#The Waters of Atlantis (episode)

[inspectorspacetimerevisited]

‘If this is ancient Greece, why are all the signs in English?’

‘The BOOTH automatically translates everything for you.’

‘And, what happens if I speak Greek? Like, “souvlaki”?’

‘Please don’t, it will only confuse the locals. Plus, souvlaki hasn’t been invented yet. It’d come off as gibberish.’

[sleepyhead-poll]

ROUND 2D, MATCH 1 OUT OF 8!

Propaganda Under the Cut:

Han Solo:

He was in carbonite for about a year (from 3 ABY to 4 ABY)

Elizabeth:

In one of the episodes it turned out that the Atlantis crew only survived their first day on Atlantis because Dr. Weir in the bad timeline went back in time to when the previous habitants of Atlantis were still living and she spent 10000 years in stasis, coming out of it every 3300 years to preserve energy in the generators so when the current timeline Atlantis crew arrives the city's shield will keep the water out until the city comes to the surface from the bottom of the ocean.

[glowsticcc]

let me cook. picture me this.

we're about 12-14 months into hermitcraft season X and people's seasons are starting to wind down. finishing touches on megabuilds, games are being played and episodes are mostly spent with the hermits just screwing around for fun, (snails, gigacorp, cleos story for their base, etc. are all wrapping up)

however, one thing that has been prevalent throughout the entire season, so much more so than seasons' past, was the fact it seemed it was always raining. not just little in-game showers that lasted maybe 20 minutes no, i'm talking rain that would last hours, days even! and this has been very notable with multiple hermits addressing it in their videos and not being able to get around filming during the times when the sun was out, because it never lasted too long.

anyways, this doesn't matter that much, and many hermits learn to enjoy the rain! gem's trident shop ends up selling out quick as people realize riptide 3 tridents are much more efficient for elytra travel compared to rockets, and with the right shader packs many are able to make their videos more atmospheric and ✨aesthetic✨. so overall, the rain isn't a huge issue, just a minor inconvenience.

until the river starts flooding.

it's inconspicuous at first. very few hermits have builds that are right at sea-level so even fewer even notice any huge change. plus, the water only rose by one block so who cares. days pass by, then a couple weeks, no change, no worries. then it rises again. again, only by a block, but now the waves are starting to lap at the foundation of some houses, shorelines and property-lines becoming closer to being one and the same. now, while not too fussed, some hermits are starting to become slightly paranoid about the water.

the next water rise comes quickly, mere days after the last. still one block but now the hermits are taking quick notice. the race to high ground is swift, many building new bases on nearby mountains, other more dedicated hermits moving their entire bases up onto stilts to avoid their beautiful builds being drowned by the ever-expanding ocean deep. and the water keeps rising.

redstone farms are destroyed, the shopping district has become a capitalistic lost city of atlantis, grian and gem are unsurprisingly thriving in their new aquatic environment. the only safe dry areas are the nether and the end, because how would you flood the void.

we've reached the near end of the season, the sea expanding out for thousands of miles, as far as the eye can see, with the tops of mountains having become islands, sanctuaries from the deep unknown blue of the ocean. grian, gem, impulse, skizz, scar, joel and mumbo all sit on what used to be magic mountain, now just a few blocks above sea-level, looking out across the endless ocean skyline through the near eternal rainstorm.

"grian," mumbo begins. "yes?" grian sighs, tired and weather-beaten from the endless downpour.

"is the ocean big?"

[caffeinated-chaos-bean]

Update on Izumi's design process!! Plus her incubator lmao.

Its taken me more than a week to get to this point. You have no idea how painstaking it is when you get so involved into a character's design process and want it to look good, especially when you know its mostly because of how much of a perfectionist you are at the end of the day.... Over all? I'm glad I finally have a design I like. I tried SEVERAL different leg and wrist options, skirt options, dresses, etc.

And before aaaaanyone decides to come for me due to giving her a high-low skirt that shows her pelvic area, its on theme not for sex*lization purposes. She's a water themed mahou and in turn I want her design to reflect that, hends a lot of the scalloped edges and the seashells and her being barefoot (although that's also due to her just not liking to wear shoes if she has the choice). Plus it also alludes to frilly swimsuit bottoms that can be seen in both "beach episodes" and in lolita swimwear (yes that exists people). The pearls and shells allude to oceanic themes, and because she's also being given wind undertones, she gets little wings on her ankles. Little Hermes nod lol. And the hip pauldrons? Those allude to Atlantis and how a lot of mermaid royalty tend to have protective armor in more modern scifi.

Tomorrow after work I'll try my hand of what wrist or hand accessories to give her. I know that I want her fingers to be free at least, along with maybe her palms. Outside of that I have no idea.

Also still thinking up names for her incubator. He's gonna be white mostly but instead of pink/red markings and fades on the ears, its probably gonna be teal or something. Also his ear...tail...thingies? They aren't folded in how he's posed. Its actually arounded and bulbous, kinda like how the bottom of an octopus plushie is.

[scarabjewels]

Why is No One Talking About The Hellboy Animated Movies?

This is probably a very specific cult following, a niche niche if you will. But let me tell you, if the 2D underrated classics such as Atlantis, El Dorado,Treasure Planet and Anastasia have a strong cult following, why not this?

Every one of these essays, I always have some short origin story of me discovering it and OF COURSE THIS IS ALSO HAS ONE.

I came across one of the movies in a DVD of a mix of different cartoons, such as Static Shock and maybe 70s/80s Fantastic Four episodes.

It was The Sword of Storm movie, where my love of dark mythological action animated movies continued. I was already a mythology enthusiast as a kid. My past times were reading encyclopedias and watching my mom's extensive collection of documentary DVDs. As for dark animated action movies, DC and Marvel had a lot, and it slipped into pirated DVDs back in the day.

Anyway, it was AMAZING. Hello, JAPANESE AKUMAS, THE ATMOSPHERE, THE LORE.

Fast forward to some years later, I found out that there was another movie and one that was unfortunately cancelled. Loved it too much that I went ahead and tried to read the comics, specifically the ones produced by Dark Horse, as it was related directly to the animated movies.

I craved those kinds of genres in animated media at the time, but I couldn't find ones that I really stuck to, the DC animated movies were good, the old Marvel ones were great and then Trese came, and it was just perfect. Then Castlevania and Blood of Zeus followed after, I have yet to watch it.

So again, why are these so underground niche.

I don't really have qualms or analysis about these movies, I just want to write just how much I appreciate it.

The Dark Action Comics Feel

I am not a comic reader at all by the way, I barely read them. I like manga a little more, and I like my action in moving pictures more than in panels. That said, I appreciate the art of it.

Western dark comics hit a lot different. The simplistic animated styles work well with suspense.

Though Guillermo directed the animated and live action of Hellboy, I would argue that he got the feel of it best in Hellboy Animated. I have yet to see the live action movies, but I recall seeing a glimpse and was very dissappointed. I liked the costumes but I didn't like the brightness and the subplots. It felt like Fantastic Four (2005) with Chris Evans and Jessica Alba (no hate to the movie, I actually really like that one). It wasn't dark enough, but these materials getting adapted into live action are difficult already. That's why a lot of superhero animated movies surpass the action in live a lot of the time.

Hellboy Animated was the best way it could've been adapted. Do note that Hellboy was not an original idea of Guillermo. It existed way before, and it was even darker.

It was dark enough, not too cringey. It was serious but not taking itself too seriously. it was the right blend of dark action, witty, and visually appealing.

The Dialogues and The Characters

Okay, this is one that really sold me on the movies. Somehow, the lines were humorous and short. SHORT.

I also loved that Hellboy was a character who didn't give two shits and just done with the world, yet does his job anyway and is kind. He is like a broody cool but drunk 40 year old man who just exists. WHICH IS BY THE WAY A PROTAGONIST TROPE USED IN A LOT OF LIVE ACTION MOVIES. I don't know if it's the same in the live Hellboy movies, I am really hoping that his lines are just "Crap" and have simple fun expressions.

