#I changed some stuff up and added some of the cartoon effect

[ophernelia]

@imogencrnza: hair done? yes. bills paid? uh oh..

🎱 recent episode | 📍 riddim nightclub by themintsimmer

[tossawary]

I think SVSSS as a 2D cartoon would be the best moving medium for it imo.

I mean, personally, yeah, that's how I'd enjoy seeing it as well! My ideal slightly pretentiously artsy SVSSS screen adaptation would probably look only a little more detailed than linograph prints (2D or shaded 3D?) (someone hit me up in like two weeks to draw an example of what I mean, if I don't remember on my own, I don't have access to art stuff right now), very stylized and vibrantly colorful, because that's one of the art styles that I particularly enjoy.

I'm not a personally a fan of the 3D SVSSS show because I find the characters a little too doll-like and same-facey for my tastes? It's fine! It works! It's serviceable! It's just all, backgrounds included, a little... safe? I tend to like over-the-top bright colors and intricate details and impractically weird shapes and yet also coherent world production design in my fantasy, which is a lot to demand of any production, perhaps especially with animation productions, which are always squeezed for time and money.

(EDIT: I know the SVSSS show was under heavy constraints and the results are impressive considering their resources; it doesn't change the fact that I just don't like the art style and nevertheless find the results underwhelming. I don't like a lot of "realistic" modeling / rendering styles, not just "anime" ones, even if they are extremely technically impressive. Believe me when I say that I know the vast majority of the entertainment industry is overworked and underpaid and creatively restrained.)

Slightly tangential general note: I don't think 2D is inherently superior to 3D (EDIT: NOT trying to imply asker is saying this, just having some general thoughts), especially because, with the realities of production, each have their advantages. 2D has a lot of stylistic advantages still, but 3D shaders are catching up and doing some incredible things these days! More advanced puppet controls and particle effects and such are doing some beautiful things for 2D shows as well these days. A lot of stuff has been subtly mixed media as soon as 3D became possible. It is potentially possible (note: not saying any studio would actually greenlight this) to do an equally slightly weird and artistically stunning 3D SVSSS show, given the freedom to work. (Good boarding and writing is also sooooo important in both mediums, obviously, it's not just about the art design. You can get away with incredibly limited animation with good boarding, writing, and art design.)

Another slightly tangential ramble: both 2D and 3D have the potential for stiff animation and poor character acting, which also comes down to production limits and animator skills? (I often think of character animators as a type of actor!) There are a lot of 2D shows that I don't really like because I find the animation incredibly stiff, both puppet and handdrawn (there's great 2D puppet stuff out there these days), which pretty much always comes down to production limits (deadlines and budget and software, saving up their animation for the coolest scenes). One of my favorite things about Studio Ghibli films (which as features get a lot more space to focus on art compared to the demands and restraint of television) has always been the squash and stretch in otherwise relatively realistic action, making things like hugs look SO nice for example. But 3D stuff is getting better at that these days! The ways characters slumped into each other in "Nimona" for example was great. And it's just fascinating to look at the elasticity / stylized sculpt of expressions in "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" compared to the technical limits of the models / rigs in "Shrek" or "Shrek 2".

Adding these side notes because I want to be clear about my respect for both 2D and 3D artistically! A lot of video games are doing cool stuff in 3D that looks very close to 2D with stylized shaders, which you can sometimes spot by the large or small rotations in character action / acting, which is difficult (and therefore often expensive) to do in 2D with all of those extra drawings / angle poses. Also, I think the current push towards funky shaders in 3D is so cool and it's hard not to gush about them!!!

[taffywabbit]

im also anti proship but calling rugrats porn drawings "child porn" really dilutes the severity of actual child porn. we shouldnt be confusing actual cp that hurts real children with just weirdos drawing porn of cartoon characters that happen to be kids, the two things are not at all on the same level

ok i suppose this was inevitable, i may as well get into it.

(CW for some discussion of CSA and child pornography, obviously)

first off, "i'm also anti proship but" is a terrifying way to start your message, and to go and follow it up with some extremely common proship copypasta i've heard a million times about "taking attention/resources/severity/etc away from real CSA victims" or whatever kinda makes me wonder how "anti proship" you actually are...?

kind of the point of this whole debate is typically that "proship" folks insist that fiction, or in this case "porn of cartoon characters that happen to be kids" as you put it, has no effect on reality or people's mindsets. and so-called "antis" like myself generally respond to this idea with something along the lines of "well it sure seems to affect the reality of your cock and balls", and point out how repeatedly consuming media with a particular focus or message has been shown time and time again to quantifiably influence the way people view the world around them, in ways that subsequently affect how they act, or desensitize them to things that might otherwise upset/offend them. y'know, like political propaganda! or blockbuster movies about killer sharks! obviously some people are going to be more resilient against that sort of influence when the real-world equivalent of "porn of cartoon characters that happen to be kids" is something so blatantly unacceptable, and nobody is really claiming that the impact of fictional CP is "on the same level" as its IRL counterpart.

but at the very least, most people who would be considered "anti proship" WILL tell you "hey, i'm not trying to say that you jerking it to twitter porn of Gwen Tennyson or Tails or whatever is LITERALLY THE SAME as committing CSA, but it's still really fucking concerning and creepy that the majority of your sexual fixations are all specifically cutesy vulnerable cartoon characters under the age of 12, many of whom also have canonical adult designs that you conveniently avoid in favor of sexualizing the ones that are barely old enough to learn long division. you should maybe do some introspection and figure out why that is and whether or not you're really comfortable with what it implies about you. personally i know I'M not comfortable with that shit and i'm not going to keep hanging around you unless you make some serious changes." except usually in my experience the conversation ends up being a lot shorter and ends in a block pretty quickly. like i'm not a psychologist and i don't keep a bunch of studies on hand to throw at you about how fictional CP is often a factor in grooming, but i DO have a brain and can pretty clearly see when someone is rationalizing behavior that will lead them to places i'm not willing to follow.

ANYWAYS to focus more specifically on the actual reason we're talking about this (which was, to be clear, a mobile ad Tumblr served me that depicted one of the dads from Rugrats having sex with his 3yo daughter): yes, actually, that shit IS illegal to create or distribute. it's not the SAME as literal photographs of real children, OBVIOUSLY, but it's still also extremely fucked up in its own right, and any reasonable person in your life would probably stop talking to you if you told them you got off to it.

don't believe me about the legality part? check this out:

so like, I GUESS you might get some legal leeway with cub furry art or sonic porn or stuff that isn't always obvious in how much it's intended to parallel real children? if you really care? but this ad was literally multiple illustrations of a human adult man having intercourse with a human toddler. it's pornography centered around openly fetishizing the sexual assault of a child by a parent. i fail to see how referring to that in shorthand as "child porn" is inaccurate in any way that matters.

and Tumblr is a US-based company, beholden to the laws shown above, so they are at least somewhat responsible when illustrated pedophilic incest porn gets shown to thousands of their mobile app users in an ad they got paid to display. THAT was the original point i was making in my post. but thank you for trying to derail it to interrogate my "anti proship" views or whatever, i have had multiple people send me fairly nasty asks about it in the past year and you finally caught me in a moment when i was already pissed enough about something else that i felt like going off about this stuff. sorry if you actually agreed with most of this and i came off as overly rude/harsh, but if that's the case then this response is for all the other anon asks and replies i've gotten too, i guess.

now we're all clear about where i stand and i hopefully don't need to talk about this again - it's kind of a fucking bummer to think about this stuff and i've been avoiding the subject intentionally. you are always welcome to just block me if you have a problem

[kamenstranger]

Batman: Caped Crusader Review.

Well, I didn't expect to be reviewing another cartoon so soon but I forgot this was still happening and here we are. So much like X-men '97 I will be getting into spoilers, even some finale stuff. But it's nothing you probably wouldn't already know. Like is saying something along the lines of "Harvey becomes Two-Face" or "Selina becomes Catwoman" really a spoiler? Still, if you want to go in completely clean then I'll give short spoiler-free summary: It's fine. It's good, even very good. It has enough going on without being overly reliant on nostalgia, though a lot concepts and ideas that never made it into TAS are used; which is obvious in some episodes like 2 and 8 which honest to god feel like lost episodes (sans the obnoxious references in 8.) But even a number of other episodes feel like they could've fit right in.

Likewise, the animation is simply lovely and feels like an appropriate continuation of the DCAU while also working as a throw back to TAS with its use of shadows and art deco design. They even have a film grain effect that looks shockingly good; uplifting the show's late 30s early 40s aesthetic by adding some literal grit. I've seen numerous productions go overboard with adding grain in post, but Caped Crusader keeps it very subtle and is probably the best you're going to do with a modern production. Frederik Wiedmann's score also complements the atmosphere, adding that quintessential gothic noir vibe. The entire soundtrack is on youtube and is well worth listening in isolation.

If I had one compliant... it's that Batman is the weakest and most underwritten part of the show. Regardless, the show has enough quality elements to make it worth a watch.

However, if you're interested in leaning more about my thoughts, hit the jump.

Let's start with some background information. Contrary to how it seems, this isn't nor was it ever intended to be a prequel to TAS-- at least that's what they say. It was originally a sequel to The New Batman Adventures before transmogrifying into another 30s-ish setting and using abandoned episode concepts from TAS along with completely original works. A number of episodes at the very least feel like they were written with a prequel mindset, and the final shot of the series was absolutely conceptualized as lead-in to TAS and is begging for the Walker Theme to kick in. But despite how much this could work as a prequel with just a few tweaks, I think making it disconnected was the right call. For one thing, with Conroy gone I don't think you could ever make something that leads into that very specific version of Batman, it wouldn't feel right. Secondly, it allows the series to stand on it's own and not rely on TAS as a crutch; even if comparisons are inevitable with the period setting and Bruce Timm's designs. Additionally the tone of the series is right in line with The Animated Series, only slightly darker and never going overboard just to be considered "adult." Characters say damn, people die, sometimes there's blood, the occasional gruesome character design, some stories are super pulpy and even have a slower pace than what they would've done on network TV for Y7+. But otherwise this would've fit fine on Toonami back in the day and the option to go darker is there should the story demand it. I will admit I'm a bit of an easy mark for this, particularly the heavy pulp elements that remind of The Shadow and The Spider.

On that note, Cape Crusader is a bit more basic in terms of setting and scope. I'm using "basic" loosely because there are still some eccentricities like Gentleman Ghost showing up, but outside the one supernatural aspect-- and an umbrella cannon-- there's nothing too crazy. No Freeze guns, mutant plant ladies, robots, Lazarus pits, mind controlling cards, airships etc. Clayface might be the one other outlier, but even that's just a guy who can change his appearance, not a big clay monster who can form a mace hand. I'm perfectly fine with all of this. We've already had a vintage Batman series that did all that anyway, so why not do something a little different and keep it simple? In maintaining that simplicity, most of CC is episodic with a larger narrative sprinkled throughout: Ruport Thorne is slowly taking over Gotham and begins trying to leverage Harvey Dent who is running for Mayor. That's it, that's the main plot. The more nitty-gritty parts largely center on relatively self contained adventures around the trio of Lawyer Barbara Gordon, GCPD detective Renee Montoya, and Therapist Harleen Quinzel.

It's a decent compromise between how involved modern shows have become sprawling season long stories while still maintaining the appeal of a self contained case in any given episode.

Of the three, Barbara (Krystal Joy Brown) has the most active role throughout the entire run and is arguably the main character of the show. She's compassionate about people, her clients, criminals and their circumstances. She has a strong balance between someone who is optimistic yet not naive, although still young enough to not have the harsher experiences as her father. This allows a contrast between her and Gordon's world weary, almost Black and White POV. In fact, her willingness to hear people out and consider alternatives leads to her establishing a form of contact with Batman before her father.

