#12 PANELS LATER AND THAT'S COMBINING SOME OF THEM | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

paladin-of-nerd-fandom65 · 1 year ago

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It’s ok for the lateness, the questions and I aren’t going anywhere lol

1: what type of weapons does Chris uses? I know for Jake he uses the typical “Batman” stuff and I saw a older post of yours saying he uses special “Nightwing sticks” to shoot beams of starbolts; it would be cool to see he can concentrate the starbolts in the sticks to become a lightsaber or maybe a battle axe.

2: is the Superman last son comic canon in your “universe?” Like Chris arrived to earth in that spaceship and then a few days/weeks later he sacrificed himself to close the portal getting aged up etc…

3: I read a post yesterday that Chris has blue heat version, does he had that before or after the Nightwing dragon entity?

4: what’s the most traumatic moment the duo experience?

5: how strong is Chris compared to the rest of his family before and after receiving the Nightwing dragon power? I can see him being the weakest since being born in the phantom zone and maybe third or second strongest after receiving Nightwing.

6: How old was Jake and what was he doing when he received his powers?

1. Primarily his main weapons of choice are dual wield Ecrima Sticks that contain special pores within their handles that allow his starbolts to travel into and supercharge some taser tips at the end of them at a voltage enough to stun both men and monsters. As complete maximum charge, the sticks can work in a manner akin to lightsabers as they can now deflect major energy attacks.

He can also combine his sticks at their other tips into a collapsible bo staff. Should Skybird finds himself without his sticks, he’s knowledgeable in multiple martial arts both Earth and Tamaran based in combination with his power set so he’s still not completely defenseless.

2. Primarily about the first half of it is more or less canon to these series of events; the events of him crash landing in an experimental pod in the heart of Metropolis west he first meets Clark (for a small artistic change from the original panel, Chris is clad in a black bodysuit like the one he had in his last appearance before the events of Flashpoint but that’s just a small detail), gets taken in by the DEO where they make the discovery of his Kryptonian heritage and just as they were taking him to another facility, Clark secretly interfered to stop them. He then takes in the 6 year old into his household after the intent to the public clear that he can stay with a human family as foster parents (I.e. him and Lois’ household alongside there then 4 year old son Jon) right before Bizarro, under orders from Luthor, attacked but during it, Chris saved Lois from getting crushed by the Daily Planet Globe. From there, things deviate with some parts and pieces adapted from the Kurt Busiek Superman run along with some tiny parts of the 2015 Lois and Clark series, detailing of a growing bond between Chris and Jon as they grow up together as brothers.

It’s not until Chris reaches 11 1/2 to 12 years of age when Zod and his army finally arrive from the Phantom Zone. By then, the bulk of Chris’ memories as Lor Zod have came back to him, in particular of the harsh way Zod raised him which reinforces both his inner insecurities as a Kent yet also his desire to stay with Clark and Lois. Plus advanced tests and scans from the Fortress of Solitude and the DCU’s top scientists help determine his place of origin.

3. At least in my fanon verse, it’s a trait he had basically since birth due to his birth in the Phantom Zone and all the wired effects it can do to even a Kryptonian’s physiology. Once he’s exposed to moonlight (and maybe partial yellow sunlight), that heat vision is accessible to him

4. Chris; easy his earlier childhood when raised by Zod. In this case, think of it along with how both Dabi and Shoto were raised underneath the reign of Enji Todoroki from My Hero Academia combine with a bit of how Zuko’s childhood went when Fire Lord Ozai was raising him from Avatar: The Last Airbender.

As for Jake; there’s three primary bad memories his mind circles back to during his emotional lowest moments. They are the time a Gordanian raid at Bludhaven came about when he was 4, him and Big Sis Mar’i bring outright ripped away from Kory’s arms by the sinister flying lizards which would’ve resulted in them being taken into slavery hadn’t it not been for their Mom and Dad acting fast to get them out of those arms

Then, for a second place of bad memories, when he was 9, getting abducted during a routine by a Talon and sent into a Labyrinth by the Court of Owls . For three days and two nights, he was lost and unable to escape the menacing white walls and never ending zigzagging maze, talons stalking him at every corner and only one fountain of fresh water to drink only said water was contaminated with substances that could make him start losing his mind no matter how thirsty he is. It was only by him taking advantage of an old school camera meant to capture his moments of torment and weak points in the marble foundation during another Talon encounter did he manage to escape the Labyrinth, reuniting with his family and taking the fight to the Owls themselves along with the rest of the Titans

Though of course in first place above all else, even more so than that fateful duel with Zsasz himself, that moment his father and him were investigating what Z list ex criminal Humpty Dumpty was doing going though some trouble for taking some broken toys to fix at an abandoned orphanage. Jake however then discovered it wasn’t just the toys that were broken….it was an entire orphanage of street urchins and orphans, no younger than 8 but no older than 12, that were broken. Humpty was trying to ‘fix’ them too in the best way he though he knew to no avail, and all during the weeks leading up to Christmas as well.

That image of the lifeless kids being carted into vans on stretchers with white blankets draped over them one by one is an image that haunts Jake’s memories to the present day. Ironic considering his own sleeping arrangements often have him covered up in his bed with the blankets draped over him similarly like that. Maybe the difference comes to that at least his family can hear him snoring peacefully under those sheets…not so much the case for those poor orphans that night.

5. His strength prior to the Nightwing entity being fully tapped into could be considerably between Jon and Conner, making about only the second weakest of the bunch. Once the entity was tapped into in full though, his power level increased dramatically being about the same as Kara, second only behind Clark’s himself…as he gets older though, it’s still growing, at a rate only matched by Jon’s growth

6. Jake’s powers first kicked in at the age of 8 when he was trying to fend himself from a school bully (he’s a late bloomer since Mar’i first got her powers basically since birth). At first, he kept them a tight secret even from his family, afraid of them getting out of control since they were mainly linked to his emotions. Naturally the Graysons find out about them during a time he was helping them in patrol, and felt ashamed. Dick and Kory though we’re understanding and after a talk between all of them that night, Kory and Mar’i helped Jake get a good learning with his newfound powers relatively quickly.

(Phew) it’s a lot @gothicghost2000 but I t’s worth it XD

#chris kent #jake grayson #starburst duo #dick grayson #koriand'r #mari grayson #clark kent #lois lane #jonathan samuel kent #connor kent #kara zor el #general zod #victor zsasz #sfw

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shockerpitzwei · 5 months ago

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Hybrid Football-Soccer Detailed Rules

Field and Equipment

- Field Dimensions: The field is 100 yards long and 60 yards wide. The end zones are 10 yards deep, and there are goalposts at each end, like in American football.

- **Markings**: The field has yard lines every 10 yards, like an American football field, but also has a center circle and penalty areas like a soccer field.

- **Ball**: A custom-designed ball that is easier to kick than an American football but can still be thrown with some accuracy.

11 Players Positions and Roles

- Goalkeeper: Guards the goal and can use their hands within the penalty area.

- **Defenders**: Focus on preventing the opposing team from scoring by tackling and blocking passes.

- **Midfielders**: Play a versatile role, supporting both defense and offense. They are crucial for transitioning the ball.

- **Forwards**: Primary attackers who aim to score goals by kicking or running the ball into the end zone.

- **Quarterback**: Similar to American football, the quarterback directs the offense, passing or handing off the ball.

Game Play Mechanics

- **Kickoff**: The game starts with a kickoff from the center, and after each score, the non-scoring team kicks off.

- **Possession and Downs**:

- Teams have four downs to advance the ball 10 yards.

- They can use a combination of running, passing (both lateral and forward), and kicking.

- If they fail to advance 10 yards in four downs, the opposing team takes possession at the spot of the last play.

- **Advancing the Ball**:

- Kicking the ball is allowed at any time, similar to soccer.

- Players can throw the ball forward, unlike in soccer but like in American football.

- Players can run with the ball, but can be tackled to stop their progress.

- **Tackling and Blocking**:

- Tackling is permitted to stop the ball carrier, with rules similar to American football to ensure safety.

- Blocking is allowed but no aggressive contact to ensure player safety.

#### Scoring System

- **Touchdowns**: Scored by carrying the ball into the end zone (6 points), followed by an extra point attempt:

- **1-point conversion**: Kicking the ball through the uprights.

- **2-point conversion**: Running or passing the ball into the end zone.

- **Goals**: Scored by kicking the ball into the net (3 points), similar to a soccer goal.

- **Field Goals**: Kicking the ball through the uprights from anywhere on the field during play (3 points).

#### Additional Rules

- **Offsides**: Players cannot be ahead of the ball when it is played to them, similar to soccer's offside rule.

- **Penalties**: Infractions result in penalties, including free kicks or penalty kicks:

- **Minor Fouls**: Result in free kicks from the spot of the foul.

- **Major Fouls**: Result in penalty kicks from a designated spot 12 yards from the goal.

- **Substitutions**: Unlimited substitutions, but only during stoppages in play.

#### Game Duration and Structure

- **Periods**: Two halves of 30 minutes each, with a 15-minute halftime break.

- **Overtime**: In case of a tie, a sudden death overtime period is played, where the first team to score wins.

#### Strategies

- **Offensive Strategy**: Teams can choose to focus on running plays, passing plays, or a mix of both, depending on their strengths.

- **Defensive Strategy**: Teams can employ zone defense, man-to-man coverage, or a mix to prevent the opposition from advancing.

Creating a visual concept for the equipment in this hybrid sport involves blending elements from both American football and soccer. Here are some ideas:

### Ball

- **Shape**: A slightly oval shape, like a rugby ball, but with less pronounced ends to make it more kickable.

- **Material**: A synthetic leather surface with textured grip panels for throwing and kicking.

- **Size**: Larger than a traditional soccer ball but smaller than an American football, designed to be comfortably thrown and kicked.

### Player Gear

- **Helmet**:

- **Design**: A lighter version of an American football helmet, with a face guard for protection.

- **Material**: High-impact plastic with padding inside for comfort.

- **Ventilation**: Designed to be breathable to prevent overheating.

- **Shoulder Pads**:

- **Design**: Smaller and more flexible than traditional American football pads to allow for more mobility.

- **Material**: Lightweight composite materials for protection without restricting movement.

- **Jersey**:

- **Material**: Breathable, moisture-wicking fabric, similar to soccer jerseys.

- **Design**: Number and team logo, with additional padding around the shoulders and chest areas.

- **Shorts**:

- **Design**: Similar to soccer shorts but with added padding around the thighs and hips for protection.

- **Material**: Lightweight and breathable, allowing for full range of motion.

- **Gloves**:

- **Design**: Like receiver gloves in American football, with grip-enhancing material on the palms and fingers.

- **Purpose**: To aid in catching and handling the ball.

- **Cleats**:

- **Design**: Hybrid cleats that provide traction on grass or turf, with a mix of studs similar to those used in soccer and football.

- **Material**: Durable rubber and plastic, providing grip and stability.

### Protective Gear

- **Knee Pads**:

- **Design**: Flexible knee pads that fit under the shorts, providing protection without restricting movement.

- **Material**: Lightweight foam padding.

- **Shin Guards**:

- **Design**: Similar to soccer shin guards, but slightly more robust to handle potential tackles.

- **Material**: Hard plastic with foam backing.

- **Mouthguard**:

- **Design**: Standard athletic mouthguard to protect teeth and reduce the risk of concussions.

- **Material**: Thermoplastic material that molds to the teeth.

### Goalposts and Nets

- **Goalposts**:

- **Design**: Uprights similar to American football goalposts, but with an attached soccer net below the crossbar.

- **Height**: The crossbar at 10 feet (like American football), with uprights extending upwards for field goals.

- **Net**: A soccer net extending from the ground up to the crossbar to allow for traditional soccer goals.

### Field Markings

- **Yard Lines**:

- **Design**: Marked every 10 yards, similar to an American football field.

- **Additional Markings**: Include a center circle and penalty areas like a soccer field.

- **Penalty Areas**:

- **Design**: Penalty boxes around the goals, similar to soccer, for penalty kicks.

### Uniform Design

- **Color Scheme**: Each team has distinctive colors, with home and away variations.

- **Logos and Numbers**: Clearly visible on the jerseys for easy identification.

- **Customization**: Players' names and numbers on the back, team logos on the front.

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crystlfox · 2 months ago

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the lore of the ac unit

RedSun, a company based on an island similar to japan, on a planet with a more elliptical orbit than earth. RedSun, later bought by Systec, developed an extensive series of home appliances with embedded ai within, these machines had issues with becoming semi sapient and operating undesirably, however Systec used these technologies to develop multiple smart systems.

Systec is a large company, founded as a microcomputer company in the early 80’s, Systec eventually went on to purchase many smaller companies (mid 80’s) and achieved a near monopoly on home appliances and security and psa systems in the late 80’s before suddenly going dormant and discontinuing most research into new products after multiple of the companies top researchers quit due to controversy within the companies management I. The mid 90’s. Systecs’ current market share is less than 12% of the home appliance market, though it is higher in the security and pda markets.

Item A

Semi sapient ac unit.

RedSun develops an ai controlled ac unit, allowing the on board ai to determine pressure of cooling fluid in each individual fin, fan speed and direction, and water draw based on desired energy consumption and temperature. The on board ai was trained to desire to cool most efficiently, with a higher reward given for cooler temperatures and another reward given for the correct temperatures, and a final reward given for how eco-friendly they were. These combined factors led many of these ac units using their cooling fins as a form of locomotion via pressurization and depressurization of certain fins, letting them disfigure their surrounding environment to maximize cooling efficiency, other ai acs caused power surges within houses after attempting to use themselves as power generators. Some of the ai acs have migrated to the poles of multiple planets, forming small colonies around any local energy sources.

The RedSun refrigeration units have had a similar story to the ai ac units, with the ai given a secondary goal of maximizing the ”freshness” of whatever is within themselves, leading to many collecting objects their freshness units determine to be fresh. The refrigeration units often do not get along with the ac units, leading them to get into feuds with any local ac units.

RedSun ovens and stovetops are generally non sapient, the ai was given the goal of getting up to temperature efficiently, and economically. The ai was given control of the heating elements. Sapient stovetops have been known to harm their users, and ovens will occasionally stop functioning.

RedSun heaters have a similar structure to ac units, many have been known to steal solar panels and migrate to warmer climates. May be enticed into collaborating with ac units.

RedSun pressure cookers, toasters, and other small appliances have little known sapient instances, but are occasionally used as lower units by rogue drone swarms.

RedSun thermostat units have been specifically modified to suppress sapience in ac units and heaters by resetting any values within the ai that the system deems unfit. Produced after RedSun was bought by Systec. An exploit found in the late 90’s allowed for thermostats to be hacked, but was patched in the early 2000’s

Systecs’ camera control units have been known to occasionally become sapient, but most instances are benign. The ai in the camera control unit is trained to detect suspicious activity, but units can be altered via ram cartridge or manually through a linked terminal to detect other objects and activities.

Systecs’ psa control units have no known instance of sapience.

Systec microcomputers have few sapient instances, with each instance being unique in their reactions and structure.

Systec mainframes have a high probability of becoming sapient, with no known similarities between instances, as each is commonly used for different tasks and trained on different data, many older buildings with the Systec mainframe installed have a benign ai connected to most of their systems.

