#because come on that's partly what this whole saga is about

[marantis]

Some more of my general thoughts about the Ithaca Saga, now that I've had some time to let them stew.

I love the chord/note progression (quick reminder I have like no knowledge of actual music terms^^) of 'Cause I'd rather lie, than to allow them to think they've won' and consequitive uses of that same one. The belt on the second 'buying you time' is everything, absolutely great.

While we're on the topic of belts, I love Antinous belting in Hold them down, it's so good. Also that gurgle from Antinous when Ody shoots him in the throat, visceral, love it.

I do think it is neat that King got renamed, had to read a post pointing it out, but it is nice that it now matches all the other 'Monster' Songs that only have the coresponding name as the title. I also wonder about the armory though, like was that Odysseus cause it seems unlikely, or is it that Telemachus got home, clocked that it's killing suitors time, got himself to the armory armed himself, and then the suitors already found the thing, kind of surprising him there, arming themselves before he then confronts them? Or is there a third option I might be missing?

Can't help but wonder marks the point I started bawling uncontrollably if anyone's wondering. Athena's appearance did me in in the end. But the whole song is just so unbearably sweet.

Would you fall in love with me again still manages to make me cry by the way (twice in the last two days) it's always Ody singing 'I know that you've been waiting, waiting for love' that does it. The emotion there is just urghh. Also the little breath right at the start of the song is so precious. The raw emotions throughout that song especially Penelope getting angry, and I love that she essentially puts a riddle before Odysseus with the wedding bed request, it is a really nice way of emphasising again that they are evenly matched when it comes to wits. But my favourite part is the 'I will fall in love with you again, over and over again, no matter how where or when' She is so fed up with her idiot husband that has been gone for twenty years, and she loves him so much

[batsplat]

I know need to know what the fuck was the honda three rider team about. Bc that sounds made up as fuck

historical silly season: 2010 edition!

in early 2010, casey had very much had enough of ducati

rumours are that he'd already been looking to break his contract for the 2010 season after how ducati had handled the whole mystery illness 2009 saga... releasing inaccurate statements about his condition to the press without his consent, implying his diet was to blame - as well as offering jorge a shit ton of money to come ride for them. crucially more than they were paying casey

this was from mid 2009 and the vibes were already BAD back then... it's hard to know how seriously to take retirement rumours from the time given casey just wasn't. really... talking to the press, so a lot of the times the media was relying on other sources from inside his camp or just wildly speculating

anyway, casey did see out the 2010 season with ducati, but at the start of the year he essentially gave them an ultimatum - he wanted them to rip up his proposed contract and have them show him how much he was worth to them. they did not do so

according to casey, he already signed a contract at the second round of the season in jerez, which gives you a sense of how done he was with all things ducati - but it was only announced after the seventh round in july. the move was made smoother by casey's existing close relationship with livio suppo, who had himself recently made the switch from ducati to honda

very much the right time to make the move for sure. at the time, there was speculation that casey's poor results in the first half of the season was due to decreased motivation, which of course he strongly denied. really, it was the fault of the bike and team - and casey would show as much the following year at honda

one little problem. honda already had two factory contracted riders for 2011: dani and dovi. now, dani had been honda's wunderkind since forever, and after their last world champ nicky hayden - who was not on particularly warm terms with dani's camp, it has to be said - departed the team, dovi had been the chosen replacement. dovi was a long time honda loyalist, even when he was riding their underpowered bikes to championship runner up positions against jorge in 250cc, and he'd also had a highly impressive rookie season

2009 had not been a particularly great year for either factory honda rider, partly due to bike performance partly due to injuries partly due to... rider performance. it was a rough year for dovi in particular, despite his win in tricky conditions at donington (all four aliens deliver quite funny performances at that race in different ways. not exactly the finest of hours for any of them)

when casey's signing was announced, honda initially went 'okay three factory blokes but maybe we'll have two in the real team and then one in a fake team'

the problem, right, is that it costs a lot of money to field a three man team - this is why honda was so keen on the red bull option, because then they could pay for the seat

honda confirmed its intention to have four factory honda riders in 2011, those three and sic, in mid-september. but they still needed to figure out where to put them. they didn't manage to get the funds to put casey in a separate team, and then they tried to put dovi on the satellite squad:

now, dovi was on a 2+1 contract, with 2009-10 guaranteed and an option to extend for another year. the contract included a performance clause - and dovi was having a more successful 2010 season, so hrc was having some trouble forcing dovi to accept the move:

so yeah, obviously not exactly great behaviour to sign a third rider when your team is already essentially full... and then immediately spend the next few months trying to get rid of one of your existing riders who is still entitled to that seat

some more details:

for a while, dovi looked like he might be leaning towards accepting it, and was certainly keen to stress that he wasn't rejecting gresini due to his interpersonal issues with some of the team's personnel. this from september:

eventually, repsol agreed to fund the whole thing so that honda could honour their commitments to all three riders:

so, one team for all of them, if still a wee bit of healthy internal separation

and by november the whole thing was sorted

honda did have some internal precedent for this! in 1997, they fielded three factory riders: doohan, criville and okada

also back in the day they did just create shell teams organised around one rider, which is of course where valentino spent his first two years in the premier class

and here's the updated version from 2011!

anyway, it was only something honda was willing to do for one year, and in the end dovi decided to jump ship to yamaha rather than accept internal demotion. the fight for p3 in the championship went right down to the final race in valencia - and it must have been incredibly satisfying for dovi to snatch it from dani there

after this... look, basically they changed the rules to make it two entries at most per team, then they changed it back for like? two years? so that four riders were technically allowed. and then they changed their mind again. now it's just two - obviously teams are allowed wildcards, but they couldn't do this three man team thing anymore nowadays

teams generally wouldn't even want to do this because it's a lot of hassle and, most importantly, money. so yeah, unlikely to make a comeback. very much a quirky curio that won't be replicated... could be funny though. if they want to change the rules again

[ctrl-alt-tahu]

Counting Turaga

So... open question to the Bionicle fandom: how many Turaga are there? Or, perhaps, putting it better: how many Turaga are there supposed to be?

Without really thinking about it, I have two not-quite-compatible mental images, which we'll call "Plenty of Turaga" and "Turaga are Rather Rare."

Plenty of Turaga comes from the original years of the saga: there are six of them, one per village, as many as the Toa. There's a footnote on BioSector01, on the Turaga page, that Greg said there were more Turaga than Toa left at the end of the story (so, "more than 58" as the page put it).

On the other hand, the rest of the saga really has me imagining fairly scarce Turaga: there's never more than one mentioned in Metru Nui, Jovan seems to have been a Turaga alone. The norm seems to be: one Turaga, one village. Metru Nui, in particular, seems to highlight this contrast: there were 11 Toa Mangai, but there's only one Turaga.

Thinking about this, I suppose that it's partly just attrition: the same thing happening to the Turaga that happened to the Toa by the end of the MU. And not every Toa is going to survive to be a Turaga.

But...

What if it's by design? What if there aren't SUPPOSED to be that many Turaga? A village may need a team of defenders, but does it really need more than one sage leader in the same way? When the Great Beings made the first Turaga, how many Toa did they expect to transform?

What really has me thinking that the ratio of Turaga to Toa probably isn't supposed to be 1-to-1 is Destiny. If it really is the case (I've grumbled about this before) that only certain Matoran are destined to become Toa, why would it be the case that all Toa are destined to be Turaga? Doesn't it make more sense for only certain Toa to be destined to be Turaga?

(Sidebar: destiny in Bionicle is basically whatever you want it to be--it's as malleable as time travel in Doctor Who, but I don't think it matters for this argument if destiny means "programmed from the very beginning," "an ever-changing, ever-adapting plan of Mata Nui to meet the circumstances," or something else. At least as long as you don't stray too far toward the edges...)

I find that I actually really like the idea that Turaga might be rarer than Toa and only the destiny for a few of them, larger because it really makes the Toa Metru take center stage: if the norm is that only a few Toa become Turaga and then an ENTIRE TEAM becomes Turaga, that means they are special, right?

From a meta perspective, of course the Metru as special: they're the archetypes of Turaga for any fan who followed along from 2001. Having it turn out that they're actually a massive reversal of what is normal makes their personal destinies fit really well with the reveal that the island paradise of Mata Nui is not actually where they belong: fans imagine Mata Nui (and plentiful Turaga) as the default for Matoran, because we entered the story there, but an island paradise (and a whole Toa team becoming Turaga) is not what was normal in the MU.

I also like it because it lets you have fun with the "who really is the destined team of Toa" story, where Mata Nui is putting forward the Toa Metru and Teridax is nudging forward the Mask Matoran. If the Mask Matoran couldn't become Toa, then what was the point of that? Lhikan would give them stones, it wouldn't work, he'd take them back, and he'd try again (right?). On the other hand, if they were able to become Toa, what's the advantage to Teridax in picking those six rather than the other six?

My proposed answer: Teridax has no idea. He can just read the signs that Mata Nui wants the Metru, so being the contradictory bad guy that he is, he figures a different set of Toa has got to be slightly worse. After all, Teridax has picked off a lot of great Toa already--the new Toa will need to be superb to do what the Mangai couldn't, and if the new Toa aren't quite what Mata Nui wants...

But what Mata Nui really wants isn't warriors; it's wisdom. The Metru do important and valiant things as Toa, but the single greatest thing they do is sacrifice their power for the Matoran, and that was an act of wisdom. When Mata Nui picked them, he wasn't only picking Toa who could save them once in battle, but Toa who could save them again in transforming, Turaga who could lead them.

I think this takes a little bit of the sting out of the end of LoMN (not necessarily a good thing--bittersweetness and loss is a huge part of Bionicle--but I think we do want our faves to be happy and significant). If being a Turaga is special and rare, then there's a eucatastrophic miracle in all six of them becoming Turaga at the end: a miracle that speaks of hope in a dark hour.

Maybe it would also explain why they founded six villages on Mata Nui: one village for each Turaga.

[theonlyendersgamefan]

No spoilers

SHADOWS IN FLIGHT IS ACTUALLY GOOD??