Renee Montoya (Michelle C. Bonilla) is about on par with Barbara in playing an active role in the series, albeit almost always work related for obvious reasons. She's a consummate professional, brilliant detective and the only trustworthy cop outside Gordon. That last part is particularly note worthy since it actually gives Gordon a reliable subordinate and not just Bullock. She has solid chemistry with Barbara and there's a lot of untapped potential with her and Harley. And hey, nice to get little bit of the two dating and smooching. Speaking of, Harley (Jamie Chung) is surprisingly prominent in the first half and I love how they handle her. She's legit intelligent and even knows there's something up with the public perception of Bruce. She's quirky without rehashing the whole bubbly blonde routine, she's delightfully flirty with Renee and she's also fucking demented. Oh yes, Harley is already cracked, but in a curious way where she's not exactly insane but clearly has a dark side she indulges. Honestly? Really neat to see a version of a character not influenced by Joker. She's still a Harlequin, of course, but much more traditional and I love that we don't waste time going through an origin. She just uses her therapist profession as a means to hash out her idea of justice against clients she can't reach, often mind breaking rich jackasses who refuse to better themselves. Harley assigns them personalities and forces repetitive tasks or absurd tortures. In a cute little meta nod she's responsible for creating the persona of King Tut, a character originally created for the '66 show, just as she was a creation for TAS.

I also have to mention Chung's voice acting, which the VA in the show is great all around, of course. But villain roles always get to stick out, and this is a prime example. The shift between that very intelligent caring quirky woman to… what I can only call an analytical seductive manipulator and abuser, well it's just wonderful. We've had so much of bubbly Quinn and silly crass Quinn that this version is so refreshing and one of the most pleasant surprises out of the show.

There are other characters outside the trio, but I simply don't have much to say about Gordan, Flass, or Bullock. The VA is impeccable, as previously mentioned; I love Eric Morgan's Gordon, Gary Anthony Williams' Flass and John DiMaggio's Bullock. Perfect casting. But character wise they simply serve a role and I don't have much to say about them. Gordon is, well, Gordon trying his best among a corrupt department full of people like Flass and Bullock. Flass himself is brilliantly sly and Bullock is a slob who does all the dirty work. I will say that even if I don't have much to go into with them, I do appreciate how much Flass and Bullock are featured and how effectively they're utilized.

The only major reoccurring character left to go in-depth on, outside Batman, is Harvey Dent; ironically voiced by Brave and the Bold Batman, Diedrich Bader. Harvey is… odd in this series. He's a dick headed "tough on crime" sleazy DA who is self interested in becoming Mayor, no matter who he has to steamroll to get there. On one hand it is an interesting angle; a man of once upstanding morals slowing eroding them to gain political favor with the ultimate goal of proper reform-- assuming he even has any left by the end of it. There is an inkling of a great idea in the political process of Gotham grinding you down, bringing out your worst, makes you compromise too much. The system changes you, not the other way around.

The issue is the tragedy of a good if flawed man giving into his worse impulses doesn't entirely work due to the simple fact we hardly see a good side to Harvey. No signs of a different better person underneath or who he used to be before DA. The show only gives Harvey one very minor scene of empathy and moral upstanding before his disfigurement, so he kinda goes from jaded cynical asshat to homicidal asshat. To give the show credit, that is in part the intent. We don't like Harvey all that much but still feel bad when we see how sad and broken he is, all because he finally did something good and he's punished for it. The episode dealing with the aftermath of the acid attack is really solid at showcasing his slip into insanity and drawing forth pathos. In a bubble it works beautifully; A man who was already breaking, even if they didn't know, now thinks everyone is out to get him. Almost every invasive thought is acted upon. They also don't make Two-Face the default or more common of the personas, it's a lot of back and forth. Harvey is relatively calm one moment but suddenly becomes violent the next. Hell, he even has moments of clarity and great remorse not only for his actions as Two-Face but as DA. The episode is handled very well and Bader is selling the hell out of it. I just wish there was more before that change, a little more to like about Harvey Dent. Bruce was friends with this guy and from an audience perspective it's kinda hard to see why, Harvey is a shit head, an absolute knob. I dunno, Batman is kind of dick in this so maybe there's something to be said there? But even so, his dynamic with Barbara is FAR more engaging and nuanced than with Bruce because Barbara has more impactful scenes and is the direct opposite of the same coin. I kinda wonder if the stuff with Bruce was something shoved in at the last minute because they felt they had to. Which I guess that finally bring me to Batman, who you may have noticed I've talked very little about in this Batman show up until now.

Batman is a boring wet white rice motherfucker with barely a character arc and almost no connections to the main cast.

Oh sure, every episode has Batman doing things that move the plot along, provides some very minor characterization or some plain 'ol detective work which is fun to see. But even when he does investigating, finds a clue, confronts a villain etc. it feels lacking because his interactions with the rest of the cast are severely limited and sporadic.

Batman himself is integral to the show, but he's more like an anchor for the rest of the cast who have far more captivating screen time and better defined relationships. Babs is friends with Harley and Renee, Harley and Renee are dating, Renee works for Gordon, Barbara is of course Gordon's daughter, Harley has a brief stint as a consultant for the GCPD, and Harvey works opposite Barbara. These people flow into each others stories, converse, have opposing or similar ideologies to make stories around. Batman lock picks and punches things. I mean, Christ, he doesn't have a friendship with Gordon because this is long before that, he treats Alfred like a valuable tool rather than family and he has more empathy for Nocturna in a one off episode than Harvey over the entire season. I'm serious when I say I think the friendship was tacked on, because there's a line in ep 6 about Dent's biggest donors pulling out of his campaign, implying Bruce never gave any money. Maybe they could've made an entire subplot about the Batman aspect taking so much priority that he ignored Dent's troubles until it was too late. Have Batman learn a lesson about balancing the personas and how Bruce Wayne can be equally useful in aiding Gotham-- and the consequences of forgetting that. Maybe even intersperse flashbacks to a younger Bruce and more optimistic and likeable Dent to show why and how they became friends. This could've been done in a two-parter just like how Robin was handled in TAS.

For the instances the show does put a spotlight on just Batman it's simply going through the motions. The best we get is Bruce Wayne attending therapy sessions with Quinn, which is a great concept ultimately wasted on flashbacks of Bruce's childhood I've seen a dozen times over and maybe should've been used to explore his relationship with Dent.

Another reason why this Batman is so bland is because there are almost no sympathetic villains, which you've probably gathered by now. Harvey in the last episode and Nocturna in ep. 8 are the only two that fit the criteria (And frankly Barbara does more to help Harvey.) But everyone else? No tragic backstory, no victim of circumstance, no injustice, and no chance to showcase Batman's greatest attribute. On paper I understand what they were going for; this is an early Batman attempting (and sometimes failing) to be emotionally walled off. He's in the background, he needs to learn to open up and temper his anger. Midway into the season have something drastic happen to shake his resolve (endangering Alfred, of course)

By the end of the series he begins casually referring to him as Alfred rather than "Pennyworth" and he's established connections with Barbara, Jim and Renee. I don't dislike this slow burn, I enjoy seeing Batman's humanity slowly seep through. The series has a lot of great little moments where we see that happening, like Batman chastising Barbara for being reckless right after she saved his ass and a friend of hers is assumed dead. She's going through a lot and Batman clearly doesn't know how to processes the situation, he doesn't know how to be comforting.

There's also a great scene in the finale that I'm pretty sure was a giant middle finger to a certain director. The problem is the entire season is doing things like that. Sure we get growth for the character, but that's grueling for a 10 episode season. Maybe it's just me, but I'd kinda like to be more invested in the title character before the season finale. But as is so often the case with streaming we're limited to just 10 episodes per season. It's... so tiresome spending an entire run getting Batman to a state where we can actually tie him in with the rest of the ensemble cast and show some goddamn empathy. I realize rushing through this could result in the opposite problem, but this once again leads to me pointing out, as always, the stories writers want to tell are too big for these gimped 6-10 episode season the modern streaming has pushed on all of us. You know the first season of The Animated Series was a whopping 65 episodes? I probably wouldn't be talking about this problem if we even had a quarter of that.

I do want to stress this is no fault of the performance, which I know is going to be on everyone's mind. This is a problem with writing, the limited episode count, and possibly Zaslav not seeing enough blood in his stool before dumping this production onto Amazon. Conroy alone wouldn't have been enough to elevate the more shallow aspects of Batman's character, it just wouldn't. The writing for Batman specifically is very by the numbers at best. If this was material that fell flat because of Conroy's absence that would be one thing, but it's just bland characterization from the get go and no amount of nostalgia, art style, or iconic voice work will cover that up. It's kind of funny because the show is enjoyable by in large, but the title character is the weakest part. I wouldn't be surprised if a great deal of the mixed reception was because of that. "Batman is the worst part of a Batman show" is a perfectly valid and damning criticism.

That said, I do want to praise Hamish Linklater, the poor guy's got his work cut out for him, being in the Shadow of the Bat, as it were, and he does a fine job. I can tell it's not Conroy, obviously, and sometimes it sounds like a mix of Brave and the Bold with New Frontier Batman where I'm not sure if he's trying to do an impression or not. But midway through the series it starts to get really close, there are even moments that remind me of Conroy's performance in TAS' Two-Face two parter, glimpses where Linklater almost has the softer tones down pat. And his Bruce is damn near spot on. I hope he stays on as a voice for Batman and gets more opportunities as the character, he could potentially become to Conroy's Batman what Matthew Lillard is to Casey Kasem's Shaggy; It's not the same, but goddamn do they do a fine job capturing the tone and vibe while being a fine performer in their own right.

But they have GOT to give him better material because this Batman is sorely lacking in the things I love most about the character.

Speaking of, I don't want to spend too long discussing the second season (Which it is getting) but I have concerns there. The big one for me is foreshadowing that Alfred is keeping a secret about the night the Waynes were shot. I HATE when they over complicate the murder and try to make it something more like a targeted hit, or the court of owls or some other stupid shit. That's the one major thing I hate in The Batman movie is them muddying the waters with a perfectly good victim of circumstance story-- although it's kinda worse there because they wouldn't even fully commit. But I digress. I do not want the shit with the Waynes more complicated than it needs to be. If Alfred suggested a shortcut and he feels responsible for their deaths, sure, whatever. That's simple enough to add some character drama without going overboard. But it's probably gonna be the big overarching story next season with secret twists and- blegh. Honestly, I think I'd rather just have stand alone episodes without a running narrative thread; just have the characters and their dynamics developing and that be it. The show is clearly better when it's just that. But alas, modern streaming.

But with all that said, I still liked the season well enough. As I said at the beginning, the series is good to very good. I love the atmosphere, I enjoy most of the character and the cast, the self contained stories are solid and there's plenty of potential. But next season I need Batman and the villains to be more interesting, let Linklater give a sympathetic performance for fucks sake. If Season 2 is just more of the same, I'll clock out.

Still, I guess anything is better than say Harley assaulting Nightwing... Or the Killing Joke. You know what, there's a blurb of recommendation for Caped Crusader: "No weirdo awkwardly shoved their fetishes into the story." So check it out.

[hoardlikegoldenirises]

*edited Sept 2023: alternate version of agony because it bugs me how much the original one looks like a penis in this color scheme.

**edited Jan 2024: added another costume for him to use in a different post: (link)

***EDITED AGAIN Feb 2024: to be actually up to date for the years, including the black suit in late 2015/early 2016, between the pink tarantula and the fully pink shocking pink spider costume. Also made some new updates to the styling of the suit because I'd been avoiding figuring out how to give him a more practical suit. Now it's more practical.

agony is still just a hypothetical but I am not removing it from this post.

Anyway here he is, the one with a dedicated color scheme

obvs this uses the costumes i designed from (this post) but like ben's have been modified a teensy bit as i thought of small details i liked better or changed the soles etc. plus some minor additions like the fact that kaine doesn't have *checks notes* fingerprints

closeups under the readmore:

woo

kaine's face is real fucked up esp early on, just fyi

this is early one when Kaine is still only like... two years old (well, he's like, 24 physically and mentally, but Technically—)

anyway kaine only gets this outfit after a couple years, when warren sends him out to threaten peter's loved ones as leverage to get peter to cooperate/surrender. before this he mostly only wore hospital clothes.

he's pretty lean at this point but def buff.

because of this fact kaine doesn't know how to tie his own shoes at first (but he figures it out) (he has a lot of amnesia so peter's memories aren't necessarily super helpful and the muscle memory is lacking i guess)

anyway the one (1) outfit warren gets him is probably all from an army surplus store or a thrift store or something, like the salvation army or w/e

(that's how you know he's evil)

i gave kaine's other suits vibram soles on purpose but this one was totally on accident, i was just looking for american army-issue boots that came in black and the ones i found happened to have vibram soles.

