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true-blue-megamind · 3 years ago

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Fan Theory Thursday – The Not-So-Evil Overlord?

Shhh… Want to hear a secret? Come closer... SPOILER ALERT!

Okay, this one delves a little deep into the imaginative side of Megamind fan theories, however I believe it holds enough interest and has enough support to be well worth discussing. There is a supposition which I frankly love: our favorite blue alien was an Overlord of sorts before he briefly took control of Metro City, and he had good reasons to be so. That might sound a little crazy, but bear with me.

This idea has appeared in several fan fictions, and essentially goes as follows: Megamind was more than a supervillain; he was also a crime boss, and he chose that path for the most unlikely of reasons. Bizarre though it may seem, his primary drive was bettering Metro City. (And, yes, I’m aware of how contradictory that sounds.) However, it’s logical when considered more closely. By making himself the de facto ruler of the city’s underbelly, Megamind was able to control crime to an extent, probably even setting limits on certain activities, and guidelines for others. In the majority of fan fictions using this concept, that includs things like reducing violent crime, setting purity standards and purchase limits for narcotics, and ensuring sex workers were neither underage nor abused.

I’ll be the first to admit that, on the surface at least, this seems like nothing more than fans seeking to justify or even moralize a beloved character, but research reveals that there is actually some support for this theory. Firstly, there is the fact, touched upon previously in the Fan Theory post concerning the Warden, that Megamind was clearly already establishing control over other criminals at a young age. While writing a truly wonderful blog article, Demishock actually went through the trouble of deciphering the newspaper clipping shown at the beginning of the film’s title sequence. It contains, among other things, a reference to the fact that, although an elementary school age child, Megamind was feared and obeyed by other inmates at the prison where he grew up. A quote from the Warden reads: “I've got experienced, hardened criminals in here who are afraid of him.” The article goes on to mention an incident which involved a few other inmates, adding that “the other prisoners refused to point fingers for fear of retaliation.”

It is quite possible that Megamind was already building and consolidating a base of power.

Next, there is the fact that the blue man seems to have lines he won’t cross, even as the self-proclaimed Evil Overlord. In one of the storyboards, when Megamind is approached by the Doom Syndicate, he clearly holds them in disdain, yet they are careful to placate him. Obviously they have somewhat different standards. When Agent Orange—who was later reimagined as Psycho-Delic before being cut from the film entirely—compares Megamind’s “inspirational” defeat of Metro Man to “a car crash on prom night,” the blue alien looks rather disgusted. Although they refer to celebrating his victory, it also seems the Doom Syndicate may be indirectly asking Megamind’s permission to go on a crime spree. While this may be because he is the new Overlord, it seems odd that other villains would immediately leap to the assumption such approval is necessary if they were accustomed to acting on their own. However, if they were already in the habit of requesting the blue alien’s sanction, their actions make more sense.

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Whatever the case, it seems that, once again, Megamind and the Doom Syndicate may have very different ideas of what sorts of crimes are acceptable. The Destruction Worker refers to “really putting the screws to the city,” while Agent Orange adds his desire to “swim in the torment of the innocent.” However, these suggestions don’t seem to match what we actually see Megamind doing. In the movie, Megamind does, indeed, go on a crime spree, but none of it appears to be violent. He certainly causes chaos, but no one seems to ever be injured. In fact, in the DVD commentary, one of the creators even states outright that the supervillain never goes beyond vandalism and theft because he doesn’t really want to hurt anybody. (Indeed, in the film it rather seems that, by being raised in jail, bullied, and constantly rejected, Megamind was pushed into supervillainy.) This, together with the previous evidence, paints an image of a man who has been forced to do some harsh things, but who nonetheless dislikes violence and, deep down, possesses a certain moral code, albeit a skewed one.

There are, in fact, several other details that point toward Megamind being far from truly evil despite being a supervillain. As I mentioned in Megamind and Identity, he displays several redeeming qualities, such as his largely friendly treatment of Minion, his respect for Roxanne’s intelligence, and his playful, affectionate game of fetch with the brainbots. However, I won’t go into a long explanation about that here as it can be found in the aforementioned post.

Nonetheless, I don’t believe we can seriously expect that the former villain has never once hurt anyone in his life. Keep in mind that, as discussed in the post How Strong is Megamind, the blue alien almost certainly had to fight in order to survive. However, his unwillingness to attack citizens suggests that he only injured others when it was absolutely necessary. Similarly, the aforementioned “news article” indicates that he may have limited his physically aggressive responses to other criminals only. (After all, the reference to prison inmates fearing him is the sole evidence of possible violence we have.) I have seen it suggested here on Tumblr that he may have taken over Metro City in part because he believed that, if he didn’t, someone worse like the Doom Syndicate would. It may even be possible that he was afraid of appearing soft and thus losing control over the criminal underworld.

Of course, it has to be mentioned here that Megamind also fought with Metro Man, who certainly wasn’t a criminal. However, there are two factors that I believe need to be considered. The first is that it is very likely that Megamind didn’t expect he could truly harm his nemesis. This is evidenced by both the his apparent shock when Metro Man seems to actually be dead, and by his overt statement during the museum scene that he “didn’t think it would really work.” The second is that, as young Metro Man was a bully, tormenting Megamind without provocation and encouraging other children to do the same, Megamind may have mentally placed him in the bad guy/threat category.

His lack of violence is not the only proof that Megamind had a better heart than most credited him for even when he was a supervillain. Keep in mind that he had a holographic disguise watch and a hoverbike. Presumably, Megamind could have simply fled Metro City when Titan turned evil, but he didn’t. Instead he went to Roxanne for help, stating that if they could not find the new villain’s weakness Titan would “destroy the whole city.” And this was after Titan had tried to kill him. Clearly, despite being a supervillain, Megamind cared enough about his home town to put his life in danger.

The final support for the Benevolent Overlord theory is less obvious: Megamind had to have been getting funds from somewhere even when Metro Man was still functioning as the Defender of Metro City. (Indeed, in some of the early concept art, the Evil Lair was imagined as a luxurious space boasting things like a huge library and a sleek laboratory. Some fans still picture the living quarters in much the same way despite the creators stating that he built his inventions from whatever he could get his hands on.) Near the beginning of the movie, Minion mentions a supplier in Romania, and presumably he and Megamind had to be getting food and other necessities somehow. While it’s true that the blue villain was clearly not above thievery, we also know that his plots were always defeated by Metro Man, so it’s safe to assume that he rarely if ever got away with stealing anything before the former hero’s supposed “death.” Of course, it also seems extremely unlikely, even laughable, that Megamind would have had a day job. Where, then, did the money come from? Many fans theorize that, as the local crime boss, he received a cut from all illegal activity. It certainly seems like the most probable explanation.

Art by Kory Heinzen, found in The Art of Megamind by Richard von Busack

So why would Megamind build his technology and machines largely from scrap if he had a constant cash flow? Given his concern for the city, several fan fictions have imagined the blue man secretly and anonymously donating a significant portion of his ill-gotten money to various charities and non-profits. That idea is not directly supported by any evidence, but it does fit with what we know. It’s also consistent with Megamind’s character: a feared supervillain who possesses a surprisingly good heart and, given his past, knows too well what it’s like to be thrown away by society.

So, was Megamind a crime boss as well as a supervillain? Did he use that position to secretly better life in Metro City? If so, is he still doing that now that he is the Defender of Metro City, thus curbing criminal activity from within as well as fighting it from without? (For the record, given that there is no apparent gang war happening during The Button of Doom, I would propose that the answer to the last question may be yes.) These are certainly interesting ideas to consider, and the mere fact that this animated film offers enough details to argue the point is a testament to just how well-constructed the movie is. I consider it yet more proof that the film Megamind is truly an underrated masterpiece.

#Megamind #Megamind movie #megamind fan theory #fan theories #fan theory #fan theory thursday #Overlord #crime boss #good bad guy

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turnupthestrobe · 4 years ago

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Halloween 2020 Film #1

City of the Living Dead/Gates of Hell (Lucio Fulci, 1980)

I thought, since I’m newly back on Tumblr, and sine I haven’t written in a long time, and since the world is a terrible place and it doesn’t really matter what I do, that I’d try to write about a horror film every day this month. I really sort of dislike writing about film right now, and even moreso hate writing about myself, but it’s an exercise I feel like I should participate in, and to be honest, I don’t have much else to do right now, so why not?

The first film I watched this month is Lucio Fulci’s City of the Living Dead. Fulci emerged as a horror filmmaker int he late 70s but he’d been making movies for 20 or so years already, as kind of a journeyman, working on whatever genres were popular at the time. Early in his career, he made a number of sex comedies, which is kind of hard to imagine give the listlessness of his later films, which rely on slow, dreamlike pacing that seems fairly antithetical to the kind of madcap sex comedies popular in Italy in the 60s and early 70s.

Fulci fared much better with two excellent giallo films, Lizard in a Woman’s Skin and Don’t Torture a Duckling, and in westerns, especially the devastating Four of the Apocalypse, which despite it’s old west milieu, could arguably be seen as a horror film as well.

He made his first proper horror film in 1977, with the Psychic, but it was 1979′s Zombie that brought him his first attention from horror fans in America (it was featured on the 8th cover of Fangoria magazine). Released in Italy as a Bootleg sequel to George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, Zombie’s mix of gauzy atmosphere, over the top gore and an grinding, pulsating synth score by Italian soundtrack mainstay Fabio Frizzi caught audiences’ attention around the world and bumped Fulci’s reputation from talented if not especially visionary working filmmaker to cult horror legend.

Fulci followed Zombie up with a handful of films revealing his unique vision as a filmmaker. His imprint on his films is primarily aesthetic, as he showed little interest in putting together a coherent narrative and had any quality performances thwarted by his films being postdubbed, which was standard for Italian genre films at the time, making them easier to dub for foreign markets.

This period of Fulci’s career resulted in some of his best work, namely City of the Living Dead (1980) and the Beyond (1981), which made up kind of a loose trilogy with slightly lesser The House by the Cemetery (1981). These films show Fulci at his most aesthetically pronounced, following vague, ephemeral and ethereal threads and obsessions, not the any foregone conclusions, but in a kind of phantasmagorical. almost psychedelic vein.

These films are full of atmosphere, slow burn drama punctuated with shocking acts of violence. The extreme gore of these Fulci films became something of a director’s hallmark, as did he preoccupation with eyeballs, seem often in closeup and more than occasionally in states of distress or mutilation.

Watching the City of the Living Dead again this year- I think it’s the best of Fulci’s early 80′s films, the most atmosphere and “complete” feeling in terms of creating a tone of absolutely dread and despair (The Beyond, meanwhile, is the more fun and exciting of these films, though it certainly has its share of creepy and disturbing moments), I was struck by a few things.

The eye trauma thing is almost a joke among horror fans. People love to point it out as though it weren’t very much obvious and on the surface of the films. Fulci was fascinated with eyes, both showing them in extreme closeup and occasionally mutilating them in graphic ways. This motif actually fits into the narrative of City of the Living Dead, and to an extent the Beyond, as both films feature moments where characters are destroyed be seeing. The idea is perhaps that there are some things that are so horrible, simply seeing them is a horror unto itself, one that can result in the body’s expulsion of organs or, simply, life.

The gore in these films serves a similar purpose, I think. Fulci really escalated the goriness of his films through his career, with later films like A Cat in the Brain becoming especially disgusting, but also self-referrential (Fulci plays a version of himself in that one). Like the idea of seeing something so horrible it destroys our lives, Fulci strove to put to most horrible images he could imagine on screen.

