#I also need to draw the season two gang

[glassrooibos]

Unsleeping City more like I DIDN’T sleep. Because I stayed up. Listening to it for so long.

[hoodedjelly]

my Jenny, Tuck, Brad, Shelden, and Vega older designs ^__^

i'm watching mlaatr, still not done, i think i got like 10 more eps (and if i'm being transparent i skipped around eps... i just wanted to see vega...). And i'm absolutely loving the show!!!! i love these characters a lot, didn't like Shelden at first i'm going to be honest, #1 Shelden hater for a bit there. but he chilled out in season two and i started to ship breldon with that too so now i just love him so much.

more about my personal headcanons:

Jenny: - I am under the belief that she is transgender. Jenny was made genderless, so her deciding to be a girl was strictly her choice and i believe that makes her trans. (She's also a lesbian) - she did grow a bit, im not gonna explain how idc really i just liked her being a taller lady :-) - she has A LOT of different cute outfits and hair styles, honestly too much to draw. she never transforms back into her base show outfit when crime fighting, she just fights in her cute summer dress she don't care. - her and vega are dating grrgrgrrrr - when vega is in rule she makes it so there is complete free access between earth and cluster prime for citizens in both places. - I say that cause i think when jenny is older she moves in with vega, technically living in cluster prime but visits earth like everyday. And brad/shelby/tucker/wakeman visit cluster prime - Jenny also hangs out with the nicktoons unite gang, but i deffo feel like its just that secondary friend group that you don't talk to with for months. when you talk again its the same goofiness as before - i think danny calls for her help when he needs it (also manny) Tuck: - he is still a little shit but we love him - adhd boy - questioning cis (he/him) - he got into robotics/stem and builds little silly things - with that, he gets help from Shelby - pretty much just a silly teen, he's on the internet a lot and has "cringe" interests - but idk he's having fun and being silly and finding himself (those interests is stuff like sonic and among us) Shelden(Shelby) - honestly kinda nervous about ppl thoughts on my Shelden, idk it makes so much sense in my brain - hits you with the transfem beam (she/they) Pansexual (she just wants anyone type of vibe) - I think when jenny is visiting vega often that leaves Shelby and Brad hanging out alone a lot. which they don't mind honestly, they are actually good friends! - but during that they just get closer and start catching feelings. Shelby eventually lets go of her feelings about jenny and realizes they were a real jerk and weirdo to her. brad helps them through that and eventually her realizing she's trans. blah blah they in love and kiss at some point. - Shelby is also a furry lmaooo her fursona is a cat.

Brad: - bisexual cis man (he/him) - Still his old brad self if i'm being honest. - totally forgot to say i think all 3 of them go off to college together (even though jenny doesn't have to i feel like she would prob want to just for the experience, but tell me if you think differently i'm still unsure) - i really don't know what else to say sorry brad! he's literally just as silly as ever man. he's just also gay - i will say here i feel it takes a lot longer for shelby and brad to start dating then jenny and vega. they got that slow burn kinda shit going on, since a lot of that is shelby being confused about her feelings. and jenny and vega just hit it off right away if im being honest, very high school sweethearts. - (also i think shelby makes brad make a fursona to match hers, so brad got a dog fursona)

Vega: - Lesbian cis (she/her) - That ending of her just ruling cluster prime was just so crazy to me cause like, aint she like 16? - i think she has a lot of stressed nights and fearing she's not doing the right thing for her people, and jenny tries to help as much she can - that is why jenny visits so much, she wants to help her. - very much got those nights were she accidently falls asleep at her desk, jenny finding her and giving her a blanket and a kiss goodnight - it's not like she's unhappy, she is actually very very passionate about her work and wants to NOT be like her mom - and yeah she deffo goes to robo therapy for the stuff with her mom. - i think it's a conflict where vega is scared her mom is gonna come back and jenny has to reassure her that if she does they'll get rid of her for good.

imma be honest a lot of my hcs are pretty half-baked and random things, im sure im going to think of more stuff in the future but that will be in different posts.

[vidavalor]

Why does Crowley in season 2 have sideburns and Crowley in season 1 doesn't?🤔🐍

Because he's actually Elvis in S2. It's a theory I've been keeping to myself for awhile now because I was worried people might think I'd lost it but I feel comfortable enough now with all of you to share that I'm 150% sure that this will be revealed midway through 3.04, when Gabriel will return to tell Aziraphale that he forgot to mention it before he left for Alpha Centauri but he's had the real Crowley in a magical cell in Heaven since the end of S1. The one Aziraphale's been sleeping with since then is actually The King in disguise. (Elvis is supernatural so he can shapeshift, obviously, in case you were worried that I didn't think that bit through.)

Upon learning this, Aziraphale will pause, consider, then smirk and wiggle a little bit while making a dirty joke that involves the phrase "burning love", and then politely ask for his actual Crowley back. When Gabriel shrugs and says it's not his department because he doesn't work there anymore, Aziraphale's flaming sword will appear in his hand to match his rage. He'll slay Gabriel like Adam did the lion outside of Eden (because parallels, you guys...). The King-- who really didn't want to be a part of this and doesn't want to go on together with suspicious minds with anyone anymore-- chooses redemption, whips out his lethal banana (you gutter brains, it's an actual fucking banana...) and goes with Aziraphale to storm Heaven to rescue Crowley. David Tennant's really going to be stretched thin playing two characters at the same time in S3 atop all the flashbacks but we know he can make it work.

When they finally get through Michael (this takes about 40 seconds), our scrappy gang of Az, Elvis, a pair of ragtime singer ghosts played by Nina Sosanya and Maggie Service, and Crowley's two most emotionally damaged plants find the real Crowley curled up in the fetal position singing "All Shook Up" to himself (he and Elvis are permanently psychically linked now but don't worry, it's not a big deal, just a callback to the fly) and the dramatic score swells as Aziraphale rushes over and finally lays one on the real Crowley.

Aziraphale then recaps S2 to the real Crowley, who just stares. The only thing he reacts to is learning that Elvis snogged his girl. In a fit of rage, he has the Maggie and Nina ragtime ghosts (who are also angels, it's complicated) make him holy water and then hurls it at the demonic King of Rock 'n Roll, who lives long enough to sing: "Lord, Almighty, I feel my temperature risin'" before being eviscerated.

We might expect Frances McDormand to return here for this but she doesn't. We will be left wondering why The Voice of God didn't even show up to respond to the dying King and what that meant.

Except remember when I said that Crowley and Elvis were psychically linked?! Yeah. Crowley starts to die and Aziraphale sobs because, really, this was all very avoidable. This is when we all get wibbly because "A Nightingale Sings in Berkeley Square" covered by AI replicating the voice of Elvis plays as Crowley begins to draw the last breath he doesn't need to take. He dies. We're all sobbing. But it's okay because, as the final credits roll, Lord Beezlebub then appears, looks at the ridiculous mess in front of them, just says "this is so dumb", and then zaps Crowley back to life.

I don't know about you all but that really seems the most logical explanation to me. Especially since the alternative is just: "because he felt like it."

[sarcasticscribbles]

I made a curious cat and people been asking about my designs so I thought I would share it here too If you have any question too you can send it here or over on curious cat!

Under cut is a very long monologue about some design choices regarding my s1 gang, Gerry and some avatars!

S1: Jon, Martin, Sasha and Tim

Right off the bat I'll admit I had seen TMA fanart before, but I assumed it was a game from how consistent designs are (Jon and Martin); however when I started I avoided fanart (but I am not immune to TMA fanon designs). I'll explain S1 gang, they are my favourites. I find fcs helpful to keep them consistence.

Jon: I have a basic Jon design: short, brown man with long hair and glasses. Jon has a put together façade but, he wasn't qualified for the archivist position, and he doesn't know what he's doing. Therefore, I like him with longer hair he can't care for, therefore messy. It gets longer with the seasons and adding on all the marks he gains from the entities. I gave him half-moon, golden glasses with chains holding two eyes. I like to think it's a Beholding artefact, so Gertrude wore them before him. I used to have Dev Patel as a reference for him, but I've switched over to Riz Ahmed!

