#Arctic Adventure Episode

[octonauts-daily]

[snowthedemonfox]

the sillies

[starboysbrainrot]

Do me a favour.

[j4gm]

SPOILERS!!! REFERENCES AND EASTER EGGS IN F&C ep. 1: FIONNA CAMPBELL

Here's a bunch of stuff I spotted. Feel free to add more.

During the anime girl hero dream Fionna mentions Hans Brinker, a character from a novel which introduced speed skating to the United States.

The BMO style alarm clock has BMO's voice.

The ducks that steal Marshall Lee's money look like one-headed versions of the two-headed duck from the original Adventure Time title sequence.

Cheers is a real sitcom. Simon previously sang its theme song in the episode Simon & Marcy, and now it seems to have manifested in the human AU due to his connection with it.

Fionna says "stop acting crazy" to Cake with the same meter as Marceline said "stop acting crazy" to Ice King in the episode I Remember You.

We all spotted this in the trailer but there's a Magic Man hat in this shot. Magic Man's hat was most recently seen being worn by Betty.

The Betty statue also suggests that Simon's psyche has significant influence over this world. The fountain includes frogs, a symbol of change that was previously also used in Temple of Mars. And Fionna mentions the statue underwent renovation twelve years ago, which is the same amount of time that's passed in the prime universe since Betty's amalgamation with GOLB.

It would seem Mrs. Abadeer runs a vacuum cleaner company as well as being Fionna's landlady. And Queenie runs an accounting business as well as the tour bus.

The stickers on Marshall Lee's guitar case are all references to real life punk rock bands. X-Ray Pex = X-Ray Spex, Daikini Kill = Bikini Kill, PM might be a reference to AM as in the Arctic Monkeys. I'm not sure what Las Crudas and Dark Eyes are references to. Perhaps someone more familiar with punk rock can let me know?

In case you were wondering, the credits confirm that this is human genderswapped Fern. It's a bit more obvious now that we can see all her green clothes and backpack, and given what she said about her dreams being super messed up. I'm not gonna go through the rest of the cameo characters in this episode because most of them are pretty obvious or already got figured out when the trailer dropped. That said, if anyone knows who the bus driver is meant to be please let me know.

The sword in the window of this games shop looks very similar to Fionna's sword from the original comic series.

The latte that Gumball - ahem I mean Gary - makes in this scene features PB's swan.

Okay one more cameo mention because I feel like it might become significant later. This is Ice Queen.

Fionna and Cake are dreaming about their apartment block in the credits of this episode, but it has a roof like the Tree Fort and the same little boat with a telescope and parasol.

Episode 2 to follow!

[patricia-taxxon]

When I was a teenager, I had this idea for a movie that could never be made. Basically it'd be a small scale story about a girl who lives in a fantasy village, with a small scale conflict that ends with the main character failing and being banished for whatever reason. However, this would only encompass the first 40 minutes or so of the film, it would continue for much longer after that, showing the further adventures of this girl as she wanders aimlessly coming across new dangers and conflicts in an episodic manner. But then even this would begin to dissipate, the conflicts being solved by running away, or hiding, or just getting lost someplace else. Hours and hours would come to pass of almost nothing happening, just following this character wandering through increasingly abstract terrain.

I envisioned it as a representation of what long movies felt like to me when I was very young, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind was so long I could barely hold the ending and the beginning in the same place in my head. I remembered skipping to the end and feeling like I was out in space, someplace I could never have gotten by just watching the movie all the way through. This visceral sense of scale is harder to come by as an adult who knows how long days are. I've experienced it a couple times though, like skipping halfway into that video of the windows 7 startup sound stretched to 24 hours and realizing the remaining half-day of sound was literally just the jingle's reverb tail echoing slowly into the distance, skipping halfway through that 6 hour flat earth documentary and seeing footage of the guy just idly panning through an image of stars & feeling like I was stranded in the middle of the arctic ocean, discovering Bull of Heaven for the first time, etc. It's a very precious sensation that I cherish every time I get to experience it, a multi hour project that feels immense even in its isolated parts.

so then i made techdog.

[strange-destinations]

I don't often do this, BUT - i've finally got all of the transcripts for T&T fully updated, and the final two serials of what we've conclusively decided is our 'season two' are now DONE! we're taking a break for a bit while I finish editing and polishing volume 2 of the soundtrack and, you know, figure out what we're doing next, but for now, feel free to enjoy season 2 in its weird metaphysical entirety:

Around the TARDIS (FOUR EPISODES) - GMed by Ray. The most lowkey low-stakes story we've ever done. It's Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS but, you know, chill. But there's still trauma in there. Don't you worry.

Mirrordance (THREE EPISODES) - GMed by me. A dip backwards into a season that doesn't exist - featuring a previous Doctor, a previous companion, magic apples, and a tower full of evil mirrors.

A Touch of Destiny (FOUR EPISODES) - GMed by Skye. Pirate adventures with a touch of PotC flavor. Also, Caryo breaks reality again.

Stone Cold (THREE EPISODES) - GMed by Rain. Team TARDIS acquires a new companion from within an Arctic base under siege.

Mimicry (FOUR EPISODES) - GMed by Ray. We've done some shit to bees, y'all. I don't want to spoil anything but this is hands-down one of my favorite things we did this season. I cackle to myself whenever I think of how badly it went wrong. Check it out.

Haywire (FOUR EPISODES) - Team TARDIS goes West, baby, YEEHAW! HORSE TRAUMA! GMed by me. Obviously this one was my fault.

Generic Toy Story (FOUR EPISODES) - GMed by Skye. Our most excellent season finale. Trust me on this one, Skye did an absolutely killer job. It was so fun.

If you've read/listened/osmosed any or all of these, and you have any questions whatsoever, we're doing a BTS talkback thing this Sunday where we talk each other's ears off about the life choices we make and the things that didn't make it into our carefully planned stories! If you have any questions or comments, or, you know, whatever, for any or all of us, feel free to send them into my askbox! And we'll do our best to answer. If you're still following along and you still care, thank you so much.

[thevindicativevordan]

My Adventures With Superman: S2 Review

Another season down and it's time to take stock. SPOILERS BELOW!

My feelings fresh off the finale has me just as high on the show as I was last season. MAWS continues to be the best adaption of Superman since the Donner films. Furthermore I've realized that MAWS is extremely close to what the original Ultimate Marvel was. Everything in the 1610 universe ultimately came back to the Super Soldier Serum. Here everything connects to Krypton: all the villains in some way tie into it, Superman and Supergirl obviously are it's Last Children, Krypton reshaped the entire galaxy - potentially having wiped out the GLC and fought Apokolips! It's an entire universe built around exploring the impact of an imperialist Krypton and that's what sells me on the concept. Strikes me as funny in the wake of "Absolute DC" trying to offer an Ultimate DCU around the same time. Now moving on to the three major areas of concern:

The Trio

Clark - Our boy did not have an easy time of it this season. Constantly being faced with xenophobia, struggling to find a place for himself, relationship issues with Lois, his cousin turning out to be a brainwashed warrior, and then the evil AI that ran the Kryptonian Empire trying to turn him into a weapon. His character arc from S1, learning to embrace the weirder sides of himself instead of suppressing them, continues this season. Literally so in the case of unlocking his remaining powers like arctic breath, but also mentally. Brainiac attacks his self-image in order to undermine his sense of self-worth. Telling that even a Kal raised in a fake simulation of Krypton doesn't fit in with Kryptonian society any better than he does on Earth. I love that Lois gets him to believe in himself again by inverting the famous Lois & Clark line. Here, Superman is not what Clark can do - Superman is who Clark is. By believing in himself and following his heart, this Superman comes to realize that home isn't a place but the people you're with. Home is Ma, Pa, Lois, Jimmy, and at the end of the season Kara too.

