#based anime going off the first episode btw

[webtoon-devourer]

so i just watched the first episode of Betrayal Knows My Name and

shiki?

zero??

[littledigits]

Random facts that may amuse you about the river episode of hilda

To be handed a script and then be like ' ok now lead your team to do the visuals' its like ,a wild experience so I want to share some of the weird things my brain latched onto .. For the door sequence, My pitch to our location and color designers was based off of a blacklight, under water themed mini-putt course I used to love when I was a kid. Just goes to show you can really pull inspiration from anywhere haha. I dont think anyone expected me to go that buck wild with it but I'm glad everyone was on board. anyway.. I lovingly called it Eugene's ' Putt Putt cave of doom ' . I wanted the doors to look kind of flat, like stage props ! The mini putt is STILL THERE BTW . look at this video. GOSH I MISS IT SO MUCH.

Anyway - It works great too because it allowed everyone to have the cooler blacklight palettes, where you can see Eugenes -true- colors. I wanted him to be duller outside of the water on purpose. Cuz hes just a lil old timey guy. A " slightly deranged Stan Laurel " , which was what i had in my pitch notes to the design team.

Heres another silly fact but we based part of the serpent off of the sarcastic fringehead cuz..look at it . its just like -AHHHHHHHHHH. It just waves its mouth infront of other fish and it looks scary but it doesnt DO ANYTHING. ( I think, biologists can correct me)

Also just in general I was vibing with the old..creatures on a map . Like. Of course we're going to give this serpent hooves. OF COURSE THIS SEA SERPENT NEEDS HOOVES. So the designers did a few rounds based off of way older illustrations.

The choice of shadow puppets was done to give Eugene an 'old timey' flavor. I really wanted him to feel more vaudeville and tap dancey - so the shadow puppets were to give him a..more modest intro. The adventures of prince achmed was an inspiration, because how old school animation can you get ! And it really backed up the use of bold colors. I wanted to save his BIGGEST performance to the end, also shout out to @castletoons who boarded this episode AND nailed the song sequence WITHOUT EVEN HAVING THE FINAL SONG?! It fit perfectly. It was fate.

oh , and if you felt a particular beetle juicey tone to this whole episode? You're not wrong ! While it wasnt on my mind when I was first working on visual concepts, our storyboard supervisor Jeff Bittle showed me this intro from the second season of the animated show. Everything zipping at the camera on this endless void ride was the perfect chaotic energy that really helped bring in that sinister tone.

UH SO YEAH I mean I could go on about some of the thought processes behind choices and stuff and honestly I dont want to get into the weeds with opening up a pandoras box on behind the scenes of hilda or whatever. But I thought this episode was a fun example to kind of share a bit of The entire team ran with this weird chaotic energy and I appreciate them so much for it. I'll always love this strange lil episode.

[longwuzhere]

My Adventures with Superman Season 2 Easter Eggs

Welcome to the penultimate episode of My Adventures with Superman! Very sad that the season is ending next week but we still got the comic in the next 4 months! Hell yeah!!!!

My Easter eggs lists for season 1 is here if you haven't seen it!

My season 2 episode 1 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 2 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 3 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 1 post is here

My season 2 episode 4 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 5 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 6 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 2 post is here

My season 2 episode 7 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 8 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 10 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 3 post is here

Spoilers if you haven't seen the episode

Starting things off, we see Clark, still trapped by Brainiac live a life on "Krypton" with his "family" and we see him feed a Sun Eater.

In the comics, the Sun Eater makes its first appearance in Adventure Comics #305 (1963) where Mon-El, disguised as Marvel Boy is trying to get in the Legion of Superheroes team and in order for him to pass and be accepted, one of their test was to stop a Sun Eater and Mon-El was able to successfully drive it away from a sun.

The scene that this is homaging is similar to what happened in All-Star Superman #2 (2006) [<- highly recommend everyone read it btw] where Superman feeds a Sun Eater that he has in the Fortress of Solitude, a miniature sun that he created as seen in the page below (W: Grant Morrison P: Frank Quitely, I&C: Jamie Grant, L: Phil Balsman).

In the comics most of the time Sun Eaters are depicted as nebulous black hole-esque things, other times its a creature, but the closest MAwS's Sun Eater design is based on is the Sun Eater from the Supergirl CW tv show.

Next we see "Lara", invoke Rao's name after seeing Clark feed the Sun Eater a miniature sun.

So for those who do not know, Krypton's red sun is named after Rao, Krypton's sun god.

Rao, the red sun of Krypton, makes its first appearance in Superman #141 (1960) [W: Jerry Siegel, P: Wayne Boring, I: Stan Kaye] where Superman investigates a strange planet that turns out to be a creature and as Superman chases after it, he hits the time barrier and flies back to before Krypton's explosion.

Now Rao the Kryptonian God, makes his first appearance in Superman: The Last God of Krypton #1 (1999) [W: Walter Simonson P,I,&C: Greg and Tim Hildebrandt (yes Greg and Tim Hildebrandt who designed the original UK Star Wars poster from 1977), L: Ken Lopez] where Cythonna, Kryptonian goddess of ice, emerges from her banishment and sees that Krypton is no more. She goes after the last Kryptonian, take a wild guess who, to kill the last of Rao's descendants . We see Rao in the comic where Superman and Lois go to the Fortress of Solitude to see what Cythonna's history was before Krypton's destruction.

The episode's title is a reference to Gurren Lagann (<-Great anime if you're a Studio Trigger fan) where it is a quote from Kamina who says "Your drill is the drill that will pierce the heavens." Appropriate title considering what Clark and Lois does to free Clark from Brainiac's control.

We see that Lois is still under the Black Mercy's, well, mercy and I talked more about it here.

In the Black Mercy's dream world for Clark, we see that Lois has been captured by "Jor-El" and we see Clark and Lois meet up again, however both do not have memories of each other. Clark mentions that he's always in the Hall of Science where they keep the alien species, like the Sun Eater we saw before, working as a scientist.

The first instance of the "Hall of Science" was in Brave and the Bold #28 (1960) the first appearance of the Justice League where Starro was attacking Science City, and thus the Hall of Science. The Hall of Science's association doesn't come up until Secret Origins #1 (2014)

[W: Greg Pak, P: Lee Weeks, I: Lee Weeks, Sandra Hope, C: Dave McCaig, L: John J. Hill] where we see a retelling of Superman's origins. where scientist, Jor-El was trying to warn about the planet's explosion, but the Hall of Science expelled him for his alarmist warnings thinking nothing of it. Guess how that turned out for the planet. Very cool thing to have Clark be a scientist on this fake Krypton just like his father in the comics.

Back in MAwS IRL, one of the OMACs destroys the spaceship that was carrying Lois, Jimmy, Kara, Mallah, and the Brain and when Kara, Jimmy and Lois crash land, they get arrested by Waller and Taskforce X. Lucky for Jimmy that he was live streaming and this caught Perry's attention and he, the Daily Planet, and Vicky Vale were able to stall Taskforce X so Steve Lombard can sneak behind the Taskforce X prison carrier and break the trio out.

Steve's van has wolves howling at the moon painted on its exterior kinda invokes the three wolf moon shirt (designed by Antonia Neshev) vibes.

Later when the trio are in Steve's van, we see a blink and you miss it easter egg where apparently Steve went to Jump City Community College.

Jump City is a reference to the city that the Teen Titans from the 2000 cartoon are located in. So hey we got a Victor Stone and a city where one iteration the Teen Titans were in, so the Teen Titans are possible in the MAwS universe!

Jimmy's speech to Kara kinda gives off that "you choose who you want to be" quote vibes from Iron Giant, appropriate considering the Iron Giant is a Superman fan. Good movie too highly recommend checking that movie out too.

Back on "Krypton", Clark and Lois were able to get their memories back after so many groundhog day moments for Lois and we see this cool AF moment for her paying back how Clark protected her when they were attacked in the forest by the OMACs in episode 6 of season 1.

This scene specifically^

As Brainiac loses control over Clark thanks to Lois, Brainiac puts on anti-Kryptonite armor for him and his robots thanks to Lex using his Metallos that are now powered by Kryptonite (I talk more about Metallo here). Brainiac hacks into the Metallos and prepares to fire on Earth with an Archer beam from Kandor.

The Archer Beam, well technically the weapon itself makes its first appearance in Superman: The World of New Krypton #2 (2009) [W: Greg Rucka, James Robinson, P&I: Pete Woods, C: Brad Anderson, L: Steve Wands], where the Archer Rifle was developed as a weapon to stop rogue Kryptonians as the rifle blasts red sun to depower them for 30 minutes so they can be apprehended.

And finally, after Kara blocks the first Archer beam with her body, Clark comes in to stop the second and gets a new outfit.

The new suit doesn't have the red trunks anymore and that kinda makes you think of the New 52 suit that Superman wore during the DC universe reboot in 2011 (Final page of Justice League #1 (2011) [W: Geoff John, P: Jim Lee, I: Scott Williams, C: Alex Sinclair, L: Patrick Brosseau]). Ngl not a fan of this new look for MAwS Superman. The red trunks helps break up the large areas of blue, plus symbolically it helps tie back to his origins on Earth with Ma Kent being the one to give him the trunks. Also I do not like the yellow outline S-Shield, it makes me think of the new 2025 Superman movie S-Shield, which irks me when movies try to influence the source comics, when it should be the other way around *death glares at the MCU*. Really hope we get the red trunks again by the end of the season or at least in season 3.

Anyways come back next week for the final episode of My Adventures with Superman season 2 and then in August and the following 3 months for issues 3-6 of the comics too!

My Easter eggs lists for season 1 is here if you haven't seen it!