Martin: Very basic: fat man with fluffy hair and glasses. When I heard his voice, I thought of Harvey Guillén, who stayed a reference for Martin's body. I pictured him in a dorky attire; round glasses, ginger, comfy yet business appropriate clothing. I added eyes in the pattern of his jumper and added freckles. I've recently play around adding a beard, because I think he wants to look older than he is (re: CV; "I'm only 29!") but haven't found a style I like. I keep him fat throughout the series, instead of him losing weight s4.

Sasha: She has some canon traits: tall, long hair and glasses. I draw her hair up to stay out of her face. Contra Jon, I think she was more qualified for the archivist position, so Gertrude started preparing her for the role. She wears an eye necklace I draw Gertrude wearing that's in the same style as Jon's glasses. She has a matching bracelet with Tim and overall is one of my favourites. (notSasha): I took what was established and flipped it; short, short hair, no glasses. I imagine notthem could pass as cousins (since they still need traits to the victim's family?); no immediate resemblance but with a few traits of the original.

Tim: Canonically described as hot so I have my own bias. I started with general attractive traits: tall and fit. I think he puts a lot into his appearance. I use Keanu Reeves as a reference, and he works great for him. He’s a hair guy, gets it professionally cut and owns expensive products, skincare routine and dresses in fitted clothing. His standard is a shirt with an eye pattern. He takes pride in his appearance, so S2’s worm scars troubled him. He stops shaving to let it heal properly but they never go away. He never liked looking at them and they are a cruel reminder of the past (however, one scar splits his eyebrow to x2 bisexuality). S3 he stopped caring about putting in effort, the stubble grew into a beard and his clothes aren't fitted. He loses muscles, gains weight, and isn’t who he was in S1.

Gerard Keay

I had just assumed Eric was hispanic (for some reason) and then I connected that he's Gerry's dad, and apparently I headcanon him half hispanic lol

But it was why I wanted to draw the Mama family portrait to play with genetics. Letting his dad be rather tall, tan with dark curly hair and Mary be ginger with paler skin; Gerry's pale, ginger with curly hair as a child. He grew up looking like Mary and started altering his appearance to be more like his dad; dyed dark hair and taking some of Eric's clothing (I also gave both a beauty mark under their eye he'll highlight despite wearing make up). Alternative scenes and goths tend to straighten their hair but I let Gerry have naturally wavy to still resemble his dad more. I tried to give him trad goth make up, mainly looking at Siouxsie Sioux in the late 70s. And a fun bonus to have his hair often cover one eye because, The Eye

Gerry cared for his dad, even if he died when he was a toddler (if I remember correctly). Gerry's chosen name is the nickname Eric referred to him as, which is also where my trans headcanon comes in (afab). I haven't thought it out fully, or how that reflects on other characters since everyone else calls him Gerard but I think there's some symbolising there having a chosen name relating back to Eric

(some) Avatars

Oliver Banks: "the Egyptians believed the most significant thing you could do in your life was die,"; I take inspiration from Ancient Egypt for my Oliver design! He wears an Ankh around his neck, but I want to look into more about Egyptian death symbolism (he has a cross too, but I'll probably remove it for future designs). I've also taken some inspiration from Nordic mythology, with Hel (Hela In English? Loki's daughter (not Marvel) ) as half his face is beautiful, and the other is a corpse (skull). I don't wanna mix too many cultures just for the sake of it, but it was a really fun design decision. And he's goth. Bonus death aligned I next time I draw Georgie I'll draw inspiration from the Death's-head hawkmoth

The Distortions: Michael's 60s and Helen's 80s inspired, no reason, just vibes. I like to think of Michael as a spiral while Helen's a twist, if that makes sense, I've been meaning to draw them together to demonstrate, but I'll include a doodle of it

Jane Prentiss: I looked into a lot of paganism, and fell into a rabbit hole. She's described as a modern witch, so I wanted a subtle alternative look with a shaved side and gauges. One of her breasts are exposed because (boobs) in old pagan traditions a lot of rituals were performed nude, to be closer to nature. A lot of pagan art has a very strong feminine force, I want for Prentiss. She has one eye, but I'll probably remove the other too, I've seen a lot of people do for more holes

Nikola Orsinov: Drag king. Because we need more of those. I love drag so Nikola's has a mix of both male and female attributes since he's just trying to imitate a human. Their design is also inspired The Toy Soldier in the mechanisms (haven't listened? To it but a lot of people pointed me to that designing Nikola!) that's also her actor Jessica Law! I put all my gender into Nikola lol, and when I can sneak an IT reference in I will

Breekon and Hope: Wario and Waluigi

Annabelle Cane: She's described having web keeping her skull together, but for some reason I imagined it to be down her neck. So I pictured her head occasionally falling off and being restored by a web. So I gave her both lol. Her vintage style is old, goth Hollywood glam to me and I love looking at reference for her

Bonus Agnes: I haven't drawn her fully, but I wanna take inspiration from Scandinavian culture, think Midsommar (both the movie and the tradition) and maybe Norse paganism. I love Agnes story and how it's only told by other people, and her relationship with Gertrude is so interesting!

[saturnaftertaste]

Does jughead match Betty's freak

this ask ended up twice in my inbox and i think that’s so funny. ask so real it came as a two-for-one deal !

honestly? no. jughead and betty are like, the epitome of an arranged marriage with the genders inversed. like specifically, jughead is the wife with unfortunate and irreversible neediness syndrome and betty is the strapping young man who has been tied down against his will. like, all betty wants to do is get out there and explore - first in a journalism sense, then in an investigator sense, then in a sexuality + life’s pleasures sense. betty really really likes being in charge of stuff, in taking command and moving stuff forward and getting shit done. she’s also a little more substantially fucked up than jughead in the sense that jughead is like. abandonment/inferiority complex 1000 ie. his mom left him, archie left him, his dad left him, his gf cheats on him or whatever. jughead is mostly a bundle of soft-type emotional-relationship issues which are fucked up in their own right, but he also expresses those issues a lot more openly (the whole Being A Writer thing, narratively the dying over and over thing, his whole misanthropy thing being just an accepted part of who he is).

betty on the other hand has: a serial killer father, serial killer grandparents, a mom who kills assailants and hides the bodies under floorboards, a serial-killer FBI-agent half-brother, a serial-killer cam hooker half-brother-in-law, a cult-indoctrinated accidentally-incestuous sister who had twins with the town dead boy who was killed by his father (said father also being one of betty’s own blood family), a boyfriend that dies every season and is an attempted gang leader, a cousin who is an insane witch, a gang-leader step-dad-situation who is also the father of her boyfriend, not to mention her serial killer genes! when i say she’s substantially more fucked up than jughead i mean that jughead weeps/whines/acts pathetic about his circumstances a lot more, which are sad in general bc that’s his role, but despite betty’s increasing “darkness” over the seasons (something that she says verbatim . lol) she still keeps it together on a surface level. still dresses in pastels still wears little pink sweaters and skinny jeans and does her cute hairdos and sheer pink makeup well into her adulthood, which makes her all the more fucked bc cognitive dissonance goes crazy!! the difference between how she’s perceived/what she’s supposed to be and all the things that happened to her/the way she’s supposed to react to it are two different ends of the personality spectrum.

of course, the problem this creates is that jughead (ultimate sad wet cat) sees her suburban good girl aura and takes it for granted that she will stay the same sweet girl and attaches himself to her - unfortunately, betty’s core directive is to keep moving, so naturally she starts looking in different directions. jughead needs her too much and she doesn’t really need him at all. consider that also jughead walks around like a festering open wound and betty graduated from the cooper school for emotionally repressed women…like. there was no way for betty to be weird (to be a weirdo. to not fit in and not want to fit in. she doesn’t even have a stupid hat on) like jughead is weird bc jughead is a freak because of his problems - ie he has no one, originally, bar archie, because he’s so “misunderstood” and “misanthropic”. the inverse of that - betty has, superficially, zero problems - which is what draws veronica and jughead to her, and her freak is just that much more intense because she never deals with it except in really unhealthy ways (a pile of coping mechanisms for which she is always looking to add to.)

tl:dr betty’s freak is a lot more intense and unsolvable than jughead’s and so while jughead can be fixed by a one-hit wonder vent novel and a new project-focused girlboss gf, betty can never be fixed - ergo they really need to see other people (NOT ARCHIE.)

