#AND THIS OTHER ONE MADE THIS AWESOME FELL DESIGN it’s canon to me

[wickjump]

my main issue with human designs is that they’ll never look like the character bc the character isn’t human so it’s always gonna look off and it always won’t perfectly resemble or reflect the og both in looks or vibe. killer will never have the same eerieness in a human design that he does in skeleton form, for example. and then you’ll find this one perfect beautiful human design for a character made in a one off post that will never be drawn again and you’re left in a sea of mediocrity and whitewashing of your favorite character. and you’re left crying out but that one artist will never draw that human design again

[duchess-of-mandalore]

I have read a very unique theories that the actual child of Satine and Obi is Bo-Katan and not Korkie! That is why Obi didn’t know a thing about a “sister” and the fact that Bo is way younger than Satine.

What do you think about it?

Hi, piccola! Thanks for asking! Unfortunately, I fear I will make you regret it because I can offer no encouragement or enjoyment of this theory. In fact, I think it's a load of poodoo.

Ironically, you may have originally heard of the theory from me. I made a post that did some good numbers on Twitter and tumblr, but it was meant sarcastically, and I'll explain why.

The only reason it exists is that Jon Favreau decided The Mandalorian would be set all the way in 9/10 ABY. Season 1 premiered and then Katee Sackhoff gave Dave Filoni the idea to include her as live-action Bo-Katan in Season 2. Katee (starting in her early 30s) voiced Bo-Katan in TCW. When she first appeared, the story was in the year 20 BBY. That means there are 30 years in between her first appearance in The Clone Wars and her first appearance in The Mandalorian.

I understand why you said, "Bo is way younger than Satine." Katee actually said the same thing. She's the one who estimated that Bo is about "47 to 51" (like I wrote in that Twitter post). But that's not how Bo-Katan was designed. Dave Filoni designed Bo and Satine to be twins or very close to twins. In 2013, Filoni made several comments about how in his mind, something formative happened in Bo and Satine's backstories when they were both six years old.

So if they're twins, how old are the Kryze sisters?

Obi-Wan Kenobi is 38 years old at the end of The Clone Wars. Satine is close to his age because we know that they fell in love while they were on the run for a year. Thus Bo must also be in her mid-late 30s in TCW. And that's how it was *always* presented ... until The Mandalorian (In Rebels they added prominent forehead wrinkles to her design in the assumption that she was in her 50s, and that's only set in 1 BBY).

Plus, it also makes zero sense because if Satine is in her late 30s and Bo-Katan is 20 years younger (to make the Bo-Katan Kenobi theory possible), then this line is pretty dumb.

"There was a time when we weren't enemies. Remember when I was 30 and you were 10?"

Silly.

There are other reasons why the Young Bo theory falls apart, like the fact that Satine's father is killed before she meets Obi-Wan, but in The Mandalorian, Bo-Katan recalls that her father was with her when she swore the Creed. So she can't actually be that much younger than Satine. There is simply no way that she is not at least 60 years old in The Mandalorian, and given that I subscribe to the Kryze Twins assumption, I lean more toward her being about 68 or so.

All that is to say that I definitely don't subscribe to either the Young Bo theory or the Bo-Katan Kenobi theory and truly wish that there were no basis for either one, even if that means wishing Katee (who's awesome) never showed up as Bo (who's awesome) in The Mandalorian.

And it really makes me sad that in the name of justifying having Katee play her character 30 years into the future (and erasing all mention of Satine), they have now implicitly deprived Satine of having her sister in her life in all her years growing up. Satine is a character who already has so few canon relationships, and they removed her only living family member from her generation. It just makes me sad on Satine's behalf and Bo-Katan's behalf as well.

[rongrii]

WARNING: FNAF MOVIE SPOILERS AHEAD!!

Me when when bunny murderer

So I watched the movie, and it was great!!

I will share my thoughts on it but try to keep it simple, bc i can write a whole 2 pages ass text about it(real)

1) OKAY i will say at first i am not a very big fan of changing canon (like in books), but on the other hand it creates a new different universe to explore, which is great! + I didn’t fell atmosphere similar to fnaf games, horror and tension in movie was a bit different, and whole mood of the film gave different vibes

2) I like the idea of Afton familt being in there, but not as Aftons?? I mean Mike, Abby and Garrett. On the first scene where Garrett was kidnapped i was like “WAIT GARRETT. THATS ONE OF C.C. FANON NAMES HUUUUUH”, i really liked this detail

3) About William not having a big of a motive, I am a fan of a slightly different William character. Like not JUST insane sadistical maniac, but something leading to this side of him to go out. Not very disappointed tho, as i said, it’s a different universe and exploring of new sides of characters.

4) About animatronics: I LOVED Foxys little singing when hes near and ready to attack. That was awesome to hear. Overall, robots are well made and they move in a very cool way!

What i want from future sequels(my selfish wishes): To see some version of Henry and Charlie(or at least puppet, and i am sure she will be there bc of some of moments in film), Springtrap and how his design will change after dying in a suit. Will he have visible bones and meat? Like in game, those details are so cool as a part of visual design, and future dynamics and characters interactions :D

Thank you for reading this all large text, I hope you liked the movie, and have a good day!!

[umbraastaff]

I'd love to hear your general thoughts on the new gn! I personally think Wonderland was a little rushed, but I loved reunion tour.

was fun in some ways and fell short in others! i overall i agree with you on that as well. more specific thoughts, in no particular order:

some really really cool visuals in this book. lucretia in the hourglass at the start, some awesome panels with space and the hunger and stuff... barry regaining his memories on page 212 is probably my favorite page in the whole book

the choice to make the Chug & Squeeze be painting instead of pottery is baffling to me. the title of the place made sense with the original… the choice to change it so that it doesn't fit, and then also make fun of that, feels a bit like i am being made fun of as a fan/audience member, regardless of whatever the original intent was

(compounded with the total loss of the original depth in this scene… no vulnerability from taako, just a good 'ol fanservice kiss…)

similarly bizarre, the choice to make lucretia lose 30 years instead of 20...? 20 not bad enough? she needed to be 60 instead of 50? what's happening lol

i feel vindicated on a spiritual level for being the only person i can remember drawing mullet ponytail barry - like 95% of fanart i see draws him either short haired or with long hair free n out like in HTBG graphic novel... never ponytails. im winning

more bafflement with magnus even THINKING on the question of forgetting julia... the kalen thing is a much more interesting conflict to me given (a) it makes sense to be uncertain about and (b) relates directly back to his love for julia. and they established AND NAMED kalen in eleventh hour, why not use that...

feels like they swing back and forth on how much they trust the audience to pick up subtext... being hit over the head with magnus continuing the "id hate it shut the fuck up" thing to rly look at the camera and wink and tell us how much he loves julia, but then the comic version of the "love barry trust barry" was VERY dependent on picking up cues and seeing taako's attitude change

speaking of, i did really love the "love barry trust barry" scene. and both times lup jumps into barry's arms is so cute ugh

i know it's a product of how rushed everything has to be putting 10+ hours of audio into a singular COMIC book, but for fuck's sake, removing KEATS..........?????? so now lydia & edward have no depth??? & no parallel/foreshadowing for the way liches work??? OKAY???

mannequin magnus design and the way they enabled him to do expressions was preddy good. enjoyed it. also the whole possession + wonderland final fight action is cool and fun

while i am disappointed the bell is all fancy and weird instead of being a very plain and small thing as it was described in canon (which felt more in character for barry), i DO really really really like the flower on top... the wither-and-bloom motif... tasty

oh yeah griffin disappearing is such a great way to foreshadow a thing beyond planes coming down to consume... ahh i love playing with meta stuff

so so much good barry content man. so much. thank god we got so much good fun reunion tour stuff. hes so dumb as rocks i love him

actually pretty cool they more explicitly canonized the explanation for barry physically attacking davenport. also barry/lucretia interaction so so so so good

as cute as the original scene is with them planning and writing the note for magnus' body, i think the way they split the party in this version was smart

i dont need to contribute more to the pool on fan feelings on blue twins, BUT given there was no choice but to have her be blue, lup is very cute

taako falling to his knees instead of like pointing the staff at lucretia... :/ eh

given how much literally this entire series has suffered from being so scrunched up, i'm also not SUPER looking forward to stolen century and S&S being condensed into one book, but ohhhh wellllll

TL;DR i don't really read these books because i have a lot of faith in the way they Tell The Story, but it still had a lot of fun moments and scenes and visuals that got my heart! fun to see thorough visual takes on my fave podcast.

[maddys-nerd-blog]

TMNT 40th anniversary ask game: 3, 25, 33

HEY!! 😄😄 Thank you for the ask!!!

Hmmmm, well, I guess I’ll go in order for this one!

I got the impression that 1987 was strictly just for a younger demographic so I was really surprised to watch it on a first viewing as an adult and find that, yeah, it’s written for a younger audience, but the dialogue is pretty damn clever! Some of my favorite episodes were ones where the writing and comedy took the main stage and allowed for the actors to pretty much ad-lib! I found it really fun!

2003… oof. Alright. So. This is strictly my opinion and thoughts so please don’t hate me 😂 I had pretty high expectations for this one cuz from what I heard, THIS was the most amazing version. As a person who did catch some of the original airings as a kid when Fast Forward was around during 2007, I thought it was okay. But then I started watching it from the beginning with an adult perspective a few months ago…

Yeah. I’m sorry, this one ain’t for me.

Now don’t get me wrong! There are a few things I did genuinely love! 03’ Donnie and Leo? The best characters in the show. Splinter grew on me after season three and I think he’s really cool. Usagi? Badass, awesome, he’s great. A TON of these episodes were standouts for great reasons. Season One was fantastic and only got better in the third and fourth seasons! But then Season Five happened and that kinda took a downhill turn for me.

I feel like the storytelling really fell flat on its face during the last three seasons. Plus I DESPISE several of the characters from this version— Bishop. Karai. Renet. Honeycutt. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE ACOLYTES AND THE GODDAMN NINJA TRIBUNAL.

And… ugh. 03’ Mikey is the bane of my existence 😅😂😅😂

It just felt like I had all these high hopes for this one, but after finishing it recently? This version ranks pretty low 😅

2012 on the other hand? Yeah no, THIS ONE IS MY FAVORITE!!! I adore that this was a love letter to the entire franchise as a whole, created BY fans, FOR fans, and every episode was a whirlwind of twists and turns that left my jaw on the floor. It’s also the first version of TMNT to get me to weep 😂 Donatello is a cinnamon roll and needs to be protected cuz THIS POOR THING NEEDS THERAPY.

And Rise is LOADS of fun!!! The animation is amazingly fluid and the character designs really work in the show’s favor! The comedy writing is witty and comes out of left field in the best ways! Leo and Donnie are the highlights for me as always ( ALSO THE BEST FORM OF AUTISTIC REPRESENTATION IN MEDIA ) The only issue I truly have with Rise is Splinter BUT I DONT WANNA RAMBLE ANY FURTHER 🤣🤣🤣

******************

My favorite AUs? Ooooof. OOOOOF THATS A BUNCH! But I’ll try to keep it quick cuz we’ll be here for decades 🤣 SO! In order, my favorite ones are:

@tending-the-hearth’s Turtle Angst AU. It’s one thing for a fanfiction of any kind to move me, but it’s a feat when the writer captures the character of the turtles so well that I can perfectly picture these conversations playing out like they’re canon. Plus, another outstanding feat is if a fellow fanfiction writer can convey the emotional pull of their works to the point to where I was crying, but DAMN, that ‘12 Raph and Mutant Mayhem Splinter conversation MADE ME CRY LIKE A BITCH. I cannot recommend this AU enough if you’re a fan of complex stories that really toy with the multiverse aspect of the franchise in a way that feels true and authentic, and if you wanna get your angsty feels, give this a read!!

