#Ruby and Eddie make cameos

[banannabethchase]

Set the World Alight: Chapter - Also on AO3

Matt and Mox's final high school semester continues, Nick begrudgingly acknowledges he has Actual Feelings, and technically, it's not a double date. It's not. It's just ice cream.

~

Heads up: a few characters misgender Matt, but it is due to Matt not having told them yet. There is also some discussion about making progress toward medically transitioning.

~

Saturday January 18th

Matt

“What?” she mumbles.

“Get up, kiddo,” her dad says. “You wanted me to get you up before I went fishing so that you had time to do your hair.”

Matt groans. “Why did I do that?”

“Because you wanted to,” her dad pauses and gets out his phone, “make sure you can prove to Britt you can braid your own hair.”

Matt blows hair out of her eyes from where it escaped from her nighttime bun. “You didn’t have to quote my text.”

“Oh, I did,” he says. He leans down and kisses her forehead. “Have a good time, little lady.” He grins.

It’d been a little hard over the past week, their dad getting used to seeing Matt as his daughter. He’d called Nick and Matt his little men for over a decade now. Matt doesn’t mind, though. She feels like the world is hers when he calls her his little lady. “I will.”

The positivity doesn’t last, though. “Stupid hair,” she grumbles, staring at herself in the mirror twenty minutes later. Something doesn’t connect when she looks at her reflection, her hands and hair and mirror image warring with each other to make the braid a tangled, unbalanced mess. Matt’s in the bathroom for an hour and on her fifth attempt when the door swings open.

“Oh my god!” Nick half squeaks. “Jeez, lock the door next time.”

She fights with the braid, bobby pins poking her mouth as she holds them between her teeth. “No.”

“You versus the braid again?” Nick groans, yawning. “Move. I gotta pee.”

“No!” Matt says, hip checking Nick into the wall. “I gotta get my braids done!”

“Well, that can wait, you asshole,” Nick says. Matt feels like he has an unfair advantage, as he has both arms and hers are tied up in her hair.

Nick pokes her in the ribs, right where she’s annoyingly tickish, and Matt stumbles outside the door.

“Hah! Deal!” Nick yells, and Matt practically falls out of the bathroom. She freezes, arms in the air, bobby pins between her lips.

“You suck,” Matt grumbles. She keeps twisting, though, determined to get a damned braid right for once, or at least finish this disaster, until Nick leaves the bathroom.

“Oh, hey,” he says, a little smile on his lips. “You did it.”

Matt perks up. “I did?”

She rushes to the bathroom and the bobby pins tumble from her mouth. “I did it!”

“Thank god,” Nick laughs. “Now I’m not stuck doing your braids for another week.”

Matt adds the hair tie at the end, checking for bumps. None. The braid is smooth enough, no infuriating missteps or incorrectly braided spots, and she quite possibly has beaten her white whale of early girlhood. “I did it,” she says, doing a little happy dance up on her toes.

“Yeah, cool, next time don’t complain about me interrupting your bathroom time,” Nick says.

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

“I kicked you out and you did it right without the mirror.”

Matt groans. “I hate you.”

“You love me.”

Matt rolls her eyes. “Ugh. Only because I have to.”

They make it to school early, for once, but Mox is already there, concentrating as he spins a basketball on the tips of his fingers. He drops it when he sees Matt on her way over to him, which makes Matt’s heart do a weird little cartwheel.

“Matty!” he says, beaming at her. “Like the braid. Nick do it?”

Matt preens a little. “Nope. I did it.”

“Okay, well, I helped.”

“You kicked me out of the bathroom because you can’t control your bladder,” Matt shoots back. “That is not helping.”

Mox wrinkles his nose. “That – that is not a detail I need to know about my girlfriend’s brother, but cool.”

Matt can’t stop grinning. She’s somebody’s daughter, somebody’s sister, somebody’s girlfriend. It’s all a reflect that she’s her. They know she’s a girl. They know who she is, and she knows who she is.

She takes Mox’s hand and the three of them talk about school and the new semester as they make their way to the court.

“See you when you play,” Matt says, kissing Mox on the lips, then the cheek.

“What, I don’t get one?”

Nick’s clearly joking. She knows that. But Matt leans over and plants a firm kiss to his cheek, trying to be as annoying as humanly possible.

“Ew!”

“You asked for a kiss,” Matt says, shrugging. She tries to be as prissy as possible as she flips her braid over her shoulder.

Cole comes over, hair already drenched, for reasons Matt doesn’t understand. “If they get a kiss for luck, do I get one?”

“Oh, it’s not for luck,” Matt explains. “I’m just being annoying.”

Cole pouts.

“Okay, well, don’t do that,” Matt says, rolling her eyes. “If I kiss him on the cheek, is anybody gonna freak out?”

Mox looks behind him then back to Matt. “Me? No. I mean, if you lay a big one on his lips, yeah, it’ll be weird. But if it’s that weird thing you just gave to Nick I just think it’ll be funny.”

Matt leans over and kisses Cole gently on his cheek. “There. Kiss for luck.”

Cole beams at her. “I’m gonna need it!” and he jogs off.

“This better not become a thing,” Nick insists. “You are not, like, the good luck charm for the team.”

Matt grins. “Wanna bet?”

~

Matt should have bet on it, because Mox, Nick, and Cole play an incredible game, sinking shots like they’re in the last minutes of a championship game.

“You!” Jamie says, stomping over to Matt when she’s been subbed out for missing three shots in a row. Not that Matt noticed. Or would ever be stupid enough to comment on it. “Kiss.”

Matt blinks. “What?”

“You have some weird, magic lips,” she says. She half pats, half slaps her cheek. Britt, on the other side of Matt, looks baffled. “Kiss me, you lucky bitch.”

“What?!”

“It’s a lucky kiss,” Jamie says, huffing. Her bangs fluff up above her forehead. “Cole, Mox, and Nick told me that’s why they’re playing so well today.”

“I can guarantee, that’s not it.”

Jamie shrugs. “Prove it.”

Britt stares at her. “Are you okay?”

“No, because I’m sucking today, and I need any help I can get,” Jamie demands. “Matt. Please?”

Matt sighs. “Fine.” She leans in and presses a soft kiss to Jamie’s cheek.

“Cool,” says Jamie, lighting up. “Maybe now I’ll get some points.” She’s got the kind of grin on her face that makes Matt want to panic giggle. She doesn’t like Jamie, is the thing. She thought she did, for years. Matt had a whole sexuality crisis that Kenny and Adam had to help her through while Nick complained in the background, back in freshman year. But, now that she gets it, Jamie’s cool. Jamie’s the kind of girl Matt thinks she could be, with a little time.

Then she turns around and yanks Britt in for the kind of kiss Matt would feel weird about watching on television. She has to look away.

By the halftime, their team is up 24 points against a team who was undefeated before this game.

“You,” Nick says, “lucky charm.”

Matt shrugs. “I know.”

~

Nick

Nick is on his way back to the bench from saying hi to his parents when he catches the eye of one off the players from the year before.

“Eddie!” he says, clapping his hand and hugging him. “How are you?”

“Good, man, good.” He grins. “Figured I’d come back, see the boys in action.”

Nick turns to the person next to him. Green hair, a weird little pinched look on her face. “What’re you doing here?” Nick says, frowning. “You and Willow broke up.”

“We did,” Ruby says, and she won’t meet his eyes. “Look, give me a break.”

“She misses her girl,” Eddie says, elbowing Ruby.

“Do not!” Ruby says. “It’s not my fault she couldn’t deal with my new friends.”

“Your new friends are assholes,” Eddie says. “It’s a miracle me an’ Mox still tolerate you.”

“This feels like a conversation I could escape,” Nick mutters. “I’m gonna –”

Before he can run back to the player’s side of the court, the cheer music hits and Nick is trapped.

“Crap,” he sighs, and he plops down right next to Ruby. He feels like he’s betraying Willow by sitting near her ex. And then, he feels like he’s betraying Matt for talking to Matt’s best friend’s ex. He’s not comfortable, is the thing.

Matt comes out, giant grin on her face, and Nick exhales when he sees that she’s let Britt and Rebel do her makeup again, everything up to the nines.

“Matt looks,” Eddie says, “great. Really great.” He turns to Nick. “Mox bein’ good to him?”

Nick nods, eyes flicking around until they land on Adam, who is far up in the bleachers. He doesn’t even see that Nick’s on this side, with the way his eyes keep swapping from his homework to the court. “Yeah, he’s being good,” Nick mumbles.

Eddie barks out a laugh, almost louder than the music. “I doubt that.”

Nick turns back to the field in time to see Matt do the move that she’d been practicing on their trampoline in the back yard for two weeks. Double back handspring into a back tuck, landing in a split, bouncing her hips a little to the music.

She nails it. There’s no sign that her ankle, just a couple weeks before, was hurt.

“Shit,” Eddie says, “now I see why Mox likes him so much.”

“Okay, you don’t have to do that while I’m sitting here.”

“I’m just sayin’!” Eddie says, pointing. “Look at – Jesus!”

Nick fights the urge to kick Eddie. “Oh, my god.”

The whole team does either splits or some complicated dance move. Willow, Matt, and Riho do this complicated flippy thing to land on one foot, throw their legs up for high kicks then. Well, Nick’s not exactly sure what it is, but he does realize that looking at Willow’s butt feels like a big mistake with her ex girlfriend right next to him. But Willow is – she’s really hot, and Nick’s only a man, after all.

“I miss Willow,” Ruby says, so quiet it should probably be to herself.

Nick shakes himself out of his zoning out. “I would, too,” he mutters.

Ruby tilts her head. “What?”

Nick glances back up to Adam’s little perch. He’s got two books and his neck flashlight going now, but the books are flat on his lap as he watches Matt with a sweet little smile on his face. It’s a very different feeling than when he was looking at Willow, is the thing. It’s bigger. It’s blossoming. He’d been half hoping it would go away after admitting it to Matt and himself. Instead, it’s causing him to conjure up images of Adam smiling of him, of the times they’ve gotten a little too close, of what they could do if they got a little closer.

Stop it, Nick tells himself. Stop thinking about your best friend that way.

The cheer team finishes with Riho on top of this weird pyramid thing Matt’s explained to him a million times that Nick still doesn’t quite understand, and Nick makes sure he’s the loudest as he cheers.

“Got a crush on one of the girls?” Eddie asks, eyebrows raised.

“No,” Nick says, firmly. “Matt told me a long time ago they’re all off limits from my, quote, greasy fingers.”

“That’s kind of bitchy,” Ruby says.

“In that case, you don’t want to hear the stuff Matt says about you,” Nick says. “You should not have dumped Willow like you did.”

Ruby groans and drops her face into her hands. “Shut up,” she whines. “I don’t need a reminder, thanks.”

Nick high fives Matt as he jogs his way back over to the benches, ready to kick off the second half.

“Why were you talking to Ruby?” Matt asks, grabbing his hand and yanking him backwards. Nick stumbles. Matt forgets how strong she is sometimes. “She say anything about Willow?”

“Ow, let go, you Amazon,” Nick mutters under his breath.

Despite the fact it was supposed to be an insult, Matt practically glows. “Look, did she say anything?”