Also, I find that Abe is a lot more ...attractive in the animated ones? I have seen the costume of him in the live and I think it also inspired a project of Guillermo after, "The Shape of Water". It's not bad at all, just...creature like than humanoid creature. If anything, maybe the creature in The Shape of Water was closer to Abe's hotness. Guillermo has so much of these characters that ...he just might be a furry (HAHAH). Anyway, Abe is like a hot fit nerd action hero, which I think a lot of us wish would even go to that level.

Okay now, Liz. First of all, why is Liz Hellboy's gal? HE HAS HIS OWN IN THE ANIMATED. Her name is Kate, and she has known him a lot longer than Liz. She is also a hot nerd ( opposites attract a type of deal). Liz is similar to Hellboy, but younger and getting used to her powers. Hellboy sees her like a younger sister, too, and is affectionate to her like one. Liz is more of the action hero that Scarlett Johansenn could play her. Her lines would be sarcastic, and her voice was very Megara, just under your breath sassy. Also...her chemistry with Abe...you can not tell me it's not PLANTED.

The other characters are also perfectly voiced and don't drag on too long in a scene even when they are the focus. Again, their "budgetting" with visuals and dialogue in a scene were straight to the point. They say a little bit while saying, just perfect in Show, Don't Tell. Other than the main trio, I found a few more characters memorable: Kate and The Professor.

I already mentioned Kate, she is this quirky girl who is hot, rocks a blonde bob undercut and dangling earrings, and almost always appears 5-10% in the movies but always memorable. Her relationship with Hellboy was told through her dialogues, without even telling us too much. It's not "We've known each other for so long" it's "He could be a big grump and he's even older than he looks", that's how you do dialogue people. Ehem, I'm looking at you. "Truth or dare." She does appear little but is clearly significant either to the plot in the story (in the Sword of Storms) or by the characters (in Blood and Iron). I just think she's cool too. She is so excited with going on about the scientific details related to missions, and the characters adore her.

Professor Trevor, aka Hellboy's adoptive father and one of the founders of BPRD (Buruea of Paranormal Research and Defense), is definitely one of the more important characters in the Hellboy Universe. He was the one who raised Hellboy, as well as doing operations at the same time. They showed me his importance with just dialogue and the smallest cutscenes ever. The mastery of that technique was evident in underrated comic movies.

And HELLBOY, the titular character was the best one ever. He is probably Sleeping Beauty because he has the fewest lines in those movies. That man is stoic, unbothered, laid back and incredibly CHILL AF. I see these characters aa side characters a lot, so seeing a character like this as the main character is so fun to watch, like he does not need development yet it's his world and we're all living in it. That man is zen to the max, yet is sad to be destined to lead the world. Reminds me of older Kratos (God of War), just 100 times more chill and more swag, out of the two, he is that gentle giant you can hang with in a bar and maybe even get high with, Older Kratos is way too intimidating but you'd feel very safe around him more.

The Mystique Tone weaved with the World Building

The dialogues already brought out the world building, how the organisation of paranormal defence is a serious thing. See, taking something so fantastical so seriously can counter its intention, when done correctly and properly, you can hone a cult following, which is why DCU, Marvel and the X-men evolved from comics for the children into basically modern art and literature for its niche. That's also why I am wondering why Hellboy is not as beloved. The comics before Dark Horse are pretty hard-core. The world building is pretty good in movies alone. It's like a contemporary take on supernatural noir. It's mysterious, dramatic, and (this is specific to me, I dunno why) smooth.

Trese (the filipino horror/thriller comic that had its show adapted during the pandemic in netflix) reminded me of Hellboy, and even Trese too, small cult following when I think it does deserve do much more.

Now, the world is building specific to the movies.

I'm referring to the inadequate tone with the existence of the BPRD, the people who work there, and that they are literally like a private organisation with connections to the government. Think S.H.E.I.L.D from Marvel. Only the organization is not dramatically futuristic and really in your face about it. It's super chill and like an underground organisation, too. They are literally normal anywhere and everywhere. Also, they feel so much more mysterious because, again, they don't say what they are doing in detail like blockbuster movies. They do it straightforward, and you figure it out quickly. An example is in Sword of Storms, Hellboy disappeared into another dimension, the BPRD is looking for him. What's so funny and awesome about it is that dimensions aren't new to the BPRD and that Hellboy's disappearance is also not uncommon. They literally casually said that he was not on the planet. The reactions are just "great, looks like we'll wait this out again." That's a subtle node to the world building of this universe, the inadequacy.

The Sympathetic Aspect and Humanity of the Story and Characters

I watched a video essay about the movies and he pointed out two stories of how much it has humanity and sadness in it. I think this is what somehow makes it separate from grandiose epic tales of the hero vs the monster.

In the Sword of Storms, the first scene is a mission in a Mayan Temple where they had to fight with a giant bat worshipped as a God in that particular setting. Long story short, the bat rose an army of the undead, and Liz, Abe, and Hellboy had to fight them all. Liz, having pyrokinesis, unleashes her powers like hellfire, burning the bat and the undead army. The score of Liz's powers feels exactly like hellfire, which is to cleanse the soiled. The sad part is that the bat may have been monstrous, but it was shown glimmer of complete sadness when it looked at its army and accepted its gruesome fate to burn with them. It reminded me of Shen's last scene in Kung Fu Panda 2, where he fought Po with everything he got, in the midst of the fight, a pillar was doomed to hit him, Shen sees this and he just closes his eyes, accepting his defeat.

The other one is a fleshed out subplot in Blood and Iron. It was about a priest the professor had met years ago in a mission. He was once a young and proud priest but faced an existential crisis, losing faith in God as he witnessed the acts of a vampire, later became a servant of that same vampire. Professor Broom and him met again, a little after the former priest killed a man as he was ordered to. The professor gave him words of wisdom and gave him a crucifix, a symbol of his faith restoring. However, it was not to be a happy ending, as he was transformed into a werewolf to become a hindrance of the BPRD succeeding in their mission. When he was eventually killed, we got a small shot of the crucifix in his transformed hand. It was incredibly a sad and dark ending, which was sort of beautiful and came full circle for him.

The point of these kinds of comics is to not glamorize the formula of epics but to emphasise the protection of humanity. Trese also did the same (Man, I should make an essay about this). Professor Broom is pretty much the character that really showed my point. He acts within reason, and even at a younger age, he was very wise beyond years. He didn't come in a monster killing hero, but at best consultant. In Blood and Iron, Erzebet, the serial vampire, was beyond saving and needed to be killed to save countless lives she plans to take. When he met the priest again, he witnessed that the priest murdered and his words alluded that he did it many times before. Yet he urges to forgive himself and that it was never too late for him as he hands him the crucifix. The professor literally adopted a demon boy and raised it as a son, to whom we know as Hellboy. He doesn't believe that everyone is inherently bad, as he chose to believe the good can be taught and redeemed again. He is probably the most beautiful person in this universe, damn to stay true and grounded with those kind of values in that kind of work, reminds me of a quote from the Emperor from Mulan : " No matter how much the wind blows, a mountain cannot bow to it".

Most of the members of The BPRD are not fully human, similar to mutants of X-Men. Hellboy is literally a demon, raised as a human, Liz is pyrokinetic, and Abe is a humanoid amphibian. Yet they are incredibly human. They would casually have a conversation about pastries they tried when they were out on a mission.

Conclusion:

While I was researching about Mignola and Del Toro, I had just found out that a new movie live action Hellboy is coming out, with an indie film feel!

Honestly, I don't think it's going to go on par with the block buster films, but what I have seen from the trailers so far, it just might do Mignola's Hellboy justice. Though, I do have a comment on the movie's filter and lighting, I want it to be close to Egger's "The Witch" if that makes sense. Just a tad but darker, like a small nod to the aesthetic theme of the comic, the noir feel. But the effects are amazing 👏 . The indie-ness of it is perfection.

Now it's obvious that I love this, and for some reason, I think my love for the animated films manifested this information of a new live action instalment.

[docgold13]

Heroes & Villains The DC Animated Universe - Paper Cut-Out Portraits and Profiles

Mera

Queen Mera of Atlantis ruled beside her husband Aquaman. Like all Atlantans, she could breath under water and was an exceptional swimmer.  She was additionally a fierce combatant and shrewd tactician.

