#but my butch said they made me look like a ghost so ghost post it is :3

[cross-eyed-boy]

Have you ever been haunted? Would you like to?

[he/it]

[is-this-even-relatable]

I’ve seen this a few times and I wanna address it. In the phandom, as a fan of Danny Phantom, you can be a fan however you want.

You’re not wrong for liking what you like. If you don’t care for AU’s and fanon and all the rewriting and fix-its and shipping… then good on you. If you watched the show as a kid and are a fan because you like canon and the show itself makes you happy, then good on you. If you discovered the show recently or as an adult and are diving into a new passion, then good. on. you.

We all love the show, or at least the concepts and vision behind it, that’s why we are fans. (especially the theme song, THAT I think we can all agree is a hecking banger.)

ASIDE 1: What this post is addressing is the concerns from some people who only like canon, or prefer majority of canon over fanon, about feeling left out of the phandom. I’ve also heard some people, who grew up with the show, who’ve said that Butch Hartman is their childhood hero, and feeling awkward and off to the side in the phandom, while people bash on him and the show.

While yes there are problems, and I truly recommend everyone who reads this looking up “Why don’t people like Butch Hartman?” or “What did Butch Hartman do?” and doing a bit of research on your own, this doesn’t mean you can’t still have that childhood respect.

It’s a bittersweet sort of thing, where someone doesn’t turn out to be as great as you’d envisioned they were. Where you have respect for them from the past, and are learning that they’re not who you thought they’d be, and you feel betrayed because maybe your trust was misplaced. But that’s not on you, and you shouldn’t be shamed for wanting to preserve that memory and keep the innocence of your childhood heroes alive.

I myself, have had a huge part of my childhood and formulaic memories, had to be reevaluated once I got older and realized that hey… that was definitely problematic. I was a kid, and didn’t know any better, but the organizers definitely did. I’m glad to have done it because those experiences really mattered to me, but I feel guilty for thinking that because I also now have the knowledge that it wasn’t right. Cultural appropriation is a huge disrespect to the things I thought I was respecting when I was young. So although I appreciate the memories and the time I spent and who it made me today, I can say for a fact I do not condone the ones who orchestrated it, because I have become an informed individual. Because I know better. So I will continue to love the ideals introduced to me, but I will go about it the correct way.

In that thread, I do think that it’s good for everyone to educate themselves on the media you consume, especially on subtle contexts and perhaps why some things get spread around like “butch hartman sucks” rather than just accepting or rejecting hearsay without confirming it for yourself. If you don’t know something, seek to understand it!

But, and I stand by this, any existing or future issues with the show’s aging or it’s creator does not give anyone the right to make any other person feel unwelcome. And if anyone, phandom or otherwise, yells and kicks and screams and or otherwise has a hissy fit at you for liking canon or anything like that… then fuck em.

Nobody can stop you from loving what you love! We are all on earth together, and you truly only live once. So don’t waste the amazing time you have doubting yourself. Don’t spend time reading and consuming content that you don’t want to. If you wanna read canon fics only, never reading crossovers, then you. go. damn. do it.

If you’ve never created anything in your life, never drawn a doodle or written a blurb, you are still a part of the phandom, and we are happy to have you. Leave comments, likes, and reblogs to show your presence and appreciation! Tell the content creators you like the most that you appreciate what they’ve done!

In the end, we are all just people, who one day found ourselves reading/watching/looking at a silly ghost boy who was just 14, and found that we couldn’t look away.

[monkey-network]

My Issues/Problems/Disgusts Resolved(?)

When you have issues, troubles, or disgusts with anything, the hardest but relieving thing to do coming to terms with them. A couple of years ago, I made a trilogy of posts exploring three people I found ranging from repugnant to devious. It came at a time when frustrations might as well have come out and frankly they were just about people everyone was more than aware of online. Enough time has passed and while this isn't just gonna be me apologizing or being remorseful for what I said, I want to I guess truly bury the hatchet and resolve these stuck-around feelings as somebody that has... been humbled a lot over these years (make of that what you will). This is coming from somebody that knows a lot about staying in your own head. So yeah, let's talk.

Lily Orchard [OP Link]

Gotta say that... nothing's really changed only in that it's all less with anger now. Put this first because it'll be short. To be as sincere as I can, she's just an unlikable person. Regardless of her out there opinions and ideas of media literacy, or her choices in fictional tastes, I won't be the guy that will throw every evil label and the kitchen sink onto her. Calling the spade a spade, even as a former fan I saw that within reason it was seeing a very insatiable and arrogant media "critic" with negative social skills. Hell, the mentions you see of her on Tumblr or Twitter especially are just the open secret that most people don't like her. For me, that resentment has become passive chagrin.

I won't convince anybody of who she can really be, how bad she can be at being both original and derivative, or what she is potentially. I wouldn't say a lost cause, but there's nothing complicated about this anymore. She's just a massive asshole. Not because of any human characteristic of hers, her opinions, or what was known about her in the past. Take away any personal semantics or bias, I remain only puzzled about how her circle is able to tolerate her presence because she's just an unlikable person and that's all on her.

Butch Hartman {OP Link}

2020 basically was the year where a man responsible for one of the most popular cartoons on Nickelodeon finished swan-diving his reputation just as fast as the likes of John K and Justin Roiland. From scheming a streaming service that still isn't out of early access yet to making a Christian flash cartoon that looks 20 years too late. It's a classic story of pride coming before the fall, culminating in his Youtube channel being a wasteland aside from sketch tiktoks that barely make the thousands in views despite his huge follower count. As much as LSMark looked to make good-faith conversation with him recently, Butch basically became a ghost now after all the controversies died down.

Now despite what I said initially, Butch's fall in reputation is definitely not comparable to Kricfalusi or Roiland's; we've heard nothing of him physically taking advantage of anybody in or out the industry. The worse he's done is take advantage of his legacy for either financial or supportive gains. This is not as bad as domestic or sexual assault of course, but it spoke wonders of how the ego of big time creators can kill any goodwill and faith when they're not actually considerate of the following that respect them. A quick search of his name on Youtube is more about the people discussing his controversies than anything he worked on. People still discuss Danny Phantom and Fairly Oddparents, hell the Cosmo mpreg episode is a meme to this day, but with the detachment towards Butch as the creator.

I'm fine with this predicament, but it's sad to believe this was all on him. It wasn't just about Oaxis being a scam or him saying "he created your childhood" or heaven forbid his attempts of promoting religious healing, it was about seeing a creator of some things you liked reveal himself as someone in a bubble that you lose any idea in looking up to. It's not exactly "Don't Meet Your Heroes," more "Don't glue on rose-tinted glasses". I won't force or insult what remains of Butch's "fanbase" for sticking with him, but this definitely woke me up in terms of how I view the creators I love. Humility is the special word in all this, where some creators can have some disapproving moments but you can still have respect for their craft. With Butch, it wasn't even him entirely that made his shows look great. As of now, he's making poorly illustrated kid's bible stories with Fairly Oddparents getting a live-action show that Nickelodeon regretted making immediately after releasing to the point of erasing it all not even a full year after it was first announced. Even when things are probably fine now, the guy fell off as hard as I expected originally. I can seriously put this behind knowing I was factually right on the money the first time and that does put a smile on my face.

Also... Butt Shartman. That's all, let's move on.

Mysterious Mr. Enter (OP Link)

I'll say this was the reason why I made this post. Lily and Hartman I say speak of an absence of change and reflecting on that absence. Mr. Enter is different and, cut to the chase, it has to do with this recent video.

I've talked my fair share of shit toward Mr. Enter these past few years, reasonably so. At the same time, my vitriol toward him came from some semblance of respect. Many have to this day brought up Mr. Enter calling out the writers of Spongebob for a particular episode they did, but John is right in that that was around the time he barely had a following and just started out with media reviews. Mr. Enter has made bad opinions, I will never deny that and this isn't me defending him, but I see that he can recognize they're bad. He's better than Lily Orchard in that... he can admit being wrong and grow from it. We meme and shit on this dude, but for me, there was still that modicum of respect I had for him being this dedicated. In spite of the harassment or the justified backlash, he's still putting in the effort.

Over the years, I've come to understand that media critics can have different understandings of media. That doesn't mean every critic is always right in their own way, grifters exist for a reason, but I don't see Mr. Enter as a grifter-type critic compared to people who to this day complain about The Last Jedi. He can have some off takes on the types of humor or tropes in a cartoon, but more often than not he's being sincere. That's why I say he still has some respect from me for as long as I've known him. Every bad take aside, I don't take him as somebody who is "ruining media criticism".

I don't agree with everything he says or believes, but John's doing better than I can say for Butch Hartman or Lily Orchard especially. He's doing Admirable Animations again, something I brought up originally, and am intrigued to see that he indirectly took my advice. He can work well with more positive videos. I never felt he was an actively terrible critic, Turning Red meme aside, and I didn't want to just treat him as the bane of online media criticism or the worst thing to ever happen. The dude has his faults but can acknowledge them better than most online personalities I've seen who feel it's weak to admit anything. He's no different from the Nostalgia Critic where the tumultuous attitudes toward them in the past have subsided where yeah, I'm not gonna side with every bad opinion or choice they make but they aren't actively killing any goodwill I would have for them. It's not pity, but making your empathy less black and white compared to people more deserving of scrutiny. Overall I still have hopes Mr. Enter will do better, imperfect as things can get.

Conclusion

I wanna say this post and the former three I made reflected the increased awareness and discourse of the parasocial relationships we can have, especially online. There have been plenty of people that certainly abused their status and paid for it, these three stayed in the mind for how consistently they tracked in soiling their reputation. At the same time, how wary we are about things or the people we followed isn't always cut and dry. That's why the title has the question mark in parentheses, nothing ever ends so I'm not saying these current feelings will just be buried away and forgotten forever. I just know that for this current future, it's better to seriously lay things to rest while subconsciously keeping in mind what can be done differently from now on. To conclude, this is all better than having to care about people like Andrew Tate or Elon Musk living another day.

[thesoulspulse]

Regarding The Guys in White (Part 3)

I didn’t expect to go on a tirade about Elliot/Gregor in the previous part but I guess since he’s a big part of that episode “Double Cross My Heart” I guess there was no getting around it. It looks like there’s a lot more to unpack than I thought so I’m going to have to split this post as well, but hey, the more the merrier right?

Speaking of which, here are links to the first two!

Part 1: https://thesoulspulse.tumblr.com/post/675957179159871488/regarding-the-guys-in-white-part-1

Part 2: https://thesoulspulse.tumblr.com/post/676128138448748544/regarding-the-guys-in-white-part-2

Part 4: https://thesoulspulse.tumblr.com/post/676585479837302784/regarding-the-guys-in-white-part-4

Final Part: https://thesoulspulse.tumblr.com/post/677951564575588354/regarding-the-guys-in-white-final-part

Regarding the Guys in White...

I promise, this time I’m only bringing Gregor/Elliot up again to point out how the Guys in White have a bad habit -just like Valerie used to- of putting innocent civilians in danger. Aka as Danny said “right in the line of fire” because when they shot a missile at Elliot he clearly had two girls next to him so they should have made sure they had a clear shot before firing.

And let’s not forget them damaging public property just as badly if not worse than any ghost! Not to mention this building is on a freaking cliffside! The whole thing could come crashing down or worse, cause a landslide. Frankly they’re lucky it didn’t.

And ok, I know we don’t like Elliot for being such a huge liar, but you’d think the Guys in White would have scanners to tell if someone is human. I mean, plenty of people have white hair either due to a hereditary condition or old age and tell me more people didn’t start dying their hair white to look like their hero Danny Phantom besides him.