I genuinely forgot that Orson Scott Card is a competent sci-fi author. Every other shadow book has me like “please let this be a normal feild trip” and then you get 100k words of the slowest Mormon manifesto disguised as political thriller. (Except for shadow of the giant (they could never make me hate you, shadow of the giant))

Shadows in flight is classic 80s sci-fi and relative to the rest of OSC’s library it only has a little bit of sudo-incest. But even outside of that I’m also just really engaged with the story and junk. And even if the story was entirely non existent Cards distinct writing style from Enders game and speaker for the dead, which was lacking in the first half of the shadow saga imo, returns here which is a breath of fresh air.

I feel I should mention this early on just for transparency sake but, a positive book review by me is entirely useless because I will rate a book 5 starts purely based on my own ability to creat fun mental visualization out of it.

Let me explain. Delving truely a tiny bit into spoiler territory.

At some point a group is in a hallway in 0g and they’re all geard up. My own interpretation of this scene has this group, who is not usually especially discreet, be as disciplined as a highly trained swat team. In reality, text on paper, their gear is no more then rudimentary. Just as a consequence of not needing anything more. They are probably moving as instinct guides them. In my mind, however, they are fully bravo 6 going dark. No wasted movement, swift and efficient. The entire atmosphere of the story changes, they are having conversations through coms and I will mentally add in radio chatter even if it doesn’t make sense. Or I’ll make up a whole dramatic sequence for them opening a hatch or turning a corner. It’s fun as a little brain exercise but it’s not black on white text so my review of the book, which is based partly on the above, is biased because I imagined it in a way that I would like best.

What I can say is that this book is much less intrusive than the rest of the shadow saga. Orson Scott Card still can’t help but tell us directly what we’re supposed to think and HIS interpretation but in this book I feel that he’s taking a similar approach as speaker for the dead. Each character is written strongly enough that they can disagree on a conclusion based on the same information and neither is pitted to be explicitly wrong by the book (like a couple other shadow books I could name (I HATE SHADOW PUPPETS (Why waste such a goo name on such a boring book))).

Overall the book does give you more space to breath and more time in between receiving information and the characters declaring their own opinions. I actually several times got to the conclusion of one of the characters before they did because they all think their conclusions out. Instead of starting with the answer and condescending to everyone about how obvious the reasoning is later.

I’m also a big fan of the tech in this book. It’s much more grounded then in say xenocide. Advanced but based in concepts of physics and chemistry and biology that are common enough knowledge. You don’t feel overwhelmed or like you just have to accept that this is true and not gibberish.

Anyway SHADOWS IN PEAK.

I definitely didn’t write out all my thoughts here partially because I’m trying to stay as far from spoilers as I can and partially because I’m just writing down ideas as they come to me (is that obvious. I’ll write more about this book for the foreseeable future actually, it’s becoming my favourite shadow book (shadow of the giant in a close second but it’s becoming a more distant second which each page of shadows in flight)

I also haven’t actually finished the book.. I’m half way through and had to talk about it, soz.

[hyenahunt]

Saga: Epilogue - 4 [END]

Writer: Akira

Season: Winter

Characters: Seiya, Hokuto

Proofreading: moricchiichan (JP) & Peace (ENG)

Translation: kotofucius

Hokuto: I’ll become happy, Father. With the people I love — as just a single ordinary human.

[Read on my blog for the best viewing experience with Oi~ssu ♪]

Location: Reverse Live Stage

Seiya: Hocchan.

It seems you're finally done processing your calculations.

Hokuto: …….

Seiya: I know what you’re thinking; I’m your father, after all. That’s why… I have a piece of advice for you: Don’t stop calculating there.

Hokuto: …?

Seiya: As you have guessed… Well, I've taken victory this time. But the world hasn’t ended, nor have we died.

Life goes on. And you must continue to think ahead for as long as you live, just as I do.

Because I am a boring adult, you see. I can’t afford to be burnt out just for a momentary flicker of youth.

You can’t allow yourself to get fixated only on the outcome of the fight in front of you and cease thinking, either.

Hokuto: …What do you mean by that?

Tell me, Father. As much as it pains me to admit it, I don’t measure up to you yet. I can’t calculate like you do, so the only choice I have is to ask for your guidance.

Seiya: Of course. No, perhaps… Asking for guidance and giving an answer in response, or bestowing advice is the natural interaction between parent and child.

So you have absolutely no reason to feel unworthy of it.

If anything, I’m relieved. It appears I’ve managed to save face as a father…

One day, you’ll overcome me completely, that much is sure; but it would’ve been very pathetic nonetheless to have my son knock me out at the first punch.

That aside — as you can see, Rain-bows is coming out on top for this third song.

This match will end with two wins and one loss for you, making you the victor. As it was a close match, our total points will take a plunge.

Then what does that make the result? We will still be above you in the total of points, so you won’t be able to turn the tables on us.

Reverse Live will be won by Lilith.

You’ll be the close second, with there being barely any gap between our total points.

Anyone will judge it as a close battle on the whole.

Hokuto: …You’re planning to share the spotlight with Rain-bows by making us the victor in the direct confrontation, is it? You’re taking pity on us — that’s so aggravating.

Seiya: Fufu. It isn’t due to pity, though. We put our all into this match.

Your winning this match is entirely due to your competence.

Just the fact that you had a close battle with Hidaka Seiya will be enough to make your value skyrocket. It’ll be beneficial for your future activities as idols.

Account for everything, even for your distant future. If you can build up a track record and amass more evaluations of this kind, you will reach me someday.

However, this Reverse Live was arranged partly to recover CosPro from its reputation crisis. It’s unpardonable for us to lose in the end.

So you’ll have to excuse us, but we’re taking the trophy.

But you remember what I said, don't you? I don’t wish for one party to keep winning by a huge margin.

Everyone holding hands and crossing the finish line together may be a pipe dream… Yet a society with too extreme disparities only brings about riots and despotism.

If it comes to that, we may end up reversing the progress of time to those days of absolute monarchy.

The future of the idol industry should be one of friendly rivalry, where you elevate one another to greater heights — a wonderful, brand new world such as that.

It seems to be one they’re working toward, anyway; in CosPro, Ibara-kun, and in Yumenosaki, Eichi-kun.

Seiya: We mustn’t create a society where the privileged few monopolize all the profits and trample on their everyone else.

Far too much bitterness had built up throughout the application of the Special Student system, causing a great explosion…

Such as the tragedy that transpired in SS, and you’ll learn the same lesson by tracing the footprints Jin-kun left behind as the title of Super Idol pushed him to the brink.

Not to mention the events that led the greatest idol in history, “Akehoshi-kun,” to become a star in the sky…

Those were all the result of making someone bear a weight too heavy for the human vessel.

I believe we’re all meant for a life suited to our form, as a single human.

Modern society has no needs for gods and kings. I am making a contribution to aid in shaping this vision that our youths speak so passionately of.

That is my duty and choice, as someone who has lasted to this day by pure luck.

Let us descend from our thrones and liberate the treasures of our land; return the wealth we have been monopolizing to the people, as deserved.

Seiya: Though our magnates have yet to catch up to progress, dreaming to restore the old kings to power through this Project-Saga…

I’ve meant to conclude things in this way all along.

We Mentors will pass all our teachings to you, along with the limelight.

And we will go out with a bang just like this, as we retreat to the backstage, aiding you all from the shadows thereon after.

It’s in the nature of mentors to support their disciples, of adults to support children… That is the purpose of the tale that is Project Saga.

At the very least, I am committed to portraying it as such.

The heroes’ saga ends here; from now on, your lives in this reality begin.

That concludes my commentary. …By the way, the show is still going on, so you’d do well to sing instead of looking so grief-stricken.

I have great expectations for you, so show me everything you've got, alright?

Us winning this match will upset my calculation, you see. Not only do I find that undesirable, it’ll be so lamentable to know my son was so inadequate.

Hokuto: …Don’t look down on me. I’ve suffered through many defeats and tragedies, and I haven’t broken down from a single one.

I’ve inherited your endurance in not faltering at the face of any adversary, Father. No trial is hard enough to break me… No, I’m never losing to anyone, ever again.

Hokuto: Sure, Lilith will win Reverse Live, but after that…

I’m never losing to you again. Or, even if I lose the battle, I won’t lose hope. When I fall, I’ll lift my face and walk again.

I’ll become happy, Father. With the people I love — as just a single ordinary human.

Seiya: …I see. I’m so glad to hear that… Truly, I am.

Then let us sing together. With the both of us on stage, most of our audiences here are expecting the ensemble that us father and son play.

Let us answer their expectations. That’s what idols do.

Hokuto: I know. …I’ve become an idol too, Father. Just like you.

“♪~♪~♪”

[ ☆ ]

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[kame-writes]

Had some questions about the Radiostatic Vampire/Human AU on discord, so thought I'd post them here too incase anyone was interested

Again, this AU is up for grabs just tag me if you use it because I wanna see ^^ This means anyone can use these ideas, pick and choose what to use or discard if you do anything with it. These are just some ideas I had.

I might draw up some designs for this au later.

More info:

Obsessive stalker Vox trying to find Alastor is bordering on insanity, He's been searching for years and only just getting some leads.

The other Vees are annoyed at him, but also worried.

Velvette thinks Alastor is in a cult. She never met him, but gets that vibe from what she's seen and heard from the other two.

Valentino thinks Alastor is a serial killer because of all the disappearances when he shows up. He always gave him the creeps the few times they met. They hated eachother.

Vox probably eventually tracks Alastor down via Husk or Rosie, since they're more in the public eye. He probably also becomes very jealous of Rosie since Alastor keeps in contact with her and not him

He had no idea when they were friends about Alastor being a vampire

Alastor also doesn't need to kill, he can feed off people and leave them alive. He just enjoys the hunting and killing of his prey as a form of sport.

Humans hunt animals for sport and food, and Alastor is a step above humans, so why would there be a difference?

Vampires are able to make people not remember when they feeds off them, either a low-level hypnosis or maybe a venom that causes short-term memory issues

Alastor was probably feeding off Vox the whole time they were friends. Whether long term use of memory alterations or hypnosis affected Vox is unknown

The reason he didn't kill Vox could be either he was useful in some way. Or he was a target to kill, but Alastor realised that he'd be missed, therefore more chance of him getting caught.

