#also some guy who was in a short lived sitcom

[marsixm]

fun fact matt bomer and lee pace both went to my high school

[neon-kazoo]

A Man of His Word

(Context: Civilian has a friend that is well known for never breaking promises. This friend also just so happens to have a secret, and Civilian has figured it out.)

Cw: threat of death, knife violence

Civilian smiled across the kitchen at Friend. He was helping them put their groceries away, transferring things from the floor to the fridge. Plastic rustled as he removed milk from one bag and various cheeses from another.

“Thanks again for helping me carry these. You know how much I hate doing two trips.”

Friend sighed, rolling his head back dramatically as he replied, “I know you just keep me around for my arm muscles.”

Civilian glared at their friend, who was now flexing his biceps, for all of two seconds before a smile broke back out across their face.

“But really, it’s no problem at all.”

Breaking the comfortable silence after the amendment, Friend bunched up an empty bag, throwing it straight at Civilian instead of shoving it into the bag-of-bags looped around the pantry door handle.

Civilian gasped as they batted it away, instinctively going for the closest thing on the island that wasn’t breakable. They clutched the freshly-bought apple in their hand before throwing it mercilessly at their friend. Luckily, Friend caught it with a laugh, keeping the fruit from being bruised.

Civilian joined in with some light giggling of their own as they watched him take a bite with a satisfying crunch before continuing to stock the fridge while they conquered the pantry.

“Hey! That was supposed to be for a pie!” They protested.

“Please,” he started, pulling some scissors from the kitchen drawer and cutting open the plastic rings from a six-pack of soda they had broken into earlier. “I saved it from a terrible fate:” He finished, tossing the bird-safe remains into the trash, “The horrors of your baking.”

Civilian gaped in offense.

“No more birthday cakes for you!”

“The best gift I could ever ask for,” he winked, coming over to throw an arm over Civilian’s shoulders and ruffle their hair.

The normalcy sent off a pang in their chest.

A thoughtful, dependable, goofy guy. It was just so easy to believe.

It was a shame they knew it was a lie.

Friend had started to relay some adventure from earlier in his day, which Civilian tried their best to attend to. In the background, the TV in the living room was playing some stupid sitcom with a shitty laugh track that was definitely being overused. They leaned against the counter, basking in the peace of it all for just another moment.

Before it all went to shit.

Civilian made their move after the pantry was shut and they both headed for the next room.

“Hey,” Civilian checked their nails as they spoke, “I want to talk to you about something, but you have to promise me something first.”

An innocently confused, mildly concerned expression plastered itself over Friend’s face as he stopped short of the couch. Civilian’s stomach twisted at the sight.

“Yeah, of course. Anything.”

Friend crossed their arms and leaned against the pony wall disarmingly.

“You have to hear me out. Give me ten seconds.”

An awkward chuckle.

“What is this about?”

Civilian met their friend’s eyes seriously.

“Just promise me. Ten seconds.”

“Okay… Yeah sure, ten seconds,” he assured, shooting them an uneasy smile.

Civilian took a deep breath.

“I know who you are.”

And just like that, Friend was gone. Instead, there was Villain, pinning Civilian to the floor, holding a blade a hair’s width from their jugular.

Where he had hidden the knife, Civilian had no idea, not that was particularly important right now. Only one thing was.

“You promised!” They squeaked out, hating how helpless they were in that moment, how they were betting their life on there being a kernel of their friend left in the man on top of them now.

Inflectionless, he responded, “Nine. Eight.”

Civilian’s relief was very short lived. Shit, they should have said fifteen.

Trying so very hard to stay still, to keep that sharpened metal away from their carotid, they practically whispered their desperate plea to the stone face above them, “I don’t care. I swear to anything I don’t. You have a plan to take down Hero. In- in three days. I need to help.”

“Two.”

Frantically, they stumbled over their words as they added. “Oh! and um- dead man’s switch.”

Despite themselves, they scrunched their eyes shut as their internal countdown hit zero. When nothing happened, their eyelids fluttered open again to see utterly unchanged features. No reaction at all.

“What,” Villain spoke, in a voice that Civilian no longer recognized, “does that mean?”

“If I live, your identity stays between us. If I die…”

A sharp pain lit up their arm as, presumably, the knife that had been at their neck relocated itself into their flesh. Civilian swore.

“Who,” Villain growled lowly, leaning close to their ear, “The fuck. Do you think you are?.”

“Someone with a will to live?” Civilian choked, no longer scared to take deep, heaving breaths to the side now that there wasn’t a blade directly above their artery.

“Clearly not. People who want to live keep their mouth shut and run far, far away,” he spit.

Their head was wrenched back into a forward-facing position via a hand in their hair.

“How long?” Villain demanded.

Civilian blinked. Right, the switch.

“Fifteen minutes.”

Suddenly, they were being hauled up by the collar, then unceremoniously shoved into the light blue accent wall, conveniently within sight of where their laptop rested closed in the middle of the room.

“Disable it.”

“I can’t. It's automatic, every 8 hours. No off switch.”

Spots arose in their vision as their arm was grabbed in a rather unfortunate location.

“Disable. It.”

“I can’t. I swear.”

“I can get the code one way or another,” Villain warned.

“I know you could.” Involuntary tears dripped down their face as they explained, “There’s nothing to get. The answer changes every time. It’s randomly selected. I don’t know it till I see it.”

“You’re lying,” he accused, and Civilian didn’t have to look to know that they were bleeding somewhere else now with just a swipe of his hand.

“I’m not! Give me the laptop, we’re running out of time.”

Civilain gestured wildly to the oak wood coffee table.

“The only person running out of time here is you.”

With that, Civilian was thrown back to the floor, Villain straddling their horizontal form before they could get their legs underneath them to scramble back. The knife returned, only this time it would not be pressed shallowly, and there would be no more counting, no more promises of time, no more hesitation.

”Look! Hero killed my parents, okay?!” They blurted, a last, desperate attempt at getting through to him before he ended their life.

Maybe there was a shred of Friend left in the villain after all, because Civilian caught the slightest moment of pause in his movements, a blip they might never have noticed having never spent time with the man.

“Please, I would never stop you,” they pleaded, searching for another blip deep inside their former friend’s eyes. They came away empty.

They didn’t really know how it happened, but somehow they ended up perched on the couch, laptop open and propped on shaking legs. Villain breathed down their neck every second, watching them like a starved hawk.

They were lucky they could even punch the code in with the amount of nervous movement in their fingers and hands.

“That’s it. We’re good for another eight hours,” they confirmed, slowly closing the lid of their laptop and sliding it back onto the table next to the coaster. “Guess we’re partners now,” Civilian laughed weakly.

“No,” Villain dissented, in a tone that left no room for argument. “You’re a temporarily-alive prisoner.”

He appeared in front of them, pulling them up and off the couch with an alarmingly harsh grip.

“Don’t forget it.”

Part two: A Face With Two Hands

[slime-sandwhich-nom]

Don’t suppose you have any headcanons for Cosmo’s parents are their dynamics? I saw your post earlier and felt kinda bad for Mama Cosma (until she got toxic with Cosmo lol)

Also, I don’t mean to make u uncomfortable but I keep thinking about Cosmo blowing up half of Fairy World when he was born so I imagine how rough the pregnancy was.

ALRIGHT SO!

let's see ...

To be honest, in my head Cosmo parents were like those super sappy couples, kind of like Cosmo and Wanda are right now. Or like parents in a sitcom during the 90s.

Then schnozmo came in, and everything was still super great. No toxicity nor abuse, nothing.

Just a family of three in fairy world ( + personally I don't think any of them had any thoughts on godparenting.)

