#I think about this more every time someone saids their favorite character because getter is the series that fucks everyone over

[no1ryomafan]

I really wish getter fandom at least eng wise was bigger so I could hypothetically calculate the fans of each character even if it’s very clear Ryoma and Hayato are the most dominant-mainly Ryoma but Hayato fans aren’t uncommon-but I love how like OG characters are arguably the most popular due to these two mainly yet in most canons get doomed by the narrative:

-Ryoma is absorbed into the getter or is left to fight it forever

-Hayato is usually the one who makes it to the end but at the cost of being alone

-Musashi has it the worst by being designated dead character, he always dies no matter what

-Benkei just the guy that’s there for all the Musashi fans after he dies (but sometimes he dies too)

-Saotome family is Saotome family, at least two or all of them die by the end

And then the other teams and cast only get super screwed in the manga but go team pretty much got a good ending every single time anime wise even if we never got the proper versions of them adapted.

[theliterateape]

We Killed Jason Todd

By Matt Markman

In 1988 my friends and I killed a kid.

He was just a boy really. We had help it wasn’t just me and my pals. there were adults involved, lots of them. I mean we were young we were just thirteen and really couldn’t comprehend the ramification of our actions, the adults knew what they were doing. I’m painting it to sound way more sinister than it was, and in today’s society, wouldn’t trend on Twitter but maybe in the ’80s, it was probably considered quite ominous.

To set your mind at ease, it was Jason Todd. You know, Batman's sidekick, The Boy Wonder, Robin—well, the second Robin anyways. And I helped kill him.

I was big into comic books but my favorite was, The Dark Knight, The Caped Crusader, The Batman… He donned the best costume, he had all the money and was the most intelligent of all the superheroes. That last trait right there, the fact that he was considered a superhero and he had no actual super powers made him cooler than the other side of the pillow. You know how The Big Bang Theory has convinced the world it’s an Emmy-winning sitcom worth watching? I think it’s the fact that Batman was someone any one of us could actually be. Sure we needed to start with a base coat of genius followed by a splash of handsome billionaire playboy then train overseas in martial arts for several years, but if you had those things you, too, could be a vigilante. You ask me today and I'd stand by the fact that Batman would beat Superman in a fight, say ten out of ten times. This is not debatable because super beings from another planet are not real.

My favorite thing about Batman, though, is his ability to balance out good and evil. He spawned one of the greatest comic book villains and fictional characters ever created, The Joker. They have tried and tried again but in my opinion never got close to the Clown Prince of Crime—maybe Negan from The Walking Dead, he's pretty ruthless. The Joker is what would happen if a stand-up comedian became a criminal mastermind, so basically the plot of the 2019 film Joker.

My love for Joker made sense because growing up I was always more into the bad guys than the good guys. Watching and playing with G.I.Joe, I was always on the side of Cobra Commander, the twins Tomax and Xamot, and Zartan because they were always more glamorous and eye-catching than the boring ass Joes. Just once, I’d like that “knowing is half the battle” part at the end of the cartoon to have been Storm Shadow giving us kids a tip on how to fuck up Shipwreck and his stupid Parrot. Megatron, Skeletor, Shredder, Mumm-ra…

The list goes on, but the antagonists always resonated with me. they had a much better and more intriguing agenda than the good guys did. I know that wasn't the purpose, we were supposed to cheer on the good guys, like the idea of saving the world and all, but the mayhem… It’s like Alfred Pennyworth said, “Some men just want to watch the world burn.” It’s odd because the bad guys in my life were real, the bullies and I didn't like them at all. They tormented me daily unprovoked because I was short and had big ears. Perhaps my love for the dark side stemmed for my desire to be on that side because in real life there was no Superman swooping in to rescue me from the clutches of Lex Luthor. 

There were two sides, and good had a lack of champions looking out for the weaker, smaller good guys. The bad guys in my neighborhood, well, they were real and never really foiled and more importantly, they always got the girl in the end. Fuck the good guys!

My admiration for evildoers achieving their agenda was tested in 1988, Batman was running a four-part series called A Death in the Family. It was your typical Batman arc. Somehow, The Joker was going to get the upper hand on The World’s Greatest Detective only to be bested in the end by Batman. But this time, the third comic decided to do something nobody had never seen in the industry. The writers were going to give the fans the opportunity to decide where they were going to go with the story, only it was an option between two different roads, one quite unconventional. Apparently a few years earlier, one of the writers, Dennis O'Neil, had seen a sketch they did on SNL where Eddie Murphy held up a Lobster—Larry the Lobster—and was asking viewers to decide whether Larry was boiled and eaten or was to be set free. The choices were offered in the form of two phone numbers both costing fifty cents a call. One number was a vote for him to be freed and the other number was a vote for Larry to be murdered, smothered in butter, and devoured by Axel Foley. Ultimately, after nearly 500,000 calls, the people voted for Larry the lovable lobster to be pardoned with a 12,000 call margin. The popularity of this bit intrigued O'Neil and A few years later he decided to implement it in his Death in The Family storyline.

In the third book, The Joker had taken Batman's sidekick, the Boy Wonder, hostage. He’d beaten him bloody with a crowbar leaving a cliffhanger to be wrapped up in the fourth book. The last page of the comic was full page and at the top read in true ’80s Do the Right Thing fashion: “Robin will die because The Joker wants revenge, but you can prevent it with a telephone call!” They even phrased it to steer you down the hero’s path, like you can literally be Batman with one phone call. Underneath the imploring verbiage were two numbers, dial one number; The Joker fails and Robin lives, Batman would once somehow saves the day. However, call this other number and The Joker succeeds and Robin dies. Gruesomely.

Wow! They were going to let the fans decide the fate of Robin, really this was one of my earliest introductions to a reality voting competition type show. In my opinion, it was a bad idea. Robin was always the worst. Go back and read through an adventure or two involving Jason Todd and tell me he wasn't always whiney and bellyaching. He was never going to be iconic or cool like Bruce Wayne or even his predecessor Dick Grayson—the first Robin. See, Dick got pissed off, decided he was tired of being in Batman's shadow, ditched the Robin costume, threw on a black blue and gold costume, moved to another city and became Nightwing. Dick was a go getter, ambitious. Grayson’s Robin was a winner, Todd's Robin was an irritating little bitch; he was not an innocent lobster.

I went to my mother and asked if I could make a call that was going to cost just fifty cents and I would pay her back or she could just take it out of my allowance. She wanted to know what it was for and mostly wanted to confirm it wasn't for an adult sex line, which costs more than fifty cents a minute, but that’s a different story. It was nothing as tawdry as phontercourse, I just wanted to help murder an annoying teenage sidekick. My mother response was “Oh, yeah, that’s fine.”

I think after it was exposed that it wasn't phone sex anything else I said went in one ear and out the other, surely she didn't think I was actually voting for a plucky comic book sidepiece to be murdered by The Joker. So that’s what I did. I cast my vote along with a majority of DC comic book fans that shared my detest for the boy wonder. Ten thousand votes were recorded with a narrow margin going to Robin dying. I think the writers never suspected that fans would go that route.

O’Neal himself voted for Robin’s stay of execution. A man of his word, Batman issue #429 was released and Robin was killed by The Joker in an explosion and we were to blame for it. Sad to say but you give a bunch of comic book nerds the power I think it would go bad every time. That day we were all proud to be The Joker's henchmen. I felt like a soldier at the end of Star Wars cheering madly while The Joker received his metal shouting, “I helped that happen!”

So many shows these days embrace our fascination with the anti-hero with the success of The Sopranos, The Shield, Breaking Bad, hell Narcos had me rooting for Pablo Escobar—Pablo fucking Escobar. I wouldn't say I was a bad person growing up. Quite the contrary, I was a shy nerd with no power to do anything but pick my books up after they were smacked to the ground. What I’m saying is don't give me the power to make important life or death decisions with your franchise because myself and the other dorks will have the bodies of Orko, Snarf, and Jimmy Olson lying in a shallow grave, just tell me what number to dial… or text.

Matt started performing standup comedy in 2004 in Las Vegas and is now a regular at every major comedy club on the Las Vegas strip. He released his first comedy album in 2016 titled Uncut available on iTunes. More about Matt and his upcoming appearances can be found on MattMarkman.com.

[hoodlessmads]

Thoughts on Bloom Into You: Regarding Saeki Sayaka Vol. 3

I finally finished the Sayaka light novels and I really enjoyed them. They’re not high art but they don’t have to be. I just love Sayaka.

It’s been long time since I’ve engaged with Bloom Into You (basically since the manga ended) and reading these novels has given me a chance to remember how much I love the characters. Especially the titular character herself. (Well, technically Touko is my favorite character in Bloom Into You, but that’s a given since my favorites are always the emo disasters. Otherwise, the best character is obviously Sayaka.)

Why is Sayaka so great anyway? A lot of reasons, I think. I love her in the manga, but these novels really bring out her likable qualities by putting us in her head. Hitoma Iruma’s first-person Sayaka is exquisitely spot on and if you like Sayaka, it’s bound to be a joy to read just for that alone. I love how overly serious and reserved Sayaka is, traits that she has had since childhood but that have been compounded after experiencing multiple heartbreaks. But also how she constantly tries to be brave and change herself, even when she fails at doing so out of fear. And I love how lowkey judgy and snobby she is. But actually, at her core, Sayaka is just a very soft, kind, and good girl (Best Girl) who craves being loved and appreciated, whether she realizes it or not. She needs someone to break through that reserved shell. I just want someone to give her a hug all the time and love her.

Which brings me to the third novel, which was a joy to read simply because someone actually loves and appreciates Sayaka (romantically) in it. I feel pretty ambivalent about Haru as a character, but I’m okay with that because all I really care about is that she loves Sayaka. Well, appreciates her, at least. Here we have a character that finally fawns over Sayaka the way she has always deserved, damn it.

I know that Haru’s personality is really different from Yuu’s, but literally every time I looked at the illustrations of her I swear I could not see a different character. My brain was just like, “Yuu,” every time. Was that intentional, Nakatani-sensei? Was it? Because no one ever points out that the two of them look alike in the book itself, which makes me think she wasn’t intended to look like Yuu necessarily and Nakatani Nio designed her that way after the fact. I’m probably wrong. But like. Did they really just slyly ignore the glaring similarity in their appearance? Why does she look like Yuu anyway? Was Nakatani Nio trying to troll us, ship tease us, hint at something, or did she just have a hard time coming up with a more original design? (That last one, I doubt.) Plus there were literally multiple instances in this book where characters insinuate that there’s some kind of a thing between Sayaka and Yuu. Sayaka vehemently denies it both times, but it all feels a little “she doth protest too much” to me. I SWEAR TO GOD, STOP TEASING ME. I ship Sayaka and Yuu a lil bit so the ship tease is sending me.

I think one of the reasons I found it hard to differentiate between Haru and Yuu is not just her appearance, but the fact that I don’t feel like we ever get to know that much about her. In Bloom Into You, the relationships are so compelling because we really get to know them, their fears, their flaws, their regrets, their quirks. We don’t really get to know much about Haru except that she’s a lesbian, that she likes Sayaka, and that she’s a hyperactive go-getter. Granted, a light novel offers a lot less room to develop an original character, but still. The novel was 225 pages and focuses entirely on the two of them. I think there was plenty of room.

Also, Haru herself never really gives us much information about why she likes Sayaka other than that she likes her face, which is a funny running gag in the series, but still. The whole point of this novel, for me, was that I wanted someone to appreciate Sayaka for who she is. I think it’s clear that Haru does like Sayaka for her personality and not just her looks, but I wanted to know more about that. Since the novel doesn’t really explore the things they like about each other very much, it doesn’t make for a very compelling relationship, in my opinion.

But again, Sayaka is happy, she has a girlfriend, Haru likes her, all is well.

The second volume of this series gave me a newfound appreciation for Sayaka and Touko’s friendship, which is often fraught in the manga and gives off an impression that the two of them could never get closer because they didn’t really understand each other. A sort of genuine-ingenuine friendship. But reading that novel, I was able to look back on the manga with a new view of their relationship. They really did care about each other and they were genuinely close. If not for that unfortunate unrequited love situation, they could have really been best friends.

I was happy to see their friendship continue in the third novel, even though it makes me really sad to have it implied that their relationship has sort of concluded. I think it was a well-done conclusion, for what it’s worth. As sad as it makes me, it feels appropriate that their friendship would pretty much fade after this point. Sometimes things that are said can’t be unsaid, things are too awkward, and too many scars remain. It’s just how it is. Everyone goes through changing and fading relationships at some point.

I think it’s funny and so very Sayaka that she’s been dating Haru for like...eight months or something by the end of the novel and she’s still like, “No, no, it’s way too soon for sex, that would be so indecent!” and meanwhile Touko and Yuu went at it like basically right away. I find it hilarious to imagine Sayaka’s reaction to this. She would be so scandalized. 

Actually, there were several moments in the third novel where I really felt like Sayaka’s situation mirrored Yuu’s with regards to having someone confess to them and not really being sure how they felt about it but not outright rejecting it either. Their situation was uncannily similar, in fact, and I thought Sayaka really could have used talking to Yuu about it and getting her perspective. But then I realized that Sayaka still doesn’t know like, basically anything about Yuu and Touko’s relationship, and I get the vibe that that is intentional on her part. You can tell by the end of the novel, post-Haru, Sayaka is feeling much more comfortable with the idea of knowing things Yuu and Touko’s intimate relationship, but up until then she is understandably extremely sore about it. If she found out what Yuu and Touko had actually been up to during that period when she was still gathering the courage to confess, and found out that they had actually been involved for way longer than she realized, like all through her second year of high school, I’m sure that would sting like hell.

I think that’s it for my thoughts. It was fun seeing some of the other characters besides Sayaka post-series, if only briefly. Being greedy, I wish that Sayaka got better than Dollar Tree Yuu as a love interest (like really? she has to get the discount version of Touko’s love interest? jk) but I like Haru well enough, and I think these novels are well-written overall. Having Sayaka find the happiness she has always wanted with her a girl who genuinely loves her is the best way to conclude the Bloom Into You franchise that I could think of. A very satisfying send-off.

Of course, when I say conclusion to the franchise, I do mean not counting the SECOND SEASON OF THE ANIME ARE YOU READING THIS TROYCA HEY WAIT DON’T IGNORE ME YOU CAN’T IGNORE THIS WHERE IS SEASON 2 DON’T BLOCK ME I KNOW YOu’RE MA

[techouspeaks]

Healin Good Precure Final Verdict and thoughts on Tropical Rouge Precure!

First off, sorry I haven’t been around that much to even talk about Healin Good. First, I just kinda lost interest in doing reviews for a while and then some personal snit just had to be thrown in when I really wanted to discuss somethings. So this review is kinda gonna be slightly unorganized but I’ll do my best and I’m really sorry about Precuruary again not being this year. This past year has been whoo! Just yeah...Anyway! I will try to be more active when I can be but I can’t make any promises right now. So onto the review! 

I know every year I’ve said that each precure seems a little better than the previous ones in some aspects. Like for example, Star Twinkle I felt was a little better than Hugtto in terms of overall enjoyment and characters, but it lacked developing the plot and the lackluster in the personality of the princesses. They could have had each princess have the certain traits expected from their signs such as Virgo being a perfectionist and Aries being hot tempered. 

Than again, maybe it’s cause I just think anything is better than Kira Kira! lol! I know I get a little harsh with that series. Given the other series that came before and after, can you blame me? There are better series than that. (In my opinion, anyway.)

Healin Good, I can definitely say this was a good ride for both plot, character, music and animation! Yes, the designs for the cures were a little lack luster and I still can’t help but get Cure Flora vibes from Grace, but eventually, I got used to it. In fact, while I know it was the anniversary of Yes Precure 5 Go Go!, I almost felt like they should have just made that into a separate movie and have Healin Good meet Go Princess since the cures there have a lot in common!

But of course being their own thing. They’re not copies of the GoPre girls, but they share definitely some things in common such as Cure Grace and Cure Flora’s flower theme, Cure Sparkle and Cure Twinkles love for fashion and star themes and Cure Fountain and Cure Mermaid for the water themes.

In terms of plot, it wasn’t like the most amazing plot ever, but it was decent and coherent. It was a serviceable plot that did the bare minimum and not be too crazy and outlandish and the morals at least made more sense unlike Twinkle. There was no getting grumpy dog people to learn to smile and be happy. 

Yes, the one thing that doesn’t make sense is how Cure Earth came to be and I will admit she as well as Fountain are the least interesting girls. I know people love Fountain/Chiyu! For me, blue cures have interesting stories but a personality that doesn’t fit it. They’re okay but I always feel like they’re just the cool kid that’s typically the responsible role model and nothing more, with the exception of Cure Marine and Cure Beauty, the later fits that role but she also has a bit more to her in terms of personality. The backstory for Fountain/Chiyu doesn’t make sense either. She sees the horizon line between the ocean and the sky and wants to jump that high. Then at first she’s just sees high jump as fun, which annoys a rival of hers and thus she’s pressured to like it more than just a school thing. It’s weird and almost complicated...

Cure Earth/Asumi is sorta a motherly kind of character since she’s in her 20s in appearance, but still a fish out of water. I’m glad they didn’t make her a teen so she had to go to school with the girls and she’s like the first adult main cure (Like I get Cure Flower, ancient cures and the Hugtto Cures, but I’m talking as in the main team member and not a side character type thing.) Which is nice, it shows that yes adults can be heroes. I mean we had adult superheroes all the time and the teen was just the less experienced side kick. 

As for personality, she’s a bit of a blank slate but I love her design! I know Green Cure and all wah, but hate to say it, the more people complain that there isn’t a green cure in every season, the more I’m kinda glad cause people get sooo uptight like they’re whitewashing a character or something. Like stop! It’s just a team color for Pete’s sake! Like even if they did her as a green cure, she’s kind of bland in personality so would you be happy with a green cure that’s sorta the blank slate?

I’m not saying she’s bad. She can be funny and it can be enjoying to watch her understand feelings and things since while an adult physically, she was basically born out of a whim and only knows how to talk and understand the basis of the Healing Garden as well as Princess Latte and Queen Teatinu. Shoot, she couldn’t even eat on her own.

My two favorite characters by far have to be Nodoka aka Cure Grace and Hinata aka Cure Sparkle. Hinata is just a fun character. She’s emotional, got a go getter attitude and I like the fact she’s into fashion but isn’t over the top annoying or particularly snobby, kinda like Cure Twinkle but different that Cure Twinkle has more of a professional attitude and higher skills, while Cure Sparkle is a bit clumsy and overly excited about everything. She has insecurities and flaws but thanks to Nodoka and Nyantoran, she gets over these rather quickly.

As for Nodoka, I know people are disappointed that her illness turned out nothing more than Daruzen, I don’t blame them for going this route. Yes, it kinda gives an unrealistic impression that the disease just simply needs to jump out of someone and they’ll be okay. I can’t help but think it might have backfired especially given the time since we had the you know what virus. So many kids were watching their families get destroyed and while, yes, it would be good to teach kids to stay strong and fight through it and that it takes time for people to recover fully, it could also be too overbearing for them as well if they happen to have a loved one who is sick or they themselves and are just constantly reminded of the suffering.

Put it short, there’s kind of no best way around it. You can either do it this way and there might be some kids that think well the virus can just jump out or do it the other way and risk kids getting depressed and anxious, which would be bad as depression and anxiety in kids has risen a lot since 2020. For me, I think kids are smarter than we give them credit. They are gonna be aware that stuff in cartoons/anime works differently than in the real world, so I feel like the route they took was better. It was already risky having the main character be sick and being put in the hospital to begin with.

With that being said, Nodoka is a good character for more reasons than her being sick and fighting an illness. She wants to be supportive because she needed support. Just because her illness turned out to be some alien germ from another dimension, doesn’t make her desire to help any less meaningful. She did suffer a lot, fought through pain and suffering through an unknown amount of time. Just cause she healed miraculously doesn’t make her suffering not real and her inspiration and influence on others less so.

Bottom line, it doesn’t matter how she healed, she still suffered, got inspire by those who helped her and thus inspired those to work hard on getting better. The message is still there.

