#anyways i started thinking this one up before the newer episodes

[sharkdays]

spinel: passion, devotion, longevity

[cherrytimemachine]

Character Breakdown; Rodimus

Ayeee, it's Prime time!

How I feel about this character: I love him I love him I love him. He's such a depressed mood in G1, and I love the contrast of Hot Rod being his daredevil kid who doesn't take things seriously enough and then him becoming Rodimus Prime and he no longer smiles, he's depressed, his humor is now more sarcastic and dry, and he can't take the crushing weight of the primacy. He doesn't want to be in charge, but he has to, and all he wants is to live up to what Optimus built, but Optimus is such a towering figure compared to him that no matter what he does, he can't match the same feeling people get when they think about Optimus as a leader. He knows he can't be like Optimus, he can't inspire people like Optimus could, so he doesn't try. He gives up before he starts, which is why he doesn't try to be more poised and controlled like Magnus tells him to be. Optimus is so beloved that there's no point in trying to be great because he will never be as great as Optimus, and the meta of kids in the 80s hating Rodimus because he replaced Optimus is a real life example of the narrative around Rodimus Prime.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Magnus. Magnus is my biggie. I don't mind seeing him shipped with Megs in MTMTE, but my favorite will always be G1 Rodimags. They are each other's steady presence. Both of them have doubts about their own capabilities, but the other is always there to reassure and help them along their way when they're struggling. Magnus often chastises Rodimus for his lack of tact in serious situations, but it isn't mean, he simply wants Rodimus to think more before he acts. Magnus himself is a disciplined figure who is a contrast to Rodimus's jump-into-action type thinking, and it's good for both of them to function as the other's opposite to get a well rounded thought process. Anyway this has been a Rodimags propaganda post.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: Arcee and Springer in G1 definitely, and Optimus as his big brother/father figure that he looks up to but struggles to live up to his legacy. His Hot Rod dynamics are silly and sweet, and his Rodimus Prime dynamics are more stunted because he's trying to be the leader they need.

My unpopular opinion about this character: He was really unlikable in the first half of MTMTE. While I found him funny and entertaining at times, he was very self centered and often insulted others or outright ignored their concerns. He gets better when Megatron shows up because they both are forced to accommodate the other's presence when neither of them want to be around each other. Rodimus becomes less impulsive in his decisions and actively apologizes for his previous mistreatment of Drift. Still can't get over just how mean he was to Red Alert in the written portion after volume 4, which I made a whole post about.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I wish that the G1 cartoon took more time to actually wrap up Rodimus's character development in a satisfying way. G1 often has good ideas for a plot narrative, but because the show is supposed to be nothing more than a glorified toy commercial, they often don't treat their ideas with the care and thought that would make them actually matter to the story in the long run. The end of Rodimus's ark is that he just sucks it up and eventually he gladly hands the Matrix back to Optimus, and instead of his pre established depression and self doubt mattering more to his character in later episodes, it gets brushed off for the sake of newer characters being introduced. I did like the Hate Plague episodes, but how it ended really overshadowed all that Rodimus was stacking up to be. His development is rendered null and void by Optimus returning and taking over again. It's like nothing ever happened for Rodimus. He's back to being Hot Rod, and we don't see much of a change in how he behaves due to his experiences. Aside from that, more continuities should incorporate that idea into their versions of Rodimus. It would be great if we could see his ark done well and explore what it means to take on a position when your predecessor is so highly regarded that it's impossible to live up to his image.

[marshallpupfan]

Did you used to have any other favorite shows before Paw Patrol and before Marshall became your number 1 favorite animated character, did you used to have any other favorite characters from any other TV show or movie?

I can certainly name a few favorite TV shows of mine from over the years. Some of these are pretty old nowadays, but I believe they can still be found on streaming services and whatnot.

One that comes to mind right away is "Looney Tunes". The originals, not the newer stuff like "The Looney Tunes Show" or the modern "Looney Tunes Cartoons". These were made back in the 30's, 40's and 50's, and though they released in theaters first, it might as well be considered a TV show nowadays.

In any case, I've been a huge fan of these shorts for as long as I can remember. In fact, I still watch them quite often to this day! Most of them are classics, with a wide variety of wonderful characters, memorable plots, delightful cartoon slapstick and violence, among other things. I don't think I'll ever outgrow them... heck, even my own parents still watch them (we often watch them together, actually).

Here's another I used to watch a ton a long time ago. It's an anime from 2001 called "Digimon Tamers". I practically fell in love with this one as a kid, and I remembered even trying to record every single episode to make sure I'd always have it. One reason behind this is... well, someone I'll talk about later on in this post. Beyond that, I just found the overall story really interesting, especially when compared to the previous two ("Adventure" and "Adventure 02"). It had memorable characters, too. It was just really good all around!

I'll admit, I'm not much for superhero stuff, but Justice League, and its sequel, Justice League: Unlimited, were both so entertaining. I haven't seen the show in numerous years, yet I still think about most of its episodes from time to time. They were just so memorable, thanks to smart and mature writing, numerous moments that still surprise me to this very day, etc. However, I'm not sure I can recommend it to too many of my followers here, since some of you might not like how serious it can get. Here's a good example, if anyone's curious to see what I'm talking about. If you're not bothered by this kind of stuff and/or can look past it, the whole thing's a great watch!

One last one for now, and it's finally something that's not too old! While I haven't seen every season of Regular Show, I thought the first two seasons were simply brilliant. Anyone who's seen this one no doubt remembers "send it to the moon", "summertime lovin', lovin in the summertime", "my mom", among so many other memorable lines and such. I enjoyed it so much, it's one of the few cartoons I tracked down on Blu-Ray (the first two seasons, anyway). It's crazy in all the best ways. Hm, hm, hm!

Now, as for favorite characters...

I'll admit, I've had so many over the years. In fact, at one point, I considered it somewhat of a hobby to keep track of them all and even list them on some of my social media sites (that was some time ago, on accounts unrelated to this one, and said lists no longer exist now). I won't go into all of them, but I can list quite a few!

RJ the raccoon, from Dreamworks' "Over the Hedge". He's just a fun, smooth-talking character who's quite entertaining to watch. He was really high up my list for the longest time, and while that's not so true anymore, I'm still quite the fan of him (and the movie, itself).

Impmon, from the aforementioned "Digimon Tamers". Anyone who's into Digimon certainly knows about him, and how he easily became the show's most complex character. I don't want to spoil everything, since his journey is legit great, but Impmon starts out as someone who's not so friendly, but he slowly warms up to the good guys little-by-little... until something happens that leaves him completely and utterly humiliated. With his ego smashed and desperate for power, he makes a deal with one of the villains, who grants him exactly what he wants, under the condition he goes after the heroes. Despite doing some terrible stuff, he's spared, and he ends up realizing all the horrible mistakes he's made and then tries to do his best to make up for all the harm he's caused. To be honest, my description here really doesn't do him justice, so it's really something you need to check out yourself. Most fans will happily admit it's easily a big highlight of the whole Digimon franchise.

He's arguably one of the best Digimon characters, period. His journey is memorable, and I really found myself rooting for the character and hoping he'd turn out okay in the end. Honestly, he still remains one of my biggest favorites to this day.

Bolt, from Disney's "Bolt". This isn't one of their better movies, but I still think Bolt, himself is pretty darn great... and cute, too. Much like Impmon, I just really liked his journey, from a dog who believed the TV show he starred in was real, to coming to terms with just who and what he really is. Again, I don't wish to spoil it for those who haven't seen it, but it's pretty good... and quite touching, if you ask me. Special shout out to the part when Bolt just takes in life by letting the rain drop on his face for the first time... it's easily a favorite moment of mine, and cemented just how much I came to love the character.

