#ein the data dog

[rayz-gamma]

(COWBOY BEBOP × RICK AND MORTY) art by @nso_cartoons

[spike-and-faye]

[wordsandrobots]

Huh. Actually -- since I'm stuff home sick and my brain refuses to shut up and let me sleep -- apropos of reblogging @superhelltubedotsys' post citing Barbatos Lupus Rex's status as a werewolf Gundam, I'm now thinking about the significance that has within Iron-Blooded Orphans (some spoilers follow).

Because Barbatos the demon has no association with wolves in the Ars Goetia. The nearest applicable part is "He giveth understanding of the singing of Birds, and of the Voices of other creatures, such as the barking of Dogs", which is fitting for Mikazuki and plays into the comparison between mobile armour Hashmal and a bird, but pointedly does not imply 'appears as a giant fuck-off wolf monster with a knife-tail'. That description would seem more appropriately applied to Amon, the immediately prior demon, number seven: "He appeareth like a Wolf with a Serpent’s tail, vomiting out of his mouth flames of fire . . ."

But of course, Gundam Barbatos' steady revision towards the Lupus Rex form is a drift away from its initial design. Exactly how much influence the Ars Goetia descriptions had on the Gundam project and how much they were just used as a naming convention is a little up in the air. Some do seem to be applicable (Zagan being a 'bull with gryphon wings', Flauros switching between the forms of a leopard and a man, etc.). Others . . . well, Bael is supposed to appear as either a toad, a cat, or a man, or all three at once, and while that has some applicability to McGillis' whole deal, it's not really a match for Gundam Bael's angelic form. Nor do the Gundam's abilities evoke demon!Bael's power to render someone invisible. However, I think we can safely conclude that, in-universe at least, the goetic demons are only pertinent to the Gundams' initial appearances and capabilities.

Barbatos' revisions throughout Season 1 are instead a gradual cannibalisation of various different sources of technology and weapons to get it back into fighting shape (Teiwaz technically restores it to its original appearance, but that doesn't last past the Dort arc; thereafter, we're back to bolting on any spare armour going). Barbatos Lupus then represents a significant step towards redefining it in line with the Chief's goal of creating an 'ultimate' version based on Mika's battle data, with Barbatos Lupus Rex being the end-point for that progression.

Put simply, Barbatos gradually becomes more and more tailored to Mikazuki, specifically. To digress for a moment, this forms a big part of my reasoning that Mika being able to use the katana properly at the climax of Season 1 represents the influence of Barbatos' original pilot; after this, he ditches that kind of weapon entirely. Even while fighting Hashmal, he reaches for the biggest club available (technically, a broad-sword, but so ridiculously huge nobody could call it a precision weapon). It's another interesting detail that Mika can't beat Ein in their final face-off by fighting like himself, which comes back around again as the back half of Season 2 kicks into gear.

Anyway, my point is this: being a werewolf is not inherently part of Barbatos' deal. Rather it represents Mikazuki's growing influence -- as you might thematically expect for a union with a character named after the moon (crescent moon, specifically, though I can't imagine the association wasn't intended given Tekkadan are wolf-coded in the text). And that's fascinating because as I've written about before, Barbatos and Mikazuki are the most blatant example of a devil's bargain in the show. The kid literally sells and arm and a leg (and an eye) for the power Barbatos can give him. And yet, the bestial aspects Barbatos takes on are rooted in Mika.

There's an echo of Gundam Wing's 'Gundams are a curse' refrain in IBO. These machines bring bad luck to everyone who pilots them, as a function of representing humanity subsumed by war. The inherent gamble of the Alaya-Vijnana, the overwhelming nature of the conflict they were built to end, the fact Gundams are never sufficient on their own to change the world -- it forms an unspoken counter-argument to McGillis' zealous faith in their status as symbols of transformation that is actually very in keeping with the demonological tradition from which they take their names. What they offer is costly and potentially damning, while also largely illusory when it comes to anything other than utter destruction. Indeed, Mikazuki is a living testament to how 'cursed' their pilots are.