My season 2 episode 1 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 2 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 3 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman comic issue 1 post is here

My season 2 episode 4 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 5 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 6 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 2 post is here

My season 2 episode 7 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 8 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My season 2 episode 10 Easter eggs and references in My Adventures with Superman post is here

My Easter eggs and references for My Adventures with Superman comic issue 3 post is here

[ohbo-ohno]

I'm gripping the bars of my cage desperately, I'm chewing at the bars, begging, pleading for more zombie ghoap x reader au.

zombie ghoap x reader au coming right up chef 🫡

btw this is super similar to charliemwrites' jaw dropping ghoap x reader "the (scottish) cabin in the woods" so you need to go read that immediately (and leave a nice comment because charlie rocks)

cw for noncon puppyplay below the cut

i was talking to ceilidh a tiny bit about this earlier, and i think that johnny and reader met in like a cannibal cult kinda thing. very much so like that episode of TLOU, yknow? they both think they've found a little commune safe haven, but it very quickly becomes clear that that's not the case.

anyways, they end up trying to get out together when they realize what's going on, and have to kill a few of the cult members :/ they've been "stuck together" ever since

they threaten to leave the other for dead (or kill them in the middle of the night) constantly. it hasn't happened yet, obviously, but boy oh boy do both of them bring it up nonstop. they act like they hate each other, but honestly they just need to fuck

but they're sorta stuck together now. you're better off paired up with someone than on your own, that's something they both learned pre-cult fiasco. and, really, they don't dislike each other nearly as much as you might think based on the way they gripe

enter ghost. he spots these two survivors wandering through the forest, one injured and both filthy, and basically thinks to himself "hm. could be good in home entertainment"

(here's the deal with puppyplay like this - it's absurd, and we're just going with it. alright??? just WORK with me here)

if you didn't see, i put in the tags of the original post "#btw - he takes you home then chains you both up outside and says something like “this is where dogs stay” :/#dont worry you're perfectly safe (he has a high fence keeping zombies out) but he likes to hear how scared you get when you're out there all#you're both quite well behaved when he lets you in for dinner the next night &lt;3#he only has to scold you once when you both complain about being made to eat while kneeling on the floor next to him"

you're probably both "behaving" because you don't want him to. you know. fucking KILL YOU. but this is also a zombie apocalypse au, so you're both totally feral too. and this is an apocalypse ghost too, which means he's probably way harsher and way rougher around the edges than he even is in canon

anyways i think soap and reader here are more likely to be like "lets wait this out and try to escape when he's not expecting it" except they're like... really bad at trying to play along

ANYWAYS!!!! ghost takes you two back to his compound, ties the both of you up outside for the night. he wraps soap's ankle first, gives him a stern command to stay off of it, and goes back inside like everything is normal. he watches you two over the camera while planning out how he'll build some outdoor kennels for the two of you

you're both cold and tired and hungry and scared the next morning, so it doesn't take much coaxing on his part to get you inside. it takes a lot more coaxing to keep you two on your knees :/

honestly johnny's ankle is so fucked that it's almost a relief to keep pressure off of it (even if it means crawling around on the floor like an animal) but you care a hell of a lot more. ghost threatens to break your ankles before you finally listen :/

he ties the leashes to your wrists, to keep you both out of trouble as much as he can. it's not like either of you are eager to go very far - his house is warm and you're both chilled to the bone from your night outisde

anyways. that's all i've got like, linearly. but i can offer some random little tidbits about their lives after

ghost makes you both eat from the floor. he gives you plates (no silverware) at first and lets you use your hands, and gradually works the two of you up to eating from bowls with just your mouths

you and johnny bicker constantly and simon frequently makes the two of you kiss to make up :( forces you to make out with each other while he smokes a cigarette and enjoys the show. no matter how mad you are, you both end up needy and humping the air when he finally lets you stop

he tries to have you two sleep in the same crate, but it does not go well. ghost very quickly realizes that you two will try to tear each other's throats out if forced that closely together for an entire night

sometimes one of you will try to get the other in trouble. there's one particular night where you trick johnny into misbehaving and he's stuck in the outside kennel all night - but it rains. and every time you glance out the window you see how sad and cold he looks :((( ghost lets you love on him the next morning, and soap is more than eager for a bit of comfort after such a miserable night

[ryin-silverfish]

LMK S5 Fix-it: the Four Divine Beasts

My feeling on LMK S5 has stayed pretty consistent after first watching the Chinese dub: "nice character moments, but what even is this worldbuilding?"

And personally, the Four Divine Beasts/Guardians/Symbols are the biggest symptom of S5's worldbuilding problem.

Namely, they feel more like plot devices that are just there to die and cough up the Color Stones, and as a result, 4/5 of the "Find the Color Stone" plotline felt like a worse version of S3 and the Samadhi Rings, but with even less flavor.

Now, I'm aware of the 11-minute episode constraint, as well as the pressure the studio change might have created that contributed to the overall feeling of rushed-ness.

However, my criticism here is about the writing and worldbuilding, not the animation quality——things that, in my humble and uneducated opinion, could have been done a lot better even if we were sticking to the "Find the McGuffins" plotline.

Thus, this post. As always: very lengthy, very Chinese-mythos inspired.

Four Guardians & Five Phases

A brief Google Search on the Four Symbols, aka Sixiang, will tell you this: the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermillion Bird and Black Tortoise are divine beasts in Chinese mythology that watch over the four directions, each associated with a color and one of the Five Phases.

(An old post of mine briefly talked about their origins as personifications of four big constellations that occupy a quadrant of the sky each, and their relations to the 28 Lunar Mansions)

And S5 certainly paid homage to their elemental associations, however brief and surface-level it is.

The Vermillion Bird's ability to use fire and its flaming temple is the most notable example, but this screenshot of the seal that appeared at the temple entrances also shows five symbols:

From middle left, going in the clockwise direction, these appear to be the characters for Wood, Water, Fire, Earth and Metal in Oracle Bone/Bronze Script.

Which begs the question...why would you spend so much effort on the tiny visual details, yet not show most of their elemental association through the narrative itself?

Like, suppose you are a foreign audience that knows nothing about Chinese culture and legends, who have just finished watching S5, and I ask you "What elemental powers do each of the Four Symbols have?"

Apart from Vermillion Bird = Fire (the obvious one) and the Black Tortoise = maybe Earth (which is not mythos-accurate, btw), can you honestly answer it, based only on what the show has given you?

Which leads me to my biggest gripe: their random-as-hell placement.

Even the Samadhi Rings have a map, however vague it is, but with the Color Stones, the gang basically just wandered all over the place in the hope of eventually running into one of the divine beasts——and they did, somehow!

Like, I'm not asking the writers for an entire mini-arc that's just them piecing the clues together. But will it be too much to let SWK or Tang make an off-hand comment like this?

"Well, legends said that the Four Symbols watch over the four directions and their respective elements. So if we wanna find them, we just gotta go real far in these directions, toward places with the most of that... elemental stuff! Right?"

And that brings me to the actual fix-it part. The Vermillion Bird can stay where she is, but the placement of the other three should also logically follow their elemental associations.

Oh, and though there's limited space for their characterization, they should at least get some individual characterization apart from "wise ancient guardians".

Xuanwu, Black Tortoise of the North

The fact that Xuanwu, or rather, it's snake half, can transform into stone at will might lead you to believe that its element is Earth.

Well...no, not traditionally; the Black Tortoise and the North correspond to Water in the Five Phases system, and I'm gonna both stick to that and build my fix-it off this foundation.

Instead of cosplaying a stone statue in the middle of nowhere, Xuanwu is gonna be residing on one of the islands in the North Sea, where dark tides and huge snow storms rage endlessly under the sunless sky.

So Sandy, being the water travel specialist, is gonna head out there on his boat. Mei would go to her great x N granduncle, Ao Guang's place, to see if he has any clues on, well, this big blue dragon that's also of the East.

Pigsy and Tang would head west, classic JTTW style, towards the mythical Mt. Kunlun where Queen Mother of the West resides (based on one of Tang's books that said the White Tiger was her emissary), while SWK performs an all-round search everywhere on his somersault cloud.

Which leaves MK: his dilemma is not about some random divergence in the road, but which of his friends to follow. Like, what if he goes with one person, and something bad happen to the others in the meantime?

In the end, even though he reluctantly goes with Sandy, he is still constantly distracted by his worries about everyone else, which segments nicely into the meditation training of S5E3.

But since they are doing it on a boat, there can be an external storm to go with the internal storm, causing further distractions for MK and also forcing them to seek shelter on the nearest island.

An island that, strangely, seems to be coated in a thin layer of ice. It isn't just the earth that's frosted over: all the plants, a few unfortunate multi-headed (???) seabirds, and a snake have also turned into ice statues...

Wait, snake? How does a reptile survive this far out in the north?

They have a bigger concern, however. The ice is slowly but steadily spreading, over the beaches and the surrounding seawater, and if they don't finish the search soon, the ice might get too thick for the boat to break.

So MK dashed off to do a grid-by grid search, then circled back to the place with all the frozen statues...and found the snake missing.

Cue, peak paranoia moment, and going on a wild-goose chase for the missing snake that might or might not be an ice-wielding demon waiting to ambush them.

In fact, the snake almost seems to be taunting them, seeing how they run into several "frozen snake statues" that turned out to be made of actual, solid ice. Sandy keeps reminding him to stop and think, while MK finds it harder and harder to put the lessons to practice.

By following the trail of ice statues, however, they eventually arrived on a little island in the middle of a frozen lake, where the real snake——the one half of Xuanwu lay coiling around the Blue Color Stone.

Just when MK is about to dash out and grab it, the snake comes to life with a hiss, and they barely dodged the ice spikes rising up from underneath their feet.

"Begone, foul spawn of Hundun! Return to thy conniving master, ilk of the Floodbringer, before I freeze every single drop of thy tainted blood!" "Um, I-I think you've mistaken me for someone else? I'm the Monkie Kid, and I'm here to collect your Color Stone so I can save the world——" "Doth thee mistake me for a fool, too?" The snake bore its fangs, rising its head high up into the air. "I can feel the flames of dear Lingguang on you, murderer, ripped straight out of its rightful owner's chest! She would not have perished without a fight, nor shalt I!" "Enough, Zhiming."

The tiny island itself begins to shake, revealing the other half of Xuanwu, the Black Tortoise itself. The snake still manages to half-encast Sandy in ice, before the Black Tortoise traps it inside a ball of flowing water.

She briefly apologized for her twin's hostility——whereas the strain of keeping the world together affects her body in the form of visible cracks, her other half has not been in his right mind ever since the Vermillion Bird's fall, living in the distant past and rarely able to perceive the present.

(The whole conversation is punctuated by the snake's psychic screeches in the background, which alternates between accusing her of betrayal and stating she must have fallen victim to the "poisonous blood of the enemy".)

Which makes the upcoming trial even more necessary. No, it's not "mercy-kill her twin". Yet. MK needs to prove his ability to control his body and mind, that his psyche will not break like her other half here under the tremendous pressure.

Thus, the trial of meditation. And he needs to act fast, for she cannot hold the snake back for long, as made evident by the slowly creeping ice inside and outside his watery prison.

"If you are truly worthy, then vanquish your fears, and stand before us in your true form. Brandish Lingguang's stone, so that we may be released from our watch in the long night."

MK succeeded, like he did in canon, with a small difference: his mastery of the monkey form is required for, and enables the limited usage of the stone's power.

So, holding the Red Color Stone, he unleashes a wave of fiery light that melts away the ice on Sandy and finally brings the snake back to his senses...somewhat.