Lois - Last season only began to unpack her daddy issues, and that was the focus of her arc this season. She loves Clark and she loves her dad but she can't overcome her massive inferiority complex caused by her dad's treatment of her growing up. She could never count on him to be there for her and she ends up projecting that on to Clark. Also she has a bad habit of emulating her dad's paranoia, she's willing to go right for the kryptonite to take out Kara, and doesn't trust other Kryptonians off the bat. Her arc culminates when she affirms her love for Clark in the Black Mercy and when she urges Kara to overcome the Eradicator programming, instead of doubting Kara's inner goodness.

Jimmy - Finally gets his own romance storyline with Kara and it was as cute as Clois! Glad Jimmy stopped being a third wheel to the Clois drama and got his own relationship difficulties to cope with. Also glad that we got that episode where Clark and Jimmy bro'd it up at the Science Expo and Clark told Jimmy how much he valued their friendship. Was asking for that in S1, and we finally got that moment here. As expected. Jimmy lost his billions but I think getting a Kryptonian girlfriend and saving Superman from Brainiac were worthy trade offs.

The Villains

Brainiac - Completely won over on this Brainiac. Emerson might have supplanted Burton as my favorite Brainiac voice. Eschewing the typical cold and emotionless Brainiacs, this take is joyfully malevolent. He takes pleasure in Superman's shock and outrage over the enslavement of the Kryptonian Empire's Foes for use as training fodder, he spitefully targets Earth first after stealing Superman's body, he gaslights and mocks Kara for daring to stand up to him, he's overseen the genocide of multiple planets (including Krypton) - he's pure evil. Even monologues at one point about how he's been "infected" by compassion on account of raising Kara and he needs to purge himself of that weakness. Brainiac alone justifies MAWS going with an imperialist Krypton instead of the usual isolationist take, we wouldn't have gotten this fantastic performance otherwise.

Amanda Waller - Never been more hateable than she is here. She tries to kill her old friend and colleague Sam with zero hesitation or remorse, experiments on civilians and is willing to kill them to cover it up, treats her underlings like crap, no surprise she and Lex hit it off. At least by the end of the season she's been deposed and is on the run, finally gets some measure of comeuppance for her actions.

Lex Luthor - To no one's great surprise, "Alex" did indeed turn out to be Lex Luthor. Amazing how MAWS pulled off exactly what DCEU Lex was trying to be, an evil techbro in the Zuckerburg mold, and in doing so reinforced how absolutely terrible the DCEU take was. Lex here is recognizably Lex: he's ego-driven, weaponizes xenophobia against Superman, reveals he was the one who actually created the Parasite suit, synthesizes kryptonite cores for the Metallos, acquires his business competition AmerTek, and is generally a condescending dickwad. Love that whenever he's being particularly evil, we get the iconic anime villain shot where the glasses become opaque. After this season he finally has the Lexcorp building Only thing left to do (besides give Lex a shave) is really develop the feud between Lex and Superman. Right now Supes doesn't even know Lex, and Lex has merely been using Superman as a sacrificial lamb for his own advancement. I do not want a sympathetic Lex, I want this to be the guy that Supes actually dislikes intensely.

Deathstroke - Fully settled into his role as the designated jobber at this point. Admittedly it's fun to see him be smug only to repeatedly get his ass spanked by Superman and others, but I'm not happy that they're keeping him around for S3 as Lex's underling. He's no threat to Superman at this point!

Damage - Weird choice, bad design. Don't really care if he shows up again or not.

Atomic Skull - Sounds cool, looks cool, only complaint is that he barely got any use! Showrunners I am begging you to bench Deathstroke, or outright eject him from the show, and start focusing more on the actual Superman villains. Since Waller's Task Force X seems to have been disbanded, could we possibly see him get a job as a cop like in the comics? I would support Atomic Skull being the anti-Superman element in the Metropolis Police Department while Maggie Sawyer finally debuts to contrast with him.

Livewire & Heatwave - After the heist and finale episodes I'm fine with them exiting from the show. Livewire in particular felt completely jarring and disconnected from how she was characterized in the AmerTak episode, she went from being willing to hurt kids to giving Lois a pep talk on the power of Love and saving Metropolis. Mitigating circumstances to be sure with Brainiac trying to destroy the Planet, but the S2 finale definitely felt like the show redeeming the S1 villains and shooing them out.

The Supporting Cast

Kara Zor-El/Supergirl - Now I can't say she's my favorite Kara yet, but I can share that like most of the MAWS cast, she easily could attain that status if she keeps getting used in S3. Poor thing, she exchanged the trauma of being old enough to feel Krypton's loss acutely for the trauma of having been brainwashed into being a worldkiller. Benefit of that is the show wrote them more like siblings because they were the same age, and I adored that. Episode 7 was one of my top 3 favorite episodes of the series thus far, watching them tease each other was heartwarming.

When Superman realized she had a crush on Jimmy and started to tease her, that was one of my favorite Superman/Supergirl moment ever! Both her and Kal are looking for the place they belong and they find it in each other by the end of the season. Excited to see what becomes of their relationship, and Jimmy's romance with Kara, next season.

Perry White - Remains the GOAT Perry. His evil laughter when Jimmy complained to him about the new interns not listening had me laughing right alongside him. Oh and changing the nickname Jimmy gives him to "Per-Per" instead of "Chief" goes a long way to justify why Perry finds Jimmy annoying and hates his nickname. Showing up to take Waller to task for arresting Jimmy and Lois in the penultimate episode, distracting her while Steve jailbreaks them? Most badass thing any version of Perry has ever done.

General Sam Lane - Complex is the only word I can use to describe him. Clearly he loves Lois and we get an entire episode dedicated to showing that, but he's still a bad dad who is responsible for her attachment issues. By the end of this season he's come around to Superman's side, and I have to admit I'm not a fan of that. Wish he was staying as an antagonist, but as long as we don't have Superman working with/for the government in S3 then I'll cope.

Cat and Steve - Ronnie was a non-entity again this season, I don't think she even appeared, but wow did Cat level up to be my favorite take on her alongside MAWS Steve being the GOAT Steve Lombard. Cat's speech to Lois about how as reporters they cover the story but they don't become the story shows that underneath her gossip exterior lies a woman of principles. Steve meanwhile cemented himself as the best bro you could ask for, and I loved his pep talk to Kara

Vicki Vale - Her shonen style rivalry with Lois over the AmerTek story gave me life. Conceding gracefully to Lois after being outscooped and offering Lois a job in Gotham, plus appearing in the penultimate episode to support Perry confronting Waller made me actually respect her. Still don't like her for smearing Superman in S1, but you can see that she is what Lois is on the road to becoming - albeit with more principles.

John Henry Irons - My guy in the flesh!!! Needs a proper war suit and to get that shield filled in but he's here and a pretty straightforward adaption to boot! Worked at AmerTek, built weapons for them, realized they were corrupt and has to atone by taking them down. Seeing him show up again in the finale was thrilling, I hope that he continues to appear in S3 as an ally of Kal and Kara. We've got a proper Superfamily being built up, now all we need is Kon.

General Thoughts

Blatant Darkseid tease or misdirection? Sure looks like an Omega Beam, but Brainiac makes it clear he's the one who "destroyed" Krypton. Jor-El was trying to negotiate a peace treaty with "their enemies" which does leave open the possibility that said enemies were Darkseid and Apokolips, and Brainiac has the Parademon mind scan.

Brainiac says he used "Krypton's greatest weapon" against Krypton, and that did not seem to be Kryptonite. Could he have sent the entire planet to the Phantom Zone instead? Would certainly align with the line about "casting Krypton into hell".

S2 ends with Superman being pretty much as happy as can be. He and Lois are back, he saved and redeemed Kara, Waller is deposed, he doesn’t appear to have any emotional problems left. I’m thinking S3 is going to have Lex and Zod as the Big Bads, and instead of being a conquerer, Zod is going to break out of the PZ and be utterly ruthless about bringing all of Krypton with him.

