#I will never be that interested in the Archie continuity but come on. how could I NOT like a redeemed version of Metal Sonic?

[generic-sonic-fan]

I want Shard and E-123 Ω in the same room

Oh man. That'd be chaos.

From what I know of Shard, his verbal spar with Omega would be LEGENDARY. They've both got smart mouths on them, with Shard being the more witty and fast-talking of the two. They'd be arguing the entire time they fight.

The physical spar would also be something to see. I imagine that when they first meet, Omega would genuinely be trying to destroy Shard, but after they get more acquainted (they're both too chatty to let the misunderstanding go unaddressed forever) I imagine that they fight just for the hell of it whenever they happen to be in the same place. An outside observer would think that they're each other's nemesis meanwhile they're just catching up as they argue back and forth and dodge each other's bullets.

Their most common point of contention is over who the superior robot is, of course. They also get on each other's nerves a lot- Shard is way too mouthy for Omega to tolerate for long, and Omega's too gruff and single-minded for Shard's style.

They wouldn't be besties but they'd have a bond deeper than people might think. There's a bit of that shared background of former Eggman robots that now hate Eggman that makes it so they just can't hate each other. Like, they'd never show it, but they'd go out of their way to help each other out as long as they won't get caught doing so.

When Eggman builds another Metal Sonic, Omega and Shard have a fight beforehand to see who gets to destroy it first!

[teriri-sayes]

Reactions to Cale Snow's Chapter 236

TL;DR - Rasheel beats up Kendall physically and mentally. Cale and Raon arrives. Rasheel feels awkward at Raon worrying about him.

Victor Rasheel and Loser Kendall We have a winner! Well, it was quite obvious that Rasheel would win in the end, but how it played out was interesting. Rasheel was heavily wounded and even suffered from severe burns because of the explosions, but he endured it and continuously beat up Kendall.

But a physical beating was not enough for Rasheel. He wanted Kendall to be mentally shaken too. Rasheel instilled doubt in Kendall about his victory attribute by declaring that he was a loser, a coward who only fought battles he was guaranteed to win.

Even Kendall's fellow dragon, the goddess of struggle, refused to fight him because she said that he did not understand how to struggle. Kendall only knew how to win, and knew not how to give up or run away.

Rasheel understood that giving up or running away were not bad. Him obeying Eruhaben was a form of giving up because he knew that he could not beat Eruhaben. And he was aware that in life, there were situations where it was okay to run away.

Rasheel's words mentally shook Kendall, and he was sure that in the future, Kendall would never be able to use his attribute properly because he would always doubt his victory.

After Kendall was knocked unconscious, Archie came and said that Rasheel was too harsh. But Rasheel retorted that he was not generous to his enemies.

Frankly, I don't see Kendall as super evil. DHB in the past was similar to him, so Kendall could still be redeemed like DHB. Kendall also had ambitions of being the dragon lord, so Cale might use him to create division among the Aipotu dragons.

Worried Raon Cale and Raon finally arrived, and Rasheel proudly told them that there was no need for them to come because he already took care of the problem. But Raon was shocked at Rasheel's wounded state, becoming teary-eyed and worried about him.

Rasheel was not used to having someone worry about him, so he felt awkward. He eventually turned to Cale to look for compliments, boasting that he did not kill the enemy and only knocked it unconscious before asking Cale if he did a good job. 😂

Cale could only sigh, and Rasheel was puzzled why he was not being praised for doing a good job. The funniest part of the chapter was at the end though. 🤣🤣🤣

Cale and Raon: *teleports* Rasheel: Oh, you didn't have to come. I solved it. Raon: Ra-Rasheel! Rasheel: *flustered at Raon's worried expression* Raon: Who made you like this? Why are you so beat up? You're not the type of person to go around getting beaten up! *approaches Rasheel with a teary-eyed expression* Raon: Rasheel! Don't get hurt! Don't be sick! Rasheel: *speechless on how to reply to a worried Raon* Rasheel to Cale: Ah. I didn't kill the dragon. I knocked him out. Did I do well? Cale: Sigh. Okay? Rasheel: ??? (Where's my praise for doing a good job?) Raon: Rasheel, here's apple pie- no, that's for my human! You should eat walnut pie! Rasheel: *gets walnut pie shoved into his mouth by Raon*

Ending Remarks The fight finally ended, so up next is Cale returning to the black castle. And what did Cale say he would do when he returned from his visit to the king? Naming DHB! Of course, the author might postpone this with some other issue like talking about what happened to Lock's side. Or find some other reason to delay it like how Cale keeps delaying his talk with the Molans... Please, author-nim. Give us the DHB naming scene soon!

[cybernightart]

Bonnie brothers Au

(The bear family)

Okay, so there's going to be a lot of talking that's just going to be a general summary of the beginning of the bear family becoming a little family unit, but under all that there's going to be a bunch of drawings. So if you just want to look at the drawings, scroll down lol.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As mentioned in one of @bxnnie-bxwl 's recent posts, in this AU the main bear family consists of Wilfred(FNAF 1 Freddy), Alfred (FNAF 2 withered Freddy), and Freddy!(FNAF SB glamrock Freddy)

Wilfred is the single father to his son Freddy, who he had at a very young age, having him dropped off on his doorstep one day out of the blue accompanied by only a note from wilfred's ex saying how this is his son and that she never wants to hear from him or his son again and that she does not want him. The now freshly 20-year-old Wilfred is on his own in a very small apartment, working a minimum wage restaurant job which doesn't make enough money to support him and a newborn baby, though he tries his best.

Wilfred being an orphan himself couldn't bear (hehe bear) to give his son away but he felt like he had no option after months of trying and trying and barely being able to scrape by with it all coming to a head when he is unable to forward feeding this growing cub who with everyday needs more and more food pretty much. And the last thing he wants to do is to put his son up for adoption due to his absolutely horrible experiences in the orphanage he was at, but the auction seemed more and more like the only one. The more he sat there and cried as he cradled this baby in his arms alone in his apartment.

That is until the doorbell went.

Wilfred caught up to open the door to see if it was there. I wanted to see his neighbor Alfred standing there with a box of food in his hands, and pretty much without saying a word came in. Gave Wilfred the food he'd been holding as Wilfred had not been properly feeding himself for the past few months in order to feed Freddy, and with ease took over looking after little baby Freddy while Wilfred was actually able to get some sleep for the first time in months.

Over the next few years. Alfred became more and more like family, eventually becoming the official godfather to Freddy and filling in the role of a grandparent for him. Allowing Wilfred to go to work. And earn the money he needs in order to support him and his son along with the support of Alfred as well, who works as a gardener and beekeeper. Alfred taught Freddy multiple things growing up, including being the one to introduce him to singing and performing music. Other things Alfred taught him included many wiccan practices, and other forms of witchcraft which Freddy ended up taking up an interest in and continuing to practice by himself as he got older.

When Freddy was around 5, Wilfred was given the restaurant that he worked at by the owners who were retiring and trusted him to continue on the restaurant as they believed the business would be in good hands with him. This significantly helped the family income and allowed them to move into a bigger family home, instead of the one bedroom apartment where Wilfred had been sleeping on the couch for many, many years as he had given the only bedroom to Freddy.

When Freddy was little he would come to work with Wilfred from time to time and help him wait tables where he got given his own little tray where he would carry a singular drink or side dish so he could feel like he was helping, the customers absolutely loved this and would end up tipping Wilfred More, as well as tipping Freddy. This resulted in Freddy amassing a decently large sum of money which he used to take his friends to the local arcade, sweet shoppe, toy store, and more.

Speaking of friends! Freddy's childhood friends consisted of Chloe (glamrock chica) who was the daughter of chica, A fellow business owner who runs a local bakery who is very close friends with Wilfred. Archie(basically glamrock foxy), who is the son of Captain foxy, a local fisherman who pretty much has a monopoly over the entirety of the fish market for the bear district, who is also very close friends with Wilfred. And lastly, Felix (Funtime Freddy)! The one friend Freddy was able to make in school, as one day Felix saw Freddy getting picked on by some of the other bears and decided to stand up for the little bear. Felix being a polar bear was very intimidating for the other bear cubs who had been picking on Freddy so they quite quickly left him alone. This then created a lifelong friendship between the two.

I will go into more of the story beyond this point in later posts as this is already getting quite long, but now it's time for the drawings! (Primarily of Freddy and Wilfred) I will say though in the future not only will it include how Freddy meets the rest of the future band, how he and Bowie (glamrock Bonnie) meet and fall in love, The pure chance meeting of Wilfred and Brooks (FNAF 1 Bonnie), and another family member of the bear household who has a very dark past and has very mysterious ties to Wilfred/Freddy and Even somehow connects back to Bonnie's family and a tragedy that occurred many many years ago 👀👀👀

Quick additional info!

•Alfred is a Kodiak bear

•Wilfred and Freddy are Cambrian brown bears

•Wilfred and Freddy speak Spanish as their "first" language with English being their technical second.