But there is another thing that makes her special and that is when Nodoka told Daruzen off! That alone was the most inspiring thing ever done in a Precure series in a LONG time! It’s not just her standing up to a bully. She stood up to her abuser! And yes, I do like Daruzen and at first I thought they would be a cute couple, but I will admit when Daruzen took things too far and as someone that’s been sexually harassed and known people who were forced on, I can’t push forward with the ship or Daruzen for that matter. 

When Daruzen needed help, Nodoka pushed him away and then he outright made her feel bad about it. “I thought you were about helping others.” This is a tactic used by abusers, taking advantage of the kindness their victim usually has and congrats to Rabirin for being the best partner to a Precure. 

Nodoka holds no responsibility for Daruzen. He used her thus abused her, he caused so much pain not only onto her but to those around her. Put it short, Nodoka doesn’t owe Daruzen anything! That to me is one of the most important lessons to teach anyone especially young kids. It’s good to teach others to be kind and forgive folks, but if you don’t want to than don’t especially if they have done nothing but hurt you. Your health including mental health comes first above all else. It’s not selfish especially if the one needing help was selfish first and didn’t think about you in the long run.

So as much as I think that Daruzen X Nodoka could have been cute, I can’t help but applaud Toei for going this route instead. Especially these days, I feel it’s really important teach kids that it’s okay to think of what’s best for you, including putting a limit on helping people and setting boundaries. I’ve known even family members and friends that were in this situation where they had to stop helping someone, because that person took advantage of them and they had to put their foot down, cause they had to finally think of their own health and well being. It’s not selfish. It’s important to take care of yourself first!

Speaking of mascots, all the mascots are useful including Latte, which is the main mascot that is in peril the most since the villains make her sick. However, she is far from a passive pup as some people pass her off as. She does know when to put her paw down and even in the midst of her suffering, she does try when she can to help. Even go as far as refusing Nodoka’s care until she and Rabirin settle their differences to work together. She also has the ability to sense when the earth needs help and is the only animal that can do this. She also refuses Cure Earth’s/Asumi’s overly servitude towards her, showing she knows when to speak out about her own well being. True Latte doesn’t get too much to shine but when she does it’s rather welcomed.

Normally with mascots, I don’t care for them since they tend to be typically one note. The mascots for Healin Good are all memorable with their own personality  and they grow along side their respected cures. The only mascots I know that grew a lot was Yes! Precure 5/Go! Go’s Coco, Nuts and Milky, Go Princess Precure’s Aroma and Puffu. Mofurun only showed much growth in the movie where they became a cure. Though Mofurun is still more useful than the mascots in Kira Kira. (Yes, I will always take the opportunity to slam on that series!)

Speaking of Kira Kira...Oh boy. Well I was a little excited to finally have an ocean themed precure series with a mermaid, my excitement kinda dropped when I noticed the transformation compact and transformation. I’m gonna go a head and review the first episode since I watched it. 

I’ll first start off the with positives and move on to what I wouldn’t say are horrible things, but more so my overall concerns with it.

First, like others, I’m glad we got a lead cure that isn’t pink for once. This is a first since Splash Star Precure, whom I don’t think Cure Bloom counts. I mean in the first season, she kinda is pink, but then when she becomes Cure Bright her colors change so I kinda count her as being mix color, while Cure Dream was the first official Pink Cure.

I also like that while Manatsu/Cure Summmer is another happy go lucky type, she does have a bit more zest and isn’t the overall cutesy happy go lucky cures we’ve come to know. She’s different from Cure Star and Cure Yell, in which she’s happy go lucky in a more of a hot headed sense, than the cute, been bullied but still brave kid which was Cure Star and Yell.

Manatsu/Summer reminds me of Lina Inverse from Slayers and other similar red head characters from that era, which makes sense she is a red head. (Least Manatsu is).

The transformation and battle scenes are better too. I was worried that because the pact and start of the transformation looked so similar to Kira Kira, I was worried it would be exactly the same but it’s different enough it seems. My only gripe is that maybe Cure Summer’s final pose at the end for her transformation sequence could have been a bit more dramatic. Her pose look lack luster compared to the rest of her transformation.

The animation in Cure Summer’s attack is amazing but the 3D part of is a little distracting somewhat. I feel like the sun could have been done in 2D. Other than that, animation is gorgeous! Bright and colorful with nice detailing within the characters and background.

I also can’t help adore Cure Coral/Sango’s design and character. She hasn’t appeared that much, but already I kinda already adore her! She’s so precious and I can tell she’s already gonna be a fan favorite among many! I also like how she seems sweet and quiet but isn’t shy either. She’s rather just down to earth, just doing her own thing but still being polite. Refreshing take especially on a purple cure!

Now onto my issues with it. Starting with a bit too many similarities to Kira Kira such as the transformation pact and the overly energetic, silly theme. I don’t mind silly when it’s balanced out right. For me, it’s a bit too crazy and kinda the issue I had with Cure Princess and sometimes Cure Marine. I get that it’s about motivation VS procrastination. I hope they work it out to teach kids there’s an importance of both. Just teach that you need a bit of balance. Right now, it’s just not. Manatsu kinda gets on my nerves a little bit and then you have Laura...

I kinda have mix feelings about Laura. On one hand, I do relate to her. She’s a little vain and I like the fact that despite being a main character, she’s actually quite selfish! Her whole desire to do this mission is out of hope that she’ll be the next Queen, which apparently, the current Queen isn’t her mom I guess, but she’s chosen to be in line and she seems to want to be Queen simply for the selfish reason to be praised and adored, not cause she wants to help her people. I like this for the fact that it makes her far different from Cure Milky/Lala, whom many have said she was probably a little too responsible for her age, but I digress, Lala/Cure Milky is one of my favorite cures. 

What I’m concern is the fact that Laura will outshine the cures and take over the spotlight especially when she becomes a Cure. There’s no denying this will happen especially since it’s been confirmed the Midseason Cure is called Cure Le Mer, which is her last name. She seems to already outshine the mascot for the series Kururun, who is the first mascot to not meet the lead cure in the first episode because the poor thing barely gets any screen time!

I noticed this especially when the products for the series came out that Kururun is barely in any of the merchandise. I guess after focusing so much on the mascots for three seasons, having at least one be the token mascot to save all humanity, they decided “Eh, lets just make a mermaid the star seller and just have the mascot be squeezed in for those who want a stuffed animal.”

I get that the Midseason cures tend to take over the spotlight anyway, but I don’t always agree. Cure Scarlet and Cure Earth kinda grew along side the other cures. Taking time for both them and another Cure or character to shine as well. With Laura, because she’s already part of the group, hopefully won’t  outshine  the cures, but being how much they merchandise and show her off, it’s looking a bit bleak for anyone who isn’t Manatsu/Cure Summer when Cure Le Mer takes the stage.

I also fear since the series was announce that Asuka/Cure Flamingo maybe too much like Cure Chocolate given how her design is similar. I love her design, her’s is my favorite design of the bunch, but you can’t deny she looks like Cure Chocolate with longer hair. I hope they give her and the other cures more personality and growth especially before Laura becomes a cure.

Other than those gripes, I don’t hate it and do like some things about it. Maybe I’m just used Healin Good’s more relaxed theme that I’m kinda skeptical for this more wild, eccentric series. Maybe it will grow on me in time. Hoping it does since as said, been wanting an ocean themed Precure series with mermaids in it for a looong time!

Without further a due, I give Healin Good Precure 8 out of 10 stars. Won’t rate Tropical Rouge Precure until the end of the season. Seeya in the next review!

8 Stars Level: “Great!”

[jebazzled]

SOOO the Drama: Making it Work with Tragic Backstories

Hi everyone, how are we doing? It’s been a while since my last unsolicited tutorial. Is everyone eating well? Is everyone drinking water? Dressing warmly if it’s cold wherever you live? 

Today we’ll be talking about tragic backstories, and how to use them rather than abuse them. 

This tutorial will mention a number of triggers, though not with great detail - more in the interest of providing context. 

Specific triggers mentioned: abandonment, verbal abuse, child neglect, car accident, transphobia, animal death, cheating, bullying, parental death

In the rp community we often joke about loving to put our characters through hell - about really running them ragged - making ourselves weepy. For a lot of us, writing Heavy Emotional Content is a lot more fun than fluff, or characters who are happy, fulfilled, and well-adjusted. I’m literally planning to kill off one of my characters in the next couple of weeks. I get it. 

But there’s also a fair amount of discourse in the rp community about what is pejoratively called “trauma porn.” It’s discourse that is warranted! Because while we love fictional drama, the truth is that sometimes...

well, sometimes it can be too much, can’t it? 

Here’s the thing about trauma: a tragic backstory does not a well-developed character make. Too often, too many of us lean on these traumatic histories as a crutch towards building a character, without meaningfully exploring that trauma with any depth. The truth is, in fiction, tragedy only builds character when when you do. And tragedy is far from the only way to create a nuanced character. 

In this tutorial, we will examine common approaches to character backstories, alternatives to tragedy-as-a-default, and figure out how to have your cake (the feels) and eat it too (with purpose.)

BUILD-A-BACKSTORY

In my experience, the most common approach to writing a freestyle application is writing a chronological history (you can read my app guides, including thots on alternative styles of freestyle, here). Ain’t nothing wrong with that! If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! 

It’s an approach that makes sense, as it forces you to fill in the blanks to answer the question: why is my character Like That? And often, as writers, our first instinct is to provide the saddest answer possible.

“Why is Susie so clingy?” 

Her parents abandoned her at a fire station when she was an infant, and rather than being raised in foster care, she grew up at the fire station. But the entire company that raised her died while fighting a wildfire, and she is certain that any time anyone walks away from her, they will never come back. 

“Why is Brent such a misogynist?” 

His mother never wanted him and told him so every day of his youth. When he hit puberty, she stopped speaking to him entirely, and the day he turned eighteen, she changed the locks while he was at school. 

“Why is Lichen such a high-achieving go-getter?” 

Lichen was born with glass bones and paper skin. Every morning they break their legs, and every afternoon they break their arms. At night, they lie awake in agony until their heart attacks put them to sleep.

Feels like a lot, doesn’t it? I may have done a little exaggeration, but - not a lot, frankly. 

Especially if other characters on a site are loaded with tragic histories, it can be hard not to equate a certificate from the school of hard knocks with a Pulitzer. You want something juicy to write about, yes? And this is all so juicy! 

But here’s the rub: often, these histories will never come up again outside of an application, or will not be practically dev’d out beyond shock value. Susie will never be reminded of Frank, the fireman who taught her to ride a bike. Brent will focus his sexist comments on objectifying women’s bodies rather than degrading their personalities and motives, which were the issues with his mother. Someone who didn’t read Lichen’s app would have no clue that they have had a total horror show of a life. 

If you are writing a tragic backstory that doesn’t have a continual impact on your character, you are writing trauma porn, and it is doing nothing for your character. 

This doesn’t mean that your characters should be fully and constantly occupied with memories of their trauma - in fact, constant introspection is an easy way to stall threads (per my “why aren’t people writing with me?” guide here) - but it does mean that if your answer to the question, “why is my character Like That” is a compelling one, it is one that a reader should be able to answer even if they haven’t read your app, if they’ve read a few of your threads or other writing. 

This is a careful balance, of course, but think of your characters the way you think of yourself! For example: probably the most Potentially Dramatic thing about my personal life is that my older sister is developmentally disabled, and I am one of her legal guardians. When my parents die, I will inherit my older sister, and will uproot my life from wherever I am living at the time to move back to my hometown and make sure she is taken care of and happy. This is not something that I constantly think about, but it is difficult to know me for any meaningful length of time and not be aware that I have a developmentally disabled sister, as I mention her in passing, think about her when her favorite music comes up on Spotify, and tell people to donate to her favorite charity, Special Olympics. 

If I were writing an app of myself as a character and spent a good portion of the app untangling my relationship with my sister, and then never mentioned her in any of my thread posts, then is she really important to my character? Or was I flexing her for depth?

Do you see what I am getting at here? If it matters, it will come up more than once. If it only comes up once, and it’s in your app, you should think of something to explain your character’s personality and motivations that is perhas a little less loaded. 

BUT WITHOUT THE SADS, HOW DO?

The good news is: you absolutely do not need a tragic backstory to write a nuanced character! Again - think of your characters the way you think of yourself, or of other real people. While everyone has gone through heavy things in their lives from time to time, chances are that your life does not resemble that of a soap opera protagonist. And aren’t you a multifaceted person, full of depth and life? Aren’t you someone whose story is worth telling, even if it feels like your life is pretty ordinary? 

After all, it’s not the past that makes a character - it’s the present, their current voice, actions, and missteps. That is where you want the real juice to be, because that is the shit you’re writing! 

Some potential “everyday histories” for our above cast of characters:

“Why is Susie so clingy?”

In elementary and middle school, Susie was bullied on and off - a few weeks spent hanging out with the in-crowd, followed by a month as a social pariah. She could never understand why. When she moved to a different state for high school, she attached herself like a barnacle to the clique the Tulips, and has made it her goal not to let herself get shaken back to the outskirts this time. 

This isn’t as dramatic as Susie’s earlier backstory - in fact, it could apply to any number of people, being passed between friend groups for years on end. But again: your character doesn’t need a one-of-a-kind daytime talk show-worthy backstory to have a unique and compelling history and voice! 

“Why is Brent such a misogynist?”

Brent’s mother never wanted children, and made it pretty clear to him throughout his youth. His father, though, as always there for him - including when his mother walked out and never came back, after cheating on Mr. Brent’s Dad for years. From then on, Brent and his dad only had each other - and their bitterness towards the woman who wronged them.

This still gives you some family drama - unloving mother, and some adultery - but having Brent be raised by someone who has their own beef with women eliminates the shock value of locking your son out merely for being a boy. Also, this take acknowledges misogyny as a learned behavior.

“Why is Lichen such a high-achieving go-getter?”

When their parents divorced, Lichen only came out to their mother as nonbinary, and presents a fully different persona when they are with their father. Being in the top 5% of their high school class and being a national champion Lincoln-Douglas debater is the only thing Lichen and (deadname) have in common. 

I acknowledge that Lichen’s previous story was a meme. The above story could be made much more intense (for example, if Lichen’s father were a member of the Westboro Baptist Church and then Lichen’s supportive mother dies in a freak accident and Lichen, unable to hide their true identity, is imprisoned in their father’s basement until they pretend to have seen the error of their ways and identify as cis again) but the above gives plenty to chew on! 

While drama and trauma can be satisfying to write, there is plenty of drama to be found in the everyday. Building a well-rounded character is much less about what happened to them and much more about what they are doing, thinking, and feeling now. 

That said, 

TIPS & TRICKS FOR WRITING TRAGIQUE CHARACTERS

Don’t go overboard. If it is not going to come up ever again after the app: leave it out. 

Impact is about the character, not the reader. If it was important enough to leave in the app, it should have an identifiable impact on your character. The main purpose cannot have been to shock the reader. 

It’s not meaningful JUST because it happened. If someone can follow your character’s story for any extended amount of time and not realize that, say, your character’s mother died in a boating accident, then it isn’t actually important that your character’s mother died in a boating accident, and you should let her live. 

If ALL of your characters have a heavily dramatic backstory, ALL of your heavily dramatic backstories lose their meaning. Dramatic backstories are fun but they should not be a constant: they will begin to feel cheap and lazy. 

Your character does not need to dwell on their tragic backstory! While a character should acknowledge their history, a character does not need to realize that their backstory is meant to be tragic. For example, Sally might have been raised by her Aunt Agatha after her parents disappeared in a hot air balloon when she was a baby. Rather than being sad about her missing parents, Sally might think of them as total strangers and of Agatha as her sole parental figure - and her sadness might be for Agatha, who does miss Mr. and Ms. Pumpernickel. 

And that’s literally all she wrote! I hope you find this helpful when you’re writing your characters - tragic or otherwise - and developing their plotlines. The world is not made of trauma and fluff alone, friends. Go forth and contain multitudes!

[victorianoir]

Just finished the latest chapter, thank you! that was such an awkward talk, yikes, I have to say, I was upset with Devon, but now I'm really upset with Ellie, I know she loves Sarah, and that Chuck's on a rut, but really Ellie? first he's taking advantage of him and then he's undeserving? that was a some crappy sister behavior, sorry to say, she's supposed to be the one that knows his full potential and never doubting him that he really does deserve someone like Sarah Walker...

Honestly, and don’t take this the wrong way, but I think y’all readers aren’t taking Ellie being a real person with real person feelings very well. Someone left a review just now and said it really well. Ellie’s either written in fic as uber bossy and overprotective, obnoxiously so, or she is written as someone whose only character trait is getting Chuck and Sarah together and squealing about it. So for people who haven’t actually watched the show in a long time, and who only read the fics where she’s one of those two things, I get why Ellie wouldn’t be folks’ favorite character.

But her character is actually really layered and wonderful in the show, which is why I adore her so much, and that’s why I decided to respect her enough to let her be human in YuleTie. Honestly, if a friend of mine kissed my brother in front of me and then they admitted they slept together, I’d be like WHAAATTT THEEEEE FUCKKKKKK??!??!?!?!?!?!?! Granted, my relationship with my brother isn’t the same as Ellie and Chuck’s relationship. But still, like, come on. Your best friend and your sibling? ANY HUMAN BEING would be like UUUMMMMMMMMM WHAATTTT?????? 

This isn’t like canon where Sarah meets Chuck first and they “date” and she meets Ellie after that and there’s this tentative friendship and bond that forms that then becomes an actual genuine friendship. Sarah and Ellie meet each other first in YuleTie, become fast friends, BEST friends, and are super close best friends for two whole years before Sarah and Chuck realize their feelings for one another. So this is a super jarring situation for her. 

Maybe I didn’t accomplish as much nuance as I tried to have in Ellie’s explanation for why she was shocked about Sarah having feelings for Chuck. So I’ll try here. She is well aware that Chuck is a great guy, the best dude. He’s super cute, he’s smart, he’s talented, and he has a shit ton of promise. But all of those set-backs with Stanford and shitty Jill took his legs out from under him, stuck his self-esteem in the gutter, and basically made him stop reaching for more. And honestly, IN CANON, there are times when he acts like the typical 20something guy living with his sister and her boyfriend stuck in a rut loser. As fantastic as a person as he is, as much as he cares for people, as cute as he is, as king as he is, and as funny as he is. He has no real goals or ambition, because he’s in this state of “WHY? WHY DOES IT MATTER?” Because he got kicked around, sure, but also ... it’s a character flaw of his, an almost immaturity. And Ellie sees it better than anyone because she’s right there watching it happen and knows him better than anyone. And it frustrates the shit out of her because even without his Stanford degree, he could get A DEGREE still, or he could find a better job, or keep trying to sell these prototypes/programs of his. And he just doesn’t do that. He farts around at the Buy More, then comes home and plays video games with Morgan. 

So yeah, her super accomplished, go-getter, traveling, adventuring, sweet, warm, funny, RIDICULOUSLY GORGEOUS best friend who she loves like a sister having romantic feelings for Chuck is a shock to her. Not because she thinks he’s undeserving, per se, but because he’s just gone so long in this slump and ignoring her attempts to get him out of it, her attempts to push good women towards him, that Sarah seeing that and latching onto it as hard as she apparently has makes Ellie like “excuse me WHAT?”

I’d ask you (with full respect for your opinion, you may just not be reading it the way I tried to write it and that happens!) to maybe look at it again. Ellie sees his full potential better than anyone, which is WHY he makes her so frustrated and upset with his rut-behavior. 

As for her thinking Chuck might’ve taken advantage. Come on now. Chuck’s a man. And again, Ellie knows better than ANYONE Chuck’s flaws and the fact that he is a MAN means he’s capable of letting Sarah control that narrative without expressly stopping her. Anybody should think that about anyone they know, but especially a straight dude who you’ve just seen making dreamy love eyes at the woman in question over a trivia game. Yes, Ellie made a mistake, but I want to write an Ellie Bartowski who is capable of making mistakes. She’s flawed herself. She jumps to conclusions, like any real person would. 

