#‘mojo jojo is bad at being bad and bad at being good… but GREAT at inadvertently being good’

[bugeyedfreaks]

late night reminder that not only did mojo jojo have a hand in accidentally creating the powerpuff girls but also technically (and, again, accidentally) “created” the professor as he know him, illustrated in Get Back Jojo

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Michael in the Mainstream: Top 100 Movies #100 - #76

For the longest time I've wanted to do something like this, but I never could find the right time to do it. It just seemed so daunting, and the website's image limit was a hindrance, and then my computer died and my wife's computer was all I could use... and then I went on my hiatus from doing major reviews. But I found some time, so here we go.

These are my hundred favorite films ever made, divided into fourths so each one can get an image and I can devote more time to gushing about them if I want to without feeling like I'm dragging things out.

Speaking if dragging things out, let us waste no more time! We have a hundred movies to go, so let's knock out the botom quarter!

100. Us

Jordan Peele’s sophomore effort gets a lot of shit that I feel is mostly undeserved. Sure, some of the over explaining at the climax is a bit clunky when taken at face value, but it almost feels like it’s by design, as if the movie is daring you to nitpick the premise so that you can ignore the message it’s trying to convey. For me, I find that the stellar themes, fantastic acting, and godly soundtrack manage to make up for any of this movie’s flaws.

99. Crimson Peak

Murder! Mystery! Ghosts! Incest! Leave it to Guillermo del Toro to craft a Gothic horror film this stylish and impressive! This might just be my favorite of his films, and I definitely think it is severely overlooked compared to the rest of his output.

98. Mandy

Nicolas Cage is one of my favorite actors of all time, because when he goes crazy it’s always fun, and when he’s dramatic he genuinely kills it. This film lets him do both,with the first half being a slow burn dramatic romance that ends in horrific tragedy, and the back half having him do demon drugs and get into a chainsaw duel while he murders an entire cult. Truly a beautifully insane film.

97. Scream

The film that both revitalized and ruined the slasher genre, with winking nods to the tropes that made those films what they are while also playing things just straight enough to be appealing. Only a genre master like Wes Craven could pull off a pitch-perfect satire like this, though none of it would be near as good if it didn’t have a great cast who were firing on all cylinders. Young Neve Campbell before she became a sellout, Matthew Lillard cementing his place in horror history, David Arquette and Courtney Cox in their prime, and Roger “Mojo Jojo” Jackson playing the iconic voice of Ghostface… They’re as crucial to this movie’s success as the meta winks and impressive kills are.

96. Jojo Rabbit

Taika Waititi made one bad superhero movie and then everyone turned on him as if he didn’t make the film that proves you absolutely could make Blazing Saddles in this day and age. While it’s neither as gut-bustingly funny nor as profane as Mel Brooks’ magnum opus, it’s still a very fun, funny, and heartbreaking satirization of Nazism. I think he’s allowed to make one Love and Thunder when he made something this good.

95. Akira

The movie with the coolest bike slide in cinematic history, and this is indisputable because every single movie and show with motorcycles in it borrowed that cool bike slide. This film does show its age a bit, but it’s still an awesome sci-fi showcase of animated action and body horror. Plus it’s just a lot of fun seeing Tetsuo and Kaneda spend at least half of their dialogue dramatically screaming each other’s names.

94. 300

I make fun of Zack Snyder a lot, but I do it out of love; the dude who made 300 has gotta be capable of doing better than his recent output, after all. Stylish, slick action and slow-mo put to good use showing an army of nearly naked macho men cutting down hordes of nasty bad guys… The fact I watched this movie so much as a teenager should’ve been the first hint I was bisexual.

93. Spider-Man: No Way Home

People are really fucking hard on the MCU Spidey, and not without reason, but sometimes it really comes off as disingenuous. Look at this film, for instance; it has gotten some flak for just being a cheap nostalgia circlejerk that uses cameos so you can clap and cheer and ignore the ‘plot holes.’ I cannot imagine being that miserable of a movie watcher. To me, this film is a tribute to the cinematic Spideys that came before while giving them some degree of closure that I never thought I’d see, while simultaneously bringing Holland’s take on the character closer to where he should be. It’s also really hard to hate a movie where Willem Dafoe gets to go Goblin Mode again and power bomb Tom Holland through several floors of an apartment, cementing him as comic book movie villain royalty once and for all. Are there cheesy moments, moments where things don’t make the most sense? Sure. But to focus on those bits instead of the core themes and how the characters are used is an awful way t do film criticism. The returning heroes and most of the returning villains are used very effectively to tell the story they wanted to tell, and most importantly they don’t overshadow Tom and his friends. The fact he stands toe-to-toe with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield is nothing short of amazing, spectacular even.

92. The Lost Boys

Joel Schumacher died with one of the most unfairly earned infamous reputations around. Man made one campy superhero movie where you can see George Clooney’s nips and hear Arnold Schwarzenegger make ice puns and suddenly everyone forgets he made one of the greatest and most homoerotic vampire films ever made. While the stuff with the kids is very hit or miss, the stuff with David and his vampire biker gang is awesome, and the climax is one hell of a good time.

91. Barbie

Want to introduce your kids to feminist concepts but really don’t think they’re ready for Poor Things? Greta Gerwig has got you covered, with this pink-hued intro to feminism that uses the world’s most popular doll in a meta-narrative about her impact as well as what it means to be a woman and how the patriarchy is detrimental to both men and women. Margot Robbie gives a great performance as the titular heroine, but it is Ryan Gosling as the well-meaning idiot turned antagonist Ken that steals the show. It helps that he sings one of the most incredible, sincere power ballads ever written.

90. Street Fighter

As a connoisseur of cheesy, “so bad it’s good” films, quite a few of them have made my top 100. Here’s the first of those, this goofy Saturday morning cartoon of a film where the most American character ever (Guile) is played by the least American guy imaginable (Jean-Claude Van Damme). While it undeniably fumbles a lot of the cast of the game it’s adapting, Chun-Li and especially M. Bison are done so well it’s hard to be too mad. It’s a fun, stupid, silly 90s action film and sometimes that’s all I need.

89. Knives Out

After polarizing sci-fi audiences with his Star Wars film, Rian Johnson subverted our expectations by delivering a whodunnit for the ages. After seeing them restrained by blockbuster franchises for the better part of a decade, seeing Daniel Craig and Chris Evans really let loose again is a real treat.

88. Everything Everywhere All at Once

Twitter tries to convince me every other week that this movie is dogshit, but I ain’t buying it. This is one of the best uses of the multiverse in recent memory, using it to tell a stylish, silly, and heartfelt story about family and trauma. The entire cast is amazing, but it’s Ke Huy Quan in his big return to the silver screen that really steals the show.

87. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

My favorite thing about this movie, this proto-slasher, is just how fucking unclean it makes me feel. It’s not overly violent or gory, but it is genuinely grimy and unsettling in a way few other horror films can match. The dinner scene near the end in particular is just so fucking unnerving. Just truly unmatched atmosphere with this movie.

86. Spaceballs

While I’m not going to argue that this is a better film than Blazing Saddles, I still enjoy it a lot more since I’m a bigger fan of Star Wars and sci-fi than I am of Westerns. It’s just a damn funny parody, and hoe can it not when it has some of the funniest people to ever live (Mel Brooks, Joan Rivers, Rick Moranis, John Candy) and a great heroic lead performance from Bill Pullman all delivering some of the silliest lines ever written?

85. RRR

This is basically live action historical fiction anime. These characters pull off some of the most insane feats of action I have ever seen, action that makes the average American action film look like Peppa Pig. But I would not give a shit if there wasn’t a strong emotional core; the two leads have a brotherly bond unlike anything I’ve ever, and it makes the action that much sweeter. Frankly, this movie would make the list just for the final battle alone, since it might be my favorite action scene of all time.

84. Strange Magic

This movie holds a very special place in my heart. I went to see this with my wife back when we first started dating, and at the time I was filled with anxiety and insecurity, worried that I wasn’t good enough and didn’t deserve a relationship among other things. I sat down to watch this, and when it got to the titular song, something clicked, and I felt secure. I felt like our relationship was the right thing, and all these years later it’s hard to deny I was right. So thank you to this cheesy jukebox musical inspired by Shakespeare and George Lucas’ desire to make a film for little girls. They will never convince me you’re a bad movie.

83. Princess Mononoke

Maybe Miyazaki’s Spirited Away is objectively better, but this is my favorite. I think it’s because this one is a lot more excitin and action-packed, with all sorts of thrilling setpieces interspersed with the quieter dramatic moments Miyazaki excels at.

82. Jurassic Park

One of Spielberg’s greatest achievements is bringing dinosaurs to life on the big screen. No matter how many times I sit down to watch this, I still feel the same awe the characters do when they lay their eyes on the dinosaurs—which really highlights how good the cast is, because they’re amazingly convincing even when they’re looking at dated 90s CGI.

81. Labyrinth

It’s David Bowie starring as the villain in a musical filled with puppets that’s directed by Jim Henson. How the fuck is it possible to not love this movie?

80. V for Vendetta

Yes, this does dumb down the politics of Alan Moore’s comic significantly and turns the story into a much more straightforward plot. But what it lacks in depth, it makes up for with Hugo Weaving and pyrotechnics. And it’s not like there’s no depth here; crucially, this film keeps the entirety of the prisoner’s letter sequence. If that was left out, I would not have liked this movie at all.

79. Wreck-It Ralph

It’s amazing how much Disney got right here that it would go on to get wrong over the next decade. We have a hidden twist villain, something that hampered later films… but he’s shown to be a dick, with the villain reveal being how evil he is. It’s a big crossover of nostalgic properties… but they’re more used as seasoning for a story about original characters. It’s just astonishing how Disney would end up dropping the ball, even in this film’s sequel, when they got everything right the first time.

78. Sin City

What’s black and white and red all over? This bloody brilliant adaptation of Frank Miller’s sleazy comics (and one of the last genuinely good things with his name attached to it). The visual style here is the real big selling point; it genuinely looks like the pages of a comic come to life. While the movie as a whole is fantastic and “The Big Fat Kill” segment is still really, “The Hard Goodbye” and “That Yellow Bastard” are the real highlights, the former because of a career highlight performance from Mickey Rourke and a terrifying villain turn from Elijah Wood of all people, the latter because of one of Bruce Willis’ finest performances of the 2000s and excellent use of slight splashes of color (yellow for the titular bastard).

77. Batman & Robin

As long as I live, this movie will have at least one defender. Joel Schumacher created a silly, campy comic book movie for the ages, and maybe back in the day people weren’t read for it… but I was. I love the ice puns, the nipples, the bat credit card, all of it! All of its silly, stupid corniness makes this as memorable as it is! It’s like the West show with a gigantic budget.

76. The Rocky Horror Picture Show

And speaking of camp, here is the cult classic. We can argue all day and all night whether this film has aged badly, but this was a huge step forward for queer cinema on top of being a damn good musical. If nothing else, this movie helped rocket Tim Curry into the stratosphere and made him the star we know him as.

[ppg-villains-defense-lawyer]

What are your opinions on each Gangreen Gang episode (Buttercrush, Telephonies, Schoolhouse Rocked, Slave the Day, Power Lunch, Bang For Your Buck, Aspirations)?

Honestly, I enjoyed all of them! There's not a single bad Gangreen Gang episode. But to break it down further:

Buttercrush: Ah yes, the episode that basically created the Ace X Buttercup ship (and led to many childhood crushes on our favorite green gangster).

A good episode overall. It really shows off Ace's manipulative side, perceptiveness, and charisma. Yes there are Unfortunate Implications TM if you want to read into it, but I always just saw it as Ace seeing an opportunity to both get the PPG to stop beating up him and his friends, and seeing a chance to have a superhuman on his side. Though I could see a future where he and Buttercup could genuinely get along and become friends, when they're both adults and he's not actively committing crimes.