Also, given how much they know about ghosts, you’d think they’d line their jets, planes, hover boards, or what have you with anti-ghost shielding to prevent ghosts from phasing in or out of them as easily as this:

On a side note, maybe Danny should have forced them to land instead of phase them out of the cockpit, leaving the jet to veer out of control. But I digress since it at least crashed to the side of the observatory.

That brings us to our next point when Danny drops Agent’s K & O off at the Guys in White Headquarters in Amity Park which makes you wonder just how long its been there. This is the only time we actually see it and it doesn’t have much detail to it apart from having no windows and only one entrance we can see, although they probably have secret ones knowing them leading to other locations such as the other safe house we saw.

Now here’s where things get interesting!

Personally, I have this headcanon that Walker may have actually been an older agent of the Guys in White from another time period. Because for one thing, he knows how to create anti-ghost tech in order to contain other ghosts like himself which his obsession is to contain and control and to follow the rules. The Guys in White are serious about the rules too so again, I don’t think it’s too far of a stretch since contrary to what Butch has stated before there ARE documented existences of ghosts that were ones either human or animal. I’m sure you know who I mean so I won’t list them.

There’s also the similarities in their designs:

Both have Notch-Lapeled collars

A black tie

Black gloves

Black boots

And at least 2-4 buttons

So that said, again this is only my personal headcanon, Walker could be a former agent from another division that existed generations ago and since then their uniform design has been updated.

Oh right, speaking of anti-ghost devices. I totally forgot about this but in this same episode, the Guys in White have these jet packs with intangibly capabilities. Meaning, they can replicate a ghosts ability to phase through walls and objects! So my question is, why don’t they use this for all their devices? Like for example the plane they were in to avoid being hit by an attack? Is their version of this unstable or can’t be relied on? Sort of like how Maddie had a portable ghost-portal gun we saw in Wulf’s first episode that we saw did drain a lot of power which meant it could only be used maybe once or twice max.

To end things off since this post is getting too long, I also wanted to mention how the Amity Park Penitentiary now seems to have prison cells or containment at least for ghostly inmates so I wonder if the Guys in White funded that? This is where we see them holding Lydia hostage to get Freakshow to give them the information they want which I’d rather get into in the next part because this is why I really REALLY wish they had expanded on in the show.

I know there’s a lot we don’t know and things we wish we knew which is why I’m digging up what info I can and as for the rest, as you can see, I’m sharing my fan theories and headcanon’s. Feel free to borrow or expand on any of them if you want to, I’d love to see what you come up with!

A lot of this is going to be really important for what I have planned for my OC Iris Brooks since she and the Guys in White have a complicated history together which I’ll hopefully get to share through my rpg maker project “Psionic.”

Not to mention I always wondered why there were never any female agents in this agency which is why I made a division of my own in my fanfic “Turning Point” which I’d love to continue eventually with its leader I call Agent Omega to got along with the Guys in White’s leader Agent Alpha, I’ll show you her really quick before I conclude this post.

[reddit-terf-cold-takes]

Honestly, going with the most charitable interpretation of what a world post-gender abolition looks like from what I’ve read from “gender-critical��� users, this is where I think trans people would place in it:

Wome would be liberated from the patriarchy. (This is at the top because this is where most gender critics here on Tumblr are going to stop - i know it’s an oversimplification, but much like gender critics claim they’re more concerned for “women’s safety”, I’m more concerned here with the safety and well-being of my fellow trans people.)

People would get to wear whatever we want - or whatever we don’t want - with zero or low judgment or threat of violence.

Bathrooms would be divided into Men’s rooms and Women’s rooms, and if you’re going into one you’d better have the right “natural” “parts” to be there. If not it’s to be assumed you either made a mistake or had nefarious intentions and would be dealt with accordingly.

Kids would be allowed to wear whatever they want, play with whatever they want, and not have gendered expectations and roles shoved onto them.

Hair on women, facial included, would not be an issue.

People will have zero problems using the pronouns and names assigned to them at birth, by virtue of the sex they were born as.

Media will not shove gender onto kids either.

This will get rid of gender dysphoria because…again, being charitable, kids raised without gendered expectations and roles won’t feel the need to be the other sex to “escape”, or “mix up” gender and sex.

On the rare case that gender dysphoria is biology-based, clearly therapy would be needed to help them “accept their birth sex.” And gender dysphoria would be treated like a “normal” mental illness, thought of like anorexia or other types of body dysmorphia, and not “catered to.”

So, to sum it up: Trans people wouldn’t exist because in the post-gender abolition Utopia, people would be perfectly happy with their birth sex, would just use the pronouns and name assigned to them at birth, if you were caught in the wrong bathroom you’d be assumed to be there by mistake or arrested if not, and gender dysphoria would be therapied out of them.

…so unpacking this:

Why would gendered bathrooms even be needed in a post-gendered world? Presumably one of the goals of women’s liberation and abolition of gender would be to eradicate, as much as possible, violence against women. If that was successfully done…why would there even be a fear of unisex bathrooms, if predatory behavior against women is no longer an issue?

I wore androgynous and “tomboyish” clothing before I transitioned. I wore a lot of whatever I wanted before I transitioned, mostly sweatpants, t-shirts, and sweaters. It didn’t lessen the feeling of “wrongness,” nor did that feeling improve until I fully embraced being trans and what that meant.

For the above, I imagine this is much, much harder for trans women - for all the talk of being free to wear whatever you like and that clothing shouldn’t be gendered, apparently the farthest a lot of gender critics are willing to go is “rockstar dandy David Bowie.” Women are allowed to be butch and masculine…but not too butch and masculine. (See: Every single TERF crying over a transmasculine person “ruining their body” girl shut up)

This goes towards policing how trans people clothe themselves too. For trans women, if you’re too feminine you’re “appropriating womanhood;” if you’re more butch you’re just a man claiming to be a female to get access to women’s spaces. For trans men, too masculine and you’re considered a traitor, “ugly” or lost dating material; if you’re not masculine enough you’re just pretending to be trans for clout, or brainwashed by the patriarchy. Non-binary people get mocked and dismissed no matter what the fuck they do. And this is even without the trauma that intersex people face from birth for having an abnormal body that doesn’t fit the sex binary, including non-consensual surgery done on them as a child and then covered up.

(As an aside - every single cis intersex woman I know on this platform? Has been “accused” of being trans. BY GENDER CRITICS. It’s sickening.)

Point being; for a group concerned about gender abolition, trans people have a very small gender expression allowance that is tolerated, at best.

We can’t win, to put it bluntly. Maybe our gender expression will be allowed in the post-gender abolition world that’s going to definitely come in…the next few hundred years. For realsies, pinkie promise uwu.

Gender identity is not simply cultural. There are trans people who have a biological basis for their dysphoria as well. Again, I can only speak for my own experiences, but - on a fundamental level, the fact that my body is built for being impregnated and giving birth is like something out of Alien, and the thought of my body being capable of doing that is something I reject on every single level of my body, even the levels I can’t even reach. And there are people around you who A) see this as good, and B) want to force you to carry that crotchburster until it’s ready to pop.

My body should not be capable of doing that. Period. The end. And any amount of “body acceptance uwu” therapy you try to put me through to “fix” it is going to look shady as fuck. Might as well bring a pro-lifer CPC counselor in at that point.

There’s a lot more I can touch on - the fact that woman’s liberation is often isolated from other forms of oppression and that this post-gender utopia will not have even a ghost’s chance of happening unless we are all liberated, the way that the “scientific” argument of “define woman lol” is metaphysical in nature rather than scientific, the fact that this world they want trans people to live in means us living as something we fundamentally are not -

But I’ll be blunt again.

In a post-gender world, trans people wouldn’t exist. And those that do would be relegated to the same dark shadow of shame that hangs over people with mental illnesses.

And honestly, that’s a terrifying thought.

(TERFs don’t bother interacting if your only comment is going to focus only first bullet point. As I said, this post is primarily concerned about what trans people’s place would be in a “post-gender world” and the place and safety of trans people in it. Don’t derail.)

[popculturebuffet]

Blog Updates: New Patreon Stretch Goals, Patreon Exclusive Reviews, New Story Arcs and Other Stuff

MHello everyone. For those of you seeing this through other tags my name is Jake. I do reviews on here that are usually full sumaries of an episode of a tv show or comic, with jokes and analsyis throughout. I’m doing this post as i’ve recently revamped by patreon a bit, check out VIA THIS LINK if your curious. I also have some other stuff going on with the blog that I thought might intrest the general public and especially you lovely followers. Thank you guys so much. Your support means a lot and feel free to interact with this post and any of the reviews. it’s always a pleasure. Leave your comments whatever. So let’s start with the patreon stuff

You Decide the Next Patreon Exclusive Review!: 

Yes YOU will decide the Patreon Exclusive review for May. How? It’s simple: i’m currently reviewing the Lilo and Stitch crossover episodes, the first two this week with the American Dragon Jake Long crossover “Morpholomew” done yesterday, the Proud Family episode “Spats” coming later this week, and “Rufus” (Kim Possible) and “Lax” (Recess) coming next week and the week after that respectively. 

As a way to gage intrest in the shows crossed over, and if I should review some of them on their own, i’m going to be watching the notes, and after the first week i’ll record how many a review got. This way the first review dosen’t get an advantage over the last and so on. Whichever episode gets the most votes wins and it’s show will get two reviews: One exclusive to Patreon in may you can check out for just a buck, and one for all of ya in June. So if you want to dragon up, get louder and prouder, check out what the sitch is, or have some recess, keep an eye on my blog and check out the review. Like it reblog, it, both. This is all in your hands. And if this little contest works out I may do another one like it in the future. 

New Patreon Stretch Goals!:

For those unfamiliar with Patreon it’s a site that helps creators like me get paid for their work, used by such luminaries as Linkara, Pushing Up Roses and greatest of all Rifftrax. 

Stretch Goals are an amount of money I get a month from patreons, that’s readers like you paying me. Even a buck a month would help a lot and help me put out a reviews and LIVE off doing this. But it’s a two way street so in order to entice you lovely people into paying me for doing my job and my passion with these reviews, i’ve updated the tiers, adding a wider and better range of rewards. I’m currenntly up to 15 dollars a month, or close enough that i’ve acitivated those rewards. And if you help me hit these tiers EVEYRONE gets PUBLIC, on here, for free reviews. Thanks to my lovely patreons Emma and Kevin you all are getting reviews of the first 5 Ducktales episode, aka Legend of the Golden Suns, with the second coming as soon as I finish this post. Even a buck helps us reach closer and for your dollar you get access to the discord, exclusive reviews, and to pick a short any time I review a bunch of shorts. And with Goofy’s birthday coming up next montha nd Donald’s after that, now is the best time for that. 5 dollar patreons also get one review as month, with 10 dollar ones getting two. You’ve already probably seen some of these: Kev has used one of his a month to have me review a house of mouse episode every month, and newest patreon and longtime friend Emma is using them to have me review the netflix dr. seuss adaptation “Green Eggs and Ham”. So whatever YOU want me to review I will and you’l lhelp unlock even MORE great reviews. So what do you get if you hit the goals? I’m glad you asked. 

We’re up to 15 so next is...

20 Dollar Tier:  Ducktales 87 Season 2 Mini Series!: Yes indeedy. Already on the Docket was the Super Ducktales Arc, which introducices the OG GIZMODUCCCKKKKK. But since that apparenlty wasn’t enough i’ve also added the OTHER mini series. While i’ll do super first since that’s the one with higher fan intrest once tha’ts done i’ll also review Time is Money, the time travel arc bringing in everyone’s faviroite scrappy Bubba. So if you want a buncha cruncha retro Ducktales pony up. But that’s not all the disney afternoon I got for this tier. 

A Darkwing Duck Episode A MOnth: This one has also been promoted every time I could and still stands. If you like that mind behind the shadow disguise, that daring duck of mystery, that champion of right, then you’ll get one review a month about him, as voted on by you patreons. 

