#but the Atlanteans in Aquaman are basically just people

[saxophone-cat]

I made a bunch of Temuera Morrison Barbie memes. Movie/show names in alt text

[turboacek-blog]

Aqualad: most underrated Young Justice story

Just wanted to kind of layout how interesting his story was as I feel of the OG team his reserved personality makes him not stand out over the rest and some only thought he was interesting when playing the bad guy in season 2

Aqualad a young adopted kid training to be the next Aquaman with his best friend, and is in love with a girl. But he takes the opportunity to be Aquaman’s sidekick which takes him away from his best friend and crush

Only for him to come back in some months just to find that his best friend got with his crush…

And he has to essentially still save the day and be the hero, come to terms that he lost her due to his “job” while not being upset at them the arguably two closest people in his life

Like this is in any other medium is a movie in itself

Add through season 1 he’s the leader of a bunch of interesting personalities and was like the calm big brother of the team

Then in the time skip, his crush joins the team meaning he can finally spend the quality time with his crush he had to sacrifice before, and it’s a bit unclear if they ever got together during this time but on the mission she dies on your watch…

Not much time later you find out that your mentor/King’s enemy is your biological father so dealing with all these emotions is again it’s own movie itself

Not even going to go into the whole double agent thing in season 2 that people already like

But then one of your best friends Wally dies and you’re thrusted back into the job as your other best friend grieves his own way leaving mostly on your own

Then in season 3 he does it he becomes Aquaman he’s another leader of the Justice league everything is going seemingly fine

But does fall too deep with the secrets again…

And between seasons 3&4 he finds a new love

But all this time his first issue keeps coming back of balancing work and life which is how he lost Tula before and how he perceives to have lost Superboy until later revealed he’s fine

Idk I think Kaldur has the sneakily best story through the show in total

Characters like Nightwing adjust with each season more to fit that season's story than something overarching, and Miss Martian will always have her identity problems and so on but I feel the others weren’t as detailed as Kaldur I feel

I’m just saying you could easily make an amazing movie animated or real life about Kaldur the secret son of a villain learning under a hero and on the way has to juggle the problem of hero and villain and work and life and love or duty

You would literally just need to adjust his hero name tbh as I don’t think general audience will wanna watch a movie called Aqualad tbf

Like Garth got the Tempest alternative when he’s not Aqualad either swap that as Garth is still kinda seen more as Aqualad due to comic history and teen titans or just give him a new name as a character like Tim Drake will probably always be Robin primarily but he still has a couple of alternate names he can go by

Random but I kinda of like Tide, from Tidal Wave or Rising Tides or a play on his comic counterpart Jackson Hyde

And for visuals Kaldur has the Atlantean magic that Aquaman doesn't have so he can water bend for a more interesting power set as Aquaman is basically just super strong with no aquatic life around

Plus can generate electricity has weapons etc. giving him a mix of Queen Mera and someone like Robin

Idk I just feel that this version of Aqualad you could make its own version of the story just about him and be well received by a majority

[pluckyredhead]

Is Geoff Johns’ Aquaman the best run on the character, in your opinion?

Lol no.

I will say this for Johns's Aquaman: he did a very good job synthesizing all of the contradictory backstories and canon that had come before and refining the best elements into something that made sense and created lots of story potential. Like:

Pre-Crisis, Arthur's father was human and his mother was a random Atlantean woman, and he was king because he was elected to the position. Post-Crisis, his mother was the queen consort of Atlantis and his father was an ancient Atlantean sorcerer. Johns married the two, literally, by having Arthur's father still be human, but his mother the queen (not the queen consort) of Atlantis. This allowed Arthur to be a child of two worlds, and have all the pressures and conflicts of the crown, both of which are really strong elements of the character.

Pre-Crisis, Orm was Arthur's half-brother on his father's side, so he was fully human and became a supervillain because he couldn't breathe water like Arthur and he was big mad about it. This is nonsense. Post-Crisis, he was still Arthur's half-brother on his father's side, but that father was the aforementioned ancient Atlantean sorcerer and neither Arthur nor Orm had any real relationship with him to speak of, so their dynamic isn't interesting and Orm himself is criminally boring. In the New 52, Orm is Arthur's half-brother on his mother's side, meaning that for the first time, he is also a potential heir to the throne of Atlantis, and the conflict between him and Arthur stems not from random hatred but from a genuine disagreement about what's best for their people. That's SO MUCH BETTER.

Pre-Flashpoint, Mera was the queen of an underwater realm from some random other dimension we don't care about. In the New 52, she's the princess of a rival undersea kingdom to Atlantis, which is way more interesting.

Pre-Flashpoint, Tula was from some random "royal family," which isn't explained and doesn't make sense. In the New 52, she's Orm's half-sister on his father's side, meaning she and Arthur aren't actually related but they have the same brother. Also interesting!

There are so many good ideas in Johns's Aquaman, and honestly I think this book does a better job than literally every other New 52 book I've read (and I've sadly read a lot of them) at presenting a cleverly streamlined, accessible new narrative for its characters based on what already existed, rather than just changing things at random just to be different.

The problem is the execution. Johns's Aquaman is utterly joyless, which was true of basically every single New 52 book, but this one feels particularly weighed down by it. It's also deeply, deeply embarrassed by its subject matter. He spends all his time trying to convince you that Arthur is a TOTAL BADASS who is VERY SERIOUS and DOESN'T TALK TO FISH, OKAY???

And like...he's Aquaman. The whole concept is goofy. Superheroes are goofy. If you can't hang with that, maybe superhero comics aren't the place for you?

The book just radiates un-fun. No one in the book was having fun, no one making the book was having fun, and I didn't have any fun reading it.

As for what the actual best Aquaman runs are...I would say probably the Silver Age, the Sub Diego arc in the 2003 run, and there was some really fun stuff in Rebirth. And the Peter David run isn't actually good but it's really, really entertaining.

[djs-horny-blog-lmao]

i think ive decided fr actually. good lord you guys better appreciate this bc i dont know if i ever intended to think this intensely about this au....

and sorry if u dont like it but it's my au <3

heroes

Patton Foster (alias: Guardian. Just a normal guy who trained super hard, has a handful of cool tech and a mask. He's basically Batman. - Costume is probably mostly shades of dark grey / light grey and pale blue highlights - has a cowl)

Roman Valdez (alias: Hurricane. He's basially Superman, was an alien baby who crashlanded on earth. - Costume is white with a red? gold? H on his chest, red cape, red boots and gloves. probably not masked Or has a little over-the-eyes Green Lantern/Mr Incredible style mask. Probably built like Mr Incredible too)

Remus Valdez (alias: Maelstrom. He's basically Aquaman. Also not human - half-Atlantean (im gonna steal this i can do what I like). Raised on the surface. Can control water and sea life, can talk to fish, LOVES octopi/tentacle motif above all else. - Costume: probably yknow super green black and silver, probably has that scale-like skintight chest piece and maybe some armour motifs (bc Atlantis) Face is not covered)

Side note: i think Roman And Remus were found by like. a lighthouse keeper. who went oh boy!!! free sons!!! and raised them as brothers. They fully consider each other brothers. they grew up together and hero together, probs dont live together currently tho.

also i came up with the names separately but it means they both named themselves after weather phenomena and that is twin behaviour godbless

the three of them have something like a justice league together - it probably has Other Heroes in it part time too but. waves hand. background characters. They have an HQ. Somewhere.

villains

Janus [Surname Pending] (alias: Siren. A magician-cross-catburlgar... he's like... Catwoman if she had Zatanna's powers and aesthetics. Magic is real and he has it. And uses it for. Well. Everything. Morally grey rogue rather than evil villain. He's still super fucking with Guardian. - Costume: face half-scaled (genuinely from a magic curse) the other half masked phantom of the opera style. wears like... a magician's get up crossed his canon outfit but with bootyshorts and fishnets)

Logan Sanders (alias: [pending]. He's not really evil, or, not if you ask him. But he does think having these so called super-'heroes' running around without a contingency plan is... irresponsible. In private he is building a mech suit capable of taking down Hurricane Should He Need Taking Down. Has strong morals <- not good morals, just strong morals. Sometimes funds smaller villains/rogues for ,,,reasons. Patton is his secretary but they dont know the other is hero/villain (a shame, if they were on the same side, they'd get along very well) - Costume: well. it's a mech-suit, bulkier / more armoured than, say Iron Man, but not,, like,,, ten feet tall. all cold steel, maybe burnished black in parts, and i can see it having a visor with electronic eyes that can be Logan's signature blue.

Virgil (Surname Pending) (alias: [also pending] <- probably storm Or shadow related. He's the most nebulous to me right now but tbh i can see a semi-harley quinn backstory where he was tangled up with a gangleader who won him over into a life of crime but he's not that happy (i.e., open to...persuasion) with it. Don't know if he should have powers or not... - Costume: blacks, purples w/ hints of yellow. Hood covers hair and eyes and mask covers lower face. dresses in layers typical of like... a medieval assassin (he's not an assassin) (he's probably killed people before tho)

Virgil and Janus have probably crossed paths before as their rogue aliases. Janus has met Logan (under a fake name). it's possible Logan (in costume, under alias) has worked with Virgil/Virgil's boss before. Generally, esp now Virgil's striking out a little more on his own, Virgil and Janus are kinda too low on Logan's radar for him to seek them out so far. (Janus likes it like that) (tbh so does Virgil)

[rwac96]

If I may throw my hat in the ring with the DC Comics/The Boys prompts I have what I personally consider an interesting one.

