#Mayor Lionheart

[koko2unite]

October poll is up!! help me pick who to draw naughtily this month!

[artist-issues]

Did you guys know that even all of Zootopia’s SIDE characters hit the theme right on target? All of them circumvent their species’ stereotypes, for good or for bad.  First one we’re introduced to is Gideon. He’s a fox, and he’s a bully, but Judy nails him right off the bat. He’s small-minded—actually, he’s just not very bright. He’s a bully, so immediately we know he solves problems with his physicality. But that’s the thing. Foxes are supposed to be sly and cunning and sneaky. There’s nothing sneaky or sly about Gideon.

He just shows up and mispronounces words and pushes bunnies around. In fact,  Judy is the sly one in their interaction; even while he’s pushing her down, she’s slipping the tickets out of his pocket to give back to her sheep friend.  Okay so fine, Gideon’s obvious. But what about the next side characters we meet?

Clawhauser! Everybody loves Clawhauser. This one is obvious too. He’s a cheetah—he’s not a leopard, he’s not a jaguar. He’s a cheetah. But what do we learn about him as soon as he actually has to do something for his job? 

HE’S NOT FAST. Cheetah’s are “supposed to be” fast, if they’re anything. But as many character traits as Clawhauser has (loves pop stars, loves donuts, loves his job, willing to help, all-around nice guy) the one that he SHOULD have, as both a police officer who’s job description could be “CATCH” bad guys, AND a cheetah, is speediness! But he’s not a runner. And he’s not even very quick on the uptake, either. When Judy is trying to solve a murder and has the evidence laid out right in front of him, and is LITERALLY connecting the dots out loud, he has no clue what she’s talking about. He’s not quick-thinking. 

Okay let’s do the next one. Chief Bogo! This one is, I think, obvious too, but for funsies, let’s talk about it.  Chief Bogo’s whole character design, as a water buffalo, is supposed to be big, square, tough. He’s scarred up and masculine and authoritative and brusque. He even says several times that he doesn’t care about people’s feelings. But he is not big, heavy, and unyielding like a Cape buffalo should be. They’re literally described as “dark, brooding, tough,” animals. But Chief Bogo gets behind closed doors and he’s like: 

“Ooo, an app where I can dance to mainstream pop music!” And on a more serious note, when Judy totally proves him WRONG and could be seen as having HUMILIATED HIM, he instead proudly walks her up to the Mayor’s office for a promotion. And he even consoles her and calls her a good cop when she’s at her lowest point.

Even the other fox in the movie, Finnick. His whole thing is that he looks small and cute; clever foxes like Nick take advantage of that expectation. Other animals clearly don’t realize that his species, which is totally different from Nick’s, is why he’s so little—they just assume he’s a baby red fox (to their disadvantage.) But even if they did, you see a Fennec Fox and you either go, “aw, cute,” or “foxy tricks!” Finnick has neither. The movie makes it seem like the scheming part of their lives is all Nick’s idea and Finnick is just there playing along to collect the money. He’s also not cute when the disguise comes off—he’s ferocious! A bust-heads first, ask questions later fox with no slyness. 

Let’s move on to some even-lesser-known characters—I’ll try to go faster—

MAYOR LIONHEART! He’s supposed to be an animal associated with great leadership, pride, and honor, and the word “heart” is even in his name. But he has no real heart—he exploits everybody, Bellwhether and Judy included, for his own gain. He’s so self-protective and selfish, two non-leaderly traits, that he even exploits the poor sick feral Zootopians that they recover. 

he doesn’t even seem to care about his actual mayoral duties, which is, you know, the hands-on LEADERSHIP part of being a leader that you’d think the King of the Jungle would be great at.  And what about Madge the Honey Badger? Many people don’t like that her role was made smaller after Pre-production and she became a barely-seen doctor character rather than one of Nick’s closest friends, but LOOK WHAT A GREAT JOB THEY DID. She’s a HONEY BADGER. Honey Badger don’t care. They’re just supposed to be these tough-as-nails, vicious littler buggers who not only have thick skin, but attack predators much larger than themselves—LIKE LIONS. 

