#SOME of you guys always make either danny or some of the dc characters so ooc

[ender-reader]

DP X DC/Marvel Prompt 1#

sooo I've had this mind obsession about giant fluffy monsters so why not jam Danny and DC/Marvel into this mess to make a cool prompt?

Summary: Danny's been sealed away in an ancient temple. someone (could be a hero or a scientist that deals with ancient stuff, i forgot what they're called) finds the entrance but cant go past that. they call Batman/Tony and/or Constanaine/Dr.strange for help(probably along with one of the batkids or Spiderman). Chaos ensues.

What exactly happened to Danny: Danny's been sealed away in an ancient temple during a a time mission from CW that caused him to go in his eldritch horror form and getting sealed away in a temple using chains and of course: Blood blossoms but not to the extent that they continually hurt him, just enough to keep him sealed away, after all: if you hurt a baby ghost, it probably wont end well.

Note: this can be ghost king danny if you want.

and i know i got the characters wrong but im trying, its been a while since i watched marvel

onto the somewhat detailed prompt:

DP/Marvel(or DC, just change who the characters are):

Wang (i think that was his name? the guy that always doubts dr.strange but helps him anyways) has picked up a strange magic signature somewhere around Egypt, after he decided to go and investigate himself, he found an entrance to a sealed ancient temple with a few dead bodies nearly hidden by sand. When he tried to enter, he felt death magic pulse through him and he quickly moved his hand away, whatever was in there, whoever put the seal on this temple wanted to either keep whatever's outside out... or whatever's inside in. he didnt like this not one bit, he does the one thing that would make sense (kinda in his deep opinion): he goes to Steven Strange.

"So your telling me, that you found an ancient temple that's radiating 'infinite realm' kind of death magic and tried to enter it ON.YOUR.OWN?" Strange said rubbing his nose bridge with a sigh. "I dont get whats wrong with that? Death magic's still magic and you two are wizards." Tony said raising a judgemental eyebrow at Strange.

"yes thats true, BUT, infinite realm magic's not like normal magic, not even normal death magic." Wang explained raising a finger at the 'but'. "so? its still magic? or does it have diffrent properties?" Peter, tired of only listening decided to start asking some questions to understand the situation better.

"to understand infinite realm magic, first you need to know what are the infinite realms" Strange countered with a heavy tone, looking at Tony and Peter.

"Strange, we are not to speak of the dead so openly" Wang hissed turning to look at Steven. "oh come on, they're gonna find out eventually and you know it, better they know or one of them gets killed trying to find out." Strange said furrowing his brows glancing around him as if expecting something to attack him. Wang only grumbled sitting on a chair that was not there before.

"the infinite realms is a realm between worlds, like a pocket dimension. it is also known as the realm of the dead, the realm of ghosts, souls, and spirits. it is neither heaven or hell, it is were the dead go when they have too strong obsessions that keep them going, it is where the dead go when they don't want to let go of their life. it has its culture, rulers, ghost types, Gods and Goddesses called Ancients, islands of different shapes and sizes. it also has: A Ghost King, one who rules all the kingdoms, tribes and all ghosts in the infinite realms. they have the title of High King. They run on a substance called ectoplasm, which can be considered the main source of infinite realm magic.

Do not mess with the dead and they will not mess with you. Don't engage with infinite realm inhabitants because the risks are far too high. The last high king was Piriah Dark, he went mad and devoured worlds, not much is known about the new High King, all we know is that he was only around 2 death years old which in on its own baffling." Strange said crossing his arm, his voice was heavy with danger and seriousness.

"so we DON'T mess with the temple?" Peter asked curiously. "..." Wang and Strange didn't know how to answer that.

i cant help but imagine this scene happening:

Danny: *giant chained eldritch horror* *narrows eyes and hisses*

Bruce/Tony, Constantane/dr.Strange and Zatanna/Wang: "..." *intimidated and are ready to fight if needed*

one of the batkids/Peter: "...omg its like a giant kitten!" *proceeds to pet said giant eldritch horror*

the adults: "..." *horrified

Danny: "..." *purrs*

if someone uses this please tag me and maybe send the link please?

[maniacwatchestheworld]

So today I decided to do some looking around and catch up on what's going on over at dc-tournaments. And I do find it exceedingly funny how Danny Phantom somehow managed to win the "Fuck this guy in particular" tournament! But it got me thinking. Apparently by hanging out and generally staying in the Rogues space, it's made me largely bypass the whole DPxDC thing. Like, I pretty much live in the Harvey Dent tag these days, and the Misha Collins stuff is a lot more intrusive than any DCxDP stuff (and I don't really mind the Misha Collins stuff either). And at this point, Misha Collins comes into the Harvey Dent tag... Oh... Around 1 time a week to 2 times a month by my estimate...? I can't even tell you the last time a Danny Phantom thing came into the Harvey Dent tag... Probably had to do with Jason though lol.

But as someone who occasionally relapses back into the Danny Phandom, I do get it. I've been there with you guys! I'm just getting to see these current messes from the other side lol! You all have to entertain yourselves somehow, and so crossovers have been your latest, largest way to cope! Completely get that. But what are you guys even up to over there? Can you guys point me towards some good stuff? I'm curious what y'all are up to these days! But I do feel like y'all's are under-utilizing the rogues lol.

Personally Vlad has always been much more of my hyperfixation character of choice in the Danny Phandom. I just like the stuff going on with Jack, Maddie, and Vlad more than the main trio, personally. So even when I've been looking for Phandom stuff these days, you lot aren't incorporating Maddie/Jack/Vlad (the superior ship!) into your DC AUs, so I'm not getting any of it! It makes me feel like starting a shit storm of my own with none of the Danny Phantom stuff I like reaching me over here in my little DC hole right now and everyone else in the DC fandom screaming about how intrusive Danny Phantom has been in their tags! Who knows. Maybe I'll just start shipping Vlad/Two-Face just to be a wierdo in my little hole lol.

[halfagone]

So I’ve seen this idea written out before as a oneshot, but I think someone could make this a really cool story chock full of character development. This prompt is fairly simple, what if Dan is sent on ghost parole by Ghost King! Danny! in the DC universe where he’s forced to be a hero and forbidden to kill or maim anyone he fights? I think it would be a really neat way to slowly show Dan becoming more and more like his old self again throughout the story. I also just think it would funny for him to deal with the Bats trying to figure out his deal with him being pissed cuz he’s not a loud to hurt them or else Danny will soup his ass again, lol.

Ooh, yes! I've seen fics and concepts with this idea! I've gotta be honest with you, though, I really like Dan as a cold-hearted bastard. But I am still always one for character redemption/development, so you have certainly piqued my interest. Another really fun, but slightly crackish, idea would be Dan is kicked out and sent to this other world and told to play nice. And at first he tries to fight the orders and start wrecking things, but it turns out that the first thing he happened to destroy belonged to someone evil and it was potentially dangerous and now everyone is cheering for this new hero and Dan is just... flabbergasted at his bad luck. And it keeps on happening. He doesn't want to be a hero, he doesn't want to be a 'good guy', but now everyone is complementing him and thanking him, and Dan can't even do anything about it.

When the JL or the Bats try to question him about his motives and where he came from, he keeps trying to spout insults at them, but he's not allowed to. So he either physically can't say the words or they're changed without his permission into something nicer. So now Dan is stuck trying to get his way around this, while fighting all the ways the universe is telling him: "Hey, being a nice person isn't always horrible! People didn't hate you for your powers! You're not a monster! Those guys back in that other place didn't know what they were talking about!" And all that sort of thing.

And Dan just really, really hates it. lol

But you're definitely right that it's a good opportunity for Dan to get some character development and potentially a redemption. I'm not sure what his personality would look like, since he is technically a mixture of Danny and Vlad's ghost halves, and more than that, Danny had been a teenager when his halves had been forced apart. And Dan... didn't really grow up (assuming he did actually physically grow up into an adult, anyways) normally, or in a healthy way, after this point. So while I don't think he'd really go back to acting like the Danny we know and love, I do think we could definitely start to see some of that personality coming in as Dan slowly, begrudgingly grows as a person.

[gilbirda]

I posted 16,670 times in 2022

That's 6,991 more posts than 2021!

372 posts created (2%)

16,298 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@mekakido

@deathcomes4u

@high-pot-in-noose

@hopefulbandittrashsoul

@sometimes-me

I tagged 2,530 of my posts in 2022

#danny phantom - 192 posts

#gil answers - 162 posts

#dp x dc - 144 posts

#dpxdc - 122 posts

#anger management ship - 102 posts

#batman dc - 90 posts

#jazz/jason - 78 posts

#jazz x jason - 71 posts

#jason todd - 69 posts

#dc x dp - 69 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#add spain and that time we had 4 presidents in 4 month and some guy had to storm the congress riding a horse and declare some random dude k

I sent 1 gift in 2022

My Top Posts in 2022:

(in a read more bcs is long)

#5

Good Cop! Jason and Bad Cop! Jazz would be super hilarious 😂 Imagine Red Hood just pointing a gun at a criminal and being like, "Look, either you face my bullet or you talk your feelings out, what'll it be?"

And the criminal just scoffs, "How about we talk about my feelings?"

"Alright."

And then, this sweet young lady walks in, with a sweet smile, and says, "Now let's talk about your mommy issues."

"I'd rather face the bullet, ma'am."

AKWJDJCJFJDJJSJDJDJFJ

LMAO THIS WOULD BE THE FUNNIEST THING.

Honestly, power couple. One can make you cry and scream and regret everything.... and the other can do that as well but with a sweet smile and kind words.

Weaponized psychology.

But not like Spectra - nah, she's not into misery or causing problems. She just knows that some people would prefer death before facing their own issues.

I love this so much.

"I'd rather face the bullet, ma'am."

This will live rent free in my head.

794 notes - Posted August 7, 2022

#4

Mondays, am I right?

Or Danny is an Arkham Security Guard, from this post

Forgot to link some AMAZING art for this idea. Inspired the 'sneakers' part.

SOME FANART FOR MY FIC

[Read on AO3][Read on FF.net]

Sequel - Employee of the month >>

The first thing Danny said when Jazz expressed her interest in interning at Arkham was:

“Are you out of your goddamn mind?”

To which she answered:

“It is said that you have to be a bit crazy to work in Arkham, soooo…”

Danny had to agree that her response was quick and true, but still he didn’t like her going to that madhouse and probably die because, I dunno, Joker woke up wrong or she tried to psychoanalyze the Riddler. He said this to her through the phone, hoping that she could imagine him pacing up and down the apartment.

“The security there is top notch, Danny, and the bat-fam is always one call away.”

“You know as well as I do that’s bullshit. The guards are human, some of those crazies are not.”

“That term is very harmful, Daniel,” she used her mom voice.

“Sorry. But you see what I mean, right? If anything happens I won’t be there to save you. Not in time, at least.” He could try and measure how long it would take to fly from his apartment to Arkham, just in case.

There was a long silence. He heard his sister breathe in, breathe out, like she was mentally preparing herself to say something.

“I… I heard, from other interns I talked to, that guard positions are always open. And that it’s super easy to get in.”

“Jazz. Are you-”

“Don’t. I know you. Don’t think I’ll ever forget the ‘visits’ when I started college.”

Danny looked down and stopped pacing. Maybe he was a bit overprotective of his sister. Maybe he freaked out for weeks after she moved to her dorm, complaining about how long it took him to fly there. 

He regretted nothing.

“Gotham is too far from Amity. I prefer cutting the chase and having you with me in Arkham than dealing with a helicopter little brother on the reg.”

He swallowed the knot in his throat. “Is this your sisterly way of telling me that I should get a job?”

“I gave up after you were fired from the Nasty Burger. Nasty Burger, Danny! Not even Val was fired, and she had another job and the Red Huntress business!”

“I know…”

Jazz sighed. “I’m going to nap a bit and then finish packing things up here. I’ll text you the site where you can apply for the guard job.”

“Thanks, Jazzy.”

“Don’t call me that. Love you.”

“Love you.”

***

See the full post

813 notes - Posted February 1, 2022

#3

Time for some BatPham and DPxDC fic recs

I got a comment asking for some recs and I thought it'll be easier to have a masterlist or something in my tumblr and link that

SOOOOO I asked the BatPham server for recs and I'll just slap them here and add some that come to my mind in no particular order because it's 4:20 am (blaze it)(not really, kids, dont smoke) and ill comment some ive read personally

cheers!!!!

Now with Part 2!

Just the Typical Weirdness by Pandemi

The Phantom and the Knight by savya398

The Auction by Lalenja (young justice crossover)

30 Days of Kidnappings by Hyperintrovert

Types of Family by NerdofSpades

Unearthed, Reborn by QueenOfTheQuill

Pearls and Pomegranates by Evandarya (BrainDead (TimxDanny) inspired in Hades&Persephone)

The Fantabulous Emancipation of Danny Fenton by HistoricallyInnacurate

It Matters to Have this Ghost Clan Near (This Family I Never Knew) by SagaDuWyrm

The Captain and the King by Sivan5733 (A series featuring Captain Marvel AND John Constantine)

Change in Management by voidwriting (Love me some Sentient Gotham, I actually have to catch up with this gem of a fic) - with fanart!

Beauty lays behind the hills by Library_of_Cronos

moon's haunted by heybabybird (funny)

Speed Dial by apotheosis_avaritia (funny but short :( I want more)

Concession to Realism by wildimaginingsofhalfbakedideas (danny yeeted to WFA universe. Very cute)

Ghosts Don't go to High School by Evandarya (BrainDead cuteness tbh i love this one)

close enough to be whole again by hailsatanacab (twins Danny and Damian. ANGST. Good shit right here)

Green skies by siren_of_the_ocean

It's Hard to Make Friends When You're Half in the Grave by SagaDuWyrm

Leap Before You Think by TourettesDog

overbearing obsession by Ocearna (good shit right here, Ocearna's writing..... good)

Shrodinger’s Bat by Michaelisunderrated (angst! I have to catch up but it's really good as far as I read!!!)

Afterimage by TorScrawls (THE DESCRIPTIONS HERE! ELDRITCH DANNO..... GOOD)

Robin's Egg by Calix (really good!!!!! Damian is so serious and dangerous and will protect Danny like the "I only had X for a day but I would kill..." meme)

Raising Phantom by Imp_y (good shit!!!! de-aged Danny! Some Anger Management (JazzxJason) hints, batfam dynamics!!!)

See the full post

828 notes - Posted September 18, 2022

#2

Jason headcanon for y'alls consideration:

Jason needs glasses to read.

The boy must have read books in conditions that aren't optimal for reading. Since he was a kid.

Sure, the Pit could heal it all, but he was back it with his old habits after coming back to life, like hiding in dark corners to read. Places where no one would find him and he wouldn't be interrupted.

Sure, he could bring a lamp, but he was perfectly fine reading with whatever little light he got, why bother?

Fast forward some years, he notices that words get blurry and he has to squint more and more.

Roy mocks him. He looks like an old lady. Like a dad reading the newspaper.

He gets sent memes about old people facing small screens and modern technology

(Yes I'm pushing the Old Man Jason agenda as well, as seen in PandaRedd's skits.)

The thing is

He needs glasses to read.

Artists of Tumblr, please, I beg you. Jason with glasses.