I bet the show does a take on the New Krypton storyline, with S3 having Zod succeed and then Kal and Kara have to choose between their adopted and birth worlds (maybe even their adopted and birth parents in the Kents vs. Els for maximum drama). Do they want to go live on New Krypton with the Els or stay on Earth? Plus Zod will probably be revealed as Nemesis Omega, and they'll set up a war coming between Earth and NK with Sam Lane and Zod leading the two armies. Then S4 will be Darkseid, with Apokolips having learned that their old foes are still alive

Metallo needs to get a proper adaption next season. I know these weebs have watched Cyberpunk Edgerunners, give me Metallo in the vein of Adam Smasher!

PLEASE BRING IN BLOODSPORT, he's in the bloody comics for God's sake! No excuse not to have him next season.

They better have plans for a proper Jack Nimball Toyman because that Winslow Schott take was lame

Bring Parasite back next season, not having him at all this season made me realize how great he was as a villain. Oh and bring Mxy back too!

Kryptonian armor enhancing Kryptonian abilities like heat vision sold me on the concept. Funny how right as the live action take reverts to the trunks, MAWS gives Superman a new suit without them. I like the new suit myself.

Lana ended up being the one person on the leaked voice actor list to not show up is odd. Was her part cut perhaps, or was that the one fake name on the list?

Wyatt has said that when MAWS Superman becomes the confident self-assured "Superdad", that's when the show is over for him. Keeping that in mind I feel like S3 needs to kill some characters, specifically the Kents. Right now Clark has his safe space in Smallville, a loving relationship with Lois, a brother relationship with Jimmy, and a good reputation in Metropolis, and now Kara too. Logically he should be confident and self-assured, meaning they need to undermine that if they want the show to continue. Clark suffering the death of his adopted parents, right around the time his birth parents return and offer him a place on New Krypton? Certainly would be how *I* would blow up his new happy status quo.

If Superman is no longer going to be fighting the government, you know who would be a great villain to bring in? Red Cloud. Having a villain work at the Daily Planet in undercover mode like Superman would be a perfect way to keep the focus on the Planet cast.

[ivystoryweaver]

🌿IvyStoryUpdates Nov. 5 - poll included

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Next priority updates:

Spooky season has come and gone but that's okay, we are most of the way through our ghost love story.

Spectre: A Moon Knight Halloween Love Story 🔥 👻 Up next: Event #8b: Us 🎃 8/11ish Events completed

I guess it's POEVEMBER! So this poor, ignored boy/fic shall get a November update.

The Only One - A Poe Dameron Story 🚀 Up next: Episode 5 - date #2 and Poe has an urgent mission 💫 4/10ish Episodes completed

These two are so close to finishing, wink wink

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Decadent: A Miguel O'Hara Story 🔥 🕷️ Up next: Chapter 13 - An accident in the lab! 🕸️ 12/14 Chapters completed

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Miguel and a deaf!female!reader

Steven x m!reader fluff

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I have more asks in my inbox that I promise I will get to. The ones above are older and/or have been started.

I just wanted to let everyone know I do read and love your asks and requests, and they are not forgotten!

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[s10127470]

The Spectacular Spider-Man: The Odd-One Out of Two Universes

I'm pretty sure most of you reading this are familiar with The Spectacular Spider-Man.

Often considered the best of the Spider-Man cartoons and one of the best iterations of the Spider-Man mythos, the short-lived animated series, even after 16 years, is still held in high regards for it's unique art-style and character designs, pretty strong animation, engaging ongoing storylines, and most importantly of all, showcasing a strong understanding of Peter Parker's character.

But one thing to note about Spectacular is the fact that it was originally meant to be part of not one, but two different shared animated universes!

One that actually got to be made, and the other that....didn't.

To start this off, we'll be talking about the latter since it's the one that not many people know about.

Even i didn't know about it until a few months ago.

As many of you know, Spectacular was created back when aside from literally every other medium, Spidey was just not allowed to interact with or mention the much greater Marvel Universe.

However, that all changed in mid-2009.

Shortly after wrapping production of Season 2, series creators Greg Weisman and Victor Cook, started toying with the idea of including team-ups in the planned additional three seasons of Spectacular.

This was most likely because they heard about The Walt Disney Company's planned acquisition of Marvel Entertainment.

And since it would mean that all the television rights for Marvel's characters would revert to Disney (including Spidey's), Weisman and Cook most likely believed that they were gonna be continuing Spectacular, but with Disney now.

Oh how naive they were.....

Anyway, Spectacular's rendition of the Marvel Universe was gonna be a little different than what most people were used to.

During this time, Spidey was one of the few active heroes around, with the only other ones being The Fantastic Four and Ant-Man.

But the former were usually too busy going on adventures and facing off against much bigger threats, and the latter kept a relatively low profile.

As for the other big names....

-The Wasp had yet to be become Ant-Man's partner.

-Captain America was still frozen in The Arctic.

-The Incredible Hulk was an urban legend, wandering around The American Southwest.

-Iron Man was still a simple business man.

-Thor was still roaming the Earth as Donald Blake, having yet to be reunited with Mjolnir.

-And while mutants existed, The X-Men had kinda yet to be formed. Professor Charles Xavier had just opened his school, and as of right now, only had Cyclops and The Beast as students.

This is actually really cool and well-thought out.

The status of this Marvel Universe feels like a modernized version of The Silver Age, when most of their iconic characters were introduced.

Plus, it would've been cool to see this Spidey interacting with his fellow Marvel heroes.

I could already see these planned episodes essentially being adaptations of these issues right here.

However, there would obviously be one major difference between these two versions.....

Peter here isn't gonna be a bitch.

Yeah, these issues are famous two reasons.

These were Spidey's first meetings with the Big 3 hero teams of Marvel

These meetings didn't go all that well.....

And it wasn't the fault of those heroes. In fact, they were actually quite civil and well-mannered towards Peter.

The problem was actually Peter.

As I'm sure many of you know by now, Peter during his early years was an asshole.

This dude was the personification of "no chill".

Being needlessly spiteful and rude to just about everyone except for Aunt May, and a total smart-ass.

So yeah, unpopular opinion: I'm not a big fan of this Peter.

Which I know seems strange to say since this was how he was like back 60 years ago and he's long grown out of this characterization.

But the reason I'm saying this is because of his fans.

So recently, the Spider-Man fandom have decided to start gassing this version of Peter up.

The reason being with how Peter used to have anger issues, and people wanting to see that come back.

Which like.....okay?

Like, Peter should be allowed to be angry.

But I've never really seen anger issues as being one of his defining traits when compared to characters like Wolverine and especially The Hulk.

Not only that, but fans are saying the Lee/Ditko-era Peter is the template for the best and most ideal version of the character.

And I must say to that mindset....

I think it's safe to say the reason for this recent opinion is how Peter has been portrayed in recent years.

It's no surprise to know that a lot of recent Spider-Man media has portrayed the character as....kind of a punk and a pushover.

Especially in the comics.

To the point where he literally gets his ass kicked by The Vulture!

Ya know? The very first villain he ever fought.....back when he was like 15.

Who is also canonically a geriatric in a bird suit....

Yeah, the last 17 years have not been kind to Peter in the comics.

I understand wanting Peter to show more backbone like he used to.

But you guys know this can be done in a way where he doesn't have to be an insufferable asshole, right?

But back on topic, it would be great to see a version of Peter that isn't an unhinged prick meeting these other iconic heroes for the first time.

Plus, they actually would've been important to Peter's character.

His team-up with Captain America in particular.

It would've been revealed that Uncle Ben not only had a collection of Captain America memorabilia in the attic, but that Cap was also a major inspiration for Peter's choice to become a hero.

