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stephsageek · 1 month ago

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What projects do you have lined up right now?

I'm glad you asked! Irl, I'm a very busy girl, so there will be times when I can only spare an hour or two to brainstorm, outline, write, and edit. Tough with ADHD 😅 but I AM currently chipping away at "He Sleeps with the Fishes: The Hoffa Job," the latest installment of my ongoing Five x Lila AU. If you like action-packed comedy hijinks and have a love for history-- this is the series for you!

I'll post under the cut what I have written so far (there is no Five and Lila, but for readers worried about our intrepid FBI agents-- this will be a treat! It also features a sneak peak of the next story in the series, "A Killer From A World Filled with Killers: The Kennedy Job"):

Agent Bill Reynolds found himself blinking.

His vision was totally filled with a brilliant white light. The light was blinding, a physical, all-consuming thing. Kaleidoscopic prisms cascaded across his vision. For a brief delirious moment, he felt far from his body, an airy nothingness that made the light all that existed. He hung momentarily, suspended.

Jesus fucking Christ. Am I dead?

He couldn’t seem to move, too stunned to even try. He couldn’t hear anything, besides a persistent ringing in his ears, and a steady rhythmic noise, hidden underneath.

Bill could not seem to parse its origin. It seemed to come from all directions at once.

Slowly, the sound became clearer.

It was a voice, calling, over and over.

The word it kept repeating was garbled, a nonsensical bleating noise like the yelp of an animal.

It was like hearing a language you don’t understand, the tone conveying concern, but what it meant hung at the edges of his understanding, just out of reach.

Was it a siren? An alarm?

“—ill! Bill! Bill!”

Agent Bill Reynolds gasped as his blinked into the bright afternoon sunlight, no longer ‘dead,’ but lying suppine on the side of the road, just beside his damaged Federally issued vehicle, his young partner on his knees beside him, trying his best not to have a panic attack.

The noise was his name. The ringing was probably a concussion.

He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to banish the light that burnt his retinas, melting his eyes into puddles of goo within his eye sockets.

“Bill! Bill, God damnit, answer me!”

Bill felt frantic movement beside him, the voice growing clearer and more familiar.

“Stevie?” he groans, realizing all at once that he cannot possibly be dead—being dead wouldn’t hurt so damn much.

Everything ached and Bill belatedly realized that his back was damp. He prayed it isn’t blood, but he doesn’t think it is. This feels cold and he knows the sickly warmth of his blood. He flexes his fingers into fists experimentally and comes away with blades of grass.

That’s good. If I can feel that it must mean I’m not paralyzed.

He tries flexing his toes for good measure and finds them responsive inside his shoes. Bill squeezes his eyes shut as a shadow falls over him. Even behind his eyelids, the added shade is a blessing.

“Yes! Jesus, I thought—”

Bill opens his eyes to find his partner’s face above him. Stevie is bleeding from his forehead, the streak of red running nearly into the corner of one of his eyes. His glasses are gone and Bill blinks as he realizes he’d never seen the kid without them before.

Bill groans as he tries to sit up. “Whoa! Wait—no! Y-you shouldn’t do that!” Stevie rambles, his hands hovering near him.

Bill puts a hand to his head and squeezes his eyes shut once more, trying desperately to will away the sudden feeling of vertigo and nausea.

“What—what the hell happened?” he hisses, his hand going to the back of his head to check for any blood. His head is throbbing, but his hand comes away clean.

“W-w-well, we-we crashed,” Stevie feebly explains, rubbing his neck and lowering his eyes like a chastised schoolboy.

“No shit, Stevie!” Bill snapped, the movement of turning to tell his partner off, making his neck strain. He winced and closed his eyes again. “The broad! What the hell happened with the broad!?” he barks, his eyes still held firmly shut as he pinches the bridge of his nose.

Brooks swallows, nodding, because, yeah, that was a pretty dumb thing to say.

“S-sh-she must have used her cuffs—”

“—I remember that part,” Bill sighed. “That damn slippery bitch pulled one over on us. God damn, rookie mistake!” Bill growled. It was always risky when a perp was cuffed with their hands in front of them, but in the middle of a car chase, neither agent had much of a chance to re-cuff her. “Did you see what happened to her!?” he demanded.

He felt a slight pang of guilt as he watched Stevie flinch at his tone. Bill sagged as watched his partner tremble, likely still feeling the effects of the accident. Just behind Stevie’s tangled mess of blond hair, Bill could make out that the noise that he had originally mistaken for a siren, was, in fact, a siren—there was an ambulance pulling along the embankment they had landed in, followed by what looked like several unmarked cars.

Bill frowned at the black cars, a feeling of foreboding settling like a stone in his gut.

He didn’t recognize those cars, nor the men that exited them.

“W-we hit the e-embankment a-and that-that slowed us down enough that the crash wasn’t s-so bad!” Stevie stuttered out, momentarily distracting Bill from the sight of men in dark sun glasses, dark suits, and even darker expressions. “W-we hit the tree though. I-I opened my eyes and realized that s-sh-she was gone! B-but you were unconscious Bill!” Stevie implored, his voice growing more confident, his expression resolute. “I wasn’t about to go pursue an escaped assailant while my partner was injured! I had no idea if she was armed or not, but I highly suspect so, since I found our trunk opened and all of the items, we confiscated from her gone!”

Bill felt his eyebrows climb toward his hairline at the conviction in his young partner’s voice. Bill felt himself smile crookedly.

Just as he opened his mouth to praise the kid for his judgment and his sticking to his guns that said judgment was sound, a man’s voice cut through the air between them at the same time as several paramedics ran toward them, one of them a dark-skinned Asian woman shouting orders as she hurriedly began to pull things from her pockets.

“Gentlemen—”

“Sirs! I need you to stay where you are—!”

Bill tried to address both parties, but the man began to speak with an air of authority once again.

“—Special Agent Gregory Mahn,” the stranger thrust an ID toward Brooks and Reynold, both too stunned to react. The man had pale, almost sallow skin, his short hair graying at the temples. The other two men who followed him looked eerily similar, though each had a different hair color.

Bill felt himself growl deep in his chest, even as the paramedics fluttered around him and his partner, checking their vitals and shifting them to assess their injuries, giving them polite but direct commands.

“What exactly is the meaning of this Age—” Bill tried to question, only to be cut off.

“This operation is now under my personal jurisdiction, under an executive order by—”

“Like hell are you spooks coming into our operation—!” Bill roared only for one of the paramedics to sharply order him to remain still.

“My orders come from up top, gentlemen,” Mahn smirked, his smile revealing yellowed teeth. “There have been very concerning reports that this operation has gone wildly out of control. Not to mention that there has been word of extremely suspicious even—”

“This is horseshit! We are in the middle of a months long operation that could put some of the worst criminals within the Detroit Partnership behind—” Bill shouted, his face purpling in rage. An EMT yelped as her stethoscope was nearly knocked from her hands as Bill wildly gesticulated.

Brooks sputtered indignantly beside his partner, finally gathering enough courage to interject. “Y-yo-you can’t do this! This is an officially sanctioned operation in league with the Federal Bureau of Investigations special un—”

“I just spoke with your superiors Agent Reynolds and Brooks. You have been ordered to report to local headquarters in Detroit effective immediately.”

Both men stared, mouths hanging open.

Agent Mahn continued to simper before he reached into his trench coat pocket and produced something. “I just need you to take a look at this photograph, gentlemen.”

Brooks and Reynold squinted at the grainy black and white photo before them. It featured a man in a suit, carrying a briefcase in each hand. He appeared to be mid-stride, the blur indicating that he was walking quickly. He wore a suit and a hat. A woman with darker skin and a suit walked purposely beside him.

Brooks didn’t have to look beside him to see the color drawn from Stevie’s face. Bill swallowed.

“I believe these are the perpetrators you were pursuing, correct?” Mahn pushed, his expression unreadable behind his dark glasses that he had yet to remove.

Beside Mahn, another agent thrust another picture toward them.

Bill frowned.

The picture appeared to be another black-and-white photograph, taken of the same alley that had been the backdrop for the pair of strangers.

Only this one was of a young boy, complete with a schoolboy uniform. The boy was young, slight, and dark-haired.

The hell?

Bill opened his mouth to respond once he squinted at the photo. There was something familiar about the brick walls and surrounding buildings. Something that nagged at Bill's memory.

Bill’s eyes widen in sudden fierce realization.

This was the alley just outside the Texas School Book Depository.

It wasn't just a big case.

It was the big case.

He remembered it clearly as he had been assigned to gather any evidence that might have been left behind there. He remembers the exact spot where he’d found a discard casing from an Italian Carcano M91/38 bolt-action rifle that had fallen just beneath a dumpster.

“What the hell are you doing investigating this?!” he hissed, causing Brooks to blink at his tone.

“Bill…wha-what is—?” Brooks stuttered, his voice reedy.

Bill carried on as if his partner had said nothing.

“What do these two have and a kid got to do with the goddamn Kennedy assassination!?”

#thanks anon!#asks #tua #the umbrella academy #five hargreeves #lila pitts #my fanfiction #tua fanfic #five x lila #five x lila fanfic #He Sleeps with the Fishes #jimmy hoffa #this chapter takes the story in a whole new direction guys

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sueske · 9 months ago

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The anime has done a lot of damage to the story of Naruto for a multitude of reasons— other than just cheapening the story with constant unfunny gags and just giving unnecessary attention to characters who don’t actually help push the plot, they also just ruin the characterization.

I’ve seen the whole “Naruto is an idiot pervert” thing being flown around for awhile, sometimes as an excuse for why people treated him badly throughout the series and I never understood why. Until I caught a few filler scenes and saw the reason why people saw him this way.

They make him a straight up pervert in some scenes, just as bad as jiraiya sometimes which is insane. They also tended to make him very dumb, like he was often portrayed as the dumbest member of Konoha 11 in fillers as an excuse for characters to just talk down on him.

Like no wonder people completely misinterpret his character, the anime bastardized his character and made him emotionally inept expect for moments where he was pining over Sakura.

Of course he’s not the only character affected by this, it’s just egregious to me how badly they portrayed the main character of the series to the point you question if the people working on the series even read it themselves. Which shouldn’t be a question for a studio adapting a series, but it is.

It just annoys me. Thats not Naruto. But now he’s considered stupid by the general community.

>episodes marked as filler should be taken as such. though not everyone checks or cares. tho we know certain fandoms like to edit that page around…

>sp also inserted filler moments into canon episodes and try to pass them off as fully canon. like vote2, they completely missed the point of that.

>the last, which was a complete retcon of naruto’s character, was suggested by sp. where naruto can’t even tell the difference between love for a person and love for ramen. he’s just too stupid. like, if you defend that in any way or think that’s plausible then u just don’t know naruto. and the fact sp was the one to come out with that says a lot.

tbf, even people that read the manga misinterpret naruto’s character. just another day in the naruto fandom.

#anon #ask

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ilikekidsshows · 2 years ago

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I’m starting to form a theory of how The Owl House introduces characters. I’ve seen a lot of people point out the dichotomy between Hunter’s introduction here and how he’s characterized later in the series. Similar complaints of a first appearance making a character seem more unsavory in their first appearance have been levied against other characters as well, usually to claim that fans shouldn’t be so quick to view them as good people and how they need to make up for their previous villainous deeds. But here’s the thing, this dichotomy is interpreted by the audience as a sign of the characters’ duplicity, not the writers. Meanwhile, I am very much convinced that the characters being more villainous in their first appearances is a writer choice first and foremost, and a choice with a purpose.

