#War Flashbacks Parodies

[phoebepheebsphibs]

Hide & Seek references compendium

I put so many little easter eggs and hidden things in my Hide and Seek fic, so here is my little ongoing list of references I purposefully put in the fic for those of you who like this kind of thing idk man

Chapter 1, Disney's Hercules: "Hey, Mack! Ya wanna buy a sundial?" Disney's Jungle Cruise: “Trader Sam’s! Come shop at Trader Sam’s! He’ll give you a great deal on shrunken heads! Two of his heads for one of yours!” the Holmes Hotel, Hugh's Pies is a reference to Nickelodeon's Jimmy Neutron series, Lilo's Stitches and Embroidery is a nod to Disney's Lilo and Stitch, "Crusty the Crab" is a nod to Spongebob Squarepants, Chell's Portal Stop is a reference to the game series Portal, and the final scene is from the ROTTMNT episode "Hidden City's Most Wanted".

Though this is not technically a reference or Easter egg, I wanted to add this note… I made a point of referring to Splinter as Lou Jitsu when he was mad or angry or selfish, and as Hamato Yoshi when he was scared or sad.

Chapter 2, Leo's determination to have Raph call him "the world's greatest ninja" is a reference to the film, Leo's quote "Land safely!" is taken from the episode "Mystic Mayhem" as well as the episode "The Evil League of Mutants", Leo's complaining to be leader is a nod to his future role, Raph referring to his father as a "sewer monster" is a reference to the episode "Man vs. Sewer", Splinter has a flashback from the episode "Goyles, Goyles, Goyles" and the line "OW! Why, you little--!" is also taken from that same episode.

Chapter 3, Mikey's dream is obviously a nod to all that he will do in the future.

Chapter 4, The origin of Lace Face from the episode "Man vs. Sewer".

Chapter 5, Phineas and Ferb "Escape from Phineas Tower": "That's some mole!" The line "Raph! Your enormous body is crushing me!!” is a reference to Disney's Lilo and Stitch, "sweater town" is a reference to the Gravity Falls episode "The Hand that Rocks the Mabel", the line "I didn't want to believe it, but... *sigh* science." is taken directly from the ROTTMNT film as well as a moment when Leo mentions that Donnie was wrong, Donnie uses two really's, a reference from the episode "Breaking Purple", Donnie gives Leo the comic seen in the episode "Jupiter Jim Ahoy!"

Chapter 6, Splinter's tv flips through several channels which include clips from media. These include a Thomas Sanders vine with "Weatherman Al", the quote "My leg!" from Spongebob Squarepants, part of the Fairly Odd Parents' theme song, Mrs. Cuddles' catchphrase "Let's be friends forever!", "I've got bad feeling about this" is a quote from Star Wars, the fake show about "Goosey" is an easter egg to @gooeseyleo and her Gooseyleo series. When Leo goes onstage, he does "a few improvised dance moves", which is a nod to Ben Schwartz and some dance moves he did in the Netflix improv comedy special "Middleditch and Schwartz”. The Lou Jitsu play the boys perform is a parody of the Godzilla franchise and the Pacific Rim films. Donnie's line "I strive for accuracy" is a reference to @sleepis4theweak 's comic (which I think about every gosh darn day), Horsebot-3000 and Splinter's line "I liked Horsebot-3000" are references to the show Community, season 3 episode 7: "Studies in Modern Movement".

Chapter 7, in the illustration Leo and Donnie are wearing Transformer and Decepticon t-shirts, respectively, and in the background you can see spray paint that spells out "Atomic Lass", as well as a drawing of the turtles' weapons.

Chapter 8, a young BEBOP AND ROCKSTEADY make an appearance, as does a very young Harvey Hokum from the ROTTMNT comics. When Bebop tries to sell Leo, he calls him “Shelly”, a reference to my pet turtle of the same name. In the illustration you can see a goldfish on the shelf, which is meant to be Piebald.

Chapter 9, How It's Made, APRIL O'NEIIIIILLLL, Harvey Hokum, Warren Stone and Kendra are referenced, "Operation Blue Suede Shoes" contains the title of a song, a reference to how in the show there are several similar code-names used for the characters ("Purple Rain" for Donnie, "Yellow Submarine" for April, etc.) Leo says that Mikey has empathy amplified, a reference to the fanfiction of the same name written by @filsa-mek on AO3.

Chapter 10, the boys watch "Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit". Leo promises to never leave Raphael alone and to always find him. Raph offers several scenarios that actually happen in the future where Leo searches for Raph - sewer monsters (a reference to the episode Man Vs. Sewer), getting captured by bad guys (the episode Bug Busters), and aliens attacking (the events of the film). The chapter as a whole is also based off of a few sketches I made - one of which shows the boys watching the film with Splinter, and one where Raph has a bad dream and wakes up to seeing he hurt Leo, who offers to help and gets the bros together for a turtle pile.

Chapter 11, the episode is heavily inspired by an episode of the audio drama series Adventures in Odyssey, specifically the episode "Mandy's Debut". The line "Wow, the shortcake of death" is a reference taken from said same episode! During Leo's flashback, a reference to the meme "She knocked that smug look off my face, but fourtunately I had a smaller smug look underneath" when Leo takes off his sunglasses to reveal a cooler pair of sunglasses underneath. Leo and Raph make a note to the fact that Leo is not the eldest in this universe.

