#and people barely even acknowledge it. but suddenly the origin is crucial when it’s a label folks have a vendetta against

[posi-pan]

for anyone who has ever seen someone claim pansexual was coined on social media by teenagers in the early 2000s, the 2010s, and even in the past few years, and believed it or wondered if it’s true, or known it’s not true and been annoyed by the misinformation, this article is for you!

after listing out all of the claims i’ve seen, i succinctly debunk them by laying out a brief overview of pansexual’s history dating back to the 1960s, both as a term generally indicating universal appeal/inclusion and a term indicating sexual freedom/attraction to all genders. i include a look at pansexual’s use specifically within queer spaces, with a focus on bisexual spaces, as well.

i also touch briefly on omnisexual and polysexual existing in similar contexts to pansexual dating back to the 1960s. and finally, i discuss a little bit about how when, where, and by whom a label is created doesn’t determine the validity or usefulness of it, because these claims come with the implication that new labels, labels created by kids, and labels originating on social media aren’t legit forms of queer expression and identification.

happy pan week! 🥰💗💛💙

[smasheverythinggame]

Smash Everything Post Mortem

The most important thing to remember is that Smash Everything is a game made by students. It’s a unit, and it’s graded. As such, levels of involvement, commitment, and effort vary. Some students invest great amounts of time, some are looking to do bare minimum. Which is not a complaint, merely an acknowledgement of differing priorities and circumstances, and it is the most important thing to figure out early and manage.

Despite internal issues, the project was well-managed and, although the game is not complete, turned out pretty well for a group of people who had mostly never done a project like this, who were just taking their skills learned at uni and putting them into practice.

Things that went well:

1. Character Concepts

This was the group’s first task at the beginning of the semester when motivation and interest were still high, group members were keen, and everyone still had time. We were fortunate that from the concepting there was one idea that we all liked and agreed upon.

2. Smashing

We had a prototype up and running early in order to help us decide on a definitive direction as well as test out our core mechanic – smashing - to ensure that it felt fun. This is a great way to test and prototype mechanics – make sure they feel fun on their own and then build around them. The smashing didn’t really change from its early iteration.

3. Enemy Concepts

After some struggle to get other concepts and group agreement on other aspects of the game, enemy concepting had the benefit of being streamlined based on the knowledge gained from previous pitfalls. There was a simple template made that displayed exactly what was wanted from it: 4 empty boxes, asking for a sketch in each and one potential ability that this enemy would have. All the sketches were gathered and put into a Google form to get voted on by team members. Ones with the most votes were implemented. This could have potentially gone poorly had the group liked wildly different designs, but thankfully while there were some outliers most of the votes went into the same designs.

4. Enemy Models

By the time we got to this stage, we were a bit behind in the development process from where we wanted to be and decided to simplify our enemy models to save time. It worked out really well. Rather than being detailed models with texture maps, they become blocky, solid color shapes that were still surprisingly cute and worked well within our toy theme to seem like little plastic toys.

5. Animation

There had been 2-3 weeks allotted to animation, with another 1-2 weeks as a potential backup, as we had at least 7 models and 2 animations for each enemy and 5 animations for the main character planned. Enemy animations were smashed out in a week; they were simple, but they worked and looked great. Animations for the character took a couple weeks, which was within the budgeted time, but hit a couple snags (problems with the rig, some redos, and some animations were cut entirely).

6. Music

Some groups were lucky enough to get a sound student on board for their projects, but we were not such a group. I think that may have worked out a bit in our favor regarding music, as we were able to include several different songs from a cool royalty-free library. Deciding on the style/genre of music for the game was a breeze – we all agreed we wanted something upbeat, maybe techno or K-pop-py – and song selections were spot on.

 Struggles:

1. Communication

A surprisingly big issue, despite using Discord, Trello, and having in-class discussions. This issue existed for a few reasons: disagreements on the second item on this list – the vision for the game, missed information, a lack of clarity and notes. The missed information was frustrating, as there’s no easy fix for either willfully or accidentally missing information – documents not being read was a big culprit, as they tend to be dry and boring to read, even if they do contain important information. Meetings likely would have benefitted from minutes and better note-taking, and definitely from being hard-copied and shared with everyone. Disagreements are harder, as communication is only going to continue to breakdown until everyone can get on the same page, and they aren’t necessarily easy to solve.