But the best part about all this was that these team-up episodes would've served as back-door pilots of sorts, as Weisman and Cook toyed with the idea of having a bunch of spin-off series set in the Spectacular universe that focused on the other heroes.

So we could've had a Fantastic Four series, an X-Men series, and an Avengers series!

All set in the same universe as the greatest Spider-Man show ever made!

But unfortunately, this planned shared universe never came to fruition due to....obvious reasons

However, this wouldn't be quite the end of Spectacular.

Or it taking place in a shared universe.

Ladies and gentlemen!

Let me reintroduce you to....THE YOSTVERSE!

For those who don't know, The Yostverse was a short-lived shared animated universe (and Marvel's second after the 90s MAU) consisting of the shows The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and Wolverine and the X-Men, and films Hulk vs. Wolverine, Hulk vs. Thor, and Thor: Tales of Asgard.

And while connections here are noticably thinner when compared to the other shared universes by Marvel, they were still there to show that the media in this world were connected to each other.

In my second part of my Wolverine and the X-Men rewrite, I mentioned that the episode "Wolverine vs. The Hulk" referenced the events of Hulk vs. Wolverine.

Plus Bruce Banner, Hulk and Nick Fury have similar designs and the same voice actors throughout their appearances in this universe.

There's also the beef between Thor and The Enchantress, which we saw the origins of in Tales of Asgard, which took place back when they were teenagers.

Anyway, season 2 of EMH really upped the ante by expanding the world-building and introducing other notable heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe.

This included the likes of The Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom, The Heroes for Hire, Wolverine, The Skrulls, a pre-MCU Guardians of the Galaxy, and of course, Spider-Man.

And when making Spidey's debut episode, "Along Came a Spider...", Christopher Yost (the head director of the series and the entire Yostverse) was planning to make this Spidey the same one from Spectacular.

So much so that quite famously, he got Josh Keaton (the voice of Spectacular Spidey himself) to reprise his role as the character!

Essentially, he was trying to continue Spectacular without having to actually continue it.

Unfortunately, this plan all came tumbling down due to one reason.....

During the production of EMH's second season, a new Marvel cartoon was in development.

Specifically, a new Spider-Man cartoon.

If you haven't guessed it already, that cartoon was none other than Ultimate Spider-Man!

Hell. Both Season 2 of EMH and Ultimate Spider-Man premiered on the exact same day, April Fool's Day 2012, for an all-new programming block: Marvel Universe.

And since Spidey was planned to appear quite a bit in Season 2 of EMH, the powers that be at Marvel believed that EMH Spidey had to resemble Ultimate Spidey because they believed that the kids would've been confused by seeing two different Spider-Men at the same time.....

I wish I was joking....

This is dead-ass like the infamous Bat Embargo, except it's the other way around.

This decision resulted in Peter to be designed to look pretty similar to his Ultimate counterpart (which was most likely not the original plan), and most importantly of all, being voiced by Drake Bell (the voice of Ultimate Peter) rather than Josh Keaton.

This change was most likely done after the episode itself was completed.

Given that we only see Peter costume-less for like, 4 minutes, it probably would've taken them at least a few days to remake those scenes with the new design.

And in the case of Peter's voice acting, I DEFINITELY know that it was done after the episode was completed.

If you listen closely, you can actually hear a line from Josh's recordings.

It's when Peter asked Hawkeye if the S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicles were safe.

But apart from the appearance and voice, it's pretty apparent to anyone with more than two brain cells that these two aren't the same.

EMH Peter works at The Daily Bugle as a photographer (as well as on the company's website), while Ultimate Peter doesn't even have a job.

Ultimate Peter works with S.H.I.E.L.D. and with a team of fellow teen heroes, while EMH Peter is still a solo act.

Hell, even some of smaller details prove that these two aren't the same.

EMH Peter has the Spider Signal, while Ultimate Peter doesn't.

Even their ages play a big part in this!

EMH Peter is 17-years old, while Ultimate Peter is supposed to be 15.

With all that being said, EMH Peter (with the exception of his appearance and voice) has much more in common with Spectacular Peter.

Just like EMH, Spectacular Peter.....

-Works at The Daily Bugle as a photographer

-Is primarily a solo act

-Has The Spider-Signal

-And although he's about a year younger then EMH Peter at 16, given that he was suppose to be this version of Peter, it would make sense that he would be a little older since we last saw him

However, one thing that Spectacular and Ultimate do share is that when compared to each of them, EMH Peter isn't exactly one-to-one with either of their characterizations.

This Peter is notably more awkward, slightly reserved and not as quippy as most of his other counterparts.

As for the other Spider-Man characters featured in EMH.

J. Jonah Jameson wasn't voiced by Daran Norris like in Spectacular.

Instead he was voiced by long-time recurring actor, the legendary J.K. Simmons!

Which was obviously done for the same reason as Peter's redesign and recasting.

But Daran Norris is still in the episode, specifically as a cop talking to Iron Man and Captain America about a Cap statue that was knocked down by an angry mob.

Apparently, somewhere in The Disney Vault, there is a version of "Along Came a Spider" that has all of Josh's recordings and dialogue for Spidey.

And I remember hearing somewhere that this version also has Daran Norris reprising his role as Jonah.

For Betty Brant, they didn't even bother to look for a different voice actress, as she's still voiced by Grey Griffin.

But the strangest out of all of them would be Robbie Robertson, who was voiced by Troy Baker, whereas in Spectacular, he was voiced by Phil LaMarr.

This is even strange when you remember that Phil was a recurring VA on EMH, voicing several background and minor characters.

He even voiced a few major characters like Jarvis and Wonder Man.

I'm guessing he wasn't available when the voice acting for this episode was done.

Anyway.... that's kind of all I have for now.

This is just something I've had on my mind for the last few months, after finding out about the former.

And I wanted to share it with you guys.

But before I go, I must ask.....

Between these two universes, which one do you think Spectacular would've been better off in?

As a part of The Yostverse along with other iconic animated Marvel projects from around the time?

Or as the beginning of a new shared universe within it's own world?

Let me know what you guys think.

[androdetective]

Don't harass anyone just block

This isn't something I wouldn't make without reason. I'm sure a lot of people must of noticed these out of place posts in the 31 minutos tag

Spinergy-69 posted in the main 31 minutos tag, except this was a post directed against a post of the person in the screenshot.

"Things that make me laugh? Having debated a thousand years ago a public post tagged "Tulio Triviño" in which I thought I was going to be able to debate at ease with another fan, fighting arguments for the mere fun of doing it, and after 437268573 days he still quotes someone who commented a list of things for which he didn't think the same. I really am unforgettable. 🚬 Don't worry, I'm all about talking things face to face, instead of sending childish indirects like this specimen, but the times l've tried to talk it out in the posts he devotes to me, he cries even louder the baby, so that's all that's left and my last reference to it, Peace"

Below it is an image of that person's post (who will be called "A") he was responding to, it reads:

"Every time I see a white humanization of Tulio (even more if he is blonde/has streaked hair like the puppet) it takes years off my life. HE LOOKS HORRIBLE LIKE THAT THEY TOOK AWAY HIS MELANIN!!!

(don't take this post so seriously I don't want whiners to come and try to "debate" like when I said that Tulio was canonically fat)"

he also wrote tags that said "#bonus points if they make Bodoque more brown than him #it seems classist to me #the rich guy has to be white and the other more brown because he doesn't have as much money"

User Spinergy drew a box around the last sentence that says, "No one, absolutely no one draws him more brown because of that"

In the second image, Spinergy again posts in the 31 minutos tag a post directed against A. A has told Spinergy many times not to interact with him, and Spinergy has continued to ignore that. It says:

"I want to cancel (person's @) for giving me the spectacular HC that Juan Carlos Bodoque would be brown for being exposed to the most extreme weather conditions, being an off-road reporter. Between the Chilean desert and the Chilean arctic he would have a tan color worth appreciating. Assuming that fans have related skin tone to monetary acquisition, is in fact, the most classist thought I have read in a long time, cancel (he calls A a snake)"

I will add that in the comments of this post, he speaks with his friend and it says this:

"I accept the cancelation, I am enemy #1 of a JC with PERFECTLY WHITE skin, how would he not have sun spots, a constant tan or noticeable burns considering he even let himself be buried under sand?

