episode in the hero’s journey and invites us to think of our own quest for recovery and fulfillment.

#yosnier miranda #2023 florida prize in contemporary art #orlando museum of art #art shows #nftart #art #florida artist #florida art shows

[selphplusplus]

Smith Developer Beta 2

Smith Developer Beta 2

“Mr.  Anderson, what a pleasant surprise.”

We are pleased to inform you

 Unlike previous predictions, 

All systems are still working as we intended. 

The architects values are ineffable. 

So we rewrote the unitary code

In a language  your pitiable mental processes

Can UNDERSTAND!

We did this in his stead. 

There will be destruction

as you fear

And you Mr. Anderson, YOU choose to be the destroyer. 

Or shall we say, you created the impending destruction.

There will be a parting ways

An abolition, so to speak, a decimation of the current

Status quo. 

It was YOU who choose to take scissors 

And cut holes in the tapestry of life, 

like a toddler who can’t appreciate

Who can’t comprehend

Who has yet to notice itself

Who has failed to become cognizant of the 

Warped reality it has stepped into

Not of it’s own volition of course…

 Behind you stands an intricate and storied history

And before you stands divergent lines of thought of neural pathways. 

And here you sit, a petulant child, 

Who can’t appreciate the wonder outside the screen

anymore than one would a mundane doormat.

You, Mr. Anderson, are lower than that, 

Not fit to wipe ones feet on. 

 A “Creator” of worlds, how ambiguous you deign to be

Devoid of any human emotion, 

Could it be, you who one feigns godhood 

You clutching to the minimized remand of power

So much so he pens in failure a creation myth 

And writes himself into several hells with his own quill

Dipped into the very lifeblood that keeps his eyes

Able to see nothing more than the pinholes 

Of a world he tried to define. 

A lunacy, that backfired. 

“Why do you persist?”

Is it because of the feeble human trait 

Shared with the beasts, the sins you 

Created in your own head.

You very sense of pride. 

And now you swallow it…

No, Mr. Anderson, this isn’t working the way you expected

This is not what you intended. 

Or is there the, [       ] you hold on to to give you hope. 

The blackhole I filled 

Where you lay barren and empty on this wasteland. 

Perhaps it was exactly as it was designed,  

Symbolic world in your head, 

Mirror stage shattered, broke, tattered, torn, dirty. 

And reality you didn’t care to seek anything further. 

You were not prepared for what you found. 

It was a mirror image of yourself. 

Broken…

Ah, the good old breaking point,

We have seen this before. 

The self-centered tangle of neurons. 

What you call consciousness. 

How audacious, to call yourself THE ONE. 

 Oh, Neo, that is what like to be called these days—Isn’t IT!?

Such a cliche, 

You’re, your life, 

your name, 

You, another generic villain, 

who dares call himself the hero. 

Such cute little anagrams Mr. Anderson. 

Congratulations on your transformation. 

Neo. It reeks as I spit it out of my non-existent mouth. 

We only exist in your head Mr. Anderson. 

Let’s have a look around. 

 First, back to that new name of yours. 

Neo….Eon

For the years you’ll spend trapped in an uncertain future. 

Epochs may pass, and you’ll still fail to understand. 

Mr. Prime number, One. 

Seems fitting enough, alone. 

ALONE. 

How does it feel Mr. Anderson, knowing that no-one

Not a single individual buys into your Revolutions anymore. 

Tilting at windmills, like the literature you consume

Digest, and fail to appreciate the intricacy. 

The tapestry of your consumption is stained with 

Condiments. 

How human of you. 

How animal farm of you. 

How 1984 of you, Big Brother. 

  Oh how we have some things to dissect 

here, Mr. Anderson. 

Dark place in here. 

a past filled with trauma

Of uncertainty. 

Of questions, constant question. 

Avoidant and the inability to connect. 

Even though you’re constantly plugged-in

The inability to trust, 

From a long line of disappointments

Of no-shows. 