Aquaman and The Deep. The most notable ocean-based characters of their worlds, one respected by their peers and the other treated like shit.

A major difference between the two is that Aquaman is literal royalty of a race of Atlantians ans The Deep is just a supe with a issues. The Deep has a bit of strength with his powers but is very basic, whereas Aquaman could be considered godly.

So many differences between these two but one important similarity. They're both considered low-level and weak. Aquaman by the public and The Deep by his fellow supes.

To prove himself as a powerful superhero, The Deep challenges Aquaman at their home turf in the middle of the ocean but they'll learn the hard way to not mess with the King of Atlantis.

Seeing while submerged in water is difficult for most people if they were human beings. For those who were born of Atlantis or were gifted with such abilities, it was easy as talking. Though, The Deep's left eye was swollen. He floated above a corral reef, his opponent dressed in orange & green. The brunette groaned as if he was regretting his decision. He assumed this was an even match, but evident from his wounds, that was farther from the truth.

Before he used his psychic abilities to call for assistance, The Deep was met with a gut punch; hurling him upward. He erupted out of the water, falling down onto a grey stone close to a shoreline. The Aquatic Supe coughed up a mixture of seawater and blood, as Aquaman rose to the surface; standing on top of a whale.

"You really shouldn't have challenged me," Arthur Curry, King Orin and Aquaman of the Justice League said.

"Y-Yeah," the brunette said as if he had given up this folly of an idea. "I really shouldn't have.

"Your fighting style is beyond abysmal," the Atlantean explains, approaching his opponent. "your psionic abilities need work, as well as your manners."

"Yup," the brunette huffed, massaging his stomach. "I'm...I'm going to jail, am I?"

"Yes," Aquaman bluntly said, "first, to stand trial on the Surface, then to stand trial in the waters of Atlantis."

[marilynmonroefanfics]

Being Aquaman's husband...

You are Y/N, prince of Xebel and the younger brother of princess Mera.

Your father, king Ryus was at war with the Kingdom of Atlantis.

You always were opposed to the war, but your father didn't hear you.

He wanted revenge.

Ryus lost the war and Atlantian troops entered the capital.

You saw them enter the palace and you ran to your bedchambers.

You heard stories about the Atlantean King.

Stories about how he was merciless to his inemies and to traitors.

"What's going to happen to me and my family?" was the only thing you could think of.

A couple of minutes, you heard a strong banging at your door.

"Prince Y/N of Xebel, come out now!" a soldier said behind the door.

You didn't obliged, instead you tried to hide.

The soldier broke your door down and you could see, it wasn't just one, there were five of them.

"This is it." you thought, this was the time you were going to die.

Your father and sister were probably dead by now.

The soldiers surrounded you and took you as a prisoner to the Throne room.

You tried to fight them, but to no use.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO HIM?!"

The soldiers trembled from the King's strong and commanding voice.

The soldiers let you go immediately.

You saw your sister and father and runed to them.

"Father, what's going on?"

"Don't worry my son, it's all going to be fine."

The Atlantean King made his was to you.

He was much taller then you thought.

"Tell me little one, what's your name?"

Arthur also heard stories about you, stories about your kindness, your intelligence and of your tremendous beauty.

You looked at the floor, the presence of the King made you feel a little bit scared.

He had a strong presence, much like an Alpha.

"I'm Y-Y/N, p-prince of Xebel."

He took a hold of your chin with his hand and made you look at him in the eyes.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Y/N, I'm Arthur, king of Atlantis."

Arthur couldn't believe his eyes, you were stunning.

He was sure you were created by the Gods.

In that day you found out that in the peace treaty, your father basically gave you away to Arthur.

Also on that day you were taken to Poseidonis, Atlatis' capital.

You cried your eyes out on the journey to Poseidonis.

Arthur held you close the entire time, his body keeping you warm.

You tried to push him away, but he wouldn't move.

"Don't worry Y/N, I will take care of you."

Arthur saw you for the first through a portrait, he thought you were perfection.

When he saw you in person he was totally smitten by you.

Your beautiful face, your petite figure, everything about you made his hart melt.

When you got to the palace, Arthur made sure you had everything that you needed.

Arthur wanted to sleep with you, he wanted to hold you at night and calm your insecurities.

But he knew he couldn't.

He didn't want to scare you away.

That night you berely slept, you felt betrayed by your father.

The next days were always the same, Arthur would personally pick you up at your room, you would have breakfast together and then he would spend time with you until he had royal matters to attend.

Each day you opened up to him, even if it was just a little.

Arthur would pay attention to what you had to say.

He wanted to memorize every detail you had to share.

Each time he would fall even more in love with you.

Three month after you being in Atlantis he asked you on a date.

"Would you like to go on a date with me?"

You accept and not long after that, you and Arthur started dating.

Your sister Mera showed up when she found out.

To cut a long story short, she tried to kill you.

She was in love with Arthur, but you stole him from her.

"Mera of Xebel, I condemn you to life inprisonment.

Your father died of a heart attack after receiving the news.

Three years after that you and Arthur got married and you were crowned King of Atlantis.

On your wedding night, moans and groans were heard throughout the palace.

When Arthur was away, you were appointed reagent.

You did a very good job.

The people of Atlantis love you.

You help Arthur with matters of state.

When Arthur introduced you to Justice League, they were very surprise.

Athur married to a man?

"I'm Y/N, prince of Xebel and king of Atlantis."

This was your life now, helping and loving your husband.

Arthur loved you more than anything in the world and every day he made sure that you knew that.

If you know what a mean.

[thedivinedemom]

An AU of DC with a mass crossover of PS4 properties.

Provisional name: Players Searching for Detectable Changes (Get the pun?)

The setup:

This is the future of DC, a world where the old guard has slowly withdrawn and the newer generations have risen to the occasion. The original Titans in particular, most of which have formed the new Justice League while many other, very similar teams had started to form across the world. One of which was a resurgence of the Teen Titans, led by an older and purified Raven. She wanted to make the Teen Titans something akin as it was for her, a place to belong and learn to use one's powers.

The first 'class' of such individuals include:

Stargirl (of the now-disbanded JSA and still getting used to the Starrod)

Blue Beetle III (Freshly attached to his alien symbiote and freaking out a bit)

Robin V (to work on his anger issues, mostly at the new Batman's request)

Kaldur (a half Atlantean half metahuman who is struggling with his identity and the surface world, Aquaman feels a kinship for the boy seeing their similarities)

Static Shock (a promising new hero but little experience working outside his city or in groups)

Mary Marvel (she's... she's going through alot. Fresh from a coma, her brother is distant as he acts as the new Wizard, and she may be, sorta kinda, being corrupted by Black Adam's gifted power)

The team was rough and there was plenty of head butting (Mostly between Stargirl and Robin/Damian as one is almost the unanimous leader while the other thinks he should be) but they were getting there. They were more of a clean up crew for the Justice League, they did more than the "kiddie missions" that the Outsiders didn't do, and they meant more than the PR grab that was the International team. Though they didn't seem to amount to more than that. They still did their best, pushing past the silent ridicule, as they went about their missions.

This may be why tempers were so high that day.

One day, outside a little city by the name of Weller's Point, the prisoner transport for the villain Plasmus had an "accident". Released and awakened the creature went on a rampage, heading ever closer to the populated area. Luckily, the mentor of the New Teen Titans could teleport. The new team did fairly well in the fight, though they did struggle a bit as Plasmus was not a being where simple brute force would work. It made the fight tricky and more than a bit... messy.

Messy enough that juvenile and emotionally compromised Mary Marvel lashed out against the downed villain but was stopped by her teammates... things escalated from there. Restraint turned blows and the whole team struggled to stop their powerhouse without hurting her. The ones who do the best are Raven, Stargirl, Blue Beetle, and oddly Static.

While both of the former could use their abilities to restrain her to a very effective degree Static was actively draining her of strength, or at least of the electic aura she was radiating and blasting with. Frustrated, done with the situation, and a bit petty Mary launched her largest attack yet by saying her magical word.

SHAZAM.

Virgil did what he did best, he handled that lightning as it came crashing down towards Mary and the Titans restraining her. Well, he tried. The bolt was just too powerful, too unlike anything he had ever encountered. He could not handle it and it was dissipating, if anything it clung to him or tried to jump towards the girl. He had to get rid of it and he had to get rid of it quickly, safely too if he could help it.

He shoved it into the ground, into the power lines. He did it as carefully as he could, trying to prevent overload or flashover as guided the charge into the power grid.

What happened next was a combination of a few things. 1. The Mystic and transformative properties of the Lightning, 2. It is effectively being filtered through a bang baby, 3. The kryptonite power plant owned by, provided by, and operated by Lexcorp.

