#crashing down to earth from the previous episode

[lexkent]

clex fic rec part 2:

The Season by Lenore (2,741 words) summary: Clark runs into Lex at a charity event, and it’s the season of forgiveness.

words with friends by spqr (6,811 words) summary: Lex, the letter begins. I’m sorry, but if you’re reading this, it means I’m dead.

Day of the Crockpot by sabershadowkat (912 words) summary: A moment of surreal clarity.

Complicity by rivkat (4,815 words) summary: Who are you going to believe--me or your own eyes?

In Another Life by Bitsie38 (2,189 words) summary: Years ago, Clark Kent and Lex Luthor were best friends. Now, they are the bitterest of enemies. During yet another Justice League event involving parallel universes, Clark meets a very different Lex Luthor.

The Color of Accord by Lenore (1,499 words) summary: Clark loses his powers and finds Lex.

Golden Rule by rivkat (13,204 words) summary: Clark doesn't make the same mistake twice.

Red String by thehoyden (1,031 words) summary: Dish gloves, destiny, and weird answering machine messages: one of these is not like the others.

Making Things Right by Tallihensia (5,475 words) summary: After Lex comes back from Belle Reve, Clark can't forget. Lex has forgotten, but Clark remembers and it's tearing him apart.

The Plan by Lenore (1,368 words) summary: The rift isn’t exactly what it seems.

A Handful of Dust by seperis (47,059 words) summary: At the end of the world, Lex can't stop running.

Secrets, Lies, and Misunderstandings by mahaliem summary: "In the hall outside Clark's dorm room, Lex slowly backed away without knocking, his mind awhirl with what he'd just heard. Clark Kent was gay."

Red Tape by Lenore (16,262 words) summary: Clark’s illegal, and Lex makes him a green card proposal.

Kryptonite Suit by cecilylee (3,000 words) summary: Even when he's a lying son of a bitch, Clark is a hero.

The Journey Back by Tallihensia (15,555 words) summary: Lex wakes up to a future that is very different from the one he thought he would have. Why is he fighting Superman, and who is Lex Luthor?

Second Chances by Dolimir (4,958 words) summary: Written for the Harlequin Week Challenge. Prompt chosen: The Greek Tycoon's Unwilling Wife: Recuperating on his private Greek island after a car crash, Andreas Petrakos had no memory of the previous year. The last thing he remembered was his passionate affair with beautiful Rebecca Ainsworth...when, actually, she was his wife! 

Long Time Coming by BewareTheIdes15 (14,685 words) summary: “Yes, I’m in love with you,” Lex says, like he’s explaining that the Earth is round; like this is some baseline, inalienable fact that’s not irretrievably reorganizing Clark’s existence. “I’ve never seen any reason for that to be an impediment to our friendship.”

Red Sky at Night by Tallihensia (5,347 words) summary: Clark goes looking for Lex. He finds him in the heart of Kal's former territory, and old instincts rule for both of them.

Therefore I Am by PL Nunn summary: Lex Luthor wakes up with a few holes in his memory and a very disconcerting discovery.

I Can't Believe It's Not Butter by laceymcbain (8,849 words) summary: "Lex, how exactly did you get your head stuck in the banister?"

Stranded by PL Nunn summary: Takes up where season 7 left off, with the sky falling down on Lex and Clark after the final confrontation at the Fortress of Solitude. (WIP. leaves off on a cliffhanger. worth it.)

You Can Call Me Al by Lenore (56,578 words) summary: Lex gets lost, and Clark claims him. An AU a la the movie “Overboard.”

Twilight's Secrets by Tallihensia (8,677 words) summary: Lex is getting divorced again. Superman stops by and the two have a long overdue conversation.

Smallville Throupleverse by CarpeDiemForLife (22,088 words) summary: A series of episode tags that weave a slowburn Clark/Lana/Lex relationship into the background of the show. 

While They Do Dream Things True by thirteenthmoon (6,610 words) summary: Lex falls under the effects of the Black Mercy plant, and dreams up a reality where he and Clark are married. Clark has to travel into his dreams to break him out of it.

May Day by Tallihensia (9,388 words) summary: For fifteen years, Lex has sent Clark flowers on May 1, even when they've been enemies. This year, though, was different. What happened to Lex, and why didn't Clark get any flowers this year?

Reciprocation, Give and Take, Quality Time, and Emergence by PL Nunn summary: When Lex inadvertently discovers Clark's powers a great deal of buried emotion bubbles to the surface on both their parts. Trust issues abound.

Switch: A Comedy of Terrors by rivkat (35,185 words) summary: Plot rocks lead Mind to forget where it put Brain. Wackiness ensues.

Unshatter by Lenore (5,856 words) summary: Rescue. Finally.

Eavesdropping by LadyRa (7,460 words) summary: Jonathan gets a wake-up call about Lex.

Once again, please feel welcome to message me if you’d like content warnings on any specific fic. There's some dark content here and not everything is tagged.

clex fic part 1

[leftoverrpgs]

I cannot control my friends

I cannot stop a great spirit

I cannot fight what is to come

I cannot do nothing in a crisis

I can help in my own way

I can protect someone else <- Suvi is here

I can make the hard choice for the greatest good

[officiallordvetinari]

r/theyrealreadyhere: The number one community for uncovering the truth about aliens that they don’t want you to know about.

The Blue Box Files new episode out now!

Posted by u/theblueboxfiles

⬆️ 2 ⬇️        🗨️ 0 comments

“Cube Invasion” - Seeking Possible Alien Artifacts

Posted by u/SuperFrog

Does anyone remember back in 2012 when millions of these things showed up everywhere? I have a theory that they're alien technology and I want to run some tests, but I need specimens. Willing to pay.

⬆️ 29 ⬇️         🗨️ 6 comments

u/thepurpleorchestra

I used to use one of these as a paperweight. Wonder if I still have it

⬆️ 3 ⬇️

u/OddlyRuthless

My mom has a box full of these in her attic that she never uses. Pm me.

⬆️ 7 ⬇️

Lost Eastenders “Den’s Ghost” Episode Full Recording

posted by u/magenta_dynamics

⬆️ 66 ⬇️         🗨️ 19 comments

Arthur Winters assassination - First Contact coverup???

posted by u/box_of_brains

⬆️ 102 ⬇️         🗨️ 30 comments

u/thepurpleorchestra

Who?

⬆️ 45 ⬇️

    u/box_of_brains

    ...Arthur Winters? The 43rd president of the United States? Killed under mysterious circumstances on a state visit to the UK in 2008?

     ⬆️ 49 ⬇️

        u/thepurpleorchestra

        I don’t know what you’re talking about. George W. Bush was the president in 2008, and he’s still alive.

       ⬆️ 36 ⬇️

            u/OddlyRuthless

            You mean Bruce Springsteen?

            ⬆️ 2 ⬇️

                u/thepurpleorchestra

                What?

                ⬆️ 10 ⬇️

                u/box_of_brains

                What?

                ⬆️ 8 ⬇️ 

r/littlegreenmen: The number one community for exposing the lies about aliens that they want you to believe in.

Big Ben “spaceship crash”

posted by u/TroubledGiraffe

Leaked photos show that the so-called “alien” body recovered from the site was actually a pig carcass (link)

⬆️ 28 ⬇️   🗨️ 11 comments

2008 Space Titanic Incident

posted by u/grandiosegirlfriend6

Could the ship have been a holographic projection? The same technology was available for civilian use 2 years later to advertise a 3D video game with a holographic meteor (article about the ad campaign). The government probably already had access to it for years.

⬆️ 34 ⬇️   🗨️ 16 comments

u/TroubledGiraffe

I bet the spaceship sightings the previous two Christmases were holograms as well. The one they “shot down” in 2006 was probably Harriet Jones trying to stage her own Falklands poll bump, and after that they decided an invasion scare every year would keep the people docile.

⬆️ 17 ⬇️

    u/grist_for_the_mill

    What about all the people who got hypnotized in 2006?

    ⬆️ 4 ⬇️

        u/TroubledGiraffe

        Microchips, innit

        ⬆️ 3 ⬇️

The UN uses “alien activity” as a cover for their “Intelligence Taskforce” to operate with impunity

posted by u/old-fashionedappendix

⬆️ 120 ⬇️   🗨️  49 comments

The absurdity of the Zygon theory

posted by u/slow_tempo

If you’ve spent any time in alien believer circles, you’ve probably seen the claims that there are millions of shapeshifting aliens called “Zygons” (🙄) living in hiding on Earth. Some people claim to know a Zygon, or even be one - but of course they can’t prove it, because they “need to stay anonymous”. The only actual evidence believers can hold up is a few grainy cell phone videos that can be easily faked. Why are people so willing to believe outlandish claims like this?

⬆️ 53 ⬇️   🗨️  18 comments

u/parcel_of_sharks

This came up on my front page. Is it supposed to be a joke or something? My neighbor Barry’s a Zygon. Good bloke.

⬆️ -12 ⬇️

[mdhwrites]

If you're gonna claim Luz left Boiling Isles to die, how come you also aren't claiming Anne and the Plantars wanted to leave Amphibia to die too. In Escape to Amphibia, we get scenes where they consider wanting to stay on Earth longer and only went ahead with going to Amphibia quickly purely because of FBI interference, as if implying they would've just procrastinated longer if the FBI didn't force them to hurry up.

gestures above If you do not know what bad faith criticism is, this is it. I wouldn't respond but like... Escape to Amphibia and its light confrontation on this topic is emblematic of what makes Amphibia S3A fucking amazing so let's talk about it. Let's start with the scenes in question because they're short and there's only two of them.

