#but i genuinely did not know it was a copperhead

[strawberrychevalier]

that venomous snake post reminded me of the time my stupid ass gave a copperhead snake head pats

[hypershocked]

So! About that local robot fighting event that I went to in my area last year! I live in Colorado, so there really is only 1 robot fighting thing anywhere near me, and even then it was something like an hour long drive to the event. I only went on one day, and it sure was something! Copperhead was there! The actual bot! They had it rolled up to the front so you could get a good close look at it and touch it if you wanted. They even had Copperhead stickers that you could take!

This was a small event so they only had bots that weighed up to 25 pounds (and not a whole lot of bots of that weight class either), but even at that weight and size, the fights still got LOUD and the bots were absolute menaces. Members from Team HUGE were apparently there testing out some small bois. I think they had a small bot that was called like... "Wumbo" that entertained me.

In any case, I think that Team Copperhead brought along a 25 lb bot called "Crippling Depression." Sadly I can't remember anything else about it other than the name because the name made me laugh. It might have just been a big ol' wedge...?

But let me tell you about these other two bots I saw. They were made by one guy and both were absolute menaces. One is what I can only describe as 'a circular saw on a wheel'. And it was TERRIFYING! It had only one wheel and didn't roll the best. It would slowly approach its opponent, but once it struck, it would get knocked back, the circular saw would make contact with the floor where it would more or less become a wheel and it would ZOOM around the box and no one could predict where it would go or what it would do! It was genuinely terrifying! And the second bot this guy brought... It was just SO neat! It was a 'walker' and basically how it would work... It had a vertical spinner with two 'legs' coming off of it. The spinner could turn left or right, and when it did, the force of the spinner would make the leg press into the ground and move it forwards. So by turning the weapon from side to side, it could 'walk' forwards. It was a VERY slow bot, but it WAS walking! The moment it hit anything though, it would go bouncing all around the box and who knows where it would go! :D

At one point during the event, in the middle of a fight, they accidentally forgot to close the box properly, and the doors came open! That was mildly alarming! They managed to close it pretty quick and no one was hurt, but can you just IMAGINE!?

thanks for the ask! apologies that it took me a few days to get around to this 😅 this event sounds so fun though aah! it sounds like you had a great time. it's amazing that copperhead was there! they seem like a really cool team and i've been absolutely loving their fights this season.

it sounds like there was some really cool diversity in this event! i love the idea of the walking vertical spinner especially :0 also the name 'crippling depression' for a bot is fantastic. i'm thinking about building a bot with my dad this summer and i'm trying to brainstorm some name/designs at the moment.

also yeah wow! i'm glad they got the door shut asap. even the smaller weight bots could really do some damage i'm sure if you got unlucky.

thank you for telling me about that! that seems like a great experience i'd love to check out an event like that one day

[catboycafe]

I Will Now Express Every Thought I Have About Pacific Rim: The Black 

⚠️ spoilers for the whole thing baby

I actually forgot Pacific Rim: The Black was premiering today until I saw it in an article this morning! When I first heard about it months ago, I was decidedly not sold on a Pacific Rim anime. Uprising burnt me the fuck out and I don’t have a lot of trust left in me for new entries to the franchise. But I had heard rumblings of Raleigh and Herc being referenced after going into #pacificrim and I decided I may as well check out to see what was up! I binged it in 4 hours and it sure was a whirlwind, I’ll tell ya

The Plot

I really enjoy the setting and initial concept! We’re so use to seeing Kaiju/Jaegar shenanigans play out within these major cities with helpless civilians everywhere that spending so much time in a lonesome desert and these destroyed civilizations was really cool and indicative of the changes Pacific Rim has undergone in the last few years. I also looooved the Desert Settlement from the beginning!! It seemed really homey and picturesque; I wish we’d spent more time with the other survivors and got to see more of their day to day aside from farming and sitting. 

I also found the first episode set up to be really tight and well written! I was hooked during the initial flashback, Hayley and Taylor’s fight was really poignant and well acted, and the reveal of Atlas Destroyer felt really huge and epic!!

But once we left the Desert Settlement and the plot started actually moving along, the pacing becomes suuuper rough. We spent way too long in Bogan with Shane and Mei; there’s only 7 episodes and we spent, like, 3? 4? within the confines of that camp and I felt it weighed the plot down. Boy is introduced in the 2nd episode and, because the narrative spends so much time on Shane’s evil machinations and Mei’s back story, we still don’t know anything concrete about his origins or purpose 3 episodes later! That felt frustrating to me

The story beats overall were very predictable. I was able to pick up on Mei’s backstory via her dynamic with Shane in their introductions, so her memories felt too built up and too hollow once they were revealed. The same with the reveal of Boy’s Kaiju form; he was in a big green test tube in a PPDC base - I assumed immediately he was a part-kaiju experiment and again his reveal felt hollow, especially after the glacial pace of it’s development. 

Even when events weren’t predictable, they lacked weight. The appearance of several Kaiju Breaches in “Boneyard” felt very cheap for some reason; I wasn’t scared and I didn’t feel tense about these odds mounting against the protagonists. This was just happening and I was just watching. 

The Art Direction and Animation

I’m very obsessed with all the new Kaiju we got from this; I love how Copperhead is rendered, they’re a joy to see on screen!! The Rippers are also very cute and deserve little plushies...i love these neat little dogs. Boy’s Kaiju Form is very intimidating with an interesting color palette and I loved seeing him next to Copperhead’s highly saturated design!

That’s unfortunately all that I liked however; All the human character design is unmemorable to me. Every character looks exactly like another easily identifiable anime character from a different property (Hayley looks exactly like Zero Suit Samus to me, for example. And Mei kept reminding me of both Bernadetta Fire Emblem and Motoko Kusanagi from GitS. The list goes on). 

