#WHERE ARE MY GGG FANS AT

[scouterwouterclockwise]

[artuurle]

I don't have a silly cheeky comment for this one besides it leans heavily on my headcanons and stuff on Grujaja. (that's how you know ur in the tranches for a character.)

^face of a guy that keeps hurtin his bonds w anyone close to him. Bonus doodles i made while drawing this that are semi related due to being tied to my Gr headcanons unda the cut lol:

[arovalentines]

time to make your choice only you can be the one

[picklesthenonbeanary]

Everyone on here has such cool click clack ideas! like omg!!! I think it’s time that I share the one that I’ve made for an au idea I have, had them for about a week and I love them but I’m still trying to get details down for the au and all, still in the planning stage and like this is my first time really actually doing this.

Anyways, click clack design be upon you!

I turned him into a plushie guys and I love him!

More info/rant undercut

This au is gonna be on the more body horror side and I would love to info dump about it once my brain gives me more ideas to write down but honestly I think his design for the au turned out good, their modeled after a teddy bear and I tried to make the face and eyes similar to one as much as I could for just concept sketches

Anyways lemme know if anyone wants an info dump on the au,

been trying to get as much down as I can for it but obviously having your attention split while brain storming isn’t the best. Probably gonna make an info dump either way just the get the brain juices pumping but how much I share in an actual post is gonna depend on how willing I think people are to hear about it tbh. I don’t wanna talk about something nobodies gonna care much about

Um anyways new au idea underways, gonna try and write a story about it but I currently only have a beginning and vague concept of how I want it to end and nothing in between so far so we will see. Would love to trouble shoot with someone but I currently don’t have anyone to do that with so… feel free to reach out if you wanna try helping tho, i've got like litterally no friends in/into the comunitiy so it would be kinda nice

Probably gonna turn out sloppy but so is the ways of life, better to make sthat is bad then nothing at all

[huggywuggysuppy]

Life Series winners decide the next season’s gimmick

I’ve seen this fun fan idea floating around and here’s my take on it

Grian: Ability to actually pledge a life to someone. Everything that happened in 3rd was due to his ep1 pledge to Scar, so this time if he makes a mistake he can actually give a life and move on. The Boogeyman was also added to more clearly delineate greens into passivity, since Grian’s green bodycount was so high.

Scott: Actually tie everyone together in alliances and go down with his teammate. His victory was one of vengeance for Pearl, and he didn’t want to be the last one standing again. Of course, that didn’t really work out as he planned. From a more manipulator perspective, he also wanted to see what the dynamics would be like.

Pearl: Didn’t have enough time to work things out with Scott in double life, they were interrupted by red chaos, so designed one where you could fight and make mistakes and die and still have time to fix things. She didn’t exactly rebuild any bridges with GGG, but it gave them all time to process.

Martyn: Wanted everyone to be aware of the Watchers and how they’re controlling everything. He’s been strung along for so long and winning Limited was the last straw. The Secretkeeper put a face to the evil, and now everyone’s aware there’s something more here.

Scar: Wanted everyone to understand what it feels like to be tripped up every episode and pulled around by the whims of the Watchers. The tasks gave some semblance of control (rerolling) but the wildcards are inevitable and crushing. Scar was railroaded into villainy, gaining the hostility of the server, and now he’s demonstrating that it’s out of anyone’s control. Even Grians

[chemxz]

Hello! I gotta say, I was elated to see another GGG enthusiast on the internet, but I am in love with your depiction of Snake most of all. You capture the softness, particularity, and contemplation of him very well. Your display picture on Tumblr makes me ridiculously happy. ☺️💚🙏✨ When did you first start to like the Gangreen Gang? What first sparked your approval of them..? GGG for life. ☺️💚☣️🤟✨✨

I don’t even know where to begin with this ask, first of all THANK YOU!!!!!!!

You don’t understand how much this means to me, I’d hoped that my portrayal of Snake was coming off this way and to hear this really brightened my day sooooo much. You inspired me to draw him again, it’s been a little too long!!!

I’ve been a fan of Powerpuff Girls ever since I was tiny, and I liked them then, I had collectible cards with them on it (I wish I still knew where they were 🥲). I then developed a small infatuation with Ace when he joined Gorillaz in 2018, but this year I decided to rewatch Powerpuff Girls again from start to finish and it completely reawakened my love for them!!! It made me realize how much I loved Snake, and how much I resonated with his character. He’s just like me fr… I love him so much.

Thank you for your kind words. I hope you like the newest drawing I made of him :’D

[octobobble]

Thanks for humoring me :)

When the role swap happens will other character's roles be swapped around or is it only going to be just Click Clack and Inspekta? Also will Click Clack be the villain in the narrative at the end of the story or will it slowly shift from Inspekta to Click Clack and there's a period where Inspekta isn't really doing much because all the butterfly effects set him on a different path?

Oh also are you a fan of In Stars and Time?

1. Will other character’s roles be swapped?

Not quite? It’s a roleswap, but not a roleswap au if that makes sense. Though the other characters do sorta have A Disturbance as things are changed and there’s definitely moments of being like “huh, what was I doing. Something doesn’t feel right.” It’s less everyone’s getting swapped around and more that things keep getting shifted around to the point that everyone’s sorta starting to feel the effects, but no one can really place a finger on it until the wall cracks for Thespius and he’s finally aware of the narrative and therefore has the same sorta dev tool awareness that Click Clack has. Click Clack actually fucking despises the realization of him having been played into a roleswap once it hits him and he’s mentally shinji chair posing about it. It’s not at all planned from the start, either, during the whole story the narrative kinda doesn’t know what the fuck to do about click clack lmao. The Narrative never speaks or shows itself directly, but it’s as much a character as everyone else, so a lot of Break The Narrative is genuinely just click clack getting worse and the narrative being like oughhhhhh fuck my little guy is going crazy uh. Um. Like I cannot emphasize enough that the moment where Thespius gains awareness wasn’t a mastermind chess move it was The Narrative hitting itself with a metal bat in the hopes that maybe he could do something. So yeah hope that helps teehee

2. Have you played In Stars and Time?

I have, i ugly cried during the ending and I kin Mal Du Pays for reasons I will not be getting into. It’s an incredible game and I think people should play it. Sadly it didn’t stick as a fixation for me as strongly as something like GGG has but I love keeping up with fanart and such. isat good.