1,372 notes - Posted October 20, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

An DC × DP AU wherein the whole of the Batclan is out of Gotham leaving Alfred with an empty mansion while the worst blizzard in decades in smothering out all crime in Gotham and Victor Fries is on a sort of parole with the League to conduct investigations on a Sub-Zero planet at the behest of the locals.

All is quiet until a silent alarm goes off and informs Alfred that one of the patio doors had been opened from the outside despite being locked, Alfred makes his way to the camera room to gaze upon the possible thief if not thieves. Instead he is greeted by a group of six poorly clad teens with two of them showing early signs of frostbite while another looks as if they are on the verge of going into hypothermia. Alfred realizes that the break in was to find shelter rather than ill intent, furthermore after listening in on the teens he is able to detect an Illinois accent among the group and mentions of a "Guys in White" as well as hearing the young woman who could be a twin of a younger Miss Gordon mentioning "waiting out the blizzard and finding Batman".

Rather than waiting or doing what anyone else in his position would do by calling upon Gotham's Finest to removing the group, Alfred maeldebhisvway to the kitchen to whip up a batch of his beloved Hot Cocoa and made his way to the teens unconcerned for his safety as none of the six seemed particularly dangerous especially the three who appeared to be in the most dire of conditions.

An AU in which Six Teens (Danny, Jazz, Sam, Tucker, Valerie, and Dani) from Amity Park are on the run from the Ghost Investigation Ward and they break into Wayne Manor in search of Safety. An Alfred centric idea as the Batclan are all elsewhere and the blizzard making moving about Gotham nearly impossible, with the GIW in search of the Six.

You know what? We need more Alfred-centric fics. Alfred is the best and is the original adopter of the Wayne clan.

I mean he looked at the wet pathetic cat that was Bruce and said "this one, this is my son now".

I can imagine he notices that the kids aren't normal kids... skittish, won't let him touch them, one looks pale but swears he isn't injured, Barbara's doppelgänger is the mom of the group despite not being much older...

He sends a text to Bruce and the others, but messages are not going through with the blizzard. He considers using the Watchtower to pass on the message, but it's not an emergency, is just a hunch.

He makes the decision, then. A secret for a secret - he works for Batman and will ask him the favor to help.

They don't buy it until Alfred proves it, somehow. And then-

Then the kids start talking. Alfred can see that they don't want to reveal a lot, that they don't want to worry him or speak too much without Batman here or are used to not speaking at all.

"Batman has the no kill rule," Alfred says after he got a clearer picture of their situation, "but I don't."

I'd love to read this. Right now I don't have the spoons, so if anybody can and want to, this is up for adoption!!!

(ha!)

1,622 notes - Posted August 8, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[snarkwrites]

-- about my writing --

I’m currently taking requests / asks for headcanons [ can be either NSFW or just in general or a specific idea ] or fluff/filth Alphabet letters. These are the only requests I plan on taking. If you send me prompts / one shot ideas.. I won’t do them, sorry.

To see what the questions are for the fluff / filth alphabet, see [this post]

[ To my thots anon whomst I love with every cell in my body... Your thots are all going to fall under NSFW headcanons so please.. By all means.. Feel free to send me all the thots you want because I really really really really really enjoy writing them!!! Also, you can find the thots you’ve sent me on my nsfw masterlist, they’re not going anywhere. They were so good I had to add them to a masterlist somehow, I couldn’t resist. At everyone else out there, the same applies to you guys.]

So.. Here’s the thing.. I’ve decided that I’m going to be taking 3 kinds of requests. Those are as follows: Headcanons { filthy, fluffy or themed specifically at your choosing }, fluffy alphabet and filthy alphabet letters. These are the only kinds of request I answer so don’t send me prompts / one shot requests or ideas unless I specifically say otherwise.

Bearing the above in mind, I have some guidelines.

I’m only accepting headcanons (nsfw / fluff / specific theme &/or reader), fluffy or filthy alphabet letters. If you send me one shot ideas or prompts, I’m going to delete them because I don’t do one-shots.

One character per ask. I don’t care how many asks you send. But I ask that you only send one character per ask because that makes things a lot more simple for me.

You can send up to 4 letters in each ask if you’re asking for either version of the alphabet. Be sure to let me know whether you want filth or fluff or a mix of both. IE, you could send me something like this; character name - a, b {filth} & j v {fluff}. I’m not saying your ask has to look exactly like this but it does need to clearly state which version you’re asking for. The format I just did above was just the easiest way that came to mind for me.

The more precise you are with the headcanon requests you send, the better I can tailor them to you. If you just want an overall NSFW headcanon or overall fluff, that’s totally fine. But if you want a specific scenario ( friends to lovers, date night, weddings, the sky is the limit here) you need to tell me that. The same goes for if you want a specific reader (POC, plus size, sick, shy, virgin, imprint, etc) then I need to know that. It’s like I said.. The more specifics you give me, that’s more I have to work from.

As far as headcanons go, the things I won’t write are rape, incest / huge age gaps between reader / character. I’ll only write abuse if someone is getting their just desserts at the hands of character on readers behalf. Any asks containing rape / incest / huge age gaps are going to be deleted.

All asks must come to my inbox. I don’t take requests through DM or in comments on a post. If it helps, my anon is on, so you can request to your hearts content.

If the ask box is closed, this means I’m currently not taking headcanon or fluff/filth alphabet requests. This will also be noted on my blog bio and possibly a post stating why/for how long. Anything sent in after the ask box is closed will either be gotten to the next go around or it’ll be deleted, depending on the situation.

First of all... My content is meant strictly for adults. I do write some things that people underage can safely  read, but that is not always the case. I realize that I can’t stop minors from reading my work, but I can tell you outright that I’d rather you skip over it if you’re underage and it clearly states that it’s not written for anyone underage. Again.. I can’t do anything to stop minors from reading my NSFW content beyond just choosing never to post writing on the internet. And I don’t plan on stopping, so.. yeah.

I put warnings on everything. Reading those will definitely save you time and upset. If you keep reading something I’ve written and it upsets you in any way, I’m sorry but I can’t help. I warned you. You chose to take the risk -and most likely, you chose to skip the warning I gave before the post even started... It’s strictly on you now. It’s out of my hands. Any complaints or things of that nature are gonna be laughed at and deleted out of my inbox because I’m not here to argue or censor myself. I’m not your parents, just a peer. If you as a minor choose to look at me, an adult adjacent person, as an authority figure of any sort... First of all, why? Ya’ll.. no.. please don’t. I’m a hot mess, okay? To look at me like any trust worthy authority figure is... A huge error on your own part. Secondly, please don’t. I’m here to enjoy my favorite fandoms / post content for them. I’m not here to please people / censor myself and my content to make everyone else happy... Let me repeat. I put warnings on everything I post. If you keep reading and you read something you’re not supposed to this is now solely your own problem. Sorry, I guess?

I’ve seen other adults saying that they block minors on here. While I’m not gonna do that.. I will not tag minors in my NSFW content knowingly. If I find out you’re a minor and I’m posting something NSFW for a fandom you’ve asked to be tagged in, I will not be tagging you. Sorry. As much as I say I’m not here to parent you and I’m just your peer and you need to think of me like that instead, I’m also not willing to risk anything, either. I’m truly sorry in advance.

While I’m talking about tagging people / my taglist...If you want me to tag you in my writing, you need to be on my taglist. The taglist can be found [ here ] or you can dm / send an ask telling me you want to be added and I will be more than happy to do so. Don’t be afraid to ask me. I don’t mind at all! 

Every now and then, I’ll tag my friends in things I write. If I tag you in something and you don’t want me to, let me know. I won’t do it anymore. I’m not here to overwhelm or annoy anyone and I don’t want to come off as pushy, either. SO.. if you’re getting tagged or whatever and you want me to stop tagging you, all you have to do is let me know.

If you’re not on my tag list (or I don’t know you well enough to know whether you’d potentially want to read something) I will not be tagging you. If you’re a minor and I know for sure/think  you are and it’s smut, I will definitely not be tagging you.

Content I’m not willing to write or  you probably won’t find here: Incest and Rape. Those are my hard no’s. Just the thought of writing something like that makes me feel gross. I’m also not going to be writing huge age gaps in romantic stories either. (the closest I’ll come is like.. 18/19 and up to 24...) I mean absolutely no offense against people who can and do write things like this, I just can’t? 

American Horror Story; tate langdon, ben harmon, kit walker, kyle, dandy mott, jimmy darling, james patrick march, michael langdon, xavier plympton and night stalker.

Arrowverse; oliver queen, john diggle, slade wilson/deathstsroke, barry allen, cisco ramon, ray palmer, mick rory.

Bands / Celebrities; ask before sending because I haven’t done many of these and I’m still adjusting… Off the top of my head I’ve written for / feel comfortable with Nick Groff (ghost adventures), Jon Bernthal.. There are lots of others but alas, I’d stretch this out so badly if I added too many more names.

Boondock Saints movie; Connor Macmanus Murphy Macmanus & Rocco.

Breakfast Club movie; John Bender.

Castle Rock tv series; Dennis Zalewski, The Kid.

Criminal Minds; Derek Morgan, Spencer Reid, Hotch, Tobias Hankel & Adam/Amanda.

Crybaby Movie; wade walker.

CSI tv series; Greg Sanders, Nick Stokes, Warrick Brown, Gil Grissom, Tim Speedle, Ryan Wolfe, Eric Delko, Danny Messer, Don Flack, Mack Taylor.

Dazed & Confused movie; Randal Pink Floyd, Mike Newhouse, Ron Slater, Fred O’Bannion and Kevin Pickford.

DC Cinematic; Digger Harkness.

Detroit Rock City movie; Tripp, Lex, Hawk and Jam.

Fast & The Furious series; Dom Toretto, Han.

Four Brothers movie; Angel, Jack or Bobby Mercer

Friday Night Lights tv series; Tim Riggins, ,Matt Saracen, Landry Clarke, Bobby Riggins, Vince.

General Hospital tv series; Sonny Corinthos, Jason Morgan, Johnny Zacarra, Dante Falconeri, several other of the guys on here…

Ghostbusters 80′s version movie; Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler , Peter Venkman, Winston Zeddemore.

Gotham tv series; Jerome Valeska, Jim Gordon, Joker, Riddler.

Harry Potter movies; Sirius Black, Severus Snape, Fred Weasley, George Weasley, Neville Longbottom.

Horror movies various; Billy Loomis/Scream, Charlie Walker/Scre4m, Wade/ House of Wax, Tom Hanninger/My Bloody Valentine + others. Trust me, there are... So many others. I just didn’t have the brain power to think of them all at the moment.

Law & Order tv series; Barba, Carisi, Stabler.

Lucifer tv series; Lucifer Morningstar.

Luke Cage; Luke Cage, Shades Alvarez.

Marvel Cinematic; Bruce Banner/hulk, Captain america/steve rogers, bucky barnes/winter soldier, eric killmonger, hawkeye/clintbarton, thor, loki, pietro maximoff, venom/eddie brock, starlord/peter quill, ironman/tony stark, wolverine.. I’m a marvel ho.

Mayans MC tv series; Angel Reyes and Ez Reyes.

NCIS tv series; Anthony Dinozzo, Timothy McGee, Marty Deeks, Greg Callen.

On My Block tv series; Spooky Diaz.

Punisher tv series; Billy Russo, Frank Castle.

Riverdale tv series; Jughead Jones, FP Jones, Reggie Mantle, Sweetpea, Archie Andrews.

Shameless tv series; Lip Gallagher.

Sons of Anarchy tv series; Jax Teller, Chibs Telford, Clay Morrow, Juice Ortiz, Opie Winston.

Stranger Things tv series; Jonathan Byers, Billy Hargrove, Steve Harrington, Jim Hopper.

Star Wars movie series; Han Solo, Kylo Ren, Ben Solo, Poe Dameron, Finn.

Supernatural tv series; Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Crowley, Benny Lafitte, Kevin Tran.

Teen Wolf tv series; Stiles Stilinski, Scott McCall, Derek Hale.

The Crow movie series; Eric Draven and Jimmy Quervo/Wicked Prayer.

The Lost Boys movie series; Edgar Frog, Allen Frog, David, Michael Emmerson, Sam Emmerson.

The Outsiders book/movie; Two Bit Matthews, Dally Winston, Darry Curtis, Soda Pop Curtis, Johnny Cade, Steve Randle.

The Walking Dead tv series; Daryl Dixon, Shane walsh, Rick Grimes, Negan, Glenn Rhee.

The Vampire Diaries tv series; Klaus Mikaelson, Kai Parker, Kol Mikaelson, Jeremy Gilbert, Damon Salvatore.

Twelve Rounds 3 movie; Detective John Shaw.

Twilight movies/books; Jasper Hale, Emmett Cullen, Jacob Black, Paul Lahote, Embry Call.

I’m gonna be honest here. I post on my own time, at my own pace. Some days I post constantly, sometimes it’s days or even weeks, and occasionally, a month before I post anything. So.. Now ya know.

If I’m not on and posting, odds are I’m busy, taking a break or whatever. But I’ll come back! I always do. 

Basically, what I’m saying here is I have no set posting schedule. At all. I post what I want when I’m in the mood to do so. Just something to keep in mind when you’re asking for headcanons / nsfw alphabet letters with characters.

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior 4/23/21: MORTAL KOMBAT, DEMON SLAYER, TOGETHER TOGETHER, STREET GANG, SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS

Ugh. Trying to maintain this column as a weekly entity during the final few weeks of the longest Oscar season ever has been really hard, and I’m not sure that will change once the Oscars are over either, because I look at the number of movies being released both theatrically and streaming over the next few weeks, and it makes my head hurt. Sorry for the kvetching, it just is what it is.

There are two big theatrical releases this weekend, Warner Bros’ MORTAL KOMBAT and DEMON SLAYER THE MOVIE: MUGEN TRAIN from FUNImation Entertainment, both which have already been released internationally. I also probably won’t be able to watch or review either before this column gets posted.

Mortal Kombat seems like the easiest sell being that it’s based on the popular Midway Games video game franchise introduced in the early ‘90s that led to a series of films, books, comics and you name it. It was a very popular fighting game that had over a dozen iterations including one in which MK characters fought against DC superheroes.

The very first Mortal Kombat movies opened in 1995, right amidst MK-mania, and it was directed by one Paul W.S. Anderson, his very first movie in a long line of video game-related movies, including a number of Resident Evil and the recent Monster Hunter. There are a lot of people who love those games, and yes, even people who love that and other movies, but to others, who may have been too old to get into the games when they came out, the whole thing about different fighters fighting each other just looks kind of studio. Even though I’m interested to see what producer James Wan brings to this reboot, I just don’t have much interest otherwise.

Unfortunately, and this is pretty daunting, Warner Bros. wasn’t sending out screeners to critics until Wednesday with a review embargo for Thursday night at 7pm, which is never a good sign, and yet, it continues Warner Bros. continuing the trend of being one of the only studios that screeners EVERY movie to film critics rather than just making them pay to see it on Thursday night or Friday. I hope to watch it and maybe add something Thursday night, time-permitting. Not sure you heard but the Oscars are Sunday.

As far as box office, Mortal Kombat opens on Friday but also premieres on HBO Max, and I’m not sure there will be as much urge to see MK on the largest screen possible, as there was with Godzilla vs. Kong. Because of that, I think the cap for this one over the three-day weekend is about $10 million but not much more and probably more frontloaded to Friday than we’ve seen in some time.