Chapter 12, Raph, Leo, and Mikey teach April a game they play in the episode "Late Fee". When using sign language, Donnie tells Leo to "Stop yelling at me", which is inspired by a moment in Spy Kids 4. April introduces Raph to Ghostbear's starting career. Mikey repeats a line from the episode "Bug Busters", which is "Remind me not to ask questions anymore." Mikey uses the phrase "hydrate or die-drate", which is taken from a meme but is also something I say constantly as well. When in the Hidden City, Splinter hears people calling out to customers, one uses the lyrics to the Fairly Odd Parents' theme song, another is selling Mary Poppins' umbrella, a third is selling the three mystery journals from Gravity Falls, the fourth is selling Cinderella's glass slippers, and the last one is selling the Stanley Parable bucket of reassurance. Ochimizu is a Japanese mythical elixir of eternal life. The introduction and origins of Loathsome Leonard and the Mud Dogs. Malicious Mickey uses the "creepy doctor" line from "Stuck on You".

Chapter 13, Donnie delirium is directly based off of my own experiences with delirium, as well as his and Leo's conversation about whether or not Leo would miss him when he dies (which was an actual conversation I had with my mother when I was sick with croup as a little girl). The second half of that conversation was adapted from a scrapped fic called "The Kids Are All Dying". Donnie references the song "Big Yellow Taxi". The seven-tailed fox comes from Japanese folklore, but specifically this one was a reference to Naruto! Mikey sings the first line of the "Wonderfilled" song by Owl City. The secret ingredient being a discontinued soda was inspired by the ending of the musical "Be More Chill". The toad yokai becomes Heinous Green.

Short story, in the illustration you can see several signatures and sketches on Leo's cast, such as Raph signing "Mad Dawgs" and Mikey drawing his stickers. On the wall behind Leo is an eye exam that has the words "RISE" and "PHOEBE" on it. There's also a computer monitor in the back with Leo's vitals on it, as well as a notification about the trackers, and a list of all Hamatos Donnie tagged.

I will update more when I post new chapters... ;)

[tepkunset]

This tag on the Most Annoying Fandom Tournament just gave me war flashbacks to all the Barbie fans denying the Barbie film's racism.

You know the Six Grandfathers ("Mount Rushmore") parody isn't funny, right? You know the "it's like Natives and smallpox!" line isn't funny, right?

You know the fandom's campaign against Lily Gladstone's Oscar nomination saying she didn't deserve it but Margot Robbie did isn't funny, right? Right? RIGHT?

[merodythann]

Things I'd like to see in ososan season 4

we're here forever aren't we

Kanojo/homura back and name reveal

Their faces getting tinier for the people complaining about s3 style

hesokuri wars aus

The matsus moving out yet somehow still being neets (they win a house or something)

Flashback episodes to kun or high-school

Musical

Aliens

Iyami and chibita center episodes with evil fun schemes

Calming detective osomatsu

Reality TV/variety TV parody episode (everything that can go wrong goes wrong)

[harleyxhoward]

Analyzing The Abilities of Characters From The Boys Pt. XVII

💣Soldier Boy💣

Acting as a parody of Captain America, Soldier Boy exists as a manifestation of everything America needed post-WWII. Strong, durable, and dutiful, he maintained the persona of the perfect little soldier boy, who could endure both enemy fire and the passage of time without flinching or aging respectively.

However, in true The Boys fashion, he’s a charlatan. While he did serve in WWII, Stan Edgar even claiming he “killed Germans by the dozen”, the majority of his all American backstory detailing him as a war hero, barring in mind his pompous, macho persona, sounds too good to be entirely true.

While this post isn’t supposed to debate his true involvement in WWII, I find his unique reaction to V resulting in immortality to be a cruel twist of karmic irony. He appears to have little value for human life, being quick to resort to murder to settle scores with his old teammates. He’s so ruthless that when Black Noir, a seemingly apathetic and unfeeling indestructible superhuman, gets word that Soldier Boy’s been released from Russian confinement, he practically pleads for Homelander to give him a swift death so as not to die in tortured agony by Soldier Boy’s sadistic hand.

In total, I find it ironic that the soldier forced to kill and slaughter into oblivion with nothing but his PTSD and flashbacks as a testament to his body count, is condemned to an endless immortality. You almost want to mourn the man he could have been had he never been shot up with experimental V. He was a victim of verbal abuse from his father, feeling pressured into potentially dying in WWII just to prove something to him in hopes of finally making him proud. However, he did screw a nazi for years, so, meh.

[robo-milky]

Hehe~ <3 My hatred for him is unimaginable.

[Relic Pre-Cloche Selfship Sketches + Ramble]

• Sometimes, I still can’t believe it and have difficulties acknowledging that technically Epel is my second yume after the Jack era- (although never thought of deeply) I’m sowwy- ILY Rook

• Before I really finalized and renamed Cloche as a character, she was more of a memey stand in for me.