It all comes down to how I described how a lot of characters on this show are introduced: villainously. Many recurring characters in this show are introduced as “villain of the episode” characters, even when they are intended to become allies at the end. Eda and King consider possibly eating Luz and then treat her like family ever since (King even jokes about this in the season one finale), Amity tries to get Luz dissected in her first appearance and ends up a love interest, Bump tries to do the dissecting and is shown to be a reasonable authority figure, Edric and Emira plan to bully and publically humiliate their sister but are incredibly supportive and helpful with her schoolwork, Hunter is fully supporting the Emperor’s reign and becomes an ally, and no doubt the ending of ‘Any Sport in a Storm’, another episode people complain about, will match the pattern. What I’m getting at is that The Owl House has a pattern where a character’s introduction will rarely give us much useful info on them, merely presenting a simplified version of the character that can serve as an obstacle first and it’s only after that obstacle role is played out that their characterization gets more room. It's function before consistency.

In reference to a mega hit series that does this same thing, I’ve taken to calling this characterization trope the Jojo Phenomenon. The manga and anime Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure had a pattern where the main character (the Jojo) will collect many colorful allies, but not before beating them in a fight, and the fights happen because the future allies will act as villains in their first appearances due to outside influences or misunderstandings, changing their manner to be much more friendly and righteous after they join the heroes’ group. Sometimes the difference is so stark that the character seems to change personalities entirely.

Now, as to why JJBA does this, it’s for the purpose of misdirecting the audience, subverting expectations, if you will. Any even slightly story savvy reader or viewer will guess that, since most stories need supportive casts, some of the people the main character meets will become their supportive cast. When the supportive cast is presented as villains first, the viewer won’t guess the character’s role the instant they’re introduced. The most effective subversion of expectations is to build up your own story’s expectations and subvert those. This way your audience doesn’t need to be familiar with specific other works to get their expectations subverted.

#the owl blog #the owl house #episode wrapup #storytelling #tropes and story devices

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wild-grinders · 11 months ago

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Wild Grinders: The Fan Analysis (Pt.3)

First Previous

if anyone has finals, consider this as a gift for making it through

Alright, it’s time for the third part of the analysis. It took awhile to actually begin writing this because I don’t want to dive into my self-indulgent yuri-beam reboot. And we shouldn’t nitpick to make the series ‘better.’ However, there’s a lot for Wild Grinders to improve on that that leaves you thinking, ‘Actually, we should rework it entirely.’ And that’s what this is. The best way was to organize it into 3 categories: Theme, Plot, and Characters. Most of this analysis is going to focus on the writing because animation is not always in our control. (And we kinda covered animation in the last part and said it needed a whole renovation).

That being said, this part of the analysis is primarily focused on keeping the structure of the TV series and the original vision that Rob Dyrdek has. (To the best of my ability).

[Part A]

Let’s assume that the script is taken seriously. Wild Grinders need to have a better overall theme because the wacky skate tricks didn’t do enough to draw in attention.

The current theme of Wild Grinders doesn’t exactly work. As mentioned in the second of my analysis, the writers were trying their best to appeal to the Gen Z audience. Usually by means of implementing modern pop culture references and putting social media in the spotlight in the latest episodes. While the writers aren’t wrong about the technology/socmed obsession amongst children, they missed out on an extremely alarming picture. They didn’t notice why children were becoming gravitated to this era of internet.

Recently, I have been learning about the way that society treats children and teenagers. (Awkward sentence, sorry). But I find myself learning more and more about the ways that society puts control on what kids can and cannot do. Many adults make the decisions to remove places to hang out such as parks and even skate parks (reason: to prevent drug dealers). In the age of our digital era, theaters and physical media are diminishing in favor of online subscriptions. Basically, kids are losing public spaces where they can hang out safely.

And it does NOT stop there. Cops are constantly being funded to ‘handle’ teens who are loitering (Why? Because they don’t have places to hang out). I don’t want to go on an off-topic rant in this analysis, but this post sums up what I’m trying to talk about. It really makes your brain think about the ways that society fails to let kids… be kids. Society uses harmful tactics to remove teenagers for ‘the greater safety’ of property. And I doubt that adults will listen to younger people who speak up about it. Instead, society would rather complain about raising a generation of phone-addicted youths. Older children and teenagers will be threatened and put into dangerous just by being outside because cops have control on where they can be. And by having ‘suspicion’ on teenagers is absolutely allowed in their rulebook to put a kid in a police station.

This is what Wild Grinders should have focused on as the whole theme if you consider the setting it takes place in (2010ish). If the writers wanted to talk about the phone-addicted kids, then they should have questioned why it was happening in the first place. Not only that, but it’s just a perfect theme for Wild Grinders. Reason one, it’s completely different from Rocket Power (their main theme was the history and safety of extreme sports). Reason two, it fits for the main cast. Lil’ Rob is literally the embodiment of ‘screw your authority!’ Jay Jay and Spitball are literally POC characters that the police often go after and the series could have delved into this. In Ketterville-canon, Jack Knife is homeless and lives under a highway, he’s 100% anti-cop. Emo Crys could have went to Linkin Park territory and his archetype was meant to be an intensely rebellious soul. And Goggles? He has the camera to capture video evidence of everything they go through.

Is it possible to air an anti-cop TV series? Nope. But it’s very possible to write and utilize it for what Wild Grinders is. A group of preteens who want to just hang out and skate. In fact, a few of the episodes featured the Wild Grinders being turn away by security and cops when they wanted to find a place to skate. However, they just obeyed in favor of ‘sending a good message to kids about obeying the rules.’ And the script writers didn’t think to push it further than this. But man, they could have done something else entirely if they went to the territory of police brutality used on adolescents. The Monster High Movie, Ghouls Rule! actually did something like this! The movie managed to present a family-friendly version of what ‘police brutality on teenagers’ feels like. To be specific, it wasn’t until 2020 when MH fans became aware of this hidden message and began openly talking about it on Tumblr and TikTok. But to keep it brief, Monster High movies were able to explain police brutality and racism incredibly well. And it’s possible for Wild Grinders to use this a whole theme for a series about kids who want to skateboard in an anti-children and anti-loitering system.

But anti-cops won’t be the only theme in Wild Grinders, there’s another theme that I would love to see; a coalition of diverse skaters. Rob Dyrdek’s vision when creating the Wild Grinders’ characters was to have a diverse cast who were brought together by their love of skating. The idea of diversity has always been intentional for Wild Grinders, but the writers did NOT utilize it enough! They attempted to make the cast be diverse in personality, but they made all of their backgrounds vague and look like they were all normal American kids by hiding their families. Not only that, but they missed out on multiple opportunities to create other skaters outside of the Wild Grinders skate crew. (We’ll talk about this later). In the second season, they were close to introducing the ‘Street Rats’, the crew that Squeaks was apart of. But 2015 happened and Rob Dyrdek packed up his TV series because he didn’t have the motivation to continue Wild Grinders. But we can’t really blame Dyrdek, he was going through a rough patch at the time and the studio screwed Wild Grinders over (in animation and the writing). And that’s why I’m here to talk about what should have been done. And most of it is to improve the writing! The writers were adults who didn’t bother to understand what kids wanted more of at the time and began to parody off of other kids’ TV series.

But yeah. If the writers weren’t bent to the idea of kids-being-incapable-of-thought-processing, then we could see more effort being put into the theme. And not just that, but some of the writers just weren’t here to write for kids and wanted to write Adult Swim jokes. Do I have a passive-aggressive voice about these adult writers? Definitely. Children deserve to consume media that has good writing about meaningful messages in the world.

[Part B]

Next step, Wild Grinders needs to use these two main themes for the plot.

We know for a fact that Rob Dyrdek never planned for a real plot in Wild Grinders. If we were to take his route, Wild Grinders will eventually become boring because a good plot draws people more than the quirkiness. In order to draw people through quirkiness, the visuals need to exceed expectations (clearly something that Wild Grinders failed to do in animation). Therefore, we need to think about a plot for Wild Grinders because it does NOT have the budget for a Kyoto Animation or BONES Studio anime. The plot is compensation here!! It needs to be worked on well!!

Let’s diverge from Rob Dyrdek’s ideas. He wants to make an amazing, cool, and crazy series. But in order to do something like this, you do need some sort of plot. Conflict in writing can lead to all sorts of situations that causes to the characters to be cool, crazy, and amazing.

There is some plot in the writing of Wild Grinders, each episode being 13 minutes long and trying its best to implement one. Most of the episodes have decent plots, but these plots didn’t grab the audiences’ attention, unless you actually liked Wild Grinders as a whole. I don’t know the most professional way to explain this, but Wild Grinders needs a build-up to a greater plot, it needs an actual ‘Big Bad’. Or it just needs a longer run time to build it up better. Some of my favorite small, plot-driven episodes were ‘Midas Touch’ and ‘Skater Who Cried Wolf’ because it didn’t rely on wacky quips to make it entertaining. ‘Skater Who Cried Wolf’ made the animation put extra effort in enhancing the setting, by having Lil’ Rob and his friends watch a horror movie on a school night and then making a ghost-hunting green-filtered screen chase around in the woods. It was just a cool episode compared to the rest. But ‘Midas Touch’? That episode will always be my weakness in Wild Grinders. It focused on a character other than Lil’ Rob, but the plot would be rushed because of the runtime. I wanted to see deeper into Goggles’s character when he decided to become popular. Hell, I wanted to see him be mean to his friends and let the popularity get into his head. (Well, we did see this in ‘Going Hollyweird’, but even that was short). But the resolution to ‘Midas Touch’ was simplified where Goggles’s just cries about not being able to nerd out. No. I want more inner conflict on his side and his to feel deeper regrets other than rejecting a movie screening. While these episodes are both quick and easy plots, ‘Midas Touch’ contributed to the greater idea that is known as character development. Something that is essential for a greater plot. Can I elaborate why this is? Not really, but you just have trust me that it does work.

Anyways, let’s get into the real idea here. Using the themes of diversity and cops abusing their authority on the youth. The main plot will have to involve a large-scale conflict against the police force that bans skateboarding. That’s it. That’s the plot. But it will need to developed throughout the series, carefully placed in different episodes until it becomes a more blatant problem. Think about it for a moment. The first episode makes an off-hand reference to the way that police ‘warn’ skateboarding kids to stay away from the mall. Then it leads to episodes where characters are being arrested for ‘loitering’ in an outdoor public space. Finally, there’s an entire ban on skateboarding in the whole city and you’ve got a group of kids who are willing to challenge it. This is what the writers completely missed out on because they didn’t put themselves in the same shoes of Gen Z youth.

And we can add more to this mix. We need to add in a diversity of skateboarders, they all come from different backgrounds and have different experiences, but they share their love of skateboarding and do their best to protect each other in a world where adults rule over them. Wild Grinders needs LGBTQ kids, teens who want justice for their POC friends, and young adults who are willing to listen to them. They all love skateboarding and they’re sick of adults who want to take their skating spaces away from them.

Wild Grinders was able to make this a plot, but they didn’t.

[Part C]

We need to talk about the characters. We’ve got a lot and we’ve got nothing going on for the cast. As stated before, Rob Dyrdek wanted to create a diverse cast of skateboarders. But he didn’t do the best job at balancing them as characters. Obviously, Lil’ Rob was the main character and got all the attention, but it got to the point that he was considered a Gary Stu because of it. There’s such an imbalance between him and his friends. The TV series didn’t do ALL of the Wild Grinders any justice. They were all watered down to adore Lil’ Rob and when they never got any real development. There was an attempt to balance the characters, but they were lacking. They were always reduced to their conventional personalities and felt static and sterile. Lil’ Rob clearly has the majority of episodes that focus on him.

