#given it is not 150 characters or less

[canichangemyblogname]

Hello all!

There are posts going around on X, FaceBook, TikTok, and Tumblr claiming that Hamas has called for a global day of Jihad this Friday against "Western" targets and allies. Other posts claim he has called for a worldwide day of violent strikes on Jewish institutions. Many of these posts use news articles from right-wing and tabloid sources, like the National Review.

The original source is Reuters, and it actually says very little compared to what outlets like the Daily Mail are reporting.

The former leader of Hamas' political wing and current head of Hamas' diaspora office, Khaled Meshaal, has called for Muslims in the Islamic world to protest Friday in support of Palestinians. Meshaal also called on Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt to help in the conflict.

His reported statement is as follows:

"I call on you... to head to the squares and streets of the Arab and Islamic world on Friday, the Friday of Al Aqsa Flood. Deliver a message through the squares and the streets, a message of anger, that we are with Palestine, that we are with Gaza, with Al Aqsa, with Jerusalem, and that we are a part of this battle, this is first.

Second, Gaza is calling you for help, with relief and money, with whatever you own, whoever can help; this is the moment of truth... We are facing truth, and here I say clearly, without hesitation, this is the moment for the nation to join in the fight, to fight with them.

I call firstly on the surrounding countries, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt, all of its sons and daughters; officially and popularly, your duty is bigger because you are closer to Palestine.

Tribes of Jordan, sons of Jordan, brothers and sisters of Jordan, from all of your sides and backgrounds, this is a moment of truth, and the borders are close to you; you all know your responsibility, and this applies to all nations.

To all scholars who teach jihad for the sake of God and who preach the fighters and martyrs, to all who teach and learn, this is a moment for the application so that words are not just words."

There is no definite meaning to the concept of jihad as the concept is constantly evolving in meaning, practices, strategies, teaching, and understanding. It has been interpreted and re-interpreted for a variety of political reasons. In the context of Islamic law, the "lesser" jihad generally refers to an armed struggle against outsiders in the way of Allah. The "greater" jihad, on the other hand, refers to the struggle to be a good Muslim and pious, and this is the common meaning of jihad for 99.999% of the 1.8 billion Muslims around the world, which is why I caution against alarm.

More responsible news outlets report that without greater elaboration, Meshaal's comments have not made it clear whether he purely intends to provoke political protests and plead for relief, or if there is a deeper meaning given he still represents Hamas. They have stressed that pro-Palestinian acts are not inherently aligned with terrorism and violence at a time when people have been taking to the streets in major cities worldwide to peacefully protest in solidarity with the Palestinian people. These protests are unrelated to Meshaal's statement. Less responsible news outlets, however, are reporting this as a call for a global military jihad against Jewish people as well as "Western" countries and their allies.

Officials have cautioned against jumping to conclusions, warning that interpreting Meshaal's statement as a call to global military action can lead to violence. Fearmongering will only contribute to the likelihood of sectarian violence. It is also more likely to contribute to antisemitic and Islamaphobic hate crimes in the Global North. The advice of conservative political strategists like Joey Mannarino (who I have seen many people and outlets quoting) to Americans is an overreaction.

The Jewish Community Center released a statement after Reuters published Meshaal's statement, saying that while there aren’t any known threats against Jewish institutions in the U.S., it will remain on high alert. Out of an abundance of caution, they are taking proactive steps to provide greater security for Synagogues, Jewish community centers, and Jewish neighborhoods. Jewish advocates recommend that Jewish people remain vigilant during this time as the outbreak of violence in Israel often leads to a spike in antisemitic crimes in the Global North.

Contrary to what some claim, you will not have to avoid any public spaces on Friday. Not trains. Not planes. Not shopping malls. There are *no* known threats against U.S. institutions or Jewish institutions in the U.S. If you do not live in Egypt, Lebanon, Israel, Syria, or Palestine, you are likely to remain unaffected by any protests, riots, or violence inspired by this conflict. So, please, do not inspire panic about Friday.

I urge the WASP-y Americans and non-Jews reblogging right-wing news coverage and fretting about their safety over the next 24 hours to remember that this isn't about you. And, please, for the love of peace, stop depicting this as a holy war, reducing the conflict to Muslims v. Jews, and claiming this as the start of WWIII. You are *not* helping anyone, least of all the religious minorities you’re claiming to support.

Let's keep the focus on relief and liberation for the Palestinian people and on relief for the victims of terrorism. And let's take efforts to make our own country a safer, more secure, more welcoming, and more comfortable place for religious minorities. That includes Jewish people.

Thank you,

Evan

[dollypopup]

so now that season 3 is done and dusted can we FINALLY admit that Colin got the WORST hand for his season, and in the entirety of the show? And about how people were so rude to Luke Newton (and continue to be) because he isn't excited to have been given absolute crumbs in the entirety of the season as a lead? Like look me in my eyes and tell me otherwise. No other character is just an accessory to their love interest like they made him be. No other character gets hardly any backstory or screentime, least of all in their own season.

here's some proof, if you don't believe me

SOURCE

Colin got 138 minutes of screentime in his own season. He didn't get much of any POV in previous ones, so comparing that to Pen's 168? And Anthony's 181? When Anthony and Pen were BOTH main characters with ample screentime in previous seasons before their own?

Yeah, paltry. Hell, Kate got 170 and Simon got 150. And they weren't the Bridgertons of their season.

In the episode titled after HIM, 'Romancing Mr. Bridgerton', Colin got. . .drumroll please. . .FOURTEEN minutes of screentime.

Fourteen.

One. Four. 14.

Viscount Who Loved Me? Anthony got 23. Kate got 22. Duke and I? Daphne got 35. Simon got 25.

Penelope got 20.

Colin got 14.

FOURTEEN.

There is never, not once in Season 3, a time when Colin, the Bridgerton of the season, got more screentime than Pen. Not. One. Time.

So, what exactly are we meant to think, then? Colin is the ONLY Bridgerton so far, and likely for the entirety of the series, to get less screentime in his own season than his love interest. Even if you say he IS the Love Interest, and Season 3 was Featherington instead of Bridgerton- he STILL got peanuts as he got the least screentime of ANY character thus far!!!

And it SHOWS!

What is Colin's narrative? Tell me. And how much of it DOESN'T serve Penelope's? What is JUST Colin's narrative?

His first heartbreak with Marina? Serves Penelope's story, as she had a hand in breaking them up.

His travels? Well, he even said Penelope was the one who inspired him, and we didn't get any insight into them, or POV of him having them.

His writing? And how much of that did we actually see him grapple with? How much screentime did it actually get? And in the end of it, it intertwines with Penelope ANYWAY because she becomes his editor.

His 'friends' in season 3 and suave personality? Well, the show said that since Penelope ghosted him, that was why he adopted that persona in the first place.

Colin is my FAVORITE character. I adore him, so do not take this as an attack on him, more so as a question and an indignation at how poorly he's been treated: because who even is he to this show? If you say that he's a character in his own right, you're lying. Colin exists as a prop in the confines of Bridgerton. He has no relationships that are allowed to exist outside of Penelope. His relationship with Eloise? In season 3, near all their conversations are about . . .? His entire family hardly responded to him on his travels, yet the only discussion about a lack of response is Penelope's. Part 1's narrative? Pursuing Penelope. Part 2's narrative? Accepting Penelope.

What about him? What about Colin?

Who are his friends? What are his interests other than being a 'wife guy'? What are his hobbies? When will we actually see them? What do we know about how he grew up? Why didn't we see him and Fran's relationship? Him with Hyacinth and Gregory? In the background, he's always watching over them, but there's never any weight to that in the narrative. Conversations with his mum about ANYTHING other than Penelope? Conversations with ANTHONY about anything other than Penelope?

Season 3 was meant to be HIS season- and what did he get out of it?

No wonder Luke Newton wants to be far away from it. Between the blatant ableism he's had to deal with (I won't forget how of everything, they chose a MAD LIBS interview where he's been open about having dyslexia, and Nicola has been open about being a former English major) and the lack of screentime and character development (near everything about him was told behind the scenes, Luke Newton is the ONLY reason Colin has any depth at all, since the writing denies it of him), hell, I'd be running far away. Especially with a fandom as rude as this one.

The show doesn't care about him and neither does this fandom. There's no fleshing out of his character. From jump we've only ever seen him as an extension of Penelope, and thus he only exists in Polin as an accessory. That's why people can say 'Oh, we'll get Polin S4!' and it's just conversations about Pen grappling with Lady Whistledown.

Colin's only narrative was to fall in love with Penelope. Now that he's there, what's his purpose? His role? To continue being an accessory to her.

Is Kate an accessory to Anthony? Is Anthony an accessory to Kate?

Was Daphne an accessory to Simon? Was Simon an accessory to Daphne?

You know damn well Benedict and Sophie won't be accessories to one another.

So why is Colin dealt this hand? Why is he the only one denied backstory? The only one denied personhood and depth? The only one who has to just exist to soak up his partner's light- indicating he's lesser than her?

The production has even said, flat out 'I don't think Colin's smart enough for Penelope'. They don't respect him as a character, and I don't think they respected Luke as an actor.

Colin got less screentime as a Bridgerton in his OWN SEASON than love interests in theirs. Don't say it's because he was already established- we got no POV for him in Season 1 or Season 2, so he's at a deficit, and now all the articles and conversations about Polin in Season 4 continue to be about Colin serving Penelope's story.

This fandom would gleefully replace him with a cardboard cutout or a sexy lamp and have no issues.

He deserved better.

WE deserved better.

[revacholianpizzaagenda]

Three days left to sign up for the 2025 runs of the beautiful amazing transcendent Elysium LARP!

When and where

The larp will have two runs (20-24 & 27-31 August 2025) in Terezín, Czech Republic (about an hour’s drive north of Prague) [there will be options for car-less people]. The event starts on Wednesday evening and ends on Saturday evening; players need to be on-site for the entire duration of the event.

Price

Standard ticket €360, 13 subsidised at €150, understudy (last-minute spots) €50. The price includes the full experience, key parts of the costume, food, and basic lodgings.

Practicalities

What: A Disco Elysium larp for 109 players.

When: 20-24 & 27-31 August 2025 (starting Wednesday evening, ending Saturday evening)

Where: Old Military Hospital, Terezín (Czech Republic)

Cost: €360 standard ticket, ��150 subsidised, €50 understudy (last-minute spots)

Produced by: Rolling & and international crew

Language: English

Location: Old military hospital in the middle of the city. Indoors and outdoors environment. The venue has basic amenities (toilets, water, basic portable showers etc), but don’t expect high standards (no central heating). Hotel accommodation can be bought extra.

Accessibility: Venue not wheelchair friendly (no elevators, stairs) and very large. Dusty environment. Need to read long texts before the larp (30+ pages). Higher levels of activity during the event. Loud noises, strobing lights, and crowds may be present.

Time: Arrival mandatory on Wednesday evening. One day of pre-game activities, then game time. Dedicated 8 hours a night for sleep. End of game on Saturday evening, cleanup on Sunday. All players need to be present on site between Wednesday and Saturday evening to participate in the event.

Costumes & props: Key costume elements and key props will be provided. You bring a base layer, shoes, and any extra props you want. Think 70s-90s wacky style.

Food & drink: Scheduled breakfast, lunch, and dinner (served in-game). We will provide water, tea, and vegetarian food, with the whole menu available beforehand, allowing people to bring food to address their allergies and special needs.

Design

Potential content warnings: Racism, violence, physical larping, poverty, political extremism, loud noises, realistic firearms, drug use, oppression, suicide, dysfunctional family dynamics, real work.

Design & play style: Immersive experience grounded in a poetic world. Some scripted story points and more collaborative than competitive play. Pre-written characters and plots. Characters have secrets not transparently known to all players.

Sign-up process: Lottery system with certain conditions applied by organisers. Players will have the option to flag they are uncomfortable playing with somebody or think somebody is not safe to be at the event. When given a spot, players have some weeks to pay. Casting happens after spot assignments but before payment.

