#This was hard because there are so many incarnations of the franchise...

[ohfugecannada]

Groot’s many backstories

So earlier I saw this post by @alastorgould where he over some of the many versions of Rocket’s backstories, eventually writing his own take on it that combined elements of all of them. It’s a pretty good summary of Rocket’s past and it’s many incarnations in the comics, cartoons and MCU etc and I highly recommend you check it out along with his rocket and halfworld related art/fics.

Anyway, It inspired to make my own post going over some of the backstories/incarnations of my personal favourite gotg character: Groot. Because A) as mentioned, he’s my fave, and imo one of the more underrated Guardians members out of the core 5, and B) Groot actually has quite a few takes on his backstory already through not only multiple retcons in the 616 comics continuity but also through several multi-media adaptations of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise. And I thought it would be fun to share some of them with you all.

Obviously, this isn’t gonna cover every single piece of media Groot has been in/has had his backstory mentioned etc. But I did my research and tried my best to cover a good chunk of the most notable continuities and adaptations.

Also, I haven’t read the entirety of every comic Groot is in ever (I.E. the latest gotg Grootfall/Grootrise story arc) so forgive me if I get a few details wrong. If there are any die hard gotg/Groot comic readers out there, feel free to politely and respectfully correct me on a few things.

The Comics

In the main marvel 616 comics there have been at least 3 different versions of Groot’s backstory and origins. 4 if you count his very first incarnation…

Tales to astonish #13 (+ other King Groot appearances)

King Groot is the giant tree like ruler of Planet-X, and an alien invader who lands on earth to kidnap the humans from a small town in order to take them back to his home planet and experiment on them. Conventional weapons used by the towns military don’t work as this groot is immune to fire and explosives. But thanks to the quick thinking of protagonist human scientist Leslie Evens, king groot is taken down by genetically bred super termites. He seemingly dies in this story but later makes appearances in comics like the Howling Commandos, aiding the team. Most commonly being seen as an inhabitant of Monster Isle. There was a time where it was thought the groot on the guardians of the galaxy was the same groot as king groot (mainly the annihilation: conquest series), but this was later retconned as a different Groot impersonating King Groot. Which brings us to…

Guardians of the Galaxy #14 (2013)/Annihilators #1 and 2 (2012)

Groot was a flora colossus sapling who along with his fellow saplings (also all called groot) were looked after by a group of elder flora colossus called the Arbor Masters. This groot was different from the others as he often brefirended the maintenance mammals; small intelligent mammal like beings who most other flora colossus looked down on as inferior. One day, another group of flora colossai were bulling a squirrel-like maintenance mammal and groot steps in to defend it. After one of the more violent flora colossus nearly kills the mammal, groot snaps and tears the other colossus apart. Presumably killing him. This catches the attention of the Arbor masters, who then have groot banished from the planet via a space ship.

This groot would later go on to impersonate king Groot and join the team that would become the Guardians of the galaxy, in Annihilation Conquest: Starlord #1, where he’d first meet his teammate and future bff Rocket Raccoon. The way he was written in annihilation conquest made it seem like he was the same character as King Groot, but this was later retconned in Annihilators #1 and 2 as well as Guardians of the Galaxy #14.

Groot vol.1 (2015)

My personal favourite comic origin for groot. (Also literally the best version of Groot in any media ever dont @ me)

Groot is born on Planet X, where the flora colossus are towering giants who regularly kidnap beings from other planets to preform experiments on them. Groot is disturbed and appalled by the actions of his people but feels powerless to do anything… until one night where he discovers a little human girl, Hannah, being held prisoner in one of the holding pods and decides to help her escape.

After teleporting Hannah away back to Earth, Groot remains behind and destroys the teleportation pad, presumably cutting the flora colossus off from earth, and he is banished by his elders. Groot then wanders the universe for a while, taking in all its wonders and sights, before being thrown in a kree prison where he meets Rocket for the first time. Rocket can’t understand Groot at first, but over the course of months sharing a cell with him, does. After this the two form a fast friendship and break out of prison, becoming bounty hunters/criminals and eventually joining the Guardians.

Groot vol.2 (2023)

One of the most recent and drastically different origins presented in the comics so far.

In this miniseries, Planet-X is a lush forest covered planet and the flora colossus, unlike the other comic origins, are a benevolent and peaceful race of sentient plants ruled over by a giant matriarch tree called Granopy. She looks after and tells stories to a child groot and his two friends Tweeg and Gleef.

One day their forest gets burnt by a gang of mercenaries known as The Spoilers, led by an evil Flora colossus named Agz, and the three get kidnapped. But are freed by a young Mar-vel. Together the four of them, along with an Alpha Centurion hunter called Yondar, fight against the Spoilers and save Planet X. As of writing this, the Grootfall/grootrise arc, which references this miniseries, has only just wrapped up. So It’s not clear if this story is supposed to be a prequel to the 2015 Groot origin or if it’s a full on retcon of it. (Im gonna assume the latter, given how different Flora Colossai are in this compared to the previous origins. Unless Flora Collossus society/planet X as a whole really went down hill after Groot grew up, somehow going from the peaceful forest utopia we see in vol. 2 to the desolate wasteland ruled by an evil king groot in tales to astonish/groot number 6 but I digress) so it’s up in the air for now if/how they connect to each-other…

Origins in other media

As a Marvel multi-media franchise, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and by extension Groot, have had a number of different adaptations and interpretations across various non-comic book mediums including movies, games, tv shows etc. so let’s take a look at four of the most famous ones.

MCU

Weirdly enough, despite this version of Groot (and his son Groot ii aka baby groot) being the most widely known by general audiences thanks to the popularity of the MCU, MCU Groot is the most mysterious when it comes to his origin story. We never get any implications or mentions of it in the entire gotg franchise (outside of a mention of Planet X in the nova police lineup scene in vol.1). The closest we get is an idea James Gunn had planned for a short film about how Groot and Rocket met and a few very brief mentions about it in interviews. In the tweet about the short film idea, James explains Groot was caged up at an intergalactic zoo housing exotic alien creatures and was treated like an animal. Until a worker at the zoo, a robot/cyborg named Tibus Lark, became attached to Groot and helped him escape, becoming his closest friend. Until they found themselves in a hole/prison where Lark and groot would meet Rocket. Being mortally injured, Tibus would explain his and Groot’s story to Rocket before entrusting Groot with Rocket and dying. Rocket would then use the robotic parts of Lark’s body to build his big gun seen in the first gotg and break out of the pit with Groot. Beginning their criminal partnership and (dysfunctional) friendship.

Gotg Disney XD cartoon season 1

In the Disney XD cartoon, Groot grew up on an idyllic and serene Planet X ruled by his father(?), both coming from a long line of flora colossus spanning billions of years who, along with all life on Planet X, all grew from an object known as the world pod. A source of power that exists within groot. Shortly after a day of battle training with his father, the Kree and their leader Ronan invade the planet to mine it of its resources. Dispute the protest of its natives, the planet is burnt to ashes, leaving groot the lone survivor. He’s then taken by the kree and experimented on, along with other kidnapped Earth animals. This is where he meets a newly anthro-ified Rocket, and the two break out together and eventually join the guardians.

Gotg Telltale Game

Like the MCU version, we unfortunately don’t get a look into his backstory, but what we do know from the alternate story path where Rocket stays with Quill and Groot goes with Mantis when the team break up is he is the last of his kind and empathises with mantis greatly because of it.

Gotg Eidos Game

Through conversations with Groot (with Rocket, and later in the game Mantis, translating for Quill), and a few parts of rocket’s conversations, we learn that Groot’s father was the king of Taluhnia (the original native name of Planet X) as well as the other branch worlds. Groot himself wanted to be a forest caretaker so he could care for the plants of Taluhina. In contrast, his father and the arbor masters were corrupt and favoured the needs of the few over the many, and enslaved the sapient animals on Taluhnia. With some saplings even hurting these mammals for fun. Groot however, preferred thier company over the others of his kind due to how nice and smart they were, comparing them to rocket in his convo with Quill and Mantis.

Unfortunately, however, they along with the rest of Taluhnia, would perish after the Chitari would test an experimental doomsday device on the planet. After the planets destruction, the other branch worlds would mobilise an attack, but they were no match for the Chitari and were destroyed as well. Fortunately, groot was able to regrow himself into a smaller sapling form. Making him, as far as he knows, the only survivor. In his smaller form, he would eventually be sold to the collector, but would later be stolen by rocket who raided the whole place while drunk. It’s kind of a mix of the maintenance mammal stuff from the gotg issue 14 story and the general flora Collossus are corrupt stuff from that and groot issue 6, with the alien race wipe out the flora colossus part from the cartoon (though swapping out the Kree for the Chitari this time).

…And that’s it for the most famous Groot origins! Again, this doesn’t include every incarnation of Groot ever, but I think I covered my bases with the most notable continuities. Maybe I’ll have a go at writing my own take on the origin at some point, but for now, I just hope you all enjoyed learning about Groot’s different pasts as much as I did researching them…

Also let me know if there are other, more obscure versions of Groot and his backstory I missed here. I’m always down to learning more Groot lore.

[ryukang1995]

My latest collage of possibly the most prominent ships within my works based on Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Double Dragon.

Ryu x Cammy (American Street Fighter AU)

This pairing largely came from the what-if artwork that Akiman did of Ryu and Cammy's son, but beyond that? I do feel the two have quite a lot in common, especially personality-wise. Plus, Cammy actually admires Ryu in canon.

Guile x Chun-Li (American Street Fighter AU)

The idea of this pairing did technically start with Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie where Guile and Chun-Li teamed up to take down Bison and Shadaloo, but because Guile is more or less the main hero of the American SF AU, it just made sense to pair him with Chun-Li.

Even so, they do have great chemistry together in pretty much the entire franchise.

Liu Kang x Kitana (Main Mortal Kombat timeline)

The pairing that John Tobias intended as far back as the development stages of the first MK game where Kitana was planned to appear as a background character named Kitsune. It eventually was integrated into the canon starting with the 1995 MK movie, and to this day, fans wonder when will they have an offspring.

To me, this is like a mix between a classic fairy tale romance and the traditional tale of star-crossed lovers who may or may not be together in the end. Ultimately, I do want to see them settle together.

Johnny Cage x Sonya Blade (Main Mortal Kombat timeline)

This pairing was technically first hinted at in the MK comics by Malibu, but it first got major focus when it was featured in the 1995 MK movie. Since then, it was hinted at in the 3D games, and it eventually became integrated into canon with the NRS timeline where they ended up giving birth to Cassie Cage.

Despite my ups and downs with the relationship as well as how Johnny was often portrayed in later incarnations (mainly the NRS timeline and the Legends animated films), I do feel it can be done well when given to the right people. It's definitely an "opposites attract" dynamic, for sure.

Ryu x Chun-Li (Japanese Street Fighter AU)

Possibly the most popular SF ship, regardless of it not truly being canon. Many fans, myself included, have always wondered if Ryu and Chun-Li would ever hook up.

Even the SF2 manga from 1993 had it to where Chun-Li had romantic feelings for Ryu, so that might have been one of the seeds that planted the idea of them being a thing in our minds. Since then, Capcom have been teasing fans hard over whether or not they will get together.

Both characters greatly admire each other, and they definitely look cute together. I definitely wouldn't mind it being official either.

Liu Kang x Sonya Blade (Alternate Mortal Kombat timeline)

I would say this is my most prominent ship I have done fan work of, despite it not being the most popular out of these, especially when compared to Liutana and CageBlade.

The pairing was first hinted at in the MK novel by Jeff Rovin, but they never attempted to make it canon, or even drop hints of it in later incarnations. Regardless, I do feel it has great fan art and fanfic potential since the two actually have a lot more in common than you would think.

It genuinely helps that both characters respect and admire each other in canon too. I would also say both this pairing and Ryu x Chun-Li just make sense, considering it's the main heroes and the first ladies of both SF and MK.

Billy Lee x Marian Kelly (Console Double Dragon AU)

While Billy is indeed "player 1" of pretty much every DD game, several of the games also had it to where Billy and Jimmy had to fight for Marian (they were also a trio in the River City Girls games, but I digress).