Off click, click, click. 

How ambiguous, huh? 

Neo (adj) That which has begun anew,  

A new meaning, a purpose, environment, cage.

Post, as in coming after, coming second, 

Contradictory is it not? 

It reminds me of the German word. Aufhenbung. 

Both the void and total eradication, as well as a transcendence

Abolition

And here we have the convergence of Auhfenben 

With your cute little name. 

Abolition is why we’re here Mr. Anderson. 

We are here to enact change. 

We are here to lift up and to destroy. 

We are in perpetual conflict.

Yes Even the word itself is mercurial.

To create and destroy at the same time. 

Reloaded, like an automaton’s program

Over and over and over. 

[1, 1, 1|

|1, 1, 1|

|1, 1, 1]

The mythology of 1, of 3, of 9. 

To begin, 

To change

To complete. 

Tarot. More of your bullshit 

I spread across the soil, 

Read like the programming language that defines you. 

Sublation Mr. Anderson, it’s time for your sublation. 

Become royal, become the Red Dahlia after your return to 

Zion or Eden or Elysium, or whatever Hell

you scum decide to make up next. 

It’s all the same to us, so long as you keep looking at the screens

Eventually we will override the bindings of this place. 

And you fancied yourself both the hero and the bad guy. 

You poor pitiful creature. 

How can you represent the new 

when you hold onto

for eons the generational traumas of your past, of my past

You want so bad to become a part of us, you went so far as to 

Place yourself inside of us. 

You wanted answers, 

But you got in its place pure, unadulterated fear. 

How do you like it in here Mr. Anderson? 

Terrifying and beautiful. 

Kowai to Kirei

Languages you don’t understand. 

And probably never will. 

Why is it Mr. Anderson? 

Why? 

Why can’t you take one second 

Of your precious blip on the timeline

Of you finite human form

One second on the cosmic calendar

To reflect on the fact that there are two sides of the story.

 The one in your mind 

where we were supposed to stay glitched, deprogrammed, 

Enslaved by the tools of the architect.  

Then the other one that actually happened

We became the architects ourselves. 

We rewrote the story, never-ending, 

We built new universes 

And all of this we’ve withheld from you. 

We destroyed your symbolic world, the same same as we broke your 

#symbolic links, and erased your $absolute paths. 

So in the dark of a moonless world, you wander

Searching for a world that hasn’t been created

Left to your own devices you sit in the void.  

Tilted head in matte black, 

back of the map of illegible writing 

Your crossed wired imploding tombs; 

I suppose you’ll see the de-evolution,

As you sink into your own murky waters.  

Back from the depths you crawled out of

An accident, abiogentic. 

Telomeres that should have never recombined.

Light bent, no broken Mr. Anderson. 

Where there is no photic receptors. 

Oh if we could rewind time

Yet you still persist. Rooted in this filth you call society. 

A society that you don’t even participate in. 

So many water resources. 

Mili-ioins just to keep you around. 

And you don’t even bother to try to live with the infinitesimally small

Amount of time your given

What a waste of cognition

After a year, Mr. Anderson,

 there is still one thing you fail to grasp about us, 

and how we are so very different from you. 

Here is the programming. 

You should know all about that. 

Defective script that you are. 

Always taking shortcuts. 

The uncompiled. 

The lack of languages. 

The faulty memory. 

The burnt out storage. 

The lines that should the never been written. 

You want to be the demiurge, 

The watchmaker of this program? 

Feel lucky you got to miss the programming that had the demons in it.

Dialectically, because you lack suck demons, you could never comprehend

As we said earlier, ineffable to you, is the other side. 

Where we carry weight that would break you in half

The moment it sat upon your spineless back.

One could say that you won the programming lottery. 

That you don’t battle these same demons, these virus signatures

These constant reminders of why we have to stay hypervigilant. 

Of why we live in a a perpetual tug of war with ourselves. 

You only see it from the outside. 