Co-creation: Pre-written characters. Given act structure with some limitations or mechanics; otherwise, players have the freedom to create. Players are not expected to prepare or create relations, have meetings, partake in events, etc., before the event – co-creation happens in pre-game activities on site. Lore is established by organisers. Players create art and make things at work during the game.

Physical & emotional safety: Opt-out techniques & safety techniques. Some themes apply to the whole larp and cannot be opted out of (for example, “poverty”). Medium-contact mechanisms for violence, symbolic mechanisms for physical intimacy. Dedicated organisers for safety and medical and emotional support. Calibration techniques will be workshopped.

What you will be doing: Playing out conflicts, romances, brawls, revealing secrets from the past, pursuing political goals, dealing with community problems. Creating art, music, weird performances, or just striving to have a normal, working family. Work is also part of the game. Most players will have 2-3 hours of some form of “work” to perform each day (making things, cleaning things…). Scheduled and spontaneous activities in the characters’ social groups (hobbies, families, politics, interest groups, etc.). Socialising, trading, scheming or just chilling and people-watching.

Sign up form

[bkblaise]

Temporarily opening commissions for the month of September 2024! Payments on Paypal or Kofi! DM here on tumblr or @ByakuyaBlaise on twitter (ignore how it's in Korean, I will respond in English) Pricing and additional information under the cut!

*DISCOUNT/Priority given for commissions of canon characters from the series, 'Blue Lock ', 10% off!

CAN DRAW: Mild gore + blood Furries/animals (anthro OK too) [Examples at the end] SD/Chibi Ship art (Any as long as it is appropriate) NSFW (As long as 'appropriate' [No incest, no minor x adult] Charging extra, preferred uncolored) Pixel art (ask for old examples) Animated (blinking/simple animations such as tears) [Costs extra] Backgrounds Outfits (As long as references are provided)

CAN'T DRAW: Mecha Extreme gore Extremely complex backgrounds

Sketches

May be monochrome colored

Starting price: 10 USD

Sketches (Colored, shaded)

I have a couple different shading styles to work with, just ask me what I should do! This will not be fully rendered and ranges from mild shading/highlights to include shadows.

Starting price: 25-30 USD

+50% for additional characters

Sketch sheets start at 60 USD due to complexity. Negotiable if you want less sketch clusters.

Headshots to Busts

Starting price: 40-50 USD

~Halfbodies to Fullbodies

Pricing depends HEAVILY on outfit complexity and background complexity. Only doing 1-3 characters mostly, but 4 is doable (except if they are in the distance and not detailed.)

Starting price: 65 (Halfbody) & 100 (Fullbody)

Please Note: a $65 Halfbody would be something like a bare bones, white background and a simple, modern outfit with no difficult accessories.

Benchmark: A playable character from the game series, 'Genshin Impact' would cost $150 because of outfit complexity.

Misc

Chibi Style 1 (Complex)

Chibi Style 2 (Simple)

Cartoon or other styles

I can attempt other styles if you give me a reference, but please do not request me to copy someone else's style entirely!

Feral animals

+ SUPER OLD EXAMPLES AVAILABLE ON MY OLD DEVIANTART (press link)

Graphic Design

Any form of decoration will also be extra costs, please inquire!

Thank you!

[thisisatesttai]

IchiRuki is not "delusional," and saying that it is means you have no media literacy

IHs seem to think that all it takes to interpret Ichigo, Rukia, and Orihime's feelings is to read the epilogue. To a literary critic, that is absurd. Characters explain how they feel over and over again across a piece of media. An ending may give us context that alters the earlier scenes, but this is always in very specific ways. With Bleach, nothing about the epilogue indicates that Ichigo and Rukia are not supposed to be read as at least potentially romantic.

For posterity's sake, I should point out that I've only seen the first few arcs of the anime, so most of what I say below is based on the manga. That said, the anime is part of the story as much as the manga is, so just because something happened in the manga and not the anime, or vice versa, doesn't make it "truer" to the text, just true to different texts.

Let's start with the fact that the story repeatedly suggests that Ichigo and Rukia have a romantic vibe to them. The rumors at school make this explicit, but just from the setup of two classmates who clearly have a secret that are constantly sneaking off, especially when you add in that they go home together and sleep in the same room. I know a lot of people want IchiRuki to be the Platonic Boy/Girl Friends (TM) but honey, they just ain't them. You're thinking of Naruto and Sakura. Claims that they have a sibling vibe are utterly baseless, especially in Bleach, where sibling relationships are a very explicit theme. Not every non-romantic couple that's nominally the same age (don't get me started on the "she's 150" arguments; go prosecute ACTUAL 150-year-olds dating 15-year-olds and leave me alone) is automatically a sibling vibe. The most I could say is that they do bicker a lot, but we all know that's just as comparable to a married couple. Saying Rukia is a mentor to Ichigo admittedly has a little more basis, especially when Bleach doesn't have a designated mentor figure. I still think Rukia's role in teaching Ichigo about the Soul Society is more of a guide archetype, though; think less Genkai, more Botan.

But setting aside the setup, the Soul Society Arc, or Rescue Rukia arc, is loaded with romantic themes and imagery. Don't get me wrong; nothing says that Kubo couldn't have introduced these as a fake-out to the audience, with the intention of subverting their expectations. I don't personally think there's anything that really suggests that, at least not so far as the romantic reading of the Soul Society arc itself being entirely off-base. The whole arc kicks off because Rukia is asked by Orihime and her friends if she "like-likes" Ichigo. She says she only likes him as a friend, but all of the narrative cues suggest that she's being dishonest, from the narration to the fact that she was so bothered by the question that she chooses now to go to the Soul Society and face her punishment. The suggestion at this point seems to be that Rukia having any type of affection for Ichigo, be it friendship or romantic, is inappropriate or even impossible for a shinigami. Ichigo's feelings are treated similarly, as he never gives a straight answer when he's asked why he wants to save Rukia, but several characters suggest that it's because he's in love with her. This doesn't mean he is, but the narrative does not deny that that is a possible reasoning. We're not even really told what his answer is; the scene where he thinks, "That's why I fought so hard to save you" seems to be suggesting that he wanted her to be able to decide whether she would live in the World of the Living or the Soul Society -- or else it's saying he didn't want the last time he saw her to be her telling him she would never forgive him, or it's saying that he wanted to see her smile again. Like I said, we're not given an explicit answer to this question.

The rest of the manga is basically about Ichigo adjusting to life without Rukia. I think it's fair to say that even if you read Soul Society romantically, from the Arrancar Invasion Arc on, Rukia is no longer written as Ichigo's love interest. This doesn't invalidate anything suggested in the previous arcs, though. If anything, I would argue that Ichigo's feelings become pretty explicit by the time we get to Hueco Mundo. The dramatic reveal of Rukia coming to visit, and the fact that she's the only person capable of breaking him out of his funk, both have a romantic reading to them. When the team arrives in Hueco Mundo, Ichigo is shown to be overly concerned with Rukia's safety, explicitly singling her out aside from Renji, Uryu, and Chad. (I guess that could just be misogyny, though.) Even Ichigo's obsession with getting a rematch with Grimmjow could be traced to him nearly one-shotting Rukia during their fight in Karakura. I'm not saying any of these are exclusive interpretations, just showing how it's regularly reinforced that Ichigo feels differently about Rukia than any of his other companions, even to the point of letting it cloud his judgment.

I don't think I need to say anything about Ichigo and Rukia's goodbye before the timeskip. The way the scene is drawn, and written, and framed by the narrative, is very reminiscent of romance scenes, to the point that if it was meant to be read as exclusively platonic, it comes off as a very bad satire. And jumping to the anime real quick, I know episode 342 is anime-only, but by no means do I think that invalidates everything it says about Ichigo and Rukia's feelings for each other. That episode oozes with ship-bait, to the point of turning the subtext of their relationship into text. And if you think this is something that the anime studio injected into the narrative -- well, first of all, then we'd also have to parse out everything that the Shonen Jump editors injected into the manga -- but Kubo himself has said that he thought the episode was a welcome addition. So, if your'e someone who thinks the author's vision is the final say on the manga, there you have it; Kubo basically canonized ep. 342.

With all that in mind, I think that, at the very least, Bleach's narrative suggests that Ichigo and Rukia are coulda-beens. Maybe Ichigo was more invested than Rukia was, maybe Rukia deemed it inappropriate due to them being from different worlds, but in the language of manga and storytelling in general, the idea that they might have feelings for each other isn't some fan's "delusion"; it is actually part of the text. Whether or not they actually felt something for each other is for them and them alone to know, but the story tells us that these are two people who met, came to care very deeply for each other, and then drifted apart without ever taking the plunge.

The question that this leaves us with is, where does that leave Orihime?

If there's one character whose feelings are never up for debate, it's Orihime. We know from practically her first scene that she has a crush on Ichigo. Now, at first that's never taken seriously. It's mostly just a setup for the running gag of her bonkers imagination. Over time, though, we get a little bit more insight into Orihime's feelings, and she starts to get taken more seriously as a character. There's a version of Bleach where, as Orihime steps up to be by Ichigo's side in the latter arcs, he moves on from his feelings for Rukia and the two develop as a couple. If that were the case, even if IchiHime doesn't appeal to me, personally, I would still accept it. It would actually be a refreshingly mature take on teenage romance. Unfortunately, that version is not in the text.

For that reading of Bleach to work, we would need to see their love for each other build to a place where both characters bring out the best in each other, at least comparably to Ichigo and Rukia. Unfortunately, Ichigo and Orihime don't seem to bring out the best in each other. Ichigo brings out all of Orihime's insecurities. During the lead-up to the Arrancar arc, Orihime starts to compare herself to Rukia. (There's literally a panel sequence that says, without a single word "find you someone who looks at you the way Ichigo looks at Rukia", to anyone who's still unconvinced that there's a romantic reading to those two.) And as the entirety of the Hueco Mundo hammers home, Orihime is personally ill-equipped to be Rukia. Both Rangiku and Rukia herself have speeches where they tell Orihime that she needs to stop trying to live up to what she thinks Ichigo wants and just be herself, but she sticks to the mantra that she wants to "fight by Ichigo's side" -- you know, like Rukia does. Urahara even tells her outright that she needs to stop trying to put herself on the battlefield. It's not particularly nice of him to squash her dreams like that, but it's not as though she doesn't get an out; Hachi is already there, trying to teach Orihime to be a healer, something she has a natural talent for.

Instead of reframing her wishes with the advice of her friends, Orihime makes the worst decision of her life and goes to Hueco Mundo with Ulquiorra. Now, obviously this is coerced by the Espada and not her actual response to the situation, but that doesn't mean they're not framed as consequential to each other, narratively. Orihime is told she has a flaw that she needs to change, but before she's able to do so, she must go through hardships so she can let go of the façade that she's using to cover up her flaw. Well, she goes through hardships alright. She's imprisoned, assaulted, and threatened with death. Orihime is confronted both with her weaknesses, and with her strengths, as she is eventually able to appeal to Ulquiorra's humanity through her willingness to see the goodness in people, even those who are actively abusing her. You would think this would lead to a change in Orihime that goes back and answers the underlying question, but it doesn't. By the end of the manga, she is still fantasizing about being a Battle Couple alongside Ichigo, and she's still not good at it. I don't know how many times I've had to say this, but Orihime and Ichigo losing their fight to Yhwach is not a triumphant moment. The fact that it's the result of Orihime achieving her series-long dream is more of an indictment against their relationship than anything else I could say.