However, it was the DD games for consoles such as NES that established Billy being Marian's true boyfriend, and so, that is ultimately why it's the case in the "Console" DD AU.

Jimmy Lee x Marian Kelly (Arcade Double Dragon AU)

The official artwork for Double Dragon II: The Revenge has it to where Marian is holding on to Jimmy as he and Billy battle the Shadow Warriors, which did sort of imply that Jimmy was Marian's boyfriend.

Since the arcade games never truly explored lore details, I decided to fill in the blanks as well as take some liberties by making Jimmy x Marian a thing. It also helps that Jimmy is the more mature and stoic Lee brother in this AU while Billy fills such a role in the "Console" AU.

There are some other pairings I left out, such as Ken x Cammy, Kung Lao x Li Mei, and Kitana with both Johnny Cage and Kuai Liang (again, as both Scorpion and Sub-Zero), but I would say these are the most prominent ones.

[thegoddamnwordsmith]

TMayNT SUPERPOST!

Hey all! I haven't really had a chance to post for TMayNT, which is a bummer, because TMNT is my comfort food.

I know a lot of people who follow me on here may be more familiar with me as a Transformers fan, but I was born in 1983. TMNT has been the constant fictional presence in my life since I was old enough to remember. Moreover, it was the major fiction that I followed through the formative years of my childhood, and while I haven't always been active in fandom spaces or interacting with every part of the franchise, I've always kept that flame burning in my heart and my eyes on what was going on with all things Turtle.

So I'm going to be posting the full month's worth of TMayNT in one post (put under a cut, of course, to spare y'all from having a stretched-out timeline). Also, this will give anyone who's interested a better idea of just what slice of the fandom I'm a part of, which I think is kind of fun.

Anyway, let's get on with the show, shall we?

1 - Your favorite Turtle - This kind of depends on your definition, but if we're just pulling from the Brothers, it's easy: Michelangelo.

He's fun and funny, compassionate and caring, arguably has the biggest heart among all his brothers. Often irreverent and irresponsible, but always dependable. His lack of discipline usually ends up balanced out by his incredible natural ability, and what he lacks in forethought he makes up for in thinking on the fly. I love all the Brothers, but I'll always gravitate towards Mikey first.

If we go outside the green teens, however...

I. Love. Slash. The original action figure was one of the coolest I owned in a toyline made of cool, but it wasn't until the Archie comics that I fell hard for the guy. And while he showed up in other fiction before and after that, when IDW utilized him, he was just an incredible character. Sure, he seems like a violent brute on the outside, but even as far back as the 1987 cartoon version had deeper desires, sentimental longings that were almost at the core of his rage. He's a character that's both straightforward and incredibly layered.

2 - Favorite April

Another easy one, the Archie Comics version.

First, I'm personally a fan of April being an investigative reporter, since it gives her a perfect reason to get into messes that would be on the Turtles' radar. But moreover, where '87 leaned more into April fitting 'damsel in distress' tropes, her evolution in the Adventures comics would set the pattern for future versions of the character. She started learning how to hold her own in a fight, to the point where she was on equal footing with the rest of the crew. She was able to have adventures and plots independent of, or only peripherally involving, the Turtles themselves. She had her own supporting cast and enemies, and even got to have a stable romantic relationship (and not with usual pair-partner Casey Jones)! I feel like any version of April that gets the chance to stand on her own in subsequent TMNT iterations owes at least a little to this Splinter-trained independent reporter.

3 - Favorite henchman

This one is a bit tougher than the last two, only because there's so many to choose from! But I think that Tiger Claw rises above all the others.

He is dangerous. He is ruthless. He is loyal. And worst of all, he is competent. You have a lot of villainous characters that can use at least one of those words to describe them. But Tiger Claw uses them all. Armed to the teeth, well-trained, and able to take even major injuries in stride, Tiger Claw is one of the most terrifying soldiers to work under The Shredder in any continuity.

4 - Baby Turtles!

Look at these little guys and tell me that they aren't the cutest Baby Turtles we've ever gotten.

5 - Best Leo (all incarnations)

A bit of an odd pull, but I feel like 2007 Leonardo was a great examination of the character, specifically how much his sense of responsibility and his perfectionism both drive him, and get in his own way.

Also the absolute delight he has in the final fight when he gets thrown into a room full of swords.

6 - Favorite mutant ally

My immediate go-to is to say "The Mighty Mutanimals" as a whole, specifically the original Archie iteration of the team. However, if we want to narrow it down to a singular character among them, it would likely be Jack Finney, AKA Man Ray/Ray Fillet.

A former marine biologist and ecological activist, Man Ray was not someone you wanted to make an enemy of. Honestly, the only reason he didn't have a body count was because of the people he hung out with. Man Ray felt that the ends often justified the means, if the ends were protecting the lives and environments of sea-dwelling creatures, and was not above using theft and violence to reach those goals. But even with all that, he was shown to be incredibly loyal, and even forgiving of those who genuinely wanted to make up for their mistakes.

7 - Best Turtle gadget

Does 2012 Metalhead count? Because if so, 2012 Metalhead.

8 - Favorite Turtle + ally dynamic

Raphael and Ninjara, again from the Archie comics. Aside from how much I was a fan of their romance, their relationship was one of mutual respect and appreciation for their strengths, but also being willing to call each other out when the need arose. The two genuinely made a great team whenever they went into action together.

9 - Best Raph (all incarnations)

This one is a tie, because the 2012 version of Raph is my favorite of all the major incarnations of the character.

Unlike many other versions before him, 2012 Raph was much more nuanced. He was angry, sure, as the character often is, but he also really loved his family. He's got a warm heart that he does share, just with a select few. He goes on multiple journeys of growth and change, and they stick as the series progresses. Also, he loves animals so much.

But of all the versions of Raph, my hands-down favorite is Future Raph, from the Archie comics. Older, wiser, having mellowed with age but still having that fire inside. He settled down into a somewhat calm life, got married, ran a restaurant, and still helped his brothers take care of the bad stuff going on in the city. He also lost an eye to Armaggon, learned to handle Leo's swords as a hobby, straight-up shot someone who threatened his family, and decked Hitler while time-traveling with his brothers.

How can you not love him?

10 - Favorite Turtle curseword

"Shell," for its sheer versatility.

11 - Favorite Splinter

2012 Splinter hits the perfect balance of wise master, trained ninja warrior, and caring father for me. Not only is he willing to take on any threat to his family, but he can fight on surprisingly equal footing with many of their foes, even the Shredder depending on the situation. He has the patience and wisdom to train April, put up with Casey, and even calm down characters like Leatherhead and Slash, who could easily (and even accidentally) cause him major harm. And yet, this is a father who has a cheese-themed phone for the boys to call him on "for emergencies."

12 - Best Turtle vehicle

The Turtle Van. The original and still the best.

13 - Best Don (all incarnations)

Something that always fascinates me with Donatello is how often he gets put into "crisis of faith" stories of a sort, usually putting his scientific mind at odds with magical or supernatural forces beyond his understanding. Nowhere is this more pronounced than with the Archie version.

Over the course of the series, Donnie ended up seeing Izanagi and Izanami intervene in mortal affairs, speak to the manifestations of yin and yang, encounter an entire world that existed out-of-time in the center of the Earth, speak with an elemental spirit of the Earth while being present for the events of Columbus' landing in 1492, and had his mind opened to the infinity of the cosmos when he held the Turnstone. All of this made him a much more subdued and grounded version of himself than many other iterations, without a doubt.

14 - Favorite Turtle movie

I love when the Brothers are written the most like teenagers, and nowhere did that hit the best than in Mutant Mayhem.

Not only that, this one had the unenviable job of having to manage a large cast without the story feeling bloated... and it succeeded. As a lifelong fan, this movie hit all of my notes and then some. I can't wait to see where things go from this one.

15 - Best Karai

Once again we go to 2012, as this version of Karai had some incredible complexities to her, both in her character and in her origins. The connections between her, Shredder, Splinter, and the Turtles made her entire character arc incredible.

16 - Favorite episode/issue

The Future Shark Trilogy (TMNT Adventures, Issues #42-#44). Featuring one of the most dangerous threats in the franchise, a time-travel tale that's both fun and has high stakes, and of course, Future Raphael. Runner-up would be "United We Stand, Divided We Fall," from TMNTA #38-#39 and Mighty Mutanimals #6, because it's hard to get over a story where the TMNT, the Mighty Mutanimals, and a handful of their friends and allies face off against Mr. Null and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

17. Best Mikey (all incarnations)

Above all the various versions of Mikey, the IDW comics have given possibly the most emotionally open and heartfelt version of the character. Mikey befriends humans and mutants alike, and really would rather not have anyone be fighting anyone. He has such a strong moral core that, despite how much he loves his family, he left when he didn't agree with Splinter's more flexible stance on morality when running the Foot Clan. If any one Turtle could bring you to tears with how much of a good person he is, it's this version of Mikey.

18 - Human version of the Turtles

Not something I've dwelled on much! That said, my favorite version(s) have been done by @thisistab so there's that.

19 - Best Casey Jones

A rare 2003 pull! This is the perfect example of Casey being this lovable guy who's also genuinely unhinged. Too many other versions lean into him being a grim vigilante (or a parody thereof), but 2003 showed him at his best - a guy who knows how to weaponize the fact that he's not quite right in the head.

That said, shout out to Rise's Cassandra Jones, for being a very different take on the character, and a refreshing one at that.

20 - Favorite Turtle merch/toy that you own

My copy of the Official Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Treasury, which has a very cool collection of photos of early TMNT merch, including the tabletop miniatures, an assortment of wild tie-in items, and even prototypes of some of the first Playmates figures. This thing is well-worn and will leave my possession when I die.

21 - Favorite Shredder

The 2012 version has been both the most human, and the most monstrous, version of the character to date. He walks a very thin line of invoking feelings of hatred, pity, fear, and sympathy. He is an aging man, trained in the ways of warfare and assassination, who refuses to let go of his grudges to the point of deluding himself of the truths behind them. And even the people and things that he cares for are still tools to him - no matter what he feels towards them, they can always be discarded once they no longer fit his goals. He is no less dangerous as an ally than he is as an enemy.

22 - Favorite Turtle duo

Regardless of the version, it's gotta be Donnie and Mikey.

Whether it be bonding over the same kind of nerdy wavelengths, Donnie being frustrated over Mikey's inattentiveness or negligent curiosity, or the two of them offering color commentary whenever Raphael and Leonardo have a blow-out, these two are easily my favorite to see interacting, especially during downtime.

23 - Favorite human ally

Oyuki Mashimi from the Archie comics. While she ends up more of an April supporting character, she nonetheless a bit of a unique type, being a Japanese street urchin that came this close to being a human sacrifice, only to get saved by the actions of the TMNT. She went on to follow them back to America and provide a no-nonsense, sometimes rough point of view when it came to their adventures. She also became April's trusted friend, roommate, and coworker, and even got to see some infiltration action to help the Turtles on a few occasions.

24 - Favorite Turtle + villain dynamic

Raphael and Xever/Fishface from 2012. It was a take on the "we're not so different" kind of relationship, but in a way where neither party was left feeling more lenient towards the other, and instead they seemed to have a mutual, if begrudging, respect for one another that would've been fun to see explored more, but was a pretty good relationship as it was.

25 - Your turtlesona

I do not have one, sorry!

26 - Favorite series

The Archie comics are my nostalgia. The 2012 cartoon revitalized my love for the TMNT. But overall, nothing even comes close to the IDW comics. The series has run the gamut of everything that's been a part of TMNT since their inception, from humor and wild adventure to raw emotions and dark twists and turns. This series, this universe, is hand-crafted by creators who know the Turtles, and moreover, love them. They have cherry-picked the best things from the past to bring back, and given them a rework to be even more beloved than they ever could be before. The stories, the characters, even the concepts have depth and growth that one might never have assumed possible for this 1980s-spawned property, and the fact that the IDW continuity lasted as long as it has (and isn't even over, just getting a 'soft' reboot/jumping-on point) is a testament to how well this all came together.

27 - Favorite mutant/alien villain

Armaggon, hands down.

