#Reel 2011

[skitskatdacat63]

"Only because you saw the TV camera, he came and said hello!"

[booperesque]

don't worry I've decided on Northern Attitude, this is just for the Bit

[devoted-to-colin-farrell]

Fright Night bloopers

[bitterrobin]

a quick PSA on pre-Robin Damian (again):

He has never called himself the "Blood Son". Those specific words have never come out of his mouth in a comic. In fact, Damian has only had dialogue regarding his bio status or another character's adoptive status like... three or four times.

Yes, pretty much all of those times have something to do with Tim in one way another. That's because Damian was less of a character, and more of a sword-carrying plot device when he was first introduced.

Damian's early writing lines up more with that of a minor villain than any supporting character. He existed at first only to rile up chaos in the Batcave for like, two issues, before his death in the fourth issue he appeared. He was introduced in issue 655 and killed by torpedo-submarine explosion in 658. Damian as a character was effectively "punished" for his earlier actions through a violent death.

You need to understand that early Damian (2009 mostly) didn't have a cemented personality or much characterization other than the basics that Morrison imbued into him i.e he was 10, an assassin, lax about death, very sarcastic/rude in tone, and weirdly spoiled despite his upbringing implying the opposite. Grant Morrison tends to write the large story concepts they like and they don't often adhere to any consistent/previous characterization (as seen with Talia) if it doesn't line up with the vision they want. Not even Damian's existence was kept consistent, as it's very hard to believe that Batman #656 Damian has the same backstory as Son of the Demon Damian or the Ibn al Xuffasch of Kingdom Come.

They didn't flesh out Damian a whole lot when he was first introduced, making him more of a spoiled rich kid who just happened to know how to kill people than the Damian that you probably think of. It took later comic appearances and other writers to add onto Damian's sporadic characterization - because he didn't have much major development after being created until becoming Robin and working alongside Dick.

To further characterize Damian as Robin, now that he needed to play against a larger cast and more established figures, writers needed to come up with ideas fast. So some writers played up his League backstory and wrote him colder, more logical and vaguely terrifying. They made Talia and Ras more and more ooc and abusive. They wrote dialogue for Damian that made him more of an annoying little brother figure, impulsiveness and all. Sometimes his dialogue with female characters drifted towards sexism, as clearly some writers can't write young boy characters without relying on shitty sitcom-style misogynist tropes. He got different moments, some skewing towards insanely violent or towards a normal child reeling from issues. This long trek of his writing was always changing in little ways until the reboot in 2011 and his first real death in Batman Incorporated, and then just continued on afterwards to this day.

In short, early pre-Robin Damian was a mess, and it took a long time for DC to develop him as a full character. (Even now, writers are still "figuring him out" and pulling ooc takes out of their asses). We have fun here.

[silverwhittlingknife]

Dick Grayson & Tim Drake: Reading Guide

Once upon a time, two kids met at a circus... and the rest is history.

table of contents:

who are these losers?

what's fun about them?

why a reading guide?

how does the reading guide work? (tl;dr: there are quick recs, a selected chronological list, and a complete chronological list)

where is the spreadsheet? (x)

who are they?

Dick Grayson and Tim Drake: the first Robin and the third Robin.

Also known as the circus boy and the earnest computer geek, the hotshot and the pretender, the slighted prince and the new apprentice, the acolyte and the hanger-on, Nightwing and Robin, Batman and Robin, Batman and Red Robin, and Marcia and Cindy (BftC 3, N 110 & 119, B 617, DC 677, Detention Comics 1, R 168, RR 14).

Or as Jason calls them, "You idiots" (TT 47).

More seriously, Dick Grayson is one of the most enduring comic characters ever - he's been around since Detective Comics 38 in 1940! He's Batman's first ward, first partner, and eldest son. When Dick's parents are murdered, Bruce identifies with him, comforts him, and takes him into his home, where Dick ultimately volunteers to join his crimefighting mission. By candlelight, the Dynamic Duo swear an oath: That we two will fight together against crime and corruption and never swerve from the path of righteousness!

Tim Drake was created in Batman 436 and formally introduced in Lonely Place of Dying. He's a lonely kid who imprints on Dick when they meet as children, and Dick hugs him and promises to do a quadruple somersault for him; he's horrified and worried about Dick in the aftermath of the Graysons' murder, which he witnesses. He watches Batman comfort Dick, deduces Robin's secret identity, and becomes a secret devotee of the Dynamic Duo. Though he admires them both, it's ultimately Dick who he idolizes and tries to emulate when Bruce is spiraling: Batman needs a Robin. No matter what he thinks he wants.

Their slow-burn strangers-to-friends-to-brothers-to-antagonists-to-brothers-again arc develops from 1989 to 2011, and it's one of the standout examples of the DC Post-Crisis era's commitment to gradual character development and careful continuity.

what's fun about them?

SO MUCH!!! But one of my favorite things is their friendship has RANGE!! They go from sweet kids to tense strangers to loyal friends to brothers over the course of real-life years and tons of comics. They fight, they tease each other, they get protective, they worry, they chase each other down, they walk away... there's just so much story here.

They meet at the circus as children, when both their parents are still alive. They meet again, years later, when Bruce is reeling from Jason's death and they team up to stop him from hurting anyone. In the early days, they're brothers-in-arms and never quite family - instead, Dick is Bruce's loyal-but-estranged eldest son, and Tim is Bruce's new loyal-but-wary apprentice, with his own family and his own semi-estranged dad. The slow process of evolving toward found-family is a delight to watch.

They work together as Nightwing and Robin over four years of in-universe time and for over twenty years of real-time, gradually forging a fierce bond of friendship and, ultimately, brotherhood.

Then Bruce dies, and they have some huge fights.

But even when they're estranged, even when they're not speaking... they never stop loving and trying to protect each other. No matter what.

why a reading guide?

Quotes from New Titans 60 and Batman 441 (1989), Nightwing 25 (1998), Nightwing 69 (2002), Red Robin 1 (2009), Red Robin 12 (2010), Gates of Gotham 3 and Detective Comics 874 (2011)

I think reading guides are cool!! And somebody asked me about one!

More generally, I think reading guides are always helpful, but especially with Dick & Tim... you know, when I first started out trying to read their comics, I got kinda overwhelmed. Because on the one hand there's SO MUCH CONTENT - they're one of the classic enduring friendships in all of post-Crisis! their relationship is a HUGE BIG DEAL! they're constantly calling each other and hanging out and supporting each other and arguing!

But at the same time, all of that content is scattered across lots of different books, in Robin and Nightwing and Detective Comics and Batman and New Titans and Titans and Young Justice and Teen Titans and Shadow of the Bat and Gotham Knights and Birds of Prey and Showcase and DC Holiday Specials and so on and so forth. There's not One Definitive Place where you can read The Dick-and-Tim Story.

So: a reading guide!

how does the reading guide work?

Dick and Tim are in over 400 comics together and over 800 comics each separately. That's a whole lot of comics! So I've made a spreadsheet with three different reading guides, depending on how interested you are in these two:

1-5 Quick Recs: If you just want to check out a couple comics, check out these quick recs for "if you like fluff," "if you like angst," etc.