Mimzy might be an old friend that Alastor turned into a vampire to save her life, so feels partly responsible for her when she comes to him for help.

Husk Q&A Under the cut

What does Husk being a familiar mean?

So, my basis/reference for vampire familiars are based on 2 different fandoms. 1 The saga of Darren shan books, and 2 the movie Renfield.

Basically, familiars are half-bloods. A vampire gives them enough of their blood to grant them abilities, but not enough to turn them into a vampire themselves. This meams they don't need to drink blood and aren't affected by daylight, they live as an enhanced human, but still need human fuctions ie. Food, drink, temprature control ect. To survive.

My idea was Husk was a human who was tricked/persuaded into making a blood pact to become Alastors familiar, because Alastor needed someone to work for him who could operate in the day and take care of little task for him.

Is he a shapeshifter? / Does he have cat qualities?

This is up to anyone who wants to do something with it honestly, I don't have much ideas involving this. He needs to be human passing to do his job, but shape-shifting could also be good/useful too. Could also have Alastor being able to transform into a bat, like some of the vampire lore to tie it in why he'd have these abilities.

How did he end up that way?

Alastor probably stalked him a bit first, saw qualities that he found useful/appealing, and then made Husk an offer. Husk probably didn't know the full weight of what he was agreeing too, but understood enough to agree.

I see Husk as a loner, no friends or family that are close to him, probably still having his gambling and drinking issues ect. So he had nothing to lose and more to gain by accepting a deal from someone like Alastor.

[redhatmeg]

The final reconciliation between Sanji and Luffy has some parallels to Robin's declaration of will to live, but there are few obvious differences.

The main similarity between Robin in Ennies Loby and Sanji in Whole Cake, is that they are both in desperate situation which they don't see any way out to. They both also were ready to just sacrifice themselves to terrible fate, believing that it's the only way to save their crew (and in case of Sanji - also Baratie), only to learn in last second that the bad guy doesn't intend to keep their end of the bargain and they're going to kill everybody either way.

And then comes a moment when Robin and Sanji face their captain once again, and even though they tell him to just leave, Luffy has none of it and tells them to state outright what they want. He asks Robin to say if she wants to die, and he asks Sanji to say what he really want.

Now, the main difference is the setting. Robin is on the upper level, surrounded by enemies and wearing seastone handcuffs, while Straw Hats just burned down the World Government flag to show they will go to war for her. Meanwhile, Sanji talks with Luffy on a desolated area, only with corpses of defeated soldiers around them; Sanji managed to sneak out of the Whole Cake Chateau to meet with his captain.

There is also the fact that Sanji points out reasons why he can't go back: because he attacked Luffy, because Baratie is held hostage and because his family is going to die. Because he and Luffy are alone, they can have a conversation like that, while Robin couldn't (partly also because a lot was happening around her, with Spandam, Franky burning Pluton and all).

I've read that people draw comparisons between the two arcs, but I actually think it's good. I've realized long time ago that there is a trend with female Straw Hats' arcs - Nami, Vivi and Robin - when they are dealing with terrible situation on their own and Luffy basically tells them it's alright to ask for help; that he will risk his life for them, because they are friends (maybe it's not as pronounced with Vivi, who - for most of the Arabasta Saga - hangs out with Straw Hats and tells them what they should do, but at some point Luffy has to remind her that during the fight people die and she shouldn't be the only one staking her life on the line to prevent it).

Meanwhile with guys, most of the time things just happen. Luffy says he's going to help them fight and the guys are like: "Okay, thanks!" This was how they defended Syrop Village, Baratie and Drum Kingdom etc. Well, maybe Franky was a dick at first, and Brook told the Straw Hats he doesn't want to risk their lives for him on Thriller Bark, but they quickly move past that, becuase hey, they have common enemy and they may as well fight with it together.

Bottom line is that for once we have a male Straw Hat in a situation which he originally wanted to deal on his own, but he soon realized that he can't do anything about it alone. This time it's Sanji that is told by Luffy to ask for help, because he has friends. And I think it's a nice change of pace.

[keepsmagnetoaway]

X-Men: The Hidden Years 1 (December 1999)

John Byrne & Tom Palmer

it'shappeningagain.gif

Ok, so. At the beginning of 1970 the ongoing X-Men title was cancelled (or, at least, it kept publishing, but all it printed was reprints of existing stories): it was revived five years later. In the intervening time, the X-Men still canonically existed within the Marvel universe, and popped up occasionally in other people's books, some of which we will eventually be reading. Once they'd come back later in 1970s, though, and then become massively popular in the 80s and 90s, Marvel concluded it might be fun (i.e. profitable) to go back and tell some stories of what happened to the still-around original team after the cancellation of the book. Thus, X-Men: The Hidden Years.

This wasn't a throw-away cash-in, though, or at least wasn't meant to be: Marvel brought in the then-legendary John Byrne to write and draw the series. Byrne had drawn and written for X-Men in the late 70s, in the heyday of its revival, contributing to the most important X-Men stories ever told, the Dark Phoenix saga and Days of Future Past (someday we might even get to read them), had then written a number of massively successful other Marvel series and then, at the end of the 80s, had been lured away by DC to reboot Superman himself, which he did to considerable acclaim. By the late 90s his star was fading a little bit - notably he was now constantly clashing with his editors and abruptly quitting titles when he didn't get what he wanted - but he was still drawing and writing major titles for DC and Marvel: he was and remains a massively productive and influential figure.

So Marvel - presumably - gritted their teeth and chucked a bunch of money at him to bring his talents back to the X-Men. This isn't the place to do a full history of comics in the 90s, but since Byrne had last written for them, the X-Men too had been on a journey, becoming massively popular and ultimately being the defining superheroes of the massive boom in comics - and then also the poster-children for the crash that came around 1996, when all the hype and collectible mania and, simply, bad art and storytelling came tumbling down (we'll get to some of these issues in, oh, about 2035). Which brings us, confusingly, back to 1970.

Yeah, ok, that was a whoooooole lot of lead-in for, sorry. This is also a very weird issue to read if, like me and perhaps like you if you're following along with this blog, you've just been reading the originals, because Byrne spends the first half of this double-length debut issue recapping what happened in them. Obviously this is a good idea - especially in 1999 when tracking down the issues online would have been next to impossible - but for me it's just very funny to see all this stuff I was reading last week be catapulted fowards into a totally different style and summarised in one panel per issue.

The contrast with the older art, which is still fresh in my mind, is obviously also interesting, and I think mostly not favourable to Byrne and Palmer's stuff here. This art isn't bad exactly, but it's...dull? Like, what is the style here? There barely is one.

It's very primary-colours-driven, a little simple-feeling. It's alright, but it's just...alright.

Anyway, jesus, does anything actually happen in this issue? Well, yes. The point Byrne is picking up from leaves him with two strands: the main team's adventures, and the fact that Iceman just sort-of quit, partly in response to the arrival of Havok and the whole vague love-triangle with Lorna. So we get a certain amount of this sort of thing.

Do you see what I mean when I say the art here is kind of childish? It seems sort of simplistic. as, frankly, does much of the dialogue.

Still, the main team (minus Iceman) are instead on their way to the Savage Land, for...reasons. Those reasons involving having to contact fucking Ka-Zar again.

Once there, they fight some "natives" before being captured by them, and Jean appears to die. Obviously this kind of fake-out is even sillier in a prequel book where we know she doesn't die at this point in the timeline but this post is long enough already so I'll not show you that whole bit. I'll finish instead by saying this: this shit wasn't ok in the 1960s, and it's really not ok in 1999. Jesus Christ.

I guess what I'm saying is, I don't think I'm going to enjoy this series.

[supersonicsteaktacular]

Some thoughts on Miraculous Ladybug in general under the cut. Don't peek if you haven't caught up because i will be discussing season 5 including the finale.

Apologies if this is an incoherent read, i'm just writing as i think, this is just going to be a total mental vomit.

Ok so i had some complicated emotions when watching the finale. It was great in a lot of ways. We had some of the best fight scenes that miraculous has ever had and some undeniably cool moments, but i can't help but feel a little let down?

I think that's partly because of how long it's taken to get here. To call the pacing in miraculous glacial would be an understatement. Nothing much happened to shake up the status quo of Ladybug and Chat Noir fighting a villain of the week for like 4 seasons. Almost everything was world -building up until Gabriel got his hands on the miraculous.

So we had a story that was going slow suddenly going at a breakneck pace in season 5. Suddenly after 4 seasons of nothing happening, everything happens at once. Gabriel is coming out and fighting the heroes personally, Ladybug and Chat Noir are making plans that very nearly beat him and Gabriel gets wounded in a way that puts a timer on the plot. Things now HAVE to start moving faster.

In addition, the love square dynamics change for the first time in the show. It took 5 seasons to do what everyone wanted since season 1. Everything was exciting again!

And then they kinda blew their load on the first jerk??

Gabriel quickly went back to his villain of the week plans, the changes to the love square came and went within the first half of the season and ended up settling on the end of the love square with the least exciting dynamic?

It's pretty telling that the Love square is the most popular hetero ship on Ao3 in terms of number of fics. It has something like 10'000 more fics than the next most popular hetero ship. The love square is exciting in a way that no other ship is and there are people more eloquent than me on here that will wax philosophic as to why that is.

So it's a tradegy that nothing really changed with the love square until 5 seasons in, and then those changes were over in a flash. Flipped Ladynoir was gone in a few episodes, Marichat fucking burned twice as bright but a half as long and poor Ladrien never got a chance. Now i do like Adrinette but it's just a typical high school romance once you take away all the rest of the love square stuff. It's cute, but guess what? So are all of the other ships that i like. They took away what made the love square exciting enough to write 35'000 fics about.

So just about the only things left by the halfway point of the season to look forward to is defeating Gabriel once and for all and an identity reveal.

And NEITHER HAPPEN.

Gabriel actually ends up winning in the end. He gets to make a wish. In the final scene i was literally saying to my screen "WHERE'S THE CATCH??" but apparently there isn't one? Turns out all that pontificating about how a wish cannot be made without a huge sacrifice was for nothing. Maybe there will be a catch but we'll have to wait and see, and who knows how long we'll have to wait to see that plot point come to fruition.