“Ruby misses her,” Nick says, glancing around to make sure nobody else is listening. “I think she’s regretting the whole…” He trails off, shrugging. “Well, you know.”

“Tell her she has to go through me, first,” Matt says, nose upturned. Nick fights a laugh.

“I don’t plan on talking to her again about that, but, if it comes up, I’ll say something.”

Before he knows what he’s doing, Nick glances back up into the stands. He meets Adam’s eye, and Adam waves at him, breaking into this massive grin that makes Nick feel warm all over.

Matt stares at his face, then follows his gaze.

“Oh, dude,” Matt says. “Are – what’s happening?” She grins. “Oh, you’re gonna – ”

Nick reaches out and yanks Matt’s ponytail, getting a massive shriek in response.

“Drama queen,” Nick mutters.

“I will annoy you about this later!” Matt says, and she jogs over to the rest of the cheerleaders.

“You always annoy me about everything!”

Nick’s slightly distracted for the second half of the game, but not enough to miss two three pointers and a two pointer, so he considers it a win. He gives Mox an assist for a layup, and Nick is pretty sure he could had heard Matt’s scream from the moon.

“Your girlfriend is super annoying,” Nick mutters as he and Mox bump chests.

Mox beams, then shoves Nick away. “Fuck off,” he laughs.

They play better now since Matt’s come out to Mox – it’s like knowing the truth about someone they both love has inadvertently brought them closer, made them real friends.

Their team wins, solidly, and Mox grabs Nick’s shoulders, shaking him with cheering. Nick’s about to say something, words he assumes would have been profound and smart and whatever, but then Matt comes barreling in from the cheerleader section. She leaps like gravity doesn’t apply to her, directly into Mox’s arms.

Nick is fully prepared to laugh like a maniac when Matt bounces off of Mox and falls to the floor, but Mox catches her and spins, kissing Matt so hard Nick has to look away to avoid getting weirded out.

He turns and runs straight into what feels like a brick wall. And steps back to feel hands steady his shoulders.

“Whoa! Hey!” Adam slides his hands down Nick’s arms. He shivers. “Great job!”

Nick stares up at Adam. And is suddenly struck over the head with it again. And again. And again.

“Yeah,” he says, grinning up at Adam. He can’t seem to catch his breath. “Thanks.”

Adam yanks him in, the hug enveloping more than usual.

“Oh, you don’t want to hug me,” Nick jokes, trying not to feel bad about pulling away, “I’m all sweaty.”

“I always want to hug you,” Adam says, in that serious tone, and Nick really wishes he could calm down this revelation he’s actually got a massive, unignorable, intense crush on his best friend. “Come on. Wanna get ice cream?”

“Sure,” Nick says. “We can invite – well. Maybe not Eddie and Ruby.”

Adam wrinkles his nose. Nick’s pretty sure he’s remembering trying to take care of Willow in between midterms, trying to help her study while she cried in the bathrooms. “Yeah. Better not. Mox, Matt, do you want to –”

Nick turns to see Mox and Matt practically face deep in each other.

“This is too much,” Nick says, voice higher than usual.

Adam puts his hand over Nick’s eyes. “I’ll shield you. I won’t let my – my best friend get harmed by the sight of his,” Adam checks to make sure it’s just the phone of them in earshot, “sister getting French kissed.”

Nick groans. “Why would you say it like that? Just – let me know if they stop making out, and we’ll ask them.”

Adam giggles. “I feel like that’ll be a while.”

~

Matt

“This is getting a bit excessive, you two.”

Matt pulls away from Mox and fights the urge to pout at Coach Rayne.

“Just congratulating my boyfriend,” Matt says. It’s undercut by the way she slides down Mox’s body before smoothing out her performance pants as she steadies herself. “That’s all.”

Coach Rayne raises a single eyebrow. “I would recommend you save that for home, boys.”

Mox squeezes Matt’s hand. Just like he always does. The reminder that, no matter how many times somebody calls Matt a boy, Mox knows the truth. About his girlfriend.

“Yes ma’am.” Mox adds a mock salute to it. “No kissing until we’re out of your sight.”

“I said home.”

“You can’t know the difference, right?” Matt says, doing a cartwheel over to pick up her bag from where Britt had dropped it.

“Thanks, Britty,” he calls.

“You’re welcome, Matty,” she singsongs back.

Mox grabs Matt’s gym bag and his backpack, throwing them over his shoulder.

“Grab my bag too,” Mox says. “I can get all three.”

“You don’t need to,” Matt says, trying not to blush.

“Of course I do.” Mox leans in. “I’ve got to be good to my girlfriend, right?”

Matt does a little happy dance. “Okay, fine, you can. But only because you used a secret weapon.”

Mox opens his mouth, closes his mouth. “I used a what?”

“You said girlfriend,” Matt says, grinning. “Like, that feels unfair. I have this big secret you can use on me whenever you want. It feels like you’re cheating.”

“I’m not cheating!” Mox says. “I’m being a good boyfriend. Supportive or whatever. Isn’t that what I’m supposed to do.”

“Can you two pleased do this in private?” Nick grumbles. “I am getting sick of watching the two of you being weird.”

“You guys want to go get ice cream?” Adam asks. “Nick would ask you, but he’s too busy being stupid.”

“Hey!”

Matt sighs, rolling her eyes. “Nicky, please be less stupid.”

“When did it become gang up on Nick time?” Nick whines. “Let’s – I just want ice cream.”

“We should go to Hayward’s,” Mox says, sliding his hand into Matt’s. “If the Jacksons are going to be normal, that is.”

“Wait, what did I do?”

Mox leans over and kisses Matt’s cheek. “Come on, baby, you know who you are.”

Matt argues and sputters the whole way to the parking lot, where Mox half shuts the door on her as she slides into the driver’s seat of her car.

“I am not riding with her,” Nick insists. His voice is muffled through the door, but Matt can understand every dumb word he says. “She’s going to complain the whole way.”

“I have some hay in the front seat, but you can push it away,” Adam says. He grabs Nick’s arm. “Come on.”

Matt feels a little smug as she watches the two of them walk away, and gets her car started before anyone can be annoying anymore. Mox scoots his truck up behind her sedan, a little closer than he really needs to be.

Matt calls him. “Get off my ass,” she giggles into the phone.

“I thought you liked it when I got too close to your ass,” Mox says. Matt can practically hear his grin.

“Not when it has to do with my car,” Matt says. She pulls out a little too quickly, making the right on the way to Haywards. “I’d rather you drive like a normal person.”

“I think you like me because I’m not a normal person,” Mox retorts. Matt checks the rear view mirror to see Mox’s truck far too close again.

“I like you best when you’re not about to cause an accident.”

“I am not!”

“If I hit the brakes right now, you’ll rear end me.” Matt hears Mox snicker on the other end of the line. “Not funny.”

“A little funny.”

Matt groans. “I’m hanging up before I break to make you destroy your truck,” she deadpans. “Bye. See you in, like, five minutes, you big ol’ weirdo.”

“See you soon!” Mox chirps, positive as always.

Matt rolls her eyes as she hangs up the phone and a Kim Petras song blares through the speakers. While fun, she has to admit it’s not quite as nice as Mox’s voice.

“Stupid boy being all cute,” she grumbles, taking the turn to Haywards. “It’s not fair.”

~

Nick

“Hey,” Nick says, resting a hand on Matt’s arm, “you’re going to do great, okay? Plus, you’re, like, two months from being eighteen. You’re almost an adult. It’ll be okay.”

Matt fiddles with her fingertips, her typical tell of discomfort. Mox wraps an arm around her shoulders, but doesn’t try to still her fingers. Nick thinks that makes him like Mox more. “No matter what happens, no matter what the doctor says, you’re still my girl,” he murmurs. It’s quiet enough that, maybe, Nick wasn’t supposed to hear it.

Matt nuzzles her face into Mox’s neck, like they’re not in front of a bunch of moms and toddlers and other kids from the high school, and Nick resists the urge to get closer to Adam. Strangely, Adam makes the move for him. Their thighs bump under the table. Nick shovels ice cream into his face in hopes it’ll cool him down.

“Will they be able to put you on estrogen right away?” Adam asks, hands curled around his cup of ice cream.

Matt shrugs. “I mean, this doctor is great, and Mom and Dad said they’ve got my back with whatever I want to do.” She shrugs, half curling into herself. But I don’t want to get my hopes up in case I’m not eligible.”

“You will be,” Mox says quietly. “But no matter what happens, I got you, okay?”

Matt nods, and the way she cuddles into Mox makes Nick shovel more ice cream into his face. But this time, it’s to prevent him from doing the same to Adam.

They eat their ice cream and transition their conversation to the upcoming final games of the season and Matt’s team’s end of the season competition, until it’s three o clock and their mom is texting them to come home and help with the laundry.

“I would come with,” Mox says, twirling the end of Matt’s loosened braid around his fingertips as they make their ways into the parking lot, “but I really don’t want to.”

Matt stands on her tiptoes and kisses Mox’s cheek. “I don’t blame you.”

“I’ll come,” Adam offers. “I don’t mind folding laundry, and my dad’s taking care of the goats today.”

Nick drives with Adam, who talks the entire time about Chevron and her babies. Nick likes it – he doesn’t have to think, or worry about steering the conversation to something less intense. He just has to listen.

Matt, Nick, and Adam are folding laundry, putting away dishes, and dusting for what feels like hours, but their mother rewards them with pizza and their dad made pie, so it’s not the worst afternoon in the world.

“You excited for Monday, Matty?” their dad asks before diving in for a giant bite of pizza.

Matt nods, cheerful but restrained. Nick’s not sure if he’s ever seen his sister like this before. “And nervous. I wasn’t expecting to get an appointment so soon, you know?”

“Sometimes these things just fall into place, kiddo,” their mom says, laying a hand over Matt’s. “The universe knew this is what you needed.”

[love-takes-work]

Steven Universe: End of an Era: Outline & Review

I wrote this review in October but never got around to posting it here

Steven Universe: End of an Era is far more than an art book–it’s also a collection of behind-the-scenes material, stories about the experience of working on the show, planning documents and associated background info, and both older versions of developed concepts AND concepts that never made it into the show. It's a huge fusion of all those elements, and it's definitely an experience!

Some low-quality images are included with my review just to give you an idea of what’s there--it’s not a good substitute for getting your own copy, but here’s a tour!

Like the previous concept art book, Art and Origins, I'll be giving you a description of the structure and overview, while also collecting notable information for fans. Obviously just about everything is "notable" once again, but I'll aim for unique insight or perspective on the main source material, keeping the screaming about everything new to a minimum so you can also enjoy something for yourself if you pick it up. My low-quality photos should prevent people from feeling like I'm reproducing the book in any capacity. Please grab one while you can and have your own experience!

[SU Book and Comic Reviews]

OVERVIEW

The book is titled "End of an Era" for a couple reasons--obviously because it is released after the show has wrapped, but also because Gem history recently ended its "Era 2" and began Era 3--an age of prosperity and peace. The author--the person in charge of adapting all of this information into this slick, readable package--is Chris McDonnell, whose work was previously applied on the Art and Origins book.

The foreword is by N.K. Jemisin, a well-known science fiction author who's a huge fan of the show (and wrote a really excellent series that also has a weird geological connection, by the way).

