#like I said I am happy to do comissions

[cherry-pop-elf]

Weasley Siblings Reacting To You Saying You Are Pregnant

Writing Comission’s Are Open

William ‘Bill’

“Excuse me-?” He was left practically speechless, when he picked up the onesie on his bedside table. A little blue thing, with the words To The Moon And Back. He was so full of emotions. Panic, excitement, horror, joy. Would the baby inherit his wolf tendencies? Would something go wrong, because of his bad blood? He was so scared. Would you be in danger, because of him? With his eyes turning to you, and seeing that excited smile, he couldn’t help but calm down. Teddy existed after all, didn’t he? He was as fine as he could be. The idea of holding his own little ball of joy. To see that orange hair, and watch you nurse. “I’m going to be a dad….” He trailed, with a smile. “I’m going to be a dad-“ He repeated, as he would hold the little sleep wear to his chest. Tears ran down his broken cheeks, as he kept reacting it. So full of pride. He’s going to be a dad, with you.

Charlie

“IM GONNA BE A DAD-!” He was screaming, bloody damn murder, as he was running around at the sanctuary. Screaming it with pride, as you chased after him. Just laughing, as the dragons would lift up their heads. “IM A DAD IM A DAD IM A DAD-!” He keeps roaring, as the dragons would tilt their heads. Watching their motherly figure jump for joy. Literally. “Charlie-!” You laughed, as he was just to full of excitement. Laughing, cheering, and crying. That’s when one of the older mothers would grab him by the collar. Yanking him into the air, before plopping him right next to you. As if to convey that he better step up now. That had you laugh, as he pouted at her. “I am I am-!” He said, before he was on his knees. Holding your belly. “I’m gonna be your daddy-!” He squealed, as he kissed it over. All the excitement getting the new borns curious, but those mothers made sure they didn’t get to close. Letting him have his moment. A new baby, to join the herd.

Percy

“You cannot be serious-“ Percy was blinking, as he had hardly taken two steps through the fire place. Just gotten off work, early for once, only to be surprised by you making a baby box. It was meant to be a surprise, and something you would give to him after dinner. Seems like he was still surprised, regardless. “Who had the baby this time-?” He asked, as he would set his belongings where they were designated. That had you snort, as it didn’t quite dawn on him yet. With the fact you didn’t say anything, he turned around. “Honey?” He asked again, as you keep smiling. Slowly, the gears turned, before he was left with his cloak dropped from his hands. It was him. He didn’t expect that. Was like the last one to join the family gang. He couldn’t help his worry. He didn’t exactly grow up to well. He wasn’t to well connected with his family, and only came around when it was almost to late. He didn’t want that to happen to his kid. To have such a divide. You could tell he was worried, and patted the seat next to you. He joined, and you would kiss his head. “Who do you wanna tell first?” You asked, as he held your hand. The name he said, reassured himself that this kid won’t have that tension. Not like what he made. “George is perfect.” Another kiss to his head, as the plans were made. A big and happy family.

Fred

The words barley left your lips, before you were tossed over his shoulder. As quickly as you were tossed, you were soon hearing the noise of the busy shop. "HEY EVERYONE!" He shouted, causing everyone to look up at one of the railings. George as well, with curious eyes all the same. "IM GONNA BE A DAD, AND GEORGE IS GONNA BE A UNCLE!" He cheered, and everyone was a roar of cheers as well. George was quick to drop what he was doing, and soon aparate next to him. "Put your damn mother to be down!" He laughed, as Fred finally set you down. All three of you in a warm, and tight, hug. "i'm gonna be a uncle!" George cheered, as you laughed. You had to wonder who was more excited for the baby. Your husband, or his twin? It did not matter to you. They were both so happy for this wonderful news. They just could not let you go, as they were just laughing in joy. Children. More children. What could make them hate that?

George

"Pregnant?" He whispered, as he almost looked like he would burst into tears. "I heard that right, didn't I?" He asked, as he felt over the scarred skin that was once his ear. You nodded, before you held up your hands. You could not grasp sign as fast as George did, but you knew the alphabet. P.R.E.G.N.A.N.T. Pregnant. He was soon tackling you, as he was sobbing into your shoulder. "I'm going to be a dad-" He sobbed, as you rubbed his back. Some joy, in his world of darkness. You had fallen pregnant, not long after the death of Voldemort. Made senes, since the stress was gone. For you, anyway. "Jellybean....If its a boy...." You would peck his cheek, and nod. "A boy, Fred. If a girl, Fredrick works as a beautiful middle name." You comforted, getting another hiccup in return. The world was moving on, but the world will not be forgotten. Fred lived on, and hes going to be your tiny terror. How excited you two were, for it.

Ron

“No-“ He gasped. “Really-? No-! Are you-? No-“ Was like he was trapped in a loop, as he now paced around your living room. Looking at you, before looking at his feet, then repeating. As if every time he made a full pace, he turned. You had to admit, was pretty adorable. Figured news like this would make your Auror husband short circuit a bit. You let him pace, with a smile. Just grinning, as he was trying to register it all. Suppose work fatigue makes anyone’s brain mush. Especially a job like his. You would watch him pace, until his brain was finally registering that YEP you are indeed pregnant. “Bloody hell….IM GONNA BE A DAD-!” His face was beaming, before he was stealing you into his arms. He was exhausted, but not tired enough to not huggle and cuddle. “We need to tells ‘Mione and Harry-! Oh those two will be so excited-!” He beams. Uncle Harry and Auntie Hermione. He was going to crush you, you swore, if he kept being so happy. “Blimey, guess that over time is finally coming in handy.” You hated his over time, but he had a point. Now you two had a secure start. That had you relax a little more. “Hope Harry doesn’t mine if I slow down on my career a little.” You would stroke his hair, and pecked his cheek. “He’s Harry. I’m doubtful he will be made you want to not be dead on a side walk, and leave me a single parent.” You snorted. “Yeah, probably doesn’t want history repeating.” Morbid, but point proven. “Gonna be a dad-“ He kept smiling, as he pulled you into his lap. Unable to stop holding you close. He was so happy, and you were all the same. Your family.

Ginny

“SHUT UP-!” She gasped, as she was looking towards the Quidditch stands. No way was she seeing what she was seeing. Your wife just won the first game of the season, and she was looking straight at you. In the VIP seats, and holding up a sign. I’m Pregnant. In bold and colorful letters, so she couldn’t miss it. “NO WAY-!” Ginny kept screaming, as her team mates looked over, as they were shaking hands with the enemy team. “What’s up?!” One of them asked. “IM GONNA BE A MUM-!” Ginny cheered, as that had all the broomstick flyers stare towards where her eyes looked. “CONGRATS-!” The enemy seeker said, with a clap. Good sportsmanship. “IM GONNA BE A MUM-!” What a way to start her quidditch season. The first win, and the fact she’s going to be a mom. “Well, go and fly over-!” A team mate smacked her back, and she wasn’t needed to told twice. The fans went nuts, with famous Quidditch Star Ginny Weasley was flying towards the stands. Right to you, and nearly tackling you down in the box. The fellow VIP seaters clapped for you two, as she planted a big kiss on you. Tears in the corner of her eyes, as she hugged you tightly. “You knew I would win, didn’t you?” She asked. “No, but I mean what better way to recover from a loss?” That had her smack your shoulder, but she was soon was wiping her eyes on her gloves. “Oh fuck, look at me. Crying like a girl-“ She joked, as she sniffled. She was so happy, and you were as well. She just couldn’t contain her joy. Her, you, and your own little precious snitch. What more could a girl want?

#harry potter #harry potter magic awakened #hpma #magic awakened #hp magic awakened #bill Weasley #bill weasley x reader #Charlie Weasley #charlie weasley x reader #william weasley #William Weasley x reader #Percy Weasley #percy weasley x reader #Fred Weasley #fred weasley x reader #George Weasley #george weasley x reader #Fred and George #Weasley twins #Fred and George Weasley #Ron Weasley #ron weasley x reader #Ginny Weasley #Ginny Weasley x reader #x reader #x pregnant reader #x reader fluff #Weasley siblings #Weasleys #Weasley family

[mintsuwu]

IRENE STORYTIME BECAUSE IT WAS ABOUT TIME I am deeply sorry this will be a little long;;

Irene Relda, also known as "Mademoiselle Ratler" (based on a headcanon by Frankilew on DA in which the mice society changes the last names of those who are of different species, for example Ratigan instead of Flanigan) or "The Witch of Geinburg Street" is a female rodent born as a cross between a rat and a mouse, who lives apart from society due to discrimination and therefore is tired of everyone and everything(?

She is usually quiet and reserved, not showing emotions too often... But she's a gentle sweetheart deep down. And despite having quite the character and strenght, she is always willing to lend a helping hand to those who are not hostile towards her.

VOICE HEADCANON: Miss Spider (Voiced by Susan Sarandon in "James and the Giant Peach")

Irene´s mother was a rat of French origin who worked as a maid after moving to Mousedom, where she hoped to have a good life that unfortunately, she did not find. The father on the other hand was a well-to-do man, a prestigious professor or investigator at Scotland Yard…. But obviously, he could not accept the fact that the world knew that he had had a daughter with a maid who was, on top of that, a rat, so he fired the mother immediately and she took their child with her.

Irene didn't have the best childhood, but she was happy as long as she could be with her mother despite the difficulties she had to face (being a rat in a mouse society, single woman with a daughter who is a crossbreed, etc.). Sadly, there was a point when Irene's mother passed away and the girl had to raise herself from then on.

As she grew up, Irene acquired skills such as cleaning, sewing, and generally doing other household chores. She also knew a lot about herbs since, due to not having many resources, she could not afford to get sick often, so she could resort to the use of plants and natural healing methods.

Thanks to her skills she was able to follow in her mother's footsteps and worked as a maid, offering a good service regardless of the salary, but for various circumstances she was mostly dismissed: either because of her condition, because she was accused of acts she had not committed or simply because the ladies of the household did not like her (or were envious of her for a reason she could not understand).

She worked for a duchess at some point, who was actually a covert criminal who went by the name "Dolleyes" (huge shoutout to @rexmk0153universe-blog for suggesting her name and for helping me come up for so many ideas for this sequel au!!): her plans were based on getting in touch with or marrying rich men and then murdering them in order to keep their posessions.

One unfortunate day Irene witnessed one of the Duchess' crimes, so in exchange of her silence, she was fired (although she took revenge later… Let's say she offered Dolleyes an apology cake that had a dirty surprise and that hurt the noblewoman's ego while the queen of Mousedom witnessed everything (?) basically that cake scene from "The Help".)

