#and there’s a bunch of cameos from other youtubers and it’s funny and stuff BUT
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porcelainvino · 1 month ago
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sure i’ll watch this video about wrestlingWHY IS HE HERE
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ecargmura · 1 year ago
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Paradox Live The Animation Episode 8 Review - Corrosion
Last episode review, I theorized that Hajun was going through phantometal corrosion after seeing what Nayuta was suffering from. I got that right! However, I don’t want to celebrate as this episode was super emotional. I gasped when Hajun fainted and legit shed some tears after everything that transpired in the latter half of the episode.
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Okay, first off, Hajun, why are you such a hater? First, you called TCW “past-expiration” and now you called Akan Yatsura “playing house with a bunch of strays”. Funny enough, both teams revolve around being a family despite not being blood related; Hajun is also related to the Yeon Conglomerate, but he’s not related to them by blood and got thrown aside. I can see that he has heavy abandonment issues because of that. Since he was adopted, that means he was either abandoned by his actual birth parents or they died and he was put in an orphanage before adoption. He was abandoned once. The second time he was abandoned was because of his adopted parents not wanting him anymore after his brother was born. I understand why he’d be heavily guarded ever since that incident. Being abandoned twice does take a toll in one’s psyche. Hajun doesn’t want to admit that he found a family of his own with Anne and Allen; this episode was him coming to terms with how important they are to him. It made me happy. HOWEVER, Hajun, if you ever dare be a hater towards cozmez, I will personally transmigrate into your world and break your kneecaps while cursing in Korean.
Seeing Hajun having corrosion and being cured from it made me a bit sad, honestly. Nayuta didn’t know there was a cure. Had he told someone, he could’ve been happier (and Shiki too). Though, there is a possibility that Nayuta is still alive after giving a bit of a teaser last episode. The method of going inside a person’s mind to cure their corrosion really gives off Kingdom Hearts vibes with the dive into people’s hearts stuff. I honestly like it. There’s something very magical about that method—I’m writing a story that has the main character dive into people’s memories to grant their wishes (if you want to read it, it’s available on Tapas, Royal Road, Wattpad and Webnovel—just click on the links on the pinned post on my page and you'll be directed). The only time this cure was used was when Buraikan was active ten years ago. Is that Shura guy that ramen guy wearing a disguise? Wait, is the ramen guy his default appearance or is that a disguise? I don’t know! All I know is that the ramen guy’s only voice cameo from Episode 5 was the same guy who rapped the ending song and they have the same voice actor. I think I have pretty good ears to be able to distinguish voices. Wait, what happened to the other Buraikan guy if that was the case? Is he dead? Was he unable to be cured? Does that mean Hajun is the only successful case so far?
I do wonder how Iori has so much knowledge of phantometal. I know that he’s trying to research Alter Trigger in a way by getting the “kids” to gather information about Ryu, which was what Episode 6 was about on their end. Since he’s yakuza, is he trying to destroy them? But seriously, how much does he know? Does he know about Nayuta’s case? Despite being fine as heck, he’s a man full of mysteries. Every time he shows up, there seems to be more questions than answers. Also, I can’t believe Satsuki and Reo have the gall to start a random food fight during meal time. Who does that?
Since this is a BAE episode, AKYR’s song isn’t heard much. However, thanks to the power of current modern technology AKA Youtube, I listened to Call For Familiez. I liked it a lot! Fabulous was also really good to listen to. I think I like Fabulous the best out of all the BAE songs so far. It just sounds so different from the first two BAE songs I’ve heard. I think both songs are just so different from the usual powerful songs both groups have—they’re currently my favorites from each group now!
Also, I want to discuss Hajun’s Korean at the ending. In Episode 4, he said “Gomawoyo”, which means “Thank you” in Korean, but it’s used in a more polite manner. If you’re not familiar with the Korean language, adding -yo to the end of your sentences makes them polite and formal. Since Hajun used -yo at the end of his sentence, it showed that while he was thankful to Allen and Anne, there was still some distance. In this episode, he says “Gomawo”. Notice that he doesn’t add -yo at the end of his sentence this time. This shows that the wall between Hajun and the other two have finally been broken. If you’re wondering about the difference between “gomawoyo” and “kamsahamnida”, which are both words of gratitude, “Gomawo” is more informal and used casually while “kamsahamnida” is the more polite/formal usage. Since Hajun used the former, it showed that he is comfortable around his friends to speak casually to them, but still added -yo at the end at first. Now that he broken the boundaries between him and his group, he doesn’t need to use -yo when talking to them. The writers really did their research on the language and I’m super impressed.
Next episode’s title has the words shrouded in green, meaning it’s going to focus on all four groups again and maybe have them do weird shenanigans like what they did in Episode 6. I do wonder what will happen next week. I’m excited. Once again, thank you all of the people who commented on my review of the previous episode. You’re all lovely people and I hope you meet people as wonderful as Anne and Allen. What are your thoughts on this episode?
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serendertothesquad · 3 months ago
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Seren's Studies: Odd Squad UK -- "Odd Ones In" Episode Followup, Part 1
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May the days of the whiteness of the Big O's desk be forever remembered in favor of this thing that flashbanged me and made me nearly drop my glasses.
No, guys, seriously. I am looking at this thing. It is floating. Why is it floating.
But enough whining. It's October 1st and that means Odd Squad UK has officially premiered! With it, we get a bunch of episodes that have been graciously pulled by a friend, @personinthepalace. Many thanks goes to them! (And all the work they've had to do throwing them up in other places where YouTube failed.)
For those unfamiliar with how these work, it's pretty standard: I watch the episode, plop screenshots into this post, and react accordingly in text form. Sadly, until I can get a new laptop and some privacy, Seren Reacts videos will be on hold.
So join me below the break for screaming, crying, and much, much asking of "did I hear that right", "what did they say?" and "hi doctor, I might need hearing aids".
(This will also be Part 1, due to Tumblr's 30-photo limit. I can amass as much as 50-120 screenshots for a single episode, so this will be broken into many parts. To find them all, peruse the #seren's studies tag!)
(Oh, and spoilers. Don't read this, or any of the other parts, unless you've seen the episode in full.)
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With huge props to those who guessed Captain O would be doing the intro, in line with how Oprah used to do it in the past in order to not spoil new characters.
It's funny because from what I've seen, Captain O goes out onto the field a lot more and doesn't just play the role of Ms. Exposition. I like that change!
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I'm...well...okay, maybe this doesn't surprise me given how Ozzie was literally in the first promo picture...but sure. Fine. I dig it.
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Osgood has his own cookbook, and quite frankly, I'm just mad they didn't give Oksana one. You're telling me the girl cuts food with diamonds and she doesn't have her own cookbook? Piss off the roof and pray it rains.
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"I'm in charge of an organization of kids like these...but...not these..."
OH MY GYAHD THEY BROUGHT BACK THE BIT FROM SEASON 3 ONLY IT'S LESS SPECIAL NOW.
Look, I was there when people went nuts over Oprah bringing all six main characters (at the time) back for a cameo in the intro. I went nuts. It was beautiful!
This just doesn't hit the same. It tried to aim for my heart and instead got me in the nose.
...I still laughed, though.
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Most of the stuff in here is taken from the trailer, but there is some new stuff here too, like Captain O giving a big "fuck you" to what I have to assume is a construction worker seeking help on a nearby project.
...Look, I'm a dumb lil' American. You are bound to get fed misinformation up the wazoo. I am bound to not use Google because I am allowed not to and also I am lazy and tired. Don't ask me how shit works.
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Ah yes, I see that, in addition to upgrading the special effects used for exiting the tubes, they also upgraded the special effects and animation used for riding the tubes themselves.
Once again, I will point to "Down the Tubes" for a comparison and ask you which one looks better to you. My vote is down easy.
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This is a wooden ship and they have couch cushions.
WE ARE NOT ON A LUXURY PRINCESS CRUISE THIS IS A CAPITAL SIN PREPARE FOR DESTRUC-
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My God, it's like they saw Season 3, saw people hated it, and upped the ante more than if literally anyone else sane bought Twitter from Elon.
The fact that I could probably tell you what episodes these bits all came from is terrifying. Terrifying still, I'd only get half wrong.
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*deep inhale*
Two things: who thought this was a good idea, AND WHO THE FUCK THOUGHT HAVING AN OFFICE BEHIND A WATERFALL WAS A GOOD IDEA.
Caves behind waterfalls are where villains run off to. Where treasure is buried. It's not- oh my God...oh...my God.
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Okay, legally, you can't have finger guns in the UK, so Captain O is committing a crime AND GET YOUR KEYS AWAY FROM MY CAR THAT I SPENT THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS FIXING UP IT IS A JOKE. A JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-
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From a height angle, this is as jarring as Omar and Oneta up against Maine Mr. O.
Back then, when there was the followup for "The Void",there was a joke that he could probably be their little sibling. Like, little little. Like "generation gap" little.
The latter most certainly holds true here.
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OH THANK GOD THEY DIDN'T BRITISH-FY THE LOGO. THANK YOU JESUS. BAD ENOUGH I GOT FLASHBANGED ONCE YOU WANT IT TO HAPPEN AGAIN?????
But also, rest in pieces to the creator credits appearing here. Usually that only happens when the creators have done some egregious thing and episodes are edited to remove their name in most capacities. (And I'm staring The Loud House down with the fury of a thousand suns. You are better off not knowing.)
Here...Tim and Adam have done nothing egregious, but it's still jarring to not see their names up here. They're not showrunners, but give the men some credit, damn it!
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I gotta say, one second in and I'm already digging this episode. Most Precure episodes I watch don't even get that far enough in to make me say "wow!"
But oh man is this Tube Lobby crazy retro. I mean if the film reels back there didn't give it away...
