#but really? avatar as well? and star wars like bro they don’t use as much cgi like in the 2000s

[lloyd-007]

Wait avatar 3 is now actually delayed for 2025 💀 wtf

[laurenhufflepuff2]

A list of fandoms I'm in (in no particular order, will probably be updated regularly. Some fandoms are more intense and some are more casual. Depending on the fandom, I could go on and on about fandom topics for HOURS. Let's get into it!)

Harry Potter, Disney, Marvel, DC comics, Miraculous Ladybug, Avatar: The Last Airbender/The Legend of Korra, Star Wars, Literature, Winx Club, Nintendo, Minecraft, Little Witch Academia, Voltron, Coraline

Details:

Harry Potter- I got into Harry Potter in 7th grade and now I am the resident expert in my family and in my friend group. I read all the books, watched all the movies (notably the British version), and I've seen the Fantastic Beasts films as well. I've also read Tales of Beedle the Bard (the Warlock's Hairy Heart was traumatizing) along with the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them textbook (plus an updated edition). I also read The Cursed Child script and while I mean no hate to anyone that liked it, I hated what it did to the canon. I am in Hufflepuff with some Ravenclaw tendencies (I took the Pottermore quiz 3 times, 2 out of 3 I got Hufflepuff, the other time was Ravenclaw). I had a pottermore account and I was so upset when it got converted to the Wizarding World page. I cosplayed Hermione in 7th grade complete with British accent and even monologued as her for a talent show (classmates and teachers would recognize me as the Hermione girl all the way through high school). I was obsessed and I still love it even if J.K. Rowling has gone off the deep end on Twitter... yeah... my favorite character is Hermione but I also relate to Luna

Disney- there's so much that goes into the Disney part of my fandom list. I'm excluding Marvel and Star Wars from this part as they were originally separate entities before Disney got the rights to them. I have seen almost every animated Disney film ever and often use random movie quotes in conversation. My favorite villain is Maleficent, my favorite princess is Ariel (followed by Belle, Rapunzel, and Anna). I relate to so many of the characters. I'm not sure who my favorite Pixar character is though (I love Violet, Sadness, Dory, and Piper (from the short)). My favorite Disney fairy is Fawn. My favorite characters overall are Ariel and Stitch. Disney is definitely on the list as one of my biggest obsessions. My favorite movies are Lilo and Stitch, the Little Mermaid, Inside Out, Alice in Wonderland (original), and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

Marvel- I mostly get my Marvel exposure through the MCU, other movies, and animated TV shows. I have difficulty reading graphic novels so most of my comic book knowledge comes from friends, posts, or wikis. My favorite characters are Spider-Man, Captain America, Peggy Carter, and Scarlet Witch. I also like Gwenpool, Deadpool, Spider-Gwen/ Ghost-Spider, Venom, Squirrel Girl, Daredevil, Mantis, Gamora, Black Widow, Iron Man, Thor, Loki, Bucky, Black Panther, and most MCU characters. Out of the X-men I really like Professor X, Wolverine, Mystique, Magneto, Nightcrawler, and Quicksilver (either version- MCU or Fox).

DC- this was the franchise I was more familiar with growing up but again, graphic novels aren't easy for me to read so most of my knowledge comes from information pages about the comics or from tv/movies. My earliest experience with DC came from the 60s Batman series, with Catwoman and Robin being my favorites. I also watched the Wonder Woman series from the 70s and a handful of CW shows, my favorite of which being the Flash and Arrow. I also managed to watch all 5 seasons of the Teen Titans Cartoon Network series from 2003. With that being said, my favorite characters are Wonder Woman, Catwoman, Flash, Batman, Nightwing/Robin (Dick Grayson), Green Arrow, Starfire, Raven, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, and Alfred. I also like most of the bat family, and when it comes to CW I LOVE Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost and Cisco.

Miraculous- this is one of my guilty fandoms but since this is Tumblr I'm not too worried about it. I love Marinette and I relate to her on an astoundingly deep level (minus the stalking and obsession with potential lovers, that's creepy). If I had a miraculous, I'd probably want the Ladybug one, but the Cat miraculous, fox miraculous, and snake miraculous are good too. My favorite character is Marinette/Ladybug.

Atla/Tlok- I jumped on the avatar bandwagon just when it was starting to get popular, so I managed to get through the series before the memes took over everything. Same with Tlok, although i couldn't completely avoid the spoilers for that when i started it. I've been wanting to get into the comics because of the short story comics I've read, they seem easier to read than superhero comics. My favorite characters are Aang, Katara, Ty Lee, Iroh, Korra, Jinora, Asami, Suki, Appa, Momo, Naga, and Pabu. I also like Sokka, Mai, Zuko, Lin, Kuvira, Varrick, Zhu Lee, and Azula. I feel really sorry for her and while I understand that a redemption arc would undermine the importance of her corruption arc, I still wish she could have one. I would love to be a waterbender or an airbender... maybe a waterbender raised in the air nation? Obviously, being the avatar itself would be awesome. The show has taught me a lot of great lessons and put a lot of stuff into perspective for me.

Star Wars- oh boy, talking about this one is dangerous. I've seen firsthand the horrors of the Star Wars fandom but then again no one will probably see this anyway so... I've seen all the movies and I remember watching the clone wars series with my brother when I was younger but we fell wayyy behind and it's taking us forever to get back into it. I've also seen the Mandalorian and quite enjoyed it. I like the prequels unironically, in fact, the prequels are some of my favorite movies. I especially like how they switched from lightsabers being heavy weapons to light weapons that can be used for all kinds of tricks that make for epic battles like the ones we see in Revenge of the Sith. The sequels were fun to watch but when I would analyze them along side their predecessors, I came to the conclusion that, for me, they were good to watch but did not do anything good for the rest of the franchise. My favorite characters are prequels/clone wars Obi Wan and Anakin, Padme, Ashoka, Leia, R2D2, BB-8, R4-P17, the Mandalorian (Din Djarin), and Grogu. If I had a lightsaber I'd want it to be blue, but when I was little I got a purple one like Mace Windu because it was closer to pink and I was into pink at the time. I still have that lightsaber and none of my friends have a purple one so it's one of my flexes. I feel like I wouldn't make a good jedi because of attachments being forbidden, so I'd probably become a grey jedi.

Literature- this is a broad term I use to cover all the random books and stories I liked reading and have studied. So we have Shakespeare (Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet), The Great Gatsby (bored while reading, loved to analyze), Grendel (HATED reading, loved to analyze, Grendel really needed a hug and a friend), The Crucible, Fahrenheit 451, Dark Life (+ the sequel Riptide, both are by Kat Falls good reads, sci-fi and kind of dystopian), The Once and Future King

Winx Club- I think the show is trashy but I still love watching it. I haven't been able to get through season 6 though and I hated what they did with season 8 and Fate: the Winx Saga. My favorite character is Bloom along with Stella and Flora. I prefer rai to nick. My favorite transformations are magic winx, enchantix, and harmonix. My favorite member of the Trix is Icy followed by Darcy. My favorite Pixies are Chatta and Lockette.

Nintendo- mainly Pokémon above all else, followed by Animal Crossing. I have also played (mostly as player 2 or just never beat or watched my brother play) mario games, legend of zelda, pikmin, and kirby. Games I haven't played but I just liked the characters/the lore and probably learned about through Super Smash Bros. are Fire Emblem (Lucina mostly), Metroid (Samus and baby metroid), and Kid Icarus. Pokémon is where I'm most knowledgeable but you'll most likely beat me in battle. I am however great at MarioKart and I always destroy my friends at it. Terrible at fighting games though.

Minecraft- I like playing this casually. Sure, I'll play for hours and hours on end for months, but I prefer to stay exclusively in peaceful when playing Survival mode and I don't make anything too ambitious in Creative mode. I like to write, so sometimes I'll make a rough layout of the settings of my stories in different worlds. I prefer interior design and decorating when building, and when in survival mode I focus more on mining and gathering while my brother works on ambitious building projects. I just bring him the raw materials and furnish the interior when he finishes the outside.

Little Witch Academia- this takes up a smaller portion of my fandom list because there were only 2 seasons and a couple movies and I watched the whole series years ago, but I still enjoy it. At one point I wanted to cosplay Akko, and I loved the nod at Twilight through the Nightfall series. And I especially liked the twist that Shiny Chariot was Ursula, which I suspected for some time. The blend between magic and technology was fun to see, but I was so sad that the series ended RIGHT when Akko finally showed signs of magic proficiency. Also, Shiny Chariot being the reason Akko couldn't do magic was heartbreaking.

Voltron- this takes up a much smaller portion of my fandom list mainly because I haven't even finished it. I know hardly anything about Transformers aside from the Bumblebee movie so to me I just watch it for fun. It reminds me of power rangers, star wars, and star trek, and then there's just a transformer insert. But I don't know anything about Transformers so maybe the show is more rooted in canon than I think.

Coraline- I am in a love-hate relationship with Coraline. I have watched the movie several times, I've read the book, I've watched hours of theories and analyses on youtube, I've watched behind the scenes videos by Laika, and I even wrote a script for a fan film parody. I am amazed at how original the story is and how impressive the stop motion animation is but I also have recurring nightmares from it and it scares me/creeps me out to the max. If anyone asks what my scariness limit is, it's definitely Coraline.

[forsakenbysinnoh]

Random Headcannons for the Demon Bros that no one asked for.

~Lucifer~

Lucifer never refers to God by name, only ever saying "He" or "My Father".

Despite how he may act, he's proud of his brothers, of their independence and strength. His pact mark reflects that, his own star surrounded by the six of his brothers.

With that, he can also be very worried about his brothers. Being an avatar of a sin is a title that can be won. He makes sure no other demons besides his brothers hold that title.

He has a dark sense of humor that can go unnoticed or be mistaken as threats.

Despite his reputation of being controlling, he's actually rather tired of it. He was forced into this position to protect his loved ones, and to try to figure out how to function after losing the war. Sometimes a part of him wants to be told what hes supposed to do, rather than deal with the mess of making it up as he goes along.

The most scarred of the brothers, especially along his chest and back. When he has to, he hides it with illusions, otherwise he doesn't show his skin.

Takes his debts and what he owes people very seriously. It's why he rarely asks for help even in small things.

Is the only one who can force a pact on an unwilling participant.

Isn't afraid of being controlled, but is scared of losing control to the wrong person or partner. It takes a lot of trust to let him drop the reins in a relationship.

Despite turning into a wolf in the 'Paws and Claws' event, I think the best animal to represent him would be a black unicorn.

~Mammon~

Mammon can be kind of a choosing beggar.

Forgets to be empathetic sometimes and can say some callus things. Sometimes it's good as he can be an outside observer in a situation and see things objectively.

His schemes are mainly to pay off debts. No one is quite sure where he keeps accumulating so many from.

Many people call him a coward, but in reality he's a pacifist. He'd rather run than fight.

Unless you get him hot headed, in which case the gloves are off.

Despite this, he's actually one of the most powerful brothers and can usually win a fight with anyone but Lucifer.

Very agile. Is a natural at parkor and free running.

He doesn't have a high opinion of himself, and his self esteem is in the garbage.

Def has a praise kink tho.

If he's really mad at you, he'll pretend you don't exist. He's not one to get into screaming fights, but he's passive aggressive.

I think a golden dragon with a hoarding tendency fits him well lol

~Leviathan~

He's a big nerd. King of nerds. Absolutely owns it.

Levi actually draws a lot of fanart but never shows it to anyone. He's very jealous of others talent and considers his own art bad.

Def has the Devildom equivalent of Tumblr.

Sometimes can be a fandom gatekeeper/hipster. Likely stems from a place of "I liked this before it was popular and got ridiculed for it. Now it's cool and you're taking over my interest."

Super long theories on current shows with in-depth analysis and pulling info from anywhere he can. Be prepared for his cork board on FNAF.

Sometimes Levi forgets other people have feelings too, especially when he's excited about something, and hurts them by accident. Usually goes back to apologize later when he realizes.

Loves to listen to someone nerd out, even if he's not interested in their interest, he likes them and how passionate about.

He's memorized the TSL books and movies. They are his biggest passion and he loves them so much.

He's a self shipper, ships himself with his favorite wifus and husbandos (he has both) and takes those "which character are you?" Quizzes all the time.

Knows how to code and hopes to make his own game one day.

Snake tends to be the go to for Levi, and I think a lizard or another reptile makes sense. They tend to scurry away from most creature, except for those like them.

~Satan~

(My boy so I might be a little biased/rambling here)

Satan was made after Lucifer lost the war, but he started growing in Lucifer's heart before then.

Satan is the only demon/angel that was not made by God directly, and he feels that effects his relationship with others.

He's not good at empathy, and it's a skill he's still working on.

Satan was the serpent in the garden who caused Eve to fall. He thought it was very unfair that God would refuse humanity knowledge, the one thing that he values above all else.

As he was developing/learning from each of his brothers, they each gave him an item that was important to him that he still keeps. Even Lucifer.

Keeps control of his emotions which can lead to violent outbursts if pushed far enough. No one has seen him completely unhinged except Lucifer.

Loves adventure books/series, especially long ones with intricate plots. Murder mysteries are his absolute favorite. Dislikes the 'Love triangle' trope a LOT.

Likes to listen and create stories.

Very magically adept. He knows many advanced spells and always has a hunger to learn more. Probably has made quite a few spells himself.

Cat. He's a cat. There was no competition here. His spirit animal is a kitty and I love him for it.

~Asmodeus~

Asmo, despite being the avatar of lust, cares about consent a lot. He wants his partners to feel good when they're with him, not like they're afraid or helpless.

Well, unless that's your thing, in which case he'll make sure a safe word is in use ;)

Knows a lot about sex. If you have any question he will be happy to answer it without making it seem awkward or taboo. Though he will flirt and offer to show you himself.

He's very confident in his body and looks. Asmo knows he's a catch and good looking, and wants to keep it that way.

Doesn't mind showing off his scars from the war and wishes he could help Lucifer with his perception of his scars.

He will NOT have anyone body shamed in his presence.

Has ALL the gossip. He knows who's sleeping with who, what relationship drama is going down where, and keeps up with it daily.

Gender roles? Who is she? Being beautiful is for anyone.

He shows affection through touch. This makes him come off a bit needy and he tends to invade other's spaces.

There's more to lust than just sex though, it's pure, unrestrained desire. Desire to learn, to hurt, to take revenge, to love and be loved. He can sense someone's deepest desires and loves to bring that to the surface.

This is why Satan is one of his favorite brothers, there's a lot of pure emotion in him that he keeps covered up.

I think a Siren would fit him best, able to draw out what people desire the most.

~Beelzebub~

Beel has a soft heart. He cares a lot for his family, even when he's mad at them.

His kindness has gotten other demons trying to take advantage of him, which is why he tries to hide it behind a facade of being a big brute.

He's a cuddler. Beel is touch starved and wants nothing more than just to hold someone close and know they love him.

Nightmares are a constant struggle for him. He still blames himself for Lilith's death and not being strong enough.

Unless Belphie is around, Beel has a hard time sleeping.

Like Mammon, Beel a pacifist, though he's usually a little more willing to throw his weight around when needed.

When Lucifer isn't around, Beel is the one to try and get his brother's on the same page. If it's a lost cause he'll just leave for some comfort food.

Unless it's a serious matter, in which case it'll be one of the few occasions he yells.

Is self conscious about the food he eats and how everyone sees him as just the big grunt who loves to eat.

Beel is basically a pitbull. He seems scary and dangerous on the outside, but really he's just a teddy bear.

~Belphagor (spoilers)~

(I'm still a little salty that Belphie here killed me. Just as a warning lol)

Belphie's powers include sleeplessness and inducing a weekend nap. He either never sleeps or is sleeping for several hours.

I don't know why but I'm betting he'd be good at Uno.

Hates being confronted by his mistakes, would rather pretend they didn't happen in the first place

Asks for piggie back rides from Beel when he's too tired to walk.

He's the only one who can get Beel to sleep without nightmares. No one is quite sure if that's cause of his powers, or if he just is good at comforting his brother.

I see him as being good at poems. Soothing words that have a rhythm to them. You listen to him speak and before you know it you're asleep.

He brushes off most kindness as fake and doesn't trust anyone.

The most comfortable hoodie. Hugs are warm and soft.

Animal: a small fluffy cow. You know the ones I'm talking about. Fluff central.

[myupostsheadcanons]

Books “Read” in 2020

Previous entries: 2019, 2018, 2017

I don’t rank these based on actual literary quality, but by how much i enjoyed reading/listening to them. Hopefully with Audible’s new “Premium Included” feature it would cut down on so many Average/Below Average books next year, it’ll give me more of a choice on what kind of books/podcasts i want to listen to rather than given a handful to pick from a month.

The “Top 10″

Forging Hephaestus / Bones of the Past: Villains' Code Series - Drew Hayes has became one of my fav authors over the past couple years, from his Vampire Accountant series, 5-min Sherlock, and his Spells, Swords, and Stealth books. FH is one of the few times he wrote Adult Fiction. This is the second time Drew created a world of super heroes (the YA Superpowereds), thus previous experience in dealing with the nuisances and meta of super meta dynamics. I love the main character, Tori, and especially love many of the side characters (like Ivan) and the comedy is the right tone of dark and not-in-your-face (not quite as well -written as something like The Venture Bros or The Tick, but being adult fiction you can get away with having characters named Johnny Three-Dicks and Captain Bullshit)

Dreadnought / Sovereign - the second super hero series I’ve placed on my top list this year, this one is Young Adult. This one is far more serious and deals heavily in issues like trans and women’s rights, mental abuse, and social acceptance. The main character is full of angst, but that should be a given for a 15 yo with lots of mental baggage and new social pressures. The main character is the main draw, most of the side characters are a bit more one-dimensional.

The Trouble with Peace: Age of Madness, Book 2. It isn’t a “First Law” book if you don’t want to strangle half of the main characters. Many are stepping outside of the shadow of the previous generation and finding themselves falling flat on their faces. If they aren’t at each other’s throats, they would soon have to deal with rebellion in the streets and the constant looming presence of Bayaz, who waits to sweep the board clear and rearrange the pieces the way he sees fit.

Michael J. Sullivan’s: The Riyria and Legend of the First Empire Books.

Riyria Revelations: Theft of Swords / Rise of Empire / Heir of Novron

Riyria Chronicles: The Crown Tower / The Rose and Thorn / The Death of Dulgath

Age of Death / Age of Empyre, Pile of Bones

After finishing the Legend of the First Empire books that came out earlier this year, I went ahead and read the prior series that takes place in the same world. I would suggest reading the entire series by Publish order, but they can be read Chronologically. I read the Legends books first, and it helped me see where Sullivan was heading and when he started to plan out the Legends books in more detail. (The early cameo of the Main characters from Legends in a mural in Heir of Novron, and knowing who is behind the events in Dulgath)

The Dresden Files: Peace Talks / Battle Grounds - They really should be read as one book, because that was how they were written. It is a Feast of Crows / Dances with Dragons situation, where the book got too long and got split up. The fans are pretty divided by the book(s) ending and how some of the main characters are handled, but these are Jim Butcher’s characters not theirs and he can drop bridges on whom ever he wants.

What Lies Beyond: Cycle of Galand, Book 6 - This is a “mythology” book (like Sullivan’s Age of Death was) where it introduces most of the Pantheon of their religion and corrects much of the mythology that had been lost over the decades. They seek a weapon to vanquish the Litch and save their world and the afterlife from oblivion, but not all of their Gods are happy about it.

Will Destroy the Galaxy for Cash - Yahtzee (Zero Punctuation!) has to be one of my favorite internet personalities for the past 10+ years, and I eat up every book he puts out and because he wrote the books, and is an actor himself, he could deliver the lines as they are intended to be. The sequel to Will Save the Galaxy for Food does not disappoint and even ups the stakes from the previous book.

The Girl Who Drank the Moon - This has to be one of the most charming books I’ve read. It is magic and wonder at it’s finest, no need for long explanations on how the world works. If you like Ghibli movies, you’ll be interested in this book. It has its dark moments but isn’t outside of what you’ll find in something like Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Nausicca.

The Goblin Emperor - the youngest son of the Elf King finds himself emperor after the death of his father and brothers in an assassination. The only problem is, that he is only half-elf... his late mother was a Goblin, and he had been in exile as an embarrassment to the family for most of his life. He knows nothing of how the courts work and what’s left of his own family work against him just for being who he is.

Lost Gods: Brom - I liked this book more than I did American Gods (which I read a few years ago). It is darker and bleaker by the bucket loads. One of the few books with a downer ending that I actually liked. I would compare this book to books like All the Pretty Horses and No Country for Old Men-- but it is a Fantasy!

Above Average.

Siege Tactics (Spells, Swords, & Stealth. Book 4)  - What happens to adventurers after they retire? A fun concept that is explored with our party of NPCs running across a town full of epic-level characters that no longer have a player.

The Arthurian Saga - The Crystal Cave / The Hollow Hills  / The Last Enchantment / The Wicked Day - A more realistic version of the Arthurian tales, taking the POV of Merlin, bastard son of a princess, as he earns notoriety as a scholar and wizard.  The Wicked Day takes the POV of Mordred, making him far more sympathetic than other iterations of his character.

Arc of a Scythe - Scythe / Thunderhead / The Toll - Science and Technology eliminates death and in order to prevent over population and complacency an order of grim reapers are chosen to randomly deal out quotas of permanent deaths. An example of what happens when every need and want is satisfied by a higher force and the apathy that causes rot in human society and the superiority complex of those in charge of life and death.

The Diviners / Lair of Dreams / Before the Devil Breaks You / The King of Crows - Horror during the Roaring 20′s. Tackles issues as Racism, Poverty, Government Secrecy, Christian-Evangelical Cults, Nationalism Cult Mentality, Communism, Labor Unions, Eugenics, Post-WW1 trauma... It could almost pass as an adult fiction book. I wouldn’t recommend giving it to someone under High school age.

Ancillary Justice / Ancillary Sword / Ancillary Mercy - Artificial Intelligence takes over human bodies as a form of capital punishment, controlling ships and space stations. The dominate human empire outgrew the need to label any gender, using “she” to refer to everyone rather than the vaguer “them/they” pronouns, and only outlying colonies stick to the binary ideals. Think of “The Left Hand of Darkness” but on a more broader scale and as the default majority/ruling empire. Toss in a solid military action novel on top and it isn’t nearly as boring as Left Hand.

Children of Time / Children of Ruin - War destroys the human population of Earth and those that remain are the ones that headed out to the stars on tera-forming missions. A virus created to advance life forms to prepare a world for human habitation runs amuck with out its overseers, creating intelligent arachnids, crustaceans, and squid.

The Licanius Trilogy - The Shadow of What Was Lost / An Echo of Things to Come / The Light of all that Falls -  It is very heavy on info overload, there is a lot to keep track of, so much so there is a summary of book one and two at the start of the third. I like the twist at the end of the first book and that the villain is actually trying to help save the world, and you spend most of the second stuck between who thinks they are doing the right thing and who is actually doing the right thing - a lot to talk about doing the lesser of two evils.

Mythos - Steven Fry - A humorous retelling of Greek mythology. I read Mythology - by Edith Hamilton prior to this book, which is a more scholarly take on the myths, and helps if you are unfamiliar with classical mythology prior to reading Fry’s take on it.

Iron, Fire and Ice: The Real History That Inspired Game of Thrones - a nice history book about Iron Age royalty. It is actually refreshing to read after going through so much faux fiction that is in Philippa Gregory’s books.

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? - Children ask questions to a Mortician about death and what happens to bodies after people die. I listened to her autobiography last year/year before and it is worth picking up this one along with it.

Average, but still good.

Jack Campbell’s Lost Fleet Universe: Triumphant (Genesis Fleet, Book 3) / Tarnished Knight: Lost Stars, book 1 - The realistic space battles just drag me back in each and every time.

The Case of the Damaged Detective: 5-Minute Sherlock - Drew Hayes can’t write a boring book. It isn’t quite on point as his other series, but still fun to read. Hayes is really good at making YA books with Adult Protagonists. It is a road-trip book, the main character is a washed-out operative that is getting his second chance playing bodyguard and future assistant to the 5-minute Sherlock.

Locked In / Head On - Do you remember “Surrogates”? that Bruce Willis movie where people walk around in robotic avatars, well... it’s almost the same thing. A virus kills millions, save for a select few that experience “lock in” syndrome and are able to connect to robots via their brains and the internet.  The main character is gender neutral and you get a choice to listen to the book with a male or female reader.

Murder by Other Means: The Dispatcher Book 2 - more John Scalzi! The first book was in my top list a few years ago, and i enjoyed the sequel just as much. Between Scalzi’s The Dispatcher and Locked In series, i like the Dispatcher more.

The Shattered Sea Trilogy: Half a King / Half the World / Half a War - Joe Abercrombie’s attempt to make Young Adult books. It keeps all the grim dark, but lacks all the swearing and humor that made The First Law books more enjoyable. Many of Joe’s favorite character tropes are still present and is one of the better “Fall to Darkness” stories I’ve read. It also has different POV characters each book and is one of those “faux fantasy” settings.

Mage Errant: Books 1, 2 & A Traitor in Skyhold: Book 3 - If you are wanting to get away from Harry Potter, pick up this book series. It takes place in magic school, but it is its own world and setting and not just a hidden world within our own. The main group of kids are misfits among the school, unable to master their powers, that get taken up by the badass librarian to be trained in more unconventional ways.

Dawn of Wonder: The Wakening Book 1 - the main character has ptsd from growing up in an abusive household, and i thought it was handled rather well. He would be rather competent and cleaver most of the time until he gets triggered into an episode, he fights really hard to overcome this short-falling of his. Standard classic affair else wise, family leaves home because the local authority figure doesn’t want them around anymore, goes to big city, kid wants to do good and avenge the deaths he was accused of, joins the badass school of hard knocks...  big powerful evil thing trying to consume the world.