[snobgoblin]

Some People don’t even know ace is from ppg

I KNOWWWWW the other day I saw someone ranting about how more people like Ace than Russel, even though Ace has only had one written line. and while that's true for Gorillaz... he's not FROM Gorillaz. he's from the Powerpuff Girls. he's not just some random guy, there's CONTEXT he's very popular in the ppg fandom! he is the MOST popular member of the gangreen gang. and the ppg fandom is sizable too! not so much the ggg side of it but the ppg fandom is MASSIVE and I don't think people, particularly the person who made the rant, understands this. Ace is not some random guy, Gorillaz fans aren't latching onto some random guy just for the heck of it and leaving Russel in the dust, no,

POWERPUFF GIRLS FANS ARE LATCHING ONTO ACE TO SEE WHERE HIS STORY GOES. that is what's happening. and I don't think people comprehend this when they complain about Ace's popularity. and it's incredibly funny to me that you would considering... his tag is dead, it's deceased

there are things to like about Ace besides his appearance in Gorillaz, and the reason I think Ace fans are louder in expressing their disappointment is because they had this awesome crossover and then did nothing with it. Ace fans are upset because they came to see what he's doing now, and they did not get an answer (wheres his gang? whats he been doing all these years? whats his personality like these days? none of them got an answer, he just played the bass and fucked off. heck we didnt even get to learn how he LEARNED the bass- when in the comics he outright stated he did not know any instrument). he's a great character in ppg, he's funny, he's full of personality, it would've been awesome to see what he's up to now, and we didn't get to. HE HAS A BACKSTORY. he has backing, he is not just a random guy. calm the fuck down people 💀

do I think Russel should get love? absolutely. but it's unfair to compare him to Ace because their situations are entirely different. also I encourage you to show your love for Russel instead of complaining about him getting no love, that's what i did with Ace! be the change, give the love you want

plus, my favorite original member of Gorillaz, besides Ace, is Russel, so it's really funny they say that specifically. I dunno it feels targeted at me and some other people since I'm sorta known as the Ace Guy and it'd be funny to see them realize Russel is my second favorite lmfao

[blockgamepirate]

The Purgatory event and the new Traffic/Life series happening at the same time is really making me think about my personal frustrations with mixing storytelling oriented roleplay and structured or rules oriented gameplay

I'm obviously not saying you can't mix those successfully, but for me at least there are some grey areas between the two where it just becomes extremely frustrating to me, to the point that I can't enjoy it and often get actually mad about it

(I know, I know, I should be more mature about it, whatever, I'm being mature by trying my best to shut up, at least in public)

Basically my problem is that if you're gonna mix these two types of playing, there's basically only two options I find satisfying:

1. keep the roleplay very light and non-serious while focusing on the structured gameplay (some fudging of the rules for the sake of roleplay is fine if it makes things more fun)

2. make the gameplay and the rules just the setting/starting off point and from there the roleplay and storytelling should always be the priority (obviously some occasional handwaving is fine but it should never be anything that seriously breaks character or gets in the way of what would be the most interesting direction for the story)

The problem is that between these two there's option 1.5, which is where both styles of play are equally mixed, and that's where the danger zone lies for me.

I think the best case scenario for me is when it's option 1 turning gradually into option 2. I'm sort of fine with that direction, because I just love roleplay and storytelling. What REALLY gets to me though, is when option 2 suddenly starts moving towards option 1.

The best example of this for me is the Last Life SMP finale, which I'm just still so mad about and no I have no chill, if I seem chill about it, it's because I'm censoring myself to be polite. They had the perfect set up for Scott and Pearl, the two survivers of the GGG, and Rendog and Martyn, the two survivers of the Shadows and also characters connected through a bond that crossed over from Third Life, to go head to head in a final battle, but crucially staying loyal to their teammates to the end. But nahhhhh clearly what we should do instead is just ignore all preceding character arcs and just do a basic ass four person battle royale round. And then unceremoniously kill the winner immediately after so they can't even do one last thing before they go.

(Sorry Last Life fans, I think that's like most people's favourite season, or that's the impression I have. I did say that I was holding back purely out of politeness. I actually have zero chill about this. I even had to delete some lines that were getting a bit too salty just now.)

But yeah, the reason why I had to stop watching Purgatory on day one was because I was getting that same feeling of frustration because it felt like they were going from peak dramatic roleplay to suddenly doing a random ass PVP tournament with random ass teams. I mean to be fair there is a story excuse for it because there's that eye entity or whatever that's making the players do this in-universe, but still, it was getting to me. I wasn't having a good time and I was getting mad so I decided I needed to quit and hear from others later whether it would even be worth watching for me.

Still not entirely sure if I like this arc, but I've calmed down enough to give it a shot

Just trying to analyse why I have these reservations. And yes I know it's personal preference and most people probably don't feel this way or at least not as intensely about it. I know a lot of people understandably enjoy the variety and that's fine. I'm just explaining my perspective.

I guess it really is mostly just about feeling jebaited as a fan of roleplay and storytelling.