Oh, and a link to the blog the person is responding to that's about how Luz left a world to die. Because she did.

So we see a couple things. Face value, the two scenes can be described as "Someone scared about a big life choice is comforted by her best friend and offered time before they have to make the choice." The latter is "The scared person has an overwhelming responsibility before them that finally comes crashing down on them and they have a breakdown." In the first case, it is framed and presented as something the character hasn't thought about before now while the latter reinforces that by making it clear there's a lot she has been trying not to think about in order to reach this goal.

Which is all actually built up and in character for how Anne has acted this entire half season. She has CONSTANTLY been had to be pulled back from destroying herself in order to get a way back to Amphibia. To find a way to take care of the Plantars while they're trapped over in the human realm. To make progress on these giant questions on her mind. We see this with her exhaustion at the museum hunt, her having to be reminded of the importance of her community during Temple Frogs, and we see it with how she can be persuaded by The Plantars in the episode where we meet Terry, just to name a few. It's even one of the first things S3 touches on by showing how she very bluntly compartmentalizes parts of what has happened to her. That's why we get the repeated gag in the first episode of Anne trying to say they don't have much to deal with before beginning to ramble about ALL they have to deal with before swiping it away because she quite literally can't handle the full breadth of what is currently her reality. Only now has she finally succeeded in her goal, has it staring it in her face, that she even can step back and go, "Wait, wasn't my whole goal to get home to the world and family I love?"

And I don't mean Amphibia. For two seasons, even as she grew closer and closer to The Plantars, Anne never intended to stay. She ADORES the human world. She loves her parents. This is her home and yet she has spent months on a forced march towards this goal of leaving this place. Leaving this place for a world far more dangerous than her own with no solid plan to get back besides hopefully beating a tyrant and his robot army. That's terrifying.

And yet she doesn't even ask for time. She doesn't try to get out of it. She is offered it and is willing to take a few days so she can say bye to her parents properly, they've been gone for months, what's a couple more days? But to not go? Not help? Never even suggested and it's never indicated that she would have taken the option because that is not who the show has built Anne up to be. That's why her parents are so willing to let her go because they understand this is not only what she must do for herself but that she can do it because she's amazing.

It's a moment of self doubt that is GREAT character drama and circles back a fuckton of elements from not only S3 but also previous seasons to give this mid season finale some real character weight behind it despite getting such little time dedicated to it in this episode specifically. The WHOLE SERIES has prepared you for this moment so it lands with the right punch that also is just a humanistic touch that reminds you that Anne is a thirteen year old girl from Earth and so this is kind of scary and terrifying for her.

Comparing that to someone who spends supposed MONTHS thinking about how she's really bad at making choices, how her brash choices made on her own have led to an entire world's ruin, doubles down on that problem by making a terrible choice on her own that abandons countless lives, including her friends, and absolves her of the need to even attempt to actually put right what she claims is her fault for getting broken... To compare the two is laughable. To say they are the same only makes you look like a fool. See you next tale.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[goldenteaset]

If I may, why do you prefer Stampede and '98's versions of Wolfwood then?

Related to this ask! *Ponders this one too*

I fully admit that 99% of it is personal taste and interpretation, anon. XD; I just prefer Big Bro Nico (with the same overall guilty conscience), who stubbornly finds joy where he can even if in his heart he still hates Gunsmoke/No Man's Land, over metaphorical "well preserved dead guy" Nicholas the Punisher who seems to be frantic to escape the very manga he co-stars in.

'98!Wolfwood in particular has this, dare I say, "salt of the earth" feeling to him that I just really like a lot. He's the most Western feeling of the main cast, to me--giant cross aside, you could plop him down in something like The Magnificent Seven and he'd feel right at home. He's not a total "white hat" paragon of justice, but he's not a nefarious "black hat" either. He's just a very human, flawed guy that'll swindle one man to help out another over the same chess game, and be mostly telling the truth when he says it was just for his own benefit. (This is part of why "Escape From Pain" is one of my favorite episodes, warts and all. :D)

Trimax!Wolfwood, meanwhile...I mentioned in that previous ask that he has "the soul of a '90s comic book character", but I wasn't sure how to explain that. Now I can: just like most of those characters (Animal Man by Grant Morrison for example), he feels like he just wants to hop on his Angelina II, crash through the ink and pages, and go literally anywhere else. Rereads haven't changed this feeling, either. I keep waiting for him to suddenly turn toward the panels and start shaking them like jail bars, yelling "Let me out, damn it!" He'd take the orphanage with him if he could, and that's a point in his favor.

But I've never known what to do with characters like that--if even they don't want to be here, why should I stick around to see what happens to them? By all means, Mr. Well Preserved Dead Guy, run away to a baseball manga or something! You'd clearly be happier there. ;_;

Stampede!Wolfwood is in this precarious position where he could go either way on my internal sliding scale, but as it stands? He's very good. More brasher and boyish than '98, he feels like he has a lot to learn in the best way possible. His arguments with Vash feel like ones he'd actually have and make under his specific (and yes, very melodramatic) circumstances. As a bonus, having his dynamic with Livio established this early helps a lot for getting us invested in them for the long-term*. Legato aside, they were actually why I finally watched Stampede. (Sorry Vash, I like you too. XD;)

...I hope this makes sense, anon? Tagging this will be interesting. ^^;

*It also helps Livio feel less like Wolfwood 2.0, and while on the whole I hypocritically do prefer his '90s flavor, I'd still rather he stand on his own.

[stormvanari]

oc episode stuff:

-The Psyche Rescue Team escaped to Broomstown from Mirage City and hid in that "tire labyrinth." Their sudden appearance scared Spooky, and he contacted the Broomstown Rescue Team to extract them from the site. However, Amber noticed bruises on each of the PRT members and before she could come closer to aid them, the trio fled further into the labyrinth, but got stuck and caused chaos. Afterwards, the trio were sent to Jin for closer inspection, and they identified themselves as Lucky, Qin, and Midnight. It was tough for the BRT to interact with them, since the PRT came from an abusive director. Once they accepted the BRT's trust, the PRT were then taken a tour around Broomstown to get comfortable with their citizens. Then there's this psychological warfare between the PRT and their director over radio waves in the second half of this 2-part special. The BRT and Jin, plus the Mountain and Desert Rescue Teams, band together to prove they're the PRT's REAL studio!

-During a stormy mission to retrieve items stolen by pirates, Poli was knocked overboard into the crashing waves and was rescued by Isla. She takes him to the Aqua Rescue Team's base in Ripple Island. Poli meets Fisher and Khai, the latter being ART's leader. The police car disagreed with the boat's way of lazily leading a rescue team, but a picture frame leading to a story behind Khai's leadership becomes clear to Poli. He learns that ART's leader was an old friend of Sandy who Khai cut contact because of a near-death experience. They were reluctant to take risks because Khai didn't want to hurt people or their close ones, especially Fisher and Isla (who did the missions for their leader). Basically, Khai's barely in the frontlines themselves and Poli worked to fix that. They would then work together, including the other ART and BRT members, to take down the pirates who looted from Broomstown earlier in the episode. Afterwards, Khai wanted to send their apologies to Sandy, but Poli asked them if he can take them to Sandville in-vehicle. ART's leader was surprised their friend became a rescue team leader. "Her team would love to meet a friend of their leader." But Khai replies cryptically to Poli, "It's up to Sandy."

-The citizens of Broomstown are both annoyed and terrified of their new visitors. The BRT were dispatched to investigate the situation and found three unidentified vehicles surrounding an uncomfortable citizen. But the BRT found themselves faced with two UFOs, who poured hundreds of questions onto them, and they were escorted to the base to figure things out. The vehicles introduced themselves as the Space Rescue Team: Titan and Titania are the leaders, Altair is the reconnoiterer, and Luno is the "traveling box." They wanted to find a better planet to live in, since their previous one is struck by constant war. The BRT offered to help, but the SRT denied it since the current conditions on their home planet are dangerous. Later on, the SRT and BRT have to work together to deflect an incoming asteroid from their planet and the SRT decided to make their home at the atmosphere of Earth (since, as a rescue team, they decide to look after the planet in their satellite-like base Titan and Titania made). Unlike the PRT and before they were picked up by the BRT, the Space Rescue Team were welcomed by frustration from Broomstown's citizens since Titan and Titania, Altair, and Luno accidentally made a mess across the way (despite fixing them before the asteroid came in).

[sanctum-of-ramshackle]

“Can’t Slow Me Down”

[TWST AU]: In this timeline, there’s an MC/Yuu who is also from the Valorant universe, but with a different set of unique abilities.

[Synopsis]: Agent!MC/Yuu somehow got lost into Twisted Wonderland while a mission gone wrong back in the Omega world.

Gender Neutral MC/Yuu

[(A/N)]: I just watched Episode 6: Revelation of Valorant and now I want to write something relating to everyone’s Wind Duelist, Agent Jett.

[(A/N #2)]: Like from the previous Valorant MC/Yuu posts, this variant in this one is in the age range of 16-18.

[미란이, 릴보이 - Can’t Slow Me Down]

Agent S.Wift, a.k.a. MC/Yuu Han, is connected to the Wind Duelist, Agent Jett in familial terms.

