#The Laughing Fish

[inbarfink]

[twistedtummies2]

Year of the Bat - Number 8

Welcome to Year of the Bat! In honor of Kevin Conroy, Arleen Sorkin, and Richard Moll, I’ve been counting down my Top 31 Favorite Episodes of “Batman: The Animated Series” throughout this January.

  TODAY’S EPISODE QUOTE: “But they share my unique face! Colonel Whathisname has chickens, and they don't even have moustaches!" Number 8 is…The Laughing Fish.

Many have claimed that part of what made B:TAS so great was that, in many ways, it’s episodes felt less like typical short superhero stories of the time, and more like “mini movies.” The production values, uses of colors, shadows, and angles, and even the quality of the voice cast all made for a series that felt cinematic on its best outings. “The Laughing Fish” is a great example of this, as it features so many of the points that have led to the show’s stellar reputation. While the story it tells isn’t especially deep or complex, its especially dark and unsettling tone, along with its marvelous storytelling, makes for arguably the single greatest Joker-centric outing in the entire series. This episode combines elements of three (well, technically four) separate Batman comics together: the plot, and even a good chunk of the dialogue, is taken from the famous two-part story “The Laughing Fish/Sign of the Joker.” The grand climactic sequence where Batman’s final confrontation with the Clown Prince of Crime takes place is ripped from another famous story, “The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge,” which many credit as the story that officially brought Batman out of the Silver Age and into the darker Bronze Age of comics. Finally, the final scene of the episode is based on a bit from the story “Dreadful Birthday, Dear Joker!” As someone who has read all of these comics, and loves all of them, I honestly feel that the combined elements of the stories used here – along with some original bits and pieces – makes for a story that is honestly stronger than any of them separately. It’s another case where the Animated Series showed its merits, and improved on already magnificent material through its own attributes.

The plot begins with a strange epidemic in Gotham: all of the fish in the harbor have turned a hideous shade of white and green, with their mouths twisted to resemble the Joker’s own warped smile. The toxin is harmless, as it only affects the fish, not people, but naturally folks are quite disturbed. It’s soon revealed that this is part of an elaborate scheme the Joker has made up, to try and copyright all the fish in Gotham, so he can make a fortune via the royalties and residuals. Of course, one can’t copyright fish, by law, so the Joker goes on a rampage, attacking paper pushers and bureaucrats till his demands are met. This all culminates in a showdown at an aquarium, where a captured Harvey Bullock and Batman are forced to duel with a Great White Shark.

This is one of Mark Hamill’s greatest performances as the Joker, no doubt. Part of this is because it carries so much from the comics, which I think helps lend his performance a sort of “authenticity,” for lack of a better word; it’s one of the reasons so many people say he simply IS the Joker: he got to do a lot of the villain’s best stories, this episode being a great example. “The Laughing Fish” showcases the Joker’s greatest values, as he has many great and funny moments, but there’s also a viciousness to his voicework in this outing that’s particularly notable. On top of that, this episode gets borderline horror-story-levels of creepy, as the Joker’s victims are given near-lethal doses of his patented Joker Venom, and the visuals this conjures up – plus the dead-eyed grins of the titular fish – make for some unnervingly memorable imagery. No one dies in the episode (unlike in the comics, doubtless due to the show’s need to keep things “safe” for the kiddies), but that doesn’t stop the scenes from being truly horrifying to behold. It’s one of the Joker’s most frightening tales, and illustrates why he’s such a great villain for Batman to face. The inclusion of original elements – such as Harley Quinn – does not lessen the impact of the episode, and every single voice artist is at the top of their game, not just Hamill. Both Conroy and Sorkin are just as magnificent, not to mention the other supporting players, such as Bob Hastings as Commissioner Gordon and Robert Costanzo as Bullock. Everything, really, is at 100% here: the writing, the direction, the animation, the characters…it’s arguably the definitive Joker episode of the show, and for that reason above all else, it deserves placement in the Top 10 for me.

Tomorrow we move on with Number 7! Hint: “How could you? I worked with you, trusted you, and you never told me?!”