[kachikirby]

I got news of character designer and animator Takahiro Kimura's passing at age 58. Honestly, it feels a bit surreal to hear someone die at such a fairly young age.

I'm not going to pretend that I'm a big fan of all the series he's done designs for (I think GGG and Code Geass are overrated and I dislike Goddanar because it's clear everyone there worked on it with one hand, if you know what I mean.) But there is one work he did that meant a lot to me:

And that is Gun X Sword. Other than being my bf's second favorite anime, it's honestly in my top 10 favorite anime of all time. Other than simply being an entertaining ride, it's one of those anime series where the basic summary is so simple, you might pass it over, but it's the ride you go on that makes it so amazing. That's because Gun X Sword is a deconstruction of the vengeance plotline you will see in most media. I'll do a longer post some other day on it, but I also recommend watching it. It's a series that means a lot to me.

Rest in peace, Takahiro Kimura.

[boatemlag]

AO3

i call grief my night-wound 2,072 words T-rated, chose not to use archive warnings, gen stagblings canon divergent au i wrote where scott gives up his childhood memories to "fix" xornoth. it does not do the trick. fic about the palpable absence of pain and how avoiding things does not fix them

Gem moved towards Scott. “Last chance,” she said quietly. “I’m fine,” Scott said, rolling his eyes. “Really.” Gem gave him a studying look, then breathed out of her nostrils, as if she’d been holding in a breath. “Fine. Your choice.” “Duh,” Scott said. “It’s all good.” He gave her a thumbs up. The pit in his stomach growled as if conspiring to swallow him whole. -- Scott finds a way to fix Xornoth. It's simple, really. The price? Just give up your childhood memories.

learn to love without consuming 2,580 words T-rated, chose not to use archive warnings, gen GGG fic that's part of a larger last life sci-fi au i'm working on; a vignette about scott, cleo, and pearl. you do not have to read the whole series to understand this one, but it is one of the more plot focused installments

Scott stood slowly, feeling the bones in his hips groan and complain. “I hope this is a short trip. I’m not a fan of the capital.” “Me neither,” Pearl sighed. “We’ll be quick. None of us are thrilled about this.” They scratched absentmindedly at the stitch on their cheek. Birds circled overhead, cawing and screeching. The sun beat on the back of Scott’s neck, and he felt sweat crawl down his back. -- Scott has a good life with Pearl, and more recently, Cleo; pasts come back to haunt them.

when I roll over and the empty sky is perfect 2,939 words G-rated, no archive warnings apply, m/m & gen 3rd!life martyn on season9 hermitcraft. trust me it's thematic i promise. also i do what i want i dont care about timelines. martyn learns to exhale.

The mooshroom island was quiet. Martyn had never been on a mooshroom island, or at least not in a proper while. The lack of hostile mobs on the island was more uncomfortable than he thought it would be, and the first few nights he absolutely could not sleep. Ren held him in his arms in the twin sized bed by the Nether portal, and Martyn stared at the pulsating purple light. One night, a few weeks in, Ren had fallen asleep slumped against a chest in the office of GigaLogs. Zombies groaned outside the sawmill and Martyn took a diamond axe from Ren’s gear and wandered out into the courtyard. He swung the axe into legions of undead, the axe that didn’t even have Sharpness I or II, and it didn’t fix anything. -- -- After 3rd Life, Martyn ends up on Hermitcraft 9.

TUMBLR

wither rose alliance (pearl POV) talks about the revived sausage about mourning someone alive

a series of 9 drabbles (strictly 100 words) about What if E2 Gem was E1 Gem (au explained better in tags) about mourning and moving on

pearl and scar have a talk in a dream (pearl POV) (secret life)

first person grian POV double life snippet about not saying what you want to say and not saying what others want to hear

you know what I haven’t seen going around in a while, and could use some of myself? fic recs! so, consider this both a rec and a self-promo post: recommend some fics to me in the reblogs and I’ll reblog your recs! in general, try to include both a summary and why you’re reccing it (whether it’s a self-promo or someone else’s), and let’s get some eyes on fics!

[justalilpearlie]

RL!Majormoon ramble

btw majormoon nation, just so you know, i am 100% counting Real Life as canon, which means there WILL be more majormoon content on my behalf. And if you got the time, from yours too <3 [not forcin yall tho]

Here's a few first thoughts, under the cut

1. Okay so i know i know not everything they say is in character. BUT. Scott mentioned GGG teaming up being YEARS ago. And i wanna take it as. Yes. Yes the season do happen throughout years, which makes sense with how their dynamics change and grow! Also they are aware of this time it seems??

2. Cleo called Pearl mum. And ik some moonrot fans will probably riot at me for this. But people still ship clethubs even after LimL soooo im just sayin. This is just silly rp in-canon that applies to this series, just like the clocker family, even tho they keep usin that joke

3. Scott and Pearl bicker like a married couple*, but not in a bad way, they laugh it off and all.

4. Majormoon is faithed btw.**

So i propose to you all. How about RL!GGG as a married couple and their child.... Majormoon married arc... and they adopted tiny Cleo...

*here the married couple lighthearted bickering

P: "How did you not notice, man? Cmon this is real life! You dont notice your own friend died?"

S: "Im sorry im getting chased by an enderman thats screaming at me. I've got my own problems."

P: "Well, that sounds like a you problem.."

S: "I was also dealing with that. You were mining. Where were you?"

P: "I was mining- i was getting- i was mining emeralds.. that obviously cant be mined with a stone pickaxe so it was completely useless and a waste of time.."

S: "You didnt hear the entire conversation me and Cleo had about emeralds?"

P: "... Nope.."

[Scott laughs]

**ALSO, here the faithed stuff...

P: "I like how its always us three..."