200 Starter Comics: If you want to do a comprehensive, chronological Dick-and-Tim read without committing to all the comics, this list has some of their major team-ups plus some solo comics so you know what the heck is going on. Most of them have a "sneak peek" you can use to decide if you want to read it.

Big List: A complete list of all the comics Dick and Tim are in, in chronological order, with links to dc.fandom and to DC Universe Infinite. It has filter views.

This spreadsheet was a labor of love, obsession, and SO MUCH PROCRASTINATING doing other things. I update it sometimes.

where is the spreadsheet?

it's here. have fun <3

[violottie]

"Reviving Folk Songs of the Resistance" from bintdisco, 22/Jan/2024: caption cont. under reel.

This song of resistance and freedom was sung by Pale sti nian women when they visited their loved ones who were being held captive by the occupation, to give them hope that they would be freed soon.

While singing, they would encrypt their messages by adding the “lelele” sound between words to ensure the prison guards couldn’t understand what they were saying.

This style of singing is known as al-malwa’lala.

🎥 TEDxRam@llah - #RimBanna May 2011

🌐 Rough translation & edit by bintdisco

The song title is translated to: Hey, You, Climbing Up the Mountain

[maybe-moonchild]

9/27/2011

WC: 2.4k

Students cheered and shouted as they gathered across the quad, whatever had caught their attention obscured by the circle of bodies . When you looked up from your book, you wished you were more surprised at the sight of Flash’s first slamming into the side of Peter’s face. He went down hard but you were barely watching, already rushing to shove your things into your bag. 

You managed to shove your way to the front of the circle just as Peter shoved himself up off the cement. His eyes met yours and his face hardened immediately . The distraction cost him, preventing him from noticing that Flash was lunging forward for a body slam. 

There was a murmur of ‘Oohs’ from the crowd as they both wrestled on the pavement. Even at 15 years old, Flash Thompson was a force. His extracurricular activities included basketball, football, and beating up classmates. Some days it was really hard to justify being his friend. 

Today was one of those days.

“Alright, Flash! That’s enough,” you called out over the chanting. Before you could stop yourself, you shoved through the crowd to grab his arm. Flash managed to land another blow to Peter’s face before he stopped mid-reel.

“Knock it off!”

The sharp look on your face was enough for him to let out a groan at your intervention. He flashed you a sheepish grin, waving you off and rolling off of Peter. Katie smacked the back of his head before Flash could fully dust himself off. Not like she really cared about what he just did; she didn’t like when his stupid antics drew the attention of the entire school. 

“What?” Flash asked innocently as the crowd started to dissipate. The lunchtime show was over and would be forgotten by tomorrow morning.

Katie just rolled her eyes, likely having found the whole situation to be a waste of time. “You’re such a moron.” 

No one paid any mind to Peter who winced as he sat up. 

Flash noticed the dirty look you sent him. As Katie started to drag him back towards your usual table, he shrugged. “Sorry. Just having some fun.” 

Your face flushed from second hand embarrassment because of your friends. You knew what Peter thought about them even if he’d never actually said it outloud. You knew even more what he thought about you without ever speaking it outloud. 

He hadn’t needed to. 

Not when him pulling away at the beginning of last year said more than enough. 

When you’d started high school last fall, you’d told yourself that you would join at least one club and one sport. Even if you sucked at it, you wanted to be involved with the rest of your class. You just didn’t realize that cheerleading…  Well, you were pretty freaking great at it. With the gift of yellow and blue pom poms came the gift of attention, of eyes on you. You didn’t exactly mind it. 

It also came with the gift of Katie Douglas. Even in fourth grade, Katie’s face was always one of distaste, boredom, or a glare. If anyone thought her completely vapid, they were wrong. She was a natural born genius at anything to do with engineering. So when you both managed to snag spots next to each other on the bleachers the first day of cheer tryouts. Katie was gripping the seat so tightly you were shocked she didn’t crack a nail. You made a joke.

It wasn’t a funny one. 

But she laughed. 

When you both made the team, she invited you to the mall. 

With Katie came Flash Thompson.

Flash was lucky if he had three brain cells on a given day and he always used his fists before thinking. Befriending him was never intentional. When you got invited to an upperclassman Halloween party, Peter skirted around your extended invitation. He’d been pulling away for weeks but you tried to push through because you were trying to balance him, home, cheerleading, and new friends without letting any of them get dropped 

If Peter had been at that party, then there was a good chance that the senior dressed as someone from Jersey Shore wouldn’t have approached you. He wouldn’t have tried to coerce you into taking a shot while invading your space. But he did. It was Flash that shoved him back, towered over him and scared him off. He had a lot of moments like that where he was painfully kind… only for him to do something painfully stupid and barbaric the second after.

But they were your friends now.

Peter was the one that stopped answering your calls or you would catch him peeking out from his bedroom window after May had just told you he wasn’t home. 

Peter glanced at the hand you extended towards him, your eyes apologetic and hopeful that he would accept it. He didn’t take your hand. Instead, he opted to haul himself to his feet on his own and wipe the blood on his lip with the sleeve of his sweater. 

“Why’d you stop him?” He didn’t look up at you as he pretended to brush dirt off his jeans. He wasn’t going to thank you for stepping in.

You stiffened at the sharpness of the words. So sharp you couldn’t seem to look at him, jaw clenched so tight to hold in a scoff. He’d gotten taller since last year, the sleeves of his sweater just an inch too short from where they should have ended on his wrists. 

“Oh. Sorry,” you draw out sarcastically, your hip jutting out and your hand settling on it. “I didn’t realize I was just supposed to let him keep punching you in the face.”

“What? Did you want me to thank you?” Peter asked with equal sarcasm. 

Your face fell. You didn’t know why you expected some sort of banter that maybe bordered on bickering. No, this was anger, directed at you and you alone.

“No, I don’t,” you admitted, kicking at a pebble and trying to force down the white hot shame eating you alive. 

Someone called your name but you both turned toward the sound. It was Flash, his arms waving in the air to get your attention from the other side of the Quad. Katie sat perched beside him on the lunch table, giving you a look that clearly translated to ‘why are you still talking to Peter Parker… in public?’.

You shake your head to tell them to leave you alone but the damage is surely done. Peter just scoffs. That sound makes you feel even worse. He won’t even look at you, instead inspecting his camera to ensure it isn’t damaged. 

If it is, you won’t forgive yourself. Not when that was his prized possession, a memento from his dad. Relief slammed into at the same time it slammed into him when he confirmed that it was not broken from the fight. 

“You okay?” You tried to meet his eye and took half a step closer. His guard was up, blood accumulating in the cut in his lip and purple blooming on his cheekbone. “I uh… can walk you to the nurse.”

Peter raised an eyebrow at your offer, his expression cold and his lips pulled into a thin line. His thoughts and emotions were always so clearly plastered on his face. It's clear from his expression that he was not interested in your offer. Before he could get a word out, Flash interrupted again, calling out to you from his spot standing on one of the tables benches. 

You turned around and waved a hand dismissively in their direction. Some of the other kids you usually sat with looked like they were getting ready to go dick around off campus. Flash and Katie seemed determined to wait for you. They always did. It was why their faces scrunched up in confusion when you turned back around. 