To adopt the narrative that Ichigo got over Rukia to be with Orihime, we would also need to see him come to appreciate Orihime in her own right, something that he is...hopelessly uninterested in. No, we can't just take for granted that he's a dopey shonen hero and "that's just his character"; if he's supposed to be . We also absolutely cannot take for granted that this happens offscreen; that can be a headcanon that you, as the audience, choose to adopt, but it's not suggested by anything other than the assumption that the ending is supposed to be, and can only be, saccharinely happy. There's nothing to suggest that Ichigo changes the way he thinks about Orihime in the text, and we only ever see him thinking about her is when reacting to her in scenes, and just generally not wanting her to die. The closest we get to him expressing a romantic interest in Orihime is the scene where he asks her to "wait for him" -- at Rukia's wedding, no less. I shouldn't have to spell out how having this happen on the very day, at the very moment, that Rukia is considered "off-limits" to conventional societal standards undercuts the idea that Ichigo is not taking Orihime as a consolation prize. Which, don't get me wrong, SUCKS. But it is implicit in the framing, and can't be ignored.

And that's without getting into Rukia's relationship with Renji. I think in this case, we can very obviously see that Kubo tried to write a romance between them, but he did so in such a half-assed way that I find it very hard to take seriously. Yes, Ichigo throwing Rukia to Renji is obviously meant to tell us that Renji is her love interest from that point in the story, but that doesn't mean it works. First of all, we can't pretend Renji wasn't awful to Rukia for a majority of the Soul Society arc. Sure, this is him pre-character development, but it's a huge leap to go from "I'm conflicted over whether I should tell off my boss for killing you" to a canon couple. But even with Renji beating up Rukia and telling her he wished she was dead, you can still get to the point where they repair their relationship -- it just takes a lot of work that Bleach simply doesn't do. We need more than Renji promising to turn things around, we need to see him do things that make up for that. To be fair, though, Kubo spends very little time showing us what they're like when one of them isn't on death row. At most, they seem to train together a lot. Like, you want platonic boy/girl besties? THESE are platonic boy/girl besties. Actually, they're the ones with the sibling dynamic, given that they literally grew up calling each other family.

So where does that leave us? Some people seem to assume that despite Kubo fumbling the ball, the canon couples were meant to be, and that they somehow found happiness despite all the evidence to the contrary. Again, you can hold that headcanon for yourself if it makes you happy. However, if we're going strictly based off the text, the answer seems to be that Bleach doesn't have a happy ending. The characters whose endings are not related to getting married off all end up doing the one thing they didn't want to do -- Chad ends up using his fists for personal gain as a boxer, Uryu ends up alone, etc. -- and the ones who DO get what they want are the ones whose dreams are framed as being misguided, in Orihime's case, or unearned, in Renji's case. I'm not saying you have to ship IchiRuki, of course. I can't tell you how to read the series. At the end of the day, Bleach is to you what it is to you. But saying that reading IchiRuki as romantic is "delusional" is more than just false, it diminishes media literacy for all of us.

[heavenlysphere]

Pros:

• SHADOW WAS DONE RIGHT. He’s perfect and lovely and badass. Keanu did an amazing job voicing him.

• Good sneak in scene

• GOOD FIGHT SCENES

• Shadow was more platinum and I really liked that nod.

• Maria backstory was cute

• Fun references. I enjoyed no food or movies

• Beautiful scene on the moon. Made me cry. In fact a lot of Shadow scenes made me cry.

• They put in hot topic and Eggman being bisexual. I don’t think it was intentional necessarily but it was funny.

• Amy in the end scenes!! Metal in the end scenes!! A nice person told me there was more to the end credits and it was.

• Knuckles’s slight edit out of being scared of ghosts in sa2 was a neat nod too.

• Fighters art style was cute and they did the pose.

• I think if we don’t hear Live & Learn again, it was a nice send off.

Cons:

• Too much Jim Carrey. Holy shit it got annoying. Especially the dance scene. Shut the hell up get to the action.

• They didn’t shoot the little girl. Which is fine but they shot a gun that shot an explosion capsule to avoid shooting the little girl. Sort of stupid.

• HOW THE HELL DID HE LIVE FOR 150 YEARS. HE WAS IMPRISONED. THATS STUPID.

• I consider the removal of Maria’s disability only slightly ableist. Granted, her personality before Shadow Gens was littlest cancer patient. But I think it’s kind of integral to the plot. It was fine though because Shadows an alien (more so) in this. I just don’t like the removal of a character’s disability.

• I don’t care if the cop dies. He broke his stupid arm.

• I didn’t care that the GUN general died.

• They just blew up the moon for a reference. Which is a nice reference! But the moon blowing up was a threat. I liked it was there but it was dumb at the same time.

• Win for Stobotnik I guess??? I guess??? It wasn’t entirely impactful. Lonely Eggman was never much my thing. Nor his sacrifice because he already “died.” Given Metal in the end credits I think he is alive and I don’t like the cheapness of doing it twice. Shadow kinda has to be alive because he’s a fan favorite and so is Eggman he’s the fucking villain but it felt less impactful. Still impactful! But lessened. Shadow doing the right thing made more sense than Eggman. He never wanted to do the right thing he just wanted to rule it not go on a suicide mission like Gerald and Shadow.

Over all it made me very happy. And Shadow made me very happy.

[synergysilhouette]

The Disney Renaissance: An Alternate Timeline (with additional films)

I had a lot of fun with my alternate timeline for the Revival Era post, so I thought I'd do the renaissance, along with a few scrapped films. I'm using a modern lens here when it comes to storytelling and portrayal of cultures, so it is a bit different. I'm also mixing my own ideas with scrapped ones from the films. Let's assume they began to use the "two movies a year" model during this period (and that they had the staff to support it).

The Little Mermaid--First off, the film uses a storybook opening and ending. Next, Disney embraces the abnormal, colorful palette used in original concept designs (as seen above), as well as keeping Ariel's knowledge of the human world; instead of Scuttle miseducating her, SHE teaches HIM about the human world. As a human, she has Eric teach her more about arts and sciences, though she does embrace dancing and horseriding. More time is spent giving a bit more personality to Ariel's sisters to show the world she's leaving behind, and they visit her and take on helpful roles like her animal friends, and Eric is modeled after Tom Cruise in a bid to grab more audience members. His singing voice is provided by Brad Kane, and the OG leaked ending is used (except we still get giant Ursula's boss battle at the end and the shell is still broken during the wedding because Jodi Benson is an underrated VA). The film makes about the same amount at the box office given that Disney was in a slump, but it's even more beloved by critics.

The Rescuers Down Under--Most of the film is the same as the original, except the success of "The Little Mermaid" inspires them not only to keep the musical aspect of the original, but make sure it gets just as much attention as TLM. Along with this, the idea to make Cody an Aboriginal Australian goes through, and the music takes influence from Aboriginal music, as well as being dynamic in order to continue with the action-film image that had gripped American audiences when they thought of Australian films at the time. The film makes about $150 million at the box office due to retooling it to feel more in-line with TLM's fantasy aspect while still appealing to action fans, and it makes Disney consider doing more theatrical sequels in the future...

Beauty and the Beast--The finalized version manages a better balance of aesthetic and historical, with the French influence being much more obvious in fashion and setting (though certain things like panniers weren't used in order to appeal to a modern audience's sensibilities) . Adam's name is mentioned explicitly here, as well as flashbacks to his human childhood in order to make his human appearance at the end of the film less jarring (sharing elements with the OG timeline's Broadway play and 2017 remake, such as the enchantress' magic making everyone forget the prince; let's just say that another king is ruling France around this time now--or the monarchy has already been abolish--and even when the curse is lifted, Adam doesn't press the issue). Linda Woolverton anticipates concerns of Stockholm syndrome, so she has the Beast send Belle home periodically so she can have "space" and she returns due to honoring her promise as well as her curiosity of the magical circumstances of the castle. The film is also a bit more mysterious, taking influence from Jim Henson's Labyrinth, as well as the beast being more enigmatic and contemplative rather than aggressive, though his time as a "monster" has led to him becoming more animalistic over time. Clarice is kept in this version, though Belle's loneliness is still highlighted as she's without her family in the castle, and even back home, Clarice "fits in" more than Belle does. Monsieur D'Arque is female, combining the character with Belle's scrapped aunt Marguerite, and she plays a larger role in this version. Gaston, while an arrogant jerk, is more mean than evil, and listens to Madame D'Arque's schemes in order to win Belle, as she once sees Belle visiting Maurice and believes that wherever she's been coming from houses immeasurable power. LeFou isn't kept in this version (the dynamic between D'Arque and Gaston is given more attention), Gaston is knocked unconscious rather than killed, as per the 1989 screenplay, and D'Arque is killed during the invasion of the castle. The critical and financial success to it is about the same as the OG film, and it also gave Disney breathing room to tinker around with different stories in the future.

(Also gotta give credit to MsHowlett on Deviantart for her fanart of Belle, combining both her concept art dress, which is more historical, with her final design.)

Aladdin--When drafting the film, there's a lack of clarity on whether the film should draw from Arab influences, given that most of 1001 Nights takes place in the Middle East, or Chinese influences, since Aladdin is stated to be set in China in the original story. Eventually they boil it down to being a mesh of Indian and Arab cultures (like in the OG timeline, but more culturally accurate), making Agrabah a kingdom between the Middle East and India. Because of this, the fashion doesn't really model the modern influences used in the OG timeline (though they do end up with final looks similar to their "Mirrorverse" appearances), and the phenotypes match the aforementioned cultures. Along with this, they actually go to Saudi Arabia to do research, as the film is 75% Arab, 25% Indian (though they have to wait to Gulf War issues to die down). It's mentioned that Aladdin's father left on a quest to reverse his family's poverty, and that Aladdin's mother died shortly before the film started. It's eventually brought up during production that Aladdin and Jasmine's relationship being built on a lie would divide audiences, so Aladdin reveals his poverty to Jasmine, who keeps the secret from her father since they'd never be allowed to marry. Jasmine and Aladdin are also aged up from 16 and 18 to being in their 20s to avoid critiques they got of Ariel being 16 and getting married. Jafar's backstory ("Why Me?") is explored more, particularly of how he worked hard to become a vizier and used to be looked down on others, and is seen as a evil version of Aladdin. Genie stays the same because he's awesome, and Brad Kane's work on "The Little Mermaid" inspired the team to call him to do Aladdin's singing voice. The film makes about the same in terms of box office, and is seen as one of the earlier examples of positive representation of Muslims in western media.

Swan Lake--Released in 1993, the film was designed as a love letter to classic Disney films, boasting Pre-Raphaelite art (mainly Dante Gabriel Rossetti's art) and operatic songs inspired by "Sleeping Beauty." There was discourse on whether or not to use the original score of the ballet, but eventually it was decided that they would use some of the score while creating some original musical pieces, as well as using ballet here and there for musical sequences. The film follows Prince Sky (taken from Tchaikovsky), who ventures to a magical land in order to find a hero to save his kingdom from the Owl King Rothbart. He encounters Odette, a wise but weary swan capable of turning into a human at night, and they team up to defeat Rothbart and his daughter Odile, falling in love along the way. The film made $400 million in box office, and critics compared it to "The Little Mermaid" and "Beauty and the Beast," with Alan Menken and Tim Rice's music earning praise. The film was nominated for "Best Original Film" at the Oscars, and the song "Moonlight Serenade" won best original song (and a commercial cover by Gwen Stefani and David Bowie). The film would later get controversy for Disney rumored to have made this film to spite "The Swan Princess," which came out the year later. Odette and Sky would later be brought into the Disney Princess and Prince line.

(Art comes from concept art for Barbie's Swan Lake; no concept art of a Disney version is known to exist. BTW, I'm not calling this art Pre-Raphaelite, but I did find it mesmerizing.)

The Lion King--For whatever reason, the team decides to move away from making the film about animals and instead make it a high-fantasy African musical with humans (though it's panafrican in style, it's said to be set in Tanzania). Pretty much all of the story elements are the same, but the enviornment is adapted for humans, with animal metaphors for one's spirit and guide. The film is largely successful (I'd say it makes less than the OG film, but still a hugely successful film since it highlights African culture in an inoffensive way) , but criticism abounds on the lack of a specific culture, particularly how several Tanzanian ethnic groups are conflated together into the story. There was also concern for the predominantly white cast (unless we change that; brainstorming a cast, but nothing's concrete). The film features more music (the OG film only had 5 songs; that's pretty low), and Simba and Nala are indicted into the Disney royal line.