And of course there was no identity reveal. In fact Chat Noir just flat out doesn't participate in the season finale. Let me repeat that. THE AGRESTE DOESN'T PARTICIPATE IN THE FINALE OF THE AGRESTE SAGA. You deserved so much better than being locked in your schrodinger box Adrien. You absolutely should've been there to deck your father in the face.

Sorry if this has come across as a whole bunch of complaining and salt. I just needed somewhere to reconcile my own thoughts. At the end of the day i really do love Miraculous. There's a reason i've been invested since season 1, there's a reason why i've always looked forward to new episodes releasing and why i've spent the last year desperately trying to avoid spoilers. It's clearly has something special even if i can't quite put my finger on it.

[duhragonball]

You know, I don't think I've seen a lot of people call out the Zamasu saga for sucking. In fact, a lot of people think it's the best part of Super for some reason. Why do you think that is?

I think about this a lot. Really, whenever I dislike anything popular, I try to understand the appeal. I still haven't figured out baseball, though.

A lot of it has to do with Future Trunks making a return to anime. Fans loved that guy. I remember seeing merch of him everywhere back in 2000, when his run in DBZ was airing on Cartoon Network. I wasn't a huge fan of Trunks at the time, but I still got swept up in the hype enough that when he fought Perfect Cell, I was convinced that he was going to be the one to beat him.

Then he was just... gone. He went back to his own time, and the Majin Buu Saga and GT happened, and they hardly ever mentioned him. I mean, that was partly because they had their own Trunks to take his place, but also the story had moved on, and Future Trunks had his own life to live. So I think a lot of fans kept a candle in the window, hoping he would come back somehow, and the Zamasu arc scratches that itch. When they first announced what the next arc would be about after Universe 6, fans were excited. I was apprehensive, because Frieza's comeback wasn't very impressive, so I doubted they could do Trunks justice. But I think a lot of fans were happy to take Future Trunks any way they could get him.

Mostly, though, I think fans like this arc for the villains. All the fan art I see from it is Goku Black and Zamasu and Merged Zamasu. I can't deny their charisma. They're always making those handsome smirking faces, and they both done got a purty way of talkin'. These two could read the phone book and a lot of fans would tune in to see it.

Which is a good thing, because they talk a lot in this arc, yet have very little to say. "Project Zero Mortals" is exactly what it says on the tin, yet they keep giving speeches about how they decided to do it, and what makes it so important, and why they hate mortals so much.

And the good guys do a lot of talking too. I swear, it feels like half of this saga is just gods standing around explaining shit. I've said in the past that Dragon Ball Z is like if a truck full of professional wrestlers crashed into warehouse full of superhero comic books. The Zamasu arc is like a truck full of 20-minute promos crashing into a warehouse full of word balloons. But if you enjoy Beerus, or the Supreme Kai, hey, here they are! They don't do a whole lot, but they're in this thing.

I think that a lot of fans like this thing because they take it at face value. They accept the premise of the story, that it's a mystery involving genocidal gods and evil doppelgangers and time travel, and they don't trouble themselves with the details. They see the glass as half full. Or maybe they see it as completely full, because half a glass was all they needed or wanted.

For my part, I'm a nitpicker, and overanalyzing is part of the fun. When I watch something and enjoy it, I think about what I liked the most and why. And when I don't enjoy something, I can't help but notice the flaws. This is especially true with Dragon Ball, which I mostly love, but there's parts that are just awful. The mainstream public probably couldn't tell the difference between an episode of Z, GT, or Super, but I can, and I have wildly different opinions on each show, even though they're all basically trying to do the same thing.

So with the Zamasu arc, I tried to accept it at face value, but I still couldn't get into it, and I started to wonder why, and noticed all these problems. Too much padding and stalling, the fights are unsatisfying, and so on. But if you just dig Zamasu and Goku Black's vibe, or you're only here for the Kai lore, or you just put this show on to listen to while you clean your house, then you're probably not going to go hunting for problems.

Well, maybe that's unfair of me to say. I'm sort of implying that people only like this saga because they don't pay attention while they watch it. That's not what I'm driving at. What I'm trying to say is that it's a lot like GT, where it seems like most of the fan appreication is devoted to designs and concepts, rather than the story itself. People like Goku Black and Super Saiyan 4, but I never see anyone go "Oh wow, my favorite part was when Goku Black stabbed Vegeta and it didn't kill him for some reason!"

And that's a valid way to enjoy art. Sometimes things are just fun to look at, and voice actors are fun to listen to, and it's not always about what the characters are doing and saying. This is how you get all those fanart works where Vegito Blue and Merged Zamasu are roomates for no reason. Sometimes stuff can exist without context.

Or maybe Zamasu Saga Likers are just funny in the head. They like circus peanuts and prefer Dr. Pulaski over Dr. Crusher, and they put the milk in before the cereal. They probably love baseball too...

[asoulofatlantis]

you talked about cedric being the reason why shirley leaves the jaeger life like him getting hurt . shirley enforcer number correlates to the star tarot card while cedric correlates to the sun tarot card in trails to azure illya the sun princess got hurt protecting the star princess from the chandelier falling which shirley caused to happen cedric may get seriously injured protecting shirley and this would lead to her leaving the jaeger life realizing its not worth it ( like what happened with randy

except cedric doesnt die

First of all: I would love the irony of history repeating itself for Shirley. Because, despite her character development, I think she never really had a chance to face any real consequences for what she did to Iliya back then. I do believe that these days she understands what she did back then and how cruel it was to use Sully and Iliya as bait for Rixia, given how Shirley herself now knows what it is like to have something to lose. BUT she never got confronted about this whole mess after her character development and the buildup of her relationship with Cedric. So it might be a bit like Crow getting killed by a "shot in the heart" like he did with Osborne. Karma, if you will. Shirley surely needs some of that, she always gets off far too easily.

When it comes to the Tarot-Cards fitting the ones used for Arc en Ciel and the pattern being repeated and that leading to Shirleys stopping being a Jeager, I am not so sure about it. Why per se, I think her relationship with Cedric would be the only way out of a Jeager Corps for Shirley - if there is any at all for her - and I obviously agree that losing/or almost losing someone they love has brought all our former Jeagers away from the battlefield and thus it would make sense for Shirley as well, in that context, chances are that won't happen.

I mean with Shirley, especially there is always a risk of her losing it instead of getting a grip on herself. I can totally see her rage attacking whoever was responsible for Cedric getting hurt, without facing that it was partly her occupation as a Jeager that led to it. Making her go back to the ways that caused her to be called "bloody Shirley" at a young age, out of rage and desperation. (There is of course always the chance she gets a grip on that eventually and then realizes that she was partly to blame for what happened to Cedric.) HOWEVER if we repeat the pattern from Arc en Ciel, we also have the problem that Rixia, even tho her position was the reason for Shirley doing what she did, stayed in her position as an Assasin and decided that this is the best way for her to protect the things and people she loves and cares about. Iliya too, even tho said to be paralyzed, actually returned to be a dancer even tho she had to fight for it very hard. Sully, even tho feeling somewhat guilty also took this as a sign to work even harder for Iliyas sake. So if someone hurt Cedric, while they were actually after Shirley, she just might see that as a reason to go even harder as a Jeager so no one ever again dares to do this.

I do believe that I have overlooked Shirleys borderline insanity when I talked about her getting out of the Jaeger-Bussiness because Cedric gets possibly hurt or even killed because of her being a Jaeger. Shirley was doing much better in CS3 than in the Crossbell-Saga, but she was still slightly insane in that game too. Just a bit more careful with innocent lifes. What grounded her in CS4 was Cedric. This means that technically, losing (or almost losing) Cedric might actually cause exactly the opposite of the reaction Sara, Fie and Randy have shown. Anything happening to Cedric might actually cause Shirley to snap and lose it. And with Cedric out of the picture (even if just temporarily until he recovers) there is nothing holding that girl back anymore. There is of course, as I said before, always the chance that after she finally calms down, she does realize that this was because she is a Jaeger and might still change her mind, but the chance that she snaps first instead of having a change of heart relatively closely to something happening to Cedric is definitely higher. It is also possible that instead of leaving the Jaegaer-life, she actually only leaves Cedrics life, realizing that it might be better and saver for him to stay away from her instead of realizing that if she wants to be with him, she needs to change.

With Shirley... honestly, everything goes.

However, as you were basically saying with your questions, the chances that Cedric actually does get hurt because of Shirley in one way or another (either protecting her or getting attacked because of her) aren't very low if we look at the bigger picture...

Lets take a moment to pray for our Babyfaced Princeyboy. Would be such a shame for him to die after Crow "sacrificed himself" to save his life back in CS2...

At this point I have to say, I honestly don't know what I want for Shirley anymore either. I want her to be with Cedric, but I am not completely against her staying a Jaeger while doing so anymore.

[sasuke-from-the-uchiha]

I partly agree with all of this, but for one thing: the actual ending, when Naruto agrees to part ways with Sasuke.

Until then, they're both lost orphans with violent pasts and upbringings. They are both let down by Konoha and the Land of Fire. And I 100% agree Kishi should have taken this further and actually adressed the System's wrongdoings.

I also agree that Naruto somewhat starts off as the villain. He's a selfish kid, prone to violent outbursts and with deep anger management issues symbolised by the nine-tails. Sasuke is, on the other hand, pretty selfless and heroic. He may be cold, but he sacrifices his goal or life to help his team mates, and shows supports many times. Sasuke shows Naruto what a proper team mate, and hero, is. I think this explains part of Naruto's obsession with Sasuke -because Sasuke is the only hero around, and Naruto needs him to be, so he can turn into a hero himself. Naruto is also the only person who keeps trying to reach to this more vulnerable side of Sasuke, when everyone else gives up.

I also agree that Naruto is wrong about chasing Sasuke most of the story. However, he fails during VOTE1 because of it. He fails many times again because he doesn't understand what Sasuke actually stands for or feels. In the end, during VOTE2, he only suceeds because he finally proves to Sasuke that he's not only chasing him out of selfishness, but because he empathises with him. Naruto doesn't need Sasuke anymore, because he's learnt how to be comfortable with himself and overcome his own traumas. He's free of that selfish need, and it turned into want. He wants Sasuke to be okay. Sasuke only surrenders because Naruto isn't demanding he comes back anymore, or telling him to come back, but merely showing concern. Naruto actually learnt to care, which is what his whole journey is about. He wanted to become Hokage, but what he needed was to learn how to make a friend.