As much, City of the Living Dead is at moments pornographically violent, with a character getting a drill through his head in close up, and another vomiting up her intestines upon viewing the visage of a dead priest who serves as one of the avatars of ultimate evil in the film. Again the idea seems to be showing the viewer, as the character, something so terrible it cannot be unseen, a co-mingling of many contemporary horror tropes from the body horror of the early Cronenberg films to the silent, cannibalistic masses of George Romero to dark and unstoppable evil that lurks around the corner in John Carpenter’s Halloween to the supernatural elements of The Exorcist, the Omen and the Ammiityville horror.

And yet, at the same time, I don’t think Fulci was operating by some kind of thesis of the nature of horror, or by the nature of seeing. His films are too loose and shambling, too detatched, for him to have much of an intellectual agenda as a director. Rather, I think he distilled these popular elements instinctually and regurgitated them through his own filter, a combination or personal obsession and adherence to the demands of the marketplace.

In truth, I am the last person in the world who gives a fuck about authenticity in film, but Fulci is remarkable in that he managed to be both fully authentic, adhering to a person vision and aesthetic, and yet entirely inauthentic, making films without any particularly welll-developed narrative or actual sense of artistry or personal intentional, at the same time,.

The results of this are mixed, but when they work, as in City of the Living Dead and the Beyond, the work incredibly well, creating singular nightmare scenarios that play by an internal logic that only exists within their own realities. And the notion of seeing and not being able unsee as a mechanism of horror is especially strong in the se films , particularly in the ocularly obsessed City of the Living Dead, which has a bleakness to it that highlights the sense of dream of what might be seen, what should be unseen and what the true nature of visual horror means for the viewers of a horror film.

#halloween #halloween 2020 #countdown to halloween #horror #lucio fulci #city of the living dead #gates of hell #1980 #review #film review #horror review #horror movies #personal writing #pointless exercises

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samaelserpentine · 4 years ago

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An Odyssey Through Music, Muses, Madness and Magic

(Buckle up Tumblr, this is a long poem) 1. The isle guardians of vinyl Unwittingly nervous to the necromancy I have planned An inner storm so terrible But I was Struck by his Occult missive So laden down was I By all the lyrics, the words With characters told through dark supergods As Aleister Crowley is to Led Zeppelin is to David Bowie And now me Lost among them Buried within them The pages of ancient texts And the liner notes of the albums Held far too close to the heart Though I tried, perhaps I merely formed mystery at my own doom The records of the sorcerers Performing an infernal scratching on my psyche Breaking down what was there and carving out what could be But whether it should be Is still uncertain to me. 2. I found the darkness in riffs The wall of sound I was into Inhabited by self-admitted aliens Aleister’s hellfire brought to light My heavy work held up The symbolizing of some god Archaic and forgotten Through a ring Art cracks All the people that stare loveless Into your eyes But I would be different I would be realized Something broken Mended Yet still wrong But I would Make myself into something else With your words The fascination told fables A way out, a way through I would find my way to you Through the cracks. 3. Once artwork I became their voice Lurking in the shadows of time On the periphery Of reason Madness could be a thrilling companion And with the records transcendent And the races lost The shout rang out Are You Experienced? I am and am not Like an abysmal and sunken ship Lost in the depths of the ocean Alone and devoid of meaning Abandoned everything to Grooves, characters, truths And once there inhabiting these my psyche Broke open spilling out visions, words Like arcane knowledge Dancing carelessly over the line Between the sacred and profane Whispering it’s so nice to see you here again And my mind became a bookshelf filled with ancient wisdom A record player Playing albums that told lies like they were the truth I uncovered the Necronomicon Had lives in Atlantis Sat with the sound and vision Of a populated landscape Woven through history Like a single thread Linking everything I became a fixture Fantastic Within the hidden music of a paperback I would not be forgotten there. 4. Of those who sought And those who chose A wriggle of religious fanaticism in claim And its origins an apparent expression of salvation I say You are nothing and have nothing for me With your hierarchy and worry over the threat Of music and sexuality And your constant waging of war against me When mine and yours is a history of burning I have nothing to give you You’ve already taken too much from me I want what was mine back With your wicked face as old as These chords I worship And your evil work to further ministers As meaningful to me as a rotten turnip Yet of my conjuring powers You disbelieve When honey, you should fear me And not the other way around I hope that when you are most afraid You say my name. 5. Mobs make parents worried They claim the rock audience chaos Is just hormonal fury A response to what is true Inside of both me and you There is more than this A kind of magic If you look for it Religious In the way we turn musicians Into gods and goddesses Idol worship But is that all it is? In the truest sense An ancient rite Long buried and forgotten Rising up inside us all Those who dare to dance And by prohibiting and demonizing The ones who shake their fists Lose their sense Always the sound of agitation But I saw these pagan spirits first Before I heard your protesting words Theirs speak louder to me Than your hatred ever could. 6. To the electric teenager Finding your way Rebellion is autonomy It is tradition To push boundaries Yet each new generation of adults Somehow forgets these Eternal truths It's not your fault They're afraid of your youth Don't listen Hold on Your fire will make the world a better place For you. 7. Could this ancient thread Of reality and magic infused with dangerous potential Normally inhabited by far greater Magicians than I could ever be Break me? I am traversing this rough terrain Of shared perception With aliens These common visions a violence What could I even be? Nothing more than a mystery To those around me Lost in this metaverse I have accessed Through song, collage, words Chaotic, such occult meanings They and often I End in something Beyond reason Scratching out messages of methods The angels referenced spoken vast by terrifying qualities These opposing sorcerers Like a guitar screeching endless feedback Which demons? Sex? Drugs? Words? Palpable as suggesting a penultimate hidden secret Impenetrable beyond nothingness and Nonetheless I must find it Even if I have to destroy myself trying Nothing is more important Than this truth. 8. Years go by and I come about left handed Shaped by a tarot card about the arts and earlier The room Space Death I know spirituality I see it in my brother’s eyes Only the inner outer world collides But of the Beatles or beetles They didn’t understand How To make the world bend at your command Of this phenomenon devotees are Reckless Breathtaking in their beauty And chaos It takes a certain kind of madness Or perhaps maybe genius To choose this path To withstand the pressure Of reality kneeling At your feet Bending to your will I will break it before it breaks me Oh brother, don’t you worry I always find my way out of the darkness And besides, hell has never bothered me I am the master of my own design The maker of my own making Nothing else can touch me. 9. Imagination turns listeners into participants Gives power to the powerless Those converted shaped by few ideas Dreams Had rock’s Hare Krishna LSD Asking questions Whose inner world could I be? And as it moves, a cultural generation Becomes magical More magical than entire rock bands Than holy men and women Fashioned by the young The carbon copy progressives Lying like Houses Already vast Led by the words of the Bhagavad Gita You should have listened to me When I had the cards already free I tried to warn you what was coming But no one ever hears me Invisible as I am Until so repulsive, so strange You can’t look away from me You really should have listened You can't say I didn't try to warn you. 10. This is bigger than I am Stretched too thin like skin Over bone was and into The board, into the planchette Could enchantment make me forget? The board is vibrating Shaking like hands The grazing of sleeves Culture, vinyl Seemed out from under our covers Like what was hidden There, even tucked away those records Though of nothing gatefold came No reason to be afraid Other than the fingers that have become potent The light that has now dimmed And what could I have been To all who pulled that woven magic Out of my childhood? Could it be the way was manifest Curled up snugly against your breast? As warm candlelight over the Ouija Plastic memories came From which I had imagined the feelings like air between Bewitched but hovered from Somewhere above our heads I wished that I was dead Or that something would end. 11. Experiences divorced from reality Covers rock personas Cut out images appear worse But Dionysus would love this His child Who has people staged Like personal shamanic relics Thinking writing something mystical That I would seek this That I sought this Is surely a form of madness But all the logical illogical reasoning shows A kind of rare dedication to the cause These rites are magical Why speak of demons And why speak of devils? I have conjured and created Something new out of the ancient Like nails Scratching deep grooves into a record album I have altered something Broken it As their gods create chaos simulating insanity As if they even have to in me I am the false image of a human performed By a front magician Playing at being god In these moments of desperation Carrying the weight of lives As though my power were absolute My belief almost religious Fanatical My concerns become concerts When I am on my own Wondering why happiness has abandoned me And where all the merrymakers have gone Why I am more Anubis than Pan Why myth seems written in lyrics As musicians play me like a fiddle Play me for a fool I am possessed Into thinking I am appearing as many legends Something older than time itself A life bringer A life destroyer With the power to stop or start it all I needed to believe I had the power To save all of you To destroy all of you To protect myself If I needed to And I don’t know if I can save myself From the things I want to do As the darkness envelops me And my mind becomes unglued So go ahead and do what you always do And blame it on the music When we all know the truth It’s always been you. 12. Rumination is realization I wandered alone Within the elements and to God Unintelligible Words became strange as Rogue faeries genuine Approach looking wing Impenetrable as I have become What I’d produced went away from me Flew out of my control Reborn in catastrophe When where into situations I went From film to film I sense in time a song Things start about a room and again Became revolt But maybe that’s just what happens when you’re Involving the occult Bring out the old rock n roll safeguard Make it out of symbols and sigils A complete thought catalogue so arcane It would leave you spellbound for days My mind prison And that in myself some Christ was born A thought so seductive to be sure I would take control of these pursuits But unlike you Hatred would never do I would never fight against passion Your fear I came to hear Against spaceships, rituals, the mystical, Sex, magic Your terror So absolutely Psychological I felt protection close at hand And I was real myself, as I really am In and out of my depth Battling against you and your demands I came out cleaner Stronger And what became of you? Shhh, no telling I won’t spoil the ending No good to warn the enemy Of what is coming But You really should have been listening You should have been watching What was happening. 13. He said, you should have started with Kether Been sure of the path you were following After all Magic, like blood, stains But these moments were wonders They could drive out the fear of fortune, destiny Hanging over my head I was taking control Creating my own instead As thin as the thread that links us all Tenuous, fragile Like a mind on the verge of breaking Under the weight of a cruel reality The walls would speak to me Whispering When will you come to me From here or there And find me in a room High above the clouds Where we could build our love? It’s not enough It’s a drug And I need it As lovers we were And I, such as the mountains Looming, shy Unable to look you in the eye But here is the stuff of legend Sound soars like a movement Lost to the ages I never thought myself better than this moment Lost as I once was Now flashing light and colour Connected to everything Raising you like the devils they spoke of Dancing my way to Malkuth A fearless necromancer Disregarding all the rules. 14. I am the sun I am the ocean I am the mountains and the streams I am the demon who would be with you In all your wildest dreams Where men circle around you Desperate to keep you You land like sand flowing through my hand I did not try to hold onto you So you let me keep the thread Through this glass I was searching Broken as the cracks But now I am returning Now I am mending And once you were evasive Elusive Like a high I was chasing Or the first drink, the tenth, or the last But now I find you woven into everything Believing we were thrown together like darts Bending like space and time I was searching for this Searching for you In desolate stations We would be protected Dredging the world to a ditch Just to find you Just to become more than this You are a wonder Among wondrous things And I am bird Who has found his wings Overlooking humanity From up on high I have found me in you This time And of all the things they can take from me That will never be one of them For I am the sun I am the ocean I am the mountains and the streams I am the demon who would be with you In all your wildest dreams But above all else What is more I have found peace Dancing in the flames of this madness They tried to call a disease I am me I am me I am me.