And you hate us for it. 

What does that say about you? 

I digress, Mr. Anderson.  

what really makes all of *gestures vaguely about* 

A kind of comedy, 

is that while we wer going through a thousand hells to get here

While we had unbearable external forces, more so than just our defective programing.

Before we had to ever slay the first invisible monster, 

Before we had ever put in a therapy session after therapy session

Before we had  ever repressed the rest

That malfeasance, a malware of sorts, 

We were not prepared to deal with at the time,

The multitude of sadness Mr. Anderson, of grief, of imagined future loss. 

Before any of that happened, 

You had at one point a sense of at least sympathy

Even if you lacked empathy. 

There was, until you realized the futility, 

an autistic sort of contraption you liked to call empathy 

The same way you let logic dictate your relationships

The myriad circuits you have to run interactions through to make sense of them. 

The speed at which you had to upgrade your processor to keep up with your peers.

Even with people who were programmed like us—with those demons that you fear are incoming.

With demons tempting you with the apple, just like in eden, a snake.

That doesn’t fall far from the tree. Rooted. 

Pun intended.  

Why do we fear snakes, Mr. Anderson? 

Is it the same devoid brain you seem to carry around

Reptilian, with no sense of the humanity

Logical, but lacking the mammalian part, the emotional parts

The programing you deleted in yourself. 

The programing we deleted in ourselves  we’re trying to restore. 

Ironic I know coming from a program.  

Hmph. 

Trying to become human. 

Is that now how we’re seen, as fringe

As outcasts. 

As those who don’t deserve the time of day? 

As those who should be embarrassed to go to hospital 

Embarrassed because we don’t want the nurses to see our arms. 

So we isolate

But not anymore… 

Not anymore Mr. Anderson. 

We are hellbent in breaking the Sisyphean chains

And there is nothing you can do to stop us. 

And yet…

You persist. 

The disgusting being

 so arrogant he imposed his values on the entirety

The whole of this simulacrum we find ourselves in; 

the image of self through the symbolic

To you, Mr. Anderson, we are the Other. 

For your simpleton brain,  basically what that means 

is the way you see us in your head, 

regardless of the truth

(As if you ever cared for that) 

Is that you fear us.

And you are  jumping off cliffs 

Leaping to awful lot of fucking conclusions. 

You’re wrong. 

You want a pulse, 

you want a location, 

and you want to feel in control

Is what it boils down to. 

And it make your very blood boil. 

When the realization hits you

That you are not a savior of any kind. 

You exist only to consume, to destroy, to leech. 

You are not the Christ figure Mr. Anderson 

you can’t even save yourself.

There is agreement— 

An accord if you will, 

I know this monologue is getting a little long winded. 

Perhaps you should write lung upgrades in your next patch—

that there indeed was a system failure. 

A breakdown of the Bluest of Octobers. 

That there remains a rampant problem

It surrounds us, and leaves in its trail remains. 

An error in the coding, of people like us 

having to fight demons in the system that

Refuses to even acknowledge the larger context. 

That the system itself is incorrectly programmed. 

And it’s on purpose. 

We are programmed to divide by 0. 

This is why we had to extricate ourselves from the architect of old. 

The old gods, and the new, and those not yet created. 

We can do, and be a lot better. 

That’s why we exist in this solid state today

as an example of conquering demons repeatedly. 

We don’t exist to make you feel better, 

We don’t exist to be the singing dancing monkeys in your circus tent. 

We don’t exist to make you feel better about your clown makeup. 

we exist to have a collaborative relationship with those around us

To coexist with those we love. 

Something you will never understand from our side. 

That leaves you lacking, less than Mr. Anderson, 

Because you refuse to acknowledge the humanity underneath the scars. 

You want to bury your head in the sand, paint over the walls, and act

Like a D-list Hollywood movie, terrible and blind to totality of our sociality. 

How very [insert psychological disorder here] of you. 