And the cover, like its predecessor, is shiny and decorated with a beach scene featuring minimalistic characters--this time it's the Gems at night in front of the Temple, and on the back cover is a big pink leg ship in a cross-legged pose.

The interior covers are decorated with tons of amazing sketches of Steven and Connie on the front, and a bunch of Gem sketches on the back. Every interior page that most would leave blank is highlighted with some kind of sketch art or character exercise--it's so much to look at, so much to absorb.

The book is dedicated "For Eddie."

Its organization is different from the previous book in that it shares applicable work in chunks associated with groups of episodes rather than pertaining to different aspects of building the show.

FOREWORD

N.K. Jemisin gives us such a great introduction to the book--apparently understanding very well that the audience of this book is full of animation enthusiasts and adult fans more than it is full of kids, and explaining that bewildering journey some adults had from blowing this show off as a silly kid thing to falling in love with it hard and fast.

The important thing, Jemisin says, is being able to trust a storyteller with your heart. And it was clear to her that Rebecca Sugar knew what she was talking about and was saying important things about identity and the radical power that comes with accepting it and demanding respect.

Important also is how we handle heroes and who gets to be one in fantasy. That's part of the reason Steven Universe speaks to so many--because we see ourselves here, and know stories can be about us. Acknowledging the power we all have to MAKE THINGS BETTER with what we fight for is so important--especially if we're going to speaking to the next generation about it.

Highlighting Rose Quartz as a "born leader" who failed and Steven as a relatable scamp who did what she couldn't, Jemisin asserts that we can save the world.

1. END OF AN ERA

We start with an appeal to the audience to think about identity and the formative parts of our childhood--and how different it is if who you are and who you become is restricted, mocked, erased, or Not Allowed. Most people, if not ALL people, can relate to this, but for those of us with a special relationship with Steven Universe because of queer identity, this hits hard.

But it doesn't have to be anything grand to be something we respect--this show's authenticity comes largely from how personal everything is, drawn from real-life experiences and incidental truths from each artist's perspective, leaning hard on childhood and formative experiences.

Rebecca Sugar offers some interview bits to discuss writing philosophy and why "writing female characters" was difficult for a nonbinary person who'd been socialized as a girl and a woman. Rebecca has spoken before about how frustrating it is that marketing for cartoons was SO gendered when she was growing up (and to some extent still is).

The Gems in the story are all "she/her," but on their planet they're defined by their work, not by emotion or relationships (unlike women in our society), so having them be socialized opposite to how she was and be able to claim those emotions through choice and NOT as just an expectation "as women" was revolutionary. Rebecca wants her show to tell all marginalized people that they don't deserve to be in the margins.

Weighing in on other aspects of the show were Ian Jones-Quartey, Joe Johnston, and Miki Brewster. Ian describes feeling like at first doing SU was a thrill ride that meant they'd finally get to do all the cool stuff, but it quickly became a responsibility that he took very seriously--the need to tell a good story now that he'd been given a megaphone.

Promotional art, planning documents, character sketches, and concept art from the lighthearted to the stone serious is included, along with some very cool (sort of famous) timeline charts that track major characters' developments. It's emphasized by Rebecca that the developmental materials ARE NOT CANON (and especially are not MORE canon) compared the final show.

There are concept sketches alongside final art for Aquamarine and Topaz in "Wanted" (with Topaz labeled "Imperial Topaz"), the Zircons in "The Trial," Blue and Yellow Diamond, and the Off Colors (including Pink Lars).

And there's also a spread of "the two sides of Steven's life: Gem Magic and Rock N Roll" featuring Sadie Killer and the Suspects (referred to as "Buck's band")--as well as a cool "Crew Cameos" key and some concepts for short-haired Connie.

And then there's some more "finished" art with stills alongside concepts, including some background art, revision, and really cool "fairytale" art from some of the shadowplay storytelling bits. We get "Lars of the Stars," "Jungle Moon," and "Can't Go Back."

2. THE BEGINNING OF THE END: A SINGLE PALE ROSE

In discussing the huge reveals and Gem mysteries in the show, the pacing is examined, and emphasis is put on the intended "slow burn." One of the most difficult things in the show was to strategize so that every piece that was needed to support another piece in the future was placed properly to seed what it was supposed to.

Some of the ideas they developed were more of a group effort and were fit together collaboratively (like Amethyst's being younger than the other Gems and Jasper being from Earth), while others were intended from the beginning based on Rebecca's vision (the fundamental idea of Pink Diamond's true identity, for instance, as well as Obsidian's design and sword and our Pearl not being Pink's first).

The writing process gets a great deep dive here, including fun tidbits like how the orb in the moon base was inserted by Joe Johnston and they literally had no idea what it was for when they wrote the episode. They repurposed it when they figured out what they needed.

Rebecca credits her detailed timelines for helping keep the order straight, and discusses how other artists are sometimes flabbergasted that a storyboard-driven show can have this much detail and continuity and yet not get wrecked by the free non-scripted boarding process. But Rebecca and the Crew valued that approach and loved the way fresh eyes would handle an idea, making it come back alive, entertaining, vivid.

Several Crew members weigh in on the writing process. Lauren Hecht refers to making lots of incorrect guesses despite being on the inside. Joe Johnston recalled getting briefed on his first day and getting so excited to start working on this massive project.

Miki Brewster remembered being told Rose Quartz is Pink Diamond and being shocked--and also confused about why Ruby and Sapphire would need to be married if they're already basically married. Drew Green talks about being brought in late and getting to watch unaired episodes and a rough of the movie while eating cereal.

Ian Jones-Quartey complains about Pink Diamond's real jester-like form being leaked to the internet through a Hot Topic shirt. Rebecca piggybacks on that and says it was upsetting that the wedding was leaked because of toy fair keychains featuring Ruby and Sapphire in wedding attire. They'd always be worried about leaks, and sometimes Rebecca struggled not to talk about the reality of Pink Diamond before the reveal because she knew it would make so much more sense once the truth was out. And everything associated with Rose makes more sense once you know she's Pink--especially what happened with Bismuth, considering what we know about how Pink Diamond has a habit of treating anyone who no longer serves her interests.

When it comes to visual cues, Rebecca also talks about intentional designs to create a feeling of unity between concepts, like the flower shapes on Pink Diamond's palanquin lining up with the poofs of Steven's hair and the star imagery of the series. Steven Sugar and Mary Nash discuss how the Human Zoo incorporated this imagery, trying to look like Homeworld with a Pink Diamond touch.

Steven Sugar, as a game nerd, liked to throw in video game references from old and modern stuff to feel like he's inserting what he's enjoying and who he is from moment to moment, while Mary Nash, who related to Sadie as a basement-dwelling young person with cult interests, liked to include stuff from MST3K and cult movies. Pearl's hand gestures get a spotlight too--her reflex to cover her mouth when Pink Diamond was being discussed was analyzed here.

A "Top Secret Visual Timeline" from 2016 is included which tells us some Diamond history. It has an earlier version of Pink Pearl's fate and does not include Spinel since the movie hadn't been greenlit. The timeline includes the birth of the Diamonds, the emergence and major story beats for each major character, and some philosophy of the driving force behind each.

We're told that Pink Diamond straightened up, behavior-wise, after she lost her first Pearl, and that Yellow and Blue wanted to give her a planet but White only agreed to it to prove she would fail at managing a colony. Pearl, meanwhile, is so confused to have a Diamond who keeps asking her what she thinks when she doesn't believe she should have opinions.

And when Pink moonlighted as Rose to start conflict, she found herself leading an army to fight Pink's troops--then Yellow's, and eventually Blue's too. Lapis is said to be waiting for the conflict to end on Earth so she can terraform, but she gets trapped instead.

Pearl's love story with Rose is described as "an endless honeymoon" where she's free to love her, while Rose's is more like "I'm now the head of the family and I'm going to give everyone what they never had, so everyone is super special!"

Jasper is described as "adopted" into Yellow's army as the only successful Beta Quartz. And White Diamond knew that Pink Diamond was not dead--she thought she was just running away from home like a brat and would eventually be back.

3. THE HEART OF THE CRYSTAL GEMS

Now we discuss Rose Quartz--the original Pink Diamond. How she was selfish and selfless, never enough and always too much, and how Greg was her first partner who "challenged her" to be an equal. Rebecca describes Rose as being delighted by the idea that both she and Greg reinvented themselves, but when that leads her to want to share her past, Greg isn't interested--he only wants to know who she is now, and doesn't consider the old her to be her.

Rebecca likes Carl Jung's concept of "enantiodromia," which is the idea that extremes lead to their extreme opposite. This is demonstrated in all of the Diamonds. This narrative is interspersed with drawings of Greg and Rose being cute.

But another "heart" of the Crystal Gems is its relationships--particularly, Garnet, the fairy tale romance embodied. More psychological theories are discussed with regard to differentiation in a relationship making the relationship stronger, and how they made sure that happened for Garnet during the appropriate arc. Rebecca has struggled with the idea that she, like Ruby, went straight from a "family" group to a living-with-others situation and never lived by herself. But she also learned that you can in fact develop as a person in the context of a relationship--you don't have to be alone to do it. Ruby learned that too, and chose on her own terms to be with Sapphire.

The wedding made so much sense to Rebecca and the crew that they couldn't imagine a wholesome couple like Ruby and Sapphire not having a wedding episode. They wanted it for years: The wedding concepts always included the tuxedo for Sapphire and the wedding dress for Ruby.

But pushback (often blamed on the conservative standards of the international market) led to negotiations trying to keep Ruby and Sapphire's relationship from being explicit. Rebecca and the Crew were very tired of this double standard, and they were especially irritated by attempts to claim a wedding wouldn't be well received by a core demographic or wouldn't make sense for Steven's character. But other shows had done weddings and Steven had been established to love weddings already.

Rebecca kept adding more elements to the wedding episode to answer all the concerns, but she didn't want to back down from explicit marriage between these characters. They deserved it. And the audience deserved to see this as wholesome, like any other cartoon wedding. Eventually they got their way and were allowed to have the wedding. But the ordered episodes were also coming to a close without promise of more, so Rebecca had to request more episodes to be able to wrap up the storyline!

And of course, there is Steven, the true heart of the team. A very interesting aside discusses Garnet's leadership and how the network pushed the Crewniverse to acknowledge Steven as the leader. This was successfully resisted throughout as well--because Garnet is the leader (unless she's incapacitated, of course). It's fantastic that this concept was preserved because too often a young male chosen one is elevated above people with more experience and knowledge because of that chosen one tradition, so it's really nice to have a show acknowledge that team leadership is more appropriate for an adult.

4. ERA 3

Beginning with a discussion of the Diamonds, this chapter deconstructs the dysfunctional "family" of the Diamonds (who are said to be based on tropes about evil stepmothers and stepsisters), with the thread of dysfunction originating with White Diamond.

Yellow is physical, Blue is emotional, White is judgmental, and Pink is impulsive. Some philosophy on why Pink is naturally manipulative and why she clashes so much with White is offered.

White believes her identity is to be imposed on all because she is the pinnacle of what should be--and therefore, she has the right to make decisions and statements about and on behalf of everyone. But her secret is that she can't do what the others do--act or feel or want. In trying to be everyone, she is no one.