This could be a very long dissection of each communication issue, but instead here is how to try and avoid it: many students are shy or uncomfortable sharing with relative strangers – don’t be or force them to talk by specifically asking for their opinion. That being said, this is a course comprised of a lot of gamers and some of them have been molded by toxic communities – remind them to be respectful and considerate. If the team can’t come to an agreement, it’s up to the project manager to make a call – if the team really can’t abide by it, take it up with a higher authority, otherwise suck it up and move on, but still try to incorporate ideas from every member where possible.

2. Vision

Not being able to agree on a clear vision for the game was a long struggle that made progression a bit of a slog; unfortunately, it wasn’t an easy solve since there was no majority, just a lot of different ideas. In the end, a few different game concepts were drawn up and the team just had to pick one. It wasn’t possible to please everyone, and trying to was ultimately just wasting time.

3. Character Design

Concepts went so well it was a shock that the actual character design wasn’t smooth sailing. Once we had the concept we liked, a character turnaround came in, and suddenly it was clear that there was a big problem because the turnaround looked nothing like the concept art. There were two problems here: we didn’t have a definitive art style yet and we had skipped over some crucial steps in the design process (as going from concept to turnaround is generally a big no-no, there’s meant to be iterations in between to decide on a final look). This actually took weeks to resolve with character exploration, nailing down a look, color testing, and outfit designs. It was worth it in the end to have spent the time to do it right – no skipping steps! – as we had a character we and others really loved.

4. Levels

No one on the team was really a level designer, and our level concepts weren’t as clear as they could have been. That meant the whole level design process ended up being longer than it should have been. Concept art seemed to go better with some explanation text. Started looking at toy shop layouts and the kind of stuff that would be found in them, but realized that putting in shelves was going to be a bit problematic with our camera angle. Ultimately this was solved with a new/tweaked gameplay concept that ultimately ended up scrapped, but it introduced jumping and platforms and that stayed.

5. UI

No one on the team was really a designer or a UI designer, not even the person assigned to be the Design Lead. So we either fudged our way through it or left it really basic, where functionality exists but it could definitely use a makeover.

There was also some contention over how to structure the in-game UI. Early playtesters thought the game was something they had to do as quickly as possible and we wanted to try and correct that perception. Suspecting that the timer countdown being in the top center and therefore at the top of the visual hierarchy may have been a contributing factor, the score got moved central and the timer to the side. Players were no longer trying to speed through, but now some weren’t noticing the timer at all. This may still be solved by placing both items central, and using size to indicate hierarchy importance.

 Problems, Failures, and Scraps:

1. Pipeline Processes

As mentioned earlier, students tend to want to put in the minimum amount of work required, and so one of the things that got lost in the process was the process. Workflow follows the same structure, if not always the same order, but generally looks something like references, moodboards, concepts, iterations, design polish, turnaround, final model. References and moodboards were rare to nonexistent for concepts and animation, as were iterations, polish, and turnarounds. Even enemy designs went straight from concept to final model; they turned out great, but that was truly just fortunate, and it could have gone very poorly.

2. 2D

Before Smash Everything had any kind of real identity, one of the things to decide was whether the game would be 2D, 3D, or some 2.5D mix. We had really only learned about 3D modeling and animation through our uni course, so there was good reason to go that direction. The downside being is 3D modeling, texturing, and animating can be quite lengthy – we obviously trimmed that work down to make it work. But before that was an idea, 2D was a fair solution for being quicker, especially for the amount of stuff we wanted to include. The downside being is that it meant learning new processes and software.

Compromised on 2.5D, a 2D sprite in 3D space, but ultimately it didn’t look great so 2D was scrapped altogether.

3. Enemy Behavior

Enemies were going to have all kinds of cool abilities when we were still young and naïve, like AoE slows, charges, stuns, whirlwinds, etc. That got cut pretty quick at the implementation stage, generally sticking with simple melee or ranged attacks.

One enemy had to have some drastic changes and cuts, the Snail, as originally he was meant to leave behind a trail of gas – that maybe dissipated or maybe lingered – that initially did a slow but since slows were gone it was just going to be another damaging ability of players ran through it… we just had no idea how to do it. So now he’s just harmless hammer-fodder that does his best to run away from your hammer. Slowly.

4. Skybox

This is one of those things where there is a surprising lack of tutorials on how to make one of these. Made an early skybox that was meant to be temporary as it was a bit of a fudge – made it seamless just by making a repeatable texture rather than through any skill, proper technique, or software.