The Rage of Dragons - It shares a lot of tropes and story points with Red Rising... just in a fantasy setting, not in space. If you are wanting fantasy with POC main characters and a non-European-centric culture, that doesn’t pull any punches, give it a shot.

Earthsea - Tehanu and Tales from Earthsea - I had read the first three books several years back, and i did re-read them in order to refresh myself prior to reading the final two.

The Secret Garden - I absolutely loved the movie from the 90′s as a kid, and finally got around to listening to the book.

Six of Crows - A heist book in fantasy world with the magic users being heavily “Jewish / Slavic” coded by how they are treated and persecuted. I might have thought more favorably about the book if i hadn’t read other books with “street rat slum” main characters. (Seriously, after spending six books with Royce in Riyria someone like Kas is just second bananas)

Unconventional Heroes / Two Necromancers - Comedic Fantasy, the humor’s not on par with say MogWorld, and has more jokes than Fred The Vampire Accountant. It is still a parody of villains and heroes in fantasy worlds. I would find it safe for a 12/13yo to read, cursing and all, though they might not be aware of many of the tropes that are being deconstructed. The reader of the book did better in this one then he did with Six of Crows and Beezer, still the audio needed some editing because it repeats itself a few times.

Once More Upon A Time (Free Audio Book)  - I don’t always care to read romance stories. I like the idea behind it however, to trade their love for each other in order to save their partner’s life, then learn to re-love one another again.

Monster Hunter International - If you think Dresden is too liberal, this takes a hard turn to the right.. replace the magic with GUNS, lots and lots of GUNS. An organization that hates the government but hunts monsters for government bounties. The main cast is multi-ethnic and they do make fun of that at one point. There isn’t a lot of thought into the plot, because action is #1, but it is fun enough to ignore the politicking.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Collection - i bitched about there not being an omnibus last year, and then Audible uploaded one. The ending is still one big clusterfuck.

Stephen King’s Insomnia - this book is the bridge between Steven King’s two universes. It is a sequel to IT and brings up the Darktower often. IT dealt mainly with childhood fears, Insomnia deals with Elderly and feminine fears.

D’Arc / Culdesac: War with No Name - I liked D’Arc more than i did Mort-e, and Culdesac is more on track with Mort-e. The virus that mutated the ants and animals reminded me of the virus from Children of Time/Ruin, even though i read Mort-e first, reading D’Arc after CoT let me notice it.

Michael McDowell’s:  The Amulet / The Elementals / Gilded Needles / Blackwater - From the guy that wrote the screenplay of Beetlejuice, and the pioneer of the Southern Gothic Horror. Gilded Needles is a bit out of place, taking place in 1890′s, and is more of a social horror rather than a super natural horror the other books are.

Gardens of the Moon: The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 1 - high fantasy dark fiction. if you really want some CHONKY door stoppers, there’s over 10 of them in this series. Could’ve done less with the manipulative bastard mage that speaks in 3rd person. I had read The Willful Child, an attempted comedy science fiction novel by the same author, and it showed that the author was unfamiliar with that kind of genera and should stick to grim fantasy.

The Knife’s Edge / Citadel of Fire: The Ronin Saga - This is one of those series that I’m always going “oh, that reminds me of [insert another better series]”  At times it reminded me of The Licanius Trilogy, Shades of Magic, Arc of Scythe, Riyria, Korra... It is just shy of being as good as them, and is rather firmly in that Sci-Fi Fantasy Ghetto and has a bit of “anime” feel to it with their magic users having ‘power levels’ and the power creep. 

In Calabria - My only problem with the book is the massive age-gap between the Main character and his love interest. Outside of that, the whole Unicorns in the modern world concept is done very well.

Pout Neuf (Audible Free Book)  - Journalism and romance during WW2. A quick read and the book really shows that research had been done about the setting and time period.

Nut Jobs: Cracking California's Strangest $10 Million Dollar Heist: An Audible Original - Not only does it talk about the heist, it actually touches on the subject of migrant farmers and slave labor, as well as the desertification of the California Valley.

The Science of Sci-Fi: From Warp Speed to Interstellar Travel (Free Audio Book) - a neat little informative podcast if you are looking for an introduction to some of the harder science fiction.

Mythology - by Edith Hamilton - Text book about Greek Mythology. Like “used in schools” text book. It is a good read if you don’t want to go through Ovid, Virgil, Homer, and all the other classical writers on your own.

The Space Race: An Audible Original - America didn’t win the Space Race. Russia did just about everything first. The only thing we did first was put people on the moon. It also goes into detail about how the inventor of the Nazi’s V2 rockets became employed with the US Space program. As well as the government’s announcement to let space travel become privatized.

Pale Blue Dot / Cosmos: A Personal Voyage - It’s Carl Sagan. Come on! Everyone should be reading them. Pale Blue Dot was being turned into an Audiobook in the 90′s but with Sagan’s death, only the first few chapters were read by him and his partner reads the rest of it (she does a decent job, and i understand why they wanted her to read it, it should’ve been done similarly to Cosmos, with guest readers doing each chapter)

Thicker Than Water (Free Audio Book)  - start up pharmaceutical company scams people out of millions with promises of a miracle machine that was ahead of its time. Story told from the whistleblower himself as he recounts what his job was within the company and how he knew the owner/founder of the company and how coming out about what was going on ruined his relationship with his family and friends.

Don't Panic: Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - biography on Douglas Adams and the history behind the creative process behind the Hitchhiker’s Guide series.

The Genius of Birds - It reminded me a lot of “The Soul of an Octopus” in quality. It is rather informative about birds, how they behave, and how we judge intelligence in non-human animals.

It’s “ok.”

Les Miserabes - I can see why people favor movies and theater versions because of how dense the book is, getting the cliff notes version of the book instead of reading several chapters about the Battle of Waterloo. 

Viva Durant and the Secret of the Silver Buttons (Audible Free Book) - It’s cute, and I spent the next several weeks humming that freaking song.

Challenger Deep - A book about mental illness by the same person that brought us The Arc of a Scythe series. It isn’t a bad read, but if you are prone to get panic attacks and have mental illness yourself, you might get too into it and make you uneasy. It can help with neurotypical people with understanding how some illnesses work.

Into the Wilds (Warriors, Book 1)  - Ah, the cat book. It is prob because there are soooo many books in this series that it over-saturates the kids impressionable minds.

House of Teeth (Audible Free Book)  - I read this book prior to Monster Hunter International, and thinking back on this one, i am reminded about the other. Save for this one is PG. So... the kid friendly version.

The Martian Chronicles - Space Horror, on Mars. If you like old science fiction, like Classic Trek, Wells, or Forbidden Planet stuff. There is a lot of zerust.

Andrea Vernon and the Corporation for UltraHuman Protection - The third superhero series I’ve read this past year. It is not as ground breaking nor subversive as Villain’s Code or Dreadnought. The humor is a bit too forced and parts of it falls into “we can be more offensive because it is an adult book” category.

Interview with the Robot - Don’t really care for books or programs that are set up in the “interview” format where it is two people talking to one another. (I have no fucking idea how this book got top Kids book of the year on Audible, it is more of a YA book... it must been because it was Free and lots of people picked it because the rest of the choices that month were complete garbage)

Micromegas - perhaps one of the oldest examples of Speculative Science Fiction. Written by Voltaire, it is about a giant from another solar system that is so big that humans and life on Earth are microscopic. “what value are the lives of ants to a man?”

The Three Musketeers - i had forgotten how much espionage there was in this book. I would say this is a good companion book to Don Quixote, as it takes its fair share of inspiration from and even name-drops the character a couple times. 

Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist / David Copperfield / A Tale of Two Cities - DC is the standout IMO among the three, it is Dickens’ Magnum Opus. Les Mis did a far better job with the Revolution than Tale did as well. I felt rather obligated to reading these books because of the subplot in the Age of Madness books being about Poverty during the Industrial Revolution and Workers Revolts against the Ruling Class.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - the version i listened too made most of the Americans sound like GWB... which is funny because one of them is Canadian, and the Comic Relief character about how boorish Americans are.

Stuck (Free Audio Book) -  it is a neat idea, getting jarred free of time but everybody else isn’t and doesn’t remember. It gets a little heavy for a kids book near the end, edging into YA territory as the character gets older mentally and the people around him age physically.

Phreaks (Free Audio Book) - i knew a lot about Captain Crunch and other phone hackers of the 60′s. There is a subplot of the big radioactive corporation covering up causing cancer to their workers, and the father (voiced by Christian Slater) being in the closet but still homophobic about it.

Silverswift (Free Audio Book) - If you like fairy tales set in modern times, it is worth a look. It is similar to In Calabira in that way. The mom being the nonbeliever and thinking grandma is off her rocker, but the granddaughter knows it in her bones that grandma is telling the truth.

Sleeping Giants - alien mechs from the distant past, once mistaken as the titans and gods form mythology, now being studied and experimented on by the government. This is another “interview style” story telling.

Celtic Mythology: Tales of Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes - there is a lot of names and stories, it is worth prob getting a physical copy of the book to keep things straight and to use as a reference.

How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps - A love letter to The Legend of Zelda’s Ocarina of Time and other RPG games.

Casino Royal: James Bond - the movie was rather faithful, including the part of being tied to a chair. I do wish they kept more of the book’s ending where Bond was ready to retire prior to his secret-spy love interest gets killed.

Aliens: Bug Hunt - a compilation of Alien stores about people landing on various planets and encountering aliens, not always the Xenomorphs we know, but the term “Bug” came synonymous to any dangerous alien lifeforms encountered.

Macbeth: A Novel - retelling the story of Macbeth but in a novel form. If you can’t get past the language of the original play, this would help. It sets it more firmly in historical fiction.

Hannibal: A Novel -  I went ahead and re watched the tv show after finishing the book. I’ve seen the movie a dozen times, and i understand why they changed the ending to the movie. The book is the main one that characterizes Hannibal and the show uses a lot of the plot. Hannibal Rising wasn’t really needed because Hannibal (in this book) does think/talk about what happened to his sister and home, and i can see why Harris didn’t want to write that book either. The audiobook is rather poor quality, they talked too fast in places and i don’t really care for their acting...

The Power of Six - I read I am Number 4 several years back and this one popped up on sale so i nabbed it. I like Neil Kaplan, and i think this one is better than the first one and actually gets into the meat of the story.

Cut and Run: A Light-Hearted Dark Comedy - body parts harvesting.... mmmm.

Calypso - non-Fiction, biography of the author. Talks about his family, his life with his partner, and what he does. Much of it is charming and it is read by the author. this was prior to him loosing his marbles about retail workers and becoming a karen.

Our Harlem: Seven Days of Cooking, Music and Soul at the Red Rooster - the history of Harlem and the Harlem Renaissance. I didn’t mind this podcast so much because i was reading The Diviners during the same time.

Malcolm and Me - another biographical book. one of the free books i got during Feb’ Black History Month.

History of Bourbon (Free Audio Book) - Informative about the liqueur industry in America.

Junkyard Cats: Shining Smith Book 1 - post apocalyptic action science fiction novel. the moment that guy showed up i was “that’s your bf.” and it was so... the plot wasn’t hard to figure out, it’s all about the action and setting.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - One of the better Heinlein books. The man can’t write romance and he is rather big on casual polygamy and open marriages. An anarchist-revolution book written by someone that is more on the Libertarian side of the aisle. Mycroft (the computer) comes off as rather antiquated, an AI that runs on a closed server, communicating through the telephone lines and printed paper, makes me wonder what Heinlein would’ve done if he was told about the internet and Deep Fake tech. (the book takes place in like 2075, but written in 1966)

Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World - the production of coffee and it’s prevalence around the world.

The Life and Times of Prince Albert - Exactly what it says on the can. *rimshot*

The Real Sherlock: An Audible Original - a biography of Sir. Arthur Conan Doyle.

The Design of Everyday Things - using psychology to improve the design of systems, products, and the modern business model.  It gives proper terminology for several common design features and how to improve on existing structures.

Bottom of the Barrel.

The Pagan World: Ancient Religions before Christianity. I was hoping there would have been something in there about European Religions, there isn’t, and the book was mostly Greek and Roman life styles and how gods are worshiped. It let me know where the word “auger” came from and why it was used in the Licanius Trilogy.

Life Ever After - disjointed at best. a couple that aren’t good for each other spend the next several hundred years in a crappy relationship.

Beyond Strange Lands: An Audible Original - The audio was complete crap on half of the voices. Which is bad because this could’ve been better. It is a Pod Cast Show and the director couldn’t make sure everybody had decent recording equipment and the sound effects often drown out the actors.

Henrietta & Eleanor: A Retelling of Jekyll and Hyde: An Audible Original Drama - They were going for a modern telling, but the language used is archaic. They speak like Dickens characters even though they talk about cellphones and computers.

A Crazy Inheritance: The Ghostsitter book 1 - The concept is there, but it is too nerfed. It was made for the 8-12yo crowd in mind by people that don’t know how to write for children.

Tell Me Lies (Free Audio Book) - It really wants to be smart. Who’s playing who and who is the actual villain of this story? If you want a quick “who done it?” maybe look into it.

Evil Eye (Free on Audible Plus) - told through phone calls between a mother and daughter. The whole genera of evil boyfriends/husbands isn’t really my cup of tea, and the boyfriend’s actor was too fake and the set up to the meat of the story was annoying.

The Half-life of Marie Curie - I didn’t mind learning stuff about Marie Curie... falls squarely in “made for TV lifetime movie” quality though. You should not carry around a vile of uranium where ever you go.

Alone with the Stars - A girl in Florida hears the call for help from Amelia Earhart, but nobody listens to her. Part fiction, part biographical. It would’ve been better as a biography and talking about various conspiracy theories about what happened to her and finding the pieces of the airplane.

Beezer - The son of the Devil learning to become a good person with a found family... however, most of the characters are annoying.

The Year of Magical Thinking (Free Audio Book) - very heavy on the subjects about loss and death.

Complete Garbage.

The Getaway (Free Audio Book) - A man being a POS by stalking and abducting women. It broadcasts just about everything that is going to happen.

Agent 355 (Free Audio Book)  - Do you like “American Mythology?” Like the whole “the founders are the greatest people in the world” kind of vibe? I don’t. I also hate the main character for being one of those “i’m smart, because i read books that women aren’t supposed to” girls when she doesn’t really think for herself at all.

[unexpectedreylo]

Oh Ye Of Little Faith

What is wrong with Reylo-dom these days?  Was it Daisy’s interview with Steele?  Was it the lack of obvious Reylo in the TROS trailer (as though they were going to show us anything)?  Is it that ant* psy-ops is working?  

It’s all of those things BUT at least on the Reylo Facebook groups I’ve seen another reason why some Reylos are wavering and starting to offer up “Oh well, I’ll love it anyway” statements (which I reject in my “It’s Reylo Or Bust” post).  And it’s what I said in my reblog of another post a couple of nights ago...it seems that many of these Reylos are diehard shippers whose previous favored ships didn’t fare well and now they’re setting themselves up not to be disappointed.

I am not a shipper by nature.  I don’t watch t.v. shows and movies looking to see who I can mentally hook up.  In fact, I don’t get invested in t.v. couples anymore.  That’s a lesson learned from “Moonlighting” when I was in high school.  I was an X-Phile who wasn’t really in favor of Mulder and Scully getting together unless it was the very last episode.  Given what a hot mess the writers made of their relationship, my instinct was correct.  Some t.v. shows still have great writing but many do not, which is why I don’t bother with a lot of scripted shows anymore.  Most t.v. writers have no idea how to write a functional long-lasting relationship that remains fresh or entertaining.  Soap operas are the worst about this, which is why I’ve always found it silly to get attached to a “hot couple” on a soap.  They’ll break up or one will die sooner or later.

I bring this up because in a FB post, the OP mentions her bad experience with “Johnlock,” how its non-happening reduced her to tears, and her hope we won’t let Reylo being a non-starter drag us down into that kind of emotional toilet bowl.  Fair enough.  My reaction would likely be, “Well, they screwed the pooch on that one” and “I doubt I’ll ever invest this much in any future films if this is what they’re going to do.”  

I’m well aware fans are great at creating subtext out of nothing and noticing secret signals that aren’t there or weren’t intended to be taken a certain way, then they’ll fight like hell against anyone who tells them, “You’re just making this up.”  I think some Reylos worry they might be under some kind of mass delusion.  I’m also well aware of showrunners and t.v. writers who actively toy with their audience, knowing the bait is getting people to watch and to generate buzz.  Then when it’s time to deliver, it’s, “Oops, we didn’t mean it, LOL.”  I think Reylos fear this is happening as well.  Some showrunners and writers end up pulling their punches, like when the writers of “Avatar:  The Last Airbender” decided to put Katara with Aang for no other reason than he’s the hero even though it seemed like the real action was between Katara and Zuko.  We’re terrified of the writers wimping out on Rey and Ben.  Then there are the times when sparks fly unexpectedly and viewers are led down a path the show creators never intended.  For example, “Smallville” had so much chemistry between Clark Kent and Lex Luthor, people were calling it “Slashville.”  The writers and producers probably thought this would be a drag on the credibility of Clark’s relationship with Lana, so their solution was to have fewer scenes between Clark and Lex.  I’m sure some Reylos fear this might be nothing more than unintended chemistry between the actors rather than something Lucasfilm wanted.

It’s all understandable.  But ignoring all of the meta and videos in favor of Reylo, you still have a great deal being hinted at on the official side of things, especially with TLJ.  Why would Rian Johnson talk about the hand touch scene as being as close to a sex scene as you’ll get in Star Wars?  What about all of the erotic/sexual imagery in TLJ?  Or the girl-walks-in-on-a-guy-partially-or-totally-undressed trope?  Why on Earth would Adam Driver ask Johnson if Kylo had ever kissed a girl before when it came to developing these scenes with Rey?  Why was Finn passed off to Rose? What’s with Johnson explaining that Kylo’s “you’re nothing but not to me” speech was basically his weird twisted version of Julia Roberts’s “I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her” speech from “Notting Hill?”

Of course I’m worried about Abrams wimping out, retreating, or retconning because theoretically it can happen.  But is he likely to do that?  Probably not because he’s the one who set this in motion in the first place.  He’s the one who commented in the 3D Blu-Ray version of TFA that Rey is like Cinderella and Kylo’s like the prince.  He’s the one who said they’re going to have a “very interesting relationship going forward.”  He could’ve told Johnson, “Nooo, don’t go there with Kylo and Rey.  That’s not what we’re shooting for.”  Or, “Eww, they’re cousins, bro.”  But he didn’t.  The Reylo vibes in TFA were so subtle and nearly buried by the plot, only a select few ever saw them.  But they’re obvious in TLJ, which is why Reylo fandom exploded after the film came out.  Abrams can’t back out of that now.  He’s got to bring it home.  

[ficclique]

In addition to our own personal top fics (which you can view here), we asked you all to send us your choices for your fics of the decade and why you loved them. We received so many wonderful submissions, and now want to share them with everybody! In an effort to not make this post too long we’ve edited down the comments that people left us, but everyone had some really lovely things to say, so if anything catches your eye here we really encourage you to take a look at the complete list of comments here.

Without further ado, please enjoy the top fics of the decade as chosen by you, our listeners: 

Submitted by: Cricket

Fic 1: pilgrimage by wolfsupremacist

Info: EXO RPF, Baekhyun/Sehun

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18411497/chapters/43607615

Cricket’s comment: I can't get over all the building in this fic -- the world building, the character building, the relationship building. The main character’s development was like watching a child grow: it's hard to see it happening, but once you reflect on who he became versus who he was, it's so obvious how he changed.

Fic 2: the eye of providence by minhyukwithagun

Info: NCT RPF, Jaehyun/Taeyong

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14981330

Cricket’s comment: I have genuinely never laughed so hard while reading a fic.There were so many little details that the author added that were unnecessary to the overall plot but just made the characters so much more real. You get to learn so much about everyone in such a (relatively) short amount of time.

Fic 3: so collect your scars and wear them well by addandsubtract

Info: Hockey RPF, Connor McDavid/Dylan Strome

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5075128

Cricket’s comment: I feel like this fic changed me as a writer. It touches on such a relatable subject: that feeling of being completely unsure of what you should do with your life when Plan A doesn't work out, and discovering who you are without the thing that you previously thought defined you.

━

Submitted by: Claire

Fic 1: The Baffled King and The Idiot Hero by Ellarose C

Info: Hetalia, ?

Link: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/5819880/1/

Claire’s comment: This fic launched 3 of my high school friendships that continue to this day. It's cute and Hallmark levels of unrealistic, and I LOVE it. The overwhelming nostalgia and gratefulness I feel towards this fic (and all of Carrie's work, honestly) still blows me away.

Fic 2: Embers by Vathara

Info: Avatar: The Last Airbender, gen

Link: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/5398503/1/

Claire’s comment: The best, wildest, most comprehensively worldbuilt ATLA fic I have ever read. Tea, dragons, realistic motivations, that ending... perfect. *chef kiss*

Fic 3: Of A Linear Circle (series) by flamethrower

Info: HP, various

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/755028

Claire’s comment: I linked the whole series because I simply cannot pick a favorite installment. OaLC focuses on fixing the glaring plot holes in the Wizarding education system, accurately depicting the Founders' Era thanks to copious research, and showing that no one is truly irredeemable (except Voldemort himself, who more than earns it).

━

Submitted by: Threepwillow

Fic 1: All the Other Ghosts by rainjoys

Info: Glee, Kurt/Blaine

Link: https://rainjoyswriting.livejournal.com/146587.html

Threepwillow’s comment: All The Other Ghosts and its direct sequel, Grey, are some of the most incredibly original and simultaneously incredibly transformative works of fanfiction I have ever read. The way they masterfully twist elements of canon to fit into the lore of their AU is second only to the profound, revelatory character studies that they've executed. This shit is extraordinary.

━

Submitted by: Segs

Fic 1: Hemostuck (series) by roachpatrol and urbanAnchorite

Info: Homestuck, various

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/8470

Seg’s comment: THE WORLDBUILDING. THE ARTWORK. THE NARRATIVE VOICE(S). THE INCREDIBLE GRASP ON CHARACTERIZATION. DID I MENTION THE WORLDBUILDING.

Fic 2: transistor by fishcola

Info: Polygon RPF, Brian/Pat

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18760093/chapters/44503969

Seg’s comment: Rips my heart to shreds piece-by-piece and then gently puts it back together in the end. It's another put-these-characters-in-a-darker-setting sort of thing. It is brilliant and beautiful and I love it dearly.

Fic 3: any sign of spring by bluecarrot

Info: Hamilton, Hamilton/Burr

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7523227/chapters/17100376

Seg’s comment: This fic is so dang atmospheric. It feels very physical -- the temperature, the environment, the drawing. It's bittersweet, but ends on the sweet, and I think the sweetness is all the more emphasized for it. Rereading it feels like coming back to a familiar place.

━

Submitted by: Ang

Fic 1: Anarchy In The U.K. by Yahtzee

Info: X-Men First Class, Erik/Charles

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/673552/chapters/1232410

Ang’s comment: the writing of this one made it so easy to get completely lost in the au while still knowing the characters so well from the source material! super engaging, totally consumed my life for a week

Fic 2: blackjacks running down by back by dangerbears

Info: 1D, Harry/Louis

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/499474

Ang’s comment: this is like my comfort blanket fic! every time i reread it (even though i'm not in that fandom anymore), it's still just as funny and cute as it was the very first time i read it - again the au is so easily believable because the characterizations are so familiar.

Fic 3: this city bleeds its aching heart by renne

Info: MCU, Steve/Bucky

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/835829

Ang’s comment: unsurprisingly, it's another au that is so easy to fall into! this is another one that i've been consistently rereading since i first read it (in 2015, for this one) because it's my absolute favorite trope with a ship that i'm still very much into!

━

Submitted by: Scout

Fic 1: she called it a void by vans88

Info: Star Wars, Finn/Poe/Rey

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5493500

Scout’s comment: Short and powerful and essential to anyone's viewing of the new Star Wars trilogy. Seriously one of the most careful, tender, and graceful queer addendums to a piece of pop culture this decade.

Fic 2: The Love Song of The North American Douchebag by gyzym

Info: Star Trek RPF, Chris/Zach

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/852395

Scout’s comment: JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, I HOPE I CAN SWEAR. I'm not even in this fandom. The world building is just THAT good. It's one of my highlights *because* of its power to draw me in as a standalone. So much fucking talent in the transformative work community. The banter, characterization, sardonic-ness of this – international impact baby!

Fic 3: all this learning here is by you by decinq, nighimpossible

Info: Hockey RPF, Jamie Benn/Tyler Seguin

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5105441

Scout’s comment: Revolutionized – and I would argue – drove the GROWTH AND SURVIVAL of hockey fandom. One of the best known works in the fandom, and a masterclass in how to build a set of characters that you're genuinely envious you don't get to see or know. Two incredible authors and a plethora of personality. Fun and sexy and lighthearted but poignant. Chef kiss.

━

Submitted by: Em

Fic 1: the subtle science and exact art of chess-boxing, by fishcola

Info: Polygon RPF, Brian/Pat

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18931885/chapters/44945971

Em’s comment: fishcola is definitely one of the top reasons i actually started reading/writing polygon rpf. this fic!!!!! i sWEAR its so /so/ good oh my GOSH. yes, full disclosure im fish's beta for chessboxing but also i am enthusiastic simply because it is a very beautiful and powerful narrative on trauma, healing, and how the people we choose to interact with affect our emotions.