I adore Ellie Bartowski so much, and I wanted her to be as human as possible in this, and it’s kind of disappointing me reading how uncompromisingly angry people are getting with her, as if she needs to be above realistic human reactions to startling situations. As if she always has to be 100% ready to be like CHARAH CHARAH CHARAH in every situation, canon or AU. As if that’s her only function.

I hope you don’t take this personally. I just wanted to explain my intention with Ellie. I saw you have a second message as well, so I’ll address that one too.

[medea10]

My Review of Aggretsuko

Her one bright spot in this day-in, day-out hellhole is her mic, a karaoke business, a solo room, and blazing death metal. Once she’s singing some hardcore death metal and unleashes her fury of her hectic workday, she’s ready to take on the world again. And just like with the Hello Kitty world, this series has many animals with quite the interesting line-up of quirks. For example we’ve got a sly fox who monitors Instagram, a suck-up dog, a hygena who is into rock, a fashionable gorilla who’s friends with a bird, a hippo that’s a spy, and yeah, the chauvinistic pig who’s also the boss. BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: So this anime is sort of exclusive to Netflix in every aspect (that includes in Japan). I’m noticing a lot of popular anime titles are being exclusive to Netflix. I mean, if they’re able to air them weekly as they air in Japan, I have no problem. It’s just the waiting for something to air and then they decide to bundle everything so you can binge watch is where I have a problem. Believe it or not, I’m not a binge-watcher. Every now and then I can breeze through at the most 6 episodes in a whole day, but a whole series or season, no! Yeah, Medea has a life outside of anime reviews (shocking)! I only did that once and that was a good eight years ago. But I digress! I will say that Netflix got their shit together better than Amazon. Anime Strike was such a major fuck-up from day one. Thank God it’s dead. Anyways, this does include an English dub. By the looks of all the Netflix exclusive animes, they all seem to be dubbed by VSI in L.A. (I guess a smaller version of Bang Zoom productions) with Patrick Seitz doing a lot of the casting. This was a very well casted dub (which is more than what I can say about a certain redub they did recently). But I really do love this dub with Erica Mendez, G.K. Bowes, Ben Diskin, Ray Chase, and many others. And oh my God, Jamison Boaz is like the best with the metal Retsuko moments! With the sub, you will not find much info on the voice of Retsuko. Rumor has it that she’s married to the guy who does the screaming death metal for Retsuko (who is also the director of Aggretsuko). Here’s what you might recognize these folks from. JAPANESE CAST: *Retsuko is played by Kaolip *Retsuko (metal version) is played by Rareko (director of Aggretsuko) *Haida is played by Shingo Katou *Fenneko is played by Marina Inoue (known for Aria on Pokemon XY, Armin on Attack on Titan, Yoko on Gurren Lagann, Jessica on Umineko, Kyouko on Skip Beat, Wataru on Hayate, and Rei on H.O.T.D.) ENGLISH CAST: *Retsuko is played by Erica Mendez (known for Ryuko on Kill la Kill, Haruka/Uranus on Sailor Moon redub, Emma on The Promised Neverland, Nico on Love Live, Yuuki on SAO II, Tsuruko on Anohana, and Tsubaki on Your Lie in April) *Retsuko (metal version) is played by Jamison Boaz *Haida is played by Ben Diskin (known for Sai on Naruto Shippuden, Satoru on ERASED, Joseph/Jojo on Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Umino on Sailor Moon redub, and Numba 1 on Kids Next Door) *Fenneko is played by Katelyn Gault (known for Prof Badcock on Little Witch Academia) FAVORITE CHARACTER: I’m a Fenneko fan. What’s not to like? Her mischievous behavior, her social media activity, and that freakin’ laugh! DISLIKED CHARACTER: It’s hard to find characters to hate here! Believe it or not once you get past the debut episode of an asshole character, you see them for more than just an asshole and think, maybe they’re not that much of an asshole. Yeah, in all good conscience I can’t really add Ton even if he’s a sexist pig. And Anai just needed to be pushed in the right direction so he can succeed. I don’t fully hate Anai…I fear him. Wait a second and I’ll talk a bit below! Then there are those characters who still rub on me the wrong way and those characters are Tsubone, Tsunoda, and Komiya. But I’m laying off Komiya. I don’t know why! Maybe it’s because Todd Haberkorn plays this little brown-noser that it makes me laugh to a point where I can’t hate on him. Yeah, Haberkorn is that good! Tsunoda knows the game and does what she has to do in order to survive in the office and on social media. I’m not thrilled to witness females put on the charm at the workplace the way she does, but you know it happens. Tsubone just seems like such a bitch so for the moment I’ll leave her on my dislike corner. Okay, anybody else? Shit. Retsuko’s mother!

Yeah, as I mentioned recently in my Top 10 Worst Anime Mothers list, I had to put Retsuko’s mother on there. She was such a pushy mama that she did so much damage to her daughter’s life. Okay lady, lay the fuck off! Your daughter is not living with you at home, she has a stable job, and she’s making the most of her life. She doesn’t need you giving her embarrassing clothes to wear, hooking her up with random bachelors, flat-out lie to her with photoshopped photos, force her on speed-dating, break into her apartment, and just be a complete hypocrite! SHIPPING: Retsuko has had quite the romantic cycle throughout the 20 episodes. Let’s go down this list, shall we? Retsuko x Haida: Ah, the little ship that can’t even leave port. Haida has had this humungous crush on Retsuko throughout the entire series. However this love is unrequited. Retsuko just sees Haida as a workmate and a friend, nothing more. Haida has been friend-zoned so many times. Even when he tries to release his feelings towards Retsuko, most of the time it would fall on deaf ears or in the case of season one’s finale/Christmas special, a rejection. Then again, it came right after a break-up and no one wants a rebound! But I do find myself rooting for this little ship to one day set sail. I know one day they’ll be together and I will await for that to happen. Retsuko x Resasuke: I really don’t know what drew Retsuko to this pot-plant. Yeah, I call Resasuke a pot-plant because of his nothing phases him attitude, his abundance of plants at home, and monotone voice. IT DOESN’T HELP THAT HE’S VOICED BY SAITAMA! It was pretty clear that there were a lot of loose connections between this couple that despite both Retsuko and Resasuke having some things in common, not going to work. It was not the best of ships. Retsuko x Tadano: Tadano was the man in Retsuko’s life that could have given her anything her heart desires. Everything except a family since Tadano doesn’t want to get married or start a family. Retsuko always dreamed of having a sugar daddy of a husband so that she could quit her soul-crushing job (at least that’s what she wanted in season one). But in season two she realized that she likes her job and wants to be with someone that resonates with her. As for wanting a family, Retsuko kind of grew to the idea of one day becoming a wife and mother. But Tadano wants nothing to do with that. Retsuko x Shirota: Aw, this was kinda cute even though these two were totally hooked up because of their nosy mothers. Retsuko at the time was scared at the prospect of getting married and Shirota completely understood. But when Retsuko asked about Shirota after some time had passed, Retsuko’s mother said that he was hooked up with another girl and it’s going well. I felt that sting all the way over here. I know he was the right guy at the wrong time, but I felt for Retsuko. Second place for me in the shipping department. Retsuko x Anai: GOOD FUCKDOM NO! Who would ask for this to happen?! TWO THINGS THAT FRIGHTEN ME: Yep, two things frighten me quite a bit. First thing would be whenever Ton smiles. I know most of the time when he’s smiling, it’s one of those fake as hell smiles, but they are frightening to see regardless. And the whole floor agrees as seeing that scared the ever-loving crap out of everyone there. And second…Anai! When you first meet him, you think he’s a positive go-getter. But when he’s behind his cellphone, he is downright scary. He ends up cyber-stalking half the office including Retsuko, Haida, and even Ton. ENDING TO SEASON ONE: We all know how much Haida has a this huge crush on Retsuko right? Let’s add a new love interest to spice things up! An absolute space cadet by the name of Resasuke! Retsuko has seen him around the office and on the train when she’s on the way to work. The only problem is, no one is able to get through to him…he’s so spacey! So one night, Retsuko gets roped into going on a speed date with some of the girls in the office. And the men they met are also some men from the office. And Retsuko surprisingly wound up having a meaningful conversation with Resasuke. Through text messages. Even though they’re right in front of each other. Sighs in disgust because I really hate that in real life as to showing my real age. Actually, I probably shouldn't scold the boy as he could be on the Autism Spectrum and has problems communicating normally with people in social interactions. Unfortunately, Retsuko winds up drinking too much alcohol that night and forgets key parts of what happened. All she knows is that when she woke up, her heart was all pitter-patter. It must be indegest…no, it’s love! Retsuko definitely sees something in Resasuke that no one else can see. Not even Washimi or Gouri can see it! But the important thing is that Retsuko is on cloud nine that nothing gets her down and when nothing gets her down, she’s not going to go “metal”. However, the “metal” side was ready to peak out. It’s clear that Resasuke doesn’t know much about relationships or other social interaction for that matter. He can’t tell when Retsuko is in pain and isn’t that considerate to her. Plus he wasn’t really the one who wanted to go on the dates. He was always put up by one of his co-workers. Meanwhile, Haida (who has had a major crush on Retsuko from the beginning) has been super moody. He gets so drunk one night and ends up the hospital because dumbass injured himself accidentally. So the following day at work was hectic for Retsuko, Fenneko, and Ton. During that long day of work, Retsuko’s boss (while always grumpy and insulting to Retsuko) made a little sense to her today. His words kinda hit Retsuko in the terms of the relationship dilemma. I know he meant it in terms of the accounting job, but I think it struck a nerve with how Retsuko is in her relationship with Resasuke. “If you keep giving out more than what you’re getting back in return, eventually there ain’t gonna be anything left” So…Retsuko took Resasuke to karaoke and expressed it all out. In the end, Retsuko and Resasuke split up. But could there be hope for Haida now? Well, we close things out in Haida’s hospital room and Retsuko visits him. And surprise, surprise, it looks like a love confession! What will Retsuko say? Tune in next ti…end of the season now! CHRISTMAS SPECIAL: Unlike all the other episodes (which are 13 minutes long at most), this one is a full 22 minute special. We start the Christmas special with what Retsuko said to Haida. It was a rejection. So you know Haida was going to be a depressed basket case for a while. But let’s not worry about that now, it’s Christmas time! And the episode focuses on what everyone around the office is doing for the special holiday. Tsunoda’s going out with a guy (no surprise there). Kabae is spending it with her husband and three kids (and also hide the presents so the kids won’t find them). Before Retsuko could figure out what she wants to do, in comes Ton with paperwork that needs to be done by the end of the night. Retsuko still put up a brave front finishing her work and also fooling social media that she’s having a fabulous dinner. But Fenneko knew that was a lie when she saw the picture and told Haida that she’s at work suffering through paperwork. And being the hopeless romantic, Haida tries to get to the office to help her, but found she was no longer there when he arrived. After Retsuko finished, her friends Gouri and Washimi swooped in and treated her to dinner. But after dinner, Retsuko bumped into Haida…so Haida got a little lucky there. And he got to spend a few moments alone with Retsuko. SEASON TWO: After the success Aggretsuko made in 2018, strike twice while the iron is still hot! Season two dropped this June with brand new characters, new love interests, and so much METAL! Actually, not as many metal moments as season one, but still there. Retsuko had her hands full all through this season with her mother setting her up with “eligible” bachelors, work still giving her the business, a new guy at work who’s possessed by Beelzebub’s cellphone, getting her driver’s license, and possibly meeting the man of her dreams. And with all those, Retsuko’s going to need some time in the karaoke booth to let out this pile of rage. And this season we meet Retsuko’s mother (a different shade of panda than her daughter), a woman who is way too invasive of her daughter’s privacy and home life. Then we have Anai (a badger), a straight out of college newbie at work. If even one thing is said to him that even seems 1% offensive, he will break out his phone and cyber stalk that person and threaten them with a harassment charge. And then there’s Tadano (a donkey) who Retsuko meets in a driver’s education course. Oh, wait until you meet Tadano! END OF SEASON TWO: As it turns out, Tadano (the guy Retsuko meets at Driver’s Ed) isn’t really a slacker like she thought at first, but a multi-millionaire with his work in A.I. He’s a major celebrity in the tech world and Retsuko’s company wants to partner with him. Meanwhile Tadano has eyes for Retsuko…as a love interest! This could be it! This could be Retsuko’s chance at absolute happiness, where she can have anything in the world with this sugar daddy. There’s a drawback to this. Recently, Retsuko has been thinking if she’s really wife/mother material after seeing some of her coworkers (like Kabae and Ton with their families). Plus the whole marriage conversation with her mom probably got to her too. So she’s thinking more and more about starting a family. However… Tadano has NO interest in either marriage or having kids! For some time, Retsuko and Tadano were seeing each other privately. But somehow, someone got pictures of them together and it spread throughout the internet. And everyone, including Retsuko’s mother, friends, and co-workers were blown off their asses when they saw pictures of Retsuko with Tadano. Meanwhile, Haida got drunk and wound up on his back again! Retsuko tried her best to see the bright side of all this. But she kept running into hate-filled posts bashing her for dating Tadano. And the whole dilemma that she and Tadano aren’t on the same wavelengths when it comes to marriage and family is digging at her like a shiv. Add to that, Tadano wants Retsuko to quit her job since he believes her job will be obsolete once his A.I. business takes over. After some soul searching, Retsuko came back to work after a few days of being AWOL and was ready to hand Ton her resignation letter. Ton sat back and watched all this happen and wouldn’t accept this. He gives her shit literally every day of her job, even giving her the nickname “Calander” because her “days are numbered”. But he knows that all of this isn’t even her deciding. Tadano is doing all the talking and actions for her. Once again, Ton was able to reach Retsuko with his words. So Retsuko knows what she must do. Retsuko’s friends Washimi and Gouri put aside a heated fight they previously had in order to help. So they ambushed Tadano, had Haida take care of his entourage, and have Retsuko hijack his limo. Their destination, the karoke bar! And that’s when Retsuko released out everything through METAL! In short, Retsuko and Tadano split up. So she’s (once again) back at square one. But it was fun, right?! Wow, this is pretty…real to me. In fact, it’s almost on Bojack Horseman levels. Yeah, you can tell I’ve dived into Netflix. Cartoons with cute animals in it…but they deal with adult issues. Yeah, animation’s not always for kids (otherwise I would have watched a lot more Ralph Bakshi when I was 7). Anyways, this anime does speak to me and just about anyone with a job that causes you immense stress. Retsuko gets the shit-deal at her work which causes her to vent it out in a karaoke booth. A job that chips away at you every single day you’re there. Disappointment of every variety when some shred of hope pops through. Workers who take advantage of the hard work you put in. Drunk boss that stumbles into work late and passes out hungover. Working 10 hour days with no overtime pay! Having that drunk idiot boss always calling in sick because he’s hungover from the night before. Whoops, those last three were my bad experiences with a bad job. The working world can be cruel. I’m glad I left that nightmare job for the good old store that rhymes with Mole Goods. It has its ups and downs but it’s been kind enough to me for me to stay in the company for almost 12 years at this point and time. But everyone has their own reasons for staying at a job that abuses you. Mostly survival! Retsuko wishes that she could find a rich husband so that she could quit this horrible job. Don’t we all? Sadly things can’t be like the way they were in post-war era United States (or so I imagine). In my case, the middle class is a gangrene arm ready to be chopped off, cost of college is expeninential and I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to pay off my student loans 30 years after I die. Depending on what economic world you’re in, it’s almost impossible to quit your stable job to be a housewife. Unless you’re Marge Simpson or part of the elite 1% there’s no fucking way. And then Tadano shows up! But funny thing, money can’t buy you happiness! Sure it’s great if you could find a sugar daddy husband, but if there’s no real love or compatibility, it’s not gonna last. The love issues Retsuko had these last two seasons…I can’t really relate. Thankfully, my mother is not as neurotic about me finding a husband. As I have been butt-fucked in the relationship department, I don’t give a shit about finding a mate (at the moment) and my mother has accepted that. And I’ve never really felt anything for workmates nor have I ever met a young entrapeneur. I’m sure other people can relate to some of these issues, but not me. Thankfully we see different views on marriage from different characters. Fenneko believes people her age don’t even think about it and hopefully they’ll be the generation to kill the idea of marriage, Haida is still a hopeless romantic when it comes to Retsuko, Gouri will get back up after being heartbroken time and time again, Washimi thinks marriage isn’t worth it and even sheds light on an old marriage during the second season, Ton is married and has two kids (though he seems pretty put-off by them), and then you have Kabae who has a husband and three little kids and she’s happy with her family every single day! Back to the working world topic, Aggretsuko showed how much the working world impacts us. Without having a character say it, this anime brought out many thoughts when we see many of these characters. For example, Anai! Many fans hated this guy the second he started cyber-bullying Retsuko. But others see Anai as a guy with the adult world finally crushing down on him. An ugly glimpse at how life can be (particularly in Japan). He’s fresh out of college and sometimes college does NOT prepare you for the real working world. And as we all know this cruel statistic, Japan has the highest rate of suicides in several age brakets in the world. Including young teenagers! An atmosphere of failure can cause one to do that or act erraticly. Aggretsuko doesn’t necessarily say this, but it’s very much felt that it’s implied if you think about it. Yes, I still find Anai to be a bit of that millennial shit that feels offended by anything even when a co-worker is trying to help them. But if you think about it, all of this feels new and scary. I’m sure everybody in the office at the beginning of their job experience had felt this scary feeling before. Man, these shows really get me to think a bit! I do recommend this anime to just about anyone. Just note that this anime is NOT as depressing as Bojack Horseman. But it can get real at times that makes you step back and say, “Wow, I can totally relate.” And to anyone who is a total metal-head (like me) might enjoy those parts when Retsuko screams into a microphone. This anime is only available through Netflix. It shouldn’t take you too long to finish though as each episode is approximately 15 minutes each and there’s only 20 episodes overall (+ one special). Okay, now that Aggretsuko is done...what's next?

Little Witch Academia it is!

[comicteaparty]

November 11th-November 17th, 2019 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party week long chat that occurred from November 11th , 2019 to November 17th , 2019.  The chat focused on Closer to Home by Jess Peck.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB START!

Hello and welcome everyone to Comic Tea Party’s Week Long Book Club~! This week we’ll be focusing on Closer to Home by Jess Peck~! (https://closertohomecomic.com/)

You are free to read and comment about the comic all week at your own pace, so stop on by whenever it suits your schedule! Remember, though, that while we allow constructive criticism, our focus is to have fun and appreciate the comic. Below you will find four questions to get you started on the discussion. However, a new question will be posted and pinned everyday (between 12:01AM and 6AM PDT), so keep checking back for more! You have until November 17th to tell us all your wonderful thoughts! With that established, let’s get going on the reading and the chatting!

QUESTION 1. What has been your favorite scene in the comic so far? What specifically did you like about it?

QUESTION 2. What has been your favorite aspect of the world-building or the alien species shown so far? In what ways can you relate to the differing cultures, and in what ways do you find yourself confused like the rest of the humans in the story?

Capitania do Azar

1. I honestly can't pinpoint a specific scene, don't hold this against me! But I love the general feeling of the comic. The characters are going through some very specific, emotional things, and I really enjoy the way that those are always handled with a certain softness that I think it's very... refreshing!! That being said, I loved the overdramaticness of The Heist

2 I am confused all the time and I love it. It's always nice to find weirdly alien aliens!! I also appreciate that even tho aliens are familiar with some human things, they're very unfamiliar with others, serving for further confusion. Give me all the confused aliens.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 3. At the moment, who is your favorite character? What about that character earns them this favor?

QUESTION 4. Which character’s reaction to the extinction of humanity really impacted you? In what ways do you think the characters will still continue to deal with this emotionally? Also, what do you think would happen if they found more humans?

Capitania do Azar

3. Samira best girl and Tachs best ∆oid. Samira takes responsibility and is in charge and that's a trait I always like to see, while Tachs is a jolly presence, always questioning everything and being super supportive to everyone. And xi's fashion af.

