#but It’s fun seeing his actions translated in human form

[crazycometspecular]

At least he didn’t overreact

[worldunbent]

chapter notes - matoba seiji

a compilation of all of midorikawa's chapter notes concerning matoba (as of volume 29)

all are from the official viz releases, translated by lillian olsen.

Chapters 23 - 26 - Inhuman Thing I didn't have a chance to write a story about Matoba until now due to page constraints or manga cycling issues in the magazine. I had fun when I finally got around to it. Matoba's appearance means Natori's hardships become more obvious. Natori settled upon his current philosophy after a lot of reflection. But then he sees Natsume wrestling with the same choices and slogging through the same place he used to be, and it's both amusing and frustrating at the same time for him. Natsume might realize this and not be able to presume so much on his kindness. Natsume and Natori are left with a problem, so l hope to take my time drawing them dealing with it.

Volume 9 (General afterword) I enjoyed drawing a bit about Matoba. He has several titles. He’s the organizer of the assembly of exorcists, so he’s called “Chairman” during the meetings. He’s the young head of the family from a regular human perspective, and known as the leader of his clan to yokai. Natsume has been more relaxed lately, so it’s very fun to draw something tense like this once in a while. I’d like to write thoroughly about exorcists some time when I have the opportunity. Seeing Matoba and Natori side by side here, they’re clearly eccentrics. I’m relieved that Natsume seems normal by comparison.

Chapters 52 - 54 - Behind the Chains Natsume is now able to face a variety of things. But I also feel that the distance between him and Natori grows each time they encounter one another. They see the same things and hope for the same outcome, but because their paths are a little different, it's hard for them to take action when they're together. It's a strange feeling. I'm sure Natori wants to remain Natsume's ally, and Natsume wants the same with Natori. I'm happy I got to draw more about Matoba, too. Whereas Natori tries to do what's right and is afraid of making a mistake, I think Matoba is the kind of person who doesn't fear making mistakes.

Chapter 77 - The Two Rings This was another story I had always wanted to do, but the timing never worked out, so I was very happy to get to it now. When I'm drawing Natsume, I always agonize over his dialogue and pick his words carefully. But when I'm drawing the Matoba clan, I don't have to think about the impression they're making, and I just use words that pop up in my head. Mr. Natori is somewhere in between. It's always a bit refreshing to draw the exorcists. I hope people form their opinions of Mr. Matoba based on what's on the page. In good ways and bad, he's a character who lies but is also uninhibited.

Special Episode 17 - A Hand Extended They let me do another episode of Natori as a high school student. There was another anecdote I wanted to include, but it wouldn't fit, no matter how hard I tried to rearrange things. Still, I'm happy I could depict more of Natori and Matoba's relationship. Sometimes you can't come to an understanding with a person, but once you become aware of your own feelings, you can often begin to be more objective. Then you start to see aspects of the person that change your mind, which is natural. But unlike Natsume, Natori can be stubborn and won't allow his feelings to change. It was interesting to see how Natori would feel about the aloof and unwavering Matoba.

Special Episode 19 - An Abandoned Station in the Rain With 16 pages, the plot could have felt too similar to other Special Episodes, so I decided to do a simple story just about running into someone unexpected. It was fun showing Matoba being himself. Mr. Matoba knows yokai who live in a slightly different world from the one Natsume knows, and Nyanko Sensei knows both worlds. I'd like to do more stories about the two of them.

Chapters 92 - 94 - The House of Promises I have a memory of some boys climbing the gate of the town hall to pick some loquats at the end of spring and getting scolded. I made it seem like spring when the chapter appeared in the magazine, but then I heard that loquats ripen in early summer, so my older sister helped me race to redraw the clothing into something more summery before the graphic novel release. I enjoyed drawing the exorcists. Mr. Natori just can't catch a break and Mr. Matoba has many things going for him, but he often gets shut out. They don't really get along, and they're skeptical of each other even when real empathy is extended. Natsume is always at least trying to listen, so conversations are easier with him present. No matter what, Mr. Natori is older, and Mr. Matoba is younger. End of story. When I include the exorcists, there are all these dilemmas and convolutions that make things complicated and fun to draw. It feels fresh to me. I get nostalgic for the first time Natsume and Mr. Natori met when they're together. Their bond is getting deeper, but it was easier before for Mr. Natori to casually invite Natsume on outings. When you know someone a long time, there are more things to say, but sometimes, just as many things remain unsaid.

Chapters 103 - 104 - Where Vessels Lie in Slumber* I was so happy to work on a longer story for once. My head starts filling up with what to do next while I'm still working on the current episode. when I'm in one-shot mode. But being able to linger on a story arc reminded me of the excitement I felt back when I first wanted to be a manga artist. I still have a lot of storylines I'd prefer not to cut short, so I hope I get more opportunities like this. I've wanted to do this particular story for a long time, but. I feel like it could only be done now because of how Natsume's currently feeling. I hope you can pick up on how Natori and Matoba's relationship changes subtly depending on the situation, and that you get a feel for their solidarity as exorcist peers. It was so fun drawing everything I wanted to include: Natsume's faith in his friends; Natori's belief that he can still offer help even as an exorcist; Matoba, who's sometimes prevented from action because he knows and sees too much; Tanuma, who's surely able to help, but is unable to accompany Natsume; the cats protecting their secret; Nyanko Sensei. And of course there were even more things I wanted to expand on, so I'll take my time working them out.

*The first three chapters of this arc are in the previous volume and there's not enough in the other note for me to include.

[eurydicees]

pls can u tell me everything about fhq and esp fhq iwaoi i don’t really know what it is but every time i see you repost one of those beautiful heart wrenching artworks i want to die in the best way

YES GLADLY I WILL TELL YOU EVERYTHING I CAN !!! under the cut because you're getting everything.

ok so some of the history lesson portion of this may be a little off, it's been a hot minute since i've done much research into this lol. but final haikyuu quest first appeared as a spread in one of the bonus pages in the manga! throughout the manga's run were occasionally drawings of the characters in little fake movie posters, one of them being an action/fantasy movie called final haikyuu quest:

this first poster and the original character designers are drawn by furudate! from there, it went on to become a mini bonus game in the haikyuu 3DS game, which is kind of crazy if you think about it too hard.

there's a playthrough uploaded on youtube here, but it's obv in japanese and i don't think there's been a translation of the game. there's a translation of part of it here on tumblr, but i don't think it's complete. poster from the 3DS game:

from there, it went on to be a CD drama (videos 8-10 on this youtube playlist, with subs), which is super neat. it's also one of the haikyuu light novels, but i have yet to find a full english translation of that.

i haven't read the novel or watched the videos with the CD drama audio myself, so i'm not sure how much it differs from the 3DS game. i assume they're pretty similar though.

so the premise at its most simple is that hinata and his party of adventurers are off to defeat the demon king oikawa and his henchmen! those are the basics.

the "canon" characters in hinata's party are hinata, kenma, aone, iwaizumi, and kageyama. on the opposing side we've got oikawa (the demon king), kuroo, and kiyoko. kiyoko has servants in the form of tanaka and nishionoya (they don't care for oikawa, they're just there for kiyoko). there's also michimiya, who is in the "fair princess kidnapped by oikawa" role that hinata & co. are trying to save. the full character profiles can be found here (everyone in game) and here (heroes only)!

now this whole premise is like. a little silly. the whole deal is a little silly. this is a volleyball manga.

with THAT being said, though, sometimes the most fun to be had is when you take the silly thing and make it devastating. and it's so easy to do that with FHQ. so let's talk abt iwaoi now <3

so in the story, oikawa is the demon king. because the premise is so simplistic and boiled down to good v. bad due to, like, this not being a real piece of media, oikawa is objectively on the "bad side." iwaizumi, on the other hand, is a knight, presumably human, and "oikawa's (former) friend."

iwaizumi being oikawa's former friend is literally his speciality and i think about that all the time btw. for context, kageyama's specialty is "prodigy" and hinata's is "strongest decoy." and fucking iwaizumi is out here like yea hey guys i used to be on the bad side but im mad at oikawa so now i'm with y'all. also my specialty in this fantasy universe is that i used to be oikawa's friend :)

like. what the hell. as you may imagine, the iwaoi angst potential here is ENORMOUS. iwaizumi who has betrayed oikawa and joined the heroes' side to take him down, iwaizumi whose greatest strength comes in knowing oikawa in and out, because the villains you love are both the hardest and the easiest to destroy. iwaizumi who loves oikawa, and who cannot save him.

(**side note, there's a lot of kuroken angst potential involved in this au as well, but let's focus on iwaoi for this post and save kuroken for another day)

so, as i said, the game's interpretation of all this is pretty simplistic and pretty silly. but personally i love thinking too hard and finding depth in things that are so not that deep. and it seems like most fhq fans also employ this as a favorite hobby because holy shit the angst people put in this au is INSANE.

the way i've interpreted it myself has been that iwaoi were besties/lovers/unclear situationship until oikawa kind of "fell into the dark side," because this is an au of every fantasy trope possible, and his reign over aoba became corrupted and "evil." iwaizumi betrays him to join hinata and take him down--save the world, at the cost of the demon he loved so much. but that demon, who oikawa was, is gone already, isn't he?

one of my favorite comics about them is here by @/ichigomaniac, where oikawa falls to the dark side and iwaizumi kills him to save the kingdom he loves. another FAVORITE similar one is here by @/hawberries! the premise of a lot of fics/art in this au run along these lines <3333

another super fun interpretation is a 5 part comic by @/duskisnigh, where oikawa and iwaizumi are running a kind of underground rebellion/safehouse in a world demons are oppressed by the human race. but as oikawa sees more and more evil on the behalf of humanity, he gets more and more unhinged until iwaizumi feels that he no longer knows him--and runs away with kageyama, with the intention of taking oikawa down.

personally i think the BEST aus are where iwaizumi--so loyal, so in love--is forced to leave because he can't stand to watch oikawa fall to more darkness, while oikawa himself is so devoted to iwaizumi that it's his love for iwaizumi that is corrupting him.....

in the fic i wrote, it's a story about forbidden love and how oikawa just wants to be allowed to love iwaizumi and he'll fight a war in order to do it. but iwaizumi can't watch oikawa fight this war anymore, because he's getting more and more dark as the war rages on. so he leaves, and was any of this ever worth it?

ggaahadhgjkadg . fhq. its crazy. i have a tag for it here, where i have been curating my favorite art. special shoutout to @/amezure who has some GORGEOUS pieces in their tag. OH ! and some of my fave fics in this au :

in the arms of loyalty and the hands of devotion (iwaoi, 23252 words), self promo lol

i can go anywhere i want (just not home) (kuroken, 3662 words) by keplcrs

wondering if your heart's still open (iwaoi, 683 words), by birdintheriver

Diorama (iwaizumi & kenma, 2027 words) by PlumTea

the ao3 tag is beautiful everywhere you turn, but i have a special love for those fics <3

so yeah that's the general deal! if you ever want to talk more about it, i am HAPPY to discuss !!! pls pls plsplsplsplsplssplsplslpslslslss!!!!!!

