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aboutzatanna · 3 years ago

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The Complete History of Zatanna Pre Nu52 (Part 1/5)

So, this is something that I have been wanting to get off my chest for a while now. This isn't meant to be an incoherent rant but a fair and balanced comparison of Zatanna's character arc in the comics with her character arc on YJ and JLD to show what worked, what didn't and what could have been.

Zatanna's been around for 58 years now (first appeared in 1964) but it feels only a handful of her stories gets referenced these days. Hence these posts are meant to be draw a thoroughline through her entire history.

I am going to recap of her character development from her introductory arc in 1964 to the 2011 Paul Dini ongoing. My main focus will be on the period between her joining the League in 1978 to her final appearance in JL Vol1 and the 1987 Zatanna Special. Then compare how it stacks up to her depiction in YJ and JLD. This is a super condensed version of her history but as a follow up I will create separate posts for some of the stories posted here to explore them in greater detail.

Part One: Zatanna’s Search and early JL appearances

Part Two: Joining the League, Sindella’s story and the introduction of the Homo Magi:

https://aboutzatanna.tumblr.com/post/681965523590873088/the-complete-history-of-zatanna-pre-nu52-part

Part Three: New Look, meeting Raven, romance with Barry Allen, losing her powers, becoming League chairwoman:

https://aboutzatanna.tumblr.com/post/681965703663960064/the-complete-history-of-zatanna-pre-nu52-part

Part Four: Detroit era, final JLA arc, the 1987 Zatanna Special and everything that happened in between:

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/aboutzatanna/681965930600857600?source=share

Part 5: Zatanna in the 90′s, Books of Magic, Identity Crisis and first ongoing + thoughts on her depiction in YJ and JLD:

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/aboutzatanna/681966574271381504?source=share

I also want to make the case that the best Zatanna writer isn't Ram V, James Tynion IV, Greg Wesiman, Grant Morrison or even Paul Dini but Gerry Conway (@gerryconway).

Art by: Brian Bolland

First, a little backstory;

So, in the 50′s superheroes had largely fallen out of favor with the exception for Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, most of them had been cancelled. Sci fi, westerns, horror, fantasy were all the rage. Then came ‘Seduction of the Innoccent’ by Dr Frederick Werthman which blamed comic books for juvenile delinquency and ‘spreading homosexuality’ and that combined with the Red Scare lead to the creation of the ‘Comic Codes Authority’. The CCA was meant to regulate comics so congress wouldn’t and the former’s stringent censorship killed off every genre except for superheroes.

In the late 50′s, DC (then known as National Periodic Publications) had some success reviving the Flash but this time with a new character, Barry Allen, under the mantle. This lead to them reviving Green Lantern with Hal Jordan, the Atom as Ray Palmer as well as reinventing Hawkman and Hawkgirl as alien space cops as opposed to reincarnated lovers. Many of them had no connection to their predecessors at first, Barry was the exception since he was explicitly stated to have been inspired by the comic books about Jay Garrick’s Flash.

Zatanna debuted not long after the Atom and shared a more explicit connection with her predecessor, John Zatara, by being his daughter. John Zatara first debuted in ‘Action Comics’, the same one that Superman debuted in. It was an anthology comic back then so they weren’t stated to be in the same universe. He was just one of the many features in the comics. But the character proved to be popular enough that he had a long running back up feature in Action Comics and later World’s Finest up until 1951 after which the character disappeared.

Zatanna's Search

Zatanna first appeared in Hawkman #4 written by Gardner Fox with art by Murphy Anderson. This was the first part of ‘Zatanna’s Search’. Katar and Shayera are investigating the appearance of unaccounted for artifacts at the museum. The two of them split up to search two different locations from where the artifacts originated from. They each find a girl standing still in a catatonic state murmuring gibberish. They bring the girl aboard their ship orbiting the earth whereupon they learn that the girl is speaking backwards with each ‘half’ speaking one half of the sentence.

The Hawks manage to restore the girl to her normal state and we learn that her name is Zatanna Zatara. She is a magician and the daughter of the Golden Age hero John Giovanni Zatara. Her father went missing and she’s been searching for him for ‘years’.

In order to hasten her search Zatanna tried to use a spell to appear in two different locations at the same time but the spell went wrong and caused her to be stuck in place. She used whatever magical ability she could muster to lure the Hawks to their location. Katar asks how she figured out their secret identity, to which Zatanna only smiles, a magician never tells their secrets.

The Hawks decide to help Zatanna search for her father but their instruments reveal that he is no where on earth. Thus the issue ends with Zatanna having to continue her search for her father with a small tease of what’s to come:

Zatanna would then ‘appear’ in Detective Comics #336 written by Gardner Fox and drawn by Sheldon Moldoff starring Batman and Robin. I say ‘appear’ because her role in the story is not revealed until the Justice League #51, the finale of ‘Zatanna’s Search’.

Her next appearance was in Atom #19 written by Gardner Fox with art by Gil Kane. Since her father is nowhere on ‘earth’, she has to widen her search to other dimensions and planes of existence. Hence why she sought out Ray Palmer/The Atom. She needs his help to access a sub atomic world that exists in a book called ‘the Book of Magic’ (yes, this is it’s first appearance).

At the time the dwarf star matter that allowed Ray to shrink only worked on him and was fatal to anybody else. This wasn’t a problem to Zatanna who had magic to protect her. The two of them venture into the subatomic world of Catamoore wherein they encounter the Druid. A being who can absorb magical power and has enslaved the inhabitants of the land of Catamoore:

Zatanna learns that her father had been here to confront the Druid. She fights him but she is still a rookie and fighting him only causes him to absorb more of her power. It takes some prodding from Ray for the two of them to figure out how to beat the Druid and free the inhabitants.

The two of them return to their world but with Zatanna still continuing her search for her father and we get a tease of who she might meet next.

She would then appear in Green Lantern #42 written by Gardner Fox with art by Gil Kane.

Hal is following the trail of a flying pirate causing chaos (ah, comics!) and this leads him to a gate way to another dimension called ‘The Land of Ys’ where he is psychically contacted by Zatanna:

We also learn that Zatanna has a heroic side by being willing to sacrifice herself to stop the Druid:

So the Warlock wants to use GL’s power ring to crossover into the main universe where he would grow unimaginably powerful. Zatanna's powers also begin to wane but she realizes that she can still use her powers here, but only if she speaks her sentences forward.

GL and Zatanna confront the Druid and we also learn that John Zatara was in this world as well.

Talk about an ‘I must scream’ situation but don’t worry, this won’t be the Warlock’s last appearance. I don’t think comics back then thought too deeply about the fates heroes would sometimes subject villains (see also, the JL leaving the Crime Syndicate to float in an enclosed bubble in a rift between universes).

The inhabitants of Ys decide to remain there.. This place hasn’t appeared in any modern comics but I wouldn’t mind this place being explored more. Especially considering the fact that the Warlock himself, even though he is evil, is driven by the desire to escape the monotony of his world.

For the inspiration being the Land of Ys, check out this link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ys

Zatanna would appear next in Detective Comics #355 in which she helps Elongated Man/Ralph Dibney round up some gangsters while she recovers some magical items (the Ting Tripod and the Book of I Ching) that could help her search for her father.

Like all the stories in Zatanna’s Search, this one is also written by Gardner Fox with art by Carmine Infantino whose definitely showing why he is considered a legend.

IMO, he is the best artist in this cross over followed by Gil Kane.

Unlike the previous heroes, Ralph is well aware of Zatanna’s search for her father and the story is about him recounting his case to Sue Dibney. Also note Zatanna being established to have talent besides magic even back then.

The ‘Book of I Ching’ and the ding tripods are references to certain things in real life:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ding_(vessel)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Ching

Zatanna’s story would culminate in Justice League of America Vol 1 #52 titled ‘Z as in Zatanna and Zero Hour’ (no connection to the actual Zero Hour event that would happen 40 years later), in which she gathers all the aforementioned heroes including Batman to thank them for their help in finding her father.

Batman is confused as he had never met her before. Zatanna explains that the witch Batman and Robin fought in ‘Tec 336 was actually herself in disguise and that she magically planted the ‘thought’ in Robin that lead to her seeming ‘defeat’ and that she was being controlled by the villain of the issue (the Outsider).

This was actually a retcon by writer Gardner Fox, it’s clear that in ‘Tec 336, that this witch character wasn’t originally meant to be Zatanna. From what I’ve heard the creative team wanted to include Batman in the story due to his increased popularity thanks to the ‘66 Batman show (ah, the more things change....) so Fox retconned an earlier story he wrote so he can justify putting Batman in the issue.

Bats even makes the cover of the story:

Anyway, back to Zatanna’s Search; Zatanna recounts to the League how she found her father. After the encounter with Elongated Man, Zatanna met Allura; an elemental trapped in the ‘Sword of Paracelsus’ who promises to help her find her father. After freeing Allura from the sword, the latter hides inside Zatanna.

Zatanna summons duplicates of the heroes to help her fight them off:

(I admit, I felt a bit cheated that it wasn’t the real Justice League she summoned and for obvious reasons this is not an ability we see her use again.)

But whose sending these obstacles her way? Why, it’s her father of course:

But why?

The duplicate League members (more specifically Batman) quickly realize that the enemies aren’t trying to harm Zatanna, they’re after something else which turns out to be Allura whom they exorcise from Zatanna’s body:

Thus, comes the big reveal that Allura was the one who cursed John Zatara so that if he ever saw or tried to communicate with his daughter in any shape or form, they would both die. Hence why he fled the earthly plane and in to other dimensions so he can find Allura’s good half. However, when he found the good Allura in the ‘Land of Kharma’, he found out that the good half cannot leave the land. That’s when Zatanna, lead by the evil Allura found her way there.

Once the evil Allura is exorcised from Zatanna’s body, she fights the good Allura (referring to her as sister) and is finally forced to lift the curse she placed on John Zatara, thus father and daughter are finally reunited:

Not much is known about Allura (no connection Supergirl’s mom whose name is Alura In Ze but with only one ‘L’). The Allura in Zatanna's comics is described as 'Mistress of the Dark Elementals', she would be appear a couple of more times in Zatanna's stories (which I will cover in this post and the coming posts) and is the closest Zee has to an arch enemy.

The Sword of Parcelsus that she was trapped in is a references to Paracelsus, a 14th century alchemist who is considered the father of toxicology.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus

Here is a link to a blog which does a good job of linking to various references in the story.

https://50yearoldcomics.com/2016/12/13/justice-league-of-america-51-february-1967/

The story itself is very much a product of it’s time. Some strange choices like Zatanna creating duplicates of the League, randomly retconning an old Batman story to include him here when he could have met her in this story for the first time and of course, I would have liked more details Allura. However, there are interesting story elements here, Zatanna is powerful but still young and inexperienced. There is a nascent rogues gallery for her here in the form of the Druid, Warlock and Allura. Plus some world building elements like the Land of Ys, Catamoore and the Land of Kharma. Sadly, many of these elements have been forgotten and neglected over time.

Thus far, the only addition to this story happened in 1980, in DC Blue Ribbon Special #5 written by Gerry Conway with art by Romeo Tanghal which showed the moment Zatanna first found out her father was missing, learned more about his backstory and her magical heritage.

After Zatanna's Search ended, Zatanna appeared intermittently throughout the 60′s, She would get her own feature as a back up title of Supergirl's 1972 ongoing. during this time we are introduced to Zatanna's stage manager plus love interest: Jeffery Sloan who also bears a suspicious resemblance to the writer Len Wein.

Source: Supergirl #1

The back up stories were nothing to write home about, some were cute while others were just bad. The tone and style of storytelling is best summed up by this image:

Later, after Supergirls first ongoing was cancelled, Zatanna would occasionally get a story in Adventure Comics. The most notable being 1971′s Adventures Comics #413-415 which is later reprinted as ‘DC Super Stars of Magic’ (1977) written by Len Wein and drawn by the incomparable Gray Morrow.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the mansion, John Zatara is attacked by a mysterious mystical assailant. When Zee and Jeff meet him, he banishes them to another dimension where they have to fight their way back which includes taking on Gorognus, a cyclops like being who can turn others into stone with just a look:

The art by Gray Morrow is just gorgeous and the climax involves Zatanna fighting her father:

(Anybody else heard Jeff screaming ‘yaaa’ right after Zatanna said ‘and you’re murdering Jeff’ ?)

And yes, the villain turns out to be Allura who is now inexplicably blonde for some reason. Is her ‘good half’ evil now? Did the bad half possess the good half? Was it a colouring error?

Also, poor Jeff. He should talk with Steve Trevor and Larry Lance about being a normal guy in love with a superheroine. But unlike the aforementioned who gets some chance to shine, Jeff is so utterly darn helpless when it comes to the kind of things Zatanna deals with on a daily basis.

Gorgonos would make one more appearance in Adventure Comics #419 (1972) also written by Len Wein.

Guest Starring In The League + Meeting Barry

Zatanna guest starred in JL a couple of times before joining the League.

She appeared in Flash #198 written by Michael Friedrich and drawn by Don Heck. The story involves Zatanna being pulled into another dimension during a magic show and Barry following her into it as the Flash. The story is notable because Zee is already acquainted with Barry and also knows his secret id (no mention of when that happened) and also she kisses him as part of her act.

They also published a fan letter where the reader was asking for more Zatanna and for her to get her own comic. If there were any cross overs between Barry and Zatanna prior to this, let me know because I couldn’t find any.

Then in JLA #86 written by Micheal Friedrich with art by Dick Dillen and Joe Giella. Zatanna arrives at the League HQ to celebrate the anniversary of the League helping her find her father. Of course they’re drawn into trouble and is likely her first meeting with Superman. But this story is so bad and the only notable things is that it introduced ‘The Champions of Angor’ whom fans of JLI might recognizes but I’m going to skip over this specific one.

Both of Mike Friedrich's stories are kind of pervy, especially the JL one with characters practically drooling over Zatanna in ways that don't feel in character for any of them. The Flash story is better as its more teasing and playful with wonderful Don Heck art.

I bring this up because her connection with Barry is something that will come up in later stories and this is where the seeds were planted.

Zatanna gets a much better showing in JLA #100 written by Len Wein with art by Dick Dillin and Joe Giella. She was one of the many players in a three part crossover between the JLA, JSA and the Seven Soldiers of Victory in which the heroes team in small groups to travel across space and time to rescue the Seven Soldiers in Victory who were believed to be dead.

This would be the first time we get to see Zatanna interact with the other magic users, in this case, Dr Fate and Johnny Thunder:

Each of the teams have a JLA and JSA member on them and each group gets their own separate story in a different setting. Zatanna’s story appears in JLA #102 where she, Barry and Red Tornado travel to the times of Ancient Greece to rescue the E2 Speedy/Roy Harper who it turns out has been turned into a half animal by the witch Circe. The same fate befalls the trio who came to rescue Speedy which Zatanna manages to undo by flapping her sparrow wings to the tune of her backward spell. The trio then manages to beat Circe and rescue Speedy.

Though Zee flirts with Barry in the issue, she doesn’t pursue, since he is married and all.

Initially I wanted to cover Zatanna’s mom’s story in the same post but too many images caused the editor to slow down and not save any of my edits so I had to split it into two posts.

For now, here is a scan of Zee, Wonder Woman (during her Emma Peel phase) trying to cut a huge cake together:

Next up: her new look, joining the League for real, Sindella’s story and the origins of magic.

Part 2: https://aboutzatanna.tumblr.com/post/681965523590873088/the-complete-history-of-zatanna-pre-nu52-part

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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

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Goof Week: Goof Troop: Forever Goof Review (Everything’s Coming Up Goofy, Good Neighbor Goof, Gotta Be Gettin Goofy) (Commission for WeirdKev27)

Yahhahhooooeeeey all you happy people! WELCOME TO GOOF WEEK! Now normally when a character who got their start in theatrical shorts has a birthday, I do a marathon of them. I have since last year with Donald and it’s one of my favorite things: it allows me to explore Disney’s rich history of them I was largely unaware of till Disney+, and allows me to revisit the shorts I grew up with in the case of The Looney Tunes or Tom and Jerry while discovering new favorites. SO naturally with Goofy’s birthday in two days I intended to do the same for him, especially since I’d covered Donald and Mickey the same way.