It just happens that he was able to curse Barbatos back.

Because that's what Barbatos Lupus Rex is, isn't it? Put side by side with its original form, this is a clear degradation of a proud warrior into a savage beast. The same design elements persist, of course, yet by the end, it's near impossible to picture Barbatos as an elegant fighter making precision strikes with a honed sword. It has become a true berserker, tearing into its opponents with teeth and claws (well, claws and knife tail). As Tekkadan in general tend to, Mikazuki strips away the affectations of nobility and 'honourable' warfare in favour of brutal reality.

The detail of the Lupus Rex form merging parts of a mobile armour into a Gundam only heightens this. Weapons are weapons, whoever they serve and whatever guise they wear. Mikazuki is always honest about that. His awed response to Hashmal is of a piece with how easily he fits within Barbatos. He sees himself as equivalent to them -- has, in fact, constructed his entire identity around being so.

Thus, the lycanthropy he inflicts on Barbatos is of a kind that merely reveals the truth lurking under the skin. It was always an instrument of devastation. Now it looks the part.

[jetspikepub]

Early concepts of episodes from Bounty Hunter's Steel edition artbook

I copied the text from that unboxing video. The old story seems a bit different and somewhat darker than the final version. For example, Ed's father was a criminal, and Vicious planned to kill Jet with the hands of his former co-worker. Toys in the Attic episode originally had "the floor is lava" idea with infected insects. Many concepts made it to the show but in another form.

#1 “Asteroid Blues”

Episode where Spike and Jet are introduced and play active roles.

The setting is Tijuana, a Mexico-like asteroid.

A bounty named Asimov stole and ran off with illegal eye drops, and now he’s on the run with his woman Katerina. Spike pursues them, but the effect of the eye drops makes things difficult. But at the same time, this proves fatal to Asimov.

#2 “Stray Dog Strut”

Confrontation with Hakim, a martial artist and serial pet thief bounty. Men from a secret animal research lab also show up.

A Martian Chinatown is the setting.

The dog he stole is actually a highly intelligent data dog.

#3 “Honky Tonk Women”

Faye’s introductory episode.

Suffering from money troubles, Spike and crew encounter Faye at a casino.

She’s a bounty, but she unexpectedly ends up running about with them.

The money card she stole from the casino is counterfeit electronic money. In the end, Faye runs off with the reward money for her own bounty.

#4 “Gateway Shuffle”

Faye blows through the money, then comes back. She tells Spike and Jet to let her join them, but she winds up getting in their way.

An episode about the terrorist Twinkle and her virus bomb.

A battle within a Gate (hyperspace). Twinkle disperses bombs at the Gate.

She’s an environmental protection terrorist, and she utilizes a virus that only harms humans.

#5 “Ballad of Fallen Angels”

A Vicious episode. It shows just a little of Spike’s past.

A bounty is placed on Mao, Spike’s teacher from his gangster days. But he’s already been killed, and it’s all a trap.

Spike is caught in the trap, and he and Vicious have a fateful confrontation.

#6 “Sympathy for the Devil”

Wen, a boy who plays the blues harp. His actual age is 58. Due to the effect of the Gate accident, he’s stopped aging and his body won’t die.

Spike and crew show up in pursuit of another bounty, Giraffe, but Giraffe gets killed. Then when Spike learns of Wen’s dreadful purpose, he gets shot.

#7 “An episode like The Wages of Fear” – mecha episode

#8 Waltz for Venus

A story in the Venusian desert.

Spike and crew capture some hijacker bounties.

That’s when Spike meets a punk named Roco, for whom he feels an odd sense of friendship. But there’s a bounty oh his head. He had stolen gems for the sake of his blind sister Stella.

#9 Jamming with Edward

Ed’s introductory episode. A hacker stroty. We see Earth for the first time.

A story about Domino, a man controlling an electronic religion from the shadows. Somewhat comedic.

The adherents have wound up as mummies (?).

