#I could toy with that dragon trope where dragons keep their true names secret from all but their most trusted

[illmoraineakoi]

Guess who's designing a Blackwyrm OC

RIP

I'm trying to figure out how I want her to look, mainly her lower body.

A part of me thinks it'd be funny if she were naga-like, either fully or with a few insect legs, but another part of me really REALLY wants to give her long legs, to go fully in on the whole insect body and to strut about sexily tormenting Hollow who cannot stop staring and getting distracted-

Maybe I can do both. Insect body similar to Grimm or Hornet but super long worm-like 'tail'.

(The image of her just rearing up on her tail like an angry snake to tower over PK and everyone else is so funny to me)

That'd really help to go in on the "He made me an abomination" angle, a creature that clearly wasn't quite a bug but sure as HELL wasn't a Wyrm either.

Still unsure if that sort of a result was intentional or not; it being an accident gives a little bit of leeway to forgive the King (only a little, dude, you intentionally fucked with her body at their most vulnerable time wtf is wrong with you? That's low, even if she did try to kill you and steal your kingdom. No I don't care if you saw the opportunity to "experiment" that makes it WORSE!) and it's a little more believable that something went wrong or didn't work as intended since this was something he's never done before.

On the other side, this alteration was meant to be a punishment, retribution for the destruction and death she caused. Wyrms aren't known to forgive or go easy on those they defeat, the fact that she's allowed to live at all is a mercy. Wyrms normally go for the kill. He could've totally just killed her, again, for good, and he would've been in his right to.

(She's probably super insulted that he didn't. She probably calls him a coward, a weakling, a pathetic failure of a wyrm who can't even bloody his teeth right. And he's just like "lmao okay whatever helps you sleep at night, looser.")

I'm also turning around the idea that wyrms teeth are unique, though I'm unsure how much leeway I should give myself if so. PK's work as teeth and horns, they're simple enough, and over-complicating a tooth/horn might turn out shitty.

I'm rambling, I should probably just sketch.

[thevindicativevordan]

On Kong Kenan/Super-Man

It should've been him. He should've been the Superman of 5G/Future State/right now not Jon, and he should be the one getting an HBO Max series not Val. Hell he should be getting a movie!

God this dude is literally the best legacy character Superman has ever gotten, wholly his own person with his own lore and status quo while still building on the idea of "Superman". I am so pissed at DC for essentially just dropping him after his ongoing ended, what the hell Lee? You keep trying to make the Wildstorm characters happen, I need you to get my man Yang another Kenan book.

Have to admit I was a bit nervous at first about whether or not Kenan would be a worthwhile character. Yang's New 52 Superman run had been a disappointment to me overall, with only the the arc where Superman has underground wrestling matches against forgotten gods really sticking with me. Now he was introducing a brand new Superman? Didn't feel like he had "earned" that yet. But from the first issue I was hooked on this new character.

Kenan was unlike any other member of the Superfamily. He wasn't kind or sweet, he was an asshole! He was a bully! He was fantastic! Right from the start Kenan was set up to undergo a very different kind of character journey than the other members of the Superfamily. Empathy, humility, respect for people weaker than himself, these are all traits most heroes wearing the S-shield already posses by the time they first don the crest, but not Kenan.

Like all bullies he was even a bit of a coward himself at first, trying to bail on the experiment meant to give him Superman's powers right as it begins. After "saving" Lixin (the kid he bullies and steals lunch from every day) from Blue Condor he demands all the money Lixin has on him as payment. He's not courageous or selfless either at the start, Kenan is as much of an opposite of Superman as you can get short of being Bizarro. Learning the appeal of these traits formed the basis for his growth over the course of his series.