• Epel was supposed to be her rival, competition for Jack’s attention (although it’s a one sided rivalry cause Cloche was jealous of Epel being so dainty and cute— girlie would kill for those big doll-like eyes). I really did like EpelJack, so it was a subtle nod to that-

• The sona seen above isn’t exactly Cloche, but me and I thought the dynamic between us would be hilarious— or at least a deep fried version of me before TWST… (War flashbacks to JJBA and my avid JotaKak shipper days 💀)

• Epel would probably tear my throat out whenever I try to get him to act cutesy, even when Vil’s not around. 100% would gush over. Would I still have liked Epel if he embraced his perceived “feminine” looks??? HECK YES WE LIVE FOR BREAKING GENDER NORMS AND STEREOTYPES ‼️‼️ I might have liked him even more if he did tbh…

• Ummm… If you’ve been there for the Cloche-Drawing-LeoMal-In-Front-of-Malleus era, I think you’d know why they’re ship name is rotten apple 🫡 (outdated event, not canon anymore)

• I think I’m rambling about all of this more to myself but if you chose to read all of this- thank you??? I feel weird letting go of the version of Cloche that started everything on this Tumblr, so I guess this is a tribute to my roots.

• Fujoshi or I hate my life I hate everything, pick your poison

• I promise you I didn’t take this old concept seriously and thought of it as nothing more but a parody/satire-

[aimlessgeology]

The Venture Bros.

The Venture Bros. comments on many assumptions from the Golden and Silver Age of comics. It parodies certain elements of comic book history, including ‘the boy adventurer’ (Jonny Quest) trope and space-age fiction themes and aesthetics. The series follows Dr. Thaddeus “Rusty” Venture, a sad failure of a Super Scientist living in the shadow of his late larger-than-life father, Dr. Jonas Venture. Rusty is a superhero in title but not in practice, yet he still has a rotating cast of villains and sidekicks around him. His arch nemesis is a villain called The Monarch, who I focus on for this piece. I think Rusty represents the more cynical, morally ambiguous Silver age of comics while his father represents the authoritarian Golden age, to put it into Williams’ framework from “(R)Evolution of the Television Superhero”. The Venture Bros contributes to a misanthropic view of superhero narratives. All of the characters have major flaws directly connected to their association with Super Heroism and its flipside, Super Villainy. Changes in values over time are shown in the narrative through flashbacks and convoluted storylines involving many characters over several seasons. Overall, though, the series pokes fun and levies criticism against prevalent superhero notions. 

The Monarch, Dr. Venture’s Arch Nemesis, is a scrawny, goateed, middle-aged white male who has made a career out of being evil. In some ways, he is very successful, with an awesome spaceship headquarters, a team of devoted henchmen, and a sexy villainess girlfriend. However, the Monarch is shown to oscillate between overconfident and insecure, as seeking validation, and as unable to thwart his self-proclaimed nemesis, no matter how many opportunities he gets. 

The Monarch represents an attitude of dissatisfaction among men who actually have quite a bit going for them. I feel like this reflects a culture of misplaced victimhood held by some men as the liberation of women and other oppressed groups makes them feel like they are losing some kind of power or status. 

The Venture Bros. is all about funny costumes and character design. The Monarch has leaned all the way into his butterfly-and-insect-themed villainy. His costume is an integral part of his character, and he is rarely seen without it. 

His voice and mannerisms are enough to make the Monarch recognizable even when he is not in costume, but he derives much of his power from his outfit, the consistent theme of his evil operation, and his flashy technology. The Monarch has a hard time performing villainy when not in costume. In this universe, Villany is a career, and the job requires a uniform.

The show is definitely influenced by 9/11 and the entrance of Gen Xers into the media scene. The show debuted in 2003, when the Cold War Kids (not the band) were finally entering the workforce and the public eye and expressing their feelings and attitudes about social and political realities of the time. The Monarch is an expression of social, economic and political disillusionment that can go in divergent directions and lead to extremism. Venture represents apathy and adherence to established systems, despite their idiocy.

In Season 1 Episode 11, the viewer gets a glimpse into the normal and domestic side of super people when they meet members of The Guild of Calamitous Intent when Venture hosts a yard sale at his compound. He invites all the Villains he works against and among, with the understanding that no harm can come to him because it is not guild-approved and therefore the villains have no legs to stand on in terms of evil.

Even so, the Monarch, Dr. Venture’s sworn enemy, wreaks non-approved havok at the yard sale, causing a brawl in search of a suitable bathroom. Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend sneak into the compound and see the sad emptiness of Dr. Venture’s life. For a moment it seems the Monarch has a realization about his Villainy and almost gives up “Arching” Dr. Venture, but when the security team gives him a fright, the Monarch vows to destroy Dr. Venture and reconstitutes the Nemesis status.

I think this faltering of ideology that the Monarch experiences shows how perceived obligations are subject to change situationally. This applies to foreign relations because attitudes about domestic policy, domestic views on other countries, and also relationships between nations and states are products of history but also are fluid.

@theuncannyprofessoro

[matt0044]

RWBY lacks Bathos and that seems to bother people.

It occurs to me that this is another reason why the RWDE and so-called critics consider RWBY a good punching bag is summed up alot in Overly Sarcastic Productions’ video on Bathos. By this I mean that it’s unabashedly proud of being a web series inspired by Anime. While not every trope in the medium is used (luckily), it still indulges in a lot of cliches the medium is known for.

Also think about how sincere RWBY is. Ozpin’s grand speeches about the war and its aftereffects or even the human nature of fear. Salem’s monologue at the start of Volume 1 and end of Volume 3. Ruby’s grandstanding against Cordovin. Blake and Yang just... Blake and Yang.