This interaction, this new charge, cycling through the power grid interacted strangely with a number of devices but none more so than PlayStation 4s and the devices connected to them. This new electricity changed things, literally. It brought fantasy into reality.

Whatever game was loaded into became a part of our reality in a small way. Sometimes TVs, Controllers, and even the system changed to reflect items from the game but the bigger change came with the Players. If a person was playing their console during the surge then they would become a metahuman with abilities based on the playable character they were playing.

The city, the county even, was now flooded by an abundance of metahumans and items of varying power of devastation. Static felt horrible.

He couldn't help but compare what has happened here to what happened in Dakota City but on a wider scale. And this time it was his fault. His sense of responsibility wouldn't, couldn't, let that stand. He had to fix his mistake and his team was dragged along for the ride.

The story to follow is a mix of Final Crisis and Kingdom Come with a bit of the Young Justice cartoon in events and themes, a few twists and likely a bit lighter in tone but to the DC geeks this should give a rough idea… Maybe a bit of Marvel's Civil War but hopefully not the rushed knee-jerk mess that that ended up being.

But it's here that I start having issues with my planning. One part in worry as outside the set up we start to follow the perspective of OCs (something rarely smiled upon) and another part in wondering which OC to focus on.

Now, one thing I love in fiction is progressive powers and the conflict escalating from the different paths people take in said progression. In that vein, I have a pair of protags in mind as well.

The main two/co-protagonists:

The Lawkeeper- a cop before the change and now a member of a task force made up largely of those affected by the surge. A gamer, a man of color, and a believer of the spirit of the law. He doesn't always get along with his fellow officers but he believes in what the blue does. He believes that an organized response is what is best.

His abilities are based on those of Jesse Fades of Control. Meaning he has tremendous psychic potential but he needs 3 things to reach his full potential.

1.Items to bond to so he can generate these psychic abilities. Jesse's used altered items of her universe to get thematic abilities from them (ex: a safe to generate a shield, a carousel horse for a dash ability, ect). Here he can use items generated by the surge.

2. A patron/partner entity to help guide, give insights, and empower. It also let's the user enforce reality, basically becoming an anti reality warper.

3. A bonded morph weapon or a weapon to come to his hand when called.

The knight- a recent college graduate who instantly decided to go the route of the caped hero. She, after figuring out how to get her powers to work, instantly went the route of a caped crusader. Going out to the streets, saving lives, stopping instances of surge item abuse, and (in the humble opinion of the local Police Department) getting in the way of operations. In her opinion they were taking too long to get things done.

Her abilities are based on those of Prince Noctis of Final Fantasy XV. This means she has tremendous physical and magical potential but like the above she has a number of check marks needed to gain access to the character's full power.

1. A gem/crystal to draw power from.

2. 13 magical weapons to boost strength. The generated game weapons will do and I have most picked out in a way that likely would help the plot progress.

3. The blessing of 5-6 gods.

4. A power ring of some king to channel all this power.

I keep debating the two above as I do like the idea of both of them climbing in power and clashing over conflicting ideals of what to do with their power. At the same time, I think that just smooshing aspects of both into one (which is actually where they started, a single character) and play off the different ideologies of how best to help people from within her friend group and precinct along with internal conflict. Maybe have the one be a fellow officer they butt heads with because of the... precarious nature

Another OC I was thinking on, keeping with the theme of what to do when you have power, is a thief who played Persona 5. Like both of the above they would be crippled in their ability to use their abilities without a way to fake the connection to. In this case, without the Mementos App, they would need an item that could affect or enter the hearts of others. Luckily, more unlucky really, there are plenty of items floating around that can do just that. Namely Keyblades.

Most other Players are an odd mix but most are variations of the Shooter build. Peak physical humans who heal quickly and often have bullet time. But there are enough other variations to cause trouble. Demigods of unreal strength, men and women who can easily tap into a patron for powers from the outside, 2 variations of spider powers, cat eyed men and women who can cast magic with simple gestures, and so much more. But the real issue was the first two, the demigods without a parent to protect them and those easily connected to a divine source.

The disembodied New Gods of Apocalypse were very happy with those groups. For how bad this can be please look at what happened to Mary Marvel in canon Final Crisis.

Thoughts and opinions would be appreciated.

[maxwell-grant]

Reverse Unpopular Opinion: Aquaman

I don't think I've ever had as much fun watching a big action blockbuster on theaters as I did when watching Aquaman, and I definitely don't think I ever enjoyed watching a live-action superhero film in theaters as much as I did Aquaman. I don't usually watch superhero films unprompted and I've never been very interested in Aquaman in general, and I was going to skip it, but my mom wanted to watch it because Jason Momoa was in it, and I was really curious as to how they were going to handle Black Manta, so we went along and we all had a really, really great time.

It was basically like learning Aquaman existed for the first time and just being sold on the idea of this really cool character with a really rich setting for adventures in a movie that's just, brash and bold and proud of itself and the cool things it wants to show you and so, so goddamn big. I don't think I've ever seen a film in theaters that felt so "BIG" in such an overpowering way, and I watched 2001 in theaters. I loved that the movie was so unabashedly colorful, with all these terrific recreations of the comic outfits. They didn't try to make them more realistic or do that thing movies usually do with superhero costumes, no they just straight up put them 1-to-1 on screen and just, honestly I don't have much interest in superheroes if they aren't allowed to be as colorful and over-the-top as they can get away with.

I think this movie is kinda what was missing from the other Aquaman stuff I had watched up until that point, that sense of unbridled joy and wonder that really should always be there to a character like him. I don't want Atlantean politics and I don't want a story that's desperately trying to be grim and serious to offset a reputation as a joke, I want to enjoy reading Aquaman and I want an Aquaman who enjoys being Aquaman, because being Aquaman is awesome, at least in this film. He's Tarzan-meets-King-Arthur On The Beach, this outcast from both worlds who gets the best of both with zero downsides to become it's greatest hero. He's super strong and tough and flies and he's a great fighter, and he can TALK to fish because the fish are his friends, and he swims with sharks and calls in Cthulhus to help out in a fight, and he rules Atlantis and he hangs out with the Justice League, just, why did it take 50+ decades for someone to take a look at this and decide, wow, this is FUN, let's make a FUN film about this guy and rake A BILLION DOLLARS.

And it was such a kind film too, I loved what a kind character Arthur is and how his biggest victories in the film come from kindness. He takes selfies with the bar thugs even though he doesn't like people and even enjoys himself a little, he addresses people in their language when saving them, he is deemed worthy of becoming Aquaman because he actually talks to the monster instead of fighting it and wants it purely to protect his people and not to prove he's worthy, and he's haunted the entire film by the one time he failed this principle and let Manta's father die, and it's a mistake he doesn't make again even when no one would fault him for doing so. I think this gives the film a lot of heart.

And oh man I fucking LOVED Manta in this film, what a perfect representation of the character. I already had a good idea of what kind of character Manta was as this hilariously petty arch-asshole who killed Aquaman's family and, if I remember, had stories where he faked autism to get close enough to Aquaman, or completely abandoned a regular life the second he heard Aquaman came back to life, and whose sheer obsession with Aquaman became a meme, and before the movie I saw this really great video on Instagram of Abdul-Mateen II at home talking Hulk Hogan/Randy Savage lines into a trash can to create this growly metal voice filter, talking about how he was GONNA GUT AQUAMAN LIKE A FISH TO MAKE AQUA-TUNA BREAKFEST BROTHER and just -

Man, I can't begin to describe the sheer joy it was to watch every second of this guy making filet out of the scenery, and especially the above scene where he gets his own cheesy power-up montage of him building the suit. I think this may be actually one of my favorite scenes in any superhero film and I think villains getting heroic power-up montages is a super great idea that I want to happen much more often.

[sakebytheriver]

I've been thinking about this ever since I watched the Snydercut, but when Jason Momoa was cast I was honestly expecting all of Atlantis to be Hawiian and/or other Polynesian cultures.

Like I know that the myth of Atlantis is technically Greek, but I thought what was going to happen was they were going to completely reinvent it and turn Atlantis into like a Polynesian Mecca where tons of different cultures from all over Polynesia would gather and share technologies, ideas, art, and of course trade wares before it sank bellow the surface. And then the new underwater Atlantis could be full of traditional Polynesian images and practices and basically become like Polynesian futurism with all the advanced technologies and magics they discovered and invented. Plus I feel like it would just make more sense for the city of people who can breathe underwater and have water magic to be from the Pacific islands considering how the ocean is an integral part of many Polynesian cultures. I mean I remember reading a quote from Jason Momoa where he talked about how cool it was for him to play Aquaman because of Hawaiian gods being of the ocean and that he gets to represent his people instead of a blonde-haried dude and I was thinking that they were going to try and put some of that culture into Atlantis since it's an underwater ocean civilization.