But the only time we see this Honey Badger, she definitely cares. She cares enough to sort-of suggest that they get outside help for the sick animals Lionheart is hiding, but when he yells at her? Does this Honey Badger use her thick skin to stand up to him and make a stand for justice? No! She cowers and backs down. And she must have been doing it for weeks, too, because the Missing Mammals have clearly been there for a while.  What about Mr. Big? Clearly it’s all in the name; he’s implied to be a huge threat, very dangerous, but he’s little, sure. Not only that though—he’s implied to be ruthless, a killer, even Nick is scared of him. But instead, he winds up being warm and fatherly toward his own daughter and Judy. He gives wisdom, and helps justice more than once. Also, by the way, a Shrew’s brain is supposed to get even smaller in the winter to conserve energy. There are articles online called “how winter makes shrews stupid,” when I looked it up. But is Mr. Big stupid? Absolutely not. 

What are others known for? Being cute and playful. How many times do you see Mrs. Otterton OR FERAL MR. OTTERTON being cute or playful in the film? This has less to do with their personalities, but the point is, we’re seeing an animal known for it’s cheerful and fun demeanor only in sad or scary situations in this masterpiece of a movie. Not to mention the fact that Emmett Otterton, a “sweet little otter” is basically never sweet until the very end of the movie. 

Yax the Yak is supposed to be big, slow, dumb—he even has hair covering his face, as if he’s not all that observant. But who remembers every little detail about his interactions with Emmett Otterton? Even when Nangi, an elephant who is supposed to remember according to stereotypes, remembers nothing, ever?

YAX DOES. And not only does he remember, but he remembers about interesting things, like being able to tell by the sound of a car which cylinder is firing incorrectly. He’s smart.  We also have Mr. Manchas, the panther, who is shown to be less an apex predator (which is what panthers are) and more a traumatized, suspicious, mild-mannered driver. Oh, and he and all the big, stronger animals work for the tiny little shrew, remember that too. 

Sheep are also supposed to be followers, and stupid. They’re supposed to go toddling after one another, and sometimes just straight up walk over the side of cliffs to their deaths out of idiocy. But the only sheep we see in this film, BESIDES Bellwhether, are not only rebels trying to undermine Zootopia’s whole system, but smart. 

Doug, Jesse, and Woolter are all lab geniuses cooking up government-toppling terrorism serums. 

Gazelle, also, by the way, is a gazelle. They don’t stand up to anyone or anything in the wild; they run away from problems and conflict with other species. Yet here she is, not only being a graceful dancer, but spearheading peace rally’s and speaking out against conflict. 

And of course, Flash. He’s slow physically when he’s at the DMV, but it’s implied that he’s no dummy—for all we know, he was helping Nick stall. Because at the end we learn he’s sort of a criminal, too—because he loves to do what ladies and gentlemen? SPEED. 

So. What I’m saying is, there’s a REASON Zootopia’s so good—it just keeps smashing the theme out of the park with every single character that comes onscreen. They don’t stop at Nick being helpful at heart instead of selfish, or Judy being a clever detective instead of dumb. This movie’s a masterpiece right down to the most basic characters.

[twisting-echo]

Crossover Crackships I ship based solely on obscure merch!

Anna x Mayor Lionheart

So, I reblogged this serendipitous gift of a crackship a while ago and promised myself to make a moodboard or a collage out of it, but I totally forgot. I recently rediscovered this when I was going through the “Anna” tag on my blog and decided to actually go retweet this hilarious post on my Twitter.

When I retweeted the post, I saw that someone actually drew fan art of it in the comments and called it their OTP. And in that moment, I knew that I was prepared to ship them harder than ever before. lol

A tale as old as time~

LINK TO TWEET - I got a Beauty and the Beast gift from my mom that she put together herself!