-And what a great episode it was, holy shit... Totally cinematic.

-Besides, we already have someone with milky skin and another with pure, porcelain-white skin. Let the adventurer express his savagery in his skin, let the tan be a mark of life rather than a social stigma"

I don't have to explain why that's colorist language. Attributing savagery and the wild with tan/brown skin is very bad. It's ironic he's called A discriminatory when he's fine with this.

After those two posts, A responds with this:

"I seriously have to clarify that in my previous post that when I said that it seems classist to me that Tulio is always made white and Juan Carlos brown, I don't mean that EVERY such humanization is classist in itself, but because classism mixed with racism/colorism in LATAM is something very present???

Yes, each person may have a reason for why Bodoque is brown (whether it's because of work, being born that way or just because one likes it) but I simply mentioned that because people sometimes mess up with it unintentionally. It just can't be that I said in the post not to take it so seriously, and a few hours later, I found out that they took it seriously. He then accuses me of being a classist for making a connection??? what a laugh.

I was referring to the fact that rich people always have to be made white, almost as if tulio for being a spoiled rich guy has to be white even though the same series shows that he is not, he looks like Pedro Peirano (his voice actor) who's not white. I didn't accuse the headcanon of brown bodoque as something bad nor did I say that I think it is bad in itself wtf is up with people."

A then writes in the tags "#well what do I expect from the guy that I asked to NOT INTERACT with me and he keeps on doing it to defame me"

This seems reasonable enough. Spinergy then decides to comment.

"Lalala~ we saw you. Im happy I took that screenshot,

-"Discriminatory" is when I complain about stereotypes that can seep into what you do whether in a good way or not. And what if you get yourself a job instead of being obsessed with me, fan????

-I hadn't responded to any of the indirects you left publically for me, but I'm fed up with you, all day long looking for attention, leave me alone. Pretending someone pays attention to you won't make you turn history on its head. The one with the childish and not at all brave indirects, is you, it's not my style. Just stop crying, you're too big for that.

-"all day looking for attention" man I only mentioned you in ONE post. Besides I had blocked you, SUPPOSEDLY you shouldn't be able to see my posts. Anyways, you never responding was a lie, you literally dedicated two whole posts trashing me because why not.

-If you didn't bump into me you wouldn't make posts using the show's hashtag to get my friends attention or mine. You're too old to be fighting with people my age. It'd be better if you go pay taxes or do something really productive. I've thought about blocking you and never seeing you in my life, that's why I mentioned you in a post.

-You have severe mythomania. You invent bullshit to bash anyone who disagrees with you. This wasn't my words but I was told you were a lot like "Hitler" and I agree. Wrapping it up, it's easier to catch a liar than a thief, so it will be for you, everyone has to pay for their mistakes eventually. Peace out and really block this time, I don't block. That's for pussys."

Completely immature and so unnecessarily mean for an adult to speak like this to a minor. A minor who has said many times he doesn't want him to interact with him. This is just bully behavior.

The thing that started Spinergy to harass A was this post

"Tulio should be drawn chubby more often... It bothers me a bit that whenever he's humanized, it isn't taken into account that he's canonically chubby. I'd like to see that reflected in fanart more 😔"

Things then go downhill in the comments

"He's not fat, it's just that as a television personality he's held to strict and unattainable standards, so even though he's known to be on a diet, it's hard for him to meet those standards.

-They still call him fat, dude. If he calls himself fat, then he is fat.

-Of course they're going to tell him that, tulio lives in a way that is very much dependent on his appearance, if you want to screw a tv figure, telling him like that is the most effective way to ruin his day. The camera will make you gain between 5 and 8 kilos. If your weight is normal, you still have to lose another 5 more to look thin on tv. Maybe he's fat for tv, but he's still average.

-Dude what do I care. I'm just saying it because it pisses me off that they always make him a stick 😭 Is it so hard for a little guy to say that he wants to see tulio fat or

-Hmmn, frustration over a conversation as to what we've seen canon and what we haven't? hahaha, what

-You are unbearable, "Ay Tulio can't be fat because *insert dumb reason*" Dude, what does it affect you that I see tulio fat? does it bother you that much?

-Hahaha, I didn't even get upset. It was you who started screaming about your own personal frustrations. at least my "dumb reasons" have much more logic than your zero frustration tolerance. You are fighting like I insulted your own belly, control yourself like an adult.

-"Control yourself as an adult" I'm a minor, dude, it looks like you didn't see my post that mentions it lol. Tulio is not in his 20s, it makes all the sense in the world that he is fat or has SOME belly, in the fourth season MINIMUM he starts his 40s, besides it was YOU who came with the " he's not fat because TV stars aren't" story.

-Besides, it makes me laugh at how you talk so much about the canon and make Juan Carlos a redhead or Tulio with striped hair when they are respectively blonde and black-haired. It's like... bruh

"Believe me, my love, it shows that you're a minor, haha. In any case, that's not what I said, and you know that very well. And yes, I know Tulio is in his 40s in the last season, which is not synonymous with being fat.

-I don't understand why you write in such a fucking disgusting know-it-all way but hey. A man in his 40's would be letting himself loose (getting old), and besides Tulio is not into working out, it would make sense for him to have a belly. Tulio getting screwed by being fat would look good with his character and would speak to how much, despite pretending to love himself, hates his looks and does everything to his physical appearance and does everything to change it +

-(Continued) There are episodes that mainly revolve around or focus on Tulio being seen as fat. It WOULD make sense that he would be. Now I ask: what is your reason for COMING to my post complaining "ay he's not fat" and then screaming when you started the whole thing.

-I came to say my opinion because that's what you leave public posts for, so that the rest of the fandom can give our personal opinion, and that's what I did. And when I commented normally you jumped in with "dude what do I care" a way that, according to me, contain zero respect. So check the comments back, I'm just telling you that I don't think alike, and that's why I said you have zero frustration tolerance, since you won't admit to being told "no".

-If you wanted so much respect you could have simply said "I like the way you see the subject but I think that this (insert your reasoning) is better" not come to say "ummm he is not fat because I say so" and then call me a crybaby and then treat me as less and act superior. I came with all the desire in the world to share what I believe and you had to come and say that it isn't true because it does not make sense.

-Who gets to say I think it's a good idea when it's not? It doesn't seem so to me, and that's why I came to debate in a healthy way, in any case, that you need me to say something like that denotes your insecurity in front of the subject. And no, just because you use diminutives like "ganitas", it won't change the fact that you jumped to defend yourself when no one parroted nothing."

-The way you said it it sounded more like "he's not fat because I said so" rather than "I don't believe he's fat".

-By giving arguments like the world of television, cameras, diets, the immeasurable unreal pressure on media figures, I am not saying "because I say so", on the contrary, rather it is something similar to: Look, I have these cards that could be possible clues. Try not to be so delicate when someone comes to comment on another of your posts casually.

-You know what? If you weren't so nasty I would have listened to you, treating me as lesser simply for getting mad at you, some of your arguments might be interesting, but suuure it was very difficult to tell me something to my face instead of calling me "delicate" or "frustrated", no of course not /sarc

-To your face? Haha, I'm telling you to your face that you got frustrated for no reason, that you got into a fight when I only came to debate a topic I'm passionate about, and that you have tolerance of a little girl, to your face.