#10 “Boogie Woogie Feng Shui”

A story about a Universal Feng Shui master.

A chance encounter leads Jet to accept a request from the girl Mei to search for the legendary Feng Shui master Jicca Pacca.

But he turns out to be Pao, Mei’s father who was supposedly dead.

#11 “Mushroom Samba” – comedy

The Bebop pursues a hit-and-run ship to a frontier asteroid. There, Ed and Ein get their hands on some mysterious mushrooms.

But when Spike and the others eat the mushrooms, they start acting funny.

On that world, a bounty named Chingensai was growing illegal mushrooms.

#12 “My Funny Valentine (Part 1)”

A story about the androgynous Gren, as well as Spike’s and Vicious’ past.

Information about Julia comes is. The Bebop crew splits up. Two stories progress simultaneously, and they become one at the end.

Faye meets Gren. But he has bounty on his head.

#13 “My Funny Valentine (Part 2)”

The conclusion of the previous story.

As a lead-in to the second half of the series, the artificial eye comes up.

There’s apparently some dreadful secret behind Spike’s one artificial eye.

#14 “Cosmic Gypsy Jive”

An episode about criminal support software. Incidents following the exact same pattern occur in various places. They’re crimes that use the same criminal support software.

The culprit who made the software is a 120-year-old man. But there’s a vital flaw in the software.

A story about a Kowloon Walled City in outer space – a spaceship graveyard.

#15 “Insect Stomp”

An onboard bug panic episode. A comedy where nobody can take a step outside.

A new kind of virus gets inside the ship by way of an insect. Spike and crew fight back, but it evolves again and again.

#16 “Ganymede Elegy”

An episode about a Ganymede fishing boat. The Bebop plays an active role as a kamikaze ship.

Jet meets up again with and old colleague. But having been threatened by Vicious, he attempts to kill Jet.

#17 “Monkey Business”

An episode about criminal brain surgeon Doctor Strange and bio-robot with its own consciousness. A mad scientist tale.

A biocomputer becomes neurotic. It’s a crazy episode.

#18 “An episode about a marriage swindler (Faye’s former lover)”

#19 “Daydream Believer”

An episode about vegetative boy hacker. Ed’s short-lived love.

An electronic religion episode.

In the end, she aids him by making someone else the culprit. Ed takes the bounty money and decides on her own to donate it anonymously.

A story where they go to access a planet that’s been digitized onto a hard drive.

#20 “Pierrot Le Fou”

An episode about a Tongpu, a clown-like assassin who comes after Spike.

A peculiar hard-boiled style. A battle in an outer space amusement park.

Surreal imagery. Ed gets lost.

#21 “Goodbye, Porkpie Hat”

An episode about the Titanic, a ghost ship in hyperspace. Faye reacts very sensitively to it. Her father went missing on the Titanic.

#22 “The man from Titan”

An episode about a criminal who’s a combat veteran. Has a Vietnam story feel to it. We learn that Vicious was a mercenary too.

#23 “An episode about the origins of Spike’s ship” – mecha episode

#24 “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”

An episode where they catch Ed’s father, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for shoplifting. (ex-thug)

This story is a bit touching. This is where Ed returns to Earth.

#25 “Shooting Star Bebop (Part 1)”

The secret of Spike’s artificial eye. The past and the present overlap.

Vicious murders the Red Dragon elders and becomes the boss.

Spike and crew receive bounties on their heads, Spike finally reunites with Julia. But she points a gun at him.

#26 “Shooting Star Bebop (Part 2)”

The continuation. Without telling anyone, Spike launches an attack on Red Dragon. Faye’s wavering heart. The final confrontation with Vicious. Spike defeats Vicious, but he too is wounded, and he ends up collapsing. And then…

The following are episodes that aren’t likely to make it in.

# “Murder in the Europa Mist”

# “Last Waltz”

An episode about Wong, a legendary old bounty hunter. He comes out of retirement for one last job - an unsolved case from twenty years ago.

#“Let It Bleed”

An episode about Piggy, a homicidal maniac who killed all the staff at a Neptune observatory, then disappeared.