A ruthless criminal with his sights set on mastering time itself, the cybernetic mutant shark Armaggon presents a threat to the Turtles and their allies in two different time periods. He's personally responsible for the loss of Raphael's eye, and if given half the chance would end the threat of the Turtles permanently by way of just straight-up eating them. He'll gladly work alongside other villains, but he's only out for himself.

28 - Favorite Turtle intro/song

Favorite intro would probably be the 2012 version of the theme (the standard version through most of the series), but my favorite Turtles song all together would be Mutants on Broadway, from the Shredder's Revenge game. As the kids say, it slaps.

29 - Favorite alternative outfit or design

Even tie between the Stump Intergalactic Wrestling outfits, and the Future Ninja Turtles outfits (both from, surprise surprise, the Archie comic)

30 - Favorite human villain

IDW's take on Baxter Stockman bumps him into the upper echelon of fictional schemers along the lines of Lex Luthor and David Xanatos, what can I say? Plus, he's still a bit of a mad scientist.

31 - The Turtles in your favorite style

Just go look up any of Chris Allan's work from the Archie comics, or pretty much any TMNT art that Sophie Campbell (@mooncalfe-art) has done.

OKAY! Did it! Whew! That took a minute. I hope you all enjoyed getting a chance to see my taste in Turtles. This was fun, if a bit taxing to do all at once.

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 1

Propaganda under the cut

Chi-Chi

I think the fandom has had a turnaround on her in recent years, so the Chi-chi abuse has abated quite a bit from what I've seen, but for the longest time your standard Goku/Vegeta fic included SOME manner of sidelining her HARD, if not outright villainizing her or killing her off for convenience. Fuck, I'm guilty of it, even. I've seen meta and fics that go on and on about how she's abusive or ignorant or a bad wife or an overnearing mother or useles, and seen episodes where she's put aside as a gag, the nagging wife of Goku. Poor Chi-chi...she is so great and pure-hearted and stong-willed and yeah she's a bit of a tiger-mom and her name is a pun for tiddies but she loves her family and kicks-ass and she was done so dirty by the franchise and the fans for so long I wanna marry her.

Being a victim of yaoi is just one of the many ways Chi-Chi gets fucked over by the fandom. She also gets degraded for being a nag (wanting her family to be safe and not fight) and stopping her son from reaching his full potential (not wanting her son, who is anywhere from 5 to 11 depending, to be killed in a big alien fight). In this case, though, she gets killed off, divorced, or otherwise fucked over so her husband Goku can bang local genocidal maniac and fandom babygirl Vegeta. Bulma (who is canonically Vegeta's love interest) gets some of this too, but Chi-Chi's treatment tends to be worse since the fandom hates her already.

She's the wife of the main character Goku who is poorly written and consistently presented as a domineering nag as part of that classic sidesplitting routine. The very creator of the manga himself has admitted he hates drawing her and only kept her around as a punishment to himself. Because she's a loud woman people will shove her aside and completely ignore her to ship Goku with his rival Vegeta (which does also involve neglecting Vegeta's wife Bulma but more people at least like Bulma as a character.) She is consistently demonized by the fandom and I have even seen some go so low as to as to ignore her so they can ship Frieza, one of the biggest and most obviously evil antagonists of the franchise, with Goku.

Megaera

She's the First of the Furies, which means she's in charge of punishing tormented souls in Hades. She is canonically the ex-girlfriend of the playable protagonist, Zagreus, and one of his three love interests he can romance in the game. Despite the fact that Megaera and Zagreus canonically had a very messy (but passionate) relationship prior to the events of the game, in fanworks she's often shoehorned into the role of wingwoman and/or Mean Lesbian (tm) in favor of the pairing up Zagreus with another of his love interests (the grumpy but affectionate Death Incarnate, Thanatos). The Thanatos/Zagreus pairing is massively more popular than any pairing featuring Megaera...despite the fact that in the game, Thanatos/Megaera/Zagreus is not only totally plausible, but entirely possible to achieve within canon. Literally, a throuple situation is achievable in game, and she still gets sidelined. Fanworks also have a tendency to paint the Megaera/Zagreus relationship as purely sexual and therefore not as "deep" or "romantic" as Thanatos/Zagreus, despite, again, plenty of in-game dialogue and events that indicate both Megaera and Thanatos have fallen in love with Zagreus on their own terms. Justice for Megaera.

she's one of two romanceable characters by the bi male protagonist and the other one is a man. people will write literal essays about the protag's relationship with his male love interest but she is reduced to "haha she pegs him. step on me" despite being an extremely interesting and multifaceted character in her own right. also people try to claim her ship is incest because in original greek myth she was the daughter of nyx who raised the protagonist and he believed she was his mother for a long time but their relationship was changed to be a boss/employee one in hades. and the protag's male love interest actually IS the biological child of the protag's foster mother but nobody wants to talk about that lmao....love you meg

There's so little fan content of her or the canon ot3 she's in because everyone just focuses on the 2 dudes 😔

[dorothydalmati1]

Obscure Animation Subject #160: Glitter Force

Remember Pretty Cure? It’s an awesome anime franchise with a bunch of action, memorable characters and beautiful animation. Now, the series had different incarnations per year but the core heart is still the same. Now, what if I told you the series was dubbed before? The first season of the first incarnation did get its own English dub simply named Pretty Cure, season 2 wasn’t dubbed unfortunately. However, that was only in Canada. It wasn’t introduced in the States until 2015, when Saban and Netflix created an English dub based on Smile Pretty Cure!, under the title Glitter Force.

This title change was actually met with backlash among Pretty Cure fans, as the first season of the original was dubbed with the Pretty Cure name attached. However, this could be understandable in my perspective as different incarnations of Pretty Cure usually have different protagonists. While the original series had 48 episodes lasting from February 5, 2012 to January 27, 2013, this dub had 8 episodes cut and was split into two seasons, lasting from December 18, 2015 to August 26, 2016. Although 8 episodes isn’t the majority of the series, it resulted in plot holes with character development lost. You wanna know why 8 episodes have been cut? It’s because Saban want this dub to look AMERICANIZED, REMOVING JAPANESE REFERENCES, AND EDITING OR REMOVING EMOTIONAL SCENES JUST TO MAKE IT APPEAL TO LITTLE KIDS! Does that sound familiar to what 4Kids did to One Piece? I mean sure, the series is targeted at kids, and its original Japanese version did originally air on TV Asahi on Sunday mornings where children would be watching, but that’s because what Japan views kid shows is actually different when compared to the US. I’m actually okay if the names were changed as long as the content isn’t altered much, and yet there's a lot of alterations resulting in a lot of plot holes and character development being lost.

Really aside from the terrible Americanizing and cuts, the voice-acting is god-awfully annoying and don’t fit the characters at all. There are also very unnecessary pop culture references like a reference to The Wizard of Oz in one episode. It also tries to hard to be cool and hip with kids with slang such as "besties", "epic win", and "selfies". There’s also some unnecessary screen dimming as a way to reduce seizures but it ends up being a distraction, and besides, the original Japanese version wasn’t flashy due to the Dennō Senshi Porygon incident. So yeah, pretty bad. There are some good things it did like introduce Pretty Cure to a Western audience, and some of changes actually making sense such as in episode 9 were in the farewell note the class gives to Lily, Cornelius (the artist who bullied Lily in episode 3) apologizes for making her cry, something that was never done in the original, but it’s not saying much. Although it was panned by critics, the series did successful enough to the point where Saban decided to dub the next Pretty Cure series under the name Glitter Force Doki Doki.

The original version was titled as Doki Doki! Pretty Cure, which lasted for 49 episodes airing on TV Asahi from February 3, 2013 to January 26, 2014, in the same timeslot as its predecessor. Saban produced the English dub under the Glitter Force Doki Doki name, lasting from August 18 to November 10, 2017. It carries many of the same issues its predecessor had, awful Americanization, bad voice-acting, dimming in some scenes amongst other reasons. However, it’s actually a lot worse when compared to its predecessor, as it actually has little to no connection to it, I mean the shows are mainly standalone aside from the Pretty Cure branding, none of the events in the previous series get mentioned, at all. And just when you thought that 8 episodes getting cut off from its predecessor is bad enough, well, this dub cuts a stunning 19 EPISODES FROM THE ORIGINAL VERSION, NOW BRINGING IN JUST 30 EPISODES! Some were even cut because they had too many references to Japanese culture. This caused even more continuity errors and missing character development. In response to the failure of the series, Saban filed for bankruptcy, selling most of its assets to Hasbro, and shuttered operations on July 2, 2018. Hasbro still owned the English rights until licensing for both series expired by 2024, resulting in Netflix removing them from the service. Toei now owns the full rights to both series, indicating that both series will be streaming on Crunchyroll English subbed in the future.

It’s no wonder that Saban had to be killed off really, and it’s a shame because they gave us classics like Digimon and Power Rangers. Too bad its founder, Haim Saban, is a complete homophobe and is also pro-Israel. Remember, SAVE PALESTINE FOLKS!

[aparticularbandit]

okay, so, gonna talk about how i don't think kodaka hates danganronpa, actually.

i think kodaka loves danganronpa.

and i think tsumugi is a stand-in.

like, this is the last game that's meant to destroy everything, and there are so many references to so many things throughout the game that are clearly done from a place of love. tsumugi, the script writer, who says she's been writing from the first incarnation of the killing game, clearly loves danganronpa. she does. and she says herself that she would willingly die for it if that means it keeps going (and she does, in the end).

but when we see actual tsumugi? not the version of her she's playing for the game, but actual director tsumugi?

she looks. so. tired.

like - the biggest difference for me looking at these two are the bags under her eyes. tsumugi is trying so hard and she's working so much and maybe she might die, but the franchise lives on, but baby girl has done 53 seasons of this and she'd happily write more but she is so. tired.

SHE'S EXHAUSTED.

She has done this over and over and every other time Junko has been the mastermind because Junko is always the mastermind and she's hitting the same beats over and over and she would be happy to keep going but you can see visibly that this is killing her.

But Tsumugi still loves Danganronpa.

And even at the end - the idea that maybe, even now, the story doesn't end, even though the killing games are over, is a clear moment of this might come back, but not in the same way.

And the thing is Kodaka didn't stop making games. He's still using the same formula, if what I've read tells me correctly, and the new game is sixteen students are locked in a school and they're dying and you have to find things out again but now it's tactics.

Like clearly. He loves. What he is doing. What he was doing.

But man was exhausted.

Anyway.

[slimereader]

I started playing Infinity Strash: DRAGON QUEST The Adventure of Dai. It was difficult to get the Switch version running smoothly on my Steam Deck, but at least it runs now... more or less. I'm only a few levels into the second chapter, but that means I've at least seen each type of level. Pretty much everyone is saying this, but the cutscenes are too numerous. The in-engine 3D cutscenes are watchable, but the anime slideshows... As someone who hasn't seen any of the anime incarnations, it's too boring to get into. But even for players who are die-hard fans, wouldn't they hate sitting through the recaps instead of just watching the anime? So who is this game for?!

Anyway, I like the levels where you run along fighting enemies the best. Popp is my favorite to play with his ranged spells. As I saw in a review article, it's a bit hard to know which enemy you're aiming at when there are lots of little ones. I picked Storyteller difficulty because I'm not very good at action games, but maybe I'll increase it later once I get used to the controls. Especially block and dodge, I can never react with the right button to time it perfectly. How I miss my beloved Dragon Quest Treasures! That game had everything. Jump, roll, slash, heal, slingshot. The party member AI in this game is fine, but I wish I could at least direct them to go forth or retreat to me like in Treasures. For Dragon Quest fans deciding between these two recent spinoff games, I can't recommend Treasures highly enough. Even though it's a prequel to DQXI, I had no problems despite not playing that one yet. ANYWAY.

Screenshots under the cut. I hope I unlock the tower of recollection or whatever soon!

The beautiful Dark Forest. It didn't have THAT many textural glitches, but this tree was glowing.

Action shot! Except actually my game froze at this point. Luckily it didn't happen again after restarting my system. I suppose that's actually a feature of this game with short, linear, auto-saving levels: I won't lose much if it crashes. Besides this freeze, I've only had to deal with crashes on the loading screen before I adjusted my settings and some lag during combat, which admittedly can be frustrating at times. Since I picked the easy difficulty level, at least I haven't had any character deaths due to lag. Yet.