Telephonies: Peak "boys will be boys" behavior in a good way... or a funny way, at least. I mean, who else would be stupid enough to prank both Mojo Jojo and HIM but smart enough to actually make it work? I honestly can't think of another villain that could and would pull off those kinds of shenanigans (Also the scene with the Professor... someone please sit this man down and warn him about phone and internet scams. He's the type of guy who would receive an email from a "Nigerian prince" asking for money and believe it. Bless him)

Schoolhouse Rocked: Another hilarious episode that also raises some important questions. Like, before Jack Wednesday, did nobody notice that the Gang didn't go to school? Or, did they just not care? And why were a bunch of teenagers put in a kindergarten class? Was it because they genuinely never been to school before and Jack was making them start at the very beginning, or because Pokey Oaks Kindergarten is the only school in Townsville? And if that's true, then where do all the older kids go who are just regular citizens-

Okay, I'm getting off topic. But yes, it's ridiculous and fun and even a little sad when you read into everything. We get to hear some of Arturo's backstory, we get to see the gang be massive trolls and menaces to everyone around them, it's great.

Slave the Day: Rewatching this episode makes me feel a bit sorry for Big Billy. As funny as the "we thought you were dead" meme is, it's clear that Billy doesn't feel loved or cared about, even within the gang. And... he really isn't, aside from maybe Grubber. He comforted him at least. Like, he was so shocked that the girls did the bare minimum of being superheroes and saved his life that he was ready to leave all his friends behind for good and dedicate his life to serving them.

Though I will say I don't think Ace and the others ever genuinely believed Billy was dead. I don't think they're that careless. Imo it was more of a joke and they just assumed he got scared and ran off or the girls caught him and threw him in jail. But either way, it's clear they weren't that worried and if he ever did get separated from the gang he'd pretty much be on his own.

Also, the girls were definitely in the wrong for beating up Billy at the end of the episode for turning on them. He admitted what he did was wrong, he was sorry, and he changed his mind at the end anyway and saved them. Idk, that part never sat right with me and really shows that the girls have a very rigid view on their roles as crime fighters, seeing violence not simply as a method to defend themselves and others but as a just punishment in of itself. And to a point you can't really blame them; they're only five and encouraged to use violence by pretty much everyone around them, even when it's unnecessary. I hope they gain more of a nuanced perspective as they get older and realize that's not a good way to be a hero.

Power Lunch: I enjoyed seeing which powers each of the gang got! I know it's officially tied to whatever food they were eating when they got hit with the girls' laser vision, but if you want to analyze it as revealing a part of who they are I think you could.

You could say Ace gets ice powers because he tends to act cold and mean, even to those closest to him. Snake gets super elasticity both because he's naturally flexible but also because he's often forced to bend to the will of others, especially Ace. Arturo gets super speed because he's spent years learning to be the fastest as a way to make up for being the smallest, Big Billy is a rock because he's, well, big, but also because he can be quite stubborn when he wants to be (ex. him insisting to "help" constantly in Slave the Day). Grubber gets super sonic burps because he often finds other ways to make his presence be felt and felt loudly despite being mostly voiceless; whether it's through his grossness, his talents with poker and music, even his voice acting skills, etc.

Bang For Your Buck: This is probably the one I rewatch the least, but there's still a lot of great comedy in there. I enjoyed seeing the juxtaposition of the girls trying to find genuine ways to earn the money next to the gang doing what the gang does best (aka robbing little kids and old ladies). The running gag of Ace being oblivious to obvious solutions felt slightly out of character, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Especially watching the rest of the gang notice what he wasn't and being too scared to point it out.

I will say that I think it would've been better if at the end, the gang was able to buy the Destructo-Ray, got all geared up to use it to take over Townsville (or more likely, just blow up random shit for fun) only for them to find out that it was actually a snow cone machine when they tried to use it and they basically wasted all their money. Idk, the ending with the mayor felt a bit random and pointless.

Aspirations: Controversial but this is probably my favorite Gangreen Gang episode if I had to pick. We get to see the boys be both competent thieves and badasses and we get to see a softer, more vulnerable side to them through Sedusa, even if that vulnerable side is only revealed through manipulation. We see that they are capable of being scarily competent under the right conditions, and are desperate for love and basically anyone telling them they aren't worthless. I also headcanon that this was a huge turning point for them and made them decide to turn their lives around, but also fractured their ability to trust any outsiders for years onward, Ace especially.

I also really like the references to Buttercrush because yeah, what Sedusa is doing to the gang isn't that much different from what Ace did to Buttercup. You could argue that Ace's reasons were more defensive while Sedusa was actively seeking out the gang to use and I think there's some truth to that. But the nitty gritty of it is the same: manipulating someone younger and less experienced for the sake of power and personal safety.

[glapplebloom]

Like the one Jaidenanimation played...

Master Research Link

What I’ve learned...

So I started with the three Gameboy Color Games... When I said quick cash grab this is what I meant. It’s basically the same game three times in 4 months. With the only difference being the bosses. And they did this on purpose because Blossom’s game (the first one) references Bubbles' game (the last one). And man, they definitely look as bad as Jaiden explained it.

HIM and Seek looks fun, and has the best sprites for the Powerpuff Girls made by a game company. In fact, HIM and Mojo Jojo sprites I use are edited/reshaded versions of these. And man, this game has a lot of great assets I could really use for the Powerpuff Girls side of GLAB. Meanwhile Mojo Jojo a Go Go looks so so and is a shmup.

Chemical X-Traction has some amazingly good CGI Animations for a PS1 era game. And you thought Pinkie Pie was the one who coined the phrased Baked Bads, but it was Bubbles who first uttered those words. Shame that’s probably the best thing about it. The Load times are long, it’s an arena fighter before it became more publicly known and it doesn’t look fun to play. 

Relish Rampage, their final console game, the graphics reminds me of Dance Pants, except not as artistic. Honestly, I like the CGI cutscenes of the PS1 era game better. So technically the Powerpuff Girls rigged an election in favor of the Mayor. While Mojo mind controlled citizens to vote for him, they took out ballot boxes containing those votes. Then there are Pickled Aliens invading. Other than that, nothing really of note other than Dynamo Suits that does... Something?

I was worried there wouldn’t be anything good from the games, but DANG Gamesville pulled through. HIM basically turned all of Townsville into a video game and brought back the Broccoli Aliens from the Dead. Not only did he threaten to erase Townsville and make it so the girls couldn’t do anything specific, he also destroyed that dimension that all the data was being sucked into. Thank you PC Gaming! 

Princess Snorbucks is similar to Mojo Jojo’s Clone zone, except mostly everything was done in a dream. Still, the cutscenes were pretty good for an educational game. Cartoon Network Punch Time Explosion is basically the plot of Learning with Pibby. Other than that, not much besides fun interactions. And finally, the Powerpuff Girls: Defenders of Townsville is the last Major Powerpuff Game released. It’s based on Dance Pants but you can unlock the OG designs.

And thanks to Archive.org, I found one of the missing DC Comics. #48 has Sedusa making all of Townsville into a reality show so while they focus on being the star, she robs them blind. And when it was revealed the Professor doesn’t watch TV (which is a lie), Sedusa seduces him. The Girls beat her. The second story has Mojo having a garage sale. It's another story that becomes the plot of an episode. Granted, no Gangreen Gang. But Mojo still goes to jail despite stopping the moon from crashing.

Archive also has this presumably unpublished comic for DC... But I don’t buy it considering the art doesn’t match DCs as well as its an issue about the girls being naked (with nothing shown)..

Best Feat I found... 

It has to be HIM destroying that Dimension he was using to suck up all the data of Townsville. It’s basically the proof that he can pretty much erase something fully. If it wasn’t for that, it would have probably been the Powerpuff Girls beating the Beat Alls.

Next Time...

The Movie, original shorts, and some other stuff.

[thealmightyemprex]

@ariel-seagull-wings @the-blue-fairie @goodanswerfoxmonster @amalthea9 @angelixgutz @princesssarisa @autistic-prince-cinderella @filmcityworld1 @themousefromfantasyland @marquisedemasque

Dbz was a franchise I was reluctant to admit I liked (Stupid sibling rivelry reasons ) but I loved this creepy guy .

Mojo Jojo was my favorite purely funny villain

Aku just embodied pure evil for me as a kid ,being both scary and funny

Of the Spiderman villains Goblin was just the one I found the most interesting ,being the father of Peters best friend ,and having kind of a Jekyll and hyde quality ,but not good side bad side ,its a not a great guy side and total monster side

Scar actually became a bigger deal for me later ,but specifically as a kid I think he had the clearest motive and I like his general demeanor

I always loved fantasy witches and I think I can point to her as the reason why

Darth Vader was just badass ,but I also liked that he had inner conflict under the mask

DArkness had a great design,and just was far more interesting then the leads ....Also was kind of a crush that I didnt know was a crush

Joker for me embodied the perfect foil to the hero

Captain Hook.....I just liked every single version I saw from the Disney version

to Spielbergs Hook

To the Fox cartoon

To the Musical

And the 03 film

Honorable Mentions

Goblin King from Labyrinth

Ursula from Little Mermaid

Smaug from the Hobbit

The Emperor-Star Wars

Gollum -Lord of the Rings trilogy

The villains that made me love villainy

I've got kind of an obsession with villains,and like all obsessions ,I can trace it back to childhood ,these were my 10 favorite villains as a kid (From before age 10 )

10.Freeza from the Dragonball franchise

9.Mojo Jojo from Powerpuff Girls

8.Aku from Samurai Jack

7.Green Goblin from various Spider-Man media

6.Scar from Lion King

5.Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz

4.Darth Vader from the Star Wars Trilogy

3.Lord of Darkness from Legend

2.Joker from various Batman media

1.Captain Hook from various versions of Peter Pan

@ariel-seagull-wings @the-blue-fairie @goodanswerfoxmonster @amalthea9 @angelixgutz @princesssarisa @autistic-prince-cinderella @filmcityworld1 @themousefromfantasyland @marquisedemasque

[renaerys]

22. for reds 🤡

This is 100% not what you asked for (yet...👀), but I give you part 1 of what we're calling the Weird King AU. I'm turning this into a proper multi-chapter High School fic because I love you and I'd jump on any bandwagon for you.

xxx

Like most young, conventionally attractive Supervillains, Brick had made a bit of a habit of failing upwards. It was pretty easy in a town full of simpering morons content to project their own narrative assumptions onto him, and who was he to crush their dreams when they made his life a little easier?

For example, dating.

“You can tell me, you know.” His cute date, Tracy, sipped her milkshake across from him.

“Tell you what?”

She softened and reached her hand across the table. “Your tragic backstory. I’ll listen without judgment, I promise.”

Brick tried to think of something tragic, but it all seemed pretty underwhelming as far as Supervillain origin stories went. “You mean like how I was born in a toilet?”

She made an oh shape with her lips. “We all have those days where we feel like we were born in a toilet, Brick.”

He’d dated Tracy for three months before she broke up with him out of the blue in tears: sorry she couldn’t fix his baggage, she just wasn’t strong enough to handle all that tortured darkness, but she wished him nothing but health and happiness. Brick deleted her number from his phone and spent twenty whole minutes staring at the toilet in his bathroom, wondering what the lesson here was.

But everything changed when Mojo got out of prison and moved Brick and his brothers back to Townsville, where he enrolled them in the local high school alongside their former arch nemeses, the Powerpuff Girls.

Suddenly, everything Brick did pre-supposed ill intent. These people remembered him as the pest who had graffitied their local monuments and blown up their cars and endangered their children. They held no love for him, and at best they feared him. This was not Citiesville, where he’d been a tall, cold glass of Voss water in a sea of recycled Dasani.

He found himself thinking about his birthing toilet again as he stepped into the cafeteria alone and the conversation quieted down as his new classmates watched him from the safety of their tables. His next moves here were critical. He was no longer at the top of the food chain, but fear and mystery surrounding his origins and character gave him a certain power over his peers.

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of social suicide, I will fear no cringe,” he said to himself.