Tinker Bell x Stitch

So, I found this random Tumblr post of someone sharing their Phantom Manor pins, and I found something particularly interesting about them. The pins have cast Tinker Bell as Melanie Ravenswood, the bride of Phantom Manor at Disneyland Paris, and Stitch as Jake the Foreman, Melanie's ill-fated fiancé. And yes, the pins also have Stitch cast as the Phantom, aka Henry Ravenswood Melanie's cruel father (but we're going to ignore that part).

The thing that got me hooked was the pin where Tinker Bell and Stitch are sitting together, arms linked, on a picnic date. I know, call me “weird” or whatever you'd like, but I thought it was really cute and wholesome for some reason, despite knowing what actually happens to Melanie and Jake on that picnic date.

Here are the best photos I could find of the Phantom Manor stretching portraits for more clarity and context.

I would like to end this by saying that Stitch seems to have a thing for Disney ladies, so could you blame me? Don't believe me? Check out this video in the link above, clearly showing Stitch wolf-whistling at Belle and flirting with Jasmine.

[marinerainbow]

I BETTER see some ship art of these two. The internet was made for this.

[zootopiathingz]

Lionheart: I must say, I’ve enjoyed our squabbles far more than I care to admit. You’ve kept me young, Smell-wether.

Bellwether: *looks him up and down*

Bellwether: I haven’t done a very good job.

[dumbdumbartprojects]

Two corrupt mayors… they might kiss….

[domono08]

I wanted to do something special, so how about I have Mayor Lionheart and his secretary, Elizabeth dancing together. They’re just so cute together!

[whack-patty]

I'm curious if you have any voice claims for your guy Sneep. What's he sound like in your head? Because I've just been reading everything he says in the voice of a crazed JK Simmons, and I can't tell if it's terribly cursed or terribly fitting

Oh man I have no clue to be honest---I do know it's deeper than his little frame makes it seem like it should be. And also that he sounds crazy sometimes

So tbh JK Simmons could totally work

After looking him up to figure out what's going on there I discovered that JK Simmons voice acted Mayor Lionheart in Zootopia. Zootopia and the Sing universe are connected in my head so enjoy this

Tfw you sound too similar therefore you're rivals now

[twisting-echo]

I smell a new crossover ship on the horizon, my friends~ 😼

tell her never

[zootropoliscitizen]

I really hope to see more clawhauser and Gideon in the new zootopia movie. although I am biased because they're my favorite characters, I feel like they have great growth potential to be awesome in a spin off episode (similar to zootopia+) I know clawhauser already had one but I want to really know more about him other than he's a top notch gazelle fan.

[maxriderg]

Fellers, in honor of J.K. Simmons' upcoming 69th Birthday, allow me to share this (complete with the inclusion of Queen's Don't Stop Me Now in which, this Song would be one of the perfectly polished picks to go for a New Year's Eve Celebration) and well, have a very Happy Early 69th Birthday to the one and only, Jonathan Kimble Simmons (1955-present) himself, Ladies and Gentlemen! ;)

[ultraericthered]

Out of four consecutive Disney Villains that were defined by plot twists regarding them, I've often thought: what made Turbo and the Cybug he merged with in Wreck-It Ralph work out so well and deliver a villain so infinitely stronger than the villains that followed? I'd concluded that mostly it was because Turbo got to be around as an active and characterized antagonist as King Candy and the twisty nature of his villainy was more comparable to Judge Doom than following the Stinky Pete, Henry J. Waternoose, and Lyle T. Rourke route of only being revealed as a villain in the third act and getting to be actively antagonistic for a limited time while taking on drastically different characterization than before like the later Twist Villains (or in Bellwether's case, in only the final minutes of the third act!).

But there was something else too, and it recently struck me.