It’s shocking that Emo Crys has the least amount of episodes considering his popularity and the fact that Rob Dyrdek always hyped him during the first wave of toys. But it’s important to note that the rest of the cast often got their spotlight stolen by Lil’ Rob when they were meant to have an episode dedicated to them. ‘Wild BFFs’ is an oddball on here because it didn’t really contribute to Jack Knife’s characters, but it was an episode where Lil’ Rob didn’t take it away from him. Either way, these were the episodes where the writers tried to put some spotlight on the rest of the main cast, but these episodes fell short. Jay Jay and Emo Crys had the most lukewarm episodes where Lil’ Rob usually has to solve the problem. ‘Wild Grinder with Two Heads’ was the only episode where Lil’ Rob was actually cut off, but both Jay Jay and Emo Crys had to share this episode. Honestly, it wasn’t exactly the best episode because it was one of the ‘wacky’ ones and it’s just brings secondhand embarrassment to watch it. It’s great to see 2 different characters (one of them not being Lil’ Rob) have to work out their problem together, but I would rather have it be a handcuffs situation where they were forced to work out their differences. Spitball is clearly the quiet character and that makes some excuse for his lack of episodes. To keep him mysterious. Goggles had the best development out of everyone in most of his episodes, but it still feels underwhelming until ‘Midas Touch’. While it looks like Jack Knife has a lot of episodes, there’s something that pisses me off about them all. It’s his Sprawl City-canon personality. He was reduced to being the dumb, uneducated American with a southern accent. This funny persona basically demolishes him from having a meaningful character arc. I want the Ketterville-canon Jack Knife for a lot of reasons, but mostly because the whole point of his character was being the kindest out of all the Wild Grinders despite the fact that he was poor and made to always be the joke. Before the production of the TV series, all the Grinders had expression sheets drawn by Tracey, only Emo Crys’s sheet being released. However, there was a tweet that revealed a glimpse of Jack Knife’s sheet where he was like full-on, pissed-the-hell-off.

The only reason why they could never let Jack Knife be angry in the series was to probably avoid him from looking like an angry redneck due to his strong southern accent being permanent later on. If they stuck to the Ketterville-canon and original voice actor for Jack Knife, we could have had an episode where he finally snaps after being docile for long enough. My boy was meant to slash tires and defend his friends when they are mistreated!!

Speaking of Ketterville-canon, it was very fleshed-out and made the characters unique and interesting. You want to know why Spitball got his nickname? He used his spit on people because he thought it would heal wounds from a story he heard. The writers should have made Emo Crys way more moodier and Jay Jay deserves more screen time of his hobbies. The rest of the cast needs to have conflicts (both internal and outside) of their lives and be able to resolve them. The writers avoided anything that would truly challenge the characters in favor of keeping a conventional typecast. And we aren’t done yet. Another improvement on characters we need is: less antagonists and adults that appear for an episode. There’s too many one-time villains in the TV series than like, actual kids who are the same age the Wild Grinders. No, this doesn’t mean we need a girl skate crew to play as girlfriends. Absolutely not. We need different kids who love to skateboard. We need gay and trans kids. We need to see black and brown skateboarding kids. We need to see new designs for characters and skate crews who can make challenges and befriend the Wild Grinders. If kids are going to watch the TV series, they deserve to feel seen because Wild Grinders make more celebrities and adults in the cast where they don’t do a lot. (Unless it’s Lil’ Rob’s mom. She contributes more to the story than the actual antagonists).

Anyways, we need better development for the main and reoccurring cast. But we need to see a diversity of skateboarders as well to create unique plots and encourage character development by having them interact with the Wild Grinders. I’m tired from writing all of this in one shot, but it’s sincerely tiring that the script writers wrote everything the way it is in the TV series.

Apologies if any part of this analysis feels rushed or incomplete, it’s the week of finals and my brain isn’t working (and threw off everything I was supposed to write about the analysis). To the few people reading this, thank you and hope that this enhances the brainrot. Feedback is very appreciated on my end.

#wild grinders #my post #text #feel free to send asks after reading

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wqintraining · 1 year ago

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NEW X-MEN: THE ANIMATED SERIES - SEASON 2, EPISODE 1

Season 2 opens in media res as the Blackbird flies toward Genosha. The only ones still on the plane are Storm, Kitty, and Sunspot. While Kitty panics and screams, and Roberto tries in vein to assure her it’s going to be okay, barely maintaining his own plastered smile, Storm is communicating with Captain Britain, who thinks she shouldn’t have left, but Storm insists her priority needs to be getting all the kids home so they can be tended to properly, and securing Nova.

All three of them uncontrollably go silent as they arrive at their destination and look out the window, Genosha has been completely annhlated, reduced to ash and rubble, with smoke filling the sky. 16 million people, almost all Mutants, potentially including Scott, Jean, Emma, Magneto, and Kitty’s dad, are all dead.

With Storm blowing away and working to clear the smoke, the three heroes, wearing respirators, rush onto what’s left of the once great Mutant nation. All around them, they seed wrecked buildings and corpses, and Sunspot accidentally steps on and breaks a bone.

Kitty and Sunspot are barely holding it together as they stand on the site of a holocaust, unable to believe so much death could have taken place so quickly, and struggling to not cry or puke, but Storm, somber and sullen, but keeping her emotions in check for the moment, tells them they can’t break down yet. They have a job to do. There’s a chance some people may have survived, and are just trapped under rubble. They have to do everything they can to find them.

Before they start searching the whole island, however, Kitty “needs to know”.

Back at the school, Tag, Wind Dancer, Wolverine, and Bling! stand outside the medical bay. Laura’s face is practically right up against the glass, while Brian has a comforting arm around the nearly-sobbing Roxy’s shoulders.

Inside, Beast, as well as Dr. Cecilia Reyes, who was called in to help treat everyone else who was wounded in the global battles with the sentinels, are tending to the kids. Cessily and Sooraya are still unconscious, but are stable, Noriko is awake in bed, but can’t stop shaking and looking at her gauntlets, even though all the blood has been cleaned off of them, and Julian is being prepped for surgery. Betsy is also having her wounds treated, with Rachel hugging her, relieved she survived the battle, but disturbed by what Betsy told her happened.

BRIAN, to Roxy: “Hey, Cess is gonna be okay. You heard what Dr. Reyes said, right?”

Roxy just hangs her head.

BRIAN, to Sofia: “You don’t need to worry either, Sofia. It’ll take more than some sentinel to keep Julian down.”

Sofia maintains her blank expressions, staying silent, and tiny whirlwinds surround her fists.

Brian sighs and walks over to Laura.

BRIAN, to Laura: “You know, a sentinel did come by here. Ms. Grey was all ready to take it out, but I tagged myself so she could get rid of it away from the school. It wasn’t much, but it made me feel pretty good. And I was just thinking about how good all of you must have been feeling taking out a ton of these tincans.” Brian punches the glass. “I’m such an idiot.”

It’s unclear if Laura heard a word Brian said as her wide eyes continue to stay focused on her injured friends.

On Genosha, Kitty drops to her knees. The site of her father’s old home has been completely annhilated, along with the rest of its surroundings. It doesn’t even look like there’s a skeleton.

KITTY: “Daddy…Daddy, I’m sorry. Daddy, please crawl out of there. Please!”

Storm and Beto try to comfort her, but they phase right through her.

KITTY: “Did you know in Judaism, it’s believed that cremation results in pain after death? Even if someone makes it to Heaven, the pain doesn’t stop. How could I do this to him? He was my Daddy.”

SUNSPOT: “Kitty, you didn’t–”

Kitty breaks down in tears, hysterical. Storm sheds her own tear, wishing there was something, anything she could do for her daughter. But there’s nothing she can do but push forward. Ororo instructs Beto to stay with Kitty, and get her on the Blackbird once she’s calmed down. She’ll handle the search by herself.

We get a brief montage as Storm scours the island for any signs of life, but is met with death at every turn. She’s almost ready to break down in tears herself when she hears something rumbling.

Flying up, she clears away the rubble around where the sound heard like it was coming from. Underneath, she finds Emma Frost, with Cyclops unconscious in her arms, a blank expression on her face, and sporting a new look - diamond skin.

Storm swoops down and swiftly takes Scott from her, checking his pulse and breathing a sigh of relief that he’s alive. Ororo demands to know what happened here, and what happened to her.

Emma…isn’t doing okay.

EMMA, in a monotone: “The path to Hell is paved with good intentions, but over brimstone we must walk to reach paradise. Do you hear them, Ororo? Do you hear the children’s screams?” Emma forms a tiny smile. “I do. And I feel all their pain. How many children are there? As many as the grains of sand on a beach?” Emma’s face falls as she hangs her head. “Yes, Daddy, I am a bad, worthless girl.”

Storm has no idea what to feel here, or what to stay, so she simply instructs Emma to follow her.

In the medical bay, Sooraya’s eyes flicker as she wakes up. She struggles to sit up, seeing that Cessily is still unconscious, before she’s told to lay back down.

SURGE: “The others are waiting outside, but aren’t being allowed in yet. You should rest.”

Sooraya lays back down, grunting in pain as she expresses how much everything hurts. She then notes that Noriko doesn’t look like she was hurt at all.

Noriko bites her lip as she looks down at her hands and generates a small amount of electricity between her fingertips. The Sentinels weren’t fast enough to hit her. Physically, she got out of the fight completely unscatched. But seeing her and Mercury nearly get killed? Watching Julian get his hands blown off, and having to grab his bloody nubs to cauterize his wounds so he didn’t die too? It was too much. She’s not okay.

Dust doesn’t respond for a moment, just staring at Nori.

NORIKO: “What?”

SOORAYA: “Julian…lost his hands?”

Noriko swears under her breath, having forgotten she was down by the time that happened, and confirms to her what went down.

SOORAYA: “I see.”

Noriko narrows her eyes at Sooraya.

NORIKO: “Okay, what’s your deal? I know being all calm and zen and peaceful and quiet is your shit and all, but you should not be that way right now. You almost died! Where’s the panic?!”

Sooraya sighs. She really wishes she hadn’t woken up next to Nori.

SOORAYA: “I was hurt physically, yes. And I lack experience in all this directly. But nearly dying? No, that’s not enough to get me. Not with what I’ve seen before. Not with what I’ve done before.”

Noriko falls back, slamming her head on her pillow.

NORIKO: “Shit, Soo. I forgot. I’m sorry.”

Sooraya smirks.

SOORAYA: “The fact that you’re apologizing for your foolishness at all is a clear sign of progress.”

NORIKO: “Aww, thanks.”

PAUSE

NORIKO: “Oh, screw you.”

On the Blackbird, which hasn’t taken off yet, Cyclops is still unconscious, Emma has passed out, and Kitty is curled up into a ball. Storm and Sunspot are awake and sitting up right, but they need this brief moment of silence.

The silence is broken as the ship shakes. Storm and Sunspot leap to their feat, unsure of what’s going on as, from an exterior shot, we see the ship being raised into the sky on its own. Storm tells the others to stay put for a minute while she goes to investigate.

Ororo flies out of the ship and quickly finds the one responsible for its movement: Polaris.