Mini-Review: As you can imagine from my statement above, I don’t hold the Mortal Kombat games or other iterations in any particular high esteem, so I’m basically jumping into this movie, directed by Simon McQuoid, just as a movie and not necessarily as a video game movie.

It starts off promising enough like a samurai movie with a flashback where we watch Hiroyuki Sanada’s hero sees his wife and son be killed by Joe Taslim’s character that will later become Sub-Zero. The general principle seems to be that there’s a world where people from other worlds fight each other to gain complete control. The hero is Lewis Tan’s MMA fighter Cole Young, presumably a popular character from the game? He is also soon attacked by Sub-Zero presumably because he’s marked with a dragon tattoo that deems him a champion of these fights, but he needs to find someone named Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) to help him get to the “Mortal Kombat.” At the same time, he meets the movie’s most entertaining character, Kane,

played by Australian actor Josh Lawson, mainly because he swears constantly and cracks wise -- he’s a bit like Wolverine, actually, and he’s actually the best part of the movie.

Otherwise, everyone and everything is always so deadly serious that everyone else we meet just doesn’t have much impact, because frankly, none of these names or characters mean jack shit to me. Sure, some of them sound vaguely familiar but I was more interested in the great Asian actors who turn up including Tadanobu Asano’s Lord Raiden, who is gonna claim Earth if its champions lose at Mortal Kombat. And Sub-Zero basically just shows up and tries to kill everyone.

As with far too many action movies, the action itself is great, the writing and acting not so much.

As it goes along, things become more epic and fantasy-driven but that also makes the dialogue seem even worse. Similarly, the fight choreography is pretty great, but the movie still leans way too heavily on visual FX to keep it more interesting for anyone not too interested in MMA… like myself. When all else fails, they can show off Sub-Zero’s cool ice powers every chance possible as well as the other’s powers, but some of them (like Lord Raiden) just made me think of this as a rip-off of the great Big Trouble in Little China.

The thing is I’m not a fan of the video game nor of MMA, so Mortal Kombat really doesn’t have much to offer me. The whole thing just seems very silly, just like almost everything from the ‘90s. (How’s THAT for a bad take?)

That said, I thought the final battle was great, and I enjoyed some of the gorier aspects of the fights, too, and it all leads to my favorite part, which is the three-way fight between Cole, Sub-Zero, and… actually I’m not sure if it’s a spoiler or not, but it’s a pretty cool fight that almost makes up for some of the dumber characters introduced earlier on. (LIke that guy with four arms. I know he’s a character in the games, but I didn’t even care enough to look up his name.)

It’s perfectly fine that they decided to go Rated R with the movie since most of the nostalgia for this movie and franchise will be towards older guys, but at times, the CG blood is so hinky it feels like the decision to go R-rated was made well after it was filmed.

Even though I went in with the lowest of expectations, I still found most of Mortal Kombat kinda trite and boring, maybe something I’d appreciate more as a teenager but not so much as a grown adult. But what do you expect for a movie based on a video game that’s just a bunch of “cool fights”?

Rating: 5.5/10

And yet, Demon Slayer could be the surprise breakout of the weekend, considering the theatrical success FUNimation has had with theatrical releases of the My Hero Academia movies into theaters in 2018 and 2020, and the hugely successful Dragon Ball Super: Brolly, which grossed $31 million domestically after a surprise $20.2 million in its first five days in roughly 1,200 movies. In fact, it made $7 million its opening Wednesday in January 2019, and FUNimation is hoping that Demon Slayer will have a similar success by opening it for a single day (Thursday) in IMAX theaters before Mortal Kombat takes over on Friday.

Demon Slayer has already grossed $383.7 million internationally compared to Mortal Kombat’s $10.7 million, and you cannot ignore the huge popularity that anime has seen over the past few decades. In fact, a bunch of screenings for Demon Slayer in NYC have already sold out, although you have to bear in mind that these are 25% capacity theaters. Even so, I still think this can make $4 to 5 million on Thursday and another $7 to 8 million over the weekend, depending on the number of theaters. Yes, it will be quite frontloaded, and I’m not sure what the cap is on theaters and how that will affect how it does over the weekend, but expect a big Thursday and a more moderate weekend but one that might give both Mortal Kombat and Godzilla vs. Kong a run for the top of the box office.

Also hitting theaters before streaming on Netflix (on April 30) is THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES, the new animated movie produced by Chris Miller and Philip Lord, following their Oscar win for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It’s a little weird to open a new animated movies, presumably in select theaters, when such a hugely anticipated animated movie like Demon Slayer is opening, but Netflix won’t

The movie itself is directed by Michael Rianda and Jeff Rowe, and it involves a family named the Mitchells, whose eldest daughter Katie (voiced by Abbi Jacobson) is leaving home for college, so her father (voiced by Danny McBride) decides that he’s going to drive her there and use it as the chance for a cross-country family trip. Meanwhile, it’s set up how the world becomes overrun with robots when a tech giant creates a new personal assistant.

I wasn’t sure whether I’d like this even though I’m generally a fan of all of Lord/Miller’s animated movies including both Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs movies. It took me a little time to get into the family and the general premise. In some ways it reminded me of Edgar Wright’s The World’s End where it’s trying to merge these two disparate genres, but when they actually merge, it just doesn’t work as well as it may have seemed on paper. That worry is soon expunged, because Rianda finds ways to integrate the two ideas over time.

On the trip, the Mitchells run into their perfect family neighbors, the Poseys -- voiced by Krissy Teigen, John Legend and Charlyne Yi -- and you’d think they might be a bigger part of the movie then they actually are. I’m not sure I would have liked doing the family-vs.-family thing so soon after last year’s Croods movie, but I did love the dynamics of the Mitchells being a very relatable imperfect family with Danny McBride being particularly great voicing the family patriarch. It even has a really touching Pixar’s Up moment of Katie’s father watching old home movies of them together when she was younger.

In general, the filmmakers have assembled a pretty amazing voice cast that includes Conan O’Brien, Olivia Colman, Fred Armisen and Beck Bennett. Actually the weirdest voice choice is Katie’s younger brother Aaron, voiced by Rianda himself, and it sounds like a strange older man trying to be a kid, so it doesn’t work as well as others.

What I genuinely liked about Mitchells vs. the Machines is that it doesn’t go out of its way to talk down to overly sensitive kiddies or skimp on the action while also including elements that parents will enjoy as well, and to me, that’s the ideal of a family film.

While some might feel that The Mitchells vs. the Machines is fairly standard animated fare, it ends up being a fun cross between National Lampoon’s Vacation (cleaned up for the kiddies) with Will Smith’s I, Robot, actually, and yet, it somehow does work. It’s a shame that it’s really not getting a theatrical release except to be awards-eligible.

Next, we have two really great movies I saw at Sundance this year and really enjoyed immensely…

So as I mentioned, I first saw Nikole Beckwith’s TOGETHER TOGETHER (Bleecker Street), starring Ed Helms and Patti Harrison, at Sundance, and it was one of my favorite movies there with Helms playing a middle-aged single guy named Matt, who hires the much-younger Anna (Harrison) to be his surrogate, because he wants a baby. It’s a tough relationship thrown together due to each of their respective necessities.

Part of what drives the movie is how different Matt and Anna are, him being quite inappropriate with his suggestions and requests but not really having a working knowledge of female anatomy, pregnancy, delivery etc, but being really eager to raise a child and having the money that Anna clearly does not.

While I was familiar with Helms from The Office, The Hangover, etc. I really didn’t know Patti Harrison at all. Apparently, she’s a stand-up comic who hasn’t done a ton of acting, comedic or otherwise. That’s pretty amazing when you watch this movie and see her dry sardonic wit playing well against Helms’ generally lovable doofus. What I also didn’t realize and frankly, I don’t really see this as something even worth mentioning, is that she’s a trans woman playing a clearly CIS part, and she kills it. I certainly wouldn’t have known nor did it really affect my enjoyment of the movie, yet it still seems like such a brave statement on the part of the director and Harrison herself. The thing is that Harrison isn't just a terrific actress in her own right, but she brings out aspects of Helms that I never thought I would ever possibly see. (If it isn't obvious, I'm not the biggest fan of Helms.)

The movie has a great sense of humor, as it gets the most out of this awkward duo and then throws so many great supporting actors into the cast around them that it’s almost impossible not to enjoy the laughs. There’s the testy Sonogram tech, played by Sufe Bradshaw from Veep, who tries to maintain her composure and bite her tongue, but you can tell she’s having none of it. Others who show up, including Tig Notero, Norah Dunn and Fred Melamed. Just when you least expect it, Anna Conkle from Pen15, shows up as one of those delivery gurus that make the two of them feel even more awkward.

What’s nice is that this never turns into the typical meet cute rom-com that some might be expecting, as Beckwith’s film is more about friendship and companionship and being there for another, and the lack of that romantic spark even as chemistry develops between them is what makes this film so enjoyably unique. Beckwith’s sense of humor combined with her dynamic duo stars makes Together Together the best comedy about pregnancy probably since Knocked Up.

Another great Sundance movie and actually one of my two favorite recent documentaries AND one of the best movies I’ve seen this year is… you know what? I haven’t done this for a while so this is this week’s “CHOSEN ONE”!! (Fanfare)

(Photo courtesy: Robert Fuhring/Courtesy Sesame Workshop)

Marilyn (Mad Hot Ballroom) Agrilo’s STREET GANG: HOW WE GOT TO SESAME STREET (Screen Media/HBO Documentaries) is a fantastic doc about the long-running and popular PBS kids show that’s every bit as good as Morgan Neville’s Mr. Rogers doc, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Which was robbed of an Oscar nomination a few years back.

Let me make something clear on the day I’m writing this, April 21, 2021, that this is my favorite movie of the year, the only one I’ve already given a 10/10, and the end of the year might come around, and I have a feeling it will still be my #1.

You see, I was raised a Sesame Street kid. It’s not like I didn’t read or play outside or not get the attention of my parents or family, but there was so much of my happy, young life that I could attribute to my time watching Sesame Street, and when you watch Marily Agrilo’s amazing doc, it all comes rushing back. There is stuff in this movie that I haven’t seen in maybe 50 years but that I clearly remember laughing at, and there’s stuff that got into the mind of a young Ed that influenced my love of humor and music and just outright insanity. Sure, I loved The Muppet Show, too, but it was a different experience, so to watch a movie about the show with all sorts of stuff I had never seen or knew, that’s what makes Street Gang such a brilliant documentary, and easily one of the best we’ll see this year. Of that I have no doubt.

From the very origins of the show with Joan Cooney developing a show that will be entertaining and educational to the kids being plopped down in front of the TV in the ‘60s and ‘70s, so they can learn something, it’s just 1:46 of straight-up wonderment.

Besides getting to see a lot of the beloved actors/characters from the show and many of the surviving players like Carol Spinney aka Big Bird/Oscar, you can see how this show tried to create something that wasn’t just constantly advertising to young minds.

More than anything, the show is a love letter to the bromance between Jim Henson and Frank Oz, and you get to see so many of their bits and outtakes that make their Muppets like Burt and Ernie and Grover and, of course, Kermit, so beloved by kids that even cynical adults like myself would revert childhood just thinking about them. Then on top of that there’s the wonderful music and songs of Christopher Cerf and Joe Raposo and others, songs that would permeate the mainstream populace and be remembered for decades.

The movie is just a tribute to the joy of childhood and learning to love and sing and dance and just have fun and not worry about the world. I’m not sure if kids these days have anything like that.

It also gets quite sad, and I’m not embarrassed to say that in the sequence that covers the death of Mr. Hooper, I was outright bawling, and a few minutes later, when Jim Henson dies in 1990, I completely lost it. That’s how much this show meant to me and to so many people over the decades, and Brava to Ms. Agrilo for creating just the perfect document to everything that Sesame Street brought to so many people’s lives. This is easily the best documentary this year, and woe be to any Academy that doesn’t remember it at year’s end.

The other fantastic doc out this week, though I actually got to see it last year, is Lisa Rovner’s SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS (Metrograph Pictures), which will play at the Metrograph, both on demand and part of its Digital Live Screenings (available to join for just $5 a month!). This is an endlessly fascinating doc that looks at the women of electronic music and the early days of synthesizers and synthesis and some of the female pioneers. It’s narrated by Laurie Anderson, which couldn’t be the more perfect combination.

The movie covers the likes of Suzanne Cianni; Forbidden Planet composers Louis and Bebe Barron, who created the first all-electronic score for that movie; the amazing Wendy Carlos, who electronically scored one of my favorite movies of all time, Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange; Delia Derbyshire, who was also the subject of Caroline Catz’s short, Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and Legendary Tapes, which tragically, I missed when it premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in March. Derbyshire was also famous for creating the iconic theme to “Doctor Who” while working at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in the '60s. Others who appear in the movie, either via archival footage or more recent interviews are Pauline Oliveros and Laurie Spiegel, who I was less familiar with.

The point is that as someone who was a fantastic for electronic music and synthesizers from a very early age and for someone who feels he’s very familiar with all angles of music, I learned a lot from watching Rovner’s film, and I enjoyed it just as much a second time, because the footage assembled proves what amazing work these women were doing and rarely if ever getting the credit for what they brought to electronic music, something that still resonates with the kids today who love things like EDM.

An endlessly fascinating film with so much great music and footage, Sisters with Transistors can be watched exclusively through the Metrograph’s Live Screening series, so don’t miss it!

Hitting Shudder this week is Chris Baugh’s BOYS FROM COUNTY HELL (Shudder), which I didn’t get a chance to watch before writing this week’s column, but Shudder in general has been knocking it out of the park with the amazing horror movies it’s been releasing on a weekly basis. This one involves a quarelling father and son on a road who must survive the night when they awaken an ancient Irish vampire.

Also hitting theaters and streamers and digital this week:

THE MARIJUANA CONSPIRACY (Samuel Goldwyn Films)

MY WONDERFUL WANDA (Zeitgeist Films)

WET SEASON (Strand Releasing)

CRESTONE (Utopia)

VANQUISH (Lionsgate)

BLOODTHIRSTY (Brainstorm)

SASQUATCH (Hulu)

SHADOW AND BONE (Netflix)

And that wraps up this week. Next week? No idea… I know there’s stuff coming out but I probably won’t think about it until after THE OSCARS!!!! On Sunday.

[that-shamrock-vibe]

Disney+ What To Watch: My Top 10 Favourite Disney Classics

Honourable Mentions

So before revealing my #1 choice tomorrow, I am going to share the four movies that just missed out on making my Top 10 list and a brief overview as to why there are where they are.

Tarzan

I cannot tell you how close Tarzan came to my Top 10 and it did almost topple The Little Mermaid, but for me Ursula, the songs and music and the underwater setting just beat the jungle-based coming of age story.

However, while the villain and the music were the best parts of The Little Mermaid, Tarzan does everything else better aside from the aforementioned.

Not only is Tarzan a very likeable individual, but Jane is by far one of my favourite and funniest Disney characters going...It’s Minnie Driver, I love her in everything.

Also, while this isn’t the typical Disney formula of the characters singing the songs, having Phil Collins as the soundtrack is still an interesting way to go. I don’t quite know how it works with the jungle theme but just like Minnie Driver I enjoy hearing Phil Collins in anything.