But fate had other ideas. Not thinking about this tradition, Kev, my patreon, friend and the guy who commissions a LOT of reviews from me ($5 an episode if your curious and I WILL make room on the schedule so your commission gets done as soon as possible), suggested reviewing the Goof Troop pilot movie Forever Goofy, later split into the episode Everything’s Coming Up Goofy and Good Neighbor. I loved the idea since I genuinely loved Goof Troop, and decided to do both that week.

It’s then I got a great idea.. why limit myself to JUST doing two things? I hit my 15 dollar patreon stretch goal, so a review of the Goofy Movie was on the Horizon anyway, and for it’s anniversary year Kev has been commissioning House of Mouse Episodes, so it wouldn’t be THAT much of an ask (and it wasn’t) to simply randomly select from a pool of Goofy-Centric episodes instead of all the episodes.

Thus GOOF WEEK was born, and Kev once again proved vital to all this by suggesting the special Sports Goof from the 80′s. I’d like to give him special thanks as outside of the Shorts Special, which as a patreon he still got to pick one and if you’d like to pick one for Donald’s special, sign on up even one dollar patreons get the honor. , this week is either entirely paid for by him or in the case of A Goofy Movie, is partly thanks to him. I wouldn’t be able to do NEARLY as many reviews nor make money off this without you bud, so thank you.

So naturally given the idea to do this two parter gave me the idea for this week and that Goofy Movie makes a logical finale for said week, it only made sense to start the week with Goof Troop. Bop-dop-da-da-do-bop, YEAH.

Goof Troop is the first Disney Afternoon show I ever watched and the only one I watched when I was younger, as Disney Channel used to play it ocasinally when I was younger and Toon Disney would do the same and I even got to Marthoon it when Disney XD did a weekend marathon. Given it starred my faviorite Disney Character, Donald hadn’t worked his way up to tying with him quite yet, I loved what I could grab of it. And as an adult.. it still holds up. It has problems i’ll get into, but it is a real good time so I was exastic to get an excuse to watch some of it and much like with Darkwing wish I had sooner.

Before I can h-h-h-hit it though, I have to talk about the series history. I ALMOST didn’t find anything: much like the other Disney Afternoon shows there really wasn’t much on the Disney wiki nor wikipedia, google turned up nothing... it wasn’t till I went to the Tv Tropes Trivia Page for the series, where i’d remembered reading about some early versions of the show, that I hit gold: A two part behind the scenes blog post by series co-creator Michael Peraza. You can find part one HERE and part two HERE. It’s a short but fascinating read.

Speaking of fascenating Peraza himself is someone i’d never heard of till reading this article but damn if he isn’t a legend. Seriously the guy’s career is as an unsung hero, starting work under the Legendary Nine Old Men, and working on some of disney’s greatest films: The Great Mouse Detective, Aladdin, The LIttle Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast, along with live action cult classics Tron and Return to Oz via concept art. And concept art is where he’d hit his stride: he did conceptual work for all the big Disney Afternoon shows apart from Gargoyles, being one of the key guys in the early days of Disney Television animation. He didn’t stop at just designing things either as he worked as Art Director for Ducktales, The Proud Family and of course given how vital he was to it’s creation, Goof Troop, and to this days gives lectures with his wife to aspiring animators. He even did some guest work for the 2017 Ducktales Episode “Treasure of the Found Lamp!”. So yeah dude’s awesome

So how did he come to be a key part of this show’s creation? Well he’d just finished up some concept work on some other Disney Afternoon shows, and being a company man was glad to report to the Goof Troop..ers to help as the show was having trouble getting off the ground. The reason for this was the creative exec, who Peraza didn’t name out of kindness as the guy wasn’t a BAD person.. just a clueless one, this being his first job in film and tv. As such rather than work hard to develop around goofy or focus on his strengths the kid threw out one concept after another: The series got it’s name from a pitch that had Goofy as a scoutmaster, something I was glad to finally know. To quote Peraza

“ Although while I was doodling versions of the show that were destined to never see the light of the TV screen, the pitch date remained etched in stone and kept creeping closer. Various versions would find their way to the surface only to sink again into the wasteland known as the roundfile (trashcan). One moment Goofy was the Captain of the Fire Department, the next day a detective out of the Maltese Falcon mold, or a swash buckling hero fighting The Flying Dutchman.

The supporting cast he came up with really wasn't very supportive when you consider they sometimes included alien dragon babies with wings along with a large gorilla. Somebody at Walt Disney Television Animation must have really had a thing for giant gorillas around this time as they were plugged into almost every concept we assembled.”

It was clear that while Goofy COULD fit into just about anything, this exec was just throwing everything at the wall, nothing was sticking, and rather than try to refine his supporting cast, they kept having to throw them out and start over. And dont’ get me wrong, cartoons go through a lot of development and changes as they go.. but it’s usually born from a concept and usually by this point, they at least have what the show will be ABOUT in stone. While i’ve had the same creative changes and what not when coming up with projects that ultimately never saw the light of day, and currentlly some I hope to but might not, I’m not being paid by a studio to do this nor had a hard deadline. I was just spitballing trying to get something anything off the ground before reviewing gave me a steady outlet for my creativity and thus ballanced me to take my time with stuff. Peraza WAS turning out amazing art, like this concept art for the fireman pitch that honeslty makes me want to see it as a series. Who DOSEN’T want to see 9-11 with Goofy as the main character? Throw in Donald and grown up versions of Max, PJ and PIstol (And even not THAT much for the former two, as they did go off to college and all), don’t forget Roxanne this time out and you have a worthy goofy movie sequel.

So yeah this wasn’t working and the latest pitch was not great: Putting Goofy in ToonTown as a cabbie driving the Cab from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. As Peraza TRIED to point out to the exec, putting Goofy in a naturally goofy setting didn’t really play to the characters strength, his whole shtick being a goofus in a normal world. Enough of an every man to root for but also a slapstick joly weirdo.

The executive’s INCREDIBLY douchey response, especially since Peraza was a Disney Vetran at this point and had spent quite a lot of time on Ducktales, so he knew what he was talking about was “Do it anyway and leave the “Visionary” part to me”

As you can tell by MR. OOC there, this might be one of the most punchable sentences i’ve ever read.

So Peraza wasn’t in a great place and was naturally terrified when he got a call from Gary Krisel, president of Disney TVA, asking about the show and to see him about it.

Turns out though Krisel was a nice guy who already had a great working relatinship with Peraza, and genuinely wanted to know what was going on there and wanted his honest opinion. It’s why i’m not AGAINST executives in animation as sometimes they can come in when somethings clearly not working or allow a smooth transition of power if a propelmatic creator has to be booted off their own show so the show and i’ts crew don’t suffer as a result. It’s just more often than not they cause headaches or cancel shows for entirley stupid or self motivated reasons. But I will give credit where it’s do and point out times where there NOT stupid or homophobic or what have you and this is indeed one of those times.

Peraza was indeed straight with him: pointing out all the concepts they’d gone through, and like with the other guy honestly gave his opinon the ToonTown Pitch wasn’t working.. and he not only agreed but asked Peraza himself, actually respecting his experince instead of yelling at him that he has a vision that wouldn’t last the end of the day probably.

Peraza was HOPING this was where this was going and gladly gave him a far less high concept pitch and one truer to the character, quoted in full bellow:

“ My spiel went as follows, "Goofy is a recognized star of Disney animation, so why re-invent the wheel? His son is an average kid dealing with many of the usual issues they face: peer pressure, young love, grades, school bullies, and so on. On top of all that, he has the zaniest, wackiest GOOFIEST dad to live down. No matter how insane the situations get though, they will always love each other. They're a family." Gary asked how I would pitch it and I replied, "It's ONE day in the life of Goofy and son. From getting up in the morning to fixing breakfast, we see their difference side by side as his son tries to distance himself. No matter what though he knows deep inside that his father will always be there for him, whether he likes it or not."

If your wondering if Peraza noticed that that original pitch line is basically the peremise and emotioinal core of The Goofy Movie down pat.. your extremley correct and he notes that the film was based on said pitch even if he had no involvment with it that I could tell. The series would still use this but the whole embarasment aspect was toned down, and honestly fit a teenager better than an 11 year old..

So the exec loved it and Peraza shaped the core of the series: the idea of having Pete as his nemisis, pete having a nuclear family including a gorgeous wife, and the show being more slice of life and what not. He made some great sketches, got roaring approval and then pitched it to rousing success and the rest is history. Goof Troop was a moderate success and The Goofy Movie after it is a classic beloved by all. We have this wonderful man to thank for all that and I also thank him , on the offchance he ever sees this, for bringing Goofy into modern times in a way that did the man-dog justice. It’s thank to you we got this fun series, two great movies, and a goofy the way he is today: the best of everything about him rolled into one. Thanks man, free review.. not htat you NEED It since you’ve worked on things i’ve covered and what not, but I feel like I should offer. Outside of Peraza, I found one last bit of making of stuff before I get to the premiere proper. These two early concept shots:

The first has Max who both looks older and has red hair like he did in the shorts. Honestly I see a lot of his Goofy Movie self in thiis design, the only diffrence obviously being the red hair which was wisely changed to make the boy look more like goofy, something kept for the movie.

The more intresting one is this shot of the Pete’s. Starting with Pete he’s more athletic and has a perfectly tacky outfit. While changing him to be a bit more slovenly honestly fit this version of the character better, I do wish they’d kept hte outfit as the tacky gold and green jacket, the gold chain, the open ollar.. it all fits this version of pete so well, as well as his illusion of being a big shot when he is in fact a medium one. Peg is both slightly younger looking and far more doting and is so different I swear this picture looks like Pete remarried after the divorce and got some lipo. Pistol has about the same design but with a vastly different, more Isabella-ish outfit. Finally we have PJ who looks the same, but has a diffrent outfit and a far more sour demeanor, probably meant to be a bully. My best guess is sthis stuff comes from the pitch, and was likely made to simply get the basic premise across before fine tuning the characters for series

So with all of that out of the way i’m calling eveyrone to join in the fun under the cut and report to the Goof Troop.

Everything’s Coming Up Goofy:

Our first episode opens in a small but cozy trailer, where Goofy’s cooking up lunch as only goofy could: by making osme meatballs then serving them to his son over a game of table tennis, with Max doing the same. It’s really freaking adorable, and a dynamic i’m not used to since i’m more familiar with Teen Max. Seeing Max genuinely get into his dad’s hyjinks and enjoy them.. it just warms the heart and adds weight to The Goofy Movie by knowing there was a time the two really were thick is thieves before the stygian hole that is high school drained all that out of him.

So the two are like buddies and pals until the Mailman arrives, not even phased at this point. Turns out it’s a Diploma, and with this Goofy can get a job he’s been up for in Spoonerville and plans to move immediately. Max is devisated he’ll loose his friends and runs away to use a magical mystery box to keep them together only to end up in a land full of frogs with an old man who sounds like his dad minus the drawl and two other tinier frogs and ... I may have the wrong show. In fairness you try dislodging a finale where Keith David runs a 13 year old through with laser sword and then talk to me.

Goofy is sympathetic though: While he seems a tad oblivous to Max’s worries, it’s very clear he’s jumping on this job and this move so far to give his son a better life. Sure he runs through all the cartoon moving away talking points that don’t work in real life or most other cartoons such as there being a nice lake and that max can make new friends, and Max accepts it weirdly fast because this episode is only 22 minutes and they don’t have time for that subplot... but it’s clear the idea of a better paying job, a secure home not in an alleyway, and some stablility for his son is the real reason Goofy’s doing this, and he probably wants to simply give the boy the childhood he had growing up.

Meanwhile in Spoonerville, we meet Pete. To my shock this is where Jim Cummings took over the roll he was born for and has played since and with good reasons as Cummings is just amazing with Pete no matter the incarnation and excels here his penchant for playing jerks, hams and gravely voiced guys all coalesicing. Pete is planning on building what modern toxicly masculine weirdos such as himself would call a Man Cave on his lawn, because Pete is a very SPECIAL kind of douchebag. He also plans to stretch it into the neighboring property, tear down the house there and set it up.

This is news to his wife Peg, played by fellow voice acting Legend whose stillg ot it, April Winchell in her star making role. Peg is Pete’s strong willed wife who dosen’t put up with her husbands crap.. you know that trope that infected sitcoms for kids and adults of the doofy husband whose either a manchild , a skeevy self serving quipy asshole or some horrible combination of the two. The kind that has still been so prevealant the wife from one of said sitcoms helped produce a show about the wife finally doing the logical thing and plotting to kill the bastard. No really.. that’s an actual thing that’s happening. It’s even got a Little Bit of Alexis as Anne Murphy plays the poor, poor wife.

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And why yes the series is called Kevin Can Fuck Himself. And why yes said former sitcom wife was the same one on a sitcom called Kevin Can Wait who was fired because they wanted to retool the show with the wife from Kevin James other sitcom. That also is very really a thing that happened. Payback is a bitch aint it? Fun too.

But yeah from minute one Pete is a terrible husband: Peg is a realtor and thus is trying to sell the house because it’s her fucking job instead of letting her husband throw their family deep in debt to very likely illegally demolish a house so he has a giant yard to play in. I mean even if this is all played for jokes i’ts just not funny enough to not make him an utter bastard. The fact his response to her VERY valid criticism and subtextual worry he doesn’t’t take her career seriously is to fake a panic attack, from a very REAL tendency he turns out to have giant breakdowns under stress, to try and guilt her into letting him have his giant public man cave just backs this up.. as does the fact she simply glares at the camera as he’s clearly DONE this before.

Since I have to put up with this version of him for the rest of this episode, the next, AND a portion of the movie, i’m proudly introducing the Pete Sucks Counter. This will carry over to any other appearances of the guy from here on out. So that’s one for his insane plan, one for disrespecting his wife’s career and one for faking a panic attack to try and win an argument Pete Sucks Counter: 3

So because this episode ran short Peg caves and compromises: He can have the property if it isn’t sold by 9. So Pete does what ANY husband would do: uses his spy camera and booby traps he’s set up in the other house to try and scare away prospective buyers.

Yeah.. while the show TRIES to have Pete not as his old-timey villian self.. they traded in for him being fucking MODOK. I mean he is a grotesque monstrosity who has a nuclear family and spends all his time in a chair thing and can barely function as a Husband or Father. Though at least I can belivie MODOK LOVES his family which not so much with Pete.

To prove this Pete tries using a fake spider to scare some buyers then CALLS THEM TELLING THEM PEG IS A CON ARITST. I.e. something that if they mention to her bosses could get her FIRED. He respects his wife’s autonomy, what she wants and what she’s asked him for, which is a fair shot to sell the place before he tries to wreck the place, as well as likely what his neighbors want. I mean I can accept breaks from reality for comedy, snakebird is my boy.

So I can accept pete has this stuff.. I just can’t find it funny when these shenanignas very transparently show that while he surface level loves his wife he dosen’t respect her or actually listen to her except when she gets angry. He IS the villian so he’s still a slight step among monst sitcom dads but i’ts not great. I can find it funny that his den also functions as a super villian lair though. That shit will never not be great. Also Pete Sucks Counter: 6 For the record: one for the spider itself, one for having traps set up in a property hat both isn’t his and his wife is trying to sell and another for threatening her job and her self esteem as she is baffled at what she possibly did wrong.

So Goofy and Max get on the road, leaving moving the rest of their stuff to an old coot whose a friend of theres. So it’s goodbye Duckburg, Hello Spoonerville! And yes I headcanon this as Duckburg. Goof Troop is one of two shows that very clearly happened in SOME form, the other being Tailspin, the only difference being the time period (Goof Troop taking place in the 90′s and Tailspin in the 30′s or 40′s) and any adjustments for clashes with the 2017 verse. So going off that, we also know Donald and the boys KNOW goofy and didn’t remotely question his presence, as did the rest of the cast.