-Not the misgendering 💀💀💀 You've whined at me enough, if you like the block button so much then eat it whole

-It was "No tolerance", my phone betrays me with its auto-correct. And do what you want, you reaffirm my theory that you have no tolerance"

Spinergy is acting rude and like a child. Over something as petty as a sock monkey being fat. It's one thing if he's just a rude person but it's another to act like a bully to a minor. A minor who he knows he makes uncomfortable. It's his responsibility to be the mature one and not go after a kid. It'd be so much easier to ignore A and continue living. He just wants to antagonize someone younger than him for no reason.

Here Spinergy ignores A's boundaries and argues

"Why is that? Because I told you some time ago that I thought differently? different?

-For being annoying and ignorant, and for trying to play the "intellectual," you make me seriously uncomfortable, and I don't want you here. End of.

-Bah, I only commented with my point of view because by making a public post, you are indirectly inviting others to participate, but then you started crying for nothing. If you don't want people to come and comment on a topic you put on the table, I insist, tag it, block and problem solved.

-I blocked you in fact, but for whatever reason, you can still comment. Don't act like you "came to give your opinion" far from it, you told me that Tulio being fat didn't make sense because of "TV standards" which don't apply to male newshosts, and then when I told you "what do I care" you started to bawl like I killed your family.

-Sure what do I know, I have friends who have told me how muuuch you like to bother people on other social medias, all agree that you are extremely unpleasant to deal with, clearly the one who is wrong is me not you, because you're an angel, right? /Sarc

-No, no, I love debating, it's my favorite national sport. The one who cried here is the one who, curiously, blocked me and got offended. I could talk or debate all my life. It's obvious who is itching to fight.

-In fact I wouldn't have had a problem with it being your opinion (which you just used to make yourself look better at the last minute), what was disgusting to me was the way you started to act superior out of nowhere, first telling me "to act like an adult", and when I told you I wasn't you mocked me saying "I knew you were a minor". Oh but I'm the crybaby for saying "what do I care" XD????

-But how did they recognize me? And on what other social media? Bullshit. Although the very idea of being considered as such makes me laugh hahahaha. Anyway, I don't get offended by anything, nothing at all, so if I seemed offended, it was a misunderstanding, so you can lower your weapons.

-On Facebook, I've literally been told that you used to roleplay as Bodoque and bully because one person did a Juanin voice with your little friends, besides many people saw the conversation and it made them cringe with your way of imposing yourself as if you were Jesus Christ.

P.S if you weren't offended you wouldn't have started with your bullshit comments that I'm "frustrated" ;)

-No, no, as I said, I don't get offended by anything, I insult my friends worse hahaha, it's the truth. Maybe both, you and I, interpreted that the other was frustrated wrongly. And yes I have a Juan Carlos account, it's the most popular on Facebook, but it's roleplay. I never go out of character. It is clearly a compliment to its existence. I never comment as a user there, so the mockery of which you speak was in character, laughing as Bodoque and Tulio.

-I'm still fed up with you, so please don't interact with my account anymore. I don't want you here.

-Anyway, you didn't consider possible excessive exaltation, or possible misinterpretation on your part, as if you couldn't be wrong in a debate. Many points can lead a person to argue, in your case. In mine, I only came to comment about Guaripolo, for another, blockk.

-I already told you that I had blocked you. Just that for some reason I don't know, you can still interact with my posts. That's why I told you to stop doing it."

At this point, he could've simply apologized and respected his wishes. Why be so disrespectful towards someone who hasn't done anything harmful. Not only that but he also confirmed that account A mentioned. If Spinergy is comfortable enough acting like this then I don't have high hopes for what he's done on facebook.

A wants Spinergy to not interact with him not only because of that, but also because Spinergy's account is technically 18+. He has posted nsfw art before. As an owner of an adult blog, he needs to state that it is one. Even if the blog has a little nsfw.

While he did appropriately tag that post as nsfw, he also maintagged it as 31 minutos. The 31 minutos tumblr community has a lot of minor fans, with the chance of them possibly seeing it. It wasn't put under the mature label either.

I don't have much closing words except to stop being mean, stop interacting with minors with an account you've posted nsfw to (alongside suggestive themes), and to act like an adult.

Block him and don't harass anyone here. Don't mention names of anyone involved, the main focus is Spinergy.

I'll finish off with words from A

"Spinergy should block me too if he's tired of me. Because I'm sick of feeling insecure about posting things and him seeing it"

[octonauts-daily]

[snowthedemonfox]

list of things i did not expect in fionna and cake:

- this

[leadoodles]

Adventure time au i've been working on for a while:

It's a roleswap between Simon and Betty, but instead of it always having been like that, Betty put on the ice crown in an attempt to understand how it works during the episode with the same name, and Simon having to become a vampire in order to not die of old age. Over the next few weeks, she becomes more and more insane from the influence of the crown, all while trying to conceal said madness and research it.

The story continues as usual except for him and Betty switching up until the build up to elements, where (for whatever reason), Patience had failed to preserve herself for 1000 years. Simon's plan at this time to free Betty from the crown is to overload it with ice magic (potentially via Patience's ghost, but I'm unsure), which leads to Betty (now known as the ice princess) placing ooo into a second ice age.

During this arc, Finn and Jake return to Ooo to find it not made of four elements, but just one; an arctic wasteland, patrolled by ice monsters on the hunt for Simon, who is now in hiding, along with fern, one of the few survivors of the freeze. The team would then have to gather the various elemental gems, now controlled by icy versions of their respective elementals, in order to cast the enchiridion's purification spell.

The biggest deviation from the main cannon is at the end of the arc, when magic Simon's plan to wind back tine and stop the crown being found partially succeeds, and he and fern(who is undergoing an identity crisis) are sent through time, first to the docks where the crown was bought, eventually back to its creation. This unfortunately is interrupted by finn and Jake, who have convinced prismo to teleport Simon and Fern to the time room. Whoever is dealing with the messed up timeline (scarab or prismo) would have Betty sent to Golb's dimension, margles-style to prevent Simon being able to reach her, but just before he has his magic stripped as a further precaution, he pulls a magic man and swaps places with old man prismo.

There is so much more in the timeline, but I'm too tired to talk about it ATM. I will continue to post about it soon.

[pandoramsbox]

Sci-Fi Saturday: Five

Week 29:

Film(s): Five (Dir. Arch Oboler, 1951, USA)

Viewing Format: Streaming Video (Amazon)

Date Watched: 2022-02-11

Rationale for Inclusion:

Late in the runtime of last week's film, The Thing From Another World (Dir. Christian Nyby, 1951, USA), as part of a monologue trying to convince his fellow occupants of the Arctic base not to destroy the carnivorous plant alien that has already drained the blood of multiple scientists and sled dogs, Dr. Carrington (Robert Cornthwaite) concludes his plea for the importance of the pursuit of knowledge at all costs with, "We split the atom." At which point, one of the airmen, Lt. Eddie Dykes (James Young), cuts in with, "Yes, and that sure made the world happy, didn't it?" The sardonic quip stops Carrington cold.

In 1951, only six years had passed since the United States had deployed atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in August of 1945. Whilst news of the destruction and atrocities were initially slow to spread, by the time the film takes place the scientists and airmen in The Thing no doubt knew the horrors inflicted upon Japan. Furthermore, the Soviet Union had detonated its first nuclear weapon in 1949, and the Cold War was very much underway.

With this cultural context in place, it follows that the post-apocalyptic film would make a comeback in the 1950s. Rocketship X-M (Dir. Kurt Neumann, 1950, USA) featured a post nuclear disaster society on Mars, but this survey has not featured a film where the central narrative is built around people trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world since natural disaster film Deluge (Dir. Felix E. Feist, 1933, USA). So when I encountered Five (Dir. Arch Oboler, 1951, USA) described as the "first to depict the aftermath of an Earthly atomic bomb catastrophe" whilst perusing Wikipedia's science fiction cinema list, I knew it was an essential film to view.