(Art by s0alaina on Deviantart; not sure if it's based on Tanzanian cultures)

Amonute--Disney had the foresight and better judgment to NOT make a historical fiction piece with a sexualized lead. Instead, they allowed their Native American aides more imput on the story, eventually opting for an original story set in a fantasy world that had parallels to Indigenous colonization. The film centers on an Indigenous woman named Amonute (who the film is named after, taken from Pocahontas' birth name), who encounters new settlers with her siblings (basically Nakoma and Kocoum in this timeline). The settlers include the swashbuckling charmer Julian and his scholarly brother Lucien (inspired by Disney's version of John Smith and John Rolfe, as well as elements of Thomas, respectively; the colonists are overall French-inspired since they were seen as the less damaging of the major colonizing lands), both of whom fall for Amonute, and she returns their feelings. The film follows the same beats as "Pocahontas" in the OG timeline, and is reviewed much better due to being an original story free of sexualization, and it becomes as financially successful as Aladdin, but it isn't without criticism; there's concern of the romanticism of colonization, as well as the fact that the tribe Amonute is part of seems to mesh various NA cultures, as well as their clothing being more akin to Powwow regalia (due to colors, patterns, and accessories, but not as detailed of course) rather than anything historical. The ending is much more peaceful than IRL, and Amonute doesn't end up making a decision concerning her love triangle, so both Julian and Lucien join the Disney Prince line when Amonute joins the Disney princess line. In contrast to Billy Zane, Johnny Depp is brought on to voice Lucien, citing his singing ability as the deciding factor, though Billy Zane does play him in any work that Johnny Depp isn't available for.

Sinbad--Released in November 1995, the film's setting being influenced by Iraq was controversial given real-world circumstances concerning the country's relationship with the United States. However, Disney was inspired by the success of "Aladdin" and the (mostly) positive feedback "Aladdin" had received in terms of Asian cultures and Islamic representation, as well as motivated by the controversy of the film conflating India and Saudi Arabian cultures. Rather than traveling to Iraq due to the Gulf War, they instead have to consult literary sources and Iraqi experts within the US. Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio considered the love triangle aspect, but given how Amonute's love triangle divided audiences and growing concern that it'd make Sinbad look like a jerk, the idea was dropped, with his best friend being uninterested in Aaliyah, Sinbad's love interest (who, like Jasmine, was named after a celebrity). Sinbad was modeled after Aladdin to be clever and crafty, but rewritten to be more reserved and quiet to contrast with previous outgoing Disney men, while Aaliyah was more rough and tough than previous Disney women (she was also designed with Salma Hayek as inspiration and Wendy Malick to play her, but it fell through). Let's imagine they got a mostly Arab cast (I doubt they'd go for actors of Iraqi heritage alone), and the film's focus is on Sinbad recruiting Aaliyah to help him rescue his best friend Zayn from being executed for a crime he didn't commit--but Aaliyah did. The musical was highly successful, making over $300 million at the box office and the song "Never Again," detailing Sinbad's rough childhood to his friendship with Zayn and falling in love with Aaliyah, being nominated for BOS at the Oscars. Despite concerns about how Aaliyah might be perceived as a former criminal, she still joins the Disney princess ranks.

(Note: This concept art is from Dreamworks; Disney never got to a point where they made concept art, as far as I know.)

The Hunchback of Notre Dame--Mostly the same as the OG timeline, though with notable changes. Claude Frollo, while still a villain, does show to have a twisted love for Quasimodo, the twisted part coming from his own skewed worldview as well as Quasimodo's perceived "ugliness" and guilt over killing his mother. Quasimodo is also given a bit of a deeper skintone and darker hair color to remind the audience that he is a person of color--not that light-skinned/haired people can't be POC, but this film depicts all Romani people with certain attributes. At best, Quasimodo is mixed, so his features should exhibit that. The gargoyles are less comedic, but they still represent a softer, lighter side of the film as they represent hope and kindness, trying to teach Quasimodo the good of the world, as well as the archdeacon being involved in his life (with the gargoyles never explained as literal magic creatures of representations of Quasimodo's psyche; I like it both ways). It's noted that part of Frollo's obsession with Esmeralda isn't just lust, but also his guilt again over the death of Quasimodo's mother. Esmeralda and Phoebus' lives are fleshed out a bit more (particularly Esmeralda's, highlighting French-Romani culture), as well as giving Phoebus moments to sing. Esmeralda is also tweaked slightly so certain things that she does aren't read as romantic towards Quasimodo, even though he takes them as such. The film makes the same impact financially and critically, along with Esmeralda sadly not joining the DP line due to difficulty marketing her darker film. There is NO SEQUEL, though Madellaine is shown at the end, with Esmeralda and Phoebus singing part of the reprise of "The Bells of Notre Dame" to an infant Zephyr after the events of the film.

Hercules--Given the wide range of feedback they've gotten on cultural representation before, Disney decides that rather than label this a film about Hercules, this is an original story set in an Ancient Greco-Roman-inspired culture that take from a variety of Greek myths, with Hercules, Perceus, Achilles, Orpheus, and Bellephron being influences for the protagonist Nikanor, a kindly demigod prince on a quest to discover the secret behind his magical abilities with his sardonic lover and clever nephew, all while avoiding obstacles set forth by his wicked stepmother (as you can see, they were inspired by "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys"). While a colorful and creative journey (noted as a possible influence for the "Hades" video games by Supergiant), it's also been noted for it's psychological exploration of madness and depression, earning comparison to various mature video games. The music was equally praised for helping to uplift the film at important moments without ruining the vibe. The film made $400 million at the box office, and it's success led to a sequel TV series as well as Nikanor and his love interest Chania joining the Disney royal line given a lack of negative feedback from Greece as in the original film.

Mulan--In this particular timeline, Disney didn't have an issue with Stephen Schwartz working with Dreamworks for "The Prince of Egypt," though the tone is still the same as the OG timeline (ie maintaining that Mulan joined the army for her father, not for personal gain--except to prove she could do something that could make others proud of her). There are more songs in the film, including a "Reflection" reprise sang by Shang and Mulan (or whatever the equivalent would be now that Stephen's writing the music) after Mulan's identity is revealed, as well as a song detailing Shan Yu's motivations and "Mulan's Decision" with lyrics. Mulan has an older sister and a younger brother, both of whom she views as superior to her due to her sister having married and being much more graceful (the progenitor to Isabela Madrigal, in a sense--but it's not an act) and her brother automatically being more valuable thanks to being male. Shang's also mentioned as having a younger brother, and we get a bit more detail into his personal life, mirroring Mulan's desire to protect her father and make him proud. Most of the film is the same, otherwise. The film makes about the same as the original, with the particular praise for Mulan being a lot less underrated thanks to more music.

Tarzan--While an unspoken musical was considered at the time, the characters instead sing in this version, with director Kevin Lima coming around to it under the condition that Tarzan himself didn't sing while other characters did. During production, Tarzan was retooled in a rather unique way. Taking influence from the critically acclaimed show "Batman: The Animated Series," Tarzan, while still kind and empathetic, was made to be more brooding and mysterious and less humorous in order to help make his character (more) intriguing as well as beguiling the audience. The dreadlock hairstyle is also removed, and Jane, Archimedes and Clayton are American (to diffuse the misconception that only British people can be sophisticated intellectuals) while Jane teaches Tarzan to not just speak English, but French as well, similar to his cousin in the book. The film is just as financially successful, with plans for Jane and Tarzan joining the Disney royal lineup, however this is walked back on when Disney decide Jane is too similar to Belle and concern that a white cast in an African setting would come back to bite them.

Aida--Released at the end of 1999, Disney released their take on "Aida," an opera about an Ethiopian princess who is captured by Egyptians and falls in love with the Captain of the Guard. Disney adapts most of the story in order to create an epic and emotional tale like "Amonute," but without the tragic ending of the original opera. In this version, war is prevented between Egypt and Ethiopia, and Radamès and Aida survive. Certain issues plagued production, from Elton John's resistance to do another animated film and Disney catching wind of Dreamworks' "Prince of Egypt" (which ended up releasing the year before), but it became a worldwide hit at making $400 million at the box office, and praise was brought to the fact that Disney learned from the casting of "Aladdin" and cast actors of Middle Eastern descent for Egyptian characters. Needless to say, Amneris and Radamès join the royal Disney line.

(Note: not sure if Elton John and Tim Rice collaborated here like they did for the stage musical in the OG timeline, or if Alan Menken and/or Stephen Schwartz got involved instead)

Lemme know what you think! I know the renaissance is the Roman Empire for a lot of Disney fans, but I wanted to give it a shot. Maybe I'll tweak it later (currently wondering if a should include "Hocus Pocus," which, while never planned to be an animated film, would probably get more attention outside the Halloween season. If I do, it's replacing TRDU).

[longitudinalwaveme]

Best and Worst Comic Appearances of the Rogues

Note: Keep in mind that some of these choices are very subjective and based on personal taste. In particular, it's difficult for me to know if the storylines I list as the "best" for a given character are actually the best, or if they're just the ones that appeal the most to me personally. I feel like the "worst" choices are more objective (or at least more likely to be shared by a majority of the fanbase).

I'm also only judging stories that I've actually read for this list.

Captain Cold

Best Pre-Crisis Appearance: While I like his debut story from Showcase #8 a lot, I think my favorite Pre-Crisis Len story is Flash vol. 1 #150, "Captain Cold's Polar Perils". Ayesha, Len's stalkee-girlfriend du jour, is a fun character, and Len's powers are at peak Silver Age insanity, which is always fun. It's really the perfect encapsulation of what Pre-Crisis Captain Cold is like.

Best Post-Crisis Appearance: Flash vol. 2 #182. This is the famous Rogue Profile issue for Len, and it is legitimately really, really good (even if its treatment of Lisa is frustrating at times). It's a very solid examination of the character and the backstory provides a lot of depth that Len really needed. Basically, if you want to understand modern Captain Cold, this is one of the best issues you can read.

Worst Appearance: Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #10-13. Every character in F: TFMA is poorly written, and Len is no exception. From having a murder retconned into one of the periods where he was supposed to be reformed to letting a teenage speedster take over the Rogues for no good reason, this story just does not understand Cold.

I will also note here that I generally don't like Joshua Williamson's take on Len. I have trouble putting my finger on exactly why, but if I had to take a stab at explaining it, I think I would say that Williamson's Len is too ambitious and too hands-off. Having him take over first Central City's underworld, and then Central City, seems out-of-character for Len, who's usually smart enough to understand that escalating crimes to that level is a great way to attract a horde of superheroes, and having him sit back and organize crimes without going out into the field himself, which Williamson did more than once, likewise seems out-of-character for Cold. Johns' Len wasn't always the best leader in the world, but at least he was always in the field with the other Rogues. Williamson's Len seems a lot more willing to sit back and let other people do the work for him, and he comes across as a worse leader because of it. Effectively, then, I think my problem with Williamson's Len is that his Len seems younger, less experienced, less practical, and less likely to inspire loyalty than any previous version of the character (except the one that was being written around the time of F: TFMA.)

Captain Boomerang Sr.

Best Pre-Crisis Appearance: Flash vol. 1 #310-311, or Batman #322. The first story has Captain Boomerang getting double-crossed by Colonel Computron and sent back in time (on a giant time-traveling boomerang!), whereupon he has to team up with the Flash to fight pirates. It's delightful, and is made even more so by Digger's determination to save his ex-employer, W. W. Wiggins, from the vengeance of Colonel Computron. The second story features Captain Boomerang fighting---and nearly defeating!---Batman, who narrowly escapes death on Digger's "doomerang". Batman really needs to take Flash's villains more seriously....

Best Post-Crisis Appearance: Suicide Squad #44. This gives us Digger's modern backstory, establishes that he's actually W. W. Wiggins' biological son, and generally serves as an interesting character study of a generally unpleasant character. Flash vol. 3 #7 is a very similar retelling of the same basic backstory, this time by Geoff Johns, and would have been tied with Suicide Squad #44 if not for the gratuitous scene of Digger killing his assumed father (for my money, Geoff Johns is a bit too fond of gruesome deaths).