They’re the younger sibling to the Korean native and the only family member who believed their Jett was innocent after what happened back in Venice.

They also developed Radiant abilities similar to Jett’s from The First Light back in Korea.

The two always had each other’s backs.

They both fought together during missions.

Had cooking competitions.

Racing each other to claim who is faster.

Hell, they even dare each other to whoever resists the spiciness of 불닭볶음면 [Fire Noodles] wins and loser buys ice cream for the champion.

Everything is great between the Han Siblings…

Except during one mission gone wrong.

Remember the episode: Shattered where Killjoy, Neon and Reyna traveled through the portal used to get into the “Omega Earth” for sensitive information?

That kind of mission happened and it involved the two Wind Radiants.

Sova, Jett, and S.Wift were escaping from the soldiers back in the Omega Earth and while traveling to their world, Alpha Earth, something went wrong.

Jett lost S.Wift due to a malfunction to the portal and now everybody at the VP HQ are trying to track them down.

…

MC/Yuu bumps into what feels to be a coffin of some sorts.

Then uses their Radiant powers to blast open the lid, almost slamming Grim when he was about to open it.

Grim: NYAAH! You almost hit me!!!

Agent!MC/Yuu: AAH! 말하는 라콘?!

TRANSLATION: [말하는 라콘] [Malhaneun lakon] (Talking raccoon)

They quickly dashed past Grim and started running around, looking for a way out.

They sprinted, jumped high on the rooftops using Updraft and sprints across the roof.

Grim was running after them, panting for more air.

Grim: *Pants!* *Pants!* How are they so fast?

As MC/Yuu escaped from Grim, they crashed into the window leading to the dorm-selecting ceremony.

With minor cuts from the glass shards, the young agent freaks out by the number of hooded figures staring at them with disbelief.

As training and instincts kicking in, MC/Yuu pulls out their knives using with their Radiant powers.

Agent!MC/Yuu: Why am I in a messed-up cult? Who are you, people?

Crowley: Please put your knives down. There is no need for hostility-

Agent!MC/Yuu: *Throws one of their knives passing Crowley and nearly misses Grim*

Grim: NYAAH!!!

Agent!MC/Yuu: That monster was chasing after me!

Grim: Hey! I’m Grim the Great! Not a monster!

Agent!MC/Yuu: I don’t care! I don’t know what’s going on here, but this better not be the Omega agents tricking me.

Crowley: Omega agents?

Agent!MC/Yuu: …What kind of hell is this?

MC/Yuu stepped aside with Crowley and Grim, being trapped in the Whips of Love.

Both the young agent and the headmaster exchanged their explanations of their situations.

Now Agent S.Wift is back in school.

[During the Prologue]

[Ace and Grim were fighting until the feline menace blew fire at the troublemaker. Trappola deflected the flames with a wind spell which ultimately directs to the Queen of Hearts statue.]

Agent!MC/Yuu: Oh! *Throws a Cloudburst move to shield the statue from the fire* Are you two crazy?!

Ace: *Surprised* I thought you were magicless.

Agent!MC/Yuu: I’m a Radiant where I’m from. Not magical. Just leave us alone, 바보 [Pabo] (Idiot).

Ace: Ha? I don’t see you as threatening-

Agent!MC/Yuu: *Fans out their knives and throws them at Ace*

Ace: *Barely dodges the attack* What was that for?!

Agent!MC/Yuu: Proving I can kick ass.

[Heartslabyul Kitchen]

Agent!MC/Yuu: Hey Cater.

Cater: MC/Yuu-Chan/Kun! Helping Trey with baking for the upcoming Unbirthday Party?

Agent!MC/Yuu: Yeah. All these pastries are making me crave for something spicy. Thankfully, Trey let me use the area for some snacks. *Serves themselves their version of 불닭볶음면* Want some? I made extra.

Cater: You don’t have to. Really.

Agent!MC/Yuu: Cater, I noticed you’re not too fond of sweets. Back from the beginning, Trey used his magic to make your palette satisfied with some things savory.

Cater: Oh. You know.

Agent!MC/Yuu: There’s nothing wrong with that. I also crave with some spice every now and then. *Hands the extra bowl to Cater* I gotta go before Grim does something stupid. *Dashes out of the kitchen*

Cater: *Blushes* Why?

[During Chapter 5: Vil’s Overblot]

Epel: *Barely breathing from the poisonous gas* How are we supposed stop this?

Agent!MC/Yuu: I got this! *Uses their abilities to create a tornado to rid the gas*

[Overblot!Vil accidentally got caught in the tornado and crashes into the debris of the Colosseum.]

Agent!MC/Yuu: Whoops. Nobody caught that on video, right?

Epel: *Recording the whole time*

Agent!MC/Yuu: Epel.

Epel: What? This is somethin’ after beating Vil’s ass.

Now I’m imagining that back in the VP HQ, everyone was able to find Agent S.Wift and finally got them back to safety.

This could take place after dealing the everything that happened in Twisted Wonderland.

[Back to Alpha Earth]

Agent!MC/Yuu: *Falls through the portal* Guys?

Jett: MC/Yuu! *Dashes to them and tightly hugs them* Thank god you’re okay.

Agent!MC/Yuu: *Hugs back* I’m sorry I scared you, 언니 [Eonni] [Older sister]/누나 [Nuna] [Older sister].

Jett: *Lets go* What happened when we lost track of you?

Agent!MC/Yuu: Uhh…I fell into someplace else. I can’t describe the experience in full detail, but I think there’s another world unlike Omega Earth.

✨[Reblogging helps creators and creates more content.]💫

[king-of-wrath]

Helluva Season 2 Episode 9 Summary

Spoilers below

Having texted Stolas throughout the time between Full Moon and this episode, Blitzo visits Stolas in his garden in an attempt to talk things out

Stolas had been ignoring the texts, thinking Blitzo would take the hint that he didn't want to speak to him

Blitzo says that he feels the need to earn his passage to Earth, telling Stolas to go to the bedroom for sex; Stolas interprets this as Blitzo only caring for sex

It's revealed that Verosika Mayday hosts a Halloween party exclusively for Blitzo's exes and invited Stolas to attend

Blitzo claims that his exes were only upset with him because he refused to be tied-down, calling relationships "boring" and saying he "ended shit before it got serious"

When Blitzo accuses Stolas of looking down upon him for being an imp, Stolas denies it and mentions Striker's grudge against royals; Blitzo then informs Stolas that he had stopped a previous attempt on his life by Striker (during the events of Harvest Moon, which he had not told Stolas about before)

Stolas tells Blitzo that he wouldn't have shown his feelings for Blitzo to other people (by being with him publicly) and wouldn't have wanted to spend non-sexual time together if he genuinely thought lesser of Blitzo; Blitzo responds by yelling "that's the gayest thing I've heard all day"

When Stolas asks if Blitzo has ever apologized for anything, Blitzo takes it as a challenge; going across Hell and Earth, Blitzo leaves gift baskets with (poorly written) apology cards to Martha, Agents One and Two, the Cherubs and the celebrities he killed in Los Angeles; he then decides to crash Verosika's party to finish his "apology tour" (hence the episode's name)

Stolas states that Halloween is the one day of the year that spirits can rise to Earth; during a past Halloween, he was summoned to Earth and bore witness to a sacrifice made in his name

At her party, Verosika has various effigies of Blitzo for the guests to vent their frustrations upon; this includes a cake, a target dummy, pinatas, voodoo dolls, posters of him with knives and darts thrown at it and one of his plush toys upon a burning pyre

Verosika appears to be supportive towards her guests, claiming that Stolas is "among friends" and encouraging him to vent his frustrations about Blitzo as a form of therapy

Blitzo finds Stolas at the party and attempts (and fails very hard) to talk things over with him; Blitzo states that he meant none of the other apologies, but insists that Stolas is getting a real one

Stolas says that he wants to be with someone who cares about him and wants to be with him; given that his marriage to Stella was arranged and loveless and how absent his father (Paimon) was, Stolas doesn't seem to know what that looks like (using scenes from romance novels/films and TV dramas for reference)

Blitzo eventually talks with Verosika, who is aware of his apology tour; Verosika reveals that she confessed her romantic feelings for Blitzo, which caused him to run away

During the party, one of the guests cries after throwing a knife at a poster of Blitzo; Verosika then explains that while she still has problems getting over him, she tries to help people cope with situations similar to her own (hence the party); the guests seem to even support each other, with one speaking to the crying imp and two female demons hugging after they tear a Blitzo pinata apart

Blitzo claims to be truly sorry and that he doesn't want to be the person he is, leaving the party and allowing it to continue---even letting Stolas dance with and kiss another demon, even though he was jealous to see it

[violethowler]

Inverted Mirror: A Discussion of Shiro & Sendak’s S7 Fight Scene

Back before Season 8 came out, I wrote at least one meta on my @fandomoverflow sideblog about the fight between Shiro and Sendak in response to seeing the constant hate being directed at the writers because people saw Keith being the one to kill Sendak as undermining Shiro’s recovery from the trauma of his time in the Empire’s prisons.

The original post has since been deleted and only exists as reblogs, because this was back before tumblr’s porn ban opened my eyes to the importance of archiving and preserving fandom activity. But after I decided to put together a masterpost of all the meta I’ve written, I figured that I would try to write my thoughts out again to reflect on my understanding of that scene years later and see how my thoughts now compare to my thoughts then. 

