#Guy Toubes

[thesinglesock]

my other Bunad post is getting notes again, apparently this is something you guys find as interesting as I do, so here's another fun one:

the Sudanese-Norwegian visual Artist Ahmed Umar has created two outfits inspired by his multi-cultural heritage.

left: his own Bunad, which is both recognizeably from Hallingdal and Sudan (not sure what specific area though, the article I read didn't say).

right: a Sudanese Toub with fabrics and embroidery inspired by the late Queen Maud's bunad.

Absolutely stunning work, I really hope we get to see more like this

[darsynia]

A Line from Iron Man 1 You Probably Don't Remember...

So I just was reminded of this because of having to go back over the escape while writing Trust Fall-- but there's this line in Iron Man 1 and it KILLS me, okay.

This moment (near enough I could find in a gif):

They've booby trapped the cave door and Yinsen is putting Tony into the suit-- and after the explosion at the door...

Tony: How'd that work?

Yinsen: Oh my goodness! It worked, all right!

Tony: It's what I do.

That last line there, it's not said with any force, any significance, and honestly, Yinsen's next line ('Let me finish this') is said right on top of it-- but think about that!

Tony has to know what's coming up for him during the escape. It'll be a lot of death, a lot of pain, even though it'll be happening to 'bad guys.' The armor he's wearing is literally made out of his life's work, which he's come to understand through Yinsen's description of the injuries those weapons inflict ('we call them the walking dead') and the evidence of who uses them is not the legacy he wants, anymore.

He has yet to build a new legacy, so for now, that explosion? It's 'what he does.' It's what he's good at. This makes Yinsen's iconic statement later so much more poignant. 'Don't waste your life.'

We don't really think of Yinsen as a character that has much of an arc, but Shaun Toub did something really subtle with him. That scene when they meet in the cave, Yinsen's attitude is uncomfortable to watch. He's almost jovial, certainly dismissive, and the more times I replayed it, I realized how brittle Yinsen is. This man he's just saved was ultimately responsible for the deaths of people Yinsen was unable to save. The people destroying his village, who have already killed his family? They used Tony's weapons to do it.

Yinsen's already been dismissed by Stark before he saved his life.

Even so, he slowly warms to Tony, and Toub shows us this by easing up on the brittle, false amusement that Yinsen uses as a shield in the beginning. This is a man who expects to die, but there's no way he expected to die in the way that he does.

At first, I was a little disappointed in RDJ's line reading with 'It's what I do.' I feel like it took re-watching that part multiple times for me to even catch it, and it's such a powerful insight into a Tony Stark who has recently decided to be a former weapons manufacturer.

At the same time, haven't we all experienced this moment? The point at which we decide to change, but before we've proved we can do it? There's never any fanfare. We haven't earned anything. We still need to Do the Thing, instead of just WANT to do the thing.

In a way, those two statements-- 'It's what I do' and 'Don't waste your life' inform the rest of Tony Stark's arc throughout multiple films. It's not 'Don't waste your life' that has him in confrontation with Steve Rogers on the helicarrier in Avengers 1. That's all a refutation of 'It's what I do.'

And in the end, Tony Stark doesn't waste his life, and he does it with something he designed, just like he'd designed those weapons. He does it with a defensive aspect of that suit. He saves the world-- the universe.

It's what he does.

[ramblingroommate]

My Dracula Daily Fan Cast

Am I extremely late to this whole thing? Yes. Do I care? Nope! Let’s go :)

Dracula

Shaun Toub: for the longest time I actually had Claes Bang (who has played Dracula before!) in this role, but after re-reading Dracula’s description for the twentieth time I couldn’t get Shaun’s face out of my head. Neither actor is English (not a coincidence) but while Claes is danish, Shaun is an iranian-born american actor. We don’t really know Dracula’s origins so I thinks it’s fine. Shaun is also almost ten years older than Claes which is great for the first part of the story and less so for the second half, but I think he could still play it off really well with the right make up (or CGI).

Jonathan Harker

George Mackay: he’s a British actor most people know for his role in the war movie 1917. I chose him because he has the general look I want for Jonathan (generic white boy my beloved) and I think he could bring justice to our dear friend, showing the hardships of the character really well instead of making him dull just to push a dracmina romance.

Mina Murray

Olivia Cooke: she’s an English actress mostly known for her roles in ready player one and house of the dragon. I mostly chose her because of her looks (tho I imagine Mina with black hair) but I know she was in her fair share of horror movies and even in a historical drama - both genres that mesh really well with Dracula.

Lucy Westenra

Sydney Sweeney: it was really hard choosing an actress for Lucy! Mina is always going on about how pretty she is so I wanted that but I also wanted PAIN. Sydney acted in Euphoria where she interpreted the character of Cassie who, and I quote, “fell in love with every guy she ever dated. Whether they were smart or stupid or sweet or cruel, it didn't matter. She didn't like to be alone”. I think that’s suuuuch an interesting acting experience for someone who has to play Lucy. The actress is four or five years younger than the other actors but Lucy is canonically 19 years old so I think that’s fine.

Arthur Holmwood

Simon Castle: Arthur was THE HARDEST to cast for me, I don't know why. I wanted a young noodle-ly boy with a sweet face but also a bit of a trust fund kid kind of vibe and I guess it was a hard balance to strike.

Quincey Morris

Dacre Montgomery: do I even have to say anything? Just look at the pictures… perfect actor for a perfect himbo.

Jack Seward

Charlie Rowe: I decided on this actor after seeing him in Rocketman; at first he seems like a big shot producer but then the real guy shows up and makes fun of him (that whole thing was too Jack and Van Helsing for me to ignore). I couldn’t decide between clean shaven and slight stubble so I put both.

Abraham Van Helsing

Mads Mikkelsen: I don't know yall. I just really like Mads okay?

[televisionenjoyer]

hey im the one who was like "taub isnt even that annoying hes just a guy" and you told me to come back after i got to his marriage drama shit. and i have to say. its pretty god damn annoying. but hes still just a guy. every time he comes on screen i say out loud "tiny toub moment" and i want to transition into him

ok fav. keep living ur truth my guy

[fionaapplecrumble]

i hate myself i watched a you toube short (already unforgivable) of a guy making a burger and i immediately dordached myself a burger. i am susceptible to propaganda

[nfliplnews]

[ad_1] Adam Teicher, ESPN Staff WriterOct 19, 2023, 03:23 PM ETCloseCovered Chiefs for 20 seasons for Kansas City Star Joined ESPN in 2013KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- With regular punter Tommy Townsend questionable for last week's game because of a knee injury, the Chiefs almost had to go to their backup when they played against the Denver Broncos.That backup plan? Quarterback Patrick Mahomes."[Mahomes] is our backup punter," special teams coach Dave Toub said. "He could do it. He shows me all the time he's out there [at practice]. Boom."That guy, it's unbelievable."Editor's Picks2 RelatedAgainst the Broncos, Townsend played through the injury, punting three times for a 48-yard average, so Mahomes wasn't needed. But Townsend is again listed on this week's injury report, although Toub seemed confident he would be able to play Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers.Mahomes last punted in a game in high school. At Whitehouse High in Texas, he punted 29 times for a 37.8-yard average.The Chiefs have used atypical players in their kicking before. Last season, safety Justin Reid stepped in for injured Harrison Butker during Week 1 and made 1 of 2 extra-point attempts in the first half before Butker returned to the game in the second quarter. [ad_2] Source link

[animesuperhero0]

DISNEY JUNIOR ORDERS A SECOND SEASON OF ‘T.O.T.S.’ AHEAD OF THE SERIES PREMIERE, FRIDAY, JUNE 14, ON DISNEY CHANNEL AND DISNEYNOW Multiple Award-Winning Performer Vanessa Williams and Broadway Star Megan Hilty Among Voice Cast Disney Junior has ordered a second season of the animated series T.O.T.S. – ahead of the series debut, FRIDAY, JUNE 14…

T.O.T.S. to Premiere June 14, 2019, on Disney Channel with a Second Season on Order was originally published on Anime Superhero News

[maturemenoftvandfilms]

Dave Toub Born: June 1, 1962, Ossining, NY Physique: Husky Build Height: 6’ 3"

David Toub is an American football coach who is the assistant head coach and special teams coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League.