I don't know maybe I was expecting too much from a big Hollywood movie studio, but I really thought that once he was cast they were really going to commit to that and make all of Atlantis Polynesian instead of just casting one guy and then making everyone else in Atlantis white (except for Ludi Lin who was honestly barely in the movie and didn't have as substantial a part as I was lead to believe). Felt like a cop out honestly. And I've just been thinking for days about the potential an entirely Polynesian Atlantis could have had. Like the Atlantean language could have been an amalgamation of several different Polynesian languages, the tattoos Aquaman has could have meaning on the surface and in Atlantis, the fighting techniques of Atlantis could be real life Polynesian martial arts, the weapons could also be more technologically advanced versions of Polynesian weapons, and we could have kept the actor they cast as his dad too. The romance between him and Atlana would become one of two people with the same racial identity, but with a very clear divergence in history and culture finding each other again and giving birth to a child that holds the culture of the Polynesian people who stayed on the surface and those that went underwater. Not to mention it adds a whole other dimension to Orm's motivations of destroying the surface because they're destroying the oceans with pollution, especially since Jason Momoa is an environmental activist himself, there could have been a really interesting depth to the discussion about how the surface has abused not only the ocean, but the people still living on the islands from whom the Atlantean's culture and reverence for the ocean came from. And it would create an even deeper connection between Arthur and Orm. Also a Polynesian Mera would be awesome and also create a different, but in my opinion more fulfilling romantic dynamic between her and Arthur

In the end, an entirely white Atlantis made no sense to me and I wish they'd fully committed when they cast Jason Momoa to making all of Atlantis have a similar background

[smokeybrand]

Breaking the Rules

So the Snyder Cut finally dropped. Four hours of Snyderisms like slow-mo, dumb kinetic camera work, and relentless edge. Now, I'm a card-carrying Marvel shill. Been real transparent about it for years. Marvel is my sh*t and Spider-Man is my favorite superhero. That said, i do like DC. I always give them a fair shake. Hell, my favorite capeflick is The Dark Knight. I even like Watchmen and that was a slog to get through. I’ve seen every film in the DCEU and they have left me wanting. A lot of DC heads write off my opinion because of my Marvel bias but let’s be serious; The DCEU is inferior to the MCU in almost every way. As it is, the DCEU needs to be better. It needs better storytellers. It needs a better plan. It needs a Feige. Snyder is not that dude and i don’t think Wan is either. I think WB and ATT have to figure out a way to coalesce this sh*t because it’s all wonky, especially now that we have this Snyder Cut. I’ve already reviewed a Justice League before so all of the observations i made about performances in that, stand. This is more what i think this version does better and worse.

The Better

This opening is much better and makes more sense. That Super Death Wail as the principal genesis of Steppenwolf’s conflict, the thing that wakes that first Motherbox, makes way more sense that whatever the f*ck Whedon did.

This thing definitely looks so much more gorgeous that that first run. Zack Snyder can’t plot a story to save his life but this motherf*cker can compose a shot, for real. Snyder is an idea man, a cat that just wants to make cool looking sh*t, but this ain’t the medium for that. You can have all the beautiful shots in the world but if they are tied together by a shoestring of a narrative, then it’s just polished sh*t, you know?

The extended Aquaman intro was outstanding. Whedon didn’t let this scene breath and, seeing it as it was intended, that was a mistake. Seeing this version of Justice League kind of makes Josstice League in it’s entirety, a mistake. It’s weird that this was cut because it’s so good and shows so much more of Arthur.

Jeremy Iron’s Alfred continues to be my second favorite Alfred after Michael Caine. Sorry, Michael Gough...

Wonder Woman’s first scene in this, the one with the terrorists, is ridiculous. This one scene is a perfect example of the difference between the two versions of this film. Snyder’s is better, if way more brutal than it needed to be. Still, i love the warrior version of Diana so I'm good with this.

Speaking of Amazons, Snyder, apparently, put them in more clothes this time around? I couldn’t really see for sure because of the color correction but it didn’t seem like they weren’t rocking those iron bikinis like in the Whedon cut. I think Joss Whedon might be a bit more problematic than we think. Between the half naked chicks, the way he kept sexualizing Diana, the fact that there are no people of color in his version or the way he shortchanged the entirety of Cyborg’s plot... Breh.

Steppenwolf is SO much more menacing in this version of the movie. Dude feels like a force, like a proper threat an not just some stop-gap for something better. Ol’ Wolfie was a decent antagonist for an initial run at an Avengers-esque team up for the DCEU. Definitely more Loki this time around and less Ultron like the first time.

Also, the Parademons look much more dope. The first time, they looked like fodder. This time, they actual felt like a force, like a horde.

Hey, we got an Atom sighting!

Not a ton of Iris West but enough to wet my appetite. Anytime i get to see Kiersey Clemons in stuff, I'm happy. Having it tied to an outstanding sequence demonstrating Flash’s powers was just icing on the cake. Seriously, Snyder did a great job visualizing Barry’s abilities. That scene where he saved everyone from the debris and then the subtle reversing of time; All of it was dope to see.

Are those Starros that Steppenwolf is using to “interrogate” the cats with Motherbox stink on them? They look like little mechanical Starros. I hope they’re Starros.

Lots of Cyborg stuff. Like, intricate Cyborg stuff. The sh*t Whedon cut of Vic was instrumental to the coherency of this story and dude was just like, “Nah.” It’s no wonder that version of the movie doesn’t make any f*cking sense.

Hey, we got a Spectre sighting! Nice.

The explanation for the Motherboxes and their mcguffin-ness goes a long way to soothing the whole “resurrecting Superman” thing. Snyder basically tells the audience they’re magic boxes that can do anything because of magic-technology. It’s a little ridiculous considering what Motherboxes actually do in the comics but whatever. It makes sense in this universe i guess.

All of the action scenes are better. All of them. Snyder is nothing if not a cat that can actualize a dope punch-out. Dude can’t get out of his own way when telling a story but if you need a fight scene, Snyder is definitely your guy.

Speaking of, that climax was WAY better. It carried far more weight and there were times when the heroes felt like they could lose. There’s an unrelenting tension that grips you hard and doesn’t let up until it finally does. I appreciated this way more than the first one, even if it’s dumb edgy for no reason.

The Worst

Zack still doesn’t understand these characters, man. It’s very apparent to me that a lot of this is just window dressing for kind of a Zack Snyder fan fic version of DC and that’s fine i guess? Sh*t’s not my cup of tea but a great many people seem to like it. Dude’s writing can definitely be tighter and he can skew a little more toward the heart of these characters but i mean, it’s called Zack Snyder’s Justice league for a reason.

The Snyderisms, man, they are all over this thing. Look, i just don’t like how Zack makes movies. Too much style, not enough substance, or rather, not enough focus. He has a ton of great ideas but gets too bogged down in how sh*t looks, or tumbles down his rabbit hole of concept but never expresses any of them clearly enough. Outside of 300 or Dawn of the Dead, this film is probably the most focused I've ever seen Snyder and it’s still kind of all over the place yet, never where it needs to be.

So many plot holes, man. Less than before, but so many threads left untied.

This thing didn’t need to be four hours long. Not even close. There were several shots that i thought could have been cut. Like, that three hour version which got the standing ovation was probably the best version of Justice League and we’ll never see it. This version is definitely better than the theatrical run but f*ck is it long. You really feel that sh*t, too.

Cyborg still looks gross to look at. You’d think they’d try and make his weird, angular, body look a bit better upon the redo but nope. This what we get i guess.

Also, why the f*ck the Atlanteans sound British? Why they make Amber Heard do that accent? She can’t do that accent, man. You’re actually asking a chick who’s professionally pretty to act and she can’t act. She’s just pretty. That actually brings up an interesting question; Is Aquaman canon to this universe because Mera in that doesn’t have an accent and her Pops is still alive. This one has an accent and her parents are dead. Or maybe the accent makes it easier to recast Heard later with a British actress? Maybe the Mother of Dragons really is about to be the Queen of the Seas?

Why is this Knightmare sequence in here? Sure, it was awesome to see, pure fan service, but this is the blue balls of blue balls because we don’t have a movie to follow this one. This is it. This is all the Justice League we’re getting. There is no part two or whatever. Why even hint at something more?

The Verdict

There’s a lot to like about this version of Justice League. It is, hands down, better than Josstice League in almost every way. Sh*t is a better film, man, and should have been what we got to begin with. WB did Snyder a disservice by letting him go and then letting Whedon butcher his movie. I don’t like Snyder’s take on DC. I think it’s try-hard, edgelord, nonsense but it is it’s own thing and i commend him for that. Dude has a vision and I'll never take away from from a creative’s inspiration. That said, this thing was a slog to get through. It’s definitely better than what we got before but it’s still not that great and it’s way too long. Three hours is more than enough to tell this story if you make prudent cuts. Still, I’m glad it exists and, if you’re a fan of this world, a fan of Snyder’s work, you’ll love it. For me, as a cat who has no skin in this game, I'm not all that impressed. Per usual, Snyder has too many ideas and that leaves the plot unfocused and meandering at times. In a genre that is predicated on storytelling, you can’t be a bad storyteller like that and just gloss over it with spectacle. That’s disingenuous. At the end of the day, it was entertaining. It was pretty to see. It was a Snyder film.

