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channeleven · 1 year

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My Problem With Ed, Edd n’ Eddy’s Fifth Season

Okay, this isn't the first time I ever talked about the fifth season, but chances are it was a very rough take that I will only now put right. I used to be a big fan of Ed, Edd n' Eddy, well I still am, though I don't tune into old episodes. The show is over, the fandom is surprisingly well behaved, and I believe the show is superior to the shit people latch onto these days, for one thing it's not corporate, and no I'm not gonna explain what I mean by that.

But it's not all perfect, obviously. Nobody is reluctant to bring up any of the show's shortcomings, but there was one hangup I have with the show that persisted for so long. It seems like a petty thing to complain about, but the last season of Ed, Edd n' Eddy was so... not good, it actually convinced me that I just wasn't a fan of the show, when that is not the case.

To be fair, I'm not saying one season is better than the other, bad episodes are evenly spread out between seasons, and this wasn't necessarily out of Danny Antonucci's control, he went along with what seemed to be right, I mean aside from going digital, go drawn or go home. I really don't like the fifth season, and I feel it not happening would be inconsequential, and it seems I may not be alone with that, as most EEnE diehards actually liked my Tumblr post with the same opinion, and a common consensus is that it has some good episodes, some bad ones, or they're just happy to get more out of their favorite show.

I'm gonna go over why I don't like the fifth season of Ed, Edd n' Eddy, and why I believe it is expendable.

My Experience

I watched Cartoon Network during the early-2000s, so I was able to catch episodes of the fifth season when they were out. I have seen plenty of the older seasons' episides, I played Candy Machine Deluxe and Spin Stadium whenever I could, and I was basically ready for the long ride with the show.

When I saw the episodes new, I'll admit, I did like some of them, even those that would go on to be criticized later on, but even as a kid, something about most of the episodes felt... off, and this had stuck with me ever since then, to the point I found myself avoiding reruns of episodes I didn't like.

So no, I'm not doing this just for some contrarian cred, even as a kid I didn't like the fifth season that much, and that hasn't changed frankly.

Last Season Curse

People have often used the term seasonal rot to note shows that gradually began to crumble in its later years, and yes, I know this point is used ad nauseum, but for ever common complaint lies a kernel of truth. For every final season, it often reflects a lessened budget, like with ChalkZone or Real Ghostbusters for instance, or a creative director change, like the Chris Savino seasons of Dexter's Laboratory and PowerPuff Girls, not counting the Games era of Ren and Stimpy because let's be real, they didn't need John Kricfalusi, well, after he made the charaters. It's not always gonna be bad, but if you've been watching the show for a while, you're bound to pick up on a few differences. Seasonal rot does not always mean a show's last season sucks, it means this is a sign that either the creatives were worn to the bone with it, or the networks wanted it off as soon as possible, with a creative change only occurring if the original one steps down.

Danny was with the show all the way to the end, and that was for the better, he was always around to direct the episodes, but the one time he didn't during this season, we got what is often considered to be the worst episode of the entire series, or at least one that lands somewhere in the top five.

Some of the spirit of the previous seasons has been kept intact, but it is mixed in with some very noticeable tweaks that take away from that experience, often trumping what made the show so popular in the first place, and falling into the same trap that most shows do with new writers going off of notecards or struggling with ideas or stripping character personalities away.

The Little Differences

Now what do I mean by spirit? I mean the slapstick comedy in an otherwise normal setting. Danny, or someone, has said they avoid the prospect of characters growing up to preserve the timelessness of the series, which makes sense. The summer setting may also play into the timelessness by ridding any prospect of time moving forward, this shit could happen in the span of a few days or so and none would know the difference.

So obviously I object to the school setting.

I'm not gonna go all Mario fan on this, but I do have my complaints. That timeless setting, by implying that summer is over and having the kids go to school, it sorta takes away from the timelessness the writers were going for. If the show got more seasons, maybe we would've seen the parents, then you realize The Eds are Coming and Mission Ed Possible did the latter to a degree, Rock a Bye Ed doesn't really count as it was some depiction of Jonny 2x4 for the sake of the plot.

It's such simple things that were unfortunately cast aside, and so close to the finish-line too. Now look, I know this may sound like I'm making a big deal, fine, but I dunno, what do these changes add to the show at large? Granted, it's not just throwing in new characters on a whim, I like how creative they got to avoid showing any new characters, but if anything this marks a contrast between this and earlier seasons because you rarely saw any other instances in the older episodes. Keep this in mind.

The football episode shows the best and worst of making use of a limited cast for so long. While the Lemonbrook football team are depicted by shadows, we see shots of a crowd barely shown in, with the Kankers singled out. It just looks awkward, but like, did we need a football episode in Ed, Edd n' Eddy? That episode sucked balls, I'm sorry.

