#and the ''series'' (i wanted it to be an adult cartoon) is called Joke as is the main main character

[lime1991]

i dont think we're in kansas anymore

[lc-holy]

Conférence Masterclass 808 (Translation)

I've taken the liberty of translating the conference that took place last year with the writing director of Miraculous (Sébastien Thibaudeau). It was only made public when someone posted a video of the conference a short while ago.

In this conference, Sébastien Thibaudeau will talk about the creation of Miraculous and his work on the series. He is joined by Chloé Paye, a new scriptwriter working on Miraculous season 6.

Sébastien talks a lot and repeats himself a bit, so the summary can be a bit confusing.

I strongly advise you to go and listen to the video if you understand French. There are a lot of details I'm going to leave out, and Sébastien is very funny.

Photo belongs to mlbfanfr on twitter.

Please be respectful in comments or tags. If you want to debate on things related to this conference, please make your own post. I apologize if there are any mistakes, I'm French and I'm not fluent in English.

-12 years ago, Sébastien arrived at Zagtoon, a studio that was just starting out and had yet to produce and broadcast any series. The producer (Jérémy Zag) and Sébastien hit it off and decided to start working together. Zag decides to give Sébastien total freedom over his projects. Sébastien then decides to put the spotlight on scriptwriters, because in this profession they are unfortunately poorly paid and never stay on the same projects.

So they produced a cartoon called Kobushi. A little-known series that did rather well, even if it didn't stay on the "Gulli" channel for long. The scriptwriters and producer were happy with the end result, as it was produced in a very short time.

Jeremy Zag then proposed another project, which he thought was quite good, but which he was unable to sell to broadcasters. At the time, the project was called "Ladybug". No one was interested, as the project was aimed more at an adult audience than a children's audience. Sébastien had to make sure that the project could be broadcast on Disney and TF1.

There was only a "trailer" also called "Ladybug" (but you'll find the video under the title Ladybug PV) animated by Toei animation. At the time, Sébastien had not yet been hired by Zagtoon. It was Jérémy Zag who convinced Toei animation to work with them (no mean feat, since Toei animation doesn't work with anyone).

So Sébastien started working with Thomas Astruc (the man who wrote and created the "Ladybug" project). At first, he didn't want to work on this project because he found it complicated. Thomas wanted to make a series for adults, but at the time, it was very complicated to make a cartoon for adults. What's more, they didn't have enough money to take on such a project. Sébastien finally agreed, but there were some changes to be made, which Thomas accepted.

-What Sébastien appreciated most in this project was the romantic comedy, the love square between the two main characters.

To meet the requirements of the cartoon industry, "Ladybug" had to be set in a neutral universe, in other words, in an imaginary country or the USA, but Zag, who loves Paris, declared that the cartoon had to be set in Paris.

In the end, Thomas Astruc's entire project was discarded, leaving only the love story between the two heroes and the city of Paris, where the story was to take place.

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-Sébastien explains how he writes Marinette's first dialogues: He says he talks a lot in real life, so he writes Marinette like him. She says out loud whatever she's thinking.

For Chat noir, he makes him tell his father's jokes. Something TF1 doesn't accept. The TV channel went so far as to refuse to validate the Bible (a collection of information on the series and episodes) until it had removed the sentence: “Chat noir makes jokes”. Sebastien has therefore removed the sentence, but will continue to make Chat noir tell jokes.

-The writing director's job is to get the producer, creator and broadcaster to agree. The series broadcast on TF1 and Disney are very different. TF1 wants series whose story can be told in a single episode, unlike Disney, which wants series whose story spans several episodes.

Sébastien and TF1 agree that Miraculous will be a series with one story per episode, a "Formula Show".

He cites the example of Dora the Explorer episodes, where every episode is the same: Dora goes on an adventure from point A to point B, she has to find 3 clues, then she meets Swiper, she sings a song to make Swiper go away, she uses the talking map to get from one place to another, then Dora manages to get to point B and the episode ends.

This episode format is used for children, to give them a reassuring framework, as they build themselves up through repetition. That's why series like Dora work so well with young children.

So Sebastien sold the Miraculous series to broadcasters as a formula show. A person gets angry, is akumatized, then marinette transforms into Ladybug then frees the person from the akumatization and… The End.

It's also for this reason that Marinette tries to confess her love for Adrien in every episode, but is unable to do so.

But he tried to go against what he had planned with TF1, by slipping little extra stories into certain episodes. Audiences were receptive to these slightly hidden stories. The TV channel even asked Sébastien if there really were hidden things in the series, but he denied everything. Thanks to the positive reception from the public, TF1 agreed to develop the characters of Marinette and Adrien and flesh out the universe a little more.

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-Once the bible is written, they have to write a script. But first Sébastien, as writing director, needs to know the mood of the series, and to do this he calls on Thomas Astruc, the series creator. Thomas is a great fan of classical painting. A single painting can tell a complex scene with lots of detail. He wants the episodes of miraculous to be like these paintings, there will be very few shots, but in a single shot a lot will happen.

-Sébastien explains that one of the things Thomas wanted to convey in the series was emotion. They didn't want to do what a lot of children's cartoons do, which is to beat the bad guys and win at the end of the episode. They wanted to tell kids that it's normal to have negative emotions. We can also become better people, learn from our mistakes and so on. It also reassures TV channels by setting up scenes that are repeated in every episode: people get angry, people akumatize then people deakumatize, end of episode...

Once the TV channels had been reassured, they set about writing a script.

-Sébastien asks Thomas to write the ending, as they're not sure the series will work. They also wondered what the aim of the series was, and what they wanted to say to the children. The two of them sat down in an office and wrote the ending, which turned out to be just the end of an arc. He even adds that now that they've written a lot more, it's important for them to write in advance so that everything is clear to them.

-The first season was written by 19 authors, from home. He found it interesting that the series was written by several different authors, even if some of them didn't quite understand the premise of the series. One episode that Sébastien particularly appreciated was written by two “autrices” (I think it's weird to say “two female authors”, so I'll use the French word): the refletkta episode, with the story of Juleka who couldn't get into the photos. (Note that all the episodes were proofread by Sébastien and Thomas).

After that, they kept a few people on to work together on the scripts for subsequent seasons.

Sébastien explains that he keeps a close eye on the production of the episodes, to make sure that everything that goes into the picture is as faithful as possible to what they've written in the script.

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-The kwamis exist thanks to Toei, who wanted funny little animals to sell plush toys. So the scriptwriters had to find a way to integrate kwamis into the story.

-(Again, Sébastien advises people to check out the Kobushi series if they can still watch it somewhere, or ask the leaker who leaked the whole of season 5 to give them the episodes (that's a joke, of course)).

-Sébastien talks about the Ikari gozen episode, which could have been a total failure because the storyboarder didn't fully understand the scenario. Sébastien asks Zag to redo the storyboard, which will add 10 weeks to the episode's deadline. The storyboarder admits that he's always done storyboards mechanically, without worrying whether the episode is good or not, whether the jokes are funny or not. Eventually, the episode was redone by the same storyboarder, resulting in the episode we all know today.

- They still have a lot to tell with Miraculous, to the point where they're wondering if they'll have enough seasons to tell everything they want to tell. Sebastien says there will be a season 6 and 7, and probably a season 8 and 9.

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- Chloé Paye met Sébastien when she was looking for an internship. She had never worked in animation, and knew nothing about Miraculous. She tells us how the scriptwriting team works. Each time, all the scriptwriters in the room have to be convinced of the script. They can sometimes spend hours on details to get everyone to agree.

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- The driving force behind the series is that there must always be a secret between Marinette and Adrien. The lovesquare can never be broken, otherwise there's no series. Sébastien knows that some people are worried about this. Will they continue the lovesquare for another 4 seasons or more? How will they evolve? Sébastien says not to worry, they know where they want to go.

-It takes them 14 to 16 months to produce an episode, but it's often much longer due to unforeseen circumstances. And they don't work on one episode at a time, but on several at the same time. One episode takes a long time because of the 3D animation.

One of the things that's complicated with Miraculous 3d animation is that they can only display 3 characters at a time on screen, whereas the series requires them to display many more characters. It's also very difficult to correct animation errors, as this takes a lot of time.

-The TV networks were very surprised by the success of miraculous. They didn't think adults and children alike would watch the series. The TV channels were a little confused because they usually make series for a specific age group, but since miraculous had people of all ages watching, they weren't sure what to do.