Systec produced a few working class robots as their last inventions, among these are the ac crab, a line of camera birds (controversy over whether they stole the idea from another company or the other company stole the idea from them after all Systecs’ researchers began leaving), a line of spiders which was sold to Dellta (everyone was making them at the time (still are, it works well), Systec did it pretty well though). Many of these inventions were made after many of the researchers for Systec left, and most were based off of other inventions that were present at the time.

Production of all Systec products has slowed greatly, with many units no longer being produced.

worldbuilding

funky crab ac tv thing

#oh so much #lore

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nosanime · 2 years ago

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Shrimp and Tomato Risotto with Lobster Sauce (Makes 6 Servings)

We bring you this recipe from our panel, “Anime Foodies: Laid-Back Camp Season 2”.

This rich risotto with a creamy seafood sauce serves as the main course for Aoi and Nadeshiko’s birthday celebration on the second evening of the Izu camping trip in Episode 12. Like recipes from the first season, this one takes some ingredients from the previous night’s meal and uses it as a key component of this dish. This is, by far, the largest and heartiest single recipe made in the show’s food-filled second season.

2 Whole –Spiny Lobster Shells (Maine Lobster Shells)

10 Cups + Additional – Water

1 TBSP + 1 TSP – Kosher Salt

10 TBSP – Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1/2– Large White Onion

2 Cups – Arborio Rice (Japanese Short-Grain Rice)

1 Cup – Dry White Wine

10 1/2 TBSP – Unsalted Butter

1 3/4 Cup Grated – Parmesan Cheese

3 1/2 TBSP – Tomato Paste

1 Lbs. – Medium Shell-On Shrimp

1 8 Oz. Can – Peas and Carrots

1 8 Oz. Can – Corn

1/2 Bunch – Asparagus

1 Cup – Sliced White Button Mushrooms

1/4 – Red Bell Pepper

1/4 – Orange Bell Pepper

1 1/2 TBSP – Flour

1/4 Cup – Heavy Cream

Break the lobster shells into chunks and add to 10 cups of water in a large stock pot along with 1 TBSP of kosher salt.

Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook for 45 minutes.

Once the time is up, strain the stock and, if preparing at home, store in food safe containers for transport to the campsite or use immediately.

Finely dice the white onion and, if preparing at home store in a food safe container for transport to the site or use immediately.

Separate the shrimp from their shells and have them both available for use later in the recipe.

Drain the peas, carrots, and corn, chop the asparagus into 1/2 inch pieces, and combine all of these ingredients into a bowl for use later in the recipe.

Slice the red and orange bell pepper pieces into short matchsticks and set aside for use later in the recipe.

In a large saucepan, heat 8 cups of the lobster stock to a simmer and reduce the heat to keep it close to or at a bare simmer.

In a separate large cooking pot over medium heat, add 6 TBSP of extra virgin olive oil, the diced onions, and a pinch of salt and cook for 10-12 minutes.

Add the dry rice to the pot and continue to cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring constantly, until the grains are uniformly translucent around the edges.

Once the rice is at this stage, add another pinch of salt and the white wine to the pot and cook, stirring constantly, about 2-3 minutes or until the wine has been entirely absorbed.

From here, take a ladle’s worth of the lobster stock from the saucepan and add it to the cooking risotto, stirring constantly, until the liquid has very nearly been absorbed. This should take 2-3 minutes and, if this is happening faster than this, reduce the heat slightly.

Repeat this process, adding ladles of the broth as needed, for 25 minutes and then test the rice for doneness. The rice should be al dente – slightly firm, no crunch and with no chalky residue.

Add more ladles of broth as needed and, if necessary, use the additional 2 cups of prepared broth.

Once the rice is al dente, turn off the heat and add 5 TBSP of butter in small pieces and stir until melted into the risotto.

Then, in batches, add 1 1/4 cups of the grated parmesan until it is entirely incorporated into the risotto.

Cover the pot with a lid, set it on a large towel, and wrap it up in order to keep it insulated while the further cooking is completed.

In a small saucepan over high heat, take 2 cups of lobster broth – adding extra water if some of it was used for the risotto – and add in the shrimp shells.

Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook uncovered for 10 minutes.

Once the time is up, strain out the shrimp shells and make sure that you still have 1 1/2 cups of liquid remaining (add additional water if necessary)

Dry but do not clean the saucepan and, over medium heat, add 1 1/2 TBSP of butter, melt, and then add 1 1/2 TBSP of flour and 1/2 TBSP of tomato paste.

Cook, stirring frequently, for 2-3 minutes, add the lobster stock back in, and bring to a simmer for 5 minutes.

Add 1/4 cup of heavy cream, bring to back to a simmer, and reduce the heat to keep at a low simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the sauce is reduced by about half and is thickened.

Cover and set aside to be reheated as necessary when the risotto is finished.

In a large sauté pan over medium heat, add 4 TBSP of butter and 4 TBSP of olive oil.

Add 3 TBSP of tomato paste and cook for 1-2 minutes or until the tomato paste has begun to color the oil red.

Add the peas, carrots, corn, asparagus, mushrooms, and two pinches of salt and sauté for 5 minutes or until the mushrooms have begun to wilt from cooking a bit.

Add the deshelled shrimp and cook for 3-5 minutes or until they are very nearly cooked.

Add the bell peppers and cook for two more minutes to warm them through.

Turn off the heat, uncover the risotto pot, and add all the contents of the sauté pan into the risotto and mix thoroughly until the mix is entirely incorporated and no streaks of white remain in the risotto.

Serve on plates or bowls with the 1/2 cup of grated parmesan and the seafood cream sauce to be added on top as desired.

Optional/Notes:

This recipe is based around having a standard outdoor kitchen stove with only two burners available at any one time. If you’re working at home without these limitations, feel free to work things side-by-side, but make sure you don’t fail to stir the risotto appropriately as it’s cooking.

If you don’t happen to have lobster in particular, any shellfish will work to make the stock in terms of getting the intended flavor. Fish will make a fine substitute if you want a seafood flavor, but will be quite different than shellfish.

If you’ll be bringing the pre-made stock with you to the campsite, for our preferred delivery method – 32 oz. Ball jars – you’ll end up needing 3 of them to bring all the necessary stock.

Tomato paste in those metal tubes are clutch at all times and especially so if you’ll be cooking outdoors.

If you’ll be making this at home, you can just tuck the pot into a warm oven instead of worrying with a towel.

If you don’t want the bell peppers to be so crunchy, add in with the shrimp and just cook until the shrimp is cooked through.

If you feel anything – the risotto or the cream sauce – are not red enough, a touch of paprika will bring in a lot of that deep red color with minimal additional flavor.

#anime #anime food #anime foodies #nos anime #camping #food #yuru camp #yurucamp #laid back camp season 2 #camping food

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judgeanon · 2 years ago

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Plastic Skies - Model 3: F-14A Tomcat

Last time, I’d run into my first proper obstacles and managed to come out on top but feeling like some changes had to be made. It was time to spread my wings a little in more than one way. I was feeling the need. The need for quality.

With my usual supplier still struggling to get some of the stuff I needed, namely decal solution, I decided to start looking elsewhere. Buying supplies online was fine but I preferred checking out actual shops, not just for the items but for the chance to talk with experienced people and get some tips on how to use all these new tools. Eventually I settled on a couple of places inside two shopping galleries, which turned out to be an incredibly amusing dichotomy: one shop had every possible tool I needed but a relatively small amount of models, while the other had barely any tools but like six different displays and three walls absolutely brimming with kits.

I went to that second one first. Due to some miscommunication and a little embarrasment, I walked out with two cans of enamel paint that I don’t really use because I’m more of an acryllics guy (so far). But more importantly, I also got a small 1:144 Revell Tomcat. A price hike from my last ones, but not a particularly steep one. And I figured, if I wanted quality kits, Revell was the way to go. As for the model, well... it’s a Tomcat. You show me someone who doesn’t like the Tomcat and I’ll show you the miraculous man without a heart.

The second shop yielded a much better bounty. There, I finally got my decal solutions, plus a bottle of varnish (which I’d seen on tutorials was the final step to a good decalling) and a box of red paint that I wasn’t gonna use for the Tomcat but figured I’d have around for possible future projects. This would eventually represent another small turning point in this whole new hobby, but more on that later. For now, I had work to do.

Right out of the box, I could tell these German motherfuckers were not fucking around. My last two models’ instructions had been a single sheet of photocopied paper. This one had a whole 12 page booklet, plus a second health warning booklet, plus a decal sheet twice as big as the last two combined. This was the proverbial Something Else. And if there was any doubt in my mind, that changed quickly the moment I looked at the instructions and started building the cockpit. The damn thing has decals for the control panels, despite the fact that you can’t see them even with a magnifying glass in the final build. And then there were the wings.

I’d seen them in the instructions booklet so I understood the general idea, but I still found myself smiling like a baby once I put them in. Such a simple and elegant solution that brought this closer to a toy than a model. If I didn’t love it yet, I was ready to buy this model dinner and a drink now.

Funny enough, while my brother and I never built a Tomcat as kids (we didn’t see Top Gun until we were both in our teens, so our only real attachment to the plane for years was just Afterburner and Macross’ Valkyries), I do remember owning a pretty well-made toy plane, with the swing-wings and all, that I proudly displayed next to all the other models. It was at least three times bigger than the one I was building now, but as I pushed those little wings back and forth, I could feel its spirit coming back to me.

The rest of the construction went mostly well. Lots of silent admiration for the hyper detailed panel lines and little details, most of which managed to survive even my clumsy brush strokes (and the darker-than-recommended shade of gray I used). Things only really started to get annoying once I tried to decal the plane’s six missiles. A combination of inexperience with decal solution and abject terror for the safety of the decals themselves (which turned out to be mostly unfounded because Revell decals are sturdy motherfuckers) meant that the process was slow and excruciating, and the results rather shoddy.

Likewise, the landing gears were a small big nightmare. Revell and a few other companies really like making these small parts that you can then slice into two or three or four even smaller parts to complete, for example, the landing gear doors. Which is theoretically great because it offers more of that sweet sweet customization, but in practice is a recipe for a horrorshow. You can see its results on the monstrously mangled doors of the frontal gear of this pure plane, and while harder to notice, there were two pieces of the back gears that I straight-up didn’t even try to glue in. I value my sanity more than the presence of a half-inch piece of plastic.

Slowly, painfully, I managed to complete the main build and reach the final stage: the full decalling. To my amusement, the instructions included two options. One was an actual real life Tomcat from the USS Nimitz, pilot names and all. The other turned out to be a Tomcat from a movie I’d never heard before, THE FINAL COUNTDOWN, about the aforementioned USS Nimitz travelling in time back to Pearl Harbor in 1941 and... I actually haven’t seen the movie yet and reviews say it’s kinda meh, but it’s absolutely on my Lazy Sunday list.

However, I settled for the real life decal sheet, mostly because the other one had a couple of extra decals and I wasn’t feeling like doing even more work. I was already quite frustrated by the missiles and landing gear, and decaling the tailfins/canopy didn’t help. Decal solution was certainly making things easier, but not exactly easy enough. Silvering was becoming very noticeable. And those damn wrap-around yellow tops kicked my ass pretty hard. But at least I got the Jolly Rogers on... somewhat.

I finished those late at night on a Friday, then went to sleep dreading what was going to come next. The tiny names, the sneaky corners, the endless work that would surely stretch for hours and hours. It was going to be a pain in the ass. But when I actually got down to it the next morning, something... clicked. Something happened. Maybe I just needed the rest or the extra daylight, but decaling the sides of the plane wasn’t a pain at all. In fact, it ended up being downright fun. And more importantly, tremendously satisfying.

Each new decal that I placed just peeled away at the layer of fear that used to cover them. Even the really small ones, the ones that went in some tiny corner of the plane right behind the missiles I’d already glued on, ended up being a ball to just softly slide around with a toothpick. Maybe it just spoke to my inner desire for visual order. I’m 100% the kind of person that straightens picture frames and orders his shelves by publisher. So moving these strong decals around until they were at the perfect position was deeply soothing to me. Even the tiny red stripes gave me almost no trouble. And before I knew it, I was putting in the final coats of varnish. It was done.

Of course, a new finished model meant another round of pictures to show to family members and friends, who I’m sure by now were beginning to get a little tired of my constant droning. Still, as previously established, nobody with a heart can resist the allure of a nice Tomcat. And now I had far more angles to show off.

And then there was that turning point I mentioned. Because while I was varnishing the F-14, I realized the varnish, the decal solution, these new things I had... well, no reason why I couldn’t use them on the two older models. No reason why I couldn’t give the Mirage’s decals some solution to try and get the silvering out, or why I couldn’t try to polish that poor misshappen MiG-21 with some varnish. Which was exactly what I did before the Tomcat had even finished drying.

Like doing the decals, it was another moment of great satisfaction to use the tools I’d tried out and the experience I’d accumulated to make those previous kits shine a bit more. To know that a lot of the things I learned could be applied not just to the current model but to all of them. It was a notion that made me want to try even more new things, even the really intimidating ones. I found myself locked into the best kind of feedback loop that any hobby has to offer, where you can see yourself improve in real time while also receiving physical, empirical evidence of that improvement. I was getting better. I was getting braver.

And on the next model, I told myself, I was really going to test myself.

#My Stuff #Hobbies #Journals #And yes #That Tomcat's pilot really was called #Lt Col Dick Johnson #I'm sure he was extremely popular with the crew #Or at least #Nice to have at a party

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huesohnobro · 2 years ago

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You Don’t Love Her

Chapter 3: Every Rose Has It’s Thorns

Content warning for: Graphic depictions of violence, blood, manipulation, someone almost dies, or maybe they do die y’all won’t find out until I post the next chapter from ao3

It had been days since Natasha had last allowed herself to rest. There were too many preparations to be made for the upcoming mission, too much analysis to be done on the target, too many things that all circled back to Y/n L/n and her own personal failings for Natasha to have the time for something as frivolous as sleep. She would be fine once the raid on the cult encampment was done and over with, she promised, she wasn’t just lying to herself out of fear. No, the famed Black Widow was not afraid of seeing a face long forgotten in her dreamscape, not afraid of the idea of the one person who had managed to evade her every attack, who had smiled and held her after finally being stabbed.

Fear was for children, and Natasha was far from being a child.

The mission was tonight, Natasha would be able to get some rest then, but now going back over the building schematics was a more pressing matter. Running a hand through her hair, the spy sat hunched over her desk, filled with enough frazzled energy to match the copious piles of papers and files sitting on the stained mahogany of her station. Everything about this mission had to be perfect, she couldn’t have another mistake like last time…

God how you had come back to haunt her… she had forgotten about you, your dealings had been quiet yet devastating; much like her own at the time. You were like a painful figment of her imagination until a week ago, your blue skin, your piercing eyes and too sharp teeth, they were all fictitious. Instead they were all too real, and now they were messily patched onto other people like some sort of fucked up genetic quilt.

She would have to see you again within the next 12 hours, Fury had put her in charge of the mission alongside Steve; the two of them combined had the most infiltration experience of the available team. It made perfect sense for Fury to elect her, and yet the decision ate away more and more of her soul and her lungs with every second that ticked by on the clock.

Natasha refused to mess up a mission that dealt with your demonic business again, she’d shoot you down where you stood if she got the chance to do so again, information about who hydra had taken be damned.