The jocks were out. Capable though he may be, Brick was not much of a team player unless there was a blood contract involved requiring his participation on pain of satanic torture. The drama kids were also a hard pass, not because he thought drama was lame, but because they had barely noticed him walk in, and Brick did not have the energy to deal with people more self-involved than himself. Some of the unaffiliated tables could be safe, but without a good understanding of the nuanced social dynamics in the high school, he could be heading toward irreversible doom, and that was a risk he was not willing to take.

He saw his salvation just ahead. It was the only option, all else being equal. In an environment where he couldn’t be certain of his baseline status and potential for upward mobility, there was greatness to be had only by association and certainty only in the devil he knew.

Brick helped himself to the empty seat directly across from Blossom Utonium to a chorus of gasps and staring.

Blossom did not startle like her table mates had. She watched him critically behind a head full of bangs as she balanced her soup spoon in her hand. “Really.”

Brick unwrapped the burrito he’d purchased in the lunch line and brandished it before him. “Really.”

He took a bite of the burrito. It was not hot enough. The two girls to Blossom’s left whispered to each other about that bad boy and he’s hot, though.

Blossom daintily spooned soup into her mouth without spilling a single drop as she continued to watch Brick for signs of his imminent dark side transformation.

The guy next to Brick was brave enough to ask him what his next class was. Brick had a mouth full of disappointing burrito, so he passed the guy the printout of his class schedule in lieu of answering.

“Wow, all APs, huh? Hey, we’re in U.S. History together next period, nice. I’m Mike Believe, by the way. Brick Jojo, right?”

Brick didn’t answer him immediately on account of the burrito currently occupying his mouth hole, and Mike took it the wrong way.

“Oh, yeah, we all know who you are. Blossom sort of filled us in.” He winced like he’d inadvertently revealed a terrible secret.

Brick swallowed his food and washed it down with a gulp of water. “Saves me some time.”

Mike looked super relieved. “For sure! Hey, I could lend you my notes if you want to catch up. Gershwin’s giving a quiz on the Progressive Era on Friday, and she’s a hard-ass who definitely won’t care that you just transferred…”

Brick chewed on his lunch as Mike continued to talk at him about classes and other vaguely helpful, albeit uninteresting, information. But Mike seemed normal enough, a little chatty but not in an overeager sort of way. Blossom was no longer clocking his every move and seemed to be absorbed in her friend’s latest swim team cheating scandal, until Brick reached for his water bottle and she suddenly laser-focused on his wandering hand.

Her keen attention to him was honestly flattering, if expected. It was in his nature to be noticed, and in this narrow respect she was no different from anyone else whose head he turned. If she chose to feed her interest with the flames of suspicion, then it was no difference to him.

But if she was anything like him—and on a chemical level she was probably the closest to him that a person could get—he suspected it took tremendous effort to hold her full and sustained attention. The world they inhabited was as vapid and mundane as the humans that surrounded them, and even the most gracious of gods grew bored of worship. Which explained all the smiting and fucking and generational curses upon entire households in everything from Greek mythology to the Old Testament.

Brick was pretty deep into a fantasy of Blossom going full Ixion and the Wheel on the swim team when Mike tapped his shoulder. “You ready to go?”

It took him a moment to realize the bell had rung and he had a class to get to—AP U.S. History with Mike, apparently. Brick gathered his tray and his bag and followed Mike. When he looked back at the table, Blossom was already gone.

xxx

That whole first week was painfully boring. No one bullied him, or pranked him, or picked a fight with him, of course. But no one really approached him, either. His brothers were more determined to make an effort. Boomer announced he was trying out for the soccer team because there was no rule saying a Super with extremely well documented ties to active criminals and the forces of Hell couldn’t kick a ball around a field. Butch had gotten himself invited to a midnight screening of Snakes on a Plane in some rich kid’s home movie theater, but only after that same kid had accidentally spilled milk on Butch and burst into tears in front of a cafeteria full of Juniors and Seniors. Brick declined the invitation Butch extended to him. He had that AP U.S. History exam to study for on Friday, anyway.

He shared all of his classes with Blossom. Even in the classes where her assigned seat was behind his and he couldn’t see her, he could feel her lobotomizing stare at the back of his head whenever she glanced up from her notebook. And while Mike’s notes were perfectly adequate and the friendly gesture counted for more than the content (a gesture Brick would not soon forget), there was a far more efficient way to accomplish his goal of murdering the class averages while also taking the edge off his loner doldrums.

“Can I borrow your class notes?”

Blossom rose from her seat and pulled her hair tie out to re-do her extremely long ponytail. She held the elastic between her teeth as she worked. Her teeth were very straight, he noticed. Some pretty nice girl-teeth, generally speaking.

“Which class?”

“All of them.”

He watched her wind the elastic around her hair with quick, adroit fingers. “That’s a lot of notes.”

“You’re the top of every class. No point in asking anyone else.”

She moved toward the hall. He followed her out. “Why would I help you?”

A legitimate question delivered without venom. Unlike her sister Buttercup, who’d “run into” Brick after school on Monday and told him to watch his back, Blossom didn’t have to do anything but maintain a general proximity to make her superiority complex known. Which was the kind of flex he could fuck with.

“Isn’t helping people sort of your mandate?”

They had arrived at her locker, which she opened with enough force to rattle the hinges. “I help the helpless. Are you helpless, Brick?”

Brick smiled at her baiting. Had she ever actually said his name at a normal volume before? It sounded good even in her baseline bitch timbre. “Critically helpless. I’m the new student who transferred in the middle of the semester, and you’re the only person who knows me.”

A couple other students clearly trying to get to the lockers Brick was blocking hovered just out of reach. They whispered to each other, but neither of them actually worked up the courage to ask Brick to move. He ignored them.

Blossom rummaged in her locker for the binder she would need for the next class. “Make friends.”

“Working on it.”

The locker door slammed and she faced him. There was something confrontational in the way she held herself before him that kicked him in the nuts back in time thirteen years to their more uncouth days when all he wanted to do was destroy her so he’d be the only one. Now they were older and wiser and he actually did need her notes to study, so destroying her was not high on his list of priorities.

“You want to be my friend.”

“We have so much in common.”

“So do lions and hyenas.”

“Both are apex predators, so.”

She took a step closer and peered up at him. Brick did not move, although he wondered what was so interesting about his face. She probably just thought he was hot. She was probably as bored as he was. She probably—

“You have lettuce in your teeth.”

Brick pulled back and covered his mouth on instinct. God fucking damnit.

Blossom was already walking away from him by the time he’d picked the food from his teeth. “I’ll expect my notes back in mint condition before first period tomorrow morning.”

Brick pressed a fist against the lockers and quietly fumed. “Dumbass…”

“Um, sorry, but do you mind…?”

The student who’d been waiting for her locker space to clear up had her palms up as if to assuage a feral stray. Brick pushed off the lockers, but his fist left a dent where he’d unleashed some of his impotent self-pity. He looked back at the girl, and she shook her head.

“It’s fine! It, uh, it happens sometimes.” She pointed a couple lockers down to Blossom’s, which was dinged up worse than the others.

Brick stared at Blossom’s locker, and then back at the girl. Her narrow, dark eyes were wide, but not out of fear. She was waiting for something, and like an idiot it took him a moment to catch up. “You’re trying to make me feel better about fucking up your locker.”

She laughed nervously. “I mean, it’s really fine! You just looked so miserable for a second there, and I just thought…”

Great, he was moping so hard he had an audience.

The five minute warning bell rang, and a flood of students rushed past them on their way to fourth period. Brick stepped aside so the girl could get to her locker.

“Hey, you’re the new guy, right?”

The new guy, yeah. How quaint. Except, she was waiting for a response, which wasn’t the absolute worst thing that had happened to him all week.

“Brick,” he said. But of course, she already knew that, and she was just being nice.

“I’m Kim. Kim Chan.”

“Okay.” He didn’t have anything else to say to her, so he decided to get his shit and get to his next class.

“Welcome back to Townsville, Brick.”

Brick shoved his hands in his pockets and stalked off. It didn’t occur to him until later that Kim was the first and only person who had properly welcomed him back home.

[gch1995]

I’m 25 going on 26 now, and I grew up loving the classic Powerpuff Girls cartoon series when I was a kid. Even now when I rewatch it as an adult, it’s still a cute and funny cartoon, especially now that I’m old enough to recognize all of the adult jokes. Like, there’s no way it was a coincidence that Professor Utonium’s despicably dishonest, greedy, lazy, manipulative, selfish, and sleazy former roommate from college was given the name Professor Dick Hardly by accident.

Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup actually are pretty relatable little girls who have believable flaws and insecurities. They make believable bad choices for little girls. Those issues actually get dealt with seriously, rather than just being brushed aside as no big deal with no negative consequences. They are still endearing and sympathetic in spite of their flaws.

While he had a few OOC moments of bad parenting in some bad episodes here and there, generally speaking, Professor Utonium from the classic Powerpuff Girls is actually one of the best dads in cartoons that I’ve ever seen, which is sadly pretty rare in most cartoon sitcoms, even the ones that are actually aimed at a children audience.

Most cartoon dads are abusive, lazy, neglectful, selfish, and stupid oafs. Granted, those type of dads in cartoon sitcoms can actually be entertaining and funny to watch when they are actually being well-written as shitty and slow-witted, but still essentially well-meaning people in regards to their families, such as S1-S8 Homer Simpson from The Simpsons and even S1-S3 Peter Griffin from Family Guy. However, the entertainment quality of those shitty, but well-meaning cartoon dads was mostly lost when the writers flanderdized their negative traits to the point of making Homer and especially Peter downright despicable with little to no redeeming or sympathetic qualities much of the time anymore. They went from being shitty, but essentially well-meaning parents and husbands to downright bratty and spoiled man-children who were much more intentionally abusive, childish, cruel, neglectful, petty, and selfish in regards to their families and others around them with little to no sympathetic or redeeming qualities much of the time anymore, and that’s one of the biggest reasons why The Simpsons went downhill in quality after S8, and why Family Guy went downhill in quality after S3.

Nonetheless, even as they were originally written on their shows pre-flanderdization when they were still well-meaning, but misguided parents and spouses, cartoon dads like Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin, weren’t good dads on the whole. There were still plenty of recurring plot lines and/or gags of them being abusive, lazy, neglectful, reckless, and selfish. Back in early seasons pre-flanderdization, it was more forgivable, though, because they also still had their fair share of kind and selfless moments with their families, and their shittiness as parents wasn’t intentionally abusive, malicious, premeditated, and selfish in nature, which balanced them out enough to still be entertaining and likable characters in spite of their flaws.

Realistically speaking, though, dads like Peter Griffin and Homer Simpson would be better off having their kids taken away from them by CPS. Their good qualities and lack of malicious intent, particularly in earlier seasons pre-flanderdization, would still not hold up as legitimate excuse as to why they should be allowed to keep their kids. Bart would have bruises all over his neck, fractures in his neck, and he could possibly be killed if Homer strangled him hard enough to actually break his neck and/or cut off his air supply long enough in real life just once. Meg, Chris, and even Stewie would not only be injured, but actually outright killed in real life from some of the abuse and neglect that Peter and Lois put them through in later seasons of FG. All of these kids, especially Meg, would have serious self-esteem issues for the rest of their lives because Peter, Lois’, and Homer’s abuse and neglect of their kids went beyond just a pattern of being physical in nature, but emotionally and verbally abusive as well.

So yeah, Peter Griffin and Homer Simpson are really not good fathers who you’d ever want to deal with for a parent in real life, even pre-flanderdization. The major reoccurrence of the abusive, bumbling, idiotic, lazy, drunken, neglectful, and selfish dad trope in cartoon sitcoms is exactly why I really love Professor Utonium from the classic PPG cartoon. I don’t necessarily mind it in absurdist cartoon sitcoms when it’s done well as a trope, but I’m also getting tired of mostly just seeing bad and stupid dads in cartoon sitcoms, and not enough good ones.