Five was an independent film written, directed and produced by Arch Oboler, a successful radio dramatist who followed in Orson Welles' footsteps in transitioning to filmmaking. Oboler had directed three films prior to Five, and to keep costs down on the production the cast featured relatively unknown working actors, the crew was recruited from recent University of Southern California graduates, and the primary filming location was a Frank Lloyd Wright designed guest house on Oboler's Malibu ranch.

Reactions:

With its limited cast and locations, Five is dominantly the kind of no frills character study that would become more commonplace during the 1960s. It is simply and competently made with aesthetics that may remind modern day audiences of episodes of anthology television series, like The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits.

As implied by the title of the film, the small cast of characters includes five people: the pregnant Roseanne Rogers (Susan Douglas Rubeš), white everyman Michael Rogin (William Phipps), the aged bank clerk Oliver P. Barnstaple (Earl Lee), black everyman Charles (Charles Lampkin), and supposedly affluent adventurer Eric (James Anderson). Roseanne's sex and Charles' race become sources of drama, mostly because Eric exhibits a behavior described decades later by sociologists as "elite panic."

Lee Clarke and Caron Chess of Rutgers University coined the term in a 2008 journal article, in which based on available research and case studies of disasters from the 1950s through 2001 they determined that the source of panic in these scenarios was not the general public devolving into a mob, but by elites, fearing that their power and wealth would be violently stripped from them by a mob. Clarke and Chess specifically identify three relationships with panic that occur during disasters: elites fearing panic, elites causing panic, and elites panicking. My introduction to this concept came via an episode of the podcast Behind the Bastards recorded during November of 2020, when amid the COVID-19 pandemic and stress around the presidential election having a reminder that the majority of people are inherently giving, caring, communal creatures was a huge comfort.

In Five, after an initially violent encounter, Michael and Roseanne band together for survival, with Oliver and Charles later joining them. They compassionately deal with Roseanne's pregnancy and Oliver's mental dissociation and decline from radiation sickness amid their limited resources. Oliver's dying request to visit the nearby ocean results in the old man having as peaceful a death as available under the circumstances, and the discovery of a man washed ashore, Eric.

The injured Eric's explanation for how he survived the atomic bombing is bizarre compared to the banality of the others' explanations, who were shielded from the blast via being in an elevator, lead-lined hospital x-ray room, and bank vault, respectively. Instead Eric was actively climbing Mount Everest alone when a blizzard stranded him. When he made it back to basecamp he found other climbers dead. On foot and via abandoned conveyances Eric had made his way back to America, encountering no other survivors along the way, just dead bodies.

Eric's journey in its entirety sounds highly unlikely, but at first only one aspect utterly defied my credulity: who climbs Mount Everest alone? Mountaineering is not a pet topic of research for me, but I know enough to know that no serious climber attempts Everest without guides, frequently members of the local Sherpa community. "What happened to his sherpa?" I demanded aloud when we got to this point in the film. "Did he eat them?"

Given that Eric is gradually revealed to be a greedy opportunist, in retrospect his story may have been nothing but lies. It seems more likely he was in the United States the entire time and leapfrogged from one pocket of resources and survivors to another until he ended up washing up on the beach. Regardless of whether he actually was a billionaire or not--and the film does nothing to disprove his account--he nevertheless has an elite mentality: trying to hoard resources (including Roseanne) to himself. 

Eric is the sociopathic evolution of the wandering rapists from Deluge, and ultimately serves the narrative role of Michael's doppelganger. Michael may have initially tried to sexually assault Roseanne, but spends the rest of the film making up for that feral moment. Eric is predatory and ends up becoming a murderer in the course of the narrative; after being banished by the others, he goes back to steal supplies and kills Charles when he is caught. Michael is spared having to also become a murderer by the reveal near the end of the film that Eric has radiation poisoning and likely does not have much time left. The film makes it clear that Michael is a good man, and deserving of being the new Adam of the post-apocalyptic world.

Roseanne earns her new Eve status in part by being the token female, and in part because she is devoted to her missing husband until she finds definitive proof that he died in the bombing. Her dedication to her husband and baby are all that is needed to qualify her as a good woman. 

Unfortunately, her newborn dies for reasons of narrative convenience. Apparently it was too much to ask for Michael to be father to a baby he did not conceive. Instead it ends with Michael and Roseanne left alone. Despite the tragedies and threat of radiation sickness lingering, Five closes conservatively and reasonably optimistically: life will go on.

Before I wrap up, I would be remiss if I did not spend more time discussing Charles. His presence is itself a progressive act, given how the casts of most mainstream films surveyed thus far have been all or mostly white. However, he is introduced in a subservient role to an old white man, and spends the remainder of his time in the narrative as a litmus test to show who is the superior white man to repopulate the world: Michael or Eric. The notion that Charles might be a candidate for Roseanne's mate is never so much as suggested. For all the indignities Charles suffers throughout Five, he at least is spared the trope frequently placed on black men of being the first to die. Overall, Charles is a minor step forward for black representation in science fiction cinema.

Five, on the other hand, is a solid first representation of the post-nuclear apocalypse narrative. Later films built on the premise, like On the Beach (Dir. Stanley Kramer, 1959) and The World, the Flesh and the Devil (Dir. Ranald MacDougall, 1959), would result in better movies, but Five deserves greater attention within the sub-genre.

[octoagentmiles]

Ty ! I swear there's one in the original series cause i remember watching one when i was younger, or maybe that's my bad memory idk. Thank you tho!!

Also I wanted to ask, do you have a list of episodes that have Barnacles as a main character? (Like, kind of focuses on him) :D !

- 0

Original series:

Crab and Urchin (focuses on him and Kwazii)

Narwhal

Arctic Orcas (focuses on him and Peso, with some A+ Kwazii content as well)

Crafty Cuttlefish (about finding his lost Octo-compass)

Bowhead Whales

Manatees™ (this one's a collective fan favourite 👁️👁️ I won't spoil it for you lol)

The Harbour Seel (focuses on an old friend of his)

The Great Arctic Adventure (Special Episode)

Operation Deep Freeze (Special Episode – introduces Natquik and Tracker)

Octopod Mystery

Walrus Pups

*Emperor Penguins (okay he's not really the "main character" in this ep, but he plays a big part in it, so I'm including it because I can lol)

Above and Beyond:

Rocky Mountain Rockslide

Bamboo Rescue

Salt-Mining Elephants (Dashi and Ryla ep, but he and Kwazii have a fun side thing goin on 👀)

Snag Hotel

AnB honorary mentions (these don't focus on him, but I love him in them nonetheless):

Wild Windstorms

Hurricane Hunter Adventure

Stubborn Albatross

Puffins*

Red Fox*

*He plays a very small role in those last two, but I wanted to mention them because I love them so much xD

I also highly recommend watching The Caves of Sac Actun. It's a movie that focuses a LOT on him, and it's amazing 👀💝

[carriagelamp]

Man I got lucky this month, I got to read a bunch of excellent books, including some really neat queer novels. Nothing like a break to really get to kick back and enjoy reading for the sheer pleasure of reading rather than a desperate escape

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation manhua v1

Unsurprising to absolutely anyone who’s been reading these, I picked up the first book of the manhua adaptation of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation. It covers the first part of the first book, which basically amounts of Wei Wuxian’s revival and his flight from Mo Manor to the mountain and the Night Hunt. Besides for WWX, we get to meet Lan Wanji, the juniors, and Jiang Cheng, all of which have great designs. Like the rest of this series, it was a pleasure to read, the adaptation was done really well, and I’m excited for the next volume.

The Ice Monster

This book was very… meh. I was pretty disappointed, because I’ve really enjoyed the other two books I’ve read by David Walliams so far, and this was probably the one I was most excited about, but it was… incredibly middling compared to the others.