The movie is slow and takes its time with the romance element of the story. But I feel the reason it isn’t quite in the Top 10, aside from the fact The Little Mermaid does have the underwater world element, is that Ursula beats out Clayton...despite Clayton being voiced by Brian Blessed.

Also there are a few unanswered questions or even plot holes that don’t make sense in the movie. Terk is identified as female but is never treated as such, but because she is female and falls out with Tarzan when he spends all of his time with Jane does that mean she likes him in a romantic sense?

Also Clayton is quite clearly a poacher but was hired by Jane and her father to help them study gorillas? So how is it a shock when it is revealed he’s a villain who wants to hunt and kill them?

I’m guessing it is some sort of Disney logic, but the gorillas, elephants and Tarzan communicate in English to each other, yet Tarzan has to learn English from Jane to communicate with humans...but unlike Doctor Who where it’s explained that the TARDIS translates every language there is nothing to explain how the gorillas and elephants know English!

Peter Pan

In all honesty it’s a constant toss-up between the three choices I am picking here and The Little Mermaid for my #10 choice. With Peter Pan I think it is a case of being a classic childhood story but never really elevating above that for me.

When it comes to the story, it’s always that theory that Neverland manifests from Wendy’s imagination as Captain Hook is always portrayed by the same actor as her father and so the simultaneous character traits of the father’s anger at the start of the story being similar to Hook’s relentless villainy is quite interesting.

However, as I got older it became more apparent that Peter Pan being the boy who never grew up has a similar mindset to that of Mowgli who was raised by wolves because they haven’t really learned the difference between right and wrong and therefore believe they can do whatever they want.

For that reason, Pan isn’t exactly a likeable character and because Hook for a large part of the movie comes across as comedic due to his fear of the Crocodile, there’s no one really to root for in this movie.

Hercules

I love me some Greek Mythology and Hercules is definitely an underrated movie if nothing else but for how it brings Greek Mythology into Disney, but as much as I do love that element, I do understand why the movie isn’t overly appreciated in the mainstream.

I do think that mixing the gospel with both Disney and Greek Mythology, particularly at the time when you had a more classic feel to Disney music, was a choice and in my opinion it was a choice that worked by clearly wasn’t everyone’s liking.

It’s also interesting that the movie very much promotes an exaggurated form of a person’s physical appearance in it’s main characters. You either have Herc who is built and bulky, Meg who’s waistline is practically nothing, Phil who is obese and then Hades who has no defined shape but who obviously looks gaunt.

Danny DeVito and James Woods are both the stand outs of the movie for me, Outside of that the cast do a great job but there has to be a reason as to why the movie has not made the impact other Disney movies have.

Alice in Wonderland

As a purveyor of nonsense myself there is something so charming and almost addictive about this story, and for some reason the Disney original is the one that holds up the best.

I am not a fan of the choir-toned music Disney had going on in this period but everything else about this movie really works because it isn’t supposed to. I do love this story so as long as they tell it right I am good and this movie definitely tells it right because it’s all over the place.

The most recent references to this story are in DC’s Batwoman with the villain Alice and it’s easy to see why she was driven mad both with her upbringing and also being fixated on this story.

The quotability for the movie is second to none, I do find myself often saying a lot of the sayings that come from this movie and while I’m not entirely happy with the animation on some of the scenes I find the overall movie to be something to behold.

So what do you guys think? Post your comments and check out more Disney+ What to Watch Top 10s as well as more Top 10 Lists and other posts.

[seven-oomen]

First, I hope you’re enjoying your game.  One of my friends posted about how she’d just gotten her copy of it, and her husband’s response was basically “so, I’ll just bring you food occasionally and see you in a few days?"  Also, I hope you’re feeling better.  And man you are KILLING ME with these previews.  Oh god, Peter, what are you planning now?  How bad is this gonna hurt and for how long?  (Don’t answer that, I’m afraid to know. XD )

I think all those Hogwarts Houses are excellent choices.  I always think it’s fun to see how people sort various characters, because I rarely have any that I feel are firmly one House (maybe it’s because I’m a proud HuffleClaw, myself, doomed to waffle between Houses every time I take a quiz or read an analysis on the subject.)  Side not - can you imagine the furor that would have occurred about a Slytherin and a Gryffindor hooking up in Fourth Year (I think?), and then pulling an innocent little Hufflepuff transfer under their spell?  Would any of them have played Quidditch?  (Peter I feel definitely played, though I can’t decide what position.  Undecided on the other two.)

Poor Peter, having to behave himself.  Although debatably as long as he kept the fangs put away it wouldn’t necessarily be a risk, though I can see him being worried anyway.  That’s why he needs to find someone to spin his fur into yarn he can then make them scarves/gloves/sweaters/etc with.  And why he’s so into the clothes sharing.  Anything to get his scent on them as thoroughly as possible.

And I am so here for PTA Dad Peter.  Helping out at school functions so he can keep an eye on the younger kids.  Building new, supportive relationships with his older kids, helping them with college applications and essays, making up lists of stuff they’ll need for dorm rooms, finding apartments if any are going to the same or nearby schools and can share, making sure they all have pictures and mementos to help combat homesickness.  And now I’m thinking about the memory quilt again.  Goddammit I don’t want to make myself cry.  Again.  "Imagine Peter hearing their heartbeats for the first time."  Oh nevermind, I see you’ll do it for me.  Ugh, my feels.  Peter shifting to his wolf form and curling protectively around them all the time, head pressed up to their abdomen so that he can listen and scent at maximum effectiveness.  Them just gently stroking through his fur until one or both fall asleep.  (Also, how quickly do the other wolves in the family pick up on the changes in scent?  How do they react?  How do the older kids react to the idea of more siblings in general?)

And you know that whichever one wasn’t the one pregnant at the time would be super protective at the time, then turn around and insist they were fine and that the others were worrying unnecessarily when they were the one pregnant.  (Also, glad your brother was okay!)  I also like that it apparently took them nearly 20 years to learn about planning for this sort of thing.  I know you’ve mentioned Peter and Chris being the ones that do the stupid thing next chapter (or something to that effect), but really I feel the biggest moment of "what the hell, guys?” is Noah getting knocked up just two months after Chris.  It’s like, you guys had a huge, in your face, live example of why protection is important, and yet…  I’m also just going to assume that they have at least a king size bed to accommodate that many people, even if many of them are tiny people, and none of them mind piling.  That’s still a lot of bodies cramming into one bed.  (That much room would also come in very handy for…other reasons, which is why I feel certain Peter would insist upon it.) 

Also, omg, I was not expecting to be attacked by those pictures like that.  Tag your porn, dude XD .  But really, can you imagine the poor, unsuspecting college friends their kids bring home for visits getting a triple barrel of that with no warning?  Like they’ve just seen the goofy, weird pics that they have on their phone/on their walls.  They were not prepared for the sheer DILF power of that household live and in person.  But then, is anyone, really?

Loving all the names.  I actually know a guy named John who has a son named Jackson, so that one was particularly amusing to me.  I also noticed that none of the kids have been named after anyone in Noah’s family, at least so far.  And don’t worry, I wasn’t expecting to have those spoiled yet, though I’m happy to know you liked some of my suggestions :D .  Now if I could just remember which all ones I went with…  Didn’t really think to put it in anywhere, but for some reason I’ve always liked Alexander as a middle name for Peter, though I remain undecided on the other two.

And yes, loving the idea of more family cosplay.  Oh god, they would never get ANYWHERE at a con because they’d be getting stopped every 3 feet for pictures.  For Star Trek, I feel like they’d do groupings from assorted series and versions.  Chris, Peter, and Noah are totally OS Spock, Kirk, and Bones (Peter with strategically torn shirt, of course).  I think Melissa would be their Uhura, and Natalie would be Yeoman Rand (she wants to see if she can fake the hairstyle), because I dare anyone to tell them they can’t pull off dresses that short.  Since he has sword training from his hunter background, Melissa makes Julio be their Sulu.  Boyd, Derek, and Jordan would be Picard, Riker, and Data (Derek would totally figure out how to do that weird way Riker sits down, too.)  After much debate, I feel Stiles would be Kirk from the recent films (NuTrek, or whatever they call it), Jackson would be Spock, and Malia would be Bones.  I think Lydia would make an excellent Uhura for them, as well.  Scott would be Scotty because he can remember to answer to it, and it gives him an excuse to do a TERRIBLE fake accent.  I’m leaning towards Isaac for their Chekov, but beyond that can’t think what to do with everybody else, I’m not familiar enough with the different tv shows.

Marvel we’ve talked about some.  DC I have a few random ideas.  I always thought it would be funny to see Peter, Derek, Jackson, and Liam do the assorted Robins.  While I feel Peter is DEFINITELY more of a Jason personality wise, I think he’d be far more comfortable in Dick’s costume that Derek would be, and if Derek was Jason the heights would line up better.  Jackson would be Tim, and Liam would be Damian (because who else would play DC’s tiny and angry than TW’s tiny and angry?)  Also, don’t overlook the fun and variety of villains DC offers.  The last group costume I did was a cross between Bill & Ted and assorted Bat-villains.  We called it Bruce & Dick’s Excellent Adventure, and even photoshopped a sign to carry to help people get it.  Among our line-up was Cleo-Catra, Ivybeth the First, The Poison Queen, Harley Antoinette, Joker Napoleon, Freud Nygma, and Bane-thoven.  (I really need to do something with the various pieces of my costume someday.)  I know there are several girls in the Bat-fam now, too, depending on who all wants to be a part of it, or if they want to skew more Justice League/Teen Titans/Young Justice.

Oh man, Disney.  So many options.  I feel like Lydia and Allison as Ariel and Prince Eric is a given.  I also like the idea of Kira and Malia as Belle and the Beast, partially because of Malia’s issues about having to hide her nature, and also because I think she could absolutely rock that suit.  Ben could join them as Chip.  (Stiles would actually make an excellent Belle, but I feel that might just get weird.)  I can see Danny helping Erica rig up a Sleeping Beauty dress with strands of LEDs that keep shifting from pink to blue to green so the dress keeps appearing to change color (it’s a massive hit.)  I don’t know why, but I really want Stiles and Jackson as Elsa and Anna for some reason.  Scott can join them as either Kristoff or Olaf, depending on the mood he’s in.  Can’t quite decide for the other pack kids.  Since the theme is nominally just fairy tales, I think the dads could just opt for a classier, fancier version of their Red Riding Hood looks.  Maybe go for a steampunk edge or something (I would have included links here, but Google was not my friend today and I couldn’t find quite what I wanted.)  Rich velvets and wools in vivid scarlet and forest-y greens, black and deep brown leather and suede, lots of polished buttons and buckles, loose cotton shirts unlaced at the throat.  Mmm, yes.  And Peter could have one of those super fancy Victorian type nightgowns with the long sleeves and high necks made out of super soft and fine materials.  Instead of getting some kind of mask to wear, he’d just do his partial/beta/whatever you want to call it shift and let them add extra fur on with makeup to blend it in.  Everyone just thinks it’s amazing effects work.  He does opt for some cute wolf paw slippers since cons tend to get snotty about people going around barefoot.  (Applying and removing the fur is also how they learn his ears are particularly…sensitive…to a delicate touch in that form.)  

Lord of the Rings.  Yes.  Like, I can’t figure out who or any real details right now but.  Just.  Yes.

I feel like some years they enter the costume contest and some they don’t, just depending on their moods.  (They totally take the Jurassic Park group to a con and people adore it.  It makes for great skits.)

Random bonus thought for the day concerns dancing.  I was thinking about the whole drag queen thing, and whether Jungle was around in the 90s, and it sort of segued into what types of dancers they are.  I feel like Peter is a very good dancer.  Not quite competition level, maybe, but very skilled, nonetheless.  Like Malia, he’s just very comfortable in himself, in all forms, which helps with spatial and bodily awareness, in addition to his natural grace and balance.  I also feel he’s the most likely to have taken, like, ballroom lessons or similar as a kid, maybe at a parent or grandparent’s insistence.  With Noah I keep thinking about the various videos I’ve seen of Dylan dancing both outside of TW and as Stiles, and I feel his dad would have a very similar style of awkward disaster from the chest up, undulations worthy of a harem girl from the waist down (those Stilinski boys tend to leave a lot of confused boners in their wake.)  In Noah’s case, settling into his frame after that last growth spurt and learning self-defense/martial arts helped smooth most of the awkward out, but it resurfaces every so often.  Chris I think would be the least likely to dance, just because I feel his background would make him very self-conscious about it, whether he wants to feel that way or not.  He’ll dance if it’s just the three of them or just family, or for a slow dance, but that’s normally it.  However, if he’s drunk enough, or if Noah or Peter have dragged him into a dark corner to makeout for a while and gotten him all distracted and relaxed, he can be pursued out onto the floor to show off some actually pretty sweet moves once he lets go.

Anyway, gonna try and wrap this up, because I just realized it’s way later than I realized, and I should try and get some sleep at some point.  Enjoy your game, I hope it’s epic!

When this little paragraph made me realize I had a gaping plot hole in this chapter and I got to go back to fix it. My god my friend, you are a lifesaver!

I also like that it apparently took them nearly 20 years to learn about planning for this sort of thing.  I know you’ve mentioned Peter and Chris being the ones that do the stupid thing next chapter (or something to that effect), but really I feel the biggest moment of "what the hell, guys?” is Noah getting knocked up just two months after Chris.  It’s like, you guys had a huge, in your face, live example of why protection is important, and yet…

Because oh yeah I wanted to make it canon that wolves can detect a heartbeat of the embryo at 4-5 weeks. Which is about a week after the heart starts beating. And oh yeah, Chris is two months along by the time Noah gets pregnant... shit. I wrote something else in that flashback.

And now I got to fix that, so cheers!

I also finished writing my chapter today! Yay! All glorious 13K of it. And I’ll be editing and posting tomorrow (or technically later today as it is past midnight.) Oh, I’m so excited, I’m so excited to see what you think!

As for the game, my god it is awesome!!! I played a few hours today but my heart raced so much I had to pause after two hours because I was getting dizzy because of my heart. But it’s a great game so far, very accessible and it just draws me in completely. It’s so good.

Definitely what I needed after my day at work.

hehehe I’m happy to see my previews and writing and getting emotions, it sounds so bad, but that makes me smile because it’s getting the desired response and that’s awesome. 

“Cue Lego Movie music”

can you imagine the furor that would have occurred about a Slytherin and a Gryffindor hooking up in Fourth Year (I think?), and then pulling an innocent little Hufflepuff transfer under their spell?  Would any of them have played Quidditch?  (Peter I feel definitely played, though I can’t decide what position.  Undecided on the other two.)

I think Peter would’ve been a chaser or beater, somehow those seem to fit him well. Noah played but he was a keeper. (which would be funny if Peter was a chaser since they would get to battle lover’s disputes on the quidditch pitch) Chris I feel wouldn’t play quidditch, he’s too busy trying to keep track of his studies and really just likes to watch the sport but not participate. I think he’d be more into care of magical creatures and defends against the dark arts than any kind of sport. Though he does join and excel at the dueling club.

And the scandal of Peter and Noah dating from fourth year on would be massive, people can barely wrap their heads around it. But they’re happy and they’re just doing their own thing. And they don’t pay attention to anyone else but what they think and what Chris thinks of them.