For the most part, the OG Professor Utonium is a great dad who goes above and beyond to make sure Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup are happy, healthy, disciplined, and safe. He’s usually the parent most of us wish we could have in real life, if we don’t already. It’s refreshing to actually see a good dad in an animated sitcom for once.

Professor Utonium in the classic PPG cartoon is generally a very kind, loving, selfless, and supportive dad to girls. However, he also knows when he has to discipline them and be strict without ever being mean about it. He gives them good advice. He’s very selfless, and even though the girls are superheroes with superhuman abilities, he’ll still risk and/or sacrifice anything to protect them when they’re unable to protect themselves with their powers, including his own life. He didn’t need to be the stereotypical cartoon sitcom abusive, bumbling, dumb, and neglectful dad in order to be funny either. He was funny because he could sometimes be overprotective of the girls, and he could sometimes embarrass them by calling them sickly sweet terms of endearment and telling embarrassing stories that he shouldn’t have about them in public. He was socially awkward. These are relatable flaws in parents that even the best ones have.

While the girls don’t have a mother, Ms. Bellum and Ms. Keane were very brave, kind, and intelligent strong women who were good role models.

Also, the Professor did many activities with the girls and chores around the house that get gender-coded as “mother’s work.” Some of these things include begrudgingly playing dress up as Bubbles to make her happy when she was playing PowerPuff Girls with Buttercup and Blossom on a rainy day inside of no crime when he saw that she was upset that no one wanted to be her, cooking, cleaning, and actually sitting down to talk with the girls, listen to them, emotionally support them, and give them advice. He’s also not afraid to be openly affectionate, doting, and emotional with the girls. There’s just not enough good dads in cartoon sitcoms, which is why I really like Professor Utonium from the OG PowerPuff Girls cartoon and movie. He mostly defied all the bad dad stereotypes, and was a really great one to the girls more often than not.

The main villains from the classic PowerPuff Girls cartoon are incredibly entertaining, especially MoJo JoJo. Him was always the creepiest to me because he was the most devious, insidious, and manipulative one. All of the psychological abuse and manipulation he put the girls and Townsville through was always the scariest to me when I was a kid because out of all the villains on the show, the torment that he wreaked upon the girls and Townsville by brainwashing them, gaslighting them, and/or exploiting their fears and insecurities often was played as dead serious with really scary results, especially in early seasons of classic PPG. While Him had a few human moments here and there, for the most part, he was pretty consistently played off as being seriously scary and dangerous.

MoJo JoJo was an egomaniacal asshole hellbent on destroying the PowerPuff Girls and world domination, and on a few occasions, he actually came close to succeeding. On a few occasions, he genuinely was more scary than camp evil. But he still had a lot of humorous, human, fallible, and relatable moments, too. My favorite MoJo moments are the ones where he is making jokes, irritably going grocery shopping to get eggs, getting too frustrated by the girls antics and childish behaviors and reactions to actually go through with his plans to destroy them at certain points, and getting angry and jealous enough to actually destroy the alien/robot invader from another planet who was destroying Townsville in all the evil ways that he always wanted to himself. He was highly intelligent at coming up with clever schemes and inventions with all his science and technology to take over the world, destroy Townsville, and/or destroy the PowerPuff Girls. However, his arrogance, impatience, and impulsivity always doomed him to fail to succeed in the end, though he did come pretty close on a few occasions, especially in the 2002 prequel origin story movie, and he did actually get to rule the world in “The PowerPuff Girls Rule the World!” Surprisingly, he actually was a kindhearted ruler who did good things, but then he gave it all up and went back to being evil because he got bored.

Originally, MoJo was a well-intentioned extremist who wanted to create a utopia ruled by primates where they would never be controlled or rejected by humans again. As much as Professor Utonium’s irritation with JoJo for being a destructive chimp lab assistant was completely justified, it’s also hard not to feel kind of sorry for Mojo Jojo and understand where he’s coming from in his motivations to become evil, particularly in the 2002 prequel movie because originally all he really wanted was to be loved by his owner, too. He understandably felt rejected when Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup became the center of his universe instead. Of course, that doesn’t excuse him for choosing to respond to the Professor’s rejection by becoming an arrogant, evil, cruel, hateful, hypocritical, domineering, manipulative, petty, selfish, and vengeful villain going on a quest for world domination, attempting to commit homicide several times, probably committing voluntary manslaughter of citizens several times that we didn’t see on screen when destroying Townsville all those times, turning the rest of the world into dogs to try to take over the world, and trying to destroy the girls. However, you understand why Mojo became the villain he did with his backstory. He’s relatable. Occasionally, he does have some genuinely sympathetic moments where he’s actually willing to be friendly with the girls, team up with them, and do the right thing.

HIM was just the personification of evil for no other reason than the fact that he was satan. While MoJo was a complex, human, and relatable anti-villain with his origin story as the Professor’s lab chimp, who gained genius-level human intellect from having Chemical X splashed on his brain, and then chose to become evil after feeling rejected by the Professor when he saw how he pretty much forget about him once the girls became the center of his universe instead, HIM was evil, manipulative, and hateful for no other reason than the fact that those traits were a part of his nature as the very embodiment of evil. Many times, a fictional villain being portrayed as one-dimensional with no sympathetic qualities or relatable motivations will annoy me, but with HIM being evil just because that’s who he is, it actually works because he is literally Satan. There doesn’t need to be a deeper sympathetic story behind why he is evil. Committing crimes, wreaking havoc, corrupting people, manipulating people, turning people against others, exploiting the fears of others, and deceiving others for his own amusement is just who he is, and in the early seasons of classic PPG in particular, that made him really scary to me when I was a six year old little girl watching the cartoon on TV.

You get the idea...The classic PowerPuff Girls was a fantastic cartoon, particularly the first four seasons. Granted, there was some series seasonal rot going on in the writing in S5 and S6 after the 2002 prequel movie, and Craig Mcracken and Gennedy Tartakovsky’s departure from the crew. Like, the characterizations of the characters and/or storylines in S5 and S6 felt comparably flanderdized, ooc, immature, inconsistent, pointless, shallow, and underwhelming at certain times to fit the plot, such as in the episodes “Keen on Keane,” “Pee Pee G’s,” “Seed No Evil,” “Reeking Havoc,” “Toast of the Town,” “Say Uncle,” “City of Clipsville,” “”Bubble Boy,” A Made Up Story,” “Mo’linguish,” and “Simian Says.” Even the good episodes of S5-S6 still didn’t ever reach the same level of greatness of the ones from S1-S4. However, the seasonal rot in the classic PPG cartoon of S5-S6 after Craig McCracken and Gennedy Tartakovsky’s departure still wasn’t nearly as bad as the seasonal rot on The Simpsons after S8, Family Guy after S3, and SpongeBob SquarePants post S3–S4 ish, so I’m still willing to consider most of S5-S6 of classic PPG legit canon.

However, it sounds like the 2016 PPG reboot fucked up everything that was originally good about it to go for a more slapstick comedic feel without substance without consistency, depth, and intelligence. Now, I hear that the CW is making a live-action TV show spin-off of the PowerPuff Girls being jaded and resentful young women who’ve given up crime fighting as result! No, no, no! Why? Why does the CW keep making dark, nitty, and gritty live action teen soap operas out of beloved childhood cartoons?

Yeah, the original PowerPuff Girls cartoon and movie had dark moments. The girls could be bratty and make bad choices sometimes. However, it was still very much a fun show about normal little girls born with superpowers, which they chose to use to defend their father, their city, and on some occasions, the whole world, from crime. No one ultimately forced them to be superheroes for everyone in the classic PPG cartoon and movie. They chose to do it because they had brave and selfless hearts. There was ultimately no obligation for them to be superheroes in the classic PPG cartoon and movie. Sure, they got tired of fighting crime at times, but they still ultimately enjoyed doing it when push came to shove. They weren’t weighed down by the darkness of the world, hatred, and resentment. They still were relatively normal little girls with happy, peaceful, and normal lives of little girls whenever they weren’t fighting crime after the events of the prequel movie about their origins. That’s what made the PowerPuff Girls classic cartoon so special.

By turning Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup into jaded young women, who have given up on being superheroes because they’ve grown resentful of “losing the normal childhood to crime fighting” that they basically are shown to have in the original series for the most part in their spare time aside from having superpowers that they chose to use to fight crime to defend their dad and Townsville from, anyway, where is the fun in that?

[ask-the-official-gangreen-gang]

Late with Ace

-The camera turns on, showing Ace in his usual, handmade chair, the rest of the gang out of sight, and three folding chairs brought in, where the Powerpuff Girls sit-

“Heeeeeey, youse people! Welcome to the premiere of my own, special weekend segment: Late with Ace! bet yer all excited, huh? Well get even more excited cause here’s...The Powerpuff Goils!!”

-The sound of applause, probably the gang as the audience-

“Thanks for bein’ patient, goils. Had stuff to take care of. But I know our followers been lookin’ forward to this interview”

“It’s no trouble. I was...skeptical, the first time you asked. but we looked through your blog to make sure you weren’t pulling any tricks. Once we realized it’d be safe, we agreed to come. We’re glad to finally be able to do this interview, honestly. so much has happened in the past years”

“No kiddin’. Alright then, let’s get started shall we? Here’s the first question: How are ya dealin’ with crime these days? If ya had to rank your favorite and hardest to beat criminals etc how would youse do it? Also just how’s life for youse guys in general? How’s the professor and the rrb?”

“Oh oh! We’re not nearly as brutal as we used to be! We try not to go overboard when we’re fighting. And the professor's great!! He's made a bunch of progress in his inventions!”

“That’s right! Him actually taught us a lesson once. remember when all of you bad guys were being good because he controlled you? And Mojo is definitely the favorite, then Fuzzy, then you guys, annnd Princess, rowdyruff boys, and Him are on the bottom. But Him and Rowdyruff boys are the hardest.”

“...I try not to, believe me. But yeah, why? And eeeeyyyy, nice!”

“Well, it made us think. We spent years beating up bad guys, but we realized we didn’t even know why they were making crime to begin with. Oh and the Rowdyruff Boys are still snot-nosed jerks.”

“Yeah! So we stopped and thought about it, and decided to be gentler from then on!”

“No wonder there’s been less doctor and dentist bills! Hehehe! Alright, next question. Huh...These two are out of ordah. Gonna switch ‘em. Okay: Did you goils know that Ace joins the band Gorillaz in the future?What are ya thoughts on that?”

"Huh?! You join Gorillaz?! No way! How?!"

"Heheh, that answers that! Murdoc Niccols is an old friend. He needed a solid, and I was the next best talent he knew!"

"We knew you had your rock band with the gang, but that's incredible, Ace! The Gorillaz are a big band. Congratulations."

"Thanks, goils. Its a fun run. And I hope that part of my life ain't over. Did ya know they're fans of the show?"

"The Gorillaz? Are Powerpuff Girls fans?!"

"Yeah, sure are! Noodle used to watch, and 2-D has a Mojo Jojo t-shirt."

"Woooow! We're famous!!!!"

"We were already famous, Bubbles..."

"...Oh yeah!"

"Hehehe. Alright, here comes the next one: Hi goils! So it seems like you’re on bettah terms with the Gangreen Gang now, has your relationship changed with any of the other villains over the years?"

"Well, our family does go camping with Fuzzy's family in the summer! Even though he still terrorizes town once in a while."

"And Mojo still favors being a villain and finds being good too 'boring'...But when we're not fighting each other he's much nicer now! Sometimes Professor even invites him and his family over to have dinner with us!"

"Yeah and Him just finds it hysterical when the Rowdyruff boys start food fights. Jerks..."

"Buttercup, you always join said food fights."

"Didn't say I didn't. Then Mojo and Him just act like proud parents when the boys create chaos."

"Wait, so Him and Mojo Jojo are co-parentin'?"

"What's co-parenting?"

"Co-parenting is when two adults not in a relationship, but share child custody, work together to raise the children in a healthy, stable environment."

"Ohhhh! Then no! Definitely not co-parenting! Heehee!"

"Waaaaait a minute. Are youse saying Mojo and Him are-"

"In a solid, normal relationship? Yup."