[makoredeyes]

What do you think the Siddharta Golem was back in the Golden Age? Must have been different enough to Rasputin to be considered his son but we really don't know anything about him.

It’s wild! Because even Rasputin becomes fairly verbose about Felwinter, but not what or who he was before he was risen. (Props to dad for not deadnaming his kid I guess??!?* except I still have this funny impression that Felwinter never liked his risen name much SOOOO )

But Siddhartha. His namesake is telling of course- gone out to wander the world and see it for all its goods and bads first hand, to grossly over simplify things.

Rasputin himself tags the activation record with the quote, "Experience is the teacher of all things." Which sure compounds the intent there.

But looking at that same log, yano Rasputin’s code is always cryptic and full of prose but this one has to be absolute THICKEST of them all:

>>AMYGDALA VOTIVE GRASP>>

V149GAQ145CB120

AI-COM/RSPN: ASSETS//GOLEM//INTERROGATIVE

IMMEDIATE ACTION ORDER

This is a SUBTLE ASSETS IMPERATIVE (NO HUMAN REVIEW) (NO AI-COM REVIEW) (secure/AUTARCH).

Initiate SIDDHARTHA GOLEM upload at DSC-342 to assess integrity of moral structures.

Stand by for CRITERIA:

Under PASSAGE (obsolesce/SIDEREAL):

If NANOBE SONDER is IVORY

If HAMMURABI is ACTIVE and passes human review under context TURING

If DURYODHANA is in FAILURE and passes AI-COM review under context IDES

Set spectrum certification to SMARAGDINE

Else, stand by for CONTINGENT ACTION ORDER:

Set spectrum certification to AMARANTHINE

Initiate human review unless tactical morality is built at MIDNIGHT

"Experience is the teacher of all things."

STOP STOP STOP V149GAQ145CB121

——

I had started to unpack this at one point and got a little lost because Big Red is going WAY the fuck out there with some of his prose in this one. We see the term Sidereal a few times in Destiny lore it’s a fun one they like to use but is a weird term to drop here for example, and as best I can conclude might infer something like “long shot” but like. That’s not really what it means either. So there’s some stuff here that doesn’t really translate and then the fucker uses SMARAGDINE which is a shade of green. GREEN. He means green. Like go.

So like. Even without unpacking everything Tldr the old man is feeling extra poetic he’s having some feels about this and he’s also doing this totally on his own without review from humans or other AI-COMs, specifically in secret. So safe to assume we can confirm yeah Siddhartha was pretty important to Rasputin from the very start.

**I will add that the juxtaposition of NANOBE, which is a form of microbe, a tiny life if you will, and SONDER together really does give me the impression of like. A child. A sort of parental wonder at a tiny individual. But that is a WHOLE LOT of inference.

[yaut-jaknowit]

YESS I GET TO BOTHER YOU AGAIN:D

Imagine the reader teaching their yautja mates/friends teenager some cool human fighting move you see in movies n shit (also have an awesome day ilyyy)

How to Fight

Pairing: Chopper (Male Reader) x Reader

Word Count: 1171

Summary: With a little luck, you were able to entertain yourself while on the mothership. Access to the internet was the best far from earth. Every night, you took it upon yourself to watch movies. Sometimes rewatching old ones or finding new releases. Until, one night, Chopper's buddies caught sight of what you were watching… It went downhill from there.

Author Note: I love when you come bother me! It's the highlight of my day. I didn't know what to with this one so I started in a random place and ran with it. The ball... well it ended up somewhere else I guess.

Masterlist

Ao3

All it took was one glimpse at a movie you were watching. Worst of all, it was Kung Fu Panda. The whole group was completely intrigued. Within moments, they’re sitting down next to your small frame, elbows on their knees with their chins resting on their fists. All of their eyes were zoned in on the holo screen in front of you.

With some trial and error with the earth’s internet and the Yautja’s network, you were able to figure out how to broadcast movies. As a human on a mothership full of Yautjas, there was a limit of what you could do. Safely. That part was key when it came to staying alive here.

From the rumors that have trailed across the ship, the only reason you’re alive is the fact your mate’s species sees you as his pet. Degrading as it is, you do your best to see the positives in the situation. Your mate, nicknamed Chopper, has lots of friends – you guess that’s the best word for it. They love to come over constantly.

Some of them like to tease you, especially on your size. Due to the translator that sits perfectly behind your ear, just below the skin, you are able to understand them. It’s not perfect but gets the job done well enough. In the end though, you didn’t take it to hard, coming to terms that’s how they are. In a strange, nonhuman way, its their way of showing that accept you. A positive in a situation that didn’t start out all that great. But hey, that’s a story for another time.

Currently, you were happily squished between the hard form of Chopper’s legs. His heavy torso was draped over your own, part of his weight put onto you. An arm as contently wrapped around your abdomen, keeping you secure to him. Chopper’s tresses created a curtain on either side of your head, as if narrowing you down to focus on the T.V.

After a few scenes of Po training and the others showing their skills off, Courtin – a new given to him, stood up abruptly. All eyes were on him. You had to draw the curtain of tresses out of your way to see Courtin. A brow was raised by you.

His mandibles chittered with speech. The translator was quick to start up. “These moves, I must learn them! Could aid us when we hunt, brothers,” he rallied his fellow Yautjas to stand up with him. Even, your sweet, dear Chopper took stand with him. You snorted at the declaration. “Ooman, laughs at me. Why? Think we Yautja can not learn these moves from a flick.” It took you a moment to realize what he meant by that last word. Again, not perfect.

“Courtin, it’s not that.” Now, you decide to rise to your feet and crossed yours arms. Before realizing that was a bad idea. Right, different social cues and body language, for the most part. “This movie is aimed for children, unbloodeds. It is meant to be silly and fun,” you explained to him calmly. The worst thing to do to a Yautja in their presence was to offend their pride and skill.

“You are all talented, blooded and whatnot. But these moves aren’t real. It just for the movie to be filled with action and tension.” All of their eyes were set on you.

Courtin stepped forward, enough to feel crowded within the group of eight Yautjas. Despite the fact he and any of the others were young, he still towered over you. Stupidly enough, Courtin leaned down to be level with you, hands grasping his knees. “You say these moves are useless?” he asks for you clarify.

For some reason, you feel a hair on edge. Though, they would never hurt you, per their honor code, it’s hard to forget they are predators. “In all honesty, yes. They are.” His three mandibles tapped against one another. Courtin stood up fully once more.

“Hmphf.” That made him sound so human. Maybe him and the others were learning a few human things from yourself. One could only hope. “Then, must find other media to consume. Ooman, show more.” Always demanding. You believed that was almost all of their species type.

From one rabbit hole to the next and over countless days, everyone – including yourself – believed they had learned enough. From movies. All from movies. Nothing else. Well, your mate and his friends would have a batter advantage than due to the fact they are trained predators. Yet, here you were, in a private kehrite with everyone.

The heat and humidity was killing you without much movement. Yet, when Jqal-od called upon you to step into the ring – one that reminded you of wrestling, you accepted. Though, they were more focused on the fighting parts of the movie… you focused on a different part. Those who were smaller than their enemies. Cliché, yeah. Guess what though, it works.

Not against someone two feet taller and highly trained. In theory, it works.

Jqal-od placed a heavy paw on your shoulder. You returned the gesture. Together, the two of you shook the other. Then, you two stepped a decent distance away from one another. You and him had your gaze set firmly on the other.

Silence entered the ring as everyone quieted down on their own accord. A deep breath filled your lungs with air before slowly exhaling. Jqal-od’s tongue darted out with a flick before hiding away again.

The next moment, the lean, yet clearly trained Yautja pounced like a leopard. Before you had time to react, let alone think of using a move from the movie, he had you simply pinned. Your back to the mate as he straddled your lower torso. One hand held your two high above your head. Even kicking your knees into his back, trying to hit something of importance did nothing. The Yautja barely reacted to the move.

All you could was stare blankly up at him. The Yautja in question leaned down, tresses creating a curtain. His top mandibles twitched. He was smirking in his own way. “What happened, little ooman?” he teased and snickered down at you.

He finally released you from his hold and stood up. With a hand, he held it out to you. You took it. Jqal-od easily tugged you off of the ground and onto your feet. You brushed off the invisible dust on your clothing and walked away to Chopper. Someone else took your place and challenged the Yautja.

“Well, that didn’t go to plan,” you grumbled and rested heavily on one foot, hips jutting at an angle now. Chopper snickered and placed a hand on top of your head. You turned to look up at him from underneath your brows. “What you laughing about?”

The Yautja just shook his head and patted yours with his hand. The two of you watched the scene in front of you unfold, as hilarious as it was. No one knew what they were doing.

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Weeks in Review (September 10-30, 2023)

I adore Godzilla Final Wars, but it's a movie with an identity crisis, unsure whether it wants to be headlining a Toho Champion Festival or mesmerizing American teenagers at a mid-aughts multiplex. @spacehunter-m's Final Wars 2004: The Year We Make Corn-Tack gives it a strong tug in the first direction, whittling the runtime down to 77 minutes and replacing most of the music and sound effects. She was inspired by Space Warriors 2000, of all things; as she put it, both films are "largely comprised of nonstop, monotonous action." As in that bizarro Ultraman compilation film, the kaiju trash-talk each other. It makes you wonder why Ryuhei Kitamura didn't at least bring back the speech bubbles from Godzilla vs. Gigan. Kaiju fan edits are rare, and this is in a class all by itself. Download it here.