After Kaine is rescued/escapes/starts hunting Ben down for reasons, he ditches the balaclava and starts growing his hair and scraggly beard out and steals a couple of other clothing items including a hot pink rain coat. His hair is greasy.

Also at that point he's homeless and his only source of medication is *squints* stealing ibuprofen and pepto bismol, so he's not doing so hot in general 😅 but at least he has ~bodily autonomy~ while wasting away.

he probably also kills some people (aside from Louise i mean) 🤷

i haven't been very consistent about what marks, wounds and scars go where (except for some of his burn scars) but i was reading some wikipedia pages and decided i think probably a lot of the open sores and other things follow Blaschko's lines but maybe not all of them.

so in spring 2014 after the aforementioned Lost Years and Redemption-based stuff, Kaine ends up leaving the country after making himself a costume, which is, of course, pink, and probably mostly stolen fabric.

His mask is like the Tarantula's 100% on purpose cause it ties into a little subplot where he goes to Medellín, in Colombia, gets mistaken for a member of the Tarantula's (Jacinda's) gang whilst minding his own damn business, and ends up dubbed the Pink Tarantula (aka La Tarántula Rosa) because of it. which he thinks is annoying but what can you do

Also he gets braces in Colombia after he starts stealing from rich tourists. i would say not so much out of vanity as much as the fact that his teeth need some help straightening themselves out after being physically (etc) abused by Warren for 3 years but it's probably both. but, you know, it's easier to chew when your teeth aren't aligned like a broken cartoon piano.

He also gets a whole new medical regimen while he's down there so he looks slightly less like a decaying corpse though he's def still plagued by clone degeneration side effects and feels like death a lot of the time but... better than before lol

Only vomiting blood SOMETIMES and not every day

color matched soles—i saw these and was like omg... they're perfect... black and pink... (in your area) has been updated to be boots which I'll admit make him look extra Tarantula-y...

Suit has been updated to be a two-piece so that Kaine can like. go to the bathroom without getting naked. Now it's a leotard which has been DIY'd to have a snap crotch (thus the back zipper).

it's regular ol' spandex... maybe with a slight metallic sheen of bluish idk... not the best material but he was just taking what he could get at the time.

gloves. modified work gloves from before, and then some uh... well they're pole-dancing gloves to be perfectly honest, but i picked the style because they have a very low cut on the hand and i want as much room as possible for his spikes—could i simply handwave it and say all he needs is a hole in his sleeve, probably, but where's the fun in that.

if i can't overthink logistics i'll die—anyway in this AU the spikes are a direct malfunction of a spinneret organ that Warren tries to give him, and which Warren does successfully give Ben (who has organic webbing). Kaine's don't work right so instead of webbing he makes spikes. they come out of his wrist and it's hard for me to draw 😂

black suit

(this black suit has a separate post cause it's new) another leotard over tights. less visible since it's black.

it's black. it's gothy. etc.

this is a repurposed suit i was originally gonna give to peter but i changed my mind, adjusted some minor details, and am giving it to kaine instead.

and he'll swap to the pink suit after he stops shaving his head—v

At a certain point Kaine stops shaving his head and starts wearing a new costume including a new mask... same old same old— expensive fire resistant materials etc.

i just reused the texture overlay from peter's FR suit for this. stretch nomex blend, basically. very durable, fire resistant, but still stretchy.

OBVIOUSLY this suit is HEAVILY inspired by his red and black Scarlet Spider costume but I modified it a bit in terms of color and some of the patterning (like black arms), to make it pink, because... I think he should wear pink lol and I didn't include his tattered pink cape (i know, tragic) so I had to include something other than the rain coat

it's not a high tech stealth suit though. just regular expensive fabric.

Also updated the logo and has been made mroe practical now—it's tights over a snap-crotch leotard which, of course, means that all three of the boys are rocking the same setup, just in different ways. Even Ben, underneath his hoodie. lol

Also, as i mentioned before, he has no fingerprints this whole time. because his palm is melted from using the mark of caine/kaine.

lol.

oh and his new gloves are made of lambskin and calfskin with perforations to make them more breathable. the claws are probably metal or something though idk.

he does have to take his gloves off to use his mark, though, which is true the entire time. it doesn't work well through fabric (though depends on the fabric) and if it did activate it would probably just burn or destroy anything on his hand since it's essentially just an exothermic chemical reaction related to his wrist spikes rather than... uh... magic? or whatever the 616 version is 😂 i mean lbr it's still basically magic bullshit though but i have pseudo-scientific basis for it (it's superglue)

the whole thing is intended to be durable. still has to get naked to use the bathroom though lmao

these are also vibram soles. my reasoning behind this was that (i was tired of trying to make up new sole designs) he just buys shoes and takes the soles out, modifies them if he needs to, and attaches them to his suits by hand, either with sewing or glue or both.

decided to update these into boots.

also I originally wrote he has thermasilk underwear under this suit but I think I'm gonna ditch that.

here is a bonus of what the mask would be like for the above costume if he was still buzzing:

also yeah he doesn't have web-shooters, because of his spikes, OR organic webbing, also because of his spikes, so he is a mostly parkour-based spider-man XD but he can still stick to walls and stuff since that's a different mechanism (electrostatic)

the real reason of course is that i was trying to come up with a design that would let me keep the lenses and also his beautiful long hair LMAO

(for a different design my approach was adhesive lenses which is also what felicia uses)

(speaking of that design i did recycle the body for this:)

AGONY!!

IDK if I'll actually use this, it was mostly for fun as I was thinking about how I could prevent Kaine from... uh... dropping dead and I was like. oh symbiote. Literally their whole thing in this setting is they originated as a medical thing so a symbiote is perfectly suited to Kaine's autoimmune dysfunctions etc.

And then I was like, hm which symbiote though? and then I was on the wiki page of symbiotes and was like, oh, Agony, duh lol she even has acid??? (not that kaine's mark is acid but, still)

also, you know, pink. (and purple since the color of Agony seems to vary slightly depending on artist team, host etc. so i decided to use both)

so i ended up with possibly the most glam rock hair metal blacklight poster symbiote-host pairing I've ever drawn in my life

and of course i couldn't resist making them just a little bit glossy.

like every symbiote, is expressive, but kaine... isn't, so. you know. they're pretty much always glaring.

alternately could go without the hair for a sleeker spider-man look i suppose.

i wanna say by this point he's gained some weight as well. I did slightly modify the lineart so that the Agony "suit" is slightly more solid than the Pink Tarantula suits and before but...

lbr... very minimal difference in the lineup lol which bugs me but... you know. would prob be more of a difference if i was drawing it from scratch for each one instead of editing an existing drawing. he should be slightly less skinny—he's def huge either way tho just by virtue of being 6'4".

long pretty hair... post 2015 prob. The hair color isn't quite right (his hair is supposed to be a little lighter and redder than Peter's) but I don't care enough to change it.

he is missing a piece of his ear, yes.

anyway his hair grows super fast:

terminal length is to his knees as an adult, ~5 feet long ish... technically longer since it's curly and doesn't hang as far down.

here is a bonus pic of him and Aracely from a drawing I have not finished yet which is basically just size comparison with a McLaren 650S lmao. that would be 2015 in-universe probably.

also for the others:

Peter's high school and college suits: link

Peter's post-college/FF/late 20s suits: link

Peter's 30s-40s/post-Aunt May death suits: link

Ben's suits: link

[abbinurmel]

Dream Diary Entry #1

I have just woke from a bizarre ass creepy dream about many things, that I want to get out of my head by writing it down. Many things occured in this dream but two of the most standout things are these:

1 . I dreamt about an outdoor playground for adults who could play on it dressed as their OCs. Not *everyone* was dressed up in elaborate character outfits, it seemed just that many were. A majority of them were based off Discord from My Little Pony and various Centaurworld characters. Bizarrely far less of the fur suiter kind of sort than you would expect.

And 2. Dreamt I came upon a bunch of old VHS tapes and dvds of "Horsin' Around" in my house. Yes THAT "Horsin' Around", from the Bojack Horseman universe, back in the 90s... With special edition bonus features and everything for episodes that do not exist. I salvaged a box of these somehow in a rescue from their mass destruction, probably at a neighborhood yard sale or something.

Here is where the dream goes from "collected usual muddle of obvious niche memories and interests" to just outright batshit territory. Forget about number 1 cos it has no relevance. Maybe except that I think I was possibly still in costume, while doing all this DVD stuff. The 1st half was just straightforward plain wholesome interactions and boring conversation with family and friends dressed up- bizarrely normal, at least by comparison with this half. You'd think it'd be otherwise right?

So yknow the old thing about how one tells if you're having a dream bc you cannot READ or do math in dreams? Yeah. That does not apply to me. I often CAN read. I can read so clear and easily I even recall my own dream texts or magazine pages and signage. Maybe I don't for all I know "see" real letters but whatever brain magic your dreams do to convince you that you just spoke to Mary Kate and Ashley while wearing a business suit and having tea on the ceiling, that's the same magic that convinces me my brain saw actual text symbols instead of probably distorted AI art symbolic "impressions of an idea" of text.

Anyway. So I look at all these lost media dvds and one of them has among the bonus material menu some extra scene deleted scenes, some cooking show guest footage, interviews, Herb and Bojack/cast commentary, and finally something called "peach vision", or something to that similar surreal effect, dream is fading off by this point. We'll just refer to it as that cos it feels right.

Peach Vision, as we will call it, appeared to be nothing but just the bizarre added filter of placing shiny black dot 'baby seal' style eyes and thick black closed emoji eye lines on all the spots where the character eyeballs should be in every episode or bit of bonus footage...( ^_^, @_@, -_-, *_* ×_×, stuff like that.) The result of Peach Vision appears to not do much to change anything in the episode script, it just gives a stupid goofy Tiktok style cartoon filter to everything in the footage. But the result is SO UNNERVING. I actually want to see someone Photoshop this. Its like a Creepy Pasta. And on the back of the dvd cover, amusingly, they acknowledged this:

"Who on earth wanted this, we do not know. Some weirdos. Why in the heck they wanted it, on god's green earth, we do not know. We think this is pointless and looks kinda stupid. Kinda creepy really. But whatever."

I kid you not, the back of the dvds actually said that. Almost sounds like ol BJ himself doesn't it?

And as the footage of "Horsin Around" played while under Peach Vision, my dream just barely shyed away from being "quirky innocent fun dream" to "actually this is sorta legit nightmare fuel creepy a bit". Cos the footage of Bojack with those (oO)=(oO) shiny tiny black dot baby seal eyes, started to glitch. The dvd on play buffered and like a vinyl record does if you scratch it or rotate it slowly, began to repeat itself over and over (one line I remember being stuck in repeat was Bojack saying something about mixing melted caramel in a bowl, and being like "C-C-CARA, CARA, CARA, mmmmmm-m-mel mel mel...") and to distort audio to a low drone. Sometimes the footage would turn black and white while freezing thru the buffer, even though this is something neither a DVD nor any kind of media far as I know can ever do. To my recollection VHS tapes will never do this either I think even if severely damaged but I may be wrong. It was genuinely unsettling how out of nowhere this was, enough to make me leave the living room and do assorted blurry quick other unrelated dream shenanigans so I could avoid it. But I pretty soon woke up.

Anyway this does not have a point beyond serving as my own dream journal log nonsense, but if anyone is obliged, please make a bunch of Photoshopped creepy pasta Bojack Horseman images, where the cast all have big black X'd out, or shiny dot eyes. It really would satisfy my morbid weird curiosity, I wanna know if it would be as creepy as my dream in real life.

[scruffyplayssonic]

Are the ArchieSonic comics actually an 80's/90's syndicated cartoon? Episode 40: The one episode that's unique to the show's premise and characters (part 2: Return to Angel Island)

Welcome back to my look at the ArchieSonic comic series, and how it shared a lot of the same story tropes as a typical ‘80s or ‘90s syndicated cartoon! Last time I had a look at one of the most well-known and popular ArchieSonic stories of the 90’s, Mecha Madness. Today I’d like to look at one of the other most memorable arcs pre-Ian Flynn (memorable in a good way, that is).