Fic 2: the old men call me by my mother’s name by theviolonist

Info: HP, Hermione/Ron

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1044467

Em’s comment: as a certified Trans(TM) im always pursuing and consuming trans content. the old men call me by my mother's name is an hp fic that i still cherish years after first reading it. trans!ron is a concept not often explored in hp fic, much less trans /girl/ ron. massive gender feels, folks.

Fic 3: national hot dad alliance is now calling… by dicaeopolis, owlinaminor

Info: Haikyuu! , various

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5663683/chapters/13045579

Em’s comment: national hot dad alliance really is the perfect evolution of a groupchat fic. i laughed, i cried, i fell in love with the characters all over again as these captains from different teams bond over graduating. and also being Dads(TM). in some cases-- pining over their fellow volleyball players-- plus star wars, the x-files, and memes. overall its is very good and i will stan it eternally

━

Submitted by: Staci

Fic 1: No Homo, by orphan account

Info: Teen Wolf, Stiles/Derek

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1148039/chapters/2326073

Staci’s comment: Literally my favorite AU ever written. The characterization is SO on point and it truly is a super fun read. It’s also a super long which helps with painting such a detailed picture of these two dummies who are-totally-just-bros-with-added-benefits. I’d recommend this to anyone, even if they’re unaware of Teen Wolf, but if you’re a Teen Wolf fan then it’s even better.

━

Submitted by: Nadine

Fic 1: Too Long, Too Close (series) by callmejude

Info: MCU RPF, Chris/Sebastian

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/253528

Nadine’s comment: kink exploration and bdsm done well.... and so thoroughly. but there's more! theres FEELINGSSSSSS uhhhhhhh it made me CRY it's so good.

Fic 2: On a Clear Day by Saras_Girl

Info: HP, Harry/Draco

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/879841

Nadine’s comment: I could've put a few other fics by this author because they write the best drarry but uhhhhh. I had to choose and it was either gonna be TURN or this one. Idk why but this one makes me so unbelievably emotional bc it was Harry who's Going Through Stuff and I just loved it a lot.

Fic 3: around the world in eighty thousand days, by fallfreely

Info: 1D, Liam/Harry

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/856935

Nadine’s comment: It was hard to pick a 1D fave but I think that this fic always had a v special place in my heart & I can't even explain why. I love the dynamic of this pairing (even though it's not even my OTP, wtf. I'm a Gryles and Narry truther... *eye emoji*) and the whole FEEL of this fic and it's slow burn tour fic, soo.

━

Submitted by: Frecklebomb

Fic 1: Shalbatana

Info: Mars Trilogy, Gen

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6629

Frecklebomb’s comment: A beautifully-written gen fic (with an incredibly gorgeous podfic by Luzula) in the near-future-scifi Mars Trilogy fandom but very easy to enjoy without canon knowledge. I revisit this story over and over and always marvel at the presence of the landscape and alien planet in it, the way it feels like a character. Bonus Mars rover feelings (I cry every time about the robot).

Fic 2: Through a Glass Darkly, by susiecarter

Info: DCU, Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19395793/chapters/46155535

Frecklebomb’s comment: Sprawling post-apocalyptic epic, so rich and cinematic that it feels like a movie I somehow read. The worldbuilding and tension of the focal ship are what sucked me into this fic, but what stayed with me was the richness of the ensemble characters. I find myself just thinking about their character arcs, and imagining what they'd be doing post-story. I want fic of this fic.

Fic 3: Too Far Down The Road, by SoniaVice

Info: Hockey, OMC/OMC

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13208136/chapters/30212907

Frecklebomb’s comment: An amnesia trope origfic set in handwavey hockey fandom (author said they 'set it free' to be OMC/OMC when the dynamic needed to be different from the RPF ship it started out as). It gives me so many good feelings about family (of choice and otherwise) and ageing and self-acceptance and sexuality, and the way you can choose to be changed by the people you spend your life with.

━

Submitted by: Em (Springsteen)

Fic 1: Pull Me Under, by zarah5

Info: 1D, Harry/Louis

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/870766

Em’s comment: first of all zarah5 is a fandom legend. second, this is like the pinnacle of fake relationship fics to me it's 140k and so much of it is pining and like truly, who among us doesn't love harry styles with their whole heart. I can't think about the '10s without thinking about one direction and when this fic came out I remember a lot of people fully losing their minds.

Fic 2: Door to Door, by Ferritin4

Info: Hockey RPF, Jamie Benn/Tyler Seguin

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3478298

Em’s comment: this is one of the first hockey fics I ever read and I still come back to it so often. The relationship builds so well, Tyler's dogs are in it, it's just so sweet, and plus it's a very readable 10k.

Fic 3: Darling It Is No Joke, by thehoyden

Info: Teen Wolf, Stiles/Derek

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/399194

Em’s comment: look I can't be retrospective about this decade and /not/ include a sterek fic. the first half of this decade for me was all 1d and teen wolf and full disclosure, it's been a while since I've reread this fic, but I remember the banter being really stellar and thehoyden is another one of those authors who I just. Adore.

━

Submitted by: Dan

Fic 1: The Heart Rate of a Mouse (series) by Anna (arctic_grey)

Info: Bandom, Ryan Ross/Brendan Urie

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/712953

Dan’s comment: This fic is incredibly iconic. It’s definitely one of my favorites of all time—the way the story is told is just heart wrenching, and it manages to always keep you on edge about what’s going to happen. The portrayal of self discovery, love, jealousy, down to the settings and all the social issues of the time period (the 70s), is amazingly done.

Fic 2: The Cat’s Miaow by Pennyplainknits

Info: Bandom, Patrick Stump/Pete Wentz

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/930529

Dan’s comment: This fic is unlike anything else I’ve read. First off, I LOVE historical AUs, and the noir setting is everything I could have wanted and more. The author has managed to create such a delicate and profound romance along with an interesting plot that borders on thriller without ever going too far with either side of the story.

Fic 3: Get Real Get Right (Fuckin Right) by sophiahelix

Info: Riveyonce Cuoknowles, Sufjan Stevens/Drake

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9029020

Dan’s comment: Honestly? This is just art.

━

Submitted by: Carina

Fic 1: Bite Marks by provocative_envy

Info: HP, Hermione/Draco

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3580953/chapters/7894464

Carina’s comment: i've shied away from aus in harry potter fic for years, especially american college aus but this fic in my opinion kept the best of the characters and modernized them in a way that felt true to who they are.

Fic 2: old jokes from a wild youth, by knightspur

Info: SEVENTEEN RPF, Mingyu/Minghao

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18127073

Carina’s comment: mingyu and minghao are in love, but they're not soulmates. i love the dynamics and the quiet intimacy between them, and also how they work through wanting to be together despite them not having a bond in the way soulmates have.

━

Submitted by: Katy

Fic 1: The River and The Deep Green Bend by liquidmeasure

Info: 1D, Harry/Niall

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6005275

Katy’s comment: this fic honestly surpasses the genre of fic. it is a genre all its own. it is the pinnacle in catharsis and heartbreak and having a satisfying end that is completely unsatisfying as well. I will never recover from this fic.

Fic 2: Out of the Dead Land by Orphan Account

Info: MCU, Steve/Bucky

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1871955

Katy’s comment: there is a specific phrase in this fic that has and will continue to stay with me. I will never hear the phrase "up or down" without feeling immense heartbreak. an amazing blend of source material to create something altogether its own - but could still take place in either canon

Fic 3: Up We Go by Oh_Hey_Tae

Info: BTS, Taehyung/Jimin

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12297168

Katy’s comment: this fic is one that I found more recently, but I can already tell that it is one that is going to stick with me for a long long time. it is another fic that I feel transcends the genre of fic entirely

━

Submitted by: Corie

Fic 1: Build A Temple In Me by Authoress

Info: Haikyuu!, Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3716002

Corie’s comment: A wonderful and moving fanfic with fantasy akin to studio ghibli. If I have to recommend Haikyuu fanfiction this is it.

Fic 2: Close to the Chest by darkmagicalgirl

Info: Haikyuu!, Kyoutani Kentarou/Yahaba Shigeru

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3898771/chapters/8721568

Corie’s comment: Another haikyuu!! Fic! I remember reccing this to my friend and she said it was more akin to a novel then any fanfiction she has read. High praise IMO

Fic 3: Fake Sugar by minverse

Info: BTS, Jungkook/Seokjin

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14707098/chapters/33987549

Corie’s comment: Oh sweet god I love minverse’s writing and this fic has it all. Romance, smut, and a nice dollop of humor.

━

Submitted by: Abby

Fic 1: an awful curse by blinkiesays

Info: Teen Wolf, Stiles/Derek

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/604092

Abby’s comment: Non-linear timeline, au within the story, "every me loves every you," domesticity but also heavy angst, and it's so beautifully written it makes me want to cry reading it. also it harkens back to the time of when the show was still good.

Fic 2: dance this silence down (the emergency room remix) by Fahye

Info: Les Miserables, Enjorlas/Grantaire

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/994140/chapters/1966093

Abby’s comment: It's such a great, understandable ensemble fic for a dense canon, with such a great modern day au setting, but the whole time it really deals with the main character's depression and alcoholism and the complete overwhelming love that he has for the guy he's shipped with. it's so gritty and real but the ending brings so much hope I love it.

Fic 3: comment fic by anon

Info: iCarly, Sam/Spencer

Link: https://author-abz.livejournal.com/35003.html

Abby’s comment: this is an ANONYMOUS comment fic someone wrote me when I was feeling down on LJ and it's so short but so complete, and it says everything it needs to about it being okay to mess up and just be messed up together. also: "glitter emergency" (technically a cheat, it's from 2008; I forgot it was so old)

━

Submitted by: Kassie

Fic 1: An Exercise in ‘Worthless’ by beastofthesky

Info: Supernatural, Dean/Castiel

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/535676

Kassie’s comment: an exercise in worthless introduced me (indirectly) to my favorite musician and (directly) to the subject i almost minored in during undergrad, so honestly i would put it as a fic of the decade even if it wasn’t one of the best fics i read in the supernatural fandom.

Fic 2: Superstition (series) by Superstition_hockey

Info: Hockey, OMC/OMC

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/413233

Kassie’s comment: superstition started out as a tropey, fun, lighthearted short fic, and grew into a big thing that deals with a lot of serious topics incredibly well while also being still very funny and emotional and having honestly some of my favorite fictional characters i’ve read in years

Fic 3: United States v. Barnes

Info: MCU, Steve/Bucky

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2304905/chapters/5071058

Kassie’s comment: united states v barnes is the multimedia fic of my DREAMS. this is what i want to show people to explain why i love fanfic so much. it does so much with the medium its working in and the presentation of the fic, and fits that perfect fanfic niche of exploring the kind of background that will never appear in canon but that everyone wonders about.

━

Submitted by: Kat

Fic 1: I’ve felt and I’ve Been by autotunedd

Info: Big Bang RPF, Seunghyun/Jiyong

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15349758/chapters/35616516

Kat’s comment: Possibly the fic that marked my entire decade. The characters are so human and real, the plot is heavy and winding and the twists sometimes seem life ending. It is heavy, it is painful, it is sad, it is angsty, it is maybe even a smidge too real and dangerous at times, but it makes a solid read, a long, relatable novel about real people with real fears and problems.

Fic 2: Eversion by thespectaclesofthor

Info: Detroit: Become Human, Hank Anderson/Connor

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15754140/chapters/36638253

Kat’s comment: Beautiful, long, detailed, well written, hard hitting, serious, sweet, painful, kinky, all in one! The characters have so much depth, their issues and inner workings seem so real and the plot is so carefully crafted and detailed, every chapter keeps you at the edge of your seat. All in all, beautifully crafted, passionate, hard hitting piece that I couldn't help falling in love with.

Fic 3: Eggshell Landscapes and the Burden of Love by NoContractTermination

Info: NCT RPF, Taeil/Johnny

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10446438

Kat’s comment: Short, sweet, angsty and charming! I loved the intimate look into their relationship this fic brings, the trials and tribulations and the struggle to communicate. It all seemed so raw and real and coupled with the author's beautiful writing, it all came together in a perfect read, with bounds of re-read potential.

━

Submitted by: Wen

Fic 1: the bellwether by highoctane

Info: Polygon RPF, Brian/Pat

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18634426

Wen’s comment: Feelings!!! It's really refreshing to read a character who, as an established adult, is reconfiguring an understanding of himself without it being either a whole crisis or a sudden seamless lightbulb moment. It's very fair to both characters' emotions, letting them both react in a way that feels wonderfully human and real rather than idealistic.

Fic 2: Five Times the Potion Seller Refused to Sell a Potion (and One Time He Didn’t) by misura

Info: Potion Seller (Justin Kuritzkes Short Film), Knight/Potion Seller

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5441447

Wen’s comment: It's based on a 3 minute meme video and if it was just a tweet or post with the title alone it would be a great joke but... someone went and wrote the dang thing! And it could have been ridiculous crackfic, and while it certainly toes that line it's also got a really fun flow of dialogue that leaves a lot to the imagination without it getting confusing.

Fic 3: I Am The Horrible Goose That Lives In The Town by Daniel Lavery

Info: The Untitled Goose Game, gen

Link: https://www.shatnerchatner.com/p/i-am-the-horrible-goose-that-lives

Wen’s comment: the writing is tremendous and sits beautifully in that razor's edge space where english is used just strangely enough to create a fantastic character voice without going too far and falling into some kind of awkward english language uncanny valley. it's so hard to pick out the best line because every line is the best line. "Here I am coming, with the good news of me, and you hate it. You can think only of the bell and how much I have it, and you are never the goose."

━

Submitted by: Mage

Fic 1: Fog, Sheets and Thunder by theopteryx

Info: My Chemical Romance RPF, Frank/Gerard

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/351396

Mage’s comment: i have literally thought about this fic at least once a week since i read it in 2012. do not ask me why. i have no answers.

Fic 2: Flowers in Bones by fringecity (indiachick)

Info: BTS, Taehyung/Yoongi

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16256390

Mage’s comment: sometimes i just wanna be a careful selection of small animal bones that yoongi gently unearths and meticulously crafts into an altar of pressed flowers and ink

Fic 3: It Happened Quiet by hobimo

Info: BTS, Taehyung/Yoongi

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15070646/chapters/34939646

Mage’s comment: haunted woods :) cryptids :) that deeply unsettling feeling that there are greater, mysterious forces at work and there's nothing you can do about it :)

━

Submitted by: BirdieLeonie

Fic 1: Reprise (series) by Elfpen

Info: Star Wars, various (Obi-Wan centric)

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/454408

BirdieLeonie’s comment: I spent about seven months of my life reading nothing but Star Wars time-travel fix-it fics. (I am not exaggerating; there are enough of them to last that long or longer.) This is my favorite.

Fic 2: Friday Night Arrives Without a Suitcase by marycontraire

Info: Hockey RPF, Danny Briere/Claude Giroux

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/534247

BirdieLeonie’s comment: This is a fic I have kept coming back to again and again in the years since I first read it. It's domestic and sweet and still adult. It's like curtainfic, inverted; the leads live together and parent their kids and go grocery shopping before they have a romantic or sexual relationship.

Fic 3: The Hero’s Journey; or: What Jasper Sitwell Did Last Summer (podfic), by artzbots, blackglass, daroos, girlwithabubblegun, kalakirya, Opalsong, reena_jenkins, RsCreighton, sabinelagrande

Info: MCU & Welcome to Night Vale, Jemma Simmons/Jasper Sitwell

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6462223

BirdieLeonie’s comment: I love podfic, I love crossovers, and I love this fic. Again, I picked this because of all the thousands of MCU fics I've read, this is the one I find myself coming back to repeatedly. This crossover is creative, fun, and plays with one of my favorite tropes: what was happening to a minor character in the background of the story we saw?

[dukeofriven]

Let Boys Love Girl Things

For a deeply depressed, angry, and vitriolic bisexual 20-something who stumbled out of a toxic 2-year intensive college program confused as fuck about his gender and hurting everyone around him, it is with no exaggeration that I say My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic’s low-key stakes, warmth, humour, kindness, and utter lack of cynical irony was my first step on the road not only to recovery but coming even sort of close to having an accord with my identity. So I quite frankly I am exhausted that I have spent nine years being judged on the behaviour of a fandom group from 4chan. Nine years ago there was a gross perpetuation of toxic masculinity where men were ridiculed en-masse for liking a “girl’s show,” a campaign of derision that only intensified as the worst elements of 4chan gave everyone the evidence they seemed to want to justify their snap-judgement that boys liking girls shows was fundamentally weird, gross, and worthy of censure. We like to clap ourselves on the back for how woke we are now. There’s no discourse that says it is “skeevy” that men enjoy She-Ra, and petulant MRAs on Reddit getting upset about the show’s new ‘feminist’ agenda is considered to be representative of nothing other than petulant MRAs on Reddit, not the She-Ra fandom as a whole. Steven Universe is triumphed everywhere as a victory for better masculinity - without anyone ever noting that Steven would love every single moment of My Little Pony: FiM. He’d cry at the wedding, and he’d weep at the destruction of the library, and he’d think the Storm King was an effective villain while Connie rolled her eyes and tried and failed to point-out the weak characterization. Steven would cheer and cry every time a villain was redeemed through the power of love and friendship. Because he’s Steven, and he loves schmaltz, and it’s okay for a boy to like schmaltz. If we truly believe that, as we say we do, it’s time let the habit of shaming boys who liked a cartoon show go. It’s been a decade. Yes: MLP: FiM had a disgusting contingent of its fandom. You know what other franchise has that problem? A little film series you might have heard of called Star Wars. A contingent of Star Wars fandom was so racist it drove actors of colour off of twitter because it piled hate upon them. It was so misogynistic that somebody out there recut the entirety of The Last Jedi so that men save the day and all the women get reduced to bit parts. And yet if I see a Star Wars avatar my first assumption generally isn’t “oh you like Star Wars, so you must therefore be a misogynistic racist.” Because statistically speaking, you aren’t - just like, statistically speaking, the men who liked My Little Pony weren’t 4chan users. Not that most people bothered to find that out, because - shockingly - the worst elements had loud voices and got all the press, and the standard we applied to them was so entrenched in patriarchy that none of us wanted to accept that men could like the girls show without it being some gross violation of the proper order. I’m tired of that. The show’s been on nine years - long enough that kids who grew up watching it are old enough to start entering “The Discourse Space,” and what kind of example do we want to set for them that a show that might have meant so much to them growing up is given a defacto label of deviancy? ”Adult males like this show about the little kiddie ponies - that’s so creepy.” There’s a point I want to make here that I think really needs to be said so I am going to make it large

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is a show for children; it is not a show about children.

What do I mean by this? Adventure Time is the story of Finn, a 12-year-old. Steven Universe is a show about Steven Universe, a 12-year-old. Ok K.O. is a show about K.O. a 6-11 year-old. Avatar: The Last Airbender is about a group of kids aged 11-14. She-Ra is a show about Adora who is… 16-ish? 17? And so on.

MLP:FiM is a show about 20-somethings. It’s a show about a grad student, a small business owner, a baker, a farmer, an environmental technician, a… trust fund baby?*... and, later, a former dictator. Yes, there are some kid characters, but the primary cast are all young adults who’ve reached adulthood and found themselves having to learn over and over again all sorts of shit they really ought to have known by now but don’t. It is, in short, a story about Millennials: an entire generation who reached adulthood not knowing what that meant or how to cope. Every time you laugh at the characters and go “how do they not know this [obvious thing that is obvious to adults]” you do so while watching a children’s cartoon rather than paying your taxes because you’re still not sure how to do that properly and are just low-key freaking out about it and hoping the problem goes away on its own. I speak from experience. The list in endless: we might ridicule the ponies ignorance at social graces, but i’ve been on this hellsite long enough that I’m pretty sure most of you are social-anxious neurotics who cock-up just as often and just as spectacularly as any pony on the show.

I’ve grown up in-sync with these characters. I’ve seen them go from floundering at 20 to sorta getting their act together and coming to grips with adult life as they reach 30. I’ve seen them become successful, get new jobs, start new careers. There have been episodes about how to deal with parents who embarrass you, how to get your parents to understand that you’re an adult now and want to be treated that way. There str stories about how to handle deadbeat older brothers who won’t stop mooching off your emotional labour, and how to mourn parents who’ve died. There are also stories about the byzantine nature of school regulation. (If next season is all about Twilight Sparkle reforming the Equestrian tax code it will be entirely in keeping with the adult-life-trend the show has been on for a while.)

My point with all this is that the “liking the kid’s show” narrative is disingenuous in the way it frames fans as creepy. To get tu quoque about it all I could raise my hand and point at all you adults gushing about all these kid protagonists in your favourite cartoon shows and go “Isn’t that CREEPY and GROSS you DEVIANTS” and on and on and on.

But I won’t.

Because it was never really about that, was it? It’s never been about that.

It was, at first, about what it was and wasn’t okay for boys - for men - to like. As a kid who’d been mercilessly bullied for being even the tiniest bit effeminate, openly embracing the fact that I liked this show about the colourful cartoon ponies felt like painting a target on my back. As for the boys younger than me - the boys still in high school in 2010 and 2011 who openly embraced this show? Braver than any US marine. When this all started it was about policing what was ‘appropriate’ for boys - nobody gave the adult Transformers fandom the same kind of shit, I assure you. It was about patriarchy - and how unwilling we all were to let go of it, no matter how progressive we told ourselves we were. Just like any moral panic, it developed a far more disturbing tone of disapprobation because if a handful of fans on 4chan were creepy than surely all the fandom was creepy. I’ve had plenty of fun mail in my inbox as people with cartoon avatars told me my opinion was invalid because I had an avatar from a different cartoon show. If I had an MP avatar that made me a “brony,” which made me a creepy MRA edgelord. Never mind that I don’t even use the term, and haven’t since… well, since the grossest elements of 4chan got it tattooed on their phalluses and trumpeted it to the heavens as the calling card of their misogyny.

There was a moment, I think, back in the halcyon days of 2010 and 2011 where we could have taken this another way. Where, socially, the rise of boys watching ‘the girl’s show’ was treated as a breakthrough, as a paradigm shift, as something to be celebrated and nurtured instead of something to revile like an anti-homosexual PSA from the 1950s. “Can’t let the adult men near that children’s show, who knows what might happen. They might repeat the trends that all fandoms have done for decades upon decades - the horror!”

We could have been better - but we weren’t. We mocked, and clutched our pearls, and looked appalled, and in doing so we fed the trolls all the ammunition they’d ever need to turn themselves into The Poor Oppressed Babies who just wanted to be left alone to watch their ponies and belittle women in peace. So the gender-questioning bi boy trying to feel good about himself got rounded-up with the usual 4chan suspects because we both enjoyed the same television program.

Patriarchy is not an external force with its boot upon our necks: it is a collaborative social effort, reinforced both consciously and sub-consciously every day. The internet of the early 2010s was a very different place, and the decisions we made then still live with us today. If we want to stop the perpetuation of toxic masculinity, we have to ourselves cease to perpetuate it. There’s an entire generation of queer boys and non-binary boys and non-bro cis-boys - the kind who cry and care and give a shit about kindness - who have grown up on Steven Universe and Adventure Time and yes, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. These are boys who deserve to have a better place prepared for them than I had, one that isn’t still littered by the baggage of all the dumb stupid crap from 2010 and 2011.

It’s time to let the ghost of Toxic 4chan Fandoms Past go already, and let this show about cartoon ponies be free to entertain and delight without incurring a moral inquisition. Life is so bad right now, the news is so dire. Curl up with My Little pony: Friendship is Magic and let all its goodness, and kindness, and laughter, and caring carry you away and remind you that we can still tell stories about worlds in which those virtues are treasured. Let the show stand on its actual merits, and not the cultural lodestones of long-gone reprobates. And stop granting the phantoms of 4chan the power to say anything meaningful in 2019.

_________________ *Serious question: what does Fluttershy do for a living? Like, as her job? For most of the series? She’s the only one who doesn’t have a meaningful career, and after meeting her enabling parents you just know she’s been living off pre-existing savings for years (she’s thrifty like that).

[Note: this post was originally posted in this thread. It has since been re-edited and slightly modified.]

[yadesghostninja]

weird asks 62 and 93

ok, Let’s See....

62. 7 characters you relate to....

I gonna make it about ninjago cuz I was thinking in make a blog about it

Ninjago relate:

1. Lloyd, Yeeehh I mean about getting an explanation about everything, wierd smile (my bro tells me that xD) I talk a lot about myself whit strangers and animals Lol, I hate to talk about how I really fell If that would look like a weakness. I have daddd issues yes but even that I appreciate him. I’m persistent whit my Ideals, aslo have “poison snakes” friends. Improvisation allways...get in love whit the first sight...u///u

2.Cole, MY WEEAKKNESS ARE CAKE, but MY BODY IS A TEMPLE XD

Loves to sing even if nobody likes it. I’ll take care of little kids in the work (It’s a cyber coffee, several times I shared my legos to get entertained them while my bro attends their parents). I hate high places. I miss my kung fu teacher a lot (he moved to another state u_u) I have a better sense of humor when I saw something that I can do a meme about it. I see ghosts and paranormal things... at the beginning I have a lot of fear about that, but I just tamed it

3. Zane, I’m always want to help anyone how needs it. I can’t understand some humor out of context (sarcasm or local jokes). Taking tasks really serious. I’m autism, so people think I’m kinda cold and out of emotions when I talk but I’m not, I can be funny?. I have some kind of prophetic dreams .__.

4. Nya, I’m not weak, and I’ll never let you see it, I like to make my own fictional Identities much more than my real one. I hate to be called “the girl” of the group (usually I am, but you know, I’m transgender). I’m always doing some new stuff, fell guilty for misleads I made and being easily frustrated by failures.

