#Gar's Bodega

[rscroogedraws]

Moments before Mr. Gar demands Cupid and his villain rival Scrooge take their squabbling somewhere else. Boxman's shenanigans are more than enough trouble for the Plaza…

[sonic-takeover]

Sonic, Tails! I know I asked a similar question to Dr. Robotnik, but do you plan on checking back at Gars Bodega?

Oh man, we haven't shopped there in forever.

Yeah, it's a bit of a drive, even in the Tornado. But it's always nice to see our friends there!

Ooh we should bring Knucks next time we go! He'd love Rad.

Totally! Rad is the best. Mr. Gar scares me though.

Me too, buddy. Me too.

[plaza-prom]

I got to meet the original voice actress for KO from the Lakewood Plaza Turbo pilot today! She was very nice!

[mystycalypso]

IT'S TIME! YOUR TIME TO SHINE BODEGAMEN!

What a sweet baby boy! Sure would be a shame if he had serious mommy issues at 6-11 years old.

His hair is purplish-magenta, similar to how it's seen in the birthmark shot of "You're a good friend K.O."

He tends to rant about his pow cards, most recent videosgame and exercises, not noticing when people are tired of listening.

The Bodega and its other staff fascinate him, and he's labeled it the official unofficial coolest place in the plaza.

"All the coolest heroes are here, after all, even the alley teens- occasionally!"

Extremely put together, on a surface level at least. She enjoys the way the plaza lets her escape from the awkwardness of well- everywhere else. Behind the counter, she feels confident, and cool, and can wear noise-canceling headphones if things get too loud. Something her boss finds quite ironic with how loudly she enjoys dubstep blasting in her ears.

A major part of her sense of humor comes from jokingly bullying others, though she doesn't often know when she's going too far, and it can be hard to tell if she's bullying you as a friend or if she's genuinely annoyed at you.

She often plays with the fabric of her mesh sleeves when she's bored or just needs to touch something subconsciously.

"...Dude are you kidding? This place is basically a hangout for weirdo outcasts... Oh hey, case in point:"

If you ask about the odd turtleneck beneath his crop top, he'll lie and claim it's part of the uniform, pointing to Enid's mesh access as proof of it. Really he just enjoys the look and feel of a nice turtleneck, even when it's a bit too warm for a normal one. Plus the mesh lets him show off his killer abs.

It can be rather jarring how much his personality changes when anyone he recognizes enters the bodega. But at least in the stockroom, he can listen to his music, dress his way, and get a good workout in.

He has a hard time with what he doesn't realize is near-constant masking, and will sometimes hide in the stockroom just to avoid having to use the energy to interact with others, even his coworkers.

"Aww what's that look for? Were you guys waiting for me in here?"

They've got quite a close bond in a... occasionally get on each other's nerves sibling type of way. And in one way or another are all tied to the dojo as well as the bodega.

Maybe that's why Rad and Enid managed to be so invested in Mr. Boxx's nervous wreck crush for so long, even before he'd admit he still had one.

They're like- a weird little family in their own way. What a strange little collection of heroes ❤️

[docgold13]

Cartoon Heroes Paper Cut-Outs

Kaio 'K.O.' Kincaid

Created by Ian Jones-Quartey, OK KO Lets Be Heroes began as a web series premiering on Cartoon Network's YouTube channel; it went on to be produced as a series.  The show’s central protagonist is Kaio O. Kincaid, a young lad with dreams of one day becoming the world’s greatest hero.  In the meantime, K.O. works at Gar's Bodega, a supply shop that offers goods to super heroes.  

Actress Courtenay Taylor provides the voice for K.O.  The hero first appeared in the debut episode of OK KO Lets Be Heroes, initially streaming in February of 2016

[xxgrassdemonxx]

As promised, here is Fink for the Shadow Spark AU!

As described in the Laser Blast post (and basically the same as canon), Fink is taken in and raised by Laser Blast. Unlike canon, Fink and Laser share a much more obvious father and daughter relationship, with Fink taking over many of canon KO’s roles in the series.

Fink helps out in her dad’s shop at the plaza by basically being an assistant. Laser doesn’t let her use any machinery or work the front of the store because he’s paranoid about her getting hurt. (Laser is a total helicopter parent)

But Fink yearns for human interaction outside of her dad and her babysitter. (And of course school, but most kids at school don’t ’get her’ the same way that KO didn’t have friends at school before Dendy)

So one day when the shop runs out of screws (or something), Fink convinces Laser to let her run over to the bodega to buy some more. This works since Laser is avoiding Gar, and the rest of the events of the first two episodes go like usual. With the exception of the ending- it’s Laser Blast who isn’t sure about Fink working at the bodega, but Gar appears and insists it’s a good idea for a kid her age to get out a little more.

Most of Fink’s role/story is directly the same as KO’s aside from her backstory and her relationship with ‘going turbo’. I didn’t want to give her an alter ego, and she also doesn’t really interact with Shadowy Figure. So instead, she’s introduced to ‘turbo’ energy by TKO, who claims to just be a cool kid hanging out at the plaza who is ‘totally trustworthy and not evil’. TKO offers Fink a piece of tech (the collar that canon fink wears), saying it would make her a great powerful hero in no time. She uses the collar the same way she does in canon, but since she isn’t used to having that much power normally, she isn’t able to control it. Hence how the plaza ends up getting destroyed.