And one thing that I still feel very strongly about even after all this time is that complaints about Shiro not getting to be the one to kill Sendak overlook the symmetry their fight in Season 7 has with their previous duel back in Season 1, and the significance of what that all represents in terms of Shiro’s character arc and the show’s themes. 

In their first fight back in Season 1, Shiro and Sendak are evenly matched. It ends in a stalemate with neither able to back down without the other killing them, but also unable to strike without being killed themselves. Sendak’s victory in that fight only comes from Haxus intervening and taking Lance hostage, distracting Shiro long enough for Sendak to knock him unconscious. 

In their season 7 fight, Shiro and Sendak are still evenly matched, and Sendak only gets the upper hand when his ship crashes on Earth’s surface. But Keith’s arrival in the Black Lion turns the tide and ends Sendak before he can kill Shiro. 

The common pattern here is that both times they fight, Shiro and Sendak are evenly matched. The only time one is able to get the upper hand over the other is when outside circumstances interfere, whether it be the environment they’re fighting in, or the presence of their allies. 

And it’s specifically the question of whose allies are present that determines the outcome of each of their battles. Shiro faced Sendak alone without backup in Season 1 and lost because Sendak brought reinforcements. In Season 7, Shiro has the rest of his team ready to swoop in and help, while Sendak is the one fighting alone. 

It’s a demonstration of the show’s emphasis on teamwork and working together that has been hammered in from the very first episode of the series. When Shiro and Sendak fight, the one that fights alone is the one that loses, while the one who fights with the support of others is victorious. 

And it also serves as an encapsulation of Shiro’s character arc that I observed in one of my previous meta a few months after Season 8: that Shiro started the series trying to deal with his problems alone without relying on anyone, and that he had to learn to admit his vulnerabilities and accept help from others. The point of his arc, like I said in that earlier essay, was a rejection of the mentality that someone is weak for needing help to deal with their problems, both physical and mental. 

So having Keith be the one to kill Sendak when Shiro is cornered after the ship crashes serves as a visual embodiment of that message: that Shiro doesn’t have to face his demons alone.

Which is further supported by the fact that the series has already established a consistent track record of Keith saving Shiro. 

First in Season 2 when he flew the Black Lion for the first time to rescue Shiro from the angry wildlife of the planet they crash landed on. 

Then again in Season 3 when he rescued Clone Shiro as he was about to die from lack of oxygen and supplies in his stolen Galra fighter. 

And finally in Season 6 when he refuses to let clone!Shiro fall even to save himself. 

Even outside of life-threatening situations, Keith has always been willing to jump in when Shiro needs help: 

During the paladins’ very first training exercise in S1E02 “Some Assembly Required”, Shiro freezes up at the sight of the Altean gladiator charging towards him and Keith doesn’t hesitate to throw himself in front of Shiro and block the gladiator’s blow. 

So Keith killing Sendak rather than Shiro doing it is the culmination of this pattern the series has been building up from the very first season (barring any moments in Season 8 that were cut due to WEP’s meddling of the final season).

Part of the reason I think people reacted so negatively back in 2018 to Keith dealing the final blow to Sendak instead of Shiro is that they were expecting the story to resolve Shiro’s trauma with a big, cathartic confrontation with the major figures of the Galra Empire responsible for his pain. Something like Zuko facing his father during the Day of Black Sun in Avatar.

But even if that was the kind of story the writers had been planning on for Shiro and his PTSD, Sendak would not have been the Ozai in this analogy. 

Back when Season 7 first came out, I saw a lot of fans at the time acting like Sendak was a major source of pain and trauma for Shiro because of the scene where Shiro has a panic attack while Sendak’s memories are being downloaded in Crystal Venom. 

But when you look at the details that the show gives us about Shiro’s experiences as a prisoner of the Galra Empire, Sendak actually has very little to do with the trauma associated with Shiro’s time in the arena. 

Sendak was never once shown or mentioned as being part of any of Shiro’s memories of his time in the arena, and when they meet face to face in “Fall of the Castle of Lions”, their reactions are distant and impersonal.

There’s no recognition of each other as anything other than a Paladin of Voltron and a General of the Galra Empire. 

And before the fight even begins, Shiro takes a defensive position, waiting for Sendak to make the first move. 

When Shiro is captured, Sendak does mention being impressed that Shiro managed to escape and wanting to see if the rest of humanity had his spirit, but this only really indicates that Sendak was aware of Shiro’s performance in the arena.

It doesn’t confirm any deeper knowledge of what happened to Shiro beyond what we already learned. Especially because his reaction to Shiro’s prosthetic arm during their fight shows that he didn’t know about it. Which indicates that Sendak was not directly involved in what Shiro endured. 

And the scene where Shiro hears Sendak’s in the memory chamber during “Crystal Venom” is directly indicated to have been Alfor’s corrupted AI giving voice to Shiro’s private fears and insecurities, as Lance’s experience with the airlock earlier in the episode established that the corrupted AI could mimic the voices of other people such as Coran.

So while Sendak may have been the instrument the castle used to trigger a panic attack, the details of Shiro’s backstory don’t support him playing any significant role in the horrors Shiro endured beyond that of a spectator in the arena.

This contrasts with his reaction to seeing one of the people directly involved in his torture and modifications when Haggar confronts him aboard Zarkon’s command ship in S1E11 “The Black Paladin.” His immediate reaction to seeing her is to angrily growl out “you”, demonstrating that he knows exactly who she is. And then almost immediately he goes on the offensive. 

Haggar was directly responsible for everything that happened to him and has a deep knowledge of things even he didn’t know, based on the fact that she announces her presence by referring to him by the name his fellow prisoners gave him. Unlike with Sendak, Haggar is personally invested in fighting Shiro and tormenting him for his lack of gratitude to her for “making him strong.”

So just in terms of the volume of information we have about each character’s relationship to Shiro, the character built up as the biggest source of trauma for Shiro in regards to his time in captivity was not Sendak, but Haggar.

If the narrative had been meant to build up to Shiro personally winning a battle against a major source of his trauma (and I won’t rule out the possibility that this might have been one more thing carved out of the final season by Bob Koplar’s meddling) like how Zuko fully broke free of his father’s influence by confronting Ozai during the eclipse, the Ozai in that scenario would be Honerva, not Sendak.

Especially because Honerva was the one directly controlling his clone self in the second half of Season 6 and forced him to turn against his team.

If Sendak was meant to correspond to any character in this ATLA metaphor, it would be Admiral Zhao.

Who, if you recall, was also finished off by outside interference during his rematch with Zuko during “The Siege of the North Part 2” when the Ocean Spirit dragged him into the Spirit World. And I don’t hear people arguing that Zuko was robbed of closure because he didn’t get to beat Zhao again.

But even outside of that comparison, Sendak actually does fit as the Zhao of Voltron in terms of their roles in their respective narratives. 

Zuko and Iroh are our first Fire Nation antagonists, but we quickly learn that they are banished and are not representative of the Fire Nation military capabilities. Zhao, on the other hand, is Team Avatar’s first look at an actual military leader of the Fire Nation who directly opposes them.. 

Similarly, while we get brief glimpses of Zarkon throughout the pilot, Sendak is the first actual military leader of the Galra Empire who comes into direct, face-to-face conflict with our main characters. And by the time the Paladins return to Earth in Season 7, he and his Fire of Purification are all that’s left of it.

Galra civilization as seen in Season 8 was reduced to scattered colonies living on isolated planets, trying to stay alive while salvaging what they could from the remnants of the empire’s infrastructure. With the throne empty after Lotor was left in the Quintessence Field and Honerva killing pretty much all the potential claimants at the Kral Zera during the timeskip, the Galra Empire ceased to exist as a political and military entity by the time the Paladins returned to Earth in Season 7.

The only people left who were shown to still be loyal to Zarkon’s ideology that the empire stood for are Sendak and his Fire of Purification.

So by killing Sendak to help Shiro, Keith symbolically fulfills his own words from when he tried to kill Zarkon back in “The Black Paladin”:

“This is my chance to put an end to the Galra Empire. I have to take it” 

But as I said, a big Zuko vs Ozai moment does not appear to have been the approach that the Voltron writers were taking with Shiro’s PTSD. 

His arc, like I said back in 2019, was about learning to rely on his team and accept that needing help from others did not make him weak. 

So contrary to what people were saying back when Season 7 dropped, Keith saving him from Sendak did not undermine his arc, but was (at least part of) its culmination. 

TL;DR: 

I don’t if this attitude is still common this attitude in 2022, but a lot of people post-Season 7 were insisting that Shiro should have been the one to kill Sendak, and years later that take still annoys me because it misses the point of Shiro’s character arc, exaggerates Sendak’s importance to said arc, and dismisses the multiple layers of symbolism and meaning in having Keith deal the final blow. 

[melishade]

I imagine Smokescreen and wheeljack together with the US army with a fauler. they would find all the relics of cybertron and abandoned decepticon technology...what to optimus using the forge to improve 3D equipment.I also think that Marleyans and Eldians would manage to escape from Marley. among them the new warriors. calvin porco and pick taves on boats and sailing asia paradis. surprise that they all sealed

Previous Episode of the War Timeline

Okay so the English is...clunky in some parts, but I'll do my best to answer. Also, Optimus doesn't have the Forge. It's in the hands of the Decepticons right now.