Danny Phantom: The Ultimate Enemy: And since neither of these have helped me so far and stepping back into Amity Park made me realize how much I love the series, even if it’s creator is a 80 tons of smug asshole packed into a t-shirt he thinks is cooler than it is. So it only felt right to add  the ghost boy to the tier and the best way to kick that off is with it’s second best, and only barely second behind Reign Storm, episode: The Ultimate Enemy! Danny finds his future is imperfect and must battle his own evil self! If you want my thoughts on one of the series finest hours, then help me hit 20 bucks a month to keep making content. 

25 Dollar Tier: 

I removed the Tail Spin content, though rest assured I will be covering Plunder and Lightning sometime this year. But what I replaced it with is even better. 

One Danny Phantom Review a Month: YOu like teen superheros? you like ghosts? you like me slagigng off about butch hartman and trying to make it crystal clear his creation dosen’t wholly belong to him? Then you’ll like me reviewing Danny Phantom. And while i’m already doing that, this goal gaurantees one episode a month, and said episode will be voted on by my patreons. So if you pay for this you’ll not only get your monthly dose of going ghost.. but you’ll get a chance to PICK what it is. 

Disney Shows To Movies Trilogy : I’ve decided to make it a tradition for my 15 dollar stretch goals to do a bunch of disney movies. And like with my last batch, which you’ll be seeing in may, i’m doing tv shows that got their own movies, theatrical or otherwise. And this time we’re doing MY generatoin: Kim Possible: So The Drama, the best story in the show’s histroy and the best movie in the Disney Channels! Recess: Schools Out! The suprisingly bonkers unsurprisingly awesome finale to an awesome show! and The Proud Family Movie, another UTTERLY BATSHIT finish to a great show.  Lost at Sea and Seconds: This one’s for my scottaholics, fourth part of my Scott Pilgrim retrospective coming this week!. If you like me taking a look at Scott’s quest to punch the fuck out of his girlfriends exes while growing up a little, then if you help me get to the 30 dollar tier, i’ll also take a look at O’Malley’s other graphic novels Lost at Sea, which follows a girl who lost her soul and her boyfriend on a trip with what may be Young Neil’s older sister, and Seconds, the story of a woman with issues growing up who finds the ablitlity to travel through time.. or is it space? And some of you savvier readers my know he has nother comic. Where’s that one? wellllll

30 Dollar Tier:

Snotgirl: I’m saving this one for this tier. Reviews of each collected volume of snotgirl, Bryan’s first ongoing series, all three so far and any more to come about, unsuprisingly, a  hot mess of a person, this time who might’ve done a murder. You know instead of defintely did a murder but in self defnese and with a longsword. 

Gravity Falls Season 1!: One of Disney’s finest finally on this blog. All season 1 episodes reviewed in some way in some shape in some form.  Star Vs Finale Arc!: You’ve heard me bitch about the problems in Tom’s story, and wil lcontinue to. Now see the terrible way everyone elses ends! From an amazing build up to an awful finish, see reviews of Every story relevant season 4 episode from Butterfly Follies to Cleaved that won’t already be covered in my tom retrospective. It’s a road to crushing disapointment, come on inside! 

35 Dollar Tier:  More Disney TV Adaptations!: Doug’s First Movie! See Doug get really fucking weird in his sea monster based movie with a punch line of a name! Teachers Pet, a great movie out of a show I barely saw! Kim Possible Live action! it’s suprisingly okay! and Recess Taking the Fifth: a compliation movie for a season we sadly never got. 

Gravity Falls Season 2: Buillding on the first reward Gravity Falls Reviews will go beyond the first season and finish the job. From zombies, to dipcifica, to ford to weirdmageddon, I’m doin it all. 

40 Dollar Tier: 

Two HUGE Disney Focused Comics Retrospectives! 

Darkwing Duck: In addition to the show, i’ll start reviewing the awesome follow up comic that got me into it. From the start to both finishes: the unathorized crossover finale and the sadly short lived sequel series from joe books, the worst mistake disney ever made that wasn’t racist, before Artemis Fowl said hold my beer. Also the short lived Ducktlaes series because why not. 

The Incredibles!: The Family Dynamic! A comprehensive retrospective featuring reviews of the movie, the Mark Waid followup, the sequel that ignores said followup and the incomparable Christos Gage’s followup to THAT movie. Also that wonderfuly awful failed tv pilot bob made that he and lucius did a mst3k of. 

45 Dollar Tier: 

Disney Flims Lilo and Stitch a Thon: All four lilo and stitch movies, Lilo and Stitch, Lilo and Sitch 2, Stitch and Leroy and Stitch! All the hawaii, aliens and sequels you can handle!

Amphibia Season 1: I’ve done Season 2 as it comes out, i’ll be doing the same for season 3, so help me get here to see the start at least once a month, but two at a time!

50 Dollar Tier: The last one for now. I’ll probably go to 10 dollar tiers after this. 

The Owl House Season 1: While I wait for the second season to start so I can cover it, have me do the rest of season 1! The only exceptions are the already covered Enchanted Grom Fright and the earmarked for pride month wing it like witches!

The Two Loves and 87 Mistakes of Mordecai: A regular show romancetrospective, as we go through the downs, ups, higher ups and crushing lows of Modercai’s romantic arcs from regular show. His crush on margert, making his move, moving on, moving on to cj, and then the horrible cluster fuck I’ve talked about nonstop and will again and again as one of the worst romantic arcs in memory as they shot the relationship in the foot head and groin! Force me to relive it all!

So yeah I’ll add more tiers, again probably 10 dollars apart if I get to 50, but given I barely got to 15 i’m not optimistic. PROVE ME WRONG. HELP ME HIT 50. 

Other Stuff:

Finally outisde of Patreon, that was the main reason for this, I have news on my various arcs. For one thing i’ll be trying to keep the pace better, so expect at least one entry a month for ones i’m doing on my own time like the tom retrospective, life and times and Scott pilgrims. Ones kev does will be done weekly to keep my wallet afloat. 

I also have two more retrospectives incoming! The first is paid for by Kev: I’l lbe tackling ALL THREE SEASON 2 ARCS OF DUCKTALES 2017. After the headache of trying to cram the della arc into three weeks to keep up with the lena one, I decided i’td be better for pacing if I did all three at once and kev agreed to it, if using his patreon reviews to cushion the blows. So starting next month i’ll be covering the Louie, Della and Glomgold/Owlson arcs, swapping between them in episode order. With that I should be FAR closer to having covered every ducktales episode. Granted i’ll still have 17 to cover, but it’ll make that much more managable. 

The second comes in June specifically timed for Pride Month. With Scott Pilgrim Wrapping up in August just in time for the movie’s anniversary, I decided to start covering another one of my faviorite comics of all time. It’s time to transform, roll out and make this precoius it’s Transformers More than Meets the Eye! For those of you unfamiliar it’s an idw comic that follows a rag tag group of transformers, about half of them gay or gay coded, on a mission to find the lost knights of cybertron and bring ballance to a post war cybertron.. which quickly devloves into hyjinnks with a side order of heartrending deaths and charcter development... and references to dexy’s midnight runners. 

So that’s all for now. thank you for reading, please support my patreon as the next pay term is at the start of next month, so if you want me to start on any of those stretch goals, nows the time. Please help me earn a living and until all are one, i’ll see you at the next rainbow. 

[howdoyousayghibli]

When Marnie Was There: A Triumphant Swan Song for Studio Ghibli

In 2013, following the release of The Wind Rises, Hayao Miyazaki announced his retirement from feature films. It didn’t last long, but it did give us one of only a few Studio Ghibli films with neither directing nor screenwriting credit from Miyazaki or Isao Takahata: When Marnie Was There. The other two films with that distinction are Tales from Earthsea and The Cat Returns — an overambitious disaster and a delightful if superficial romp, respectively. 

Thankfully, Marnie is neither a disaster nor superficial: it’s a beautiful, true-to-life, emotionally powerful coming-of-age story. Released in 2014 and directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, the story centers on young Anna, a withdrawn and melancholic girl who is sent to spend time with her aunt and uncle in the countryside in hopes of ameliorating her asthma. 

There, she meets the enigmatic and titular Marnie, who seems to already know Anna and who lives in a mansion that seems to keep flipping from regal and fully-staffed to dilapidated and abandoned. Marnie’s identity and the source of Anna’s woes are equally engaging mysteries that Marnie wisely takes its time unspooling. 

While the visuals may not have the wow-factor of Arrietty, Yonebayashi’s stunning directorial debut, Marnie is still a feast for the eyes. What sticks out the most is the depiction of the Kushiro wetlands where Anna spends most of the movie. It inspired such a longing for that kind of natural landscape, in fact, that I literally got up and took my dog for a walk through some nearby woods about ⅔ of the way through this movie. You will want to move to rural Japan; accept this, and keep watching.

The other immediately striking element of Marnie is Anna herself. The movie opens with an internal monologue in which Anna describes how she’s never felt like she belongs; that sentiment has been shared by countless young-adult protagonists, but usually it feels like an afterthought tacked on in service of a bland “Be Yourself!” message. 

Marnie actually makes the effort to depict the causes and consequences of that feeling. Fellow introverts will cringe in solidarity as adults make social commitments on Anna’s behalf — right in front of her! — and nod vigorously as Anna flees incoming extroverted strangers to avoid the mortifying ordeal of being known. 

But flee all she likes, Anna can’t escape being adopted by a series of friendly, patient extroverts. There’s certainly some conflict in the story, and the movie isn’t shy about letting us see Anna mess up, but by and large Marnie pulls off the magic trick of having emotional resonance without ever really getting unpleasant. Most of the people Anna meets are wonderful, and it’s a pleasure watching her slowly come out of her shell. Studio Ghibli always knocks the side characters out of the park, and Yonebayashi continues the tradition here. 

Now, some people might take issue with the statement that Marnie never gets “unpleasant.” What I mean is that there are no Umbridges or Joffreys running around to make you want to throw things, and the characters aren’t punching bags like in Grave of the Fireflies. Marnie does get sad, but it’s a sweet, kind sadness that just makes you want to go upstairs and pick up your sleeping baby and hold her for a bit. I’m going to stop there because I’m writing this at work and really don’t want people to think I’m tearing up over the mushed peas and zoodles recipe I’m supposed to be editing. 

There’ll be more on this in the Spoiler Zone, but you should know that Marnie really benefits from being watched twice. It’s that rare mystery trick where the first watch is enriched by the desire to understand, and the second watch is enriched by already knowing. Even if you aren’t in the habit of re-watching films, you won’t be disappointed by a second viewing here.

I adore this movie. The only real flaw — made in all innocence, I believe — is also spoiler-y to talk about, but suffice to say that it is also less of a problem on the second watch. When Marnie Was There is funny, affecting, and beautiful. The future of How Do You Live seems uncertain; if Marnie does turn out to be the last Ghibli film, it would make a fine end for the storied studio. 

Up Next: Funny thing — there’s nothing next! At least, as of February 5, 2020, When Marnie Was There is the last movie published by Studio Ghibli. A few years ago, Miyazaki announced that he was un-retiring to direct a new film, How Do You Live; however, the projected release has been continually pushed back, and in a recent interview, Miyazaki stated that the movie was only about 15% finished after years of work. 

Barring new Ghibli movies, I’ll likely review some other highly acclaimed anime features — I’ve heard good things about Millennium Actress and Wolf Children. I considered reviewing Ocean Waves, a technically-Studio-Ghibli movie made for TV in the 90s, but I watched it and … it wasn’t great. I didn’t want to end my Ghibli reviews on a down note, so I decided against it. (The short version is that it’s an enemies-to-lovers story that spends 99% of the movie on the “enemies” part.) 