Our Friends in Name Only

And of course I need to get into how the characters feel just as off. To its credit, the characters have more consistency than other characters from shows that slipped into its terminal days, either that or they were more subtle about it. About the only major change I noticed was Ed, who turned out to be far more annoying than he was in the past, either because he tends to speak louder or may have lost more braincells than we were led to believe.

The big problem with the characters, at least for me, is the writing. The stories they are put into either drive them to over the top extremes rarely or never seen in previous seasons, and of course those on the lower end suffer the worst. Nobody likes Sarah, and of course she pulls a devastating fast one in "The Ed is Falling" or whatever the sky is falling episode name was. It's a Sarah plot without anything more to make it stand out, basically the 55% people don't take away from episodes like that.

And I gotta ask, why are Sarah and Jimmy in the same grade as everyone else? Otherwise why have them go to school if you're gonna treat it like it's still summer? It's almost as if this makes no sense even by an over the top cartoon's standard.

All I can say about Kevin is that he is a contributing factor to Smile for the Ed being seen as one of the worst episodes in the show, and yeah, seeing it brand new as a kid, all I can say is you had one job. On the other hand, maybe this was Danny's way of messing with the network, showing them what would happen if you separate him from the show. If that's true, that is clever, but it may've worked far too well.

But the one character I feel that suffered the worst because of the writing, was Edd. Much like how the season convinced me I didn't like the show, this season convinced me I didn't like Edd. The biggest draw here is when Edd smugly leaves Eddy to suffer for what he did or was associated with, even being involved with most of Eddy's misfortunes, or at least the no neck chump business. If you want to quit, just do so Edd, you're supposed to be the smart one right?

You may think 'oh, you see though, it's his way of showing he has backbone, just like in Momma's Little Ed.' And I can understand where you're coming from, but Eddy deserved it at the end, more importantly because he targeted Edd directly.

Really, the best way to compare Edd in most season five episodes is Sorry, Wrong Ed, the similarities are astounding, namely Edd's I don't give a shit about a guy I'm possibly friends with. If this was to set up some big argument, like in Big Picture Show, it wouldn't work because what set him off there was Ed and Eddy screwing with him during the journey to Bro. If it was as you thought it was, the series proper would've ended with Edd joining the Cul De Sac kids, arguably darker than the fourth season finale, because at least there the trio was still in effect.

It feels like sometimes the writers had it out for Eddy. We had some more brutal takedowns by the Kankers, even his own friends would turn against him, something was definitely not right with this, but what do I know?

The Core Element

I'd like to touch upon the slapstick real quick, I'm sure someone is gonna bring that up as a consistent element to the show. Yes, the sight gags and slapstick are here, but compared to those in the older seasons, even these feel off. Sure, they do happen, but... best way I can put it is that the older seasons had some slight restraint, pulling it off when you'd least expect it or having a really good gag pulled. Somehow, the fifth season feels even more cartoony, with faces and gags done that I would have never expected to see in older episodes.

It doesn't feel like they were included because they suited the series they were part of. In this season, it felt like they were included for the sake of being included, but it's as if the writers forgot their own work, or the network demanded more of it that we go overboard most of the time.

Check out an old episode, then one of the fifth season episodes, and tell me if you see something similar.

Its own

Interestingly, it was here that the show transitioned to digital animation, so me going on about the little differences hones in on how alien this season feels compared to others. With the gag execution, the treatment of most characters and the common setting, you can remove this season from the show and, really, what harm would it do? Anything new that occurred had done so in this season anyhow.

But you may be thinking, well without the fifth season, we wouldn't get Big Picture Show. Okay, maybe you have a point, but by then Ed, Edd n' Eddy was still very popular so I'm sure we would've gotten the movie regardless of the fifth season occurring or not. Especially so, since the movie occurred in the Summer, when the older seasons did. The use of digital animation in it helps make the spectacle more believable and feel like a grand finale. For one thing it looks better than The Loud House Movie, possibly even the Casagrandes Movie.

The fifth season has similar animation to Big Picture Show, and that dulls the spectacle aspect just a tad. The fact the fifth season throws in a new setting placement and hints of other characters ruins the mystique the movie would offer, in terms of the Eds exploring the world outside of the Cul De Sac, seeing small hints of new people, especially Bro at the end. Now, of course the kids make peace at the end, so that is a good thing at least, but we could've come to that without the fifth season.

If anyone was gonna bring up releasing the movie earlier because there would be no new content between when the movie came out and the fifth season did, how about a compromise? They could waste less time on a, quite frankly divisive season and just produce the holiday specials and participate in CN Invaded, new content in small increments, building up to a grand finale. I won't say some traces of the fifth season's writing didn't get into this movie, but at most it feels like the spirit of the older seasons was kept. Hell, even the over the top gags make more sense as this was a TV film with higher ambition than the previous seasons.