If you haven't seen Bolt, I certainly recommend it! And Bolt, himself... he's a pretty cool pup. A good boy, for sure.

Panchito Pistoles, a Disney character who first appeared in the 1944 animated movie "The Three Caballeros". No doubt some of you might recognize him more from the 2018 "Legend of the Three Caballeros".

There's actually not a whole lot I can say about him, in terms of any sort of character development and whatnot. Truth is, along with his excellent design, I just flat out love this wacky character. He's always so full of energy, and as such, he's just so crazy entertaining. I won't say he's one of the best Disney characters or anything, but he's someone that always gives me a big smile when he shows up.

Hokey Wolf, a character from some really old Hanna-Barbera cartoons. (He's the one on the right, btw.)

I'll admit, most folks probably haven't heard of this character. You won't see him much nowadays, and I think he's only been in the background of a few Jellystone! episodes. Despite that, he's, in my opinion, a rather memorable character, at least in the older cartoons that introduced him. Much like RJ, he's another smooth talker, which in hindsight, seems to be a trait that I like. It just makes characters like him a lot of fun to watch, especially if they can pull off whatever they'd planned. Beyond that, I also really like his design. Admittedly, I took an interest in wolves because of him, and I even thought about getting into making my own animations due to Hokey, too. The character became a bit special to me, I suppose you could say.

Going back to Looney Tunes, many of its characters became favorites of mine, too. The one on the left, Charlie Dog, is the star of some of my favorite shorts, including the one in which he goes on about how great of a dog he is because he's [apparently] numerous breeds in one (50% pointer, 50% boxer, 50% sitter... Irish sitter, 50% watch dog, 50% spits, 50% Doberman Pincher, but he's "mostly" all Labrador Retriever). He's always looking for a master, and though he can be a little too pushy, his attempts at trying to look appealing as "man's best friend" never cease to amuse me.

And then there's Bugs Bunny, who is probably the very first character I ever became a huge fan of. I just love this wascally wabbit, due to his humor, personality, characteristics, design, charm... everything! His cartoons never fail to get a good laugh out of me. Although the stuff he appears in nowadays isn't as good as those classic shorts from way back then, I still say he's easily one of the greatest cartoon characters to ever exist, period. Dude's a legend, peroid.

And I better stop here, before this post gets any longer. lol

[saturday-byte]

Hope this doesn’t bother you a lot, but can we get some headcanons of the teachers? I was curios about ur vision for them

Dw it doesn't bother me !! I love getting asks ^^

Anyway it's going under read more bc this feels like a long one

Sketch

• she/they enby, omnisexual (<- me when I'm projecting)

• mentor figure for the newer teachers

• gives drawings and crafts as gifts, might or might not have various voodoo dolls

• uses Colin as a monitor for digital art

Tony

• he/him, bisexual

• you CANNOT tell me he doesn't drink tea 24/7. Most British mf I have ever seen

• weird hearing, very sensitive to loud sounds but can barely hear normal talking tones. Applies to his own voice too so that's why he screams a lot

• kind of an inferiority complex for the decaying use of clocks over technology lol

Shrignold

• gay and homophobic idgaf

• aware of the harm he's doing but genuinely loves his cult- "family" a lot

• likes telenovelas, granny type of beat

Colin

• he/it Libramasc, pansexual (here I am, projecting once again)

• has haphephobia but is working on it (this one might as well be canon idk)

• everyone has a computer day, so even if you see him every day you only get screentime once a year

• autism 🫵

• his tail is retractable

• has SO MANY viruses, that's why he glitches and talks slow

Healthy band

• doing them all together bc how can you think of them alone :[ don't separate them

• common fanon of them being a family ykn the drill

• their "birthday" (or date of release lol) is actually fridge and steaks anniversary

• depending on the day they either make the most rancid bizarre food or a 5 stars, Gordon Ramsay approved meal

• running on the same luck, fridge can either be filled with normal groceries, nothing (you have to buy groceries) or gore. Like those are his guts leave him alone

• everyone hiding inside fridge is apparently a normal bonding experience

• bread boy is transfem !! (Should we start calling her something different?)

• spinach is also a she/they enby, nobody in here isn't lgbtq

Lamp

• he/him but doesn't really care, pansexual

• has been trying to be sober but he's already very fucked up, that's why he's like That™ in the TV show

• the other teachers we see in his episode are his party friends

• absolutely watches the others dreams, likes to bother them about what they mean

★ ok now the TV show ones

Briefcase

• has an absurd amount of skills, barbie kind of ridiculous

• lives with his brother and sustains them both

• workaholic

• was mr.petersons before red guy

• actually not that bad he's just really fast paced, genuinely just lost the trio on the fabric

Coffin

• he/him goth gf <3

• doesn't like music AT ALL. And is very mean about it

• besties with the tissue box !!

• originally only used his hush tone for work but it slowly morphed into his normal voice

• pretty bad PTSD

• very kind with kids and people in general tbh, it might be something useful for his job but it's just how he is really

Lily and Todney

• I don't think about them a lot sorry

• they know what they are doing and that their whole family dynamic is pretty fucked but they genuinely just really want a mom tho ,,,

Warren the wo-Eagle

• genuinely just hate him so I don't think about him a lot either lol

• had no power over the trio because he was fired and not technically a teacher anymore

• his whole Thing (ykn) comes from bullying and a feeling of inferiority. He still sucks tho

Mr.Transport

• well. I guess I just don't think a lot about the newer teachers

• was actually a really nice teacher before still going to work at 120 years old

• nobody really liked him but he was the other's only way of going outside the house so they endured him

• there was a fight over his will. People died

Electracey

• she/they enby n°3, lesbian

• really scared to touch her batteries now, has caused her to get cranky but still refuse to change them until forced

• puts up light shows for her friends

• huge sci-fi and videogames in general fan

• Colin's cousin. Actually all electronics are related

• wanted to be a music teacher but her biology said no

★ this is more of a general one but all of them are somewhere in the aroace spectrum !! I think it comes with the object nature. I have not defined where all of them fall tho

That's it I think. This is so long I am so sorry I just enjoy them a lot so I have a lot of thoughts

[hils79]

Thanks for tagging me (ages ago I'm sorry I suck) @puppy-phum

-

1. why did you choose your url?

I am so boring I almost want to apologise for it. My url is just my nickname and the year I was born (yes, I am old).

2. any sideblogs? if you have them name them and why you have them.

I don't really use my sideblogs much. I've got one that I haven't used for years that I used to post some of my photography on @hal-photography. I've got one for an old UK convention that folded during the pandemic but that I used to do the marketing for @writerconuk and I've got a whump blog that I use to reblog my favourite whumpy gifs so that they're easy to find. Not sharing that one because I do not wish to be Perceived.

3. how long have you been on tumblr?

My original blog was set up in 2010. I had to nuke it after some unpleasantness in the Supernatural fandom (isn't it always SPN) and I've had this current once since 2011 I think

4. do you have a queue tag?

Nah, I don't queue things as a general rule. I do a bunch of reblogging first thing in the morning while I'm scrolling in bed and that's more or less it

5. why did you start your blog in the first place?

I was looking for a new home after Livejournal finally properly died and most fandom folk were here at that time

6. why did you choose your icon/pfp?

It's a piece of DMBJ art that my housemate comissioned as a Christmas present a couple of years ago. I love it, and it was made specifically for me, so I made it my header and my icon

7. why did you choose your header?

Same as above

8. what’s your post with the most notes?

This RDJ/Paul Bettany exchange I ripped from Twitter. I have no idea why it ended up with 20k notes

9. how many mutuals do you have?