For now, I’ll just say thank you for reading. This has been a fun, educational, and fulfilling project for me, and the fact that any of these posts have been liked or shared has been a pleasant surprise. Watch out for one last Spoiler Zone after the image!

SPOILER ZONE

Ok, so, my biggest issue with When Marnie Was There is that, before you know that Marnie is Anna’s grandma’s ghost, the way their interactions are written and animated gives off biiiiiiiiiiiiiig lesbian vibes. The way they talk, when Marnie shows Anna how to row the boat, the dancing, the repeated pleas to keep their relationship a secret, the femme/butch pairing, the blushing .... let’s just say I have several notes from my first watch along the lines of “wow Anna has big Oblivious Lesbian energy” and “surprised to see something this progressive from Studio Ghibli way back in 2014.” 

Naturally, I retroactively felt super gross about all that once it clicked that it was a different relationship entirely. Like I said above, this is ameliorated when watching the second time. It’s easier to see how one could interpret it all differently — Anna’s not interested in Marnie romantically, she just literally has never had a friend before and is very overwhelmed by the whole thing. Likewise, Marnie is simply sad to see how withdrawn her granddaughter is and determined to bring her out of her shell.

But yeah, someone really needed to look at the storyboards for this movie and tell Studio Ghibli to tone down the blushing, because in 2020 (and I can’t imagine it came across too differently back in 2014) it reads as a very clearly telegraphed gay romance, and the ick factor when Marnie’s identity is revealed detracts from what is otherwise an extremely sweet, sad, and beautiful story.

Stray Notes:

well it’s been 5 minutes and I’m tearing up at this mom worrying about Anna so much

That title text is … bad

that exploding pumpkin bag shot 👍👍

“He’s a bear” lol

“A witch? Takes one to know one” SOLID BURN DAWG

“Extreme Introvert Gets Adopted by a Series a Extreme Extroverts”

WOW SAD

Aw it’s the first good Ghibli credits song, just in time for their last movie

wait, Hiromasa Yonebayashi was only 36 when he directed Arrietty?? 

[letterboxd]

How I Letterboxd #7: Cinemonster.

Hooptober’s head honcho opens up to Jack Moulton about his love for Texas-born horror director Tobe Hooper, the joys of running Letterboxd’s most beloved Hallowe’en community challenge, and the “terrifying, magical” experience of seeing Frankenstein at the age of four.

“You can’t spell October without Tobe.” —Cinemonster

Cinemonster, known to his family and friends as David Hood, is a restaurateur in Pittsburgh by day, and the head honcho of Hooptober by night. Now in its seventh year, the horror film challenge sees participants set their own 31-day viewing agenda of 31 films, curated according to a list of criteria set by its creator.

‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ (1974), directed by Tobe Hooper.

With over 5,000 films logged on Letterboxd and a growing collection of posters, DVDs, Blu-rays, laser discs and film memorabilia, Cinemonster is a literal monster of cinema. He has created more than 500 lists, including a ton of year, director, actor, actress, franchise and memoriam lists.

What brought you to Letterboxd? I found Letterboxd while I was doing a Google search for a horror film that I had forgotten the name of. I ran into a list that Hollie Horror had made and wound up starting a profile and it went from there. That would have been a little over seven years ago.

How freakin’ cool is last year’s Hallowe’en Easter egg with the dripping blood from our logo? [Pro members get this added to their pages by mentioning #horror in their bio.] I’m a fan.

Unfortunately I haven’t heard of a single one of your four profile favorites! What’s urging you to highlight these films? They are just lesser-seen and have something good or great about them. Eyeball is a great little underseen Umberto Lenzi film. Death Machines is an awkward, weird and wonderful film with kung fu and blood. Massacre at Central High is one of my favorite films and sadly lacking a disc release of any kind—anyone who has seen Heathers will recognize a couple of things if they watch it. Rituals is a criminally underseen stalked in the woods film from the ’70s.

In this this list description, you explain how the original Frankenstein (1931) hooked you into horror at four years old. Can you describe what you most remember about that life-changing experience? It was both magical and terrifying. The space, the creature, the little girl. I had trouble sleeping for weeks afterwards. No matter where I am in the world, if there is a screening of Frank, I’ll go. I watched most of the major universals by the time I was six or seven. I saw Alien and Jaws 2 with my folks and those stuck with me. Cable and a local UHF station showing Hammer films on Saturdays are what really allowed me to get sucked in.

‘Frankenstein’ (1931), directed by James Whale.

The horror films of 1980 and 1981 were the most impactful and are the ones that mean the most to me to this day; Fade to Black, Night School, Motel Hell, The Fog, Alligator, Altered States, Terror Train, Death Ship, Scanners, An American Werewolf in London, The Howling, The Funhouse, Dead & Buried, Hell Night, Wolfen, Ghost Story, The Pit and Evilspeak. I saw all of them five to ten-plus times on cable as a kid. They’re still all high on my list. I am glad that Fade to Black is on Shudder. People need to watch it. More relevant now than then.

What exactly provoked you to start Hooptober seven years ago? I moved into an old spooky house and had a backlog of Blu-rays to watch and the 4K of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was about to come out. I’d done some interactive stuff on Letterboxd previously and had a decent amount of people involved. I was also at a point in my life where 31 films in 31 days is tough, as it is for a lot of us now. So I thought ‘Why don’t I do something that starts a little early, clears some of my list out, and has some parameters that don’t feel like I am handing out an assignment?’ I grew up in Texas, Tobe [Hooper] is close to my heart, and with all the Hooper I owned and the 4K coming out, I decided to christen it with his name. You can’t spell October without Tobe.

What’s the most members that have participated in a Hooptober? The number of people who participated was a little more than I expected, but that wasn’t what I was surprised by. I never thought of it as a recurring event until I started to hear from people the following summer about ‘the next one’. I just kinda chuckled after about a dozen people had asked and I said out loud to no one, “I guess I’m doing another one of these”. We are well over 700 this year, and still climbing.

‘Fade to Black’ (1980), directed by Vernon Zimmerman.

Where do you get the ideas for the rules for films to consider watching? At this point, I look back at past years so that I don’t repeat myself. I look to the current year for inspiration. Is there a film from a sub-genre that was prominent? Was it a strong year for output from women, Mexico, Asia, Black filmmakers, something cultural, and so on? I may focus on effects creators, an actor or writer on a whim. I try to keep an eye out for blind spots I haven’t covered. Shudder, archive.org, the big streamers are all resources. Sadly, rarefilmm no longer exists.

In last year’s interview with Merry-Go-Round magazine, you mentioned plans to turn Hooptober into a film festival. How’s that going? In a post-pandemic world, how can we keep independent niche film festivals thriving? The world has not been agreeable, obviously. I’m not even sure how viable something like that will be next year. I’ve been taking a look at streaming options. Post-pandemic will require more creativity and outside-the-box thinking, and will probably continue to feed some drive-ins. Been a while since more than a handful of people wanted to put money into a drive-in, which is nice to see.

I’m going to do a tweet along to The Witch Who Came From the Sea in October, and I’ll give you an exclusive here: The George Romero Foundation and I are doing online Horror Trivia on October 11. I had been doing it live with them here in Pittsburgh until the pandemic.

Based on this year’s rules and conditions, if there was one essential you-can’t-miss film you could force all your participants to add to their challenge, which film would it be? Demons, Eve’s Bayou or The Witch Who Came From the Sea.

‘The Witch Who Came from the Sea’ (1976), directed by Matt Cimber.

What have been your own greatest film discoveries through your Hooptober adventures? A Tale of Two Sisters, I Drink Your Blood, Blood Diner, and though it is a bit of a cheat to list this one, The Amusement Park. It’s cheating because it didn’t exist as something that I or anyone else could have watched, prior to when I saw it.

Do you have any acclaimed horror movies still lingering in your list of shame? Eyes Without a Face, Upgrade, Cure and Scream 4.

Have you ever completed one of your own Hooptober challenges yet? Errrrrrrrrr, one. I’m on track this year.

What about the participants over the years—any Letterboxd friends you’ve made who would you like to give a shout-out to? Aaron, Sarah Jane and Chris Duck are people that I talk to outside of Letterboxd. There have been a few others over the years. Slappy McGee has helped me with Hooptober the last two years. They are great. Javo and David Lawrence are pretty great, too.

Before Hooptober, many of your lists invited discussion with your followers. In what ways is Letterboxd the ideal forum to foster a community of film fans? Fans exercise their fandom in so many ways. The platform is so flexible that it allows you to utilize it in a small and personal way, in a promotional way, or to dive into the community pool and see who’s out there that shares something with you or can show you something. The more people that we are exposed to and listen to, we are all the better for.

Which of your review—from any genre—are you proudest of? The Invisible Man or The Hustler, probably. I have a capsule of Hud that I like.

So, you’re the horror guy. Nobody is denying that. You are Cinemonster, after all. But when I look at your top movies list and see that Singin’ in the Rain is your all-time number one, I’ll need you to explain yourself. I go back and forth between that and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. They are 1A and 1B in some order. Singin’ in the Rain is a perfect film and the studio system at its best. I will ignore your implied insult. ;)

‘Fear of a Black Hat’ (1993), directed by Rusty Cundieff.

It’s true, even a horror aficionado needs some levity in their life. What other comedies pick you up from a dark place? Fear of a Black Hat always does the trick. Same with The Awful Truth, Murder by Death, Hollywood Shuffle, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Blazing Saddles, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Black Dynamite.

Who has been keeping you company during this tough year? I have watched thirteen Spike Lee films so far this year. I’ve taken a break the last few months, but I’ll probably knock out five or six more. With the exception of 25th Hour, everything is a revisit. It’s been a joy to go back through everything. Crooklyn is much stronger than I remembered, and Bamboozled just gets better and more impactful as time passes. I have loved Spike since the day I saw School Daze. His films have always connected with things that are important to me and to those that have been around me. Lee is still grossly under-appreciated as a narrative film director and a documentarian.

We’re bowing down to your epic Blu-ray and DVD collection. Which ones are your most prized possessions? Make us jealous. I have an Anchor Bay DVD of Dawn of the Dead signed by the cast and George A. Romero, a steelbook of Battle Royale, the first Slumber Party Massacre set before they had to reprint the box, the original Star Wars trilogy on Blu. I’m sure there are things I’m not thinking of. I have a lot of out-of-print and laser-only stuff. I’ll never get rid of my Holy Grail, Ghostbusters and Akira Criterion laser discs.

A selection of Cinemonster’s signed memorabilia.

I have a copy of Painting with Light signed by John Alton, John Waters and Steven Soderbergh I’ll send you a picture of. I used to collect movie posters, and I have the original Revenge of the Jedi one-sheet and the Drew Struzan Squirm poster. I do love those.

From your top directors list, let’s put one horror director on a pedestal. Who does the genre better than anyone else and why? George. They’re always topical, intelligent, thoughtful, personal and sometimes prescient. At their best they hold up both a mirror and a crystal ball. He was writing found-footage scripts in the early 70s, for god’s sake. Tobe is grossly under-appreciated. James Whale and Mario Bava could scare you in so many ways.

So, thinking beyond Ari Aster, Robert Eggers and Jordan Peele, which up-and-coming horror directors are you most excited about? Issa López, Gigi Saúl Guerrero, Benson and Moorhead, Shinichiro Ueda, Na Hong-jin, Julia Ducournau, Nia DaCosta, Jeremy Gardner and Leigh Whannell.

The 2010s were a great decade for horror. We have more money on-screen, moving away from the low-budget films of the 2000s. Which favorite horror film of the last decade inspired you the most? Get Out. What Jordan did for generations to come is unmatched in this century.

Chucky from ‘Child’s Play’ (1988).