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And your writer for this episode! Mark is basically a pioneer within the franchise, having written some fantastic episodes that, if I listed them all, would derail the entire followup. He's got strong writing chops and I can't wait to see what he does with this one. Basically, if you see his name pop up, you know shit's gonna be real good.
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And your...ah...producer. I don't think we've ever seen a producer credit on here before. The name's not familiar, so I'll assume she's one of the British staff and hope she can work her magic better than 70% of Season 3's writers.
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Not even past the first ten seconds yet and already I've spotted my first criticism: the audio balancing.
I went into the gadget competition video thinking it would be fixed. Much to my dismay, it has not, and that means my eardrum hairs will have to suffer for a good 22 minutes.
...
Scratch that and make it 12 episodes' worth.
To my body, I am so sorry in advance.
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And your director for this episode. This guy had an interview regarding references in Odd Squad UK that I unfortunately never found, even after asking about it and spreading the word around. Quite a shame, but now that the show's here, I can go play Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon: Delusion Edition and cry profusely.
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Honestly, as much as I want to be a sour realist and say that no one is this excited walking into work...I'm more focused on the planet/glowing Perplexus maze ball/good God what is that Seymour.
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The guy has his own cheer team waiting for him when he comes into the bullpen, and either this is some weird-ass Department of Help perk or this is the happiest Odd Squad precinct I have ever seen in 10 years.
See, Otto was a happy guy. Olympia was a happy gal. Omar was a happy guy. Where are their cheerleading teams, hehh?? Where are their teams?!
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*spits out Pepsi at such an insanely fast speed it beats Comcast by ten thousand miles*
THEY HAVE AN AGENT WITH DOWN SYNDROME?!?!?!
IT TOOK THEM
10 YEARS
TO HAVE AN AGENT
WITH DOWN SYNDROME?!?!?!?!?!
...Okay look, I had a friend with cerebral palsy and from watching this bit repeatedly I don't think this agent has it...
BUT THEY PUT IN AN AGENT WITH DOWN SYNDROME ALL THE SAME AWWWWWWWWWW HNNNNNNNNNNGH MY HEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHT
I'm not even mad they did that before a canonically autistic agent. I'm not mad. I'm not mad it exists. I'm not mad they could have done this 10 years ago and given a raspberry and a "fuck you" to all the ableist critics. How the fuck do you expect my ass to get mad at this? I'm not fucking barbaric, sweet Jesus Christ.
Only a minute in and this is by far one of the best things of the episode, right here. I can't gush about this enough. You ask me why I love this franchise, and this is one of the reasons.
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"I work in the Department of Help. It's my job."
Thank you, Ozzie, but I didn't spend a year waiting to get slammed face-first with exposition. I could teach a college class on this entire show/season at what was my dream college before nu monies crushed that.
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Just to note: the last time we ever saw a PA system used by a Director was -- and correct me if I'm wrong -- Oprah in "The Jackies", a good 10 years ago.
The fact it's become a mainstay for Captain O and her precinct is a lovely bit of continuity, if unintentional.
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I remember seeing part of this set a long time ago in a BTS photo. Nice to see another angle of it!
I like the seafaring stuff in here too. Scuba helmet, what looks to be maps of islands, a telescope...the only funny thing is that Ozzie staring down Captain O here is the equivalent of Otis staring down Orson aaaaaaaaand I can't get that out of my head now. Beautiful. Thank you.
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As if the Oona image Easter egg wasn't enough, they have to go and reference toast again?
I'm not even mad, this literal humor is on-brand and hilarious, but this being the 10th anniversary series, it's funny they choose to reference this and not Sheila.
...Or maybe they will reference Sheila later. She does have that Bizarre Brigade show...
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It's probably unintentional on Alexander Shaw's part, but this line here sounds so artificial it's like maybe, just maybe, he has something to do with it.
...
MA GET MY TINFOIL HAT I'M GOIN' OUTSIDE-
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"I'll be brief: I have no idea why all this is happening."
Very few kids shows can sell a character to me and make me slam my wallet chock-full of bills down on a single line, but Odd Squad UK did it with Onom and I have no regrets.
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Is...hold on, is this is a whole-ass meeting Captain O's having in here? It's not just Ozzie, Onom and Orwell?
Either I'm trippin' like hell or this is the live-action equivalent of needing background characters to fill up spaces in a scene.
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And just like that, 13 chances for name-drops of past "living legend" agents were shot with bullets going into all the crucial arteries in the bodies.
How does he know about Orli? Who the fuck knows! He's got a better chance of knowing about the 13 "living legend" agents in question than some girl working behind a goddamn waterfall!!
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You ever watch Adult Swim and it cuts right from the show to an ident scene?
That's what this is. Only there's no ident, it's mid-episode, and it's so sudden that it's like half of the ASMR memes on the Internet that jumpscare you.
(On to Part 2!)
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sanchoyo · 4 months ago
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anyway. youtuber OC AU
-mira would have a sakura-hime/magical girl manga/anime focused analysis and theory channel. all of her videos are like 3-4 hours long and involve corkboards. she posts on a very strict regular schedule. she WILL argue in the comments too. until masayume is made the comment moderator and she is RUTHLESS with blocking comments that even dare suggest her girl is wrong, lmao. masayume is well known as her mod and will usually leave very long comments of her own on mira's videos (she is also one of the first ppl to view each of them) that will get voted to the top (and theres always people replying like 'how are you so fast and also on ALL of her videos??' and other people being like 'lol hii mod masayume thanks for your hard work <3!!' she doesnt have a huge following, it's kind of niche, but there is a Small dedicated fanbase.
-persimmon's channel has an ungodly amount of subscribers, like well over 5 mil. she does GRWM/makeup stuff and storytimes + vlogs. shes got a very chill vibe while talking abt the most insane stories u can imagine. and then sometimes she'll upload a wildcard video like 'i made a wardrobe app then programmed my mirror to it so I can play dressup IRL before getting dressed' and people are like. are you an engineer too, what?? and she'll just drop the github code for the thing with easy instructions like nbd. all of her titles are lowercase and theres never clickbait even if they can sound like it 'the time i worked at a shady cafe with a dark secret in the basement'...
-aqua would have the vibe of very early poppy content. like kind of ominous artsy stuff that isnt very long or its just her filming tiny snippets of things she thinks are cool and posting with no description. she had no following until some rando found it, got confused, and posted to reddit, where a bunch of theories about it got started. people are convinced its some kind of ARG and are trying to solve it. theres nothing to solve, but aqua thinks its really cute and will make references to the ARG/fake hints because it seems like people are having fun?? shes not actually TRYING to be weird or mysterious about anything?? occasionally she'll cameo in persimmon's videos and people are like 'crossover of the century?? how do they know each other???'
-sapote would be someone who had a lot of controversies/problematic content in the past but since has mellowed out and just does random podcast guest appearances and has her own now that she posts to youtube only. she will have the most random guests on from both the mews and aliens side and talk about basically anything. a lot of people dont like her still but no one can really deny her content is very entertaining (trashy reality tv kind of funny) and she's gone viral several times. when people find out her and persimmon (who has a mostly positive rep) are related they lose their minds and persi ends up having to block all comments abt sapote on her videos. she's the type you'd think 'wow i used to watch them all the time as a kid, wonder what theyre doing now..' then when you check you're floored at how much she's calmed down!!
-queen has a science channel where she explains really difficult concepts in accessible ways, usually in bite-sized videos to make them even more digestible. arilla would keep her on a good schedule for posting (I do not think she would have a decent schedule on her own, he would basically be her channel manager) her videos would have a verrrry high production value. she would be a youtube darling whose praised for being unproblematic and helpful, until the internet goes CRAZY at some big scandal she does. if youre wondering what the scandal is you'll have to watch a like, 5 hour explanation video because its so convoluted and several other youtubers of other genres are involved?? she goes awol for like a month to lay low them comes back with a ukulele apology. it is very passive aggressive and never directly addresses what shes apologizing for, either
-cara would not be a youtuber. she's a tumblrina.
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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago
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One Year Anniversary: Top 12 Ducktales Episodes!
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Happy anniversary all you happy people! Yes it was one year ago today I started reviewing animation and it’s been a ride to be sure. I’d always WANTED to be a reviewer: I love going on and on about stuff I love, really digging into it and picking it apart... but I could never get started. I tried youtube but I didn’t have the money for the equipment nor a proper shooting space to record, so my efforts.. were not great. And while I TRIED text reviews, my own looming pile of self hatred meant every attempt I made was shot down when it got hard as me not being good enough. 
But one year ago I finally got past that. I’d already been reviewing a bit, doing invididual issues of comics... but got way in over my head trying to do the current line of X-Men comics as it came out, and wisely bowed out of that. But that left a gap: I had nothing to cover week to week and with a demanding new job, I drifted into just doing in charcter chats, little fan fictions script styles. Not bad work, I should do some more at some point and I even got a comissoin once in a while, but nothing I could really live on and not what I wanted to do with my life. 
Enter Ducktales. I’d always WANTED to review the show.. and when the double premire happened, I decided fuck it, and put up my thoughts. And then decided.. hey maybe I can do this every week.. and slowly.. my work evolved, getting better and better, getting more and more likes. I picked up Amphibia when that came by week to week.
And eventually.. this went from a hobby, if one I was passionate about to a career. Not a largely paying one, as only one person was really intrested in paying me for it, friend of the blog and our fincial backer @weirdkev27, but .. it’s money and i’m now making about 30 dollars a month due to a comination of comissions and patreon. Other contributers are always welcome mind you, my patreon is here if your curious and comissions are 5 dollars an episode, but i’ts just nice to have money coming in. To have gone from simply WANTING to review things and make a living off it.. to simply doing it. 