#poetry #poets on tumblr #my poem #dadaism #beat poetry #writers on tumblr #writersociety #poetry is magic #my writing #long poetry

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wufeithezen · 4 years ago

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The Valuable Qualities of Life Cannot Be Taught, Rather Learned Through Experience

I never sought tumblr for means of fans or anyone ever reading this. Strictly a form of expression. A reminder to myself. Always able to return and skim through the fragments of my past as my future erases emotions and ideas, making room for the new. I've never been one to believe in posting bad. The negative energy projected to the universe has always kept me in line when I express negativity. I've grown older. 33 now, my concepts in what is essential have begun to take shape like mountains. I have never believed it were possible for me to know or feel hate. To understand what could make a person come to terms with the thoughts of rage and anger. It's been months now. Months that I have allowed myself through the motions of your actions. The anger, rage, hurt...I've sat in the darkness that surrounds me, I am the only light shining yet not bright enough to illuminate all that is around me. Slightly blinded. In this dormant state, in that calm of all void...I found that the valuable qualities of life cannot be taught. Rather, they are learned through experience. And...I hate you!

You see, my idea of Hate was disgusting. Vile, evil. I felt that to hate someone truly meant to place them in a position lower then the lowest. Again, I have aged. Hate is not a projection that is placed entirely on someone else, at least as I perceive the concept. Hate is a strength in separation. A distance in closeness. Precaution of one's own heart and best interest. I hate you because everything you have done to destroy me...to kill parts of me. But that hate is not just an emotion that is directed towards you. That hate is a feeling in myself that says to do better, to prosper, to find my strength and grow. It's internal and unfortunate for you, its eternal. It's the image of who I want to be and how I will fulfill my purpose. Fallacies! The world is full of fallacies and everything becomes something that the world makes a norm yet...What does it mean to you? I never imagined I would say these words in such a positive way and its funny because you will never know. That in itself...Feels fuckin' great!

Everything is dark.

In The Midst of a Docile State,

My Mind and Heart Resting in Pain.

Deep in the Sleep of a Chaotic Realm,

I am at Ease in the shine that Remains.

Waiting. Enduring. Aware.

When I Allow Myself to Wake,

The Ruler of Darkness I Will Become.

And Then, Nothing Will I Fear!

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ask-de-writer · 4 years ago

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PARADOX PLANET (1 part) The arrival of men on the World of Sea

Return to the Master Story Index

Return to the World of Sea

GONE TO SEA

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

Excerpt from a novel of Sea presently in progress

2579 words

writing begun 2005

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Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights. They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact. They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions.

All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

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1. Paradox Planet

This was going to be difficult, thought Captain Alain. In the wardroom of his ship, the ESA 14, he faced Mr. Torres, the leader of the colonial expedition. Mr. Torres was not a happy man.

“This is an outrage!” he said ferociously. “I can read clocks and calendars as well as any! We were to be awakened from Crossover Sleep on arrival at the system. It has been over a year, local time, since you got here.” He paused to breathe heavily, angrily and went on, “Now, only I have been awakened! What are you up to?”

Captain Alain Looked over at the gray painted metal bulkhead relieved only by pictures mounted to the wall. The duty crews painted them as a hobby to fill the long empty years of the passage. Even faster than light Crossover Drives had limits. Stars were still an unimaginably great distance apart, many of them were years apart. This expedition, two hundred and eighteen light-years distant from Earth, at just over twenty one years of flight time, was no exception. Unless some further distant worthwhile planet had been found in the passing years, this was the longest colonial run that the ESA had tried.

Captain Alain looked down at the pile of files, data disks and crystals in front of him and back to Mr. Torres. He decided to be blunt.

“You know that due to energy constraints, this had to be a one way trip for you and the other colonists. We were trying to find a way to save your expedition’s lives. We failed.”

That brought Mr. Torres up short. “Trying to save us? You failed?” His eyes went wide, “Did my people die?”

“No, they are all well and asleep. The problem is not on the ship. It is the target world. It is everything that the probe reported. We need to report back and have the probes reprogrammed. Nobody expected a world like Sea.”

“C?”, asked Mr. Torres, puzzled. “Is it because it’s the third world? Why call it C?”

“Sea, as in ocean,” said Captain Alain reaching into his pile of data and handing over a crystal. “Look for yourself.”

Mr. Torres activated the viewing controls and knit his brows in concentration as he examined the picture and data flowing beneath it. “Where are the land masses? On the other side? It says that I’ve rotated the view but it’s no different.”

“It did rotate, Mr. Torres. There is no land anywhere on Sea.” Captain Alain paused to collect his thoughts. “So far as we can tell, the last island sank for good between one and a half and two and a half million years ago.” He gestured at the image. “If you boost the magnification far enough you will find floating weed mats and shallow areas that you can use to follow the rotation of the globe.”

Mr. Torres looked again, at high magnification. The skilled ecologist in him rebelled at what he was seeing. “This is not possible. Without land masses to break up air flows by both barrier and convection effects the atmosphere should turn into high speed bands of wind.”

“My crew and I are well aware of the problem, Mr. Torres,” said Captain Alain with the air of one who wished that he had not found the answer to a puzzle. “The reason that the atmosphere does not band is every bit as bad as what you have just seen.”

Once again he removed an image crystal from his pile of data. “As you watch this, bear in mind that it is a direct recording of an actual event. You can change the time compression to suit your own taste. It won’t alter what you will see.” Wryly he added, “We have already said that it’s impossible. It will spare you the effort.”

In utter disbelief, Mister Torres stopped the crystal playback and restarted it several times. It showed the birth of a storm. A large rotating depression was forming at about sixty five degrees South Latitude. Sympathetically, Captain Alain said, “Go ahead and let it play. It only gets worse.”

The storm swept north along a large curve that appeared to be dictated by Coriolis force. The warmer seas of the tropics fueled the storm and it grew into a monster with a core of powerful storm cells over a thousand miles across. The vastly aberrant storm’s clouds did not limit themselves to the troposphere. They towered high into the stratosphere, where no sane cloud mass, let alone a whole cyclonic storm, belonged. The wind speeds achieved over three hundred and twenty kilometers per hour.

The counterclockwise rotation of the storm should have killed it when it crossed the equator to the Northern Hemisphere where the same Coriolis force would now try to make the storm rotate clockwise. Instead, the storm broke apart into individual thunderstorms that followed precise vectors across the equator and reassembled themselves into a giant clockwise rotating storm, all angular momentum preserved, and with no loss of wind speed.

It followed a Coriolis arc north and finally cold northern waters robbed its energy. It broke up into thunderstorms, squalls and fogs about sixty five degrees North Latitude.

Captain Alain said, “Hard to believe, isn’t it? We have observed eight of those aberrations of nature and they ALL do that. Because of the form of the path that they follow, we are calling them Coriolis Storms. It’s as though there were a guiding intelligence handling the storm. Lovely fantasy. It would take at least nine of the most powerful synchronous orbit Weather Sats with a fleet of Low Orbit backups to get even one of those storms across the equator. It would be touch and go, even with equipment like that. All that we have here are the three moons and the primary star. We just haven’t figured out the natural mechanism yet, that’s all.

“The worst part of this is that while the spacing and placement of the storms appears to be completely unpredictable, statistically every part of the planet will get hit at least once every five years by one of these monsters. The crew has a betting pool on where and when the next one will occur. The sample is still too small to be sure but it is beginning to appear that the storms are not completely random in their occurrence.”

Mister Torres surprised Captain Alain. He accepted the statements without comment and quietly sat, thinking. At last he spoke thoughtfully, “I’m not an engineer but perhaps we can deal with the storms by going under them. Build domes or habitats on the reefs maybe. The water is calm only a few feet below the waves.”

Captain Alain gave Mister Torres points for being quick on his mental feet. Gently, he said, “My crew and I ARE engineers. We did think of that. Unfortunately, it can’t be done. A dome is an engineering nightmare. The buoyancy is massive. The pressure gradient from top to bottom is all wrong. The air pressure inside the dome is controlled by the depth of the lowest part of it. That means that the dome will try to burst at the top because the water pressure is lowest there and the inside air is at the pressure of deepest part where the water pressure is highest. Small habitats would be possible except that we don’t have the materials to build that many of them and can’t get what we need from the environment.

“We brought equipment to mine on land or in space. We can fabricate almost any device except for a tiny problem. There’s no land to mine and the rest of the system is metal poor. This world does have quite a lot of high quality ores. Unfortunately they are under about fifty to over nine hundred meters of water. We can’t get at them. Captain Alain inhaled heavily and added, “We can’t even get useful silica sand on this planet. It’s in the same situation as the metal ores. The common coral sand is useless for glass making.

“What we can do is process the local coral and coral sands into a form of concrete. It is possible to get useful amounts of aluminum, magnesium and small amounts of titanium from the seawater. We can go to the three moons for silicates to make glasses. They even have small amounts of available iron and some other useful metals. The silicates make structural glass a real possibility. Fiberglass is also practical. Many of the local seaweeds will process to yield various useful plastic resins for both the fiberglass and to mold directly into useful objects.

“In this environment, only the titanium and structural glass are durable. Corrosion will destroy the other metals in short order. Concrete made from coral is subject to long term erosion by the water, not to mention the many animals and plants that will attack it. Even the fiberglass will have a limited life due to long term water absorption. Of course you can recycle the fiberglass materials.”

Now it was Mister Torres who spoke. “You know about the nutritional deficiency issues of this world, um … Sea? Good name, by the way.”

Captain Alain accepted the compliment with a nod and replied, “Yes. You will be short a pair of critical amino acids, a small raft of vitamins, and there’s a carbohydrate problem of some sort.”

It was Mister Torres who spread his hands now. “You are right. We brought the solutions to all of that along in the form of crop seeds and embryonic animals. We did not expect to have no place to raise them. Hydroponics could answer the plant problem, perhaps. The animals are a different matter altogether. They have to have a certain amount of space for proper development.” He paused and looked thoughtfully at a painting of Mt Fuji, back on Earth, “Could we bypass the growth of the animals and do a carniculture system? I ask because that is more an engineering problem.”

Captain Alain considered in his turn. Mister Torres let him think. A thousand lives hung in the balance. At last, Captain Alain said, “It could be done. It has been done before. There is a nutrient limitation. You have to be able to supply the culture tissues with the necessary amino acids. The whole animal would manufacture its own from the crops fed to it. The culture can’t do that. I think that with the available resources, you are stuck with raising the animals whole. I can ask. We didn’t think of that solution.” He dictated a note for his ship’s system engineers to look into it.

Suddenly Mister Torres exclaimed, “Those storms all follow the same pattern! That means that if we build a platform, we can design it to be strongest in a direction that will resist the storms best! What sort of tidal variation are we dealing with?”

Captain Alain thought a moment and consulted his data. His brows knit as he worked through the problem. “When the sun and the moons line up unfavorably, the sea level can drop until the shallows become shoal-water. At the other extreme, the water depth can go to twenty meters. A storm depression coupled with a low tide can actually bare the upper parts of the coral. That kills the coral and limits upward growth.”

Mister Torres shook his head. “Between storms, coral should grow on the skeletons of the dead coral and cause island building. Why doesn’t it?”

Captain Alain realized from the form of the question that Mister Torres was giving him credit for intelligence and was pleased. He answered, “There’s a common fish with a hard beak. It seems to think that the dead coral is a delicacy and mows the reef down as it grazes. It chews up the stone to get the dead organisms. That’s what makes the coral sand.”

Mister Torres nodded. “Like the parrot fish back home. Makes sense. The same fish attacks our concrete too?”

Captain Alain just nodded. Then he had a thought. Excitedly he said, “We could put titanium mesh in the outer layers of the concrete. That would keep the fish out of anything structural. Once the platform was built, you could process more concrete on your own. You could re-plaster the areas that the fish attack.”

He subsided, “You’d have all your eggs in one basket, though. The thing would have to be huge. We can only marshal the resources to build one.”

“It’s not really that important,” said Mister Torres softly. “There’s no possible way for us to survive until a ship can return with what we do need. Still, we have to have the platform for morale reasons. My people need hope. It’s all that we can really do for them.”