Which probably-too-long horror franchise gets too much flak and is top-to-bottom a great time? Child’s Play. Chucky has always been treated generally as second tier. [That franchise] has tried a lot of interesting and out-there things during its lifespan that had no business working, but did.

I know it’s been a slow year but you haven’t logged many 2020 movies yet! Which is your most anticipated horror movie of 2020 or 2021? Peninsula, for sure; I love Train to Busan. Then Candyman, The Dark and the Wicked, Grizzly II: Revenge, Bad Hair, #Alive, After Midnight, The Platform, Bulbbul, Underwater, Shirley and Swallow.

Interview by Jack Moulton. Follow Jack on Letterboxd.

[wlw-imagines-blog]

I Can Say it Without Words | (Peggy Carter x Fem!Reader)

Pairing: Peggy Carter x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Major Character loss, and smut, i guess

Word Count: 2k

Summary: I can make you feel good.

Anon: Hello sweetie!!! I just loooove your blog so much and your writing it’s so pretty!!! But I noticed there’s no Peggy in here :( so I’d like to request the smutish write you can post, my queer ass (I’m still figuring out if I’m Bi or Pan, so let’s say queer/not straight ass) will love you forever!!! Maybe a secret relationship between Reader and Peggy, Peg being sad bc she lost Steve and reader comforting her leading to smut and fluff and love… Pleaseeeeeeeee

A/N: Ask and you shall receive. 

***

Whenever Peggy Carter walked into S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters, the whole room seemed to hold its breath. The women at the switchboards seemed to stop and watch in awe as she sauntered by, skirt skimming their chairs, hat tipped low to cover her eyes. The male agents, looking up from their files and typewriters to cast scornful glances at her, hoping to tear her down with curled lips and narrowed eyes. They were foolish to think so.

When Agent Carter stepped into the office, you felt your heart press into your ribs, creating this nervous, wonderful pressure. Your hands became fidgety; brushing at the hair around your ears, shuffling papers, twisting your fountain pen.

Every woman that worked in the office shared a feeling of pride at how she was unapologetic, combative, even, towards nitwits like Agent Thompson and Agent Dooley. 

As she strolled into the office, head up, shoulders back, you felt a warmth prickle the back of your neck. She wore a dark, navy blue ensemble with a shockingly pink hat, the one you remember being on her desk, the day you were hired to work at S.H.I.E.L.D. 

It had been a cold October evening when Agent Carter interviewed you. Rain was splattering against the windows of her office as she reviewed your resume and criminal record check. The warm lights of the room coaxed you into a strange sense of comfort. You remembered the tight feeling in your stomach, and the sweat on your palms and brow. On her desk was the fucshia hat and plenty of files and paper, all scattered yet organized. What attracted your attention was the only picture frame on her desk. It held the image of a young, sickly blond man, wearing a white t-shirt and dog tags. His resemblance to Captain America was stunning, but, that man was far too small and skinny to be him.

“I’m going to be perfectly honest, Miss. Y/L/N, your resume and letter of recommendation is flawless,” she had said, interrupting your thoughts. “But you have yet to give me a reason as to why you want to join S.H.I.E.L.D. “

Agent Carter’s hair curled perfectly over her shoulder, the dark brown contrasted the cream of her blouse perfectly. Her chocolate eyes bore into you, like she already had you figured out.

You straightened your back. “Agent Carter. All my life, people have told me I did not have the aptitude to become a government agent. I was never smart enough, never strong enough. never man enough.” You resisted the urge to sneer at the word. “Part of me wants to prove myself to the nay-sayers. Another part wants to be a piece of something bigger that just me. But, all of me wants to make a difference, even if its a small one.”

You thought you saw the ghost of a smile on her red lips. Agent Carter stood, smoothing her navy skirt. You stood too, and accepted the hand shake she offered. 

“Miss. Y/L/N, I expect you here at seven a.m, sharp, ready for your training,” Agent Carter’s eyes glinted, clearly excited at your prospects. “Don’t be late.”

As December began, you were still in the preliminary stages of training under Agent Carter’s watchful eye; learning how to operate different firearms, mastering the art of safe-cracking, and properly educating yourself on espionage. 

You adjusted the lapels of your blazer, watching Agent Carter approach you.

“Agent Y/L/N,” She greeted. “Down to the basement, I want to see if you’re still sharp with your gun. Go on ahead, I need to clock in.” 

You nodded before leaning in. “I’d watch out, ma’am, Thompson’s on a rampage this morning; he heard about the promotion Dooley’s planning on giving you.”

Her lips twisted, as though she was fighting back a smile. “Thank you for the heads up, Y/N, I’ll keep my eyes out.”

You grinned and made your way to the practice room, artfully dodging Agent Thompson, who’s nostrils were flared and face was red.

***

“You’re getting better, y/n,” Agent Carter scribbled something down onto a clipboard. “There’s a definite improvement in accuracy. But if your hold it like this-”

She wrapped an arm around you, hand gripping yours. “Keeping your arms steady. Don’t close one eye.”

Peggy’s voice was like honey in your ears, breath hot against your neck. You fought to keep composure. The room was spinning, but you managed to keep your hand steady on the trigger, pointed at the target on the other side of the room.

Her hand rested on your nip, and you could feel the heat radiate through your slacks.

“There,” Agent Carter murmured. “Pull it.”

You pulled the trigger, and shots rang out in the cement room. 

The breathe you were holding escaped in a heavy sigh that you were certain Agent Carter heard.

“Agent Carter?” Dooley’s voice shook the two of you out of your stupor. “I want to talk to you. In my office, now.”

“Thank you, Agent Carter,” you said, unable to look at her.

“Please,” she did not remove her hand from yours. “Call me Peggy.”

You nodded, throat suddenly too tight to speak. Her eyes seemed to say a million things 

Then she was gone.

When you pulled on your jacket to leave for the night, all but one office was dark and empty. Agent Carter was still in her office, sitting behind her desk, cradling the picture frame of the blond man.

“Well,” you murmured. “This isn’t how I expected you to celebrate your big promotion.”

She smiled, still looking down. “How did you expect it?”

“I don’t know; a little gloating, a lot of drinking,” You shrugged. “Maybe some debauchery disguised in the form of dancing.”

She laughed, warm and deep, but incredibly weak. “I’m afraid I don’t dance. Not anymore.”

Her finger traced the glass of the picture, and you nodded. She was not going to open up if your pushed it.

You cleared your throat. “Peggy, I’m planning on going out tonight. Perhaps we can celebrate together? Maybe buy a few drinks and talk?” You probed gently. If she interpreted this as a date, you were either screwed, or getting screwed. 

She finally looked up, and you noticed hoe red and watery her eyes were. Peggy managed to smile. “Are you asking me on a date, Y/N?”

“Maybe,” You leaned against the door frame. “Only if you want me to.”

Peggy seemed to think over her options, she was almost unreadable. “Where do you have in mind?” 

You grinned, offering your hand. I know a place, if you’re ready to party.”

***

“Come on, honey”, you giggled, pulling Peggy along. “This will help you forget about everything.”

Mona’s was a quiet-looking building of red brick with iron bars on blacked out windows. There was a tall, stocky butch out front, hair cropped and gelled back, wearing a striped button down and slacks. She took the cigarette from behind her ear and in one fluid motion, lit it and took a deep drag. It dangled between her lips. 

“Hey, Bonnie,” You grinned at the woman. 

She offered you a coy smile. “Long time no see, Y/N. Who’s this?”

You wrapped an arm around Peggy. “She’s my guest, Bon. Is it alright that she comes in tonight?”

Bonnie sized her up, and Peggy did not back down. She looked Bonnie in the eye, chin raised. You were caught off guard when Peggy winked at her. 

The corner of Bonnie’s mouth raised. “Yeah, she’s good. Come on in.” 

You opened the door, revealing a landing, and two staircases; one that led to upstairs apartments, and one that led to the basement. As the door closed, you faced Peggy in the cramped area. 

“Peggy, I’m sure you’re aware of what kind of pub this is.”

“Honestly, I’m a touch surprised, Y/N.”

You faltered. “Peggy, this is... it’s a-”

“A lesbian bar?” she asked kindly. “I’m alright with it, Y/N. In fact, I’m more alright with it that you would believe.”

“What?”

“You might find this hard to believe, but I’m quite familiar with Mona’s,” She studied her nails, feigning disinterest. “I’m what you might call a frequent patron.”

This information slapped you in the face. Staying silent, you worked through the information as Peggy continued to speak. 

“Y/N, I’m trusting you with this information. No one at S.H.I.E.L.D. can ever find out about the both of us, okay?” 

You snapped out of your daze. “Of course! I’m not a ditz. I know a thing or two about secrecy.”

“Good,” that easy smile returned to her face. “If you’d like, Y/N, we can still have a few drinks.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course. I still want to celebrate my promotion.”

You grinned, “Lead the way, mademoiselle.”

The bar was a touch dingy, not bringing in enough funds to keep it completely spotless and well lit, but you found a table for yourself and Peggy. You called out to the bartender to send a bottle of the finest champagne. The pub was moderately crowded with other women all chatting and drinking, paying you no mind. The two of you listened to the jazz from the gramophone, drinking and laughing about the goons at the office. 

“It’s infuriating!” Peggy laughed, wiping tears from her eyes. “Thompson wants to be a secretary, not an agent! It felt so good when Dooley gave me the promotion.”

You snickered, champagne sloshing onto the table. “I’ve never seen him so angry.” The bottle was empty, and the clock read one in the morning. “It’s getting late, Peg, I’ve gotta get going. Walk me home?”

The two of you took a cab back to your apartment, and Peggy walked you to the door.

You played with the buttons of her jacket. She swallowed audibly. “So, are you going to invite me in or not?”

The two of you barely made it to the bedroom.

Your lips bumped against Peggy’s neck before latching onto her jaw. You stumbled, pressing her against the bedroom door. 

“All you have to say is yes,” You said softly into her skin. “That’s all I need, Peggy.”

She groaned as your lips stayed so tantalizingly far from her mouth. “Fuck me, Y/N, yes.”

Driven by lust, you pressed your lips to hers, letting Peggy open her mouth at her own pace, coaxing your tongue into her mouth. Her hands roamed down your chest, sliding over your breasts until they found your belt. 

Peggy pulled away, dragging you closer to the bed by the buckle. You were surprised at how breathless you were, panting as she began to unbutton your shirt. You shed it and your trousers quickly, helping her out of her skirt and blouse, sucking a dark hickey onto her collar bone.

She stood there in her lacy, black panties, gasping when your fingers brushed against her breasts.

A hand gripped the back of your head, keeping you in place, tongue lapping at her chest. 

“Fuck,” Peggy groaned. You slipped your hands down her thighs, pressing against the soft flesh of her ass. “Bed. Now.”

You fell on top of her, straddling her waist. Lips brushing against hers, delicate, then rough and filthy. Your hand slowly traveled down Peggy’s chest and navel, resting on her hip. You played with the hem of her panties.

“You’re so beautiful,” Your voice was barely above a whisper. Peggy’s hand gripped your wrist, guiding it beneath her under garment, pulling them off.

As you pressed against her, she let out a shaking gasp. Every movement created a reaction; sometimes quiet, delicious mews, other times they were loud, pleasured moans. 

Your hands never left Peggy, pushing in and out of her tight heat, hooking your fingers to brush against her G spot. When you pulled away, she let out a disappointed noise. 

You replaced your hand with your thigh. You sighed as Peggy shifted her hips, dragging herself over the skin of your thigh, warm and wet. She moved faster and faster, her moans becoming higher and higher.

“Fuck,” she hissed, teeth clenched, arms thrown around your neck. Peggy cried out, falling into pleasure, back arching into you. You collapsed onto her, breathless.