@hasello’s Cousin AU is SO WHOLESOME AND SO ADORABLE AND SO SWEET I CANT GET ENOUGH. Their artwork??? Their holiday special???? Their character interactions???? UUUUGH ITS SO GOOD!!! I adore it so much!!!

@tmnt-tychou’s Ninja Turtle Brotherhood AU. DUDE, THIS SLAPS. Her turtle designs are awesome as hell and the mystery hook pulls me in!! This latest update had me so excited for what’s coming next cuz… my god, I CANT WAIT!! It’s truly a treat for all turtle fans cuz of the awesome writing!!

@pebr-writes’s works in general. Like… holy SHIT. Go read their Leonardo Whump series. THE WRITING IS SHAKESPEARE.

@figuringitoutasigoalong has been creating Whumptober stories for the TMNT for a while but DAMN!!! Her works have really given me a kick in the emotional teeth!! Her Donnie-centric one shots and her Little Donnie AU is great!! I can’t help it but god the writing is SO GOOD.

@fabuloustrash05’s 2012 Turtles in the 20’s AU. IM SUCH A SUCKER FOR A VINTAGE SETTING AND THE ROARING 20’S WITH THE 2012 CHARACTERS IS AWESOME AND SO SO SO COOL!!!! Plus, the music selections??? I LOVE jazz, so it’s always a treat when authors incorporate the classic artists in there!! Just… go give this a read please!!

@bluepeachstudios’s Ghost in the Shell AU. I would be remiss if I didn’t even MENTION this incredible story. This is up there as a top tier work of fanfiction; it has everything! Drama, whole family interactions, compelling lore and great comedy sprinkled in, the depths of Ghost’s trauma are interwoven with the world of Rise in a way that feels natural and DEAR LORD PLEASE GIVE HIM A HUG!!!

@baskeigh-ball’s AU!!! I’m such a sucker for one of those ‘the turtles get split up after they get mutated’ stories, BUT WHEN YOU THROW THE MUD DOGS IN AS MAIN PLAYERS??? IM HOOKED FROM THE START.

@daedelweiss’s Life Mission AU. Amazing. Just… everything is so good 😊

***********************

My favorite thing I made for the TMNT? Well I’d have to go with my Robbie Rist piece and my Kevin Eastman art I did! I’m pretty damn proud of those and how they both turned out. I’m not the best artist but I tried my best and used my abilities to the fullest! 😁

Hope this was a fun read!!! Thank you and have a lovely day!! 😊

[nonbinaryaubrey]

God I want to talk to you(or anyone, but you seem very friendly!!), about my OMORI AUs. I'm like- mentally ill about them all, tbh. Especially bout my magical girl au(or maybe moreso on my delinquent Sunny au, or just- all of them tbh).

Cuz like- last night, I had a dream,, and tbh it was just me as a magical girl and after having a meeting with Wooly(not from Amanda The Adventurer, since tbh the creature that was ig the one who gave me magical girl powers(lying, awesome *lie*), was just a sack of wool that had a face or smth I dunno), and at the end I got some like- roller skates, and my mind went like: “for balance”. And then once I woke up, and I had that idea for my magical girl Sunny design n stuff

Mari is bedridden, due to her bad knee getting worse(me not having an idea on how to make her a magical girl🤭). Sunny wants to help her(oh yeah, all of the cast of Omori here are all fem or ambiguous,, more fem leaning so yayay!! all lesbians !!!), and so she wishes for Mari to “be back to normal”(weird ass wish but my gal is, :autism:).

Sunny's design is like,, soft and puffy at first(like a cat or a sheep!!) but after like- some major stuff ig she can change her dress n stuff to be more like,, mature looking in the future(gives that white gown feeling to it, and stuff ig I dunno a wolf?? dhsjhdbeshb).

Sunny has an undercover magical girl name(the rest do as well) and her name is “White/Black Swan”(White for good/true ending, Black for bad/knife/hikkiomori ending)

More on her design tho!!! She wears the roller skates, that are colored red, also with the red hands(“to be normal” implies that smth was abnormal to her with Mari when she made that wish, and so she has the red hands and roller skates for comfort/balance. The red hands help her legs to focus on running!). Her dress design color is like, how headspace kinda is(purple/violet/lavender, light blues, and pastel greens with yellows and bright reds abit). Her dress is very puffy, like Madoka's,,, The insides of her hair are dyed purple, and is long like Mari's(even tho that's rlly long for a 12yr; yea she was 12 when she made that wish).

Oh yeah! This AU is called “OMOGIA: Winter hell”, cuz it's based off of four things. LMK Winter au, “Alice of Human Sacrifice”, OHHELL OMORI(my au on where Kel dies, Delinquent Sunny, etc), and Madoka Magica(the records moreso).

Her witch form. Okay so witches here, are called “Boxed Spirits” <- minor, “Boxed/Caged Demons” <- major. Sunny's Caged Demon form is called “Dorus Gray”(first name was "White Wing", then changed to "Dorian Gray", now it's this). Caged Demon form, takes the looks of 12yr Sunny, with abnormal long hair, that then (ig) kinda swallows Sunny or goes to hide her eyes(“Dorus Gray” uses he/it pronouns, as it moreso looks like canon omori,, ina way- like that mystery potion but reversed n all)

Sunny turns into Dorus Gray in her room, but the barrier also looks like a Hospital('She couldn't get the place out of her head, now that Mari is gone... All because she fell out of her bed, and messed with some of her wires that kept her alive..' Sunny failed Mari. How could she!). Dorus Gray just sits on the bed, while having his familiars stay with it. The familiars all have Mari's hair, but they also look like combinations of her friends(Kel, Parsley, Aubrey, Hero). The “Parsley” familiars are also much closer to Dorus Gray, and stand out the most due to their blond/light baby blue hair. The “Aubrey” familiars also stay close to Parsleys. Kels and Heros, stay close as well but they are also.. they seem distant in personality and relationship(“it's strained ever since Hero's girlfriend(not "gorlfriend" what), died in the hospital.. she was never okay after that.. ... now here I am! Stuck in this place, and I get saved by you..!” Kel said with a smile towards the now mature-looking Sunny, but it looked weird in a way).

Heros are also the ones farther away from Dorus Gray, while the others are closer to Dorus Gray(but also father as some want to stay away from Dorus Gray). Dorus Gray doesn't mind that though. He doesn't need to. All he needs to do, is “be normal”, so with that? It'll sleep. While it covers Sunny's eyes, it sleeps to show Sunny a utopia. Sunny didn't fail Mari, she's normal.

Oh yeah! I think I forgot to say, that I gave Sunny a full name! Her full name is; Zen “Sunny”(a nickname) Yanagi. Zen can have an ‘O’ or an ‘A’, but Sunny doesn't rlly care bout that, so yeah. (Sunny is Greek/Japanese here, learning English! ,,, that's where the "Dorus" part comes from,, it comes from the Greek/Greece(?) side of her family). I work on Sunny too much- I need to give her/him a break honestly,, djbdjsbdnsb

(if I told you I am just coming up with this along as I go, would you believe me?? Cuz tbh I can't believe meself too,, making lore out of words- woa)

Sorry if this was wayy too long!!! Djbdhdbs

ohoh!!! forgive me if im not able to add much (sleepy...nothing in my brain) but :O!!!! sounds prrretty interesting ^_^ !!! neat!

[crimsonxe]

I'm just going to do this instead of replies as it allows 1 post vs. 10:

[RT didnt give CRWBY enough time to do jack with the show, and it was obvious in the production. Lots of love, little polish due to the crunch]

There's very few areas where this actually applies. We don't for instance need a "this is what Sun is up to" episode; that'd be a nice addition but isn't a need. There hasn't been a part of the story where I've been "oh but that needed more time", outside of way back in v4 with Yang's recovery. Though even that was fixed via the v4-5 canon comics that showed more of it without taking from the actual bigger things happening.

[The show, if it had enough time to flow like it should have, would have been far better. Characters would be able to work out their flaws and issues, and they wouldnt change massively between seasons or episodes]

While I can't say anything about other shows, but no characters in RWBY "change massively between seasons or episodes" without good reason. Yang changed post v3, because of what happened to her at the end of it; just to name the easiest example. I've already gone into Adam and IW with how they didn't massively change just progressed down their own roads with the traits that were shown with them.

[Also, the outfits are just…no. Weiss’s hair. The blue making her look like she fell in a vat of blueberries. Yang’s clothes making her look bland and dull, compared to her vibrancy before. Her hair looking play-dough in shade. Blake’s outfit being 99% zipper. Ruby’s was okay, though. This all was due to rush, and crunchtime being crunched as usual. No tome to flesh out anything. Having to blur 99% of weapon shifting. Having weiss be a SUMMONER rather than a fencer spellblade like she was best at]

I completely fall the other direction cause to me Weiss's Atlas design seems like an Artoria Pendragon aka Saber (Fate Stay Night & Zero) homage/inspired one that lines her up with a badass knight-esque look.

Absolutely bullshit on the Yang part, across the board. Though it is hilarious how you people go back and forth with either "there's too much going on" (her v4-6) or "its too bland" (v7-9). She looks badass and her hair has never looked like "play-dough" at any time in the show.

I don't care about Blake having zippers, she still looked awesome; especially after they retouched her hair.

Oh do absolutely fuck off on the blur bullshit. No they should NOT have to spend resources and time to animate the weapons ffs. That is NOT an important detail at fucking all.

Also at no Weiss wasn't pushed as just a fencer, from the start she was using glyphs as a mage leaned type. Once she learned how to summon she definitely leaned into it, because its powerful af. I would fucking lean into it if I learned I could do it.

[Having Ruby commit suicide was also a bad move tbh.]

No, it wasn't actually and she attempted it that led into her getting cosmic counseling for her 9 volumes of PTSD and trauma as well as being reassured that she is indeed worthy of her position and being who she is. There isn't a bad thing in that.

[All because of the crunch. No time to make a script better than adäquate. No time to ensure everything looks like it should. No time to flesh out details. No time to make changes to things too quick, or making things change too suddenly.]

The script hasn't been "adequate" since v4-5, v6+ have been the best of the goddamn show so far. Not a thing your ass has mentioned actually fits and instead is just your bullshit looking for reasons to have an issue; especially with it all tying into your own biases not objective fact or common consensus.

[Crunching time for the animators and writers and CRWBY was what made everything that the RWBY haters, well, hate, happen. They just had no time after what happened when Monty passed away. The crunchtime, stress, and chaos of losing the lead of the project and show was enough to lead to a spiral downwards. And despite that…RWBY was still good. Great at times.]

Um no dumbass, the story not making the show revolve around male characters; not fanservicing & waifu-ing the femmes; the not glorifying the military authoritarianism; the not giving a psychopathic edgelord terrorist a redemption; not catering to a genocidal general; and daring to have an LGBT+ main pairing = why there's hate. Also you're talking a lot about shit your ass doesn't have a clue about, which ftr none of us have a damn clue about for sure.