There may be some goofiness along the way but it’s clear that the writers are not here to appeal to the lowest common denimenator like Warner Bros would’ve if the studio had control over it.

We all know how that went with Gen:Lock. :/

I find myself comparing to a lot of this to Red vs. Blue. While the latter was sincere and more deep down the road, it started out of as a dudebro-y type of comedy.

Said comedy would persist even as it would become more sincere such as with Volume 8 putting Sarge, Church and Wash’s characters to the test. The Freelancer flashbacks also dial back the slapstick to a near zero but still be keen to sling some zingers in battle.

RWBY doesn't start out as a parody of Halo or anything but is starting mostly from scratch and is largely unironic about what it wants to be. There are few times where you'd find RvB's style of college frat boy humor in RWBY if at all.

So a lot of the RWDE as well as non-fans sees them opening up their heart and seeing a target with an easy bull's eye.

[arcanusarchieves-if]

So basically this is a Harry Potter knockoff?

I feel like “knock-off” is a harsh (but probably accurate) word for it 🤣!

I’ll admit that this world was heavily inspired by the world of Harry Potter (as well as series like Percy Jackson and Mortal Instruments) but that was because I wanted to “parody” (?) it. I wanted to take a deeper look into the politics, stability, and dynamics of a world like that from the perspective of someone who isn’t “the chosen one” or a literal child.

Originally I was going to do that through fan fiction but as I was writing it I realized that I would a.) like to add my own original twists to it and b.) would prefer to make it interactive. So I changed it to this format instead!

There are also a few main things that are going to differ from the HP series:

- While there is a war going on, it’s not about blood purity or “Magus” rights. Therefore the main antagonist of this game (and their motives) is also very different from the ones in the HP series.

- The magic in this world is much more…alive? It’s more similar to the magic seen in things like BBC Merlin. It’s less of a tool and more of a force/sentient being (like the speedforce from DC comics!)

- There isn’t a “chosen one” in this game nor does it take place at a school. There might be a few references/flashbacks to MC’s younger years but other than that most of the characters are adults.

[adarkrainbow]

Fairytales in BD: Pinocchio storia di un bambino

"Pinocchio - Story of a child". Another dark and adult "reverse-take" on the story of Pinocchio - but not a French one this time... This comic is actually an Italian creation by Ausonia, but it is quite similar in intention to Winshluss' own grotesque Pinocchio parody.

Ausonia's Pinocchio is a horror work that starts off a simple but disturbing idea: let's take Collodi's story, and completely reverse it. Pinocchio isn't a little wooden puppet who wants to become a real human boy - here Pinocchio is a Frankenstein-like creature of flesh born in a butcher shop, and living in a society of robots and marionnettes. And Pinocchio's main problem is not that he keeps lying, but rather that he can't stop saying the truth, in a society where lies dominate and are considered virtuous.

The story of Pinocchio is told through flashbacks, as the "present" is Pinocchio's trial for his "crime" of telling the truth - and we slowly discover a dark and cruel world locked in an endless war between the robotic puppets who built their entire society on lies, and rebellious crickets who defend the truth and parasite puppets to control them from the inside.

[laniiilouu]

To your PTSD post: I don't think it works in such a neat way that you can quantify and anticipate potential flashbacks, especially in ever-changing environments. But let's have a look at what they do in the series.

I count 4 mausoleum flashbacks in s1, something that we can argue improves when he learns to get a better grip of his powers/goes clean.

2 war flashbacks in s1 and 2 in s2, all but the first of them triggered by loud noise. He spends over 3.5 years in the Sixties and handles his s2 flashbacks rather quietly. Maybe he learned to deal with them a bit better during his yoga(/meditation?) practice.

We go straight into s3 and Kaus finds a new way to deal with his issues by seeking comfort from first his mum and then Reginald. The only real harrowing thing that happens that could potentially trigger a flashback is the cemetery trip which is basically exposure therapy, and he does freak out while he's there. I don't count bus ball because I think that's rather an event that adds new trauma instead of triggers an old one. What could trigger his war PTSD is the whole being shot in the chest thing but I think that, too, rather adds more trauma - plus he's immortal now so that's a whole different issue to deal with.

Would I like to see more of his trauma response? Sure. But I appreciate that they don't make it into a parody where he jumps at every little noise, because that wouldn't be very realistic either. Especially for someone who's lived with PTSD for most of his life.

Klaus not being a fan of (underground) trains is absolutely a hc of mine though, he would hate everything about them (except maybe the pickpocketing opportunities).

Woah that is so true!!! I hadn’t thought about these at all!! I completely agree as well that I’m glad he isn’t completely broken down by his PTSD at every loud sound as that would completely be out of character and would make it so much less realistic as you said!

Also ty for the flashback counts, I’d been wondering how much we’d seen it throughout the series!! <3

(Also ty for how well you explained it all <3 <3 <3)

[princess-of-the-corner]

If memory serves right Transformers cyberverse gave hot rod a bit of an ego during his debut but that was a flashback to pre-war Cybertron where he got mellowed out at the end of the episode when he witnessing blur gets literally eaten alive by Cosmic rust

He also further chilled out during the Matrix parody arc near the end of the series

Hopefully this gets better then?