Mera and Aquaman had a son, who was next in line for the throne of Atlantis. She aided in repelling the attempted coup by her brother-in-law, Orn, and later assisted the Justice League in combating the threat of Icthultu .  

Some time later, Mera’s had a second child, daughter she and her husband named Mareena. Young Mareena inherited her father's special abilities and, in the future era of Batman Beyond, she came to serve as a member of the Justice League Unlimited under the alias of Aquagirl.

Actress Kristin Bauer provided the voice for Mera with the Atlantean queen first appearing in the sixth episode of the first season of Justice League, ‘The Enemy Below.’

[cardcaptorsakura96]

Finding Each Other-Chapter 3

Fandom: Superman, Batman, Shazam, and Wonder Woman

Characters: Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Dick Grayson, Diana Prince, Billy Batson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Kara Zor El, Damian Wayne, Cassandra Cain, Alfred Pennyworth, Lex Luthor, Jonathan Kent, Connor Kent

Summary: Clark Kent always knew he wanted a family. He just always thought it would be traditional like his parents. Little did he know that destiny had something different in store for him.

Chapter 1, Chapter 2

Clark followed B and Dick out to a white Rolls-Royce. B went to the passenger door and opened it for Clark and said, “After you.” 

Clark blushed and said, “You really didn’t have to do that.”

B smirked and said, “But I insist.”

Dick giggled as he got into the back seat of the car and said, “You guys are funny.”

Clark blushed harder as B chuckled as he went to the driver’s side and got in. The distance between the museum and Bruce home was short. They were only in the car for ten minutes chatting some more about Atlantis when Clark just stared at the scene before him with his mouth wide open. Bruce had initially stopped at a gate. Once he put in a code, it opened to the most beautiful scenery that Clark had ever seen. It was a mansion. The biggest mansion that Clark had ever seen. He wouldn’t be surprised if it had over 100 ones inside. While the outside had a dark gothic look, it was counterbalanced by the assortment of beautiful flowers on the outside as well. The flowers did make the mansion appear less threatening. 

B smirked and said, “You seemed surprised.”

Clark chuckled and said, “Well, I have never seen a mansion so big so far.”

B chuckled and said, “That is refreshing to know.”

Clark looked at B confused and asked, “How so?”

B smiled and said, “I am used to people either trying to play it cool when they come here or being self-important. However, you are different. You seemed to be very much in awe of the place.”

Clark chuckled and said, “It is not hard too. Not only is the size incredible, but the gothic feel combined with the flowers, make it appear welcoming.”

B chuckled and said, “That would be my mother’s doing. When she moved here, she hated the place because it reminded her of the TV show Dark Shadows.”

Clark chuckled and said, “That is a show I haven’t heard of in a long while.”

B looked at him startled and asked, “So you are familiar?” 

Clark smiled and said, “I used to watch the old episodes with my Pa. It had everything I liked in fantasy: vampires, witches, love, and death. It was quite thrilling.”

B looked at Clark impressed and said, “I haven’t met that many people my age that have seen it before.” 

Clark sighed and said, “I am not surprised. It is from a while ago. I wished the movie they did recently did it justice.”

B sighed and said, “I couldn’t agree more.” B shook his head with a wistful smile and said, “My mother used to joke that she thought that Barnabas Collins haunted the grounds and would come out to get her.”

Clark raised an eyebrow and asked, “Really?”

B nodded while smiling and said, “My dad thought it was funny at first, but seeing how scared out of her mind she was decided to redirect her focus to something positive. He suggested gardening which she took to like drinking water. She planted so many flowers of different colors to liven up the place.” B’s face fell a bit before wiping off a tear from her eyes and said, “I wish you could have met her. She was a very lovely and gentle soul.” 

Clark didn’t know what to say to that but decided to gently squeeze B’s hand who smiled back in appreciation. As they continued up the driveway, they finally got up to the front of the mansion after a couple of minutes. When Clark looked up, the front door was open with a man already standing there in a three-piece black suit. He seemed like an older gentleman either in his late 60s or early 70s. Dick instantly got out of the car and ran ahead of them to the older gentleman and instantly embraced him in a hug. 

The man smiled and said, “Master Dick, it is nice to see you too. I take it you and your dad had a good time?”

Dick looked up at the older gentleman, smiled, and said, “We had the best time, Alfie! We learned about Atlantis and I got cool stuff from the gift shop.” Dick instantly opened the bag and showed the older gentleman its contents. 

The older gentleman chuckled and said, “I see you are adding more to your Superman collection.”

Dick smiled and said, “Yup.” Dick looked back to Clark and B coming up right behind him on the stairs and then directed the older gentleman’s direction to Clark and said, “Oh! We made a new friend tonight too, Clark. He has a lot of awesome ideas about Atlantis.”

The older gentleman smiled at Clark and said, “I see.” He raised his hand to shake Clark’s and said, “My name is Alfred Pennyworth. It is nice to meet you.”

Clark shook Alfred’s hand and said, “It is nice to meet you.”

B smiled and said, “Alfred is my adopted father after my parents died.”

Clark smiled and said, “You raised a fine young man.”

Alfred chuckled and said, “Heavens know that it was a struggle, but I believe everything turned out good in the end.”

B chuckled and said, “Alfred is putting it mildly. I was a little hell raiser.”

Clark smirked and said, “I still can’t imagine that.”

Alfred smirked and said, “He used to get into a lot of mischief growing up. However, I wouldn’t trade it for anything for the world.”

B smiled softly and said, “Thanks, Alfred.”

Alfred placed a gentle hand on B and smiled. Clark's heart warmed at the sight of the love between the two. 

Alfred cleared his throat and said, “Well, let’s not keep you all outside.”

As they entered the foyer, Alfred asked, “Shall I get you guys anything?”

B shook his head and said, “I was just going to make us sandwiches. I thought we could have chips and ice cream with it for dessert.”

Alfred nodded and said, “Very well. I will be upstairs in my room reading if you need anything.”

Alfred proceeded to head up to the staircase a couple of feet in front of him while B and Dick started to head down the hall to the right with Clark following right behind them. After walking for a couple of minutes, they entered a brightly lit kitchen. B went to the fridge while Clark and Dick sat at the kitchen island. 

As B looked through the fridge, he said, “Clark, if you could have any sandwich right now, what would it be?”

Clark looked up thoughtfully and said, “A roast beef sandwich on white bread.”

B nodded and said, “Coming right up. Did you have any preferences for toppings?”

Clark smiled and said, “If you have mayo, cheddar cheese, and lettuce, that would be awesome! If not, the roast beef and bread will be fine.”

B chuckled and said, “Don’t worry, I got you covered. The best parts of the sandwich are the toppings. I tend to be more into honey mustard fan myself when it comes to toppings.”

B brought over all the ingredients to the kitchen island. 

B looked up at Dick and asked, “I assume that you are wanting your usual?”

Dick nodded enthusiastically and asked, “Can I have the sour cream and onion chips too?” 

B nodded and said, “They should be in the pantry. Do you mind getting them out and the BBQ flavored chips and…” B turned to Clark and asked, “Was there a particular flavor of chips you preferred?”

Clark smiled and said, “I am actually a big fan of sour creme and onion, especially the ones from Pringles.”

Dick smiled and said, “Those are my favorite too even though Lay’s sour creme and onion is a close second.”

Clark nodded and said, “I couldn’t agree with you more.”

Dick beamed and said, “I’ll go get the chips. I’ll be right back.”

Read the rest on AO3

[fountainpenguin]

Riddle watches New Wish - Post #7

"A Dinosaur in Dimmadelphia" - Full moon in the title card!

Hazel's parents are really engaged in having fun. I'm a little curious as to where this is going, since if we follow the OG lore, Hazel should lose Cosmo and Wanda once she's no longer miserable. I'm curious if they're going to push that direction or retire that bit of lore.

Also, C and W kind of snuck in under the radar and are retired otherwise, so Jorgen probably won't ride them as hard as he used to.

SLKDJF- It's a WHAT?

Obtuse Rubber Goose - 2001 B.C.

Of course she's more into the rocks.