[Im hopeful that the new owners can make it work, especially if they have Dylan work with them (he made entire world engines for games and even worked on Genshin’s best animated scenes, iirc.)]

I don't particularly care if he's there or not since the little bit of his stuff I've seen hasn't blown me away. All I care about is that Kerry is still there so it'll keep as it has been in respecting and centering its femmes, being more progressive, and having LGBT+.

[The reason i have an issue with Yang helping kill him is that in my eyes, its less Yang & Blake Vs Adam and more Bumblebee vs Adam. I love Bumblebee, don’t get me wrong, but in my eyes is less of them getting over it during the fight, and more of Yang and Blake’s stories being hammered together. Which would work for the story, if not for the issue of there being no real OOMPH to it all. The ending was on point. Blake collapsing into Yangs arms for support was great. But it was less if them as a unit against what was hunting Blake, and more of a ‘see how much Yang loves Blake?’ Thing in my eyes. Thats my dog water opinion. If Yang had been more vocal against Adam, perhaps it would have hit different for me. But as I said, my opinions are controversial at best, even to me. In my eyes, most issues with RWBY come from the time crunching. No time to make things realistically complex or philosophically deep more than a little.]

Adam literally CUT YANG'S ARM OFF, there is all the damn "oomph" in the world for them clashing again. It was two survivors of trauma going against the one that caused it as well as showcasing the abusiveness of Adam towards Blake for anyone that didn't get the memo by that point. With things like "if you'd just behave" it shows how he was towards her. Part of that whole thing did involve BB, because it was intrinsically linked via Yang being the contrast to Adam and BB being the contrast to TD.

[To be honest, if CRWBY had been given their own time frames, then RWBY would be far better made and polished, with a story capable of matching its fight scenes.]

v6-9 show they deliver a polished story; and v9 shows they're fully capable of delivering amazing fight scenes.

[as i said, i want Ironwood dead. Or rather, to try and redeem himself at the last moment, only to die. And Adam was a piece of shit i agree. Im sadly one of the people who get so caught up in ‘potential’ that i get lost in it.]

The difference is that you want his traits ignored and him to be redeemed; I prefer the route where his worst traits lead him to his fall and when he comes face to face with his biggest fear she completely ignores him to walk away like he's not even there. The bigger point with Adam is that he always was, there was no big change there.

[yes. I suppose i wanted Ironwood to have a moment where he realized he was the bad guy, but in the end im not the writer.]

That possibility was lost the moment he sacrificed his humanity to be more like Salem. Though there was a flicker of his inner self briefly showing through when Winter stood against and called him out, then he has a single tear run down his cheek. That was whatever was left of his buried humanity that quickly gets shoved back into its mental cage as he goes on to try to tell Winter she's wrong.

[And the bees kiss was great, but the situation of it wasn’t. I KNOW it was planned from day one. But them being in their own separate universe during the punderstorm, was just, mid and rushy. ‘You two will never leave unless you confess your love’ feelings.]

The situation was fine, no different than in a sitcom where friends of the characters everyone knows have a thing for each other "accidentally" lock them in a room together and have to go get help to get them out; all to push them to finally come out with their feelings. Blake had just gone through seeing Yang to her at the time die via falling into the voidspace; Yang had just gone through thinking she had died; then boom they reunite and are even more blatant with the flirting due to the charge of that near death event; it makes perfect sense its what's on their minds. There isn't anything at all feel mid or rushed or even off, the entire idea of the punderstorm is to resolve conundrums/issues or wait for them to pass. The punderstorm itself is perfectly fine as well via "magical other world" and on top of that allows for the gorgeous scene given that couldn't happen outside of it. There are no growing lily vines on a floating chunk of land reacting to a big damn kiss setups outside of the punderstorm.

[Renora kiss happened and i was like ‘what, shouldn’t they flesh out Nora even more now? Eh.’]

The big Renora kiss (v7) happened BEFORE that scene (v8) and Beyond shows that Nora is still figuring herself out and not together with Ren as he's allowing her the space to do so; while still trying to be a close friend to her. It wasn't tossed away like you seem to be implying.

[Thats why they cut Jaune out by sending him 30 or more years back. They. Needed. More. Time. To flesh out 4 of their 8 main characters. They still didn’t have enough time. They couldn’t do all they wanted. Thats why they needed instant solutions to Ruby’s self doubt and self hate. Thats why so much got cut away. No time to implement it all in a way RT would allow. No time to flesh anything else out more than ‘good enough’]

Um they didn't send him back to cut him, as he still shows up where it makes sense for him to show up just older. Also v9's exploration of characters was far more than "good enough", it was fucking fantastic. Also there was no "instant solution", there was a cosmic counselor who LISTENED to Ruby, wasn't judgemental, and reassured her.

[RT dying and wanting RWBY to save it ironically is what made RWBY not as good as it could have, should have been. It’s ironically what made WB kill of RT.]

Um no there was no "wanting RWBY to save it" and actually v9 is the best the show has ever fucking been. If anything v9 had them full-diving into the story and hyper focusing on the characters as well as polishing the animation overall to the best state its ever had.

Also no WBD killed off RT cause David Zaslav and his penny-pinchers are pieces of shit with no clue on artistry or how to run a damn business. The day that man falls over from a heart-attack the WBD brand will be better off and actually start to make a profit again.

Im happy RWBY has a new home, but im cautious about it. no matter how much i love and adore RWBY, it went through some bad choices, controversy, and some other stuff, so im worried about how the new studio is gonna change/fix that stuff…

[hohoz]

How RE Village (8) SOLVED almost every problem that I had with RE Series

Okay - a few weeks ago I made a post that was “The ones that suffer the most” where I showed and explained my main problems with Chris and Jill and the RE series in general 

RE 1 is my fav game of this series and probably one of my all time favs, I player every RE there is to be played except 4 (because I dislike Leon, sry) 

Recently, specially after 4, the franchise had a few problems, specially in writing/map design/lore 

Resident evil 5 for example (I love this game) but it has it flaws, Chris there is only driven by anger and action - Sheva is used as a tool for lore exposition and to be Chris’s new partner 

PLEASE: be aware that game at that generation didn’t have much lore - with some exceptions, like God of War 1 2 3 were a simply game with a simple lore, and the most recent GoW has evolved a little bit in the storytelling

Until we hit rock bottom in RE6 - I know a lot of people like this game, but this is only and action game, bad writing and generic stages. 

Chris there is so mistreated that makes me mad (if you want to read more about this go to my other post “the ones that suffer the most”)

Until RE7 appeared, Capcom had a new engine and they wanted to do a game that was more horror like - since RE is know for being a Survival horror game.

I liked 7 - some people complained about Ethan being without emotion and others complained about the mold, a few didn’t like the FEAR vibes from Eveline. 

I personally enjoyed the game, I thought RE series was going back on track, that game has it’s problems but it was really nice compared to what we had in 6.

After that game I had a conversation with my best friend and I said that I wanted a game that portrayed Umbrella’s fall since the only game that shows this is Umbrellas Chronicles (and that is most a resume of what happened)

And I said: “Bro, I wish that when they made that game, they could tie some mythological lore and human evolution before Umbrella - using Spencer, this would solve LOT OF STUFF and open new ways to handle this series”

and guess what - this happened in RE8 and kudos to the one writer that did that, i have my gratitude. 

RESIDENT EVIL 8 is probably one of the BEST RE games that we had IN YEARS

And I want to address all thing that I loved in this game and do some predictions to what will happen in the next games.

“WELL WELL IF IT ISN’T ETHAN WINTERS” (The Father of the year)

My father was not a great guy... really, so I want to be the best dad ever, I really want be like Ethan - a guy who is ready to sacrifice and fight every monster in the way to save my family. 

Ethan was a character that in RE7 was used to make us fell like that it was us in the Baker’s house, so that is why he didn’t had that much personality (in my opinion) but they changed that in RE8, here he has nice dialogues AND a diary 

He has one of the best story line in the whole REverse, a guy that did EVERYTHING in his power to save his daughter - and you saw that playing the game, every sentence line that he delivered, he tried to save others too and even tho Chris said to him stay put ... but he couldn’t, he had to go to the altar, he had to help Chris, he had to go forward and keep going, specially after having the tools to face Heisenberg. 

The plea from a father, that was his last wish, after he heard that Mia was alive he knew that someone had to stop that monster, he made a promise to his daughter “Daddy won’t let those weird fairy tale monsters get you” so he trusted Chris, to be the one that teaches his kid how to be brave and strong

I will not address Chris and Rose situation here because this is Ethans part and he deserves completely all the spotlight, his sacrifice was 100x times better than Steve (CV)/Piers(6)

My cheers to Ethan Winters - You have my respect !

Revelations -> RE8 

So leaks from earlier times said that RE8 sucked and Revelations 3 was amazing

Revelations FYI is know for using old tales in RE stories 

Revelations 1 - Dante’s Inferno 

Revelations 2 - Frans Kafka 

Revelations 3 - Dracula 

But since RE8 sucked, Capcom said to the REV3 team that they could make REV3 become RE8 and they accepted 

Revelations series is one of the best in the games, they handle Jill in a way that I love, Claire and even Barry - so they deserve all the spotlight for making this awesome game - you CLEARLY can see that they love this series and that they treat all the characters with the love that they deserve. 

Keeping that in mind, they are the same team that made Rev 2 and in REV 2 we have this file here 

So they had a plan for Jill and we can see that in RE8 - I will address that later but keep that in mind - this team cares for the old characters, they were the ones that brought Barry back to the games :V 

Chris Redfield 

This is a hard one, because he is my fav character and I usually have the most critics regard him, since I’ve expect a lot from Capcom 

In the latest games they made him kind dumb, only muscles type of guy and an alcoholic that let all the people in his surroundings die (RE5,RE6,Vendetta) 

RE6 treats him the WORST

But in RE8 he had an amazing part in the storyline, it was obvious that he wasn’t evil and they FIXED HIS EYE COLOR - FINALLY 

I still don’t like the model face that much but it’s way better than 7 - so I believe Capcom, I still feel that he need more jawline 

But let’s go to the most important thing - here he really feels like a squad leader and a veteran, he has his team but he is the one in the front line, he covers and ask for help when he needs, everything about his line delivery makes you feel like “Woah, this guy is a badass, he is not some stupid guy only driven by emotions”

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR FINALLY GETTING THIS RIGHT 

If you remember my post about the ones that suffer the most / Jill is also in that list and I will talk about her a little bit later but if my guess is right RE8 saved her character aswell

Another thing that I enjoyed here is the fact that he is kind of a mercenary / Neo Umbrella kind of guy, even tho he is one of the founders of the BSAA

So I will give you all my score to this game: 

9/10

I won’t give 10/10 because of some technical issues, the cursor lock didn’t work and mouse sensitivity was i dunno, not the best. 

RE8 and the future (PREDICTIONS)  - Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield, BSAA, Neo Umbrella, Ada Wong and Rosemary

First let’s look Rose

The first time I saw Rose all grown up - I thought to myself : She has the same problem as Eveline (age a lot faster than normal) 

But she also absorbed Miranda’s power since the metalicite (something like this) thought that she was a better host. - so maybe she will live longer or something because I doubt that they will do a 14 years time skip. 