He only managed to say the Vermillion Bird's name in a wistful voice, exclaiming "How I missed thy warm flames!" before melting into a puddle of water.

The other half of Xuanwu soon followed after giving him the stone, disintegrating into a mass of snowflakes that is swept away by the wind, but not before dropping one last bit of foreshadowing:

"Trust not the Floodbringer's Emissary."

(Sidenote: I think it'll be neat if the Four Symbols refer to each other using their IRL Daoist titles. Vermillion Bird - Lingguang, Black Tortoise & Snake - Zhiming, Azure Dragon - Mengzhang, White Tiger - Jianbing)

Azure Dragon & White Tiger

...And I thought Xuanwu's placement was random.

No, seriously, why is there a random music festival that just happens to be Azure Dragon and White Tiger themed that just happens to be near the actual place the two divine beasts are at?

To stay within the show's time constraint, I will not be giving White Tiger his individually themed placement, and instead try to come up with something that is appropriate for the pair as a whole.

Since Azure Dragon's associated element is Wood, it makes sense for him to have plant powers. Namely, whereever the divine beast resides, floras and faunas will flourish, no matter how out of place with the local geography and climate.

Once Mei learned that from Ao Guang, theoretically, it becomes quite the easy find: the mythical oasis city in western China, one that shows up multiple times in historical travel records yet has never been found by archeologists.

And the reason will soon become clear, as Tang and Pigsy make the drive from one desert city to another on their way to Mt. Kunlun (joined by Mei after she returned from the Samadhi Fire side-arc).

Namely, it's like a magical version of the famous Peach Blossom Spring of Chinese literature: an entire city that has been glamored over by the power of the divine beasts, occupied by people whose way of life hasn't changed since the Tang dynasty.

But as the guardians' powers fade, so does the illusion that veils it from the outside world, and the elemental magic that sustains this paradise.

Instead of a music festival, the gang finally discover the city that, according to the locals, has appeared out of thin air a few days ago, while it is in the middle of an archaic ritual procession.

The atmosphere is a lot more solemn, and it isn't hard to see why. Not only has the illusion vanished, exposing them to a profoundly alien world, the foliage of the oasis are growing and dying in rapid succession, clogging the streets with fallen leaves and yellowed petals.

An opera play is going on atop a nearby stage. It sings of a teal-robed immortal who rescued the refugees of a long-forgotten war, who turned desert into fertile soil with the help of a mighty divine general, concealing their existence from the greed and malice of the outside world.

The people in the procession knelt down and pleaded to the immortal for aid, to not abandon them in their hour of need. And their prayers are, indeed, answered, just not by the divine beasts in person.

The 14 Lunar Mansions that belong to the Azure Dragon and White Tiger descended from the sky, summoned by their masters, though they seemed to have been given different orders.

Namely, the Azure Dragon 7 spread out to guard all the major city gates, letting no one enter or leave, while the White Tiger 7 are ordered to round up all the residents and start setting up a teleportation formation.

Soon afterwards, Nezha arrived in the midst of the chaos. He is just as clueless as to what was going on as the Monkie Kid gang, but the moment he caught sight of SWK and friends, he's after them in hot pursuit.

Meanwhile, Li Jing is not happy about the Lunar Mansions suddenly acting without his orders, and commanded them to stand down or be arrested for insubordination.

"With all due respect, Devaraja Li——" Before the Moon Fox Star could finish her sentence, another stellar beast stepped forth, his tiger tail swishing behind him. "Who the hell do you think you are?"

Results: most of the Azure Dragon 7 get sucked into his pagoda, but while they were fighting, the White Tiger 7's formation activated, teleporting the majority of the city residents to god knows where.

While shit was hitting the fan, Tang hurriedly teleported the gang away, right into the sanctuary of the divine beasts——an underground temple.

"It's over, Mengzhang. Now that the Harbinger is on our doorsteps, and your pet mortals are safe at the cost of our loyal warriors, will you finally rest easy?" "Not...yet. There are still...stragglers, left behind." "Stragglers you have doomed yourself! Their fate is sealed the moment you cast your mirage over their ancestors and create this little utopia, frozen in time." The cracks on the tiger's body widened. A thick layer of condensation began forming on the metal reliefs, as if the very walls of the temple were weeping. "I should have never agreed to stay and help." "Yet you...still did. And I'm so glad you are here."

Yep, in this fix-it, I decide to use the Azure Dragon & White Tiger for some thematic parallels, with them basically repeating Nvwa and the Pillar of Heaven on a smaller scale.

The former created a garden city in the middle of the desert, while the latter uses his power to provide the water source that sustains the city (because Metal births Water).

As the end approaches, however, they are faced with the problem of ensuring the city residents' safety, since, upon their death, the entire oasis will revert to a desert overnight.

The White Tiger feels like there's no point in trying anything, since their death means the Harbinger will fulfill his destiny soon and give the world a reboot.

But the Azure Dragon insists on channeling his power into the land until the very last possible moment, so that the people's last memories will be a mundane, peaceful one.

Besides, they know very well that Fate and Destiny are no longer ironclad, when the very laws of reality are breaking down. How, then, can he be sure that the cycle will end and the world will be reforged as Nvwa intended, seeing that its premature beginning is already an outlier?

After a long argument, they had reached an uneasy compromise. Thus, the chaotic arrival of the Lunar Mansions and the hurried evacuation of the residents.

"You will understand, won't you, Harbinger?" The dragon looked into his eyes. "Even if you know it's selfish and futile, that you can't keep them safe forever, you are still going to give your all, just so their happy days will last a little longer..." "It is easy for Brother Jianbing to say, let go, face your end with honor. For Metal is the clashes of blades, the unforgiving axe of executioners." "I? This old fool just saw lives. Of men and women, children and elderly folks. And I cannot stand by and watch them wither."

MK nodded quietly, feeling Mei's worried, "are you not telling me something" glance on the back of his head. He reached out a hand, and the two divine beasts press their foreheads together.

The dragon faded away in a rain of falling leaves and petals, and when the Purple Color Stone hit the ground, nothing remains of the tiger but a thin layer of silvery, metallic sand on the floor.

Appendix: Inside the Pagoda

The fix-it is mostly over at this point, so the following is just me adding some additional worldbuilding and foreshadowing to MK's solution in E10, to make the whole "giving powers to everyone" thing a little less out of left field.

In the previous section, it was mentioned that a bunch of Lunar Mansions end up inside Li Jing's pagoda too. And when MK and friends run across them, they are in a pretty bad state.

Namely, the same cracks they see on the divine beasts are now appearing on the Lunar Mansions' bodies too.

"Isn't it obvious? Our masters are no more, so we now bear the brunt of the weight that was once on their shoulders..." "And are on our way of being crushed to a pancake." "Very tactful, aren't you?" The one-horned man sighed. "But yes. Lord Mengzhang is a stellar beast too——the greatest of all. He is a constellation, while we are merely the stars that make up the dragon's body, embued with a tiny fraction of his power." "And when the very sky of the East has fallen..." "How can the stars remain unscathed?"

After that, they basically exit the scene to fade away offscreen. But the information they revealed plants the seed of an idea in MK: specifically, that the Color Stones' power (and burden) can be shared between multiple individuals, like what happened at the end of E10.

Also, tiny fix: instead of MK learning the circlet spell outta nowhere, he's gonna tap into the power of the Color Stones during his fight with SWK, just like he did during Xuanwu's trial, to buy enough time to make his sacrifice.

[shhimagiraffe]

Fantasy High + Pokemon

I was inspired by @candaceaprillee and their art that they made for Hootgrowlithe zine! I had to go all in and make their teams, based off everything that's been released as of FHJY episode 3. There have been more episodes by this point but nothing that has happened since has influenced any changes!

Gang, I thought about this a lot...this is a lengthy post. This genius simply couldn't be contained. There are some that are based on vibes, and some that I dug a little deeper with Pokedex entries. Rest assured my explanations should suffice my reasoning! These Pokemon are not in any particular order btw!!

Adaine

Adaine's team is just Peak Blue/cool color Vibes. Was not intentional! I picked a lot of spherical shapes and mon that happen to exude calming energy/auras. I do think that, for now, Adaine keeps her Orb Pokemon from evolving because they're the perfect shape.

Spheal - Spheal is the perfect orb shaped Pokemon. I could not leave it out of the line up. Additionally, Spheals have soft fur and I think when Adaine's having a panic attack that soft fur would be good for grounding. As Spheal evolves it also learns to "identify" things with its sensitive nose, reminiscent of the Identify Spell.

Natu - Another phenomenal orb. While it's no owl, it will evolve into a psychic, fortune telling mon some day. It does have prophetic abilities in this version, but it seems to be more about hopping about and staring at things. Something about that feels right for Adaine.

Gardevoir - Admittedly, Gardevoir did not initially make my list for Adaine. I did get to thinking that since Adaine comes from an extremely rich family (albeit a neglectful one), her parents would want to give her a fancy mon to exert her status. I don't know if they'd give her a straight up Gardevoir as a kid, but in any case the whole line up is fairy/psychic; I thought since the Abernants are high elves that they would lean towards fairy type Pokemon to link back to their heritage. In any case! Gardevoir ALSO reads the future!

Dragonair - Dragonairs have that blue orb in them, plus they exude a "gentle aura," again another helpful thing for Adaine. They're also part of a pseudo legendary line, which is a great match for our legendary oracle. There's something very elegant about Dragonair, and it evolves into a cute lovey Dragonite!!!

Riolu - I originally gave Adaine a fully evolved Lucario, but given that Riolu evolves with high friendship, I don't know if Adaine would be emotionally ready for that. It still gets the same vibes across with being able to detect auras of others. I'm HC'ing that she got her Riolu as part of an official Welcome to the Family gift from Jawbone :') Riolu is basically an emotional support dog, after all.

Feebas - :) Gang :) I'm taking some liberties here. Wouldn't it be angsty and sad if we envision small Adaine, sad and alone, ignored and chastised by her family, off on her own and happens upon a sad little Feebas? And finds comradery in this lil fish that's considered the ugliest thing in the world? She brings home her very first mon she caught herself and her family tears her to shreds for it but she still loves this mon with a bad rap? I'm obsessed.

Fabian

Fabian's mon consist of a mix of fighting types, dancing vibes, and trauma based dex entries! That's really all I can say so summarize his team. I'm sorry to my boy but he's so fun to play in the angst space with.

Lombre - My HC is that Bill Seacaster gave Fabian his first Pokemon, maybe as a small Lotad. Lombre, in the anime, is one of Ash's mon that gave him a hard time, and I think that Fabian would have at least one mon that wouldn't completely respect him in the same way. Once Fabian sheds the expectations of his father, then Lombre accepts him and their relationship blooms! Bonus points! Lombre evolves into Ludicolo, a dancing Pokemon!