/sweats at the billboard for Atlantis Condos even though it's painted in a mural. Cosmo... (Also I love the dinos by the water coolers in that image).

Man, this is a playground for both Cosmo AND Wanda's destructive histories!

I have feelings about the Fairlysaurus. I question nothing.

They're so cute.

The unfortunate thing about this show is that Whisper can tell me some scientists believe dinosaurs wore top hats and had electricity and unfortunately that's 100% possible in this world.

I like how Hazel's creature-hunting dad listens to Whispers Fred's podcast. That's gonna go well.

I like how Cosmo and Wanda can understand dinosaurs. She would be the type to understand them and wipe them out of existence anyway.

Confirmed 10k-year vacation through time!!

Hazel wishing "I wish people weren't afraid of dinosaurs" after bringing one to the future is one of the funniest things I've ever heard. Welp, that solves that.

sldkfj, Wanda proudly talking about the comet that wipes out dinosaur life as if she didn't personally launch that comet.

"If I can't send [the dinosaur] home, I'll do the next best thing: Get him a job!" - I changed my mind, that's even funnier. Hazel, why?

I love the background hills:

I like the implication that people are totally ready to accept the dinosaur as an actor because they're no longer afraid of him, so he can stroll in and not only are they unafraid, they also don't question it. Yeah, that sounds about right.

This vibe is very funny since Timmy usually tried keeping his wishes under wraps. Hazel's just been changing her surroundings and people play along.

I like that Whispers Fred and the museum guy had a bet about dinosaurs having electricity and the museum guy just sighs and pays it. Yeah, okay.

... Do I know that screaming man? Why does he sound familiar? Is he from "T.U.F.F. Puppy?" I know him... Is it Meerkat, my beloved?

-> I looked it up and Meerkat's VA is Daran Norris (Cosmo's VA). So... Yes, it was probably him using a Meerkat-adjacent voice, SKLSDJF.

Mystery mayor...

Is that #1 Dad in the crowd? Where is your baby?

SKLDFJS we're keeping the dinosaur. Okay.

"Fearless" time! - This title card has SPOT-ON Cosmo and Wanda in their old designs. Nice!

Did Hazel share a room with her brother, hence the bunk bed?

I like how Hazel's wardrobe is filled with identical outfits just like Timmy's closet used to be.

I like how the movies are also in 2D animation style.

Dev loves staring at Hazel and judging her in the background, doesn't he?

The kid on the voting poster reminds me of Imaginary Gary.

Note to self, include a trigger warning for this episode if I recommend it to anyone who doesn't like horror. It's no "Dark Harvest" or what-not, but they do a good job of making it creepy to kids, but... whoa.

I like the idea of Jasmine's fears coming to life as separate people outside her body, which is different than when Timmy wished he was fearless and became numb.

Hazel wishing for a Hazel stand-in to hold her place in class was smart. She and Chloe would be friends.

sldkjf, bug spray with the cockroach from "Wanda's Day Off" on it.

The plot about Jasmine having to be the one to face her fears is clever. Also, Hazel implied she has to avoid revealing magic, so it looks like she did get the basic rules explained (and they're still in play in this spin-off).

Wait, why is the girl who was reading "Shakespeare for Mimes" afraid of clowns?

I'm glad the crowns make metallic sounds when they fall since they're magnetic in the OG series.

OH SNAP- Hazel getting called out for "trying to make this friendship into what she had with her brother." That's rough, kid. Forcing Hazel to face her fears is a clever way to introduce her insecurities to the audience. I like it.

The list of champions on the school's wall goes up as far as 2019, and we can't be THAT far in the future since there aren't others.

I did worry where this plot was going, so I'm glad Hazel opted not to watch scary movies and instead pick something her friend wanted to do too :)

[dr-futbol-blog]

The Siege III, Pt. 1

The final part of The Siege (S02E01) starts a whole new season and while the finale of season 1 and the beginning of season 2 are supposed to make two book-ends of a single episode, there were months between them originally. The show being renewed for a second season also meant that the narrative had to be expanded, the character journeys had to be stretched to span as many seasons as they would get. And as discussed before, while we do get a kind of ending by the time the show is finished, it's not really the ending the narrative was gearing toward when we look at how we started, how the foundation of their character arcs was laid down. But more on that (much) later.

For the second season, it means complicating Sheppard and McKay's relationship, adding dramatic turns and tragic elements. They have that "first fight" mentioned by Harmony in Harmony (S04E14) and although it takes a while, they do eventually learn to laugh about it. And the seeds of discord are already sown in this season premiere because what John Sheppard did at the end of the first season, although he did it with the best of intentions, did hurt Rodney McKay in ways that he has never been hurt before, in ways that he hadn't known it was possible to hurt, and knowing what we do of childhood, he is no stranger to pain.

Also notable is that McKay does not appear in the recap of the previous episode(s) as though he and his contributions had not been pivotal, as though he had not been the one most affected by Sheppard's decision. And it is not for nothing that we begin the episode with Ford having his heart (symbolically) ripped out of his chest, being engulfed by an explosion and plunged into the depths of the ocean all at the same time. Both Sheppard and McKay had just essentially suffered the same, underlined by how we transition from Ford's fall to Sheppard approaching the hive. Or, Sheppard having thought McKay had died was like the grenade going off, McKay believing Sheppard had chosen to leave him behind was like being plunged into the icy waters.

So, we pick up where we left off, John Sheppard on a suicide run to take out one of the two wraith hives bearing down on Atlantis while Rodney McKay's heart is breaking in the control room. The previous episode stacked the reaction shots of Beckett, Weir and finally McKay before ending with Sheppard and now (Ford's scene aside, the character getting his moment as he is being written out of the main cast) we start with Sheppard and move from his directly to McKay. This is called a ring composition, the ending of the previous and the beginning of this episode rhyme.

We do get a reaction shot of Weir as the nuke goes off, she is clearly pained by this and seems to be close to tears thinking that Sheppard has died. But we get three reaction shots of McKay to her one and the reaction shot that should be the most important, the moment the nuke goes off, we don't get to see. The most important scenes between Sheppard and McKay are continuously obscured or completely left out, and this is no co-incidence.

John Sheppard is miraculously saved by the arrival of the Earth vessel Deadalus in the nick of time. We watch his face before he gets the message, slowly approaching his demise, and his expression is unreadable. There is barely any emotion to be seen. He is cloaked, as the voice on the intercom informs us, and likewise he is concealing his emotions. We get no insight into what he is thinking but as an Air Force test pilot he must have the ability to execute tasks divorced from his emotions. To have the ability to shut them off to function in high pressure situations. But while he may be cut off from his emotions, he does have them. We saw him suppressing some strong emotions when he was telling Weir that he has to do this, and she knows it.

He had made the decision to do this when McKay had told Weir that the generator was dead. And once the decision was made, all that was left was to do it. To execute the command of his heart. That part was easy because he had already died when he stood up from the control chair, when he left McKay behind. This was "the flight of the dead man," which McKay had made a reference in the Ancient satellite platform (The Siege S01E19). But because he had already made peace with this, with dying, with giving the others a fighting chance to live, believing in McKay and his abilities to such an extent that he would survive this if he just gave them a little more time, he is really quite nettled when he suddenly gets a message telling him what to do:

Caldwell: Major Sheppard, de-cloak your Jumper immediately. Sheppard: What?! Who the hell is this? Caldwell: Authentication Alpha Charlie One. De-cloak now.

We see him execute the command he receives via the intercom from an unknown source immediately after he receives the authentication code, and even though he has no idea what is going on and he had already given up his lease on life, he does as he is told. They beam Sheppard out of the jumper before it explodes taking the hive with it. Sheppard's plan works and it is only through providence that he survives it. Those gathered in the control room watching his approach and detonation through the screen are not privy to this, however, believing him to perish with the hive. It is Rodney McKay that we first hear and see in the control room and for some reason, it is he that is doing the count-down to the detonation. It his him that the camera follows.

It is not the job of the chief-scientist to do the countdown never mind how much he might have been involved in fixing up the nukes and attempting to make the jumpers remote-controllable. The count-down should have been done by Weir or by Chuck, the control room technician, or someone from the military. The only reason for McKay to do it is if he had taken the role upon himself or that Weir had deferred the task to him seeing it as his right. McKay also probably needed to do something, needed to occupy himself with something, not to fall apart. After all, it is McKay that is losing something more than a friend and a colleague. It is McKay that is made into a widower by what is taking place.