•All bears speak bearish as their legitimate first language being the language that they're able to speak from the moment they can make noise when they're born. This consists of the normal bear sounds, including growling,huffing, barking,woofing, jaw pops, chuffs, hissing, squeaking, and even purring! The types of noises they can make are dependent on the species of bear they are, as each species of bear has slight variations of noises they can make.

•Also bears in this world live in more isolated communities almost entirely consisting of only other bears, This is due to the rest of the species in the world Fearing bears and what they're capable of as they have still retained a lot of their sheer strength and power and physical capabilities that they're original form of animal had. They're also feared due to the spreading of false and greatly exaggerated rumors about how violent and dangerous bears are in this universe. This is led to bears being very discriminated against and bears themselves isolating themselves in fear of scaring or hurting the others around them. Even though, despite their large size for a majority of them, they are no more dangerous than anyone else in the world. However, these biases and misconceptions still remain.

THE ART!!!!

Here is wilfred's design! Seems like a relatively normal guy, though he does seem to have a distinct marking over his eye and the side of his face 👀

Here is a cute little pen doodle I did of Wilfred and little Freddy! (This drawing of Freddy still gives me cuteness aggression)

Some Papa bear and baby bear activities ✨

Baby Freddy in his little space themed PJs 😭🥺<3

And here is a side by side comparison of Wilfred (age 40) and Freddy (age 20) rocking the same outfit!

A cute little doodle I did of the bear fam together on a day out. Here you can see a side by side comparison of the giant size of Alfred being a Kodiak bear(8ft tall), compared to Wilfred who is a Cambrian brown bear (6.8ft), and the lil sleepy baby Freddy XD

Here are some additional doodles!

I wonder who he could be? And... my that plushie does look very familiar... Strange how it resembles *****...

HAHAH- gay

[fernsnailz]

What is your opinion on Hope Kintobor.

i really miss hope :( i had more to say about her than i expected so i’ll put the rest under the cut lol

i think she provides an interesting perspective into the robotnik/kintobor family, and she has some pretty good characterization from the beginning despite being a human side character. she’s consistently shown to be one of the smartest and most capable members of her family - she’s the first to doubt robotnik before the overlanders get roboticized, is the one who theorizes that the xorda followed her ship to mobius, and is able to create a portal into the special zone once she starts working with team dark. she has the robotnik intellect, but also has like. basic human decency which is a HUGE win for that family

the sheer tragedy of her story is also something that gets me - after her grandmother and stepdad get roboticized, any chance hope has at a family that loves her is gone. despite this, she still has hope in her snively, who repeatedly disappoints her - her faith in her family only brings her pain, and it just. hurts to see

and, as is the nature of pre-reboot archie sonic characters, this is the last moment that hope gets in the story. she will never get the chance to be happier. what the fuck

however, i think the biggest issues i have with hope is her initial relationship with shadow and the general feeling that she’s written as a sort of maria 2. this is also a complaint regarding how shadow was written at this point in the comics, because oh man they had NO idea what to do with him.

issue 145 is a hot mess and the height of these problems for me, which is the chapter where shadow and hope get dragged into echidna family drama by locke. hope tells shadow he’s wrong to attack locke... even though locke literally kidnapped both of them?? i guess it’s supposed to be a moment of moral realignment for shadow (similar to maria’s final words), but it just makes it look like hope’s morals are completely backwards.

even though shadow realizes she’s not maria after this, he’s still strangely obsessed with protecting her until they both return in sonic universe, and it's. bad to read? like the only reason he cares about her is because she looks like maria, and nothing in this part of the story ever disproves this idea. idk their dynamic early on feels so hollow and leaves a bad taste in my mouth!! i don't like it it's weird!!!

thankfully their dynamic get better once the sonic universe series begins, and hope’s dynamic with team dark is pretty fun. story-wise, it’s wild that GUN was willing to hire a 14 year old genius to be the tech guy for government missions, but hope’s somewhat absurd existence makes her feel strangely in line with team dark. like this is a team of rag tag losers with nowhere else to go, of COURSE they would take hope in.

i think this is the reason why i miss hope so much: her entire character revolves around a missing family she’ll never regain, but if pre-super genesis archie continued, they could have made team dark into that family. and from what we have, it seems like that’s what they were trying to set up - her and shadow get some decent moments together eventually, and omega is the only one there to comfort her after she finally denounces her brother snively. i can only imagine what a story with her and rouge would look like and i WANT IT

i miss hope, but i think elements of her character exist in belle from the idw series. it’s not an exact match, but both of them have difficulty coming to terms with the morality of their family and bring some extra depth to the robotniks/eggman. i really appreciate a lot of sonic stories for this reason, they bring a lot of depth to the freedom fighter/eggman conflict through the existence of characters like hope. idk i really wish her story could have continued she could have done SO MUCH MORE :(

[thecomicsnexus]

TMNT ADVENTURES: THE FOREVER WAR (kind of FAN MADE)

April 2024

By Steve Murphy, Chris Allan, Andrew Modeen, Artem Tsarkov, Arseniy Dubakov, Egor Prutov , Jon D'Agostino, Dmitry Bobrovnik, Yuri Kochin, and Jim Lawson.

The Shredder finally succeeds at erasing the Turtles from history and conquering the world. But the Turtles and Splinter will try to defeat him and ensure their existence in this conclusion of the iconic Archie series.

SCORE: 8

You'll have to forgive the lack of images, but it is very hard to scan this book (I'll see what I can do for the video review, but I may need to work with photos of it). In any case, this is another of those fan projects by Arseniy Dubakov and Andrew Modeen... but with some interesting twists in its genesis.

You probably remember that this saga was announced in 1995 before the Archie adventures were canceled, and fans have been speculating forever about how the story ended.

In 2009 we almost got the conclusion by the original team (Steve Murphy and Chris Allan), but the turtles were sold to Viacom and the plans never materialized. In any case, Murphy couldn't remember where he was going with the story, so it would be fair to say that it was never going to be the same arc.

More recently, Chris Allan met Arseniy and the two got together to make this project happen. The first chapter (which was made public at some point in the past few years), was mostly recovered from 1995, but it had been colored and edited by the new team.

As far as I know, the second chapter was plotted by Steve Murphy, and I can say that the two first chapters feel the most like the original book... with some annoying differences.

After that, the book does its job, and the story works very well. The project was promoted as "closing all open plots" of the original series, but fortunately, it only tried to solve a time paradox that has always been a problem in that book. I applaud the restrain of the writers from bringing up every single plot point just to let readers know they read the book (as is usually the case with these projects).

The art is probably the most spectacular aspect of the book. It's an updated look for the Archie adventures that for the most part, looks like a continuation of the story. There are some stylistic differences when it comes to inking after chapter one, but you get used to them after a while.

The book comes with two back-up stories. One penciled by Jim Lawson that tries to make sense of the convoluted Archie timeline (specifically about which Shredder you were looking at in each adventure). The second backup is some sort of epilogue to Forever War that will leave you with more questions than answers.

For me, the weakest point of the book is the "overwriting" from Andrew.

It's hard to explain, but Andrew goes into these long narrations directed at the reader that just feel overproduced and underproduced at the same time. There is an overuse of "Modeen" expressions that can be said by any character at any time. Perhaps because he is not doing the writing/plotting alone, this is his best story yet. We know Andrew is a fan, an we know he can write. But it would be nice if he could work on his dialogues and... I'm going to call it now... think twice before adding an unnecessary celebrity quote at the beginning of each chapter.

I am not sure if this was in the original plot, but some elements in this story were even darker than the original series (like slashing a classic character in two). I get that we all grew up and we can take it, but this should be a continuation of that book, and I feel that it wasn't this bloody (most of the time).

But again, this story worked for me, it didn't bring up characters and plots just for the sake of it, and the turtles were front and center.

Should we consider this an ending for the Archie series? Well, just like it happened with Volume 3 before Urban Legends came out, this is all we can get. It's technically just the story, and not a proper ending, so you could still consider "Year of the Turtle" the final story (I assume that it not being referenced was intentional). There is one reference to "TMNT: Odyssey" (because for some reason, all these projects need to share the same multiverse), but it can be easily ignored... I think.

Maybe one day IDW will decide to do their own version of Forever War, but I don't think Chris Allan would go through this ordeal again... I think it could be published as is (fourth-wall monologuing included). Perhaps censoring some of the blood, to keep it consistent with Archie guidelines.

Now, let's take a look at those spoilers after the break...

You guessed it, most of the chapters take place in an alternate timeline. This allows for familiar characters to return even if they were already dead. And also introduces Carter to the Archie universe... and he may be British... I don't know.

Most characters show up to die... which isn't unusual on alternate timeline stories, but feels like a waste. Carter and Claire had very little time to do anything, and Claire being April's sister is an interesting twist... but I wonder what caused it? It is implied that they may have been separated at some point, but the existence of the same photograph without her suggests there wee further alterations to that timeline.

The Mutanimals play the bad guys... probably for the better. I wonder if the reason they didn't undo their deaths, or brought back Cherubae, was so that it could all tie into "TMNT: Odyssey"? Whatever the reason was, I appreciate it.