Now about her design, I didn’t really change much but she still looks very different from canon. Since she never gets experimented on/mutated, she keeps her cute pink color palette. I removed her lab coat and tried to give her some warmer colors that make her feel a little for cheery and heroic.

Her hair is also in a ponytail that’s tied with bells. I think it would be extra cute if every step she took she also made a bell sound. Story wise, Laser Blast put bells in her hair because she normally walks around very quietly and when she was younger, he would lose her without even knowing it. (Rats/mice walk really quietly)

I still have a couple more characters/character relationships I wanna share, but afterwards I’m going to start putting episodes together.

[yahoo201027]

June 18: Happy Birthday to the protagonist of the series, an employee working for Gars’ Bodega alongside his co-workers and friends Enid & Rad, best friend and classmate of Dendy, son of Carol and Venomous (formerly Laserblast), and Runner Up/Bravo Party Nominee in the 2018 Battle of the Week Voting Tournament, the OK KO character of KO, full name Kaio Kincaid.

[rottenbullet]

Was thinking about that OK KO game that didn’t get super popular and thought (awhile ago, albeit) “what if ok ko was a fighting game” so ofc I had to get on that. Don’t mind the clunky sprites, they were from before I even had tumblr so my art changed a bit. But the one of Ven and Box together I just finished today-

Also! Ideas I created for moves -

KO -

Special move 1: “Inner Rage”: Unleashes T.K.O for a limited amount of time to zip across the stage trampling over enemies in a ball (almost like a sonic spin dash) form

Special Move 2: “Bodega’s best boy”: K.O temporarily stuns enemies with his cuteness (Certain Enemies are Immune, I.e Boxman.)

Enid -

Special Move 1: “Icy heart”: The stage freezes over causing all enemies to freeze- then shatter, causing a large amount of damage but depleting Enid’s energy

Special Move 2: “Stealth Log”: Enid disappears, turning into a log- causing the enemy to be distracted and for her to sneak up behind them.

Rad -

Special Move 1: “Box Bash”: Using his Beam, Rad causes a hoarde of Bodega stock Boxes to fall from the sky, causing damage.

Special Move 2: “Van the Radical”: Rad’s Van drives across the screen, running over every enemy in its way (in the line of its path), though leaves a trail of exhaust, causing damage to both parties

Gar -

Special Move 1: “El-Bow grease”: Gar slams down into all enemies on the stage after jumping up, stuck in the floor by the elbow for a limited time.

Special Move 2: “Sandwich Smash”: two halves of a sub-sandwich come in on the top and bottom half of the screen and slam in on the enemy- stunning them momentarily and causing damage.

Carol:

Special Move 1: “Motherly Love”: Heals self and anyone in party or duo by giving a hug (if solo, hugs self.)

Special Move 2: “Dojo Lesson”: Carol flings wooden boards and other objects at the enemy, bringing them to the floor and causing a great amount of the damage, but depleting half energy.

Villians -

Darrel -

Special Move 1: “Blaster Canon”: Darrel transforms his arm into a canon and rips it off, setting up the canon in the middle of the stage- launches self aiming energy balls at enemies. Melee move temporarily unavailable

Special Move 2: “Dress-Up Party”: Darrel gathers up a bunch of costumes and combines them into one ball- throwing them at the enemy, binding them in the costume-straight-jacket, trapping the enemy.

Shannon -

Special Move 1: “Buzz saw”: Shannon transforms into a giant buzzsaw, setting a path across the stage- zipping from one end of the stage to the other, causing damage into all enemies in path

Special Move 2: “Cut-throat Chatter”: Shannon insults the enemy, sending the words literally flying their way, causing damage. Shannon ends up tongue tied and stunned for a moment.

Raymond -

Special Move 1: “Time out”: Raymond grabs the enemy and rolls them up into a ball, sends them flying with a drop-kick- though depletes half of current energy.

Special Move 2: “Fashion extraordinaire”: Raymond Suddenly changes into a fashionable outfit, paparazzi flood in and trample the enemy from the opposite side of the screen, causing damage.

Boxman -

Special Move 1: “CHILDREN!!”: Boxman calls for his children, causing two Boxmore boxes to drop into the scene with random bots inside that fight until destroyed (though they have a low HP)

Special Move 2: “Desk Dash”: Boxman uses his remote to call in his desk, he hops on top of it and it unleashes a bomb attack down onto the stage

Professor Venomous -

Special Move 1: “Plague Professor”: Venomous snaps on a gas mask, and tosses a virus-grenade, it explodes and infects enemies, stunning them and causing mild damage (Does extra damage to Rad)

Special Move 2: “Lab Rat”: Venomous lets Fink out of a metal cage, causing a short rampage- Fink will jump at and attack enemies- though will go for Venomous if he is not out of the way.

[disabledcharacters]

TV ANIMATION: Red Action (OK KO! Let's Be Heroes) - Amputee, Prosthetic Leg User

OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes is set in the retro-futuristic year of 201X. The series follows the titular character, K.O., and his efforts to become the world's greatest hero while working at Gar's Bodega, a hero supply shop in Lakewood Plaza Turbo. [wiki]

Red Action came from the future year of 301X. She come back to the year 201X, the present in the series, due to her breaking the Prism Crystal in the future, an important crystal her former group, Hue Troop, uses to prevent disasters. She has since made amends with her old troop, but decided to stay in this year nonetheless. She is Enid's girlfriend.