5. Saving Scores

This was something mentioned in a previous blog post. Score counter, no problem. Saving scores and names, apparently not so easy. No one really knew how to do this, but for this there are tutorials, and so it should have been okay from there. Except it wasn’t. Unity allows input fields and character limits on them, so creating an input field with a 3-character limit for initials was no problem. Rather than use JSON, which may have been a bit out of our depth, went with saving scores and names in player prefs and then allowing the high score list to read from player prefs and adjust accordingly. And it worked… in the Unity editor. Once it was built, though, it was broken. Sometimes the score would save and write, sometimes, and names definitely weren’t being saved and/or written. Tried to even hardcore a cheeky fix in, but to no avail.

Not having scores save properly was a big disappointment, as scoring was kind of a big deal.

6. Smashables

Early in the game design process, Smashables were something that existed. Before we knew what we wanted to smash, it was just going to be a slew of items and inanimate objects. Even after we decided to include enemies, the Smashables idea persisted... until it didn’t. It just kind of slowly faded out of the game design as enemies were implemented, made a brief resurgence, and then just disappeared completed. No one missed them, they didn’t feel necessary, but they are one of those things that could easily fit back into the game - perhaps as a future addition.

[hejin57-blog]

MUSIC MASTERS: CD ONE

Might want to rewind a bit...

-----

-----

WHITE KNUCKLE RIDE: PART SIX

-----

It was a blessing in disguise that Aeris had decided to show up early tonight.  Because judging from her attitude the other day, Kim probably would have chewed Michael Kay out like no tomorrow once they were alone together for even a second.

Michael counted himself so incredibly lucky as he spotted her sitting on a park bench.  He waved with excitement as he approached.

"I hope you weren't waiting here too long.  I try to be early because Kim says she'll make me do push ups if I'm late." he remarked.  Aeris just raised an eyebrow as she chuckled in response.

"Seriously?"

Michael grinned.  "Nah, I'm just kidding.  She's not that crazy."

In truth, he actually wasn't sure what the consequence for being late was.  He was probably better off not knowing.

Aeris stood up from the bench, her usual checkered blazer replaced with a much heavier dark blue winter jacket.  She shivered a bit from the cold.

"Sorry, not really used to this weather.  Where's your friend Kim by the way?" she asked innocently, hands now stuffed in her pockets.

Michael looked around, now wondering the same thing.  "I'm not really sure.  I was expecting her to be waiting for me here.  You know, because I disobeyed direct orders or whatever."

The blonde's gaze switched to rock formation up above.  Her tone of voice seemed so pleasant.

"Maybe something came up.  We might as well use the time without her while we have it.  You did say you wanted to show me your songs, right?"

Michael perked up.  "Yeah, totally!"

Together, Michael and Aeris made their way up the rock formation.  To Michael, it was a bit of a surprise nobody really hung around Central Park on nights like this.  He could only guess that the recent drop in temperature this early in September was probably the cause for the emptiness.  

Once they made it to the summit, Aeris took a moment to look out at the view.  She smiled to herself.

"There's kind of timeless quality about the city, you know.  It's so different than countryside.  I seen that stuff all the time, so it gets old.  But all these lights and this noise, I don't know, it's got its charm."

"You said you were from Texas right?  I wouldn't know what that's like.  I haven't been a step out of this city my whole life." Michael replied, stretching for a moment before reaching for his headphones.  

He was just about to put them in when he noticed the expression of calm on Aeris's face.  In that brief moment she looked so at peace with the world.  It was then that an idea he hadn't realized before popped into his head.

"Hey." he began, coming up right behind her.  "Why don't you show me one of your songs?  I mean, I don't even know what kind of music you like."

Aeris looked down, clearly uncomfortable now.  "I don't think that's such a good idea.  You wouldn't like my music very much."

Michael's expression became dour.  "Who cares if I like it or not?  I'm barely a week in as a Music Master.  The more stuff I can see, the better.  Kim says it'll help me prepare for the unexpected anyway."

He smiled again, sitting down on the rocky ground with legs crossed.  Leaning back, it was clear to Aeris he wasn't taking no for an answer.

"Just before Kim gets here at least.  I get the feeling your music's gonna blow us all away."

Not saying a word, Aeris reached for the small light blue music player in her left pocket.  She stared down at the device, a hint of longing in her eyes.  Inside this tiny player were uncountable musical memories of her childhood.  Just one song was enough to make her remember a picaresque sunny afternoon, and the taste of her grandmother's crisp, perfectly squeezed lemonade.

But in the same fashion, it made her remember the first time she ever used a song effect.  She remembered the sound of glass shattering and the burning, most horrible pain she had ever felt in her entire life.  She might have allowed a tear to escape from the mere thought if not for Michael's presence.