Perhaps the biggest reveal was that Chet was the Rat King. While this is a fun twist, some things are a bit too convenient. Why did he choose the H'antaan name? And why didn't he ever mentioned this to anyone in the original timeline? (Apart from the flashback in this book).

Overall, Shredder's plan makes sense (for once), although he somehow recreated all the mutants from the original series, even the ones that weren't mutants (like Katmandu)... perhaps he and Al'Falqa simply joined the cause.

There isn't much characterization for the turtles, but I think is in line with the original book as well. And to be fair, the main focus is the story.

The Jim Lawson back-up also introduces another problem, a Shredder that finally remember everything (this may be the one in "Year of the Turtle"). Mr. Null decides to share all of this, searching for the Turnstone (a "TMNT: Odyssey" plot). I don't like these fan-projects being all connected, but I appreciate the long explanation of the Shredder paradox in the Archie adventures. It also officialized that Armaggon created the Archie universe.

I would have appreciated a Mr. Null origin story... but I guess that would have clashed with "Odyssey" (and this is why I don't like them being connected).

I may sound negative, but my nitpicks only took two points from the overall score. I am happy with the results, and I think we can now stop wondering what it could have been.

Although... can you imagine what it could have been in 1995?

That my friends... is the forever war.

[Include some super serious celebrity quote here]

[whymustyouhurtmeinthisway]

I know “Sudden and unplanned reboot for legal reasons that abruptly ends the previous story and permanently gets rid of many fan favourite characters” isn’t a good thing to happen at any point in any series, but Archie Sonic really got fucked over when you look at where the story was at when the Super Genesis Wave happened. There were so many cliffhangers and story setups that just never got explained. We never got to see Mighty, Ray, and Matilda happy together, we never got to see what happens to Bunnie and Antoine, we never got to see Shard’s true fate, we never got to see the conclusion of Silver’s traitor mission, we never got to see how Sally gets unroboticized, we never got a real conclusive sendoff to any of it.

I love post-sgw Archie a lot, it’s what initially introduced me to the series, I adore the new characters (as well as how they used the old characters) and the story was great, but I think I’d rather the super genesis wave never have happened and the original series continue even just a year longer than ever have gotten the post-sgw series (love it as I may). Hell, even post-sgw got cut off midway through, I’m absolutely certain they didn’t plan on the Unleashed arc being their only one (you could say the memory returning section at the start was another story arc, but I sure wouldn’t) and the stuff they were setting up with Eclipse, the Nauguses, Eggman’s dozen, and Breezie near the end pf it promised to be really interesting, only to once again be abruptly stopped for business purposes (I mean, we did get an ending to the shattered world arc, but considering that main plot and ending was just Unleashed’s, I consider it a somewhat hollow victory).

Now Archie’s gone, seemingly never to return, and I’m just frustrated about how it all played out. I adore IDW, it introduced some of my favourite characters of all time and I read every chapter as they release, but its complete replacement of Archie always bums me out (though I do understand why they would just wipe their hands clean of it). I also sometimes worry that IDW might meet a fate similar to Archie’s, but I’m not too concerned. Sega’s definitely tightened their terms of employment since the Penders fiasco and IDW’s far more popular than Archie ever was, so it definitely won’t be going down for the same reasons as Archie.

I know it’ll never happen, but here’s hoping that the Freedom Fighters come back someday, at least in some capacity.

[nikibogwater]

Final Daniel Spellbound Blethers:

They were. So. Close. 

Daniel Spellbound was just inches away from being amazing every second of its runtime. They had the creativity, they had the intrigue, they had the interesting world and likable characters, but every time this show approached the line of Greatness, it would always trip in some small, but still painfully noticeable way.

(Mild spoilers and a very long rant/review under the cut)

Daniel as a character is ripe with potential for meaningful development. He’s just likable enough for the audience to care about, but still has those rough edges to him that need to be sanded down over time. He starts the series as largely cynical and self-centered, perfectly set up to go through an arc that would result in him growing into a loyal and selfless hero. Except....the writers forgot to give him a solid arc, and by the end of the first season, he’s just magically (ha) become a better person without any clear development. He doesn’t really learn anything, he just....changes for no real reason. And yet the pieces were right there, the writers had given themselves everything they needed to craft a great character arc, and they just didn’t use any of them.

This also extends to the relationship between our main trio. The dynamics are there, we can see that these three work well as a team, and by all appearances, they seem to care about each other, but we’re never shown any real growth in their relationships. These characters never sit down and just talk to each other. There’s nothing to their friendship outside of the main plot. I can’t really see these three hanging out and being friends in any situation besides the one they’re currently stuck in. Which is extremely frustrating, because again, the potential is RIGHT THERE, I can practically taste it. Daniel and Lucy have a fun rapport, their friendship could be something very compelling and emotional, but the writers stopped just short of the goalpost. 

And Hoagie--ohhhhh do NOT get me started on Hoagie. I really liked him in the first episode. In that context, his non-stop snark and obnoxiousness made sense and fit the situation he was in. But the episode ends with him and Daniel becoming business partners--and perhaps, maybe even friends. SO WHY IN BLAZES DOES HOAGIE CONTINUE TO SPEND THE ENTIRE SEASON BEING AN OBNOXIOUS LITTLE SNOT WHOSE ONLY CONTRIBUTION TO THE STORY IS THAT HE CAN TRACK THINGS BY SCENT?! And another question: WHY DO DANIEL AND LUCY PUT UP WITH THIS LITTLE JACKASS?! And a follow-up to that question, WHY DO THEY NOT ONLY PUT UP WITH HIM, BUT ACTUALLY LIKE HIM AND CONSIDER HIM THEIR FRIEND?! 

I’m not exaggerating when I say Hoagie does absolutely nothing to endear himself to these characters, or to the audience. He has zero positive traits, apart from sometimes occasionally deciding to do the noble thing because Plot Reasons. He made me smile one time throughout the entire season, and that was in episode one. And to make matters worse, just like with everything else in this show, this issue would have been such an easy fix. Either take away Hoagie’s ability to speak altogether, or sprinkle in some of those quiet character moments where we actually see him make an emotional connection with the others. 

I hate to keep comparing this show to Tales of Arcadia--really, I do, I know it’s not entirely fair--but I have to bring up Archie the talking cat again because he is the perfect example of what Hoagie should have been as a character. Archie is snide, mischievous, deadpan, and haughty. But he is also shown to be loyal, affectionate, and loving towards Douxie. (I mean, he’s also much quieter than Hoagie and has much better comedic timing with his jabs, so there’s also that). For every snarky comment that comes out of Archie’s mouth, we also see him actively working to keep Douxie safe and accomplish their goals. For all his teasing, we can still see how much he genuinely cares about his friend. 

Hoagie desperately needed that balance--something to make the audience believe that at the end of the day, he is truly Daniel’s friend, no matter how much he may bluster and complain. So much of his characterization could be forgiven if they had written in even just one scene of Hoagie and Daniel opening up to each other emotionally. I kept waiting for Daniel to bring up Hoagie’s missing eye, or for one of Hoagie’s jabs to sting just a little too much, and lead into a conversation where he (and by extension, the audience) learns a little more about why Daniel is all alone, why he takes the dirtiest, sleeziest jobs, why he has this disdain for magic users. But it just never happened. It was all set up and ready to go, and the writers just never got around to it.

There were other small factors dragging the show down, most noticeably in its music, moments of painfully bad action choreography, cringe-inducing snippets of dialogue (especially from the villains), and weird contrivances. What’s most bizarre about all of this is that this is not a consistent issue throughout the entire show. Some of the action sequences work just fine, sometimes the dialogue is snappy and fun, sometimes the music perfectly sets the mood of the scene and every beat works to reinforce a certain ambiance. 

I know all of this makes it sound like I hate the show, but I actually really loved everything they had to work with. I loved Daniel and Lucy as characters, I loved the way the writers delivered important worldbuilding information to the audience without it feeling forced or overwhelming, I loved the amazing creativity on display with the visuals. I loved the endless potential this show had for a heartfelt and exciting story. And yet somehow, in spite of giving themselves all the groundwork they needed to accomplish something like that, the writers couldn’t quite put all the pieces together. I had the same issue with Roster Teeth’s RWBY series. I was never able to enjoy that show for what it actually was, only for what it had the potential to be. And somehow that is so much worse than just watching a terrible show and hating everything about it.

The last episode of Daniel Spellbound does set up a plot for a second season, and in spite of all my criticisms here, I do really want to see it get one. I think a lot of these problems can be chalked up to inexperience, and that maybe with one season under their belts, the Daniel Spellbound team will finally be able to cross that line of Greatness that they’ve only managed to briefly touch with this first season. I want this show to do well, and it has everything it needs for that. I want to see more shows like this, not connected to any pre-existing IPs or writhing under the thumbs of greedy corporate execs who couldn’t write their way out of a wet paper bag. 

So if you have time and are even remotely interested, I would recommend checking out Daniel Spellbound for yourself. It’s only 10 episodes so far, and if nothing else, I can safely say that it was never boring, nor do I feel like it wasted my time. It was a very earnest effort at creating something new, and for that alone, I give many kudos to everyone who worked on it. 