Okay, so Wheeljack does notice that something is off when he picks up a high energy reading that quickly goes dark. Wheeljack goes to investigate, clearly sees that there was a battle, but no one is there. That's when he gets Agent Fowler screaming at him from the Jackhammer demanding that he get to the Autobot base. Wheeljack does arrive and Fowler demands to know what happened to the Autobots, but Wheeljack states he was about to ask the same thing. After a few days of investigating, they realize that there was a bridge accident and the Autobots got flung somewhere else. Wheeljack says he hasn't picked up the Nemesis on the Jackhammer, so maybe the Decepticons got warped there.

It's a problem that Agent Fowler has to explain to the US government. On top of that June is furious and terrified at the fact that her son is somewhere unknown, no doubt fighting for his life. She was scared her son was going to die. Meanwhile Wheeljack is worried about Bulkhead, since the loss of Seaspray is still fresh in his mind. He doesn't want to lose Bulkhead when there are so few Wreckers left.

So now Wheeljack is working together with the US Government to gather resources and find out where the Autobots have gone. Wheeljack gets to work dismantling Decepticon run mines and seizing the energon for himself as a resource. On top of that, Fowler brings up the Iacon Hall of Records about special relics and Wheeljack puts in the effort to track a few of them down. But it's hard to do without the exact coordinates. It's a lot of guess work and finding the right frequency. But he does manage to get the Resonance Blaster while the US government stumbles across the Apex Armor and dig it up like in the show. Once Wheeljack manages to replicate the frequency from the previous relics located, he does manage to find Toxic Energon (Which he chucks in the volcano), The Star Saber, which he leaves alone because he can't pull it out of the mountain (He tried blowing it up. Didn't work), and the Phase Shifter required a lot of government interference to get. Wheeljack and Agent Fowler makes sure all items stay in Autobot custody. However the Omega Keys have yet to be located.

The Nemesis Prime incident does still happen, but Wheeljack is able to quickly dispose of it and because there's no Breakdown body to hijack, Silas dies of his wounds and the rest of MECH is quickly apprehended.

Wheeljack finds Smokescreen when he's scouting in the same area the pod is set to crash in. Wheeljack aims his blasters at the pod, but is absolutely stunned to see Smokescreen blast and stumble his way out of the pod. Wheeljack realizes that Smokescreen is a kid and cautiously asks for Smokescreen's story. Smokescreen explains and just...he can't tell if he feels jealous or feels bad at the fact that Smokescreen managed to dodge the war. When he sees Smokescreen constantly trying to prove himself and make up for lost time, he feels bad. He resonates with that helplessness and wanting to make it right. So Wheeljack mentors Smokescreen, which Smokescreen is more than happy to accept because he's learning from a Wrecker.

Whether or not Ultra Magnus finds Earth is up in the air, since the Commander was called to Earth due to the energy from the Omega Lock. But Smokescreen does get into a freak accident one day and Wheeljack discovers the Omega Key in Smokescreen's chest (Which he safely takes out with the phase shifter, but neither know what it is.)

Meanwhile on Paradis, the people who have joined the Survey Corps are nearly the same with an increase in the numbers due to the Autobots being here. Jean and Annie (cause remember, they don't know that Eren has the Founding and Attack Titan) go to the Military Police while Marco and the others join the Survey Corps. Marco is trying his best to not look nervous around Reiner and Bertholdt because he's not too sure of what they might do to him. Once Marco gets a good idea of what military command is like in the Survey Corps and who he can trust, Marco makes the gut decision to warn Erwin, and Erwin immediately gets on a plan. Based on experiments, they know that need to get those two underground, so that is going to be the plan that Erwin tells the Autobots. The Autobots do discuss this in private, since half of them aren't comfortable with harming teens. And if that intel is wrong, they could be accusing teens of the 104th of the death of over 300,000 people. But they have no choice. If they don't contain them, more lives can be lost.

Hanji, Ratchet, and Rafael make massive improvements to the 3D gear. They fix the material to make it lighter and more flexible while also using just a small amount of energon as an emergency power source once the gas runs out. (They really have to do the measurements because a few things have blown up in response. Hanji is more than ecstatic while Ratchet is admonishing her for her recklessness. Also fun little thing, Hanji gets Raf the goggles for seeing and flying around in the 3D gear. It's a cute bonding moment between them.)

Meanwhile, Eren does get training on how to fight from the other Autobots. While it is brutal, Eren improves significantly compared to the AOP timeline where it's just Optimus teaching him. Eren actually likes the fact that he has other role models to look up to. It's nice to be treated with respect instead of fear.

Because of the fire power, the Survey Corps and Autobots go directly to Shinganshina, knowing that they need to close the wall as soon as possible. Because of the knowledge Erwin and the Autobots now have, Erwin still goes with the plan of giving out fake locations for Eren. They are told where Reiner and Bertholdt are placed before giving the fake coordinates. An Autobot is stationed on the outside of the circle formation as they make their way to Shinganshina. Reiner still gives the information to Annie and Annie attacks the right flank, but Bulkhead is there to stop her from causing too much damage. He tells the Autobots through the comm. that a titan shifter is in the formation and Reiner and Bertholdt were a threat. Orders are given to detain Reiner and Bertholdt. Before Reiner can transform, Ratchet activates a shock mechanism implanted in his and Bertholdt's 3D gear to stop a transformation (which was part of the plan). Reiner is quickly detained, Bertholdt is not, and Bertholdt quickly transforms and a large explosion takes place, taking out a good portion of the Survey Corps.

Now it's a full on battle. Whoever's still standing goes after Annie while the rest go after Bertholdt. Reiner can only watch helplessly as Annie and Bertholdt are fending for themselves. Annie summons titans to her aid to hold them off, killing a few people including Connie, Eld, and Gunther. Meanwhile Bertholdt is losing body mass from an extended titan transformation, and no one can reach him and are getting severe burns. Annie realizes her losses with her running out of titans and there's still Survey Corps and Autobots and quickly crystalizes herself to prevent a loss. But for Bertholdt it's too late as with Optimus' help, Eren manages to cut Bertholdt out of his titan form.

Now the Autobots and Survey Corps have Bertholdt and Reiner, both weak and defenseless. Half of who remains in the Survey Corps take the titan trio back to the Walls to lock them underground. The rest go to Shinganshia and to the basement. And they find out that humanity isn't extinct.

"Plot twist of the century," Miko commented, trying to distract from her near death experience.

"Miko, not the time," Jack scolded.

But Bertholdt's titan transformation triggers the sensors of the Decepticon warship and Megatron, wanting to hopefully get rid of Airachnid, sends her to Scout the area by herself.

(Okay, stopping here for now. Other stuff will be addressed later.)

[chaifootsteps]

I was just watching the Ember McClain character spotlight for Nickelodeon All Star Brawl 2, and I came to a bit of a realization. Danny Phantom and Hazbin Hotel are basically following a similar pattern for me.

Both won me over immediately with their art style and afterlife concepts. Both had potential that was hinted at early on, that I would have loved to see explored, that were squandered later (Danny Phantom going from "ghosts are spirits of the dead" in Season 1 to "ghosts are just monsters" in Season 3, Hazbin seeming more episodic and "wacky hijinks" than the serialized character study the pilot implied).

Both had their pitch bibles revealed later that seemed like exactly the kind of thing that I would have loved to pieces (DP having te original plan of Danny's parents being interested in ghosts to learn from the dead, Hazbin having character growth with an early Extermination as a looming threat), but the full show steered away from utilizing those concepts (yes Hazbin isn't out yet, but the confirmed episode titles we know are completely different from the ones in the pitch bible so we can assume those were all scrapped, and Helluva's writing with Adam being involved worries me for Hazbin since Adam wrote for that too). Both shows are created by people who did some shady things, look down on others who aren't at their level, and can't take criticism.

And that really, really hurts.

I will give Butch Hartman this though— at the very least, his character designs didn't all blend in with the background. True, a lot of ghost battles in the show took place on Earth, but a fair few took place in the Ghost Zone, which is entirely green with a bit of purple here and there. And while quite a few of those Purgatory-bound ghosts have green on them, the only characters that are nearly entirely green are the Ectopuses, who are background threats.

In the main ghosts we see, there's tons of variety. Technus has green skin but his white hair and gray coat balance it out. Lunch Lady and Desiree are similar. Skulker has has green hair but his skin and armor are blue (his tiny blob form is green but that's only seen in his first appearance). Heck, a good number of ghosts (Ember, Sydney, Ghostwriter, Walker, Spectra) don't have any green on them at all except for their eyes (which reminds me of a previous anon saying the "different colors = different rings" would work better in Helluva if eye color alone was an indicator of which ring they were from). The Box Ghost doesn't even have a speck of green on him anywhere.

Whereas with Hazbin, every single main character has red prominently in their design.

At this point when it comes to animated shows involving the afterlife, I'm taking a "fine, I'll do it myself" approach and pitching my own work, because every afterlife cartoon I've encountered (can't say afterlife show because The Good Place exists and is great) seems to be disappointing me in the "squandered potential when it comes to the afterlife, exploring morality, and existential themes" department.

I'll admit that half of this is lost on me because I never watched Danny Phantom, but I definitely get what you're saying. It's hard to watch something you loved fly close to the mark, miss, and crash into flames.

It's true. Sometimes you've just got to do it yourself.

[enkisstories]

The exoplanet Sixam was on a weird orbit that crossed Earth's every 280 years, albeit in a safe enough distance to not disturb the life on either world. To commemorate its return, Gavin got tasked with painting the cover of this month's astronomy newsmagazine.