Her right leg below the knee, is artificial as her original limb was amputated due to a undisclosed injury she got in the future. [wiki]

--------------------

Join me as I celebrate and post about different Disabled Characters throughout the month. Tracking #dcotm

[lovely-rays]

lowkey a okko sona and a truesona at the same time-

he's just a little punk that goes out of his way to be dick when he can.

he likes to find people who are napping and eat their dreams which makes their current dream get kinda...weird.

don't ask about his ear teeth he will bite you and leave.

lowkey tea spiller, its almost like his ears were made for eavesdropping. (his left ear watches/listens from around the corner, his right whispers back exactly whats being said.)

he's actually a vampire dragon but everyone thinks he's a bat and he doesn't care to correct them anymore and lets people believe it unless he wants to make em look stupid.

ok ko stuff

he sometimes comes and graffitis on gars bodega before getting his ass kicked so he has to come back the next day and pay them for pain killers or something-

thinks raymond is actually cool epic and sigma- he falls over his tail like half the times he's there to try and impress him.

he tries to be homies with a lot of the boxmore bots actually but friendship don't fly that well with em so...

[theromanticscrooge]

Carol Kincaid, the Master of Mediation, Mom of the Century, and a Lifelong Student in the School of Life

Carol Kincaid is introduced as K.O.'s friendly, approachable, and laidback parent. She's supportive and encourages her son to explore himself, what he wants for any number of potential futures, and the wide world around him. She's open-minded. If K.O. wants to try putting on makeup or even something as extreme as a day in the life of a villain, she might have reservations or be hesitant, but she believes in giving K.O. autonomy over his life and decisions. She only steps in or gets strict when she absolutely has to. K.O. understands what rules she sets and respects her enough to follow them. This is tempered by Carol actively talking with K.O. and checking in to make sure he feels comfortable coming to her with his own concerns and thoughts. While Carol tailors her approach to K.O. partly because of his age or inexperience, its the same thoughtful and direct conversations she has with anyone else regardless of their age or background.

When problems or conflict arises, her go-to tactic above everything else is trying to talk things out. She's more of a tactician and problem solver with a high emotional IQ than someone that uses only her fists or brute force. In her hero days as Silver Spark, she used her sharp mind and powers to take notes on and remix the best fighting moves and techniques into tools in her arsenal. As an older woman, she dialed back the emphasis on fighting knowledge and leaned more into studying and practicing philosophy. She meditates often and speaks like a wise old martial arts master in classic fighting movies. In a nutshell, Carol believes the power of empathy, compassion, and humanity is just as important if not more so than how hard someone can hit or what super powers they may have.

She's a very warm, affectionate person. K.O. is a cuddler and a lovebug because Carol both leans into these gestures as well as initiates these overtures herself. Carol is a very beloved, admired person both in her interpersonal life and with the larger Plaza community because of this kind, gentle openness. In a way, Carol was the popular kid that remains popular throughout her life because of how genuinely likeable she is and how earnest she tries to be with everybody.

Granted, the more grounded and patient side of Carol was very hard-earned and something she actively works on. She has moments like her power battle with Chameleon Jr.'s dad where someone managed to find the crack in her armor and her resolve slips. Here, it was Chameleon Jr.'s dad insulting her son. She trusts her son enough to handle most problems and make mistakes, but she does have a mama bear trigger. If it looks like he was hurt and doesn't have the Bodega crew nearby, Carol is entering the fray with the mindset that its better she was there and can clean up the mess later vs K.O. facing odds stacked too overwhelmingly high and gets hurt when she could have intervened. Given what she thought happened to Laserblast, she exercises a surprising amount of restraint from being too hands-on or smothering in K.O.'s life.

Laserblast's 'death' is a key part of what led to Carol's current persona. Her initial reaction to grief was anger and resentment. She directed the lion's share of the blame and hurt feelings towards her teammate El Bow. As she says herself, it felt right and even cathartic in the heat of the moment. Then Foxtail, Rippy, and POINT at large direct the same sentiments towards him with an even higher intensity. POINT unceremoniously boots El Bow and sets him as the scapegoat for the sake of strengthening their image and public relations. Foxtail, the leader of POINT, nurses a personal grudge against Mr. Gar for close to a decade after the event. That grudge becomes stewing, festering bitterness and the foundation for her extreme measures in forcibly taking the Plaza in the Dark Plaza special. Unfortunately, Foxtail's reactions were what made Carol start to regret giving her friend the cold shoulder and reevaluating what direction her life was headed after such a heavy loss.

She'd already cut her hair shorter and traded in her silver costume for a black unitard. What steps Carol takes afterward are off-screen and intimated through her later conversations with Mr. Gar and Rippy Roo respectively. Carol let herself grieve but sat with and thoroughly unpacked her emotions so she could see the full picture of the donut shop tragedy. What happened was an accident. If she had rushed in, she would be missing or possibly dead too. Laserblast was gone, but so was El Bow, one of her best friends and teammates. Then her other teammate Rippy became distant and left too. Two of her close friends and a huge chunk of her support system were gone. She reflects on how much it hurt to work through her grief in a way that was painfully lonely. She needed close-knit connections and the space to be honestly, fully vulnerable to heal. She learned the importance of having a good friend and molded herself into the exact person she wished had been in her corner when she was younger.