[moorheadthanyoucanhandle]

COMPLEX CHARACTERS

Opening today:

Freud's Last Session--The "session" in question is fictional, or at best nervily speculative--a meeting of the titular psychoanalytic pioneer with the Christian apologist C. S. Lewis. It's September of 1939; England has just declared war on Hitler's Germany, and Freud, who has fled Austria for England with his obsessively devoted daughter Anna, is in the agonizing homestretch of terminal mouth cancer. Irked by Lewis' parody of him in The Pilgrim's Regress (1933), Freud has invited the young Oxford don to his house in London for a civil but contentious chat.

Freud is played by Anthony Hopkins; Lewis is played by Matthew Goode. The direction is by Matthew Brown from a script he co-wrote with the American playwright Mark St. Germain, based on St. Germain's play (which I saw well-produced by Arizona Theatre Company in 2013). The play is a two-hander, but this handsomely-produced movie expands on it with scenes involving Anna (Liv Lisa Fries) and her partner Dorothy Burlingham (Jodi Balfour), flashbacks to Freud's childhood traumas and to Lewis' PTSD from the trenches in the earlier war, his eyebrow-raising cohabitation with Janie Moore (Orla Brady), etc.

But the juice in the film is still in the theatrical sparring between the two leads, especially Hopkins as the chuckling, cheerfully furious Freud. He's as lovably cantankerous here as he was as Pope Benedict in 2019's The Two Popes. For his part, Goode is smart enough not to make Lewis saintly or jolly; he gives him an edge of defensive aloofness alongside a deep decency.

It's hard to say which, if either, of the two men's viewpoints St. Germain and Brown are most in symapthy with. Many of us are likely to feel ourselves somewhere between Freud's staunch and bitter rationalism and Lewis' somehow rather half-hearted pose of orthodoxy. But the point of the film seems to be that what underlies both is, at least partly, existential terror, of a sort to which intelligent, intensely imaginative people like these two are particularly subject. Neither strict nonbelief nor strict belief seems to offer much deliverance.

Mean Girls--"It's a cautionary tale..." So the Greek chorus characters Janis and Damian sing to us at the beginning of this musical remake of the well-loved 2004 teen comedy, pared down from the 2018 Broadway version. This may be the secret of Mean Girls, in each iteration: it really is a moral tale with a cautionary point, and the heroine really does go to the dark side.

As you'll recall, Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) is a smart kid who grew up in campsites in Africa; her mother (Jenna Fischer) is a researcher. When she lands at a suburban American high school for junior year, the divisions in cafeteria clique and caste strike her as similar to those in the animal kingdom. She gets sucked into spending lunches with "The Plastics," a circle of glamorous sycophants led by uber-mean girl Regina George (Renée Rapp). Cady agrees, initially, at the urging of artsy girl Janis (Auli'i Cravalho) and big gay Damian (Jaquel Spivey) to serve as a double agent in a revenge plot against Regina. But gradually, of course, the plastic begins to take over for real. 

Or maybe the secret is just that the film, scripted, like the original, by Tina Fey (freely adapting a book by Rosalind Wiseman), is funny and sweet, but not so sweet that it forgets to be, you know, mean. Or maybe it's that most of the songs, by Nell Benjamin and Jeff Richmond, are delightful, and buoyantly staged by directors Samantha Jayne and Arturo Perez, Jr.

Overall, these actors don't have the vibrancy or distinctive personalities of the original film's cast, but they make up for this with terrific musical performing. Rapp brings such a baleful moan to "Meet the Plastics" that she really is a little scary, and Rice shades herself from guileless to conniving very believably. A few vets are around; Fey and Tim Meadows reprise their roles from the first film, and Busy Phillips and Jon Hamm contribute funny bits. The standouts, however, are Cravalho as Janis and Spivey as Damian, both equipped with gorgeous voices and the ability to act while they're belting.

Fey's generous-hearted--and sensible--take on popularity and self-esteem has provided a solid and unsentimental piece of role modeling for teens (and the teens that endure within most adults) for twenty years now. Maybe this movie will extend it for another twenty.

[astrolaurical]

Hey

It's the same girl who asked about your opinion on my 10 year old cousin thinking Jungkook will marry her

I just wanted to ask

Is it normal that Every ARMY(some non-ARMYs too) around me thinks that someone from BTS gonna marry them? Or is it just people around me???

Everyone are delulu omg😭

I have too many stories about these girls

I (forcefully) checked what they were talking about and checked your Tumblr and I was so thankful someone was normal. I almost thought Everyone were like that

And Yes I told her to stay in School

I think everyone has a secret fantasy about marrying their favorite celebrity. That’s why celebrities and idols exist and why boy bands are so successful. I’m really showing my age but omg the frenzy in the 90s and early 2000s around NYSNC and The Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears?? Unparalleled. Then in the late 2000s we saw it again with Justin Bieber and One Direction. The Josie and Pussycats film (SLAY) makes fun of the entertainment industry the entire movie by even parodying boyband obsession, product placements, and the trend cycles. The movie went over so many peoples’ heads when it was released so it bombed at the box office but it’s a cult classic for a reason. Highly recommend to watch!!! Also aging myself again by admitting I had both the dvd AND soundtrack as kid bc the songs are bangers. Honestly the 90s-2000s in general just rocked. This is the only meme I have of the film but see the product placement and the mockery of boy bands? Genius.

