#bartleby the mink

[minkparched]

I declare: Bartleby Montclair is a furry version of the "Blond Prettyboy Noble-coded character" trope.

it's kinda funny tbh

[thesheeark]

Why the Caged Bird Sings

There's no adventure in these halls I'd fly far beyond these sterile walls. And tho I try, and beg, and plea I'm kept far from the world to see. If I could but don a pair of wings I'd learn more than why the caged bird sings! 🎶🎵   Bartleby's daughter looks notably distracted....

Posted using PostyBirb

[imaginationblur]

Slay Sir MontClair!

[bonthecrossiant]

Bartleby

I’m gonna colour it tomorrow :)

[thelediz]

Sonic Underground episode 30: Wedding Bell Blues

AKA: the ‘first’ episode

I’m watching Sonic Underground in search of inspiration to finish a fic I’ve been writing forever. It’s a sad state of affairs. See the recap of the first three episodes here, if you're interested!

The plot (for want of a better word): To legitimise his claim to the throne, Robotnik plans to wed Queen Aleena! It sounds like a trap, but the Sonic Underground need to be sure. Can they save their mother from Robotnik’s clutches, and avoid capture themselves?

Before I get started on the episode notes, I should explain what I mean by the ‘first’ episode. Like a lot of kids’ shows still are (lookin’ at you, Miraculous Ladybug), Sonic Underground was intended to have self-contained episodes so that you didn’t need to watch them in order. There are a few reasons to do this:

Kids are not expected to be able to follow a long-form story. At most, an arc should be five episodes or less, except for an overarching story that they can be caught up on in thirty seconds. (This has actually gotten WORSE over time, which you can see from the evolution of Pokemon. Back in the 90s, Ash would have six-on-six battles that lasted five episodes. By his retirement, the majority of his battles were at most three-on-three and they were won and done in two episodes or less.)

Animation is hard, and if you don’t have a good producer/show runner (ie, project manager), you probably aren’t going to keep to time and therefore release schedules. To ensure you meet deadlines, you need to be able to release episodes as you have them ready, NOT in their production order.

Reruns! Reruns are big, big money, and when networks need to randomly fill a half hour slot, they want to be able to pick a random episode and throw it on the air without drama.

In the original run, Wedding Bell Blues was the first episode up and ready to go. It got aired first. Even in my country, which is certainly not the original French, I remember this being the first episode, because the first run followed that original airing order (yes, I did watch the first run as a morning cartoon before school, I am that old).

Reruns almost never did, and narratively speaking it makes no sense for it to be first. I THINK the order my episodes are in match the video release, but who the heck knows. They are old and I couldn’t find them again if I lost them.

Moving on.

“Queen Aleena here”. Still a weird start to an episode. We last heard it on episode 4, if you recall.

So we have some additional examples of this being the first episode finished, and how some… some choices were made. For example, Jaleel White’s voices (especially Sonic and Sonia) are often sped up in this episode – I don’t know what happened, because the cadence is fine, but my guess is dubbing issues.

The animation is wonkier than usual, too. It varies between being shockingly dynamic and atrociously cheap.

On an actual character and plot front, if this is your first introduction to them, you don’t know who Sonia and Manic are, but you immediately have their characters: Sonia is describing a hair appointment they’re trying to get her to as ‘an important mission’ (and calling the boys ‘low class’), Sonic’s stuffing his face with chilli dogs and proclaiming himself cool, and Manic is… swiping sauce packets. Because. But he puts them back when Sonic tells him.

In an unusual twist, when Robotnik announces (via video bot) he’s going to be marrying Aleena, Manic is the one to call it out as a trap (he's going to be unusually self-sufficient this episode). But they decide they’re going to spring it anyway because (as per episode 21) sometimes Aleena has Plans that they’re not privy to, so… maybe?

It’s a BARTLEBY EPISODE, folks!

Poor Bartleby. Not only does he have Sonia using him to get in, Sleet suggests Robotnik use Bartleby to fund the wedding. Has anyone noticed this poor mink is everyone’s bank book?

And Manic’s stealing everything that’s not nailed down from Bartleby’s mansion. Sonic makes him put most of it back, but still.

But Bartleby is being a particular jerk this episode, in a wonderfully hopeless aristocratic way, talking about it’s about time Aleena ‘came to her senses’ and married Robotnik. Which is delicious world building and absolutely WOULD have been a real-world solution to a twelve-plus-year conflict if not for the people involved!

But Bartleby is not actually a horrible person, and will do anything for his girl, so he gets the Sonic Underground into the wedding as musicians. The fine line, folks.

The Song: When Tomorrow Comes. Another… choice. It’s literally two lines of lyrics “When tomorrow comes, we’ll be walking in the sun” and some ‘na-na’s. Mostly instrumental. Good classical start though, very high-brow.