I honestly have no idea. Lots.

10. how many followers do you have?

Argh now I'm going to have to go and look. 2421. Wow.

11. how many people do you follow?

Wow this thing is really exposing me. 1908. I generally follow back so long as I can see that the person is an active fandom blog where we have at least one fandom in common.

12. have you ever made a shitpost?

I mostly shitpost in the tags

13. how often do you use tumblr each day?

Generally for an hour in the morning before I get up and then however long it takes me to liveblog my next drama episode in the evening

14. did you have a fight/argument with another blog once?

No, I don't think so. Not that I can remember anyway. I generally try and avoid conflict and if someone is annoying me I just block them and/or vent about it in a safe space with friends I trust.

15. how do you feel about ‘you need to reblog this’ posts

Makes me less inclined to reblog them tbh. Don't tell me what to do in my own house.

16. do you like tag games?

I am so bad at remembering to do them when I get tagged (see above about only really being on tumblr for an hour a day) but I do appreciate it every time someone thinks of me

17. do you like ask games?

Yeah, same as above. I love them but I am crap at remembering to answer the asks. I'm very sorry.

18. which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

I'm not sure I could name anyone who is tumblr famous beyond the actual celebrities who hang out here (like Lynda Carter)

19. do you have a crush on a mutual?

I have mutuals I admire and wish I was brave enough to talk to more but I wouldn't really call them crushes. As an aroace I don't really do crushes.

20. tags?

I'm going to tag a few of my newer mutuals so I can get to know them a bit better. Absolutely no pressure though @prolestari @queenbeyondthejudge @fangirl-bookaholic @huzzzah @life-is-all-about-perspective @loving-that-officey-feel @greenyball @hwasfeatherduster

[found-family-tournament]

Found Family Tournament Round 1 Part 19 Group 95

Propaganda and further pictures under the cut

Cheer Factory: Goo & Bot

Submissions are still open!

Cheer Factory:

waves at you . hi !!!!! (pastes in my pre made rant and slightly edits and adds onto i

you have NO IDEA how much ‘found family’ energy these two give off (unless yyou do . by coincidence.uhm) like?? they find out theyre on the pink team and BOTH bot and goo shout “YEAHHH,, PINK TEAM !!” in unison . and then they immediately start getting along throughout the show . they are siblings to me they are the duo ever theyre like so silly theyre like two little kids in a trench coat/pos

okay so let me talk about bot first of all bot is . theyre heavily implied to be trans actually NO not heavily implied it’s practically CANON because bot is supposed to be the robot replica of a dead person named bow but later on they say they “aren’t bow” and that they wanna be a different person !!!! in the newer episodes literally when they were drawing what they wanna look like they put they/them on the paper and it was shown ON SCREEN !!!!!/pos/silly and in the new episode they GOT their new look and when they noticed their eyelashes were gone and all the other cool details they got they said “it’s so… me !! :D” ALSO: this small speech they gave

“yknow, lately ive been worried,, if i went by a different name, or maybe even ,, looked a little different.. i wouldnt be me anymore., but you helped me realize that,, no matter what you put out there.. youre still you” UWAHHHHHH/POS okay now goo second of all goo is like the silliest little goofball ive seen on a web series . he dances with PINECONES and makes weird analogies and made a 3 hour film for bot after they came out he did NOT deserve to be voted out for that i really hope they reunite because they didnt get to talk much before goo’s elimination and not ONLY that but literally goo got eliminated BEFORE he got to see bot’s new look he doesn’t even know that their name is bot he still thinks its tbd as far as i know (also because the only pictures of them together so far are literally before bot got their new look so. im gonna have to separate them when i submit photos💔💔) and the interaction right before his elimination was like kinda awkward unfortunately but it made me sob/hj

"yeah,, i liked it !! but.. it was,,. a lot :[ listen goo,, i-i dont need this new identity to be such a big grand spectacle , i just want you to treat me like. llike me . with all the uncertainty lately, it helps everything feel just a bit more,, normal , yknow .?" “oh,, ohfor sure ,! i get it !! it’s like,, you just wanted a slice of cake, and i went and gave you the whole bakery ,:D !!” “hehe, yyup, nailed it !! ,:)” ↑↑↑ UWAHHHHHHH😭/LH/POS and third of all their alliance name they are literally called THE CHEER FACTORY because they wanna CHEER PEOPLE UP and they did !!!!! they cheered up clover and the floor ithink yes the floor is a character ssshshshshhsshh and goo literally lost one of the challengesbecause he laughed at the floor’s joke AND HE DID NOT CARE he was just glad he got to cheer somebody up !!!!! “another satisfied customer at the,, CHEER FACTORY !!! :D” LITERALLY HE WAS SO HAPPY and also when they were separated into two seperate teams goo is IMMEDIATELY sad when he notices bot isnt with him “sigh… i guess the cheer factory has become the.., cheer llc. :[“ I FELT SO BAD FOR THE BOTH OF THEM also can you tell whos my favorite/hj/lh anyways theyre silly theyre blorbos theyre the duo ever and thats why they should be in this competition (psssssst pstpst hhey im not gonna force you or anything btw but watch this video that interviews goo after he got eliminated from the show please/nf/ ineed to provide more evidence/hj/lh) || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb4iAbI2f3s

goo literally made a video that was like 3 hours.long which was dedicated to bot's new identity after they said they were a robot and weren't "bow" and also they both have their own silly little alliance in the show called "The Cheer Factory" ❗❗❗ cmon theyre like. theyre literally like two little kids in a trenchcoat/silly theyrefound family siblings to me

Naruto & Umino:

everyone in the village hated naruto since the day he was born bc of the demon that lives in his insides somewhere (this sounds crazy if you haven't seen the show but trust me here). iruka was his teacher at school. when everyone was graduating, naruto failed and some side character told him that if he stole a secret scroll he'd pass (since he failed). they were using him tho, and were planning on killing him (i think). and then iruka goes after him and finds him with the scroll before the other person did, and was the first person to actively defend naruto, and was the first person to believe him and see him as the person he was (he's like 12 here btw). and then, iruka always acts as a father figure to naruto, and at the very end of the series, when naruto gets married, he asks iruka to be his father at his wedding. i cried like a little bitch and i swear to god i just lvoe them so much. i doubt anyone will submit them butAAAAAA. ALSO IRUKA PASSED HIM IN THE END AND GAVE HIM HIS OWN FUCKING HEADBAND!!! SOBS AND CRIES AND SCREAMS

iruka was the first person to ever believe in naruto. it’s mentioned throughout the story how much of an impact iruka had on naruto just by believing in him, and it’s super sweet. the real kicker is that at the end of the show, naruto asks iruka to play the role of his father at his wedding, and i will never not cry about it!! literally look at them!!! never shutting up about this!!