Hans, Callaghan, and Bellwether all adhere to basically the exact same formula, with only the specifics of their roles differing due to each movie being a different type of story - Frozen is a fantasy adventure-thriller, Big Hero 6 is a superhero story, and Zootopia is a buddy cop mystery. The formula is that not only is the villain introduced as a friendly character in the first act and ultimately shows their true villainous self in the third act, but during the story there's another villainous character thrown at the viewer to serve as the red herring. In Frozen, it's the Duke of Weselton. In Big Hero 6, it's Allister Krei. And in Zootopia, it's Mayor Lionheart. All of these characters seem more like the sort of villains you'd typically expect to pop up in stories of these films' natures, radiating such obvious evil energy that the viewer is naturallly meant to have their suspicions drawn to them rather than the unassuming nice person who turns out to be the real villain of the piece. I'd argue it worked best when first tried in Frozen because the Duke ended up having absolutely nothing to do with the main conflict or how it got resolved, his main contribution being to tell two men to be prepared to kill Elsa at one point and that's it: he was a red herring in the purest sense. With Krei and Lionheart afterwards, they both had increased prominence in the narrative, the former being responsible for what drove Callaghan into grief-stricken, vengeful supervillainy, and the latter at first being Bellwether's boss and actually serving as a secondary antagonist in the plot with his unethical captures and coverups in response to Bellwether's Night Howler conspiracy. And they both are such obvious suspects for being behind evildoing even in-story that it loops around to becoming obviously NOT the true culprits at all. (Not helping is how both the Duke of Weselton and Allister Krei are voiced by Alan Tudyk, at the time still most known for King Candy/Turbo!)

Whereas with Turbo, I think it was so effective because it was sort of flipped around. The story was leading us to look at King Candy as the red herring or ultimately just the diversion, continuing to remind us that the Cybug that Ralph accidentally brought with him into Sugar Rush was lurking below and breeding, which we knew could become a true threat to the game and to the whole arcade world given the way Calhoun talked the Cybugs up. Even when Felix goes into the backstory of "Going Turbo", we're not really linking that to what's currently going on with King Candy, who we at that point had not been given reason to think is anyone but who he appears to be, and King Candy's such a silly, whimsical doofus of an antagonist that we suspect he'll amount to nothing more than food for the Cybugs. How King Candy goes on to manipulate Ralph and the revelation about him as a usurper turns our perspective of him on its head as is, but then it's revealed he's not just any usurpeeeer - he's Turbo! This on its own makes him that much more villainous, but then still we get the kicker: Turbo gets eaten by the lead Cybug, just as we might've predicted would befall him....and his code overwrites the Cybug from within, making him even more dangerous and malicious than ever! So while the Cybugs do indeed become the endgame threat, they're also used as the actual diversion to get you not looking harder at King Candy and figuring out both his true identity and his true nature as the primary, most menacing villain in this story. It is ingenious.

Pulling off a Twist Villain is easy. It takes a lot more thought, skill, style and polish to pull off a Turbo-Tastic villain as Wreck-It Ralph did.

[rubensmuse]

here's a link to his IMDB to check for your favorite property if you're not sure

EDIT: FORGOT ABOUT OZ, I FULLY INTENDED TO ADD IT BUT IT SLIPPED MY MIND...As for Law & Order I entirely underestimated his impact in those episodes so I will take that L

[aquamarineglow]

Recently watched The Bad Guys and have a terrible idea for a crossover ship:

Professor Marmalade X Dawn Bellwether

Ok hear me out:

On the outside they look like a normal, respectable couple. Bellwether is the hardworking Assistant Mayor and Marmalade is a kind philanthropist.

But behind the scenes, they're the most toxic, manipulative animals you've ever met. Both desire absolute power and both possess tools to control the minds of others for their own gain.

They would come up with the most evil plans together. Such as finding a way to take Mayor Lionheart out of the picture, allowing Bellwether to be promoted to mayor.

Then, with Bellwether's new position, they'd be the most powerful couple in the city.

But nobody would suspect them of anything, after all what can a small sheep and a cute little guinea pig possibly do?

[twisting-echo]

My Top 25 Crossover Couples (Pt 2)

(Please click on picture for better quality)

It's finally finished! I've had this sitting in my PicsArt drafts for over four months, and that's why some of the other pictures are blurry because it's been rendered so many times, but there had to be changes made based on my mood!

Top 25 Crossover Couples (Blank) by Daniarts19 on DA.