Pulling open a drawer, Natasha pushed aside a book to lift a panel, staring at what laid beneath. A combat knife sat in the bottom of the drawer, its appearance and surroundings both without fanfare; its black handle was worn from overuse, the silver blade glinted in the fluorescent lights of the office. If Natasha stared for long enough, she could see blue-gray smoke waft off of the blade; if she stared for too long, the smell of sulfur began to choke her. Closing the panel, Natasha’s ears had picked up on a slight shuffling of feet, a knock on the open door interrupting the spy’s train of thought.

Looking up over the sea of manila envelopes and not-so-carefully penned mission reports, emerald eyes met slightly lighter ones of the same hue. Sighing deeply, Natasha gestured for the witch to come in, quickly allowing for herself to be reabsorbed in the scattered reports.

“You haven’t come to have tea with me in a few days. Did I… did I do something wrong? Was the tea not good enough? I can steep it for less time or something-”

Switching her gaze from blended-together words and code to the now fidgeting Wanda, Natasha sat up in her seat. She could feel the vertebrae in her back pop as she stretched her torso upwards, maybe a little too much to be considered healthy but that was an issue for later.

“You didn’t do anything wrong, I’ve just been busy with the mission.” Wanda’s eyebrow raised tentatively, the corners of her mouth pulling into a slight grimace. The witch walked into the room, pulling out the chair in front of the desk before taking a seat. Moss-green eyes poured over Natasha’s facial features, causing the ex-assassin to tense in her seat. She hated being analyzed like this, it brought back images of tall men in dark clothing, of Madame B hitting her or shocking her with a prod in order to correct her en pointe form. “When was the last time you slept, Natasha?” Rather than gratifying the, admittedly fairly reasonable, question with any form of answer the spy simply blinked and shrugged.

“Slept well or slept? Because both were a while ago.”

“Ah, well if that's the case then-”

Red energy began swirling around the room, tendrils reaching out towards the various papers spread across the desk and piling them high above both of the women’s heads. Grimacing, Natasha stood up, walked around the desk and held out her hand, twitching her fingers as a signal for Wanda to hand back the precious reports. Smirking playfully, Wanda’s eyes swirled with the same red magic that floated in the air; it would’ve been enthralling had Natasha not been so god damn annoyed with the reason they shone. “You can get these back after we have lunch and you get some rest.” Natasha opened her mouth to argue, but the witch continued before she could even utter a single word. “I’ll even cook for you, I found a pelmeni recipe that I’ve been wanting to try if you’re interested?”

Pelmeni, now that had caught the Black Widow’s attention. It had been all too long since she had had the meat filled dumplings of her now all too far away home. Melina had been especially good at making them when she and Yelena were younger…

A warm, soft grip on her hand had snapped her out of her thoughts; probably for the best. As Wanda pulled her along the halls, Natasha couldn’t help but notice how the light caught through the brunette's hair, burning select portions with the color of rust. Perhaps rest would be allowed to be an option for now, especially if it meant keeping that playful gleam in the younger Avenger’s eye.

The hours leading up to the mission had passed with the lethargy of a cheetah, leading Steve and Natasha to the rendezvous point they had previously agreed on. The halls of the compound were eerily empty, void of the patchwork soldiers previously viewed on screen. No, rather than the quilted together forces of hell that they had been expecting, Captain America and the Black Widow were met with silent and clear pathways, their footsteps deafening against the decorative stone floors. Pressing themselves to either side of the door frame that led into your office, the Black Widow made eye contact with America’s “first” super-soldier, praying that he couldn’t see the anxiety in her eyes.

The grandfather clock in your office clicked the seconds away at an agonizing pace as you lounged in your seat. The footsteps coming down the hall were all but well hidden, and yet you couldn’t help the sense of glee that ran through your chest and up your spine as you watched the screens hidden in your desk. One heartbeat, two, three passed before the two Avengers crashed through your door, Captain America’s shield making quite the indent into the oaken wood. Your brows furrowed as you stared at that indent, the inconvenience clearly painted onto your face as you rose from your seat.

“That door was expensive. A carpenter had to be commissioned to etch the detailing-” Your eyes shifted from the cracked and chipped wood to the star-spangled man child, your arms crossed in indignation. “You will be paying for that when we’re done here, yes? Or shall I contact your next of kin in order to have that done.” The baffled look on his face brought you much more joy than you'd like to admit, your tail flicking as a smug grin formed on your face. Lazily moving your gaze towards the black widow, your smile grew as you watched her visibly tense. “Natalia, I knew you’d come back eventually, have you missed me cariña?”

The answer appeared to be a resounding no as two sparking metal probes shot from her wrists, landing in velvet curtains as you faded into the realm of smoke and brimstone, appearing next to her. “Electrocution? That's new araña, you should be a bit more careful though-”

Wrapping your tail around the Widow’s ankle, you pulled her behind you and quickly lunged out towards the Captain, feinting for a grab before disappearing into a cloud of smoke. Teleporting into the air, you drop a kick into the back of the man in blue before disappearing into smoke yet again, landing by the bookshelf on your wall. Looking back at Natalia, you picked a sheathed dagger up off of one of the various shelves of items. “You could’ve hurt me after all.”

As a disk of vibranium came hurtling towards your chest, you disappeared to your desk, landing in a perched position on its top. You heard America's golden boy audibly groan before rushing to the desk, the shield coming back to his arm as he threw a punch. In your peripheral you could see Natalia go around your back, her hands glowing with fierce lines of blue. Leaning to the side, you dodged the captain’s punch and put a hand on his shoulder, moving forward to flip yourself over his shoulder. A crackle sounded in the air as the spy and the soldier’s fists collided, the latter’s body tensing with the voltage that flowed through the widow’s fists. Laughing, you watched the two size you up yet again. Looking in their eyes, you saw frustration rather than the fear you had grown accustomed to.

That would have to change soon.

Unsheathing the dagger, you beckoned for the two to come, pleasantly surprised when the Captain had thrown his oversized frisbee at your legs; that would've been brutal had you not teleported out of the way. Natalia closed in as you re-materialized, throwing brutal blow after brutal blow for you to block. The ferocity in her eyes was exhilarating, especially when it became tainted as you stabbed at her arms and torso. You both artfully blocked each other, a refrain of the beautiful waltz you two had danced when you had first met. As your blade glided against the kevlar of her suit, you felt a line of fire tear itself down your spine, ripping the air from your lungs. You had forgotten about the damn shield, just like you had forgotten about how infamous the Avenger’s suits were for their protection. A boot hit the back of your knee before you teleported away from the confrontation, dropping the knife between them. Gritting your teeth in frustration, you pushed your hair from your face in order to better see the two.

“Are you two serious?! You come into my office, you practically rip my door from its hinges, destroy my letter opener collection, and then you try to break my fucking spine?!” Your tail thrashed as you spoke, your hands moving to readjust your suit jacket. “I expected this from the other Avengers, but you too Natalia? After what we had all those years ago?” The shield-bearer glanced towards Natalia with clear confusion, the spy clenching her jaw with anger.

“Don’t you dare call me that. We didn’t have anything Y/n, I should’ve killed you that day.”

Tilting your head, you took a step forward, not ignoring how the shield-bearer raised his piece of scrap metal in preparation. “Didn’t have anything? Mí amor.. You know that's not true.” Another step, the captain had rushed you yet again. Instead of teleporting away you used his momentum against him to flip him into the ground before straddling his hips. Rearing back his fist, he smashed his fist into your stomach, holding the shield over his torso to protect it. His defense was almost cute, but it wasn't enough to save him as your tail slipped behind the shield, the sharpened tip stabbing into his appendix. His flesh felt warm around your skin, especially as you tore upwards, enjoying the way that his shielded arm dropped to his side in pain as his free hand reached up to your throat. The pain on his face was breathtaking, even as his hands bruised your neck and a bullet lodged itself into the back of your ribs. Biting your tongue you slowly rose to your feet, ripping your tail from the body of America. Raising the bloodied appendage and running a finger across it, you turned your head towards Natalia before licking the blood from your fingers. The pistol in her hands quivered as you sighed in disappointment. “Araña, you’re lucky I love you.” Taking a step towards her, you teleported the rest of the distance and grabbed the wrist holding the pistol. Quickly bending her arm, you wrapped your tail around the other and turned her body around; her back rested against your front as she thrashed, her gloved hands sparking up once more. Glaring down at her hands, you felt your body hurtle back as Natalia hooked her ankle around yours, throwing her weight into you. Landing flat on your back, you coughed as the air left your lungs. Your grip remained firm on the spy, a growl emanating from your throat as she fought and thrashed against your grip.

Pulling the red-head’s body closer to your chest, you watched as her companion’s blood smeared itself onto both her and your sleeves. Damn it, this was an Armani suit jacket. She’s lucky that you can’t stay mad at her… well, you can of course. You could do whatever, feel however you wanted; you were a God after all.

A shock pulsed through your chest, your muscles contracting as a silent scream formed in your throat, the Widow escaping your grip as two pieces of conductive metal pierced into your skin. The spy quickly rushed over to America, leaving you convulsing on the floor. It burned, god did it burn, you could feel the individual fibers of your muscles push and pull as the prongs fed static currents into your body. Smoke poured from your body as you tried to teleport away from the pain, your body relocating itself throughout the room as you tore at your skin, so close yet so close to the affronting pieces of metal. Eventually your fingers scraped the prongs, and you could smell the flesh of your hands burning as you grabbed them and pulled, forcing your hand open before falling to your knees. Your body was covered in a cold sweat, it felt faint as your vision blurred.

No. Not like this dammit. Get up, get the fuck up.

Slowly rising to your feet, you looked at Natalia’s hunched form, laving her friend with attention. That should be you dammit. He probably didn’t even know the real Natalia; but on that same note, did you?

Of course you did. She was just like you, a killer, ruthless and willing to do whatever it took, even if it meant eating your competition alive. A glint of silver caught the corner of your eye, the dagger from before rested three feet in front of you. Dragging your feet you stumbled forward, picking up the knife before teleporting over to Natalia and grabbing her by the scalp, your free hand pressing the blade not to her neck, but to the chest of America. The tip rested over his heart, your eyes were cold as you glowered down at the red-room graduate. “You make any moves, and I kill your friend.” Your gaze softened as you watched her wild eyes shift around the room, searching, begging for a possible escape. Breathing out gently, your tail caressed the Widow’s cheek, a trail of blood being left behind. Shamrock colored eyes bore into your own, you almost regretted what you had to do. “This all could have been avoided had you just tried to reason with me araña. I know there’s a reason you haven’t made good on your earlier threat.”

“Yes, because I just shoot everybody who I want to keep alive.”

Her voice dripped with sarcasm, it was charming enough to draw a soft smile out of you, your tail tracing her jaw.

“That’s okay, araña, I can forgive you for that. Maybe we can talk it over after your friend finally bleeds out.”

Her jaw tightened, her eyes set with a burning rage as she lurched forward. You tighten your grip, pulling at the Widow’s scalp and pushing the knife ever so slightly into the soldier’s chest, the blade still clean. “Watch it araña. No one will be here to save you or your star-spangled companion. I suggest you watch your tempe-”

Your words were cut off as you were thrown into the air by a swirling mass of red tendrils, smoke radiating off your body due to sheer panic, the sulfurous gas joining the thickening haze on the floor. You tried to shift out of the writhing energy, but something prohibited you from entering your passageway, something that shook your very soul. Your lip twitches, watching Natalia scoop up the Captain and rush out of the room before you snap your gaze towards the door. You were met with the sight of a woman in a red halter top and cape with eyes that burned crimson before you heard a voice. No.. not heard... it didn't hit your ears, there was no one talking- but it- she… was there, she was in your head.

“I hope for your sake Rogers makes it out of this, or what is coming next will become all the more unpleasant.”

You head was filled with what sounded like a shrieking siren before you blacked out, magic muddling your senses as your unconscious form was dragged away.

#natasha romanoff x reader #you dont love her #soft moments #blood and violence #steve rogers #cult shit #cult leader reader #emotional manipulation #gaslight gatekeep girlboss #oh look I’m impaled #reader speaks Spanish #enemies to lovers #slow burn

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kitausuret · 2 years ago

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5-12 marvel asks

5. Favorite team: the easy answer here is, the Avengers! And there have been some really good lineups. I'm particularly fond of this West Coast Avengers lineup:

...and later on there's also a lineup with US Agent and Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter) that I totally adore.

The more complicated answer is, if they'd had time to develop, I'm pretty sure Flash's ragtag Space Knight crew would've ended up being an absolute favorite of mine. The Space Knights combined with the few folks he and Venom picked up galivanting across the galaxy would have been incredible all together but we'll never get to see it and I'll ALWAYS be upset about that.

6. Favorite run of your favorite team? ...well, uh, the Space Knight crew literally only appeared in Venom: Space Knight so. Yeah. That run. The only one in existence.

For the sake of keeping things interesting though, I also really like the Excalibur team, and Chris Claremont's run with them (Excalibur v1 #1-19, and then intermittently after that) is amazing. Claremont is far from a perfect writer but this series was SO much fun.

7. Favorite Silver Age comic: Ooooo, tough one - Avengers and Amazing Spider-Man are both really good, but honestly, I have to give this one to Spidey. Lee/Romita Sr. is absolutely unparalleled amazing-ness. Romita's pencils are so beautiful to look at and I think everyone should do themselves a favor and read some silver age Spidey. Just do it. GO. NOW.

Just. Just behold this unparalleled excellence.

8. Favorite solo hero: is it a cop-out if I say Spider-Man again? I loved Scarlet Witch's solo series, but ultimately I like her to be on a team, too. Peter Parker though? That man is a solo act if I ever saw one. And frankly I prefer it that way. I don't really like him being an Avenger, though I suppose I can accept him as a reservist, and occasional team-ups are fine but like. He's just so good on his own. Even his team-ups with Felicia, who he works well with, seem to always end in abject disaster. So yeah, let him stay on his own. (Panels from Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #89)

9. Favorite character introduced in the last ten years: this one's easy, it's Andrea Benton! I absolutely adore Jubulile van Scotter as well though. Both? Both.

10. Best development was answered right here!

11. Favorite ship? You mean I have to pick one? Well, why don't I go with a canon one, for once? PeterMJ will always be endgame. But they both have two hands, and Peter can have up to six. Ultimately though I don't think I could ever keep them apart. They will ALWAYS be soulmates of some kind or another. They're just amazing.

12. Favorite underrated character? Hmmm... probably Sam Buchanan, from Darkhold: Pages From the Book of Sins. He was one of the Darkhold Redeemers and Victoria Montesi's first emotional support blond himbo. (Her second was Eddie Brock (Toxin).) I love him.