In the (proper) ending, Sasuke basically agrees to coexists with Naruto and his views of the world, saying he wants to travel to learn about other values and possible ways to work things out, while still warning Naruto they may clash again and their values may never see eye to eye. (I do love that ending).

It took the entire story for Naruto to figure out a way to communicate. In the end, he's not forcing his own values on Sasuke anymore, and he gave him hope that there may be another path than self-destruction to achieve Sasuke's goal. Naruto is not Hokage, just a supportive friend, and Sasuke walks the path of recovery. They both have a lot to figure out and (if we ignore the following chapters and sequels), the ending is left open, with no answer as to what they'll do. Perhaps Naruto will help Sasuke take down the System, perhaps Sasuke with settle somewhere quiet and raise sheeps. Neither have a definite plan. They're not stuck in their pasts and what others (and the system) told them to be anymore.

Then, of course, Naruto turns into Boruto's dad and shit all over this message, which makes your analysis right and the entire Naruto saga pointless.

I wish I saw more either anti Naruto or critical looks at how Naruto embodies the violence of Konoha.

Even among "pro Sasuke" people, they are either in SNS or don't talk about Naruto very generally.

Naruto aggressively, and obsessively, pursues Sasuke throughout the entire manga and this is somehow viewed as romantic.

But Naruto is, in actuality, a villain! And I wish people really understood this and talked about him in this light.

There was a long ass post about Itachi that I reblogged yesterdag that finally has a bit in the end about Naruto who cant even articulate his goals in regards to Sasuke when he meets Itachi.

I actually don't consider Sasuke's emotional revelations in the end of the manga canon because we never see how Sasuke thinks about anything until the end. Sasuke is PURE metaphor, you have to really pay attention to him to see what his deal is, but all of a sudden we see that he was actually inspired by Naruto/liked him this whole time in these shitty flashbacks?

Bullshit. 🤬

I think these were added to give weight to Naruto's obsession; it can now be justified because Sasuke actually liked Naruto this whole time! And the reasons for their fight also give weight to this (Naruto is my only friend, etc etc).

Main characters are supposed to get what they want; that's kinda how it works. But the themes of Naruto, and Naruto himself (who embodies those themes), just mean violence when he wins.

I saw somewhere that Kishimoto intended for Naruto and Sasuke to always reconcile, but the state and the revolutionary can't reconcile. You either defeat the state or die at the hands of it. And in Sasuke's case, you get assimilated (and subsequently brainwashed). And many radicals also assimilate, typically into the academy, or through class ascension.

The ending is just really terrible, and Naruto is so thoroughly unlikable that I find it odd more people don't do deep dives into his dysfunctional and obsessive pursuit of Sasuke.

And although Sakura gets *a lot* of grief for chasing after Sasuke, no one ever complains about how Naruto straight up told Jiriya that he wanted to be recognized by Sasuke and that is what drove him to get stronger.

(When you code Naruto's obsession with Sasuke as romantic, then it becomes easier to accept this aggression. Especially when Sasuke rarely rejects him outright, which isnt the case for Sakura. But Naruto's interest in Sasuke is selfish, and actually has very little to do with Sasuke himself. Just like Sakura).

It feels VERY refreshing to see anyone talk about how violent Naruto is throughout the manga toward Sasuke. And in OG Naruto, the violence is more poignant/obvious because they're on the same team.

The main reason I think Sasuke almost never rejects Naruto outright is because it would have been a different story; for the current narrative to work, Sasuke has to on some level accept/acknowledge Naruto. I think it actually would have embodied some of the themes better if Sasuke HAD rejected him (ie chose not to fight him at VoTE - either one/didnt call him his friend to the Sage/etc).

I dont want to muse too much about it because the manga is done, we are trapped with Boruto and that show has DEFINITELY destroyed Sasuke (and every other theme from Naruto honestly).

All I am asking is to see more analysis about Naruto that depicts him as his is; a selfish, obsessive person who pursued Sasuke in his quest to be acknowledged by him.

(I might have to embark on this quest alone, but going forward, if I see any good, non-shipping related content to this, I will reblog).

[supermoviemaniac]

We still doing this huh?

It's okay not to care or be invested in the franchise - it may seem overbearing or unappealing from the outside if you're looking at a 26-film franchise, but you're going to get laughed out of the room for thinking the MCU should stop.

This isn't me getting butthurt as a fan, but more of a desperate plea for journalists to take a step back before they write slow-office-day articles like this. How many times have we seen this article... but how many times has an MCU movie broken its own previous records and gained more and more fans?

I feel like a stuck record now, but the best way to look at the MCU is as a series (partly because it is); the Avengers movies are season finales, and with the Infinity Saga ending, it's time for the MCU to direct us toward the next big stories. From Iron-Man 1, to Endgame, the MCU had been an ever-growing smash hit, with the greatest cathartic ending in cinematic history. You can watch the whole Infinity Saga and check out there if you wish, but you're going to look a fool if you think they should stop after sticking their first landing.

Don't get me wrong, I would have been content if Endgame was the actual ending, and it's always a concern when a franchise/series is doing well, there must come a time when it either ends with dignity or doesn't stick the landing... but if Marvel Studios are continuing to make quality, justified, game-changing movies (which are clearly building up to something far crazier than Thanos and 6 stones), then why stop now? Do we suddenly have no faith in these clearly passionate directors/storytellers and producers that have delivered the most entertaining franchise in history yet? I'll hold my hand up honestly and confess myself: sometimes when they've announced more and more Disney+ shows, I initially think "Oh god, another one?!", but so far, they've all been great in their own ways, and my apprehension is always squashed. Because Marvel play the long game, we care about each and every character and their development, so when we reach larger ensemble movies, they're genuinely incredible to watch, due to revelations and each film before it being somewhat of a building block.

Without the 'simplistic' origins of the MCU, we wouldn't be able to have the crazy things we saw in Shang-Chi, Eternals, Loki and WandaVision for example. You don't have to like the movies or the shows... no one is asking you to watch them, but with dumb articles like this, you're turning a blind eye to millions of fans with justified passions.

Are we going to get articles like this whenever a Marvel movie doesn't perform as good as the previous one? We've got substanceless brain-candy movies like Sony's Venom 2 getting rated higher than Eternals, because Eternals delved outside of the main MCU formula and provided a great character driven sci-fi with 10 unfamiliar characters... whereas Venom 2 was a bad comic book movie but painted by numbers so got a higher score. If Eternals delivered the same generic story as Venom 2 had, would it have gotten a higher score? Subsequently, would we then not have dumb articles like this? Because right now it seems the writer is trying to capitalise on Eternals' mixed reception. If that's the case, I advise they check out the audience score, because it'll be the audience that are actually invested and care about these movies. The writer even confesses he really loved Shang-Chi, which is post Endgame, so what's his issue? It feels like they want the MCU to fail if anything.

Note: my Eternals review will be coming soon, and yes I did like it a hell of a lot. I've seen it twice now and it's just outside of my top 5 MCU movies. I'll be talking more about the mixed reception and critics' hypocrisies whenever they complain about a Marvel formula but then dissaprove of something for not feeling like a standard Marvel film.

[thekingofthenameless]

I redesigned Merlin. You’re welcome.

I’ve actually had this idea in my head for a while. To be more specific, June 2021.

Here’s how this whole saga began:

June 18th, 2021: I found his gorgeous concept art for the first time and got the idea to give him a ponytail. I wasn’t going to change anything else about him.

June 22nd, 2021, four days later: I decided to make his eyebrows white.

July 26th, 2021: I got the idea to give him earrings.

August 27th, 2021: I had the idea that he would realistically be muscular.

December 30th, 2021: I gave @draal-the-deadly and myself a basic summary of his redesign; more realistic proportions, long hair, earrings, and muscles.

February 7th, 2022: I decided to make him look more intimidating, partly out of a desire to make him look more like one of his beautiful storyboard versions.

July 29, 2022: I had the idea to make a portrait of him in Artbreeder.

July 30th, 2022: I started making his portrait.

July 31st, 2022: I completed his portrait!

If this makes it seem like I have an impeccable memory, I don’t; this is from looking back at old Discord coversations between @draal-the-deadly and I.

Below’s his portrait, general looks, his armor and his sword! I’m redesigning those too! :D I also gave him a helmet because fuck that skullcap.

General looks:

Here’s his portrait!

Armor:

I actually wasn't going to give his armor a redesign at first. I just wanted to make a couple of changes, like making it bigger/less formfitting like his concept art, and adding gauntlets like this piece.

Then I started wondering if I should redesign it, and what I would do if I did. I thought about ideas, but I was never actually able to come up with a solid one.

But finally, I got inspired! I had the idea to give his armor a night motif, like Morgana's is day.

Originally, I decided that its main color would be black like this concept art, with white engravings like canon!Merlin’s armor. I also decided to add a cape, again, like his concept art.

I really, really wanted to see what it could look like, so I used Artbreeder’s semi-new Collager feature.

I entered "black armor with white engravings and medieval cape covered in stars and galaxies" as the description because I was trying to make it as exact as possible. I made three main designs, but I wasn’t able to choose any of them until I decided to mess around with it again, and his armor got rendered with stars. Eventually, that design became my favorite.

The cape unfortunately didn’t get rendered, but I made a design!

Cape:

I got the actual idea for Merlin having a cape covered in stars from Stolas’ in Helluva Boss, but I also remembered Nyx’s design from Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

Its current design is now mostly covered in nebulae, but it does have some stars.

When Merlin has all of his magic/is at his full power, the stars shine and move just like real ones; same with the nebulae. After Morgana steals most of his magic, they’re both dim, along with his armor’s stars. They also don’t move.

To make the design for his cape, I again took advantage of the Collager feature. I used a photo they had (Image One) and Galaxy as the description, and this (Image Two) rendered!

But I wanted to see it on a cape, so I made my own cape template, and added the picture to it using the Magic Wand feature in ibisPaint X.