Seeing Yang bring in a lot of recognizable "Superman" elements in the series, but with a twist, was also great. Kenan is the one who bullies "Luo Lixin" rather than the traditional Clark/Lex friendship of Pre-Crisis and Birthright. Initially Kenan develops a crush on intrepid reporter for Primetime Shanghai, Laney Lan, but she dismisses him as too young and Kenan eventually ends up pursuing Avery Ho (Flash) instead. Baxi the Bat-Man of China has a similar relationship with Kenan as the traditional Superman/Batman in terms of being vitriolic best buds, however Baxi is the one who has the most respect for authority while Kenan is the rebel. Kenan is a part of the "Justice League of China" which does not meet with the approval of the already established Chinese superheroes, the Great Ten. That contrasts nicely with the good relationship the Justice Society and Justice League have, as well as seeing Yang lampshade the "Chinese copy" trope and incorporate that into his storytelling.

One of the funniest differences is how Kenan chooses to immediately reveal his identity as Super-Man to the world by taking off the compliance visor he was forced to wear, contrasting with Clark's choice to hide his identity. He was so eager to impress people that he never gave any thought to the danger he could put himself or his family in by revealing his identity until it was too late, something Clark is well aware of and has taken great pains to keep his identity secret. Was a missed opportunity for DC to have Kenan comment on Clark copying him for once when he outed himself under Bendis.

But one of the most poignant differences between Clark and Kenan is the gulf in separation between their relationship with their parents. Clark has a loving relationship with Ma and Pa Kent, trying to live up to their lessons as best he can. In contrast Kenan's mom was believed to have died in an airplane crash when he was just a child, and he never really knew her. His father was distant from him after that and the two weren't really close despite Kenan's attempts to impress him. So Kenan lacks that strong connection while still clearly loving both of them.

Pa Kent's death is one of the most tragic examples of Clark's love for his parents, and I've always been a fan of takes where Clark promises his father to fight for the powerless on Pa's deathbed. Kenan gets a similar scene at the start of his career, his dad "dies" (after being exposed as Flying General Dragon, a pro-democracy "supervillain" from the Chinese authorities perspective) and wants Kenan to promise he'll fight for Truth, Justice, and Democracy. But because Kenan's dad never really bonded with him, Kenan doesn't know what those mean, and can only promise that he never wants to see people die, something his father takes comfort in at least. In classic comic book fashion it's revealed that Dr. Omen, Kenan's "boss" and the one who gave him his powers, saved Kenan's father, because she is Kenan's mother! Kenan's relationship with his parents forms a lot of the crux of his character arc, and seeing how Yang utilizes the classic Superman concept of family kept the storytelling exciting.

Yang's brilliant exploration of the concept of "Superman" through the prism of Chinese culture was a great way to differentiate Kenan as well.

I absolutely freaking love how he tied to the concept of Qi to the S-shield in particular. Connecting the shape of the shield with the way Kenan has acquired his powers along the path of the Bagua (eight trigrams used in Taoism that represent the fundamental principles of reality), with his octagon S-shield outline representing all eight principles together, was mindblowing! So was the idea of restricting Kenan's access to his powers unless he was actually acting in a Superman manner, that tied his character growth to his power growth in an entertaining manner. There were so many characters and concepts that meshed Chinese and DC lore together, like how Emperor Super-Man was Kenan's "Doomsday", they even recreated that iconic dual kill shot! The Chinese Wonder Woman Peng Deilan, being based on the Chinese Legend of the White Snake! There was even some Korean mythology referenced with the Aqua-Man member of the JLC "Dragonson".

Yang also managed to do a Superman Blue/Superman Red story with Super-Man Yin/Super-Man Yang!

Shameful that it took me a while to realize what Gene Yang was doing but once I caught on I was touched. You can tell how much Yang loved Superman and his mythology, and how he was excited to incorporate as much from Clark as he could, while still using it in a way that was solidly Kenan's. And not just Superman's mythology, but the history and lore of the entire DC Universe. I-Ching got to be brought in, fleshed out, and used as Kenan's mentor! The "Yellow Peril" villain from Detective Comics #1, the comic DC gets its name from was brought in and revamped as I-Ching's twin brother All-Yang! Hats off to Yang for taking a racist caricature and attempting to make him into something more.