And I'm sure someone is gonna say if we didn't have season five things would end on a very dour note thanks to Take This Ed and Shove It's ending. But let's be real, you can wonder about that. It's not tragic, just a sarcastic yearn for lost youth, by this point everyone was on good terms and just got old. People say the last episode of the fifth season was a good finale, but honestly it felt kinda forced, and it was as if Danny gave an exasperated sigh of relief that he was finished with it. It was like a wet fart basically, especially since, lol, that wasn't even the last episode, and I don't mean Big Picture Show, I mean the lost episode that came from the proposed sixth season, of course they were planning more, but something happened and we never got it. Maybe somewhere, it was because the fifth season was such a groaner that people feared what other seasons would entail.

Final Thoughts

I understand Ed, Edd n' Eddy is a heavily respected show, and I can certainly agree with it. But even as a kid, I didn't like the fifth season's episodes very much. It felt like the show in name only, and it made me feel like I wasn't a fan of the show anymore. It has in quality what it has in expendability, and had this never come out, beyond the holiday specials, I think it would've made Big Picture Show a hell of a lot more satisfying.

#ed edd n eddy #review

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doctor-badadvice · 1 year

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We interrupt this blog's regularly scheduled bullshittery to bring you a rant/review. It goes without saying, this will be a long post.

I'm not usually the type to brush off older media, even when said shows, games and whatnot haven't received any attention by the copyright holders in decades, or even when said attention finally comes and it's horrible to say the least or just not my taste. A huge exception to this rule was GI Joe and the reason is very simple: pretty much everyone agrees that it's not very good.

The cartoons are not so subtle toys commercials and there are a lot of characters on both sides sometimes showing up for maybe a handful of episodes at best. Something has to be very good for me to commit to learning that many names. And Quick Kick making me forget how laughing feels like had the potential to scare me off.

But it turns out that for this many goodie goodie guys, there's an array of villains that are actually fun, most of the time. So here I am, many hours later, ready to rank all (animated) GI Joe iterations. For this I will consider the Joes and Cobra as groups, as well as the show as a whole. This is of course subjective.

Sigma 6: This is the first show I watched because it was shorter than the Sunbow show. It feels like an early 2000s commercial and this weird anime twist they gave it doesn't work well mosts of the time. Some of the designs are really cool, the pacing is ok but they are a little confused as to what they're going for. Sigma is big, loud and cool. Every guy, gun and battleship is huge. The stakes are high and there are big explosions, but they go from making it a big deal when they blow up one Cobra ship in one episode to it being a background thing achieved with any guns later on. The show could have worked better as a Transformers show. They already have a mandatory useless kid and CC is a bad Megatron anyway. Tunnel Rat is a terrible Larry Butz wannabe and I wish he didn't exist in this show. Whenever there's ninjas on the screen, you can't look away, but Zartan and the Dreadnoks are the only part I'd salvage from this show. The rest is truly eh.

Sunbow show & Serpentor: You can never beat the classics, they say. You definitely can't beat the convoluted process you have to go through to watch this show. There are two mini series of 5 episodes each which are very good. They establish the characters well on both sides and can easily be rewatched back to back whenever. The syndicated show has its ups and downs but overall is enjoyable if you have a way to keep busy during the fighting scenes with all the cool military equipment available at your local toy store. The nice thing about these old shows is that you can watch at your own pace. It's a monster of the week, or Cobra scheme of the week kind of deal, there is no pressure in how much time you dedicate to it. Some of the plots are wacky but I personally find them charming and the banter between Cobra members is usually the best part.

Season 2 on the other hand hits different, especially to a Ghostbusters fan. It isn't Q5 levels, but it screams corporate interference and these screams of course come from Serpentor. Season 2 starts from the assumption that it’s a good idea to justify plot twists by saying "it happened off screen lol". You can do this if what you're introducing is really good and Serpentor is not. He's loud, incredibly dumb and doesn't even do what he's supposed to other than be a placeholder to sell a rejected He-Man vehicle. A fool dressed in a snake suit is also terribly out of place in a show about military vs terrorists. One could argue that Mindbender also has no business parading his tits around, but that's the one good thing he does.

Overall, the show remains good (compared to some of what came after) and it has the best version of Cobra. They get up to some wacky stuff but they're funny and iconic.

Renegades: This show isn't ranked this high because of its plot. If you're going to do A-Team, at least make it lighthearted. It tends to be a bit repetitive in its tragedy. All the Joes are introduced as sad and hurt by Cobra, a faceless corporation looking to acquire direct political power through an army of robots and mutants that would fit nicely in a cyberpunk novel. I'm not a fan of "We remade this show with 30% more sad", but this time I actually can't take it seriously because Cobra shares PR departments with Amazon. This show is also the only one to remember that the Crimson Twins exist, so it gets extra points.

