#Dr Mcninja

[susurrationofthewind]

Now that Fortnite has Gwenpool, they basically HAVE to add in Doctor McNinja.

[triggerblaze345]

Dr. Mcninja would do really well in One Piece.

[benevolentfalcon]

[time-traveling-fetus]

[i-mustache-your-opinion]

PRELIMINARIES - GROUP C4

Top 3 will Advance to Join the Bracket

[loki-zen]

"He is small, but wise" is a quote from Dr. McNinja, and in the alt text for that comic the cartoonist says something like "I dare you to tell people they are small but wise."

I see. Never read it!

seems like not much of a dare bc (as @powerburial recently pointed out via autism grill related shitpost) you will always look oversensitive and hysterical taking offence to a ‘but’ (or similar) even if it’s totally justified.

imo, women or those perceived /socialised thereas tend to be especially careful about this, bc Society is way likelier to judge people who read as women as oversensitive and hysterical anyway - and, since they would trend towards making up the bulk of smaller (adult) people, you’re really unlikely to get any pushback on saying this to people.

(unless you say it to ppl who aren’t small, ofc, but then the pushback will likely be ‘I’m not small.’)

[abuddyforeveryseason]

This is the Buddy for November 6th. Not the handsomest of guys, I'm sure. A bit of a big forehead.

Speaking of big foreheads, I was listening to a podcast with James Urbaniak, and he mentioned he auditioned for Rainn Wilson's role in The Office. I don't know if that's true or not, since that 'cast was more of a series of fictional stories using his real name. But it'd be interesting to see Urbaniak in The Office.

Had that happened, though, I probably wouldn't have been a fan of his, since I'm all about The Venture Bros, it's the best show ever, I love it.

It's funny, but, although I'm a proper nerd who loves comics, manga, cartoons and movies, I never really enjoyed one of those long running narratives with an epic flavor that seem to be what a lot of works are aiming for. Venture Bros itself is probably the closest - a cartoon about a long war between two factions, involving multiple generations of characters, with character development taking the spotlight, and a central mystery personally related to the main characters that ties into the bigger conflict.

But unfortunately, the show was unceremoniously cancelled before a proper conclusion - even before it was officially cancelled, it felt like it was half-cancelled already since it took so long for seasons to come out. A movie came out after a while but it wrapped everything up in a rush, it wasn't an epic ending in and of itself.

And that's one of the things about epic stories - endings are always a bit off. If we're talking big worldbuild-y sagas, the biggest example of it is Game of Thrones, which seemingly cornered the market on disappointing endings. The Song of Ice and Fire book series seems to have gone on a different direction and just not end. Even if those planned last two (or three) books are ever published, everyone's already lost interest after the show did its own, clumsy version of the story.

The ending of Harry Potter, too, wasn't my favorite. To be honest, I think I grew out of it during the period between the publication of the last three books or so (and their plots all mix together in my mind). I never even finished the last few chapters of the Deathly Hallows one. And now there's that crappy prequel saga that's movie-only, seems like the story's completely jumped the shark.

A lot of shows try and go for the "myth arc" concept where the entire show is built up around one story with a main mystery and a supposed grand apotheosis in the finale. And it never works, does it? Lost kind of started the trend, and that show went nowhere. Purgatory stuff and whatnot, right? Those last few episodes of Steven Universe somehow pinned down all the bad stuff about the show, and made it obvious to everyone. Breaking Bad actually managed to do it, but that's not really a nerd show - it's a crime drama, and, yeah, a really good one, but it had a smaller scope. And even that has the prequel that doesn't capture lightning in a bottle like the original did.

Comics are a horse of a different color. There are great runs where one creator has a character in his hands to really explore an epic story, but often the story doesn't reach the end (I'm looking at you, Jack Kirby), or reaches the end but has to continue going with different, often less-talented creatives at the helm. Creator-owned comics are supposed to escape that fate, but they often have trouble being profitable enough to earn an ending, or end up being stretched thin because they're too profitable. Of course creator-owned work is usually a bit too alternative to fit the mold. One sad example is Astro City, which at first felt like a perfect superhero epic, but was abandoned due to writer Kurt Busiek's serious health problems. Poor guy.

The Marvel movies did a good job at it with the Thanos-era movies, but they had to keep going after the heroes beat the god of evil (after all, nobody burns down a money factory), and it all felt a bit like a long "cleaning up the rubble" session without Thanos, Iron Man and Captain America around. Even though some of my favorite movies in that series come after Infinity War, they're the best, mostly despite being part of the MCU, not because of it.

Which is probably why I often prefer shorter stories, as opposed to sprawling sagas. My favorite manga are usually 10 books long at most. Comic book limited series like Watchmen are also pretty memorable. It's also a lot easier to read something that's available as a single book, instead of five hundred issues scattered around different comic book shops - although that problem's not too relevant nowadays thanks to the internet and whatnot.

That's often an issue with entertainment. You usually keep going while the story's good, and once the quality drops, you end it. Like they say in the Dark Knight movies, you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become a villain. And, funny, the Dark Knight, along Venture Brothers, is one of the few works that managed to escape that curse. It's not my favorite, but it's definitely not a disappointment. And there are some oddball stories that managed to feel epic and strike gold despite their long runs. The Invincible comic, for instance, and one of my favorite underdog webcomics, Doctor McNinja.

Figuring out good endings is one of the hardest stuff about writing, in my opinion.

[zwoelffarben]

Fuck it, rereading Dr McNinja. We die like Dr McLuchador.

[andmaybegayer]

you ever think about how “mountain dew” is a really poetic name and how, if someone didn’t know what it was, they’d probably guess “some herbal tea made from the finest leaves of the Alps”. but instead, it’s just, radioactive gamer soda

[benevolentfalcon]

[i-mustache-your-opinion]

ROUND 1 - MATCH D3

[sunhaloscarab]

they're bonding :))))

[rocketmorrie]

Relevant

Murder Mystery novel where it's revealed that it wasn't the very obvious suspect but was in fact a literal red herring that shot the victim

[abuddyforeveryseason]

This is the Buddy for October 8th. Remember Dr. McNinja? I liked his sidekick, Gordito. Today's Buddy's basically wearing a bit of a Gordito costume. There's some cacti in the background, but that's just cause he's at the place he gets his scarves. It's not a desert or nothing.

[zwoelffarben]

Poor Judy's Kitten.

You were loved.

You were eaten.

[wrongydkjquotes]

Binjpipe: What's this employee’s name? Obviously we need to go find him.

Binjpipe Employee: Cookie Masterson. He said he was leaving this place.

Binjpipe: ...

Binjpipe employee: What, have you heard of him?

Binjpipe: (slams head on desk)

(Source: The Adventures of Dr. McNinja)