While the song was going, Sonic was running recon through the palace. Robotnik caught his blur on the cameras. The trap is proceeding nicely, but the triplets don’t know this yet. They do some pretty slick moves to avoid getting caught, I have to say, covering cameras with clothing and conversation with sounds, and Manic opens a secret passageway (not sure how he knew it was there, but okay… let’s call it the Thieves Highway and move on), while Sonia pulls a quick change worthy of Katniss Everdeen in the Capitol to ‘infiltrate the bridal party’. They are not usually this sneaky.

And in return, Sleet pulls his own trick on Sonic, by turning Dingo into a chilli dog cart to tempt the bottomless pit. It works until Sonic decides to fight back, at which point it goes as you would expect.

So Sleet and Dingo switch gears and head for the bridal chamber, where they put Dingo in a dress, and all three triplets are quietly convinced (in their defence, either from behind or via silhouette) that they’ve found their mother. Seriously, sometimes I think Sleet and Dingo could have won the whole war by transforming Dingo into Aleena and calling it a day. Not sure anyone would have questioned the colouring.

I do have to enjoy Sonia’s reaction to Dingo revealing himself though “Oh, thank goodness it’s only a trap!”

Though… you guys knew it was a trap. You should not be surprised to be proven right.

And oh no, they have captured Sonia. Whatever shall we do.

Again, though, as Bartleby points out to her, she IS a legitimate solution to the war, with Robotnik trying to adopt her. BUT, if we ignore the fact he’s trying to force her through threat of robotocisation, and the fact it’s Robotnik, who wouldn’t actually give her freedom ANYWAY… In a real world scenario, remembering the world building here. For all his many flaws, Robotnik IS the aristrocrats’—the governing peoples’—preferred leadership. But Sonia, if she declared herself heir to the throne, would be the traditionalist choice, and supported by the masses. This is what real world kingdoms have done since time immemorial.

WORLD BUILDING. IN A TERRIBLE EPISODE. Oh, finally, we’re back to proper form, friends!

And for the purposes of my fic, I make way too much of Bartleby pointing out there’s an ancient law pointing out that Aleena has basically abandoned her throne by not making public appearances for so long.

So the boys have to save Sonia. Manic defies all past experience and says he’s got it, and runs off to steal a dress so he can pretend to be Aleena. Only he gets immediately caught, because this is Manic and He Does That.

Luckily, Aleena herself steps up for once and forbids the ceremony, thereby fulfilling her duties with a public appearance (however brief), before running off.

The triplets belatedly realise they actually did see their mother for real, Sleet and Dingo are thrown in the dungeons for a few days as punishment for screwing up, and everyone carries on, life unchanged.

It sure was an episode.

The counters:

Sonic implying less than 100% American heterosexuality: 5

Sonia in love with Bartleby: 5/37

Sonia in love with someone who is not Bartleby: 3/37

Sonia’s got super strength: 4

Manic’s thieving Is A Problem: 5

Come back tomorrow if you’re interested for more!

[shinymisty-blog]

They think I'm more than a Jerk - A small writing prompt

The meeting has become an angry ball of frustration as Sleet and Cyrus continue arguing back and forth. Dingo had since forgotten what started the yelling competition, but it seemed to have been going on for hours. Bartleby was attempting to hide away on the other side of the meeting table while Trevor's head lolled off the chair, able to toon out the arguing as he seemed to have fallen asleep. "Look, I get it. Sleet can...be a bit of a jerk," Dingo finally finds the courage to say this, with the wolf standing inches away from him. He's expecting Sleet to respond back with a bitter response. But what he says causes the room to grow silent. "...A bit of a jerk is a bit of an understatement, Dingo." Sleet was...agreeing with him. And not only agreeing but doubling down. Dingo felt his body growing cold. "I know what they are all thinking. But if I said it out loud, I'd be in even bigger trouble." He snickers softly, eyeing the young lion, who had grown quiet over the canine's interjection. "Oh-ho," Cyrus laughed, "and what do you mean by that. Share with the class!" He had a mocking tone to his voice, obviously trying to get under Sleet's skin. Dingo gives off an anxious laugh as he turns to look at Sleet. The wolf looked unfazed, readying a comeback, snickering softly and his ear twitching toward Dingo's direction. Please...don't say something you'll regret, he thought, biting his tongue. "Oh. It's simple, really. I'm sure everyone here thinks I am a motherfu-" Before Sleet can finish his thought, Bartleby comes from behind, covering the wolf's snout with his hands, causing him to let out a light gasp. "AND THIS MEETING IS OVER!" He had panic in his voice as he started to pull the wolf away from the shocked group of mobians. "Thank you all for coming. If you have any questions, please...don't ask them!" He quickly yanks Sleet's ear closer to his mouth "We don't CURSE here, Sleet!" Dingo's nervous laughter grew into a more panicked whimper as he watched the smaller mink easily pull the thinner wolf out of the meeting room. "He normally mumbles that under his breath..."