ORORO: “Lorna…”

Before Storm can say anything else, Lorna throws the Blackbird, wrapped in green magnetic energy, right at her. Ororo just barely dodges the attack, shouting at Lorna that they aren’t here to fight, and, over the coms, shouting at Kitty to get everyone off the plane.

As Lorna takes another shot at Storm with the Blackbird, Kitty phases herself, Beto, and the unconscious headmasters out of the plane and onto the former shore of Genosha, while Storm summons a fierce lightning blast to annhilate the Blackbird in one shot, denying Polaris her weapon.

Storm tells Polaris that she can’t imagine what she’s feeling right now, but she assures her slivers of that pain are shared by them all. Polaris just continues to shout in rage as she drags up rubble from Genosha to throw at Storm.

POLARIS: “You X-Men killed our nation! It’s only fitting the nation kills you!”

On the shore, Kitty and Beto are panting. Beto tries to tell Kitty he knows Lorna from his time here and he’ll talk to her, only to be decked across the face by an equally pissed, super fast Quicksilver.

Knocked to the ground, Roberto is covered in ash. He freaks out as Pietro gets on top of him and begins punching him over and over again. Kitty doesn’t move, only crying out for him to stop.

In the sky, Storm is exhausted both physically and mentally from the day’s events. She fights against Lorna to the best of her ability, but she quickly runs out of steam and is overwhelmed.

As Roberto is beaten to a bloody pulp and Lorna traps Storm in a metal cocoon, ready to crush her, Kitty continues to shout, begging for everyone to stop fighting.

The fighting is brough to a halt, but not by Kitty, as a single blast of red energy flies into the sky.

Cyclops, having woken up, rises to his feet.

All eyes turn to him. There’s a silent moment of tension before Polaris and Quicksilver release Storm and Sunspot from their respective grips, flying and running over to Cyclops.

QUICKSILVER: “You have five seconds to tell us what happened here in a way that makes us want to spare your lives.”

Scott, standing tall and proud, looks around at his surroundings instead of answering.

QUICKSILVER: “SPEAK!”

Pietro slugs Scott across the face, knocking out a tooth, and sending him to the ground.

QUICKSILVER: “SPEAK NOW!”

Tears stream down Scott’s face.

Quicksilver is about to give him the same treatment as he did Roberto, but Lorna puts a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

POLARIS: “One chance, Cyclops.”

Scott swallows.

CYCLOPS: “Magneto is alive.”

Pietro and Lorna are baffled by how that could possibly be true. Everyone here died! Scott tells them that he and Emma were here when the attack happened. They only survived because Emma developed a secondary Mutation, enabling her to transform her skin into diamond. He only lived because she shielded him from the blast. And before the attack happened, Magneto had disappeared from where he’d been fighting sentinels.

Pietro calls him a liar. He’s just trying to protect himself this way because he knows this is all his fault!

Cyclops agrees that he shares blame with Cassandra Nova. Cassandra Nova, who, from the fact they’re here right now, he knows his team defeated. He knows his team defeated her, while he and Emma were saving the world, even if they couldn’t save Genosha.

CYCLOPS: “Nova wasn’t the first mad woman to try and kill us all, and she won’t be the last. Whatever I’ve done, the mutants of the world still need the X-Men. And you both need us and our resources if you’re ever going to find out what happened to your father.”

Pietro, breathing heavily, thinks about his offer, before still electing to go in for the kill. However, Polaris holds him back by his metal belt buckle. Lorna agrees that he and his team are still needed, but they will never be forgiven for this.

CYCLOPS: “I wouldn’t expect to be.”

With the situation calming down, Storm approaches, offering to do whatever they can to help pay tribute to their fallen.

LORNA: “If you wish to respect our dead brothers and sisters, you’ll leave this place now, and never return.”

With no more words, Storm summons a calm wind to lift herself and the rest of the team away, and begin the long flight home. Beneath them, Lorna breaks into tears and cries on Pietro’s shoulder as he holds her.

CYCLOPS: “Ororo…”

STORM: “Not now, Scott. Not now.”

In a private room inside the Institute’s medical bay, Hellion has gotten out of surgery and is awake. All the usual life and energy from his face are missing, replaced by a dower scowl. That’s not the only part of him that’s missing, as his nubs have been wrapped in bandages; they couldn’t re-attach his hands.

There’s a knock on the door, with Julian growling not to come in if this isn’t a doctor. Beast enters, happy to see him stable, and asks if that attitude applies to ALL non-medical personnel.

BEAST, with a sly smirk: “Your girlfriend wants to speak to you. She’s been positively worried sick.”

Julian’s eyes widen, but only for a moment, before he shuts them, clenches his teeth, and shakes his head.

In the hallway, Sofia and Laura sit outside the private room, both in complete silence. Beast comes out of the room and informs Sofia that, unfortunately, Mr. Keller doesn’t wish to speak to anyone right now.

BEAST: “I’m sorry. But I’m sure you can imagine what he must be going through.”

Sofia glares at Beast, small whirlwinds once again surrounding her fists and expanding rapidly as a breeze fills the hallway. Beast is concerned, but before things can do any further, Sofia breathes and halts the use of her powers.

SOFIA: “I understand, Dr. McCoy. Thank you.”

Beast, still not entirely at ease, acknowledges her and walks away. Sofia tries to hold Laura’s hand, but, without looking at her, Laura bats it away.

With the sun rising as a new day dawns, Emma’s woken up and is completely composed, but Storm is still flying her, herself, Cyclops, Kitty, and Sunspot home. Everyone is silent, until…

STORM: “What happened to Jean?”

Scott takes a moment to answer. He informs her that she’s gone. She wanted Genosha dead, and she wanted them dead with it. Then, she flew off into space. Even if she does come back to Earth, the Jean they knew doesn’t exist anymore. Now and forever, she is Phoenix.

Storm finally allows herself to breakdown and cry over the loss of her sister on top of everything else. Scott wipes his own tears from his eyes with his arm.

EMMA, telepathically to Scott: “It isn’t the type of advice I usually give, but if there were ever a time to let your emotions out freely, it’s now.”

SCOTT, telepathically: “You’re not my therapist, and I don’t want your advice on anything. Especially when you’re not even following it.”

EMMA, telepathically and mockingly: “Oh no, you caught me, I’m as devastated on the inside as the rest of you. I have a heart. Sew me. But I do what’s best for me, and you should do what’s best for you.”

SCOTT, telepathically: “You don’t know the first thing about what’s best for me.”

Emma scoffs.

EMMA, telepathically: “A “thank you” for saving your life would have been nice.”

As Storm continues to sob, Kitty hugs her. She was comforting her all night, and she wants to return the favor. But she also needs help. Her father’s body may be good, but he still deserves a funeral as soon as possible, as per Jewish tradition.

KITTY: “Maybe working on that would help keep our minds off everything else?”

Storm sniffles as she smiles and nods.

STORM: “Yes, Kitty. I’d be happy to help.”

In the back of the pack, Roberto is literally steaming, hate in his eyes.

Storm, completely exhausted, lands the team in Central Park. They can walk from here. However, as the other four members of the team start heading toward the school, Beto walks in the opposite direction.

CYCLOPS: “Where do you think you’re going, Sunspot?”

SUNSPOT: “Relax. I’m not quitting or anything. But you’ll excuse me if I need a couple weeks to myself. I’ll be back soon. Try not to miss me too much.”

Scott calls after him as he departs, but he doesn’t have the energy for that right now, and let’s him go.

In the medical bay, Roxy excitedly hugs Cessily, thrilled her new girlfriend is okay. She does accidentally hug a little too tight and hurt her though. Brian is also inside the medical bay, helping the still injured Sooraya in getting into position for her morning prayers. Noriko is noticeably no longer here.

Sofia floats above the school. The bodies outfront have all been cleaned up, but the foul stench remains, causing her nose to wrinkle.

LAURA, over the winds: “Hey.”

Sofia turns her head and sees Laura, out of costume, standing on the roof.

SOFIA, over the winds: “Hello, Laura. I’m glad you’re speaking again.”

Laura takes a deep breath.

LAURA, over the winds: “I…I’m so sorry.”

SOFIA: “Sorry? For brushing me off before? Do not worry about it.”

LAURA: “No. No, not for that. I’m sorry I took you all out to fight. None of you were ready. And most of you were hurt. Especially Julian. Because of me.”

Sofia tells her that’s not true, and no one’s thinking that, but Laura snaps back that she’s not a telepath, and none of them are stupid enough to not know she’s the one to blame.

Sofia, keeping her cool, flies down to the rooftop to look the brooding Wolverine in the eyes. Wind Dancer insists if what happened was anyone’s fault, it’s her own. Laura wasn’t entirely wrong. Herself, Surge, and Dust? They WERE ready. Hellion and Mercury weren’t though. If she just followed Kitty’s orders and got them out of there instead of encouraging them to fight, they wouldn’t have been harmed.

Laura counters that Sofia can’t blame herself. She’s just a student. She was the X-Man there, and she should have been more responsible.

LAURA: “I wanted to keep you all safe. But I didn’t want you all thinking I didn’t trust you. You’re some of the only people I do.”

Sofia appreciates that, but reminds Laura that SHE’S a student too. She may be the best there is as what she does, but there’s still a lot she doesn’t do. But she will. And they’ll learn. Together.

Laura continues to hang her head in shame in spite of Sofia’s kind word, only to start giggling uncontrollably as Sofia uses the wind to tickle her nose.

LAURA, giggling: “Stop that.”

SOFIA: “I would, but I like it more when you smile. I’d rather not have to force it.”

Laura laughs for real as Sofia takes her hand and flies them off the room.

SOFIA: “Come. Brian texted me Cessily woke up. We should go say hello.”

As Sofia flies them to their destination, Laura makes puppy eyes at her. She clearly still isn’t over her.

In his office, Scott is being swarmed with phone calls. As much as he’d love to be resting, he can’t sleep yet, even as he’s barely keeping his eyes open. Xavier’s old friends and allies demand to know what’s going on, parents are hearing about what happened on the news and are worried about their kids’ safety, old X-Men are freaking out just as much (Cannonball is the one we hear calling, with him worried about his sister Melody), and mixed into all of this are the usual prank calls Scott receives from anti-Mutant bigots, with them today calling just to shout that the rest of the Muties are next.

Scott is working with multiple phones and computer monitors and trying to keep track of everything, but it’s all too much. Sweat drips down his face, his heart pounds against his chest, and it seems like the worst may be about to happen.

Before that can happen, however, his seat is rolled away from his desk, forcing him away from all his screens. Emma, as she’s one to do, leans against the doorway with a flask in hand.

EMMA: “You’re not going to do us much good if you kill yourself, darling.”

Scott knows he says this a lot, but right now, he really does NOT have time for her. Emma laughs, coming further into the office. He can’t seriously want for things to go back to how they were between them, can he?

SCOTT: “What we did caused all of this happen. All of those Mutants are only dead because of us.”

EMMA: “No, they’re dead because your mentor loves his secrets, his bitch of a sister is a monster, humans hate us as much as they ever have and were happy to do all her dirty work, and your wife is a vengeful god whose been ready to snap at the slightest provocation.”

SCOTT: “Do NOT talk about Jean.”

EMMA: “I’m not insulting her. I’m calling it like it is. We played a role in Genosha’s destruction, yes. But it was a tiny one. We did not destroy Genosha. Like you told Magneto, WE saved the world.”

Scott stands up and walks over to Emma.

SCOTT: “You don’t believe a word you just said.”

EMMA: “Excuse me?”