That being said, and putting aside that Flint has been turned into a bloody moron here, it probably has the most compelling version of the Joes. It doesn't have Quick Kick, it accomplishes the amazing task of making Tunnel Rat somewhat likable and Scarlett isn't just "girl with gun". What they did to Shipwreck is unforgivable, but the rest is great and I wish it didn't get cancelled before they could develop what they were setting up.

DiC: No. Just no. It's cheap. The designs are horrible. Destro has literally rusted offscreen. CC's outfit makes him look like a discount Starscream. The new characters are awful. There is no point in watching this. It's boring and it makes Filmation's animation look like they had a budget.

Spy Troops: Early 2000s CGI isn't great, but it doesn’t stop people from enjoying shows of the likes of Beast Wars or even this movie. No, the graphics aren't the problem with this movie, there is just very little to it. The Joes are boring, Shipwreck's hat got nerfed and the only notable Cobra effort comes from CC being a bitch boss to everyone. And if that wasn't enough, the movie also doesn't understand that if you're spending resources in animating a ninja fight, at least you should point the camera in a way that lets the audience see what the hell is going on. For this reason, Spy Troops ranks even lower than Sigma 6. There’s nothing to see here.

Valor vs Venom: This movie is good. It isn't perfect, but it works. Mindbender has been nerfed and forced to wear a lab coat, achieving full sim form while CC is constantly yelling at him. But the pacing is ok and the camera isn't drunk and in some spots it almost feels like a Sunbow episode. Destro's design is also very funny which is a plus in my book. I enjoyed it. That’s it.

Resolute: This movie represents everything I despise the most about some reboots. They take a franchise, put many resources in the animation, then make it dark and gritty expecting it to be enjoyable. There's a lot of blood and violence which of course stands out because it's animated blood. But that's for the first five minutes of watch time, then it’s just dull senseless violence. Once again, I can only appreciate CC. His outfit is very similar to Sunbow but he gets to be more than an amiable buffoon in charge of a terrorist organization. He's charismatic and scary. They did a good job but that's about it. There isn't a lot to say about Resolute. It exists.

GI Joe: The Movie (Sunbow): This one is probably raising some questions. I don't like this movie. It relies heavily on off screen action, as well as the audience forgetting what motivations even are. Cobra La is populated by a bunch of idiots who think that a giant maggot is better than an attack helicopter and who honestly believe that "We'll turn everyone into snakes!" is in fact a smart idea. The mind control bs is in fact a bullshit excuse to contextualize a movie that has no real ties with anything happened in the show outside of the Serpentor introduction and CC is written off in such a lazy way it's infuriating.

Why is it then also ranked as perfect? Well, that's because the first five minutes of this movie are actually awesome. They are what the movie should have been; the usual GI Joe but with a bigger budget to pull off actually cool fighting scenes with lots of characters doing their unique thing and a banger of a song on top of it all. Had the movie been all like this, we would be remembering it as the animated movie that succeeded where Transformers couldn't.

I won't be sitting through any of the live action stuff so the tier list ends here. Although, I must add one last entry.

Cold Slither is where GI Joe really peaked. It's a Sunbow episode with all the better characters from both sides and the objectively funniest of the Cobra schemes. Like, honestly. Faced with bankruptcy and the end of Cobra, CC gets a loan in order to put his boyfriend favorite mercenary and his dorky goons in funny outfits to weaponize punk rock and make a whole lot of money to get the organization back on its feet. It's brilliant in its own convoluted way and we know it worked because this happens towards the end of season 1 and we got a whole new season later despite the Joes crashing the concert. The mind control part didn't work out but CC won anyway by turning Zartan into an influencer.

The Cobra La fools could have never thought of such a brilliant plan.

#GI Joe #ramblings #tier list

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beevean · 2 years

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I am sooo sick of hearing the "It's for kids!" excuse. I get that children aren't going to notice or care about minor animation/art errors, overthink the complexities of politics or real life issues, or loose sleep over every single plot thread not being tied up or every corner of lore being explored. But it's not an excuse to make your characters look like complete idiots, or not try to tackle more mature subjects with some class. I don't want to hear it when fucking Big Bird learned about death all the way back in the early 80s. Metal Sonic and Eggman are repeat offenders who WILL come back to start shit, and Sonic just letting them go without even keeping an eye on them makes him look really fucking stupid. And that's not getting into the creepy implications of Sonic wanting Eggman to stay as Mr. Tinker.