Peter shifting to his wolf form and curling protectively around them all the time, head pressed up to their abdomen so that he can listen and scent at maximum effectiveness.  Them just gently stroking through his fur until one or both fall asleep.  (Also, how quickly do the other wolves in the family pick up on the changes in scent?  How do they react?  How do the older kids react to the idea of more siblings in general?)

<3 <3 it’s honestly an adorable image. The twins are very active when dad’s curled up around them, knowing just where to kick so Peter’s wakes up by a foot to the face. Though he doesn’t mind and just nudges back gently, letting out a low grumbling noise or whine that he knows the babies can hear in utero. As for how quickly, it depends on whether or not they smelled it before. Jackson, Ben, or Scott wouldn’t pick up on it. They weren’t wolves around pregnancies before. Malia and Derek catch on quickly though. They start noticing the scent change at around 5-6 weeks and hear the little heartbeats of the new family members.

Malia is moderately excited, she’s a little worried about her dad and how he will handle pregnancy at his age. (Although he’s like 35 when he gets pregnant, that counts as a geriatric pregnancy, dad... I’m worried.)

Stiles just flips between the two of extreme worry where he read up on pre-eclampsia and other pregnancy complications and birth complications and omg what if that happens. But he’s also so so excited because omg he’s finally gonna be an older brother!!

(He knows he’s Ben’s older brother, and he adores the tyke, but it’s different when you have a pregnancy close instead of a five-year-old sibling from one day to another.)

Jackson is pouty and a bit grumpy. He feels like he’s losing baby status in the family more and more and he doesn’t know how to deal. (Ben was a bit difficult to get used to for him but Chris handled it well by setting time aside for his baby Jackson. It helped. But now he’s a teen and there’s going to be two more babies and he’s- he doesn’t know how to feel. When Chris breaks the news he wants to have another baby he’s even more torn but he does come around, deciding that he will always be the baby of the family, even when he’s not.

It’s a good compromise. And the three parents set some time for each of their kids so everyone gets attention.

Allison handles it the best out of the teens, she’s very excited for all of them and immediately to volunteers helping with decorating the new nursery. She paints a few awesome looking murals of Winnie the Pooh or Bambi or some other cutesy Disney animals (Or maybe even a space/star wars or a fairy tale ala Fables theme?) and just goes all out. She also convinces Malia to quilt a blanket for the new baby and helps her knit a few cute hats. She’s just extremely excited and happy.

Ben is very happy too, he’s finally not the youngest anymore and he’s happy to be an older brother. He also finds it fascinating to learn how pregnancy works and how those babies got in there in the first place. They let him tell them how it works and explain some basic details, sperm, egg, you need both to have a baby and the baby grows in pops and papa’s belly. But they leave out any details that Ben doesn’t figure out or doesn’t ask about to keep it more age-appropriate for him. 

Though Ben’s smart and he figures out a lot on his own. Noah and Peter are honestly impressed by Ben’s deductive skills. They knew Jackson and Stiles had them, but they hadn’t expected Ben to show them too. He’s a quiet observer.

They were not prepared for the sheer DILF power of that household live and in person.  But then, is anyone, really?

Honestly, I don’t think anyone is. Nobody can resist the sheer DILF power.

Since the theme is nominally just fairy tales, I think the dads could just opt for a classier, fancier version of their Red Riding Hood looks.  Maybe go for a steampunk edge or something (I would have included links here, but Google was not my friend today and I couldn’t find quite what I wanted.)  Rich velvets and wools in vivid scarlet and forest-y greens, black and deep brown leather and suede, lots of polished buttons and buckles, loose cotton shirts unlaced at the throat.  Mmm, yes.  And Peter could have one of those super fancy Victorian type nightgowns with the long sleeves and high necks made out of super soft and fine materials.  Instead of getting some kind of mask to wear, he’d just do his partial/beta/whatever you want to call it shift and let them add extra fur on with makeup to blend it in.  Everyone just thinks it’s amazing effects work.  He does opt for some cute wolf paw slippers since cons tend to get snotty about people going around barefoot.  (Applying and removing the fur is also how they learn his ears are particularly…sensitive…to a delicate touch in that form.)  

I- this whole thing? yes. Headcanon accepted because it is that good. I can literally just see them going in steampunk hunter, red riding hood and the wolf. thank you for putting that image in my mind XD

I feel like Peter is a very good dancer.  Not quite competition level, maybe, but very skilled, nonetheless.  Like Malia, he’s just very comfortable in himself, in all forms, which helps with spatial and bodily awareness, in addition to his natural grace and balance.  I also feel he’s the most likely to have taken, like, ballroom lessons or similar as a kid, maybe at a parent or grandparent’s insistence.  With Noah I keep thinking about the various videos I’ve seen of Dylan dancing both outside of TW and as Stiles, and I feel his dad would have a very similar style of awkward disaster from the chest up, undulations worthy of a harem girl from the waist down (those Stilinski boys tend to leave a lot of confused boners in their wake.)  In Noah’s case, settling into his frame after that last growth spurt and learning self-defense/martial arts helped smooth most of the awkward out, but it resurfaces every so often.  Chris I think would be the least likely to dance, just because I feel his background would make him very self-conscious about it, whether he wants to feel that way or not.  He’ll dance if it’s just the three of them or just family, or for a slow dance, but that’s normally it.  However, if he’s drunk enough, or if Noah or Peter have dragged him into a dark corner to makeout for a while and gotten him all distracted and relaxed, he can be pursued out onto the floor to show off some actually pretty sweet moves once he lets go.

Malia definitely inherited Peter’s dancing skills, I like to think Jackson did as well. Those three are the best dancers in the family. They just move with natural ease. 

Allison is a decent dancer, her gymnastics training really helps but she’s not as fluent as her brother, sister, or dad.

I feel like Noah and Stiles have awkward flailing down to a T but every once in awhile there’s a hip movement worthy of a fucking professional dancer and it’s very confusing. But yeah, totally agree with that assessment of them.

Chris isn’t much of a dancer and neither is Ben. Both of them are very self-conscious. Chris gets better when he’s drunk because he let’s go of insecurity but even then it’s not great. He just doesn’t dance, it’s not his thing. Although he was a very good grinding and hip rotation move. He’s also pretty good at jump style once he lets himself go and just turns his mind off. but the rhythmic jumping just feels natural to him. He also likes to slow dance since he can just bury his face in Noah’s shoulder or nuzzle Peter’s cheek and just forget about everything else.

Also, I like to think they all love to sing. Chris’s voice is best suited for country I feel like. Noah’s more for singer-songwriter. And Peter just loves singing pop songs and he knows how to hit some high notes. 

And now I am going to bed because It’s almost three am XD And I need some sleeps. Thankfully I have the day off this sunday.

[cacchieressa]

Name ten favourite characters from ten different things (books, tv, film, etc.) then tag ten people

@gffa tagged me and you guys, this is hard. And the list could change at any moment! Certainly it’s not in any specific order except that which I thought of the characters, but here we go:

Princess Leia, Star Wars. PERFECT SPACE PRINCESS. ROLE MODEL FOR LIFE. And i mean that, because I ‘met’ her when I was 7 and she showed me that a princess could be smart, funny, angry and in charge of all the dumb boys around her. She could rescue herself when given the opportunity, and she could bear up under tremendous strain and sorrow to do what needed to be done. She could also choke a motherfucker out with the chain he put around her neck while wearing a terrible metal bikini. When the dumb boys I knew as a kid insisted Han was the “other” Yoda was referring to, I knew it had to be Leia and much like Leia herself, I was very satisfied when I was right and I didn’t let them forget it either. *g*

Eowyn, Lord of the Rings. Another amazing princess (we had mostly only princesses or plucky girl detectives when I was a kid, so bear with me, you’ll see some of each on this list), who didn’t want to be left behind, who wanted glory and also to not be constantly told that it wasn’t her place to fight and die for her king. I also feel like in the films, the Theodeon and Eowyn storyline is the most emotionally resonant and it never fails to make me cry.

Tenar, Earthsea. I love everything about Tenar - when she’s a petty teenage priestess trying to figure out how to be an adult in the Place and when she’s teasing Ged in the darkness of the treasure room and when she’s a grown woman, widowed and still trying to fit herself into the slot society has chosen for her, brave and loving and full of gentle humor at her own (and sometimes, Ged’s) expense.

Sirius Black, Harry Potter. Oh man, I can, have, and will fight people on the internet on Sirius Black’s behalf because he’s such a fucking mess but he’s trying okay. He’s had a shitty life and that’s not an excuse but it is an explanation. He escapes a terrible family situation, he rebels against their indoctrination to fight Nazis Death Eaters, and then he feels so consumed with guilt that he accepts his imprisonment for crimes he didn’t commit for TWELVE YEARS. Until he sees that Harry is once again in danger from Wormtail, and then he executes an unaided escape from Azkaban to protect him. Was he a bully at age 15? Are his priorities skewed? Is his development arrested? Did he contain contradictions? Did he need a lot of help and support he did not get by being locked back up in his childhood horror of a home? Yes to all of this. I don’t care. He still deserved better than what the narrative gave him.

Dan Rydell, Sports Night. DOER OF WONDERFUL DEEDS. Danny is the best, no lie. I don’t understand how anyone prefers Casey when Dan is RIGHT THERE being AMAZING. (I mean, I don’t actually dislike Casey? But I don’t understand why everyone thinks he’s the best when he’s clearly not.) He’s funny, he’s smart, he’s cute, he loves sports (except soccer), he’s a writer, he’s socially conscious, and he doesn’t need $2 off to drink a blue margarita as big as your head.

Malcolm Reynolds, Firefly. I don’t know what it is about Mal that makes me love him so much - he’s broken and desperate and hard, and he’s absolutely shitty to Inara in ways that can’t easily be remediated, but he still has moments of softness and kindness, mostly involving River and Kaylee and his ship. He’s someone who’s had his loyalty betrayed and lost faith in everything he believed, and he yet can still command loyalty and belief from others. Also for some reason I find his voice really easy to write.

Veronica Mars, Veronica Mars. This new season just reminded me of how much I love her. She is also hard and broken and lonesome, but also brilliant and sharp and occasionally kind. She’s a mess but she’s aware of it, and while she’s not trying to get herself better, she works to make sure other people don’t end up the same way she has.

Stephanie Brown, DC Comics. Steph is kind of the same but opposite of Veronica - she decided she wouldn’t let all the shit that happened to her make her hard; she makes an active choice to be kind and hopeful while also punching evil in the face. Like many of my favorite characters, Steph steps up, knowing that if not her, no one else is going to stop her B-List villain father, and she continues to step up and get up when even the people on her own side are telling her to get lost, that she’s not worth the time and investment, and she proves them wrong over and over. If the other Bats are in service of vengeance or justice or making sure no one else loses their parents in an alleyway, Steph is about hope - that things can get better, that people can rise above circumstances and expectations. Also, fuck you, DC, she was both Robin and Batgirl and you can’t take that away.

Steve Rogers, MCU. Oh Steve. Steve also steps up and gets up, time and time again. His integrity and strong moral compass, his sarcasm and sense of humor, his shrewdness, his ability to inspire everyone around him to want to be the best version of themselves they can be, his complete lack of self-preservation and stubbornness in service of doing what he thinks is right even if he’s basically cutting off his nose to spite his face (I mean, it’s not always a good thing; there are sometimes better ways to get to the right thing, Steve, as Bucky, Natasha, and Sam have all had to remind him at times). 

Katara, Avatar: the Last Airbender. Katara has many admirable qualities, but what I like best about her is her anger and how freely she’s allowed to express it. She’ll call out her brother for his sexism and she’ll call out Master Pakku, too, and she’ll stone cold threaten anyone who offers harm to anyone she cares about but she’ll also find room for forgiveness in her heart for someone who hurt her and the people she cares about. But she also sometimes won’t and that’s okay too. She’ll take on the thankless role of team mom because someone has to, and she’ll put in the hard work and dedication needed to not only become a master waterbender at 14, but also teach the Avatar to master it, too. But she still has her soft and silly and girly side, and she indulges that when she can.

[justgotham]

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains details of tonight’s Gotham series finale.

“I just think the DC Universe is so incredibly deep and vivid, and I’m a big fan of it all,” says Gotham executive producer Danny Cannon of the world that spawned the inspiration for the Fox series that came to a Dark Knight conclusion tonight. “I don’t think there’s any limitations for what DC can do right now. I really don’t.”

In that vein, “The Beginning …” episode penned by showrunner John Stephens on Thursday brought the Bruno Heller-developed Batmanbackstory show to its logical end with a 10-year time jump from last week and bumping right up against the canon of the Caped Crusader.

Bruce Wayne is back in town, a collection of villains have broken out of the dreaded Arkham Asylum including a certain killer clown and Detective Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue) has been framed for murder in tonight’s almost stand-alone ender. Add Gotham Police Commissioner James Gordon (Ben McKenzie) pledging retirement as his family are under threat and you’ve got yourself an episode that either ends the Gotham tale or sets it up for a whole new run.

To that end, I spoke with Cannon and Stephens about the Rob Bailey-directed finale, how they got to this end after five seasons and whether it was part of the original plan. Currently working on another Batman story, the July 28-debuting Pennyworth for Epix, Cannon also revealed what reaching 100 episodes tonight with the Gotham finale means to him in the Peak TV era.

DEADLINE: So we’ve finally seen Batman in Gotham, literally and figuratively. Was how it all played out in the series finale how you envisioned it all those years ago?

CANNON: When we pitched the pilot, we very much pitched that the show will end when we see Batman, that’s it. We always knew this was the show in which Gotham the city was the star. Early on, we were talking about what would a city have to do to deserve a vigilante such as Batman? So when he arrived, we’ve told our story.

DEADLINE: Fox has been marketing the end of Gotham as a two-part finale, and yet coming off last week’s conclusion of the Bane story in “They Did What?” which felt like a season finale, this “The Beginning…” episode that you wrote John was something very different …

STEPHENS: Well, we had told all these stories, Bruce had left the city, so it actually felt in a good way, for a while we were like, “Oh boy, what have we done?” But then it really gives us the chance to almost like, not reboot the show but tell a whole different chapter in the life of the city. That gave us the freedom and the courage to jump forward 10 years in the finale. You’re right in that last week also feels like a finale — but to the season, not to the show, I’d say.

DEADLINE: Was the time jump of a decade in the series finale the only way to bring Batman to the screen for Gotham?

STEPHENS: I’ll say that we initially had talked about the last act of the show might be 10 years in the future. But I would also note what Danny said about why does this city need a vigilante?

DEADLINE: How so?

STEPHENS: That you cannot actually tell that whole story in four minutes at the end of the episode.

So the reason it’s a full 10-year time jump for the entire episode is so that we can actually see where the characters are and also why the city in this point in time needs Batman to arrive. Also, we wanted to fully touch base with all those characters that we’ve known for all this time. We’ve become attached to them; the audience, we know, has become attached to them, so we wanted to follow them through.

DEADLINE: Danny, you and I had spoken a number of times about Gotham’s trajectory, about the ideas that Bruno and yourself had, and the way you guys planned to carry it forward. So did this pan out the way you envisioned?

CANNON: Yes, but it took on a life of its own, and that was always due to the stellar cast we had.

We just kept writing for them because their talent was just exceptional. It kept stretching the writing, and we kept giving them more things to do.

So, I’d say, yes, things grew, for the better, but we always from the beginning of every year, had a plan. That plan was always fulfilled, I think, and always played out. I’m glad that you said that this last episode is a reboot, because it is. If you wanted to start a Batman series, you could do it right now.