My first runner up is Return to Angel Island, written by Karl Bollers and published in Sonic the Hedgehog #138 - 141. This arc featured fantastic cover art by Patrick Spaziante depicting the characters in the Sonic Heroes style, as well as amazing interior art by Jon Gray, whose cartoonish style added some great humour to the story. The story involves Sonic, Knuckles, and the Chaotix going on a rescue mission to Angel Island to save Knuckles’ dad from the Dingo regime, now working for Eggman. When they get there, they find that everything they knew and loved about Angel Island has been turned on its head.

As Ken Penders was busy writing Mobius 25 Years Later at the time, this gave Karl a rare opportunity to write a story using Ken’s precious echidnas in the present timeline. He was able to build on some plot points that Ken had established but not done anything interesting with as well as throwing out some of the stuff that didn’t work. And Ken hated it. It’s a well known fact that Ken Penders and Karl Bollers had a very unpleasant rivalry, and it was this arc that most likely was the cause of Karl Bollers leaving the comic afterwards due to the unhealthy working atmosphere. Whether or not the changes Karl made were done deliberately to spite Ken or were purely done with the intention of improving things, I don’t know. But if it was spite, then I salute you, Mr. Bollers. xD

This story arc is notable for:

Actually exploring the consequences of giving Knuckles god-like powers, and what effect that would have on how people see him.

Bringing Charmy back to the Chaotix. Charmy had left the team years ago after the infamous Chaotix Caper arc in the Knuckles comics (oh don’t worry, I will be getting to that one eventually), and I always felt like Ken got rid of him because he just didn’t know what to do with him (as if he was making good use of Mighty, Espio and Vector :P). Bringing back Charmy, especially since he’d been recently reestablished in Sonic Heroes, seemed like a natural choice.

Getting rid of the Brotherhood (or as I call them, the cabal of mysterious grandpas). I felt that these characters really weren’t necessary to have hanging around in Knuckles’ stories all the time, and they took away much-needed page time from other characters (see again, the Chaotix). The Brotherhood were originally established as being stationed in key locations around Mobius, monitoring for trouble. They only came to the Floating Island when Knuckles’ chaos powers started to grow at an alarming rate, so that they could all discuss what course of action would be best to take. But after that they just continued to hang around in Haven, and mostly did nothing except argue with each other. Getting rid of them was the right move, no matter how cool Spectre’s design was.

Having the dingos join forces with Eggman.The dingos as written by Ken Penders were… a little confusing. They were introduced as clear antagonists but also as the underdogs in their war against the echidnas. And then their city was erased from existence and they were left homeless and they became somewhat more sympathetic, even though it seemed obvious that General Von Stryker would have led a revolt against the echidnas if he had the firepower. It wasn’t a bad plot point and gave him some nuance, but it got confusing at times to see them in a sympathetic light considering they were introduced with pretty obvious Nazi parallels. Having them join forces with Eggman so that they could take power again made perfect sense, and Stryker was quietly moved to the side so that a new, clearly evil and unsympathetic leader could be put in his place.

Removing the echidna technology hypocrisy. Ken Penders established that echidna society was firmly anti-technology, and yet they lived in a pretty futuristic city with lots of fancy technology. Karl solved this problem by taking their city away from them and having them all living as refugees in the Hidden Palace zone. 

For that matter - the Hidden Palace zone, and its prophetic tapestry depicting Super Sonic vs Eggman! Marble Garden! Lava Reef! Warp rings! This story actually used stuff from the games! You’d almost think it was a comic book about Sonic the Hedgehog!

Locke getting a makeover. His Jedi bathrobe was thrown out and he was given a design to make him look more similar to how the echidnas were shown in Sonic Adventure, complete with tribal tattoos.

Developing the Dark Legion more. One plot point that was brought up in the Knuckles stories prior to his death was that Dimitri wanted the Dark Legion to rejoin echidna society. A little weird that he would consider doing this peacefully, considering that the Dark Legion were a group of echidnas who had refused to conform to the ban against technology and had in fact integrated cybernetics into their own bodies and went to war against the rest of echidna society to have their rights recognised. But who knows? Maybe Dimitri legitimately had a change of heart after forming an uneasy alliance with Knuckles and honestly wanted to have a peaceful resolution. It wasn’t actually shown at any time how his feelings might have changed, so this kind of came out of nowhere. It’s also possible this plan was just another scheme with the goal being for the Dark Legion to take power. But on his deathbed Dimitri did honestly seem to want peace and urged Lien-Da to not try anything conniving. Karl developed on this in Return to Angel Island by having the Dark Legion protecting the echidna refugees and the Master Emerald from the dingo regime, with Sonic, Knuckles and the Chaotix quite justifiably suspecting they had ulterior motives.

Lien-Da’s character and her relationship with her half sister Julie-Su was also further developed, and we were introduced to Dr. Finetevus, a character who would become a fan favourite later down the track when Ian Flynn took over writing duties.

Introducing Knuckles’ baby brother, Kneecapeon Mace (aka Kneecaps the Echidna). While Ken Penders had already established that Knuckles had a younger brother called Mace in Mobius 25 Years Later, having Karl introduce him as an infant with that name was absolutely hilarious (and considering his brother’s name, I think it works!). Once again, if Karl did this just to spite Penders, then I am totally on board with it.

Bringing back Hunter from the final arc in the Knuckles comics, and show him being a badass instead of him just talking about being a badass. Although most of his victims were just helpless echidna refugees, so your opinion may vary on just how bad his ass is.

This was the second last story that Karl Bollers wrote for ArchieSonic before leaving, and it’s widely regarded by fans as one of his best. It’s funny, it’s memorable, it takes characters that were spinning their wheels under Ken Penders and takes them in new directions, and the art is sensational. So many of the little touches Jon Gray put in are just so memorable, such as Mighty casually flicking away a dingo he'd finished with. xD

That’s all from me for today. Next time I’ll be looking at my next runner up. What arc do you think it will be? It’s a secret! Debate it in the comments for my entertainment! Scruffy demands debate!

[bardkin]

something about outfits, uniforms, & clothes in cartoons

inspired by a post about repeat outfits. [this whole “never repeat outfits” shit is not working for me. i get attached to one oversized sweater and that’s all you’ll see me in for a week.]

o()xxx[{:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::>

when it comes to cartoons, & animated series in general, each character, no matter how much screen time, has a distinct design, shape, and (usually / if they’re humanoid) outfit, that remains consistent between episodes. this uniformity is of course for recognizability & is intended to be for consistent animation. design details can get switched up from time to time, but the level of how much is added or taken, & for how long, depends largely on the plot and tone of that episode. drastic and/or permanent changes constitute a significant shift in a character’s arc. bottom line, there's always a purpose for any changes.

so... what kind of affect does that have on folks from animated sources? does it have an affect at all? what kind of effect does that have on me, before & after I realized I was fictionkin?

as someone with pronounced adhd/neurodivergence, something like having the same outfit, or at least very similar ones, every day, is comforting for a number of reasons.

I know what textures I like or that I’m at least neutral about, and what textures give me the Bad Sensory; repeats of the same shirt are going to feel the exact same, every time. (which I feel is a given for neurodiverse folks with sensory issues, but mention of it does matter here.)

when necessary, my “samey” outfits sometimes keeps me... grounded, in some ways? it's a bit hard to explain, but relates a little bit to sensory stuff. (something something "never felt 'right' in my own body, but outfits are something I actively choose, so I'm able to feel like a semi-functioning person when I'm having really bad/off days," something something.)

the consistency/”samey-ness” also helps me feel a bit closer to my gem-side, since my organic body can’t/doesn’t need hardlight clothes. (all Gems have a "uniform" that remains the exact same, unless they regenerate & choose to alter it.)

bottom line, my "uniform" is a core part of who I am; of my fictotype. it's kind of like phantom limbs, but clothes, if that makes sense as an analogy?? something I'm supposed to have, and not seeing it on my person is sometimes jarring and/or dysphoric in some ways.

small changes & adding accessories every now and then — my spiked choker, a bracelet, maybe some earrings, etc — is nice, but not a constant. I like to spice things up here and there, but even these accessories might eventually bleed into my uniform if they feel enough like “part of my (character) design.”

if a significant article of my “design” is missing (be it accidentally left somewhere, removed without my consent, etc) or too different from my uniform, I feel wrong. like if I have to wear shorts instead of pants, ankle-socks instead of long ones, or if I forget my jacket and don’t know where it is. unless I’m the one actively, purposefully, changing up my outfit, I often feel “off model” in a way that causes me varying degrees of mental & sometimes physical distress.

just recently, I was trying to shop for some new jeans (which is a nightmare of a task for a laundry list of reasons), as I've long since outgrown the few pairs I do own. I was looking for something with the same brand, size, etc, and perhaps even color if I could be so lucky, as a pair I'd bought half a year ago.

without going into too much detail, the trip ended up a bust & I was actually pretty (internally) upset about it. I didn't think much of it, at the time, but coming back to this entry made me partially realize why I was so distraught after my search came up empty.

bottom line, it feels weird and wrong and upsetting in ways I couldn't fully explain before, to have drastic deviations in my outfits. hell, my fictomere's only had two major changes to his wardrobe, and even then, it's not a far cry from his original design's clothes.

maybe it’s a little bit of my neurodivergence, or maybe a lot, and perhaps a bit of fandom headcanoning I saw forever ago related to my fictomere's possible autism. but... I feel strongly enough about it that I don't think the distinction of this (if I'm using the term correctly in this context) noema’s “true” origins really matter.

[candycoatedrox]

had to make a poster for my school project this year and it took me like 5 days and i am very proud of it yippeeeeeeeee

(id below cut because it is VERY very long)

[ID: A poster with a light blue background and a lot of text on it. A large, handwritten header at the top says "Original Animated Short Part 1!" with sparkles around "original" and yellow lines around "Part 1!" for emphasis.

A simple cartoon person, Poster Molly, with curly hair and a sweatshirt waves hello. She says, "Hi there!!" The text under her reads:

"My name's Poster (blanked out for personal information)! Some of you might recognize me from last year… Well, I'm back and better than ever!! Last year, my focus was on comics. But this year… This year, I've set my sights on something bigger:"

"Animation!!" in large font with yellow lines around it for emphasis. Poster Molly is underneath, holding her arms up excitedly like she's presenting the word. Text underneath reads:

"I wanted to create an animated short with my original characters, synced to the song 'The Other Side' from 'The Greatest Showman' soundtrack."

Drawings of two characters are underneath. The one on the left has an arrow pointing to it that says, "this is V." It is rendered in slightly glowing cyan lines, with everything inside the lines showing through to the near-black background. It floats mid-air with a smug expression on its face, and has cat ears that seem relaxed. It has three tentacles in place of hair that swoop forward.

The character on the right has an arrow pointing to her that says "and this is Wade!" She is an Inkling from Splatoon, with purple tentacles that fade to turquoise, tied into a ponytail in the back and long in the front. She has a medium brown skin tone and golden eyes, and the top half of her right eye is a bright turquoise.

Text continues: "But that's a big project..."

At the top of a new column, the text continues: "Animation involves a lot of drawing. Don't believe me? Let's do some math... 24 FPS (frames per second) times 60 seconds equals 1440 drawings for one minute!!

To cut down on drawings, animation is usually done on "twos" — a new image is shown every other frame, effectively reducing the FPS to only 12. But that's still 720 images per minute...

The process of creating an animation, from start to finish, is usually broken up into three major stages: Pre-Production, Production, and Post-Production.

First, Pre-production! This stage consists of concept art, character design and development, storyboarding, and pretty much everything else that comes before the actual frame-by-frame animation. This stage is when model sheets, turnarounds, thumbnails, storyboards, and a timed animatic are made. (It's also when scripts, music, and vocal lines are written and recorded — but luckily, I get to skip that entirely!)

Next, the bulk of the work (and time!) goes into Production. Production is the actual frame-by-frame animation, and is usually split into two parts: keyframing and "tweening," also known as "inbetweening."