It's antiquated, because by 2022, we had plenty of cartoons aimed at kids that dared to tackle complex issues. Why did Friendship of Magic gain such a massive fanbase and pretty much revolutionized cartoons after the late 2000s slump? You think they were all horny for the horsies? Or maybe it's because Lauren Faust fought against the idea that things aimed at children or girls didn't deserve as much effort as other media?

It's ageist, because you're implying that children are too stupid to understand anything more complex than black and white morality.

It's insulting towards your critics, obviously, but also towards your fans - whether you mean it or not, you're implying that they're also stupid for caring so much about something aimed at children. And if you're not, if they get to praise the "depth" of your writing, then you're a damn hypocrite.

It's insulting towards the games, the series you're now working for, sneering at them for being "simple" and for not growing together with its audience (nevermind that the Sonic series has wide appeal and it's not strictly for kids).

It's insulting towards yourself, because really? You are more willing to admit that you're writing a stupid story rather than conceding a point? How fucking petty do you want to be?

It's cowardly, because nobody asked you to insert Mr. Tinker's subplot, or turn Sonic into a priest, or create Surge. Since Mr. Tinker was introduced, you communicated that you wanted to write a deeper story. Don't you dare backpedal from that.

It's a blatant lie, because I've read IDW since Issue #1, and I did not dream the horror show that was the Metal Virus arc, and I did not dream Surge and Kit whose backstories are rooted in realistic, nauseating abuse. That's what you consider a "children's fantasy"?

All of this because Flynn couldn't consider the idea that people had problems with his writing. Much like he seems to think that the only people who aren't happy with Starline's anticlimatic death are stans who wanted him to have a happy ending. He had to make a complete fool of himself and insult everyone involved with his stupid comic (heh, I get to call it that and know it's Word of God <3), because he's a mediocre writer who only had the biggest, most unfair stroke of luck in existence to get to the place he's in now, and he's not used to people not getting in line to prostrate at his feet.

This asshole brushes off Sonic and yet is working on the next big game.

I hope he gets burned out as soon as he's done with Frontiers. Or better yet, that he does something so indefensible that his fans will start to treat him like they treated Pontaff.

#sonic the hedgehog #fans don't look #<- so apparently posts tagged anti idw sonic appear in the idw sonic tag #until now i was pretty annoyed because i tagged it out of respect #now i'm happy #idw fans read what your idol has said

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wikiascratchboy · 2 years

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I think one of my most recent hyperfixations is that of @ajmarekart on Twitter's Murphy & Mitzi cartoon series. Specifically, I thought it'd be cool to make a superhero AU out of it because doing that is fun :U I figured a superhero AU would be fitting for this since it already takes place in a big city, and cartoons of the early 2000s often had superhero episodes, so I figured 'why not?'

So basically their origins as heroes came of course, ENTIRELY by accident and it involved an incident at an energy drinks factory. basically: untested formula for energy drink + HUUUGE amounts of radiation = chain reaction resulting in extraordinary powers. Naturally this means the kids decide to become superheroes, because when they're given the ability to fly, immense strength and a handful of other abilities at their disposal, it's only natural that they'd dress up in tights and show off how super they are. Zoe's mostly just there to make sure the other kids, um, behave. She's also the leader of The Squad, the team they're all in.

But of course, with such fantastic powers there's only a matter of time before these kids realize that they'll have to both A. keep their double life a secret from everyone (though their parents find out pretty much immediately) and B. use their powers only for good. Of course with these kids being juvenile delinquents they end up bending the rules a little, using their powers for their own gain and sneaking them in when nobody's paying attention in their civilian lives. It's a bit hard to keep such an amazing secret a, well, SECRET when their plans for relaxing are interrupted by YET ANOTHER superhero emergency forcing them to change into their hero identities, flying off to save the day yet again.

Being that they're superheroes now, they'll have to respond to a lot more emergencies, deal with things such as fans wanting the autographs of the kids' super alter egos 24/7, people that they've pushed the wrong way creating supervillain identities out of spite and an evil CEO of an energy drink corporation wanting to outright buy out the heroes' likenesses just so they're forced to promote his new flavor of energy drink.

They also have a pretty interesting rogues gallery, mostly consisting of people they've wronged or unintentionally upset who just so managed to have obtained powers of their own. There's also the occasional rogue computer or person just causing havoc for the lolz.

There's also the whole thing about The Squad not being the only heroes around, their parents actually kind of trusting them even with the whole 'their kids are secretly superheroes' thing, (especially lucky for Murphy since his mother's a newscaster) and a bunch of other stuff. It's actually pretty well-developed for an AU as bizarre as this. Anyways I'd like to thank @ajmarekart again for giving me the basis for making this AU a thing. His work's really good, you should honestly check it out! It's really cool stuff.