"Yeah! Oh! If they get married, think they'd let me be the flower girl? I'd be the cutest flower girl ever!!!"

-Buttercup facepalms herself-

"Hehehe! Talk about a juicy dish, huh people? Okay, next question: Do ya feel any remorse for the things you've done? Are youse on good terms with the gang?"

"...Yes. Yes, we do feel remorse. We were wrong back then. We thought we were experts, that good was good and bad was evil in need of a buttkicking. But we were wrong. The world isn't black and white. There's shades of grey in-between, too. We're sorry we didn't understand back then..."

"And as for the gang, yeah! We still kick their butts when they steal, but we're not as harsh about it. Sometimes we do stuff together! Especially Buttercup and-"

"Ace! Isn't it time for the next question?"

"As a matter of fact it sure is! With the origin story out I've gotta wonder, girls. Did your dad evah say anythin' to ya about the pandemic?"

"Pandemic? ....No, he...didn't. What pandemic?"

"Uh oh. If youse don't know, Then I suggest reading our story, It Ain't Easy Bein' Gangreen on AO3!"

"Let me see. Do you have a copy of it?"

-A long, green arm reaches out, holding out a bundle of paper-

"PLBBT!"

"Thank you, Grubber. Let's see..."

-Blossom proceeds to speed read the first chapter, then she looks shocked.-

"Whoa! The professor accidently started an epidemic? How come we never knew about it?"

"Dark stain on the towns history. Veeeery dark. They wanted to bury it. For several reasons."

-Blossom proceeds to speed through the technically first chapter next-

"Oh! He found a cure! So there was probably no reason to- huh?!"

"What? Let me see!"

-Buttercup grabs the papers, reading the page Blossom was on, then she looks at Ace in shock.-

"You?! The professor saved YOU?"

"Eh...Sort of. Keep readin'."

-Buttercup looks back at the paper, reading the rest-

"Huh?! You were BORN green? We always thought it was a mutation you guys suffered from later on! Cool!!"

"Nah, nah. NOT cool. As for why, well you'll have to see as more of our story comes out. Everythin' ties together."

"If you mom had Gangrene, and the prifessor cured her...And if she returned to normal after being cured...Then how could you be born green? It doesn't make sense. You shouldn't have had any Gangrene cells in your body!"

-Blossom thinks, then suddenly gasps-

"It wasn't the Gangrene! It was the-"

-Ace quickly cuts her off.-

"AH! SPOILAH ALERT! Sorry, can't let ya finish that one! That info's gonna be revealed latah on. We're strict on spoilahs."

"Ohhh. Alright, I won't say it."

-she leans over to whisper to Ace-

"Yeeeah, ya got it alright. Nice detective work. But don't tell anyone. Got it?"

"Got it!"

"Heeey no fair! I wanna know! Secrets aren't nice!"

"Sorry, no can do. You'll find out eventually."

"Hehehe, that's right! Alright that's all the time we got this week! Remember people: Tell us who YOU wanna see me interview next! Have a goodnight people!"

-Ace and the girls wave to the camera, followed by applause from the gang as the camera cuts off.-

[thewritingstar]

The World Sucks

Pairing: Boomer, this is a solo fic for best boi (well maybe a little boomerxmike at the end ;)

Fandom: Powerpuff Girls 

Notes: Snippet September #4!

okay so I wrote this from an ask but then when it saved, it disappeared so I had to re-write it so im sorry for losing the ask. 

anyways the prompt was: boomer being done with his brothers, basically angsty boom. I changed it a little bit to incorapte the whole Jojo family so I hope you like it. (I legit couldn’t think of a title)

Tags: @seinlxlx (im sorry the ask got lost but I hope you enjoy this) @unvalley @cupcakesandnightmares (if you would like to be tagged pls lmk :) 

--

He hated this city. Hated the shitty ass high school he was forced into and hated everything else in between. On the rare occasion where the blond would voice his opinion, he was met with a roll of the eyes and a “shut the fuck up” attitude from his brothers. And they wonder why he keeps to himself. 

His brothers were fine. When they weren’t picking on him or being assholes, they were just standard boys who liked to blow shit up and never take responsibilities for their actions, not like Boomer was any better. But he did know when to shut the fuck up, something Brick would probably never know. 

But when you were the golden boy to a genius chimp and literal demon, you really didn’t need to shut up. No, Brick could get away with anything because well, he was a villain who didn’t care for societies rules and only followed them during class time. Boomer would probably describe him as a narcissistic asshole who head is shoved so far up his own ass, he's surprised that his dad’s words even reach his clogged ears. 

Brick got everything he wanted because of his leader boy status and Boomer was fine with that. Butch became the materialistic brat child who would be at daddy Mojo’s beck and call if it meant he got a brand new car or a hundred bucks to blow on weed and a new hook up of the week. 

His older brothers, by measures he's not quite sure of, were the cream of the crop in the villain world. Blowing up shit and taking names, that's what the Jojo boys did best. At least the red and green duo. 

As for Boomer, the rich lifestyle and temptation with objects to steal stuff and “take over the world” never worked on him. As a kid, sure a bag of candy could woo him for a few hours, but as time passes, he stopped caring for it all. 

Maybe it was the fact that entering the school system meant that he witnessed what normal families looked like. Loving parents and siblings who actually got along started to look nice. 

Maybe he wished that his dads would look at him and want to be proud of his decent grades and guitar playing. Instead, he was a creation not for love and joy, but for their own use. He was basically a minion who saw through the facade that his brothers bought into. Maybe he wished he bought into it too so that he wouldn’t feel this way. 

So maybe his hatred of the world was created from jealously. Now he understands why robots shouldn’t get feelings. When your sole purpose is one thing, no wonder he felt like a disappointment. 

The world sucked. His brothers sucked and he was sure that if they weren’t related, they probably wouldn’t even know each other. His parents sucked too. Everything sucked major balls and he hated it all. There was no good left in the world. 

“Hey Boomer!” 

The blond looked up from the journal he was scribbling in. His so called “counterpart” full of sugar and giggles came bouncing towards him with a bright smile. 

“Oh, hey Bubbles.” 

She looked at his journal and to him and offered a small smile. “It looks like its gonna rain.” 

The sky did in fact looked darker than usual. “I guess so.” 

“Well, we wanted to know if you wanna come to the movies with us?” She pointed over her shoulder to where her sisters and other friends stood. “Thats is if you could spare your bad boy reputation to hang with us?” She teased. 

Boomer let out a small laugh before standing. “I think I can mange that.” 

“Great!” Bubbles clapped her hands together and wrapped her hand around his arm. “Yeah know, I think Mike has a thing for you.” She winked at him and pulled him along. 

“Bubbles, I will throw you into a building if you don’t keep your mouth shut.” He glared at her with the empty threat. 

She smirk and made a motion of zipping her lips. “Hey look who I found!” She said as they approached the group. 

“Sup Boomer.” Buttercup gave him a fist bump. 

“Glad you can join us.” Blossom smiled. “I hope the new zombie film is alright with you.” 

“Sounds good to me.” Boomer smiled and he felt himself relax a little bit. 

“Hey Boomer, how's it going?” 

Boomer turned to see Mike and he hoped that no one, well expect Bubbles, could tell that his heart picked up a bit. 

“Uhh, good. Yeah going good.” He said awkwardly but the brunette laughed and Boomer swore he saw him wink. 

“Make sure to save me a seat.” Mike said as he turned his attention back to Robin. 

Boomer nodded and his eyes met with baby blue ones who gave him a knowing glance. 

“Shut up.” He mouthed and she giggled. 

So yeah, the world sucked and he might hate everything. But he had to admit that having friends mad it suck a little less. 

---

I hope you enjoyed :) 

[treveonwest]

(PowerRuff Part 9) {Everybody deserves a second chance}

Blossom) so girls what do you think is going to happen today

--------------------------------------

Bubbles) I don't know our lives are always crazy every single day I mean yesterday we had to go stop the gangreen Gang

-------------------------

Buttercup) speaking of that day that was tiring as fuck I hope today is just super chill

----------------

Blossom) for once I agree with you there Buttercup

Bliss) hey girls do you might wanna turn on the news

------------------------------------

Buttercup Ewww!! What do we look like old people

-------------------------

Bliss) just do it there's something very interesting happening

---------------

Blossom) okay Bliss I'll it turned on

New's Guy) hello there City of Townsville there is some very interesting news today it seems like Mojo Jojo and the Rowdyruff Boys are turning on a new league they are willing to stop every bad thing that they are trying to do and become good people why have they decided to do this I don't know they're probably tired of getting their butts kicked but that's all the news for today back to you Diane

Blossom) wow this is something I never thought I would hear

----------------------------------

Bubbles) yeah I never thought I would hear the day that the Rowdyruff Boys would become good

Buttercup) oh come on you too you can't honestly by any of that bullshit right I mean come on Blossom you're supposed to be the smart one

--------------------------------------

Blossom) come on buttercup everybody can change

-------------------------

Buttercup) well I don't believe this for a goddamn minute it's just way too fishy or the news guy was right and they're just tired of getting their asses kicked

------------------

Bliss) watch your language buttercup ............. hold on I think I heard the doorbell

                       *after she checks the door*

Bliss) girls you need to go outside right now the Rowdyruff Boys are outside and I'm really fucking confused right now

------------------------------------

Blossom) sure thing sis

Blossom) well hello Rowdyruff Boys long time no see

--------------------------------

Bubbles) *blushing at Boomer of course*

----------------------

Buttercup) all right what are you little dick faces planning what are you guys trying to pull

Boomer) *blushing at bubbles*

---------------------------------

Blaze) no worries girls we're not trying too Pull anything as you saw from the new was work turning on a new league and we came over to see if we can make things right with you guys and we could be friends now

-----------------------

Butch) yeah being evil got kind of boring

-----------------

Brick) yeah and this blue-haired idiots plans never work

Bliss) well I do believe that everybody deserves a second chances so we can surely give a second chance to you guys

---------------------------------

Blaze) thank you! that's what we wanted to hear

Butch) hey Buttercup just because I'm serious what is your guys's room look like

---------------------------------------

Buttercup) it's pretty cool I guess I could show you

------------------------

Butch) Sweet!

Blossom) hey brick I heard your new song Yesterday I thought it actually sounded kind of good me and the girls have actually thought about making some songs too maybe we could use your guys's help or you guys could make a song with us or something

--------------------------------------

Brick) *blushes* yeah whatever Pinky

Bubbles) I am so happy you're finally deciding to be good

--------------------------------------

Boomer) Yes this is the best thing ever I never liked being on the dark side anyway

-----------------------

Bubbles) and now that you're a good person maybe we can tell people about us

---------------------------

Boomer) as much as I want to do that it's not the right time right now maybe after a couple of days or a week has passed or something we can tell people that we recently started dating we don't have to tell them that we've been dating for a really long time like even when we were bad how's that sound

-------------------------------

Bubbles) I think that sounds like a great idea that way there will be no suspicions

---------------------

Boomer) what the heck does suspicions mean

---------------

Bubbles) awww you're so cute

Buttercup) yep and this is our room it's a little girly if you ask me but it still looks cool

-------------------------------

Butch) I don't know I think it looks kind of cute like you

Buttercup) look butch you really need to stop flirting with me this is something I haven't really explained to my family yet look I'm gay I like women seriously you need to stop we can be Bros we can be friends I can be all that good shit but you can't keep flirting with me do you understand

--------------------------------------

Butch) ........................ Y-ya i got it

                                        10 hours later

Blaze) thanks for the food Bliss I think you're an amazing cook

------------------------------------

Bliss) thank you the professor taught me everything I know it is a little bit hard to feed Buttercup sometimes though she's kind of a picky eater

----------------------

Blaze) *giggling* I think we're going to get along just fine

                                                 The End

[ghostjellyfishheart]

@transiconlink​ what follows is me fighting the urge to scream over the powerpuff girl script

My expectations were low.  Screenshots I had seen of the script lowered them.  Somehow this is worse than I imagined.