Then I figured out how to combine it with his armor in Adobe Express!

It’s actually a lot longer, going to about his ankles, but y’know, photo compression.

Helmet:

We’re finally onto his helmet! After making several designs that I was never happy with, I finally have a finalized one, combined with two photos.

I always wanted his helmet to match his armor, being black with white stars, but the photos never came out right because of colors, being too modern, etc. But two photos finally came out right, and gave me the design that I wanted. The first photo is what its main part looks like, except for the horns. It has a visor I guess? like Jim’s helmet, with the ability to magically collapse and materialize. When his visor is up, the only part of his face that can be seen is his eyes. The second photo is what the visor looks like when up, and what I want the horns to look like.

Sword:

A long time ago, before I’d even come up with the idea for his redesign, I did a sword Picrew and made one with a night theme. When I was coming up with his night motif, I remembered it and decided it would fit!

I wanted it to have a more realistic look, though, so I drew a sword using his canon one as a reference. Then I added some of the star photos I made in Artbreeder to it with the Magic Wand feature.

Photo for his pommel and cross-guard:

Handle:

Blade:

Staff:

I wanted to give his staff a slight redesign because I feel like DR!Merlin gives off more straight up fantasy design vibes than canon!Merlin.

Instead of always being a staff like canon, Merlin usually keeps it shapeshifted into a ring, which he wears on his right hand’s middle finger.

I also made a shield for him because of his Adaptational Badass characterization!

But besides the new day vs. night symbolism of him and Morgana -which I’m a sucker for- DR!Merlin’s night motif shows that he isn’t a threat to the good trolls; Morgana’s day motif shows that she is.

It would also thematically make sense, given that trolls are creatures of the night. There are a lot of star and night motifs in Trollhunters, but the main one I can think of off the top of my head is the starry sky in the Void.

And here’s a blurb from Jim’s POV as he and Toby learn about Merlin!

Before Blinky started reading, he raised his hand. “Hey, uh, Blinky?” “Yes, Master Jim?” he asked, looking up. “I have a question I wanted to ask you.” “Of course, Master Jim.” he responded, smiling. “What is it?” “The Amulet’s incantation has ‘For the Glory of Merlin’ on it. Is Merlin the guy who created the Amulet?” “Yes, Master Jim.” he answered. Then he paused, confused. “Did I not tell you that?” “You didn’t tell us anything about him,” Tobes pointed out from beside him. All we know about him is from pop culture and speculation, and who knows how accurate any of that is.” “Oh, goodness. I shall fix that immediately!” He shared an excited grin with his best friend before he quickly pulled out his phone. He was definitely recording this. “But before that, I must fetch another book!” the troll exclaimed, making both of them groan. “I will return quickly, I assure you. “AAARRRGGHH!!!, will you hold this?” he asked, holding up the book. “Yes.” “Thank you, old friend.” He handed the book over before walking to the entrance of the Forge. Soon Blinky was back, with another book that looked less old than the one about Killahead. “The Life of Merlin,” he said, gesturing to the book he now held. “An ironic title, because so much of it unknown despite his ancient age.” Wait. Merlin is ancient to them? “But what we do know is compiled in this book- oh.” He stopped, finally noticing Jim’s phone. “What are you doing, Master Jim?” “Recording this to show Mom later.” “Oh, alright. Continuing on-” “Blink, wait. What did you mean that you think he’s ancient? How old is he?” “That, Master Jim, is answer no one knows. But he was around as long as anyone could remember. He was one of the oldest creatures alive, if not the oldest.” Jim saw Toby raise his hand out of the corner of his eye. “Yes, Tobias?” His best friend’s expression was skeptical.“No offense, but you don’t seem to know very much about him despite him being so old.” “That’s true. But he was a very mysterious person. He was the type to never talk about his past unless something reminded him of a past event, or he was asked. And even then, only sometimes.” Toby hummed thoughtfully. “Okay, I’ll buy that. But why can’t we meet him? Did he just leave you like a coward or something?” And Jim might not have known Blinky that well yet, but Toby’s question seemed to make him… sad. “No, Tobias.” he quietly answered. “But that would have been better. He… he died 900 years ago, two weeks after the Battle of Killahead.” Oh. “That's... that's really sad.” Jim said softly. Blinky nodded, his eyes still sad. “The tragic nature of his death only adds to it.” He zoned out for a minute before he shook his head, clearing his throat. “Do either of you have any more questions?” “I think I’m good.” Tobes nodded in agreement.

“AAARRRGGHH!!!, should I start with his physical appearance or his armor?” the troll asked, cracking his knuckles. “Armor.” AAARRRGGHH!!! answered. “Armor?” Toby gasped, eyes shining. “You’re saying that the Merlin wore armor?” Oh, Tobes, he thought, smiling at his best friend. Excited as always. Blinky nodded, grinning. “Whoaaaaa.” Toby whispered, awestruck. “Actually, I probably should have expected that. He literally made Jim’s.” “What did it look like?” Jim asked. “His armor was black, and covered in white stars. His breastplate and pauldrons were dotted with them, and his breastplate also had a giant one in its center. Along with that, he wore a blue, black, purple, and pink cape, also covered in stars. His helmet was black with stars like his armor, and it had two horns like the Daylight helmet. He even wore night themed accessories in his normal attire, such as moon earrings. It was his way of signaling that he was always safe to good magical creatures.” He smiled sadly after that, looking down at the book he was still holding. “Wowww. Wait. How come Jim didn’t get a cape?” “He probably thought inexperience might make a Trollhunter trip over it, or get it snagged in something.” Toby thought about that before nodding. “True. What kind of weapons did he use?” “His usual weapons were his sword and his staff, which was most often shifted into a shield. “Now, onto his physical appearance. “He was quite tall for a human, and his posture was always straight, befitting someone who was a warrior for centuries. He had warm brown skin, with completely white hair. His eyes were a beautiful blue, much brighter than yours, Master Jim. Many have said that they were his most stunning feature, and I agree with them. They were soul-piercing, and you could literally see the millenia that he’d lived in them.” “Whaaaaat? He sounds beautiful.” “On the contrary, Tobias, while his armor was, his face was actually rather hideous.” He opened the book he’d been holding in his top left arm, flipping it to a page before turning it to face them. “I will warn you that some of this is artistic expression because he never fought without his helmet, but otherwise it is very accurate.”

The picture showed Merlin in a moonlit forest, positioned in an awesome fighting pose with his weapons. It looked like he was looking right at them, and a fierce expression was on his face. There were a few seconds of silence. “Blinky, he isn’t hide-” he began. “Oh my gosh.” Tobes suddenly exclaimed. “What?” he asked. “He really was hot.” “TOBES!” he shouted, mortified, but his best friend just started cackling. It was contagious, and he started laughing pretty quickly. Blinky and AAARRRGGHH!!! seemed confused at first, but soon they were laughing too. “But like I was trying to say,” he finally managed to get out, “He wasn’t hideous at all.” Blinky looked at AAARRRGGHH!!!, who shrugged. “Well, he was to our standards.” Tobes started studying Merlin’s picture again. “He looks like he came straight out of a fantasy novel. Albeit, far older than the typical protagonist. And far more powerful, right?” “I’m not quite sure of what you’re referring to, but most certainly.” “You never did say how he died.” Jim said softly. “He… was killed. By his own former apprentice.” His mouth dropped. “What?” he asked quietly, shocked. “Damn.” Tobes said, weirdly calmly. “Morgana le Fay betrayed her master, and in the Battle of Killahead, wounded him. Very fortunately, he was still able to win their fight and seal her away. He made it back to Camelot, where he fell asleep. And he… never woke up. Two weeks later, he succumbed to his wounds. “Before those… events, it seemed like nothing could kill him, or even harm him. Sometimes it’s still hard to believe that he’s… gone.” “That’s terrible.” Jim felt his brow furrow. “But also sounds kind of strange. No offense.” Instead of getting annoyed, Blinky nodded vehemently. “I also always thought that the circumstances of his death were strange, as did many others. But he never came back, so he must have died.” Tobes looked skeptical again. “Are you sure he didn’t just fake his death and leave like I said?” “Of course, Tobias.” he answered, and he said it with such conviction that Jim was convinced. “He would have never done that.” Tobes, however, still looked skeptical. “You seem awfully certain of that.” “I am. His personality had many traits, and being sarcastic, brutally honest, abrasive, and stubborn were just a few of them. But he was curious. And kind.” He let out a small laugh. “And he was brave. So very brave. In fact, I would say that bravery was his strongest trait. “During the times of Camelot, Arthur’s wife, Guinevere, was killed by a stalkling, and the grieving king ordered the magical world to be wiped out. Most of us fled or hid, but Merlin stayed in Camelot, right at Arthur's side. “Humans either thought he was foolish to, or praised him for his loyalty. But Merlin was secretly protecting us, committing treason in doing so. He took on a new identity and alias: Myrrdin Wylt. “He actively fought against the bloodshed in any way he could under that disguise. He started by showing up at executions being held, and freeing the poor creatures sentenced to death. Such blatant acts of rebellion, of treason, didn’t go unnoticed, of course, and he was brought before the king. “He stood up to Arthur, calling him out on his vengeance against all of us when it was one stalking. He even asked the humans in the room how they would feel if the situation was reversed. “He didn’t change his mind, so Merlin doubled his efforts. He started to make the Amulet to help defend us against the Gumm-Gumms and humans, and he kept breaking us free and helping us hide. “If he was requested to help capture or kill us, he always made excuses or conveniently disappeared. If good trolls were killed and brought back to Camelot, he revived them and made illusions of them in their places. “Does he really seem like someone who would just leave now?”

“…No.” Tobes finally admitted. Yes! “You guys seem like you really love him.” “And he loved us. Humans tended to think of us magic-kind as monsters, but he never treated us any differently than humans. “He always loved magic and discovering new things about it, while most humans found the very idea of magic and its potential frightening. “I already explained how he was our protector.” Blinky continued. He picked up the book and flipped the pages to more pictures, of Merlin laughing, playing with whelps, and holding a child. “He was our hope bringer. He was the mightiest wizard and greatest wielder of magic to have ever lived, and he always used his power to help us. “Heartstone Trollmarket became the beautiful safe haven it is today because we just did what we thought he would have done.” He stopped, sighing. “Sometimes… I like to look around here, our home, and think about how much he would have loved it.” “Now, onto the history of Killahead!” He took the first book he’d given to AAARRRGGHH!!! back, opening it. “It used to be just an ordinary bridge, but during the Battle of Killahead…” Jim didn’t feel himself begin to fall asleep.