[heartfullofleeches]

i've missed the gallery, so here's a question. how would the gallery gang be with a nightguard/frequent visitor reader who's an aspiring artist? i've seen people talk about going to actual galleries for inspo or just sketching the paintings, and was wondering if the art pieces would be honored to be models or something. i dunno man this is my first ask im not sure how this stuff works lol

(I've done this as individual hcs - hope you don't mind!)

The Scavenger

"Draw, please..." "You want me to draw a candy wrapper?" "Draw."

If you want inspiration, Scavenger has got you covered. They'll pull out their finest stole goods for your seeing eyes alone - necklaces, vintage toys - and pretty much anything that catches their eye or isn't nailed to a wall. Most nights they just hold up a pocket mirror and tell you to draw what you see, because it's the best thing in the gallery. If you give them your sketches, don't be surprised if they just shove them in their mouth and return to their painting without another word. Something this precious must be kept on their person at all times.

The Painter

Gasp. A future master in their presence? Well, the only correct course of action is for two geniuses to put their heads together, and create gorgeous works of art together that will bring tears to the eyes of any manner of creature. If you are a painter like them, they create a palette for you out of their own flesh and blood. Hm, as perfect as their colors are - something feels missing. As, yes. Red. That other guard has lots, and is being selfish by hogging it all. Not to worry, dear - your muse is on the case! Sir, sir! Stop running - your sacrifice is needed for greatness!

The Lady in Red

How charming.... Will you sketch her something to put on the walls of her cabin while you are away? She'll let you go for the evening if you do. Leaving old sketches around when there are others on site will also secure their safety as she'll drop everything to have a piece of you. Draw a picture of her and she'll be the wailing ghost of the eve.

The Faceless Angel

Monitors your location and makes sure nothing disturbs you. If you ask them to sit down they will start to hum to fill the silence, stopping if you look their way. Even if you ask to sketch them, the angel is surprised when you show them the finished work. Ah, they've gone and ruined it with their tears. If they are allowed to be greedy, could you draw what you imagine their face to look like?

RoseBud

It's only logical a gallery would attract an artist. Rosebud points out the flowers that are in this season for you to warm up, and tells you to come when you're ready to draw the finishing piece. Their babes are extra yippy tonight, but they are just as excited as them and unable to contain it like their greater half. Give it directly to Rose or they will eat it, but unlike the Scavenger they feel bad and start to cry. Rosebud has some artistic skills of their own and will ask to draw you some nights

Soleil

You want to draw them? Oh, but their gears haven't been polished in ages - their casing could use a shine as well. Don't even get them started on their dials. Give them a few nights to spruce themselves up and they'll be the perfect model for you to sketch and adore

Anri

You draw? How cool! They'd love to draw with you, but they don't have the same talent as you. Would you still mind if they doodled a bit in your book anyway? Maybe when you get off work you can hit up a coffee shop and give them a few pointers.... Oh.

Julian

Outright steals your notebook and tells you to give up before you get ahead. Realizes he's doing the same as his parents and gets it back... with a few sketches thrown in the back. They're all of you in different parts of the gallery doing your job... Except for one. Why did he draw you sleeping? And why does he know the color of your bedsheets

The Director

How fun! The gallery is always open to new donations. He'd love if you drew him, or one of the many stories he has to tell. He has a perfect tale about a painter who got lost in the woods and tricked by a power beyond their understanding. Why won't you come up to his floor and let him watch you work your magic as he tells it to you? Kick back and relax. Stress is the last thing that should be on an creative's mind. Get comfortable...stay as long as you want.

[joeemaru]

INTRO POST HAII

this feels necessary because i am posting and being insane more now. hello.

my name is mug!! :)) or muggy.. i think i’ve been called every variation of mug, i do not really care.

i use she/her pronouns and i am a lesbian!!

🌟 i will pretty much only post pokemon until my insanity goes away.. which may be in months. or years. who knows.

you can also find me on tiktok and twitter!!

also, my disc is muggyfart and.. if u have pokemon servers (especially scarlet + violet) i will gladly join them .. (｡’▽’｡)♡ i need pokemon people to talk to!!!

🌟 carrd + strawpage for more info !!!

more about stuff i like.. :)) ↴

hello again. this is gonna be a lot of rambling cuz i’m great at that but YEAH I APOLOGIZE HELP

fav characters: PENNY!!! i love her a lot! she’s my favorite ever she is so me OH MY GOD I LOVE HER.. i also really like arven, nemona, rika and carmine. and most of the sv cast. they’re all great I LOVE TEAM STAR A LOT. TEAM STAR LOVER ME I LOVE THEM

i also like anzu kinashi, yuri + sayori (ddlc), and toko + syo fukawa!!!! i’m not interested in them as much rn though.

POKEMON STUFF: ive played alpha sapphire (i remember almost nothing. i played it in second grade.), sun and moon, sword, and scarlet + violet!! my favorite game is sv, but sun + moon and sword are also great.. i really like lillie and sonia!!! fav character is penny though. my favorite pokemon are tinkatink, tinkatuff AND tinkaton!! i love them all.. i also REALLLY like jirachi, eevee + the eeveelutions, CHARCADET, mabosstiff, ogerpon, and a lot more probably. i’ve also watched horizons!! at least what’s out on netflix in the US. i’ve also watched the scenes with penny because i could NOT wait!! ive seen most of the sun and moon anime too, but i never got to finish it 😭 ive seen some of journeys too.. i did watch the episodes with sonia and i think two seasons maybe but it was in 2022!!!

ships?!? i am not that interested in ships right now (surprisingly) but i really like giarven, mela and eri, rika and geeta, and NEMOPEN SOMETIMES!! there are probably others that i forgot about. OH MY GOD WAIT I LOVEEEE LIKODOT!!!! A LOT!!!!

i also like joemaru + saranzu (yttd), tokomaru + syomaru (danganronpa), and like a million others i think. those r my favorites though :) again not interested in these as much rn!!

not ships but i really like team star bffs.. and penny + arven. penny and a lot of people tbh, she needs all the friends i think

other fandoms i’m in areeee. danganronpa.. yttd, ddlc, liar liar (THE GAME!!!!!!), and other stuff i think? i lose interest in stuff and forget about it.

my favorite music artists right now are chappell roan and kimya dawson :)) I LOVE KIMYA DAWSON!!!!

i like drawing. a lot.. obviously cuz that’s what i post here but i make edits sometimes!!! and i cosplay occasionally..

okay that is it goodbye gang..

[sopuu]

I love your art so much, it's such an inspiration :D

2 questions about your champion au

First of all, Who would Romeo transform into after he forces Lukas and Jesse to fight? I would imagine Jesse because he needs that sort of power to do stuff to Beacontown. I could be wrong-

Second, would there be a confrontation scene in your au? Like that one scene in episode 5, Lukas confronted Jesse. Would that happen? I'm curious because Lukas also got teleported to the sunshine institute.

ooh ok so for the first, romeo still turns into jesse bc as you said he needs to have jesse's status as hero in residence to have the power to run the town as he wants- but i think this impacts jesse a lot more than it did in canon bc it literally happens right after he goes through the whole being romeo's perfect champion hell. like imagine going through all that, realising you've finally escaped and reunited with your friends, just to get hit with another immensely stressful situation that involves not only your friends but also your townspeople and possibly the world? everything just keeps getting worse for him

also i have this scene in my head where after romeo disappears and drops them all to the ground, the gang rushes to jesse to check up on him. but all he can do is sit there with his head in his hands, shakily mumbling that he needs a moment while he breaks down a little and processes everything. it's like he took one step forward and two steps backwards. the weight on his shoulders just got heavier and he's the only one who can lift it, but he's just...so, so tired. (everyone sits by him during this, and lukas gently wraps him into a hug, rubbing circles on his back until jesse feels better. once he's mentally caught up on everything he perks right up and frets over them instead, espcially lukas since he just had to fight him. typical jesse :,) ) i have no idea if i'll draw this later though so i'm putting this out there in case i don't sdjghf

for the second q, the confrontation still happens but this time it's with axel and olivia who's formed the dead enders (or whatever team name you chose in season 1). just like lukas they did that in hopes to remind "jesse" of what they, and most importantly he was like before they had any sort of fame, when they were just a bunch of nerds from a treehouse. also i kinda wanted to give them a more prominent role in the story since they barely had any screentime in s2 lol.

the difference between them and the ocelots tho is that the two aren't really fighters- not in the sense of power but in the sense that they didn't straightforwardly rebel against "jesse". some passive defiance was definitely there like telling him that he's not doing the right thing, but they didn't form the rebellion team until romeo threw them into the admin tower prison. that was their last straw and the final proof they needed to see that the new jesse no longer cared for them.

oughh this got so long im sorry ghfdjk. tl;dr, romeo still becomes jesse, and yes the confrontation happens but with axel and olivia. the thing about this au is that the major plot points stay the same: they go to jail, romeo terrorises beacontown, they find the weapon, romeo gets beat down etc- its just how they get there that's different. i just really like exploring how one small change in canon events affects everything else :]

[kiraridertime03]

My Adventures With... Supermen?

