#Looney Tunes Return

[melanatedmedia2]

This Week in Media: A Recap of the Hottest Topics

Stay updated with the latest in the media world! There's much to look forward to, from exciting theme park adventures to upcoming movie premieres and heartwarming social media trends. Take advantage of the buzz!

Staying current with the latest trends, updates, and controversies is crucial in the dynamic media world. In this blog post, I’ll recap some of the most talked-about topics in the media over the past few days. 1. Tiana’s Bayou Set to Enchant Disney’s Magical Kingdom Source: Disney D23 Instagram Page If you missed the American Idol’s Disney Night announcement, then let me tell you that Tiana’s…

[ascesabo]

my brain: zoro says he doesn't believe in god but he's been luffy's first and most devoted follower since the day they met. he was a wandering bounty hunter with no actual way of achieving his goal until he met luffy, who had nothing to offer but his dreams and a place in his nonexistent pirate crew. and zoro, who had every reason to cut him down, instead let himself be led by nothing but two rubbery hands and a too-big smile. zoro was the first person to ever call luffy "pirate king"; not future king of the pirates, the pirate king, and he did so as he dedicated his first huge defeat to luffy and has been doing the same for every victory that's followed. he's the most quiet in his affections but his loyalty can never ever be questioned because while he's willing to lay his life down for his captain, it's his willingness to live for luffy that shows how much he understands what his captain needs from him. he may call luffy an idiot and complain about having boarded the wrong ship but no one can deny that the boy who went out of his way to ask demand that he join his crew has become zoro's true north.

me, hitting tweet: zoro suck luffy good and hard thru his jorts

[dreamtdebris]

i should probably work on some sort of art dump but for now have a post with 30 tags

[writebackatya]

Do you ever think about how The Looney Tunes Show gave Daffy Duck a girlfriend who was honestly great for him, played off of his comedic antics so damn well and not to mention other characters like Lola and Bugs, and yet Warner Bros. Did NOTHING with Tina Russo after the show ended!??

[trashbag-usa]

it feels like a lot of people have given up on fully connecting ISWM/Engie Mark to the wider lore (aka WKM) since IRL Mark straight up told us he wasn't Actor.

but not only am i a stubborn son of a bitch, but yknow what Mark also said?

"Engineer Mark isn't Actor Mark, but Actor Mark just might be Engineer Mark."

so hear me out, y'all.

preamble; if you saw this in a yt comment section, no you didn't. (that was also me i didnt steal this i prommy-)

i have this entirely insane theory about iswm that Engineer Mark is actually Damien, but only sometimes.

the most obvious places i can spot him is in the abandoned ship with the candles ("captain needs their sleep" and whatnot), as Old Mark (specifically in the empty diner), and most definitely as the "Mark" we see as part of the finale, the one who realizes he was wrong.

Actor is allergic to admitting fault so I Don't Believe That's Him.

this explains the thematic focus on sleep and rest in these scenes, things told to Damien and told to US by DARK several times.

("Don't remember" anyone?)

speaking of Dark, it explains why he isn't there. we DO however see the suspiciously Darkiplier-esqe Ms. Whitacre, which it isn't controversial to say atp is CLEARLY Celine.

that is, until the universe does its final kablooey and Dark as we know him, Damien attributes and all, comes to take the warp-crystal.

and besides, think about it.

given Actor's whole goal in all this, as laid out in the Damien Project, do you REALLY think he would write a story in which all problems arise from HIS OWN NEGLIGENCE? NO!

that would make him a villain, and all he ever wants is to be portrayed as the hero, literally for eternity!

but you know what i think he would do? set up a farce for the most troublesome of his "co-stars".

you, the viewer, want genuine choices? you want to have some real control over the story? some responsibility? FINE.

everyone looks to you, but under your leadership everything goes wrong, no matter what. you don't know why, but you're actively villinized and the harder you try to go back and fix things, achieve an "ending" on your own, the more people HATE you. the more the thought that maybe there IS something wrong with you specifically will stick in your mind as a possibility.

all these options, but none of them "right", creating MORE suffering instead of fixing it just to find that ever elusive end.

damien wants control of the narrative? he wants his old friend, you, the District Attorney to be released from his eternal story and given back to him? FINE.

here's his role back in earnest, given the possibility to engage and choose instead of intrude and twist like usual.

