#dorothy is so good as a character not only is her design really good but the personality of like

[s0ckh3adstudios]

Oh, hey, looks like Plank joined the tea party after a- Hm. Not quite

SOME DOODLES!! And me spending forever trying to draw Dorothy and Plank digitally. Had to play around with Plank's colors since he hasn't actually been drawn with any yet, but Louie gave a helpful diagram HEHEJGK (i did draw him without the black boots tho. the black boots did not work very well)

Actually was melting over the dynamic I started drawing between Pawno and Dorothy like yeah Dorothy is. Dorothy. but this little boy was too persistent she got attached maybe. she would take him to McDonalds. I haven't drawn much of Plank and Dorothy but I think those two are really funny dynamic-wise the potential is there

They are so fun to draw I just need to practice with the mouse a bit more- I've been drawing traditionally a lot lately so I think my hand just needs to get used to it again

( Dorothy belongs to @faceeeeee and Plank belongs to @lord-bep )

[show-us-kaidenshenandoah]

Wicked Gelphie fans, i need you guys so badly to know how well Elphaba/Glinda are "good timeline"d "history doesnt repeat, it rhymes"-ified by Dorothy/Princess Ozma in Baum's original Oz book series. like. Dorothy/Ozma get everything; theyre the sweet, intimate friends-to-"??? are they a couple?"-ified political power-sapphic-duo that Gelphie would have wanted to be. like??

if you merge canons, fam... Wicked-Glinda must be struggling, seeing Dorothy/Ozma be everything she and Elphaba could have been.... omfg... the angst potential, the envy of watching a couple of sapphic childhood sweethearts get everything they were denied, fulfill Glinda and Elphie's dreams, and seemingly so easily too...

(also!! they even CAN look like a kid-Glinda and kid-Elphaba! there's canon to justify that kind of appearance paralleling!!)

faq below if you want more context

edit, psa: i did read these books from like.. the ages of 10 to like 14 or so, maybe as young as 8? idk, i dont remember. anyway. its been a decade since i picked them back up. and i didnt think this would gain as much traction as it has been after 100+ notes in less than 24 hours. uh. so. take my chronic memory loss-addled summarization with a grain of salt?? like? i just wrote this post so i didnt have to re-vent (agAIN) to my friends about how much i fucking love Dorothy/Ozma, period, much less in parallel to Gelphie. so. enjoy, carry on, and whatnot lmao

1️⃣: there's Oz books? plural???

yes, Baum wrote 14 books about Oz, actually. also, he wrote them under the appointment of "the royal historian of Oz" instead of "author", so there's other "official" Oz books by other "royal historians of Oz"

Baum wrote so much bc (he needed money, yes, but also:) kids would send him questions in fan-mail, and he would proceed to answer them via new novels. so he never planned to make more Oz books, he just (wasnt good with money and also) was routinely inspired by the kids who wrote to him and would write the stuff they wanted to learn about Oz and whatnot

2️⃣: does Dorothy go back to Oz? wasn't it all a dream for her??

yeah, Dorothy returns to Oz a lot in the books, she eventually even moves to live there permanently. bc, in the book series, it's a real place

only in the 1939 film was Oz ever a dream

3️⃣: how does Dorothy look like Glinda OR Elphaba?? what are you talking about?

okay so, "The Wizard of Oz" has an illustrator, W. W. Denslow. in the book, Dorothy is confirmed to be wearing a blue-white gingham dress (she changes outfits tho, she doesnt always wear the same dress all 14 books like she's some cartoon character); but im pretty sure her hair was all Denslow(? i could be remembering wrong. p sure im not tho??). this is what the 1939 movie based her appearance off of. so i can see why youd go "she doesnt look like Glinda or Elphaba"

BUT Denslow and Baum started feuding. so for the rest of the Oz books that Baum wrote, he had a different illustrator by the name of John R. Neil

and Neil decided to give Dorothy for every one of the books he illustrated (so, 13 of Baum's books to Denslow's 1 book of Baum's) a cute lil blonde bob, making her look like what i assume blonde-Glinda looked like as a child. i think she'd approve lol

so!! Dorothy very much looks like a trendy little Glinda, with her cute blonde bob, her fashionable drop-waist dress, and bows for most of the Baum series, actually!

(also, Neil had a preference for dressing Dorothy in this red and polka-dot number, but, again, she does wear other outfits)

(lmao also look at Tin-Man and Scarecrow with blonde-Dorothy, they look like her two gay dads encouraging her to just go be herself at school?? i love them)

(also, if you see "Eloise At The Plaza"-energy in this Dorothy design, im right there with you lol)

4️⃣: who is Ozma??

she's the Princess of Oz. she eventually appears in the second book of the series. she rules Oz after the Wizard

she's actually a really interesting transwoman allegory too. (spoilers for a book from the early 1900s?) she was born a little girl named Ozma, but has a spell put on her as a baby to be genderbent and was socially raised as a little boy under a different name, and she later realizes who she truly is: a girl. she finds the transformation scary, as she returns to her girl-form she always truly was, but she feels better and more herself now that she is Ozma again. i dont think L. Frank Baum intentionally wrote her to be a trans allegory, but you can very obviously see why our trans elders fucking LOVED Ozma back in the early 1900s

also, she has a similar "sir, you fucked up" relationship with the Wizard as Elphaba*. and, also like Elphaba, Ozma politically tries to make things in Oz better (just.. unlike Elphaba, Ozma has the power and support to do just that p much asap)

* (edit for contextual clarification on how the Wizard fucked up: the Wizard fucked up with Ozma because he is ultimately and p directly the reason why she was genderbent/hidden. he deposed of her family and sent her away. Baum decided later on to backtrack a little bit on this(?) because he wanted to bring back the Wizard and, in order for Baum to do that, has to try to not make him SO terribly horrible??? so like. Ozma does end up forgiving him and tolerates him amd he's nicer, later on, within the books. but i doubt any modern adaptation of the books would follow that, personally. even as a kid, i went "bullshit" and headcanoned that Ozma fucking hated the guy and, at best, MAYBE tolerated him for Dorothy, but overall did not like him for justifiable reasons! i think the direction society seems to have taken the Wizard is interesting, and i wouldnt be surprised if there was at least one future adaptation that made him The Bad Guy in a very Rumplestiltskin in the Once Upon A Time TV show kind of way. but like. in the books, they do END UP getting along. i just forever disagree with Baum on that lol i think the Wizard fucked up, and in book 2 of the series (the one where Ozma is, y'know, introduced), it is obvious the Wizard FUCKED UP. but yeah. also, Ozma does get her dad back. her mom was kind of never in the picture to begin with, specifically in a Ponyo's Mom kind of way, like, she made Oz and then left it for her husband and kid to rule, so. yeah. im getting off track. my point is the Wizard did a full-on coup on her family and then banished her and genderbent her so no one would recognize that she had claim to the throne he was sitting on!! he fucked up! so, like, i personally hc that Elphaba founded the "i hate the Wizard" club to which everyone slowly joined, like Fieyro and etc, and Ozma is their youngest member. the Wizard did both Elphie and Ozma so dirty, omfg)

it also should be mentioned, Ozma in NBC's "Emerald City" was casted as Black (her actress being Jordan Loughran). so, though Ozma does not have green skin (but also? neither did the Wicked Witch of the West in the books, she wasn't green there. that was a 1939 film decision to make her green. so! Ozma could be green!! why not!), but she does have Black features to theoretically remind Glinda of Cynthia Eviro's Elphaba when you consider that casting. or, if you prefer a Jewish!Elphaba casting, a'la Idina Menzel's Elphaba, i think Ozma's book design works well to interpretively parallel those features too. or both, if you like the sound of a Black-Jewish Elphaba and Ozma paralleling lol

(edit, because i thought i mentioned this but? no?? i didnt?? i must have misclicked or something to have deleted the paragraph. im so sorry, here you go:) also, when Ozma was a boy, she was basically enslaved to her jailor of a caretaker. which one could interpret as "oh, a Cinderella story!", sure. but, with a Black Ozma, it does read as an intergenerational grief-formed power-fantasy that is both empowering and poignant for Ozma to have ran away from her enslavement and gone on to become a princess afterwards. to any Black folks who may be going "is this going to trigger me?" about Ozma having been a child-slave, i remind you that Baum wrote this intentionally for children, so, no, the books do not sit in the trauma and horror of enslavement, but whether or not it would trigger you yourself is up to your discretion. i will say, Baum did NOT write the American Girls' Addy of his time (context: a children's book about a child-slave that does go into the horrors, some, though in a kid-friendly way) or Louis Sachar's Holes (i asssume i dont have explain Holes since its movie was such a hit), i remember it as even more kid-friendly than either of those also-children's books, so i would assume most people would be fine? but you are responsible for your own mental well-being, i urge you to confirm if it is fine for yourself however you need to do that. but, yes, you can use this backstory as further evidence for your Ozma being Black, of course! you can have Ozma be Black regardless, but if you want this as further evidence, go ahead! and also, it does parallel Ozma to Elphaba in the sense that Elphaba's family mistreats Elphaba! (i will, regardless of if you prefer a Jewish and/or Black Elphaba, add that doing so is also a nice "fuck you" to Baum in how, being a white man of the late 1800s and early 1900s, did end up throwing in racist and/or antisemitic caricatures here and there within his 14 books, unfortunately. i, an Indigenous American, remember as a child still immensely enjoying Oz despite Baum being racist towards Native Americans. if youre curious on the egregious level of it all and if the story could still be enjoyable, id say it's in the realm of Peter Pan, Willy Wonka, and Matilda of "wow. that is shitty. im going to pretend this thing i love is good instead via cognitive dissonance")

regardless, in John R Neil's illustrations, Ozma does have black hair, so that too coincides with modern understandings of Elphaba

(there is also her appearance in Disney's "Return to Oz", performed by Emma Ridley, where she is blonde. but, though i love that spooky movie, that's neither here nor there. as far as im aware, only in that movie has Ozma not had black hair)

anyway, she rules Oz; and by book 3, becomes really close friends with Dorothy. they're not a canon couple, not anymore than Gelphie is, but they are such close and affectionate friends that they are so easy to ship as childhood sweethearts (so, no, there is no moment of 🎶loathing🎶, but i find that sweetness makes them an angstier parallel for Glinda to watch over, personally lol)

like here's some illustrations from the books of them just being two "gal pals". no wonder our queer elders shipped them lmao and this isn't even all of their illustrations together, this is just the first spurts that google shot out at me lmao

also??? this is them with book-Glinda. not only do they look absolutely darling, also, yes, Dorothy becomes a princess, because Ozma said so. they co-rule Oz together. they are just too sweet, fam, i love these two little childhood sweethearts, i choose to see Dorothy's princess-ship as the same as two kids promising to marry one another when they grow up. this is so cute

and can you imagine Wicked-Glinda? looking down at these two, seeing what could have between herself and Elphaba had things turned out different??? im making myself sad

(also "Book of Glinda" is so wild. both in terms of "...Baum, how do you not see this as queer?" like with one example being like "Baum, you put that Glinda has 100s of single women at her beck and call in her palace, this is so easy to see as sapphic, sir"... and then, over here, we have John R Neil repeatedly reading "gave a platonic, innocent kiss" and going "okay, so, uh, making out? i dont do platonic kissing" lmao anYWAAAAYYYY, THAT'S NOT RELEVANT HERE)

🌟5️⃣ bonus:

so, you might have a few follow-up questions. like, what is "Elphaba" like in the books? what does she look like?