[constantineshots]

these were some of the tags on the post where john was commenting on if facing demons was because he being self-destructive or if he was being enraged. i say both, and very much do agree with the tags, but i'm putting what i have to say on it under the cut because it's going to be a lot. trigger warnings for abuse, mentions of death/animal deaths, depression, etc. also a bit of rambling. this also somehow turned into psychoanalyzing. oopsie.

naturally, john and i have vastly different experiences regarding life, but i think there's a connect that helps me see things through his lens a lot more clearly, especially when it comes to the psychological.

just a bit of recap on my life i guess, but i'll just say "i got abused" and we'll move on from there. i can connect, in sum.

while john has newcastle and the deaths of friends under his belt, the abuse of his father, the blame of the death of his mother ( though i can't remember if he knew about his twin or not, but i don't think he did ), the magic, the killing animals, the killing of that one man all weighing on his shoulders and then much, much more, the trauma left behind was something i could easily connect with because of the depression, the self-destruction, the instances where even he himself is debating on suicide and alludes to it consistently, while also doing things to save his own ass but also that could very easily kill him. it's conflicting.

for me, i was angry and self-destructive because i felt like the world hated me. i'm sure if there was some form of power that i thought could help make me feel more powerful and i had less of an obligation to my siblings of whom faced the same treatment, i would have taken it and ran with it, too.

but there are things you start to do. you learn to lie to keep yourself out of trouble, give the people hurting you the truths they want to hear and it's something you learn to do in every day life. you'd say something that fed into what they wanted to be the truth and get the same abuse anyway, except the arguments wouldn't be as long and you'd get out of the situation faster. it's a bit of a morbid way to look at it, but while people tell you to "fight back", it's not that easy. i think it's why i connect to john so much- he didn't necessarily fight back against his dad from what we could tell until he eventually did the spell to keep his dad sick. and people will constantly say "i'd just fight back", or "i wouldn't have let that happen to me when i was a kid" and that ends up enforced in some medias that people write.

john does a lot of running and ducking his head and getting other people wrapped up in his shit. it's a path of destruction because he doesn't realize, at first, that it's going to be as big of a shit show as he thinks. for example, with ritchie, when ritchie says "oh i can handle it no worries john it's my expertise" etc. and john trusts it- he needs something done, and someone's willing to do it. but then ritchie ends up another person hurt or dead in what he thinks is his own fault.

you get told the same thing so many times throughout your life that you eventually start to believe it. sometimes, things just fuck up. you get called killer all your life, it only takes so long before you think that, well, maybe you're the curse. maybe you're all the bad shit that everyone says you are.

i do want to note that john does have dissociative episodes, especially in the newer run of hellblazer and he straight up says that. however, as someone who's taken so many psychology classes that i probably could have gotten a degree in it had my university provided the program, that doesn't necessarily mean a disorder, but it does usually fall under ptsd, depression, anxiety disorders, bipolar disorders, borderline personality disorders, schizophrenia, and other disorders. most disorders fall under these categories, though.

i have c-ptsd, depression, anxiety, and probably a lot of other mental disorders not explored because of past traumas that i could probably connect to his self destructive nature, but john has also probably only seen the therapists in ravenscar that proceeded to give him electro shock therapy while everyone else who had the nerve decided to beat the fuck out of him because they thought he killed astra. so more trauma tacked on to john's little plethora of already traumatic memories.

to be technical, there is a difference between c-ptsd and ptsd. with c-ptsd, the symptoms tend to begin six months or more after the initial traumatic event. *cracks knuckles* there is also a difference in symptoms, though they aren't necessarily exclusive to one or the other. c-ptsd tends to also be a result of ongoing, repeated emotional traumas, and on top of that, holds the trauma of ptsd, and then more. to clarify, ptsd usually has symptoms of dissociative episodes, flashbacks, dreams and nightmares related to trauma, commonly taking part in self-destructive behaviors, etc. to tack onto c-ptsd's symptoms, there is the constant feeling of guilt, constant hate towards yourself, consistently believing the world is bad in general, etc. i also want to focus on the fact that c-ptsd usually stems from childhood abuse, which is why i personally think john has c-ptsd, and then it just got worse from there. but you can have both! that's possible. so. i mean. well. call it like it is, john's probably got both.

anyways, moving on! borderline personality disorder, or bpd, kind of changes somewhat person to person, but overall, i think that the symptoms can fit john, in some cases. i pulled up a list just to be a little more clear and concise, but there is "an intense fear of abandonment, even going to extreme measures to avoid real or imagined separation or rejection" and i would really like to point out that, most of the time, john likes to say things like "i'm not good for you" or "i walk this path alone" or. you know, things along that line. for the most part, he pushes people away before they can get close. "a pattern of unstable intense relationships" and i would like to use chas as an example, which i know people would hate, but there are quite a few moments throughout hellblazer where chas will literally tell john that he hates him or shove his face in a toilet and tell him that's where he belongs.... and john doesn't walk away, he just lets chas walk away and come back because. well. why not? he thinks he deserves it half the time. but also, most of john's relationships aren't exactly stable. half the time, his niece and sister don't want to see him, the other half are his relationships that end fairly quickly, and others are just. john being john. "...seeing yourself as bad or as if you don't exist at all." "impulsive and risky behavior, such as gambling, reckless driving, unsafe sex, spending sprees, binge eating or drug abuse, or sabotaging success" the guy smokes after having of had lung cancer. what more do you want for an example. he also consistently does magic even though it's fucked over his life multiple times. again and again and again and he knows that it's fucking him over. unsafe sex can also be debated- in the newer version of hellblazer, he has an illegitimate son named noah that he didn't know existed, for example. and that's where i'll leave that. though in some cases, it can be argued as symptoms of ptsd, though it's possible he could have bpd.

this is going to be the last one, and i am not a doctor or anything but i think that it's possible he could have schizophrenia, or simply hallucinations as a result of any of the other disorders on here, which is sometimes possible but not exactly always common. based on john being an unreliable narrator, there is the suggestion that the ghosts that plague john constantly are not actually there, and that they might just be hallucinations. there are other symptoms of schizophrenia, but i've mostly covered them above. visual hallucinations also include people who are typically loved ones and friends who are no longer alive, i would like to add, but again, they could actually be ghosts, though it's somewhat possible that they're not. in the case that the ghosts are not real....

ANYWAYS. feel free to add more. i did it quick, but. there is this....

[sailormoonandme]

If there was a new Sailor Moon reboot anime someday I'd want it to respect the core values and spirit of the original manga and anime, but do something different. I don't think it is necesarry to re-tell the Dark Kingdom arc all over again, at least not in the same way, let alone methodically follow that up with the Black Moon, Infinity, Dream or Stars arcs.

I think that'd be refreshing for older fans (who currently are the primary target demographic for the brand) and for newer fans (who I actually think should be at least equally the target demographic at some point in the future) they won't know that we are deviating from what we've seen before anyway.

There are no end of ways you can change things up of course, but for the sake of argument lets say Sailor Moon is a seasonal anime, meaning it realistically has 12-13 episodes to tell its arc in.

There are no end of anime or western cartoons that can tell compelling arcs in that amount of time, but the limited episode count almost locks you into replicating Crystal and the manga if you are married to the DK arc or married to how the DK arc unfolded. Namely, introducing the Senshi one by one, building towards the drama with their pat lives etc. So just immediately off the bat you've eaten up minimum 6-7 episodes of your season on set up as each episode is going to be setting up one of the Senshi, Tuxedo Mask, etc. I'm a Crystal defender/apologist, but I see no point doing that again if we are doing a new reboot.

Instead, here is a radical idea. Why not start the series off with the Inner Senshi already established as a team and Usagi is the audience avatar who is being introduced to them, their HQ and their mission when she is recruited to the Sailor Team. Not only will that work for people unfamiliar with Sailor Moon, but for us old geezers who've seen every version out there (and read many more through fanfiction ;) it sort of speeds things up. We can get to the character dynamics and interpersonal relationships with our girls off the bat. In addition, it provides a more organic reason as to why Usagi is less combat savvy compared to the other girls, the latter have just been doing this for longer whilst Usagi is a newbie.

Arranging things this way is also how a lot of Super Sentai (one of Takeuchi's primary sources of inspiration for Sailor Moon) seasons kick off too, they build the team within the first episode or two as the team is the heart of the story.