5. Ronin, You have money? I do It and no matter what, You have no money? oh well bye... (This applies in my work and I use it a lot -_-) I lied many times for convenience, work alone, but sometimes well people commove me.

6. Morro, I want to be the green ninja xD yeees, I’m a toxic Jealous person deep inside, I get easily Ilusionate for possibilities, and frequently being deceptionated for not getting what I want. Anxiety, a lot.

7.Hope/ Heavy metal, (I’ve mentioned I’m transgender? well, yes, I make the impression I’m a dude)(but I wanted to do it) I don’t like people lie to me when I put my faith or my hope on them. I will be loyal to people how have good Ideas.

93. Nicknames: 

-Quicksilver; In cosplay conventions is my favorite cosplay (as Evan Peters Quicksilver I mean, even for that I made Tate Langdon for AHS) 

-Kurt Cobain, my bro says I look like him whit my long hair and when I’m a depressed weeaboo 

-People of my town trying to saying my name (Linzee) like Lezy, Linset, lizzy, Ilse xD -_-  You know, I’m from Mexico, and Linzee was a last name in my mother’s family (Linzee’s and Prescott’s from Massachusetts)(sadly I didn’t meet no one of my foreigner family legacies, just by photos and once a cousin have a marriage party, but not the great deal) , many cousins have it as a name, and people found it like a strange name to pronounce xD, It’s annoying

-Yade, Yade is not my real name, I took it from somehow the Star Wars Jedi Academy game (Jaden Korr) you know hahaa, you make your own avatar in that game so like it a lot, but I want it sounds...more, diferent, and I found Yade Linzee sounds good, so, here I’m

Now @littlespaceboii I’m asking 62 too, 49 and 28 :3/

[frankunn-cain]

Rules: you must answer these 85 statements and tag 20 people

hi um @yoshifics tagged me in this thing so i’m gonna answer some things (thank you for thinking of me)

tagging: @freckledandspectacled @toriirdz @frank-myhero-iero @smut-smut-in-the-butt @talkriddletome @xhanac @completelychris @neverland-in-space @preasylumtrager @sirachas @partygoul321 @flux–and–flow 

 the last … 

 1. drink: herbal tea. yep, I’m a tea hoe

2. phone call: My dad, he told me my grandma’s sister died. I’ve only met her once, but it’s really affecting my grandma

 3. text message: to my brother, I’m trying to build a 3D printer

4. song you listened to: I Don’t Love You by My Chemical Romance… ok I’m a bit emo. I was sad leave me alone :p

5. time you cried: early june. my school isn’t letting me go to graduation.. i thought i’d get over it, but it’s still hitting me

6. dated someone twice: no?

7. kissed someone and regretted it: ya i guess. i enjoyed it, but i really shouldn’t have

8. been cheated on: well i hope not

9. lost someone special: they didn’t die (if that’s what this is asking), but a good friend just ghosted me out of nowhere idk

10. been depressed: ye been a constant thing for awhile :)

 11. gotten drunk and thrown up: haven’t thrown up because of it

favorite colors… 

12. light pale blue

13.  holographic black (idk if this counts lol)

14. slightly darker than blood red

in the last year have you… 

15. made new friend: ye i think so

16. fallen out of love: idk relationships are so confusing

17. laughed until you cried: once? maybe?

18. found out someone was talking about you: ya :/ idk how to deal with that

19. met someone who changed you: ya, they’ve helped me grow

20. found out who your friends are: ya. when i came out my friend groups treated me strangely.. so kinda had to find a new one

21. kissed someone on your facebook list: Yes. If by facebook list you mean we’re friends on facebook

general

 22. how many of your facebook friends do you know in real life: Pretty much all of them? i don’t use facebook really 

23. do you have any pets: ya, i got a bearded dragon named Smaug and a pup named Bailey. I kinda share my best friends cats (3 hypatia, ozzy, and achilles) because I spend so much time at their house (my situation at my house isn’t so great)

24. do you want to change your name: Yes i absolutely hate my birth name :)

 25. what did you do for your last birthday: had dinner with my boss idk i wanted to not be around my family

26. what time did you wake up: like noon. I’m jetlagged and i feel like a bum 

27. what were you doing at midnight last night: playing a new game i bought from the steam sale when i should’ve been drawing oops

28. name something you can’t wait for: a safe feeling :) i rly need to get away from my house. i get nightmares a lot and idk what to do

29. when was the last time you saw your mom: today

31. what are you listening to right now: sense8 on netflix a friend told me to. it’s p good

32. have you ever talked to a person named tom: Does Thomas count? If so yes. I know one from this space thing and one at school

33. something that is getting on your nerves: myself 

34. most visited website: this one? or youtube? 

35. hair colour: Black. i wanna try dying it

36. long or short hair: Short. one side is shaved rn

37. do you have a crush on someone: idk feelings are complicated

 38. what do you like about yourself: mm yikes. some stuff i’ve made i’m proud of

39. piercings: just my ears. i really wanted snake bites for a long time lol 

40. blood type: O- 

 41. nickname: pear, oswald, ozzie, peari, oz (insert pear emoji here) 

42. relationship status: relationships are confusing don’t talk to me 

43. zodiac: chinese: golden dragon, asrological: taurus i think

44. pronouns: he/ him

45. favourite tv show: (im gonna list a few) GOTHAM!! i’m in so deep man. it’s the only show i’ve watched air. Danny phantom, Avatar: the last airbender, Durarara, Soul Eater, sense8 (idk tho i haven’t finished), star trek: the next generation, shameless, sherlock, doctor who, great british baking show, chopped, merlin, magicians, ouran high school host club, series of unfortunate events, kill la kill, TEEN TITANS

46. tattoos: nope, but i reeeeally want some

47. right or left handed: Right-handed, but i can draw with both

48. surgery: not yet, but i need one soon

49. piercing: repeat?

50. sport: i did rowing in high school

51. vacation: i really want to go to a lot of places in asia (japan again, south korea, taiwan, tahiti )

52. pair of trainers: shoes? ya i have running shoes

more general 

53. eating: i like asian and mexican food

54. drinking: tea!!! (bubble tea too) slushies, apple juice, milk

55. i’m about to: try finishing the 3D printer, hopefully draw

56. waiting for: fulfillment idk i’m kinda a mess rn 

57. want: okie doki, a lot. security in the future, not to worry about money, a cat, surgery, time, clothes, better mental state, relationships i feel absolutely safe about

58. get married: yo man, that’s scary 

59. career: working in stop-motion animation

60. hugs or kisses: i like both in different contexts. hugs can be with more people, but still i hate strangers hugging me. making out is like v great tho :0

61. lips or eyes: Can I say both again? eyes can be so friggin cool tbh. irises are so complex and can like dilate an shit??? but mouths have so many different shapes????? im smitten bro

62. shorter or taller: either

63. older or younger: either? in a dating context i usually like older people. (I’ve had the biggest crush on my english teacher, sorry Mr. Rossen)

64. nice arms or nice stomach: i feel like those are weird things to pin against? why not arms or legs? but I guess arms? you ever see a guy with nice arms and you like omg strangle me. mkay just me (no one is gonna read this far)

65. hook up or relationship: i’m uh kinda asexual so i wouldn’t have hook up sex? but make out and stuff sure, but I’d rather have a healthy relationship because u can do nasty stuff and cuddly/ domestic stuff

66. troublemaker or hesitant: i’m a chaotic neutral, i’ll hesitate if i’m not sure of the outcome 

67. kissed a stranger: Nope

68. drank hard liquor: Ye but i’d rather mix it with stuff

69. lost glasses/contact lenses: ya my mom was so mad i felt terrible :(((

70. turned someone down: I guess? i was in a relationship and he was being pushy??

71. sex on the first date: no I could not 

72. broken someone’s heart: i do not know. i hope not. i’m sorry dude

73. had your heart broken: when I came out to my parents

74. been arrested: Nope 

75. cried when someone died: ya…this dude in my grade died recently. i saw him the day before.

76. fallen for a friend: ya i think 

do you believe in … 

77. yourself: HAHAHAHA 

78. miracles: yo idk i wish

79. love at first sight: not really? but i won’t be against

80. santa claus: Nope 

81. kiss on the first date: why not? 

82. angels: not as little kiddies with wings

other 

83. current best friend’s name: one? lol can’t pick. Teutie, Illuin, Heming 

84. eye colour: brown?

85. favourite movie: mm nah i’m gonna list again. HELLBOY!!! i rly like the avengers one, Lord of the rings, Coraline, the purge, sweeny todd, little shop of horrors, gremlins, zootopia, star trek, star wars, the little prince, mean girls, mad max, the man from uncle, guardians of the galaxy, x men, harry potter (i like the 4th the best)

welp! Thanks for tagging me @yoshifics This was really fun!

[theorangestar]

The Lives and Times of Bolin and Opal - All I Wish For You Is Happiness

Mako loves his little brother; he just wants him to be happy. And nothing seems to make Bolin happier than being with Opal.

Or, Bopal throughout Books 3 & 4 as viewed by Mako.

Truth be told, Mako used to think Bolin and Opal’s relationship wouldn’t last.

Now, he would never admit that to anyone. If Bolin ever found out it would break his heart. Mako would take that secret to the grave.

It’s not like he thought they were a bad couple. They were a very sweet couple. The problem was he knew his brother, and his brother… well, he didn’t have the best luck in relationships. Of course, Mako didn’t really have room to talk, considering his own history, but for a long time, Bolin never seemed to get far enough with anyone to call them “relationships.”

He’d flirted with many girls over the years, or at least what he called “flirting” (Mako would curse Shady Shin for years for teaching his brother all those terrible pick up lines). It only got worse when they formed the Fire Ferrets, since fangirls threw themselves at the chance to meet a professional pro-bender. Most of these fans were superficial, only caring about Bolin the Athlete and not Bolin the Person, but he ignored the warning signs and flirted with every fan who made an advance. Mako knew Bolin didn’t mean to come off as a player; Bolin was a romantic at heart, and every girl he met he imagined was “The One.” This, of course, led to a series of broken hearts and yet more awful pick up lines.

And then came Korra.

It took a while for Mako to understand what Bolin saw in her, but when he did… well, he had to agree. It all spiraled from there.

Now, his first kiss with Korra he did not regret, even to this day. It was the circumstances surrounding that kiss he regretted, especially the part he played in crushing his brother’s heart. He supposed he deserved that long walk across town from Narook’s back to their attic, a drunk Bolin and Pabu on his shoulders and tears and puke soaked into his jacket. Thankfully, Bolin couldn’t hold a grudge to save his life, and he forgave both Mako and Korra soon enough, something Mako would have taken a lot longer to do had their roles been reversed. A part of him admired Bolin for that, even if he felt he didn’t really deserve that forgiveness.

Eska was next. Could Mako have handled that a little better?… Yeah, probably. Could he have given better advise to his brother when he was clearly in distress? Um…maybe? He had never been good with expressing feelings; why would Bolin come to him for help? In retrospect he could see Bolin was clearly unhappy and needed help getting out of this destructive affair, but it was hard to worry about other relationships when his own was teetering on the brink, combined with the threat of an all out civil war.

Then when Bolin started with Ginger, the brothers were barely talking, so he never found out how far that relationship got. Probably not that far, considering Bolin hardly ever mentioned her.

After a very long conversation on the boat ride back to Republic City after Harmonic Convergence, one spent mourning over heartbreak and love lost for both brothers, Bolin decided he was done dating for a while. Mako was secretly relieved. These almost-relationships had really given heavy blows to Bolin’s confidence, and the poor boy needed a break to recharge and focus on other things. Mako was also relieved because he wouldn’t be getting himself involved in his brother’s love life again. He was much better off keeping his hands clean.

A few weeks later, Team Avatar arrived in Zaofu.

When they first met Opal Beifong, Mako immediately liked her. She was sweet, welcoming, intelligent, and down to earth. When she and Bolin introduced themselves, her cheeks turned pink, and her eyes stared wide at his smile. Mako had to do a double-take. Did she…. did she like Bolin? He wasn’t sure until his gaze met Korra’s, and her mischievous smirk confirmed it. This new airbender had the hots for his brother. Wow.

Luck was with Bolin that evening when he and Opal got to sit together at dinner; Mako took the seat next to them. He chatted contentedly with Asami while keeping an ear to his brother’s conversation. Of course he wasn’t eavesdropping, don’t be ridiculous. It’s not like Bolin could whisper anyway; it was harder not to listen. To his pleasant surprise, the two seemed to hit it off really well. They hung onto each other’s every word, their eyes bright and smiles wide. They leaned into each other. Their hands would occasionally brush, and they’d shyly pull away.

It was so sweet it was cavity-inducing. He had to do something.

Now, Mako had promised himself that he wouldn’t interfere with Bolin’s love life again, and he was sure it wouldn’t last. Opal was either going to be stuck in Zaofu or would go train with Tenzin; neither scenario was conducive to a romantic relationship. Besides, somewhere along the way Bolin was likely to screw this up, probably whenever he finally broke out the pickup lines. It was only a matter of time. Still, it was impossible to ignore the chemistry between the two, and Mako genuinely wanted to help. Maybe a summertime fling with Opal would help Bolin’s confidence. However, as much as they were drawn together, it was obvious they would need a little push.

That night in their suite, Mako slyly tried to bring up the subject of Opal. “So…” he started as he ran gel through his hair. “You and Opal seemed to hit it off at dinner. I think she’s really into you.”

Bolin was startled for a moment; his cheeks burned as he continued to shove his toothbrush in his mouth. “Yeah, I know. She’s sweet, and pretty, and super nice…” His tone was wistful but soon dropped. “Too bad she’s not my type.”

Now that was just silly. Mako noticed the sad slump to his brother’s shoulders and decided to keep pushing. “Right, I forgot. Your type is dumb mover star or psycho ice princess.” That was a little harsh, considering how recent those were, but it had to be done. He purposefully left out their shared attraction to Korra, and it thankfully went unnoticed.

Bolin spat out his toothpaste and pulled out his dramatic flare. “You know, that really hurts a little bit. Right. Here.” He clutched his heart and stuck out his lip in a pout. Okay, the lip was a good sign; that usually meant the drama was purposeful. Bolin looked back at himself in the mirror as thoughts tumbled in his head.

Come on, Bolin. Give it a shot! Mako pretended to go about his business, but kept Bolin in his peripheral. Just another moment…

“Hmm… Maybe you’re right, Bro,” Bolin said as he adjusted his spit curl. “Maybe Opal is Bolin material. Thanks!” Then he struck a pose in the mirror with a cheesy wink. “Yeahhh!”

What have I done? thought Mako.

However, an hour later Bolin came back into their suite, eyes distant and smile dreamy. “She likes me!” Bolin bubbled as he collapsed on his bed. “See, first I tried to go in all smooth-like…”(Oh, please, Bolin, no!) “And she didn’t like that at all. (Smart girl, Opal.) “Then she was just like… ‘be yourself.’ And she smiled at me… Mako, she has the best smile!… And yeah, we’re giving it a shot. Mako! She likes me!”

“Be yourself.” Of course, brilliant! Why hadn’t he thought of that?! That’s great advice! Again, Mako was not very good in the expressions department. He’d work on that.

Well, at least that little push was a success. Bolin and Opal were almost inseparable the rest of their time in Zaofu. Apart from their airbending/metalbending training, they spent as much time together as possible. Mako would often catch them holding hands as they walked the grounds, erupting in fits of giggles. They sat together during all their meals, sharing awkward glances and flushed cheeks. At least once he caught them stealing kisses hidden in a dark corner of the estate late at night. But curiously enough, most often they sat around talking. Just...talking. Mako didn’t think Bolin could just sit still and talk so long with anyone, but that’s what he saw. Hushed whispers exchanged, hinting at stories and jokes that only those two would know. It was amazing how closely they had bonded, and so quickly, but that was Bolin for you. He loved people with everything he had, and when he fell for someone, he fell hard. It just so happened that this time the feelings were reciprocated.

Of course the day came at the end of their week-long visit when Opal had to leave for the Northern Air Temple to join her fellow airbenders. Poor Bolin was crushed, but it was inevitable. They had all known that Team Avatar was going to continue on their adventure, and Opal would either go up North or stay in Zaofu. All day they had been overly sentimental and Bolin’s dramatics doubled. “Every time I eat raw kale, I’ll think of you.”  “Every time I feel a breeze, I’ll think of you.” “See that hedge over there? It makes me think of you.” While Opal wasn’t quite as dramatic, she was still quick to indulge in his theatrics, her smiles a little less bright as they stared longingly at each other.

When it came time for their final goodbyes, they stood at the foot of Opal’s airship clinging to each other almost desperately. No one could hear what they were whispering, but they were left alone. Let them have their moment. When they pulled away, Bolin’s eyes shown with unshed tears. He was trying so hard to stay calm. Opal leaned in to peck him on the cheek before continuing her goodbyes with her family. When the airship finally took flight, Bolin slumped forward with a defeated, heartbroken sigh. Korra wrapped an arm around his shoulders and led him back to the Beifong Estate; Mako came up on their other side and pat Bolin’s back sympathetically.

Everything would be fine, he said. Bolin would see Opal again. Things really weren’t so bad.

After the insanity of the Red Lotus came and left destruction in its wake, Bolin and Opal were reunited and picked up right were they left off. You could hardly find one without the other. If Bolin was home when Mako got off work, Opal would be there too. If he wasn’t home, Mako would have to take the long ferry ride to the Air Temple to drag him back to their new apartment. Honestly, it was starting to get a little annoying. He wondered if this was how Bolin felt when Mako and Korra and been dating their first few months.

Slowly, however, Mako started to see changes in his brother. He didn’t sleep in as late anymore; he made a conscious effort to keep the apartment clean and to start chewing with his mouth closed. He started taking things more seriously and did less talking and more listening when conversing with people. Could this all be because of Opal’s influence?

Bolin was adamant about Mako and Opal spending time together. It was awkward being the third wheel, but this was Bolin after all. It was crucial to him that the most important people in his life got along. The three would go on lunch and dinner dates, and to pro-bending matches (with the occasional detour to visit Toza, who gave Opal his stamp of approval). He watched as she was formally introduced to Grandma Yin and the rest of their family. He was pretty sure that right then and there Grandma had adopted Opal as one of her own, because she spent the entire visit cooing over her. On long walks around the city Bolin would point out various spots and highlights, noting parts of their not-so-grand childhood. Opal didn’t sneer or balk. She asked questions and held tightly onto Bolin’s arm as if to act as a barrier against the memories. For that, Mako was thankful.

If only things could have stayed that way. Unrest in the Earth Kingdom grew, and Bolin, desiring to help those suffering, joined Kuvira’s campaign. When the day finally came for him to leave, emotions were high. His departure for the Earth Kingdom was hard for everyone, especially Opal. This was back before Kuvira had gone off the deep end, and Opal’s anger towards the older woman hadn’t grown into the rage it would in the future. Even still, this would be the first time Bolin and Opal were at ideological odds, and also when their relationship changed to long distance.

Mako and Bolin said their parting words back home in private, so he stayed back and watched the young couple share their final moments: a few whispers, a tight embrace, and a longing kiss. Tears were in their eyes but refused to fall. As he, Opal, and their loved ones waved goodbye to Bolin at the train station, Mako let out a deep sigh. He was going to miss his little brother so very much. One glance at Opal, however, reminded him that the two boys weren’t alone anymore, and he wasn’t the only one to feel Bolin’s absence. He hoped this didn’t spell the end for his brother’s new found love.

Bolin’s letters came consistently every few weeks, and Mako tried his hardest to respond to them all. He wasn’t the only one receiving letters. Grandma Yin and Asami both received a few, as well as the airbender family while they took care of Pabu. He was sure Korra was getting some as well down at the South Pole.

The one who overwhelmingly got the most letters was Opal. It seemed every other time Mako visited the island she could be found  reading Bolin’s newest letter or writing one in return. He’d pop over to say hi and she’d struggle to hide the letters, her face red and flustered. She’d flash a sugary grin and try to deflect the subject, looking everywhere but his eyes, similar to Bolin. It finally occurred to Mako that his brother wasn’t the only one whose behavior was influenced by this relationship. It was a two-way street.

Mako couldn’t exactly say when he started seeing Opal as a sister instead of just his brother’s girlfriend. It was probably a little after Bolin’s departure, and this tiny airbender was left to fill the earthbender shaped hole in his life. She was enthusiastic about spending time with him, frequently dragging him out to lunch away from the police station. Every once in a while they’d go see a pro-bending game together where Opal’s personality did a complete 180 from calm airbender to Bruiser Beifong. (Wow, airbenders’ lungs were powerful!) When the pro-bending seasons were over, the arena was changed into a mover theater, and Opal hauled Mako to see the repeats of Nuktuk: Hero of the South. While they both agreed that Bolin’s performances were fantastic (Opal’s words. Mako just called it “entertaining”) they diverged on plot twists, the hokeyness of the villains, and the special effects.

Mako pretended not to notice after the first night that Opal bought a mover poster and kept it hidden behind her back. This girl was smitten.

But what they really bonded over, to their equal surprise, was reading. They both enjoyed the feeling of being whisked away from their worries for a while and the smell of bound paper and ink. Mako didn’t get a chance to read much as a child, so he didn’t have a lot to say when asked about his favorite book (in that moment it’d been The Tale of Avatar Aang, a history book loaned to him by Jinora). At hearing this, Opal provided Mako with a huge list of her favorite books that she insisted he check out from the library. She refused to give him spoilers, but often looked full to bursting when asking how far along he was, who his favorite characters were, what did he think of this plot twist or that action scene. She was like a bundle of Bolin’s excitement wrapped in Mako’s calm and cool head. He would’ve loved to have had her as a sibling. And the more he thought about her and Bolin together, the more it felt right.

So it hurt him to see Opal and Bolin’s relationship strain as the Empire began to rise and tension between countries grew. Mako wasn’t allowed to respond to Bolin’s letters once he was assigned as Prince Wu’s bodyguard (security reasons he was told), but he saw with Opal that the letters were becoming less frequent as the support for Kuvira divided.

Opal had become more and more furious with Kuvira and Baatar Jr’s actions the more she listened to the news and talked to her mother over the radio. With her fury, Bolin’s letters became a source of tension. It was clear she still had feelings for his brother; she assured him so once when he dared to ask. But she couldn’t see Bolin participating in the awful things she was hearing about in the Empire and was so confused. Mako understood the feeling.

Prince Wu’s disaster of a coronation brought with it a bittersweet reunion with Bolin, and Mako could clearly see Opal had been right. Bolin had changed. He was sterner, more serious, more mature. Too bad he was too blinded to see why Kuvira was heading down a dangerous road and dragging him along with her. He was in too deep.

He was furious with Bolin during their last conversation after the Coronation, but he regretted their fight every day. He wished they could’ve talked it out. He wished he could see what Bolin saw in Kuvira, or that he could have convinced Bolin that the Empire wasn’t the beacon of hope he thought it was. He wished he’d stay safe. Well, if Mako couldn’t talk some sense into him, maybe Opal could.

When he heard from Lin that the Earth Empire had made its way to Zaofu’s door, he knew Opal and Bolin would meet and talk. Opal was always levelheaded, and Bolin held Opal in such high regards. Surely she’d make him see reason, make him come home. Wishful thinking, of course; he knew getting away from Kuvira wouldn’t be as easy as saying, “I quit.”

Eventually a sky bison made its way from the Empire to Air Temple Island carrying Jinora, Ikki, and Meelo, as well as… Korra?! What? Opal was also with them. No Bolin.

After Mako and Asami had their “eventful” reunion with Korra, he set Wu up in Asami’s mansion with his family, then sought out Opal on the island. He had avoided asking Korra about Zaofu, since it was clear she was in no mood to talk about it, but he knew Opal would answer his questions.

When he found her, his heart burned. Her eyes were rimmed red and her lip quivered, but she still led him away from the temple so they could talk. “Was he there?” Mako didn’t have to specify who.

“At first.” Opal wiped at her eyes as they huddled near the cliffs where they wouldn’t be disturbed. “He was with Kuvira and my brother when they came to talk to Mom. She was using him to butter Mom up, but it didn’t work. He was so sure she was right, and I was so mad…” Mako handed her a handkerchief to dab her eyes and cheeks. She nodded thanks, but her voice still quivered. “Then Mom and Wing and Wei tried to get into their camp, and they were captured. He wasn’t there the next morning when we met out on the field for Korra’s duel. I didn’t see him anywhere. Kuvira said he was working on something with Junior, but… I can’t believe it, Mako, I can’t! If Bolin had seen that fight with Korra, if he knew she had captured my family, he never would have been okay with it. He’s too good for that! That’s not the man I lo—“ she stopped herself, Mako raising his eyebrows, before she continued. “She must be distracting him so he won’t interfere, or he found out and she… she…” She buried her face in the handkerchief. “Either way, he’s in trouble. I’m so worried about him. And now my family’s captured and no one knows what to do!”

He wouldn’t lie and say it would all be fine, he couldn’t guarantee that, and it wasn’t what she needed to hear. Mako wrapped an arm around her shoulders. It was a little awkward, even though they were friends. But if there was one thing he knew how to do, it was how to be a big brother. He could do that for her.

She sniffed and leaned against his side. “Thanks, Mako.”

He gave a nervous smile. “Sorry I’m not too good at the whole comforting thing. That’s more Bolin’s department.”

Opal let out a wispy chuckle. “You’re not bad at it.” They sat in comfortable silence before she let out a shaky breath. “I miss him.”

Mako gave her shoulder a squeeze. “Me too.”

Bolin’s return to Republic City was loud, unexpected, and a bit confusing, just like Bolin himself. After the mass rush of bewilderment and information that Bolin and Varrick brought with them, Mako fully realized, Wait, Bolin is here! And he’s alive! Once Wu took his eyes off him, he and Korra caught up with Bolin, who had taken off after a frustrated Opal.