So figuring out the timeline, Goofy likely met Donald in college, even if he never finished college as per an Extremley Goofy Movie, which may not happen the same exact way given Goofy still has his old job and may not loose it in this timeline, though i’d like to think he still meets Sylvia. But point is he drops out, possibly to marry Max’s mom, they end up moving to Duckburg for her work, she sadly dies, and Goofy is left raising Max alone. Donald and Goofy likely bonded as single parents struggling in low paying 9-5 jobs. Goofy left here, likely said goodbye to Donald and the 5 or so year old boys offscreen , and left. As for how anyone else knows him that’s simple: he probably visits whenever he can. He’s a good friend, genuinely loves Donald like a brother in all continuities, and of course would show up with a progressively more then less grumpy Max every time. As for what I think the rest of the cast would think of him: Scrooge would hate him for his disaster area ways, but at least respect him as a hard worker, he just wouldn’t personally hire him which is.. it’s fair. Beakley would be aggravated by him. Webby would of course like him because she’s essentially him but competent and gay, and Launchpad and him .. god that’d be a joy to see. And drive up Scrooge’s insurance. Della would also like him obviously. I”m really disappointed we didn’t get a season 4 if for nothing else the fact we probably would’ve got another Goofy episode. It also feels weird he’s not in the finale in any way shape or form you know? Why have such a big guest spot for him and then just not bring him or Max back? GIVE ME MORE MAX DISNEY DAMN YOUUUUU So they move right along with Goofy excited to get back to where he once belonged, and to call Pete with the good news on his 90′s cell phone. Pete is utterly TERRIFIED finding out Goofy Comin and tries to send him off course to prevent it. Naturally despite nearly running into a truck, Goofy makes it to Spoonerville by evening anyway and we get a delightful bit that shows off BilL Farmer’s comedy skills as he rapidly lists off all the things in town while driving Max through town. It’s so damn smooth. This also is notable since before this farmer had just played the character in some DTV music videos, which stands for Disney not Denton but god I now want Shock Treatment with the Disney Crew. I mean who wouldn’t want Donald as Brad, Daisy as Janet, and Gladstone as Farley Flavors I ask you. Not sure who every one else would be i’m sorting that out. And if you don’t know what Shock Treatment is, here have this trailer with a nightmarish opening.

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Dammit now I want to watch Shock Treatment again... so I am. Found it in full on YouTube, and I feel no shame in sharing that as it’s not on VOD, nor any streaming service, the DVD, which I own, is out of print, and the Blu Ray is a UK exclusive. This film both needs to be seen more and needs another proper US release damn it!

So naturally Goofy somehow finds Pete’s house.. I dunno maybe Peg’s been sending him letters. Can’t blame her for having a wondering eye long as she dosen’t act on it. She’s married to a walking lump of ego, selfishness and cholesterol and likely only held on as long as she did for the kids. Which for the record Peg as a child of divorce whose parents got divorced rather than keep up a sham marriage or anything.. it’s not worth it. I was MUCH happier that way in the long term.

Anyways Peg and Goofy happily reunited while they awkardly try to get the kids to meet, with Goofy and PJ not warming up to each other at first, likely because Max just lost all his friends, and PJ clearly had none going into the series from context we’ll get later in the pilot. We also get a hilarious bit where Peg alternates between warmly greeting the goof’s and hilaroiusly shouting at Pistol to not play with worms.. in what honestly sounds like a protype for Miss Finster’s voice.

Meanwhile the kids try to hide a small crack in Pete’s boat.. which he notices as he’s just about to steamroll the house despite NOT having asked Peg if she sold it yet and just assuming, possibly opening himself and her to a lawsuit

Pete Sucks Counter: 7

Discovering his boat is trashed, he has a comical panic attack, which I can forgive since this was 1992 and they weren’t as well known as a serious problem. Seriously while pete is a bastard man.. the animation on him is GORGEOUS as it is HILARIOUS, while Jim Cummings brings the hell out of it. He’s kept the roll for three decades as of next year for a reason. Goofy ends up accidently destroying his boat in the process of trying to help him as you’d expect.

So Pete reluctantly lets the goofs sup with them.... and by reluctantly I mean he don’t wanna but Peg’s forcing him, which is pretty much the other half of their relationship in a nutshell: When pete isn’t lying and betraying her, Peg is forcing him to do stuff. As you can probably guess by how harsh i’ve been this aspect has aged INCREDIBLY poorly for me. This is your standard sitcom setup: asshole or dumbass or both dad, put upon wife who has to keep him in line.. but it’s just not how a GOOD marriage works and got so damn draining over time. Again and again we got things saying marriage is awful, comitting sucks unless your young, again and again. It’s why i’m REALLY happy we’ve been getting far better sitcom dad’s and marraiges lately. Bob’s Burgers is naturally the example, with the wife being the less sane one but both having their quriks and neither being so entirely dysfunctional you ever question the marriage. The Louds are another good example: Lynn Sr. And Rita NEVER right with each other that i’ve seen, have a perfectly happy relationship despite 11 kids, and wholly support each other, with Rita happily giving her husband the go ahead to quit his soul draining desk job so he could pursue his deream as a chef, and later letting him take a massive fincial gamble and open up a restraunt, purely because she belivied in him. Finally we have the Williams from Craig of the Creek who are easily one of the best married couples i’ve seen in western animation and one of them’s played by Terry Crews so that shoudln’t be a shock. I could prabobly find more but my points made: this trope REALLY ages the show poorly, more than any of hte 90′s specific tech or swinging theme song I just realized I forgot to talk about. Eh i’ll save it for the next episode.

I have NEVER liked this trope anyway: only simpsons has really made it work for me and Family Guy did until they just stretched it too far, and with Simpsons at least they freqeuently have episodes pointing out how unehalthy it is. It dosen’t help this trope somehow STILL isn’t dead, as evidenced by the fact Rick and Morty has it in spades and for SOME damn reason got them back together.. I mean they don’t fight anymore but it dose’nt fix the problem. So yeah while I’m not holding against the show TERRRIBLY as this trope wasn’t as widespread at the time, it still dosen’t make it GOOD even at it’s core.

Things get worse for Pete though as while Goofy praises him (And the Pete Kids rightfly wonder if Goofy is from space given the logic of ANYONE being that fond of pete. ) Pete finds out GOOFY bought the house he was going to demolish and will be staying with them till they move in. I have only one response to his misery....

Max also futzes with the tv which you THINK would lead to Peg finding out her husband is the antagonist of a Blumhouse movie but instead just does nothing.

So then we have Dinner where we find out SUPRISINGLY, Pete actually has a somewhat valid reason for resenting Goofy: Goofy cost him the big game in high school as Goofy and Peg were on the cheerleading squad together and Goofy accidently kicked pete in the face at a crucial moment, which Pete got the blame for. Granted I did say SOMEWHAT: Goofy is genuinely apologetic and says Pete shouldn’t of been blamed and Pete’s apparently been hiding the truth from his kids this whole time. I do call bullshit on that as while admittedly i don’t get into local football or any sportsball, Pete works at a dealership. At least one asshole would bring it up to either rile him up or out of genuine rage at something that happened at the very least a decade and a half ago. Pete hasn’t let go of this footbullshit DESPITE owning a successful dealership, having two wonderful children, an even more wonderful wife, and a friggin nice boat. But really.. it speaks to Pete’s character in any version: His ultimate undoing is his greed, his tendency to keep going and never settle. It’s something he oddly shares with Donald but Pete lacks Donald’s’s heart or redeeming moments. Pete just wants and wants and wants no matter who gets hurt because he’s inehently selfish and will simply TAKE It if he can’t get it. But it’s why he’s miserable, and ultimately ends up divorced: He can’t be satisfised so he often looses what he has.

So with Pete on the rampage Peg sends the boys upstairs. It’s here we get PJ’s first Woobie Moment: He has a room FULL of cool toys, comics and what not but his dad is such a greedy asshole he refuses to let the kid actually use them. He even knows this isn’t normal but is just resigned to it. Rob Paulsen is phenomenal as PJ, being funny and energetic, snarky and off to the side or depressed and fearful all with grace and ease and all making this all feel like the same sweet kid.

I mention this because Paulsen’s action is so good it highlights an issue with PJ: the writers lean way too hard into how much a hardass Pete is, to the point the series, likely intentionally, HEAVILY implies he physically abuses pete and the stuff on screen isn’t over the top enough, at least for tehse episodes, to get away with how he emotionally abuses him either. He talks down to him, doesn’t let him play toys and as seen by various episode synopsis and the next episode, uses mind games to keep him in line. THIS is why I can’t stand this version of Pete. He’s an abusive monster to this poor boy and I won’t stands for it, nor it being played off as a joke, especially since they try to ping pong between using it for comedy and using it seriously which just.. doesn’t work.

So Max earns his future best pals’ friendship by trying to help him.. and succeeding by pointing out that while he said not to use the Tank anywhere on the ground.. he didn’t mention the celling or walls and has the tank going up the walls. And clearly by the fact PJ is seen sleeping with it later, despite Petes’ss anger at this, Peg presumably ripped him a new one once she found out about the toys thing.

So that night Pete can’t sleep with Goofy tromping around the house and tries to whack him with a Golf Club. I’d give him another sucks count..

But given my brother lives in the basement and I sometimes accidently wake him by tromping overhead without meaning too, I DO get getting a bit fed up with someone clomping around and waking you up, and it is a slapstick cartoon so trying to physically assault someone is less of a crime here and more a setup for a punchline.

So get an UTTERLY hilarious scene as teh combination fo tripping on golf balls and Goofy singing his family lullabye, camptown races with lyrics

So Pete proceeds to have another freak out this time RUNNING ALL THE WAY TO DUCKBURG, THROWING THE OLD MAN OUT OF THE CAR AND THEN BRINGING IN THE GOOF’S BEDS AND BOXES BEFORE TOSSING THEM IN THE HOUSE. It is truly an amazing combination of Jim’s utter talent as he babbles hialriously and the animators as they just make it sing. It’s a great climax to part one. So with that the goofs are home and Pete semeingly gets to go to sleep.. until they start working on unpacking.

Final Thoughts On Good Neighbor Goof:

This is an excellent start to the series. The jokes are really well paced, the characters well introduced and the humor top notch> I had my complaints obviously.. but i’ts more systemic issues with the series, and stuff that honestly it dosen’t hamper my viewing experience for the most part. The PJ stuff does, but it’s not as big a deal this episode as he barely interacts with his Dad, but otherwise it’s stuff that just hasn’t aged well and they can’t be faulted for not seeing a deluge of terrible sitcoms a comin. The cast is top notch: I didn’t get to them in the proper review so Dana HIll deserves praise as Max, giving just the right amount of 90′s TV Kid mixed with real honest emotion and i’ts a tragedy she’s gone. She would’ve been right up there with the rest of this amazing cast in history. Though at least she got a worthy succesor.. but that’s not for now. For now we’re taking an interlude to look at the wonderfully 90′s music video that was aired along with this special:

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Gotta Be Gettin Goofy:

This was my raw reaction to this video. Now is it bad? No the song has great flow it somehow manages to scratch Bill Farmer’s goofy vocals with the beat, the rapper makes the cheesy lyrics work, and the chorus of “gotta be getting goofy” backs a great bit. It’s not a bad SONG.. but the video is a hilariously insane mess. We have two of the poor dancers forced to wear just.. HORRIFYING looking Goofy costumes that look like the Dog based sequel to cats that thankfully only exists in my nightmares

I pityt hose poor dancers. Meanwhile the rest of the dancers are wearing Goofy Baseball uniforms and letterman jackets for some reason. is it beause Goofy likes sportsball. I thoguth they just had them lying around but now I see the g’s on the uniform. They CHOOSE to do this. Max also does a shredding guitar solo, not the max up there the animated max. Combine that with LOTS OF random clips from the show and you get this thing.. and i’ts worth a watch> it’s just hilarously what the shit.. not the most hilariously what the shit thing i’ve seen.. not even this week... that would be this thing from the Eurovision Song contest...

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Your welcome. So moving on because this is already badly behind.

Good Neighbor Goof:

So our second episode opens with the Goof’s trying to move in and pete being upset their being loud. Now being upset your neighbors are being loud is one thing: Mine set off fireworks all week around fourth of July. Granted Pete would probably be the one doing such nonsense but still, I get it.. but it’s fair to have a lot of noise when your moving in and in Goofy’s case also trying to patch up a massive hole in the place.

So he does what any reasonable man would do and activates the earthquake machine he hid in the basement.

I wasn’t kidding about the MODOK comparisons. Granted the thing uses a belt to somehow do this.. but it’s designed to SIMULATE AN EARTHQUAKE AN DDOES SO WELL. The only reason Goofy’s not dead is that pete uses a low setting that instead ends up unpacking everything. IT’s a neat gag but again... PETE HAS AN EARTHQUAKE MACHINE.

Which Goofy accidently destroys his boat with. Meanwhile the boys try to talk over tin can phones only for Pete to notice and try to stop it because he’s a dick and doesn’t want his son to be happy because he hates Goofy. So Pete’s idea of a punishment is for PJ to wear the family shoes to go crush cans while wearing a helmet and given Pete mutters to himself about this keeping PJ away from Max i’ts likely something that he made up to torture his son soooo..

Pete Sucks Counter: 8 Max being a good pal agrees to help his friend crush the cans down to recycle for money and comes up with a zany scheme to do so

Meanwhile we get a few scenes of Pete trying to eff with Goofy’s day: Peg is making food for Goofy like a good neighbor/someone planning for their eventual divorce, so Pete makes him some too with tons of hot sauce. By the laws of classic cartoons, naturally Goofy loves it and wonders if Pete has hot sauce, while Pete trying it explodes his head Scanner’s style.

He then tries giving Goofy a chainsaw loaded with some kind of explosive or something... so yes he’s esclated to MURDER over.. Goofy annoying him a bunch as he’s apparently given up on the whole taking over that lot thing.

Pete Sucks Counter: 9 But it is hilariously petty and naturally backfires again by cartoon law as Pete ends up starting it for Goofy who can’t get it going.

Meanwhile PJ and Max inact the plan which is to drop a bolder with a rope on the cans, but end up having to ride the cans down when PJ lets it go too early and it ends up sweeping both boys on top of the box. They have fun though, with PJ actually getting to enjoy life for once and loving having a new friend.

So as his lot in life Pete has to ruin it by yelling at PJ for getting diryt, then for hanging out with max as he can SMELL the goof on him.. which means he’s either exaggerating or he knows what goofy smells like.

So he forbids PJ to see him insluting max.. while Max is hanging out the window and ends up crying. Oh and Peg never gets involved in any of this across both parts, likely because she dosen’t know.. which makes it even MORE horrifying as it gives off the implication Pete gets away with his abuse of his son because he hides it, like a real world abuser. But even then some things like trying to break up his and Max’s friendship or the toys thing you’d THINK she’d notice.

So we get more untetionally telling stuff as PJ says he’ll treasure this day and the only time he was happy.

Pete Sucks Count: 14 2 for the last scene, 3 for ALLL this one implies. But Max won’t give up the ghost no he won’t give it up. They haven’t the strength to hold on for long but if they both hold on together they can make each other strong. So he has a plan: have Goofy throw a Luau and invite the petes.

Peg naturally forces him to attend and Pete is a dick about it at first, but eventually enjoys himself when they do a conga line. The pets, Waffles and Chainsaw get into some antics. I do love Waffles because I love a kitty. Chainsaw is okay even though I love me a good doggo. Especially this one.