From that humiliation, a lot of rumors about Irene began to spread. They said things of the sorts that she was a witch who stole valuables, tricked and seduced husbands, kidnapped children and ate them, or poisoned and even cursed those who upset her.

From the moment the rumors began, Irene had more difficulty getting a job because no one wanted to hire her, so she lived hand to mouth, and (perhaps do clothing comissions from time to time). The only hope she had was to be able to save enough money to go to France, which was her mother's homeland and where they wanted to return years ago before she died.

What Irene did not know though, is that shortly after she was going to help a very injured person one rainy night without knowing that it was a criminal mastermind. And from then on her life changed and she went from living alone having to endure the antics of a villain 24/7.

Irene's relationship with Ratigan fluctuates. They generally argued and disagreed in nearly everything- But there was a point when she realized the subtle detail that he never called her "rat" or something negative in relation to that aspect of her being, which she found strange considering he seemed to detest rats and he flatly denied being one himself… But out of respect, Irene didn't call him that any longer (although there were many times when she made him angry on purpose because knowing that he couldn't do anything to her in his current state amused her and one time she even used his old bell to tease him, which she took from Basil's house).

Regarding Ratigan's bell, the detective planned to search for it himself, but just then Olivia arrived with a reformed Fidget and volunteered. The bat, however, told her not to do it since he was paranoid that the professor was alive, even though he had been presumed dead after his fall from Big Ben… But Olivia's curiosity was greater and she prepared to investigate on her own. In fact, upon hearing the rumors of the witch she felt more convinced to continue (in some Disney Adventure comics, she and Fidget investigated paranormal events, so I imagine she likes that stuff).

In the end she arrived at Irene's house, but the woman tried to intimidate her and throw her out without Ratigan finding out that the girl was there. To her surprise, Olivia returned a few days later and repeatedly.

Ratigan eventually found out that Irene was talking to Olivia, but suddenly offered the lady a deal… If she approached Basil through Olivia and managed to get the detective to lower his guard in order to take him down, Ratigan would leave her home as soon as he recovered, never to return, and would give her the money she needed to travel to France.

Irene, in order to get the professor off her back, accepted, and technically the scheme worked through the means of seduction (to Ratigan's confused displeasure because he had mixed feelings about Irene as the plan went by) but Basil snapped out of it soon enough and Ratigan lost again and fleed… He didn't give Irene the money however-

She and Basil talked things out later though, apologizing for trying to trick him. Despite how the two would clash at times, Irene and the detective got along rather well, and from that point she helped him and Dawson with some of their cases, one of them which involved Dolleyes, who intended on marrying Ratigan only to kill him and pull out a Corpse Bride kind of plan after...

She also grew close to Olivia and Fidget, specially the latter since he ended up becoming like an adopted son of hers. So in their own ways, slowly, they heal together from the loneliness and mistreatment they had recieved on their lives.

(Also yes the "caling people by any last names but their actual one" thing will be a running gag hehoo)

#the great mouse detective #tgmd #tgmd oc #fanart #disney fanart #disney #au #sequel au #basil of baker street #professor ratigan #ratigan #padraic ratigan #olivia flaversham #fidget the bat #irene relda #oc #headcanon #dolleyes #sketches #also sorry if there were grammar mistakes LMAO #also sorry for the mix between the old and new art sfkgkvks #i have a lot of doodles laying around but i had to share the context in order to share them #now i can #it's 1am i have class tomorrow I should be sleeping-

[popculturebuffet]

Lion King II: Simba's Pride Review (Birthday Review for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy people and it's time once again for that annual tradition where I celebrate Kev, my client turned friend and client who comissions much of the reviews you see on this blog, exactly how he likes.. by talking about lions for a while. And after covering the rather abismal interquel 1/2 last year, we're finally onto the sequel this year, Simba's Pride.

Simba's Pride is my first time covering one of Disney's various DTV sequels. And while many a kid can recalled having to suffer through these things , I honestly don't have a ton of experince with them. I saw about 6 as a kid: the aladdin sequels, extremley goofy movie, this one, pocahantas and hunchback. I saw them advertised sure but I was more a toy story kid. I watched and was scarred by that one way more than most other disney films outside of say Aladdin, which I remember watching all the time .That and the aristocats. MOstly for that bitching opening

So i'ts not a suprise the only ones I really remembered were the aladdin sequels.. and extremley goofy movie, which is likely responsible for me loving goofy so much. Yes over the orignal , I just headbanged to the aristocats what makes you think I just magically turned into this one day?

That said.. I was curious to revisit this one when the time came as Lion King II has one of the better reputations among the disney sequels, feeling both SLIGHLTY more necessary. It's well liked to the point that when lion king sequel series LIon Guard happened, Lion King 2 was kept fully canon, to the point season 3 goes out of it's way to explain why the new crop of chracters from lion guard are absent during this film.

So the question is does this film hold up... or is it simply good by comparison to Mulan II: Everyone Woke up On the Wrong Side of the Bed This Morning? Find out with me under the cut.

We're Doin a Sequel: I almost didn't have much of a production section this time, but thankfully wikipedia provides.. in this case an old LA Times article from when the movie was in pre-release. It's not DEEP into production but it least it gives me some insight into how the sausage was made on this one.

The first was this pretty damming line from Buena Vista Home Entertainment's president, which sums up the DTV boom in a nutshell

“We look at the feature animation business as a way to set up the original story,” said Michael Johnson, president of Buena Vista Home Entertainment Worldwide. “Their energies are absorbed completely in new productions. So we have set up a division through the television animation group to do the sequels. . . . That’s not to say this isn’t good enough to go theatrical.”

This.. may be one of the grossest things i've seen disney do. It's not homophobia gross, it's not "making a feature film next to a concentration camp" gross, but it's still horrible to make a division just to make cheap sequels you don't consider anything but money , not only discrediting the work done by the animators on these films, but also admitting your making a shoddy product just to get money from parents who trust your brand. Am I saying this is the first or last time any company, disney included, pulled this kind of shit? No. Not even close. Even GOOD movies have done greasy shit to their animators, see the shoddy conditions on across the spider-verse. But this is still a special kind of wrong and set up a whole industry of wrong in these cheap half assed sequels. If antyhing could remind me WHY we need the writers and actors strikes, this is a big flashing symbol as to why as execs haven't really changed how they treat animation, just the tactics for being shitty to it.

That being said as always it didn't stop the team from trying hard, as Sharon Morill, then vp of DisneyTVA which also ran these things, was determined to break the stigma. It sadly didn't happen, but I can't fault her for trying. And Lion King II did try. It had a four year development cycle, which for animation seems pretty normal, but for one of these films is twice the length. They also changed up some things along the way but we'll get more into that with the film itself. The film released to mostly good reviews, with no one liking it more than the first but still finding it a fine sequel. So what'd I think of it? Let's explore that shall we? A Good Idea at The Time The core of Lion King II isn't terrible. it has some cracks just from the foundation but it's a solid idea for a sequel: We focus now on Kiara, Simba's daughter, played by the star of one of my faviorite franchises and a huge get for the time, Scream star Neve Campbell, who was just coming off scream 2 when this film came out no less. She does a great job once we get to the present with what she has, suprising no one. This honestly wasn't a bad move: unlike most disney sequels the setup for one is there in the finale with Kiara's cornoation, which is where this film picks up before going into her life as a cub, then spending most of the film on her as a young adult. Not only that the film does have the clever idea to play off Simba's trauma: he's overprotective of his daughter and Nala can see it.. and it wears on her more and more with time, with her finding pride rock confining and being annoyed he constantly sends her gay grandpas to go spy on her. You can see both sides: To kiara the pridelands have become a cage her dad's keeping her in but you get that simba still has lingering trauma from both Mufasa's death and his own buffet of near death experinces. Simba is wrong to smother her like this, but you can at least see why he's like this.

This time though there's ANOTHER lead, Kovu, played by disney legend and goof Jason Marsden, which sets a trend: While Cambell is a big flashy name most of the cast are either returning form the first one or are vetran voice actors or tv stars. Nothing wrong with this as the cast with one glaring exception we'll get to all does a fantastic job. The only one not to return is Rowan Atkinson, whose replaced by Fraiser Vetran Edward Hibbert and who does.. fine. He's not as good as rowan, but he's not bad and Zazu isn't in the film enough for it to be a real issue.

Kovu is one of the outcasts, a group of lions who were banished from the pridelands for supporting scar wholeheartdly. I'm a bit torn on the outsiders as the concept: I like the idea Scar had actual supporters, that Simba, given how much scar had done to him, overreacted and banished them all instead of trying to work with them, giving them legit reasons beyond WE EVIL to hate Simba and want him dead. That said.. their also a MASSIVE retcon that makes zero sense in the context of the original film. What lionesses we saw hated Scar and resented him, the pridelands were dying so it's hard to see why anyone would support him, even a small pack , EXCEPT simply being evil, and NONE OF THEM did anything about scar being eaten by the hyenas nor against the rest of the lions, nor tried to start a war when Simba exiled them. The Hyenas are also conspciously absent as , despite Cheech Marin being tapped to return, they were apparently written out.

There's also a massive elephant in the room: See if you look at Kovu you notice he kinda LOOKS like Scar and his mom, the leader of the outcasts and one of the best parts of the film Zira, played by Suzanna Planchette to vllanous resentful perfection, acts more like a vengeful widow. Surely i'm just reading too much into this and Disney didn't SERIOUSLLY consider making a film about incest right?

Yes. I wish to Mufasa up above I was kidding. Granted this info is midly suspect as neither tv tropes nor wikipedia have a link for it.. but givne Kovu looks like scar, how Zira acts about her former leader and lover, and how it seems very weird Scar wouldn't just sire an heir outright and just pick some random baby, i'm feeling it's true and it's laughable they got as far as they did before someone said "Wait isn't this incest' Which yes, yes it is. It makes the romance between the two feel weird as even with the film trying to act like Kovu isn't scar's son just his heir... it still very much comes off like Kovu IS scar's son and no one brings it up becuase lions apparently give a much of a shit about incest as the writers of this flim did.