“You sure you don’t wanna go to the nurse?” You kept your tone and face soft to avoid setting him off. “Might wanna put an icepack on your cheek.”

Peter looked like he was about to say something, but then decided not to with a shake of his head. 

“I'll be fine. You shouldn’t be seen talking to me anyway.” It stung and you hoped that it at least made him feel better. “See ya around or whatever.”

You swallowed a million things you wanted to say as you watched him collect his discarded backpack from the cement. The dig did what he’d hoped. To remind you that you had shitty friends that beat him up or made faces when you talked to people that weren’t deemed cool enough. 

Peter was already stalking off towards the school before you could respond. Fuck it. With a scoff, you decided to go after him. 

“Hold on a second!” You called out, jogging to catch up until you were hurrying beside him. “First of all, I talk to whoever I want. Second of all, I’m trying to make sure you’re okay after getting pummeled into the ground.”

“I’m not your problem. You should go be with your friends,” Peter shot back, head staring straight ahead in the hopes that he didn’t have to look at you. He hated looking at you now.

“Well I'm not. I'm right here talking to you.”

“So are you here to make yourself feel good? Trying to be all friendly and help me out so, at the end of the day, you can tell yourself that you’re not like them?” He let out a scoff, shouldering open the door without holding it for you but you managed to slip right in behind him. 

Those words made your face scrunch up in offense but you swallow it down. You have to. A part of him is right. Not because you were doing this to make yourself feel better but because you did tell yourself that. 

“Hey-”

Peter kept going without a glance in your direction. “I’m fine. Would hate to harm your important reputation.” His pace didn’t slow in the hope that he could leave you far, far behind. 

“Can you just stop for a second?” You reached out, hand hooking around his arm in the hopes that he would just listen. You were surprised when he actually slowed to a stop without turning around. A muscle in your jaw ticked at the sight of the back of his head, silence hanging in the air as you collected yourself. 

“I’m not doing this to make myself feel better,” you said tensely, dropping your voice to keep anyone wandering the halls from overhearing your conversation. It had nothing to do with not wanting to be seen with him. You’d never cared about that. You just didn’t need people to know you chased after him because he refused to speak to you. 

Maybe that was a shallow thought. You did have some semblance for your reputation. Thoughts like those had been ingrained in you. 

“I’m doing this because I care and I want to make sure you’re okay.”

It’s clear that he didn’t really have a response to that, the frown on his face said it all. Peter looked down at your hand on his arm, but didn’t make a move to yank away. 

“If you actually cared you would have talked to me all this time,” Peter muttered under his breath. His bitter attitude just made you throw up your free hand in exasperation. 

“I have tried to talk to you,” you reminded him, a sharpness in your voice and the grip on his arm forgotten. “You’re the one that will barely look at me or say more than a word without bolting.”

It wasn’t like you just decided you were too cool during freshman year and threw him to the curb. 

“Why would you want to be seen with me anyway?” Peter mutters, clearly agitated and a little annoyed. He pulled his arm away from you to shove his hands into his back pockets. 

You didn’t reach out to touch him again, instead letting your arms fall to your side. This time when you looked away and pressed your lips together, he actually looked at you. 

“I don’t care about that stuff,” you said quietly, face screwed up in hurt. “I don’t care about what they say because I think it’s all stupid.”

You wanted to say that you cared about him. That you never stopped caring about him. 

Peter narrowed his eyes at you before letting out a scoff. Sure, maybe a part of him wanted to believe it but he wouldn’t let himself be hurt by you again. Not when it had always been you and him against the world. Then, the start of high school filled your schedule with things that weren’t just him.

You were busy Monday through Friday from after school until six at night- and if there was a football game, then you were gone until almost midnight. He didn’t go to the games to watch you cheer and he certainly did not go to the after parties you invited him to. Newer and cooler classmates asked you to sit with them at lunch. He turned that down too and opted to spend that time in the darkroom. There were only a few times that you forgot about your plans with him only to call later that day and apologize religiously. It didn’t matter, after the first time, he avoided you for a week. 

Then the next week. 

Then the next.

He spent the entire ninth grade dodging you. 

And then all of tenth grade so far doing the same thing. 

“So you don’t care about what other people think?” He crossed his arms over his chest. “That’s a load of bullshit. Isn’t that what you’re all about? Being liked? Being friends with the right people?”

That hurt. That hurt so badly you had to step back and you really couldn’t seem to pull your eyes away from the floor. You worried your bottom lip between your teeth, willing your mouth to move and disagree with him. 

But you kinda deserved it.

“Right, sorry,” you breathed out after a long moment. The tight lipped smile you gave him barely even resembled a smile from how forced it was. “I won’t keep you any longer.”

“Whatever.” He was already turning around and slipping down the hall before you had finished speaking.

[justalovelyblackgf]

redk!clark shenanigans part 3

part 1

part 2

taglist: @afrogirl3005 @rosiestalez @stereotypicalbarbie

synopsis : redk!clark is the type of dude when you drop him first (because you’re honestly just fed up!) and you’re finally in a good place in life, he would text you out of the blue to reel you back in. he doesn’t really want you to walk out of his life, so you’re not getting rid of him that easily, girl.

if you’ve ever seen those memes with future texting, it’s those type of vibes.

pairings: redk!clark x fem! y/n (i’m imagining her as meagan good again. reader can do a self insert or use another fc. the choice is yours and i want to be inclusive!)

fandom: smallville (2001-2011)

also featuring: chloe sullivan and kate ross (pete’s twin sister/oc fc: tatyana ali)

warnings: long asf, swearing, redk!clark, toxic behavior, a little bit of angst, some suggestiveness,manipulation, implied hook up, y/n regretting her decisions, y/n being weak in the knees again!

congratulations to y/n for finally dropping redk!clark kent, smallville’s local gentleman turned badass and player. anywho, her skin is glowing, her grades are showing tremendous improvement, and life has just been better in general. she’s smiling a lot more!

she’s not going through this alone though. fortunately, she has chloe sullivan and kate ross to help y/n properly get over him. they haven’t seen him around in a few days. if they did happen to run into clark at school or around town and he asks about her whereabouts, they would make up an excuse that she was really busy with (an extracurricular/job) or she got a new number. he’s gonna find out soon enough that was some bullshit.

it’s a friday night and the girls decided it was time to get dolled up and go out to celebrate y/n’s freedom from clark’s fuckery. they’re all chatting and filling their table with laughter when y/n hears her cell phone vibrate. she flips open the device and looks at her text messages, skimming through each word cueing her deep sigh and eye roll..here we go again. y/n closes the phone down and places it back in her purse. it vibrates again and again..now kate and chloe are getting suspicious, giving each other knowing looks. let’s just say that the silence was indeed loud.

“so, uh…who’s blowing up your phone at this hour?” chloe inquired, tilting her head.

“it’s just my mom reminding me to do something when i get home.” y/n replied as she shrugged her shoulders to ease the tension.

“oh, so she’s reminding you five times?” kate asked, her elbow on the table with her chin resting on her knuckle. she raised a brow then narrowed her eyes before finally addressing the elephant in the room.