Alright, so, I just got done watching the third episode of My Adventures with Superman's second season, Fullmetal Scientist. Great episode, fun episode, as per usual. However, certain inclusions have me scratching my head, leading me to only one big question...

Which would be a spoiler, so beware below, but...

Are they gonna kill Superman?

Now, I am not confident in this conclusion at all, it is purely because of two primary character inclusions in the past few episodes that seem to be pointing in this direction. It could mean nothing, but I am crazy.

To see what I mean, we need to jump back to the 90's. One of DC's major events within that period was titled Reign of the Supermen. It was a story that was spread across the 4 main Superman comics of the time, Superman, Action Comics, Superman: The Man of Steel, and Adventures of Superman (ha). This brief storyline, in short, followed 4 Superman Related characters as they vie for the role of his successor. This is because, right before this, Superman famously died.

Yeah, this event is the sequel to the Death of Superman, and builds up to his revival at its end. It wasn't very long, less than a year, but it is there. However, what is important for now is who our four Supermen are.

The first, who we'll skim over because he is least important right now, is The Eradicator, some freak alien who steals Clark's body and takes his identity. The details currently don't matter, though keep a lookout for their stupid glasses!

The second is Conner Kent's Superboy. This is the clone one made up of Clark and Lex's DNA. You may recognize him from the series Young Justice, however, at this point, he was in his Leather Jacket Era, not his black T-Shirt era.

However the final two are more interesting to see. The first we'll talk about is Cyborg Superman. He was once astronaut Hank Henshaw, but he got all fucked up in space, blaming Superman for it for plot reasons. When he eventually died because of space, he was able to upload his mind into a almost clone body of Superman with Robot bits. He then claims to just be Superman revived. Eradicator does this too, but it's funnier for him.

Finally, there is who is one of the more popular characters we see in this event, probably only rivaled by Conner, that being John Henry Irons, aka Steel. He is the only one without Super in the name, having designed to design a suit that helps him be like Superman, though he also gives himself a rad as hell hammer because John Henry. He was later played by Shaq.

So, now we jump back to present day, with MAWS's second season. The first episode draws the gang to S.T.A.R. Labs in Coast City (A place important to the Reign of the Supermen arc for reasons we don't have time to get into and probably won't get into because it probably won't happen exactly like the comic if it does happen in the show) and we meet Hank Henshaw. Neat, me and many others think. It makes sense, he is a space science guy, so might as well draw on a character from the lore. Plus, it gives the creators the opportunity to do a Cyborg Superman later down the line, as this show does love its robots. However, I didn't think much more of it. That was until Episode 3, an episode primarily dedicated to introducing John Irons and making him Steel, if briefly. Now, on its own, this is still innocuous, he is a fairly popular Superman character, and they do a great job with him, I love his larger bodied design.

However, things become suspicious when these two are introduced in such rapid succession. The writers want these Supermen in play for... something. It, of course, hasn't introduced all of them. There has really been no trace of Eradicator, and it seems weird to have Lex cloning Superman this early in the show. So, while we have half of the Supermen here, we aren't quite there yet. Although... We do have another Super nearing us very soon.

Much of this season's arc seems to be prepping for the introduction of Supergirl, Kara Zor-El. You know her, she got her own TV show, she's probably more popular than most of the characters we've seen in this post. However, we don't know too much about her role in the season past that. From what we've seen from annoyingly spoilery Toonami bumbers, she's probably being controlled by the remnants of the Kryptonian empire, whether it be ruled by Zod or Braniac, and whether it being of her own volition or not, and her current arc seems nebulous. However, Superman has built up quite the positive reputation even just in the single season we've seen him in. Imagine the kind of pressure, whether she has taken an antagonistic role in the past of the series or not, that it may place on her if Superman "dies" (or get sent across the galaxy or captured by the government and made to be presumed dead by the public or something). Especially if she has to take down an evil Cyborg claiming to be her cousin.

Do I think this will happen this season. It's probably too early to say, but I find it to be... doubtful. I have my doubts to them ever "killing" Superman, fakeout or not. If they did, it would probably be a season finale cliffhanger before having a 2 episode premier the next season with a Reign/Return of Superman arc the next season. However, they definitely want to do something Reign related at some point. Whether that means "killing off" Supes is yet to be seen. Though, given how close the two arcs are to each other and how much the government (Amanda Waller) wants to kill Superman, I wouldn't be surprised.

Long story short... Uh... Good episode, fun episode. I like this show a lot and I hope it keeps being good.

[biceratops7]

Rise fans, here’s how to ACTUALLY get the show renewed:

Ok gang, looks like the creator of rottmnt has hinted that if we make enough noise, renewal can creep back onto the table. As someone who’s spent the better part of a year in the Our Flag Means Death fandom and have observed organized tactics that actually worked to draw attention and get it renewed, I have some advice.

Whenever you tag #rottmnt, tag or @ Nickelodeon as well. I cannot stress enough how important this is. When you don’t do this the chances of someone from the team actually seeing your post drops exponentially. When we were grinding to get ofmd season 2, a hugely important part of that success was the organized effort to call out to HBO Max directly.

Likewise, find out which social Media Nickelodeon networkers, producers, representative accounts, etc are actually active on. Post there. Again, it’ll increase the chances of the campaign actually being noticed for the scale that it is. Posting #saverottmnt on sites that Nickelodeon simply doesn’t frequent is not pointless, but it really only serves to drum up hype and tell fans possibly in the dark about the movement. But as I said before, our most important target is the Studio itself.

Try to also hashtag #saveRiseOfTheTeenageMutantNinja Turtles. It’s a lot to type I know, but the show’s acronym may not show up in whatever systems the studio uses to track the internet presence of their content.

Watch the show and movie on it’s official platforms like you need it to breath. Watch it as many times as you have the whim to, turn it in in the background while you do chores, show it to your friends and family members, ANYTHING to help cause a noticeable spike in viewership. It HAS to be official platforms too or it doesn’t count. Ratings are king.

This one’s a little more involved but if even just a a few dozen or a hundred people have the means, it can make big waves. Send in physical letters. Especially in our near completely digital age, a real stamped, hold in your hand letter is not going to be buried. It is way harder to ignore something that showed up at your door rather than something you need to either be looking for, or be in the right place to see. If you can, write to Nickelodeon about what the show means to you, make appeals directly to them about why the show deserves to be renewed, and also importantly, why it would be profitable to the company. Your main incentive to have a paramount plus prescription is the turtles? Let them know you’ll cancel it when you get bored watching the same two seasons over and over. This show had a huge impact on your life at a time you needed it most? Share that!

The bottom line: campaigns are only as successful as their volume and audience. Make sure you’re not only making the right kind of noise, but make sure you’re talking to exactly the people your message is for. Alright everyone,

LETS GET ROTTMNT BACK!

[scribe-of-hael]

What would TFP Knockout be like if he was in TFA?

Why I'm so glad you ask. ~

I acutally sorta showed this in a "Ask tfa Starscream" drawing where someone asked who'd be a good second in command. I showed knockout in the background because I'm utterly obsessed with him.

Show casing him as being a friend Starscream hadn't seen in a while!

But! To make it clear. Knockout as far as personality i think would not change barley at all. Why change perfection?

His personality i think would fit well in the tfa universe. Though I've seen many ppl interput his design in a tfa style. And many I have liked !

As far as background i see him much like Lockdown in the sense he is neutral, Decpeticon leaning.

He is a back alley Doctor (lenses expired) and yes Rachet knows him. A sleek doctor bot who refused to come form to his medical vechole alt mode and had a much sportier look , who loved racing. And considering TFA cybertron is Functionalist. I'd say he was told to get out of Cybertron.