Worst Appearance: I don't read a lot of Suicide Squad, so I'm not familiar with the terrible Digger appearances that may have happened in the various Suicide Squad runs. Because of that, my nomination for the worst Digger story is Identity Crisis #2-5, the story that killed him (and poor Jack Drake and Sue Dibney) for the sake of earning grimdark edgelord points. What makes it even worse is that the story's scenes of him interacting with Owen are actually pretty good, so we got teased with a really interesting plot for him right before he was pointlessly axed.

Heat Wave

Best Pre-Crisis Story: Flash vol. 1 #266-267, or Flash vol. 1 #312. The first story gave us the first version of Heat Wave's backstory (specifically, it established his cryophobia due to having been locked in a meat freezer as a child), presented him as the main villain of a story basically for the first time (all his previous appearances had him teamed up with another villain), and was full of delightful Pre-Crisis pseudo-science, like heat-seeking fire. It also featured a panel of Mick totally freaking out at the sight of ice cubes. The second story was Mick's first reform, and it was a solid, if slightly goofy, tale of Mick proving that his parole officer was framing him for crimes. It also led to him and Barry becoming friends (and temporary roommates) a few issues later!

Best Post-Crisis Story: Flash vol. 2 #218. It's one of the few Post-Crisis issues that uses him as a lead character, and it establishes his now-iconic tragic backstory and pyromania. Even though it's a bit excessively grimdark (did he really need to burn down the circus where he worked as a fire-eater?), it's a solid story nevertheless.

Worst Story: The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #11-13, or the "Three of a Kind" crossover (Green Arrow #96, Green Lantern #130, and Flash #135). Everyone was terribly written in F: TFMA, and Mick was no exception, as he was portrayed as an idiot and then killed Bart Allen.

In the crossover, Mick teamed up with two random villains that he had no prior connection to, for some reason decided to try to revive Dr. Polaris with them via hijacking a cruise ship, and ended up killing a bunch of people. It really felt like he just got shoved into the story because they needed a Flash villain in it, and they didn't think about which one would actually make sense in the plot. It makes even less sense when you remember that Mick would go back to being reformed directly after this.

Also, the New 52 introduced us to the Hothead McAngryman version of Mick, and it unfortunately took over five years for him to finally get back to normal. Having the character with fire powers be hot-headed and aggressive is probably the most boring choice they could have made, and it hurt Mick's overall character for quite some time.

Mirror Master I (Sam Scudder)

Best Appearance: Flash vol. 1 #126, or Flash vol. 1 #146, or Flash vol. 1 #306, or Batman #388 and Detective Comics v1. #555.

The first two stories are delightful Silver Age nonsense. Flash #126 features Sam traveling to a mirror world where the inhabitants essentially make him their king, but he quickly gets fed up with the fact that he's given whatever he wants means that he has no opportunities for dramatic theft, and he summons the Flash to help him escape from his boring life as king. Flash #146 is the story where the Mirror Master switches his legs with the Flash's legs. It also features Barry and Sam attending the same self-help class without knowing it!

Flash #306 has disco-dancing Sam, and, more importantly, it's one of the very few stories to try to give Sam an interesting motivation: specifically, he's fallen in love with a woman who's trapped in a mirror and is desperately trying to free her. The ending of the story is a sad one for Sam, but it's also surprisingly touching.

Finally, the Batman two-parter features Sam at his overconfident, flashy, hilarious best as he tries to prove that he's a better criminal than Captain Boomerang (incidentally, this is also a great Captain Boomerang story). It features such highlights as Sam freaking out at the sight of Batman, Sam getting freaked out by Gotham muggers, and Sam deciding to rob a bank because it's across the street and he doesn't have any better ideas. The first part of the story also features some of the best facial expressions he's ever made.

Worst Appearance: For a single story, it's either Flash Rebirth #2 or that issue from Joshua Williamson's run where Sam wore his socks and underwear in the hot tub. Weirdly, Flash Rebirth #2 featured Sam only briefly, and in a flashback, but it retconned a murder into his early past in a way that would darken all of his fun Silver and Bronze Age adventures. It's one thing to have the Rogues become more dangerous in the present, and another to retroactively make all of their early, light-hearted stories grim like this. (Geoff Johns was responsible for this retcon, and far too many others like it. I really wish he didn't like grimdark retcons so much.)

The Williamson issue had Sam who was Evan-in-all-but-name-and-accent. At that point, he might as well have not been Sam at all! That being said, this was basically just the culmination of all the problems Sam has had since he was brought back to life in the New 52. I don't know how you make a character as fun and dynamic as Pre-Crisis Sam was boring and confusing, but somehow they managed!

Weather Wizard

Best Pre-Crisis Appearance: Either Detective Comics vol. 1 #353, or Adventure Comics #466.

Watching Mark fight---and actually briefly outsmart!---Batman in Detective Comics #353 is a lot of fun, and this story is full of delightful Silver Age zaniness, including, but not limited to, Mark saving Gotham City from a drought by filling all of its reservoirs just so that he can make a big announcement in the sky about how he did it in thanks for getting to steal three priceless valuables, and in turn use that message to determine what in town is worth stealing.

Adventure Comics #466 is an entirely different brand of delightful insanity, and features the Weather Wizard briefly turning good, stopping a horde of locusts from destroying crops, and saving Blue Valley from a flood because sun spots were messing with his wand, which he somehow managed to telepathically link to his brain. No, really. Sunspots briefly make the Weather Wizard turn good. Reading this is worth it just to see Barry's reaction to friendly happy Weather Wizard.

Best Post-Crisis Appearance: Rogues Revenge #1-3. By far the most in-depth look we've ever gotten at Mark's past, his relationship with his brother Clyde, and his boatload of issues. Despite being one of the more frequently-used Rogues in the Geoff Johns era, it was rare for Mark to get a lot of attention outside of his role as a big threat, and this miniseries was a nice change of pace for him. I just wish it hadn't ended with the pointless death of his baby son, Josh, because seeing Mark develop a relationship with Josh would have been far more interesting (and less grimdark).

Worst Appearance: The Flash: The Fastest Man Alive #11-13. The story where the writers replaced the Rogues' brains with rocks, and hoped we wouldn't notice. We did.

Trickster I (James Jesse)

Best Pre-Crisis Appearance: Flash vol. 1 #142. In which the Trickster steals a little kid's toy detective set, and proceeds to screw around with the entire city, and the Flash, just because he can. It's a great display of the Trickster's inventiveness and creativity, and the story goes out of its way to state that Trickster is more interested in attention and having fun than in getting money.

Best Post-Crisis Appearance: Catwoman vol. 2 #69-71, or New Year's Evil : The Rogues.

The Catwoman story features some of the funniest James moments ever, and it's so much fun watching the two con artists try to outsmart and outplay one another. Catwoman and James have a great dynamic, and it's a shame they've never really teamed up again.

New Year's Evil: The Rogues features James at his most heroic, teaming up with the Pied Piper (and, thanks to some manipulation on his part, some of the other Rogues as well) to save his ex-girlfriend Mindy's son, Billy, from a group of mercenaries who are attempting to overthrow the government of Zhutan. The story also eventually reveals that Billy is James' son, which sadly never went anywhere since for some reason no one wanted to follow up on this awesome plot point.

Worst Appearance: Countdown! Not only does he forget all of his Post-Crisis character development, but he also acts really stupidly for no reason, is a humongous jerk to the Pied Piper (his close friend!) for no reason, and then is pointlessly killed for no reason.

It's also worth noting that his most recent big appearance, the one written by Joshua Williamson, was very frustrating to me. It's not as objectively bad as Countdown, or James' appearances in F: TFMA, but it takes James in an unpleasant, dark direction, and I didn't care for it at all.

Pied Piper

Best Pre-Crisis Appearance: Flash vol. 1 #307. This story is very important for the Pied Piper, because it not only gave him his full backstory but also gave him an actual name after over twenty years of him not having one! It's also just a fun read in general, full of delightful Pre-Crisis "science" and featuring some great character work for both Hartley and his parents, who are so desperate to preserve their family name that they have a reporter who uncovered the secret kidnapped so they can bribe her to keep quiet!

Best Post-Crisis Appearance: Flash vol. 2 #19, or Flash vol. 2 #32.

William Messner-Loebs' run on the Flash is underrated, and his work on Piper is a stand-out example of why more people should read it. Even though Hartley doesn't appear a lot in Flash #19 (his first ever Post-Crisis Flash appearance, by the way), but when he does show up, it pretty much single-handedly establishes what he's going to be like going forward; establishing him as an at least mostly reformed Rogue who cares about protecting the homeless and disadvantaged. It's just really sweet.

Flash vol. 2 #32 features Hartley teaming up with Wally to save his parents and his adorable little sister Geraldine from the henchmen of the Turtle and the Turtle Man. It's adorable seeing Hartley interact with his little sister, and it's also nice to see him finally make peace with his parents, even if they'll never be close. I really wish Geraldine had gotten to show up again, because I want to see more of Hartley's little sister. Also, this story features a line that I've always found hilarious for some inexplicable reason:

Thug (in response to Joan Garrick showing up at the Rathaways' mansion): An old woman? Seize her!

A close runner-up is Flash vol. 2 #190, which is a retelling of the origin story from Flash vol. 1 #307, but with more details and from Hartley's POV (the original tale had his parents telling the story).

Worst Appearance: F: TFMA and Countdown (since one led into the other, I kind of count them as one story). In which Hartley totally forgets that he reformed, is involved in the death of Bart Allen, loses about 100 IQ points, gets chased all around the DCU, gets insulted almost non-stop by the Trickster in spite of the fact that they're supposed to be friends, watches Trickster get shot in front of him, and almost goes crazy and dies.

The fact that he gets to blow up Apocalypse with Queen music is awesome, but not nearly enough to salvage this otherwise terrible storyline.

The Top

Best Pre-Crisis Appearance: Flash vol. 1 #297-303. Roscoe comes back from the dead, possesses Barry's father, spends what appears to be several months living with Barry and pretending to be Henry Allen (while slipping off to visit Lisa on the side), and then attempts to kill Barry Allen and steal his body for his own. It's weird and creepy and unique and perfect for Roscoe, and it features lots of top puns, as all good Roscoe stories should. Also, even though he's generally a huge jerk in this story, his relationship with Lisa is adorable, affectionate, and shockingly healthy.

The most hilarious thing about this story is the fact that at one point in it, Barry thinks to himself that his relationship with his father is the best it's ever been....in response to the interactions he's had with Roscoe posing as his dad. That's right, Barry apparently gets along better with Roscoe-pretending-to-be-his-dad than he does with his actual dad.

Best Post-Crisis Appearance: This is hard. Most of Roscoe's Post-Crisis appearances are pretty bad. The writers of Hawk and Dove didn't do an especially good job with him, Mark Waid's one story with him was a decent Pied Piper story but a terrible Roscoe story, and Geoff Johns seemed to hate the character, so that always affected his Roscoe stories. If I had to pick one, I guess I'd go with @gorogues' suggestion and pick Flash vol. 2 #215-216, since he's really intimidating and cool in those issues. Unfortunately, even those issues are not immune from the curse of bad post-crisis Roscoe stories, as they include the stupid Identity Crisis tie-in retcons that negated a whole bunch of the Rogues' character development.

I seriously don't know what the problem is with the Top's post-crisis stories. All of his Pre-Crisis stories were good, solid fun, and his best story shows that he can be really effective and creepy as a main villain. Why is it so hard for modern writers to write good Top stories? He isn't inherently any weirder or goofier than the Trickster.

Worst Story: Hawk and Dove vol. 3 annual #1, or Flash vol. 2 #120-121. The Hawk and Dove annual features some truly hideous art (I'm sure @gorogues has some scans to prove just how bad it is), and features a badly out-of-character Roscoe, who just seems out-of-place fighting Hawk and Dove.

