#(you know. were it “real life” and not a comic with the whole “we���re not gonna kill off someone that iconic!” thing)

[tjlnn22]

An Analyis of the Ending of "The Killing Joke"

This scene is one I've wanted to get my thoughts written out on for a while and one of the most interesting in all of DC comics from how important it is to understanding both the characters of Batman and the Joker.

So, this scene is the finale of the oneshot comic "The Killing Joke" By Alan Moore, and is directly preceeded by Batman once again foiling the Joker's evil plan, beating him both verbally and physically before then kicking him to the ground to seemingly knock him out.

For what then follows, I will post the full comic pages so you can absorb the scene first.

Ah, the infamous cutaway that leaves the ending so open to interpretation. But what exactly does all of this mean? Well, I'll give my interpretation:

The scene starts in the same way as many other fights between Batman and Joker have concluded. Joker gets defeated, Batman saves the day, the clown prince of crime will get chucked back into Arkham until he inevitably breaks out once again, and then they'll do the whole thing over. "You know, I think you and I are destined to do this forever", that's how their story always goes. However, this time things are different.

This time, Batman doesn't beat Joker senseless, even though cosnidering what Joker spent that evening doing to his friends and family, he would richly deserve a good beating by anyone's estimation. Joker expects that of Batman as well, and he accepts the beating and re-imprisonment that he's sure is coming his way, because that's how it's always been. And yet instead, this time Batman chooses to talk with him. He tells Joker the facts of the situation, that despite everything, he actually doesn't WANT to hurt him, and knows that if they keep going down their current path, one of them will eventually kill the other. Batman knows it, and he knows that Joker knows it too, and he doesn't want that to be the case, because above everything else Batman values preserving human life as a goal equal to and often greater than stopping crime. He doesn't want to kill Joker, it would go against everything he stands for, but he knows with every encounter they share that possibiltiy grows more and more likely.

In a similar fashion, the Joker doesn't actually want to kill Batman either. Despite how he may play the part of wanting otherwise, the entire story of the comic up until this point has been about Joker trying to prove a point to Batman. That deep down, everyone can become him, that all it takes is one bad day to turn even the most moral man alive into the Joker. whether this is because Joker genuinely believes this, or it is meant to simply justify and excuse who he himself became from his own tragedy, is never really confirmed, though it is most likely a bit of both.

Either way, we see that Joker is not happy at all by Batman attempting to talk to him instead of beating him. In fact, he's practically sulking. Now, is this due to the fact that his big plan just failed, sure, at least partly. However, there is something else going on as well. All of Joker's plans fail sooner or later, this is no exception. It's something he expects despite coming up with a new one every week. This time though, he genuinely looks depressed, and this is in part due to Batman breaking the magic of their routine. By speaking to him like anyone else, by reaching out to Joker, Batman is attempting to fundamentally change their relationship forever. Batman wants it to end, he doesn't want to keep fighting Joker until it kills one of them, he wants Joker to stop. But Joker doesn't want to stop, he doesn't want Batman to die or stop chasing him because the relationship he has with Batman is all he has left. He has no real friends, no goals outside of plans to mess with Batman more, he has nothing outside of his role as Batman's arch enemy, and he knows it.

And yet, despite all that, when Batman genuinely reaches out to him, appeals to the fact that their lives were both heavily affected by past tragedies and offers Joker help to try and move past that, to be better, even after all the atrocities he's committed, despite all that... Joker actually seems to consider his offer. We can see this by his hesitation, and the fact that he doesn't just laugh it off right away or make fun of Batman as he would any other time.

This time, Joker seems to consider the offer, and turns dead serious in a moment that is probably the most normal display of genuine human emotion we get from him, and he tells Batman that he's sorry. Joker genuinely apologizes for not being able to take Batman up on his offer, looking like he's about to cry as he declares that it's far too late for him to take any offer Batman could give him.

The question is, why? Why is this time so different, why does Joker seem to actually consider Batman's offer and reject it in such a human manner? Well, I truly believe the answer is clearly seen in the joke that the conversation with Batman reminds him of. I will go through it line by line and give my interpretation.

"See, there were these two guys locked in a lunatic asylum" I think this obviously is referring to Batman and Joker. They are the characters of this joke/story, the conversation between them reminded Joker of this joke (or he just came up with it on the spot to suit their situation, but regardless) and they are also the only two characters in the panel where that line is said. In this case, the 'asylum' in question would be their rivalry, their roles as Batman and Joker and everything that comes along with that. Makes sense, none of the things either of them do in those roles are things that normal, sane people do, and both of them were traumatized in their lives by horrible events and spiraled into becoming the Batman and Joker because of it.

"And one night, one night they decide they don't like living in an asylum anymore, they decide they're going to escape." This is a clear metaphor for ending their roles as Batman and Joker, perhaps just for that particular rivalry or all together. Escaping the asylum means returning to the normal, happy lives they had before their trauma. Batman has already stated he wants to end his fighting with Joker, however the fact that both men in the story wish to leave the asylum together implies that Joker also secretly wants that too, which is very interesting as we go on.

"So like, they get up onto the roof, and there, just across this narrow gap, they see the rooftops of the town, stretching away in the moonlight, stretching to freedom." Given that Joker is looking at the moon shining over Gotham as he says this, I think it's clear that the 'freedom' here is living a normal human life the same way all the civilians of Gotham try to every day. It's about having a chance to be better, to do better and make something of your life everyday beyond the endless cycle that he and Batman are trapped in with each other. As long as that cycle exists, they can never truly be free, even though the Joker can break out of Arkham whenever he wants and do practically whatever he wants until Batman stops him. Their rivalry prevents either of them from ever being free.

"Now the first guy, he jumps right across with no problem. But his friend, his friend daredn't make the leap. Y'see, y'see he's afraid of falling." This is where we see Joker differentiate himself and Batman in the story, and how their situations in life currently exist. Batman is the first guy who is able to escape the asylum and return to the city fairly easily, whenever he desires. This is because that, unlike Joker, Batman has his life as Bruce Wayne to live and fall back onto. He has many friends and a large family both adopted and biological who rely on him and give him something good and happy to live for. He can leave the asylum because he sees the light on the other side, he has hope and knowledge that things will turn out alright if he does. But Joker does not. Joker doesn't have another life to live, no family and no friends to fall back on and lift him up. All his life consists of is the asylum and Batman, the other man right along with him. He knows nothing else, and so it seems impossible for him to ever jump across to the other side and join Batman in freedom.

However, it goes beyond that. Joker isn't scared to leave the asylum because it's all he knows, in fact he's just as eager to leave it with Batman. What he is afraid of though, is FALLING as he jumps across. What does falling mean in this case? Well since escaping the asylum would mean ditching the roles of Batman and Joker and returning to a normal life, falling would be failing to do just that, failing so hard that it sends him plummeting right back down, either to death or to being left alone and away from the safety of the asylum and more importantly the companionship of Batman. if he falls but Batman doesn't, he'll be left lost and alone, pointless and forgotten, and that's what Joker fears by leaving the asylum.

"So then the first guy has an idea. He says 'Hey! I have my flashlight with me! I'll shine it across the gap between the buildings. You can walk across the beam and join me!" This part of the metaphor I believe is meant to represent Batman's offer of help to the Joker, the therapy/rehabilitation that's intended to help him get better. In this case though, the help is being represented by something that has little actual effect. You can't walk across a beam of light to cross over to another building, in the joke it's only meant to stop the second guy's fear of falling. It isn't actually a real bridge to freedom, just an illusion of one that Joker thinks Batman is giving him.

However, than we get to the punchline.

"B-but the second guy shakes his head. He suh-says, he says, 'wh-what do you think I am? Crazy? You'd turn it off when I was halfway across!"

And here we get the real reason why Joker can't take Batman's offer, why he can't join him in freedom outside of the asylum. It isn't because he doesn't think the help Batman is offering him would work. The beam of light not being a real bridge to walk across isn't the problem in his eyes. The problem, is that believes that if he tried to walk across it, Batman would shut it off and let him fall. Because what Joker is truly scared of, isn't that the help Batman's offering him wouldn't work, he's scared that the help might actually have a chance at working, that he may have a way to get out of the asylum for good, but that Batman will give up on him before he reaches the other side.

He's afraid that the only person in the world who genuinely cares about him and wants to help him, will end up giving up on him and forgetting him if he tries to get better. We can see that in the way Joker delivers the punchline, turned around to stare directly into Batman's face with a disturbed, crushing smile of realization on his face while the symbol of freedom that is Gotham, bathed in the light of the moon sits directly behind him, just out of reach. He's accusing/telling Batman of why he's afraid, that he could never trust him enough to actually try and rehabilitate him, and he's laughing because he knows there's no way out of this.

And Batman, once the joke finally hits him, realizes the exact same thing. He knows then that Joker will never actually be able to be helped, there is nothing he can do for him because Joker will never trust him enough to let himself be helped. There is no way out of this for them now that Batman's final appeal to peace has been turned down by a man to broken to realize it was his way to a better life, a free life.

And so, knowing now how their story will end, Batman does the one thing that Joker always wanted from him, and breaks his role as Batman for just a moment. He shares in a final laugh with Joker as he puts his hands on his shoulders, up by Joker's neck, and the two laugh and laugh together until the scene cuts away and their laughter cuts off equally as quick.

Now, did Batman kill Joker here? The single question everyone tends to ask when they read this scene. Now, canonically we know that, no, Batman does not kill him, Joker returns again and again after this, but in this case I do fully believe that the creator of this comic, Alan Moore (the same man who wrote Watchmen), did likely intend for that to be the ending. The fact that the scene opens with Batman acknowledging that their relationship will end in death, and that the only way out of that is for Joker to accept his proposal I think seals the intent of the ending pretty well. Joker Can't accept his proposal, because the trust between them that would be necessary for that is something that could never truly be built up as they exist in their roles as Batman and Joker. They both know this, and so Batman ends their relationship and breaks his one rule by freeing Joker the only way left it is possible to free him, in death.

So, as much as I personally think that having Batman kill at all is a fundamental no no that you just can't do with his character because it goes against everything he stands for, I think this as an intended ending by Alan Moore to the relationship of Batman and Joker works very well. It is one of many endings in across many comics. Is it my favourite? No, though I would put it in my top three. however, I do think that this is the meaning that Moore was trying to convey in this scene, and I truly believe he does a beautiful job at conveying it!

[rei-ismyname]

X-MEN #7 From The Ashes

Possibly the biggest downside to the circular, repetitive nature of X-Men comics is that real life is awful enough. Jettisoning the hope of the Krakoan age for the misery porn of From The Ashes feels kinda callous and depressing in a world where there are multiple ongoing genocides and the USA just said yes to fascism again. Nevertheless, join me in some light escapism - a little Magneto goes a long way. Spoilers for X-Men #7.

I've also been spelling Jed Mackay's name wrong. Sorry

Running throughout this issue is Magneto's flashback to The Iron Night. The 'this is Logan behaviour' exchange from the previews has been all over my dash and it's great to get more of this dynamic. It's fantastic to see someone in universe say it out loud - Logan is a whiny little bitch, often a hypocrite, and can be blind to his immortality privilege. Scott knows that better than anyone - his wife's boyfriend throws a tanty like no other. They love him, but it's another reason why he's not the best Wolverine. I hope 'Logan behaviour' sticks around in the fandom.