Again married with children, like all the men I want to fuck. Anyway, I imagine he'd be a great fuck. The kind of guy that'll pound you into the bed.

[wumblr]

can't stand all these fake internet fans with their zoomed conferences and their tick talks and yoube toubes. webbed cams. absurd. like they have this thing called "text" and it takes literally zero production, or lighting. have you guys heard of this. my hair could look like literally anything right now and it wouldn't even be relevant to what i'm saying, it's a whole different world

[magnificent-nerd]

Why Naqib in The Boys sucked

Image description: fictional character Naqib in Amazon Prime’s show The Boys.

(Is the fire in the background an excuse to use racist Yellow Filter to show how exotic he is? Hmm.)

I first posted this on my blog in Dec 2020, and since nothing in superhero media has changed for the better at this time (September 5th, 2021), I’m going to keep talking about it.

Because nobody else does. So, without further ado:

WHY NAQIB SUCKS.

I was a big fan of The Boys season 1; I love superheroes, I love deconstructing a genre. Sure, it has its problems, but overall I enjoyed season 1 and thought the show had potential.

(That’ll learn me for being hopeful!)

When season 1 ended with this big build up of mostly nameless brown and background characters as Muslim terrorists (deep sigh) we the audience are left thinking this one Muslim character (Naqib) whose superpower is to blow himself up repeatedly (insert another long deep sigh here) is going to be The Big Bad of season 2.

I had my misgivings about that direction. Firstly, as you can see from the image of Naqib, he is highly exoticised and is walking around bare chested with Arabic writing on his chest. He looks more like a generic western media depiction of a genie than he does a supervillain. 

And yet he's the first prominent Muslim character in superhero media I've seen in YEARS.

-

(See my post about MENA and Muslim character good guys, including Joe played by Marwan Kenzari in The Old Guard, which is technically a comic book movie but it’s not what I’d call ‘caped and costumed’ superheroes so it’s more... superhero adjacent.)

I follow superhero content closely and as far as I'm aware the last time we saw any named Muslim characters in superhero movies WITH SPEAKING LINES was:

Instance 1) Iron Man 1 back in 2008 with The Ten Rings in Afghanistan, showing multiple Muslim characters as baddies/terrorists, but only two of them as a named character and with any meaningful lines to say. And despite one of them, Yinsen (actor Shaun Toub), being a good guy he still dies! Which is common in western media for Muslim and MENA characters.

Note: Fellow Iron Man 1 castmate, actor Sayed Badreya, makes an important point in this GQ article: "I die in Iron Man, I die in Executive Decision. I get shot by everyone. George Clooney kills me in Three Kings. Arnold blows me up in True Lies…" (x)

Instance 2) A more recent instalment in Batman V. Superman in 2016, with some unnamed 'General' character and mercenaries/terrorists in Nairomi, Africa, referred to only as "the desert" throughout the movie. All reference to the General's actual name are available in an extended/deleted scene only, so a very poor and vague depiction in the final cut.

Instance 3) The generic and badly written ‘bad guys’ in Wonder Woman 1984 (2020 movie), which was honestly such a racist depiction of Arabs and Muslims that many critics pointed out we hadn’t seen a depiction this terrible since 1994′s True Lies. (At least most critics were in agreement that WW84 movie was generally terrible, so there’s that.)

And that's it, those are the only major instances showing any Muslim actors or characters in a caped and costumed superhero movie. 

Some other fleeting glimpses of Muslims onscreen:

Glimpse 1) I spotted a girl wearing a hijab among the nameless and unspeaking background characters of Peter Parker's class in Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019). A first for Marvel movies, apparently.

Glimpse 2) Disney Plus show Falcon and Winter Soldier (2021) had two nameless Muslim characters walk by in a scene that’s supposed to be Tunisia (using Yellow Filter), and ‘thank’ the present American Air Force (eye-roll).

Glimpse 3) Netflix show Jupiter’s Legacy (2021) had a nameless Muslim sailor conversing with one of the main characters in a scene, with meaningful dialogue about racism. (WOW. Really good.) Bonus: no yellow filter. It’s a pity he’s a nameless background character because this brief instance is the least problematic MENA rep I’ve seen in ages, but it is very brief.

I just wrote about Glimpses 2 and 3, and how the Netflix show outdid Disney when it comes to these nameless walk-on Muslim characters.

This is pretty pathetic overall, these small crumbs, especially compared to better rep and probably the only instance of legit MENA superheroes in a ‘costumes and capes’ style superhero show, the Tarazi siblings on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

-

Anyway, now I’ve listed what crumbs are available across the live action superhero genre, back to The Boys.

I was intrigued about how season 2 would handle Naqib and any characters relating to him, and what storyline they'd use. 

Was I excited at the possibility of seeing Muslim supers onscreen? Damn straight I was. Did I mind that they were baddies? Well, yes and no. When you only ever get crumbs or no crumbs at all, you tend to get excited over one stale old crumb.

After the build up for season 2, I eagerly sat down to watch the first episode, only to have the first five minutes of episode 1 Trigon him.

Note: who's Trigon, you ask? Well if you didn't watch the DCEU's Titans show, Trigon was The Big Bad who was hyped up throughout season 1, introduced in the season 1 cliff-hanger episode as this big 'oh shit!' moment for the cast of heroes, only for him to fizzle out like a wet fart in the first episode of season 2 while the show pivots wildly in another direction. 

Exactly what happened to Naqib in the first five minutes of The Boys season 2.

Erm, so, Naqib. Farewell, I guess? As a character you briefly appeared in 2 episodes, portrayed by a different actor in each (Krishan Dutt, and Samer Salem). It seems the writers used you as a plot device when they needed a cheap cliff-hanger for a direction that ultimately went nowhere.

Am I disappointed? Yeah, I am. Overall I thought season 2 of The Boys was weaker than season 1, but I'm not here to talk about the whole season: I want to talk about Naqib and this missed opportunity.

The Boys and its showrunners sell the show as being a satire of recent and well known superhero content, of all the big movies and TV shows. There's been a lot of patting themselves on the back for calling out overused tropes in superhero media (and sometimes they've done this satire well: see the LGBT marketing scene with Queen Maeve in season 2), but my issue with the show on their Muslim rep, or should I say lack thereof, is if your show has even less Muslim character rep than the content you're trying to parody, how is this a win for satire?