(yes, i do think Damien/Engineer is genuinely going down his own hopeless path while we find our own. in one of the descriptions leading to the final "Hold On/Let Go" confrontation, it says "you're not the only one making choices. you're not alone, you never were".)

he is allowed to fight for the safety of others, side by side with his closest companion, just as they did when they were alive.

BUT, the twist is Damien becomes a genuine villain. in his quest to do the altruistic thing and help at all cost, he is personally responsible for the death of LITERALLY EVERYONE EVER.

this is a personal hell for someone like Damien, as seen from WKM, all he ever seemed to want was help others and guide them towards peace.

for his actions/leadership to fail so unthinkably catastrophically, seems like the exact hell a bitter Actor would want to subject his "old friend" to for meddling. :/

Actor sets the stage for a theatrical punishment game. Mayor and Attorney, together again, taking an impossibly long stay in a personally crafted hell for the horrendous crime of ever even thinking they'd be worthy of ✨️staring roles✨️.

Actor turns you two against each other, and once Damien is brough down to the depths of despair and you have finally learned that true responsibility can lead to catastrophic, painful results, we're brought back to our proper places.

you go to a proper ending, with the Engineer role now being played by Actor once and for all, and Damien once again becomes part of Darkiplier, pocketing the warp-crystal to plant on the box in Heist.

Engineer isn't Actor, it's a role he plays when it suits him and his goals, to make his enemies suffer. he's willing to be Damien's understudy, if only for this purpose.

but at the end of the journey, Actor becomes Engineer to take in the fruits of his labor. ..and maybe invite you to a Heist while he's at it.

BUT HEY, THAT'S JUST A

very long winded """theory""" that is pretty much only insane fanfiction-

[madame-mongoose]

Saw someone talking about K-9 and like. Can we actually? Bc if Marvin is underutilized, K-9 is SEVERELY underutilized. Loyal dog companion that also plays the straight-man to Marvin's more weird personality. A Wallace and Gromit type duo but make it silly aliens. My fav depiction of him is in The Hasty Hare

He and Marvin have such entertaining interactions. Has to be one of my favorite classic shorts bc of their dynamic!! In short give me more K-9

[furryfaceoff]

Questions to consider:

-Who's your favorite?

-Who's most likely to create more furries?

[randomfoggytiger]

"My Religious Convictions Are Hardly the Issue Here"

(Fictober, Day 20)

Today I tried to tackle a personal nitpick of Scully's religious episodes: that her faith was portrayed as more of a burden than a reprieve or source of hope.

*****

“Mulder, I think there’s something wrong with me.”

He’d opened his apartment door after two whispery knocks, saw Scully standing there with wide, red eyes, and swept her inside before she could get two words out. 

Nosebleed? Not enough terror with her fear-- and he hated, was grateful, that he could differentiate her fears. Scully didn't appear to be in pain, seem nauseous, or exhibit any other physical symptom: she slid her coat off, walked somberly to the couch, and sat down without taking her shoes off. Absentminded, sticking to routines. A scatterbrained Scully was never a good sign.  

The case had been… hers. He’d dropped in halfway through because of her request, thought her blind spots were inhibiting her logical deductions, and tried to help the only way he knew how: by managing. He’d noted that she didn’t protest. 

The last girl-- Roberta Dryer-- died, anyway. 

The last time they'd talked was in the car driving away from the crime scene. 

“What happened out there, Scully?”

She’d shaken her head, shivering, staring blankly ahead. Didn’t take his coat. Repeated his words during his own crisis of faith: “I don’t know.” 

Mulder sat down, wondering if Scully wanted his opinion or his final vote. 

*****

“Scully?” 

He could never sit long with silence, she mused. To Mulder, silence was darkness, was brooding, was the final gasp of sound after his sister had been swept away.