[forthedancingandthethriving]

"Yeah, Tulip.. she's been a little down in the dumps lately. That's why I decided to tag along today." SMG10 told Juliano, drawing Lily's attention.

She had decided to tag along to the Avatar meetup today, as Kidnap the Princess wasn't until next week, and everyone else was busy. Apparently, Lil Coding needed to help their dads with something. Aka, he was in trouble for something the night before and was being punished.

"Has she really?" Juliano hums, and Lily can see her grandpa (yes, she was also calling him grandpa) look in the direction of Tulip. She looks that way as well, seeing the mentioned Avatar with Ash, Pikachu, and Shantae. The group was by some engines connected to a slingshot, and with how Pikachu seemed excited, Lily could guess what was going to happen.

"Yeah.. apparently, it has something to do with her parents. She said something yesterday about her being an 'ideal heir'." SMG10 crosses her arms.

Lily hones in on that. She'd heard similar words before.

"Hm.. that doesn't sound too good. I'm guessing her home life was rough." Juliano frowns.

"Yeah.." 10 nods. "She's never told me the details, but I can guess." The SMG pauses before continuing. "And.. it's weirder that she's never told me her last name, too. I know she wants to protect 7 and I, but.. this is worrying me."

Lily narrows her eyes. This was sounding very familiar.

"Well.. I'm afraid that unless she speaks, none of us can really- ASH KETCHUM, DON'T YOU DARE LET PIKACHU USE THUNDERBOLT ON THOSE ENGINES!" Juliano's voice quickly took a scolding turning as he rushes to over to the three teens, with 10 jogging after him.

Lily thinks before texting her dad.

Well, it's not like she had anything else to do.

○●○

"You want to.. come hang out with me for a little bit?" Tulip blinks, surprised.

Lily smiles. "Yeah! I'm thinking of getting into engineering or being a mechanic.. so I thought maybe I could.. hang out with you? See what you do?"

Tulip thinks before shrugging. "If your dads are okay with it, then yeah! It'd be fun to have someone other than Nagging Nancy over there!"

SMG10 calls from the portal. "It's called worrying about my best friend's health!"

Lily smiles and holds up her phone. "I asked them and said as long as I'm not gone too long, I can hang out!"

"Sweet." Tulip grins. "Well, let's go!"

..

It was fun, hanging out with Tulip. Even though the teen typically drove like she was running from god, it was still fun! Lily had learned a lot from Tulip.

Though what she was more interested in was the older girl's family.

Seeing that the aforementioned Avatar and her Guardian had gone into a store, and trusted Lily enough to leave her in the van, she didn't know how much time she had. So she got to work.

Screenshotting what messages she deemed relevant, had info, anything. The young girl wasn't able to find any information on Tulip's last name, or her parents' last name, but she did find out their names.

Daisy, Tulip's mother.

Andrew, Tulip's father.

Archie, Tulip's older brother.

Anything else Lily would need, she screenshotted it and sent it to her number. Once she was done, she made sure to wipe the photos off of Tulip's phone, delete the texts and Lily's number, and just pray that 10 or Tulip wouldn't notice.

They didn't, thankfully, and when it was time for Lily to go home, they were kind and hoped to see her again. Lily hoped so too.

○●○

Tulip grips her pillow over her head. Even though her phone was on silent, Do Not Disturb, and everything, she could practically hear it ringing.

Tears well in her eyes. Couldn't her damn parents leave her alone?

A soft ding from the command box on the nearby counter catches her attention. Slowly, she lifts the pillow from her head and grabs it.

She smiles, seeing a message in a group chat for just the Teen Avatars. It took a lot of begging to their respective SMGs, but they had managed to get permission for a private group chat just between them all.

Ash: >Do you think if we used more engines, the catapult would have more power behind it?_

Tulip sits up and smiles.

The ensuing conversation thankfully made her forget about her silently ringing phone. The only noise being a sleeping SMG10's soft breaths and the gentle taps of Tulip's fingers against the command back.

○●○

"Lily, what are you doing?" Lil Coding frowns, peering at the laptop his sister was on. "You've been on that ever since you finished your schoolwork!"

"Well, with the school blown up because of Jeremy's science project, what else am I gonna do?" Lily shrugs, disregarding how her brother deadpans at her.

"Aw, c'mon, you've never been interested in the laptop before!" the Code Manifestation whines. He peers at the screen and narrows his eyes. "Wait, who is Andrew? Is this why you asked granpa Domain to mess with it so it could access other universe's internet?"

"Maybe." Lily narrows her eyes before her eyes widen, seeing an article.

Orpheus Transfer Co. embroiled in controversy after young daughter vanishes and older son causes ruckus at Ministry Building

She quickly clicks on the article, eyes narrowing. She reads it, not noticing Lil Coding also reading it.

A video has recently been released, showing Tulip Dellora Orpheus having an explosive fight with her parents, Daisy and Andrew Orpheus after it was revealed in the press that she was set to become the company's new owner and CEO over her brother, Archie Orpheus.

Archie Orpheus, after this fight, was recorded at the Ministry Office, shouting for one of the five Ministers to either come and talk to him or send the Prime Minister to talk to him. He was recorded as saying that he wouldn't hesitate to leak the 'exclusive trading documents' his parents had reportedly received.

This behavior was reported to be 'highly unlike the two', with Mrs. Orpheus stated that he did not know or understand why her daughter was acting the way she was. That, and the states her son had made were entirely false.

The young girl slowly looks at her brother. "She must have had a fight with her parents.. either before 10 and 7 landed, or after.. either way, that must explain why she always avoids the topic of her family."

Lil Coding frowns. "But then that brings up the question of what she's afraid of.."

"Her family hurting 10, 7.. even Captain Olimar, since she's grown to see him as a father." Lily explains, voice soft. "It's exactly like when my parents found me. I didn't do or say anything about you guys because I didn't want them hurting you."

"It's looking like they're corrupt, just like my mom and dad were." The child closes her eyes. "Her family has connections to the government, like mine did. I'm guessing these 'Ministers' are similar to Vice Presidents or Dukes. While the Prime Minister is probably the equivalent of a President, or a King or Queen."

Lil Coding nods before he raises a brow. "How do you know all this?"

"What do you think I did when locked up in that room?" Lily shoots back.

"Pfft- fair enough."

As the two chuckle, Lily can't help but worry.

This wasn't like when Nimbus had been in danger because of that Program, Leto. They couldn't step in this time. It was something Tulip had to do on her own.

The young girl only hoped the Avatar would realize that she had people she could rely upon.

[intothewickedwood]

2, 5, 21 and 30 for Zelena? :)

Hey Libby! Thanks so much for the quezzies <3!

2. When I think I truly started to like them (or dislike them, if you've sent me a character I don't like)

It was actually before she even appeared on the show. As a big fan of Wicked the Musical I was so freaking elated and excited about the Wicked Witch being on the show. I thought they were gonna do the Wicked the Musical storyline, but then I was so shocked when she spoke, and she was this sassy snob, who ended up making me laugh out loud with her lines. And even though she wasn't what I was expecting, I immediately dug this iteration of the character. I couldn't wait for each episode, just to see her, because she gave me that feeling you get when there's a character on screen that makes you feel euphoric just to watch them. Zelena was my drug xD. I still get that feeling, but not as intensely. I still very much love her though! It also helped that I was immediately attracted to her. The green skin did not deter me, but it never had for Elphaba either tehe.

5. My favorite ship of them

Wicked Cricket! I was so happy when they got to interact in s6 and Archie couldn't help but psychoanalyse her. I love psychoanalysing characters, and I think it could be interesting to see Archie try to understand her, while helping her to react less chaotically to things. And it'd be good for her to finally have someone listen to how she feels about things and see her pov. And maybe to talk about her childhood too, because that was hella messed up of her father! I just love the potential they have!

21. When do you think they were at their happiest?

Anytime with her daughter. Family means the world to her, to the point where she obsessed over a sister she never met for over 28 years. I think it all stemmed from her likely having a loving relationship with her adoptive mum and being starved of any love once she died early on. I remember at the end of 'Chosen', she said that any happiness she had started with Robin.

Zelena seemed to have been a surprisingly good mum to Robin, while raising her. I think that Robin is just more 'Zelena's child' than she might like to admit and was a bit stubborn and chaotic, and Zelena seems to have been pretty strict, so things were likely rocky for them during that time. And then there was the stress of the being part of the Resistance when they moved to the NEF. So, if I had to choose a point in her life, it'd probably be post-s7 curse, where she likely had a more stable mother-daughter relationship with Robin and continued to have a pretty great one with her sister. I imagine she'd be happy with Chad too. Though the dude hasn't done anything wrong, I'm not too keen on him because we didn't get to know him. But he makes her happy and they have cute nicknames for each other!

30. The funniest scene they had?

The first one that comes to mind is her running over the black fairy with her car, though I'm sure there are others that might beat that that I'm totally blanking on.