Here is another radical idea. What if the Dark Kingdom and the reincarnation angle isn't even the plot of the first arc? What if we're dealing with some new villains or the Death Busters even? The Death Buster's base of operations was a school. In a sense, they are even more natural villains for a team of superhero school girls to go up against out of the gate. You could draw out the huge reveals of everyone's past lives and so on across the whole series rather than make it the first arc. Like imagine if Queen Beryl and Metalia were not simply the final villains of the first/only arc, but the Final Big Bad of the entire series?

That's not even getting into all the villains beyond the mainline manga that you could make use of, modernising them or adapting them into an anime for the first time. Ail, An, Fiore, Snow Kaguya, Queen Badine, Shaman Apsu and the Opposito Senshi, Past Wiseman, Death Vulcan, Dark Nibiru, Coatl, Dracul, Vampir, Lilith, etc.

I'm just saying this franchise is replete with rich concepts, characters and ideas. Creatively there is A LOT that can be done with it for old fans and new. It'd be a shame if we never got more and an even bigger shame if what we got was what we have seen before.

[liu-anhuaming]

《我是歌手》 Season 1——Thoughts and Feelings

I finally finished rewatching 《我是歌手》 season 1. It only took me 4 months...

Anyways. I've put together some thoughts I have on this season (with some spoilers about eliminations and whatnot).

Here's a link to the YouTube playlist of every performance from this season (I'm pretty sure I got them all). It's 111 videos. For some reason, the 芒果TV account had like none of 羽泉's performances posted (maybe a copyright thing?), and they were missing a few other performances, so sorry if the quality on a few of the videos isn't the best. I went with the best versions I could find on YouTube.

Here's where I watched this season. It was actually kinda difficult to find a place to watch this season for free; a lot of the other seasons were on YouTube for free when I first watched them (though some have been removed since then). Thankfully I found this site, and the quality is really good. There's some funky sound editing moments, though it's unclear if the original recording is bad or if it's the video on this site. Either way, it's the best quality version I've found to date.

Also, advanced apologies to any 沙宝亮 fans out there.

The singers in this season all seemed to be more established and well-known. I mean, 齐秦 alone is wildly famous, and then there’s 羽泉 and 黄贯中 (from Beyond). That’s not a bad thing, since all of them were really talented. However, I personally think the show is at its best when there are a few newer or lesser-known singers thrown into the mix. It makes the competition even more unpredictable, and a lot of these singers bring some pretty unique performances to the stage. I think the only reason I have this preference and this stands out to me is because I watched all the other seasons before season 1, so my expectations of the show had already been set based on what they’d done in later seasons. So I’m not judging season one too much for this, and I understand production would want to do what they could to ensure a decent viewership.

One of the things they did this season that never shows up again in other seasons is have one episode where everyone spins a wheel and picks their next song that way. I thought it was an interesting one-off episode idea, and it gave us a lot of great performances. It pushed some of the singers kinda far outside of their comfort zones, and I always like to watch when singers pick challenging songs. A really great episode came out of this idea. As much as I love the singers getting creative freedom, sometimes it’s fun to watch them struggle a bit. Idk, maybe that’s mean of me to say lol

There was also one episode where each singer picked one of 齐秦’s songs to perform, and it was sort of like a tribute episode since he had to leave the season early? And at the end 齐秦 performed his return song, which he never got to do when he left. I liked this episode since I’m not super familiar with 齐秦 (I’m more familiar with his sister, the absolute goddess 齐豫), so I got to hear more of his songs. As much as I liked it, I don’t know if it’d work every single season. 

胡海泉 was also a really good host. I found all of his mistakes really relatable because I, too, cannot fucking speak. 

In terms of the singers, the ones who stood out the most to me were 林志炫, 黄绮珊, 尚雯婕, and 杨宗纬. I already knew about 林志炫 and 黄绮珊 before starting this season, so I knew what to expect from them. Every performance from 林志炫 was perfect (what else would you expect from the One Take King?), but my favorite performance of his (and actually of the whole season) was 《没离开过》. 黄绮珊 was also really great to watch. Even though I personally didn’t like a couple of the songs she chose, she was consistently killing every performance, even when she was sick. 尚雯婕 was pretty unpredictable in terms of genre, but I liked a lot of her performances. My favorite from her was 《Dog Days Are Over》, and I think it’s a shame she didn’t get to perform that before she got eliminated. She was really creative with her picks, and I really respected the risks she took even if I didn’t fully enjoy it sometimes. (Also, she was definitely this season’s fashionista. Those shoes, man) 杨宗纬 was a really unexpected favorite, since he wasn’t around very long before the resurrection round. But he really chose some good songs and put his everything into the resurrection round, and kinda won me over at the last minute. 

The rest of the singers were good, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say I really loved or hated them. With one exception, that is.

沙宝亮 is a very talented singer, and I think he put on some very good performances. However. I personally could not stand the man. You know how sometimes you just see a person, and immediately think, “I do not like this person”? No good reason for it, there’s just something that you personally aren’t a fan of? Yeah, that was me with 沙宝亮. Every time he was onstage, I felt uninterested. Each time he spoke on camera, I did not care. This man did nothing particular to earn this from me, yet here we are. I was glad when we didn’t win the resurrection round, only for him to come back and torment me in the final episode. Despicable. Since I just spent this whole paragraph trashing him, let me be kind and say his performance of 《Someone Like You》 was quite good.

Now that I’ve discussed all the singers, let’s give out some “awards”.

My favorite performance: 林志炫《没离开过》

Best Fashion Moments™: 尚雯婕’s ensemble in episode 7 （非常的French）, 沙宝亮 in episode 9 (it was just ugly, sry), 周晓鸥 in episode 10 (that snakeskin vest? thing? was a Choice), 黄贯中 in the resurrection round (zero effort put in to covering that tattoo and it’s pretty funny imo)

Best hosting moments from 胡海泉: episode 1 mixup between 字zi/zhi, episode 3’s ze样一首歌, doing tongue twisters as prep in episode 4, this quote from episode 5 “看完明姐的表演，我宣布辣妈时代正式到来”, and episode 10 when the subtitlers really committed to spelling out every mistake he made

Most noteworthy episode: episode 5 (lots of great performances, the aforementioned 辣妈时代 comment, the lights in the confessional scene needed to be adjusted bc 周晓鸥’s bald head was too shiny, the guitarist Tommy was not wearing glasses/sunglasses which dealt me a deep psychic blow. 我是歌手 superfans will understand)

So overall, I did enjoy this season. I liked a lot of performances, and hated very few. Even though it was pretty good across the board, I don’t think it has a lot of rewatch value for me. There are certain seasons I know I’m excited to see again (like seasons two and three 👀), and I don’t think this would be one of those. Instead I’m probably going to just return to a few standout performances and rewatch those (I’ve already watched 《没离开过》 an embarrassing number of times).

[robinfrinjs]

hi! sorry if you've answered this before but i'm just getting into wec (yes, bc of mick lmao) and i was wondering if the ranking of drivers within teams has any significance? like if driver 1 is more of a team captain

Hi Anon! Thanks for the question, I don't think I've ever answered this before! First of I'm very glad you're getting into WEC, it's an amazing series.

So as for the ranking, I'm assuming you're referring to the order drivers are in on the entry list? Generally, that's not really anything of any significance. Driver 1 on the entry list won't be assigned the leader of the team or anything.

And either way there's no real leader within the team anyway especially not in the Hypercar category. However, maybe some drivers with more experience can act as a reference for drivers newer to Sportscar Racing.

For example Mick, is obviously a rookie. So he will likely receive some guidance from his very experienced teammates. But at the same time, Mick's insight will be valued too. It's all about making your team and car the quickest and it should never be an internal fight between who is the best within the car cuz ultimately you're doing it together.