- Sébastien says he's very happy that miraculous inspires a lot of people to create things, like writing fanfiction, however he's not interested in it because he doesn't want to be influenced by certain fans who would love to see certain things in the series.

- Writing direction also means paying attention to how the characters speak. They all have their own way of speaking. For example, Adrien will never say "j’te parle", but rather "Je te parle".

- During the writing process, the writers sometimes act out scenes to make the dialogue more natural. This is what happened with the episode "Gang of secrets". They felt that, with the success of the show and the pressure it was generating, they needed to write something to relieve their stress. So they wrote about Marinette and the enormous pressure she was under to keep all her secrets. The final scene, in which Marinette tells Alya that she's Ladybug, came naturally when they performed it together.

[le--fruitcake]

In the meantime while I anxiously await your plentiful truths, might I ask for what cartoons you might recommend my humble self?

Ah, my vassal! I am neariy finished writing that essay, I promise. Just a while longer, I need to be sure my sources are accurate.

I will say you should watch Samurai Rabbit, despite it being almost painfully cringeworthy at times. It's surprisingly well-written, though! It's only on Netflix.

In terms of TMNT, the only one I can recommend with my whole chest is Rise of the TMNT. I like the others (mostly— 2012 is on Thin Fucking Ice with the Donnie/April thing), but Rise is the best by far! I am Extremely Biased and am going to say you should watch the Usagi crossover episodes of 2003 (S2E23-26, S3E01 [does not contain a whole lot of Usagi, but he and Leo uh. Exchange swords], S3E22-23, S4E13, and S7E13 [no speaking lines, appears as a background character only]) and 2012 (S5E15-17). The 1987 ones (S3E32/34) aren't as good, but you do get to watch Mikey slap Usagi in the face with a pizza. Fucking LMAO. All the TMNT is on Paramount Plus, but far be it from me to tell you not to hoist the colors, matey.

The Amazing World of Gumball... exists! It sure does. I really like the way they play with animation and art style, and it has some honestly amazing physical comedy, but it's very, um... 2012. I think it popularized a lot of tropes you see in more modern cartoons that make them borderline unbearable, but I found myself watching the entire thing and kind of wanting more! It's pretty good if you just want some batshit insane cartoon nonsense, but it has no story to speak of, really. The episodes are both startlingly interconnected and purely standalone. Anais is my favorite character, followed by Nicole, and honestly the men in that family are trash lmao. I think I watched it on Hulu, but it might have been HBO Max.

I like Star Wars, too, specifically Visions, Clone Wars (both 2003 and 2007), and, though I haven't finished it, Rebels. (I like the movies, too! Real shame they never made any past Episode VII. Had so much potential. Smh my head.) Visions S1E8 is my favorite thing Star Wars has ever done btw. Very Heavily Biased. All of this is on Disney Plus.

I have of course seen Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Legend of Korra, and recommend Avatar if by some miracle you haven't seen it, but tbh I don't know if I would recommend Korra. It has very interesting concepts, but the execution is um. Bad. Watching the Straights™️ frothing at the mouth over Korrasami was an Experience! "we poppin' the biggest bottles when Makorra happens tonight" is a regular part lo my vocabulary. Both are on Netflix, I think.

I like Teen Titans! I used to have the first two seasons on DVD. There are a lot of jokes I didn't get as a kid, and so rewatching it as an adult was interesting. I also didn't appreciate Cyborg enough as a kid, man has the best jokes. Robin was always my favorite, but on rewatch, I really can't say who's my favorite. I like Beast Boy's power the best, but Raven is p cool, and Starfire is wonderful, and Cyborg is funny. This is available on The Max Formerly Known as HBO.

I also watched all of the original animated Batman. Batman: The Animated Series, I think it was called? I really really liked that one, it was the perfect mix of edgy and funny, and is my favorite Batman iteration. Mark Hamill Joker also! That interpretation of Two-Face is my favorite, and made him my favorite Batman villain. I still want a silver dollar btw! I already have a $2 bill and several dollar coins, so if I get one of those and a half-dollar, I'll have one of every kind of defunct American currency. I think. I believe this is also available on The Max.

If you count anime as cartoons, Bleach and Fairy Tail are good, if you skip the filler. My Hero is... Pretty good. Mirko is of course my favorite character, and I am now only invested in the show for her sake. Crunchyroll is kinda the go-to for anime, but Hulu also has all three of these. I think Bleach might not be on Crunchyroll anymore also? Very Odd if so because it's one of the Big Ones, but I couldn't find it when I looked last.

Little Witch Academia is adorable! Lesbians abound, and features a surprising amount from actual Celtic lore. It's also quite possible the only anime featuring high school girls that doesn't make any blatant attempt to sexualize them, which is a breath of fresh air. The official anime is a Netflix original, but there apparently exists an OVA that I have not seen, and a movie, that I have, also on Netflix.

Castlevania is extremely good, but I guess it's technically an anime? It's originally in English and has some of the best lines I have ever heard come out of someone's mouth, ever, but it is heavily gorey, and S2 has some Unfortunate Rather Graphic Heterosexuality. Fortunately, one of the characters is confirmed bisexual! It is also a Netflix original.

This was a doozy to answer! I don't watch too many cartoons, per se, because I wasn't allowed watch most of them growing up. Never seen Spongebob, Powerpuff Girls, Phineas and Pherb, etc. etc. Despite that, I am a fan of animated shows over live-action shows, generally speaking, due to the liberties one can take, and the fact that you aren't limited by what you can achieve with human actors and such. The same goes for video games— I prefer heavy style to realism, though the GameCube/PS2 era games had the best of both worlds.

[punster-2319]

Animaniacs 30th anniversary

On this day 30 years ago, Animaniacs premiered on Fox Kids and became the 2nd most popular children’s show at the time (right behind Mighty Morphin Power Rangers). After a 65-episode season one and a 4-episode season two containing leftovers of one, Animaniacs moved to The WB Network in 1995 as the flagship for the network’s children’s block, Kids WB. Running for 3 more seasons, Animaniacs ended its run on November 14th, 1998 with 99 episodes in total. In 1999, Warner Bros. released a direct-to-video film called Wakko’s Wish which served as the series finale.

To this day, whenever people bring up greatest cartoons of all time Animaniacs is always near the top of the list for me. It has some of the best comedic timing ever put on television and has a great mixture of slapstick and clever adult jokes that’s on par with the classic Looney Tunes cartoons. Now is the show flawless? No, of course not. There have been some recurring jokes and gags throughout the series that have not aged well over time (there’s quite a few fatphobic jokes and the recurring Hello Nurse jokes). Also while the Warner Siblings, Slappy Squirrel, and Pinky and the Brain segments were S-tier most of the time, the show also had its fair share of what was basically just filler for the aforementioned segments (The Hip Hippos, Katie Ka-Boom, Mindy and Buttons, etc). The Rita and Runt segments fit right in between the S-tier and filler-tier for me personally because of the musical numbers sung phenomenally by Broadway actress Bernadette Peters.

So again even though it’s not flawless (nothing is really), Animaniacs continues to be one of my favorite shows that I revisit and quote often. This along with Batman the Animated Series are arguably the most influential animated kids shows of the 90s and it continues to be enjoyed by old fans and new fans alike.

Also check out @legion1979 ‘s blog if you want to see more in-depth analysis of episodes in the series and Wakko’s Wish. They wrote these reviews around a decade ago, but they’re still nice reads.