[askandsmile]

The show had so much potential. *Sigh* Let's be real though, all of the characters (especially Veronica) have been done better in fic.

no tv show is perfect. even amazing, well-written shows will eventually let you down. now, since riverdale isn't an amazing, well-written show, how could it be any different?

what riverdale had, is these iconic characters. and it constructed the relationship between these characters in such a compelling way. all ships have their appeal, all friendships and dynamics are interesting. but character arc, continuity, etc, that was never riverdale's strong point. and that's especially true for veronica (archie too, but that's for another day).

i know we joke about bettydale in this fandom ever since s2. and betty is, indeed, ras "final girl". imo the finale should've never been only in her pov, but i guess he did give archie a pov in 503, jughead in 605, and betty in 720.

veronica, unfortunately, never got the same writing treatment as the other 3. even in those bottle episodes, she was always sidelined or replaced by cheryl. it's upsetting if you think about it - and how much they lost because cami is such a force - but well. it's what happened.

and that's when fic comes in: so you can let yourself feel all of these things you think that character wants/deserves. so you can give that character a voice.

and it won't be the first nor the last time that a show with great, compelling characters, loses its plot and leaves you to fend for yourself.

[it-seemo]

More Mega Man/TF2 headcanons - Proto Man edition

Because fuck it, we ball.

Continuing from this spur-of-the-moment thing, let’s take a look at Mega Man’s estranged older brother, Proto Man.

The first contrast between the two comes with how much they participate in the initial RED vs. BLU conflict. Mega does not participate at all, under any circumstances. There’s the obvious inability to harm humans, of course, but it wasn’t until after posting that first headcanon that I was reminded of the Emerald-Spears, an anti-robot extremist group in the Archie comics. There’s a scene where one of their members opens fire on Mega Man, and he’s suddenly within his rights to fight back in order to protect himself.

That’s just another reason why Mega Man wouldn’t get involved in the RED vs. BLU conflict - if that survival instinct goes off, and if it goes wrong, who knows what could happen?

Proto Man, meanwhile, not only has no such reservations, but also the iconic, great big fuck-off nigh-unbreakable shield. If he’s attacked, he can cover his ass without needing to return fire. As such, he’s able to be a slightly more active participant in the conflict. It’s still the small things, though - the non-combative stuff. Helping an Engineer move that gear up and upgrading the teleporters at spawn, mostly.

“But wait! Proto Man’s the loner guy! Why is he so much more helpful here than his brother?” Well, first of all, Proto Man almost never goes out of his way to seek out interactions. More often than not, it’s either someone else already being wherever he’s going, or someone coming to where he already is. He only actively goes looking for people when it’s something urgent.

Now, let’s dive into his interactions with the different classes, starting with the Engineer.

Much like with Mega Man, Engineer sees Proto Man more as a human than as a machine, and his whole “gentle genius” thing also reminds Proto of Dr. Light. And actually, the resemblance between Engie and Light is even stronger to Proto, because both create engines of war despite coming off as men of peace. But there’s one very crucial thing that ironically gives Proto Man more respect towards Engie than even his own father - Engie doesn’t insist on repairing Proto’s flawed energy core.

When Engie finds out that Proto Man has a potentially fatal flaw in the device that literally keeps him alive, he obviously offers to take a look at it and, if possible, to repair it. When Proto Man refuses (whether or not he explains why is kinda 50/50), Engie lets the issue drop and doesn’t bring it up ever again. This is a level of respect that Proto has literally never been given before, so helping Engie with his buildings is his way of thanking him. Plus the idea of Proto Man using a Wrench is just very appealing to me. Oh my god, could Mega and Proto be upgraded via Wrench?

Let’s go in the same order as last time, because why not. Next up is Spy. His attitude towards Proto Man is largely the same as his attitude towards Mega Man, in that he’s much more interested in energy consumption and the extremely compact yet diverse arsenal. He also takes interest in Proto Man’s shield, and after bringing Sniper into the room, they test to see how well it holds up against a backstab compared to the Razorback. Big surprise, the nigh-indestructible ceramic titanium riot shield is stronger than a chunk of wood. Spy also finds Proto Man to be a much more enjoyable presence than Mega Man on account of Proto just being fairly quiet, and I can very easily picture the two of them talking for hours on end about god knows what in Spy’s smoking lounge.

Spy’s methods of disappearing are also of massive interest to Proto Man, who even manages to replicate the Invis Watch’s cloaking tech. Spy guides Proto Man through using it, and it vastly helps with Proto’s already-regular shenanigans of just... showing up out of nowhere and then disappearing.

Soldier and Demo have pretty much the same attitude here, too, with both of them teaching Proto Man how to blast jump, but Demo takes things a step further. He also takes interest in Proto Man’s shield and, after much trials and tribulations, teaches Proto Man not only the ways of the shield charge, but also the ways of the physics-defying trimp. Not only does he have that, but an entire new world of movement possibilities are opened up when Demo introduces the Loose Cannon, and starts teaching Proto how to augment shield-charges and trimping with explosive jumps. They still have their three-way blast jump races (four-way if Mega Man is also present), but some days, Demo and Proto have their own races with trimps and Loose Cannon jumps.

Medic. Oh man, poor Medic. He’s usually one of the most excited when it comes to new recruits, too, since it usually means fresh, blank-canvas bodies to perform invasive, exploratory surgeries on. But this is two in a row where the new recruits are robots, and can’t get those kinds of surgeries. That being said, he does appreciate the presence of a more mature individual - especially one who doesn’t go off-the-walls ballistic over how revolutionary the Medi Gun and UberCharge technology is. And hey, even if he can’t surgically implant baboon uteruses into the newcomers, he is glad that a lot of the pressure from being the only designated healer is lifted off his shoulders, especially when Mann vs. Machine kicks off.

Proto Man’s first meeting with Heavy goes something like this; they just stare at each other for a while, sizing each other up, both trying to intimidate the other. And then Heavy just chuckles, claps Proto Man on the shoulder, and says something like “Is good to have more muscle on team.” Proto just sees Heavy as not much more than the big, strong, silent type on account of his broken English... until he learns that Heavy has a PhD in Russian literature. Now, he’s more fascinated by just how much intelligence Heavy seems to be hiding behind the “big guy” act.

In regards to Scout, he’s probably the most turned off by Proto Man’s presence - even more than Medic. Something about the “silent, humorless loner” thing, there’s too many of these guys around here. Proto Man is also not the biggest fan of how childish and immature Scout acts. He would also be impressed by Scout’s double-jumping ability, if Bass couldn’t do that already. I’m not doing one of these for Bass, entirely because I’m just not the fondest of him. Call me petty.

Sniper is a bit more interested in Proto Man than he is with Mega Man, but not by much. His own loner act combined with Proto’s leads to the least amount of interaction with a teammate that Sniper has ever had. When they do have rare interactions, though, they do get along pretty well - certainly much more than Sniper does with Mega Man.

Pyro is a bit of an enigma, and it can honestly go either way. There’s a level of intrigue with just what Pyro really is behind the mask, as of course there is with literally everyone else, but there’s also the much more present irritation with Pyro’s more childish acts - probably because it’s just very jarring for someone so destructive, to the point where even after seeing every aspect of Pyro, Proto is still completely unsure of what to actually make of them.

I’m gonna do one more of these Mega Man/TF2 crossovers, specifically with two old, balding men with robot armies. Then I’m probably done unless I can think of any more crackhead crossovers to write essays about.

[generic-sonic-fan]

dearest CEO and authority on omega, i seek your guidance for a thing i'm maybe plotting: do you think, in a future far enough ahead where eggman is no longer a thing, omega would take pity on an abandoned metal sonic and find some way to repair him at least enough so he's functional again? or would he be completely apathetic, seeing as metal is/was just another of eggman's robots?

First of all THANK YOU for the acknowledgement. That alone has made my day.

Second of all, as you no doubt predicted, this post got LONG and I put way too many disclaimers in the beginning so here's the TL;DR: current Omega would nuke Metal from orbit, but this is not about being current, so I came up with a few fun ideas for your consideration.

Third of all, a general guideline for discussing Sonic characters in the far future is that literally everything is fair game as long as there's some acknowledgement in the writing of how the character has changed and at least an allusion to what might have caused it. See my strange future Metadow drabble I did a while back for reference- people were willing to accept that Shadow could get really helpless and depressed and that Metal (Neo, in this case) could get actually somewhat emotionally stable given enough time and distance from the Egghead himself. Shadow was really only a small divergence from his established character, while Neo was much larger leap. It was an interpretation inspired by the recent trans girl Metal Sonic movement here on tumblr, which would be difficult to parse without the context of that current fanon.

Now that I've spent all that time on that disclaimer, allow me to throw it all away. Omega doesn't really have any established character interpretations, canon or fanon. It's pretty much just me, the IDW canon, the Archie continuity, and a bare few snippets from the games that you're cherry-picking from. But this means that you get to have FUN. This is your sandbox now! You get to invent justifications for any kind of behavior you want Omega to have!! This is literally my favorite part of being a fandom creator- we get to come up with interesting ideas and convince other people to share our brainrot!!!