S: "Yeah"

P: "All the time, we- we dont intend to- to link up but it just keeps happening.. every single time"

S: "Its just faith!"

Like. I am not okay. I am so not okay. That was not a three. I know it was meant to be a two at first that changed to three last second.

Majormoon believers. They really are faithed. Its canon. Ik its a stretch but idfc. I said this before and I'll say it again. Theyre together in every single universe they get to share idc idc.

Btw my sister is getting me into outsiders and mentioned Scott makes a cameo as a show host or whatever. So uhm yeah once i finish that series im making Pearl his co-host and husband.

[bunny-carrothunter]

Observer Anon here. Your answer, as respectful as its tone was, seems to say, "Leaving the fandom is an overdramtic reaction. Just don't cross the lines this fandom has decided are unacceptable, and you should not feel uncomfortable in this space." Unfortunately, that's not how these things work, at least not in my experience. I am of the belief that these issues, for example, the Yandere Tobey concept, are not black and white, yes and no issues. I do not believe a space for 13+ users need be managed like a space for children aged 7 to 10 years. Frankly, I am still appalled that aging up Tobecky to teenagers and writing about mature topics, whether sexual or violent, in their relationship, is considered unredeemably and unambigiously terrible. How do fans imagine fanchildren come to be? Granted, children don't have to be the result of intercourse, but they can be, and it seems ridiculous to outlaw the action of speaking of that. I understand that many Wordgirl fans have traumatic histories regarding immature adults in fandoms for children's properties. Those adults' utter lack of boundaries and their often malicious intent toward vulnerable youth are inexcusible. Abuse of real world people, especially those unable to fight for themselves, is wrong, but... again, children have no business on the open internet at a young age, and young teenagers should be educated in internet safety. How is the failure of our society to provide this education taken as evidence that adult spaces have no place in fandom for children's media? Why must the Wordgirl community be an implict symbol of this inconsistent, hypocritical agenda against unofficial, unlicensed creative works using children's show characters to discuss or explore mature topics? I see the outrage against EC extremists, as well as the bi/transphobia used to silence those who support "het" ships, yet I see the same fandom members claim to be uncomfortable with portrayls of Becky, Tobey, or really any character but Miss Power becoming violent. Hell, in this fandom, it is seen as morally incorrect to consider GGG and episodes like it as part of canon! And yet I am told that if I do not 100% believe in the rhetoric of this fandom, I am not welcome. Sure, one can keep silent on their opinions and thoughts on these complex and emotionally-charged matters, but for how long can someone last in that situation? It feels disingeniuous. People would not want to be friends with someone who does not live by the rhetoric. It feels as if someone is a sheep dog that, in fear of being perceived as a wolf, dresses in sheep's clothing. It is all these emotions, all these feelings of being an imposter, that makes someone like myself feel that it would be best if I left. Yet, it seems I have reached a point where if I were to cut ties with this fandom, a fandom who has been nothing but loving as long as I wear my wool, my departure would cause even more problems. I feel trapped. It seems it is only a matter of when I leave rather than if I leave, despite my completely lack of hope that I can, in fact, properly disconnect myself from this community on good terms, or even with a shred of my diginity left.

It... hurts, to think I have to leave. I will miss this community dearly. Leaving behind all my creative ideas and the lovely conversations about Wordgirl and the wonderful show it is will be extremely painful. I really do not want to become a controversial figure. I cannot handle the stress from such a thing.

I get out of work and come home to a novel in my asks.

Mah dude, I had to re-read this a couple of times and I still don’t understand what you’re trying to say. I feel like I got send a copypasta.

Internet safety for minors? Of course. Should we play a part in guiding them through it? We could, but not our responsibility either. The Wordgirl fandom luckily has the advantage that while not small, it’s not AS BIG to where a problem can spiral out of control.

The gore/violent content in the fandom... yeah it’s very much present. And I will repeat myself that artists can only go so far and do so much to prevent their undesired audience from reaching that content, altho I will say tagging should be something to keep in mind when doing so.

Wolf in wool? Yeah, also agree. I know so many people in this fandom that have said, created or done something that would get them blacklisted or at least disliked if it got out. And no, it’s not THAT type of action or content, if you’re wondering. So everyone is just wearing their own type of... wool, and I feel silly as hell saying it like that.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to whatever each person finds acceptable or not in their own perspective. I’ve had friends that have gotten into quarrels because of different ideas and beliefs and it does hurt me, but I know each person is different.

At least that’s what I tried to understand from this ask.

[fromtheplanethexagon]

the robot problem: a critical look at tobecky, 5 years late

hello wordgirl fandom i am back :) and i have a lot of thoughts that i never got around to expressing before i moved on from the show. so be aware that everything i'm saying is based on my experiences during the 2012-2016 era of the fandom & state of tumblr in general, and i am not familiar with more recent fan content.

it's been over five years since the show ended, and @ifbrd​ reminded me (along with some great analysis) that while tobecky was super popular since before the show technically started (thanks to the play date shorts), it's pretty unhealthy in a lot of ways that tend to be excused or flat out ignored in fanworks. i'd like to reflect on that a bit (a lot); specifically, how both the show and the fandom approached this enemies-to-lovers ship, and how easily this ship can slip into uncomfortable territory if we're careless about how we interpret the ship and create fan content of it.

i will admit, i'm mostly writing this as a response to past me and my old creations - though i moved on from the show as a whole years ago, i do like taking the time to reflect on old interests once in a while, and reevaluating my thoughts on them. and this ship is probably the biggest one that still lurks in the corners of my mind once in a while, so let's go.