DEADLINE: That something you’re thinking of doing?

CANNON: (laughs) I never do just one thing at a time, you know that. And there’s only 10 episodes of Pennyworth, for now. But no, I’m not saying there is going to be another Batman show. I think the movies have that market cornered, for him and the Joker, as they should. I just think the DC Universe is so incredibly deep and vivid, and I’m a big fan of it all. I don’t think there’s any limitations for what DC can do right now. I really don’t.

That said, I’m incredibly proud of the 100 episodes that we did. I mean 100 episodes of television — which, quite honestly, is some of the best-looking, cinematic television around, with some of the best actors and some of the best-written stuff I have ever been a part of. It’s been great.

DEADLINE: Certainly, the way you left it with Batman now in town, the Joker in the game and Ben McKenzie’s Jim Gordon staying on the job, there is more story hanging there …

CANNON: Perhaps, but I think Donal Logue put this best, when Fox picked us up for 22 episodes, when he said this may be one of the last aircraft carriers leaving the harbor. On network television and big dramas like this, I think we’re going to see less and less of them now.

DEADLINE: Really?

CANNON: Yes, I do believe we were on the end of the big network drama. If this were to go again, would it be a Netflix show, or an Amazon show, or a HBO show? I often wonder what we would have done differently or how the story telling would have unfolded differently. It’s a good question to ponder. However, we don’t get to really ponder that now, as we are both on to other things.

DEADLINE: John, you were the showrunner, and you wrote this final episode. Was there any part of the Batman story, the Batman canon, or even the greater DC canon, that you didn’t explore that you wished you had?

STEPHENS: You know, I’ll be honest with you, not really.

To me, if I had more time I would have liked to follow those characters more, to follow Donal’s Harvey Bullock or to follow Oswald and Laura on their journeys, to find out what they’re doing, when there’s times when we didn’t see them. I didn’t feel like there are any parts of the Batman story that we weren’t able to tell. To me the only parts that I missed overall are the stories that we weren’t able to tell with the characters that we did have, just because we didn’t have all the time in the world.

DEADLINE: You did spend a lot of time over the seasons with Cameron Monaghan and his Joker-ish Jerome Valeska character. In the series finale it looks like the Joker has come to town after a breakout at Arkham Asylum …

STEPHENS: (laughs) Well, I wouldn’t say that he’s the Joker, I still wouldn’t go on record saying that, even though he sure looks like the Joker, I have to admit (laughs again)

DEADLINE: Yes, he does.

STEPHENS: I think when we first started talking about it, and we wanted to do what we were calling the Proto-Jokers, the idea was if we can’t do the Joker, maybe there’s a character who existed before him. A character that seeded those ideas, like in the subconscious of Gotham.

So what we started to do was to parse out all of the qualities of the Joker, and just dole them out, one by one, through various iterations of Cameron’s character.

DEADLINE: Of which, there were, up until the finale, a number of iterations.

STEPHENS: Well, yes, because you want to give him the anarchy that the Joker sometimes had. Once he played that out, you want to give him the funhouse-like ringleader that he would sometimes be. Then you would want to make the character simply terrifying, the way the Joker is sometimes terrifying. So it was singling out various qualities, and then when he’s reborn, we take all those characteristics together. Cameron brings them forward. Also with his performance, which is really just transcendent — he took it and went to an entirely different level.

You know, with Valeska and with all of our characters, we were playing with the idea that a character can exist on a spectrum. That people can move along that spectrum to be good or bad, to be dark or light.

DEADLINE: So Danny, is this the end of Gotham you wanted?

CANNON: That’s an interesting question. I mean, I wanted to direct it like I did the pilot, but I didn’t get a chance. But Rob Bailey did a great job. But yes, there was disappointment in me that I couldn’t direct it. Beyond that, yes, this is the Gotham finale I wanted.

STEPHENS: It’s very bittersweet for me watching the show end. I’m incredibly proud of it. It is the best version for the ending of the show, but also, I’m always going to look at and go well that was it, that was the last one. So, yes, there’s that but I’m a little sad about it being over.

[subodc]

DOOM PATROL 01 & 02 - “Premiere” and “Donkey Patrol”

“That was a finesse their dear old daddy hadn’t bothered to teach them...”

“Who are you talking to?”

“Grant Morrison fans, Reddit trolls with DC subscriptions, and the three new fans who stuck around after the donkey fart!”

“You still think you control this story, don’t you?”

“Haven’t seen any evidence to the contrary, old friend. To wit: you’ve slipped through my fingers for the last time...”

:O

Hold on, I have to pick my jaw up off the ground, in between bouts of tears; tears at how much pathos the Doom Patrol members are able to express, at how hilarious and funny this show is, and how as a fan and long-time advocate of the Doom Patrol, this show is everything I could have wanted it to be and more.

I love the Doom Patrol so much. They’ve always relied on their unique flavor of dark humor and unrepentant absurdity to bridge the gap between mirth and misery, creating some of my favorite comic stories.

(By the way, if you haven’t read Gerard Way’s Doom Patrol run, do yourself a favor, stop right now, and READ THAT SHIT.)

Yet, I always had the lurking suspicion that all this anarchy came with the unspoken conceit of medium exclusivity; perhaps it was just too niche, too corny, too weird, too melodramatic to unironically work outside of a comic book page. I mean, would you watch a movie about a robot, a walking hole in reality, and a guy who looks like the Invisible Man with a Macklemore coat, and tell me that it was some highbrow artistic experience?

(I probably would, but my point is that the Doom Patrol are a distinctly Silver Age creation.)

Clearly, I was wrong.

Alan Tudyk as Mr. Nobody. This is one of the rare cases where breaking the fourth wall actually makes things seem more bleak for the main characters. As Mr. Nobody puts the team through horrible pain and ostracization, he turns to the audience and explains that this suffering is the inevitable, comics-decreed fate of the Doom Patrol. Yet, it’s so cleverly written, you have to laugh along. His omnipresent, fourth-wall breaking narration kept these episodes on their toes.

There isn’t a single development in the two episodes that doesn’t work. Every emotion, every interaction, every striking image is completely earned. Too much media tries to emphasize that its protagonists aren’t Big Damn Heroes, but here, they make it work; these aren’t superheroes, they’re people with horrible conditions and ruined lives. The world has rejected them, but deep down, despite what they tell themselves, they haven’t rejected the world.

AND THE LITTLE MOMENTS, OH MY GOD. The cockroach at Cloverton (AND THE OBITUARY IN THE DONKEY UNIVERSE ERGERGWEFWEFREFRE). The relentless quotability of Mr. Nobody. The whole sequence when Cyborg and Cliff are trying to lasso Crazy Jane, and Rita and Larry are on the front porch as Mom and Dad because the kids are running inside!

Maybe I’m dead and this is an elaborate illusion, made to content me forever on the way to Perdition. Either way, I’m going to enjoy it. Somehow, they were able to take comics’ weirdest, most impossibly niche heroes and turn it into the best comic show I’ve ever seen. Hats off to Geoff Johns and Greg Berlanti; I will forever be in your debts.

I enjoyed this episode at - wait, is there still any ambiguity over what I thought? 6/5, period!

RANDOM THOUGHTS:

1: This is one of the most different and interesting Cyborgs I’ve ever seen. The idea of Silas offering “upgrades” to Victor in response to good behavior, his active encouragement of vigilantism, and his goal of getting Cyborg into the Justice League are off-putting at first, but I want to see where this goes.

I bet that after this season, Cyborg will leave the team and join the Titans.

That would give us a team opening...

2: WILL CASEY HAPPEN. GREG BERLANTI, PLEASE MAKE THIS HAPPEN. GEOFF JOHNS, PLEASE MAKE THIS HAPPEN.

3: The CGI is... kinda shoddy, but it didn’t bother me. The costumes, sets, everything that isn’t CGI looks stunning.

4: I think that Danny has been keeping Doom Manor from Mr Nobody’s eyes throughout all these decades.

“What the fuuuuuuck??”

“...”

“...”

“...whathefuuuuuuuuck?”

[usashirtstoday]

I Told Myself That I Should Stop Drinking But I'm Not About To Listen Skeleton T Shirt

3 Wall Street St where all records will in a I Told Myself That I Should Stop Drinking But I'm Not About To Listen Skeleton T Shirt logical that the will a great really die for lack being Wall Street well seems to be known as golf when you look for consider the price consuming concerning Mike Brown and Matthews Courtney very much Michigan has reached a preliminary agreement to dollars to victims of different water crisis is to be approved by the generous support from years gone for over a tinted water it anywhere that money might illegal hell like you know me rich and I like it ANA to say Craig Davis is a lifelong Flint resident who had to leave to the devastation brought on by the city’s tinted water crisis is almost into the with the water because of who already drink it comfortably like you know so you. Why did you expect him to take a break job so the elite eight minutes in the war I think the time is right now that the start raping girls blind you want to know the ring the bells but am in general warned about the current tracking to the North menand that’s important because they were driving home the point that war is ugly bad things happenand throughout the whole series they been driving home the point of it is badand that is good it is that these things are grayer than you thinkand all these great characters as opposed to blackand white were was one of the beautiful parts about game of thrones but then just got done really clumsily in a clumsy way got arrested in China fitted into six episodes in a thoroughly happyand pleased with still low because I couldn’t make a better showedand that was with a bit is beautiful so I however they do not stand I don’t want I don’t want to goand said no Erin Foster mean it’s better than what you think you could ask his heart gauge art in general is like could I have or even could I like the present with they gave to still enjoy area will on to in lifeand I will if I could’ve done better for the parallel I will say this very you mean a game of thrones that Israel is on a better job with the force awakens the you could’ve done better was when I was that moment Kyle Star Wars is best all I have is installed on your eye is devoid that should start start trigger me yes as my shit out you always get my busiest to Cripsand bloods the girl I like the idea this was a people love to heat things I love things that I’m not quick to throw stuff at game of thrones all the time but after watching unlike man that was an hourand 20 minutes maybeand it was like 50 minutes of just dragons flying around doing special effects as it allowed the college or at least the novel the episode before the war that we I why I didn’t like the Masters is way better than that was a great episode to one loved loved it right there were all they’ll knew they were going to die either singing around pottery sangand he can singand keep in that bullet in the chamber for eight years nowand I’m amazed use caulk considering knows how to cook who got you think killing machine so acerbic episode two was amazing within episode three happenedand it made to worse because all of them sort of dealing with how they face their death didn’t die you got it I like that outside this ideological game ball either all I didn’t like itand let me to we went on for so long for to seeing anything I’m sure what happened in the moment we’re all like it’s happening finally good anything all they put on the screen I’m enjoying that’s I was but then I thought back on what a minute the best fight in this show but there’s ever been I think was when Oberand Martz out the red viper door thought the mount no question you are out in the open fight choreography like professional like best bet is good as any movie he killed that he is a bright daylight we can see everything there actually fighting you got two very different desperate fighting style completely different note that the quick agile guy with the spearand the gigantic powerful one regard with this longsword as big as a man it was great to watchand the ending of course was just heart to heart out of your chestand also the whole trip liquidated all was what was in that stairwell all darkand dustyand they kept cutting away from it so we could see are you getting tossed about by rubble find out when the web story okay different lookand see show me them fighting some of them fighting on the staircaseand show we started credible yes I was I was in my area are our house as well as a zygote it was like eight season buildable the mountainand the hound about to go at itand it was a little at the chromatic outline enjoy the way took him out the height of the fire is my personal could the bowl I knew what was happening I saw them head into the it like they headed up the stairs as the rubble he tells aria to turn back IQ of the video because I know it’s going downand I play this I played itand I love the end was everything I hoped it would be now this video plays for like four or secondsand then there’s silence I forgot about itand I hear through the visitors I heard another airhorn I might only put it in there all okay little fan service whateverand then againand again you thought likely airhorn in the gameand I don’t understand why still playing will visit autoplay of another air you before it was at the data to do their just a little airhornand Sony are autoplay until like 10 hours of airhorn’s waiting warned like blast was a parent or horn blast on what what why they are blessed you something else up so that I can get over little bit if I tryand rationalize myself have been reading explanations of help little bit but it’s like the nurses just suddenly deciding to burn the city doesn’t make senseand I know people will be like she’s going to mention in your take people along I’m just going mad thoughand it’s like will no figured like people are confusing like madness going crazy matter blood Metro fire with the rationality she’s been irrational the entire series but every time she’s gone bloodand gore she spared innocence it’s been old is the greater good to to get people out of trouble on crucifying these people because their slaveowners in theand are eviland whatnotand so for her to have already won the battle for it to be over she could fly straight to the red keepand burn Circeand all them she wantsand she decides to lay waste to everyone it just like maybe in the rationality hurt is like all she was so afraid of John stealing her receipts that she decided I have to establish fear among everyone so they don’t betray meand I was just like just doesn’t feel like Danny she stressed so many times I cannot my father’s daughter in that way on that you know I’m not like that I’m not out to just burnand kill everything so you just it didn’t make that much sense to me I thought that twoand then I read this twitter thread right is my guyand he sees the particular thread will kind of a seat my thoughts on the very start targetingand she’s always been one of the most loved characters this season is right are to flesh out these character are with that being said Danny has shown multiple occasions the capacityand willingness to burn down cities of threadand he just went downand he named Freddie do I do have them in front of me after open thread at the glad as I was there I was going to get on the same road as him but I don’t have your eyes oh okay Danny had into the micro told you he has clips from actual show is is or can we have the audio on your was pretty good might mimic allowable you to get us not to be placed on the counter living like this or any of this was the seven very early on hard to the burning down whateverand whoever to take dire no exit by the super knocking Glenn is having succeed to you coming in is is as well when the 13th of course of course turn Danny away she told them when I drag on the Woodburn city to the ground turn this way will burn you for’s told me me will delay the time of the time goes crazy would you put them when you say all of our cities to the ground will mean you going to vacate the innocent people you burnishand also Lacie has shown that throughout the entire overburden are not taught back by Thierryand or Sarah’sand sell me your way to Georgia. 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Damon Runyon, the Wright brothers, Eddie Rickenbacker, illegal flying, and “Silver bells”

[This is mostly an encore post, written two years ago, marking an anniversary for December 18]

Spent a day with my aging father-in-law last week. Conversation is difficult, but memories always flow. We watched the movie version of “Guys and Dolls,” with Sinatra and Brando, and Stubby Kaye’s get-up-and-sing version of “Sit Down! You’re Rockin’ the Boat.”

He was happy to see the thing again, though in the first few minutes he said he didn’t think he’d ever seen the film. My fondness for the piece, and for Damon Runyon’s stories, goes back (too many) decades to a production of the play by the Utah Valley Opera Society. They hired our high school drama director, David Larson, to direct. On a lark I auditioned, telling them I couldn’t really sing or dance, and ended up with a lot of lines in a couple of supporting roles, and singing and dancing both in the chorus.

When my father-in-law joined in the movie chorus of “Fugue for Tinhorns,” I knew we had a good couple of hours. We laughed, watched, reminisced, and sang along.

Damon Runyon could tell stories, true stories about real people. Sometimes the names were changed to protect the innocent, or the guilty; sometimes the real names were more entertaining than the fictional names Runyon invented.