McKay ends with number two, he can't say the final number. This has nothing to do with counting down to action, which he did in Letters from Pegasus (S01E17) when he was shooting his video messages to Earth, where you usually leave the final two numbers unvoiced--which anyone his age would know to do from the film Wayne's World. You count down from five-four-three and then gesture the two-one, not speaking them out loud. But that's not what he is doing here, and we can tell because he says the number two and he knew to leave that unvoiced back when he was recording the messages. He is merely unable to say the final number, and what ever was supposed to come after that ('zero,' 'impact,' 'target has been reached'). He chokes on it. While he may have taken the task on himself, he is unable to continue. He is unable to see it through.

Once the nuke goes off and they see the hive has been destroyed, we get a close up shot of Beckett's face and his anguish, with McKay standing behind him. His pain is obscured by placing Beckett in the foreground. Notable is that Beckett and Weir have basically the same reaction: they book cast their eyes downward. They both seem to be pained by this. McKay, on the other hand, seems numb. His reaction is different to the other two.

The fact that McKay's reaction differs from theirs is emphasized by the fact that as they cast their eyes down, he lifts his chin up. He does not look down, he doesn't even blink. Where Weir seems to be holding back tears, McKay seems completely lost. He can only repeat Weir's words, his voice hoarse, looking ahead not seeing anything, standing stiff as a board, unmoving.

McKay is not grieving, he is in shock. And worse yet, he's not allowed to show his feelings when they will inevitably catch up with him. When the pain comes, and it will come, he has to swallow it all down and pretend like he hadn't just lost the most important thing in his life, and this is true whether or not the viewer thinks they had been fucking. Both Beckett and Weir have other important people in their lives, we saw everyone else send messages to their loved ones back on Earth. McKay and Sheppard had only each other. He keeps looking at the spot where the dot that had been Sheppard had been, only briefly interrupted by Chuck announcing that they are being hailed.

Sheppard does not keep them in suspense for long, letting them know that he survived. Apparently the very first thing he had done upon being beamed onto the Deadalus was get to the comms.

Sheppard: Atlantis, this is Sheppard. Weir: John?! Sheppard: What other Sheppards do you know?

Sheppard has to make light of the situation by being flippant because it is much too emotionally heavy for him. He is not good with, what do you call them, feelings. He is especially poor at expressing them. But there is a hint of bitterness in his response, too. He sounds... annoyed. The last thing McKay had said to him was 'Major!'. Because they were broadcasting on intercom to the control room at the time, the last thing he heard the man he loves say to him as he decided to sacrifice his own life so that he might live on had been his title, not his name. And here Weir, a woman, his colleague, his friend, was free to use this more intimate form of address where they were forced to pretend they were nothing to each other. He has the same attitude and tone with which he had answered Caldwell's hail earlier. It is not a tone that says "Sorry for having kept you in suspense, my love". It's a tone that says "Why are you wasting time asking stupid questions?"

McKay seems to have a much more difficult time believing what they hear is real. It had not been easy for him to accept that what was happening had indeed been happening. It had taken monumental effort on his part to be able to function in this situation at all, to keep it together as he watched the dot that was his lover approach the hive and then vanish from the screen. And it is even more difficult for him to accept that his worst fear had not realized. It was too good to be true. He must be hallucinating. He must have died and this was not the gate room but heaven's actual gate.

McKay: No, no, that can't be. We saw the hive ship go up. Caldwell: I assure you, Doctor McKay, that Major Sheppard is alive and well.

A thing to note: Caldwell calls him Doctor McKay. They have never met before, he does not know this man by his voice. He specifically reassures McKay of the fact that Sheppard is alive, McKay is the first person he addresses where Weir or Colonel Everett would have been the people he should have first hailed. The reason for this can only be that the first thing Sheppard had told them was that he had to contact McKay. The first words out of his mouth after being beamed on the ship had been about McKay. That he would even recognize this disembodied voice as that of McKay must be because he saw Sheppard somehow react to the sound of his voice, and it's possible Caldwell was forced to pick it up from Sheppard because he had suddenly been unable to continue, had been at a loss for words. While Weir is the one that first responded, it was not Weir that Sheppard contacted. He contacted "Atlantis," and actually seemed more than a little irked that it was Weir's voice that he heard back. It was not her that he was trying to get in touch with. The fact that Col. Caldwell feels the need to personally assure McKay of the fact that Sheppard is not only alive but is also well speaks volumes.

Back on the Daedalus Sheppard is standing right by the front window, as physically close to Atlantis as he can possibly be. Out of all the characters, only McKay and Sheppard seem to look up at the ceiling as they talk across the distance, looking either at the source of the voices or at what ever providence that did save Sheppard. But it kind of makes their gazes meet on the symbolic level.

It is only when Caldwell has personally assured McKay that Sheppard is both alive and well that we see McKay himself come back to life. He lets out a breath, he sits down on a step instead of finding a chair because his legs give way from underneath him. He buries his face in his hands, hiding his face from the view of others.

Again he is contrasted to the others. Where Weir is suddenly very happy, springing into action, disarming the self-destruct, it is only now that McKay allows himself to feel and what he feels is not for general consumption, it is private. And what he says is "Oh, thank you". Not, "Oh, thank God," which is what one might expect and which is what Beckett had said. But he's not thanking Caldwell. He's not talking to Caldwell. He is thanking God, and he's thanking God directly because he had been praying, and he doesn't even believe in God. This is why he says it in a whisper rather than out loud.

Caldwell then addresses McKay for the second time, directly, by name. He jolts, suddenly on his feet again as though he had just been caught doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing, something illicit. Some transcripts explain his action as him having almost dozed off ("Rodney has almost fallen asleep from exhaustion but now he jerks to his feet, blinking himself awake again") which is not even close to what he does.

We saw Weir holding back tears earlier, her eyes watering. We see McKay's eyes have watered in a similar way now, between him burying his face in his hands and jerking up to his feet. He is rapidly blinking away the tears that had welled in his eyes.

Even though he is exhausted, and we saw him briefly dozing off previously even with the stimulant Beckett had given him, he does not look at all tired here. He looks like he wouldn't be able to sleep without a sedative even if he tried. He is a raw nerve. He had all of three seconds to himself to feel what he had not allowed himself to feel, and to interpret this man's pain as him dozing off is just willful misinterpretation.

McKay is the comic relief. He's the side-kick. He's the magic science man that delivers amusing one-liners and has an attitude. He's an avatar to all science fiction geeks. So he can't possibly be in so much emotional turmoil and anguish that his legs give way, that he has to bury his face in his hands, that he's holding back tears, that he's startled by someone calling attention to him because all of these things are something he cannot be seen doing in public when his duty is to protect the career of the man he thought he had lost for good. He's not blinking "himself awake again," he is blinking away tears from his eyes because he's not allowed to have these emotions, he is not allowed to let them show. Men are not supposed to cry, he almost certainly learned that from his father. Men definitely don't cry over almost having lost a friend, a best buddy. Men are supposed to keep it together. The relief he feels is overwhelming, yes, but he is also feeling the grief that he could not even begin to feel earlier. It's a delayed reaction. And all these people gathered in the control room and on the bridge of the Deadalus, they can never know the depth of his grief.

The thing is, Sheppard knows McKay very well. He figured out a long time ago that to get him over a traumatic experience, he needed to occupy McKay's mind with a problem that could be resolved. To get his mind working on something that would not overwhelm him but that would give it something to chew on. It was easy to distract him from emotional damage with a routine task. McKay has said that his parents hated each other and took it out on him, so very likely he would have tried to use homework to distract himself from his parents fighting as a child, and it is entirely within possibility that Sheppard also knows this about him since they seem to have shared a lot about themselves with the other.

So the first thing they do is beam down the ZPM that had brought the Daedalus to the Pegasus Galaxy in record time. Sheppard had been up on the bridge of the vessel not even for a full minute before they contacted Atlantis, and he had managed to tell them about McKay and that they needed to get the ZPM down to him. It seems like he had spent all of his time there only talking about McKay because damn.