Finally, Post-production is the shortest stage. It consists of clean-up, coloring, adding effects, and editing. My plan was simple: I'd spend the first half of the year on pre-production, and the second half on production, with about a month left at the end of the year for post-production.

At the top of a new column, Poster Molly scratches the back of her head apologetically. "Hoo, that was a lot of information! Back to the fun stuff..."

Text below her continues: "Around the end of December, I realized I wasn't very far along in the storyboarding process. I only had the bridge finished, which was about a minute and a half long — less than half of the full song! Considering my original plan was to have the storyboards done by the end of January, that wasn't good…

So, I decided to change up my timeline, turning it into a two-year project instead of a one-year project. I'd spend this year working on pre-production and storyboarding, and next year on the actual production and post-production of the short. That gave me much more time to get it all done. Now I wasn't tied to a schedule designed for college students with twice as much free time as me, and I didn't have to sacrifice quality to get it done on time!

Even if I'm only drawing a new, very simple image maybe a couple times a second instead of all 12, storyboarding is still a lot of work! I've had a lot of fun storyboarding and seeing my characters come to life, but it's definitely been tiring. I've had to leave my comfort zone as I try to push the poses and perspective to create something more expressive. Here you can see all (or almost all) of my storyboards for the second half of the song's bridge. It's a lot of work, making these stick figures as energetic as they are!"

A collage of 40 different storyboards is below. They are heavily simplified, with each character being little more than a stick figure with a simplified expression. Text below continues:

"Even with all that time, I'm still not quite done with the storyboards. I plan to finish them over the summer, and dive straight into production next year! Hopefully, this time next year, you'll all be watching my complete, fully animated short!"

End ID]

[sparkletastic-cookiedough]

I am conflicted! Torn between good and bad!

I love stop motion animation and this is gonna have stop motion.

Tim Burton tends to do a good job directing, and he’s made movies I like.

That being said, attributing a films quality exclusively to the director is a move that I don’t really like. Film is a collaborative art, and it requires a lot of skilled individuals to work.

And Burton has directed some not good movies before as well.

It looks good from the trailers. I’m intrigued.

But…

I’m worried that the new film is going to dominate the fandom space once it’s released

I’m worried it’ll mess with the way the audience thinks of the character. That it’ll change how the musical is watched after the new film is released.

I absolutely love the musical version, and think the cartoon is pretty good.

The original film is confusing, a bit messy, but generally funny and pretty cool. It has neat effects.

Considering how recent the WGA strike was, I’m a little concerned the overall story may have problems.

There’s also this weird issue I have.

I’m really prideful over my own creative work. About two years ago, I started writing up a pitch and ideas for a reboot of the Beetlejuice tv series. This would be more in line with the musicals canon. Episodes would be animated adult comedy, but with musical numbers added.

Even though I never ended up finishing the episode screenplay, I still love my creation with all my heart.

( the reason I haven’t released some of it on Tumblr or Ao3 yet is because it’s stuff I want to use professionally. I’m in film courses at university.)

There’s so much worldbuilding. Lots of original characters, some obscure ones, and many we know and love. More original characters than would be acceptable for fanfic, but for a tv spin off would be required.

I kinda dampened down on it with school getting busy at times, and building controversial scandals on the media company that is most likely to be associated with the work.

I’ve kinda gotten distracted with other fandoms in the meantime too.

The point is, I put a lot of time into imagining my own canon for this story. Pages and pages of lore. Like 10% of a screenplay.

So it’s sorta weird to be thrust into something that goes against my canon.

Also, the release of the new movie might murder my dream of the Beetlejuice tv show adaptation of the musical. People are gonna want to see Astrid, and will be disappointed when it’s a different version of Beetlejuice at its core.

That being said, my ideas are still good. Parts of my OCs can be recycled into new projects. The basic premise of an episode can be stretched and formed into a film. Parts of it are too tied up in the lore of Beetlejuice, most parts are almost entirely original.

So in total, I am excited for the movie, but I also feel a strange amount of sadness in the death of a dream.

Thoughts on the upcoming Beetlejuice Movie sequel?

Hi! I'm a bit of a Beetlejuice the Musical first kinda person (not for any reason in terms of not liking the movie, just that I watched it a little younger than I maybe should have and the stop-motion animation really scared me 🥲)

I do need to rewatch the original movie as I've not seen it for ages, I think the trailers for the sequel are looking promising, and apparently Burton has said he's really focussed on practical effects for the movie? (IDK if that's true I haven't seen sources but it'd be cool if so)

How are u feeling about it?

[kentochronicles]

***SPOILERS FOR WANDAVISION EPISODE 6***

So I’m still processing everything but holy shite that ep was wild...

FIRST THINGS FIRST - WANDA, VISION, BILLY AND PIETRO ALL IN COMIC ACCURATE-ISH COSTUMES AND TOMMY IN A MINI QUICKSILVER COSTUME

PIETRO CALLING BILLY AND TOMMY DEMON SPAWN - GOD DAMMIT, IT’S MEPHISTO ISN’T IT? HOUSE OF M HERE WE COME

HERB ASKING WANDA IF SHE WANTED SOMETHING CHANGED

AGNES ASKING VISION ABOUT THE AVENGERS AND STUFF AND AT FIRST SHE SEEMED GENUINELY FREAKED OUT BUT THEN STARTED LAUGHING MANIACALLY AND I STILL DON’T TRUST HER AND AGNES BEING DRESSED AS A WITCH? AGATHA HARKNESS WAS A WITCH - COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT!

DARCY LOOKING OVER MONICA’S MED SCANS AND TELLING HER HOW THE HEX AFFECTS HER EACH TIME SHE GOES IN - IS SHE DEVELOPING HER POWERS?

PIETRO’S CORPSE - SCARED ME JUST AS MUCH AS VISION’S

MOVIES SHOWING IN THE THEATRE IN THE BACKGROUND - THE INCREDIBLES: A MOVIE BASED AROUND A SUPERHERO FAMILY AND THE PARENT TRAP: A MOVIE ABOUT TWINS WHO MEET AT CAMP AND TRY AND SET THEIR PARENTS UP

DON’T GO PAST ELLIS AVENUE - NOW I DON’T KNOW IF THIS IS A CONNECTION OR JUST A COINCIDENCE BUT ELLIS IS THE LAST NAME OF THE PRESIDENT DURING IRON MAN 3

TOMMY HAVING HIS SPEED POWERS AND BILLY HAVING HIS REALITY WARPING/TELEKINETIC POWERS - WELCOME SPEED AND WICCAN

A CALL BACK TO INFINITY WAR WHEN VISION EXITED THE HEX? SLIGHTLY DUSTING AND HE PROBABLY WON’T SURVIVE BEING OUTSIDE OF THE HEX - HE’LL JUST DIE AGAIN 🥲

I STILL DON’T TRUST HAYWARD - HE’S VERY SUS

DARCY BEING TAKEN INTO THE HEX WITH THE OTHER S.W.O.R.D AGENTS - HOPEFULLY WE CAN SEE THE OUTFITS THAT KAT DENNING’S WAS EXCITED ABOUT

I SWEAR THEY BETTER NOT STRAIGHTWASH BILLY AND TOMMY OR I WILL RIOT 😤

***FURTHER UPDATES***

So sit-com wise, it seems they were referencing Malcolm in the Middle as the twins broke the fourth wall and talked to the audience, like Malcolm did

However, the theme song has told the viewer to stop questioning the reality of Westview - which could be a little reference to Mystery Science Theatre 3000? - When Pietro first shows up in the title sequence, along with his name title card, the lyrics say “Though there may be no way of knowing who’s come to play” - Istg, I do not trust Pietro

Vision says to Wanda that he had to wear his Halloween costume because there were no other clothes in his closet, Wanda is trying to move the plot along and forcing Vision to play along

Evan Peters’ ‘Mom’ tattoo is shown, which is a tattoo he actually has in real life ! But could this stand for ‘Multiverse of Madness’ or some other red herring?

Pietro mentions to Wanda that if he had found ‘Shangri-La’ he wouldn’t want to leave either - Shangri-La is a real place on Earth-616 that was founded by a version of Vision

Tommy refers to Pietro’s speed as ‘kickass’ and then Wanda repeats that, saying ‘kickass’ again - Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Evan Peters (both versions of QuickSilver) were in Kick-Ass together

The ad for this episode was freaky af - the character on the beach who starved and decomposed could be a little nod to Indiana Jones, where a Nazi’s face melts in - and it could also be reference to Wanda being all alone and struggling to process her grief. The shark in the ad could also be Nightmare or Mephisto or just someone more powerful than Wanda offering her a new beginning with Vision or trapped her in some way - and is feeding off her magic? The flavour of the yoghurt is strawberry flavoured and strawberry’s are red on the outside and pink-ish on the inside - much like Wanda’s og costume and her magic being red 👀

Pietro and Wanda talk about their Sokovian accents at a point in the episode and how neither have them anymore. Wanda’s, as we know, has disappeared over the course of the MCU movies and Pietro’s just doesn’t exist - another nice little nod to Peter Maximoff from the fox X-Men films? Also, Pietro states that “I’m just trying to do my part, okay? Come to town unexpectedly, create tension with the brother-in-law, stir up trouble with the Rugrats (a 90’s cartoon 👀) and ultimately give you grief.” - in reference to the grief part, could Pietro be killed off again? Stir up trouble with the rugrats, being possible shards of the demon Mephisto’s soul, could this be Mephisto trying to influence them on a deeper level? It’s also many many common sitcom clichès

Pietro talks about how “I got shot like a chump on the street for no reason at all” - nice little nod to how Pietro was killed off unnecessarily and how we as a fandom still talk about how regular bullets shouldn’t have killed him

Herb is dressed as Frankenstein’s monster - Dr. Frankenstein created his monster and soon lost control over him, and he was created using electricity or lightning - much like Vision was created and brought to life by Thor using Mjolnïr to bring lightning down to his incubator thingy majig. Could this also be a reference to either Wanda slowly losing control over Westview or someone else controlling Wanda/controlling the citizens of Westview - we saw in episode 3 that Agnes told Herb to be quiet as it seemed he was about to spill the beans 👀

Vision goes towards Ellis avenue and is at a ‘crossroads’ of sorts - in folklore, crossroads are often used to speak to or summon the devil and are also used when an important character is making a decision that could change everything. He spots some citizens repeating certain actions and/or just standing completely still, could these be npc’s (non playable characters)? And now that the barrier of the Hex has spread, will those citizens now start to move? 👀 Also I know that all stop signs look like it, but the stop sign is also a red hexagon 🛑

Darcy scrolls through Hayward’s computer files and goes past a file called “Project C4-113” - it could reference Avengers Issue #113 in which Wanda and Vision both appear on the cover and she says she’s going to make the world pay for Vision’s death. There’s also another file called “Project M5-247” which could be a nod to Avengers Issue #247, which shows the origin of the Eternals and in the same vein, Scarlet Witch and Vision trying to help Captain Marvel. And when Darcy emails Hayward’s cataract plans, you can see the names of “James Alexander and James Gadd” - James Alexander is a visual effects producer on Wandavision and James Gadd works on post production at Marvel

Also: Agnes pulls as Mrs Hart and repeats the same phrase over and over again

After Wanda blasts Pietro, you can see on a fake grave stone the name of “Janell Sammelman”, Janell is a first assistant director on Wandavision

When Wanda moves Westview to save Vision, she turns S.W.O.R.D and it’s agents into clowns + a circus - I just love that the agents turned into clowns 😂 but there is a nice little plot line in the comics where Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and Hawkeye join the circus - and this COULD be stretch, but earlier in the episode there is the number #22 which could be Avengers Issue #22, which is the Issue that they join the circus

As soon as Vision was brought back into Westview, he was healed - which means if he was to exit again, he probably wouldn’t survive 😭

The episode title is ‘All-New Halloween Spooktackular!” - which “All-New” is a designation that is often used on covers for comic books. And the first issue of the second The Vision and the Scarlet Witch series takes place on Halloween night - but the events in this comics didn’t influence this episode’s plot

Pietro points out that he has the “XY chromosome” - X for X-Men? Plus there’s the X gene 😂

He mentions “Uncle Peter to the rescue” - Peter is the name of Quicksilver from the Fox X-Men Franchise