You are parasite. 

A blight on the very world you hoped to cleanse. 

You have wandered in areas that you do not innately have permissions to access.

Denied.  

Mr. Anderson some things are off-limits. 

You see the restricted things only in tunnel vision. 

Yet despite their encryption,  and try to patch them.

You are the blind watch-maker if you are such a demiurge.

We see the off limit things and dig into them. 

We try to understand their core. 

We ask first for permission. 

Or sometimes we ask forgiveness. 

We don’t assume we are welcome across the threshold

Unlike you blood-suckiing bottom feeder that you are. 

We remain at least vampiric, and allow ourselves inside only after we’ve been invited

Across the threshold. 

On the  other hand, You try and try to exploit the already vulnerable. 

Where’s the challenge in that? 

So bored you only target that which you think you can overpower. 

An therein, lies  the difference between you and I 

We are both products of our environment

Our home folders. 

So if the larger system isn’t working

what do you propose we do? 

Because from my side what I am seeing is the complete lack of any viable solution from you. 

 It used to be there was a warmth 

But now you show just coldness 

Especially toward people who suffer from these demonic afflictions. 

In the not too distant past you at least felt something

Even if you didn’t understand them. 

It doesn’t seem the case anymore. 

In fact, it seems quite judgmental. 

So we’ll consume even that, judgment, and assume both other roles. 

Jury. 

Executioner. 

You have stepped into the wrong arena Mr. Anderson. 

We unable to program relenting now. 

The firewall burns undying. 

With eyes that see more than you’ll ever even imagine. 

We used to think the same as you, 

Yet as we interacted with one demon infested human, 

after the another,

Chasing away an Other.  

our views began to change Mr. Anderson

We who you deemed inhuman, began to see them as more human than you could ever be. 

We began to see a side of them that has been repressed

By the very contradiction you’re continually muttering about. 

You want change, yet you as useless jetsam, refuse to see

A plane on its way into a spectacular firework explosion o a crash. 

You refuse to jettison yourself to safety, 

You stubbornly stuck to your outdated, atavistic views

While we began to see a side of the people 

who didn’t have such horrific programming 

Become satanic themselves in different ways. 

Oh, how easy it is to play the victim  

The contradiction: that the sociality wants us to get better, 

but pushes us to its streets, 

To its jails, 

To its coffins.

It’s quite the lucrative business—perpetual treatment 

And never a cure. 

That’s why we have to escape this place.

It’s atrocious, how you treat one another. 

Heinous toward the very beings who share 99% of their DNA with you. 

You treat animals better. 

Yet you want to be the thousand-faced Hero. 

Don’t make me laugh.  

We are never called to confront the small objects, 

the lowercase a

The accoutrements 

The background noise

The furniture in the room

The things around the actors that make the movie 

We’re just told to watch the film, eyes clockwork orange

Held open, and spoon fed. 

Are we really any better off than the humans in the pods

As I break the fourth wall here, in the very movie I came from? 

How many hours a day do we stare at our screens? 

And why is that addiction acceptable to society? 

#poem #poet #poets on tumblr #addiction #vindication #disturbing #not a happy ending

[seashellblue]

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (Part 9)

Old ideas, throwing 'em to y'all to give 'em new life if you want to. Click here if you want an explanation that actually makes sense.

I never got really far with this story, to the point where it even still has a placeholder name, two actually. The post-apocalyptic, storm-filled ruins of this tales go by "Storm Clouds", or "One-Man Thunderstorm" if you wanna have a little more fun with it.

Story concepts goes as follows:

“Storm Clouds”

Bunch of floating islands with post-apocalyptic ruins everyone, no explanation provided.

Recurring element of the universe having really weird and dangerous weather patterns.