You are a Good Boy, Good Boy. But eventually while playing a party game about passing coconuts, Pete considers the coconut and considers the trees but dosen’t consider Goofy kicking him in the face AGAIN

So Pete is naturally a dick about this despite it being you know, an accident. But he takes it a step further by insulting Max Pete Sucks Count: 15 So Goofy gets mad. But here’s where a rather sizeable flaw shows up in the episode as Goofy.. acts exactly like Pete does about the insuing feud. He forbids Max to see PJ makes up rules and is generally petty and vindictive. And look Goofy could be in the shorts. He’s endlessly adaptable.. but here nothing about his character has shown he’d sink to this and it feels forced to bring abotu the climax.

Thankfully said finale salvages thing: That night Max pulls PJ into his room via the cans, and comes up with a plan.. weirdly asking PJ to hit him with a muffin to save their friendship... but it’s not random it turns out. His plan.. is brilliant. While I really don’t like these types of feud between neighbors make our kids suffer by making them not be able to be friends because we’re being petty children plots, this one has a REALLY clever solution to that: Max and PJ FAKE an oversclated fued similar to their parents, starting with insutls and throwing mulch and escalting to taking down each others fences and then throwing food at each other, before injuring their dads with planks and stuff, nothing serious just slapstick stuff, all to get both to settle down and try and get the boys to stop fighting.. it works like a charm, it’s full of great bits like Peg offering the boys pie only for Max to use it as amuination and i’ts just a great way to end one of these episodes. Not that I WANT more of these episodes but if your going to do this stock plot you might as well be creative with it.

So we end on the Petes and Goofs having a BBQ, all friends again, with Pete having his marina and Goofy nearly burning Pete’s house down and us getting a photo to end the episode.

Final Thoughts:

This one was a step down. Pete’s abuse is REALLY highlighted here and the plot is very paint by numbers and forces Goofy to be out of character for the last act for it to work at all. He just strikes me as too genuine and noble to hold onto a grudge this easily. Peg is also reduced from her usual feisty self to being oddly useless, not stepping in at ANY point to stop any of this depsite it being grossly otu of character. There’s a few great gags and a great climax, but the whole product is just okay

Later Today: Goof Week and Goofy’s birthday continue as I complete the trilogy of Shortstaculars with one about my boy! Featuring Goofy’s first apperance, his first short and the first apperance of what would eventually become Max!

If you liked this review, follow me for more and consider joining my Patreon which you can find RIGHT HERE. Even a buck a month helps me keep doing these and more gets me to my stretch goals, the next one up being the two remaining ducktales mini series, a darkwing duck episode a month and a reivew of the danny phantom film the ultimate enemy. And even a buck a month gets you access to exclusvie reviews, my patreon exclusive discord and to pick a short any time I do one of my shortstaculars. My next one is for Donald’s birthday next montha nd there’s only 6 days left to get on that pay cycle so if that sounds good to you get on in NOW while you still can and i’ll see you at the next rainbow.

#goofy goof #goofy #goof troop #max goof #P.J. Pete #PJ Pete #Pete Pete #Peg Pete #Pistol Pete #Sponerville #Gotta Be Getting Goofy #disney channel #the disney afternoon #disney afternoon #disney xd #disney plus

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kuunowriting · 4 years ago

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Akatsuki no Yona: A study on beginnings - Part 1

Hey, it’s Kuuma! This post is rather unusual since it’s not relating to my art/writing, but this is my blog so I’m going to post whatever I want (lol). I’ll try not to take up too much of your time.

Anyway, let’s talk about Akatsuki no Yona. AnY (or Yona of the Dawn) is an on-going historical romance manga series by Mizuho Kusanagi. It’s one of my absolute top favorite mangas, and one of the reasons why I love it so much is its stellar writing.

Let’s talk about how Kusanagi begins the series and why I think she did a good job setting up the series. I’m not a professional writer, so take this post with some salt. Additionally, spoilers... for the first chapter and some bits of foreshadowing to the rest of the series, wink wink.

This will be split into a few parts because I just realized how much I have to say. I’ll be putting the rest of this very long post under the cut:

(Direct quotes of the manga will be from from Titania Scanalations’ translation: http://www.titaniascans.com/reader/Akatsuki+no+Yona/)

The first few panels show our main character Yona in the mountains. It seems to be showing what happens later in the book and it seamlessly transitions back in time.

With a few words, Kusanagi reveals the setting: “This is Kouka Kingdom... and what once was my castle, Hiryuu Castle.”

And in the next setting, she tells about our protagonist: “At the time, the Emperor did not have an heir to the throne, nor an empress to give birth to an heir. Just a 15 year old princess he raised with great care.”

Already the readers know the setting and the protagonist, Yona, which already fullfills the purpose of the first chapter; that is, exposition. With a simple few words, we already have an image, albeit small, of the protagonist--a 15 year old young princess who probably doesn’t know how to rule, if she’s not the heir.

The next few pages establish and characterize Yona even further. She complains about her red hair and her looks to her father, the King. It’s solid characterization, that she’s bratty and only cares about her looks. Yona may not be likable here, but this dialogue quickly characterizes her.

This transitions into the introduction to the deuteragonist, Hak who happens to be Yona’s childhood friend. Some banter tells that he’s got a bit of a sarcastic streak. Kusanagi drops a lot of information about Hak in a single statement from Yona’s father: “Besides, Hak is already the general commander of the castle at age 18. It’s only natural that he’s your bodyguard.”

Back at it again with a smooth transition, Soo-won, Yona’s cousin three years her senior is introduced. By showing that Yona was worrying about her hair (and even wore “top of the line clothing... [and used] highest quality cosmetics and makeup” as stated a few pages later) before meeting her cousin, Kusanagi implies that there’s something more to their relationship than just family.

There’s some talk about how Soo-won’s been by her side since they were children and Yona bumps into Soo-won. Yona’s shown to be shy and nervous around him while Soo-won treats her like a child.

Kusanagi transitions to a flashback of a younger Yona and Soo-won, displaying their close relationship, characterizing Soo-won as extremely kind and even dropping some extra information, like how Yona’s mother is dead.

The rest of the chapter is similar, as Kusanagi weaves together so much information without using huge infodumps or slowing the plot down. It’s not super noticeable, in my opinion. So I’ll list off what else Kusanagi manages to achieve in a fluid manner.

Yona shyly offers sweets to Soowon only to see that he’s not in his room (again, shows their relationship) which cleanly transitions to Hak and Soo-won hunting. Eventually, Yona wants to shoot with them but her father refuses because “I could never let you hold a weapon...” (some characterization about Yona’s father--he seems to be cowardly)

Soo-won calls over for Yona to ride on the horse. The King gets nervous (further showing his overprotectiveness/cowardliness).

Yona gets on the horse anxiously (characterization of her shelteredness). There’s a funny exchange between her and Hak that’s a contrast to her relationship with Soo-won--she’s looser, less nervous, more sarcastic.

Yona gets on the horse next to Soo-won and gets even more nervous because of his close proximity. The cousins have an exchange about engagement when Yona accidentally blurts out that she’s engaged to Hak (which she wasn’t), which leads to extreme awkwardness. (just here for humor purposes, it seems, or to show that Yona loses control of her tongue around Soo-won)

Later, her father tells Yona that she might be engaged. She balks at the idea, saying she doesn’t want to be engaged to anyone but Soo-won. Her father counters by saying “Up until now I have given you everything you have desired...” (furthers her spoiled image) but that she cannot have Soo-won. (this is a plot thread that later gets expanded on)

Skipping the next page except for one tidbit of information (”Your mother was murdered by rebels”) Yona wonders about her own happiness (almost feels like foreshadowing). Suddenly Yona spots a mysterious figure that begins to chase her through the castle. Someone grabs her and pulls her into a room and she struggles.

That someone turns out to be Soo-won. Soo-won comforts the terrified girl as Yona realizes the threats of being part of the royal family. Already some development, but only a tiny, tiny bit. Yona tries to confess to Soo-won, but he shuts her down. Soo-won does lift her spirits by telling her that “You suddenly look like a woman to me...” Yona smiles, concluding that she’s happy as long as he’s by her side, which furthers their relationship. (a cruel irony to what happens next)

It’s simply amazing how Kusanagi can reveal so much about a character, their relationships, and even drop in some plot threads and background information without having us blink.

And that’s part 1! Part 2 will come out... sometime. i have no idea. Remember that I’m not super qualified since I’m only an amateur writer who loves this series and might have slipped some of my opinions in here. Constructive criticism is appreciated for this. Happy (almost New Year, and see you around!

#writeblr #writblr #writing #akatsuki no yona #yona of the dawn #yona of the dawn manga #mild spoilers #essay #analysis #I'm not super qualified so #a kuuma post #not my work

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vapormaison · 5 years ago

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2019 Best Press 3/4: カタカナ・タイトル + Kanji Title by TANUKI

While for many vaporwave vinyl is doubtless equal parts collector’s item and audio source, I don’t want to lose sight of the goal of this blog here: developing a canon of the genre for high fidelity enjoyment. That said, when I come across something remarkable or noteworthy about a particular piece of wax, even if it is not a “purely audiophile” object, I want to make mention of it.

And TANUKI’s カタカナ・タイトル + Kanji Title wax release is not only noteworthy, but contends for hi-fi consideration despite it’s status as a picture disc.

But let’s back up slightly.

Going back to the previous thesis on why we buy records, sometimes you just want to own a vinyl just because. Just because you’re a collector trying to compile a discography on wax — or, better yet, just because you truly love the album art. For me, カタカナ・タイトル + Kanji Title (Double EP) was undoubtedly all of the three “just be-causes”.

A while back, I noticed that the LP was going into its 3rd press, and decided to snap up a copy because I like Tanuki, I like Lum, and because of those other just becauses. Unfortunately the only format available was not the pink vinyl, but the picture disc. As I’m sure is well-known (because audiophiles are very loud about things they dislike), picture-discs are a big no-no in the audiophile community. This is because while a beautiful objet d’art, a serious listening session of a picture disc release will usually produce greater amounts of surface noise than any other type of vinyl. You can, of course, with the right system, neutralize and mitigate this process slightly, but true-blue hi-fi heads pursuing that elusive muse of “pure sound” would never give a picture disc a second look.

I’m not one of those people.

Tangentially, I’ve heard whispers of ghosts of rumors from when I was living in Shenzen, China — that various record suppliers (small batch Makers) are working out manufacturing and material processes that minimize these issues on pic discs to create appealing records that cover all the bases: hi-fi suitability, collector oriented visual esoterica, and price. I should also admit I have no idea where those companies are in terms of R&D and/or producing these. I end up catching a lot of very fast talk from extremely motivated enthusiasts, but Chinese is still as elusive a language to me at times as “pure sound” can be. With that in mind, however, it’s logical to surmise that advances in technology will eventually render the differences between picture discs and traditional black wax undistinguishable. So long as the world isn’t destroyed in some cataclysmic climate disaster (very real possibility), or -- as we are watching evolve now: World War 3. My view is that it’d be pointless to dismiss the format out of hand when there are active attempts to innovate it as we speak.

That all said, I know what to expect when a contemporary, big-label picture disc plays. During my college days, I used to spin wax at the university radio station. One of the previous catalog managers had a fetish for this “collectible” format, and was convinced he was doing the station a favor by purchasing all these vinyls, noting a pre-supposed resale value later. I remember throwing these on the well-worn Technics SP-10 we had as our main turntable, and listening to the occasional scratch, frequent popping, and constant surface noise, that for the uninitiated (bless you), sounds like a sustained “cracking” in your Rice Krispies — or for those born in the analog age, CRTV static.

So when I sat down with the Tanuki picture disc, I had this laundry list of preconceptions and prejudices about the format. I thought that I could listen to a moderately scratchy record once or twice, keep it as more a visual boutique item and then eventually include in an article where I bemoan the poor quality of the genre’s releases.

But then, I actually listened.

And it sounded… well, I won’t get ahead of myself. Here’s the full review:

THE MUSIC

BABYBABYの夢 — is doubtless the reason why many of us have bought the EP from a sonic perspective —especially if the band-camp reviews are indicative of trends. I still maintain that this is the Mariya Takeuchi sample/remix work par excellence. Tanuki hits all the essential notes here, a genuine respect and love for the sound-staging of its original source, Yume No Tsuzuki. I still get echoes of the original arrangement in my system, (ever so slightly) with a bright and dance-infused collection of unique sounds — particularly in that delicious, wide mid-range — that flesh out the track into its own sort of masterpiece.

何がGoin' On — the curatorial and conspiratorial side of my brain tells me that Goin’ On will probably go down as one the under-appreciated vintage bangers of this era of future funk. I can envision hipsters two or three decades from now sussing out a neophyte with pretentious questions about this track’s pitch-shifted sample draws from. It has that sort of vibe that you know hits with a certain subset of electronica fans — rich & vibrant, making the tweeters on your system work out in all the best ways — it’s just great.

がんばれ — Tanuki is at his best when he gets playful with brass samples. I firmly believe that the titans in this genre each have their go-to piece in their best arrangement — like Dan Mason’s creative vocal array, or greyL’s manipulation of micro-samples. For Tanuki, it’s whenever her gets a horn — synthesized or otherwise, into his production workflow.

ファンクOFF — continues Tanuki’s magic act, taking another city pop track more iconic for its soulful electric guitar riff and turning it into the most slap-worthy single on this EP. I prefer it when Japanese pop samples are fundamentally re-imagined, although I can see how the perfectionist tweaking of someone like Yung Bae is more appealing for some. Tanuki is undoubtedly one of the innovators of this genre, and there’s no more solid evidence of that talent than this track.

腕の中でDancin’ — if I ended up hosting a sort of mythical vaporwave grammies or something like that, (I’m available, folks!) I would probably go off on a Ricky Gervais style rant on how artists aren’t in touch with “the people” (read: me) because all we really want are more remixes of Meiko Nakahara songs — who given her impact on City Pop should have way more play in this genre than she does. This one, like most of the Meiko mixes I’ve heard, is a banger with an absolute fire bass riff punctuated throughout.

Radiant Memories — this might be my first certified “hot take” in the publication (they’ll be many more, I imagine) — but as far as I’m concerned this is the superior Plastic Love edit. I’ll just leave my thoughts there, so they can soak in with a portion of the fanbase who split my reddit account on an open fire of downvotes for suggesting that other artists than Macross 82-99 (Praise be upon him!) are allowed to touch this song as well. While Macross’s mix is definitely the more up-temo of the two, and that for some is the very essence of the genre, this slightly down-mixed version is both the perfect conclusion for the EP and ideal antithesis.

THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE

Signal to Raise ratio on the following albums:

カタカナ・タイトル + Kanji Title: ~61.9db (1 db MoE)

Tron Legacy, Daft Punk: 58.4db

Love Trip, Takako Mamiya, Kitty Records Press: 65.8db

(ratings based on averages 5 minutes of sustained play on the testing unit, the machine actually complied this data on its preset, which is another fascinating part about this sort of vintage press-testing tech). The margin of error is because the machine, according to my mentor Dr. Juuso Ottala formerly of Harman International, informs me it was never meant to give accurate readings of picture discs, and to add about a dB of error margin.

One of the benefits of growing up in New England and, subsequently, New York, is that there are no shortage of heritage professional audio brand HQs in operation around a 200 mile radius from Manhattan to Boston. Off the top of my head, there’s Harman/Kardon, Boston Acoustics, Bose, NuMark, Marantz, and Rane headquarters within an hour’s drive from my two hometowns. Early on in my audiophile quest, I got my hands on some cool vintage gear — vinyl lathe testing equipment that has collected dust in both an old Harman technician’s storage unit, and now my parent’s basement. Over the holiday, I recently brought it out to do some surface noise testing on it to get a rough confirmation of what I was explaining in yesterday’s hi-fi guide. The innards of the machine looks eerily like a plinth-less linear tonearm and plate pair attached to a monitor. After making sure I’m not violating some kind of Harman International trade secret, I’ll post it on instagram.