Then Cosmo came in.

I haven't really thought of it but it's kind of like this

happy family + new member of the family + somehow inherited powerful powers from jorgen side of the family and this is where shit goes downhill.

it's a whole series of events where they wanted to take Cosmo away because he was too dangerous (and strong), then the abolition of new babies, then assuming papa cosmo died (in my head it was because of a failing organ after getting turned into a fly, the same cosmo had a surgery on in the og series or something like that) then schnozmo went off and it was just mama Cosma all alone with this power baby she ended up attached on in a very unhealthy way.

it's like if the entire family slowly, very slowly crumbled and she held onto the first and only thing that was left of it, becoming clingy, toxic and neglective of cosmo actual needs.

also I do imagine her being sort of a boy mom in general.

for the pregnancy part I assume it was easier than Cosmo's only because they at least knew what to do.

Cosmo struggled so much because it's been thousand of years since the last baby, and he didn't even know what to do when he went to labor.

also by the baby flashback he seems pretty big for a normal sized fairy (taking poof as a comparison.) so..that was something !

I guess that was because of the jorgan genes.

(it can always be that poof was just odd shaped, though.)

But back to the dynamics (and headcanons)

- papa cosmo was generally a very calm guy, he's the true malewife staying at home taking care of the kids while mama Cosma goes to work.

- always cold for some reason (thank God mama Cosma is a living furnace, much like Cosmo.)

- he always had health problems, which lead inevitably to his death. (Organ failure.)

- there's a tiny bit of size difference between him and mama Cosma, she's taller and bulkier while he is more shorter and skinny.

(if you have seen the design post, you'll get a better idea of the size difference.)

- he gets extremely flustered and very easily too with mama cosma

- he died kind of..WHILE he was a fly because he was kind of already dealing with his organ failing.

To put it short, the organ fairies have that makes them shapeshift (which I don't remember the name for the life of me) was already failing, and when he got turned into a fly he..got stuck like that. leading to him to die because of it.

This means Cosmo failing organ that he replaced with surgery is inherited!

- it's clear Cosmo took the majority of his traits from his father, and this meant mama Cosma was always more attached to Cosmo than to schnozmo (who was also pretty similar but because of his big nose it didn't do the same effect) because she just..saw her husband in Cosmo.

- papa cosmo liked to knit and cook :]

- he probably had those nerd jobs like scientist or something. I remember seeing somewhere someone saying that papa Cosmo's job had to do with researching about humans which would help for the future god parents (assuming they need to learn how a human works, talks and behaves for future disguises and to make sure your god child doesn't die immediately) and its really cool so I took it. So whoever had this idea, credit to them.

- mama Cosma job was probably pretty simple, like a maid.

- in my head, despite mama Cosma putting all of her attention on Cosmo, she was still super clingy to schnozmo too just not as much and this lead to schnozmo desperately looking for a way to get away (since we saw in the show cosmo was like trapped in his own house at that point, assuming schnozmo had the same treatment.) and that's how he ended up in the crime world.

^^^ always assuming that she was starting to get too clingy with her own kids because of papa cosmo dying

- super straight thin hair papa cosmo x super thick curly hair mama Cosma (which lead to wavy hair Cosmo and schnozmo)

- this is a general headcanon for fairies, but I enjoy a lot how in the tinkle bell movie (1953) whenever she gets mad she turns all red, so now all fairies in FOP do.

- also, another headcanon but it's more Cosmo centered.

As much as I enjoy Cosmo, the og show brutally butchered him and since I can't go against canon that he's now an idiot and has a high pitched voice, I present to you these two headcanons.

(more theories than anything but I embrace them as my headcanons.)

vvv for context they're talking about pilot Cosmo and specifically the line "I gotta get this thing (wand) fixed."

And! The scene where Timmy eats part of Cosmo brain, which is also a reason why later on he gets slow and more incompetent.

+ after Timmy they retired and got their very earned vacation, which helped Cosmo a TON as we can see how in a new wish he's back being an actual decent person and competent again, but still has some side effects like the high pitched voice and being rather slow to get things.

Credit to the original commenter of course.

And yes, this doesn't change that he sucked in school. Cosmo was never academic smart, he was always street smart, I can see him sucking ass in school still.

Also with this hc we can have the trope that Cosmo went from awkward shy guy > smug happily married man because I love that trope.

I think that's it, from what I remember at least.

[stizzysupremacy]

okay. Okay so. This is ridiculous but. The idea won’t get out of my brain ever since I started rewatching an old sitcom:

Izzy Hands as The Nanny

no no hear me out.

Izzy works in his bf Ed’s tailor shop (vs a bridal shop cuz even in an au I can’t stretch to see Izzy doing anything bridal for a living) until Ed wants to give Jack Rackham Izzy’s job and oh also he wants to start dating Jack too. So Izzy is out of a job and a relationship that’s been in the pre-engagement state for years. Izzy gets a part time job selling fine chef’s knives door-to-door (instead of makeup. Because it’s a good excuse to slip Steak Knife into the story and also because my bestie used to sell knives and I love him)

Izzy happens to show up at the Bonnet mansion household around the time they were expecting their newest nanny to come for an interview. Izzy thinks he is being invited in to give his sales pitch. In classic sitcom misunderstanding it takes a while for Stede to realize that Short Dark and Handsome here is not actually a manny with a resting rage face.

But by then Izzy has had a chance to interact with Stede’s kids and his household staff. Stede has fondness for anyone who is kind to his kids and has a secret awe for anyone who seems to get along with less awkwardness than he himself does. Izzy just talks to the kids like they are adults because he doesn’t know how else to deal with tiny people except to treat them like big people. Alma appreciates it.

The rest of the household (Buttons as the butler? Lucius as a PA? Roach as chef, Jim as driver, etc you get the idea) are surprisingly on board with hiring the guy who came to the door with a briefcase full of knives to provide daily childcare. He’s got no experience or qualifications but Izzy clearly does not take shit from anyone and won’t get scared off in under two months like the last nanny.

and look, the pay is really good. Even if Mr Bonnet is supremely annoying, he pays well and the kids seem fine, old enough to entertain themselves most of the time and not be very interested in interacting with some greying old man. He can get them to school and home from school, and deal with the occasional snotty cold or scraped knee for such a huge salary, with room and board on top! plus staying in the rich part of town cuts down on the chances of running into Ed and/or Jack.

So Izzy moves into the mansion and chases the Bonnet children around for a living. (Izzy quickly learns that the kids are still young enough to love playing pirates, something Stede started with them but has been too busy to do. Izzy, wearing an eye patch and brandishing a plastic sword, taunts Stede into joining their play by challenging him to duel (yes Stede smacks his ass with his sword))

obvious stede would never get full custody lol so there’s plenty of time when the kids are with their mother and Stede’s only company in the big empty house is Izzy Hands 😮😀

[wishjacked]

Happy #WebcomicDay!! :D

This year we're celebrating the process of making pages... so below the cut I've got a bunch of pictures sharing how I go about making pages of my evil post-apocalyptic workplace sitcom, Cargo!! :D

So! My process!!

Writing-> I think sometimes there's pressure to "write" your comic a certain way, I see people talking about script format and stuff a lot. That really doesn't work for me, though! I write my "first draft" script in short scenes on scrap paper, in whatever order they come to me. Sometimes a scene will just be one or two lines, and then a little description of what I want to happen in the rest of the scene.