The 1D documentary is a perfect example of the boy band frenzy that JATP film was mocking bc they even had a small scene where they had a neuroscientist or someone similar in that profession (I haven’t seen the movie in a few years so I’m not 100% sure but I was a hardcore 1d stan and have the dvd bc their live vocals honestly slap. Their concert cover of teenage dirtbag in the movie?? Still waiting for the actual recording bc chefs kiss). Anyway the neuroscientist was saying that corporations/ music companies have these formulas to create the perfect idol down to a t after studying the phenomenons of rabid Beatles and Elvis fans in the 50/60s. It has to do with the happiness chemicals in the brain. Combine those with good looks and music? You can’t help but fall in love. The entertainment industry then purposely directs their carefully molded artists to vulnerable audiences (preteens, teens, women) because they will buy more products. Casey Aonso (another fellow 1d stan wassup girl) YouTube video describes their XFactor era HILARIOUSLY. War flashbacks. The clips about HOW BAD each individual one direction members auditions were but you could see the $$$ in the judges eyes bc the boys were good looking and you could tel the judges were plotting how to sell the boys good looks. And they did.

And boy do we know that formula works. Hybe overprices bts products on Weverse shop and y’all eat it up and sell it out every time. $200 for a REPACKAGED cd. Weren’t they selling like a $1000 product recently? But even Jin had to be like “nah for my Astronaut comeback yall not gonna be selling hella expensive pajama pants like last time tho. We don’t price gouge in this house”. All hail jin.

I’ve talked a lot about parasocial relationships and media training, etc. While I think it’s fine to have a secret fantasy about marrying *insert celebrity crush name here*, I think it’s important to realize it’s a FANTASY. Fun to think about and daydream to, but NOT REALISTIC when trying to plan a future around or with. Go play the childhood game of MASH or make a SIMS family with Jungkook as your husband. That’s fine and normal. But don’t be going around telling people he’s your boyfriend. That’s delusion. I’ve included a perfect real life example of healthy young fangirling in the tags.

EDIT JUNE 11 2023:

I happened to come across this tik tok video yesterday that also explains delusion and obsession. I think it applies to “fangirling” especially well. TW for trauma.

[gintamaextraordinaire]

Episode 5: Make Friends You Can Call By Their Nicknames, Even When You’re an Old Fart

This was a much bigger episode that I remembered it to be. Not only were there many debuts of extremely important characters like Katsura and the Shinsengumi, but we gained much more insight into Edo’s current political state.

The opening plot of the bombing was dare I say, iconic. The comedy in this episode, again, much better than the last.

And Katsura debuts! It’s very strange to see him all serious and extremist knowing the shit he gets up to later on. The Shinsegumi also debuts this episode (notably Sougo and Hijikata) though their quirks are more in display ccmpared to Katsura’s.

We get a huge lore bomb in the form of hints at Gintoki’s past of being the Shiroyasha, (The subs translated it as White Knight, but I’ll pretend I never saw that.) one of the heroes of the Amanto war, fighting alongside Katsura.

“If you've got time to fantasize about a beautiful death, why not live beautifully until the end?”

To tell the truth, I was getting misty eyed when this came on. No matter the amount of times this scene was parodied, it’s still so special to me. Its simplicity and beauty genuinely changed my life. Obviously Gintoki is going against the Bushido code of honor here, but it reflects his philosophy well. Protecting who he wants to protect, and living life beautifully until the end. This is the first glimpse of the Joui war that we’ve been shown so far, and it really adds to the intrigue of Gintoki’s character.

Obviously this is war propaganda talk that Zura is spouting, but you can’t help but think what he actually means is “You worry about this country, and are angry with the Bafuku and the Amanto for taking Shoyo-sensei away from you.”

“Inside, you’re still fighting, Gintoki.” becomes “You must be suffering more than everyone else.”

Real meet-cute here. Hijikata’s eyes are so blue in this it made me realize that Gintoki and Hijikata are built to be the complete opposites of each other in terms of visuals. Gintoki with his silver hair and red eyes, Hijikata with his dark hair and blue eyes. Sougo trying to blow Hijikata up was classic Sougo.

I’m also quite fond of the early soap opera gags too, to be honest.

Now, we see the conflict and contrast between Gintoki and Katsura. We’ve already gotten a glimpse of this from the Joui War flashback, with Katsura giving up but Gintoki facing forward. In this case, Katsura is the one stuck in the past and refusing to move on. Gintoki is the opposite of that.

Again, Gintoki restates his principles while proving that his eyes truly shine in closeups.

The hot potato bomb segment was super funny, and the episode ended on sort of a bittersweet note. Perhaps that smile means he’s been affected by his words. If the person who should be the most furious towards the world is living life beautifully, then… (Also Zura is extremely pretty here)

Again, big episode. Ginpachi sensei and 3Z debuts, along with his iconic Lollipop.

This was the best episode by far. I love this show.