Psychological thriller. A battle at an aquarium.

# “Shoot the Pro Bowler”

An episode where they go to a prison on Pluto. A former pro bowler turned criminal, Magic Bones. He was a bowling legend, but he got kicked out for rigging his games after betting on them.

[kohlippit]

Viewing Response 10

In his article “The Past Tense and the Future Perfect: The Postmodern Play of Watanabe Shin’ichiro and the Possibility of the Coming Community,” Will Bridges writes on how the central characters in Watanabe’s work frequently lack a sense of belonging. He writes that “Watanabe’s characters often begin with several, fragmented selves but not even a single community. The narratives his anime present show these characters in their attempts to weave a communal story out of the ruins of the worlds they inhabit” (789).

Bridges point can be seen in the second and fourth episodes of Watanabe’s Cowboy Bebop (1998). Although the protagonist Spike acts indifferent towards his crew members, we see that he actually does care. The second episode ends with Spike complaining about how Ein, a data dog with abnormal intelligence, is now living with them on the Bebop. However, Jet is quick to point out that it was actually Spike who brought in Ein to begin with. And at the end of episode four, Faye declares that she will be staying with them moving forward. While Spike and Jet seem against the idea, neither take strong actions to deny her. Later in the show, we see that Ein and Faye have seamlessly joined and become part of the crew. The characters inhabiting the Bebop create a sense of community despite their vastly differing backgrounds and initial act of wanting to be alone.

#oxyspeculativetv @theuncannyprofessoro

[casliveblog]

Custom Toonami Block Week 142 Rundown

Spy X Family: It’s the ‘Anya is bad at everything’ episode, I mean it’s not surprising, she’s only six and probably even younger than that since she padded her resume to get shacked up with Loid in the first place but she’s kind of ridiculously bad at school for a telepath and can’t do sports or concentrate on anything for more than five seconds, so yeah, accurate kid behavior. She says she’s been reading peoples’ minds on tests but doesn’t know who’s actually good at what subjects and everyone sounds confident in their heads I guess so she gets ridiculously bad grades, you’d think she’d at least get a high D based on simple probability like I don’t think Eden has kids that are just complete shit at everything. Though Loid puts a pin in her ideas to cheat since if she suddenly gets good it’ll hurt her popularity which is pretty bad given Becky’s the only one that actually likes her atm. Loid decides to get her some community service to pad her resume which you usually don’t have to do until junior high but I guess it’s fine, they volunteer as a hospital and Anya’s so bad at everything they get kicked out and speaking as someone that fucked up a lot of community service in high school that’s REALLY hard to do. Still Anya hears a kid thinking they’re going to die while they’re drowning with a broken leg and runs off to go help him. Loid’s technically the one that saves him but Anya does get some credit for effort and honestly for risking Loid catching on to her telepathy like even if she doesn’t actually do that much she does a good job putting herself out there and gets her first Gym Badge as a reward (Anya got the Boulderbadge! Doot de doot!) Because Anya’s the youngest person to get a badge this early… basically ever, she becomes a minor celebrity at school but just like Loid said it also leads to jealousy from her classmates though when people start claiming she rigged or bribed someone to get it, Damian sticks up for her… well he sticks up for the school saying that they don’t go to some shitty public school where you can just buy glory (I’m assuming he’s tried) but it ends up getting everyone to shut up about Anya. Becky mentions that kids usually get rewards for big accomplishments like this which idk I think that’s some kind of rich person thing, me and everyone I know just got to keep going on for not fucking up but okay. So she decides she wants a dog because Damian has a dog and if they become dog friends then World Peace or something. Meanwhile a dog that’s used for bomb threats already has visions of the Forgers in his head so I guess this is some kind of Ein Data Dog shenanigans so sure.