[blacjaq1]

[themetalhiro]

hold that posture

[saint-end]

still spinning out, can't wait to come down

[1071png]

Mihawk's gone from babysitting Zoro and Perona to babysitting Crocodile and Buggy

[nibeul]

yeah, everybody leaves

[id: It's a drawing of Aizawa and Yamada standing against a darkening sky. They are both wearing their hero costumes—a black jumpsuit with a brown belt and grey capture weapon and studded leather jacket with a large pop-up collar and leather pants—and appear somber. Aizawa, depicted with tan skin, is clutching his goggles tightly in one hand while the other hand is in his pocket. Yamada, drawn with paler skin and dirty blond hair, has both his hands in his pockets. Shadows cast over their upper bodies while light illuminates underneath the curve. /end id]

[id: It's the original Horikoshi illustration of Aizawa, Yamada, and Kurogiri. Yamada and Aizawa are both wearing their hero uniforms. Kuroigiri is very faintly sketched behind them. /end id]

[laurrelise]

picture this: it’s your second week at the commission. your boss is a fucking fish. your coworkers are way too friendly. your higher-ups’ biggest concern is a random ex-employee who you’ve never met, her next being her fashion game. and her daughter is just running around wreaking absolute havoc.

and then one day the meanest 13-year old you’ve ever seen in your life walks in, finishes his case in 10 minutes, and immediately after gets recognized as the best worker in the room full of adults.

im quitting on the spot wbu

[crowiin]

unfinished mer au comic :) dialogue from @mamawasatesttube

[hyunpic]

HYUNJIN | SKZ-CODE EP. 52

[puppetmaster13u]

Mermay Special Prompt 3

“Are you kidding? No one goes to Gotham, that place is like,” Aquaman made a motion with his hand, a not-quite grimace on his face. “Like things should not be living in the water, like it should be impossible, and things should be dead, but they aren’t and it’s like, like the equivalent of an undead apocalypse over there!” 

Bruce rolled his eyes behind his cowl, taking a sip of his coffee as the others continued drinking. Socialize, they said, it’ll be fine they said. Well excuse him, but the waters weren’t that bad. Sure there were always dumped bodies, and chemicals from the rogue attacks, but it was far worse at one point.

One thing he’ll always be relieved for is how the… curse (thank you broken statuette back in the beginning of his vigilante career that fused with the other many curses of Gotham) made the people of Gotham actually care about the waters around them. 

Though also, he couldn’t help but thank anything that might be listening for the fact that the curse only interacted with Gotham waters, because losing legs with any risk of a drop of water would be downright annoying. 

“No dude, you don’t understand, no one goes there for a reason! That shit is horrific- someone saw a big thing with bits of rebar stabbed straight through it and still chased after a big alligator-thing!” Oh. Oh that had been him. Oops. Hopefully his kids didn’t find out about this, but they were probably already on the cameras. Dammnit. 

[brofightiscancelled]

request from @hanaybuns to translate these pages from i believe "Matsuno Family Dependents Gallery"? sorry i didnt know how to approach the typesetting for this lol

all the quotes the boys are saying are from s1 episodes (right -> left):

oso 1 2 3

karamatsu 1 2 3

choromatsu 1 2 3

ichimatsu 1 2 3 (warning: ichimatsu incident)

jyushimatsu 1 2 3

todomatsu 1 2 3

[blogwithanartdog]

Thank you @brainrot-yumm for the idea, my problem was that l had too much fun with it.

[tezzbot]

Playtime :]

[salamispots]

after playing stardew for 1200+ hours and coral island for 100+ I wish more games with romanceable characters have the option where you dON'T date/marry them but you can invite them to become roommates/buds with you in your house (like in stardew where you become roommates with krobus :'D)

[sombra-art]

Teach a man to cook and… heee… can't fish, but teach a man to fish and he feeds himself and cooks! You've ever heard that saying before? The class- yeah is s the classic saying, teach a man to cook and… cook good, not good, he die, starve!? teach man fish! not starve! cook and fish starve, not… if you've heard that before.