Capitania do Azar

4. I don't think we've heard the last of that, especially since it seems that it was mostly an intelectual experience, but not an emotional one. Like, the characters KNOW humanity's gone, but they don't actually experience it so I think it'll probably come back to them in the future. That being said, I am very emotional on all things Nike related

RebelVampire

QUESTION 5. What has been your favorite illustration in the comic so far? What specifically about it do you like?

QUESTION 6. Who do you think caused the genocide for humanity, even to the point of hunting down remnants that had escaped? For what purpose, and how does this tie into all the people hunting for humans still?

Capitania do Azar

5. Really digging the vibes here: https://closertohomecomic.com/post/169303849473/first-smackjeeves-about-topwebcomics

6. I don't really have any theories about the genocide, but it's super intriguing that it happened so early after the first contact with alien species.... with such a short ttimespan, I don't think it could have been anything mankind did. Unless we did it to ourselves, but that doesn't sound like the case (I could be wrong). I suppose humans are just valuable because of their rarity now!!

RebelVampire

1) My favorite scene is probably the impromtu museum heist. I kind of liked seeing the newbies embrace that pirate lifestyle. Yet I kind of like this feeling of being lost that kind of hangs around the background. Like to me that scene was a real sign that things are truly starting to sink in for them that Earth is gone, humans are gone, there's no hope. I think I'd actually equate this to the bargaining stage of the 5 stages of grief. To me it feels this action is born from them trying to find meaning again. So for me this scene is both fun but has the right amount of tragic undertone still there. 2) My favorite aspect of the world building has actually been the language translators. I like the logic behind how they work, since it really fits how language works in general. And I like that they aren't perfect so, inevitably, there are things they can't really translate all that well. It really creates an interesting balance between being able to understand while also possessing opportunities for differences. Which is something I kind of like about this comic in general. There's a lot of cultural differences, yet everything is actually explained in a way that's easy to relate. Like a lot of the emotional things alien and human alike go through are universal, so whether things are different or not doesn't matter. It's still easy to attach yourself to what the characters are going through.

RebelVampire

3) Definitely Tachs. I like how kind of disconnected from humans Tachs is in terms of cultural upbringing. But at the same time, I like that Tachs is probably the most (ironic phrasing) down to earth of the entire crew. If I had to trust someone with my life, I definitely would pick Tachs, cause Tachs I trust enough to not get me killed. 4) Honestly, for me the character that impacted me the most is Nike. Not cause Nike has been dramatic, but because she's just been really accepting despite having left a wife and two daughters on Earth. And like, I can't begin to imagine the sort of inner strength it takes to internalize it as much as she seems to have done and still move on with life. I think for the newbie humans who just found out, I think they're basically gonna go through a whirlwind of the five stages of grief. Cause I still don't feel like they are ready to accept every implication with the fact that all humans are gone. Which to be fair, I don't think any human could really take that heavy of an idea into their head all at once. For everyone, though, I think there's gonna be a lot of soul searching about what their purpose is, or if they can live without purpose, and a bunch of existential dread questions that are hard to think about. As for if they found more humans, probably not much to besides bring them into the family. However, depending on how many they found, it might lead to potentially false hope that the genocide was fake news.

5) I really like this space shot of the ship https://closertohomecomic.com/post/138665523507/first-smackjeeves-topwebcomics-last-shhh It really expresses not only the majesty of space, but the sheer scale of the ship. Which that last one is not something I see in a lot of comics, since there's rarely any shots of how the characters are to scale with other parts like this. So it's nice to get a real feel for just how large the interior is. 6) I'm not sure who caused the genocide, though I kind of feel like Vee knows more than he's letting on. I feel like the two most viable options are either a) someone stands to make a big profit by genociding humans or b) somehow humans are basically the ultimate threat to the universe. Which I lean towards b right now as this would explain why they're still being hunted. Although, I am willing to give a C) option that the genocide was caused by someone looking for someone specific, and the only way to be sure they killed that someone specific was to kill all humans.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 7. Which characters do you enjoy seeing interact the most? What about their dynamic interests you?

QUESTION 8. Why do you think Vee was in a stasis pod when he was discovered, and how do you think he managed to escape the genocide since he apparently saw it? Do you think Vee will overcome whatever it is he witnessed?

RebelVampire

QUESTION 9. What sorts of art or story details have you noticed in the way the comic is crafted that you think deserves attention?

QUESTION 10. Given the themes of this comic around identity, what about the characters do you think will change as the story goes on? In other words, what will they discover about themselves given the rules of society have changed?

soyamilk🌙

1. I haven't read far yet, but the scene with Nike and her family really tugged at my heart. Both the loving family but then a heart that seeks the stars... and then missing that family. Owie my heart. And I think I pretty much like all the flashbacks to Mothers Days on Earth I've seen so far. It really hits that contrast with the new space life hard. 2. It's definitely cool seeing how aliens will interact with humans, and how the aspect of communication is handled! There was quite some thought put into how the actual translation would work, and what kind of technology might have been developed for it. And just like on Earth even when you don't need to speak across language or culture you already have a lot of things that could be misunderstood. I like seeing how even across the universe people/aliens who are all different are getting along better than when they were in their own groups that are supposed to be like them. 3. So far, Samira is my favorite, and the worm doc (sorry I forgot his name > <). I love Samira's boldness, she really stands out. She's a go getter, but I'm glad that she has the rest of the cast to balance out those rash plans. And the doctor is cute! Plus his flat humor is funny hehe. Science!! I think all the characters are slowly growing on me, I didn't really have a great impression of anybody at the beginning.

5. My favorite illustration has been this page. https://closertohomecomic.com/post/133065092214/first-smackjeeves-topwebcomics-last It just has great balance and so much emotion. It's subtle, but I really like it. Plus while I enjoy the pacing and the humor of other parts of the comic, this is really nice and lets that feeling just settle in. I also like the scene with Adam on the rooftop (in the past. Obviously I enjoy those past segments haha. So sentimental. 7. I like this moment here. https://closertohomecomic.com/post/162861036256/first-smackjeeves-about-topwebcomics But I honestly can't say yet, I think some interactions are really surprising me. Have to read some more!

RebelVampire

7) At the moment, I like seeing Tachs and Vee interact the most. Something about their relationship really clicks with me. I like how they have shared interests, but are also still vastly different from one another. And I like the weird mix of caring dialogue along with the banter. It just overall warms my heart for reasons I don't quite understand. 8) I feel like Vee was put there on purpose. Like, I like Vee, but I am also suspicious of Vee's part in the genocide. And I kind of feel like Vee in particular might be a target, though for what reason I don't know. And while I get the genocide was traumatizing, I feel there's more to the reason Vee avoids the topic. As for overcoming what he saw, I'm not sure that is something you can get over. If Vee isn't guilty of anything, I feel like Vee is legit in the best emotional place possible after witnessing the genocide of your entire race. Like what a trooper O_O

RebelVampire

9) I've enjoyed a lot of the little cultural clash cause alien details considered in the story. Like the language translation issues, the sexuality issues being culturally specific, etc. Like, it is really hard to consider what an alien culture would be like. Since we've never met an alien, it's hard to say what culture aspects would be universal vs. which ones would be extremely specific to earth. So I love seeing when those things are explored, because it really is a topic we need to consider should we ever actually meet aliens. 10) I feel like, overall, the characters are going to discover how to be happy and just go after it. Like take Nike wearing clothes that surprises all the others for a moment till Nike explains "everyone is dead who cares." I feel that is the exact kind of thing were going to see a lot of. The characters will embrace new things, and slowly learn that society is kind of dumb sometimes and tells us not to do a lot of things because its seen as weird. But that society's choice to view them as weird is arbitrary and gets in the way of happiness. And I think slowly the characters will explore and embrace more wild and fun aspects of themselves, cause there is no society to pressure them anymore to conform.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 11. What do you think are this particular comic’s strengths? What do you think makes this comic unique? Please elaborate.

QUESTION 12. What do you think Sam’s backstory is? How and why did she wind up in space? Given the sorts of activities Sam is involved in, where do you think life will ultimately lead her? Also, do you think we’ve seen the last of her old captain?

RebelVampire

QUESTION 13. What are you most looking forward to in the comic? Also, do you have any final thoughts to share overall?

QUESTION 14. In the larger picture, what do you think will become of Kay, Latoya, and Nike? Will they stay with Sam or eventually find a place to settle down? Also, will they manage to remain friends as their future adventures challenge them?

RebelVampire

11) I think this comic's strengths are definitely its world-building. There's a lot of effort put into the small details of what an alien culture would be like and the sort of road blocks that would be hit for humans because of it. That takes a lot of though and preplanning, but it really helps make a super fleshed out setting that feels unique and really pulls you into a separate world. 12) I feel like Samira probably came from a broken home given the info we know. And so when she found out aliens were real, it was no question she should skip out on her home planet. I imagine she kind of just felt in general there was nothing for her, so it'd be easier to get a fresh start somewhere else in the universe. I think Samira is...kind of heading down a dark path at the moment, probably one that mirrors her old captain. Cause I feel the old captain wasn't that bad...but do enough bad stuff, and your morals really start to corrupt. And while I'm sure Samira think she's above it, no one really is. As for the old captain, I do feel she'll make an appearance again, maybe even as a human hunter or something.

13) I am looking forward to exploring some of the other characters we haven't explored that much, like Fuzz who I don't think nearly has had enough screen time. But overall, I think that's a lot more troubling and interesting cultural aspects to explore here. 14) I feel like eventually the three of them will split ways in some regard. Kay I feel is most likely to stay with Samira, cause I feel like Samira's lifestyle suits Kay the most. However, I kind of feel that, when you get down to it, Latoya would rather pursue science stuff and Nike would still explore but do so in a different way than crime. I do feel like they'll all manage to remain friends. Least of all just cause when you're the last humans, I feel it's hard to hate at that point. That's a lot of pressure to be the last of your kind with only a few people who can understand the same things you're going through.

anneapocalypse

(Picking a few favorite questions!) 2. One of my favorite pieces of worldbuilding so far has been learning about the tiers of alien species, and the kind of sinister underlying implications of that. 3. It's very hard to pick a favorite character but so far I would have to say Kay. They're just so spunky, and I love that even in that initial horror and grief of learning that humanity was functionally extinct, they were the first to stop and really take in the wonder of their situation. They're in space, among the stars, meeting aliens. It's all they ever wanted. 4. To me the most powerful reaction was Nike's, when Latoya tells her she looks cute in her new style, and Nike says (in sign language), "Everyone is dead. Wear what you want." There's so much in that statement--not just the grief she's still feeling for her family and her species and her old home, but also the pressure she must have felt back on Earth to dress and generally conform to a certain set of expectations. In the midst of this terrible loss, she finds a little bit of freedom and she seizes hold of that, as a way to express herself and to cope with the loss.

7. I love Latoya's subtle protectiveness of Nike. I can tell she really cares about her. And currently I'm very interested in Kay's relationship with Charli and where that might go!

12. I suspect Sam maybe didn't have the happiest childhood on Earth. You know that saying in RPGs, "Happy, well-adjusted people don't become adventurers"? I doubt a happy, well-adjusted kid leaves her family and everyone she knows behind forever, even for something as cool as going to space. She didn't say, "I want to go!" she said, "You have to take me with you!"

And I definitely don't think we've seen the last of Schzaar.

13. I am looking forward to many things, but especially learning more character backstories.

14. I predict that the main three will remain friends for life, but if there's any splitting up I would put Latoya and Nike as more likely to settle down somewhere, whereas Kay would want to continue traveling the stars.

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB END!

Thank you everyone so much for reading and chatting about Closer to Home this week! Please also give a special thank you to Jess Peck for volunteering the comic and creating it! If you liked Closer to Home, make sure to continue to support it via some of the links below!

Read and Comment: https://closertohomecomic.com/

Jess’ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jestershark

Jess’ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jesspretend

[frederator-studios]

Bird Banfe: The Frederator Interview

You might be surprised, talking to people in the animation industry, at how rare it is to encounter a still-kicking passion for cartoons. Bird Banfe is, to borrow Drake’s term, a real one. A recent SCAD Grad with mad Storyboarding skills, a deep investment in Scooby Doo and a penchant for pink, Bird's enthusiasm for her craft emanates from her, an enlightened power not unlike those of the magical girls she grew up idolizing. Hearing Costume Quest’s Production Coordinator speak with conviction, knowledge and love for the shows that shaped her, and those she now helps shape, it’s abundantly clear that her passion is an unstoppable force, and when it comes to Bird’s dreams, my sense is that it’s never been a question of ‘whether’—simply one of ‘when’.

How did you break into the animation industry?

I got the chance to intern at Nickelodeon during my last year at SCAD, on Spongebob. Totally by accident!

Cool! How does one “accidentally” become a Nicktern?

The Dean of our school was PO’d because Nick representatives were visiting campus, but it was finals and nobody knew, so people weren’t showing up. My friend who worked in the animation building called me up and was like, “Hey, there are Nick people here doing general interviews. Come do one!”

So you bailed on whatever you were doing and went?

Yeah! I had like 30 minutes to throw on an outfit, a little makeup. I thought it went awful. Which is how you can expect an interview to go, with no preparation and barely any clue what it’s for. I didn’t hear anything for a couple months, so I figured, eh, good learning experience. Then on the last day of school, I got a call at like 9pm from an unknown number, and didn’t pick up. They left a voicemail - and it was my interviewer! She said she had something to tell me. I was like, “What?! It’s been two months! This could still be a thing?!”

And on the last day of school!

The last day of school - period. I was driving home to New Jersey the next day. No job lined up, flipping out. We got in touch, I waited a bit more, then I got a call from the Spongebob team. From a Skype interview with them, I got the job.

What were your responsibilities on Spongebob?

The same as a PA. Handling files for artists, organizing things, picking up tasks to help the production along. On Spongebob specifically, I did a lot of archiving backgrounds. The show has these beautiful, physical painted backgrounds. Handling those was probably the coolest part of the job. It got really weird sometimes. It’d be like, “Here is the interior of Patrick’s mouth and it’s really gross.” And I’d have to search around to label it, because they go into Patrick’s mouth in like 3 different episodes.

Wow, so you became the in-house expert on Patrick Star mouth shots.

It was a lot of fun! I learned a lot about how animation works. In art school, they don't teach you anything about production. I didn't know what to expect, or really what was expected of me! I'm good at organizing, I know Photoshop, and I work really hard. Those things carried me through the internship.

Backing way up - when did you know you wanted to work in animation?

A lot later than most people would say. I wasn’t drawing on the walls when I was two. I was drawing! But about as much as any kid would. I wanted to be a Veterinarian for most of my life. In sophomore year of high school though, I realized I have a lot of story ideas, and original characters - all the stuff that kids who really like anime would have. And I knew I’d go insane if I didn’t have a creative job. That decided it for me. Not, “I really want to do this!” more, “I can’t imagine a world where I’m satisfied with a different career”.

So as a junior and senior, you geared yourself toward animation?

Yeah - my Uncle was working in visual effects, mainly for superhero movies, so I knew someone ‘who does that’. I knew it was an option, not an intangible dream. I was in art classes throughout high school, because they were fun. But then I started going to an art studio after school to take animation, painting, and life drawing classes - the last of which was a big shock to me.

Oh, wow - you did all the right things!

When you know people who do it, they’ll tell you! “Go take your life drawing classes—there are no other kids in high school drawing naked people, you’ve gotta do it”. I got advice from a lot of people and followed it the best I could. I applied to a bunch of art schools for animation, though none in California. Not even CalArts - wasn’t even a blip on the radar (off my surprise) It was too far for my family! We picked Savannah, and I’m really glad. I had a great time at SCAD.

What did you like best about animation at SCAD?

It was a good fit for my personality. I was very much the go-getter in college - you know, a try-hard. And the school has a ton of great resources if you want to put in the work. SCAD is set up in a way where if you take advantage of everything that’s there, and are willing to work, you'll prosper.

Going into animation, did you have a focus in mind? 

I knew from my animation classes in high school on that I wanted to storyboard. I figured that out quickly, mostly because my teacher steered me toward it. He was like, “You’re good at this. You need to keep doing it.” I was like “Okay, will do.” (laughs) I think every role in animation is interesting, and I’m not too picky. I’m sorta glad somebody made that decision for me!

Are you now looking for avenues into storyboarding from production?

Definitely, but I’ve loved my time in production. I can’t see myself doing it forever, but, remember I said I was a big go-getter in college? I pushed myself really hard. I don’t want to say I burned out, but... I wanted time for myself. To learn how to be an adult, do things like cook for myself. Working in production has given me time to breathe and figure out what I value in the industry. 

For example - I was accustomed to that air of, “Oh, you want to be on a show with clout, a show that people know”. I realized on Spongebob how little that really means. Tell anybody in the industry you’re on Spongebob and they’ll go, “That’s cool” and maybe mention their friend on the show. It wasn’t ‘celebrity status’, you know? Maybe to my Grandma, but not to people here. I’ve come to see it’s much more important to find a team that really works with you, and Costume Quest was that team for me.

Did being part of a great team help you shelve the art anxieties?

Oh yeah. When I first started in production, part of me was like, “You need to get into art, now. You need to be doing this, this, and THIS you should have done yesterday!” Tons of pressure. But on Costume Quest, I realized, “These are really great people. I like being around them, I like coming to work every day. I don't want to leave.” So I decided I'd do everything I could with this show and this team. And that’s been very fulfilling. Not in a way that I expected—but in a way where I’ve learned about what I need in a workplace.

What’s your Big Goal in animation, if you have one now?

I always feel embarrassed saying this, because I'm just starting out. But I have lofty goals of being a Creator. I just want to make something that’s important to young girls growing up. Thinking about the things that were important to me as a little girl, I want to foster that.

What kinds of Things?

Magical girl shows (laughs). Sailor Moon, Tokyo Mew Mew, Cardcaptor Sakura. The very ridiculous, very pink, frilly stories, where the message is usually “Love is the most powerful thing in the universe”. But I think those stories are really important! Empathy is important to teach people, and cartoons do that, today more so than ever. Plus, kindness is actually what kids want: when we tested our show, we got feedback that the kids didn’t like it when our characters were mean. When I was growing up, there weren’t as many US shows that talked about interpersonal dynamics, or hit on the empathy theme: “people are different from you, that’s why they behave differently.” That’s probably why anime was so fundamental to me then. Spongebob wasn’t talking about things that felt important to me at that age, but Naruto was. I’ve always been attracted to stories about people learning what it means to grow up and make the world a better place, and where the characters are fun to watch doing that. Costume Quest definitely is that, to me. I just really like all the characters.

Who are your favorite of the characters? Which ones do you identify with?

I definitely identify with Wren the most—which is not something I should admit to. Very much the stubborn, rough-and-tumble personality. I look at her and go, “Yup, that’s me as a kid.” My favorite character is Rudy, which is really weird. It’s that crazy YouTube-popstar personality - the one associated with “YouTube celebrity” which I just find hilarious. And I love Reynold. I like the dynamic between him and Wren the best.

Do you have a favorite episode of Costume Quest?

My favorites are always the Reynold ones, because they have so much heart. You really feel for the kid. He goes through a lot, and he cares a lot; there’s just no way you can’t. I’ll say “Scout’s Honor”. Of all the episodes we’ve done, that’s probably the one that puts a smile on my face the most. The board artists and writers packed a lot of funny stuff in there, and I love singing along with it.

What have you liked best about working on Costume Quest?

The people, first of all. And it’s just a good show. I live for those moments where I can watch something then go to my friend later and be like, “Remember that part?” and crack up about it. Costume Quest is a lot of that for me.

Anything you’d like future fans of the show to know?

Keep an eye out for a little clown doll. We got a haunted doll last summer, off eBay. His name is Little Richie and he moves around the office. It's so funny. It was actually Julian (interviewed here!) who decided to start hiding him in some of the backgrounds. So he’s now a fun little Easter egg - or a continuity error,  depending on the sense of humor of whoever you ask. It’s been so fun having him crop up all over the office. In the freezer, behind a plant. Suspended from the ceiling.

What are your favorite cartoons?