Cubone - This is my biggest brain idea. Cubone's whole thing is abandonment because of his mother dying. While Fabian's mother is not dead, she might as well be since she's off traveling with Gilear. Even before then! She was emotionally absent in his life. Sure the skull could be from his literal dead father THAT HE KILLED...there's just something about the mother/son relationship (or lack thereof) that's *chef's kiss*

Hitmontop - This Pokemon is purely fighter, but he's got sick dance moves and if this isn't the Pokemon version of Fabian I don't know what is.

Kirlia - Sigh. Okay. So. The dancing theme is obvious. Unfortunately, I think Fabian would be the kind of guy that would sexualize Kirlia's evolution, Gardevoir. I could only hope that he wouldn't fall in love with his mon but JY Fabian has me fucked up with his character development. I originally gave Fabian Kirlia before I gave Adaine her Gardevoir, so I think he'd probably go with Gallade for his evolution? I do think that this mon, whatever happens, would knock some sense into Fabian like Brock's mon do in the anime, hehe!

Bisharp - Bisharp reflects Fabian's initial work with swordfighting and fencing. Its description about leading groups of its unevolved form plus getting kicked out if it loses a battle to become boss.....gives me Fabian's Very Bad No Good Day on Leviathan vibes to me.

Absol - Absol's deal is that it is something of an unlucky charm -- but it can actually warn people of incoming dangers. I truly think Fabian needs a creature like that in his life. He probably wouldn't know how to interact with a mon such as this, but I believe in him.

Fig

Fig's team consists of fire types, music based designs, and illusion/trickery Pokemon. I'm realizing that I'm HC'ing that a lot of Fig's mon evolved with her around the time that she learned she's actually a tiefling. I borrowed that idea from Candace, particularly with Houndoom!

Jigglypuff - Jigglypuff is SUCH a match for Figueroth Faeth, I'm talking pre-campaign Fig. It's cute, it's bubbly, and is fully capable of being a menace. Fig would absolutely egg on her mon to do something like, I don't know, marking up their sleeping audience out of anger. Plus it's a singer so it could be a cute lil back up singer for Fig! Jiggly is also sweet and fitting for Fig because it evolves through high friendship. I know that Fig says she keeps her emotions wrapped up but miss thing would absoLUTELY have best friendships with her mon.

Loudred - Loudred feels right for Fig, especially if we assume that Fig started with Whismur, this shy timid lil pink first evolution that has a piercing scream. It's basically a big speaker as well (even though it would not be ideal for a concert with it being able to level houses...Fig would probably love that though) It is a pretty destructive Pokemon, but if it gets to evolve it'll mellow out some. I don't know Fig will ever truly mellow out, but who knows! Anything's possible!

Salazzle - Salazzle's deal is that she emits pheromones that attract males which I think goes well with Fig's penchant for flirting with random guys. Maybe Fig found her Salazzle while in Hell and wasn't an initial part of her team, as they are found in volcanoes and other craggy places. She's also generally cunt and Fig deserves a member like that on her team :)

Zoroark - I love Zoroark for Fig as it is an illusion based Pokemon that is extremely loyal to those that have good bonds with them (I'm being liberal with this, they're more loyal to other Zoroarks but I think Fig's would see her on the same level). It can transform itself and makes large crowds believe their illusion. It just matches Fig's vibes!!! Could I go into how its first evolution, Zorua, transforms itself to protect itself from danger and that parallel with Fig's transformations to protect her emotional state?? Sure, but y'all get the point.

Houndoom - Houndoom is a given for Fig. It's a demon fire dog. For our tiefling archdevil that occasionally shifts into German Shepherd mode? Yeah, nuff said.

Shelgon - Shelgon's line is based on being so determined and literally head strong to get what they want. There's the obvious trait we see here, which is that hard shell that Fig often comments on. Both creatures are reorganizing their cells to better reflect their true/ideal selves. Plus Shelgon turns into a dope dragon and I wouldn't put it past Fig to love that for herself and her Pokemon.

Gorgug

Gorgug's mon are a majority grass/bug based, which I think works with how he grew up with the Thistlesprings in the tree. I gave him two "new" members of his party to reflect his artificer second class. Pretty much all of them could work for both of his classes!

Timburr - Timburr's a cute lil guy that absolutely would start out with Gorgug training to be a barbarian and turn into a lil helper with Gorgug's artificer tinkering. Should Timburr be more evolved than its base form? Yes. Do I think the rest of the line is ugly? Also yes. Sorry about it.

Roselia - I needed to reference Gorgug's very sweet tin flower in some way!!! If taken care of, and we know our boy would absolutely would, it releases a calming scent. Maybe this scent helps calm down Gorgug before he enters a rag e outside of battle, or just to help him relieve anxiety at the end of the day.

Rillaboom - Gorgug 100% would have first gotten its first evolution, Grookey, as his first mon. It'd fit in perfectly with the tree, plus it's whole line is about drumming and rhythm!!! What more can you ask of a mon?

Heracross - I think Heracross is Cute. And strong to boot! For a long time, it's the only one that can keep up with Gorgug as far as strength goes. It's described as docile unless it's disturbed while eating honey; a great match for our sweet barbarian!

Rookidee - I'll be so honest, this choice was based off Cloaca Chloe. I originally gave him Beldum, which is literally a hunk of steel. But I thought about it some more, especially with Chloe being a metal bird, and how could I *not* pick a Pokemon that eventually turns into this giant badass steel/flying type Corviknight? Plus, this mon is bold and always up to the challenge of fighting. What better for a creation that goes "I SUCK" all the time unprovoked?

Tinkatuff - I think that Gorgug found this mon while in the Nightmare Forest, or perhaps right outside of it scared and alone. She's figuring out tinkering along with Gorgug and I know this giant/tiny duo would kick so much ass. Will Tinkatuff end up wanting to fight Rookidee all the time? ...Maybe, but I'm sure Gorgug will find some kind of solution for that to be chill with each other.

Kristen

I had the hardest time with Kristen, because I can't really pin down her personality and ideals in Pokemon. I think it's because she doesn't know who she is currently. I love Kristen, but most of these mon are a read on her.

Bellossom - Bellossom is one of the handful of Pokemon out there that has the healer ability! It could certainly be the final evolution of a mon Kristen could have had as a cleric of Helio, Oddish. Also, picturing Kristen and Bellossom doing ribbon dances together? That'd be cute as hell.

Cosmog - Cosmog is veeeeery Cassandra to me. It's a borderline legendary Pokemon. It is characterized as taking an immediate liking to anyone who gives it the time of day. Something about the frailty of this mon reminds me of Kristen's current god. And if any of The Bad Kids were going to have a legendary mon, it'd be Kristen. Given episode 4, we might be looking at an evolution soon...

Psyduck - Psyduck is constantly plagued with headaches that makes it constantly confused! While Kristen doesn't get the headaches she doesn't necessarily quite know what's going on and why she does certain things. It looks like this season she's on the ball with battles though so we'll see! I'm also thinking of Misty's Psyduck and how she treated hers...while I don't think Kristen would get pissed off with her Psyduck, I think she wouldn't see its value in her party all the time.

Eevee - The beauty with Eevee is that it simply could be anything depending on its environment. I think, if anything, this mon most reflects her current religion with Cassandra in that nothing is set in stone and that's okay.

Bidoof - Kristen picked Bidoof for the meme. I just know she would have at least one joke Pokemon. And yet...I don't know, Bidoof just works with Kristen for reasons I can't explain.

Quaquaval - This is the gayest Pokemon I've EVER seen. Imagine seeing this guy ribbon dancing with Kristen? SICKENING!!!! On a more serious note, it does take things more seriously especially while training. Kristen needs someone to whip her into shape, take things more serious.

Riz

Riz is obviously our crime solving lil goblin kid. Of course, he's going to initially pick mons that could help with a case. But he's also got SUCH a big heart and would wholeheartedly love all of his mon for who they are outside of being helpful. I also just had to go in and do my best to make sure that Riz has a balanced team -- I refuse to think of him as someone that wouldn't have an answer to counter a weak point for any of his Pokemon.

Zigzagoon - I've HC'd that Zigzagoon as Riz's first ever Pokemon! Found him in the grass while he was snooping around for something, and Zigzagoon are naturally curious and restless creatures, so they became quick best friends. I think they're always side by side working on a case!

Spoink - Ok hear me out...I was thinking about how the Night Yorb happened because of Riz trying to figure out Garthy, essentially creating the Night Yorb for the universe with that bit. So I fell on Spoink with it's orb on it's head. But then I got to thinking...Spoink can never stop bouncing because it will die if it does. And if THAT is not Riz Gukgak I don't know what is. Boy doesn't know how to relax; his literal worst fear is resting.

Rotom - Honestly I think Rotom would be super useful for Riz! I'm thinking with the arcade in Freshman Year, if Riz had a Rotom that encounter would have been a bit easier! It is a little bit mischievous, and while that's not really Riz's steez, I think he'd find it endearing to a degree.

Klefki - I think that Riz would love to collect things like keys he thinks are relevant to a case. The great thing about Klefki is that it will hang on to keys that it likes and I think Riz relates to wanting to hold on to things he obsesses over! I know that Riz trusts Klefki with his keys, in general. It apparently jingles itself at attackers, and the mental image of a ring of keys jingling while Riz hisses in Goblin Mode™ is so funny to me.

Greninja - Greninjas give me rogue energy. By this time in its evolution it's a pro at devising battle strategy and is a sharpshooter like its trainer. Plus you KNOW Riz would have Battle Bond with Greninja, they'd be a great fighting pair!

Golbat - Originally I picked a bat Pokemon to relate back to Riz's goblin race; goblins live in dungeons, bats live in dungeons, fantastic! Plus the teeth and open mouth? Riz and Golbat going toe to toe in hissing games. Ok let's get serious, cutthroat. I feel as if Riz would find kinship with its unevolved form, Zubat, because of how they are perceived as small annoying things (I personally was always annoyed encountering zubats in the games, idk if this is a widespread belief). Bonus: Golbats evolve with high friendship into Crobat! I don't know why I didn't give Riz a Crobat, just didn't feel right I guess.

And that's the end! Hope you enjoyed this deep dive into Pokemon, Fantasy High, and dare I say character analysis??? I don't know, that might be a little generous to my word vomit. Get in the comments!! I'd love to hear other takes and see more discussion!!

Anyways uhhhh stream Fantasy High Junior Year on Dropout and play/watch some Pokemon k bye

[i-didnt-hate-it]

Okay, starting with something just so I can get back into the swing of this.