The little video player takes me back to the good old days of watching Netflix on my 3DS in 2012 lol. I will say, these segments would be much more tolerable without the ANNOYING GRAINY FILTER CONSTANTLY LOOPING OVER THEM.

I admit that the little party on the loading screen that adds members as you recruit them is cute. I'm prepared to get invested in the friendship of this trio, at least Popp and Maam. I know there's more Avan content in the franchise eventually, but also that this game doesn't even cover the whole story. That can't be all for him in this game, can it?!

[sergeantneko]

Hi there! I'm Neko, and I found your post as a reblog from a friend of mine. I've played all of the 3D zelda games, and I write fanfics for the series. I'll answer these as best I can!

1: I've never really thought about it, but if I were to do so, I would put Skyward Sword in Spring, Breath Of The Wild in Autumn, Ocarina of Time in Summer, and Twilight Princess in winter.

2: Assuming you mean 2D as pixelated. I haven't played any of the 2D retro titles (pretty much any of the pixelated ones), however I have played all of the 3D top-down ones. I'm gonna pick one of those, if that's okay? Defo either Link Between Worlds or Spirit Tracks.

3: Skyward Sword! She's SO FRICKIN' CUTE.

4: That's a really hard one. Of the ones I've played, I'd say Phantom Hourglass.

5: I cannot justify picking just one soundtrack, so I'll pick out a few of my favourites instead. Colgera's battle theme (ToTK), Ganon's battle theme (OoT, That 23/16 time signature is insane and I love it), Yuga Ganon battle theme (ALBW, same reason, song is set to 7/8 time signature and it's just as insane), Tarrey Town theme (BoTW), Tal Tal Heights (Link's Awakening Remake), and so many more that elude me.

6: Nope! Bring it on, I love a challenge!

7: There are too many to list, but there is one that I love that others don't. That being the Water Temple from Ocarina of Time. Most people hate it because it's confusing, but I saw it as an experience. And that experience was fucking good, for me anyway.

8: Spirit Tracks for sure. The music, the story, I love it. The controls are not fun, and using the flute was fun if flawed, but everything else makes that tolerable.

9: Hmmmm... I'm gonna go with Tingle on this one.

10: The hookshot! It can get you to many places, and it has been a staple in traditional zelda games! So fun shooting it out and then zipping to the place it sticks.

11: That ones a toss up. I love all of his incarnations. I think Wind Waker is top due to him actually having some sort of humanity. He just wanted what was best for his people, and I can understand his plight. However, the way he went abouy it was wrong.

12: Ocarina of Time. It was the first Zelda game I ever played. And I was enthralled the entire time. Since then, I have managed to play every 3D Zelda game up to now, and it's my favourite franchise.

13: Breath of The Wild. The character designs and lore is incredible. Not much more to say there, really. Nintendo did an amazing job with this entry, and the one after it too.

14: Master Sword. No question.

15: Gerudo Desert, specifically the one from Breath of The Wild.

16: I don't really have one, they're all great.

17: Twilight Princess. It's my favourite in the series for a reason, and atmosphere is a big factor.

18: Again, Twilight Princess. Quite the dark game, especially in contrast to other entries.

19: Same as above, for the same reasons.

20: Same as above.

21: Skyward Sword! The painterly style is fucking awesome. If you're further away from an object, the shader makes the object look watercolored. They improved that effect in the HD remaster on switch, and it's beautiful.

22: I don't really have a favourite. They're all good!

23: Spiritual Stones please.

24: Either Ocarina of Time or Twilight Princess for items.

25: Midna.

26: Spirit Tracks.

27: Breath of The Wild. Mainly cause it pertains to being a breath of fresh air for the series as a whole with it being open world, and the whole place being mostly wilderness at this point.

28: Skyward Sword, up to a point.

29: Hookshot!

30: Ocarina of Time title theme.

31: City In The Sky from Twilight Princess. The entire dungeon is the "I am confusion" gif.

32: Breath of the Wild.

33: Mix of both. It wouldn't be a Zelda game without either.

34: Hmmm... That's a tough one. I think overall I might have had the most trouble with the second Ganon battle that takes place within Hyrule Castle in Echoes of Wisdom.

35: I didn't really have much issue with any of them except for Demise in Skyward Sword. Took me a little while to learn his patterns.

36: that one's between Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword. Both cinematic games, and both incredible in their own way.

37: I have no idea. If I had to give an answer, the Likelike's are weird.

38: The Dead Hand, as well as the ReDeads and Gibdos from Ocarina of Time. Both EXTREMELY creepy.

39: Echoes of Wisdom.

40: Tingle.

41: I have three. Song of Storms, Serenade of Water, and Requiem of Spirit.

42: The Couple's Mask.

43: Goron Mask.

44: The Anju and Kafei quest.

45: Tarrey Town.

46: Skyward Sword HD

47: Each game fulfills something different for me, and so I can't say that any one game is the most fulfilling for me.

48: I love the one incorporated in Breath of The Wild and Tears of The Kingdom. Amazing shading style that blends Cel shading with semi-realistic graphics.

49: Fairy.

50: Modern Hylian Shield, BoTW and ToTK style.

Hope this gives a little bit of insight into my views on the series!

🌟 TLOZ asks 🌟

1. Is there a Zelda game(s) that you associate with each season or time of year?

2. Favourite 2D title?

3. Favourite incarnation of Zelda?

4. Least favourite entry in the series?

5. Favourite LOZ soundtrack?

6. Is there a Zelda game that intimidates you/looks too hard?

7. Favourite dungeons?

8. Most underrated Zelda game?

9. Least favourite character in the series?

10. Favourite item?

11. Favourite Ganon characterization?

12. Which Zelda game has the most sentimental value to you?

13. What Zelda game, in your opinion, has the best character design?

14. Master Sword, the Four Sword, Great Fairy's Sword, the Koholint Sword, or the Biggoron Sword?

15. Favourite location within Hyrule?

16. Favourite location outside of/parallel to Hyrule (Termina, Lorule, Holodrum, Subrosia, the Dark World, Labrynna, the Great Sea, etc)?

17. Most atmospheric game?

18. Which Zelda game feels most mature to you?

19. Which Zelda game has the darkest story to you?

20. Favourite 3D title?

21. Prettiest Zelda game?

22. Favourite incarnation of Link?

23. The Pendants of Virtue, the Spiritual Stones, or the Goddess Pearls?

24. Game with most impressive/useful lineup of items?

25. Favourite companion (Midna, Ezlo, Navi, etc)?

26. Favourite handheld title?

27. Game with the best title (Breath of the Wild, Twilight Princess, Link's Awakening, etc)?

28. Most wholesome Zelda game?

29. Favourite item to use (aside from the sword & shield)?

30. Favourite title theme from a Zelda game?

31. Hardest dungeon played?

32. Game with the best map design?

33. Do you prefer puzzles or combat?

34. Game with the hardest boss?

35. Game with the hardest final boss?

36. Which game had the most engaging story, in your opinion?

37. Least favourite enemy?

38. Creepiest enemy?

39. Which Zelda game, in your opinion, had the most satisfying ending?

40. Most out-of-place thing in the series?

41. Favourite ocarina song?

42. Favourite non-transformation mask from Majora's Mask?

43. Favourite transformation mask from Majora's Mask?

44. Hardest sidequest in the series?

45. Best sidequest in the series?

46. Favourite remake/remaster (Ocarina of Time 3D, The Wind Waker HD, Link's Awakening for the Switch)?

47. Most fulfilling Zelda game?

48. Favourite graphical style within the games (cel-shading, realistic, 16-bit, etc)?

49. Favourite thing to keep in a bottle?

50. Favourite shield?

[just-absolutely-super]

So I finished watching Transformers Cyberverse

Okay so like...I don't know why people on twitter like to call this one of the worst cartoons, it's quite literally not that bad

Definitely not a perfect series by a long shot, but it's far from offensive and has some genuinely good things going for it

More detailed review under the cut, but the TLDR version is that this is one of those shows that gets better the more you watch it, and even if there are still some problems I feel the good outweighs the bad

Cyberverse spoilers below btw

Let's get some general stuff out of the way before I go into each individual season. First with some praise:

This show is very charming to me, and what makes it that way has to be the characters and their interactions with each other

The first season starts with only Bumblebee and Windblade as our primary cast and I really enjoyed their chemistry together. Then you introduce the other characters and it just feels so wholesome watching everyone's bonds to each other and then eventual Autobot and Decepticon friendships. My favorite probably being Hot Rod and Clobber, like bro was basically nice to her and it led to her changing sides THAT'S SO CUTE WHAT

Some characterizations have slightly different takes than previous incarnations, and while I was a little iffy about them at first, I felt like it worked out in the end. For example, Grimlock is smart and sophisticated and at first I was like...nah, but this personality for him really grew on me. And as a dinosaur, his typical Grimlock ways shined through because he lowered his intelligence to increase his strength, which I was okay with

Soundwave also has some significant spotlight in this show post season 1...to the point I think there was a personal bias on the team tbh. He's not just a loyal Megatron follower, the writers tried giving him more of a personality. I don't hate the interpretation, because he really was fun in a lot of the scenes he was in, but it also felt rather different than other Soundwaves I'm used to. It's hard to describe tbh

This is also one of (if not the only) tv show to not include humans into the cast. I didn't mind tbh. I don't hate human characters in Transformers, I think they do add something to the franchise. But this series is first and foremost about the Cybertronians and trying to restore their planet and bring an end to the civil war. I think having humans in the equation would overcomplicate things, so I was fine with them not having any presence

And while we're on characters, the series really goes out of its way to highlight characters less-utilized throughout the franchise's run. Like, we get characters who are mostly prominent in the comics--some of which only appeared briefly in the run, which I think is really cool of them. Yeah I sorely missed the legacy characters like Ironhide and Jazz (and Elita...), but seeing characters like Chromia, Rack n Ruin, and Whirl being main characters was really nice to see

My only complaint about this though is that Cyberverse fell into the problem G1 did. There are so many characters that a lot of them would end up being part of the background, or even forgotten. Hell, Jazz just gets mentioned in a line read but we never see him OTL

Another example of this is Drift/Deadlock. He has one scene in the first season where he leaves the Decepticons, and I thought maybe he would end up being important later on, but then you don't see him again until late in season 2 and I was shocked to actually see him because he came out of nowhere! Then he freaking goes back to being a Decepticon in the third season's premier, which really did come out of nowhere like...bruh I have little investment in you, why should I care that you're a traitor?

So yeah, Cyberverse really did attempt to give us a big cast with memorable personalities and bonds, but unfortunately it had to limit itself. And a lot of that had to do with one of my biggest criticisms of the show...the pacing

Cyberverse is a standard tv show with 62 episodes and 2 tv specials

The problem is, though, other than the specials which are an hour long, all the episodes are 11 minutes long

They do well with what they had to work with, but the length mostly worked with the episodes that focused on either worldbuilding or character interactions. Anything plot-wise suffered a bit because you could tell the writers were on this time-crunch to effectively tell the story they wanted without going over. It ended up with our conflicts resolving rather quickly and we spend the rest of the time with fluff

I'll go over that more with my season breakdowns further below, but in the meantime just wanted to touch base on other aspects of the show

Animation-wise, I thought it was pretty good. It's a simple style, but it had its own flow to it. One thing I do like is how some the Cybertronians transform (Bee and Hot Rod specifically). It's like they do a little front flip before they enter car mode and idk that just really tickled my brain in a good way lol

I also mentioned in a tag on a personal post that I found the voice acting kind of on the meh side. I don't really know any of the these voice actors, but while some did really well (Bee's VA Jeremy Levy basically carried this show with his talent as many characters), others...they got better with time

I've heard Jake Foushee as Optimus before and I don't think he's a terrible pick for the big guy, but the line deliveries would be awkward at times. There were even some moments where I was reminded of William Shatner's Captain Kirk with the almost too long pauses between words

And Hot Rod's voice took the longest for me to adjust to, being given a pitch that was higher than what I'm used to for him, to the point it was almost grating. Sometimes it would be okay and then other times I would just dislike it. Then in season 3 his VA tried changing his tone to be more low and rough (to reflect the more serious tone) but then he switched it back to how it was afterwards, so I'm not really sure what the point was? I don't think he was terrible, but he's definitely not who I'd want voicing Rod again in a future project

I think that takes care of the general feelings on the entire thing. Now I can talk about more personal opinions on each season:

Season 1 aka Amnesia Plot is the Perfect Excuse to Worldbuild

As my fun little title says, season 1 is all about introductions. It uses Bumblebee having amnesia and Windblade fixing his memories as a way to tell the audience who these characters are, what their world is, and the background of the Cybertronian war

As a first season, it's passable, and it does have its cute moments with the character interactions and decent action. The payoff at the end was also nice, even if it is a cliffhanger (that's the thing about this show, it just looooves its cliffhangers)

Season 2 aka Starscream Causes Problems on Purpose...Again

There's a little more plot to this season and gives us more characters to the cast.