I can sort of understand why they’re so bland? A franchise going from Live Action to something as heavily stylized as anime is probably a really difficult transition and these designs are probably meant to be more lowkey than more unique anime designs in order to help that transition. But realistically stylized designs can still be recognizable and unique! These feel uninspired and bare bones.

 I have no problem with the switch to CGI animation that modern anime is doing because I know it’s a lot cheaper to produce and it can still be really unique and striking! But The Black’s model animation felt very stilted and inconsistent. I don’t have a lot of knowledge about animating so I don’t think I can accurately describe what I disliked? Wooden is probably the best term. Character movements felt wooden and things like hair and clothes felt plastic. 

Impacts also had very little weight. The fight between Tayler/Mei and Copperhead reminded me of when you’re in a dream and trying to punch something, but you can’t punch hard. It was simply too floaty and too soft. The final showdown in “Showdown” was better, but not by much. It was very immersion breaking seeing these Giant Robots and Giant Monsters unable to throw a real solid hit!

Characters

My favorite character was unequivocally Joel Wyrick. We love Joel Wyrick in this house! Joel’s character has real charisma and charm. I love his flirtations with Loa, how his cocky disposition is juxtaposed with his drinking problem and later insecurities over his lost memories, and his genuine kindness shown to Mei, Taylor, and Boy. No one ever plays with Boy, they just run after him and drag him around...but Joel has this moment in “Escape from Bogan” where he kneels down to Boy and helps him collect rocks. It was sweet!

So of course, when Joel dies for absolutely no reason 5 minutes later - pissed! I was pissed! I yelled “COME ON” aloud in my studio apartment! I was genuinely so excited to see him interact more with the rest of cast then, poof. No More Joel.

His death felt like it was for shock value to me rather than actual narrative development. Why kill him when we still don’t fully understand his and Mei’s relationship? Why were they so close? Were they childhood friends, or just coworkers that happen to become friends? Why did he specifically know all the details of Shane’s abuse towards Mei before she did? 

What did his death accomplish? It made Mei sad...ok? She was already...very sad. Her running away from Shane already had consequences - the consequences of Shane coming after them for revenge in the future. Why did Joel have to become a causality? 

His death is ultimately tied to Mei’s character arc which is, unfortunately, my least favorite :c I find Mei to be a really one dimensional character with a personality, backstory, outlook, and motivation that I’ve seen done a million times before with a million other characters. She feels very out of place in the franchise as a whole - Pacific Rim is, at it’s core, a story about connecting with others. Her self-centric arc and lack of desire to connect outside of drifting really alienates her from the story at large and it frustrates me how long The Black’s narrative spends on her. 

Hayley and Taylor were otherwise very interesting in the pilot episode, but become similarly one dimensional at the story chugs on. Taylor’s unflinching (bordering on unhealthy) faith in their parents was really interesting next to Hayley’s complete acceptance of their parents’ death. But once the two of them make up their differences, they lack an interesting dynamic and become very passive protagonists.

 Taylor especially has no personality - how would you describe Taylor? He’s...brave. He’s the older brother. He’s a leader? He’s nice? There is nothing noteworthy about him at all, which is sad considering I think he has the potential to be a really interesting way to explore the original movie’s influence on The Black’s story.

Hayley’s grief and self-blame are more interesting than Taylor’s...nothingness, but she still falls into this one-note trope of being the naive, excitable little sister. I guess I feel abnormally frustrated about this flat character writing because Pacific Rim’s incredibly unique cast has always been an inspiration to me! It feels sad that this new iteration into the series is full of what feel like stock characters. 

Then we get to Boy. How come Boy can’t have a person name? It’s specifically written in a dialogue between Taylor and Hayley: “I’m not going to call him Chad or Barnaby or one of those names for a baby brother you wanted as a kid,”

Why?

He’s by all accounts a human child when they find him. Yes, he was found in a big green test tube - but he walks and acts just like a human child. The only difference, seemingly, is that he is non-verbal and engages in strange/annoying behavior (running off, eating bugs, etc). So he isn’t deserving of a name?? I don’t know why that makes me so mad, it just does. it’s like they refuse to treat him as a human even before they find out he’s a Kaiju  - it’s super weird! How can the story sell me on the three of them becoming found family (like they’re seemingly trying to do) if the protagonists won’t even treat this kid like a kid??

Misc. Thoughts

The callbacks to Stacker, Herc, and Raleigh were cool! I also like that Herc is a major plot point! We love Herc Hanson and it’s what he deserves. I also find Loa’s connection to Horizon Bravo very interesting...and the fact we’re getting Kaiju cultist lore! Love that! Love that!

Fucked up that the only two dark skinned characters were: 1) removed from the story 10 minutes in with no call back yet, 2) Killed after having 1 line of dialogue and fridged for the character development of the blonde white girl. I really need to know what the deal with those 4 characters leaving in the beginning was about - I absolutely thought we’d see them again by now, but no dice

I don’t know how to feel about Ajax and have no clue what their purpose in the story is. They’re cool, but whats the point? 

If Mei and Taylor are paired up together romantically, I’m putting Craig Kyle and Greg Johnson in the time out box. Very tired of seeing random hetero romance B plots in stories that can’t even get their A plots together

Overall, it’s kind of subpar! It has the foundations of a really interesting story, but the pacing and characters really took me out of it. I’m interested in Season 2! I know season 2 is already ordered and I’d love to see how things continue to develop, see if the character writing gets any better - but I’m not too hopeful unfortunately. I really really love Pacific Rim after all these years and I’m happy to still be getting content and world building! There’s just sooo much I would change about this however. At least fanfiction’s free! 