Captain Alain suggested, “We can request a recovery expedition as soon as we get back. It is ESA policy to have a colony ship ready for just such an emergency.”

Mister Torres shook his head negatively. “I fear that the war that was shaping up will be long over when you get back. I pray that you will be able to survive your return. I do not think that there is any possibility of our survival.”

Captain Alain looked compassionately at Mister Torres. He shook his head. “You’re right. The war will change everything back home. We received messages from Earth before we got The drive up to threshold energy. The shooting did start. We were ordered to return but disobeyed. I can only hope that some form of the ESA has survived.

“As for your platform, even with the Crossover Drive to push us faster than light, we can’t get back to you in time. No platform that we can build will survive long enough. It is going to get hit by at least five and probably more of those Coriolis Storms. One of them will sweep it away. Without its facilities, your people will die of malnutrition in fairly short order.”

Mister Torres looked back at Captain Alain and said bleakly, “I know that. What we are going to do is simple. We will lie to your crew and my colonists alike. We will fake evidence to show that the necessary nutrients can be found in the ecology. We just can’t localize them well enough from space. The search will keep hope in them to the last.”

Captain Alain closed his eyes in pain. This was indeed difficult. Why couldn’t Mister Torres be angry, rail at fate or just cry? This calm acceptance, this cold blooded planning to deceive a thousand doomed people was beyond him. He shook himself and said, “Very well, we will follow your lead. Two of my crew will have to be in the conspiracy. They are needed to create the false data.”

That simply, the decision was made. With massive labor, a platform was built with all of the best systems, electronic controls and computerized communications. It held laboratories, shops, apartments, docks for boats, recreational and farming spaces. All critical exposed areas, like the upper levels of the farms, could be closed over with locking domes in bad weather. On the platform, a space one kilometer by one and a half kilometers, several stories thick, a thousand people were left on a planet that could not support them. Only one of their number actually knew what had been done.

–The End–

Return to the Master Story Index

Return to the World of Sea

#PARADOX PLANET #World of Sea #Written by De Writer

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lowlypotatofarmer · 4 years ago

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i got a lunar moth tattoo :)

i’m finally not stressing about the election for the first time in months (though I know the next three months are going to be hard too and that nothing is over yet) so i’m just going to let myself be happy and enjoy the little things in life again. like this!

the lines irl are really thin and crispy (like pizza crust) but tumblr said ‘no no let me destroy the image quality’

i love the artist i went to, my other tattoos are both just line work done by other artists and i was originally just going to get this as linework as well bc i’m very particular about the type/style of shading i like but she has such an amazing technique and she’s the only one allowed to do any shaded tattoos i get for the rest of my life

(ig i should say, kayla rosencrans, currently at gypsy tattoo in findlay ohio, the shop has absolutely amazing vibes and i was introduced to ‘WAP: Funk Version’ which i highly recommend)

#now to tell my parents #who were fine with me getting tattoos #but specifically said not to get any forearm tattoos #oops #sorry parents #tattoo

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fly-pow-bye · 5 years ago

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Powerpuff Girls 2016 - The Final Stack Up (The Worst)

It’s been a good time, friends, but the time has come. Which episodes managed to be the worst of them all?

This is the final stack up, and it's not just me saying that because the phrase "stack up" just caught on in my vocabulary. Out of all of the episodes, I'm going to make two different stacks of episodes: which episodes were the worst, and which were among the least worst. I would say "best", but I feel like that's a bit overselling even for those episodes. Let's start off with the worst, because I just want to get that out of the way.

Here's the criteria for that list:

It must be an episode of PPG 2016. As much as its quality is rather surprising, I consider TTG v. PPG a Teen Titans Go episode. While it even features one of the crew members, it has the Teen Titans Go animation, the Teen Titans Go theme song, and, for better or worse, the Teen Titans Go humor. Also, the Narrator appears in it for more than 10 seconds, and that’s just not allowed in PPG 2016.

It must be at least an episode of PPG 2016. The shorts are just too short and simple to rate among the full episodes, and I'm not rating PSAs or commercials. If one needs to know, Bubbs and Donny Get The Mail is the worst, and Mojo Builds A Shelf is the best.

In a challenge to myself, I have to say at least one good thing about each episode. I'd like to believe there's at least something good in even the worst of media.

This is my opinion and my opinion alone. There's some universally hated episodes I personally did not hate as much, and I am sure there’s going to be episodes people love that I did not particularly care for. It does not mean their opinion is wrong. In fact, this list is based on my current opinions, so that can even apply to past me's opinions.

Let’s roll.

The Bottom 10:

Without further ado, let's wade through the muck first, starting with...

10. A Star Is Blossom

At first, I didn’t think this episode was particularly horrible; the review even initially had a Neutral Buttercup, the “bad, but not that bad” rating. The more I thought about it, the more I felt this episode wasn’t deserving of it.

The whole episode hinges on Blossom being uncharacteristically evil and jealous of her sister’s success, to the point where she locks her in a boiler room all so she can be the red-haired warrior woman that she wants. It all just turns into this non-sequitur plot with this Viking woman that doesn’t really do much for me. Erica the Red was more annoying than anything, with her being so tough, butch, and not particularly bright being her only character trait. They do try to throw that moral about not being jealous in there somewhere, and it just feels forced.

I would be remiss to talk about one rather infamous aspect of the episode: the way it uses Jared Shapiro, a new “love interest” character. He seemingly has no other character in most of the episodes he appears in than being the love interest of a girl who is barely past the “boys have cooties” age. While this is not the worst episode with him in it, this is the episode where he’s the creepiest. One example is where Jared attempts to kiss Bubbles right on the lips, and Bubbles shouts for her understudy in apparent horror. That was the big joke to end the episode, and all it did was make me feel queasy even when I pretended to not hate this episode.

Good thing: I did enjoy Ms. Moss a little more here than in Drama Bomb, even if Drama Bomb was better in most ways. Maybe it’s because she isn’t entirely the villain of the plot, even if she was the cause of the problem. The viking problem, not the Blossom jealousy problem.

9. Snow Month

Snow Month: the episode that aired during Winter that explicitly takes place during Spring. Admittedly, they probably needed an episode to air during Christmas time, and there were no Christmas episodes in Season 1. Airing Twas The Fight Before Christmas was not an option. While I could see showing off the original would confuse viewers into thinking this series was good, it certainly would have been better than this episode.

That screenshot shows the truth, this is an episode where Jared is a major player. This was meant to be his very first appearance, though thanks to the mixup, episodes featuring him as Blossom's fantasy boyfriend have already aired. Here, we get to see him outside of Blossom's fantasies, giving her a note asking if she likes him. This utterly terrifies Blossom, and at least sickened me, and she causes a Snow Month to prevent her from seeing him again. To be fair to Blossom, I would want to avoid Jared, too.

There's a subplot involving this titular snow month causing a bunch of yetis to move into Townsville; yetis that act like rich yuppie tourists that openly discriminate against people that aren't their kind. Either that, or they were terrified people that had to leave the Matterhorn because of butthead yetis who destroy buildings. They can't seem to decide if all yetis are bad.

As for the other plot, it just ends with a total cop-out where Jared didn't really mean anything with that note. Throughout the series, no real progress is made with the Jared and Blossom relationship, even when Blossom just outright blurts out that she's in love with him in another episode. Happening to share the name of a certain spokesperson is only one of his problems...and that's the last I'll say about that.

Good thing: There's a cute sledding scene. I just found it cute, and Blossom even uses her powers at one point. It's good.

8. Professor Proofed

We go from one male character I didn't really like to another, and this time it's a character that is trying to be one character from the original. I'm not saying that the original Professor Utonium was an absolutely perfect father figure with no flaws whatsoever, but the reboot's version of him seems to be written more like a Sitcom Dad most of the time.

While he was making a growth ray, Sitcom Dad gets into an accident thanks to his bumbling and dangerous actions. And by bumbling and dangerous actions, I mean Buttercup shook a pepper cloud in his face. Yet, it's his fault, apparently, and he ends up becoming a man in a protective bubble. Sitcom Dad just goes along with all of this, because he decided he's not going to do anything of worth in this episode other than being. He's more of a prop than anything.

That's it, really, the episode is just a one note premise that doesn't do much with it. There's a giant baby caused by that growth ray, but the most they do with him is have him cover Bubbles with spit. If "kids being overprotective of their parents" is the funniest joke ever, this episode does not prove it.

Good thing: There's some decent commentary on inattentive parents. Oh, not from Sitcom Dad, but from the parent of the baby that becomes a giant.

7. Memory Lane of Pain

If you asked me which of the three Reboot Puffs is my least favorite a year ago, I'd say Bubbles. She's the only one that's inconsistent. Some episodes, she's an insufferable brat and/or crybaby. Other episodes, she's impossibly stupid, and not because she's written with child-like naivety. And in this episode, she's written as if she's the most incompetent superheroine alive.

This is one of those "three shorts" episodes, though it's really two and a really lousy ending. Blossom takes on the Rubber Bandit while Bubbles gets destroyed by a Dali dolly bomb, Buttercup takes on Popsicles while Bubbles gets turned into one of those ice cream bars, and Bubbles gets to learn that she's an everyday hero by a bunch of people talking about how she saved kittens and joined barbershop quartets. What?

I get what the ending was supposed to allude to: you don't have to be especially talented or have superpowers to be a hero. The problem is...Bubbles is a superhero. She has definitely been a major factor in saving the day in several episodes before this one. It just wasn't enough for this reboot to stab Bubbles' original voice actress in the heart, they had to stab all of the Bubbles fans in the heart as well, and that's terrible.

Good thing: The way the Rubber Bandit and Popsicles were taken down were pretty cool, and I would think if they were in episodes that weren't meant to be torture for the poor little blue teddy bear, they may have been okay.

6. Buttercup Vs. Math

As much flack as I gave the idea of giving Bubbles the ability to code in Viral Spiral, especially considering this reboot's constant gag of her misspelling words, at least I can argue that Viral Spiral was a decent enough episode to get girls into a STEM field. This episode, at first glance, appears to have the same mission, except instead of Bubbles and programming, it's Buttercup and mathematics. After watching this, I grew to appreciate Viral Spiral a lot more.

In this episode, we see Buttercup has a knack for math, testing herself into honors math. This gets her the disdain of people she considered her friends, even more jealousy from one of her sisters, and she has to hang out with nerd stereotypes that would make Urkel disgusted that call her a "math queen". It's no wonder Buttercup spends the entire episode fighting against this trait that's just forced upon her. This is the exact opposite of Viral Spiral; it makes math look like something only for super nerds, and people interested in math should be ashamed of themselves.

A special focus should be put on how they treated Blossom in this episode. In Viral Spiral, Blossom was glad to see Bubbles getting into coding. Here, it's A Star Is Blossom times 100, as she gets angry at the thought that the "muscle" of the group tested into honor's math and she did not. In the end, Blossom tries to take on the math-based villain, and ends up getting turned into a literal zero. That's it, really. Only at the very end does this episode give Math the respect it deserves, and it's so tacked on that I wonder if it was all meant to be a gigantic joke. If it was, it was not funny.

Good thing: The battle scene does at least give a good lesson about math: don't just take it all in at once, simplify it! Also, they did a joke involving decapitating Barry. Not that I hate Barry, far from it, but the fact that they even did anything like that is surprising.

5. Horn, Sweet Horn

Bubbles finds a new BFF, a horse with a cardboard tube on his head named Donny. While most horses just whinny, this horse can whine. He can whine about how while the horn he had was mere cardboard, he knows that inside, he's a bonafide unicorn. Since Bubbles really wants to be friends with a unicorn, she takes this wanna-be corn to the lab and tells the Professor to change him with his transmogrification ray so he can fulfill his dreams. Everything goes downhill after that.