Shigeru Kayama's novelizations of Godzilla (1954) and Godzilla Raids Again are out—hopefully the first of many to come. My copy only arrived on Saturday, so I haven't had the chance to read the whole thing yet, but I've made it through Godzilla. It's interesting to see Kayama, who wrote the initial treatment, take another swing at the story after the film was finished. He puts back moments like Godzilla eating a cow and attacking a lighthouse, and is also more overt with the wartime allusions. There's an incredible moment where Dr. Yamane muses that studying Godzilla and learning his secrets could be Japan's way of redeeming itself after "caus[ing] a great deal of trouble to people throughout the world." Note that these are novella-length, so much less in-depth than the novelizations of American Godzilla films you might be used to (Godzilla Raids Again is less than 80 pages). The book ends with an afterword by translator Jeffrey Angles contextualizing the tales.

Godzilla: War for Humanity continues to be a standout IDW miniseries. There's a new and very weird monster in the second issue, plus a no-nonsense Mothra (she tries to recruit Godzilla to fight Zoospora by shooting him in the back of the head and dragging him into the ocean in front of Minilla).

I've also got to mention the solicitation for another Godzilla Rivals installment, due December 20. Nola Pfau is writing, Megan Huang is illustrating.

Jen Onça is not excited to start her new, fast-paced fast-food career at Minilla Burger, but she'd much prefer a mundane day to the sudden return of Megalon! The monster brings destruction, trapping Jen in a forgotten lab deep beneath the restaurant with only the half-built form of Jet Jaguar to help her get out! She must repair the robotic defender to save herself and the city, but first she needs to escape the rubble trapping her in this tense adventure!

Yuzo the Biggest Battle in Tokyo, Yoshikazu Ishii's follow-up to Attack of the Giant Teacher, has also been picked up by SRS Cinema. No release details yet. I can't really speak to the film either, since it screened at the same time as Yumiko Shaku's panel at G-Fest, but as you can see from the poster, it's set during the pandemic.

The GAMERA -Rebirth- Gyaos has joined Godzilla Battle Line as an unusual sort of swarm unit. Your first summon of the match calls forth two sub-adults, and by the fifth summon you're sending out two sub-adults and three adults, still for four energy. They're probably the best swarm in the game, though still highly vulnerable to AOE units like Godzilla '01. I'm having fun with them in the Challenge Battles.

Notzilla, one of the sharpest kaiju comedies out there, is unexpectedly getting the graphic novel treatment. Mitch Teemley is adapting his own screenplay, with art by Zumart Putra. The comic is already finished, although I'm not clear on how folks who didn't back the Kickstarter (which wrapped on September 11) will get it. Useless trivia: the terrific cover above (one of four) is by Ben Dunn, who wrote the How to Draw Manga book I poured over in middle school.

After Troll shattered Netflix streaming records (according to Netflix), it's not super surprising that the company wants a sequel. Priority one: coming up with a title that's not Troll 2. Screenwriter Espen Aukan and director Roar Uthaug will both return.

Toy highlights of the past few weeks:

After confusing everyone by teasing its silhouette the day before April Fools', Tamashii has fully unveiled an S.H.Monsterarts Godzilla '72, a rare Showa figure from the line. It comes with two heads, one of them bloodied (see above). Due at the end of February.

After finally running out of ways to repaint their mold of Hedorah's Perfect Stage, Bandai is making a Movie Monster Series figure of the kaiju's Landing Stage. A Godzilla Store exclusive, it'll be released October 25.

After over two years, Funko is releasing a trio of Godzilla Singular Point Pops. Hopefully they go all-out with this show—it's not like there's any other plausible way for a Satomi Kanahara figure to exist.

[itzrafee]

One Piece Chapter Discussion (Chapter 1131)

After a two week break, One Piece is back! And right into the action! Which is something that’s so interesting to me. That the more arcs we pass by, the faster the velocity of storytelling is. In that, because Oda has to set up less and less with each and every arc that goes by, as he builds out the lore more and more, we get into the story much much faster. With Elbaph we’ve already been launched headfirst into what seems to be the foundation for the main conflict, with so much information from the past finally coming home to roost with each chapter passed. But we’ll get into that below the cut!

To start off with, Oda really emphasises the Giant’s Strength here. And if you remember, he’s made it a point to not really show Dorry and Broggy’s full potential. They were incapacitated and had only fought each other before. So it’s interesting how not only is the giant’s strength built up in kind of a fable-esque way but also Loki’s as it took the entirety of Elbaph to restrain him. And not just Elbaph but maybe even Shanks too! But we’ll get into that later. 

There’s two interesting revelations that happen in the next few pages. One is Loki’s personality. It seems to me and many others that he’s being built up as a mirror to Luffy, especially in the way that he gets Luffy’s name wrong. But also in that he befriends animals quickly and is associated with sun imagery. And even though he is a little conniving; his internal dialogue vowing to kill Luffy and later purposefully riling Luffy up about Shanks, I think the similarities make it so that he can’t be anything but an ally. And furthermore, he was introduced to us chained up. Oda and One Piece have shown us time and time again that imprisonment and incarceration are one of the greatest evils in the world. And having a character introduced in such a way really sways me towards the conclusion that he’s a good guy. Also, a fun thing is that it seem I was somewhat right with my predictions towards Hel and the underworld and maybe even the Pluto design from last chapter’s discussion. Also could Impel Down be based on Elbaph?

But maybe the more interesting thing is that Loki mentions that the nation of Elbaph is built around the Jewel Tree Adam. In other translations I’ve also heard it as Treasure Tree Adam. And if we recall Franky’s words about it before, it seems to line up with what Elbaph is. A nation consistently at war. A nation that’s burned to the ground and been rebuilt, maybe even many times. At the very least we saw one of those instances with Big Mom. So, is Elbaph, like the other island centered around a tree; Fish-Man Island, also fated for destruction? So what form does that war and destruction take? At the very least we know that after Dorry and Broggy left, the original Giant Pirates once railed against the Government. They were captured and Mother Caramel acted as a diplomat between the humans and giants to save them. So it appears that Elbaph has always been raging against the world government. Freaky’s tale of cannonballs raining from the sky reeks of one thing; Buster Calls! Could it be that over the years since the void century, Elbaph has been the victim of countless Buster Calls? And much like how harbours and coasts call people to settle by them, the indestructible nature of the Jewel Tree Adam beckons these warlike Giants who are prone to losing their homes? 

Now, to get back to Shanks, he makes this equation of the Warland much much more interesting. So Loki’s followers talk about Shanks. And Loki says he’s been imprisoned for Six years. Along with that, he has a special bounty set by the world government. Shanks also became an Emperor six years ago. Now all that adds up to three very interesting and different conclusions. One is that, Shanks helped the Giants to subdue Loki and because of this, gained their support. Because of their strength added with his, the World Government began to see him as an Emperor. The second is that Loki was wild and unruly, and was possibly someone who could do some serious damage to the World Government with the Giants in tow. And the world government basically commissioned Shanks to subdue him to prevent war. Finally, the third and most likely conclusion, is something that adds to Shank’s nebulous personality. That, not only did he aid Elbaph and get their support but he also did it on behalf of the World Government to prevent future conflicts and maintain a balance, also acting as a diplomat and a sort of new age Mother Carmel. Which begs the question, does Shanks know something every specific and important or is he just really really committed to keeping the world at peace? It would be weird for it to be the latter as hes a pirate and literally friends with Warland so I’m leaning towards the former. 

Finally a few closing comments unrelated to the earlier points. Now, we’ve seen the location of all members of all the New Giant Pirates with Stansen and Hajrudin in the underworld hunting for meat for the Straw Hats. We see them mention that they can’t use something called a Painter which is a sunstone that doesn’t work in the underworld presumably due to there being no sun. Maybe they’re technology like the dials? I’ve always assumed the dials were from the Void Century and Ancient Kingdom so maybe it’s from that time too? Also if you don’t remember, we first saw Stansen in Sabaody right alongside Rayliegh, He was a slave Rayliegh freed and he vowed to help Luffy if he ever needed it. Also, Goldberg and Gold holding the Sunny and running along the bridge really helps put things into perspective. The perspectives been a bit skewed ever since we got into Elbaph but it seems to be evening out now. That Giant sword through Elbaph kinda reminds me of the perspective of Onigashima. Maybe things like those were the weapons of the Ancient Giant Continent Pullers like Oars, them probably being killed off by the World Government in the Void Century. It’s interesting though that those weapons were found in two territories the government isn’t allowed much in, Wano and Elbaph. 

Moving on though, while hunting for Franky’s explanation of the Jewel Tree Adam, I stumbled on this panel of Iceburg promising to make Water Seven into a ship, and alongside with the information we’ve gotten thus far, what if the Jewel Tree Adam is the key to saving the world by helping all the islands float? Just a thought. But I am curious to see how Iceburg saves Water Seven.

Finally we get to Robin and Saul and I really hope Saul falling down is a psychout. If it was Saul and not Scopper Gaban waiting for the Straw Hats it could be that to deal with the Ice Burns Aokiji inflicted on to him, Saul began to drink. Otherwise it could jut be a gag or maybe for real. Also was Saul always a doctor? And finally, now that Robin has her bangs back, all is right with the world! See ya next chapter!

[littlechaoticwitch]

Winx Club Rewrite: Season 4

I understand this is me being very late to the party, but that's pretty on-brand for me at this point lol

A few years ago, I started to work on a possible rewrite for Fate: The Winx Saga but it soon became this monstrous project of rewriting the entire franchise. Because while this series is one of my beloved childhood series, it is also very messy with its world-building and plotlines, as well being done dirty over and over again by its countless reboots. As much as I would have loved to create a full-on alternative universe like the ones I've seen on tumblr for years, it just took up so much of my time that could have been spent on other projects and it was starting to feel more like a chore than anything else. Eventually, I did create some fashion boards for how to translate their outfits from the show into real life, and wrote up some concept ideas for their live-action costumes, which led to me just writing up the notes I had for the rewrite to share them with y'all.