Thanks for reading all this, I have ADHD and just go on and on if u let me. hmu if You Too have thoughts about Pacific Rim: The Black and have no one to talk abt them with

[forme-withme]

ive seen a few others post their thoughts on the black so i figured I’d do the same! serious spoilers under the read more!

I’ll start with the designs:

I’ll admit the transition to cgi was something that I was really dreading while watching the trailers, but once I got into the show it really faded into the background on the humans and looked really cool with the kaiju. 

As for the designs themselves, the people were largely Basic Anime Protagonists and there’s not much to talk about there, but the kaiju! oh, the kaiju. Copperhead’s colors and the detailing with black made it really stand out. And then there’s the dogs! puppies! super super fun n funky and felt very much an organic transition from the giant kaiju and seems to be a subtle nod to the ideas posed at the end (which i will get into later) and then that leaves Apex and Boy’s designs! Apex is a pretty straight forward Jaeger design that has only slightly been Kaijufied but I think the front acting as literal eyes was cool as well as the way they animated the attempted driftings. Boy was really interesting because they were so sure to make him Different and his color schemes as well as the size-difference was a really interesting way to do that. Having the literal dark vs light fight at the end was fun and appropriately on the nose for a pacific rim spinoff. 

And now for the plot and characters:

The plot, while fun and with no huge errors or egregious mishandlings of the franchise, was mostly predictable and typical of anything in this vein. There were genuinely quite a few scenes that had me either feeling for the characters or genuinely shocked (joel :( u deserved better. also that was cheap shock-value but at least it made sense within the story and what shane is capable of) 

My first real issue (besides the main conceit of abandoning australia and why the kaiju don’t go towards  comes almost immediately with the pacing. Why would we care about all of these people in this encampment when we have spent all of 5 minutes with them. Their voice actors aren’t even in the credits because they have so few lines. We are told they were friends but never really shown it. After they leave, the pacing gets truly terrible. The boy is introduced and clearly breaks out on his own, which no one notices. For some reason. And eats a butterfly which good for him but I’m not really sure why they did that if they wanted any kind of reveal that he was part Kaiju. Then they’re taken to the camp and the show spend just as long on a deal for some eggs as they did in that first place (not to mention hayley immediately accidentally causes more deaths which is. an interesting thing to keep up) and we stay at this camp for entirely too long,(seriously? 3 out of 7 episodes?) considering shane and mei’s interactions show clearly there is something More and something Wrong between them. It was extremely easy to note for note see what would happen in the fight after they leave: ooh shocker the boy is fine. i did think it was a good enough way to portray that to the characters, though, since they had their back turned every time he ate something a human shouldn’t or slapped it out of his hand or fully refused to interpret the things he was staring wistfully at even though they found him in a literal tube of the stuff we see them preserving kaiju parts (including Alice) in the movies. After leaving the camp, because they spent so long there they have to race to the finish line. They establish ghost drift side effects (which. was ghost drifting a canon word before this or did they take the word we used to explain side effects and use it for literal ghosts. also what year is this set it please i dont understand-) and also bring in Loa malfunctioning (not review but. im thinking shes a little more advanced than she’s supposed to be when taking into account her snide remarks and “unintentional sarcasm” as joel puts it. like once agian: would be highly predictable given everything but shes simply the funniest one around) and then after this they meet back up w mei and she has one of the better cut scenes with her in the restaurant remembering trauma cut with the dance scene which while out of place was v cute and honestly yeah. sometimes you remember a trauma and go ok tabling that. and then get up and dance w ur friends and then the Reveals happen (which. why would they know for sure that it’s the precursors and not the ppdc’s work still? Taylor seemed pretty confident that it wasn’t their military even though it was in their labs and the whole initial idea behind the jaegers was to ‘make monsters of our own’) and the fight happens and then it’s over! And also the sisters that are mentioned Once are there talking abt the Kaiju Messiah which while an interesting tie in to the kaiju cult from the movies was. a rlly weird and laughable line to end the season on. 

i just realized I was very negative there but overall I thought it was a fun show despite the pacing issues. I think the things they chose to revamp or callback to were interesting and good choices and it’s clear that we’re going to be getting a lot of the answers to questions in the next season (besides probably why they left australia in the first place but I digress) I thought the acting was well done and the character relationships were fairly strong for what is a 7 episode show: the siblings clearly cared about each other, didn’t do anything outrageously out of character to further the plot, mei (and joel while he was there) felt an organic addition to the group, and the villain felt like enough of a threat to keep things moving even when kaiju weren’t around. 

Ultimately I think I feel about the show the same way I do about uprising: It’s fun. There’s a lot you have to ignore to see it that way, but it brings up some interesting ideas and has a lot to offer if you can get past the issues.

[gorogues]

Spoilers for Flash #67!

You can see the first few pages here.  The whole issue carries a content warning for mind control, violence, and self-harm.

Yiiiiikes.  This is disturbing on so many levels.  James is mind-controlling the city, possibly mind-controlling Kristen into dating him, and has been beating Commander Cold with the previously-seen stick to get information.  I generally don't mind creepy Flash stories --- the one with Roscoe's ghost hiding out in Henry Allen's body and living with Barry is probably my favourite Flash story of all time --- but the story has to fit the villain, and this does not work for James at all.  Not unless there are very significant mitigating circumstances, such as this is Neron impersonating or controlling him or something similar.  So I'm very bothered by this.