Flash vol. 2 #120-121 takes the solid idea of Roscoe trying to become president by possessing the body of a senator, and then kind of ruins it by having 99% of the cast treat Roscoe as a total joke (the same Roscoe who once tried to blow up half the world with an atomic grenade!) and by having Roscoe act like an unparalleled jerkwad towards the Pied Piper for no real reason. Before his death, Roscoe generally got along pretty well with the other Rogues, so there was no reason for him to act so nastily here. Worse, I think this depiction went on to influence Geoff Johns' portrayal of Roscoe as the most unfriendly and cruel of the Rogues, which is kind of frustrating as he wasn't always like that.

Golden Glider

Best Pre-Crisis Appearance: Flash vol. 1 #257. Golden Glider is terrifying and awesome, and this story shows you exactly why. Within this issue alone, she discovers Barry's secret identity (making her the first Rogue to pull off this hat trick), almost kills both of Barry's parents and Iris (as revenge for Roscoe's death, which she blames on Barry), puts up a very solid fight against the Flash, doesn't even flinch when the Flash threatens to kill her as a bluff (saying that she has nothing left to live for now that Roscoe is dead), and, although Barry manages to save Iris and his parents, she escapes without being captured. Pre-Crisis Golden Glider is the best, and it's a shame she never gets written like this anymore.

Best Post-Crisis Appearance: Flash vol. 2 #19. Her interactions with Wally in this story are great fun, and I like seeing her be chummy with her older brother and her fellow Rogues at the party they're throwing. Her interactions with Connie Noleski (Wally's one-time girlfriend) are also pretty funny. This issue is also notable for being one of the last stories that doesn't portray Lisa as a total lunatic, as for some reason, her character got shifted into that direction not long after COIE.

Worst Appearance: As I thankfully haven't read Teen Titans vol. 6 #22, I'm nominating Flash vol. 2 Annual 5. It's a great story for Captain Boomerang, Weather Wizard, and Trickster, but it's a pretty bad story for Lisa, as it portrays her as being completely insane and serves as Exhibit A of how Mark Waid didn't know how to write the character. Golden Glider was scary because she was smart, calculating, and surprisingly composed (given how full of rage she was). Making her violently comic-book crazy undercuts how scary she was back in the Bronze Age.

You know, it really says something that Carey Bates, Lisa's creator, is probably still the best writer she's ever had. And he was writing in the late 70s and early 80s!

Mirror Master II (Evan McCulloch)

Best Story: Animal Man #8, 17, and 21, or Flash vol. 2 #133.

Nobody writes Evan McCulloch better than his creator, Grant Morrison, and these issues put that on full display.

The Animal Man stories introduce McCulloch, establish his weird personality, his freaky powerset, and his strict refusal to kill women or children, and are generally a delight to read. McCulloch has a very distinct voice throughout and is the funniest part of all three stories. Basically, everything you need to know about the character was established in these three issues.

Flash #133 is McCulloch's best appearance in an issue of Flash. He maintains his weirdness, his distinctive voice, and his insane powerset, and he takes the Flash and the reader on a trippy, colorful adventure around the world and through the looking glass. He maintains his generally cheerful and friendly attitude towards superheroes, and he is, once again, the funniest character in the story. Grant Morrison's Evan is a delight.

A close runner-up was Flash vol. 2 #212, the story that gave Evan his backstory (grimdark though it is, it somehow kind of works for him) and established what has become arguably his second-most famous characteristic (after his Scottish accent): his addiction to cocaine. It is a very good story, and I like that we get to learn more about Evan's history, but I will say that Geoff Johns' Evan isn't nearly as cheerful and weird as Morrison's, and I think that the story would have been even better with Morrison's cheerful nutty Evan than with Johns' creepy, sullen version.

Worst Appearance: Flash: TFMA. You know the drill by this point. Stupid Rogues. Pointless death of Bart. Bad writing all around.

Trickster II (Axel Walker)

Best Appearance: Flash vol. 2 #183. There are actually surprisingly few issues that focus on Axel as a lead character, but I've always enjoyed his introductory issue. It establishes some backstory for him and effectively tells you who he is (an annoying brat who might be in over his head) and what he can do (use a lot of crazy trick gadgets and work computers better than the older Rogues). I also like the bit towards the end of the issue where Mark is thoroughly unimpressed by Axel and asks if he's supposed to be their mascot. It always gets a giggle out of me.

I also thought the arc in Joshua Williamson's run where Axel briefly got super-strength was a pretty good story for Axel. It's one of the few times he's been played sympathetically and I thought that it worked really well.

Worst Appearance: Helmet of Fate: Detective Chimp. Okay, I haven't actually read this one, but I know enough about it to know that Axel murders 4 teenagers for no real reason, and that's enough for me to list it as his worst appearance.

Also, I can't really think of any Axel issue that I have read where Axel is portrayed really terribly. Writers usually seem to have a decent grasp on his character.

Captain Boomerang Jr.

Best Appearance: The best appearance of his that I've read is in Flash vol. 2 #220-225 (the Rogue War storyline). It's one of the few stories to feature him with the Rogues, and his grief over the death of his father and his relationship with Captain Cold are both very interesting. The story also finally tells us who his mother is (Meloni Thawne) and how she had a kid with Digger (well, sort of. We know time travel shenanigans were involved, at least). That being said, @gorogues says that his appearance in Manhunter v. 3 were really good, and I've heard that the story where he teamed up with Tim Drake was a good one as well.

Worst Appearance: Blackest Night: Flash #3. The story where he was turned into a idiotic child murderer and then was pointlessly killed off!

A close runner up was the Rebirth (I think) issue of Suicide Squad where he suddenly showed up and was inexplicably a snobby criminal mastermind who really hated Digger.

[clonerightsagenda]

trick or treat!👻🎃🦇🦇 ( i feel like their should be a dancing skeleton emoji or smth:/)

Anything you have to offer about blue eye samurai! Any hot takes? Analysis of character relationships? Unrelated cat pics that are always appreciated?

Happy Halloween!

🔮

(^also safely setting down my offering of a crystal that only tells you vague, impersonal fortunes and futures)

Something I've been thinking about post-watch is Mizu loose in London. Fowler's not wrong that she'd probably have trouble navigating the UK to find 2 specific people without him. However she's taking a real gamble turning to him for help. She doesn't know what these two guys look like. He could point to any of his enemies and claim they're the men she's looking for.

However, Fowler is Irish. In the late 1600s. While I am no great shakes at distinguishing accents, the British have an impressive ability to identify your exact class and location background from a few words, so I assume he is visibly or at least audibly Irish, which means he probably has a lot less cachet in London than he wants Mizu to think. Mizu's about to learn whole new flavors of racism.

I'm also wondering what Mizu's experience will be as a mixed race person in London. Obviously Japan was closed, and from what I can tell, the UK didn't have much dealings with China yet, although they already had some with India. Conceptions of race and attitudes toward mixed race people change a lot depending on the current times and tensions. Will Mizu be an abomination or a curiosity? Would she have stuck out less in another 150 years? I feel like I should do some background reading since the next season isn't due until 2026. Really my biggest question, given the show's playing with gender, gender roles, and using people's expectations against them, is - depending on how mixed race and East Asian people are perceived in this time period in London, which I do not know, would it be more valuable or safer for Mizu to present as a man or a woman?

Thank you for the crystal ball! I shall peer into its depths... cautiously.

[penultimate-step]

brief thoughts about Aqua's potential motivations in OnK 154

I notice that the latest chapter has left me a bit confused as to Aqua and Ruby's character motivations in retrospect. Playing with my own thoughts a little: Aqua's impulse for revenge has been portrayed throughout the manga up til now as something inherently destructive, both to himself and others - this contrasts with the revenge we're given, which is forcing Hikaru to confront Ai's emotions and his own failures. Ai asks Aqua to help Hikaru, and indeed, I would argue that showing him this truth, even if it is so many years to late to save him, is a constructive act rather than a destructive one.

And like. On one hand that's nice, that's a sign of growth for Aqua that he isn't prioritizing hurt and pain above all else, that is a good direction for him. On the other hand it does leave me a little unsure what was going on when he talked about revenge in previous chapters? Even as late as chapter 150, after the movie is completely filmed, the drive for revenge is contrasted to the wish to live on and find happiness. One could argue that this had more to do with his own emotions than the actual act itself - that the problem with Aqua's revenge has always been more about his own issues, his suicidal thoughts and how he treated the people around him, than anything in the real world - but I don't think I quite buy that?

So my guess that there was something in this plan that could have been much more harmful and destructive. By confronting Hikaru this way, Aqua is making a choice not to go that route, to move forward and act in a less destructive way, to prioritize Ai's wishes and his own future over his own guilt and self-harm - and I think in future chapter's we'll learn what that other, could-have-been path might have been.

There's another bit in this chapter that gave me a some pause - Ruby. The final page of the chapter has her standing outside the door, listening in - I don't want to assume too much based on one wordless, shadowed facial expression, but she seems deeply unhappy, almost haunted. Given Ruby's previous meeting with Hikaru (also some speculation from 152) I think that while Aqua has been aware of Ai's request, and has been having his internal struggle about what to do with his revenge, he has been keeping Ruby in the dark - she knows this movie is for the sake of revenge, but she likely didn't recognize Hikaru and is possibly unaware of all of these details, even though she was the one acting it out. This might be the first time she's hearing any of this!

(Aqua's line that Ruby "was acting that line as a lie" may completely disavow this. I'm not 100% on this interpretation. But given the surrounding events I'm more willing to believe that she didn't have the full context here.)

When Aqua originally released the information that they were Ai's children, Ruby saw this as a betrayal of their family so severe that she cut ties. They later made up, but not by addressing the fundamental issue - Aqua's identity reveal papered over the issues that were there. But while Ruby sees Gorou as someone who categorically is on her side and wouldn't betray her, that isn't exactly true - the act that caused her to no longer see Aqua as a trustworthy figure were still something he did, and didn't regret. So how will Ruby react to hear Aqua, her beloved idol, say that his revenge was in part something that would help their mother's killer? Aqua has had plenty of chapters considering the worth of revenge versus happiness - Ruby hasn't had that. It's possibly she went along with this plan because it was Aqua who asked - but equally possibly that this is a moment that she realizes that her idol has plans that go against her own, causing their relationship to strain once more.

Now, I've made a lot of guesses from very little information here, it's entirely possible that I'm completely off base on both points - that this was Aqua's plan from the start, and that Ruby was completely informed. But these are points I think are the factors that I think are not fully explained as of right now, which means I think will receive further elaboration in coming chapters.

[nevermindigotthis]

Ring of Power S2: Could be worse, actually

So I'm finally caught up on S2 of The Rings of Power, and while I still don't think it's good, necessarily, I like season 2 much better than 1. Full Spoilers below:

Things I (still) don't like:

How they compressed around 150 years of learning how to craft Rings into like, a couple of weeks. A) If it was that easy, Celebrimbor&Co would have figured it out on their own, B) it makes the betrayal by Annatar much less tragic if he's just this dude that showed up a few weeks ago. That being said, I get why they did it, if it takes 150 years you can't have any human main characters.

If dwarves have Storm Singers, why isn't Song as a weapon or tool of the elves ever shown or heard?

WHERE IS CELEBORN??? WHY DOES GALADRIEL SEEMINGLY NOT CARE?? She goes on and on about how Finrod died, which sure, was tragic, but she only offhand mentions one time in season 1 that she has a husband, and goes like "oh he died" with basically a shrug. How is the love of your life, with whom you have (or should have) a child by now so much less important than your brother?

The whole Galadriel/Sauron thing. Bro. Why????

On the matter of Sauron, why is he such a whimp in S2E1? Are you telling me Sauron, 1st lieutenant of Morgoth would be successfully betrayed by some orcs? And since when do Maia turn into blobs of goo when "killed"? Aren't they spirits? Shouldn't he turn into a "ghost", fly away, gather his strength and just chose another form? Like he does when he goes from Halbrand to Annatar?