[adorawasright]

i've talked about this show on my main blog and how it always bugged me the way they romanticized abuse because it was a girl doing to a boy...

and that one show is pucca. yeah. pucca. (putting this under the cut if you don't want to read me ranting about a show no one really thinks about nowadays lmao)

i was the biggest pucca fan as a kid, i still have some merch with me. like i have some good childhood memories. i loved the shorts when they aired on jetix, and i was very enthusiastic for the full series they made in 2007/08. like i still love most of the characters to this day, like garu (i had a little crush on him lol), tobe and his ninja goons, abyo... they were all so funny and memorable.

but the main character, pucca? i just can't like her anymore. YES, i'm very aware she's a kid. she's like 10. i get it. i don't want horrible things happening to her or anything.

but honestly, even when i was a kid, younger than pucca even, it always bothered me how garu was the punchbag in most episodes. and the worst part is, he was always pucca's victim. at least the 2007/08 pucca cartoon romanticized stalking. pucca does the absolute worst things to get garu's attention, usually by kissing him without his consent or even outright kidnapping him, even though garu in this series never showed that he liked pucca back. EVER. if that ever happened, it was never the real garu, or he would be under some magical effect. all garu wanted was to be a ninja and go fishing or whatever. once he even preferred GOING TO JAIL than to be with pucca.

still, the show tries to shove down your throat that pucca and garu were meant to be and all the other characters encourage pucca to keep pursuing garu. none of the adults, not even pucca's uncles/guardians, try to tell her that like. kissing your crush without their consent is wrong. they just think it's cute. because she's a little girl.

to this day, when i see ppl talking about this show, they still romanticize pucca and garu's relationship. and it's really fucked up. like i know i saw through it when i was younger, but it concerns me that other kids probably didn't have the same realization, and the new fans won't either. i very rarely find people calling out the issues with pucca, and when they do, they will always be harassed by a legion of fans saying "it's just a kids show". one person even assumed i hated kids for some goddamn reason.

i know it might seem random mentioning pucca here, since it's very different from spop (pucca is definitely not on catra's level), but the fans always use the same arguments, that it's a kids show and we don't understand "true love". also because the abuser here is a girl, and to many people, women can never be abusers. (unless you're Evil and "ugly" like shadow weaver tho)

no yeah, i think pucca is in a very similar state as spop. no one thinks there's anything wrong with the main pairings. even though pucca is like, a decade older than spop, i find the fandoms very similar. they simply gloss over abuse because both pucca and spop do not take the abuse seriously. garu and adora are treated like jokes, or prizes to be earned by pucca and catra.

it's pretty disgusting.

[kellodrawsalot]

so wanted to post a fast review of a series, I did not expect to like, people I followed pretty much called it a trashfire and there were jokes all over social media over the quality of it's story and it's lackluster animation, so I went in with the mindset not too expect too much and well...

it''s pretty good?

wait no wat, it's pretty good, i myself am confused I enjoyed it alot, did I watched the same show as the people who hated it?

don't get me wrong the series has problems, the swearing gets a bit tirdesome and the pacing is all over the place. The show takes a lesson from spiderverse and lego movies by not giving its viewer any room to breath, Every scene is important to one of the major plot threads, episode 4 is a triggering episode that you should read upront on, that i can't comment on. The character desings are a hit and miss and not all the jokes land. But when the show wants to tell it's story, wants you to get to know the characters you can't help but get so invested and wanting to learn more. The different plot threads that it starts are all major good that you want to keep following the story. But what I like most about the show that it's not a cast of a ''nuclear'family or a group of high school teenagers or a group of super heroes. No it's a weird mixed of very troubling (sinners) adults in a found-family situation.

The story is about the Princess of Hell named Charlie who opened a Hotel in the hope she could redeem Sinners so they can go to heaven and avoid slaughter by the angels, that happens once a year, but due to angel Adam (yes that Adam) being a dick, the slaugher will happen again in just six MONTHS.

and that's all i need to tell you, a big theme about this series is Redemption and that it does it nicely well. The interaction between the characters is also majorly fun and let's just say there is a reason the Ost of Hazbin Hotel has been trending on Spotify it's freaking good.

The pacing doesn't bother me too much myself because Hazbin remindds me of a musical/stageplay and I love those.

(the Seramyu musicals are btw really good. give them a watch too)

regardless if you don't like HH that's all fine but I think one of the best things about it' being a hit, (it's one of the top shows on prime in over thirty countries) that in a time where big studios play it safe by having most adult cartoons follow the simpsons formula, try to copy the rick and morty style of storytelling, or in case of Disney and Marvel today, with Bob Iger saying they be focussing on big franchises and sequels for now, trying to shift the blame on original stories on why their movies aren't doing good. (despite them not even promoting said og movies and making the writers play it super SAFE) we have Hazbin Hotel, an animated show for adults that is so Unapologetic, Queer! Doesn't follow any save formula, is such an obvious passion project and is a huge hit! Last time I was this impressed was with Netflix Pluto and Nimona. HH is also a series I would love to see on stage! Hazbin Hotel is not for everyone but I would suggest give it a chance instaed of letting social media decide for you. (which i know you can disgard my post too, but I just wanted to say, I'm glad me and my friends watched this series and just ignored most of the hate, because we all enjoyed it and are playing the songs on repeat lolol)

[opinated-user]

also there is a video that i think have two points about why anime is different from cartoons and might explain her obsession with western cartoons. the video/video series on YouTube J Lisle Writes is called "Cartoon's isn't Anime" that explains flaws better then any video that has Woke in it. 1 the Fan service is writing focused more then naughty fan-service (example there is a tendency for cartoons to take a cue from live action to make pop culture references, shipping and other stuff like that) 2 there is no variety to it, a lot of cartoons are still tied down to television and broadcasting groups that may limit what get shown with only Indie animation as an alternative to mainstream that could still get ride of it and suspiciously only have adult animation and live action series still standing when the Tax cut happens. 3 anime uses cinematography and arcs like in movies like Disney movies while cartoons are still stuck using old tools of comedy and having characters just standing around to save money like a lot of adult animation is guilty of doing and relying on writing more then animation. 4 the biggest problem with modern day cartoons is that its not because of "Woke" its because greedy rich people want money without building an audience and when you have a animation culture that has broadcasters that do not want to believe that a variety of animation types that they have in japan can and could happen here and maybe Indie Animation might be the first step.

what dose this have to do with LO? everything, her love for Adult animation and television shows that they are one and the same. they both have characters that stand around and make Pop Culture Reference's that are as cliched as a type of demographic love for the cliched Hallmark holiday movies. they are fundamentally the same which is probably why she has a lot of hatred for stuff that do not fit that kind of stuff as a joke a day type of series.

sorry I kind of don't make sense in the end of that. if there is some stuff I missed to add to this then tell me.

that video sounds very interesting and well researched, thank you!

[writebackatya]

1. Currently my favourite fic of yours is "I Think We're Alone Now." It's funny, everyone feels in character, and I'm excited to see what happens next!

12. I've reread "The Three Caballeros (And Della)!" and some chapters of Indiquack.

2. Speaking of Indiquack, my favourite chapter so far would be "Ground Control to Della Duck." So many great things about it. If I remember correctly, Webby, Lena, and Violet end up in like a Jumanji type board game and appear out of it in the middle of Della smoking weed. pretty funny. and then when the boys catch her. yeah, its a good chapter and I think this was the first thing I ever read by you.

1. Thank you so much!! I really love writing that one. I just love writing the adult characters be able to do adult things when the kids aren’t around. Someone like Della should be able to let loose and have fun with her friends every now and then. And always happen to add more Fendra stuff cause frankly Gandra deserves more love! As for what happens next; gonna have some more DuckTales characters make their cameos and this:

12. You don’t know how badly I wanna write the next chapter of The Three Caballeros (and Della)! If it’s the next thing I post that’d be great. The plot hasn’t even truly begun in that one!

Also happy to hear that some chapters of Indi-Quack! are being re-read! First DuckTales fic so it’ll always be near and dear to my heart.

2. And Ground Control to Della Duck! is your favorite!? Thank you! I’m still proud of that one because I really think it does a great job starting off Indi-Quack! and showing what I wanted to do with that series

One of my favorite tropes ever is when an adventure is going on and/or happens off-screen and DuckTales did that a lot so I wanted to do that! And yes! Their adventure was indeed inspired by Jumanji (except it’s called Quack-A-Rooney!) I did that little bit of meta humor where Della recalls an adventure she and Donald had when they were kids was similar to Webby’s cause DuckTales is a reboot and Jumanji had its reboot! Also! I really wanted to imply that Della and Donald’s adventures were like the 80s cartoon and Webby saying “A baby elephant” was a reference to my first ever DuckTales media I ever watched, the DuckTales Movie. I just thought that line was so funny as a kid

And funny enough, the boys catching Della smoking weed was the inspiration for the entire story. I was joking around with my bro while we’re getting high of course saying that the boys catching Della getting high

I think we originally joked that Dewey and Louie would be like “Oh boy that means we’re allowed to get high too!” while Huey would be like “Oh you must’ve heard about the legalization of marijuana” and then Della would respond with “Weed’s legal now, huh? Cool.”