Naqib and that whole angle came across as a lazy, half-assed swing from the writer's room. Sure, perhaps a lot of the non-Muslim and non-MENA audience won't even notice, as we've been ignored by western media or made into nameless, generic, vacuous baddies for decades now. Non-Muslims and non-MENA just accept that we're always the baddies for no particular reason at all (which feeds into Islamophobia, by the way) and The Boys' writers could say they are simply satirising the tropes already present in media...

But, and this is a big but, the media that The Boys is satirising has already made a step toward better inclusion and representation: Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), Marvel comics' first Muslim superhero, is entering the MCU as a lead character in her own Disney Plus show, debuting in 2022. 

Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan is also cited to appear in upcoming Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels (2022), which will be a major movie.

The MCU has also cast a Muslim actor (Mahershala Ali) as the lead in a reboot of Blade. That's going to be big news when it starts filming.

So to the showrunners on The Boys, I say this: now you've done this small angle of 'all Muslim characters are terrorists, yuckity-yuck!' like we've seen in major superhero movies thus far, and you've brushed that aside in favor of focusing on other whiter villains, my question is will you come back to Muslim and MENA characters again? Or is that all you got?

Because if that was ALL, then the current score is Disney/MCU:02, Netflix:02, DCEU:02, and The Boys: a big ZERO as far as Muslim and MENA rep goes.

-

Originally posted on my blog, magnificently nerdy.

If you, like me, are always on the lookout for onscreen Muslim and MENA characters in superhero media, and have spotted any characters in superhero TV shows I haven’t watched yet, let me know about them!

Here is my post on good guys, featuring Old Guard’s Joe, and Blindspot’s Rich Dotcom.

Here’s my post about the Tarazi siblings on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow TV show.

And, if Marvels’ Eternals gets released on schedule for 2021, we will have a MENA actor portraying a supporting character. I just hope Marvel gives him a name.

[pwnyta]

I just saw the guy who played Iroh in that shitty TLA movie (im watching a critique).... they made him so hot and for what...

and I have to sit here like a dumb bitch when it sinks in that this is Shaun Toub...

Was Yinsen always so hot... whats happening?

[sketch-shepherd]

the changes to the GDW English fandub, and why we did them (episodes 1-9)

With episode 10 of the Ginga Densetsu Weed English fandub coming out soon, I decided to do a lookback on what we’ve got so far. 

It’s no surprise we’ve revamped a LOT of stuff in the script for our fandub, from fixing the awkward stilted English in the original ASD subtitles to rewriting entire plot elements. 

That said, I decided to go through episodes 1-9 again and go over the changes from the original anime we did for our dub. Some people caught them on, while other changes are a little less noticeable. I’ll update this again once we get more episodes past 10. 

So in a way this is more or less my own director’s commentary for the dub. 

IN GENERAL: - A change that’s prevalent in multiple episodes actually is that we use way more actual dog stock noises, such as barks, howls, and whimpers. Yeah... ironically the original GDW didn’t use very many dog sounds, save for episode 2 where Weed barks and where Smith and GB growl. The entire rest of the series is either just humans shouting/growling/grunting. Or VERY BADLY trying to emulate dog howling (episode 9 and 10 say hello). 

- Like most anime dubs, we don’t use the English subtitles word for word, especially when translations errors are involved. While the Anime Suuxe Den subtitles for GDW are definitely nowhere as bad as the one GNG subbed version with the blue text (which we’re definitely not going off for the GNG English dub we’re also working on), it’s... still not very good. There’s a lot of typos, name misspellings, and overall clunky grammar, so no surprise we actually rewrote the entire script so the characters’ dialogue sounds much more natural. 

- The original anime for some reason has a habit of just refusing to call Gin by his name, instead just calling him “the leader” or “your father” when talking to Weed. For fuck’s sake guys, just call him Gin, it’s not that hard. It’s even worse that characters who are supposed to be close to Gin such as Sakura, Smith, and John just call him “the leader” for some reason, which makes no sense. 

- There are far fewer lines constantly praising the shit out of Weed for no other reason than him being Gin’s son, and just fewer lines glorifying EVERYTHING Weed does. This crap is beyond overdone in the anime, and it was better for us to just make Weed not a straight up Gary Stu. It’s already bad enough that characters constantly enabling Weed is the reason his behavior is increasingly fucked up in the manga and several parts of the anime, so we allowed more room for characters to actually tell Weed he’s wrong. 

- Multiple male characters have been genderbent, one because Yoshihiro Takahashi is a sexist dick and two because it allows more opportunity for our largely female cast. Of the major characters, Rossi, Lector, all of Chutora’s kids, Kite, Bat, Buruge, Toube, and Heita so far have been made female. Even minor characters like the old dog and the random dog who tried to attack Weed in episode 7 are also girls now. 

EPISODE 1:  - the timeskip between GNG and GDW has been changed from 14 years (10 years in the manga) to only five years. 14 years is a ridiculously long time for a dog to live, and the dogs in Ginga canonically state their age in human years so dog years isn’t an argument here. Five years is a much more reasonable timeskip and doesn’t beg up the question as to how the GNG veterans are somehow still kicking ass in their 20′s - A minor one, but GB actually states in-universe that his name is short for Great Britain, whereas in the original he introduces himself as “GB the English Setter”.

- Another minor one, but the scenes of Nero ordering GB to bring him bird meat and the scenes of Sasuke meeting GB under the bridge had no music in the original anime. I decided to add music from the unreleased tracks just to add some more tension. 

- GB trying to console Weed after Saukura’s death was unbelievably mean-spirited in the original, where he flat out says (in a paraphrased version) “Stop crying already. You’re the leader’s son; be a little tougher”. We changed it to “I know how hard this is, but crying won’t bring your mother back. As the leader’s son, you have to stay strong”, which sounds more empathetic and in-character for GB.

EPISODE 2: - Not much in episode 2 was changed aside from the rewritten script and additional dog stock sounds. However, the scene where Blue pins Mel down has him incorrectly address Ned even though he’s clearly talking to Bell, which we fixed. 

- Whereas Mel originally says “I want to become strong like Weed” at the end, in our dub he says “I wanna become an Ohu soldier too!” for the reasons listed in the General section. Smith and GB deserved just as much credit for their work in the Blue arc as well. 

EPISODE 3:  - We changed the scene where Kagetora calls Weed a tora-ge because, well... Weed clearly isn’t one in the anime. In this version, Kagetora just calls Weed a strong-willed dog. 

- The original anime doesn’t have Weed saying “FUCK YOU KAIBUTSU! IT ENDS HERE” that alone speaks for itself 

- In the original, Smith detects Jerome and his squad by “feeling their powerful aura”... in this version we simply wrote it as the wind blowing Jerome’s scent in Smith’s direction. Yeah, the GDW anime had quite a few weird comments about aura especially in episodes 3 and 4. Maybe it’s a thing that makes more sense in the Japanese version, but doesn’t translate well to Western audiences so we dropped it altogether

EPISODE 4:  - A bit of a meta thing, but we had Hoiler call Weed a “little blue brat” as a play on how Weed and Gin are meant to be silver but it’s never addressed why they’re blue in-universe. 