SCOTT: “Exactly what I said. You’re blaming yourself as much as I am. You’ve never forgiven yourself for the Hellions or Synch and Skin, and I’m supposed to believe you don’t wish you’d died with the rest of them like I do? Please.”

Emma tries to maintain her front, but her wall is broken down as she hangs her head in shame.

EMMA: “If we’re stuck going on, we owe it to the four million of us still alive to do everything in our power to protect them.”

SCOTT: “I couldn’t agree more.”

EMMA: “Good.” Emma picks up her head, and, with it, puts back on her usual game face. “Then scootch over and let me handle half those screens so we may share the weight of the burden.”

Scott hesitates before agreeing and making room for her behind his desk.

SCOTT: “Thank you, Emma.”

EMMA: “You’re welcome, Scott.”

PAUSE

SCOTT: “Scott?”

EMMA: “We’re a little past, “Mr. Summers”, don’t you think?”

The two share a smile for just a moment before they get back to work.

Surge walks through the school’s hallways. Word of what’s happened has spread, but with the details only known by a select few, rumors are mixed in.

“Is Genosha really gone?”

“They can’t all be dead, right? No one can kill Magneto.”

“I heard it was aliens.” “You mean like the Shi’ar?” “No, stupid, Mutants are friends with the Shi’ar!”

“How long before we’re next?”

Noriko arrives at her destination and knocks on a door. Kitty tells her to come in.

Surge enters Kitty’s bedroom, which Noriko mutters under her breath could be confused for any teen girl’s here if not for her wall of degrees. She and Storm are seated on her bed, binder on their laps, deciding what to do for Carmen’s service.

Noriko tries to say hi and ask how they’re doing, but it all ends up coming out super fast and incomprehensible.

Kitty gets up and hugs her, Noriko’s uncontrolled electricity phasing right through her.

KITTY: “I’m living. More importantly, how are you?”

NORIKO: “I…really don’t need a therapist right now.” Nori pulls away. “Shit sucks. We all know it. We’re all scared. We’re fucked and probably going to die. I was kinda hoping I could just hang out with you and take my mind off things. Not like any of my squad are up for that.”

Kitty, first off, promises her that they aren’t going to die. The X-Men aren’t going to let that happen. But right now, if she needs a distraction, this isn’t the place to be.

KITTY: “My daddy lived on Genosha. He’s gone now, just like all those Mutants. Storm and I are just trying to figure out what to do for him.”

To Kitty’s surprise, Surge jumps at the chance to help. As Nori explains, Kitty’s always been better to her than any other teacher here besides Dani. Even when she was a bitch to her. And she wants to support her in turn. Plus, a task to focus on is a task.

Kitty smiles, and Ororo offers Noriko to come take a seat with them. Kitty and Nori sit down, and the three get back to work.

Still alone in his private medical room, Julian seethes with his eyes clenched shut. Opening them, he attempts to telekinetically bring a cup of water left for him up to his lips, instead of bending over to sip, but he ends up dropping it and spilling the water all over himself.

JULIAN: “DAMMIT!”

Julian re-shuts his eyes and is about to start crying when the door creaks open. He tells McCoy to go away, but Beast isn’t here.

“I do hope that isn’t a desire to give up I’m sensing, Mr. Keller.”

Julian opens his eyes and sees Emma.

EMMA: “After all, you still have so much potential. It would be a pity to waste it.”

Julian rolls over on his side and asks how she could possibly still think that looking at him now. He’s a damn cripple! Emma is quick to remind him that the founder of this school, and one of the most powerful and accomplished Mutants alive is wheelchair bound. Especially with the gifts he possesses, there’s nothing he can’t do now that he couldn’t do before.

Julian brushes that comment off and asks if they’ve told his parents what happened. Emma tells him she just got off the phone with them. The hung up as soon as she confirmed he was still alive.

JULIAN: “Yeah. Sounds right. Bastards.”

Emma tells him that, while this specifically isn’t something she’s experienced, she can imagine how he’s feeling. To go through such horrible trauma and pain, with your parents not giving a damn. To feel like all is lost and it’s not worth it to keep going. She knows these feelings well.

EMMA: “But you have something important that I did not. You have friends who care about you. Who’d do anything for you. You have Sofia. When I was at my lowest, I hardened my heart so that I could never be hurt again. Doing so only served to make me even more miserable. Don’t repeat my mistakes.”

She believes in him. And from Kitty’s report of what she witnessed in his battle with the sentinels, she knows she can still make a hero out of him a yet. A great one.

Julian seems like he’s gotten the message, but remains despondent. He thanks her, but he’d really like some privacy. As she leaves however…

JULIAN: “Wait…what ended up happening with Nova? And Ms. Grey?”

EMMA: “...get some sleep.”

We cut directly to Cassandra Nova. She’s in a secured jail cell, fully restrained, with a device on her head to block her telepathy. In spite of this, she has the widest grin on her face.

Scott and Emma enter this underground level of the Insitute, where they find Betsy and Rachel, who’ve been guarding Nova. Rachel in enraged upon seeing her dad and flies over to him, encased in her fiery aura.

RACHEL: “You have a lot of nerve coming down here with her.”

SCOTT: “There’s work to do, Rachel. Right now, we need to speak with Cassandra. But…please stay. I was actually hoping you might–”

RACHEL: “Dad, if you’re about to ask us to stay here and join your team, I’ll burn you where you stand.”

Scott hangs his head once again, while Rachel’s angered is somewhat quelled as a purple aura surrounds her, her wife mentally comforting her from a distance. Betsy then walks up to her and hooks her arm around hers. If they have this covered, they’ll be taking their leave now.

BETSY: “Well done proving you’ll never be anything but a bitch, Emma.”

EMMA: “Thank you, Captain. It’s what I strive to do everyday.”

As the two telepaths depart, Betsy telepathically tells Scott that she and Rachel will be returning to protecting the rest of the multiverse.

BETSY: “Do try to not let this one universe burn on your watch.”

With that, Captain Britain and Prestige leave.

Scott sighs. Emma tells him Rachel will forgive him one day. Ideally by then, she’ll actually understand what her deal is.

Scott and Emma enter Nova’s cell and confront her. She opens the conversation with mockery, asking how the ashes of Genosha smelled. Oh, how she wishes she could have smelled them herself. Losing to Storm and the others was very much not part of her plan, she wasn’t going to stop until all Mutants were dead, but she’ll just have to settle for slightly over 75% of them.

NOVA: “What ARE you planning on doing with me now? Hmm? Are you just going to keep me locked up here forever? Surely you could never trust SHEILD to keep me secure. Or maybe you’re going to kill me. Just like you did Stryker, Cyclops. Just like you have COUNTLESS people, Emma.”

Scott asks if he she truly feels no remorse, with Nova answering that she isn’t capable of feeling such a thing. Say, has he TOLD anyone what he did to Stryker yet? She imagines that will be a fun conversation.

She cackles.

NOVA: “Hmm. No. No, you haven’t. And that’s not all I’m sensing.” She looks right into Emma’s eyes, with hers bulging out. “You have no intention of leaving this room with me alive. Are you going to let this happen, Scott?”

Rather than answer, Scott has one more question for her. Her plan HINGED on Dark Phoenix. If she’d just unleashed those sentinels without her present, they would have been able to stop them, AND take her down much more easily.

Nova cackles. Oh, she’s so glad he asked.

NOVA: “Did you think the Purifiers popped into thin air? No, no, no. My plan began over one year ago. Just after the old X-Men broke up. Not only did I make contact with Styker and begin building my army of gullibe expendables, but I made contact with someone else - the Phoenix. While you and Jean were enjoying your vacation from do-gooding, I was speaking with the primal force inside her. It respected my power, and way I’d fought to cling to the life I was owed. And in turn, I respected it. The most powerful force in the universe. The most perfect. And I was sure to remind it of this. How it was beyond all other beings. And how if it was going to choose to continue living among humans, it deserved the best from them. Slowly but surely, it began to influence Jean more and more. And you didn’t even notice. Because while she may have been acting too good to be true, that was how every single one of you saw her already. All it would take now would be one good push to send her flying over the edge. One betrayal.”

Nova cackles again as a horrified look of realization materializes on Scott’s face.

NOVA: “I had no way of knowing you and Emma would sleep together though! That was Christmas morning for me! My plan was just to have William break you and force you to kill him, and let that one act slowly break apart your relationship, but then you went and betrayed her in such a more personal way that very same night! All of this was inevitable, but thank you so much, Cyclops, for speeding up my timeline!”

Nova continues to cackle. And cackle. And cackle. And cackle and cackle and cackle and cackle.

Until she can’t cackle anymore.

With a single blast, Cyclops blows her head off.

Scott is frozen. He shows no signs of regret over what he just did, but he needs a moment to process it. Emma holds his hand.

EMMA: “There was no other way.”

CYCLOPS: “Nothing she said changes anything. We’ll never know if her original plan would have worked, or if she only succeeded because of us.” Scott pauses. “You don’t need to take the fall for Stryker’s death. Or for this. I’ll tell them everything.” He pauses once more. “Thank you for saving my life.”

Emma weakly smiles and rests her head on Scott’s shoulder. Scott rests his head on hers.

With sunset having arrived, Storm, Kitty, and Surge are gathered in the school’s cemetery. There was no body to bury. They couldn’t even tell which ashes were his. But they could at least give him a tombstone.

Wrapped in a tallit, Kitty reads from a Hebrew prayer book, while Storm and Surge struggle not to cry. The prayer ends with them all saying “Amen”, and Kitty’s mother and student holding her.

In his room, Julian is eating dinner, struggling but managing to use his form with his telekinesis. Once more, there’s a knock on his door. He sighs and tells whoever it is to come in. He knows they will anyway.

His eyes widen as Sofia enters.

Julian starts asking her not to look at him like this, but she cuts him off, exclaiming how fully of joy she is that he’s okay.

JULIAN: “Okay? Do I look okay?”

Sofia flies over so that she’s next to him.

SOFIA: “You are alive. That is all that’s important to me.”

She slowly places a hand on his face and tells him she’s going to help him get through this. His whole crew will. Things will be better soon. And then they can resume training to assure their bright future. She’s so sorry she pushed him to keep fighting when he wasn’t prepared to, but she saw how excellent he was when he did join the battle. She never wants to go into battle without him at her side.

Julian nods. He hears her.

And then he telekinetically removes her hand from his face.

JULIAN: “I appreciate the apology. Now fuck off.”

SOFIA: “Wh…what?”

JULIAN: “Leave! You hear me?! We’re through!”

Sofia instantly begins crying.

SOFIA: “You…what are you saying?”

JULIAN: “Suddenly so dumb you forgot how to speak English? I’m over you! So get out of my life.”

Sofia is fully sobbing.

SOFIA: “You do not mean this. You would never be so cruel to me.”

JULIAN: “Surprise! Ashida was right! I’m a jackass, and you never should have gotten involved with me!”

With her face red and puffy, covered in tears and mucus, and her makeup ruined, Sofia flies out of the room, blowing a powerful wind behind her that knocks over some equipment, and knocks Julian’s dinner onto him.

JULIAN: “Fuck. Fuck!”

We cut back and forth between an X-Men team meeting, and a school assembly. In the assembly, Scott makes clear the tragedies of all that’s transpired clear to the students. The world will always hate them. No one is coming to save them, even after this. But that’s why the most important thing they can do is protect each other.