Starting off strong with once upon a time.  But unlike regular once upon a time stories, this one is set in the early two-thousands.

I dont know if this is a warning not to worry because we will get to see more of the three-headed pegasus monster or a “don’t worry the monster isn’t actually scary we only see it briefly.”  I also don’t know which is funnier

So Mojo Jojo was the professor’s lab partner.  The powerpuff girls were born seven years old.  Sure, why not.

Powers he’d use for good, like Elon Musk, but also for his own personal gain, like Elon Musk.  This is an actual line.  Someone was paid to write this.

Bubbles broke into the zoo to make the flamingos get drunk.  This was not the first time she has done this.

I had seen this line in screenshots before.  I was not prepared to read it in the actual script.

Since I do not know what a character bible is I am going to pretend it is the character wiki page.

Sara seems like a decent person.  She feels bad for the teenagers who regularly fight giant swamps.  Can’t wait to see what plot twist cw has in store to make her a monster.

Drake then proceeds to tell his girlfriend he has been living with for over a decade that she is not part of the family.

The powerpuff girls accidentally kill mojo and the band breaks up.

Buttercup is a firefighter.  Good for her.  Shame this is going to get ruined very shortly.  Bubbles tries to make it in Hollywood.  It does not work.  Blossom goes and gets a bunch of degrees.

I would rather watch Bubbles With a Chance of Bubbles then this show.

Jojo is doing well.  He took over as mayor and helped improve Townsville.  He will become a villain, not to avenge his father’s death, but because of reverse discrimination and a lack of free gelato.

Again these are actual lines that people were paid to write.

After failing to conquer Hollywood, Bubbles decided to become a professional vlogger.  Not what actually happened, but if they wanted Bubbles to be doing all the “do it for the camera” stuff it would be funnier if she was telling people to like comment and subscribe.

Good for Sara.  I’m glad she got away from that.  I am going to hope she’s out there living her best life and not about to get dragged back into this bullshit.

Another classic screenshot that I saw before deciding to read the script.

Chem X prevents people from camping.

This right here is the first image I saw of this god forsaken script.

I looked it up.  moveon.org is an actual website.

Blossom: I hope I don’t have a panic attack

*has a panic attack almost immediately*

I don’t know why I decided to make a reaction post when the entire script just makes my brain do static noises.

The Monster Mash deserves better than this.

I’m not even halfway through the script.  I’m going to cry.

No thoughts.  Head in great pain.

Buttercup is done wearing dresses of compulsory heterosexuality and playing straight for the cameras.

Gonna be honest, realizing the Volcano is a dive-bar and not an actual volcano has been the most disappointing part of this script so far.

Bubbles sells engagement rings for drug money.  Y/n’s mom could never.

When I first saw this screenshot I didn’t know Drake was the professor and assumed Blossom was avoiding the rapper.  I did not question this.

This is the second time the script has mentioned gogurt.  This means the gogurt is almost certainly product placement.  I am disappointed in gogurt.

I would rather read fanfiction written in first person than watch this show.

ALSO I AM PASSED THE HALFWAY POINT

FREEDOM IS SO CLOSE AND YET SO FAR

Jojo is worried about his political career.  He decides that breaking into the homes of little girls will help solve the problem.

Crazy dude with Scorpio energy.  Seems about right.

I can feel my brain turning to mush.

The cells are dying.  My brain goes smoother with each line I read.

I have to live with the knowledge that there will be fans of this show who will ship Buttercup and Macy and create a bunch of fan content where they take a u-haul to buy a three acre farm and raise chickens.  I can see it.

If you want a show about child heroes learning to cope with their trauma, watch Steven Universe Future.

Sara makes a comeback.  I am sad that the life I had imagined for her where she got out of Townsville and avoided the cw’s plans for her is ruined.

I can see the cw’s plan.  It involves Sara getting back together with Drake.  I am furious.

The first guess these people make when they don’t find an evil lab is a mass hallucination.  The second is aliens.

Drake invested the trust fund in fidget spinners.  I wish I was surprised.

Is... is this trying to say the original cartoon was a whitewashed version of this story?   Is that what’s happening here??????

This makes the wattpad fics I used to read look good.

I appreciate the use of exclamation points to try and get me excited.

HOW IS THIS REAL??????????

The puff-mobile sprinter van.  Someone wrote those words.  Other people read those words and approved them.

If they kill Drake that means Sara can’t get back with him.  Come on Jojo.

They didn’t reject you for misogynistic reasons.  They rejected you because they were tired of rebuilding downtown every week.

I am losing my mind.  The way this is set up makes it sound like owning furniture from West Elm is what prevents Blossom from being a Powerpuff Girl.

If a quick conversation with an imaginary version of her younger self cures Blossom’s ptsd I am going to through a riot.

Wow

Damn it.

i can no longer form coherent thoughts

No.  Absolutely not.  You will stay away from Sara and let her move on with her life.

I have reached the end.  Reading this took years off my life.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis Score Guide

Here's a helpful guide as to what the scores I give out mean.

EVILNESS

This score doesn't really effect the overall score of the villain in question, it's more just a way to show how evil they actually are.

1: Barely a villain. A villain in name only, or a really dark anti-hero. Probably ends up swirching sides to the good guys with little provocation. Think Kronk from The Emeperor's New Groove.

2: Jerks, bullies, and other dickheads. Not really evil, but they're genuinely unpleasant and antagonistic. Think various anime or RPG rivals like Blue Oak, Seto Kaiba, or Silver.

3: Tragic villains. Sure, they committed murder. Maybe they framed someone for a crime. Perhaps they made some horrible choices that cost people their lives. But they aren't completely bad, and the narrative goes out of its way to paint a picture of a flawed but not irredeemable antagonist. Think Pterano from The Land Before Time VII.

4: Just a straight up awful person. They go beyond being a jerk, but their villainy is still relatively tame in the grand scheme of things. Think Vicky from Fairly OddParents.

5: A balanced villain. This is a villain where they are most definitely not a good person, and they do commit some evil acts, but the narrative either doesn't make clear how bad what they did really is or otherwise has some level of sympathy for the villain to make their poor moral choices understandable. Think Princess Azula of Avatar: The Last Airbender or Patrick Bateman of American Psycho (the latter is an extremely complicated case, though).

6 - 7: A real bad guy. Your typical villain you'd see on a kid's show, where they want to do something really broad like take over the world/city/tri-state area, but never really go much further than that. Think villains like Mojo Jojo from Powerpuff Girls or Plankton from SpongeBob SquarePants. The higher the number, the badder they are.

8: A "well-intentioned" villain. A villain who commits horrible acts, but has some level of reasoning behind them that might make you nod and go, "Huh, they might have a point." Of course, they probably don't and are just using a thin veneer of nobility to excuse their horrible actions, and are more driven by their own egos than good intentions. Think Thanos from the MCU, Senator Armstrong from Metal Gear Rising, or Enrico Pucci from Stone Ocean.

9: A morally reprehensible bastard. A thoroughly rotten villain with maybe a few faint glimmers of good in them, but they're pretty far gone and revel in being bad too much. Manfred von Karma of Ace Attorney would land here.

10: A complete monster. They are absolutely, utterly irredeemable and commit some of the most heinous acts imaginable. Think serial killers like Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs and John Doe from Se7en (or Kevin Spacey in real life).

VILLAIN SCORES

These are what the actual ratings I give the villains mean.

1: The worst.

2: Mediocre villains. Bland, boring, not the worst but who honestly cares about these guys? This is the score that a generic military leader bad guy or a low-tier Bond villain would get.

3: A hilariously bad villain. Don't get it wrong, they still fail in numerous ways, but they fail in extremely entertaining ways that honestly make them better than villains with 4 and 5 scores.

4: A below average villain.

5: An average villain. They're serviceable.

6: An above average villain, though they probably aren't going to be anyone's favorite.

7: A really solid villain, though one that really could have used more fleshing out to really shine. It's the sort of score a perfectly average one-shot villain might get.

8: A truly great villain, though they're held back by a few flaws.

9: A fantastic villain, though not quite perfect.

10: The best of the best.

10.5: This is the only fractional score that deserves its own entry, because it denotes a villain who is great and iconic, but who hasn't left a massive impact on culture as of yet.

11: A villain who has literally changed fiction as we know it with their presence. We're talking Darth Vader, Fu Manchu, the Wicked Witch, Count Orlok and Count Dracula... These are the guys who come to mind when you think "villain."

[luckycheesefoodie321]

Y’all. YALL. KIPO SEASON 2 is FIREEEEEEEE

Heroes on Fire...

Anyway!

Binge watched Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts Season 2 today and y’all it was sooooo good!!

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

I was gonna do a cut off but... I can’t be bothered getting my laptop sooo...

LONG POST TOO!!! Plus I have enough spoiler tags I think...

———

First of all... Scarlemagne = Mojo-jojo but with actual redemption arc potential???

They really set homie up as the biggest bad and then the twist mystery that Lio and Scarlemagne are connected at the end of S1... but then every much like The Storm from ATLA, we just DEEP-DIVED into Scarlemagne aka HUGO’s backstory and you’re like “well shit, no fucking wonder he got so damn twisted and hating on humans”

And yknow what even with his convoluted thinking and the terrible things he’s done, I’m really really glad they didn’t go down the whole “I blame Kipo bc I’m jealous she took Lio and Song’s attention away from me and that’s why they left me behind” story line... it’s absolutely fascinating that at no point does Scarlemagne blame Kipo, and even looks at her as a sister... like his line “you’re not the one who rejected me” was so powerful, bc he recognises she was just an innocent baby and sees the same confused child in her that he was when he was left alone on the surface... and twisted though his attempts of making her happy were, he was really reaching out for someone who genuinely cares about him again, and it helps that she’s also the daughter of the two people he once viewed as parental figures... and also Kipo’s just naturally empathetic and sees the good in people...

Then she was willing to sacrifice her humanity for a stadium full of mutes and Lio pulled him out of danger... so I’m reaaaallly hoping they keep this potential redemption going... bc really Hugo and Kipo are perfect mirrors of each other... very Zuko/Aang reminiscent... Hugo the animal experiment that was given human hopes and dreams and abilities, only to be thrust into a confusing and scary place with strange powers, and seemingly betrayed by the people he loves most... Kipo, the human experiment, with typical hopes and dreams but is forced into a confusing and scary place with strange powers, and finds out her whole birth and life has been a lie...

One of them just came out of it better...

Secondly... Kipo’s inner Mega-Jaguar scene = Naruto and the Nine-Tails Fox???

Like slowly learning to control the little bits of power that sneak through... being able to change between forms at will provided there is something anchoring her human half... that whole water/mirror/internal Jaguar sequence?!?!... USING THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP TO GET A GRIP ON HER HUMANITY?!?!

ACCESSING AN EVOLVED FORM OF HERSELF WHISLT THINKING OF THE PEOPLE SHE WANTED TO SAVE?!?!

Yo if that ain’t Naruto idk what is...

Next we have Mom the Monkey...

Wasn’t too hard of a leap to figure out... I probably clocked into it maybe mid ep 1?? Idk what triggered it but yeah don’t think that was meant to be a difficult leap to make... that aside, I like that they didn’t have Song immediately change back or have her wits about her when Mulholland helped free her from the pheromones... she’s been a monkey for 13 years, under the control of Dr Emilia, she hasn’t spoken and she didn’t have little moments to control her powers like Kipo... so figuring out how to change her back is a good ongoing mission to have I think... it also makes the fact that Kipo was the one to get through to her in the first place even more powerful and that’s SO dope...

Lio... yknow what when grown ups in these types of stories have regrets and the children are dealing with their consequences it can be very frustrating... but I like that Lio is more than willing to reflect on his past mistakes (valid tho it was that he had no choice but to grab Kipo and run before Emilia could get to her) and is also willing to ACT ON IT...he gives Kipo’s ideas a chance and its even shown for real when Scarlemagne forced him to tell the truth... Hugo was a child he raised and he doesn’t want to leave him behind anymore... even if he’s done so much bad... I’m also glad they showed Kipo expressing disappointment in her fathers actions, empathy for Hugo’s pain, but that didn’t mean she was suddenly disillusioned to her father and what kind of person he is... that can also be a very frustrating aspect of these types of plot lines...