well, she's really only in the first book. she's one-note, evil, dies. she's not green-skinned, and she isn't given any sort of name. she is only called "the Wicked Witch of the West", that's it, she is not Elphaba

however, i will mention the Wicked Witch of the West, in the books, is a fashion disaster and i want to see her look used as evidence that "yes, goth-Elphaba and dark-academia-Elphaba are 10/10, but also?? kitschy grandma-core knitwear-Elphaba × her fashionably Barbie pink girlfriend". i'd love to see art of that. i'm just saying

also?? this isn't related to her at all but guess what

Scarecrow/Tin-Man was like THE ship for our queer elders. they are so emotionally intimate, they live together, it's great, look at these pictures of them being absolute bros (can you see why they were shipped so hard)

i bring this up, bc you could argue Fieyro/Boq if you merge canons to make your own narrative and whatnot. guess Fieryo and Boq kinda had their own mirrored 🎶loathing🎶 period under that framing lmao

or, if you hate Boq, youll probably love the Tin-Man's angsty "ship of Theseus"-like backstory as the once-Nick Chopper(: his human name, pre-tin-ification) that is in the books

so! enjoy that knowledge!! theyre super cute in the books, i love them. again, not a canon ship, but still beloved by our elder queers, just like Ozma and Dorothy

i hope it makes even more sense now why our queer elders used the phrase "Are you a friend of Dorothy?" as code to see if someone else was queer, not even taking into account the 1939 movie or Judy Garland's relationship with the queer community

anyway, albeit this is all the basics generalized, that should be everything

but yeah!! Ozma and Dorothy reminding Glinda of what could have been, of what she lost, being the sweeter "next generation" version of Gelphie?? tugs so hard at my heartstrings

but yeah, do whatever you want with Gelphie, Fieryo, and Part 2. im just saying. the angst potential of being envious and living vicariously through someone and seeing other people get the happy ending you were denied?? is right there lol

(edit: this awesome video by Kaz Rowe JUST came out if you want to hear more about the Oz book series, its queerness, its author, its GLARING PROBLEMS including but not limited to instances of racism, and so on and so forth. Kaz Rowe is a fantastic video-essayist, so i hope you watch the video and enjoy their hard-polished craftsmanship)

[oltammefru]

The Dorothy skin drives me so so so fucking insane.

Like, if Dorothy was a villain who was incredibly fucked up and controlling and abused her power and used it to do fucked up and immoral shit and could subvert your will and make you believe in her righteousness with just a few honey-laced words, this is exactly the outfit she'd wear. And the thing is, the canon Dorothy isn't (quite) like this: she's extremely good-willed and caring and benevolent and only does things because she genuinely believes it's for the benefit of the person on the receiving end (but at the same time she still is really alluring and controlling in a way that's somewhat terrifying.) In terms of her vibes as a character, she very much discomfortingly straddles the border between the omnibenevolent image of her, and the AU villainness version of her.

Whether intentional on Dorothy's part or not, the design of this skin feels to me like it is very intentionally channeling the aura of that AU villainness version of her. Like, that's not who she is, but if her morals were just very, very, veryyyyyyyyy slightly more twisted, that is who she would be.

It's made even more insane by the fact that this skin is specifically framed as the outfit she wore while acting as the Rhine D&D game DM, the omnipotent master of this fictional universe, capable of bending its reality to her whim, and hers alone.

[where-fading-princesses-live]

Thoughts on Wicked Trailer (2024)

Eh. Not too thrilled about this but will see it anyway.

What I don't like about the Wicked Trailer:

-I love Cytnhia's voice and Ariana doesn't sound bad either from what I've heard, however, they just both look way too old to be playing wide-eyed bushy-tailed college kids in the first part. This is a two parter movie and well they probably would have looked great in the second half when they're older and wiser but... yeah based on this trailer they don't convince me as college kids. Ari always looked young for her age but she never looked older than she does in this movie. Idk if it's the blonde hair or what that just doesn't compliment her.. yeah.. iff. See, if this was a stage musical no one would notice. But movies are always shot in close-up with so much detail and you can really see the age on these actresses, not they're ''old'' by any means but they don't look like college freshman. I'm sure their voices will make up for it though.

-Why don't we see the other characters like Nessa, Boq, and Fiyero? Kind of a cop out. We even see a glimpse of Dorothy and we don't even see her except her silhouette in the original musical.

-Musical trailers are no longer advertising themselves as musicals, so unfortunately only the spoken bits are shown and very little music. But maybe that's a good thing. It kind of teases us without giving too much away. But would have liked to hear more of ''Defying Gravity,'' just the last bar if nothing else. even the Mean Girls trailer had one lyric fully sung.

What I like about the Wicked Trailer:

-Dorothy's shoes. Hands down, the best thing in the whole trailer. I like how they're silver like the original story. They don't stand out as much as the ruby ones from the MGM version but they're still pretty.

-I'm not crazy about the design of Glinda's dresses but I do like how they dressed her in pink throughout the whole movie. No, she doesn't have as much variety in her fashion as the stage costumes, but it's a nice symbolism if that's what they were going for, tying her up in pink. It seems Elphaba will be pretty much in black for the whole movie, too.

-Unfortunately, that's all I liked about the new trailer.

Not really excited for this at all. I've been waiting for years for a Wicked movie and it just looks disappointing...

EDIT: Just kidding, they showed Fiyero for like a brief ''blink and you'll miss it'' second. Will have to re-watch to see if there was anything else I missed.

[otter-nonsense620]

Dear Dottie (Hazbin Hotel OC)

Oh my goodness hello everyone! This is my first post, and with my hyper fixation on Hazbin Hotel rn I wanted to share an OC I’ve been developing for the past week 🤭

Yes I used a template for the self-insertion photo, so only credit I take from that is her design

I’m really liking the name Dorothy “Dottie” Goldstein. She’s from a 1930’s New York background, a striving journalist who continues her work in Hell

Thick accent with a touch of fluff (think Lea Michele in Funny Girl)

I would appreciate any feedback to further add to her character~❤️ (2nd photo is rough coloring)

[lizalfosrise]

Hey Rise, it's AK favorites time again. Give me your best defenders. Gameplay, personality, aesthetic, whatever.

Alrighty! Let's place this under a cut:

Launch Faves:

Spot - I see full kemono in Arknights I black out and go feral good yes very nice. That healing smokescreen remains very helpful, and he's just a real solid bro. His VA caught my eye too, since I was watching Raildex that year so I'd been hearing him quite a lot.

Cuora - Roaming baseball turtle is Fucking Invincible. HOMERUN!! Her module lore story was pretty nice in a sledgehammer-to-the-heart kinda way given it was her memory issues + her baseball&bat's origin. Incredibly solid and the first elusive 4-blocker saving our asses and storing up Pure Gold Ingots in the Factories. Homerun indeed.

Croissant - Really cool and fun character (we got her southern US drawl back hooray) with the interesting gimmick of being the push-stroker(they can never live this naming scheme down) defender. Problem? S2 says yeet 'em! No problem boblem. Niche and therefore undervalued at the earlygame, but Integrated Strategies with the Force+2 manual obtained must've made some fun shenanigans.

Gameplay:

All the Fortresses, honestly. They're great in character, in aesthetics and I greatly enjoy having their long-range bombardments. Firewhistle's brought us Burn procs and it's delightful to watch the bonus damage pour in. I can be trusted with the Londinium Self-Defense Artillery cannon emplacements.

Don't use 'em enough but they're fun: Duelist and Sentinels - Aurora is cute and has access to Cold proc manipulation tactics (plus that claw-shaped staked, slim tower shield is a work of art); Liskarm has been a faithful SP battery pistol-shooting down aerial threats while Blitz has the flashbang spam going for him.

Guardians are lifesavers, of course. Gummy's frying pan bonk stuns every third hit can actually be incredibly useful. Blemishine is a far better pick than Nearl due to her Sleep mechanics and yknow, 6* bulk/Skill 3 (she's cool to borrow as a support unit but I don't have her fully invested). Saria is pretty solid here and with regards to character&story, but at the same time I never actually E2'd her until mid-Dorothy's Vision because I finally experienced her Skill 3 and needed her to be beefier for a map clear (or several) that event.

General:

Horn - "YOU WANT TO TOPPLE ME?! BY WHAT?" Episode 9 was so great, and then we suffered a Manfred to the Self-Defense Artillery. That CG towards the end of Ep9 with a heavily-injured Horn pulling the S3 glare at Mandragora after auto-rocketjumping Bagpipe away was phenomenal. Incidentally a major part of why if you have taste you'll understand that Horndragora is the superior toxic yuri pairing rather than suffering that watery tart of a catgirl. I'm more enamored with that heavy-duty shieldcannon though, naturally. The Victorian Army gets all the cool gunlances eh? That VA olive green drab is a wonderful colour scheme too, really. The overheat flame vfx during S3 are a delightful detail on the chibi sprite and for that reason though I'll get that (somewhat mismatched) Lady of the Lake skin, I won't equip it often. But S1/S3 were absolutely outstanding during IS2.

Asbestos - The most tsuntsuntsuntsuntsuntsuuuuuundere foulmouthed foul-tempered vkei-ass Aussie salamander is just so iconic, bless her. Funky and rad design, personality and until Shalem appeared, the only Arts-shotgun shielder. Trying out her Skill 2 in IS2 was pretty fun since I only rarely used her prior honestly. The details gone into fitting her entire theming around asbestos are so so good.

Mudrock - Initially I wouldn't use her due to the 35dp cost buuuut I reached the point where 'This is fine actually' after a while of wanting to properly invest in her and yeah. Fucking incredible with sneak-healing via Perfumer. Spin2Win is forever relevant! We need a skin that brings back the full hazard suit towering over most other chibis though. Really good as a character, her parts in Twilight of Wolumonde were what made that event remotely bearable to me.

Her fellow Juggernaut companion Penance is likewise extremely good in aesthetics, character and as a unit.

Eunectes - Same deal as above, I actually haven't used her so badly she's not actually E2 yet. But I think she's incredibly gorgeous and a very cool Forgemaster. The Acahualla Trio are very, very fun! Summoning her upgraded Raging Ironhide must be a real lovely feeling given how much of a nuisance it is to fight.

Nian - Unemployed. Commando. The only Sui fragment I have at E2. Fellow spice fiend. Many noteworthy things can be said. I greatly enjoy her. We need to see more of the situation with training up Purgatory now going forwards in that storyline. Love that her E2 splash shows the(or at least, her) bestial Sui form has a maw in the chest.

Shoutout: Ace - He would've been male 6* Defender, absolutely, the way he tanked Talulah 1v1 during the Chernobog Exfiltration long enough for every surviving RI Operator to redeploy disengage & evacuate. Legendary guy. There's no Elite Operator covering the Defender class as a Temporary Recruitment in Integrated Strategies, so personally I feel like that's where he might've been.

[spacefinch]

Finch’s ramblings: Magic School Bus

This is a franchise I essentially grew up with. I spent hours reading the books in the classroom, and watched the entire classic series.

I used to own all 20 MSB chapter books. Each one was narrated in the first person from a student’s point of view. “Space Explorers” (narrated by Carlos) and “Penguin Puzzle” (narrated by Phoebe) were my favorites.

The first MSB episode I remember watching is “Goes Cellular”— aka the one where Arnold turns orange.