cherish is the word: a short positive note before a much longer negative one

i wanted to start this essay off with some positivity, because i am going to be very negative after this. tobecky was, in some ways, cute. it's obvious from the very beginning that these two characters are on pretty equal ground, even if one of them isn't aware of it. and that's part of the fun - the irony of how unaware tobey is that his nemesis/crush/person that pretty much always wins against him is someone that he completely dismisses as incompetent. i want to point this out because honestly, in general i don't like enemies-to-lovers because a lot of them use a power imbalance within the dynamic, and i hate power imbalances, especially when it comes to actual life-or-death scenarios (at least, as much as cartoons can do that). in most episodes, becky is never actually forced to go along with his wishes. she's not held in a 'date' against her will, nor is she ever really outwitted by him. i bring this up because there is one huge, uncomfortable exception, which i will get to later.

another big plus to the ship is the fact that they just... get along? even when fighting? of course we get brief moments where they just hang out and talk about paintings or whatever, but i'm talking about how much they get each other, even if they don't realize it. like the word banter, for example. been there since day one. becky loves words, and while most other people in her life don't really care (ranging from 'eh, that's cool i guess' to her brother calling it annoying), tobey gives her a chance to show off and thus treats her as a worthy adversary as herself, not because of her more generic superpowers - something that we've seen in canon that she feels self-conscious about (see: her motivation in patch game). one of the less noticed examples, to me, is "it's your party and i'll cry if I want to", because it's just - okay. they both are excluded from a social event, and while it's obvious that tobey deals with it by destroying the city, it's also pretty obvious that becky also deals with her frustration by fighting in that battle. like, yes, realistically it's just objectively bad that he's destroying buildings. but they're also providing each other with a way to work through their frustrations, first by fighting and then by talking things out, and finally by hanging out together instead of dwelling on being excluded from the party.

so it makes a lot of sense to me that many tobecky fans gravitated towards writing far-in-the-future fic, usually by implying that some growth had taken place before starting to write the ship. (there are, as far as i'm aware, 2... maybe 3 exceptions, that take the time to attempt a real redemption for him, at least when i left the fandom.) because if you take away his worst moments, either by reasoning out that he was 10 years old and a mess, or that he was a cartoon character in a cartoon world where everyone's actions are over-the-top, or by just flat-out pretending that certain episodes never happened, there's some pretty solid ground to start a ship on.

go gadget go: we all do not see it, we simply close our eyes (review of canon)

when the show began, i was the same age as the characters. a lot of other people were, too - at least in my cohort of the fandom. i think it's pretty safe to say that many of us have fond memories of the show's earlier seasons, and held on to that interest as we got older, for whatever reasons. so like, not to be all 'as an OG fan...', but i remember seeing the shorts air for the first time in 2006. i have a diary entry in july of 2009 about how i, a 12yo with no concept of the idea of 'shipping', was disappointed in the new tobey episode because i wanted more tobecky interactions. (that was robo-camping, btw, lol.) and so i remember how exciting their rivalry felt, watching them as someone literally their exact same age, and then watching that again as a nostalgic 17yo, and then uh... growing up, to put it frankly, and realizing just how unhealthy most of their interactions were.

okay what i meant to say was, this section is an overview of the relationship's canon portrayal throughout the years.

first, we have early tobecky: this includes the shorts and the first few seasons. this is their classic relationship: he likes her and takes robots on rampages to get her attention, she majorly disapproves and has fun taking him down. we've all seen the show, you know what i'm talking about. his backhanded ways of trying to find out her identity often feature prominently in the episodes, which - sigh, i've mentioned this whole issue before, but it's kind of a grey area in the whole uncomfortable-factor thing, because while trying to find out her identity is VERY invasive, it's something that like... everyone in the show tries to do, even her canon crush (scoops). on the one hand, it's really not a great look, but on the other hand, this is a cartoon meant to parody a genre in which this trope is extremely common. so i just wanna say that i have Issues and Thoughts on this aspect of their relationship, but there are other things i find more important to discuss here.

second, we have late tobecky: this is seasons 7-8. this is... a very strange and huge shift from the previous dynamic, though it's not necessarily obvious. what i mean by that is that for some reason, the show writers made it so that half of tobey’s rampages have nothing to do with his crush on wordgirl, even though that used to be the sole reason for his villainy. seriously. we have the birthday episode, where he's upset because he feels left out; wg vs tobey vs the dentist, where he's mad that he has a cavity; and trustworthy tobey, where his robot goes on a rampage... after becky accidentally makes it malfunction. the two outliers are ‘guess who’s coming to thanksgiving dinner’ and ‘patch game’, but they still differ from previous seasons because 1) his destruction is isolated to a forest far away from the city, and 2) his motive is still to impress wordgirl, but his methods are relatively tame. also he completely gives up on the secret identity thing??? i may have missed some things but i think he straight up tells her 'yeah there's no way you're wordgirl, lol' and the subject is just dropped for the rest of the show.

i also want to include 'the robot problem' here, because it's one of two season 6 tobey episodes, and follows the 'doesn't destroy buildings to get her attention' pattern: in fact, he teams up with her to try and stop someone else from going on a rampage (even if his reasons are selfish, lol).

and finally. the other season 6 episode. we have go gadget go, the bane of my time spent in the fandom. because GGG is the single episode where tobey truly manages to take away her autonomy, and proceeds to abuse that power for an extended period of time, for his own amusement. it's bad. it's Very Bad. put in the context that it's a white boy doing this to an (ambiguously) brown girl, it's REALLY REALLY BAD. and the more i look back on it, tbh, the more weirded out i am that the show not only made it seem like she wasn't affected at all within the episode, it just... forgot about it (which is not unusual for shows and especially children’s shows, but WG does make some efforts to either retain continuity or create canon reasons for why things are forgotten about). it's the kind of thing that you can't excuse and honestly you can't redeem (like at this point, you gotta ask yourself why you're spending so much effort trying to redeem this guy when becky has several other possible ships that are nowhere near this unhealthy - violet, scoops, honestly even victoria if you want another hero/villain ship, my absolute fave rarepair rose, etc).