This is Logan behaviour, Idie

I appreciate the informal nature of the Piper discussion. For one, you don't want to scare the kid or make her feel unwelcome. Idie said that she 'couldn't wait for you (Cyclops) and Magneto' re: Idie - having Psylocke be the one to spell it out for her is effective. The X-Men IS a team and the stakes are incredibly high. Besides, as Beast said in my first screenshot they have a Cerebro. This test could have been done from afar without the risk, and it's implied that it was.

I'm enjoying seeing Idie behaving compassionately, but it looks like she's got some serious anger and mistrust of authority (both justified) from Krakoa. It's great she's getting this kind of character focus and I hope it's followed up on. So many threads and beats have been setup that are likely to be disrupted by the Raid on Graymalkin event kicking off next week, but I'll reserve my judgement on that for when this first arc is concluded.

This is Logan behaviour, wild sentinel.

Gotta love Max and Scott's friendship being shown as they drink crappy beers and bask in Magneto rhetoric. I don't want to question the expert, but is this sentinel Wild or wild? It's clearly not an ORCHIS Iron Man model, but Wild Sentinel has a very specific meaning.

Okay, clearly Wild. It's not attacking either of them, though. Kind of Cyclops to spell out the Star Trek Borg adaptive schtick they've got going on. This is the action scene of the issue, the mandated violence.

'Why is that leopard eating our faces?'

I don't mean that entirely pejoratively either. I'm just as susceptible to the Magneto and Cyclops power fantasy as the next person, though it's a bit of a dirty trick to wait until issue 7 to show it.

This is NOT Logan behaviour, Magneto.

Sigh. I love your sense of drama Magneto. Play to the crowd, old man. I hope your monologue doesn't become ironic. Oh wait, we already know it has. This could have been a clever moment.

Uh oh, looks like his knees are weak and arms are heavy. Vomit on his sweater already...

So we see the moment Mags' powers start to shit the bed, right after a Wild Sentinel attack. I'd be suspecting Cassandra Nova's involvement just off these two data points tbh. Which idiot resurrected her anyway?

Oh, fuck off. Logan behaviour, Mackay.

R-LDS sounds like horse shit to me. Scott says 'we don't know that for sure' so how does this speculative condition have an acronym already? Mags is speaking as if it's a fact, but he doesn't even have the same body The Five resurrected. Maybe he has Umari-Key-Waiting Room-Brashear Portal Syndrome. Obviously he's scared but this feels like an idiot ball moment, and a cynical jab at Krakoa. The Five was something they got right, even with Sinister in the mix. The implications would be insane. 16 million Genoshans were resurrected, 250k Krakoans (give or take), a whole bunch of vulnerable human children via The Phoenix Foundation, Captain America, and 1000 fucking years of Sinisterized clones etc that had nothing of the sort.

No, there's way too many data points that apply to Magneto alone to make seriously considering The Five's resurrections as the source of patient zero's malady. It would be scientifically irresponsible to get to the point of naming it and then an acronym for that. Mags is good enough at science to know this, and Beast is too. I'm no scientist, but it manifested during a fight with a Wild Sentinel. I assume they have better resources than the Marvel wiki I'm using, but that robot/Cassandra Nova is my prime suspect - the lady they know for certain to be involved in ongoing genetic fuckery - activating X-Genes. Though not Piper Cobb...

Or yes Piper Cobb? Smash cut cliffhangers aside, this would be a great time to retcon Homo Sapiens Superior right the fuck out of existence. It's never made sense, and not just the 'Superior' part. Again, I'm not a scientist but I'm certain that's not how phylogeny works. They're mutated humans, but I don't live in 616 which canonically operates on impossible physics, so idk. My fingers are crossed but my expectations are nil.

That is Logan behaviour, masked kidnapper

Okay, we'd known from solicits that Beast would be getting beat down in captivity at Graymalkin. I had speculated he'd give himself up to get inside, but the ol' bag over the head works too. I dig his outfit.

X-Men #7 is worth reading IMO, and it's one of the better ones based off Magneto content alone. Last issue I wrote that the formula was becoming easier to spot, and I stand by that. A handful of character moments, some new information about one of the ongoing mysteries but it piles more questions on top of half answers and speculation. For example, we get to see Scott and Max fight a sentinel and be friends. There's new information there but a LOT more questions. The characters are at the point of absurd speculation which raises tension but doesn't make them look very competent. To kick off the event 'Raid on Graymalkin' they went with a final page bag over the head instead of any choice and comic book events notoriously derail everything so friends can argue and punch each other.

All that said, it's only *just* acceptable in my opinion - and that's the best I can say for the rest of the line too. We know that there's been ongoing issues with writers simply not knowing major Krakoan plot points, though they probably have the excuse that they were writing before FOTHOX/ROTPOX ended. Surely there's someone in charge of overseeing all this, like Hickman was as Head of X. *Looks at the credits* Tom Brevoort - Conductor of X... That's a fancy way to say 'line editor/hatchet man.' I'll stop there and save it for the From The Ashes piece I'm doing, but spoilers: I'm not impressed with how this guy keeps failing upwards.

What did you think? Thanks for reading.

[ichiwashername-o]

Sorry to bug you, but I had a question: as someone who's full extent of knowledge re: Oz and Wicked is "I have seen the 1939 Wizard of Oz movie, and I've been told both that the books are super crazy and Dorothy's actually gay as hell, and also been told Wicked is the secret sad gay backstory of Glinda and Elphaba." I'm surprised to learn a) that Scarecrow was a real guy, b) he and Tin Man knew each other pre-Oz movie's story, and c) he apparently dated Elphaba, so my question is: is he a "her boyfriend until it turns out she was gay and the romance was doomed" boyfriend, or was I lied to about the nature of the story of Wicked being a sad lesbian backstory?

Oh boy, a lot to unpack here so let's see if we can break this down XD

Without getting into spoilers, it's important to know the book Wicked is a very, very different thing from the musical Wicked. I admittedly had never read any of the original Wizard of Oz books beyond the first one so I don't know anything about the whole "Dorothy is gay" thing but apparently that's true? I'll leave it to others who've actually read the series to verify on that.

My comics are solely focused on the musical adaptation of Wicked and such major plot points and characters are very different from the book, and if you'd like a break down, I'll post it under the spoiler below. Although I would recommend either waiting in eager anticipation for the movie to come out this November or find a Wicked bootleg slime tutorial on Youtube if you'd like to see the theater adaptation yourself. I highly recommend doing so.

Ok, so to break it down: Yes, both the Scarecrow and the Tin Man were actual people before they become the iconic figures we know and love (at least as far as the musical is concerned) And yes, Wicked is gay as hell, and though the musical isn't nearly as gay as the book, the relationship between Glinda and Elphaba that can absolutely be read as gay.

The Scarecrow, whose name is Fiyero, was a prince who initially dated Glinda but then things happen and he falls for Elphaba instead. He breaks off his engagement to Glinda to run off with Elphaba. The two have a steamy sexy duet together but tragically the relationship is bitterly short; the Wizard's guards take Fiyero prisoner and try to torture him for information on where Elphaba is hiding. In a desperate gambit to save his life, Elphaba casts a spell on him, which turns him into a scarecrow.

Also Fiyero and the Tin Man (who in the musical is Boq) went to university together so they sort of know each other. In fact, all four of them went to school together, which is where the majority of Act 1 of the musical takes place.

The book is very, very different: Tin Man (Nick Chopper) keeps his original backstory of getting his limbs chopped off by an enchanted axe and Fiyero dies (I can't remember exactly how but probably somewhere along the lines of "Wizard's guards capture him and beat him to death"). Obviously the musical changed these things to tie all the characters together and give it a bit of a happier ending.

I do not blame you if you are now more confused than before.

[kimberlyannharts]

So I may have been slightly hyped for this book the past few months

For the three of you who haven't heard about this, MMPR: The Return is a story set in the future of an alternate universe of the MMPRs; one where Jason, Zack, and Trini didn't give up their powers upon the eve of the Peace Conference, and thus the team stayed together even after high school. But fast forward twenty-two years later, and the team has broken up due to some sort of tragedy - we know from the Re-Imagine prologue in the 30 Year Anniversary book, Zordon and Alpha were destroyed by Zedd and Rita. But other stuff seems to have happened too. What is that stuff? I guess we're about to find out!

Oh, and I should mention this was written by the original Pink Ranger herself, Amy Jo Johnson. (and her partner, Matt Hotson.) That might be important to know.

It's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Return #1!

= Three pages in and Jason's already getting his ass kicked. You're forty-five years old, man, you should be at the club

= I know this was debated a bit when the book was announced - how it would line up with Thuy and JDF's passings, especially after coming off the heels of Once and Always, where the focal point was Trini's daughter taking up her powers after Trini's death. (For what it's worth, this book was first conceived pre-pandemic, long before OaA. Making comics takes a long time.) And while Tommy is still a bit up in the air (despite what we'll see in a few pages) Trini does seem to have definitively passed due to illness.

While I definitely get the frustration of Thuy's passing essentially sealing Trini's fate - especially in a comic book, where you don't have to worry about actor restrictions - I'm a little more generous towards it here because Amy and Thuy were close friends and she actually dealt with her death personally compared to how the OaA writers, well......didn't. And this issue is clearly paralleling Kimberly's motivations and feelings to Amy's real-life ones, so this just feels like another part of that.

(Also to contrast OaA's handling of Trini - a) her passing here isn't caused by a graphic onscreen explosion, proving the whole "well they HAD to show it onscreen for more impact!!!" was bullshit b) her friends AND THE WIDER COMMUNITY are actually grieving and talking about her impact on everyone as well as using the non-actor-restriction to SHOW it and c) The book actually gives her a JOB. TWO jobs!!!!!!! Yeah OaA why the fuck did you send ZACK to Congress WHEN IT CLEARLY SHOULD HAVE BEEN TRINI

also I like her middle-aged design. prettyyyyyy)

= onto lighter topics HEYYYY IT'S THESE GUYS!! Bulk and Skull are married and you just can't see the ring through Bulk's gloves, it's real and true

= speaking of which this whole flashback is adorable and nostalgic but I want to point out some background details

= Ernie is just trying to run a fucking business here

= go white boy go

= ZACK/KIM HAS FINALLY COME BACK TO ME MY FUCKING BELOVEDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! God, when WAS the last time they actually talked one-on-one in the main series

= FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

= so along with some other stuff I'm definitely taking this as foreshadowing that Trini wasn't cut off from Kim like the boys were. That's the power of WOMEN (and also if we get Aunt Trini flashbacks with Olivia I'll fucking CRYYYYYY)

= Absolutely obsessed with Billy's face here

= D:

= So besides the Trini stuff I want to the keep the Once and Always comparisons to a minimum but it's very funny how both storylines involve Billy using a company as a front for his embezzlement schemes. At least his telecom company PROBABLY isn't war profiteering

= also Alpha's rose <3

= so anyway Jason's gone rogue and was pretending he's the main character until he suddenly went missing, as shown in the first few pages. And Billy and Zack want to become Rangers again to try and find him.