Obviously some drivers will want to qualify (as only one of the three qualifies) or some drivers desperately either want to start or finish the race. And there might be some internal battling about that, and they might want their own ego moment. But usually as drivers mature too, they care less about it. Laurens Vanthoor (another Hypercar driver) has a podcast with his younger brother, Dries Vanthoor (also a Hypercar driver). And in one of the episodes he explained it quite well. How a few years ago he really wanted to finish the race or anything like that but now he's not as preoccupied with it anymore.

On a side note however, unfortunately weight is sometimes still an issue in WEC so teams might assign their lightest drivers to do qualifying instead if there is a significant difference there.

As for the LMGT3 class as it's a Pro/Am line up. And only one of the drivers is not classified as Silver (young driver at the start of their career) or Bronze (Amateur). Usually the actual professional driver will be some sort of unofficial team leader. Helping their less experienced teammates. Though they won't be in the car for qualifying as LMGT3 requires the amateur to qualify.

Hope this sort of helps but if there's any more questions feel free to ask!

[leagueofgardens]

Where's All This Lore From, Anyway?

Do I kin Fumi? Maybe.

I've blogged about a fair bit of Assault Lily lore by now, and plan to blog about more, and it wouldn't hurt to explain where all this information actually comes from.

For some settings this would be straightforward, but for AL it isn't. You'll see why in a moment.

The Stories

The most obvious sources of Assault Lily lore are the stories themselves.

That is to say:

The anime, Assault Lily Bouquet (Fruits is incredibly silly and should probably be considered non-canon. Except for the episode where Riri and Yuyu hold a wedding ceremony. That one is canon.)

The gacha game, Assault Lily Last Bullet, which contains a bunch of visual novel-style stories. These stories are direct sequels to Assault Lily Bouquet.

Happy birthday, Kazuha.

The stage plays. As of this writing, there are 11 plays, along with several more of questionable canonicity (theatrical games of Werewolf that feature AL characters and such.)

The manga. There are two of these: League of Gardens -full bloom- is an adaptation of the League of Gardens stage play, and Secret Garden is a series of fluffy one-shots, some of which are explicitly non-canon.

The novels. There are four of these so far.

Now, the fun part is that these stories quite often contradict each other. Team Hitotsuyanagi, for example, comes into being in a different way in every story that shows it happening: you can see this for yourself just by watching Assault Lily Bouquet and then reading the translated portion of the Full Bloom manga. (Full Bloom has some major differences from the stage play it's based on, too.)

Contradictory events aside, the details of the setting sometimes change as well. For example, in the oldest stories Lilies couldn't take part in the Neunwelt Tactic unless they had awakened their Rare Skill, but this is no longer true.

Fans used to deal with this by interpreting each of the various stories as taking place in their own parallel universe, but then the stories started more directly referencing each other, making this difficult to do. It's a thorny and unresolved problem to this day, not helped by the lack of official statements on the matter.

Other Books

There are some Assault Lily books written in the style of guides, rather than stories.

The oldest of them, Assault Lily Setting Materials, was only ever published in print and I don't have access to it. It was reprinted recently but sold out within hours before I could order it.

There were a series of articles about AL posted on the website Dengeki Hobby Web in 2020-2021. Some of these were later also printed as a book, Mashima Moyu's Arsenal Workshop.

Another book, Assault Lily Setting Materials: Special Feature on Radgrid, was published digitally. This book contains a few pages about every member of Team Hitotsuyanagi and is our main source of information on their families.

There are a few others, but these are the most important.

The Doll Pamphlets

"Kaede is a well-rounded and rational person whose only shortcoming is her obsession with cute girls." — Kaede's doll pamphlet

Most of the dolls come with info sheets. Although only one page long, front and back, these are absolutely packed with lore.

There's a little problem: in what is kind of an ongoing theme for Assault Lily, a lot of the info on them wildly contradicts everything written and shown elsewhere.

Tazusa's pamphlet, for example, claims that she was born in Tokyo (newer sources say she was born in Shizuoka,) that her mother is dead (newer sources say her mother's identity and whereabouts are unknown,) that Takamatsu Shiera negotiated with GEHENA to have her released (newer sources say Legion Rossweisse broke her out of a GEHENA lab,) and strongly implies that she has a crush on Yuyu (there are close to zero signs of this being the case anywhere else.)

The Special Feature on Radgrid repeats a lot of the character info found here, and I think that book probably exists in order to clean the lore up and make it cohere to the newer stories. Some CHARM and miscellaneous setting information is still only found in the doll pamphlets though, as well as much of what we know about some characters who aren't part of Team Hitotsuyanagi.

Lily's Time

The Assault Lily YouTube channel hosts occasional "Lily's Time" streams every month or two on average. The main host is Akao Hikaru, Riri's voice actress, along with various guests. Obanazawa Kenei, the original creator of Assault Lily, is often a guest. Each stream has a topic, sometimes one or two of the characters, sometimes one of the Gardens, and sometimes entirely different subjects like the IRL Assault Lily live concerts.

These streams have a tendency to just repeat info that's already been mentioned elsewhere, but they've told us new stuff, like that only Lilies are capable of seeing magie, from time to time. They've also "canonized" some dubious info from the doll pamphlets.

Fumi's Twitter Account

Last but definitely not least, we come to the most unique source of Assault Lily lore: Futagawa Fumi's Twitter account. (Sorry Elon, I refuse to call the website "X".)

Fumi has been tweeting since February 2013, seven months before the first-ever Assault Lily product (the original 1/12 scale Yuyu doll) was released. She's made nearly 16,000 tweets over the course of the decade since. Many of those tweets are to advertise AL goods and things like events in the gacha game, but on certain days, Fumi will log on around midnight Japan time and invite her followers to tweet questions about Assault Lily with a hashtag that translates to "Please tell me, Fumi-chan!"

She'll then answer those questions as she sees fit. Occasionally, she also launches into explanations of AL lore on her own initiative, such as when she told us about the top seven legions at Herensuge Girls' Academy.

An early tweet by Fumi. The Google translation is reasonably close to the mark.

And there you have it. Compared to a lot of settings, Assault Lily's lore is kind of a mess, but personally, I find it fun to piece together.

I don't cite sources for info I write about because it would make my posts twice as long and twice as difficult to write, but you can find most of the same stuff on the Assault Lily Wiki, which does have citations.

If you're curious about the provenance of anything specific, feel free to send me an ask about it.

[hopefulstarfire]

Have a little drabble featuring the boys :^)

The keys are dumped into the tray on the console by the door. His coats shrugged off and onto the hook on the wall, his shoes kicked off and lazily nudged to a spot in the corner before Diesel hurries over to greet him.

Maddox scratches his dog's head lovingly before walking into the mostly darkened penthouse, ready to simply head off to bed once he checked on the girls.

The sound of an all too familiar cartoon and the bright light coming from the large TV in the living room were enough to let him know he wasn't sneaking by easily; God knows he was going to try though. He just had to have silent footsteps, keep Diesel from reacting too much--

"So," Max drawled out, never turning from his spot on the couch. "How did the date go?"

Damnit.

Maddox sighed, rubbing the back of his neck as he begrudgingly moved for the couch himself. He pushed his best friends scrawny legs off so he could sit down next to him, arms draping over the back of the couch as he sank into the cushions.

"It went alright, I guess," he finally said, red eyes staying on the screen. Funny Bunny was currently setting up yet another scheme to ruin the day of Ruff Ruff McDogg. He was pretty sure this was a newer episode from the reboot. "Probably won't be going on a second." He shifted, finally glancing over at Max, currently with a thick blanket draped over his lap and dressed in his robe and pink bunny slippers. "Did the girls do okay tonight?"