Later I type the scene up, and write the "connective tissue" that fits between the disjointed scenes so they all flow together like they ought. I don't do page breaks or even character tag or action notes hahahaha I like it to be as BASIC as POSSIBLE so it's easy to edit. And since I'm the person drawing it I can almost always remember who's supposed to be saying what lmao

I edit a lot, but the most major editing is also probably the last bit... when I letter my pages usually I realize "they would never say that" and so I end up rephrasing everything. My art brain is sometimes waaaaay better at phrasing hahaha. Like you can see in the finished page for this script I rewrote like basically all of it, and actually went back to the original "sketch" script in a lot of places.

Thumbnailing-> my thumbs are really big, I draw them with markers on printer paper and keep them in a binder!! I like to thumb scenes in batches and I also usually write my dialogue on them, just so I can read through them before (and while) I draw to get a feel for how the pacing works. :)

Sketching-> OH sketching is also really hard for me! I don't have a good visual imagination so it's really important for me to make sure I have good references. Last year I was especially focusing on setting.

My comic is set in Florida. I'm lucky in that I used to live there and still go back to visit sometimes, so sometimes I can gather my own reference images! But more often I start on Google Maps or Zillow, trying to find buildings that have interesting features or the right kind of "look" for what I want. I'll also look up other interesting elements, my comic is set in a post-apocalypse and I'll research home gardening and things like that which people would probably have.

For example, in this set in chapter 7, I used Google Maps images, photo references of indoor hydroponic gardening, and like, 90's-00's hacker computer setups haha. Also my BFF Roomstyler.com, where you can make 3d house interiors haha!!

Lineart-> I LOVE lineart it is my favorite!!!! I sketch and ink two pages at a time, and it usually takes somewhere between 10-12 hours to do both steps.

I actually think my art looks best when it's just lineart... but I think my STORY is better with color, like it makes it clearer and easier to read and it has a better atmosphere HAHA.

Colors-> I think it usually takes me 4-6 hours to do 2 pages (I haven't timed myself as consistently as I time my lineart and sketching). I have a big file with small copies of my previous pages that I color drop from, and my characters are all flats only. The limited palette that I use is also really handy, it streamlines coloring a LOT.

Finishing Touches-> aka I steal mercilessly from my one true love, my internet home, the beautiful and blessed Wikimedia Commons

I put lots of overlay layers on my art! I like textures so having some strange little textures or pictures on things makes my art feel a lot more finished to me.

And finally my very most favorite ✨finishing touch✨ is the bright colored/patterned gutters that I use. Here are some of my favorites that I've made and used in the past!

And that's all!! I hope you guys have a very happy Webcomics Day and find lots and lots of wonderful new things to read!!!

[greatwyrmgold]

Worm × Ranma½ Crossover Idea

Blame @heyitschartic for putting this idea in my mind.

Why?

Brian Laborn/Grue has a bit of a complex around his masculinity. He wants to be an Ideal Man—stoic, reliable, strong, decisive. A provider, a protector, a patriarch. His first trigger event was caused (in part) by a perceived failure to live up to that ideal, his second trigger event by another perceived failure, one which was even more emasculating because he and his loved ones were victimized by a preteen girl.

He's not a stereotypical toxic-masculinity-jock type, but he definitely has a complex around his masculinity. So let's force him into a girl's body to make him either confront his problems or self-destruct trying!

How?

This is a point where Chartic's post falls short. She skips straight from "Grue in the Spring of the Drowned Girl?" to sitcom shenanigans. Luckily, it's not a hard question to answer: Mr. Laborn.

We don't know much about Brian and Aisha's unnamed father; we don't even have a name. I think basically all we know can be found in chapter 4.4:

He was a boxer "when he was in the service," and taught Brian when he was "little."

He's not a great dad. Cold, unable to bond with his son except through training, unable to bond with his daughter at all.

He's willing to give Brian (the seventeen-year-old) custody of his sister. Is this because Mr. Laborn is aware of his shortcomings as a parent, or because he doesn't want to deal with Aisha? We have no way to know.

So, this tells us two things about Mr. Laborn. He likes boxing, and he's an insensitive parent. That's kinda close to Genma Saotome's character traits of liking martial arts and being an irresponsible parent. So we can probably have Mr. Laborn play a sufficiently Genma-like role without completely overwriting his character traits!

Hold on, this is annoying. Mr. Laborn needs a first name. Since he's taking Genma's role, and "Genma" is one kana off from "Ranma" (they even both spell their "nma" with the 馬 kanji), I reckon Mr. Laborn's first name should also be quite similar to his son's.

Orion? Brennan? Adrian? Byron? No, that one's taken. I think I'll go with Ryan for now, but I'm open to alternatives.

Anyways, let's say that Ryan wants to improve his and Brian's martial abilities, and drags him to China because Asia has the best martial artists. Let's say this happens during Brian's stint as a solo villain, which gives him reason to resent this decision (beyond the obvious). So they end up going to Jusenkyo because Ryan heard a rumor that it was a great training spot.

What? (happens next)

Skipping ahead a few steps: I think it would be fun if Ryan Laborn decides to use his curse to fake being a parahuman and tries to work as a vigilante/mercenary. Which means he needs to fall into a spring corresponding to some kind of large animal, ideally one capable of boxing. Or which is at least not obviously incapable of boxing.

That pretty much limits us to gorillas, bears, or red kangaroos. I don't like any of these options; the kangaroo is too small, a bear feels too similar to Genma, and giving a black guy the power to turn into a gorilla feels...fraught.

I guess "bear" is the obvious choice, but it feels too much like an actual superpower. A werebear who decides to fight crime in a superhero city just sounds like the pitch for a superhero story; someone who turns into a yak or horse or something and does the same feels more comedic, even though yaks and horses are very big and would be reasonably effective at street-level cape-fighting. (But they can't box.)

Regardless, we'll probably end up with an animal that isn't native to China, but I've already thought of a joke to explain that. Something like...

(splash) "Oh no! He fell in the Spring of the Drowned Girl! There's a very tragic legend about a young woman who drowned herself in that very spring 1,500 years ago!" (splash) "Oh no! He fell in the Spring of the Drowned Polar Bear! There's a tragic legend about a polar bear who escaped from the zoo and drowned in that very spring in 1987!"

Anyways, once Ryan Laborn gets his "power" and moves back to Brockton Bay, he coerces Brian to help him out. That way Brian has a "fun" multidirectional identity problem, where he can't let his dad know he's Grue or let the Undersiders know about his vigilante identity (when the Undersiders become a thing). This latter is easier than it seems at first, since Ryan has Brian use his girl-form to assist his vigilante/mercenary/cape stuff.

Who? (else do you have thoughts about)

Aisha: Despite her dad and brother's best efforts, she learns about their situation pretty quickly and blackmails them for it. (Ranma is so lucky to be an only child.)

Lisa: She also figures out Brian's secret and blackmails him, though much less maliciously. She also helps hide said secret from the other Undersiders.

Rachel: Meets girl!Brian, assumes she's the sister Brian always talks about. Brian struggles to maintain this deception.

Alec: There are a few options. He could hit on girl!Brian because he thinks she's hot, or he could secretly figure out Brian's secret and hit on girl!Brian because he knows it would annoy Brian in a way he can't retaliate for, or he could find girl!Brian terrifying and act politely and respectful to her (which annoys Brian because he doesn't treat Brian!Brian like that)...

Lung: Possibly the only named character in Brockton Bay who has canonically been to China, which makes him a pretty good candidate for a bonus Jusenkyo curse. He's a fun choice because his pyrokinesis lets him turn any cold water that douses him into hot water, giving him much more control over his form than most accursed people.

I want people to not realize Lung's cursed transformation is different from his transformation power, so some kind of large reptile would be a good choice. Perhaps a Chinese alligator?