(This will also be the last time that I'll use this template by Daniarts19 due to her disrespecting my DNI and breaking her promise about not saying mean/rude things to me.)

Loona (Helluva Boss) x Izuku (MHA) (Dekoona/MoonRabbit): My friend @amethystoceandespiser got me to ship them. I'm invested in their chemistry and emotional connection.

Sunita (ROTTMNT) x Tucker (Danny Phantom): My friend @amethystoceandespiser brought this ship to my attention and I love it!

Octavia (Helluva Boss) x Danny (DP) (Spectral Owl): This is the ship that started the friendship between me and @amethystoceandespiser and I love it! Their emotional connection and chemistry has my heart.

Jazz (Danny Phantom) x Raph (ROTTMNT) (Tough Cookie & Smart Cookie): This ship came to me after my friend and I made our Scott Pilgrim AU. They're both older siblings who just want the best for their younger siblings. They understand each other's pain.

Mayor Lionheart (Zootopia) x Anna (Frozen): My reasons for shipping Anna and Mayor Lionheart are explained in this post here.

Sparky (Atomic Betty) x Amethyst (Trollz) This ship came to me as a kid.

Buttercup (PPG) x Nergal Jr (TGAOB&M) I love Tomboy x Nerd dynamics, but it's even more interesting considering that Buttercup fights monsters for a living and Nergal Jr. is a monster-demon-demigod-nerd-boy, lol.

Lobster Claws (SVTFOE) x Bubbles (PPG) (BubbleClaws) This crackship is based on a joke between me and my sister @small-tragedies

Goo (FHFIF) x Blossom (PPG) (GooBloss/PinkGoo) This ship came to me when I was a kid, and I thought that they were cute together.

Alice (AMA/AMR) x P/Pinocchio (LOP) (Palice) I have to thank my friend, @frie-ice for getting me to ship them.

Violet (The Incredibles) x Varian (TTS/RTA) (Virian) I have to thank @virianhaven for getting me to ship them.

Lola Bunny (TLTS) x Minnie Mouse (Minola) I have @dawn64 to thank for getting me to ship them so hard.

Lucifer Morningstar x Poppy (DuckPop/PopStar/ApplePop) I have @hah-studios to thank for getting me to ship them. Watch this video here.

Rapunzel (Tangled) x Fred (BH6) (Fredpunzel/Rapzilla/Sunzilla) I have to thank @rapunzelcrossoverqueen for getting me to ship them.

Minerva Mink x Marvin Martian (Minervin/MartianMink) I have to thank @dawn64 for getting me to ship them.

Panini (Chowder) x Lincoln/Warren (Loud House): I had an idea based on the "White Hare" episode, where Lincoln has a dream about being a rabbit named Warren with 15 extra sisters but instead has an Alice in Wonderland-type adventure being transported to Marzipan City, and you can probably guess the rest.

Ami (Sailor Moon) x Sonic (Sonic X) (SonAmi, I guess, lol): Being a die-hard SonElise shipper, it's easy to assume that Sonic has a type~

Daisy Duck x Cruella (Cruaisy): I started shipping them years ago when I watched this Disney short called Electric Holiday. I've made a couple AUs where Daisy works for Cruella in the fashion industry, and they become close friends and lovers in a May-December relationship. 

Tom (Tom & Jerry) x Bright Eyes (Pound Puppies Season 1): I like to headcanon that Tom and Bright Eyes are childhood friends to lovers. I explain it more in this post here.

Frank Wolff (Jungle Cruise) x Jack Sparrow (TPOTC) (SparrowWolf/WolfSparrow): I don't really ship characters from live-action movies and shows, but Disney Mirrorverse got me to ship these two goofballs.

Cinderella x Gojo (JJK) (Gojoella): Don't get me wrong. I love Sukuella, but I solely blame @peachudumplings for giving me Fairy-God-Gojo, and thus I ship Cinderella and Gojo too, lol.

Stitch (Lilo and Stitch) x Tinker Bell (Peter Pan): My reasons for crackshipping Stitch and Tinker Bell are explained in this post here.