With this talk about being a unicorn inside, Sitcom Dad warning Donny that it's his body and it's a serious choice, and a line about "adolescent self discovery" later in the episode, some may believe that this episode was meant to be a gender identity allegory. In fact, that was said to be the case in an interview with the two directors of the show. If that was the case, maybe having that transmogrification ray turn him into an out of control monster was not the best idea. To be fair, one of the writers had come out and said that the allegory wasn't intentional, though they decided to wait until after everyone shared their disgust with this episode to say that it wasn't.

Donny is just a terrible character all around, and he will prove it even more in another episode. Hint, hint. In this one, all he does in this episode is whine. Wah, I'm not a unicorn. Wah, science ruined me. Wah, I hate you for doing this, Bubbles. Slap. Wah, what have I done. The ending is ridiculous as well; it turns out that Donny's hair was hiding a horn this whole time. If I had a horn on my head, I would certainly feel it even if my hooves couldn't reach it.

In the end, Bubbles gets a horn that will summon him, which she will never use. Sadly, it turns out Donny can just barge in at any time without it. Oh well.

Good thing: A coalition of unicorns could have led to more interesting stories. I am really stretching for positives with this episode in particular; the only reason why it's even this high up is that it just didn't offend me as much as the next four.

4. Once Upon A Townsville

The Powerpuff Girls try to make a stereotypical Disney-esque princess into a superhero, something she is clearly not, and, in the end, they learn the lesson that people should accept each other for what they are. On paper, that doesn't sound like a bad episode, but the way this episode handles it is just questionable to say the very least. Simply put, this episode is about the Powerpuff Girls saving a princess from putting herself in grave danger, and they're considered the bad guys.

There's even a whole montage of her putting herself in grave danger, and except for one scene, it's more disturbing than funny. In the end, the episode seems to give the Powerpuff Girls a stern lesson over their actions in this episode, as if they were in the wrong for saving her from what are essentially suicide attempts! What were they supposed to do, let her die? I'm all for letting girls be themselves, but there is a limit to that.

At least they got into the Disney-esque spirit by making this one a musical, and one of the songs, otherwise a complete ripoff of Missy Elliot's Work It, has a Buttercup beatbox solo featuring stock images of the elderly. I wondered if it was meant to be a joke about how these old characters are desperately trying to be hip to the youth that this reboot is supposed to be for.

Oh, Once Upon A Townsville, if only there was someone who loved you. Well, the Emmys did, as they gave this one this reboot's only Emmy nomination. Sometimes, the Emmys are wrong. Either that, or Cartoon Network should have submitted a different episode.

Good thing: I kind of liked the joke where Buttercup keeps swapping away all of the poisoned apples. At least those only put princesses to sleep.

3. Painbow

Here it is, this reboot's most infamous episode. Clips of this episode became infamous overnight, and everyone seems to agree that this is the episode that shows how bad the Powerpuff Girls reboot truly is. While I disagree with the notion that this is the absolute worst, I cannot disagree that this episode deserves to be on this list. The episode involves the Powerpuff Girls having to stop a rainbow that causing everyone to be unnecessarily happy...except them, because they ate anti-mind-control pineapples. Better explanation than the nothing they give in the episode itself.

This all leads to the worst minute in reboot history. While this show's rainbow dimension sears anyone's eyes slightly harder than an episode of Problem Solverz, we get Blossom referencing the "literally can't even" meme of the early 2010s right after hearing Bubbles say "OMG, yas!". Not too long later, we get the scene that most people think about when they think about PPG 2016.

The twerk scene. To be honest, I think people are really overselling this scene. It's bad, it's uncomfortable, and it dates the show, sure, but there's a lot more to hate about this episode. The animation errors that are even more numerous in this episode, Sitcom Dad in a speedo, the fact that Allegro is just a bad Him wannabe, I could go on far longer than I did in my initial review.

There is supposed to be a moral about how there's a time to be serious and a time to be funny, and we know this because Buttercup outright blurts it out near the end of the episode. It's easy to be distracted from that, considering everything else. It's a bad episode that is worthy of the first Disgusted Buttercup. However, it's not the worst episode of Season 1.

Good thing: The way Buttercup punches out Allegro in the end is pretty well animated by reboot standards.

2. Odd Bubbles Out

No, this is the worst episode of Season 1. Because they just knew Horn Sweet Horn was going to be a huge hit, they just had to make another episode featuring this not-so-lovable hell horn, and this one is worse in every possible aspect. The episode involves Donny getting together with Bubbles, even down to going to school with her. Nobody questions why a unicorn is walking around with them, but I can ignore that. He then makes a brand new friend named Chelsea, which makes Bubbles really, really angry because how dare he make another friend. Not to say that there are other reasons, of course.

If I were to give Horn, Sweet Horn one thing; at least I know who was the most annoying character in that episode. Donny just hangs out with Chelsea off-screen, not even talking to Bubbles and treating her like she's not as cool. Bubbles is acting like some crazy ex-girlfriend over Chelsea even existing; it's as if Donny should only have her, and she makes no effort in joining in any of the activities Donny is doing. Maybe the idea was that neither Donny nor Bubbles were in the right, but all this really does is give me an episode where nobody was likable.

...and then Chelsea turned out to be an evil robot made by this show's version of Mojo Jojo, all so Bubbles can look good treating her like an irredeemable enemy. Kind of funny how the "silly monkey with the silly hat" that I call Discount Jojo for various reasons hasn't even appeared in this list until now. Most of his worst moments just aren't in the absolute worst episodes, it seems.

Good thing: ...and honestly, his plan in this episode isn't one of his worst moments at all. Making a fake robot friend was one of the better Discount Jojo plans. Such a shame it was wasted on this episode.

Dishonorable Mentions:

Hustlecup - No episode from Season 3 made the Bottom 10, but that's not to say that Season 3 didn't have any stinkers. In fact, this episode would have been the number 11 pick if I went that far. A sports episode where the sports parts are written very poorly, an ending that does not make sense, and a waste of what should have been a special appearance by one of the Gorillaz.

Quarantine - Quarantine was practically a blank check for what could be a really funny episode: Mojo Jojo and the Powerpuff Girls stuck in a room together. If only it was the actual Mojo Jojo, and the Powerpuff Girls didn't just relegate themselves to just constantly beating him up. It's just a painful episode all around, and could also be a good candidate for a #11.

The Wrinkle-Gruff Gals - Hey kids! Are you being bullied for being different? Why not follow their advice and try being different? I was way too easy on this one.

Tiara Trouble: In theory, an episode that involves the villains participating in a talent show should be a laugh riot. It's too bad most of the jokes are, "tee hee, what if they were dressed in women's clothing?" Also, it gave us the infamous Bubbles No Me Gusta face, which is up there with the you-know-what scene from Painbow.

Presidential Punchout - A really bad version of Impeach Fuzz. The only good thing about this episode is that it shows a universe where the most sane candidate could win an election. If only, if only.

Halt and Catch Silico - The most interesting villain that the reboot managed to cooked up is tarnished by this episode, as we get to hear his very confusing and laughable even in-universe origin story. Anyone's imaginations could have done better; they may as well have kept it a secret forever.

Huh, confusing and laughable origin stories, what does that remind me of? Admittedly, including this episode is a little against the second rule for this list, as it is just one part of a multiple-part special. However, it has certain unique and horrific traits about it that really puts it over the edge. And that episode is...

1. Bliss Reminisce

As a whole, The Power of Four wasn't bad. It had a solid opening, a slightly-less-solid ending, and a rather boring middle part that could have been cut down by an episode. Oh, and there's this part. There is so much I could say about this episode's flaws that I could make a top 10 just of the worst parts in it. In fact...I'll do it right now!

The Top 10 Reasons Why Bliss Reminisce Is The Worst Episode of PPG 2016:

This is more in hindsight, but out of the entire series, this is the only time in the entire reboot that Chemical X is ever mentioned in the episodes themselves. Such an important item in this series, and it's never used outside of what is essentially a joke in this episode.

Discount Jojo adds basically nothing to Bliss' origin story. They could have at least explained that Bliss was the inspiration for him pushing the Professor into the Chemical X, but we don't even get that. All it adds is that Jojo was Bliss's only friend at one point, which has at least one negative connotation.

That face Jojo makes in the middle of the episode, complete with stock image eyes and lips. Eugh.

Her name isn't just Bliss, it is Blisstina Franchesca Francis Mariam Alicia Utonium. Even disregarding that overly long names is a trope associated with overly idealistic fan characters, what the hell is a Blisstina? I know what a blossom, bubbles, a buttercup, a bunny, and a bullet are, but there is no such thing as a blisstina. They could have just stuck with Bliss.

Sitcom Dad is kind of a jerk to the other three throughout this whole episode, which clashes with his appearance in the last episode. There's sort of a reason for this, and I'll get to it a little bit later in the list.

Discount Jojo wants to tell his side of the story, but the Powerpuff Girls make him skip over the whole pushing Sitcom Dad into the chemicals part. I can't help but think this was done to not ruin that "great joke" that appears later in this list, but it also makes me wonder if they were even aware of one of the biggest reasons for Jojo being their arch-nemesis.

Sitcom Dad promising that he'll never leave Bliss, and, a few seconds later, he has to leave to get an reward for "best ham"! Sitcom Dad, everyone!

He even dares to say that Bliss is his favorite of all of his creations, despite ignoring her existence for the past 5 years or however long its been since the Powerpuff Girls were created. Again, seems to be a trope associated with overly idealistic fan characters.

We do learn that Bliss is made from Chemical W. That's fine, it gives an explanation to how she has so many powers that the Powerpuff Girls don't have. What I can't accept is that we learn that he not only accidentally knocked into a vat of Chemical W, but every Chemical from A to V as well! There is no indication whatsoever that this wan't just inspired by someone saying, "Chemical X, what about Chemical A through W, wakka wakka!"

Oh, that whole Professor Utonium making the Powerpuff Girls because he wanted a family, or being inspired by an incident involving time travel? No, silly, it's because he was envious of another scientist who did the same thing! The Reboot Puffs were made out of envy, really good to know. That scientist and her creation will never become important, ever; she's just there to take credit and decency away from the man they dare to call Professor Utonium.

Oh, and I didn't like it.

Good thing: It would be impossible to do a top 10 best things about this episode, but there is a mediocre joke involving a garage door that almost made my constant frown at this episode disappear.

With bad episodes like these, why did I continue to watch the show? I would say it's my job, but I didn't really get paid for this. Turns out, there are some okay to even, gasp, good episodes of this show. Episodes that actually made me happy that I did this experiment. I certainly would have never experienced them if I decided to quit watching the reboot after Season 1, which was my initial plan.

In the end, I felt it deserves to be its own article. See you tomorrow for The Best.