And he's absolutely right. As soon as McKay realizes what it is, his demeanor is entirely altered. He's giddy as a school boy, excitedly prattling on about the technology, rushing over to actually look at it with his own eyes. Sheppard may not be there to see it but he has seen McKay with a ZPM before. He can imagine it. He can hear it in his voice. See it in his mind's eye.

Beckett: How did they do that?! McKay: Well, the Daedalus is loaded with Asgard technology. The beaming technology's the first part of it. They've got things like... Sheppard: Rodney. What say we get the shields back up? McKay: Yeah. What say we?

First of all, the tone with which Sheppard talks to McKay is completely different from how he responded to Weir. It is soft, it's familiar. He speaks his name like once more it's just the two of them in the whole world. They are on the intercom with both the control room and the Deadalus bridge listening in on them and even so they had again managed to slip into that bubble of theirs where others are not welcome, both of them shifting to using 'we' pronouns easily. While there are miles and miles between them, it's as though they are with each other. And while they are not saying the words, the meaning is clear. McKay looks at the ZPM like at a lover, at a precious thing. The look in his eyes is the look of a man in love. But the ZPM is only a part of it. That joy on his face is having Sheppard returned to him. Everything else is just icing on the cake.

But this is just a distraction. It's a sparkly bit of tinsel to draw their attention away from the still smoking ruins of their relationship. They are both far from alright. They are both deeply injured by the events of the past two days.

Continued in Pt. 2

[easternmind]

A compendium of references to Portugal in Japanese video games

The beginning of the historical relations between Portugal and Japan dates to the year 1541, when a Portuguese ship washed ashore at Jingujiura. Nearly sixty Japanese words are of Portuguese origin. A variety of Japanese traditions and culinary delights were introduced by Portuguese traders, sailors and missionaries. But in what way has this cultural exchange extended to the more recent phenomenon of Japanese digital games? As a portuguese devotee of Japanese culture, the topic seemed relevant enough to merit some additional exploration.

To my knowledge, the first significant reference to Portugal in Japanese video game is found in Koei's The Age of Discovery from 1990, a game published in the west under the title Uncharted Waters. The main character is a disgraced Portuguese nobleman named Leon Ferrero who resorts to maritime exploration, trade and naval warfare to restore his family's good name and prestige.

Its 1993 sequel, known in the west as New Horizons, diversifies the base game structure of the original by including multiple characters to select from, each with their own story and mission. Among them is the tale of João Franco, the son of the original episode's protagonist Leon, who sets out to discover the mysterious location of the fabled Atlantis, no less.

Another meaningful reference can be found a year later in ArtDink's 1991 strategy game The Atlas, in which the player takes on the role of a 15th century explorer with a five year contract with the King of Portugal to discover and chart lands around the Iberian Peninsula.

In 1998, ArtDink recreated the game for contemporary systems and published as Neo Atlas. The protagonist is a Portuguese trading company owner seeking business expansion opportunities in remote territories, as well as discover and chart hitherto unknown parts of the globe. A similar premise is found in a later sequel, Neo Atlas III.

Apart from nautical strategy games, a few other titles exist where mentions to the Portuguese territory, language and culture can be traced.

Galvanized by the success of Cyan's world-renowned point and click adventure CD-ROMs, Sony Computer Entertainment helped to publish The Book of Watermarks, a game designed by a miniscule Tokyo-based studio named Watermarks that is brimming with interesting first and second-hand references to Shakespeare's The Tempest. The objective of this visually impressive pre-rendered journey is to aid in the recovery of a series of ancient tomes, each including the nuclear bases of knowledge for mankind.

The very first lost volume is named the Book of Navigators, said to be owned by the historical Infante Dom Henrique from the 15th century, condensing information on shipbuilding, oceanography, geography and astronomy. While a purely fictitious book, the reference to Prince Henry is historically accurate, him being a pivotal figure in the early age of Portuguese maritime discoveries, the governor of the Order of Christ who at once built and ruined his reputation through his various campaigns in the African continent.

Atlus' futuristic vision of Earth in Maken X includes a most unexpected tour of Europe, with a mandatory stop in Lisbon. Inexplicably, the developers got its geographic location wrong and moved to all the way to the northern Spanish region of Léon. The level, itself, boasts a reasonably accurate depiction of one of the city's oldest quarters, Alfama, and the architectural styles found therein.

Although I could not discern any actual references in the game itself, the Grandia II soundtrack by the veteran composer Noriyuki Iwadare contains two themes whose lyrics are written in Portuguese: A Deus, a double-entendre that can be translated to both farewell and to God; and Canção do Povo, meaning People's Song. Also, the name of the official soundtrack is named Melodia, which translates to Melody as you'd expect. Both themes were performed by guest singer Kaori Kawasumi, who took on the composer's challenge to sing them despite her not knowing the language.

She was coached and assisted by José Álvarez and Motoi Sato from the Portuguese Arts and Culture Center in Japan, whom she thanks in the acknowledgement section. The Grandia II Special Package edition booklet contains a page with two photos of Portugal, one for the Jéronimos Monastery in Lisbon and the other, seemingly, for the Moorish Castle in the nearby town of Sintra.

The last Pomping World (a.ka. Buster Bros/Pang) that Mitchell Corporation ever produced before shutting down was the 2010 DS European exclusive Magical Michael. It includes two levels set in Portugal, one in Lisbon by the Belém tower, a nautical landmark, and the other in the Sintra National Palace. Their representation is at once pleasingly stylized and true to life.

This final reference is found in Spike Chunsoft's third installment of their successful visual novel series, Nyūdanganronpa V3 Minna No Koroshiai Shin Gakki. Among the dozens of MonoMono machine items that can be acquired, one is a weathercock styled after a traditional Portuguese folktale hero, the Galo de Barcelos, meaning the rooster of Barcelos, a town in Northern Portugal.

As per the description, this animal became famous through an age-old tale involving a man wrongly sentenced to death who seconds before his execution remarked he was as certain to be innocent as it was certain that a nearby rooster would sing. Because the bird did crow, much to everyone's amazement, he was exonerated. Thus, the black rooster became a symbol for truth.

I would like to thank @diogojira and @DanielOlimac for their assistance in making this article possible.

[rea-grimm]

Otaku guardian of the gate - Chapter 1

You've been looking forward to this trip all your life and you finally got it. Even when you were little, everyone saw you following in your parents' footsteps. You could even say that they infected you with the desire to find the mysterious gate from Atlantis.

When you were older, you all looked for her together. That is, until that fateful accident when they left you here alone. You couldn't get over it for a long time. Maybe until the time when you decided to find the given treasure in their honour.

With this plan, you stood aboard a small yacht equipped with sonar and various computers in the middle of the open ocean and three small uncharted islands. Apparently, the gate should be under one of the islands.

Equipped with special diving gear, you stood on the edge of the ship and watched the water below you. There was a strange calm. Sometimes a fish or a lone shark swam by, but that was it. It was strange because by all accounts it should have been a complete fish paradise.

You checked the necessary things one last time before you jumped. The water was warmer than you expected. You sank and headed for the bottom. You could already see that there were many sunken ships of different nationalities and from different times. 

Long Viking ships decorated with shields, which were partially buried by sand, Japanese frigates, Spanish galleons, giant ships with torn black flags flying in the currents, metal warships and many others.

You swam around the rocks, trying to find anything that might indicate a gate. You found something like an alley of statues in various poses. Based on the style, you assumed they came from ancient Greece. Some were missing their heads, others their limbs, and some were whole. Museums would fight over it.

Subsequently, you found several stones in which various symbols were engraved, the likes of which you had never seen in your life. You then came to a rock that had smooth straight walls and a rectangular entrance leading inside. As if there was once a former door. You tried your luck there. Apart from a few old containers, you didn't find much there. That is, except for the giant black scale, which glistened orange and purple in the light.

After a long day with no organized results, when you may not have found your gate, but instead a lot of other things that could have been a great discovery in themselves. After writing the report, check the photos and all of today's knowledge, which you also checked with your notes. You were definitely close.