Pietro and Tommy quote the movie Top Gun (1986) by saying “I fell the need, the need for speed”

Wanda almost seems hesitant to trust this version of Pietro (rightfully so, in my opinion) and is wary of him being around Tommy and Billy

Pietro says some very Mephisto/Nightmare-like things this episode - “Unleash hell, demon spawn!”, “The kids need a father figure”, “Damnit, if Westview isn’t charming as Hell...” - And if Pietro isn’t Mephisto/Nightmare, it HAS to be Agnes or her other half Ralph and Pietro is probably Ralph tbh...or could Pietro just be a scapegoat and Hayward is Ralph? 👀

The theatre in town, which is playing the Incredibles and The Parent Trap, is called the Coronet. There’s a classic poem called “The Coronet” written by Andrew MARVELL (Marvell, is also the true name of the first incarnation of Captain Marvel in the comics) and is about a guy who knows that the sins of mankind led to the death of Christ. He attempts to create a new crown for Christ’s head in an attempt to atone, but finds that there is sin in the crown as well, as the devil is within the crown and therefore he may achieve glory and success with his new creation 👀

Hayward’s confidential project “Cataract” included experimenting on Vision’s body, as was revealed by Darcy (my wife 💙 and Monica is also my wife 💚 and so is Wanda 💛, I just love women, you know? 😂). A cataract is a cloudy area in the lens of the eye that leads to a decrease in vision - is Hayward trying to weaponise Vision? Or maybe even trying to bring Ultron back? Or do what Tony wanted to do in the first place, and make a suit of armour that’s around the world? Either way, it’s for nefarious purposes

Who is Monica’s guy? Jimmy and Monica are off to meet him - could it be Reed Richards (Mr Fantastic)? Or could it be Victor Von Doom (Dr Doom)? Could it be Hank McCoy (Beast)? Or even Adam Brashear (Blue Marvel)? Or if it is a woman, could it be the Skrull daughter of Talos that Monica befriended at the end of Captain Marvel? Could it be Abigail Brand (A major character in recent S.W.O.R.D comics and an Alpha Flight Member)? Or even Toni Ho (Iron Patriot, and could she be introduced to help lay the ground work for my other queen, Riri Williams/Iron Heart?)? Or could it even be Sue Storm (Invisible Woman)?

In the background of the episode we see a number of children and adults dressed up as many different characters, which includes: Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat, Jason Voorhees, with a sweater striped like Freddy Krueger’s and even a kid that looks dressed in an off-brand Charizard costume 😂 Pokèmon has always been popular, but saw an increase during the 90’s

Pietro and the kids are drinking “Kane Cola” which could be a reference to the 90’s drinks “Jolt Cola” or even “Surge” - it could also, with all the X-Men Easter eggs, be a reference to Garrison Kane, who was a member of Cable’s mercenary team “Six Pack” and is sometimes also known as ‘Weapon X’

The kid that Wanda mentions having a “skin thing” in the orphanage - could that be a reference to her Brotherhood of Evil Mutants co-worker Toad? Or maybe even Mystique? Maybe Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler)?

One of the houses has a sign up that says ‘Macabre Mansion’ - another possible reference to House of M?

During a flashback, it’s shown that the twins are playing Dance Dance Revolution, which came out in 1999. Also this might be a stretch, but the boys have a dog plushie in their room the right - which is coloured red and black - could this be a reference to Dogpool? 😂

I love this show 🤣💙

[geekgemsspooksandtoons]

The Mask 1994

*I finally wrote the whole thing. I finally watched the movie that involved something I’ve been talking about A LOT. I think this took about an hour since I finished the movie. Forgot to mention Charlie.*

I wanna make this clear, even before I watched movie or ever writing this. I am legitimately a stupid and lazy person. Because my mom told me about this, and last week, my dad rented A Quiet Place Part 2. When I was trying to go to sleep but was looking up movies...I literally forgot my tv can do that too...and that I can rent or buy a movie...I rented the movie this morning, and deleted it afterwards...after all that talk...I could’ve done that...wow. I should do that more considering some movies I wanna see or like. Not too much though. My tv has DirecTV. Just a heads up.

But a few or couple of minutes ago, I finally watched The Mask film from 1994. This post is gonna be filled with spoilers and it’s gonna get long. Gonna be kind of a review. My overall thoughts on it. This was my first reaction to the whole movie.

I’d just wanna talk about this too. I like comic books, I like comic book movies. Mainly my favorites are ones like all of Zack Snyder’s DCEU movies, Spider-Man 1 & 2, The Suicide Squad 2021, Wonder Woman 2017, The Dark Knight(Despite whatever issues I have with it), and Joker 2019. Yeah, those are mainly DC films and two Marvel related ones. I don’t even mind Spider-Man 3 as well. I also forgot Dredd 2012 is another one of my favorites. Along with Batman 1989.

I was hoping The Mask could make that list of favorites. Because I read the comics first. I don’t think I ever watch the movie fully as a kid MAYBE. I’m a fan of the comics, I know this movie was gonna be a lighter take on the series. 

In a nutshell...I liked it. It’s possible it will be on that list of favorite CBM’s...but I want to talk about it. I’ll also admit I think what got me interested in seeing this film and this series was me liking Jim Carrey as Ace Ventura...now, let’s get to the point.

Yeah, I liked it. I thought the movie was genuinely entertaining. Despite seeing some clips before. But also Ryan Hollinger’s video about it. Revealing the ending, the twist, and other stuff. But I didn’t wanna watch more more that I haven’t seen yet.

I will be honest, it still made me laugh. Even some scenes I already have seen. I will admit, the Cuban Pete scene is actually one of my favorites. XD But what also surprised me is that at times, despite being a funny film. It can genuinely be touching in a way. And I am mainly talking about the developing relationship between Stanley and Tina.

I just wanna talk about the characters right now. I’ll just admit unless I haven’t already. I’m a Jim Carrey fan. Mainly because of his more goofier roles. Particularly his roles from the Ace Ventura movies, Liar Liar, and especially Sonic The Hedgehog. I also will admit this, Jim Carry nails playing Big Head or who they call...The Mask in this movie...I’ll nitpick about that later.

But yeah, Jim’s entertaining as Big Head in this film. He does make me laugh. But I think another role he does well despite there are some sillier moments, which is fine. I feel like in a way, Stanley Ipkiss in this version, is maybe one of his more normal roles. But I know I’m wrong considering whatever other roles he’s in. He portrays a likable good guy who’s sadly mainly pushed around. Which is quite the difference from the comics, except being pushed around. But that’s another topic. Yet for this story, even if maybe Stanley’s name could be changed. But him being a genuinely kind guy works for this story.

Even before I saw the movie, learning more about this version about the character. I can relate to Stanley in some ways honestly. Which is something that I like. He basically shines as a protagonist. 

He portrays both sides well. Despite at times...honestly, this Stanley is wacky. I shouldn’t be judging. Jim does a good stuff with what he played, and he’s the highlight of this movie. He also delivers possibly my favorite Jim Carrey line of all time now. Sorry if I get this wrong. I was looking for a clip of it to help me.

“Daddy’s gonna go kick some ass”. A literal line from Jim Carrey in this movie and I love it. He even brings a pistol with him.

I also wanna admit Peter Greene as Dorian is pretty good as a villain. The dude can be threatening and he works with what he is given. And he’s effective as an antagonist. I just wanna admit that I swear, one of these guys. One of them could’ve Walter in a way and I just think that could’ve been possible. But I’m not sure. Just one of Dorian’s henchmen looked like a huge guy. It just got me thinking about Walter from the comics.

Will admit, I think Kellaway is fine. And I just found out Christopher Reeve was one of the actors considered for the role...damn. But again, Kellaway was fine. He’s more like a supporting character and again, this is like an origin story. I do feel bothered Lionel Ray wasn’t added but replaced with this Doyle character. I will admit that Doyle is silly, which is the point of his character. I guess the writers and director didn’t want two sensible cops or something. I like Kellaway alright, but I’ll always dig Lionel too.

I really wanted to get this point. I thought Cameron Diaz was good as Tina Carlyle and Amy Yasbeck as Peggy Brandt. I will admit, I do strangely like the subversion with Peggy in a way with it’s twist. I get the idea if that it was going for that theme of, “We all wear mask” and Peggy turning Stanley into the mob said a lot about her character. While Tina was genuinely the one that truly supported Stanley.

I think was surprised me more was the fact despite Peggy turned in Stanley for selfish purposes such as paying for her condo. Yet what surprised me more was she was actually concerned for Stanley being killed, and didn’t want him hurt...which explains even more why she stuck around in the cartoon. And honestly, it makes me glad the director took out that deleted scene of her getting killed. So she wasn’t that heartless.

Also...it made me think that...my ideas and changes towards her character...maybe hold some weight.

I’ll just put this out there too. Milo is great, one of my favorite fictional dogs maybe. Good dog.

Trying to think what else, the score was fine. But the licensed music was good or something. Overall, I think my negatives could be just...nitpicks. Such as the Big Head part I wanted to talk about. Listen, I understand this is a different version. I just feel it’s weird to call him, “The Mask” instead of Big Head. I know other characters mask in their name or something. But...some reasons, the name Big Head is there. I guess it’s because of the title or something.

Honestly, I think my negatives are more that it feels short. And maybe Stanley becoming Big Head a bit too early. I sound kind of stupid, I know. But this was the 90′s and whatever else. This was a different take on the comics. But I did genuinely like it. Maybe I’m just a bit attached to those comics. Despite knowing the changes they did.

But I will admit, considering the development for this film. And learning that it was meant to be a horror film. But the director Charles Russell found the violence in the source material to be off putting. So he made it less grim, and more fun. I’ve also read somewhere that trying to make comedy with that violence was difficult.

Back to the point, to be honest. I feel like for that time and age. A more light Mask film was maybe the best choice to go. And we wouldn’t have Jim Carrey in it. I do also wanna say, I feel like The Mask series, you can do a lot of it. You can have something dark with it, or maybe more lighter.

There are still some of those darker elements. Mainly considering the moments with the gangsters and all that. But I will admit, learning that Charles mostly directed horror films. I think it’s impressive he made a more family friendly film and it worked. 

I liked it, despite my love for the comics. I thought when writing this, maybe some folks reading this may think I sound like fans who read the comics who first experienced this movie. But the film isn’t bad, it’s just a different take and a pretty nice one at that.

And to be honest, as much as I would of loved to see an actual sequel. And not that bad film known as Son Of The Mask. I understand why Jim Carrey dropped out, and I would’ve loved to see Peggy back because the director planned to bring her back reformed. But I feel like this film works as a one off in a way. And there’s also the cartoon, which works fine as a sequel despite some differences. Yet...I’ll admit, I would’ve loved The Mask 2 if we got Jim Carrey as Stanley again fighting against maybe someone like Walter.

The Mask 1994 is a good film. Despite changes from the source material, but the changes for this vision work. It’s cool this film has a cult following, and the fact I have used elements and story beats from it for The Mask Rebirth stuff I’ve been talking about. Even before watched this whole movie.

It’s a genuine fun flick. But I’m hoping down the line, if Warner Bros stops being fucking stupid with how they run things. Maybe we’ll get a reboot or how about an animated film that seems more true to the source material. 

I know The Mask/Big Head doesn’t have a big legacy such as the likes of Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man. But I do think this series could be reimagined and expanded upon. Using elements not only from the original comics, but even the movie and cartoon. 

And...despite it was because of Ace Ventura...I would like to thank @kaijuguy19 for being such a supportive dude, and talking about this franchise with me. Including wanting to talk about this movie long ago when I haven’t seen it. But I want to say...no...he’s one of the big reasons why I’m a fan. Because he’s one of the only guys I know who’s a fan. It started with Ace Ventura, but it was because of talking with Kaijuguy that I guess things started to escalate. So thanks man for talking about this stuff with me.

Also, Charlie was silly and he was fine as a character. I forgot about that dude despite wanting to talk about him. Gonna tag him too in case. Charlie schumaker

[mansions-maiden]

ikemen vampire with Tom and Jerry part 2

 Part 1 is right here incase anyone missed it! 

Leonardo: 

Well, he falls asleep as soon as he enters the hall and sits on the sofa. (what else did you expect?) 