This was it, Mako thought. The inevitable destruction of their relationship. Bolin was really going to have to make it up to Opal, but he had a habit of pushing when someone really needed space. Opal was already on a short fuse, and she was bound to snap at any moment. Even though Bolin was sorry about Kuvira, it was too little too late.

Bolin was clearly not okay, with his kinda-sorta break-up on top of the mess that was the Kuvira situation and his part in it, and even a reunion with Korra didn’t seem to bring him much joy. As they sat around trying to cheer him up, Asami drove by to check on them and the four finally had their first official Team Avatar reunion, and even that didn’t help Bolin feel much better. His mind was far away from City Hall, and by the way he kept scratching at his hair and tugging his jacket, he was sure to have a break down any moment.

“Maybe you should head to Asami’s mansion, Bro,” Mako told him after their fourth or fifth group hug. “Calm down and rest, you look like you need it. Let Grandma know you’re back; she’ll take care of you.”

Bolin shook his head, determination shining in his eyes. “Sorry, Mako. As much as I want to see Grandma and everyone else again, I can’t. Not until I’ve settled things with Opal. I’m gonna go to Air Temple Island, find Pabu, then we’re gonna think of a plan. I’ve got to make this up to her, Mako. Opal is so important to me; I can’t let it end like this, I can’t!”

Of course, Mako didn’t want to see Bolin’s heart broken, even if it was his own doing, but he didn’t see Bolin’s attempts at reconciliation ending well. Still, he couldn’t stop him from trying. “At least get cleaned up. You look like you haven’t bathed in weeks.”

“You know what? I haven’t.” Well, those hugs from earlier weren’t so warm and fuzzy now.

“Let’s include some new clothes with that clean up, hm?” Asami nodded to Bolin’s muddy and torn uniform before dragging him to her car. “You can’t make things up properly still dressed as the enemy, now can you?” Bolin couldn’t argue and was soon shoved into the passenger seat and carted off to Air Temple Island.

While Korra and Mako watched them leave from the front steps of City Hall, Korra glanced at him. “So… you think she’ll take him back?”

Mako shrugged. “Honestly, at this point? I have no idea. I’ll hope for the best and prepare for the worst. They make each other so happy; I want them to work it out.”

What he hadn’t prepared for was the note Kai gave him when he went to the island that evening. “It’s from Bolin,” the boy said. “And don’t get mad at me; I’m just the messenger.” Then he disappeared into the depths of the temple. Mako grimaced as he opened and read the letter.

“Dear Mako,

On secret mission with Opal & Chief. Be back in a few days, don’t worry. Feed Pabu for me!

- <3 Bolin”

Mako was going to kill him. That is, if Kuvira didn’t kill him first.

As angry as he was that his brother had once again gone off and dived right into another life-threatening situation, Mako still worried about him, because that’s what he did: worry. All the time. Just part of the job of being a big brother.

A few days later he couldn’t do anything but heave a sigh of relief when Bolin finally came back hand in hand with Opal, along with most of the Beifong clan and a rattled Zhu Li.

“I see you two are still together,” Mako said as Bolin dragged all three of them into a big hug.

“Because Opal is the most forgiving and wonderful person in the whole world!” His brother’s smile was wide enough for his face to break, and he was so light on his feet he could’ve flown. “She is the sun, the moon, the stars. Blessed by The Great Yue herself, so gracious, and compassionate, and wise, and humble, and beautif—”

“You can tone it down there, Bo.” Opal rolled her eyes. “I appreciate your compliments, but Aunt Lin was not kidding about locking you up for disturbing the peace if you didn’t shut up.”

“Right, okay…” he shuffled away. “I’ll just… go now… I’m taking Zhu Li to see Varrick… And I still need to say hi to Asami and Grandma, so��� yeah, bye.” And he was gone.

“So, you took him back.” Mako gave Opal a smirk. “He must have really begged.”

Opal rolled her eyes. “He didn’t ‘beg.’ At first he tried to ignore the entire mess and threw a picnic.” Mako smacked his forehead. “And after I chewed him out, he gave a heartfelt speech. He really was remorseful…” Her eyes softened.”But after everything that happened outside Zaofu and that camp, saving my family… Kuvira was a terrible influence on him, but his heart never changed. I’m grateful for that. I think he deserves a second chance.”

Hm… He shouldn’t pry. He really shouldn’t. But this was big brother territory. He just had to know. “Have you told him?”

“Told him what?”

“All those nice things you said while he was gone. You know, your real feelings?”

Opal blinked before turning completely red. “I, what? What are you…? I have no idea… You’re just as bad as Kai!” She huffed and stormed off to join her parents. Mako just laughed. Opal was stubborn, just like all Beifongs, but he knew she’d say something eventually. It was only a matter of time.

Technically he didn’t have to wait long — only a week — but it felt like forever. Bolin, as it turned out, had already confessed his love to Opal before their rescue mission, so the whole week they prepared for Kuvira’s arrival to the City, it was all Bolin could talk about.

“… And I poured my heart out, you know?” Bolin droned on and on. “I actually thought it was a good speech. And when I said, ‘I love you,’ she got this look on her face. I’m still not sure what it meant; she was pretty upset at the time. What does this mean? Do you think she feels the same? I mean, we’re still together, but she hasn’t mentioned it. What if she’s still with me out of pity? I mean, she said, ‘Thanks!’ What does that meeeeaaaaan?!”

“Bolin, calm down!” Mako grumbled. “Things are hectic right now. We’ve all been under a lot of stress, and we’re preparing for war. Give her time. You two will have plenty of time to talk if we survive. Aren’t you supposed to be helping Varrick and Zhu Li right now?”

“Mako, their relationship right now makes mine and Opal’s seem like a vacation on Ember Island. I’m staying away as much as I can until they resolve it.”

The day of the confession finally came with the arrival of the Colossus. Opal was dealing with a head injury and staying at Asami’s office to recover while their group headed out with one final charge. The airbender stuck her head out a window and called out to his brother. “Bolin!”

“Opal?”

“I love you!”

Mako was certain that if he’d touched Bolin in that moment, he would have exploded. His eyes were the brightest he’d ever seen, the smile splitting his face was almost painful yet contagious. “R-Really?”

“Yes! So you better make it back to me, you got that?”

“Yes! Crystal clear!” Bolin grabbed Mako’s shoulders and shook him so hard Mako thought his head would fall off. “Did you hear that?! She loves me! She loves me!” It took both Mako and Korra to drag the lovesick boy away as he called back to his sweetheart. “I’ll be back! I promise! We’ll kick Kuvira’s butt in no time!”

“You better!”

The couple was cut off by distance, but that didn’t stop Bolin as he babbled on and on about Opal, and suns, and stars, and birds in the spring. “I feel like I could climb every mountain! Ford every stream! Follow every rainbow!”

Mako rolled his eyes as he shared a smirk with Korra. “I’m really happy for you, Bro, but lets hold off celebrating until after the battle, shall we?”

“Right, right, battle! I feel amazing! I’m invincible! Kuvira won’t know what hit her! Ha!” He spun out of their grip and almost danced after the rest of the group.

The battle was long but ultimately ended in triumph, and Bolin and Opal were reunited. Mako didn’t remember much of those first few days afterwards (he was only conscious half the time while recovering from that spirit vine core), but what he remembered from their bedside visits, they were steadfast, close, and occasionally sickeningly sweet. That could’ve been just the painkillers that were forced down his throat, but it was hard to tell. But when he was finally well enough to get out of bed, he would find them off in corners together speaking quietly or giggling just as they had three years ago. It was a little different this time, though. The nervous jitters were gone, the shy stolen glimpses had been replaced by solid confidence and grounding glances. It was as if they understood each other in ways they hadn’t before. Also, more often than before, they’d be out in the open, side by side, partners in everything.

He was still unsure exactly what all had happened during the Beifong Rescue, but between then and the Battle of Republic City, something had shifted and for the better. The way his brother looked at Opal and had her eyes match him back; Mako couldn’t be happier for them.

At Varrick and Zhu Li’s wedding, he watched Bolin and Opal spin on the dance floor and hilariously fail at party games. Mako nodded to himself. This felt right.

“How you doin’ over there, Bro?” Bolin asked as he and Opal glided up to him. “Your arm doing okay? Not too bored standing on the sidelines?”

“I’m fine, Bolin, don’t you worry.” Mako shot his brother a grin. “You two sure seemed to enjoy yourselves out there. You’ve got some moves.”

“All thanks to Opal, of course,” Bolin beamed, wrapping his arms around her waist. “She’s an amazing ballroom dancer.”

Opal rolled her eyes. “I’m not that amazing. I’m not my mother. But I know a few things, and Bo’s a fast learner.” She tugged lightly on Bolin’s suit jacket.

“I’ve got to say, this wedding has been quite the event. Varrick and Zhu Li really did go all out, and on such short notice.” Mako gestured to the expanse of lights, tables, and guests. “Are you two taking notes? You might want to remember some of this stuff for your own wedding.”

“Well, there’s an awful lot of blue, which is more of a Water Tribe color. I’d go with more greens and yellows—wait, what?” Bolin sputtered. His cheeks flushed bright red as Opal’s eyes darted everywhere but the brothers. “W-Wedding? Oh, Mako, Bro! Isn’t it a little early to be thinking about a wedding? I mean, we just got back together. Who’s thinking about a wedding?” He noticed Opal now staring at him. “N-Not that marrying you isn’t a nice thought! I’d love to marry you! Oh wait, no! Now I sound desperate! I mean, it’s too soon to think about it! I mean… Hey, does anyone want something to drink? I’m thirsty!”

Opal’s cheeks were pink, but she nodded with a smile. “I’d like a drink.” She pulled Bolin towards the bar and waved to Mako. “It was nice talking to you, Mako. Save us a dance, okay?”

“Will do!” Mako called, and the couple disappeared into the crowd.

He shook his head with an exasperated sigh. Oh, what was he going to do with those two? Ah well. There was plenty of time to think about weddings. If things kept going as well as they were, a wedding was imminent. Those two were perfect for each other. Mako couldn’t wait.

That wedding did eventually happen two and a half years later. Everyone expected Bolin to cry at the ceremony, and he did. Oh, he did. He always had a tissue within arms reach. He was incredibly predictable.

What no one predicted was that Mako would be the first to cry at the wedding and the last to stop.

Oh, he did.

[reduxroyal]

What are you thoughts on fire emblem heroes so far? And who's on your team?

lol okay buckle the fuckle in kids this is gonna be a ride

(also thank you for this ask and I’m sorry you’re about to get way more info than you probably wanted)

We’ll start with the short answer, so people who aren’t really here for a fucking Fire Emblem history lesson can dip:

Heroes is a fun little game that is honestly a good test to see if you’d like proper titles because the mechanics are identical. They use smaller versions of the original maps, and even pull a lot of the classic music. It’s fun, it works, and there are some nice nods to the older games. My team is Lazlow, Tiki, Niles, and Frederick, all four star or below because the gotcha gods hate me.

Here’s the long answer. Like, really long answer.

Fire Emblem is, historically, not what we’d call a raging success in the US. The first six titles were Japan-exclusive. So from 1990 until 2003, nobody in the US really knew or cared about Fire Emblem because there were no fuckin games for them to play. So what happened to change that?

Melee. Melee happened.

Marth and Roy (for whatever fucking reason I still don’t know why) were on the roster of the 2001 fighter Super Smash Bros. Melee and boy howdy were they popular. You may remember that all of their voice lines were in Japanese, and that’s because they literally didn’t have English voice actors, because there were no English Fire Emblem titles. To be fair FE didn’t use cutscenes at that point so there were probably no voice actors period but like whatever.

So Roy and Marth become like, overnight sensations, and that coupled with the success of Intelligent System’s other tactical RPG, Advance Wars, prods Nintendo to give it a shot and release Blazing Blade internationally for the GBA in 2003. Blazing Blade is the story of Eliwood, Roy’s father, as well as Lyn and Hector, two other big names in FE lore.

But Blazing Blade only sells so-so. In fact, over the next eleven years, Fire Emblem hits a slump, both in Japan and abroad. Titles like Sacred Stones (the first video game I ever played) Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn (why would you put a tactical RPG on anything other than a handheld literally why why why it makes no sense omfg) and Shadow Dragon (which is a rehash of the first game, Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light) all do pretty mediocre.

So now the year is like 2010-ish and FE’s not picking up it’s lost revenue or interest, so Intelligent Systems starts planning what is essentially going to be the franchise’s finale, and that’s Fire Emblem Awakening. Intelligent Systems pulls out all the fuckin stops to make the best game they possibly can so it will be a proper last hurrah. If Awakening didn’t sell well, Fire Emblem was going to be shelved forever.

Awakening, of course, due to many things like good advertising, the right platform, a really fucking solid game with cool new mechanics, likeable characters, a decent plot, and fucking gorgeous cutscenes, becomes the best-selling game in Fire Emblem’s twenty-three year history. Which leads to the somewhat awkward question of what the fuck do you do when the thing that was supposed to be your franchise’s finale becomes the most popular installment of the whole goddamn series?

Well, if you’re Nintendo, you try to recreate it.

That’s what Fates is: a recreation. They (understandably) want to make that magic happen again. So they put together the same artists, a lot of the same voice actors, and everyone’s favorite marriage-to-child mechanic (that just does not make sense in Fates okay I’m sorry I love it and I’m here for it but we all need to agree that it just doesn’t make sense) and Fates does pretty well. Fire Emblem’s back in business.

But you’re left in this curious situation where more than half of your fanbase is only familiar with two out of fourteen titles, so it’s hard to decide where to go. Awakening and Fates are not traditional Fire Emblem games. They are so very, very different in so many ways. The pace of the games, the length of the games, the unit-recruiting process, roster size, the way Support works, even the buying and selling and acquisition of weapons like…there’s just this huge gap. How do you bridge it?

A…mobile game, I guess?

Which like don’t get me wrong, Heroes’ shortcomings have nothing to do with its platform. Like I said before: it’s cute and it’s competent. My issue lies more in the marketing of the game.

I’m sure we all remember the polls that went on to decide which Fire Emblem greats were going to be playable characters in the game, right? And you could pick anyone. Literally anyone. It didn’t matter if they were only apart of your roster for a map and a half. It didn’t matter if they were an enemy unit. It didn’t matter if they were some like, random archer you got in the third chapter so you could learn about ranged attacks. You could vote for any character from any Fire Emblem game, period.

Except, that means it’s essentially boiling down to a popularity contest between twelve practically unknown or rarely known Fire Emblem titles and the two newest, best-selling, fan favorites. Which isn’t upsetting so much as it is, like, dumb? Like of course the majority of people are gonna vote for Chrom and Camilla, that’s what they know. One of the best Fire Emblem characters (in my opinion) is Prince Innes, from Sacred Stones. He has a hilariously arrogant attitude, is bold and brash, and a sick fucking sniper who constantly insists he should be on the front lines and not in the back of the party with the rest of the ranged attackers.

Innes, of course, didn’t make the list. Because ten out of the chosen twenty male heroes were from Awakening or Fates (that ratio is 13:20 for the ladies if you were curious) So this game that was intended to like, I don’t even know, revive interest in old games or at least make them relevant, ends up not really doing that at all. Especially because out of the first eight chapters (that’s as far as I’ve gotten) four of ‘em explore the worlds of Awakening and Fates.

What about Path of Radiance? What about Sacred Stones? What about literally anything besides the last two games in the franchise because it’s not that I don’t like those games, it’s that you promised me a game that embraced all of Fire Emblem, and this ain’t it. Also you went to the trouble of giving Eirika official art and she’s not even a character you can draw what the actual fuck is she in this game or nah

BASICALLY (we’re almost done you almost made it) I think it will be interesting to see how Fire Emblem: Echoes plays out. Echoes is a remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden, a 1992 Japan-only exclusive that I, personally, know nothing about, but can tell you with relative confidence that it’s not like Awakening or Fates because nothing in FE is like Awakening or Fates. It’s coming out in May of this year and like…I’m really curious to see how the “newer” (and by the way newer does not mean in any way that you’re like less of a fan. I don’t care if the only Fire Emblem game you’ve played is Awakening, I’m just fucking glad you’re playing Fire Emblem, let’s be friends) fans will like it. The official description for it is: “Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia recreates classic Fire Emblem gameplay with a modern twist, mixing in exploration of dungeons crawling with enemies.”

I have never played a FE title that had a dungeon of any kind, unless you count the Tower of Valni from Sacred Stones. I don’t even know what that means in the terms of a tactical RPG but like, I guess we’ll see. 

tl;dr I like Fire Emblem a whole lot and will always be bitter over Eirika’s bullshit outfit in Awakening’s DLC

Thanks for reading!

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE

Hi! I’m back again! And at this point lots of things have changed in regards to this post! Most notably: Heroes has added lots of older Fire Emblem characters to the game (including Innes which makes my earlier complaint look really dumb) and Echoes came out and it’s genuinely one of the best games I’ve ever played, and easily one of the best games in FE’s franchise.

Here’s the thing that past me writing this post didn’t get: newer fans are just as invested as old fans, they just don’t have as much to be invested in yet. I can prattle on and on about Sacred Stones and Binding Blade and Shadow Dragon and all the titles I’ve played, but newer players (under-fucking-standably) aren’t going to go back and play games with bad graphics from the late 90′s and early 00′s, so they just hang out with the titles they have played, which for some people, is just Awakening, or just Fates.

Echoes was universally adored by the fanbase. There were a couple times I saw comments like “well, where’s the avatar unit?” or “why can’t I marry other units and have kids?” and like, I wanted to be mad, because those aren’t staples of Fire Emblem, but if anything it’s Nintendo’s fault for making two games back-to-back that promoted the hell out of those features. How could someone who only played Awakening and Fates (which is the majority of this game’s base) know any differently?

And Heroes has really done well with bringing in more characters from other games. Every single game in the franchise (even fucking Tharcia 776) is represented by at least two characters, and they’re always adding more. I think they’re genuinely doing the best they can to please everyone, and the only people throwing a fit are "older” fans who think they deserve more because, what? They’ve put more time in? They’ve somehow “earned” it?

Nintendo is a business, and businesses rely on popularity to fucking succeed. That’s just how it works. Like it or not, the realistic faces of this franchise are characters like Lucina, Ryoma, Corrin, Camilla, and Robin. That’s just how it works. Characters like Math and Lyn will always endue because they’ve been built up as legends, but now there’s so many new characters, and so many new fans, so of course things have to change and the attention has to shift.

And new fans are picking up the old characters just as much!! Characters that haven’t gotten fanart in a fuckin decade are suddenly getting a bunch of attention, because a new fan pulled them in Heroes, didn’t know who they were but liked their design, and went to town.

tl;dr - you aren’t more important just because you’ve “been a fan” longer, it makes complete sense that Nintendo would shift the focus to games like Awakening and Fates, and if you’re waiting for a certain character to show up in Heroes give it some time.

That’s all for real this time.

Also my new team (if anyone cares) is Innes, Leo, Azura, and Raven. I don’t want to talk about how much money I spent trying to gotcha twelve year-old video game characters.

I, uh, I just really like Fire Emblem.

also for all the Path of Raidance and Radiant Dawn fans who sent me asks saying those games were the highest-selling games for their consoles: you’re wrong, and here are the fucking receipts

[diddgery]

the “I Want To Play Fire Emblem But Don’t Know Where To Start” post

Hi! Are you one of the many people whose first and only exposure to Fire Emblem is Smash Bros. and/or Fire Emblem Heroes? Do you want to get in on Fire Emblem but feel unsure what game to play first because there’s so many? Well here, let me help you!

There are three games I consider good starting points for new fans. All of these games have been released outside of Japan, so you don’t need to worry about futzing with fan translations. All of these games have characters that you can get in Fire Emblem Heroes, so if you’ve been playing that game you can learn more about your random pulls in these! Two of them are easy to emulate as well, if you don’t have the systems or funds to play them but want to check them out. 

Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, known just as Fire Emblem outside of Japan, is a GBA title and the first game to get a worldwide release after Smash Bros. Melee introduced the world to the series. As such it was designed with a global audience in mind; it is the first game to feature a player-made avatar (though they are not actually playable) and the first ten chapters are designed to gently ease new players into the series by gradually introducing and explaining various mechanics. This game serves as a prequel to The Binding Blade, the game that Roy is from, and one of the main characters is Lyn, who you may recognize from Smash Bros. The game lacks some of the more user-friendly mechanics that have been added in later games- namely, the option to play without permadeath- but if you play on an emulator (or on the Wii U Virtual Console) you can use savestates to make your life easier. This is the game that introduced many fans to the series, and as such it’s a great entry point.

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is a DS remake of the first game in the seris and stars Marth. If you’re curious how the series started, this is the best place to go, as you’ll be introduced to many of the series’ recurring themes and character archetypes. This game is also surprisingly friendly towards the permadeath mechanic; should you lose a certain number of characters the game will give you access to bonus chapters where you can pick up new characters you otherwise wouldn’t see. However, if your primary reason for playing Fire Emblem is because you like shipping, this may not be the best choice for you. The support mechanic that allows characters to hold conversations with one another doesn’t exist in this game, and as such many of the characters are woefully lacking in personality. The art style for this game is also not as colorful as other games, opting for a more realistic look than a stylized anime one. This game is available on the Wii U Virtual Console as well.

Fire Emblem Awakening is the first 3DS game and is the most accessible game on this list if you are afraid of the permadeath mechanic- because you can just turn it off entirely! This game stars popular characters like Lucina and Robin (who is customizable and can be renamed) and builds on a variety of mechanics and themes from every other game in the series. This game was designed to be the ultimate Fire Emblem game due to uncertainty about the series’ future, but as a result of its success Fire Emblem has exploded in popularity. It’s easy to understand why if you play it! This one is the most expensive game on the list and can be difficult to emulate, but it’s by far worth it.

“But Diddgery,” you may be saying, “What if I’ve played those games and I want more Fire Emblem? Where should I go next?” Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.

If you enjoyed The Blazing Blade, you absolutely should seek out the fan translation for Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade. This game stars Roy and takes place several years after The Blazing Blade wraps up, so you’ll be able to learn about what happened to your favorite characters and potentially meet their offspring. Some aspects of the fan translation clash with the translations you may see in games like Awakening and Heroes- most notably character names- but the fan translators did a great job of being true to the way Blazing Blade was translated. You should also consider checking out Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, the third and final GBA entry. This game features branching promotion paths and an overworld map, two elements that hadn’t been seen in the series since the NES days. If you happen to be a 3DS Ambassador, this is one of the free GBA games you received, so you really have no excuse not to try it out if that’s the case.

If you enjoyed Shadow Dragon, track down the fan translation of Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem. This game is a remake of Mystery of the Emblem, a SNES sequel to Marth’s first game, and remains the only game in the series to not get a release outside of Japan after the series went worldwide. It features a customizable player avatar who is playable much in the vein of Robin. Many gameplay features that were missing in Shadow Dragon make it into this game- most notably support conversations. Another game you may consider trying is Fire Emblem Gaiden, which is a sidestory set on another continent in the same world as Shadow Dragon and features a variety of unique gameplay differences that have rarely been seen since. Keep in mind this game’s remake, Fire Emblem Echoes, will be releasing outside of Japan in May, so it may be best to just wait for that rather than play the NES original.

If you enjoyed Awakening, you should check out Fire Emblem Fates for the 3DS. It builds and polishes on Awakening’s gameplay and completely overhauls the weapon system of the series. It also goes full anime as far as story and character design goes (albeit with some censorship outside of Japan so you can’t pet and stroke your units). Unfortunately this game has its three storylines divided into three separate games; if you want to play all three, it’s going to cost you about $80 USD and will eat up a lot of time. Whether or not it’s worth it is entirely up to you. Fans of Awakening may also enjoy Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, a SNES title that Awakening drew heavy inspiration from.

If you liked any of the above, check out Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance for the Gamecube. It’s got catgirls and catboys and y’all like that, right? Also this is the game that Ike from Smash Bros. first appeared. He fights for his friends, and if you play this game you can learn who his friends are and also why he fights for them.

Here’s a link to a page where you can find a bunch of info and links to fan translations, also. Happy Fire Emblem-ing!

[trendingnewsb]

The 11 most important fandoms of 2017

In a year where reality often felt more like fiction, our fan communities became more vital than ever.

We watched our heroes—both fictional and real—rise and fall from grace, some of them transformed into symbols as fans took the streets to peacefully protest real-world events. Many of us finally began to see ourselves reflected in our fandoms, whether it was Wonder Woman‘s Diana, Star Trek: Discovery‘s Michael Burnham, or Star Wars‘ expanding roster of diverse characters. Some of the year’s top fandoms were unexpectedly delightful, including the dating simulation game Dream Daddy and the rise of the K-pop group BTS. Others revealed the darker side of fan culture, from self-righteous toxicity (Rick and Morty) to racist and sexist backlash (The Last Jedi).

But even in the most frustrating moments, we had our favorites—looking at you, Daenerys Targaryen—to burn it all to the ground.

GIF via Game of Thrones/HBO

Here are our top fandoms (listed in no particular order) of 2017.

1) Rick and Morty

Adult Swim/YouTube

When Rick and Morty turned April Fools’ Day on its head and casually dropped long-awaited season 3 premiere on Adult Swim’s website, nobody could’ve imagined, well, everything that followed. To examine the kind of effect Rick and Morty had on fandom this year, look no further than McDonald’s Szechuan sauce.