Zira and Kovu are fascinating though: Zir ais as clever as scar, has a swagger to her and seems just at all times like a snarling engine of vengance. Her husband is dead.. and so his murderer shall burn. She's not deeply complex, but she is incredibly fun to watch and sometimes tha'ts all you need. Kovu meanwhile has a LOT of fascinating layers: he shows up hostile to kira as a cub and it's clear with how the outsiders function that he's been raised as a weapon his whole life: only to fight an dsurvivie with what scraps they have out there. And his transition to adulthood is shattering: Kiara is just herself but older, simply less willing to take her dad's shit after a lifetime of it. Kovu by contrast goes from a fairly sweet innocent kid.. to a revenge engine modled by his mom to infiltrate the lions and kill simba. Marsden gives a truly awesome performance, with just what Kovu has become being clear.. but also that beneath that what he could get from Simba's side of things.. could be better.

The problem is that while the setup is really good, the first third of the film having the two as kids and setting up the situation, and it's enough that I just ignore the massive leaps needed for the outsiders to exist or the fact their basically the hyenas but as lions, the rest of the film... does almost nothing with it. Instead of diving into these two characters and especially Kovu's very complciated crisis of concious.. they just do things in the most most cliche and tired way possible: Kovu finds his new life almost instantly better and plans to tell Kiara asap but can't, his clan gets tired and attacks, Simba blames Kovu and tries to clamp down harder and kiara leaves, theyg o back to stop a war. it's basically west side story or romeo and juliet but speedran so all the actual conflict and emotoin is gone. Kovu dosen't even kill anyone, the death is on Simba for Kovu's brother.

Oh and since we have to talk about him at some point let's talk about Kovu's brother. His brother is Nuka, a shabby lion who thinks he should be heir but proves every second why he shoudln't and why his mom didn't choose him, basically being comedy relief. They then try to give him a tragic death scene which would work.. if it were not for one clear error. one horrible mistake that ruins the character. They cast Andy Dick to play him

Yeah even putting aside his harassment , general creepiness and the fact John Lovitz had FRESHLY punched him in the face for making a crack about Phil Hartman post death (AFTER also enabling Hartman's wife's drug addiction), WHY would , even for the price of a nickle, you cast ANDY DICK for a dramatic death. Even before we knew he was somehow even worse, Andy Dick's whole existance was to be a punching bag. you hire him to annoy your audience and your characters. You CAN have a comedy characters death mean something and be truly gutting, take 24's death in venture bros or even among disney hooty getting turned into a puppet during owl house. But you have to make us care about that character on some level beyond being a joke no one takes seriously first. With Nuka.. he's just a dick who envied his brother and stupidly challenged Simba to a fight. And even as much of a dick as Simba is in this film, more on that in a moment, Simba STILL tried to just bat Nuka away. Simba, despite being ambushed, despite his hatred of the outsiders, despite everything you'd expect.. WENT EASY ON HIM. He didn't want to kill anyone. He only started getting serious when Nuka, somehow, proved to be an actual opponent and didn't even kill him on purpose. The idea of Simba being forced to that is good, but it just dosen't work when the character is nothing and had no personality other than "Pralines and Dick". Fuck em. And most good ideas end up like Kovu or Pralines and Andy Dick. Kiara is mostly wasted, mostly just wanting to bone her cousin and having a fairly sterotpicla disney princess arc, Rafiki is just there to push the main couple together, and Simba .. simba gets done kinda wrong. While the idea of him turning to his worst impulses over trauma is good, the film has so much going on instead he just comes off as a massive prick whose prejduiced, judges Kovu because he , in the context of the film HAPPENS to look like his arch enemy and isn't related to him, and treats his daughter like shit. Brodrick tries but there isn't enough depth given to Simba or anyone for this flim to work. The film just feels half assed...

It dosen't help despite not really giving the story time to breathe.. it also spends a LARGGGGEEE MEATY CHUNK of the storytelling on musical numbers. There's about as many as the original.. but I can barely recall them, with all just feeling like half hearted rehashes of the originals And unlike the original films songs which were all vital to the plot in some way (Circle of Life set the tone and theme of the film, I Just Cant' Wait To Be King fully sets up Simba's character for the first act and has him ditching Zazu, Be Prepared fleshes out Scar and sets up his big plan to kill Mufasa while also revealing at it's start that Scar was working with the Hyenas and by it's end reveals the Hyenas as a real threat, Hakuna Matata handles the time skip and sets up Simba for the third act, and Can You Feel the Love Tonight? has Simba and Nala begin their romance, which is key in getting him to go home. ). In contrast while these numbers COULD commuincate key stuff, they all go on so long they just pad out a film that REALLY didn't need padding, it needed a liver and some kidneys to help it function better.

The one thing the film does really well.. is the animation. Seriously while you can tell this isnj't a theatrical budget.. you can also tell the animators stretched every dime they had to make this LOOK theatrical grade. While some shots i've seen, or some sequels i've seen outright look like they were made cheaply, Lion King II looks damn good and worthy of the original. Despite all the challenges it'd bring the characters still look expressive, colorful with just that hint of real animal movements that made the original's animation so damn good. It may not look as good as the original but for what they had to work with it looks as close as they could possibly get and that's DAMN impressive.

So yeah overall this film isn't great. I wanted to like it I did: It sounded good.. but the final product , even acknowlding the struggles they likely had, is so padded and full of wasted potetial it just makes me sad. It's still probably one of the better Disney Sequels as it both had a reson to exist, good ideas and the animation is again fucking beautiful. But it sadly isn't as much as it could've been. Hopefully when I get to Lion Guard at some point, we'll see what a lion king followup truly could've been. For now.. we can only watch this and see someone almost but not quite make it. Maybe if disney wasn't treating these like disposable money factories this could've actually worked.

#the lion king #the lion king ii: simba's pride #kiara #kovu #simba #zazu #timon and pumbaa #neve campbell #matthew broderick #jason marsden #andy dick

[commonwealthcass]

I just saw you’re taking comissions for comic page!! I confess I would be so trilled if you want a kind of clash (not crash, just meet) between my oc Silver and Cass, just tell me if it inspires you, if you have time and how to do the transfer loool Hancock and Silver often make bads plans Nick always babysit Silver She may or not be attract by Danse, but everybody thinks she's too sweet with him She don't romance anyone because she just grieve Nate but I'm open if anything entertain you Oh and this OC is straight named Nora, just Nick nickname her Silver

Hey! I was offering comic commissions for a bit but I haven't done commissions in a while since I've been a bit busy and comic commissions are more involved project wise ^^'

That being said, I do like making stuff for people every now and then because I love the community here. It kind of depends on if I can come up with something nice and think I can pull it off. I wanna be able to give people something I think would brighten their day or crack them up and I can be a bit of a perfectionist about it lol;

I'll release an updated commission menu once I think I can take some on. I currently am trying to get better speed wise and get my art to a point where Im happy with it ^^

Seems like you have some fun dynamics between Silver and some of the crew and I could imagine there being some fun interactions! Always great meeting another survivor out here ! <3

#sassenashsworld #ask

[dreamtydraw]

omg, dreamty, I also broke my dew fairy figurine (*´-`) but the strawberry one you got is so cute (^-^*)

anyway! how are you doing? I hope you had a nice day!!

~🌿

Strawberry one has a doggo strawberry so i love it ! Less fan of tiger because what i primary like in the figurine it’s their glossy effect and it dosen’t really have it :{

#RipDewFairyYouDeservedBetter

Hiiiii- well had a decent day and euhm…. Remember when i said i was suppose to work this week ? Aha…. I booked reservations for an amumsent park today- ( it’s 4 am i can’t sleep-)

I’m happy that i get to bring my familly to the amusement park ( again thanks for all the people who comission me ! ) cause i always loved the parck we are going to ( celebrated a birthday here when i was a kid didkdid ) and i’m proud to be the one bringing people here after years !

Exited and both tired- kinda need to sleep rn…..

Anywhoozie

Lot of kisses ! Hope you’re doing well too :}

#plant anon #anon ask #dreamty’s ramble

[magicalmousey]

I hope you're happy with the pain and suffering you have caused. I have known Freckly for YEARS, I've gotten to spend a week with her in person and share space and time together, and she has always been kind and honest and sweet. I've seen her go through 2 relationships that ended badly, and you still left her the worst, and yet still you are letting people attack her character. All you had to do was block her, tell your friends to block her, and respect her wish to keep your comissions private. Thats it. All her vent posts are tagged. She is allowed to be angry. There is a difference between feeling rage and making a threat. People are allowed to have extreme emotions. You should know, you blamed every single awful thing you said and did on being Bipolar. Other people have reached out to her telling Freckly you've done the same thing to them.

Also, Freckly isn't trying to lay claim to Starscream, but she feels she's lost him, that he was taken from HER. And you told her you SAID you didn't have feelings for starscream but you were lying. She said she was happy to share but for some reason you still just lied to her. She's also told me about the art you got. The things you've said. Just leave her alone and tell your friends to do the same. And maybe try and keep your promise about keeping your comissions private, just let artists send them to you, like you *promised*.

Just because you're nice to some people doesn't mean you werent awful to others. Thats actually a common abuser tactic so-

Just leave her alone and let her move on. If she could catch a break from you and the people talking to her about you, she'd be able to move on and stop talking about it. She left a website she adored and had friends on for 8 months because of you. Give her peace. I'm only saying something now because your partner is slandering her. Tell them being kind to one person doesnt mean you arent capable of hurting others. Where's the proof Keri did anything to you?

You probably didnt even read all this, and theres an even smaller chance you answer. If you did, I hope you grow and better yourself. I hope you get it together. And just leave her alone so she can get past this.

Hello, anon. No, I am not happy with the pain and suffering which I caused. However, I am not responsible for her feelings.

I am aware that I did wrong things. I apologized for them, never did them again, and I intend to move on from this horrific fallout.

Attack her character? Anon, she is the one who decided to publicly demonize me in front of her thousands of followers.

She is not venting. She is absolutely making threats against me. I can understand feeling rage, but death threats are never acceptable.

Anon, it’s bpd. Not bipolar. I didn’t use it as an excuse and I even mentioned that to her. It is an explanation and I realized my mistakes and I am constantly trying to better myself. I apologized and I want to move on.

Anon, you cannot rip a fictional character away from someone when they were never ours to begin with. I apologize for lying to her, but I did want to preserve her feelings because I know how attached she is to this character.

Anon, I don’t owe her anything. I tag my commissions properly and I even ask artists to do the same, but I owe her nothing. Likewise, she doesn’t owe me anything, either.

Where’s the proof that I intentionally abused her? Where’s me convincing her that Starscream wouldn’t love her?

If she really wanted to move on, she wouldn’t make death threats directed towards me.

As for my partner, she is responding to her claims, especially when she called for my death.