I didn't hate the first two episodes of Star Wars: The Acolyte.

Not really spoilers below, but if you want to go into it without knowing anything, maybe read this another time.

It takes a little bit to get invested, mostly because I don't know the characters yet, but it's actually refreshing to not know anything about any of them. To start off with characters you don't know or care about and set up a premise intriguing enough to make me care, that's promising.

After the first two episodes, I can say I'm into it, and I can't wait for the rest of the season. It's not perfect, and I can see some of the things that toxic "fans" are going to complain about. Some the acting and dialogue is a bit stilted, some of the sets clearly look like they were made on the volume, and sometimes the editing/pacing is a little weird. But the story is interesting enough for me to ignore most of that stuff.

It's not Andor, but it's not trying to be. It's not The Mandalorian, but it's not trying to be. It's not Ahsoka... you get the idea. The Acolyte is taking a big risk, setting itself in an era we haven't seen yet except for books, comics, and one animated show that is marketed for very young children (Young Jedi Adventures is pretty cute btw, I've watched a couple episodes). We don't know most of these characters, and if you're like me and you haven't gotten into the High Republic stuff yet, you don't know any of them.

I would dare to say that The Acolyte is even more original than Andor. Andor has amazing original plotlines and superb writing, but it still focuses on an era we know extremely well and stars a character whose fate we already know. Of course, this isn't anything against Andor, and it also isn't to say that originality is not the sole factor in making a good show. But it is easier to compare these shows that "no one asked for" rather than shows based on established popular characters like Ahsoka or Boba Fett.

I don't want to get into every detail, because this post is long enough already. I'll just say that The Acolyte feels like Star Wars. If you like watching Jedi be Jedi, if you enjoyed the episodes of The Clone Wars where the Jedi just did Jedi things and foiled plots and uncovered mysteries, The Acolyte is Star Wars for you. If you liked Tales of The Jedi, watching Dooku, Mace Windu, and Qui Gon Jinn in their prime before the Clone Wars, The Acolyte is for you. If you liked Star Wars Visions, seeing new, creative takes on Star Wars with unique fight scenes and interesting spins on classic Star Wars themes like balance and duality, The Acolyte is for you.

If none of that sounds interesting, maybe it's not for you, and that's okay. Nobody is making you watch it, but please don't be toxic about it.

[spectorcsm]

AvA6 EP1 SPOILERS

Alright peeps I'm joining in this chaos and you should all fear me This post has no plan or path this is just a ramble analysis of things I notice in the new episode so :D

EXPECT MAJOR SPOILERS, PLEASE WATCH THE EPISODE FIRST ^-^

Ok so like first off guys- maybe like- don't fire your glitch weapons in the middle of a crowded city?? This seems like a bad idea?? You guys are worse than the Avengers when it comes to collateral damage smh

Ok but Chosen stopping mid-chase to save that civilian by destroying the debris really goes to show how he's improved as a character, this guy went from destroying Alan's PC, to rampaging various sites with Dark, and now to this. Glad to see him as a proper hero now :D

I'm happy to see the ice powers coming back cuz after that one time he froze the Firefox I thought they just forgot about it lol

Chosen is Zeus now Also he just like creates a glacier 2 seconds later cool

Also quick shoutout to Alan's Desktop organization He has come a long way

I find it funny how much everyone focused on this clip in the trailer especially, like "Oh no does Orange get mad at Alan again?? Is this related to Vic???" and the reality of it is "lol wanna fight me guys?" "Sure sounds fun :D" Alan you have bamboozled us again

I find this moment rather interesting So after Alan pulls up the thingy and sends them all flying then crashing down, Red appears to be acting like they hurt their head and Yellow notices and crawls over to see if they're ok (Awwwijascsdhljw) but as soon as they do Red just punches em?? However then Yellow puts their hands up in a way almost to be like "whoa whoa it's just me" and then Red accepts the comfort. Idk I just find it interesting, like Red is still in fight-mode after the sparring match and doesn't quite register that it's Yellow touching them at first XD

Chosen: "COME ON DO IT, DO THE EYE THING" Orange: "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT IDK HOW TO DO THAT" Chosen: "YES YOU DO JUST DO IT, LIKE THIS:" Orange: "AAAAAAAAA" *Tries to do laser-eyes with every ounce of focus they have*

Red: "uhhh are they ok-" Green: "Maybe you should stop them?" Blue: "yeahhh maybe-" Yellow: "Hmm, yes. Interesting"

Chosen: "UGH FORGET IT YOU'RE COMING WITH ME" Sticknapping 101

Aight but like where did this guy (Btw I'll call him Striker cuz that name was going around and it's cool) get this stuff? Has their group attacked a Desktop before and managed to steal enough UI to make this guy OP? Cuz he uses a lot of really crazy stuff during this fight and I can't help but wonder what poor animator woke up just to find the entire UI on their software missing lol

I love how Chosen really just pulls the "Throw the kid in the pool to teach them how to swim" on Orange and his powers here lol Then to Chosen's surprise it does not work "Aw shoot the kid is drowning now I gotta save them smh"

YEAHHHH ART POWERS Ok but actually though I find it interesting how differently the Pencil tool works outside a Desktop, like usually Orange like speed-draws the whole entire thing but out here it's like Ah yes, line scribble = E e l I mean it actually kinda makes sense, in the 3D world it'd be really difficult to draw anything really so the Pen just changes function a bit based on the environment

Poor Green does not enjoy climbing it seems :(

This guy can forever one-up everything "Ok but have you beat up a shark with your bare hands and won?

Ok but this guy's style is just like tribal or primitive and it's honestly pretty cool I have no clue what to call them though so that's up to the rest of the fandom to decide ':D

Also someone else on a different site suggested the name "Warnman" for this guy cuz he looks like the typical hazard sign guy who's always showing the dreadful things that will happen if you don't obey the sign and I think the name fits so Warnman is honestly my favorite of these guys just cuz of how wacky they are lol

Also this guy has to be like Anime Stick or something I do not understand this dude at all but they're sick

Let it be known that Warnman is canonically 2D

Dude how much charge do those electro-bullets hold if that thing is STILL zapping Chosen This poor guy Also the way Striker fights throughout this whole scene is so cool

I find it interesting and I think Alan pointed out in the reaction video (really funny btw you should go watch that too) That Striker is totally just messing with them before that, like sure he probably has to be close to the target to use the Pause attack but I like to think he was enjoying the fight before that and is only just doing it now cuz he's bored lol

Aight so the Rocket Group is the one hunting Chosen I wanna know though- why Chosen specifically? Are they just after all Hollowheads with the powers or is it just Chosen they want? Maybe they're after all of them but Chosen is the only one with a super known presence? Also who are these guys?? They seem to be just some independent group but do they hold any sort of actual authority over Stick City? Man I have so many questions

How do you pause fire-? Does it still burn? I assume not cuz I think it woulda burned the guys bringing him by now Man that's wacky but cool Also another question here is like, is that white box a containment unit or some sort of display case? I'm thinking more along the lines of containment but like he's already paused and they left the door open I think??

Aight now we're getting to the theory-fuel Why are they studying all this UI? Where'd they get this UI? Why do all these sticks look exactly the same??? Like I get that it's just supposed to represent a large group of workers and stuff but they are all exactly the same shade-

A h a A h a a a . . . VICTIM???? VIC MY GUY WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE HOW ARE YOU ALIVE?? LIKE I GET YOU'RE PROBABLY MAD AT ALAN LIKE KILLING YOU AND ALL BUT WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH CHOSEN AND EVERYONE?? I have many questions Also I am wondering if all the UI decor in his office is just art or what, are they trophies maybe? They probably had to get the UI for Striker's setup somewhere, did they raid Desktops before? Are those trophies from animators he's beaten? Man Idk but this is so interesting My final take on the episode: AAAAAAAAAAAAAA LET'S GOOO AvA 6 HYPEEE :D

[constellationlans]

SPOILERS FOR SCOTT PILGRIM TAKES OFF. WATCH THE FIRST EPISODE AT LEAST BEFORE PROCEEDING

Scott Pilgrim getting an anime was certainly a surprise in a year full of surprises but hey here we are. Recently released on Netflix and having a lot of time on my hands due to being sick in bed, I watched the whole thing in one sitting and goddamn this might be my favourite entry in the series. Watching this alongside reading the graphic novels and/or watching the movie makes for such a sweet experience. The presentation is top notch, even on my poop 720p quality stream. Science Saru ("The Night is Short, Walk On Girl") did the animation based on the credits, and every frame is so good and crisp it is sublime. With Anamanaguchi making the music, you just know it fits (shout out for using some themes from the video game). Special mention should be given to the many nods between the original graphic novels, movie, and even the video game. The actors reprising their roles is another delicious frosting on this wonderful cake and they do a good job voicing their characters too. Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona is especially great carrying the emotional weight of the story, making parts that are insane even for the story's standards sound solemn and serious, making you invested into her story. And that is important since Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is essentially A Ramona Flowers Story.

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is such an odd title for an adaptation of an established graphic novel series (nothing is named as such in the series) until you finish that first episode. Admittedly, it has been a while since I've watched the movie or read the comics, but even still watching the first episodes something in the back of my head is just telling me something's... Off. Like I know the thing happened but that is not exactly what happened right? Like...

We start with the first Subspace Highway scene? (Ramona's first?? appearance in the story is important, but the first thing we hear in the comics and movie is "Scott Pilgrim dating a high schooler" as a major story beat and if a supposedly straight adaptation doesn't start with that then huh? Btw they do still bring up and address Scott dating a high schooler in the story)

Young Neil has a Game Gear now? (I remember it being a Game Boy in the movie to play Zelda sounds as sound cues, which is Edgar Wright's style)

In Ramona and Scott's first meeting at Julie Powers' party, he starts talking to her about... Sonic the Hedgehog? (No awkward Pac Man talk? Could be chalked up to updating it for the times? At this point something was really bugging me)

Scott orders from Netflix, which is where Ramona works now. (not much of a surprise, this is a Netflix show, but I do miss the "whats the website for amazon dot ca" joke and this is still a slight change)

At the Rockit, while Scott is looking at the crowd from the stage, sharp viewers can see a robot in the crowd? (Players of the game will know this as Robot 01, made by the Katayanagi Twins and fought in their stage. Still, an early appearance, what the hell?)

And then the biggest change of all: Crash and the Boys not playing before Sex Bob-omb. Now this was the biggest change up to this point of the show, and one where I was going to start asking questions.

One change was fine, 2 could be okay, but all this? Something was very wrong.

Then the first Evil Ex fight happens.