To sum up, Barry returns to Central City to find everyone eerily happy and that there's been no crime in weeks.  He understandably finds this weird, and soon notices that Commander Cold is missing.  The facade of fake cheeriness soon begins to crack when he asks Detective Burns (who we now learn is named Allison) about Henry, and she doesn't want to talk about him and cries and self-harms from fear of James and a possible attempt to break free from his control.  Meanwhile, James has Henry prisoner and wants to know if his scheme succeeds; he's still obsessed with winning to presumably prove himself to his parents and an indifferent city.  He's also dating Kristen Kramer for some reason, and I desperately hope that happened through genuine wooing and not more mind control...but even so, things become really skeevy when he's responsible for citywide mind control, even if their relationship began on relatively benign grounds.  At best, he still had to have been hiding his identity as the Trickster.  All of this is some pretty dark stuff.

Question is, what is James getting out of all this?  What's his ultimate endgame? (I'm not criticizing this part of the story as it's barely begun, merely trying to figure out where this is going.)  While I'm sure it's very satisfying to have the entire city under one's control, the novelty of that will soon wear off and he'll really only have bragging rights amongst other villains.  Nor does it truly show up Wolfe or the people who snubbed him.  He must have some other goal in mind, and I'm very curious to see what it is.  No goal justifies what has been done here, but may explain it somewhat.

The other big question is, where's Axel?  Is he on board with this, or has James done something to him too?  Did James rescue him from death in Iron Heights as part of a scheme for revenge, or did he just want a protégé that he's planning to mold in his own image?  Both Axel and Copperhead have been uncomfortably absent for a while.

So all this is to say that I don't like where this issue goes, and where it seems to be going.  I'm clinging with the desperation of a drowning man to the hope that maybe Neron is impersonating/influencing James, but must admit that it seems unlikely.  I'd just prefer it to the idea that James is this malicious and violent, which he's never been before.  James has occasionally been cruel and once mind-controlled Big Sir to great harm, but those were just moments of darkness --- which all Rogues have shown, no matter how generally benign --- that don't define the character.  I mean, the story has just begun and it's entirely possible things aren't as they seem; for instance, we saw that Mick had seemingly killed everyone in Iron Heights and that wasn't real, and this is the Trickster.  Maybe James has even gotten access to the Sage Force and this is all an illusion.  But I'd be lying if I said this story didn't worry me.  I hope future issues will mitigate this somewhat.

[facts-details]

Timber Rattlesnakes

This amazing snake is the Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus). Don't you simply cherish the species name? Horridus? Indicating how unpleasant this snake can be? This is one of five venomous snakes in Missouri. The other four are the 1.) Western Pgymy Rattlesnake (Sistrurus miliarius streckeri), 2.)Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake (Sistrurus catenatus), 3.) Osage Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix phaeogaster), and the 4.) Western Cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus leucostoma).

The lumber rattler in the primary picture was captured half a month prior at a homestead we own. It was roughly 3 1/2 feet in length and had 5 clatters. It was quiet and give no indications of hostility. We could possibly figure out how to make it clatter when I came to down and contacted it's tail. We watched it for around 45 minutes and I figured out how to get 70 pictures of it. She crawled away to cover up under a heap of wood. When she was securely concealed she begun shaking. We found that fairly odd, and accepted it should be an anxious response to us pestering her.

Researcher are discovering that these snakes are not shaking to caution of their essence. They rather remain stealthly covered up and calm. To shake is to promote your essence and eventually prompts your demise. In pieces of Oklahoma where these snakes are reaped during rattler roundups test were done, and the outcomes demonstrated that the snakes in zones that were vigorously gathered were generally quiet. In zones where next to zero reaping is done, they shook all the more regularly. This shows the development of a more quiet rattler. They are developing and figuring out how to alter their way of life. The rattlers built up the clatter to shield them on the extraordinary fields from being stepped on by incredible hoofed creatures like bison. Presently this clatter is a calling card to death.

The wood rattler is the biggest of the relative multitude of venomous snakes in Missouri, arriving at lengths up to 5 feet. The biggest recorded example in Missouri was 47 inches in length. The unsurpassed record for this species is one recorded in Alabama, at a length of 6 feet 2 1/2 inches and tipping the scales at 5.5 pounds. That would be one genuinely huge wood rattler. They are a thick bodied snake and as a rule have a size the size of a developed monitors lower arm. These are a lovely snake, and they are exceptionally factor in their tinge. They can have a base shade of yellow, dim, tan, or earthy colored with dull earthy colored to blackish markings. The markings resemble groups or angular lines along the mid-body. Regularly there will be a rust shaded dorsal stripe running the whole length of the body.The tail is dark. The highest point of the head is dim, light tan or yellow and plain. Similarly as with all pit snakes they have profound pits on one or the other side of their head. These pits are tangible pits and used to chase prey. They feed on generally warm blooded creatures, yet will likewise eat fowls, frogs and different snakes. While they are equipped for eating other venomous snakes they regularly eat fastener snakes. These are possibly perhaps the most perilous venomous snakes in North America, generally because of their enormous teeth and plentiful measures of toxin. Fortunately they are gentle tempered and by and large give a lot of caution prior to striking. The one presented beneath that is very much disguised was found on our homestead in Fillmore Missouri. A year ago my significant other and I were there so I could do some bug chasing. We know that poisonous snakes dwell on this homestead and were as a rule exceptionally cautious as we strolled through the tall grasses. I strolled by a tree that had a little heap of yellow limestone rocks close to it. It appeared as though a decent spot for a snake to sun itself following a cool night like we had the prior night. I didn't see anything. My better half strolled directly behind me, and said "There is a snake" I pivoted and saw he was highlighting the stone heap I was simply close. I returned to the heap and sure enough there was little lumber rattler laying in the grasses close to the stones. These snakes have stunning camo. I strolled inside 2 feet of him and never spotted him. He was around 2 feet in length. Joey got a stick and tenderly poked him so we could see where his head was, and it took off behind the tree and vanished. He demonstrated his head for about 1.1 second, surely not long enough to get an image. I at any rate got an image of how secretive their shading is, and I discovered how simple it is to walk directly past one and not realize it is there. He didn't shake whenever, nor did he show any hostility.