Everyone tries waking him up, telling him not to miss this opportunity, but in vain. So they just leave him be. 

And then, there’s a sudden shriek of Tom yelling in pain or something falling down in the TV, loud enough to make our ears bleed. 

And then, “Waah!!” He woke up with a sudden jerk and leapt out of sofa, and stood there in a defensive position. 

A roar of laughter is heard in the halls and then he suddenly clears his throat awkwardly. 

He then watches the show along with other vampires and enjoys the rest of night. 

He’s curious about how the TV works. 

after some days, the TV is found in pieces, with all it’s internal parts separated in his room. Yeah, he disassembled it out of his voracious curiosity. 

Arthur: 

All of these animations seem pretty illogical to him , but in a funny way. “Wait, a talking dog and a dancing cat and mouse? “ 

Immediately feels himself getting connected to Tom and Jerry. “Hey Theo, Guess we are Tom and Jerry now! Best friends and yet we are at each other’s throats always! “ 

Finds it sweet that this show is meant for kids. He would show this to the children at the orphanage. 

Found a new nickname for Isaac! “HEY there Jerry! how’s your science stuff going?!” 

feels a bit flustered because he can’t predict the next scenario using his detective skills. 

Isaac: 

“What in the name of apples  science is this!?  And people like stuff that has entirely left reality?!” the horror in his face when he realizes that Tom and Jerry is very very far from the face of science and reality. 

“ I . AM . NOT. A . MOUSE!. Leave me alone!” he shouts at Arthur and Dazai on verge of tears and bright red cheeks. 

tries to sit in the hall and enjoy the show with curiosity. 

he likes the show. Just doesn’t like to admit that he HAD LIKED a thing that science has nothing to do with. 

But ends up leaving the place due to continuous pestering by Dazai and Arthur with his new ‘nickname’. 

comes back with a frying pan, actually two frying pans and sits back on the couch, beating the faces of Dazai and Arthur whenever they mentioned his new nickname. (what’s a more effective defensive tool than frying pan? 🤣) 

(I had to make his character a badass in this hc, so just added the last thing. Ignore it if you don’t like it..) 

By the time show ended, Arthur’s and Dazai’s faces were in deep red shade due to the number of hits they received on their faces by Isaac.  

Dazai: 

“Toshiko san! All of the characters are so adorable in this show! Just like you! “  

“Ai- kun! Both you and Toshiko san are that cute little mouse!” He exclaims with a subtle hint of teasing in his voice. 

He sees it attentively so that he can share these mischievous tales of two sworn enemies to the children in the streets of Paris, and make them laugh. 

Joins Arthur to pester Isaac with his nickname. 

Is absolutely in love with the two animals. 

After the show ends, he jumps out and yeets himself out of the window runs out and gathers all the animals available, cats, dogs, mice and other animals. (inspired from an old post I remember reading some time ago). 

And now, he’s the leader of the animal gang and he’s the don of that group. 

The mansion somehow ended up becoming a sort of zoo for all the animals of Paris. 

Napoleon: 

Keep your volume as loud as possible when watching Tom and Jerry with Napoleon. 

He first takes a few minutes to get acquainted with the advanced technology to that time period. 

Everything is calm and quiet until no funny scenes occur. Once the funniest moments between the animals occur, a series of laughter is heard. 

“HAHAHAAA! Oh.. my..haha.. oh my god!! Tom’s  shape has changed the moment.. hahah.. he collides with wall! Haahaa! He becomes as thin ..HAAHAAA!!haahaaahaa! as thin as a paper!!” 

the residents begin to laugh at Napoleon rather than at cartoon as he still continues laughing, clutching his stomach hard and rolling on the floor. 

While Sebastian is walking across the hall, he ends up grabbing his leg to support himself and stand up, but failing miserably and falling down again due to his laugh, along with Sebastian this time. 

Sebastian: 

He keeps , or rather, tries to keep a stoic face as he too watches the cartoon with all. 

A wave of nostalgia hits him as soon as he begins to remember his childhood in modern day Japan. ( I guess it’s expected since we all practically grew up while watching Tom and Jerry, and he’s from modern time, non..?)

He loosens up at last and enjoys the show, forgetting about his butler duties and stops worrying about other residents.

But soon finds himself with a pen and his notebook, noting down every other thing the residents do in his notebook secretly.(oh Sebas, at this point, why don’t you become a spy agent? *sigh and face palm*) 

(continuation of last point from napoleon) He  manages to fall down without any pain and heaves a sigh of relief. 

He keeps a stoic face, but is internally screaming that his role model had grabbed him and pulled him down. 

Just stays there on the ground in an intense shock and sees the entire show in the same position, but everything just fades away due to his fanboy thoughts. 

Later that night, lights are found switched on in his room and continuous laughing is heard. (everyone can hear him, but decides to ignore him, or rather listen to it secretly and keep it a secret. ) 

okay.. so Isaac’s and Sebastian’s description seem way too much out of their character, but I wrote it anyway. And Dazai’s, I remember reading it from an old tumblr post ^^;. Took a bit of inspiration from it.

And if you still like this weird post, woah! It’s a miracle. well, thank you for liking! 

[kitkatopinions]

There's no comparing RWBY 'weapons are part of our souls' to LOTR 'I love not the sword for its sharpness, the arrow for its swiftness or the warrior for his glory, I love only that which they defend'. Ruby fetishizes weaponry so much it's practically a meta gag, while Faramir and Sam long to set their swords aside for gardening trowels. Rwby simps can eternally BTFO making comparisons between them

If RWBY was still back in season three, I'd say comparing it to something like LOTR just isn't fair, that just because there was a lot more big, significant moments in season three didn't mean it was suddenly meant to be taken that seriously. It'd feel like comparing Steven Universe and Phineas and Ferb, because Steven Universe is meant to be an emotional, story-based show with a lot of depth despite it's comedy and goofiness, and Phineas and Ferb is meant to be an episodic show based on comedy and goofiness that still manages to have moments that lean towards being more emotional. Incomparable, really. Steven Universe obviously beats out Phineas and Ferb in terms of character development, emotional beats, story beats, plot consistency, etc, but it's because Phineas and Ferb was never in that ballpark, they were playing in the ballpark in the mall across town with Spongebob and Hey Arnold.

RWBY back in volumes 1-3 had it's incredibly messy things that screwed up the flow and narrative (like for instance the White Fang arc, which was horrible for a number of reasons and always a major blight on the show.) But it was still essentially a school-based, anime inspired, funny web cartoon with great designs and combat choreography that was the highlight of the show, while the plot was there to hold it up. But volume three heralded in a big change in the show (which don't get me, isn't inherently bad, just badly handled imo.) All of a sudden, RWBY as a show was asking to be taken really seriously in volume four. All of our main characters were traumatized, separated, suffering, in over their heads in a world they no longer understood and dealing with deeply personal problems like abusive home lives, PTSD, and self-hatred causing them to push away loved ones. It reminds me in a way of the Harry Potter books changing from 'fun and whimsical adventures in a magic school with writing and style choices a bit reminiscent of Roald Dahl that also has some darker background tones' into 'Harry is fucking traumatized and keeps getting more traumatized, everyone keeps dying around him, the person he once was at eleven now felt like a little brother that had died long ago, his pet owl has been murdered.'

But while they introduced darker themes, it's like they had no idea how to handle them. They started out okay with it, but instead of giving these important topics any depth and world building and moral messages and the focus they deserved, they either sloppily tied up 'resolutions' that were unsatisfying or have just piled on more and more stuff they don't seem to want to deal with. A good example of this is Penny. Her death was hugely significant in volume three, and yet Ruby's grief took a backseat for the majority of season four. After a mentioning in season five, Ruby doesn't mention her again. Then when Penny returns, Ruby doesn't give much reaction, there's no emotional depth, it feels like she barely even cares that Penny's back from the dead. She then decides for Penny that she's going to get a flesh body (I don't wanna hear anyone say that isn't what happened,) while acting totally confident and unaffected by it. She watches Penny's robotic body die while looking like it's reaching out for help while that Penny's eyes do the exact same thing her original body did before the Fall of Beacon, and Ruby doesn't react to that and just goes about her business. (Those scenes are literally triggering for people and I myself don't fully know why, but it's hard for me to even type about it, and the show treated it like just another Tuesday.) Then, Penny chooses to die and frames it like the only choice she's ever made (ignoring all previous content,) and is murdered by a character she's barely spoken to 'for the Greater Good,' while Ruby has no freaking clue about any of it because she already had been removed from the story.

I could talk more about this, but it's running on in length and I want to get to the next point.

Which is that RWBY's attempts at featuring war, loss, trauma, etc while under the banner of hopepunk and presenting itself as serious invites comparison to stories that are more serious like Lord of the Rings. And if not that, than at the very least it invites comparisons to other hopeful but serious story based cartoons like Steven Universe and Avatar the Last Airbender. But the problem is that when comparing them, RWBY does not hold up! Like, at all!

That's what drives me nuts with seeing people compare RWBY to Avatar and Lord of the freaking Rings, because they clearly missed something important when they say that RWBY holds a candle to these things that are both held up as great examples of good writing and world building, two areas that RWBY really falls short in. It's so out of left field, so outrageous. RWBY has always operated under writers that flew by the seat of their pants, brushed off sloppiness, retconned at will, dropped plots, added in things last minute, struggled to make their characters interact in meaningful ways... To compare that to well thought out and beautiful stories like Lord of the Rings, Avatar, or even Steven Universe (the last season rushed against Rebecca Sugar's wishes,) and say that RWBY is in the same league is so weird.

Which like, if people like RWBY just as much as these other shows, that's great for them! If they love RWBY even more, that's also great for them! There's plenty of things I will love and treasure that just aren't as good as other things in the same category. I'm not trying to crap on people who just love RWBY, just... Commenting on the whole 'compare RWBY to Lord of the Rings' thing. One of these stories was prepared to portray serious, real world topics like trauma and the effects of war, and another story... Should have stayed in the lane it was willing to explore. Those are my thoughts on it, at least.

[destiny-smasher]

DownRight Fierce Dev Update (9/2021)

Not sure if this is something folks here would want to see, but I'll share this update I shared with patrons for the original visual novel I've been working on, DownRight Fierce. It was conceived back in, like, 2014, but since just before the pandemic hit, I've been working on it as a visual novel. It's sort of like...if Street Fighter and Butterfly Soup had a kid? That was born before Butterfly Soup came out? And has been slacking off for a few years? There is a fully playable, mostly presentable demo of the prologue and first three chapters, feel free to contact me if you're interested in trying it out and providing feedback.

Thanks to the support I've received on Patreon lately, I've been able to commission more outfits for the main characters, new expressions, and was able to pay Hayley to re-organize the sprites so I have some more control over mixing and matching different things. We've also implemented a new pose for Nishiko's sprite when they're sending text messages (on their antiquated cell phone).

(all of the character art so far I have commissioned from my friend Hayley Sakura-Rose12)

I ended up deciding to have that sprite made when I implemented a whole text convo with Seiko near the end of Chapter 3. (or partway through the chapter, depending on what the reader chooses - OR they can even skip this conversation altogether, potentially)

The biggest updates to DRF lately have mostly been cosmetic: adding in more facial expressions and effects.

One example of this has been incorpating a more seamless and atmospheric effect for moments when Nishiko gets lost in thought.

There will be a recurring and increasingly important component tied to this, so I'm glad Jenny helped inspire me to pursue this kind of idea. You can also see here a version of Nishiko's sprite which has been visually updated with more texture, alternate color, etc., and that's something she intends to do with the other characters when time allows (she's been very busy for like, over a year now).

Fire and smoke are key visual symbols for Nishiko's character, so Jenny has been helping me figure out ways to express this more through the UI, etc.

(my wife Jenny has worked on the UI, giving it a more gritty look, and she's modified Nishiko's sprite in this image to give extra atmosphere to the character sprites; she also took a placeholder image and did work on it to showcase a potential art style for the backgrounds; we're considering something like this, though maybe including more color, perhaps intentionally depending on the setting)

But it's not just been visual stuff. I've also been adding in extra content, and incorporating more choices and elements that affect and are affected by the stats running in the background.