Scott Pilgrim loses. He dies. And leaves behind coins. Call it poetic justice for all he killed for coins in the game.

Thus begins Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, where he just... takes off. Ramona takes center stage as the person dedicated to solving the mystery of Scott's death and getting some well deserved character development. Whereas the graphic novels and movie focus on Scott as a character, this show is all about Ramona. This makes her a much more interesting and well rounded character and one who I can definitively see Scott is willing to fight for. While the original story didn't lack development for her, it was nothing compared to what she gets here. And what she gets is enormous. Delving into implications from having seven exes left behind, all of them willing to literally kill the one you currently date, the show goes to great lengths to show Ramona's own flaws that weren't explicit in the original. Not having Scott to fight them for her, she has to face them herself and learn about the wake when she leaves people behind without proper closure. Ramona is shown as a person lacking in communication with people and just leaving with important things unsaid, which all piled up and lead to the creation of the League. By having said closure with her exes, she comes to terms with her own failings and grow as a person, much like Scott was at the end of his journey. If anything, this series solidifies that Ramona does really love Scott even after just one date, enough to face her past to save him. And her facing the past leads to her reconciling with her exes. We get to see the exes having to live with the aftermath of Ramona leaving them for another or playing with their feelings (except Todd, Todd's a dick). Having her deal with the consequences of her actions is great, as this causes an outcome where most of the time the two parties do not have to fight to resolve their problems. Most of the time, they actually talk. About their past, and how it meant to them, how it felt... It feels liberating seeing these people talking with each other about what they meant and apologizing for making mistakes. It also serves as A Day in the Limelight for each of the exes, as we get more of a look into their lives though some greater then others (Matthew Patel and Lucas Lee) and some not so much (Katayanagi twins and Roxie). Gideon also has his story shown, and serves as a secondary villain this time around. All in all, it shows that these Evil Exes aren't evil but as people dealing with pain from a breakup. Though not to be outdone, Scott also gets some development of his own through Old Scott. Coming from a possible future (maybe even the original story eh?), Old Scott is separated from Old Ramona due to issues and is attempting to dissuade his younger self from interacting with Ramona in the first place preventing these painful events from happening. Horrified, Regular Scott rejects this him. The fact he tries to carry on with Ramona despite being shown a bad future in their relationship shows that he really is ready to try with her no matter how painful it gets. Regular Scott seing his Ramona work out his disappearance in the past just steels his resolve. Writing this now, it is clear how and why Scott and Ramona really do love each other.

After all these years, Scott Pilgrim still stands as a great story, with plenty of romance and action to keep you satisfied. Nearly 20 years on, it is still compelling. Bryan Lee O'Malley and BenDavid Grabinski could've just wrote a direct adaptation of the story. That would've been good for me. But instead they took the opportunity of fleshing out all the other characters in the storyand make a more emotionally resonant story about dealing with relationships and reconciling with others while still being an incredibly entertaining series. As an extension of a story that defined a generation, it is a pretty darn good.

Also it has the funniest funeral scene ever and is a joke nearly 20 years in the making ever since Bryan Lee O'Malley showed what happens when people die in this universe, I swear to god I laughed for 30 seconds. Thanks.

[upgradewater]

daima time-ah

blabbering about ep 1!

spoilers obv

btw I blabbered a lot on twxtter about it a lot, so I'm likely gonna repeat myself here.

First of all.

NEW DRAGON BALL SET

NEW STINKY OP NAMEKIAN GRANDPA HACKING EARTH'S DBS LIKE IT'S NOTHING

DESIGNATED DB GUARDIANS NO ONE DARES TO FUCK WITH

NAMEKIANS "OTHER WORLD" ORIGIN LORE DROP FROM THE SUPER MANGA HAD PAYOFF IN LINKING BACK TO THEM BEING FROM THE DEMON REALM, ALONG WITH THE LINK BETWEEN "DEMON KING" PICCOLO AAAAA

was this made for me??? this feels specifically made for me.

And then there's also:

White vs black magic, specifically talking about wishes and what Shenlong won't do

The new DB set is known as Porunga, so I'm really looking forward to the design!!! Porunga OG, the prequel!

Shenlong being hesitant and oddly specific about the age wish and what to do with ones who are already kids, but then deciding for himself who the wish effects. (You could say Chichi stood up to Buu, but 18? Bulma? You could really include everyone who contributed to the genkidama lol)

DEGESU AND GOMAH BEING SILLY and Degesu being related to Shin! And Arinsu is also their sister?!?

That's Kaioshin, Namekian, and DB lore lovers all being fed a feast in this one episode. Upcoming Majin lore with Pansy, I suppose too.

Arinsu potentially could be the first main Big Bad Lady???? And she's pulling the strings from the start???? Amazing.

I think the fact that there is already THIS much (even though it was a slightly longer premiere episode) to talk about just in story and new lore is... Just wow. Who would have thought when Super was at its end that we would be here a few years later with not only story content, but animation QUALITY. Soundtrack quality as well.

I'm so happy to be around for this period of DB. It's so fun. And bittersweet with the timing of Toriyama's sudden (?) death. But so magical.

I don't think I shared this sketch here? Here's my guess at a Super Porunga of sorts.

As a side note, here are some things I guessed correctly from the trailers:

Neva hacking the DBs via auto-summoning

New DB set/new Namekian grandpa (though I thought it might be Zalama) based on the spell in one of the later trailers. (Does this mean the dragon's name is part of the spell? Dorusie? Dorushiē? We'll see. He does say it twice though.)

Other stuff that remains to be seen:

What Arinsu's goals are

What wish does Degesu want? (Surely this will be a silly gag)

What will the other 2 wishes actually be used for?

What the fuck is that Eye item Gomah mentioned? Tenshinhan relevant???

Will they try to go to Namek first, but they'll all be affected too? Please show me tiny Porunga.

Alternatively, it would be funny if Gomah and Degesu hopped along to Namek to summon Porunga for more wishes, and Neva could probably push past the password part. Hence why our main team have no choice but to head to the Demon Realm. The first part likely won't happen as long as they don't find out about the planet though.

Gohan. I have seen discussion about him coming in clutch and having his powers as he's there only one that was in pretty good fighting shape at age 6/7. Please show our boy and tiny Videl.

Okay I'm gonna have to turn my brain off now. But anyway EP 1 stopped at such a great point. I'm so in love with this production and love how positive it has been received. We're so back. I can't wait for Friday.

[goodbyenorthernlights]

I'm curious to know if you've pulled some of Rezo's vibes into your characterisation of Saejid or did you perhaps already intend to draw some inspo from him when coming up with Saejid's premise. :3

Not at all, honestly! I didn't even know Rezo existed when I was developing Saejid- I was vaguely aware of Slayers as an anime I had tried watching as a teenager and only seen the first episode of before going "Ehhh this isn't my thing."

Saejid was originally based on a character I came up with as a teenager for a Gaia Online RP where the antagonists were themed around the idea of childhood fears- the monster under the closet, that sort of thing- and proto!Saejid (his name has been lost to the sands of time/my memory, alas) was meant to be the anthropomorphic personification of Iatrophobia (the fear of doctors) because finding doctors scary struck me as something kids do a lot. So I had this concept of a sadistic doctor archetype already just lying around.

(Proto!Saejid also was based off of a random drawing I'd found online, probably via searching something like "anime doctor" on photobucket and using what I found as a FC, because that was what you did on Gaia Online. Art theft was unfortunately widespread and not recognized as theft. This is actually one of the reasons I eventually stopped using the website for RP entirely tbh, once I learned more about art theft and why it's a problem I wasn't able to strike a comfortable balance between "most RPs expect you to provide a picture of your character" and. Not committing art theft about it. Anyway, tangent!

And proto!Saejid's FC wasn't of Rezo btw, it was... Some white haired anime dude in a labcoat with a :| expression that I think came from a yaoi manga originally.)

Anywho I had this concept lying around and I remember we wound up discussing the concept of Dragonsbayne as a farming sim with the characters as marriage candidates, because I was playing a lot of Rune Factory 4, and for a protag I made up this gender-neutral design I called Luka...

don't ask me how the pattern on their scarf works And Luka I had the concept that it would turn out they would be an amnesiac homunculus, and so I figured I'd make up a character who would have been Luka's creator.

I remembered this vague concept I had still floating in my brain and, never one to turn down the opportunity to draw a bishonen, wound up designing Saejid.

I didn't get into Slayers, and Rezo, until late 2021- digging thru my files, it looks like Saejid's original concept art was drawn sometime in February 2020.

isn't the ms paint glorious

Anyway, Rezo and Saejid do have some noticeable similarities- both of them are "mad scientist" archetypes with kind of a "usually cool-headed intellectual" thing going on, and both of them are very manipulative characters. And also they're both anime pretty boys. So it's likely that there's going to be some more overlap in characterization when I write either of them.

That said they are actually still very different characters in my head! I think the key is in their storylines/motivations. Saejid is a character who starts out in a very good and secure place for him, personally, where he has power over other people and everything he needs and wants. When his world starts changing and the fae community starts opening up to other people, he panics and schemes and conspires to keep his position from potentially changing- even though his behaviour ultimately puts him in a worse place than he'd have probably wound up if he'd just gone with the flow.

Basically he's like a billionaire who's mad that he might have to start paying more taxes and giving his employees health insurance.

Rezo on the other hand... My personal take is admittedly controversial in the fandom but I see him as someone who has spent his entire life struggling in the literal and metaphorical dark under the manipulations of an outside force, fruitlessly pursuing something he thinks will release him from his own misery. He's someone stuck in a genuinely bad situation and trying ruthlessly to get out of it.

If I had to compare Saejid to a Slayers character... Rezo would be in there in terms of demeanor and methodology, but so would Halcyform and a touch of Hellmaster. But in terms of motivation Saejid's, I think, actually closer to being the Supreme Elder from Slayers TRY. He wants to keep a "safe" status quo and doesn't care who suffers because of it, as long as they aren't someone he sees as "his people." (And by the end maybe not even that.)

[linklethehistorian]

Linkle, I must know, what are your thoughts on Mori as a character? His actions and motivations?? Id love to hear your opinion, btw that last chapter of cherish was great!! I loved it so much!!!

Ahhh hello there, anon, thank you so much! 🥺😭💕💖🥰 It’s such an honor to get a message like this from someone who is reading the fic. 💕🥺💖🥰💕🥺💖🥰 I’m so glad you liked Chapter 12; it definitely has one of my own personal favorite scenes, tbh (but I won’t take up your time talking about that right now lol). Having a fan base for Cherish is truly lovely; I’m so blessed by each and every one of you. 🥺💖

As for your question, I’m always happy to share!