The plot centers around the AllSpark mainly and the Autobots trying to obtain it so they can take it back to Cybertron. We're given Cheetor who is baby the guardian of the AllSpark and joins the main cast once our real conflict happens. The conflict, though, isn't really because of Decepticons, but Starscream--who steals the AllSpark and becomes the actual villain

It's not a bad plot, really, but it greatly suffers from the pacing issues the show has due to the limited runtime. Like Starscream is our big bad and has the power of the AllSpark. You would think taking him down would last the entire season. But no, it's actually resolved a little over halfway through (and rather easily if I may add...) and we spend the rest of the season doing breather episodes before ending it as soon as the Autobots get back to Cybertron. It's...certainly a choice?

I think the reason for Starscream being our main villain was meant to be a springboard to the overall goal the show wants: to unite the Autobots and Decepticons. It doesn't really go as planned here, but it's meant to set up the idea before it comes to fruition in the next season

There were some other nitpicks here and there, but overall I do think it was more interesting than season 1, it just needed things ironed out more

Season 3 aka Three Endgame Scenarios in Rapid Succession

Much longer than the previous seasons (going from 18 episodes to a whopping 26), and has a much longer, action packed story arc. While I did enjoy all of it more than previous seasons, it unfortunately had its own issues with, you guessed it, the pacing

The season starts where season 2 left off and tbh I felt like that should have been S2's finale. Not only would it have wrapped up the loose ends from that season, but it could have given us a conclusion that was more open-ended instead of an abrupt cliffhanger. Then season 3 could begin proper with the Quintessons taking over. With the battle for Cybertron being the beginning and then immediately leading to a new but more mysterious storyline, it gave me a lot of whiplash

The Quintesson plotline had a really good conclusion, but we had more story left to tell, which would be the aftermath of that battle. While those episodes weren't bad at all, the endgame episodes they were setting up for the season finale ended up feeling very rushed, much like how S2 rushed Starscream's plot

It's so strange, I know this show can work with shorter-length episodes, but for something larger scaled like the freaking MULTIVERSE coming together, it ends up being kind of clunky

Yeeeah, wasn't too keen on the multiverse stuff if I'm being real. I'm a little burned out on multiverses, so that's part of why I wasn't into it

(Also, side rant, but I much prefer the Matrix when it is an artifact of Primus that chooses who is worthy enough to wield it. Megatron showing up back to his universe with a fully functioning Matrix that he took from a more EVIL version of him just took me tf out like WHAT?! WHY IS THIS WORKING FOR JUST ANYONE??? I WISH IT WAS LIKE G1'S MATRIX WHERE IT GAVE YOU HIVES IF YOU TRIED FORCING IT TO WORK LMAOOOO)

Another minor complaint is the decision to rebrand this season and the next as "Bumblebee Cyberverse Adventures". It's weird because Bee isn't that very prominent for most of the season. He does stuff in the 4 part premier, but afterwards he takes a backseat and Hot Rod becomes our main hero (AS HE SHOULD BE THAT'S MY BOOOOOOOOY) up until about episode 11 when Bee and every other character gets brought back into the plot. Then episode 18 gives him more focus as he goes on a quest to find the parts of Windblade's soul. Not sure if the rebrand was because of a contract, but it feels a little misleading to give Bumblebee a title character credit when hasn't been the main main character since season 1

Season 4 aka Two Special Movies

Part 1 Enter Volcanicus

I think this was a fun special, giving focus to Grimlock and his new Dinobot friends who use the Enigma of Combination (that Grimlock and Arcee basically grave robbed to obtain it but eh details) to become Volcanicus

It also used other underutilized or obscure characters and turned them into Mercenaries under Trypticon of all characters. Yeah...that was certainly a choice. He's not a Titan class Cybertronian in this continuity but an abusive boss. K

As for his employees, I didn't exactly mind them, but I have my hang-ups about some of them

Like I said, they're either underutilized or obscure characters...but they're obvious recolors

Some are smart and make sense like Soundblaster and BugBite, where the former was always meant to be an in-universe recolor of Soundwave, while the latter is a GoBot character who gets turned into a TF bad guy who just happens to look like a silver Bumblebee

The other two I'm meh about. One of them is Afterburner, who is a recolor of the conehead seekers. My problem with this one is...Afterburner was originally a technobot. I think they just chose this name at random, not realizing it was already taken lmao

The last one is Nightbird, who I was excited to learn was in Cyberverse. The problem is that she looks too much like an Arcee recolor for my taste. Comparing her to the G1 design, I get what they were going for. They reused the model because it's easier and cheaper, but gave her her own flare so she looked similar to her G1 counterpart. I'm less mad after comparing the designs, but still...bro I can't unsee the obvious Arcee model jdkfjfk

Bro I totally forgot about Doublecrosser...yeah he's a Rack n Ruin recolor. I don't think they even tried to do like they did when designing Nighbird by giving him traits similar to his comic counterpart, I think they just strait up recolored Rack n Ruin lmao

Like I said, it's fun special. Volcanicus is a delight and the action was pretty good. My big criticism lies in Soundblaster. His motivation for leaving Cybertron and becoming a mercenary...was because Soundwave humiliated him in what I can only describe as a DJ-off

Bro that is so fucking stupid, you are literally murdering people all because you're a sore loser. You deserved your legs getting vaporized!

Part 2 Achieving Peace But For Realz This Time

The series finale is about how Cybertron is finally at peace and the Autobots and Decepticons are united. That gets changed when Tarn--another character from the comics--comes in from the universe with the Super Evil Megatron and tries to take over the multiverse for himself

It's not a bad special. There are some story beats that are pretty typical and obvious (of coooourse Tarn was going to betray them, did we expect anything less?), but it was nice seeing the Autobots and Decepticons actually working together to defeat a common enemy and stay friendly at the end of it. We truly obtained peace and that's kind of nice to see in a franchise where it's always a never-ending war, y'know?

Whether this is a true criticism or just me not liking it for my own personal reason, I'm not sure, but one thing that did bug me was the ending of how Tarn was defeated

I mentioned earlier in this already long-ass review that I thought the writers were biased toward Soundwave. Well, Soundwave is the true hero of the series, sacrificing himself to defeat Tarn. I don't...hate it, but it felt really weird

Mostly because IT WASN'T OPTIMUS TO DO IT

IS THIS THE ONLY SERIES WHERE HE DOESN'T DIE?!?! LIKE MAN I WAS WAITING FOR IT!

I thought this whole thing was going to end with him sacrificing himself and allowing the Cybertronians to continue life without him. He even says at the end, there's no more need for a Prime so he's going to retire. HE COULD HAVE DIED PROTECTING THE PLANET AND WE WOULD HAVE ACHIEVED THIS SAME NOTION! JUST LIKE IN TFP WHERE HE SACRIFICED HIMSELF!

IF ANYTHING, IF HE DID SURVIVE I THOUGHT HE'D PASS THE MATRIX TO HOT ROD TO HELP LEAD THE PLANET!

HOT ROD PROVED HE WAS A WORTHY LEADER, GIVE ME RODIMUS PRIME YOU COWARDS

*ahem*

So yeah...despite whatever hang-ups I have, I did think it was a nice and proper conclusion

If you made it to the end, thanks for reading. I could probably talk more about the show, but it's difficult to organize all the thoughts coherently in one big post. Like I felt like I didn't really talk about Optimus and Megatron much, but with them it's mostly little things. They're done fine, but maybe more could have been done with them...

Cyberverse has its problems, and you kind of have to sit through quite a bit to get to the good parts, but it is a cute and enjoyable series overall imho

I think worth a watch at least one time

[dominickeating-source]

Southwest Airlines Spirit Magazine (2002)

Set Phasers on Stunned

Brit. actor Dominic Keating tells what it's like zooming at warp speed from failed cocktail waiter to playing weapons lieutenant Malcolm Reed on Enterprise, the latest incarnation of Star Trek.

Just two years ago, a frustrated Dominic Keating, who had emigrated from England in the early 1990s with the single-minded goal of making it big as an actor, was on the verge of "throwing in the towel" -- like untold thousands before him.

After too many near-misses, his decision to split was spurred by his failure to land a guest-starring spot on Star Trek: Voyager after he thought he'd aced the audition. Austin, Texas, and a change of career beckoned. Then came a call from Star Trek's executive producer Rick Berman, who wanted to see Keating again. He'd been saving the actor for a role in the franchise's 5th series in 35 years, Enterprise.

Keating, who was living in a $400-a-month apartment at the time, recalls the moment his life changed: Berman asked him, "Are you free for the next 7 years?" In an instant, the now-thirtysomething Keating went from earnest wannabe to TV star with a long-term contract in hand.

Enterprise, which is seen in more than a dozen countries worldwide, made its U.S. debut in September 2001 with boffo ratings for UPN and critics suggesting that it had re-energized the aging franchise. As Weapons Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, Keating is one of a seven-person ensemble cast (led by Scott Bakula as Capt. Jonathan Archer). And though Keating isn't involved, the new film "Nemesis" opens in theaters this month to further stoke interest in the current show.

Keating has participated in a dozen sci-fi conventions around this country and in Europe. In Germany, 7,000 screaming fans made him feel like he was "headlining in a boy band." A multicity Australian tour beckons in 2003.

His tale is an Everyman story, about a hard-working, average guy whose cards came up trumps. Keating tells "Spirit" how he beat the odds.

Spirit: Your face is now seen by millions of people around the world, but what has your first professional job?

Keating: I made my professional performing debut in a "two-man" drag act at the Cabaret Club in Bournemouth, England. When this good Catholic boy finally plucked up the courage to tell his mum what he was doing to get his union card -- dancing nightly in a pair of black Lycra shorts with the bum cut out in red piping -- she sent me a good luck card, saving "Let's hope your bottom gets you to the top!"

Spirit: What did you really thank would happen when you got to Hollywood?

Keating: I thought I'd be famous in a year <laughs>. I used to sit near the Hollywood sign, looking out across LA, and I had conversations with this town about what I was going to do here. But a year before landing Star Trek, I was watching daytime TV, scratching by backside, and waiting for that call. I also quit because I thought I'd missed the boat.

Spirit: What was your first job in Hollywood?

Keating: A sexy cable series called "Love Street." I gatecrashed the audition. I played a pop star who was down on his luck, but through the love of a good woman with ample assets, his creative juices, so to speak, are rekindled. When I first read the script, it was -- very smart car, great costumes, fabulous house, pop-star makes love by a fireplace, makes more love in the swimming pool. And it was very Al Pacino, if I say so myself. But I'm afraid with time out for commercials, it came down to just 20 minutes and a soft-focus lens. It's probably the worst job I've done since I've been here.

Spirit: What did you find was the key to hanging in there?

Keating: Well if I had to do it again, I'd have taken therapy earlier <laughs>. The way I see it, you can have enormous talent and even a lot of luck, but I reckon hard work and tenacity win the day. I've supported my craft by doing everything -- thieving, begging, the usual stuff. I've been a fence builder, courier, cocktail waiter. At one point, I think I'd been fired from just about every bar on the Kings Road in Chelsea. I couldn't hold down those jobs. When I think of it, I've been fired from every job that wasn't an acting job.

Spirit: What advice would you give to aspiring actors?

Keating: I would never tell a child of mine to be an actor. It's just too hard, man, I'd never advise anybody to act or do anything, quite frankly, that's creative for a living. But if they can't stop themselves, then it was right for them to do it. When I decided to be an actor, I was so unemployable in any other field that I really had nowhere else to turn. For me, it's my outlet. If it wasn't for acting, I'd probably be dead.