While he’s speaking, we see Julian still in bed, not present at all, Cessily and Roxy in attendance, holding hands in fear, Sooraya seated next to them with more firm confidence, Noriko and Brian ditching to go work out, and Sofia, alone in the dark her room, crying into her pillow.

In his office, Cyclops has Emma, Storm, Kitty, and Wolverine gathered. He’s just finished telling them about Stryker and Nova’s deaths.

While Laura is surprised by Scott going against everything he’s been teaching her, “X-Men don’t kill” and all that, she has no issue seeing why these two would be exceptions. Storm to Scott’s relief agrees with Laura, while Kitty continues to be disappointed in him.

That all said, there’s the issue of the future of the X-Men. They must continue. They must protect the 4 million of them left, and see to it that they can restore their numbers, no matter what it takes. However, he completely understands if the team doesn’t want him and/or Emma to continue being a part of this. Or, even if they do, if they’re prefer Storm be put in charge of both the team and the school. Beto gave his right to vote by not being here, so it’s solely up to Storm, Kitty, and Laura.

CYCLOPS: “Emma, first. What do you all want?”

The three take a moment to think. Laura is the first to answer. Yes, the two did a bad thing. But it was a bad thing largely unconnected to the mission. They had no idea what would happen. And from the sound of things. Nova’s plan would have gone off either way. Tactically, Scott is their best tactician, and Emma their most powerful fighter left, alongside Storm. She gets all three of her votes out of the way, wanting both Scott and Emma to stay, and for Scott to remain in charge.

Storm is quick to follow Laura’s vote. She wants Emma gone. Regardless of everything else, it’s undeniable that this wouldn’t have happened if she’d never come here. Scott never would have done something like this if she’d never come here. It’s time for her to leave.

Emma’s fate is left in Kitty’s hands.

KITTY: “You’re a bitch, Emma. You’re a monster. For most of my life, you were what I pictured when I thought about the concept of evil.” She sighs. “But Laura’s right. You’re one of our strongest. And with Betsy and Rachel not staying, you’re the only one left who can operate Cerebro. Finding new Mutants and keeping them safe is more important than ever. To say nothing about the kids. They just lost one headmistress. It would just scare them even more if another one disappeared. And with Hellion in the condition he is right now, he needs you most. I hate having to say this, but we need you.”

Emma grins, delighted that her staying here is settled.

As for Scott, Storm and Kitty make it unanimous that he should stay, but only Storm votes for him to stay in charge.

KITTY: “I’m sorry, but I don’t trust you as much as I need to right now.”

Scott understands. Still, that’s 2-1. He thanks Ororo for HER trust.

Storm knows he’s made mistakes before, but the Scott Summers she knows, the Cyclops she knows, learns from them. And she trusts him to not be duped or manipulated by witches again. She also clarifies that her vote comes with a condition. If Emma MUST stay, she may continue to help run the school, but she wants it very clear that SHE is second in command of the X-Men. Scott easily agrees to this.

SCOTT: “Thank you, my sister.”

ORORO: “Do not let me down, my brother.”

Scott takes a breath. This isn’t going to be easy, but he knows they’ll make it through this. It’s time to get to work.

SCOTT: “To me, my X-Men!”

#New X-Men: The Animated Series #New X-Men #Academy X #Scott Summers #Emma Frost #Ororo Munroe #Kitty Pryde #Roberto Da Costa #Laura Kinney #Bobby Drake #Sofia Mantega #Julian Keller #Noriko Ashida #Sooraya Qadir #Cessily Kincaid #Brian Cruz #Roxanne Washington #The Stepford Cuckoos

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sharkdays · 1 year ago

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ok finally got to watch the new horizons ep (HZ014) and HOOOLY SHIT

i guess this is still new so spoilers under the cut

first of all Liko, Murdock and Friede reassuring Dot that she shouldn’t stress over the system too much was really sweet, as well as Murdock later thanking Liko for being friendly to Dot. Also, it’s very small but Murdock brought Dot her breakfast and she ate it! it’s a really good way to show the slight development Dot’s having, while still being kinda subtle about it.

Roy and Hogator helping Kaiden fly was super sweet as well, it’s nice that we’re finally getting a new pokemon added to the roster. Roy and Hogator have quickly become one of my favorite parts of the series, and catches like these where there’s some bonding beforehand with no expectation of the catch always make me emotional. (Also, Hogator’s little antennae(?) flopping down when they got wet was super cute!) Nyahoja is personally a favorite of mine but this series has made me really like Hogator too.

Seeing Friede’s genuine frustration when he was cornered by Beeheeyem and Rarecoil was really interesting when compared to his more lax nature we usually see, especially in contrast to his interactions with Amethio. Seeing them terrastalize was cool, also. I understand he probably didn’t want to stress the crew out, but not saying anything regarding the flock of Rarecoil, or even warning them to be careful/not allowing Liko and Roy to go off on their own is really gonna bite him in the ass soon.

It seems at this point the RVT aren’t aware of what happened to Liko, either. It’s at times like these that i remember how op pokemon like Beeheeyem can be, esp in the anime. It seems Liko and Nyahoja got their memories wiped, if the preview for next week is anything to go by.

Spinel makes for such a scary villain, unironically. His sleuthing and clever use of his pokemon give him a huge advantage, and seeing a competent villain is really thrilling and nice. It’s a good thing he hasn’t seemed to connect the importance of both Liko and her pendant, he could have straight up snatched her and taken her to the Explorer’s HQ and everyone would be none the wiser.

Anyways, this episode was a treat and well worth the wait, i already can’t wait for next week (but that’s pretty typical at this point, heh)

#shark speaks #pokemon #pokemon horizons #pkmn #pokeani #anipoke #*banging on the door* WHERE IS AMETHIO #WHERE IS HEEEEE

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xerozero87 · 2 years ago

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saw an article this afternoon titled ‘sonic the hedgehog fans want to see maria die in the third movie’ and you know what? yeah, a lot of us do, and for good reason.

one of the most important things about maria’s death is that it’s not just a death for the sake of death. she doesn’t die for no reason. her death makes sense within the canon of sa2 as a self contained story. even if shadow actually died at the end of that game like originally planned and we never got to see more of his backstory, never got a more fleshed out past for him, maria’s death would still make sense. it doesn’t come out of nowhere and have no actual impact on the characters or story like a lot of other side character deaths.

maria’s death shapes shadow as a character in sa2 and shadow the hedgehog 2005, it causes him to make the decisions he makes, gives him his motives, his drive, his worldview. shadow may have been physically made in a lab by gerald robotnik and black doom, but he was built and shaped emotionally and mentally by maria and her death. he has the opinions he has about the world and humanity because of maria’s death at the hands of the gun soldiers, and he takes certain actions because of those views. he saves rouge in sa2 because he couldn’t save maria, at the end of the same game he sacrifices himself for the safety of the planet and the life on it because of the promise he made to her before she died.

maria’s death isn’t just important to shadow’s character and story either, it contributes to more within the full canon of the franchise. it’s because of maria’s death that gerald robotnik makes the ark head towards the planet so that, even beyond the grave, he can have his revenge, he can avenge his granddaughter. it’s because of maria’s death that shadow is able to change his opinions and views later on, in spite of his trauma and history, and can work with sonic to defeat the biolizard and help save the world. not to mention, it’s because of maria that shadow exists in the first place, it wouldn’t make sense to end their story together without actually seeing her die.

most fans probably haven’t seen maria actually die anyway. sure, they may have seen the original animation planned for shadow the hedgehog 2005, or the censored static version in the final game, or may have seen the scene in sa2 (I believe) where she sends shadow to earth, but for the most part, fans have not seen maria’s actual death, only the moments before. in recent years, it’s become a rule of storytelling that viewers shouldn’t believe a character is dead until they see a body or the moment the character dies. if they really want to send the message that maria is dead, that people do get affected by things that happen in the sonic franchise story, if they want this to hit as hard as it should, then fans need to see that maria is dead without a doubt.

in other vein, the sonic movies are to reignite old love for the franchise and to introduce younger people to sonic. these younger and newer fans aren’t likely to know the full story of the games if they’re just being introduced to sonic now. they deserve to know the full story the same as the game fans do, even if the timeline has become incredibly convoluted and it’s difficult to tell just what games, comic series, etc. are canon, and considering that (at least as far as I know) the movies are reasonably close to game canon while tweaking some things appropriately for the different setting (ie., introducing tom, maddie, wade, stone, etc. and making them actual, at least semi-important characters, changing robotnik’s motives in the first movie, stuff like that), so it wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense to suddenly divert from something so important in game canon.

personally, I’m also part of the camp who want to see shadow portrayed the way he was back in sa2, not his more recent characterisation. since the second movie treated knuckles with the respect that sega has lacked for a while, and showed him more in line with his original portrayal - naive and misplacing his trust in robotnik, a proud warrior who knows what he’s doing for the most part, a character with his own responsibilities and drive and trauma, someone with an actual personality who isn’t just there to be the comedic punching bag - it isn’t too much to ask for shadow to be treated the same, is it? sure, he was never the most kind character in the franchise, but he also wasn’t originally just the edgy asshole of the group who didn’t actually like anyone. his friendships meant a lot to him back then, with maria and later with rouge and omega. we want to see shadow have actual emotions, real motives, and showing maria’s death as it happened instead of censoring it too heavily or cutting away so we don’t see it at all would remove any possibility of that.

shadow himself is such an important character in the sonic franchise canon. not including his main drive and motive, not fully telling his story and fleshing him out properly like everyone else in the movies, would not only make no sense, but would also be a huge slap in the face for shadow and his fans.

there are some brilliant videos out there that talk about shadow’s character, motives, development, etc. in more detail and better than I could, so I’ll be leaving a couple here for anyone who’s interested.

youtube

tl;dr: shadow’s story hinges on maria’s death, and if we don’t actually get to see that happen, then the third movie and shadow’s involvement in it will not have as much of an effect as they should. shadow deserves the same respect the other established sonic characters got.

thank you to anyone who read this. I’m sorry if it’s way too long, if there are a bunch of typos, if it loops a whole bunch or drives points until they become redundant, I’m typing this in a bit of a rush just because I want to get it out there and empty out all my thoughts on this so I don’t forget many. if I did miss anything, feel free to add it on. thank you again. have a good day.

#shadow the hedgehog #sonic the hedgehog #sonic the hedgehog movie #sonic movie #sonic movie 2 #sth #i swear if shadow gets shafted or mistreated in the third film I will be starting a riot #they treated knuckles really well so I hope shadow gets the same respect #shadow may have been made in a lab by gerald and black doom #but he was built and shaped emotionally and mentally by maria’s death #give shadow actual emotions please I am begging you #make him affected by things #he’s not heartless #he’s not just edgy the hedgy #give him some depth #again #please #Youtube

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venusenvvvy · 2 years ago

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Re: The Last of Us (Season 1, Episode 3) - no game spoilers or post episode 3 spoilers.

I can’t get this out of my head so here is a short, rough, unedited and rambling essay.

This episode was so important and necessary. Because of the world it takes place in and the wider story of The Last of Us, this answers an insanely pertinent question: “Why try?”

The Last of Us is dark. Throughout the series and game respectively, you see the characters fight to survive day in and day out. In the game specifically, you fight to survive. Every day is a struggle. Food and medicine are scarce and the government is authoritarian. Anyone you risk getting close to you are in danger of losing. After losing his daughter Sarah, like most trauma survivors Joel goes into survival mode. He distances himself from his only remaining family, his brother, who joins the rebellion to fight for a better life. He refuses to get close to Tess, who it’s revealed has been by his side - his literal partner in crime - for over a decade. He pushes her away, scared to love her and lose her, and loses her anyway.