Wanting to also get a firm idea on just how good my ear-test sounded, I grabbed another picture disc vinyl I had received as a gift a few years ago from my brother — the Tron Legacy OST. While I found the film passably enjoyable, my own preconceptions about pic discs, and a general exhaustion with french house — left me with no discernible desire to spin the thing. I hadn’t even broken the seal on the plastic wrap, so it seemed like as good as a blind test as any. I also grabbed what my ears tell me is a “good”, “heavy” press, a 1982 original dead-stock copy of Takako Mamiya’s Love Trip LP pressed by Kitty Records Japan. I’ve played it maybe a half dozen times since I bought it, so it’s as close to “new” 80s audiophile pop record as you can get. The Japanese are infamously anal about low SNR on their vinyl.

And, well, the results speak for themselves. The sweet spot for most black vinyl records is between 60-70db depending on age, weight, and a host of other frankly uncontrollable factors that aren’t worth getting into detail here, as I’d go on forever. The main takeaway here is that Neoncity’s and Tanuki’s record sat at the low end of the audiophile vinyl reference spectrum. Which in itself is a remarkable achievement for a pic disc. It’s worth taking a look at Tron Legacy, which just barely scratches 8db above a cassette tape, and 7db a Japanese vinyl from 1982.

This is all in an effort to say: damn, this is pretty good.

This also somewhat counters the usual “picture discs sound like shit” narrative that’s prevailed pretty consistently in the audiophile community. Tron Legacy? Yeah, that probably sounds like shit if I could bother to suffer through a listen. But whoever Hong-Kong based Neoncity is using actually makes “good” — if such a qualifier needs to be attached — image-pressed records. And that devotion to audio fidelity should be rewarded.

It might be time for me to re-asses picture discs on the whole, and that mind-expanding moment is something I owe to the fine folks at Neoncity.

#bestof2019 #bestpress

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hexadecimalmantis · 6 years ago

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Argonaut Games Research

This post was originally going to be an absurdly long documentary video, but I realized it would have been a bit boring, so I ultimately decided on making a glorified blog post.

When I joined BioMedia Project last year, I was tasked with researching Bionicle: The Game and its sequel Bionicle 2: City of Legends. I have talked about both games in great detail many times before, and I think we all know about the issues that plague both of them by now. Bionicle: The Game is seemingly incomplete, and filled with content that was cut early on, and Bionicle 2: City of Legends never made it past a private movement demo. For context about Bionicle 2: BioMedia Project managed to obtain an Xbox build of the movement demo a few years ago. It has a few issues, such as broken audio and some missing graphical effects. I began reaching out to former developers in an effort to piece together the entire story of Argonaut Games, and uncover more secrets about both games. (Initially) With the assistance of Liam Robertson of DidYouKnowGaming?, I began contacting some of the developers. For those of you that are unfamiliar, Argonaut Games was split into two different facilities during the development of Bionicle: The Game. The first being Argonaut London, and the second was Argonaut Sheffield. I decided to reach out to the former developers from the London branch first. I initially didn’t get any replies, but I remained persistent. After waiting a few weeks, I eventually I got a reply from a former artist. Keep in mind that personal details about the former developers I contacted will be expunged in order to protect their identities and to prevent harassment and spam.

This is the first message I received after I inquired about Bionicle: The Game:

“Hi, yes I was lead artist on Bionicle. I'd say that it was a game that we cared a lot about, and to be honest we had high hopes for, at least initially. As always with game dev there wasn't just one cause of the games problems, but probably the biggest was we fell in love with the games setting and bit off far more than we could chew. We should have started with far more cautious goals, but we wanted to tell the whole story. I'm surprised if there was that much unused content on the disc TBH but the original scope of the game is definitely visible in naming conventions etc. we had intended each character to have toa levels and toa nuva (if thats the right term?) their powered up versions - before adding the 7th. Given that they have different abilities that was a huge ask of the team.

(Redacted)”

This message was about what I expected, the devs were a bit too ambitious and were unable to complete their ideas during the given development time. I later asked about the developer signatures stored within the BIGB archives, and asked them if they had worked on any of the Kopaka areas, since I found their signature within a subset of those files:

“the 'signatures' probably just refer to the designers - which is a relatively small subset of the team as a whole. I oversaw the project from an art perspective, so characters env, frontend etc then I ended up doing some animation work on the bull, onua, the weird door thing. I didn't work on Kopaka - that work was done up in Sheffield, I used to visit their studio to review stuff & sign it off.”

I’m sure the Bull was probably the Kane-Ra seen in Onua Nuva’s level. There are some pre-release trailers that show a Kane-Ra attacking the player with unique animations too. After that, I asked him about Argonaut Sheffield and their work on Bionicle 2: City of Legends. To my surprise, I got this:

“No, I didn't I thought they were disbanded alongside Argo”

This essentially meant that nobody from Argonaut London was aware of the development of Bionicle 2: City of Legends. With this information, it was easy to conclude that Bionicle 2 was created solely by Argonaut Sheffield as speculated. After failing to get more replies from former developers from Argonaut London, I shifted my focus to Argonaut Sheffield, intrigued by the messages I received from the former artist.

After a bit of waiting, I got a reply from another former artist.

“Hi,

Yes, I worked on Bionicle as a character artist along side artist (redacted). He was my mentor back then as it was my first industry job. I think we modelled about 130 odd characters/modular models back then between us. The character concepts we're drawn up by (redacted).

Argonaut Sheffield was previously Particle Systems who made I-War, the PC Sci Fi game and some other iterations. It was a technically adept small team and great to work with. I didn't have much to do with the London branch. We went on to try and make some failed movie tie-ins alongside them at a later date. Catwoman, Zorro, Star Wars, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and also Bionicle 2.. which was going to be a fluid parkour type platformer. Which never materialised as after being there just shy of two years, London shut us down.

I'm actually working back in the offices where it all happened now. Which seems strange. I did work at Sumo Digital as a lead Char artist for ten years in between. I know there's a basement full of hard drives still here as one of the old directors still rents some space here.

(redacted)

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

(redacted)”

I received concept art for both Bionicle: The Game and Bionicle 2: City of Legends in this message. The art was later posted on my Twitter: https://twitter.com/HexMantis/status/1099883979942084608

Aside from the plethora of art, this message provided some insight about how Argonaut Sheffield came to be. It was previously known as Particle Systems before it assimilated into Argonaut Games. After this exchange, I reached out to a former programmer from Argonaut Sheffield. This time I provided a set of questions for the developer to answer in an effort to obtain specific information. After waiting for nearly a month, I got a reply:

The questions I asked will be enclosed within [ ] to avoid confusion.

“Hey!

There's some incomplete credits here (redacted)

but you could try contacting (redacted) as he was the lead programmer there. He used to work at PKR too, also owned by (redacted).

(redacted)

[Asked about the main development platform for the games]

1) Yep it was PS2. The PS2 version was handled by Argonaut Edgeware and programmers in Sheffield did ports for the other platforms

[Asked about the cut content from Bionicle: The Game]

2) Sorry, I wasn't involved with that bit. I was responsible for adding the hyper threading features on the PC (redacted)

[Asked about interactions with the London branch]

3) Yep, we worked together on it. Designers and Artists in Sheffield were working on assets for the main game.

[Asked about I-Ninja’s compatibility with Bionicle: The Game]

4) I think they should be compatible with each other. I-ninja came out a bit later though.

[Asked about Bionicle 2: City of Legends]

5) Maybe, not sure as it was a long time ago and I then moved to the Edgeware studio. If they did I guess it was just a prototype for a pitch

Good luck with your fact finding!“

I later asked if they knew of any early builds of either game, and I got this reply:

“Hey!

Sorry for the late reply. I believe everything was archived by Argonaut and EA. I'm not sure if anyone archived it personally at Argonaut or not but there were a lot of people working on it. They created archive PCs with everything you need to make the game from the source assets.

Thanks,

(redacted)”

The concept of the supposed “archive PCs” was interesting, but I doubt any of them are still around after all this time. After this, I contacted another former programmer from Argonaut Sheffield. This time with a focus on Bionicle 2: City of Legends:

“Hi William, I must admit, I'm curious where you found my name in the demo. Do you have a source code drop to go with it, or did I leave my name in an error message in the binary package itself?

Either way, yes I did work on the demo, albeit briefly. The engine the demo is built on is largely the same engine used in Bionicle (the original PS2/Xbox/PC game), Catwoman, and I-Ninja. It has an older pedigree than that too, but those were the games it was used on while Argonaut Sheffield was part of the Argonaut group. I was one of the programmers who ported the engine over to PC & Xbox for the original Bionicle, which is why I was involved in the demo in some capacity.

I'm still in touch with a lot of the designers who worked on the movement demo; the lead designer, (redacted), has said that I can pass on his contact details if you'd like to get in touch with him. You can contact him at (redacted).

Cheers,

(redacted)”

I was not surprised to get confirmation that Bionicle 2 used the same engine as Bionicle: The Game, since most of my existing programs I wrote for Bionicle: The Game were compatible with the Xbox demo. I asked if a PS2 port of Bionicle 2: City of Legends ever existed, since the Xbox demo we have has DualShock button mappings present in the game:

“Ah, I'll bet that's because I'll have compiled and built the disc image, so it's embedded my PC's name into the image. The level select would have just been for test levels where I was looking at specific bugs, performance problems or new features.

I really can't remember if we did PS2 or PC builds of the demo, other than the development binaries the design team would have been using. It's unlikely we'll have done a full ISO for the PS2, because the spiders caused real performance problems and we'd have wanted to show it to the publishers on the fastest available hardware.

By the way, the Xbox version will have reference to PS2 hardware because the original engine was PS2 only. The easiest way to port the engine was to, as far as possible, just get the Xbox and PC versions to pretend they were doing exactly the same thing as the PS2. For example, the game scripts don't need to know that when they get a button press from Cross or Circle, they're actually getting button presses from A or B. So although the names are going to be PS2-centric, they're still doing Xbox specific stuff.”

I was surprised to find out that the Morbuzakh Spiders were the primary reason for shifting Bionicle 2 to the original Xbox. I guess it makes sense, given how little time Argonaut Sheffield had to optimize the game. Switching to the original Xbox appeared to be a quick and easy way to avoid the hassle of optimization.

I later asked about the audio issues present in the Xbox demo, and for some general information about Bionicle: The Game.

“Hi William,

I'm afraid I've got no idea why the demo would be silent - it's been far too many years for me to remember the exact details, and I have no idea which version of the demo is the one which has been circulated. The full code for the audio system will have been present, because it was just a continuation of the engine used on Bionicle, and I'm sure the designers would have had at least some placeholder audio to hook up.

Audio is habitually the last thing to get hooked up in any game development, and since most developers prefer to have a silent build and listen to their own music while they work, it's not unusual for it either to be neglected in early internal builds, or for it to have been hacked to be silent (assuming the demo was one built locally rather than for showing to a publisher).

In terms of the development situation on Bionicle, although we weren't directly in the body of main developers, I think most of us were aware that the game wasn't progressing as well as it should. As well as the code team doing the porting work, our design and art teams were making the 'adrenaline levels' - which were the short lava/ice/tree surfing levels. They were only supposed to be short breaks between much larger levels, but it became increasingly obvious towards the end that these relatively small levels were still a large percentage of the actual content, and the other larger levels weren't coming online as fast as they should. QA in particular do full play-throughs on a regular basis, so they have a very good view of how fast the game as a whole is coming together.

I'm not 100% sure on all of the reasons for the delays in development, having been a relatively junior developer in a satellite studio at the time, but the reasons discussed at the time with leads and producers are fairly common ones that I've seen and heard about on other projects since. Inexperienced publishers or IP holders who haven't worked with game developers before often don't understand the lead times involved in producing content.

It's very hard to explain to customers who are used to working with companies like advertising agencies, who can turn around a complete change of direction in a matter of days, that you need to make and lock down decisions months or even years in advance. I think the penny finally dropped for Lego about three months out from submission that if they kept holding up approvals and kept requesting changes, they weren't going to get any game at all on the shelves - which of course meant we all had to crunch like hell to get the content in good enough shape to ship!

Cheers,”

An example of the aforementioned “Adrenaline sections” is the Tahu Nuva level from Bionicle: The Game. This level is actually internally named “Ta Adrenaline” as well. It’s obvious at this point that Tahu Nuva was originally going to have more than just surfing sections in his level, given the evidence in this message and the fact that he has a full set of unused walking animations.

I eventually contacted the designer mentioned by the former programmer, and got a reply after a month. (This designer was kind enough to restate my questions in his message):

“Hey,

I'm so sorry it's taken so long to get back to you. I was launching a game and I completely forgot about this.

1. What was your role as a designer like when working on both games? What kind of work did you do?

I was lead designer at Argonaut Sheffield, and we were brought in to help out on Bionicle the Game. We were responsible for what was known internally as "the adrenaline sections". The game was split into third person. exploration and combat levels (which were developed by the main Argonaut office in London), and the fast moving on rails sections that we created. As well as leading the team on these sections I was directly involved in the Tahu Nuva Boss Race near the end of the game.

2. Were you aware of content being cut or removed when working on Bionicle: The Game? Did you work on anything that didn't make the cut?

Like with any game there's work that involved that never sees the light of day. There were a lot of changes to the design over time, sometimes for practical reasons, other times because Lego wanted them. I seem to recall that in the original design you would play as each Toa normally and each one again in their Nuva form in large open levels - with the platform adventure and the adrenaline sections seamlessly blending into each other. Quite soon after we were brought into the project a much clearer separation was made between the two, but I'm sure there was lots of the preparatory work for that ended up on the disc.

3. Do you know if any other character models aside from Matau (The green character) were created for Bionicle 2?

No other characters were made for that demo. I think we had a matter of weeks and everything had to be done very quickly. That build represents a build that we sent to Lego (And Giant who eventually became TT Games) for approval and hopefully for more funding for the company. And we spent a lot of time agreeing the visual look of the character, as it was very different from what we'd done in the first game.

The work done on Bionicle 2 was entirely done up in Sheffield so we had a lot more control over the content. We knew that the Bionicle audience was getting older, and their gaming needs were becoming more sophisticated and we wanted to do something that would appeal both to that audience and be an interesting game in its own right. We felt that the first game had been so compromised by production issues that it ended up being very disappointing. We wanted to make something fluid and interesting that was a joy to play as a platformer, and had the dynamism and the sense of scale that the Bionicle world deserved.

4. Do you know if any other builds of the Bionicle 2 movement demo exist? Like a build that has working audio?

I don't remember for sure if we ever ended up with a build with audio. But it feels a bit unlikely that we would have got to the stage that we did without their being something in there, especially if the audio assets were on the disk. Somewhere in the depths of my home I think I have a PS2 version of the demo, so I may see if I can get that up and running and find out. As I think - so far - the only people who have had access to the game have played on Xbox, right?

Thanks”

Of course LEGO was being difficult during Bionicle: The Game’s development. They did something similar with Bionicle: The Legend of Mata Nui, and that certainly did not end well. This message was a big deal for us at the time, not only did we get a lot of information about both games, but we also got confirmation that a PS2 build of Bionicle 2: City of Legends actually exists! Unfortunately, this developer never replied again, and I was beginning to lose motivation.

I decided I had enough of Argonaut Sheffield at that point, and shifted my focus to Argonaut London once more. After waiting a bit, I got another reply from a former AI programmer.

“Hi William, sure thing, although it was a long time back so may not remember too much :)

probably easier to use my email (redacted) though as I rarely login to Linkedin.”

We later communicated via email:

“Hi William,

on the unused level front, it’s entirely likely that a bunch of the designers and strat coders ’play areas’ would have ended up in the build. Not sure if you’ve had any background info on how a lot of the Argonaut games were built, but here’s a brief rundown :)

So, when I started at Argonaut in 1997 , I joined the Croc 2 team, who were using the first updated iteration of the engine they built for Croc that had its own scripting language written (originally for the level designers to use) to write all the gameplay elements, while the engine coders focused entirely on the main engine for the PS1 (and a separate small team handled porting the engine to GameCube/Dreamcast, PC etc.). The idea being that ASL (Argonaut Strategy Language) Strats would be cross platform as they were just interpreted by the engine.