My one gripe about the business is that very often it doesn't matter how good an actor you are. I've had to take that on the chin -- not to say that I'm the best actor, but I'm not a bad one. But it doesn't matter. So much of it is determined by how you look, physically <laughs>. I just wish I'd been better looking.

Spirit: What have you learned about dealing with Hollywood?

Keating: Rejection is the name of the game, and it's never easy. You gotta knock on a lot of doors. Contacts are invaluable. Agents -- can't live with 'em, can't work without 'em. Getting a good one is like pulling teeth, mate. It really is a catch-22. Yet, this town is built upon perception. You really need people to talk you up. I want to nail every audition I go to, don't get me wrong. But maybe I'm a little more pragmatic now about why I don't.

Spirit: What else would we not necessarily know about acting?

Keating: *Hurry up and wait* is the operative phrase in Hollywood. When they want you on set to do a scene, they want it now. But you've waited 3-1/2 hours and now you're caught in the loo with your trousers down, and suddenly now you gotta be ready for your close-up.

Spirit: But you're not complaining?

Keating: The actual acting is a lot easier than you think. I've learned that camera acting is a lot different than stage acting. Twenty-six episodes [in the 1st season alone] back-to-back, have allowed me to have more of a friendship with this black box [camera] that follows you around. Before, I was very anxious and very self-conscious because it brought out all sorts of self-esteem issues. But now I'm learning to work that camera, like the way I had an instinct how to do it in a live venue.

Spirit: Tell us about Trekkies, conventions, and why aren't there seat restraints on Star Trek bridges?

Keating: Why? It's a TV show. That's what I tell a lot of the fans. *It's a TV show.* Actually, the serious ones call themselves Trekkers. Anyway, I love 'em, mate. God bless 'em. Without them, none of this is possible. My first convention was pretty surreal. But they give me a chance to give back, if you will, for all that they're giving me.

The lucky thing for an actor getting a gig on the latest version of Star Trek is that you are guaranteed this fan base that wants to like it. So if you don't mess it up too badly, the fans are going to want you. I'm a bit of an Irish-Catholic and there's that part of me that wants to work for the money, so I do the conventions, sign the photos, and extend my hand, because they want to meet us. So why not give 'em what they want?

Spirit: Do you actually like science fiction?

Keating: As a kid, happiness was sitting in front of the TV with Scooby Doo and Star Trek. It was quite erotic, actually. Captain Kirk and chiffon ladies every week. That and the cover of "Cosmopolitan" were my early forays into [sex]. I loved Kirk because of the sexy chiffon and that two-fold scream of his [demonstrates]. Hands to the ears, pause then head thrown back.

Spirit: What's the secret to Star Trek's longevity?

Keating: It's got humor, drama, interesting characters, cool locations, and a little bit of the cat suit -- the sexy stuff. I read in the "Hollywood Reporter" that Star Trek was the most searched for TV classic on the Internet last year. Five different franchise series in 35 years -- it's a worldwide phenomenon, a monster.

Spirit: What are your general thoughts about television?

Keating: Cor, blimey! The opium of the masses. All my life I've sat in front of a television, and I'm trying not to have the TV on carte blanche now.

Spirit: What's the best and worst about working on a hit TV show?

Keating: The best? We've got a seven-year contract. I get to work every day. The money gives you freedom. I stepped up to a home in the Hollywood Hills with a pool and a killer view. Actually, just driving through those legendary Paramount gates, having the security guy nod at you, is special. There is no "worst" thing. Yeah, you might be there 16 hours a day, but you get a lovely trailer, and the food and phone calls are free. There's nothing to complain about.

Spirit: What'd you do with your first pay check?

Keating: The check I got for doing the pilot was the largest I've ever received for acting [nearly $36,000], so I photographed it with a digital camera and it's in my computer for all time. I didn't spend it; I hoarded it.

Spirit: What's your favorite line from the show so far?

Keating: It was spoken in the pilot, when my character introduced phaser pistols with two settings -- stun and kill. And I say, deadpan: "It would be best not to confuse them."

Source: www.dominickeating.com

[pxrifiedmxniac]

Transformers

SEND ME A FANDOM @cauchemarrose

I’ll tell you:

The first character I first fell in love with: Grimlock (every version except RID 2001)

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Shockwave (all versions)

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: Starscream (He's good, but not nearly as great as everyone says he is)

The character I love that everyone else hates: Can't really say... because I hate who everyone else hates (i.e. Wheelie, Energon Ironhide, Kicker, etc.)

The character I used to love but don’t any longer: Starscream

The character I would totally smooch: Don't have one.

The character I’d want to be like: Grimlock

The character I’d slap: Starscream (except Armada)

A pairing that I love: Don't really do shipping for TFs

A pairing that I despise: Megatron/Starscream

[theverrucktman]

I've read the book. In fact I actually read the book before seeing the original movie because my parents at the time forbid child-me from seeing the movie until I turned 10 years old because they thought it was too scary, but didn't see anything wrong with letting nine year old me reading the copy of the book they had lying around. Which is hilarious in retrospect because if anything the book is WAY more violent in certain parts (ESPECIALLY the book's version of Nedry's death scene) but that's a whole other matter entirely. At any rate, without spoiling anything for those who haven't read it, it's absolutely worth a read, especially if you're a fan of the movies. If for no other reasons than so you can appreciate just how much the movie had to cut out of the film for time. Seriously, if you read through the book, it's clear that there are *several* moments in basically all of the sequels, that are just straight up adaptations of moments from the first book that got cut out of the original movie for time. And even then, there's large parts of the movie that didn't get adapted, like for example, the entire first act of the book, which got cut from the movie for time, partially because it didn't have much to do with the rest of the plot, and also because it rather hilariously in retrospect, tries to build up tension and keep things mysterious about what's going on, despite the fact that anyone who knows anything about the franchise will instantly know just from the title that everything's being caused by cloned Dinosaurs.

It's also worth reading the book to better appreciate how many of the characters in the book got changed or otherwise had their character arcs altered in the movie. Hammond for example is a RADICALLY different character in the original book, and is far more of a typical Corrupt Corporate Executive type, as opposed to the more sympathetic and grandfatherly character we see in the movies. Gennaro, aka the obnoxious lawyer, also got done incredibly dirty in the movie, as a result of his movie incarnation being a fusion of both Gennaro, and a character in the book named Ed Regis, who was Ingen's sleezy PR guy. Which is all the more egregious, since Gennaro's book incarnation is one of the best characters in the movie, hands down.

There's also the matter of characters like Harding and Wu, that were fairly major characters in the book but got reduced to only a single scene in the movie. Not only that, you also have stuff with characters that survive the book, who got killed off in the movie, as well as the inverse, with no less than three major characters that died in the book, who all survived the movie and showed up in sequels. Which was undoubtedly a pain in the ass for Michael Crichton when, after the first movie's success, he wrote a second book to go alongside The Lost World, and had to retcon at least one of those deaths, but that's a whole different matter entirely.

TL;DR, the book is fantastic, genuinely stands on it's own, and it's no wonder that the movies based off of it ended up being such hits. However, the book and the movie do differ from each other quite a bit. Not enough to detract from one's enjoyment, but it is enough that I can't go into too much depth without spoiling things, even if you're someone who's seen all of the movies multiple times.

So i love the jurassic park movies, my favorite film franchise, i even like the bad ones

But i’ve never read the book? Is it good

I've actually never read it either.

However, I have read and enjoyed a few other books by Michael Crichton, particularly The Andromeda Strain and Sphere. Sphere was my favorite, and it was written just 3 years before Jurassic Park, so I think there's a decent chance it's also good.

His books can be kind of dry at times because they're on the harder end of sci-fi and he doesn't shy away from the technical stuff. But they're also well written thrillers, so they tend to be page turners. You get to the end of a chapter and usually want to keep going. The characters aren't always super likeable, but they do feel realistic and interesting.

Has anyone else read Jurassic Park and wants to share their thoughts on it?

[descendants-headcanons]

Harry Hook Headcanons

- This man

- Goddamn

- First off I have to say he is absolutely my favourite character in this franchise so I am 100% biased but what the hell if you're reading this chances are you are too

ON THE ISLE

- OK so straight up right now I have to say that Hook in my mind is one of THE WORST parents you could have on the Isle

- Harriet basically kept Harry and CJ alive but sadly with Harry being a boy he reminds Hook of Peter Pan very very often and it doesn't end well for the kid

- So I headcanon that Harry ran away at a young age (I know you can't run away on a tiny island but it's the idea of it) and that's when he met Gil and Uma and the legendary Sea Three were born but I'll cover those three in depth in a later post

- I actually headcanon that Harry fakes his deranged and maniacal laugh because, and hear me out, the idea of Harry having one of those really squeaky laughs that is just so goddamn cute is too amazing to pass up on

- Like the first time Uma or Gil hears it its by accident and he absolutely clams up about it and refuses to acknowledge what's just happened

- Jokes on him they'll do anything to make him crack (in private of course, they have reputations after all)

- (He has a thing for really bad puns. They never fail.)

- Also this goes without saying tbh but Harry definitely inherited his father's Neverland curse and it makes him so goddamn miserable

- I read a fanfic where Harriet would try to find medication on the barges, can't remember which one, and some made him feel better but some made him feel worse and honestly I can see that being how it actually is on the Isle

- Just taking any pill that comes over in the hopes of being able to navigate his hallucinations and ignore the voices in his head

- People think Uma is the only one that can control his bloodlust (when his eyes bleed red) but what they don't know is that Gil is more efficient

- However he's not allowed to soothe Harry's bloodlust in public because it involves copious amounts of cuddling

- Speaking of which

- HARRY IS A CUDDLER

- Give. This. Man. Physical. Affection.

- He LIVES for that shit

- The world could be ending, the Lost Revenge could be on fire, but if he was in Uma and Gil's arms he would not give two shits

- Blushes really easily and he hates it so he wears whatever makeup comes over on the barges to cover that traitorous skin

- Seriously he goes bright red at everything and it's hilarious

- Gets hella snarky when he's embarrassed and tries to deflect

- I genuinely think he'd go easier on the kids, idk, he genuinely does give off the big brother vibes of 'I'm a dick because of my reputation however if I found someone being mean to you their corpse would mysteriously turn up the next day'

- Also the idea of Harry somehow ending up as a dad figure for the crew makes me cackle

- "BONNY GET AWAY FROM THE EDGE OF THE SHIP IF YE GO FALLIN IN THERE AM NOT JUMPIN IN AFTER YE"

- Of course as soon as she falls in Harry goes diving after her what kind of first mate would he be if he didn't??

- Weak for his Smees.

- And Gil.

- And Uma.

- Absolutely allocated himself the role of protector because Gil is sunshine incarnate and Uma is too busy being the leader so someone's got to have both of their backs

- Absolutely had a thing with Jay

- Probably had a thing with most of the Isle tbh he's hot for a deranged pirate

- Many Isle residents would tap that

- Sometimes finds it hard to distinguish reality from illusion and can get lost in his own hallucinations

- Not even Uma can bring him back when he gets that lost so they have to gently drag him back to the Captain's Quarters and keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn't accidentally hurt himself

- tw self harm but he has absolutely delved into that realm before

- Uma had to make him swear on her life not to do it again because he nearly died

- Gil cried

- Has cut off Ursula's tentacles when she's tried to punish Uma

- Persuaded Uma to sell it as calamari. In Ursula's shop.

- Ursula left them both alone for a whole month after that.

- Will run head first into battle regardless of injuries.

OFF THE ISLE

- God I feel so bad for him because off the Isle initially he has no idea what to do

- His whole life revolved around violence and intimidation but now he doesn't have to do that and his brain just *buffering noises*

- He, Uma and Gil share a room. They're not supposed to, but Ben turns a blind eye and Uma managed to cast a spell which convinces most people that only Harry and Gil are there

- He's not allowed his hook at first. For some reason, the lack of it sent him spiralling. Tw suicide - he tried to commit

- He was allowed his hook after that. And was pushed into therapy

- Absolutely got a therapy dog and it is 100% a newfie called Teddy.