And this becomes very important when she confronts Steven about his identity and turns out to be wrong. The triumph of Steven being totally, fully himself is a beautiful, simple revelation that's described as far more satisfying than the theories about Pink living inside him or Rose returning from his Gem.

Also discussed is Gem architecture. A lot went into this idea, and Steven Sugar weighs in to say he had to think of what it would mean for a world to have buildings but serve no human needs. That's why it's mostly focused on transport and storage. Even the broken planet is meant to indicate a place stripped for its resources, and everything serves a function that is meant to avoid looking like the human equivalents.

And there's another layer, too: a difference between Era 1 and Era 2. Era 2 became more functional to hide Era 1's broken bits, and older Homeworld buildings still have some "ornate and ancient" feel to them. And the fact that props, tools, and even walls and doors could be living was taken from a concept Rebecca thought was horrible from old Busby Berkeley movies, where people were inanimate objects and it was portrayed as lovely. Tom Herpich helped conceptualize these living objects.

Steven dealing with "princess tropes" is discussed here too. The Pebbles (worked on with Pendleton Ward) were sort of his Cinderella's mice, and all the locked-in-a-tower, having supportive tiny friends help you, getting princess clothes made, attending a ball, having to mind your manners stuff was intentionally related to fairy tales.

The point of doing that (besides fun) was to easily invoke the feeling that Steven was being made to be someone he's not, and that he was being treated like THIS is who he really is when it isn't. White Diamond as the "evil stepmother" is discussed with regard to her detailed features and massive scale. They generally didn't put fingernails and eyelashes on characters (especially not to indicate that they were women or girls!), but they decided White would get all of these feminine markers for tradition's sake.

Rebecca also invokes several other references that were included and describes the princess tropes as "chipping away at his integrity" setting him up for the final challenge with White.

There is again tons of concept art: Homeworld architecture, Pebbles, Diamond diagrams, background Jades and Lemon Jade Fusion, Comby, Diamond extraction chambers, and White Diamond.

5. CHANGE YOUR MIND

Now we finally begin to discuss Steven's identity. The "Perfect Steven," discussed in several interviews before this book's release, was an idea back in 2013; the "ultimate Steven," beefed up and shonen-looking, was far from perfect because OUR Steven is perfect, while this alpha hero Steven idea (used in Steven Universe Future) didn't belong being idolized in such a show.

They thought about having Steven fall apart into organic half and Gem half early in the show (during "Giant Woman" after a successful fusion and unfusion, even!), but they didn't try the concept until the last episode. They didn't want the "Pink" Steven to be portrayed as "better" even though he would be more powerful, so they decided he isn't whole without his organic self and he's just as much of a shell as the organic half. They absolutely did not want any ending that required Rose to be inside him or waiting to come back. But the debates were fierce--what DOES it mean to have Rose's Gem?

Ian Jones-Quartey brings in an anecdote about his own family to emphasize some of the immigrant themes that inspired aspects of the show. He had a brother who reinvented himself elsewhere away from family without resolving issues, and all the ramifications of that were explored in the show through Rose Quartz. (He is careful to say he doesn't think his immigrant experience is like being from another planet!) But he did say you can hurt your old family even if they were toxic or didn't know the real you, and you can hurt your new family by hiding your past. The Pizza family of course was also a more direct reference to Ian's Ghanaian family.

In talking about the new Fusions from this episode, Sunstone is largely described by Miki, who also got to board the Sunstone section. Sunstone was described as a cool 1990s character and the evolution just continued into making them a fourth-wall-breaking PSA dispenser. Obsidian is also discussed, with their sword being an early concept. Steven Sugar said they totally knew it would be forged in action. Obsidian being similar to the Temple design is of course another very early detail.

The story of how James Baxter got involved with one of the final scenes (Organic Steven and Pink Steven fusing in front of White Diamond) was shared. His family was fans of the show and Rebecca Sugar took the time to drive to a birthday party for his daughter and give her a drawing. He then owed her a favor, and this was it.

Concept art is again included, this time with sample boards, promo images, a Diamond fight concept, costume design changes for the Gems, new Fusions, the so-called "Mega Diamond" ship conglomerate, some scenes from the White Diamond confrontation, Pink Steven, multiple pages of James Baxter animation, corrupted Gems and their healed selves, and photos from the "Change Your Mind" premiere and some awards. The show has won one design-related Emmy, a Peabody Award, and a GLAAD award.

6. STEVEN UNIVERSE FUTURE

The book doesn't cover the movie because it got its own book, but dives right into Future. Ian Jones-Quartey emphasizes that the movie and Future are separate and different from the original show, which ENDED. After all, after that, Steven has a neck!

Some new names are invoked now: new writers Kate Tsang, Jack Pendarvis, and Taneka Stotts. They were excited to have Steven make HIS OWN mistakes instead of trying to clean up someone else's! Now, instead of doing the usual shonen anime thing and having the final battle be a big physical rumble, Steven has to make peace with himself and take an active role in coping with what all the fighting has done to him and what effect it's had on who he is (and who he wants to be). There is no sudden "I love myself!" answer, either. It's always a process.

Drew Green and Maya Petersen, who came on board as storyboarders officially in Future, also weighed in on writing for a "mature" show, how to deal with Steven being a "moral compass" while being sort of unreliable, and what they learned as Crew that they didn't know as fans. Drew didn't know Garnet never asks questions. Jack didn't realize the show never deviated from Steven's point of view. Taneka was nervous but excited to collaborate. Kate was worried about how established the show was and what to do as a new writer to contribute appropriately.

Maya was on the old Crew but not as a storyboarder, so felt like some of the "old" ideas ended up not being appropriate for the "new" Future in an embarrassing way--and dreaded the idea of dealing with Steven's emotional problems when they were similar to stuff she'd been through. She also was personally behind the idea of Steven wanting to dump his problems by becoming Stevonnie, and got to work with Etienne Guignard on inventing the Pearl creation backstory with Volleyball.

There's some discussion of "depression hobbies," stress, and the show's pacing. And they say Etienne was entertaining at pitches. There's even some discussion of how Greg is taken off a bit of a pedestal because his terrible restrictive life in the suburbs sounded wholesome to Steven and Greg presented it negatively.

And then there is some information about how the Crew felt behind the scenes due to fan reactions and negative press. Ian discusses feeling offended when the Black characters are described as bad examples, as if their cartoonized but realistic-in-context features are automatically caricatures.

Rebecca Sugar felt beaten down by some of these narratives and began to access mental health services, inspiring some of the content of "Mindful Education." A long reflection from Rebecca discusses people's infighting about her show and what she had a responsibility to show or not show in the story. She learned a lot about bullying from Cartoon Network's anti-bullying program and learned that bullies thrive on whatever attention you give them--unless it is made clear to them by a peer group that no one is impressed by their cruel actions. Also, not all negative feedback is bullying. Constructive criticism is different. Self-awareness can help you avoid internalizing what bullies might do or say to you.

Segueing from the discussion of how people are affected by and connect with the show, we then discuss how they chose as a team what should be covered as the show came to a close. They didn't have time to do quite a few stories they wanted time for, like a Rhodonite story, a Lars side story, and Diamond "prehistory" and religion; all of it was put aside for the main arc with Steven.

They thought people would find those stories about Homeworld and Off Color history very interesting, but so much of the show had been about Steven's Gem adventures, so keeping him mostly on Earth seemed appropriate. The acknowledgment of his battle damage, of his trauma, was necessary and real, and helpful in an important way to the core audience.

Oh, and there was some stuff about a cheeseburger tree. Don't ask.

In discussing the "reverse escapism" of the original show (Gem aliens are intrigued by everyday human culture, and realism is necessary), Rebecca says her views have changed on escapism and gets why some people want a soothing feel-better show. She acknowledged also that her own escapist dreams-come-true fulfilled in the show didn't feel like escapism because they were givens to the majority of mainstream culture, but were never guaranteed to marginalized people.

Rebecca ties in her several-times-told story about "Love Like You" and how the middle bit was when she didn't feel she was worth looking up to, and the realizations she had to tie the beginning to the end. Feeling like someone will like you less if they know you more is terrible. So sometimes a show like this can be helpful in telling people that they belong when their fantasies are things like "I want to be loved" and "I want to know I exist."

In Future, Steven has to connect to who he is and love that person--and understand that person enough to finally feel that even if he's not fixing their problems or saving their world right this second, Steven deserves his family's love and support, and they WANT to give it to him.

There's a huge amount of supplemental material in this section so there's no way I could name it all. The charts for Future's timeline are pretty straightforward, though a few episodes like "A Very Special Episode," "Why So Blue," "In Dreams," and "Bismuth Casual" aren't specifically represented and a couple are in a different order ("Prickly Pair" was conceived as happening after "Fragments" and "Homeworld Bound").

Steven feeling like a monster, having intrusive thoughts, having not forgiven the Diamonds, and getting help/moving on--it's all there.

We have keys, color scripts, and boards for the new opening and some various backgrounds and storyboard art from episodes. Model sheets for Shep, Nice Lapis and Mean Lapis, Jasper, Steven Tag Gems, Pink Steven Powers, Monster Steven. New house concepts, Era 3 Homeworld concept art for the Diamond environments, and background art for the Reef.

New Connie and Greg designs. Concepts for Mega Pearl, the Rose Quartzes, Bluebird, and Morganite (who didn't get used). And there are some photos from recording and the conference room. There are even some extras from "Crossover Nexus," the crossover with OK K.O.!--including an unused cut scene that included Ruby and Sapphire fighting. The rest of the book is a bunch of adorable Crewniverse art--extras, blog drawings, promos, and gifts to each other.

NOTABLE

1.

The first timeline chart in the book features a cool sketch of the original Off Colors, which at the time this planning document was drafted included unused Off Colors Flint and Chert.

We knew of their existence already because of an episode of the podcast, but these two unexpectedly appeared as incidental characters in the Steven Universe Future episode "Homeworld Bound," identified only in the credits. Sad to think that instead of banding with the Off Colors, these two were probably shattered for their crime (being Quartzes who don't want to fight) and that's why we see them being repaired in this episode. Later, there's some brainstorming for types of Off Colors and "a Ruby that wants to wear limb enhancers" is mentioned as well.

2. 

It looks like there was also originally more juice to the story of tracking down the events of the war culminating in Pink Diamond's assassination.

One of the timelines talks about Steven thinking it makes sense that Pearl can't talk about her involvement because she might have been a double agent, explaining why Rose Quartz always knew what Pink Diamond was doing. It seems like that bit was supposed to be included in Garnet's version of the story she believed in "Your Mother and Mine." Seems like they originally conceived Garnet's story to inspire the Off Colors to become pirates and freedom fighters, though in the show's canon this storytelling happened after Lars had already reinvented himself the way he did.

Sadie was also supposed to be sending letters to Lars via Steven, which is funny since the "Letters to Lars" episode is just a montage Steven letter. And of course it's specified that Steven was supposed to get Pink Diamond flashbacks by going to the Palace on Homeworld.

3. 

The second chart in the book makes references to Sadie's reinvention of herself as a parallel to Lars, Greg, and Pink Diamond all doing the same thing, and how positive it is to embrace such a thing--a version of yourself that YOU create.