“it’s clark, isn’t it?”

“no.”

“bullshit!” the girls exclaimed.

“fine! it was clark. he said he hated how things ended between us and that he was blind to how really important i was to him. he also said that without me, he feels so weak.” y/n confessed.

these were his words. he wasn’t blind to shit considering he has x-ray vision. not weak either because the guy had super strength.

chloe and kate couldn’t help but to roll their eyes and shake their heads at this foolishness, but who were they to judge? they both fell for the charming farm boy they grew up with at one point during their lives. hell, they even both attempted to cross that line of confession and dating him for real, but they let that go to preserve their friendship with each other and with clark. it’s messy, but it was clark kent. smallville’s local knight in shining armor. how could any girl let go of him completely once they’ve been attached? it was just his new bold and unpredictable attitude that rubbed them the wrong way. hopefully it’s just a phase.

“he also said to meet at his place so we could talk things over. if he really wants us to work things out, i should be there in the next 10 minutes…” with each word, the volume of y/n’s voice started to diminish as she looked around and bit at her bottom lip to avoid the awkward, yet frustrated glares of her friends. “maybe i should go to hear him out and get some closure…”

“wait, wait, wait!”, chloe objected shaking her head. “if my memory serves, you said that last time was the last time. did you not catch him in another lie of him seeing lana before taking you out, correct?”

“….yes, but he sorta made it up to me.” y/n’s face heated up as her mind wandered to the semi-passionate endeavor her and clark shared in her bedroom after the argument that concluded their last date. she thanked the Lord above that her parents were out of town and that clark respected her enough to not push any further than what she was comfortable with. kate and chloe's eyes widened from sudden realization to complete astonishment.

"before you guys shame me, no, we didn’t go that far, but you know how guys are always saying i can’t drop clark due to the fact that i’m always wrapped around his finger?”

(reference to pt 2 iykyk)

y/n recited her friends past warnings as her fingers signaled air quotation marks.

“i guess you can say that literally and figuratively.”

silence filled the trio once more before they all heard another vibration. y/n flipped open her device and checked her text messages again. her eyes skimmed over the text for a few seconds before her fingertips made a few sounds to type a response to the person on the other end. after one press of the “send” button, she stood to her feet and pushed in the chair before greeting her friends a formal goodbye, “that was mom again. she said she needs me home asap. i’ll catch you guys at school?” the girls gave her nod and a “mhm!” before they watched their friend power walk out of the restaurant to her parked honda accord.

after they saw the car speed off into the night, kate sarcastically chuckled and shook her head before gazing at chloe, finally breaking the silence.

“we both know damn well that she went to go meet up with clark right?”

“i know…” chloe replied.

“yeah.” kate nodded and gazed below at the ground with a tight lipped smile as she fiddled with her fingers.

meanwhile…

10 minutes. it sounds like a lot of time, but not so much when you’re deciding on which path to take. right for the l/n’s house, left for the kent’s. her eyes darted in both directions, her heart thumping in her chest. it was only a matter of time before she could switch the turn signal up or down. she began to think. think of the times her friends were there for her at her lowest. the temper tantrums. the late night rants on the phone. the fake smiles for her parents. the tears that soaked her pillow. all because of him. his arrogance, his brutal honesty yet he lies, his shameless flirtation with other women. his eyes…his words…his kiss…his touch…his affection. damn, damn, damn! her mind was finally made up. she put the car in drive and made the turn onto the path of her destination for the night.

“hey, look, i got your messages. you said you wanted to talk things over, so let’s talk, clark.”

y/n stood with her arms crossed against her chest and faced the male before her standing outside the kent house as if he were expecting her already. he looked comfortable in his black tank top and grey sweatpants with his hands in the pockets. even under the moonlight, y/n could still see that same lady-killing smile of his and icy, blue eyes that she adored so much that it made her heart swell.

“it’s about time you showed up, beautiful. you don’t know how much i’ve missed you lately.” he pulled his pink lips into a smirk and took a few steps closer to her as his eyes never did pull away from her own. “i don’t think talking out here in the dark would do us any good, so how about we go somewhere more quiet and…” he took a beat of pause, “private.” tilting his head in the direction of his loft in the barn.

y/n sighed, licked her lips, and started walking in the direction towards clark’s loft with her arms still crossed. little did she know that his eyes carefully zeroed in on the sway of her hips with each step she took and possibly even the sultry, black matching set underneath her clothes.

oh, this was going to be a long night.

[celaenaeiln]

lol hi its me 12 am anon so uh tldr is that i hung out with my friend and we got drunk and we made out or smth but more importantly they made w fuckin list of dick grayson things i started talking abt while drunk

- “bad idea right?” but its dick grayson and his exes

- bruce technically gave dick a family but dick’s the one who like truly made it feel like a family when it comes down to it he’ll fuck up bruce for his siblings

- that one “5 man band” trope and how he can fit as the leader and the heart

- into a specific (blank) to lovers? dick grayson’s got you covered

- the “barney from how i met your mother basketball hoop scene” and “eleanor from the good place mom she never had” but make it dick and bruce (teenage or adult idc i’d love both)

- nightwing could 100% be the figurehead of the dceu (like im talking spiderman level) if dc would do something [this was timed . i talked abt this for like 30 minutes all on its own]

i am . so embarrassed. also i dont know if we made out before or after the rant and i dont know which is more embarrassing .

what. what. "more importan-" NO! NO ARE YOU KIDDING ME THAT IS NOT MORE IMPORTANTLY OH MY GOD!!!

MY MIND IS LITERALLY BREAKING RIGHT NOW!

WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THAT? Do you like her? Did she say anything?! I-

WAIT DOES THAT MEAN DICK GRAYSON LITERALLY GOT YOU TWO TOGETHER?!

NO WAIT!! SHE KISSED BACK. SHE KISSED BACK!

oh my god i'm reeling.

Have you guys talked about it yet?

I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS

I LITERALLY CAN'T THINK OF DICK GRAYSON RIGHT NOW AFTER THAT BOMB YOU DROPPED ON ME BUT FINE

"Bad idea right" was literally written for Dick Grayson!

Nightwing (1996) Issue #133

"Bad idea right?"

Actually every single Olivia Rodrigo's songs feels like Dick wrote it.

Like the sour album? Every time I listen to it I imagine that Dick just wrote the album because he was so mad at bruce after being fired from Robin lol.

"bruce technically gave dick a family but dick’s the one who like truly made it feel like a family when it comes down to it he’ll fuck up bruce for his siblings"

That's true too!

Batman (2011) Issue #11

"The truth is, I didn't save you from some dark fate, those years ago. You saved me from one."

Batman (2011) Issue #11

"And you still are saving me, every day."

Bruce gave Dick security but Dick gave Bruce a life. He gave Bruce the ability to become human, to be happy.

Take Gotham War for example,

Batman (2016) Issue #138

Bruce tells Jason he's saving Jason from himself and Jason in turn asks Bruce who's going to save Bruce from himself.

Cut immediately to -

Batman (2016) Issue #138

Dick.

Dick has always been there to pull Bruce out of his darkest days when he tries or is willing but Bruce giving up on Dick's ability to do so is symbolic of him giving up on himself. It's the height of Bruce's irredeemability.