Some of these ideas were inspired by other people's rewrite of the series, some of these ideas came to me while writing this up, and a lot of these are my attempt to make sense of Winx Club's fucked-up lore. While these were originally written with a live-action reboot in mind, these could also work for an animated reboot targeted for teens/young adults.

This is probably the extent I'll do for any sort of Winx Club rewrite, but it was still fun!

-Roxanne "Roxy" Hensley is the last fairy on Earth, whose mother was an escapee of Tir Na Nog but had her wings ripped off by Grey's parents. A Native American girl who is fully into the scene culture, she is a rebellious loner who has a better time connecting with animals than with people, which is a result of her mother dying when she was still young. She is quite close with her father, who runs an animal shelter right next to Gardenia's main beach. When meeting the Winx Club, she refuses to believe magic is real but after seeing the girls trying to defend her from the Hunters, she ends up getting her own wings when trying to help out. After Morgana's death, the Hunters try to manipulate her into joining their ranks and even use the Black Circle to corrupt her fairy form, but she goes on a vengeful rampage instead, killing two of the Hunters before Bloom is able is calm her down. Once she comes back to her senses, she is allowed to keep the White Circle to remember Morgana, but the High Ladies let her keep the Black Circle as she understands the extent of its true power. She is a short lesbian with maroon-brown hair done in a wolf cut and grey eyes (which turn green when transformed), and she has a service dog named Artu.

-The Hunters consist of Grey, Dane, Sebastian (Fate!Sky), and Roman (Fate!Riven). The last members of a cult which tried to destroy all magic on Earth, but unlike their ancestors, they wish to control humanity using alchemy. Grey is the leader, with the power over water but he focuses on blood magic, whether it's using his own to heal himself to take control of someone's body using their blood. Sebastian is the second-in-command, with the ability to control a destructive blue fire to burn anything in his path. Dane acts as the spy for the group, as his control over the air allows him to have super sensitive hearing, as well as the ability to create supersonic soundwaves, turn invisible, and move as quick as the wind. Finally, there is Roman, who has the power over the earth and acts as the muscles of the group, using his super strength combined with his preference of using rocks to create fatal punches.

-This season focuses on Bloom coming to terms with being aromantic-asexual. Her relationship with Sky was a result of being caught up in the fantasy of a fairy-tale romance (which she loves reading about), and she admits to Flora that a major reason she was unhappy in the relationship was because she was forcing herself to have romantic feelings.

-This season also focuses on Bloom still grieving over Sky's death. While she no longer loved him romantically, she still cared for him and even after they had broken things off for good, she saw the potential of their friendship being rebuilt. She blames herself for his death, believing he should have stayed in Eraklyon where he was safe, but with time and the support of her friends, she learns to accept his passing in a healthy manner. Later on, she uses her experience to help Roxy overcome her own grief with losing Morgana, which helps bring the younger girl back to her senses.

-Morgana is NOT Roxy's mother, though she does come to care for Roxy like a daughter and see her as a worthy heir to her throne. Though she is angry at humanity for their sins and being so eager to chase magic away, she does understand humans were being brainwashed by the Hunters and she took her people to Tir Na Nog for safety. Unlike the others, she chooses to leave the realm in order to defend the girls from the Hunters, turning her into a mentor figure despite the fact outside of her realm drains her magic. Sadly, in the end, she sacrifices herself to close a portal which threatened to kill her people.

-The Major Fairies are known as High Ladies, with each one being in charge of a different season. The High Ladies had their magic taken from them by the Hunters and trapped in a deep slumber in their own palaces, which is why Morgana needed help from the Winx Club. Diana (Fate!Aisha) is the High Lady of Spring, Sibylla (Fate!Flora) is the High Lady of Fall, Aurora (Fate!Stella) is the High Lady of Winter, and Hestia (Fate!Musa) is the High Lady of Summer. Unlike in the cartoon, the four do not have active roles besides their connection to the Hunters, helping the Winx in the final battle, and after Morgana's death, deciding to rule Tir Na Nog as a group.

-Nex returns, and his friendship with Musa continues to grow into something more, beginning when she asks him to do her shoulder tattoo. After finding out she is a fairy, Nex comes clean and reveals his own secret; his family has been cursed for centuries, with the males destined to become werewolves, but they have learned how to handle it and became protectors instead of mindless creatures. Despite her originally wanting to break the curse, Musa learns to accept it and after spending more time together, the two decide to start a relationship (especially since Musa feels ready to start looking for love again)

-The other love interests (Brandon, Timmy, Nabu, and Helia) do not appear in this season, as they all have graduated and went straight to working. Both Nabu and Brandon are preparing themselves for their roles as king consorts, Timmy decided to stay at Red Fountain to become its potential headmaster one day, and Helia has gone back to pursuing her art career, where she has started to teach at a school.

-Bloom works at a normal pet store, Stella works at a small clothing store, Flora works at Vanessa's flower shop, Tecna works at a video game store, Musa works at a bartender, and Aisha gets a job as a yoga studio

-Things which shall be excluded from this season: The band plotline (except maybe one episode where the Winx pretends to be a band to lure the Hunters, but Musa is the lead singer while Bloom plays guitar), Love & Pet store, the extra wings, the Ethereal Fairies, the Gifts of Destiny (Sophix is used as a design for Diana's followers, Lovix is used a design for Aurora's followers, & the Black Gift is used as inspiration for Roxy's corrupted form), and all the bad romance subplots (Mitzi starts off as a shallow mean girl before working with the Hunters, Jason Queen is just a potential manager who acts more like a paternal figure to Musa, and Nabu does not have to die for the sake of a bad plot)

-Enchantix is not useless against the Wizards, but due to Earth's odd magical system, the Hunters do have the advantage of being more unpredictable. Despite fairy forms not existing on Earth, Believix was created from Roxy's magical core interacting with the Winx's magic, but each girl still has to earn their form by having someone from Earth believe in magic. The form grows in strength when more people believe in the Winx Club, but it also grows when the girls believe in themselves, each other, and their own magic; unfortunately, Earth is the only realm in which the girls can use this form, as it would be useless in the Magical Dimension.

-Believix takes on a more traditional Japanese "magical girl"-inspired look, with the girls still having different styles but with uniformed pieces and different-colored hair. Bloom earned hers through Roxy, Musa earned hers though Nex, Tecna earned hers when helping a young genius named Naoki, Stella earned hers when helping a young girl named Terra, Flora earned hers through Macy, and Aisha earned hers when helping a young man named Matt.

-As an Earth fairy, Roxy would have been born in her "transformed" state (pointed ears, sharp teeth, pupil-less eyes, wings that grow with age, etc.) but due to her half-human status and being exposed to the Winx's magic, she does gain a fairy form. Her magic is connected to animals (making her the "Fairy of the Wild"), as she was born to a Spring Court Fairy. Unlike in the show, her design is closer to that of an Enchantix fairy.

-The beginning starts off with Bloom taking up a teaching job at Alfea while her friends are working hard towards their own dreams, as she feels suddenly directionless in her life. After almost three years, Bloom asks Faragonda why Earth is a forbidden place for magic and Faragonda explains that centuries ago, Earth was a magical place, but a cult of anti-magic users hunted down those with gifts. As a result, fairies hid themselves away in Tir Na Nog while witches and wizards hid themselves among the mortals, hoping for they could proudly show off their magic in public. That evening, as Bloom is doing an obstacle course with her class, a strange woman appears and Bloom defends her from four men known as the Hunters, leading to the woman revealing herself as Queen Morgana of the Earth Fairies… and she needs help finding the last fairy of Earth.

[lookismaddict]

lookism characters as mythological gods 👀 who would be who

OH SHEEEEEESH, I LOVE MYTHOLOGICAL GODS. ESP GREEK & ROMAN GODS ✨ AYO, YOU A REAL ONE FOR ASKING THIS QUESTION, TY JANN! 💜 I hope you don’t mind this analysis… 😅 (Took a long time to write because there was a lot of research LMAO, I'M SORRY THIS TOOK ME FOREVER TO ANSWER. ��🏽) BUT NOW, I CAN PROUDLY POST THIS. 🫡 💖

While matching each god to a Lookism character, I found this very fun because there are so many mythological gods and goddesses that can be associated with any of them. Especially when it comes to their appearances, symbols, and folklore. The depictions of these gods all tie to each of these selected Lookism characters:

Gun and Goo || Fujin & Raijin (Shintoism)

First, let’s start off with Gun. There are many reasons why I see Gun as the Shinto god, Fujin, and here’s why:

Fujin [風神] is known to be the Shinto kami (god) of the wind. A deity that controls the winds of the Earth through his bag of air.

Due to his control of strong wind currents, he is connected to storms, especially powerful typhoons, that would cause the destruction of many trees and and homes. However, Fujin leaves most of the job to Raijin.

According to a Japanese legend from the 13th century, he managed to save Japan by sending storms to Mongol invaders who were trying to conquer Japan. Fujin’s winds were so ruthless, that the Mongol’s fleets were all destroyed in one storm.

Fujin and Gun are both forces to be reckoned with. Fujin’s destructive actions are similar to Gun’s, in which they both initiate both ruin and devastation. Since Fujin had wiped out over a thousand people for centuries, then it wouldn’t be a surprise if Gun’s future would eventually lead to the downfall of many more lives. This man had dealt with so many enemies (100+) all the way up to his current lifetime of about 20 years, that it wouldn’t even be a surprise if he so happens to murder even more people later on.

Also, since Fujin is associated with the use of harsh winds intermingled with water due to typhoons and storms, they are involved in a shared element. The nature element, water, represents them both in some way. Both Fujin and Gun are present whenever it rains. On days when there’s rain, Fujin’s winds are harsh during storms. Whereas, in Gun’s case, he is always present on days when the weather is rainy and gloomy. However, for Gun, he just appears when there’s rain to pass along the message of “the end” for people, especially when it comes to a person not being able to hold their position as Gun’s future successor. You could say, that the both of them also symbolize the presence of melancholy, since they both bring nothing but misfortune upon people during unpleasant weather. They play as the instigators of the end to peacefulness.

