#batb: OTH

[gemini-queen42]

Mini Batb: OTH lore dump + doodle :]

So, in Other Than Human Lumiere is both the maitre d' & Princess Eve's ballet teacher- [In-depth explanation/story bit under the cut]. Maestro Forte gets involved via playing the music to be danced to when he can (sometimes there's other people, other instruments- the ballet practices kind of evolved/ get worked out to be these mutually Beneficial practice times)(kinda cool) But Forte is the one who gets most involved with it, and That is the beginning of Lumiere & Forte's.. very strained (questionably) amicable... acquaintanceship...

[I know, I know- Forte's expression isn't giving what it's supposed to... this kind of overall isn't giving what I wanted it to but I'm not. fixing it today so. sorry lads hgjdgk]

[I vaguely refferenced an art piece of ballet dancers from the rococco era for Lumiere's fit and.. mmm . hmm. hrm.]

the way Lumiere became Eve's ballet teacher went something along the lines of this:

little Eve has suddenly become Very Insistent that she MUST learn Ballet ASAP. In fact, she demands she must start lessons Tomorrow at the Latest. Thing is, they don't exactly have a qualified ballet teacher just.. on hand. The princess has expected lessons in ballroom dancing and whatnot but Ballet isn't exactly among that repertoire. And the hiring process is a very thorough one, which especially cannot be properly completed by tomorrow morning starting on short notice this very afternoon (This is the staffing of a Castle, after all- and Cogsworth is a man very dedicated to his job).

Eve doesn't take no, Cogsworth doesn't sacrifice quality- there's a bit of a stalemate. luckily Eve has never learned to be subtle about anything in her entire life and is very, very loud with her displeasure. Usually that's not a postive, but here it's what allows Lumiere to take notice and inquire on what's got their petite Evie so worked up today- and thus learn of the situation.

L: "Well- I could teach her."

C: "...you know ballet?"

L: "Well, I'd sure hope so- I spent my teen years as a professional ballerina."

C: "And what of your duties as Maitre d'?"

L: "Ah, mon ami- you worry too much~ It's only temporary, non? For until you find an actual teacher to hire" (Implied: or until Eve loses interest)

The plan was that Lumiere would serve as Eve's dance teacher temporarily as a perfect solution to satisfy the princess while giving Cogsworth time to be his meticulous self with finding someone who could do it full time- (should this be more than a passing whim of the girls') Of course, that's not how it goes- Time passes, more pressing matters occur for the majordomo, Lumiere has little troubles operating all her duties, Eve & Lumiere work out a good system for them- yippee!

Now lets talk about Forte's Role in all of this:

Forte is our favorite internal Bad Influence. Somewhere on here I've discussed before how a lot of Eve's views were shaped by forces & people that are outside our main servant cast. Forte would be one of those forces and likely the Most consistent.

Forte is the type of guy who thinks "I am more skilled than you, and thus I am Above you." He desires power, and renown, and respect, and not to deal or do things he considers beneath him.

Perhaps the only reason he so easily complies with the whole ballet situation is because the songs are classic, respected things. And often times, he can play what he desires instead- times more focused on the art of creating & matching choreography to the music. That, and it's for the princess.

He is, in a sense, a perfectionist in nature- at the very least, he is one when it comes to criticizing others.

Eve included- although he frames it as something friendlier, as "advice". And Forte's opinions are very much- All the things that feed into all the toxic ideals, behaviors, & issues that ballet has a history of! The pursuit of perfection, perfection down to the bones, perfection that Breaks people.

All the ideas that Lumiere is being SO CAREFUL to keep Eve from falling into- because she's seen what that's done to people. and the princess, with all her flaws, has become like a little sister to her- and even if she wasn't, Still!- but the slope is a subtle one in its beginning seeds, hard to detect if you're unfamiliar- and so Lumiere can't do much to call Forte out on it. Because nothing he says is Blatant enough to do so.

So Lumiere just has to try and counteract it, and hope that either Eve takes her word over Fortes- or Lumiere will notice if things go south.