[natsumebookss]

State of the Nebula

I'll get the good news out of the way first--I'm remastering and finalizing Espoir and Bijou's designs and commissioning a new piece featuring my magical girl duo! It'll be '90s style manga art, so I'm super excited!

But you know what I'm not super excited about? Writing the damn thing. I've been in a creative rut since finishing Imperfect Storm, and I've mostly been writing little scenes from future books instead of prioritizing a Book 2. For awhile, I didn't know why or where to go from here, but now I do. And the reason is that...I've been hiding some stuff about Premiere Nebula from everyone.

(Discussion/critique of what I'm gonna call "Tumblr magical girl culture" will be down below. Just being a magical girl fan on Tumblr doesn't mean you're one of the people I'm talking about. It's like the difference between an "adult who likes Disney movies" and a "Disney adult.")

So I don't think we talk enough about self-censorship in the writing community. Sure, we talk about things like how actual book blurbs are starting to contain words like "unalive" now, but we don't talk about the more insidious and pervasive version that comes from censoring out dark topics altogether. The utter fear that, if I write this thing or this subplot, the people I want to market this to will hate me for it. And because I want to please the people I want to market this to, I don't write it, even if it fits perfectly into the plot.

This is the hell Premiere Nebula has been in for years. Yes, it's a story that's essentially about kidnapping and the various mental health effects it has on its victims, but it can't be too fucked-up because it's also a magical girl story. Plotlines like the Manufacturer liking the dark spirit he's created from day one, even though she's resided in Valka's body since she was a minor, were scrapped and left only to implication until these plotlines came to the attention of my pre-readers. In complete opposition to what I thought they would say, they said things like "this adds a lot to the story" and "it's almost creepier if a mass child kidnapper didn't have some weird obsession with kids in that way." They loved the criminal psychology behind it, something I've had a morbid fascination with since I was a kid.

But even then, I couldn't write it.

This is where I might offend some people and get some anon hate, but I'll say it anyway: magical girl fans on Tumblr can be just as toxic as those sorts of cartoon fans. (Again, talking about the Disney adults of magical girl stuff, which likely doesn't include any of my followers on this blog.) Ever since Madoka Magica came out, there's been this boiling hatred of darker magical girl concepts that has never fully gone away and an assumption that all dark MG series are inherently exploitative. There's also a silent pressure to make your stories more in the Precure or Sailor Moon style (or at least, what's perceived as "Sailor Moon style;" there's a discussion to be had of how the manga is pretty damn dark and the people who call Sailor Moon "light" may not be fully familiar with the original source material, but that's magical girl mansplaining for another day). Anyway, for awhile, that's what I thought I wanted PN to be--a story about both a rebel group and a group of friends who had funny moments and fought enemies that were, in hindsight, watered down versions of what I wanted them to be.

The ideal Premiere Nebula that I want to write is probably somewhere in between Madoka and Utena. A lot of the elements I've toned down so far are the Utena-like ones that deal with child exploitation and how manipulative adults like Akio take advantage of minor's naive perceptions of the world. People joke about Utena as "the magical girl series with trigger tags," but when I rewatched it, it made me realize that my original concept of PN had been like that, too. Just off the top of my head, I can think of "ideal PN" as having the following TWs:

kidnapping

frank discussions of mental health

suicide (no explicit depictions, mostly talking about how the rebel leader Valka is immensely suicidal and how her friends have had to talk her down many times)

physical and verbal abuse (mostly from Omega's ex, who she leaves in Book 1)

child abuse

non-consensual magical acts (brainwashing, as well as Stelle being forced to exchange magic with Alarice akin to a forced fusion in Steven Universe)

addiction

grooming (mostly looked at through a non-sexual lens with a ton of vampire/thrall imagery, long story short I've been listening to that one Olivia Rodrigo song a lot)

the aforementioned pedophilic implications of falling in love with a spirit in a child's body, like if Victor Frankenstein was even more fucked-up

Many of these have been self-censored to varying degrees in the finished Nebula product, with the last one being practically non-existent. But here's the thing: I'm not sure I want it to stay this way. I want PN to be a magical girl series that's "for adults" in more than just a superficial sense--I want to discuss things in it that happen to teenage girls and adult women in ways that children's media can't.

I have no problem with people who love traditional magical girl stories and children's entertainment. I'm one of them! But sometimes, I feel like the vocal minority stifles my creativity and, since most of the magical girl people I've met have been on here, makes me scared that there's no place for a story like mine as I want to write it. Sometimes, I wonder if that's been my real biggest fear after all.

I don't know how to end this, really. I may delete it down the road if I feel like I've vented too much here. But I want Premiere Nebula to stay a concept that shows my love of both dark and light media, something I jokingly call "pastel goth." I feel like anything less would just, well, not be Premiere Nebula anymore. I don't want to keep pretending it's something it's not anymore, even if it loses me potential readers. I want to get back to the way I was before, where I'd just write a scene without wondering how the fandom at large would see it.

Most of all, it'd be a disservice to the people who've read and followed my Premiere Nebula content until now to not receive a finished product written how the writer fully intended it. You all have been thoroughly amazing to me and gotten me through more hard times than you'll ever know. If Premiere Nebula--Alexandria's Version (as much as Taylor Swift annoys me, this is the best metaphor I have for this situation) isn't your cup of tea, I completely understand and wish you the best. But if you're the type of person who some darker social commentary with your magical girl stories, I hope I can do the concept justice for you.

Either way, I hope I was able to give you a fun experience with what little I have now, and I hope to keep doing so with a renewed inspiration.

[adamwatchesmovies]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

No adult who didn’t grow up watching the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series has any business watching the 1990 live-action film. While the animatronics and costumes bringing the reptilian heroes to life are impressive, the humor is juvenile, characters thin and the dialogue bad. These facts didn’t matter to the film’s intended audience. The beloved pizza-eating shadow warriors appearing on the big screen was enough and everyone knew it. The poster’s tagline of “Hey dudes this is NO cartoon” made it abundantly clear. It’ll continue to engage young viewers even today but children of the ‘80s who revisit it will be disappointed unless they're wearing thick rose-tinted glasses.

Mutated by radioactive ooze, raised in the sewers of New York by a rat who knows Kung Fu and obsessed with pizza, Michelangelo (Robbie Rist), Raphael (Josh Pais), Donatello (Corey Feldman) and Leonardo (Brian Tochi) are unlikely heroes. When the Foot Clan, a criminal organization of ninjas led by the mysterious “Shredder” (James Saito), begins recruiting the youth of NYC, the turtles team up with news reporter April O’Neal (Judith Hoag) and vigilante Cassie Jones (Elias Koteas) to take them down.

You’d never guess Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was made for a mere $13.5 million. Even when you consider the inflation, this is a good-looking movie. Our crazy-looking heroes interact with each other and with people, speak, eat, fight, ride skateboards, and so on. The lip-synch may be slightly off here and there but the illusion is convincing.

I can also praise the film for staying true to itself. The source material is a tough pill to swallow but the screenplay by Todd W. Langen and Bobby Herbeck doesn’t try to make the concept more digestible by making the turtles aliens or making their sensei/father into a man that was transformed into a rat-like creature. They’re 15-year-old shell warriors who love pizza and speak like surfer dudes. If you don’t buy that, the movie doesn’t want anything to do with you. It’s going to keep moving along those lines and doesn’t want to waste time dealing with semantics.

I suppose I can give a thumbs up to some of the film’s humorours sequences. They are genuinely funny about half the time and even when the gags are bad, they never go for fart jokes or other low-hanging fruit. Beyond this, I wish I had more nice things to say. This movie tries to do too much. It’s introducing the four protagonists, plus April, Cassie Jones, Shredder, Splinter, April’s boss and his troubled son, all on top of the characters’ origin and the actual plot. As a result, we hardly get to know the mutant heroes. They're virtually indistinguishable from each other except maybe Raphael, who has anger issues. Shredder is just as bad. We know nothing about him except that he’s evil and needs to be defeated.

Unless you already love the turtles and are overjoyed seeing them beat up an endless number of incompetent foot soldiers, the plot doesn’t offer much at all. It might be more “grown up” by daring to have a few of its characters curse (that surely rattled some cages back in the day) but the story has no depth. The dialogue is filled with groan-worthy one-liners, which to me makes the warriors believable as cartoon versions of teenagers. As a kid, I might’ve idolized these “grown up” turtles. Today, I find them mostly annoying. That goes double for the rap that introduces the end credits.