Okay okay okay okay okay, with THAT whole nonsense out of the way. . . to get to the part that you actually asked for:

I think it would really depend on just how far in the future we're talking for Omega, and any other people he currently has in his life. Fresh, current, canon Omega would never even think about restoring Metal Sonic in any capacity. If anything, current canon Omega would stomp him even flatter. But you knew this already. You're not asking about current canon Omega- you're here to suggest some hypothetical future character development for him. Allow me to throw out a few personal ideas:

If someone important to Omega took pity on Metal Sonic first (almost exclusively Shadow or Rouge, though there could be others depending on circumstance) then he might not immediately smash Metal for parts. He might even help with repairs a little. You probably knew this already too, though. Omega's look to Shadow while holding Metal at the end of Sonic Heroes probably suggested that idea enough.

But to get to the true vision of your ask, of Omega repairing Metal on his own. . . if said pitying person was somehow incapacitated and left their work to restore Metal unfinished, then I could see Omega completing the repairs. He'd be in denial about it the whole time. He'd probably hate himself for it. But he's got a thing about completing goals, you know, and I think he'd be compelled to do so for someone he was close to even if he's not onboard with the mission. This circumstance would be perfect to set up an enemies-to-friends situation. Omega only tolerating Metal out of love for the original person that cared about restoring him, but that could change over time.

(I'm imagining a scene where a newly-repaired Metal learns about his abandonment and, defying Omega's expectations, gets downright pissed at Eggman for it- and this being enough for Omega to reconsider his views just a little bit.)

The other idea I'm imagining for this concept is a distant future, something like Silver's future, where, for whatever reason, Omega is alone.

(My personal character interpretation of Omega is that he hates being alone, even if he's not so fond of people. He's desperate for the attention of others, even if it's only to run screaming from him. It has to do with being isolated and ignored during his formative period; his deepest drive is to be acknowledged in any capacity.)

Perhaps he's been alone for a long time. Perhaps he's still grieving Shadow. Omega's had a lot of time to mull over stuff and get nostalgic about the "good ol' days". He stumbles across the broken corpse of Metal Sonic and is hit with an idea that he knows would've made his younger self want to blow up an entire city block. He doesn't waste vital parts on restoring Metal, but he keeps the blue corpse around and adds bits and pieces whenever it's convenient. Eventually, perhaps unexpectedly, the repair is finished. Metal could be reactivated. Omega hesitates. He eventually decides that in the worst case scenario, he could always blast the inferior robot to bits again should he prove annoying.

(Scene: Omega flips the switch. Metal Sonic awakens, expecting to see Eggman standing above him. . . only to find Omega. And Metal is distraught about this in a way he can't really understand about himself. Omega, surprisingly, sympathizes, recalling a long-lost desire to be the greatest Eggman robot only to be abandoned all the same.)

I could see this being the start of an almost mentor/mentee relationship between the two, much the same way that Dadow is usually spun, actually; a much older Omega begrudgingly taking care of a Metal Sonic who was deactivated during Sonic's time. The idea interests me- if I wrote it, one of the reoccurring thematic notes would be an exploration of the Omega of now versus the Omega of the past, from Metal's point of view. If you want to throw Silver in there, it could be a more literal comparison, too, which could be fun.

In conclusion: those are just two of the thousands of plausible ideas you could write for Omega and Metal. Honestly, interactions between these two fascinate me so much and I would adore seeing what you might come up for them, no matter which way you spin it.

[prowerprojects]

(Modern Tails anon) Considering there's apparently financial troubles going on with IDW, one has to wonder if the comic lives long enough to see that story one day.

Heh, the funny thing is, he could technically do those things too. Maybe not as well, but a kid fox genius running around with a flamethrower he built being alongside Blaze has to invoke some type of interesting imagery. Same with a stealth mission with Rouge.

I figured, especially with Sonic is one the earliest examples of seeing a video game character having a clear personality. (At least those Origins cutscenes added something more upfront; albeit very late for this decades-long series. But something to refer back to nonetheless.)

I think I've seen that somewhere. The most I know of Tails himself in that continuity is that he and other foxes are from some secret zone and he has grown the title of hero in that village through rather clumsy, but well-meaning antics. Albeit through lying at first.

(Yup, AOSTH Tails even turned an entire truck into a mechanical dragon and handled himself while Sonic was frozen in stone. The most SatAM did was that one episode near the end. I still wonder if the plans for season 3 had gone through, would Tails be looked at a bit differently depending on how it went since his role was supposed to expand greatly.)

Hmm, it's going to depend on how these next set of episodes go. Seeing the other Tailses will likely strike a chord in Nine; but that doesn't fully mean villain arc. Existential crisis, maybe. I expect him more to tap into something hidden within him he didn't notice before. (Probably doesn't help that outside of Sonic and Shadow, we don't know the Prime versions of the characters that well; not great if you don't have at least basic knowledge on Sonic. If Tails did show some "Nine" traits during his early days with Sonic; specifically the trusting and friends part, I think there'd be a fairer grasp of why Tails didn't end up like Nine and why Nine is slowly resembling the original Tails. This applies to the other counterparts too, not just his alone.) Heh, never doubt the power of a fandom has when they catch the slightest bit of angst fuel from any character. And missing the nuances that come with grey/neutral characters. (Trust me, I'd love to see Tails let loose some raw, unbridled emotion that could have you think about his morality or sense of justice, but in the right context. Something I don't see Prime fully committing to, whether they DO go through with it.)

Two intelligent scientific minds, separated by different upbringings and how they apply their emotions to their logic, but still learning about how the world works and defy said logic through personal experience. All while seeking approval and praise. Lots of potential there.

There was another Sonic Channel story last year that basically said the same thing about their bond. One being "they have something that goes beyond trust", that "they know what the other needs without having to speak". (Also, their dynamic breaks some the typical tropes you see with 'hero-sidekick'. Like, the latter has the base of operations, not the former. Also, it is not funny and wholesome that Sonic considers this baby fox that attached himself to a younger him the biggest source help he could have ever hope for?)

Honestly I'm not very knowledgeable on how this whole deal works, so I won't say anything on the matter. I wonder if we could get a Sonic webtoon? I know DC comics and Archie both have at least one. Of course, both of them are of questionable quality, but who knows, maybe we'll luck out!

Haha, that's true! Personally I don't really care for him being a kitsune spirit, but I've been thinking of an idea where he replicates their abilities with his tech to make someone else believe he is one.

Yep, Fleetway Tails is from the Nameless Zone which is kind of like old-timey alternative dimension with magic and goblins and stuff. He was kind of loser there, so he moved to Mobius hoping he'd make a name for himself, but he was still a loser there too. But he was too embarrassed and wrote to his family that he became a hero. In the early StC, the writers weren't kind to Tails. He usually just messed things up or got captured (you could kinda understand Sonic's frustration with him, though he could stand to be nicer), and if he did manage to save the day, it was due to sheer luck. He got better though, especially after Sonic got stuck in another dimension. (After he came back, the Freedom Fighters kind of went their separate ways, but S&T often had adventures together as a duo. They both kinda grew up, Tails became more competent and stopped caring as much about impressing people (including Sonic), and Sonic mellowed out and stopped being as harsh on him. They became a better team! I have a soft spot for the stc!Unbreakable Bond, you just kind of have to take into account the specifics of the writing of stc as a whole, I understand it's not everyone's cup of tea.)

(I... have mixed feelings on satam, but mostly I just can't finish watching it. It feels like a drag. Not something I would be watching if it wasn't Sonic-related. Not gonna comment on the quality of it, because there are some other shows I felt similarly about and they're super critically acclaimed, like atla. (If Tails was more prominent I mind have at least been watching for his sake) I promised a friend I would read Archie and I wanted to watch satam first, but it looks like at this point I'll just have to skip to the comics.)

I really want to see different counterparts interacting. I'm kind of with Shadow on this situation, try as I may I don't really see them as separate people, I'm more interested in what they could say about the Prime versions of the characters. But it would be more effective if we spent more time with the Prime versions in the first place. I'm hoping for more flashbacks tbh. (Plus I just love how the og models for the characters look without the Shatterverse clothes)

Oh yeah I remember that one! Man I love how Sonic Channel hypes up their bond. I hope we'll get to see more of this in the next games. Sonic really lucked out (and so did Tails of course!)

[peacerisendove]

Big Ethel Energy #57

Honestly, this is going to be a short one because I still need more  context, especially from Jughead’s perspective of the events to judge this episode.

I honestly thought this episode was good because 1. we are actually getting answers, but also 2. the connections and relationships between the characters are actually interesting as we find out more about them and their history. That is probably the strongest and most interesting aspect of the comic. It only becomes tedious when the writer continually uses miscommunication as a plot point and uses the medium to insert topics with a preachy or sanctimonious sort of tone rather than letting them be conversations or have a natural tone in which their opinion on the subject is reached. Basically the execution isn’t great when it comes to certain topics and it can be jarring or sudden is what I’m saying.

Regarding the first image above: As I said before, of course Archie isn’t going to be the one to figure anything out even about his best friend.