This is not the same as Terra Save logo (Claire’s job) but it kind reminds me of it - her shoes appeared at least 3 times in this cut scene so maybe they are trying to show some hints with this 

She really reminds me of Jodie (Beyond two souls, a game where a girl has a lot of power and the gov uses her in missions and stuff, but she also is learning how to be her own person) 

Another thing here is that they don’t have a logo in this car, it really reminds me the car that Chris as using in RE8 

This supports the theory that Chris’s organization is dealing with her instead of the BSAA, the she is a hot headed girl and that she had a lot of powers. 

So here you can say that she is just a kid because she is a teenager, but what if she actually grows older really fast (like Eveline) maybe this is just 1 year later / 2 yrs later. (after RE8)

So this is the tricky part, this is Chris’s guard/soldier, someone that Chris trust to stand by her side, in my mind I do believe that Chris is kind of a father figure to her, so when this guys says this he is thinking about hot head Chris but she replies “Yeah” thinking about Ethan - (she has the mold memories, so she can actually remember Ethan’s memories) 

Now let’s look at this 

BSAA 

So in REV1 is hinted that BSAA is not the best organization in the world, but since our heroes work there we think that they are the good guys right ? 

In REV 2 (it’s important to remember that the team that created RE8 is the same from the REVELATIONS and they had this file here in REV2)

This email is from Jill and what does Jill have ? T-Virus 

Wesker is a different case since he was a project and she had the vaccine but this would make a lot of sense if they had this tests with Jill to get the T-Virus

If that is the case, they explained Jill’s absence in the main games, could even explain why Chris left BSAA and opened a new window to a lot of possibilities 

My Predictions: 

- Chris had trouble dealing with BSAA and Jill’s case, he wanted to get her out of there, maybe he removed her from there but that resulted in him being expelled from the force

-Jill may or may not know what they are doing with her blood, but she will have a huge part in the BOW used by BSAA 

-Chris is married to Jill (sorry- I had to place this here, in a perfect world he has two kids with her and they all love aunt Rose) 

-Chris will hopefully be a father figure to Rose and they will be in a game together since in the end they came to get her

-Rebecca is still involved in BSAA activities (leak from new REV3) if you consider Vendetta canon, she maybe the one that used Jill’s sample of blood to create the virus soldiers

-Barry maybe retired 

-I don’t think Leon will be in this game, but he will get his RE4 Rmk 

- I do believe RE9 will be release after Code veronica rmk and MAYBE they will do a game about Umbrella’s Fall (Chris and Jill in Europe against Red Queen and BOWs) 

But that is it, you can see a lot of elements from old RE games in RE8, they tried to do something really smart and the game felt amazing to play, that was something else and it’s been a while since a player a RE game that made me feel that way <3

[gwendolynnderolo]

the 911 fandom and female love interests: a controversial hot take

here is my hot take of the day that will probably piss off a lot of people but it’s just my opinion on how the fandom has reacted to female love interests for buck and eddie, specifically ana, and how members of the fandom have been reacting to those reactions.

i’ve seen a lot of posts saying stuff like “you only dislike ana because she’s coming in between buddie” and i’m here to say: so what?

now, i would like to preface this by saying i don’t dislike ana as a character and have a massive crush on gabrielle walsh, but to be completely honest i don’t have much of an opinion on ana except for that i think she’s pretty and i don’t like her and eddie together.

do you want to know why? because she does not have a personality outside of her relationship with eddie and her connection to christopher. there is literally not enough information about her as a character to even develop a strong opinion on her. the only substance we have that we can develop a strong opinion on is how she impacts the main characters.

here is a list of the things we know about ana:

she was christopher’s english teacher

she’s latina

she has a family member named edmundo

she told eddie that christopher has limitations and that there are things he won’t be able to do

she got her doctorate and is now a vice principal

she’s a good cook

she’s dating eddie

that is the extent of what we know about ana flores. is any of that worthy of hating her? no. but is any of it worthy of being really emotionally invested in her? also no.

now here is a list of things that have happened with other characters as a result of ana flores:

christopher fell off the skateboard (not directly her fault but it was made very clear that eddie blamed her and yelled at her about it)

christopher got mad at eddie (on two separate occasions)

eddie didn’t notice his own son sneaking out of the house

eddie acted like a completely different character for an entire episode

don’t get me wrong, i think she’s had some good impacts too, but those are the things that the story has highlighted. not to mention the fact that eddie now has a canon significant other and it is less likely that buddie will become canon any time soon.

now, are any of those things worthy of hating her? no, mostly because the majority of those things were not her fault, but the way that the storylines were written, they were directly connected to her influence and presence in the story as either christopher’s teacher or eddie’s girlfriend.

the fact of the matter is that ana has gotten zero development as a character and currently has very little substance outside of being eddie’s girlfriend. and this is not a new thing that the writers have done. see: ali.

ali is introduced not as a love interest but as an emergency victim. we see her interact with buck and eddie for two episodes, don’t see her for six episodes, then see her in the last episode of the season only for her and buck to break up. her sole purpose as a character was to be buck’s girlfriend for half a season and then break up with him.

here are the things we know about ali:

she designs hotels (i think? something like that)

her boss sexually harassed her

she was trapped in a high rise during an earthquake with buck and eddie

she dated buck for an unknown amount of time

she travels a lot for work

she helped buck find an apartment

she broke up with buck after his leg got crushed by the ladder truck

none of those things really merit any kind of a strong opinion on her. i don’t even think she was mentioned for the majority of season 2B unless it was plot relevant that buck had a girlfriend.

love interests that are not main characters are not well developed characters because they don’t need to be. they’re not people, they’re plot devices for main characters to develop or for storylines to progress in a certain way.

look at the actual well developed romances on the show: bathena, madney, henren, even buck and abby although it was just one season. all of these relationships are between two main characters or a main character and a prominent supporting character. henren slightly less so, but they’re established as a couple at the beginning of the show and get their fair share of storylines, so they still have development.

it’s very difficult to be invested in a relationship between a complex well developed character and a fairly one dimensional undeveloped or under developed character, and it’s also difficult to be invested in a character that has a very one dimensional personality.

ana has basically no flaws outside of the skateboarding incident, so what else would people be disliking her for if not for that she’s coming in between buddie? and if people are disliking her for coming in between buddie, then that’s completely valid. i’m very emotionally invested in buddie and really want them to become a couple, so i’m kind of annoyed that they’re bringing in a female character who has no personality except ‘love interest’ and making her be eddie’s girlfriend.

now, i’m not saying that means it’s totally okay to say “ana is a horrible person and i hate her because she’s coming in between my ship” because all evidence points to her not being a horrible person and it’s definitely not okay to say that. but it is completely valid to say “i really don’t like this character being on the show because they’re not developed and are coming between a ship that i’m very passionate about” and that doesn’t make you sexist or racist or whatever else people are saying, as long as that’s genuinely why you don’t like her.

these are fictional characters, not real people, and it’s valid to not like a fictional character because they’re preventing a storyline from happening that you really want to happen.

most importantly: THIS DOES NOT GIVE YOU ANY RIGHT TO ATTACK GABRIELLE WALSH. she is not a writer on the show, she did not write ana this way, she did not choose to have ana be eddie’s girlfriend, she is not the reason why buddie is not together. she is an actress who was hired to play a role and she is doing an amazing job with what she has been given. if you’re going to dislike any real people, dislike the writers because they’re the ones who are writing the story this way.

to sum up a ridiculously long post: if you love ana flores, great! if you hope her and eddie are endgame and have a very long and happy relationship, then you do you. if you’re kinda eh on ana and don’t feel strongly either way, that’s totally fine! if you really don’t like ana, that’s also totally fine! if you like ana as a character and think she has potential but you don’t like her and eddie together, awesome! if you’re secretly praying for lena to come back and for her and ana to be girlfriends (like me), then please come talk to me because i would be so here for that.

you are entitled to your own opinion, but that does not give you the right to insult other people or call them names for their opinions or to harass the actress who is just doing her job. respect other people’s feelings and decisions and remember that these are fictional characters whose sole purpose is to create an interesting and entertaining story, and if you dislike a character because you feel like they’re getting in the way of an interesting and entertaining story, you’re 100% entitled to that.

so please, stop attacking other people for their opinions and for the love of god, do not attack the actors. thank you for coming to my ted talk feel free to send me pictures of gabrielle walsh or scream at me about 911 whenever you want!

[smokeybrandreviews]

We Have The Power

I opted to boot up Netflix after a week or so, with every intent to check out that new Mary Elizabeth Winstead vehicle, Kate. As i scrolled through the many, many, new titles i completely missed because i was too smitten with HBO max to care, i came across the new He-Man reboot. Not the Kevin smith one but the CG one made for kids. Now, way back when this trailer dropped, i was on board. I thought it looked like a decent reinterpretation of the He-Man mythos. Most people were on the other side of that argument. They said it doesn’t look like He-Man and that it should have just been it’s own IP and whatever else. Seeing as how the entire first season is available to watch and how much i actually liked that trailer, i figured Kate can wait another few days and i should check out what nuAdam and Pals are up to instead.

The very first thing i noticed was how f*cking gorgeous this show is. Seriously, this is top tier computer animation on par with the likes of Pixar or Insomniac Games. I was astonished by how fluid, how well articulated everything turned out to be. I mean, i kind of had a feeling the show was going to be top tier in the visuals just from the few minutes we had with the trailer but, in motion, i n full length episodic form? It’s staggeringly wonderful. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe is one of the most aesthetically pleasing titles Netflix has ever made. Now, the animation would be nothing without the overall designs and i have to say, i kind of dig those, too.

The updated character designs are a welcome change from whatever the f*ck was crapped out in the Eighties. One of the reasons i never got into He-Man or Thundercats was strictly because i hated the look of it. When i got older and was able to look past that superficiality, i realized that the two shows were just general dog sh*t. Lots of potential, none of it fulfilled. Thundercats got a mulligan in 2011 with their short lived reboot but He-Man’s turn of turn-of-the-millennium reboot fell short in that department. I can honesty say that, after f*cking twenty years, i finally got that updated aesthetic He-Man deserved way back in 2002. Like the Thundercats reboot, this new He-Man homages what came before while putting a unique spin on old characters. He-man 2002 made an admirable attempt but He-Man 2021 said f*ck it, and just ran away with their own vision. I respect the f*ck out of that.

The very best thing about this show, however, is the writing. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe 2021 is easily the better written of the two Netflix He-Man entries this year and is on par with the 2002 narrative. I absolutely love how well the characters are written. They feel natural, like real people, like friends who have been together for years. It can be a bit tropey at times, sure, but this thing is for older kids. Nine years olds don’t necessarily need the most developed of characters but this show doesn’t skimp on that at all. It feels like watching Avatar: The Last Airbender for the first time again. I was that surprised by how well these characters popped. And, just like Aang and crew, the world around them is something f*cking spectacular!

This version of Eternia or rather, Eternos, is definitely one that i dig. I love how magic is based on tech and is absolutely frowned upon by those of the lower classes. I love how Eternia has many different races, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. I adore how the world feels like more than just as worldly desolate wasteland all the f*cking time and there are entire metropolises teeming with life. The use of color really accentuates scenes and the overall lore of this world is intriguing. I mean, He-Man has always carried a certain commendable canon but it was always so convoluted. It’s nice to have an actual plot and pretty robust history to back all of the shiny new awesome.