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And it’s been one hell of a year.. and not just because 2020 felt like hell or 2021 began with a full on insurrection. I feel like i’ve acomplished a lot in the year i’ve been doing this: I finished what I started with Ducktales season 3, getting better and better as I went. And I didn’t stop there with ducks: I started covering what brought me to Ducks in the first place, the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, and while that retrospective has slid a bit on the schedule, I intend to get it back on track this month. I reviewed a bunch of Darkwing Duck episodes leading up to the Just Us Justice Ducks.. chronologically anyway. The actual airing order reads like someone took 50 issues of a comic, made it rain with them, then just started reading whatever ones they picked up randomly. I also covered some of Duck Master Carl Barks work with the classics Night on Bear Mountain, A Christmas for Shacktown and Back to the Klondike, with more to come. 
And the Duck didn’t stop at just reviews I did on my own: Kev comissioned two MASSIVE retrospectives from me: My first for him was Ride of the Three Caballleros where in just a few short months I covered the boys entire televisied careers together from the movie, to house of mouse, to mickey and the roadster racers, to ducktales (again) and finishing with the wonderful Legend of the Three Caballeros. It has probably the worst Daisy imaginable, but otherwise is really excellent and i’m glad I finally watched it. I also covered Don Rosa’s two stories with the boys as part of it. It was a fun ride and I enjoyed every minute of it... okay most of them again Three Cabs Daisy is the worst. And once that finished Kev started up another idea: Shadow Into Light: a look at Lena’s character arc from start to finish that has gone on to be my most popular series on this blog, and that finishes next week. And there’s more to come as after that there’s a short breather with a look at Lilo and Stitch’s crossover episodes.. folllowed by me looking at all three of season 2′s ducktales arcs. And I fully intend to have covered every episode of the series by this time next year, so stay tuned. 
Outside of ducks though I didn’t slow down. I restarted my Tom Lucitor retrospective, covering what i feel to be one of Star Vs’ two best characters, tied with eclipsa, and my personal faviorite as he redeemeed himself, found love and I bitched a lot about the horrible directions the series took and probabably will more as that’s still not done yet. I did what I always wanted to do and started looks at some of my faviorite comics ever, starting with Life and Times and adding in New X-Men and Scott PIlgrim. I also threw in the awesome comic Blacksad. I did pride month for the first time and not only came out publicly, but also did two whole arcs i’m proud of with The Saluna episodes of Loud house and the rednid episodes of OK KO, and generally just had myself a good old fashioned time as an out bi man reviewing childrens cartoons. 
I started Season 2 of amphibia with it’s lows of an endlesss road trip and highs of adding Marcy to the cast and giving us more of the silky voiced keith david. And finally Patreon wise Kev’s taken me on a hell o fa journey: In addition to the restrospectives i’ve covered some additional darkwing duck, and a simpsons homage to the duck comics... but also got a bit weird and obscure with detours like the lost animnaics sucessor Histeria, the apocalyptic comedy where Santa dosen’t know how doors work Whoops! and the adventures of Santa’s bratty teen daughter jingle belle. In short.. it’s been a long year but damn has it been fun and there’s more to come. I’d like to thank all of you for reading, thank my Patreons Kev and Emma for supporting me, and thank my family for doing the same.  So with that out of the way, I figured the best way to celebrate was to do something i’ve been wanting to do for a long time, something honoring the show that gave me this calling in the first place. And with Season 3 sadly being the last, and enough weeks having passed for me to digest it between the finale and today, I could think of nothing better than my top 12 episodes of Ducktales.
Ducktales is one of the best cartoons of the 2010′s. Brilliantly taking EVERYTHING that had come before, the comics, the original cartoon and every bit of duck media period to craft a masterful, unique and wonderful reboot. It was funny, it was insane, and it had damn good character arcs. By the end every member of the main cast along with major supporting cast members like Fenton, Drake and especially Lena, had changed and signifigantly at that. The show was everything I could’ve dreamed of and more and I miss it terribly, hoping DIsney will do a revivial movie at some point. For now though, Frank and Matt’s run on ducktales, as they called it and I do too since i’m a massive comic book nerd, it’s time to look back on my favorite tales of ducks. So grab your sharks, your number one dimes and your friendship cakes with clear gay undertones and join me under the cut as I celebrate one of my faviorite shows and my anniversary in the best way possible. 
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12. House of the Lucky Gander! 
 So as i’ve gone on about before and no doubt will again, Donald kinda got the short end of the stick in season 1. While Frank and Matt had good story intentions, keeping Donald away from adventure since he had no interest in it, in practice it meant a beloved Disney Icon who they and disney HEAVILY promoted as part of the series and whose being here this go round was a big draw for fans of the comics.... was only in a quarter of the season and only got TWO plots centered around him in 23 episodes, with only one being the main plot of the episode. The PIlot and Finale both centered around the family more as a whole if your curious how I counted those so while he got plenty of focus in both, it’s still not a day in the limelight sort of thing. 
But unusually for Donald, he lucked out as his one big starring role for Season 1 was both one of my faviorites and one of Season 1′s most inventive outings.  A lot of the episodes enegy comes from a one two punch of a great guest star and one of the series best settings. The guest star is of course everyone’s faviorite overly lucky himbo Gladstone Gander. The show adapted the prick perfectly: The original Gladstone from the comics.. was the worst asshole imaginable, utterly insufferable. And for a villian, and Donald’s rival, that’s all well and good.. but his super luck meant he RARELY , if ever, suffered any consequences for being just...
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The 87 series simply made him nicer, while Going Quackers simply removed his luck. No adaptation really got how to make this fucker work.. until this one. Here Frank split the diffrence: Gladstone is still smug.. but he’s no longer actively malicious. While he is an insensitive prick to Donald in this one, unlike the comics he’s not constantly bragging about his luck or how great he is or actively BAITING Donald to fight with him or trying to ruin his relationship or a million other reasons he sucks and I hate him.
This version by contrast... is generous. He’s not the most empathetic, because he doesn’t get how life works, but he does share the riches of the casnio with everyone and in a cameo appearance in “Treasure of the Found Lamp” gladly offers his nephews some diamonds. He’s got a nice surface level charm to him that makes you understand why people like him.. but it’s also clear ther’es nothing UNDER that of value, making you equally understand why Scrooge and Donald hate him. Gladstone in this reboot is a perfect example of why we need reboots or new adaptations in the first place: Because sometimes the original got something wrong or something can be done much better by the new writers. 
He’s perfectly paired with the setting: The House of Lucky Fortune, a mystical casino with an East Asian astatic based in the country of Macaw and provides two great plots. Donald’s really highlights his character: His understandable jealousy at gladstone earning the boys love through nothing while he struggles to make a living for them, and how he feels like a looser and like Gladstone is simply showing that off instead of just not knowing what empathy is. Having Louie be the one to bond with Gladstone was also just pitch pefefct, as is showing some depth for the boy by having himr ealize his hero is an asshole and be the one to help donald in the end. 
The other plot is just pure joy though and is where the setting REALLY shines: Scrooge and the rest of the kids try to leave.. but can’t find the exit. This is where the creative part comes in: The Casino simply morphs to keep people trapped, and caters to them, giving them whatever they want to keep them trapped. In the cases of the kids it’s all hilarious and adorably in character: Huey becomes entranced by a fancy water show, in one of his best bits of the season, Dewey gets a pet tiger who sadly did not come home with him and Webby gets to live the dream we’ve all had of stuffing her face directly in a choclate fountain. Scrooge’s escape is likewise clever: He simply prepares to get a room.. then books it as the check in desk is ALWAYS near the front. 
We then find out Gladston’es trapped get the whole mystical contest with absolutely gorgeous animation, i’ll talk about it in full some time but this episode is just a treat to watch, has a great arc for donald and had some memorable gags. I can’t help but smile when I watch it. 
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11. The Dangerous Chemistry of Gandra Dee!  As I mentioned before i’m a superhero nerd so naturally Fenton was one of my faviorite parts of the show. Frank and Matt were just damn good at crafting superhero stories, and like gladstone improved fenton turning him from an awkward donald stand in to an awkward peter parker-esque science nerd who just wants to be a good person and the best hero he can be. He got into science not just because he thinks it’s neat, but because he honestly wants to help people and you can’t help but foot for him whenever he pops up. Lin Manuel Miranda is a large reason for that, bringing his incomparable a-game to the character. While we sadly didn’t get a ton of gizmoduck focused episodes, the fatct we got AS MANY as we did and that Lin didn’t drop out for a minute even with his busy schedule was a miracle and I’m acknowledging that. 
As for why this one, I feel it builds brilliantly on the previous Fentoncentric episode Who Is Gizmoduck?! which just BARELY didn’t make this list and uses the fact we haven’t seen fenton in a while as both a plot point and to move some things forward without having to spend screentime they clearly didn’t have. By having Fenton be just burnt out on superheroics it finds a way to both explain where he’s been, he’s been busy with his new job, and give us an interesting angle to the old “superhero is tired of the life” thing. He never once complains about saving people or stuff... it’s just like any job it gets tiring after a while. As someone who has his dream job but has struggled with it from time to time, I vastly relate. 
Though while I love my boy and Lin is game as always, the episodes real MVP is my other boy Huey. The episode has moved Huey up from being simply Fenton’s fanboy to being his best friend, and adorable as hell relationship. The two clearly respect and appricate each other and Huey is looking out for his buddy the whole episode. His love of love is also just really cute. Added in the mix is Webby, who in one of my faviorite gags of the series, finds out Fenton is  Gizmoduck because Huey is incredibly and insanely blatant with his unecessary coverup. But she of course is game to help while Fenton is trying to play it casual. We also just get a waterfall of great gags as everyone overdoes it wingmanning for fenton: Huey sets up an itallian bistro and tries to purposfully create a lady and the tramp situation, and sings opera (With Manny on acordian), the wonderfully 80′s suit from Fenton’s dad his mom gives him to wear, and Launchpad, who gives us a tremendous list of his exes, and plays my favorite song of the series: It’s a Date, a micheal mcdonnel riff. 