#superhero au #idk #yeah #go follow ajmarekart on twitter #like he's really cool #ajmarekart

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infizero-draws · 1 year

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Hey! I followed you because I think your art is super funky and awesome and cool and I've been mildly interested in Sonic for awhile now. Most of my content is very secondhand, like commentary videos and the Snapcube dubs.

To make a long story short, I want to get into Sonic. Like for realsies. There's so much content out there and I don't know anyone personally who enjoys it, so how do you suggest I approach this?

Aw thank you so much I'm glad you like my art!!

It really depends on what you're most interested in! Sonic is a franchise that spans different mediums and has been on-going for a long time, so there's a lot of content with very different vibes and varying levels of quality (though that's subjective of course).

I'd say that probably the best way overall to get familiar with the characters and world as a newcomer is to read the IDW comics! They're very well-written, have gorgeous art, and are easily accessible to new fans while still having lots of references to previous installments. They take place directly after Sonic Forces, but they summarize the events of that game so don't worry about needing that context. There's also a couple of mini-series to check out!

There's the games of course, which are the main canon that the IDW comics build off of/are technically a part of. I would personally recommend Sonic Adventure 2, it's my favorite game and though basically everyone calls it their favorite, like, it's for a reason. SA2 for me is the best game overall, as its story is great, the gameplay is fun and works perfectly alongside the story, and it's just full of charm. It's the most cohesive Sonic game imo, everything feels so interconnected and masterfully woven together, I love playing it. Don't be scared off by the "2" in the title btw, though there are some elements from Sonic Adventure that are referenced, you can still totally enjoy it without knowing anything about the first game as it's mainly standalone.

^ (also sidenote but sa2's story got a littleee muddled by the english localization, its not the worst but i'd recommend this video that goes over the story in detail with an emphasis on the original japanese script. there used to be an upload of the jp cutscenes with faithful eng subtitles but unfortunately last year the channel got nuked and there weren't any backups T_T im still not over it)

When it comes to recommending games it sort of depends on whether you plan on actually playing them yourself or just watching someone else play them, because there's a lot of Sonic games that have really good stories but subpar gameplay, or games that don't really have a story but good gameplay. Also everyone has their own preferences when it comes to types of games so there's that too.

Sonic is a franchise that both sort of has an overarching story (or at least they did back in the early 2000s when the games had a story that was built upon with each game, something that we might be finally returning to with Sonic Frontiers!) and also has many games and cartoons where they're kind of separate from all of that and function as standalone stories or just take place in their own universes entirely. There's many different canons across the different mediums, but the main one is the mainline games + IDW + now Sonic Prime on Netflix, which is apparently also canon to the main game canon!

Sorry if this is overwhelming >< it's a big franchise with a lot of different stuff and different canons and a wonky timeline so it's sort of hard to pinpoint the exact things a new fan """"should"""" check out. I'd say check out the IDW comics and then see if any of the games (or just their cutscenes in a compilation on YouTube lol) spark your interest!

And I say this every time I get these kinds of asks about a fandom I'm in, but PLEASE feel free to send me another ask or even shoot me a dm if you're comfortable if you want more specific advice or are confused about something, I literally love nothing more than talking about sonic the hedgehog at length. (Although I'd prefer if you sent them to my main @infizero as I use this account mainly just for art ^_^)

Anyways I hope this helped in some way ToT

#asks #not art #i also love the snapcube dubs 👍

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stupid-sloot-headcanons · 2 years

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do you have any advice for getting into batman and stuff? I got hooked on your jason todd stuff from before, but ever since I tried to search up on him: there's so much batman comics, video games, series, and other stuff pop up that I'm not really good with and I'm not really sure where to start :((

(This got super long because I love Batman shit and I grew up with one of the biggest Batman fan boys ever)

So of you're a manga fan, American comics are a bit more daunting to get into when it's a big title like Batman. I do NOT recommend starting with the original comics in the 1940s or so just because

They're very dated and unless you're into old comics and their style of art and writing

The Batman I personally love has very little in common with the original. While I like the original comics all the way back then and plenty of Batman iterations through the years, there's a lot more depth that's been added as comics became a more seriously-taken medium.

When it comes to non-comic book works, I cannot recommend Batman: The Animated Series enough. THIS is the series that made me fall in love with the series and characters as a child. It is a classic example of a dark-deco art style, 90s-early 2000s Western animation, and imo the best use of Paul Dini's art style. If you find you enjoy it and want to see something with more DC heroes, there's also Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond (a sequel series set in the future with a very old Bruce Wayne training a young boy to be the next generation's Batman), and both Justice League and its sequel Justice League Unlimited! The Paul Dini universe (or Dini-verse) is where a LOT of inspiration for subsequent Batman adaptations comes from, right down to the video games featuring the voice actors for Joker and Batman (Mark Hammill and Kevin Conroy respectively) from the shows.