Even after Jason died, Bruce indirectly called Dick to come join him but at this point his back up personality is too far gone for him to recover.

Batman: The Return

Dick literally is the reason Bruce stays connects to the batfamily. In a good way.

He has no reservations about keeping Bruce in check.

"that one “5 man band” trope and how he can fit as the leader and the heart"

5 man band trope: one leads, one contrasts, one thinks, one fights, and one keeps all of the above from killing one another

DAMN RIGHT

He's the leader.

Batman: Gotham Nights (2020) Issue #12

And the one that keeps them all together

Batman: Gotham Nights (2020) Issue #12

Dick is the defacto leader when Bruce is gone or lost it.

Batman (2016) Issue #137

Batman (2016) Issue #704

Batman (2016) Issue #704

"Selina doesn't run Gotham. You do. While I'm away."

And the family's protector.

Batman (2016) Issue #137

"into a specific (blank) to lovers? dick grayson’s got you covered"

Yup!

Canonical:

Childhood partner to lovers - Raya Vestri

Friends to lovers - Barbara Gordon

Enemies to lovers - Shawn Tsang

Psuedo-family to lovers - Helena Wayne (they actually married in Earth 2)

Crime fighting partner to lovers - Helena Bertenelli

Kiss at first sight to lovers - Koriand'r

Pseudo-therapist to lover - Bea Bennet

Landlord to lovers - Bridget Clancy

Teammates to lovers - Zatanna

X to lovers - literally him and everyone

He's just so shippable that way. Not gonna lie, literally all of his relationships Dick and his lover have been great together.

the “barney from how i met your mother basketball hoop scene” and “eleanor from the good place mom she never had” but make it dick and bruce (teenage or adult idc i’d love both)

The New Teen Titans Issue #50

Man this hits hard. I've never seen how I met your mother but the parallels in the basketball hoop scene and Dick's talk with Bruce are uncanny.

The thing I think is weird about Dick and Bruce's relationship is that it's steeped in insecurities for each other. Dick feels hurt and betrayed and lost as to why Bruce would take in a new robin so suddenly and Bruce's tenure as Dick's robin is riddled with insecurities about him not being a good enough partner.

Batman and Robin Eternal Issue #6

However it's because of these insecurities that I believe they are close.

The difference between Barney and his dad, from what I gather from the clip, is that his dad never acted like one to Barney.

But with Dick and Bruce? Bruce was a good dad to Dick. But he was a terrible partner. Bruce treated Dick like an equal while still fielding reservations about his age and dealing with his own insecurities. Bruce knows that what he's doing is not right but at the same time Dick is far too competent. His intelligence, his athletic skills, his compassion, and his fearlessness were light years beyond anyone Bruce had ever met and Bruce acklnowledges this.

Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder Issue #2

"The GAS was supposed to knock his OUT. His brain out to be sailing past the MOON, right now. What's this brat MADE out of?"

Batman: The Widening Gyre Issue #1

Bruce's biggest problem with Dick is literally that he talks to much.

Dick is equal in every way to Batman and even exceeds him in some ways when he was Robin itself. So Bruce pushes the responsibilities of Batman's partner on to Dick while treating his as his son, mother, therapist, and partner. And Dick steps up to that. Soon they fall into a rhythm where Dick is Bruce's one for all human interaction. So imagine when you have a constant thing with someone that you're comfortable with and they suddenly start holding back from you. They begin talking about how you're too young to handle adult responsibilities. How you shouldn't be facing that burden. Now you're confused. Those responsibilities they are criticizing you for are the very ones that depended on you for. So now you start doubting yourself and trying harder and harder to make them see that you can handle the job. While you're struggling with confusion, they're struggling with guilt.

That is Bruce and Dick's relationship. Bruce grew a conscious after 10 years and Dick can't understand it. So there comes the self-blame and strife.

What Dick doesn't understand his Bruce feels guilty of his over reliance on Dick. Dick's self-blame has come to such a point that now even when Bruce in full honesty rants about how proud he is of Dick, Dick holds reservations because if Bruce was really proud then he would dump all the responsibilities on him right?

It's really messed up.

"nightwing could 100% be the figurehead of the dceu (like im talking spiderman level) if dc would do something [this was timed . i talked abt this for like 30 minutes all on its own]"

LOL

I think the Dawn of DC does have Dick be the figurehead or at least he will be in the future. We're just getting the beginning now.

Nightwing (2016) Issue #100

Nightwing (2016) Issue #100

Nightwing (2016) Issue #100

Nightwing (2016) Issue #100

"We want you to lead."

Justice League (2011) Issue #51

It comes full circle.

[positivelybeastly]

I'm just curious what the Beast and Abigail Brand relationship is like? (I haven't really read any of the x men comics until now.)

Ouaghhhhh . . . okay, so.

Full disclosure, I am a late comer to the truth of Wonderbeast, and, in fairness, I have an excuse! My trajectory for getting into Beast was reading him in X-Treme X-Men and New X-Men in the early 00s, then falling out of comics for a good long while until X-Men: First Class got me back in. When I got back home from watching the movie, the very first thing I did was go on Amazon, and type in 'X-Men comics.'

This was the very first result I got.

That is my legit Amazon purchase history right there, by the way. December 2011, verified, right there for you.

I bought the first volume, consumed it voraciously, then bought the other three volumes rapid fire. I still have them.

And this is how the Beast/Brand pipeline begins.

When we meet Hank in Astonishing X-Men, he's at a very rough place in his life, still. His best friend, Jean Grey, has recently died, he's still struggling with his anxieties and insecurities over his secondary mutation, still reeling from the psychic attack by Cassandra Nova, and, as if to rub salt in the wound, he's presented with the simplest solution to at least most of his problems.

A cure.

Because let's be real here - we can call it a mutant gift all we want, but some people have it worse than others. Beak, Glob Herman, Maggott, Dummy, Forget-Me-Not, Beast - these people have powers that suck exponentially more than Storm or Cyclops or Emma Frost. They just do. And I am well aware of the fact that this is a nuanced discussion, that Scott has to wear his glasses/visor, and that Ororo has to maintain control over her emotions so that she doesn't wreck the weather systems, I get that. I know that.

But.

It always hits me, the fact that Logan cannot respond to Hank's point specifically. He cannot argue that Hank's X-gene specifically makes him dangerous, because to do so would be fucking insulting - all he can do is blow it out to a macro level, and make it about Hank's status as an X-Man, about the fact that an X-Man admitting that some mutants just want to be cured and all that implies would be a massive blow to everything they represent.

And that is a point, one that has to be weighed up, but you can't act like this isn't literally dehumanising for Hank. Logan literally says he's not a human being, he's an X-Man - his duty outweighs his right to peace of mind and humanity.

Also, no, I don't care that Hank 'did this to himself.' Hank turned himself blue and furry, yes, and he made his peace with that.

But he did NOT choose to mutate into a feline monster with less fingers, new predatory instincts, less humanity. This is a nuance that is almost always lost in this conversation - Sage made this choice for him, and that will always colour this stage of Hank's life. It's very well likely that he might've chosen to go ahead with the mutation anyway, to save his life, but it doesn't matter because he never got the chance.