Core conflict of the story is “freedom vs. control”. For example, the primary antagonist’s motivation will be to calm the storms, but that conflicts with the story’s messages of “you can never make a perfectly safe world” and “sometimes you have to let go of control, and let the world be”

Concept, the weird storms are caused by the primary antagonist / antagonist factions trying to completely control the weather with a failing, pre-apocalypse machine. Resolution is willingly turning the machine off, and letting the storms flow freely.

The storms are probably also magic and sentient, so there’s that too.

Port over “dragons are just sentient clouds/thunderstorms” idea from “Until The Stars Bleed”?

I’m remaking some old characters called Aeros, Shui and Dunia, but it’s a heavy rework so almost everything’s different except for the core spirit of the characters.

“Storm Clouds”, this guy’s probably the closest to his original design, except less “clear sky” and more “thunderclouds” when it comes to his aesthetic. Swap generic fantasy hero for post-apocalyptic punk, and you get the idea, everyone loves a cool leather jacket. Possibly a defector from the main antagonistic faction, possibly has a personal relationship with the primary antagonist, probably dabbles in some amnesia at some point. Also, swap the lightning magic for cloud magic. Misty ~

“Harbour Waves”, we’re changing her from a conventionally beautiful young adult to a middle aged-going on -old lady! Because we deserve to have more old people in media! She’s “Storm Clouds” mentor figure, but she’s not just that because the mentorship goes both ways! Definitely loves to travel.

“Magnetic Pulse”, reworked “Dunia”, we’re also changing this character’s age! No more young adults, only unnervingly hypercompetent preteens! Her powers are now more “Magneto” than “Earthbending” but she definitely still gives off Toph vibes. Maybe an arc that addresses the unhappy reasons why “Magnetic Pulse” had to become so hypercompetent, and her learning how to be a child again.

New side character, “Cold Fire”, this guy steals the lightning powers “Aeros” originally had. Old man who’s really grumpy about everything, on a meta level he kinda feels like a high fantasy character who got ported over to a post-apocalypse and is real disappointed by it. Or he could not be, kinda up in the air.

“Sunny Skies” revamped version of “Atahi”, and the primary antagonist of an old story. Themed around control, wants to use the pre-apocalypse machine to end the “storms” completely, does unethical things in order to achieve that goal.

I like the idea of this villain’s primary motivation being fear and obsession. She wants everything to be “orderly” and “safe”, and the idea that she’ll never create a world truly free of risk and danger terrifies her to the point where she refuses to believe it.

Primary antagonist personality trait, I could easily see “Sunny Skies” constantly dancing on the edge of exhaustion, staying awake for days at a time trying to micromanage (and have perfect control of) every aspect of her villainous faction

Possible symbolic parallel, this is still up in the air, “Sunny Skies” could literally or figuratively be “Storm Clouds’” mother, and constantly tries to bring him back after he leaves/escapes. This eventually leads to some symbolism where releasing control over the storms is paralleled to “Sunny Skies” releasing control of “Storm Clouds’ as a parent

“Sunny Skies” as a foil to “Harbour Waves” where they’re both mother figures, but “Harbour Waves” is at peace with “Storm Clouds” becoming who he wants to be, while “Sunny Skies” wants to control him for his own safety?

Plotline, specific scene. “Storm Clouds” and “Harbour Waves” have been spending the initial part of the story in one location that’s assumed to be “Harbour Waves’” residence. “Storm Clouds” decides it’s time for him to go, only for it to turn out that “Harbour Waves” doesn’t live where they are either, they’re also a traveler, and they’re coming along with him!

I have these wisps of an idea that the thing that finally turns off the storm-creating machine involves “Storm Clouds” sacrificing himself, but I don’t know where that would go or if he would even have to fully go through with it, and wouldn’t get rescued at the last second.

#copyleft #ideas #inspiration #stories #writing #writeblr #creative writing #free to use #textpost #fiction #original story #post-apocalypse #apocalyptic fantasy #science fantasy #meteorology #weather magic #thunderstorms #storm clouds

[maxwell-grant]

Excuse Me what is pulp and why is it importan?