I choose to call Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles a good movie because it accomplishes its objectives. This is an unpretentious action comedy that wants nothing to do with the non-fans of the turtles. Everyone was into this franchise at the time and it continues to draw an audience. Kids will laugh at the turtles’ antics, be shocked when they get hurt, and cheer when the bad guys get what’s coming to them. It’s not for me and probably not for anyone reading this but I can see the appeal. (November 6, 2020)

[goodoldfashionedengineer]

Two hours passed since I watched the TOH season 2 finale. There was a lot to take in. The fandom is probably discussing season 3 but season 2 only now became available in my country and that's why I'm only talking about it now.

Here are my thoughts about TOH season 2 in no particular order:

I strive for a friendship like the kind Lilith and Hooty have

Showing that the Golden Guard acts like a teenager is the best they could have done after revealing that he is a teenager

Speaking of Hunter: It was so great to see him in a team

And caring about Flapjack. What a duo

I love the filter they used on the voice with the diaries

When Hooty ate the letter I got soo mad

I really wanted to punch our favourite tube demon in that moment

But only in that moment because he does care about his residents

I wish we learned more about Gus. I want to learn more about him

His despair when the illusions kick in

Calling himself dumb because "ge should have known" even though he was supposed to be the smart guy

Why do some witches have these magic "boosts"? Gus' eyes turn blue and he is in an illusion. Willow's eyes turn green and ranks appear out of the ground. Why is that? Will we get an explanation to this? It only happened with a specific type of magic

I knew Belos was Phillip when he said he was in the human realm and then proceeded to talk about how nice it is there. Added with the diary entry of Phillip talking about the reflections of the lake, my beliefs only grew stronger

RAINE! RAINE WHISPERS! I like them so much. They don't really seem like a rebel because of their stage freight but they nail it.

Raine's Rhapsody. Eda's Requiem. That... That episode did something to me emotionally. Like someone poked at my heart.

I am more invested in adult characters in cartoons if they are established well. So Raines is an awesome addition

Raine and Eda are star-crossed lovers. I don't know how often I said it while watching the series. They are. They are so beautiful. They care so much about each other.

Raine introduced Eda to Apple Blood, her favourite drink

Raine and Eda met each other but they alread had such a strong bond that they decided to attack a coven head and they didn't even have to say it.

Raine wanted to keep Eda safe. And Eda just ignores the suspicious stuff Luz says if Luz mentions Raine

"Rainstorm"

I'll talk about Raine again

It's so refreshing to see a cartoon family where noone is abusive or absent but it's not completely perfect, not by far.

I am speaking of the Clawthorne family

Her mom didn't disown her, she wants to help but didn't realise that she was causing more harm than helping

Lilith in that episode was me. Lilith, I understand you. Oldest child struggles with being overlooked because you are "self-sufficient" (which you only are because you had to be)

I cried when Gwendolyn apologised to Lilith. That was really nice to see. I rewatched that scene three times and it did help

Eda's dad doesn't hate her

Eda blames herself for the attack

I like how that one was revealed. In a dream of a past memory

Hunter starting to dig a grave because he failed. He did what we all want to do in these moments. And he is still joking.

I was confused when Darius was nice to Hunter because he finally made friends. I was confused because I saw Darius as that bad guy because he captured Raine.

That he is against the Emperor as well makes much more sense

Hunter has a Penstagram account

It took me way too long to realise that those skulls the Titan Trappers wear are just masks

This found family in this show

Eda being vulnerable after always being represented as this snarky clever witch. She cares about her loved ones. She didn't fight Lilith to get into some stupid coven, she sees Luz and King as her children

She regrets not accepting help

Flapjack flying to Hunter was such a nice moment. Hunter believed genuinely that the Emperor was great by giving him magic, letting him keep all magic, gaving him clothes and food and one day off a year

Belos gave Hunter a way to do magic

But Flapjack was his

Birds represent freedom and Flapjack was the first step in freeing himself from Belos

So nice to learn that Eda carved Owlbert with her dad and now she wants to carve a Palismen with Luz

Hunter is a nerd (affirmative)

I like how Amity stopped her dad of giving her a hug. You don't need to forgive someone everything just because they are family

I like how Alador changed sides and wants to get to know his kids. It took way too long tho. But Odalia is suffocating. No weekend of in five years?! Come on. That's going to lead to a divorce

I also like how they give backstories even to small characters. Lile Edric.

Also those cloaking stones are so smart

Lumity was dorky and awkwardin the best way possible

Amity wanting to be an awesome girlfriend. And knowing just what her GF would say

I laughed so hard when it was revealed that Amity was the only one who bought the Good Witch Azura books

I cried so much when Luz picked flowers for her dad.

And Amity was with her

Why did Belos look like this in his mindscape

Do I already want to talk about it?

The season finale?

Okay, let's get over this

The plan with making Eda Coven head seemed so risky and I had a bad feeling.

It was right

Maybe they should have gone with Darius plan

It was so painful to see Eda getting a sigil. That was her thing, being the most powerful witch because she wasn't bound to a coven and was wild

And she gave it up for all the people she loves

I looove The Collectord character design. When he is imprisoned but also when he is free. A child with unimaginable powers obky a Titan could compete against.

He is a child but is overpowered. Not a teen, a child. This was so awesome

Even when dying Raine is doing everything to keep their promise and keep Eda safe...

I didn't got closure on that ship

I didn't got any closure

What happened after they where stranded in the human world

Probably going to find out in season 3

I thought because the episode was called "King's Tide" King is going to transform into his giant Titan form and gain new powers or something like this and save the day

Instead he saved his big sisters by letting go

I am probably going to make another post but those are all my thoughts I can think of in this moment so I am going to stop there. I am soo overwhelmed.

[animehouse-moe]

Kiruru Kill Me

⚠️Warning: Will Contain Mildly Sexual Content⚠️

Want something crazy and out there that really makes the most of its concept? Kiruru Kill Me is definitely at the top of that list. I barely knew the story for this series when I picked up it for cheap through a used listing, but once I picked up the first volume I blasted through the 3 that are currently out (Volume 4 comes out tomorrow!).

So what's the story? Well, to be blunt, Kiruru is an assassin hired to kill the pharmaceutical mogul Aoi Nemo, a certified Bruce Wayne of the medical world in Japan. Unfathomable funds, secretive groups and developments galore. He has everything he wants, good lucks, a great physique, charisma. He has it all except for a girlfriend. One fateful day however, he has a run in with an incredibly beautiful woman, one that immediately sets his heart on fire and has him chasing a ghost for months. That is until, he finds out that this mystery woman is. Using his unfathomable funds (and unfathomable stupidity) to cultivate a relationship with her, he hires her to kill him, that being Aoi Nemo himself.

Yes, that's right, Aoi's dream girl is Kiruru the assassin, and with everything at his disposal he thought the best idea was to hire her to kill him, all so that he could get closer to Kiruru. So starts our game of reverse yandere Cat and Mouse. Kiruru coming up with every idea under the sun to kill Aoi, and Aoi turning himself into an indestructible man so that he can withstand all of Kiruru's "Love".

It is completely unironically, an incredibly fun and engaging read. It leans into it's ridiculousness super well, and the creativity mixed with plausibility of it all keeps you right in the thick of it. It's a concept that you'd think up for something like an old school cartoon style. A back and forth of crazy concepts that tie it all together. Also, did I mention it's a pretty steamy? With adult characters as well. Everyone is a working professional in this story so you can enjoy all it has to offer.

Each date/chapter is well thought out and creative, it follows a "format" so to speak, but it always knows just when to shake it up and flip the script. Surprise meetings, expectation subversion, a new rival, a new angle or revelation, it's got a written arsenal that rivals that of Kiruru's real arsenal.

The characters in general are pretty archetypal, but personally I find that they keep it just the right amount of shallow. Take Kiruru's mentor in the above image. The dude's a perv through and through, but they don't pretend to be anything else. It's a light and shallow character that just adds an angle of comedy to the series. Then there's stuff like Aoi's best friend/right hand man Mori. He's straight laced and plays opposite Aoi's incredibly intense and odd personality, teeing up jokes just as often as he is dishing them out himself. All of the characters here have just the right amount of exposure to not be seen as something incredibly diverse and deep, but avoid being pinned or limited to "shallow" or "cliché" typing.