Apart from Pickle Rick, Szechuan sauce, an obscure McNugget dip introduced in 1998 to promote Disney’s Mulan, was the biggest thing that people remember from Rick and Morty’s excellent third season. The throw-away joke from the season 3 premiere became almost a rallying cry for some fans. They begged McDonald’s to bring it back, made their own sauce, and one person spent tens of thousands of dollars on an original tub of it. And, curiously, McDonald’s delivered. Sort of.

The fast-food chain first brought back the sauce for the Rick and Morty crew, but then, perhaps to garner some goodwill and capitalize on fan enthusiasm, it made limited packets available for one day. The promotion went off the rails as the sauce quickly ran out. This unleashed some of the uglier and more toxic parts of the show’s fandom—which had already surfaced to harass and dox some of the show’s female writers. McDonald’s eventually promised to re-release the sauce to appease upset fans. It took time (and some interdimensional travel) to make Rick’s series arc a reality, but if anyone could trick a corporate giant into releasing an obscure sauce by the sheer will of its own fandom, it’s Rick and Morty.—Michelle Jaworski

2) Game of Thrones

HBO

In a realm where people have hundreds of shows available at the touch of a fingertip, Game of Thrones is one of the last great must-see TV events. Fans rapturously tuned in every week for season 7’s seven-episode run. Game of Thrones is officially off-book, so both fans of the show and the A Song of Ice and Fire novels were on the same level as they watched the show provide answers to mysteries more than 20 years in the making.

But for fans the highs of season 7 are now followed by a long two-year wait for the show and who knows how much longer for George R.R. Martin‘sThe Winds of Winter. With active online communities and subreddits and Game of Thrones conventions like Ice and Fire Con and new convention Con of Thrones, fans know they’re not alone in the Long Night.

Off-screen, the show was plagued by leaks and spoilers. An outline of the show’s seventh season leaked last year that revealed nearly every major plot point, including one that gained more attention as the show confirmed its accuracy. Fans even identified the actor playing Rhaegar Targaryen from leaks long before he made his debut. Just weeks into season 7, hackers revealed that they breached HBO’s security system, leaked Game of Thrones outlines, and demanded ransom. Unrelatedly, two episodes of season 7 leaked online days before they were set to air. But the behind-the-scenes debacles didn’t affect Game of Thrones, which had record ratings that will likely rise even higher when HBO airs season 8, including one of the most anticipated series finales this decade. All HBO has to do is stick the landing.—Michelle Jaworski

3) Star Trek

Star Trek: Discovery/CBS

Last year’s 50th anniversary was disappointingly haphazard, but Star Trek: Discovery launched with a bang in 2017. Like every other Trek series to date, it inspired furious debate among fans. Some old-school trekkies dislike Discovery’s longform storytelling (or, depressingly, its diverse casting choices), but it also brought a fresh new audience to the franchise. Now halfway through season 1, we’re fully in love with Michael Burnham and her crewmates. Also, the show has inspired one of our favorite fan-theories of 2017: the surprisingly plausible idea that one of the lead actors doesn’t exist in real life.—Gavia Baker-Whitelaw

4) Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman/Warner Bros.

How many of us burst into tears during Wonder Woman? We don’t have exact stats, but here’s a rough estimate: A hell of a lot. Wonder Woman was cathartic for a plethora of connected reasons, boiled down to the overwhelming satisfaction of a female-led superhero movie that was really, genuinely, brilliant.

Plenty of superhero movies do well at the box office but have zero cultural impact. (Avengers: Age of Ultron, we’re looking at you.) Wonder Woman wasn’t one of them. People rewatched it again and again, and its box office longevity suggests it benefited a lot from word-of-mouth. The number one movie on Tumblr, Wonder Woman gifs were ubiquitous across social media, and director Patty Jenkins was shortlisted for Time magazine’s Person of the Year. In a year dominated by depressing news stories about sexual harassment and misogyny, Wonder Woman was the inspirational, feminist hero we all needed to see.—Gavia Baker-Whitelaw

5) Star Wars

Star Wars/Lucasfilm

Star Wars has been such collective part of our fandom DNA that it’s hard for some fans (particularly younger fans) to imagine a time before Star Wars. Little did we know just how much everything would change after May 25,1977—or that we would still be deeply immersed in the galaxy far, far away 40 years later.

The year kicked off on a somber note following the death of Carrie Fisher. The Star Wars community spent much of the year honoring the memory of their favorite princess and general. Leia Organa (and Fisher herself) became the source of a new hope whose influence changed lives and helped shape her final Star Wars film. And Lucasfilm had two very public departures this year: Solo directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord just weeks before the end of principal photography and Episode IX director Colin Trevorrow. (They’ve been replaced by Ron Howard and J.J. Abrams, respectively.)

For fans, 2017 meant even more Star Wars to dissect and explore. The Last Jedi challenged everything we knew about Star Wars, and along with answering some massive questions, it gave us a story with several women and people of color at the forefront. (Plus, thanks to The Last Jedi, we now have porgs!) The franchise may be over the hill but it’s showing no signs of stopping. Now that Last Jedi director Rian Johnson is creating a new Star Wars trilogy we won’t be leaving that galaxy far, far away for the foreseeable future.—Michelle Jaworski

6) Voltron

Voltron: Legendary Defenders/Netflix

If you don’t use Tumblr, you may be surprised to see this fandom on our list. Voltron: Legendary Defender is a kid-friendly reboot of the classic anime about space-traveling robot lions and their pilots. It’s a fun and visually appealing show, but it’s definitely not sophisticated in the same way as, say, Avatar: The Last Airbender. However, the fandom is another matter entirely.

Keith and Lance (two of the main pilots) topped Tumblr’s list of popular ships in 2017. That means more people were posting about them than pairings from mainstream fandoms like Riverdale, Supergirl, and Star Wars. That’s partly for the usual reasons—people love making Keith/Lance art and fanfic, and speculating about their role in the show—and partly because Voltron fandom is rife with controversy.

This year, a fan tried to blackmail Voltron’s creators to make Keith/Lance into a canon romance, threatening to leak storyboards from the show. (It didn’t work.) Another group of fans petitioned the showrunners to reveal the precise ages of the main characters—a seemingly innocuous question that ties into a toxic debate between Voltron shippers. The main characters all appear to be in their late teens or early 20s, but some fans accuse certain pairings of having an inappropriate age gap. Keith and Lance are the same age, so if Netflix confirmed that other characters were older or younger, it could give Keith/Lance fans the moral upper hand during arguments.—Gavia Baker-Whitelaw

7) Yuri on Ice

Crunchyroll

Airing from October to December 2016, figure skating anime Yuri on Ice arrived just in time to make last year’s list. Since then, it’s inspired a constant outpouring of fan creativity and enthusiasm, along with speculation about season 2. (Apparently a film sequel is on the way, but we’re not exactly sure when.) Victor and Yuri’s charming love story was perfectly timed to alleviate the darkest period of the 2016 election, providing a soothing balm during troubled times. It’s funny, romantic, and complex enough to warrant months of intensive analysis.—Gavia Baker-Whitelaw

8) Overwatch

Blizzard

Two years after this colorful, team-based shooter came into our lives, Overwatch is still one of the biggest fandoms on the internet. It’s unusual for a video game to establish such a prolific creative culture (though there are exceptions), but Overwatch’s vibrant cast of characters keeps giving fans plenty of material to work with.—Sarah Weber

9) Dream Daddy

Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulation/Steam

This dating sim appeared out of seemingly nowhere to win hearts and minds this summer. It’s the same basic set-up as any other dating sim: a choose-your-own-adventure romance story with a variety of twist endings. Dream Daddy’s selling point was its unusual range of love interests. In the game, you play a dad who dates other dads in his new neighborhood—a unique concept that quickly led to a flood of fanart and memes. Praised for its writing (including some unexpectedly weird endings) and character design, Dream Daddy was the surprise gaming hit of 2017—especially on Tumblr, where it toppled the Overwatch juggernaut to become the site’s favorite game.—Gavia Baker-Whitelaw

10) BTS

Republic of Korea/Flickr (CC-BY-SA)

When the Korean pop group BTS from an indie studio called Big Hitdebuted in 2013 , they seemed more or less like every other K-pop boy band trying to claw their way to the top. As they evolved over the next four years, they found their way into a distinctive sound unlike anyone else’s. Known for consistently addressing societal issues in the music they write, the seven-member group’s popularity has soared to international status this year. After winning the Billboard Top Social Artist award and appearing on American TV shows like Ellen and The James Corden Show, it’s clear the band has 11 million followers on Twitter for a reason: their sincerity and determination. From their passionate fandom they call ARMY to their creative evolution, it’s no wonder we thought they would be the future of K-pop.—Colette Bennett

11) Marvel controversies

Secret Empire #1/Marvel

Oof, it’s been a year. Marvel always appears on our year-end lists in some capacity, but this time it’s not in a very positive light. While Logan, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Thor: Ragnarok were all big hits, Marvel Comics suffered a year of controversy and criticism from fans—often for good reason.

First there was the Hydra Captain America storyline, carrying on from 2016. It saw Steve Rogers get rewritten as a Hydra sleeper agent, starring in a rather poorly executed political allegory about fascism in America. It earned continual backlash throughout its highly publicized run as Marvel’s biggest event comic of 2017. Then there were several behind-the-scenes mishaps at the publisher itself, including an executive blaming low sales on women and “diversity,” and the broader problem of discrimination and harassment in the comics industry. In November, we learned that Marvel’s new Editor-in-Chief created a fake Japanese persona so he could publish Japan-inspired comics in the 2000s. We assumed this would be the last Marvel scandal of the year, but in the back half of December, it canceled several comics starring women and queer characters, and (unrelatedly) precipitated a very public falling-out with Thanos creator Jim Starlin. Phew.—Gavia Baker-Whitelaw

Read more: https://www.dailydot.com/parsec/top-fandoms-2017/

from Viral News HQ http://ift.tt/2DCjRRB via Viral News HQ

[adam16bit]

Super Mario Bros. 3

I just got through this one on the NES Classic, which afforded me something I could never do on the console version - actually play through every stage!   As a kid you couldn’t exactly hog the TV for the hours it would take to play through every world, which is why things like Warp Whistles were incredibly useful.  It’s obviously possible to beat this game in a couple of hours, but not unless you skip chunks of it or have beaten it before and generally know what you’re doing.

This was probably the best game the system had to offer in terms of variety and general vastness.  There was no save or password system, but you could pick up a variety of items to use later (as needed) and I believe more and better power-ups than on any subsequent Mario game.  

Marketing

They did a good job with this one - thanks to it coming out in Japan over a year before the USA, various import video game magazines probably made a fortune by picking up an import copy and posting screen shots.   (See: GamePro #1, a freebie at Toys R Us that I got with Blaster Master.)   Other publications advertising their product for free - or paying for the right to preview it - would be a remarkable feat for Nintendo, as there were countless unlicensed video game news magazines.  But they realized they could go much, much bigger.  They could manufacture a significantly larger phenomenon.

Nintendo got itself some fantastic product placement in The Wizard, a feature-length ad for video game stuff with a free mini Nintendo Power (”Pocket Power”) magazine with your ticket purchase.  How or why my parents agreed to take me to see this is still a mystery given how few times we saw movies in the theaters - the somewhat insufferable movie did a great job showing us something that many of us to this day still don’t realize.   The power of marketing to kids in the 1980s was utterly insane, and while many of us think back on kidvid like She-Ra, He-Man, G.I. Joe, Transformers, and the like as good clean wholesome fun?  It was there to sell us stuff.  Even though The Wizard had elements of sports movies and road trip movies, it was basically a wish fulfillment fantasy - and that wish was for kids to see footage of a video game they couldn’t actually buy until next year.    Given how long a few months seems when you’re a kid, this sort of thing really stirred up the frenzy even more, making the game scarce upon release in the USA in 1990.

The TV ads were similarly kind of creepy with a cultish atmosphere of an endless stream of kids chanting Mario’s name, waiting for their icon to arrive once more.   But TV marketing didn’t stop there - there was also a rebranded Saturday morning TV show called “Super Mario Bros. 3″ that had musical numbers.  Some are the stuff of pop culture legend, like Wendy O. Koopa kidnapping Milli Vanilli to play her birthday party.  Others are more forgettable but more insidious - there’s a whole song and dance extolling the virtues of the Frog Suit power-up from the game.  Looking back on it, it’s diabolical, creepy, and insanely effective.

But wait - there’s more!  Nintendo Power magazine was famous for being a way to market to kids and charge them for the opt-in privilege.  One issue of the magazine was completely devoted to Super Mario  Bros. 3 - some may dismiss it as a strategy guide, but it was an ad.  Full-color illustrations showing all of the fun stuff in the game could be dismissed as spoilery, but that wasn’t a term people used in 1990.   You’d buy a game guide (like the Official Nintendo Player’s Guide) and use it sort of like how people used Leonard Maltin’s guide to the movies.  There was no Internet, so these magazines were showing people what to play, rent, or purchase - and boy howdy did they help get kids to ask mom and dad to drop fifty bones on software that they could finish in a couple of weeks.

For your very brief political moment, you might say “that’s fine” or “shouldn’t there be laws preventing this kind of marketing to kids?”  As someone in the toy business I’m both creeped out by it and a big part of it - my office is packed with toys and games dating back to my own childhood, and most of the new stuff I get is tied to marketing/programming/culture I experienced as a kid.   I don’t buy Avatar, I buy Star Wars.   There were indeed laws against carpet-bombing kids on TV with marketing, but comic books were largely fair game and Saturday morning TV changed from kid versions of adult shows and weird puppet entertainment to training wheels for the consumer vehicle of today.  Show of hands - who here watched one or more Marvel-based TV show as a child 20, 30, or even 40 years ago and is now a fan of the movie franchise?

We’re in a weird place.   I could go on a tear about how the cereal and magazine aisles in 1980s grocery stores served as my Internet but we’re on too big of a tangent here.  Point being - SMB3 was a huge success because Nintendo heavily invested in that success.   If you had any connection to their target demographic, they probably lobbed something at you and got your attention.   It helped that the game was indeed everything they promised.

Believe the Mario Hype?

The first batch of NES games had a bunch of original-ish ideas.  Super Mario  Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Castlevania, and others would have one or more sequels on the 8-bit console, although all of them seemed to have an unwritten rule to “return to form” for their third entries.  They were bigger and better, sure - but Mario gave us a completely different sequel before reverting  back to a powered-up version of the original game.  Link’s adventure diverted him into a Metroidvania/RPG hybrid before returning to the not-quite-RPG top-down adventure game format most of us know and love.   Castlevania, too, introduced and removed RPG elements to return to the classic block stage format.

Mario’s levels were very similar to the first game, but larger.  On the whole you always moved left to right, there was no warping from the right to the left of the screen, but you could go up into the sky by flight or climbing a vine.  Auto-scrolling levels were introduced to mix up the dynamic.  A map screen allowed you limited control of how you advanced - some levels and challenges were wholly optional, and certain items like Jugem’s Cloud actually allowed you to skip over some of those challenges.   In the original Super Mario Bros., your options were to go to the right side of the screen and maybe select a Warp Zone.   By the third game, you could choose to assault a fortress, or hop in a Mushroom House to take a power-up, or blow a Warp Whistle when you so decided.

The world was covered in familiar, more modernized versions of faces you’ve seen before with only Bob-Omb returning from the second game.  Pretty much the entire cast of the first game came back with prettier sprites, and Mario also got a facelift - not as good as his look in the second game, but his controls were tighter and his pants were, for some reason, blacker.

Power-ups are what really made the game special.    A lot of gamers would say Super Mario World from the Super NES was an inferior game, and I’d almost agree.   In the 16-bit Mario, you could have fireballs or don a cape and fly.   Super Mario Bros. 3 let you get a raccoon tail, fireballs, a Hammer Bros. suit, a Frog Suit, a Tanooki Suit, and the P-Wing which granted infinite flight on a single stage without having to take a running start first.  You had options.

Clever enemies - some of which you only met once or twice - included a Goomba jumping around in a giant green shoe, reptiles who would  barf up a spiked ball and chuck it at your head, and spiny eggs that would sometimes refuse to hatch.  Even the sun itself bore an angry face and would chase you down through the desert!   Squids would send their children after you in the seas to bring you down!  What did you ever do to them?   Oh, right. Calamari.

A World of Difference

One of the things that set Mario games apart from the competition were its themed worlds - “Grass Land” and a desert don’t seem too thrilling, but they were fun.  The ice level in this game got clever with frozen bonus items - if you wanted coins, you had to hit them with a fire ball to thaw them out.  One world was filled with pipes and man-eating vegetation.   Another world - easily the best in the entire series - was Big Island, where you were normal size and most of the enemies were actual giants!  I wish they would bring more of that back in the 2D series, which has gone from evolving from game to game to  basically being the same thing since New Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo DS.  Not bad - but the level of change between each of the Super Mario Bros. games released over 5 years is pretty staggering.

Because of these differences, the game really made you make decisions.  Do you skip ahead to world 8 to beat the game and watch the brief, credits-free ending again?  Or do you go hang out in World 4 again because World 4 was awesome?   Do you use those awesome power-ups you found in a Mushroom House now, or save them for later when you might actually need them?   It’s a heck of a lot more to consider than “run to the right, and try not to die.”

I found that the game held up very well to a replay - there were some weird glitches where sometimes an item would hit me and I didn’t die, and others where it didn’t hit me and I did die, but I assume this is emulation bug stuff or something I just lucked in to this time.   Levels were significantly shorter than I remembered, lacking the extensive obstacles and obliterating any replay value (per game, that is) as you’re locked out of a stage once you beat it.  Nintendo didn’t really start experimenting with forced replay of Mario stages to get all the exits and to find all the secrets until Super Mario World, and then in Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine the game was more about replay, replay, replay.   The levels were bigger, there was more you could do, the games were prettier, but you also were treading the same ground repeatedly.  Super Mario Bros. 3 didn’t make you replay anything until  you got a “Game Over” screen.

Very few games had the marketing impact of Mario’s final NES adventure, but Acclaim and Sega did learn a lot from the hype Nintendo created with “Mortal Monday” for Mortal Kombat and “Sonic 2sday” for the second Sonic the Hedgehog title - and people showed up.   We saw a lot of this throughout the 1990s, with the first “midnight madness” event for an action figure launch in 1999 for The Phantom Menace, and the film would really kick off the ghastly trend of day- or week-long “line parties.”  Now people just reserve their seat online, but back then it wasn’t uncommon to see the cinema briefly transformed into an experience not unlike tailgating at a football game.

The game was a smash hit, which you know - the NES cartridge sold millions of copies.  It would go on to  be a pack-in game with the NES.  They upgraded it to 16-bit graphics and sound as part of Super Mario All-Stars.   The upgraded port would be sold separately - at full price - on the GameBoy Advance a decade later.  That’s a lot of money for old software, and Nintendo has trotted it out as a download for the Wii and Wii U for about five bones.  I don’t doubt it will also be on the switch.  Heck, Super Mario All-Stars also got a $20 Wii port.   The best value for this game is on the NES Classic Edition from late 2016, which I just played through, because each game averages $2 plus you get the game hardware.  I still am somewhat shocked how cheap (for Nintendo) the whole package was, as the Mario games alone are so fondly remembered I bet they could’ve got $60 for just those titles.  I still enjoy the games - the marketing worked, I watched the stupid cartoons too, and I’ve got a 20-inch Mario action figure waving to me from the other side of my office as I type this.  Is this a good thing?  Is it terrible?  You tell me.

[furederiko]

My 2nd and last Random-News-Digest for the month of November!

(Images courtesy of Disney Pixar Studio, Walt Disney Pictures, Marvel Comics, Marvel Studios, and CAPCOM. Taken from Official Trailers and/or Official Sites)

Pocket Monsters

This was actually a news from earlier this month. But since I was more focused on the launch of "Pokemon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon" on my previous R-N-D, I've decided to put this on hold.

Variety reported that young actor Justice Smith has been cast as the male lead of "Detective Pikachu". Smith will be playing the human companion of the titular character, who was seemingly a brunette-haired white boy in the video game. I'm not that much familiar with Smith, but the change on the race angle is acceptable because it shows that Hollywood is being proactive in casting POC actors as lead. Of course, the main question in everyone's mind, is WHO will be voicing Detective Pikachu himself. Will Danny DeVito, the actor that seems to be on every fans' wishlist get the part? We'll see...

Disney Animation

The much awaited and demanded sequel among Pixar Studio's roster, "The Incredibles 2", delivered its first poster and official teaser. The teaser might be really brief, as it only features Craig T. Nelson's character and the little baby Jack-Jack showcasing his numerous superpowers. But it didn't stop it from snatching every attention and breaking record along the way. According to various sources, the story will focus on Holly Hunter's Elastigirl and their older kids, while Mr. Incredible is stuck babysitting. Will that be a good storypoint for a sequel? Can this one be better than the likes of... I don't know, "Monsters University", "Finding Dory", or at the very least this year's "Cars 3"? We'll see when the movie arrives in Summer 2018...

Thankfully, at the same time the studio's "Coco" also captured the Thanksgiving holiday buzz, and gained an immense positive reaction from families. The A+ Cinema Score result was a solid win, as the hispanic-themed musical easily defeated the might of DC superheroes to be the number 1 movie over the weekend. It also proved that Pixar still has what it takes to churn out original stories, and not rely on sequels. I strongly hope this movie will have a strong leg going forward, and becomes a financial success as well. Even if to encourage the studio, and other animation studios to work on more originals.

Disney Live Action

If you think the teaser for Ava DuVernay's "A Wrinkle in Time" was weird, then wait till you see its full official trailer. It doesn't look A BIT like DuVernay's previous work, "Selma", that's for sure. LOL. This feels like what you'd get if "Doctor Strange" is combined with an equal dose of bright colors and wackiness from "Thor: Ragnarok" and "Guardians of the Galaxy", with a mixture of a "Chronicles of Narnia" movies and James Cameron's "Avatar" in the story department. I might be scratching my head hearing all those pseudo-science mumbo jumbo, but I also really want to see Oprah Winfrey, Mindy Kaling, Zach Galifianakis, and particularly Michael Peña being weird deities or something like that. My only concern, is that this also reminds me of Brad Bird's "Tomorrowland". With a POC female director behind the wheels, I genuinely want this movie to succeed. So let's just hope it does NOT end up like that Disney movie. March 9th, 2018 can't come soon enough.

Niki Caro's "Mulan" reimagining has found its lead actress. Crystal Liu, or Liu Yifei has been selected over 1000 candidates to portray Fa Mulan. In case it's not obvious enough, Liu is 100% Chinese, so there's no whitewashing this one. She's a very popular name in her home country, though honestly this is the first time I have heard of her. Not surprisingly too, she has had experiences with Hollywood having been part of action movies like "The Forbidden Kingdom" and 2014's "Outcast". So... not exactly an unknown name, huh? Disney is not taking any chances, I suppose. But oh well, at least we won't be hearing whitewashing complains anytime soon. Now if only Godfrey Gao could be cast as Captain Li Shang. He IS, around the same age range to Liu, right? Mmhmmmmm *nods* *grins*

Jurassic Park

"Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" had shared its first official image. Coming straight from writer Colin Trevorrow's twitter account, it portrayed Chris Pratt's Owen Grady with his son... er, I mean a baby Velociraptor. Hmmm... those who have seen the first "Jurassic World" and possess a logical brain, would quickly question one thing: WHY ON EARTH do these guy still mess around with the dinosaurs, instead of leaving them be?! Seriously, Owen might be a Raptor trainer, but these creatures almost killed him too!

Trevorrow's name has been painted rather 'negatively' thanks to his departure from "Star Wars", so many people have been watching this title closely whether it will get the same effect of his "Book of Henry" or not. Of course, J.A. Bayona is the director for this one, but who can really tell what kind of influence Trevorrow brings, right? "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom" roars into theatres on June 22nd, 2018. You might want to wait a little longer to see a trailer...

DC Films

When filmmakers keep on using lame excuses like "This movie is made for fans and not critics" to explain bad reviews, then... well, that's exactly what you get. Only fans... in fact, just half of them and not all, came to see "Justice League" on opening weekend. I'm not trying to throw a shade or being sarcastic here... (or am I, you decide), but the first weekend performance for the movie? It was NOT good. It even didn't reach the minimum expectation number. Great goodness, where did all those so-called devoted DC fans go?! #SARCASM

I know this news has been reported pretty much everywhere, but let's have a quick recap of what happened. Signs of trouble were already apparent when the movie had a somewhat 'troubling' start on Thursday, November 16th. Comic book adaptations, and in particular DC properties tend to be massively frontloaded, because unlike other studios, Warner Bros usually opened their movies on the same dates worldwide. So the fact that it had a dismal Thursday night was quite a surprise. But it was still a higher number than critically received Wonder Woman, giving it a glitter of hope. Then Friday sum came along, and it was another disappointing number. Again, still better than Gal Gadot's solo movie. But then the overall weekend estimation came out, and the concern was justified. "Justice League" 'only' took $96m domestically, which was a 'disaster' for a movie featuring not one or two, but SIX of DC's iconic superheroes. Some folks were still spinning a positive point of view, saying that it at least had passed the lowest speculated number (which was $95m, by the way). Oh no, it got bett... er I mean, worse. The ACTUAL revenue wasn't even inline with those numbers, as the movie merely achieved ALMOST $94m. OUCH!!!

As I've talked about in an earlier category, last weekend the movie quickly fell down from its top spot, thanks to "Coco" dominating the Thanksgiving holiday. The movie might have passed $480m worldwide in its 2nd week, but judging from the family power of that Disney Pixar movie that has yet to open in European countries, combined with the wonders of "Wonder", and strong leg of "Thor: Ragnarok"... can we even expect "Justice League" to perform much better compared to previous titles on its kins? I doubt. The movie is still on the path of 'biggest bomb' of 2017 if not all time, and is prone to inflict loss for the studio. Of course, should we even be surprised about it, when even the underestimated "Power Rangers" fared better than this movie?