K.O. tries to emulate who present-day Carol is without a full understanding of what she went through or processed to reach that point of her life. Carol's inner voice is the friend that she wanted but didn't have that loves and cares for her the same way she does for others. Without his own version of Carol's carefully crafted part of her self-image, K.O. adopts figures like Chip Damage and comes up with a mold for what he thinks a hero is like. Heroes, according to K.O., are brave, physically and emotionally strong, and founts of the best morale judgment. They can face any challenge with a kind smile, a blunt fist, or disarm even the worst opponents with the right words. He embraces the world with starry-eyed enthusiasm and a default belief in everyone's better nature. Any nugget of goodness should overpower even the most angry, outwardly malicious person.

Though his unrelenting and stubborn attachment to the idea that everyone is good deep down leads to bullies abusing his naivete and escalates as far as outright evil people like Shadowy Figure manipulating him. While K.O. learns how important boundaries are and that he can stand up for himself, he commits to the idea that the best heroes are always happy, always helpful, and will do whatever in necessary even at the sacrifice of their own mental and emotional health. T.K.O. is the result of K.O. refusing to give himself the same grace, patience, and bend-over-backwardness empathy he offers everyone else. Or more accurately, K.O. doesn't know how to give himself these things or how to express his feelings on getting too stressed out or overwhelmed. Because of refusing to acknowledge these feelings, they become bottled up. T.K.O. is the 'explosion.' He enjoys punching, destroying, and letting his environment get messy. K.O. has no healthy outlet for stress. He doesn't have a constructive, cathartic outlet for actually expressing himself. Everything is work and a concentrated effort to fill the mold he made for himself and to meet both Mom's and everyone else's expectations. Of course T.K.O. wants the contrarian opposite; he's the repressed side of K.O. that has to scream to be heard.

Originally, K.O. creates T.K.O. in the hopes that anthropomorphizing the parts of himself that he doesn't like would be as effective as talking things out with a sympathetic bully. This happens around the same time that K.O. learns how difficult talking things out with some people can be as well as that some people can't be talked to or reasoned with because they don't want to do so. Villains are the exception; they're nasty just because they can be. Setting that exception means its okay to hit the eject button and close the door in some circumstances where patience and space might be the better approach. Communication is a two-way street. Both parties have to be open to hearing each other out. K.O. refuses to fully listen to T.K.O.'s complaints and perspective on things. T.K.O. wants to take full, 'my way or the highway' control with little to no room for compromises. In contrast to Carol giving her inner self a sympathetic friend, K.O. positioned himself as the one that needed to be the sympathetic friend without the full toolset and long-haul plan needed to be that person.

When T.K.O. becomes too much to handle, K.O. tries to tame him or lock him back up. He loses what personhood K.O. assigned him long enough that its okay for K.O. to return to his previously tried and true attempts of bottling up 'bad' emotions. Similarly to how Carol started her own rough self-love journey from watching Foxtail give in to bitterness, K.O. sees the results from years of bottling everything up in the form of Professor Venomous' chaotic, destructive spiral. Shadowy Figure was born from very similar circumstances to T.K.O. Venomous compartmentalized his feelings to the point that Shadowy became a dissociative Mr.Hyde adjacent entity. Stopping Shadowy Venomous necessitated K.O. making amends with and accepting T.K.O. to make sure he didn't follow in his father's shaky footsteps. K.O. had the support system and friends that Carol didn't have but the final step was including himself as part of that support system. He had to give himself permission to be vulnerable and lean on others, not just as teammates or battle support, but the same confidant he tries to be for them.

A stickier part of Carol and K.O.'s dynamic is that K.O. learned to be and insists on being self-sufficient to some extent. Carol usually pushes back on this when it comes parts of his life where she can and should be present. Though, K.O. is able to fake a resilience to feeling upset, disappointment, or stress that Carol can take for granted. He reassures everyone that all he needs is a hug and a smile then he can get right back to mopping the floor or fighting the bad guy. T.K.O. is an extreme enough, unexpected reaction that Carol isn't sure how to approach this side of her son. He's cold, he can be prickly, and he's mean. It's a dramatic shift from the K.O. that wants hugs and smiles. Carol's reactions such as "this is a bad phase" or "not this again" stem from uncertainty and personal frustration from how unreachable K.O. seems. Its new. Its a deviation from the norm and requires a solution that Carol has yet to figure out and isn't easily accessible.

It's one thing to work through her own issues and be able to talk most people through their issues. She knows herself and she's able to draw up a decent enough mental blueprint to read when it comes to understanding others. K.O. is still growing and a work in progress. There's still a lot that can change about him in what he wants, how he interacts with the world, and otherwise. Part of getting to know and better understand K.O. is making room for these potential changes. Carol will readily do so but its understandable for her to feel intimidated or ill-prepared. She already had a long personal journey of tackling hard concepts about both her own shortcomings and the world around her. Helping K.O. learn to navigate those similarly rocky shores is like looking at these same challenges but with the extra hurdle of developing new techniques and tools specific to K.O. She can reference her own journey, but their success still relies on K.O. reaching goalposts and addressing obstacles unique to him. Even the most patient parents have to face the obstacle of wanting to help their child but having moments where they'll feel stung, shut out, and waiting until their child comes to them ready and wanting help. It a collaborative effort that requires extra steps of K.O. figuring out how to articulate his needs in a way that both he and Carol can understand.

--

Silver Spark starts out a starry-eyed optimist with an energetic attitude and unabashed enthusiasm. Her equivalent to K.O.'s binder of POW cards are reams of sticker sheets filled with POINT members. She's a walking repository of knowledge on every hero or scenario she's researched. She approaches her teammates with the same eager readiness to learn more about their abilities and who they are as individuals as she does her books or technical work. Her super powers reflect her voracious appetite for knowledge: She can recreate any power or technique that she's seen other heroes or fighters do with enough effort and practice.