Fujin has an appearance of a true Oni, due to his mother Izanami giving birth to him when she reached the underworld. According to Gun’s background when he was still in Japan, many knew him as “Shiro Oni”. In the webtoon, the translation for his name was “White Ghost”. However, the word “Oni” actually meant ogre or demon in Japanese folklore. Of course, it wouldn’t be a surprise that many native Japanese residents would call him a demon due to his infamous yet terrifying background of nothing but merciless violence.

Not only was Fujin’s face alike from Gun’s, but also their attire. Apparently, Fujin usually wears leopard skin. And who else wore something leopard related? Gun Park. That leopard patterned long sleeved shirt really does say something about his fashion. He definitely must be Fujin, but in human form. Both of them really do share the same fashion sense. 💀

In addition to his face and attire, but Fujin only has four fingers on each hand. These four fingers represent the North, South, East, and West. In a way, this association of Gun as Fujin can be symbolic as well. Gun’s affiliation with the Four Major Crews can be shown through Fujin’s fingers since Gun, who had contributed to the establishment of these Four Major Crews, identified the strongest crews in South Korea. Each crew either coming from the North, South, East, and West of the Han River, which splits their territories into four different parts of South Korea.

Gun has the same personality trait as Fujin as well. Fujin is described to be the brother who is less spontaneous in personality, compared to Raijin. He is also unenthusiastic whenever he is met with some sort of issue that he has to deal with and he is more “laidback”, not taking things too seriously against enemies. This is probably due to how aware he is of his own powerful strength. The same goes with Gun. His personality when dealing with those who are against him is also like this as well, with a hint of arrogance, knowing that he can defeat anybody on his own.

Now, let’s talk about Goo as Raijin:

Raijin [雷神] is the Shinto kami of thunder, lightning, and storms. Often times, he’s seen alongside his brother, Fujin. They both mostly appear together as a pair, like Gun and Goo whenever they show up in certain scenes. (However, the only difference compared to Fujin and Raijin is that Gun and Goo aren’t brothers.)

To clarify, Raijin is responsible for the creations of storms, not Fujin. Fujin is only responsible for strong wind currents, so he leaves the work of thunder clouds and lightning to his brother, Raijin.

Raijin’s personality is one of the distinctive factors that many people use to distinguish between Raijin and Fujin. Similarly, with Gun and Goo too. The difference in personalities in each pair are quite the same indeed. Just like Raijin’s personality, Goo’s is very chaotic and he can be mischievous with trickery. Even though Raijin is known as a trickster, he either does good or bad. He produces good in the form of rainfall for crops or he creates storms that destroys both the living and non-living.

Just like Goo, he’s a character that brings good and bad in his own way. In a unique way, he gives people opportunities to help fulfill their own ambitions, by becoming one of his “secret friends”. For example, Goo used to beat up bullies to earn money. In a way, he somehow benefited others, such as that one event when Goo saved his cousin, Vasco, and Jace from school bullies. His encounter with Vasco had led Vasco to become stronger than he was before. In addition to these “good” occurrences, Goo offered Samuel Seo a new chance of power after being rejected by Gun, in which Samuel took him on his offer then became one of Goo’s so called “secret friends”. Another instance of this is when Goo recruited Logan Lee as another one of his “secret friends” too. Logan wanted to get stronger since his goal is to get back at the original Daniel Park, so this event was like Goo opening up a new beneficial start for Logan.

Although this was the case for some people, Goo also managed to cause distruction wherever he goes. Returning to the subject of the bullies, he did beat them up pretty badly. He even found it amusing to see them suffer. With almost every person that he had fought against, he had this maniacal enjoyment that he found in defeating others. It was as if he had fun beating up others just for the sake of his own amusement. Along with his chaotic mind, he took his destructiveness with him, just like Raijin. According to that one chapter when Sinu got a phone call from one of his old friends, his friend mentioned through the phone that he should be careful of someone named “Joon Goo” who had completely wiped out their whole entire crew. Which quickly indicated and foreshadowed, that Goo would eventually cause trouble for Big Deal.

Sinu Han || Heracles/Hercules (Greco-Roman Mythology)

There are some reasons why I believe that Sinu Han should be Heracles:

Even though Heracles was known as a demi-god (only a mortal), he became the god of heroes and the divine protector of mankind when he died. (This is completely unrelated to Sinu in comparison, but just wanted to address that Heracles isn’t a god when he completed his heroic deeds.)

As a defender for all, Heracles acts like a public servant. Throughout most of his lifetime, he protects civilians who are in dire need of help. Just like Heracles, Sinu Han’s mindset is similar. For about 10 years, he protected a street in Gangseo, in which he had dedicated himself to serve as the defender for the women who loved that street. It was his home. Even Heracles loved Greece and had thrown himself into dangerous situations just to defend his home.

Heracles rescued so many beings in need. A special being that he rescued was Prometheus. No matter how bad he may be as a titan to the gods, he was willing to set Prometheus free due to how he had helped humanity for giving them fire. Sinu Han's character is similar to Heracles since he is the type of person to set someone free, regardless if they have done something bad in the past. What matters is how good of a person's character is, and how they contribute to serving others. I can see Sinu letting someone go if they changed for the better, and by giving them another chance to redeem themself. For instance, even though this hasn't been directly approved by Sinu (but by Jake), Lineman used to be a character who caused trouble and lied to others, thinking that he was a big-shot. However, he changed by being accepted by Jake Kim into Big Deal and if Jake approves of these people who he have gained as his friends (or followers), then Sinu approved of them for being good people and they eventually became members of Big Deal. (Hence, believing in Jake's jurisdiction in finding good in others.)

Although he may be a well-known mythological hero, many do not know how much he had suffered. There was a time when Heracles was enslaved, and he was bought by the Lydian Queen Omphale. She made him do many things as a slave, such as forcing him to wear women's clothing (to humiliate him) and spun wool to help her and her maidens. Omphale did fall in love with Heracles, but eventually she set him free (and they got married). Alike from Sinu Han's situation, Mitsuki Soma was head over heels for Sinu, that she wanted him for herself. Treated like a slave, Sinu had to endure hardships of being her "lover". Manipulated and controlled by Mitsuki due to a mystery drug that made him forget his memories, Mitsuki made him stick by her side, in which she made him shower together. Sinu's identity and memories were twisted by her, which gave Mitsuki the power to successfully manipulate him for a long time (until Jake Kim had to rescue Sinu from The Workers).

Jake Kim || Balder (Norse Mythology)

This is why Jake Kim can be seen as Balder:

Balder is known to be not just the Norse god of light, joy, and summer. Jake Kim usually brought light and joy to people's lives, especially during his middle school days when he'd start getting himself involved with Big Deal. He had made a lot of friends and allies along the way, which would influence (I'll ignore Balder's death, and will be focusing more on his personal aspects, features, and his background that are similar to Jake's.)

Like Balder, Jake Kim shares handsome features and is a very attractive man. He has a bright smile just like Balder, and he has fair hair. In Norse mythology, it was said that Balder was so noble and handsome, that light shines down on his body in which flowers would bow down before him as he passes by.

Also he is the representation for the themes of justice, beauty, hope, and sacrifice. During the Jake Kim Arc, he sacrificed himself, especially for Big Deal who sought for the rescue of Big Deal's Former No. 1, Sinu Han.

(Side Note: I didn't want to associate Jake Kim with Eros because even though he's good-looking and is strongly related to the idea of "love" and "Romanticism", Eros is usually described as mischievous and unsympathetic due to him shooting arrows at people regardless of how they think/feel. It is the complete opposite to Jake's personality, in which he is considerate and kind towards others.)

Samuel Seo || Mercury (Roman Mythology)

Let me explain why I see Samuel as Hermes:

Mercury is well-known for being the messenger god AND the god of commerce. Alike from Samuel, Samuel specializes in business-related work and he manages finances really well. At one point, he was very close with Eugene and Samuel acted like a messenger to Eugene, since he reports to him about what goes on in the affiliates when Samuel used to be president for some of the affiliates.

Mercury had a dependent role in managing the gods. Just like Mercury, Samuel as well. He was close with the higher-ups of the Workers (especially Eugene) in which he was positioned by him to manage the 3rd and 4th affiliate of Workers. Both of their roles is to keep the gods or Workers

Even though Mercury’s role might seem “helpful” at first, do not be fooled by Hermes’s appearance, because he isn’t who he seems to be. Just like Samuel when he was first introduced in the Lookism series, we didn’t quite expect him to turn out the way that we know him now.

Mercury favors the ambitious, so he supports those who are willing to reach their goals, no matter how wicked they are. Going off by his “work smarter, not harder" ideology, Samuel is quite the ambitious man. He’s willing to reach higher things, in order to accomplish his dream as someone who’s powerful. Or, as he likes to refer to himself someday as a “King”. (As mentioned to Jake.)

As a god who defends tricksters and thieves, Hermes likes toying with others. He even favors cleverness and amusement. During the Workers (3 Affiliates) Arc, Samuel's behavior is shown as one who likes toying with others, initiating the start to Johan's rage when he found out that the Workers' Third Affiliate used to sell drugs to Pungsan, which was the God Dog cult that was ran by the former church pastor.

James Lee || Shiva “The Destroyer” (Hindu Mythology)

Here is why I believe James Lee should be Shiva:

Shiva is mainly known as "The Destroyer" and "The Creator" of worlds, in Hindu mythology. He even represents time as well. James Lee was known to be the man who ended the First Generation by defeating all of the First Generation Kings, which fits his character of being "The Destroyer". Consequently, causing the spark of a new generation, which is the emergence of the Second Generation. In this case, being "The Creator" does suit him because he is literally the catalyst to a new generation of fighters. You can also say, that he manipulates time if he were to be Shiva in this context.

Shiva also represents goodness, benevolence, and is said to be "The Protector". In a way, James Lee shows signs of "good" nature and benevolence, in which he acts as a guide to Daniel Park, in finding the secret to his two bodies. And even though James Lee isn't known as "The Protector", he did protect Charles Choi in the past. By aiding him as the company's head for an entertainment agency, he protected Charles' business by supporting him through this method.

This Hindu god is also named the "Lord of the Dance" or Nataraja, according to a Hindu artwork called, "Shiva Nataraja". From the statue, it depicts Shiva dancing in a halo of fire (which represents time), and Shiva stepping on a dwarf with one foot (which is a creature that represents illusion, who leads men astray from the actual truth). Metaphorically, this relates to James Lee because James Lee had the urge to find out the truth about the secret of the two bodies, and is willing to do anything to achieve his goal. Even if it meant betraying Charles Choi, by allying himself with The Workers, specifically Eugene.