[casliveblog]

Custom Toonami Block Week 145 Rundown

Spy X Family: Yor catches some of the bad guys with the bomb dogs but isn’t able to go after the leader because she can’t leave Anya again so Terrorist Bakugo gets away (it’s really funny that the terrorist boss is voiced by Clifford Chaplin and is talking about explosions all the time). To my surprise Yor actually does find out how serious the situation is with the terrorists and Anya gets a Future Dog Sight vision of Loid getting blown up by the bomb and a lengthy view of how this will also start a World War. So Anya apologizes to Yor for running off on her own and then… immediately runs off on her own again. Loid’s group catches the remaining terrorists so Bakugo is left by himself with one dog that Anya’s dog seems to have beef with so this briefly becomes Up because this dog even kinda looks like Alpha, feel like Doberman Pinschers are up there on the list of dogs that get a bad rap. Anyway Anya finds the bomb and is able to convey the message to Loid without blowing her cover so Loid can go and steal the Minister’s clothes and get Bakugo’s dog to track him instead (idk how long that’d work for like presumably politicians put on fresh suits before big meetings and Loid’s scent would eventually overpower the residuals of his but it’s clever so I prolly shouldn’t think about it too much maybe the Minister’s just a sweaty old guy that never changes idk). But yeah Loid is able to parkour away from Alpha and is just gonna fucking shoot the dog, like he acknowledges it isn’t the dog’s fault and he’s sorry but like I really hope he doesn’t shot that fucking dog like he’s a god damn spy shouldn’t he have tranqs or something?  

Inuyasha: So we’ve entered the Princess Abi mini-arc and she is one of my favorite minor underutilized villains up there with Yura, she’s just pretty dope. She’s using her little pterodactyl birds to suck blood from the human villages around to basically give her phoenix mom a feudal blood transfusion since she was poisoned after eating a big ol’ poison demon. I’m not sure that’s how blood works but it’s the feudal era so the fact that they’re messing with blood at all is kind of a miracle plus idk maybe demon biology is weird. Anyway OG Naraku shows up after not seeing him for a while as Hakudoshi’s currently on Temporary Naraku duty. But he says Abi’s gonna help him get to the afterlife and gives her a bone trident. Because Naraku is the shadiest god damn person in the world Abi and her mother don’t trust him as far as they can throw him but as a show of good will he faces off against the children of the poison demon Mama Abi ate. They start shooting poison and Naraku’s just like ‘aw that’s cute, they think they have poison’ and fucking poison blasts them into the stone age. Abi and Mama Phoenix don’t trust Naraku but their racism makes them overconfident like ‘yeah that guy’s stronger than anyone I’ve ever seen but he’s a half-demon so I can probably still kill him if he gets up to anything’ sound logic guys. Meanwhile Inuyasha’s group is defending the only village in the area left standing and Abi’s Pteradactyls do a pretty cool The Birds parody and start fucking shit up. Of course Abi comes around and Naraku’s gifts of Saimyosho and Bone Trident barriers protect her from the group’s two biggest OHKO moves (prolly still wouldn’t do shit against Kagome’s Sacred Arrow but when was the last time she did shit with that). Since Abi has two brain cells to rub together she puts together that Naraku’s setting her up to fight Inuyasha and dips the fuck out of there because if some shady dude wants you to fight a guy with a laser sword even if you think you can win there’s probably nothing good coming from that. Anyway next week’s a random filler flashback episode that expands on Kikyo’s flashback with Inuyasha, I have no idea why they didn’t air that special BEFORE we started a new story arc with Abi but yeah, what do I know.

Yu Yu Hakusho: I can’t emphasize enough how much this has just become a DBZ fight, like I’ve said that before in this series but Demon!Yusuke vs Sensui is just literally a DBZ fight. It’s kinda funny watching them go through all the DBZ tropes for the first time like the moving so fast you can’t see, the ‘dodge and blow something huge a mile away up’, the casually changing landscape as they demolish rock formations with their sheer manliness, the clash creating weather phenomena, the ‘let’s move this category four brawl to that convenient empty desert so no one gets hurt’ it’s cute, like the meme of the guys on the gallows with DBZ just looking at YYH like ‘first time?’ since with DBZ everyone just kinda got desensitized to it real fast it’s amusing to watch a series with relatively grounded fights just become DBZ and have everyone lose their minds. Also there’s kind of a funny scene where we cut back to the Spirit World SPC and apparently nobody told them S Class demons were really a thing because they wanted to keep their egos up and let them believe they were the strongest since S Class Demons are basically Elder Gods and never interfere with humans anyway, it’s just kind of a bizarre decision to save your police’s sanity by telling them there’s nothing they can’t beat. But yeah Yusuke comes back and is only mildly distressed that his heart isn’t beating anymore which Kurama and Hiei laugh off and are like ‘yeah that happens’ and it’s actually kinda cool that Kuwabara and Kurama and Hiei all get kinda jazzed that Yusuke’s back like it actually gives them a power boost, the comfort of having him return is stronger than the despair of losing him in the first place and it makes no god damn sense on a power scaling level but it’s a nice theme. Yusuke does his DBZ thing and is kinda having trouble getting a read on how strong he is until his demon side just takes over and wants to finish the fight for him and I’m slowly realizing I don’t think Tite Kubo has an original storytelling bone in his body, Bleach just lifted a whole show and gave it a new coat of paint huh.