Looking at how she fights alongside El Bow showcases how she uses her abilities alongside other heroes. She learns how El Bow performs his signature aerial strike and they create a move that involves going back to back, pressing their forearms together, and delivering an elbow focused strike with twice the amount of force and power. Silver Spark tailored her moves in such a way that she works most effectively as part of a team or a duo vs by herself.

Out of POINT's established senior staff, Carol's personal favorite is Laserblast. She has a big, dorky crush on him mixed with whatever reverence and admiration she has for POINT in general. Where K.O. modeled some of his perspective of heroes and manliness from Chip Damage, Carol is inspired by how cool and cavalier Laser seems to be. She is more reckless and go-getting as a junior cadet than as a careful, experienced older fighter. Younger Carol matches this borrowed go-getter attitude with her own unashamed self-confidence and candidity. There's only a handful of scenes between Silver and Laser to extrapolate from what they were like as a romantic couple.

Laser gets handsy the minute he gets a green light from how she reacts to his light touches. If El Bow's reaction to the news they're dating has any implications, they are very physical often; just not in public. Outside of PDA, Silver is patient, supportive, and tries to convince her partner that he's good enough as he is. She wants a substantial relationship and had plans to get more serious if her reaction to finding out she was pregnant indicates anything. Even if it was unplanned, the fact she was excited and kept momentos of Laserblast speaks volumes; she'd gladly progress to marriage and domestic life if she had the opportunity.

Laser is a showy, confident smooth talker. His hero name is based on his helmet, which redirects attention from his actual powers to his favorite gadget. He has major self-esteem issues attached to how his powers actually work: he drains power from others but he collapses along with them. The consequence of his ability makes him feel weak and inept; he invents more potent weapons and researches means to beef up his powers in secret with the mindset of 'ask for forgiveness later instead of permission now.'

While Silver sees him in the light of he could hang the moon, Laser is envious of her powers. He views everything and everybody through a lens of such intense self-deprecation that he doesn't appreciate how supportive she is. When she says he wouldn't be powerful enough to survive the donut shop event, it hits a really sensitive trigger. He doesn't stop to evaluate what Silver actually said; as in, think about what she meant in relation to the person she is vs the biased vision of her in his head. He retreats and runs away because he's so convinced that Silver and everybody else view him as the same pathetic weakling he convinced himself he is. He has difficulty maintaining any deep personal relationships period because he doesn't look at what things are like from the other person's perspective.

A rough sketch of the differences between Carol and Professor Venomous fit the philosophy of yin and yang. The imagery for yin and yang are drawn on for illustrating the split between K.O. and T.K.O. in a younger K.O. flashback. When Carol is teaching young K.O. how to meditate, there are a white and black fish in the pond nearby. Also, K.O. has the strongest attachment and visual ties with Carol while T.K.O. has those with Professor Venomous. The surface level reading of Carol and the Professor are lightness and darkness or good vs evil. Applying the idea of yin and yang reinforces that K.O. benefits from interacting with both parents, regardless of how crappy Venomous becomes later. He needs a balance and harmony between K.O. and T.K.O. to be a more healthy, cohesive person. On Wikipedia, yin is described as 'retractive, passive, and contractive,' and yang is described as 'repelling, active, and expansive.' A very general overview is that yin and yang are complementary opposites that are both part of each other and contradictory to each other.

Carol is yang. When she loses her friends and has to rebuild her life, she actively seeks out means for broadening her perspective and working on self-improvement. Venomous is yin. His problems come from his continued look inward to the point of obsession and self-destruction. He starts to find fulfillment and self-improvement because of what new connections and life he stumbles into. Carol had to look inwards and cultivate her inner world. Venomous has to look outwards and focus more on what to do to understand, maintain, and improve his new support network. Again, this is a very general overview using yin and yang as a base. Both concepts and taoist philosophy as a whole are complicated and nuanced. The point of playing any kind of compare and contrast here is to illustrate that Carol and the Professor benefit from maintaining a better balance of their respective inner worlds as much as K.O. does from balancing his own. They're exes but fantastically complementary thematic foils to exploring the differences between what K.O. needed and what T.K.O. needed. K.O. needed permission to let himself feel negative emotions. T.K.O. wanted to be acknowledged and validated. Once he learns how to balance the needs of both, he is able to better navigate the waters of his own yin and yang.

--

When Carol opens the Fitness Dojo at the Plaza, her motives are twofold: hope that she can reenter Mr. Gar's life after what happened at the donut shop and use her position as a POINT agent to protect the Plaza from POINT interfering. She wants to talk to and befriend Mr. Gar again but she doesn't want to initiate. Of course Mr. Gar holds resentment towards POINT and wants absolutely nothing to do with them. Besides that, Laserblast's death is the elephant in the room. Neither one will discuss the details unless one or the other readily brings it up and shows a willingness to unpack the sensitive details and heavy baggage attached to that particular topic. Carol is ready to have that conversation. The next step is that she's waiting for Mr. Gar to start that conversation if only to set the initial tone and circumstances in a way that feels comfortable to him. She's also very aware of Mr. Gar's feelings towards her. Her approach to this topic is also a waiting game with a few gentle nudges or attempts at giving him a decent opening for expressing his feelings.