The 1960s Batman show starring Adam West is great if you love goofy bullshit. It isn't everyone's cup of tea and is somehow more cartoonist than the cartoons, but I love it for what it is. Also Eartha Kitt is there as my favorite Catwoman (with Julue Newmar as a close 2nd), Burgess Meredith's delightful take on The Penguin, and also Vincent Price plays an original villain called Egghead who I fucking love.

The video games/Arkham games are very similar in tone and content to the Paul Dini-verse, and are in my opinion the best video game adaptations of a superhero ever made. Arkham Origins is a prequel made by another studio, and the rest were made by Rocksteady; that's why it feels a little different and the voice actors for Joker and Batman are different (but still alright imo). Now the first game in the official trilogy is Arkham Asylum. This one is the most distinct in my opinion; unlike its sequels, Asylum is a more enclosed space. Imagine something like the maps in Metroid or Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, but it's a Batman game. The sequels still have a main story, but it's much more of an open sandbox to play and explore in.

The mechanics in the Arkham games are fucking phenomenal and really sell that feeling that YOU are Batman. You're stealthily taking out bad guys with plenty of tools you can upgrade, and in the actual fistfights the combat is very satisfying. It almost feels like a rhythm game with how punching, blocking, and dodging work. The boss fights in the games are...varied in terms of quality lol. They're not amazing but they're not awful either, yk?

In terms of movies, the Nolan trilogy is good! Imo the best is the Dark Knight (aka the second movie) and Beyond (the first) and Dark Knight Rises (third) are still good but nowhere near as solid as Dark Knight. The newest film, The Batman, is a very unique and very well-done film that I would definitely recommend if you want a great character study of Batman and Bruce Wayne himself. As far as animated movies go, if you like Jason Todd then I'd recommend Batman: Under the Red Hood. It's a nice adaptation of Jason's story after Robin and becoming Red Hood, but it may assume you've read the comics/know some characters already (like Ra's al Ghul and the shit with the Lazarus Pit). Also if you like Jason Todd, you'll probably like the third game Arkham Knight.

For animated films, I'd recommend Under the Red Hood if you like Jason Todd, Son of Batman if you want to learn about Batman's son and one of the later Robins, and (after checking out the animated series Batman Beyond) Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. This is a made-for-tv film that serves as the end to Batman Beyond.

Now as far as comics go...there are a few "classic" storylines that I enjoy. Here's a quick rundown of what I might say are essential:

Batman: Hush. This one features the intro of a very underrated Batman villain named Hush, who has an appearance in the Arkham game. It's just a solid storyline with a good blend of action and Batman doing cool detective shit, plus some nice interaction with Superman and Catwoman.

Batman: The Long Halloween. This one is a golden storyline that I think 99% of fans love. A new serial killer named Holiday has appeared, killing people on various holidays. Batman's trying to solve this case and I love the reveal of the killer, and the various interactions with various villains and Batman are great. This one also has a few references in the Arkham games!

Batman: Anarky in Gotham City. If you like the political and philosophical takes on Batman, look no further. Anarky is another underrated (and sadly, poorly adapted) villain who gels very well with Batman's role and personality.

Batman: A Death in the Family. This storyline is where Jason Todd as Robin dies, and how deeply this affects everyone in the Batfamily. If you're a Jason stan, this is basically required reading lmao.

AFTER A Death in the Family, read Under the Hood. This is when Red Hood makes his appearance and the Jason as you've seen him in my work really appears. This is a sequel to the events in A Death in the Family though, so make sure you read that first!

Batman: The Killing Joke. So first things first, there is an animated film version but it's shit. With that in mind, this one is about Joker and his relationship to Batman, as well as the transformation of Batgirl/Barbara Godron into becoming Oracle after being forced to retire her cowl. This is ALSO heavily referenced in the third video game, Arkham Knight, and even shows the main story beats.

Batman: Sword of Azrael and then Batman: Knightfall. Knightfall is another classic and I will not spoil why, and it's also heavily referenced in the games.

Now when it comes to specific villains in Batman, there's a collection of comic anthologies called Batman: Arkham centered around each villain. For example, I have the collections for Riddler, Scarecrow, and Two-Face. If you just search smth like "Batman anthology + [insert villain]" they should be easy to find. Not all villains have one though, since Batman's Rogues Gallery is so huge.