Decpeticons are more willing to work with him and vise verse. I'd think Starscream would find himself in position where he was doctor for hire here and there and got to know him. Aka KO didn't mind listening to Star rant about Megatron cause he's a drama whore.

I can see Star picking up his signal and being like "OOOO I know Excatly what to do~" girls reunion party let's go.

Cause I need these two dumbasses to scheme together. Please and thank you.

Hell id love to see a racing episode like the ine with Bumblebee and Blurr , with KO included. This KO would get under Bumblebee's frame so bad.

"What was that? float like a butterfly, Fumble like a Bee!? HA HA!"

lots of people know KO to be kinda a mad doctor. Mostly for taking parts and selling them around of patients who "passed and totally didn't die on the table". Megatron knows him, Swindle whos he's sold stuff to and Lockdown who he's given augments to.

He's made a good reputation for himself. As to why he's friends with Star alot of ppl don't know. They do get along well enough!

Rachet got some issues with him because he left during the war. But good deep dive into "ah rachet you fought a war and are still oppressed btws" i think they were going to touch on that in season 4 but it never happened.

Have a moment where like Lockdown he's being chased by the prime gang in a high speed chase.

After basically pit maneuvering him "Now come out you have no where eles to go! Stop"

"You got alot of nerve scratch my pain" //Transforms//, "Autobot" //the smuggest face you ever seen.

Que Rachets gasp , "Knockout?!"

"At your service~ looks to me like you'll need emergency surgery" //buzz saw hands//

Crys i love him.

Also Breakdown is there cause I refuse to serpate the husbands. And yes Breakdown is also pretty much the same. But he grew up in a engeron farm like BulkHead and they did know each other.

[respectthepetty]

Another day, another ask, but this time, it's about what are some currently airing shows that you're watching and really enjoying and how would you describe what you like about them briefly?

For example, The Warp Effect: Wholesome and sex positive QL, with so much representation and topics brought up weekly. Nothing like what I was expecting - in the best way.

Happy (Belated) Valentine's Day @sliceduplife! I hope it was kind to you because my response is going to be just like me and my favorite characters - problematic and absolute basura!

To begin, I'm actually going to tell you what I'm rewatching instead of currently watching:

Great Men Academy - Much like 3 Will Be Free and The Warp Effect, Great Men Academy isn't a BL, but it doesn't stop it from being queer af. It has a unicorn that grants wishes, a magical lake that requires nudity to activate, a ghost, a school sanctioned Hunger Games, body swapping, and an Elite level moment:

If you don't get the Elite reference, know that this lead-paint-level-toxic hottie, Cruz, delivered the best line ever uttered in the series:

¡No soy gay! Ni bi. Ni tri. ¡Soy futbolista! (I'm not gay! Not bi. Not tri. I'm a footballer!) <- I say "¡Soy futbolista!" all of the time when people ask about my sexuality without clarification and leave them in their confusion.

*moving on to your actual ask*

The Warp Effect - I came for Joy, the cinematographer who also did KinnPorsche, and Jojo, the director who does everything else I love, but stayed to see all the ways people could come... to an understanding about their sexuality. Also, it's very queer.

My Beautiful Man 2 - I do not condone stalking, but when it comes to my idol and his devoted worshiper, I'm trying to invent new ways of stalking, so Hira can always be within a 100 yards of Kiyoi. They should be more red flags than California during fire season, yet they are wholesome and adorable.

Well...in a very kinky way, kinda like these two wild kids from Secretary

Never Let Me Go - It has a teenager becoming the CEO of his family's multi-million dollar company and another teenager being his bodyguard falling in love! How could I not love it?! It's outrageous! And somehow the most unrealistic thing about this plot is there being a genuine good guy who openly talks about bitcoins, and I LOVE HIM! I did not have falling in love with a man who enjoys "investing" on my BINGO card, but then again, look at my very good boy. LOOK AT HIM!

Hit Bite Love - It's so messy. It has stepbrothers in love, open discussions about condom sizes and lubricant, Kinks-R-Us, a bi Burger looking for his King, and so much more. This past episode hid a pivotal scene behind a paywall due to the two characters having sex in the school's locker room, so half of the plot was missing in the edited version. It made NO SENSE, but I didn't care. Give me all the mess, but I draw the line at taking off your sock and putting it in someone's mouth. BAD BOY! VERY BAD BOY!

The End of the World with You - Japanese BLs stress me out. They give me a lot of an anxiety, and I'm constantly preparing for someone to die or for one of them to be a murderer. Even in the "happiest" Japanese BLs, there always exist this undercurrent of malice..and I'm attracted to it. >insert Ritsu aka El Diablo<

Moonlight Chicken - Eff "More than Friends, Less than Lovers!" That's child's play. Give me my HussyVille Gang Gang! Give me the "we've been breaking beds and each other's backs since day one, but I'm not even sure what his name is, and if I'm being honest, I don't really need to know" squad. Then, on top of that, it's EarthMix doing the devil's boogie?! I waited for over a year for this, and I don't say this often when it comes to men, but the anticipation was worth it.

HIStory 5: Love in the Future - I will always show up to a Taiwanese BL. They are like Rihanna at the Super Bowl. They do the bare minimum but are still very entertaining, include all the fan favorites (domestic bliss, high heat, office romances, good side couples, marriage equality), and pop out with a few surprises. Others may be disappointed, but I am ALWAYS pleased.

My School President - Did you read the list before this? There is a common underlying theme. Even if the show isn't messy, I'm going to find the mess and fixate on it, and it doesn't get stranger than Por's obsession with the chinchilla. GMM better get on merchandising this critter ASAP because there is a gold mine behind this, capitalizers.

Bed Friend - It hasn't started yet, but I'll be watching it. It has a Blue Boy and Red Rascal BUT they are not who would normally be coded that way, which means they are clearly going to have to resolve the reasons why they changed their behavior to cover up their obvious colors. Who hurt our Red Rascal that he turned into a nun? Who harmed our Blue Boy to make him the slutty slut he is? I cannot wait to find out!

Chains of Heart - One word: Papi. Wait, sorry. Let me try again: Poppy. The show has a plot, and I care about it, but...Poppy. He is playing a bad guy, which I got a glimpse of in Love Mechanics, so I'm hoping it means we get to see more of him, and I don't mean screen time, although I wouldn't be opposed to that either. Obviously, I have to be interested in the actual plot since he is a supporting character...but POPPY! mmmm, papi!

[wyrdle]

For the TrainerClavell au

If I read correctly, you guys talked about Clavell helping the kids with their nightmares and problems but what about Clavell having some really upsetting dreams about the professors :'D

Maybe it doesn't happen that often but when it does it's bad :'/

((ok now imagine Tyme comforting him🙂🙂🙂🙂))

SCREECHING. Ok. I had brain worms from this prompt. Enjoy a crazy spur of writing (it turned out way longer than i expected)

CW for: Nightmares, implied injury/traumatic experiences. Enjoy!!!! Hopefully this is a fun read lol

Clavell was huddled right outside the Zero Lab, a space cleared out for the scientists within  when they needed an escape from the stuffiness of the indoors. There was no breeze so deep underground, but the caverns were still chilly, and Clavell regretted not wearing something warmer. Stuffing his hands into his lab coat pocket, he gazed at the peaceful scenery around him.

Area Zero, for all the inconveniences it brought, was beautiful at night. There were the glittering crystals, but also the Glimmora blooming to life, their bio-luminescent petals reflecting in the pools of water. The ethereal quality of the land only made Clavell feel even more homesick.

The Tera Orbs were well on their way to being finished, a project spanning years. Though the scientists had had designated breaks to leave the place, Clavell sorely missed the rest of Paldea's crowds, its food, the sights. Plus, he was tired, the numerous late nights of research wore down on even the most devoted academics. The wrap up of the greatest discovery in his career couldn't come sooner! 

"Boo!" 

Jumping at the sudden scare, Clavell became the subject of peals of laughter.

"Sada!" He grumbled, almost pouting. "I came out here for peace and quiet."

"Not my fault you make it so easy.” His colleague and dear friend flashed a toothy grin, taking a seat beside him even as she asked: “Care for some company?”