I’ll probably flesh this out even more later.

Also, this blurb actually has a timeline!

Can you believe it?

Anyways, it’s set during “Gnome Your Enemy”! Jim stays awake for the explanation about Merlin, then he falls asleep during the retelling of the Battle of Killahead like in canon.

[decepti-thots]

Hello! I hope you are feeling well! Soooo, have you read the final issue of “Last Bot Standing”? What did you think about it?

Sorry I am a little late replying to this, anon!

I have indeed read it and I enjoyed it very much. I've not said anything much yet about it partly because I really now want to go back and read the whole thing in one go- while LBS worked well as a serial comic, it feels very much like something with the expectation it will be read and re-read as a single piece, and before I say anything too firm about it I want to give it that breathing room.

But I really liked the ending. That last page got me, I gotta say. And I'm fascinated by the choices made as to what to focus on and what to emphasize in the kind of story LBS is telling. It presents itself as a kind of amorphous encapsulation of Transformers comics as a whole, and with that presentation in mind a lot of its big narrative assumptions and choices are really interesting. I've seen a lot of people confidently declare it's 'obviously' more IDW1 than anything else, and... I disagree, and think that's probably more rooted in recency bias and/or limited reference points on readers' parts than the actual comic.

It's also really interesting to look at in the context of Nick Roche's whole oeuvre of TF work. Tonally, LBS rings pretty different to me. For all that it has a lot of things that sound pretty dark on paper, in execution it bears basically no resemblance to, say, the Wreckers saga. But thematically, the throughline is there, and I really want to dig into it at some point, and what effect that shift in tone has on how its themes come across.

[impandgnomes]

"[feeling] extremely upset for Stan" I FEEL THAT GOD I WANTED TO HUG THE LITTLE SHIT SO HARD HE'S ONLY 10

I remember after I finished watching YGO/Assburgers (on the insistence of someone else since I'd avoided them for the longest time), I kind of spent like five minutes staring into nothingness and thinking about my life; partly because of Stan, and partly because of the dynamic of these two in this saga. When taken as a whole, it's a weird and interesting take on coming of age and Tratt feeling creative burnout (I still remember the entertainment news articles going around basically saying "no you dipshits SP isn't ending yet stop panicking" lmao). I can see why it's a major moment in the show for some people on that front alone.

It's not Kenny Dies tier in episodes I'd never watch again (long story, but yeah also another time I wanted to hug Stan), but as someone who could honestly say they've both been a Stan and a Kyle over the years, idk how people could think Kyle's some irredeemable evil bastard for how he acted in these eps, especially since he's a literal child. He tried to stick with Stan, but it was beyond his scope and ability to handle to the degree he was set up to have to do. I've felt hurt by that crap before, but I've come to understand. It took me until like 16 to realize what I was dealing with was depression ffs - what my middle school thought mental health education was came to "hey fellow kids you must be sad because your time management is bad look at this fun jar of beads as a visual :))))". For how purposefully silly the presentation is, Stan not being able to handle what's happening to him and none of the adults in his life really helping correctly breaks my heart on a deeply personal level. There's others in my life who I feel were the same in different ways and thinking of that for them is just...fucking ow.

I sometimes feel bad for my reactions when other people's mental health got too much for me when I was younger - I would have probably been a little similar to Kyle. These days, I realize a lot of the time I was dealing with something beyond my paygrade as a very overprotected kid who was going through a lot himself and has tried to do better since (I did usually try to get teachers, parents etc. involved where I thought it would help though). Sometimes I hope I really have, but I'm never going to stop trying anyway.

Hey, apologies if you’ve covered this particular thing before but one of the arguments against Kyle in ygo/ab is that in it apparently he can hang out with the fascist, abusive pos he’s dealt with most of his life but not Stan. I have my own halfbaked rebuttals to this idea, but you’re generally better with this kind of thing so thoughts?

Hhhh god this take is so painfully frustrating. I have already kind of gone loosely over it here as well as expanded on other stuff related to this topic.

But yes here we gooooo

Kyle didn’t abandon Stan in You’re Getting Old and Assburgers and I’m honestly really disturbed at how so many people in this fandom seem to think Stan is somehow entitled to Kyle’s constant affection and presence as well as believing that because someone is depressed, you must entirely disregard your mental health and happiness to put them first, even if they behave extremely unpleasantly and treat you poorly because of their mental illness. I’m not here to say that Stan is a bad person or somehow the real villain of these episodes- He’s NOT. He’s a child suffering with depression and it leads to him acting in ways that are hurtful to others because he doesn’t understand his poor mental health and isn’t being given the support and help he needs from his family and medical professionals. I also don’t think that the people pushing this idea actually BELIEVE that you have to put your own mental wellbeing aside for others in favor of theirs- At least not the vast majority of them. But somehow the fandom has became so utterly blinded by this idea because we only see the episode from Stan’s perspective and the fandom itself has just sort of skewed the general idea around the episode in ways that are blatantly untrue to what actually happened in it and it’s lead to people carrying on these annoying brain dead takes. 

I’m going to go over YGO and AB again in less detail than I have in the past- The link I sent has a lot of script backing up my information but I’m going to try going over it again here.

In You’re Getting Old, we see Stan increasingly struggling throughout the episode with his mental health as he falls into a deep depression. He suddenly can’t find joy in anything he used to and is frustrated and upset because of it. The only thing that does give him an inkling of happiness is being with his friends, but he can’t help but continue to complain and vent about anything the boys are doing no matter how hard they (particularly Kyle) tries to find ways to make him feel better and different things that he might enjoy. In the episodes, Stan isn’t just sad and mopey, he constantly talks about how shitty everything his friends find interest in is, making his problems everyone else’s. Once again, I do NOT think this is because Stan is a bad or selfish or mean person, nor do I think it’s fair to hold this behavior against him. He’s ten, he’s never had this problem before nor does he understand why he does. He’s frustrated and sad and the only thing that seems to improve his hurt feelings is to loudly tell everyone how unhappy he is and justify why things are making him unhappy by calling them bad. His behavior is extremely relatable and sympathetic I think to almost anyone who’s been depressed, myself included. 

BUT. I ask you to also look at the episode from KYLE’S PERSPECTIVE. Stan’s birthday passes and suddenly, nothing he does makes his best friend happy. Everything he likes and enjoys is called shitty and bad and stupid and he feels utterly helpless to fix these problems that are far out of his control or understanding. And somehow forgotten by the fandom, Kyle DOES TRY. A LOT. But like Stan, he is only TEN. There is only so much he can do, and he can’t understand or relate to the pain Stan is feeling. He doesn’t know how to fix it, and knowing how frustrated Kyle gets in other cases when he can’t fix or help something, he’s probably feeling entirely helpless and irritated towards himself that he can’t solve Stan’s problems. There’s not really any sign Kyle doesn’t care about Stan suddenly because Stan is “no longer fun” or something like that. He just can’t really fix him??? And it’s not fair to put that on Kyle’s shoulders alone?? 

We don’t know how much time goes on between this last scene and the next when Stan catches his friends hanging out without him after pretending to be sick, but honestly I don’t really think it matters. The point is that Stan is understandably hurt to find that his friends don’t want to hang out with him as much as they used to, but I don’t think that is something he’s entitled to? Like, you’re not entitled to the constant attention of other people no matter what you’re going through, and they’re allowed to have space from you if they want it even if it’s because they’re struggling to handle your mental health. Can this come off as cold and cruel? I think so in some cases. I do agree that just abandoning a friend because of their sudden switch in mental health would be a bit nasty even if it’s entirely someone’s right, but that isn’t even what happened despite how hard the fandom tries to argue this. 

In this scene, Kyle admits guiltily that he did lie about being sick because he needed a break and wanted to enjoy something without being constantly told everything he likes is shitty is bad. It makes sense he wouldn’t tell Stan- He knew this would only hurt him even though it’s completely fair of him to want some space. Kyle’s words here aren’t the most eloquent, but I remind you that he is a child who doesn’t understand what Stan is going through. He’s not mean, he’s blunt, and while he could’ve been nicer, I don’t think it’s fair to hold it against him considering his age and understanding of the situation. 

Stan is hurt that his friends don’t want to not be around him. Kyle tells him quickly that it’s just one movie, and I don’t think it’s fair to assume Kyle is lying here considering more information we learn later. Stan begs to join them. Kyle tells him he can as long as he doesn’t complain the whole time. Stan proceeds to complain while watching despite his friends asking him to stop over and over again, and Kyle, finally fed up, storms out followed by Cartman and Kenny. Stan follows and is told by Cartman that they don’t want to hang out with him anymore, and then he and Kenny leave. In both the scene where Stan catches his friends lying and this one, Kenny and Cartman leave the moment Stan confronts them with little to no concern as to how Stan’s feeling or ever trying to mend the situation or explain themselves. I’m only noting this because I find it really funny that the fandom tries so hard to villainize Kyle as somehow being the worst friend ever in this episode but Kenny McCormick is never at all mentioned for how quick he was to completely drop Stan- Way quicker than Kyle who never even fully does so. I’ve even seen people try to make Kenny mad at Kyle for these episodes or critical towards him??? Like?? Did you not watch it??

But moving on from that, Kyle tells Stan that he’s changed. Stan tells Kyle that the world has changed, and Kyle tells him back that he doesn’t want to view the world in the way Stan is trying so hard to make him see. Once again, I don’t think Stan is bad for this- He wants someone else to understand how much pain he’s in so that they can help him and empathize with him. Kyle understandably doesn’t want to see the world in the same horrible way Stan has begun to, however!! And while I don’t blame Stan for wishing Kyle understood him, the way the fandom somehow expects Kyle to just dive headfirst into trying to view the world in the horribly negative way Stan is is sort of ridiculous and unfair??? “Oh man, my friend is depressed so now I have to be depressed too so that I can understand exactly how he’s feeling and fix all of his problems”- Putting aside that this isn’t really a realistic expectation for Kyle to just somehow do, it wouldn’t help and it’s pretty nasty to imply Kyle is bad for how he reacts to Stan’s words here. Once again, I agree that Kyle could’ve been better with his words here, but he doesn’t understand depression or how to help fix it or what to say. 