“Y’know, I think silence was invented for crazy people,” he'd joked-- half-joked-- once. “You can’t get rid of me that easily, Agent Mulder”-- they’d been newly partnered then, she remembered-- “I do my best thinking in silence; and I have to keep up with your spooky theories." When was the last time they’d joked about his reputation, or hers? 

“Scully?” Antsy now, on the verge of some discoveries of his own. 

She wet her lips, quietly cleared her throat, sighed out her tremors. “Mulder, do the dead come to me because I can’t let them go?”  

*****

He was stunned-- felt his mouth dry up and the hairs on his neck stand, electrified. 

“Emily appeared to me again… in the church.” Scully’s passivity broke: her brows drew down, her nose began to splotch, a tear began to dangerously rim her lower left eyelid. “She asked-- she begged me.... ‘Mommy, please let me go’.” 

Mulder scooted further towards her, arms open to let her cry it out on his shoulder; but she remained rigidly in her seat. 

“And I wonder if… if maybe… they’re…” neither needed to directly name her father, her sister, her daughter, “not at peace because I won’t let them go. Maybe they keep coming back because I can’t accept they’re gone. Do I… am I?” 

Scully looked piercingly at his face, crumpled and bleeding tears and horrified. 

Of course not, he wanted to insist. Scully you know that doesn’t make sense, he wanted to yell. But his eyes fell on her necklace, a splinter of one of her tears collecting on its angles; and Mulder didn’t know what he could say that wouldn’t offend those raw beliefs. She’d let him express his doubts, swallowed back her hurt when he practically spat them; and was here now, tattered and ripping apart. 

*****

Mulder-- bewildered, lost, and hesitant-- had locked onto her cross. Scully could practically hear his gears turning, shifting, jamming as he slammed up against the symbol of her faith, one he'd tried to reinterpret after carrying her necklace around for the months she'd been taken. He’d wanted to forget it had a meaning before he came along. 

“Mulder.” 

His head snapped up, caught. His eyes were less lost, more frustrated. Not at her, but--

“Do you think my faith holds me back?” 

Fox “the truth is all I have” Mulder blanked.

Yes, yes he did.

“I… maybe you believe it does.” 

That brought her up short, too. 

*****

They both weighed each other in the silence, eyes locked and faces carefully guarded. 

Then Scully looked out his window, trying to gather strength from the perversely glowing sunshine; and Mulder looked down, carefully stringing together his next sentence. 

*****

Scully spoke first. 

“Mulder, every time you’ve been drawn into my faith it’s been communicated to you through the language of only its most ardent followers. Penance, saints, true believers, the kingdom of Heaven-- words that, when taken out of their strict contexts, lose the power of their original intent.” 

Her partner sat, attentive, conceding her point while not relinquishing his.

Fair enough. 

“My journey of faith is not unlike yours: my childhood experiences were put behind me as I grew up and lived life. But they came back to me and challenged me, and I believed again-- not like the blind or zealots do, without question, without skepticism.” 

His arms had lowered and stayed on the couch when she’d rejected them earlier (too overwrought to say her peace without cracking at his compassion); so, she leaned forward a little, nudged his hand goodnaturedly. “‘I have the same doubts as you do’. ‘You taught me that’.”

Mulder dropped his mouth with a quick, delighted hee. “Two for two, Scully. You have a recording of my greatest hits?”

“I indulge in them along with my daily proverbs. Wouldn’t want to read the sections on fools and their follies without a list of examples.” 

His delight was tempered with a desire to escape her biblical allusion. “Face it, Scully, the only thing you truly worship is your hair dryer.” 

Not his best joke, though it was a perfect opportunity to snatch, reverse, and score her own layup. But Scully had a point to prove, and let her easy victory pass. Banter would have to wait. 

“My point is, Mulder, that I am as skeptical of my faith as you are of your beliefs. I live my life on my own terms through the dictates of my own conscience; and I am just as disturbed as you are when religion is weaponized against the people who practice it in peace.” 