Except- well, Lumiere is also the maitre d', so she can get busy- and, well, she doesn't really need to be there if Eve is Just Practicing- and.. well, often Forte is there as well, without Lumiere there to respond- and..... Eve can be surprisingly sneaky for certain things.

It is a battle lost and proven to be when the Enchantress makes her entrance, and Eve can hide nothing as The Beast.

There is an undercurrent of guilt, in Eve's mind when she'd blatantly disregard Lumiere's words.

There is an inescapable guilt, in Lumiere's mind when she's realized how she's failed the girl.

[This post feels messy overall so if there's any bits that are hard to read/you don't understand let me know & I'll try to explain/fix them<33]

[popculturebuffet]

Supermay!: Battle of The Superheroes Review!(Batman BATB) (Patreon Review for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy supermen, women and everyone in between and beyond whose still just as super, and welcome to SUPERMAY, a monthlong celebration of all things man of steel.

It's also a great time for it as Superman is in one of the best places he's been as a character in a while: In the comics we have Joshua Williamson's stellar run on Superman, on tv My Adventures with Superman, the first animated superman show since The Animated Series and one of the best superhero shows period, comes back for season 2 and next year James Gunn takes a crack at a shiny new movie that gets to the core of who superman is.

So in these times my love for the character has only grown, and thus me and my fine patrons and contributers are bringing this month from across his life and career.

So naturally we start with an episode of.. a batman show. Yes despite getting a whole month to himself earlier this year, Batman just can't stay away. Or maybe Kev's just addicted to Batman Brave and the Bold. What do you think of the show kev?

Nothing suspcious there. Now to freebase more x-men.

Yet while this decision seems bonkers at first, it makes sense on two levels: the first is that Batman and Superman have a long history together, and their regular team ups in world finest lasted for decades and tied to the two at the hip with one another. It's not hard to see why either: Their the archetypes for heroes with powers and those without them. The bedrock on which the whole genre's built. Teaming them up with their contrasting styles, backstories and skillsets just works. The other reason ... is that Superman didn't have a solo series for a while. His last one was the brilliant and sadly didn't make the schedule Legion of Super Heroes Cartoon, and even that's a team series, if one with Supes at the center. He's been in plenty of othe rcartoons.. but it's been long enough it's understandable why we'd reach for an apperance in another cartoon.

It did take a bit though as Superman was noticably a no show from the first two seasons of brave and the bold. And that.. was by design. Brave and the Bold tended to spotlight heroes who needed the spotlight, ones who either hadn't been featured yet or if so, all that often. It's the series where Bwana Beast got a heroic sacrifice, Ted Kord finally got to appear on screen, and the green lantern was Guy Gardner, the angry asshole what looks like moe howard hit the gym. It's something I love about the series, as it gave a lot of heroes their shot, taught me some existed and is a good thing, and thus it makes sense Supes wasn't around till it's final season: he needed his own solo cartoon sure, that took way too damn long, but he didn't really need the show or have as many new avenues to explore. Both Batman the Animated Series and The Batman already teamed the world's finest up. We'd seen plenty of them together in justice league and young justice. To justify trotting out superman for more than money's sake, they'd have to do something only THEY could do

And that.. was salute the silver age. Like Batman, Superman had a pretty weird time in the silver age, if better sales since weird shit happening to an alien who could suplex the moon fit better than happening to a guy in a mask whose suddenly a baby. It was a time of unbridled creativity: thanks to this age we got my beloved Legion of Super Heroes, who are sadly sitting this super may out due to scheduling, the legion of super pets, supergirl, braniac, all the various flavors of kryptonite, super vintiloquisim. I'ts a period I need to read more of but deeply love as it's just.. fun. it dosen't always hold up, but when it does it gives us fun breezy weird adventures with stuff that's hilarious now sure but also really fun to go back to.