After Mr. Gar and Carol actually have that all-important conversation, it opens the proverbial floodgates. Mr. Gar has an easier time saying hello and making small talk. As he becomes more comfortable around her, he gains the confidence to make bigger and grander romantic gestures. He's wanted this romance for so long and so badly that he overcompensates out of not quite knowing the best approach or what is appropriate. Carol feels overwhelmed too. She's flattered by all of these gestures and appreciates how warm, sweet, and affectionate Mr. Gar is. Instead of facing walls or giving constant support like she would with Laser, Carol is met with similar if not bigger overtures than she voluntarily delivers. She never expected anything like this but it brings so much extra vibrancy and joy to her life that she wants to nurture this relationship and see how it grows. Once Mr. Gar and Carol agree that simple but meaningful gestures are the perfect fit, they become a healthy couple with a solid foundation that can openly talk things out.

Said foundation is strong enough to weather Mr. Gar learning her secret that she was still involved with POINT. He understandably felt betrayed and it gutted him in such a way that it could have ended whatever relationship they had romantic or otherwise. Instead, they learned how to talk to and understand the other effectively enough that Mr. Gar empathizes with Carol's rationale about keeping her secret agent status secret and what her intentions were. Revealing her secret could have shattered the spinning plates balancing act she had going that successfully pushed POINT away from the glorb tree for so long. Mr. Gar would definitely have demanded to fight Foxtail and pushed away POINT operatives enough that the big POINT invasion would have happened sooner. He's a take-action person after so many years of feeling meek, unheard, and defenseless in the face of someone more commanding or a bigger personality. Carol has always been self-confident enough that she can handle most people and situations with discretion and finesse; exactly why she can handle all of the spinning plates.

Mr. Gar takes time to find himself and regain his bearings. Interestingly, the process plays out with him reclaiming his old mask and El Bow moniker. Since he refuses to surrender Lakewood Plaza, then he's strong enough now to embrace the past and integrate El Bow as part of who Mr. Gar is now instead of letting him remain an echo. El Bow is joined by Carol joining the fray with a purple sash and accents that call on old-school Silver Spark. Like Mr. Gar reclaiming his luchador heritage, Carol is rewriting who Silver Spark is. She's no longer a complicit secret agent for POINT or the scared, lonely woman grieving Laserblast. This is the penultimate version of the bright-eyed, well-meaning hero Carol always wanted to be when she was younger and finally realizes as an adult fighting for her values. It's Silver Spark's moment; a moment for her and the people she loves instead of the cold, authoritarian force POINT became.

When El Bow and Silver Spark meet on the battlefield, it's the final reconciliation of what happened after the donut shop and promises for a brighter future. The version of Carol Mr. Gar is dating can own up to her mistakes, goes out of her way to grow and become a better person, and genuinely wants him in her life. This version of Carol will listen to what he has to say and keep the door open for him no matter what. She's proven that she's more than worth a second chance and whatever life they could build together. She's worth the risk of being vulnerable; she helped him start to address and live with his trauma. Hopefully, he can do the same for her and it becomes a team effort vs the wedge that was keeping them apart.

--

Carol is just as much an active character and important thematic player in her own right vs just 'K.O.'s mom.' Too many other cartoons or stories feature a mom character that usually stays in the background unless she needs to give her kid some advice or there's an odd, outlier episode that actually focuses on her. American culture has a tendency to demonize single mothers and define her by just that role. There's no sympathy or insight around what circumstances or even deliberate choices led to this hypothetical woman becoming a single parent. The title is met with harsh judgment and pity for someone not meeting the unspoken cultural mandate that a 'proper' family is the nuclear model featuring a heteronormative couple with 1.5 kids.

O.K. K.O. spotlights that Carol's partner possibly died in a tragic accident. Besides that part, Carol doesn't express any active interest or need for a romantic partner. She has a full life, history, and motivations beyond just her role as a 'parent.' She owns and operates her own dojo. She has friends she makes active plans with and others she wants to reconnect with. In general, she's satisfied with her life and her biggest goal is to continue growing as a person, learning, and living life to its fullest. She's a proactive, loving parent that gladly sets aside time and space for her kid. She also recognizes the importance of trusted adults and extended family figures in K.O.'s life besides just a parent. Even when a kid has two parents, their life is arguably improved by the presence of an older sibling, a mentor, or friends they can talk to and glean insights from that they can't learn from just their parents. Both Carol and K.O. find and build found families among the other characters they meet and befriend around the Plaza.

Carol's romance with Mr. Gar was an unexpected and pleasant surprise rather than a shoehorned mandate that 'she needs a man to be happy.' The cartoon even pokes fun at the idea of a potential Gar-Kincaid baby with a scene where Carol is holding a wrapped-up baby shaped bundle that's actually just a stack of pancakes. Mr. Gar's transition into his role as K.O.'s step-dad happened organically. It's not that Carol having another kid would be a bad move narratively. It's more that its refreshing that Carol is allowed to have a romantic partner and the story briefly touches on how exciting that is for her personally. There's as much emphasis on Carol is having fun dating again rather than just K.O. has a father figure. In short, Carol is a fantastic example of a cartoon mom that's a three-dimensional, fleshed out, and enjoyable character to see in action.

She's a role model. She's presented as someone that has their shit together but viewers get a peek behind the curtain at the work she had to do to get there. Carol still has to work on parts of herself, is still learning, still growing as a person. She's not the star of the show but she's an example for how to become an older adult that can roll with the punches and makes room for changes and evolution in her life whether they're good, bad, extreme, mundane, or neutral.