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe 2021 is a great f*cking watch, man. It's definitely not the He-Man you want and i can see why that might upset old heads like me who, for some reason, love that corny ass original, but it’s still some of the best He-Content out there. Aside from the fact that this thing is very much directed at a completely different audience, not born in the f*ck Seventies or Eighties, but The New Adventures of He-Man exists. F*cking ponytail He-Man is a thing that is real in real life and you want to give this show sh*t for daring to be different? Really? This show is amazing. The show you want already exists. It came out in 2002. Let this show be it’s own thing. Stop harping on it not being what you remember from your childhood and just let this new-new wash over you. It’s gorgeous, fun, very well written, expertly performed, and a general brilliant time. If you can take of your nostalgia goggles, that is.

[im-still-watching-anime]

warning: this post is just me ranting about the writing of the naruto women for far too long

i honestly feel that one of the most frustrating/vaguely hilarious aspects of naruto is how naruto ended up being - and bear with me here - the best example of the extremely specific female archtype that kishimoto seemed to be obsessed with. 

like when you focus on sakura and hinata - arguably the most important female characters in the show as the two male leads’ respective end game love interests - you can break them both down into the same general mold:

- both devoted to the same boy their entire lives

- both are shown chasing after their crush in order to stand on “equal” footing (i.e. sakura’s “i finally caught up to them” and hinata’s “no longer chasing but standing by your side” mentalities)

- both suffer and try to overcome feelings of inferiority in their respective character arcs

and i want to be clear that while female characters who fit this mold aren’t usually my favorite thing it can definitely still work when written carefully and written well -  to be blunt i personally think both hinata and sakura are awesome character concepts and both had SO MUCH potential and i love their fanon interpretations but i feel that canonically they were poorly written, underdeveloped, and flat characters

most of their canonical character motivations revolve around their love interests - which really sucks because i would have KILLED for a deeper look at everything involving hinata and the hyuuga or even more about sakura’s development of her medical ninjustsu so much got skipped when it came to them which definitely didn’t help anything - that aside this is especially true in og naruto though to be fair - sasuke was still in konoha in og naruto and team seven was together for most episodes which made it especially prevalent in sakura’s case

the point is by the time shippuden came around it was extremely obvious that efforts were being made to improve the female characters - sakura now had much higher combat ability from the start of shippuden and, though she gets much less focus hinata is repeatedly shown doing brave acts and pushing herself to become stronger. and while i really loved the effort and it was definitely an improvement from especially sakura’s original character - it still fell flat to me.

sakura’s fight with sasori was perfect and a great way to revive her character but then she was pretty stagnant in a lot of the following arcs - i.e. injured in the reunion arc, not very important during the two saviors arc, her weird fake love confession during the assembly of the five kage arc, etc. - she constantly bounces between “now i’m strong” and “i still don’t measure up” making her character development - especially pre-war - virtually nonexistent because every step forward gets followed by a step back.

hinata is a bit more difficult simply because she’s such a minor character for so much of shippuden which is insane since she’s literally the protagonist’s future wife. regardless, looking at hinata’s big moments: her fight with neji in og naruto, blocking naruto from pain in shippuden, and the Smack during the war (there’s a few i’m missing i’m sure but those are really what constitutes her biggest moments to me during the meat of shippuden’s actual development phase - not the post war resolution phase) two of three of these moments precede her getting very heavily and soundly beaten which personally irks me - even if i don’t particularly like it i can see why and it makes sense to me she didn’t win the fight with neji or her pain confrontation and it definitely shows that she is brave and emphasizes the all-important devotion to her love interest aspect of her character BUT it’s also a little obnoxious that we never get to see her be REALLY victorious in her major moments.

so to sum up so far: sakura and hinata are both meant to be perceived as innovative and strong female characters but this perception doesn’t work in sakura’s case because she immediately repeatedly reverts back to the damsel in distress archtype and it doesn’t work in hinata’s case because the few strong moments she has are highlighted by failure.

and also the all important point that the majority of their “strong moments” are driven by their love interests - not a bad motivation except for the fact that that is one of their ONLY motivations

to the main point i’m trying to make: lets compare naruto (obviously take this with the understanding that naruto has a MAJOR advantage of having way more screen time and development as the titular character)

in regards to sasuke, naruto:

- is extremely devoted

- repeatedly chases after sasuke to match-up with him and improve

- and, especially in og, struggles with feeling inferior to sasuke

the context is a little different and the motivation behind some of the points changes between the two but it’s the exact same mold as sakura and hinata

the major difference between the two and the main reason that so many more people get frustrated with sakura’s devotion to sasuke and not naruto’s really boils down to development

sakura barely had her own character outside of loving sasuke and when she did, it immediately got downplayed in some way - just look at the war arc and her triumphant “i finally caught up to them” right before both sasuke and naruto essentially gain godlike powers, she then spends the war constantly distracted by sasuke even when fighting “sasuke isn’t worried about me at all” which really downplays her role.

on the flip side, even with his main goal of bringing sasuke back to the village, naruto has tons of motivation and character building outside of sasuke - ex. becoming hokage, gaining everyone’s acceptance, fixing konoha, living up to his parents/jiraiya’s expectations, bringing peace, protecting everyone he can, freeing the tailed beasts, etc. etc. you could go on forever the show is named after him after all.

we are told that sakura always chooses sasuke and nothing else about it but then we are told that naruto chooses sasuke despite everything else.

to sum up: the traditional female love interest that kishimoto wants to invent is the woman who is devoted. she puts the person she loves above everything else because she loves him. she’d do anything for that person even if it puts her at risk, etc. but at the end of the day there’s still the tired trait of still relying on the man in her life for certain things. and he doesn’t bother to expand characters like sakura and hinata beyond that. (great examples of characters who are almost completely separate from this mold are tsunade and temari - though one might argue about the way they were written designed to fit specific tropes for comedic moments - personally i think they manage to dodge that for the most part though)

with naruto and sasuke - naruto manages to fulfill every roll sakura is meant to in a much more elaborated and better way all without the curse of the female love interest that sakura and hinata bear. it’s hard to accept sakura and hinata’s “i’ll love you no matter what” when naruto is already actively outright doing that with sasuke. the roots of sakura’s feelings for sasuke, hinata’s feelings for naruto, and naruto’s feelings for sasuke are all exceptionally similar to one another which is what shoots kishimoto’s main romances in the foot - because it’s hard for them to measure up to the main “platonic brotherly” relationship he built between sasuke and naruto.

this post is obviously disregarding a lot of the Other really deep parts of sasuke and naruto’s relationship and some important points about the other women of naruto. also it’s important to think on the time period naruto and naruto shippuden were written in. we’re in a major incline period for improvement in how women are presented in fiction - just look at the difference of women between og and shippuden. obviously it doesn’t completely excuse anything but it’s a point to consider.

sorry for the rant and sorry if this is all really obvious to you or if it’s worded poorly, kinda just needed to word vomit my thoughts. i really like analyzing how women are represented in fiction and how the representations have developed over the years. i wrote a few essays about it for some of my courses and now i think about it all the time. obviously i’m not claiming this is how everyone should view these characters or anything i just had lots of my own thoughts about the entire situation and dynamics that i had to put SOMEWHERE. if you have any thoughts about it or points you wanna bring up feel free to do so i love fiction analysis a lot so i love hearing other people’s opinions

[weaselbeaselpants]

Weird week behind me weird week ahead of me but I’ve done a lot of self reflection and came to the weirdest epiphany. The older I get the more I realize all my ‘problems’ with VivziePop - her thoughts on criticism;  the choices she makes in story telling; some of the people she’s worked with (not that any of that’s my business; I’m not her mom) really aren’t about Viv, but more about her fandom.

I’m speaking of the preHazbin era Viv here and as someone who’s only watch horny fish jump at the surface rather than jump straight into the Hazbin-fandom, but given my ‘noncritical’ fellow fans have told me that the Vivziefandom now is also terrible - I guess I’ll go over my experience and make the most out of what I do know.

I followed Viv in 2009 and fell off in 2013 cause I kinda just lost interest and found myself wrapped up in other fandoms. I’ve always felt amicable about her content; I could give or take designs or the way in which she wrote characters -- ((Zech represent!!!)) but it’s honestly surreal and really fun seeing this person I recognize make it big and improve so much. Like I’ve said before I am very happy and very impressed with Viv doing all she’s done in the span of TWO YEARS. wow gurl.

Trouble is, there was the particular breed of fan who really made me...uncomfortable. They felt almost possessive of Viv’s attention. They sang praises about her work in a way that just made me want nothing to do with it because I was worried if I drew those characters these people would be like ‘hey, I’M Viv’s fav artist, not you!”. They would  unironically write Viv messages like:

“you are a GOD” -- “I’m so not worthy compared to you” --“I wish I was as talented as you” -- “YOU ARE EVERYTHING AND CAN’T DO WRONG VIV”.

The kind of messages which were meant to sound flattering but, intentional or not, came off as gaslighting, like they were guilt tripping Viv about being better than them. This behavior, treating your favorite artist/internet personality like your superior and groveling like Starscream, it strikes a nerve with me; partly because I was this way with my favorite artists and influences back in the day,  but also because once I got a taste of that treatment myself I realized just how bad it could be:

There was once a girl on dA who was jealous of me because of the attention I got on my art instead of her. I told her that I wasn’t gonna stop drawing but also that there was nothing wrong with her art and she’d find her place. It was weird being put in that position where someone is very clearly upset at you but also looking for your approval.

The second was some scumball who I blocked in 2016. He wouldn’t speak to me, only write condescending, backhanded comments on my art; check on my profile daily; call me a bootlicker (cuz I took commissions) behind my back; redrew my art and would talk about me in his personal artist notes about how I ‘probably wouldn’t see this’ - oh yeah all the while he did fan art of my characters but again never spoke to me when I replied. When I finally messaged him about his behavior he said he thought I was “really overrated” and “bad for the fandom” cuz I took money and kept him from getting the love he deserved. It took messaging another person within our fandom, one I had been in spats with online before, to finally realize I shouldn't put up with that bs....

That guy who was stalking me btw did so while I was well under 1.K watchers and am still pretty obscure. Anyway, I had one guy unhealthily watching me for the wrong reasons. Just one. This is why when Viv says she “hates creeps” I 150% believe this woman and am not about to call her a liar who just can’t take criticism. Like, if you really think that, I’m sorry but you don’t know what Viv’s gone through from both her critics AND fans.

Of course, a lot of people will be like “I bet you’re just jealous and really just want that kind of attention yourself so you’re preaching to the choir”, but like...no. I am envious of just about any creator who’s the social butterfly I’m not, but, like, if I'm jealous of an artist none of that is that artists’ fault. Ever. It’s my own issues with being comfortable with myself are at stake. If I criticize Viv’s work it’s not because I see her as competition or my Squilliam Fancyson; it’s because I’m a critical fan of animation and cartoons and have my own thoughts to share on the cartoons of an artist I’m familiar with.  Jealousy/envy/mixed-admiration/godIwishthatwereme.jpeg feels are totally natural and valid emotions when you’re a creator. Envy becomes a problem when you internalize, weaponize, and scrutinize people on the basis of them being what you aren’t which -yes - some people do in the name of criticism. ((Although, I would hardly say some of the nastiest AntiViv folk are jealous as much as they are angry that this project they think is harmful is getting attention and using that as justification for some really shitty behavior of their own, which no, this post is not a part of by virtue of coming from a critical fan.))