= but the thing is guys, Kim has won the idgaf war. She's depressed, she's traumatized, she spent twenty-two years raising a child with Tommy's genes all by herself, she's tired. She does NOT want to be wrapped up in Jason's midlife crisis drama

= Zack getting so mad and wanting to risk it all for Jason hell yeah those are my Jason/Zack crumbs

= Mysterious shadowy figure watching the old people drama from a distance, you are just like me fr

= OLIVIA THAT'S FUCKING OLIVIAAAAAAAAAAAA and she already sounds so CUTE. If you go back to the diner scene you can see the phone constantly buzzing until Kim finally puts it away. She's like mom. mom. mom. MOM

= also just because the tragic Tomberly family storyline already makes me want to kms do you think that ring is kind of small and plain because Tommy and Kim were so young when they got married and it's all Tommy could afford. And Kim still wears it to this day. I want to die

= It's already been confirmed that Selena is indeed referring to Sylvia here, so I won't talk about that. What I DO want to talk about is Kim's casual momwear. Those sweatpants!!!!!!!!!!

= It would be really funny if Kim just. immediately slammed the door shut

[reallyhardy]

Loren, have you started watching Scott Pilgrim Takes Off!? I'm on episode 5 rn, interested in your thoughts if you have started watching

YES hello!

i thought it was brilliant! i loved the subversion of expectation (i mean i WOULD deffo have been happy to sit there any just watch The Story I Know yet again, but it was SO exciting when i realised they were doing something different.) i love love LOVED the animation, all the action sequences looked so fantastic, and... i loved the addition of the sparks ✨ i thought it was SO so cute. SPOILERSSSS below:

i thought will forte playing older/even older scott was a fantastic choice (channelling phil tandy miller from the last man on earth for sure)

i also adored the scene with kim and knives bonding through music, and all of knives becoming part of the band... the whole thing with todd and wallace was absolutely nuts...

i thought it was nice expanding on all the exes stories and having ramona go in and make up with (most of) them. the story with roxie was particularly good and had me tearing up! and i was absolutely sobbing by the end of the series haha although i think a lot of it had to do with the nostalgic angle for me and how much i'd loved the movie as a teen hahaha and then having the story come back for a third time in my life in a way that felt kinder and more redemptive was really something.

at first i was sad they didn't get into things like steven being gay but then i realised... ofc with it ending in a similar place 'let's try this' but also really it actually ended chronologically not long after the original story starts... it had me realise oh actually there's still so much possiblity for these characters and their lives. they could still have a lot of those adventures and discoveries that happen in the later comics even if we don't see them, it ends on the hopeful note that lets you know they're all going to try, even in the face of knowing that it Could All Go Wrong as shown by older scott & ramona's story, that there is always hope and they may as well give it a shot. BUT i also thought that part with Ultimate Ramona saying "i'm probably going to struggle with this later, so let me tell you this now, i love you" IDKKK i know to that-timeline scott that's early af but to ultimate ramona it's a real present thing since she's got all of that knowledge and history inside her. ANYWAY MADE ME EMOTIONAL also loved the visual reference to the kiss from the end of ponyo :')

.............ramona RE-BLEACHING and dyeing her hair THAT much was absolutely insane though 🤣 i've seen ppl say 'WITH A DEVELOPER BASE!?' too although I PERSONALLY believe she was maybe. mixing with conditioner. that's the only thing i could think of that would make it even remotely acceptable to bleach it that much (but also its a cartoon so ofc not realistic haha)

also i THOROUGHLY enjoyed the nicholas angel & danny butterman cameos 🤣 i was like wait why are these two security guards english.....? oh wait. oh okay. i see.

[nickmaghighlights]

Nick Mag Highlights - Nick Mag Presents: Danny Phantom (Fall 2005)

Well, well, well, fancy meeting you here. Welcome back to my blog and the words that inhabit it. Today, Halloween comes early this year when we read through another exciting issue of Nickelodeon Magazine Presents, this time all about Danny Phantom. Boo! Trick-or-Treat! Deck the halls!

And not only is this edition of Nick Mag Highlights spooky, it’s also… pretty chill. Y’know? Just takin’ it easy, reading a handful of comics and probably a crossword puzzle or something. As much as I love researching the kind of stuff Nickelodeon Magazine includes in its articles, sometimes it’s nice to sit back and take things at face value and just see what the state of Nickelodeon was like at any given time, and these short-and-sweet issues of Nick Mag Presents are the perfect venue for just that.

But why exactly am I tackling this purportedly Halloween-themed issue in August? Well, mainly it’s because that new Danny Phantom graphic novel just came out… two weeks ago (oops). And I really enjoyed it! So I’ve since been in a big Danny Phantom mood lately. I even ended up re-watching the whole first season and had a blast doing so. This show was a real obsession of mine as a kid, so maybe this blog post is also a way for me to give it its dues.

This issue can be found online here, read along… if you dare!

Another Nick Mag Presents, another humorously wordy introduction. If you’re unfamiliar, basically all these Presents-styled issues have a panel on the first page with a character essentially advertising the book to you and talking about all the comics and activities included inside. This one here features Danny and an understandably perturbed ghost, for example. 

Since these issues were usually sold in stores as opposed to through a mail subscription, I suppose this is the issue’s way of hooking you in and explaining to you why you should buy it. I think a kid would probably be more inclined to just flip through the book and arrive at the same conclusion, but I guess this approach doesn’t hurt anybody.

But anyway, let’s see here… aw, only two wholly new comics? The Fairly Oddparents-themed issue I took a look at previously had five original comics. That’s a bummer, but at least we’ve still got variety… SpongeBob, My Life as a Teenage Robot, and The Wild Thornberrys, oh my! Even Tak makes an appearance here, two years before the premiere of his actual Nickelodeon cartoon, meaning this was an attempt to interest readers in the then-recently released video game: Tak 3: The Great Juju Challenge. Not sure if that worked.

And if you’ll take a look at that yellow, spiky bubble with words on the right there, this September 2005 issue is meant to coincide with the then-upcoming two episode-long Danny Phantom special, “The Ultimate Enemy”, which featured Danny taking on a more powerful version of himself from the future. Seems like the included removable poster is even themed around that very episode! Let’s just hope that poster is still left intact, eh?

So first up, we’ve got a page to get you up to speed on the main cast if you’re new to the show. It’s even got some new factoids for the already familiar superfans! For example: Did you know Sam is into anime? I sure didn’t.

Oh, and if you’re wondering where series villain Vlad Masters is, don’t worry, they go over him later on in the book.

On the right you’ll find an easy if not slightly amusing word puzzle, which tasks you with solving questions where each answer contains the word boo. Simple enough for a kid while still being worth the time, methinks.

Although all the stock ghost art on the page gets me wondering, how come most of the ghosts in the show manifest as typical-looking cartoon ghosts while others manifest in a human form? I guess maybe it comes down to the strength of your spirit. Who’s to say?

You’ve met the characters, now it’s time to meet the voices behind them! I’ll always take a side of interviews with my Nickelodeon Magazine, and this is no exception. The questions are cute, and I had fun reading them. Not much to say.

So we’re finally here at the first comic of the issue, and… not really a fan of this one! Yeah, sorry to start this retrospective off on a sour note but this isn’t really doing it for me. The main villain of this one is Youngblood, who already isn’t exactly one of my favorite villains from the series. But here they’ve got him and all the other characters stuck in a pretty by-the-numbers plot where Danny and co. get stuck babysitting the brat while he tries to maim them, with them of course unable to fight back lest they face the wrath of his parents (who are humongous lizard monsters, for some reason). 

If you’re even a little familiar with cartoons you’ve probably already seen quite a few takes on this formula already. And even if you like Youngblood as a character they don’t have him doing his usual pirate shtick he’s remembered for, so I’m not sure what anyone is getting out of this, really. What's especially not helping is that this goes on for ten pages, further dragging out an already tired concept. 

So there you have it, I guess. Done-to-death story with accordingly done-to-death jokes, a lame villain, and about two pages of action. I will say though, Danny and Tucker’s babysitting poster on page 2 did get a smile out of me, at least.

You’ve met the characters, and you’ve also met the voices behind them, now it’s time to meet… the rest of the characters! The villain ones! These guys really made the show for me, cause the team behind the show really just seemed to understand the assignment and made all of them really unique and memorable.

So we can see they’ve been ranked in terms of how dangerous they all are, which is a fun idea. ‘Course you’ve got Vlad at the top of, but then there’s Technus just behind him? I can’t say I remember him being notably more dangerous than any of the other baddies, I’m fairly certain he gets swept up at the end of his specific episode just like all the rest. I’m pretty sure Valerie gave Danny a bigger run for his money, and she’s down at #3.

Woah now, I’m starting to scrutinize the power levels of cartoon characters. Cartoon characters from a show I haven’t even fully watched all the way through since I was a kid, no less. Better put a stop to that before it gets ugly.

Cool little cartoons on the left there, that one on the top right is properly devious and I’m all for it. All the art is quite lovely too.

The right is… well, it’s Mad Libs, there’s no other way around it. Y’know the Mad Libs website refers to itself as “the world’s greatest word game” but I seriously think they need to take that up with Scrabble, or hell, even Hangman. Yeah I was never a big fan of this kind of fill-in-the-blanks stuff, but I guess it’s a pretty inoffensive activity to include.

Check out Danny’s dad rocking that emo hair.

And now we’ve made it to the second and last new comic for the issue, and unfortunately it’s only a two-pager. But hey, if my thoughts on the previous ten-page comic said anything, it was that I prefer quality over quantity. And this one is… okay. It’s funny enough, does what all it needs to with the concept, and it definitely doesn’t overstay its welcome. I’m again surprised by the lack of action in both of these comics, considering Danny Phantom is an action show, after all, but it’s not like the show wasn’t a comedy either, so it’s not that weird.

I guess while we’re here I could nitpick it a bit. The lineart here courtesy of series creator Butch Hartman* is a bit wonky at times. There’s the aforementioned emo hair Danny’s dad is wearing, but my main gripe is that dog robot just doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the artstyle. It being the only new original character design for this comic as well doesn’t seem like a coincidence to me. I guess the team was fine with whatever Hartman drew because he made the show after all, so surely he knows what he’s doing, right?*

*Insert obligatory comment about how much of a loser Butch Hartman is here.

Just want to give a shoutout to this pretty creative puzzle here. It actually stumped me a little when I first read it! Those monster designs are pretty entertaining too. Solid activity overall.

Next up it’s an installment of Sam Shade, which was a short-lived recurring series in Nickelodeon Magazine. Apparently the series ran from 2002 to 2005, so this may be one of the last times a Sam Shade comic was ever printed in a Nick Magazine. 

These comics mainly consist of the titular Detective Sam Shade trying to solve some mystery, sleuthing around the area in a series of detailed, wordy scenes. Likewise, you as the reader are as well tasked with scouring the pages for clues to help deduce the culprit. Each panel here smoothly moves into the next, making for something like a Where’s Waldo puzzle but with an actual narrative. It’s a really good idea! A shame this series didn’t last longer.

Hey, is that Carl from Jimmy Neutron on the bottom right there?

Pretty nice My Life as a Teenage Robot comic here. Although that’s kind of unfortunate in a way, since that means I haven’t got much to talk about! It’s pretty much a 1-to-1 translation from animation to comic here. The artstyle and writing are both on point, it’s all just in a shorter, more paper-y format.

I wonder why the aliens’ speech bubble has flowers in it. Is that a theater reference, maybe?

The design of these fiery aliens are particularly awesome - simple but effective. I’m surprised they used such a cool design in a comic that was going to be seen by way less people as opposed to using it in the cartoon. Man, this show is so cool, even its supplementary media is stylish!

But anyway, do you want to know how this story ends? Read it yourself!