As always, little Jin watched his father at work with interest and - normally - patience. But this time the boy quickly grew nervous.

Eventually Jin started gesticulating from excitement, but not from a happy one. In his unusually intelligeble mode of speech for one so young, the toddler cried that a space ship on that path would inevitably crash.

Jin: "Crash! Crash! They'll all DIE!"

Gavin: "Who?"

Jin: "The spaconauts! Don't leddem die, dad!!!"

Gavin: "Jinny... this is just a painting. I'm not showing this to any real astronauts. Okay?"

Jin: "Okay! Scary painting... Hang a blanket over it!"

Gavin: "Will do. Wanna watch Octonauts together now?"

Jin: *nods*

After Jin had gotten tucked in that night, a quick call to Tina on the Jericho confirmed that a starship on the pictured trajectory would, indeed, crash. Jin had been correct about the math.

But that was just a coincidence, right? A little child realistically couldn't have calculated that in his head, after all! Maybe Jin had just been an alien astronaut in a previous life and retained a vague idea of the risks of space travel. He was still young enough to remember snippets from former lives, but soon those episodes would pass.

And with that we leave the Reed household. Next up are the Phillips.

Spoiler:

Not really a spoiler for longtime followers - Jin is a literal Genius. The gene is passed down by Gavin's father, Jim Reed. Neither Gav nor Jim express the trait, but Elijah Kamski, who is Jim's son by sperm donation, does. In the next generation El's daughter and Jin's son won't have the trait either.

[turtlethon]

“Cyber-Turtles”

Season 8, Episode 3 First US Airdate: October 29, 1994

The Turtles don advanced battle suits to combat an alien invasion.

“Cyber-Turtles” is the penultimate episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles season eight, despite being intended to be the third to make it to air. Series regular David Wise is the writer of this adventure.

The Turtles prevent an attempted robbery, tying up the thieves and leaving them for the police to deal with. April films this as part of her continued efforts to counter the negative coverage the team have been receiving from Channel 6. Burne calls her to advise of a second break-in, this time at the National Space Exploration Center, and she leaves with the Turtles in her car to investigate. (As mentioned in a previous entry, in broadcast order this will be the last time Burne appears in the series.)

Our heroes watch from a concealed location as a scientist at the Space Center reveals what has been stolen to the police: the “Astro-Viewer”, an invention capable of examining any corner of the universe using radio frequencies. Outside, the Turtles and April find unusual tracks in the ground, and figure that they’ll lead back to whoever stole the telescope.

At the Hall of Science, Bebop and Rocksteady mount the Astro-Viewer on the roof. Krang explains to Shredder that he intends to modify the stolen device, turning it into a makeshift dimensional portal. While testing the equipment, they spot an incoming spaceship from which they receive a transmission. At the helm is Commander Korak from the Glaxxon Federation.  His team, we learn, have recently defeated their enemies after a prolonged war, and taken possession of an item called the Firestar, which will make his people “the undisputed masters of the universe”. 

Krang explains to Shredder that the Firestar is a legendary crystalline fragment as old as the universe, which supposedly contains “the power of a thousand suns”. Naturally the alien brain wants this Macguffin for himself, and uses equipment installed within the Hall of Science (possibly by Drakus) to shoot the ship down.

The Turtles spot the ship descending and rush to the scene of the crash landing, but Shredder gets there first, arriving with Rocksteady and Bebop. Shreds using a paralysing device to freeze the Glaxxons, and wastes little time in escaping with the Firestar. Time passes as the Turtles, accompanied by April, arrive on the scene to find the same tell-tale tracks from the Space Center raid near the ship. They make their way inside just as the crew snap out of their paralysis, and the Glaxxons, determining that the Firestar has been stolen, naturally assume the Turtles are responsible.

Act two opens with the aliens opening fire upon the Turtles. Our heroes are soon captured and plead their innocence, pointing out that not only do they not have the Firestar, they were only examining the ship to make sure no-one was hurt. Korak informs the Turtles that the Glaxxons are a war-like people who don’t make friends, and heads off with his men to recover their stolen property. Watching the visitors leave their ship, April figures the Turtles are in trouble, and leaves to get help.

Krang explains his new Scheme of the Day to Shredder: rather than just opening a portal to Dimension X as he had originally intended, with the use of the Firestar he can destroy the barrier between Earth and his home world entirely. Shreds points out that the Glaxxons will surely come looking for the stolen item, but Krang has thought of that too, implementing a cloaking device left behind by Berserko / Drakus to stop the Firestar from being tracked. This works as intended, with the next scene showing Korak frustrated at being unable to locate the device. Vowing to destroy the whole world if he must to get it back, he orders his men to retrieve the equipment they need to carry out such a task: the Cyber Suits.

April continues to watch these events unfold from afar, and is soon joined by the help she required as Casey Jones returns to the show, last seen in season seven’s “Night of the Rogues”. The vigilante is eager to confront the aliens head-on but April explains they need to retrieve the Firestar to put an end to the conflict.

From their jail cell within the ship, the Turtles look outside and see the Glaxxons don their Cyber Suits, which transform them into outlandish cyborgs that tower over the city. Seeing the threat the aliens pose, our heroes look for a means of escaping. Donatello uses his “D” belt buckle as a reflective device to knock out the energy beams restraining them. Finding a set of spare Cyber Suits nearby, Leonardo orders the rest of the team to join him in donning the armour.

As the Glaxxons flatten cars and destroy buildings in their search for the Firestar, the Turtles themselves are transformed into brightly-coloured cyber warriors, each with their initial emblazoned across their midsections for reasons of viewer identification (and also because these are pre-existing action figure designs, but we’ll come back to that). Each member of the team remains their normal size within their respective suit, piloting it by flailing their arms and legs around as it they were playing a Kinect game. After figuring out how to move around, the Turtles track down the alien invaders and a battle begins. With Krang about to begin the process of merging Earth with Dimension X, the green teens take a beating at the hands of the more experienced Glaxxons as act two concludes.

Emerging from a pile of rubble, the Turtles remark among themselves that they remained unhurt thanks to the Cyber Suits. Meanwhile April and Casey arrive outside the Hall of Science to witness Krang beginning to meld Earth with his home dimension. Learning via Turtlecom of what’s transpiring, the Turtles split up, with Leo and Mikey leaving to stop Krang while Donnie and Raph tackle the Glaxxons.

While April and Casey sneak into the Hall of Science, Raphael and Donatello do battle with the alien warriors. They remain at a disadvantage throughout, with Donnie trying frantically to figure out how to activate the weapons systems installed within the Cyber Suits.

Krang makes contact with his army of Rock Warriors – for some reason, since “Shredder Triumphant!” last season they’ve been renamed and are no longer referred to as Rock Soldiers – but soon learns intruders are present on the roof. It’s April and Casey, who have used a makeshift zipline from the dilapidated sphere left behind from the World’s Fair to land on the roof of the Hall of Science. Shredder soon arrives to confront them, accompanied by Rocksteady and Bebop. Suddenly the vigilante and Shreds are going at it in a sword fight: by now we’re used to Shredder pulling a sword out of nowhere but since when did Casey carry one?

Michaelangelo and Leonardo arrive to turn the tide of battle, with Mikey clutching the three villains in his hand while Leo pushes the fleet of Rock Sol—uh, Warriors back through the dimensional rift. This provides April and Casey with an opportunity to sneak downstairs into the Hall of Science.

Krang uses the same roof-mounted laser that took out the Glaxxon spaceship earlier to knock Michaelangelo off the roof, de-activating his Cyber Suit in the process. Meanwhile Donnie and Raph are cornered, still with no means of fighting back, until they overhear one of the invaders mention “triangle fire”. Pressing a red triangle on the Cyber Suits, the two Turtles use the advanced weaponry previously concealed within the armour to fight back. Soon the Glaxxons are relieved of their suits, defeated in battle.

Leonardo continues struggling to hold Krang’s army back as Casey and April defeat the alien brain, retrieving the Firestar. As they attempt to escape they’re again confronted by Shredder, but Leo uses his Cyber Suit to fish them out of danger, the dimensional rift now closed.

The Turtles take the Glaxxons back to their ship, where a humbled Korak concedes that they lost in battle, adding that “by the ancient laws of war you may dispatch us as you see fit”. Our heroes, of course, have no intention of hurting the visitors, and explain all of this was merely a misunderstanding, but the Firestar needs to be destroyed for the safety of the universe. Korak declares this can only be done by taking it to the core of the galaxy, where it can be “incinerated in the heat of a million suns”. He vows to do so with his men as a means of making up for all the trouble they’ve caused through the years; the Turtles agree to help fix the Glaxxon spaceship so they can begin their journey.

Later, in the Lair, the Turtles view a transmission from Korak where he thanks the team as he says goodbye. To the bafflement of our heroes Master Splinter remains worried, because this is the Red Sky era and we can’t end on a happy note anymore. He tells his students that “since time began, war-like people have sought ultimate power,” adding that any number of alien races could try and take the Firestar for themselves before it can be destroyed, and if that turns out to the case, the Turtles may encounter the Glaxxons again in the future.  