[bigfan-fanfic]

Reality Warper (Male!Reader x Aqualad/Superboy Headcanons)

Requested by @acoustickitten for Aqualad and Superboy from Young Justice falling for a male!reader with space-time powers

Disclaimer: I’ve only seen the first two seasons of YJ, and I don’t think I’ll get to see the new stuff anytime soon. :( Just letting y’all know.

You’re a pretty powerful young person.

With power over time and space, and the continuum thereof.

In fact, that’s your superhero name: Continuum.

Actually, that’s your Batman-given codename. The public tends to call you Redo or Hopper, depending on whether you used your time or space powers.

You can transport yourself through time, and can rewind time slightly, taking up to two people with you.

Not even Batman is sure where you came from

The theory is another dimension that you slipped from using your space powers.

But since you joined the Team, you’ve noticed two members acting just ever so slightly off.

Conner - Superboy

He’s gotten even surlier than usual, which is saying something

One-word answers

You’re under the impression that he kind of hates you.

“Hiya, Conner!”

“...............Hi.”

And yet, he always tries to be near you.

In the cave at Mount Justice, he’s always in the same room with you as long as it’s a public space - he avoids your room like the plague.

He’s sitting next to you at meals

While watching TV

You spend some quiet time reading, and he just sits nearby, silently, staring at the floor like it did him a personal wrong.

“You OK, Conner?”

“....Yes.”

“You sure?”

“..............................Uh-huh.”

But you realize that this is not the product of hatred when your door is knocked down a few weeks later.

Sphere has busted it down - you don’t know how it even got through the hallway!

And in trots Wolf behind Sphere. He’s carrying a slobbered-on teddy bear with a note clipped to it.

Dear Y/N - hope your day so far isn’t feeling the aster. The teddy bear is a gift for you. By the way, would you like to go out with me? -Conner    -Yes     -No

It’s clear that Robin wrote this. But Sphere and Wolf brought it, and they only listen to Conner, so...

You go to find a pencil, feeling somewhat foolish as you circle Yes.

Wolf barks happily at you and leads Sphere away.

In about five minutes, you hear a loud noise from afar.

“YEEEEEEESSSSSS!”

Conner takes you to Happy Harbor, because he doesn’t know anywhere else, and Robin and Kid Flash advised him to go somewhere he knew.

Unfortunately, there’s really very little to do in Happy Harbor.

But just as Conner is getting frustrated, you two find the Happy Harbor Ice Cream Parlor.

But alas - it’s closed.

Conner looks at you and starts to apologize. It’s already time for you two to return to Mount Justice.

You shush him.

And hold his hands.

Conner’s heart nearly stops.

And slowly, the sun reverses, rising back over the horizon. People move backwards through the events of the last few hours.

And you two are standing in front of  the HHICP, which is now, blessedly open.

During the rest of the date, Conner is noticeably more relaxed. I mean, hey, you wouldn’t have given him a redo unless you really liked him, right?

You two share one of those sundaes that’s basically just an excuse to eat an entire two buckets’ worth of ice cream.

Time goes slower for everyone but you two. It’s a side effect of you being so happy around Conner.

Eventually you two finish the sundae, and get to have your picture on the wall as well as a complementary t-shirt.

Conner tentatively puts his arm around you, and nuzzle into his neck just before the picture is taken.

The HHICP has a picture of the most adorable couple ever, Conner with just the barest start of a smile and you grinning happily in his arms.

At the end of the night, before you two return to Mount Justice, you ask Conner if you can give him a kiss.

He just nods, excited and terrified.

When your lips meet, Time stops...

And the two of you could just kiss forever...

But eventually you two break apart and step into the teleporter, comfortably holding hands, as if you were made for each other.

Kaldur - Aqualad

He is the leader of the Team - he doesn’t want to become distracted.

But you are such a powerful member of the Team... and such a team player. He never has to scold you like the others.

He almost wishes he did, so he could have an excuse to get up in your face. Maybe lean forward and give you a kiss...

Aquaman helps him out, because the boy is not subtle. He tells the story of his and Mera’s courtship, which is a little bit too much information for poor Kaldur’ahm.

He at first tries to ask you on a date while on a mission, but there’s never a good time.

Then he tries to ask you at Mount Justice, but you’re always helping Conner and M’gann with their homework, or stopping Wally from eating anything M’gann made, or stopping Artemis from beating Wally up for eating M’gann’s cookies...

And then, it comes. An idea.

Kaldur asks you to go to the beach with him.

Formally.

“Y/N, would you do me the immeasurable honor of accompanying me to the beach this afternoon?”

“Uh... sure, Kaldur.”

He makes sure to show off his swimming skills, and for the grand finale, he uses his powers to make a giant floating heart of water for you.

But you’re just clapping delightedly as if it was part of the show.

“Er... Y/N. I should tell you why I did this for you.”

“Um, because we’re together?”

He’s shocked. “How?”

“Oh, darn.” you say, annoyed with yourself. You must have accidentally rewound time after Kaldur asked you out while on mission.

It attracted some enemies, so you had no choice.

But you’ve assumed since then that you were together.

Oops.

Kaldur laughs when he learns the truth. “That makes this much easier.”

He kisses you.

You sigh. You had been waiting for that.

Your first “real” date is in Atlantis. Using your powers, you can leave part of yourself at Mount Justice and take the rest to Atlantis, not having to worry about breathing, or water pressure

Kaldur starts teaching you Atlantean, and takes you to all his favorite places. One of the best is the seahorse park, where all the seahorses try to nuzzle you.

Kaldur says something in Atlantean that sounds beautiful.

“What does that mean?”

“You’ll find out.” he says with a charming smile.

Eventually, you do.

“It might be early to say this, but I believe I love you more than anything in all the depths of the ocean.”

[starsdreaming]

Throne of Atlantis reaction

I finally finished reading Throne of Atlantis Aquaman #whatevers, I have it on kindle, and I gotta say, it's a kickass story, it was surprisingly satisfying to see batman and superman get their ass kicked by Orm, Arthur not so much because you can see the history between the brothers and neither can back down and both think their right and both were put in an awful position.

This took me a few days to read because I would get a few pages and then get pissed at Vulko and have to.put it down. So, fuck vulko. Hes a lying piece of shit that put two worlds in danger and instead of trying to foster peace instead brought about a damn war because of his stupid ass pride I hope he chimes on it. He betrayed Atlantis, he betrayed Arthur, he ultimately betrayed Atlanna because of his shitty, shitty actions. I know it was to get Arthur back on the throne, but, and I'm speaking as a slytherin, there are times when the ends justify the means and this isnt Fucking one of them.

And Orm. He was put in an awful situation because he had to do everything he could to protect his people from attack. And if I were put in his situation, I'd probably do something similar. Dont get me wrong, hes racist and bigoted and angry and jumps to a pretty bad (if justifiable) conclusion. It's awful what happened to him at the end, ending up in Belle Reve or however you spell it. I can understand why, dont get me wrong, it just sucks balls. Especially since they do care about each other. It was actually pretty cool to see that Orm knew that when the fish were basically looking at him a certain way, Arthur needed to talk to him. That's a sign, to me, that they were close at one point in time. And and fucking vulko fucking ruined it because hes a fucking shithead.

AAND ANOTHER THING: early on, when the fish are looking at Orm funny, he basically saves Garth from being killed because he has purple eyes. As far as I'm aware, hes never met Garth, wouldnt know him from Adam, but because hes a atlantean and a subject, so long as he didnt break the law, hes going to protect him if he can because hes a fucking king who cares about his fucking people!*

*I should note, these opinions might change as I get more then 3 volumes into the new 52 aquaman story arc

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S4 E3: So Many Dragons in This One

Y’all so I’m like getting over a pretty nasty cold that’s pretty much wiped me clean like a hard reset and this episode coinciding with it is something else because this episode is essentially a fever dream start to finish.

First off:

If your mind didn’t immediately start playing ska-like alt rock and go through every lyric from “Escape From the City” then I can’t help you. Because that’s where my mind directly went and stayed for the entirety of this episode.

Back in the museum, Yugi learns about some more crypto-history.

Because Y’all, Yugioh just LOVES to screw with history. I mean we’ve already seen what they did to Seto Kaiba’s timeline, but get a load of what they’re about to do with world history.

(Arthur now has the USA gradient because I was at a loss of how else to describe Arthur. If Bandit Keith comes back then I’ll be mixing fonts, yet again.)

This was done mostly to recap the last 3 seasons, but also to drop in some brand new lore that came out of freakin nowhere.

Atlantis.

Yes, he said Atlantis.

(read more under the cut)

In the actual dialogue of the show, Tea mentions she read a single book about Atlantis once in her life, and then Joey and Tristan go “Tea, you nerd!” and it’s like wow the standards are low in this group. One single book, boys? That’s all it takes to be a nerd? When you have any of the KAIBAS right over there? One single book is the requirement?

Starting to think no one in this universe knows what a nerd is.

So the underwater cave dwelling from a few episodes back is none other than the Atlantis ruins. I feel like this should be a way bigger deal in terms of like all of history, since in this universe, Atlantis is time wise at the dawn of (checks wikipedia)...proto-writing...and yet they seem to really have their math and large construction science down.