Completely unaware of course, Michael just continued to wait patiently, and on some level Aeris didn't want to disappoint.  

Aeris couldn't keep making excuses forever.

She'd gotten better, and she certainly wasn't a child anymore.  She had to stop being so panicked like this.  She had to have control.

"Okay."  Aeris sighed, finally relenting to both Michael, and more importantly, herself.  

Michael grinned as wide as ever, clapping his hands together loudly.

"One song though.  And only one." she further clarified.

With that, Aeris pulled her sky blue headphones from her jacket pocket.  She gazed at them for a  moment in her black glove-covered palm.  To most people, they were just an instrument used to listen to music.  But to her, they were conduits to a very dangerous power.

Her song of choice was already in mind as she put in her headphones and scrolled through her music player.  Michael just silently looked on with excitement.

Exhaling, Aeris found what she was looking for and pressed play.

Unlike with Kim, the music wasn't easily apparent in the air.  It took Aeris more than two seconds to Harmonize, though she could only assume it was just nerves since she hadn't done it in so long.

Then, as Michael bit his nails in anticipation, he heard the opening drums clang into the air.

-----

-----

It was something so mellow compared to Kim's rough punk rock or Michael's own wild disco.  Aeris smiled wide to herself as she brought her arms to her side.  It took another moment, but Michael's eyes widened as cold blue lightning began to dance from her fingertips.  She looked at it with satisfaction, opening her palm as it surged and dove between her fingers.  

Finally, the lightning relaxed to her will, content with arcing itself just above her forearm.  

Michael simply clapped with contentment.  "Talk about selling yourself short.  That's so cool!"

He got up, intending to walk closer to get a better look, when Aeris spoke suddenly.

"Hey, watch it!  You have no idea how much this stuff hurts." she warned him, and luckily, he was smart enough to stop in his tracks.

Relief washed over her where there was but a moment of panic.  "Sorry, but I'm jumpy for your own good.  You do want to keep your crazy hair after all, right?"

Michael laughed in response.  "Uh, duh!  I couldn't imagine my life otherwise."

"No surprise there.  Anyway, check this out." she said, now crouching down so that she could easily put her hand just above the rock itself.  Aeris focused her senses, and as Michael watched, he could see the lightning from her palm begin to violently arc into the rock face below.  It was but mere seconds before it turned black and scorched.

Michael gulped as he surveyed the damage.  "Yikes.  I'd hate to think what that could do to a person."

"Me too.  I still have trouble controlling it even now." Aeris replied, pausing the song and watching as the lightning dissipated into nothingness.  "I know your friend Kim is nasty about it, but she has a point about this Music Master stuff.  It's super dangerous.  You have to understand that, Michael.  Those songs that normal people get to listen to without worrying about a thing?  For us, they can kill someone."

"I know, I know." Michael acknowledged, now just a little bit tired of hearing the same lecture yet again.  "That's why we're meeting up here on Fridays.  So that kind of thing doesn't happen.  At least, that's what Kim says."

Michael looked around again, and then towards the rocks they came up from.  Reminded of her again, he could see no sign of Kim Ramone anywhere.  Focusing his hearing, he couldn't even pick up the sound of any music she might be listening to.

"So does she usually take this long?" Aeris asked, her hands now back in the comfort of her warm jacket pockets.

"Maybe something really did come up." Michael commented, though he couldn't mask his uncertainty very well.

His heart rose up to his throat.  "I sure hope something came up."

-----

There was something undeniably creepy about this whole situation.  Even Calvin couldn't lie to himself about it.

Nevertheless, he still smiled with satisfaction as he swiped through the pictures on his phone.  There were a few of Michael and Kim, one of Michael using some heat-based song effect, and more than one of Aeris just sitting and waiting on the park bench.  

His original intention had been to observe Michael and Kim once he had figured out that they were both Music Masters.  Michael in particular seemed like an easy mark, much to Calvin's delight.

Aeris, on the other hand, would be a little something for later.  He smiled to himself as he admired her image on his phone.  There was something entrancing about the pure innocence on her face.

Having been sitting by himself in heavy bushes this whole time, Calvin had been so distracted with his tailing of Michael's small group and Aeris's beauty that he almost forgot a crucial fact.  

He looked up, his eyebrows raised as he suddenly wondered where Kim was in all this.  She was pretty hard to miss after all, and she was the last person he wanted to have any sort of confrontation with.  

Unfortunately for Calvin, it would be too late for him to notice that she was already much too close for comfort.