After three episodes devoted to proving anything the X-Men could do, the Turtles could too, “Cyber-Turtles” sees attention turn to combatting the threat posed by the nascent Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers (see the Turtlethon entry for “Get Shredder!” for an analysis of TMNT’s newfound inferiority complex upon finding itself in MMPR’s shadow). Little attempt is made to hide what’s going on here, as the Turtles pilot giant mecha-like suits, stomping around and taking out entire buildings during battle in a blatant mimicking of the Megazord sequences so prominent in the competing series. All of this was part of a multi-pronged effort to promote the Cyber Samurai line of Turtles action figures produced by Playmates Toys, but given that 1994 and 1995 saw a glut of toys from similar competing properties flood the market – including Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad, a line sold in the US by Playmates themselves – it's hard to imagine any of this did much to help revitalise the image of the Turtles.

These considerations weigh heavily upon this episode, which more than most Turtles adventures openly acts as an advertisement for toys while also giving over a significant amount of screen time to the fight sequences which showcase them. In doing so, it leans into season eight’s tendency to prioritise action above everything else, something that’s fun for a while but ultimately becomes tiring, especially if you’re an adult watching these adventures back to back. Beyond a certain point, it all becomes an endless parade of fight scenes, and I’m concerned that the show is more interested now in putting up a tough front as a means of winning back viewers than it is in telling compelling stories.

Casey Jones, a prominent figure in many other incarnations of TMNT, never really got a fair shake from the 1987 series, doomed to be a one-dimensional angry vigilante character in a show where so often the need for the Turtles to take centre stage all the time has a tendency to rob the supporting players of any opportunity to develop. He debuted mid-way through season three in his spotlight episode, “Casey Jones – Outlaw Hero”, and was fortunate enough to get a follow-up showing – something not typically afforded to guest characters  – in “Corporate Raiders from Dimension X” a few episodes later. Two further appearances followed, in season five’s “Leonardo Cuts Loose” and season seven’s “Night of the Rogues”, but by then there was a definite sense of the Law of Diminishing Returns taking effect. Like the Rat King, each of the later Casey cameos has felt less exciting than the one that preceded it, so perhaps it’s for the best that this marks the point where we wish him a fond farewell.

NEXT TIME: Season eight reaches its grand finale as we explore “Turtle Trek”.

[historyhermann]

"Carmen Sandiego": An Enthralling Animated Series [Part 1]

An orphan girl from Buenos Aires is raised to be a master thief. When she learns that the villains who raised her are thieves, she flees and vows to take them down.

This article was originally meant for The Geekiary. I submitted the article in mid-August 2022, on August 16, and it got sent back for edits, and even after a long conversation with one of the editors, including re-submitting the article a second time, I decided to publish it on my own (see original post for details) It was published on my History Hermann WordPress blog on Jan. 2, 2023.

Carmen Sandiego is an animated action-adventure series with comedy, mystery, and drama elements. Television producer Duane Capizzi developed this Carmen Sandiego franchise reboot. The series premiered on January 18, 2019. It ran for four seasons - 32 episodes and one interactive special. The series finale aired on January 15, 2021.

As a warning, this recommendation discusses some spoilers for the four seasons of Carmen Sandiego.

Carmen Sandiego centers around notorious international thief Carmen Sandiego. She is a fictional character who first appeared in the Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Deluxe 1992 video game. This iteration is completely different. She is Argentinian and possibly Mexican. Gina Rodriguez, a renowned actress with Puerto Rican heritage, voices her.

In the first few episodes, we learn about Carmen's upbringing as "Black Sheep" on VILE Island, headquarters of a criminal organization known as The Villains International League of Evil. To hide their true nature, they tell crime school recruits that their name stands for "Valuable Imports, Lavish Exports".

Carmen soon gets a taste of the outside world. She talked to a white-hat hacker named Player, voiced by Finn Wolfhard, through a cell phone she stole. She is further influenced after surreptitiously crashing a caper by her fellow classmates.

Like previous versions, Carmen Sandiego is squarely aimed at kids. It is smart, visually appealing, has a catchy theme song, and focuses on geography. The series is better than clunky animation in the 1990s Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? series. Eastwood Wong, who worked on Steven Universe and The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, is the art director.

Many of same characters that appear in Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? appear in this reboot, but in a different form. The show's mystery, effective writing, and thrilling storylines helps flesh out these characters.

This action-packed series has exciting chase scenes and fights, akin, in some ways, to Canaan, but not with guns. It shares similarities to the classic 2000s series, Kim Possible. Carmen, like Kim, can be a role model, since she has a chosen family and is on a journey of self-discovery.

Continued in part 2

© 2022-2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

[skygent]

Storytelling Moments That Will Stay With Me

Spoilers for ALL of Helluva Boss up to Apology Tour

This post is gonna be a little deeper and more negative than previous ones I’ve written previously. when it comes to stories I've reflected on.

If you’re in a bad headspace for one reason or another, maybe skip this one.

In case you haven’t heard, Helluva Boss follows a group of hit men who live in Hell and regularly get into all kinds of trouble on Earth and in their home: Hell.

Trailers and clips may give you the idea that it’s just a raunchy adult animated comedy in a similar strain to Rick and Morty but it’s far from just that.

It can have its serious moments and those serious moments do carry the weight and consequences that unfold across episodes.

Which yes it’s called a character arc, and no it’s not new or revolutionary, but I don’t see them done well in these types of shows.

Enter Blitzo (the O is silent), a hell-born Imp who is crass, abrasive, and extremely temperamental.

We could not be more different, but there is one key characteristic we share:

We both really do not like being ourselves, and our self esteem is so low it could be extracted from the Earth and used as a fossil fuel.

This all comes to ahead for Blitz during Apology Tour. An episode that illustrates how destructive Blitz's self hatred has been not for just for himself but for the people who once cared about him. All of which can be boiled down to a beautiful but still painful moment of self realization for Blitz:

“I don’t wanna be this way, not forever.”

It's a line that has stuck with me for the past few weeks, as things have been rough to say the least. Despite being back home after graduating from college, I have been wallowing in my own self hatred for sometime.

I was telling myself that I had peaked in college, that it was too late to do what I wanted to do with my life, that I was never gonna be as happy as I was in days past. I was sitting in my room even after I was done working for the day and just letting life go by. Resigned to letting myself be unhappy, because I thought I deserved it for not being good enough to do anything I wanted to do and that I was destined to be alone for it.

Thankfully, that dark patch passed recently. With my birthday coming up, comes a bit of somber milestone. This year, I will officially be a year older than my flight instructor ever got be after a fatal crash roughly two years ago.

One of the last times we spoke in person, he reminded me how important it was to take care of myself. When I realized that I hadn't been, it hit me pretty hard and I had to take a walk to sort my thoughts out.

By the end of that afternoon stroll, I found myself echoing Blitz:

“I don’t wanna be this way, not forever.”

So I am taking a step back and practicing being more mindful of where I am. How far I've come and what I've accomplished. Challenging those self-sabotaging thoughts and mindsets when they come up, and they still do come up. All while letting myself to feel things I've been trying to repress for sometime now, like the side of me that is hopeless romantic.

Sure it's scary, but some of the best things in my life happened because I decided to say fuck it and be brave.

I don't know what comes next, for me or Blitz.

Nothing is guaranteed for either of us at this point (particularly in the romance department) but then again, what in life is?

All we can both do is try to be better than we were yesterday.

So that in the future, we can be someone's someone. Someone that leaves us standing in the rain at a train station yelling:

"Harriet! Don't get on that train! It's going to London and I cannot be without you!"

Even if that's basically a rom-com, it doesn't sound all that bad does it?

That’s why Helluva Boss’s Apology Tour will be a storytelling moment that will stay with me.

[maguro13-2]

Shattered Hero ~ Origins of the Ink Demon : Episode Maka Finale (7/11) ~

[Abandoned Egg Carrier]

Seto : Heh. That doll was much more frightening than other demons that I'm not so sure About. When did the last time it jumpscared everyone after the curse was only a programming from previous data?

Solva : Gladly that we put up a show to stuffed doll. Who knows? It's likely what those programming of a doll can create a hellish realm of his own, it's not like that's gonna ever happen to us. So this doll was revived with demonic powers and was given the significant basics that was given the powers of body horror and Eldritch horror. I bet that mating with an eldritch horror is kinda disturbing about the bonds with humans and monsters. That totally freaked me out and give me the chills.

Seto : Well, it's programming was it to create the curse was simply not what it seems, but having powers that makes creepy, when did the mad scientist get that Annabelle stuff from where? Huh? Saya? Where did she go, and what is this place? Hey, Disk-Chan. What do you think of this place. Hey, Disk-Chan! Guess the whole place is empty except for the robot maids that are cleaning ship, I don't know why anyone doesn't work at this ship anymore.

[Behind them is Disk-Chan appearing from the monitor]

Disk-Chan : That's because this ship was abandoned after the incident of that liquid entity named Chaos that crashed landed on the ocean surface around 8 years ago. (Seto and Solva jumpsacre)

Seto : D-Disk-Chan! Y-You're here!

Solva : And how did you get your head so big?

[Emilia - Takuya Yasuda]

Disk-Chan : I might knew that you would figure it out. And my head's not big, I accessed it with personal data through the via network system. Grim told me that you, Solva, was supposed to lookout for the castle and I had finally notice that the two-tailed doll was snooping around!

Solva : Yeah, I might noticed that one. I didn't know that a two-tailed fox doll would be sneaky on leading us here to this abandoned aircraft. I look humble apologies to not lookout for Master Grim.

Seto : Say, Disk-Chan. How on earth did you do that.