Ohh man, I distinctly remember this comic. I don’t remember what issue of Nickelodeon Magazine this one is sourced from, but whichever one it was, I had it. The story’s nothing to write home about really, It's another take on the age old tale of “Squidward yells at SpongeBob and Patrick for doing something annoying, so they inadvertently ruin his life”. Squidward must have a really good lawyer for him to be able to bounce back from all the crap SpongeBob and Pat get him into.

This version of the usual story has S. Bob and P. Rick making a cake in Squidward’s image. Mr. Krabs ends up mistaking it for the real Squidward, bringing it to the Krusty Krab, and having it run the cash register, obviously to disastrous results. It’s all pretty par for the course, and there’s some funny lines to be had.

Weirdly though, unless I’m blind, I can’t seem to find any credits for this one. Not in the comic itself or at the back of the book. I’m pretty sure the artist(s) behind this one did more SpongeBob SquarePants comics though, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the same writing team had a hand in them too. I distinctly remember one where all the characters turn into desserts. Or maybe it was an alternate universe where they’re all desserts? Something like that. Maybe I’ll find it and cover it on this blog someday!

And up next, it’s a Wild Thornberrys comic of all things (said with feigned surprise, having read the table of contents moments ago). And I’m just now realizing none of these comics have anything to do with ghosts, or horror, really. Quite the magazine you’ve got just in time for October, Nickelodeon!

But hey, it’s not right to judge a piece of art specifically by the context in which it is presented. Especially when it was originally published in a magazine that likely came out years earlier, probably not even around the month of October. Desperate times call for desperate measures and all that, even when it comes to filling the pages of a magazine.

This comic is especially cool, anyway, as you can no doubt tell from its distinct shakeup in style!

The story has Eliza receiving some gifts from her Japanese friend, Mayumi (who was probably in the show, presumably), one of those gifts being a homemade manga. And while I��m not exactly an expert on the Japanese arts, I certainly find this art convincing and really appreciate the attention to detail. I bet any kids that were fans of manga around this time must have felt pretty seen to have one of their hobbies referenced in a rather unlikely place, and with such attention to detail no less.

One thing I can also appreciate is that this story really isn’t something they could have pulled off in the show itself (unless they studio really wanted to have an anime-themed episode and go through the undertaking of doing an episode in an entirely different, foreign animation style all on their usual budget), so overall this is a really fun idea done quite flawlessly. My only gripe is we don’t get to see a manga-styled Nigel Thornberry, but what can you do?

Oh boy, the Tak comic, cool. Now, I know these games have their fans, but I can’t say I’m one of them. I did watch the show a bit though, but I’ve heard it has nothing to do with the games, so I guess that makes me rather unprepared to tackle this two-page comic on an intellectual, researched level. I will say though that I think the Sam Shade comic from earlier pulled off this style of free-flowing, no-panel storytelling to a much greater effect. The amount of Taks they threw around the page makes it feel really busy and cramped, and they had to essentially remove the second character Tak is traveling with from the story since I guess they were strapped for page space.

But yeah, the colors are nice at least, and Tak media is especially hard to come by nowadays, so I suppose if I were more into the property, I might be more into this.

Last comic of the day, and it’s Jimmy Neutron. At least this one kinda fits the theme, I mean, aliens are almost in the same horror-league as vampires, zombies, ghosts, and all that. This is a pretty quality one to end off the book with, and in regards to Jimmy Neutron, this is one of the better ways these characters have been translated to 2D. Although the incredibly warm colors and harsh shadows throw me for a loop. Pretty good overall!

Before we wrap things up, I would like to mention that advert for The Nicktoons Film Festival on the right. I totally forgot these used to be a thing! From 2004 to 2009 Nickelodeon hosted a film festival and let viewers vote for their favorite animated short, along with letting proper animation people who know what they’re talking about vote on their favorites, too. Lots of great up-and-coming cartoonists took part in these festivals. This one in 2005 actually featured a short by J. G. Quintel that eventually was used as a basis for his own Cartoon Network show, Regular Show! You can check the short out below:

Neat bit of history there, yeah?

Even though I’m still a bit disappointed this issue didn’t include more original content, I still think this ended up being a fairly entertaining walk down memory lane. And hey, I hope you had a good time too. I’m doubly disappointed, however, that the archive of this issue didn’t come with that tear-out poster! Now we’ll never see it in its full hi-def glory.

As always, thanks for stopping by and checking out another bit of Nick history with me. Have yourself a good one, and I’ll see you all next time!

[teddybearsandspaceships]

Several months ago the Hotguy Comic Zinethology was released and I loved it a lot. So much that I was inspired to write fic for it. The first time I read it all at once, but the second time, partially in preparation for that writing, I took slightly more detailed notes. But I didn´t post them because there were some things I still wanted to think about and then add later, especially in the third part, and then I got busy and distracted and forgot. Ahem. Anyway, I found them while clearing out my drafts so I might as well post them, even though they´re not totally thought through or complete. In conclusion, go read HGCZ if you haven´t yet.

It starts with the fantastic cover. The view over the city at night, fantastic. And Scar looking right at the reader with that grin, perfect.

And the first story is Scar vs Joel-and-Lizzie aka Gal-and-Guy (totally not Jesse-and-James) with cat ears and a whole dramatic cat underground backstory, with Hotguy presenting the story, I absolutely love the fourth wall breaking narrative here. Who knows what's even real of what's told here – having that as the intro to the whole thing is both cool and very sneaky actually. Perfectly matching art style. Also this is very funny. The cats don't talk back!

Aww, Scar's character sheet. Love for Jellie 6, and he wants a matching outfit, of course he does.

Meet Cute! It's probably partially the art style but Scar already looks more professional and established here. (No idea what the timeline is exactly.) But really, Scar, shooting at an unknown flying person without asking questions first? This is why vigilantes are problematic…

Great first look at Not-yet-Cuteguy.

King for a Day: Assistant Bdubs! He is so right, all of Scar's clothes are civilian clothes but some are spandex xD

Ren can say “HotGuy” correctly! Nice, of course he can. I'm a bit confused about his plan tbh, especially because we know so little about the TCG (great name btw.) If a vigilante wanted to be a legally recognized hero, why wouldn't they join the TCG? I mean it seems the TCG is basically the police so that's not the same as being a hero but still – okay I think I forgot my suspension of disbelief for a superhero story for a moment there, sorry.

Aww, apology flowers <3 (Of course these flowers.)

Grian clearly still looking for his identity, in a very different outfit. And giving away the plan to reporter Pearl! Excellent. He signed it “Cuteguy,” which iirc is the first time that name shows up, I wonder how he acquired it, if he chose it himself or if the public came up with it and he just ran with it.

Aww, Scar's face at “until then, we've still got Hotguy” :(

mumblr xDD ok first of all I'm not going to try and figure out who's behind the usernames unless it's obvious because that would make me feel dumb and I hate that. But these are all great. Already the first one joking about “vigilantism,” perfect. And the memes, and the everyday-life-in-Hermitopia stories, and more arguing about vigilantism… okay, “Tek Talk” is definitely Tango xD Telling civilians to go to the Perimeter if they're being chased is great. Maple Prince mention!! And poor Tango having flashbacks from the last “are Hotguy and Cuteguy queerbaiting” discussion xD (yeah, why the matching outfits?!)

The G-Team: the heart-shaped boob window for Cuteguy! Detective Grian! And Ariana Griande! Hippies! Grian handing out permits! Midnight Alley! This one has it all xD A thrilling chase, cut to Hotguy in the subway xD A vial of sculk dripping into the canalization, oh no…

The Case of the Missing Cub: Of course that briefcase was Cub´s. Sculk snail xD Ooh, creepy sculk!Cub. Scar seems to know Cub? Their simultaneous “Arson!” is very funny. …wait Grian has a sculk patch on his wing… Grian just setting the house on fire xD He's lucky Cub is so incredibly chill. He's also insane enough to season his pizza with sculk *facepalm*

One New Mail: category “I can't pick my favorite most hilarious bits because I would quote half the fic.” And that was even before the last chickens came in. And it ends with Cub and Bdubs joining forces, the world is not ready.

Social media interlude: Doc being a fan of Scar as an actor is great. Bdubs getting into fights online, of course. And more Hermitopia daily life :D

The Sidekick: Of course Scar usually gets away via the subway xDD (Wait, I thought the TCG is basically the police, surprising that Grian is more concerned about them than villains…) The graffiti on the walls aösdlkföasldk the handshake with the lilacs and poppies and sunflowers!!

The Scarmobile looks badass.

Part 2: Golden Era

Synergy: Oh no, Doc has Robo-creepers! ^^ Aww, they´re sparring together and learning. Smart.

A Cub in the Quiver: Special arrow testing with Cub! Very cool. Cub in the “in case you need it” panel looks fantastic with the almost-sculk background.

Bas les Masques: Grian and Scar meeting in their civilian identities, aww that is cute.

Deer Hunting Season: Hotguy being slow taking down someone fleeing because he´s busy talking to fans *facepalm* Oh hey it´s Jimmy! In a very silly mask. Stealing Cub´s sculk research papers for way too low a price for the job. And Grian immediately gives away that he knows him ^^ And then. That panel with the shot. And the next page with all the small panels. Whoa. What a mood shift. Gem! Scolding Scar for not being willing to die for his ideals; and when Scar sits at Cuteguy´s bedside, “why would I ever be doing this for something as idiotic as [ideals]?”

There´s a Room Where the Light Won´t Find You: aösldkfs Pearl! What are you doing! What was the thought between becoming Scar´s neighbor and friend! Poor Scar :( Pearl had a blog on Hotguy since almost the very beginning. She threw him off a balcony but before she introduced herself as a neighbor… She reveals that she knows – why? There´s seven days between Scar finding out and her confronting him… Pearl knows about the upcoming Gem&Grian confrontation, how did she think it was going to go??

Social media interlude: Pearl used to have speculation about Hotguy´s civilian identity on her blog. Scour´s appearances dropped off dramatically.

Cuteguy: Birds of Prey: oof, Grian has PTSD from Gem´s attack, no wonder. And Gem let him know that she knows their base, oof. Was she actually planning to kill him? Sure did seem like it. Or was she bluffing?

Social media interlude (zeddit): (so Zedaph founded zeddit and later turned into a villain, heh.) Scour mutation: sticky hands (?)

Smoke Rising : of course Cleo´s the one stealing organs xD (not quite sure about the TCG connection?) To be fair Scar didn´t have many good choices but still sticking the “bug” on was not very cautious. Infected Pearl and Gem´s “GROW”, and in that font, very creepy. Wait, did Scar decide to leave the bug in or forget about it…

Social media interlude: mumblr! Wait, Hotguy is canon in Doctor Who? xD “pressured into providing tips or purchasing merchandise,” lol. The community notes for Docm xD a viral fancasting with Scar as Cuteguy ^^

What Needs to be Done: Grian teaming up with Scour and Hart! How did that happen! And for a while now, enough that Scar complain that one of them will always be near and stop them from talking one on one… Wait, given up everything else, has Scar given up his civilian persona? (Dinnerbone reference ^^ ) TCG´s no match for even Joe Hills, ouch. Aww, Scar asking Grian to join him (again) – until…  Amazing art btw. “What needs to be done” – kill Cuteguy? What? Where did that come from? (Pearl??)