“So then why….” Mulder dropped off, letting her fill in the blanks. Why the tears at my apartment door? Why the catastrophic self-doubt five minutes ago?

“I think….” 

What did she think? Scully thought she came here to hear what Mulder had to think. Scully thought she wanted to hear that she wasn’t crazy. Scully thought she wanted to hear opinions from someone unbiased. 

Picking the most biased, “crazy” person I know to do so. Good going, Dana. 

“I said once that the dead are speaking and that no one is listening. While I was in confession this morning,” she appreciated that Mulder didn’t flinch, “I realized that I was afraid God was talking and that nobody was listening. And--”

“And you’re wondering if you're the one not listening?” 

Yes. “I think so.” 

*****

Mulder didn’t now and knew he never would believe what Scully did-- not the way she did. Loose Catholic though she was, his partner carried weights and burdens parallel to his own-- his truth, her belief; his conviction, her faith-- but she corded hers together with science and miracles and he with the supernatural and unexplained.  

He also had a sneaking suspicion that the weights Scully tied together were largely separate from her religion; and that she mistakenly linked them as naturally as her cross and its chain. In her own very Catholic family, she was the odd one out: Maggie Scully believed in her faith and her visions, Melissa had grown mystical branches from her childhood roots, and even Bill believed in his faith alongside his and Tara’s IVF. Scully herself stated she believed he-- an unbeliever-- would join her in a beautiful beyond while the two of them were salting away in the Norwegian Sea. 

The dead she clasped in her hands, carried on her back, held in her heart Scully now believed were joining God in casting judgment on her-- demanding she accept the Almighty’s Plan and let them go. 

“Scully, does your faith allow for freewill?”

She looked at him, searching for the second head he must have grown. “Yes.” Translated: you already knew that. 

“Do you believe they came to you out of judgment, or of their own freewill?” 

She was tearing up again, torn between his idea and her doubts. 

“And you know them, Scully--” he talked right over the momentary flash of scientific denial creeping at her mouth, “--and I knew… Melissa. And Emily. And both of them were….” Mulder paused, searching for the right word. “Decided.” 

That earned his first laugh: a small whoosh of relief and acknowledgement, but he’d take it.

“I believe they moved heaven and earth to help each other, to help you-- just as you’d move heaven and earth to help me.” 

*****

Scully was afraid to ask but had to know. “My father?” she exhaled through shaky breath. 

Mulder didn’t know him, never met him, never even knew about his visitation in her coma. He had memories from the Luthor Lee Boggs’s case-- sharp rebukes and pale, determined warnings and baffled questions when she chose not to pursue the truth-- and that was it. As Scully intended it to be. 

He sank further into the couch, glancing down at his knuckles as they flexed back and forth loosely. “Scully, I… I never told you that I saw my father, too. After he’d died.” 

She sat up, forced herself not to search the shadows in her periphery. “What?” 

“I saw him after I blew up in the train car.” New Mexico. “He came to me while I was recovering. Apologized. Told me Samantha wasn’t with him.” 

I saw you, she thought. Shuddered. Noticed he looked up abruptly to assess how much she believed him. Knew he never remembered that particular visitation. 

“I wasn’t dead, Scully-- I was between it and life. Dad had unfinished business with me-- to talk, not to punish. I’d bet your father meant the same.” 

***** 

They contemplated in their separate silences. 

*****

“Maybe I’m afraid. Death is so final-- I chose it for a career, to give the dead their voices. To correct the wrongs and injustices they faced. And I moved away from it into the field, so I could more directly stop death from occurring in the first place.”

He sat up, reflecting on his partner’s admission. “Do you think you’re visited because you’ve failed to give them closure?” 

“Yes. No. I don’t know what to think.”

There’s Scully. Time to ease off of what Science Scully deemed impossibilities. “Scully, even in your faith death isn’t final-- there’s the afterlife, angels, the New Kingdom--”

“Now who’s reading their proverbs over breakfast?” 

“It helps balance out my Lucky Charms.” 

“Life cereal, Mulder. 'My first religious joke' always involved Life cereal.” 