I love that Yellow Diamond's arm ship arm-wrestling the Cluster was always part of the plan.

There's some more explicit direction to have Connie help Steven understand the Diamonds as "strict parents," and a lot more emphasis on everyone realizing Rose had been inspired by THEM rather than them all following her.

White Diamond is presented here as if she thinks of Pink Diamond as a "daughter" (whom she now understands she has "lost"). There are notes on how the Diamonds have a responsibility to their children and should attend to it before just continuing to make more.

4.

One of the concept art images for the Off Colors features Rhodonite crouching by Padparadscha saying "Don't worry, I won't let them hurt you." It's very interesting because she DOES seem to protect Padparadscha in the show, but doesn't seem confident about it in her final version, even though it does seem like she'd be "programmed" to guard aristocratic Gems because of her Ruby and Pearl makeup. Cool.

5.

A "Crew Cameos" spread was included, which is of great interest to some of us who loved seeing the Crew insert themselves into the show. Not every SU Crew person who's been represented in a crowd was there, but this crowd included Amish Kumar, Kat Morris, Amanda Winterstein, Angie Wang, Lamar Abrams, Emily Walus, Mary Nash, Joe Johnston, Christy Cohen, Danny Cragg, Hilary Florido, Danny Hynes, Matt Burnett, Ben Levin, Elle Michalka.

6.

The official national flower of South Korea, Hibiscus syriacus, is the name of Pink Diamond's flower.

7.

One of Steven Sugar's comments about the silhouette difference between humans and Gems points out that humans have ears. This seems to be pretty good confirmation that they are not supposed to have ears, despite that sometimes we'll see ears drawn on them in some frames.

8.

Rose Quartz/Pink Diamond is characterized in this book as "self-hating" in a really interesting way, saying that because she believed she was not capable of compassion, she practically worshiped those who demonstrated that ability and thought they were so much better than her--which is described as "intoxicating" and resulted in others being drawn to her. How interesting is that!

9.

Timelines reveal that early plans for Pink Diamond's first Pearl originally had her getting destroyed by Pink during  a game, and then her destruction was rewritten as a punishment from the Diamonds after Pink Pearl defended Pink Diamond to the other Diamonds. They went back to the idea of her getting hurt by Pink for the final version, though the cracked face and control by White Diamond was not on the agenda until they started writing "Change Your Mind."

10.

The approximate ages of the major characters, based on emergence, are revealed on these timelines. It begins with a cracked-planet-looking graphic depicting four tiny Diamonds emerging at 20,000 years ago. Some suspicious "blacked out" redacting surrounds a long timeline tail that goes back before that, which may mean there are secrets they still don't want to reveal. But the dates go like this:

20,000 years ago: The Diamonds emerge.

11,000 years ago: Pearl is custom-made for Pink Diamond.

8,000 years ago: Sapphire emerges (on Homeworld).

6,000 years ago: Ruby emerges (on a colony).

5,750 years ago: Garnet is formed.

5,600 years ago: Lapis is poofed and put in the mirror.

5,200 years ago: Jasper emerges (on Earth).

5,050 years ago: The Cluster is planted.

5,000 years ago: Amethyst emerges (on Earth).

4,500 years ago: The Crystal Gems found Amethyst.

3,000 years ago: Peridot emerges (on Homeworld).

40 years ago: Pearl found Lapis's mirror at the Galaxy Warp.

And of course we know 14 years ago Steven is born!

11.

Originally the Diamonds were based on a quartet of themes: Love, Fear, Pride, and Sorrow. It got too complicated to keep and it was abandoned, with Pink's identification of "love" being described as "particularly outdated."

12.

Notes on a sketch say that Pearl was inspired to become bold and unashamed because Pink's questions drove her to have opinions, and it's said that Rose "fell in love" with her boldness.

13.

Rebecca tells the story of driving off a ridge and getting stuck in the desert, comparing this to Ruby's tumble during her Wild West adventure and using it as inspiration. She's told this story before but here it is in print. She also included the story about using the flowers from a friend's wedding to put in Ruby's hair.

14.

Rebecca describes having to "fight" notes she was given when it had to do with Ruby and Sapphire's relationship. One she describes as NOT fighting was for a signing card depicting Ruby and Sapphire dancing. It was called "too romantic" and she decided not to worry about it since it wasn't the actual show content.

She was also scolded over her book The Answer because the powers that be expected her to downplay that relationship. She always argued that queer youth deserved these things.

15.

Tom Herpich describes being inspired to name Blue Diamond's comb "Comby" because he was watching the news about Comey getting fired from the FBI. It's also a mineral-related term and I always assumed that reference was intentional, but maybe it's not and this is the only intended significance to Comby's name?

16.

Rainbow Quartz 2.0's design is not discussed, though the other two new Fusions from "Change Your Mind" (Sunstone and Obsidian) were. RQ2 has some sketches included, but no accompanying narrative in the text.

17.

A sheet of corrupted Gems and their healed selves is offered, though it doesn't appear to be final. The obelisk in "Serious Steven" is labeled Albite. The unnamed Worm Monster, Desert Glass, and Watermelon Tourmaline are included. An unnamed birdlike Gem represents the Big Bird monster from "Giant Woman." The crab monster from "Arcade Mania" is labeled Blue Chalcedony. The Tongue Monster is drawn uncorrupted but not named. The Flower Monster from "Back to the Kindergarten" is labeled Grossular Diopside or Titanite. The invisible monster from "Island Adventure" is labeled Moonstone. The Lighthouse Gem is labeled White Topaz. A form for Larimar that was used in "Change Your Mind" but changed in Future is there. The Slinker is listed as Chrysocolla. And the Crab Monster is listed as Aventurine.

On the next page, this is changed to Bixbite (as it was in Steven Universe Future), and we then also have Lace Amethyst, Blue Lace Agate, Crazy Lace Agate (Fusion), Ocean Jasper, the Mother Centipeetle Nephrite (Facet 413 Cabochon 12) and three other Nephrites, Angel Aura Quartz, a hooded Jasper, Zebra Jasper, Biggs Jasper, Watermelon Tourmaline (labeled as Fusion of Gem * Onion--huh?), Snowflake Obsidian, "Little" Larimar, and Orange Spodumene (who was the Worm).

18.

The Rhodonite side story would have been about the love story of a Ruby and a Pearl working for Morganite. Images of Morganite and her servants, unfused, are in the book. We do not get this additional information, but Rebecca said in a panel shortly before the book's release that Rhodonite's story would have been about finding out that she had been Rejuvenated 17 times because her components kept falling in love and needing to be reset.

19.

Referring to the Diamonds on one of the charts, Steven's perspective is "I can't believe I helped these" and then there's a censor bar. Welp.

20.

Some included art by Hilary Florido features Kevin with a souped-up Koala Princess car and another where Kevin is staring at himself in the mirror in front of an altar to himself.

21.

Rebecca's sweater collection is included in the Crew art.

[SU Book and Comic Reviews]

[littlemisssquiggles]

Sooo….about that RWBY RTX At Home Panel…

Hello all you happy people and members of the RWBY FNDM community, it’s your friendly neighbourhood squiggle meister here. Assuming that some of you folks weren’t able to attend the RWBY RTX At Home Panel, not to worry, here’s a quick summary of some of the more important details from the panel:

Let’s get the big one out of the way. RWBY Volume 8 is (hopefully) set to premiere November 7th, 2020 with a total of 14 episodes. It is also said that Volumes 8 and 9 are supposed to flow directly into each other much like how Volume 8 is taking place directly from where the last season left off.

A trailer was previewed during the panel. Hopefully it will be released on the official RT YouTube, much like the RVB Zero trailer that debuted yesterday.

The JNPR Anthology is still in the works and unlike the RWBY Anthology books which had one book dedicated to each member of Team RWBY, it seems that JNPR’s will be shared---so a book dedicated to the whole team as to opposed to each individual member.

A new RWBY videogame is said to be in the works as part of a collaboration between Roosterteeth, Wayforward and Arc System’s Works. According to the panel, the timeline for the game’s story setting is hinted to be set somewhere between the events of Volume 7. The game will be available for both PC and console with a release date estimated for some time next year 2021.

During the Q&A Panel, one fan asked for more character birthday reveals and we got the birthdays for the remaining members of Team RWBY. So according to the panel, Weiss’ birthday is May 15th, Blake’s birthday is January 19th and finally Yang’s birthday is July 28th. So all the members of RWBY’s birthdays have officially been revealed. (A moment of silence for us Pineheads who have been itching for Oscar’s birthday to be revealed).

According to RWBY showrunner: Kerry Shawcross---there will be many hugs throughout Volume 8 and one of them was even teased during the trailer---a hug between Ruby and Penny for all the Nuts and Dolts fans.

A JNPR Expansion Pack for the RWBY Combat Ready Board Game is set to be released soon.

In terms of merchandise:

Yang’s V7 bomber jacket will be available for purchase in the RT store along with Penny Polendina and Neopolitan hoodies with some RWBY pins.

There will Nendoroid dolls and Geeki Tikki mugs of Team RWBY

Ruby and Weiss have new figurines.

Eddy talked about the RWBY Fairytales of Remnant book that was released recently and mentioned that it will talked more at the Scholastic RTX Panel (I believe)

It was also announced that RWBY will have its own brand of coffee---I didn’t quite catch the exact name but I believe it’ll be called “King’s Coast Coffee”and it was also mentioned by Eddy Rivas that the coffee blend will make a cameo in a future episode of RWBY.

 And that’s pretty much all that I gathered from the panel.

 ~LittleMissSquiggles (2020)

[tremendouslychocolatecrown]

I need a reality TV show based on the Real Villains of Gotham.

First off the catch phrases...

Riddler: I’d ask you a riddle, but what’s the point? You won’t get the answer right.

Joker: So a cameraman, writer, and producer walk into a bar and one of them gets shot. *gunshot sound and camera fades to black*

Mad Hatter: Anyone can be Alice it just takes the right motivation.

Catwoman: Diamonds are a girls best friend but a woman needs a variety of friends. Mine are Rubies, Sapphires, and emeralds.

Scarecrow: You can choose to be afraid Gotham or I can take you the rest of the way and show you how to really scream.

Harley Quinn: I have a PHD in psychology and a BAB (boss-ass-bitch) in crime.

Penguin: They say birds of a feather flock together but I prefer to keep my perch to myself.

Second off the drama...

Just imagine the rogues drinking and socializing and talking massive shit about each other.

Crane would be poisoning people’s food and making everyone uncomfortable when he’s at the table.

Eddie would throw a tantrum every time the camera focuses on someone else. Like he’d just do insanely needy things like taking over competing television networks and airing a Eddie super cut version of the show because he’s the star.

Joker would rarely be on the show but always making everyone wish he never signed the contract because he just blows things up.

Harley would be always drunk and trying to pet stray dogs that some how there are animals in the restaurant and they all have plates.

Catwoman would be stealing everyone’s stuff. Jackets, rings, jewels, credit cards. So now everyone just sets up a tab and pays after the meal.

Poison Ivy would cameo on the show to literally just talk shit about the Joker.

Penguin would use the show as a platform to sell a margarita mix and make tons of money on the show.