Total Eclipse: wow, again, amazing art. The constant “Kill Cuteguy” in the background like that, so good, and increasing too, taking over... And Hotguy smiling when he stands up again, oof. The shot of Grian without mask at the end is great.

Of the Heart: Mumbo mention! (Cub can take Hotguy to Cleo? Hm?) Awww. Also, the epilogue, Scar teasing Grian at work ^^ and then they go to a theater together!

Era 3: Legacy

A Tough Act to Follow: aww. Hanging out with civilians while trapped, being cute together. And then Skizz and Cleo to the rescue! And then! Maple Prince appearance!! Branding is important :D

The Secret Ingredient: Secret Keeper Listener BigB :D Uh-oh,  Altar of the Catalyst? (who paid for exclusive rights?) Impulse hurt Skizz for ~™he cause, and now Skizz knows…

Through the Looking Glass Darkly: Pearl having doubts, Gem having absolutely none, even though Impulse will have to die. Yep.

The Catalyst: Tango was a supervillain with an evil lair xD (Scar you thought you and Pearl were done?? After the bug thing?? Yeah she “made her choice”!!)

Social media interlude: Uh-oh, things are getting dire! With Mumbo, Joe, and even Doc helping out.

Descent Into Darkness: Uh-oh, traps and everything…

The Wardens of Tomorrow: Grian coming up with the self-sacrifice plays, so they know how important this is… big battle!

Social Media Interlude: Hermitopia-specific memes xD this is several years after Hotguygate.

A Role to Play: Pearl interviewing Hotguy, he calls her a friend… so Gem thinks Hotguy is an empty idealist, yeah tracks. I wonder what happened in between there, did the Soup Group really get to just walk away?, etc. etc. Nice end art :)

[batboyblog]

Nagging potential voters while offering them nothing has been a losing political strategy every time it's been tried. If you actually care about wresting political power from fascists - yes I am questioning your commitment - you'll get involved in on-the-ground organizing instead of acting like an asshole online. Because I cannot stress this enough: what you're doing here on tumblr? That hurt us in 2004. And 2016. And a bunch of the off-years too. Knock it off. And before you complain about my tone: I'm using the same one you did in your post. If reading this made you upset, maybe sit for a while and think about the implications of that.

lol, I honestly can't tell you how much this makes me laugh so thanks for the early morning comedy

I don't actually have any idea which of my MANY posts you found and decided to have an issue with.

Any ways, I have a Tumblr, which is mostly non-serious because in real life, my real life my real work is very serious and political and this generally is a decompression space away from that were I can express other interests, US Senators generally don't want to hear my take on comic books (well Pat Leahy....)

I'm not gonna lay out chapter and verse what I've done or do because I'm not doxing myself for an anon troll, but last election I knocked over 2,000 doors for Democratic candidates, I've been pretty open that I was HFA in 2016 and OFA before that

so generally in most of my posts I'm asking, basically begging people, to get as involved as I am, well maybe not AS involved, you don't all need jobs In politics someone has to drive the buses after all. But its very easy as a volunteer to make a huge huge impact on your local Democratic Party and on elections around you and it's amazingly healing to get out and talk to voters, a day of walking around knocking doors and talking to voters will cure you of wanting to dive bomb a strangers in box with nonsense like this.

any ways since I was you know, there, in 2004 and I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume (since you assumed quite a lot about me) We lost that election because the Bush team totally shamelessly claimed our famous war hero candidate had in fact faked his Purple Hearts and hadn't earned his Sliver and Bronze Stars. Also they pretty shamelessly implied that a vote for Democrats was a vote for terrorism and stressed to evangelical voters that they'd ban gay marriage forever and always if Bush won re-election, which I think was very key to pulling Bush over the finish line in Ohio (and the election as a whole)

Not that that matters the "Nagging" narrative is silly, and mainly used by people who want to not feel bad for not voting being engaged. That its somehow Democrats fault for asking them to vote and pointing out the negative things that will happen if Republicans win. Thats how all campaigns since the dawn of time have worked however. All Campaigns are a mix of two things "here are the good things I would like to do" and "here are the bad things my opponent will do if they win" there's no way to campaign without the latter duh.

any ways like I said Tumblr is my silly happy place, but I'm still me, so sometimes I shoot off about the real life topics that matter to me. And here on Tumblr sometimes I can be blunter and ruder than I might on social media linked to my real life, thats not gonna change or anything I'm just saying.

finally I hope everyone gets involved, its fun its easy it makes a big difference, google your city or county and "Democrats" to find a local meeting, Everyone should check out The Sister District project, Swing Left, and Run For Something as I've said else where there are important elections happening all the time, Democrats have a chance to win the Governorship in Mississippi a dear friend of mine is down there right now working that and I couldn't be more proud of his unwavering efforts to blue the south (he helped get Andy Beshear elected in 2018) so random troll anon I hope you're doing more than uh... whatever this is, I'm gonna keep doing my thing.

[kittydog]

*Remembering* well honestly Romac was kind of crazy. I think it posited some really interesting ideas specifically surrounding the I guess "manifest destiny" attitude held by tech bros and their ilk. The unfortunately topical kinds of ideas we are seeing picked apart and elaborated on in real life courtesy of cryptocurrency/NFTs/AI art/ChatGPT/Elon Musk's general existence.

Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that it had little seeds that could conceivably grow into those ideas. And then those seeds immediately impaled themselves and grew into stunted consumerism is bad seedlings a la the Lorax specifically Illumination's The Lorax which is having a luxurious resurgence among Russian teenagers on Tiktok. And those stumpy seedlings grew humongous breasts via billboard virus and were abducted by a stray wormhole (alive) and forgotten forever and also Snippy and that one girl are making out and everyone had a big ? above their heads before peacefully returning to their lives. <-the previous paragraph reads as bitter but i pinky promise this is all lighthearted fun. My fault. 😁

I think it's fine to want more from this comic especially as it took itself more and more seriously...but also it is a webcomic that came from the same era as like Ctrl-Alt-Delete and then was orbital-lasered into oblivion with edits and now it's kind of dazed and confused and has dementia and I'm like "what's your stance on the opioid crisis." Which isn't to say that it's therefore absolved from all criticism...just that there is a reason as to why it is the way that it is....that way being...that it doesn't know what it is...I tried to make that last sentence more legible by cutting it up with my elipses powers let me know if it worked.

Hello Joe...well un/fortunately I am no longer interested in rewriting Romac. If I were though, I think that I would have to take a look at the parts I would actually want to revive...those being the fun misadventures of Captain & Co. or those ideas I made such a big stink about earlier (AKA........."themes.")

I'm sure you could theoretically juggle both, but effectively I think I would have to prioritize one...comedy w/ dramatic elements/subtext (think like iasip(?)) or drama w/ comedic elements (think like succession or breaking bad or something I know these are not great examples *flays myself alive*) The current framework isn't serviceable to the latter especially. You would need to trim so much fat and bend so much bone that I think it would be well worth asking: why Romac...why not my own thing.

For the former you still kind of need to forge your own path but there's more of a purpose to "re"-writing instead of "writing"...it's already like a return to form instead of an upheaval.

The main takeaway that you should have from this whole thing is that Vitaly could have imprisoned Elon Musk in Romac's tomb but instead he was allowed to roam free and for this we must make strange looney-toons-esque threats against his life.

Anyways check this out this is my song

Nothing on the top but a bucket and a mop and and illustrated book about birrrrrrrrds see a lot up there but don't be scared who needs action when you got werrrrds. That was the Nirvana cover as indicated by the "r"s. Thank you kurtis.cobain.

[zumpietoo]

And NOW...Goin’ Loonggg

IDK that it goes THAT far, buuuuutt......if the anon legit meant “Douchie is a souless fuccboi, incapable of actual love”, I’d agree. It also, in fact, applies to every OTHER character on the show, excepting, OFC Jabi and Pop.....oh and FP.

Annnnddd.....here we go again! WTF is her obsession with Barfies not being satisfied with their stupid? Cuz dude, yeah, they are.....they’re also all like 11, with IQs as underwater as yours, so, as long as there’s something? Yeah, they’re good.

Ya know who IS pissed, Snorty? Yep, yourself and the remaining 2(??? Is it that high?) members of the GG.....imagine for a second what it’s like to be YOU.....you’re still waiting for jizzy to reunite/collect your endgame....which....are you blue yet?

Errmmm.....no, RAS planned BAV from the beginning.....jizzy happened cuz Barfie have no chemistry/BH did, cuz SH. Again, the “baffling decision” is why neither side will accept the REAL reason(s) for all of this....and, TBF? Jizzy and VD really WEREN’T together for 4 seasons.....both were fairly on again/off again....which, again, can be traced to SH were on again/off again, themselves....and it becomes apparent, while off? Couldn’t be in the same room together.

The baiting shit? Now applies just as much (tho you get less) to you....

Nah, it was moar like 2ish----with, turns out, Slizzy using Jug as a placeholder/carrying on an emotional affair with Douchie, thoughout, if you REALLY look at this shit....Season 5 was literally Slizzy being THE biggest cuntwipe, ever to Jughead.....and reveling in it. Also, she was just as gross and selfish a dick as Douchie (and a prostitute)....did love the revelation both apparently suck in bed, tho....

Again.....are you looking in the mirror? Cuz there hasn’t been a good/positive jizzy scene since maybe mid-season 4? And, honestly? All that becomes moar and moar tainted every time you re-examine it.

Plus, OFC, again......why so desperate for Barfies to be disappointed with the narrative.....you’re not getting jizzy ever again, or even if you do? 2 seconds in the final scene of the finale, voice over style....

Wait...I thought Rivervale was an AU so doesn’t count? Unless it’s jizzy/anti-barfie, at which point it totes counts?

Ummm....jizzy didn’t fuck, dude....again, AU.....desperate measures, etc. And she was STILL Jug’s second choice for it!

Learn a new phrase other than “banging it out”, BTW.....

Also, funny thing about grief as an excuse to make out with somebody else for Slizzy, hmmmmm????

Ummm.....I actually think they’d moved onto St. Frank’s bed awhile before????

Oohhh!!! Here we have it!! Never, EVER forget, peeps!!!

Ummm....Slizzy was also a “selfish ass”, to everybody. TBH, in season 6, their mutual gross fascism DID have them largely conjoined. And I even agree, the whole “we were besties as kids” iz a dumb basis, buuuuuttt.....it is, TBF, comics canon, as well.

Also love how she never notices that Slizzy was always horrible to Jughead....just, again, he was good to her, so they’re destined....oh AND how Snorty’s insistence is “childhood = no, but HS = destined 4 life!” See, Snorty, you legit make the same, stupid argument....and it, too, falls to bits...

Errmmm.....Slizzy didn’t say “no”, she said, “sure, but let’s first defeat the comet, hmmm???”.....and then decided carpe diem in the last 2 seconds. Also, Heathcliff and Cathy define toxic “love”, so I’d think you’d legit agree....

Aren’t you among the jizzy shippers insisting Jug would give Slizzy back her memories and she’d remember only them together, not the cheating, cuntwipe, etc stuff?

Umm.....you used to believe Barfie Evan AND insisted RAS was a jizzy shipper/planned that all along. Plus, ofc, Daniel Defoe....so you, again, do NOT get to mock them. (I do, ofc, tho!).

Yes, again, it’s like they’re fuccboi/fuccgurl.....and also fatuous douchebags.....

I have zero doubts, given what you think is a functional relationship, you know exactly about all of that, Snorty.....