This episode also wisely ups Mark’s Beaks game as Fenton’s arch enemy, still keeping him hilaroius, with the guy acting like a bored teenager and guzzling so much nanite jucie he turns into a hulk, as well as said hulk mode leading to a ton of great gags from kidnapping the children (”I got your kids.. are they your kids? I don’t know how this family works), to “take that coach dad” to eating a pie with tins and all and wondering about said tins. But he’s an actual threat now, taking on fenton in one hell of a fight, and having an utterly transcendent scene where he hacks his way past gyro’s security while dancing.. and dabbing because of course he does. It’s a fun, well done character piece that’s mostly here for i’ts laugh but Fenton’s struggle with Gizmo overtaking his life, and finding out someone he truly hit it off iwth only wanted him for that.. it’s really good stuff and Lin’s delivery after Fenton finds out, the pure pain and betryal in his voice, is just excellent. Also that opera scene is poetry. 
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10. Quack Pack!
One of the episodes that started my career naturally landed here. Not for that reason though: Quack Pack is a fun riff on sitcoms, specifically the tgif ones of the 90′s that Disney Afternoon Kids no doubt also watched, the kinds Disney Channel still makes today, and most importanly the kind the Disney Afternoon itself made like Goof Troop and well... Quack Pack. 
Riffs on sitcoms are nothing new and the last year has been FULL of them. 2020 gave us this episode, Beef House and the wonderful “The Perfect House” episode of Close Enough, and this year gave us WandaVision, my second favorite MCU project so far, right behind Black Panther, which used the sitcom deconstruction to create one hell of a character study. 
So you’d think with a year having passed and this concept happening as an entire mini series would dull this one.. but no. it’s still damn funny, having fun at the cliches while, again like WandaVision, having one of the main cast be responsible by accident but go along with it. The episode pivots from glorious affectionate parody of cheesy sitcoms, to that plus horrifying “Humans”, and a character piece for Donald. This brings Donald’s hatred and fed up ness with adventure to a head revealing his fondest wish is just to have a normal life and not loose anyone again. 
It takes one of his best friends to snap him out of it. Look Goofy is my second faviorite of the sensational seven, an episode with him was already an easy sell for me.. but the episode uses him really well. First for laughs as he’s gentically dispositioned to be a perfect sitcom neighbor.. but also for heart. With his family preoccupied and a bit hurt, i’ts Goofy who cuts to the heart of the issue, pointing out NO ONE is normal and even his normal domestic life raising Max, who we see go to prom with roxanne eeeeee, has all sorts of chaos. Normal is what you make of it and pining for some ideal that will never happen was just tearing donald apart piece by piece and by letting go of that.. he finally begins to grow as a person throughout the season. It’s also a great thematic tie in to the season’s overall plot with Bradford and what Makes donald, despite also disliking the chaos his family gets into, different. Donald accepted it and grew as a person.. Bradford clung to his hate and it ate him alive. Or turned him into a non-sapient kind of vulture. Before I close this part out Jaleel White is also excellent and I wish eh’d get back into voice acting. He’s so freaking good at it. Seriously man i’d love to see him and ben in a sonic property together as a mythology gag. Same with Jims cummings and carey. Just think about it whoever owns the sonic movies.. think about it. 
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9. The Last Adventure!
Look I knew this was coming, you knew this was coming. But it had to be on here. The Last Adventure is not perfect: The lack of a build up episode like the previous two finales had really hurt this one: even at about 70 minutes, it still feels rushed in places and Huey, one of hte main characters of the season, dosen’t feel like he has a full payoff to his character like Dewey and Louie got. 
But despite those flaws.. this episode is just a damn good ending. Almost everyone gets a big moment paying off their character arc, everyone in the party that comes to rescue webby and huey, along with the two themselves, gets a moment to show off, and everything comes together to give us one last epic sendoff. There’s just moment stacked on moment stacked on moment from Launchpads heroic second wind and donning of the gizmoduck armor, to Webby’s tearful confrontation with Beakley, to Huey using the greatest adventure of all line to foil bradford in one of the most deligfhully nuts moments of the series, I could go on for days with just how triumphant this finale felt. While it left a lot of doors open.. that feels like part of the design. It’s the end of the fight with FOWL.. but our heroes will never stop adventuring, never stop going and never stop being in our hearts and the curtain call at the end is now my faviorite bit of end credits ever, perfectly giving the main cast and friends one last chance to take a bow in their own unique ways. I will always miss this show but I will never be disapointed by the note it went out on. 
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8. The 87 Cent Solution!
Look some episodes are show stoppers, some are heartfelt tearjerkers, some are all this and more.. and some episodes are just clever and hilarious. The 87 Solution is the second funniest episode of Ducktales with me and my go to episode when watching the show. It’s just pure fun and with a clever premise: Scrooge notices 87 cents have gone missing, and already coming down with a cold, goes mad with paranoia as the kids slowly don face masks, something that has become even eeerier given everything, one by one realizing he needs to stop. 
While David Tennant is an EXCELLENT dramatic actor, his comedy timing is really something that shoudln’t be ignored and i’ts on full display here as his performance gets more and more deranged, to thep oint he thinks an 8th dimensional imp is repsonsible. He nicely balances the disturbing side of Scrooge’s paranoia, his distancing from his family, with plenty of great gags about it too, the standout being when he offers 2 million dollars to whoever took the money like he’s publicly appeasing kidnappers. It’s fucking brilliant. 
But while David is awesome as ever what really, truly makes the episode is my boy, one of my faviorite characters on the show if not my single faviriote FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD. Keith Ferguson is ALWAYS a dream as the character but this is his best performance by far. Part of this is the addition of Zan Owlson, Kev who I mentioned earlier’s faviorite Ducktales character. She’s not only throughly likeable in her own right, but provides the one thing Flinty was missing; a straight man.. or woman in this case. Scrooge wasn’t TERRIBLE in the roll, but can easily step away from his shit or foil it. Owlson has to put up with Glomgold’s nonsense while desperatly trying to stop him from undoing all her hard work with sheer force of jackass. The two jut play off each other brilliantly, Glomgold not getting sh’es not his employee but his equal and Owlson constnatly snarking at him. 
And of course both things hit their peak in the climax with the family staging a fake funeral (Though no one told donald it was fake), and we get the funniest scene in the entire fucking show as Glomgold burts in in a white suit, money shades and full dance number to “All I Do Is Win’, which when first watching this I was convinced the song was somehow accidnetly on in the background but nope. They got it after using it in the test phase and the scene is better for it. Glomgold twerking on Scrooge’s casket, trying to get on it to dance, and having to be placated like ac hild is the icing on this very rich cake
And the reveal scene is also gold as Glomgold gets into a YEARLONG staring contest with a baby, fails to steal more than the 87 cents and, in my faviorite touch, put on an imp costume just to make scrooge seem crazier... then keeps the damn thing on the rest of the time for no explicable reason. The episode is the show at it’s comedic peak while giving Glomgold a chance to be a genuine threat and that’s Glomgood. 
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7. Let’s Get Dangerous!
Frank’s Rebooted Version of Darkwing Duck is probably his greatest achivment with the show. While this show is a team effort, something I slowly realized as I reviewed the show, it’s very clear from the way he talks, how well he knows the show and how much effort was put into porting Darkwing into the reboot that this was his baby. While redefining ducktales for the 2010′s was clearly a huge dream of his... doing the same for the master of suprise was an even bigger goal. And as a huge fan of superheroes i’ve seen my fair share of half assed takes on laired and complex characters. The XCU alone is one giant grab bag of missed opportunities for me. 
So i’ts no exageration when I tell you Frank.. nailed it. In one of the most brilliant moves i’ve seen for a superhero work Frank worked his love of the show into the reboot.. by having Darkwing have been a show, one Launchpad loved.. and so did Drake, who was inspried by the show to become an inspriation himself and while his attempt to do that through a zack snydery reboot failed, Launchpad encouraged him to do it for real. Drake was still himself, but the meta aspect and the toning down of some of darkwing’s more obnoxious traits that didn’t work in a universe that, while patently rediciulous still took it’s characters seriously, he made a BETTER version of the character.
This is where all that comes to it’s peak, and hoppefully convinced Disney to let Frank , and possibly matt, run the reboot. And no, even if Point Grey is producing that dosen’t stop that: Thanks to Invincible i’ve now realized that Seth and his friend Evan producing the show dosen’t mean it’ll be RAN by them, nor unrelated to this. It just means their helping make it and if anything given how lush and gorgeous invincible’s animation is, it’s a VERY good sign their helping out with it if it’s true. 
But wether this versoin continues or not, Frank gave it his best shot. Part of his diffrent angle is having Drake as a rookie here and as such here we see him truly struggle: he’s had his origin, he ahs the cape, he has the gadgets (in a brilliant turn thanks to fenton, who he actually likes... but is so far the ONLY person to not get he’s Gizmoduck), and the city.. but no crime to fight and no real idea how to go about his lifelong dream. The events of the episode slowly shape him: WHile he already had the spirit for darkwing, never giving up, looking good in a cape etc, this episode gives him the heart the same way it gave his original it: With Gosalyn. Dimantopolis and Beatriz just play off each other perfectly, as the two go from neimies to slowly bonding as Drake realizes this kid needs him and that he needs to fight for more than just filing the ohle inside, and goes to hell and back to help her get her grandpa back, with one of the best moments of the episode to me being when Launchpad helps her realize how hard he’s been working at it, an exausted drake refusing to acccept that he can’t get her grandpa back because he promised. He grows from simply trying to live the dream.. to surpassing the original. We also see more from Launchpad, who grows into his new family and helps push his boyfriend and newa dopted daughter in the right directions. The episode really evolves these characters from the simple disney afternoon versions, who while awesome were made into fully fleshed out characters. Gosalyn still has her edge but now has a hard lesson to learn about doing the right thing, forced to give up someone she loves for the greater good but finding a new family in the process. 