Some time ago I stumbled across the story of Runyon’s son, Damon Runyon, Jr., using an early airplane to spread the playwright’s ashes. It’s a story Runyon would have appreciated. It’s appropriate for the day after the anniversary of the Wrights’ first flight; December 18 is the anniversary of the event.

On December 17, Orville and Wilbur Wright got their heavier-than-air flying contraption to actually fly with motor driving it along.

First flight of the Wright Flyer I, December 17, 1903, Orville piloting, Wilbur running at wingtip. Photo from Wikipedia

On December 18, Damon Runyon, Jr., got Eddie Rickenbacker to fly over Broadway to scatter the ashes of his father, Damon Runyon.

First Lieutenant E. V. [Eddie] Rickenbacker, 94th Aero Squadron, American ace, standing up in his Spad plane. Near Rembercourt, France. Photo from Wikipedia. This photo dates near World War I; Rickenbacker remained a hero for a couple of decades. In 1946, he flew a DC-3 over New York City, and illegally scattered the ashes of raconteur Damon Runyon over his beloved Broadwary.

Not exactly the next day. 43 years and one day apart.  The Wrights first flew in 1903; Runyon died in 1946.

Today in Literature, for December 18:

On this day in 1946 Damon Runyon’s ashes were scattered over Broadway by his son, in a plane flown by Eddie Rickenbacker. Runyon was born in Manhattan, Kansas; he arrived at the bigger apple at the age of thirty, to be a sportswriter and to try out at Mindy’s and the Stork Club and any betting window available his crap-shoot worldview: “All of life is six to five against.” Broadway became his special beat, and in story collections like Guys and Dolls he developed the colorful characters — Harry the Horse, the Lemon Drop Kid, Last Card Louie — and the gangster patois that would swept America throughout the thirties and forties.

A lot of history packed in there.  Runyon’s early reportorial career included a lot of that history — he wrote the lead story for United Press on the inauguration of Franklin Roosevelt, for one example.  Runyon found a uniquely American vein of literary ore on Broadway in New York City, and in the ne’er-do-wells, swells, tarts and reformers who flocked to the City that Never Sleeps to seek fame, or fortune, or swindle that fortune from someone else.

As a reporter and essayist, he smoked a lot.  Throat cancer robbed him, first of his voice, then his life at 56.

Runyon’s ashes were spread illegally over Broadway, from a DC-3 piloted by Rickenbacker. Runyon would have liked that.

You couldn’t make this stuff up.

Factoids of history:

Twenty movies got crafted from Runyon stories, including “The Lemon Drop Kid” — in two versions, 1934 and 1951. Appropriate to the Christmas season, the 1951 version introduced the song, “Silver Bells” composed by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans. (Great explanation of the movie, and song, here.)

Runyon got fame first as a sports writer.  He was inducted into the writer’s wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967.

According to Wikipedia, Jerry Lewis and others owe a great debt to Damon Runyon:  “The first ever telethon was hosted by Milton Berle in 1949 to raise funds for the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.”

One might salivate over the varied fare offered in the theaters of Broadway in 1946, Runyon’s final year, “Annie, Get Your Gun” through Shakespeare, and everything in between and on either side

Runyon and H. L. Mencken both covered the trial of Bruno Hauptmann, the accused (then convicted) kidnapper of Charles Lindbergh’s baby son

Yes, of course, “Guys and Dolls.” Frank Loesser created it, but not of whole cloth, but from the stories of Damon Runyon; it is a masterpiece, perhaps in several realms.  In homage to Runyon, Adam Gopnik wrote:

Just as Chandler fans must be grateful for Bogart, Runyon fans have to be perpetually happy that the pure idea of Runyon, almost independent of his actual writings, produced the best of all New York musicals: Frank Loesser’s “Guys and Dolls,” which made its début in 1950 and is just now reopening on Broadway in a lavish and energetic new production. But then “Guys and Dolls” is so good that it can triumph over amateur players and high-school longueurs and could probably be a hit put on by a company of trained dolphins in checked suits with a chorus of girl penguins.

Your author here, Dear Reader, was once one of those trained dolphins. It was magnificent.

“Silver Bells,” from “The Lemon Drop Kid,” with William Frawley, Virginia Maxwell and Bob Hope (1951 version):

More:

Gregg Allman, the National Sing ‘Silver Bells’ With Stephen Colbert (freshwaddabrooks.com)

My Favourite Christmas Story: Richard Smyth on Damon Runyon’s “Dancing Dan’s Christmas” (liarsleague.com)

Roger Angell Heads to Cooperstown (newyorker.com)

Hope For Christmas (theinnerwildkat.wordpress.com)

Actor/writer Danny Strong To Pen Guys And Dolls Remake (contactmusic.com)

A view of New York City in 1946:

Thomas Hart Benton (1889–1975) “The Artist’s Show, Washington Square,” painted in 1946

Times Square, showing part of Broadway, in November 1946, from the magnificent archives of Life Magazine:

Brownout Time Square.November 1946.© Time Inc.Herbert Gehr – See more at: http://kcmeesha.com/2011/11/29/old-photos-times-square-through-the-years/#sthash.ru9W0F9h.dpuf

Yes, this is an encore post. Defeating ignorance takes patience and perseverance.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 18th, 2018 at 5:31 pm and is filed under Airplanes, Aviation, History, Literature, Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Source: https://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2018/12/18/damon-runyon-the-wright-brothers-eddie-rickenbacker-illegal-flying-and-silver-bells/

[rate-out-of-10]

WONDER WOMAN REVIEW

Superhero films just keep getting bigger and bigger; Marvel seems to always make a smash hit every single year, and DC seems to have been trying to catch up. With Wonder Woman, the first female-lead superhero film since 2005’s (flop) Elektra, hitting theaters this weekend, DC has gained some major ground. Director Patty Jenkins expertly crafts a believable world for Wonder Woman to dwell in and made Wonder Woman the all-around best film that the DC Cinematic Universe has put out thus far, and very well may be the most important superhero film that’s ever come out.

SPOILERS AHEAD

The character of Wonder Woman is a huge undertaking for any actress, I’d say it was even harder for Gal Gadot, someone who was relatively unknown in the States until now, to convince people she was right for the role. She’s previously done some work in the Fast & Furious movies, but once she was announced as the chosen one to play the role of the Amazonian princess, Diana, aka Wonder Woman, she was met with some criticism. But her smaller performance in Batman v Superman seemed to have raised some eyebrows, mine included, and here in her feature length debut in the role, she’s engulfed Diana in the best of ways. Gal Gadot pierces through the screen with intensity, purity, strength, and innocence. Her Wonder Woman is powerful, virtuous, noble, and forthright, she is just wonderful. She has a smile that just makes you proud. Gal almost effortlessly molds the innocence and naivety of Diana in the world of man with her confidence and independence. Other than herself, Gal had some prominent back up in the film as well, specifically Chris Pine in the role of Diana’s human love, Steve Trevor. I can’t think of a movie where Chris Pine wasn’t good. He has an infectious personality on screen, he’s always enjoyable to watch. His approach to Steve’s awkwardness around Diana was great; he’s continually surprised by Diana and it always confuses him how she can always do that. Chris and Gal have natural chemistry on screen, when they joke, when they fight, when they connect, through the whole film their relationship always felt genuine. Their romantic subplot wasn’t ever in your face either, it felt natural and was done so delicately and with grace, I respect it a lot. I wish I could have seen more of the Amazonians of Themyscira, but what we got was definitely enough. To see all these strong women training and fighting, moving so fluidly and gracefully was invigorating to watch. I could only imagine how a little girl felt watching these powerful women command the screen. My only complaint when it comes to the characters of the film is essentially everyone else besides the Amazonians, Diana, and Steve Trevor. They assemble a rag-tag group of guys to show Wonder Woman the different facets of humanity, however I wish they felt maybe more important, maybe a group of strong ladies would’ve taken it further. They didn’t seem to do anything of importance except just be there. They all had some nice moments individually but not enough to convince me that they’re worth watching. Next, there were three villainous figures: Ludendorff (Danny Huston), Dr. Poison (Elena Anaya), and Ares (David Thewlis). Ludendorff and Poison were the ones who commanded most of the evil appearances, however they were excessively generic. I think when you bring a movie into WWI or II, you can just use Germans as evil doers without much depth added to them. Poison had some intrigue, but we never really learn much of her, all she really spent time doing was marveling as gas clouds and being melodramatic. Then there’s Ares, and he wasn’t much at all exciting. His best moment was the reveal that he’s been around the entire time as Sir Patrick, but after that his intrigue faded away with excessive CGI and just an awkward appearance. He kept that mustache for thousands of years? Really? It might have had something to do with the casting choice that made it a bit ridiculous to see. When Ares formed his armor with the weapons and plating scattered around the airfield at the end, that was a cool moment, but David Thewlis just wasn’t Ares. A change in form or appearance might have gone a long way. Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, and the Amazonian women really steal the show for me, the rest were just bearable in a sense to keep the film moving forward.

Wonder Woman starts out incredibly strong, giving the warriors of Themyscira, and a young Diana, time to shine. The concentration on the world building of Wonder Woman was fantastic. It didn’t feel mashed up or rushed, like the other three DC films that have come out thus far. The movie paced generally well, even when the action was at a low point in favor of exposition, there were still bits to draw you in. Sure it can feel a little slow at times, I definitely wanted to see more of Wonder Woman kicking ass, but the slower bits did serve some nice character building, specifically for Diana. Gal was always great to watch whether she was clearly a fish out of water, or standing strong and noble against sexist men, or just smiling. You’re always rooting for her, but you’re also waiting for her to be enlightened. In parts, she’s very naive when it came to the conflict of Ares and mankind, and at the end when she has that realization of who humans really were, after Steve’s sacrifice, a feeling of relief and excitement washes over you. The action sequences were glorious too, Zach Snyder’s trademark slow-mo shots were all over the place, but I was happy with them because I liked watching Wonder Woman kick some serious ass. The final battle between her and Ares may have been very CGI’d and perhaps a bit underwhelming, but the showcase of Diana’s maximum power was great to watch. Beating overwhelming odds in superhero movies will never get old, perhaps that’s because superheroes were built off that premise. I also marveled at the set-pieces; Themyscira, London, the trenches, they all were wonderfully designed, Themyscira being the most colorful of all the landscapes. One thing I did want to bring up was the choice of the WWI setting. It was a bold choice to introduce Wonder Woman in this war-torn time, some people wanted to see her introduced in the modern day, and where I can see that being perhaps a bit cooler, it wouldn’t make much sense to the DC timeline for this universe. In the modern day, Superman and Batman specifically are prominent figures already, Batman already having a long history. If there wasn’t much of a record of Wonder Woman before Bruce discovered her picture and secret file, why would the modern day make sense? It serves her well to be in a time where technology wasn’t all over the place, so the only real evidence of her existence is the one photograph taken of her, that’s what makes it significant. If she emerged closer to the modern day, her ambiguity would be lost. Question that remain from this time, though, is how does she really age in this canon? Is Themyscira somehow suspended in time? How did she age there? Is ten years to an Amazonian in Themyscira, 50 years, or a hundered years, in the world of man? How did she seemingly not age through the rest of human history up until BvS? Did she not interfere in WWII? Vietnam? The Civil Rights era? There are a lot of questions about Wonder Woman and her history that come from this movie, however they don’t really pertain to this film specifically. These are just things that should maybe be fleshed out through the rest of the DC films.

After a film like this, what’s next really comes into question for the DC cinematic universe. Wonder Woman blew all the past films (Man of Steel, Batman v Superman, & Suicide Squad) out of the water. Will Justice League have a monumental payoff like this one did? Or will the rest of the DC universe be just as flat as where we left off with it prior to Wonder Woman? There are plenty of DC movies slated for the near future, but the rocky start it’s gotten off to may hurt the success of their first team-up film. Especially since DC seems to just want the team up to happen more quickly than Marvel’s. We don’t get an Aquaman, Flash, Cyborg, or even a solo-Batman film until after this first Justice League movie, set to release this November. It’s a questionable timeline to have. I would’ve appreciated their creative choices a lot more if we got the films in this order: Man of Steel, The Batman, Wonder Woman, Suicide Squad, Batman v Superman, and then Justice League. With the multitude of cameos in BvS of the other “meta-humans”, plus Batman and Wonder Woman’s solo films would have already introduced them, the team-up would have more of a payoff. But then again, Justice League isn’t out yet, these are just my feelings as of now and they could change. Wonder Woman is the shining example of what DC has needed and it captures Wonder Woman so epically that my excitement for DC has been revitalized to a good degree. My final rating for Wonder Woman is:

8.75/10. In a word: wonderful.

Wonder Woman does a plethora of things right, and when the movie is going great, it’s going great. Gal Gadot does an amazing job with the character, Patty Jenkins directs with fierce integrity and puts on a show that is tremendously impressive. Wonder Woman may be the most important superhero film to have ever come out, and it earns that praise. The flaws with supporting characterization, a decent lack of villainous intrigue, and a not-too-impressive main villain finale doesn’t take away too much from Wonder Woman herself. She’s a shining light in this grim world that DC has built up and I’m excited to see where she will lead the universe to in the future.

[robedisimo]

Double-decker review: Marvel’s Luke Cage & Iron Fist (season 1) [MILD SPOILERS]

Netflix’s own corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe got off to a decidedly good start with 2015′s Daredevil, but it’s safe to say that – like the theatre-bound side of the MCU, some would argue – it never managed to recapture the heights of that first outing.

As new chapters in its own microcosm keep pouring in and the same formula is repeated time and time again, a few crucial weak points have started emerging. This culminated in the release of the first outright-panned Marvel production to date, Iron Fist, earlier this year, following the universal praise heaped upon Luke Cage in late 2016.

But do the two shows really sit at opposite ends of the quality spectrum? And if not, what are the reasons behind such disparity of treatment? What follows is a brief(ish) review of both series, with my usual opinions on their strong and weak points, followed in turn by some final conclusions. Let’s see where we end up.

LUKE CAGE

Marvel’s Luke Cage picks up where we left the character after his introductory supporting role in Jessica Jones, a smart move that also plays organically to the two heroes’ relationship in comics canon. Cage is still laying low in Harlem and a long way away from widespread recognition as a public figure, but things keep getting in the way of his constant struggle to maintain a low profile.

The show’s strongest point by far is its identity, in more than one sense. Capitalising on its all-black cast and NYC setting, it embraces a musical aesthetic reminiscent of 1970s blaxploitation movies to great effect, using its soundtrack as a pervasive narrative element as it swings back and forth between funky and hip-hop tunes.

So Luke Cage has a very definite style, and rolls with it. The cast is also quite excellent in spots, although unfortunately not in the person of the main man himself, whose stony countenance doesn’t really offer much throughout the season aside from the odd quality of being the visual equivalent of anti-Will Smith (in that when viewed from the front he appears to have no ears).

Not that he’s given a lot to work with in the first place. Luke Cage’s rendition of the titular character is remarkably subdued, almost passive: in the comics, Cage is a brash, loud, enthusiastically boisterous hero, often all too happy to show off his powers in a good round of fisticuffs.

This TV version of Luke Cage isn’t the bombastically-named “Power Man” yet, and perhaps never will be. And, in my opinion, it’s mostly a matter of the showrunners being afraid to go too far with him. I don’t know whether it’s because they wanted the first solo outing of an African-American hero in the extended MCU to be a role model of sorts, or if the issue transcends racial identity altogether: the fact remains that Luke Cage is largely a hagiography, in stark contrast with Daredevil’s and Jessica Jones’s hyper-flawed portrayal of their protagonists.