She pressed a messy kiss your forehead before pulling the sheets over the both of you. You wrapped an arm around her waist, resting your head on her shoulder.

“Goodnight, Peg,” you murmured sleepily, nuzzling closer.

She ran a hand through your hair. “Goodnight, love.”

***

A/N: This is long as heck.

[solomontoaster]

Top 5 pieces of gay lit!

I feel like this is for something I reblogged a while ago, and I either forgot about this ask or just didn’t get the notif. 

But hmmm this is a hard one. I’m going to keep this to fiction, because my opinions on nonfiction would never let me narrow it down to five. 

1. A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood

Don’t be discouraged if you’ve seen the movie and hated the self loathing suicidal gay man dies at the end story. The actual book is vastly superior to the movie. The protagonist is the exact opposite of suicidal, he is grieving his partner, yes, but the whole point of the book is that he is happy to be alive and has a good life. The book is humorous and a joy to read. The protag dies at the end yes, quietly in his sleep, but it’s hardly the Great Tragedy the movie makes it out to be and it should be remembered it was published in 1964. It made a huge impact for it’s positive portrayal of a gay man and has stood up well to the test of time. This is fairly easy to find in any bookstore with a dedicated gay section or online.

2. The Case of the Not-So-Nice-Nurse by Mabel Maney

A rollicking lesbian pulp fiction parody of the Nancy Drew and Cherry Aims books, featuring Nancy Clue and Cherry Aimless. There are three books total (the above, The Case of the Good-For-Nothing-Girlfriend and A Ghost in the Closet), the last also parodies the Hardy Boys books. They’re just a world of fun. These are also fairly easy to find in bookstores and online.

3. Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg 

This dips into gender things too, but there’s a lot of overlap. It’s an iconic book and is a really beautiful look at how gender and sexuality were conceptualized during that time period. I can’t say it’s for everyone, however, there are several not insignificant instances of sexual assault. But if that’s something you feel you can handle I would highly recommend this book. It can be found free to download here.

4. People in Trouble by Sarah Schulman 

This is the book Jonathan Larson ripped off to write Rent. It is very easy to recognized the plot points he lifted. In the book, the main character is a married woman who comes to realize she is attracted to women, it’s not made clear if she’s bi or a lesbian, and it deals much more in the real actuality of HIV/AIDS and the activist response to it. It can be difficult to get your hands on, but check your local library and used bookstores. At the moment, the book appears to be selling fairly cheaply on Amazon, but when I first went looking it was running 40-100 dollars. 

5. The Valhalla Trilogy by Ari Bach

This is the most recently published of my recommendations. This is a great example of genre fiction where the protagonist just happens to be a lesbian. It’s a very gory series and very plot driven, but the protagonist’s sexuality is still important and she and her love interest are not the only queer characters in the books. It’s not exactly a happy story, as I said it’s very gory, post apocalyptic in the later books and just about every single person is dead by the end. I wrote a full review of the series, complete with spoilers and warnings here. 

[heyheyitsstillgay]

I'm literally begging you to spill the tea on b*tch h*rtman why does everyone hate him

Me?? You're leaving this responsibility to Me?? Oof.

Aight.

Season 3 bad

Butch is very much an ideas person. After Steve Marmel left the show just went downhill. There was one writer that wanted it to go the grey ghost angle and another who wanted amethyst ocean and it just didn't work and then it got cancelled so the end relationship was so rushed it was terrible.

Changed the lore of his show half way through

So this is mostly Nick's fault, they thought the show being about ghosts was too gritty and they agreed to change it from being about real dead people who were once alive to monsters from another dimension. This is the change that Steve marmel was fired over iirc. Now we have ghost tornados. You can't just change lore like that half way through. Some people think that because he was born again midway through dp that he wanted this change to the lore so the dp universe wouldn't go against the bible's teachings. We don't know that for sure though.

Like JK Rowling returning with needless headcanons except they're not even an attempt at rep it's just "Jazz replaced her life and ambitions with being a lonely woman in a chair, while Maddie becomes a ghost pimp and Jack replaced half his body with robotics."

Remember how he destroyed Vlads character in PP? He still does it. It's like he doesn't remember his own show. In a 10 years later video, Jazz is completely out of character and the family is just okay with Maddie walking around with ghost slaves on leashes. The Fentons are genius' in their own right. And he's reduced them to Danny's sidekicks.

Doesn't appreciate his employees

See these quote tweets when fop was given a reboot he toasted to himself and God while surrounded by the artists that massively helped him to make the show.

Voted trump

He apparently regrets it but still follows trumps family and a collection of far right people

Transphobic

In 107 facts about Danny Phantom fact 94 at 17:00 sticks out like a sore thumb. At the time, trans Danny theories were making the rounds on Tumblr. He'd already denied it was true. A lot of the theories draw Danny in his swimwear because his vest looks a lot like a full length binder and he's the only guy at the pool not showing his chest. The fact states he's said before that it's because of sunburns. It was in an audio interview a while ago where the interviewer suggested that that could be the reason and he decided it was canon then and there. It wasn't true while the show was being made. It's a question of if it's a coincidence that this video was released around peak trans Danny theory time.

There's also this screenshot of a deleted tweet that he never apologised for.

And the episode of fop with reversed gender roles treats men doing traditionally feminine things as a big joke.

Evoked ship wars that made fandom a space for arguements and anger

To summarise, he had a blog platform where people would post art. Most ship stuff was amethyst ocean and then p*mpus p*p existed, he scolded people not because it's an underage ship but because it made him look bad. People responded saying he was just homophobic. It split the phandom in half.

This shows recounts of the war

And this is a summary

Oaxis scam

Oaxis was a family friendly streaming service that he started a Kickstarter for. Here's a good post that went around at the time that talks about it. In the end he surpassed his goal last minute thanks to thousands of dollars donated suddenly by Christians and Churches.

People who didn't realise what they invested in were unable to get their money back and are still waiting for their promised cameos in original shows according to high tier rewards.

The 'family friendly network' (that was all the info given) was actually going to be a Christian streaming service combining Netflix and YouTube. You can upload your own content or stream original content. If the content you upload isn't Christian Approved(tm) then real people would take down the video.

Here's a video of when he went around speaking to churches and actually explaining his thoughts and goals with Oaxis. Hes also disrespectful of mental illness in this video, claiming that violent media is to blame.

Big headed

He's just so full of himself, I watched 1 of his shows, that wasn't my whole childhood. Most animators draw themselves jokingly and then he is very flattering towards himself. He changed his name from Elmer to Butch I mean what more do you need. He thinks God put him on Earth to spread the Lords message via his media following.

He made some of those racist Ugandan knuckles memes

He did edit a video of people doing a racist Ugandan impression, I can't find it I think he deleted it without an apology. I did find this though.

He steals tweets from people

A dp meme page he follows

This even has the exact same tv photo

Then this was followed by this

Refuses to take criticism

He thinks that people call him out because they're trying to take him down.

He only accepts critique from people who have similar accomplishments to himself

'Jokingly' blamed Tara Strong for her best friends suicide

Tara was friends with Mary who previously voiced Timmy Turner, here Elmer says that Mary killed herself because Tara replaced her.

Supports the idea that autism can be cured

He and his wife held a seminar with a collection of people who had mental or physical illnesses that they believed were cured by God. One of them was someone who apparently used to be autistic but is all better now thanks to the Lord. Stuff like this supports the idea that autism is awful and needs to be cured, this is harmful to autistic people.

Doesn't pay his artists and uses friendship to get cheap labour

KurotheArtist collaborated with butch for a while, animating some of his videos and providing ideas and helping with scripts for ones like the draw my life story. Butch is in breach of contract and owes Kuro $1400 for his work on the ImagiNathan project that was later cancelled. Kuro made a video about this which also mentions the whole "curing autism with prayer" as his reason for finally talking about it publicly.

Was caught tracing someone else's art for a $200 commission

His commissions are a minimum of $100. Which is a lot, most of its just for the price of his signature at the bottom tbh. It's $200 for full colour. This video came out, overlaying a picture of the character he was payed to draw over the commission image. Even using an image reference, it lines up far too well.

[lightlyscathing]

SOMETHING IS UP WITH BUTCH HARTMAN...

...And it might not be what you think it is.

(VERY long post/sort of essay, a lot more beneath the cut.)

TLDR: Butch is not the devil, he is flawed, and there’s almost certainly someone else behind a lot of what’s happening right now.

I’d like to start this off with saying that even though this blog is Pretty Empty and doesn’t have any other content from Butch Hartman’s shows (Danny Phantom, Fairly Odd Parents, etc.) on it, I watched his work as a kid and loved it. I’ve been a fan of Danny Phantom for years, and I’ve seen a lot of Butch hate.

Today I’d like to offer you another perspective on what might be happening with Butch, and why we should, I don’t know. Maybe lay off on the hate just a little...? He is by no means a perfect person, and has made mistakes, but the same can be said of any person.

After a friend of mine (@sarasanddollar) mentioned having mixed feelings about recent events (specifically, the OAXIS controversy), we had a conversation about it. She was coming from the perspective of someone who has defended Butch in the past, and I asked her about that as someone who has disliked Butch for a long time. I was curious to see what she had to say.

She made several good points, which I will summarize. You can also view the most important snippets of that conversation HERE.

One of the reasons many Danny Phantom fans (or Phans) dislike Butch so intensely is because of the terrible writing and overall execution of Season 3 of the show, especially the finale (Phantom Planet). 

Many Phans attribute this directly to Butch himself. And it’s true that he had a much heavier hand in Season 3 than the first two seasons! But he’s not the only one at fault here. As far as either of us could see, Nickelodeon basically axed his show (as they have with many shows), leaving Butch without most of his skilled team while creating the third season.

Butch is by no means the BEST creator or writer out there. His greatest skill seems to be in coming up with creative pitches for shows, and the execution of these ideas is best left to a team who knows what they’re doing. But that’s the thing: Butch had a team. Can you imagine suddenly losing the team you’re working with and trying to handle an entire animated show almost entirely on your own? No wonder it was a mess, that sounds terrifying.

Many people believe that Butch is anti-LGBT, and most of those people frame it as an intentional thing. That honestly seems unlikely, though.

Butch’s work has many scenes or even entire episodes that have sexist undertones or demonstrate a lot of toxic masculinity. Often, this is even the joke in and of itself. 

This seems to be more the product of the way he himself was raised than anything else, though. As far as either of us are aware, he’s never outright said anything for or against the LGBT community. Honestly, he’s not LGBT, so why should he?

Butch also seems pretty ignorant or uncomfortable when it comes to things he hasn’t directly experienced for himself, leading to comments like the one he made about introversion.

Beyond that, he allegedly kicked any people posting/liking LGBT content off of his Danny Phantom forums. The thing is, back then, almost ALL slash ship content was Pompous Pep (Danny Fenton/Vlad Masters). Making no comment on my personal feelings about the ship, it should be noted that this depicts an explicit sexual relationship between a 14-year-old boy and a man in his 40s. It’s understandable that Butch wouldn’t want explicit content of a pedophilic slash ship being associated with his show.

His way of dealing with it may have been excessive, but almost all of the LGBT content he was seeing was also pedophilia.

It’s also worth noting that almost all details about the Forum Days of the Danny Phantom fandom are now being passed around via word of mouth. Even in text form, people’s biases do change the tone of a situation.

Given recent events, many people are spreading around anything connecting Butch to religion. This deserves a closer look too, though.

Here’s something I didn’t know until Sara told me: Butch Hartman was not always a Christian. He wasn’t raised into it, “brainwashed” as a child and blindly following those values as an adult. He allegedly converted a year or two into the production of Fairly Odd Parents, well into his adult life. Before that, he was apparently an atheist. 