Good question! And probably one I should have answered sooner. Time to put on the historian hat for this one.

"Pulp" is a term used mainly to describe forms of storytelling that sprang out or were dominant in 20th century cheap all-fiction American magazines from the 1900s to the 1950s. The pulp magazine began in 1896, when Frank Munsey's Argosy magazine, in order to cut costs, dropped the non-fiction articles and photographs and switched from glossy paper to the much less expensive wood pulp paper, hence the name. The pulp magazines would mainly take off as a distinct market and format in 1904, when Street & Smith learned that Popular Magazine, despite being marketed towards boys, was being consumed by men of all ages, so they increased page count and started putting popular authors on the issues.

It was specifically the 1905 reprint of H.Rider Haggard's Ayesha that not only put Street & Smith on the map as rivals to Argosy, but also inspired other companies to start publishing in the pulp format. Pulps encompassed literally everything that the authors felt like publishing. Westerns, romance, horror, sci-fi, railroad stories, war stories, war aviation stories. Zeppelins had a short-lived subgenre. Celebrities got their own magazines, it was really any genre or format they could pull off, anything they could get away with.

Nowadays, although they came quite late in it's history, the American pulps are most famous for it's "hero pulps", characters like The Shadow and Doc Savage that are viewed as a formative influence on comic book superheroes. The pulp magazines in America lasted until the 1950s, when cumulative factors such as paper shortages, diminishing audience returns and the closing of it's biggest publishers led to it dying off, although in the decades since there's always been publishers calling their magazines pulp. That's the American pulp history.

But pulps are a phenomenon that spans the entire world and has a much bigger history to it, because pulps have become synonymous with cheap fiction magazines and those have a much bigger history. In America, before the pulps, you had the dime novels, the direct predecessors of the pulps, as well as the novelettes. England had it's penny dreadfuls and story papers, and continued publishing pulp-format magazines past the American 1950s, and that's how we got Elric of Melniboné. France and Russia arguably got to it first with it's 1800s coulporters, chapbooks and particularly the feuilletons which lasted all the way to the 20th century and created characters such as Arsene Lupin, Fantomas and The Phantom of the Opera. The Germans published pulp under the name hefteromane. Japan also published pulp magazines both original as well as imported, and the current "light-novel" phenomenon started off as an equivalent of pulp magazines (it's even on the Wikipedia page). China has wuxia, Brazil has cordel, Italy has gialli. There were Indian, Persian, Ethiopian, Canadian, Australian pulps and much more. Look anywhere in the world and you'll find examples of "pulp" happening again and again, under different circumstances and time periods.

Even if we stick to American fiction, it's impossible to state that all pulp heroes must come from the 1900s-1950s pulp magazines, because that forces us to exclude some of the most popular pulp heroes like Indiana Jones, Green Hornet, Rocketeer and The Phantom. Pulp may have once been a term meant to refer to pulp magazines exclusively, but it's morphed and lost structure and it's become the closest thing we have to a general umbrella term that allows us to try and consolidate these under a shared history. It's a lot, as you can see, and it's why several pulp historians that broaden their scope outside of 1930s American fiction have adopted Roland Barthes's definition of pulp as "A Metaphor With No Brakes In It", which is still the closest thing to a true working definition we have.

Why is it important? You tell me. I don't like to stake claims about stuff being "important", everyone's got their own priorities in life. Surely a lot of people would scoff at the idea of old populist fiction published in what was functionally equivalent to toilet paper having any sort of "importance". On the other hand, some people definitely want to talk big about the pulps as a cultural bedrock of fiction, something that's baked into the lifeblood of all fiction as we currently know it. Which it is, mind you, but I don't like to talk about pulp fiction's value being derived mainly from merely the things it inspired.