Phoebe was by far one of my favorite characters in the show. She’s kind and caring, and has red hair, just like me! Even better: she shares her name with one of my favorite birds. Naturally, I was very disappointed that the reboot excluded her.

For my 9th birthday, I had a Magic School Bus party— specifically rainbow themed. My friends and I walked around in a big cardboard bus, and we did lots of colorful activities.

I was more used to the show and the books published afterwards, so it came as a bit of a surprise when I read the OG books by Joanna Cole. Here were the main eight students, plus more that I still can’t keep track of.

Another one of my favorite characters (and possibly my first childhood crush) was Carlos. It’s partly thanks to him that I took an interest in telling jokes. (The other part that influenced my joke telling was my mom.)

The friendships in the show are the best: to this day, I’m still looking for those kind of friends.

Dorothy Ann was yet another favorite character of mine. I could definitely relate to her: always ready to infodump, and never comfortable without at least a few books on hand.

I found I could relate to pretty much all 8 students:

Arnold’s nervous/cautious personality and love of rocks

Ralphie’s imagination and energy

Keesha’s perceptiveness and common sense

Phoebe’s love of animals and her quiet, yet fierce spirit

Carlos’s sense of humor and stubbornness

Tim’s love of art and film

Wanda’s sense of adventure and unwillingness to back down

Dorothy Ann’s book smarts and curiosity

When I was 12, I had a seizure, which resulted in a bad fall and a stay at the hospital. It took several days to recover, and MSB was one of the things that kept me going during that time. While I did enjoy getting to watch multiple episodes in a row, I never want to have to go to the hospital again for a seizure. I’ve only had a few of them, and the only thing stopping me from having another is my prescription medication.

Looking back, I really appreciate the representation in the show.

It’s possible to headcanon all the main characters as neurodivergent.

Not one, not two, not three, but FOUR redheads (Ms. Frizzle, Arnold, Phoebe, and Janet.) And it’s some of the best rep I’ve seen.

I also liked how the POC students (Keesha, Tim, Carlos, and Wanda) were portrayed. They did have key trademark personality traits, but those weren’t based on stereotypes. Instead, you have: girl who’s super perceptive and good at getting to the bottom of a mystery (Keesha), guy who really likes to draw and photograph things (Tim), guy who tells the best dad jokes (Carlos), and a girl who’s more of a daredevil than any of the other students (Wanda.)

The disability rep was another plus. As I mentioned, I already consider the majority of characters in the show to be autistic or ADHD. I also enjoyed seeing Carlos’s little brother Mikey, even if he was in only two episodes. I like the fact that Mikey is a wheelchair user, but that isn’t his only personality trait. Given what I know now, I’d consider his personality to be: combination of Scotty from Star Trek TOS, Peter Parker from Marvel, and Hiro Hamada from Big Hero 6.

Other things I liked:

All the color! From the Friz’s dress designs to the kids’ outfits to all the places they explored, there was no shortage of color.

The references to other well-known things. By far my favorite is the entire “Out of This World” episode. The bus in its spaceship form looks just like the USS Enterprise, and the kids get to wear Star Trek style outfits. If you are a Trekkie, I would recommend you watch this episode if you only have time to watch one.

Well, it’s getting late, so I’d better turn in for the night. I hope you guys like this look at a key part of my childhood, and a tiny bit of personal lore.

[fostersffff]

The Big Gundam Watch, Part 10: Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz

As mentioned at the end of my post about the second half of Gundam Wing, the word on the street was that the sequel movie was Actually Good For Real. Naturally, I was skeptical: even with the context provided in response to that post about the nightmarish production schedule and sponsor requirements the series had, it was still the least good experience I've had with a Gundam show to date. The theatrical format can also be a double-edged sword if you don't know how to budget your time wisely, and quite frankly, I didn't have much faith in the Gundam Wing production staff to make a cohesive 90 minute movie after they had so much trouble with a 49 episode TV series.

I'm happy to report that Endless Waltz was, in fact, pretty damn good. In fact, I'd actually go so far as to say that of the Gundam movies I've reviewed in this format- the others being Char's Counterattack, Narrative, and Hathaway- this was the best! Not only was it a solid action movie with some terrific animation setpieces, it also addressed most of the problems I have with Gundam Wing, making both the setting itself and the movie much stronger.

THE STUFF I LIKED:

FLASHBACKS. Number one with a fucking bullet: I now have literally any understanding of the motivations for these main characters! And they were all pretty well executed! Trowa's a child soldier! Duo was trying to prevent the original Operation Meteor! Heero is suicidal and traumatized because he botched an attack on a mobile suit production facility and got civilians killed! Wufei... had one too!

I was a little worried about how much money this was going to have, because it was originally a series of OVAs. But that got put to rest when Noin and Sally launched the ITANO CIRCUS PODS followed by reaction shots of Taurus dolls moving at 800 frames per second trying to escape.

After spending the whole series bitching about how much the Gundams clash with original suits designed for the After Colony timeline, I think the redesigns they got for Endless Waltz finally made me stop being a hater. Especially Wing Zero; who cares how impractical contoured angel wings are, it looks fucking cool, and lends itself to that gorgeous activation sequence.

On the subject of mobile suits; the Tallgeese III isn't as cool as the Tallgeese- they really fucking nailed that design on the first take- but I was thrilled that when Char Quattro Zechs Milliardo Wind showed up to the fight, it was in a Tallgeese and not the Epyon.

And speaking of redesigns; Trowa got fuckin' yolked. Fuckin' Final Fight Mike Haggar looking motherfucker. I assumed they just bulked up all of the boys, but then one scene later Heero is as scrawny as ever, so they made the conscious choice to have Trowa buff as shit.

Dorothy showing up for five seconds to insult a bunch of random civilians for being cowards in order to rile them up and haul them over to the site of the conflict to protest Mariemaia's regime in a convoy led by her solid gold truck was perfection.

A brief return of my favorite version of Heero- sociopath Heero- when Mariemaia tries to taunt him over how indestructible the bunker is and he just goes "okay." and fires the Libra-annihilating gun down at it three times.

I thought Mariemaia and Dekim made a really great and complementary pair of villains. It makes perfect sense that 10 year old would be like "why hasn't anyone just tried being a perfect dictator" before you even factor in the grooming, and Dekim neatly introduces and ties up the whole "Operation Meteor was originally just a space supremacy ploy" idea that was introduced in the last episode of Wing, enhancing it with the added wrinkle that the Barton family were the equivalent of the Zabis in the Universal Century.

If you read my last post, you may think I'd be down on Relena abandoning her position of Total Pacifism. Instead, it actually feels like a natural development: the formation of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation was a unilateral agreement by all mankind that peace was what they wanted, so her goal of Peace via Pacifism was effectively achieved! But in the face of a group that would threaten that accomplishment for the sole purpose of self-interested domination, there's literally nothing to do but resist. And it's still optimistic because it flies in the face of the conventional, cynical wisdom of "good times create weak men create hard time create strong men create good times...", which is what Dekim was counting on.

THE STUFF I LIKED LESS:

The role of “Big Boss from Metal Gear Solid, but fucking stupid” is now being played by Wufei, who I literally groaned at when he appeared to defend Dekim from Trowa. I get it; they needed to have a cool mobile suit for Heero to fight against since Mariemaia and Dekim weren't pilots, and Wufei fits the bill since it's totally believable he's not over his tsundere mancrush on Treize, but the fact that his Category 6 MUH JUSTICE moment is stopped by Heero reminding him that civilians exist was just too much.

The idea that the Gundams were at a disadvantage against the horde of regular grunt suits because they were going for non-lethal takedown was charming, but also, like... Duo says that and then it cuts to Heavyarms fucking unloading. But maybe they were rubber bullets so it's fine, it's fine, don't worry about it.

Lady Une once again uses her unaddressed space-time warping powers to gain access to Mariemaia's neigh-upon impregnable underground bunker just in time to save her and Relena from falling rubble. I actually scanned back through the video to make sure I didn't miss something: we see her outside meeting with Zechs as he lands the Tallgeese III, and then the next time we see her she somehow made it into the compound and disabled every guard in one of the rooms. How?

Listen, Endless Waltz is a very elegant title and should make sense to basically everyone if they think about it even just a little bit. It was not necessary to explain it out for the audience.

OTHER OBSERVATIONS:

There were a number of lines and scenes in this movie that gave me a hearty, sensible chuckle, so I'm just gonna run down the ones that really stuck with me:

The way the dub narrator says "at the end of an... intricate battle" is the funniest and most polite way to describe the conflict of Gundam Wing.

“He’s pretty smart for a person who was elected democratically”

"I wouldn't be surprised if one day he starts saying that his lack of effort is the reason there's no air in outer space"

Zech's little book he's reading while waiting for someone to pick him up:

Not meant to be funny, but I love that the emblem of Mariemaia's regime is just "what if instead of an eagle holding a swastika, it was an eagle holding an M stylized like the one on Super Mario's hat":

Choosing to show Zechs and Noin reuniting and riding off to Mars together to start a new life as unromantically as possible by just having them play chess:

Speaking of Zechs and Noin going to Mars: I enjoyed this so much I looked at a summary for the sequel to this, the light novel series Frozen Teardrop, and then determined I will not be looking at anything else related to Frozen Teardrop.

Amogus.

IN CONCLUSION:

This was an incredibly pleasant surprise. Taken as a complete package, Endless Waltz seriously elevates Gundam Wing. It does so much groundwork for that series that I think you could make a compelling argument to skip Wing altogether and just watch Endless Waltz. Personally, though, I would just amend whether or not I'd recommend Gundam Wing to "if you're going to watch it, you absolutely MUST watch Endless Waltz, too, no matter how you felt about it".

Next up: I'm taking another break, as in the time it took me to watch through all of Gundam Wing I added a ton of other anime (and video games (and model kits)) to my to-do list. But when I do come back to this, we're going backwards and then sticking to chronologically-by-release order, starting with Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket.

[witchesoz]

What we know about Oz: Book 3, The beginning

The third book of the Oz series is known by many as "Ozma of Oz" but its actual full title is "Ozma of Oz: A record of her adventures with Dorothy Gale of Kansas, Billina the yellow hen, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion, and the Hungry Tiger ; besides other good people too numerous to mention faithfully recorded herein". You get why people prefer to use the shortened title.

This third book saw the rebirth of Oz as a series rather than a place designed for one-shot stories. Most of the elements popularized about the literary Oz start here, making the first two books retrospectively bizarre: this is where all the rules that would dominate in future Oz books started, rules precisely designed to ensure a good continuity, a status quo perfect to write more Oz books, and that Oz would become a "safe place" for quick and easy to write stories (unlike in the first two books, where Oz was a much more "realistic" and complex setting for self-contained stories). Anyway you will see it by yourself.

However, the paradox here is that the majority of Ozma of Oz does not center either on Ozma or on Oz: the bulk of the book is taking place in the country of Ev, and Dorothy is actually the main character. As a result, Oz and its lore only pop up twice in the book - and we will explore here the first time it does, at the beginning of the story, when the Oz characters get involved in the Ev plot.