You see a lot of jokes online about how people would immediately kill themselves if they saw a zombie apocalypse coming on. Jokes about seeing a clicker and immediately giving up. But in your heart, you know they wouldn’t. Just like you, they’d fight to live. But why? Surely it can’t all be biological, animal instinct. Why do humans, even in the worst of times, fight so hard to survive against all odds?

This episode is the answer. Because in-between all the hardship, and the pain, and the fear of losing the people you love, there’s all these little moments. All this joy and life and beauty and love left in the world, if we allow ourselves to build it. Only in the aftermath of a long and beautiful life full of joy and love and good food and art, when Frank’s quality of life is almost nonexistent, does he make the decision that he is finished. Like leaving a party when it’s over and everyone has gone, when the lights and music are off and the wine is empty. And at the end of it all, when Frank and Bill are old and sitting at the dinner table with a poisoned bottle of wine, you don’t ask yourself: Was it worth all the work? The struggle? Because you already know it was.

(There’s also something to be said about this storyline and the parallels one can draw to older gay couples and how they’ve had to fight for their happy endings, and to experience queer love and joy in the face of danger; of violent bigotry and homophobia. Especially when Frank develops and incurable, terminal chronic illness that seems to slowly eat away at his quality of life - but that’s a different, tangential essay.)

Those moments are why these characters are fighting to live. That is why they struggle every day to make the world a better place. That is why Joel is taking Ellie across the country in hope of a cure. That is why he should let Ellie into his life - shouldn’t give up on connecting with other people. That is why you should root for these characters.

So, yeah. This episode a masterpiece of well made television. It’s a masterclass in cinematography; screenwriting, characterization and development, acting, prop and set design, presenting the passage of time on screen in a natural and non-jarring way (I could go on, of course). It’s an incredible step forward for queer representation in popular media, and the normalization of gay love on screen. It’s a whispered apology for how Bill and Frank’s relationship is treated in the original game.

It’s all these things: But it’s also absolutely, without a doubt, crucial to the atmosphere and plot of the series, that will recontextualize future episodes. Anyone that claims it adds nothing to the narrative, or brushes it off as HBO dragging the plot to a standstill so that they can “appease the woke mob” by “shoving gayness down the audiences throat”, is an idiot bigot that can suck my tr*nny clit-dick.

#lgbtq #the last of us spoilers #the last of us #the last of us season 1 episode 3 #queer representation #bill and frank #storytelling

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seiwas-interact · 1 year ago

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HI i was gonna tag you at first but i figured it’d be easier to just write here :D i’m sorry in advance if this turns out rly long!! i just really wanna take the time to show my appreciation for everything you said on that satoru piece <33

first of all THANK YOU???? SO MUCH?????? like i literally can’t describe in words how happy it made me to read all you wrote, i was giggling n kicking my feet and everything. no but really tysm!! <3 for being so kind and for taking the time to comment on it so thoughtfully!!! it means so much you have no idea!!!!!!!🥺🥺and pls never apologize for the rambling i got sosososoo happy reading all the lines you liked and all your thoughts, i can’t thank u enough!! <33

i thought you couldn’t top the shoujo anime comment but comparing it to an indie movie scene is. so kind. ”scenes that feel almost stolen if anything” like that’s such a nice thing to say??!!! i was definitely going for that kind of vibe too so i’m so happy it came across well :’3 subtle intimacy is also like. my FAVORITE thing to write ever so i was ecstatic that u enjoyed it!!!!!

oh and the reader too!! i’m so relieved you liked them!! it’s not even intentional atp but every time i write for satoru reader ends up extremely down bad bc my love for him bleeds thru😭😭i’m sick and tired of it tbh but i’m physically incapable of pairing him w anyone who isn’t constantly like ’i love my dumbass bf’….. he deserves to be praised for all he does!! god knows no one else in that series is telling him good job and patting him on the head and giving him treats. smh.

overall i’m just. genuinely so, so happy you liked my take on satoru and love, it’s such a huge part of his character even in canon so i try my best to do it justice!! i feel like satoru would just benefit soooo much from a really sweet, gentle, easygoing love bc like you said he’s just. carrying so much weight on his shoulders, and especially after his love w suguru ended so tragically and was so heavy i just think he’d like something light.

for the record i absolutely adore your take on it too!!! how being loved makes him feel small but not in a bad way, how he feels so safe w you……… how he can just be satoru. like it made me insane when i read it bc you’re so RIGHT. i love your satoru sm, you make him feel so human and capture that vulnerable side of him so well that it kinda hurts to read LMAO… it’s just so…!!!! yeah. it’s so tender and good and achey

aaa and and and…. it makes me so soft that u thought my writing was homey….🥺🥺mine def leans more towards introspective thoughts and feelings too!! it’s just too fun to dig into your fave’s psyche lol.

anyway i feel like i’m just rambling away in your askbox so i’ll leave it there but pls just know how much i love and appreciate you <33 no need to answer this btw i just needed u to know!!!!! i feel like we all need some gojo fluff after those leaks LMAOO (i am in extreme misery) so i hope the fic could be a small comfort…… i’m just here writing sickeningly fluffy gojo content to distract myself from the manga atp…………

hi darlin omg 🥺 help we’re both just apologising for rambling on eachothers pages omg 😭 pls don’t apologise aaah!!! this is so so sweet of you 🥺

OF COURSE i had to comment thoughtfully on your fic omg it’s what you deserve!!! 🥺 it rlly tickled so many parts of my brain when it came to understanding satoru’s perspective!! tugged at my heart just as much too 🥺 i love introspective works a lot 🤧

i’m so happy i was able to get the vibe of it right too omg 🥺 as a reader who writes i think i get a lot more conscious now if what i understabd overlaps with what the writer is trying to portray omg akksnxkd but yes subtle intimacy omg 🥺

and yes to lovesick reader too 😭😭 i enjoy all dynamics but i have an extremely soft spot for when both are whipped for one another and for satoru especially !!!! our baby boy 🥺

& re: satoru and love, i think so too !!! i think that guy needs some luvin in his life and it shouldn’t be any more difficult than all the shit he’s been thru already 😭 that lil scene u added the ‘be careful satoru’ one i think omfg IT ACHED

AND AAAAH how u like my satoru too omg 🥺 thank u thank u 🥺 that’s such a compliment!! tender and achey 🥹 i do try to humanise him as much as i can so i’m glad it came across 🥹 ur satoru 🤝 my satoru 🥹🫶🏻

i hope u’re ok after the leaks!!! i’ve also just been thinking up all the fluffiest, most comforting ideas to cope 🤧 josnxkdn

read ‘i’ll relearn love at our kitchen table’ (super soft n comforting gojo!!! ☹️ tugged at my heart!!!!)

#let’s be friends !!! since we r now moots hehe :>#what would u want me to call u !!!#also !! messaging my other blog is ok too :’)) i respond there as well !!#rep #ask #twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat #love mail

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cocoabubbelle · 2 years ago

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Watching “Scooby Doo, Where Are You?” (1969-1970 CBS) + Thoughts

Episode 22: Haunted House Hang Up

A headless man?

Shaggy can play the guitar, and Scooby drums.

Asha Shanks, a slouching big guy with a lantern, giving Scooby and Shaggy war flashbacks with the last big guy who held a lantern on their first meeting.

Headless Specter? Was the Dullahan too hard to pronounce??? (Dullahan = Headless Horseman monster from Irish folklore)

“The non-material embodiment or essence or organism that’s seen as a specter, wraith, or apparition has been scientifically proven to be a sheer myth. In other words, there’s no such thing as a ghost.” “Yeah, but does the ghost know that?” I now know why Velma wasn’t chosen to be part of Scooby Doo and the 13 Ghosts.

Floating candle! Will they actually explain it this time?

Cue Old-painting-of-an-older-person-but-if-you-look-away-for-a-moment-then-it-changes-in-a-creepy-way gag.

Is it just me or has the animation/design for the Scooby gang become significantly more wonky since they’ve entered the mansion?

We watch Headless Ghost using secret passageways to travel in the house. Seems interested in a jewelry box?

Shaggy pranking Scoob so that the poor dog accidentally volunteers to open the jewelry box for everyone. Maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on him for swiping Shaggy’s food from now on 😅

Bruh. Is it weird that when I saw a man’s head in the opened box, my first thought was “Oh, that is a nicely rendered head. Look at the details in the lines and values 🤩” , and then “Oh. That’s a HEAD?”

False alarm. ‘Tis a wooden dummy’s head.

“Aren’t you curious [about this mystery]?” “NOT ONE BIT.”

A random though popped into my mind. It is NOT CANON, but I wondered momentarily if Fred kept splitting the gang up the way he usually does because he’s always had some kind of crush on Daphne and was hoping to impress her. Occasionally he invited Velma so no one would notice, but all of them know but don’t want to embarrass him by pointing it out?

Velma shoves Shaggy and Scooby ahead of her into a dark room instead of going in first.

“I feel like I’ve been dipped in ink and let loose in a coal mine.”

Ah, the let’s-hold-hands-in-a-dark-room-so-we-don’t-lose-each-other-only-to-discover-we’ve-gained/lost-a-member-in-our-team-when-the-lights-are-on gag

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: Animation is WONKY this episode.

Cue this episode’s chase scene’s theme song.

“Headless” Specter has to bend super down low to look at specific things bc the guy who made his own costume didn’t think to create incognito areas/fabric to see (and yes I’m saying he made his own costume bc I believe Trick or Treat, Scooby Doo to be part of a different canon universe than the series and the older movies, just like how I view the live action films, the live action series, and the other adaptations. I think some fans arguing over which versions of the Scooby Gang’s are the “true”/“actual”/“correct” interpretations of these characters are a tad silly because even the original show had trouble pinpointing their personalities at times. Have fun and be cool.)

I know it’s in the name of good fun and shenanigans, but seeing all of those books being shoved off the library bookshelf by Shelma and Scooby made the book lover in me wince.

Headless Specter loses whatever little dignity he thought he had by jumping on the bed and angrily bouncing and stomping on the “bodies” (actually pillows) of Shaggy, Velma, and Scooby. Wow, dude.

A spinning wheel also serves as a bicycle. Shenanigans.

The well that was shown earlier has a secret passage.

We finally see what Fraphne is up to, and lo and behold, they are actually looking for clues and being useful as opposed to the writers usually having no clue what to do with them when they split the gang up.

Animation Goof: Daphne’s eyebrows disappear until she speaks.

Oooh! A trapdoor.

“Let’s take a look and be careful.” Me: *immediately begins countdown.* “Whoops!!” Only two seconds for Danger-Prone Daphne to slip 😅

I accidentally paused to talk to someone, and I have to restrain myself from laughing at the horrible twisted wince/scowl face Daphne is making as she is talking. Not sure why the animators are doing more in-betweens here between poses when the earlier episodes were just fine without them. Can’t fault them too much for making an attempt though.

Methinks the artists didn’t want Velma getting hit when Fred and Daphne are about to chuck jars at her, Shag, and Scooby out of self-defense, as we see in previous episodes Shaggy usually gets throttled from a misunderstanding.

I vaguely remember a scene where Shaggy and Scooby accidentally chew on non-inflated balloons thinking they were treats when I was younger; didn’t realize it was from this episode.

Animation Goof: Shaggy’s eyebrows are too thick for any man to handle.