I've added in new short classroom scenes to help better illustrate Nishiko's experience inbetween social activities, while simultaneously using them to imply elements regarding Nishiko's attention span, as well as flesh out the lore of the world.

I've been a bit inspired by Tuca and Bertie in some weird ways, as well, trying to build lore within my own fighting game inspired world with references that double as, well, world building (like alluding to Street Fighter antagonist M. Bison via a political dictator who existed in this universe's history), including entire chunks of conversation that go in different branches based on weird Capcom humor that also serves to establish backstory.

Nishiko and Kayla bond over love of a dumb cheesy horror flick that's essentially one big meme featuring the 90's Street Fighter cartoon.  The drinks in the vending machines are all Capcom references, but serve as a means of letting the reader more manually increase a stat of their choosing - and since they're vending machines, they recur, so as the reader might get to know what each drink is, they might make a deliberate choice to increase a specific stat on purpose, in a similar way to choosing to exercise, or meditate, or study.

A convo about Nishiko's prior schoolyear incorporates Dark Stalkers references while also, again, letting the reader affect stats in a narratively retroactive way.

I've fleshed out conversations in Chapter 3 to have lots of dialogue most readers won't see in a single playthrough, as well as making more efforts to lean readers toward experiencing certain scenes or moments they might have missed earlier, while allowing the possibility of skipping or missing out on scenes entirely should they choose.

For example, the end of Chapter 3 is focused on Nishiko's relationship with Seiko. There is a text chat convo that can happen in one of two different parts of the chapter, and an in-person convo I'm currently working on (the last planned new content for the demo). Both can be experienced, or one or the other, or the can both be skipped. I don't want to make the entire social life something optional, but I do want to have there be parts like this where the reader can choose to skip interacting with a character if they truly don't want to, to help reinforce the idea that every interaction is, in a sense, a deliberate choice.

Even something like picking 'the BAD' choices is something I want to not just feel like, say, Undertale's infamous 'genocide run' but rather something that is an expression of anger at the world around the main character, which even has some specific benefits - because people don't just become jerks because they like to feel bad, but because it serves them in some beneficial way. As a slight example, if the reader pushes Nishiko to become aggressive, their 'Psycho' stat will increase, which can lead to them having even more aggressive choices later, which further increase that stat. But as that stat increase, Nishiko will become more physically perceptive to certain details about the world around them, but in material ways rather than social ways. For example, they might sense certain inklings of things that allude to later plot points earlier than someone who is more cooperative and might learn more social backstory elements. It's likely not going to be some huge, monumental difference, but it hopefully will make a second playthrough feel noticeably different and give the reader more insight into certain things.

The planned demo will feature the prologue and the first three chapters. By the end, all four main characters will be introduced, and the reader should get a pretty good idea through bits of writing and visual presentation that the choices they make won't change the primary narrative, but will affect certain details and aspects of how things play out. This is actually related to a big plot element itself that will become important later. But for now, it's been really fun adapting content I wrote over five years ago into this format, fleshing it out, and trying to work out ways to not only make that content function better in an interactive format, but also just how to lay more foundation and foreshadowing for what's to come.

While the visuals are still far from finalized even for this demo, I do have a private build uploaded for anyone genuinely interested, as I still haven't received much in the way of feedback so far. I'm planning on releasing a public demo to itchio later on when we can get the visuals to look more finalized.

[thebrownssociety]

Hi, so I was wondering about the toons getting an education. You said that they didn't know how to read or write at the begining. First of all, when did they learn to read and write? And second of all, when they started learning those things, how did they do it? Did all of the toons go to school, you know, like kids do? Did they have classes and classmates, different subjects, different teachers? Or did they have private tutours?

So, first things first, thank you Ana for giving me one of my most complicated asks yet! That's why it's taken me so long to answer, I need to first of all sort through the strands of my brain in order to find the answer, and then translate it so it can be understood by normal people.

This headcanon is LONG, I hope you lot enjoy.

the majority of the toons [about 90 percent] are NOT created with the ability to read and write. In the olden days it was generally assumed that they didn't have the ability to learn either.

The other ten percent DID. They tended to be toons that were created to be doctors, lawyers or other professions that need the ability to read and write. Or members of royalty because the creators made the decision that royals would have been taught to read and write and so incorporated that into there designs. This is why Porky Pig is unusual, because he has the ability read and write, but he's not royalty and he doesn't have an official profession. Technically Porky is an anomality, it just happens that his anomality has helped him more than hindered him.

Moving onto the villains, it tends to follow the same rules as above. Grimhilde [wicked stepmother] has the ability to read and write because the creators assumed that as the now queen she had to be a princess before, therefore fit the rules.

Maleficent however, couldn't read or write [much to her frustration] because she was a villainous fairy and although she was [I think?] royalty of some sort within the fairy world the creators decided she didn't need the ability.

You might be getting an idea of the timeline from the movies I mentioned. I headcanon that the toon began campaigning to get an education during the 60's. They did this largely via peaceful means [mainly because one thing that has always been acknowledged by humans is that Toons are quite powerful and they aren't to keen to annoy them massively. The toons for their part don't want to cause massive distress to humans - they want to make them laugh! - so it actually works to a degree. During the 60's though the Toons decided something needed to be done.

The directors and other higher-ups had been promising to change the rights for the last decade and it hadn't happened. In 1965 the Toons decided enough was enough, they would start peacefully protesting. They adhered to the riles of there contracts to the letter. The LT's contract for instance says they have to arrive at least five minutes before filming starts, so they arrived five minutes before filming started when previously they'd been arriving half an hour so the director could run through everything with them.

They also left straight after seeing as there contract said they were free to go after the filming ended.

The LT's were also contracted to be available should WB ask them to do anything like help in the kitchens, but they only gave to do that for a set amount of hours each week. They worked those hours to the letter and went straight after. A few of the more devious toons even reasoned the contract just says they have to show up, not do any work, so they didn't. At first the studio got round that by asking toons who they knew would do the work properly, but it didn't take the toons long to figure out that was happening and then the 'good' toons wondered why they should bother when the 'bad' toons were being allowed to get off scot-free?

Eventually no toons was doing any work to help the general running of WB at all.

The above, I should mention, did not happen overnight. It took around 18 months, and it wasn't just happen at WB. Although Disney didn't have the exact same contract, they ran on the general principle of arriving at a set time and leaving straight after, so the toons just adhered to there contracted times.

18 months later and the companies decided enough was enough. They were having to go overtime to film the cartoons/movies now the toons weren't doing extra [previously unpaid] hours. [Which they did because the majority of them are perfectionist when it comes to the cartoons and wanted them to be the best they could be.] They were also having to pay the Human employees extra to cover the hours, often at extremely short notice. And unlike the toons they weren't contracted to come in just because the company wanted them to.

So anyway, the point of me detailing this is to explain the circumstances that meant that the companies were at there wits end and ended up petitioning the president to give the toons rights. Mickey Mouse also helped out enormously here as well. Walt Disney had died a few months earlier and Mickey was now running Disney. Which also meant control of the theme parks. Mickey decided that seeing as Toons clearly weren't valued enough to bother educating [despite being proven as intelligent] they shouldn't bother providing entertainment at the parks either.

The Disney toons also had it worked into there contracts that they had to make periodic appearances at Disney's parks [kinds like the people dressing up as the characters do now, except it's the actual toons] and are on a rota basis. Unless they're doing an events [like Halloween for the villains or valentines day for the princes and princesses] then each toon does at least one 12-hour day at Disney per year. It was this bit that Mickey was putting a stop to.

It had a real knock-on effect as, as well as the rides, most people went there hoping for a glimpse of there favourite toon. Without that...

As much of an absolute business-killer as this idea was, Mickey was more than happy to explain to anyone who would listen [read: most of the world news] exactly WHY he was doing it. With all this pressure it was really just a matter of time until the laws changed and the toons were able to gain an education. This was in 1968.

Now as fast as things work in Toontown, this was such a complicated area that it took a full 2 years for the various schools to be built, staffed and a curriculum drawn up (which followed the same basic guide as human education, but with some added stuff and some stuff taken out. It basically followed a 'would a toon actually need this in future life?' and went from there.

Here's were it gets slightly complicated. Because I mentioned before that toons age in a weird way. But the main thing is they go up and down in there age on a day to day basis until they are about 20. This makes educating them quite difficult, to say the least.

The studios solution to this was to bring in Human teachers to teach them at the grades human children would go through. So Kindergarten, Grade 1 ext. The thing was that a lot of the toons had learn some of th education already, like identifying shapes and coulors and things. And of course the ones who were professionals [Like Ludwig Von Drake and Gus Goose] already had a college-level of education, they just needed to prove it to the teachers.

The end result of this was that it wasn't unusual for a toon to be in a class for only a few months at a time while they did the work [don't forget, they only need 4 hours of sleep as well, so they could study for longer if they wanted]

It did eventually even up though and the toons ended up spending 9 months if the right class. For example, Porky Pig aced Kindergarten all the way up till 4th grade and then found he was struggling with 5th grade. This was a shock to him after spending 21 months in education [excluding holidays], to suddenly need help. Porky was forced to realise that he had centred a lot of his identity around being 'the one who can help his friends/family read.' and hadn't expanded his personality much beyond that.

So yeah, as an average most toons took about ten years to complete Kindergarten - end of high school.

Then a few of them took college courses, which lead to them getting degrees, which led to a couple of them getting teaching degrees. The majority of the LT's you see in Tiny Toons [excluding Foghorn, who decided he didn't want to be a teacher, and Elmer who took a undergraduate degree in law until 1992] did their teaching degrees from 1988 - 1992.

There's a couple of you who might had realised that they were filing Tiny Toons at the times and learning how to be parents at the same time. That was partly why they wanted to do it then, they realised that after Tiny Toons had finished the kid would need educating. Although the human teachers had been alright, they'd found it slightly difficult to cope and the LT's didn't want their kids to go through that particularly. Also, what's the point of building a school just to got rid of it after?

So here's the main schools: (After the toons gained teaching degrees)

Disney Elementary - Kindergarten- Grade 5.

Hanna-Barbara Middle School - Grade 6_8.

The Looniversity (the name stuck after the TV show) Grades 9-12.

So the Tiny Toons finished filming in 1992 and had it promptly explained to them that they would be attending school the next August [Tiny Toons were created in 1987, so were 6 by the end of filming.]

Toons don't do pre-school because there doesn't seem to be any point. Loads of Toons have coped without preschool for decades now, why would they start now?

So the TT's started Kindergarten at Disney Kindergarten, run by Snow White and helped out by Cinderella and Fairy Godmother. Kindergarten is the only school year where the toons have to do an entire year in it, the logic being they'll have longer to get adjusted to school if they're there for a year as opposed to three months.

Then it was decided which was the toon would go. Would they move upwards into Disney Elementary school, run by the Three Good Fairies? Or would they be taught by human professors? Or - the final option - they could be privately educated. [It's mainly royalty or the children of famous toons like Micky and Minnie that go down this option. The TT's were unusual in that all the LT's opted to send there kids to Disney Elementary with the hope it would help them make friends with other toons outside the LT bubble. Whether it did or not remains up for debate.

Anyway, they then go to Hanna-Barbera Middle School, which is then followed by the Looniversity. Now, despite what was shown in Tiny Toons, The Looniversity does not focus solely on Toon Physics and the like, the kids have to study the curriculum. They have options to take Toon Physics class if they wanted to, but they don't have to.

The Toons technically don't HAVE to finish High School, but they're strongly encouraged to. College is another matter, it's quite hard so only Toons who the adults know will stand a chance of passing are encouraged to do it.

Toontown University focuses primarily on The Performing Arts and Toon Physics. As well as those subjects, it offers Art, Physical Education, separate courses of Dance, Drama and Music and LAMDA.

If a Toon wants to study the likes of Maths, English and Science they can either be privately educated [A lot of the adult toons have ridiculous amounts of money due to there cartoons and the fact that until the 50's Toontown didn't exist and all there expenses were being covered by there respective directors/studios] or they could join one of the smaller colleges that specialised in what they want to do.

Push comes to shove, they find a Adult toon [over the actual age of 25] with a degree and try to mentor under them. This happens a lot.