Say what you will to defend this movie, but to WB it all comes back to nothing but business. You can even call this, an unmitigated disaster. This low number would totally influences the executives' upcoming decision regarding their Movie Universe. Seriously, because this is NOT the first of its kind (already the fifth, in case you forgot), yet the opening numbers of each movies continue to decline. It's an ambitious ensemble movie that the studio boldly expected to perform as big as Marvel Studios' 2012 "The Avengers", but wasn't able to even achieve the same response to an obscure team of "Guardians of the Galaxy". Compared to WB's own DC catalogue, even the oft-ridiculed campy had "Batman Forever" opened higher! That might be acceptable in the eyes of 'fans' or average moviegoers, but for a studio as big as WB? Likely NOT. Especially when they still can focus on other more beneficial franchises like "Kong: Skull Island" or... the next category *grins*.

Could we be heading towards another Dark Universe situation here? Really though, I think I can actually agree with a reboot or some sort, so the universe can keep the good parts (like Gadot's Diana Prince) and pretty much ditch or change everything else. Ben Affleck is on his way out anyway, and Henry Cavill's prospect to continue with his version of Superman has become very dim because he has completed his obligation. "Aquaman" and "Wonder Woman 2" will still be released. "Shazam!" is set to start production early next year, but its script might be reworked to safely exclude the character from the continuity. An idea that I'm totally ALL IN! *grins*. Matt Reeves' "The Batman" will be set in an entirely different Bat-Family-verse, possibly alongside Joss Whedon's "Batgirl" (no, Whedon is NOT fired or anything like rumored. Seriously, what is wrong with you DC Fans?!). And that R-rated "Deathstroke" movie might still see the light of day, even if because its lead actor is desperate keen to have it made. But the rest of the movies planned or talked about? You might not want to get your hopes up for them too soon, to avoid disappointments. Unless... the studio decides to resort to "Flashpoint" for a soft reboot.

Anyway, back to "Justice League" for a bit before I wrap up this category. Apparently some fans are already hilariously campaigning for the studio to release a Zack Snyder 'Director's Cut' version of the movie. Not surprising, considering WB had indeed DONE that TWICE already with the garbage that were "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" and "Suicide Squad". Three times the charm, huh? To the point that they are desperate enough to do practically ANYTHING to get what they want... as reported by a movie critic whose name has been illegitimately used for 'the cause'. *sigh* Here we go again...

No offense to those 'over-passionate' people, but this is EXACTLY the problem with these fraction of DC fans. They are quick to act without properly thinking about things first. Why? 1) As Batman-News has pointed out, WB did NOT like Snyder's cut. He screened his unfinished version, like 10 effing months ago. So naturally, Snyder could NOT have his 'version' done considering WB immediately handed over the job to Whedon, who took over the entirety of the movie's post production. If a 'Director's Cut' these fans are asking, then that would be Whedon's and not Snyder's. 2) Despite the fact Snyder showed support in one, or how his cinematographer is dying to see one, his Director's Cut version would obviously require additional funding to finish. Don't forget that despite the worldwide response that leans towards positive, the movie's theatrical release might end up as a financial LOSS to WB. That pretty much prevents WB from spending extra money for another retool. They would be crazy to shower more money into this already-expensive movie just to please fans (for as much as they say they make movies for them, they don't actually give a damn). Unless of course, Snyder pulls a Ridley Scott and finished his version with his own money. Meaning, he probably would need to buy the movie's rights, and pay for all the visual effects, etcetera etcetera. 3) This petition proves that instead of going to the theatres to see the movie again to... I don't know, boost its revenue number, these fans would rather whine and demand for a HOME VIDEO release. No wonder the opening weekend was low! 4) I'll have to repeat my previous criticism here. If WB will indeed release an 'Ultimate' or 'Extended' home video version, then... well, the more the reason to NOT see this in theatres now, right? No kidding, why would we waste money on a half-baked product?! Just wait a few months, and we can see the whole thing with just a bit of extra money, right? That's the easy logic right there, and precisely the method I took to see these DC Films titles until now. The fact that WB had done it twice, is also the reason why some folks I know blatantly REFUSE to see the movie in theatres. After all, nobody would want to be fooled more than TWICE, right?

Fans be fans, and expecting them to change would be beyond comprehension. But at the very least, I hope on the other side of the table, both WB and DC Entertainment are learning the correct lessons from this outcome. Things as general as... don't rush into things, don't put too much stuff without proper payoffs, focus on telling a good story, or don't treat audience like they are stupid, to the most philosophical one like stay humble, be nice to others (whether its fans, critics or other studios), and stop trying to best a rival who's already waaaay ahead in their game *sigh*.

I'm not rejoicing or being rude or anything, but I believe DC direly needs to hit the reset button on the movies. And if it's possible, ditch WB completely if they want to do this right. Much of the DC Films ordeal actually have gotten to do with the studio execs meddling too much and demanding so many things that has continued damaging the properties. DC fans DESERVE better movies, and I don't think this flawed universe can hold it up anymore. Much like how Rebirth 'deleted' New 52, time to create a clean slate for the movie universe as well! If it works in the comics, why not, right? In the end, I think DC should just stick to what they do best, or better than the competitor: TELEVISION. FYI, this is what they get from not utilizing or banking in the same actors from those successful CW shows. Told ya so...

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Bring on "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald"!

Yes, I might be the odd man out, but I'm genuinely more interested to see what the "Fantastic Beasts" franchise has to offer next instead of DC Films. I admit, my favorite part of the first movie was Eddie Redmayne's Newt Scamander Pokede... I mean Private Zoo, so I felt pretty disappointed that the sequel will focus on Johnny Depp's Gellert Grindelwald. But the words of executive producer David Heyman has made me highly intrigued. Talking to Entertainment Weekly, he said that the sequel will have "a very different feel than the first. It’s got a thriller quality. And it’s also a story about love and passion and all its forms — paternal, romantic, political. And it’s just a thrilling and very fun adventure.". That 'thriller' aspect is enough to catch my attention. Can we expect to see a darker turn, possibly involving Jude Law's young Albus Dumbledore? How will Scamander and his Scooby-gang be properly integrated into this situation without sacrificing the things that made them interesting?

Heyman also teased that the movie will look more 'dynamic' with "contemporary cinematic approach". Despite the time setting being maaaaany years prior to "Harry Potter"? Now THAT is what I'm curious to see too. I hope the end result will not mirror the issue with "Star Wars" or "The Lord of the Rings" franchise. Remember how their prequel stories look waaay more advance (in visual and also... actor's age LOL) than their original stories? "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald" opens on November 16th, 2018.

X-Men Universe

According to a very fresh report that just came in yesterday, apparently talks between Disney and FOX about the latter's movie and TV division have resurfaced. It's still rumor for now, but I'm not surprised if it's true. Other corporations, including SONY and Comcast have approached FOX for the same proposition, so it makes perfect sense that Disney will up their game and pursue the deal more rapidly. After all, FOX had some movie copyrights that would benefit Disney greatly. As I've mentioned before, there will be pros and cons if this acquisition becomes a reality. Naturally, fans everywhere are already filled with logical and occasionally pointless concerns over the fate of FOX's Marvel movies. A bit premature, if you ask me, but I guess that's what makes the internet such a fun and... crazy place. Let's just see how this turns out, okay!

Meanwhile, actress Lizzy Caplan has entered negotiations to play the lead female actress in Channing Tatum's "Gambit". It's still unclear if she will be portraying Bella Donna Boudreaux, considering actress Lea Seydoux had previously been attached to the role. Assuming the script has not gone through massive alteration, that could very well be the character Caplan has been offered. At least, that's the general notion in many people's head for the time being. Of course, things could have evolved since the movie was first promoted as a sexy thriller heist, so it's not yet a sure thing until it is confirmed. Directed by Gore Verbinski, "Gambit" will arrive on February 14th, 2019.

Marvel Studios

This here is the main reason why this R-N-D got postponed a few days to the end of November: the first trailer of "Avengers: Infinity War". Yes, OFFICIALLY available worldwide around 8,5 hours ago (following the 08.00AM EST premiere on Good Morning America), it's Marvel Studios' answer to the crazy buzzing cries of demand that got many people... uhm, emotionally riled up. It has gotten to the point that people have been shamelessly leaking actual footages from the movie itself. Not cool people, NOT cool.

I personally didn't really need to see a trailer for this movie. But I'm not gonna lie, the HYPE machine was tooo strong, that well... a not-so-strong-on-the-inside guy like yours truly would easily got swept away. I think ANY fans of the Marvel Studios release would be weak for this kind of thing. LOL. Is the trailer any good? You're kidding, right? Of course! #MINDBLOWING. It teases that the movie lives up to its somber title, and... that's all I'm going to say, as you need to see it yourself to have the full experience (I almost had a heart attack when I first saw it... Oh, Vision T_T). Beside, every entertainment sites will surely be talking about it, excessively analyzing every details that will decorate their pages. For at least two weeks ahead (if it hasn't started before... LOL) until its Disney-cousin "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" comes knocking on everyone's door. "Avengers: Infinity War" arrives on May 4th, 2018. But I'm sure you're already aware about that... XD

True to what Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige had promised, said trailer arrived in November. Timed perfectly just a few days after Vanity Fair unveiled its special coverage (published on November 27th, to be precise) to that much-talked-about exclusive photoshoot that took place in Pinewood Atlanta Studio last month. A grand celebration to the studio's 10 years of enduring success. For the record, Vanity Fair held their own separate photoshoot featuring only 32 out of 83 people involved in the event (a small percent are likely directors, writers, and producers), so the actual result of said event is still big question marks to any of us. Thankfully, the magazine's coverage is a marvelous substitute. It details the studio's journey and rise to fame from an independently-funded team into a billion dollar maker. It also pushes Feige's hidden personal story to the spotlight, exposing the key ingredient to the Marvel Cinematic Universe's success and global domination: FANBOY FEIGE himself. Go ahead and visit Vanity Fair to read the entire coverage, alongside its coupling stories about the superhero looks and look back to "Iron Man". Those are really good and highly recommended reads!

"Ant-Man and the Wasp" has officially wrapped on November 20th. This one was finally confirmed by director Peyton Reed himself and lead actress Evangeline Lilly. Lead actor Paul Rudd on the other hand, had some fun on HBO's "Night of Too Many Stars" benefit show, flaunting his latest Ant-Man suit while making a joke about his previous movie "I Love You, Man". I personally loved this comedy, so I fully understand what he's saying. The end of production also filmed a rather spoilerific scene in Hawaii, featuring Michael Douglas' Hank Pym and Michelle Pfeiffer's Janet van Dyne. You might want to avoid that link if you don't like spoilers. Anyway, with "Infinity War" trailer out on the market, the greedy question now is: When can we get one for this movie? LOL. "Ant-Man and the Wasp" opens in July 6th, 2018.

On the "Captain Marvel" side of things, the one and only Jude Law has entered talks to portray a key role: the original Captain Marvel... Dr. Walter Lawson a.k.a. Kree Warrior Mar-Vell himself. Mar-Vell is an important figure in the Marvel universe, because not only he's partially responsible for Carol Danvers' powers, he's also the father of another superhero, and a Guardians of the Galaxy member. Having this character in the MCU is inevitable, because I'm sure his involvement will bleed into the next 'Phase' paving way for new characters. And of course, if Law agrees to accept this role (which I think he will), then we'll have two pair of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson in the MCU! If there's one thing Marvel Studios' movies are always good at, it's in their choice of picture-perfect A-list casting. To think that Law wasn't even the first big name who was approached for this part...

The Hollywood Reporter coverage of the same story, seemingly confirmed that actor Ben Mendelsohn has officially become part of the movie's ensemble. Although many have speculated that he could be playing a Skrull Commander, it looks like he could be portraying another key role in Brie Larson's Carol Danvers' ascension to hero: the super villain Yon-Rogg! Not that I'm surprised, of course, regardless of the source's... uhm... lack of credibility. Lastly, a report stated that the movie's production has undergone another schedule change. Apparently, production for the movie is now expected to begin early March to mid-July. However, casting process have already begun because several key roles are expected to film earlier in January. Are they needed for "Avengers 4" then? Quite possibly. Larson herself has already been confirmed to be part of it, which also explains the swift progress the studio is taking with Mendelsohn. With the same reason, I think we can expect follow up regarding Law's status in the near future as well. "Captain Marvel" might be released on March 8th, 2019, but her buzz is already getting louder and louder everyday!

As for what's next? Well... this is where things get rather startling. In a fascinating mysterious way. In the Vanity Fair coverage, Feige confirmed that the May 3rd, 2019 "Avengers 4" will indeed bring a finale or some sort. "There will be two distinct periods. Everything before Avengers 4 and everything after. I know it will not be in ways people are expecting.", he stated. But about that 'everything after'? He revealed that the studio has already mapped not one, not two, and definitely not just three movies after the UNTITLED Avengers movie... but TWENTY COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ONES. Calling that as a 'big plan' would be a huge understatement. Okay, assuming the pattern of releasing 3 movies per year goes on, that means we'll be getting around 6 more years of MCU after 2019. Feige wasn't kidding (he's a man of his words) when he said the studio have plans until 2025. But what will they be?

We know that a sequel to "Spider-Man: Homecoming" is set to be the third 2019 release. "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" from James Gunn (who was recently generous enough to share his first draft while providing details regarding the second movie) will spearhead 2020, while paving way for more cosmic branches. Scott Derrickson probably had already signed up a directorial return to do a sequel of "Doctor Strange" in the same year, opening the portals to more multidimensional journeys. Both "Black Panther" and "Captain Marvel" will most definitely get sequels. Perhaps, we'll get another bromancing Thor and Hulk by Taika Waititi as follow-up to his "Thor: Ragnarok", while Tessa Thompson unites with the other female heroes for an "A-Force" adaptation. And then a cosmic movie featuring Adam Warlock because he might NOT be in "Vol. 3". That's EIGHT... what about the remaining DOZEN then? LOL. A solo movie for the popular Ms. Marvel, or a live action version of "Young Avengers"? Those would be DOPE. Not to mention, that number most likely does NOT include Marvel characters currently under FOX and/or SONY. Imagine what would happen if Disney ends up merging with FOX!

One thing for sure, Marvel Studios' movies are here to stay! Meaning we'll still some great fun times at the theatre for several years ahead. So what are you waiting for... celebrate the 10th year, and speculate on!!!

Marvel TV

The 5th season of Marvel's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." will premiere in just a few days from now on Friday, December 1st 2017 08.00PM EST. In order to amp up the hype and anticipation level, Marvel TV had released an official extended trailer to give audience a glimpse of what to expect. And if that's not enough, they have also published the debut episode's first 17 minutes on Youtube. In case both clips weren't obvious enough, the setting is in space, and all but one (Fitz! Who else?) active members of Clark Gregg's Phil Coulson's team are trapped in a galactic prison or some sort. Fans of the show only need to wait a bit longer for their beloved characters' return.

As for me? That extended trailer has totally convinced me... to SKIP this season entirely. No, this is not a drill. Hmmmm.... I don't know how, but I guess because this looks... redundant? The prospect of going interstellar felt engaging and promising when the previous season ended. But things have changed in the months after, when new space-themed series like "Star Trek: Discovery" and "The Orville" debuted and gained attention. Including yours truly. I admit, in AoS' case it felt more like "Firefly" or "Star Wars", but my point remains: it's a space opera or any of its variations. And being not much of a fan to the genre, I'm already good with following just one of it this season. Care to guess which one?

Besides, good reviews and/or words of mouth don't instantly mean everyone is going to like it. Take for instance... Marvel's "Runaways". People everywhere are praising this Hulu show, yet only two episodes in, and I'm already feeling utterly... BORED by it. Many said that this show is unlike or even better than CW's "Riverdale", but I say... it's more or less the same thing (but with superpowers) or even worse. I'll give it the benefit of doubt and continue watching for a few more episodes (possibly until episode 4 or 5 out of 10), but only out of obligation to a personal quirk. Come on Hulu, just release more episodes for "The Tick" already! Anyways, the same goes for AoS. People have been saying good things about its two hours premiere, but my gut is telling me that... it's not working for me. Call me back when Mr. Lance Hunter returns, okay! *winks*

Netflix

Over on the Netflix side, Marvel's "Luke Cage" has wrapped filming. That's what the production staffs seemed to be hinting at. At the very least, it's nearing completion to pave way for other Marvel-themed shows. LOL. Considering this could be the last season for Mike Colter's Luke Cage on Netflix (with that Disney streaming service and all), this could be a bittersweet news for its fans. Oh well, let's move on...

DC Television

Speaking of dedicated streaming service, DC is already ahead of Marvel (See? DC's forte is on television, so they should just totally focus on it). Aside from the highly demanded new season for "Young Justice", and "Titans" that has gathered almost all of its core cast, a new original title has been added to its roster. Yes, coming from the producers of the short-lived "Powerless", an animated "Harley Quinn" series has already scored a 26-episodes first season! This series will be a half-hour adult action-comedy, written by the same set of guys: Justin Halpern, Patrick Schumacker, and Dean Lorey.

According to Deadline, actress Margot Robbie is the desired candidate to voice the titular character. She might not be reprising the same incarnation from the live action "Suicide Squad", but banking on her popular name would totally give benefit to DC. Of course, I personally prefer Arleen Sorkin or Tara Strong to reprise their roles from "Batman: The Animated Series", but who am I to argue. The story will focus on Harley, who after breaking up with The Joker, wants to become the criminal 'Queenpin' of Gotham. Her bestie Poison Ivy will naturally be part of the show, alongside other DC heroes and villains. Can Harley carry a whole series on her own? We'll see.

Do you want a new season for "Justice League Unlimited" in the service too? Well... keep asking DC about it, and you might get what you wish for. Hey, it worked with "Young Justice", right? Especially when voice actor Kevin Conroy himself is up to do one. Come on DC, make it happen! I just hope that it doesn't involve cancelling "Justice League Action", because it IS close to ending its first season...

Marvel vs. Capcom

Those three leaked DLC Marvel characters for "Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite" have been confirmed! Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier, Natasha Romanova / Black Widow, and Eddie Brock / Venom will be available starting next week on December 5th, 2017. Each can be purchased separately, or directly available to those who own 2017 Character Pass. PlayStation 4 players have been given exclusive opportunity to test out these characters through a free demo during the weekend. You can check out the official announcement trailer on Youtube.

As I said last month, these characters are pretty much... redundant. However, all three have devoted fanbase thanks to the live action movies, so perhaps CAPCOM is trying to attract their attention? I must say though, seeing Bucky's cybernetic metal arm changing from left to right in between scenes is pretty disturbing. It's excusable for a 2D fighting game (because developer would refrain from creating different data for left and right sides of a character), but this is supposed to be 2,5D right? Can't they do it proportionally in this method?

Naturally, the snowball didn't stop with these characters and has continued to roll. As soon as they are confirmed, talks and rumors regarding MORE characters have begun surfacing. Claims on Reddit and other outlets have brought variety of names as potential 2nd Season DLC characters. They include: Star-Lord, Ms. Marvel, Green Goblin, Wolverine, Cyclops, Psylocke, Magneto, Storm, Deadpool, Doctor Doom, and Daredevil from the Marvel side; Asura, Lady, Gill, Rashid, Captain Commando, Nina, Deis, Regina, Gene, Vergil, Akuma, and Apollo Justice from the CAPCOM side.

Many of those names have been openly thrown around, but among them are several characters who have been reported by multiple sources. According to Youtuber Maximilian, there are 5 names with a solid match between various sources, with 1 other one in question. So yeah, just like the first line of DLC, it might be 6 characters... but in an opposite pattern, as this one will contain 2 Marvel character and 4 CAPCOM ones. The Marvel side is said to herald Star-Lord and Ms. Marvel, while the CAPCOM side will bring fan-favorite Asura, "Street Fighter III" big boss Gill, and "Devil May Cry" Lady. The last character might be either "Street Fighter V" Rashid, "Dino Crisis" Regina, or "Ace Attorney" Apollo Justice, because the sources didn't seem to be in agreement about it. This report came along a potential 2 vs 2 co-op gameplay rumored to be available in Summer next year.

Just for the sake of speculation, let's talk about them! Star-Lord? Another pretty redundant Marvel character. But I understand if they want to bank on him due to his popularity on the big screen. Ms. Marvel is a fantastic choice, even if she's pretty much the Marvel version of former MvC roster, Dhalsim. Asura is also a great choice, considering the fans already went wild over that "Asura's Wrath" DLC that pitted him against Evil Ryu. Gill is an interesting addition that makes good sense, since it's pretty unlikely to see him showing up in "Street Fighter V". Rashid is similar to Ms. Marvel, because he works by adding much needed diversity to the game... aside from being a cool wind-powered fighter. Apollo Justice, and Regina will be a clone version of Phoenix Wright, and Black Widow/Jill Valentine respectively, while Lady practically serves as the female versions of Dante and/or Vergil. Personally, I would rather the last character be Rashid, but Apollo will bring his unique style that (similar to Phoenix) separates him from the other fighters.

In the end, these are just rumors with no certainty that it's going to be accurate or not. For now, let's just enjoy the three DLC characters already available in the game, as we wait for three more to arrive very soon. Don't forget that CAPCOM can always stretch the second set for almost a year after... *sigh*

Street Fighter

Yeah, you did catch the jabs I threw CAPCOM above right? Because we all know the both seasons of DLC characters for "Street Fighter V" took an entire year to release, eventhough there were only SIX each. The last one for Season 2 has only arrived last month, even if we probably have been teased about it since last year.

Of course... when the dust settles, a new wind blows. The topic of the game has since shifted towards... "Arcade Edition" and 3rd Season DLC. Inline with its half-brother in the category above, a slew of rumors regarding 6 more characters have begun dropping throughout message boards. The same leaker who posted the potential characters for "Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite", stated two things that some people have found to be... rather conflicting.

The first one headcounted Sagat, Sakura Kasugano, Cody Travers, Sodom, and two newcomers (who could either be "Final Fight" Roxy, or a Shadaloo member). This one COULD be considered credible because many other sources have been singing similar tune. For example, dataminer X-Kira claimed that Sagat, Sakura, and Neo Shadaloo (Ed's team member on his Story Mode) are three of the DLCs. Flowtron (the user who successfully leaked the entire Season 2 characters) mentioned a somewhat different set: Sagat, Sakura, Blanka, "Mayor", "Another Bae", and "President". But the user also warned, that they no longer had connection with CAPCOM, that even they couldn't be sure of their own statement. LOL. At the very least, if the Red Bull Battle Grounds was any indication, then Sakura has pretty much been officially confirmed.

The second part of the leak claimed that four characters; namely Crimson Viper, Q, Necro, and Oro; will be available as free characters for the Arcade Edition's free update. Flowtron has debunked this, saying it's not true. Youtuber VesperArcade commented that while the previous names made sense, these free ones sound rather unlikely. He argued that to pull this off, it would require CAPCOM to make all four character available when the update is launched on January 16th, 2018. And the company doesn't really have a good track record in developing things quickly. Remember when the first set of DLC mostly ran out of its initial schedules? Beside, CAPCOM would have announced this kind of update in advance, to ensure that players who have purchased the vanilla "Street Fighter V" be pleased... and not complaining. But there's no such thing about it until now.

To be honest, I'm merely talking about this because I'm excited about the probability of seeing my champ Cody back in a Street Fighter game. If he IS part of the 3rd Season, that gives me more reason to purchase the game... as soon as I get a PlayStation 4 or a strong enough PC. LOL.

Moving on from rumors, CAPCOM have also released official information. Eventhough there were some concerns about the promised secondary V-Skills and Critical Arts, the company confirmed that every character will indeed receive one among other new stuffs. And to prove that, they even released an official trailer (available in Japanese as well) to showcase them in action, with a note saying "Street Fighter V players will receive the free Arcade Edition update. In addition to an all-new Arcade Mode and new monthly challenges via Extra Battle Mode, every character will receive a second V-Trigger attack. These are but just a few to get you thinking of new possibilities for 2018 and beyond…". Here's hoping this update will boost or rekindle interest for the title among fans and gamers in general.

Meanwhile, "Puzzle Fighter" had launched for iOS and Android last week. The free for download puzzle game should be available worldwide with a new look and new features. If you ask me, it actually feels more like a "Capcom All Star" game, because of those other characters from non-"Street Fighter" titles. I guess that is expected to appeal wider demographics, huh? You can download the App game on your smartphone right away to try it, or you can watch the launch trailer on Youtube to get a visual taste.

The King of Fighters

Looks like we'll be getting another update for "The King of Fighters XIV". Following the result of a social media design contest that took place last month, SNK Corps will soon add two things. A Saudi Arabian-themed fighter named Najd, created by designer Mashael Al-Barrak from Saudi Arabia, and a modern day Masmak Fort stage, created by Oman designer Zainab Al-Lawaty. It's currently unclear when they will be added to the game, but I hope SNK will also expand the roster with more characters. Now if only SNK would hold a similar contest in my country...

Nintendo

To wrap up this month's final R-N-D, we have some happy news from Nintendo. The company's popular and highly praised "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild", has scored several wins at the Golden Joystick Awards in UK. The open world RPG won 'Ultimate Game of the Year', as well as 'Best Audio', 'Critic's Choice Award', and 'Nintendo Game of the Year'.

While the alternate reality "Pokemon Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon" hit the market, its original titles "Pokemon Sun & Moon" also won the 'Handheld/Mobile Game of the Year'. These titles could be the reason why the game developer itself got crowned as 'Studio of the Year'. This award relied exclusively on public votes, which means Nintendo has gained a truly positive buzz this year. And that's before the equally praised and critically acclaimed "Super Mario Odyssey" could take part in. Could we see the Zelda and Mario game pit against each other in future Awards? I believe that would be the case.