Alice x Peter Pan (PanAlice): I've always shipped Peter Pan and Alice, but because of their Disney Mirrorverse counterparts, I shipped them harder.

Yuji Itadori (JJK) x Yuliy Jirov (Sirius the Jaeger) (YuYu): They have so much in common! That's all I'll say about these two for now~

Tiana x Nanami (Tianami): I have to thank @peachudumplings for getting me to ship them so hard. They're perfect for each other~

I am cringe and I am free!

Here is a link to my Top 25 Crossover Couples (Pt 1).

🚫IF YOU DO NOT LIKE THIS SHIP, PLEASE DON'T COMMENT OR REBLOG 🚫🚫 PLEASE DON'T STEAL OR REPOST MY EDITS 🚫

[bestworstcase]

people who talk about "cast bloat" in v7/8 are so funny to me bc v4 and especially v5 really suffer from having so few minor and supporting characters—like. literally the only new faces are 1. nameless bit characters, and 2. arc antagonists (the albains, ilia, lionheart, raven, and vernal).

and i think that is the reason those two volumes feel so… empty. they're not actually that slow-paced and there is in fact a LOT of narrative meat on the bones, but v4-5 feel slower and feel like there's less going on in them. (and that is not exactly an uncommon opinion: "nothing happens in v4-5" and "v4-5 are slower paced and that's good actually" are both sentiments that i see a lot.)

but… like, v4 comes out swinging with salem putting her plan into motion, and while juggling between blake / weiss / rnjr / yang on their separate journeys does slow down the progression of character arcs in terms of watching time, narratively things do happen at a fair clip and the story does a good job of weaving these disparate threads together thematically. similarly, v5 murks up the timeline by being non-chronological but none of the characters are ever just sitting around and there is quite a bit of momentum. it just doesn't feel that way—

—because these narrative events feel isolated. menagerie is crowded with nameless extras, only one of whom gets a shred of actual characterization; the only side characters who get anything at all are the antagonists involved in blake's arc. similarly, rnjr meet a few bit players during their journey across anima and then… literally just lionheart, once they reach mistral. vernal is the only bandit with an identity beyond "bandit."

the atlas portions of v4 are comparatively memorable because we DO meet new characters of varying importance: jacques, klein, and whitley get a decent amount of fleshing out in relation to weiss and ironwood, with ironwood's headbutting with jacques giving an indirect glimpse into atlas politics; then there's smaller characters like henry marigold, the business people who talk about the faunus and economic inequality with jacques, the socialite who scoffs about the fall of beacon because how is this our problem.

the same can be said for the other arcs too. the blacksmith and the mayor at the beginning of v4 breathe life into that village; the friendly captain makes the ship feel more alive. nameless extras don't do much for a narrative—they just visually fill out a scene—but bit characters with a bit of personality bring the world to life.

so during the beacon arc, there's a steady widening of the supporting cast (team cfvy + sun and neptune + penny and ironwood in v2, winter and qrow and various tournament competitors in v3). and then in v6, we get dee and dudley, maria and jinn, the cotta-arcs and cordovin and the encounter with pyrrha's (probably) mother. and in v7-8 there's the ace-ops and the happy huntresses and pietro along with bit characters like the councilmen and racist grandma and fiona's uncle. and v9 is chock full of memorable side characters. there is a significant and consistent presence of side and bit characters.

compare that to v4-5, which have long sections of narrative where The Only Characters are… the core cast and the arc antagonists. it makes the world feel smaller and that makes the narrative events feel insulated and unimportant.

a bare-bones cast of only characters who are strictly necessary for the plot will not make v10 feel "tighter" or "better focused," it'll just make vacuo feel lifeless. lol. (and this is not even getting into how rwby uses side characters to develop its core cast; like the point of robyn being so prominent in v7-8 is not to develop robyn herself, it's to incite development with ruby, penny, blake, yang, ironwood, and qrow. she's a catalyst. this is true also of the ace-ops and may.)