# This book changes Oz's location. Before, the implications were that Oz was somehow located at the center of the United-States, or at least that outside its desert borders it was the regular "civilized" world in which Dorothy lived in. Starting here, Oz is now part of its own "fairy-continent", as we see that the land beyond the Oz desert, Ev, is another fantastical realm, and this time to reach it Dorothy has to fall into the sea and be washed ashore on its banks. We also have the very important point that Dorothy's falling into the sea was during a trip leading her to Australia. So Oz must be somewhere between the USA and Australia - the fairy continent could be somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

# It is also by extension the first time Oz is referred to as a "fairy country" or "fairy land". We also learn a new rule - apparently most animals from the regular world that arrive to the land of Oz (or any kind of fairy-land) learns the ability to speak like a regular human. This rules applies not to just to Oz but to Ev too, and we see here being exemplified by Dorothy's pet yellow hen, who starts talking as she is in the waters by the coast of Ev. Of course, Dorothy also highlights an important fact (though obvious): there is no sea-shore in Oz. This is how she identifies Ev as not being Oz but a "different fairy country", but it also stresses how Oz's culture is based and formed around being an in-land country with no access (maybe not even knowledge) of the sea, given they only have rivers and lakes.

# After discovering Tik-Tok, Dorothy, Billina and the robot have a conversation about Oz. Dorothy mentions notably that she thought the Scarecrow was just as a good as a thinker before he received his brain - highlighting what was originally just implied in the original book. Tik-Tok reveals to actually have knowledge of Oz - apparently, people of Ev knew of the existence of this fairy-land beyond the great desert bordering their land, though Tik-Tok insists he only heard about it of course, and from what he learned the Land of Oz is a "wonderful fairy country" where "anything is possible" - visibly it is much better than Ev.

But what comes off as really surprising and strange is that Tik-Tok is apparently aware of the current politics of Oz, as he is the one dropping the bomb on Dorothy that the Scarecrow isn't king anymore, that there was a revolution by General Jinjur, and that Ozma is now queen of Oz. How in the world did an Ev inhabitant learned all that? Especially since we know Ev people don't go in Oz due to the desert (though Tik-Tok dismisses this as just a "broad desert" so maybe it isn't so much fo a threat) ; but more-over, Oz people don't know about Ev the slightest since previous books proved them unaware of what was beyond the desert. This seems all to be too much of a bizarre inconvenience and Baum just using Tik-Tok as an information provider despite how little sense it could make.

But similarly the Scarecrow, right upon arriving in Ev, also shows knowledge of the land - notably mentioning the Wheelers despite never having seen one in his life, so how could he know the critter? Mysteries...

# Oz really starts to get more in the party after Dorothy is kept imprisoned by Langwidere, and an Oz party comes to the rescue.

Dorothy is looking at the desert, which she describes as a vast sandy desert stretching further than the eye can see to the west of Ev, and she remembers how no one could ever manage to cross this "dangerous waste". She also mentions something she explained prior in the book: the silver shoes that make her "fly over the desert" are now lost because they fell somewhere in the sand while she was travelling, and thus can't be used anymore. [Which is... a bit illogical because how could she keep flying if the shoes fell off mid-fly?]

But as she looks at the desert she sees a group of Ozians cross it on a magical carpet. The magical carpet itself is broad and green, "unrolling itself upon the desert" so that the group on it can walk forward, but rolling itself up again once the group passed, so that there was "always just enough of it for the procession to walk upon". And this is done to, I quote "that their feet might not come in contact with the deadly, life-destroying sand of the desert". Oh yeah because I forgot to mention: this is the book when the desert goes from "uncrossable" to "deadly". Yep turned out the sand the witches were walking in quite fine before (remember the chase scene from the end of Book 2?) is in truth now deadly poison.

The procession in itself consists of several characters: twenty-seven soldiers of various body types (lean, fat, short, tall are the four body types describes) dressed in handsome uniforms "of various designs and colors, no two being alike in any respect" [Huh... curious... does it mean this is a multi-community army? The multi-color and the four body types mention make me think maybe there is something to do with the group being of soldiers coming from different corners in Oz? This is also the first time we are explicitly told about "tall" Ozians, confirming what was suggested in Book 2, that the time of "all Ozians are short" from Book 1 is over]. This group is led by the Tin Woodman, aka Nick Chopper, "with his funnel-shaped cap tipped carelessly over his left ear, his gleaming axe over his right shoulder and his whole body sparkling as brightly as it had ever done in the old days". Note that this is the first time the Woodman is described with a "funnel-shaped" hat - it was actually originally an invention of the Oz book illustrators, invention that was popularized and liked enough that Baum included it in his work. There is before them the Scarecrow, riding on the Saw-Horse ; and at the head of it all Ozma herself. Ozma is described as a beautiful girl "neither older nor larger than Dorothy herself", clothed in "flowing robes of silver gauze and wearing a jeweled diadem upon her dainty head" - in one hand an ivory wand splitting at the top in two prongs, one with the letter O and the other with the letter Z (both letters in glistening diamonds) [clearly Ozma's scepter as queen of Oz], and in the other hand the "satin ribbons" leading her chariot. Oh yes, because she is on a chariot, a magnificent golden chariot according to the book - but instead of horses, it is pulled on one side by a great Lion (that in truth is the Cowardly Lion), and on the other by an "immense Tiger" that Dorothy doesn't know.

Another interesting detail is that, right upon reaching the end of the desert and the land of v, the magic carpet rolls itself together and disappears entirely. The carpet they used to cross the desert just vanishes... How are they going to get back? Mystery!

# Ozma's entry in the palace of Ev is... not unnoticed. Of course the palace is in a poor state, but still: after arriving in the country and hearing about Dorothy's situation, Ozma just barges into the palace, not even letting the maid properly announce her, going straight to Langwidere's apartment, with the twenty-seven soldiers making so much noise and clatter they terrify the poor maid - no wonder Langwidere is pissed off as seeing this "rude invasion of her palace", we are in a diplomatic incident here.

And if you thought this was forceful , oh boy, wait until you hear what Ozma says to Langwidere, her first words to the ruler of the land... With a smile and quietly, she says that Langwidere must listen to what they have to say, that she is the ruler of the Land of Oz, and that if Langwidere tries to imprison them in any way "I am powerful enough to destroy all your kingdom". Damn your first contact with a foreign land and you immediately threaten complete genocide? Way to go Ozma! Though she also clarifies promptly that she does not come here to "do harm" - rather she and her friends arrived to Ev on a rescue mission, to free the royal family of Ev from the Nome King, due to her hearing about what happened.

Again : HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? Oz has been cut-off so far from the rest of the world, and yet here it is retconned that apparently Ev and Oz know very well about the politico-situation of each other. And on a more moral and realistic take, we also see clearly that Ozma's actions are quite rash, impulsive and unthought - she is clearly invading and politically interfering in a land she made first contact with, and while Langwidere promptly agrees to her plan (since she doesn't want to rule), we later see through Ozma's confrontation with the Nome King that she is blissfully unaware of the legal situation of the whole "Nome King kidnapping people" - the Nome King notably tells Ozma that no, he doesn't hold his prisoners in slavery like she heard (which is... technically true), and he also highlights the fact that he actually bought the family legally through a fair and honest deal with the king, and that he has all the right to their ownership without any criminal activity. As it turns out, the most lawful and informed of the three rulers in this book is the Nome King, while Ozma seems like a hot-headed, act-before-thinking queen here. A bit different from the clever and cautious boy that used to be Tip.

# On top of a ruthless political intervention, we also have some bizarre "inferiority and superiority" talk between the Scarecrow/Tin Woodman and Tik-Tok (a recurring theme with those two is that they keep judging who is better and who is worse than them based on their attributes). Notably the Scarecrow and the Woodman promptly concludes that Tik-Tok as a simple machine is "inferior" to them, because he doesn't have a heart or conscience (unlike the Tin Woodman) and because while he has a brain, it needs to be wound-up, unlike the Scarecrow's. The Scarecrow even thinks of pulling apart the robot to see how he works inside - only stopping himself when he learns Tik-Tok is "useful", because as he admits he is a very poor mechanic and couldn't put him back together.

Invasion, genocide threats, racist classifications, cruel experiments... Are we speaking of an Oz book or of World War II? Though if Oz is a stand-in for the USA, it does fit very well for the time X)

# Dorothy also greets the Cowardly Lion, finally back after his absence from book 2 - and with no mention of his possible status as king of the southern forest from the end of book 1. Here he is back to being just a Cowardly Lion "scared of everything little thing", his heart beating faster in front of fear - and despite Dorothy remembering him being brave, he insists that it was all misinterpretation, because every time he was in front of danger he was "scared". (Yet again we find the usual dilemma with the Lion, who thinks the very act of being afraid means he is cowardly, when in truth it is just normal - the same way the Scarecrow thought he wasn't intelligent just because he didn't have a brain of flesh like humans, and so was oblivious to his own cleverness). The Lion is also added another little detail taken from the book's illustrations, that wasn't in Baum's original text: he now sports a "big bow of blue ribbon" on the "long hair between his ears" (his mane) - the bow actually matches his companion pulling Ozma's chariot, the Tiger, who is also said to have a bow, though his is red and tied to the tail "just in front of the bushy end". [... a bushy end huh? Must be a peculiar type of tiger].

# Speaking of Tiger, this is the new Oz character Baum introduces us to - a brand new character that we never heard about before, and whose backstory we will never learn! Hooray! (Though people have suggested it might be the same Tiger that appeared in the original book, as the spoke-person for the animals of the forest terrified by the giant spider).

The Cowardly Lion introduces the Tiger as a "new friend" of his, whose full name is "the Hungry Tiger". Aptly called because the Tiger is constantly hungry, and no matter how much he eats he is never satisfied - or rather he thinks he is constantly angry because "eating is of no use as I get hungry again" (which Dorothy points out is something she also experiences, and that's just how being hungry works). But the Tiger highlights the difference between Dorothy and him: Dorothy eats "harmless things" while he, as a "savage beast", he hungers for "poor little living creatures, from a chipmunk to fat babies". In fact the Hungry Tiger has a certain obsession with fat babies - they sound delicious for him and every time he speaks of them he licks his lips. But he never ate any and will never - because as he explains, he has a "conscience" which tells him it is wrong to eat fat babies, because in doing so he would have just sacrificed a poor baby for nothing as he would eventually be hungry again. And so due to his conscience, he declares "Hungry I was born and hungry I shall die, but I'll not have any cruel deeds on my conscience to be sorry for".

Dorothy admires this decision and thinks he is a very good tiger - but the Tiger has the very opposite view. For him, this conscience is a handicap because while he is a "good beast", he is a "disgracefully bad tiger" - "for it is the nature of tigers to be cruel and ferocious", and thus in his refusal to eat harmless living creatures, the Hungry Tiger is considered shameful - which leads to the closest bit of backstory we'll ever have for him: in shame he left "the forest" and joined his friend the Cowardly Lion, another similarly disgraced beast.

Beyond that the appearance of the Tiger is quite frightening, as he is just as "huge" as the Cowardly Lion, and he is described with "two rows of terrible teeth and a mouth big enough to startle anyone". In fact his later interaction with Billina the hen displays his full character in just one dialogue: he comments that the hen looks delicious and makes his mouth water, greed in his eyes ; he ponders aloud that she would taste good if he crushed her between his teeth - before immediately reassuring the hen by saying he will not eat her because it "wouldn't be right", because it would only appease his appetite for a moment, so it "isn't worth to eat you". But after promising to remember not to eat her, he adds creepily "... But I'm a little absent-minded, at times".