I love love love loved Scooby Doo as a kid. I still do. I love those ridiculous straight-to-video WWE crossovers. They are my guilty pleasure in every sense of the word. So bonkers. There’s John Cena standing next to Daphne. It's great. I was Scooby for Halloween for 5 years. I was obsessed, but not for any reason that I can parse today as an adult. I think I just like dogs. I really liked Chowder. That show, especially that style, stood out to me when I was deciding to pursue animation. Same with Flapjack, a similar vein of style and humor. And with both, it’s these lead characters who are just sweet kids, nothing but nice. Courage the Cowardly Dog I loved, even though I was the most easily scared kid in the world. You might think, “Oh, Scooby-Doo, Courage the Cowardly Dog, you must like scary things.” Not at all. I was deeply afraid. I just loved dogs that much. PowerPuff Girls was huge for me. These days, I have to keep up with every episode drop of Steven Universe or risk getting it spoiled. Star Versus and OK KO! are great too, and Ducktales I really enjoy putting on.

What are you working on now? Do you feel pretty motivated to go do your personal work after the work-day? 

My portfolio. And it’s hard. It’s really hard. It took time, but I’ve come to terms with that. You can’t burn yourself out. You have to put body first and figure out the balance you need in life, in order to be happy. I’m also the type that works a lot better in an office setting. So I’m prone to coming into the office at a weird time, if I actually want to get something done. At home, I never get anything done. Unless it’s Sunday. Sunday is my work day. Saturday’s my sleep day.

Bird is now Production Coordinator on Final Space. Follow her on Twitter. Costume Quest will premiere in 2019 on Amazon Prime Video - keep an eye out!

Thank you for the interview Bird! And for helping make Costume Quest the extraordinary show that it is <3

- Cooper ❀

[redhatmeg]

RedHatMeg’s Guide on Gyro Gearloose - Part 1: Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories

Considering that most of the time I have hard time finding stories with my favorite Duckverse character, I put upon myself to catalogue as much Gyro goodies, as possible

Let’s start with Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories, since this is the place where Gyro showed for the first time, namely in issue 140, in a short story where Donald and his nephews are following Gladstone Gander to find the source of his luck. On page 6, Gladstone encounters Gyro hopping on the pogo stick.

In next issue we have more proper introduction to Gyro and the main story is about him testing his Thinking Box on forest animals; and about Donald trying to discourage his nephews from hanging around with the inventor.

Then - for the rest of the fifties - Gyro pops up in WDCS only couple of times: in 152 (as an inventor of talking dog), 171 (where him purposedly hitting his head to find solution for the problem is introduced) , 199 (where Gyro puts Donald and his nephews in the machine that sends them to far out places imagined by Donald), 201 (where Gyro and Donald accidently cause Duckburg’s water to turn red) and 212 (where Donald and triplets are Gyro’s pilots in rocket race around the world). In the Mickey Mouse three-parter Fantastic Fog, Gyro is first mentioned to go missing, then in part two and three Mickey and Goofy are working out to rescue him from his kidnappers. In Knights of the Flying Sleds, Huey, Dewey and Louie are using Gyro’s eponymous sleds to perform knighty deeds. In The Village Blacksmith our favorite inventor is one of three customers of Donald Duck, the blacksmith.  Gyro plays minor roles in Balloonatics, Missle Fizzle and another Mickey three-parter, The Moon-Blot Plot, however, the issue 247 can be considered special - not only does Gyro appear the second episode of aformantioned three-parter, but also has a role in The Madcap Mariner; and stars in his own story, It Takes Two To Tangle.

From now on Gyro Gearloose starts to appear more often, many times in his won stories, here they are:

- Stranger Than Fiction (Donald uses Gyro’s transporting device to play prank of triplets, but it goes wrong.)

- Cought in the act (a rivaling inventor sabotages Gyro’s futuristic playground. Gyro decided to get to the bottom of this.)

- The Rescue Robot (Gyro invents a robot that reacts to people calling for help. The machine is idesigned to save drawning people, but - unfortunately - catches calls of people who are not drawning.)

- The Travel-Egg (Gyro, tired of his old car, decides to create new transporting device, in the shape of egg.)

- Jet Witch (Duckburg decides to organize “safe Halloween”. Unfortunately, Donald doesn’t get around to learn anything and he’s paranoid on Halloween night. It also so happens that Gyro is testing his newest invention - jet broomstick.)

- The Kitty-Car (Gyro tests his car, fueled by static from petted cat.)

- Expert in Exile (A small cameo - Gyro is one of many Duckburgians sending Ludwig von Drake on “vacation”.)

- The Double-Jointed Pointer (Gyro invites a machine that points where petroleum is. Beagle Boys are interested in using it.)

- All Invented Out (Thinking that he invented everything Duckburgians would need, Gyro moves to his hometown, Dullburg. Unbeknownst to him, Beagle Boys move to Dullburg too.)

- Almost a Leprechaun (Gyro’s machine calculating profits and taxes for Scrooge McDuck malufanctions. It turns out there are two veangeful leprechauns inside, hell-bend on ruining Scrooge for stealing their emerald.)

- Bubble Trouble (Gyro invents unpoppable bubbles.)

- Magic Rug Bug (Gyro creates rug that floats.)

- Budget Binge (Because he always has problems managing his money, Gyro creates budget managing computer. Unfortunately, the machine seems to be very strict.)

- Up and Atom (This time Gyro invents an “almost invisible paint” - a paint that makes object invisible when it passes certain speed. Beagle Boys want to use it.)

- The Life of the Party (Gyro makes himself an alien costume for a costume party. Unfortunately, it’s a bit too convincing.)

- Survival Kit Crisis (Gyro’s newest invention is a survival kit. He goes to the woods to test it, but meets two thugs, who complicate things.)

- Wayward Washer (Grandma Duck enlists Gyro’s help to solve the problem of washing cows.)

- The Monkey from Mars (Gyro tests theory about monkeys being able to write all every book ever written, while typing randomly on the typing machine. Huey, Dwey and Louie play prank on him.)

- The Beanie Brain (Gyro invents hat that enhences IQ of the wearer. He tests it on Donald, who can’t wait to show it to triplets.)

- Do Not Disturb (Tired of salesemen knocking to his door, Gyro asks Practical Pig for advice and upgrades his security system.)

- The Sneeze Machine (Scrooge McDuck urges Gyro to find cheap soruce of energy. Gyro decides to harness the power of sneeze.)

- Weather or Not (Gyro builds a weather machine. At first it’s to water plants, but then he tests it in the city. It doesn’t end well.)

- Duckburg Pet Parade (Gyro has there a small cameo as a contestant with a camel.)

- The Chicken Caper (Beagle Boys discover that Gyro created a giant robot chicken that eats money and multiplies it. The bandits decide to steal it.)

- The No-Snap Trap (When Beagle Boys learn Gyro Gearloose created a diamond, they decide to steal it. One of Beagles found out about Pluto serving as a delivery boy to the inventor, so the bandits plan to follow the dog and get the diamond from him.)

- Battle of Petras (Scrooge wants to get Battle of Petras Penny - a coin king Salamander the Great ordered to make to commemorate his victory. Gyro has one of the pennies and he said he obtained it by time travel. He lends his time wehicle to Scrooge and Donald, so they can get their own coin.)

- Trapped on Wreckers Reef (A Mickey Mouse three-parter: While fishing on the lake that is really calm lately, Mickey and Goofy get from Gyro a prototype of a portable wind-maker. Dishoners scavangers see the machine and decide to kidnap Gyro and force him to make one for them, so they can purposely wreck ships on the lake and charge people for towing them to the shore.)

- Rascoe the Robot (Gyro’s newest invention is a robot that can act on picking up thoughts. The inventor decides to test it by going through the not-so-safe part of Duckburg.)

- Fun Director (Once again Gyro has only minor role here: Donald is hired by Scrooge as a fun director and at some point takes from Gyro his engineless rocket.)

- Treasure Island A-Yo-Ho (In this retelling of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel Gyro Gearloose plays the role of doctor Livesey.)

- The Wishing Well (Gyro tests a wishing well he built for one of his customers and gets transported into jungle.)

- The Wizard of Bahs (In this retelling of Wizard of Oz Daisy Duck’s house gets taken by a tornado and lands on the property of evil witch. Now Daisy has to convince the titular wizard - played by Gyro - to help her move her house before down or she will be cursed by the witch.)

- The Last Laugh (Tired of Beagle Brats laughing at his messy hair, Gyro is on for some revange.)

- Ting-Along Trouble (Being one of people with delicate nervous systems, Gyro gets easily spooked by loud ring of the phone. Therefore he decides to modify his phone to give him a light tap on the back whenever someone calls... This story is also the first appearance of Gyro’s nephew, Newton Gearloose.)

- The Trouble with Thudder (Newton sees his uncle throwing something into the lake. He soon discovers it’s a chemical which one drop gives any object enormous weight. Newton decides to look for good use of the substance, and soon angry Dcukburgians come to complain to Gyro.)

- The Real Cool Canoe (Due to canoe date going... not-so-well, Gyro builds a boat that both sails itself and plays on the guitar, Unfortunately, the boat malufunctions... This is a story in which Gyro’s girlfriend, Matilda, shows up for the first time.)

- The Unbirthday Birthday (Madame Mim uses magic to summon guests - Gyro included - for her birthday party.)

- Project: Fresh Air (Because of heavy smog in the Duckburgian atmosphere, Scrooge McDuck enlist Gyro’s help to find a way to put fresh air in the can and sell it to the public.)

- Fisherman’s Luck (After encountering an unlucky fisherman, Gyro creates a formula that attracks fish.)

- Fail Guy (Gyro createst a mechanical doppelganger to deal with angry customers.)

- The Case of a Shrinking Money (The Duckburg Council isn’t happy with the way square and ugly Money Bin presents itself so on Scrooge’s request, Gyro createst a way to shrink the Bin. Beagle Boys use this opportunity to steal Scrooge’s money.)

- Witch Bait (Madame Mim blackmails Gyro to modernize her broomstick.)

- Genius Go-Getter (Madame Mim has a crash on Gyro Gearloose and decides to get his attention by becoming an inventor herself.)

- The Go-Go Mobile (Gyro invents a new super-fast car. Donald borrows it to get to Italy and help Pinocchio, who sent duck the distress call.)

- Trapped in Time (another Mickey Mouse multi-chapter comic: On their way to Minnie Mouse party, Mickey and Goofy visit Gyro, who shows them his new space vehicle. Accidenlty the inventor gets thrown into space and our heroes have to use the older space vehicle to go after him. Due to some complications they get trapped in time.)

- Monster of the Deep (Gyro employs Donald to be his Bubblyscope pilot, while he would be exploring seas and looking for sunken treasures. Together they go underwater, but find odd creatures there.)

- Mr. Turner and the Magnarope (Gyro creates Mr. Turner - a robot that turns the skipping rope - for Daisy’s nieces.)

- The Reluctant Tycoon (Donald is forced to do business for Uncle Scrooge. Thanks to Gyro’s latest invention, some of Scrooge’s shrewdness is transferred into Donald’s brain. Soon Huey, Dewey and Louie decide to ask Gyro to reverse it.)

- The Lion Trackers (During Grant Annual Track Meet of the Junior Woodchucks, Huey, Dwey and Louie settle for tracking the lion in the Duckburgian woods. They find Gyro, who escaped to the forest to prevent his rival, Emil Eagle, from stealing his inventions.)

- Gyro’s Happy Invention (A short, written story - Gyro creates a machine that makes people happy.)

- Posty vs. Lampy (Jealous of Gyro’s latest invention - a walking lamp - his walking mailpost wants to fight.)

- Flight of the Dragon (another Mickey Mouse three-parter, this time Mickey and Goofy find a weird egg on the beach. Soon a dragon hatches from it and Mickey needs to know where the egg came from. In part two of the comic, Gyro joins them.)

- Gyro Goes for a Dip (Gyro wants to use in his new pool, but since he’s not a very good swimmer, he doesn’t want his neighbors to see him with water wings. So he decides to invent a way to keep himself afloat.)

- The Chipmunk-Mobile (Gyro enlist Chip and Dale to work in his new chipmunk-powered car.)

- Gyro’s Manicycle (Another short story - Scrooge McDuck is enraged by being stack in the traffic. Huey, Dewey and Louie ask Gyro to find a solution and he just so happens to have an invention for that.)

- Mailbox Baffler (During one slow afternoon, Gyro decides to take his mobile mailbox on the walk.)

- The Helping Hands (Because of a minor accident resulting in an explosion, Gyro attaches addition mechanical arms to himself.)

- Footloose Furniture (During soccer match, Gyro’s mechanical furniture gets carried away.)

- The Fiendish Furniture (To interest a wealthy investor in his inventions, Gyro invites him and his wife for dinner. During demonstration, Gyro’s mechanical furniture malufanctions.)

- The Rain Hat (Gyro creates a hat with an umbrella. Everything is fine, until wind blows him far away.)

- The Dream Duplicator (Gyro’s newest invention is a machine that makes dreams into reality. Soon a nightmare metrializes itself in inventor’s house.)

- Operation Cackoo (Gyro makes the cackoo in his cackoo clock more free. The mechanical bird is grabbed by the cat.)

- Backfire (Scared of burglars stealing his inventions, Gyro makes couple of anti-burglar devices. It backfires, when he accidently finds himself outside.)

- The Madball Pitcher (There is a baseball match between Northern and Southern Duckburg. Since he was a pretty decent pitcher in school, Northeners enlist Gyro to their team.Because he’s a bit rusty, Gyro makes bats that are attracting balls, but everything complicates when Southeners’ pitchers gets injured and they decide to force Gyro to play for them.)

- Mixed-Up Mixer (Grandma Duck asks Gyro to make a dam on a lake. Gyro brings his new concrete mixer.)

- The Bear Tamer (Gladstone Gander asks Gyro to help him to be elected The Royal Order of Horseshoe’s King of Luck by taming a bear. Gyro invents a cologne that prevents bear from biting Gladstone.)

- Buffloed by Buffloes (Duckburg sends Gyro to modernize Farbakishan.)

- Mighty but Miserable (One of the Beagle Boys get kicked out from the family and forces Gyro to make him smart. Gyro does it, but the effect is temporal, so it’s only a metter of time before the Beagle Boy comes back, therefore Gyro decides to make himself superstrong. It soon bakcfires.)

- Fishing Mystery (Duckburgian fishermen are curious about Gyro’s method of fishing.)

- The Cat Box (A cat at Gyro’s window makes a lot of noise. The inventor builds a machine that translate cat speech... This is a reprint of a story marking first appearance of Little Helper.)

- The Cube (Gyro looks for a usage of cubes he created.)

- The Sure-Fire Gold Finder (Gyro tests his newest invention - a machine that can find gold underground.)

- The Call of the Wild (Certain hunter asks Gyro to make a moose whistle that would sound like a real moose.)

- Predictor short (Gyro invents a predicting machine which predictions are always right. The tests reveal it to be a very tricky device.)

- August Accident (In search of fame, Gyro tries to invent a steam rocket ship. His invention proves to be a disaster.)

- Fish Warden (Because fish aren’t passing the jetty during their annual run up Duckburg River, the city of Duckburg enlist Gyro to help solve this mystery.)

- A Helper’s Helping Hand (The city of Chicago gives a reward to daredevils that will paint the Narrow Bridge. Gyro takes a chance, using his newest invention -  rocket belt and portable sprayer.)

- Grandma’s Present (Gyro gets tired of inventing, so he come to Grandma Duck to spend vacation on her farm. There he gets a brilliant idea for a machine making milk from dirt.)

- Snow Duster (It’s a time for a big game, but Duckburg’s stadium is covered in snow. One of Gyro’s neighbors sees him easily clearing the path to his shop with his snow dissolver, and calls the city hall. Soon Gyro is enlisted to clear the studium.)

- Finny Fun (The Duckburg Sea Carnival is coming and Gyro has to invent something for the show. He gets an idea for a wand that makes fish do tricks.)

- Oodles of Oomph (Gyro enters a boat race with a newly invented engine. Something goes wrong.)

- You Can’t Win (Gyro wants to go fishing but citizens of Duckburg urge him to use his intellect and modify the look of trees near certain Duckburgian buildings.)

- For the Birds (Gyro intented a machine that read thoughts. He tests it on a neraby bird and gets frustrated by machine’s amiguous answer.)

- Duckburg’s Day of Peril (A giant robot from the movie set breaks loose. It’s up to Gyro and Little Helper to stop him from distroying the city.)

- Man versus Machine (Tired of machines always breaking down, Gyro decides to abandon all technology and live a simple life in the wild. Too bad he gets poisoned. Little Helper to the rescue!)

- The Great Pop Up (Gyro tries to repair a toaster, which seem to have trouble popping up the toasts.)

- Posthasty Postman (Gyro is tired of inventing and so starts to work as apostman. New challanges call for inventions.)

- His Shining Hour (Gyro tries his new shoeshining machine.)

- Picnic (Since he got a lot of requests about solving picnic problems, Gyro decides to go on a picnic himself and find solutions to each and every problem.)

- Brain-Strain (Donald, Little Helper and Gyro get strainded on an uninhabitated island. Without his machines and tools, Gyro needs to find a way to save himself, Helper and Donald.)

- The Stubborn Stork (While trying to convince Scrooge McDuck to buy one of his bike-saucers, Gyro is employed to solve the problem of the stork having her nest on the Money Bin’s air vent. He and Scrooge try to find a way to remove the stork.)

- Loosing Sheep Over Nothing (Gyro has sleeping problems.)

- Dog Trouble (Gyro decides to help a poor, little doggy.)

- The Fishing Hole (Gyro is looking for a place to fish on the crownded lake.)

- Dirk Dinosour (Donald and nephews tell a story of that one time Gyro took them on the trip to the Jurassic Period.)

- Precision Painter (Gyro prepares to paint his ceiling and encounters slight disadvantage.)

- The Bicycle Thief (Encountering someone who’s bicycle was stolen for the third time, Gyro sets to invent a thief-proof bicycle.)

- The Terror of Duckburg (Gyro gives Donald a Resolution Hat - a device that helps people keep their New Year’s resolutions. From now on whenever Donald is about to lose his temper, he feels the need to sing and dance. But what happens when the Resolution Hat malufanctions?)

- The Universal Solvement (an Uncle Scrooge three-parter: On Scrooge’s demend, Gyro creates a solvement that can melt anything, aside from diamonds. Scrooge presents it to the public and recklessly purs it on the ground. Now Scrooge, Donald and nephews have to go down and gather the solvement to the diamond jar, before it reaches Earth’s core.)

- Monsterville (Gyro decides to completely modernize Duckburg, but it leaves Duckburgians without purpose.)

- Milktime Melodies (Grandma Duck asks Gyro to repair radio that was played during milking cows. He makes a new radio that works wonderfully until Little Helper gets magnetized and sticks to the radio.)

- Once and Future Duck (a Donald Duck three-parter: To safely test Gyro’s newest time-travel invension, he, Donalnd and nephews go to Stonehange. Accidentally they end up in times of real king Arthur.)

- Cave of Winds (Scrooge asks Gyro for help in securing his money. The inventor suggest exchanging the money for the bonds and hiding them, so the businessman does it. However, it turns out that hiding bonds in Aeolian Mountains wasn’t the best idea.)

- A Dolt fron the Blue (Launchpad McQuack always crashes airplanes, so Gyro shows him his new plane Zipcool 7 with foolproof anti-clash system.)

- Cought in the Cold Rush (While dusting thr snow, Donald accidently hits a lawyer specializing in accident lawsuits. The lawyer urges him to dust snow quicker, unfotrunately Donald’s shovel gets demaged and he needs a new one. Eventually Gyro lands him his new snow-melting gun.)

- The Pied Piper of Duckburg (scrooge has a problem with rats in his Money Bin and he employs Gyro to find a way to get rid of them. The inventor creates a cheese which attracts all rats and mice in Duckburg.)

- Just Another Hang-Up (Gyro hypnotizes Launchpad to be a bird that never crashes a plane.)

- Pork Barrel Politics (To win a telent show, Donald decides to train three pigs to do tricks. after encountering some problems, he asks Gyro to lend him his Thinking Box so he would make pigs more intelligent.)