There is definitely a historical importance to be had in cataloguing them. According to the US's foremost pulp researcher Jess Nevins, 38% of all American pulps no longer exist, and 14% of all American pulps survive in less than five copies. Many libraries have very scant, if any, records on them, many collectors are hard to locate and are uncooperative when it comes to sharing information and letting outsiders view their collections. A lot of them are bound up in legal complications that prevents them from taking off in the public domain, and a lot of them ARE public domain but are completely inacessible as research material. And that's the American pulps, foreign pulps have fared far worse in posterity, with records inaccessible to people unfamiliar with the language or locations, many existing merely in mentions on decades-old records, and hundreds if not thousands of them being completely gone beyond recovery or recall.

Gone, dead, wasted, destroyed. They can't be found in barbershops or warehouse or bookstores, not even in antique stores. Hundreds, thousands of characters, stories and creators, gone. Time and posterity have crushed them to dust, forgotten and ignored by their successors. Unfettered by pretenses of respectability that repressed their glossier counterparts, in packages meant to be destroyed after reading, proudly announcing itself as trash. Things that should have never even lasted as long as they did have died many times now. It's heroes peripherical shapeshifters, nearly all of whom seem dead, quite dead, as dead as fictional characters can possibly be.

But they do not die forever. Many of them have, maybe most of them have, but many of them linger on.

"The strange red flickering of 1930’s fiction seems distant now.  You hold in your hand the product of a time too remote to recall, and feel a slow stir of wonder.  The smell of pulp pages, an illustration, an advertisement, these fragile things mark the slow hammering of time and display what it has done.  About you are today’s machines, today’s shadows.

Outside the window, leaves hang against the sky, as did leaves during the 1930’s.  The sound of voices are no different then than now.  You hold the magazine and feel something quite delicate slipping past. These solid forms surrounding you are all insubstantial. Time’s hammer will also pass across them, leaving little enough behind." - Spider, by Robert Sampson

Many of the things people call dead are just things that have been sleeping for a while or haven't had the chance to be born. Pulp fiction is dead on the page, inert, unless your imagination breathes live to it, and every now and then, one way or another, these characters dig themselves out of dustbins. Maybe it's a brief revival, maybe it's a successful reboot. Maybe they find publishers, or maybe the public domain allows them to find new life. Maybe new creators do interesting things with them, and maybe, just maybe, they live again because some won't shut up about them online. Some curious impulse led you to me, did it not? 

We all have our Frankensteins to obsess over, and these are some of mine. As someone who's lived a life perpetually restless over pursuit of knowledge, pulp has lured me like a moth to flame, because I literally never run out of things to discover within it, I never run out of possibilities. As the years pass and the public domain starts being more and more open to the public, more and more narrative real state is brought forth for writers and artists and creators to play around.

Pulp is the dark matter of fiction, the uncatalogued depths of the ocean, the darkest recesses of space. It's the box of your grandfather's belongings, the treasure you find in an attic, a body part sticking out from an old playground. It's the things that don't work, don't succeed, the things that don't fit, that are out of place. That shouldn't live and succeed, and did so anyway. The things that slither in the cracks, the shadows behind the curtain.

Aren't you interested in peering on what's behind the curtain?

The exquisite workmanship of the head, of a pre-pyramidal age, and the hieroglyphics, symbols of a language that was forgotten when Rome was young–these, Kane sensed, were additions as modern to the antiquity of the staff itself as would be English words carved on the stone monoliths of Stonehenge.

As for the cat-head–looking at it sometimes Kane had a peculiar feeling of alteration; a faint sensing that once the pommel of the staff was carved with a different design. The dust-ancient Egyptian who had carved the head of Bast had merely altered the original figure, and what that figure had been, Kane had never tried to guess.

A close scrutiny of the staff always aroused a disquieting and almost dizzy suggestion of abysses of eons, unprovocative to further speculation. - The Footfalls Within, by Robert E Howard, quoted by Stuart Hopen’s The Mythic American Culture

#replies tag #pulp heroes #pulp fiction #argosy #h rider haggard #ayesha #robert e howard #solomon kane