Disk-Chan : Easy! I hacked into the ship's control network by lending a hand for Lain Iwakura.

Seto : Lain Iwakura, that weird famous computer girl from 8 years ago? Everyone heard the news said that she disappeared.

Disk-Chan : Didn't disappeared, she disappeared from Tokyo and relocated herself to an abandoned facility, used to be a launch base used by Deathscythe creator Professor G, but the place was built by under the supervision of Drawcial Family Corporation and NERV. So now that place where she resides is now called the "Iwakura-Maxwell Residence". Otherwise originally known as the Deathscythe Launch Base, a place that is much livelier than The Titans Tower in California.

Seto : Heh. Seems like a girl from the near end of the 20th century doesn't seems like lending a hand would be so cool.

Disk-Chan : What else is there?

Seto : Is this Lain person weird or something?

Disk-Chan : What? no? She's a genius and technological wizard! Besides she's like the witch of Data and Memory space. (clears throat) Gladly that you all survied the realm, That Tails Doll curse was nothing more than a typical programming made by Creepypasta.

Seto : Creepypasta? That Internet horror freak, the Tails Doll Curse was made up by data all along! I knew the Mad Scientist wouldn't create a stinking doppelganger that is supposed to be a Metal Tails or something, but why creating doll that is real fearful to people? Was it a demon or something?

Disk-Chan : Perhaps that the Tails Doll Curse was only part of it's programming, It's got nothing to do with the greatest Deathless that determines to be Shinigami!

Seto : Yep! See these guns? (flexes her arm) These are not just average arm and weapon to deal with a fierce creature like me! But where to find the exit? Hey, Disk. Does the ship have like any kind of transport?

Disk-Chan : Sure. I'll bring it down for ya. It appears that all of it's engines are still running, and I don't know why it just crashed landed in the ocean.

Solva : Obiviously, it was that blue hedgehog that came all the way to rescue that Pink one and then decided to trashed down the ship, but also, the the robot that was chasing down Amy and that blue flicky, I believe he caused a mess in the Hot Shelter, the only place that a blue hedgehog does not go in.

Seto : And why is that?

Solva : Because the only one that is running ship's functions are all running from this purplish robot that was transformed into a stationary defense unit, "E-105 Zeta."

Seto : So, umm, nothing's too damped around in this giant ship that was did not sink into the ocean, but crashed landed on the surface. What else is there? (We then cut to the girls seeing the ocean)

[Egg Carrier ~The Ocean~ - Kenichi Tokoi]

Seto :Wow! Talk about getting yourself lost on a giant ship with no to cruise for. I can see the ocean clearly.

Solva : So this is the Egg Carrier that we're on, but we need to get aboard to the halberd. Surrounded by oceans and swimming across is to get aboard, are filled with deadly sharks.

Seto : The Ocean's predators, from walking the plank to the Shark Attacks. No where to swim, no where to survive, but this place has definitely got no food or water over here. Just an empty feeling on getting something to eat.

Solva : Good thing I brought lunch, It's a Bento Box made from the Reaper's finest chefs. I got mine as well.

Seto : Oh, boy! Let's eat while we wait!

(scene changes to the girls sitting down on the central dome, eating their lunch from their Bento box)

Seto : So, now that we're waiting for the arrival. I always looked into becoming Shinigami, the title that I wanted to reclaim. It's funny that Botan was the previous Shinigami before Ichigo and then Ryuk, I've known Shounen characters that has ever seen a Shinigami or became the Shinigami. Me, yeah, I definitely wanted to become Shinigami because I was chosen the death gods and gave me a sword that can cut down any beings. They say that the sword I was given has the power to make me a God of Death, it was created and hand crafted by the Gods of Death. I used to be a part of the Mercenary Guild or something like that in the world of Needless, but eventually both you and solva died during the final battle with archlight and we ended up here in the 21st century of Real World AU. So the Shingamis did requested me on becoming Death Gods after our reversed Isekai theory made us to live in Real World AU.

Solva : That's wonderful to hear. Even though, I still have my personality, my true personality that is a deadly sadistic monster inside me. My parents, friends, and teacher too. I was outcasted and I only met you at the school. Do you remember the year you were born?

Seto : Well, ummm...

Solva : Seto, don't lie to me. What was the day when you were born.

Seto : Although I'm still looking alike 17 year old girl. But does that mean I'm born in...

*Clock ticking*

Seto : Wait a sec, I was born in 1987, but I nearly died during the space colony ark incident before I go Isekai again, but then Master Grim came and gave me the Sacred Sword of the Reaper, crafted by the Angels of Death.

Solva : Oh yeah, that's right. I used to work as a maid at an affluent place that you grew up at. But that's when I realize that I died during the final battle with Archlight and I was reversed Isekai to the real world. So I did too become a Deathless. We were the girls that became a Deathless Somebody.

Seto : Yep. That's right, I was once lived in a mansion full of affluent people, and I understand why I did not care about the money, although they attempted to get rid of me, but I slayed everyone, I killed the parents that I never had and left that to keep everything. Nobody would able to think that I don't even have a family anymore, the only family that I have are Darts, Kanna, Master Grim, and you. That is why I don't care about money, I care about you!

Solva : (giggles) Maybe you're right, you do care about me and not just greed. So I'm not a bit too shabby about personality, you were not the one who killed your parents, I did.

Seto : Eh? When did that happened?

Solva : My sadistic personality just made killed the affluent people and I was feel sorry for what I've done and then, I made you an apology sandwich treaty.

Seto : Well, that sucks. It turns out that my parents aren't affluents, they're low lives. And all the money they have were stolen, so I actually made money by working as a hero in the real world.

Solva : That's what I expected.

"later..."

Seto : Oh man. That lunch sure filled me up, I think that's what I represent a fine classy meal from the castle. Master Grim sure know how to make that delicious fine meal of that. That hit the spot.

Solva : It sure is! That's why I made it myself just for you.

Seto : ...!? Ehh...!? What? No! It's not like that it's...Umm...maybe I might be you're right. It was that lunch that you gave me, not to mention it, it was kinda tasty to have an important meal of the day. So, the arrival should be here soon. Hmm? What's this dead robot doing on the deck's central dome?

Solva : And I found another one. It's black and it has a some kind of symbols with numbers. This one's "Beta". The Alpha one is the Bird Catcher.

Seto : And this red dead robot that is lying on the floor is...

*flashing images of Gamma are shown*

Seto : The member of the elite crew...E-102 Gamma. And that one over there is his "Brother" Beta. These robots were just a couple of badniks that were serving for Dr. Robotnik to search for the emeralds, but during his time in the story, his brothers were sent away in different locations while Beta and Zeta remained only on the ship.

[E-102's Theme by Fumie Kumatani plays, various scenes of Gamma's memories are shown from Sonic Adventure]

Seto : Yeah, Gamma. That's the name Omega mentioned, he died right here at the deck, facing an ill-fated battle with his brother, E-101 Beta. Despite being a robot, these machines were powered by flickies and Gamma was never heard again until Omega mentioned them.

Solva : Oh my. That is pleasantly sad story! He was a cool robot and a good friend to Amy and now he's gone forever.

Seto : Can't say that he's been destroyed by his own brother for 8 years, so that's why Omega never met them. It's probably a shame that no one on this ship survived and then two robots were shown and got destroyed in an ill-fated battle. That Gamma Master Grim mentioned during the Space Colony Ark incident were only just copies of this one the original and for Chaos Gamma,during the Gizoid incident, yeah not the same one as usual. Inside on it's back, the two flickies were freed from being powered inside the robot, that's why his story was so tragic. Eggman had the nerves to keep it all a secret just make everyone a tearjeaker.

Solva : I know, right? Who does that to birds anyway, they're just machines. (hears a jet roaring) Seto, Look!

Seto : What could that be?

Solva : There! That might be our transport! Get a load of this! (Seto takes binoculars to see them through) Do you see anything what's coming down here? Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

Seto : (viewing from Binoculars) Hmmm...That's not a bird nor a plane. That's a spacecraft shape like a Phantom! That's the Falcon Flyer! (The Falcon Flyer arrives)

[Captain Falcon - Daiki Kasho, Alan Brey]

Seto : It's a Falcon? Well it's just like Samus Aran's spaceship.

Solva : But who's flying that thing?

Captain Falcon : Hey there, ladies. You need a ride to hitch? That little Pink demon went off to Meta Knight's ship to hitch a ride into space!

Solva : It's only that Mr. Falcon guy.

Captain Falcon : I heard that you were on your way to Meta Knight's ship, guess that means I'll take you there to head for the

Seto : Oh great, a smasher. Just what we needed. Well, you can say that we let this cat out of the bag. We're on way to stop a pseudo ruler that is the going to cover the galaxy in darkness. Do you think that we needed ourselves a ride to space? Could that be a great help?

Captain Falcon : Could it be? (laughs triumphantly)

Seto : (looks at Solva) You thinking what I'm thinking?

Solva : Always planned for a biggest trip ever. Going into the stars. (fist bumps Seto)

Captain Falcon : Next stop! Dark Nebula's domain in space! Hang to your seats cause it's going to be a bumpy ride!

Seto : Hang on Tight, Seto! We're going to Space!

Captain Falcon : C'mon! Go Falcon!

(the Falcon Flyer blasts off)

Gamma's Voice : (eyes turned on) Thanks for everything. That is what I wished for.

~ Act 32 : The Last of Gamma ~