- All Quacked Up! (Another of Gyro’s plans for stopping Launchpad of crashing, involves a plane that is made of rubber.)

- A Real Gone Guy (Donald has a problem with mosquitoes, so Gyro gives him a new mosquito repellent. But it turns out he mistakes it with a new spray that is a highly classified military project.)

- The Hopeless Helper (Gyro’s lab is a one big mess, so he employs Goofy to be clean for him. Unfortunately, Goofy uses Gyro’s thinking hat and builds up a disastrous floor swiping machine.)

- Personal Delivery (To avoid going out for a mail on cold mornings, Gyro invents a machine that takes the mail for him.)

- Party of None (Hearing his family and friends complain about his atttitude on luck, Gladstone asks Gyro to neutralize his luck.)

- 100% Pure Luck (Gyro takes some of Gladstone’s hair and extracts the essence of his luck. He lets Donald, Daisy, triplets and Grandma Duck to take the formula.)

- Avast All Ye Swabs! (Gyro spends an afternoon at the pond, when suddenly certain ship builder thinks Gyro wants to “take over his pond”, so he challanges Gyro into ship fight.)

- Fast Away Castaway (Gyro tests his new survival kit on the secluded island. It goes wrong, once the inventor goes asleep.)

-  Higher Learning (Donald is feeling a bit infeorior about his brains. Gyro lends him an invention that expands his mental capabilities. But the invention malufanctions and makes Donald grow into a giant.)

- To Bee or Not to Bee (Gyro’s new honey formula turns Daisy into a bee.)

- Full Circle (This is a story of carton of eggs in ehich a thief hid his loot. The carton goes from hand to hand of unsuspecting Duckburgians, among of which are Donald, Daisy, Gyro, triplets and Rumpus McDuck.)

And then comes Mythos Island Chapter 1 - Mything: One Island. This is a long, multi-chapter comic, one of those where each chapter has a different main character, but it’s a part of bigger story. Gyro appears in the first chapter, where Donald, Scrooge and nephews get the message from odd mechanical fairy. The message is actually a map and when ducks follow it, they find Mythos Island - an island inhabited by mythical creatures. Gyro - alongside with the inventor from Mickey Mouse comics, Doc Static - plays a bigger part only in Chapter 8: Inventors’ Task, where they both need to fix a machine that holds the Mythos Island in one piece.

Before the next mulitchapter, we have two stories:

- Krakenstein Gyro (After watching a movie about mad scientist, Doctor Krankenstein, Gyro decides to try and create a llife.)

- Washday Washout (Gyro visits Grandma Duck and sees her, washing an old cloth. Immediately, the inventor comes with help.)

Then there is Formula 1 comic which basically comes down to the bet between Scrooge McDuck and Flintheart Glomgold over who’s gonna win Formula 1 races. In first chapter - Wonder Down Under - it’s established that Gyro Gearloose builds Scrooge’s car, and he appears in chapter 2, but it’s really chapter 3 - Monstruck,-  where he has his own story: Glogold decides to sabotage Scrooge by taking Gyro out of action. He odes it by luring him into tech convention and shooting him into space. Now Gyro needs to use his inventive skills to come back, especially in the story conclusion in chapters 4, 5 and 6.

Another standalone stories before the next big arc are:

- Scream Team (Gyro presents Donald his newest invention - a phonograph that records things happeining in ten seconds in the future. To convince the duck that his invention is legit, Gyro settles the machine to play sounds from two hours ahead. The sound makes both friends nervous.)

- Snow Job (A Mysterious snowballer attacks people in Duckburg. Donald thinks it’s his mean neighbor Jones. Jones thinks it’s Donald. But it turns out Gyro Gearloose has a key to the mystery.)

Another big arc comic is the Orb Saga. It starts with Uncle Scrooge story Dimes are Forever, which concludes with Scrooge and Donald fiding odd Orb in the vulcano; and with Mickey and Goofy finding another Orb in Kidnapping in Yubet, and that’s how the story kicks in. Then we have a Donald chapter and Daisy and Minnie chapter, before Gyro plays his part. Since girls asked him to examine the orb, he sets a recording. While testing the orb, he gets sucked into the past, where he witnesses the origins of both orbs and what threatens the world on New Year’s Eve of 2007. The final is a two-parter.

Then for the most part we have another bunch of standalone Gyro stories:

- Inventor Contest (Gyro enters the inventor contest: each contestant needs to build a mouse trap. Unfortunately Black Peter also fights for the win.)

- Sit-Down Strike (Gyro’s newest invention makes furniture more sentient. All the couches and chairs are starting a protest.)

- In a Minor Key (Donald and nephews get shrinked. Now they need to go to Gyro, so he can reverse it.)

- Jean Therapy (Gyro creates pants that make people happy and productive. Donald, who wears them first, decides for a mass production and soon whole Duckburg is happy. But soon Huey, Dewey and Louie find out Happy Pants have a little bug.)

- Quacked Quest (Duckburg is crazy about a new movie Sword of the Kings. Donald doesn’t see the appearl, untile he watches the movie himself. Then he gets chellanged and ambushed by members of Renessaince Society, so he takes from Gyro a robot that played the part of sorcerer, Souron.)

- The Present Plot (Gyro and Grandma Duck conspire to take measurements of Little Helper for a surprise Christmas present - a warm clothes.)

- The Ro-Brat (Gyro finds a baby robot on his door step. Little does he know, it was programmed by Emil Eagle to distroy Gyro’s lab.)

- All Work and No Christimas (a two-parter: Huey, Dewey and Louie make a video game that takes world by storm. Now Donald’s nephews care only for their business. How their uncle will bring back their Christmas spirit?)

- The Great Swap Flop (Donald convinces neighbor Jones to dust the snow of Ducks’ property... if Donald go to Gyro for Jones’ toaster. Before he knows, things get complicated.)

- Close-Ups (Daisy gathers Donald, nephew, Scrooge, Gladstone, Rumpus and Gyro to talk about a weird feeling she has lately - a feeling of being watched.)

- The 70th Hevean (A comic celebrating the 70 years of Walt Disney’s Comics. In this story Donald, triplets and Daisy try to prepare a gala for the 70 years of their community paper. Meanwhile, Gladstone prepares his own gala for nobles and rich, but something wents wrong when Gyro’s invitation machine malufanctions and sends invitation to other Disney characters.)

- The Inventor’s Inventor (Because he has a lot of work and he doesn’t want to miss a TV show on giant-size nianites, Gyro invents a robot that makes his own invnentions.)

- Open Door Policy (Gyro invents portable door that open anything. Scrooge buys it, but the invention soon falls into Beagl Boys’ hands.)

- The Planet X Mystery (Ludwig von drake finds a new planet and wants Gyro and Donald to help him explore it.)

- Hocus Focus (Gyro tries to fix a weird dishwasher.)

- Which Switch is Which? (Donald is angry because Gladstone once again surpassed him with asking Daisy out. A bit desperate, he takes Gyro’s teleportation device that make two people switch places with each other.)

- Swallowed Whole (Gyro invents a virtual reality device. Donald takes it by the mistake.)

And that’s it for Gyro Gearloose appearances in Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories. Next time - Donald Duck!

[meganhipwellwrites]

character chart: anna

Character Chart Character’s full name: Anna Elisabet Abrahamsen Reason or meaning of name: Anna means ‘grace’. Character’s nickname: ‘Squirt’ from Dimitri. ‘Anna Banana’ from Belle and Rae. ‘Feisty pants’ from Kris. ‘Trouble’ or ‘Troublemaker’ from Jim. Reason for nickname: Kinda self explanatory. Birth date: July 18th, 1998. Physical Appearance Age: Recently turned nineteen. How old does he/she appear: She looks her age. Body build: Slim and very tiny. Eye color: Green Glasses or contacts: Neither  Skin tone: Anna is white and pale. Distinguishing marks: Various scrapes and bruises from falling over, but nothing permanent. Predominant features: Her hair, her height. Hair color: Anna’s hair is red with a blonde streak running through it. Type of hair: Long. Hairstyle: Anna’s hair is most often worn in two plaits. Occasionally she’ll fasten them into milkmaid braids, and for special events she’ll wear it down and curly with various braids running through it. Voice: Anna is loud. Her accent is Norwegian. Overall attractiveness: Prettier than she thinks she is. Physical disabilities:  None. Usual fashion of dress: Anna is most often found in shorts or dungarees, paired with converse. Favorite outfit: ^ Jewelry or accessories: Anna has a charm bracelet from her Mum with a snowflake charm on it and nothing else, but she never wears it because she’s so clumsy and scared of losing it. Personality Good personality traits: Positive, enthusiastic, loyal, loving, adventurous.  Bad personality traits: Naive, impulsive, hot-tempered, clumsy, awkward. Mood character is most often in: Happy! Sense of humor: Anna loves to laugh. She’ll giggle at bad jokes, good jokes, her own jokes. Those ones make her laugh the hardest. Character’s greatest joy in life: Her friends Character’s greatest fear: Abandonment Why?: The death of her parents and her sister proceeding to shut her out afterward What single event would most throw this character’s life into complete turmoil?: Elsa leaving her.  Character is most at ease when: With her friends or with a big bowl of ice cream in front of her. Most ill at ease when: Sitting still. Anna gets antsy easily and always likes to be on the go. Enraged when: Pretty easily, actually. But mostly when she can see injustice happening or someone being treated badly.  Depressed or sad when: Thinking about her parents, being ignored by Elsa. Priorities: The happiness of herself and her friends. Life philosophy: To always stand back up again! If granted one wish, it would be: To have her Mum and Dad back. Why?: She thinks it would improve her relationship with Elsa tons, given that they were so close as kids. Also, she’d have her parents back and she wouldn’t have had to have grown up so fast. Character’s soft spot: Chocolate. Is this soft spot obvious to others?: YES  Greatest strength: Probably her ability to bounce back from difficult situations. Greatest vulnerability or weakness: She relies too much on what other people think of her. Biggest regret: She doesn’t have one yet. Minor regret: Saying that stupid thing she said the other day.  Biggest accomplishment:  Making friends in Cherry Grove. Minor accomplishment: Anna sees almost everything as a victory or a minor accomplishment. Past failures he/she would be embarrassed to have people know about: Any and all failures. Why? She embarrasses easily. Character’s darkest secret: She doesn’t? Really? Does anyone else know? N/A Goals Drives and motivations: The happiness of her friends. Immediate goals: Just to get through every day with a smile. Make it through school.  Long term goals: She’s too young and too indecisive to have any right now, but she wants to do something in the art world, she thinks. How the character plans to accomplish these goals: Working for Taylor! How other characters will be affected: They won’t be. Not negatively, at least. Past Hometown: Arendelle, Norway. Type of childhood: It was happy. She has really good, vague memories of Norway and she always remembered being happy there. Moving to America was hard, because she was teased about her accent and stuff. Everything went sideways when her parents died. Pets: She didn’t have any growing up. First memory: Looking out of the window and seeing the sky ‘awake’, all lit up with pretty colours. Most important childhood memory: Building snowmen with her parents and her sister. Why: Because she doesn’t feel like she’ll ever get to recreate it. Childhood hero: Elsa. Dream job: Princess, art curator. Education: Homeschooled Religion: Agnostic Finances: She’s pretty well off, but due to family money. Present Current location: Cherry Grove. Currently living with: Elsa and Rae. Pets: Her two dogs, Olaf and Marshmallow. Religion: Agnostic Occupation: Student, tour guide at Taylor’s Gallery Finances: She’s pretty well off, but due to family money. Family Mother: Iduna Abrahamsen Relationship with her: Positive. She was one of Anna’s best and only friends growing up. Father: Agnarr Abrahamsen Relationship with him: Also positive. He raised his little girls to make them believe they could do anything. Siblings: Elsa Abrahamsen Relationship with them: Strained. Spouse: N/A Relationship with him/her: N/A Children: Just her dogs. Relationship with them: She loves them! Other important family members: N/A Favorites Color: Rainbow. Least favorite color: Anything dark and dull and grey.  Music: Pop. Anything upbeat and cute and positive. Taylor Swift. Food: Anything sweet! Literature: Anna doesn’t really have the attention span to sit down and read. Sorry, Belle! Form of entertainment: Spending time with her friends, television. Expressions: “Oops!” Mode of transportation: Her bike, the bus.  Most prized possession: Probably the charm bracelet I mentioned before. Habits Hobbies: Riding her bike, walking around Taylor’s gallery, painting with Rae, watching Todd play baseball, building snowmen, hiking with Jim.  Plays a musical instrument? Her Mum tried to get her into the cello when she was younger but she wasn’t good at it. Plays a sport? No How he/she would spend a rainy day: Eating pizza with Todd or riding her bike inside Spending habits: Pretty reckless, but she doesn’t know any better. Smokes: No Drinks: No Other drugs: No What does he/she do too much of? Eating? :’) What does he/she do too little of? Focusing. Extremely skilled at: She’s not sure yet. Extremely unskilled at: Coordination Nervous tics: Touching the blonde streak in her hair, moving her hands a lot, bouncing on the balls of her feet. Usual body posture: She’s usually slouching. Mannerisms: She uses her hands to talk a lot. Peculiarities: Where to start? Traits Optimist or pessimist? Optimist Introvert or extrovert? Extrovert Daredevil or cautious? Daredevil Logical or emotional? Emotional Disorderly and messy or methodical and neat? Disorderly and messy Prefers working or relaxing? Working Confident or unsure of himself/herself? Somehow both Animal lover? Yes! Self-Perception How he/she feels about himself/herself: She’s both her biggest fan and worst critic. She tries really hard to remind herself she’s doing her best, that she’s more than just a spare part and she has tons of good qualities. But she also knows she’s too much, too loud, too clumsy, and thinks people are going to leave her as a byproduct. One word the character would use to describe self: “Go-getter!  Wait, is that two words?” What does the character consider his/her best personality trait? Her optimism What does the character consider his/her worst personality trait? Her lack of co-ordination What does the character consider his/her best physical characteristic? The streak in her hair! What does the character consider his/her worst physical characteristic? Her height How does the character think others perceive him/her: She thinks people are annoyed by her What would the character most like to change about himself/herself: She’d like to be a little less obnoxious Relationships With Others Opinion of other people in general: She loves people! Does the character hide his/her true opinions and emotions from others? Not really. She wouldn’t be able to. She’s a terrible liar. Person character most hates: Anna hasn’t been crossed by anyone too badly in Cherry Grove yet, but right now she most dislikes Gaston. Best friend(s): Rae, Belle, Todd! Love interest(s): Hans, Kris. She has a super harmless crush on Dimitri but she doesn’t consider him a ‘love interest’ Person character goes to for advice: Probably Jim! Person character feels responsible for or takes care of: Todd! Although she says they take care of each other. Person character feels shy or awkward around: Everyone. But Hans. Person character openly admires: Elsa. Person character secretly admires:  Dimitri. Most important person in character’s life before story starts: Elsa. After story starts: Elsa.

[mandibierly]

‘Veep’ Showrunner David Mandel Responds to Labor Day Theories

Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Selina Meyer (Photo: HBO)

It’s been a well-received season of change for HBO’s Veep, but as we found out when we posed showrunner David Mandel’s 13 questions to fans, there are two things you can count on remaining the same: viewers’ love-hate relationship with Jonah and their shared desire to know what Gary did for Selina on Labor Day.

Read on to see how fans answered Mandel’s queries, as well as his reactions to the most popular responses (including the Labor Day theories he shot down).

DAVID MANDEL ASKS: 1.) Is Selina Meyer a good person in any way? Why do you root for her?

ANALYZING THE ANSWERS: Two-thirds of the fans who responded said they believe Selina has redeeming qualities, though they definitely had to reach to name some. Jess remembered that Selina cares for horses, “an indication she does have a heart.” She roots for Selina because she is “unapologetically female in a man’s world. Quotes like, ‘That’s the least reassuring sentence since ‘It’s okay, it’s just the tip!”” Ming Nguyen said, “She showed a hint of being a good person in [the abortion episode] ‘The Choice’ in Season 3. She could be a fierce fighter for women’s rights and equality.” Sydney Grullon spoke more generally: “I don’t think she’s inherently awful, I think deep down she thinks what she’s doing is good, at least what she was doing while in office.” Prakram Bhushan, meanwhile, was incredibly specific: “Selina is a good lover. Everyone roots for her.”

As for the naysayers, their position was summed up by Jamie Burgess: “No. She is everything that is bad about politics: no real vision or drive to lead via policy decisions. Making decisions based on polling with no overall agenda for the country or goals. I root for her because of amazing acting by her actor.” Or, put more bluntly by Eman Abdelmouty: “She’s the absolute worst. Yet we love Selina because a.) she kept it together while holding the nuclear codes, she never grabbed people by the p***y. b). Julia Louis-Dreyfus.”

MANDEL RESPONDS: Hearing that last answer, Mandel can only laugh: “Have our standards for what a president is dropped so in the last two years that this is what we’re saying is good about Selina Meyer?” But looking at the big picture… “I find that [two-thirds number] fascinating, because I think she’s a horrible person! I think it’s a credit to Julia, that she has found a way to make people care about this character. I like to think it’s a credit to Armando [Iannucci, the show’s creator] and the previous writers, and my current writers, that we can make you root for a terrible person. We love that dichotomy.”

Did Selina have good intentions when she was in office? Mandel thinks Jamie’s read was correct: “I think she only really tried to do good if she thought it was politically expedient. We do spend a lot of time thinking about the fact that she’s not 100% terrible at her job. I think people forget that she did rise up through the political system, and that requires a certain amount of street-fighting skills and an inherent political sense, and she has that. But I do think being skilled is different than being a good person. I don’t think she particularly wants to help the world. I think even when she’s ‘nice,’ there’s usually ulterior motives or things that will get her to throw it away in a second.”

And as for the assessment of Selina’s sexual prowess: “I think she would take a lot of pride in knowing that people think she’s good in bed,” he says. “I think that would be important to her.”

DAVID MANDEL ASKS: 2.) What character on our show would you least like to work for?

ANALYZING THE ANSWERS: The top vote-getter was Jonah, with Dan as the runner-up (“I would need to work for someone who has a soul,” Minh wrote of the latter). Votes were also cast for notoriously incompetent Mike; groper Teddy; vicious Roger Furlong; war hero Danny Chung; stoic Kent (“Hard to read and even harder to please,” Jamie insisted); and puppetmaster Ben. “That guy has shown his dark side way too many times (Dan’s ‘resignation’) and has probably done some nasty stuff during his career,” Viktor Cegledi reasoned. “Plus, he has that weird nickname, ‘Buttf**ker.'”

MANDEL RESPONDS: He was shocked his personal pick, Amy, got no votes. “No votes? Oh my god, she’s the worst! I think she’s that kind of boss that would give you things to do, and before you even had 30 seconds to do it, she’d be asking where it was, and then she would take it back from you and do it herself. And there’s nothing you could do that would ever satisfy her,” he says.

As for the others: “I understand the Jonah one, but I think there’s an opportunity if you’re the right person. For example, when the beautiful men were working for Jonah last year as interns, and he really sort of took to them. I think he could be a great boss if he somehow liked you, or thought you were like, ‘his guy.’ Obviously he’s got a hair-trigger temper, but I do think the sun can shine from Jonah,” he says. “I think it’d be very fun to work for Dan. I guess as long as you weren’t a good-looking woman. I guess that would be a real problem. I think then you’re sort of in Bill O’Reilly territory. An incompetent boss [like Mike] is the greatest thing in the world — then you can do what you like. I agree [about Danny Chung] — you’d get very sick of hearing about a tank and stuff. Kent is certainly hard to read, but again, if you were the right kind of person for a lot of these people, I think you could survive. If you did your job and stayed quiet, I think Ben would be harsh, but he would be relatively fair. I think if you were a math person, Kent might actually take to you. To me, what defines the worst is that there’s nothing you can do. Furlong, I think would be up there with Amy. That’s just a horrific job. Will looks like he has PTSD sometimes. I don’t know quite what he’s doing there, but it’s kind of wonderful.”