It all plays into keeping Aoi's assassination at the hands of Kiruru at the front and center, but doesn't rely purely on the thrill of that chase to offer enjoyment. That is to say, it's got range without leaving the box it's placed itself in.

At the end of the day, it's just dumb fun for a mature audience. I wouldn't call it anything amazing, but for what it is it's really enjoyable, really ridiculous, and really interesting.

Plus, Aoi Nemo getting turned on by various assassination attempts is just super funny to me, and the added dialogue via narration is the cherry on top for it.

[adultswim2021]

Saul of the Mole Men #4: “Fun King Johnny” | March 5, 2007 - 12:00AM | S01E04

Can I tell you something? I literally had no idea that Johnny Tambourine and Saul were both portrayed by Josh Gardner until I found myself, for the first time ever, curious about the actor portraying Johnny Tambourine. Like, it never even crossed my mind that it could be the same guy. Not sure if this means Josh Gardner is a gifted performer or if I’m just really unobservant. 

Okay so the plot of this one is basically: Clancy is having trouble reaching King Johnny Tambourine, who is a born goofball. It seems that Bertram has charmed him thoroughly, and wants Johnny to sign a contract for Project Thunderhole, a hole so huge that they’ll never have to dig another hole ever again. He plans to dig this hole UPWARDS, which is currently forbidden by Mole Man law.

Meanwhile Saul is rotting in jail, having a terrible time. There’s a bit where his cellmate freaks him out by popping his own eyes out, screaming while blood sprays out the sockets, only to have them regenerate within seconds. Saul is eventually sprung for his trial, which is just him dressed like Sean Connery in Zardoz facing off with a big scary razor-toothed worm wearing a powdered judge wig. If he gets eaten, he’s guilty. If he doesn’t, he’s innocent. Just as the worm grabs hold of Saul, we learn that Bertram needs a licensed and bonded geologist to sign off on Project Thunderhole, which Johnny points out that Saul, in fact, is one. End episode. 

The big comedy ideas here come off as random humor and it’s not very satisfying. The eye regeneration bit does nothing for me. It only annoys me, it’s audaciously clownish and violent, and I find myself wondering if the show thinks I’m dumb enough to laugh at it just because it’s weird and out of left field. I’m not sure why this joke offends my sensibilities, and I’m not sure why I don’t call what Tim & Eric do “random humor”, but this just doesn’t sit right to me.

I remember I worked on a local independent comedy pilot, and there was a character in the show whose whole thing was that they’d check in on him on a security camera in an adults-only part of a store, and he’d be doing something different each time. I remember the go-to example the producer always gave was “he’d be in there eating a dead body or something”. It’s that kind of joke: It’s funny because it’s over-the-top and violent, never mind that it’s completely unmotivated. I associated this show (and Young Person’s Guide) with drawing from that well way too often. I hated it!

There is another bit where Myelocytes perform for King Johnny. In case you aren’t aware of what myelocytes are, here’s an excerpt from wikipedia: 

Numerous cytoplasmic granules are present in the more mature forms of myelocytes. Neutrophilic and eosinophilic granules are peroxidase-positive, while basophilic granules are not.

Man, I fucking hate science.

MAIL BAG

adriennbanai-09 writes:

Learning with pibby some Adult Swim Cartoon Network gets Corrupted by The Darkness and Everywhere :)

thank you

I never did see that, but I heard about it when it happened! Since we’re covering stuff here in chronological order, it’ll be a little while to get around to covering that one, but I WILL cover it! :)

KON writes:

Saul always struck me as a compromised vision and the unaired pilot sorta proves it. There is a better-realized, more interesting vision there than what ended up on the show. It feels like Adult Swim saw the pilot and said "we like it! But can you make it for [insanely low budget]? And can you crank out 20 immediately?" They said yes, but the answer was no.

CONTINUED:

It's me with more Saul talk... I pinpointed the difference between the Saul pilot and series for me... the pilot feels more like a twisted, adult version of a children's show, while the series just feels like a poorly-done adult show.

Something to think about. I did watch the pilot and I do think it looked better in general, but I think I still prefer the first aired version of episode one.

I genuinely wonder if the reason they let Tim & Eric crank out 30 episodes in such a short period of time was because they realized how much more they could do with similar production values and realized they backed the wrong garbage-making horse?

Who would you like to see replace Trevor Noah at the Daily Show. Don't worry about the direction of the show since he took over, pick your dream choice no matter unlikely.

A naked girl

[pretentious-art-love]

Film Reviews #10 - The Cat in the Hat

The director of this thing worked as a production designer in a bunch of Tim Burton movies so my guess as calling this Comedy Tim Burton was actually spot on.

Anyhow, I do blame the marketing department for its reputation, in Latin America, nobody knows who Dr. Seus is and it's considered a classic, I would also say that it shouldn't have been marketed as a kids movie but every one of us zoomers has watched this thing as kids and we still enjoy it a lot (a lot of the adult jokes maybe didn't cross the language barrier, I'm not sure, for the rest I would classify this thing at least as PG-13) I still have to check the original dub one day, but the Spanish dub makes me nostalgic.

Clearly, the American public was expecting something else (not sure what, maybe something that was more based on the spirit of the book, but I haven't checked it) and they got disappointed, Bo Welch wanted to make a certain kind of movie and using that source as an inspiration for the plot wasn't such a good idea. Lots of original projects get rebranded as remakes, sequels or adaptations to increase their chance of success, it happens all the time, but here clearly it backfired.

Nevertheless, as for what it is, and not for what people expected it to be, I do think this movie is unironically amazing, do you know what sporkcore is? Well, I do classify spork core music as Tim Burton-esque music that is also funny or quirky or playful, and this movie is a complete incarnation of sporkcore! Think like The Mask but not just as a sporky character in a normal world but normal characters in a sporky world! Movies like this are a blast because show how cartoon logic and physics would be in a live action. Everything is just so elastic, frenetic, colorful and insane! Some might say that this is something Live Action Animation does but I think The Mask and The Cat in the Hat achieve this a lot better because they use CGI to make things a bit more real looking.

The whole movie is a ride of madness and stupidity. My only complaint would be that it feels kinda short, I mean, you might be thinking I'm being ironic but I'm not, from the crux to the denouement things get solved too quickly, I would have liked to see more stuff and more world-building with all those ridiculous architecture and aesthetic. Even when the North American public couldn't accept this movie, it has seen the afterlife through a series of memes on the internet, so I am glad that people still appreciate it one way or another.

9/10

[bow-chicka-wow-wow-wow]

What The Fuck Is Wrong With Modern Family Guy?

Family Guy first aired in 1999. For the past 25 years, the show has survived two cancellations, a couple friendly jabs from The Simpsons, a not-so-friendly bashing from South Park, has been the subject of many controversies, had a few banned episodes, was the target of PTC groups, and it’s still going. Nowadays, the only thing the series is good for is the nostalgia for the classic episodes, because let’s face it, the show FUCKING SUCKS NOW!! At what point did the once beloved adult cartoon become an embarrassment to animation? Some would say starting with season 9 when the show made the jump to HD, others would say around season 7, personally I’d say around season 8, right around the time they made Brian and Quagmire mortal enemies. So, what earned this piece of shit show its fall from grace? Time to set the record straight!

1. Character Flanderization - Each character had traits that have been overly simplified while other traits have been greatly exaggerated. Take Brian for example, cause he was one of the hardest hit characters with that concept. At the start of the series, he was the intelligent voice of reason, but now he is an alcoholic, pretentious, unlikable scumbag! Peter went from lovable doofus to domestic abusive, underoos psychopath, and Lois went from caring housewife who played the piano beautifully to sexual deviant who’s obviously cheating on her husband, and not just with Bill Clinton! Meg went from typical awkward teenage girl to the show’s punching bag (more on that later), Joe was a heroic cop in spite of his handicap who’s now seen as pathetically worthless. And don’t get me started on Quagmire! While he was always perverted, he at least used to be likable. But now he’s noting more than a sex-crazed maniac. And he had the BALLS to call Brian out on his faults when he’s the BIGGEST FUCKING HYPOCRITE OF ALL TIME??!!