Benson and his darling potentially mutual crush, Troy? What else can i say but beautiful first awkward teen crush PERFECTION! Both of them blushing when Benson ended up on top of Troy after tackling Troy out of the way of a rampaging Pierre? Troy kissing him on the cheek? Troy helping Benson out of the pit and the same falling in love music playing while Benson gazed up at Troy?? TROY AND BENSON HOLDING HANDS WHILE SCARED AND CLINGING TO EACH OTHER?!?!?

TROY BEING AT LEAST PARTIALLY (Latino? Hispanic?) MEANING EVEN MORE POC CHARACTERS AS MAINS LIKE HECK YEAH!!!

Sidenote: a good chunk of the music is like... “rap” music and they always hit during fight scenes and it’s great...

Also: the Kipo title sequence? A bop we must never forget...

SPEAKING OF BOPS WE MUST NEVER FORGET: Heroes on Fire... a karaoke classic I must learn... used with the Power of Friendship can turn a mega mute back to human...

Also also my love and life Jamack??? Continuing to help Kipo out even if he’s a total tsundere about it?!?! LITERALLY CANNOT STOP HIMSELF FROM HELPING HER?!?! I love him... and I want him to join the gang... so bad...

ALSO. The whole second episode was basically about cheese.

Feta. Gouda. Chevre. Fromage.

Idk about that whole... Soothsayer meets the Grey Sisters (Greek mythology? Three sisters, one eye, one tooth? Is that what they’re called?) business with the cheese but whatever it was fun... they were just straight up tossing knives at Kipo to get her latent powers to activate and that was hilarious... also Mr Miyagi moment I guess XD but it means Kipo’s created a whole brain pathway between Herbs in/Herbs out and how she controls her powers and she even mentions that...

Also mega bummed about Ratland burning down...

I also wanna know what was up with the sentient Fun Gus and why it had the mind of a child...

FINALLY: our new big bad - Dr Emilia...

WHAT COMPLETELY TOOK ME BY SURPRISE WAS IT WASNT SCARLEMAGNE WHO PUT HER UNDER HIS CONTROL BUT FRIGGEN THESE CLOAKED HUMANS...Monkey Mom wasn’t a surprise but THAT sure was

We’re really leaning into the one race supremacy theme here huh? But also the reckless and callous treatment of animals and the earth by humans... without regard for how they feel... and after mutating and having and being able to communicate their thoughts and feelings and dreams, Emilia still thinks it would be better to remove that and return them to just animals...

Fascinated to see where they go from here...anyway... go watch Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts so we can get a season 3 babeyyyyy

[glapplebloom]

I know you guys know, but someone apparently doesn't.

So a hot month ago, someone got blasted for complaining about Reboot Series. Ignoring a LOT of the problems that pretty much everyone already brought up, I wanna focus on the person's inability to tell a Reboot Series from a Sequel Series. So for this Research Bin, I'm going to define it as well as bring up examples of such. Some are really easy to tell, others are not. So let's begin.

A Reboot Series is a Series that takes an original concept and makes changes to it to tell a different version of that Series. A good example, which is a big duh for anyone reading this Tumblr, is My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It took the original ideas from the previous three generations (I think, Generation 2 gets skipped a lot) and changes them to fit the new series' ideologies. Like Rainbow Dash being "Dressing in Style" to "Awesome as I wanna be". A bad example is the Velma series by a popular celebrity who basically made herself into Velma and outside the most surface level jokes about the franchise is filled with pop culture references and more violence and "adult" content. Next week I'll focus on the positives of hated reboots but for now you can tell by these two examples of someone who wanted to do something different Vs someone who just wanted to wear the skin of it (or Warner Brothers forcing her to do this, I wouldn't put it past them).

A Sequel Series is a Series that continues from the original. A great example is Batman Beyond takes place in the far future of Batman: the Animated Series as well as the DCU. Bruce Wayne was shaped by the events that happened in that series as well as the time difference between the two timelines. I honestly don't know many bad sequel series due to not watching any I would consider bad, but Mortal Kombat: Annihilation is an example that is a sequel to a great movie and completely fumbles the ball by not keeping the quality and making things much worse. Well, now that you know the definition, let's see what these four series are.

Fairly Odd Parents: A New Wish - It takes place a long time after the original. Where AJ is an adult while Crocker and Vickie are older. This is a Sequel Series.

She-Ra from Netflix - New designs, new personalities, taking it to places the original didn't. This is a Reboot Series.

Now the two hardest to figure out...

Powerpuff Girls 2016 - New cast, new animation style, but still kept a majority of the same actors. They also make references to the past series as if it took place in their history and the old villains like Mojo Jojo and HIM do not get introductions unlike the new villains. Basically, this is a Sequel Series. Outside personalities, which could be explained as this is now an older iteration of the cast, there isn't really much that makes it a reboot. So at worst it’s a Dragon Ball GT situation: it's their future unless the original creator changes it in a way it can’t. 

MLP: Generation 5 - Honestly, this is a lot harder. While it is billed as a sequel series, there are a ton of changes that makes it hard to see it as such. There’s no magic, but the Sun and Moon can move on their own, the Weather goes on its own, fusion animals are the norm and not magical, Cutie Marks still work despite no Magic. New locations. The Map doesn’t seem to fit the old one. It pretty much contradicts FIM’s ending. Spike is a quadruped now and conveniently does not remember many of the past events outside certain things...

The closest we get is the IDW comics with Discord telling how things were in the past, which is just how the Unity Crystals were made. We still have no idea what happened to the other creatures, what caused them to split outside Opaline, and the Sea Ponies are back to being an undiscovered phenomenon. So is this a reboot or a sequel series? The answer: yes. At this point, I think Generation 5 is both. It's a sequel as it takes a lot of the elements of G4 and treats it as history while making a lot of changes to fit its own ideologies. 

And unlike A New Wish, the changes don't have any logical reason behind it. Why is Time Wishes needed to go through Father Time instead of the Fairies just doing it? Well, there’s a certain Secret Wish that definitely needs to be outsourced to someone who can actually keep time. Why are all the creatures now suddenly out of the picture? We don’t know. It's why Multiverse Theory is such an easy answer.

[lordxgrinnyxboy]

watching london tgm! pt 2!

they actually carry clarence in in his coffin????

Kupsak sounds Different

OOOOOOOOOOH THAT WAS OSRIC’S VOICE THAT DID THE “Will our land at last be free” LIKE THE LINGERING ECHOES OF THE TRELAW SPIRIT. NICE.

the voice he used leaves me with no doubt he could’ve been another amazing Gwynplaine.

“Get out” WAS OSRIC LITERALLY THERE DID OSRIC STRAIGHT UP GO BUST A FUNERAL

 OOOOH IT’S THE TRELAW REBELLION NOW. SPECIFICALLY THE TRELAW REBELLION. THE REBELLION BELONGING TO TRELAW.

for just a second i was living in a world without Barkilphedro but there he is, man, there he is. i was surprised to see him.

ooooh. oooooh “Angelica has not emerged from her chambers for almost exactly 20 years, during which time, she has not uttered a single word” WHAT?

DON’T SEND SPIKE TO GO GET HER WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU

off topic but getting back to the previous post if the “father she’ll never see” was part of the inscription and Ursus gave it to her then he’d know about it so it can’t be that did the MOM get her a necklace that said she’d never see her father??? was the mom like “ope we gotta pack up and sail away without your dad but lemme get you a cool trinket first” or was there no inscription and Ursus is just assuming that it was the dad who gave her the necklace but it was actually the mom and the mom got a necklace for Dea without telling Ursus but hold up aren’t they poor? wouldn’t somebody have known? do they have separate bank accounts? did the mom say “well I got our unborn child a present but it’s a surprise you’ll find out later” why a necklace that says “dea”? did the mom name her without consulting Ursus? how’d she know wh-? was she going to name the baby ‘Goddess’ regardless of gender? (valid?) was she asking a goddess to protect the baby??? did she have the baby, immediately go get her a little trinket, and then freeze to death? was ‘Dea’ a deliberate move or was it just the last name trinket in the shop? Were all the  “Makynzeiye” necklaces taken? I Have Questions About This Necklace

anyway

the other version always makes me feel almost like Barkilphedro murdered the king himself. i don’t get that so much in this one but i do get the impression he Knows What He’s Doing with this speech and is Doing It On Purpose. Having A Good Time, as it were.

angelica????

oh my

“SWWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE” uhm

b-bird noises?

ooh she’s actually. calling out the corruption of her father. good girl angelica.

“I will make this country great again” did they. have. to say that. did they have to. was it necessary. why make me think about that man. why do that to me. london has no rights u-u

wHAT we’re back in the cart? No JoJo?

london gets rights for the fact that Gwyn’s crouching. that is a very good crouch sir, perfect.

“with mojo and father...GAH” oh gwyn :(

that hit him so hard so sudden like :(

FIDDLIN WITH THE BANDAGES IS CANOOOOON IT’S CANOOOOOOOON I AM VALID! I’M VALID! I KNEW IT! I THOUGHT SO! YES. YES. WOOHOO

gwyn your arm

the drama of that dismount. the delicate self-yeet. incredible.

WHY IN HEAVEN’S NAME IS YOUR SHIRT TUCKED IN YOU STOP THAT THIS INSTANT

“please help me find” gwyn what is she supposed to do, google it?

CROUCH

oh here we go

that was terrifying jojo

jojo that was terrifying

the dance is. worse.

pleeeease no please no please no pl

where did she get that

i am scared for my life rn

JOJO STOP

ohhh i’m dreading Brand New World. can’t believe i’m gonna have to watch Gwynplaine Trelaw literally be killed for sport. she’s gonna snap him like a twig 😭 

JOJO I AM BEGGING YOU TO PUT THAT DOWN

i am so scared of this jojo i am so

oh JOJO’S gonna offer to make the scuttling dream a reality???

book canon right there

😱😬😭

in this one she literally warns david personally to his face he’s got no excuse let’s go david wygd

but sure let’s go to the fair

i don’t hate this david but he’s like the mellow, zero-energy edition.

he bouncin

he’s turned into a starfish???

i hate Bristol!Jojo’s costume so bad but dang if i haven’t gotten used to it and now this one’s a little weird

i’m not strong enough tbh

dirry-moir just crouched and i’m gonna have to sue for copywrighte on gwynplaine’s behalf. i’ve apparently lost my ability to spell

idk man these people are just incredibly scary

oh thank goodness that part’s over

london!gwyn looks like a hobbit that’s been stretched out. like a screenshot of Mr. Elijah Wood in Unexpected Journey, but it’s been pasted into MS Paint and then stretched out a bit and then squished down and stretched out again and somehow pasted back into the movie.

i am genuinely so grateful we get another cart scene. i need time to recover from never seen a face.

the dynamic feels different in this version

awww the shoulder pat :3

this Gwyn is a whole other person. he’s both Calmer and More Wound Up. at the same time.

😭 he just 😭 literally choked 😭 i can’t 😭 he just fell right over 😭 wilted like a flower 😭 howm i supposed to cope with this 😭 

Don’t pat him so hard Ursus for pity’s sake DX

aw we’re not doing Born Broken in front of an audience this time? rights are evaporating.

is Gwyn even alive rn i think he straight up died

did he take the medicine yet?

Ursus are u touching his face?