This series was a beautiful attempt by Gene Yang to build a space for Asian heroes and villains where they could be more than stereotypes, Kenan himself being a defiant mold-breaker in every regard as the complete opposite of most Asian characters in Western media (a jock, a bully, loves his dad but not on great terms with him, a powerhouse as a hero, etc). So much thought and hard work was poured into this by Yang and his team of artist collaborators.

Especially the costumes, man Kenan had so many great looks. From his starting outfit (which is my favorite Superman variant not worn by Clark himself), to the one with the Yin/Yang shield he acquired later on, to his Super-Man Yin & Super-Man Yang outfits, Kenan looked damn cool. Part of me is bummed they didn't go with the Chinese character shield they toyed around with, but I loved how Yang used the "s-shield" as a plot point, so I'm not too broken up over it.

All that great work Yang did to build that space up has been more or less forgotten sadly. It was nice to see Kenan in the DC Asian Month Celebration issue. Avery is going to be in Justice Incarnate at least (unsurprising considering she was created by Williamson). So fucking bummed that Superman Family Adventures cartoon didn't happen, they were going to have Kenan and John Henry Irons in it! Would've been a dream come true for me to see Irons in animation again, and Kenan making the jump to outside media! Maybe that would've encouraged DC to let Yang keep writing New Super-Man, or at least encouraged them to use him elsewhere instead of allowing him fall into Limbo.

Unfortunately I'm not sure what the future holds for Kenan. Jon is being pushed as Clark's replacement in the comics, with DC keeping all the other contenders such as Kon benched. Calvin is leading the Justice Incarnate team likely due to the upcoming Coates reboot that will make Clark black. Val will probably get something once Taylor leaves Jon's book or once they officially announce the HBO Max show is happening. So where does that leave Kenan, my new favorite PoC legacy hero? Currently my only hope is that Yang is working on something for DC involving him. Yang left Batman/Superman, where I was hoping to see a Baxi/Kenan team up, to go work on "exciting other opportunities" per his Twitter. So fingers crossed that there's something in the works for Kenan!

One day I hope he gets his day in the sun again.

[eulohani]

⟨ 𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐓𝐈 𝐑𝐀𝐇𝐌𝐀𝐍. 𝐂𝐈𝐒 𝐅𝐄𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐄. 𝐒𝐇𝐄/𝐇𝐄𝐑 ⟩ though the mist might prevent some from seeing it, 𝐍𝐎𝐎𝐑 𝐋𝐎𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐈 is actually a descendent of Λ P Ή Я Ө D I Ƭ Σ. it’s still a question of whether or not the 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄 year old 𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐌𝐀𝐉𝐎𝐑 from 𝐒𝐘𝐃𝐍𝐄𝐘, 𝐀𝐔𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐀��has taken after their godly parent completely, but the demigod is still known to be quite 𝐄𝐗𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐃 & 𝐈𝐌𝐏𝐔𝐋𝐒𝐈𝐕𝐄.

HELLO, i am just going to keep adding to this buttt it will be a bunch of rambly bullet points bc that’s what i’m best at, but this is my favorite muse noor, my baby demon, i’d love to plot over at lil leo#1807 on discord !!! 

𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐒 / 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵

full name: noor jade lohani pronunciation: nôr jeid low-han-ee meaning of name: 

noor — divine light jade — after the stone, representing wisdom, clarity, justice & courage

aliases: tbd age: 23 date of birth: july 23rd, 1997. place of birth: sydney, australia  zodiac sign: leo sun / taurus rising / scorpio moon species: demigod race: bengali  nationality: australian  gender: cisfemale sexuality: bisexual profession: streamer

height: 4′11 weight: 115 lbs eyes: grey hair: deep black build: athletic petite  voice: raspy & comforting, almost musical, hint of an australian accent traits: both of her ears are fully pierced, nostril & nippies, red dragon tattoo on her hand along with a few minimalist ones on her fingers, garlic bread on her left upper butt cheek, louise bunny ears just above her elbow on the back of her bicep ( w vincent having a linda one ), matching tattoos with scarlett ( the sun ), a mural full back tattoo

education: art history major.  literacy: 99.5% languages: french, latin, bengali, greek.  disorders: N/A. habits: biting her lip, toying with her necklaces, not able to stay still. 