Part of what makes the episode work though as while it is funcitonally one big darkwing duck reboot pilot that’s awesome, heartrending and a joy to watch... it’s still a ducktales episode in parts without either part hurting each other. Huey plays a vital role, figuring the ramrod is too good to be true.. and discovering just how it is, then when captured, slowly unravling why Bradford’s there and being at least in part responsible for outing him as a FOWL agent. While this is largely Drakes story the rest of the cast is still vital to it: Scrooge trusting in huey, Louie serving as his logical counter and Dewey meanwhile bonding with team darkwing and helping Gosalyn, knowing exactly where she’s been and providing a nice foil. The episode is just one long and impressive love letter to the original show while creating it’s own thing and that’s really this reboot in a nutshell. It also has some of the best fights of the series, with the first fight between darkwing and bulba, where our hero, unlike his original counterpart, easily troucnes bulba using his speed and skill, is the standout. 
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6. Woo-Ooo!
I covered this one recently so I won’t go on for too long.. but I will say I hold this one up as the gold standard for first episodes. In one hour, hell even in jus the first half we get a sense of the whole cast, the tone of the show, and the world we’ve been thrust into. It gets all the table setting out of the way by weaving it into a compelling story of Scrooge getting back in the game, finding a reason to get back to what he does best in those he loves most and setting up the season long arc effortlessly in the process. The worst I can say about the episode is it sets the bar a bit high for Season 1 and a lot of the first half really struggled to reach these heights. This episode is a masterwork and the perfect showcase for what the series would be at it’s height. 
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5. Moonvasion!
Speaking of Golden Standards, Moonvasion is one of the best season finale’s i’ve seen. it’s not THE best.. but that’s a really high bar to clear and that spots currently taken in my heart by “The Crossroads of Destiny” from Avatar the Last Airbender. But while not the best of it’s kind, it’s sitll the best the series put out and is an utterly satisfying epic that ties up season 2. 
While I love the Last Adventure, it had a LOT to tie up and was really hampered by having to do all of that with no direct lead in. Moonvasion by contrast hits the ground running with the Moonlanders arriving on earth and all hell breaking loose, and the episode itself breaking into two stellar plots. Scrooge leading an army of every ally he has against the invaders, and Della seemingly going for reinforcements.. but really just trying to keep the kids safe from it, to their anger once they find out. 
Both sides end up going badly: Scrooge looses most of his army as Lunaris was one step ahead of him and is left iwth Beakly and Launchpad, while Della ends up marooned.. and finds Donald. The reunion between the two is the highlight of the special, as the two argue as you’d expect (And Dewey cutting in seemingly to stop it.. only to rant at Donald for costing him “ten years of turbo” is the best gag of the episode), before embracing. 
Our heroes naturally find ways to bounce back though. Louie, capping off his growth for the season, convinces his mom they can’t just hide.. and in the second best scene of the episode sings the lullabye she wrote.. one Donald sung them every night
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And no sooner than Della gets her step back and realizes that dangerous or not she and her newly reunited family have to get back in there, do the cousins show up on Fethry’s giant shrimp/girlfriend Mitzi, and our heroes head back. 
Scrooge’s plot hits i’ts peak though as he’s forced to accept the help of an unlikely and unwelcome ally: Glomgold, who turns out to be exactly what they need: While his plan is as stupid, short sighted and insane as you’d expect, complete with forcing Scrooge to dress up as santa just to piss him off and dressing his sharks in parkas (”I call them sharkas”), the sheer lonacy throws Lunaris off as he dosen’t know how to deal with this and Glomgold not only gets the better of him but gets his company back as part of his scheme.  “You were prepared for our best but not our dumbest!” “And i’m the dumbest theirs ever been! Muahahahaha! Wait...”
And of course our other heroes arrive just in time to save things.. and the episode still manages to pull off what many works struggle to, something tha’ts very hard to: a SECOND climax. Lunaris decides to just say fuck it and blow up the earth and i’ts up to our core family to kick his ass in space. Epic space battles, Della’s girlfriend meeting the family and more insues and an emotoinal, action packed and fully satisfying finale is had by all... and it’s all topped with one of the best sequel hooks i’ve ever seen as FOWL makes themselves known to us.. and prepares to strike. 
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4. How Santa Stole Christmas! This one will also be short as i’ve talked about this one.. a lottttt. The initial review, my best christmas specials list and my best of 2020 list. I stand by all of that: this is a unique and wonderful christmas special, i’ll be watching it every year, and i’ts full of charm, humor and gay subtext. In short it’s this series but on christmas footing. 
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3. Last Crash of the Sunchaser! 
Another one I covered very recently, this episode is a master piece of suspense, slowly building tension as our heroes get closer and closer to the truth about Della.. and to death, the simple but deadly stakes making this an absolute nailbiter from start to finish. This is some of the series best pacing bar none... but what seals it is the ending: the masterful flashback finally explaning whatever happened to Della duck, our heroes lashing out at each other.. all cumilating in the best Scene of the show. I said it might be in the review but no I can confirm: Scrooge bitterly ruminating over things while we find out just how much he’s lost... ending with him tearfully and angrily sitting once again alone in one hell of a powerful shot echoing Scrooge’s first apperance. Damn fine stuff. 
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2. Escape from The Impossbin Only one episode not only matches Last Crash in mounting tension and atmosphere but suprasses it. With FOWL and Bradford’s true nature now out in the wind, this episode uses that to create tension and rattles it’s two most unshakable characters: SCrooge’s normal boundless confidence is shot, not sure he can win this time against an opponent who knows him as well as he knows himself while Beakly slowly unravels, pitting Webby against the boys.. and pitting herself against Webby when Webby sees her terroizing them is only dividing them. Both plots start out funny enough but slowly escalate in tension and stakes until by the end your on the edge of your seat. The Beakly plot is the standout of the two, giving Bentina the starring role she badly needed, having gotten even better in light of the finale. Everyone is at the top of their game and everything builds up to one hell of a twist ending and one hell of a badass boast from our heroes: Their down.. but their far from out and this is far from over. 
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1. Nightmare On Kimotor Hill!
I”ll be reviewing this episode in full later this week as part of my Lena retrospective, but I stand by putting it up top. This episode is ducktales in it’s purest form and focuses on it’s best original character as Lena grapples with her self hatred and her past. That core helps anchor an amazing concept: going into the Kid’s dreams and finding out their greatest desires. The results.. are all gloriously rediclous and are easily the best gags of hte series as a whole: Dewey’s high school musical santa claus is going ot high school nonsense from getting a’s in Dewology to running away from the abstract concept of a love intrest, to not getting the sybolism of himself crying a moon made of his own tears. Louie quite literally becoming garfield, and my faviorite scene of the show: Huey, wanting to be the tall older brother..g iving himself horrifcly long leg. While everyone else is just understandably baffled, what makes the scene is the banter between Dewey and Huey, with Schwartz and Pudi at their best as Dewey first freaks out and then asks what the hell man, while Huey defends his weird decision (”I”m not good at imagination stuff okay!”), and then tries to get a jar of pickles. Each dream is just so oddly and wonderfully specific to each kid and each one of the triplests dreams, as well as violets being color coded down tot he backgrounds is a very nice touch. The visuals here are just peak ducktales, using the setting for all it’s worth and the climax is utterly emotoinal and heartbreaking... and Lena’s break from her abuser, finally realizing she has the power now is not only a wonderful metaphor... but also just so damn cathartic. And that’s why this one’s the best to me personally: it just packs so much into 20 minutes: some of the series best and most creative jokes, a gripping emtoinal arc, and so much more. It’s just that damn good and tha’ts why it’s the best... that and starting Huelet for me. Seriously that LIbrary scene is so fucking cute. 
Thank you all for reading. If you liked this artcle, join my patreon and help me get to my stretch goal for monthly darkwing duck reviews, a review of super ducktales and more after! Until the next rainbow... it’s been a pleasure. 
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catgirlcommie · 4 years ago
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hello! sorry to bother you, but i had a question - would it be possible for you to/would you mind making a post like this one for bandori? there just seems like there’s so many parts and details of the stories and i don’t know where to find them, and u seem like a good person to ask. hope ur having a good day <3
well this is slightly harder because i only got into bandori like a few months ago i think so im not quite as familiar with all the side content for it but here’s my attempt (it’s probably missing a bunch)
there’s all 3 seasons of the anime which are of varying quality though i haven't seen any of them. the first one is focused only on poppin’ party and does not have any of the other bands except in cameos i think. it’s just poppin’ party’s band story 0 from the game. the second two seasons are done with cgi so they look different and i know that some people really dont like cgi but from what ive seen they look fine. they have all the bands
there’s a bunch of stuff up on youtube that are all very good in particular both pico and pico ohmori here’s the link to pico and pico ohmori they are comedy shorts and for the most part are incredibly funny and they are short enough that you can watch them all in a single afternoon.
pastel life is about Pastel Palettes and ive heard it’s pretty good! i havent watched it because im lazy and pastel palettes is my least favourite of the original five (i still love them but not as much as the others) link
on to the few manga i know about the first is bang dream star beat! star beat was the first piece of bandori media made and it is incredibly different from everything else. the only band is poppin party and all the characters are only share the same name. kasumi is depressed and i think saaya is mean? idk read it if you want to because it’s definitely interesting but it’s probably not that good
there’s motto! garupa life! which is just a 4-koma manga in some of which are rather funny and all of which are in the game
GARUPA☆PICO Anthology is just pico but in manga form and it’s pretty good
and then there is a roselia and raise a suilen manga
i think that’s all the official things but i might be missing a few so if anyone knows about anymore feel free to add on.
overall i recommend just playing the game and reading the in game event stories and band stories as i feel like that is the best writing the series has
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vulcan-highblood · 5 years ago
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I'm following you for bnha fic reasons and I have absolutely no idea what the brainy stuff is. Can you tell me what it is and what you like about it? (If not, no worries! This is intended as a friendly "tell me about the thing you like" message, not a rude "why you post about things I don't recognize" message, but I'm tipsy and worried that I have Failed at proper courteous tone.)