Also, if you live near a library I guarantee you that your comics section will feature a good chunk of Batman comics. Like my local library has a ton of anthologies for the Court of Owls storyline, Anarky, and a shit ton of other Batman-specific stories. And since western comics are a web/shitshow of intertwining stories, don't be ashamed to just look up the series on Wikipedia to see if you want to just skim the basic plot elements so you have a basic idea of what's going on in the book you want to read. Also there is no shame in pirating lol; my advice is read what you can online for free or at the library, and then buy the stories you enjoy. Also watchcartoononline has all the Paul Dini animated series and the Arkham Games are some of the most common finds at used video game stores, so don't worry about breaking the bank to watch them and play them!

#sloot's essays #batman #.dc #dc #recs #.batman

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no2ticonderoga · 3 years

Text

So, here's a thing I've noticed.

Narrative TV structure wasn't a thing before the 1990s, generally. (I'm not talking about Soaps here, because they started out differently [most of them ported from radio to TV, but that's another post entirely])

It used to be that TV shows and dramas were something you sat down, watched for 42 minutes plus commercials, and then moved on with your life. Because the story was complete. Oh, sure there was the occasional dramatic "TWO PART EPISODE", but for the most part, everything got tied up neat with a bow before the credits ran. (HOW many murders did Jessica Fletcher solve? Was there anyone even LEFT in Cabot Cove? *ahem*) Occasionally, there might be a storyline that ran from episode to episode, but it usually involved some side character, and was more a running gag than a true storyline.

But then, in the 1990s, we started to see a shift, and it started with shows like Buffy. Because while it was still episodic, in a sense, each season had a kind of overarching mystery, the "Big Bad" that got dealt with in the season finale. Which created a kind of continuity for the show, a mythology, if you will.

And then came Lost. And Heroes. And the explosion of TV in the late 1990s and early 2000s where it became necessary to see *every episode*, so you could understand what was happening week to week. Skip a week, and you'd miss part of the story.

And now, were seeing the same thing happen with "kids" TV (I'm using that in quotes for a reason, more later).

When I was a kid, all the cartoons and crap I watched were essentially the same, formulaic, episodic structure. Loony Toons were 15 minutes long, involved physical comedy and resulted in Bugs, or Jerry or Roadrunner foiling their foe once again, usually with an anvil from Acme. GI Joe defeated Cobra...again. Scrooge McDuck and his nephews found more treasure and saved the #1 dime from Magica, or the Beagle Boys. Baloo and Kit escaped from Don Carnage. Over and over again. And when the shows *ended*, we were sad, because we liked those shows, but there were no stories left untold.

But sometime in the early 2000, that began to shift, just as adult TV did. Sure, you still had your episodic pieces, like Spongebob, but in 2005, Avatar the Last Airbender hit the airwaves, and I really think that's when you saw the shift for TV targeted to kids, especially in animation. The whole point of AtLA was to tell a cohesive story from start to finish. It was never meant to be episodic, the way Loony Toons would have been.

Today, you've got a whole ton of similar shows, ostensibly targeted at kids, that have attracted whole hosts of adult fans, because the narratives are so damn compelling. Owl House. Amphibia. Legend of Korra. Miraculous: Ladybug and Cat Noir. The Duck Tales reboot. These people are out there telling stories. Kids love them. And the parents do too...and sometimes not just the parents. And I think part of that is that "adult TV" can sometimes be confused with "dark" TV. I mean, GoT...Red Wedding, whut? Dexter. Even your average crime procedural has gotten super dark. And modern sitcoms aren't out there telling stories. They're playing for the cheapest laugh, and usually failing. Most of them have a shelf life of three or four seasons max (The Good Place might be an exception to this, but that might prove the point.)

But these "kids" shows? They're light. They're hopeful. They're optimistic. And people are eating that up.

I want to say here, I have nothing against people who watch the darker TV, like GoT. But if I'm going to "escape" from this world for 40 minutes, I'd rather do it to a world that's a deal more hopeful than this one, thanks very much. Not the other way around.

Also, I'd like to point out that this format goes against the grain of everything people have been saying about kids and TV. They are loving these shows, and investing in them. Their attention spans aren't shrinking. They're lengthening, as they become invested in the narrative. What the hell do people think binge watching is, if not hyperfocus?

I guess my point is, these shows that people claim are "kids" shows, really aren't just for kids. They're telling great stories that adults can enjoy too, and many do, because they're looking for an experience that doesn't necessarily trade on the darkest impulses of human nature. Hell, even the "Fantasy Island" remake Fox is doing took the original concept and made it sinister. Do people believe that something has to be dark to be "high concept" or "art"? Or for adults?

The folks behind Owl House are making art. And the crew at Avatar. And Miraculous. And it's not just for kids.

#kids #thinky thoughts #miracuous ladybug #owl house #atla #Tv meta #storytelling #Duck Tales #murder she wrote #Got #Dexter #Buffy #Lost #Heroes #not just shows

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