so if you want to still ship it you have to just pretend that it never happened. (i remember trying for weeks to write something exploring the aftermath of this episode, to try and make myself feel better about it, but the more i wrote the more i realized just how traumatic this event should've been, so i eventually just dropped it.) and i brought up my own timeline of experiences earlier to point out that this episode aired eight whole years after the show started. which means that when i saw it, even though i was a huge stickler for canon at the time, i'd built up my own idea of the show and characters strongly enough to go 'yeah, no, this episode sucks and i am going to pretend that it doesn't exist'. and i think a lot of other people did too, because i really saw like... no one mention it, ever, except for some rogue fanfics over on ff dot net that already liked dynamics like that.

because here's the thing, and i don't know if people nowadays are aware of it? but i'm 80% sure (cannot find a source, so the other 20% is that it was just a rumor) that the show was originally supposed to end after season 6. and even if it's a rumor, it makes a ton of sense, because we get 1) an 'ending' to tobecky, which is a bad one, 2) a permanent wordgirl identity reveal that significantly changes one of the major dynamics in the show, 3) an episode where TJ gets to work with wordgirl and get a nice potential ending for their sibling dynamic, 4) an episode where we see Two-Brains explore life without his henchmen... the list goes on, and idk how many of these are just major stretches. but the point is. if the show had ended there, that would've been a pretty solid ending for many things, including their relationship: aka, it would prove that it was only ever heading somewhere bad, and when tobey finally has his moment of triumph, he is truly evil about it. and this provides us fans who HATE go gadget go with an easy reason to dismiss it - we can say that it was an attempt to conclude things in a way that wouldn't have happened if the writers had known they'd get more time. but despite that... it is still a canon episode.

it is odd to me how dramatically the dynamic shifts after that, though, because we seriously go from 'worst case ever, tobecky is toxic, your ship is dead' to 'no actually they get along and hang out and get ice cream together and tobey isn't even pressuring her into it, she's happy to go along with it :)' like, immediately. i never knew much about the show writers, so i don't know if the writers changed in between these seasons, but i would absolutely not be surprised if they did.

the earlier episodes are definitely problematic as well (though they pale in comparison to GGG) but i think everyone who ships it is aware considering that tobey is, yknow, a villain. from memory, he destroys buildings to get her attention, lies to her about the level of danger that people are in to trick her into spending more time with him, blackmails her into reading his poetry, and he creates a robot based on her that’s supposed to be devoted to him (but of course, all of these things backfire). not great stuff of course, but like... he’s a villain, that’s the point of his character. and considering that he’s a child these are things that can be redeemed, if done thoughtfully.

anyway, to sum up this section, the show starts off with a pretty standard 'enemies with an unrequited crush' setup, takes a really dark turn for a single episode, and then for the rest of the show takes their dynamic in a direction that makes it much, much easier to ship. as long as you ignore a lot of previous content.

wordbot: where's becky's autonomy in all of this? (misogyny)

we've finally gotten to the fandom. i recognize that a lot of this is going to come across as hypocritical considering how active i used to be re: this ship, but like... i'm a very different person now. anyway. disclaimer i guess - i don't write this to accuse all tobecky shippers of being like this - i know a lot of us aren't/weren't! but boy do i have things to point out, so without further ado:

it is very hard to ship this without allowing some bit of misogyny to slip into it. very, very hard. the entire premise of the ship involves a girl falling in love with a boy that repeatedly pressures her to date him via threats to the safety of herself and people she cares about, which... it's 2020, i shouldn't have to explain why that's terrible & a terrible example to set for children (which is why i am glad they never made it canon, tbh). best-case fan content has tobey stop pressuring her and start working to redeem himself out of an actual change of heart, which leads to becky seeing him in a new light. worst-case fan content treats his incessant pressuring and sometimes outright threats as something romantic - and even worse, romantic to the point where he deserves her attention and love as a reward for not giving up or whatever. i did see this pretty frequently for a while, especially in the earlier 2010s (didn't read much, Not My Thing At All), but i don't feel like going into detail here because of how obviously problematic it is. one medium (but still bad) case is where the fan content makes him start his redemption, but treats her liking him back as a reward for not knocking buildings over anymore. another not great case is where she tries to fix him with her love, which is a very common and very dangerous romantic trope. both are just... so incredibly unfair to her.

in content where she tries to 'fix him'... yeah i feel like it's really obvious how misogynistic that is. girls and women should not feel responsible for the evil actions of men, plain and simple. idk what else to say here i just really hate that trope and hated it back then and it just sucks! so can we not do that anymore, thanks.

in content that treats her like a reward for good behavior, there really isn't much of an explanation for what she sees in him. if she just goes 'oh wow, you're good now, i am going to fall in love with you for it' the whole thing falls flat because it makes NO sense whatsoever. we get to hear so much about tobey and his feelings and why he likes her and how he feels about it, but where is that energy for becky? why does she choose to trust him, to spend time around him, what does she enjoy about his presence? where is her getting over scoops in the process of falling for tobey? where is her telling her friends about this, confiding in them, asking them for advice? where is her choice in the matter?

win a day with wordgirl: do you guys even like becky or do you just like the idea of her (misogyny... 2!)