[thevioletjones]

I was tagged by evil genius, @lanjev​, to list my 5 favorite last fic lines, but it ended up more like 5 favorite ending paragraphs. Lol.

Backdrifting

I like the end of the prologue a lot, so I had to include it.

ch. 1

[Mickey] “Me and him. . . we never woulda worked out. Trust me.”

Eventually, the memory of Ian had all but faded away, stored somewhere in the recesses of Mickey’s subconscious, mostly only resurfacing in the occasional abstract dream that flitted away upon waking.

ch. 3

[Ian] “I don’t know what I expected you to turn out like, but you’ve definitely surpassed anything I would’ve probly come up with back then. . . No offense.”

“Yeah, whatever, Gallagher. Keep underestimating me. That way I won’t stop surprising you.”

Ian looks him right in the eye again, and swoops in to kiss his mouth softly. Mickey’s arms pull Ian’s body tighter against him, and he deepens the kiss, darting his tongue out to linger lazily against Ian’s.

“Yeah,” Ian declares as he pulls away, “we’re fucking doing this.”

Mickey smiles one of those rare, full, genuine smiles of his that he normally keeps stashed away for rainy days, and sighs resignedly, “Whatever you say, Ian.”

I Only Stick With You

A pretty good example of my typical IxM banter.

Ian scoots closer to his boyfriend and lays on his side, reaching a hand out to knead Mickey’s ass some more.

“My ass is like a homing device to you,” Mickey jests.

“It is,” Ian affirms. “That ass drives me wild and I can’t stay away from it.”

“Yeah, well, right now that ass needs a rest. The brain attached to that ass is gonna go back to sleep. When it wakes up, the stomach attached to that ass is gonna need some greasy-as-fuck hangover food, and your ass is gonna bring it to me.”

“Oh really? Didn’t I just do enough back there?”

“Maybe for my ass, you did, but not for my stomach. Sometimes you gotta give some love to the other parts of me, Gallagher.”

“Did you just say ‘love’?” Ian jokes.

“I’m sleeping now, shut the fuck up!”

The Whole Wide World

The ending of this actually reminds me of Before Sunset, which is weird, because I referenced Before Sunrise in the fic, and I can’t remember if this was a conscious choice or not. It totally echoes, ‘Baby, you’re gonna miss that plane.’ ‘I know.’

“It’d probly be a lot more fun if you came too,” Mickey told him.

Ian was shocked. “You. . . Really? You wanna go together?”

Mickey shrugged. “Yeah, why not?”

And they both watched one another as their faces slowly lit up with genuine smiles.

“You sure?” asked Ian.

“Pretty sure,” answered Mickey.

“What if it’s terrible? I don’t wanna ruin your vacation.”

“If it’s terrible, we go our separate ways, easy peasy. No harm, no foul, etcetera. But it won’t be.”

Ian let out a soft chuckle. “Yeah, I know it won’t be.”

“Alright then,” Mickey said. “Looks like we gotta book you a plane ticket.”

Ian beamed and fell back onto the bed.

Copperhead & Cherry Blossom

I like the end of chap 1 more than the end end.

ch. 1

“You’re not a fuck up. . .” Ian started. “Okay, maybe you’re kind of a fuck up, but so am I! So are all of us that grew up where we did. We all have bad shit that we can’t change about where we came from, but we can try to be better than that. The coolest people you meet in life are either current or former fuck ups. It’s not something to be ashamed of in the grand scheme of things as long as you don’t just do nothing and stay that way forever.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“What?” Ian fixed him with a comical look of utter bafflement.

“You basically just said I go get shrunk, or I stay an unlovable fuck up forever. That my ultimatum here?”

“Unlovable? Christ Mickey, you really do just hear what you wanna hear. You’re basically the biggest drama queen I know.”

“Oh, so now I’m a queen?”

“Yeah, Mick,” Ian deadpanned. “You’re the Queen of Boystown. Long may you reign.”

Corey & Parker

I really like the sad ending of chap 4, so it’s here too. The very end is so fucking sappy, but I still kind of love it.

ch. 4

Of course Ian would pick the worst possible person to let overtake him with real feelings. He felt used and manipulated, and so fucking humiliated. He’d allowed Mickey to see a real part of him, and it had been thrown back in his face like so much garbage.

But Ian was never really worth anything real to anyone. He knew that. He’d do better not to let himself forget it again.

ch. 6

I believe you.

Ian didn’t know why that was the line that triggered the big revelation that he was indeed one hundred and ten percent in love with Mickey Milkovich. There was something about the honesty of it, and the implied trust. The simple statement felt like some kind of important commitment coming from those lips. Maybe it was just the sweetness of the ridiculously romantic setting that had created some gorgeous mirage, but Ian could feel it in his gut. . . He was going to have Mickey in his life for a long time to come, and they were going to be so fucking happy.

[tgunn64]

Favorite Villains - Bill (Kill Bill)

Kill Bill is one of the best action movies I ever saw with some of the best characters ever, yo. If you’re considering giving it a chance, don’t read this. The movie is old enough that I’m not gonna spoiler tag it, but if you wanna watch it, I’m gonna give most of it away right here. It's an experience best enjoyed blind, so if you feel so compelled, click off now before I go into the film's brilliant villain, Bill. Kill Bill, as the title aptly suggests, follows one woman’s quest to, well, end William’s life. Bill is the leader of a band of assassins called the Deadly Vipers. Under the alias ‘Snake Charmer’, Bill was the mastermind behind many assassinations, leading the Viper assassins Vernita Green (Copperhead), O-Ren Ishii (Cottonmouth), Budd (Sidewinder), Elle Driver (California Mountain Snake), and Beatrix Kido (Black Mamba). All the vipers were a tightly knit group, but Bill grew particularly attached to Beatrix, and the two kindled a romance.