Tim Simons as Jonah Ryan on ‘Veep,’ Rupert Friend as Peter Quinn on ‘Homeland’ (Photos: HBO/Showtime)

DAVID MANDEL ASKS: 3.) Do you think Homeland would benefit from a Jonah-type character? Who on that show should we trade him for?

ANALYZING THE ANSWERS: Mandel admits some of his questions weren’t necessarily designed to be answered. Still, a few folks went for it. Ethan Hart gave a vague response: “I’m not sure, but I would love to see a Veep character cry like Carrie on Homeland.” Sonia Murray, however, was very specific (Homeland spoiler alert!): “I think Jonah would be great on Homeland. We trade him for the sadly now deceased Peter Quinn. I feel like the possibility of Jonah’s impending death would be just as nerve-racking as all the times Quinn was in danger. Except the desired outcome would be the opposite: we’d be holding our breath to see if Jonah would escape danger but we’d be super upset and disappointed each time he survived…”

MANDEL RESPONDS: “That’d be very funny,” he says of having a Carrie-type crier. But don’t we already have Catherine? “Catherine does go kind of the full Claire Danes. She Danes-es it up,” he says. As for that Jonah scenario, “Maybe Jonah could get tortured. That could be enjoyable. Captured and kidnapped by some sort of terrorist act and put in a room with Sarin gas, like Peter Quinn.” His personal pick for a crossover? “This is not exactly an answer, but I’d kind of love to see a sit-down between Ben and Saul. I think those are two old souls that would really enjoy each other’s company.”

DAVID MANDEL ASKS: 4.) What do you think will happen first: America electing a female president or Gary wearing corduroy?

ANALYZING THE ANSWERS: They weren’t happy about it, but roughly 60 percent said Gary wearing corduroy.

MANDEL RESPONDS: “Sadly, I think they’re right,” he says. And to answer Jamie’s question, “Why would Gary wearing corduroy not happen? He seems goofy enough to pull it off,” he simply says, “I think he just thinks corduroy is not very tasteful.”

DAVID MANDEL ASKS: 5.) What’s your favorite episode of Veep?

ANALYZING THE ANSWERS: Season 5’s “Mother” — in which Selina lost both her mom and, perhaps more importantly, the popular vote — got three times the nods of any other episode. As Sydney wrote, “‘Mother.’ By a landslide. Between Sarah Sutherland’s Emmy worthy ugly crying and JLD’s Emmy-winning performance, I cry from laughter every time I watch this episode.” Other episodes tying for second with numerous shout-outs include Season 2’s “D.C.” and “The Vic Allen Dinner” (as Eman said, “It has everything: Kent being evil, ‘You’re a meme, ma’am,’ Selina singing, the line ‘Jolly Green Ji** Face.’“); Season 4’s “Election Night”; and Season 5’s “Congressional Ball” and “Kissing Your Sister” (aka Catherine’s documentary).

MANDEL RESPONDS: “It doesn’t surprise me that people like ‘Mother.’ I love ‘Mother.’ I guess it surprises me that it was such a clear winner, just because it’s that typical sort of thing — it’s hard to pick among your children, as they say. I think any opportunity where Selina can be dealing with a real political issue, a real piece of politics, and at the same time, we can mix in a personal issue — and it doesn’t necessarily mean someone’d be dying, but just anything smaller and personal — that’s a great combination for Veep, and I think ‘Mother’ fits into that world.” If he had to single out a personal favorite, it would be “Kissing Your Sister,” just because he had so much fun directing it. “I enjoyed it just because of the fun and the silliness of all the different time periods, and all that kind of stuff, the chance to do sort of the Gilbert Sullivan musical, and that kind of a thing.”

DAVID MANDEL ASKS: 6.) Is it pronounced “CH-lumsky” or “K-lumsky”? We’ve never been sure, and now it’s kind of too late to ask her.

ANALYZING THE ANSWERS: The majority got it right (K-lumsky). A few suggested either watching an interview online in which Anna says it herself (see above), or simply just calling her “Anna” to be safe.

MANDEL RESPONDS: “I just make it a policy never to say Anna’s last name,” he says. “It’s sort of the way I treat my in-laws, which is I never say their name, because my instinct is to call them Mr. …, and I’m certainly not gonna call them by their first name, so I just avoid calling them.”

DAVID MANDEL ASKS: 7.) What line of work would best suit Mike McLintock?

ANALYZING THE ANSWERS: Fans had many suggestions: “a job with least or no stress, like ticket salesman to a museum which no one visits”; “a tired-but-friendly high school teacher who interacts well with the students (because doesn’t do his job and doesn’t teach)”; “Uber driver who keeps trying to show you photos of his children”; “shift supervisor at a small-town grocery store”; “food critic, Daily Mail journalist, Trump PR team”; ��Boat rental, he seems really into boats”; or babysitting, both humans and pets.

MANDEL RESPONDS: “I could see that,” he says of Mike as an ineffective but well-liked high school teacher. As for the other options: “He owned a boat in the past and then had trouble getting rid of said boat, so I think he would be very happy in the boat world, although I don’t think there’s a lot of money in boat rental,” he says. “He’d love to be a food critic. I think he’d love to go to restaurants and be able to eat, but I’m not quite sure he’d have a lot to say.” His take? “I feel like the real road not taken for him would’ve been like a children’s dentist. I think it would have suited him quite well, and I would have really enjoyed seeing him in one of those dental smock things.”

DAVID MANDEL ASKS: 8.) Our writing offices were one flight above Rizzoli & Isles. Are you a Rizzoli or an Isles?

ANALYZING THE ANSWERS: So 50 percent had no idea the former TNT series existed. Forty percent said they were a Rizzoli (Angie Harmon’s blue-collar detective character) and 10 percent said they were an Isles (Sasha Alexander’s more polished medical examiner).

MANDEL RESPONDS: “I think that speaks to what’s going on in America, to the anti-intellectualization,” he says. “I think Isles is clearly smarter. She’s a scientist. And I think this is the problem, it started many years ago, which is that people are looking down on elitism and education. They were putting those two things together and thinking that education is bad, and I’m sorry, I think that’s wrong.” On a personal note, Mandel says the Rizzoli & Isles writers were wonderful neighbors. “They sent us something when we won the Emmy. They were very lovely, we miss them, and my mom loved the show,” he says.

DAVID MANDEL ASKS: 9.) Could Veep exist on a regular TV network?

ANALYZING THE ANSWERS: Please. Ninety-nine percent of fans said no, with most lamenting the would-be loss of the Season 5 episode “C**tgate” and the series’ signature insults. As Erica Macy-Lesperance wrote, “I wouldn’t want Veep to air on a regular network because I don’t want to lose any of Selina’s colorful vocabulary. That’s Washington D.C. for you… District of C**ts!”

MANDEL RESPONDS: “They’re not wrong,” he says. He does like the “intellectual exercise” of imagining how the show could be done without TV-MA language. “But it really is impossible,” he says. “The problem is, I’m happy to get rid of the incidental swearing. We talk a lot about that. Because it’s HBO, and it’s Veep, there’s a tendency for the actors and the writers to just throw in the casual “that f**-king thing” because you can. We police that and try to not have that, so that when you do get a chance to say “f**k” it’s a very special “f**k.”

Does the language make it difficult to choose clips to use at awards shows? On the contrary. “It’s sort of fun,” Mandel says. His favorite experience was when the American Film Institute showed clips from the 10 series it was honoring and, alphabetically, Veep came last. “So the other nine, most of them were dramas. There were a couple of comedies: Atlanta was in there, I think Better Call Saul had a very funny clip, because they’re a comedy-drama kind of a thing. And you got to us, and it was the clip of Selina yelling at Penny Nickerson from ‘Congressional Ball,’ and she just tears into her and her dress, and how she’s gonna shake her district like a nanny from South America, and up her husband’s ass with cancer, all this stuff. It just was so stunning to hear the language in this giant ballroom at the Four Seasons. People started laughing, and then it just started that kind of rolling laughter, because you’d watched nine shows of very clean, normal clips, and then all of a sudden Julia just called down hellfire. And it was very funny, too, because there was no next clip. They were switching over to the movie side, so the lights came up, and there was no one saying like, ‘And now we’ll go over here.’ They were taking a pause, and the pause allowed the laughter to keep rolling, and people kind of stared back at us. It was kinda great.”

TRUMP MOMENT as @VeepHBO closing credit scene is ???????????? (Based on @Walldo tweet) pic.twitter.com/aZpKydSbkn

— Jesse McLaren (@McJesse) March 31, 2017

DAVID MANDEL ASKS: 10.) In the Age of Trump, are you less interested in watching a show written by Jewish writers?

ANALYZING THE ANSWERS: We all know attempts at sarcasm don’t always translate well in print. But it was nice to see Veep‘s international fanbase come out to play: “I’m European, and Europe has a wonderful history regarding our attitude towards Jews,” wrote Viktor, who’s from Croatia. “Hahahaha,” Brazilian fan Luiz Guilherme Romagnoli laughed. “I only would be less interested if Trump was the writer. (Luckily I’m not American, then I don’t have to live under Trump direction.)”

MANDEL RESPONDS: “It’s interesting. The international opinion on Trump is quite clear, so I think they are fascinated by [what’s happening], and horrified, much like a lot of Americans. They are looking to Veep for a little bit of comedy, because he makes them so nervous,” he says.

Mandel has stated many times how grateful he is that the writers decided Selina would lose the election and not be in the White House in Season 6. “I don’t think we can compete. The joke I always say is, we would sit around trying to think of the stupidest, dumbest thing a president or his staff could do… and they kind of outdo that on a daily basis.”

Yes, he enjoyed seeing people turn real Trump team gaffes into Veep closing-credits sequences like the executive order one above or Sean Spicer’s infamous Hitler remarks below.

“It was fantastic. I loved it, because it was obviously a salute to the show, but by the way, was also proving my point,” Mandel says. “Even though I think Selina is a little bit anti-Semitic, she’s not nearly as anti-Semitic as the entire Trump administration, so it’s hard to compete.”

DAVID MANDEL ASKS: 11.) What stories would you like to see next season? Please provide a detailed outline with jokes.

ANALYZING THE ANSWERS: While multiple fans would enjoy seeing Gary sleep with a Russian spy (“Oh lord,” Mandel says), Cecille had another idea for him: “Gary actually quitting or getting fired from his post? Just because I’d like to see how the two will function without each other and see who suffers the most. I just want to determine who really is the ‘human crutch’ in their relationship.” Another popular suggestion: Jonah ends up running for president — either opposing Selina or with her help. Ethan has it all thought out:

Jonah, given his cancer scare and his ability to relate to the American people (because we’re all Jonahs, really), becomes one of the rising stars within the party and easily wins re-election in the midterms. Party leaders, looking for someone to beat the popular Laura Montez, turn to Jonah to run for President and throw their support behind him. Selina, bitter with Doyle after the debacle in Season 5, begins grooming Jonah to run under the condition that he appoints her Secretary of State, and in return, she’ll finance his campaign. The whole team (reluctantly) returns to work for Jonah’s campaign. In the primaries, Jonah’s run mirrors Selina’s initial run: he starts out popular, but ends up losing to DANNY CHUNG. Chung asks Jonah to be his running mate, and he accepts. The Chung/Ryan ticket goes on to win the election, and they take office. However, proof begins to surface that Chung was actually born overseas (in like Brazil or something unexpected) and he is thrown out of office. Jonah then ascends to the presidency Considering Chung made all the cabinet appointments, there are no new spots for Jonah to offer Selina, except for one newly vacant spot: the vice presidency.

MANDEL RESPONDS: As far as Gary and Selina parting ways, “We think about that. Not exactly that story per se, but just the notion of ‘Gary on his own,'” he says. “I’m just not sure either of them has the ability to get to that step. Before he walked out the door with his box, he would be back working with her. I’m just not sure it’s feasible for either of them to leave each other.” And while Selina has already expressed interest in running for President again (an idea that Ben, mercifully, shot down in the Season 6 premiere), is Mandel rushing to get her back to Washington? “Not really,” he says. “I feel like the sun has set on her career.”

DAVID MANDEL ASKS: 12.) Do you want to know what happened on Labor Day?

ANALYZING THE ANSWERS: Yes, 85 percent of people said they’d like to know what Gary and Selina were referring to in Season 4’s legendary “East Wing” blowup when he yelled, “Can you find somebody else who did what I did?” and she responded, “You mean on Labor Day? ” About half of those people, without provocation, also added that they’d like to know what was in the trash bag that Selina made Gary retrieve in Season 2’s “Shutdown.” The 15 percent who said no to a Labor Day reveal feel as Eman does: “Some things are more beautiful when left unexplained.”

MANDEL RESPONDS: “I didn’t know the trash bag was on their minds quite as much, but that’s fascinating. I kind of love that. But I also sort of agree [with Eman]: With Labor Day, at some point you worry that there’s no answer that would satisfy anybody,” he says. “But I kinda like the idea of finding out more, so we’ll see what happens.”

DAVID MANDEL ASKS: 13.) What do you think happened?

ANALYZING THE ANSWERS/MANDEL RESPONDS: We read him a list of popular theories. Starting with the most obvious…

Gary disposed of a body for her. “I’m just gonna simply say too easy. That they murdered somebody — just too easy,” Mandel says.

Gary and Selina were… intimate. “Not the way they talked about it, no.”

It’s related to Selina’s off-camera miscarriage, revealed in Season 1’s “Full Disclosure.” “It’s hard to imagine it being something that they had already talked about. It just seems like it has to be something we don’t know about at all.”

Gary had to tell Andrew that Selina wanted a divorce, just as he had to tell Ted about their split in that same Season 1 episode. “Oh, that’s interesting. I think it’s worse than that.”

Had Mandel decided what happened? “I don’t have all of it, but there’s a key piece of information that I would love to get in at some point,” he says. “I’m hoping that we’ll get it in this year, but I’m not sure we will. It’s hard to say anything other than that without giving anything away.”

Veep airs Sundays at 10:30 p.m. on HBO.

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[ltjlily17]

Your name, in lights

What do you believe happens to us after death? Nothing. Thats it, homie.

Have you ever cheated on someone? Nope.

What are your plans for this weekend? A friend may come over to play a board game Saturday afternoon and I’m going to ask them to help Steve get the window AC out of the upstairs window since it is now snowing. Being an adult is just a barrel of fun.

Does the thought of growing old frighten you? Not really.

What is the best movie you’ve ever seen? I think Seven Pounds and The Matrix had the biggest effect on me when I saw them. Also the Butterfly Effect, as well. I wouldn’t say any of them are my favorite movies, though.

Have you ever hurt someone for your own entertainment? Nah, I’m too anxious for any of that nonsense.

What is your favorite song of all time? Mayonaise by the Smashing Pumpkins or Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton

Has anyone you’ve known died on a holiday? Nope.

If you could write a book, what would it be about? Don’t know. Probably throw away fiction that hopefully had a good enough cover for some people to buy it.

Do you think most people understand you? Meh, probably not. That’s fine.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I’d be less lazy? I feel like I was more of a go getter when I was younger and now I’m just so blah about everything.

What are some lyrics that speak to your soul? Uh, nothing at the moment. My soul doesn’t feel like talking lol.

Are you in love with anyone at the moment? Yep.

Have you ever been in love with more than one person at the same time? Hmmm. Yes, I think so. When I was a lot younger.

What is your favorite time of year? Fall.

What is your ideal first date? No idea. Don’t plan on ever having another one, so doesn’t matter anyway.

What is the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to you? "You have all of the qualities I look for in a vampire”

Do you have any taboo fetishes or preferences? Not that I am currently aware of.

What is the thing you are most ashamed of? Meh, nothing I can really think of at the moment. Anything I’ve ever done was for a reason to me at the time, and if it was awful, I’ve hopefully learned from it.

What is the emotion you seem to feel most strongly? I think an anger or hurt when I feel left out or passed up.

Do you think of yourself as a unique person? I guess so. I’m sure there are others like me out there though.

What is a movie from childhood that you loved? Steve and I were just talking about this last night since Disney+ launched. Cinderella and The Little Mermaid were my first favorites, but I also loved Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Brave Little Toaster, The Aristocats, The Indian in the Cubboard and The Lion King.

Are you afraid of death? Yes. Most likely thats because I know its the end and that is scary.

What are your top three biggest fears, actually? Death, being replaced, falling. Oh, I also really worry about a bug flying in my hair and getting stuck.

Do you have an accent of any kind? I’m from the midwest so like the generic, non-specific American accent.

What do you want to be remembered for? Making people happy.

What is your favorite number? 17.

Do you have a favorite television show? If so, what is it? I don’t watch any shows that are currently airing, I don’t think. I just don’t have the patience to remember to watch something every week at the same time. I didn’t really watch any shows at all until my friends started buying some on DVD and then Netflix came out. I really liked My So-Called Life when I was younger and I watched Girls on HBO as it was ending.

Are you currently sad about anything? Nope.

What was your first job? CSR for a pizza place. I worked there for 15 years. 

And what job do you have now?

Stay at home dog mom, ha ha. I do not currently have a job. I should be doing this video interview thing for a job I’m applying to right now but I just don’t feel like it. Why do I have to submit a video interview in order to get an in person interview? I don’t like the idea of them judging me by how I look right out of the gate.

Have you ever changed your spiritual beliefs? Yah, they’ve progressed. When I was younger, it was “I don’t think I believe in some of this” and now that I’m older, its “I don’t think I believe in ANY of this.”

What is your favorite alcoholic drink? Wine that tastes like juice. Sweet ciders. Fresh tasting stuff- Gin with basil and lime or something like that.

Do you ever talk to yourself? Most of the time while I’m alone. If you don’t pretend you’re answering questions on a show or something when you’re alone, are you even alive?

Have you ever cried yourself to sleep in your adult life? Sure.

What do you think is the meanest thing you’ve ever said to someone? I don’t know. If I’ve said anything truly awful, I guess I’ve blocked it out. Or didn’t fully grasp the effect it had on the other person.

How do you celebrate your favorite holiday? Passing out handfuls of candy to strange children.

Do you have a favorite book? If so, how many times have you read it? I have a couple. Some books I read like once a year or so. Like oh this is this book season. Theres a couple of books I like that I’ve for sure read more than 10 times.

Do you have any teachers from the past who inspired you? Not really? It feels like everyone is supposed to have an inspiring teacher or adult in their life, but I don’t think thats really statistically possible. 

Do you prefer sad or happy music? Sad.

Speaking of which, what is your favorite genre? Indie folk? Thats what Spotify tells me. Rock, pop, indie, indie folk, things like that.

What is your best talent? Creatig things. You need artwork for your house? Large spiderman drawing? Birthday party decorations? 3 dimensional dinosaur racetrack for your D&D game? Some 3d printed figurines painted? A cupcake that looks like a certain thing? A cake with a character on it? No worries, I’ve got you.

Have you ever wished you were from another country? Not really. I have considered moving to a different country though.

What are you thinking about currently? Baking and this interview thing I have to do. Gotta change out of my pjs and everything.

What is the closest red thing to your body? Theres an empy fundip packet on the coffee table.

What is a subject that makes you uncomfortable to speak about? Um, I don’t know. I think its more about the company than the topic.

What is your favorite clothing store to shop at? Probably Anthropologie because they just started carrying plus sizes.

Do you have anything you are extremely particular about? Um, I’m either very particular or I don’t care at all, I think.

Have you ever seen the ocean? Yep.

What is your most fond memory of your current S.O, if applicable? Hmmm, I don’t know. We’ve been together for 10 years, so I’m not sure how I’d pick just one thing. We had a really good time in New York last year.

Do you find yourself confused often? Nope, not really.

What is your dream career? I really don’t know. I’m supposed to be spending my jobless time figuring that out, but where do you really even begin?

What was the best time of your life? Maybe like my early-mid twenties?

Have you ever been on a cruise? Yes, twice. We had a really great time both trips. 

Do you miss any of your exes? Nope.

Who would you like to say something to? No one?

Are you religious? Not at all.

Do you think you are attractive? Not especially. I think I’m good at picking out outfits and accessorizing though.

How many people have you slept with? Two.