- Once again, we changed the whole Mesiah Weed shit where Jerome and his crew only ever address Weed and no one else. In the original after Smith jumps across the ravine, Jerome only asks for Weed’s name, and Smith tells him that they have to respect Weed just for being Gin’s son. Here, Jerome asks for all of their names and tells all of them to come with him, not just Weed alone. Weed replies by stating his name, and Smith replies by stating his name and everyone else’s. Subsequently, the scene of Jerome’s squad making a big deal of Weed being Gin’s son was cut out. 

- The GDW anime also for some reason made out Gajou to be some holy location that needed to be protected, which also doesn’t make sense considering in GNG it was the site a war took place. Weed’s comment on Gajou was simply changed to “the place where Akakabuto was defeated” 

- Once again, the scene of Jerome explaining the plan to lure Kaibutsu out was done without Jerome being a Weed simp. In the original, Jerome tells only Weed to go in and lure Kaibutsu out. In our version, Jerome tells either Weed or Mel to go in. Weed is the one who volunteers. 

- The score used when Smith goes into Gajou to save Weed is completely different. In the original, the song “Way of the Monster, Way of the Soldier” from the GDW soundtrack was played during this scene. Here, we added the more appropriate track “Smith’s Theme”. Because frankly what better music to use for Smith’s final moments than his theme song? Ironically Smith’s theme is played one or two other times later in the anime, none of which are scenes that involved Smith. 

- This may have been a translation or continuity error, but Smith in the original says that he helped take Gajou back from Akakabuto, which is wrong since Smith DIDN’T participate in the final battle in GNG because he was wounded. Which is why instead Smith says in our dub “I might not have been there in the battle against Akakabuto, but this time I will help bring down another monster like you!” 

- Another music change. The score that plays when everyone is mourning Smith’s death is listed as “Farewell to John” in Hakurojaki’s rips of the unreleased tracks. It’s the score with that narmy high-pitched trumpet commonly associated with the shitty scream-howling during John’s death. Since none of the ZTB’s are particularly fond of that score, we used “Tears for the Fallen” instead. 

EPISODE 5: - Once again, we had to remove some toxic masculinity shit from the original where Kagetora straight-up tells Ken to stop crying when they’re mourning Smith. We changed it here to Kagetora wanting to go back and fight immediately after Smith’s death, causing Ken to tell him to slow down. 

- While Jerome and Kaibutsu’s backstory was done relatively well in the original anime, it still unfortunately wasn’t without its problems. Jerome was unbelievably one-sided in the original, constantly victim-blaming and guilt-tripping Kaibutsu, saying that fighting back against his abusers was wrong. Here we changed the subtext so that Jerome feels like he’s being forced to choose between Kaibutsu or the humans since he knows Kaibutsu isn’t willing to stop. Despite Jerome siding with the humans, also just out of instinct which he can’t control, killing Kaibutsu is still a very reluctant choice, which lines such as “You are my friend, but I also can’t let my other friends die under your fangs” and “It’s either one life lost or many” convey. 

- The shit with Weed telling Jerome’s friends “isn’t it better to stay alive with friends than needlessly dying?” was obnoxious and preachy. Here he just says that Jerome’s friends rushing to their deaths was a bad idea since they’re only giving Kaibutsu a bigger advantage

- Not a change, but Kaibutsu’s “quit embarassing yourselves!” was a reference to one of Jasper’s lines word for word from Steven Universe lol

- Hoiler’s last line before he died attacking Kaibutsu was actually not a line we wrote in the script, but added in by our voice actor. It actually fits really well considering Hoiler was the only one of Jerome’s subordinates in this episode that didn’t have some epic final words, so props to Nicole Burdick! 

EPISODE 6:  - Weed isn’t the one who flips Kaibutsu onto his back in the dub- the wind is. Apparently we were told that this isn’t totally impossible considering certain hydraulic physics, but it still looked weird and made Weed unnecessarily overpowered, so we changed it to Kaibutsu flipping over mid-fall and Weed still holding onto his tail just because he was too slow to let go. 

- After Ken pulls Kagetora out of the water in the original version, he begrudgingly tells Kagetora to get up literally after Kage thanks him. This is changed to Kagetora telling Ken he doesn’t want his help, and Ken being passive aggressive to Kagetora’s ungratefulness. (Seriously, wtf is up with characters in the subbed version being so needlessly mean to each other?)

- Our version has everyone calling out for both Weed and Jerome when searching for them in the river, whereas in the original everyone except Mel was only concerned with finding Weed. 

- Jerome’s speech when the humans come to retrieve them was reworded. While I can see where the original was trying to go, it just ended up making Jerome look hypocritical by saying he’s tired of the humans “using” him immediately after explaining why he was still loyal to the humans. In the dub, Jerome’s speech comes off more as a warning that trouble will start again if humans set foot in Ohu rather than just telling humans to fuck off. Again, I get that the original was trying to show Jerome’s character development by moving past his blind loyalty, but we tried to make it more gradual rather than sudden in our dub. 

- Our dub has Nero’s mooks recognize Gin by his forehead scars instead of his brindle stripes since once again, Gin doesn’t have them in this anime (nor did he after his puppy phase in GNG as well to be fair). Reika also recognizes Gin the same way even though I did unintentionally create a plothole where she somehow noticed his scars despite only the back of his head being visible to her

- Sakura’s original line in the flashback “I’ll have healthy pups to present to you” was creepy and sounded more like an obligation to Gin. Here we reworded it as “I promise we’ll raise our children together”, which sounds more wholesome and actually like something a wife and husband parting ways would say. 

- A minor one, but here Hougen directly calls Rocket and his brother by their title “the Borzoi Brothers” as they were called in the manga

- Not exactly a change, but John’s “I’ll shove that shit down your stupid long throat!” is a reference to the giraffe Hougen meme lol

EPISODE 7: - Carl’s (the Scottish terrier who ran off) name is directly stated in the dub. His name is only ever mentioned in the GDW manga. 

- Obviously we couldn’t translated Hiro’s mayfly/testicle joke since it was a pun on Japanese kanji characters. We still managed to keep a fly-related joke in which Hiro compares Hougen to an unwelcome fly in the summer. 

EPISODE 8: -  Once again, we made Jerome’s character less tethered to Weed 24/7 by having him say he’d die to protect Ohu, not just Weed, after he defeated Rocket

- A more subtle change, but in the original Weed instantly accepts Rocket into the pack after he asks. In the dub, Weed decides to only let Rocket in if he proves himself 

- For some weird-ass reason Studio Deen used cartoon punching sounds when Hougen’s dogs were mauling Missile and Jet to death. We used the more appropriate ripping/slashing sounds

EPISODE 9: - If I recall correctly, Matsu’s (one of Hougens soldiers) name was also never mentioned in the anime, which we also did. 

- Once again, we picked a different choice of soundtrack for John’s death. The original one was the unreleased track appropriately titled “Farewell To John”, but like we said unfortunately it just didn’t sound good with the weird trumpet and high notes. Instead we used a different GDW unreleased track “Father’s Dying Words”, which was played in episode 1 where GB is reflecting on his life and more memorably in episode 12 where Teru’s father dies. 

- The one that everyone was waiting for- we replaced Jerome and Rocket’s bad human screaming with actual stock sounds of dog howling

- Another easter egg that was easy for people to catch, but the sound of the shooting star seen immediately after John dies was taken from the shooting star in the GNG opening. 