# A last word about the soldiers of the group - actually what I suspected was right, the Tin Woodman leading the group is because the soldiers all answer to him - they are not Ozma's group but the Tin Woodman's (who is probably still ruler of the Winkies, or rather their Emperor). The Tin Woodman also explains his bizarre military logic (Baum liked some military jokes): the 27 are almost all officers, with 8 generals, 6 colonels, 7 majors, 5 captains... There is only one private that is for all the others to command. The Tin Woodman commands that he wants to promote the private because he believes (no private should ever be in public life", and he also noted that the officers usually "fight better and are more reliable than common soldiers" - plus "the officers are more important looking, and lend dignity to our army". Again, we see a trait clearly established of the Tin Woodman: his great vanity and his care for appearances.

(Though later we see his system completely fail, as the officers all prove to be cowardly and they use the chain of command to put all their duties and all the danger on the shoulders of the poor private).

# When Ozma holds a council to determine the plan of action to save the Ev royal family we learn a bit more about the whole situation.

We discover that Ozma came here because the "noble and illustrous Ruler of Oz" heard that the wife and ten children of the former King of Ev (Evoldo) have been enslaved by the Nome King, and so Ozma decided, as the benevolent soul that she is, to free them from their imprisonment. [As we latter learn, Ozma never knew about Evoldo actually selling his family away, she was under the mistaken idea the Nome King had taken them away]. Again, how does she know about Ev? Mystery. In fact this is Tik-Tok that informs her plainly that the Nome King has done no wrong due to the King selling his family - when Ozma learns it, she said that it is "news to her", and she says she thought the Nome King was "all to blame" - but it doesn't change her resolution to free the royal family, because in her words it is a "great wrong to imprison a queen mother and her ten children". She is so determined she decides to use a loophole in the Nome King's contract to justify her crusade: as the king's suicide means he did not get the long life the Nome King promised him, and so he must give up his prisoners as the deal is null.

Ozma also mentions that she knows of the Nome King, and here is her knowledge of the Nomes in general: they are "queerly shaped but powerful sprites" that labor at the furnaces and forges of their king to make gold, silver and other metals, that they then hid in the crevices of the rocks so that the living being of the surface can only find them with "great difficulty". They similarly create and hide gems and precious stones such as "diamonds, rubies and emeralds". She adds that the Nome King is the "Ruler of the Underground World" to her knowledge, commanding "the rocks and all that the rocks contain" - and that he is not fond of the surface-dwellers due to them "often stealing his treasures" (in fact Ozma here admits that the surface beings DO steal what belongs to the Nome King, without any shame) - and that this is why he never appears among other people, and to see King Roquat of the Rocks, on must go to his own country, where he is "all powerful" and thus very dangerous. Quite an impressive knowledge, though it keeps highlighting the "colonialist empire" mindset of Oz here, since we learn they steal proudly from resources that they recognize as not theirs.

But again, Ozma has a lack of knowledge concerning the Nome King - as it is Langwidere that informs her about how the Nome King turned the royal family into "ornaments and bric-a-brac to decorate his room" [How does she knows that? Is it something well-known by people of Ev?) ; and it is also Langwidere that tells Ozma about the Nome King living under a great mountain north of Ev.

# Ozma is even more ruthless when Langwidere declines the joining of the rescue mission, she literally says "We do not need you for, if with the aid of my brave followers I cannot accomplish my purpose, then it would be useless for you to undertake the journey". I mean... she is right, a rescue party with Langwidere would be doomed to fail, and Ev is in too poor of a stat to fight back - but still, she presents herself as an all-powerful hero here, rejecting the help of the people actually native from the place.

#We do get to learn about the origins of the magic carpet the group used to cross the desert: Ozma actually went to Glinda the Good to seek her help in rescuing the Ev royal family, and it is the witch who offered Ozma the magic carpet that unrolls itself between people's feet, making a "comfortable path to cross the desert".

Correction: while the soldiers do obey and answer to the Tin Woodman, they are actually from all over Oz, as I correctly suspected. Indeed, Ozma tasked the Tin Woodman to prepare an army for the rescue mission, and so the Tin Woodman chose "bold warriors" from the "finest soldiers of Oz".

# We do get another scene with the Hungry Tiger showing his character: after kindly asking the maid if he can eat her because she looks "delicious", and meeting a refusal, he yawns frightfully (the Hungry Tiger yawns a lot) and asks for his usual meal: thirty pounds of tenderloin steak, cooked rare, with a peck of boiled potatoes on the side and five gallons of ice-cream for dessert". [Yes, there are ice-creams in fairy lands]. The Hungry Tiger even mentions that the size of his appetite is propably too big for his body, as it fills it whole, "from the end of my throat to the tip of my tail".

# We actually do learn of the backstory of the Cowardly Lion in a thrown-away line: he was the ruler of the great forest as the "King of Beasts", just like in the end of book 1, but he only learned of Ozma's existence after her access to the throne, and upon hearing about her visit to the Land of Ev, he decided to go to the Emerald City to beg her to take him with her - and he brought his friend the Hungry Tiger too.

# Fun fact: the only private in the army is very proud of his situation because "it required so many officers to give him orders" that it means he must be quite important.

- - - - - -

Note: I am deeply sorry if some words are mis-written or missing letters. I tried to write directly into DA instead of writing in a Word document and copy-pasting... but DA is not a good place to write directly stuff as it bugs and removes letters randomly. If you see words mis-written please warn me in the comments so I can correct it, and next time I'll use Word first to avoid this inconvenience. NOTE 2: I think I corrected most of the mistakes and gosh there were plenty... I am never writing anything directly in DA's writing system again. Never. As you can see here, Baum clearly understood that after the success of the two first Oz books (and their musicals), he had to prepare the Oz world to become a continuous series, and so that is how he started to add new rules and change the nature of things - starting with this book, Oz turns into the magical status-quo fairyland we know from other books. In fact the changing of rules even contradicts previous things established in the original texts - here notably, the fact all animals gain the ability of speech in fairylands contradicts how Toto was still barking like a regular dog during his first trip in Oz (and later Baum adding the rule of people being unable to die in Oz contradicts the fact that people actually die in the first Oz books). And it is quite a paradox that Baum prepared the terrain to expand the Oz books into a series (while his first two books were self-contained stories), but at the same time he is clearly getting a bit bored of Oz and thus tries to have a story set in another land, with Oz itself being just a secondary location for the book. This will announce the trend of the two following books, who have the same formula of "Exploration of other magical lands, with Oz being the end goal when everyone "returns home". In fact, it is quite funny to note that Oz originally was for Dorothy the "land she must escape from to return home", but in the following books it becomes "the land she must reach to end her journey".

[lserver362reviews]

Previous review:

The amount that I could take off this score, because I don't think it's perfect (certain Gerwig-isms that grind my gears are present), are so slim that it really doesn't affect the overall 5 stars out of 5! This movie was made for me! I've been a Barbie-head for the majority of my life, and an existentialist. Phenomenal casting, music, set design, direction, and themes. I don't think this movie quite found equilibrium but the fact that it touched me and entertained the hell out of me is enough. I could go on and on but I won't! Ryan Gosling is a gift. This is the Maximalist film of the year (Elvis taking 2022's title)!! (& That's my doctor!)

Update:

This really is even better on a rewatch! Everything that hit me as off-putting or took me out of the first viewing went down easy on the second go. The feminist rant Gloria goes on to existential crisis stereotypical Barbie felt really natural and I appreciated how this is actually how people talk. It hit different for whatever reason, and this audience in the packed theater broke out in snaps for that part which surprised me. Maybe I was just being susceptible to the very thing they point out, which is that once you name something you can engage with it better. It doesn't make contradiction go away but it can shift your framework. I still teared up at the first sight of Ruth Handler, who in my first viewing I figured that was her, but I did wonder for a moment if, based sewing machine, it was Carol Spencer. I'm not sure why seeing Barbie interact with Ruth hits me so deeply but it really does. I first learned about Ruth and her daughter Barbara, and formally about Barbie, as an 8th grader for some social studies project. I hated projects and my teacher basically suggested that the conclusion of my project was that Barbie warped girls self-image. He didn't know he was talking to a day one Barbie defender. I think it hits me as the perfect reverence to motherhood, but also as reverence to having a creator (cue Nearer my God to Thee) to walk with. I think my existentialism will always fall to religious or spiritual thinking. What was also special about this viewing is that I went with my mom, which sometimes her reactions to things just crack me up. I'm glad she really really liked it and came away saying how it was funny and fun, but she did miss P.J. (her coveted doll) and Stacie. She also said that one doesn't have to be so serious about this film. (Sorry mom for the rest of this review!) The other day, after my first watch I tweeted, "It cannot be understated: the phenomenal job @lizzo's work on #BarbieTheMovie does to bring us into the world, to set the tone, to set us up for the story ahead. All the music was so well used (ty Mark Ronson) but the fact that it was Lizzo who brought me into it was everything." I still stand by this point and a second watch only made me notice more fantastic music cues and just how much Billie Eilish's What Was I Made For? is used. What a beautiful theme for this film. Once again I wear my undergrad philosophy hat by recognizing the Nietzschean "Yes" Barbie utters after grounding herself in feeling and thereby channeling her existence as a human. Barbie becomes the ubermensch. I really wish that I could teach a feminism and philosophy class with this as the primary text. I think there's also much of the messaging of the Wizard of Oz in that scene where Ruth Handler is a mix of The Wizard and the Good Witch Glinda, helping Barbie to realize that what she wants, and where she belongs, is deep within herself already. She's ready to leave a fantastical place because she loves her humanity and own soul that experiences all that makes life alive. It's very Dorothy Gale and a character that I'm deeply touched by. Barbie loves humanity, she wants to embrace her agency, just like all of us. In the wise words of FrankNFurter from the Rocky Horror Picture Show, "Don't dream it, be it" (or something more contemporary, Top Gun: Maverick, "don't think, just do"). Ken also learns that all he really needs is to decipher what he's feeling, communicate it, and know that he's (K)enough. Ryan Gosling really just knocked it all the way out of the park with this role. The Ken dance number on the sound stage makes me think of the way dance is used in Footloose and how a good dance in an abandoned warehouse can really clear the mind and heart. This is a deeply humanist film delivered to us in the most maximalist way. For that, I give Barbie the Maximalist Film of 2023 Award. This award is given in my head and past winners are Elvis (2022). To quote Harry Styles, "You know, my favorite thing about the movie is, like, it feels like a movie. It feels like a real, like, you know, 'go to the theater' film movie."

[sys-garden]

Here are some Gender bent Tintin designs! This was super fun to do since I love history and I love fashion so looking up the History of Fashion was just *chief’s kiss*  I also got to practice drawing from a reference without tracing and alot of these drawings came out really good and simliar to my refs (maybe you recongize what reference photos i was using!). Im Gonna explain the choices under the keep reading

 For anyone curious Tintin’s designn was based off roaring 20s fashion since tintin in the land of the soviets was published in 1929 and the most dated aspect of tintin’s orginal design is the plus fours pants that came into popularity in the 20s. Luckily the fashions of the 20s woman were perfect for the type of tintin i wanted, Boyish, free spirited and feminist. Tintin does strive for a respectful but practical look, showing that they are simultaneously the most polite and unhinged people to exist and neither misogyny or concusions will stop them from saving the day. The masculine aspect of the boyishness of 20s fashion shows that Tintin’s open mindedness and strive for change while also exploring gender as a lesbian since I ship haddotin and being sapphic gives you a interesting relationship to gender when so much of feminity is centered around men and your life isn’t centered on men. And the youthful aspect of the 20s fashion shows a carefree spirit and connects to how the youthfulness of tintin made him such a beloved character and relatable character for children despite being an adult. the exceptions to the 1920s fashion were the tintin inspired by tintin’s new 70s look in tintin and the picaros on the top right and the tintin to the left of it inspired by this one drawing herge made of tintin where he was wearing 1680s clothing.