But it goes to show you should never date within your profession--Beatrix soon found she was pregnant with Bill’s child. Terrified of the idea that her daughter may grow up in the heinous world of organized crime, Beatrix changed her name and tried to run away, hoping to marry someone else and raise her daughter in a healthy environment. Beatrix found a musician named Tommy and quickly tied the knot with him. But on a wedding rehearsal shortly before the marriage, Bill arrives, clearly scorned and heartbroken. He gives an unfulfilled blessing before leaving the church, and making way for the rest of the Deadly Vipers to storm into the Church and shoot everyone inside, killing Tommy, all of his relatives that took Beatrix in, and the pregnant Beatrix’s unborn child. Despite taking a bullet to the head, Beatrix wakes up four years later in a coma, and our story begins when she sets out for vengeance against the Deadly Vipers and Bill himself. And while Bill certainly deserves what he’s gonna get, he’s partway sympathetic. Sure what he did to Beatrix was horrible, but he was understandably heartbroken when she left him, and she not only became a source of heartbreak, but a loose end he felt compelled to tie up. Bill has a great deal of honor and standards. After the ordeal in the church, when Beatrix is in her coma, Elle manages to infiltrate the hospital, and comes extremely close to poisoning Beatrix in her sleep before Bill intervenes, stating that after all they’ve done to Beatrix, they won’t go as far as to kill her in her sleep.

And what’s truly fascinating about Bill is his interactions with other characters. What we see of him doesn’t end with him being a bad guy to Beatrix. We see them well before their schism, when they were in love and they genuinely liked each other. Bill told Beatrix stories and supported her training as an assassin. Bill has all kinds of control, and that’s because he is massively charismatic. And it’s not like a lot of villains where he’s a sneaky lier and manipulator, he’s a genuinely charming person and holds a great deal of care for others, even those he wrongs. Elle Driver, the most sinister and irredeemable of the Deadly Vipers, is in LOVE with him. If it wasn’t for a few bad decisions, Bill would be a genuinely likable person. And that’s why he’s so hard to peg, every turn you take, you almost don’t want to kill him. You also see his interactions with Budd--the former Deadly Viper who is also his brother, states they had a falling out, but still took Bill’s side and tried to kill Beatrix for ‘breaking (his) brother’s heart’. He does some awful things, but it isn’t exactly shocking people are siding with him. The climax of the film is quite possibly the high point for Bill. Beatrix has killed every other Deadly Viper--and the last person on her list, Bill, is just inside his house that she has finally found. She storms inside, her sword ready, prepared to finally fulfill the title of the film. And what does she find?

Bill--playing with the daughter she thought was lost in the shooting. Bill didn’t just have his subordinates crash in and kill everyone for the sake of scornful, petty vengeance. It was all part of a big plan. He left Beatrix alive on purpose, and saved her daughter after she was comatosed. Bill raised little BB for all four years Beatrix was asleep, just waiting for her to arrive and find them. He didn’t just want to get back at Beatrix for hurting him. He was basically taking her back. He cut Tommy and his family out of the picture so he and Beatrix could raise BB together. Bill then speaks one of my favorite monologues ever;

As you know, l’m quite keen on comic books. Especially the ones about superheroes. I find the whole mythology surrounding superheroes fascinating. Take my favorite superhero, Superman. Not a great comic book, not particularly well-drawn, but the mythology. The mythology is not only great, it’s unique…Now, a staple of the superhero mythology is, there’s the superhero and there’s the alter ego. Batman is actually Bruce Wayne, Spider-Man is actually Peter Parker. When that character wakes up in the morning, he’s Peter Parker. He has to put on a costume to become Spider-Man. And it is in that characteristic Superman stands alone. Superman didn’t become Superman. Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up in the morning, he’s Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His outfit with the big red “S”, that’s the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clothes. What Kent wears – the glasses, the business suit – that’s the costume. That’s the costume Superman wears to blend in with us. Clark Kent is how Superman views us. And what are the characteristics of Clark Kent? He’s weak, he’s unsure of himself, he’s a coward. Clark Kent is Superman’s critique on the whole human race. Sorta like Beatrix Kiddo and Mrs. Tommy Plympton…You would’ve worn the costume of Arlene Plympton. But you were born Beatrix Kiddo. And every morning when you woke up, you’d still be Beatrix Kiddo…I’m calling you a killer. A natural born killer. You always have been, and you always will be.

No matter how badly Beatrix wanted to start a new life with Tommy and BB, at her core, she still would’ve been an assassin. One can’t truly escape who they are, and the reason Bill is so comfortable with himself and manages to be so debonair and even kind to others, is because he’s accepted what he truly is.

Of course Beatrix isn’t taken in, and their inevitable battle ensues, which ends with Beatrix landing a killing blow on Bill. Shortly before dying, Bill and Beatrix exchange one last time that truly, they’re not enemies. They enjoy a laugh, and smile as Bill dies, reaching an understanding. Because really and truly, being enemies does not mean they hate each other. It’s unique because they do love each other, it was an unstable set of circumstances that forced them apart. Bill calls Beatrix, the woman that killed him, his favorite person, because he is so damn comfortable with the truth. Do we ever root for Bill? Do we ever want Beatrix NOT to kill him? Not really--but building a villain that can be understood and sympathized with on the level Bill can doesn’t come around every day.