And going back to this age.. was part of the hook and brave and the bold. Having the style of those days, not taking itself super seriously, but still having just enough seriousness to not come off as a farce. We still get plenty of character moments, a death or two and what have you, but we have fun in the process and it's done in an optimstic way that most batman work isn't, as batman.. isn't the most optimstic character. So doing a superman spotlight, while good to keep off, was something they kinda HAD to do. If anyone represented this age, it was supes and if any show was going to celebrate him at this stage in his history while slyly winking at all the weird shit it was Brave and the Bold

It was also a celebration of one other thing which you can find out under the cut along with a full review!

That one thing of course is Superdickery.

Superdickery was a webstie in the 2000's where a snarky man on the internet made fun of old silver and broonze age superman covers where Superman was a dick. Granted it's usually exagerated or explained in story, but it still lead to good times and often the covers were funny enough on their own

NGL I just did a google of superman is a dick to see waht I got... it did not disappoint. I mean you have superman doing a cultural appropriation to marry jimmy to an ape, jimmy harvesting superman's tears in revenge, and of course superman making jimmy dig his own grave while batman plans to shoot him..

You can see why it's easy to do an entire website making these.. and why Brave and The Bold opted to just lean into that, make an entire episode homaging some of the more infamous ones. It's fun to see the purest hero in existance as an out of context king sized asshole, complete with pope hat.

The episode can't begin with superman being a dick though.. you have to establish that baseline of Superman being for truth, justice and the american way. All of that. So we begin with.. Batman and Robin as spooky mummies

Yeah and like many of the events in this episode it's based on ana ctual comic

Though in that case it was to not give away their identiteis because they'd turend green... so brave and the bold wisely changed it to "rags soaked in buttermilk to counteract king tut's zombie ray" And really if you ever wonder "WHy take comissions' besides you know...

It's getting to write sentences like that.

THey beat him and Vicki Vale gets a scoop. Vicki Vale is Lois Lane if she were in gotham and after batman. That's about it. The 87 film I covered in march did flesh her out a bit and My Adventures with Superman does a good job making her distinct if also the queen of asshole mountain, but the version here and at the comics.. seems to just be lois except she's a ginger.

The proper story begins with Jimmy Olson faking his death so Superman will reveal his secret identity.

Which kinda justifies the whole "marry you to an ape" thing jimmothy. It's a constant game of one upsmanship with these two that will end with both in a grave Jimmy freshly dug with robin I swear. At any rate this fails because superman you know.. has super senses, so he senses Jimmy's just fine and jets off and was just playing along because these two have issues.

Superman responds to a jewel robbery and finds his oldest and greatest friend, batman! Thankfully there's none of that "blaming batman for a crime" nonsense this go round, as Batman's been investigating some eastern seaboard jewlery thefts, and agrees to team up. I also love how they go back to the more silver age partnership for these two: it fits given the astetic of these versions, but it's also nice to see the two just.. be pals. No distrust, no long term ressitance, no asking him to commit election fraud, just two guys who like fighting crime teaming up.

Naturally the culprit is LEX LUTHOR who is less an evil billinoare in the silver age and more a sciency weirdo who likes to throw on a death ray, though most modern versions combine the two making him a genius.. but having put that genius into

While doing evil super science as a side hustle or because he was finally indicted and has kidnapped lois because that's part of what she did back in the day, though she keeps her feisty nature by kicking out of a plane.. granted she then shouts for superman.. and is mad batman saved her. Superman stops Luthor, he's sent to jail to break out next week, they do this a lot.

We have a larger guest voice cast than usual this go round so let's dig into them real quick: Roger Rose is the man of steel himself. Rose is a voice actor but mostly tends to do "Additional Voices" looking at his credits on wikipedia, with his bigger roles being Dr. Strange on the Superhero Squad show, superman in this show, and Kent Powers on Quack Pack. And given any time i've seen kent in an episode he's hilarously douchey, Roger was the right man for the job here.

Luthor is played by Voice Acting Legend and marathon man Kevin Michael Richards, who I now realized has voiced both Lex Luthor and Shredder and that's dope. You've heard him in everything and he's great in everything. He also voices Mxy in this same episode.

Lois is voiced by Sirena Irwin, who I hadn't heard OF before but had heard before as she voices Spongebob's Mom, along with Lady Upturn. She also voices Mera on this very show.