Critique can come from either a good place or bad place; good critique can be used to bad ends and bad critique can come from a well-meaning place, and vice versa.   It’s the difference between many a criticalfan having a sour taste in their mouth regarding the Viv’s base but persisting in a critique+admiration separate of that, and this asswipemonster trying to weasel his way into Spindlehorse while also bashing Viv on a public forum for clearly vitriolic reasons. He was a creep.

So yeah um please stop insisting that every Hazbin critic is just jealous’ because a) there are people who have a past with Viv’s base and that clouds their judgement, but in a lot of cases that doesn’t invalidate their feelings or thoughts on her work separate from that, and b) I’ve seen what clingy gaslighting jealous fans are. Spoiler: they’re not so much Annie Wilkes as much as they are Tommy Wiseaus. You don’t want Tommy Wiseau following you.

Another bad vibe I really picked up on that I can kinda confirm is still probably the case now: people think that they know Viv and the Spindlehorse crew and have the right to send them shit they don’t need or WANT to be seeing.

Like, I talked with Viv once ages ago. I don’t remember what I said other than we were talking about Frankenweenie, I think. She was nice. Outside of that she said “thank you” to my comments on her deviations but that’s it. I DO NOT KNOW THIS WOMAN AND unless you’ve worked with or are a legit friend/mutual of hers, NEITHER DO YOU. But I don’t think every Vivzie stan/critic knows this. Whether it be people assuming she MUST think they’re headcanon is now canon-canon cuz she liked a comment they made; or some critic thinking they must have seriously hurt her pride because they’ve been blocked by her on twitter (or you know, maybe she and the rest of Spindlehorse is tired of getting @s and don’t have to time to read through your analysis so they’re gonna just block and move on cuz they’re busy).

Just because the creators talk with fans doesn’t mean fans are literally their best friends and have a part in the show’s direction. And yes, critics and reviewers fit that bill as well. Know your damn boundaries people.

If you find/make some kind of contribution as a viewer that’s awesome but you should never expect nor DEMAND the creator see it. The most obvious horror stories involving this and Helluva/Hazbin have been the Instagrams made by the crew being harassed by incestpedo enthusiasts, but it applies even to just @ing creators as well.

I’ve seriously had someone tell me to just take my criticisms directly to Viv and like...no. Why would I do that?

I respect Viv and the artists working with her enough to know that they’re working their asses off on an animated series and should not be bothered. I don’t want them to stop all they’re doing and reply to me. I want them to keep working. Also, that kind of logic makes me wonder how many critics Viv’s found because she found it on her own or if some obsessed fan told her about it - which is really messed up cuz if it IS just good critique you’re, again, just pestering her, and if it wasn’t critique but full on harassment WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU MESSAGE HER ABOUT THAT ANYWAY? I’m sure she doesn’t need to be reminded that people drew and said really awful shit about her on Tapatalk. My point being I’m sure what people think they’re doing is

“OOOoh Viv lookitwut this person is doing in our fandom we need to ban together against this toxic behavior”

but what they’re actually doing, and sounding like, is -

“Hey Viv I know you are working so hard on the show and you’re trying to figure out where to go from here but LOOKITWHUTTHISHATERSAID. LOOKATIT! VALIDATE ME VIV AND PUT’EM IN THEIR PLAAAAAACE!”

TL;DR Viv’s fanbase back in the day consisted of everyman artists and interests but there was this one breed of fan -who I hope was just a vocal minority- that ruined it for everything else.

Call it stanning or ‘simping’ or as it’s classically known, ‘white knighting’, whatever it was it really soured a lot of people on her because of those fans.

That’s why the DollCreep drama got so bad from what I can tell. Doll and Viv had a falling out and then called out eachother online where people who took it upon themselves to speak for them starting throwing mud.

Back in the day I remember Viv used to get mad at artists for ‘stealing’ her style. I think this attitude from Viv directly has vanished but I remember it happening because one of the people she thought was stealing her style did art for me at some point and they were basically shamed/chased off deviantART by a gaggle of these really nasty Vivfans.

inb4> “VIV WAS AWARE AND STILL WEAPONIZES HER FANS THO”

I don’t know that. And honestly, where I’m inclined to believe she’d do something like that then I think Viv is really different and has improved her business and public image from her college days. I’d be very disappointed in her if she was pulling a Butch Hartman or Derek Savage, but I just don’t think she is one, k?

Viv is more self critical and aware than any of these uber protective-gatekeeping fans give her credit for. She said on the Pizzapartypodcast that she knows the Hazbin pilot wasn’t perfect; she’s been able to identify the problems with old Zoophobia; this woman knows that criticism of all kinds need to exist and from what I see she sounds like she’s trying to get used to that. It’s just, you know, when you have nasty antis badgering you, stalkers, obsessive yes-mam’ fans, opinionated shit posters, r34 artists, entitled shippers and the NDAs of a company alongside your own branded image - all that negativity, even the constructive bits, tend to clump together and you just want to scream at it so you can finish the damn cartoon already!!!!

TL;DR: PART TWO

VivziePop/mind is basically indie Tim Burton.  Her work is fun, shallow and made with love but is marketed as being for everyone when it’s really not. Parts of it I love to watch; parts of it drives me crazy cuz of reasonswhatev this isn’t a review.

BUT any fanbase where people tell me I should just “expect what’s coming to me” when I’m trying to argue against dragging creators into fandrama is troubling. People have a parasocial bond with fandoms and their creators and they need to learn when to back off.

[darkeninganon]

(So, this storyline now has a name; it is the Ender Family AU! Dream’s design was based off @winifreyd and their White Enderman Dream! They are awesome and do amazing artwork, and this story would probably not exist if they did not  share their art! Warning for gore, blood, very heavy torture, passing out (as a fear/pain response), forced drugging/drinking (Potions are canonically drugs/alcohol), unwanted contact (Dream doesn’t like people touching his fur), and (there is no nice way of saying this) flaying. If you spot something else, message me and I will add it and apologize profusely. The beginning is deceptively sweet btw, just as another small warning.)

Ranboo looked between Tommy and Tubbo. His face was burning, but only one side showed a tinge of color.

"You mean you really don't remember staring down Quackity?" Tommy found it hard to believe, and was currently the main person opposing such an excuse.

"Really, I don't! You know how much I hate eye contact."

"He's got a point..."

Michael oinked in agreement. The trio were currently in the zombie piglin's room, Ranboo holding the child as the little monster drew something. Tubbo was kneeling next to the table, head partially resting on said table. Tommy was the only one standing, arms crossed, glaring at Ranboo.

Ranboo sighed, shaking his head. "Even if you don't believe me, it is the truth."

"Oh, I believe you, I just want to know why this is the first time we are hearing about it!" Tommy hissed, throwing his hands up. "I mean, if you hide that, what else are you hiding?!"

"Oh come on Tommy! Ranboo wouldn't-"

"Quite a bit because I would rather NOT be the reason someone kills Tubbo or Michael." Tubbo snapped his head towards Ranboo, horror plastered on his face.

"WHAT?!"

Michael snorted, holding up his picture. It depicted Ranboo holding a red square, and speaking in scribbles. Ranboo groaned as Michael proudly displayed his picture. The baby zombie piglin still had yet to learn to speak, but his writing skills were far beyond where most thought he should be at.

Tubbo stared at the picture, clearly concerned. "Michael, sweetie, have you seen daddy act weird?" Michael nodded, borderline enthusiastically. The little zombie pigling then grabbed a sheet of paper, scribbling most of it in red crayon before writing three large letters on it, and handing it to Ranboo.

Tommy and Tubbo stared.

"So, I guess I blew something up." Ranboo stated, staring at the crudely drawn TNT. He looked back to Tubbo and Tommy; "I think it's about time to tear down the walls of your old house."

"Damnit Ranboo!"

"I'm sorry?!"

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Dream stared, listening to the murmur of Quackity and Sam talking outside the wall of lava. It is a new day, Quackity is back. Dream could only wonder what Quackity was going to do today. Maybe he'll take my teeth, that would make sense. Or perhaps my other eye. Yeah, that sounds like something they could justify doing. Dream sat up as the lava fell away, Sam and Quackity standing at attention. Quackity was decked out in netherite armor. Enchanted netherite armor. Dream's ears fell back as a low growl fell from his chest.

Quackity made his way across the pit of lava, standing across from Dream with nothing in his hands but a potion and a pair of shears. Once the lava covered the opening again, Sam came through, glaring at Dream.

"Huh, what's the special occasion?" Dream smirked, tilting his head. Of course Sam; dear, dear Warden Sam; would want to help Quackity. "Don't tell me I actually scared you two." The prisoner chuckled, glancing between the two.

Quackity held out the potion; it looked like mud mixed with glitter. "Drink this."

"Excuse me?"

"Dream, do as Quackity says. I really don't want to have to force you." Sam stated, monotone. Dream stared at the warden, incredulous.

"No! I'm not drinking anything that crazy moron brings in here!" Sam sighed, striding over to Dream. "Get the hell away from me!" Sam went behind Dream, locking the prisoner's arms in an uncomfortable hold. Dream began yelling, kicking his legs out as Quackity approached. Quackity took Dream's jaw into a tight hold, digging his nails right into the joint and forcing Dream's mouth open. Once that was done, Quackity tore the cork from the bottle, shoving it into Dream's mouth.

Dream gagged, coughing and thrashing in an effort to get the bottle out of his mouth and not swallow the bitter liquid. Eventually, the potion's effects won out over Dream's own desires, his body going limp and his struggles ceasing.

Dream's eye darted around the cell. He wanted to move, wanted to cry out, wanted to not be sitting still. No matter how much he tried though, his body just sat there, even as Quackity removed the bottle and let go of his jaw.

"Hell yeah!" Quackity cheered, throwing the now empty bottle into the lava. "I told you it would work!"

Sam let go, gently resting Dream's head on his lap. "Yeah. You're sure he can't feel anything?" The warden sounded worried as he placed Dream's tongue back in his mouth and closed his jaw.

Quackity chuckled, "Yeah, I'm sure." He dragged his hand through Dream's fur, drawing lines at seemingly random points.

He's lying. Dream wanted to scream, Quackity's hands were cold and he hated as the "visitor" ran against the grain, causing the fur to stand up on end. Sam, he's lying! Please! But he couldn't say anything.

Sam, for his part, was staring at Dream sadly, carefully petting the prisoner as if he didn't co-sign this. He jumped as a hand snatched his wrist, holding it still. Sam looked to Quackity, who was still smiling.

"Seeing as how Dream isn't going to feel it, why don't you feel how soft he is!"

Sam looked at the prisoner, resting helplessly in his lap. Even though Dream's body couldn't move, his eyes were glaring at Sam. Still....

Curiosity won over the Warden as he took off his glove. Even with Dream unable to move, Sam was hesitant to touch the fur. When Quackity had entered the prison, that was all he talked about. It was just fur, what made it so special? What it because it was from Dream, and the prisoner never let anyone touch it?

Quackity groaned, snapping Sam from his thoughts. Without warning, the visitor grabbed Sam's hand and buried it in the mane around Dream's head. Sam could only stare. It was... So freakishly soft.

"Right!?" Sam glanced at Quackity, who was smiling like the cat that got the canary. "Seriously though, seeing as how he's going to be trapped in here for eternity, he really doesn't need this fur. He'll just overheat!"

No, I won't! Sam, please stop this! Tears fell from Dream's eyes, his mind racing. Taking his fur was the one thing he never expected.

Sam nodded, resuming petting Dream. "Just... be as quick as possible."