← Sideline Dad ☆ The Final Stack-Up (The Best) →

#fpb ppg 2016 #fpb reviews #ppg 2016 #powerpuff girls #cartoon network

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gffa · 6 years ago

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There are a lot of STAR WARS novels out there and that’s a really great thing, I would honestly be happy reading 90% nothing but SW books, given how good they are! But it can be a lot to navigate and sometimes you just want to know if one is worth putting at the top of your To Read list or not! SO HERE��S SOME CRYING ABOUT SW BOOKS. BECAUSE THEY ARE SO GOOD. STAR WARS NOVELS RECS: ✦ The Legends of Luke Skywalker by Ken Liu, luke & ocs, 432 pages As a cargo ship rockets across the galaxy to Canto Bight, the deckhands on board trade stories about legendary Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker. But are the stories of iconic and mysterious Luke Skywalker true, or merely tall tales passed from one corner of the galaxy to another? ✦ From a Certain Point of View by [various authors], a new hope cast, 496 pages Every scene is told from the point of view of a background character. Whether it’s the X-wing pilots who helped Luke destroy the Death Star or the stormtroopers who never quite could find the droids they were looking for, Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View places the classic movie in a whole new perspective. ✦ Star Wars Propaganda: A History of Persuasive Art in the Galaxy by Pablo Hidalgo, entire cast, 112 pages Whether it’s a Star Destroyer hovering over a planet or an X-wing delivering a message of resistance, propaganda images have become synonymous with life in the galaxy far, far away. This in-world art book explores the creation and stories behind these images of power and persuasion. ✦ The Last Jedi: Cobalt Squadron by Elizabeth Wein, rose & page & leia & cast, 224 pages New characters from The Last Jedi, including mechanic Rose Tico and her gunner sister Paige, get the chance to shine in this hardcover adventure. ✦ Forces of Destiny: Daring Adventures, Volume 1, Volume 2, The Rey Chronicles, The Leia Chronicles by Emma Carlson Berne, rey & leia & padme & ahsoka & sabine & cast, ~120 pages each The choices we make, the actions we take, the moments–both big and small–shape us into forces of destiny. ✦ Episode I Journal: Anakin Skywalker by Todd Strasser, obi-wan & anakin & padme & qui-gon & cast, ~112 pages My name is Anakin Skywalker. This is my story. ✦ The Last Jedi: Expanded Edition by Jason Fry, rey & luke & leia & kylo & poe & finn & rose & cast, 336 pages From the ashes of the Empire has arisen another threat to the galaxy’s freedom: the ruthless First Order. Fortunately, new heroes have emerged to take up arms—and perhaps lay down their lives—for the cause. ✦ Star Wars: The Last Jedi: A Junior Novel by Michael Kogge, rey & luke & leia & kylo & poe & finn & rose & cast, 208 pages A junior novel retelling of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, with deleted and extended scenes, as well as exclusive scenes you won’t find anywhere else featuring Rey, Chewbacca, R2-D2, Finn, and more! ✦ Star Wars Psychology: Dark Side of the Mind by Travis Langley + others, luke & leia & anakin & obi-wan & yoda & cast, 320 pages This essay collection offers a fascinating psychological analysis of the compelling and complex universe of George Lucas’s richly rendered Star Wars series. A group of expert contributors examines such topics as family ties, Jedi qualities, masculinity, girl power, and the values embodied in both the “dark” and “light” sides of this psychologically spellbinding world. ✦ Last Shot by Daniel José Older, han & lando & cast, 368 pages It’s one of the galaxy’s most dangerous secrets: a mysterious transmitter with unknown power and a reward for its discovery that most could only dream of claiming. But those who fly the Millennium Falcon throughout its infamous history aren’t your average scoundrels. ✦ Most Wanted by Rae Carson, han & qi'ra & cast, 348 pages Han and Qi'ra don’t have a lot in common other than not having a lot. They’re street kids on the industrial planet Corellia, doing whatever it takes to get by, dreaming of something more. full details + recs under the cut!