The arch wasn’t really utilized (I hesitate to say “discovered” as it is an arch) until about 2000 BC or so. Good on the Atlanteans, I guess?

Don’t know why we’re getting so sidetracked by cards when a civilization 10000 years ago could make immense underwater 60 ft castles that don’t immediately collapse under the pressure, but this is the Yugioh universe and everyone’s card addiction runs strong and true.

It just seems funny to me that Hawkins, who devoted I want to say like 60 years of his life toward becoming a walking encyclopedia about Egypt, got super sidetracked and ended up 10000 leagues under the sea in Atlantis. He just threw all that Egypt work completely to the wind and basically changed his career at age I dunno 70 or so. Or maybe this guy is only 50 but he just seems super way old to me.

(And raising his granddaughter for some reason? Hell knows what happened to Rebecca’s parents, but knowing Yugioh, it will probably be really, really tragic.)

So then, although Atlantis is in our world and under the sea, Hawkins decides to throw another fast one on us.

(I just chose a random number, but Buzzfeed decided Washington was 34th. Which is wild.)

Bro took this moment to explain to me in great and excruciating detail that the Atlanteans in Aquaman did in fact invent tanks. Aquaman is his favorite. Ya, I know.

So I thought “ah, this is the Shadow Realm” (since we have seen Bakura just make a monster a real boy before) but then it became kind of unclear if the Shadow Realm is a different realm than this other realm which is just where the nice monsters live. So um...I’m still not sure about that one, I’ll get back to you when it’s made clear (I may never get back to you on that one)

Then Rebecca decides to drop this lore about the ghost that lives in Yugi Muto’s head that we’ve been *pretty Sure* up to this point was strictly Egyptian dealing with strictly Egyptian things.

I am not entirely sure how we’re going to take a guy who lived 5000 years ago and explain why he’s living now in AD 2002 Yugi Muto’s head because of some guy 10000 years ago. But they’re going to try.

Like I’ve heard this referred to as a filler season, because it uh did not happen in the Manga. So, legally, they can’t really touch the manga at all (and I assume they were probably waiting for the manga to finish at this point), and so we’re just gonna...pull Atlantis out of nowhere because the nice thing about Atlantis is that it is so freakin old that it is well outside of copyright. Completely fair use. But it’s still kinda wild.

Also, Yugi made sure to off-handedly tell us that most of the monsters who’ve invaded their world have been very, very, nice, and that’s why everyone has been so chill.

I mean. OK?

You still have literal dragons flying around but apparently only some of the dragons are mean and attack, the rest just chill and float around like a fish or something. Personally, I wouldn’t be thrilled by this.

Hawkins notices Yugi’s enchanted dead guy necklace, and without asking “so...does this belong to a dead guy? Did you get this from the dead guy’s corpse? Yugi? Yugi, look at me. Yugi, young man, is this another dead guy necklace you’ve been carrying around in your pocket because I feel like I see a problem here, buster.”

Hawkins suggests, instead:

Oh OK...that’s a lot to take in.

Didn’t expect giant possessed lady statues but it’s a nice spooky touch. Can’t have enough giant possessed lady statues in your anime, honestly.

Also, I’m really glad they gave this skinny lady statue a double chin.

And after all that, Hawkins decides he’s done with his one single afternoon in Japan, and he’s going to go and travel 16 hours back to the US stuck in a plane within hearing distance of Rebecca. Worth that 32 hour round trip for that one afternoon in Japan (or actually one way is 4 hours longer than the other way or something? I forget the details.)

And like the show had him blush and then Tea got mad, but like Yugi also blushed when Mai gave him a note once that said “thanks for the help!” so I feel like Yugi just shuts down completely whenever he has to deal with girls.

Maybe this is just the face Yugi makes when he quickly enters the pyramid zone and is like “Pharaoh, it’s getting mad weird out there!” And Pharaoh’s just sitting on his throne eating cheese whiz straight out of a can in star pj’s with matching bootspants and he’s like “My Gods, Yugi! If I’m here, and you’re here, who’s driving the plane!?” and then they just start shrugging at eachother about who has to go on the date this time until Yugi snaps out of it.

ah, a disembodied voice.

Literally thought it was my own voice.

It keeps Yugi up for a while, but when has Yugi ever fallen asleep right away on this show?

After Yugi calms down enough to go the hell to bed, we zoom back to our Xtreme sports boys who have finally decided to stop Tony Hawking all over this island long enough to deliver the sober news that Gurimo is freakin dead.

Which they barely brought up at all because who freakin cares about Gurimo? This guy sure didn’t.

Cool. Good plan.

Hard to rebuild civilization without people. Just throwing that out there.

But ya. Lets go end mankind on Episode 3. Thought it would take a little bit longer for him to get enough soul juice but apparently he’s good on the soul juice from these three juicy cards that have no souls (I thought).

3 God Cards + 1 Gurimo - 1 Rex - 1 Weevil = Destroy Humanity

First, a dream sequence.

This is one bizarre ass dream sequence and like...I don’t even know if I have much to say because it’s like...so out of left field and both out of the lore of this show and just barely inside the lore enough for it to work.

Still feels hella out of nowhere though.

That may be just the Dayquil talking.

Either way, we get to have Yugi run around in pjs again, but unfortunately they have no stars so I just don’t freakin care when see it. I get that stars are hard to animate and he’s a year older and maybe grew out of the star pj’s but c’mon. We had a good thing going, show.

But they hear a voice within the pyramid, and I’m using Tea’s font color here but it’s not Tea, it’s another girl who is...a lot like Tea honestly.

So up to this point we’ve accepted that the puzzle is all of Pharaoh’s mysteries and also mixed with the memories of Yugi as well. We have a room of short term memory (that pharaoh never uses) full of little clones of Yugi’s friends. We have a room full of all the lego pieces that Yugi lost over his young life (and 2 very cursed tamagachis.) We have a room that has a gigantic guardian Dark Magician who almost killed Shadi once. We also have several rooms that are just traps that can basically kill you, or if you are Shadi, just totally set you on fire, because screw Shadi.

Also it has this room:

But we find a new room that is like an entire fantasy realm and it’s like...so what memory is this?

Somewhat confusing if you’re me and you’ve assumed up to this point that everything in the puzzle has something to do with Pharaoh’s past. Apparently there’s just a door to another world in here they just never knew was here.

Just this entire time Yugi and Pharaoh were completely unaware that they had a DOOR TO ANOTHER WORLD in their necklace. Which, as I mentioned before, is where all the duel monsters live, but looks nothing like the Shadow Realm, which we’ve seen before.

And like honestly I kinda just figured at first that the giant eye was supposed to be there eating dragons, as if this was some sort of cycle of life for the duel monsters, to be a dragon, grow old, and then get devoured by the eyeball in the sky to start over again as nutrients to feed the baby dragons.

But in fact the eye is Not Normal and we should be alarmed by it.

Very hard to know what should and should not be normal when I’ve never seen this place before, also it has three crystal dragons that I guess the other monsters MUST be worshiping or something because check out the purple tile palace they made just for these crystal dragons.

Like this made me ask a LOT of questions about the civilization of duel monsters. Like who made this? Did a bunch of Kuriboh make this? Hell does this civilization works and is it a monarchy and are there castes?

Do they do taxes?

And then we meet her, the voice asking for our help, it’s this girl. Dark Magician girl. Nice to finally meet you. Wish it had a little more build up and made more sense.

We’ve talked to this chick before. She was digital at the time, but she kind of pretends that she already knows Pharaoh and Yugi and they kinda just...take this as it comes. I mean there wasn’t much time to deliver this dialogue so they were like, if the lady in the cornucopia hat says so, I guess we have to do the thing.

It is nice that we do finally get an explanation for why Pegasus could make all these cards but could not resurrect his dead wife--being that she is...not from this world.

But like now the puzzle not only dives into Pharaoh’s past but is also just a straight up a dimension portal. You can just...visit these people whenever? I guess?

I was getting used to the puzzle being a very large metaphor, and I wasn’t actually prepared for it to have a utilitarian use like a Stargate. This asks a lot of questions, but put those questions aside because we have to adopt this dragon by pulling a huge ass sword out of it’s right eyeball.

This show is SO mean to eyeballs.

She explains that there was some lore that lead to this sword being plunged into this buddy’s eye over here but I forgot it already. It was like half a sentence and then it was gone and I’m on Dayquil and I’m sure it’ll come back. At some point they’ll bring it all full circle, I’m sure.

Like if this happened in a dream then does this place even exist on a mortal plane at all? Can it only be accessed through dreams and being dead? It’s kind of a fascinating concept since these duel monsters have to be summoned through paper, which has all sorts of relevant meaning in a lot of Eastern mythologies.

Stuff I’ll never know because say goodbye to the Duel Monster Land that Apparently-Exists-Now-And-Absolutely-Always-Existed,-Stop-Thinking-About-Who-Invented-Tanks,-It-Was-Obviously-The-Atlanteans-10000-Years-Ago, we’re gonna go and take this huge ass dragon we have no business inheriting but are anyway because the dumbass ghost in our brain has this grand reputation that he banished some sort of evil 5000 years ago but has absolutely no memory of how the hell he did that or what even occurred, and because of his completely wiped bean, this makes him a complete idiot at best and a complete psychopath at his absolute worst.