Shadow Stalker: Obviously Grue's cape rival needs to have a positive relationship with his other cape identity. Attempted vigilante team-up? Ordinary friendship? More-than-friendship? It should definitely start with the vigilante thing. The big questions are how far to push it past that and whether Sophia wants to ditch the new girl's dad. (Probably.)

Taylor: In case it's not obvious, this fic would start before the Undersiders were formed. Early 2010, when Shadow Stalker was still a vigilante, Grue was a solo villain, Coil was an up-and-comer, and Taylor was a freshman without superpowers.

That said, it would be very Ranma½ for Brian to run into a bunch of romantically-compatible-ish girls as he runs around doing stuff, so I'd like to include Taylor somehow.

Ideally Taylor (pre-trigger) runs into girl!Brian and they become friends, with Brian successfully hiding all of his secret identities from her. And then months later she does trigger and become a cape and stuff, and by an astounding coincidence she discovers that her friend's boysona and one of her bullies have a superpower rivalry.

Ligeia: This makes even less timeline sense than including Skitter, Hive-Queen of Brockton Bay. However, her superpower is water, which activates Jusenkyo curses. I will bend time and space to include Super Water Lady in at least one fight scene with Grue.

Tendo family: After Ryan Laborn comes back home from China, he needs a place where he can adapt his boxing techniques to whatever animal body his curse sticks him with—somewhere private but not suspicious, run by someone he can trust, ideally with an opponent who can put up some resistance when fighting a large animal.

Or at least that's the excuse I'll use for including Ranma½'s most underrated character, since I can't imagine Mr. Laborn being the kind of guy to get his son engaged to girls without his consent.

Shampoo: You could probably just replace Ranma with Brian. Same personality, same relationship, more or less the same backstory. (I don't see Brian fighting some random stranger so he could eat the prize meal unless he was really hungry, but that kind of detail isn't hard to alter.)

Shampoo isn't interested in the cape politics of Brockton Bay, but she's strong enough to kick through walls, so the capes can't exactly ignore her. This means she could add some fun chaos to the grim cape side of the story. One week Lung could convince her to work with him, promising to help her hunt down this fighter she's getting revenge on; maybe next week she gets pissed at Lung acting like she's his flunky and bails.

Perhaps Sophia recruits Shampoo to the vigilante team she wants to set up, not realizing that Shampoo wants to get revenge on the other girl Sophia was planning to recruit. That's a pretty good way to make hilarity (and also violence) ensue!

I'm torn about how to bring in Shampoo's traditional marriage tradition. Who's the unlucky guy? Civilian!Brian? Grue the supervillain? Maybe Alec the supervillain, who gets blamed for the Undersiders' collective defeat of Shampoo?

Ryoga: I've considered ways for him to meet Brian in China and follow him to America, but there's no way he could reach Brockton Bay without getting lost. If he did get there, I'd want him to discover Brian's supervillain identity somehow. He, Brian, and Alec would all annoy each other so much.

Ranma "Half" Saotome: It would be kinda odd to have two teenaged guys who fell into the Spring of the Drowned Girl after their dad dragged them to China for martial arts training, wouldn't it? This fic has Brian kinda subsume basically all of Ranma's narrative importance, especially if we give him Ranma's relationship with Shampoo and Akane.

That said, just casually mentioning that he and Genma are a pair of martial artist burglars somewhere in the background could be fun.

Other Ranma½ Characters: I'd love to work some more in, and maybe if I write this fic an opportunity will present itself. They're good at keeping the tone light, with the caveat that most of them would not set foot in the same social circles as Brockton Bay's villains, even if they lived in Brockton Bay.

Random Thoughts

I bet I could think of some fun ways for Jusenkyo curses to interact with powers.

By default, they should overlap without interacting. Lung's parahuman ability lets him turn into a giant dragon-man and then an eldritch dragon when he fights. But if he's splashed with water and turns into a gator first, his paragator ability lets him turn into a giant dragon-gator and then an eldritch dragon when he fights. The only difference is whether Lung's para-transformations starts from a primate base or an archosaur base.

Brian's parahuman ability also predates his curse. However, while Lung's feelings about his transformation are mild irritation at worst, Brian has intense feelings about his translation; I can see his coping mechanisms for that twisting his powers a bit. Perhaps his attempts to create a separate girl!Brian persona (and do separate cape-work from his Grue!Brian persona) could result in his darkness power getting contorted to fit the new persona.

On one hand, that would deprive me of a chance to consider how Brian could use his one set of powers to pretend to be two different parahumans. On the other hand, if Brian's discomfort with sometimes being a girl make his powers change when he's a girl, coming to accept that new part of him could result in him being able to use both sets of powers regardless of his current form. And that seems kinda neat!

Ah, but what if someone had a trigger event after getting cursed? They might get a power that interacts with their transformation or reflects their relationship to it! Unfortunately, I have no idea what cursed characters might become parahumans, or the circumstances under which they'd do so.

[sporco-filth]

media with slob stuff

there are lots of tv shows and so on that have slob-related stuff and sometimes you see them once and can never find them again

anyway this is a list of a few i remember:

Joe's Apartment: a movie about a guy who moves to New york and he's (to quote one of the characters) "the dirtiest freakin' slob on the planet". His apartment is infested with talking cockroaches and developers want to tear down the apartment block so the cockroaches (who love him bc he's a slob) help him save his apartment. the cockroaches also sing. it is all-around pretty gross and i'm here for that

Him & Her: a series about a couple who are slobs and kinda gross in a domestic-cute sort of way. i don't think you can find many eps of it online and the very first ep which had some scenes i really liked i haven't seen anywhere. i only really watched ep 1 all the way through tho so i can't really vouch for the rest of the show

Portlandia: one episode has the gay brother of a character (and his boyfriend) coming to stay and she and her husband are disappointed that they're not the stereotypically neat and stylish gays. the gay guys make a mess of the house. there's not much more than that but it was hot to me when i first saw it

Pigsty: an old sitcom that didn't last very long centred around a bunch of guys sharing an apartment. ive never watched a full episode but the opening sequence is slob-related enough for me to include it

Buzzfeed stuff: 'Weird things guys do when they're alone', 'Lazy things all guys have done' and 'You at home alone vs. with people': all of these involve a range of gross habits and behaviours.

The Simpsons: there's a lot in the simpsons because homer is a fat lazy slob to a t, but special attention must be paid to Bart after dark for its trash angels scene and Bart's dental hygiene. Also the opening of Bart gets an elephant. there are too many episodes that have aspects of slob in them so i'll stop here

Parks and Rec: Andy and April's house. To quote Andy "it's a mess!" Sadly Ben cleans it up (boo...)

The Office: I never got this far but at some point Jim moves in with Darryl and then they have an odd couple dynamic going on. nothing really exciting but i remembered it so eh why not add it

Futurama: Fry is a total slob and i love him for it. sorry if this is too much information but the first time i ever came i was thinking about him being a slob. like the Simpsons there are too many good moments but a stand out is 'How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back' where an inspector has an affair with Fry because she has a fetish for slobs. what can i say, she has good taste in men

The Heron's Cry: a book, it has one character who is a slob, but he only appears in one scene which i'll quote excerpts of because it's short (there's more i didn't quote but this is the best bit):

...there was a kitchen littered with pizza boxes and foil containers from takeaway restaurants. Empty beer cans. A smell that would set alarms ringing with environmental health. [Steve] expert was wearing a filthy fleece dressing gown. Nothing else as far as Ross could tell. He stood, blinking. "Fuck, man, what do you want? This feels like the middle of the night." "It's mid-morning…"

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole and its sequel The Growing pains of Adrian Mole: Adrian helps an elderly man called Bert who is a total slob. They clean out his house and it is an endeavour. Favourite part of this scene though is this line: "Bert has been sitting in a deckchair criticising and complaining. He can’t see what’s wrong with living in a dirty house. What is wrong with living in a dirty house?" Nothing, in my opinion. There are other scenes too. Adrian's mother is a slob and there's even a bit where she chides him on being so fussy and not messy like a 'normal' teenager. I know there's more but my memory fails me right now

Friends: there's two main ones that come to mind: the one with the dirty girl (obvious reasons) and the one where ross and rachel you know (which to me is known as the one where joey and chandler get recliners).