Before I say anything at all on my opinion, though, I’m first going to make it clear that I am completely setting aside that one…particular matter that has been discussed to death by the fandom for the moment, because I fear far too many people tend to forget that it is entirely possible to make any remotely positive commentary on a fictional character without that actually somehow meaning you condone his alleged…preferences. For the people in the back that need to hear this out loud to be set at ease: I in absolutely no way do.

Now with that out of the way for a bit, let’s talk about the rest of Mori. I’ll throw it under the cut, though, both for length and for potential spoilers of multiple light novels (Dark Era, Fifteen, Storm Bringer, etc.) and obviously the manga up to his last appearance in current arc. Oh and obviously the typical Mori-related trigger subjects. Yeah.

Honestly, on a general note, these days I think Mori as a character is super cool; I’m not sure where precisely I’d rate him on the list of characters because I honestly like nearly every character in BSD and think they’re pretty awesomely written, but on a general scale of 1 to 10, he’s a very solid 8 or 9 for me.

My first introduction to him was…admittedly not at all the best possible representation of him.

When I first joined the fandom, I began my journey through the series by watching the anime adaption of Dark Era, at the behest of a dear friend who said I would be best off doing so before I watched the rest of the show (of which there were only two seasons at the time) and then reading the manga, in order to get the best and most meaningful experience; it is not something I remotely regret, and in honesty, I would probably wholeheartedly recommend any new people to do the same, if they intended to start with the anime. Regardless, though, this decision did have the impact of making me immediately strongly dislike Mori as a person from the very start, given what he did to the orphans, Oda, and Dazai by extension.

Really, I wouldn’t say that I came to see him in any particular shades of grey motivation-wise until I watched the episode titled Double Black, in which there was the first reference of what would have become of the Port Mafia and Yokohama as a whole had he not usurped the throne to the organization so many years ago.

After that, I began to look at him with a bit more understanding and curiosity, horrible and ruthless though his nature may still mostly have been. Fifteen (specifically the light novel, NOT the anime) — which it should be said, I think is the best existing canon representation of Mori in terms of giving us a good look at his thoughts and motivations — only amplified that outlook and interest for me, and I think it alone is largely to thank for why I enjoy him as a character as much as I do in current time.

Although he’s definitely not someone I’d feel particularly comfortable writing an entire story solely around — as I don’t believe I’m expert nor absurdly passionate enough to do so compared to some genuine Mori fans that I know are out there out there — I nevertheless really, really do enjoy writing him, especially in Cherish (which is only the second time I’ve written him, if I’m honest — at least, in anything I’d consider publishing, anyway).

There’s just so much potential in him plot and personality-wise; he is incredibly flexible of a person in terms of his thoughts, mannerisms, motivations, and actions, which makes it super fun to explore and play around with when telling a story. I’d say he easily has one of the most fun personalities among the BSD ensemble, purely because of utterly unpredictable it can be; on one hand, he has moments where (at least outwardly) is capable of being extremely friendly, outgoing, generous and unassuming, and yet on the other, he is very much always inwardly observant of all that is going on around him and capable of quickly switching to being cold, calculating, and openly cruel at the drop of a hat. But even then, usually, his cruelty doesn’t come in the form of physical violence; it’s often emotional manipulation, intimidation, taking your fears and weaknesses and using them against you to get him whatever he feels he needs in the present moment. Sometimes, it isn’t even outwardly visible that the switch of gears happened; he knows how to poison you in the sweetest and most unassuming yet effective way possible — whether that poison is literal or metaphorical. He’s definitely the kind of person who could sing you to sing to sleep every night and kiss your cheek every morning even as he’s secretly plotting your demise. lol

That being said, I think a lot of the fandom, in their hatred for him as a person, tends to mischaracterize him a lot, rather than looking at it objectively. I’ve seen a lot of fics and general fandom takes that portray him as a sadistic person who is cruel simply for the sake of being cruel and does terrible things to others purely for the enjoyment factor, but that is 100% not who Mori is; canonically, Mori does what he does mostly, if not entirely, out of what he feels is necessity as the leader of the organization. Now, I’m not saying there may not be parts of him that enjoy certain things he does — it’s certainly more than possible, and even highly probable — but his actions as godfather are driven by achieving what he feels is the optimal solution, not by personal pleasure and amusement; as a matter of fact, in Fifteen, he even made it clear when speaking to Chuuya that he fully acknowledges a lot of what he does is morally reprehensible — he just feels that it is his duty to commit these atrocities for the ‘greater good’ of the organization, and that the end therefore justifies the means.

The thing is, there is a character in BSD who is exactly the way this portion of the fandom characterizes Mori, and he was even a member of the Port Mafia, so if people really wanted to canonically explore this dynamic of a character who wholly gets off on tormenting people, causing suffering and probing others’ heads rather than doing it as just a business practice, they absolutely could still do it and be true to canon by writing about said other character; it’s just that it’s not a convenient truth that a lot of the fandom wants or likes to face — because that would mean acknowledging that it was everyone’s beloved Dazai and not the oh-so-despised Mori who used to think in such a sick and twisted way during his days in the criminal underworld.

Granted, some people do write both characters very well and very accurately, and I applaud them, but I do find it frustrating when the fandom reduces either Mori to this purely evil, sadistic villain who is bad just for the sake of being bad, because he is so much more interesting as he truly is in canon.

It’s this dichotomy where his dedication to the overall well-being of his people and company is admirable and even understandable, yet at the same time his individual actions when you look at them from a moral perspective are pretty much all morally reprehensible in some way, shape, or form — if not in every way. The same is true of his time in the army; as a general concept, his desire to protect Japan during the Great War was on the whole admirable and understandable, we know that he was well-meaning about it, but at the same time, no matter how desperate the situation was, what he did to Yosano and his entire army was absolutely disgusting and unacceptable — especially because it came so easily to him to do it and he made no apologies for it nor expressed any guilt over the suffering he caused later on.

Do I think Mori is, on the whole, a good person? Absolutely not. Do I think that he sometimes has the best of intentions in mind with his schemes? In the grander scheme of things, yes; it’s just that he mostly doesn’t care who or how many he has to hurt to achieve that so long as it’s slightly less than his net gain from doing it, which in turn cancels out things enough to prevent him from ever being labeled as being or acting as a “good person” at any moment.

I think the best, most objective description of him is to say that he’s pragmatic and ruthless.

…And then obviously there’s the part that everyone in the fandom discusses to death — about the main universe version of him being into little girls. Not a whole lot to say about that; it’s gross, it’s wrong, it’s unforgivable, it’s morally reprehensible, and it’s chilling and disturbing and it definitely completely disqualifies him from being labeled a good person even if he had been able to earn that title from something he did somewhere along the way.

That being said — and I know this is probably going to be controversial to a lot of the fandom, so let me say upfront that I’m not saying that that isn’t 100% a valid and understandable reading of who he is and the way he feels based on all the evidence throughout the series, nor am I trying to convince anyone otherwise — purely because it is fiction and therefore all made up to begin with, at least for my own personal comfort, I typically choose in my own personal readings to just look at him as someone with a particular weakness for little girls because he’s fatherly — although I make no effort to claim that to be the objective truth, nor does such interpretation affect or influence any of my writings in any way; it’s simply the way I prefer to engage with BSD on my own personal time — outside of my writings.

As a matter of fact, in my one fic, Bittersweet Belief, he was intentionally written with the intention of being portrayed as a groomer, and in Cherish, his ‘tastes’ will be portrayed no less nor more suspicious than how they are in canon, and therefore it will never be fully, directly addressed, but may be interpreted however you wish.

I do not need people coming to me providing evidence of why they believe there is no way to look at it differently, as again, I am not arguing that it is objectively untrue in any way that Mori is written to be a pedo in BSD, and when in public spaces among other people talking about it I don’t even try to say otherwise, much less convince anyone of it. I understand fandom etiquette and I am not trying to erase anything about him from others’ perceptions in order to make him more “likable”. I am just engaging with BSD, whenever I am personally reading it and watching it, in the way that is more comfortable for me. Nothing more, nothing less.

Anyway, yeah, Mori’s a super fun character to write and observe in the BSD world! I think there’s a lot of depth to him and he’s very well-written — probably among my top past antagonists purely for the super interesting personality and the purely pragmatic outlook to life and business.

[t4x208]

A SHOW IDEA THAT I WANT TO MAKE REAL ONE DAY (really long post)

this is gonna be a HUGE little rant thing because i love talking about my ideas, future ideas, concepts. etc etc

i just realized i never said anything about this but uhh, for months ive been dreaming on wanting to make this string (I've always had in mind) come true

at first it was going to be a joke play with the huge inspiration of gumball. hes based on this joke episode i made called "Lil H". a baku inspired series (by sethical)

at the first point, he was literally gonna be called Lil h, LITERALLY. but I thought of a different name for him, and i named him "douglas dinget". it was a stupid name. the first image is the first concept idea i had for him if i actually wanted to take his design seriously . (its uhm... pretty old!). second image is the actual concept drawing when i thought of him having his own show (not a serious design take obviously LOL)

for 2nd image, he's just sonic but with a square cap hat, long gloves, basically a frickin recolor/edit LOL. it was funny when I imagined how he would look if I animated him and the background is just a realistic school. and then i thought of making his name "douglas tucker". i think him having that name is pretty cool and funny

his inspiration is a mixture of a chibi figure (like gumball) and his animations would be peanuts esque. like the way how he would walk, run, slip, etc etc. BASICALLY how peanuts characters are animated. i really loved imagining that as a test animation for this design, never really did it tho. im still learning animation

now this is where i suddenly had a new idea. i imagined "what if douglas had a girlfriend and she was a cactus? because cactuses and hedgehogs are spiky.." and this is where the design comes in

her name is KATHERINE STERLING!!!!! OMLLLL!!! (also a HALF redesign on Douglas)

this was the third character i thought of tho. second character is a "My melody" rip off LOL. (which she WILL be redesigned soon)

and also heres a joke ass image i drew a while ago LOL (it says LIL H in japanese)

you see the mario right there? yea that was literally gonna be his design until i remembered nintendo going to everyone "uhm. FUCK YOU you arent allowed to use this character named "mario" or any other mario characters anymore! make up your own design or make your own creations!" and thats what i legit did (not rlly LMAO)

heavily inspired by the chowder mario (definitely changing his design somewhere later)

stupid name for him, it was on purpose too sense uh... JOKE SHOOWWW!!! this is still gonna be a joke show, and the first episode were legit pngs (like i said, baku inspiration.) and if i all of a sudden make episode 2 a huge gumball inspiration and have these art styles like THIS? oohhhhhooo that would be a huge glow up.

anyways im cutting to the main part. heres the main cast idea

i dont really got anything to say about claire, other than being a ocho rip off LMAO

well not really a rip off but like, she could overreact a lot. she doesnt do stuff harmful or anything, like causing damage and other stuff like that. shes not THAT aggressive basically. she MIGHT become a scrapped character. (unless if a team is formed for this show and someone knows how to put a 8 bit pixel character in a high resolution show, just like ocho)

okay now i want to show you the months that went by with DT's design, i just cant type any longer to show this i geniunely wanted to say all of that just so you can get on the path before i, PROBABLY, make this show a real thing

Huge glow up a little bit, right? hopefully you think the same as me with this design

constructive criticism is allowed btw. i would LOVE to hear more ideas from you guys if youre interested.

now heres his new design in line with the main cast

now i wanna talk about the

PERSONALITIES!!!