For fem Haddock I didn’t deviate much from their original design because I wanted her to have a Butch and more mature energy which the mainstream fashions of the 30s and 20s didn’t have. When designing her I was inspired by lesbian director Dorothy Arzner, photos from lesbian bar Le monocle and a drawing for a lesbian focused issue of an old french magazine (I espeically took infleunce from the picture when designing haddocks’ formal wear)

For the side character I think Chang is the one I’m most proud of, they came out so cute, giving off a humble gracefulness that is true to chang’s character. I was inspired by 1930s women’s fashion in china, after the loser clothes of the 20s the 30s went back to clothes that huged the curves and showed off femininity a bit more and this applies to the qipao in china, when fashion trends pass and are replaced with something new they often are replaced with something that is the opposite of the trend they are replacing. So Chang’s more feminine tight fitting clothes are almost opposite of tintin’s boyish loose clothes and I love the opposite attracts look it creates between them. But Chang’s adventous spirit is still shown in the modernity of their clothes, the striped textile made easily possible by modern texile manufacturing techniques and the knitted cardigan combinding western aspects to a tradtional chinese outfit. It shows that although Chang is a bit more sentitive than tintin they share the same open mindness and taste for new experiences while visually telling a story of China history when it comes to modernity that was visible in the fashions of the Chinese women of the time.

For Abdullah I was inspired by the fashion and modesty expectations of Saudi Arabia since Khemed is suppose to border the red sea so I guessed by that and a panel in Tintin in the land of black gold that features a woman that Khemed was possibly based on Saudi Arabia. Girls don’t tradtionally start wearing modesty clothing until puberty But since some people do hit puberty at nine years old (like i did (isn’t it interesting that abdullah is one of the only characters with a spefic age he is 9 years old) I drew Abdullah in a Niqab and Abaya, Alot of Abayas are plain black but I added some simple geometric shapes to it to add a sense of nobility (hey this kid can afford patterns and other colors) without being ostentatious about being nobility. Abdullah is a very expressive character but the niqab covers most of the face I tried to show in body langauge and eyes that abdullah is a kid that will ruin your day and laugh about it. I don’t get to draw muslim characters alot so this was great practice for future character designs!

Men’s fashion isn’t as diverse as women’s fashion especially back then because toxic masculinity is like “men can’t have fun” but I decided to subvert that for Bianca’s design. Bianca’s design is probably the 3rd design i’m most proud of because I wasn’t even planning on doing it because I thought it would be boring. But I decided to look at the classic fit fitting with lose pant legs tuxedo’s of the 1930s and spice it up with color of Bianca’s classic dress and jewerlly. Even as a man Bianca would be dramatic and want to stand out from the crowd so while many men were turning to more simple clothes and still wearing boring colors Bianca would try flaunt wealth and personailty where ever they went.

You know how Caclulus’ design is basically just scientist Auguste Piccard? While for this design I decided to make their design basically just Marie Curie but with caclulus’ classic color scheme and trying to keep the shape of caclulus’ original shape. Caclulus’ original outfit doesn’t quite fit into the fashion of the time with being just a tad too formal and too bright. And the marie curie inspired dress does give this caclulus a vibe of being an eccentric older person as he did before, and the hairstyle also gives calculus a vibe of not only being too busy to care if their hair is out of place, but also not caring if other people think their hair is out of place or if other people think they dress weirdly. Calculus is smart, eccentric, unhinged, and free from social anxiety and I hope I communicated that with this design.

Nestor was simply inspired by a tradtional maid outfit with the added yellow stripes as seen on nestor’s orignial design. And their the only character I added makeup on because the simple eye and mouth design of most of the male characters made putting makeup on them feel weird. But since Nestor has this eye design that is hooded I felt comfortable adding black eyeshadow to the ensamble. 

Thompson and Thomson were difficult because I couldn’t look at female cops of the time to be inspired by because there were none. But I decided since this is before cops had uniforms so they just had to buy simple cheap clothes to wear on the job (such as a black suit) I wanted to go with a simple black and white outfit inspired by 1930s fashion. I also had to not make them too fashionable because I wanted them to have a older vibe to them and make it so they look really simliar but there is something keeping them apart. I decided on wide long collar, a belt for a more form fitting outfit, long skirts, bell shaped sleeves, a classic slouch hat and short wavy hair for aspects of 1930s fashion to intergate into their outfits and I made the dresses soild color as many afternoon dresses at the time where, making them acturate to the times but luckly the fashion trends did give them the mature vibe I wanted since 1930s fashion seemed to go mature and feminine where the 1920s were young and boyish. I decided to make the dominate color white instead of black because something in my character design brain was like “if thats way too much black in this outfit” but im still debating if that was a good choice. The things to tell these two apart is that one has glasses, the other doesnt and one has a curl at the ear the curls inward and the other one has a curl that curls outward...though I’m not sure which one I made thompson and which one is thomson

[sayaberry]

finished magireco s3 and while i liveblogged it on my twitter i tried to summarize my thoughts here if you didn’t want to scroll through that (spoilers under the cut obvs)

the good:

they actively fixed the hospital tiro backstory so it not only flows better (ex: instead of alina showing up randomly when ui was turning into a witch she showed up bc she was hunting down kyubey bc he kept info from her) but it actually makes more sense now

animation was solid as per usual

speaking of animation the new transformations? great

i liked how even after remembering the whole truth touka and nemu still went ahead with their plan in order to save ui/iroha specifically, i think this was more in character for them compared to in game where they stopped the entire plan once they remembered

the mifuyu scene was really well done and thematically perfect for her character, as she is based on the bird catcher from galactic railroad, so what better way to showcase that by her saving the “birds” (magical girls) she lured into her “net” (magius) by “turning them into candy” (purifying them/giving them hope)

the stuff with mitama as well was really good too

OH and the rena/kaede stuff was great i love how rena finally found the words to tell kaede what she means to her (only took 3 seasons lol)

SPIN OFF CAMEOS I ACTUALLY YELLED SEEING TART AND KAZUMI

kuroe’s witch design is cool

i liked the speech iroha had with her doppel about hope (although i do wish anime iroha had more of game iroha’s development carried over as its less impactful, i don’t think its bad which is why im putting it here but i think it could've been better if she had it tbh)

i got my karin cameo :)

“NEO DOROTHY MOTHERFUCKER”

i was so absolutely right about godoka cameo-ing wow

the bad:

kuroe im so fucking sorry but im also not very surprised you got done dirty for what was ultimately sub-par character development for iroha

no seriously why was kuroe even THERE?? was her character only there for this moment of angst for iroha?? if so then wowww

why is momoko dead. no actually why tho. mifuyu i understand that i saw coming from like s1 but momoko??? why

why did alina’s plan change. like what was the point

i cannot believe they went ahead and killed the hospital trio, like touka and nemu i get BUT also ui?? wow

they kept holy alina (well. kinda) but no magical artist ost my biggest F

homura gets so screwed over in the end like actually tho im making another post about this (edit: i made the post here)

the ???:

touka is just like that bc she doom scrolls on twitter too much, incredible writing decision

“I AM THE RAGE OF MAGICAL GIRLS” bby ur 12 with a god complex

i find it extremely funny how now every spin off has been acknowledged before different story (excluding comedy spin offs and wraith arc for obvs reasons) what kinda monkey paw bs is this

given the final shots of the show im assuming that the anime is supposed to be the ‘bad’ end while the game timeline is the ‘true/good’ end? if this was the intention then props to shaft for having the balls to try and execute it (prob couldve been done better considering all the jp fans i saw giving out magireco app download links LMAO)

what the hell is going on with iroha at the end of the series no actually tho (EDIT: NEARLY 2 MONTHS LATER HERE IT IS)

[eldritch-muppetshow]

so a while back some of my friends and i held a watch party for the muppets wizard of oz because i wanted to see if it really was as much of a trainwreck as a lot of people say it is. here is me finally documenting my thoughts

- the r&b opening number has made a home in my brain and will live there forever because i had to listen to it repeatedly when i was trying to get the movie set up

- this movie is weirdly horny for a muppets production. and i know the muppets have made plenty of risqué jokes before, but it was pretty uncomfortable to experience in this adaptation of a children’s story

- miss piggy plays all three witches, which could be funny but the movie takes this plot point weirdly seriously and it never really makes any jokes about it

- there’s a moment where dorothy has to carry toto (played by pepe instead of a muppet dog, he’s not even dressed up like a dog he’s just pepe), but ig his puppet is p fragile because dorothy carries him like (to paraphrase my thoughts on the matter) “he’s delicate groceries instead of her beloved pet”

- gonzo/tin thing is the best part of this movie, because he’s gonzo and he’s got a pretty cool puppet design

- this movie features its own original music instead of anything from more popular oz adaptations, but the only two i can remember are “the witch is in the house” (because it’s the catchiest song in the movie, fight me on this) and the opening song

- there’s a scene where johnny fiama and sal are supposed to be parodying apathetic film directors but (because they’re trying to film dorothy getting her feet cut off for the slippers) accidentally come across like they’re making a snuff film. what made this even more awkward is that this was at least one of my friends’ introduction to them as characters.

- a crowd of muppets beats up/tramples scooter for no good reason

- the poppy fields are replaced by a nightclub that serves drugs. i’m only barely exaggerating for comedic effect

- there’s a cameo from quentin tarantino that comes right the fuck out of nowhere and implies that this movie is all an in-universe movie pitch. it never comes up again.

- tbh the most fun i had while watching this movie was playing “spot the obscure/rarely-used muppet”

- oh i almost forgot the part where kermit and gonzo get dismembered. they’re fine because they’re the scarecrow and the tin man, but it was horrifying to watch even when i knew to expect it

[kosmikowboj]

somehow managed to finish the first prompt for @spnprideweek before the day was over! I wish this could’ve been longer but alas, I have awful time management. it was still fun to write tho--it’s my first time ever writing Mary’s character, let alone from her POV, and I had a good time :,)

day 1: coming out / flags

friends of dorothy

[read on AO3; word count: 900ish]

Mary didn’t expect things to be how she had left them. 

She couldn’t, not when she had been gone so long—decades, written clearly in the lines creasing her child’s face. Soft cheeks she had once pinched between her fingers had solidified into a square jaw, completed by a half-frown set stubbornly into a five o-clock shadow. One of the first things she’d noticed was how little Dean seems to smile now, softening only in the presence of the Biblical angel that has apparently taken root in their bunker. Sam and Dean had seemed to think that would be the part that threw her off the most—the angel named Castiel who lives with them and likes to critique the Food Network—but if she lets her mind go enough, that part makes the most sense. She knows what a life of hunting does to someone, and she also knows how much it means to have someone to hunt with.

Looking at the designer bags under Dean’s eyes, she can only hope Castiel is a better “with” than John was.  

The eyes shift as Dean casts an uneasy glance in her direction, swallowing, and it’s then Mary realizes she’s been blatantly scrutinizing him for the past several minutes. 

“Take a picture,” he says. “It’ll last longer.”

She sighs, swinging her gaze to look back out the window. On the insistence of Castiel, she’s accompanying Dean to the grocery store, and awkward silence has marked the entirety of their journey thus far. It doesn’t help that she knows she wasn't Dean’s first choice of company; he had wanted to take the angel, to no one’s surprise, but Castiel had insisted he spend some time with his mother to “work things out.” Then he had handed Dean a post-it note that simply read “macaroni with cheese.”