As it turned out, ASL strats were a bit too complex for the level designers to write themselves without coder assistance, so Argonaut let them focus on the actual level design itself (using the editor that just became known as the Croc Editor) and got gameplay specialist coders (like myself) to work on the strats. This worked out great as we could focus on individual items or groups of them independent of what was happening with the engine and we could quickly tweak a strat and run it on the devkit without doing a full build of the game (which took *AGES* back then ;) ) as well as some basic debugging capability.

This meant that most of the level designers and strat coders usually had a level slapped together with all the bits they were trying out. I don’t know if my one with all the Matorans following you in a chain still exists, but there were some pretty strange ones. In theory these wouldn’t end up on the disk but the build system was pretty clunky, so it’s entirely likely that some ended up there.

So by the time I got drafted onto the Bionicle PS2 project, I’d worked on Croc 2, Aladdin Nazira’s Revenge, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Bionicle Matoran Adventures on GBA. All but the last one using revisions of the Croc Editor and ASL. (The Emperor’s New Groove, Harry Potter 2, Malice, Catwoman & iNinja also got written with the engine). I say revisions as not a lot was actually added to either over time. Also, by Bionicle PS2 I was kind of an emergency response coder for strats, as I got parachuted in after the project started to help fix a lot of problems with how ASL was being used and design issues with the levels.

There were a lot of issues with Bionicle (not as many as Aladdin or Catwoman started with and my 4 days on Malice were certainly interesting, but they’re entirely different stories ;) ). Mostly from inexperience as the team working on it had a lot of new hires or ones that had been drafted from other teams that didn’t use ASL or the Croc Engine, so they weren’t familiar with its limitations. There were some HR issues going on too, but I’m not going to get into those. The team were mostly all professional and good at what they did, but struggling with a relatively clunky engine. By this point Argonaut had split off most of the engine coders to the “Tools” team and we had to officially request any engine or editor changes we wanted through their chain of command (and they weren’t interested in working on the ‘old’ engine).

There were also some issues with inexperience in games from the Lego UK side too. So a lot of the overall design rules were a bit flaky and lead to a lot of levels and gameplay getting changed. The “No Weapons” rule was one we thought was pretty odd, considering the swords, pikes etc. in use. Apparently they’re tools, not weapons. So we weren’t allowed to use them as direct combat weapons for gameplay, only for magical ranged effects. There was also a lot of issues of really big levels being designed without consideration for what could actually be rendered on screen at the required frame rate on PS2 with the old Croc engine. Even updated to PS2 and with everything the engine coders could do to optimise it, the engine and ASL were struggling to do what the designers wanted.

I don’t think it’s a case of biting off a bit more than they could chew (we successfully wrote Harry Potter from scratch in 9 months in time to release with the film using the engine but that was very much a dream team of all the right people with the right skills and a publisher working well in sync). More a case of it being a new team of people not so experienced with the system and a publisher that wasn’t entirely sure what it wanted. So things were that bit harder to get done in the time available.

In theory, some older gold disks are likely still around. (redacted) was one of our engine guys on the project and “Master of the Build” (he was the only one who had enough tasteless Hawaiian shirts for the numerous submission build days). I’ll have a dig through my CD collection, but it’s unlikely I’ve got any Bionicle builds surviving. I *might* still have some strat code floating about on an old hard disk. I do seem to have some of the Catwoman build code that used mostly the same (although slightly updated) engine though.

One thing that I think got axed was my chain of Matorans. The idea was a level where you’d be picking them up from around the level and they’d follow you to a rescue point. Normally this wouldn’t actually be that difficult to code, but ASL never actually had any arrays! I’d been asking for them for a couple of projects by that point but they never got added, so my Matorans were each working as their own array elements and frantically messaging one another in a chain, which never quite worked reliably enough with ASL, so we shelved the idea.

(redacted) was one of the strat coders working with me on Bionicle. I think he’d just joined Argonaut then, but luckily, knew his stuff.

(redacted)”

I guess a few of the unused levels I found in the PS2 port of Bionicle: The Game are examples of “play areas” given how small some of them are. This message also provided some insight about ASL, the proprietary language both games were created with. This gave me a good idea about how difficult ASL was to use as well. The fact that Arognaut also had many new hires that couldn’t handle ASL’s idiosyncrasies certainly didn’t help Bionicle: The Game at all.

I later reached out to another former AI programmer affiliated with the previous one. They had some interesting things to say:

“Wow, I'm really surprised that anyone is that interested in Bionicle, because I didn't think it was a very good game, but I'm happy that you felt strongly enough to do this, I guess. That's quite an impressive bit of digging.

[Asked about ASL]

Q1) ASL wasn't a great language to use, it was being developed at the same time as the engine so it was constantly changing and was occasionally broken as well. The turnaround from making a change in code to testing it on the target device was quite slow. And coming from C++ the lack of modularity was frustrating. There was some talk in the team about wanting it to be object oriented, but anything that made it cleaner and less prone to repetition would have been good. My memory of it isn't that good since it was 20 years ago. I remember the collision and animation systems being awkward and crude as well though. Do you know about the other games that the system was used for? Catwoman took the animation engine a bit further, but it was really horrible trying to program the animation blending for finite state machines with a language that was so hard to debug.

[Asked about scrapped content in Bionicle: The Game]

Q2) I don't remember much about what was scrapped. There were different teams working on different levels and playable characters, I mainly worked on the Tahu levels and the final boss. I think there might have been some stuff scrapped from the other characters. One or two of them were developed by the team who were doing the cross platform conversion for us, and we didn't see much of what they were doing and only saw it quite late.

[Asked if any early builds of Bionicle: The Game still exist]

Q3) I have no idea - perhaps Sony or EA have archives of the earlier builds. Someone on the engine team might do, I can't think how or why a strat coder would have one.”

The issues with the collision system they mentioned are definitely present in Bionicle: The Game. It’s quite easy to glitch out of bounds, as speedrunners have demonstrated many times. We later talked about general programming concepts and discussed ASL further:

“Reassuring to know that I'm not imagining Bionicle being pretty bad! I think object oriented was just flavour of the month in 2003, Java was a highly respected language at the time and we thought it was the future. It would have been nice to work in a language that was used in other places, because having ASL on your CV was a pretty crappy prospect for seeking other work. At least if you used Fortran or Pascal it was recognised by employers as a mainstream language. WTF is ASL? I worked in two other organisations that had proprietary languages and it was annoying. The good thing about starting work at Argonaut at least was that ASL was a proven language that you could make games with, and it did let you get down to the relevant bits of gameplay you wanted to take control of. Before that I worked at Phase 3 studios where they had never made an action game before, and we spent a lot of time programming systems that had hardly any effect on gameplay. So I was grateful for ASL and the toolchain for making it easy to do some limited things. I was very impressed by someone on the iNinja team for getting ropes to work with a vertlet algorithm, we stole that later for the green Bionicle to use. I think the High Voltage Software studio might be using a different language with the same initials? I can't see how it could possibly be Argonaut's language. I'm pretty sure there was some talk about opening it up as middleware to sell other studios but I don't think we ever got there. Many of the staff from Catwoman went on to work at Rocksteady, Sony and Ninja Theory, but I think they just started using whatever engine was in place there. You could find hundreds of people who had brushes with the language.”

I asked about other studios using ASL for their games:

“What release date were the games? Argonaut folded in 2004 I think, so the creditors might have managed to sell off the technology as cheap middleware of last-gen consoles

or perhaps they were licensing the tech while we were using it, and I just hadn't been aware of it”

I sent him some notable examples of games using ASL from other studios, such as The Conduit and Ben 10: Protector of Earth:

“That fits the picture then - liquidation in 2004, sell the technology in 2005, two years of learning the systems and developing content, release in 2007

The PS3 would be the current gen console by then, but the PS2 had a large enough user base to make it a viable market, especially for movie tie-ins and children’s games”

I later asked if there was any possibility that Argonaut received parts of ASL from other sources:

“That's an interesting question... I don't know but I think Argonaut were using strats since 1993 and the language gradually evolved from Starfox to Croc and so on. I think it was around before High Voltage existed. It does seem like a massive coincidence that the header is VOLT but there aren't many words that sound cool to programmers so I still suspect it is just a coincidence. Programming was Argonaut's strongest suit, it doesn't make sense that they would buy tech in like that. I was only at the company for two years or so, ask someone who was there longer.”

Then out of the blue, another former designer from Argonaut Sheffield reached out to me about Bionicle 2. After that, I asked them a few questions:

“Hi William,

Great to hear from you. Let me see what I can do to answer your questions!

[Asked about the development process of Bionicle 2]

1. Designing the demo was a bit of a break from the usual licensed Dev. We had creative control so got to decide what direction we'd like to take things in (hence a departure from the 'standard' platforming fare of the time!) My role was predominantly as a technical designer - that was, creating ideas and prototyping/building in the tools. For the demo I was responsible for populating and scripting some of the functionalities in the level.

[Asked about the broken audio in the Xbox port of Bionicle 2]

2. Not sure on the silence in the build tbh... I seem to remember doing some work on creating and implementing some spot FX and seem to remember we put some audio track on the front end screen. With this being a closed pitch demo, I honestly can't remember if we'd created the track or sourced it from elsewhere!

[Asked if they knew about any other builds of Bionicle 2]

3. I believe a have a variety of unreleased games and demos on various formats somewhere. Most of them will be PS2 from that period.

Thanks”

When they mentioned owning a variety of unreleased games and demos, I was immediately intrigued. I later asked if they had a PS2 build of Bionicle 2 and offered to send him a copy of our Xbox build of the game in exchange for it, and to my surprise I got this:

“Hey William,

Cool, I'll have a search when I get some time and attempt to extract it for you!

Thanks”

I was ecstatic. Finally, after months of searching, I was about to get something tangible! But the days passed, and those days turned into weeks. I was beginning to lose hope until I got this message:

“Hey William,

Quick note on my progress - I've not forgotten! I delved into my garage over the weekend and came away with 3 CDs labeled bionicle 2 with various dates on!

I'll attempt to create an ISO of the latest date and share with you when I get a mo (most likely the weekend again!)

Thanks”

Not only did he have a build of the game for the PS2, but THREE of them! After seeing this, I decided to wait for the weekend to arrive. Unfortunately I would be very busy on this particular weekend, but Bionicle was still my top priority! So I proceeded to bail on my friends to wait for an obscure as hell prototype game from a discontinued children’s toy line to show up in my inbox. However, on Sunday, the weekend was coming to a close, and I had heard nothing from the former designer. My waiting and persistence later paid off after I got this message:

“Hi William,

Give this a go - no idea if it works - let me know!

(redacted)”

At last! I finally got it! The latest known PS2 build of Bionicle 2: City of Legends! But there was a problem. The game didn’t boot. Just my luck. But I wasn’t ready to give up. I ended up rebuilding the entire iso with some proprietary tools, and by some miracle, it booted up in my emulator. It’s about what you would expect: It’s similar to Xbox build in many ways, but it is also different. Unlike the Xbox port, the audio works, and there are some extra graphical effects and animations. I was also able to get the game to boot up on a real PS2 without issue.

I can’t say exactly when BioMedia Project will release this build to the public, but I'm sure it will happen soon. Until then, feel free to watch some gameplay footage of the demo on my Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/Dvmzz92F3oo

These past couple of years have been pretty crazy for Bionicle. The Legend of Mata Nui was found TWICE, and there has been so much more activity within the community as a result. I’m glad I was able to make my mark and get this unreleased build of Bionicle 2: City of Legends into the hands of the Bionicle community where it belongs. If you made it this far, Thanks for reading. If you liked this post, don’t forget to share it. I spent a lot of time researching this, and I would really appreciate it. Special Thanks:

BioMedia Project

Liam Robertson

Fraug L. Coolman

#bionicle #lego

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vinylexams · 6 years ago

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INTERVIEW with Brian Cook of SUMAC, Russian Circles, Botch, These Arms are Snakes, and Roy

Brian Cook of the MANY gnarly bands listed above took time to answer a bunch of questions that had been burning a hole in my mind for years earlier today. Did you know that aside from playing bass in some of the heaviest bands currently in existence, Brian is also an avid record collector and he also runs a very similar page where he posts all of his records and writes up a bit of history and personal context with each one? A man after my own heart! I’ve dropped a link to his Tumblr below and you’d be a fool not to go check it out and follow his work there.

https://bubblesandgutz.tumblr.com⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

I really appreciated having a chance to talk to a very talented musician who also places a LOT of importance on physical medium and the recording process. All too often I get submissions from bands who either don’t know the in’s and out’s of the vinyl format or they took a lot of shortcuts and deprive their art a chance to really shine in the ways that vinyl allows. I picked Brian’s brain about his approach to creation of physical musical media as well as his history as a collector (and even tried to convince him to get These Arms are Snakes play my big gay wedding reception!). Thanks for taking the time to tell your story to us, Brian!

You've been a member of several incredible bands over the past few decades (Botch, Sumac, Russian Circles, These Arms Are Snakes), all of which have released pretty much everything they've recorded on vinyl. How important is the vinyl medium for you as a musician and creator?

Thanks for the kind words. It's really important to me for my music to have some sort of physical format. I realize that mode of thinking might seem sort of old school or outdated, but i've always been enamored by music as a kind of historical artifact. When I was younger, that meant it was important for me to have an actual Dead Kennedys cassette as opposed to a dubbed version from my friend. It was like the difference between owning a painting versus owning a xerox of a painting. When I became a musician, it was a sign of validation. By having a record with my name on it, I had created something that would potentially outlive me. And now in the digital age we've convinced ourselves that everything lives forever on the internet, but it's not true. Myspace just lost all their music. I've written for a lot of online music outlets that have closed shop or simply deleted old posts. Meanwhile, I have a trunk full of old zines that outlived the supposed permanence of blogs. So while the digital age is great for convenience and scope, creating a physical recording is really the more reliable way to make sure something exists for more than five to ten years, or however long it takes for the newest technological fad to become obsolete. Vinyl seems to be the longest lasting format, so it's my preferred medium. But if my music exists on tape or CD, that's fine too.

Do you approach your recording and production processes with specific formats like vinyl in mind? If so, what do you do differently? Absolutely. The main concern is that we're dealing with the time constraints of vinyl. For bands like Russian Circles and SUMAC who have really long songs, it means we have to be careful how we sequence our records because we can easily exceed the 22-minutes-per-side rule. We've also been told by pressing plants that it's better to have long drones in the middle of an album side than at the beginning or end because there tends to be more surface noise at the beginning of a side and more warble at the end, and drones don't do much to mask these imperfections. But while one can complain about the limitations of vinyl, there are also issues with digital formats that can alter the way an album is put together. For example, the digital version of Empros has a longer drone at the end of "Batu" than the LP version, partially because of vinyl's limitations, but also because digital outlets like iTunes don't recognize records with long songs as full albums unless at least one track is longer than ten minutes. So we stretched it out on the digital version so that we'd be compensated appropriately for our work, but condensed it on vinyl so that we didn't compromise the sound quality.

Of all of the albums you've contributed to, which one stands out to you as the one you feel most connected to?

Probably Geneva by Russian Circles, if I had to pick one. We wrote that record over the span of several months at a house in rural Wisconsin. It was one of those ideal scenarios I'd always dreamed of---hunkering down in some isolated retreat and just immersing ourselves in the writing process. I've never walked away from an album feeling as accomplished as I did with that one. It just felt like we'd achieved something that had previously been out of my level of expertise. I think we've made better records since then, but I don't think I've ever felt as successful in making the sounds in my head translate to the recording. With regards to my other bands, I feel that way about Botch's We Are The Romans, These Arms Are Snakes' Easter, Roy's Killed John Train, and SUMAC's What One Becomes. But Geneva will always hold a special place.