Do you consider yourself a catch? Ha ha, I’m currently jobless, so probably not.

Do you enjoy naps? Nooooooo. Naps throw off my already fragile sleeping schedule and ruin my life for weeks.

What kind of sauce do you eat your chicken nuggets with? Ranch or ranch and hot sauce.

Are you happy? Occasionally.

What do you think you could do to improve your life? Be less lazy and procrastinately.

[harryandmeghan0-blog]

To Hate-Watch Or Not To Hate-Watch: A Discussion Of 'A Christmas Prince 2' - HuffPost

New Post has been published on https://harryandmeghan.xyz/to-hate-watch-or-not-to-hate-watch-a-discussion-of-a-christmas-prince-2-huffpost/

To Hate-Watch Or Not To Hate-Watch: A Discussion Of 'A Christmas Prince 2' - HuffPost

Warning: Spoilers below!

Every good romantic comedy needs a sequel. How else will we find out about how that fluffy, swoony happy ending turned into a relentless morass of disappointment and misery? That’s entertainment!

So it was with immense excitement that audiences awaited the sequel to Netflix’s breakout 2017 holiday rom-com “A Christmas Prince,” titled “A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding.” American blogger Amber Moore (Rose McIver) would finally be tying the knot with budget Armie Hammer and Aldovian King Richard (Ben Lamb)!

But is “A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding” a frothy nuptial romp or a grim look at what comes after the whirlwind fairy-tale betrothal? Is it, as some viewers have suggested, an oddly timed cinematic attack on labor unions, a clumsy piece of pro-monarchy propaganda?

Claire and Emma, two “Christmas Prince” fans, talked through their complicated feelings about every second of this romantic comedy cum political procedural.

Emma: Claire! From one intrepid journalist to another, I can’t tell you how #blessed I feel to be talking about the instant holiday classic “A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding” with you. There’s a lot to dig into here. Cryptocurrency! Class tensions! Blogging! But let’s start with a general review. Did you … enjoy this sequel?

Claire: “Enjoyment” is such a simple metric to quantify my reaction to this movie. I felt a lot of emotions, such as irritation and confusion. I enjoyed tweeting my critiques. As a romantic, I felt no thrills when Amber and Richard were onscreen together, which saddened me. However, hate-watching is one of my favorite hobbies. In that sense, I did enjoy it. What about you? Was this the sequel you were hoping for?

Emma: As someone who both loves hate-watching terrible holiday rom-coms and has recently felt very bitter about love, who can even say what I was hoping for? I laughed several times, so that seemed like a plus ― though perhaps not during moments that the writers intended to be played for laughs. I also got a wry enjoyment out of watching a movie that so terribly portrays journalism writ large and specifically female journalists. (Although I did note that even in Amber’s fictional world, media seems to be falling apart. RIP, Beat Now magazine!)

You bring up an important point when you say you felt nary a flutter in your heart watching Richard and Amber’s chemistry. I was struck by how … un–in love they seemed to be with each other. They are supposed to be playing a couple that has just been through a yearlong long-distance engagement, and now they finally are in the same place and get to be married. And yet … they didn’t even make out until the very end of the movie??? Was this movie even a love story, or was it more like a story about saving an increasingly irrelevant and antiquated monarchy?

Claire: I think you already know the answer to that question. We see a montage of them romping through North America and Europe, holding hands and giggling like teenagers, but when they’re supposed to speak lines of dialogue to each other, they seem like distant acquaintances. Or maybe she’s his Uber driver?  

Netflix

The chemistry is undeniable!

She has arrived in Aldovia for the holiday season, which will apparently be spent feverishly planning a wedding for Christmas Day. (They’ve had all year to plan a royal wedding, and they’re just starting now, about three days in advance? Sure, fine.) Due to protocol ― keep an eye on protocol, it’s one of the central players in this drama! ― Amber has her own bridal suite instead of staying with her fiancé. But they also never, IDK, sneak off to make out? Have naughty assignations in the armory? Do these people feel visceral repugnance for each other’s bodies? It’s so bizarre.

When Amber arrives in Aldovia, we also see that her chemistry with Richard is not the only element from “A Christmas Prince” that has been downgraded in this sequel. We need to talk about Rudy. Emma, please explain what happened to Amber’s sweet diner-owning pops.

Emma: So this took me a beat after he was introduced ― I hadn’t watched the original since last year ― but I quickly realized that they had recast the father. I get it: It’s a Netflix holiday movie. Actors have conflicts. It happens. But more concerning than the fact that they made her father a totally different human ― something that the writers wink at the audience about when Richard’s little sister, Princess Emily, comments that “he looks different in person” (apparently it’s all about his shaved facial hair) ― is that this new Papa Rudy has a completely different personality from the old Papa Rudy.  

The new Rudy has zero sense of manners or decorum, constantly threatens to fight people when they do things like attempt to get a taxi from the airport, and decides that he is more qualified to cook for an official event than the (female) royal chef. This personality transformation is an inexplicable choice on the part of the writers. It added nothing to the plot and just made me even more aware that Rudy had been recast. All I could think was, “Oh, I guess her dad is a total asshole now. That’s weird.”

Another frustrating character that we desperately need to talk about is Sahil, the royal wedding planner who is flown in from India. Claire, please let the people know why we both were supremely peeved about Sahil’s portrayal.

Claire: Well, I’m not the expert here, but it’s pretty simple. He’s the only character of color with a significant speaking role, except for Amber’s friend who shows up halfway through and immediately starts trying to get with villainous dweeb Count Simon. Sahil is by turns obsequious and hysterical, as he caters to the grandiose vision of the queen mother and important secretary Mrs. Averill while ignoring poor, blond, innocent Amber, who doesn’t want his ridiculous high-fashion designs. He’s played by British actor Raj Bajaj, but he speaks in an exaggerated Indian accent. He’s a caricature and not a flattering one. His portrayal felt tone-deaf at best and, ironically, a reminder of how snowy white Aldovia is.

Though Sahil is in charge of the royal wedding, he actually spends most of the film off camera … because this movie isn’t about a wedding. It’s about Richard bumbling around like your grandmother with her spectacles pushed up on her head asking, “Now where have I put my spectacles?” ― but instead of his eyewear, it’s all of Aldovia’s money. Where did he put it? Why can’t he find it? Emma, what the ever-loving hell was the political plot of this movie?

Emma: Claire … The short answer is, I have no fucking clue. The longer answer is that I can list off some elements of the political plot, and they all add up to one excellent lesson: Monarchic rule is where it’s at.

1. All of Aldovia’s money is flowing mysteriously out of the country causing all of the working people to lose their jobs.

2. The biggest issue with said unemployment and the ensuing mass strikes is not, in fact, that Aldovian people are unemployed. Rather, the true tragedy of this loss of wage labor is that Emily might be denied her right to awkwardly flirt with one of her classmates in the upcoming Christmas pageant.

3. It will take Amber’s “journalistic instinct” that “something more” is going on with Aldovia’s bleeding economy to solve this economic crisis.

4. Also, hacking!

5. The answer to said economic crisis is ― dramatic pause ― CORRUPTION. But not the corruption of an antiquated government system in a nation that has a prime minister but for some reason gives its hapless king all power over its economic policy. The real corruption comes down to one powerful individual who no longer lives in Aldovia, the white-bearded Lord Leopold, who has created a shell corporation that is publicly registered under his name and is single-handedly draining all of Aldovia’s business profits.

This all seems very plausible and definitely has no holes, right? Shell corporations are bad, monarchies are good. The end.

Claire: I’m a monarchist now, thanks to this good, good propaganda movie. Let’s rewind this to the beginning: King Richard, having ascended to power thanks to an enormous acorn in the first movie, is trying to make his mark with a new agenda. That agenda is: modernization. Modernize Aldovia! This is supposed to be an investment in the country’s economy, but instead, the money is all going somewhere else, and the Aldovian businesses are all bleeding capital and laying off workers.

Where is the money going? Richard doesn’t know! He barely seems to care, to be honest. Much of the movie is just the king and his family and advisers standing around mutually affirming that modernization is very good for the economy in the long run and that unfortunately the workers just don’t see it. The plebs’ lack of foresight is ruining Christmas for the royal family; they’re sending mildly peeved holiday cards to the queen mother about their financial ruin, for example. Tween Princess Emily is meant to be starring in a Christmas pageant in which she’ll kiss a very cute boy. But then the theater workers go on strike. Those unbelievable assholes! Don’t they know the princess of the realm wants a smooch from her handsome subject? That is their job!

Amber, our little go-getter, brings her American no-nonsense approach to solving this little union problem: She orders the palace workers to be scabs. The pageant is held at the palace and staffed by palace employees. Strike busted! It’s honestly so heartwarming.

But Amber isn’t just a great anti-labor innovator; she’s also, as we know, a journalist. And being a reporter-slash-royal, she has all the tools to uncover what’s really going on. Emma, did Amber’s journalistic capers ring true to you?

Netflix

Amber does journalism!

Emma: Every good journalist knows that joining the royal family while reporting on the royal family and matters that intimately affect them is totally kosher. What are journalistic ethics, even? But seriously, all jokes about Amber’s completely egregious conflicts of interest aside, I want to talk about the way she does journalism.

To Amber, journalism isn’t so much a process as an instinct. She was born with that instinct, and she’ll have that instinct until she dies. That instinct is Amber. Amber is journalistic instinct. And that instinct leads her all over Aldovia, from the confines of the palace to the virtual Hall of Records to a dive bar where a bedraggled and beaten-down unemployed man is drowning his sorrows in beer. Oh, did I forget to mention that she found this source because he wrote a justifiably embittered holiday card to the royal family that they read aloud in their parlor as a fun Christmas activity?

Amber recruits her #journalism friends ― both of whom seem to exist solely to bolster Amber’s confidence in her journalistic skill rather than to do any reporting of their own despite the fact that they both worked at Beat Now mag with her ― to join her on her renegade reporting mission. They approach the man and give Amber, cleverly disguised with sunglasses in a dark bar at night, the in to talk to him. She asks him if he knows what the hell is going on with all of Aldovia’s money disappearing. And in a stroke of unbelievable luck, he does! This low-level worker not only names one of the three companies that seem to be behind all of the economic corruption, but he also tells her that the aforementioned company seems — what’s the word? — fishy. And being the investigative blogger that she is, Amber takes painstaking notes.

They read as follows:

– Meadowlark – Fishy

Netflix

Amber is very good at journalism!

Everything you need to write an explosive single-source story about high-level corruption in the Aldovian government! Naturally, our fair heroine does not write any pieces about this. Instead, she takes that info right to the king so he can save the day by announcing that corruption has been rooted out and everyone gets a Christmas bonus! One-time bonuses: the tried and true way to solve an entire nation’s labor issues. Long live King Richard!

Claire: Let’s not forget Princess Emily’s contribution: Staying up all night hacking into the Hall of Records database to find the incorporation documents for Meadowlark and the shell corporation. Why is this necessary? Wouldn’t these be public documents? Even if not, Amber is engaged to the king of the entire country ― is he not able to look at this?

The monarchy seems like a flawless system: He is completely in charge of the entire economy, but when it comes to questions like “Where is all our money?” he isn’t allowed to check or just doesn’t feel like checking in the most obvious possible places, like “Who owns all the companies that we’re giving huge government contracts to?” Amber, your man is useless.

But of course, Amber is also pretty much useless. Aside from her little corruption exposé ― which she uses to help a monarch consolidate political power ― her blog is not so much journalism as a platform for expressing her me-ness. After a year of engagement, she tells her readers at the start of the movie, she’s unaltered by proximity to royalty. She’s still … just her! Unlike Prince Harry, it seems, Richard did not have the hard conversation with his fiancée about shutting down her personal blog before joining the royal family. When she pisses off the protocol police by posting, er, a fun photo blog about the royals having humanizing holiday fun, the post is removed. “DID YOU CENSOR MY BLOG?” she asks. Yes, Amber, they did ― but finally Richard relents and lets her have it back.

At the end of the first movie, the idea that Amber could continue to be a hard-hitting journalist while being a queen seemed untenable. What’s weird is how the second movie keeps trying to make this work.

All this, and still there is a wedding ― planned in three days, only to be scrapped for something that Amber feels is just a little more “me.” Emma, what did you think of the fairy-tale wedding at the end?

Emma: So, one of the moments that I was truly on Amber’s side was when she objected to the heinous, fluffy cupcake dress that Sahil and Mrs. Averill wanted her to wear for the wedding. And yet ― even when presented with the chance to pick something new that would reflect her, with, one can assume, an essentially unlimited budget, Amber went with a dress that I found almost equally repellent. I think the first time we talked about this, you described it as the gown version of a white collared shirt that old women wear? And that summed up its aesthetic perfectly. 

Amber in her wedding dress! 

I’m sorry, but being a “normal girl” doesn’t mean having terrible taste. I know lots of normal women who got married in all kinds of traditional and nontraditional wedding outfits. And let me tell you, not a single one was as hideous as Amber’s get-up. It was ill-fitting, had lace stripes that served no purpose, aesthetic or otherwise, and was primarily made of a shiny fabric that showed every single wrinkle in excruciating detail. Whyyyyy, Amber? Why? Your coats are far better tailored than this blousy monstrosity!

Claire: If my mother-in-law wore this as a blouse to a summer dinner party (ideally in a linen-cotton blend), I would find it quite nice. The appeal just doesn’t translate to ballgown length. Not everything needs to be the same! That’s all.

This is perhaps supposed to convey that Amber is normal and not like the royals, but most of us boring heteronormative lady proles wear sweetheart necklines and heels for our weddings, so this didn’t exactly feel relatable. Nor did it feel like escapist, marshmallowy fairy-tale fun. So thanks for ruining royal weddings for me, Netflix.

This has been “Should You Watch It?” a weekly examination of movies and TV worth ― or not worth! ― your time.

RELATED COVERAGE

Source: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/a-christmas-prince-sequel-netflix_us_5c0aedb1e4b0ab8cf693490b

[themomsandthecity]

How to Raise a Strong, Independent, Bitchy Woman

We're happy to present this article by Laura Lifshitz from one of our favorite sites, YourTango. I am not a b*tch all the time, sadly. I am a go-getter and I am usually straightforward about how I feel, but I don't assert myself like a b*tch does. Why would I want to be a b*tch, you ask? And what is a b*tch, b*tch? Well, to the outside world, the word "b*tch" has a negative connotation: a nasty woman who tears others down and selfishly only acts in her own interests. A b*tch cares about nobody but herself! But I've reframed the definition to be positive and I'm recommending - yes, recommending - that you raise your girls to be b*tches. Here's how: 1. A b*tch never diminishes her character. A b*tch is a female who acts in her own interests and considers others' needs as well, but not to the point of diminishing her own character. There have been times in my life when I have been a dreadful doormat. I said yes to things I didn't want to say yes to, and reluctantly let men walk all over me. A b*tch thinks of others - but not to the point in which her self-esteem and life suffers. When my daughter told a 40-year-old man to "please move" because it was her turn during a game of basketball, I was impressed with her chutzpah. Was she direct? Yes? Did she hurt him? No! She acted in her own interest in a healthy manner. A b*tch doesn't apologize for taking care of herself. Encourage your girls to speak out when someone is hurting them or treating them badly. Encourage your girls to articulate what they need from you and other people. When they have grown up, you won't be there to speak for them, so teach them to speak for themselves now. 2. A b*tch does not apologize for her feelings. One day, a strong woman somewhere decided to say how she felt without dumbing it down, softening the blow, or apologizing for her feelings before she opened her mouth. And then she was called a b*tch. I ask each one of you: how great does it really feel to always have to "soften" the blow about your hurt or angry feelings? Do you feel amazing when you have to apologize for your emotions? It sucks. It sucks to have to cater to everyone else. Do men do that? Not usually. If being a b*tch means telling people how you feel honestly and being able to stand up for yourself, then sign my daughter up today for the course on "How to Be a B*tch." I cultivate honesty in my daughter and tell her that if others make her feel bad, she needs to speak up and then ignore them and walk away. I teach her that she doesn't need to be around negative people and that when someone hurts her or makes her angry, she should speak up and say something - even if it's me she's mad at! Nurture that trait in your little girl: say something and don't be afraid. Most importantly, reconceptualize what it means to be assertive and female. Asserting yourself does not make you a jerk: being an aggressor does. Women are happier and stronger when they can assert themselves in healthy ways and not reduce themselves to passive-aggressive behavior. 3. A b*tch is not a "good girl." We often tell our daughters to be "good girls." What this typically means is please share, be quiet, avoid making mischief, and be polite. These are all wonderful and good, of course - nobody wants a rude child. But sometimes when we tell our girls to be good and quiet, we're actually saying, "Don't speak up, don't question anything, and do what everyone else wants you to do!" This is problematic. Do you want to raise a follower or a leader? Sure, not every person will be a leader, but if you can foster a sense of independence in your girl, you're giving her a leg up in the adult world later in life. Let your child do things for herself. Give her chores. My 4-year-old feeds the dog, sets the table, and puts her dirty laundry in the hamper. I am teaching her that she can own her own actions. When she's rude to someone, I make her solve the problem. I've had her apologize to a cashier before when she was only 2 years old. When she's with kids and they're acting out or perhaps she's bordering on making a bad choice, I ask her to think about it. I let her learn from her own natural consequences. If she can make a choice that won't hurt anyone, like pick her own clothes or decide an activity for the day, I let her. And sharing? Sharing is important, but let's be real here: sometimes we don't want to share our stuff - and that's OK. Teaching your kid when to share and when to say, "Sorry, this is my piece of cake," is crucial. Nourish that independent spirit in your daughter. That quote, "Well–behaved women rarely make history," is right for a reason. Embrace your daughter's right to be a b*tch. She will succeed later on in life. 4. A b*tch can do anything the boys can do. No b*tch (i.e., a successful, strong woman) believes she just "can't" do something because it's out of her skill set or not for women. When you start to segregate how "this is for girls" and "that is for boys," you essentially tell your daughter there are only certain things fit for her to do. False! The world is your child's oyster. Don't put up walls for her to break down: our society will give her walls to conquer as it is. There is no such thing as impossible. Let your daughter know this. Even if she wants to do something that's naturally difficult for her, cheer her on and let her figure out how to tackle her own goals and dreams. A b*tch owns her choices, pushes ahead, and goes for what she wants. Which would you rather be? A doormat whimpering in the corner? Or a b*tch who's eating that cake with a smile? Who is your daughter? Face it. Your daughter is who she is, whether that's quiet, bossy, demure, loud, or tough. Accept it and love her for her flaws, no matter what. My daughter is very blunt and doesn't sugarcoat what she thinks. While it sometimes surprises me to hear this little person's two cents served up straight, I admire her and know where I stand with her at all times. She's not like her sensitive Mama and that's fine. When we accept our children as is - rather than how we imagined them to be - we give them the permission to live authentically, and this should be what we want for our kids. A happy, true life. No one needs to pretend to be someone he or she is not. Allow your girl to be who she is with no apologies necessary. B*tches know who they are - and not only do they accept that, but they love themselves whether they're crazy as a bedbug or quiet as a mouse. You want your daughter to love herself, not hide out in a corner, hoping no one notices who she is, flaws and all. I have lived most of my life halfway between a doormat and a b*tch. I have always walked to the beat of my own drum and expressed how I felt, but I've also felt bad for who I was at times, apologized too much, and doubted my own potential. After my divorce, I am becoming more and more of a b*tch, and I'm glad. It is a long time coming. I refuse to let my daughter spend a day being sorry for who she is, and so should you. Raise your b*tch and raise her proud. We need strong female leaders to find a backdoor and say, "Screw the glass ceiling. I've got my entryway and I found it all by myself." More great reads from YourTango: Dear Moms: If Your Kid's Whiny, You Only Have Yourself to Thank The Life-Changing Lesson My Dad Taught Me After My Divorce 4 Reasons Promising to Love Someone "Forever" Is a Load of Sh*t NO, Asking to Be "Dominated" Doesn't Make Me Less of a Feminist 5 Stages of "New Person Sex" Every Divorced Woman Goes Through http://bit.ly/2n7aHS0