Don’t know why later adaptations dumb Freddy down; he’s just as smart as Velma. There’s room for multiple smart people who are knowledgeable in differing areas! This is why I ship Frelma *gets slapped*

Why on earth would you give a Scooby Snack to a Flytrap, Shaggy? That’s just asking for an early version of Little Shop of Horrors.

Where did the Headless Specter come from?

Show is inconsistent with Shaggy and Scooby’s weights.

No chickens were harmed in the making of this episode (I hope 😅)

Huh. The Headless Specter isn’t Asha Shanks. Also, Headless Specter man isn’t the bad guy? He’s just trying to ward off grave-diggers and robbers?

Asha Shanks is the criminal, but he has nowhere near the same level of creativity or drama as the Headless Specter man.

“And I’d have found [the treasure first] if it weren’t for you snoopers!”

Day 22 of no “And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids!”

#shenanigans #scooby doo #daphne blake #scooby doo where are you #scooby dooby doo #velma dinkley #fred jones #hanna barbera #shaggy rogers #shaggy norville rogers #frelma #fraphne

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adultswim2021 · 2 years ago

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Superjail! #1 “Bunny Love” | May 13, 2007 - 11:30PM | S00E01

MAN did I love this show. MAN, did I love this pilot. MAN, do I NOT want to have to write up six pilots in a row. Fuck me. First episodes always take forever, because I have to describe the reason the series exists in the first place. This can eat up time.

The show was created by Christy Karacas, Stephen Warbrick, and Ben Gruber. They all met working on various MTV animation shows. Karacas got his student film “Space War” on Cartoon Sushi. He and Warbrick made Bar Fight in 2001. Boy, that one’s hard to find in decent quality. I actually bought a DVD called “Avoid Eye Contact” (Volume 2) just to get a nice copy of it. Uh, sorry I don’t have it handy. I think I sold the DVD, too. Sucks! Anyway, Bar Fight is very much a prototype for Superjail. Nearly every episode of Superjail (including this one) basically turns into Bar Fight by the end of the episode.

Superjail is a gritty but hyper-cartoony body-horror slapstick comedy about a place called Superjail, run by a William Wonka style Warden voiced by David Wain in the role a lifetime. He is magical, and can do basically anything with cartoon magic (everyone else is a little more down to earth). His staff includes Guard Alice, who is very clearly a former man (jokes that maybe haven’t aged so well if you’re one of them “BEING NICE” people). She’s exceptionally sadistic, and doesn’t take shit from anyone, even the Warden. In one scene we see her force a starving prisoner to put on a gown and perform a dance set to a disco beat for his meal (which she doesn’t even give him)

Jarred is the accountant, a little guy with a nerdso voice. It’s hinted that he has an alcohol problem. He’s a very typical bureaucrat through and through. He’s extremely anxious and fragile, the exact type of person who shouldn’t be anywhere near an environment like this. In one scene we see him crunch the numbers to accommodate the Warden’s plan (more on this later okay) and slash all extra-curriculars, like the vegetable garden. We are treated to a very funny scene of all the garden crops, all cartoonishly alive and able to talk, panicking briefly before being harshly mowed by JailBot.

Jailbot is the Warden’s robotic servant. His main role is going out into the “real world” to apprehend a criminal at the moment they succumb to recidivism. Each episode starts out with Jailbot apprehending the same character: Jackknife. He’s a very typical greaser-inspired low-life who speaks in grunts and is prone to brutal violence. In this episode he is released from prison and immediately beats a rich guy presumably to death to steal his cool rich guy car. Jackknife discovers a small child, a little crying girl, in the backseat. He feels slight remorse, so he crashes the car into a bar, walks out with a presumably stolen beer, and walks into the pet store next door to get her a pink bunny rabbit (noticing her I HEART BUNNIES shirt she’s wearing). As he attempts to smuggle it out in his pants, Jailbot busts in and fucks the entire place up, completely destroying the store and many of the animals in it, all to apprehend the car/beer/bunny thief.

Jailbot handcuffs Jackknife and then lifts off with his go-go Gadget helicopter blades, with Jackknife dangling beneath him by the wrists. Jailbot looks back and notices the little girl, crying. Jailbot cries a single digital tear, and then produces a cone of vanilla softserve for her. He’s already some distance away from her, so he torpedoes it into her face. I can remember a bump that aired where they showed off the character designs from this then-upcoming pilot. In some early conception of the show, she was intended to be Jackknife’s daughter, because they are shown together, both flipping off the camera (if I remember correctly).

Jailbot drags Jackknife to Superjail through various alternate planes of existence. The creators of the show didn’t want to simply portray Superjail as having definitive coordinates, or on the moon or something. It’s almost like Jailbot is taking Jackkinfe through a passageway through the more fantastical. This opening sequence changes every single episode, featuring different worlds or climates. It always ends with clouds forming the face of the Warden, who opens his mouth and swallows our little guys. There’s a flash of white, as though we’re now magically transported to one wacky world, where magical and violent things can happen. Superjail’s entryway is through the side of a giant volcano, and the end credits imply that the entire facility is inside said volcano (despite seeing blue sky and other climates in various scenes).

The thing that’s great about Superjail is not just that it’s visually stunning, it actually uses it’s visuals constantly. For example, when Jackknife is deposited into Superjail it’s through a series of pods, roller coasters, giant hairdryers, etc. He is deposited into a room where he’s instructed to take a pill. The Warden appears to him writing the back of a Pegasus in some fantasy climate. He explains simply that he’s now in Superjail, and to say hello to his new roommate. Suddenly a fist hits Jackknife in the face, and the dream cloud shrinks behind him. He’s now in his cell.

The scene I mentioned earlier where Jarred cuts the vegetable garden and we see all the little vegetable guys panic, we move toward that scene by showing one of Jarred’s plants shapeshift into a satellite dish, beaming plant-signals to the garden as if Jarred’s potted plant’s station in life is to report plant goings-on to other plants. He’s a mole, or a spy or something. We see these beams go through the walls until they finally reach the garden. When they get mowed, we pan back inside Superjail, entering a window looking out into the garden before going onto the next scene. The show fluidly transitions from one thing to the next. It’s a joy to watch.

We also meet various prisoners. There’s Gary and Bird. Gary is a stoic, secretive type; the kind where it’s a coin toss as to weather or not they are government agents or serial killers. Bird, an actual yellow bird, is high on the foodchain in the hierarchy of the prison yard. Gary has a human roommate who is a fat slob whose mouth always gets him maimed or killed. This isn’t apparent from the pilot, but all of these guys recur throughout the series, getting murdered in one episode and coming back for the next like so much Kenny McCormick.

There’s also the Twins, who don’t seem to be prisoners. They are also magical like the Warden, though their magic is more grounded in science fiction alien technology or something like that. They seem otherworldly, and their reason for being there is unexplained. They seem to have free reign over the prison. According to the creators, their roles originated from an early version of the script where they were the most skilled criminals to ever exist. They were the only ones who could escape Superjail, so the Warden formed some sort of uneasy alliance with them. All that got tossed out, but they just liked these characters so had them be there for some mysterious reason. I do believe they get some backstory later in the series.

Another term used by the creators was “overload”; they wanted every scene to go above and beyond with the animation, packing each frame with as much movement and weirdness as possible. Mad, back when it was a comic book and not yet a Magazine, would do a similar thing where each panel would be packed with as many background jokes as the artist could stomach drawing. Will Elder called it “chicken fat” It’s no surprise that when Christy Karacas was asked to name some influences for the show, Mad was one of them. I got a list from this interview, and it’s a veritable whos-who of stuff you should google if you don’t know about them. I actually made an alphabetical list of them, for some reason:

Beavis and Butt-Head

Bob Clampett

child art

Chuck Jones

Dr. Seuss

Earthworm Jim

Fleischer Studios

Gary Panter

Hanna-Barbera

Itchy & Scratchy

John Kricfalusi (yikes!)

Looney Tunes

Mad

Mike Diana

Monty Python

The Muppets

outsider art

Pee-wee's Playhouse

Ralph Bakshi

Ripley's Believe It or Not!

Robert Crumb

Sally Cruikshank

Schoolhouse Rock!

Sesame Street

Tex Avery

Tom Ruegger

Vince Collins

Walt Disney

Yellow Submarine

The plot of the show! I’ve barely mentioned it. Inspired by the pink bunny that Jackknife was trying to steal (Jailbot has the rabbit’s corpse and produces it to the Warden, who mangles it further and then places it on his head like a hat while hatching this plot I mentioned earlier), the Warden decides to order new uniforms for the prisoners: pink bunny costumes. The Twins intercept this order and change it, so that 50% of the inmates get bunny costumes, and the other half get wolf costumes. This causes a naturally-occurring divide, where the inmates start going nuts, killing each other.

When there’s a full moon, a full-scale, destructive brawl breaks out that goes to many weird places. The Cafeteria staff (all stereotypical lunch ladies) get in the mix, mistaking the bunnies and wolves for their unslain meat order. They begin slicing and dicing inmates. Eventually they accidentally cause a big lump of meat to electrify and come to life. This guy also kills a few inmates, eats a couple of lunch ladies (who are all worshiping it like a god), and then crash through the walls of Superjail like the Hulk or the Kool-Aid man, or The Rabbot. Jackknife is seen running out of this hole. This is another repeated bit; Jackknife begins every episode being brutally apprehended by Jailbot, and typically is seen escaping by the end of the episode.

The reason I love Superjail is mostly the animation, though the writing isn’t bad either. The writing is solid, and the few dialogue jokes made here are typically low-brow or bluntly funny. There’s nothing try-hard or pretentious about the show almost at all. The characters and the action are all sweetly cartoony. Even though grotesque and brutal things happen, they are done with a playful innocence. You can tell that the people who made this all love art, and so fondly remember the time they first saw an edgy, gross, or iconoclastic thing that energized them so much that they dedicated their life one day getting a chance to make something like that, and want a new generation to feel that same feeling. “This is cool, and weird, and wrong, and I love it”

This playful feeling might take the sting out of certain other problematic elements the show might have, like Alice’s gender stuff, or the possibly offensive portrayal of the prison gay couple, or maybe some other things people have trouble overlooking. You get the sense that even though these people are cartoonish caricatures that the creators of the show still like these guys. We’re all just laughing’ and having a good time, my dude! CHILL OUT!

Did I talk about the theme song? No? For this pilot, it’s “Rubber Bullets” by 10CC. I love it’s use here, and I remember being disappointed by the change when the show went to series. I grew to love that other theme song, which is by the band Cheeseburger, which Christy Karacas happens to be in. I like them! They’re fun! You should check them out!

Uh, what else. Oh, Jackson Publick from the Venture Bros does a voice on here. That’s cool. Dave Willis is the one that pitched that the Warden should wear the bunny corpse like a hat. That’s nice. Okay, I guess that’s it. Wow, this was long.

A Night of 1000 Pilots (May 13, 2007)

Superjail was part of Adult Swim’s “A Night of 1000 Pilots!” a special evening when Adult Swim showed five pilots for proposed series. I don’t quite remember all of the details, but I do remember that the shows were available for viewing online before they aired on television. Viewers voted for their favorite, and they were shown in order of who got the most votes. Superjail was the winner, and indeed was the one that performed the best once aired. It had four freaking seasons! The perfect amount! I guess you can go look up where the other pilots ranked, but I’m going to pretend like I’m gatekeeping that information and rolling it out on my blog, exclusively. Sorry haters! But I know stuff!

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