2. Convoluted/Recycled Episode Plots - A LOT OF EPISODES ARE THE SAME SHITTY PLOT!! No matter what season we’re on, if you get asked if you’ve seen the most recent episode of Family Guy, and you ask, “Isn’t that the one where Peter does some reckless shenanigan that leads to Brian ‘finding love,’ only for the relationship to end abruptly because of how unlikable that fucker is?,” YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY CORRECT!! Also there’s the problem of two things going on at once. In one episode, Stewie gets PREGNANT (more on that later), while in that episode’s B-plot, Peter and the guys are trying to make a viral video. Honestly I forgot how well that turned out cause I was already disgusted by, uh, THAT plot! WHICH WAS WHY THERE SHOULD NOT BE MORE THAN ONE FUCKING PLOT IN A FUCKING EPISODE!!!!

3. Drawn Out/Extended/Overused “Jokes” (aka Filler)- Yeah, I put that in quotation marks because a joke is supposed to be FUNNY! Not even the Joker would find the “humor” in this shitwad of a show hilarious! But I digress! You know the writers have not written enough material for an episode when they throw in something as filler just to fill up the 22-minute runtime. Like the chicken fights, while they are epic, they’re just really used as an excuse to make up for lack of material, because each fight just gets longer, and Longer, AND LONGER! And don’t expect that to end anytime soon, because Peter brings Ernie back to life solely because he didn’t want to be the only one responsible for paying for the damages their conflict has caused throughout town throughout the years! Oh and the Conway Twitty jokes! I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t really like them the first time, but that was at a time I DESPISED country music (I still hate modern country music, but thanks to New Vegas, I broadened my horizons, and my favorite music is metal). But in one scene, they decide to SHOW AN ENTIRE 3-MINUTE SONG!!! 3 MINUTES! OUT OF A 22-MINUTE EPISODE!!! Eventually, even God told Peter that Mr. Twitty himself says to cut it out and actually write a joke! And who can forget Peter falling and hurting his knee? The “SSS, AHHH” gag was funny the first time, but after being used repeatedly, it gets old fast! Also, I should mention the wasted minute of Carter smashing a park bench with a bulldozer.

4. Shocking/Grossout “Humor” - I purposefully didn’t mention this in my last point, but that moment when Peter “rescues” a beached whale with a forklift truck? Yeah he actually impales it with the truck’s forks, killing it instantly. Not only that, but he spends a minute and a half getting it off the forklift, spilling its entrails and even its fucking jaw! How about that episode where Brian GIVES STEWIE HERPES??? OR THE ONE WHERE STEWIE IMPREGNATES HIMSELF USING BRIAN’S DNA?!?! THATS FUCKING DISGUSTING!! I ALWAYS SKIP THE LATTER TWO EPISODES BECAUSE I DON’T EVER WANNA PUT MYSELF THROUGH THAT AGAIN!! How about a moment that got an episode banned from rebroadcast, when Peter wins the Boston Marathon by getting in his car and running over the other competitors? That’s NOT funny!

5. Mean-Spirited Show - Peter even admits he’s no longer attracted to Lois AND he didn’t like being around the kids, Lois encourages Meg to commit suicide, Brian became an unbearable douche after he writes a best-seller, Stewie tells Brian that he’s gonna buy a cake when he dies, Bonnie is hellbent on leaving Joe, even contemplated killing him, and the list goes on and on. That’s all I have to say…

6. Not Living Up To The Name - It’s called “Family Guy,” not “Idiotic Menace Does Whatever Moronic, Reckless Shenanigan That Pops In His Head With Zero Regard For His Family, His, Friends, Or His Whole Community At Large, And Gets Off Scott Free And Learns Nothing!” Peter Griffin, the so-called “Family Guy,” is a selfish, immature, drunk, abusive, unfaithful, apathetic, unsympathetic, unlikable, idiotic, psychopathic JACKASS!! HE PUTS HIS OWN DAUGHTER’S FACE TO HIS ASS AND FARTS IN IT!!! MORE ON THAT LATER! HE CONSTANTLY CHEATS ON HIS WIFE, HE DOESN’T REALLY CARE ABOUT CHRIS OR STEWIE, AND HE CONSTANTLY BELITTLES OR PUTS DOWN HIS OWN BEST FRIENDS, DRINKS WAY TO MUCH, AND DESTROYS THE FUCKING TOWN EVERY FEW YEARS FIGHTING ERNIE THE GIANT CHICKEN!! HOW THE FUCK IS HE NOT IN PRISON?!?!

7. Meg Bashing - WHY. THE. FUCK. IS. THIS. A. THING?!?! Meg started the season off as an unpopular high school girl, you know, normal teenage bullshit, and she suddenly becomes UNIVERSALLY HATED BY EVERYONE, ESPECIALLY HER FAMILY!!! LOIS AND PETER ATTEMPT TO ABANDON HER AT A FIRE STATION AS A BABY, LOIS MAKES IT A POINT TO PUT HER DOWN EVERY CHANCE SHE GETS, PETER FARTS ON HER, AND THE LIST GOES ON!!! WHY ALL THE HATE? BECAUSE APPARENTLY SHE’S “UGLY??” SHE’S NOT EVEN THAT UNATTRACTIVE!! EVERYONE ON THE SHOW SHOULD DIE A HORRIFIC DEATH!!!

[kylekozmikdeluxo]

Yeah... I'm gonna talk about FAMILY GUY... Long post, incoming!

Actually, I'm seeing some talk about FAMILY GUY, specifically early FAMILY GUY, elsewhere. As of late. Because the TED Peacock series, based on a now 12-year-old movie, is out. And apparently it's pretty good? Reminiscent of the early seasons of FAMILY GUY, which people who actually like the show consider to be the series' best seasons? I couldn't tell you.

Coincidentally, I've re-watched most of Seasons 1-3 now that my Disney+ plan includes Hulu. The seasons produced and aired *before* FAMILY GUY was here to stay. FOX had cancelled the show twice in the early 2000s, and when it came back for the second time, it never left. It's now one of those long-running cartoons, ubiquitous with the word "cartoon" you could say, a new season almost every year.

I'm gonna be a total hipster and say that I was onboard the FAMILY GUY train as early as mid-2003 ish.

I was in fifth grade, and was at the time starting to stay up later than usual to watch a little thing called [adult swim]...

FAMILY GUY had just started airing on [adult swim], almost a year after its then-final episode - 'Family Guy Viewer Mail #1' - had aired on FOX. A classmate of mine had told me about it, and little by little, I was watching FAMILY GUY regularly. Even on school nights, low volume, haha. I didn't want to get in trouble. Life in the early 2000s was different, to any smartphone-era babies reading.

I didn't know anybody else in school at the time, sans a few classmates, who watched the show. It was like we five or so kids were the only ones who knew of its existence in my town (along w/ the original [as] shows, like AQUA TEEN and SEALAB 2021), which is kind of wild to think. I think by mid-2004, I'd seen every episode of the show to date, including the one that FOX was too cold-footed to air (for understandable reasons, especially in the early 2000s. The episode in question is probably tame compared to what the show would later "get away with"). And it was on almost every night, so I only had to wait 24 hours to see a FAMILY GUY episode I may have never seen... So catch-up was pretty easy!

I think part of the appeal for me - at age 10/11 - was definitely "haha this is a naughty show and I probably shouldn't be watching it" (though weirdly, my mother and stepdad let me watch a SOUTH PARK episode or two, I don't remember that show being off-limits) aspect. Another reason is kind of weirder, and I came to this realization rather recently-ish. Around 4th/5th grade, some things bothered young me. Growing up autistic wasn't always easy, and my way of processing the way world can be and how unfair life can be sometimes kinda... Made me act strange, in ways? I definitely had this "old soul" kinda bullshit going on at certain points in my kid life, when I should've been loose and funny and laughing at fart jokes. And I was at times, don't get me wrong. It's not like I was miserable or anything, or bearing the weight of the world on my shoulders, but some days I'd feel... Strange. And I was weirdly anti-some things that the typical kid finds funny or amusing. I don't know if I can fully articulate it now on a tumblr post, but the long story-short is... [adult swim] was one of the things that helped loosen me up a bit.