HE’S HAVING A WHOLE SEIZURE

What Was That Move

i have lost my ability to exhale

i think Gwyn’s doing a physical impersonation of a fish being mercilessly dragged from a lake by a grappling hook thrown from a moving speedboat

i do like how Ursus crouches down to their level while they’re on the ground

love how Mojo looks over like “are y’all seeing this”

LOOK AT THE SMILE OF YOUR MOTHERL

THAT’S WHY URSUS FREAKIN SNAPS

Ursus is holding Gwyn by the wrist and just shaking his arm as punctuation like “I CANT tell you ANYthing you DON’t already KNOW” URSUS STOP

GWYN TRIED TO PULL AWAY AND URSUS YANKED GWYN’S ARM

URSUS YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS

i mean i always thought the near hysteria was valid and acceptable but you know what Gwyn is MORE than allowed the “NOOO NOT TODAY” line. he can HAVE IT. understandable. he did nothing wrong.

someone’s drinking a beer

i’m sorry but the way he just climbed through that curtain was hilarious

it’s too calm. mr. maskell you’ve got three seconds to lose your damn mind and go absolutely OFF

BOING BOING BOING BOING BOING

CLAP

twinge

this one doesn’t have enough hysteria but it gets points for being even more boneless

lost an elbow again

here we go his brain’s going AGSHAFUIABNAVSBKJAG AGFYAIAFIguAI here we go it’s happening i can see the sparks

MR MASKELL PLEASE

GWYN YOUR ARMS

YOUR SPIN GWYN

that right there was what medical professionals commonly diagnose as a Religious Experience.

his pantlegs are even shorter in this version

OH HE JUST YANKS THE BANDAID RIGHT OFF.

jojo please

hangon i gotta go back and see him in Zero Bones mode one more time that was actually so personal

i must say that rewind was Flawless. without even looking i took it back exactly to him coming through the curtain. at myself goodjob man

i would like to formally apologize to myself for just having the “talent show au” thought. stop that.

WIGGLY FINGERS ON “WALKS IN THE NIGHT”

can’t believe i’m in love with an overcooked linguini noodle

he is So Floppy it genuinely hurts to even look at and honestly i love that for me. I’m living. i’m about to watch this scene a third time in a row see if i don’t

it really is a little low on the sheer manic vibe but at the same time it kinda has the energy of if you climbed into the washing machine or maybe dryer while the appliance is on? or if you got in the washing machine but you brought a toaster with you. and threw your phone in separate.

another perfect rewind let’s go I’M THE STUUUUUUUFF OF YOUR NIGHTMARES WAS I

his voice sounds like it’s coming from a vintage record player and it’s definitely in black and white with a smattering of static and just a slight flavor of tin and honestly i love that for me

Gwyn’s literally one of those old door stoppers you know like the little stick on the bottom of the door and sometimes you pull it all the way to one side and then let go and it’s like FWOBBLEFWOBBLEFWOBBLE and you’re like “OOOOOOH”

JEAN VALJEAN

ARMS UPPPPPPPP GO BACK AND BOIIIIIIIIIIING

LOVE that dude. Amazing.

did he just spit actually? he physically can’t? at least traditionally?

steppy leggies!

one more time and then i’ll move on. just one more.

rewound too far i’m now back at “Ursus If You Don’t Let Go Of That Boy’s Wrist”

come on through that curtain Gwynlit i am Ready for You.

I’M THE STUUUUUUFFFFF OF YOUR NIGHTM

i want this played at my funeral and i want mr. maskell to be there to dance to it

so i guess in this version his limbs just short-circuit at different times huh because i mean genuinely for real his elbows just seem to nope out every now and then

this right here is what mr. hugo meant when he said, if not in as many words, that you were a ten.

ARRRMMMS UP! ANNNND BAAAAAAACK AND

B O U N C E

he has the x factor

love how he just shuffles back through the curtain like that one gif of the yellow dude being absorbed into the bushes

JOJO I LOVE YOUR DRESS WHAT

Dirry-Moir’s voice is nice even if it’s Very Different

fr jojo that’s actually kinda cute

Osric my dear i Love You

and now they’re all dirilious

dilirius

dilirious

dileros

d e l i r i o u s ?

that

Dea and Gwyn just dropped out of the sky

awww mojo came to check on him

Mojo’s nudging at Gwyn’s arm and Gwyn’s Not Having It

Ursus you’re banned from touching him i am Mad At You

Gwyn’s having another attack in this version it is constantly happening. has this boy sipped any sauce yet?

he just stood up and now he’s like

HE’S DOING HAND FLAPS HE’S GOT FLAPPY HANDS HE’S ACTUALLY. WHAT. FLAP FLAP FLAP I LIKE IT I AGreE WITH THIS

ooh he reacts a little bit to “all the other fairground freaks”

FIDDLING WITH THE BANDAGES

Ursus sounds Angery

 oh. gwynlit :( he’s cryin :( on “I don’t believe you” :(

😭💀😭💀

these two have PROBLEMS in this version and i am Hurt

he’s doing hand things again

VOCAL THINGS

this is canon now

DEA JUST HELPED HIM WITH THE CRIMSON LETHE

it looked like he was too jittery or something so she puts his hand over his and helps him bring the bottle of crimson lethe up to his mouth

im really just filling up a shopping cart over here

did quake just clock ursus over the head or did someone get shot boy golly that was loud

wait though with the little noise that Gwyn did a second ago, we hear it after the crowd starts doing it but in-universe did they hear him do that at some point and now they’re imitating it 👀 

THAT CRISMSON LETHE JUST KNOCKED HIM OUT HE JUST FLOPPED FORWARD AND DEA HAD TO CATCH HIM 📝👀

oh. “The Grinning Man Is Not To Be Disturbed” is because he’s straight up out of it after having the medicine. oh no

Mojo just growled as Gwyn stood up and i heard it wrong and thought there was like a cartoon sound effect like “LOOK HOW FAST HE JUST STOOD UP. WOOSH.” but no it was a growly bark

he held onto Dea’s hand and kind of hopped over to the door that was neat

i’m gonna start holding everything i read Like That

shjshgsj he just held it Like that and Stared before switching to holding it normally and actually opening it

random Itch

her outfit really is cute though i like this costume

“who I aaaaaaaaaam” stop the voice is too good sir

okay but that maneuver really is illegal y’all ought not to have done that

wait wait lemme go back and

i don’t know how i feel about that

one more time lemme check lemme just ch

*phil collins voice* oh lord

there is no reason

gwyn sweetheart you are not strong enough. she will kill you.

i now know what song this reminds me of now and i’m so upset

why do they have the outside of the cart looking like a happy meal box

GWYN WHAT WAS THAT

he just did the squawkiest laugh oml

HOLD UP

“you must see or you’ll never know” “YOU’RE RIGHT! Something is changing! She wants to meet me!” WHAT IS THIS CONVERSATION

HE SOUNDS HAPPY

SHE KNOWS HE’S GOING TO MEET SOMEBODY AND SHE ACTUALLY KISSES HIM LIKE “You must go!” WHAT

boy i know you did not just finger-gun goodbye at the blind girl

he’s walking in place now and i’m crying

she told him he must go now and he took it so literally he left while she was still talking

THE WALKING IN PLACE THOUGH. IT’S IN SLOW MOTION. I AM DISTRAUGHT

did you just wave at someone Gwyn

he’s so doped up

i think he thinks he’s about to get beat

okay in this version he doesn’t Let Osric grab his hand Osric just kind of grabs him and then Gwyn snatches his hand away and Osric’s like “i’ve got a funny feeling in my hand” meanwhile Gwyn puts his hand up and looks at it for a second and shakes down his sleeve and then he’s all hands-on-hips and looking at Osric like >:?

i think he just did the sound with them

and he’s having another attack.

he just fell back and they caught him and one person grabbed his hand and yanked him forward and now they’re picking him up

idk think he knows he’s alive in this version

AJSHFAJGAH THEY’RE DOING HIM LIKE THE PUPPETS IN THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST DANCE SEQUENCE THEY JUST TOSSED THAT BOY LIKE A FRESHLY-LAUNDERED BEDSHEET

he ain’t well sir

that’s all for now!

[ckret2]

whose ur favorite Hazbin character? Like your absolute #1 and why?

I’m torn between Alastor and Sir Pentious because like, whenever I settle on one, I immediately feel like I am unjustly downplaying the awesomeness of the other one.

But like, it’s Alastor.

But I’m gonna give my reasons for Sir Pent too. And this got really long, so for this ask, I’m just going to answer for Sir Pent, and then I’m gonna make a second post about Alastor.

Reasons I really like Sir Pentious:

- snake snake snake snake snake

- “Amoral arrogant ambitious genius megalomaniacal theatrical over-the-top super villain mad scientist inventor” is one of my favorite character tropes. Sir Pentious is on that list, and Zim, and Tarantulas, and Orochimaru, and Quackerjack, and arguably Izaya, and Mojo Jojo, and Emperor Zurg, and Mechanicles... 

- snake snake snake snake snake snake snake snake

- Mad scientists are usually someone’s henchman, or else they have small scientist mad scientist goals. It’s super nice whenever there are mad scientists that really go for it, go into business for themselves, and just shoot for global domination. (Infernal domination?)

- I’m always fascinated by characters that openly call themselves evil and revel in that descriptor, because, like, that’s almost impossible in the real world. “Evil” is a subjective term that people give to other people that means “I think that what they are/what they are doing is Completely And Utterly Bad, according to my moral compass.” The person who’s being called evil does what they do not because they’re choosing to be evil, but because THEIR moral compass declares that what they’re doing ISN’T evil—and in fact maybe they think, genuinely in their hearts, that their accusers are the evil ones.

"Evil” is not something that people put on themselves. Pretty much the only time someone would call themself evil would be if they’ve been, like, traumatized into hating themselves and thinking themself unforgivably awful in some way. Or else society keeps telling them they’re evil until they go “yeah, okay, I am, screw you.” That’s the only real world situations where someone would call themself evil.

So the fact that characters in fiction can just be like “I’m evil! Yaaay! :D” is, for me, an entertaining mental exercise to wrap my mind around. What’s their life like to cause them to be like that? What strange moral compass are they operating on, to self-label as evil happily/proudly rather than shamefully or spitefully? Coming up with headcanons for world views that result in “I am doing what I myself personally believe to be completely the wrong thing to do, and I’m okay with that and happy about it and proud,” is always a fun thought experiment for me.

- The fact that he calls himself evil proudly means that, like... in life he probably was never trying to be good, which means he probably was never trying to go to heaven, which means instead he was probably actively trying to go to hell, which means, like... he’s probably one of the only characters we see who ended up in the afterlife he wanted/planned to go to. Hell is his reward, it’s the proof that he’s been evil.

And that’s a wild and wildly entertaining thought to play with, that in this big big cast full of characters who ended up in The Really Sucky Afterlife who probably never wanted to be there and hate the fact that they’re there, he must be happy. He must be having a good time. Every day he must wake up in hell and be like “Yes. This is great. Exactly where I wanted to be.” In this realm of jaded, depressed, resigned souls, the dude who’s trying to take over the world must be this obnoxious ray of frigging sunshine.

When Charlie’s doing her Disney princess thing going “I love hell and I love the community and I love the people” and everyone’s like :/ somewhere out there Sir Pent is like “HELL YEAH, SO DO I, BEST NEIGHBORHOOD EVER.” This dude is in alignment with the Disney princess. Think about that. He must have this, like... weird-ass Evil Optimism about him, 

- Steampunk tech is a pretty cool aesthetic.

- The *gasp* “SON?!” I don’t care what anyone says about “that line was just a joke,” in my heart Sir Pentious DOES have a son and he MISSES his son and that’s potential for an angsty backstory right there.

- He’s like, set up to be such a dark horse character? Like he’s played as a joke to be brushed off, and he’s got an aesthetic that makes him LOOK like he must be out-of-touch/dated, but actually look at the tech he’s using and it’s lasers and touch screens, like even if the dude doesn’t know how to use memes he’s clearly a full-fledged super genius and he’s keeping up with modern technology. But all of that genius and dangerous potential is narratively buried under the fact that he’s oblivious to euphemisms and he happened to pick a fight with the most dangerous asshole in hell. Buried... and waiting to be dug up.

- snake snake snake snake snake snake snake snake snake snake snake snake

Okay so that’s Sir Pent. Alastor post up in a sec.