Max waved his hand a bit, going to pick up his wine glass. "They were little angels, as always," he told him proudly. "Even went to bed without much fuss this time, though they did try to stay up to wait for you. They tuckered themselves out with their big night with Uncle Max and Auntie Kitty." So their sister did come over for the week after all. "She's in bed, too, by the way. Told her she needs to be well rested for the tournament."

"Ah. That's good."

Max pouted, letting out a sigh. "It's a shame though, I thought Christina from the office would be a good match for you," he told him. "What was wrong with her? Anything that concerns work?"

The raven haired man shook his head, reaching up to tug his hair out of its usual ponytail. "No, she's nice. It wasn't miserable or anything. There just...wasn't a spark, I guess."

There hadn't been with anyone his best friend had tried to set up with in the past few years. He'd given Maddox a solid year after Paige had abandoned him and the twins before he started setting them up, at least. But they weren't exactly Maddoxs cup of tea to have to do. He'd rather use his time away from work to focus on the girls.

Max scoffed gently, taking a long sip of his drink. "Did you even try to feel one?"

He rolled his eyes. "Max--"

"Max nothing!" The silver haired man insisted. He sat up a bit more, hair falling a bit more to one side to reveal the shine of his golden eye. "Maddsy boy, you self sabotage. Every single time you go out on a date, you never give it a proper chance. You've got some fear of commitment."

Maddox shook his head. "First off, it's not a fear," he told him, dryly. "I just have been burned really badly in the past and don't want to go through that shit again." He held up a hand. "And, secondly; it's better that I don't anyways. I don't wanna date someone, bring them into Dahlia and Dinah's lives because I think it's going well and then it blow up in both their faces and in mine. They shouldn't have to go through abandonment again; I'm not going to let them."

His best friend sighed, letting his legs fold back up on the couch as he sat the glass down. "I can't say that it's going to be concrete that it wouldn't happen again," he said, after a moment. "But, there's a very strong chance it wouldn't. You deserve to be happy, Maddsy; Cecelia wouldn't want to see you alone, either, and she'd want you to have someone that loved the girls just as much. You have to open up your heart, though."

He could argue back that Max hadn't ever done the same, but he knew their cases were far, far different. He wouldn't rub that kind of salt in the wound, either. "I just...I know you want what's best for me. But I don't think I'm ready yet, either. Maybe...maybe some day. But not yet."

Silence filled the space between them, the only noise coming from the television, and the raven haired man kept his head bowed, fidgeting with his hands.

"I'm sorry I've pushed it," Max finally said, his voice soft. "I'll try and cut back. But...you have to promise me you'll try when you're ready."

He held out his hand for the other to shake and they gave a firm one, before doing finger guns. "Fine. I promise."

(He didn't know that in just two years from that moment, almost to the date, he would lay his eyes on the man that would make him feel finally ready to open his heart once more.)

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Edit: I wrote this post about three days ago and saved it in drafts because the Google Drive file hadn’t finished processing yet. I don’t know why it took three days, but it finally works, so here it is.

I wrote several posts last year about how much I enjoyed Comedy World Cup, a panel show hosted by David Tennant that ran for seven episodes in 2012 and then never again. I wish they’d make more of it, it was really entertaining and can’t be that hard to make. It had eight teams of three people each, and they competed against each other in a knockout-style tournament of quizzes about comedy.

One cool feature of the show is that each team was well balanced to have a mix of younger, up-and-coming comedians and older, established comedians. They seemed to mostly try for three generations in each three-person team - someone middle-aged, someone older, and someone young. Alan Carr with Clive Anderson and Sara Pascoe (who was quite new to comedy then, it was 2012). The Chuckle Brothers (old) with Jon Richardson (young, back then) and Andy Parson (middle). Omid Djalili with Daniel Sloss. Phill Jupitus (middle) and Barry Cryer (old) with Roisin Conaty (young). It was interesting to see the mixed dynamics generally, but particularly how they differed on a quiz that covered the last several decades of comedy. What stuff the older people knew because it happened when they were younger and paying attention, and what stuff they didn’t know because it happened once they’d gotten old enough to stop following new stuff. What stuff the older people didn’t know because they were too busy living it to commit it to memory, and what stuff the younger people knew because they learned it like history instead of experiencing it. What stuff the younger people didn’t know because it was before their time.

My favourite of this sort of combination was Johnny Vegas with Mick Miller and Josh Widdicombe, who weirdly played out an entire drama, a sort of sports movie with a bit of gangster movie thrown in (there is a mutiny of the leader at one point), throughout their three episodes. Many people have sat down to write scripts about how people from an older generation respond to a newer generation coming up behind them, and many of those scripts have not covered the subject as well as what unfolded on this panel show in 2012. One of the best sports movie tropes is the tension of an established athlete who starts to get overtaken by a younger talented athlete (that trope is the best in my opinion - an opinion that is mainly formed because in my years as a competitive athlete and coach, I can confirm that that situation is incredibly common and always that fucking dramatic), especially if they’re on the same team so they’re not supposed to be in direct competition but that competitiveness occurs anyway. When I first watched Comedy World Cup last year, I didn’t expect it to do that trope better than any sports movie, but here we are. The amount of drama in “older and established person who’s put in the years and earned their place of respect is threatened, maybe or maybe not justifiably, by a younger up-and-comer” apparently crosses through sports and into comedic panel quiz shows.

...I mean, they were joking. Obviously they were joking, the Comedy World Cup panel show didn’t have the genuine drama of actual sports. But they did a damn good facsimile of it. They were exaggerating for comic effect, particularly Johnny, as exaggerating this stuff for comic effect is kind of his whole thing. But still. I don’t think they were quite 100% joking, and even if they were, they played out that fiction better than a lot of people who are acting out actual pre-written scripts.

This weekend, I went looking for the best example I could find a fun comfort show to distract myself from, you know, the horrors of the world. And I ended up re-watching most of Comedy World Cup. I also decided that I want to be able to explain it to other people, so as I went along, I saved a bunch of relevant clips that featured the Johnny Vegas/Josh Widdicombe/Mick Miller team (Mick Miller’s main contribution to the narrative is you can watch how at first Johnny is mainly interacting with him because they’re the two who know each other and Josh is the new guy, while by the end they’ve worked out that Josh and Johnny are the two who know what they’re doing, and they pretty much ignore the other guy). From that, I made a video of their three episodes condensed into forty minutes, showing the evolution of the team. You get a form of Johnny Vegas’ belligerence that’s just a little bit more grounded in reality than it normally is. You get Josh Widdicombe showing off the fact that, age or any other factor aside, he really is the top comedy nerd. He is not kidding in all his stories about how he grew up in a place with nothing to do but watch comedy on TV (it is weird to me, though, that he knew everything else but did not know the colour of Kenny’s jacket on South Park or Hawkeye’s name on M*A*S*H, as I thought those would be easy questions). Josh, who manages to develop a catchphrase in only three episodes: “I know this.” And you get an arc of narrative tension, conflict and redemption, so satisfying that I think Peter Berg could write quite a good a five-season show based on it.