Even Clavell, for all his gentlemanly niceness, had his limits tested when it came to the brash and brazen Professor Sada. 

“As if you’d listen to me.” he huffed, with faux grumpiness.

“True.” A third voice chimed in to gang up on Sada, to Clavell’s pleasure, even though he knew it’d be temporary.

Professor Turo, despite his quiet and less expressive demeanor, was a man who’d just as quickly strike jabs and jeers back in pettiness. At least he was too distracted by the three, probably scorching, cups of instant noodles in his hands to say anything. Yet.

“Turo! How could you!” Sada mock cried, dramatically wiping a shed tear.

Quietly, and with a smile on his face, Clavell passed her one of the cups, feeling his frosty fingers warm up as did his heart. Wedged between his friends who were complete opposites, he didn’t mind the badly cooked noodles, and the sadness from before was replaced by fondness for the two bright people beside him.

“Did you even put in the seasoning?!” Sada screeched.

“Um.” A cough. “Yes?”

“You put all of them into yours by accident, didn’t you?”

Dumbasses, both of them. Clavell mused internally, letting Sada tear at Turo’s terrible cooking for him. 

As he ate quietly between them however, something began to feel wrong. Did he eat too quickly? Was the spice getting to his throat?

“Clave11, is that y0u?”

Suddenly Sada and Turo’s banter had turned cold, their voices beside him twisted and electronic. Worst of all, it felt laced with genuine hatred and scorn. Directed at him.

He was choking on his food, that was the only explanation for why he couldn’t breathe. In his seat, he was frozen, unable to look up at either of them, the warm bodies by his side now cold and metallic. Staring at his feet, the ground shifted from the rocky terrain of Area Zero and into man-made obsidian tiles. Gone was the soft glow of blue, dangerous red drowning everything around him.

[OBSTRUCTION TO TIME MACHINE IDENTIFIED]

The sounds of Pokemon at night were replaced by the blaring warning sirens, the whir of a machine drawing power, the rumble of vertical constructs rising from the earth.

[PARADISE PROTECTION PROTOCOL INITIALISED]

"H0w c0u1d y0u, 0ld friend?"

The cup of noodles he had been holding had been hot, but they'd become scorching in an instant, the pain allowing him to break free from his paralysis to look up…

… at the angry, inhuman, glare of his two friends.

[PARADISE PROTECTION PROTOCOL HAS INITIALISED BATTLE]

[P-R-DISE PR0TECTI0N PR0T0C0L HAS INITIALISED BATTLE]

[PROFESSOR TURO AND PROFESSOR SADA HAVE INITIALISED BATTLE]

As their voices echoed from all around, Clavell was too frozen by his terror to dodge the blur of red and blue speeding towards him. Even as his very being screamed to run, to hide, the monsters drew close enough for him to see their long claws, open maws and sharp teeth.

"Tra1t0r!"

He screamed.

“Clavell!”

He was trembling, clothes sticking uncomfortably onto damp skin, lungs desperately attempting to draw air. A strong and warm hand was on his shoulder, gently shaking him awake. 

One moment he was in horrible pain and mind-numbing terror, the next he was lying on his back on his couch, blinking up at the familiar white lights of his office.

“You’re alright, Director, just breathe.”  Blearily, he recognised the owner of the comforting voice, glancing up at Tyme's concerned expression. 

How did he…?

"You were taking a break from the paperwork. We were going over the Academy budget for expanding student services." She helpfully explained, shifting slightly to allow Clavell's Houndoom to move forward and lick his hand, whining in concern. 

His heart was still racing, calming slowly through Tyme's comforting words and instructions to ground himself in the present. Houndoom’s soft fur under his hand helped, too.

Eventually, he collected himself enough to speak.

“...Tyme?”

“6:00PM.” She joked, at her own expense. Fortunately, it drew a bewildered, if shaky, laugh from Clavell. “We had a lot of papers to review, remember?”

Right. They were going to approach Chairwoman Geeta with several new proposals for further funding. In particular, to expand the Academy’s student counseling services as well as mental health first aid classes. Especially after… the events of Area Zero.

The glitter of crystals, the whir of the time machine, Not-Turo and Not-Sada’s expressions twisted with hatred-

Unwillingly, he shuddered, tensing up at the memory of his nightmare/memory. Clavell’s Houndoom, sensing his owner’s distress, decided to lick at his cheek, prompting Clavell to readjust his non-existent glasses. A bad habit, really, for anytime he needed something to distract his hands.

“Here.” Tyme presses his glasses into his palm, nodding wordlessly as he whispers thanks. She stands, informing him she’d be back with a glass of water, leaving him some privacy to recollect himself.

Sitting up with his full vision, he absorbed the comfort and familiarity of his office, pointedly ignoring the lab equipment he had kept in memory of… them. He had hoped, once, that they’d return, with all of their fiery personality and quips he’d grown used to after spending years in the labs together. 

But you never really knew them, did you? His vicious thoughts betray him, and exhaustion seemed to weigh him down even more heavily.

“Drink.” Tyme instructs when she returns, taking a seat on the couch as she hands him the cool glass. If it were eerily similar to his dream, Clavell didn’t comment.

“T-Thank you, Miss Tyme.” Remembering himself, he flustered. “I-I’m sorry you had to witness that-”

“Hush, you.” She sighs, shaking her head in what Clavell assumes to be exasperation. “Everyone has bad days, you’re only human. Do you… want to talk about it?”

Clavell winces, biting his lower lip. He was an adult, for Arceus’ sake, the director no less. It was highly inappropriate for his co-worker to be the bearer of his troubles… even if it was Tyme.

No, the real reason he kept tight-lipped was because of how much it hurt to speak openly of what he’d experienced, of the friends he’d lost.

“Take your time, Clavell.” Tyme cooed, patting his back gently. In lieu of a verbal response Clavell leaned into her side, appreciating the firm one-armed hug. “If ever you need a listening ear, I’m here.”

In the end, that was all the difference, between Tyme and the professors, wasn’t it?

Clavell’s grief and anger curled tightly around him, but just for that moment, he breathed easy in the comfort of a friend by his side.

[fogwitchoftheevermore]

ok so i was gonna draw these but um. i got lazy. so i'm now just going to write up a tumblr post establishing this headcannon so when i eventually post my fic about it i can link to this as an explanation.

so hi gang. back when i first started cosplaying life series characters i wanted to make up a way that allowed me to more clearly distinguish my cosplays in between the seasons, even if it was just something small and for me, and this led me to here.

basically, what happened here is i decided to give each player a little mark/tattoo like thing representing themselves and each season they didn't win. this has now morphed into a headcannon, that all of the life series players have a physical reminder of every game that they don't win from the watchers, to remind them of what they're missing while they're gone, in an attempt to encourage them to come back. (they're not particularly effective, but oh well, the watchers like to commit to a bit). the winners don't get one because they accidentally set a precedent by not giving grian one (they didn't WANT him coming back), and while the same thing applied to scott, they don't quite feel the same way about pearl or martyn. however, it's also just a little bit of cruelty that there's not physical reminder of what you went through if you win. it only lives in your mind, as fickle as your mind can be, especially in these games. it's on brand for them.

i'm throwing everyone's marks below the cut, specifically what they look like post limited life. i will also explain why i chose each of them, because some of them are more obvious than others.

grian: three purple eyes on the back of his right hand. look the watchers are doing this, of course it's a reminder of what he's supposed to be doing instead of playing these games. for him, it's meant to serve less as encouragement to sign up again, but as encouragement to stop. if you hate us so much, why are you letting us give you more reminders of what you are to us?

scar: a (non painful, because it's not real) injury representing the way he died in each season. there's a bruise on his ribs that never goes away, covered by two scars from ren's arrowhead and grian's sword, tinged in a skulk-y blue.

scott: three flowers on the inside of his right elbow. a poppy for third life (duh), a lotus for double life (victorian flower language is "estranged love"), and hemlock for limited life (victorian flower language is "you will be the death of me").

jimmy: four canary feathers clumped together on his left shoulder. no explanation needed.

pearl: the first two phases of the moon (starting with the full moon) on the inside of her left elbow. obviously due to her name, but i think it's also important to note that last life began a few months into s8 and ended a month before the end of s8, so she would've had her first one show up a month before the moon… well...