I loves seeing the high school background and how Ethel and Jughead actually had a friendship going on. And of course I love seeing Reggie and Jughead interacting  and getting a peak into their friendship and how their relationship is.

Honestly, I thought the episode was was cute. And overall, the intention I get from Jughead is that his kiss (it was only a kiss right? From how it was depicted I wasn’t sure if there was an implication of more?), was experimental to him.

But I feel like as a long ongoing plot that there has be more to this instance and his and Ethel’s relationship that would be enough to 1. Cause him to never talk to her again after that moment, 2. For him to be so angry and frustrated with Ethel that he won’t talk to her even now after all this time, and 3. Feel like she and Trula are conspiring against him.

This conflict can’t simply end in it being a misunderstanding/miscommunication of his sexuality. It’s unsatisfying and doesn’t honestly deserve to be a conflict 57 pages into this webcomic because it could be so SIMPLY fixed with a few conversations. (I have a feeling that maybe Ethel said something unwittingly to him that hurt him or someone did and that has forced him to act this way because he’s carried these negative feelings this whole time.) But also I swear if there’s another miscommunication in this comic I’m not going to be happy. How many can you put into the story to create CONFLICT???? It’s really annoying at this point.

Though I’m still frustrated that no one has put the very obvious theory of: “He might be asexual or aromantic” on the board. Like is that so foreign to this comic that it can’t be mentioned??? It’s kinda insulting if he is confirmed ace/aro. Like especially in contrast to the Jughead 2015 comics where he simply confirmed to be aro/ace and the comic portrays his experiences as someone who is ace/aro and the good and bad. Now I’m not saying the way they may potentially introduce Jughead’s asexuality/being aromantic is bad. Separate stories can be told and portray Jughead as ace and or aro, but comparisons regarding the representation and treatment will be made. If the case is that they are using his asexuality/being aromantic as a reason for the conflict/confusion then that’s not great.

[violetueur-archive]

@fallesto​​

Continued from: HERE

THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME, AS HEAD OF THIS HOUSE, THAT HE HAD HELD A BALL.

He never thought, anyone would come to it. He never thought anyone would even open the invitations that held his seal upon them, but the lady - his lady. Had insisted that such a thing would be good. That people did love him, perhaps not the nobles and the higher archy of the kingdom, who still deemed him a failure and a threat. Who still looked upon him as a weapon for the kingdom and council of lords to use against there enemies whenever they saw fit, no – they had not invited them.

It was the poor people. From the districts that had been forgotten by everyone, further as well to those in the villages who were ignored and he offered financial aid and protection to. To the poor who made up the entire population of the land, who felt like they were secondary in everything in this world, but not to him, never to him, and to her? Her charitable and large heart, to do good for people who had less.

NOTHING WAS MORE PLEASING.

As he stood within the ball room. The layer of dust that was here before, how untouched it was for so long, it had taken so much effort and time to clean, and she insisted he not cheat and do it all himself and use his devine pleasing of cleaning to do it on his own, that she, her two small maids and the staff would do it with him, naturally and put in a hard days effort of work and time and it was, impressive. It was very impressive to see what – working as a team? Leaning on others and asking for support from - friends, could do as well.

As he stood at the side of the room and held her card in his hand.

So many had come and he had made there outfits for them and asked for no payment or anything in return, he insisted! As he watched the mixture of colors and the sounds? Of music? More than that, laughter? Something that had been missing from this place for so long and of? Happiness and joy. People were, happy, very happy and it was enough for him to just stand and watch as he glanced down at her card for the moment and then back up at her standing before him – she wore the gown he had made her? Purple silk like her hair, he thought she would have hated it that he kept spoiling her.

“My lady? Your card is already full!”

As he turned, it over to her and let her see, the endless amount of names, that lacked family names and honorifics, but still it pleased him that so many wished to dace with the person who had made it all possible as he had scrippled his name, right at the bottom, to be last.

“I cannot –” As he glanced down and smiled a little bit, that of course, he would be last and he would not, he could not cut ahead of so many who had requested the honor and the right to hold her hand and dance with her on the ballroom floor.

“I will –” As bashful eyes glanced down for a moment and a smile crept up his face. “I will dance with you, after you have done so with ll your admires.”

ALL OF THIS, WAS FOR HIM IT WAS THE LEAST HE DESERVED.

She had never been involved with something like this, but Nicolette had heard people speak of such things in her time here— especially those of higher standing. Spoiled as she tended to be, she hadn’t much interest for such grandeur, as Reinhard provided every bit of pampering she could possibly want. She was the lady of the house, but not one involved in high society, nor did she plan to be. The people that ruled this kingdom were too corrupt and selfish for her to involve herself with, and she had slowly been pulling Reinhard towards her side more, so that he might break from the chains they attempted to place on him. The rules and the laws, were nothing more than a leash, and they no longer held the right to hold it. 

Reinhard was his own person first, but he was also her knight.

Still, she often recalled how sad his eyes had looked, and how wistful his voice had become, when she’d first awoken within that room and complimented his home— he’d told her that he wished other people would come to see it. In all her time here... no one ever had, unless it was to demand his help with something. It made her angry, but it broke her heart, too. He had convinced himself it was impossible, that everyone but her viewed him as a monster, and she would’ve been inclined to believe it... if she hadn’t seen the way the people he saved looked at him. How fondly they spoke of him in the poorer areas, things she had overheard when visiting them in the hopes to provide some assistance of her own.

His reputation had already been so fragile, and Nicolette had long made it her goal to raise it up, even as she had begun to feel someone else trying to tear it down. Some unknown, faceless adversary, that she was directly fighting against. Well... fuck them! All they had succeeded in was making the people that already feared him, hate him— people in power. The ones who controlled this kingdom and looked out for themselves. They weren’t the ones she was trying to win over, anyway. The people that truly mattered were the ones he already focused so much energy on, and she’d known within her heart that they could see that. She had decided to prove it to him. All of it... had certainly been a lot of work, but to see the look on Reinhard’s face as he watched his empty estate become filled with people that looked up to him, people that did not fear him— nothing could be worth more, than that.

She played her part well, the refined lady of the house, and greeted people as they arrived. Still, she could only hold out for so long, before her own selfishness won out and she had to excuse herself to locate the person she really wanted to see. He had not been hard to spot, tall stature and crimson hair quite noticeable, but more than anything... Reinhard always shined the brightest, to her. Even in a crowd, her eyes would be drawn to him, just as her heart was. As she neared him, Nicolette couldn’t help the way she nervously tried to fix her hair and smooth her hands over the bodice of the gown he’d made for her. She could not forget the way her heart had raced, when he’d shown it to her. 

❝ Oh, already? Geez that was fast... ❞ She eyed the card in his hands with a look of amusement that faded just a bit, as she searched for his name. It took her a lot longer to find... all the way at the bottom, much to her disappointment. ❝ Oh... I wanted to dance with you first. ❞ She pouted a bit, as he responded that he couldn’t. Nicolette resisted the urge to insist he do it anyway, watching with held breath as he turned his eyes away almost shyly. Such a demure reaction, that she desperately tried not to read too much into, even as her cheeks grew warm. Wishful thinking, she thought, but her heart still skipped a beat. ❝ I—I hardly think they’re MY admirers... ❞ She protested, though she certainly wanted him to be. ❝ But fine... you better not try and get out of it. I didn’t... get this dressed up for nothing, you know? ❞

❝ You look very handsome, by the way. I can hardly believe you’re not being swarmed by beautiful women... ❞

[aboutanancientenquiry]

No, the Pyramids were not built by... Union Workers!

Credit: Archie Wong Getty Images

“MAYBE THE EGYPTIAN PYRAMIDS WEREN’T BUILT BY UNION WORKERS AFTER ALL

by Joe Carter

3 . 3 . 11

Back in January 2010, I posted a link to an article on MSNBC which claimed that a new archaeological findings revealed the work was performed by skilled laborers who had the perks of a labor union.

Mark Shiffman, an assistant professor of Humanities at Villanova University wrote in yesterday to dispute the claim. With his permission I’ve reposted his reply below:

Ancient sources unanimously claim that the pyramids and Egypt’s grand construction projects were carried out by slave labor. The Greek historian Herodotus ( Histories 2.124) was told by Egyptian officials that 100,000 Egyptians (probably a number exaggerated to impress him) were forced by Cheops or Khufu to build his great pyramid in Giza. The Book of Exodus shows the Hebrews as slaves making bricks (though does not mention pyramids), and the ancient Jewish historian Josephus ( Antiquities , 2.9) makes the explicit claim that they did work as pyramid builders. These were all written over 1000 years after the fact.

In the 1990’s, archaeologists began to excavate the cemeteries around this pyramid. They found hundreds of tombs, many of high political and religious officials, but also many of construction overseers and artisans. They also began examining the remains of the fields and estimating from animal bones how much meat the workers ate.

Based on this evidence they concluded that the workers were well fed, and that the head workers and the skilled artisans were Egyptians with status. Graffiti also indicate that there were various work crews with different colorful names and rivalries with one another.