“I’d probably know that, Scully, if there weren’t other very interesting substitutes to read over breakfast.”

The Scully eye roll. Progress, progress.  

“Death isn’t the end, Scully. Even if there’s nothing beyond this mortal coil-- even if everyone hits the ground and stops running-- they leave bits of themselves behind, coming back to us from wherever their soul rests. Even the strictest scientist can read the map of their bodies and put their life’s story into words.” This time he nudged her hand. “To give them answers. To give them peace.” 

*****

“I’ve asked them.”

Scully watched Mulder’s eyebrows fly upward. “You asked them?” 

“Yes. I’ve asked them what they wanted.”

“You interrogated them.” 

She sputtered, paused, stopped. “They wouldn’t tell me.” 

He was unfazed, leaning forward to spring from the couch. “Of course not-- they’re Scullys. How many times have I asked you what you saw and you never gave me a straight answer?” He shambled off towards the kitchen. “Water?” 

“Mulder, those are two completely different--.” She stopped again. “Water.” 

*****

“I think the problem is you want a straight answer. Something explainable or clean cut.”

She didn’t acknowledge this point, of course; but Mulder knew she was listening. “And I think you thought your faith was as clean cut as your science. But how many unexplained things have we seen, Scully? How many people that science has yet to begin to understand, let alone explain? And how many more unknowns will you and I find? I think it’s unfair to cut off the possibilities because they don’t fit your expectations-- to them and to yourself.” 

He saw Scully retreating from this theoretical trail: she’d take his reassurance, not his logic, and move forward with that. She’d probably even have another crisis of faith-- draw away from and back to it-- as her security waxed and waned. 

Scully, the tide. Scully, the skeptic. Scully, the self-doubter. Scully, the ride-or-die only to him. 

Mulder was aware of how much faith she placed in him-- won from trust and leaps of faith and long years being mocked and proven right. He was also aware she was aware that his own limited broadband couldn't afford to carry her burdens as well as his own. They both ran away from internal crises; but his legs were longer, his stamina more intense, his focus more honed, allowing him to go greater distances before collapse. He could run back, try to support her, even cheer her on-- but he hadn’t yet figured out how to relieve the pressure from his partner's shoulders.  

Yet somehow, someway, his efforts always seemed to help. At any rate, Scully always showed up to his apartment first during a crisis; and that, he figured, was a tell of some sort. 

*****

They hadn’t touched on her deeper questions-- God, judgment, purpose, failure-- and neither wanted to return to it. Instead, they were content to return to the couch, waters in hand, and recharge while watching whatever channel they landed on.

Together and apart, different and alike.

As it should be.

*****

Thank you for reading~

Enjoy!

Tagging @today-in-fic and @xffictober2023 and @fictober-event

[heatherbelart]

Brendan

The 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 beautiful Brendan Fraser.

Thinking back, I don’t remember a time when I ever wasn’t a fan of Brendan. I won’t go into how many times I watched George of The Jungle and The Mummy on VHS as a teenager. Needless to say, it was a lot 😂

I’m so happy that he’s found his way back to our screens 💜

Painted on procreate using digital oils and pastels on canvas. Prints available in my Etsy store. Link in bio.

A quick glimpse of my process…

[gamesline]

Bulletin+: Nintendo Direct 6/18/24

Big and small reveals, mostly quite exciting, came from today's Nintendo Direct! Here's a Bulletin+ rundown of what was shown. Read the full article

[yugiohz]

I wish they were yaoi so I could come up with fun divorce scenarios this hurts my fujoshi soul :(

[stardestroyer81]

Upon finding myself in the midst of hyperfixating on Looney Tunes thanks to my bestie @shrimpuufriend, I noticed that there's a distinct lack of sheep characters throughout the series' multi-show run.

What say I fix that with a new S/I? 💙✨

[pierppasolini]

Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century (1980) // dir. Chuck Jones

[tygerbug]

[socksboxsketches]

[furryfaceoff]

Questions to consider:

- Who's your favorite?

- Who's most likely to create more furries?