Inuyasha: This is one of those episodes that feels like filler but is actually almost entirely canon. Hakudoshi’s still running around cutting off demon heads so he can look into their hearts as they die and see into the afterlife and also the Board guy from the filler episode with the mind control crowns is back for like five minutes before Entei launches him across the sky Team Rocket style again. One of these headless demons is the father of Kanta, a baby otter demon who has retrieved his father’s head and is hoping if he just sticks it back on quick enough his father will live. Shippo, being someone who knows what it’s like to have some bishonen asshole kill your dad for a stupid reason, instantly relates to this and agrees to help. The group track down the body but only after a bunch of villagers have stabbed it and it’s crawled to Sesshomaru with its last ounce of strength. Tenseiga’s telling Sesshomaru ‘hey asshole, care for once in your life I promise there’s something in it for you’ but he’s not budging. Shippo begs Sesshomaru to use the Tenseiga on Kanta’s dad and he absolutely does not care. It’s a rare Shippo/Sesshomaru interaction which I just find kind of funny because in the Inuyasha fighting game Shippo’s basically a joke character and Sesshomaru actually is the final boss of his story mode (which ends up being all a dream). Inuyasha who’s probably still more than a little salty about Sesshomaru just standing there watching Kikyo die is like ‘sorry Shippo, Sesshomaru doesn’t help people, he probably doesn’t even have it in him to care to use Tenseiga’ and Sesshomaru’s like ‘you’re god damn right, I give negative fucks’ but a little more prodding from Tenseiga and the inherent primal desire to prove your younger brother wrong that exists in all older siblings eventually wins him over. He uses the Tenseiga in front of Inuyasha’s group for the first time and resurrects the Otter Dad who then tells everyone about the Afterlife and it rings more than a few bells as Sesshomaru, Inuyasha and Kagome have all been there before (and Inuyasha and Kagome in particular are gonna be spending like 15 years there in Yashahime so better get comfortable) it’s the grave of Inuyasha’s dad which seems kinda funny like you just put your fucking grave/corpse in the afterlife and make it insanely hard for your sons to visit you but then again he also put his sword inside his own corpse so idk what he was thinking. Shippo gets flashbacks about his dad and gets fatherly headpats and the satisfaction of saving a child from being adopted by a D&D party of scoundrels like he was and now Inuyasha’s group and Sesshomaru know where Hakudoshi is headed they just need to get there.

Yu Yu Hakusho: This episode’s a lot of waffling so I don’t know how much I’ll have to say about it but the basic idea is Yusuke is going to let Sensui kill him to let Kuwabara go Super Saiyan and most of the episode is everyone crying about this, like seeing the relationship from Kuwabara’s perspective and hearing him say he doesn’t know who he is without Yusuke is neat but it doesn’t give me a lot to discuss. They do talk about how the point of sealing them in Prismo was so that they couldn’t run away because Kurama and Hiei are crafty enough to hide out for a while and stage a counterattack while demons start wrecking shit so they could come back in like a couple months with a training arc being all La Resistance and be a problem but they aren’t worried that even the four of them put together could stop Sensui. Yusuke tells Sensui to just fucking do it already and Sensui’s kinda like ‘wait this kinda sucks’ because he wanted his viewpoint challenged more but now he’s sure he’s right and won’t be talk no jutsu’d out of it and Yusuke can’t punch it out of him so he’s just gonna poke him to death. Kuwabara summons his Super Dimension Sword and cuts through Prismo just in time to see Yusuke get struck down and we go on for a while about how Yusuke is definitely absolutely totally dead, then again this show didn’t even have the balls to let GENKAI stay dead so I doubt Yusuke’s second death will stick any better than his first one.