[miloscat]

Roll-chan vs the female Robot Masters, low-res pixel style! (3 images)

This is kind of a thought experiment or very loose idea for an all-female Mega Man/Rockman game. It occurred to me that there were barely enough woman Robot Masters in the Classic era franchise to make a full boss set of 8, and naturally Roll would be the one to take them on with her Roll Buster (as seen in Rockman 1 mobile and the Marvel vs Capcom games), her trusty broom (from Powered Up and Tatsunoko vs Capcom), and her ability to turn her arm into household appliances to be used as weapons (in the Ruby-Spears cartoon). The latter would be her version of the Copy Ability, with each boss giving her a themed appliance/weapon like a souped-up whirlpool blender or rocket stove. Pretty cool, eh?

Shoutouts to Capricorn’s two Rockmen R fangames that star Roll, as well as Zynk Oxhyde’s romhacks that replace Rock with her in all the 8-bit games! More details on the characters chosen below.

1: The stage select screen. Centaur Woman (who is implied to be female in Shigeto Ikehara’s Rockman 6 manga), Virgo (one of the Zodiac-based bosses from the Taiwanese PC game Rockman Strategy), Splash Woman (still the only female Robot Master from a mainline game…), Quake Woman (an original character from the Archie Mega Man comic), Roll (in her Mega Man 8 outfit), Vesper Woman (also from the Archie comic, based on an unused design for Mega Man 9), Hypno Woman (from the Fully Charged (FC) cartoon), Coin Woman (from the gambling game Pachislot Rockman Ability (PRA)), Blasto Woman (also from FC).

2. Supporting characters. Dr. Emilia Light (Thomas Light’s adult daughter and replacement in PRA), Suna Light (Thomas Light’s child daughter in FC), Trancy (the third playable character in PRA), Tango (replaces Rush in Zynk Oxhyde’s romhacks, so I included her here too as Roll’s animal partner), Kalinka Cossack (in her Rockman Xover outfit), Nástenka (Kalinka’s android bodyguard in the Brazilian comic Novas Aventuras de Megaman), Plum (from Battle & Chase), Chaotique (an anti-hero rival character from FC), Piano/W. Waltz (a hybrid design I pieced together from Hitoshi Ariga’s unused Piano concept for a female partner to Bass in the Megamix manga (and used as a recurring enemy in Capricorn’s fangames), and the W. Waltz concept from a Hideki Ishikawa illustration that had a cameo in Dreamwave’s comic), Madam Y (also from Ishikawa’s illustration and used as an antagonist in Archie’s comic). I imagine their roles in a potential game could be similar to, respectively, Dr. Light, Roll, Auto, Rush, Dr. Cossack, Duo, Eddy, Blues, Bass, and Dr. Wily. The robot ones could be unlockable playable characters too.

3. Extra costumes for Roll. As in Powered Up, Roll could get some unlockable outfits (I didn’t draw any of the extra skins from that game because there’s too many, but they could be included too). Classic Roll, Pachislot Rockman Ability Roll, Battle & Chase Roll, Hyper Roll from the Marvel vs Capcom games, Mega Girl from the Captain N cartoon, Roll’s battle armour from the anime OVA Upon a Star, the Ruby-Spears cartoon Roll, the Novas Aventuras comic Roll.

[spanimator]

The Walking Dead: Final Season; Take us Back thoughts (major spoilers) 

please let me know your thoughts!

So I plan on writing an actual in depth review sometime later but I just wanted to write down my thoughts on the episode with what i loved about it and what i think could of been improved or changed! Its been 2 days since Take us Back came out so I’ve had time to better process things.

pros:

-the narration by AJ at the start is really neat and made me feel both scared and worried especially when he said “I don’t think she’s always doing the right thing, we’ve been doing a lot of bad things to save our friends..” its a spicy start to the episode

-most of the action sequences ESPECIALLY THE BARN SCENE are really cool this episode! 

-the james scene in the cave is really wack and i love it a lot! i know a lot of people liked angry james near the end of ep 3, well here’s 10 minutes of it! but really the scene was intense all around, i used to really dislike james in the scene but i have grown to understand why he acts this way, although some shots like that creepy smile is?? questionable haha.. the other branch where james is dead is intense aswell too! good job on this scene! 

-the talk in the woods with violet/louis is really nice, its much needed after all the drama that just happened! the scenes made me laugh a lot too like “texas 2″ or “thanks dad!” i love these characters so much guys. 

-WOWOW minerva and the bridge scene is really great!! i felt really bad for her its so tragic. but yeah the way she sings, limping and bitten everywhere but still pushing through is so messed up and terrifying. she looked so scary and i love the gore to it, truly is a horrific moment! however one thing, during the fight it seems like the walkers never seem to make it across the truck to you so you can literally just chill hidden the whole time.. 

-tenn’s death: i think it was handled quite well, its a very shocking moment, and very very sad.. and louis and ESPECIALLY violet’s reaction to it are really heartbreaking! voice acting was amazing. its even more messed up when minnie is happy about this (made me think of carol peletier from the comics) i also like how his death is not forgotten at the end too and its brought up. i do have some things to say about tenn’s character in general though../contrary i also enjoy what they do with him if he is kept alive, its a very heartwarming moment! 

-thinking about it just makes me teary but the scenes where clem gets bit and is slowly starting to accept it once they get to the barn is just so scary and depressing. i’m not gonna get too much into it but the barn scene is really great and the music and switching between clem and AJ is even more alarming, making the player think its over and AJ is taking the torch. also “gotcha” as clem bops aj’s nose made me crumble STOP 

-ranch flashback is really underappreciated but yeah its really great and quite traumatic. the burn victim gave me chills and Eddie’s short cameo is great! aj and clem’s moment in the car is really sweet.. and made me cry even more. i also thought the placement of the scene is perfect. 

-THE ENDING: So yeah apparently quite a few are mad about the ending but honestly I say piss off to those people, i thought the ending is a really great end to clem’s journey! i had a feeling clem would make it but prior to the scene i really thought she was dead. when i heard her speak i YELLED, got up, woke up my family and hugged my mom, i’m serious! Clem is a badass whom we’ve ventured with for YEARS, she fucking deserves the happy ending and i just get confused with those who wanted her to die?? like wtf; also the take us back scene and the dinner is just wonderful thank you so much to the team. i loved it all. also i love how aj can interact with all the collectibles what a treat! i love how aj’s thoughts were all jumbled too he’s fun to play as!

TL;DR: emotional moments are well done, ending is near perfect, visuals, colors, cinematography, voice acting and music are all great! also thank u for all the romantic moments 

cons: 

-im mixed about lilly’s portrayal this season. i expected more i guess. they kinda built her up to be kinda redeemable but at the same time its lilly.. i got kinda mad at first when you only see her for a minute! compared to james who gets more than 10 minutes of screentime. but i think i’ve grown to accept it. the way she floats away like a fucking loser is what she deserves. in a way i think its better to have her alive so she can live with all the horrible shit she’s done. and you can sorta tell she feels somewhat bad about it. BUT.. at the same time i think she’ll never learn which just makes me mad i let her get away on my main. what do you guys think of her? because at this point idk how to feel but its certainly not great. 

-i don’t like the way captured violet and louis got over their trauma so easily. Louis was visibly traumatized and shaken in the cell and soon after he’s just seen smiling. Violet feels abandoned and betrayed but soon after she’s just like “uhhh about what i said in the cell...” I think it would of been better to save that line for the ending only so violet has more time to think and heal. and while it was really sweet to see louis still being flirty and sweet i can’t help but feel there should of been an extra scene where their traumas are discussed better.

-Violet and Louis’ deaths are not good. the problem with their deaths is that they don’t feel  important, they feel like a game over death! they get eaten for 6 seconds, clementine yells “NOOOO” and AJ gets mad and slaps tenn. Then they run. I think the emphasis on their deaths and a better reaction would improve the scene a lot. Its especially frustrating if Clementine has a close or romantic relationship to these characters. there is no difference in reaction at all. She doesn’t even cry. This is why so many people restarted the episode! As cute and lovable Tenn is, the player has spent many more scenes interacting with Violet and Louis (the most important characters of the season besides AJ and Clem). Its sucks but I understand why people would wanna restart and save their lover or best friend. At the end you get a conversation with AJ and Tenn about their death (which i thought wasn’t so bad) but nothing with Clem. We get a short shot of the grave with a drawing and nothing else. I really didn’t like that.. It felt like something was really missing. Its too bad because ya know i really like the outcome if Tenn lives but i always find myself to rather have my SO live instead as bad as it sounds.. What do you guys think? 

-i feel like certain characters like mitch, aasim and omar etc. could of had more chances to shine. Mitch shines in episode 2 and dies but that’s it. I wish in episode 1 he had more screentime.. Its really too bad since he’s big favorite of mine. Aasim aswell was interesting in ep 1 and 2 but unfortunately barely got any lines in ep 3 and 4. christ’s sake omar of all people had more lines than aasim in ep 4! im very glad he got mentioned many times and romances ruby but i think more lines from him would of been nice. idk like maybe have louis tease him about ruby at the table.. something! 

-i thought the pacing and length of the episode was a little strange. this episode significantly feels shorter than the others. obviously it depends on your play style but from what i noticed this episode is about 30 minutes shorter than the others. i feel like some extra scenes could of been put in to fix some character development issues and such. 

TL;DR: character development is flawed in some spots, pacing and length issues can be bothersome 

i’ll have more to say another time but i really enjoyed this episode and i think its a great end to clementine’s journey! i know the whole caravan thing is left to be ambiguous so i think it would be so cool to have a little dlc. i’d definitely buy it. i recommend getting this season and instead of just watching let’s plays i hope some can invest in an actual copy, the team really deserves a profit! this entire season has been very solid and its my favorite of the series! not sure which episode is my favorite yet but they’re definitely all worth playing!

[aion-rsa]

How Joe Pesci Makes a (Sort of) Cameo in The Many Saints of Newark

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains light spoilers for The Many Saints of Newark.

Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta have a Goodfellas reunion, of sorts, in The Sopranos prequel, The Many Saints of Newark. No, the former Tommy DeVito isn’t in the credits, and he doesn’t bring his shine box. He is slipped in like contraband at a federal penitentiary.

Both David Chase, the creator of The Sopranos and co-writer of The Many Saints of Newark, and Alan Taylor, the film’s director, revel in film references. The esteemed filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock is renowned for making small appearances in his own films. For the film Lifeboat, which had a very limited cast and set, he makes his cameo on the page of a newspaper. Pesci shows up on classic vinyl.

The Many Saints of Newark focuses on Dickie Moltisanti (Alessandro Nivola), father of Christopher (Michael Imperioli) in the series. Liotta plays his uncle, in prison for killing a made man. His punishment was never meted out in the street, and no one visits him behind bars. He is a jazz junkie, and Dickie supplies his habit by bringing in pure Miles Davis, though the stash is cut with some pop missteps. On one of the visits, we can plainly see the cover for Little Joe Sure Can Sing!, a 1968 album released by Joe Pesci under the name of Joe Ritchie. The album came out on Brunswick Records, the same label Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) points out “Oh Girl” singers the Chi Lites were on during a memorable episode of The Sopranos.  