[furederiko]

This week's Random-News-Digest comes a little early... because it feels appropriate somehow! PS: Is it because I won't be able to post a Kyuranger recap-view today? Perhaps... ^^;

Disney Live Action

There might be some backlash surrounding "Beauty and the Beast". With mixed reviews dividing critics, and the inevitable comparison to the animated classic that sounds rather... overly pessimistic (no kidding, like this thinkpiece for example), perhaps? Not to mention countries (like Russia, Malaysia, and others) flaming the movie's rating 'just because' of an LGBT character (lame excuse, huh?), eventhough the actual consensus is that the movie is nothing more than 'family friendly'. But that doesn't mean this remake is stopping anytime soon. In fact, prior to release last weekend, it was already tracking to a record breaking number, judging from the advance ticket sales. The remake has become the family film with the most pre-sale on Fandango. It has bested fellow Disney's titles "Finding Dory", and their Marvel Studios' "Captain America: Civil War" and "Avengers: Age of Ultron", placing it as a record breaking in the outlet's 17 years of history.

And the result? The opening weekend in North America has even leaped ahead the forecasted number of $120-140 million. It cleared out $63,8 million on Friday alone, thanks to a mighty $16.3 million received from Thursday-night preview. Giving the overall weekend result a heaping sum of $170 million! Successfully proving the House of Mouse's box office powerhouse status. It's a number that is more than their own "Finding Dory", that previously holds the record for PG title's opening weekend. And more than that, surpassing a certain dour DC Film of last year, setting up a new record for March opening. Similar success can be heard in the United Kingdom region, as the movie stands tall and proud with an 'A' Cinema Score (as of writing). According to reports, this movie appeals audience of cross-generations, particularly in the way the tougher and independent Emma Watson's Belle resonated with younger women. Other studios opted to avoid the movie, giving it a relatively free competition. Thus explaining why it's such a huge hit despite some negative backlashes. So have you seen the movie yourself? I'm going to... probably this week if not tomorrow *grins*.

In a rather disheartening news, we might want to enjoy all the glamour singing and dancing of "Beauty and the Beast" as much as we can. Why? Because we probably won't see much in "The Lion King", and likely won't get any in Disney's live action version of "Mulan" as well. Director Niki Caro said so in an interview with Moviefone (via Variety), though she noted that her children aren't pleased about it. That's a little disappointing, if you ask me. Because if there's one element Disney can highlight to separate it from those many other live action adaptations for Mulan (Remember, SONY is also producing one), is by turning it into a fullblown musical. Only Disney has songs in their version, and ones that are very memorable too to both fans and public. Instead, Caro's currently envisioning it as a "big, girly martial arts epic" that will be "extremely muscular and thrilling and entertaining and moving". Wait a sec... muscular? HUH? "Mulan" will arrive on November 2nd, 2018. I guess we'll have to wait and see how muscular and not musical it will be...

Disney Pixar

Last year, Disney Animation released two titles, while the Pixar division only had "Finding Dory". But this year, it's the other way around, because Pixar will be the one releasing two while Disney Animation is in fact sitting the year out. The first will be "Cars 3", a sequel that practically noone asked for... eventhough it has a high possibility to score big in the box office. But it's the other one that critics has been buzzing about. "Coco", a movie that will tell a journey about a young boy who journeys the Land of the Dead. A story inspired by Mexican festive "Day of the Dead".

The first teaser for "Coco" has been released, and looks like the critics are indeed on point. Easily reminding us of the critically acclaimed Oscar winning "Inside Out", this gorgeous looking trailer introduced the main star of the supernatural-themed movie, Miguel. The young aspiring musician is voiced by newcomer Anthony Gonzales, and along with his dog Dante, his character will team up with Hector the charming trickster, who is voiced by "Mozart of the Jungle" very own Gael García Bernal. Aside from the two leads, latino celebrities like Benjamin Bratt, Ana Ofelia Murguia, and Renée Victor also lend their voices as the deceased singer Ernesto de la Cruz, Coco's Mother, and Granny. Lee Unkrich and Adrian Molina are co directing, while Darla K. Anderson is producing.

The visual looks stunning, and the teaser alone is enough to make me feel all those melancholic goosebumps/feels. But I don't know about you, for some reason, I'm sensing interesting similiarities to Disney Animation's "Moana" on the main character. While on a certain extent, also Pixar's very own "The Good Dinosaur" that somehow failed to live up to many people's expectation. Suffice to say, this can be good or bad. The good news is, Unkrich and Anderson respectively directed and produced "Toy Story 3", which was by far still the best iteration of the franchise, and remains to be one of the most memorable animated movie of all time. That's a reassuring fact, but as always, we can't say anything until we see the movie with our very own eyes. Can't even tell why the movie is titled "Coco" as well, right? That's why we should plan ahead to catch it when it opens in November 22, 2017. Agree?

DC Films

As Ben Affleck opened up about the fact that he's been struggling with alcohol addiction and had just completed rehab, comes another not so surprising news. Script for "The Batman" that he has spent extra time developing with Geoff Johns, is being completely rewritten from scratch, following the announcement of Matt Reeves as the new director. With this in effect, the movie might not begin production until 2018, because Reeves' schedule is occupied with "War of the Planet of the Apes" until June.

It's unclear whether the new script will stick to or at least mirror the original plan or not, but this put the current casting report into an undeniably halt. Which means, yes, unless he shows up in this year's "Justice League", we can't really count on Joe Manganiello to show up as Deathstroke now (why not, go and play Kraven on Marvel then? *grins*). In fact, Reeves won't be meeting any talents until July. If you ask me, this is just another pessimistic indication that Affleck's role as Bruce Wayne might very well be numbered as well. Let's just hope this doesn't get into a weird loop. Unfortunately, with a series of non-stop drama to what seems to be the 'easiest' DC solo movie to pull off (due to the character's popularity and already massive fanbase), it's easy for fans to get negatively worked up about the movie, eh? So to those who are still insisting that there aren't any problems with DC Films? I sincerely offer you my condolences...

Meanwhile, the tentatively titled "Suicide Squad 2" has a writer in negotiation. Nope, not David Ayer, who is currently oversexualizi... er I mean, working on Margot Robbie's "Gotham City Sirens". This is a new writer, but not so new for Warner Bros. One that gave birth to that trepid-quality "The Legend of Tarzan", Adam Cozad. Yep, WB seems to LOVE running around in circles, huh? Appointing the same people over and over again, eventhough they honestly should have looked for better or more suitable ones for the job. No offense to Cozad, but while the Alexander Skarsgard-starring movie was indeed watchable, it was also (honest opinion)... NOT that great. Not just that, his "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit" was equally... bland. So obviously, this does NOT inspire confidence to us all. But we really can't judge a movie by its screenwriter alone, can we? After all, it also depends on the director, whether he can realize it perfectly or even better on screen, or does the complete opposite instead. Things like the latter happens all the time, right? There were buzzes that WB wanted Mel Gibson, whose Oscar-nominated movie "Hacksaw Ridge" catapulted him back to the spotlight. Yes, his high profile would help the movie, but even that sounds like an uncertain prospect for now.

By the way, "Aquaman" has also been delayed for two months. To those who actually expected the movie to arrive earlier? Allow me to offer you another sincere condolences. The movie that was supposed to come out on October 5th, 2018 will now premiere on December 21st, 2018. It will now be swimming in the spot previously occupied by the also delayed "Avatar 2", which is arguably, a better release window. Looks like WB is back to being openly bullish though. Because it's making a direct challenge to SONY's Animated "Spider-Man" that will feature Miles Morales. This delay practically means that there might be a long 1 year gap for DC movies following this year's "Justice League". Or at least, that's the current situation. Why?

As a direct response to what's happening with "The Batman" and "Aquaman", looks like WB is actively pushing to... shoot one more title this year! Wait, what? Of course, the goal is obviously to have a second movie up next year. But is this a wise move? I'd argue that this is somewhat concerning, because we all know that rushing into things doesn't usually end up good. In fact, many seems to think the same way, that it's better for WB to take a back seat for a while and rethink their strategy before moving forward. I say, just give it a rest and be content with one title, will ya WB?!

Candidate titles for this rushed production include "Gotham City Sirens" that as far as I know is currently in writing process, "Suicide Squad 2" that we know has a writer in talks to work on it, "The Flash" that has no director and currently undergoing page-one rewrite as well, super director Doug Liman's "Dark Universe" that... I have nothing to say about because I couldn't care less, and "Green Lantern Corps" that is also being written. The good news is, WB is NOT insisting to have one ready if it's not up to standards. So if things doesn't go as plan, "Aquaman" might end up swimming solo to carry the DC flag for the year.

The bad news though? That new Squad or Lantern movie could potentially fill in the missing piece. How? Because apparently WB wants to hire David Goyer as the director to one! I don't know about you, but just the thought of the so-called 'DC architect' writing Lantern's script (alongside Justin Rhodes) alone is enough to make me worried. Lest we forget, the story of "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" originated from him! And how about "Blade: Trinity"? Not to mention this is the same guy who thought She-Hulk is a sexual object! But seriously, don't be surprised if WB does end up honoring him with the gig, especially judging from Goyer's long history with the studio. After all, like I said above, WB loves running around in circles... and falling into the same wormhole over and over again.

Spider-Man Universe

This one's intriguing, and a direct follow up to what happened in the previous category. As soon as WB pushed back "Aquaman", immediately SONY Pictures jumps in to venture and claim the open water. Yes, by placing "Venom" as the replacement title on October 5th, 2018. More comic book adaptation should make fans delighted with joy, especially Marvel's. Because remember, there's an 8-months Marvel gap between July 2018's "Ant-Man and the Wasp" and March 2019's "Captain Marvel". But I wonder if this... by all means, merely the studio's way to answer WB's bullish challenge? Hmmm...

The issue with this title however, has begun to rise up due to one particular concern: Will this movie be canon to this year's "Spider-Man: Homecoming"? I'd argue that it'll likely exist in a different universe than the one with Tom Holland's Peter Parker. Many seems to think that way, especially if we take note of the development news surrounding it. Which obviously means, it will NOT be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Don't forget, a Spider-Verse scenario has totally been made possible now, thanks to "Doctor Strange"! But that didn't stop fans from getting, well, negatively concerned. Why? Because in the comics, Venom technically exists because of Spider-Man. A great amount of creative liberty will need to be taken for this movie to work in a world without the web-crawler. And that can be quite fatal in execution. On the opposite side, it has the potential to limit the Symbiote from being used in the MCU too. Which means, we will never see Holland's Parker dealing with the alien super villain! And even I, am not pleased about that...

Anyway, the movie is said to be using a freshly submitted script written by Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner, not the one written by Dante Harper. Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach, alongside Amy Pascal are producing. Alex Kurtzman was reported to be in charge for the directorial duty before, but this latest news confirmed that the movie doesn't have a director yet. Which means, Kurtzman is likely out of the picture. It's unclear what plot this movie will go through. Perhaps Venom will go straight into Agent Venom, thus he's always been a hero and never on the dark side? Or it will tell the story completely from a villain's point of view? It's anyone's guess, and we'll have to wait and find out. But with the movie arriving in just 19 months, I suspect more information will crawl to headlines really soon...

The Matrix

Do we even NEED a reboot for "The Matrix"? I'd argue NOT, but as long as it keeps the money going, Hollywood seems to think the opposite. In case you didn't get my point, yes, WB is currently in early stages to relaunch the 1999 franchise. Because their DC properties didn't sell as much as they hoped? I'm not surprised if that's one of the primary reason. Zak Penn, who did the first draft for "The Avengers", is currently in talks to write. Actor Michael B. Jordan is being mentioned as the potential lead, likely as a younger Morpheus who was originally played by Laurence Fishburn. Apparently no talks have been made though.

Interestingly, it's currently unclear if the Wachowskis sisters as the original visionary creators will be involved or not, because it's producer Joel Silver who approached WB with the project. Actor Keanu Reeves, who gained huge popularity thanks to the movie, had even stated that he would love to do another sequel or a reboot, ONLY if the Wachowskis are returning. Admittedly, its two direct sequels ("Matrix Reloaded" and "Matrix Revolutions") were not received at the same level, both critically and financially in the box office. But even so, Penn is playing coy but surprisingly optimistic about this movie. He even vaguely hinted about whether it's going to be a REMAKE, a REBOOT, or even pure RE-RELEASE. Remember, this is the guy who co-wrote "X-Men: The Last Stand"! So I think we should be a little cautious with his words...

With that said, regardless of whether it is the right or wrong thing to do, I'm sure we might be seeing another journey to the Matrix in the coming years. Why? Remember, this is the exact studio that produced "The Legend of Tarzan", eventhough we don't really need another one. One that has spin-offed "The Lord of the Rings" into not-one-but-THREE unnecessary chapters of "The Hobbits", and currently doing the same to "Harry Potter" with last November's release of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them". So yeah, we WILL get another Matrix movie. You can count on it.

Marvel Studios

A sad news might be brewing over Marvel Studios as well last week. Or at least, a somewhat sad. Actor Chris Evans had an interview with Esquire recently about politics and others. When talks eventually hit upon his sore muscles, an after-effect generated through workout session obviously to prepare for "Avengers: Infinity War" (he starts filming in April), the outlet made a bold statement by writing "After that, no more red- white-and-blue costume for the thirty-five-year-old. He will have fulfilled his contract.". Of course, this put everyone into a quick frenzy. Many sites immediately interpreted that Evans would be putting down his Captain America role, after the concurrent Avengers production. Mind you, everyone's forgetting that Evans has had similar situation a few years ago when he said he wanted to focus on directing, which eventually forced him to backtrack a bit and debunked media's interpretations. Since I believe he didn't blatantly say with his own mouth that he won't play the role again to Esquire, I don't see why it's nothing but similar scenario of misunderstanding or quick assumptions.

On the other hand, he HAS been around since 2010, so it makes logical sense if he simply wants to 'move on'. Even Hugh Jackman has bid farewell to the Marvel character that made him a household name, right? Let's just treat this as if it's 'true' now, for the sake of conversation. If Evans DOES decide to not extend his contract, does this mean we might expect to see his Steve Rogers sacrificing himself for the greater good in one of these upcoming Avengers titles? Or... is this merely a huge red herring, considering Rogers HAD already put down his shield at the end of Civil War, thus Captain America is technically no more in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? If you ask me, Evans can always return in future movies but in a mentor figure or some sort that doesn't require action scenes (no need to workout) and can be filmed in a more lenient schedule. The same thing has happened with Robert Downey Jr., right? I don't see how Marvel Studios won't offer the same opportunity to Evans, whose trilogy by far remains to be the best one in the MCU. But worst case scenario, at least we can still see him as the character until 2019... *sigh*

Anyways, speaking of filming, apparently this concurrent production will take part in Old Town Edinburgh this week. Scotland's Cockburn Street, the Royal Mile, and Parliament Square are expected to be featured. Perhaps it's filling in for Nidavellir, home of Eitri the Dwarf King? According to the report, "dozens of A-listers" are expected to be present. Now this is... intriguing. Because as we already learned earlier, Evans will not join production until April. We can add to that, Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye and Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlet Witch, since both have also confirmed that they will start in April as well. So WHO are these A-listers, then? So far, we know Robert Downey Jr., Chris Pratt, as well as Peter Dinklage have all been involved from day one. Tom Holland was among them, but he should be doing reshoots for "Spider-Man: Homecoming" right now. The same with cast for the "Game of Thrones"-esque "Black Panther" which is filming in Atlanta and certain parts of South Korea. Brie Larson (assuming Carol Danvers is in one of the movies) is promoting "Kong: Skull Island" around the world with Tom Hiddleston and Samuel L. Jackson. The latter has even vaguely say he's not involved in these movies. The only characters who seems to be unheard of is the cast members of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2"! Does this mean, it's them who are expected to show up?

Speaking of "Guardians", James Gunn recently confirmed on The Adam Carolla Show, that actor Sylvester Stallone will play a significant role in his upcoming movie. And he's not alone, because his character will be related to another character, who is played by Smallville's alumn Michael Rosenbaum. Thanks to that, the actor who is famously known for his portrayal of Lex Luthor in the TV series, has come out and admit the fact himself. Nature of Rosenbaum's so-called major role, as well as Stallone's, remains a huge mystery for now. Gunn specifically said "We do have a couple of characters who are very important to the Marvel universe, who are going to make their debut in Guardians Vol. 2, that people don’t know about". Emphasis on the words: 'Very Important', 'Debut', and 'Don't Know About'. The first two is obviously meant to tease future developments in the cosmic side of MCU, but the third is the most curious. Considering Gunn has the penchant for including obscure character like Chris Sullivan's Taserface, and also reimagining one like Pom Klementief's Mantis, Stallone and Rosenbaum could practically play... anyone! Who do you think they are playing? Richard Rider and Sam Alexander? Adam effing Warlock, which would be a fantastic casting? Or Mar-Vell and his son Genis-Vell as a lead up towards "Captain Marvel"? Yondu's comic book team mates StarHawk and Martinex? ...Or someone else? Speculate on!

Marvel TV

First Black Bolt. Second Crystal. Who's next to be spotted by public eye? Medusa, Auran, and Karnak. Yep, Serinda Swan's, Sonya Balmore's and Ken Leung's character have been seen during the production. Thanks to Reel News Hawaii, of course. Unlike Black Bolt or Crystal though, these three didn't look as clear. All we can see is Medusa's long red hair and her purple dress, while Karnak's possibly hidden in a green hoodie, a costume that's probably inspired by his comics version's latest run. Auran looks very vague, but doesn't resemble her comic book counterpart. Maximus is supposed to be there too, but I honestly can't see him anywhere. Is he supposedly hiding? Or that guy with the hood is Maximus all along? Hmmm...

They are filming a rather intriguing scene as well. This one shows the black-suited King and red-haired Queen, escorted by Auran in their front, walking through a line of... humans. A Royal Entrance? But who are those humans wearing gray-colored garbs? Just a wild personal guess, but quite possibly they are people who is lining up for Terrigenesis. Because that's the way it is in the comics, right? Only people given permission by the Royal Family can unlock their true Inhumans nature via the Terrigen Crystal. Then again, judging from the supposedly huge fountain, it might simply be a scene with the King and Queen taking a leisure stroll in the courtyards, addressing citizens. There aren't any more information about the scene, but it's nice to see more cast being caught by candid cameras. I wonder if we'll see Gorgon and Triton next, then?

X-Men Universe

I honestly can't decide if this should go to a 'Marvel TV' category or not, but here's a good news from the other TV side of Marvel. "Legion" has been renewed to Season 2. Yes, FX has renewed the Noah Hawley's series, which shouldn't be a surprise considering the strong reviews by both critics and audience. FX Programming President Eric Schrier even called it as "stunning achievement" because it's a "wholly original take on the superhero genre". He meant that for a TV series, perhaps? After all, "Guardians of the Galaxy" already did an original take on the genre before this. Schrier's words also confirmed that Hawley will be returning for the second season, but didn't confirm when it will be available. Easy money is that it will be released on Winter this year, or even the start of next year.

I haven't personally seen it myself, so I can't tell whether it's really that good or not. After all, just knowing that this show exists in that messy FOX's X-Men Universe is enough to dissolve any interest I have for it into thin air. Which seems to be the case with other audience too, so I'm not alone. But you know what? This renewal has definitely pigued my curiosity. Many media has also branded this show as 'unique', 'weird', and the likes. And sometimes we need this kind of materials as part of our straightforward lifes. Beside, it's only 8 episodes, so it doesn't demand much of your time. So yeah, I'll be checking it out real soon. Though I'm not sure when. LOL.

Netflix

Things are certainly looking... BAD for Marvel's "Iron Fist". While I currently reserve my judgement until I've seen the series completely (not just one or two episodes), knowing that it's sitting at a 16% score on Rotten Tomatoes is undeniably disheartening. I mean, eventhough I rarely check out the site's TV section, this is probably those few moments where I've stumbled on a TV series being awarded THAT bad in the critics' aggregator site. Interestingly, there's a contrast in public's reception. Marvel fans seems to enjoy it, while others, particularly more professional critics (who are equally Marvel fans, not haters), do NOT. This is concerning, because that means the series has divided people in two. I can't bear to imagine how general audience would response to it! But is this a mixed review then? Not necessarily. It's a situation that easily reminds me of a particular movie that was released March last year. Yes, "Batman v Superman"! "Iron Fist" has a much lower score than that boring movie (that ended with 27%) too, so imagine the irony. Hold on, let me correct that. At least audience are liking this show, as evident by the high score (86% with an average rating of 4.3 out 5, while "BvS" only gets 63%). That part CAN be called as ironic.

For the time being, as in just a few days following its release, it's safe to say that the much anticipated series has succeeded to become the most critically-panned live action adaptations that Marvel ever produced. Again, I don't know if such sentiment will last or not, or that people might appreciate it more after seeing the entire series. Moreso, whether this trepid reception will have a negative ripple effect, affecting the upcoming crossover Marvel's "The Defenders" that had just wrapped production. We can't really judge anything, because unexpected things can happen. As I said, I haven't seen this debut season, but has already begun lowering my expectation. I used to be looking forward for this particular title so much, and I honestly don't want to get all disappointed about it. So imagine the anxiety I'm feeling just to watch it.

With that said, we all need to remember one important thing: Don't ever think about blaming the lackluster quality on Finn Jones. He's only an actor, not directly involved in the story and all, and even if he has given great efforts, there's no helping when the material is already weak. If you want an actual scape goat, then look no further but to Marvel TV President Jeph Loeb (who allows too many productions happening, eventhough I don't think his division have yet the resource and proper control to do so), and also showrunner Scott Buck (who has the authority to whip this show into something better, at least critically speaking). Now let's just hope the combo won't be messing up with "The Inhumans" as well. Otherwise I might be really pissed...

The King of Fighters

2nd DLC character for "The King of Fighters XIV" has been announced! This news caught me off guard, since I didn't expect it to arrive this soon, though probably owing that to the way "Street Fighter V" is dishing out its 2nd season DLCs. But never mind that, because my speculation was correct. That crouching tall guy is indeed Ryuji Yamazaki. Just like Whip, the genuinely creepy-crazy deranged-brute feels like a natural inclusion to the roster, due to his, uhm, unique berserking fighting style. I'm not a fan of his character, but I AM a fan of him as a fighter. Because maaan, Yamazaki can sure pack a scary punch, and such a fun one to main with. Intriguingly, his official reveal video somehow hints that he might be teaming up with Whip after all, no matter how odd that might sound (Yamazaki is a known criminal, while Whip works for a government-sanctioned task force).

And also, as I said, there are 4 and not just 3 characters. Just look at that updated silhouette. That alone is solid proof that we're going to get 2 more along the way. Well... unless the 3rd character is a four legged Centaur, of course. Now the question is, WHO will these two characters be? I've speculated the left one due to the hair style. But the right one? Assuming it's not a newly designed character, nor a crossover from other franchise, that fighting stance easily reminds me of the mercenary agent Vanessa who debuted on "The King of Fighters '99 Evolution", Malin who debuted on "The King of Fighters 2003", or Psycho Soldier's latest member Momoko who debuted on "The King of Fighters XI". Neither has been playable again since "The King of Fighters XII", but have shown up in the Team endings for "The Women Fighters" (just like Blue Mary) and "Psycho Soldier" (alongside Bao). The speculation gets narrowed down, once you start connecting them into a team alongside Whip and Yamazaki. Yes, only Vanessa make sense in this theory. What do you think?

For now, Yamazaki doesn't have an official release date yet. But using Whip as the example, I'm sure we'll hear more about that in the near future. In fact, we might need to prepare ourselves for the confirmation of the 3rd character, very soon...

Nintendo

I'm going to close this week's (and probably month?) R-N-D with a quick news from Nintendo. According to Wall Street Journal, the company is planning to double the production of their new hybrid game console, the Nintendo Switch. Manufacturers might produce 16 millions and not 8 as planned. This will be effective in the coming fiscal year that begins on April 2017, and ends on March 2018. This news didn't come officially from the Japanese company, which until now remains silent about it. But even if it's just a speculation, it certainly makes a lot of sense. There's a huge popular demand of the console in the market. Especially if we factor the massive popularity of "Zelda: Breath of the Wild" that has taken the world by storm, and the possibility of "Pokemon Stars" becoming a reality. Many gamers who are currently holding back, would at least be tempted to purchase, as more fresh titles coming in the next months. Some have even stated that they are only waiting for the right software to purchase one.

Speaking of games, looking forward to play "Sonic Mania" on your newly purchased Switch? Well, you're going to have to wait a wee bit longer. The game has been delayed to Summer, with SEGA officially stated that it was intentional to ensure the quality of the product. The company announced this on the Sonic the Hedgehog's SXSW 2017 panel, while previewing a new stage for the game, the >"Flying Battery Zone". At the same time, the company also revealed that Project Sonic 2017 has been officially titled as "Sonic Force". To be honest, before seeing the trailer again, I've completely forgotten that it works as some sort of sequel to "Sonic Generations". Which means, we're going to play two versions of Sonics, modern and classic. In fact, Sonic Team Studio head Takashi Iizuka even described it as "an evolution of Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations". Not just that, apparently there will be an additional 'style' that will be revealed in the coming months. A short gameplay footage featuring a level that focuses on modern Sonic has been made available for public. That DOES remind you of "Sonic Generations", huh?

Interested about these games? I know I do, eventhough I haven't managed to get the hybrid console. Then again, now that Nintendo is increasing the production, the likelihood of the product running out on stores is now close to none. At least until March 2018. So plenty of time for you and me to continue saving and get one for the Summer or Holidays, right? Good for us... *grins*