positive: self confident, adventurous, fearless, loyal.  neutral: curious, determined, protective.  negative: flighty, private, manipulative, messy. 

moral alignment: chaotic netural  jung: ENFP enneagram: primary is eight four temperaments: sanguine tropes: spoiled brat, the final girl, damsel out of distress, dragon lady, fangirl, rose with thorns archetypes: the rebel tarot cards: the sun, the lovers, the empress, page of wands, ace of cups, seven of swords, nine of pentacles

compassion: 5/10. empathy: 7/10. creativity: 8/10.  mental flexibility: 7/10. passion: 10/10. stamina: 9/10. physical strength: 8/10.  battle skill: 10/10.  agility: 10/10. strategy: 10/10. teamwork: 7/10. charisma: 9/10. reflexes: 9/10.  willpower: 7/10. luck: 6/10.

𝐁𝐈𝐎 / background

noor was born to a very, very rich father who didn’t often pay attention to her but did make sure she was always occupied with something other than his time. she didn’t mind, never resenting he dad for it rather seeing it as a better deal in life for her

she was always taught to defend herself though, that was something her father was always ridiculously adamant about. noor took a lot of classes outside of school, physical and mental

when she found out who her mother really was, she understood why — and she often wished she had more fear than her father did. or even matched his own, slowly becoming more distant from him, feeling like a secret was hidden from her that could of been told long before she was ready to leave for camp

in school she didn’t really have friends outside of social events, so she confided in her studies and random lore she was interested in. this is when she actually became encapsulated in where she truly came from, her mother’s history, trying to find a way to reach the goddess but always falling flat in her efforts

after losing trust in not only her parents, but what she knew to be friends, she became more defensive over herself for truly anything, sometimes so much it drove her insane 

her mother finally came to claim her at thirteen, when happened upon a monster encounter that was too close to write off as a mere side affect. at first, noor was pissed, wondering why she hadn’t come for her earlier. in true aphrodite fashion, she barely gave her much answer but ultimatum and matching her ferocity. when she left for camp it almost felt like an escape, the one place she belonged & felt like she could relate to somebody. realizing there was nothing else for her, she stayed

noor adjusted immediately to campus, her major coming as easy as her tie to her mother, always wanting to pursue something other than general education in high school 

in the security of campus lines, she felt as if she had no reason to feel normal ever again, or like she had to meet other’s standards. she did everything she could to find quests, commit herself to her destiny as a demigod 

𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘 / tid bits

absolutely effortlessly candid, noor is really see through when it comes to her emotions. she can’t hide things, but often that’s one of her downfalls 

such a people person, she often knows someones deepest secrets when first meeting them because she gives off an extremely comforting energy 

wears & makes body jewelry, often on her waist / sternum / thighs: x

has trouble being wrong >:( 

she loves to LEARN !!!!! 

loyal yet selfish and Annoying

nature wh*re

loves to make people feel good but if she yells at you bc she thinks you need it that’s your fault 

MAYB intimidating ?? sometimes... yes

very 90s with her style, little tops big pants, little braids in her hair, necklaces always stacking gold on her neck 

big ol’ nerd, has gone to hella conventions, streams on the lowkey probably has a tik tok w hella followers strictly bc of that

4′11 

has made it her basic life mission to be apart of as many quests as possible, has only gotten one of her own but noor has charmspeaked her way to accompany more than a few demigods on theirs

sports duel daggers: x  

brat brat brat brat 

v traveled, v into film and such

smells like lemons and honey

noor has SOME sort of beef with every one of her sisters ( she is her mother’s daughter )

insecure lowkey

alexa play harry styles golden

  𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓 | 𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐓 | 𝐀𝐄𝐒 | 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 | 𝐕𝐈𝐄𝐖𝐒

[mst3kproject]

Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules

This here Sword-And-Sandal epic was directed by Guido Malatesta, who wrote the screenplay for Colossus and the Headhunters, and stars Margaret Lee, of Secret Agent Super Dragon; Luciano Marin, of Hercules and the Captive Women; and Andrea Aureli, of The Loves of Hercules. Clearly this one is fully qualified, even without the hilariously unconvincing monsters that peer out of every corner.  My copy is an ancient VHS that looks like sun-baked shit and for some reason has no title card.