Kotaro Lives Alone: Karino is a lazy manga artist whose apartment is a mess. The part that got me was when he wondered if he should take a shower and then he goes 'nah, i'm good'. He gets more on top of things after he meets Kotaro, but he's still pretty lazy after ep 1

Very random thing, but this ad for JBS underwear. It's a woman dressed in male underwear behaving like a stereotypical man and it covers a lot of categories for me

Stardew Valley: Shane. that's all i really have to say but in particular his spouse room and his comments about his weight

Spiritfarer: a video game. one of the spirits you can get on your boat is Jackie and he starts out with a messy, trash-filled room. he also dislikes healthy food. he ends up cleaning up his act though.

[buckevantommy]

totally completely fine

ok. i'm not a fan of australian tv or movies bc they're always overdramatised or too darkly themed or comedic in a way i don't gel with bc i'd rather watch american comedies (not sitcoms, they need to die a firey death). plus i've never really liked the aussie accent, i've found it weirdly unsettling hearing characters speak with aussie voices and maybe that's bc being an aussie myself and wanting to use tv and movies as an escape so having that stark reminder of my own reality means it's harder to suspend and enjoy a different one for a spell. or maybe it's the fact that i, like a great deal of non-americans, have grown up watching american tv so now any non-american accent just sits weird in my brain. 

but that's why i need to express my love for this show. 

everything from the casting (diverse faces and bodies) and the actors chemistry to the setting and set design, cinematography and soundtrack, and of course the plot and characters themselves. It's so well done. It's a heartfelt dramedy that makes you care keeps you interested in wanting to know how things progress and ultimately turn out. the various relationship dynamics are full of ups and downs and it feels real in that messy way life is. 

the premise: vivian is a young mess of an adult who lost her parents in a car crash that she was also in when she was a kid. she's the youngest of 3 siblings who were raised by their grandfather who dies and leaves viv his cliffside beach house. the twist: the house backs onto a picturesque ocean cliff where people go to commit suicide. the grandfather used to try and stop them, and now it's up to viv to try and do the same. 

intense stuff so far. but this show is hopeful, it's not super dark even though it does deal with strained relationships and mental health and suicide attempts/ideation. the characters are distinct and the way their lives entwine don't distract from their individual journeys; viv is the main character but enough screentime is given to every supporting character that they all feel like main characters in their own right which is how it should be because that's how life is. 

more good news is it's short: only 6 episodes at just under an hour each (it doesn't mince screentime) so i binged it all yesterday when i wasn't feeling great and just. wow. i haven't found anything mentioning a second season but if they did more i'd watch it - but the thing is it ends with both closure and the potential for more exploration of the characters, so it feels like a realistic open ending and works as a single season story. 

i don't know if it's available overseas because it was created by and aired here by Stan (which is like our homemade Netflix) but i hope if you guys are interested you'll find a way to watch. 

bonus thing for me: seeing this story play out in my home (settings and details) was actually grounding in a way i didn't expect. like i mentioned above, most of us grow up on american tv and maybe some uk stuff and while that's good for an escape it can actually be jarring to get back into our real world. but (with good quality programming like this show) i realise aussie productions can make it a lot easier to connect with the physical world around me (not the digital world), to not feel so alone, and to know that it's worth finding productions from your homeland and they don't hinder the escape of fiction in fact they can aid in grounding it in a believable way. 

anyway. just one aussie who doesn't really like aussie-made stuff telling folks to give this show a go because i was pleasantly surprised. 

(note: if anyone has any questions or concerns about triggering content please message me or reply to this post and i'll fill you in on stuff it does or doesn't feature)

[adultswim2022]

Clerks #1: "Leonardo Leonardo Returns and Dante Has an Important Decision to Make" | ‎February 20, 2001 (DVD) | Unaired Premiered on Adult Swim November 14, 2008 @ 11:00PM

Clerks began airing on Adult Swim in late 2008. I don't recall it lasting a very long time, but it lasted longer than I remember; they showed it pretty frequently in 2009, taking it on and off the schedule here and there, and then they also aired it in 2010 for one last hurrah.

Clerks was retroactively retitled Clerks: The Animated Series, which makes sense. I still like calling it Clerks for some reason. The show was supposed to air on ABC. Some of it did air on ABC, but most of the episodes made their debut on DVD. They also aired on Comedy Central in 2002. I always remembered this as a Comedy Central acquisition more than an Adult Swim one, personally.

In 2000, I was solidly a Kevin Smith fan. I'm still sheepishly a Kevin Smith fan; It's not that I think he's making good movies, it's just that I feel compelled enough to watch them, which I think is a bare-minimum definition of what a fan is. I was very excited for this show, and I even taped the Super Bowl just to record the one Super Bowl commercial it had. I also made the show appointment viewing for it's two episodes. I was kept abreast of the show's production via various View Askew fan sites and forums I checked regularly. Goddamn, I was a fucking loser.

My Kevin Smith journey was this: was intrigued by Clerks after seeing trailers for it on various non-R-rated movies I rented as a boy. I also recall seeing Siskel and Ebert review it. Was way too young to see it, and I was tad too young for Mallrats, too. But those movies left an impression as I looked up to the Gen-X definition of cool, and aspired to be that thing one day. At the height of my MTV watching, I saw the hour-long Jay & Silent Bob's Secret Video Stash special, where Kevin Smith and company watched goofy 80s videos and made fun of them with his friends, and they played the newly commissioned Jay & Silent Bob MTV promo spots throughout the show. This was the first View Askew production I ever saw. The idea that these guys made movies together and they were all somehow interconnected with one another finally sunk in.

I got my hands on the Jersey trilogy. Beholden to what the handful of video stores had on hand, I remember renting Mallrats first, then Clerks, then Chasing Amy. I spoiled Dogma by reading the screenplay online. Then there was this: A fucking prime time cartoon! Kevin's march towards mainstream legitimacy was progressing nicely. Maybe my mom will become a fan?

As the story goes, the show was considered a disaster by ABC. They only aired two of the six episodes. They didn't air this episode, but they did air the second episode, which heavily references this episode. According to the DVD commentary, the plan was to air this one fifth, which is why there's a text crawl that explains that it's the lost pilot to Clerks, and that there will be a much better episode next week.

This episode isn't all that great; it's one of two that I consider especially weak. The plot is: Leonardo Leonardo (voiced by Alec Baldwin) arrives in town and opens up a new "Quicker Stop" across the street from the Quick Stop. This one does have some funny stuff in it; my favorite gag is Dante and Randal's dedication to The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer, a short-lived (in the real world) sitcom that in the world of Clerks is appointment television and a monster success.

Notable things in this episode include the defanging of Jay and Silent Bob, who now sell fire-crackers. There's also obviously no swearing, but there's some coarse language that wouldn't fly today. Not only do they say "re-re" but they also say "retarded", and "queer" (as a pejorative; one of the weirder instances of a show showing it's age because "that word is actually good now"). There's also one of my favorite gags; the end of the episode has a tacked-on, "Safety tips" segment featuring Jay & Silent Bob. Jay dashes off the line "if Silent Bob could talk, he'd tell you--" right after Silent Bob speaks normally. I loved shit like that.