This is the last of the dialogue between Stan and Kyle in this episode. From this, we can see Kyle hasn’t “abandoned Stan” and there’s more evidence of this in the future. Kyle has begun to set boundaries and wants space from Stan, he wants to be able to hang out with people who don’t insult everything he likes and who are fun to be around. He hasn’t DROPPED STAN. Stan isn’t entitled to constantly hang out with Kyle and Kyle is entitled to be apart from him and do things with other people sometimes! This isn’t disloyal or cold for him to do??? 

After this, Randy and Sharon divorce and Sharon moves herself and the kids out. This would have been a relatively long process that realistically should’ve taken place over like… Two or three weeks at least, if not a month or longer. But it’s pretty ridiculous to act like only a day or so passed since YGO and AB. In this montage, we see Kyle hesitantly approach Stan from behind when he’s sitting alone. He stops and then sadly walks away, seemingly not knowing what to do and giving up on helping at this moment. Later, we see Kyle playing video games with Cartman, and he smiles, enjoying himself. I’m going to expand on Kyle and Cartman’s relationship later but this is relevant. 

Moving on to Ass Burgers, we see Stan is still depressed after the long time period that was heavily implied to have passed. Kyle and Cartman are back to arguing about aspergers. They leave the bus stop to go ask Kyle’s dad about it and Stan doesn’t follow. I guess you can argue Kyle abandoned Stan here?? Once again, I don’t think that Kyle is responsible for constantly tending to Stan and making sure he’s included, especially when Kyle has seen in the last couple of weeks that Stan has no interest in being involved (nor has he ever really liked being around Kyle and Cartman’s spats). Either way, I don’t think Kyle does anything that horrible here- At most you can argue maybe he could’ve been a bit more attentive?? Idk. 

In the next scene, the boys are returned to class for skipping by Officer Barbrady, and the class starts talking about aspergers leading to Stan blowing up and telling everyone to shut up. He’s sent to Mr. Mackey’s office which leads to him falsely being diagnosed with aspergers instead of anyone recognizing his depression. 

Later on, Wendy approaches Kyle in the hall. She asks Kyle about Stan, and he tells her that he’s tried to call Stan and hang out with him, but Stan has only gone even more downhill since his diagnosis. This implies that an even longer period of time has passed between the beginning of Ass Burgers and now, so this is probably even MORE time that Kyle still hasn’t just dropped Stan like the fandom likes to imply. Either way, it feels like a month or so has passed AT LEAST since Stan’s depression first started and now. Kyle is harsh with his next words, though I feel really bad for him here? He clearly cares a lot and feels horrible for Stan, but also frustrated and tired and hurting himself. Calling Stan a black hole was definitely not a good thing to do, but once again he’s 10 and yada yada doesn’t know better. He says he can’t keep doing this, that the negativity is hurting him and even making him become depressed himself. And finally, Kyle says he needs to let Stan go. So this is the scene, if any, that Kyle truly “drops” Stan, though even then I hesitate to so quickly call it that because of future actions he takes. 

But yeah, so. This is it? This is why Kyle is such a horrible cold friend who doesn’t actually care about Stan?? Really?? Because he prioritized his own mental wellbeing?? It’s so fucking exhausting hearing this take, seeing people perpetuate the idea that Kyle has to let himself be hurt or else he’s a bad person. That he is somehow at fault for Stan’s worsening mental health. It’s a legitimately harmful idea, and once again while I don’t think most of the people spreading this take about Kyle actually believe these ideas, I really worry someone make take it to heart and think that they have to put their own wellbeing aside for the sake of someone else just because they’re struggling because they don’t want to be like Kyle in this episode. The episode itself isn’t even blaming Kyle in all of this. It’s just the fandom completely misunderstanding a lot of things because of the point of view being mostly from Stan’s and disregarding a lot of information the episode gives relating to Kyle in favor of having their helpless depressed baby who everyone hurts because no one loves him and that’s relatable, I guess? I don’t know. I can’t get into the minds of people who spread this idea but more often than not it just feels like they want to have Stan as their ‘does no wrong stand in’ to cope with their own problems and poor mental health, and while I think coping through characters is fine and entirely valid (I do as well), it’s really uncomfortable and frustrating seeing it come at the expense of other characters and spreading faulty ideas like this.

Kyle decides that he’s going to try and embrace everything moving forward with positivity because he doesn’t want to fall into the same depressive slump Stan is stuck in, and that leads to him furthering his friendship with Cartman with the Cartman Burger stuff. 

In the next scene, Stan is forcibly made drunk for plot reasons. It makes him feel happy and okay again, and he ends up running back into Kyle. The following scene is why I don’t think Kyle ever truly drops Stan despite saying he’s going to. He doesn’t tell Stan he doesn’t want to see him anymore, the most he really does is tell Stan that things can’t just go back to normal, and he has other priorities now- Cartman Burger, which I guess could also be taken as being his friendship with Cartman himself if you’d like. He holds Stan, tries to give him advice about trying to take a “left turn”, and is genuinely glad to see Stan seemingly doing better even if he’s critical about him being drunk. Stan falls back into his old habits of insulting everything, and Kyle immediately recognizes this as Stan not “changing” which I agree is unfair of Kyle, but again, he’s a child and doesn’t understand depression or what Stan is going through (Especially with how Kyle has learned to deal with his own mental anguish which I expand on in the essay I linked earlier). Cartman urges Kyle to come back to work and Kyle starts to. Stan tells Kyle he loves him, and Kyle immediately comes back until Stan insults him and Kyle once again walks away. I don’t think Kyle has (at least not fully) dropped Stan here??? He’s setting??? Boundaries?? And not tolerating Stan insulting him, drunk and depressed or not?? Kyle seems accepting of the fact that their friendship is seemingly coming to a close but he’s still letting Stan be in his life and seems open to letting things improve. He just doesn’t want to have to be the one to fix it because he doesn’t know how and his own mental health was previously declining.

Stan is continuously forced to drink by the people supposedly giving him therapy, and ends up captured by a bunch of food restaurant mascots- dumb plot stuff. When sobered up, he’s interrogated by them. They don’t believe him about his failing friendship with Kyle, and basically put him down for walking away from his friendship with Kyle just because he was “feeling down” which obviously is unfair to Stan and not what happened. 

Stan is forced to go back to Cartman Burger with a gun aimed at him to find out why the food tastes good. Kyle doesn’t know and clearly doesn’t realize Stan is being genuine when he claims he’s in danger in large part because he was previously claiming crazy shit when he was drunk. Kyle says the he’s sorry about what Stan is going through but the negativity is “poison” to him, which is pretty cold but ten year old who doesn’t understand- Plus at this point, Kyle seems frustrated Stan won’t respect his boundaries which isn’t justification but is at least why Kyle is probably being so blunt at this point in the first place. Stan apologizes but says he can’t help being depressed. Kyle points out that Stan verbally insulted him before, Stan claims to not realize what he was saying. Considering he’s a ten year old who was forced to drink, I think that’s fair but Kyle’s perspective is as well. Kyle relents and says he doesn’t know the information Stan needs, Cartman does. 

Plot stuff happens and Stan becomes fed up with all of this stupid stuff, finally seeming to realizes that the people from his therapy are only hurting him and that accepts that things have changed and that it’s okay for life to move on even if he didn’t initially want it to. I don’t think I need to reiterate all of this but yeah, it’s just really sad how the episode ends with Stan finally okay with the changes in his life and ready to start new only for it all to go back to normal entirely, and then at the very end we see that he’s gone to drinking to cope with his depression. It sucks. I hate these episodes, not because I think they’re poorly written but they just generally make me extremely upset for Stan. But that’s basically everything with them revolving around Stan and Kyle. 

As for Cartman and Kyle, I find it kind of frustrating that people view Kyle’s hanging out with Cartman so shallowly? Like, I don’t know. I’ve seen better worded meta on this in the past that I can’t find now relating to Cartman always immediately jumping in as their friend the moment Kyle or Stan aren’t together, and it’s very true. He suddenly isn’t insulting either of them (particularly Kyle) as much anymore. Now he acts like their friend and tries to get close with them, and this is pretty much because he can never compete as the best friend for Stan or Kyle when put against their counterpart, not when they’re getting along. He’ll always be second in getting the attention he craves from them. So instead, he’s mean and annoying and though the attention isn’t positive, it’s still attention and he’s getting a lot of it, especially from Kyle who’s so quick to fight against him if Cartman tries to anger him. There’s plenty of scenes and episodes where he immediately fills the space left by either Stan or Kyle being missing from the duo, and it feels very intentional on Cartman’s part. Even in Ass Burgers itself, Cartman takes deliberate steps to separate Stan and Kyle when they’re talking, watching closely when Stan comes to Kyle drunk and swooping in to get between them when it's convenient to break them apart again. He wants to be the center of attention with both of them, especially Kyle. He wants them paying attention to HIM, not each other, and if he can get in there when they’re not happy with each other to come off like the good guy, he’s going to do it. He’s just manipulative like that, and Kyle, oh so ready to see the good in people, even those as bad as Cartman, is ready to forgive and forget if he sees an improvement and to believe Cartman truly is becoming a better person. Kyle is easy to manipulate like that- Or at least he used to be, I think he’s learned to be more distrustful since then but at least at the point in time these episodes came out, Kyle was always very quick to believe in the good in people and believe they were genuine when they showed improvement. We see this even in later episodes like Ginger Cow when Kyle for a moment seemed very ready to believe Cartman when he came to apologize for lying. I don’t think it was as simple as “Kyle picked Cartman over Stan” like some people like to imply. 

Anyway, sorry if any of this is rambly or messily written. It’s hard to go over the entirety of an episode completely through text, and I’m sure some parts are a bit slow, but I hope it’s generally understandable and easy to read.