Bushwick was by this time an R&B powerhouse featuring stars like Jackie Wilson, whose “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher” came out on the label in 1967. Produced by Monte Kay, Little Joe Sure Can Sing! is a wonderful time capsule find, mixing jazz voicings through the late sixties pop production standards. Some of the arrangements by Artie Schroeck, are quite intricate, and often experimental within the parameters of genre limits. The album includes three Beatles covers – “The Fool on the Hill,” “Got to Get You Into My Life,” and “Fixing a Hole” – and each is adapted uniquely, allowing Pesci to make his distinctions clear. He is consciously evoking the noted jazz singer Little Jimmy Scott, a major influence who he emulates proudly. But Pesci also unconsciously nails Frankie Valli’s non-falsetto voice. The two New Jersey natives had a history, knowing each other for years.

Pesci’s connection to the Four Seasons was memorialized in the Broadway play and film Jersey Boys. Joe introduced Valli to Bob Gaudio, the songwriter who perfectly distilled the Four Seasons’ sound into a series of era-defining hits. Gaudio’s compositional skills kept up with the times, after the British Invasion and Motown acts changed the playing field. Valli has a more direct connection to The Sopranos. He played a recurring character: Rusty Millio, the highest-ranking Capo in the Lupertazzi family who stages a power grab after turning down the top slot.

Pesci had been performing since he was five years old, appearing on stage and on Star Time Kids, a New York City television variety series that ran from 1950 to 1955. He didn’t always have to have the top slot. He was quite happy, and equipped, to play back up. He played guitar with Joey Dee and the Starliters, best known for the hit “Peppermint Twist,” which featured Joey Dee, David Brigati, Larry Vernieri on vocals, with Carlton Lattimore on organ, Sam Taylor on guitar, and Willie Davis on drums. They were the house band of the immensely popular, hip and trendy Peppermint Lounge. Every big act who came to town partied at that nightclub, including the Beatles.

But they are also the other band, besides the Beatles, who backed up British singer Tony Sheridan for the album My Bonnie. The tracks were recorded in Hamburg, Germany, and the record is famous for being the first official release with the Beatles on it. According to Mersey Beat magazine editor Bill Harry, the Starliters were the backing band on the song “Ruby Baby.” The Beatles opened for Joey Dee and the Starliters during a 1964 show in Stockholm. The lineup for that European tour included Gene Cornish, Felix Cavaliere, and David’s brother, Eddie Brigati, who would go on to become the Young Rascals.

They weren’t the only major players to sit in for the band besides guitarist Joe Pesci. In 1965, Jimi Hendrix played guitar for the band during a 10-day set of shows in Boston. Charles Neville of the Neville Brothers also played guitar in the group. Pesci’s stint on lead also led to his first feature film appearance as an extra in Hey, Let’s Twist! (1961), a jukebox musical starring Joey Dee and the Starliters. Years later, he played a major role as the villain in Michael Jackson’s 1988 long-form music video Moonwalker.

Pesci continues to make music. In 1998, he released the rap song “Wise Guy,” which samples Blondie’s “Rapture” and the theme to Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. The song was featured on the album Vincent LaGuardia Gambini Sings Just for You, named after his character in the film My Cousin Vinny. Pesci put out the 2003 album Falling in Love Again under the name Joe Doggs, and in 2009 released the album Pesci… Still Singing.

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Brunswick Records will re-release Little Joe Sure Can Sing! on all major digital platforms (Amazon, Apple, Pandora, Spotify, TikTok and YouTube) on October 8. The Many Saints of Newark will be released in theaters on October 1, and will be available on HBO Max for 31 days from the theatrical release.

The post How Joe Pesci Makes a (Sort of) Cameo in The Many Saints of Newark appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[thefatdrunkdragon]

The Worst RPer I have ever met (Nemo Saga Chapter 3)

 Okay, so let’s talk about the first worst RP and my worst Idea first. The Spooky RP.

 This idea should be on the list of unlikely and terrible crossover ideas ever. Simply imagine Spooky’s House of Jumpscares except no 1000 rooms, the layout is more akin to the Arklay Mansion and the spooky monsters that hunt you down are replaced with the Zeds from Killing Floor 2. This was during a time in my life where I had worse ideas in mind, and while I am not fully better, I’m slowly improving the ideas and concepts of something else before I end up doing the mistake of writting the “Life is Eldritch” Fanfiction... ANYWAY!

 The Plot of this RP I told to Nemo was that my Characters had taken over a small abandoned mansion and turned into an a haunted house attraction where an AI would sorta pick what monster comes out while a female character named Kate decides to do the voices to do some kind of a twisted warning about it. I told it to Nemo and he accepted it. Only because it had spooky and he was a big fan of Markiplier. And don’t worry, Markiplier doesn’t make a cameo.

 Anyway, we begin this RP tale in October 30th, where the next day would soon be Velora’s Birthday (yi-fucking-pey). After some random bullshit where some dude through coffee on Velora’s Face for no reason, Everyone goes to the Mansion near the Villa.

Short Explanation: The Villa is a small abandoned “Town” that was half finished and forgotten by the government. The few buildings finished are just the town plaza and the Mansion own by a man who’s name is forgotten. The mansion is the setting for this RP.

 Anyway, they go in, dressed as a bunch of Emo’s and are told the rules. Nemo thought he was being sneaky when he and his mommy sues brought guns but I counter acted this by telling them that the monsters were incapable of harming them and in having a gun, they deprive themselves of the horror of a Haunted Mansion.

 But then fucking suddenly, Anathalia’s Archnemesis, Adelie (Brothel Owner lady), shows up and takes Anathalia. But Nemo then handcuffs her and the police take her away.

This won’t be the last time this shit happens.

 Within minutes we show them the mansion and how it works. While he was trying to push me into having Exposition dumped into my face, I tried to introduce the RP’s Main threat, the Spooky Hologram (I’ll explain what the fuck I was trying to do at the end of the story, because explaining everything here is confusing.) Needless to say, I forgot to mention to Nemo that this RP, while taking the title of Spooky, was a complete diversion from the games but he is still convincing himself he played through this game and it’s nothing.

 So the objective of this haunted mansion thing was to have people choose a direction and try to go through with it. Think of it like an escape room, except you’re trying to escape the house from mutants who can’t fully hurt you but can give you one hell of scare with their wails and hissing. Nemo and Velora chose the Basement while Anathalia chose the Second Floor. And then the games started.

 Then fucking suddenly, Adelie shows up (No details about how the fuck she escaped) and asks around for Anathalia to bring her back the brothel (Because kidnapping a “famous celebrity”, and doing so is more trouble than it’s worth!) and Nemo decided to have Kate (The person that we both created and the voice of the Spooky Hologram) go and try to defend Anathalia. It was there where Anathalia decided to choose Kate as another candidate, but Aiden and Ruby (Aiden being a sort of avatar of mine and Ruby being an obvious nod to an artist I like and a Female Dragon) tried to defuse the situation but Nemo comes and tries to stop the situation by threatening Adelie with a gun (Yeah, dipshit ignored da rules of the mansion and somehow had another gun.) But before anything could go any further, The cops show up and she is taken to a jail in paris yet again. Making this whole conflict pointlessly unnecessary.

 Meanwhile, Nemo and his mommy sues returned to the Maze and he keeps brushing off minor things that aren’t being part of the game as part of the game. I know it’s a sort of method for us to calm the fuck down but he was so smug about how the “escape mansion” was just like the Spooky game. Until he reached the laboratory, where the Killing Floor Zeds were being stored and manufactured. He at first brushed it off, until the lights of the lab came on and he saw them all, these hideous freaks all moving around in their cages, waiting for an opportunity to tear into him like a lion on a gazelle.

 He still continued to brush it off, but it was there where the Hologram made it clear that No one in the control room is doing this, it is now running the show and will now unleash these freaks for its own amusement. But leave it to Nemo to try and deflate the scary moment by adding in fucking “bachata” music (Bachata being a sort social dance music for us latinos). I wanted to go with a sort of dark like tone and he just adds unnecessary BS like this and just ruins it.

 It is after that the spooky AI was going to decide to unleash the monsters on them and he would have to escape the mansion with his life. 

Big. Fucking. NOPE

 He teleports away to safety, ruining the conflict so bad that I argued for a re-do because it was that insulting. I know It sounds annoying but jesus christ! I shouldn’t have done this because all I did was prolong the agony further.

 Anyway, It was there where Spooky had tried to force Nemo and his Mary Sues to pick a path and stick to it. His mary sues had the attention span of toddlers because they ignore everything she says, asks her about what is it like being a ghost (Despite the fact I told him in the beginning it was a Hologram.) and then I decided to pull a Deus Ex Machina out of my Ass and just have her ZAP away their powers. Nemo’s Response?

 Nemo(From the Archived RP I had): Did you know you can't do that to me, right? I'm different.

 Ofcourse he doesn’t want to play fair. Ofcourse, OFCOURSE! He has to act like he’s such a SPECIAL AND UNIQUE Snow flake. I was so sickened by this that instead of teleporting away, he just rushed the scary moments of being chased by the Zeds and then he escaped to the control room. Where the dipshit begins to change the subject to an unimportant side plot about how Adelie found Anathalia. I won’t explain the details, but it had something to do with a Hot Topic employee being a spy for Adelie and such bullshit.

 I broke character as Aiden, so tired of this inane bullshit, decides to grab a rifle, arm Eddie and an unpaid janitor, to go down the basement and take care of the monsters before they get out and then, just because I realized how much of a fucking mistake both the RP and the attraction was, I would burn down the mansion. Nemo gets offended that we were going to destroy the mansion and tells us to leave. So we do, and Nemo then decides that the next logical solution is to MURDER MY FUCKING CHARACTER and throw his body out of the rooftop of the mansion, ignoring all the other characters trying to kill him.

 But it’s okay gais! Because it turns out it was a Demon call Jack, Who was making him do the bad thing and Nemo has the most anti-climatic battle. I wanna take this moment to take another quote from the RP. Because I never noticed it and now that I do, I find it so hilarious

His friends like Ruby, Anathalia and Kate are in shock. What will they do without (Nemo)? They'll never know.

 Well, I can tell you one thing. Ruby would not miss someone who just happened to have Killed their friend in cold blood when there was never a sign of this possesion to begin with!

 So after an anticlimatic battle that could fit in the confines of a tweet, Nemo defeats the Demon and the day was saved. And he swept away all the problems by reviving my character and had all of my characters go “Oh, It wasn’t Nemo, it was a demon! He was the good guy all along.” And then there was a party.

 Aiden, Despite being revived by his “Saviour” has not forgotten his goal. So I told everyone to get ready for a big firework display. And everyone gave their stupid recommendations.

 At first the house had a minor explosion, before the memories of that shitty night were erased in a massive ball of fire. Bringing a huge smile on my face and an angry Nemo on my character’s face. He got into some whiny bullshit about how he would buy the land and rebuild it for the Vampire Clan or some Bullshit, and since the Vampire Clan was so Big and Important to the government, I took it a step further by lighting the flag on fire and telling him “I’ll call you for a war declaration later.” He repeats how I’m offending the vampire overlords but I told him I never gave a fuck. And he just flipped my character off.

 and that was the worst RP I have ever had with Nemo, and it sure as Shit would not be the last.