Going into middle school at age 10-going-on-11 (I started school early?) was not easy, and that accelerated a lot of things, a lot of feelings, a lot of complications in my brain... And my embrace of [adult swim] started to converge with that, and by 7th grade, I was really, really loose. I swore more, I wrote edgy stuff, I upped like most of my original stories I was writing to PG-13/R-level, I was a silly little edgelord sometimes. But at the same time, unleashing a lot of *that* after a few years of this weird pseudo-old soul nonsense, bad habits, and general confusion was a very fun and freeing feeling!

This is why, despite a lot of shit that should've made that time in my life a nightmare, late 2004-early 2005 was a really exciting time in my life. I think just letting the proverbial hair down was a big reason why, alongside all of my hyperfixations that I always turned to when things really sucked. Things such as Pixar movies and BIONICLE and Cartoon Network stuff and various video games, etc. etc. etc. And smack-dab in the middle of all this was my nightly [adult swim] viewings before I had to get up at 6:30am to wait for the bus on cold-ass mornings. FUTURAMA, FAMILY GUY, AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE, THE BRAK SHOW, on and on... It was the stuff I could turn to.

For Christmas in 2004, I was given a newly-released FAMILY GUY DVD called "The Freakin' Sweet Collection"... I probably wore that poor disc out. Creator Seth MacFarlane's 5 favorite episodes, ones that I still find to be bangers to this day, plus some bonus features. FAMILY GUY was a prime special interest of mine at the time, and eventually I went to a music store that went out of business many years ago and picked up the DVD sets compiling Seasons 1, 2 & 3... And subsequently wore all of those out throughout 2005. They're but gone, now... Though some stores sell a whole box set with like, what, the first 10 seasons of the show for a fair price? I may or may not buy that if the discs aren't updated from the original 2000s versions. Anyways, FAMILY GUY, yeah... I just really, really liked it back then.

Really, I was the perfect age for it at the time. FAMILY GUY has always been contested, regularly seen as one of the nadirs of animated trash. You can definitely make a case for that. As much as I dig early FAMILY GUY, some of its humor really has not aged well, and is indeed offensive in many ways. For me, I feel those pre-2nd cancellation seasons have a charm to them to shines through the more egregious stuff. A charm that noticeably fades away from Season 4-onwards. You see, being from Connecticut, where MacFarlane was born... FAMILY GUY is *very* New England to me. After all, it is set in a fictional Rhode Island town, the state the neighbors me.

The show started airing in 1999, and while I wasn't watching it back then (let alone had even heard of it), I feel a lot of the character interactions, dialogue, and setting really do capture the feeling of being there. In a New England state, in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Little nuances and such, the way Peter and Lois joke about things in particular. Such as this scene from Season 2's 'E Peterbus Unum':

I don't know how to put it in words, but it's very New England to me. My family and I interacted like this quite frequently. Plus, you have Peter's voice being inspired by a security guard that Seth overheard when attending the Rhode Island School of Design, a very New England accent. Lois, too, to some extent. I hear a middle-aged Connecticut mom or aunt in Alex Borstein's delivery, whom she based on a relative of hers. Maybe that's why I initially connected to this show more so than THE SIMPSONS back in the day (and at that time, THE SIMPSONS was on its not-so-beloved seasons), I was too inept to grasp THE SIMPSONS' wit. It hit just right, I think, back then.

Now, upon learning that the show had been cancelled and that it was actually coming back... Within a few months... You bet I was excited? I remember the Sunday the fourth season premiere aired, my family and I gathered around to watch it, and I just remember all of us laughing like hyenas throughout. The episode had so much wackiness and a bunch of cameos as well. We also watched the AMERICAN DAD! episode that dropped right after, but I mostly remember when I first saw 'North by North Quahog'. What a night that was, lol. And you just, went home... Didn't tweet about it. I didn't have any message board accounts at the time, either, so... A couple of classmates to talk to about it, that was it. A lot of my classmates apparently still hadn't seen the show by this time. I mostly remember being ahead of the game when it came to this show, liking it before it was cool, you could say. Once others in my school started referencing it, it was like "I had you beat by almost 2 years." I also remember getting a T-shirt depicting the Griffins beating each other up, as seen in the episode 'Lethal Weapons'. And I remember some of the other kids thinking that was so cool, and one teacher - who probably couldn't stand me, to begin with - calling me to the front of the class to see exactly *what* was on that shirt. Surprisingly, I did *not* get in trouble...

(Not my photo, this is from an eBay listing... But it was THIS exact shirt. Only thing was missing was the horse's ass portrait!)

Later in the year, a DVD called 'Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story' was released, which I instantly put on my birthday list. It was kinda billed as "The FAMILY GUY Movie" when it was coming out, and of course my 13-year-old arse fell for it... And wore that DVD out, too... And then it aired as three separate episodes - albeit with missing footage because this was a DVD release and not a primetime TV airing - the following spring. Still, I have fond memories of getting that DVD and many others. The early DVD era was just so fun back then, what with interactive menus and much more care put into bonus features. And with less distractions back then, I feel you felt more immersed in the movies and content on the discs... Just sitting in your bedroom, you hadn't owned a laptop yet, smartphones didn't exist... Just, entranced in whatever it was you had on. It gets even more bittersweet nowadays, as stores and companies are trying to phase out physical media. How obtuse... But that's another rant for another day...

I would continue to watch FAMILY GUY regularly, and then slid off by around 2008-09ish. The show was beginning to change for the worst, I felt, and I definitely felt that original spark from the early seasons was kind of gone. The simplicity, the New England vibe, the characters feeling a lot more real and not just springboards for whatever dumb stuff they were coming up with. Seth's involvement was apparently minimal by this point in time, as he already had AMERICAN DAD!, THE CLEVELAND SHOW, the first TED movie, and other stuff in the works or bubbling up at the time. By 2011-12ish, I was getting rather actively pissed off at the show, and only checked back in when that "Brian dies" publicity stunt had happened. Otherwise, I've seen very few episodes of the show afterwards, and most of them didn't impress me... Outside of, surprisingly, a few selections from the Disney batch. Quite something! If you time-traveled to 2004 and told me that Disney was going to own this cartoon that I was watching on [adult swim] late at night without my folks knowing, I would've told you to get out of town!

But I hold a special place for those first three seasons, and watching the DVD sets of them back in early 2005, as an unhinged middle schooler. I won't posit that early FAMILY GUY is some kind of underrated gem in the history of television animation. It really is, in most iterations, perhaps the personification of that old Chuck Jones quote about "illustrated radio". Television animation that you don't watch for the animation or visuals, but solely for the writing. It pretty much is that, even if the designs of the Griffins are instantly recognizable and iconic. And it arguably had a bad influence, not the fault of the show or its creators, but of the way things go.

I came to the conclusion that Season 2 is my favorite of the original three. For me it was the most focused, the characters were at their best, banger jokes a minute and clever use of pop cultural references. I can even sense some of Seth's Cartoon Network roots in a lot of it, which is no surprise given that this show evolved out of a project he developed for CN. Season 1 is only seven episodes long and they were figuring things out, Season 3 has highs that equal that of Season 2's best moments, but I feel that parts of it kinda plant the seeds for what the show would eventually become. It noticeably gets denser, a little meaner, characters are more out-of-character, it tries to be even more offensive than before and sometimes really not sticking the landing. And yet, that's mashed up against a legit emotional episode like 'Brian Wallows and Peter's Swallows'.

In fact, those last four or so half-hours... Especially with the redone end credits music that re-imagines the theme song as a big band production, there was a weird sort-of... I dunno, finality to it? And that's not counting the S2 leftover that FOX wasn't keen on airing... I mean the original ending of S3, 'Family Guy Viewer Mail #1'... It was if they knew that Season 3 was going to be the end? You had the aforementioned Wallows/Swallows, then 'Stuck Together, Torn Apart', then another "Road To" episode with 'Road To Europe', and then 'Viewer Mail #1'. Like four really well-done character-focused episodes with some heartfelt moments, even... And then as a coda, three fun skits based on wacky ideas... Like, had the show ended there in early 2002 with the recalled Weinstein episode popping up somewhere else in the future... That would've been a fine way to go out, honestly. Even as a preteen back then, I felt just that watching these episodes... So it was a big surprise to me when I found out that Season 4 was a go. And S4 would use that same 2nd rendition of the end credits theme, so that was even more unusual for me.

Yeah, FAMILY GUY... It's a part of my weird-ass life. And there's probably whole holes of other stuff related to this show and other things that I could waffle on about regarding my preteen years, but... I'll just cap it off here, lol.