Anon, did you ever stop to think that I am suffering as well? I cannot eat. I cannot physically eat as much as I am suppose to because ever since she made her “vent” post, I have been unable to eat like a normal, functioning human being. That is not her fault. But I cannot help that I react this way. It is something that I must heal from on my own, much like herself.

I agree. I want to move on, but she has to be willing to as well. I hope that she seeks help and feels better.

#discourse replies

[polarisbibliotheque]

when do u think youll be done with the we shall never surrender project??

Hi, dear! That's a great question, thanks for sending it in!

To be quite honest with you all: I don't know.

There's a few reasons for that, so bear with me a little, please "^^

1 - I'm on a sudden art mentoring program with a friend who offered it to me freely.

I've been unemployed and ill for quite a while and a 'friend' of mine literally scammed me and stole all the money I had left, so I'm officially broke. That's been stealing my nights of sleep, because I'm trying to figure something out to make some money and at least pay my credit card every month.

When I mentioned with my mentor I might try to get in the art industry, she was over the moon and took me in for training free of charge and help me as she can so I can get a job. That being said, I'm focusing 1000% on that - hence why I disappear for so long: in less than a month, I've finished 600+ drawings.

Yes, I'm crazy. But this is the only shot I've got after a long period of distress and not knowing what to do. I'm giving it all to it.

2 - I decided to use this mentoring time to improve my art and apply it to the requests of the Shall Never Surrender Project!

I always thought I could do better with the requests - I don't want to deliver something bad and half assed. This last month, I feel like I improved so much, I wanted to wait a little bit to deliver something with a better quality!

3 - My health sometimes kicks me down and so I need to choose carefully what I have energy to do.

As you guys know, I'm trying to recover from an illness and I have a chronic illness as well. I don't eat much and that means sometimes I don't have enough energy to get up from my bed.

There are days I start being productive at 3 p.m - I spend all the morning lying down, gathering energy to tank the day and taking a few naps. There are other days, I can't even bring myself to eat 'cause I feel like I'm going to pass out midway to the kitchen.

Think Vergil dragging his ass out of Hell and crumbling apart at the beginning of DMC5. That's it, literally, I'm not being dramatic.

I have to prioritize what I can do during my days, then. Usually, I prioritize my mentoring, then helping my mom with chores and running errands and then, by night, I'm already very tired. If there's any energy left, I try to write - for the blog here or the book I'm trying to write - and then work on the Shall Never Surrender Project.

It's slow. Very slow. But it's going.

4 - Nevertheless, I want to finish the requests of the Project before starting comissions.

Like I said, I'm broke. And, as you might have seen, I opened commissions to help a friend of my mom who is in a worse situation than mine and really needs some help.

I want to finish the Project requests before any commissions start coming in, because I do feel guilty for making you guys wait so long. I thought I could deal with requests of full, coloured and polished artworks quickly, but I can't.

That was a foolish overestimation of my part and I am sorry.

Even then, people don't commish me a lot. I had a few commissions some years ago, but I gotta tell ya, it's VERY rare for me to get something. Even then, I need to try. For this friend of my mom and for me, eventually.

If I'm not wrong, there are 3 requests for me to finish. I'm working on them in the order people have requested, and honestly, I hope to finish them soon.

I'm really sorry for taking so long, but life sometimes runs over us and we are caught like a deer on headlights.

I know this might feel like a sassy response, but it isn't. I'm really happy you asked and I can explain a few things/give you guys some idea of what's going on and apologize for taking so long :)

#polaris speaks #shall never surrender project #polaris answers #answered asks #art requests #the guilt of taking so long spikes my anxiety 10/10 #but don't worry guys #I didn't forget you #I'm seriously trying #I'm not really used to not being 100% when it comes to my health #like I said about Vergil #he kills me as a character 'cause I get it #I'd do whatever I could to get my healthy self back quickly #and to make things even more amazing #this mentor of mine when I was talking about my job that caused my burnout #she literally said 'you've been through hell. you've been through hell and dragged yourself out' #and all I could hear was Vergil singing Bury the Light at the top of his lungs in the eye of a storm :) #it isn't drama when I say I came very VERY close to dying #everyone who lives around me says how half dead I was for the past 3+ years

[everyjirou]

Concerning Art & Writing Requests

Hi. Althea here. I'm gonna try, keyword try to draw art requests. I will do it on either physical paper or digitally. I will also do writing requests as long as they are not NSFW. I like writing, and I like drawing, so I wanted to open up my "comissions" for it. No payment needed, because I don't know how that works and I'm not gonna ask for money.

Concerning Screenshots

I have finished screen recording all of Heroes Rising, and will upload the screenshots of Jiro from there before I do anything regarding Season 6. I might even do World Heroes Mission beforehand, considering it'll be a while for Season 6 to air all of Jiro's scenes. It all just depends on what the anime shows of her. However, I am intending on doing the other movies AND the OVA's as well. I don't know if the OVA's were shown here, I'd have to check.

Concerning... well, me.

I am not doing so well. Physically was always no, because *enter some crappy scoliosis joke here*. I know it's probably a TMI, but I feel like it should be known. I have depression, anxiety, and ADHD. I am attempting to manage them all, but it's hard sometimes. My grandma has a heart condition, and my mom has a tumor. I apologize for being so absent, and I have explained this before, but much less detailed. I am attempting to manage my personal life and my online life, and it can prove to be a bit of a challenge at times. My mom recently got some results back after her surgery, and from the sounds of it, they're not so good. My grandma is constantly bruising and getting hurt from the medication she's on that keeps her heart from blocking up the veins, and it's rather worrisome(?). I apologize for dumping all this out there, as it may seem like I'm just venting, but I did want to let you all know of my situation since I do tend to just up and vanish quite often. This ordeal with my family isn't recent, as it happened in summer of 2021, but it's still happening and it's still affecting me. I hope you all can understand my lack of appearances from these events, and I hope you can understand my situation if not respect it. I am trying my hardest, and depending, I may need to take a break if needed. Again, I apologize for dumping this all out there, but I feel that it needed to be said and acknowledged since so many people follow this account.

Now, don't feel hesitant!

Just because I ranted there for a second doesn't mean you have to hesitate with talking to me or requesting anything. I do not mind doing requests and talking. It helps me wind down and distracts me from reality. It's a stress reliever! I like doing things I enjoy. I like making people happy. So please do not hesitate to talk with me or request anything. I don't bite. The most I do is send memes. I appreciate the amount of support this account has gotten, from before I joined and to now. I hope to continue to keep delivering Jiro content! Oh, that's another thing.

Regarding my spelling.

I spell the character names a bit different from others, I guess? Some examples would be,

Katsuki Bakugo

Kyoka Jiro

Eijiro Kirishima

Ochaco Uraraka

Maybe it's because I'm American, who knows. Eh, I don't really think it matters all that much, but I thought it should also be known I spell it a lil differently than other peeps. Anyways, that's my rant/post. Thank you all for your time and I love every single one of you!

~ ♡ althea

#bnha #kyoka jiro #mha #art requests #writing requests #personal life update #mod althea

[popculturebuffet]

Top 25 Ed, Edd, N Eddy Episodes: Top 25 List of the Ed (Comissioned by Weirdkev27)

Hello all you happy Eds and happy late anniversary to one of the best showss Cartoon Network ever put out. A few weeks back Ed, Edd n Eddy hit it's 25th Anniversary.. which makes me feel old, but still proud.

For those less familiar, Ed Edd, N Eddy was a series by Danny Antonucci. Antonucci was a huge fan of cartoons of the 40's through 70's, the wobbly style and chaotic energy, and , basing it on people he knew from his children with two of the ed boys to himself with Rolf. He tried pitching it to Nick, but wisely didn't want to give up creative control, something cartoon network gave him, leading to 5 seasons and a movie of handrawn wonder. Yes i'm aware of the 1 technically 6th season episode, but like HBO Max I just lump that in with season 5.

For those less familiar with the show, a quick primer: Ed, Edd, N Eddy follows the titular ed boys: Imaginative cloudcukoolander dum dum brick house Ed, neurotic genius inventor voice of reason Edd, and scheming egotist jerkass Eddy. The three would reguarly try to pull "Scams" to get the kids quarter, a combination of buisnesses, out and out schemes to get money, and ocasinally buliding an ENTIRE CITY. Their targets were the other 6 kids and plank of wood inhabiting their Cul De Sac: Rich kid asshole treat him as the villian Kevin, nice girl and sorta love intrest Nazz, son of a shepard Rolf, Ed's abusive shouty sister Sarah, Sarah's best friend and sensitive kind boy Jimmy and the weird, wonderful Johnny and his best friend Plank. Typically the schemes would fail either due to Eddy's hubris, an unforseen thing or if the writer's were feeling a tad lazy, just having local bullies and sexual harassers the Kanker Sisters end the episode.

The series stuck to it's small cast, a handful of settings, yet used those for all they got, getting 4 seasons out of a nearly endless summer filled with fantastic slapstick comedy, nice adult nods sprinkled in there, and fluid and bouncy animation, with a 5th shifting the setting to school for a decent enough season that's barely on this list but wasn't too bad, ending in a finale movie.

So i'm honoring this fine series with it's 25 best episodes: once kevin pitched the idea and clinked the money in my jar, I went through the series, picked out my faviorites, narrowed it down to the 25, then rewatched ALL of them. I was stuck in bed with tubrculosis, what else was I going to do. I COULD have gone off memory, but it just felt right to rewatch them all and at 11 minutes an episode it was fesable. I am willing to do more lists on comission and will rewatch any episodes I put on said list if possible, but I have limits. Overall though it was remarkable how I not only had TROUBLE pairing it down to 25, but how awesome these episodes still were all these years later.

So these are the good, the great and the weird of Ed , Edd N Eddy across 5 seasons and celebrating 25 years, 25 scams and 25 cents. Join me under the cut.

25. Ed, Pass it On aka The One With Eddie's Brother Allgedlys Coming Back Home

Ed Pass It On.. is okay. The opening set piece is an all timer and rewatching these reminded me just how much this show loves it's opening set piece scams and how good it was at them. A restraunt is great and the way it derails being ed putting hhimself naked on one of those fancy serving tray things is brilliant. I didn't need to SEE a naked Ed, but that's half the joke.