it was pretty standard for all fandoms the early-mid 2010s, but that's still not a good excuse for why so many tobecky fanfictions centered specifically around tobey's feelings while refusing to give becky the same level of empathy and nuance. it is true that to ship them comfortably you have to redeem him to some degree, which means spending time figuring him out and trying to find ways to pull him to the light without feeling super OOC. but ships take two people??? and there was so much potential for fanfics to explore becky's complex feelings on the matter - because she is! complex! she's heroic and kind but she's petty and has a competitive streak, she easily befriends villains but also doesn't trust them and doesn't believe they can ever really change, she's the savior of an entire planet but has feelings of inadequacy as her civilian identity and struggles with feeling like she can be successful without superpowers, she's great at the straightforward meanings and uses of words and loves reading but struggles to write passages that aren't dry as hell, it can be easily headcannoned that she's neurodivergent (special interests, issues with fitting in with her peers, taking things very literally, etc)... seriously there is SO MUCH to explore about her character, and a lot of it comes into play when you add tobey into the mix (literally ALL of the things i mentioned are explored at some point using tobey as a parallel or foil), but i rarely saw fanfiction that explored her thoughts on things further than 'he's evil but... maybe good?' or 'he's evil but... i kind of like him anyway?'.

if you want her to fall for him while being a villain, explore it!! why does she go against her morals? does she lie to herself about it to feel better? does she feel like she has to 'fix him' as part of her superhero duties to the city, and if so, how does that affect her as she tries and fails to help him? does she fall for him when she believes that he's turning good, only to feel betrayed when he starts acting worse because he feels like he can get away with it? it's such a shame that fanworks spend so little time even considering these questions, and it is absolutely a product of how deeply misogyny is/was baked into how we approach media (especially back then).

tobey goes good: but wait, i thought this show was progressive (a conclusion, i guess)

ifbrd wrote a great meta recently about how the show is a bit misogynist, despite being progressive in several ways. honestly i don't have much to add, but i'd really recommend reading through this; it makes a lot of great observations about the ways that male and female characters are presented differently through the show

i have little to add, so i'd just like to conclude with a reflection on the ship from my current viewpoint. i do think part of the reason so many of us latched onto the ship, despite how obviously problematic it was, is that the show treats a lot of things that would be serious in real life as normal or even comedic - which is fine lol, i'm not going to pretend that it's not a show for little kids, so they have to keep the tone light.

but if we, as teens/adults, decide to engage with this content in a more realistic manner, we have to be prepared to confront how messed up so many of the things going on really are. and if you still want to ship it, there's nothing inherently wrong with that! there's a lot of interesting things to explore in this ship, no matter what stage of enemies-to-friends-to-lovers you write them at, and it can be really helpful to have a space where you can explore a dynamic such as this in fiction. (speaking from experience here tbh, writing some fic for them helped me deal with complicated feelings about some ex-longtime friends.)

so to write this ship at all means that there are canon issues that you need to deal with if you want to have them end up in a healthy relationship in any manner that makes sense (unless you create an AU where none of that is applicable, which, power to you then). and i’m not saying ‘write them with a healthy endgame or you’re Bad’, not at all lol. but at least please, please take a step back once in a while to examine the dynamic that you’re writing, and please be careful about whether you mean to be romanticizing whatever behaviors you end up portraying as good.

[fanfic-inator795]

Allow me to ramble for a moment:

So, it’s pretty much a fandom consensus that Splinter/Yoshi/Lou Jitsu has the best story and character arc out of all the RotTMNT characters. ...In fact, given that a lot of the other character arcs were rushed through or cut off, you could argue that Splints is the ONLY one with a fully developed arc with the exception of maaaybe Raph and April but that has to do with Nick, not the actual writing so I digress

We see him start off as a blunt and lazy father who occasionally shows a soft side, to learning that he was once a movie star and seeing how much he truly cares about his sons, to learning that the choices he made ended up being a possibly world-ended mistake and seeing him do all he can to fix it like going after the Foot himself and making more of an effort to train his sons, to finally learning the motivation behind his major choices and completely understanding why he is the way he is. It’s a really great story, and it’s a major reason why he’s one of my favorite characters as well as my favorite Splinter interpretation.

...But if there’s one thing that I really wish we could have gotten more clarity on: His time in the Battle Nexus.

Out of all the things in his backstory, this is the most vague. We don’t know how long he was in the Nexus, nor do we see very many of his battles - and the clips we do see are often glorified by Draxum or Splinter. We also see him have two reactions to the Nexus:

A) He saw it as, essentially, an extension of his stardom days. He saw the Nexus as a means of gaining glory and praise despite being trapped, trying to turn a negative into a positive, and being perfectly fine with having yokai fans who love him for his fighting skills. Examples of this are ‘Turtle-Dega Nights’, the latter half of his match with Leo in ‘Many Unhappy Returns’ (”Heh, still got it~!” + him doing a pose as the audience cheers) and ‘Hidden City’s Most Wanted’, with him being clearly touched by the mural a fan made of him.

and B) He saw it as cruel and pointless fighting, and was absolutely MISERABLE there, to the point where what was once his talent and something he was clearly proud of and enjoyed was something he wanted to turn his back against for good. Examples of this are ‘Goyles, Goyles, Goyles’, his explanation in ‘Many Unhappy Returns’, and Draxum’s claim in ‘Hidden City’s Most Wanted’ that he had become a “shell of a man” after a while despite still being a strong and talented fighter, which we saw ourselves in GGG.

Now, let me make this clear that I do NOT think this is bad writing or the show contradicting itself. Humans are complicated, and we’re allowed to have mixed feelings on things - especially when they involve trauma that has to be compartmentalized in order to survive/not have a complete breakdown.