No. I don't plan on having Sleet -or any of the characters, really- uncharacteristically curse every other sentence. I can maybe count on one hand how many times a swear would drop in the series. And NONE of the words are worse than, like, hell and damn.

...But I DO headcanon that Sleet has a foul mouth. He just...mumbles it all the time.

...No. This isn't going to happen in the actual story. I just...LOVE the idea that Sleet KNOWS he's an ass, he knows that everyone THINKS he's an ass, and is unapologetically PROUD that he's an ass.

[herbertpocketsfidgettoys]

I lov Bartleby so much he makes me so happy idk why he just makes me feel so happy I feel genuine love towards him

I love you stupid rich mink

[internetslug]

educate yourself

[shinymisty-blog]

...Manic is Hollyleaf.

Ok, but with this talk of AUs, I did have a Sonic Underground/Warrior Cats AU!

Robotnik (in this, he is just called Julian) is a nasty tyrant who rules over a decently large group of cats after chasing out or killing most of the elders. Many cats joined him in fear, while others tried to live in their territories without much trouble.

One young Queen, Lightheart, who had just lost her mate to Julian, is visited by an ancient, ghostly cat on the night she births three kits. The cat informs her that the newborn kits will help the cats regain control of the territory, and defeat Julian. But, to do so, she needed to leave them in three separate parts of the territory to grow up with them. Though she isn't happy with the idea, she agrees to leave her three kits where the starry cat directed her. Her eldest son, Quickkit (Quickleap), is left in the thick forests to the north of a large collection of two-leg dens. Her only daughter, Softkit (Softecho), is left on the outskirts of the two-leg dens, right next to where Julian and his band of rogues stayed. Her youngest son, Loudkit (Loudstep), is left in the planes east of the two-leg dens. Lightheart is then told to hide within the high mountains, farthest away from the two-leg dens, and wait for her kits to return to her.

The territory isn't a clan at first. The trio are there to make them into clans. I only fully wrote what happens...AFTER Robotnik was defeated, so that I knew who the leaders would be. But even then I changed the concept a lot, as there used to be FIVE clans, now four. Those are EmeraldClan (where Aleena stayed), BurrowClan (where Manic grew up), VelvetClan (where Sonia grew up), and FogClan (where Sonic grew up) Though the name may change.

The four areas are meant to represent the four fractions of Underground. Burrow is the Lower Class/Thieves, Velvet is the Aristocrats, Fog is the Resistance, and Emerald is...well, the mystical aspect of Underground. Instead, we have: The Plains, which is full of rogues and loners who aren't very friendly and will often fight or steal things. The Outskirts, which is mostly full of kitty pets or loners who know their way around two legs. The Forest, which is full of loners who group together to try and kill Julian and are most like a Clan. And the Mountains...which have a bunch of old ass cats and a few youngsters.

Some other cats: Sleet(heart) and Dingo(pelt). They were already alive when Julian started terrorizing the territory and joined him in fear for their lives. They used to live in the Outskirts. Mink(rose) (Bartleby), who grew up with Softkit. He later was forced into joining Julian. Littlekit (Trevor) and Lionkit (Cyrus), who grew up with Quickkit and grow up to become Littlemouse and Lionpelt.

Goat(sun) (Ifyoucan) and his group of loners come in without much knowledge of what is going on. Goat(sun) is almost killed by Julian but survives. Applespeck (Mayor Whinnyham) stays with Lightheart up in the mountains to keep her company. The two grow a tight bond.

I need y'all to hear me out on this okay?

[seagull-scribbles]

I could fix him

[p0p-r0xx]

On the subject of Sonic Underground while I can't sleep, I, for whatever reason, when I was a little kid used to think Bartleby the Mink and Antoine the Coyote were the same character and I'm still not sure where I got that from. I didn't ever get to read the Sonic comics much and I hadn't ever watched Sonic SatAM yet.

[notanothersonicblog]

I did not drop any frames here, this is how it happens in the episode.

[thesheeark]

A Warning

Dr. Robotnik ensures he means business when he partners Bartleby with Sleet, commanding him to find and turn in the triplets, including the mink's beloved Sonia. ...Else the rest of him will match his new arm. Based off the Au Rambles of ShinyMisty/theNaughtyEgg, (though the roboticized arm was my idea).

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[badlydrawnmanic]

they would not get along

[dailyundergrounds]

side characters!! bartleby monteclair, knuckles ,and trevor !!

[ramune-raven-art]

Sonic western au comeback hell yeah I love cowboy scifi stories WOOH

also bartleby expressions

help I love this gay little mink so much I will not stop drawing him