The actual episode.. is less enjoyable than I remember. The idea of Eddy lying his big brother coming back is great and it has some nice foreshadowing for the big picture show, but joke wise it's just not funny watching everyone be terrified a serial domestic abuser is going to come back. it is intresting seeing how each character interacts with the idea and Sarah easily derail it, but it didn't hold up as well possibly due to SAID big picture show hammering home just how bad a person Eddy's brother is taking Kevin and Rolf's reactions from kinda funny to "Okay I see why jesus". Not a terrible one, just one that didn't age well.

24. Stop Look and Ed aka The No Rules One

The titles for this series.. aren't great. Some fit okay, but the chaotic title cards meant I didn't read them clearly half the time as a kid and their so generic. Thankfully the episodes are still good> This one's got a strong premise: Edd is , as you'd expect, neurotic about a keep off the grass sign, and Eddy and Ed defy it, then decide to break all the rules they can, leading to the neighborhood goign into chaos in hilarous ways with Rolf taking a break for once, Kevin destroying dishes and Sarah and Jimmy's ice cream mountain. We also get the iconic line "Save it and use it for ammo when I need to double d". Otherwise.. it's flimsier than I remembered, with Edd's solution being entirely assholish and eddy being a dick the whole time. It has enough memorable moments to land it here, with the jawbraker satilte, the off screne double d reveal, the ice cream mountain, it's just not the series best. That won't last long on this list thankfully.

23. An Ed Too Many aka Sarah gets a crush on Double D

Season 1 was a tad more relaxed than the seasons after, a bit more chill and that shows here. There's no scam in progress, our heroes just hit up Double D, try to make pizza then work on what the next scam will be while the conflict is simply Sarah getting a crush on Edd and stalking him.

That part could easily ruin the episode: Ed, Edd N Eddy has held up in a lot of ways, but it's use of the Kankers.. is not one of them ,being the embodiment of "HA HA THIS SEXUAL HARASSMENT IS FUNNY BECAUSE IT'S HAPPENING TO A MAN. LAUGH LAUGH AT HOW UNCOMFORTABLE THIS IS LAUUUUGGGGHHHH".

So it's a plesant suprise that when it comes to this episode with Sarah.. they get it right. Sarah is obsessively following Double D around, but the episode makes it very clear in how she acts this episode she's a kid: She dosen't understand this isn't okay or Edd isn't intrested because she's.. well apparently 12 according to the middle school seasons but clearly supposed to be younger than that even in those seasons? This show is weird with ages.

Point is you get an innocence in Janynse Jaud's performance. She's just a kid following around the older boy she has a crush on and not understanding that him giving her a flower, entirely innocently, didn't make him his boyfriend but you understand why from her perspective she is. Not only that Sarah's entitlement as a character and tendency to not be told no , as anyone who does usually gets their teeth misplaced soon after, makes it clear WHY she doesn't get it and why Ed gently trying ot tell her to leave or eddy being.. eddy about it don't work. The episode dosen't make Sarah's behavior okay either, as it's clear Double D is massively uncomfortable, but it's on such a low scale, the worst we get being "hello trapped boyfriend" and her acts mostly being following him around, asking him to play and making paper art out of the paper used for their dinosaur.

The episode is low on jokes, but ones it has are great. We have that great shot of Ed and Eddy carrying edd, "Get Lost", an all time great joke of the series, and of course Jimmy's heartbroken reaction to everything, foaming at the mouth and trying to pick a fight with eddy in the most hilarious way possible while Eddy just boggles at it and has ed kidnap him. The ending solution, the two playing together is also really sweet. All in all a solid, shockingly wholesome episode.

22. Over Your Ed aka Cool Ed

Another season 1 episode and once again I like how relaxed it is: our heroes are simply running an "eno-g-drink" stand, a smaller hustle than normal, ed being ed and also extra smelly ruins it, so the eds decide to fancy him up and then profit off it. Simple plot. This one is here entirely for ed's transformation, a classic design from the fun wig to the neat jacket, and the fountain of nearly incomrephnisble 70's and 80's catchphrases. Cool ed is a delight and would easily get this episode higher. The problem is one MANY an episode have: Deus Ex Kanker. The writer's can't figure out how an episode ends, so the Kanker Sisters show up. There's less HARASSMENT in this one, so it's not as bad, but this one wreaks of them not knowing how to end the scheme and just letting the Kankers do it for them and it ends the episode on a sour note.

21. Laugh Ed Laugh aka Eddy looses his mind due to a Pandemic

Yeah this one aged well for obvious reasons, but even beyond the obvious parallels to the hellscape we all lived through, it's a well done character piece that shows why EDDY does this. Sure we know other reasons, greed, a need to live up to his brother, etc, but this one makes it clear he's addicted to it. He's given a chance to just hang with his best friends, let the storm pass.. but it's just not as fun. He can't play games like kick the can when there's no money in it, no thrill to it. He may get constantly frustrated at his constant losses... but this ep adds the subtext that that the possiblity of loss, the possiblity of not winning... is part of it. Eddy.. is a gambler. He lives for the thrill of the chase as much as the thrill of those quarters jingling in his jar. IT's why he ends up playing one of the oldest scams in the world with a bunch of squirrels for a prize he dosen't care about. He cares about the money.. but he needs the game too and goes mad without it. Tony Sampsons performance is also a large reason this one's here as it's one of his best. Truly great hilarious stuff. A solid episdoe that really cracks Eddy open as a character.

20. This Won't Hurt an Ed aka The Needle One

This is also the only one from Season 5. Now despite this I DO like Season 5's attempt's to do something new with the formula, putting the Ed's back to school and giving us new outfits for most of the cast that still echo their familiar ones. I particularly like Eddy's jacket. I also get why it dosen't work for some as the show still wasn't back to full speed despite this refresh, some of it's worse habits stuck, and the minimalist cast is a lot more noticable in a school setting, if still working for me. But I get why it wouldn't work for everyone.

That said it still gave us some classics and this is the best of them. It's also an episode that makes me feel bad for Kevin something hard given that he's an arrogant jerk. The episode does this well without really changing his character: he's still arrogant and he's largely nice to Jimmy at the moment because Jimmy's feeding his ego.. but you also get WHY the other kids are showering him for winning a sports ball as he has genuine charisma and is in a good enough mood to not be a sarcastic jerk to them, as he often tends to be.

The other half is Eddy. Eddy starts shit with Kevin this time not because Kevin disrespected him.. but because Kevin's getting all the attention. Eddy is genuinely in the wrong here and uses private medical information to torture Kevin with his fear of needles while also causing a panic in the school and making Double D's job as a nurse's assitant harder. Eddy... is a bad person a lot of the time and while he has a damn good reason WHY he's this way, it dosen't change the fact a lot of the time he's just a jerk for petty reasons.

The various torments are hilaroius but what gives the episode extra charm is the creepiness added as Kevin tries to avoid the eds as they stalk him. The short takes on a horror movie vibe. And again the episode dosen't forget Kevin is who he is: his response to the boys con being outed by Double D.. is to try and beat their heads in. But what clinches this one as a classic is Double D finding anothe rway around, one that remidns me of the aformentioned grounding episode... but instead of having kevin beat them.. he gives EDDY the shot to help Kevin with his own fear. A perfect payback ending to a damn fine episode.

19. Floss Your Ed aka OW TOOTH HURT

This is just a fun gag fest, plain and simple. The setup is simple: Ed's tooth is loose , Eddy puts a bounty on it to try and get that tooth fairy money and we get a lot of fantastic hyjinks from the rest of the kids as they try to get it loose from fishing lures to the fake jawbreaker above. It's a bit low thanks to it's ending not being as fun as everything else, but the payoff of Ed eating the teeth still works.

18. For The Ed By the Ed aka The Election One

A fitting one for this year, and not the last election episode i'll be going with. And what a concidence it's also between a blatant criminal who tries to steal an election and a plank of wood whose still a far better choice. Eerie.

This one's here partly because I really like election episodes, but mostly for it's murderer's row of jokes: We get things like the shovel, Eddy's over the top electionaring, Ed literally digging up dirt, and Eddy's blantant election fraud so obvious and ineveitble Edd already planned way ahead. Simple premise but damn if it ain't fun. It's also cathartic as hell to see Plank beat up the Kankers. He's got my vote.

17. Rent An Ed aka The Eds leave Johnny Homeless

This is another quick one to talk about: it's just gag after gag after gag as the Ed's destroy Jimmy's house then Johnny's. Plank telling them what they did, the design of Johnny stuck in a tree, Chez La Sweat, this one is just nonstop slapstick gold , concluding int he glorious delivery of "IS THAT THE SUPPORT BEAM TO THE HOUSE?!"

16. Dear Ed aka Johnny and Plank Break UP

This one thrives on a great concept, as do most great Ed Edd N Eddy Episodes: Johnny and Plank have a fight and while Jimmy takes the poor hunk of wood in, Eddy tries to captlize on Edd's well meaning attempts to find the kid a new best friend. What foils it is especially clever: it's not Eddy's usually impulsivness or greed, it's simply Johnny's imagination: Johnny gave Plank life, so they can't really contorl how he reacts to the other friends with a Traffic Cone being a perverted jerk and a Boot nearly killing him. Add in a fun as heck party with the whole neighborhood showing up and a wholesome ending with the boys dancing with Jimmy and you have one of my faivorite episodes.

15. Dueling Eds aka the Duel One

Okay some of these titles are pretty transparent, but you name an episode off the top of your head by title. Go on i'l wait.

Anyways, I love Rolf, easily tied with Johnny for my faviorite of the kids, so it's a shock only one of his episodes is on here, but damn does he make it count. The premise works well: It simply let's Eddy be his obnoxious self, disprespecting Rolf's culture then refusing to see he did anything wrong despite how obviously upset Rolf was and how obvious it is to anyone with two eyes that he was an insenstive little dickhead. Thus while Eddy goes through it this episode.. you don't remotely feel bad for him: He had every chance to apologize and even the cupcakes would've work but his stubborn refusal to admit he did anything wrong gets him beat. It's also aged remarkably well with many a person disrepscting people's personal cultures for being diffrent They all deserve a fish slap.

The duel itself also climbs it up here with the striking colors and some good gags like Rolf wanting eddy to fight back even though really this fight is one sided and Eddy has been trying. We also get a rare kevin compuance, as he tapes the fight, clearly is only into it because Eddy's getting beat.. and clearly gets beaten up afterwords. Also Ed becomes an eel. That sure did happen. I also love the guys eagerness to walk on Rolf's face. What a guy.