In general, the sense of humor this show had was very indicative of the sense of humor I had in 2000, and still mostly have today. A lot of the jokes are deconstructive of sitcom humor. The resolution to this episode is vague and absurd, and comes because Dante and Randal copy it from Desmond Pfeiffer. The episode they watch is about a rival opening up a bigger and better "White House of the future" across the street from the white house. I still love that joke!

[kob131]

Soooo have you finished off Umineko? IIRC there's still some extra content and a short story that also includes details on some development trivia.

What did you think overall?

Uh...not in my version. Story's over after the 8th Hidden Tea Party.

My thoughts?

It's a very effective story.

I know that sounds like a thinly veiled insult or faint praise but Umineko has such a variety in tones, emotions, themes and general pacing that it's hard to define it in one way. What I mean is you'll have this very dark, gorey and horrifying moments like with the end of Episode 2 with everyone being eaten alive and then you have Episode 4 which begins with Beatrice busting into the room like a sitcom character. Or the despair of Episode 5's ending coming after this almost knight-like scene of Piece-Battler taking and dashing off with Beatrice in tow. Or the fact that we have a character whose parent is currently with Ragyo as 'worst anime parent' (complete with the incestous rape) in the same game as Battler making grabby motions at Shannon's tits and thanking Jessica for hitting him.

Like- Between the really sad factual events like how Sayo fucking kills herself which likely contributed to the long separation of Ange and Battler due to both brain damage from drowning and the immense tramua of the whole situation; the really sweet moments of Battler trying his best to help Ange live as happy of a life as she can and the sheer horror behind characters like Lambdadelta and Featherine- I don't know what to say to really sum it all up other than 'effective'.

The mystery element goes without saying considering the sheer number of times I humiliated myself trying to solve the mystery: it's obvious well hidden without being a sucker punch because many things in the story make logical sense with the knowledge that Shannon, Kanon and Beatrice being the same person.

The sad elements were enough to make me cry at the end as Sayo killed herself or when Battler returns to everyone in the new 'Golden Land' which also implies the new Gospel House will improve the lives of many orphaned kids, likely preventing the tragedy of Sayo's life from repeating.

The horror elements obviously worked- scaring me is not something easily done. I'm a guy who shrugs off horror pretty easily given my mom's love of Nightmare on Elm Street. But I legitimately find Lambdadelta's insanity and juxitposition unnerving and the concept of Featherine's abilities do legitimately come across as almost 'eldritch' in how they're presented between the font change, the sheer lack of malice or effort in her CG and the complete violation of cause and effect. There's also how Battler just...breaks at times, like how he refuses to suspect his family which eventually made him just go mad.

The jokes don't really feel out of place given that they happen in the time before the murders and do get a laugh out of me. Not to mention that some of them, like Battler's fondness for big boobs and Beatrice getting sloshed in Episode 4, actually provide hints to figuring out the core mystery.

The music is really fucking good. Standouts to me include Mirage Coordinator for the sense of hopeless and powerlessness before fickle and cruel beings. Patchwork Chimera for setting up the feeling of a climatic show. Thanks For Being Born for delivering the idea of a deep, throbbing sadness and pain that plagues the scenes it's in. And Endless Nine for that feeling of unstoppable determination.

And, to really emphasize how effective it all was- my general journey throughout the game reflected Battler's own journey. From being ignorant of the events to defiantly fighting against Beatrice to raging against her to feeling uncertain and uncomfortable about ending her to hoping for her return.

That's a sign of a good story.

[gatalentan]

Hi Scottie, same anon here. Actually, a recent follower. Your gifs are marvelous, i'm ever so jealous. Thanks for letting me know. I live in Canada, so I have a few options, but one day, maybe i'll buy them. I'm sure my hype for LAW won't stop, but money is tight.

Anyways, thank you for gracing us for your hardwork, dedication and love towards LAW, Abbott and so forth. I'd love to see more Life's Work gifsets if you plan on making more. How would you describe Lisa Hunter? There is an episode I felt so bad for her for (cause I only found three on the Internet Archive), about a third baby. Her humor always makes me feel better, even in another sitcom with an audience for it.

As a new gif/gifset maker myself, though someone with slow stamina to work on projects, I fiddle in photoshop all the time. For the RPC, I've been considering making some more to use of LAW, it's just the resources I need to get aside from AElem. and PTrap. You should try your hand at it, maybe? it's gifs, a certain size all in one post. I just asked what your secret was cause I love how even tho the show was in 96/97, we know it's not HQ like now. Anyways, enough about me. I'm happy they turned out so well for you. Lastly, through trial and error-- do you know if there have a way to sharpen every layer at the same time? Thanks again - CW.

Hi again! Yeah, I fully get that. I really wish there was a more accessible option. Maybe with such awards interest in Abbott more of the stuff from her back catalog will get brought to streaming services? It was on the same network as Abbott after all! We can only hope.

Thanks so much for your kind words! I absolutely do intend on doing the whole series, at least one set per episode (that I have access to) along with some of the funnier lines.

If I was gonna surface level describe Lisa Hunter to an alien? I think you can tell she's is probably more LAW than probably anything she's ever done and very in-line with her stand-up persona. She's streetwise and dry-humoured and crass and a total hard-ass and is quick to anger and stand up for herself, but she isn't one-dimensionally a big tough-guy, she has huge depths of softness for her family, is emotionally available and open about her feelings, is demonstrative to her family in a way that doesn't feel like just going through the motions, they hug and kiss, they have stupid in-jokes, and she makes out with her damn husband! And it doesn't just feel like it's for the viewer! They feel like a real couple who are actually crazy about each other, not just people who put up with each other. She talks openly about her interest in sex in a way that centres herself in it instead of trying to please her guy which is something that a lot of sitcoms of the era lacked (and still do really, in the bad ones) but also what it's like trying to have a sexual relationship while you have a busy life. She's candid about the realities of motherhood - not just in terms of how it effects her relationships and her work-life balance but how it literally changed her relationship with her body, which is also something you don't hear a lot of in comedy, at least in a way that isn't at a woman's expense but rather a commiseration instead. More than anything she feels like a real young adult (I can't believe she's nearly the same age as me!! terrifying!!) dealing with a young family, and a stressful job and financial difficulties, rather than a cartoon character. I really love her a lot. This show had so much potential that was cut WAY short. I could go on about it a lot more than this but this got way too long already! Re: sharpening gifs - what you wanna learn how to use is Smart Objects! They make an absolute world of difference, because you can edit the whole gif all at once, including sharpness, contrast, colours etc. I found a good beginners tutorial for you here - I hope it helps! (Link Here)

[analogskullerosis]

Here’s what I think, for whatever it may be worth. I think your videos on Nickelodeon shows are meandering drivel that take forever to form any kind of meaningful analysis or thesis statement. I think there are way too many unnecessary tangents and a better writer would��ve been able to condense a good 1/3rd of your newest video’s runtime into something more meaningful and more easily digestible. I can respect the hustle and the work and the niche you’ve found with the Nick videos, but I personally didn’t enjoy it. Those feelings aside, I’d love nothing more than to see where you go AFTER this.

As for the “ruining video essay culture” complaint, I agree with you that a claim like that is really dumb and doesn’t mean anything. I wouldn’t lose sleep over that if I were you. I don’t know what the proper classification for your video would be, but my mind wouldn’t immediately think “video essay.” “Overly long analysis/review” or “the ramblings of an insane man who fell down a very odd rabbit hole” are probably better classifications.