__________________________________________-

And that’s all for what we got so far! How many of these changes did YOU catch? Were any of these surprising or obvious? 

We’ve still got a whole bunch of planned changes for the rest of the episode already seen in the script, as most of our voice actors may be aware of. I’ll be sure to point them out after we finish another batch of episodes.

In the meantime, stay tuned for episode 10! 

[sketch-shepherd-art]

Ginga Togyushi Taurus: Chapter 19

A/N: Much like the previous chapter, this chapter contains a lot of canon divergence. I combined the canon of the GDW manga with the change in Toube’s gender for the Zetsu Tenrou Bastards’ GDW English fandub (slight spoiler for the dub, but also not quite since everyone on the dub Discord knows we’ve been planning this change for a long time)

---

Chapter 19: The Kinship of Ohu

"I'll knock you down, Tesshin!" Taurus boldly declared as he lowered himself into an attacking position in front of the Koga. 

"Careful Taurus," Tesshin warned calmly. "Don't get overconfident!" 

Taurus heard Tesshin's advice, but made no indication that he did. All Tesshin got from the Akita was a sharp growl and a harsh blow to his neck as Taurus sharply head-butted him to the ground. As soon as Tesshin was down, in a split second Taurus jumped to his right and rolled out of the way as Jerome attacked from behind. The Shepherd immediately lost his footing as he missed his target, and then all of a sudden felt himself pulled to the ground and flipped onto his back. 

"Well, that's something you don't see every day," commented Akame, who was standing next to Weed. Both spitzes carefully kept an eye on Taurus' fighting methods. "The only dogs I've seen with that much agility were the Iga." 

"You’re not entirely wrong," Weed continued. "Taurus did mention he trained with some shinobis on the way here." 

"Ah, Wakame of the New Iga," Akame concluded. "That explains how Taurus was able to get the better of Jerome so quickly. "

"And he's surprisingly aggressive for his age," Rocket added as he strode over to the two dogs. "Did you see the way he attacked Tesshin?" 

"He's gonna need that kind of aggression when he's in the match," Weed replied. "It's the only way he can beat a powerful Tosa like Shilo."  

"Come on, get up!" the three dogs shifted their focus back to Taurus' demand at his two defeated opponents. "Stop pretending to be injured just to encourage me! This won't do anything to help!"

"Taurus, enough!" Weed ordered. "You've tired them out enough already."

"I... I did?" Taurus stammered and looked over as Jerome and Tesshin slowly stood back up. 

"Not bad at all, Taurus," Tesshin congratulated with a subtle laugh. "You've gotten strong enough that you were able to take down not one, but two experienced Ohu soldiers."

I really managed to do that all on my own? Taurus was still stunned before he broke into an innocent chuckle. "Sorry about that, you two! I didn't know I could finally fight that well."

"Don't be," Jerome responded. "The fact that you were able to overturn adult dogs like us proves taking down Shilo won’t be hard." 

"Wow..." Taurus whispered to himself, still astonished by his own success. "So uh, how'd I do today, Weed-sama?"

"Well, Jerome said it himself," the leader replied. "You proved that you've learned a lot over this past week. The only thing I really recommend is that you use your teeth more often." 

"My teeth?" 

"For someone with a small body like yours, being pinned down by a reckless dog like Shilo would be a bad sign. I see that you focus a lot on using your senses and your muscles, but in the worst case, using your teeth to slice and cut will give you at least some advantage."

"Alright, I get it. Thank you, Weed-sama! Am I dismissed now?"

"Absolutely, Taurus."

---

"Look, Taurus is here!" Bellatrix announced excitedly as the older Akita arrived at the stream.

"What's going on today, guys?" Taurus greeted playfully, trotting over to the edge of the water where the boys were. 

"Hey Taurus, check out my cool new attack I came up with!" Orion called over. "I call it The Frog!”

“‘The Frog?’” Taurus questioned amusedly. 

“Yeah! It allows me to jump from here all the way to that rock in the water!" 

“That’s not exactly an attack, Orion,” Bellatrix corrected. “What kind of enemies could that move kill?”

"Ha, stop showing off Orion!" Rigel scoffed. "There's no way you can clear that distance!"

"Shut up, chump! Grandpa Gin could have done this at an even younger age! Just watch!" 

Orion lowered himself a bit, and then launched himself forward. Unfortunately, much to Rigel's prediction he didn't make it two feet before he immediately plummeted below the stream's surface. 

"I told you you couldn’t do it, stupidhead!" Rigel ridiculed again as Orion forced himself back up to breathe. "You're only trying to look cool in front of Taurus!" 

"SHUT UP, Rigel!" Orion barked. "Stop bein' so mean!"

"Yeah, Rigel!" Bellatrix retaliated. "Just because mom isn't here right now that doesn't mean you can get away with whatever you want!"

"Duhh, look I'm Bella! I'm stupid!" Rigel jested as he stuck his tongue out and crossed his eyes. 

"Oh, that does it you little-" Bellatrix found herself unable to get the words out as she sprang forward and tackled Rigel to the ground. 

"Hey, quit it!" Taurus shouted as he jumped right between the two siblings. "Stop fighting, you two!" 

"What, even you Taurus? But that's not fair!" Rigel pleaded. "We're the sons of the mighty commander of Ohu himself! Why're you allowed to fight but we're not?"

"Rigel, my case is different," Taurus replied more seriously this time. "It's part of my career to fight, but I only fight big and mean dogs who I'm supposed to treat like enemies. But you kids are family. You should know better than constantly arguing with each other. If you guys are anything like me, and if you don't value your time with your siblings now, then you'll forget how important they are to you if you're sent away from Ohu to train or something."

All three of the pups had approached and stopped in front of Taurus as he spoke his surprisingly profound advice. 

"So kids, are you going to go apologize to each other?"

Rigel paused hesitantly for a while, and then rolled his eyes with a sigh. 

"Fine," he gave in reluctantly. "Bellatrix, Orion, I'm sorry for being such a jerk."

"It's okay," Orion replied as he approached Rigel. "I’m sorry too, and we forgive you, brother."

Rigel nonchalantly placed his paw onto Orion's chest while smiling warmly, suggesting he had taken in Orion's forgiveness in return. And then he pushed. 

"Rigel!" Orion cursed as he stumbled backwards into the water. "RIGEL I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" 

Rigel immediately lost the smug smile on his face as Orion angrily trudged his way back out of the water, and Rigel unconsciously raised his paw back up in self-defense. 

"Hey, I said that was enough, you guys!" Taurus warned as yet again he threw himself in front of Rigel the very second the latter struck his paw at him. Rigel reflexively and regrettingly drew his paw back as the blow was delivered harder than he expected. The pup somehow managed to send Taurus flying a few feet before he landed face-down into the water!

"Oh... crap!" Rigel exclaimed as he rushed into the water. "Taurus? Taurus? Taurus!" 

"Uh oh," Orion muttered anxiously as he pressed his front paws onto Taurus' shoulder and repeatedly shook him. "Rigel... he's not moving." 

"Shit, oh SHIT!" Rigel raised his front paws to his head in despair. 

"Oh my god, you killed Taurus!" 

A loud splash suddenly resounded, and Orion and Rigel quickly jumped back in surprise, shocked but relieved to see Taurus laughing loudly with his head now out of the water. 