A tribe of cavemen, who I will call the Sun Tribe, are migrating south to escape the ice age.  They reach the edge of the glacier, I guess, and build a village, but soon find themselves being menaced from multiple angles.  There’s a stupid monster puppet living in the local lake, and another tribe already making their home nearby, the Moon Tribe, who have a strict anti-immigration policy.  Lucky for them, Maxus the Son of Hercules happens to be in the area, and he’s all about fighting monsters and protecting the rights of refugees!  Lots of people swing Styrofoam clubs and throw fake spears at each other, more terrible puppet things show up so Maxus can kill them, and I sit and think about how Cave Dwellers would be a much better title for this movie than it was for Cave Dwellers.

Holy fuck, you guys, this movie is so bad.  It has its dull stretches but most of them don’t go on too long, and whenever something is actually happening it is hilariously awful.  I could fill this whole review with a bullet list of the moments that made me laugh.

We’ll start with the dubbing, which critic Howard Hughes (not that Howard Hughes) described as the worst of all time.  He clearly hasn’t seen Gamera vs Guiron but it’s still really bad.  It’s not so much the performances, which are kind of crappy but no more so than in a thousand other lousy imported movies.  It’s the lipsync, or rather, the lack thereof.  Nobody made any effort to match the English dialogue to the way the actors’ mouths move. Sometimes it’s distracting. Sometimes it’s funny as hell. Sometimes it’s annoying. Sometimes it loops right back around to being funny again.  The best part is that to re-release Maciste Contro i Mostri as Fire Monsters against the Son of Hercules, they had to dub the name Maxus over every occurrence of Maciste.  The guy they hired to do so has a voice several notes higher than the original dub actor for Maciste, and introduces himself like he’s on a phone sex line.

The onscreen cast are pretty bad, too.  The actors look like they belong in the ice age about as much as anybody in Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell belonged in the Hyperborean.  They’re all standing around dressed in fun fur and those cow rugs you can buy at IKEA, and they all look kind of awkward and embarrassed about it.  Maxus has an amusing henna pompadour and his primary facial expression is the ever-popular smug smirk.  The women wander around in fake leather miniskirts and bouffant hairdos like they have no idea what they’re doing here.  The cannibal tribe wear little horns on their heads, like they’re Vikings who haven’t invented helmets yet.

The monsters are unbelievably bad.  I can’t actually think of an adjective to describe how magnificently terrible they are. They’re the fakest, fabricky-est puppets I have ever seen in a movie.  The first water dragon Maxus slays looks like a cheap plush toy version of that thing from The Neverending Story. Another is represented by stock footage of what I think is a perentie lizard, which is only seen in a cutaway because they couldn’t be bothered to back-project it.  A three-headed cave dragon looks like a hand puppet you’d buy on eBay and leave a bad review about because it fell apart the moment you took it out of the box.  It looks like it’s made of construction paper and felt.  It makes The Loves of Hercules look like Jurassic Park.  The screencap doesn’t do it justice.  You’d need to see this thing in motion to truly understand just how stupefyingly shoddy it really is.

Oh, and despite the title of the movie being Fire Monsters, not one of these stupid things breathes fire.  I am both disappointed and relieved, in that I would have loved to see it but if they’d tried it on this budget they would probably have burned their sets down.

This delicious chocolate icing of badness is slathered on the rich, gooey cake of what actually happens in the movie, almost all of which is ridiculous.  Maxus fights a bunch of boneless water serpent creatures while the camera pays loving attention to his crotch.  There’s a bit where several people theatrically lose their balance on a log bridge and fall into the ravine one after another, and it’s funnier every time.  Maxus and his love interest get buried up to their necks as a form of punishment and people stand around throwing things at them but never hit them because nobody in this movie can aim.  Then they’re freed by a random earthquake that just happens to split the ground right where they are.  I was staying with my parents at the time I first saw this movie, and to keep from waking them up in the wee hours with my laughter I had to munch pillows like a vampire wedding night.