This man has one show about magic and another about scientists and ghosts. His shows have sexual jokes, witchcraft, violence, and all sorts of things you’d expect a super-conservative Christian to avoid. So why do we all act like he’s always BEEN that super-conservative Christian?

It may have something to do with how people tend to associate Christianity with the corrupt or incompetent white men who run a significant portion of the planet. The exact reasons are probably different from person to person.

This, of course, DOES NOT give Butch any reason to act like Christians are oppressed. He is not the “living embodiment of ‘one of these things is not like the other’” as he put it. 

That being said, it seems as if his shows are largely detached from religion (until now). They have morals, sure, but all Nickelodeon shows have lessons for kids, many of which also happen to be mentioned in some form somewhere in the Bible.

So it seems kind of fishy that Religious Values are suddenly such a huge deal for him... which leads me to the point of this entire thing.

When it comes to the OAXIS scam, we might not be the only ones who are being played.

It seems very likely that Butch Hartman himself is also being played.

Hear me out.

With the context of Giving The Children Jesus, some of the more confusing parts of the way OAXIS was pitched make more sense. But at the same time, I find it very difficult to understand how this man created so much content for children (and RAISED a child) with such a fundamental lack of understanding when it comes to how families and society work.

After thinking about it, I realized that this feels very familiar.

Someone I was once very close with had a similar experience about a year ago. For both of them, it seems to have gone something like this:

The person in question starts off not knowing/caring about a cause. At some point, they are introduced to this cause and join, but it does very little to change their work or public life. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, they have a radical change in lifestyle and behavior, while screaming an extreme or radical version of that cause’s message from the metaphorical rooftops.

For the person I used to be close with, this “cause” was Isogenix. (For more information on operations like this one, consider watching this video.) For Butch, it seems like that cause is... saving young people with religious lessons and “pure” media.

With the person I knew, this whole process started when a group of people who were already working with Isogenix befriended her and gained her trust, then told her repeatedly how good Isogenix would be for her. When she started considering it, they told her it was about self-empowerment and pursuing her true self. This kept going until they’d pushed her into dismantling her circle of friends (anyone who wasn’t working with Isogenix), and the last I’ve heard about it is that she left her husband and children to dedicate herself to “self-exploration” and being a Good Example of Isogenix’s successes.

With Butch, it seems likely that something similar is in the process of happening, though with different results. I wouldn’t be surprised if he met and befriended someone (or several people) who believe that modern mass media is corrupting the youth, and that limiting their media intake to Christian-approved content will fix a lot of the issues in modern society.

I mentioned earlier that Butch seems to have a pretty limited understanding of things outside his own little sphere (based mostly on his unintentional sexism in shows, lack of understanding of healthy male friendships/physical contact, and complete misunderstanding of the 16-50% of the world that is made up of introverts). Considering this, it seems like he’d probably buy into this mentality pretty easily, especially if these people “spoke his language”.

While I personally have a lot of resentment for the people who fall for this sort of tactic, it’s not really the victim’s fault when they become the Face or Voice of the cause. The recruiters often know exactly what they’re doing. Most of them seek out people who are lost, desperate, low on self esteem, or somewhat narcissistic. People who want to make a future for themselves, and sometimes others, usually as “their own boss.” Sound familiar?

Some people are more than one of those things. Butch, given that he recently left Nickelodeon after working there for literal decades, could understandable be a bit lost on what his next step should be. And honestly, he’s shown narcissistic tendencies in the past (have you SEEN his self-insert from Fairly Odd Parents?).

So, as easy as it is to stay mad at Butch Hartman, there’s almost certainly someone else involved... which would also explain some things about his Kickstarter.

The way these things are pitched is designed to make the “victim” believe that it’s all their own idea. THEY took control of their life to make these changes, THEY are the brave example of the Future of the industry, THEY are a self-made person. And most of all, showing other people how they can succeed by joining the organization/school of thought is THE BEST THING EVER.

Which... to me, that seems like it’s a logical reason for Butch’s Kickstarter not actually mentioning anyone else, when he insists other people are involved. Someone likely took his already self-absorbed and narcissistic tendencies and intentionally built them up to make him into the Face and Voice of this project. 

Bonus points to them: they also picked the perfect person to use.

Butch is a well-off, reasonably well-known person. He has a pretty large following that is almost exclusively made up of young adults, teenagers, and even children (a detail many people cited as the reason his Kickstarter shouldn’t have worked at all). Many of those young people grew up watching his shows and seeing his content on social media, assuming that the loyal followers we’re talking about are the several hundred thousand people following him on social media platforms. Many of them would take his word as something more important than some random person they’ve never heard of, or so the theory goes.

With this context, his line makes perfect sense:

“You trusted me with your childhood, won’t you trust me with your future?”

He probably does honestly care about what happens, and he’s not trying to maliciously brainwash children with Jesus. It’s far more likely that someone else convinced him that he’s the person perfect for saving “lost” young people, given that many of them trusted him as children. He’s obviously the best person to show them Pure and Good content, away from the “poisonous” aspects of mainstream media.

Butch Hartman isn’t a demon. He’s not evil. He’s not... Trump, or anything like that. He’s a naive man with very little actual understanding of how the world works, who believes that he’s helping. 

Which is not to say he’s perfect at all. He’s made lots of mistakes, and he’ll continue to make them. 

I just seriously doubt he’s actually the “mastermind” behind this whole operation. He’s little more than a figurehead, probably. And from how he’s acted in the past, he seems to crave the attention and trust of young people. He needs to be someone important to them.

And the worst part of all this might be that he’s not going to get out of this without a disaster. I pity the guy, as much of a mess as all of this already is.

You don’t get out of this kind of position unless it falls out from under you. And when you fully believe and trust in what you’re doing, you’re not prepared for the fall. 

You hit the ground hard.

~Ren

[krazy-holly]

Here is the second day of my 12 days of Christmas drabbles!

Day 2 (Dec 14th) Fandom: Pokemon. Prompt: Ugly Sweaters

Meowth entered the room Jessie and James were sitting quietly in, playing a game of chess intently.

“Hey guys…” Meowth announced himself and grimaced when the pair turned to look at him.

“The invitation came…” He said simply and James’ face fell while Jessie’s lit up.

“It did!?” She demanded, rushing forward and snatching the piece of paper from the pokemon’s hand.

Reading it quickly, she grinned and dashed from the room, laughing in a rather frightening manner.

James and Meowth shared a look.

“And so the hell begins…” James muttered under his breath and Meowth collapsed onto the couch beside him.

“Do ya think Buck has to worry about this too?” Meowth asked James as the human began to put the chess set away.

“Buck? I thought his name was Bush.” James stated, closing the chess box and putting it away on the shelf.

Meowth shrugged and James sighed. “Either way, I’m sure he isn’t going to suffer quite like we are about to…”

Meowth grimaced and nodded in agreement. “I suppose this means we’re gonna get dragged to the Christmas store, ain’t we?”

James grumbled. “Yeah…”

Just then Jessie popped her head into the room and grinned. “Go get Mimi and Wobbuffet. We’re going shopping~!” Jessie sang and Meowth and James sank into the couch in disappointment.

The hell had only just begun.

***

The five of them entered the Christmas store, Jessie skipping while James and Meowth were dragging their feet and rueing the day they were born.

Mimikyu seemed completely indifferent about the situation and Wobbuffet seemed equally excited as Jessie.

“We have to find the perfect one!” Jessie exclaimed, bouncing off into an isle full of the most ugly sweaters James had ever laid eyes on. Meowth was tempted to put on sunglasses due to the amount of glitter and bright blue pom poms adorning the disgustingly awful sweaters.

“Ooh, look at this one!” Jessie cried out, holding up possibly the most horrifying sweater in existence.

Meowth would much rather spend an entire day translating Mimikyu then look at that sweater for one second longer.

“You know…” Meowth began. “Why don’t you just put Mimikyu onto a sweater. Then you’d win for sure.” Meowth suggested with a grin in Mimikyu’s direction. The ghost-fairy pokemon just stared at him passively in return until Meowth got the chills and had to look away.

Jessie ignored Meowth and instead began to look at a sweater adorned with way too many pepto pink ribbons.

“How does this one look?” She turned to ask James. James shrugged. “Ugly.” He answered.

“Perfect!” She exclaimed. “Then we got one out of five done!”

Meowth and James looked up at her with surprise at this.

“Wait-what do you mean ‘one out of five’?” Meowth asked hesitantly.

“Why, I’m going to get all four of you ugly sweaters too!” She exclaimed happily and James and Meowth paled in horror.

Wobbuffet looked excited and Jessie pat him gently on the head in approval.  “Come on, i’ll get you one first.” She told her pokemon before heading off into a different section of the store.

“We gotta get outta here…” Meowth hissed, watching fearfully as Jessie picked out a bright yellow sweater covered in brown pom poms for Wobbuffet.

James nodded in agreement. “Let’s go!”

The pair began to rush for the doors when suddenly Jessie was there, blocking their way, a grin on her lips.

“Not leaving, I hope.” She smirked at the pair before looking down at Mimikyu and cooing gently at him. “I bet we can find a perfect ugly sweater for you to wear over your pikachu costume!” She exclaimed and picked him up gently before heading off. Of course, not before sending a warning glare that promised death if James and Meowth so much as took one step out of the building.

The pair swallowed thickly before resigning to their fate and slumping onto a bench.

“We’re doomed.” James moaned.

Meowth simply grumbled under his breath.

***

(Three hours later)

“You guys look perfect!” Jessie beamed at her team as they stood there looking like pouty toddlers as they let her smooth out their sweaters and gaze at them in approval.

“I hate this…” Meowth growled. James nodded in agreement.

“Alright. I think we’re done here!” Jessie exclaimed, heading to the cash register much to Meowth and James’ relief.

“Finally!”

They paid for the way too expensive ugly sweaters and headed home. Just in time too, because they had to head out almost immediately afterwards if they wanted to make it to the party in time.

***

The five of them entered Giovanni's giant building to be greeted by loud music and a large crowd of other team rocket members mulling about, eating and dancing.

Jessie instantly scanned the crowd before her eyes settled upon her subject of loathing hatred.

Cassidy.

James and Meowth tried to back away from the pair as they stomped up to each other but Jessie tugged them back.

“Cassidy.” Jessie spat.

“Jessica.” Cassidy grinned. “Looking good, I see.” She gestured to Jessie’s sweater.

“Touchee.” Jessie gazed at Cassidy’s equally ugly sweater.

Then, in a rare moment of friendliness, the pair shook hands. “May the worst sweater win.” Jessie nodded to Cassidy before turning on her heel and walking away, dragging James and Meowth alongside her.

Meowth and James quickly made their way to the buffet table, ready to stuff themselves with food. Meowth growled under his breath as he scratched at his arm. He hated this stupid itchy sweater Jess was forcing him to wear, and from James’ uncomfortable look, as did he. But both did not wish to feel the full force of the wrath of Jessie...So they grinned and beared it.

Roughly a half hour had passed when the crowd went silent as a member of team rocket that James did not know went up onto the stage in the back of the building and spoke into a microphone.

“Attention all members of Team Rocket! As you know, Giovanni was oh so generous as to let host this Christmas party once more for us. And as I’m sure you all are aware, the time has come for the votes to be counted to see who's ugly sweater won this year’s ugly sweater contest!”

James heard Jessie suck in a tense breath from beside him and Meowth looked up at her, nodding in encouragement.

A moment passed and James knew that it was purposeful for added suspense.

Finally, the team rocket member spoke.

“And the winner is-”

Another unnecessary moment of suspense.

“Bush!”

A moment of silence.

“WHAT?!” Jessie and Cassidy’s outraged yells echoed through the building.