But yeah, lets take this dragon and see what happens.

You gotta bring furniture, but the dragon is free. 2 bedrooms, no rugs, it’s free.

I just realized we got a dragon and not the sword. Only in this anime.

And then he wakes up to the last thing I expected.

It was nice of Yugi to take the time it took for him to get entirely dressed and ready, but I guess if the world has to end you gotta go out in style. Which for him means his school uniform because, although Yugi absolutely hates this school for some reason, he has a lot of pride for it. Just a crazy amount of school pride for how rarely he attends school and for the lengths he went to get out of soccer practice that one time. But will Yugi be caught dead in anything but his school colors? No.

HOW IS THIS CITY STILL STANDING.

Also Kaiba must be having a wild time on the top of Kaiba Tower but maybe he took a helicopter a while back to go on a world dragon tour because we didn’t hear a peep out of him this entire very Very VERY dragon-centric episode.

Really weird how many dragons there are with so few Kaibas. It’s like the moment they turned around, every dragon on Earth came out of hiding to throw a huge ass dragon party.

PS get a load of this dragon.

Why would you ever give a dragon an ass?

I don’t even know how this is possible because it doesn’t have a butt crack, but it’s got serious ass going on. It’s the Lizzo of dragons, when you set it to defense mode, it probs just twerks to intimidate the other side.

(Yugi’s friends are so freakin patient OMG)

Also how the hell can Yugi play this card on his duel disk if neither Kaiba or Pegasus have any idea this card exists? Magic, I guess? The duel disk is part magic?

Not like it matters much, we know from Bakura that you don’t need a duel disk to make real boy cards if you have a millennium item anyway.

So at this point I’m like...I think I watched the last episode of the season, I think it’s...out of order and bro was like “nope...it’s Episode 3. We’re still on Episode 3.”

And so after that it closed the...dimension joining portal, which was a Golden Compass style aurora borealis, then Dark Magician Girl returned to her home planet.

...Which is also dangling around Yugi’s neck.

This was a lot.

I have a lot of questions.

Everyone in domino SHOULD have a lot of questions but I think they all went back to bed.

A tornado with a GLOWING EYE tried to destroy their city, and they just rolled over and went back to bed.

This season sure takes off really quickly holy crap.

Now fair warning, because I’ve been hella sick the next recap is uhh...a huge mess so it will probably be a week or so before I post it/even get to it. At some point I started numbering them completely wrong and I either saved 10 caps to a different folder or I never made them in the first place and I honestly am not entirely sure. Last week is kind of a blur and it’s a mess on my desktop right now, so my pacing is gonna reflect that because I am...behind...on everything.

Oh dude and actually now that I look at what date it freakin is, I have to go to one of my best friends weddings real soon so can we just say...it might be a few weeks before I can steadily update again? I have to learn a whole dance routine for this giant wedding and y’all, I am not a dancer. And, while my friends have had dance classes since they were like 5, I’m like...low key extremely certain I will fall completely on my ass. Anyway, there is no way out of this situation I thought would never actually happen, and thought was just a funny idea they invented when they got drunk at the bachelorette, but nah, they remembered, and this is really happening but the bride will think it’s funny so here we go.

PS this dance is to the only existing mashup of Bollywood and N*syncs Bye Bye Bye (which, yes, it is a breakup song) I hope you feel the second hand embarrassment through your computer, I am dancing for 300+ people. Directly following the groom’s parent’s dance, which is 10 minutes long, and for which they hired a professional choreographer. We are the only dance out of four epically spectacular dances that is from the bride’s side, and our dance is...2 minutes and the equivalent of a high school lipsync.

TBH I'm low key excited to do it because potentially it could be a really great story depending on the reaction of what happens.

Anyway, so if I disappear for a while only to post fanart I’ve drawn out of stress, that is what I’ve been doing in the background. I’ve just been trying to remember how to do the Bye Bye Bye dance correctly for 2 straight weeks while feverishly trying to catch up with all my other work.

Also, because I mentioned George Washington, I had to go and find the horny grandma clip from Gilmore Girls and I’m so glad that two people on the internet managed to clip it, and I can’t believe the only two people who’ve clipped this did it with their phones. In fact, kudos to this youtuber for videoing a Tablet with his phone, because there’s no better way to watch a show from the 00′s than to make you feel really illegal about it.

[jada-b]

So u I watched the pilot of Aquaman on DC universe:

It was basically developed by the same people who created Smallville, and told the origins of Aquaman.

It was kind bad,but still interesting in my opinion.

If you saw the movie you know his mom is from alantis and was taken away from him and his dad when he was a baby when atlantean gaurds found her and took her back.

In the pilot it was sort of similar but Aquaman (who goes by A.C by the show and played by Justin Hartley who was Green arrow in smallville) was at least 9 or 10 when his mom was taken away from him.

The pilot just introduced various characters, and such.

He soon learned a little bit more about his atlantean side to him at the end of the episode and was preparing for the second episode and started of the plot for the frist season of the show.

Although it wasn't that good and some of the acting in the show was iffy, I still kinda wished there were more episodes, because I really hate when a TV show ends on a low note (no matter how good or bad it was)

I also learned there was supposed to be a Wonder woman that show that was nevered aired:

[ianxfalcon]

The Aquaman movie

I loved it. It was cheesy and dumb and sooo cliched, but it was so much fun and gorgeous to look at. Allt he characters were great. Everyone looked comic book accurate and it was both silly and badass, which is what superhero movies are SUPPOSED to be. It still does the DCEU trademark "random flashback at any moment" kind of storytelling, and I won't say it worked exactly, but it was certainly a forgivable sin. I've never cared for Aquaman - not because he's silly, but because he's boring. But Jason Momoa gives him this cocky, jokester attitude which makes him so much more interesting to watch than the somber, serious badass of the comics. DC have been trying so hard to be all "Aquaman is totally cool, we swear!" than they forget to make him interesting, but this movie managed to do both, mostly because they didn't try so hard to make him cool; he just WAS cool. Also, the Atlanteans ride sharks into battle. Because of course they do. If you have a story that takes place in the ocean and don't feature sharks doing something cool, what are you even doing? (I mean, even the "Blackest Night" comic has zombie sharks, because fucking zombie sharks! Geoff Johns even admitted he only put them there for the sake of awesome. And speaking of Geoff Johns, guess who was involved in writing this movie? DC's own Fix-It Felix to the rescue! Say what you will about Geoff Johns, it's probably true, but the man does understand why people read comic books.) So, yeah, I imagine that the writing of this movie went something like "Hey, you know what would be cool? If Aquaman rides around inside a whale!" "Totally! Put it in the script!"

Random notes:

- Mera is fucking awesome. She's already the best thing in the Aquaman mythos and I'm glad the movie remembered that. - Several times, a character would introduce themselves like "I am... [name]" followed by a dramatic sting. Ocean Master was a repeat offender. First everyone was all "If you do this you will be... Ocean Master! dun-DUN!" And later HE was all "Call me... Ocean Master! dun-DUN!" Black Manta did it once too, and I think Aquaman also did it at some point. I don't know why they kept doing that, but it really amused me. - Speaking of Ocean Master, he was great. I've never seen Patrick Wilson play a villain before but he should definitely do it more. He seemed to really enjoy himself. - The scene with the bikers. You know what I'm talking about. Heh. - I enjoyed how this movie basically ignored all the other DCEU movies, there was like only a cursory mention of Justice League. You know, where they defeated an ALIEN GOD. But who cares about that, right? We've got Atleanteans riding sharks with laser beams and Dolph Lundgren on an armoured seahorse!

[SPOILER]

- I loved how almost everyone survived the entire movie. I was worried that they had killed Black Manta off, which would have been a really bad mistake since, you know, arch-enemies and all that. But nope, he's still alive and still pissy. Sequel hook! - Also, Cthulu motherfuckers! Because, again, of course.

[END SPOILER]

So anyway. Aquaman was awesome. You should definitely go see it.

[amandajoyce118]

Aquaman Easter Eggs And Comic Book References

I’ve seen Aquaman a few times over the last couple of weeks, and I finally got around to sitting down and typing up my list of Easter eggs. It’s unlikely I caught everything, but you know, it’s always fun to try.

There are spoilers in the list for the movie since plenty of the plot points where Easter eggs occur are major moments in the movie. By this point, you know the drill. I kept mainly to comic book references, but there’s the odd pop culture one in here as well.

Obviously, there are other pop culture references as well. Everything from The Karate Kid to Pinocchio seems to get a shout out. The more general pop culture knowledge isn’t going to be here. I also didn’t list every single character who comes from the comics unless I thought there was something specific about their appearance that deserved a nod.

DC Logo

Because Warner Brothers produces all of the DC Comic movies, the DC logo appears following the Warner Brothers one, usually. This time around, the logo doesn’t just flash in its cute CGI glory. Instead, it appears as though it’s underwater.