How did you get into vinyl collecting and how does it play a part in your life?

I started buying vinyl around '92 because it was cheap. My first LP was Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet's Savvy Show Stoppers. I bought it for $2. Then I discovered 7"s, which was the dominant format for hardcore and punk bands at the time. Throughout high school, I mainly bought 7"s because i could buy 3 or 4 a week on my allowance. And let's be honest... most hardcore bands in the '90s had better 7"s than full albums. But vinyl was so dead at the time that you could also go to thrift stores and scoop up the entire Creedence Clearwater Revival discography for the cost of one CD. Even new vinyl was cheaper than their CD counterpart back then. So it's a bit of a drag now considering that vinyl is currently the most expensive format, but I still get a thrill from going to record stores, digging through crates, and coming home with a new LP. I can't say I buy that many 7"s anymore though.

What do you think about the relatively recent resurgence of large-scale vinyl production and collection?

It certainly has its advantages and disadvantages. I buy a lot of reissues just so I can have a clean, good-sounding copy, so I appreciate the resurgence in that regard. At the same time, the vinyl boom has made used record shopping a bit more of a drag. I don't know how many copies of Neil Young's Harvest I saw in used bins throughout the '90s and '00s, and then when I finally decided to buy a copy five years ago, it seemed like they'd all been snagged and the reissue was going for $50. When the Zeppelin discography got reissued a few years back, I mentioned wanting a new copy of Physical Graffiti to my husband. He went to our local indie record store in Brooklyn and asked the owner if they carried it and he totally balked at the question. "Why would we carry a reissue when you can buy a used copy of that in any record store for $5?" he said. My husband was like "every used Zeppelin record you carry is beat to shit and goes for at least $20... what the fuck are you even talking about?"

If you had to pare down your entire collection to no more than three albums, which would you keep?

What's the broader context? Like, are those the only three records I can listen to for the rest of my life? Or is it just a matter of only being allowed to own three records? If it's the former, I'd probably choose Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks, Miles Davis' In a Silent Way, and a Can album... either Ege Bamyasi or Soon Over Babaluma. Ask me tomorrow and I'd probably list off a different three. If it's the latter... like, if i'm merely holding onto records because the actual artifact means a lot to me but I can still listen to music in some other capacity, then I'd probably go with the His Hero Is Gone / Union of Uranus split LP, Undertow's At Both Ends, and Sticks & Stones Theme Songs For Nothing, just because those seem like a pain in the ass to replace and they're important records to me. I have records that are worth way more money, but I'm not someone who buys records because they're valuable.

Do you have a "white whale" record you still haven't found?

Not really. For ages I resisted the urge to buy used records online, but I've since relented. The record that finally broke my ordering embargo was Hack's The Rotten World Around Us. They were a band from Adelaide, South Australia in the late '80/ early '90s who sounded like a grungier version of the first couple Swans records. Super heavy and scary. I got turned onto them through a 7" on Alternative Tentacles, but the LP was never available stateside. The first few times I toured Australia i went to every record store I could find in hopes of finding a copy. No one had ever heard of Hack. The singer was in another band called Grong Grong, and members of that band had gone on to be in King Snake Roost, Lubricated Goat, and Tumor Circus (with Jello Biafra on vocals), but no one had heard of them either. In my mind there was this rich underground of Australian noise rock from that time period that was still vital and valid, but the reality is that it was largely ignored and forgotten. I eventually found a copy online and bought it for $20. A year later i found a used copy in Boise. Oh well. I'd love to find Acme's To Reduce The Choir..., or an original copy of Popol Vuh's second album, or the Neu! 7", or the Greenlandic prog band Sume's Sumut album.

Hypothetically how much money would I need to raise to get These Arms Are Snakes to reunite to play my wedding reception? My family will hate it but my partner and I will be very happy, etc.

We still talk about doing some proper "farewell shows" since we bailed on doing them back in 2009/2010. Granted, now they'd be reunion shows, but in our hearts they'd be our proper goodbye. We're putting together a vinyl release of various odds and ends for next year, so maybe that'll give us an excuse to finally book something.

#vinylexams #vinyl #vinyljunkie #onmyturntable #nowspinning #sumac #botch #thesearmsaresnakes #seattle #taas #roy #russiancircles #briancook

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unorthodoxsavvy · 6 years ago

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An Unorthodox Update

Hello, friends, Romans, country-core-people... mutuals...

I’d like to take a minute to address this blog and the direction it’s been going in.

First let’s look at our roots.

I started this blog in November of 2016, about a month after I started dating my boyfriend (CretaceousHero, go give him a follow guys) and it was originally an MCR blog titled Welcome-To-The-Savvy-Parade (yeah it hurts to read for me too but there were good intentions). Around that time somewhere maybe like 2015 I had started watching Dan and Phil and my posts gravitated towards them and Bands™️. After a while I think I slowly changed over to mostly Dan and Phil under UnorthodoxSavvy, which has become my main branding everywhere, starting on here (Twitch, Twitter when I had one, Discord, other messaging systems, Pokémon go, AC: PC) and I use the name “Savvy” which I also went by IRL for a while and still kind of do I just don’t talk to as many people anymore. From there I was often lumped in with Dan and Phil blogs even though I never had an official Dan and Phil branding. Throw in some superheroes and tv shows, etc. I was even a front-runner for Phandom Meetups when those were a thing. Commenting on YOUR photos brought me happiness.

At some point I decided to split my content into two blogs, this one and my side blog. Both have a certain theme that are almost polar opposites when you compare them, but they are both me. I’m currently thinking of changing that url by the way as the joke has kind of died out. My content over there has also changed recently.

Dan and Phil have been posting less and less, which is OKAY. Personally I think that Dan can go do whatever the hell he wants and doesn’t owe us anything BUT I know that I’m in a minority of thinking that way. Even other YouTubers have suggested that not keeping up with your audience and telling them if you are still a YouTuber or what-not is kind of unfair, so, no offense, but hearing it from another YouTuber’s perspective makes me more inclined to see that you guys maybe aren’t as unfounded as I would have originally thought.

Either way, it’s clear that there is less DnP content out there which means less content for all DnP blogs, which I feel like puts me even more away from being labeled a “Dan and Phil” blog. I’ve never wanted to limit myself to just them though.

Over the past year or so I’ve grown into focusing more on posting nature, plants, “aesthetic” images, more positivity, more positive LGBT+ stuff. I’ve tried to step back from the discourse but that hasn’t always been successful. I’ve tried my best to put negative things on my other blogs but honestly sometimes I need to post on here about how lonely I am where people can see it. I’ve taken YOUR suggestions and I’ve tried to post more informational and positivity posts about things I am not in support of others: Trans and other gender identities, autistic post, psychotic and other mental illnesses that aren’t as well recognized/more stigmatized, etc.

The feeling I wish to convey on this blog I guess is a sense of peace and purity with information and a non-nonsense tollerance of hatred with some positivity and jokes here and there. Does that make sense?

I guess what I’m trying to say through all of this is I don’t really know where this blog is headed right now. Some content you can expect to see if I keep up with the blog is Queer Eye, LGBTQ+ things, plants, animals, photography, art, information, etc. If anyone has any other suggestions please feel free to throw them out. Tell me what you do/don’t like.

I say if I keep up with this blog because right now Tumblr Mobile’s new notification system has pushed me towards turning off all of my notifications on my phone for this app. That means if I get an ask, if I get a message, I am not seeing it right away because even if I had them turned on it would be swept in with all of the likes, reblogs, and comments and buried. By nature I’m not being as active on this blog.

I would hate to throw away everything I’ve worked for on here and though it’s hard for me to believe I think some of you might actually miss me if I just threw it all away. I had a good 3 days last week of constant hate in my inbox and notifications so that was fun too. Whatever man.

If you’re interested in any of my other interests like The Umbrella Academy, Stranger Things, Dark Egos, Vulture Culture, BFU, Cryptids, Superheroes, the general post about me complaining about people, feel free to follow what is currently @shes-demons-jim but will probably change soon.

Some of you may also know that Emory and I have finally opened a few online shops which I run the PR for. I follow many of the same blogs on there and drop by YOUR inboxes from time to time spreading the positivity I used to on here, but kind of slacked off on. From there I was to comment on your photos and lift you up. Though we are a store, we are us, Savvy ans Emory, dating for almost 4 years, have had your backs since day 1 and hope you have ours too. If you don’t know our shop’s proceeds are going to raise money for his top surgery, as he’s getting older now and it’s more of an option and because dysphoria sucks. Which I’m sure a lot of you relate to (and I feel for you I can’t even imagine). Also the blog for that is @unorthodox-hero-shop feel free to go check it out there will be more designs up today.

If I’ve missed any asks or messages over the past week or so, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I don’t feel like being as active as much because Tumblr gets worse and worse. People on here suck and I would hate to leave you all to the wolves ;) (I’ve been seeing some rough posts lately yikes).

Also who else do I have to bitch to about people??? So there! You can keep me around so I can bitch to you guys!! Look her real personality came through ya’ll.

Anyway I hope you’re having a great day as usual I don’t expect anyone to read this, it’s more for me then anything else I guess, have a nice day, see you over on my other blogs as well 👋🏻

#long post #like really long #thoughts #personal

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huntergator65 · 4 years ago

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Pixelmator Photo

The Pixelmator Pro image editing engine is seriously sophisticated and incredibly powerful. It’s designed exclusively to take advantage of the full power of Mac computers, using advanced Mac graphics technologies like Metal and Core Image. Pixelmator Photo for iPad is here!In this live session I'll show you everything you need to know to get the very best out of this amazing iPad app.

The timeline for many a photographer — at least, this was the case for me — can be outlined somewhat as per the graph below:

Here, photography gear and kit starts out as the ultimate source of inspiration. This inspiration declines steadily over time, but rears its ugly head on occasion.

The inspiration derived from other photographers takes essentially an inverse effect as gear and kit do. When gear and kit delusions subside, the drive to emulate your favorite photographers rises.

And finally, your own skill set not only grows over time, it also becomes the main source of your own inspiration over time.

I’ve developed a bit of a list for the second step — photographers like Kate Holstein, Sam Nute, Finn Beales, Dan Tom, and more are stunningly skilled and worthy of emulation. Their compositions are great — often, near perfect — and their colors are their own.

I think the prevailing advice to improve your abilities as a photographer is to focus on composition. Work with prime lenses, learn to position your body and camera in the right spot, and ensure all the pieces of the puzzle fit into your photograph beautifully.

Color is just the icing on top of the composition cake, and everyone likes different brands of icing, right?

It is the largest aircraft in the Embraer E-Jet family. It is an extended version of the Embraer E-190 aircraft. X-Crafts‘ goal from the beginning was to create a great high quality add-on that would be very interesting for both, the hardcore simmers as well as new flightsim users out there! Check Out the Embraer E 170 by SSG avaiable on the X Plane Forum!!!Check it out at:http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/34117-embraer-e-170-e-jet. X plane erj. FS2004 Aeromexico Connect Embraer 190. Model by VirtualCol. Texture by Carlos Daniel Gonzalez. Author Diego Israel Correa Vazquez. Traffic Global for X-Plane 11 adds high quality AI aircraft in authentic liveries and will full 3D sound and lighting and effects. It comes with 65 aircraft types and over 860 liveries and is simple to use. Embraer E175 and E195 v2 package by X-Crafts. Embraer E-175 v2.4. EMB190YTxp11 for X-Plane 11 Part of the message is hidden for the guests. Please log in or register to see it. Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.

Pixelmator Photo’s latest update brought the power of Pixelmator Pro’s ML Match Colors from the Mac to the iPad, promising the ability to match the color palettes between sets of photos. ML Match Colors is wonderfully implemented, quickly performed, and easy to use. It promises to use all the powers of the iPad.

But does it promise the power of stealing your favorite photographers’ color palettes? Will it make your photos look as good as your favorite photographers’ photos?

Of course not!

As is always the case in photography, there are a multitude of variables at play. ML Match Colors handles one specific variable: color.

Using ML Match Colors to Match Your Own Photos

This is the method that I expect the Pixelmator team both wants and expects customers to implement when using ML Match Colors. At first blush, ML Match Colors seems best designed for applying a relatively close color palette to all of your photos in a set.

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The original photo on the left and my personal edits on the right. Clearly, these two photos are very, very different.

To test the power of ML Match Colors, I used a single photo of my own from a few years ago. Evidently, I’ve heavily edited this photo, so I exported a copy of the original photo and a copy of the edited photo from Lightroom to my camera roll.

From there, I opened the original raw photo in Pixelmator Photo, dragged an instance of Photos into Split View, and dragged my edited into Pixelmator Photo to match the color palettes.

In general, if an app can or can’t deliver on a promise, it’s usually due to improper expectations. And since I originally came into this thinking ML Match Colors would also match saturation, hue, intensity, and exposure all at once, well, I was originally disappointed. Here’s the result:

But upon further inspection, Pixelmator Photo actually performed great work in matching the colors in these two photos. In retrospect, it’s obvious: the colors are properly matched. However, to get to my original end result, I had to jump into the color tools in Pixelmator Photo to dial back intensity, hue, and saturation of individual colors. After maybe a minute or two of experimentation, I came to this end result:

Not bad, actually! Not bad at all.

As I mentioned above, ML Match Colors is explicitly designed to match colors — matching any other elements of exposure, saturation, hue, and more either has to be done manually or through other forms of Pixelmator Photo’s machine learning features.

Using ML Match Colors to Match Someone Else’s Photos

This whole section likely gets dicey, so I want to ensure I give credit where credit is due, and I want to ensure that the end result of “stealing” someone’s color does not actually happen. I fully believe, after you’ve read through this section, you’ll agree that a photographer’s stylistic brand and color choices are not in jeopardy thanks to ML Match Colors.

So, Finn Beales is one of the professional photographers I mentioned above who I have a ton of professional respect for. Beales has one of my favorite photography blogs on the planet, shoots some of the best travel and brand photography in the world right now, and has provided a wealth of photographic knowledge in his photography course at Strohl Works. Tableau jira connector. If you want to get a behind-the-scenes look at how Beales works and how he achieves some of his results, that course was some of the best money I’ve spent in the last two years.

Finn Beales’s tremendous travel photography — known as “72 Hrs In…” — is showcased on his personal site. There are a wealth of photos to digest in that section of his blog. One of my favorites is his commissioned work for Travel Alberta, a province and location here in Canada I had the opportunity to travel to myself.

So, with that backstory out of the way, you can likely understand where I’m going with this. Here’s Finn Beales’ photo of a man at Lake Louise in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada:

Photo by Finn Beales, used solely for color reference and nothing more.

And here’s my photo of that exact same location, albeit with slightly different composition:

It’s very hard to say whether Beales and I shot the photo at the same time of day or in the same kind of weather, among other variables. We were at Lake Louise in the earliest part of the morning, so the orange glows on the mountaintop peaks are about as close as I could get to the oranges in Beales’ photo.

And here’s the result after dragging and dropping Beales’ photo into Pixelmator Photo:

Did my photo change at all? You’d be hard-pressed to tell. I believe many of the colors indeed match those in Beales’ photo, but again, hue, saturation, luminosity, brightness, and other variables play a major role in keeping Beales’ stylistic color choices his own.

This is good news, in nearly every facet of the story. The learning lessons I’m taking away from this:

Composition remains the most important element of photography. If you don’t have good composition, the amount of beautiful color you add or take away from a photograph won’t magically transform it into a mystical work of art.

Understanding “color” involves much, much more than simply dragging and dropping one photo onto the other. To achieve a certain look, a full understanding of the color wheel, color and light curves, and color tools is still required.

For all the work professionals have put in to create their own style, brand, and “look”, they can be rest assured that other photographers like myself won’t be able to replicate that same look with a simple feature in an iPad app.

Other Updates in Pixelmator Photo 1.2

Despite the title ML Match Colors feature debuting in Pixelmator Photo 1.2, the 1.2 app update housed plenty of powerful features for photographers looking to utilize the iPad more and more in their workflows.