#asked and answered #so many questions!!! all of them fun!#thank you for giving me an excuse to write about darkhold though #sam truly is so much to me #west coast avengers #excalibur #andi benton #jubulile von scotter #peter parker #sam buchanan #mj watson #petermj

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captnjacksparrow · 4 years ago

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Hey, really liked your analysis of Hinata. I feel almost the same way about her. Even though generally I dislike female characters who are naturally meek, subservient and pointless with no character arc in any type of media, what made me absolutely hate her character was how she treated Neji. If Kishi wanted to show her arc being developed organically, instead of proposing to Naruto that removes her stuttering and gives her new found confidence (because girls only get confident when proposing to guys 🙄), Kishi could have shown her talking to Neji after he literally told his bitter story on the chuunin exam grounds in front of everyone. She is shown like she is sympathetic but didn't do anything about it. She didn't even talk to him after he was hospitalized. She knew exactly why he was the way he was, and yet she fights him as if it was his fault. She, an heir of the clan, could have asked her father to support Neji, she had some clout. But nope. In fact, it was Neji who apologizes to her in a way, he is the one who trains her and help create a new jutsu for her. What did she ever do for him exactly? And Neji didn't have to help her. She was in the best position to help and understand Neji but what did she do? A lot of fans like her character because she is reserved but kind and sympathetic. She is reserved but a coward. She was not kind towards Neji. He died for her when he didn't deserve to, he had dreams and goals that were much bigger than Hinata's entire existence. She couldn't even see her own cousin's pain and she claims to understand Naruto?? Really??

Even Kishi said she was a pitiful character who only watches from a distance. He deliberately made her that way, no goal, no backbone and no lines. And I think she sucks the most after Danzo.

WoooW!!!! Thanks for the ask, Anon.

[[Hinata and Sakura fans!!!! Please stay away and don't interact. I fucking tagged them properly]].

Even though generally I dislike female characters who are naturally meek, subservient and pointless with no character arc in any type of media, what made me absolutely hate her character was how she treated Neji.

We definitely share the same thoughts on this one, Anon.

I am really tired on most of the media for their poor treatment of female characters.

The last time I was amused by a female character was from 'Game of Thrones', I loved Cersei Lannister, who is an absolute biashhh and Sansa Stark, started out as an annoying rose tinted princess but ended up winning everyone's heart. Both are non-combative, soft spoken and somewhat powerless women in a world dominated by men. But they just didn't let the inconveniences stop them and instead they learned how to fuck that world back and take control. Both are similar and yet very different.

After seeing, such well-developed characters..... For me girls in Naruto series, is blehhhhh..... Nothing to get inspired from them. And I knew it by episode 3 itself. I have no idea how can girls, in real life, treat Sakura as some feminist icon, which makes my skin crawl for number of reasons. If you point her mistakes out in any discussions, they will pull the misogynist card to your face. When in reality, I am also a girl and my world views are entirely different from Sakura or Hinata. There is no way a 12 year old girl would want to look at the Duck of another boy.

And the problem is, They form the majority, I mean people who can connect with Sakura or Hinata. So, as long as girls like them exists, we really should suffer from these crap portrayal I guess.

That's why I advise people that If you want to see a good woman character, Narutoverse is not the place.

Having said that, I find Temari, Konan, Tsunade were better (I mean inside the Narutoverse). Though their motivations or reason to achieve a goal revolve around their men, I find their attitude relieving. Unlike Sakura or Hinata, they don't wet themselves on the sight of the men they love.

What irritates me was, Kishimoto could've easily put a character like Temari or TenTen or Tsunade into Team 7. It would've made my viewing experience a lot better. If he doesn't want the strong girls to take over the attention from his boys, then he should've introduced a meek character like Rin Nohara. She is silent and cute but atleast she was willing to die for the Village and never wetted herself over Kakashi, though she loved him. And she treated Obito like her best friend. But he deliberately made Sakura hateful and he never stopped.

Sakura and Hinata were the lowest of the low, compared to any other side characters. And, in the end, they got the main Character's Ducks without actively doing anything. For me this tells me three things

He was using these girls as a shield to close the hetero normative mouths while in reality hiding those boys true feelings under that shield.

He really hated these kind of girls and constantly showing his hatred on them at every given chance and never redeemed them back.

He knew the target audience’ mindset and he simply caters them by giving them what they need and at the same time writing the important arcs according to his wish.

I think, it’s the combination of all three.

Just to give you an example.

There is this delusional SS shipper Who justifies Sasuke was acting Tsundere throughout the war arc. I mean, come on!!!!

I came across this post because, the Original Poster was an idiot who comes into the anti SS tag and reblogged my content and saying I was wrong... So, I don’t mind sharing that person’s content.

So I don’t know where this delusion comes from... It's truly pathetic.

There are millions of idiots who believe in this kind of shit and Kishi is deliberately feeding them with bits and crumbs while making his boys go out and save the world.

These delusional mindset tells us they don’t give a single shit about the story as a whole. They watch it purely for the pretty faces and getting high over them. In this case, Sasuke.

It’s as clear as day that Sasuke didn’t care about anyone other than Naruto when fighting the war. You don’t have to be a shipper but even a non-shipper can point this out. I mean Sasuke wouldn’t have saved Jugo either, if he didn’t come to Sasuke and advice him. Do you think Sasuke would’ve tried to look for Jugo and saved him at all cost???? It’s just that he came to Sasuke and he helps him back. But Sasuke would’ve saved Naruto from the bomb blast even if he was standing a mile away.

So, if these delusions reflects the mindset of the majority of the women audience, then the creator will never try to give anything better but instead give us some low-life characters like Sakura and Hinata.

So, Anon, your expectation for Hinata’s character could’ve been developed much better is just a wishful thinking. Because, Hinata is a character for these kind of people and not for us. And the author deliberately did it.

She was in the best position to help and understand Neji but what did she do? A lot of fans like her character because she is reserved but kind and sympathetic. She is reserved but a coward. She was not kind towards Neji. He died for her when he didn't deserve to, he had dreams and goals that were much bigger than Hinata's entire existence. She couldn't even see her own cousin's pain and she claims to understand Naruto?? Really??

For me, this also irked me a lot.

Hinata could’ve tried to talk to Neji about his problems even when he was a child. But she was simply playing innocent when in reality, she is just a coward. Even after the Chunin Exams, there was no apologies from her side, like you said. Because she is from the Main Branch. That hierarchy never changed. If she had the gall, she could’ve easily broken that hierarchy by saying, ‘I want Neji Nii-San to take over our Clan, He is the best candidate for this and I can gladly help him with all my efforts’. A single line and just 2 or 3 panels, it all takes.

For me killing Neji is where Kishi asking us silently,

Do you really want these pair to happen despite having a blood stain of another character???

Most people said, ‘Yes!!!’, because they don’t give two shits about Neji. As long as Hinata gets Naruto, the main character’s Duck, that’s all there is to it. It doesn’t matter who dies, who lives.

That's why Kishi is shitting on them by making her as a non-existent woman in the Boruto Manga.

Even in real life, there are many hopeless foolish little girls who would do anything for the man she loves. I've seen them and I always stay 2 miles away from them. I mean, they even ditch their own friends and spends her entire time with him and when he dumps her later, she will come back to her friends for consolation. I think Sansa Stark is the best example for this. She started out much similar to Sakura and Hinata, believing in Princes and shit, she even naively betrayed her father for the man she had crush on. But the author made her to learn her lesson in a much painful way and later she came out as a Queen who no longer needed any man at the end. I think, this is called Development.

At the end of the day, Romance and Sex is all that matters. The author knew it. So, he is feeding these girls with some low quality cookies and they are very glad to take and eat it.

#ask #anti naruhina #anti hinata #anti sakura #anti sasusaku #anti nh #anti ss #naruto analysis #sasunaru #sasunarusasu #sns #antisasusaku #antiss #antisakura

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borat123 · 4 years ago

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Analysis Pro NH Anti NS

Naruto Manga Part 2

Part 13 Finale

The reanimated Minato appears on the battlefield. He asks Naruto out of the blue, if the girl healing him is his girlfriend. Naruto’s reaction to this is actually very flat and careless. He hesitates and fumbles his words, then he falsesly agree and says ”if you’re splitting hairs, i guess”. The defintion of splitting hairs is and i quote: to make often peevish criticisms or objections about matters that are minor, unimportant, or irrelevant.

So clearly Naruto doesn’t even remotly see her in a romantic light. Not that he ever did, his ”crush” on her was only a side effect of the rivalry with Sasuke. He only noticed her because she actively tried her best to get noticed by Sasuke and made herself as pretty as possible. And Naruto being the goof that he is, saw the biggest Sasuke fangirls attempt at getting his attention and got jealous of Sasuke and tried to get her attention instead of Sasuke so that he could be better than Sasuke at something.

Anyway Sakura becomes furious and immediatly punches Naruto (in the middle of healing him by the way) and he comments on how she’s supposed to heal him and that he’s suffered more damage now because of her (honestly if anything they are more like two siblings quarrelling).

Then Minato out of the blue just like his stupid girlfriend comment compares Sakura to Kushina. But he actually looks embarrassed that she resembles her not so positive side. Kushina obviously has her loving, caring and ambitious side and he certaintly doesn’t compare her to that, but only her temper (that sooo many girls share in Naruto by the way it’s not exactly a unique trait). Minato looks embarrased and nervously laughs and then says somewhat sarcastically ” i leave my son in you’re capable hands”.

So he doesn’t actually supports them as a couple as some have claimed. Naruto later tells him that he hasn’t found a girlfriend and he accepts that and supports him.

Naruto thanks Sakura for healing him and then tells her to rest. He doesn’t actually see her as a capable kunoichi and he never really believed in her strength. Compare this to how he treats Sasuke or Hinata where he willingly invites them into battle with him and it becomes blatantly clear that Naruto doesn’t respect her. Besides Sakura even comments on how he only sees her as a damsel in distress and she’s not exactly wrong.

The first thing Naruto thinks about when he sees Sakura’s new super strength is how she’s gonna ”turn him into a stain” if he makes her angry. Her physical abuse on him has obviously had an lasting effect if that’s the first thing he comes up with. Compare this to Sasuke’s reaction where he smirks proudly instead.

We get another perspective of Naruto’s and Hinata’s hand holding where we see Naruto squeeze her hand harder and him smiling at her. We also have more foreshadowing of Naruto and Hinata’s future relationship. She notes she wants to stay beside Naruto forever, while remembering Naruto, she is able to not only complete the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms, but also combine it with Gentle Step Twin Lion Fists.

Naruto is later at the verge of death and Sakura uses her role as a medic Ninja to try and save him. She talks about how his unbeliveable dream is just around the corner and also does CPR on him (which a lot of people confuse with a kiss for some reason, i guess they’re either stupid or desperate for anything remotely close to NaruSaku). Besides it feels a lot more like Sakura is desperate to save her friend, who is much more like a brother to her than a romantic partner. Honestly the girl has been horny for Sasuke most of her life so why would that suddenly change just because she tries desperatly to save her friend who she only has nothing but platonic feelings towards.

When Naruto’s saved he doesn’t even thank her and just says ”lets go”. The depth honestly astounds me!

Later Sakura performs a very wise decision of rushing straight towards Madara with no plan or warning of her ingenious plan. This is very similar to when she decided to come back and stab Sasuke when he fought Kakashi. Typical case of narcissism, thinking she’s hot shit and can do everything herself even though Sasuke and Naruto (her much stronger teammates) saved her sorry ass. Naruto and Sasuke then help her and she doesn’t even thank Naruto for saving her and only despairs over Sasuke not caring. Naruto barely reacted at all to her getting stabbed. Compare this to when Hinata got stabbed when he went bat shit crazy and almost transformed into the Nine Tails.

Hinata is put under the Infinite Tsukuyomi and mentally calls out for Naruto...

And Naruto hears her mental call! In his protective nature he almost ran out of the Susanoo, leaving Team 7 behind. He is only just stopped by Sasuke. Let me really talk about this here, not only could he hear her mental call, but he also had no hesitation to rush out to save her even though he would leave Team 7, his ”family” behind. I mean hearing mental calls and seeing emotions through eyes, that’s some next level shit honestly!

This sort of validate the idea that Naruto and Hinata are connected. Both Naruto and Hinata constantly use words the other has said (for example Hinata says his Ninja way and Naruto makes a refrence to being ”selfish” earlier in the war. There are so many parallels between them that i cant list them all here). They also understand each others hardships, how they are both ”proud failures” who work hard to change themselves. They are kindred spirits. They both admire and respect each others will to never give up and that’s also ironically why they both start falling for each other. We know how in Naruto people are connected through blood, for example with the summoning jutsu. Naruto’s blood vow to Hinata was him sealing that connection between them.

Inside the Infinite Tsukuyomi, Hinata dreams of being with Naruto, while Neji and Hanabi watch. Which, incidentally, also discards claims that she cared nothing for Neji because apparently her greatest dreams was being with Naruto and Neji being alive.

Interesting how they show Hinata in this panel as it could be viewed as an in direct reference to Naruto’s and Hinata’s relationship and past.

We see Naruto and Hinata standing very close to each other at Neji’s funeral. It was implied that they actually got really close after the war. Hinata is also seen crying at Neji’s funeral so that debunks stupid claims of her not ”caring”. Honestly he was like a brother too her, of course she would care?! What’s wrong with people?

Besides i think that it’s very likely that the Last could have worked to be set shortly after the war. Both Naruto and Hinata have shown (atleast for me) that they both love each other and that they are ready for a relationship. But at the same time, Naruto, even though he’s matured a whole lot compared to the start of Part 2 is still oblivous to real romantic love, even though he has shown signs of it towards Hinata. That he thinks Hinata and Ramen are the same thing is actually somewhat believable since he confuses his love for her with his childhood comfort food that has brought him happiness. It’s actually a very Naruto thing in my opinion.

So it still makes sense to be set 2 years after, the characters need to mature and be older sure, but it defiantly could have worked earlier.

Anyway that will be all for these analyses. It was a lot of fun to write these and hopefully you learned something new by reading them. Hopefully this brought some new light towards NH and also some depth as to why NS was always a crack ship.

Naruto and Hinata’s relationship is something that had always interested me since the start. Actually NH moments in Part 1 are my prefered subject and i wouldn’t mind maybe doing analyses on them too. Thanks for reading!

Here are all the previous parts:

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12

#naruhina #pro naruhina #anti narusaku

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the-lightning-strikes-again · 3 years ago

Text

A Review of Voltron DDP Comic: A Legend Forged (2008)

I knew the old Devil’s Due Publishing (DDP) comics for Voltron were lit…but the sequel, A Legend Forged, really resonated with me! This 5-issue comic series is DDP’s interpretation of the history behind the Voltron robot itself, and it wraps this lore within an adventure plot featuring our main pilots (Allura, Keith, Hunk, Lance, Pidge) in an alliance with Lotor.

I’ve meant to write a review about A Legend Forged for a while because I know that older Voltron comics aren’t always accessible. I think this one deserves some attention because it does things that I find just really refreshing after watching the 2016 Legendary Defender show. It also has some fun details that could have been source material for the world building and events in the 2016 VLD show.

The basic summary of this comic is that Team Voltron and Lotor are accidentally transported 1,200 years in the past after some classified time travel tech destabilizes in the middle of a fight. Powerless from the blast, they crash-land on a nearby planet, and they’re soon captured by people on the planet who have exceptionally advanced technology. Lotor agrees to a truce with Team Voltron to help find a way out of their prison, and back to their own time.

In arriving through the wormhole, however, they catch the attention of a very powerful group who are missing an important piece to complete their special defense project (the Voltron robot). The robot is being built in part by King Altarus, Allura’s ancestor, to fight off the villain in that ancient past—Empress Jain IX, Lotor’s evil great great (10X) grandmother, who is a sorceress hellbent on intergalactic domination.