[dustbunnyzonyay]

OKKO OC’s yap sesh.. (featuring Merged!KO)

My oc’s I love them <3 This actually took forever and I’ll prolly upload a speedpaint later so have a very small infodump

Lilith (blond) usually hangs out in Noelle’s (blue) store all day. She’s an ex-detective with a power similar to Dynamite Watkins (makes people compulsively and uncontrollably speak the relevant truth with a key phrase) she was fired from her job because of her.. Unorthodox and overly aggressive methods. She usually carries around a yellow notepad and pen and finds joy in interviewing people.

Fun fact their hair colors are the others reversed :3

Noelle’s thinks she’s powerless, however her power is that the universe, time, and space all bends to her will. Unknowingly. When I say her will, I don’t mean she’s like “dang I really want 20 bucks” and then all of a sudden there’s a crisp 20 dollar bill in her pocket, it’s more like she’ll think “huh, I’m really hungry, but I can’t afford to get food from the bodega nextdoor as of now.” And a strange series of events that would actually happen (a boxmore fight maybe) would lead to the sale price of her favorite food being lowered.

If she wants something (to be happy for example) but also has an idea of how to get that goal, her power will prioritize the way to get there, regardless of if the road will lead to the destination or not.

I did this solely so I could write angst

For context, Noelle rents from Gar an art supplies store at the plaza. Her pow card says “1” but sometimes has a weird glitch where it shows “20”.. weird. It always fixes itself before somebody can show her though.

yes they end up dating, but for like 2 years Lilith didn’t know they were dating. Ok let me explain uh so Lilith had been accidentally dropping “hints” that she was interested in Noelle. Lilith actually just wanted to get to the bottom of Noelle. She seemingly has no power, yet she gets every damn thing she wants.

this eventually leads to Lilith saying something like “so let’s move in together, huh?” And Noelle goes “yea” and she’s just like. “Damn guess I have a gf now” and it’s like this whole thing GOD i love them so much.

[haveyouwatchedthiscartoon]

OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes (2017)

Propaganda Below

No Propaganda sent in by submitter

Personal: In my opinion, OK KO is one of the best modern cartoons of our time. The animation is WONDERFUL using a style that was also used in Steven Universe where the animation team prioritize the storyboards over the model sheets. This gives the animation a really fun bounce and life to it that not a lot of cartoons have. The story is also amazing though I will warn that it was cancelled during the production of season 2 so the ending is kinda abrupt and the last episode or so is kinda a fuck you to the network and a hopeful word to the audience. Even then, the story is amazing and is very heartfelt and full of love. The characters themselves are also so full of charm and the cartoon as a whole really reminds me a lot of CN's earlier stuff. As an animation autistic who literally does nothing but watch cartoons this show is definitely on the top of my recommendations list by far. It's fun, it's full of love, it's funny and heartfelt at all the right times. Please watch this show I'm so fr

Google: "In the future year 201X, naive youngster K.O. aspires to be a superhero in a video game-inspired world set in Lakewood Plaza. Luckily for him, he's the newest employee at Gar's Bodega, the go-to spot for hero supplies and a bonding place for K.O. and his co-workers/best friends, human Enid and alien Radicles. While Radicles, or Rad, is known as a bit of a slacker, Enid has a reputation as a level-headed big sister-type, although she seems to lack motivation to actually help people. The bodega's owner, Mr. Gar, does his best to keep the threesome on their toes by testing them with a variety of tasks."

[thousandyearphantombunker]

(ignore the fact that I drew her in similar pose to Elodie- I wasn't thinking and this is my default pose for doodling ladies okay!) swap au idea! Enid is the one to betray Elodie-

In this AU Like in canon Enid and Elodie- were friends who trained together and like in canon in order to enter P.O.I.N.T Prep had to fight each other. Here Enid's insecurities led to her using dirty tactics to win against Elodie. Enid wasn't cruel or smug after winning but she did become significantly more distant keeping contact incredibly briefly until she just completely ghosted at random when she was going to visit Elodie- and she never gave her a reason why. Enid like in canon dislikes her dorky past- she sees P.O.I.N.T Prep as a new opportunity to be cooler and 'more herself' what actually happened was she threw herself into her ninja interests a lot more heavily and ignored many of her other interests inorder to become a better ninja and on top of that while she had free time early on in P.O.I.N.T Prep becoming an honors student meant she had to push herself harder to succeed. She became distant because outside of Elodie- she felt weird about her past- she lost her connections to her ghoul school friends, her date with Rad was awful, and she betrayed Elodie- because of her own insecurities- Elodie- came from wealth and was charismatic- the girl was a shoe in for P.O.I.N.T. Enid was shy. She was a witch who wanted to be a ninja and had a lot of embarrassing moments- she justified her decision to herself saying she would see Elodie- join P.O.I.N.T eventually anyway. Enid originally ghosted her out of embarrassment- she was that shy kid whose parents didn't get hee interests and who dated jerks who humiliated her- she decided to not be that girl anymore and being reminded of her past dorkiness and being recognized as that girl who was really awkward and shy being seen fully- it made her uncomfortable- when she realized she basically just ghosted her friend after betraying her she didn't bother with trying to fix things- Elodie- would move on without her anyway- she would just be remembered as that friend she had as a kid and lost connection with- and Enid herself lost a lot of her feelings and sense of connection with Elodie- outside of some fond memories. But the shame over becoming cold sticks with hee