Aw no problem, it didn’t come across that way at all! Haha sorry, my tumblr is basically a mess of all my favorite fandoms and the fics I write, so you’ll also probably spy spideypool and fanfics from other random fandoms popping up here occasionally! (I wrote some Voltron and GI Joe for awhile there, so you really never know what’s coming next). Now, LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT BRAINY. This guy. This character was my first BIG FAVE, he’s the character who actually first inspired me to write fanfiction.
Years ago, there was this animated superhero series called Legion of Super-Heroes. It only ran for two seasons, and it’s (sadly) not as good as some of the more popular superhero shows with teens in the leading roles (Teen Titans or Young Justice really were a lot better imo). BUT. What it did have was aliens!! Sci fi!! and this wonderful android character who just wanted to be seen as human. Now as someone who also loves Star Trek characters Spock and Data, I have a thing for characters who wrestle with their own humanity, or people’s inability to perceive their humanity.  After the series ended, I was fortunate enough to get my grubby hands on about 30 issues of Legion of Super-Heroes comics, and boy howdy did I ever enjoy them, especially getting to know the many iterations of this android/cyborg/???? character.
Enter: Querl Dox. Coluan. Brilliant. Stubborn. Not particularly approachable. His ancestor was Brainiac, a villain who opposed Superman and used shrinking technology to steal Kandor, one of the Kryptonian cities. Bad dude. Querl was recruited to the Legion of Super-Heroes because he’s smart. He has other abilities, some racial traits, but most of what he can do is augmented by his own ability to create and invent useful technology. His own deepest desire is to redeem the name “Brainiac”, which had been tainted by his ancestor’s actions. So he took the hero name “Brainiac 5″, though most of his friends  and colleagues call him “Brainy” for short.
So why am I writing about him now? Well, I recently learned that the CW show Supergirl brought in the Legion of Super-Heroes for a few cameo episodes. Cool! I’m instantly hooked, sign me up. BUT WAIT. THERE’S MORE. apparently, they had Brainiac 5 show up. Even better! BUT THERE’S MORE TO IT. He’s a series regular, starting in Season 4. He has episodes that hearken back to old comics that I’ve read. I’m seriously hooked now. So I start watching.
It got even better. The actor who plays him does a FANTASTIC job. I couldn’t have cast a better brainy if I’d tried. 
So basically my mind just got jolted with a shot of nostalgia, fabulous acting, and a bunch of storylines that are half-formed and cheesy but with the potential for TREMENDOUS angst. which is really where I love to live, in fanfic terms.
So all this to say, if you’re curious about Brainy, I recommend looking on youtube, there’s some great "funny” clips (even out of context they’re fun, I watched them when trying to decide if the actor was good enough to commit to bingeing the last 3 seasons of Supergirl, spoilers, he is), and if you’re interested, check out the wikipedia page about him! (Brainiac 5/Querl Dox, either of those will likely get you there). 
(and hey, if you’re still curious, feel free to read my fics. It’s not BNHA, but it is still superheroes and angst, so... that’s something, anyway!)
Thanks for asking!
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rpgmgames · 6 years ago
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November’s Featured Game: Shooty and the Catfish
DEVELOPER(S): Daniel ENGINE: RPGMaker MV GENRE: Adventure, RPG WARNINGS: Course Language, Gore SUMMARY: Shooty and the Zaat are a dynamic duo solving monstrous mysteries!
Play the demo here!
Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut!
Introduce yourself! Sure! So my name is Daniel, I guess technically I am an animator. I started out making flash cartoons around 2000 just for fun and became a professional animator in the advertising space around 2007. I have been working in media ever since, both in studios and as a contractor working under the Visitors From Dreams label which is also the label I use for my game development. I started dabbling with RPG Maker in around 2002 but I never got very far. Once I got into the media industry I wanted to pick it up again but with Mac being what almost all my work was done on, at home and in studio I didnt get the chance to actually get into it properly again until MV released, infact I was so excited that I purchased MV the day it dropped and immediately begun development on my first title Flatwoods. Ironically Shooty and the Catfish was developed on a PC, but I digress.
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What is your project about? What inspired you to create your game initially? *Daniel: Shooty and the Catfish is set up pretty simply. The 2 lead characters, Shooty and Zaat run a sort of monster investigation unit out of their home. They get calls to different desitinations to deal with different monster problems. I really wanted it to feel like it was set up in a similar way to a lot of cartoons from the 80s, where every episode had a pretty similar but still managed to feel like a little self contained adventure. I have thrown in some little elements of an larger narrative but they are light until the final episode. Originally the series was pitched to Frederator for Cartoon Hangover, it got a little ways into early development but then Youtube changed its algorythm and animation on the platform became a struggle and the project was dropped. I didnt want to waste all the work I had done on the concepts and so I eventually tried to find a way to work them into a game, its taken me quite a few years to get as far as I have with development, but I would be even further back if I had tried to animate it all alone. I created Flatwoods to try and get a small project out, you know, to get some experience with the engine, little did I know how much more I had to learn!
How long have you been working on your project? *Daniel: I pitched Shooty and the Catfish back in 2013 from memory, but it didn't start to take shape as the project you currently see until the last 12 months. In that sense I am incredibly happy with how quickly the game has come together.
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Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *Daniel: So many things have influenced my work its not funny... Where do I even start? Shooty and Zaat have a bit of a Finn and Jake thing going since when the project was originally pitched to Frederator and thats what they were looking for at the time. Resident Evil 4 (the closest any game has ever come to perfection imo) was the inspiration for the games ammo based combat system. Demons Souls originally derailed the project when I tried to emulate its non linear hub based design (you will notice the demo takes place on a single island instead), that created all kinds of balancing issues though so thats all been stripped back and is what lead to the decision to make the game episodic instead. One element from Demons Souls that remains in the game is a diverse mix of linear and looping level designs when it comes to mapping. The game also features towns that have layouts based on unused maps from the Pokemon GS 97 Spaceworld demo since they never made it into any of the actual games in the series. Pokemon GS also influenced the games visuals. I'm not a big RPG guy, but I played a hell of a lot of Pokemon growing up and Gen 2 is still my favorite. Trying to get MV to emulate the limitations of the Game Boy Color was quite the hurdle, I still cant believe I got it working as well as it is. I also have a lot of cameos from other peoples RPGM games, so there's that. Its a big ol' mixing pot of ideas and inspirations.
Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them? *Daniel: Countless, the biggest challenge is always scope though. I originally wanted the game to be like 3 hours long tops, now its well in excess of that and that's before I have even put in meaningful NPC interactions. That's why I have decided to break the game up into episodes, each one should be around an hour which is much more my jam. I don't have a lot of free time so I tend to gravitate towards games that are tight and short, I think that's why I am so determined to keep this game in nice manageable chunks. Now that the game is shorter I don't need levelling so I am starting to tone down the RPG elements. One change always leads to another, but episode one is getting damn close to completion. I say this before I have even had the chance to announce the game's going to be episode on my own blog, ha ha. Episode 1 January, The Great Spore Chore! Keep your eyes out for it!
Have any aspects of your project changed over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *Daniel: As mentioned above a lot has changed, I feel the biggest change was when I tried to move the game from being episodic into one adventure after playing through a bunch of other RPGM games for ideas, it all started to feel a bit aimless and the storytelling techniques I had planned when it was episodic weren't translating well as the game progressed. So I guess now the game is episodic again we have come full circle! So many ideas seemed good on paper but ended up not really being fun or adding anything in practice. Oh yeah, and the transition from Game Boy green to color was a big one based on feedback from the demo. Some people were finding it hard to tell what elements were interactable, doors in particular, I hope that color has helped minimize that issue. Key items will also have an animation on them so they are hard to miss. I'm not a fan of hunting for items in big maps, it's certainly not something I want to subject people too in my own projects.
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What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don’t have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *Daniel: This project has had a few key people involved. Outside of myself I have worked with 2 musicians. One is an old school friend who did music for my animations back in the early 2000's. He has contributed a bunch of really cool EDM which makes up most of the games OST. On top of that there is also a number of optional bosses (one per episode) that have music composed by Secret Agent Ape who worked on Soma Spirits and a bunch of other upcoming games. I have been really lucky to get to work with such rad dudes.
What is the best part of developing the game? *Daniel: I love designing enemy battlers, my process usually involves me drawing a weird shape, sticking some eyes and a big goofy nose on it and trying to come up with a stupid pun to use for a name while listening to bands like Yes or Klaatu. It's bliss. I have a lot of people ask me why I have limited myself in terms of resolution and color palette, and it comes down to one of the important things I told myself when I got into game making as a hobby was that I would stop if it ever started to feel like work. I spend my days doing heavy visual effects and compositing, sometimes doing complex character animation. I want to keep that stuff as far away from my game development as possible. Ironically working within the incredibly restrictive limitations of the Game Boy has ended up being incredibly liberating and keeps things feeling fun as opposed to feeling like more of what I do all day to pay the bills.
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Do you find yourself playing other RPG Maker games to see what you can do with the engine, or do you prefer to do your own thing? *Daniel: I always enjoy checking out demo's of upcoming games. Both Heartbeat and Virgo and the Zodiac's demos blew me away from a technical standpoint on the MV front. I still find it hard to believe those demos were made with the same engine I'm using. I guess it really shows what can be done when the engine is in capable hands. I wish I had more time to play actual full releases, I mean Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass just came out and I have no idea when, if ever I will have the free time to play it because its such a commitment. I feel like I am missing out on some great stuff.
Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *Daniel: I guess I relate to different characters in different ways. Slim Grim is the one who hands out assignments to Shooty and Zaat, he is pretty much done with life, over people and the world itself, I think thats something we all have a bit of inside of us. Shooty is a very positive individual, his solutions to most problems is a bullet with a smile, and I think theres a bit of that in all of us as well. Zaats a bit of a cheeky smart arse, so I guess in a lot of ways I am most like her as a person. One of the episodes also features Gerkinman who is and has been a sort of self insert in my work since 2001 so I guess technically I relate to him most... ha ha, but thats cheating!
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Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Daniel: I wish I had done a better job keeping the project focused. I feel like a good few months were spent making the game bigger in ways it didnt need to be.
Once you finish your project, do you plan to explore the game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *Daniel: All of my games are loosely connected, taking place in the same world. None of them tie directly into each other, im not big on the cinematic universe concept that seems so popular right now, but events in my previous 2 releases and the 5 planned episodes of Shooty and the Catfish are loosely connected in ways people who take the time to look can find. They are also tied into around 17 years worth of animated shorts I have released. I have no plans on stopping now!
What do you look most forward to upon/after release? *Daniel: Well, theres quite a few things... Mapping for all 5 episodes (outside of towns) is complete, so when Episode 1 is done I will be immediately rolling into Episode 2. I am aiming to have an episode out every 2 months which should be doable with so much of the game already finished. I also have a couple of short films I am looking forward to being able to invest some time into, things have slowed down in recent months due to freelance but I am eager to get to animate some of my own work again. I am also eager to see the comments sections on Lets Plays. Both Flatwoods and Hazmat got a bit of Lets Play action and a couple of those have some pretty substantial comment sections. The amount of theories people try to put together for these projects is staggering. I could never write something as entertaining as what the speculations in these comment sections contain in terms of what my games mean, it cracks me up and I find it quite flattering that random people have put more thought into elements of my stories then I have. Makes me want to keep things deliberately vague just to encourage more of it. Lastly I will be releasing all the build files for the project so if anyone wants to make fangames or whatever they have direct access to all of the core files used to build the games. Im a big fan of the concept of a mod community, and while RPGM doesnt exactly allow for that, id love to see people do similar things to my work as whats been done with a lot of LISA fan games.
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Is there something you’re afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *Daniel: I don't know about being afraid exactly. I am curious about how my business model for the episodic releases will go over. I was planning on releasing them at $1 an episode and $4 for the bundle when it's all complete. I know some people think thats still charging too much, but some people have also told me im not charging enough and that it lowers price standards accross the board for RPGM content. The way I see it if I can cover the costs of Steam and the music I commissioned then I've done alright since this project was for fun, but that's just me.
Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *Daniel: Just keep at it and set yourself small goals. If your working on a big project break it up into manageable sections. Take things one map at a time, ya know what I mean?
Question from last month's featured dev @overcast-rpg: If you could choose an RPG Maker gamedev to release another game; which one would you choose and why? *Daniel: Oh that's an easy one, The Catamites. I love Space Funeral, it's easily my favorite game made in the engine, and while The Catamites has developed countless games since its release, they have all been in other engines. It would be fun to see them return to the engine after all they have learned about game design since Space Funeral's release and to see what they would do.
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We mods would like to thank Daniel for agreeing to our interview! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved!
Remember to check out Shooty and the Catfish if you haven’t already! See you next month! 
- Mods Gold & Platinum
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dexi-green · 7 years ago
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Spiderman: Homecoming thoughts
Spoilers!!!
·the 60s spider-man theme during the marvel logo ❤ ·i loved the “friendly neighborhood spider-man” scene. Him getting back the bike and leaving a note, the lady and the churro. Loved it. ·"aye, you're spider-man from YouTube. Do a flip!“ And he does the flip for him. ·Dad Tony. Annoyed Uncle Happy. ❤ Seriously. Like everyone who got mad that "tony is taking over” i hope you went back and shame deleted your posts. ·pepper cameo, like yooo, so are her and tony back together…? And the fact that tony bought an engagement ring for pepper all the way back in 2008 c: ·of course, Stan Lee cameo. Pretty early in the film and funny as always. ·the ATM robbery and peter tries to figure out a cool line to start the fight. ·all the times he falls on his face. ·the iron spider outfit. I’m so mad peter didn't wear it at all. But hopefully in infinity war. ·Flash being a more modern, honest depiction of a bully. Just a ‘flash'y rich kid, not necessarily a jock or anything. Honestly everyone being more honest and modern depictions of high school kids. No makeup on Michelle, the awkward school news casters, still playing with legos, playing outdated (but not really because it had to be filmed in like 2011-2) cliche celebrity videos for the students in class, jokes like penis parker, Seniors hanging out with sophomores and not just other upperclassmen. Not the weird stereotyped stuff we get in a lot of other films and media. ·Captain America videos + 2nd after credits scene. I love when he motioned to the side in the video to the gym teacher but Hannibal was on the other side. That little thing made me laugh. Also we left the theater and then came back for the last after credit scene and i felt so betrayed. ·Chess! ·For whatever reason near the end i kept expecting the credits to roll, but then there was another scene which was a delight for me. Maybe i’m just bad at knowing when movies end. ·no buildings so he has to run and cant use his web shooters. ·Ned Leeds. The guy in the chair. ·Learning Curve. I love that there were consequences to turning off the training wheels protocol. He didn't just get a whole bunch of cool features and became amazing. He turned it off and he messed up. He didn't know how to use things and it got him hurt. They were put there for a reason. It showed that Tony planned on training Peter for a while. All of the features Tony put on the suit to seemingly “limit” peter, were put their for his protection and come in handy later. The tracker allows Tony to save him after the parachute thing. The “baby monitor” lets him find out the identities of the arms dealers. Its just like actual parents and teenagers. Teens think the parent is being unfair and just trying to stop them from having a good time (and sometimes it is just unfair) but its for their own good. ·Learning curve again. He also just didn't always make the best decisions, even if things turned out alright. Like think about. Every time stuff got destroyed it was his fault. He tried to stop the arms deal under the bridge and ended up being dragged down the street. He kept the piece of alien tech, which caused the accident at the Washington monument. He tried to bust the arms deal on the ferry and it got cut in half. He tried to stop vulture again and crashed a plane. Which i think is actually great because remember vultures origin story of being the guy who has to clean up after that type of stuff. But anyway, Peter makes mistakes and messes up. He doesn't even have a cool sequence of transforming into spider-man, he has to undress in an alley. Like he isn't this effortlessly cool and talented superhero which is so incredibly true to the character of Peter Parker. ·michelle tells their teacher the Washington monument was built by slaves. ·Martin Starr ·Zendaya ·this entire cast really. Even Karen is Jennifer Connelly!!! ·Peter bonding with Karen. ·OMFG Aunt May! ESPecially at the end. Like i cannot wait to see her reaction more in depth. ·we got passing comments about the spider bite and uncle Ben. Which is fine, they basically skipped the first half hour of the other first spider-man movies, but i did wish that we would've gotten a flashback or something small. So i’m just going to put this out there for marvel, flashback to uncle ben (or possibly peter’s parents/father) in infinity war or something for just a hot second, maybe even just a picture of him maybe? and the actor, Tobey Maguire. I’ll leave it to you. ·Tony just wants to clean up his messes but he cant even do that without there also being a problem. He just cant win. But i guarantee that if Tony was there when damage control told them they were taking over, he probably would've tried to hire those guys instead of just telling them to beat it. Also… Vulture just trying to support his family and all, and we don’t know what his life was truly like before damage control stepped in. But… He seems to speak like hes still on rough times but…look at liz’s house.like it seems like he got money. ·i think its liz’s drawing of the avengers at the beginning. · When they are in the car, driving to homecoming, and Vulture is slowly figuring out who Peter is (kinda like the dinner scene with the green goblin in the first spider-man) and when he figures it out, the green from the street light is on his face, and just...symbolism. ·i think i missed the part where Harrison was dressed up instead of tom. Did they actually put that in because or maybe i just cant remember the scene right now. I know it was sometime when he had the decathlon jacket on. I think it was when he was stuck in the damage control facility. But for some reason my mind is blurring it. He was just running. ·when tony asks peter to stay at the avengers facility i kinda got the feeling that while tony was proud of peter for knowing what he wants he was kinda sad to know he wasn't going to be staying. Especially after what happened in civil war. He obviously thought it all out and planned things. Kinda like after Avengers, he kinda got excited and attached to everyone, got them their rooms in the tower and all. So kinda sad… · the nod towards Miles Morales and just Donald Glover in general is great. I wont lie that i would've loved more of him and maybe an actual cameo from miles but this was great. Maybe in another film.. · “Come on man, i got ice cream in here.” ·the principal is a descendant, i think grandson, of Jim Morita and played by the same guy, Kenneth Choi!!! Yaaaaasss! Like no wonder this guy is still playing these Cap videos in the school even if he is “technically a criminal” ·Bruce Banner and Howard Stark pictures in the school 😊 ·he isn't driven by romance. Saving or wooing Liz isn't his main goal in the story. There isn't even a kiss (like was teased in the trailer). ·i kind of wish instead of scorpion, the next villain tease would've been for doc ock, or sandman or green goblin but that’s purely personal preference. A black cat hint would've been cool as well, but i understand why they didn't do that. They did hint at the sinister six so they kinda did hint at doc ock and them. ·the video diary bits ❤ and just how well it fits into civil war like a puzzle piece, not just tacked onto the end. · I know some people complained about too many references to other parts of the marvel universe but I liked it. I love references and easter eggs personally, but also this is suppose to be an cinematic universe. everything is suppose to be connected. Why wouldn’t we see descendants of characters, or hear about the sokovia accords in class, or have pictures of notable inventors/scientists in schools, etc.etc.
·”Oh shes not playing mary jane.” “My friends call me MJ.” OMG fight me marvel!