Meanwhile....seriously? Again, I’m in the middle....and think it all points to BAV(R?) engame....

Like I said, she’s a predatory slut. So is he. They’re both vile....thanks for playing. Also, don’t you guys mock Jabi cuz Tabs is an angel/they’re always weirdly fine with waiting to spend all eternity together?

I do agree that Barfies (like Mr. 58 Seconds) hugely exaggeration the “obstacles”, tho)

Umm.....isn’t that precisely the “endgame” you have planned for jizzy???? Other than Cole can act, so no wooden plank (I do agree, tho for KokeJ.....ditto Slizzy).

Ummm....plenty of time...annddd, again, sorry, not sorry.....this is NOT a new Slizzy. Only change is she’s less violent than she’d been.....maybe cuz she isn’t psychotic? Or it merely channels itself into being a sexual predator instead of assault and battery?

Ummm.....again, that’s what YOU claim about jizzy!

Dude, they aren’t. TBF, maybe they should be? But they aren’t. Sorry, not sorry...

You want what you never had....jizzy, in retrospect was NOT a “love story” (it was two trauma bonded teens and verrryyyy toxic) and they most assuredly weren’t compatible (Jug was simply a great person/partner, Slizzy was an unworthy asshole).

Yes, I get it too. Imagine pretending for that long your ship was pure perfection....and would reunite, even fueling it with fanfic rumors, etc....and getting a colossal dump taken on you at each juncture.....to the extent of now, your best and only hope IS a 2 second voiceover...

Oh I won’t be disappointed.....y’all will be tho....BAV(R?) and Jabi endgame...and you’ll definitely be most disappointed, regardless of what you pretend....

IDK if you have carpal tunnel, but you definitely have any number of psychiatric disorders....

Again, I invented that....

And it “sustains you”, cuz it’s all you have, now....and they’ve invested way less in jizzy....

OML....naturally we have “blame Babyman”.....dude, noooo....and there is no “gaslighting”, it never existed with the “OG couples”, etc....plus, funny---I thought RAS was returning to “take the helm and fix everything”?????

Ummm....duuuuuddeee, Snorty, go take an actual look at jizzy (and VD).....again, if you’d take off your shipper googles, you’d see....while it’s gross (snide, elitist, fatuous, fascists, etc), Barfie DO have shit in common AND have carried on an emotional affair since the beginning of season TWO.

Now, TBF, Douchie still sees Slizzy as his perpetual sidepiece (and she’s so stupid/such a mess, she’s legit willing for that), but it IS, what it is....and Jug’s recognized ALL of this and moved on, loves somebody else now.

And what’s this “last chance”? That’s what YOU have.....at best...

Ummm....that’s because Slizzy “unironically” trolls that and is totally inappropriate and tried to fuck KokeJ....just as she did with most of her other costars (male and female.....)

This was so funny because it’s so delusional. And because you guys are gonna be verrryyyy bummed in 2 months!

[signalwatch]

20 Years of Blogging, Part 2 - Together, We're a League of Something!

Editor's note:  This is Part 2 of a series.  You can view the first part with just the click of a button.  

also, this is a cross-post with the OG blog, League of Melbotis

So, yeah.  

By April of 2003, we were blogging.  For a look at the initial form of League of Melbotis on Blogspot/ Blogger, click on over to The Wayback Machine.  

As mentioned in the first post, soon I was emailing and managing comments from friends and strangers.  But, also, some of those pals already had their own blogs or quickly started one.  It was easy, often free, and gave folks a chance to speak their mind.  People were religious about their choice of platform.  Livejournal people developed quite the mythologizing about themselves that arguably continues to this day. WordPress users constantly complained about what they were using but refused to change.  

JimD started his first blog of many.  RHPT joined in.  Soon I was aware of Maxwell (she of the podcast) starting up Cowboy Funk, which detailed her life as a Texas ex-pat in NYC.  I knew her husband before we met via his own web-presence and mentions on the blog.  

Even folks like MikeS who recently did The Raid PodCast here at The Signal Watch kept a blog, along with a number of other people I still keep in touch with one way or another.  We sometimes wound up meeting in person (Natalie showed up to have BBQ with me for my birthday circa 2007!), and sometimes I never knew who folks were on the other end of a handle.  There's still folks I talk to occasionally here in 2023 I've never met.  Meanwhile, some commenters have stayed at my house.  I've been drinking twice with Randy.

Here's a list of then-active links from the blog from 2007.  

and sometimes Randy is in the Phantom Zone

There were a whole bunch of you!  I don't even remember who was behind some of these.  And, yes, there was briefly a store at Zazzle, I think.  My pal Denby recently sent me a pic of the official mug of the League of Melbotis, making me about spit out my coffee.

And, similarly, by 2007, we were comics-linking.

There's a mix of comic sites and blogs, including my brief dalliance with writing for another site, the now defunct and gone Comic Fodder.  But there's Bully.  Weird I wasn't linking to Progressive Ruin at the time.  I know I followed Mike.  Ah, the folly of youth.

The first year or so was kind of strange.  I was just doing my thing, but much like when I selected bands to listen to or what books to read or movies to watch, I didn't consult with my folks.  Nor did I tell them "I started a blog".  

I don't recall when I told my brother.  And because I wasn't using my real name, I don't really remember how folks found out about it.  But the internet was a small place in the Naughty Oughties.  But, yeah, soon enough my brother was a regular reader and started his own blog.

Somehow my cousin found the blog, who asked my parents about it, so then they knew.  And... man, one of the weirdest interactions I've ever had with my parents was explaining to them that they didn't get to tell me what I put on the internet.  Especially not at age 29 or so.  I don't even really recall what the topic was, but something rubbed them the wrong way, and I heard about it.  And I welcomed them to not read the blog, and that didn't go well.  But it was a learning moment for all of us.  

It's also worth noting, the first generation of bloggers had grown up with a basic education that included literacy re: journalism.  We understood that your job when going to print was to not lie or bullshit except for comedic effect.  You really did research and worked to get your facts as close to accurate as possible given limited resources, if you were going to tell a true story.  *And* unless you were a classless dick, if someone presented you with contrary evidence, you adjusted.  Sure, there were nasty debates in comments, but if you wanted some integrity, you generally tried.

The monetization of the blogs and news-sites was not yet in place.  The model back in the 00's was not to crank through 10 "stories" per day for pop culture sites.  If you wanted your blog to have any credibility, you kind of needed to adhere to *something* of a journalistic standard.  Unlike most comics and pop sites today, one did not glance at Wikipedia or try to remember what someone told you over beers and then rank starfleet captains from best to worst after lunch before moving on to five more short and badly thought-out articles.

I'm not pretending League of Melbotis was a bastion of journalistic integrity, but I did genuinely grind my teeth when it came to accepting items for review, any contact with creatives lest it impact my opinion of the work, and other things that impact your life less when you're writing about movies from 1945 as my current blogging has slowly morphed into.  

Arguably, I wasn't wrong on the comics-front.  Once CBR and Newsarama decided access to DC and Marvel's talent pool was super important (and they were clearly being played for chumps by the pros), it was the start of the end for either site being worth a look.

But comics weren't the only topic we covered, of course.  We talked TV and movies to a degree, especially if they were about comics.  

We also had some regular features.

Ask Melbotis was a column where folks could write in and ask my dog anything under the sun.  

We had regular interaction events where we'd put out a question to readers and print their response.  Folks would write in about their best Halloween costumes or tell their favorite spooky story.  We did this for Christmas, too, and maybe some other events.  Mostly, I was always delighted at the time and effort folks put in.  I can't imagine any readers doing this now.  Heck, no one comments anymore.

There was a controversial feature named "Dames In the Media the League Once Dug" which was more or less me writing about attractive women from TV and films, and what it lacked in taste, it somehow bottomed-out with being woefully uninteresting.  We *did* give Jamie equal time and a chance to write up on Dudes, but she rarely took me up on it.

There were posts on living a Super Lifestyle that went modestly viral.  The funniest thing to me about this post now is that it's such a 20-something or 30-year-old's take on what it means to have a collection.  Friends, this was but the beginning, and now a fraction of the collection as it currently exists.  Maybe I need to re-do this post for the next Superman film.

And, we also went semi-viral with with a post I wrote about working at Chuck E. Cheese.  The only reason this post exists is that I flew to Minneapolis a day before a conference and forgot to bring my coat and was trapped in the hotel.  And yet, people really took a shine to my no-holds-barred take on my first job.

There were, also, of course, the taste tests.  

I'm not sure "regret" is how I feel about the taste tests, but then people start writing in telling you to eat things you really don't *want* to eat.  And you realize you've become the carnival geek on some level.  I'm not saying they weren't usually kind of fun, but...

Look, one thing that was kind of true was that people started making requests for content.  And that's both very sweet and a slippery slope.  Some ideas you want to do, but most you do not.  And while there's clickable reasons to follow the whims of your readership, I wasn't getting paid for this, so I wasn't really beholden to do anything I didn't feel like doing.  But if you're just writing or doing tricks for readers...  well, that's why YouTubers tend to come off like shrieking morons.

With the current blog, I don't think I've had a request for me to cover anything in the past five or ten years.  I'm watching movies.  The formula is simple.  But with the original formula League of Melbotis, I suppose it seemed like we were up for whatever.  And I am not that guy.  I'm chipper here, but I'm a bit grumpy in the flesh.  We *do* get requests for movies on the PodCast, but generally that just means I extend an invitation to come on, and people do!  It's not bad!

One reason I wanted to just do whatever I felt like was that I needed an outlet .  I haven't talked about it much so far in the prior post, but upon review I'm surprised is mentioned so much on LoM - Jamie was very ill when we lived in Phoenix.  We were in and out of the hospital a staggering amount.  And not just Jamie, it often felt like we were dealing with a variety of issues with friends and family.  I had a whole tag for "hospital".  

So, yeah, part of the pivot from League of Melbotis-style blogging to the media-discussion of The Signal Watch was that I no longer wanted to be as open of a book about our personal business.  I felt like that chapter had closed.  I'd enjoyed the LoM experience and appreciated folks reading and following and reaching out.  But I also wanted to keep our life separate from a blog anyone could stumble onto.  

But rather than end this section on a downbeat note, I'll also remind folks of the Clambake Jake's incident which certainly helped color how I wanted to proceed and shone a light on how being online had real-world impact going both ways. 

Basically, we went to a new Italian All You Care To Eat Buffet, it was bad, I wrote about it, and the owner called the house lightly threatening us.  

In the end, I did agree that I could accidentally torpedo a new business, and I embargoed the post until a couple of years after Clambake Jake's went under.  But it was absolutely a wild ride.

 https://ift.tt/cY8wIH5

from The Signal Watch https://ift.tt/qRHLy8P

[ectonurites]

Idk if this is something you would be able to explain but you’re generally pretty knowledgeable about this stuff, so if you do know could you explain the difference between pre-crisis earths 1 and 2? Because most attempts to explain it I’ve seen are either absolute baseline or way too convoluted

Admittedly, my comics knowledge is for the most part based in post-crisis (through to present day)… I’ve delved into pre-crisis far less, especially from an in-universe standpoint. Much of what I know about pre-crisis comes from things like interviews and research about the publishing and behind-the-scenes stuff, rather than as many of the stories themselves. A lot of what I'll be referencing in this post comes from books about comics, and I'll put those sources at the end of the post (along with links to where the books can be found for free on The Internet Archive).