Jujutsu Kaisen: Kento and Mahito continue their fight and they don’t outright say it but what I THINK is happening here is that Kento gets super strong during the time of day which coincides with his fraction powers which also lines up with doing overtime in a 9-5 which is pretty funny. He’s able to flatten Mahito but the guy just pulls a T1000 and escapes. Meanwhile Yuji meets up with Junpei and luckily hit it off thanks to Junpei being a film nut and Yuji having spent the past few weeks strapped into a chair watching movies clockwork orange style with a boxing Hello Kitty doll, which is a nice bit of continuity. Because Yuji is an adorable nerd and Junpei’s like a day or two away from becoming a domestic terrorist and doesn’t have friends, Junpei’s mom invites Yuji over for dinner and they hang out and make bad movie references. They talk a bit and since murder’s been on Junpei’s mind lately and he knows Yuji’s a Jujutsu Sorcerer thanks to Mahito telling him to get chummy with any he meets, he asks if Yuji’s ever killed anyone. He says no because technically the zombie mooks were already dead and everything else was on Sukuna even if you’re not being racist about Cursed Spirits not counting. Yuji says he wants to preserve his own version of the value he places on human life and the type of deaths he wants to ensure for people he cares about and even if it was someone evil, killing someone would devalue his perception of life and bleed into how he feels about the lives of who he cares about which I suppose is as good a reason as any for the weird ‘nobody kill anybody unless you have plausible deniability’ that shonen protagonists have for some reason. This reasoning resonates with Junpei and he vows to not kill anyone either… and five minutes later his mom finds a Sukuna finger and dies and he’s officially an emo domestic terrorist. Mahito tells him it’s probably someone who took out a hit on him even though 99% of people probably don’t even know that’s a thing, like at first I thought they were gonna try and pin this on Yuji put they jump right to this asshole dude at school so I guess Yuji’s just too much of a cinnamon roll for Junpei to even think that. Mahito even talks about letting the finger go and I’m not sure if he means he planted it or if he’s just allowing Jujutsu High to have it because his plan is to let Junpei and Yuji fight and have that force Yuji to give Sukuna enough power to take over permanently. Kento confronts Yuji and tells him that it’s not bad that he doesn’t want to kill people but that innocence means he can’t take him to go murder the head honchos even if it means he has to sit on the sidelines and watch his partner die. Junpei had Curse powers now and is getting ready to beat the shit out of School Douche and kill everyone but Yuji busts into Mahito’s ‘weak people only’ barrier and is ready to stop him.

Chainsaw Man: So Aki sticks his head in the Future Devil’s chest vagina so it can tell his fortune and the Devil’s like ‘oh bro, you are gonna have the WORST DEATH, like I’mma give you basically a free ride just because I wanna be there to see it’ and since Aki is Sasuke he’s fine with this. Power and Denji also complete their off-screen training and are supposedly stronger, dunno if they got new powers or if they’re just able to use any two brain cells they can rub together now. Makima pays a visit to the Yakuza to get the names of their former members who made contracts with the Gun Devil who is apparently just running a black market gun smuggling operation at this point but she gets some pushback about how the Yakuza maintain a balance of power as a necessary evil which is really not an argument you should be making to Makima of all people, she’s Mrs. Necessary Evil, she’s been lying to everyone’s face about her motives and is still in power because no one can get a read on her and she can do anything which she proves by rocking up to the Yakuza’s casting couch with a sack of eyeballs which apparently they somehow took out of the Yakuza’s family members without killing them, point being she can now use her Death Note powers on like, the majority of Katana Man and Snake Girl’s mooks. Also the bad guys have some leftover zombies from the Zombie Devil shit in episode one but they’re basically just fodder to keep the other Public Security Devils they introduce at bay but the Angel Devil’s the only one in they opening so I’m assuming they’re the only one that’s immediately relevant (also their introductions use Fiend and Devil interchangeably but I know those are separate things so I’m not sure if some are Devils and some are Fiends but just letting you know the vocabulary is kind of unclear). The main group decide to split up and search for Katana Man and Snake Girl and Aki finds Snake Girl first who has her devil puke up Himeno’s Ghost Devil which is kind of a jip like Himeno had to give up her whole body to even summon it and her eye to use just one arm but I guess Snake Girl was in an advantageous bargaining position given it was INSIDE HER SNAKE, but you’d think the GHOST Devil couldn’t be trapped inside things but what would I know. Anyway, Ghost Devil chokes out Aki, the end.