Treating Hank's different mutations as broadly the same, despite the fact that they are eminently different and they make him feel differently, is one of the many nuances that is often lost by both writers and the fandom at large, and it makes him a less complex character as a result. It is important that classic Hank would not have chosen to cure himself, but feline Hank would. That is important.

This probably seems like I'm getting off track, but I promise you I'm not. This is all vital context for this relationship.

So, the cure is destroyed, although Hank has one sample of it sitting in his lab by the end of the story.

Now, by this point, Abigail Brand has entered the story. She is, to put it bluntly, an asshole - Nick Fury with less warmth.

It's also vitally important that you know that Hank and Abigail's literal first interaction is him making fun of her. I'm not kidding.

So, we fast forward a little bit, and Cassandra Nova comes back, and. Well.

Hank's literal stated worse fear. Thanks for the second dose of trauma, Nova! Really love that!

This is also very important to their relationship. Swear down. Hank is, unfortunately, an unwilling cannibal, and it's all continuing his increasing alienation and isolation and dehumanisation. For someone who is, I would say, best characterised as a humanist, to become, if you'll forgive the ghoulish joke, a humanitarian, is ego shattering.

Anyway, Hank and Abigail begin to interact more and more as S.W.O.R.D forcibly recruits the X-Men to help them with their problems.

And thus, a. Tension, begins to develop.

Anyway, remember how I said cannibalism would be important?

And things continue to roll along . . .

Oh my . . .

Ouuaughhhhh . . . I love heart on his sleeve Hank . . .

So, what is this all building to? Well . . .

And there it is.

Abigail Brand is a massive monsterfucker, confirmed. Love her for that.

Now, this exchange kinda reads differently now, after all the mud that Hank's been dragged through since the mid-00s, especially with X-Force and everything, but at this point in continuity, Hank was still very much one of the most moral, ethical, well regarded heroes in the entire Marvel Universe. He would often be given maxed out stats for conscience and wisdom in expanded material, people would repeatedly state that he didn't have it in him to kill, that he could be trusted to do the right thing - he was a moral counterweight.

And the fact that Abigail wants him on her side because of that? To be her professional bullshit caller? To bring her up to snuff? That speaks a lot about her, honestly. She is not just a thug. She feels. She cares. She has a sense of right and wrong, it's just distorted sometimes by the wider scale of dealing with intergalactic politics and all the attendant bullshit that goes along with them - and Hank gives her perspective. He grounds her.

And to Hank, this is a fucking brand new epoch. He's just coming off a relationship with Trish Tilby where she explicitly rejected him because his form repulsed and scared and unsettled her - and now, this woman wants him because his form is familiar to her. Because it conforms to her sense of attractive. It gives him an all new perspective. He looks like her people. What must that feel like to Hank?

Suddenly, it isn't, I'm a monster to my fellow humans, it's, to the right people, I look beautiful.

(Well, Abigail would likely not use the word beautiful, but.)

That is immensely attractive! And let's be real here - this is all kinda mercenary, to begin with. Abigail wants to fuck Hank because he's hot, and she wants to work with him because she's trying to be a better person but can't trust herself to do it properly; Hank wants to fuck Abigail because he's lonely and isolated and wants to feel wanted, and he wants to work with her because it's a chance to be a contrarian full time!!! What more could he goddamn want?! Feelings have not yet begun to enter the equation.

But that's fine, because this is fun.

And we can let things cook . . .

And it's clear that it takes a little bit. Feelings are entering the equation, but it's not impossible for things to take a backslide here and there. They don't quite completely trust each other yet. They're cute together! But they're still brittle at this stage.

Things could still break apart - except, Abigail does have a heart.

Look at that smug motherfucker.

What really seals it for me is this, though, from a later arc of Astonishing X-Men.

For someone like Abigail Brand, for whom work is everything, there is no clearer way to say 'I love you' than this. She wanted to protect Hank from the consequences of his actions. She wanted to protect him from the perversion of his work, done with good intentions but perverted for ill. She worked, for months, off the books, on things that weren't her jurisdiction, because of Hank.

There's so much that she's not saying here, but this is the EXACT SAME WOMAN who, if you scroll up, just panels ago, was saying there was NO-ONE she would not sacrifice, no enemy she would not sleep with, if it meant that Earth was safe.

The Earth . . . and Hank, apparently.

That is huge.

Also, they kinda have a kid together? Sort of?

That's Broo, Hank's protege. He happens to be around because of a whole adventure where Hank pulled the X-Men into a Brood related nightmare that ended up producing a mutant Brood with compassion and emotions and empathy.

A Brood related nightmare where Abigail was in danger. And why was she in danger?

Because she was being heroic, huh?

And then there's this . . .

Now, this is from Siege (2015), part of Battleworld, so it isn't quite 616 canon, but it's the exact same writer as S.W.O.R.D, so I have absolutely no hesitation in saying that this is exactly how Abby feels about Hank in 616 as well.

"After McCoy, she will never let herself love anything."

Ouauuhhghhhhh . . . they complete each other, quite frankly. He's the moral counterweight to her pragmatic solutions. She's the realist that reminds the optimist that the world isn't sunshine and daisies all the time. He's the bright, colourful, bounding genius, she's the insanely deadly workaholic who hates you. Enemies to lovers.

This is crack to me, friends. This is crack cocaine.

Also, I reject the idea that they're on-again, off-again. These two were locked in from S.W.O.R.D onward, and I refuse to hear otherwise.

It's incredibly clear to me that the X-Men never understood this relationship, just like how they never really understood what makes Hank tick in general, and so they just make assumptions based on what they think they know, because we're literally never shown these two in the middle of one of their supposed arguments. Every time they're on panel together, they're flirting and backing each other up, consistently, every time. Even during X-Force, Abigail is pretty much the only person that Beast treats with respect, and love, and care. They hug, which is unheard of for that version of the character.

Well. There is one other character evil Beast treats with care.

Man, X-Force #50 was all kinds of gay . . .

Anyway. If it weren't for Simon, Beast/Brand would absolutely be Hank's One True Pairing. As it is?

Hank has two paws. He can hold two hands.

[ufonaut]

"a disaster beyond description" - the parallax view on parallax (& coast city's destruction)

i've often talked about the importance of pre-parallax retcon hal jordan, what a radical move his downfall had been for an art medium so uniquely focused on status quo and how much walking that back in post-2005 continuity damaged the character & his development. however, something i've become increasingly interested in lately is the outsider point of view on the magnitude of coast city's destruction and hal's descent into madness -- the reverberations of one of the darkest days in the dcu were far and wide for a good long while there but rarely acknowledged outside of nostalgia pieces nowadays and even more rarely understood as a thoroughly visceral, well-written, well-planned arc that intentionally portrayed the superhero world as largely unsympathetic to the trauma of one of their own but the average civilian as grappling with that loss nearly on the same scale that hal did.

to that effect, i thought i would show a highlights reel of this outsider POV and how much it adds to the weight of the pre-2005 story. while i've accepted some tie-ins to major events (ie zero hour 1994, final night 1996), this will feature titles entirely unrelated to green lantern presented in real life chronological order by publication date in order to showcase the impact that's compelled me so (that's no convergence: green lantern, no legends of the dcu #33-36, etc).