Just behind him, a long finger-nailed hand reached out through the brush in deathly silence.  Once it felt mass, it closed quick and hard.  Calvin yelped loudly as she pulled him back by the roots of his shaggy blond hair.  

He noisily tumbled out of his bushy hiding place, rolling to one side and wincing as he felt a scratch on the right side of his cheek.  Shaking himself, Calvin looked up and was met with sight of a none too happy Kim Ramone.

Not one to usually get scared easily, Calvin pulled out his best innocent bystander response.

"Hey, what gives?  That's the only place I can get Wi-Fi here!"

Kim didn't even respond.  She just gave him a cold, deadpan stare.  

Realizing the act wasn't working, Calvin quickly went from feigning annoyance to showing true fear.  He tried to put up his hands as Kim raised her combat boot.

"Wait, wait, wai-"

All it took was one hard stomp, and Calvin was seeing stars.

So much for a good first impression.

-----

After what felt like forever, Michael craned his neck quick as he spotted Kim finally making her way up the rock formation.  

And much to both his and Aeris's surprise, she was carrying someone he didn't recognize on her shoulder.

"Looks like Christmas came early everyone!" Kim exclaimed with fake jubilation, as she tossed the one hundred sixty pound teen off her and onto his back.  Both Michael and Aeris approached cautiously, though once they got close, it was clear that he was very much out for the count.

Aeris in particular leaned down and inspected his face.  She brushed some of his hair aside, noting scratches and the large red mark that could have only come from the bottom of Kim's boot.

Michael, of course, was immediately confused.  "Uh, Kim...who's this?"

She shrugged.  "I have no idea.  He's got no school ID or anything on him.  All I know is he's been following us since last week.  He could just be some creep, or he could be a First Beat.  Either way, I'm not taking any chances."

Whoever this stranger was, he was dressed quite nicely for a supposed teenager.  His matching dress pants and suit jacket were both a dark, deep blue, contrasting with a black undershirt emblazoned with a bright yellow design.  Michael's gaze in particular wandered towards his shoes, which clearly stood out with their neon green color scheme.

"Don't you think stepping on his face was a little excessive?" Aeris asked, but of course, Kim just laughed in response.

"Ha!  I don't think so.  But if he tries anything funny once he comes to, then I'll show him excessive."

As if right on cue, Calvin began to stir.  Aeris blinked, and as his eyes creaked open, he was met with the pleasant sight of her staring down at him.  Even in the grogginess that accompanied being woken up from a knockout, he still had enough time for a one-liner.

"The things I'd do to wake up to that face more often." he remarked with a light laugh.  Blushing almost immediately, Aeris was quick to stand up and turn away.   Kim remained completely unfazed however, proceeding to drop her boot hard on his right leg.

Calvin cried out, now remembering his situation.  Instinctively, one of his free hands went for his music player, but Kim was quick to beat him to the punch.

"Don't even bother." she said flatly, patting her pocket where his music player was nestled while also displaying his neon red and green headphones in her hand.  

"Make this easy for yourself.  Tell Zero Beat to leave us the hell alone, and maybe I'll think about sending you back to them with most of your teeth intact."

A million thoughts ran through Calvin's mind in a situation like this.  It was nothing new though.  He had been in tight spots before, against people much more willing to use deadly force than this Kim character.

And once Zero Beat was brought up, he knew in an instant he could use that to his advantage.  Calvin held back his wincing as he put on his smoothest tone of voice.

"It's never good to have Zero Beat after you, that's for sure.  Luckily, I don't run with that crowd."

"Then what crowd do you run with?" Aeris asked quickly, but Calvin did little more than smirk.  "Why were you spying on us?"

Michael looked back and forth and both Kim and Aeris.  Tensions were running a bit high now, and even if this guy was with Zero Beat, perhaps even Kim was going a little overboard.  Michael crouched down, forearms resting on his legs as he hoped to be as non-threatening as possible.

Unfortunately for him, that's exactly what Calvin was hoping for.

"Me?  Spy?  Why, I'm flattered."

"Hey." Michael interjected.  "We're not going to hurt you."

Kim raised an eyebrow, but even still kept a modicum of pressure over Calvin's leg.

"Okay, I'm not going to hurt you." Michael corrected himself.  "You know if you're not with Zero Beat, maybe you can help us out.  What's their deal, anyway?"

Calvin just laughed.  "What's their deal?  Seriously?  You live under a rock or what?"

Kim applied pressure, clearly annoyed by the run around.  "Hey, he's not paid to be in the know.  Just answer his questions before I lose my patience."