Ranking of Kings: Daida’s stuck in the sunken place and is left to reflect on what a dick he’s been to Bojji and how his teachers tried to hammer into him how people with disabilities have their own kind of strength from learning to live with them and carrying on that he as a privileged ableist asshole never learned but he didn’t understand until just now. He then finds a reflection of a young Miranjo who’s had her hands cut off and her face deformed by vengeful villagers who blame her for a calamity and despite still being a minor asshole about it, Daida does the right thing and protects her. Meanwhile in the Underworld, Desha has found the rat-eating guy from last time’s stinger has pulled an Impel Down prison break and brought five other notorious criminals with him to go take down Daida!Bosse so Desha’s like ‘okay let’s go save them and take over their kingdom while we’re in the neighborhood’ and the soldiers take Bojji with them on their way back to the kingdom without telling him about that last part. But yeah apparently Miranjo’s some kind of homunculus or something because she’s gone from being a deformed child to a living woman that can kind of awkwardly function to being trapped in a mirror only able to astral project into a puppet so idk what her deal is. But right now Hilling is with Shield guy, and her group and Bojji are both separately on their way back to the castle and Sword Guy and Kirito Henchman are training and waiting while Spear Guy’s simping for Miranjo and Snake Guy is… idk, dying in a cave I think and Daida!Bosse has like five swords pressed into his neck and is still like ‘No sir, not getting out of this chair’ even though he objectively has the strength to flatten them all. So many people in this series act in ways that make no sense and I assume it’ll all get explained but it’s frustrating to watch in the moment.

Vinland Saga: Thorkell’s men are still transporting Canute to hold him for ransom and get into a fun Jesus vs Thor who would win debate and I don’t know when Death Battle will get around to that one. They get jumped by a squad of Ragnar’s men who come to save him and they try the Usopp BS of ‘oh I control thousands of men’ when they have like a fifth of that and they’re mowed down like crazy anyway. Thorkell actually gives Canute back to them so they have no excuse for holding back Ragnar wants to dip the fuck out of English dodge but Thorkell calls them pussies and the men are attacking and getting murdered so quick. Meanwhile Askeladd’s playing both sides and starting a forest fire to cause confusion and whittle down the numbers of both forces. It’s also time for plan ‘Throw Thorfinn in and hope shit works out’ aka Askeladd’s favorite fucking plan and have him run in and grab Canute and run out. Thorfin rides in on a flaming horse and manages to get Canute fairly safely but runs into Thorkell who wants to fight and is just BARELY turned off from it by the fucking flaming hellscape around them killing his murderboner a bit but on his way out he’s like ‘oh bee tee dubs I knew your dad, we fought together in the cold open’ and now Thorfinn has a measuring stick to throw at his inferiority complex. They get Canute back to Asekladd and Ragnar’s like “Askeladd you are in HUGE trouble for doing it this way but you’re literally our only option so we’ll let it slide for now’ Askeladd asks Canute to take off his helmet and to absolutely no one’s surprise watching, he’s extremely bishie like if you were watching this up to this point and didn’t expect him to take off the helmet and be Milliardo Peacecraft under there idk what to tell you.

[reddragon-cowboy]

*click* Woof woof!

Spike: Ein! No paws on the keyboard!

[ Ein has joined the chat ]

Side Muse/NPC

Muses have the opportunity to interact with the data dog, Ein, if the setting of the roleplay takes place on the Bebop.

He'll be happy to be of assistance or want to play.

[cyberelle2087]

I'm Ein the data dog 🦾🐶

[mekka-fenrir]

Cowboy Bebop: Ed and EIN Pop Up Parade PVC Figure

A Good Smile Company import

From the popular anime Cowboy Bebop

Ed holds Ein in her arms with an innocent smile on her face

Measures approximately 6.1” tall

Be sure to add the genius hacker and the data dog to your collection

[lunarsilkscreen]

"Emergency Food Supply" (Cowboy Bebop)

Cowboy Bebop is the Manga that surpassed being a Manga and became a Genre. (Not yet, but soon, it's still considered a "Space Opera")

Most of my references are going to be to the Anime. Because that's what I know best.