STAR WARS NOVELS RECS: ✦ The Legends of Luke Skywalker by Ken Liu, luke & ocs, 432 pages As a cargo ship rockets across the galaxy to Canto Bight, the deckhands on board trade stories about legendary Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker. But are the stories of iconic and mysterious Luke Skywalker true, or merely tall tales passed from one corner of the galaxy to another? If you’ve checked out my tumblr, you’ll know I’ve done a fair amount of blogging about this book and one of the reasons it hit me so hard is that it came at exactly the right time I needed it, when The Last Jedi was coming out and I really craved some good Luke Skywalker characterization. I’ve always enjoyed his character, but this book really hit exactly the right notes for me in a way that was above and beyond what I expected! It’s a canon novel, but the way it’s told–as a handful of people telling second or third hand stories about Luke–means you can’t take everything quite at face value, but some of them are so Luke Skywalker that I could have cried with how well Ken Liu gets the character. All of the stories are at least reasonably fun to read, but “Fishing the Deluge”, “I, Droid”, and “Big Inside” are the three stellar stories that capture the heart and spirit of who Luke Skywalker is. The main theme is Luke going around the galaxy, learning about it and the Force, trying to uncover lore about the Jedi after it was lost, and getting into adventures along the way. There’s a ton of great detail in there, some things that connect to other stories (the fishing he learns on Lew'el that we see in TLJ, the compass that’s been making appearances in various bits of Star Wars), as well as we get to see other cultures’ connections to the Force as Luke interacts with them and learns more. But it’s really that he’s so good and kind and noble, that he’s eager to learn and yet has such a strong sense of self, that he’s bright and brilliant and so very Jedi. It gave me so many feelings about how the Jedi’s spirit absolutely lives on through Luke here, as well as just plain gave me feelings about the character himself! It’s one of the absolute must-reads for those who are looking for anything with his character or to feel better if TLJ disappointed you, because this shows that Luke’s life wasn’t all misery. There is so, so much joy to be found here, especially in those three stories. (As well as some great Luke & Artoo friendship moments that had me crying over them again!) ✦ From a Certain Point of View by [various authors], a new hope cast, 496 pages Every scene is told from the point of view of a background character. Whether it’s the X-wing pilots who helped Luke destroy the Death Star or the stormtroopers who never quite could find the droids they were looking for, Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View places the classic movie in a whole new perspective. I will warn ahead of time that not every story in this collection worked for me, that probably half of them were ones I could have done without reading (though, only a handful were ones I felt weren’t worth the time), but that’s a very, very subjective thing–any stories I haven’t liked I’ve heard from people who did love them!–and the ones that I did love? I love so much that I would have read this book just for them. The whole concept is a really neat one, where it’s 40+ different authors taking on different points of view from the various characters of ANH, whether a Stormtrooper or a mouse droid or a bartender or a bounty hunter or a familiar Jedi, all who add something to the tapestry around the movie that started it all. Some of them are just intriguing, some of them made me laugh out loud, some of them made me think, but all of them combined together to really make me feel like this was a living, breathing galaxy of actual size! But, yes, my favorites were the Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and Yoda stories, because they come the closest to the heart of the story, because they bridge the gap between the OT and my beloved prequels, because they are the one with the strongest sense of character. I have spent so much time talking about those three stories especially on tumblr because they’re richly written and have a ton of little details for me to pull out and Obi-Wan’s point of view, how his life and his death are so defined by his love for Anakin and Luke, how Qui-Gon looks over on Obi-Wan and where he’s at just before the movie starts, his views on all that have happened and what’s coming, Yoda’s story with the little things he kept with him (I DID NOT AS FOR FROG GRANDPA FEELINGS LIKE THIS) and what he can feel from Anakin when Obi-Wan dies. All of it is so, so worth picking up to read and crying over! But also, for real, read the Motti chapter, because I fuckin’ cried during that one, I laughed so hard. It’s the most glorious thing I have ever witnessed in my life. But also-also read the whole thing! Breha’s story is heartbreaking, the Wedge chapter was actually really engaging and exciting, the Beru story is weird and artsy and I really liked it, etc. There’s a lot that’s just really, really cool here and stuff you might not get anywhere else in Star Wars! ✦ Star Wars Propaganda: A History of Persuasive Art in the Galaxy by Pablo Hidalgo, entire cast, 112 pages Whether it’s a Star Destroyer hovering over a planet or an X-wing delivering a message of resistance, propaganda images have become synonymous with life in the galaxy far, far away. This in-world art book explores the creation and stories behind these images of power and persuasion. I did not expect to ever get something like this or for it to be so incredibly fantastic, it’s exactly what I wanted, where it’s an in-universe meta book about the history of art as propaganda which is used to show the course of the plot from the Rise of the Empire era all the way to the First Order era. It sounds like a bit of a flimsy premise to stretch so far, but it’s really more that the art is the lens through with the book is telling the entire galactic history over those ~60 years of time, so you get all this history and reference and context about how things came to be. You get a sense of how the Clone Wars came across to the public, you get the sense of how the Republic failed the people it was supposed to represent and protect, you get a sense of how the Jedi were victim to this terrible war, you get a sense of how the Empire came across to the public, you get a sense of what the Galactic Civil War was like, you better understand the First Order. It’s a book told through the perspective of art history, how that swayed opionin, but it’s so much more than that, it’s a history of the GFFA. I originally read the digital version, but then loved it so much that I also had to go buy the physical copy of the book (which looks really gorgeous in a way the digital version doesn’t quite match) because it balances being like an actual relic from the GFFA with being a great Star Wars merchandise book. I love that it’s structured the way it is, like I’m reading actual in universe essays and history papers, but also it’s coming from an author who is one of the best people at keeping the history of the GFFA in view and so it’s great on that front as well. It’s a book that I had a hard time putting down because it’s just so well done and so cool and so informative and actually gave me a lot of feelings (let me cry about all the Clone Wars-era stuff it gave us!!) and is one of my favorites out of everything I’ve read from LF. ✦ The Last Jedi: Cobalt Squadron by Elizabeth Wein, rose & page & leia & cast, 224 pages New characters from The Last Jedi, including mechanic Rose Tico and her gunner sister Paige, get the chance to shine in this hardcover adventure. I listened to the audiobook version of this one and I really recommend that way if you can, because Kelly Marie Tran narrates it and she does an absolutely fantastic job! This is another book I recommend if you want to have greater context for The Last Jedi, if you want more of Rose’s character, or you just want more Star Wars stories with female-centric stories! It’s not super plot heavy, the action is pretty standard, but it’s a great look at the characters, including some really lovely Leia moments, it’s a great look at the relationship between Paige and Rose, to give context to why Rose is so devastated by her loss in TLJ and why Rose has the views she has, given her history, and it��s a great way to care more about them, to feel like there’s more depth to them than the movie had time for. It also brings in some more context to just what exactly is happening with the First Order and so I liked it for filling in detail in that sense, too! But mostly it’s just a really, really good Rose Tico story and I adored it for that. ✦ Forces of Destiny: Daring Adventures, Volume 1, Volume 2, The Rey Chronicles, The Leia Chronicles by Emma Carlson Berne, rey & leia & padme & ahsoka & sabine & cast, ~120 pages each The choices we make, the actions we take, the moments–both big and small–shape us into forces of destiny. I’m going to collect these books together because they’re all pretty similar to each other–they’re largely just retellings of the Forces of Destiny shorts, with occasional bits and pieces of extra moments added. There’s not a lot that’s added for character insight (of the ones out so far, the Rey ones are the best, I found the most to be excited about there–though, the Sabine one had some stellar lines about her and Ketsu!) or things that will surprise if you’ve already seen the shorts, but I did enjoy reading them! They’re very cute and would be great for younger readers or those who just want something cute and fun to read that won’t take a lot of time. There are also audiobooks (which I haven’t listened to) if you’d rather, and it’s all just a really cute, fun line-up that, while I wish they were telling more stories instead of the same ones over and over (though, the comics have more stories, which is fantastic!) they’re adorable and fun. ✦ Episode I Journal: Anakin Skywalker by Todd Strasser, obi-wan & anakin & padme & qui-gon & cast, ~112 pages My name is Anakin Skywalker. This is my story. I wanted to wait until I’d read more of this series to write up a review of them, but honestly they’ve been dropped down on my list of things to read, because I was hoping for some interesting character insights, but they’re really aimed more at young readers who just saw the movie and wanted to read it in novel form, so there’s not much that’s really new here, not much character insight or any added scenes. There are some cute Anakin/Padme moments, there was one moment that seemed to maybe imply that Anakin Force-whammied his mother without even realizing it, and one really nice Obi-Wan&Anakin moment at the end, but even with those, I struggled to find moments to talk about. Not because it’s bad, but because it’s a really, really straightforward retelling of the movie, just from the first person pov. But that’s what it’s meant to be, so it achieves what it sets out to do! Just that it wasn’t what I was looking for, unfortunately. ✦ The Last Jedi: Expanded Edition by Jason Fry, rey & luke & leia & kylo & poe & finn & rose & cast, 336 pages From the ashes of the Empire has arisen another threat to the galaxy’s freedom: the ruthless First Order. Fortunately, new heroes have emerged to take up arms—and perhaps lay down their lives—for the cause. My judgement of novelizations is largely based on the Rogue One book that really contributed a ton to my understanding of Jyn Erso’s characterization, that it gave depth to understanding her motivations and insight into how she thought, in a lot of ways it recontextualized her character in a really, really good way for me. So, my definition of what makes a novelization stellar is when it can do that for me, which most of them don’t. That doesn’t make them bad novelizations! And this one is perfectly functionable, it tells the story and adds small bits of character motivation here and there (nothing earth-shattering, though, nor does it fix some of the logic gaps I found TLJ to have) and I certainly had a ton to say about all those little differences on tumblr, especially because it was a good way to basically liveblog my feelings about the movie as well. There are moments where I think the book did well (adding the moment of Luke and Rey dancing or Rey realizing in her thoughts that Snoke is just trying to manipulate her), but other times it highlights just how much chemistry the actors brought to the roles to make things fun (I think this is especially true for Finn, but the Luke and Leia scene felt much stronger in the movie, too) because the scenes read as very straightforward and plain. The prose is solidly readable, I never had trouble picking up the book and sliding right back into reading it, but neither does it elevate the story. There are lots of little details, fun shout-outs to various other bits of canon, and the gaps there (like the vagueness in referring to “their allies” in the Outer Rim without specifics) are often the fault of the structure of the sequels (ie, you can’t reveal too much because they’re always saving it in case the next movie wants to use it), but it is on display here. It’s a book for fans who like novelizations, who like little bits of trivia or brief moments of cool additions (I’m not knocking this type of fan, this is exactly the type of fan I am!), but otherwise it’s about 95% a straightforward retelling of what was on the screen. ✦ Star Wars: The Last Jedi: A Junior Novel by Michael Kogge, rey & luke & leia & kylo & poe & finn & rose & cast, 208 pages A junior novel retelling of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, with deleted and extended scenes, as well as exclusive scenes you won’t find anywhere else featuring Rey, Chewbacca, R2-D2, Finn, and more! My feelings about this novelization are basically the same as the expanded novelization of TLJ–there are a handful of things to pull out that are interesting to talk about (and, boy, have I!) but that 95% of it is still a straightforward retelling of the movie. It’s a perfectly functional junior novelization and I have absolutely no regrets about reading it, because I like reading novelizations and I enjoy hunting down those handful of things that are different. But also I was at a point in time where I wanted to have something to pull out my TLJ thoughts, to give them structure, so much of the enjoyment I got out of this was an active blogging about it, rather than enjoying it as a passive read, which I don’t think it would be as strong for. What I mean is–if you’re reading this book to liveblog it, I think it gains something, because there are jumping off points to talk about! But if you’re looking for a book that will fill in the gaps that you felt TLJ had or to recontextualize the story for you, this isn’t going to do that, it’s a direct retelling aimed at young readers. I do have some characterization caveats (most of them can be explained as unreliable narrators, though) but I did feel that the Kylo Ren characterization skewed too hard towards evil in the wrong way, that he laughed at things he should have been conflicted about, that he didn’t care about things he obviously did, etc. It felt like the author really hated the character and that bled through to the writing, so he was off or else it was written based on only the script and assumed things that later were given a different kind of depth by Driver. It’s not anywhere near enough to ruin the book for me, but it did feel like something was missing–however, reading it at the same time I was reading the adult novelization, switching off between the two, it was really kinda cool to see the way they each seemed to trade off points of view. If one book got the Rey pov, the other got the Kylo pov. If one book got the Finn pov, the other got the Rose pov. Given that each book didn’t have that much new material, it helped feel like it fleshed things out and made a bit more of a complete picture. So, do I recommend this book? Depends on what you’re getting it for, honestly. ✦ Star Wars Psychology: Dark Side of the Mind by Travis Langley + others, luke & leia & anakin & obi-wan & yoda & cast, 320 pages This essay collection offers a fascinating psychological analysis of the compelling and complex universe of George Lucas’s richly rendered Star Wars series. A group of expert contributors examines such topics as family ties, Jedi qualities, masculinity, girl power, and the values embodied in both the “dark” and “light” sides of this psychologically spellbinding world. I wasn’t sure what I was going to get when I picked up this book, what kind of essays, what kind of focus, what kind of writing it would be. But I got caught up in it pretty early and found that I just enjoyed the absolute hell out of the various topics, that it fit with a lot of how I viewed Star Wars, but as seen through much more professional lenses. There are essays around various topics, looking at various characters (but the usual ones are those that get the most focus, of course), things like how Anakin Skywalker’s nueroses led and inform his actions as Darth Vader, what the Jedi teachings say about how to handle various situations, the way role models influence us as we grow up, etc. Some of them are more generalized looks at topics or groups, some of them get much more specific (the Anakin ones are my favorites and felt very in line with the way I see him, especially as someone who is haunted by anxieties), but all of them are well laid out, well explained, and may be just the foundations of various psychology aspects, but are fascinating for it. I wound up quoting a lot of the book (and will probably quote a lot more over time) because it does a great job of explaining things, like why Jedi mindfulness is a really good thing, why faith and religion can be so helpful for us, depending on our motivatons for it, why having a role model like Leia Organa was so important, why Luke’s journey is set up the way it is, why the Sith are not actually a stable force, etc. It’s a great place to start if you want to learn a bit about psychology through the lens of Star Wars OR a great place to go if you want to read about Star Wars through the lens of psychology, as well as that it’s clear that a lot of thought has been given to the characters and what George Lucas was putting into the story, so that one flows really well into the other and back again. It’s a great book to read and a really great look at the whys of behavior and meaning to us as complicated humans. ✦ Last Shot by Daniel José Older, han & lando & cast, 368 pages It’s one of the galaxy’s most dangerous secrets: a mysterious transmitter with unknown power and a reward for its discovery that most could only dream of claiming. But those who fly the Millennium Falcon throughout its infamous history aren’t your average scoundrels. I have a lot of conflicted feelings about this book, because there’s a lot it really did wonderfully well, but a lot that was ultimately really unsatisfying. My two biggest problems are the tone of the book (there’s a lot of meme-speak that feels off for a galaxy far, far away) and the way Han and Lando seem to really lack any thought of how their significant others have internal worlds of their own. What I mean is that Lando is getting ready to Maybe Settle Down For Real, but Kaasha is someone we know practically nothing about, we learn almost nothing about her or have Lando think about what her wants and desires are. Whenever he thinks about her, it’s about how he feels about her. The same is true of Han with Leia–it’s not until three fourths of the way through the book that there’s anything touching on what Leia is going through that’s entirely her own, rather than it being about Han. Previous to that, all of Han’s thoughts about Leia are about her understanding him, her reading between the lines of his terrible way of expressing himself, her packing his bag because she knows he needs to go, her comforting him about his fears on being a terrible father. He misses his family, but there’s little sense of them that’s beyond being extensions of his character. To a degree, that’s fair enough, this is a book about Han (and Lando), but we can tell that Leia clearly does have her own world (she’s rushing off to meetings for the New Republic, she’s mourning Alderaan, she’s probably still dealing with the blow about Vader being her bio-father) and clearly thinks about Han’s internal world, but he doesn’t do the same for her even within his own thoughts. And I’m not sure if he’s meant to come off as that self-centered, despite that he’s genuinely trying to be a good husband and dad! The book does seem to try to say something about various issues, like one of my favorite things is that there’s diversity in gender and body types (there’s an explicitly non-binary character–a dark-skinned nb character!!!!–who is simply part of the narrative, they’re just there, and it’s fantastic, they’re a stellar character, also Lando is clearly attracted to a heavily curvy woman and it’s not a joke, it’s legitimate “that lady is hot” and the narrative agrees, which is also wonderful! and there’s an apperance by a m/m couple who got married!! like, all of this could make me cry from how happy I am to see Star Wars inching its way forward in progress in such wonderful ways!) as well as it seems to touch on the idea of droid rights. But then that doesn’t really go anywhere, it’s brought up and then never really finished. Or there’s a Gungan who is offended that Han thought he spoke with a Gungan accent–is this a commentary on racial stereotypes or a dig at the prequels (as the author definitely had some anti-prequels things to say a few years back) or just a quirky thing to add? How am I supposed to take that, when just a few pages later, there’s a different character with a similarly over the top accent? I’m just never quite sure what this book was trying to say. That said, I’m glad I read it, there’s some really stellar stuff in it–L3 is great, I love that Lando is a fashionista, that he’s dramatic and Extra about it, but in a way that’s delightedly charming and clearly a great thing about him. I loved the brief mentions of baby Ben showing up, there was some SERIOUS cute going on there, but also a great quick peek into what his early life was like, how he was difficult, but still such a sweet kid at that point, how loved he was. I loved “Uncle Wanwo”, like, holy shit, worth the book right there! I was absolutely delighted that there was a very strong sense of this being placed in the Star Wars galaxy, from droids to aliens to planets to tech, it was recognizable (though, I could have done without almost all the aliens being described as ugly), and the plot was a solid action chase plot. Ultimately, while I find it easier to talk about the things that didn’t work for me (but isn’t that often the case with most people?) I don’t want to discourage people from reading this, because I’m genuinely glad I read it, I thought there was a lot of good stuff here and I really enjoyed getting to see Lando, who was still a gambler and a bit of a scoundrel, but with the good heart he’s always had. That there’s progress made on giving him character depth! That Han genuinely struggled with having a family and how to deal with that, that it doesn’t do a disservice to that part of his character or that he genuinely loved them and wanted to be there with them and support them. There was a lot done to make these characters more relatable and human, which goes a very long way with me, so I’m glad to have gotten this book and I’d love to see more about Han and Lando again! I also plan to listen to the audiobook after seeing the Solomovie, as I think more familiarity with the updated versions of the characters might help, but even without that, I thought this was a solid read I’m glad to have gotten! ✦ Most Wanted by Rae Carson, han & qi'ra & cast, 348 pages Han and Qi'ra don’t have a lot in common other than not having a lot. They’re street kids on the industrial planet Corellia, doing whatever it takes to get by, dreaming of something more. I wish I’d had more time to read the rest of this book before seeing Solo (and I would have swapped the publishing order with Last Shot, but I also recognize that there wasn’t time because the author had other committments that pushed this one back and am totally sympathetic to that) because I think reading the first handful of chapters did an amazing amount to help me with Qi'ra’s character in the movie, as this book dovetails so very well with who she is there. She made perfect sense to me, someone who was genuine about being glad that Han got out, who genuinely had feelings for him and kept those feelings close to her, wasn’t going to betray him if she could at all help it, would have probably died to help him, but also wasn’t going to stay where she was, that she knew shutting the door on the possibility of more was what she had to do. This book really does a fantastic job of showing who these characters are prior to the movie and gives a lot more depth to the opening scenes on Corellia, a lot more meaning to the White Worms and Lady Proxima and just how desperately hungry both Han and Qi'ra were to get the hell off that world. It also does a fantastic job of connecting it to the rest of the GFFA, that there are recognizable aliens amongst the new ones, that there are references to the rest of the galaxy, that this fits with Han feeling isolated in how he grew up yet it’s not unrecognizable as the galaxy we know. So I would have enjoyed the book and recommended it for that alone, but it’s also just a fun book, one of the most enjoyable ones I’ve read of canon! It has a good blend of action with character insight, it very obviously kept the future in mind (working up towards Han’s characterization in ANH especially, what with his saying the Force is a bunch of mumbo jumbo or why he doesn’t join causes, as well as the book felt aware of Qi'ra being similar to Leia, except the more you get to know her, the more she’s not really Leia 2.0 but instead her own character, one that I adored) and yet was legit exciting. I knew things had to work out reasonably well, given that it was set before canon events, but the path to how it would work out, how they’d get out of this seemingly impossible mess (and I loved the how of how it worked out!) to put them in place for the movie, all of that was great. I legitimately cared about these characters, Han was this great character who is smart but somewhat naive even as he’s street smart in other ways, you can’t help but fall for his entirely genuine charms, Qi'ra was wary and closed-off, except she was a person who had respect for others, she had a core of strength that you could feel, no matter how hungry she was, she was someone I hope we get to see more of. And having them run all over Corellia and running up against crime syndicates and droids and rich people who may or may not be truly helping them, all of it was just pure Star Wars fun! One of my faves, especially ones tangent to the Solo movie!