14. Look Into My Eds aka the Hypno Wheel One

Look into my heads is a weird one. As you might have noticed from the other season one eps on this list, Season 1 , like most season 1s, experimented a bit, trying to figure out the show's rhythm, having a more relaxed tone in places. The show hadn't quite settled into it's scam of the week format (with the ocasional breaks to keep it from getting stale of course).

So we get this episode where hypnotism is outright real and a lot of fun transformations , paticuarlly monkey Kevin and frog sarah. It's just some fun nonsenes. It's only real issue and what keeps it this down low despite such great animation and physical comedy .. is the Kankers. Their barely on this list for a reason, and while the ending isn't AS bad as usual, their use still feels like they had no ending thought up when they came up with the hynowheel. The reason it dosen't completely derail the ep is it is at least CLEVER why their resitant and the hair gag is hilarious. So a unique ep that could've been better, but still is solid and memorable thanks to it's designs and comedy.

13. Dawn of the Eds aka The Space Ranger One

Dawn of the eds is another season 1 experiment and one I wish they'd done more of: it's just a chill hangout episode outside the usual premise where the guys collect money for jawbreakers, plan to sneak into a movie then spend the day roleplaying in the junk yard. It's just pure fun to watch the kids have so much fun dressing up junk, hanging out in an old van and playing spaceman, and the ending of them throwing shit at sarah and jimmy and leaving for dinner while dragging ed away is a perfect capper. It's not joke dense like later entries on this list, but it's just so much fun and nice break from the pattern the show would fall into later.

12. Avast Ye Eds aka the Steel Pedal Guitar One

Another vibes episode.. at least for the first half and one of my faviorite scams of the series: The ed's simply take Johnny and Jimmy boating which fits first, the former loving adventure and the later being a perfect foil for how dinky the boat is with his fussy nature and seasickness. It also has that steel pedal guitar bit, from how much Edd hates the thing to how GOOD he is at it while being utterly bored. It's one of the series best and elviates this episode by itself but even without it it's still a lot of chill fun on a boat.

Then the Kanker's show up.. and the episode gets even better. Yeah, probably the only time anyone's ever said that but unlike other examples of their inclusion in season 1 they feel more part of the plot: of course they'd do this and the pirate thing helps esclate it giving us great stuff like "kick my feet faster", johhnny's badass sail ripping, and walking plank. I"m shocked they got that obvious joke out of the way so soon and wouldn't be suprised if they entirely wrote an episdoea round getting there. The usual sexual harassment keeps this classic down a few pegs, but it's still one of my go to episodes for a reason.

11. X Marks the ed aka ATTACK THE WIG.

LIke the last entry on this list, X Marks the Ed gets a lot of mileage out of having one of the series best gags, in this case my personal faviorite ATTACK THE WIG, from it's randomness, to Ed's tender reveal of "wigs scare me double d" as well as how it takes the easy solution to this dillema out of the plot.

X Marks in general is just funny. Yes Eddy probably dosen't deserve his suffering even with his giant pile of horrible deeds before this, but while the Zit on his head isn't his fault, his making it bigger by poking at it is. And the antics the kids get up to, from Johnny running a scam himself to the expertly crafted photo bit, is great. Rolf is also in top form here, happy to help, treating making the cure like a cooking show and somehow srhinking eddy while running away from his actions. X Marks the ed is just pure laughs the whole way through and sometimes that's all you need to make a good episode of this show.

10. They Call him Mr Ed aka Up

This was one of my faviorites as a kid (as most of this list is really, they held up well) , and for good reason: the simple idea of Eddy building a company dedicated to going up with no actual goal this time is genius. It's very clear his understanding of buisness is what tweens would be, with him just thinking it's about board rooms, hiring people and going UP. The sheer amount of up puns is mindboggling as it is incredible and I salute them keeping this schitck up. Everyone fits into the corprate setting really well: Eddy as the corrupt ceo, Edd as the Smithers, Johnny int he mail room, Nazz as receptionist given her people skills, Jimmy as the style person, Rolf on security with his strength. Though I don't think had the fight got on Kevin would've lived much longer. It also uses kevin well to derail the scheme: it's a tricky arct finding a way to end it that isn't TOO ashoolish, and Kevin simply wanting to talk to Nazz, not respecting the game their playing and leading to Eddy tipping his hand on not paying anyone is perfect, as is Ed's elevator runner paying off in such a surreal way.

This episode is truly in the up-er echelon and a perfect way to start UP the top 10.

9. Fa-La-La-La-Ed aka the first Christmas One

This one gets to the top 10 on sentiment: it's a genuinely heartfelt christmas episode... even as eddy keeps reminding us "it's July!". Remember that for July this year. It's just so nice to see Ed's delusion it's christmas lead to the kids deciding "fuck it let's go ahead and celebrate christmas" and just enjoy themselves. It has good gags too including the caroling and the piggy bank scam, as well as the whole idea of piggy bank day, but it gets here entirley just by being sweet and with Ed being at easily his kindest and most selfless.

8. One + One = Ed aka the Really Fucking Weird One We All Love

This one was a shoe in for a list the second it was pitched to me. It's one of both the msot memorable episodes and the funniest and now having learned more about animation than I did as a kid, gags like Eddy going into the background or taking away Jimmy's line are even better. It's also hard not to love Jimmy's comeback later "don't spill me!" or the three headed Rolf. An episode simply about learning things work sharply swerves into an absurdist masterpiece, and I love every second of it. It plays with the animation, breaks every rule and has a damn good time doing it. It's certainly the show's weirdest episode.. but it's also certainly one of it's best.

7. Urban Ed aka Edtropolis

This is one I loved as a kid and I was delighed, again like most of these, that it held up REALLY well.

The setting is what makes this episode both such a classic and such a nice break from the usual: While Eddy's still trying to milk money building an entire, fun looking city of cardboard for it while introducing various city scams, from beginin stuff like shopping or shoe shines to a tatoo parlor the episode finds a LOT of fun stuff to do with an urban setting. This thing is crammed with joke after joke from the anvil gag to the boy with the snake on it's face, and once again threads the needle just right; Eddy's punished.. but given he hit johnny up for money earlier and built the city LARGELY just to make money off people, I can't feel too bad. The opening scam is also one of the series best. Just try to confuse them into money. I'm shocked it didn't work.

6. Robbin Ed aka the Superhero Episode

Look I love superheroes. I'm not shy about that so this one always had a place in my heart. But it's a dang fun superhero episode and what I hold up as one of the gold standards for "one of the cast becomes a superhero" episodes. It helps it has a unique hook to it compared to most: it's not our main characters becoming masked vigiliaintes, but Jonny, whose upbeat nature, kindness and already shown bits of heroisim (See the pirate episode from before) make him a perfect fit, with Plank being a natural sidekick.

It also puts Eddy in the perfectly fitting role of supervillian. He's already a crook, has ego issues and gets pissed off easily: have Jonny ENTIRELY JUSITFIABLY wreck his latest and most scammy scam (selling people a device they only had one of and filling the boxes with nothing), and Professor Scam is born. The rest of the episode is Eddy just.. perfectly sinking into the role, from his hilariously dumb setup scheme which made me laugh at a butt joke for a change, to his scam ray to that all timer gag of his getaway bike floating away without him, it's a perfect 60's batman style showdown, and Ed turning face at the end is the perfect way to resolve it. Robbin Ed is a good time and stands out for good reason.

5. See No Ed aka The One Without the Eds

See No Ed is a clever inversion of Laugh Ed Laugh: We've had an episode without the other kids, seen how the Ed's deal with that. I'm amazed it took till season 4 to get to this given they did the inverse so early on but it was worth the wait.

It also neatly shows the stages the kids go through: their curious, then throw a party not having to deal with Eddy's shit for a day, then are genuinely worreid and finally go to a scam WITHOUT the ed's there to opperate it which still goes well. It's all logical but also creates a sense of intrigue as to WHERE they are.

Helping this is Kevin, the lead of the episode and given how much Kevin can be a jerk, putting an episode on his shovel chin is a risk.. but it pays off here. Just as the other kids absence rattled Eddy, Kevin finds he's off ballance without his nemisis. He assumes the absence has to be s cam, that the eds ar ewaiting for him, devolves into parnoia. It lays bear what Kevin is: a bully that needs a target to fuel his massive ego, the same way eddy needs to pull scams, win or loose, to stroke his own ego: Eddy scams because it get shim money and makes him feel sharper than the sharpies. In turn Kevin hutns eddy so viciosuly because hunting Eddy and whaling on him gives him something.

Something that dosen't come up often but this episode makes clear is that Kevin's place among the kids.. is fragile. He's postiioned himself as the alpha dog, the big boy, the one others respect.. but his closest friends are the ones nice to everyone: Rolf and Nazz are just unbelievably Kind. And Even Nazz gets annoyed by him at times and is the one most likely to call him out and Rolf likely woudln't be as close if he knew half of what Kevin said. Kevin needs Eddy because Eddy's presence assures he won't become just like him: an outcast whose ego, selfishness and need for attention isolate him from everyone else. Kevin falls apart because he can't accept the eds aren't some boogey man to make him feel better and their absence isn't some scheme and it's glorious to see.

4. The Day the Ed Stood Still aka He's a Literal Monster

The Day the Ed Stood still is another format bender, and a clever one as it's a bait and switch: it starts with your standard cold open scam, Ed decides he wants to be a ,onster, Edd wants to help because he's a kind soul and Eddy does because he can sell this.

Then.. things go off the rails in the best way possible. This one asks what happens when two of the ed's biggest assets, Edd's inventivness and Ed's unstoppable strength, ran rampant: Double D builds Ed the perfect monster suit.. and Ed BECOMES the monster and a nightmarish force Double D desperatley tries to stop while Eddy encourages because he's a sick bastard. IT's one of the few times he's not punished for being the worst.

What follows isa fun tense monster movie as Ed slowly picks off the neighborhood. The deisgn on the monster is awesome and the slow reveal of it is brilliant, as is Ed making his layer in his basment with chewed up chunky puffs. Gross AND horrifying. The ending, with Eddy naturally having a bunker ready under his bed and Ed going wild to not let him get away THAT easy with his actions, is a lot of fun.

3. Once Bitten, Twice Ed aka The Never Ending Scam

This one is helped by having the series best cold open. Easily. It's not even a contest: Baron O Beef Dip is just pure comedy gold, from how Shoddy the prank is, to using Ed's iconic little monster pal, to fo course ED EATING HIS MATTRESS, not to mention the fact this isn't the first time, and ending on "devour the non belivier and Eddy having to get eddy to CALL HIM OFF CALL HIM OFF. This alone would get the episode on this list.