Jimmy is voiced by Alexander Polinski, another va I hadn't heard of.. but i've heard a LOT of: He got his big break voicing Control Freak on Teen Titans, followed up by voicing loveable friend on the black market and stool pigeon Argit from Ben 10 alien force all the way thorugh Omniverse, is currently a lead in Monster High, and most important to me was Chameleon Boy and Matter Eater Lad on the legion of super heroes.

Finally we have a character intorduced in the next scene as Lois pitches a day in the life piece on superman and is mad clark almost gets it: Perry White, voiced by character actor Richard Mcgongal. Clark here is portrayed as he was in the silver age: a clumsy ditsy suit superman wears to live among mortal people. Thankfully it's not around enough to be an issue but to me supes works best when superman is clark no matter the outfit. He isn't a reporter to get info or trick his love intrest, he's a reporter because he loves being a journalist and wants a normal life, but knows he can't just fuck off and not be superman. It's not who he is.

So we get a neat montage of lois as Batman and Superman do their thing, with Supes having invited Batman to hang around for a bit. It's also neat in that it shows just how much Batman thinks of this version of supes from the get go: While he respects most of his partners, Clark seems to be one of the few he's genuine friends with. They just get in synch and there's no bossing him around like he tends to do in most team ups on this show.

So we get a fight with metallo who has his silver age apperance which is...

It's a lot. The series DOES him favors by bulking him up but the color scheme just dosen't quite work. I get why most later versions go with silver instead, the green glow of the kryptonite from it giving him a terminator vibe. It works really well. We also get good old mxy, whose castually talked back to his home dimension after cycling jimmy through all his various transformations.

Lois and Jimmy then get gifts that are from "Superman". Really shoudl've checked the air quotes. Said gifts are a shiny new signal watch with red crystal inlays and a red jewel.

Naturlly these TOTALLY incouous gifts awaken something in Superman as he fights the flying fat man, the toyman, who in the silver age was just.. a guy who made toy shaped death weapons.. .which is still impressive but I can see why the animated series gave him that now iconic doll look. Brrrr.

Superman beats toyman.. then prepares to REALLY beat toyman

Deciding he's done with truth, justice and not kicking your balls into your face. He'll figure the anatomy out later. Batman stops the toymurder and it's clear Superman has changed.. he's EVIL now.. and also a real di...ffrent person. A gag I REALLY love from this ep

So we get one of the most glorious montoages ever as superman is just.. the biggest dick the writers can conjure. It works if you don't know what their homaging as they set up who superman actually is well and it's just so over the top it's hilarious. It works even better if you've seen a bunch of silver age covers as they just.. made that into a version of superman, from literally tying up traffic to my faviorite, PUTTING A KITTEN BACK UP A TREE. I love cats but I can't help but also love how dickish that is.

Batman can tell something isn't right here because anyone with two eyes can tell Superman is acting off and something is wrong. Everyone except Jimmy Olson whose angrily tearing down his superman posters and takes this at face value. Then again he DID make him marry an ape so I kinda get not trusting something's wrong. It dosen't help superman burned his thoughtful father's day gift

At least even on an evil rampage Superman was kind enough to adopt him. Jimmy wishes things were back to simplier times...

That's not a joke by the way,.. the real joke is jimmy starring whistfully after they animated this cover. It's what makes this episode work really: they do do a LOT of homages.. but don't make that their whole business, making up new gags along the way. Jimmy gladly gives Batman the new watch.

Batman goes to talk to Lois yet and Superman's been the worst to her... he cheated on her!

Superman's childhood friend Lana fought over him a lot. Superman int his versoin does add it's because Lois is always trying to trick superman into marrying him which is sadly accurate

Though some times it horribly backfired

I mean.. at least she got a pope mobile out of it?

Batman notices the necklace and the connection and goes to TRY to talk sense into super dick where we get the best bit of custom made dickery in this episode: him grabbing the bottled city of kandor, shaking it and shouting "EARTHQUAAAKKKEEEEE!". It is truly the greatest thing human knid has put to a cell. Batman TRIES to talk sense into his friend but fails as he declares if batman fucks with him again he'll fuck him.