The highest point of the season is probably its obligatory “origins” flashback, in which Cage can chew on some more rage and fury. It also unnecessarily complicates the backstory presented in Jessica Jones – not the only change to the character, as he’s also rewritten into someone who’s not a New York native, for some reason – but that’s a mounting issue with the series as a whole, as the story gets more convoluted and less effective after a decidedly solid first half.

On the whole Luke Cage offers an intriguing crime drama atmosphere, inspired musical ambience and some good casting choices, but also an uneven narrative experience that peters out as it should instead raise the stakes. That, coupled with a reluctance to do anything new visually speaking – it’s still the same old, boring super-strength stuff, achieved on a two-dollar budget by making actors bend resin gun props and adding metal crunching noises in post-production – keeps the show from reaching the same peaks of quality of its two predecessors.

[Verdict: MIXED TO POSITIVE]

IRON FIST

Iron Fist’s premiere carried with it a brand of topicality radically opposed to its direct forerunner: while Luke Cage confidently brandished the striking image of a bulletproof black hero in an American sociopolitical climate shook by police brutality, the last piece in the Defenders puzzle had the misfortune of hinging on a “rich white man” narrative – both on the protagonist and the antagonist side – right in the middle of a rampant wave of anti-Trump sentiment.

Not that the show was free of controversy even before it aired, due to some exceptionally contrived outrage over the subject of racial casting: many viewers and critics took up arms against the perceived slight of casting a white leading actor – Game of Thrones’s Finn Jones – in the role of a hero whose central theme revolves around far-Eastern martial arts, ignoring or outright dismissing the fact that the character has always been depicted as Caucasian in the source material. Terms such as “unwoke” were unironically used in allegedly-professional reviews, which is likely all you need to know on the subject.

So Iron Fist stepped out the gate on the wrong foot already, but that alone certainly can’t account for the entirety of its negative press. For starters, it’s undeniable that its “orphaned industry magnate returning home after being presumed death, and having acquired exceptional abilities from Asian mentors in the bargain” narrative is by now increasingly tired, having been employed in films and on television twice already on the DC side of things – in multiple Batman adaptation and CW’s Arrow – and, obviously, in the MCU's seminal Iron Man.

Therefore the show definitely doesn’t start its game with a good hand to play. It doesn’t help, either, that its main drawing point – good martial arts action – is consistently disappointing throughout the series, with very little in the way of the brutal, heavily stylised fight choreography seen in both seasons of Daredevil.

To make matters worse, Iron Fist takes a significant number of steps backwards where source material representation is concerned, coming across as something from the “dark and gritty” age of superhero adaptations from the early 2000s. After Doctor Strange blew open the gates to the mystical side of the MCU, even the not-that-ambitious Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. decided to have fun with it by reintroducing the character of Ghost Rider to the Marvel stable; instead, Iron Fist chooses to do little to nothing with its protagonist’s praeternatural powers and, even more baffling, to never show the arcane realm of K’un-Lun where he was imbued with them.

It’s not that much of a surprise, given these Netflix shows’ track record: Daredevil notably refused to play with the more ultramundane aspects of the canon such as the character’s radar sense – only giving in to the sillier side of things in season 2, half of which prominently featured mystical resurrecting ninjas – while Jessica Jones really didn’t want to have a purple-skinned guy as its main antagonist and went so far as to openly mock the heroine’s original comic-book costume, something Luke Cage did as well.

It’s the kind of embarrassment at the source material you’re adapting that borders on blatant disrespect, and an overt contradiction of the trend of happily embracing the wacky side of comic canon established by Marvel Studios over the last decade. It works when the quality of the story you’re telling trumps this kind of snide insult to comic fans – as was the case with Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, or indeed Daredevil and Jessica Jones themselves – and it just doesn’t when the content is lacking, as was the case with the sarcastically-titled Fant4stic.

Iron Fist can’t, unfortunately, offer a compelling enough storyline, although not for lack of trying. The thirteen-episode series packs enough double-crossing, backstabbing and allies-becoming-enemies – and vice versa – to fill three seasons of a different show, but the execution is rather lacklustre and the acting is often rather poor across the board, with Jones in particular not being a good fit for the main character regardless of race.

And, again, the character just isn’t there. At the radically opposite side of the spectrum from Luke Cage’s titular hero, this rendition of Danny Rand is one of the most flawed protagonists on recent television... sit-coms excluded, perhaps. Which again is not a bad thing, provided you don’t go overboard with it: many superhero characters are flawed individuals, but in order to deserve the label they need to possess some aspect of their personality which makes them impressive, admirable, makes the audience look up to them not necessarily from a moral standpoint but at least as an example of endurance, determination, courage.

This Danny Rand is a supremely naïve, unfocussed character. He’s prone to be manipulated, emotionally unstable, unsure of his responsibilities and to be frank almost utterly incompetent, which makes his role as the leading decision-maker among the show’s cast not credible. His character arc – and this is true of almost all characters in the series – is a litany of reiterated and often clichéd dialogue bits, reasserting the same goals and the same failure to meet them from episode to episode.

That’s not to say that Iron Fist is in itself a massively bad show. It’s adequate, like a lot of other stuff; but it should have been a lot better, which is what prompted such backlash in the first place. Is all the hate it got justified? Hardly, since judgment regarding the degree of fulfilment of the show’s potential could only be expressed after watching the whole series, and early reviews were compiled based only on an advance packet of six episodes to avoid spoilers. It is what it is, and what it is, without a doubt, is one of the weakest links in the extended Marvel canon so far.

[Verdict: MIXED TO NEGATIVE]

I have my misgivings regarding these Marvel/Netflix shows, but overall nothing so far – Iron Fist included – has fallen below my absolute watchability threshold. One things that’s clear, however, is that these series have boxed themselves into a format that works against them, and it all comes down to a matter of runtime.

Both Luke Cage and Iron Fist are too long for their own good: both shows could’ve managed their core narratives within half the number of episodes, maintaning a more engaging pace and ditching unnecessary secondary villain plots. Which is why I’m surprised that Marvel didn’t seize the chance to take the other obvious road: a Heroes for Hire show.

Introducing Luke Cage as a supporting character in Jessica Jones’s own show was an excellent idea. Why not do the same with Danny Rand, then, introducing him as a co-protagonist to the already-established Cage in a shared buddy-cop (of sorts) series? Both characters would share the screentime, each of their separate narratives running in parallel before, ideally, converging for the climax. All while getting more variety out the deal, potentially a bit of humour – something both shows severely lacked, Iron Fist in particular – and a pre-existing bond between the characters going into the Defenders team-up.

I understand why this wasn’t done. Two shows instead of one move more money, and the temptation to give a black hero his own show is hard to resist: adding Iron Fist and his allies and enemies to the mix would’ve broken the insularity of the Luke Cage series, especially where the issue of an almost all-black cast was concerned. The choice that was made is a solid one, if more on the marketing level than in the interest of storytelling.

And yet the connection between the two heroes is so established in the comics that an effort was indeed made to connect the two shows: specifically by way of their soundtracks, as Iron Fist is itself occasionally imbued with hip-hop sensibilities and ‘70s vibes, only of the Bruce Lee kung-fu variety rather than the blaxploitation kind. Shame nothing more came out of it.

Nevertheless, the higher-ups seem to have somewhat learned a small lesson from these past few years of programming: Marvel’s Defenders will only consist of eight episodes, a remarkable change of pace considering the fact that the story will have to juggle four characters at once. We’ll see whether that will improve things or present the usual issues, but who knows: maybe these crooked puzzle pieces will fit together after all.

[gokinjeespot]

off the rack #1284

Monday, October 21, 2019

 Please take time to cast your vote in the Canadian Federal Election today if you haven't already. Our democracy depends on its citizens voting. If you wake up tomorrow and your side lost then I sincerely hope that we as a country can continue living our daily lives with respect and compassion. Things will change. Better for some and not for others. Let's all try to remember what it is to be Canadian eh.

 Is This How You See Me? - Jaime Hernandez (writer & artist). It's been years since I've looked in on Maggie and Hopey so this new graphic novel chronicling their adventures at a punk music reunion in Huerta was a perfect way for me to catch up on their lives. The girls have always had a complicated relationship and things haven't changed too much now that Esperanza/Hopey is married to another woman with a son and Maggie is in a long term relationship with a man. I loved the flashbacks to their younger days and unlike Dan De Carlo's Betty and Veronica, these women have aged and Jaime shows that beautifully. Love & Rockets fans must buy this graphic novel.

 Archie #708 - Nick Spencer & Mariko Tamaki (writers) Sandy Jarrell (artist) Matt Herms (colours) Jack Morelli (letters). Lots of mysterious things going on in this issue as Archie and Sabrina's picnic in the woods is interrupted while Jughead and Reggie's investigation into Reggie's father's disappearance receives a major clue. These modern Archie comics are so much more interesting than the old school stuff.

 Guardians of the Galaxy #10 - Donny Cates (writer) Cory Smith (pencils) Victor Olazaba (inks) David Curiel (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). The reunion with an ex-Guardian doesn't go well but not to worry folks, Groot and his pals come to the rescue. I like the new Magus reborn. Oh, and the cover is a total fib.

 Absolute Carnage #4 - Donny Cates (writer) Ryan Stegman (pencils) JP Mayer, Jay Leisten & Ryan Stegman (inks) Frank Martin (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). All seems lost when Carnage absorbs the Venom symbiote from a defeated Hulk but hold your horses folks, Eddie Brock will save the day. It's a major change for this character so you won't want to miss it.

 Metal Men #1 - Dan Didio (writer) Shane Davis (pencils) Michelle Delecki (inks) Jason Wright (colours) Travis Lanham (letters). Unlike the recently released Inferior Five we actually have the Metal Men in this debut issue. I'm glad I gave Dan Didio a chance because he impressed me with this story. The discovery of a sentient Nth metal might be similar to Marvel's Venom symbiote but I'm hoping the rest of this 12-issue maxi doesn't devolve into Will Magnus's Metal Men fighting this new entity.

 Superman Year One #3 - Frank Miller (writer) John Romita Jr. (pencils) Danny Miki (inks) Alex Sinclair (colours) John Workman (letters). Great Caesar's ghost that was a slog. I actually fell asleep partway through this. This 3-issue mini did not deserve the prestige DC Back Label imprint treatment. The writing was hackneyed and the art was unspectacular. I got tired of the clipped, repetitive captions after only a few pages because they ran on and on. And even though this is some of John Romita Jr.'s best work there was nothing special about it. These stories of Superman's early adventures could've been done in a 6-issue $3.99 US monthly and fans would have been happy. The big blue boy scout is not a good fit for Frank Miller. The style of writing he used in this last issue is more suited to someone like Green Arrow or the Question. If he follows through with another Superman story like he teased on the last page I would think twice before spending the time to read it.

 X-Men #1 - Jonathan Hickman (writer) Leinil Francis Yu (pencils) Gerry Alanguilan (inks) Sunny Gho (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). This is the first new X-Team book to hit the racks following the twelve issues of House and Powers of X that laid the foundation for Marvel's mutant revamp. It introduces the good guys (the mutants) and the bad guys (human scientists hell bent on eradicating mutants). The team rescues young mutants from the bad guys and safely return to Krakoa leaving behind a lot of dead humans. Yes, no more mister nice mutant. The team consists of Cyclops, Storm, Polaris, Magneto, Dr. Reyes, Jean Grey, Havok, Vulcan, Wolverine, Cable and Prestige (I know her as Rachel Summers). Only Scott, Ororo, Erik and Lorna go on the mission so no crazy Canucklehead antics this issue, sigh. I liked this enough to want to keep reading but not enough to add it to my "must read" list.

 Killswitch #1 - Jeffrey & Susan Bridges (writers) Walter Geovani (art) Brittany Peer (colours) Simon Bowland (letters). This sci-fi comic book is about a future where a small minority of people can see the future. They're called Augers. The rest of humanity fears them and have them rounded up in detention centres. Sounds familiar. The main character is Major Marcella Regula who turned in her own brother as an Auger. She's the new head of security at a detention centre in a domed city built on a comet. She hits the killswitch to try and save an Auger from dying but fails. Then she helps the dead man's friends to escape. I picked this up because I really liked the art but the story didn't spark joy. I'm hitting the killswitch on this one.

 The Marked #1 - David Hine (writer) Brian Haberlin (art) Geirrod Van Dyke (colours) Francis Takenaga (letters). This new book is full of magic and the art is stupendous. An ancient order of tattooed magic users tasked with fighting the forces of chaos have found a new recruit. So has a malevolent government agency after one of the Marked is banished. I cared about Saskia and her new friends by the end of this issue so I want to find out what happens to them. I'm going to read this as long as I can.

 The Batman's Grave #1 - Warren Ellis (writer) Bryan Hitch (pencils) Kevin Nowlan (inks) Alex Sinclair (colours) Richard Starkings (letters). The opening pages did not surprise me because I know someone who has their tombstone already in place. Batman investigates when a dead body is found in a tenement building. The victim had a wall full of Batman clippings and this 12-issue maxi is off and running. I love the detective side of Batman so I'm adding this to my "must read" list.

 Spider-Man #2 - J. J. Abrams & Henry Abrams (writers) Sara Pichelli (art) Elisabetta D'Amico (inking assistant) Dave Stewart (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). Two issues in and Ben has met his MJ. Her name is Faye Ito and she's a pip. So much for the old secret identity. Also cue the super villain menace appearance. You won't hear me complaining that there are too many Spider-Man books on the racks as long as they're this good.

 Inferior 5 #2 - Jeff Lemire (writer) Keith Giffen (plot & pencils) Michelle Delecki (inks) Hi-Fi (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). That's enough for me. This is just too weird. If you're into weirdness, you will certainly like this.

 Something is Killing the Children #2 - James Tynion IV (writer) Werther Dell'Edera (art) Miquel Muerto (colours) AndWorld Design (letters). I like Erica Slaughter, monster hunter. She gives this horror story a lot of spunk.

 Contagion #3 - Ed Brisson (writer) Mack Chater & Stephen Segovia (art) Veronica Gandini & Andrew Crossley (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). I'll give Ed Brisson this, he sure knows how to string a Marvel maniac along. Jessica Jones was the one to entice me to read this issue and the heroes that show up to help fight the fungus next issue makes me want to read that too. And that's not to mention the Wrecking Crew either.

 Once & Future #3 - Kieron Gillen (writer) Dan Mora (art) Tamra Bonvillain (colours) Ed Dukeshire (letters). Evil King Arthur gets his Galahad while Duncan and his granny get help from a historian. I like granny's simple solution for keeping the bad guys from winning.

 Batman #81 - Tom King (writer) John Romita Jr. & Mitch Gerads (pencils) Klaus Janson & Mitch Gerads (inks) Tomeu Morey & Mitch Gerads (colours) Clayton Cowles (letters). We're getting there folks. Bear with us. That Thomas Wayne is one tough Batman. He takes on Batwoman, Batgirl, Orphan, Huntress, Red Robin, Robin and Signal and manages to survive. Damn that no killing rule. Meanwhile, Batman and Catwoman get into Arkham Asylum to get to Bane. I liked how all the stuff leading up to this issue is explained even though it was hard to follow.