Anyways, to begin: I’d imagine the baseline explanation you’ve seen was something like ‘Earth-Two is where main continuity stories from the Golden Age took place, and Earth-One is where main continuity stories from the Silver Age through Crisis on Infinite Earths took place’ because that’s like… the most simple and straightforward way to explain the difference.

But terms like ‘Golden Age’ and ‘Silver Age’ here can be... tricky. I think many of us in comics circles have at least a vague idea of what those periods are, and we can assign specific years to them (Some pretty commonly accepted dates are Golden Age from 1938-1945 and Silver Age from 1956-1969,¹ though this is something very much so debated by various comics historians). However, the 'Golden Age' vs 'Silver Age' delineation based on years published doesn't tell the whole story when we're talking about 'Earth-Two' and 'Earth-One.'

‘Golden Age’ and ‘Silver Age’ are somewhat retroactively applied terms for these eras of books, rather than labels that were created to be used to sort things at the time they were being published. It's not like in 1938 when Superman debuted in Action Comics #1 it came along with the phrasing "'The Golden Age of Comic Books Begins Here!". Terms like 'Golden Age' and 'Silver Age' entered comics vernacular in the 60's:

According to fanzine historian Bill Schelly, "The first use of the words "golden age" pertaining to the comics of the 1940s was by Richard A. Lupoff in an article called "Re-Birth" in COMIC ART #1 (April 1960)."²

In the letters column of Justice League of America #42 (February 1966) Scott Taylor of Westport, Connecticut, wrote, "If you guys keep bringing back the heroes from the [1930s-'40s] Golden Age people 20 years from now will be calling this decade the Silver Sixties!" Shortly thereafter, dealers began categorizing their back-issue inventory into "Golden Age" and "Silver Age."³

These terms emerged during the Silver Age period, but typically in an informal way used by the comics community rather than publishers themselves. (Later these terms were used by publishers though, for example the 'Golden Age [Hero Name]' phrasing appears in multiple issues of 1983's Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe when discussing the different versions of characters like Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman). Even so, these terms are primarily for sorting on a real-life timeline basis— things (comics, characters, ideas) belong to one period or the other based on when they were published. Which is what I mean when I say the terms alone don't tell the whole story— because Earth-Two didn't cease to exist/have stories when the Golden Age ended! Quite the contrary, as it wasn't even established to be a separate earth called 'Earth-Two' until the Silver Age.

So, in the 50's sales had declined post-WWII and thus most Superhero books got cancelled ("In 1953, had there been a genre popularity table, superheroes would have been the bottom. They were now being outsold by almost every other genre, especially horror, romance, and Westerns. DC continued to publish the Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman titles, but the other heroes were no more."¹) which caused a big push from the publishers for reinvention and revitalization of the genre.

Around this time, it was more or less expected that comic readership would change over every few years, according to editor Julius Schwartz:

I pointed out that the average comic book reader started reading them at the age of eight and gave them up at the age of twelve. And since more than four years had already passed, there was a whole new audience out there who didn't know that the Flash had flopped, and maybe they might give it a try.⁴

Which allowed writers to just... reboot things! And decide 'hey, let's ditch that stuff from before that got cancelled, and do something different using the same name/basic idea'. The priority was telling new stories to get a new audience. Not that continuity didn't matter at all (plenty of stories in this era reference and build off of previous ones) but giving things a modern update was the new focus.

And these first updates— starting with the introduction of the new Barry Allen iteration of The Flash in Showcase #4— worked! They were popular and successful, which allowed more and more updates to happen and kickstarted the Silver Age.

Roy Thomas: Why do you think the Justice Society was basically revived, renamed the Justice League, after only two old DC heroes— Flash and Green Lantern— had been brought back in new form? Was this something that came up in an editorial meeting? Do you recall how it happened that this was the time DC decided to come out with a group again? Julius Schwartz: After The Flash proved successful, they said, "What do you want to do next?" I said, "I want to do Green Lantern" because that was really a favorite of mine. When Green Lantern proved successful, they said, "What do you want to do next?" I said, "I'd like to do the Justice Society of America, but I don't like the word 'Society,' because it's like a social group, and I want to use the word 'League,' because it's a more familiar word to young readers, like the National League, American League." And that's how that happened.³

Since many things had changed between the old Golden Age 30's-40's incarnations of things and the new Silver Age 50's-60's versions, (and the idea of crossovers appealed to Schwartz— "Team-ups and crossovers were a great hook, and I frequently used them on the titles I worked on, playing around with different pairings and crossovers. One of the best story ideas that I came up with using this motif was "Flash of Two Worlds"⁴) rather than entirely disregarding the previous stories, it was established they actually happened on a different but parallel earth decades earlier (as in those stories published during the 40's happened there in the 40's in-universe).

In the Flash comic that introduced this concept, it was established that a comic writer on Earth-One (named after the real life writer Gardner Fox) had been seeing visions of Earth-Two in his dreams, and wrote comics based on events from that world.

(The Flash #123, published in 1961)

The specific naming of 'Earth-One' and 'Earth-Two' came in one of the follow up stories to the Flash one, in the Justice League of America book's first big crossover with the Justice Society:

(Justice League of America #21, published in 1963)

Thus ‘Earth-One’ (where the at-the-time current heroes who formed the Justice League of America were from) and ‘Earth-Two’ (where the Golden Age heroes who formed the Justice Society of America were from) were officially named! 

After this point, new stories featuring the Justice Society (and related teams like The All-Star Squadron and Infinity Inc) would continue to be published taking place on Earth-Two continuity, while most other books would be published taking place on Earth-One, and there would be crossovers from time to time. This continued up until Crisis on Infinite Earths got rid of both Earth-One and Earth-Two (along with any of the other parallel Earths) and things were blended into the composite 'New Earth' post-crisis continuity.

I hope that uh... helps to explain things in a bit more detail but without getting too convoluted? Again, this era is not my place of expertise... but your question made me curious enough to want to research it more, so this post was brought to you by a lot of me reading things I hadn't read before. And if what I said here doesn't really answer/cover what you were looking for, i'd recommend digging into the books I referenced below!

—

¹ The Comic Book: The One Essential Guide For Comic Book Fans Everywhere by Paul Sassienie (1994). Available for free on the Internet Archive.

² The New Ages: Rethinking Comic Book History by Ken Quattro (2004). Available online.

³ A Complete History of American Comic Books by Shirrel Rhoades (2008). Available for free on the Internet Archive.

⁴ Man of Two Worlds: My Life in Science Fiction and Comics by Julius Schwartz (2000). Available for free on the Internet Archive.

Then I didn't actually end up referencing this one (I did in an earlier draft of this post, but ultimately it wasn't necessary) but I'm including it here anyways because it's still a cool resource: The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture by Glen Weldon (2016). Available for free on the Internet Archive.

[all-eyes-no-dragon]

How about we try reincarnating/isekaiing someone who isn't a salaryman or otaku NEET

Let's isekai a jock who cant believe this shit is happening, someone who doesn't know about anime or game tropes and doesn't immediately assimilate to the new world

Someone who won't just ignore their past life to the point where viewers even forget they're from another world because it just isn't relevant

Isekai has a lot of potential but they keep using the same rinse and repeat tired dry formula

Isekai people and not have others swoon and randomly fall at their feet for absolutely no reason despite the MCs having personalities as flavourful as the sand in the sandbox at the play park

Isekai more women, old people, little kids, uh college students maybe? I don't think I've ever seen a college student be isekaied before

Where's "I Just Wanted To Get My Degree In Archeology But Now The Prince From Another World Won't Stop Proposing Because He Thinks I'm A Goddess"?

Where's "Grandpa Retired But Fell Down A Hole So Now He's The Ultimate Baker In Another World"?

Where's "My Parents Hired A Fairy To Come To My Birthday Party But It Ended Up Being The Real Deal And Now I'm Stuck In Another World"?

Where's "I Scour This New World, Searching For A Way Home"?

Personally, "I Don't Have Time For An Adventure, I Need To Be Back By Dinner" sounds like a charmer to me.

Down with lookalike bland harem protagonists with no personality, dimensions and the exact same jobs (or in the case of the lack thereof)/hobbies (gaming, or however they want to spin it). Heck, these guys are basically all going to the same worlds as well so they've basically all got the same stories too. A shame.

This is why people hate isekai, which I think is a shame really, cuz I love the concept. Just,, I prefer to cherry pick the genre for gems

Side note: let isekai protags say weird shit that no one understands because

👏 cultural 👏 barrier 👏

C'mon, this is a different world, there's gotta be some basic stuff the protag might say and be met with blanket stares

Like in re zero apples are called appas

Totally small stupid and inconsequential but u look stupid af if u call it anything but an appa

Now, if u were reincarnated and had to grow from a child, I suppose u would have time to assimilate to the culture.

Ugh, but I wish they would let reincarnations stay kids longer. If their old world is gonna become obsolete, I want to see them slowly lose that. Forget people's faces, the names of their coworkers, what street they lived on. Forget the smell of their favourite flower, the taste of their favourite food. Forget what the texture of jeans feel like. Make me feel emotions.

Let's see them weird out their new parents by not being used to the New World's culture. Let's see people shrug off them accidentally talking about stuff because wowiee, kids say the darnest things

Stop having isekai kids gather 10 wives at the tender age of 9 :)

I like the MC of the webcomic "The Beginning After The End" 's stance on the dubious subject of having romantic relationships as a reincarnator (or at least, I like it so far. I'm mid 100s into the comic so idk if they about to switch up)

Basically the MC died as an adult so he sees all the kids "his age" as children and he even said a line about how he would be a criminal if he got romantic with one of the girls who like him 🤣

I guess it's up to self perception? Like, this body is 13 but my brain is 45. Which am I actually, then?

Let reincarnators be confused about this as well, cuz even irl people debate this a whole lot (cuz it's just one of those "well, technically" things. I think the fact that we even have to go "technically" to excuse it is a bit of an ouch tho)

I'm open to other views and counter arguments on any of the things I've just said, tbh. These are just some things I think are missed opportunities. Like, people will keep watching and watching it even if it's the same thing (why do you think there's so many "Peter Parker's Field Trip To Stark Industries" fics? People will continually consume the same thing slightly tweaked if they like the premise enough). I just think changes to how we approach isekai might bring in some new viewership and increased positive opinions on the genre

Also, the comically long titles are a fun thing but I know some people abhor them. They want titles that are creative and don't basically just summarise the show's premise. Because, with a title like that, it shows a lack of creativity and ingenuity. Not to say that it needs to be toned down all the way, just reduced to keywords.

"Undead Unluck"

"Spy x Family"

"Dragon Ball"

"First Night With The Duke"

"Little Shop Of Horrors"

"Villain To Kill"

"Pride & Prejudice"

"Cirque Du Freak"

"Mirror Image"

(Yes, I did just write down the names of random things I like. 3 animes, 3 books, 2 webcomics and a,, movie/play(?) I watched it as a play, anyways. okay, the 3animes is kind of a lie, I'm impatiently waiting for undead unluck to come out as an anime. ive never consumed any content for it but the trailer)

These titles give you a vague idea of important symbols/things in the narrative, no? But you don't know exactly was going to happen.