He also gives him Krypto because he dosen't wants him anymore. I mean.. at least you got a free dog superman. Also if you don't know hwo krypto is he's superman's kryptonian dog who was also sent in a rocket from Kyrpton. He's a very good boy. Movnig on.

So Superman decides to take things a step further and declares himself KING SUPERMAN of metropolis... an homage to this iconic cover

Yes folks, it is the REIGN OF THE SUPERPOPE. And the series has him wear the super pope hat in all it's glory. They saldy removed the Cruella deville approved real dalmation fur but I put it back in on the title card because the fur just.. adds to it. LIke it's not enough he got himself a pope hat, which is glorious and golden, it's that he added a fur trim to both the hat AND his cape. It's so beautifully stupid.

The Reign of the Superpope is short lived as protestors come to .. get murdered by superman? I mean I get standing up to him but what was their plan. THey get saved by the new dynamic duo of batman and krypto, with batman wearing his dark knight returns armor.

And can we just.. sit back and bask in an episode of television that both homages internet meemes of silver age superman AND the dark knight returns, of all things in the same issue? I"m not a big fan of Frank miller, but I can respect how iconic that armor is and how fun it is to see it pop up in such a light hearted work.

Batman's worked things out: Superman is hopped up on Red Kryptonite. For those who didn't read a bunch of books about dc comics as a kid, red K is Kryptonite's wacky cousin. It's basically a magic story generator, with it's effects lasting 24 hours as said and allowing them to turn superman or supergirl into WHATEVER weird shit they want. It is the crown jewel of all plot devices and I respect it and i'm happy we've returned to i'ts oringinal form as there were attempted revamps, but none really worked. It's best as crystalized wacky nonsense and i'm happy.

Here though it just means batman has to hold out, doing his best and getting a few good hits in.. but ultimately even with bitching grappling armor an da REALLY well done fight scene with lots of nice tension and animation.. superman almost crushes batman's head... an image that's genuinely chilling in this otherwise silly episode

Thankfully he snaps out, everyone accepts superman was going through some stuff. I mean Jimmy accepts jit every week and he's still married to that ape.

Superman wonders who done it.. and Batman, being the world's greatest detective... found out who: Luthor. Turns out he sent a lexbot to prison in his place

And shoots batman and pulls out his green kryptonite ring what gave him cancer once. It was a whole thing. But turns out our heroes played swapsies and the day is saved and our heroes head out to fight braniac.

Battle of the Superheroes is true excellence, one of Brave and the Bold's best episodes. Doing a bonkers tribute to superman being a dick was a risky idea, as with superdickery now gone, the meme could've gotten old. But those old silver age covers are so charming in their over the top nature and the jokes around the homages so well done, it works. They even give us a geninely fantastic superman batman fight to go with it. The episode manages to condense how the silver age of superman feels into 22 minutes without being remotely boring or overstuffed, managing to hit all the high spots. The only things really missing are supergirl, superboy (superman when he was a boy, and the legion.. and even those I understand as simply overstuffing the episode. They got everything in they could while being utterly hilarious and unique, giving us one of the best stories of the world's finest there ever was in the process.

Next Time: Lex Luthor runs for president! Get ready for a lot of smaller stories chopped up into a graphic novel, a terrible christmas carol homage, and american voter idiocy. Just kidding your already aquanited with that last one.

[complexitiiesarchived]

                                 COM·PLEX·I·TIES

                               /kuhm-plek-si-tees/

       NOUN, PLURAL; the state or quality of being intricate or complicated

abandon the urge to SIMPLIFY everything, to look for formulas and easy answers, and to begin to think multidimensionally, to glory in the MYSTERY and PARADOXES of life, not to be dismayed by the multitude of causes and consequences that are inherent in each experience – to appreciate the fact that LIFE IS COMPLEX.  m. scott peck

( feat. muses from arrow, beauty and the beast, blue bloods novels, brooklyn 99, chicago pd, criminal minds, doctor who, fantastic beasts, girl meets world, hamilton, harry potter, high school musical, moana, once upon a time, one tree hill, riverdale, shameless us, sense8, sing, star wars: tfa, stranger things, supergirl, the 100, the chronicles of narnia, the flash, the originals, the outsiders, the shadowhunter chronicles, the vampire diaries && until dawn )

[violetfaust]

Is this the first year belle does not get a solo centric episode at all? I think in the othe seasons she still got one even if there was alsoa rumbelle centric .