Ultimately, Team Voltron and Lotor get caught up in the efforts to stop Empress Jain and assist King Altarus’s Council…and they discover some interesting things about themselves and about Voltron along the way!

I found A Legend Forged to be one entertaining, snarky shenanigan after another. Although it does source the 1984 character designs and backgrounds along with some references to Vehicle Voltron (which may be alienating to fans familiar only with VLD), I love that this comic deeply and openly explores what makes the Voltron franchise so identifiable and unique—its Arthurian legends/magic in the midst of an expansive space opera.

The comic is meant for slightly older audiences compared to VLD—it includes several instances of adult cursing, frightening images, some brief images of romance/non-graphic sensuality, and occasional graphic violence showing blood. I couldn’t find a publisher-recommended age for this comic on the book covers, but I think it might be T for ages 12 and older.

If you’re interested, a deeper overview of A Legend Forged is included under the cut!

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At a high level, there’s certain things that just really attracted me to this comic, even though I’m usually not much of a comic reader:

THE WORLD BUILDING

The whole timeline distortion that takes them back 1,200 years is a direct consequence of humans attempting to back-engineer the mysterious Voltron robot. Within that back-engineering, they’d stumbled into creating a time machine:

(Photo Description: The city of Toronto in the future. Someone asks, “Time travel?” Coran replies, “Devised using reverse engineered technology from Lion Voltron, no doubt.” An alliance official responds, “Come on now, how would that be possible?” A second official responses, “Coran’s right. The way that Lion Voltron summons energy and weaponry is a mystery. We learned how to mimic the ability with the vehicle units, without really understanding it.”)

So there’s a lot of undertow here about just what exactly all these different parties (Earth/Galaxy Alliance, space pirates, Lotor) were planning to do with a time machine to begin with before it gets blown up in a battle over it. But there’s also something interesting happening here involving Fate/Destiny and plasticity of time itself.

At the very heart of this comic is the concept that the Voltron robot could not have been completed 1,200 years ago if Team Voltron and Lotor were not accidentally tossed back in time to help complete the project. And idk, I think that’s just pretty cool. It ties these lives of these characters together in a way that I don’t think I’ve seen in any other Voltron iteration—that they were meant to pilot Voltron, because their presence helped to unlock the final missing piece to bring it to life.

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In addition, we get a really interesting look into the ancient past of the Voltron universe, back to the beginning of the first space empire. The comic’s big bad, Empress Jain IX, is an incredibly powerful and heartless sorceress of Drule heritage, from the planet Doon:

(Photo description: Empress Jain standing before the leader of a world she’s conquered, declaring, “And thus, the mighty fall! The powerful kneel at my feet! Behold the grandeur of your empress, and witness what happens to those who stand in her way!”)

But there’s always been this larger question in the Voltron franchise around King Zarkon’s unique, fish-like features compared to other Drule characters like Jain, and this comic answers that.

This is what the OG Zarkon looked like:

Compared to the ancient people of Korrinoth, who have similar ears and coloring as he does:

(Description: Keith says to the team, “I think we may be witnessing the beginning of King Zarkon’s people’s assimilation into the Drule Empire.”)

The planet that our protagonists crash-land on 1,200 years in the past is called Korrinoth. The people here had been recently conquered by Jain and share many similarities with the visual features of Zarkon. So this comic establishes that Zarkon has both Drule and Korrinite heritage. Unfortunately for Lotor, the Korrinites of the planet don’t acknowledge his Korrinite blood because he looks too Drule in comparison. So this comic reaches back on the hints that Lotor struggles to fit in with his own people…and it helps to explain why he’s captured along with Team Voltron:

(Photo description: Team Voltron and Lotor stand together, having been captured in a purple energy field functioning like jail bars.)

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There’s also the concept that Voltron—just like the surrounding environment in Voltron franchise—is an amalgamation of science and magic. The comic’s big bad, Empress Jain, had discovered that her own dark sorcery arts could be challenged by the “lion gods,” who were demanding an increasing price be paid for her horrific conquering. In order to negate the lion gods’ power, Jain explicitly banned religious worship around them and any lion god iconography from her empire.

(Photo description: The dark entity Sarga says, “It is coming, and soon, that which may be your downfall. A twisted abomination of science and technology. The might of the Lion-Gods with the heart and mind of Man.” Jain says, “But I have banned worship of the Lions through the empire.”)

So the Voltron builders were reaching back to a very ancient, lost power that they were risking their lives to resurrect. The connection to a pantheon of lion gods helps to provide some logic around why the Voltron robot itself splits into lions—because it’s literally the symbol of these lost gods.

The visual design of Voltron is also reflected in the armor worn specifically by warriors fighting in the name of these banned gods:

(Photo description: A humanoid warrior wearing Voltron-based armor, coming to Team Voltron’s rescue at the command of the Council.)

So Voltron as a machine metaphorically stands as the Ultimate Warrior in humanoid form, supported by the individual lion gods.

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Within the comic, it hints at some pretty intense religious discrimination—that Empress Jain was willing to arrest and torment even her own daughter, Azakhi for becoming a Lion Priestess:

(Photo description: Jain’s daughter, Azahki, is revealed to be a dirtied prisoner captured by Jain’s forces. She tells Team Voltron, “Do not fear my Drule appearance. I am a devout follower of your ways.”)

This background battle supports why Team Voltron and Lotor are instantly targeted by Jain’s forces when they crash-land on Korrinoth, bearing the banner of the lion gods in the form of Voltron.

Later on in the comic, we also see that the colors themselves represented the various domains of these lion gods:

(Photo description: An image of Voltron as it’s being built, with King Altarus narrating in the background, ““Yellow for win, red for fire, green for earth, blue for water, and at the center…the might blackness of space which houses all of reality.”)

So we really see Voltron pick up a lot more backstory to explain the robot itself.

We do get a deeper look as well into King Altarus and his Council.

King Altarus, Princess Allura’s ancestor, is the leader of the group. But the work involved in building Voltron doesn’t just rest with him like it did with Alfor in VLD. His council is just as equally if not more powerful than him in other ways.

In this panel, King Altarus introduces his four other team members as the most powerful scientists or sorcerers of their respective planet:

(Photo description: An introduction of the five council members of Altarus: “Cybrus hails from a world of sentient machines…More than a computer, he is also sorcerer to rival any other. The striking beauty to my right is Heket. Born of a nomadic race who travels the galaxy bestowing gifts of knowledge to primitive worlds. She is also the most brilliant scientist of her people. Phelos is a brilliant sci-mage from the neighboring solar system. If you are truly who you say, you may already know legends of our final ally. From a primitive world, but master of the most advance wizardry in the galazy: Merlin.”)

The combination of Altarus, Cybrus, Heket, Phelos, and Merlin all echo the 2016 Legendary Defender’s backstory—in which leaders of various people united together for the greater good of their galaxy. Once again, we have five unique planets represented in the Voltron effort—but in this case, it even includes Earth. This helps to explain part of why Voltron’s original design had very medieval attributes.

Maybe some would think it’s a bit hokey that the OG builders included the actual Arthurian figure of Merlin, the wizard? Idk, I think it’s kind of a fun way to connect Voltron’s ancient, magical past to Earth as well, and it suggests that Merlin was preparing or called by the others to help prepare for a future of advanced warfare. I’ve always wondered why the OG Voltron looked so medieval with the crests and the swords and such—and actually, it being built in part by a medieval human wizard would help to explain that!

We also see in the DDP comics a very heavy evolution to Allura’s character and to the world building within the Voltron franchise itself. She’s no longer just a princess who knows how to fight—she’s actively a Clairvoyant, with untapped power. King Altarus acknowledges, and the other Council members sense it, that Princess Allura has way more internal magic than she even knows about herself:

(Photo description: Council member Heket says to King Altarus, “I have a feeling about the girl [Allura]. Her aura is oddly similar to your own.”)

We also see that the dark entity Sarga recognizes this in her as well:

(Photo description: The dark entity Sarga says to Empress Jain, “The visitors…they each have a link to this monstrosity. However, the blood of only one of them pulses with the magic of Arus. The one called Allura! She is the one! She must be—” Jain cuts in, “The host!” And Sarga confirms, “Yes, with Princess Allura, Sarga will live in this realm once more. With her, we can control Voltron.”)

I feel like this magic probably helped to set the tone for the Princess Allura we meet in the 2016 Legendary Defender reboot, who ultimately got the opportunity to grow into the powers that are hinted at here in this previous iteration.

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I do also like this comic because the protagonists (with the exception of Pidge who is 16) are adults, and they’re a little more mature in their decisions and interests.

Like, for example, the Lance in this comic has a much more extensive sensitivity to and interest in culture. Instead of it being Hunk bonding with aliens through food, we see Lance as the diplomat, bonding with Jain’s daughter Azahki, just by asking her questions:

(Photo description: Lance and Jain’s daughter, Azahki, sitting at a table and eating. Lance says, “That hit the sport. I was frickin’ starving.” Azahki says, “After being held prisoner for so long, I had forgotten what real food tastes like. So much time was wasted…so much life. Just sitting in a cell because of my beliefs. I…I’m sorry, Lance. This should be a nice evening, and I’m bringing the mood down.”)

(Photo description: Lance replies, “Actually, I’m fascinated to learn more about the followers of the Lions, and about you. Like, where you come from. You feel free to talk about whatever comes to mind.” Azahki responds then, “You’re too kind.”)

I think along with this, we see a more nuanced view into the Drule themselves. Azahki, as both a Drule and as Empress Jain’s daughter, has turned away from the evil deeds of the empire and has suffered dearly for trying to do the right thing. This falls in line with DDP’s dedication in the worldbuilding to show that not all Drule are bad.

We also see some very interesting, Honervian backstory relating to Empress Jain’s dark powers. Like VLD Honerva, Jain is in part backed by an ancient spirit/power she likes to “talk” to. She calls on it as the “Mother of Power.” This creepy creature is named Sarga in the comics:

(Photo description: Jain summons Sarga: “Mother of Power, Great Spirit, I summon thee.” The dark entity Sarga manifests and says, “Yesss, sweet Jain! You know my name! Feel free to speak it. Have you found the Host?” Jain replies, “Not yet, great Sarga. But the search continues. To date, my body is the only one that could sustain you in our realm.” Sarga says, “Jain. Do not be so simple-minded. It’s only your mortal shell.” Jain retorts, “One that I rather like, thank you.”)

Sarga is pushing for Jain to give up her mortal body entirely so that Sarga can walk the mortal plane, but they don’t see eye to eye on this. Jain likes having her own body. Even so, Sarga knows that she has to protect her investment in Jain, and so she’s the one who plants a devious idea in Jain’s head—that she could potentially use the Voltron from the future to destroy the Voltron of the past, and therefore reestablish her supremacy over the lion gods and their legacy.

Tbh, I visually get a LOT of vibes from Jain relating to VLD’s Honerva character? Down to the long stringy hair and gold eyes…and she really does look like a female version of Lotor, tbh, lol.

(Photo description: Jain leaning in a circle of candles, exhausted from summoning Sarga, who has referred to Voltron. Jain murmurs to herself, “Pow..power. There is power in that name.”)

I think what I like about Jain as a big bad, though, is that she’s legit just an evil person. She doesn’t have an abuse backstory, like what so many content creators like to reference as the reason for someone going insane/evil. She’s clearly very talented and very powerful and very in control, and she’s using those abilities in all the wrong ways just because she can.

Given DDP’s contributions to the Voltron franchise with its female villains (Merla, Jain), I almost can’t believe that the 2016 VLD show didn’t carry these characters forward but instead raised up the all-new Honerva as “needed female villain rep.” But I can definitely see the echoes of Jain in the Honerva that we see throughout VLD.

I also really, really see similarities in how Jain is willing to use her own daughter, Azahki, as a pawn for her own aims. And by the end of the comic, Jain eventually accomplishes bringing Sarga into the mortal plane by sacrificing her own daughter’s body. This pretty hauntingly echoes the lack of maternal instinct seen in Honerva in VLD and Honerva’s malicious interest in and use of Lotor, even post-death in s8.

I feel like I relived Honerva’s interactions with Lotor in s8 when I saw how Jain acts with her own daughter, Azahki:

(Photo description: Azahki has been shot in the battle. Jain kneels down to her and cries, “Daughter. My only daughter.” Azahki says, “Mother...you…you’re crying? I…I’m sorry…you didn’t give me… a choice.” Jain pleads, “You can’t do this, Azahki, not now. After being gone for so long and now…” But then Jain has a complete switch of demeanor. She stands up and declares, “Now you’ve ruined everything! Everything!” Azahki, bewildered, says, “What?” And Jain yells, “I should have killed you in your crib!”)

Another association with Honerva is that Honerva/Haggar killed the original paladins. Likewise, it is Jain who takes down the Council one by one:

(Photo description: Jain breaks into the Council, hand glowing with power and fallen warriors around her, saying, “How could someone with such feeble defenses have eluded me for so long, Altarus? I give you credit for that, at least.”)

(Photo description: Jane is surrounded by the dead bodies of Merlin and Heket. She says, “Now, to finish this.”)

So I guess I’m just fascinated by Jain as a villain and find her similarities with Honerva interesting. In Jain’s case, however, there’s absolutely nothing to be sympathetic with her on, lol.

In terms of Lotor’s part:

I think this comic represents probably the most actively hopeful iteration of him that I’ve seen in the Voltron franchise? Like, Dynamite Comics had Lotor moving to ally with Team Voltron to bring down the rift creatures in a massive alliance, but those comics were canceled before we could see the whole story that Brandon Thomas intended. Here, we have a whole, complete story in which Lotor actively does good deeds and lives, wow.

(I didn’t think that was, like, allowed in this franchise, lol?)

I do think it’s really interesting that here, Lotor comes face-to-face with just pure, unadulterated evil—and it scares him. Just like in VLD, this Lotor is forced to watch Jain decimate an entire planet and enslave its people. Despite being canonically “evil,” Lotor does not take this level of destruction very well:

(Photo description: Empress Jain speaking to an underling, saying, “For now, rid this planet of its luscious environment and warp home.”)

(Photo description: The planet is set ablaze by Jain’s forces. Lotor is looking on from a different ship. He is unsettled by Jain’s power and says, “My god.” His prisoner that he’s watching on Team Voltron’s request (the space pirate Captain Stride), teases, “Nothing like a little global decimation to build character, eh, Lotor?” And Lotor warns, “Stride,” with an upset look on this face.)

His motivations for helping out and connecting with both Team Voltron and King Altarus’s council do start with just wanting to save his own neck. But as the comic progresses, we see him taking larger and larger risks to help protect the team, and he responds more emotionally to the stakes being faced by other allies.

Jain’s level of evil, and her later attempts to target Princess Allura as a host body for the dark entity Sarga, are what really push Lotor out of the antagonist/villain role into the position of antihero. And I like this exploration of him because Lotor is a really fascinating character in the franchise and usually always a wild card. Like, he has the capacity to play both sides and be unpredictable.