DOUGLAS: Douglas is normal about almost everything. it would be VERY rare to see douglas scared. he is extremely calm about stuff. he is tough. he doesnt take his rage out on anyone. even if some people would try to start a fight with him. he's a strong teen and he KNOWS he would knock someone out with one punch. its rare for him to get angry because he knows how strong he is. Lets just say hes kind of the opposite of gumball. Gumball can sometimes get scared when someone is raging at him (mostly people he knows who are STRONGER than him.) hes basically a wimp LOL. douglas is the opposite of that basically. douglas just does his own without meeting any new kid unless if they want to meet him (its best for him to wait if someone wants to be friends with him first)

KATHERINE: Katherine Is a very nice and polite person. but she can overreact sometimes and get mad at douglas if he says or does something that she doesnt like at all, especially if douglas makes a joke compliment to her. she basically hits douglas multiple times on the head. usually when she does that to her friends it hurts them but douglas barely feels anything when she does it to him LMAO

HADIZA: She trys to act tough like douglas despite the fact that douglas doesnt even try to act tough at all. she basically has the personality of gumball a little bit. she trys to stand up and be a more "scarier" person, trying to scare the big character. but when the big character makes a furious noise back at her, she would bunny hop away from them fast

CLAIRE: like i said earlier, "She could overreact a lot. she doesnt do stuff harmful or anything, like causing damage and other stuff like that. shes not THAT aggressive basically."

JACKSON: Jackson Is, to put it in short, a bit of a asshole. LMAO. basically jackson is always tired and can sometimes have aggresive tones. its very common for him. douglas has gotten use to his aggressiveness because theyve being friends ever since they were in kindergarten. Jackson has been getting tired of the world throughout the years.but luckily douglas and jackson are always staying communicated everyday. they never missed a single day not communicating. they are basically BEST best friends.

THE CLASSMATES & TEACHER (W.I.P.)

dont really have that much to say about the classmates. i got 5 more designs to create till the number of students is completed. i dont have that much to say about the teacher either. but i do know its gonna be REALLY HARD figuring out how to animate her. but i REALLY want this show to be good whenever the next episode comes out. i REALLY want these guys to be animated in the style i want them to be animated in

and here are douglas parents!!!

heres some old concepts, ideas, and just some shit for fun LOL

i really love showing my stuff

welp uh. THATS BASICALLY IT! i really love ranting about my

concept ideas and stuff when i think it would be awesome if it was a real thing

if you actually read through this whole entire post THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING IT! it took me like 2 or 3 hours to make this whole entire post. hope i used good grammar and wording on this post

woohoo!!!

[temunitu]

Watching 03 for the first time and Mikey is currently my favorite (I love the show so far btw, it honestly might tie with rise to be my favorite rn)

But I just saw clash of the turtle titans and wow that episode was kinda hard to sit through

Personally it might be my least favorite 03 episode, but I was curious on your thoughts and opinions of this ep

hey, glad you’re enjoying it! i gotta say, you have good taste lol

oh my god, yeah. clash of the turtle titans is… something.

i remember watching it for the first time (i watched fast forward before seasons 1-5) and since i didn’t fully understand all the character development that he went through, it was fine? played him off to be a total jerk but by then he was already my fav so i was just cringing through his tantrum.

but AFTER seeing him go through all that character development - it does feel out of character. i mean, i can understand him being jealous and feeling ripped off, but the mikey we’ve seen in the past five seasons has gone through a LOT and has reacted more maturely in worse circumstances. it feels like regression AND an amplification of his worst qualities for the writers to have him act like that.

and yea, people regress and have bad days. another straw will break the camel’s back.

but it’s not played off to be that way, which is probably what bugs me the most. by all accounts, mikey has been having a blast in 2105 - walking around without hiding, all the new tech and video games to explore, new foods from different planets to try. they don’t show him having a hard time like raph, so him getting bent up over Turtle Titan II just feels very forced.

i could easily come up with an explanation based on my own headcanons and thoughts, but if the writers themselves didn’t actually put it in canon, it’s still just speculation. which means mikey was just being a brat that day.

i know they went through a change in writers and animators with seasons 6 and 7 but they didn’t have to do my boy so dirty 😭

[mxmade-up]

It's alright!! The ramble is just fine!

I'm surprised, I hadn't heard there'd only be 5 episodes! Though, it absolutely does make sense, and I don't mind much.

At first when I saw the art I was a bit put off but, I think I do like it after getting used to it? Though some of the designs I agree, I wish were a bit more faithful.. I understand simplifying them for animation, but their designs right now feel a bit.. Strange? Like it feels like they don't keep a lot of key things from their game designs, which could've been very fun! But, I understand they may be going something that maybe we just don't see right now? I'm deciding to stay optimistic.

I agree with the dead cells as a framework thing, and I honestly think that could be really interesting. I hope the show will be good! I'll see if I can't get the game for myself to celebrate it.

I was very put off by the art style too at first. This is coming from someone who didn’t grow up from cartoons and has a low tolerance for a lot of the art styles. In motion, I think it looks fine for most scenes. Or at least most of the scenes they showed.

Btw, on the episodes number I was wrong. Don’t know French so was only picking out the numbers. Sorry! :(

From what I can tell, there will be 10 episodes total, each ~7 minutes. I again ask people to remember motion twin is indie. 5 airing on ADN (French anime streaming service) on June 19 and the other 5 on the 26. About ADN, you can’t watch for free with ads on there. You have to subscribe. Unless there’s a free trial, I think that will be a big turn off for a lot of people. Maybe one dedicated fan will make it pirate-able and then that will help with access. Also, I can’t tell if there’s guaranteed English subs.

you’ll need a VPN too, looks like it’s France only

Link to Dead Cell Immortalis’ page on ADN

Take everything I say with a grain of salt I may have misinterpreted a lot of things

As for the designs? I have a few theories

1. They want to make the show more approachable by non-dead cells fans. The less previously established characters you have and the less motifs, the less background you need. I mean, Laure was created with the explicit purpose of informing our favorite amnesiac cell blob of the world

2. They wanted people to be able to draw visual connections between the the Beheaded and king. Assuming they’re still connected at all

In game the Beheaded has a star/cross instead of an eye on the default head.

This can also be seen in the trailer. Sometimes.

(Also spider rune and ground pound yayy)

King’s symbol change was to

Almost a star. But, stylized to resemble a crown too. This very well could be a stretch. Maybe they just felt the original coat of arms didn’t have the old sci-fi look half these guys have.

3. They’re designed so the heads stick out. Like fingernails. Because they’re the hand. Do you guys even get what I’m saying with this

Not design related, I want to mention UI

Cells and gold moved to where mutations would be. Prisoner’s collar, 1 flask charge, base sword, base shield, and mystery item #3. We can assume from this it’s early on in the series. Amulets moved to be visible. Empty health but no scrolls of power indicator. I just found it interesting

[his-mother-is-lightning]

EPISODE 8 - in which Garp's family drama comes with a death toll and a bill for at least million berry in property damage

See episode 7 here

God I hate scenes of involuntary tattoos. Seeing her shackled is horrible enough ty

Luffy has a permanent case of frowny eyebrows this episode

Now we get the villagers! Poor Nami's worst nightmare aka the villagers trying to take up arms and fight Arlong's pirates

I like that Helmeppo and Koby are blatantly just lingering in the back of the room so they can eavesdrop

How did Usopp get all those smoke bombs to go off?

God I love this fight. The teamwork, with Zoro running up a wall (?) to stop someone attacking Luffy, and Sanji watching Zoro's back. Really sets up Sanji and Zoro as Luffy's big hitters

Aaaand Sanji and Zoro are bickering. And it leads them to let Buggy's head go free, so obvs Buggy fucks off and leaves them high and dry. You two share one brain cell, I swear.

Arlong's lecture about fishmen based speciesism vs Luffy, who discovered discrimination existed like two days ago

Don't worry Usopp, we saw your great victory against the fish man. It will never be forgotten.

I did NOT need a close up on Arlong regrowing his broken teeth.

Luffy finally realizes it's time to lean on his strengths - in this case, his talent for wanton property destruction

"all great fighters call out their finishing moves" and "yeah, you're going to fit in just fine"

Nami just bypasses Sanji and like, I get it, but could someone please give the man a hug. Everyone's been so mean to him today

... and there goes the neighborhood. Glad Nami had the hat, bc it would be hard to salvage if the building came down on it

The Marines randomly showing up at the end here makes no sense. What a weird way to end the season. I'm glad we got to see Koby stand up for himself (and Helmeppo standing at his side)

These poor Marines are standing there as it slowly dawns on them that this entire pirate chase has been the vice admirals fucking family drama playing out on the high seas. Men have died for your bullshit, Garp. And then it's all "oh well, I guess I'll let you go be a pirate, Luffy" like nothing happened, bc this is all some kind of test? Which I don't buy at all btw - dude, you weren't testing shit. You wanted to control Luffy and when that didn't work, you came up with a scenario that made it seem like you were in control the whole time.

I don't like Garp. Fuck that guy

This last bit with Koby makes the whole Marine thing worth it tho. Bc he wants to be the one to show Luffy the wanted poster first. Koby looks overcome with love emotions and it's a perfect little bookend to them at the start of the show.

Best reaction to the wanted poster obvs goes to Zeff, bc you know Sanji never managed to get 'employee of the month'

And then the fucking scene with Mihawk and Shanks - what is this?? Mihawk so clearly looks exasperated but then he's willing to stay and drink with Shanks & Co? What ARE you two??

The little cast off ceremony at the very end is so cute tho, with their younger selves saying it with them? Perfect ending is perfect. With just a tiny hint of smoker to get us excited for next season

Anyways, I still love this show. I'm going to go back to watching the anime - maybe I'll post about that, maybe not. Who can say? I just hope everyone had as much fun as I did