One day she comes across her old friend and ex working at Gar's Bodega- she didn't want to go there because when people talk she's worried about being embarrassed again and while seeing those two doesn't trigger a powerful reaction initially (she's pretty much over Rad- he's just some bum she dated once and only vaguely recognizes him after he got swol) Elodie- makes a move to reconnect with someone she can hopefully Ruby elbows with and regain some confidence by achieving her goals as a hero with a powerful ally! (well more by reconnecting with Enid and being important to her again and not feeling lonely)- Enid acts likes she barely remembers her when she tries to do so. It's a really messy reunion. Enid's guilt keeps climbing it's way through and like being a witch and all the interests/hobbies she gave us she represses that feeling to feel secure in her identity as a ninja. She's very rude and unhelpful toward most people- she is apathetic and when people reach out to her she smacks their hands away hard- she also tries to shirk responsibility where ever she can- 'thats not my problem' or 'i won't get in trouble for that' she has to work hard to stay in so she drops 'unnecessary' responsibilities (which often include her responsibility to do heroic deeds and focuses on P.O.I.N.T's main objective- crushing enemies and looking good in interviews) luckily her old friend seems to fit in nicely at P.O.I.N.T and Elodie has totally moved on and she doesn't have to apologize or confront her emotions ever by talking to her because they are just aquaintences- and they end up dormmates

Elodie- in this AU ends up working at Gar's Bodega. She is quite embarrassed by this fact but is a hard working employee. She is very arrogant and sassy and loves making condescending manipulative comments to get attention- she's not above using a person's insecurities to persuade someone into doing something for her. She was embarrassed by Enid defeating because Elodie- was the shoe in- she was rich, talented, eloquent and she lost to her friend that while she doesn't look down on her doesn't have the same privileges as her and still beat her out. Then Enid ghosted her- like she didn't matter. Like her money and talents didn't matter. It burned her. She also feels embarrassed about the fact she's viewed as a pampered princess- a sissy bratty girl who wouldn't have to work hard and was spoiled by love and got a taste of the real world when she 'fairly' lost to her friend. She sort of gets joy out of being a mean girl. She 'realized' it wasn't her powers or money or privileges that had anything wrong with them- they had significance and where a major part in her victories-It was that she wasn't good enough. She failed not because of luck- it was only partially because of Enid being better than her- something was wrong with her- and what was wrong? She wasn't ruthless enough. She wasn't actually important at all she was insignificant. She wants to make a big impact with her assets and isn't ashamed of her cash or beauty and uses them to get what she wants regardless of what people say about it but that 'your actions don't matter only your bank account does' mentality hurts her-she even believes Enid might have only befriended her to learn how her bow works or because Enid wanted gifts from her . She flaunts everything she's got because she thinks it what people see even if she isn't important herself- she's very materialistic When she meets Enid again she is genuinely a bit excited to see her friend again and would love to chat- but since that friendly longing doesn't fit her new style she tells others she's using her past connection to Enid to get into P.O.I.N.T to get a chance- playing up a nepotism angle and playing into the rich socialite dick angle. When she does eventually get into P.O.I.N.T her ruthlessness benefits her- she is determined to be seen as a very important influential person and refuses to let any opportunity pass her- she wants to matter to Enid again in a way unrelated to cash and to be popular- Enid is sort of burnt out when they meet up though and it's clear the cutthroat environment and the decisions she has to make are getting to her- So Elodie- thinking Enid would want this and that all her past failures where caused by being too generous makes ruthless choices that help them both but when pinned against each other again Enid doesn't take any shots at her either despite the fact she mentally built an image of Enid as ruthless- and she has no clue why

[mystycalypso]

"Jack it's nice that you want to make all the characters more openly neurodivergent since they're already so coded as such, but Dendy is already written with savantism you can't make her more autistic"

WRONG

Listen, half of this au is just personal wish fulfillment on things I wish they were able to do but know it would've been borderline if not entirely impossible bc of CN, (like Radmond content I mean what)

And something that you seldom see in cartoons is selectively nonverbal characters, or characters with aids for such things, and as someone who often uses text instead of talking because well, being verbal is tiring as hell, I think that's a serious missed opportunity.

Dendy already carries a high-tech aid with them everywhere and I think working that into their identity can only add to them as a character.

Otherwise, Dendy is mostly unchanged out of everyone. Partially because, I love them as is. They're one of the only savant characters I haven't genuinely hated (those also tend to be live-action ones-) and with such a broad range of neurodivergent coding in this cast it's much more natural to have representation of this specific subsection as well.

...wow this was not as much about them as much as it was about their og character, hold on.

With a hyperfixation on all things tech (pow cards especially) and coding, they're a quick-thinking and talented young hero. Although sometimes their thinking tends to lean more morally grey than other children. Because most adults see their accomplishments at such a high level for a 6-11 year old, they have the instinct to impress those older than them. And while this comes easily most of the time, in cases like Ms. Quantum it leaves them feeling like a failure and pushing themselves to a burnout degree.

Hanging out with K.O. in or out of the bodega makes them feel relaxed, and like they don't have to live up to any special expectations. They can simply share their interests as they wish.

They use all pronouns, but mainly go by they/them, as they don't feel any particularly strong ties with gender as a whole.

(Also don't worry I'm actively working on the surprise that came with Dendy winning but I didn't want it to hog their spotlight)

[hita-bae]

Darrell, Shannon and Raymond outside Gar’s Bodega for the fourth (4th) plaza attack of the day