"every office, every home, every school and hospital is atomized. the west coast and its entire ecosystem is instantaneously shattered-- and more than seven million men, women and children that once called the coast city area home-- die."

to set the scene, the explosion that destroys coast city actually appears in superman 1987 #80 (cover date: aug 1993) as part of hank henshaw and mongul's plan.

the destruction had spread as far as santa barbara & the los padres national forest. getting closer to ground zero, hank henshaw also proceeds to resolutely take care of a handful of the sole survivors:

(adventures of superman 1987 #503, cover date: aug 1993)

you all know the reading order here. past the return of superman and the events of emerald twilight, the first outsiders to have gotten the news are the darkstars

whose immediate course of action is to brand hal jordan a criminal (darkstars #23, cover date: aug 1994)

and as zero hour-induced temporal anomalies keep coming up, the darkstars start seriously considering further tampering with time in order to prevent "the creation of a power-mad monster" (darkstars #24, cover date: sept 1994).

it's a sentiment that the majority of hal's justice league colleagues share, as zero hour: crisis in time and the final night both tell us, but a more sympathetic view comes two years later in the spectre 1992 #47 (cover date: nov 1996)

and a more neutral one from waverider in superman: the doomsday wars #2 (cover date: dec 1998)

interestingly enough, more details of the in-universe perception of hal's actions comes from deadman: dead again

where we learn that "sources close to the JLA" have actually issued a press statement naming hal as wholly responsible for the green lantern corps massacre, with no hint that they've been equally forthcoming about the motive behind his actions (deadman: dead again #4, cover date: oct 2001)

the last pre-retcon word goes to superman: day of doom #3 (cover date: jan 2003), a sobering portrayal of the immense horror of coast city's annihilation and subsequently a look into the reality that had made hal snap:

post-retcon, nostalgia pieces like dcu: legacies #8 (feb 2011) and dc retroactive: superman - the 80s (oct 2011) both treat the mad-with-grief version of the story as the truth -- as does the 2015 convergence event --but outside of these few instances, the tour de force of storytelling that is this years-long arc has been cast aside in favor of an unnecessary retcon. as the zero hour: crisis in time 30th anniversary approaches, i'd say it's just the right time to remember that hal (unrepentant hal, power-hungry hal, hell-bent on making everything right hal) had had a perfectly proportional reaction to the tragedy he'd endured, if not outright a justified one.

[devoted-to-colin-farrell]

Fright Night - bloopers

[april-is]

April 26, 2024: Origin Story, 1993, Adam Falkner

Origin Story, 1993 Adam Falkner

Your grandma says you look just like your cousin Frank, mostly in the eyes when you grin. They chuckle at the dinner table when there is Frankie in your hair, towhead cowlicks bolting into sky

like strands of snapped hay. No one stays long on the subject, really – just the way he lives in your laugh, your funny faces, how he smokes like a ghost from your whistle. Once, your nan

had to grip the back of a chair to keep from buckling. And he’s not dead. He just moved. They told him he had to. So he bought a blue ‘82 pickup & went to New York to “get AIDS

and die.” Which he did. But not before filling his lungs with sky the size of God country & the new-fashion baptism of a sequined, hungry life. Not before flashing

through a decade of open-mouth laughter & living room play readings, crowded apartment holidays & finally, the big breaks. Not before the coke parties & park muggings & good news to share

with the boys & dinners at diners that let you run a tab & hard news to share with the boys. Not before beach houses wind-whipped with salt & memory, where they sit arms pretzeled to watch

the sun steal into the other life. But that’s later. It is 1993. You are nine-and-a-half but going on knowing. It’s the fourth of July & everyone is here except everyone who never is. Your giggle

lingers like grease on the walls as you float the hallway, dull murmur carrying on from the kitchen & there—frozen on the dresser, like a trophy & a prayer. He kisses you back.

--

Do me a favor? Take a quick 1-question poll on the future of these posts.

Today in:

2023: For the Dogs Who Barked at Me on the Sidewalks in Connecticut, Hanif Abdurraqib 2022: Demeter, Midwinter, Mairead Small Staid 2021: from A Pillow Book, Suzanne Buffam 2020: Letter to My Great, Great Grandchild, J.P. Grasser 2019: After the First Child, the Second, Mary Austin Speaker 2018: A New Lifestyle, James Tate 2017: Anchorage, Joy Harjo 2016: Poem to First Love, Matthew Yeager 2015: Ode to the Reel Mower, Jim Daniels 2014: So Much Happiness, Naomi Shihab Nye 2013: Habitation, Margaret Atwood 2012: About Marriage, Denise Levertov 2011: In Praise of My Bed, Meredith Holmes 2010: Black Swan, Brigit Pegeen Kelly 2009: In Me as the Swans, Leslie Williams 2008: Gnosticism V, Anne Carson 2007: American Names, Stephen Vincent Benet 2006: since feeling is first, e.e. cummings 2005: The Second Coming, W.B. Yeats

[fly-pow-bye]

The Lost Blossom Shampoo Commercial

During my very early days on Tumblr, I was loving all the GIFs and I wanted to join the community. Along with my love of video games, I love animation and I love Cartoon Network, and I wanted to contribute even if my main Tumblr, which is all that I had back then, wasn't animation focused. I wanted to give something that nobody else has posted. I knew non-American commercials have unique animation not seen anywhere else, so that felt like a good idea. I decided, to add some unique Cartoon Network GIFs to Tumblr, to look through various Cartoon Network commercial reels on YouTube and Vimeo. One of the videos I found on Vimeo was this reel from Brendan Rogan, a producer at Cartoon Network Latin America. I found a clip of the Powerpuff Girls I had never seen at 0:32.

Wait, is this...a shampoo commercial? Seems really fitting considering the Blossom hair wave scene in The Mane Event, and I shouldn't be surprised someone decided to use something inspired by that scene in advertising. Not going to lie: I was intrigued.

After the break, my entire history of my attempt to track down this commercial.

Right after this part of Blossom that I made the GIF from is this clip of three superhero-like mascots flying around three different bottles of different hair products. The one on the left has a bubbly hairstyle that is the same color as the bubbles shown in the Blossom part, suggesting that these two clips are from the same commercial. I did not want to believe it at first, but it did fit pretty well. The Powerpuff Girls are 6 years old at the most, and they could still be using baby shampoo.

After my searches went nowhere, I e-mailed Brendan Rogan back in 2015, who was pretty much my only lead at the time, about it. Rogan asked me why I wanted to see the "full spot". I immediately recalled one YouTube video about people trying to find the guy from Active Enterprises of Cheetahmen infamy only to be met with an all caps "WHY DO YOU WANT TO KNOW THIS INFORMATION" and no further replies, and I was hoping it was not going to end like that video. I did e-mail him with honesty, saying I just wanted to see the context of the full spot, and I'm a big Cartoon Network and Powerpuff Girls fan.

Rogan did not reply back.