martyn: three tally marks on his right eyebrow. this one is less representative of martyn and more of his relationship with the watchers. it's a small mark, it almost looks like a deliberate eyebrow slit or a scar if you're not paying much attention. but as time goes on, and martyn's understanding of/connection to the watchers increases, it's harder to mistake. it's harder to hide what's really happening.

ren: three crowns on the left sideburn. also very self explanitory.

bigb: an arrow, a diamond sword, a piece of dripstone, and another diamond sword on his clavicle. each represents the weapon that shows up around him the most in each season. he's killed by a bow and a crossbow across all three of his deaths in third life, he kills cleo with a diamond sword in last life and looses his first life to lizzie's sword, he is killed by mobs only in double life until grian and the dripstone, and bigb is killed by and kills with a diamond sword most often in limited life.

etho: four sticks of tnt behind his right ear. this is less related to his life series and more his general... everything. it's etho, of course it's tnt. the "behind the ear" thing is also very funny to me because it takes etho AGES to figure out where his is- he knows he should have one, everyone but grian has one, but someone else sees it first MONTHS after third life has ended.

impulse: four arrows on his neck, pointing down. his final deaths in third and last life are to bows, and his first (and arguably only, as bdubs looses the other two lives) death in double life is to a skeleton. the limited life connection is a little more sparse but 1. the watchers had already committed to the bit and 2. he killed quite a few people with bows this season, including bdubs and i am nothing if not annoying about those two.

skizz: three hearts on his wrists, one on the front and inside of his left wrist and one on the outside of his right wrist. hearts are the general symbol of the life series, but skizz is also the definition of "heart on his sleeve". in this case it's just on his wrist, cause i think it looks better than his shoulders/upper arms.

tango: lichtenberg scars along on his left ankle that spread farther every time he looses. these are the scars that you get from being struck by lightning. lightning strikes when you die, and tango's deaths continue to be the most frustrating part of every season for him, the part the watchers think he'd most want to rectify. i know the lightning strike on death wasn't a thing in third or double life, but shhhh don't worry about it. i'm retconing.

bdubs: numbers of a clock on his left side. limited life rounded out the 12, 3, 6, and 9. further seasons would fill in the rest of the numbers and the hands. this is also entirely self explanatory.

cleo: four red stitches around her right wrist. (the stitches existed prior to her playing in the life series, but they change colors one by one after every season. were she to run out of stitches, she would either start suddenly generating more on the same area or ones on other parts of her body would start changing color.) for her, it's just something small that she'd constantly be seeing, as she works with her hands often and the red stands out well against both green zombie skin and the more human colored parts. it makes the series stick in her mind, reminds her of what she still wants from it.

joel: four vertebrae outlined down the spine. the bones part comes at the start from his dogs in third life, and then it becomes more of an association with death as the seasons go on. it's specifically outlining his vertebrae because one thing about life series joel is that he has a spine. he is never a coward, even when it might serve him better to be one.

mumbo: one broken heart on his chest. as martyn discussed in his post limited life stream, last life messed mumbo up bad. like, so bad the watchers decided they couldn't put the guy back in. his is very literal- a broken heart over where his real heart is, where he took multiple injuries over the course of last life, for once, in a mostly non malicious way, a reminder that he shouldn't come back. (i say mostly because, hey, nice to give him time to recover, but it's less because they actually care about the guy and more because they know he'd be no fun like this)

lizzie: small fairy wings on her right shoulder. representative of the fairy fort, of course. were she to show up in another season, it would be something else to represent her alliances, because that's always where lizzie thrives in my opinion, with other people (even if fairy fort was a mess, lol).

[katherineholmes]

3 6 9 12 🔥

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

I don't have a screenshot, but I do remember seeing a post that said Elena is a manipulator who is the way she is because she plays on social dynamics to get the most powerful people to protect her, and hides behind them, using them as shields. This is a very weird take because if it was true Elena would've played on Elijah's emotions for Katherine, or made deals with/seduced Klaus rather than stay with her friends and the Salvatores. Also, it is Damon and Stefan who manipulate Elena and not the other way around, she simply reacts to them and tries to hold on to as much of her agency as possible. So that was something I vehemently disagreed with.

6. which ship fans are the most annoying?

Klaroline. They actually bullied Leah Pipes and sent her death threats until she left the show, they bullied Phoebe for playing Hayley who 'comes between' Klaus and Caroline, hell, they even bullied Joseph's wife for marrying him, and I've heard that a lot of the stuff was extremely racist.

Also, I know this asks for one, but they are tied for me, Nian shippers. Ian and Nina are actual people and not characters on a show, there's no need to ship them, and there's certainly no need to send death threats to Nikki Reed. It just gets embarrassing at one point.

9. worst part of canon

Um....only one? Well, I know a lot of people have expressed their disappointment about the doppelgänger connection not being fleshed out, which I completely agree with, but I think I'm going to go with the sire bond.

There's two I wanna dissect - the first is Tyler's bond to Klaus, and the second is Elena's bond to Damon, and the different ways in which they are treated by the narrative.

Tyler's sire bond is treated like it's a bad thing, and rightfully so. We see many uncomfortable scenes which show Tyler's absolute devotion to Klaus, all of it coming to a head when Klaus makes Tyler bite Caroline. Tyler is a victim, a victim who is, at times, shamed for being connected to Klaus in that way. But once it is clear that Tyler doesn't have his free will, people want to help him. The Mystic 'gang' collectively decides not to involve Tyler in their plans because they know he can't help himself. Bill Forbes helps him break the sire bond, and it is acknowledged that the best thing for Tyler is to stay away from Klaus.

(There is a tangent here about how Klaus and Tyler are two sides of the same coin and how the two of them are foils to each other, but we'll discuss that some other day.)

After this, Tyler has a need for revenge against Klaus, rightfully so, and initially everyone is ready to help him. In short, despite how Tyler is treated on the show later on, during s3-4, most characters acknowledge that sire bond is bad, and Tyler should stay from Klaus.

Now, this is the thing I hate most about canon - Elena's sire bond to Damon. This was supposedly based on feelings Elena had for Damon when she was human. At first, we see Elena being a 'wrong' vampire, unable to drink animal blood, blood bags, anything that doesn't involve hurting people because Damon said so. To put this in perspective, as a new vampire, Elena starves herself almost to the point of death because of the sire bond. Then, we see her break up with Stefan - which I did not think came out of nowhere - and hooking up with Damon the next night or something. This is when we learn that she's sired to Damon.

At this point, knowing what we know about Tyler inability to refuse Klaus' orders, we can draw the conclusion that Elena could never have refused Damon's demand for sex due to the sire bond. At best, this is dub-con. And yet, the whole 'Elena and Damon slept together' thing is treated by the narrative as simply hooking up, or even, as the resolution of sexual tension that was building over three season. When the cause for the sire bond is revealed, we are told that it is because of Elena's feelings for Damon, effectively blaming Elena for the existence of the sire bond. (With Tyler and Klaus, Klaus' actions are blamed for it, once again, rightfully so.)

Even after the knowledge of the sire bond, Damon refuses to let Elena go. Stefan is hurt that Elena's 'in love' with Damon and slept with him, and Stefan, the same Stefan who spends all of season 3 wanting to take revenge against Klaus for stealing his free will, never once acknowledges the fact that Elena slept with Damon at a time when her ability to consent was compromised. In fact, Stefan acts like the victim in this situation and sleeps with Rebekah (who murdered her) for the purpose of getting back at Elena and when he's confronted with this fact, he tells Elena she has no right to be jealous. Some epic love. But, this is how Stefan treats Elena during the sire bond situation.

Caroline, while knowing about the sire bond, despite herself being a victim of Damon's, simply blames Elena for breaking Stefan's heart. Jeremy doesn't seem to know or care, but both him and Bonnie get a pass because they were going through shit in s4.

Basically, when it comes to the sire bond between Damon and Elena, the narrative treats it as a romantic thing, something beautiful that came out of their feelings for each other instead of treating it as the fucked up thing it is. The victim in this situation is blamed, and no one wants to keep Elena away from Damon because he might hurt her, they want to keep her away from him because otherwise Stefan's feelings will be hurt (at this point, I'm through with both the Salvatores and their 'pain', cry me a river).

In conclusion, the worst thing about canon is not just the sire bond between Damon and Elena, but the way the narrative treats it.