The rest though is also excellent and while a bit overshadowed by the opening set piece, still slaps with a simple concept: Eddy has a scam he won't let go of and instead keeps lazily rehashing while the kids get tired of it and by the end aren't falling for it. Eddy uses a random object, lures them in, it's a hunt, Rolf tries to participate witha blunt object, Johnny objects. Rinse, repeate, comedy gold. I also found a joke I didn't get as a kid that i loved here, Great Nano's kidney stone. The fact Rolf has that and the fact Nazz is the only one to go "wait waht". It's brilliant. Replacing that later wtih Kevin just.. giving hi ma hammer, this time KNOWING it's ed is also good. This one takes a concept and runs with it and unlike Eddy dose'nt run it into the ground. It's a perfect eddy plot too: he's so prideful that of COURSE there'd be that one scam he thought was great and refuses to admit was halfbaked from the start. Of course. This one never quite ends but it certainly leaves us on a high.. and a toilet for some reason.

2. Little Ed Blue aka BIG TROUBBBLEEEEEE

We all remember this one: Ed gets upset, chaose ensues. What I noticed more on rewatch though is two key things that made this epiosde good: it's densely packed with jokes and ahs a well done plot: the opening with the theater is genuinely nice: the movie is entertaining, we get the steel pedal guitar again, a clear seal of quality, and the food fight is wholesome: it starts as a fight btu the kids just have fun and Eddy gets an honest day's profit.

The main event though is one of the ages: ed is upset, kicks everyone out and gives sarah her just deserts for a change. And what works is that Ed.. just wants to be alone> He's dealing with a pebble, he's having a crappy day and the episode only keeps going because Edd, misguidedly, want's to cheer up his best friend instead of letting him just have a poopy mood, especially since outside of the theater thing, he's not harming anyone> He just sits on a stump moping and only gets agressive when Edd and Eddy won't leave him alone. The worst he does is hurt Edd's feelings.. but he tells him to go away. They don't listen, so what happens next is on them.

It allows the episodes slapstick to be hilarous as Eddy is his usual self, not wanting ot help because he dosen't care and screaming at edd or othe rhalf assed things. Hence the glorious shit he gets done to him from Ed making a toy breathe fire, to the comic book face to my faviorite him being turned into a bat to bean kevin after both are dicks to ed, it all feels deserved> it also makes johnny solving it work: Jonny did nothing wrong, and thus is the one who actually fixes ed.. with planks help. It's a masterful episode with Matt Hill's best performance by far.

Shoo Ed aka Annoying Johnny

Many an episode on this list is good.. but at the end of the day one was #1 in my heart for years as I didn't realize till getting screencaps a year or two back a LOT of my faviorite gags were int his one episode and even amnong all these rewatches, only one king of the cul de sac could be crowned.

I like Jonny a lot as a character, inconsitent spelling of his name here or not, with plank also being great. His innocense, his weird sidekick, but this is the peak of his moutnain. Johnny is unteitonally a pest to kevin, and Eddy weaponizes it for his own means. The result is the funniest episode of the show and the best version of it's standard formula.

Johnny's the star here with his unteiotnal annoyance, the glorious purple suit, and Paul David Grove's great enthusasim. But everyone gets a chance to shine: Double D's growing bafflement with this and eventaul freakout with "i glued a block of wood to johnny's foot", eddy at his scammiest and hammiest as he enjoys this, and Ed .. well he glued a block of wood to johnny's foot. We get so many great jokes from Eddy and Kevin's argument, to "I glued a block of wood to johnny's foot", the suddne ye haw, provoke our creation, Rolf natually loving new johnny "What does that mean I ask you" and of course

So many great lines and performances I could spend all day listing them but I won't. It also , like most eps here, avoids the usual pitfall of the series: The ed's punishment is proportionate, trapped by the monster they created and eddy's own cheapness. A fitting end to the series best episode.

Thanks for reading Ed boys.

#ed edd n eddy #cartoon network #ed #edd #eddy #jonny 2 x4 #sarah #plank #jimmy #nazz #rolf #kevin

[popculturebuffet]

Monthly Muppet Madness: Sesame Street Luis and Maria Valentine's Day Special (Comission for Emma Fici)

Happy valentine's day all you happy people and welcome back to monthly muppet madness. All the muppets you can handle once a month. And for this special day of love and chocolate we're going down to sesame street to look at the love story and wedding of Luis and Maria.

Now this one was a bit of a challenge for two reasons: the first is that my Seasame Street knowledge is limited: i know the 2010's decently enough as I watched a ton of it when my niece and nephew were toddlers, and I reviewed Follow that Bird last year, which was exellent.. but I really don't know who most of the cast are as characters outside of the major muppets and even some of those escape me as many have been phased out over the years. I mean why they don't use the two headed monster ine verything is beyond me, he's a two headed monster> that's awesome.

Thankfully the muppet wiki is super expansive so if like me you didn't know these characters going into this article yoru great. If you did, well... go get some juice or a pop while I fill in the blanks.

Luis and Maria were both introduced in season 3 of Seasame street and lasted all the way to 2015. Luis was introduced as the owner of the local fixit shop, a kind man who fixed bikes, toasters what have you. He also fixed them for Snuffy before knowing he was real. They were dropped off and picked up by... oh let's say moe. He's notable for playing the longest lasting mexican american roll on a television series and Seasame Street celebrated his heritage frequently. Sesame Street did not fuck around and I appricate that. Maria was introduced as a local teen who worked at the library, aging in real time and quickly becoming a young adult. She soon started working with Luis at the fixit shop, getting hired by simply pitching in when he was too busy to actually listen to her ask for a job and being hired on the spot as it helped with his work load. She later asked for a raise... only to not only get THAT but be promoted to partner.

So the two already had a working relationship and friendship when Sonia Manzano, Maria's Actress, got pregnant. Rather than dance around it Seasame Street decided to integrate the story, but since it was the 80's by the time of this pregnancy, they also needed Maria to get married first because GASP apparently kids couldn't handle the idea of a single parent. Or a multiracial couple as her previous love intrest David, was also ruled out though the why is a bit murky: One documentary said his actor was leaving anyway , another said he was devistated. I wouldn't rule out an 80's tv show avoiding an interracial marriage to avoid scandal.. but I also think Seasame Street was progressive enough to try it anyway, so i'm inclined to belivie the actor simply wasn't avaliable, especailly since the idea was pitched by Carol Spinney's wife Debra and passed on to Caroll himself. Given the two characters were already close as friends, buisness partners and on good terms, having them do the relationship upgrade makes some sense: while friends to lovers CAN be really tricky, here it just feels wholesome: like two people who were simply friends for a long time, caught feelings eventually and fell in love.

So today we'll be covering the two realizing their in love and thent heir wedding day. I wish I had something for the middle but Sesame Street.. is hard to track down these days. Most of it WAS on max.. but Max being max, a lot of it was removed and digtially most of seasame street is best of compliations and what not. There really isn't a consitent, episode by episode archive for the show that I found. So I found two complitions on youtube covering parts of this storyline. I am sorry that I coudln't find a more in depth one covering the whole thing up to the wedding, and would be glad to cover more of their story in the future. For now though let's tell the timeless tale of man and woman brought together by two 5 year olds asking difficult questions.

Part 1: In Love So the Luis and Maria story has a LOT of parts to it, and like I said I could only find so much on youtube. I tried archive of our own too, no luck. So before this the two started growing from friends to something more after tending to a baby bird... and not the normal one they tend to what lives in the back of their store.

The building feelings pay off here.. but first what most people come to seasame street for: two five year olds arguing: while playing Cowboys, Big Bird wants to go Eha Eha, and Snuffy wants to go Eha Eha Eha. Somehow it's far from the most gripping cowboy dillema i've seen

Gordon easily solves the issue and the two get their eha's on when they notice Maria and Luis holding hands. We don't see it because they only have a set for that part of sesame street, but it leaves the boys confused and they decide to go ask the adults up front.

Luis and Maria.. have no adquate explination for why they were holding hands and i'ts hilarous, mostly beause it feels so REAL. Kids will oftne ask questions that end up super awkward simply because they don't know any better. The two REALLY don't know how to answer this, saying adults do it because they like each other not because they need to, but not sure how they feel about each other. Until an idea hits

But since it would they instead realize their in love and go to tell each other and we get a really sweet well done shot as we look in on the fixit store through it's window as the two confess. it's some really well done acting and really cute.. then they shut the curtain so all of sesame street dosen't see their live sex celebration.

That night Big BIrd asks when their getting married which panics the two especially since you know THEY JUST STARTED DATING. Again it works because it's a harmless kid thing and Big Bird is just a giant toddler. But he bets they will

And he's right though there's according to the wiki a whole ass arc where everyone in sesame street is pressuring the two to get married. I mean Delgado's pregnancy is part of why they speed it up and as a show for younger kids they don't have to really get into emotional complexity... buuuuut it dosen't make it any less hilarous that all the muppets are wondering when this couple's going to get hitched already depsite being none of thier buisness.

Eventually Luis proposes, we get some planning and now it's time for the wedding.

Part 2: It's Your Wedding Day

So we get to the wedding, as everyone prepares: Maria's been so nervous she can't sleep while Luiz

Maria talks to linda, her bestie and just the best. Linda is kinda sorta dating bob, the og sesame street human and local teacher, the two even getting a mental duet about possibly getting maried and Linda catching the boquet. Both of these things go nowhere but given the two never married anyone else, I like to think they just had a quiet wedding officiated by kermit off screen.

Anyways everyone prepares for the wedding day with a big fucking musical number, as you should, and then has the wedding to one as the soon to be weds panic internally, the various adults and their relatives sing about how in love they are , and Oscar hopes fo ra fight because of course he does. Also elmo looks like Oscar slipped him about 80 ounces of cocaine because he is TRIPPING BALLS the entire cermony while panicking about dropping the rings.

Hey kids, just a life lesson if the garbage monster on your street offers you cocaine to help you relax before a wedding, don't take it. he's probably just wnatin ga laugh at your expense. Also just.. don't give 5 year olds cocaine. That's not a good thing to do. And don't shake them.. unless your Larry david then that sorta thing is just expected of you and you'll be dealt with later.

This message has been brought to you by popculturebuffet and the two penguins on my desk.