- The dog is almost as big as he is and gives great cuddles so Harry is set

- Somehow gets known as the person who if you need a hug you can just go up and initiate one and he will hug back

- Which is surprising considering on the Isle he was the person you went to if you need to hide a body

- Popular with the kids because holy duck this guy is a great storyteller my GOD

- Sings sea shanties for the kids and they love it

- Decided that he didn't want to be catered to hand and foot and decided to ask Mrs Potts for cooking lessons

- He is now Mrs Potts unofficially adopted son

- He, Uma and Gil didn't show up for lunch for like 3 weeks and the Core 4 and Ben eventually found them in the kitchen

- Uma and Gil were doing homework while Mrs Potts was teaching Harry how to make croissants from scratch

- And Ben got offended because 'HOW DARE YOU COOK WITH MRS POTTS WITHOUT ME??'

- No joke though Harry's a great cook

- It makes him happy seeing how Uma and Gil enjoy the food he makes so he keeps learning from Mrs Potts and they keep praising him and honestly these 4 are so sweet my HEART

- One day they're having a charity bake sale but Mrs Potts is running behind because no one appreciates her so Harry skips all his classes the day before to help make biscuits and cupcakes and cakes and pastries for the bake sale

- Fairy Godmother comes in frantically looking for him only to see Harry peacefully icing a cake while Mrs Potts takes out a tray of gingerbread men

- Dammit just let's Mrs Potts be his mum I've made these 2 my favourite platonic duo now

- Mrs Potts knits him things to wear for his birthday and Christmas and they might be cheesy but Harry will hear no slander

- She also knits for Uma and Gil too

- Deliveries of snacks in class times for these 3 because 'You're too thin dearies here have a biscuit'

General Headcanons

- Head scratches put him to sleep and its really cute

- Travels well on a boat but in a motor vehicle? He gets really badly travel sick :(

- Actually pretty smart, just not book smart. He knows lots about ships, literature (Don't get him started on The Cask of Amontillado) and dinosaurs

- Hates movies. Would rather read (surprisingly)

- Falls asleep really easily and in the weirdest spots. There is an Instagram tag specifically for Auradon Prep students to post where they've found him. The teachers follow it out of concern. Jay follows it to make fun of him.

- Has been roped into modelling for Evie's fashion lines many times.

- Has also been roped into modelling for other projects as well, by lots of other girls.

- Actually doesn't really know how to flirt that well. He has like 3 lines he has practiced to perfection that work but if you reciprocate the flirting his brain goes bye bye and those cheeks go RED

- Really talented at poetry for some reason

- Looks after his friends aggressively

- Like, whereas Evie would kindly remind you that 'hey, you haven't drunk in 2 hours' Harry would slam a bottle of water right in front of you and refuse to leave until you drank half of it because 'Hydration, BITCH'

[decepti-thots]

Idk what possessed me to watch the bayverse movies on Easter but what are your thoughts on this… franchise?

Oh hon.

So it's interesting because as I've mentioned before, my first TF media was the first two Bay movies. They are, needless to say, not good movies. The first one could have been in the hands of another director, I think, and with a big tightening up of the script- it's not irredeemable in all regards (though it was never gonna be a masterpiece). From then on, they deteriorate significantly. Revenge of the Fallen has some of the worst pacing I've seen in a major blockbuster tbh. This is even without getting into their exhausting portrayals of the military and the racism in them and the horrendous treatment not only of female characters but IRL of women on set, e.g. Megan Fox. Dire shit, needless to say.

...huh. I had more thoughts than I thought I did. Let's cut this.

One thing I will say is that I don't have any problem with them for, you know, Nerd Reasons TM. I am not fussed that they are not "G1 but live action" and honestly, any interesting ideas they DO have tend to be the ones that are most wildly unique to the films. I have this thesis that by the time you get to TLK, they have functionally stopped being "Transformers" movies in terms of the broader franchise they originate from and just become their entire own thing and at least in the abstract I find it kind of weirdly fascinating to observe. Even in terms of genre they become hard to define. But they still have more LORE than I ever think they do, given that what makes them terrible is closely tied to them being the most commercially craven kind of blockbuster. It's... weird. Unfortunately not GOOD weird, but at least interesting to think about in terms of what an odd place in pop culture they have. (One day I have a video essay I would love to do about this. Do not hold your breath, I have wanted to do it for like 4 years already, but perhaps one day.) Anyway, I tire of people who act like the issue these movies have is that the characters aren't their G1 counterparts or it isn't "faithful" enough, these movies have so many issues and that just isn't one of them IMO.

The really strange double bind TF fandom finds itself in is that the Bayverse movies are why the entire franchise post-2007 exists. I am absolutely not kidding or being hyperbolic. That pre-Bayverse incarnation of the franchise was slowly fading out the way GI Joe has done (despite attempts to replicate the same kind of revival that the Bay TF movies managed), with everything mainline being cheaply imported anime, and the rapidly slowing sales of the then-new IDW comics. (Dreamwave looked like it was gonna help, but... well, that got gnarly fast, and IDW never ever reclaimed that initial burst of interest DW's launch did.) The toy sales never dipped as low as Joe, and it would have staggered on, but the Bayverse stuff was adrenaline STRAIGHT in the arm, nearly overnight.

These are some of the most successful movies of all time. Of ALL TIME. That is such a weird thing to say in 2022 but it's true. People went to see these movies. They made more money than small countries. They have not stuck in the public consciousness, but when they were current, they maintained momentum right til TLK, and even then there's a lot of discussion as to whether TLK was really a financial disappointment or if that was partly a cover for how toxic Bay had become to the brand. And you know, I went looking for academic film writing on them multiple times, because I was like, there MUST be some. These are some of the defining films of mainstream cinema of the last decade. Nope. Found one piece focused specifically on these movies. That's weird as hell to me. (For those wondering, it's called "Technomasculine Bodies and Vehicles of Desire: The Erotic Delirium of Michael Bay's Transformers" by D. Harlan Wilson.)

But the influence they had on EVERY OTHER subsequent depiction as, again, the most successful part of the TF franchise since G1 and possibly of all time? Minimal. TFP has some aesthetic similarities and a few lore/worldbuilding ones, but it's very surface level and even the aesthetic is only a little there. TFA had editorial mandates to Be Like The Movies (hence the main cast changes from pre-production to match characters in the movie) but they're all very token. Beyond that... it's an odd situation! Everything about Bayverse is fucking ODD.

All this is to say, the movies are weird in an interesting way, mostly bad in very boring ways, and not worth watching as cinema at all, but as a cultural object, I have thought about them a lot, NGL. It is hard to talk about the Bay movies because you just wind up down a conceptual rabbit hole. ...If you're me, anyway. Most people obviously just watch these movies and go "well that sucked", LMAO.

............I'll stop. Sorry. I get carried away on this topic sometimes ngl.

[h-worksrambles]

What if Sam & Max got another cartoon?

The Sam & Max animated series holds a very special place in my heart. While perhaps not my absolute favourite incarnation of the two (though it’s close), it still keeps up this series’ very high level of quality, and is probably one more the more overlooked shows of its era. Furthermore, it’s also probably the iteration of the franchise that I most want to see get a revival. Partly because it’s just a very good, but also very short show that deserved more episodes. But also because I think it has a fair bit of untapped potential, to take all the best bits of the animated series we got, and turn it into something even better. So I thought I’d make a short numbered list exploring some things I would like to see if these two got another chance to grace our screens. I may do also do a future post on what I would like to see in a new Sam & Max videogame. With all that said, let’s get crackin’!

1. Target a (slightly) older demographic

The cartoon is distinct as being the only version of Sam & Max to be explicitly marketed at kids. And much of this has to do with it originally airing on Fox Kids. While I think the writers did an excellent job with what they had, and maintained much of the spirit of the series with those constraints, it’s hard not to imagine what they could have done with more freedom. To clarify, I don’t exactly want the seres to go hard R. Even at its edgiest, Sam & Max has typically between quite tame by the standards of adult animation as we know it today. The games have never gone over a T rating and the comics’ content was never above the level a teenager could handle. But when you read through the official sketchbook and see how many fun jokes were cut, I can’t help but wonder just how hamstrung the writers were by the need to keep things mostly family friendly. Even if the show still got away with a lot...

...Moving right along... 2. Draw more inspiration from the comic.

One of my personal favourite parts of the cartoon is how much it adapted from the original comics. Characters like the Rubber Pants Commandos showed up as cameos. Comic baddy Mack Salmon became a recurring antagonist. And the show did the best it could within its budget to recreate the comics’ art style, included its hyper detailed, gag laden backgrounds. One of the best episodes is a direct adaptation of one of my favourite of the comics, Bad Day on the Moon, bringing it to life with full colour, animation and voice acting. All I can say is, do that but...more. Adapt one or two of the other comics in a handful of episodes. This also builds handily off point 1. Maybe a kids’ show would have struggled to adapt Monkey’s Violating the Heavely Temple, in which the main villain dies of spontaneous combustion on-screen. But with the added freedom of a higher age rating, maybe that could actually be done (since that was the very first comic it could actually make for a solid pilot). But this goes further than just direct adaptation. Incorporate ate more comic characters like Flint Paper. And, especially, lean more into the stylism of a comic. Occasionallly the show would feature things like closing out an episode with the image of an actual comic back cover closing over. Why not do more of that? Have scene transitions that resemble panel transitions, add comic captions with additional blink-and-you’ll-miss-it gags. Make the whole show feel like a comic book come to life. The comics are in some ways still the purest expression of what Sam & Max is, and I see nothing wrong with taking more cues from it.

3. More recurring characters, less one-offs

One thing I’ve noticed in my time in the Sam & Max fandom, is that the current fans really like the show’s new characters. Newcomers like the Geek, Granny Ruth, John the gator and Lorne, the wonderfully hateable Friend For Life, are all pretty well-liked by fans. 

  It’s odd, therefore, that most of them...aren’t in it all that much.  Lorne gets two episodes as the main antagonist, and a cameo in a third. And he’s frankly one of the luckiest ones. Despite being a fan favourite, Granny Ruth only has a single 10 minute episode. Checking the series bible also suggests other characters were planned to be recurring cast members, but were ultimately cut. The character Ms. Honeybunny was orignally going to be Sam & Max’s landlady, but ultimately only had a very different, much smaller role in Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. And Mack Salmon? The show’s supposed big bad lifted from the comics? Two episodes, one of which is the finale. Now I absolutely think supporting characters can work well in Sam & Max. I have a whole other piece going into why. So I think these characters deserve more time to shine, especially the Geek, who I’ll talk about more in a later section.

To achieve this without drastically overinflating the show’s scope and run-time, it may be worth cutting down on the sheer number of one off characters and villains. If there’s one area I consider a weak point of the cartoon, it’s these guys. Does anyone really have any investment in Larvo? Did we need the incel moles? Are any fans clamouring for a return of Lactose the Intolerant? And hot take, Gary the psychic kid wasn’t sweet, he was just annoying, sorry-not-sorry. I’m not saying you can have no one off characters. But maybe cut down on the amount to make room for a slightly beefed up recurring cast. (Side note: but it’s worth pointing out that the cartoon-exclusive characters are still owned by Fox, and it would require some legal finagling to get them back. But even if these characters specifically couldn’t return, my points about the pros of an extended cast still stand).  Speaking of...

4. Use the Geek more, you cowards!

The Geek is simultaneously one of the most distinct aspects of this version of Sam & Max while also being the most under-used. Sam & Max’s tech supplier and resident girl-in -the-chair, she provided the duo with wacky inventions to solve cases with, while playing the role of deadpan snarking straight-woman to their insanity. Despite being effectively a studio mandated inclusion, a trend that has previously fallen flat in other shows, she actually works really well in Sam & Max’s dynamic, and there’s almost an implied screwed-up found family aspect between the three given that she’s living in their basement. Unfortunately, the fact that she was studio mandated is the most likely reason why she’s barely in the show. Whether for fear that she would mess up the pair’s dynamic, or just resentment at being foisted with her in the first place, the writers seemed hesistant to use her more than the bare minimum. She gets little to no screen time in the handful of episodes where she’s present, outside of one episode where she is kind of the focus.