·seriously i did not see the twist coming. Vulture is liz’s dad… Whaaattt? Honestly i loved it. Plus mixed girl representation✊and i like the timing of it. Peter really just defaults back into normal high schooler life. Is so down about what happened and then boom! Cant escape it. ·when the vulture is stealing stuff he has like…a duffel bag. Like they aren’t seemingly stealing that much stuff. Its not like they kill the drivers and steal the entire truck…they just want a little bit. ·"im trying to save you!“ Like yo…almost cried. Seriously. I wanted to scream at the screen. stop! Let him help! Listen to him! I was freaking out. ·"i wanted you to be better.” I know they showed this in the trailer but it was just as impactful this time round. Same with the “if you're nothing without the suit you shouldn't have it.” Like i cannot handle these Tony feelings. ·honestly the part at the end when he is looking at the reflection of himself, half masked, and the line from tony is echoed was…kinda cheesy. But it was still pretty impactful. Especially considering tom holland’s acting at that part. Nearly crying and yelling for help and wiggling around under the concrete, just so down on himself… almost made me cry. ·Just an overall amazing representation of “with great power, comes great responsibility”. There are consequences to his actions, he isn���t just amazing right from the start, he makes mistakes, and has low points and although he doesn't grapple too much with whether or not he wants to be spider-man (he pretty much always picks spider-man over anything else) he still struggles with how to do it and how to balance it. And its important to him that he does a good job, not just because its cool to be a superhero but because he feels the need to. He obviously doesn't brag about it and even chooses to not even come out as an official avenger. He knows where his heart is, where his home is, and by the end of the film he is pretty sure on where his responsibility lies. He realizes that there are big avenger level problems going on, but there are also small jobs to be done. Helping the little guy. He turns down a cool new suit, staying in a facility with the avengers, his own safety and life, to help out those in need.
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lindyhunt · 7 years ago
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Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story Premieres In Toronto
I bought my first Kevyn Aucoin books, Making Faces and Face Forward, at Costco (!!) in the late 90s/2000. It was the gateway to a world of makeup that left me in awe, in which I’d be flipping past pages of transformations that I would stare at and study at length. At the time, there was no makeup artist more seminal than him; he had a monthly column in Allure, did the makeup for every A-lister of the time and he even had a cameo on Sex & The City. But it all came to an end when Aucoin died at the age of 40 in 2002 from kidney and liver failure due to acetaminophen toxicity; he had been taking the painkillers to deal with acromegaly, a tumour on the pituitary gland that continues to produce growth hormones throughout adulthood.
For anyone who either remembers him fondly or doesn’t know about him (and you should, if you consider yourself a beauty historian), you need to see Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story, a documentary about his life that started making the rounds at festivals in the U.S. last fall. It’s finally premiering in Toronto at Inside Out, the city’s LGBT film festival this Saturday. We spoke to director Tiffany Bartok leading up to the screening.
One of things that prompted you to make this film was that during a production meeting for a different project, Kevyn’s name came up and a millennial didn’t know who he was.
That’s right. She was like ‘Who’s Kevyn?’ and I was like ‘Oh no, this is really happening? What are we going to do?’ I hear from makeup artists who have assistants who get on set and they say let’s do it like this Penn picture. And they don’t know what that means. They don’t know who Avedon is. But they know anything Kardashian related. Not their fault really, because it’s so well documented. Many people think Mario D invented contour. And I don’t blame them for thinking that but Mario himself credits Kevyn. He’s hell bent on people knowing where he got it from.
I was surprised to see Mario in the film. What’s this Kardashian guy doing in here? But how did you know he was a fan of Kevyn?
That was Kemi, our groomer on our set. She’s like 26. And she would always say, ‘you’ve got to get Mario in here or nobody’s going to watch. People need to hear these stories, but people our age.’ Troy (Surratt, Aucoin’s former assistant, now makeup artist and also producer on the film) and I were talking about it and we were like ‘should we do this?’ So finally I just emailed Mario and he was like ‘When and where? I would love to be part of this’.
I was blown away by the people you had interviews with. Was it fairly easy to get them on board?
It was Troy’s reputation and we have a reputation with the agents. I mean it wasn’t easy, since they have fierce gatekeepers. But everyone was excited to talk about Kevyn. It was just the scheduling that was a nightmare. We went to L.A. for a couple and we went to London for Kate Moss and we went to Nashville for a bunch.
Was there anyone that you wanted to include that you just couldn’t get?
Yeah, Winona Ryder. She probably has a restraining order on me. I wanted to talk to her so badly. She said no over and over. Some people are just uncomfortable. It’s hard to trust people. I’m not sure what the reason was but I was just really bummed. I tried everything. She just was not down.
Elizabeth Taylor would have turned 86 today. Kevyn created this look on Winona Ryder to pay homage to Taylor's character Maggie from 'Cat On A Hot Tin Roof'. Of the look, Kevyn said "the main objective was to take Elizabeth Taylor's signature brow, eye, and lip shapes and merge them with Winona's features". For a more in-depth description of this look, turn to page 115 of Kevyn's book 'Face Forward'. #MakeupByKevyn #WinonaRyder #ElizabethTaylor
A post shared by Kevyn Aucoin Beauty (@kevynaucoin) on Feb 27, 2018 at 5:25am PST
One person I was glad to see, even though it was just for a tiny, tiny second, was Orlando Pita.
Oh my God, I know. Orlando was a huge get for me because it meant so much that he would trust me to talk to me. And Serge Normant as well. They both were interviewed. It was heartbreaking to cut anyone.
I noticed Kevyn talking about diversity in the film which I found so interesting since it’s a word you hear all the time now and here he was pushing for that like 20 years ago.
He spoke a tremendous amount about the lack of diversity. It was really a problem with him and that’s why Naomi Campbell loved him so much, and Karen Alexander and Veronica Webb. You know, he would advocate for these girls. Like, ‘Hi, put them in your show, put them on your cover,’ and certain magazines were compliant with that and certain magazines are scared of that. It was really, really a fight, but he fought hard.
There was also so much footage which was probably a goldmine for you. Like stuff of him on set and and other behind the scenes footage, that in an age before phones, you wouldn’t have expected to have been documented.
He documented every day of his life. He always had a huge camera with him and handed it to whoever had a free hand. People gave up their tapes and everyone was just excited to share. He just wanted every day to be completely solidified. He wanted to validate every day, just like we do with Instagram.
One thing that I remember about him is that he liked to put makeup on people when they were lying down. Obviously he wasn’t doing that all the time on set, but what do you know about that?
It would take so long that he would lay them down. There were certain clients that remember it clearly and certain clients that say I don’t know what people are talking about when we say lie down. I know Janet [Jackson] was often laid down. That was just like the ultimate luxury.
In the film, he talked about how he saw the beauty in everyone which makes it sounds like his approach would be to make people look like themselves but better. But at the same time, he was also incredible at transformations. So I feel like there’s a little bit of a dichotomy there too. Do you agree with that?
Oh completely. He had this saying that I always live by: if someone’s complimenting the makeup, I didn’t do my job. That’s because they should just be so taken aback with the face. However, he was an artist and given the opportunity to transform someone he was gonna take it. So the fact that he could do both is so rare. That’s what is so great about him.
Did anyone mention if he had any key techniques? What were his signature moves?
That’s such a funny question because in the editing room, that’s what we would look for. I did 60 interviews and no one can tell you what it was. We went through hours of transcripts and looked at who speaks to that, to the technique. The closest thing that we could find, to explain the entire process, was what Isabella Rosellini said where she describes the shoot word for word. It was truly magic, like it was an otherworldly thing, like no one can really say. A lot of people would talk about how he would use his fingers instead of brushes a lot. He was changing all the time. Cindy Crawford will say at first he erased your face, but not everyone says that. It’s really all over the place. Everything was customized to that person.
The film is a celebration of his life but you also don’t shy away from the darkness that he was dealing with. Why did you want to do that?
That’s just not going to help anybody and it was so important to me and his sister too. We wanted everyone to know how he died. A lot of people think it’s AIDS, a lot of people still think it’s all these different things. I just didn’t really want to make any judgment. I didn’t want to blame anybody. So I just wanted to change the narrative from what everybody else was carrying around with them about this story. I wanted to go straight to the source and play it out. It’s happening so much now that I know that Kevyn would want a cautionary tale. The importance of just really taking time for yourself and making sure you’re healthy and happy. Otherwise, it would all be for nothing if you didn’t really know what happened to him.
Based on what you know of his final months, do you think he knew that he was nearing the end or that he was in this really dark place and he wasn’t coming back?
I asked everybody that same question. I personally do. I don’t want to put what I think happened on anybody, but just from what I see and feel and how I would feel myself is that he had done every face. The only one left was his own. He couldn’t and didn’t want to look at his. I think he was just really tired and how do you get off that hamster wheel? I think that he did not know how to rest. If he wasn’t working, what was he? It was sad to see but this is like an addictive personality. This is a super high octane, emotional guy. There’s no ‘I’m gonna take it easy’. I think that he didn’t know how to do that. He would kind of slow down. Jeremy (Aucoin’s husband) would take him to rehab and he would try all these things but I don’t think he truly knew how to take a break.
What do you think Kevyn would have thought of Instagram makeup? He definitely was a fan of a lot of makeup but he did it in a way that is so different from what’s on Instagram. It really is awful.
(Laughs) I know, it basically is illustration. He would laugh. I think he would just keep going. I don’t know what he would say. I would die to know what he would say about all these things. Of course he was a fan of education. He wanted everyone to do it themselves.
What would he think of YouTubers? Or just people that decide they’re a makeup artist and are teaching people techniques that are not even appropriate for real life?
You know what it would be about for him? The intention. So if it was a 10-year-old kid who like nailed it, it’s about the intention. If he felt like it was for self promotion and stuff like that, I don’t know that he would like it. But if he thought it was truly celebrating life with makeup? That was what he loved.
Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story premieres in Toronto on Saturday, June 2nd. Head here for tickets.
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