"Okay, jeez." Calvin replied.  It was obvious charm wasn't going to work on her.  "You've got some award-winning personality there."

Calvin sat up now, though Kim still didn't seem ready to let up.  Fixing his collar, he began to address Michael now.  "Zero Beat, let's just say, is kind of like the police.  And you should know that nobody wants to piss off the police."

He took a particular glance at Michael's afro, smiling a little bit to himself.  "Especially after Last Record, and what happened with Highlord Funk and DanceDown.  A real tragedy, really."

Of course, those choice words were all it took to grab Michael Kay's attention.  His mind instantly began to wander at the implication of those words.  

DanceDown?  

Highlord Funk?  

Last Record?

It all sounded so fantastical, and of course, Michael's mind wanted more.  Calvin had him right where he wanted him.

"Anyway, I'm not with Zero Beat." he insisted, shooting a sly glance at Aeris.  "And as much as I'd like to stick around, I really have places to be.  Let's make this all water under the bridge, shall we?"

Kim seemed to debate just clocking him again.  She couldn't stand his smug grin or anything about the way he operated.  But even she wasn't so dense to think he had anything to do with Zero Beat at this point.  

She threw Michael a look of acknowledgement, before finally letting up on his leg and allowing him freedom.  In the back of her mind, she began to wonder if Michael's presence was starting to turn her soft.  

"You're lucky Michael's too dumb for his own good.  I better not catch you sneaking around here again." she threatened nevertheless, and Calvin clasped his hands together in his best apologetic tone.

"Oh, of course not.  I wouldn't dream of it."

He turned to Aeris now, taking her by the hand and just ever so slightly lowering his tone.  "I never got your name by the way.  The name's Calvin.  It's quite the pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Completely caught off guard, Aeris debated ripping her hand away.  Unfortunately common courtesy got the better of her, and she answered as politely as usual.  "Uh, I'm Aeris.  Nice to meet you, I guess."

Breaking his moment completely, Michael was quick to tap on their spy's shoulder.  "Hey, I know we might not see you again after this, so you want to trade numbers?  I'm kind of curious about the Last Record stuff you were talking about.  It sounds pretty cool."

Calvin, of course, was annoyed at the interruption, but he feigned interest quite well.  He turned to the afro-headed teen in an instant, but quickly realized he still didn't have the phone which also doubled as his music player.

"Oh, would you mind?" motioning to Kim for his phone.  She threw it back quite hard, though he still managed to catch it without too much damage to himself.

"And the headphones?"

She kept them looped in her fingers by her waist.  "Yeah, sure.  When you're leaving you can have them."

It took all of Calvin's will to hold back a frustrated sigh.  Instead, he turned his attention back to Michael, making small talk as he noted his digits.  "You're Michael, right?  I definitely dig your style.  Very retro."

Michael made an static grin in response.  "Hey thanks!  I wish more people appreciated it, you know?"

Kim simply put a frustrated hand on her forehead, standing by a mostly silent Aeris.  "I swear to you, Afroboy's going to make me blow a gasket one day.  It's a wonder you could stand being here alone with him for even five minute."

"You do know this is the first time you've really talked to me at all, right?" Aeris pointed out.  "And he's a little all over the place, but he means well.  It could be worse, you know."

Kim kept her hands in her pockets as she watched Michael continue to blab to Calvin, much to her displeasure.  "Could it?  Yeah, I find that hard to believe sometimes."

Meanwhile, Calvin seemed to have Michael wrapped around his little finger.  

"You know, it's too bad we won't be seeing you much after this.  Kim jumps the gun way too much on people." Michael commented, but Calvin's response was so oddly assuring.

"I wouldn't say that so soon, Mike.  Who knows, maybe you'll even get to see some of my song effects one day."

He gave Aeris a playful wink.  She just smiled awkwardly in response.  

Unlike Michael, he was no moron.  He knew she didn't have the hots for him.  But it was a start, at least.

Perhaps there was a silver lining to being face-stomped by Kim after all.

Fast forward to the next track...

[canvaswolfdoll]

CanvasWatches: Young Justice (Seasons 1&2)

As previously established, I have an atypical relationship with superheroes. More involved than the theatrical releases, but not to the point of actually reading the comics (with but one exception[1]).

I tend to prefer animated series when it comes to experiencing superheroes.

So I’ve been meaning to catch up with Young Justice, the slightly more mature spiritual successor of the Teen Titans cartoon. Teen Titans stands as one of my favorite shows, beyond genre and without hesitation.