The wedding ends up working an dis beautiful. Also oscar the grouch somehow got a plus one, his girlfriend grungetta who i'm somehow just finding out exists. Oscar was getting it on the reg and not ONE of you fuckers thought it was a good idea to tell me. Good for him. A reception is held and everyone is happy... well almost everyone.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

#seasame street #valentine's day #luis rodriguez #maria rodriguez #wedding #muppets #monthly muppets

[popculturebuffet]

Austin and Ally: Bloggers and Butterflies Episode Reviewcap:  Oh Bother (Patreon Review for Emma Fici)

Hello all you happy people and welcome to popculturebuffet where I review some of my faviorite media... and... this thing. Yeah it’s time for a patreon review as 5 dollar or more patrons get one guaranteed slot a month... and this one is me being impaled on my own sword. See during my review of Muppets Most Wanted earlier this month, I talked about how much I hated the series Austin and Ally, as Ross Lynch from the show appeared in the movie and I felt he stuck out like a sore thumb among the rest of the cameos. It was a throaway joke but we got to talkiing about it more after I sent Emma the review (She had comissioned it)... and well you can see where this ended up. And this isn’t the first time i’ve hinted at something I dislike in a review that I might review down the road.. but it’s the first time someone’s had me review one of these things. 

I should make some things clear. I”m 30. When I saw some scattered episodes of Austin and Ally in it’s first season, I was 20. I was NEVER in this show’s target demo at the time I watched it. I have no nostaglia for it nor mercy and never did.  So if you have some soft spot for it because of nostlagia or you like what some of the actors did later.. your good. You do not have to like what I like or hate what I hate. These reviews are my honest opinons and while I try to make my case and crack some jokes, I am not trying to shame you if you like this show, nor am I shaming the actors for being in it. Hollywood is rough, and especially as a teen and as we’ve seen with other disney stars, being put into the disney star machine can be rough. No tonly that they’ve all gone on to work on other stuff: Ross Lynch had steady success with 4 seasons of chilling adventures of sabrina, both he and Laura Mareno have kept singing after this, Calum Worthy went on to the critically acllaimed american vandal and Rani Rodregeuz has gone on to do voice work and more disney work. I’m never going to shame a young actor for shooting their shot. So there is nothing against the young actors or young fans who liked this show. 

That being said.. this show is hot, flaming , toasty garbage. It is not good. I am not saying that to be hyperbolic: While I am trying to cut down on the salt, this work is geninely bad. And while I do get it’s aimed for kids.. kids deserve better than this. I’ve seen decent Disney Channel Sitcoms: I watched Girl Meets World not long after this, Even Stevens holds up okay from what I can remember, and even in recent times i’ve seen episodes of Syndey to the Max. It’s pretty good and has a creative dual time periods premise. So then, before this, and after this there were D-Sitcoms that geninely tried. I just don’t like ones like this that really do’nt. That don’t care and are just trying to sell kids music instead of an actual show. That replace actual effort with “wacky bullshit”. And I love wacky bullshit. I geninely do. I’ve been rereading zits lately and despite all the crap it gets and how steretoypcial it can be with hit’s main family.. it can still be utterly great at times. 

This show.. has no real creativity. It’s clearly trying to cash in on the fact Disney had a market in making their actors also signers, by casting two talented singers, making the show about music and a central couple, throwing in wacky sidekicks and stirring. It’s pandering on a scale not ever seen. And yet current day disney cancels shows for being actually good and wanting ot be representivie. You might see why I like taking pot shots at them. It’s because even a decade ago they pulled shit like this, making something gentically engineered to be profitable.. and it WORKED. Four full seasons of this happened. Four seasons of a show that was stale, and made clearly just to make a profit and make more signers to cash out on before they decided they wanted you know.. creative contorl and a wider audience. But I can give it two things: 1 the two leads really can sing even if the songs their often given, esepcially the intro aren’t good, and two.. this episode gave me a LOT of material to riff on. A lot. While the structure, setup and everything is typical this episode makes some .... choices... some ones that are bafflign in the best way possible.

Case in point, I went into the episode not really happy to review this, but willing to concede I might of overblown what I thought of it. The episode opens with Austin, an up and coming teen singer, alone in the music shop of his friend, love intrest, songwriter and co-lead Ally, Sonic Boom. It’s where the teens congregate the most and is located in an outdoor shopping plaza, with the plaza itself the second main area. He’s eating an ice cream cone alone in there. 

He then drops it on his pants. Now a normal person would just say scoop the ice cream off their crotch back onto the cone or write it off as an oopsy daisy. Austin... carefully takes off his pants in a way that dosen’t drop the ice cream, puts the pants on the counter... and then procedes to pull out all the fixins for a sundae

But he does not and instaed makes a “pants sundae”.... and just typing that makes me worry i’m going to be put on a watchlist just for doing my job. Case in point someone video taped austin doing this and put it on the internet while Ally tries to explain she shoudln’t have to put up a sign saying no eating off pants, as she’s watching the video with austin the next day. Turns out a blogger has been dedicating her life to destroying austin and his career, which is oddly forward thinking for a show that fully approved a pantsless teenager eating a sundae off his jeans for script, then after blockign then didn’t cut it out of the how entirely.  I mean nowadays she’d use twitter, but still, it predates cancel culture and deepfakes as she later also fakes a story about him saving a kid , a local one named Nelson who shows up a lot and is adorable, into “him dunking him in a fountain”. 

Also Trish, Ally’s best friend, comes in announcing “Guess who just got hired at something something pirate themed fish restraunt”. That’s her catchphrase though she stole her gimmick of getting a new job and fired every episode from Jonsey of 6teen. Seriously it’s just.. the same exact gag: lazy teen gets fired at every job in some wacky way and has a new one each episode. 

She’s only upset about it because she has to work with Dez, not for the pirate outfits which I wish i’d remembered ahead of time as it’s pirate month next month. Dez is Austin’s best friend. Dez also sucks, being annoying, goofy in the “way a 40 year old writer who dosen’t know how a teenager ever acted “ way, and repedadtely screwing the team over in this very episode. The only reason they don’t replace him with a trained chimp is that Disney saw what happened with Gordy’s Home back in the TGIF era and decided not to repeat past mistakes.. once twitter caught wind they were repeating past mistakes. 

Oh and the blog’s name.. is hater girl. 

You might see what I mean about the show being creatively bankrupt. Also just going to get Dez and Trish’s subplot out of the way now as while they wear pirate costumes all episode, it dosen’t really impact the plot.. at all. Trish slacks off while Dez depfries everything like this was a Bellville Family Thanksgiving, which while not really funny persay for the most part two bits did have me chuckle: him depfrying trish’s cellphone and her using it afterwords, and when the two need to get fired to end this subplot get to the performance at the end of the main plot, Dez DEEPFRIES EVERYTHING THAT’S NOT NAILED DOWN IN THE RESTRAUNT. The effect is passable but I wo’nt lie that it’s kind of awesome. 

So the main plot has Hater girl frame Austin for child drowning, leading to his performance being canceled..a fter he planned to hide out in a tent till said performance. and also implicilty takes a dump in the broom closet thinking it was  a bathroom. 

Disney wanted this character to be a teen heartthrob. They instead somehow made him Beavis with better hair. So that night Beavis, Butthead, Ally and Trish camp out to catch her, only to fall alseep

Dez contacted HaterGirl with pictures.... and she sneaks away as the recycling bin that’s the drop for said pictures. Gotta give her points for that. Oh and Dez actually gave her pictures. Though let’s be real: he ate a sundae off his trousers and people think he tried drowning a child. I don’t think a few school photos are going to make him extra canceled or anything. 

Luckily our heroes catch a break as HaterGirl has been spying on them as a catfish, so Dez reels her in with a fishing rod and they unmask her scooby doo style. And Austin’s reactoin..

Turns out HaterGirl is Tilly, and she has nothing against Austin. She’s been stalking him for the past few days including as a baby and loudly asks him to change her. 

 So thanks for reading and... dammit i’m not getting out of this am I?

Yeah so turns out Tilly is highly unstable and is mad at ally for upstaging her in kindergarten... even though all Ally did was peform a better song. OUr heroes tread carefully knowing this could go from disney channel sitcom to slasher film in an instant. 

Dez once again fucks up, pointing out why she didn’t just go after Ally and making note of Ally’s stage fright. 

So Tilly gives her an ultimatium: sing her song on stage and die by embarassment, or she ruins austin’s career. They try a test practice with Ally singing from some stuffed animals, including a dolphin Austin tries to take for himself in the only naturla moment in 25 minutes, but it fails. Oh also Trish wanted to see the performance to see Ally barf because both characters need better friends. The song is also important to ally as it’s what made her decide to be a songwriter. As for what gave her stage fright.. she’s not ready to explain that. And look most of the acting on this show is very stitled: Ross Lynch as austin tries to go over the top but can’t quite reach it so he comes off as hammy yet subdued and Laura Maurno as Ally just.. can’t quite act and can’t emote to save her life. I don’t blame either of them as again not only have they gotten more work, but it’s the directo’rs job to help especially when the actors are this young. But the two DO have a natural chemistry and the moments the two share do feel genine. I can see why this dog turd of a show had fans. Also rani Rodregueiz does turn in a good performance and dez’ actor tries, so I can’t fault them, they just had more natural charisma.  Thankfully we do get a decent climax as Ally is clearly about to explode with embarassment.. only for Austin to step in. His career isn’t worth his friend’s humilation and he’s going to sing instead. THis also ends up netting him and Tilly the right kinds of Karama as tilly errupts that if he dosen’s sing she’ll keep going on stage.. into the mic, wtih Austin making it clear to the audeince seconds later, and her tantrum after. Also Trish escorts her off... I thought she was taking her to jail for you know, stalking, harassment and wanting to wear allys skin but no she’s free at the end of the episode. I also really don’t like how Disney has a bad tendency of having “crazy” characters. Mental illness.. really is’nt a joke, but they had this girl and also creepy connie on Jesse, and I don’t think their the only “crazy” stalker characters. It’s okay to have a character be mentally unstable or a villian, but ot have the only mentally unstable characters be weird, creepy or stalkers is.. not right. Not at all. And I say that as someone with a mental illness. So austin sings, he gets a dolphin and i’m thankfully free of this mummys curse unless someone pays me to revisit it or emma uses her patreon review for it again. Austin and Ally is a stilted, messy sitcom that tries to use wackiness over jokes, with actors who clearly weren’t made comfortable in their rolls or given time to be and with a stock premise. THank you for reading, and to the actors involved i’m sorry I had to dredge up your pasts. You guys deserve better. 

#disney channel #austin and ally #ross lynch #laura marano #rani rodrigeuz #calum worthy #austin moon #ally dawson