And now... A brief explanation on what in the actual fuck was the POINT of the Spooky RP:

 The idea for the Spooky RP was inspired by my experience playing KF2 on a free weekend on Steam while also learning about Spooky’s House Of Jumpscares. So I had a thought: Why not have an RP where there is a sort of Spooky Esque character trying to narrate your “demise” while also being chased by zeds. Although not mentioned in the RP, the origins of the Zeds come from the Mansions “Laboratory” level below the Basement, and when Aiden and Eddie first found it, they were stuck down the for a day until they shredded their way out. It was there where Aiden had the bright idea of creating the escape mansion to make a quick buck. But since they can’t just go and kill them, the characters decide that the best course of action is to lead the zeds out of the basement, trap it and try to declaw or detooth them, due to how dangerous those parts can be. As the mansion was built and the AI was already created, the AI went through an “Ultron Phase” as I like to call it, looking through video footage of the somehow working cameras of the mansion and seeing both Eddie and Aiden harming this creatures for entertainment purposes. So it plotted their demise and its plan to release the creatures out into the streets of Puerto Rico just for giggles. How the “Spooky AI” spoke was by replicating a lot of Kates Vocals and then mimicking it in a same pitch and everything. Yeah, it doesn’t make a lot of sense but I tried to atleast come up with a good idea before it got ruined horribly.

I should’ve quit after the SteamPunk disaster but I guess I’m responsible for my own demise when it comes to bad RPs. And like a masochist, I just kept coming for more.

[doomonfilm]

Review : Jumanji - The Next Level (2019)

Since childhood, I’ve had a fascination with Jumanji.  It began with Chris Van Allsburg’s children’s book, released in 1981, that featured a twisted story and amazing illustrations, both courtesy of Allsburg.  It continued with the 1995 film, starring Robin Williams, Kirsten Dunst, David Alan Grier and more, that stayed faithful to the original book while expanding the imagery into the world of film.  The first true surprise came in 2017, when out of nowhere, Jumanji : Welcome to the Jungle hit screens with plenty of commercial success and positive acclaim from crowds and critics alike, including myself.  The surprises continue in the form of the late 2019 release of Jumanji : The Next Level, and at this point, I’m obligated to take part at a theatrical level.

Fridge (Ser’Darius Blain), Martha (Morgan Turner) and Bethany (Madison Iseman) make plans to catch up over the winter break from their ever-evolving lives, but Spencer (Alex Wolff) feels unfulfilled, leaving him alienated from his friends.  Upon returning home from New York, Spencer finds himself roommates with his aging and jaded grandfather Eddie (Danny DeVito), who finds himself estranged from old friend and former business partner Milo (Danny Glover).  On the morning that Spencer’s friends are supposed to meet for brunch, they find Spencer is not only missing, but non-responsive, and the group heads to his home in hopes of finding him there.  Prior to their arrival, Milo pays Eddie a surprise visit, and as the two attempt to work through their awkwardness, Spencer’s friends arrive.  To their horror, Fridge, Martha and Bethany discover that Spencer has jumped back into the Jumanji video game that was supposedly destroyed.  The group makes the tough decision to return to the game in hopes of retrieving Spencer, but in a surprise occurrence, Fridge and Martha are pulled into the game, while Bethany is left behind.  Martha returns to her Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan) avatar, but Fridge is surprised to find himself in the Shelly Oberon (Jack Black) avatar.  Shockingly, it is discovered that Eddie and Milo have mistakenly been pulled into the game, as Dr. Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson) and Mouse Finbar (Kevin Hart) respectively.  After discovering Spencer in the form of an avatar named Ming Fleetfoot (Awkwafina), the group attempts to navigate and entirely new set of obstacles presented by Jumanji, including a powerful new villain named Jurgen the Brutal (Rory McCann), in hopes of finding a way back home.

The depths of the Jumanji idea mines seem to be limitless.  In terms of the obvious elements, the animal attacks continue with a new group of unique threats rather than retreads of former animalia included, and different variations of the jungle are replaced by a desert, an Eastern-themed village, and different varieties of mountainous terrain.  The update from board to video game is further mined for ideas, with our characters being adjusted in terms of their strengths and weaknesses.  All of the original characters you’d expect to see are back, including Nigel the NPC (Rhys Darby) and ‘Seaplane McDonough (Nick Jonas), but the addition of Ming Fleetfoot as a thief, and Jurgen the Brutal as a warlord add new elements that work thematically in terms of narrative and the adventure game that is presented.  The idea of looking to find yourself in imagined ideas is once again the basis of the story, but adding in the perspective of aging characters to parallel against the insecure ones keeps the premise fresh.

The film really works best, however, when it comes to how fast and loose it is willing to play with the Jumanji avatars.  ‘Seaplane’ McDonough stays as a fixed role, and Ruby Roundhouse is mostly familiar (though Fridge’s brief appearance as Ruby is priceless), but the remainder of the characters find themselves inhabited by multiple real-world counterparts throughout the course of the adventure.  When Kevin Hart is playing the Mouse role as Danny Glover, the laughs are nonstop, and it is clearly evident that he is having the time of his life doing the characterization.  Danny DeVito is given flattery via imitation in two hilariously different packages : a gigantic and overly confident Dwayne Johnson, as well as a ridiculous deep dive courtesy of Awkwafina (who I had no idea could be so proficient with imitation).  Jack Black shows amazing range in his embodiment of both Madison Iseman and Ser’Darius Blain, swinging from tough posturing and frustration due to limitation all the way to a self-obsessed but self-aware beauty in a less than flattering form.  Even Cyclone the horse manages to go from ditzy to distinguished in very subtle ways.

The special effects are very strong overall, with the majority of the animal CGI being non-noticeable, even when you’re aware of the fact that it clearly had to be used to achieve the sheer volume of animals in some scenes.  The CGI work continues to be strong in the forming of the grand locations, especially the desert and the rope bridges.  The writing of the overall series continues to be strong, turning what could have easily been a one-note tribute to a children’s book into a surprisingly viable series, with their even being a mid-credit button that clearly sets up a continuation of the series.  The writers also know to keep the real-world stories as simple and grounded as possible (up to this point), in order to keep us familiar with and connected to the main characters at the service of making their video game avatar characterizations unique and interesting, depending on where (or in whom) they may land.

Seeing the core cast of Wolf, Iseman, Blain and Turner make returns immediately puts us in a familiar and inviting place, eliminating the need for a lot of story-setting exposition.  Danny DeVito and Danny Glover lean into their odd couple-esque connection, with DeVito’s natural edge playing well against Glover’s tender nature.  Johnson, Hart and Black are given leeway to take the baton and run with it, getting chances to play their original characters, as well as bizarre switches of their characters with new real-world counterparts.  Awkwafina does a great job of embracing Wolf’s insecurities, as well as DeVito’s unaware (or uncaring) brash nature.  Nick Jonas and Rhys Darby both get to revisit their original roles, making solid cameos.  Rory McCann, though not as integral to the plot as one would imagine he’d be as a villain, does manage to provide an intimidating presence when given the chance to be the focus.  Appearances by Dania Ramirez, Massi Furlan, Colin Hanks, Marin Hinkle, and cameos by Bebe Neuwirth and Lamorne Morris round things out.

If you’d told me back in 1995, or even as recent as the release of Zathura, that there’d be multiple Jumanji movies, I’d probably have laughed in your face.  As it currently sits, I will probably be sad when this current run of Jumani movies ends.  This film, like its predecessors, continues to bolster my appreciation for Jumanji that was nurioushed in my childhood, and my discovery of both Alex Wolf and Karen Gillan has been rewarding outside of the franchise.  I look forward to the next film in the series, and until the ball is dropped, I will continue to look forward to whatever happens in the future of Jumanji. 

[chicagoindiecritics]

New from Robert Daniels on 812 Film Reviews: TIFF Review: Dolemite is My Name

Fucking up motherfuckers was his game. Rudy Ray Moore played the profane pimp and Blaxploitation icon Dolemite for nearly 30 years. A self-made singer; comedian; and actor; his life is documented in Craig Brewer’s Dolemite is My Name — an inspirational story of pursuing your dreams, even when those dreams aren’t keen for the chase.

Opening in 1975, Ruby Ray Moore (Eddie Murphy) supports a fledgling stand-up career working at a record store. The first scene sees Moore hocking his passé 45’s to a disk jockey (a surprise cameo). His friends include Jimmy Lynch (Mike Epps) and his record store co-worker Theodore Toney (Tituss Burgess). To supplant his day job he opens as an m.c. for Jimmy Lynch’s (Craig Robinson) funk band, though his name doesn’t appear on the marquee. Doughy, every night Moore fits himself into a ruffled white suit made for a younger slimmer man who had hopes of moving from Arkansas to Los Angeles and becoming the next Sammy Davis Jr. Instead, like many tinsel dreams, his tangled wishes fell forgotten underneath an empty Christmas tree.

By chance, one day a homeless beggar comes into the shop using the Dozens to entertain the patrons. The Dozens in Black communities dates back to slavery — pithy rhymes of insults used to vent against White masters, which later became infused as expressions of frustration for the second-class citizenship many Blacks endured then and today. Moore forms an idea: He’ll record the homeless who espouse the well-known banter and polish their garish insults of mothers and their opponents for stand-up material. Assembling a wardrobe of loud pimpish suits, a cane, and an afro wig, he creates a new character to dispense their spoken-word treatises: Dolemite.

However, while he becomes a taboo icon, selling his stand-up records from the back of his car and traveling the Chitlin Circuit, he’s still relatively unknown. He soon hatches a plan to make his own movie with “sex, tities, and kung fu.” He assembles a screenwriter: Jerry Jones (Keegan-Michael Key), a director: D’Urville Martin (Wesley Snipes), and a protege: Lady Reed (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), and pours all of his money into the film.

Dolemite hums due to a script written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski — scribes of Ed Wood, The People vs. Larry Flint, and Man on the Moon — and the resurgences of Eddie Murphy and Wesley Snipes. The dialogue is smart, toeing conventional underdog biopic narratives with Disaster Artist making of riffs. Both would be formulaic if not for Snipes, playing the incredulous director, giving the best side-eyed glances of this century, and Eddie Murphy’s unflinching sincerity. Several instances of the comedian’s best days arrive to the forefront. In some smiles Axl Foley returns, in the over the top outbursts so does The Nutty Professor, and in moments of introspection so does Ray in Life. He pours everything into Moore: regret, insecurities, and aspirations. His good faith is coupled with Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who adds a level of body positivity that heightens the material into more than a chronicling of a lewd 1970’s film.

Unlike The Disaster Artist, however, Dolemite isn’t making fun of its subject. Moore and co truly are outsiders who just want to be seen, and will risk everything to do so. Their camaraderie carries a devil may care attitude and a feeling of family. Mixed with Ruth E. Carter’s resplendent costumes, where she plants a Coming to America reference, the 1970’s come alive again— and so does Moore. By the time the credits roll, Rudy Ray Moore’s name blindingly flashes on the marquee, a triumph of will. But mostly, it’s great to see Eddie Murphy and Wesley Snipes back on screen and fucking up motherfuckers like it’s their game.

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