I think that Changelings was her centric, but there’s only one (not a Belle and Rumbelle heavy one). Her yearly princess adventure was also handed to Killy. Lovely.

And that’s one reason that OUAT is hitting those big .8 ratings while BATB is climbing toward the billion-dollar mark. 

No one ever accused Kitsowitz of being smart.

[gemini-queen42]

you ever get just. Struck with a moment of Inspiration? Like you just had a Vision?

because. look. context: Princess Eve's theming's got a Lot of inspiration from this one video essay on Black Swan and the Madness of Feminine Perfection (by Final Girl Studios, if iirc?) and I had recently actually watched Black Swan around when I started doing batb: Other Than Human.

Now, Babette's human design in Other Than Human has some feathery wing motifs (because Feather Duster and ALSO I REALLY love what they did w/ her cursed design in the 2017 movie so I took inspo and added some birdy motifs as homage)

anyways, I was thinking abt Angelique- and how I kinda gave Babs like.. the same hairstyle but in a diff font than her. So they look kinda similar now, haha- Then I thought abt lumiere's flirtiness w/ Angelique and in came a prompt abt Babs getting jealous and whatnot and it was all very silly fun for my brain to ponder and mess w/.

skip a couple steps to the next important bit is I doodled a lil OTH design for Angelique- mostly just Translating her to my style & also adding fitting motifs for the design.

Which include feathery/wing motifs- because, y'know, Angel.

Now recall that Babette looks kind of similar to Angelique, w/ hair and Vibes and the Wing & Feather Motifs/shapes.

NOW RECALL WHAT I JUST ALSO RECALLED WHICH IS LUMIERE ALSO HAS DIRECT BALLET CONNECTIONS BECAUSE IN OTH SHE USED TO BE A BELLERINA AND IS THE ONE THAT TAUGHT EVE BALLET AND THIS CONNECTION IS MORE INDIRECT BUT CONSIDERING HER CONNECTING PLACE BETWEEN BABETTE & ANGELIQUE HERE-

So anyways, Black Swan / White Swan Babette & Angelique anyone?

(I feel like I sound insane/I'm going insane but THAT'S the CREATIVE PROCCESS BABY !!!)

[gemini-queen42]

Sketchbook dump part 2 electric boogaloo- batb: Other Than Human edition

Lumi & Cogs + lil Eve (ignore that i didnt draw clothes i didnt have fits figure out yet sjjesm)

Eve Sketches (including the one where my mechanical pencils erasure just Smudged so I just made all the values in the sketch darker and THAT i recently remembered is why she has her Skinton now lol) (also, first image is a sketch of Full Beastly form)

Og Helene sketch + her getting annoyed by Alamure + some lil Amalure's

And this OLD ASS doodle of Lefou & Amalure

[gemini-queen42]

the great thing about drawing Maestro Forte for me is that I do not believe there's any way I can fuck him up in a way that is not true to his appearence. the freedom of just making a lad look like a straight up corpse.

his hair tried to kill me though. dw I won but y'know.

"This is just a silly doodle this is JUST a silly doodle this is just a silly doodle ONE FRAME thing that you will finish BEFORE NOON"

I repeat as I force myself not to go in-depth on 18th century ballet costuming just to try and figure out what a character would wear during a practice/teaching

[gemini-queen42]

Im working on some silly beach doodles of Batb: OTH rn but Until then have a batb related sketch dump:

[The last 2 are based of Musical Rehearsal moments lol] [rest is just... my usual.]

(I'll post a specifically OTH related sketch dump in a sec)