Quackity nodded as Dream's eyes darted to the man with the shears. "Let's see... Let's start here then!" Quackity stated, opening the shears and pulling Dream's skin right at his hip. Dream watched in horror as Quackity carefully cut a thin layer of skin and fur from his body, pulling and cutting just enough to make a starting point for him to continue. "Man, this is going to take a long while. Sam, would you mind grabbing a few more potions, just to be sure?"

Sam nodded, carefully setting Dream's head down on the obsidian floor, giving the prisoner one last pet before drinking a potion and diving into the lava.

As soon as Sam was gone, Quackity looked at Dream, and slid his hand between the skin he had just cut free, and the lower levels of skin and muscle. Dream tensed, the salt from Quackity's hand burning the fresh wound. "Man, this must really suck for you." The visitor laughed, a cruel smirk coming across his face as he wiggled his fingers in the wound. Dream gave a weak whimper, tear pouring from his eyes as the wound became wider and burned more. "Do you have any idea how hard is was to get the potion just right? Make sure you can't move, can't talk, but also heal you and make sure you can feel it? It was hard, man." Quackity finally removed his hand from the wound, marveling at the lack of blood. "This is probably what Tommy felt like. I have no idea what the afterlife is like, but maybe one day, I'll ask him."

Quackity straightened up as Sam came back, carrying a bag filled to the brim with the potions Quackity had made. The visitor smiled, turning back to Dream and resuming his work. Dream watched, heart racing as he finally saw what his fur and skin hid. Thin muscle hung from bones that showed painfully through in some places. It only took about two minutes for it to look like Dream was wearing a furry shirt or hoodie; a quiet whimper bubbling up from his chest as the first “hem” was finally completed.

Sam snatched a potion from the bag, opening Dream’s mouth and doing his best to make sure the prisoner didn’t drown on the vile liquid. Quackity gave Sam a weird look, getting ready to cut open Dream’s front.

“Really? He has another hour or so on the first potion.” Quackity muttered, pulling the skin up with his fingers, smirking as the muscles underneath twitched in pain.

Sam cast an unseen glance at Quackity, removing the empty bottle and throwing it into the lava. “He must have some form of tolerance, even after all this time. The numbing factor wore off I think.” Sam sounded distant, did Sam even believe his own words? Surely he knew.

“Well then let him deal with it. It’s not our fault he’s weird.” Quackity retaliated, making one final cut right at Dream’s collarbone, stopping as he noticed Sam flinch. “Hey, I’m sure Tommy felt way more pain than whatever little pin pricks this monster is feeling. Need I remind you-”

“No!” Sam winced, “No, I don’t need to be reminded.” He repeated, softer. Through the thick lenses of the mask, Dream could see Sam’s eyes darting between the prisoner and Quackity. Sam went back to petting Dream, unaware he had stopped for so long.

Quackity shrugged, cutting a gracefully curved line around Dream’s collarbones, stopping about halfway on either side. He grabbed Dream’s arms, inspecting both before dropping one to the ground, and making a quick slash around the whole wrist.

Blood poured from the fresh wound, diminishing to a trickle as Sam’s hand wrapped tightly around the small wrist. “Quackity! What the hell?!”

“Wow, language Sam.”

“Screw the language! What the heck were you thinking?! Get the bandages out of the bag now!” Sam glared at the visitor. Removing Dream’s fur was one thing, but getting so close to such areas… Sam would not stand for it.

“Will you relax? Look, it’s already closed!” Quackity pried Sam’s hand away, revealing a thin, bare scar circling Dream’s wrist. “Nothing to get pissy about.” He huffed, grabbing the prisoner’s other hand and doing the same. Sam was quick to cover the wound again, glaring hatefully at Quackity. “Alright. I need you to turn him onto his stomach so I can finish up the neck. I was not going to risk cutting your legs.”

“Quackity…”

“What? Don’t tell me you actually feel bad for this piece of trash.”

Sam looked between the visitor and prisoner. Dream looked terrified. Sam held out his hand. “I’ll take care of it.” Quackity stared at Sam, hesitantly handing him the shears. Quackity watched as the Warden made a shallow cut along the back of the prisoner’s neck, breathing heavily and muttering. Sam practically threw the shears back to Quackity, petting Dream as soon as they left his hands. “There, done.”

Quackity nodded, looking down at the paralyzed prisoner. He struggled to pry Dream’s skin open, humming and inspecting where it connected. Quackity took out a netherite knife, sliding it under the skin and between the muscle.

Dream watched, muscles burning and twitching. A ringing filled his ears, his heart racing, his lungs tight. He couldn’t breathe, and he felt way too hot… no, he was cold… Well, his body was cold, his arms freezing, but his face felt like it was right next to the lava. Sam… Sam something’s wrong… SAM! Sam please! SAM! Dream was suddenly in a void, screaming and wailing filling his head. He blinked, back in the cell. Quackity was further along in removing his skin. He could see his ribs laying right underneath the smooth muscle, his vision flitting to Sam, distress hidden by dark lenses. Sam’s head snapped to look at Quackity, muffled words demanding something. Dream’s mouth was pried open, another bottle shoved down his throat.

Black consumed him again. Back to the cell. Something hard and soft was in his mouth. Sam was holding his head, forcing him to look at the warden. Sam kept calling his name. Black again. Back to Sam. Black again. Sam. Black. Sam. Black. Sam. Black. Cloth?

Dream could feel his mouth was open; he could feel something wrapped around his body, arms, even his legs. Everything hurt. His eyes were wet, not from the cloth.

“S….Sam…?” His voice sounded too quiet. A hands was suddenly placed on his head; a gloveless, unarmored, calloused hand.

“It’s…”

“Sam… I’m sorry… I’m really, really sorry…”

Sam sat there, staring at Dream. Dream’s whole body was covered in tightly bound gauze. He looked almost like a mummy rather than… whatever he was. The only parts of him that still had fur were his head, hands, and knees. Sam had to fight with Quackity over leaving the fur on his knees. Sam sighed, closing his eyes as he took a breath, one hand resting on Dream’s chest while the other continued to pet him. “I know you are. I know.” Sam opened his eyes, staring at the creature laying on the floor before him, “It’s not me you have to apologize to though.”

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Quackity held up the pure white pelt. He had just finished cleaning it.

“Damn.” Quackity turned, smiling wildly at Schlatt. “Where the fuck did you get a coat like that?” The goat-man ghost lit up a cigarette, reaching out and touching the fur. “Again I say this: Damn.”

Quackity laughed, “I got it from my dear friend in prison.” Schlatt paused in his appraisal of the fur, staring at Quackity as if the still living man had grown another head. “Not like he needed it with how hot that place is. Besides,” Quackity pulled the fur away, brushing the soft hairs against his face. He froze, jolting to look at Schlatt, “Did you know his fur was this soft?”

The ghost stared, Quackity had a look to him that made Schlatt happy he was already dead. “No…” He spoke softly, lowering the cigarette he had. “I had no clue.” Schlatt watched as Quackity skipped way, the beautiful white pelt held close. Schlatt shook his head. Not for the first time in his life was he thankful that Quackity was on his side.

[maxwell-grant]

You are your top 5 Shadow agents

I don’t talk about the Agents as much as I should, even though I constantly try to stress their importance, because I’m working on essays for them individually. To be honest, I think about the Agents practically every day to the point I have a hard time separating my headcanons from the actual canon material, but I have to stay true to it, and the lack of material regarding them means that the only way I can truly talk about their characterization is by diving deep into the novels and taking notes, which I don’t have much time to do, and then finding the right books or moments to talk about, which is even more difficult. 

This by no means constitutes my big thinkpiece on them, but it’s a start, and ultimately narrowing it down was a lot harder than I expected. This order is by no means final, if you asked me this question next week or next month I’d probably have a different answer, but it’s the 5 that I find myself thinking on the most. 

Honorable mentions: Jericho Druke and Myra Reldon, who are incredibly awesome characters conceptually and who have great moments each, and whom I definitely think deserve big turns on the spotlight if the Agents ever get put on the spotlight again, but are held back by issues with their presentation and lack of prominence. Margo Lane, whom only just narrowly missed the cut because, as much as I like her and think she gets an underseved bad rep and definitely has great things going for her, I sadly have to concede isn’t as consistently great or well-written as she should be. Clyde Burke, whom I definitely like a lot based on what I’ve read and consider an integral part of the line-up, but haven’t read enough of the novels he’s in to really solidify him as one of my favorites just yet. And Slade Farrow, who is a bit too complicated to talk about superficially.

Allright, so here they are

Number 5: Burbank

As the center of all communications within The Shadow’s network and the only character in the series who is even more mysterious and elusive than The Shadow himself, Burbank is fascinating and the kind of character who simultaneously seems to be both begging for an in-depth exploration and yet who also should be dead last on the list of mysteries about the series we want spoiled, because nobody wants the mystery ruined. He’s a bit of cipher personality-wise compared to the other agents, but he kind of has to be, and I think it helps to illustrate the many forms the agents of The Shadow can and should take, that one of them is this total mystery whom we know nothing about and yet is so vital to the whole thing. And it’s interesting also because, for all the many variations we’ve had on The Shadow’s life and thoughts and feelings and etc over the years, Burbank has stayed more or less the same. Whatever variations he’s had in design aside, Burbank just is. 

The pulps did often have moments where we would get to see moments that told us a little more about Burbank, gestures he did, capabilities he had and didn’t have, little details Gibson would sprinkle in to keep people fascinated. Several scenes with Burbank are almost presented like you’re watching a movie, in the way Gibson keeps describing his face being mysteriously blocked from view by objects or lighting, like not even in your mind you are supposed to know what he is. And it’s all the more fascinating because, unlike The Shadow, as far as we know, Burbank is just some guy who’s good with tech, who was only recruited in the 2nd story but apparently knows The Shadow from before it, and whom The Shadow entrusted with virtually every secret necessary to keep his operations running. 

It’s kind of a sign as to how utterly neglected the agents are that, to this day, few writers who’ve ever touched The Shadow has ever come close to giving us any sort of explanation or backstory or anything on Burbank, and I refuse to believe these people had that much self-control. Of course I have my own ideas for Burbank, but even I would hesitate to put them on a story, because Burbank epitomizes that double-edged sword that comes with a solid narrative mystery. Burbank just is, and hopefully he will stay that way. 

Number 4: Dr Roy Tam

Mention of Dr. Tam meant much to Sayre. He was acquainted with Roy Tam, the Chinese physician. He knew that Tam was a power in Chinatown; one who worked for good

Unrolling a map, Tam showed the entire Manhattan area, studded with tiny dots in districts quite remote from Chinatown.

"These represent my outposts," he said soberly. "They are places, owned by Chinese - restaurants, laundries, curio shops, other places of business. In each of these places, I have a friend."

The Shadow understood. Dr. Tam was the motivating factor among the Chinese who adapted themselves to American ways. His mission was to create good will among races, to put an end to prejudice and superstition.

A newer and more sober spirit had replaced the old and dangerous festivities. Feuds in Chinatown were a thing of the forgotten past. Dr. Tam and his associates had done much to bring about the present sentiment; but there were persons - even among that group - who felt regret at the passing of old traditions.