"Man, you scared the hell outta us, Taurus!" Orion blurted. "How did you even hold you breath for that long?" 

"You've pups got a lot to learn," Taurus replied with a wink, and soon Rigel and Orion had joined in on the laughter. 

"You're so cool, Taurus!" Bellatrix excitedly uttered as she ran to the edge of the stream. "You're just like another big brother!"

"A big brother?" Taurus responded, both surprised and touched by Bellatrix's statement. "Haha... I guess so."

Huh, so this is how Sagittarius must feel like being the oldest brother, Taurus reminisced. 

As he did periodically throughout his quest so far, Taurus was reminded of his family back home in Shikoku once more. But for the first time in three months, he no longer felt homesick about it. He was now already on the last stop of his mission, and had to worry no more now that he was only a few steps away from his journey's end. 

Mom, everybody. Just hang on a little longer. I promise I'll finally be back home soon. 

---

"You've been staring at that sky for a while, son," Taurus whipped his head around, startled as Gin approached from that bush that was just behind him. "What's on your mind?”

Taurus finally spoke up when Gin stopped and sat down beside him. 

"My dad's up there," the young canine replied, and soon Gin lifted his head up to the moon that Taurus was so focused on. 

"I see. As is mine."

"Oh, you mean Riki?" 

Gin nodded, and then gazed back up at the night sky. 

"So uh, how was it like when your father... well, you know?" Taurus inquired nervously. 

Gin closed his eyes and exhaled. 

"I knew my father for much of my childhood, but he barely knew me. On the very day I was born, I had to watch Akakabuto throw my own father off a cliff to his death, or so we thought. He ended up surviving, and he then created the Ohu army. But being thrown off that cliff had erased every memory he had of his life except for his duty to reclaim Ohu back from Akakabuto. And then when he did finally regain his memory, I could only spend one last moment together with him in the final battle against Akakabuto... and then, he was gone." 

"I... I'm so sorry Gin-sama," Taurus condoled after a long silence drew out. Though he knew that Gin was still a normal dog like everybody else, he had never expected he'd get this close to a former Supreme Commander to see him so vulnerable before. 

"Don't worry about that," Gin replied solemnly. "As all leaders of Ohu pass at some point, I know my father isn't gone forever. And neither is yours." 

Taurus lowered his head and stared down at the grassy earth beneath him. 

"Well... I'm glad I'm not alone in losing my dad at such a young age. I guess even you Ohu soldiers started off the same way I did."

"Taurus, listen. An Ohu soldier's greatest weapon isn't just his fangs; it's also his heart. The struggles we go through help build our character- fighting dogs like you too."

"Really? Then, Gin-sama. You said you've fought alongside those great fighting dogs like Benizakura before, right? Am I... anything like them?"

Gin nodded with a soft smile. 

"As I said, Taurus. You don't look it, but you share the same amount of dignity as they do: Benizakura's determination, Musashi's kindness, Toube's loyalty. And no matter your different breed, your aspiration to bring back honor to your family will surely help you fulfill your mission. Take it from an experienced veteran like myself."

Touched by Gin's encouraging words, Taurus rose to his feet and lowered his head towards the old dog respectfully. 

"Thank you, Gin-sama," Taurus said. "It means a lot coming from an Ohu soldier like you." 

"There's no need to do that every time, Taurus," Gin placed the back of his front paw under Taurus' chin and slowly raised it. "You know that you've been a welcomed comrade of the Ohu army for a while now, and helping you on your mission is our top priority at the moment."

Taurus nodded. "And I promise I'll keep doing my best as an Ohu warrior."

---

A day later, another arduous training session had been completed. Weed and Gin jumped back in complete surprise as Hiro was thrown onto the ground right below their feet. Both Taurus and the hefty opponent faltered and panted heavily in exhaustion and shock. 

"Hiro, darling!" a feminine voice broke through the two fighters' brief recovery period. "Are you alright?!" 

"Reika, you know there's no need to worry about me, dear," Hiro said as he nonchalantly rose back to all fours. "But to be defeated by such a young dog like that is extraordinary, haha." 

"Did I at least do better this time, Weed-sama?" Taurus asked, wagging his tail excitedly. 

"Yes Taurus, you did do better," Weed assured proudly. "I see you've been using your fangs more like I suggested."

"And you've managed to overpower even a hunk like me," Hiro complimented jovially. "I say, Taurus. If I was allowed to participate in the fight, I’d gladly castrate Shilo for you if I could." 

"Heh... thanks Hiro-san," Taurus replied. “I wish you could, but they’d automatically disqualify you as a fighting dog if you did that.” 

The married couple responded with a slight chuckle at the two dogs’ dark joke. After Hiro and Reika left, Taurus soon did the same to meet up with Weed's four children again, leaving behind the two Supreme Commanders on their own.  

"Father," Weed started. "Since it's clear that Taurus has been extremely prodigious in his training so far, do you think maybe we might give a shot at teaching him our family's technique?"

"Which technique?"

"You know, that one."

Weed's blue eyes stared directly into Gin's. 

"Ah! Yes... but the only thing I'm skeptical about is how well Taurus could possibly learn it. Though I did teach it to Tesshin once, I'm not sure how many other dogs can master it the same way he did."

"Taurus probably could do without it, but from what he's been telling me about Shilo, this dog seems reckless and completely unpredictable. I don't wanna risk passing up a chance to at least try to teach the Battouga to Taurus." 

"Well, I suppose," Gin paused for a moment. "On Taurus' current level, he may learn it a bit faster than Tesshin who was young and inexperienced when I first trained him." 

"Taurus might not need a complete Battouga when he's combating against Shilo," Weed said. "Since it's illegal for Taurus to kill him, even just a partial Battouga might do Shilo enough damage, as mine did back when I fought Hougen."

"You aren't wrong, Weed. After all, Taurus is the son of a championship fighting dog, so I doubt that the Battouga might be too challenging to him. Alright then, you'll be the one to teach it to him tonight." 

---

Taurus had already made it halfway on his path to meet with Weed’s children at the usual spot near the stream. Unfortunately, the low growl of his stomach rudely interrupted his routine. 

The fighting dog groaned in displeasure, cursing himself for not eating anything before his previous training session. 

Oh well, Taurus thought. They can wait just a little. 

Taurus’ nose twitched as he began to search for his lunch. Finally, his smell led him to a lonely squirrel perched on a tree branch, munching on its own meal. The dog licked his lips in anticipation for his first taste of squirrel as he slowly prowled towards the base of the tree, eyes locked on his completely oblivious prey. 

Finally, the crouching pup sprang and zipped right up the tree trunk. Only now did the squirrel realize it was in danger, and consequently took off. 

Even for an honorary Iga dog, chasing down the squirrel was not a hunt Taurus was used to. His jaws snapped multiple times but only fell on air. And it seemed Taurus’ misfortune was only here to stay as the squirrel dove headfirst into a safe spot inside its hole in a tree. 

Taurus repeated the motion, but predictably ended up crashing headfirst into the trunk, causing him to lose his balance. After a scream and a long fall, Taurus was quite surprised that he didn’t receive the hard landing he expected. 

Instead, the soft mound beneath him grunted and shifted its weight before Taurus jumped off. 

“Mm? What’s all the ruckus, youngster?”