[ramblesandmumblesofanerd]

Batman: Arkham Reviews Part 3 - Obligatory Origins

Warning: Lengthy Post Which Contains Spoilers

After the explosive finale of Arkham City, every fan was curious as to how exactly Rocksteady would top their previous game with the inevitable sequel. What happened after the events of Arkham City? How are the characters coping with the aftermath of the previous story? Are the villains planning an attack? Will Batman be able to forge ahead and work through whatever come his way? All of these questions and more will not be answered as a completely different company, Warner Brothers Games Montreal, will prolong our wait for the sequel we actually want and instead give us the obligatory origin story we may or may not have wanted. Will this game stand up alongside its predecessors, or will it simply fall flat? Let’s take a look at 2013’s Batman: Arkham Origins to find out.

The main story of the game takes place several years ago on Christmas Eve, when a younger, rougher Batman has begun to make a name for himself as a vigilante the GCPD needs to put down. On this evening, Roman “Black Mask” Sionis has hired eight assassins including Deathstroke, Deadshot and Bane to kill the Batman in exchange for fifty million dollars in cash. Now, for one evening, Batman must defeat these eight assassins while keeping Gotham safe through side missions. Can Batman defeat them while trying to forge an uneasy alliance with Lieutenant James Gordon and the GCPD? Well, we already have two games that show he already has, so what do you think?

Firstly, while the game certainly feels more impressive in terms of how much larger the map is in comparison to Arkham City, this is only because the game designers took the map from Arkham City, added few new areas and another part of Gotham connected by a tedious bridge. While it is interesting to see Arkham City when it was still called Old Gotham, it does feel slightly lazy in spite of the additions made to show the city in it’s prime. There are also new areas to explore in New Gotham, but only if you are willing to make the trek across the aforementioned Pioneers Bridge. Until you unlock the fast-travel mechanic, this journey will feel quite tiresome, as you are forced to glide, grapnel and repeat across the bridge until you finally make it to the other side. This may sound trivial at first, but when the story demands you repeat this task a few times you begin to realize why Arkham City was so small in comparison to Arkham Origins. Also, the city seems emptier than it really should, as all civilians (i.e. not criminals) have been ordered to stay indoors due to the overbearing presence of the assassins. While this does make sense, it makes Gotham City feel exactly like Arkham City due to the overwhelming amount of nameless criminals you will find hanging out in clusters on the streets and rooftops.  This is until the aforementioned fast-travel mechanic is unlocked after dealing Enigma’s “puzzles”, which is just a loading screen that becomes tedious and actually somewhat annoying. So, this is a slightly lose-lose situation.

Speaking of exactly the same, the gadgets are a little less innovative this time around. The player is essentially given all of the gadgets they are familiar with since game one with only one new item being one from Robin’s arsenal in a DLC Mission from Arkham City, the Concussion Detonator. Even the Freeze Grenade has been reskinned as Glue Grenade, which does the exact same thing it does in Arkham City: freeze opponents/steam from pipes and create a surface to stand on in water. There are even certain gadgets that do not make any sense due to previously established context, such as the Grapnel Boost. In Arkham City, the Grapnel Boost allows Batman to grapple to a surface and use to force to launch himself into the air if the player presses a certain button. When the player unlocks this upgrade, Batman and Alfred have an exchange in which the butler reminds his master that the upgrade was in the experimental prototype stage, meaning it was just made. In Arkham Origins, which takes place years prior, you already have the upgrade. While I understand the need for this upgrade in order to make traversing the city less tedious, this make no sense in terms of context which has always bugged me.

So that’s a flop for both the map and the gadgets, but what about the characters? Well, we have a younger, more aggressive Batman not voiced by Kevin Conroy in favor of a decent performance by Roger Craig Smith working alongside a prissy Alfred Pennyworth voiced by Martin Jarvis and a reluctant James Gordon voiced by Michael Gough. We are provided with a younger Joker wreaking havoc alongside the assassins played by Tom Baker who does an impressive impersonation of Mark Hamill. We are given an amazing portrayal of Deathstroke performed by Mark Rolston, whose fight was, by far, the hardest to beat and therefore the most satisfying when the task is actually done. We’re even given a more intelligent version of Bane before he became the hulking bruiser we have seen in previous games, voiced by JB Blanc who makes the character all the more intimidating. And that’s about all the characters I actually care about. The rest of the characters, be they in the main story or in their own personal side missions feel bland and just tacked on to get die hard fans to go “Oh, look! I know that character!”. Even some of the assassins feel like tools rather than characters, such as Copperhead who uses fear inducing poison to slowly kill her targets. Sound familiar? This encounter between Batman and Copperhead is just used to explain away how Batman is always able to fight against Scarecrow's Fear Toxin. It is a shame, because I like some of these characters and I would have loved to have seen them be more developed rather than just be slapped on in order to fill the quota for bad guys in the game.

And finally, there is the bugs and other issues. Unlike previous games in my personal experience, Arkham Origins in littered with bugs and glitches which causes problems in the game for many players. The most notable is when the game will freeze in the midst of playing. This is due to the console in question (mine being a Playstation 3) trying to load the game and it’s assets while you are playing it. Sometimes the process is more than the console can take, thus causing the freeze and crash which requires a full restart of the console. Thankfully this only happened once in my experience, but there was another notable issue that occurred in a game mode that has never been used in any prior or future game in the Arkham series: multiplayer mode. On paper, a multiplayer game featuring Batman characters sounds impressive, but the execution leaves little to be desired. Unfortunately the gameplay does feel somewhat bland with the typical “Capture the Point” and “Team Deathmatch”, with the only alterations being Batman and Robin trying to take out the two gangs from the shadows and the opportunity to play as either Bane or Joker depending on which team you are assigned. The multiplayer however, before it was inevitably taken down by Warner Brothers Games, was truly a pain, as it took one forever to load into a game due to the need of three players per gang and two more players to be the Dynamic Duo. I can only assume barely anyone wanted to play the multiplayer is the simple fact that no one demanded it. When we played the previous Arkham games, we never thought about having a multiplayer mode because we were having so much fun being the Batman.