Comparing the two may seem unfair but… well, I refuse not to. Because the two happen to make a good exercise in comparing and contrast, share elements and characters, and one of them is following the other.[2]

Young Justice opens well, just casually tossing the audience into the thick of things. The well-known characters (Superman, Batman and Company, and so forth) are treated as previously established, while the more uncommon heroes are given light introductions so that the show can just go.

The sidekicks are given access to the Hall of Justice, but not any real place in terms of the Justice League. It’s a publicity stunt, and the sidekicks are quickly fed up with being shoved aside, and hijack a mission to prove themselves (and just have something to do). In the process, we introduce Superboy, Miss Martian, and Young Justice is established.

Though the group is only ever referred to as ‘The Team’ which I dislike. It just feels like the writers and staff are embarrassed by the moniker, and are avoiding acknowledging it, and I hate when superhero media try and pretend to be above such things. Just embrace it! It’ll make things a lot more fun! This show actually does a good job of good natured mockery of everything except the name.

So, I mostly enjoyed the first season. They build the characters and the world while developing a myth arc that operates in the corners of the story so each episode can still stand alone, narratively, but still all link together as a cohesive whole.

Even as new characters and team members are introduced, the central six are still prominent in every episode to anchor the audience, give us characters we know and are thrilled to see grow. New elements are well paced with their introduction, and my only criticism is that Zatanna and Rocket didn’t get quite enough screen time to grow on me (especially Rocket, who was a very late game addition).

There are plenty of episodes with inventive and interesting story ideas; my favorite being when magic separates adults and children into two worlds, and how the show then plays with the concept and answers many small questions while it happens.

They really make the most of being in a world where superheroes are a thing, and idolized. From small details like high schoolers unironically wearing t-shirts with superhero emblems on them,[4] and interesting conflict between the realms of Science and Magic, which you rarely see in stories that embrace Clarke’s Third Law as much as the DC World. Is Dr. Fate a sufficiently advanced Alien, or is Magic that unexplainable?[5]

Speaking of Dr. Fate, he had such a compelling sidestory throughout the first season! Introduced as a former hero, then we learn the true weight of putting on his helmet. From there, he becomes The Team’s plan of last resort, until it finally comes to a head and someone has to finally make the ultimate sacrifice!

It combines a few of my favorite tropes: Blue and Orange morality, great power carrying a heavy cost, and Legacy Characters!

The only episode of the first season that I didn’t really like was ‘Secrets,’ due to its trite villain for the evulz and the rather depressing twist at the end.

And you know what? Everyone acts so reasonably!

When a psychically produced simulation goes wrong, to a traumatizing extent, a psychologist is actually brought in!

Superman struggles with the sudden appearance of a clone, and Batman, he who adopts and raises all the children, steps up to tell Clark to get a hold of himself and help the boy.

No one ever forgets that they have Dr. Fate's Helmet on standby if needed!

Three of our characters are in compromising positions to select villains by the end of the season, and what do they do? They come clean, tell the details to the rest of the team, and all come together to make a plan!

There’s nothing I hate more than plots that can be solved in moments if people just bloody talked to one another. Plot-required mistrust and secrecy is such weak plot fodder, that I was happy the show decided to subvert it in the best possible way.

But then there’s the second season.

Oh man, is the second season… disappointing.

First of all, there’s the five year time skip. I have decided I don’t like how western media uses time skips.

Because, in most Anime, time skips are used to handwave away boring bits (IE: then Bob trained hard for two years and… now he’s back).

But when a western show does it, they do it to Up the Ante, introduce mysteries, and obfuscate all the fascinating things that might have happened. To make the audience go ‘Oh wait? What happened to So-and-so?’

It… just feels like a cheap trick to me. And a distracting one, because suddenly there’s a new batch of kids, but I don’t care about them because I’m waiting to hear what happened to the characters we already know and love!

And Young Justice does a particularly bad job, because the events that happened in the missed time period would have been fascinating to see pan out. The new characters would be exciting see introduced and inducted. Would it have taken time? Yes! But then these things would carry weight!

Heck, Zatanna and Rocket, who I was just complaining we didn’t get time to care about have both moved on from the Team! They barely get cameos. So they were just wasted additions in the last season.

Plus, they used it as an excuse to implant drama. The worst drama. Drama that also causes my two least favorite story techniques!

First, a lot of just telling the audience about character history, instead of letting  us experience it. We are told Miss Martian has taken up Mind Breaking villains, and that’s bad and we should hate it. Except we don’t see it being the problem it is, just get told that it’s been a thing by Superboy and… eh? Besides Psimon (who, frankly, both deserves it and is able to recuperate), Miss Martian doesn’t do it on screen until the one time it’s the worst possible thing to do!