In response to the length complaint, I do think your videos are way too long, but that’s more of a systemic problem with YouTube itself rather than anything specifically on your part. The current YouTube atmosphere and it’s algorithm basically force creators to have to produce really really long videos about niche topics in order to boost Minutes Watched and engagement in order to survive on the platform and actually make a living off of it. You’re not the first guy to make a super long video off of something like a Nickelodeon sitcom people only kinda remember, and you probably won’t be the last. It’s the current nature of the beast and while I might complain that 9.5 hours is needless and way too long, I at least have enough sense to understand why a video on the topic would stretch to that length, whether I like it or not.

Honestly, I’ve personally never enjoyed your videos about Nickelodeon shows, but I’ve enjoyed a good number of others that you’ve made in the past. When you’re good, you’re really good. You say you’re hoping to be able to move on and I really hope you get to as well. I think there are a lot more interesting topics you could cover and I think breaking away and doing something new could possibly help combat any of the negative feedback you’ve received from the Twitter/X crowd. I think it would also help you to be able to take on something that doesn’t ask as much of you.

In short, I think a lot of the replies and reblogs you’ve gotten on this post have shown that people are finding positives in your work and you should focus on those voices rather than the more negative ones. It’s a tall order, but I think you could really benefit from trying to not caring so much what other people think of your work (and hell, you can even start by disregarding this now overly long reply, if you so choose). It’s not always easy to block out the negative feedback. Some nasty comments can really stick around and haunt a fella (I’ve been there). Creative people are always terrified about how others will perceive and take their work, so I understand your need to ask how people are feeling about it. Lucky for you, it seems that a lot of people are enjoying it and treating it as a great End of the Year Event™️.

If you take the time to read this, I hope this reply comes across as constructive.

Take some time to sit back and enjoy the end of the year, Quinton. Interested to see where 2024 takes you. ♥️

Hey tumblr

Well, as per usual, "X's" response to my latest video has been a bunch of viral tweets about how I'm ruining "video essay culture" (whatever the fuck that is) by making content that's too long or something. The people of X seem to think that I only do plot recaps, and also that too much of my videos are intermission analysis segments.

How are you guys liking the new video? I know Sam & Cat part 2 was controversial even here. I'm hoping part 3 has gone over a little better. I spent about a year on it, and I've been eagerly anticipating the ability to move on.

[castlebyersafterdark]

'It's interesting to think, maybe that was an awakening for some young gay boy who didn't quite know themselves yet, like they like the show and they like that character a lot and didn't get why. But they see him in his underwear and it's just...'

oh wow yes! re; the first underwear post. i love the idea of young gay people watching the show and having their own awakenings. that's so lovely!

it was definitely a comedic scene with mike, and it was so quick as well. but i always wonder because it was spring, not high summer. so why no pjs or even shorts? it was costume design working very very hard to tell us something about mike in as short as time as possible, showing his mindset about prioritising el's letter (for whatever reason 👀) instead of school - everything heightened to the point of sitcom almost, to the point of theatre. it shocked me, which i loved, so subconsciously by the time the byler hints started rolling in thick and fast during s4, this little scene of mike had already been planted to let us know that hey, things are gonna be bolder than you expect in all ways from now on. its almost like theyre making the viewing of the show itself, for the audience, into a coming of age experience.

i also agree with what you said about standard bras being goofy (lmao such a good word), they are, and it's linked to what i said about women being nonplussed by their own bodies and finding male attraction amusing. we also find boobs hilarious and fun to play with (as well as a pain in the ass haha), and i cant tell you the amount of guys at high school who couldnt believe that girls play with their boobs for comfort rather than to get horny. do guys ever just touch their dicks because it's comforting and feels nice rather than to actually jerk off lol?

also totally agree that underwear is hot because it's about the mystery of what's hidden. a pair of briefs IS hot on a man! but it depends on the man. for example, a body type i wouldnt look twice at when unidentified becomes so attractive when it's attached to someone i am already emotionally attracted to. likewise, my first exposure to the male body as a young teen through underwear stores/porno mags was intimidating because all i saw was this detached body part, purely sexual, no identity, and that was scary af lol

thanks for your answer! :)

I think it was definitely a scene, while primarily comedic, framed to set up in the audience's mind - Mike is growing up? He's a high schooler now, he's not a little kid. I genuinely think the underwear scene was meant to kick start his identity arc. He's older, he's reading a love letter from this girlfriend - one full of lies. He is living a lie. Even if we aren't learning that just yet. If you believe in the one-way sign/closet set decor, it was all such an interesting staging. He's exposed and it's a little bit of a shock, like the scene wasn't exactly necessary to dress him like that. Everything is a choice. We didn't have to see Mike in that state of undress, but we got it. Maybe it's because it's coming from a gay male perspective, but the scene did seem framed more towards that gaze rather than the typical female viewer (compare to Max staring at Steve shirtless through the binoculars. Stereotyping a little here, but Stranger Things does fall into cliches at times. I could be wrong! I only know what I know!). I just know for me now, these are observations I made looking back, and I didn't watch that scene and really feel any sort of way, I wasn't into Finn/Mike in that scene. BUT. Throw me back into my awkward early awakening years? Might have paused and rewound and been mad I did it, knowing why. But all in all - very very coming of age coded. Signaled a shift. Mike is our leader after all, and his growing up arc of course would also lead us.

And hahahahaha to your boobs vs. dicks point - yeahhh. Functionally dissimilar in so many ways, and both with comedic potential, but interestingly similar in solidarity with what you said. So. You bet 🤣 Bodies are goofy, humans are so weird. Thanks for a laugh haha

[jcmarchi]

Knuckles Show Review – A Low-Stakes Climb

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/knuckles-show-review-a-low-stakes-climb/

Knuckles Show Review – A Low-Stakes Climb

The live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movie series that started in 2020 has delivered entertaining adventures starring everybody’s favorite Blue Blur and his ever-growing stable of friends. One of the highlights of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was Knuckles, voiced by Idris Elba. The fish-out-of-water gags and his strict adherence to the echidna warrior code, which is in stark contrast to Sonic’s fun-loving personality, made for an enjoyable dynamic within the cast of characters. Knuckles, the new six-episode streaming show on Paramount Plus, tries to carry forward that dynamic. However, thanks to low stakes, a palpable disconnect from the larger Sonic story, and too much emphasis on the human characters in the world, it falls short of the heights reached by the two theatrical films.

Warning: While I try to remain as spoiler-free as possible, some aspects of the narrative and characters are mentioned throughout this article.

This spin-off series follows Knuckles as he trains Wade Whipple (Adam Pally), the goofy police officer from the first two Sonic films, in the way of the echidna warrior. Though Wade is fine as comic relief in the films, I often struggled with placing so many of the emotional stakes at the feet of this character. This becomes particularly true once his family joins the show. The weakest parts of the Sonic movies are the scenes featuring the human characters. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 appeared to learn that lesson, as it sent many of the main humans away on a trip, but the inverse is true in Knuckles; on multiple occasions, I wondered why we were focusing so much on the family drama of Wade instead of what Knuckles was up to off-screen.

The family storyline that consumes much of the latter portions of the show can be compelling in bursts, but it almost feels like an entirely different show altogether. The show does very little to inform viewers why we should care about these characters aside from the fact that they’re related to Wade. The mother character (Stockard Channing) is the most likable of the bunch, particularly when the other major players feel like cartoonish caricatures of sitcom archetypes – even more so than in the movies. Thankfully, when the titular character is on screen, it’s another strong performance by Elba. I’m also happy that much of the CGI of the Knuckles character looks great, particularly when in fights.