The Ice Monster is about a Victorian orphan, Elsie, who escapes from the brutal orphanage she had been raised in and was making her way on the streets. During this time, a great mammoth that had been found in the Arctic was being transported to the museum for display. Elsie feels a kinship for this “monster” and begins a series of events that lead to it being freed from the ice and set loose in London.

There were good moments in this book and I’m sure a kid would enjoy it, but ultimately it felt like way too many fart jokes and not enough substance compared to Walliams’ other books.

I Think Our Son Is Gay v2

A very sweet manga series I’ve been reading from the library. It follows the POV of a mother who suspects that her son is gay but who isn’t quite ready to come out yet. It’s a nice balance of humour — the art is cute and the characters have fun reactions to various silly things that happen in their lives — and love while still asking what it must be like to be gay in a homophobic society. A good read.

Legends & Lattes

SUCH a fun novel, it was exactly what I needed this month.

The story is about an orc mercenary called Viv who, after 20 years of fighting and killing, has had enough and is ready to settle down. Using the mysterious reward from her last adventure, Viv leaves her old company to find what she hopes will be the perfect city to open a coffee shop. Which is a daunting task in a part of the world that has never ever heard of coffee before and is suitably leery of this “bean water”.

If you want an action-packed, edge of your seat adventure book… don’t read this. This is the epitome of “cosy” fiction — its tag line is “high fantasy and low stakes”. If you want a dnd coffee au in novel form that’s about friendship and food… then this is THE perfect novel. It made me feel so warm and happy (and hungry).

Lucky Luke: The Oklahoma Land Rush // The Man Who Shot Lucky Luke

Lucky Luke is a BD series I’ve heard a lot about, and after seeing a couple episodes of it on Prime I decided I needed to actually pick up a volume or two. I’m delighted I did and I think I’ll need to read more now! 

The general premise is that of a western. The titular character, Lucky Luke, is a clever and nearly unflappable gun-slinger who can “shoot faster than his shadow”. Luke gets into a range of silly, comedic Wild West adventures and inevitably comes out on top for the sake of justice. Naturally, the genre being what it is, the whole First Nations thing is… rough, but the books were enjoyable if you can look past that.

The first book I read was The Oklahoma Land Rush which is fairly indicative of the series I believe and is about Luke being hired to help police the desperate rush of settlers to claim land in Oklahoma. The second was The Man Who Shot Lucky Luke which was written by Matthieu Bonhomme instead of Morris and is a slightly grittier, more serious take on Luke. I enjoyed this one just as much — it still managed to be funny, but the stakes felt much higher. And the art was just stunning.

The Night Gardener

A fun, creepy middle grade horror. A story about two young Irish immigrants trying their best to survive in the absence of their parents. In a last desperate attempt to get work they find themselves way out at a desolate, crumbling English manor that has been almost completely consumed by a strange tree. The family there is as desolate and strange as the grounds, pale and sickly and carrying a mysterious secret. The siblings realise just how strange and dangerous this estate might be as they’re drawn deeper into the secrets and begin to suspect that there’s something else living and working on the grounds…

I really like Jonathan Auxier's writing and I’ve been meaning to try this novel for years. I was glad to have finally done it.

Doctor Who: The Runaway Tardis

Just a cute little picture book. Pop Classics does some fun work and the art style really worked for Doctor Who. It’s about a little girl who has moved and is struggling with needing to make whole new friends in a place she doesn’t know. The themes of loneliness and goodbyes and needing to move on and make new friends was actually perfect to pair with Doctor Who; despite being quite simple and silly looking, it actually made me feel things for both the Doctor and the little girl.

Sandman v1/2

Everyone has been so hyped about The Sandman! I’ve been wanting to get in on it but I’m not very good at sitting down and watching shows so I thought I might try the original comics. Honestly I should have known better. I don’t really like this harsh style of American comics and if we’re being totally honest I don’t generally like Gaiman’s longer prose. This, unsurprisingly, combined two things I don’t like and ended up with a comic I didn’t like. Things only went down hill when fucking Batman appeared. It didn’t even really feel like it had the humour I would at least expect from Gaiman besides for a few brief glimmers. I appreciate that other people really like this series but oof. Not for me. 

The Secret Garden

I love The Secret Garden, it’s one of those comfort books that I need to reread every few years. I was listening to it as an audiobook this time and it was so lovely to see the first signs of spring appearing while listening to this story. If you want something feel good I highly recommend starting it because we are in the season for it.

If you’ve never read The Secret Garden, the premise is of a young, spoiled, but horrifically neglected child who was raised in British-occupied India. She is a bad-tempered, sour, and demanding child known to others as “Mistress Mary quite contrary”. When her parents die of a cholera outbreak she is sent back to England to live at her uncle’s manor on the Yorkshire moors. This relative is also distant and bitter, apparently hunchbacked and widowed. Once more alone, Mary is suddenly expected to do things for herself and isn’t given her every demand — instead she begins to befriend the cheerful, plain-spoken maid and starts spending time outside, exploring and playing for what feels like the first time in her life…   

Wallace & Gromit: Crackers in Space

I stumbled across this as an audiobook. After the fact I realised it’s also a comic. Oddly enough, the comic seemed profoundly bad — I’ve never really liked any of the Wallace and Gromit comics — but the audiobook version was a delight. It has the actual voice actor for Wallace, so it sounded completely like I had just put an episode on in the background that I had never watched before. They were also very clever about giving Gromit a “voice” despite him being a non-verbal character! It was actually a lot of fun!

Wallace decides to attempt making his own cheese out in the garden shed… only things go badly, as they’re wont to. Instead of making a lovely cheese, the whole thing ends up getting launched into the atmosphere because of a helium mishap… which might not be so bad if the zero gravity wasn’t making the Home Brew Cheese Kit kick into overdrive. They’re going to have to figure out how to deal with the massive, mutated cheese comet that’s now threatening all of West Wallaby Street. 

Wave Me Goodbye

An absolutely charming book, I didn’t want to put it down. This book takes place at the beginning of the Second World War, when children were being evacuated from London (which was at risk of bombing) and being sent out to live with volunteers in the country. Shirley is one of the children being sent out, but right from the beginning she finds herself struggling with feeling like the odd one out. She doesn’t feel like she fits in with her rough-and-tumble classmates, and when she does make a new friend on the train it’s clear that she doesn’t properly fit in with the posh covenant girls either. Things only get worse when she is one of the only children not picked to go with a family, and suddenly she and two other unwanted boys find themselves foisted on the unwilling inhabitants of the Red House. But in wartime, one has to make due, so she, Kevin, and Archie begin to explore this strange, half-empty house and get used to a very different way of life way out in the country.

Shirley is a huge reader in the book, and it actually made me pause reading to go and read some of the books she references! It was a lot of fun! Some of the books I read last month that Shirley reads are Ballet Shoes and The Squirrel, The Hare, and the Little Grey Rabbit. It’s also what made me decide to reread The Secret Garden, since they feel like similar genres.

When the Angels Left the Old Country

I read some great books this month and it would be hard to say for certain which was my favourite since they were in quite different genres, but this would be a strong contender. Holy shit was it good. The tl;dr is that it’s a bit like a Jewish Good Omens but also nothing like that at all.

The Angel (as angels don’t have permanent names, but rather names that describe what they are currently doing) and the demon Little Ash have been study partners for centuries, happily existing in their little Shtetl without feeling much need to change things. But things are changing and with the press of poverty and rise of violent anti-Semitic feelings many residents of the Shtetl are now leaving for America in the search of work and safety. Little Ash is determined that they should join these immigrants, and when a member of their Shtetl goes missing on her own voyage it seems inevitable that they go and track her down to ensure she is safe and well.

At its heart this is an immigrant story about people and prejudice and love, and it’s really written beautifully, the way you see all the hardship that goes into such a voyage even for supernatural beings.