“Look, De—Dean,” she corrects, wincing internally, “when I last saw you, you were four years old and had pigtails. I need some time to adjust.” 

“You can adjust without starin’ at me like I’m a two-headed cow.”

“I’m not—”

“You are.” 

Mary lets out a dramatic huff and turns back towards Dean, who is staring pointedly at the road. “Can you give me at least a little credit? It’s not like I’m not trying. Between the angel in your TV room and the fact that the 80s are long over, I’ve just been dealing with a lot.”

Dean lets out a slow, heavy sigh, guiding the car through a turn before finally saying, “I know, mom. I know.”

The awkward silence settles again, thick and stifling over the leather upholstery. It almost feels like it could stick, and Mary searches desperately for something to bond over, a sliver of anything that would make this easier. She worries a particular thought back and forth before deciding to chance it, breaking the stillness again.

“Can I ask a different question?”

Dean looks at her warily.

“Go ahead.”

“Are you a homosexual? Is that related at all?”

Dean chokes on his own spit, face going bright red as he struggles to get his breathing under control. As the hacking ebbs, he manages to rasp, “What?”

“You and Castiel. I figured there must be...something.”

“He’s just a friend, ma,” Dean chuckles out half-heartedly, but Mary clocks him immediately. She knows she doesn’t have particularly sharp mothering instincts—she never did, and with her kids suddenly in their late thirties she’s even more out of her depth—but there’s something in the careful lilt of his voice that gives him away even to her.

“Cheryl a few houses down was ‘just a friend,’ too,” she muses, watching as the trees outside fall away and are replaced with fields. The soft, strangled sound next to her makes it clear the implication isn’t lost on Dean, and she turns her gaze back to him. “It’s difficult for me, to understand. To have died with a daughter and be resurrected with a son. But what’s even more difficult for me to understand is how you could possibly think ‘just friends’ look at each other like that.”

“I’m not sure I like this line of interrogation much better,” Dean mutters, cheeks flushing. “So, what, you’re a lesbian?”

Mary laughs at that, shaking her head. “I see you get your tact from me. Or lack thereof.”

“You brought it up.”

“You’re trying to change the subject.” Beat. “I don’t know. I did really like Cheryl. More than I ever…” Mary swallows, looking down at her lap where she’s fidgeting with the fabric of her shirt. “It was complicated. I did like your father, of course I did, but—what I wanted, what I really wanted, didn’t exactly matter then.”

“It should’ve,” Dean says. “Matters now.”

Mary looks up at him, slightly stupified by the simplicity in his words, and smiles. “I suppose it does, doesn’t it? Well, I’ll tell you what: I’ll ask out a girl when you ask out your angel.” “Not happening,” he replies instantly, but there’s something about the relief in his shoulders that tells her he’s lying. 

“Look, if I can somehow flirt my way up someone’s skirt before—”

“Aaand this conversation is over. Not talking about this with my mom.”

Mary laughs again. “I suppose at least some things stay the same. Though change...can be good too.” 

For the first time since her return, Dean turns that soft smile on Mary. 

“I can’t argue with that.”

[judedeluca]

Jude’s 2021 Birthday Wishlist

Since I officially consider the Christmas season has begun as of two days ago, that means I’m getting my birthday wishlist up NOW.

This as you’ll see is the normal wishlist for anyone who wants to write or draw me anything. You might notice this time around it’s more heavy on magical girl related stuff.

This is just stuff and concepts for general character related stuff. I cheated a bit by throwing in a couple of teams to cover the overall idea, but if there’s a specific character in the line-up I’m fond of I highlight that.

This was generally another bad year for me (for all of us really) considering my mom’s cancer diagnosis and the frustrations with the house repairs, so I’m trying to make up for how badly my last birthday went.

This includes art and commissions done by @empty-b, @nanigram, @dklem, @stardustrobin​, Sarah Olekysk, @duckydrawsart​, peskyshortcake, Marco Rudy, and theeyzmaster

My list for options if anyone wants to indulge my WG/BBM kink is here

The Arsenal Family – Consisting of Roy and Lian Harper, and the addition of Lian’s half baby-brother Tommy Blake Jr. The idea DC wasn’t bold enough to implement because they’d rather have Roy on drugs and Lian calling herself “Shoes.”

The time and setting doesn’t really need to matter, so long as Roy’s explicitly back to honoring his Navajo upbringing with either the Rick Mays design costume, or Outsiders design with the arm tattoo included. Him being a fat dad would also be a welcome bonus.

Alternatively, Will “Red Arrow” Harper and Lian from Young Justice are just as good. Especially if it involves Roy and Jim and Bowhunter Security.

Axem Rangers - Villains from a video game I never played, but they’re a Power Rangers parody in a Mario game so why not?

The Axem Rangers are villains from the first Mario RPG game released for the Super Nintendo. They prove to be another obstacle in Mario’s quest to locate the seven stars, and are proud of the evil they commit.

You can tell the pink one’s female because of her eyelashes. Because as we all know, only women have eyelashes.

Berzerker – From X-Men Evolution, Ray Crisp was one of my original childhood faves and I’ve long been disappointed the design wasn’t incorporated into the mainstream Marvel comics in favor of the original from X-Factor.

Big Bertha - What started out as an obnoxious giant fish morphed into the beautiful Big Bertha. Clad in red spikes and taking no one’s shit, Bertha practically stole the Mario Bros. movie when she literally stole the plot MacGuffin and dared the plumber brothers to come get it.

Because she CAN.

If Mario could appreciate Bertha’s beauty and strength, the rest of you have no excuse.

Coagula and Dorothy Spinner – From the Doom Patrol, Kate Godwin is quite possibly one of the first transgender superheroes in American comics. She has the power to coagulate and dissolve objects. Dorothy Spinner is a young woman with the face of a monkey and the power to bring her imaginary friends to life. Kate looked after Dorothy like an older sister, something she desperately needed due to her lack of a happy home life.

Duela Dent the Joker’s Daughter and Enigma the Riddler’s Daughter – 

DO NOT, and I mean DO NOT think I mean the New 52 Joker’s Daughter. Unless it involves the real Duela beating the shit out of her.

Duela Dent was my original favorite Titan and she will always be in my heart sharing the #1 spot with Roy. My favorite outfit for Duela would have to be the design given to her by Tony Daniel in Teen Titans just before she was killed off.

Enigma was introduced decades later as a separate character after Duela once called herself “Riddler’s Daughter.” The two were briefly Titans together before later joining Titans East to help Deathstroke.

While Duela’s backstory was eventually resolved, we’ve no clue if Enigma truly was the daughter of the Riddler before she was erased by Flashpoint.

Together or separate I’d love to see either of them.

Edson - If things had gone differently, instead of a game about a bear and a bird we would’ve had a game about a boy and a bunch of pirates.

The game that became “Banjo-Kazooie” was originally “Dream: Land of Giants.” Infamous among BK fans as “Project Dream,” infamous came out in recent years on “Dream’s” development and Edson’s role as the protagonist.

Fisherman and Skipper - Alan Moore’s parodies of Green Arrow and Speedy from his attempt to say “sorry” about the damage caused by Watchmen and the Killing Joke.

They seem to have a healthier relationship than GA and Roy had, but then again Skipper became a lawyer so make of that what you will. 

Folklore of Zero – Introduced late in the Magia Record game. A mysterious faction who believe it’s a waste of time for magical girls to defy their eventual fate of becoming witches. Led by Rabi Himuro, the members we’ve seen have infiltrated the other magical girl groups such as the Neo Magius, Tokime Clan, and Promised Blood.

The members of this faction originated from a city where magical girls were viewed as monsters, which only got worse when their connection to the witches was revealed.

The group includes Rabi Himuro, Asahi Miura, Ulala Yume, and Alexandra Kurusu. Nayuta Satomi and Mikage Yakumo are unofficially connected with them since Rabi is Nayuta’s housemaid. Their profiles are available on the Madoka Magica wiki as well as TV Tropes

Below in order: Asahi, Alexandra, Nayuta, and Mikage

So far they have the least amount of info available out of the groups in Magia Record, so I’d be interested in art or fiction of any of them… EXCEPT for Rabi Himuro because I have no idea what the hell is going on with that costume and unless she’s actually indigenous or Native American I don’t want to support her.

If I had to pick I’d go with Ulala because she uses a yo-yo and I am a Sukeban Deka fan.

Gin Genie and Saint Anna – Deceased members of the revamped version of X-Force. G.G. was “blessed” with the mutant ability to create seismic activity depending on her blood alcohol levels. Essentially she creates earthquakes depending on how drunk she is. Her powers are Legion-level ridiculous and she unfortunately died after one issue.

Saint Anna on the other hand had healing powers and mild telepathy. More grounded and rational than her teammates, she only lasted a couple of issues before she also died.

These two never interacted with one another, but since Krakoa’s bringing back so many mutants than anything’s possible.

Girl Detective Club – A trio of private school students consisting of Shizuka (the younger loud one), Yuriko (the ditzy middle one) and Midori (the older rich girl), these were the protagonists of an obscure manga and a bizarre OVA.

Greta Gibson – A rich model-in-training and one of Alice Johnson’s new friends, Greta’s a kindhearted woman who sticks by her friends and deals with a lot of nonsense from her domineering mother. Unfortunately Greta’s the second to die when Freddy Krueger returns to haunt the dreams of Spingwood’s teenagers.

Greta and her actress Erika Anderson were one of the inspirations for my character Erika Dent, so Greta will always have a special place in my heart.

Hypnotia – From the 90s Iron Man animated series, a villainess who was created as a stand-in for the Enchantress since the show couldn’t use anyone Thor-related. Had Hypnotia received proper attention she might’ve possibly been another villainess on par with Harley Quinn. She practically stole every episode she’d been in.

Ichika Tachibana – The protagonist of the obscure magical girl series Uta Kata, Ichika’s a young woman blessed with the power of twelve elemental spirits but unaware she’s secretly being tasked with the possibility of granting humanity’s destruction.

Ichika’s outfits are each kind of… like that, unfortunately, though I express a bit of fondness for either the costumes granted through the powers of the Flower Djinn or the Sea Djinn.

Iolanthe (Katie) - One of the MANY Xavier Institute students who get sent to Hell following House of M, Katie appeared alongside several other kids in a story about Beast trying to be a guidance counselor.

Katie frequently argued with her roommate Anne, who kept accusing her of trying to ruin her life.

Jordie “The Human Computer” Flanders – The smartest girl in Graveyard School with an incredibly biting wit and tendency to speak in equations.

She’s also got a rather warped sense of humor, at least by the standards of her classmates. She took it upon herself to investigate the strange things going on at Vampire Park.

For Legion fans it’d be easier to say she’s Graveyard School’s answer to Brainiac 5

The Kageyama Sisters – Of the original Yu-Gi-Oh anime by Toei. Risa Kageyama and her triplets are infamous among the Duel Monsters community because of their willingness to do anything possible to attain rare cards. Their deck is built around the Hecate Sisters, and they only need the Violet Hecate card to complete the collection and form the powerful Gorgon card. When Risa learned Yugi Muto found the card, she pretended to be in love with him to get her hands on Violet Hecate.

The Kageyama Sisters had the rare fortune of recognizing Yugi’s Millennium Puzzle is important to him, and made sure he couldn’t use it when they dueled for Violet Hecate. Had Kaiba not taken over the duel, Risa and her sisters might’ve been the first to beat Yugi.