Now the hype enters in . The main spin doctor for the interpretation of this information is Dr. Zahi Hawass, serving at the time the story hit the press (January 2010) as Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities. He has a PhD from Penn, which has one of the best archaeology programs in the world. He is also a political appointee with a flair for PR who has continually demonstrated his interest in boosting Egypt’s image. He worked for the recently ousted Mubarak, an autocratic ruler trying to project a democratic image. (He also had the misfortune to accept a higher cabinet position just before the recent protests, and now many of his critics are starting to speak out against him: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/is-the-face-of-egyptian-culture-the-next-to-topple/article1913442/ )

Hawass has an interest in pumping up the view that the ancient Egyptians loved their Pharaohs and were proud to work on their monuments: “And that’s why the pyramid was the national project of Egypt because everyone had to participate in building this pyramid. By food, by workmen, this way the building of the pyramid was something that everyone felt to participate, and really it was love. They are not really pushed to do it. When the king takes the throne, the people have to be ready in participating in building the pyramid. And then when they finish it, they celebrate.”

In the same interview, the main American archaeologist on the excavation project (Dr. Mark Lehner, University of Chicago and Harvard) is more restrained:

“There’s some evidence to suggest that people were rotated in and out of the raw labor force. So that you could be a young man in a village say in middle Egypt, and you had never seen more than a few hundred people in your village, maybe at market day or something. And the King’s men come and it may not have been entirely coercion, but it seems that everybody owed a labor tax. We don’t know if it was entirely coercive . . . .

“Anyway, we think that that was the experience of the raw recruits. But there must have been a cadre of very seasoned laborers who really knew how to cut stone so fine that you could join them without getting a razor blade in between. And perhaps they were the stone cutters and setters, and the experienced quarry men at the quarry wall. And the people who rotated in and out were those doing all the different raw labor . . . .”

In other words, the few at the top of the process, who have tombs near the pyramid (how many?) were skilled and recognized officials, and the rest (to bring the total up to anywhere from 5000 to 40,000) included conscripted Egyptian peasants and may or may not have included domestic or foreign slaves.

An Egyptian tourist site (apparently managed by an American company) proudly displays this interpretation in a fairly balanced, though ambiguously worded, version:

“Slaves there may have been. But the pyramids were built by Egyptians, by stonemasons, artisans, artists and craftsmen. While skilled craftsmen and management staff worked year round, farmers would come from the provinces during the inundation period to do the heavy work.”

Now comes in the sloppy reporting of these results .

MSNBC simply gives the world the interpretation of Hawass : We found tombs of the workers, and they were not slaves or foreigners, but respected Egyptians. No analysis, no questions raised.

Likewise the Times .  Discover and the Guardian do likewise, though they at least take the trouble of consulting other Egyptology experts (and the Guardian implies proper caution by putting “proof” in scare quotes).

Then the First Things site picks up the MSNBC report and gives it the headline:  Egyptian Pyramids Built by Union Workers, Not Slave Labor

In the article, however, we find the more modest claim: “the work was performed by skilled laborers who had the perks of a labor union: work only ninety days a year, eat steak and lamb every day, luxury burial benefits, etc.”

In other words, the workers (or at least some of them) were well fed and not worked to death and got respectable tombs. The suggestion of union organization in the headline is not in any of the evidence.

So a certain proportion (maybe 25%?) of the workers were Egyptians of high status, a large number of Egyptian peasants were ordered to come do the hard labor, and we don’t know how many slaves may have been employed in the work. Given the prevalence of slavery in the powerful nations of the ancient world, it would be surprising if there were not a significant number, and none of the evidence rules this out. On the other hand, there seems so far to be no direct archaeological evidence for the presence of slaves; but since they are not often honored with tombs, they can be hard to trace.

Two things are worth noting in assessing the “no slaves” claim and the evidence. One is that no one bothers to tell us in the broadcast sources how many tombs specifically belonging to workers have been found and what proportion of the workforce they might represent. One would have to ask that direct question of a knowledgeable scholar or consult the Egyptology technical literature. The other is that Dr. Hawass controls access to archaeological sites in Egypt, so that it is against the interest of any Egyptologist who wants to dig there in the foreseeable future to criticize his version of the conclusions too directly.”

https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2011/03/maybe-the-egyptian-pyramids-werent-built-by-union-workers-after-all

Mark Shiffman is Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities at Villanova University, with expertise in Philosophy, Political Theory and Classical Studies. Courses he teaches include “Classical Statesmanship,” “Race and Democratic Dignity,” and “Dostoyevsky’s Brothers Karamazov.” He earned his B.A. from St. John’s College and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago.

He is the translator of Aristotle’s De Anima (Hackett, 2010) and author of numerous articles and book chapters on Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, Augustine, Ockham, Hobbes, Locke, Simone Weil, Ralph Ellison, Wendell Berry and Rémi Brague. He lives with his family in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Source: https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/author/mark-shiffman/

Very interesting and thought provoking  text! I will add some thoughts of mine inspired by it:

1/ The truth is that Herodotus never says that the Pyramids were built by slaves and one should not confused what Herodotus writes with Josephus, who was under the influence of his own tradition on Egypt and had his own apologetic agenda in a time very difficult for his community. And, although the numbers Herodotus’ Egyptian sources gave him for the workforce used in the Pyramid building were exaggerated, what he writes, namely that the Pyramids were built through the large use of corvée labor, is totally correct. Of course nothing excludes that, alongside the Egyptians performing corvée labor for their God-King (seen as living incarnation of god Horus), slaves in the literal sense of the term (especially foreigners) were used for the same purpose by Khufu (Cheops) and his successors. More generally, corvée labor was a standard feature of the Pharaonic society and economy and, although not slavery in the literal sense of the term, it was a form of forced labor.

2/ Hawas and other Egyptologists try for various reasons to present an idealized and idyllic picture of ancient Egypt. Now, it seems that, contrary to popular belief, the workers in the building of the Pyramids were reasonably fed (although I think that we don’t know exactly how much from the meat consumed went to the raw recruits who performed the heaviest tasks), some of them (the skilled and specialized workers) had a relatively high social status, and the Egyptian bureaucracy tried to cultivate a sense of collective identity among the workers, but also of competition among the divisions of the workforce. However, there is no doubt that the work in the Pyramid building was harsh and backbreaking, its rythm relentless, and accidents were frequent. And I don’t think that there is any reasonable doubt that coercion played a major role in it: neither the recruits from the villages nor even the specializd workers had the option to refuse to work in the project of Pyramid building or any say in the rythm or the conditions of the work. Moreover, given the role that beatings of subordiantes played in the Egyptian society, we must assume that the Pharaonic state used also methods of “motivation” of unwilling workers other than the cultivation of collective identities and the competition between the different groups of the workforce. Moreover, it is beyond doubt that the project of Pyramid building of the Fourth Dynasty meant much more authoritarian control of the Pharaonic state over the whole Egyptian society and economy, so that unprecedented quantities of surplus might be directed to the construction of the Pyramids and of the necropolises around them, but also to the bureaucracy which organized and oversaw the whole project.

3/ Now, of course we don’t know exactly how the Egyptian population perceived the realization of the project of Pyramid building of the Fourth Dynasty. It is sure that the Pharaonic state and its allies (above all the priests) had the monopoly of production of ideology and of worldview and this played for sure an important role in the fabrication of consensus. Moreover, the Pharaonic state of the Old Kingdom and its allies had also the monopoly of the written record, a fragment of which is now available to us, with as result that the traces of any opposition to the policies of the Fourth Dynasty may have been lost for ever. However, the Pyramid building period meant an abrupt increase in the demands of the Pharaonic state from the population and it is not illegitimate to think that coercion and the threat of violence too played an important role in making the Egyptian society and the Egyptian population obey and bear the burden of the project. This is totally compatible with the role that violence and the threat of violence played in the reality of the Pharaonic state, but also in the image it projected. And I think that Herodotus’ narrative about the tyranny and the hardship that Khufu and Khefreen imposed on the Egyptians in order to have their pyramids built preserves a genuine Egyptian tradition, expressing the negative reaction of a part of the Egyptian society toward the project of Pyramid building and its consequences for the population.

But anyway, beyond the interesting question of how the ancient Egyptians saw the Pyramid building and the Pyramids, important is also the question of how we see it today. For me the historical reality that whole societies worked directly or indirectly for decades and to exhaustion to build artificial mountains of stone as tombs and ‘immortality machines” of some individuals seeing themselves as incarnations of gods, projects in which coercion played beyond doubt a very important role, is not unproblematic and must be seen as exploitative and alienating. I think that this is an aspect of things that we should not forget when we admire -and with reason- the marvels that are the Pyramids. Forgetting these unpleasant aspects of the history of the Pyramids is not historically, or even philosophically and politically unproblematic, I think.

PS: I recommend on the Pyramid building the works of British Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson, who has a realistic and honest approach on this subject, breaking with the idealizations and fairy tales of other Egyptologists.

Egyptian peasants seized for non-payment of taxes during the Pyramid Age. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corv%C3%A9e (the wikipedia article on corvée labor)