Canonically confirming from the Webtoon, it is known that James Lee has a huge penis. Well, so does Shiva. In Hinduism, Shiva is associated with lingas, or phallic symbols, which represents fertility. 🍆

[rising-volteccers]

The continuation of my personal thoughts about episode 18 of Horizons because I will not be denied putting in many images. Also if you're actually reading both posts you're a real one. Thank you for listening the ramblings of someone knee deep in hyperfixation mode.

Part one of the post is [here]

This bit gives us a little insight on how Friede initially viewed Cap. Through the goggles of a Pokemon Professor, he found Cap interesting as a research subject seeing that he is a Pikachu that's acting outside the typical behavior and actions known to the species. While I'm sure he genuinely does want to learn, the way he introduces himself (really now, do you think a Pikachu is going to care that you're a genius Pokemon Professor?) still shows that he's yet to expand from the viewpoint that he knows of.

Here, we see that Friede can be quite persistent. Once he's got his eyes on something, it's like he has to figure out everything that he can seemingly in a one track mind sort of way. Did he have to chase Pikachu around in a circle? No. Did he still do it till he fell out of exhaustion? Yes. It looks to me like someone who's super fixated on something to the point that he sort of forgets his limit until he crashes into it.

I love this scene because Friede's still clearly interested in what makes this Pikachu different but he also obviously care for him too. Earlier in the episode, Murdock mentioned how Cap isn't picky with his food so to see that echoed here is a nice touch!

Once again we see how persistent Friede can be with his research. Who knows how many days he's been visiting Cap around dawn to the point that he's able to take body tackles and headbutts (also love how Charizard was cheering him on!). Of course being human, he's unable to do anything about electrical shocks but does that deter him from his research?

Later we'll learn that Friede's been pretty thorough in gathering data about Cap. It's pretty refreshing to see the actual fieldwork that goes on in a Professor's research! He took videos, analyze how Cap's been flying and the like. Friede certainly earned his qualifications but he's missing an important aspect in his research, as we'll see later.

Finally Friede's acknowledging that he might know a lot of things about Pokemon theoretically and informational wise but it was vain of him to believe that he knew everything about these mysterious, wonderful creatures. Once again this gave me the impression that throughout most of his life, he was excelling in everything that he did and rarely experienced failure. Perhaps he never truly experienced what's it like to continuously fail but never giving up.

It makes me wonder how insightful Lucca is. She had a good enough grasp of Friede's character even after years of not seeing one another and understanding that if she had him meet this Pikachu, it would spark something within him.

I adore this scene as we now see that Liko's fate is crossed with Friede's. It's like watching the first wheel turning in a series of events set into motion by Lucca. The Rising Volt Tacklers wouldn't have been formed if not for her having Friede meet Cap. She wouldn't have hired Friede to be Liko's bodyguards and Liko would never experience the growth that she gets from being a part of the Rising Volt Tacklers. It comes full circle and its really fun to see narrative wise.

One thing that I noticed is the fact that Lucca refers to Friede as a 'boy' with a promising future instead of a young man. Perhaps it's a translation choice and it means something else but to me, this further shows that Friede's a gifted kid. Who's to say he wasn't going through advanced courses on his way to get his certifications as a professor? His ambiguous age makes it hard to clock in an exact one but I personally believe he's at least mid to late twenties, making this flashback take place when he was even younger than that.

Regardless, I love how she's honestly supportive of Friede and want what's best for him.

Now we're seeing that Friede's learning everything about Cap but the most important reason: why was this Pikachu pushing himself so far for? That's something one can't get looking at it from a purely analytical view. Friede could collect all the data he wanted by observing from afar and jotting the information down but he will never understand this Pikachu's reasoning and the emotions behind each and every jump.

Thus he needs to not view it just as a Pokemon Professor but as a Pokemon Trainer too. Wasn't that how most people started out in the end? Learning about this world and the various wonderful, mysterious creatures living within it. Forming long lasting bonds and understanding one another. Friede can't keep narrowing himself in this singular viewpoint so it's a nice natural development to see him going back to his roots.

Thus leading us to this climatic scene. Friede finally learns that he can't just keep observing and gathering data. He needs to get moving, to see what this Pikachu is seeing to fully, properly understand him. Friede and Charizard chased after this Pikachu higher and higher until they get to see a new horizon.

There wouldn't be a plot to Pokemon Horizons: Liko and Roy Set Off if there wasn't a Pokemon Horizons: Friede Set Off to set the wheels in motion at the start.

Friede was stuck in a rut, not knowing what to do or where to go with his life. Meeting Cap led to him to ascend from the hole he'd been in just like Cap did to see a new horizon, that the world is vast and there's so much to learn and discover about Pokemon.

He didn't need to be a Pokemon Professor stuck in a lab doing research all day. He can be a Pokemon Professor that travels the world to learn everything that he can. He won't be tied down to one spot. I believe that the origin of his Japanese name Freed is derived from freedom so just like his namesake, he will freely fly higher than the sun with Cap, Charizard and eventually the rest of the Rising Volt Tacklers.

After that, I love how supportive Ludlow was in entrusting his fishing boat to Friede. Again, I wonder if Ludlow is actually Friede's biological grandfather or a really close family friend since I like to think that you'd need to be pretty close to accept that kind of request. That goes the same too with Orla (it's amusing to think that he and Ludlow sailed from Paldea all the way to Hoenn just to find her).

They were childhood friends and despite her having moved to Hoenn, I can see that they've kept good contact with one another. If Friede was an estranged childhood friend, I wouldn't have accepted his frankly outrageous request. It also goes to show that Orla truly is a genius mechanic to be able to follow through with it! I'm truly hoping we'd get an episode focusing on her sometime in the future!

Thus we get the backstory behind the formation of the Rising Volt Tacklers! Once again Friede shows that he forgets to share (or just chose not to) information seeing that it came as a surprise to Liko. Even the rest of the crew mentioned how there's so much he never told him and earlier in the episode, Orla stated that he's shy about sharing his past.

If (or when) the hyperfixation hits again, I do want to write up a general Friede character observation up until episode 18. Friede thus far has shown to be someone who keeps his cards close to his chest. He rarely shows his true feelings, and if pointed out, he deflects or redirects the subject. He keeps withholding (or straight up forgetting) in telling the crew information but we know that he cares for them.

It truly makes me wonder what other mysteries or secrets this guy holds and I hope alongside the rest of the RVT, we'll get to see more of their story unveil through their journey.

[lookingforcactus]

Live action Yu Yu Hakusho liveblog: ep 1

This is so much fun. Nostalgia time. 13 year old me is LIVING

Warning for like whole ep 1 spoilers and all

Yusuke and Botan look great which I already knew going in from the gifset that informed me this show exists lol, but it's delightful, bc the characters in this show aren't necessarily the easiest to translate to live action

Botan is adorable. Her hair is adorable. And I'm delighted to see that Yusuke's hair is the Correct amount of Poufy

Plot twist: Kuwabara hot. He looks great actually. Translated nonliterally compared to Yusuke but v well. The actor is selling me on it too, fun casting

Kuwabara was always hard for me to watch in the original bc he set off my vicarious embarrassment soo hard. Glad they're less committed to making him the constant source of painful comedic relief here lol

KOENMA PACIFIER REVEAL I LOVE IT

Laughed out loud for real tbh

Idk if I'm a little disappointed he's not a baby but like live action would make that ridic hard to do in a lot of ways so I don't blame them at all. He's in his adult form which makes sense. Still damn glad they kept the pacifier it is RUINING his dignity and I love it

I also don't blame them for cutting the flying oar effects. A lil sad but the initial transition to Reikai looked great so they're forgiven

Yusuke. "No thanks." I knew it was coming and the delivery still made me laugh out loud. Just dropped it in there. Yusuke I love you please see a therapist

Fight scenes are v creative and p epic

Seriously they do a really good job of making Yusuke's fighting style as a human believable, fun to watch, and effective. He rly does come off as just kind of a natural fighting genius (with practice ofc)

Sakyo in ep 1? Weird but I'm not opposed. The wavy hair is kinda freaking me out though ngl. Smoothness was just such his THING in the show it's distracting

Really liked Yusuke's mom's introduction (not that it was flattering to her as a character) but I wish they'd done more with her in the rest of the ep. Her power hug at the end is great tho

Show's slowing down a bit but it's fine I'm still having fun, the nostalgia power will get me through basically whatever

NO PUU!!!! This is tragic but I Do understand this as an adaptation choice. Reluctantly. Tragic tho.

Bug under guy's face effect EPICALLY creepy

That said I keep watching the motion of him and the other demons in this ep and thinking about Hayao Miyazaki said about the disgusting cruelty of using effects technology to make the scary scary inhuman monsters just fucking. look and move like disabled ppl

Seriously I keep seeing flashes of the appearance and movements of people I know with developmental disabilities (particularly this one guy I know with cerebral palsy but also I've worked in care work for disabled adults and just kind of a lot of people in general) and. I hate this. Especially as a person who DOES have a (nonvisible) developmental disability myself. This is such a rising trend in horror/sff/fantasy tv/movies/video games and I hate everything about it. Hayao Miyazaki was right this kind of attitude and shit really is "an insult to life itself"

Anyway fight scene cool

I love Keiko btw. Her crying and blaming herself! Her face when Yusuke comes back! Also Yusuke "I'm not gonna die just bc you talked shit" pffft jackass (affectionate)

DEMON CREW CAMEO AT THE END

Kurama looks pretty good. Goki actually looks wayyyy better than he did in the anime imho, which I did not see coming.

Effects on Kurama and Hiei's fighting looks surprisingly great. They pulled off the rose whip way better than I thought they would, and did some great wirework with Hiei's speed and fighting style

That said....Hiei...oof. That hair was always gonna be a Challenge but I think their ambition here did uh. not play off rip. Hopefully it'll look better later on

[ariapmdeol]

Alright. I'll bite. What's COE? I assume it's a game? And where would I be able to watch a playthrough(?) of it?