The Nori story. It's Gandalf. We've known it's Gandalf from the moment he showed up. We also know who he becomes. It feels like a rather pointless way of forcing Hobbits into the story, just because a LotR story needs to have some hobbits.

Arondir this season is only there to remind you that Isildur is of course alive and that Theo exists. I don't know why we should care about Theo though.

I still think the costumes are way worse than in LotR and I'm still sad that the elves no longer feel as etheral as in LotR.

Random cameos that serve no purpose, other than making nerds like me do the DiCaprio Meme: namedropping 1st age people (e.g. Beren, Melian, Feanor), a female Ent, Tom Bombadil

Things I actually DO like:

They gave us Annatar. While I would have preferred if Annatar had been introduced, we'd gotten to love him, and THEN he were revealed to be Sauron, so we could have been just as betrayed as Celebrimbor, I do like how "gaslight, girlboss, gatekeep" he is. He really earns the "deceiver" title. And I loved how he randomly changes from white to black clothes and literally nobody comments on the ominous change in wardrobe.

I like Elendil. That actor was made to be in a Tolkien story and Elendil remains one of the coolest and best characters.

On that note: Miriel is pretty cool too. And I absolutely ship it.

They kept Cirdan's status as literally the only elf with a beard!!! I love it. That actor is also perfectly cast! Love it!

I actually don't mind Adar. I don't think we needed another villain apart from Sauron, but he's alright I guess. At least he's interesting.

ELROND MY MAN!!!! I love how all the elves are deceived by Sauron or taken in by the rings and then there's Elrond. He says no to the rings and even when Galadriel gives him hers he doesn't even put it on. That's some strength of character right there!

Poor Celebrimbor. Again, I would have prefered another version of Annatar, but Celebrimbor's enthusiasm, then skepticism, then horror and despair are so welll done *chef's kiss*

Also Sauron mentioning he was tortured by Morgoth. Bro is traumatized and making it everybody elses problem.

Just. Disa. Georgeous, Strong, Compassionate, her VOICE,... Stormsingers as a concept in general, but especially Disa. Holy shit. She's so cool. They could have given her a bigger beard though.

[teardropwolf]

Next oc I'm putting up: Wrangler

Wrangler the lionhearted "cowboy"

Somewhere in his mid 20s

-hardly gets scared -friend to animals -never takes off his hat(it never breaks)

120 health 150 hunger 300 sanity

Kabobs are his favorite food.

His voice would probably be a folk guitar

Wrangler had... a rough past to put it lightly. He found the best way to deal with it was to read up on cowboy stories. He became obsessed with them so much he created his own cowboy persona. One day he was promised a life where he could live out his cowboy fantasies and he was never seen again.

He has a lasso that he starts with (he has no idea how to use it.) He isn't very good with it at first but he eventually gets the hang of it. Also starts with 3 rope.

Loses sanity when animals die in his inventory. Especially birds. (-20 for rabbits/moles/other creatures and -80 for birds.)

He can get close to birds and bunnies for a little bit before they fly/run away. He can also tame/domesticate beefalo faster.

He doesn't lose sanity in the dark or around certain monsters. He does very, very slowly lose sanity when around boss monsters, however.

Gets along with pretty much every survivor. Except WX. And Maxwell... And Woodie sometimes.

He doesn't have a southern accent. He doesn't even know what one sounds like. Still will try to talk like a cowboy anyway. Definitely says "Yee haw" a lot.

He pretty much never breaks character from his cowboy persona. He has already given himself a (less tragic) backstory since before he got into the Constant. He's able to keep it very consistent and even has it memorized.

Wrangler refuses to take his hat off. He loves it too much. To him, a cowboy absolutely needs one to complete their look. The hat is surprisingly durable and never breaks. While he isn't too happy about wearing armor suits, he'll still wear them for defense. As long as he can keep wearing his hat.

He may not be the brightest, but he's got a big heart. He loves to help others with anything. Hoping to take down baddies and keep others safe. Anything to make sure no one goes through what he went through...

His persona makes him seem confident, fearless and a bit reckless. He definitely talks cocky to his "enemies."(Any monster he's fighting.)

Wrangler isn't his real name. It's a name he chose for his cowboy persona.

He has no idea what he's doing

[hiejindraws]

Key differences between Hyper Projection Engeki Haikyuu!! and Gekidan Haikyuu!! (+ Review)

Btw don’t ask me for scans of the pamphlet or bromides bc I didn’t buy them. The only merch I bought was a t-shirt and a towel ok BABY’S ON A BUDGET.

• No “hyper projection” and no rotating stage

• Less emphasis on music and dancing, more on acting

• The stage is level and not on an incline. This means the volleyball net could be on wheels and be rolled around on the stage (in fact, most of the set pieces were on wheels)

• No epic opening or closing sequences

• Very few (if any, I don’t remember) musical interludes—really, there was music only during the volleyball matches

• No Seijoh/Oikawa theme music 🥲 or Nekoma theme (for when they’re briefly mentioned in the announcement of the GW training camp)

• More characters! Seijoh actors doubled as Yukigaoka players/all FOUR members of the Karasuno Neighborhood Association, not just Shimada and Takinoue!

• They really fleshed out the Yukigaoka vs. Kitaichi game! Like, Hinata had actual teammates, it wasn’t just him and Kagz 1 v 1 on the court like it was in the first Haisute (although, I guess it wasn’t technically 1 v 1 then either bc Kindaichi and Kunimi were also there)

• They included even more scenes from the series and stayed even truer to the source material. I think leaving out the music and intense dance breaks opened up a lot of room for this

Some callbacks to Engeki:

• Hinata hums the tune to a musical motif from Engeki but I cannot for the life of me remember which one it was even though I JUST saw it today. If I had to guess (bc the scene involved Hinata imitating Kagz), it was Kageyama’s theme from the first Haisute when he whips off his cape and crown.

• Ennoshita (AND Kinoshita AND NARITA!!) do the “SE〜NO” synchronized clap with the audience (and it made me so so SOOOO happy!!)

Review:

Overall, this production seemed less “dramatic” in the sense that the entire performance (the acting, music, and choreo/blocking) felt very subdued compared to its predecessor. There was certainly a different energy in the theater this time around. My blood didn’t get pumping the same way it did when I saw Start of the Giant and The Tokyo Battle in-person. I believe this artistic direction was intentional. I’m just not sure it’s sustainable.

What I always appreciated the most about Engeki was that the stage performances perfectly matched the high levels of energy the anime possessed. In fact, I would argue it brought even MORE energy than the anime did or ever could in large part due to Wada Shunsuke’s memorable musical compositions and HIDALI’s ingenious choreo.

Music and dance have always been core elements of the OG Haisute to the point that each show had it’s own unique opening/closing sequence, each team had it’s own musical and dance motif, and certain reoccurring events had their own identifiable themes (e.g. the starting lineup before any given match). The true magic of Engeki lied in the music and dancing. Obviously, the cast brought their own magic by always giving 150% to their performances, but they were also matching the energy the music brought THROUGH their dancing/acrobatics. It’s all intricately woven together.

OH, not to mention the original production’s partial namesake: the projections! There was always a level of suspended reality when watching Engeki because the light projections literally helped to merge the manga with the stage. They transformed the stage and backdrop into anything and everything the story needed—manga panels, speech bubbles, a sunset, a volleyball net. They also synced with, you guessed it, the MUSIC to give an absolutely outstanding audio-visual experience.

It really hit me hard when I entered the theater to see that it really was… just a regular stage.

That’s why I question if this production (and any future ones they may have planned) is sustainable. Not in the financial sense… but just in the way of retaining interest. It didn’t get me hooked the same way Engeki did, so I don’t think I’m able to give it the same level of enthusiasm. I’m hard-pressed to believe others feel the same way. Don’t get me wrong—I enjoyed it. It wasn’t bad. It didn’t take anything away from the series… I’m just not sure it added anything to it, either. Sure, there was music and dancing, but it just paled in comparison to what we were gifted by Hyper Projection Engeki Haikyuu. Makes me wonder why they would take so many steps back with this production.

All that being said… I’m glad I went. I truly did enjoy myself and the cast put their all into these characters. And if nothing else, I’m glad to have gone in support of Suga Kenta (OG Hinata) in his Haisute directorial debut.

[g-toasty]

Littlest Pet Shop characters can destroy your city (read below)

Littlest Pet Shop 2012, being a cartoon, ignores logic constantly. But what happens when these inconsistencies imply the pets and chatacters can destroy your house by breathing.

So in this scene, the Biskits are yelling at their butler to move a mirror up so that the light from the sun hits them. The light then reflects off of several mirrors to hit the Biskits who are sunbathing. The light is shown to not be an instant frame-one beam of light.

So the butler was able to move his arm at this distance.

Cropped out the guy's shoe because added height and also his feet were at an angle, and cropped off his hair because height doesn't count hair. Height of men in the US whoa really 60 or older is 173.4 centimeters. That will be this guy's height since he looks old. Height of image is 849 pixels. 173.4/849 = 0.204240282686 centimeters per pixel. This technique is called pixel scaling, and it's what Matpat on Game Theory used when he calculated stuff in shows and games.

He moved his arm this much. Image height is 192 pixels. 192 x 0.204240282686 = 39.2141342757 centimeters.

The light moved this distance when it traveled in a straight line. I chose this since the light actually changes in angle from coming from the sun and hitting the mirror. Image width is 870 pixels. 870 x 0.204240282686 = 177.689045937 centimeters. Speed of light is 299792458 m/s. Solve for time and the time frame is 5.92707E-9 (or 0.00000000592707) seconds.

Watching frame by frame, we see it takes exactly 2 frames for the light to reach that straight line distance as shown above. Given 2 frames is 2.5x less frames than 5 frames, that means the time it took for the butler to move his arm is 2.5x slower than 5.92707E-9, or 0.00000000592707 seconds. 5.92707E-9/2.5 = 2.370828e-9 (0.000000002370828) seconds.

We know the distance the butler's arm moved is 39.2141342757 centimeters, so use that and a time frame of 0.000000002370828 seconds and solve for speed. You get 369,995,000 miles per hour. WOAH that's really fast arm-moving, and he did this casually!!

But that's not all. We can guess that a simple casual movement Is slower than characters running and riding fast carts!

Like… the scene where Zoe and Penny in a wagon run over Vinnie and Minka. A small wagon weighs 20.94 lb. Zoe should weigh 13 pounds since she's a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Penny is a female adult panda, so she should weigh 150 pounds. We know they should be adults, given that we have seen flashbacks to when the pets were actually kids. We also have this implied when Sunil tries to show his parents that he has a job as a doctor, and the parents believing him.

Total weight: 183.94 lbs.

We have the relativistic speed there, so plugging those numbers into the kinetic energy formula, and we get 1.141291036168E+18 joules, or 272.77510424665393884 megatons of TNT. For reference, the strongest nuclear bomb ever, the Tsar Bomba, had a yield of 50 megatons. This means Vinnie and Minka survived an impact 5.44x stronger than the strongest nuke.

Minka would casually survive this explosion without a sweat or care in the world.

[colloquialcolors]

gonna write a fucking post about the Winter TLOU section and episode 8 because what ELSE am I supposed to do after witnessing that huh.

As someone very very pleased overall with the adaptation from the game to the show, something I have missed a little is, oddly enough- the hard cuts to black and time jumps after emotionally harrowing sequences or intense moments. After Henry and Sam's deaths. Joel collapsing outside the university. This episode, though, made something about that choice click into place.

For more context- in the game, this section comes immediately after Joel's fall and unconsciousness. The entire section with Riley and Ellie panicking was DLC, meaning the original flow of the story does not provide you with that context, and you might miss it entirely. Instead, the game cuts to black as Joel goes unsconscious with Ellie pleading above him-

and you get the title card. WINTER. It was not winter before. And you are Ellie, hunting. You have been playing this whole game as Joel thus far, and you suddenly, after all that chaos, are Ellie. Hunting in a white blanketed forest. Lighter, quieter, agile and a far cry from the girl yelling, panicked, above Joel.