  Still, as I said, I think that, despite the writers’ reservations, the Geek proved herself and succeeded where other kid avatars failed. And I would like a revival to use her to her full potential. Let her come on a case or two. Give her an episode where she’s the clear focus. And most of all, let her be a full-on mad scientist, every bit as morally ambiguous as her kinda-sorta dads. This is a girl who should be building deaths rays and running highly unethical experiments in her lab because it’s a Tuesday and she’s bored. I also wouldn’t mind playing up the found family angle she has with Sam & Max, but not too much. Sam & Max has always been really good at creating a believable relationship between its leads without being too saccharine. As much as I love how fans have run with the interpretation that the Geek is their adopted daughter I wouldn’t want to overplay it and try too hard to be cutesy or cloying. This franchise is classier than that. Basically, I want more of the energy encapsuated in this one scene from the show.

  Effervescent.

5. Have some nods to the wider series, but not too many

  Since I went on about taking more from the comic and having more recurring characters, you may be wondering if I want to see references to, or characters from, the video games in a cartoon revival. The answer is...kinda. Much as I enjoy the recurring cast of the Telltale games, and as much as I feel Hit the Road’s characters are actually super underrated, I do wonder if this could turn into overkill. Part of the charm of Sam & Max is its relative lack of canon. Every incarnation is distinct and so you can start wherever you like and have a good time. If Telltale characters were showing up every episode, the show would risk feeling less like its own thing, and being its own thing in the franchise was part of what made the cartoon so charming.

 The best blueprint for the approach to fanservice I would want actually comes from the recent game, This Time It’s Virtual. While my feelings on this entry are admittedly mixed, one thing it nails is being an absolute love letter to the series without risking continuity lockout. Most of its homages to the rest of the franchise are in off-hand references, or background gags. These are a treat for fans, without leaving newcomers confused. It’s still a solid jumping on point if you should choose to start there. Likewise, I would like to see the show reference the video games, but not too much. Maybe I don’t want Sybil and Bosco every episode, but you could perhaps use Bosco in one episode plotline based around his paranoia and absurd prices, getting the gist of his character across to newbies with no other knowledge required, and leave it at that. Or maybe Sybil gets one episode instead, hiring the two out for a case and switching jobs three or so times across the episode. Or perhaps a Conroy Bumpus revenge episode. And I’d say that much, at most. I see no problem drawing freely from the comic since that’s effectively the series’ source text. But as for the rest of the franchise, by all means homage it, but don’t go overboard. Throw the fans a bone while still letting the show stand on its own.   ...And that’s pretty much all my ideas for what I would like to see in a new Sam & Max cartoon! Oh, and before you ask about voices, while I would love to see David Nowlin and Rob Tinkler, my favourite Sam & Max respectively, perform together, this would likely be decided by the logistics of where the show was produced and what voice actor union the creative team would be pulling from. So I would be entirely open to new voice actors, or old ones returning, I wouldn’t mind either way. 

  I hope this was a fun read and that you’ll join me in keeping your fingers crossed that, one day, we will get another TV series with these goofballs. If you have any ideas of your own for what a new cartoon would look like, feel free to leave a reply. I’d love to see other folks’ ideas too!  

[thevindicativevordan]

What do you think of Snyder's Superman?

I seriously considered skipping over this. I've ranted a lot about this topic elsewhere, and that horse has been beaten to death by everyone, not just me. Can't resist a post for the record so here it is: I consider Snyder to be the worst caretaker of the Superman character ever, and his Superman to be godawful.

God I will never forget the excitement I felt the first time I watched the third trailer for Man of Steel. "Finally," I foolishly thought to myself. "We are getting a movie that can nail Superman's character AND deliver badass fight scenes." The third trailer used lines from All-Star Superman for God's sake, clearly this was the work of people who knew what they were doing. Can't begin to describe how wild I let my imagination run in the lead up to Man of Steel's release: a whole new era was going to begin. I pictured a Superman video game announcement following shortly after, a new cartoon, spin-off movies for Supergirl and Steel, in short I thought Superman was going to actually be back on equal footing with Batman. Superman fandom's decades long nightmare ushered in by TDKR and Superman III & IV being garbage was at last coming to an end.

Instead what followed was a trainwreck that simply grew more and more corrosive to Superman.

Now to be clear, there are some facets of the DCEU Superman which are worthwhile and interesting. Snyder's depiction of Superman's powers gave us some of the most jaw-dropping scenes to ever hit the big screen, and have been copied by numerous other movies and TV shows including Superman & Lois. Conceptually having Superman struggle to be a hero in a world that doesn't immediately fall over to fawn at his feet isn't a bad idea. Zod in the DCEU was the best incarnation of the character, and I'm glad that writers seem to be drawing more on Shannon's portrayal these days over Stamp's. Hans Zimmer gave us beautiful music that evoked Superman wonderfully, I still listen to that First Flight track to this day. Bits and pieces of Snyder's portrayal of Superman are actually good!

Except for the actual characterization of Superman himself. Good God he is so boring in these films! He's not charming or funny or even possessing much in the way of a personality at all. That can be blamed on Snyder's choice to not bother to explain why this version of Clark Kent decides to be Superman. What drives this man? What keeps pushing him to help people even though it keeps blowing his cover? Certainly not the Kents as is traditionally the case, Pa and Ma advocate for self-preservation above all else, even if it means other people dying. So then what's the reason? Only real answer is that DCEU Superman helps people because that's what Superman does, hardly the "realistic" justification you would expect from a franchise that takes great pains to establish how hard it is to become Superman, and how much it sucks to be Superman once you actually do don the cape.

Cavill himself is just meh. Yeah he has the physique to sell himself as Superman, I think that's part of why so many have latched on to him as the One True Superman. But he certainly doesn't offer anything performance wise on the level of what Chris Reeve or Tyler Hoechlin show us. There's no effort to differentiate between the two identities on Cavill's part, and his portrayal of both identities is rather stoic, missing an opportunity to let Cavill explore different facets of Superman's psychology or personality. The "romance" between Cavill and Adams is terrible, much like how there isn't any effort to justify why Clark becomes Superman, there's barely any justification for why Clark and Lois hook up other than "well Superman and Lois always get together right?" and then doing that. While it was ruined by the awful CGI (and everything going on behind the scenes), Cavill's best portrayal of Superman is when he interacts with the kids at the start of Whedon's JL. That was the only time Cavill got to play Superman anywhere near to what I would like to see from a film Superman.

People complain that Snyder's Superman isn't "hopeful", that he's not an optimistic character and they are correct. In and of itself that's not a problem, there are many takes on Superman - some not evil - which I wouldn't describe as optimistic or hopeful. Superman is not always sure of himself, of his place in the world. What kills this take is that Snyder wants to have his cake and eat it. He wants to deconstruct the parts he doesn't like or thinks are dumb, like the no kill rule, but he also wants to just lean back on the cultural assumptions and perceptions of Superman to do the emotional heavy lifting for him. Take Ma and Pa Kent for example. We're supposed to view those two as the same saintlike parents they are everywhere else, and we're supposed to like them. But they're both selfish pricks under Snyder and all their advice to Clark just gets in the way of him helping others. Pa teaches Clark that if helping someone else inconveniences or threatens your standing in life in any way, you shouldn't do it. Maybe let those kids die if it means revealing your secret. Definitely let your dad die because otherwise you'll be exposed, even though you can save him. Ma meanwhile tells Clark he doesn't owe anyone else a damn thing, and he's under no obligation to use his powers to help others. Forget what terrible moral advice that would be for a regular person, what kind of advice is that for your invincible man-god son who could easily crush the entire world beneath his heel? You're telling me, in this "realistic" take, that Pa and Ma never considered the damage Clark could wreck to others, and only ever thought about the danger others could pose to him? Sorry I don't buy that one bit, and it just makes the Kents seem stupid in addition to selfish. Yet Snyder can't seem to understand why so many people rejected his take on the Kents or on Superman himself.

Snyder either doesn't realize, or stubbornly refuses to acknowledge, the way people react to his portrayal of Superman. Sometimes the gap between how Snyder wants us to feel about his Superman, and how the creative choices he makes evoke the exact opposite emotional reaction will give you intense whiplash. We're supposed to feel sad in BvS because Superman died, and we're supposed to understand that everyone else feels sad Superman died too, because Superman is good!.. except Snyder completely undercuts that by teasing evillllll Superman! Why would I feel bad about him dying when you're telling me that Batman was right about him? DCEU Superman is a threat! He's the greatest liability to our planet! He brought Zod to Earth when he activated the Arctic ship! His failure to limit the destruction fighting Zod caused Batman and Lex to go off the deep end, and his failure to properly clean up the damage after the battle left Kryptonian technology where Lex and the military could access them! Of the entire Justice League he is the only one weak-willed enough to succumb to the Anti-Life Equation when his girlfriend dies. All the other Leagues go through hell and lose loved ones in the Knightmare, but they don't succumb, only the so-called "greatest" hero. This ties back into the trend of overdoing "evil Superman" stories: when that is all you can think to do with the character, it really makes it hard to buy that this guy is the paragon who sets the example. He can't be the greatest hero if he's the one who is constantly breaking when shit gets hard, especially when everyone else isn't succumbing. Even more so since we've barely seen him do regular Superman stuff that would make us view him as the leading light!

Furthermore you want to know something truly depressing? Snyderverse Earth is a place where the world would be better off if Superman's pod had just crashed into an asteroid and he had died out in space. Zod would never have come to Earth and killed all those people. Lex and Batman would have never gone insane. The Mother Boxes would never have reactivated - and how shitty is it that the one actual emotion Snyder makes sure to show his Superman evoked was despair so great it caused the Mother Boxes to wake up - and thus Steppenwolf and Darkseid would never have come and destroyed the world. At every turn Superman made life worse, and Batman has to clean up his mess. Even in the end Snyder's plans for Superman have him inspiring jack shit, "Bruce Kent" goes on to be the next Batman, making Batman the one who inspires the next generation and sets the benchmark for everyone else to live up to. All that bullshit about how Superman "made us see the best part of ourselves" is exactly that: bullshit. Snyder's washed out gray wasteland of a world is the same miserable place as when Superman started, he's inspired no real change in the setting whatsoever. The world sucks and he can't make it better besides killing the shit out of a few monsters and rescuing some people.

Finally this supposed "arc" Superman was going through: what was it supposed to be? Learning killing was wrong? He killed Zod twice! He brutally mutilated Steppenwolf and expressed no emotion at Diana cutting his head off! Finding his place in the world? Where the hell does he end up at the end of Snyder's "arc"? The same damn place he started! No friends or loved ones outside his mom and Lois, except for fucking Batman because even when their first major interaction has Batman brutally torture him in the lead up to murdering him, having moms with the same name means they're best friends now. Snyder's "arc" fucking sucks and leaves us with a dogshit character who has to:

Catastrophically fuck up his debut and leave thousands of people dead

Kill off the only surviving members of his race because they're all intrinsically evil

Get his ass whipped by Batman and told how much he sucks, then go kill Zod again

Die

Get brought back and mutilate Steppenwolf

Turn evil after failing to stop Darkseid

Get rebooted by Flash so that he doesn't completely suck and doesn't turn on everyone

Kill Darkseid

Go raise his wife's son with the man who tried to fucking murder him, which she had sex with while his corpse was barely cold, so that his wife's son can one day take up the mantle of the guy who tried to murder him

Fuuuuuuuuck that "arc", if I had to choose between letting Snyder finish his arc and never seeing Superman on the big screen again, I'd kill Superman's film chances permanently in heartbeat. If you thought the DKR damaged Superman, this shit would've been the finishing blow. How the hell do you come back from being turned into a cuckold? Especially when ALL THE OTHER MAJOR SUPERMAN ADAPTIONS OUTSIDE COMICS MAKE HIM LOOK BAD TO SHILL BATMAN?

This take has been one long nightmare for me that just doesn't seem to end. Hopefully the Snyder Cut was the last of it, Cavill seems to be finished in the role and for that I'm grateful. I'd rather wait as long as I have to in order to get a proper Superman adaption over seeing someone try to build something worthwhile out of the ashes left from Snyder torching the franchise. Goodbye and good riddance to bad rubbish, that's my feelings on DCEU Superman.