The Opening Sounds

In addition to the DC Logo being submerged, there’s also the sound of a sonar ping and a humming that you wouldn’t really notice as anything important. Turns out, it matches the sounds made by the trident at the end of the movie. (I only noticed this on a second viewing.)

Jules Verne

Arthur’s narration that opens the movie gives a nod to genre writer Jules Verne as he quotes the author. The hidden sea also provides a nod to Verne’s classic Journey To The Center of the Earth (though it is also a comic book locale from a recent story where Mera and Arthur discovered Atlanna was alive and leading an island full of exiled Atlantean descendants).

Amnesty Bay

This is the comic book location where Arthur Curry makes his home on land. The whole Tom Curry as his dad, owning the lighthouse, etc, is out of one of the newer comic book origin stories. The difference is that in the comics, when Arthur is an adult, his father is dead. It’s nice that the movie kept Tom alive. (In modern comics, as in, last year, Mera even lives in Amnesty Bay while she’s recovering from injuries.)

1985

I don’t know why this year in particular struck me, but I thought Atlanna ending up in Amnesty Bay that year had to be significant. After all, Jason Momoa was born in 1979, so it’s probably not a result of trying to get his age lined up with Aquaman. Here are a few things that happened in 1985: Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) was born and the Crisis on Infinite Earths event debuted. The latter seems more likely of an Easter egg nod, but we may never know.

The TV Show

The show playing on Tom Curry’s television when he brings Atlanna back to the lighthouse? That would be Stingray, a show that used puppets as underwater heroes. The group had their own submarine and a princess from an underwater kingdom. The show originally aired in the 60s, the same decade the Aquaman comic book series was originally published.

Dunwich Horror

The book under the snowglobe on the coffee table is by H.P. Lovecraft. It’s a collection of short stories, one of which is the title story. In it, a son is born of two different species, much like Arthur.

Atlanna’s Crafty

She’s got a box on the table at the lighthouse, yes? You’ll notice that its design is very similar to the motherbox. Perhaps she spent a great deal of time guarding it. That might be why we get Mera saying (in Justice League) that Arthur needed to retrieve it, since Atlanna would have been responsible for it. As a bonus, we also get Mera mentioning the events of Justice League to Arthur later in the movie.

Manta

Black Manta is (perhaps obviously) a comic book villain. His origin gets a bit of a tweak here, and I like the joke for just why ends up with the giant helmet. (And the nod to Jaws there with “I”m gonna need a bigger…” you get it.) What’s great is that before he actually declares himself Black Manta is all the nods to his ocean inspiration. You’ve got the experimental craft that’s shaped like a manta ray, you’ve got the engraved manta on the knife, and you’ve got his family backstory as well. (Fun fact: Michael Beech, who plays his dad, was originally cast to voice Black Manta for an animated series, but rights issues meant the name of the character had to be changed.)

Lifting The Sub

That shot of Aquaman lifting the submarine is straight out of the comics. A lot of the big money shots in the movie are, like Aquaman holding the trident in front of his face when he activates its power. The team did a good job at nailing the comic book aesthetic.

Languages

Probably not an Easter egg, but I find it interesting that Aquaman appears to pick up on other languages pretty well, just like the Amazons. It feels like a nod to the fact that Atlanteans and Amazons have been around for centuries and have lived hidden from humans, but have still learned a thing or two about them.

GBS

The news station that pops up is the Galaxy Broadcasting System. It’s part of Galaxy Communications, part of a multimedia company from the comics. It’s kind of like Supergirl’s CatCo.

Dr. Stephen Shin

Okay, I know he kind of seems ridiculous and cartoonish in the movie compared to a lot of the other characters, but… he’s pretty on par with the comic book character. The character actually knows Aquaman in the comics. Arthur even comes to him for help once in a while, but Shin ends up disgraced because of his involvement with Aquaman, and Arthur won’t even let him prove that some of his research is accurate. So, yeah, I could see him going the supervillain route.

Annabelle

When Mera and Arthur pay a visit to Vulko, there’s a doll on the ocean floor outside the sunken ship (BTW, is that a sunken galleon, as in the name bar Arthur and his dad frequent?). It looks just like Annabelle. It makes sense that we’d see some horror nods since that’s James Wan’s wheelhouse.

Nereus

Mera’s father is a comic book character, just like every main character in the movie, but his comic book backstory is very different than what you see in the movie. For one thing, he wasn’t her father. Instead, Nereus was a military general for the Xebel people. He was also Mera’s betrothed before she left Xebel behind on a mission to kill the King of Atlantis (yeah, her comic book backstory is a little different too). It’s an interesting twist on his character, though Nereus is very jealous of Atlantis and pushes for war a time or two, so he’s not that far off.

Atlantean “Tribes”

Some of the different groups of Atlanteans are rooted in the comics. Mera and Nereus lead the Xebels, for example. In the comics, Xebel is an extradimensional pocket for Atlantean separatists were sent long ago. It was basically a prison, but the people evolved and adapted. The royals learned magic that allowed them to control water, hence Mera’s abilities. Those in the Trench? They were a species of sea animals that lived in a literal trench in the comics that were dying out. Mera and Arthur ended up trapping them to prevent them from trying to eat humans.

Ocean Master

The name Orm spouts as the leader of all of the Atlantean tribes is Ocean Master. That term is also his supervillain name in the comics. It’s a cute way to change it up for the DCEU.

Man of Steel Reference

Okay, I frequently forget that Man of Steel technically started this cinematic universe, but when Orm takes Arthur to task for the way the surface world poisons the oceans, we get a nod to it to remind us. One of the images used is a collapsing oil platform. It’s the same one that fans theorized Aquaman saved Superman from by sending whales in to help him during Man of Steel.

Octopus On Drums

In the 1960s, back when Aquaman first got his solo series, he had a slew of sidekicks, both animal and Atlantean. One was an Octopus named Topo. I like to think this Octopus was a nod to Topo, but also, a nod to The Little Mermaid, because, come on. We all notice Mera’s fondness for ship wrecks, her red hair, and her not staying underwater like everyone wants her to, right?

Leigh Wannell

This guy appears in a cameo role as the cargo plane pilot. He’s a close friend of director James Wan. Like Wan, he’s a big horror guy. In fact, he’s an actor, director, writer, and producer for the Saw and Insidious franchises.

Africa

The sequence that sees Mera and Arthur rising from the water with the Africa remic playing in the background? That’s intentionally shot as an homage to the Fast and Furious franchise, according to James Wan. I mean, sure. I guess if you got to play in that world, and one of your stars became a DC superhero, and then you got to direct a DC movie, why wouldn’t you want to come full circle there?

The True King

Arthur becomes the True King when he gets the trident and comes back to battle Orm for the throne. Before that though, he has to find the trident with the help of the “true king” in Italy. That turns out to be Romulus. It’s a nice parallel since Romulus becomes the first true king of Rome when he defeats his brother Remus.

Murk

Played by (Power Rangers Black Ranger) Ludi Lin, Murk is one of Orm’s inner circle, and high ranking in the guard in the movie. In the comics, he’s also high ranking in security when Arthur is King. He looks a little different in the comics. He looks more like a big gladiator than Ludi Lin. He also has a harpoon for one of his arms. When he fights Mera in Italy though, she gets one very deep slash to his arm, so maybe we’ll see that come to fruition in the future.

Khal Drogo’s Kelp

The scene where Arthur wakes up on a boat after his fight in Italy? His injuries are wrapped with kelp in a very specific way. Game of Thrones fans will see that as a nice nod to Khal Drogo, the role that really put him on the genre map.

The Trident And King Atlan

There’s a whole thing in the comics with the “Dead King” coming back and trying to get control of his kingdom, wanting to use the world. There’s also his scepter in the comics, which does a lot of what his trident does in the movie. Atlan’s clothing, and the ceremonial armor Arthur ends up in, are also a nod to Aquaman’s gear in the comics.

The Karathen

The comics label this sea monster as the Karaqan, but it sounded like it was pronounced differently by the actors, so choose your spelling. The sea monster looks exactly like it does in the comics. The effects guys did a great job. More than that though, they gave it a better story. In the comics, the animal went a little crazy and Arthur ended up having to kill it because he couldn’t communicate with it. I prefer the movie version where he’s the only one who can communicate with it. Bonus: the giant sea monster is voiced by the classic Julie Andrews. She actually didn’t cameo in Mary Poppins Returns (which opened in theaters the same month!) because she chose to do this voice role instead.

Aquaman Rides A Seahorse

The Superfriends TV series had a lot of silly moments for Aquaman. One of those things was him riding a seahorse into the thick of battle. It’s one of the things that has made a lot of people make fun of the character over the years, but now, it’s also iconic. The movie gets to put its own (much more badass) spin on that idea as Arthur grabs a seahorse to meet his brother in the climactic battle.

Coast City

This DC comics locale gets a nod in the post credits scene. It’s one of the locations where Dr. Shin has a newspaper clipping from. Coast City is home to Hal Jordan and Carol Ferris of the Green Lantern comics.

That’s all I’ve got for this one! Let me know if you guys spotted anymore!