And it’s interesting too that this comic even opens up by acknowledging that. In the beginning, King Altarus and his council are watching Team Voltron and Lotor recalibrate from their crash-landing on Korrinoth. King Altarus notes that Lotor is evil, but that he’s capable of doing good…because of his love for Allura:

(Photo description: King Altarus judging the team: “The girl has a clairvoyance about her, but doesn’t even realize it. I sense something noble about all of them…save for the Drule who should not be trusted. Although his apparent fondness for the woman may cause him to fight his true evil nature at least for a while.”)

Later in the comic, it’s King Altarus himself who leans on Lotor when he thinks all hope is lost. And it’s Lotor who holds him up and tries to take down Jain:

(Photo description: King Altarus leans upon Lotor and mourns, “She’s…she’s done it, Lotor. She’s ruined our chances. Five generations…for nothing.” Lotor has raised a blaster and replies, “Not without going through me first.”)

So we really see this comic actively allow Lotor’s character to do things outside of the typical bounds of a villain. The very person who called him inherently evil is the one wailing to him and counting on him to save the day, lol.

We also see echoes of VLD Lotor’s pride in this comic. The DDP Lotor is also a man of mixed heritage and is very proud of who and what he is.

(Photo description: Lotor is on the battlefield, having slain an enemy who’d called them pathetic. Lotor responds, “Pathetic? My noble blood begs to differ.”)

So I liked that once again, Lotor is actually proud of who he is even though the world around him actively tries to devalue him. I think that’s been something meaningful about the Lotor character that a lot of people have connected to.

In his efforts to assist Team Voltron in reclaiming their own recharged Voltron lions (so that Jain can’t get them), Lotor is actually a very helpful ally as well, and a skilled warrior. So it was fun to see panels of Team Voltron and Lotor fighting together, side by side.

THE CLIMAX AND RESOLUTION

Ultimately, the evil Empress Jain tries to take over the Voltron from the future, in realizing that Allura has deep, spiritual connections to the machine. She agrees that this makes Allura the perfect host body for the dark entity Sarga, and as their way to control the robot. And so she enacts the rituals to possess Allura:

(Photo description: Allura’s features are mutating unnaturally as Sarga begins to posses her. In the background, Jain calls, “Don’t fight it, child. Don’t fight the honor of becoming a god.” Someone in the background, revealed later to be Lotor, calls out, “No! You can’t do this!”)

With Jain threatening Allura’s life, Lotor steps up to defend her, still holding up the battered King Altarus:

(Photo description: Lotor yells, “No! Not Allura!” And he shoots Jain through the shoulder.)

(Photo description: Jain snaps, “Lotor! How dare you attack your own kind! I’ll smite my own daughter, let alone a pissant distant grandson!”)

Ultimately, Lotor’s decision to shoot his grandma (what is it with this franchise and matricide/patricide lol) results in Jain being distracted long enough for the combined spiritual/soul energies of Allura, the previous Council members, and Altarus to bring “life” to Voltron.

This completes Voltron as a spiritual being as well—that it’s sentient and not just a robot, but imbued with the hopes and impulses for a defender against the evil attacking them.

(Photo description: Voltron awakens as a sentient robot and stands to move against Jain.)

Realizing that she has lost, Jain flees in a poof of magic—with her daughter, Azahki, oddly disappearing too. The comic ends for them on an unsettling note that Sarga has in fact slipped through to the mortal realm…by choosing Azahki instead of Allura as her host body:

(Photo description: Jain kneels and cries, “Oh mighty Sarga, I humbly beseech thee. Forgive my failures. Forgive my ability to bring you into our world. I beg you to be given a second chance! I vow to you we will see this through.” From behind, someone says, “Don’t be so harsh, mother.” Jain turns around and asks, “Who dares?” A woman in a cloak appears and says, “You may have failed to give me Voltron’s power, my child. But do not fear.” The woman is revealed to be the possessed body of Azahki, Jain’s daughter. Through her body, Sarga says, “I found a body that will do just fine for now.”)

However, we don’t see this thread explored any further. Shortly after the battle, the Galaxy Alliance manages to rebuild a temporal manipulation device to lock in on the missing Team Voltron and Lotor, and pull them back through time.

(Photo description: A strange flying machine appears. Someone asks, “What…what is it?” Allura echoes, “What’s it doing?” Lotor peers at it curiously and says, “I believe it’s scanning us.” The comic panels show the device scanning and identifying people to send back to modern times.)

And so, eventually, this wayward team makes it back home, with the final panels suggesting the Garrison had to complete a couple of temporal jumps to do it.

FUN LITTLE PIECES ALONG THE WAY

The comic itself had some interesting and funny scenes in it, including the following:

Please enjoy this image of a boi having tamed a dinosaur in the middle of an active battle:

(Photo description: Prince Lotor sitting atop a large, dinosaur-like creature that he’s tamed, calling joyfully to the paladins, “You can put your toy away, Pidge. I know where to find the lions.”)

Pidge jokes about Hunk and Lance:

(Photo description: Hunk had saved Lance from a shot. In running past them, Pidge calls, “Keep moving, guys! There’ll be time for spooning later.”)

Some time-traveling paradox humor:

(Photo description: Lotor shooting an ancient Drule, “Hope you’re not one of my forefathers.”)

Some Keith and Lance badgering:

(Photo description: Lance complains, “Keith Kogane seriously isn’t going to lecture me about battlefield romance, is he?”)

Did VLD get the name Kaltor from this comic??? Because Kalthor sounds pretty darn similar to Kaltor from VLD:

(Photo description: Jain calling out for an underling, “Kalthor! Sigh. Kalthor, this effort is beneath me. Extract the information I seek.”)

ALSO BLESS, THIS COMIC LETS ALLURA CUSS:

(Photo description: Princess Allura raises a blaster to use, but it doesn’t work. She says, “What the--? Damn! Now is not the time for you to malfunction! And I do not know how to fix a 1,200-year-old—”)

This comic probably is also the singular place in the DDP comics that offers any evidence whatsoever that Lotor and Allura actually did have positive childhood experiences together prior to his father decimating Arus, helping to explain Lotor’s curious loyalty to Allura throughout:

(Photo description: Lotor standing before Allura and saying, “I knew you’d pull through, Allura. Speaking of treehouses, do you remember climbing the Arusion orchids in the royal gardens when we were children?” Allura responds, “Yes…of course I do. I…”)

And finally, this comic has no issues whatsoever with making fun of itself or the concept of robotic lions:

(Photo description: A space pirate complains to Lotor, “Think about it! How you think this place ends up looking like it does in our time? Looking like Planet Doom?! Meanwhile, the Kitty Cat Club up there gets out without a scratch!”)

VOLTRON IS THE KITTY CAT CLUB, 2008 CONFIRMED

CONCLUSION

The 5-part comic A Legend Forged (2008) adds an incredible amount of history and lore to the Voltron franchise. It gave me some things that I personally was really craving out of this franchise—including some logic behind the lion imagery, a legit alliance between previously warring groups that doesn’t just end in catastrophe, some adult snark and some good-old fashioned silliness, some deeper exploration into dark entities/spirits, and also just a really powerful villainess that you can love to hate.

I think the comic ultimately took on the theme of Strength in Unity and fulfilled the concept that people really can work together. Even if the Team Voltron and Lotor and Council alliance was all just temporary, it was still nice to see that alliance come through for the greater good of the universe, instead of leading to more mass insanity like it did in VLD….

I liked that in this iteration, Voltron stood as a collective effort on the part of various worlds who were oppressed by Empress Jain. That helps to tone down the savior complex inherent in the franchise, that at least here, Voltron wasn’t one nation’s attempt to play police for all other people.

From a critical perspective, if you read carefully, there are some instances where you can tell that various alien races are prejudiced against each other and discriminate on the basis of appearance and religion, and even Team Voltron feeds into this at times in their initial assumption that Korrinites are a barbarian race when in fact they’re very intelligent and advanced. These aspects are just not fully reflected on within this comic, but they definitely feed into the conflict as we experience it 1,200 years in the past. Interestingly enough, the comic also makes fun of Team Voltron members who are from Earth as being “primitive” too. So I guess the DDP world does function in a “problematic” state where all of these alien races are struggling with how to interact well with one another. I’m not sure if that baseline would be a potential trigger for someone just entering this series, so I wanted to call it out here.

I do also occasionally find comics hard to read because of the all-caps print and because comics will switch back and forth between past and present, with only small visual markers to warn you. So I don’t think these comics are designed in the most accessible way. But that could just be me.

---

Overall, I think A Legend Forged ranks as one of my more favorite comic iterations of Voltron. It definitely has some differences from both the 1984 and 2016 shows, but it pulls on enough shared content to remain accessible. And while it was a quick read, it felt pretty tightly constructed. I would have liked to see more aftermath and epilogue, but I feel thankful that the story got an ending and that both Team Voltron and Lotor are shown being transported back home. The comic’s similarities and differences compared to VLD made it fun to read and analyze as well.

So yeah, if you get the chance to try reading it yourself, I recommend it! And if you’ve made it to the end of this very long post, thank you for reading!

#Comics #Voltron #Comics review #A Legend Forged #Allura #Lotor #Keith #Hunk #Lance #Pidge #Zarkon #Jain #Azahki #Coran #DDP Voltron #yay I finally finished my review piece #it actually was a pretty enjoyable read

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sweetescapeartist · 3 years ago

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DBS COLORING BOOK CHAPTER 73 REVIEW

Alright... let's do this.

The first 4 pages are good. Good flow, not too many pages, no dialogue (thank God). Page 5 is where the paneling gets unnecessary. The last 2 panels aren't needed.

Page 6 is absolutely stupid. Goku & Granolah are flying at extremely high speeds, Goku is firing ki blasts that are moving at a higher velocity than he is currently moving, Granolah moves even faster in order to dodge Goku's ki blasts, then Granolah is using his scarf that is wrapped around a tree to swing around the tree & get behind Goku... A SCARF.

The scarf would tear apart instantly if Granolah tried to use it to catapult/swing himself around faster than Goku can perceive.

YOU: "The scarf is probably really strong tho!"

Sure let's assume that. In that case, the tree would be uprooted from the velocity Granolah is moving. Either way, it doesn't make sense. If this was early Dragon Ball and Yamcha did something like this when fighting Goku, then yeah it would be reasonable and look cool. With the power these characters are at now, it just looks ridiculous and inconvenient. It doesn't work here. Granolah could've easily dodged on his own and much faster that wraping his scarf around the tree.

So Granolah swings around and kicks Goku through tons of trees. (Saiyans killed his ppl but Granolah is killing his planet. Ironic)

Hey look! Another stupid page 😒

Page 7. Goku got sent flying back at a speed capable of easily cutting through tons of trees, but he slows himself down by grabbing a branch & swinging around it? Why? Again, at that speed, Goku would yank the limb of the tree clean off or uproot the entire tree. That wouldn't slow down his speed. He would be better off just stopping in the air on his own as if he applied the emergency breaks. Characters have done that plenty of times. Again, stuff like swinging around trees and tree branches is stuff they would had done in OG Dragon Ball.

Why is Goku blocking like that?? He isn't reinforcing his arm, he's holding his wrist whole his forearm gets punched. That would damage his arm and/or wrist.

*Boom boom! Bam bam!* They hit each other some. But are you ready for this? Pages 11-12...!

Why did Goku yell as if he is transforming? He is using Ultra Instinct, right? You don't yell to power that up. Remember the Moro arc? He calmly breathes to go into the state. Remember the chapter before? He calmly closes his eyes to focus. Why is he yelling then tapping into UI? Because Toyotaro can't write consistently. This page was...! just dumb...

Also... What is this SSB with Ultra Instinct then? You remember the SSB aura around UI Omen in the Moro arc? What's the difference between "Blue plus Ultra Instinct" & "Ultra Instinct plus Blue?"

Granolah says he can read Goku's blood flow and cell movements. That should come in handy later when he could potentially find a weakeness in Goku using UI. Hopefully Goku doesn't tell him he can't stay in the form too long. 🤞

SSB with UI is more focused that lower forms in combination with UI. Goku should be nearly untouchable. Pages 13 - 14 show how well Goku can dodge. Looks like ballet in a way, like Goku us dancing around him. I like that. Then he uses a point blank Kamehameha. Looks cool. But it turns out that Granolah simultaneously hit Goku somehow. Not a complaint here.

Pointless panels of Oil being blown back by the force. Pointless panels of Vegeta not paying attention to the fight and looking around. Pointless 2 panels of smoke clearing away. The entire page doesn't add anything at all. Page 17 could be omitted & it would flow better.

Goku is on the ground for the... 3rd time in this battle? I wish it would at least have Granolah say he didn't realize how difficult UI with SSB would be for him, but he barely saw an opening. That would be some sort of respect for Goku and did some clever foreshadowing. But we get Granolah insulting Goku instead. Whatever.

This "vital points" nonsense is so stupid. Everyone in DB has nearly identical vital points. Majin Vegeta knocked Trunks out by chopping at his vital point. These characters know what vital points are and know them well as we have seen when they were in combat since early DB. Granolah should be saying "My right eye will always find an opening." But maybe its a translation error or something. I won't be too harsh about this one.

Wait wait wait. Lemme get this straight...

Whis trained Goku, then Goku is able to use UI in the ToP.

Merus trains Goku to use UI Omen at will.

Goku later masters UI with silver hair.

Whis points out new flaws that didn't exist then trains Goku even further.

Goku has been trained by 2 Angels to the point of being able to go into Mastered UI at will and recieved further training after mastering the Angelic power. How is it that Goku has the gull to say "No, Ultra Instinct should have no weaknesses. If anything's lacking, it's gotta be my training."

And he's telling Granolah that he is vulnerable for some reason...? He's just foreshadowing for the reader that he will lose. The last 4 or 5 panels of page 19 isn't needed.

Whatever. Let's move on. So on page 20, for some reason, Goku has a confused look & a question mark in his speech bubble after Granolah blames Saiyans for killing his ppl. Maybe Goku doesn't understamd why Granolah is repeating himself for the 3rd or 4th time? Or he wasn't listening the earlier times. Can't blame him. Granolah's speeches bored me too.

Granolah copies Moro & makes lava rise from the core of his beloved home planet in order ro hurt Goku. Poor Sugarians. I wonder if there will be a "You're becoming the bad guy now, Granolah." type of story. Dont really care though. Goku escapes by teleporting. He mentions how Granolah has Moro's move. I guess Granolah is supposed to be like Cell and have others techniques... like Moro before him... They are both altered copies of Cell who is much cooler than both of them combined...

Well, here they are making Vegeta look capable (somehow?). Also its interesting that the bloodthirsty Granolah is allowing Goku & Vegeta to chat about their discovery of who his ppl are. The the ex-detective Vegeta quickly figures out that Maki & Oil fooled them. That was rushed. "But Vegeta was suspicious of them before." Yes, but there was no reason or anything we heard that would make Vegeta suspicious. The writing is bad. Also it's convenient that Oil has a drone all of the sudden to eavesdrop. The last 4 panels of page 24 are pointless.

GOKU: "Hey let's talk to him and clear things up."

VEGETA: "Nah. He's probably too stubborn. Just fight to move the story along instead."

Goku says he hasn't used his full power yet & Vegeta is surprised. How does Vegeta not realize Goku hasn't used his full power, Mastred UI? Then Vegeta says "Tch... Gotta resort to that in the end, huh?" Toyotaro is having Vegeta downplay UI in order to hype up Vegeta's fight next chapter. Bad writing. There's better ways to hype Vegeta up. Toyo chose one of the worst ways to do so.