The Legion Founders – Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad are the founders and original members of the Legion of Super-Heroes from the day they saved the life of R.J. Brande.

My preferred forms are the originals/Retroboot adults or the cartoon founders. Bendis!boot is not recognized as valid. In regards to the Retroboot, I’m fond of the idea of disaster Cosmic Boy living with the Ardeen-Ranzz Family, with Garth cheerfully dealing with his twin boys Graym and Garridan AND with Rokk and Imra running themselves ragged.

If not all three, then Garth and Imra would be just as good.

As always, fat!Garth is appreciated in either setting.

Nanny and Orphan-Maker – A duo of bizarre mutants who’ve taken it upon themselves to kidnap mutant children from their human parents, assuming they’d be safer and better off instead of being raised by abusive normies.

Like something out of a fairy tale, Nanny’s deceptively oddball design belies a dangerous, obsessed woman who genuinely believes she’s doing these children a favor. Meanwhile, Peter the Orphan-Maker has a mutant power so dangerous he needs to be sealed inside his armor and never had a chance at normalcy thanks to the machinations of Mr. Sinister and his “beloved” Nanny.

Nightbird – Or Night-Gwen, if you’d prefer. From the recent “Heroes Reborn” event, she’s Gwen Stacy who never dated Peter Parker. She instead went on to become a competent, compassionate psychiatrist and a costumed heroine inspired by Nighthawk.

Channeling Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon, this version of Gwen also spoke a rather poignant piece of advice. Treat others how THEY want to be treated, not how YOU want to be treated.

Payback of the True Believers – Mavis Trent fights crime with a symbiotic entity said to be a cousin to the likes of Venom, Carnage, and Toxin. Whereas other symbiotes feed off negative emotions, the Payback symbiote feeds off positive ones such as bliss.

In spite of the heavy emphasis on the symbiote characters lately, Payback’s only recent appearance was on a variant cover.

Princess Quake – Introduced during the JOKERS arc of Magical Girl Raising Project. A college student and a member of the magical girl team known as the Pure Elementals. Representing Earth, her weapon is a giant hammer capable of causing earthquakes.

No she’s not tiny, that’s just the style when characters are introduced in the introduction of the light novels.

Quake is especially fond of children but is constantly worried about her desire to protect them being taken the wrong way. As someone who also has a hard time worrying about the line between “endearing” and “creepy,” I get her on a deep level.

Wow did I completely jump the gun with her. I should’ve waited until I read more of her. Yikes.

Purple Tigress – A Golden Age heroine who only made two infamous appearances before vanishing into the ether.

She was rather notable for the fact that no one could figure out her secret identity despite her not wearing a mask. It should also be noted that she was named after an insect and not an actual tiger.

Rainbow Girl – A Legion of Super-Heroes reject who later joined the Substitute Heroes. Dori Aandraison can tap into the Emotional Spectrum, but she can’t control what she taps into and thus suffers from severe mood swings.

Dori was my original favorite of the Legion Rejects, and for as much as I loathe Geoff Johns, he IS the one who brought her to the forefront as a new member of the Subs.

Sailor Jupiter and/or Sailor Saturn – Makoto Kino’s long been my default favorite of the Sailor Senshi, and after her is Hotaru due to us both being Capricorns.

My love for them doesn’t require much to be said, but they sadly didn’t interact much in either series even Makoto seems like the just the type to nurture and support someone like Hotaru.

S.P.F. - Of the J-Team from Rainbow Rowell’s Runaways, Ashely Pearson could channel and harness solar energy. As a member of the J-Team in the 90s, that meant she had an especially... THAT costume. Yet I find the design strangely endearing because it was created by someone with actual talent.

Sweet Sue – From the original Goosebumps series. Part of the Shock Street roster of monsters, freaks, and ghouls, Sweet Sue appears to be a lovable doll but she’s really a serial killer from the planet Mars.

We’re still unsure if she was serial killer before or after she arrived on Earth. Since she pretends to be a toy, I’ve always figured she’d work best in a Christmas setting.

Team Forte – A team of musically-thematic magical girls who’re also a band, they consist of Forte Lead, Forte Drums, Forte Keys, and Forte Bass. Historically they kept getting the lowest votes in the Sleepless Domain character polls, which I call bull honkey on.

Have you not SEEN Forte Drums? She is the CUTE ONE. The cute one WITH THE BOWTIE. I’d be interested in any art or fics about them, but if I had to pick someone I’d go with Forte Drums.

Tiara – A darker magical girl from the 90s series Shamanic Princess, she is an envoy dispatched from the Guardian World to retrieve the powerful Throne of Yord.

However, Tiara’s mission becomes increasingly murky when she discovers the reason behind the Throne’s theft. Tiara is headstrong, cocky, powerful, and ultimately a good-natured woman who wants to do the right thing.

In any other magical girl series, you’d expect Tiara to be a villain due to how positively demonic her superpowered form is.

Wakaba Shinohara – She must be protected at all costs. Utena Tenjou’s best friend and the reason she’s not a footnote in anime history.

A girl who wants to be special but has no idea how special she truly us, granting us the most emotionally taxing duel out of the entire Black Rose Arc. Despite being the normal best friend, she remains in the show right up to the end and sees her personal storyline getting a conclusion.

She also provides a pivotal role to the conclusion of the movie. The one person she ranks beneath is Tomoyo Daidouji.

Watermelon Tourmaline - A Gem fusion of two different kinds of Tourmaline, she was one of the early Gem monsters encountered during the early episodes of Steven Universe. She later appeared as a reoccurring extra in Steven Universe Future but had no speaking lines.

The pink and green design intrigues me and I’ve grown rather interested in the symbolism behind the actual watermelon tourmaline gem.

[keiko1183]

GW Dinner Show @Gundam Cafe’ Tokyo

So last night I attended the event and it was super fun!

The event heads up here at the official website

Super long post,so...

Ok first, I was so pumped for this I choose a dress that reminds me the space and did some Relena-like hair style (though I’m not the hugest fan)

I reached Akihabara ahead of time to wander around a bit. Nothing new even if it was a while since the last time I went there (just covid- depression all around!)Then finally I met with my friend and we moved to the Cafe’.

First we had a stroll in the merchandise store but I was strong and didn’t buy anything (yet)

As you enter, they give you a face shield. It really makes it hard to eat, drink and look around you during the event, but hey, these are Covid times it can’t be helped!(You can also pay an extra fee and bring it home if you want, otherwise it will be disposed at the end of the event)

Upon entrance of restaurant area there is a display of the event related goods.

You can’t take pictures and videos inside, but basically there are a bunch of tables in front of a small stage with full screen wall.

It was Tuesday night so not too crowded, maybe around 20~30 people in total. You reserve in advance a set menu with appetizer and a main dish. There are 2 options available: Heero &Wufei team’s menu or Trowa and Duo’s team menu. Luckily there were 2 of us so me and my friend had one each (I got Heero&Wufei’s). The dinner show was from 18:30 to 20 ,1.30 hours total.

The show is an interactive one with animated characters from GW series and one real actor playing the show host’s role. Animation is more like Otome game graphics, the characters just show up one by one and only move their eyes and mouth, there is a preview video that shows it better.

As you reach your seat, the animation starts and Relena welcomes the audience as we were guests at this party night she arranged at St Gabriel’s academy. She is hosting this dinner event along with the real host guy which also shows up on the stage and introduces himself. 

The welcome drink tea is served and you get your first coaster as a gift. It comes in an envelope so you can’t choose your fav character’s coaster,it comes randomly.

I opened mine and I got Trowa’s one (how lucky!!),while my friend got Quatre’s. And because she is so kind and she knows how much I like him, she gave it to me! My 3x4 heart is fulfilled! 

If you order any additional drink on the menu, you can get another random coaster. I ordered Quatre’s drink, yeah again because I like him but also the drink looked delicious: mango,grapefruits and orange juice mix. As a coaster, I got Wufei’s one.

Anyway in the coaster’s envelope you might additionally find a Win ticket. What do you win, it will be explained later. Anyway me & friend didn’t get it.

Next showing up are Quatre and Duo,then Trowa,Wufei and Heero. They all are at the party because there is a secret mission for them (plus Quatre was the only one officially invited at the event, because he is an aristocratic brat eheh)

After some reunion chats - and Trowa bullying Heero because tank top and shorts are not an outfit for a party- Relena,who appearently knows nothing about the mission, asks them to cook for the audience.

They decide to split into 2 teams (Heero&Wufei,Trowa&Duo with Quatre supporting both teams here and there) and have a cooking contest to decide who can cook the most delicious and original dish.

It follows a real funny narration of the two teams wondering what to cook and asking advices to Quatre. We can see Heero sneaking inside Trowa and Duo’s kitchen for a second, pretending no one’s seeing him. Duo actually kind of notices but decides not to argue. Meanwhile the appetizer is served to us: a dish designed by Relena dedicated to the 5 pilots.

After that, there is a digest sequence of images from Anime and OAVs, recapping to the audience the original story from each pilot point of view and also including a short heads up on the main female characters (Relena,Lady Une,Noin,Dorothy,Catherine,Hilde)

Following, main dishes are served and each team does a short presentation of it, explaining the small references - such as the soup in Trowa’s team dish is inspired by her sister’s soup and so on.

Quatre points out how both teams used peppers and that makes Duo realizes what Heero was doing in their kitchen: stealing ingredients! Heero plays dumb on this one.

It follows public interaction where we decide who’s the winner by clapping hands. Winner yesterday was Trowa and Duo’s team, and the 2 of them have a short speech to thank the audience (I guess you could see also Heero and Wufei’s one if audience response is different)

But there isn’t time to relax, at this point the mission details are revealed: according to the pilot’s resources, someone attending the party is there to kill Relena. “Someone” means literally anyone can be addressed, so the guys start accusing each other of being a potential killer and..(surprise surprise) Heero punches Duo and send him K.O.

At this point the host guy (the real actor) super suspiciously offers Heero a special soup to congratulate him for stopping the killer. Heero accepts and drink it, but nothing happens...the host was expecting him to be poisoned.

However Wufei swapped the poisoned soup with a normal one while everyone was distracted looking at how Duo gets punched. So we discover that there is a sort of “clone” of the host guy who trapped the (poor) true host guy somewhere and approached the party to try to get Relena killed.

Trowa cuts down the light and the entire restaurant falls into the dark, pilots voices ask us to use any available light (like your phone’s) and point it to the killer to block him. After the guy is caught, lights back on and the true nice host guy comes back - while Duo complains it wasn’t necessary of him getting punched again.

The final part is (personal opinion) pure fan service: Relena now understands why the 5 guys all were there and feels relived her host guy is also back, however she wonders how they did caught such information. The guys explain they got it sneaking in some different schools. This is were Relena asks them to change to school uniforms to show us around.

The host guy explains us we are allowed to take pictures of the guys as they change into uniforms. As soon as the guys appear on the screen, we got our chance. It’s time for final greetings. We can only receive farewell from 2 pilots out of 5,so the choice is up to the 2 people who got the win ticket in the coaster envelope. 

Our winners of the day choose Wufei and Duo, therefore we saw their greetings (I guess you can see others if you go on a different date)

This ended the show, but we all were thrilled by it!

Sad note: I promised myself to behave and don’t buy the goods except this bottle. 

However I found out too late that this is available only at the cafeteria next by the restaurant, which was already closed by the time the show ended. I must go back and get it!!!