Now, after a day of work, it was finally time for a little rest. You were originally thinking about a movie or your favourite TV series where you wouldn't have to think too much and would rather relax. It all sounded tempting, but you had already seen it, and on the other hand, you remembered an anime that you downloaded in case of emergency and that you promised your friend that you would watch.

This anime called The Magical Ruri Hana: Demon Girl was her favorite and she kept convincing you to watch it too. After constant coercion, you nodded your agreement, earning yourself a hug from a lot of octopus, possibly breaking a rib or two.

You made yourself comfortable and played the episode on your laptop. You watched outside on the deck because the weather was nice and you didn't want to shut yourself inside unnecessarily.

After about the first 10 minutes the boat rocked slightly on the waves and you felt as if something was watching you. You settled yourself a little better and turned briefly to look back. 

The original thought that it was nothing, just some fantasy, very quickly turned into Damn, Damn, what is this? You completely froze when you saw your reflection in a giant orange eye that resembled the eye of a snake.

At first, the eye looked like it was watching anime with you, but then it focused on you, winked, and disappeared in a flash with a giant splash under the water. It wasn't until the creature disappeared that you realized you'd been holding your breath the whole time.

The brain could not recover from the shock. A giant eye meant a giant creature and this was a giant snake. The rational part of you tried to explain that it was just a vision, a mere imagination. The other part of you was screaming at you that it was Leviathan, the mythical guardian of Atlantis and that you were damn close.

To take your mind off something else, you played the first episode again from the time you saw the snake. So you watched the first two episodes without any incident and you became calm that it was all just your desire for discovery. When you played the third episode, halfway through, the ship rocked again, and you once again had the strange feeling that you were being watched.

You turned around and there it was again. A giant eye with an iris coloured orange with dark purple edges belonging to a giant black snake. The eye focused on you again and looked like it was about to sink again when you called out to it.

"Wait!" you exclaimed, running ahead to the railing. The snake was already almost completely submerged and only a piece of its head with eyes and horns that resembled branched dark blue corals was visible. 

"You can watch with me!" you exclaimed without even thinking about it. Just so the snake wouldn't sink again and you could get a better look at it.

The snake seemed to hesitate for a moment before re-emerging and tilting its head to get a better view of the computer. He even rested his head lightly against the ship, which had tilted a little. As she leaned over, the snake took off its head again, as if it was afraid that it would sink you otherwise.

When you were both "settled" you started watching. You watched the entire first series and it was truly an incredible experience. Because you would never have thought that a giant snake would enjoy this kind of anime so much.

You could tell for yourself that it wasn't your cup of coffee and you enjoyed the changing scenery of the expressions on the snake's face more than the anime. Shock, joy, nervousness... 

He always got excited when the main character appeared there and either hissed or snorted when someone wronged her. It was truly an incredible spectacle. In the moonlight, his body played with orange and purple highlights.

You turned it off after midnight as your eyes were slowly drooping and you were slowly falling asleep to it. Before you turned it off, the snake disappeared under the water and your boat swayed so much that you had to grab onto something to keep from falling. Such an experience. No one would ever believe you.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Obey me! Masterlist

[inspectorspacetimerevisited]

SAVE EVERYONE IN ATLANTIS

OR

DRAW 25

10TH INSPECTOR

[sleepyhead-poll]

ROUND 3D, MATCH 1 OUT OF 4!

Propaganda Under the Cut:

Elizabeth:

In one of the episodes it turned out that the Atlantis crew only survived their first day on Atlantis because Dr. Weir in the bad timeline went back in time to when the previous habitants of Atlantis were still living and she spent 10000 years in stasis, coming out of it every 3300 years to preserve energy in the generators so when the current timeline Atlantis crew arrives the city's shield will keep the water out until the city comes to the surface from the bottom of the ocean.

[Long propaganda, click here to read]

Dave:

hes literally just some guy <3

[autistic-crypt1d]

Stargate (1994) live blogging:

Ok so I'm a huge fan of the SG-1 and Atlantis shows and have watched them in double digit amounts each, but I haven't seen the original movie since I was like 7. I'm about to rewatch SG-1 again and I've decided to finally watch it again, here's my thoughts!

Updates:

- I'm nervous because all I remember is that I hated it which is why I never watched it again

- good lord this is a long ass intro

- ahhhh the did a shorter version for the show, I see

- did little Catherine just steal that necklace, girl wtf

- I miss my Daniel :(

- I miss my O'Neill :(

- yeesh, didn't realize how soon after his son's death this took place

- wow that was the worst sneeze I've ever heard in my life

- he's so tiny oh my god

- LUCIUS??? NO, GET OUTTA HERE, SHOO

- bro the sound mixing is killing me, Daniel is so fucking soft spoken compared to not only everyone else but the damn chalk he's drawing with

- he sounds horrifyingly identical to show Daniel

- "I'm Colonel Jack O'Neill", NUH UH

- pfffft, just yoinks his paper

- I can't look at Daniel in this outfit without immediately thinking of Anakin

- Daniel why would you draw on the screen

- I wonder why Catherine had an accent in the movie but not the show

- I'm currently unable to remember how this fits with the reveal of Earnest in that one episode

- ooooo the stargate is so much more water like here, it's even reflective

- Kaliam galaxy? That makes no sense, until the Ancient database episode, we're told it's impossible to dial outside of our galaxy without a serious amount of power like a ZPM aren't we? That's the whole reason Jack had to build that device in the ancient database episode and why they couldn't dial Atlantis again.

- she gave him the stolen necklace, how touching (sarcasm)

- does the stargate look bigger here or am I remembering wrong

- I'm so glad we got the Jack O'Neill we did, oof

- wtf is up with that stargate depiction

- why are they frosty and damp

- "that's a nice tent. Oh, we each get a rent, nice." Ah Daniel

- Ferretti, you such, and so do the rest of your buddies. The way he made fun of Jackson and threw the case at him only to then look back at his buddies for approval like the spineless jackass he is

- WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT

- NO SERIOUSLY WHAT IS THAT THING

- WHY HAVE WE NOT EVER SEEN THAT IN THE SHOW, WHERE WAS OUR WEIRD ALIEN FAUNA STUFF HUH???

- the captions spelled Jack's last name wrong *tsk tsk*

- of course Daniel gets dragged away by the weird alien thing

- oh shit it's the same Skaara!

- everyone being in neat lines is weirding me out

- oh boy, hate everyone kneeling for him, that's uncomfy

- ok wtf is that scanner thing cuz we sure as hell never see that again

- these creatures are clearly very prevalent in their society, it sucks so much we never see them in the show!!!

- and the same guy who plays Sha'uri's father!

- and we never see this much of their architecture again either! We only see tents as far as I can remember but they had this whole impressive city!!!

- I don't really understand why they would set up basecamp out in the open instead of inside the pyramid

- OOF that is a big ass storm

- another creature we never see again!!!!

- pffft there goes Daniel being taken again

- bro is being HANDLED

- oh dear

- oh man she looks like she's gonna cry, poor girl being offered up like that

- uh oh

- I have to say, the ship looks fucking AMAZING, respect given how old this movie is

- WOAH, THAT MASK IS SICK

- bitch the jack o'neill I know and love would NEVER, EVER give a child a cigarette and he would never teach him to smoke it either!!!

- OOOF, the gun reaction, ouch

- aw man them learning to communicate in the cave is so cute help

- hot damn this sarcophagus is like a blion times cooler wtf

- hang on a sec, wtf was the alien depicted in the walls, it looks like a freaky Asgard

- PFFFFT, not the band of kids following them back XD

- DUDE WHY ARE THE MAAKS SO MUCH COOLER

- the staff blasts and effects are ROUGH

- has Daniel literally ever fired a gun in his life at this point?

- also, why're there Horus and Jackall guards here?