細胞神曲 - Cell of Empireo is an RPGMaker horror game by Sharktale Factory! You can find an English Translation on YouTube here!! It has the full game with all of the endings, and the first five Records of the DLC! The game itself is playable in both Japanese and Korean.

If you'd like to play it with Machine Translation yourself, I have a tutorial here! Please be aware that MTL is hard to work with, and can be confusing. IF you choose to do this, there is a walkthrough on how to get the best ending here!

TLDR: You play as Haruki Atou, 28 year old detective! When his coworker, Eiji Shinano, goes missing, Atou tracks his last known location to the mysterious cult called the Empyrean Heaven Research Institute. Atou finds himself wrapped up in a situation far larger than expected, and discovers a lot about both the Institute and himself along the way!

This game has everything: it has gay people. It has religious imagery. There is a headless rat. There's a mad scientist who asks to hold hands. The Divine Comedy is everywhere. There is foreshadowing and lore EVERYWHERE and it is sooooo fascinating!!! Genuinely I love this game so so so much!! There is a reason I have been drawing it for (checks watch) almost a year nonstop.

Cell of Empireo play order:

Cell of Empireo DLC: Records of Sanemitsu Isoi [YT tl stops here, after record 5 Hermit's Room Interlude Cell of Mirage (unreleased, fukao-San is working on it)

If you want to go in completely blind, I'll leave it there, but I'll add some of my own rambles under the cut! I'll also post the content warnings there as well o7 This game is recommended for people 17 and up, but I think you should be fine! The rating is for violence mostly. There are some flashing lights and shaking screen moments.

CONTENT WARNINGS (by me)

religious themes, human and animal experimentation/death, gore, hallucinations, suicide, murder, familial abuse, body horror, attempted SA (brief, nothing happens, i can tell you when it happens if you need a warning for this)

aaand some ramblings

There are soooo many different variations based on what ending you're on track for. It is FASCINATING to see lines change in really subtle ways because of Atou's actions.

the lore MAKES SENSE and adds things SYMBOLICALLY and there are LAYERS and you can theorize about stuff!!! This game is so good!!!

the boss fights are SO MUCH FUN. For an RPGMaker game there are so many different mechanics??? There's a RHYTHM GAME SECTION??? it's FANTASTIC

this is a game and a series about love in all its forms. There is platonic love, familial, romantic, whatever the hell flowerpot trio has going on, and more!

There are so many terrible dads that I was able to run a 'Worst Dads' Poll and people had genuine debates, it was fantastic!!

METAFICTION. IT'S METAFICTION (i am very normal)

Sanemitsu <3 Sanemitsu isoi <3 Sanemitsu Isoi my beloved <3

I have written so many theory and analysis essays. there is so much lore i go so insane it's so fun (LORE ANALYSIS NOT REQUIRED FOR A SATISFYING WATCH/PLAYTHROUGH. I AM JUST INSANE)

The information you learn along the way recontextualizes earlier parts so you want to watch Through it again to catch the details that you missed the first time around!!

Also every character has reasons and motivations for what they’re doing, even if atou doesn’t know it. They are all so so painfully human…. Emotionally devastating

[hiccupmistress]

Star Trek Prodigy season 1 thoughts

Prodigy has become my favorite Star Trek show. No, not just my favorite “new” Star Trek, my favorite Star Trek overall. It captures the wonders of exploration in a way no other Trek show (or movie) has quite managed. 

In TOS, TNG etc. the crew are all professionals. Yes, they’re discovering new life and new civilisations, but its also their day job. Encountering a never-before-seen culture was just another day for them. 

[side note, but “Beyond” kind of touched upon this a bit, with Kirk giving a log entry at the start about how his five year mission had started to feel “episodic” (har har!)]. 

But with Prodigy, this is a purer form of exploration: These aren’t professionals who trained to fly through space and follow Starfleet Directives. These are people who thought they’d never be able to do ANYTHING with their lives, people who had never heard of the Federation, suddenly getting the opportunity to learn of those values and see the universe for themselves. “Enterprise” is the only other Trek show that’s really come close to this, they were the pioneers, before the Prime Directive or anything like that was established, but there’s something so pure, bright and wonderful about the way Prodigy does it. 

I’ve loved Star Trek for many years now, and just about every incarnation does something I like. Lower Decks is a fun romp with in-jokes and a whole lot of love put into it. Picard, whilst a little shaky at times, has some truly heartfelt moments, Strange New Worlds translates the classic TOS/TNG format into a modern taste, Discovery is a beautiful show of diversity and humanity, Enterprise took a lot of risks in some of its concepts, even if the execution wasn’t always quite there. Voyager, whilst my least-favorite, still has some episodes that absolutely changed my life. DS9 is epic and incorporated so much of the established lore for its serialised arcs, TNG is credited with pioneering many things, including but not limited to season-ending cliffhangers, something that’s now standard for most TV! TAS boldly tried to do things that would have been impossible in live-action and TOS of course started it all. But Prodigy? Prodigy is the most I’ve ever enjoyed Star Trek. 

Its made me appreciate Janeway more than Voyager ever managed, its made me laugh, its made me cry, its had me on the edge of my seat. Star Trek Prodigy has absolutely taken the spot as my favorite Star Trek.

[stevensavage]

One Piece: Long Live The New Flesh

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, Steve's Tumblr, and Pillowfort.  Find out more at my newsletter, and all my social media at my linktr.ee)

Unless the rock you’re hiding under doesn’t have streaming, you know that Netflix did a live-action season of the famous anime/manga One Piece.  I found this a curious choice because of the cancellation of Cowboy Bebop.  Ditching a retro space adventure for an over-the-top tale of superhuman piracy felt like choosing a pretty heavy lift.

Of course, I had to check it out, if only for morbid curiosity.  To get me invested One Piece would also be a heavy lift.

One Piece is something I tried to get into several times, across several dubs, and through an issue or two of the manga.  Despite its popularity - and my own love of fun weirdness - It never reached me, and it’s hard to say why.  One Piece should have checked several of my boxes, but apparently left its pen elsewhere.

So, I sat down, watched a few episodes - and found myself really enjoying it.  I dare say I was charmed by it, enough I was disappointed when I had to stop watching.  What was it that made me appreciate this show but not other incarnations?  Beyond, you know, having over two decades of episodes and a wallet-endangering amount of manga?

I realized it was the fact it was live-action and the actors were into it.  There were other reasons, but over and over I kept coming back to the cast.

Iñaki Godoy’s take on Luffy, the ever-cheerful elastic protagonist is charming and sincere - you aren’t sure how much he’s acting.  Emily Rudd’s Nami is relatable, the sane woman among a demented piratical sausage fest.  Jeff Ward’s theatrical pirate Buggy the Clown steals every scene, a sort of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia take on the Joker.  Everyone in the cast does great, embracing their roles with a gusto that suggests a scenery-intensive diet.

I realized that, for me, One Piece worked better live action.  No offense to the fine voice actors associated with it, nor Oda’s manic creativity.  The manga and animated One Piece didn’t connect with me on a human level.  I suspect it was a mix of the art style and over-the-topness were a barrier to me feeling connected to the work.

The live-action One Piece was different.  Gody’s little expressions and accents made Luffy a person.  Mackenyu’s Zorro, the I-hunt-pirates-but-these-are-my-friends bounty hunter projected amusingly straight-faced deadly cool mixed cold befuddlement.  Jacob Romero cries a single tear in a scene that says more than his motormouth character Usopp could say with words.  These weirdos were alive and I was enjoying it.

There is something about a good actor whose voice, expressions, gestures, and postures let them become a character.  The cast seemed to be channeling the characters, making them flesh.  For me they became people.

I’ve often wondered how different media work when translated to others, but would argue animation is perhaps the easiest medium to transfer a creation to.  Seeing One Piece I’m left wondering if that’s always the case, and find myself rethinking assumptions about what form fits what kind of works.

I’m only a few episodes in.  The show has room to disappoint me - but the cast and characters certainly didn’t.

Steven Savage

www.StevenSavage.com

www.InformoTron.com

[sketching-shark]

Hmmmm so I feel like I should expand on this later with quotes and citations, but does anyone else feel like a lot of fan interpretations of Sun Wukong are kind of...off? 

Like I definitely need to make it clear that I’m not Chinese and didn’t grow up with the story. And I’m not saying you shouldn’t have fun monkeying around in your own jttw au or what have you (in this regard special thanks to @dorkshadows for their careful documentation of the cursed big-budget jttw retellings lol). Yet after reading the Anthony C. Yu English translation, it’s kind of wild to see that a lot of the ways that Sun Wukong gets interpreted by fandom & by a Western audience in general is as just a silly monkey that has no other goals besides having a good time or as a monster with 0% good traits that deserves every bad thing that comes his way. And I get that the internet is where nuance goes to die, but at least for me it is kind of disheartening to see a lot of the potential of Sun Wukong’s character get ignored in favor of one extreme or another...

Just to give one example of this, I’ve seen a lot of people frame Sun Wukong as being really immature and an agent of chaos pre-journey, but at least for me he seems a much more complex and as such intriguing/likable/frightening figure. Wu Cheng’en seems to have wanted to make it really clear that while Sun Wukong is mischievous, he also cares a LOT about his fellow monkeys as well as had the intelligence, diplomacy, strength, ambition, and willingness to violence to become a warlord in charge of a sizable army. He is full of pride and a bit of a show-off at this stage in jttw (not to mention a murderer many times over, as he later tells Tang Sanzang), but so much of what he does seems to be in service of making the lives of his fellow monkeys better and more secure. The whole reason he decided to go to heaven in the first place was to see if he could get all the monkeys to live up there as well! And in his first stay in heaven he does a really good job in his assigned position as the pi ma wen (basically a glorified stablehand), and even makes a number of friends, at least up until he realizes that he was given the most menial position possible. In other words, heaven was basically telling Sun Wukong that even the greatest of the yaoguai will never get to be anything more than the lowliest of servants among the heavenly immortals. So you can imagine the contempt they have for Sun Wukong’s “little ones” and all of his demon friends. Not to say this excuses Sun Wukong’s violence, but it does make his actions against heaven more understandable. Might also help in explaining why all the yaoguai in his alliance seem to have been with Sun Wukong 100% when his war against heaven started. 