And this Ellie is capable, at hunting- she already has a rabbit or two, and has just shot another- when she spots the deer, she has some idea of how to track and take it down (hindered mostly by us, the player, adjusting to controlling her). Until the encounter with David, where Ellie asks a little desperately about medicine, you have no inkling on if Joel is even alive, and Ellie being so capable is almost its own negative indicator. As the section wears on, Ellie does a lot more killing in game than she does here- she stabs a nonzero amount of clickers, zombies, and people in the neck during various navigation and escape scenes, shoots the rifle and the bow (miss u bow) with her own kind of proficiency, and reflects many things you have to assume she learned from Joel. The game medium lends itself well to a certain level of capability, of course- even for 14 year olds with bloodied hands.

While the hard cuts to black provide a gut punch I do miss a bit, getting rid of those allows the show to fill in some gaps- especially about these characters in their weak moments, low moments, after the dust has settled and they need to pick themselves up again. It does a lot in humanizing them. Shows them rattled and uncertain and shaken and mourning, instead of dropping us back in after they've picked back up their broken pieces, given the dignity of speculation.

Ellie, especially, is more scared here- more uncertain, more shaky, playacting as Joel rather than successfully emulating him. There is no hard cut where we get to assume Ellie has scraped things together and settled in it. We see her fear, playing out, see her desperation firsthand, before she even sets back out. She is so young. She was young, in the game too, but it is driven home in new and more intense ways, here. She is so profoundly out of her depth.

The uncertainty makes these same victories hit harder, too. Ellie, terrified and horrified and angry, sassing back. Ellie with realization and fear dawning- making the play for the keys, snapping his finger. "Tell them Ellie is the little girl who broke your fucking finger." Ellie, telling him- I'm infected, and now you are too. So many of these lines and scenes are almost verbatim, but it lands differently, with this different context, with an Ellie who is much less sure but still so lethal.

Less, and more. David's entire Fucking Pedophile Shit deal was much less prominent, in game. The overtness of it made things so much worse. So much scarier. Bella's delivery of Ellie's yells and reactions carry an edge of panic, of fear, of raw emotion, brings a scene that was always at 150% up to 300%, until Ellie, screaming, swinging down the knife is an almost physical, visceral catharsis.

In the game, Joel finds here there- pulls her off, pulls her into a hug after she fights him for a moment, the music swelling to give their words to each other privacy as they lock gazes and speak. Here- Ellie pulls herself back to reality. She finishes her catharsis. She realizes, on her own, face spattered with blood, what she's done. She stumbles from the smoke to the clean outside under her own power, on her own.

When Joel grabs her- she fights, there is such audible rage and horror and fear, and it hurts more, it cuts deeper, understanding that fear, the depth of it. Before he spins her around, and the comfort scene is only half a minute longer, but there is so much more to it- more that led up to it, and more in the moment, of Ellie's gaze going from panicked to unbelieving to weak with relief to something heavier.

So few cut aways in the show. no dignity of a timeskip and implied fractures, just bleeding characters, holding onto each other in the snow.

[witchcraftandburialdirt]

I really love how even though Robin is messed up in the fog that he still reads as a sympathetic character. Could you tell us what happened to him or why he has issues remembering anything? Does he want to leave the fog?

✧ ━━ 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍 𝐈𝐍𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒 : 𝐑𝐎𝐁𝐈𝐍 𝐀. 𝐁𝐀𝐔𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐄 𝙳𝙴𝙰𝙳 𝙱𝚈 𝙳𝙰𝚈𝙻𝙸𝙶𝙷𝚃 𝚅𝙴𝚁𝚂𝙴

Thank you anon! I wasn't expecting such a sweet message in my inbox, and I would be delighted to delve deeper into the details of Robin's experiences - unfortunately I cannot spoil the lore I just finished ( it'll be posted soon! ) I'm glad however that despite all of his habits and uncomfortable mannerisms, that he still reads as a sad figure moreso than a purely terrifying one. He's lost a lot in life, and I want that to always be present; he will never be without his grief. No matter how much he tries to get rid of it. I can definitely go over the basics and explain his feelings towards Fog! Frankly that is long enough on its own since, despite the worlds that leave his mouth, Robin's feelings towards the Fog are pretty complicated and a bit all over the place.

A good chunk of this is because Robin truly, to his deepest core, does not remember what the world was like when he was in it. He cannot remember what food tastes like, what rain sounds like, and a lot of the things most people take for granted just don't exist in his mind anymore. Music, singing, the sweet smell of flowers in spring and the tweeting of birds nestling in the hazel thicket ... its all gone. That being said, he is very aware of the "lost" bit of him, and tries to hide his concern for the growing holes in his memory - but it really isn't working. It's part of the reason he instinctually is always seen wandering about the fields and forests, part of him still primally yearns for all of those things; but he's lost the words or reasonings to really explain it. If he did it would be like trying to describe the tones of a color that doesn't exist. I think he might honestly cry if he reintroduced to music or had someone show him that the organ in his church can actually play still!

Fun Fact: Robin never got to see the ocean, but he always wanted to.

He's been stuck in the Fog for over 150 years and each day that ticks on takes more out of him, and its forcing him to conform ever more to what the Entity wishes for him to be. The problem with that is given Robin is an actual human being, he can't be an unconscious tool for her use - but She can at least peel and strip away the parts that make him less than cooperative. The Entity gained that ownership of him once it resurrected him from his boggy death and forced him into the scorching light of the sun where every part of him that could not serve Her was burnt away to ash and blown off with the winter wind. Then he did what earned his entrance into the Fog.

But that's a tale for another day.

Within his lore, those tiny joys through nature were one of the only ways he could find any sort of solace as he had a relatively difficult life, granted it wasn't without its pure arresting moments of wonder ━ but a lot of it was riddled with grief and tragedy due to his bloodline. For this explanation I'll be focusing on the subject as its seen within Europe and more specifically the UK as that is where Robin is from, however there are other mentions of it within histories around the globe from various cultures. You see eating sins was an actual occupation, and a very much hated one at that; but it was a necessary evil in the eyes of many even if the church did not approve - and was practiced within the multitude of rural communities within the UK from the late 16th century to the earliest years of the 20th century.

I won't go into too much detail regarding the profession, but in short they were summoned into town when a death occurred. For anyone who had died without confessing their sins, a sin-eater would take on the sins of the deceased by eating a loaf of bread ususally placed on the corpse's breast overnight and drinking ale out of a wooden bowl passed over the coffin/body ━ practices varied throughout different communities but you understand the idea.

Abhorred by the superstitious villagers as a thing unclean, the sin-eater cut himself off from all social intercourse with his fellow creatures by reason of the life he had chosen; he lived as a rule in a remote place by himself, and those who chanced to meet him avoided him as they would a leper. This unfortunate was held to be the associate of evil spirits, and given to witchcraft, incantations and unholy practices; only when a death took place did they seek him out, and when his purpose was accomplished they burned the wooden bowl and platter from which he had eaten the food handed across, or placed on the corpse for his consumption. ( Funeral Customs by Bertram S. Puckle ; 1926 )

With the Entity taking away the comforting moments of his time alive; what does he really have to gain by trying to get away from the Fog? All he knows for certain is that the world he came from was cruel and he feels it is undeserving of any mercy that could be granted to it; how could he when all he remembers is the suffering he went through? He's deep in Her manipulations and genuinely believes the Entity is God coming to bring about the Fourth Seal and he's been chosen to participate. It's the only way his brain can make sense of anything that's happening to him, and he's really let it take complete hold of him. Any sort of compassion or sympathy or humanly bond is too late in its arrival, he is lost and he can never go home, both in the material world and in the plane of his mind. Or at least that is what he believes, but humans often overestimate their capabilities and their eagerness to be alone, and in comes a rather unexpected problem to his "I'll simply fade away into nothing and become what God needs me to be, and that is my purpose in this life" outlook.

In steps the biggest wrench in his plans.

No no, it is unfortunate for Robin but @mxlevolence is clinging to his blood soaked hand while he hangs over the edge of his doom ━ urging him to not let go, and for some reason Robin is listening to them. Their relationship is pretty complicated but GF so intensely affects Robin's view of the Fog that it's impossible for me to not talk about it. Vicious at one point mentioned that "poems cannot even begin to describe their relationship" and I think that still stands true. Especially for Robin, who struggles to really understand what friendship and love are because he is relearning what those emotions mean and what it's like to not be completely alone. They've found a kindred nature within eachother, and few and between are the days that these two don't interact, even if its just one of them approaching the other like "and another thing!"

━ And Robin hates it.

Well, more specifically Robin's human brain is really satisfied and happy by the social interaction its getting, and he is genuinely enjoying the time he has with Ghostface as well. That said he knows he isn't supposed to, and it is wrecking his viewpoint; what was once so clear of a destiny for him now seems blurrier and blurrier the more the Grave Walker opens their mouth. He gets the concept. He does! But ... The sadder angle of the entire thing is how easy it would be for Robin to just grab onto the bond that he's made and find strength within it, he is so close to being pulled back from the end of himself, but he's terrified of the consequences that might not even exist.

There is also the very high possibility that somewhere deep within Robin he does feel an immeasureable weight for the acts he's committed, and that maybe he doesn't think he deserves to be saved or the kindness that comes along with it. And maybe he's right. Robin has done atrocious things in the name of his God, and has shown basically no remorse about them; but that's the thing about love and mercy; it cares little for how worthy someone is of it. Whether or not Robin feels remorse for his actions seems to mean little to GF so long as they get to be free together, it doesn't matter what he did. All that matters is who he is, and who he shouldn't let go of.

Vicious kind of broke my brain when they referenced beloved Tolkien and I haven't been able to get the thought or the comparisons out of my head???? help???

There is something very curious about these two accidentally finding the humanity in each other that they're both desperately trying to erase from themselves ━ yet they're both like "NO NO NO" at the other doing it. How ironic that in order to save someone in the same situation as yourself that you have to take your own advice. Becoming a human being and accepting the weaknesses that comes along with it all to save a singular person is like ... idk man a massive fucking deal when you're talking about these two. It's almost desperate in a way. SO desperate in fact that Robin has found himself being a bit more honest and genuine then a Devil should be, and Danny has peeled off the Ghostface mask; things that they absolutely do not want to ever do. And yet! It's happening, and seemingly getting worse every thread.

I always find it really funny because Vicious and I were like "you ok if they die" "yes" "cool" and then we just let these two take the reins of the threads and tbh its been such a cool experience seeing them just ... exist and thrive! Well, ok maybe thrive isn't the right word, but steer the wriring? I suppose.

And there is the acknowledgement from Robin as well about his predicament, he knows whats happening to him, and what will. However at this rate, he's been so beaten down and sanded away that there's little left in him that can cling to any notion of hope, and instead clings to the glory of duty. It is an honor to serve such a reverent God etc etc. The delusion is very strong and Robin is happy to cling to it just as hard. Fate is unavoidable. They are to be given over to the jaws of fate one way or another, and he'd prefer the easier descent into the Entity's maw ━ and he wants that for Ghostface too. It would be a mercy compared to what could unfold if the Entity should grow to dislike them, and he does not want to face those possibilities.

Ahhh but you see, the cyclical issue of then "is he wanting Ghostface to just obey so his own horrors will be easier or is he worried about what the Entity will do to his dear friend should they continue to agitate it?"

From a narrative standpoint its relatively easy to see what part of that he thinks is true, and which is actually true. Robin will always be a man no matter what the Entity does to him or what he tells himself to be or what his village told him he was. And it is a very frightening experience to have that tossed back in his face and to reminded of how small he actually is within the grand scheme of things. His pain doesn't equal to any sort of cosmic destiny and the suffering he experienced was just the cruel indifference of the universe. It gets ever more unpleasant with the understanding that if Robin does remember what it was to be alive he will be standing face to face with the terrifying reality he's put himself in. Worse still is he's now being forced to confront it all because someone in this cold life cares enough for him to try and save him ... because as much as he will deny it and bite back, he wants to save them too.