Granolah... Just standing and waiting for Goku to come back. What a patient revenge fueled man.

UI Goku through the fog looked cool. (And his wounds heal? Ok...) But, seeing that made me realize something else. It would be much cooler if it went from page 22 then skip to page 26!

We don't need Goku & Vegeta chatting. The reveal of UI would not have had a pace breaker. It just happens & you see that Goku is serious now. Show don't tell.

GRANOLAH: "I can't perceive... any vital points?!"

That sounds stupid, so I do think it is a translation error.

GRANOLAH: "I can't perceive... any openings?!"

Now that reads much better! (I also edited the dialogue to "openings" in the pic above.)

Great... Goku conveniently exposed a weakness in UI that Whis had conveniently made up in CH 71. Although, in CH 59 Whis said that Mastered UI doesnt have the stamina issue that UI Omen has. Then in CH 64 it shows that the stamina issue is gone with Mastered UI during the 3 chapter battle with Moro. Goku never looked fatigued or weak in this form. Only time the form went away is when "planet" Moro drained Goku of his energy.

But now Goku & Whis say otherwise. How suddenly contradictory. Page 26 of this current chapter (CH 73) would be better if the last 2 panels were omitted.

Mastsred UI Goku easily takes down Moro- I mean Granolah. Also Goku tries to chat now after attacking Granolah. Should've said something before you start kicking ppl in the face. But this is shown to prove Vegeta is right about not being able to reason with Granolah. Even if it makes no sense.

Cool dodging & aikido type movement from Goku.

Goku using "the force" & stopping Granolah's movements was cool. Reminded me of Goku doing something similar to Broly in the DBS movie. Or more similarly, like Zamasu did in the manga.

I guess Toyotaro is suggesting that the quick flurry of punches is a Master UI kind of move. (Although it originated in the anime when UI Omen Goku was punching back against Jiren & when he did so to block attacks from Jiren in EP 129.) I hope this move isn't over used that it ends up losing its flare.

Vegeta pretends to be upset that Goku defeated Granolah while in the previous chapter, Vegeta told Goku to fight first.

Somehow Vegeta is able to sense that there are 2 Granolahs. You can say because he has spirit control, but Goku has been through that kind of training with Roshi, Kami, & King Kai (possibly some with the Yardrats too which helped him control Super Saiyan at the level he could). And with Instant Transmission, Goku must be an expert in detecting ki. He can feel ki in different realms and locate ppl from far across the galaxy Goku should sense this too. All this writing is doing is trying to make Vegeta appear as the more capable fighter & get Vegeta fans hype for his next battle. That's all.

The switcheroo (I think I used that wrong) of a fake Granolah was a kinda clever idea. But Goku not knowing what "split" means is asinine.

Goku literally says "Split...? What's that mean?"

Goku has seen firsthand when Tien split into multiple Tiens, Goku knows the Yardrats can split themselves into many ppl, he saw merged Zamasu split himself, & he saw Moro split himself. Why is he written so stupid? I need answers Toyo.

Page 40....

HOW IN THE HECK did Mastered UI get caught off guard?! Ain't it supposed to automatically grow sturdier as necessary?! Boy oh boy, this writing... A positive is that the punch looks like the 1 inch punch Goku did to Golden Freeza (inspired by the legendary Bruce Lee).

So if actual Granolah is twice as strong and can one shots UI Goku... Vegeta doesn't stand a chance. But the bad writing will make a way for Vegeta to look somewhat capable.

Granolah says UI becomes less sharp over time. Only problem is that Goku fought longer against Moro. This fight of UI Goku should have been longer. If the fight was longer when in the UI "transformation" then I would be more generous about Granolah finding an opening. Speaking of openings, Granolah says "opening" instead of "vital point." Must be a translation error.

Goku is in a near death-like state and Vegeta is like

VEGETA: "Leave that fool alone. Fight me instead."

Vegeta threatening Granolah is either stupid or smart. Smart = Vegeta provoking Granolah to get an advantage mentally. Dumb = Vegeta reverting to his Cell saga overconfidence that Toyo always does.

IN CONCLUSION:

STILL NO IMAGE OF FREEZA... I guess he isnt that important to the story after all. And this storytelling is so bad because Toyo can't stay consistent at all, he doesn't understand the characters, & he can't come up with anything besides "this form also drains stamina." You can say he & Toriyama write this together but I doubt it. Toriyama corrects his art & just gives the story a pass.

Recently it seems that Toriyama is more interested in the DBS movies being produced. Toriyama just writes an outline, Toyotaro & Toei write their versions of the story around that, Toriyama corrects Toyotaro's art & Toriyama also corrects or adds to what Toei thinks up. Example being when Toei created Kale & Toriyama created Caulifla in response.

I'm not excited for the next chapter. I don't care what Vegeta does. How is Vegeta going to win against someone who one shotted Goku in UI. Either the writing will be kinda smart or just plain stupid. I'm expecting stupid.

Idk if I'll review the next chapters. The bad writing was too much for me. I wrote this review last month right 1 day after the chapter came out, but I didnt want to read the manga again to get the images I need for this review. So I put it off for almost 1 month.

I wanna take a break from this bad manga...

#dragon ball #dragon ball super #dbs #dbs manga #dbs manga chapter 73 #review #Goku #Vegeta #Granolah

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sailorspazz · 4 years ago

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10 Dance Vol. 6 Special Edition overview

Volume 6 of the 10 Dance manga was released in Japan on March 18th, 2021. As with volumes 4 and 5, there are both regular and special editions available. In this post, I will provide an overview of the release, including observations on changes that were made to the chapters compared to how they were printed in the magazine, plus summaries and select scans of content from the special edition booklet.

It is often the case that when chapters come out in the manga magazines, they aren't always fully polished, and since I became highly familiar with this run of chapters from the summaries I made, several things immediately jumped out at me as I went through the book. First of all, though chapter 29 was split into two parts and released in subsequent months in the magazine, these two halves were combined into one chapter, with no indication they had ever been separate. I assume that they were always intended to be one chapter, but since the full chapter was not completed before the deadline (and it was a month when 10 Dance was being given the cover image, so not possible to delay its release), it was simply split over two months instead.

For visual changes, the most common alteration was scenes that originally had little or no screentone having it added in:

There were also some instances of either slight panel redraws, or complete replacements with new panels. None of these were from particularly important scenes, so it could just be Inouesatoh or someone on her team didn't like the look of the original panels and wanted to change them. The following example has a bit of both, with Suzuki in the upper left corner being replaced, and his eyes being redrawn in the lower panel:

Personally, the most amusing addition I noticed was when Max was thinking about throwing a party. Originally, we didn't see what he was envisioning, but in the volume, an addition has been made in the background: the New Year's piece Inouesatoh drew with sexy men dressed as cows, except now they're bunnies!

As for dialogue, it appeared to be almost the same in both versions throughout. Some minor exceptions include a spot I found where the dialogue was put in a different order, swapping Sugiki’s lines between this panel and his first line on the following page (in addition to another altered panel example):

As well as in this shot of Suzuki describing how they tug at the thread that connects them through their dance. Whereas before it put the word “dance” next to the part about tugging on the thread to specify what was meant by that, it was deleted in the volume. And while it was originally described as “affirming that we’re connected”, this was also tweaked a bit to be, “affirming our connection”.

There were a couple instances of character names being different from when they appeared earlier in the story. In this volume, two characters who were last mentioned back in volume 2 (Lucas Calvo, one of the champions at the table in Blackpool, and Deeks, who Ernie said hated Sugiki because he "stole" his girlfriend), either from typos or intentional changes, weren't the same as before. Lucas' last name was written with a 'g' sound (ガルボ) instead of a 'c' (カルボ), and this change carried over to the volume. On the other hand, Deeks' (ディクス) name got transposed as Disc (ディスク) in the magazine, but was fixed in the volume.

There was a typo that unfortunately made it through to the volume (but could perhaps be fixed in future printings). In chapter 34, when Norman is testing Suzuki's skills, he flashes back to Sugiki taking the national title from him several years earlier. The text in this scene, written in English, incorrectly states that Suzuki won the championship, rather than Sugiki.

The volume also includes the usual additions that are not present in the magazine, such as the under the cover flap comic, and Inouesatoh’s notes about each chapter.

The cover flap comic (which looks very much like a sketch, compared to previous ones that have had more complete art), features the Shinyas during a practice session earlier on in the series in December, where Suzuki complains that Sugiki’s Latin just isn’t sexy. Sugiki suggests that he can practice being sexy by wiggling his butt around to write a message in the air. Suzuki worries that if he starts writing out “love” or something, he’ll have to run away and escape. Sugiki gets started, and Suzuki calls out each letter that he can make out from his elegant butt bouncing. After figuring out he’s written “M-E-R-R-Y”, Suzuki guesses that he’s writing “Merry Christmas”. Sugiki gets mad that he said it aloud before he finished writing his message, and says he’s going to leave. Suzuki says, “Wait, I love you,” as narrative text says that this somehow turned into a love story in one panel.

And here are some tidbits I found interesting/amusing from the chapter notes:

She thinks readers who are fans of pecs will like Saichi.

She’s not sure if readers will love Max or hate him, but she personally likes him (sorry Sensei, I kinda hate him lol)

As of chapter 32, a portion of the art is now done digitally.

The epic “last dance” scene from 33 was something that she had planned since the beginning of the series, and it ended up being 8 times the cost for a typical chapter.

Special edition booklet:

The special edition comes with a 48 page hardcover booklet that includes a variety of different extras, divided into 8 sections called “heats”.

Heat 1 is a newly drawn, 12 page parody manga. Back in September 2020, Inouesatoh put out a request on Twitter for fans to send in their suggestions for an erotic side story. Putting the characters in a high school setting was the most requested scenario, so she chose this idea as the basis for the story. The title is “And All That Jazz” (the premise makes this somewhat confusing to summarize, so keep in mind that I’ll mostly be describing their actions based on the soul rather than the body, but will use quotation marks if it’s about other characters and who they think they’re addressing. It’ll all make sense, I promise...I think :P)

(The title page actually depicts the ending of the story, so I’ll come back to it later). It starts with Suzuki narrating his introduction, saying that he’s a transfer student to the Standard Academy. He really doesn’t get along with a guy named Sugiki, but for some reason, the two have now switched bodies with each other. Sugiki opens his shirt and inspects his new physique in front of other students, as Suzuki yells out asking what the hell he’s doing to his body. They look at themselves wearing each other’s expressions, Sugiki seeming surprised his mouth can gape open like that, and Suzuki wondering what happened to his body’s facial expression muscles. The bell rings and Sugiki heads off to class, as Suzuki is baffled that he can act so calm about this.

Sugiki perfectly reads a passage aloud in English class, something everyone (including the teacher, who looks like Norman) find unusual coming from “Suzuki”, as they wonder where his usual hearts are. Suzuki makes the decision to enjoy living as Sugiki for a bit, and is shown getting flirty with several girls. He notes that the more serious personality in his regular body is also strangely popular, though with a very different crowd.

A student named Alberko (Alberto in a girl’s uniform) shows up and says that “Sugiki” was supposed to have lunch with her(?) today. Suzuki says that he thought Alberko was going out with Dorou (a masculine alteration to Dolores’ name). Ernie and Suzuki watch as his harem falls apart with Alberko running amok. Ernie comments that both “Sugiki” and that transfer student have been acting weird all week, and he asks if something happened. Suzuki internally reflects back to one week earlier, when he was relaxing in bed in the infirmary. Sugiki comes in and accuses him of skipping class, and Suzuki tells him to mind his own business. He thought this would turn into one of their usual fights, but he can’t believe that actually happened instead...

After school, Sugiki asks Suzuki if they can go home together today. As they’re walking, Suzuki asks if Sugiki realizes what it was that made them switch places, and Sugiki says he does. Suzuki says that in that case, they know how they need to fix it, and they should go over to his house. Sugiki asks for clarification of whose house exactly he means by that.

As they start to get undressed, Suzuki says that he always thought his mom and sisters were annoying, but after a week apart he really misses them. Sugiki promises that he’ll make sure he can see them soon. Suzuki claims that he’ll be the one making Sugiki come, and Sugiki asks how he can talk like that when he was the one who looked like he was about to cry when Sugiki first touched him in the infirmary.

Sugiki peeks into Suzuki’s pants and wonders if he won’t get hard unless he touches him. Suzuki thinks it’d be weirder if he could get hard while looking at his own face, and wonders if Sugiki has AI in his crotch or something (Sugiki contends that it’s not his body). They fool around with each other until they finish, and Suzuki wonders why they didn’t change back yet. Sugiki suggests that maybe it needs to be just like the last time to count as a complete set, when they went at it until they fell off the bed, so both agree that they need to go for one more round. This then ties back to the title page, where they’ve finally managed to get back into their old bodies, but have now sprouted cat ears and tails.

Heat 2 of the booklet is 8 pages long, and contains short comics and illustrations that were not previously included in the volume releases. The comics include “How to 10 Dance”, a one-page comic with the Shinyas demonstrating the tango. Their privates end up touching, and Sugiki seems highly amused, gleefully asking Suzuki how it feels. Suzuki says that he was the one who got all bent out of shape over that back in volume 1, and tells him to lay off the sadist mode since they’re not dancing Latin right now. The second comic is “2nd Step”, and shows a glimpse of how the Shinyas were with each other after Suzuki gave the go-ahead for kissing. In fact, Sugiki ends up kissing him so much that Suzuki’s lips get sore and swollen. Sugiki then tries to kiss his neck as an alternative, but Suzuki’s not having it. The third comic depicts Suzuki’s first time in a public bath, where he realizes that Japanese people aren’t fully shaved everywhere like he is. Some of the old guys talk to him and slap their balls with their towels, and Suzuki, seeming a bit confused, gives his own balls a slap, too. After the comics are a selection of illustrations that were never used in the volumes, including this one from a Real 10 Dance event in 2018:

Heat 3 is 18 pages, and contains a variety of colored versions of both chapter covers and scenes from the manga, a couple of which I’ll share below:

Heat 4 includes 3 pages of insight from the professional dancers who consult for the manga, in which they explain the moves shown in specific panels.

Heat 5 is a single page look at Inouesatoh’s work space.

Heat 6 is 3 pages worth of advertisements that have been used to promote the series, including things like ads that were posted in subway stations:

Heat 7 is a single page look at the storyboard for chapter 1 of the manga.

Heat 8 is a single page showing the covers for foreign editions of the manga (Taiwanese, Korean, North American, and French).

Finally, there’s one last page with a thank you message from Inouesatoh, including an absolutely precious illustration of the Shinyas in happier times.

And that’s that! This really is an incredible release, and I’d definitely recommend picking up the special edition if you can. CD Japan offers direct international shipping, and I’ve also seen that Kinokuniya lists it as “available to order” currently (though they don’t appear to have stock on hand, so might take longer).

#10 dance #10dance

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kinglarrykoopadx · 4 years ago

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Ranking the bosses of Origami King

I have stated many many MANY times that Origami King is my favorite Paper Mario, hell, one of my favorite games of all time. And if some lunatic waltzes into my house and gives me a choice of either liking TTYD or die, I’d rather be dead. But what’s the worst and best boss in the game? Today, we’re gonna rank all the bosses in Origami King. Also, it is recommended that you finish the game to view this post, cause this is a spoiler zone.