From across the room came Butch’s furious shout. “IT’S BUTCH.” A moment passed. “AND I DIDN’T EVEN WEAR A UGLY SWEATER. MY MOM MADE THIS.”

James and Meowth sweatdropped before restraining Jessie before she could cause harm to everyone in the vicinity.

They briefly wondered if they would get out of this alive…

It would most certainly be a Holiday party they would not forget...

Well, that was my second fanfic to ever post online! I hope you enjoyed it!! I had a blast writing it! Big warm thanks to my BFF for helping me proofread it and edit it: @ninjagamer25

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s fanfic!

[hotshotshitshow]

tell me about your ocs!!! i've really only heard things about them across multiple posts and tbh i haven't been able to keep them straight very well because of that. give me a rundown!!!! im beg

skdjfndskj anon are you for real right now.... is this actually happening... iM SO APPRECIATIVE THANK U you have no idea what this means to me screams!!! i am very sorry for confusion, this is supposed to be my oc blog but i dont post enough about them bc i am a very self conscious person so i know that i dont do a good job on sharing enough info ;n;i will attempt to be concise but idk who im kidding bc im sure this is going to get long so info is going under the cut !! i will.... only talk about my most significant ones just so i (hopefully) dont overwhelm you too much... but i have many more characters ksdkfndlk

sev is ... a lot ok she is very abrasive and intense and reactionary and is a very hard person to be friends with but she is an extremely anxious person and this is often how her anxiety presents itself. she is a person who very much values honesty and while she can be written off as a bully at times she honestly means well and does her best. idk there is so so much i could say about her bc i love her and identify with her so much but i will spare u.... 

riz is sev’s older sister (sev has three older sisters and riz is the third child in their family) riz is a lesbian and has a lot of trouble dealing with some pretty serious anxiety and depression throughout her life. she doesnt have a lot of great social skills and this often makes her come off as a very cold, intimidating person, but shes actually just scared shitless most of the time. she has absolutely 0 self confidence but if you do manage to befriend her, you’ll see that shes an incredibly funny person  (that is if you enjoy toilet humor... she lives for gross humor) that being said, absolutely nothing grosses her out.

basira is the second child in sev’s family. she is basically like everything that i aspire to be... she’s definitely got her shit together ok. she is a very proud person who can sometimes come off as a bit self absorbed but ultimately she loves you and probably wants to be your friend!! her job involves working in a hospice-like setting in which she can help her clients prepare themselves for death and process whatever they need to process. however, she is a psychopomp, and this means that she is able to meet her clients in the spirit world once they die to help ease the process of crossing over and help them not be so afraid. she is a half-ghost polyamorous trans woman who wants to help you through one of the scariest and most uncertain times you will inevitably face at some point.

this is jed.. he is part of the same universe as sev and her family but has a completely different story that doesnt really overlap with theirs at all (this is a pretty pervasive thing for all my characters actually, they are all technically part of the same universe but often stories don’t overlap much) he is a bisexual trans man who is your friendly neighborhood obsessive paranormal geek. he takes lots of things, including himself, Way Too Seriously and doesnt really understand when he’s being made fun of but honestly he doesnt really care. he is a nomadic person who is constantly trying to prove that supernatural entities exist, but has probably never actually had a real paranormal experience. he has a small paranormal team, one of which is sev’s eldest sister vin that i have not mentioned here, minerva who belongs to @thedeadgiraffe​, and buck.

buck is a 16-ish year old kid who grew up in rural oregon and is just trying to figure shit out. he is easily stressed out and is a fairly reactionary person but hes honestly just really unsure of himself and scared a lot of the time. he has such a sweet, gentle heart, but is afraid of exposing it for a lot of reasons. he has as weird thing where when his emotions become really intense, it begins to effect the weather in the area around him. he is very not fond of this. 

maude is satan in my character’s universe. she is more concerned with making sure that justice is served rather than being an evil person that just goes around doing mean things for no reason. she takes her job incredibly seriously, though you wouldnt guess it right off the bat, as she enjoys messing around and having a good laugh. she was originally born as a human, but ended up taking on the role of satan due to some fairly tragic events in her life and being manipulated by god. she is also polyamorous and is married to basira (the two of them also have one more partner but they belong to @thedeadgiraffe​

vivi is a lady who died a long time ago because she did something dumb. she resents more than anything the fact that she is dead and wishes for nothing more than to live again. for now, she's stuck in an old mansion on top of a lonely mountain hoping for travelers to stop by for a rest and ease her aching loneliness. she is able to trick people into believing she is a living person by possessing frozen corpses and wearing elaborate outfits that cover every inch of where skin might be shown. she loves venetian carnival masks and costumes because they hide everything.vivi is social and craves attention and loves feeling like she is taking good care of her guests. she is an entertainer at heart and is extremely theatrical, often bordering on melodramatic. she is a kind person but has a knack for being a brat. she is for the most part very kind to any visitors she has, but is extremely self-absorbed and will "collect" the body of anyone she thinks looks similar enough to how she looked while she was alive. wooOOoo sinister. she is a femme lesbian

quoia is a kind person who just wants to be your friend! they want nothing more than to just get along and have a good time. they are agender, asexual, and aromantic.they are a bit of a noodle and unfortunately have a hard time standing up for themselves, to the point where its pretty unhealthy for themselves. they like bugs, crazy patterns, and bright colors. they have a fear of anything that is too cute, they find excessively cutesy stuff to be extremely unsettling. they meet sev during their freshman year in college as dormmates and have a very rocky beginning together, as you can only guess, but end up becoming life long friends who end up owning a house together once they are older. (this does not mean they are in a relationship, they just know that they are compatible living together)

griselda is a big surly butch lesbian anteater monster lady. she is a lady of few words and always does a good job on her work. she has little interest in most things unless she can benefit from it somehow. if she feels she can get something out of a situation, she can flip on the charm like nothing else. she has a knack for coming off like she really cares and can appear very understanding and sweet but as soon as she's got what she wants from you, she'll drop you immediately.griselda has cryptid status in my character's universe. its almost like being a celebrity in the spirit world. this is fine sometimes, because she enjoys allowing herself to be seen momentarily by humans and stirring up a ruckus and hearing all the far-fetched stories they make up about her, but beyond that she just wants to be left alone. she and maude are drinking buddies.

[the-ass-assin]

My friends??? Are fucking dope??? And here's some reasons why (because I love to gush about them)

Two of my friends love to make fun of Fortnite just for being so god damn popular. When they found out I play on PS4, they insisted we played games together sometime and asked for my username. I panicked when I gave it to them, and told them any hours I had in Fortnite were my brother, not me. Both of them looked at me like I was crazy, and said "Dude, if you play Fortnite, it's cool. Hell, I'd probably start playing too."

When a creepy guy was hitting on me in lunch, one friend yelled to me from the other side of the table "Gloria! Check out this dank meme I found!" When I walked over, he didn't have a dank meme, but it was the only excuse he could think of to get me away from the guy

My one friend buys me my favorite soda every time we hang out??? Like, I get in the car and she just hands me a Dr. Pepper??? And it's such a small gesture but like??? She pays enough attention to me to know it's my favorite??? She does it with snacks too wtf??? I love her???

Her and my other friend always listen when I talk about the stupid stuff I like??? And I don't feel like I'm annoying them!!! Like neither of them know anything about assassin's Creed but I messaged one and was like "Assassin's Creed Odyssey comes out in October!!! The girl is beautiful and you can romance other ladies!!!!" And she was just like "!!!! No fucking way!!!! She looks so badass!!!!!"

When we saw the guy dressed as Beetlejuice at universal one of them started yelling at me until I answered because she knew how excited I would be

Ask any of them what my favorite movie is and they remember like what the fuck

They put up with my changing music tastes like... Oh you listen to kpop now? That's sick! Oh, now it's Hamilton? That's dope, let me listen!

Sometimes my own friend sends me pictures of cute girls and is like "here. Feed your gay."

The same friend will send me memes and silly posts (usually about ghosts and cryptids and aliens, sometimes not tho) and be like "you" (for example: 8:30 in the morning and I'm in an Uber dressed as Alexander Hamilton "you")

One of them painted their nails in bi pride colors when she found out I was nervous to buy a pride shirt and reminded me that she has my back

They don't look at me like I'm crazy when I talk about ghosts and aliens and horror movies and shit??? I was talking about how tired I was of reading and writing about Amityville after reading six articles and rewriting my essay for the third time. I told her, "Everyone knows what happened at Amityville I'm so sick of this!" And when she said she didn't know I was suddenly v excited to talk about it, and she listened to the whoel story, from Butch DeFeo's childhood to the Lutz family fleeing the house.

They don't make fun of my weird things!!! People are always like "Why don't you want to shower at other people's houses??? Why do you always wear shoes??? Why can't you talk on the phone??? Why are you always messing with your hair???" And my friends don't do that. My friend offered to let me shower last time I was at her place and I was like "Uh, I can't do that." And she was just like, "It's okay. I get it." Like???? Holy shit what????

We were at Universal, and I was dying to go see the dinosaurs. I wanted to ride a Jurassic Park ride so fucking bad. But I promised my friend I would ride the Hulk Rollercoaster with her. We had an hour and a half left. She pushed through people and ran (we made it from one end of the park to the other in nine minutes) because she was determined to get me to Jurassic Park to see the dinosaurs, and when I nearly cried she panicked and said "Was I going too fast?!" We rode the ride and we're super tired and sweaty, but we did it.

When I told her which Jurassic Park ride I wanted to go on, she double checked with me because "It's in water, Gloria." bc she knows that I'm scared of it and she wanted to make sure I would be okay. What an angel.

I was talking to my friend last night about how I was worried for my graduation party bc I can't hide in the corner behind my mom this time, and he was like "I'll be an emotional support friend. I got you."

I fucking poured all my emotions and shit out last night, and he actually talked to me about it. I didn't get a "Oh, I'm sorry :/" I got an actual conversation and I felt so much better after

I love my friends so much I'm sorry for ranting but dammit they're amazing

[priincesspacificaarchive]

@arcusinimicus replied to your post “[when u give dp a rewatch and remember how much you ship Danny with...”

I feel like Sam's character needs a Modernization with Actual Legit Feminist Ideas

[hONESTLY SAME.

Look. Sam isn’t terrible.

But, as pointed out in Memory Blank, Sam and her personal agendas that she drags Danny into are most of the reasons he gets effed over. She’s even the reason he technically half-died.

Not to mention she constantly puts down “shallow” girls like Paulina. Like you said, she needs legit feminism instead of this wishy-washy crap. And no offense to Butch Hartman, but since it’s written by a guy in the early 2000′s I’m not surprised at how shitty it is.

She’s got that whole “I’m not like other girls” attitude to her that makes her seem entitled. And she’s rich to boot, so her looking down on the popular kids for pretty much the same thing is annoying.

Not to mention she...never apologizes for the shit she puts him through? Like in the very first episode, where she changes the menu and angers Lunch Lady?

Or in Splitting Image when she uses his new popularity to put forward her anti-frog dissection campaign. And totally misses the fact that it’s not him? (Tucker shares blame here too, obviously)

I mean, I’m pretty sure Danny apologizes in Memory Blank for their fight. Which is stupid because he’s right.

While I’m on the subject can I just point out real quick that he didn’t think Sam was cool until she took down a ghost? Thus making his attraction to Valerie even more valid.

Not to mention I am just...so tired of the “best friends to lovers” trope in media. Because I’ve had mostly guy friends my entire life, and I really hate people thinking I’m dating them just because they’re guys. It’s cute when executed right (i recently watched Definitely, Maybe and the ending with April made me cry), but it also feel so overplayed. Can people just be friends anymore?

This wasn’t supposed to be an essay or anything but just. I can’t stand Sam sometimes and I’m happy to finally be able to express that tbh.]