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

John Gilbert, I think. It’s an odd choice because he’s a dick, leaving Elena and Jeremy to fend for themselves after their parents’ death and then criticising Jenna for a job not done well was terrible. But other than that, he was in town to keep the Salvatores away from Elena, which I can get. His seventeen year old daughter/niece is dating a hundred and fifty year old vampires and his brother is a creep preying on her, I’d want them away from her too.

He doesn’t go about it in the best way, but he does his best, and eventually, he gives up his life for her, so that she can choose whether or not to become a vampire. I hate that he sees all vampires as monsters but that hate was something he was likely taught until he came upon some vampire feeding on/killing someone innocent, playing with them the way we Isobel, Katherine, and Damon doing as well, and his hate took a life of its own. I do appreciate his dedication though, he teaches himself to be resistant to compulsion, and at least tries to protect people, even if he is extremely arrogant.

I’m not saying people should like him per say, but I don’t think he deserves the hate he gets.

[grimmmviewing]

S1E19: “Leave it to Beavers”—C+ (Watched 6/22/24)

“All the time we’ve spent together. All the… sneakin’ around. God, suddenly it just seems so wrong.”

One thread I keep returning to while watching Grimm is the lack of true “monster of the week” stories. On the one hand, I can appreciate how that might make each episode feel more important, but I do think that there are benefits to having what amount to “breaks” from the main plot. In the case of Grimm, for example, both of the previous episodes have been very big-feeling stories: “Love Sick” is the culmination of a conflict that technically started all the way back in the first episode when Adalind tried to kill Nick’s aunt Marie in the hospital, while “Cat and Mouse” was focused on the larger forces at play in the world (or at least on their proxies) and was very tense. Having a week after all that to essentially… chill would give the audience a chance to depressurize and the writers a chance to focus on a smaller-scale or more contained-feeling story.

From the title alone, “Leave it to Beavers” has a bit of that vibe. It’s based on one of the more widely-recognizable fairytale concepts of trolls and bridges, and it could have been an opportunity to luxuriate in the relative simplicity of just doing a fun adaptation in the Grimm signature style—which we do kind of get up to a point with a mobster-adjacent troll-like being killing a beaver man at a construction site. Another beaver witnesses the murder, goes into hiding, and needs convincing to come forward with what he knows.

It’s not too dark but still mixes the grittiness of a modern, “realistic” setting with the fantastical elements, as Grimm does, with solid-enough potential. But then the plot essentially gets highjacked when the ostensible antagonist, Salvadore, calls in the Reapers in order to deal with Nick. They’ve been absent from the serialized plot for a while, but two of them roll into town, and they capture and brutally interrogate Salvadore and then force him to draw Nick to them. This is a fun twist on one level, given how Salvadore gets upstaged as the episode’s major threat, but it also, on another level, over-complicates the story by making it yet another Big Picture sort of narrative. The way that the episode incorporates the friendly neighborhood Wesen from earlier in the season (most prominently Bud, the refrigerator repairman) is a more minor, more acceptable (to me) bit of serialization.

An interesting thematic element of “Leave it to Beavers” is the heavy focus it places on Wesen natures and whether those things are unchangeable or not. This has obviously been a part of the show from the very beginning with Monroe, a “reformed Blutbad,” and it’s pretty important in the episode “Tarantella” since a similarly non-predatory-by-choice Wesen, a Spinnetod this time, helps Nick understand his not-so-reformed quarry. Something I didn’t previously emphasize about “Cat and Mouse” is how the gang’s impromptu ploy to defeat a Verrat assassin includes throwing him off balance by letting him think Monroe is a Fuchsbau and then revealing that he’s actually a Blutbad. I just found the final confrontation kind of awkward at first, but then I went back to the episode and remembered the earlier old film from the trailer that Nick watches that explains how the Verrat executed Wesen in Spain for “marrying outside their own breed.” The assassin, Edgar Waltz, thinks that Monroe is Rosalee’s boyfriend and that he’s a Fuchsbau, only to then see Monroe “woge” into Blutbad form, so maybe the apparent Wesen miscegenation is part of what throws Waltz off balance so hard.

In “Leave it to Beavers,” there’s a long-standing extortion racket going on between the trolls and beavers, with the latter group being too weak and fearful by nature to do anything about it. They have a whole meeting and vote as a community to decide if the murder witness, Arnold, should come forward or not, and they overwhelmingly vote against action (though Arnold eventually comes around on his own). In the wake of this vote, Bud tells Nick “bravery isn’t in [their] nature,” but Nick emphasizes Bud’s courage in coming right up to his (Nick, a Grimm) house and how that bucks the supposed innate cowardice.

This sort of… role reversal has served as a twist in some previous episodes, like in “The Three Bad Wolves” when a killer of Blutbaden is revealed to be a pig man, or in “Of Mouse And Man” when rodent Marty is similarly a killer of bigger and stronger men and Wesen. The bear family all the way back in “Bears Will Be Bears” is another example of how Wesen behavior isn’t just a matter of nature, given that the conflict ends up hinging on a split in the family over following (bloodthirsty) tradition. It’s sort of a subversion of the title, which is a play on the odious “Boys Will Be Boys,” that suggests nature is immutable and that any action potentially attributable to that nature must therefore be excusable. And yet, there are characters in Grimm who are no better than their natures—whole species, like Waltz the Hundjäger or the Hexenbeist and Geier creatures. Of course the beavers in this episode own a construction company, while the trolls work in an inspectatory capacity that lets them charge the equivalent of their fairytale toll. The show also positively delights at times in matching character natures and names, like Charlotte the spider lady or the antagonistic Adalind Schade (“shade”). This excess of something like neatness is fitting stuff for a fairytale, which is meant to operate at a certain remove from the complexity/chaos of reality, but it fits awkwardly in the mix Grimm has created, with its elements of “realism.”

An argument that could be made here is that the Wesen, despite looking human a lot of the time (for budgetary reasons as much as reasons of lore) are not human. There’s that animal component that I was so happy to see emphasized with some Fuchsbau purring in “Cat and Mouse.” Where being so deterministic with truly human characters would be problematic, it’s more excusable when the people aren’t people. There’s a historical problem with the grey area you get into with anthropomorphized animal characters, though, or in cases where animals are meant to be stand-ins for humans. One of my favorite children’s book series—Brian Jacques’ Redwall—stumbles into this, with the characters having things like their capacity for violence or even their ability to be good or evil as good as determined by their species. These are ostensibly animals, but a lot of their behavior and the types of stories Jacques is telling is/are recognizably human. As I’ve demonstrated, Grimm is definitely already interrogating (or at least playing with) this issue itself, but I found myself thinking while watching “Leave it to Beavers” about the theoretical “evil” Wesen that might have aspirations beyond, say, bullying beavers and how that might play out. Is it possible to be born a Klaustreich and not abuse your significant other? Monroe typically speaks with so much confidence regarding the natures of the Wesen Nick encounters, but I think the fact that they all look so human makes this feel a bit uncomfortable, and I’m interested to see what other support (in either direction) the series offers as it goes on.

Speaking of having an immutable nature: It is very funny how Nick gets his New Wesen Intro from Bud this time, but it still sounds almost exactly like Monroe to my ear, like the writers really only have one approach to writing these info dumps…

(Also, this episode is “fine” overall. I didn’t have many notes initially, but there are the usual bits and pieces I could get into, like how Nick finally attempting to train/grow his vague powers feels wildly overdue to me, but him getting to use the Grimm weapons he trained with at the start of the episode to defeat the Reapers at the end is very cute. Nick and Monroe figuring out how to have dinner with Juliette without accidentally saying anything Grimm-related—and then how that falls apart—is delightful and is also exactly the sort of thing that could be given more room to breathe in less serialized episodes, I feel!

“The Lodge” meeting and voting about Arnold was also something I very much enjoyed since it serves as an example of wider Wesen society, where we normally seem to just meet individuals or little groups. Decapitating the Reapers and sending their heads back as a warning is one of those things that probably verges on uncomfortably dark, while the bouncier energy of the scene where Bud tries to convince Arnold to stop hiding in a basement felt more appropriate, in my subjective opinion.

And so on. I thought the earlier paragraphs were more interesting than just running through the “usual” list of details.)