Jujutsu Kaisen: It’s time for Yuji’s big return! We get a fun little couple of intro scenes and the main takeaway is that Gojo wants Yuji to just cram every finger they have into his mouth right now but everyone else is afraid he’ll explode or some shit if he does it before he’s strong enough to handle or worse turn traitor and let the power go to his head. But yeah Yuji meets back up with Megumi and Nobara and is just kinda thrown into their new squad after not seeing them for two months and NOBODY has a reaction to seeing him alive except for being mildly pissed that he kept it a secret. Megumi vouches for his pure fighting capability outside of Cursed Techniques so the others are on board for letting him join their race to quell a minor spirit while using even minor-er spirits as a tiebreaker. The Yamamoto Kyoto principal dude wants Yuji dead still so he just straight up tells his students like ‘yeah go murder that guy in the games, make it look like an accident if you can but if not no biggie’ like holy fuck even if you consider him a threat, treating him as ‘not a person’ as he calls it seems like Kyoto’s REALLY teaching their students the wrong lessons, aren’t these guys supposed to save people? Guess it goes along with the theme of Yuji having a potentially too high reverence for human life but also the virtue that he places on not killing even the worst people. Todo objects to random murder and more importantly his idol show is on so he’s not gonna go along with that. Meanwhile the bad guys are all healed up and ready to go take the fingers the school has during the event and Gojo warns that the person leading them is probably a school insider of some sort, so yeah we got a standard Chunin Exams situation going on here where there’s a surface test but also like three random backstab plots happening in the background.

Ranking of Kings: So Shield Guy loses an eye and a foot to the chimera things and Hilling cries out to Bosse to save them and Daida!Bosse almost rips his way straight out of his cell to do so but whatever the fuck Miranjo’s got on him to make him do absolutely jack shit in this arc stops him. Hilling doesn’t want to leave shield guy to die so she tries to help and turns out Giant Snake Cerberus is here to save the day and takes out the Chimeras to give Hilling a chance to heal Shield Guy but Gnasty Gnorc is still here and fucks giant snake up. Then Bojji FINALLY returns home and defends the snake and his mom. We get a minor flashback with Despa teaching Bojji how to fucking CUT THE SPACES BETWEEN ATOMS which is badass beyond words. And Bojji uses this power to fucking wreck Gnasty Gnorc’s shit. Bojji wants Hilling to heal the snake but he’s like ten times the size of the stuff she usually heals and she’s out of magical Gatorade. Luckily Kage’s a mobile hammerspace and is able to get her enough to heal the snake AND the chimeras after Bojji feels bad about everyone being hurt. Hilling and Kage are the biggest egos in the room so they clash for a bit but it resolves itself relatively quickly which is kind of funny because if Hilling didn’t trust Kage she sure was quick to drink some mysterious potions he literally pulled out of his ass. But yeah once Gnasty Gnorc wakes up he realizes he’s not about to fuck around with the power to cut atoms and swears loyalty to Bojji which is pretty cool, Bojji’s like gathering his own little One Piece crew to become the Ranking of Kings King. Meanwhile Despa is watching his guards get fucked up by Ouken who’s apparently literally immortal and only gets saved by random unexplained lightning bolt frying him temporarily unconscious. Apparently Ouken used to be a prince of the underworld which I guess would make him Desha and Despa’s third brother? But now he’s immortal and being cut off from the fear of death or urge to watch others grow made him a fucking asshole which is kinda funny because if he really is the third Des brother that means he’s only been immortal for like a couple years probably and it IMMEDIATELY made him an asshole. Also Desha is now arriving at the Underworld gate to beat Miranjo and it’s implied do something to save Ouken.

Vinland Saga: So this is an episode just fucking loaded with religious allegory and how people interpret Christianity and there’s A LOT of room for interpretation so I apologize if I misread anything to leave anything out. It starts with the Those Two Guys of Askeladd’s troupe trying to decipher the kind of love the Christian Priest is searching for and I’ve been forced to read enough about the Four Loves that I’ll spare you the explanation but essentially what the Priest is after is a brotherly love for all humanity that doesn’t distinguish by relation to the person but is compassionate towards all, and only the Vikings telling him of the story of Thorfinn’s dad gets him even close to explaining it. We then cut to a little village where a girl is having an existential crisis about stealing a ring given her family won’t shut up about Jesus and stealing is… you know, one of the Commandments. It’s kind of a refreshingly frank depiction of how generations of Christians use fear and vague moralistic stories to perpetuate the general idea of Christianity while kinda missing some of the details, considering a lot of anime treats Christainity like this weird nebulous mythology to be referenced with cool shit like in Evangelion this is kinda neat to see. But yeah, this is still a story about Vikings so Bjorn breaks into their house while the girl is out and Askeladd’s crew proceeds to fucking murder everybody to steal their food and keep their location a secret. I don’t remember if we see any of their Welsh guardians in this episode and I THINK this part is in England but murdering a bunch of harmless villagers at the drop of a hat should give them some pause about making a deal with these guys. But yeah the ring stealing girl escapes and finds the Coordinate from Attack on Titan and prays to god feeling like her stealing and the Viking genocide is the same deal because Catholic Guilt is a hell of a drug and presumably she dies because she’s out in the middle of the snowstorm with like no food and nothing around, like that’s the reason Askeladd raided the village in the first place so like we don’t see her actually die but I’m not holding my breath for her survival. One thing I wanted to bring up is whenever we get to the pillaging scenes we never see Thorfinn directly participate in the pillaging part like he’ll murder other warriors but we never see him killing civilians on-screen, I’m sure he probably does at some point and that’s part of his infamous turmoil in season two but I just thought that was an interesting choice, like it reminds me of how The Kid is portrayed in Blood Meridian where they’re very vague about how involved he is in the atrocities going on so they leave it up to interpretation of how much blame he carries for it.