17. The Shifty Sticker, Tape

The most annoying and unfun boss to cap off a great tribute to Wind Waker fans, all the positives Tape got was having a bopping as hell music and a really great 1st phase. But that’s where the positives end, cause the 2nd phase is where it all goes downhill. Tape glues parts of the ring meaning you can’t slide panels and some parts of the rings are connected together. And when a lot of tapes are in the ring at once, it’s pretty annoying. And this may just be me, but when there’s too much tape in the arena, Tape straight up gobbles up the tape in the arena to restore HP and it is annoying as fudge. Oh and did I mention that to damage this boss, you’re forced to use the 1000 fold arms? And did I mention that any other form of offense is next to useless? Needless to say, this is one of the worst bosses I’ve had the pain to endure.

16. The Freezing Finisher, Ice Vellumental

The first phase of Snowy The Bear over here is surrounded by an icy forcefield and you must use the Fire Vellumental to melt down his barrier which is, pretty alright for a first phase (I mean your sliding is not locked this time so that’s a plus), but then, there’s Ice Maze to make up for all that fun. For those of you unknowing fools out there, Ice Maze is an ability of this guy where large parts of the arena are covered in ice, and the only way to get through it is find a way to the Action Panel or an active Fire Vellumental Magic Circle without being frozen so you (kinda) won’t have to endure his greatest attack, Ice Age. Problem is, that even for me, who has a strong memory, I can’t seem to solve it. Why this is less dreaded than Tape for me despite the monotony is that you can kinda cheese it without Fire Vellumental. By collecting coins, you can stock on Shiny Fire Flowers and basically fireball this boss to death (and they said coins are useless). Even so fuck this fight man.

15. The Blazing Bird, Fire Vellumental

This phoenix right here is possibly the smartest of the Vellumentals. Why is that, you ask? Easy. He lets you damage yourself. Using his special move, Hot Wings, he basically spreads his own wings (which takes a chunk of his health) and lets you damage yourself until you reach an Action Panel. Once you’re in the Action Panel, use your Iron Boots and jump the shit outta him until his feathers are all/almost gone. Then, use Water Vellumental to shower it to its doom, and lastly, for the coup de grace, pull off his hair and humiliate him in front of a bunch of Toads. The only reason this chicken wing is higher is because jumping him with Iron Boots is as fun, if not more fun than using the Fireballs to cheese the Ice Vellumental.

14. The Apocalyptic Abomination, Paper Mistake Buzzy Beetle

By far the most gruesome thing in Paper Mario franchise, it starts off with you hammering the Dry Bone heads it spews out using Kamek’s magic. Then, after enough heads were smashed, Kamek reveals himself and you have to pull him outta the beetle’s nose which is more satisfying than it should be. And then after that, you smash him in the gut 4 times to win. Needless to say, it had its moments.

13. The Elastic Entertainer, Rubber Band

4 numbers later and we are back to the Legion Of Stationary. This time, it’s Rubber Band. While I can see why people like this boss, keep in mind I’m doing all these on a no Game Over run, which makes the boss less fun for me. The Bumper Bands are a mere nuisance, but get caught in Rubber Bind and kiss your health goodbye. Solo Snapback isn’t much better either, for that attack, pray you have a 1 Up left or at the very least can endure that attack or say goodbye to your health. However, despite doing this on a no Game Over run is hell, why is it this high though? you may ask, well, simply put, the Rubber Bands are better projectiles than the Hot Wings, Icicles, and Tape combined.

12. The Chaotic Cactus, Mega Paper Macho Pokey

Tower Power Pokey is back, but this time, he’s made some changes to the battlefield. Now, instead of fighting in some egyptian temple, you fight him inside of a tornado. This segmented spiky monstrosity has 3 attacks. Creating tornadoes, stalking you from underground, and trying to squash you with its body. This time, to defeat him, instead of using some Baseball Bat sticker bullshit, you must wait until his glow fades and approach him with the Boot Car so you can deliver the smackdown. And, pro tip : if I were you, I wouldn’t get caught in the twisters.

11. The Groundshaking Gut-Slammer, Earth Vellumental

God to all Koopas, the Earth Vellumental is pretty fun for a tutorial boss. You use your hammers to smash its limbs till eventually you hit its tender tail, and it’s more fun than it had any right to be. Once the tail is pounded to perfection, flip it with your 1000 fold arms and smack the living daylights out of it.

10. The Trial Of Toughness, Scuffle Island Boss Rush

An optional boss accessible in Chapter 4, the Scuffle Island Boss Rush is fun for a miniboss rush. You get 7 tough Paper Macho opponents ; Goomba, Shy Guy, Koopa, Boo, Paratroopa, Stone Spike, and Buzzy Beetle, each bearing 2 more hitpoints than the ordinary Paper Macho enemies and having a large attack boost. It’s a test of learning the patterns of the Paper Machos and is way more fun than it has any right to be. Although the Paratroopa did gave me some troubles, like, seriously, if you beat this guy’s 1st phase without a guide, you’re a pro.

9. The Stormy Guardian, Boss Sumo Bro

A clever reference to NSMBU and Super Mario World, Boss Sumo Bro stands on his mighty thundercloud at first, until you take out his goonies. Then, once you’re done with his goons, he’ll charge up his unblockable Mega Thunder attack and to stop it, you must use the Fire Vellumental to take him down. It’s admittedly pretty fun.

8. The Missile Maestro, Colored Pencils

One of the most fun tutorial bosses, Colored Pencils has a simple but really fun 1st phase. You have to close its lid to pull off a Fire Vellumental, and on the 2nd phase, it gets better. You have to use his Rainbow Roll against him and smack the living daylights out of him. It’s a great boss, buut problem is, it’s a tutorial boss. It had not much of a chance to make it to the top 5.

7. The Final Destination, Paper Plane Strike Force

This game consists of you shooting a bunch of Bob Ombs to pave the way to the final level of the game Origami Castle, which is, much sadder than it may seem. It’s fun as heck shooting down the paper planes, and the Squadron where you have to shoot like a million Bob Ombs to its face is by far personally the most fun part of the game. Why it’s this low is that it’s one of the 2 non-rematchable bosses. Once you’ve gotten to Origami Castle, this minigame won’t be accessible anymore.

6. The Submarine Sinker, Water Vellumental

This overhydrated water dragon is one of the more strategic bosses. You must take note of the water twisters and prevent them from getting in your way of making it to the Action panel to jump him and hit him with the hammer. And then, once he’s gonna blow, make your way to the Earth Vellumental Magic Circle to dodge his Mega Wave attack, which is pretty powerful. It’s personally one of the more fun bosses this game had to offer. It’s not in the top 5 since the water twisters can be pretty annoying though I never had a problem with them personally.

5. The Disco Devil, Hole Punch

The groovy lobotomiser’s 1st phase is pretty annoying, you have to find his tender spot to deal decent damage to him, while having a reduction in health, but slamming the ever loving shit outta him when he tried to pull off his special attack is fun as hell. It makes up for the horrid 1st phase. And pulling off the rubber case as the finisher is waaayyy more fun than it needs to be. Also the music is a freaking jam.

4. The Tentacley Terror, Paper Macho Gooper Blooper

This Mario Sunshine nostalgia fest is hella fun. The 1st phase has you hammering his tentacles which is way more fun than it should be, and the 2nd phase has you hammering his eye, which is, again, way more fun than it should be. This boss is just really, REALLY fun.

3. The Dual Bladed Duelist, Scissors

One of the harder and more intense bosses, Scissors’ first phase is putting on a case for his blades for the sake of a fair fight, but once that’s done, it’s all intense, bloodpumping action from here. Scissors will use his unblockable special attack, Final Cut, and you must time your jumps to prevent an instant KO. I felt a strong urge of satisfaction when jumping over Scissors’ special attack countless times, it’s not even a laughing matter.

2. The Roshamboa, Handaconda

The first phase has you hammering him to get Olivia out of its grasp, and then, the 2nd phase is where the true fun begins. The Magic Circles are swapped with panels with images of Rock, Paper and Scissors and you must observe his hand patterns to get a chance to rush attack him with the 1000 fold arms. It feels so satisfying when you beat him in Roshambo and smash the living daylights out of him.

1. The Royal Rebel, King Olly

One of the best final bosses of all time, Olly is a culmination of what you have learned throughout your journey. The 1st phase consist of you retracing the weaknesses of the Vellumentals and using it against them, the 2nd phase consists of you slamming the ground to give Origami Bowser a helping hand in dealing the semi finishing blow towards Duraludon Olly, and the final phase has you fixing a jumbled up Giant Magic Circle while Olly bombards you with attacks that lead to quicktime events that are way more fun and dramatic than they had any right to be. Needless to say, Olly is the best boss in the Origami King.

#paper mario the origami king #boss rankings #handaconda #king olly #rubber band #tape #colored pencil #vellumentals #paper mario #hole punch #boss sumo bro #scissors #fuck thousand year door

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crimereporter · 3 years ago

Text

Rodney Alcala... The Dating Game Killer

*WARNING: this post contains mentions to sexual assault, assault, murder and more content that may not be appropriate for some viewers. Read at your own discretion*

Rodrigo Jacques Alcala-Buquor was born on August 23, 1943 to parents Raoul Alcala Buquor and Anna Maria Gutierrez in San Antonio, Texas. “ Rodney “ was raised in Los Angeles, Califorrnia, however at the age of 8, his family moved to Mexico. His father has been regarded as “absent” by Rodney. There we're multiple Alcala-Buquor children, however, not much is known about them or detailed in resources.

In 1960, at the age of 17, Rodney joined he military where he worked as a clerk. He ended up being medically discharged only 4 years later after having a break down which resulted in him being diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder.

He then went to UCLA where he graduated in 1968 with a Fine Arts degree.

1968- 8 year old Tali Shapiro is found raped and beaten, having been beaten using a steel bar. A motorist saw Rodney lure her into his apartment and called police to notify them of the incident.

After this, Rodney fled to New York where he attended NYU film school under the alias John Berger. He ended up working at a New Hampshire camp for the arts as a children’s counselor using a slightly dissimilar alias of “John Burger”.

June, 1971-

Cornelia Crilley, a 23 year old TWA flight attendant was found raped and murdered in her apartment in Manhattan.

1971-

Rodney is caught by 2 child campers at the New Hampshire arts camp due to an FBI wanted poster at the Post Office and was arrested. He was then extradited to California for the trial. However, the family of the young girl had moved to the East Coast in an effort to move on from the horrors that Rodney had committed. They then went to Mexico and the parents of the child refused to subject her to testifying. Without testimony from the primary witness and victim of the attack, Alcala was given a lesser sentence.

Rodney Alcala is released in 1974 after only 17 months in prison under the cause of “indeterminate sentencing”.

1974- Rodney is arrested after being out of prison for 2 moths after violating parole. He had provided marijuana to a 13 year old girl of whom he had kidnapped.

Alcala was then released 2 years later for the same reason before [indeterminate sentencing].

In 1978, he was hired at the LA Times as a typesetter where he was questioned on the Hillside Strangler murders. At this time, Rodney was a registered sex offender with a criminal record on file. However, it’s believed that he had faked credentials to receive the job in the first place.

1977- Cold case investigators believe that Alcala is irresponsible for the murder of Ellen Jane Hover after briefly moving to Manhattan with the permission of his parole officer.

During his time at the LA Times, Rodney used fake credentials to convince dozen of young women that he was a photographer. These women then posed in compromising positions and were photographed for Alcala’s “portfolio”. Most of these women are still unidentified to this day.

1979- The Samsoe Murder

Robin Samsoe, a 12 year old girl from Huntington Beach, CA disappeared between the beach and her ballet classes on June 20, 1979. He body was found 12 days later in the Los Angeles foothills. Her earrings were later found in a train locker owned by Alcala in Seattle, WA.

In 1980, Rodney was put on trial and convicted for the Rape and Murder of Robin Samsoe, where he was sentenced to death. This conviction, however, was overturned by the Orange County Superior Court due to the jury hearing testimony regarding Tali Shapiro as well as other rape and kidnapping convictions. This was believed to lead to a jury bias that led to reasonable doubt of the legitimacy of his conviction.

In 1986 Alcala was put on trial again for the Samsoe case after the state rep-files the case. He was once again convicted for the crime and sentenced to death, however it was once again overturned by a panel in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. It was said that testimony that could have changed the evidence of the case was not allowed to be provided as it supported Alcala. A witness supported Alcala’s claim the park ranger that found Samsoe was “Hypnotized by police investigators”.

In 2003, Alcala’s DNA is found in connection with 6 additional murders. They also found one of these victim’s earrings in the same Seattle locker as they found Robin Samsoe’s.

4 of the additional victims were:

- Jill Barcomb, 18, who was a New York runaway in an LA ravine (1977). She was originally believed to be a victim of the Hillside Strangler.

- Georgia Wixted, 27, found in her Malibu apartment after being bludgeoned to death (1977).

- Charlotte Lamb, 31, found in the laundry room of her el Segundo apartment complex after being raped and strangled (1978).

- Jill Parenteau, 21, Killed in her Burbank apartment (1979).

In 2006, the state motioned to combine the cases of the 4 women with that of the Samsoe case, which was approved. In 2010, Rodney stood trial for the combined charges. He decided to act as his own attorney for his third trial, tetstifying in his own defense while asking himself questions (he was essentially interrogating himself from the stand). Alcala testified that he was at Knott’s Berry Farm applying for a photographer positions at the time Samsoe was murdered. He did not, however, provide any testimony regarding the other 4 murders other than “not remembering” killing any of the women. For his closing argument, he played Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Kitchen”, in which the protagonist tells a psychiatrist he wants to kill.

After less than 2 days of deliberation, Rodney was convicted on all 5 counts of first-degree murder. Tali Shapiro served as a surprise witness during the penalty phase of the trial. He was sentenced to death.

Court psychiatrists later proposed that additional diagnoses for Rodney could bet that of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), and Malignant Narcissism with psychopathy and sexual sadism comorbidities.

In December, 2012, Alcala was extradited to New York and convicted to additional charges of murder. He was sentenced two an additional 25 years two life, as the death penalty hasn’t been an option in New York since 2007.

Rodney is now incarcerated at California State Prison, Corcoran (as according to Wikipedia) awaiting execution. He is now 77 years of age. It is thought that his victim's range anywhere from 8 to 130 in numbers. He is additionally associated with crimes in Washington and Wyoming, however these aren’t crimes he’s been convicted for.

Why he’s called the Dating Game Killer:

In 1978, he appeared on a television. show called the dating game, in which a contestant questions 3 different individuals anonymously and picks one of these 3 to go on a date with. He was introduced as a “successful photographer who got his start at the age of 13.” He actually won a date with contestant Cheryl Bradshaw, however, she refused the date after meeting him. She later said that she had found him “creepy”. He was at the height of his killing spree during his appearance on the show. It is proposed that this rejection from Cheryl may have exacerbated his desire to murder women as he would go on to kill at least 3 more women after this appearance.

Here is a link to a clip of him on The Dating Game:

https://images.app.goo.gl/vqpkGUqV1km23BZ38

#true crime #Crime #criminal justice #history #true story

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