#obi wan kenobi #anakin skywalker #padme amidala #luke skywalker #leia organa #han solo #yoda #rose tico #finn #rey #qi'ra #lando calrissian #ben solo #kylo ren #paige tico #novels #fic recs #long post under the read more

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awwishfulthinking · 6 years ago

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A Look at Galaxy Angel II/3rd Manga Vol. 5

(tumblr why is your image upload function so weird, you either upload things as a tiny image or blow it up so big that it ruins the quality)

If you want to see more of my posts on this manga series, I’ve tagged them with “galaxy angel 2 manga” on my blog.

DISCLAIMER 1: I do not know Japanese at all so a lot of these “summaries” will be based on info I’ve gathered from the translated volumes that were officially released; as well as the Galaxy Angel fan wikia. I don’t claim any sort of plot accuracy in these posts, I merely wanted to give a brief run-down (as best as I can) of what happens in these volumes.

DISCLAIMER 2: I do not want to scan these volumes for fear of damaging the binding, so I’ve only taken photos. I’m not a professional photographer and don’t have a nice fancy camera so these photos are not so great. Due to my work schedule and life stuff that I need to take care of, I don’t have the time to touch these up beyond resizing and cropping them. Sorry.

~Chapter 21~

Volume 5 opens immediately with yet another video transmission sent out by Forte.

In the video transmission, Forte seems to make a reference to a network of satellites called “crust breaker.” They have enough power to completely destroy whole planets; and was the weapon used to take the planet Seldor hostage.

Nano Nano notices something strange about these video transmissions. If the manga is following the game’s storyline on this particular plot point, Nano realizes that Forte has been changing her words in every transmission. Takuto seems to pick up on this too.

The manga then suddenly switches scenes and the entire Luxiole crew is apparently given a short break to visit some hot springs located within the Luxiole. (Yeah, IDEK)

Tequila decides to make things more interesting and uses her magic to cover the entire area in a magical mist that (I assume) allows the people at the hot springs to see the person or thing they desire most. So Apricot and Kazuya end up seeing each other.

Takuto, predictably, gets to see Milfeulle. I have no idea if these are just illusions, or if Tequila was somehow magically able to teleport people temporarily to this place. Chalk it up to *magic* or something.

(anyway, Takuto’s and Milfeulle’s little reunion scene is the cutest thing and they are my OTP so I am biased)

So Lilly gets to meet with Forte (her mentor), Nano gets to meet Vanilla (who she considers a mom), Anise just gets a whole load of gold and treasure, and Tequila/Kahlua...

Get to meet each other.

The magic eventually fades, but everyone is refreshed afterwards and ready for the battle ahead.

~Chapter 22~

We get a brief flashback at the beginning of this chapter, to a time four years in the past. Milfeulle seems to be telling Apricot about the Absolute and the Central Globe.

There is... a lot of text here so I am not 100% sure about what’s happening. But I think Milfeulle is telling Apricot about how the Absolute and Gates to other galaxies work. Milfeulle so far is the only “Gatekeeper” that has been found, which means she’ll have to reside inside the Central Globe (the structure within the Absolute) for an unspecified amount of time in order to keep the Gate between Eden and Neue open.

Apricot is saddened by this, but Milfeulle accepts her fate with a smile.

Back in the present, the Luxiole has neared the planet Seldor. Kazuya and the other Angels set out in their ships and brace themselves in the battle against Forte’s fleet.

Suddenly, a transmission from Forte herself!

She and Takuto converse for a bit, and then it begins:

A full-on battle of might and wits between Takuto and Forte.

Magiic’s forces are also there to help out in the battle. They are led by Ranpha.

I didn’t explain this very well before (as it was already detailed in the officially translated volume 3), but Forte is only playing the villain here because she has her hands tied (figuratively) by some evil higher-up. This higher-up is threatening both her life and the entire existence of planet Seldor, forcing Forte to lead a coup as successfully as possible (under the higher-up’s orders). Forte’s only aiming for such high success because she doesn’t want there to be any possibility of an uprising or rebellion, which would increase casualties.

So anyway, there’s a big space battle against Forte’s own ships, and the Angel-tai are unusually absent from the fighting. But suddenly, they reappear to take out the crust breaker satellites encircling planet Seldor. Forte’s transmissions from before held hidden hints about the locations of these satellites. While Magiic’s fleet was holding off Forte’s forces, the Angel-tai members were working in the background to get close enough to take out the crust breakers.

One of the subordinates of the villain (behind this entire ploy) threatens Forte with a gun once he realizes that Forte was planning for these series of events to happen from the start.

but she’s just like “whatever”

Forte, however, appears to have something else up her sleeve (including a possible escape route).

Anyway, I love Forte, she’s a BAMF

~Chapter 23~

With the crust breakers destroyed, and Forte no longer playing along with his “game,” the main villain reveals his ship and himself to the Luxiole crew.

((I consult the GA fanwikia quite a bit for these next few sections))

Main villain dude is named Verel and he is an alien (he has some sort of wings on his back).

He shows the Luxiole crew a video transmission of himself and Milfeulle, who has apparently been put to sleep. Verel then embarks on a long, villainous monologue where he explains how he’s the last of his kind; and his kind were the original administrators of the Central Core; thus the Central Core and the Absolute belong to him. His desire to stage a coup on all of Neue was really just a part of his bigger plan to acquire the Absolute and become it’s sole ruler.

Takuto calmly asks about Milfeulle and Verel reassures everyone that Milfeulle is still alive and healthy (just asleep for the time being). He then rips a piece of her clothing I guess as a taunt or a threat.

Takuto gets MAD.

Verel then promptly flees, but not without causing some more ship carnage on his way out.

In the meantime, Forte has managed to escape her flagship by using a smaller vessel and is picked up by the Luxiole. There’s a happy reunion with every member of the Angel-tai. (...Except Anise, who has never officially met Forte until now.)

Takuto also personally arrives at the hangar to greet Forte, and there’s a really cute reunion scene.

Afterwards, Takuto calls a big meeting with the Angel-tai, so that he can explain some things.

Before the next big (and potentially final) battle, Takuto allows everyone to take a vacation on a nearby resort planet to rest up. And beach shenanigans ensue.

~Chapter 24~

These next few chapters basically play out like some sort of extended Beach Episode that shows up in a lot of anime, and I am pretty disappointed that this entire segment takes up so much of volume 5 (nearly half the book). These “beach chapters” do attempt to develop the main cast somewhat... but I can’t help but feel that it’s mostly an excuse to have the main girls be in bikinis and for there to be a lot of fanservicey moments.

Anyway...

Chapter 24 opens up with Apricot being suddenly afraid of Kazuya--most likely due to her developing romantic feelings towards him, as well as his swimwear making it more obvious that he’s male.

Some really dumb stuff happens that I don’t want to detail here, but it ends with Kazuya being punched into the sky by Apricot. We then get to see Forte and Ranpha having a convo about... something. (Probably catching up on things since they’ve been separated due to their work)

The other Angel-tai members eventually find out that Apricot’s suddenly real scared of Kazuya. Tequila tries to “help” again using her magic... to turn everyone into mermaids. Except Kazuya, who gets turned into some kind of pufferfish instead.

While in pufferfish form, Kazuya no longer scares Apricot and she’s really happy about this.

BUT SUDDENLY sharks appear and start chasing/attacking the Angel-tai. Apricot and Kazuya get separated from everyone else.

~Chapter 25~

While Apricot and Kazuya are lost at sea (still in their mermaid and fish forms), they’re discovered by a pod of dolphins and are led to some underwater ruins. Unfortunately, the ruins lie on top of a giant whale, which promptly swallows Apricot and Kazuya.

Apricot and (a human) Kazuya reawaken to find themselves on a little island inside of the whale’s stomach. And Tequila is also there... somehow.

The trio quickly find a way to escape, but Tequila notices that Apricot is still utterly afraid of Kazuya and can’t even bear to touch him. So Tequila gets the bright idea to turn Kazuya into a girl (temporarily).

Apricot takes this turn of events... uh. Badly.

Apricot and the now female Kazuya reunite with the rest of the Angel-tai... and they all marvel over/envy Kazuya’s new body.

I have no idea what happens in the next few pages, but Apricot seems to sort of get over her fear of (male) Kazuya by realizing that... there are other men way manlier than Kazuya is, and they scare her far more than Kazuya (with his boyish looks) does.

Uh. Yeah. *shoulder shrug*

~Chapter 26~

We then have a scene change to a later point in time, where Kazuya and Lily are having a secret training session.

All the other Angels are trying the enjoy the rest of their vacation in a relaxed manner.

(I mainly just took this photo because I love Tequila’s and Anise’s outfits and hairstyles.)

No one knows exactly what this “training session” entails. Apricot tries to play it cool and claims that she’s not bothered by it, but she seems spacier than usual...

The Angel-tai’s vacation finally ends. The Luxiole begins heading for the Gate to the Absolute. Some of Verel’s forces are stationed near this area.

Before another big battle, it’s revealed that Kazuya still has dreams about Mimoza. The two have become linked in some way--possibly through Kazuya’s ship, the Braveheart.

The battle against Verel’s fleet begins, and the Angel-tai fly out in their respective ships.

Lily asks Kazuya to merge the Braveheart with her Emblem Frame, the Eagle Gazer. Unexpectedly, Lily then completely blindfolds herself, to the shock of her teammates. She reveals that the “training” she underwent with Kazuya was basically to increase their trust in each other. By smashing watermelons (whilst blindfolded) with a stick, with only Kazuya to guide her; Lily and Kazuya are now able to work in perfect sync.

Or something like that.

Anyway this “training montage” panel is hilarious.

Lily’s completely insane strategy somehow works, and Lily and Kazuya quickly decimate Verel’s forces; clearing a path to the Gate.

Unfortunately, Kazuya and co. can’t celebrate yet; as more of Verel’s forces suddenly emerge from the Gate itself. Verel also apparently seals off the Gate itself, closing the entrance to the Absolute, where the Central Core and Milfeulle reside...

Volume 5 ends here.

Bonus pictures:

At the very end of the manga, we get a rare drawing from Kanan featuring Lester! (He almost looks like a completely different person without his signature eyepatch...)

There’s also a similar drawing featuring Takuto, but my photo of it was bad. So have a photo I found of it somewhere on tumblr instead.

My book also came with a mini postcard thingie. I think it was a bonus for people who bought the volume on release day? It features Lily, Apricot, and Mimolette (drawn by Kanan) and it’s pretty cute.

See y’all next time in the FINAL VOLUME!

#galaxy angel #galaxy angel 2 manga #galaxy angel 2

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