Dr Tam is a remarkably layered character for one that only appears in about ten stories, and he’s one of the agents I’m most eager to discuss in-depth. He’s another one of those agents that Gibson introduced by tricking you into seeing him as a villain, as a Yellow Peril cliche, until he is revealed to be in fact a good man. Not just good, Roy Tam is presented as a powerful, influential and cunning Chinese man with a lot of assistants secretly working for him, and who is consistently presented as a progressive, pacifistic, benevolent civic leader and ally, even friend, of The Shadow. 

Tam is very much westernized and the stories paint that mostly as a good thing, and this is one of the areas that I think could very much result in an interesting story that looks at the ramifications of his role, because of course not everyone is going to agree with his viewpoints, of course him being an advocate against superstition and tradition isn’t necessarily a good thing (and it’s not how Yat Soon, The Shadow’s other major Chinese ally, works, which puts the two at odds), and of course it’s a complicated situation, but the fact that Tam invites this kind of debate at all I think is something very interesting

Largely because of the movie, Dr Tam is one of the few agents of The Shadow who’s managed to sustain appearences in modern stories, and none of them have ever really went with his original angle as a powerful civic leader. Instead he’s been largely painted as either a scientist, like in the movie, a general practitioner, and a psychiatrist, and his age has been all over the board. 

I prefer him in his original form but I also very much like the idea of Roy Tam being, like the Chinese supervillains he was created to be a subversion of, an incredible genius who’s got skills in all fields that can fit under the “Dr” part of his job and is also an incredibly capable leader able to unify splintered communities under a cause of unity and cooperation, someone who absolutely could be the adventuring genius so many other pulp heroes are, except he dedicates himself wholesale to his community and the fight against prejudice and the betterment of lives, even if he’s misguided or wrong at some of the causes he takes up. I really think this character could partake in really great stories if ever brought back.

Number 3: Cliff Marsland

(Fan-art by @cryptixcreations)

Cliff may have actually been the first agent I really fell in love with based on concept alone, even before I read the stories he was a part of and started loving all of the others. He’s one of the few agents who has prior history with The Shadow and we get ever so tantalizing hints at his background that we ultimately never get to learn about in full. He’s the resident tough guy and underworld contact of The Shadow, which in any other series might have made him the biggest badass and a loner action hero who’s too cool for things like thinking and relying on others for help. But here, trying to be that only gets Cliff into trouble, and circumstances gradually morph him into the series equivalent of a Team Dad. 

He was one of the agents who we got to see develop as a character. As he appears more frequently past his introduction, he grows from a headstrong, careless jackass, mostly interested in the action parts of the job, who “resigned himself to an adventurous career with violent death as its inevitable termination”, into one of the most reliable and capable agents, taking the lead during action scenes but otherwise fully defering leadership to Harry, and being the agent most likely to partake in gunfights and rescue The Shadow out of trouble, joining in missions like infiltrating circuses or high-society clubs and forming very strong friendships with Harry, Clyde & Hawkeye, who almost kills a man with his bare hands when he thinks Harry’s been killed. He’s the hardass, square-jawed ex-con who plays the reputation of a brutal killer, and is in reality a great friend, ally and husband (Arline has sadly only been mentioned in three stories), on top of being an invaluable fighter and secret agent.

Cliff could have easily been the protagonist of a long-running series all his own and that’s one of my favorite aspects of The Shadow’s agents. They are people with agency, goals and dreams and relationships and lives beyond the roles they play, they all have strengths and weaknesses and faults and positives that bring them much closer to us than The Shadow could ever be, with no end to the variety of roles they can take, and Cliff in particular is a character I’m very attached to. 

I do hope that he eventually found peace in a quiet life with Arline once his business with The Shadow was over.

Number 2: Harry Vincent

The Shadow as a franchise has been vastly worse off as a result of Harry Vincent being completely sidelined and mischaracterized in virtually every adaptation since, and the sheer love that Shadow fans hold for Harry purely may be the closest thing to a true universal opinion in the fandom. 

Harry is a lot of things: the audience surrogate, the protagonist of much of the early stories, the leader of the agents in field duty, the dude in distress who gets kidnapped far more than even Margo, a hopeless romantic, an action hero, the one who gets sent to recruit agents because all The Shadow has to do is send Harry on an assignment and wait for him to come back with a new friend. He is a competent, resourceful, strong, extremely kind ball of sunshine who's got the potential for greatness, even if he can't see it. 

And for this post I’m going to highlight this: Harry is, on top of all that, the ultimate embodiment of what The Shadow strives to protect, help and uplift. He is the living proof that The Shadow's mission has a good, positive effect in the world, long after criminals are brought to justice and plots are failed and victims are rescued, purely by the fact that he’s alive and helping others who were once like him. Someone who, despite having so much to offer, could have easily been swept away by the world’s callousness and cruelty, if The Shadow wasn’t there to rescue him and uplift him.

I liked The Shadow pretty much at first sight after seeing the character’s design and listening to episodes of the radio show, and my appreciation for the character grew after reading The Shadow’s Shadow, but it wasn’t until I encountered @oldschoolcrimefighters and her brilliantly informative writings on The Shadow and Harry that I not only fell in love with the series, but decided to do everything in my power to try and get other people to love it too and see the potential it has. I think a lot more people should at least be aware of why Harry matters. 

Number 1: Moe Shrevnitz

I was honestly a bit surprised when I rounded up all of the agents to make this list and Shrevy here ended up in Number One, but in hindsight, it may have been obvious all along. 

My reasonings as to why Shrevy is my favorite agent do get a bit too personal, especially because of something that happened to me as I was writing this post, so I’m putting it on a separate post here. 

[fade-and-loathing-in-thedas]

For the OC asks: 2, 6, and 14! :)

💕💕💕 thank you for the ask! Like I suspected this is gonna be revealingly lol

Who was the first OC you made?

Strix Brosca and honestly at first she wasn't even really an OC. I had never played an RPG before dragon age. I mostly played fighters, like Mortal Kombat and Tekken, so when I was asked to name the character I of course went with mine. Then, I pretty much played as me lol I've replayed her at least dozen times since and each time I just added more details about her in my head and soon she became a unique character. I've tried to rename her, something fitting for canon, but I just can't seem to. So, she will be forever Strix, even though it feels a bit weird.

Are there any other preexisting characters that inspired an OC?

I will sometimes draw inspo from pre-existing characters but I mostly design a character around my goals for the playthrough. However there have been ocasions where I have been inspired by a character and start building an OC and playthrough solely around that inspiration.

For example, I made Loretta solely for the purpose of an 'evil' playthrough so I drew inspo from some of my fav female villains to make her a more rounded character than just she makes the decisions I have never been able to make my other OCs do.

While Linvala Trevelyan was made solely because I was playing Commander one day and was looking down at the artwork for Linvala, Keeper of Silence and decided she would make an awesome OC. So, I did. Here's the card and artwork if your interested :)

Which OC/s do you relate to the most?

Akroma Amell and Aeryn Hawke.

I put a lot of my mental health traits in Akroma and made her history and behavior before Curiosity similar to mine before I started to exhibit said traits. It was honesty unconscious and when it was pointed to me by my therapist I was shocked. I guess she was something I just needed to explore and it gave me a way to view my illness and as not something wholely negative.

I relate a lot to Aeryn. The Hawke storyline and the relationship with Leandra really hit close to home. I too had to grow up fast and was made to feel that my siblings and family's welfare was somehow my responsibility, even though it was really wasn't. Also, like Aeryn, due to the chaos surrounding me I fell into the role of mediator. Even thought people are responsible for their own bullshit I somehow always ended being asked to solve the problem. In regards to Leandra, the silent, and not so silent, bitter disappointment and disapproval, along with placing too much responsibility on her child was a familiar scenario for me. As well as the whole loving a parent who doesn't always treat you right. Aeryn is also a purple Hawke, and I too crack jokes at inappropriate times and cope using humor.

[smokeybrand]

We Have The Power

I opted to boot up Netflix after a week or so, with every intent to check out that new Mary Elizabeth Winstead vehicle, Kate. As i scrolled through the many, many, new titles i completely missed because i was too smitten with HBO max to care, i came across the new He-Man reboot. Not the Kevin smith one but the CG one made for kids. Now, way back when this trailer dropped, i was on board. I thought it looked like a decent reinterpretation of the He-Man mythos. Most people were on the other side of that argument. They said it doesn’t look like He-Man and that it should have just been it’s own IP and whatever else. Seeing as how the entire first season is available to watch and how much i actually liked that trailer, i figured Kate can wait another few days and i should check out what nuAdam and Pals are up to instead.

The very first thing i noticed was how f*cking gorgeous this show is. Seriously, this is top tier computer animation on par with the likes of Pixar or Insomniac Games. I was astonished by how fluid, how well articulated everything turned out to be. I mean, i kind of had a feeling the show was going to be top tier in the visuals just from the few minutes we had with the trailer but, in motion, i n full length episodic form? It’s staggeringly wonderful. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe is one of the most aesthetically pleasing titles Netflix has ever made. Now, the animation would be nothing without the overall designs and i have to say, i kind of dig those, too.

The updated character designs are a welcome change from whatever the f*ck was crapped out in the Eighties. One of the reasons i never got into He-Man or Thundercats was strictly because i hated the look of it. When i got older and was able to look past that superficiality, i realized that the two shows were just general dog sh*t. Lots of potential, none of it fulfilled. Thundercats got a mulligan in 2011 with their short lived reboot but He-Man’s turn of turn-of-the-millennium reboot fell short in that department. I can honesty say that, after f*cking twenty years, i finally got that updated aesthetic He-Man deserved way back in 2002. Like the Thundercats reboot, this new He-Man homages what came before while putting a unique spin on old characters. He-man 2002 made an admirable attempt but He-Man 2021 said f*ck it, and just ran away with their own vision. I respect the f*ck out of that.

The very best thing about this show, however, is the writing. He-Man and the Masters of the Universe 2021 is easily the better written of the two Netflix He-Man entries this year and is on par with the 2002 narrative. I absolutely love how well the characters are written. They feel natural, like real people, like friends who have been together for years. It can be a bit tropey at times, sure, but this thing is for older kids. Nine years olds don’t necessarily need the most developed of characters but this show doesn’t skimp on that at all. It feels like watching Avatar: The Last Airbender for the first time again. I was that surprised by how well these characters popped. And, just like Aang and crew, the world around them is something f*cking spectacular!

This version of Eternia or rather, Eternos, is definitely one that i dig. I love how magic is based on tech and is absolutely frowned upon by those of the lower classes. I love how Eternia has many different races, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. I adore how the world feels like more than just as worldly desolate wasteland all the f*cking time and there are entire metropolises teeming with life. The use of color really accentuates scenes and the overall lore of this world is intriguing. I mean, He-Man has always carried a certain commendable canon but it was always so convoluted. It’s nice to have an actual plot and pretty robust history to back all of the shiny new awesome.

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe 2021 is a great f*cking watch, man. It's definitely not the He-Man you want and i can see why that might upset old heads like me who, for some reason, love that corny ass original, but it’s still some of the best He-Content out there. Aside from the fact that this thing is very much directed at a completely different audience, not born in the f*ck Seventies or Eighties, but The New Adventures of He-Man exists. F*cking ponytail He-Man is a thing that is real in real life and you want to give this show sh*t for daring to be different? Really? This show is amazing. The show you want already exists. It came out in 2002. Let this show be it’s own thing. Stop harping on it not being what you remember from your childhood and just let this new-new wash over you. It’s gorgeous, fun, very well written, expertly performed, and a general brilliant time. If you can take of your nostalgia goggles, that is.