It’s kind of the same thing with the Havoc in Heaven arc. While I’ve seen this framed as Sun Wukong just causing chaos because monkey haha, it strikes me as more correct to see it as him staging a one-monkey man war again all of heaven due to the bitter enmity fostered between the immortals and the yaoguai. Like at this point the heavenly army has now captured Sun Wukong, killed who knows how many of his monkeys and other allies, and have tried to repeatedly kill him. And that’s all before they throw him in the Eight Trigram Brazier to try and turn him to ash. So when he manages to escape, he’s not fighting because “chaos!” but because he’s enraged and wants all of heaven to pay. He’s pretty calculating in his rage too. He’s not just lashing out wildly, but is exerting his martial and magical prowess because now he has his ambition set on becoming heaven’s ruler. When he takes on his form with six arms and three heads, he’s doing this specifically to wage war against and overthrow the Jade Emperor and his army. When he talks to Buddha for the first time, Sun Wukong makes it clear that he’ll keep waging war until he gets the position he wants. This does make him a more sinister figure than just “silly monkey breaks everything,” but it does make him a lot more human too. 

Just some sketchy thoughts for the time being, but I’d love to know what other people think about Sun Wukong and/or if they agree with my assessments! He’s a really interesting literary figure, but I know I’m far from knowledgeable about the cultural context he came from, so feel free to add to what I’ve said or correct me as needs be. 

[transformers-fan-continuities]

Spotlight: Ties That Bind

This one’s a doozy folks! If you missed the last spotlight you can go read it here, but strap in for The Ties That Bind, an absolutely brilliant take on humanformers. It’s hosted here at @tiesthatbind-tf​ created by @artsy-hobbitses​!

Q) Give us a run down of your cont! What's it about, what's it called, what's it like?

Ties That Bind is a humanformers-based original continuity which is part Science Fiction and part Alternate History where the invasion of Quintessons and introduction of their technology to Earth in 1920 sets the world and humankind on a completely different trajectory. The active narrative spans a period from 1920 to 2070, covering the First and Second Quintesson Wars, the interplanetary Antillan War (leading to the creation of Unicron on Mars) and the Great War which involves the Autobots, Decepticons and Functionist stalwarts, and how it affects the characters.

The cast is pretty sprawling and the narrative is mostly centred around human drama with bits of humor interspaced and a dash of horror (mostly centred around how the previous government often chose to utilize the technology left behind from the Quintesson Wars to create new systems of oppression, which affected many of the characters, in the name of worldwide rebuilding efforts).

Q) What characters take the lead here? Any personal favorites?

I will admit to this continuity being very much heavy on the relationship between Old Bastards  Optimus Prime and Megatron, which is given considerable weight as they were best friends who had known each other since childhood and were deeply intrinsic to each other’s growths as individuals, which makes it all the worse when guilt and betrayal enter the party. Despite being captains in two corners of this battle, there’s a part of them that just cannot let go of their pasts together and they need to reconcile with how this will affect their agenda (Megatron) and how they lead their team (Optimus) who don’t necessarily share their history.

Other characters with significant development include:

Starscream, a Cold Construct in a toxic working relationship with Megatron with whom he is hiding a dark secret, who struggles to balance the underhanded viciousness he believes he needs to gain power and his innate desire from his Senate days to make the world a better place. 

Windblade, a Camien native who fights her government’s apathy concerning the situation on Earth which they see as unsalvageable compared to their more Utopian society. 

Prowl, a Cold Construct raised from childhood to be a cop in a police state, who finds out that he was brainwashed several times  to ensure his obedience and efficacy as a government asset and is now working to reclaim some semblance of the humanity he was never allowed to feel and figure out how much of him is who he really is and how much is programming.

Hound, a sheltered Beastman who joined the fight to ensure that Beastmen the world over would have the same rights he did in his homeland of Shetland Isle, but is forcefully stripped of his humanity and faced with his animal side during the war and has to relearn what personhood means amid his trauma.

Q) Is there a bigger point to this, like a theme or some catharsis? Or is it just fluffy fun?

God with the amount of time I spent sleepless trying to figure out how the logistics of this or the semantics of that were supposed to work in universe, I cannot for the life of me say it’s fluffy fun, but I can’t exactly say it hasn’t been pretty engaging either!

There’s elements of war being messy for everyone involved where there doesn’t seem to be a clear line between friend and foe at times, but I think for most part it prescribes to  Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s belief that people are inherently good, but are corrupted by the evils of society. Despite its dark themes (Including but not limited to child abuse, torture, illegal experimenation  and brainwashing), love and friendships do prevail, kindness does beget kindness, found families are made, even the smallest actions matter, and things do get better because there are people on both sides who genuinely want to, and strive to make it better.

With Cold Constructs and Beastmen, it also delves heavily into what it means to be human; to have agency and personhood.

There’s also a strong undercurrent of taking responsibility for one’s actions, even if they were made with the best of intentions (Avoidance of this is what eats up Starscream and Megatron from the inside, and what Starscream eventually embraces).

Q) How long have you been working on it?

There’s two answers to this!

I’ve had a Humanformers-related universe going all the way back to 2007 around the time the first Bayformers came out---basically I had a choice between learning to draw cars or draw people (I was an anthro artist back then) and I immediately chose people.

The 2007 draft however had no worldbuilding or connective storylines and was mostly a fun little venture into character design and practice which were actually instrumental to me experimenting and learning how to draw humans properly.

I left the fandom for about a decade and when I came back to it in late 2020 around September via the War for Cybertron series on Netflix, I immediately got hooked on the 2005 IDW comics I missed out on and wanted to get around to updating my old designs as well find a way to translate several of the concepts I wanted to explore in a human sense, so the 2020 update became its own full-fledged original continuity with detailed worldbuilding and history.

You can see the artistic evolution of several characters from their original incarnation below!

Q) It’s incredible to see your artistic improvement too! Give us a behind-the-scenes look! Show us a secret ;))

Say hello to my workspace! I’ve been working exclusively on the Ipad Pro since late 2016, which is fantastic because I can basically whip up concepts and sketches on the go anywhere. Nowhere is too out of bounds to work on TTB!

Also, do enjoy this sneak peek at true!form Rung, whose synthezoid human body took years to perfect.

Q) YESSSSS alright I must admit this is one of my favorite Rungs, and certainly my fave within TTB. Amazing. Phew, anyway. Where did you draw inspiration from? What canons, what other fiction, what parts of real life?

TTB was initially conceived as a faithful retelling of the IDW 2005 narrative before it was transformed into its own continuity and as such, it borrows heavily from concepts and mirrored plot lines introduced in that run! I chose to have the series inspired off it specifically for the amount of history and worldbuilding it introduced to the franchise.

Anime like Gunslinger Girl and Beastars inspired the depictions of Cold Constructs, especially the more harrowing aspects of their upbringing as government assets instead of children, and Beastmen (Beastformers) in TTB.

I haven’t depicted the world itself in my art all too much, but the architecture from Tiger and Bunny, which has sort of a futuristic Art Deco feel to it, is what you’d usually see in major cities. There is an in-universe reason for that---with a Point Of Divergence set in 1920 followed by 25 years (an entire generation) of progress basically being kicked to the curb due to the Quintesson wars, mankind was basically in a time-locked bubble until the end of the wars, and by then their heroes were 1920s-style rebellion leaders, which lead to 1920s fashion (especially among the Manual Working Class---Megatron, Jazz and Optimus all rock 1920s fashion at some point of their lives) and architecture being celebrated and retained as sort of a reminder of how things were before The Invasion. This anime’s background design is also where I adopted the tiered system TTB’s major metropolises are often built on (with each tier being designated to a different working class) from.

The main artistic style itself is a love letter to 90s cartoons, in particular Gargoyles’ deep and drama-driven character narratives and designs as well as The Centurions’ take on body armor logistics.

I also take inspiration, especially armor-wise, from the characters’ given heritage and background. As an example, Hotrod who is depicted as Irish has the flames on his armor done up with Celtic knots. Welsh aristocrat Mirage’s armor bears olden knight-style filigree and has his Autobot logo designed as a coat of arms. Indonesian Soundwave’s armor and Decepticon logo takes cues from Batik and Wayang Kulit while their mask is based off the Barong.

Q) They are absolutely gorgeous! Show off something you're really proud of, a particular favorite part of your cont.

The worldbuilding in general! Most Humanformers I’ve seen tend to treat it like a fun exercise which it is and is definitely valid, but I found myself wanting a full-fledged world to lose myself in and I sought to try and make that world myself by drafting a detailed history and timeline of events which would affect ongoing narratives, having indepth worldbuilding to include almost all societal aspects of the universe and  expanding on the concept of Beastmen and Cold Constructs existing in a human setting.

I’m not so secretly proud of the research and diversity included to make the cast look like the multicultural, globally-based team that they were meant to be instead of being locked to a single region! My original draft from 2007 was, to put it simply, quite culturally monolithic and I wanted to improve on that aspect with TTB.

I’m also proud that I’ve kept to it this far! I’m a notoriously flaky person jumping from one idea/fandom to another and to have kept at this continuity for the better part of ten months is honestly a personal feat.

Art-wise, this scene depicting a young Megatron working alongside Terminus and Impactor (cameo by @weapon-up-wallflower​‘s OC Missit!)  is definitely one of my favorites since it helps build up the world they live in and plays to familial bonds and comfort found in one another despite their less than ideal circumstances.

Q) Everything has come together so beautifully, you absolutely should be proud. What other fan canons do you love and why? Would you like to see them interviewed?

I am dying to hear more from @iscaredspider​’s Sparkpulse continuity! Her designs are MIND-BLOWINGLY GORGEOUS and I want to hear more about what inspired her to work on it!

Also YOU. Yes YOU BLURRITO. LET ME HEAR MORE ABOUT SNAP.

Q) [wails and squirms away in the mortifying ordeal of being known but in a very flattered way] I WILL SOMEDAY I PROMISE aflghsdjg thank you QwQ

Well that was fantastic, Oni, thank you muchly! A magnificent continuity with so much to look forward to! Coming up next is another personal fave of mine, the first inspiration for SNAP, so stick around...