“Sorry!” Taurus apologized. “I didn’t know you were there, sir.”

The old Tosa Inu shrugged the youngster’s comment off and rose to his feet. 

“Ah. You must be that Taurus fellow, I see.”

“How’d you guess?” Taurus badly faked an attempt at modesty. 

The compassionate Tosa chuckled, easily seeing through Taurus’ poor facade. “You can’t be too humble about your status. Take it from me, fighting dog to fighting dog.”

“Heh,” Taurus lowered his ears back in mild embarrassment. “I mean it’s still a big responsi- wait, you’re a fighting dog, too?” 

“You don’t know me?” the Tosa questioned playfully. “Were the others wrong about you supposedly being Ohu’s biggest fan?”

“Ohu soldier? The only surviving Ohu soldier I know who’s also a fighting dog is… Musashi!”

Musashi gave a gentle laugh and began to silently walk past Taurus, but the younger fighting dog in training didn’t stay in place. 

“W-wait!” Taurus pursued and began walking alongside Musashi. “Where are you going?”

“Finding another resting spot.”

“That far away? You’re not gonna stick around with the Ohu army?”

“Oh, I spend plenty of my time with the Ohu army. Just not today.”

“Why not? Don’t you wanna be around your friends? Or even better, maybe you could also-”

“Train you? I knew you’d ask. Sorry kid, not happening.”

“Huh?” 

“I get that your cause is a noble one, kid. But my dog fighting days are behind me now. I wish for no part of it anymore.”

“You’re giving up? But you’re a triple-time big-name champion, literally just behind Benizakura! Me and every fighting dog I know looks up to you!”

“Correction. I was everything you just described. If you were in the war against Hougen, you’d understand.”

“The war against Hougen?”

The two fighting dogs stopped at the edge of a pond as Musashi lowered his head for a drink. 

“There’s some details your father probably never told you in the stories, son. You wanna know why?”

Taurus shook his head. 

“Because there are things that the original tellers never want to recall again. Those certain events are voluntarily never passed down to other folk. The only place those events exist are in your memory, until they’re lost to time forever when you take them with you to the other world.” 

“I… I don’t completely understand. But if you don’t wanna talk about it, Musashi-san, then you don’t have to.” 

Musashi let out a sad sigh.

“Well… just this once. Only fair that I let another fellow fighting dog know of this.”

“Are you sure, Musashi-san?” 

“I don’t suppose you know of a certain twelfth heavyweight champion named Toube, do you?” 

“Of course I do…. I know what happened to her in the battle against Hougen.”

“There’s… a bit more to that than what you’re used to being told. See, she and I were opponents in a fighting match once. She was ambitious, fearless, charismatic… as I was losing to her out there in the arena, I knew she had potential. She wanted to win like no other fighting dog I competed against had before. 

So, I did what I had never done to any other Tosa before. I let her win on purpose. I thought she would have used that victory to her advantage, but she didn’t.”

“And then what happened?”

“That was just before I joined Gin in the fight to bring down Akakabuto. But while I was away, Toube did the unthinkable. Five years later, she had joined Hougen’s side. Even got promoted to one of his top generals.”

“What?! What kind of fighting dog would join Hougen of all people?!”

“The worst part? She did it only to get back at me. She thought that joining Hougen would give her an opportunity to face me again. To beat me for real.”

“So then, all the stuff about Toube being a hero who sacrificed herself to save Ohu… that was all a lie?” 

“Oh no, absolutely not. Fortunately, she managed to get on the right path again. It was then when she had finally given her life fighting against Kamakiri to help Kyoushiro and one of his followers escape. She had earned her real victory through death… but maybe she wouldn’t have joined Hougen’s side in the first place if it weren’t for me.”

“I mean, you can’t be too hard on yourself. You already left. There was nothing more you could do.” 

“No, but had I known that she’d taken that match with me so personally, I would have never handed her that free pass in the first place.”

Taurus only looked up at the Ohu veteran sympathetically as he let out another sad exhale. 

“But time goes on. There’s no changing that now. I’ve repaid my debts to Toube by retiring from dogfighting.” 

“I’m sure she understands, Musashi-san.”

“Oh?”

“I understand that your greatest honor was fighting alongside the Ohu army. It was Toube-san’s too. Dogfighting may be my top priority, but for you Ohu soldiers it’s something way different. I’ve already been getting enough training. You’ve still done plenty of great deeds no matter which cause you were fighting for.” 

The Tosa’s jowls curled up into a smile. 

“As expected from a true Shikoku fighting dog. I only wish you the best of luck in your future training, Taurus. Word will get out quickly once you defeat Shilo, and we’ll know when you do.”

“Thanks Musashi-san. Like you said, from one fighting dog to another.” 

---

Night soon fell. While most of the other Ohu dogs retired for the night, Weed scampered around the woods calling for Taurus' name. After a short search, Weed finally found the young fighting dog chasing fireflies with his three pups in a clearing just near Ohu's border. 

"Taurus?" Weed called, and all the pups jumped in surprise at the sound of Taurus’ name being called. 

“Daddy!” the trio called out excitedly. 

"Oh, hey Weed-sama," Taurus replied, catching his breath. Weed gave a sigh of relief and then strode over to Taurus' side. 

"Alright kids,” Weed began. “I hate to cut the fun short, but the big dogs need to talk for a bit. You all head on back to mom and grandpa.” 

As expected, the pups groaned in disappointment. 

“But dad!” Bellatrix whined.

“Can’t we stay just a little longer?” Rigel pleaded. 

“There’ll be plenty of time for you all to play with Taurus tomorrow. But that won’t happen until you all get to bed first.”

“You heard your dad, pups,” Taurus played along. 

The siblings gave one last moan before they reluctantly obeyed and toddled on back to the deeper parts of Ohu. Finally, Weed and Taurus were left alone, the only other sound being the crickets chirping in the background.

“Taurus,” Weed started. “You know that your performance in training has been quite stellar so far, don't you?"

"Y-yeah,” said Taurus. “You've told me more than once. Why bring it up again now?" 

"Well Taurus, I do believe that at your current level, you may finally be fit enough to learn the next technique I'm about to show you."

"What technique, Weed-sama?"

"It's not something that any dog can learn, but I believe at least learning part of it will do some good in helping you finish off Shilo. This is the signature attack that's been passed through almost every generation of my family's line."

Is that what I think it is..? Taurus thought as he kept his eyes and mouth wide open in anticipation. 

"Taurus," Weed began again. "I'm going to teach you the Zetsu Tenrou Battouga." 

Taurus' pupils shrunk nearly a third of their normal size and his already open jaw now hung even lower. 

I'm... I'm gonna learn the Battouga?! Even in Taurus' thoughts was that impossible to comprehend. An extremely rare and sharp tactic that killed a colossal bear, ended an entire war, and was only mastered by the extremely skilled and experienced Supreme Commanders of Ohu, was now going to be in Taurus' possession. 

"The key to the Battouga," Weed continued, "is to strengthen your bite, but also allow yourself to cut through. If you bite too hard or too weak, you won't be able to slice. See that tree branch over there? This is how it's done." 