The compilation is too long to upload directly to Tumblr, and when I tried to put it on YouTube I got told it would be blocked due to copyright, but here it is on Google Drive, if anyone wants to spend forty minutes watching that:

Josh Widdicombe and Johnny Vegas on Comedy World Cup

[trialbystory]

Why I am Like This Pt 1

So before I made a return to writing in general/fanfiction in particular, I was toying with the idea over the summer of doing some video essays/blogs/something over on Youtube talking about stories I like and/or were influential to me and why that's the case, and also just why I like stories in general and examining the nature of escapism and storytelling and all this high concept stuff that I never did. But now I have this tumblr thing, and I'm more comfortable with the written word anyway, so why not do it here? Now my original plan was to start with a discussion of why I think stories are important to society/humanity/reality, but the unfortunate passing of Jason David Frank just about a week ago makes it suddenly relevant to skip that for now and jump into a brief discussion of the one-two punch that first made me... Aware, I guess you could say, of long-form narratives in the first place. So let's talk just a little about Power Rangers today, and later we'll talk about what the second half of the combo is (I can almost guarantee it's not what you're expecting)

So there's tiny me back in the early-mid 90's. I like Hot Wheels and Dinosaurs and Tonka Tucks. And PEZ Dispensers for some reason. I also watch a lot of TV, mostly cartoons. I remember Bonkers, Bobby's World, and Life with Louie were the big ones I got into. And then there was Power Rangers, which different and exciting for me for a few reasons. First there were Giant Robot Dinosaurs, which I thought was just the best. And there were toys I could have the giant robot dinosaurs, which made them even cooler. But what made it stand out was that it was live-action. Those were real people getting to ride in the Giant Robot Dinosaurs that I had toys of. Power Rangers was my favorite. But the thing about all these shows was that the episodes were all self-contained. Everything happened in the space of a single 30-minute block. Characters are re-introduced, an issue pops up, and they deal with it in some kind of conclusive way. Even Power Rangers was very monster-of-the-week for the most part. Then Tommy shows up. I cannot overstate how mindblowing it was for younger me to be going through daily life, minding my own business, and out of nowhere, for the first time in my life, at the hands of my favorite TV show (arguably my favorite thing, period), experience a cliffhanger. And then they did it four more times. Finding out that you could have previous episodes matter in newer ones changed everything I knew about television. And it wasn't like things went back to normal afterwards, either, Tommy stuck around, the Green Ranger was just part of the team. I'd never seen that before. And they kept doing it. After 'Green With Evil,' they did a two--parter where Tommy lost his powers ('Green No More') and another where he came back as the White Ranger ('White Light'). And then, after training me to accept that continuity (not that I knew that word) was a thing, they ended OG Mighty Morphin' and made a new show. And Power Rangers Zeo was a direct sequel, picking up right where the Power Rangers I knew and loved ended. And it kept going on with more multiparters and continuity continuing through Power Rangers Turbo and Power Rangers In Space, and to a lesser extent Power Rangers Lost Galaxy. It was great, I loved it, and it opened me up to a whole world of ongoing/longer-term stories. So to Jason David Frank, the man who was the face of my initial introduction to longform narratives, you will be missed.

[artemisnightingale216]

I think the problem stems from the 1991 film series. Which, don't get me wrong, is amazing and a REALLY good adaptation of the Addams', The trouble is that most people look at it when they use source material for Wednesdays character. It's not unreasonable, I suppose, given that most fans grew up on the movie and it's the first thing they think of when they think of the Addams'.

Except this isn't what Wednesday is like for the most part. In all early adaptations, as stated above, Wednesday is a sweet and caring kid who smiles, cries that a knight would cruelly slay a dragon, and even wears tutus and dances around with Lurch. The original comics do depict her as a bit darker, but she does still smile and show her emotions on a regular basis. Then the live action film series came along and suddenly we have a different sort of Wednesday.

Which, again, don't get me wrong, isn't a bad thing. It was a creative spin on her character which could have worked if it stayed within the film series. Except it didn't. The adaptations that followed all stuck with the emotionless, dead toned Wednesday like it was suddenly all she was. A lot of newer adaptations make her downright mean simply for the sake of being mean instead of giving her a valid reason.

Don't even get me started on that shitty CGI monstrosity that outright butchered the family and turned Morticia and Gomez into unsupportive, terrible parents who were trying way too hard to turn their kids into, well, them. And Wednesday (the show) was literally the worst piece of garbage I've ever seen, and I didn't even watch the whole thing. I could only stomach a few episodes before I completely lost interest.

Anyway, before I end up going off on a whole tangent about.... that.... what was supposed to be a one off adaptation series that turned out to be a masterpiece was treated like source material and that's how we ended up with the Wednesday we know and hate today. In a way, I guess it's sort of understandable. They're trying to take what made the 1991 and 1993 Wednesday great and roll with it. Except all they end up doing is rolling her off a cliff and expecting people to love the mangled pieces. It's honestly a tragedy and I fear it'll only get worse from here.

wednesday (netflix) has ruined the addams legacy fr bc why did i just see a post that was like okay but what if morticia and wednesday subvert common mother dayghter tropes and actually love eachother and morticia is super supportive of wednesday? BC THATS LITERALLY THE WHOLE POINT OF THE ADDAMS THE POINT IS THEYRE THE MOST CARING AND LOVING FAMILY AND GOMEZ AND MORTICIA SUPPORT THEIR CHILDREN AND LOVE THEM UNCONDITIONALLY AND THEY ACTUALLY RAISED THEM SUPER WELL AND PUGSLEY WEDNESDAY AND PUBERT LOVE THEIR PARENTS

the whole wednesday(netflix) being pissed at morticia literally makes no sense and i hate it so much (also the point of the addams is that theyre FREAKS and everyone around them is a normie. u need to envision edward scissorhands if u don’t understand the dynamic of the addams universe)(better yet watch ANY other addams iteration)(wednesday is a super sweet kid that loves the macabre)

[theminecraftbee]

I’ma start watching hermitcraft, what do you think is the best way to get into it?

welcome to hermitcraft! i hope you enjoy its very good. here are my “getting into hermitcraft” advices!

start from the current season, season nine. you can start from episode one of your chosen hermit or just sort of hop in; if you just sort of hop in you’ll miss a few fun events that have happened (namely, the diamond pillar war) but you’ll figure out what’s going on soon enough. season isn’t too long yet though so “watch from the beginning” shouldn’t be too rough.

unlike some other minecraft series hermitcraft can be entirely understood from the videos. some hermits stream hermitcraft and some don’t—my guy, for example, joe hills, is the guy who streams the most hermitcraft, streaming five nights a week plus some bonuses, whereas hermits like grian and mumbo don’t stream at all. so don’t worry that you’ve missed things on stream—it’ll turn up in a video if it was important!

because there are twenty-six hermits (I think I’m bad at counting forgive me if that’s wrong) it can be daunting to pick who you want to watch! i have a few advices for this.

advice one: if you know a hermit from elsewhere (for example you’ve watched an mcc team with them on it or maybe are a fan of one of the life series or maybe came across cub hanging out with a speedrunner etc etc), and you know you like them or you know you are at least somewhat interested, go with watching them! they’ll eventually start interacting with other hermits, which you can use to branch out as you want.

advice two: watch the hermitcraft recap! i mean, do this anyway; the jokes are funny, zloy and pixlriffs and lyarrah are beloved, and no one has time to watch all of the hermits every week. the recap ensures you can know the important bits of what everyone is up to, and when there are big events like the civil war, can be a vital resource to follow context for it! however, the recap serves another really important function: if you watch the recap you can get the vibes for most of the hermits and will get an idea of what all of their projects for the season are! it’s therefore a great way to both quickly catch up with hermitcraft to the current episodes and to pick hermits to watch.

advice three: there’s a “pick a hermit” video/flowchart on the recap channel too; it doesn’t have pearl and gem, the newest hermits, but it can also be a good way to pick a hermit to watch!

advice four: all that said, in general newer hermitcraft fans (and current ones) tend to like grian, who interacts with a lot of people and has videos that are of a fairly accessible style, so he’s often a good person to start with before you start branching out to the others.

advice five: also if you want specific recommendations you can tell me the kind of content you’re looking for out of hermitcraft and I can try to vibe check you.

I hope this helps!