Which brings me to the second, and worse crime: no one tells anyone crucial information.

Because you remember when I was praising the first season for subverting that last season? How the original team came clean and told one another how they’re being blackmailed?

Yeah. They’re now doing the stupid thing. We have a season long plot where Aqualad’s a mole and… only a select few people know. Select people that excludes original team members, including the psychic mind-breaker and Superboy!

Egads, I understand not telling the new kids, but at no point should any member of the Season One team have been excluded from the circle of trust, Nightwing!

By the way, Robin is Tim Drake in season 2. Which means we missed an exciting arc of seeing Dick Grayson separating from Batman, and also skipped Jason Todd entirely! I would love to actually see what Jason Todd was like as a Robin for once, but he’s always skipped.

And yes, unlike Batman: The Animated Series, Jason Todd exists in the Young Justice narrative.  We see the memorial hologram.

I mean, the second season wasn’t all bad. Blue Beetle was a strong addition to the cast, along with the compelling aspects he brought. Impulse is a good replacement for Kid Flash. Beast Boy was also pleasant to see, though he was ultimately underutilized[6] Static and his compatriots were also fun. However, from there, I don’t care about the rest of the new cast, as they never had any screen time to make me care about them. They existed for fight scenes and little else.

They weren’t introduced or given an origin, just dumped on us and demanded we muster a care. Which I couldn’t because… eh?

Ignoring the story surrounding Aqualad and dumb secrets, the Reach Invasion storyline was interesting, even catching me off guard in relation to Green Beetle, which is good writing!

The Light were less involved this time, mostly letting Lex Luthor carry the position of resident plotter.

Having not actually seen Luthor in action much, I did enjoy him as a villain. It’s actually fun to watch a villain who is very good at outthinking those around him and planning ahead, all while keeping his hands clean and his enemies managed. I kept expecting him to end up using both The Light and The Reach to reach his own, separate goals.

Roy Harper and his various clones did drag throughout both seasons. The grumpy pants vigilante with a chip on his shoulder was okay once. Not great, but adequate. But then Red Arrow faded away, replaced by Arsenal to just… do the story all over again? Only without the weird flirting with Cheshire.

I guess Lian would’ve been hard to get away with had they not done the time skip, but… actually, Lian added very little, so that’s not an excuse.

While I liked Artemis, I do wonder if the same basic story could’ve been done with Ravager instead, who has more of a history in the comics of working as a Good Guy than Artemis/Tigress did, and would’ve gotten Deathstroke in sooner.

Mostly I just think Sportsmaster is a silly character concept, and would’ve been happy to not have him.

You could even keep Cheshire, since comics Cheshire is unrelated to Sportsmaster and Artemis. It would’ve been so easy to pull off, and would’ve excited Teen Titans fans.

But that’s just me speculating based off the decisions I would’ve made. Maybe they were going to include Speedy initially, but realized they needed another girl for composition balance.

Then the second season ends with multiple loose ends, one dead character everyone liked, and a look to the future!

So of course the series is promptly cancelled. Whoopee!

So, first season was strong, second season felt like they were rushing things, skipping over rich and compelling material to get to a story they wanted to do.

Now Netflix is bringing forth (at least) a third season. I remain cautiously optimistic. On one hand, rumor says Tara Strong is coming in as Raven, bring us ever so closer to the Titans reunion everyone desperately wants.

On the other… well, the cast and roster is already pretty heavy, and viewpoint characters are few and far between. Focus will be split many ways, and I’m not sure they’ll be able to continue good character work if they don’t pick favorites and let them work. Plus, what if they do another timeskip?

Still, I liked it enough that I’ll watch the next season once it comes. But I’ll be critical.

Kataal kataal.

[1] Speaking of which, I’ve been considering checking out the recent run of Jughead comics. Thoughts? [2] We’ll ignore Teen Titans Go! because I haven’t watched much of it.[3] [3] Though Trigon Dad is still an amazingly inspired concept. [4] Though they never address the matter of royalties. Seriously, I would love to hear if Superman gets a paycheck. Or is them being public figures make their IP public domain? [5] I always disliked how the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been so dismissive of magic. Why does Thor have to be an alien from a distant culture? Why can’t he just be a god without the snide remarks? Let me have my magic. [6] I will admit that the departure from the Teen Titans interpretation of the character clouded my judgement. But, then again, that’s my definitive version of the guy.