In the show, protagonist Spike Spiegel picks up a rouge Data Dog named "Ein". Ein, is a Welsh Corgi. And in the show, Welsh Corgis are one of the most common species of pet dog, and therefore; not very expensive.

<aside>Rogue Data Dog means that Ein is a hyper-intelligent animal and a top secret data storage device (non-robotic.) Ein routinely displays intelligence vastly superior to the other characters of the show despite... Being a dog.</aside>

The reason we, the audience, know this is because Ein was stolen by some petty thief who attempted to pawn him to a pet store. It's never clarified whether this was the pet/pawn shop lying about the breed, or because it's just that way in the future.

Spike reluctantly adopts the dog as an "Emergency Food Source". He does work as a country hunter with his partner "Jet Black". And they routinely don't have enough money for food; most of the money they make is used for repairs on their ship.

Because the cast routinely can't afford meals, we--the audience; believe Spike when he says this.

And it's this statement that colors the entire show. There's a respectable distance in place between each of the characters.

<aside>I think the live action adaptation doesn't have this feeling like Anime and Manga both have. This is one of the reasons it feels like a completely different show from the Anime.</aside>

Every protagonist carries this feeling of loneliness despite having people within arms reach that actual care about them. This feeling is explained by every protagonist's back story. They've all had teammates turn on them, family members take advantage of them, history's taken from them, or just being plain taken advantage of at their most vulnerable.

Hackerman--Edward; is the youngest in the show, who has grown up and is completely used to this sense of loneliness. Having been abandoned as a child and growing up alone, despite having grown up in an orphanage.

The end of the Anime series features the "band breaking up" as Spike goes to face his demons, his history with the syndicate (space Mafia triad) as his old partner has grown mad, power hungry, and Spike was drawn back into a final showdown with him, and this gives us the conclusion of the show.

Spike and Vicious end up throwing each other off a waterfall in the end. (Cowboy Bebop is the millennial Sherlock Holmes)

It's this final episode that we're shown exactly what the main characters felt about the others. And with the band breaking up, we see Edward carrying on as if this is just what people do. Faye and Jet are angry becaus it destroys the status quo. This one sense of stability they had in their life.

Their connection with eachother.

"Emergency Food Source" is this statement that means "I want to have people around, but you're probably going to eat me when we run out of food."

This admission that there can be no real connections between people, or animals. Is what leaves us with the show's somber note upon the finale, and death of Spike Spiegel.

The question being asked is; do we really care that they are gone? Or do we just miss that sense of belonging?

[plutomango]

Wrote this a few weeks back but kept going back to it to get the thoughts in order.

[supreme-unicorn]

Ein!

[danwhobrowses]

Netflix's Cowboy Bebop is Not Great

I mean, are we surprised?

Not to be judgmental from first impressions, I forced myself to watch its entire first season (which by the way is about the same length as the anime's complete series) so I could make a full opinion

And now I can confirm that Netflix didn't even try to understand or make a faithful rendition of the iconic anime, they had intentions for characters they knew nothing about and they forced it unto them under the pretense of a live action adaptation.

I had a whole rant about it but, that's giving this show too much credit. They changed far too much, in some cases changing a character entirely and robbing fans of iconic episodes, subtracted more than what they added, and used gender swapping, LGBTQ+ and 'woman take power' as exploitation tools to duct tape over the cracks of their poor production, wooden choreography and flat dialogue.

And they didn't use the music properly: cardinal sin.

It is passable...if you have never watched the anime, it's a far cry in quality which doesn't deliver on its ending. I'm sorry for the cast, it's not their fault and they're just doing their jobs, but this ain't it chief.

This is not Cowboy Bebop.

[cprcosplay]

Faye Penguintine and Edguin (and Ein)

[truechamploo]

[starandspikes]

Ein is done! Fabric is ordered to arrive for MomoCon! He'll be nearly 18 inches long! Perfect hugging size!