I did not e-mail him again because I did not want to pester someone about a baby shampoo commercial, and I was holding onto the hope that it'll appear in a upload of commercials on YouTube so I do not have to test my anxiety. Of course, it'd be in way higher quality if I got it from someone who worked on the commercial rather than a VHS recording of commercials, but I was not thinking of that at the time. At least he indirectly confirmed a full spot exists.

Years later, I found a promotional reel based on the Toonix era of Cartoon Network Latin America, dated to 2011. It advertises The Amazing World of Gumball and Johnny Bravo Goes To Bollywood, both from 2011, so I can believe the year. It seemed to be made for investors and advertisers, showing off Cartoon Network's programming, and how they can have synergy with other brands. This includes a bunch of cross-promotion. Showing up at 4:52, to my surprise, is the Blossom ad. It was almost the exact same clip seen in the Rogan reel. The keyword is "almost." I got out my video editing software, and this is what I can see:

The Cartoon Network reel does have more of the commercial we did not see in the Rogan reel, though it's just more of the mascots flying in from outside of the frame and a little bit less of Blossom waving her hair around. This does confirm to me that neither reel was showing a single clip from the full spot, but two clips from different parts of the spot, showing the Cartoon Network character and showing what that Cartoon Network character was advertising. It also reconfirms that what I am looking for is not a Cartoon Network promo, but a baby hair product line commercial.

I also notice that even with these two different appearances, we only have 2.5 seconds of what could be a 15 or 30 second commercial. That alone does make that intriguing even with the possibility that Blossom only appears for that one second and the rest is just a generic baby shampoo ad. I hope that's not it, but it would explain why the full spot was not uploaded.

I did find one other piece of this campaign. It's not from the commercial, but it is related. Maybe it was an extremely lucky Google Image Search, or I just somehow stumbled across it in one of my searches. This was from a company named Bau Print, who specializes in different kinds of printing, including printing on vehicles, and, hey look!

There they are! It's even a photo taken from a camera that wasn't edited, meaning I could see from the metadata that it was taken in April of 2010. That does narrow down the beginning end of my search, though I had no doubt that the spot was at least post-Powerpuff Girls Movie. It also made me realize a bit of lore about these three super obscure mascots: they each represent the three different kinds of intense hydration: shampoo, conditioner, and combing cream. There are no Powerpuff Girls, showing either these superheroes were not just made for the commercial, or they wanted to use them without having to contact Warner Bros. or Cartoon Network.

This picture does prove that this campaign, at the very least, got to the point where it was advertised on trailer trucks. I did have a feeling this was a part of a scrapped campaign; maybe Johnson's got cold feet for having their clean baby shampoo brand be associated with girls that have beaten monkeys, criminals, talking dogs, and clowns to a pulp. However, wouldn't it be false advertising if a campaign that fell through ended up in a video that seemed to be made for advertisers?

And that's where my search runs cold. I have searched a lot of Cartoon Network Latin America commercial breaks on and off over the years, and I even used Filmot to search YouTube's subtitles for phrases that could be a part of it, like that "salud es belleza" tagline on that truck, and the full spot remains elusive after years of searching. I guess I could just imagine what the rest of the commercial could be.

The City of J&Jville, where our heroic trio responds to a dis-tress call: Blossom, superheroine of Townsville, is having a bad hair day and won't have the confidence to beat up Mojo Jojo and stop his "turn everyone into chickens with his chicken ray" plan. Lather, Rinse, and Repeat are called to action, and with their ultra-cleaning powers, they go into Blossom's hair as she stares at the mirror, and her hair magically turns luscious again. With her newfound confidence, Blossom flies to Mojo Jojo, and knocks his teeth out, bruising him with all of her techniques, her flurry of punches, her eye lasers, and the dreaded ponytail whiplash! The day is saved thanks to Blossom, and Johnson's Baby Hidratación Intensa! (Warning: Baby shampoo will not give your baby superpowers, do not let them fight crime.)

...okay, maybe that violence wouldn't have happened, but there is only one way we can find out for sure, and I can only wish I could find that way. So uh, here's another shampoo ad starring Hanna-Barbera characters that appears to be unrelated. Yes, the Powerpuff Girls are technically Hanna-Barbera. Bye.

< n/a - Part 2 >

[abby118]

Watching the Loki series is like watching an endless gag reel. It's so bad it's surreal. Loki doesn't feel like Loki. That's not Loki. It's like we're watching Tom Hiddleston just flail and flop around in a bad suit. He reminds me, (and someone else also pointed this out, I can't remember who), of the Edgar suit in Men In Black. And I can't help but wonder if that was a conscious decision Tom made, to act like a possessed, reanimated corpse? We'll never know, of course, but every time I see video clips and gifs, I just see the Edgar suit and if it wasn't so laughable, I could cry.

I completely agree. I couldn't even get through season 1 tbh. And I'd thought ragnarok was bad and out of character...

My advice would be to avoid it completely. I've got the tags blocked, I don't look at the new content and just stick to the original. It truly makes me so sad for the entire fandom, to see such complex and deeply interesting character destroyed and stripped of his very essence. I've been a fan of Loki and the characters from the Thor movies since 2011 and hyperfixated big time. I won't let some disney bullshit ruin that. It helped me through the hardest times of my life and I see parts of myself in the personalities of the characters, having grown up with it being a safe place. It even inspired me to find interest in the norse mythology despite it being so different. I read numerous books and studies on it and I feel like you can catch little glimpses of it in the original franchise.

Sadly, it feels like Tom is so out of touch with who he is supposed to be portraying. I hope this is the result of a contract and not entirely his own input. Although, I'm worried that might be my wishful thinking.

I was studying the soundtrack of Thor 2 the other day and how much thought went into it and it made me weep internally. Brian Tyler studied the characters' personalities and brought that into what he crafted. It was full of care. He even named one track Lokasenna, which if you don't know, is the name of a poem belonging to the poetic Edda and is about the conflict between Loki and the Aesir (asgardians). I also love how the og Thor franchise had the recurrent theme of light & shadow. Returning back to the brian tyler vid- the theme he was talking about is named Shadows of Loki.

Now, compare it with what we got in the last years (sth that feels like a very badly written fanfic). That is just a single example.

For me, the ending of Thor 2 is the end of canon and I am writing my very extensive continuation. It's the best ending we could have gotten in terms of fanwork because it's an open ending. A still in-character-ending.

The series feels wrong, it feels like utter mockery and I'm not here for it. With that said, my blog is a safe space for everyone who feels like this or gets bullied by the new "fanbase" (yes that happens)

Thank you so much for sharing your opinion, I appreciate it more than you know 🖤💚

[asgoodeasgold]

Matthew Goode behind the scenes being looked after by the wonderful Hair and Make Up Department.

Thank you for doing such a great job 👏 and yes, I am a tad jealous.

I love how chatty Matthew is and also so gentleman like lowering himself from his towering 6ft2 so that the hair artist can reach more easily.

🎶 reel

Pic

🎶 Atomic by Blondie

📷 My edits from bluray special features for Brideshead Revisited (2008), Pressure (2015), Burning Man (2011), BBC Dancing On The Edge (2013), Paramount+ The Offer (2022) and from Seagate advert BTS video