- uhhhh, do the ships ever open again? I don't remember that happening

- the throne room is much more throne roomy in the movie than the show

- uhhhhh why are all his servants children

- oh wow that mask removal cgi is rough

- aaaaand Ra also looks like a child for some reason

- WHY ARE ALL THE SERVANTS NOT ONLY CHILDREN, BUT PRETTY MUCH NAKED

- does Daniel die here and get revied in the sarcophagus? He does that a lot so I'm not sure

- ah yeah, sarcophagus

- I'm so uncomfortable rn

- LET'S GO SHA'URI AND SKAARA

- the Jaffa don't seem to have symbiote pouches

- Daniel that wasn't really an explicit invitation

- "cover me!" "cover you?!?!?!"

- Sha'uri dies and comes back too?? Man what a couple

- PFFFFT that ring transporter effect

- it really sucks that he saves her only for her to become possessed by a Goa'uld for the rest of her life

- doesn't make much sense for them to be wearing the big ass helmets while in the death gliders

- what the hell is up with his face glowing and the alien face being beneath his???? Huh???? Did they just like, change their mind about what the Goa'uld were once they started making the show?? But why would the one Jaffa that was left at the SGC have a symbiote pouch??? I'm so confused

- ok well at least she seems to like him back but still

Pretty good movie overall, but I don't think I ever wanna watch it again cuz the kids thing is hella fucking weird, but I understand the show a lot more now! Except for the parts that make no sense because they made hella lore changes between this and the show.

[jodjuya]

Animorphs #36 - The Mutation

Jesus fuck, what a rambling pointless fever dream. This book was a Doctor Who episode wearing the flayed skin of an Animorphs book as a mask.

Animorphs versus Atlantis. 🙄

Inbred mutant human fish-people 🙄🙄

who use radioactive minerals as lightbulbs 🙄🙄🙄

and run internal combustion engines in their airtight enclosed underwater city. 🙄🙄🙄🙄

Can speak at least 5 human languages flawlessly, and presumably more. 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

Dissection and taxidermy of drowned human sailors, posed in a museum of life-size dioramas in order to study the ways of "The Surface-Dwellers" 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

Dissection and taxidermy of Hork-Bajir Controllers, posed in a life-size diorama onboard the yeerks battle submarine 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

And this Hork-Bajir diorama is in spite the fish-people's stated-outright goal of repairing the submarine's damage and using it to wage war against "The Surface-Dwellers" (how tf you are going to do any of that shit with a bunch of Hork-Bajir corpses at every station of the submarine's bridge is utterly beyond me) 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

Visser Three morphing into Magmar from Pokémon 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

The fish-people mutants are so catastrophically inbred that they're literally going extinct because their fertility has irrevocably crashed and burned. Their solution to this is abducting "Surface-Dwellers" as fresh breeding stock to inject some amount of genetic diversity into their population. 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

and/or they "process" the internal organs of drowned sailors to extract their DNA, which they then magically splice into their own genome somehow 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

The Animorphs discover this thanks to being detained in the fish-people's library, which has hundreds of years worth of METICULOUSLY documented genealogies 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

Which Ax can somehow magically read, comprehend, and analyse after a few minutes of flipping through some of the library's tomes (thank god there's an Autism Alien on the team or they never would have figured out this completely dumbassed plot thread) 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

The fish-people can successfully interbreed with "The Surface-Dwellers" (or otherwise somehow do their DNA-splicing shenanigans) but the resultant demi-fish-people aren't a solution to their population crash, as interbreeding causes the fish-people to lose their species' specialised adaptations for living underwater: webbed fingers and toes, drastically oversized eyes, and motherfucking goddamn GILLS somehow 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

So because this didn't fix their problem, plan B of the fish people is to take the yeerks combat submarine (which can also fly 🙄, turn invisible 🙄🙄, and cause its echolocation/sonar profile to appear as though it was a very large humpback whale rather than an alien spaceship 🙄🙄🙄), and use this to wage a war of conquest against "The Surface-Dwellers", backed up by their highly limited arsenal of human weapons looted from sunken human ships and submarines (including, Marco presumes, the nukes from at least one Russian submarine) 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

(how and why the fish-people think a war of conquest would fix any of their shit in any way whatsoever is not explained)

The fish-people are fully amphibious and don't cope well with being out of the water, yet on the other hand they have built their little city on 'land' (in the air bubble of their underwater cave kingdom) and are happily living their little lives out of water to some degree or another 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

The Animorphs discover the creepy museum of human-taxidermy dioramas, morph into owls to scope out the fish-people city, get captured by the fish-people the instant they demorph, and are then invited to a banquet hosted by the queen of the fish-people so that she can monologue exposition at them 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

Also, the Yeerk submarine can fire its Dracon beam weapons underwater, despite it being previously established that the weapon technology they stole from the Andalites (Shredder beam) was originally designed to be fired in the vacuum of space, and that firing in atmosphere can cause a catastrophic blowback effect proportional to the atmosphere's density. Presumably they've successfully developed adaptations to mitigate that blowback effect for usage in atmosphere, but under water?! 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

The ghostwriting squad really fumbled the shit out of this one. Disaster of a book (derogatory)

[witchofthesouls]

do you realize how awesome that would be between a cybertronian and an atlanian having a few similarities ?

also I had a lot of thoughts that had me sort of stuck.

Like the beginning part of how the atlanians were trying so very hard to out run an explosion. Perhaps a little tie to Quintess? something must of had their attention that they thus gave knowledge to them but later something that caused their downfall, just like Quintess and his creations. perhaps that was price?

would the Cybertronians know at some point, be it accident or intentionally, they seek them out? Even if they had no tie to the primes, it would still be one within of Primal. though the same could be said in reverse. either way, who knows what they may have inhereted by the line. Scratch that, the Guardian would more than likely prevent them from going further but say they do get past the Guardian and they do come across an Atlanian and thus their broken home beneath the surface.

I had forgetton that the stone(?) defense does react to danger and does choose someone of royalty. I did forget about the part where Kida was chosen and thus looked... crystalized? like energon. but also could not be touched cuz you'd wind up being like them too.

I unfortunately do not remember the all parts, only bits and pieces of the movie so feel free to ignore this.

There had been some talk that other ancient civilizations had their own massive technological marvel wonders in that movie verse, so perhaps there's something in the legends and myths…

I can't help but to think of it in a universe where Earth-is-Unicron or Unicron-yielded-Gaea because 1) we all need to utilize that way more, 2) makes sense with all the chaotic fuckery on the planet, and 3) would make a lot of sense on how it managed to store/grow Energon without tipping off a nearest spacefaring civilization, seems to be a reverse Cybertron in its makeup (dirt, metal, and water), yet able to support Primus’ own creations if utilized correctly, and build on the connection between Earth and Cybertron.

We're cousins. We have to fuck around with it. Especially with the same idea that Cybertronians and humans are cousins to the Quintessons since those multi-faced, space squids are Quintus’ descendants.

So that would make so much sense why Atlantis’ mobile weaponry was modeled after sea creatures. The Atlantians are taking advantage of the squids’ natural predators for extra psychological damage.

Imagine if the Leviathan ship came after the Quintesson invasion after a lot of tinkering between mechanical and organic components? The Atlantic answer to Quintessons’ space whale transport.

King Kashekim's dying words gave us so many details of the Heart itself and how it's able to make choices. Look, if that doesn't feel like a divine instrument or a Primal Artifact, then I don't know what does!

As a timeline, we could put the Downfall after repelling the Quintessons. King Kashekim would have had access to greater tech compared to other ally civilizations at that point, who's to say he wasn't looking to expand Atlantis’ dominion, especially after a massive undertaking and decisive win?

As for being searched by Cybertronians, it would depend on the universe. It would totally revamp the G1 episode with Atlantis and TFP would have really fantastic world-building on sentient Artifacts, Optimus not being the last of the Primes, and delve into the impact of cultural/religious instruments and “who” could claim them. Could the Autobots take the Heart and doom the inhabitants to ensure Decepticons don't raid it? What happens if the Heart refuses to cooperate? It may be a Primal Artifact/Titan, but who holds its loyalty? The descendants of its creator, especially with an unbroken lineage, or a pure Cybertronian Prime?

Could they even get past the Leviathan in the first place? This isn't a submarine where a standard mech could punch through its hull. A Leviathan is a proper war machine on a galactic standard and capable of transporting the Cybertronians themselves. Would it obey Optimus or not?

There are so many directions this could go. It's fascinating!