Much like with Big Mama - who Splinter verbally acknowledges is a terrible person and knows it’s foolish to trust her, yet because of their history, how much he once loved her and how great their ‘pre-kidnapping days’ were, he can’t help but miss her/show a bit of affection towards her, being willing to save her and being unable to completely hate her - Splinter’s mixed feelings towards the Nexus makes sense. It was both a source of pride when he literally had nothing else, as well as a source of shame as the fighting continued for years and years. 

However, at the end of the day... a lot of what I just said was simply implied by the show. 

While it makes sense that it WOULD happen, we don’t really get to see Lou transition from enjoying the glory and challenge of the Nexus to seeing it as cruel and pointless. Was his spirit simply broken down after several years of nonstop fighting or was it one particularly bloody fight that triggered a change of heart? And without actually seeing that transition and only having it be implied, if you’re not thinking about it analytically/in context or simply don’t want to, it very well COULD be written off as bad or contradictory writing.

A major example of this is how many people point to GGG as being a bad or contradictory episode. I don’t agree with this take at all and, honestly, I think a lot of the backlash came from people wanting a longer history between Lou and Draxum (no judgement, I had that headcanon too) because, as far as I’m concerned, Lou agreeing to be taken makes perfect sense to me in context.

Imagine you’re in Lou’s shoes: You’ve been fighting battle after battle for at LEAST ten years if not more. You’re tired and are refusing to fight anymore, meaning you’ve pretty much resigned yourself to two fates. You either change your mind and force yourself to fight on and eventually die at the claws of a yokai, or you keep your vow of non-violence and die alone in a cell. Essentially, no matter which one you pick, your life is over and your ending isn’t exactly going to be a happy one, but at least with the latter you can die with SOME honor (hence the vow of non-violence).

But then these cute lil’ goyles come in and say, “Hey, you wanna come with us to be part of our boss’ weird, unsafe experiments?”. It’s crazy, and will most likely result in a painful death (which you’ve already accepted p much) but honestly, this is the best option - because if you’re dead or stuffed in a jar or whatever, at least you won’t have to fight anymore. It’s only after Lou meets his future sons and finds something (or four someones) that isn’t just his survival and that is worth fighting for does he get his survival instinct back. So yeah, while his nonchalance and flippant reaction to it might have seemed jarring at first, the more you think about it, the more it makes sense.

(Also, remember, while he may have played a hero in his movies, Yoshi was NEVER really a ‘hero’ in a traditional sense until he found his sons, with nearly all of his choices being made due to very human reactions and motivations/needs, none of them being selfless until it was time to save the Turtles)

HOWEVER, again because we didn’t get to see that transition from “Glory-Happy Movie Star Turned Gladiator” to “Jaded and Hollow Warrior with Nothing Left to Live For”, I can understand why some people would miss the reasoning behind the character and story changes just because they were so subtle and didn’t have a ton of time in the forefront, instead just being implied. 

BUUUUT because that shift in Lou’s character is such an important catalysis in both his backstory and the show’s story as a whole, being the thing that leads him to Draxum’s lab in the first place as well as just being another important chunk of Splinter’s character (as well as another element that kinda parallels him with Leo), it really is a shame that this transition was just kinda brushed over as “Oh yeah, being stuck in a death arena decade for a decade would probably mess a person up pretty badly, even if they did like fighting”.

Soooo yeah, tl;dr: I still LOVE Splinter’s story and how we saw his transition throughout the show from “Homer Simpson as a Rat” to “Jackie Chan with a Tragic Backstory” to a truly realized and fleshed out (but still chill, awesome and unique) Hamato Yoshi... but I really REALLY wish that the part of his backstory involving him in the Nexus got a bit more focus and was a bit more fleshed out.

(and yeahhhh, that would lead to this lighthearted show being a bit more angsty, but at the very least it would be interesting angst that has a purpose)

[rlyehtaxidermist]

SRW30 "I'm probably about halfway through this game?" impressions

It is hard to tell how far I am through this game

Fixed difficulty is always a poor substitute for SR points. Even "expert" difficulty is usually only as hard as "I don't know where the reinforcements will spawn on this stage where I have to wait for my ships to arrive"

GGG v Betterman needs an actual anime

HUGE missed opportunity with having Knights & Magic but not OG isekai mecha Dunbine considering Shot is basically a dark take on what Ernie plays completely straight

Mazinger Infinity continues to be the greatest addition to the recent SRW canon, playing off Armageddon and CCA as well as it did in T but now GGG v Betterman is in the mix too

I am always happy to see the Eldora Team in an SRW, and this time they get to bounce off actual Combattler

OG plot hasn't really gone anywhere but that might be because I've been chasing down every side mission before playing the key ones

J-Decker remains an Awkward inclusion given, well... shall we say cultural differences on policing between me as a human rights student in Minneapolis in 2021 and Saturday morning cartoons made by Sunrise in 1994, but it's worked in well with the GGG elements

I'd forgotten how much of a banger the L-Gaim OP was

They did NOT need to make Gridman that good. Seriously, he got benched for being too good before Ryoma did

Not a huge fan of how the world map is implemented, especially because it replaces sub orders - so if you want to keep your back bench up to spec you need to spend a lot of time wandering around the map randomly (to say nothing of the random map event that gives you resources)

Plot-delaying they may be, the nonlinear missions are fun and I'd like to see how much combinatorics goes into the script - there's definitely a few times where I'm like "ah, they checked to see if I had recruited [x] already and had an extra line in there, nice"

Not a fan of how the "relic" missions are designed - they're optional missions where you need to use a small number of units to complete a specific objective which you don't actually know until you open the map, and you can't back out of the mission from the deploy menu. That said, I can just throw Gridman, Getter, and Guy at them and reduce everything to a fine pulp but I feel like that's against the spirit of the thing