And in a flash, Weed leaped flawlessly off the ground and latched his fangs onto the second lowest tree branch. Taurus continued to watch with great admiration as Weed, still clutching the branch in his jaws, began to repeatedly front-flip until his teeth sawed deeper into the wood. Finally, Taurus heard a snap and saw the splintered end of the now broken tree branch fall on the ground just before Weed landed on his feet.

"You think you can try the same, Taurus?" Weed asked. 

"I'll try it!" Taurus declared as he ran forward and sprang himself up to grab hold of the lowest branch. However, only now did Taurus realize that trying to repeat Weed's strategy was easier said than done. It was difficult enough just to power his muscles to flip him forward . After a strenuous effort, Taurus managed, but only managed to spin for two loops until he was back on the ground again. 

"Damn it!" Taurus yelled as he noticed that he barely even made a dent. The pup persisted, and once again rushed his way back up to the same tree branch. Only a mere nine attempts later, Taurus had finally managed to snap the branch cleanly off. 

"God damn, is this hard," Taurus muttered in frustration, his chest heaving with fatigue.

"Just as I expected, it's a rough start for you," Weed observed. "But don't worry about that; it was the same for me too. A full Battouga is too much for you to have to master as of now, but even half of a Battouga could help you get the better of Shilo."

Still too shaken up to speak, Taurus simply responded with an acknowledging nod.

"Anyway, it's late now Taurus. You don't wanna be in the outskirts of Ohu at this time."

As Taurus followed Weed back to the inside of Ohu, a feeling of relief and satisfaction washed over him even despite his failed efforts just earlier. 

If I can learn the Battouga, then I'm really in the right direction to becoming a fighting dog.

[thehighpriestofreverseracism]

I really don’t get why they didn’t cast Shaun Toub as Jafar, instead of this guy in the trailer...smh

(If you’ve seen the first Iron man,  he is the other captive with Tony Stark)

[mythlokisuggestion-blog]

It's kinda sad that there aren't any Norse myths-based movies, I mean why is that when there are a lot of those for Greek myths?? Can you imagine a Norse mythology movie? If it were up to you, which actors would play which gods?

Let’s be fair here who wouldn’t prefer to film in the Mediterranian and eat grapes all day? I run off over to Zeus and his weird country-club full of toga-wearing weirdos like twice a week and get chased out by Hera twice as often.

I mean obviously I would want Beyonce to play Odin, but you can’t always get what you want and also if we any actual blood mingling with actual blood and I’m in favour of actual blood-play always and at all times I fear I might simply go up in flames the moment my blood touches hers so I’m going with Ben Mendelsohn as the second option

Sigyn should play herself but since she preferred hanging out in a torture cave for millennia rather than live in Asgard I can understand if she doesn’t want to enter another toxic industry so I guess Noomie Rapace would be acceptable. They’re both tiny and I would allow both of them to murder me. My wife of course get first murdering rights.

There is no one who can really do Angrboda justice either - mostly because she’s a giant witch with feral instincts and even scares me but I guess Natalia Tena could do it.

Ann Brandt as Hel because she can pull off the look and she’s Ann Brandt.

I don’t want to give anyone any ideas about who should play Nari and Narfi because I don’t want to see my babies die so they’re not in it.

I don’t know his name but he should play Svadil I don’t have any cast for Sleipnir maybe the 8 legged horse from the Thor movies

I would cast Michelle Fairley as Frigga. They don’t look alike much but she nails the exact same expression Frigga has when she wants you dead trust me I’d know

Idris Elba can and should be Heimdall (and can and should lift his restraining order against me) at all times

Freya should be Milla Jovovich exactly how she looked in The Messenger but allowed to use her acting skills not like in The Messenger.

When it comes to Freyr I’d cast Jared Leto because that way I could be sure all his scenes would be cut.

Jason Mamoa + Red Hair Dye in the role of Thor because he’s a snack and I want to see him in a dress

I’d probably cast Diane Kruger as Idun bc I know she likes her and getting Diane to play her might get me back into Idun’s good books.

Harry Lloyd as Baldr bc they both good at contouring and ever since Game of Thrones I wouldn’t mind seeing him get murdered again. BY ME!

I would cast Rachel Evan Wood bc she’s Rachel Evan Wood and I would do anything for her. Maybe she can be Sif because then I can touch her hair. I might have a thing for hair? I definitely have a thing for her.

I would cast Gwendoline Christie as Skadi because even if it was just good ol’ mortal Gwendoline skiing into Asgard, she could defeat us so yeah.

Mads Mikkelsen as Tyr or anyone else really. They don’t look anything alike but he seems like a nice, fun guy and I’d love to meet him in person.

Someone should probably play Hönir and Bragi but I’d rather not have them in there and so I don’t care they could even be played by the same guy. Or a different person in every scene.

Shaun Toub as Ägir, not because anyone cares about Ägir but because you know. If he’s in it my glorious flyting in his hall can be in it.

Hera should be played by Olivia Wilde. You wonder why Hera is there? See above.

To be honest when it comes to playing me there are only two option one is obviously. Me and the other one is Sue White. Not Michelle Gomez. Well, maybe Michelle Gomez because she’s got the same chaotic energy as me but mostly. Just Sue White. Because the movie should be made in the style of Green Wing.

[kevrocksicehouse]

If you’ve watched movies in the last 15 years you’ve seen Michael Pena, who turns 45 today. A few of the many movies he’s enhanced:

Daniel in Crash. D: Paul Haggis (2005). Pena plays a locksmith and single father in this roundelay of racism and violence that won the Best Picture Oscar for 2005. When Farhad, (Shaun Toub),an Iranian man blames him for a break-in at his gun store (because he is Mexican-American and has tattoos) he waits at his house with a gun and fires, shooting David’s daughter. Farhad’s daughter had replaced the gun’s bullets with blanks, but in the 30 seconds before we find that out Pena gives one of the strongest reaction shots to a parent’s worst nightmare I’ve ever seen. It might be the key scene in the movie and he nails it.

Mike Zavala in End of Watch. D: David Ayer (2012). Pena gives a strong performance as an LA street cop in a very dangerous Mexican-American neighborhood, who is like a brother to his partner (Jake Gyllenhaal). Their chemistry is the movie and the film details the closeness of partners that so many other cop films turn into cliché, so when they get into real danger we care about them. It wouldn’t work if Pena didn’t play as centered, funny, and decent as he does.

Luis in Ant-Man. D: Peyton Reed (2015). As the former  cellmate of ex-con Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) who becomes Ant-Man (long story) Pena does a loopy spin on the hero’s sidekick with a particularly discursive speaking style (“So, uh he tells me that she’s dating this dude Carlos who’s a shot caller from across the bay and she tells him about the dude that she’s cleaning for. That he’s like, this big-shot CEO that is all retired now but he’s loaded. And so, Carlos and Ernesto are on the same softball team and they get to talking, right? And here comes the good part. Carlos says: “Yo, man. This guy’s got a  big-ass safe just sitting in the basement, just chillin’.’ Of course Ernesto comes to me cause he knows I’ve got mad thieving skills. Of course, I ask him ‘did Emily tell Carlos to tell you to get to me what kind of safe it was? And he says ‘Nah dog. All she said is that it’s, like super legit, and whatever’s it has gotta be good!.”   Lang: “Alright there’s an old man, he’s got a safe and he’s gone for a week. Let’s just work with that.” “Y’know what I’m sayin’”) I mean the breath control alone.