But I'm only speaking for some people, I find the long titles to be funny and a bit intriguing. Of course, I wouldn't mind some good old fashioned original names being brainstormed. These thoughtlessly long titles allow all these different producers to just pump out what is, at its core, basically the same ideas, just switched up a bit so the homework doesn't look copied

[taurielofmirkwood77777]

71. I already act like no one is judging me. Again, I have no sense of shame.

72. If I started over in the present, everything would be changed anyway. If I were to go back to the past to the day I was born and re-live my life in the same decades, I only have one regret, but it's a really long story. Out of context, I'd ask to get my chicken back before the owner of the house died and her animals were taken to a another city. I will not elaborate on that story here.

73. Save a life? What law? Would I do it publicly, or could I hide it? You have to be more specific.

74. Last September when I moved to Ireland.

75. My cat.

76. I don't have dreams. I just do stuff as the opportunity arises. I don't have an end goal.

77. A paleontologist.

78. For the last time, I don't. have. dreams.

79. Probably in class when I had a question and I thought I could find the answer myself. Happened a lot during my life, so I can't point to a specific moment.

80. The next three years will be in college and the two years after that I have no idea.

81. I'm not good at imagining what-ifs and all that. I'm sorry.

82. See answer 69.

83. First buy an apartment for myself, and save a part of it for the utility bills, because you never know. Second, pay my college fees. Third, take my cat to the vet and do all the tests for all diseases in existence to make sure she doesn't have any "invisible" illnesses. Fourth, buy myself a new bike. Fifth, start/donate to an animal rescue shelter.

84. Depends on the rules of time travelling. Does changing the past affect the present? If so, I'll travel to the future. If it doesn't, I'll travel to the past.

85. The fact that if I don't, I'll have to try again and I'm too lazy to do that.

86. None. My dreams are weird as shit. And I don't mean that as a "I dreamt a three headed dog riding a horse inside a hospital", I mean that as "I dreamt I was a policeman with an otter instead of a dog that sniffed out my real life friend's stack of marijuana hidden in a rotten log".

87. City. Access to food, clean water, clothes, cats etc.

88. No.

89. My primary school teacher. By being a good teacher, because at that age, I had no experience. Even though I had bad teachers in high school, I don't resent them, because I already had formed opinions about things and could distinguish right from wrong. And because I knew they were wrong, I was not affected by it. If I wouldn't have had such a good and kind teacher in primary school, I wouldn't have developed properly.

90. Nobody ever asked me this, I've never thought about this, even though I think about my childhood quite often. One thing I find absolutely hilarious, though, is that I told my middle school crush I liked him, and two years later when I discovered social media, I saw that everyone else was afraid/ashamed to do it and made me laugh my ass out. And to make it even funnier, the context for me was a summer camp in 7th grade and we had a party where all the boys had to dress up as girls and all the girls had to dress up as boys. I didn't have proper resources, so I "burrowed" white face powder from my roommate and spread it all over my face (make-up was not something common among middle schoolers back in my day). The guy used pink and blue powder in his hair, his make up was exaggerated on purpose, and after the whole party, I asked him if I could talk to him in private. Outside the building. In the rain. (I was wearing my pyjamas, by the way). So now, considering this insanely comical context in which I told my crush I liked him, I just cannot take anyone else seriously when they say they can't do it.

92. No clue.

93. That school manufactures robots, not people.

94. Our bodies decompose, and the nutrients are reabsorbed in the soil, giving trees and other plants resources to grow. Unless you're cremated. Then you just sit in an urn on someone's shelf.

95. Crimes.

96. Be invisible.

97. I don't fucking want children.

98. I don't know how, I only know the circumstance, and the circumstance was the middle school biology olympics.

99. Self-pity, because it's completely useless, it doesn't help me accomplish anything.

100. I just exist.

100 questions to invade my personal life

[kim-hao-han]

A Leap Of Faith // Five Hargreeves X Reader (Pt.1)

Some info:  Just an inspo from Demon Slayer (totally irrelevant), “Below the Surface” FNAF(also irrelevant) and of course “The Umbrella Academy” show and comics. Reader and Five are 20 for the sake of being mature content (no smut but violence, alcohol and such). I kinda follow the real plot but also not???? There may be multiple endings so be warned. I’m not new to fanfiction but its been a few years so excuse any mistake or not well written parts. Also, English is not my first language so bare with me for any grammar mistakes. Please enjoy the story!! <3

Words: 800

/Part 2/

 “Why? Why did you do this? Are you dumb?”

“I trust you with my life. A leap of faith.”

He smiled bitterly. “Like a leap of faith…That’s our life journey like”

She smiled, coughing up blood. “Like my love for you”

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October 1st 1989 12:00

43 superpowered infants are inexplicably born to random, unconnected women who showed no signs of pregnancy at the start of the day. An extraterrestrial disguised as a famous entrepreneur, Sir Reginald Hargreeves, begins his journey to adopt as many of the kids as he can. In the end, he adopts seven of the children and prepares them to save the world from an unknown threat. Their name?

The Umbrella Academy

Each one of the kids had their own set of skills and paths to walk. From power, to speed, to smarts, looks and many more. Some could ask what about the rest 37…Well, that’s were I come in. Not an Umbrella Academy superhero, not a young girl living her own life. I wasn’t that lucky to be chosen or found by Mr. Hargreeves. Instead, I was raised by the “Unknown” threat, the Commission and especially by her own majesty, the Handler. In the place of saving, I was taught killing. I was taught survival of the fittest and to trust no one. “Trust is a leap of faith with a bad ending” That’s what the Handler had told me and Lila.

I’m sure you have many questions as to what happened and what I’m trying to say. So, let’s hurry up. Time is money after all.

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.

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Present Day, March 24th 2019

/ I think we’re alone now playing/ 

 Dancing was and always will be the way of the family to relax and let their personal burdens away. But a sudden gash of air, an earthquake like feeling disrupts their fun and reunites them outside to face a giant hole connecting them to another time? Place? None of them knew. Usually, Five was into that stuff but he was long gone for 15 years. Like the earth had swollen him whole.

Diego walked out the door first seeing the scenery in front of him in shock “Oh…” The wind was howling loudly pushing Allison’s hair in her face. Luther carefully helped her by pushing it behind her ear and smiled at her lightly before going in front of her protectively. “What is this?” Asked a semi confused and semi scared Vanya/Viktor as she carefully walked closer to it. Allison immediately got in front of her. “Don’t get too close!” she warned Vanya but really it was meant for all of them as she held Luther’s arm. Diego kept staring at the huge hole in front of them ”Yeah, no shit…” he said rolling his eyes slightly. “It looks like some sort of temporal anomaly” he added which of course Luther would have to comment on it. “Either that or a miniature black hole. One of the two” “Pretty big difference there,  Paul Bunyan”.

“OUT OF THE WAY!” Klaus screamed running to the front using the fire extinguisher in an attempt to help but of course no use which he proceeded with throwing the item through the hole. “What are you-“ Luther begun but his brother’s question was soon answered. Allison looked confused and pointed at the anomaly. “What is that gonna do?” “I don’t know~ Do you have a better idea?” Klaus replied whining and pouted as he raised his hands in defeat. A few thunders roared in front of them as they took and few steps back from the thing. They saw two people, an old like couple from the opposite side screaming as they tried to pass the through the hole. As the protective older brother, Luther pushed them behind him holding Allison’s hand. “Everyone, get behind me.” “Yeah, get behind us.” Diego said joining his brother at the front. They may have grown apart but thy were still a family. And a family always sticks up for one another. Klaus swayed from left to right in his high like state. “I vote for running, c’mon” he said ready to grab Vanya’s hand and run to the door.

Two loud screams stopped them from moving when suddenly the elderly couple slowly transformed into two youngsters and fell in front of them. “ Well…that was a trip I ain’t planning on repeating.” The girl said standing up and felt her outfit a bit looser. She turned to look at her companion only to find him but younger and just different. “Oh no” “Does..anyone else see lil Number Five with a fine lady, or is it just me?” Her head snapped to the drunk like man who spoke. Five stood up looking at his body, then  his friend and lastly his companion. “Shit….”

[stranger-rants]

This may have been talked about to death—too new to fandom discourse—but I have this theory that the idea for billy’s character stemmed from (valid) criticism/debate that stranger things s1 was too unrealistic/idealized re: its depictions of racism (specifically the lack thereof), and so the duffs got all defensive and were like nay, we SHALL address racism! We shall have a new HUMAN villain who shall embody ALL racism. Racism, thy name is billy hargrove. But then the scene they wrote was apparently so poorly conceived that the actors refused to utter the lines. And so they revised it to strongly IMPLIED racism, thy name is billy hargrove. And then once again one of the actors pushed back and was like but from whence does this toxicity emerge?? And they were like FINE. Strongly implied racism nurtured by an abusive bigoted parent, thy name is billy hargove. And then subsets of fandom either latched onto the original shallowly conceived version of billy or the more nuanced but still pretty botched version of billy. The former have been loudly vilifying him with all the overly simplistic rancor the duffs hoped to evoke so that they could check off the lil racism box on their storytelling to-do list. And the latter have been tirelessly working to weave the knotted strands of potential and the many many details and clues that surely were intentional but maybe were just indigestion into something compelling and pretty amazing. But the rancor was louder, and also they hadn’t actually planned anything for him beyond racism thy name is billy hargrove, and so they dropped anything to do with that for s3, gave billy a demonic lobotomy in the opening, and washed their hands of him in the finale. (…Sorry for the flippant tone—racism is obv something I wish they’d explored with even a modicum of competence. But I also find the depths of their incompetence just… comical?? In that way where you gotta either laugh or scream)

So, this is really interesting because when Stranger Things first aired there was quite a bit of discourse around the lack of racial diversity in the show especially as The Get Down was also airing on Netflix at the same time. On top of that, there was a lot of criticism within fandom on how they handled Lucas’ character who was reasonably distrustful of their protagonist, Eleven. Who knows if that had any influence over their writing going into season 2.

We do know The Duffers wanted a “human antagonist” and that they wanted to “explore interracial relationships” with Lucas and Max. However, they didn’t plan this out very well because to them 80s racism is a movie aesthetic and not a complex issue of it’s own. Sure, they can create a racist bully character but what’s their overall purpose to the narrative if the narrative does not in any way tackle racism as a systemic issue in Hawkins, Indiana.

We’re supposed to believe this abused teenager from California with no real investment in his sister’s life is so concerned about his sister dating a boy who is black, but casually ignore the implications of a boy being black in a predominantly white, conservative, Reagan-voting town that quickly morphed into a lynch mob that evokes systemic racism in America. They’d rather scapegoat another teenage bully than put effort into exploring racism with any authenticity and that’s on them… not Dacre or the character he portrayed.

I think fans of color have every right to be upset by what Billy said and did. At the same time, when fandom as a whole hang on The Duffer’s interpretation of Billy as The Racist and define him entirely based on an early version of him that we never saw on screen (thank goodness) I have to ask… why? Why would anyone want Billy to say racial slurs towards Lucas for their one-note racism plot point they were never going to explore beyond the shock value of hearing the N-word in a mainstream supernatural show.

…and all of this being said, Lucas is still pushed aside in favor of everyone else. His interest in basketball marks him a traitor among his friends who had no intention of supporting him at his games. He still narratively spent most of season 4 in enemy territory. Hell, Jason almost did kill him and people spend a lot of time excusing him because his girlfriend died and blaming Lucas for acting suspicious as if those two things haven’t historically been used to form lynch mobs to hunt down and kill black boys who were in the wrong place.

It’s all really clumsy handling of racism is what it is.