So with an unnecessary story, convoluted map, cookie cutter characters and all of the glitches, do I still recommend this game? Oddly enough, yes. While Arkham Origins is not a perfect game or even the game we wanted at the time, I still found myself enjoying the it for what it was. The story did actually have a twist or two I did genuinely get a kick out of on my first playthrough, especially with a young Joker being thrown into the mix. Speaking of whom, full props to Tom Baker for doing spot on imitation of Mark Hamill’s iconic voice for the role, as well as other actors such as Roger Craig playing the role of a young, angry vigilante who does not respect the law just yet. While, yes, there are some bland characters thrown into the mix just to make the game as immense as Arkham City, I cannot say I outright hate them as they provided a challenge in their own ways, I just did not find them as interesting as other more prominent characters or their future incarnations from the previous Arkham games. And once you have dealt with the glitches and the lack of innovation, the game does actually become enjoyable as you do want to see how certain character became the people we know them as in Arkham Asylum/City. Is the game for everybody? No. But if you are honestly curious about it, I do recommend you take a look. But for those who are not curious, we do have one more game to talk about.

Until then, never stop rambling, TM

[gorogues]

Spoilers for Flash #37!

Sorry for the lateness of this review, but I've been out of town until late last night...hope everyone had a nice quiet few days and this isn't too late!  There are a lot of Rogue-related pages to post for this issue, so you can see some I didn't include here in the preview from last week.

The scene with Axel is rather significant (and horrific) for several reasons: the brutal beating he's suffered and the abusive theft of his prosthetic limb, the fact that he's actually looking like a kid again and the text makes that explicit, and his claim that Turbine had "to go away" because he was threatening to rat them out.  It's not entirely clear whether Axel's being truthful here.  Yes, we know Turbine was a better person than the other Rogues and didn't really fit in with them, so it may be true.  But since we know Axel's been taking the fall for the Rogues, he may still be lying about the motive; he's seemingly lying about other things, so I'm not convinced that was necessarily the reason.  It may still have something to do with the imminent return of Roscoe Dillon.  

(As an aside, it's a bit weird that the story is emphasizing that Turbine was such a good person when we saw him egging on the prison fight a few issues ago, but maybe he was never meant to be in the background of those scenes.  Or, more likely, he was only included in the background to re-introduce him for this storyline.)

It’s really difficult to see Axel in this position, and I'm rather angry at several characters for it...Wolfe, of course, because he's always been abusive, but also at the Rogues for putting a kid in this position.  This issue is the first time since the New 52 began that it's really been made clear that he's a kid (he's been looking like an unholy hybrid of James and Axel for so long, including his age), and the Rogues have really been shitty to him.  They let this happen to him even though they're probably aware of what would happen.  So Turbine and Axel have really been victimized by their ambitions, even if Axel may eventually kinda-sorta benefit from it, and at any rate he may not have had the wisdom nor power amongst the group dynamics to avoid this situation.  I'd like to think that classic Len wouldn't do this to Axel, even though we know he was occasionally a jerk to him, but then again these are pretty clearly not the classic Rogues and they haven't been since Flashpoint.  That's an important thing to keep in mind.

We also see Axel's cell, which is full of comics and superhero posters.  It's good to see he's one of us :>  And it's another reminder that he's young and really shouldn't be in this situation.

It's also nice to see that Barry's starting to get along with people (Kristen and young Wally) again, and that he's at least getting slightly less trusting even if he's still a bit painfully naive and it gets him into trouble.  I guess that's been a hard lesson for him to learn and he's still working on it...though it'd be sad if it makes him hard and cold.  I like that he sees the best in people and hope that continues, but just find it frustrating when he's so naive that he acts stupid; he's a cop and should have better instincts.  

August successfully tricks Barry into a trap here and is welcomed into the Rogues, although that seems unlikely to last.  You know somebody is going to double-cross the other, just as Len is already scheming to betray Copperhead.  He seems pretty good at this crime boss gig so far, but I'm sure it's going to blow up in his face at some point and things will probably get ugly.  And in fairness, we haven't really seen that much of his negotiations or decisions yet, just that he's had some rather successful outcomes....even if they came at the expense of Axel and possibly Turbine.

At any rate, Len says he likes the Rogues' set-up in Iron Heights, and has no desire to leave because it's a safe and secure home base.  I don't know if he's supremely confident that the Rogues can overcome Wolfe when he eventually figures out what's happening, or if he just hasn't thought that far ahead yet.  But he's got Barry trapped in an absolute-zero cell and is seemingly going to beat the shit out of him.  While shirtless.  Oh Len.  Does this mean he still has resistance/immunity to the cold even though he's long since lost his meta powers? (I did always wonder why he remained sleeveless even after he lost them in the New 52.)  And he doesn't have the goatee in the first pages of the issue, but does have it by the end.  It's like Hartley's magic goatee in Countdown.

Anyway, pretty good issue, and it really increased my sympathy for Axel.  It was great to see him as a kid again and back in his old costume, which also helps make more room for James to return and hopefully have them co-exist as distinct characters.  And I'm looking forward to seeing how this mystery progresses and what we find out about Turbine's murder, as well as Len's plans and eventual double-crosses.  What's he going to do to Copperhead, and how will she react?  Has she been planning to screw him over too? (Probably.)  Are August and the Rogues really genuine about an alliance/him joining, or is this just all the prelude to a schemed spectacular clusterduck?  We'll see.  I get the feeling that Len is due for a really big fall, and hopefully he doesn't take everyone else down with him.