But I’m not here to laugh – or at least, not only to laugh – I’m here to analyze.  Believe me when I say that very little in Fire Monsters against the Son of Hercules merits analysis, and even less is intended to be analyzed.  The movie tries to set up a dichotomy between the two tribes. Our heroes, the Sun Tribe, worship fire and the sun god, live outdoors in wattle huts, and hold religious observances during the day.  The bad guys, the Moon Tribe, worship the moon goddess, wear seashells and live in caves around an underground river, and sacrifice at night.  Sun/Moon, Fire/Water, Day/Night, Peace/War, Light/Darkness, and to some extent Male/Female.  It’s a list of opposites, so simplistic that I really can’t think of anything more to say than just to write them out.  I doubt any deeper meaning was intended by it.

If I want something to actually talk about, Maxus never has an arc (I guess being the son of a demigod, he’s already perfect), but some of the minor characters do.  The young chief of the Sun Tribe is supposed to be growing into that role, though he leaves most of the actual heroing to Maxus and it’s unclear how old he’s supposed to be (Luciano Marin was thirty-one when the movie was released). There is an interesting bit where he rails at the sun god for his misfortunes and is warned against it, but whether the gods actually exist or are active in this universe remains mysterious.  It is true that a convenient eclipse halts a series of sacrifices, and that Maxus is saved by the volcano, but these could just be coincidences.

The odd thing about these two events, now that I think about it, is that while among the humans the Sun Tribe just want to live peacefully while the Moon Tribe wants to make war, their gods seem to have the opposite idea.  If the eclipse (portrayed by effects people who clearly have no idea what an eclipse of the moon actually looks like) is the goddess’ doing, it is a frightening but peaceful intervention.  Her worshippers asked for a sign, and she sent one that she does not approve.  If the volcano is the work of the sun god, it is a catastrophic event that destroys the Moon Tribe’s home and livelihood, and kills many of the tribesmen.  Not to mention that the main villain dies when the solar idol falls over and literally crushes him.  Who’s advocating violence now?

I’ve gotten distracted, though.  Getting back to the characters – the Sun Tribe’s leader is secondary not only to Maxus, but to Moa, the deposed rightful leader of the Moon Tribe. Moa probably gets more screen time than any other single character, and has the best claim, after Maxus, to main-character-hood.  Her father and brothers have been murdered by the evil Fuan, who now wants to cement his claim to being legitimately in charge by marrying her, but she can’t stand him.  I think she’s supposed to be one of those Strong Female Characters, but if so she’s a pretty half-assed effort.

For starters, while her introduction makes a big deal of her lost inheritance, she never does anything to try to reclaim it until Maxus turns up inside the caves. You’d think she could nurse a rebel cell biding its time or something, but all she does is sit on her shapely bottom and refuse to marry Fuan.  I’m left with the impression that while she may be the obvious genetic heir, she actually doesn’t have any support base. The rest of the Moon Tribe prefers Fuan for some reason, and she’s left to sit there and pout and wait for a man to save her.

At the end of the movie, Maxus tells Moa that her job now is to make peace between her people and the Sun Tribe.  One might expect the usual trope in which she does so by marrying the Sun Tribe’s leader, who is much more polite and less hairy than Fuan.  He’s already got a wife, though, and saving her from the sacrificial block was a big part of his motivation.  It’s no surprise, then, that Moa instead chooses to walk off into the sunset with Maxus. I guess she’s learned that nice girls don’t want political power.

That’s all pretty lousy, but the rest of the movie is all so deliriously fucking awful that there’s no point in taking it seriously, even as an example of shitty gender politics.  Give this one a watch if you can.  It’s a guilty pleasure, but a pleasure nonetheless.