The action sequences of Knuckles are the highlight. One scene, in particular, takes place in a kitchen and benefits from crafty camera work and a simulated single-take effect. The action scenes are well-paced throughout the six-episode season, but they do shine a light on one of the most significant shortcomings the Sonic franchise must overcome if it hopes to expand out in spin-off series such as this: Sonic’s gallery of enemies just isn’t that deep. Having the main antagonists of Knuckles be two rogue agents of GUN and a guy who used to work for Dr. Robotnik demonstrates this in irreconcilable ways. Sure, we’re promised Shadow in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and we could still get the introduction of characters like Metal Sonic or Chaos in future media, but this series shows that the pool is pretty shallow.

Installing low-profile villains for the franchise’s first streaming series could be forgiven if they made their mark, but they feel like retreads of what Dr. Robotnik was trying to accomplish in the first movie; their entire motivation is to capture Knuckles to steal his power. Ellie Taylor and Kid Cudi deliver fine performances as the rogue GUN agents, but the characters rarely serve as anything more than plot devices for the characters to progress on their personal journeys and foils in fight scenes. We do learn of their motivation later in the show, but at that point, I only cared about them because when they showed up, it usually meant an action scene was coming.

When you aren’t watching a fight sequence play out, you’re usually enduring a joke shotgun blast with a relatively low hit rate. The seasoned comedic delivery of actors like Adam Pally, Paul Scheer, and Cary Elwes do wonders for some of the jokes on offer in Knuckles, but it’s often not enough to keep the momentum up and running. Instead, in the times when Knuckles wasn’t on screen, I was more enthralled by the heartfelt moments, which, much like the humor, have a relatively low success ratio. Much of the family dynamics are framed around an absurd bowling tournament that apes the vibe and storyline of Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story a little too closely, making it difficult to connect to the characters or the overarching narrative. Knuckles feels noncommittal when it comes to the tone it’s going for. While it’s not impossible to be an action-comedy series with sentimental moments, it’s a trickier line to walk than Knuckles can accomplish.

And it would all be forgiven if the story felt essential – or even consequential – to the world of the Sonic series. But instead, having not yet seen Sonic the Hedgehog 3, I can’t help but feel that Knuckles has that sitcom quality where everything ends up right where it started. Sure, there’s a journey with some sentimentality, minor character development, funny gags, small Easter eggs, and enjoyable action scenes, but if someone asked if they needed to watch Knuckles before going to see Sonic the Hedgehog 3 when it arrives in theaters this December, I’d be hard pressed to find a narrative reason to answer them in the affirmative.

That’s perhaps Knuckles‘ biggest flaw: Despite its sometimes fun and heartfelt moments, it feels entirely inessential. Video game adaptations have an outdated reputation for being bad. Knuckles isn’t outright bad, but when compared to its contemporaries like Fallout, The Last of Us, Twisted Metal, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and even Sonic the Hedgehog 2, it feels like a video game adaptation from a bygone era.

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[daysofourlivesrecaps]

Wednesday, 19 June 2023

I’m on a deadline today so I need to keep this one short. Fortunately, very little happened in this particular episode so that should be easy!

First, Xander comes home to the plastic surgery monster Chloe with an anniversary gift.

It’s a dart board.

These two began hooking up some months ago (exactly three, according to this very episode) when they were both in the Brady pub and Chloe accidentally threw a dart directly into Xander’s chest. As meet-cutes go, it wasn’t bad (I think I have a soft spot for love stories that start with a  trip to the emergency room) and this was a fine way to commemorate it.

Then they place a foreplay-based wager on a game of darts which ends, as you might expect, with them having sex on the couch.

(They always have sex on the couch because I’m certain they haven’t built bedroom sets for either of these characters.)

Next, there’s yet another tiresome series of scenes featuring Bonnie and Maggie (Justin is also here, but pretty much just in a “wincing awkwardly off to the side” capacity), in which Bonnie almost tells Maggie that Maggie’s daughter Sarah is pregnant. 

I like all of these characters. I don’t even mind some goofy sitcom shenanigans in my soap. But if they’re just going to do this for nine months to remind us that Sarah’s pregnant while keeping her mostly offscreen so she can dramatically return when the baby is born…

…okay, that’s actually kind of clever. Definitely better than just periodically saying “as you know, Sarah is still pregnant.”

Speaking of sitcom shenanigans, the promise of Alex living across the hall from Chad and Stephanie pays off immediately as a shirtless Alex shows up at their door like so much Kramer.

Though I dare say, in a contest of “who wore no shirt better?” I think Alex wins.

Alex heard that July on Days means two things: waving a gun around and/or walking around topless. So Alex opted for the more flattering of the two gun shows. Chad is not impressed.

It turns out Alex’s apartment doesn’t have hot water, so he wheedles his way into Chaphanie’s shower. And then into Chad’s robe.

Then he sees they’re having Chinese food for dinner and invites himself to stay and eat.

This initially struck me as uncharacteristically boorish behavior — Alex does have a strong bro vibe, but the show has also gone to great lengths to show that he’s better than that and constantly trying to improve. Then I realized that he’s probably doing all of this on purpose. Back when he was with Stephanie, Chad was constantly interjecting himself into situations in which busy was about to be gotten. I think this is just some sweet payback on Alex’s part. Honestly though, either interpretation (revenge or cluelessness) is pretty funny.

Meanwhile, Stefan admonishes Gabi for her latest risk-taking (waving a gun at Li.)

And eventually she agrees never to do anything like that again… without bringing him with her.

After all, you know what they say: “two guns are better than one, and not wearing a shirt also figures into this equation somehow!”

Speaking of shirtless, here’s Li again. Okay, he was shirtless last time we saw him, but now he’s all dressed up for his date. Which ends up being with Melinda Trask, the district attorney who so recently pushed for Li’s incarceration for his involvement in the recent attempted murder of Stefan DiMera.

You’re right to scoff, Melinda. This guy’s pretty but he’s a criminal. And not even the fun kind like Kristen or Xander. He also continues to be just the worst actor in this entire ensemble and it’s so incredibly painful to watch him share scenes with Trask, who is right on the cusp of being one of those “background characters who comes to the foreground because we like the performer so much.”

Like… she sees the wine Li has ordered (and please ignore the obvious fact that this label was hastily thrown together and printed out in the props office five minutes before they started rolling)...

…and segues into a genuinely wistful monologue about a trip she took to wine country just after law school.

The text itself is slightly better than usual for this show, and Tina Huang (the woman who plays Trask) really sells the Proust-like journey to a simpler and more hopeful time in her life. (Okay, I’m not sure if it’s actually Proust-like at all. That’s one of the few classic literary references I know and I only know it because of Monty Python.)

And while she’s doing all that, she just gets… nothing.

And the worst part of it all? She’s probably going to go home with this boob! And he’ll probably touch her boob! Maybe both of them!

I don’t love Melinda Trask’s George W. Bush-like trampling of people’s basic constitutional rights. (Honestly, I have a feeling she’s going to love working with the new Acting Mayor.) But even in light of that, she deserves better than this soggy bath mat of a scene partner.

[rayatii]

Current plans for things I’d like to put out there in the future:

A short film about a student battling illness anxiety disorder (possibly for my student project at uni).

Either a comic strip or a cartoon or anything else involving my very cynical 7-year-old OC, Ibtisam.

A cartoon about a Lebanese grandmother who is also a superhero who defeats bad guys with her terrifying sha7ata (slipper).

A sitcom about a group of college-age kids all living together in a borderline-dystopian capitalist space society in the future.

A movie about a school teacher, her husband and her 27 ~grade 3 students who survive a mass catastrophe and have to navigate a post-apocalyptic area.

A family-friendly Lebanese TV serial of some sort.