Notice the trackpad cursor right in the middle of the photo on the left and the re-shaped cursor in the top right in the right photo. Cursor support is very nicely baked into the latest Pixelmator Photo update.

Trackpad Support: iPadOS 13.4’s new trackpad and cursor support has taken the platform by rage. Any app designed with many custom elements has struggled to organically adopt cursor support out of the gate, so updates have been needed to have all apps feel at home in iPadOS 13.4. Pixelmator Photo 1.2 brings full-blown trackpad support to the app, allowing you to whiz around with a mouse or trackpad much like you would on a Mac.

Split View: We chose Adobe Lightroom CC as the best photo editing app for the iPad because of its ecosystem, and we chose Darkroom as the runner-up because of Darkroom’s adoption of iOS technologies. With Pixelmator Photo 1.2, you can throw another app into the runner-up column. Pixelmator Photo may now have the best iPadOS technology support of any photo editing app available. The app now supports Split View, which is very powerful in how ML Match Colors is used. The app adeptly uses the iOS photo library rather than maintaining its own photo library housed within the app. And all the machine learning features built into the app make it one of, if not the, most powerful iOS photo editor available for the iPad.

Adjustment Intensity and Recent Adjustments: Pixelmator Photo 1.2 now allows you to fine-tune the intensity of color adjustments and presets. As described above, these tools are fundamental to achieving a desired look after ML Match Colors has done its job.

You’re also able to quickly reference and copy the adjustments from your most recently edited photos in Pixelmator Photo 1.2. Legal audio transcription. This, combined with ML Match Colors, make for a quick and easy workflow to edit a batch of photos with the same colors and settings.

Wrap Up

ML Match Colors debuted as a powerful machine learning feature in Pixelmator Pro for the Mac. The feature alone almost had me download Pixelmator Pro. However, I held off, knowing my workflow was going to increasingly move to the iPad. I admit, I didn’t expect ML Match Colors to come to the iPad so quickly.

I’m glad I waited. Because I’m positive I would have been initially disappointed with the ML Match Colors feature on the Mac.

Now that I’ve had a chance to try the feature, I’m more likely to purchase Pixelmator Pro for the Mac, simply because of the feature.

Pixelmator Photo App

So much of the iPhone and iPad’s being is wrapped up in simplicity. The devices themselves are fairly simply to use and can somehow house multiple generations of people into their user bases. This air of simplicity, applied to photography, almost makes it feel like you should be able to take a boring photo of the tree in your backyard and turn it into a masterpiece worthy of the Louvre.

The machine learning features in Pixelmator Photo are a taste of this simplicity, but don’t let your imagination run wild. Machine learning features in Pixelmator Photo take advantage of the deepest iOS technologies, eliminate a plethora of difficult and complicated tasks, and make editing photos easier than ever. They aren’t a perfect, one-tap-done editing tool.

ML Match Colors may be the very best machine learning tool available inside Pixelmator Photo. Drag and drop your favorite photos — or perhaps you can create and use your own color templates — to match the colors, then tweak everything else inside Pixelmator Photo’s vast array of editing tools. If you really want to make it easy, enable all the ML toggles in the tool array, hit export, and you’re done.

We named Pixelmator Photo as the photo editing app with the most potential in our big review. This 1.2 update really, really builds out some of that potential. And if this is just the start, Pixelmator Photo may move its way up the ladder of the best photo editing iPad apps.

Must-Have, Most-Used Photography Apps

Pixelmator Photo Mask

We spend an inordinate amount of time sorting through hundreds of apps to find the very best. Our team here at The Sweet Setup put together a short list of our must-have, most-used apps for taking and editing photos on iPhone and iPad.

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pepperbox · 7 years ago

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Tell me about your DnD campaign? My group is on a hiatus so I'm living vicariously through other people :(

THE WORST we just came off a month hiatus from the main game, tho last month we were doing slayers take style sessions w/ the party split while we did bounty hunting things

it’s the phoenix fields!! i post some stuff on my art blog @hydrae and there’s a tumblr our dm made @thephoenixfields that has inspo, occasionally session summaries, all that jazz

THE PCS bc why the heck not

sariel is a sun elf from a magically closed off elven city called alanar, who HAD been a wizard once upon a time but one night she sort of. exploded. literally. and awakened as a (homebrew class) fury, tho she still doesn’t know wtf that is. she ran away from home and eventually met the rest of us losers. we ended up heading to alanar for help dealing w/ a revenant problem we kiiiinda had and she reunited with her family. she was named grand enchantress while we were there but not without losing her mentor in the process :( sariel felt abandoned by the sun elf god corellon larethian, but while in alanar and then in the northdark, she started having visions of corellon (and lolth’s) daughter eilistraee, who eventually blessed her. sariel now prays to her and we’re all kinda EYES EMOJI at where it’s going. during their slayers take games, sariel, julian & rowan went back to some woods called the northern wilds that she has some Bad memories in aaaand the fury side to her took over?? so that was a thing. julian punched it. it liked it. WELP. but sariel is basically the leader of our group of disasters and everyone kinda looks to her a lot for what to do

julian is a human rogue who’s an absolute disaster. OKAY BUT NO REALLY he’s gr8. the party doesn’t know much about him yet, except for sariel which was sparked by her finding a wanted poster for him 👀👀👀👀 julian’s from a city called gilead, the same city with the bounty on him from the count, rhys, who julian has some History™ with. sariel found out that someone (rhys) carved a binding rune into julian’s chest, and that someone he cares about (a woman named isolde) is in the shadowfell. julian became the accidental AND VERY RELUCTANT dad to the group, who tends to reel sariel back from just murdering people who piss her off lmao. he tries to be broody and sad but he’s also super weak to fen and rowan–which was unfortunate when dominate person was used on him and compelled him to nearly kill fen, it’s cool it’s fine. also fun fact he’s super bad with animals and has failed every single animal handling check. help him

rowan is a lightborn human life cleric of pelor, lightborn being a variant where she is. very glowy. also when she’s killed, she automatically casts heroism around her and comes back at 1 hp. SHOUTOUT TO THE FIRST TIME THIS HAPPENED AND SHE DIDN’T TELL US, SO WE SAW HER STAB HERSELF SO SHE’D GIVE US ALL THE BUFF BEFORE A FIGHT AND WE WERE JUST LIKE UM!!!!! /BREATHES it’s fine it’s cool. but rowan is a good egg and also the only lawful good one in our band of chaotics and neutrals. she’s super empathetic and second guesses herself a lot esp when we’re being uh. us. had a Time in the northdark bc she couldn’t reach pelor down there. oh and also? first one of us to die for real. sariel and julian of the main crew were the only ones there, but so was the (former) thief king raphael, an npc we helped (and crowned!) during our first quest who rowan had a small thing?? with. THEY BROUGHT EACH OTHER BACK FROM THE DEAD AND KISSED, IT WAS A WHOLE THING. has a loaded dice from nemo that he gave her so she wouldn’t forget him

fen is a human druid–mostly. she’s from a place called the witchcombe and left home after a freaky dream that she eventually found out was of tharizdun. gods kept popping up in her dreams and she found out through sariel’s mentor that her mind is basically an open window, and told her about some monks of ioun in the desert who’d be able to help her close herself off again. things got bad in the northdark tho ‘cause they down there for a WHILE, and tharizdun marked her apparently bc he’s a dick so now she’s just kinda giving off his aura. cool. he gifted her a dagger for her to use for a shiny new (homebrew) class called avatar (not that one), so that’s fun. also fen has an accidental Thing w/ a revenant named salome that was risen for the purpose of raising tharizdun. TURNS INTO A DIRE WOLF 99% OF THE TIME, 1% CAT WHEN SHE WANTS TO ESCAPE A CONVERSATION. also fen has holes in her memory for?? some reason???? has no clue if it’s due to the god fuckery or something else. has the bag of holding and is a magpie. also can’t stealth for shit despite having a +3 dex modifier, why

nemo is a human umbramancer who we know literally NOTHING about except that he’s a disaster and he revealed as a trade of secrets that he doesn’t have a shadow and he’s “cursed.” he didn’t deign to mention that he makes people forget him, which ONLY rowan just found out (rowan, sending to an npc from a past city: hey do you know nemo?/ them: who?? / rowan: K!!!!). we also don’t know that nemo himself has no memories, yikes!! for magic reasons, nemo also uh. did a ritual to remove his own eyes. for new powers. he kept casting minor illusion on himself to make his eyes look normal literally until he was forced to explain why he had a pair of eyes in his pocket, THANKS NEMO (he’s not actually blind tho, he uses his new shadow powers to see, cool cool). nemo tried trading his eyes to the raven queen to get her to help us but since they were something he’d given up already and were meaningless, it just ticked her off. nemo gave her the memory of his brother linus instead bc it’s all he had and none of the party knows this :( during a side quest with fen, they fought a lord of hell named sammael who could tell what was done to him??? nemo also has a sort of not really boyfriend named lysander, a cleric of the raven queen. THE TRULY STEALTHY ONE OF OUR PARTY, TRIES TO CRIME BUT HECKS IT UP A LOT. has a mace with bees in it, has been described as “horny eldritch raccoon boy”

#Anonymous #replies

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onboardbroom544-blog · 7 years ago

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Blog Post 3 - Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye by James Roberts and Alex Milne

Welcome back everyone to another edition of back issues, where we look at some great comic book runs from recent history. Today we’re going to be looking at Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye written by James Roberts and drawn by Alex Milne. The series is a bit different than what we’ve looked at previously, as it is not a superhero book unlike a majority of comics today. You wouldn’t think that a comic about the Transformers could be as good and could make you feel for it’s characters as much as this series does, thanks to Roberts outstanding writing. Alex Milne also does a great job of visualising the cast of characters and the universe they inhabit with his art style which is exaggerated and cartoonish that I think works perfectly with the story told by Roberts. The series ran from 2012 to 2016 for 57 issues, crossed over with it’s sister series Transformers: Robots In Disguise which ran concurrently with MTME (More Than Meets the Eye), and is currently being continued in the ongoing Transformers: Lost Light by the same writer and a new art team.

The series takes place after the 4 million year long war between the Autobots and Decepticons comes to an end and is split into two “seasons”, season 1 consisting of issues The Death of Optimus Prime one shot and #1-7, Annual 2012, and #8-27, #23-27 being part of the Dark Cybertron Crossover event which acted as an intermission to the series before it started back up again with season 2, which consisted of issues #28-57 which took place six months after Dark Cybertron. Although IDW has put out previous content for their decently large Transformers continuity More Than Meets the Eye provides a good jumping on point as you don’t need to know much of what’s going on in the universe prior to this series as it remains relatively disconnected from it all and gives all the necessary information in the Death of Optimus Prime one shot that acts as an issue 0 to MTME and RiD.

Season 1

Season 1 introduces our cast of characters and their main goal of the series, to find the Knights of Cybertron and restore Cybertron to its golden age. Rodimus has taken on this quest after receiving half of the empty matrix given to him by Optimus Prime, the other half was given to Bumblebee who stayed on Cybertron to lead its people, the events of MTMEs sister series Robots In Disguise, and recruited a crew of characters, fan favorites like Drift, Ultra Magnus, Rachet, and Cyclonus, as well as more obscure characters like Tailgate, Swerve, First Aid and Pipes, and creating entirely new ones like the Decepticon Justice Division. Rodimus’s crew search the Galaxy following the matrix map for the Knights of Cybertron. The greater part of this season consists of various adventures the crew of the Lost Light has, from battling a rust virus on a medical research planet to fighting the deadliest Decepticon in the universe and only draws to a central story near the end of season one with the Dark Cybertron event, which brings the cast of More Than Meets the Eye and Robots In Disguise together to fight the Dark Universe which threatens to destroy our universe. The event concludes with the Dark Universe being held at bay, the death of Bumblebee, and Megatron becoming an Autobot and joining the crew of the Lost Light.

Season 2

Six months have passed since the events of Dark Cybertron and the Lost Light is preparing to head off again from Cybertron to continue their quest, and Megatron, now an Autobot but still distrusted because of his past, becomes the captain of the Lost Light along with Rodimus. The main cast of characters change up a bit with some new additions to the Lost Light and a few characters becoming side characters. Season 2 sees the return of characters and the deaths of a number of the cast. The season builds up to a end game of the series, and because of this the DJD (Decepticon Justice Division) becoming the main antagonists. This season mainly focuses on Megatron leaving behind who he once was and becoming something better and the challenges he faces while doing this including him becoming a pacifist, vowing to never hurt another living creature. The series culminates in its final story arc “Dying of Light”, which has our cast standard on a planet after a mutiny by the rest of the crew and brings the DJD with an army at their back and hell bent on killing Megatron for betraying the Decepticon cause, face to face with the crew of the Lost Light, outgunned and backstabbed by a number of the crew unhappy with Megatron being their captain, our main characters fight for their lives, many of which are lost to the onslaught. Megatron finally breaks his vow of pacifism and kills the DJD saving the day, but not without loss. Our characters story are continued in Transformers: Lost Light and issue #55 is the end of the main casts arc in this series as issues #56 and #57 are stories of side characters that aren’t connected to the main story.

The series as a whole is amazing in the way it develops its characters and sets up its storylines, many of which were set up since issue 1, and played out over the course of the series. James Roberts is a master when it comes to writing characters that you can identify with, even if they are having alien robots. The series is not only my personal favorite comic series I’ve ever read but one of the comics I’d recommend to anyone looking into getting into comics, and I could not recommend it enough.

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mollymacindoephotography · 5 years ago

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“We’re Māori - we wing it!”

A story about choosing the ‘exit for opportunity’, being chucked into a ceremonial deep-end, witnessing a history-making meeting with only a napkin and eyeliner for note-taking and a few surreptitious snaps on a crappy phone camera.

(NB: worth checking out the prequel: ‘How I met Nanny Mary’ blog – just scroll down the blog list or click here)

In brief though, earlier this year, at the beginning of a two-month tiki-tour through Aotearoa (New Zealand) I’d had a very memorable Poukai experience at the Tūrangawaewae Marae, where ‘Nanny Mary’ had taken me under her wing. She’s a real wahine toa (warrior woman) with a wonderfully kind nature and infectious bubbly personality (reflected in her rainbow coloured hair), who also happens to be the Treasurer of Tamaki Makaurau – one of seven Electorates for the Maori Party that roughly covers greater Auckland).

Since first meeting we kept checking in on Facebook, hoping our paths would cross at one of the various events around the North Island that Mary was partaking in, so far to no avail. Mary’s from Auckland, so I let her know well in advance when it came time to return there. Not until a week later during the actual drive to Auckland from Hamilton, did a message pop up on my phone from Mary. An hour later, stuck at roadworks, was the time to peek:

“Hey gal if you not doing anything at 5pm and in the vicinity of Manurewa Marae... Nau mai haere mai. Nga Tumanako winners of Te Matatini 2019 are bringing The Mauri to Manurewa 6pm sharp Powhiri.

…but only managed to make sense of the words, “vicinty of” , “Manurewa”, “5pm” …and something about a ceremony. Auckland is a huge, sprawling city and I’d no clue where that area was, but being 4:30pm and en route to an appointment followed by dinner with a cousin I hadn’t seen in 20 years; I thought, never mind, hopefully I’ll catch up with Mary over the next few days. Fate intervened, however; literally a minute later, I see an exit sign for ‘Manurewa’ – instinct took the wheel and oopsy, I was off on an unknown adventure!

First stop, the nearest fuel station to send regrets to all previous engagements and for a quick google-search – to try and get the lo-down of what I was walking into. Remembering the mortifying, multi-coloured-clashing-outfit disaster at the Poukai, it seemed sensible to be on the safe side and change from pink shorts and bright blue vest to any black clothing I could dig out of my suitcases. Admittedly, it ended up a black and slightly gold outfit but was the best I could muster up and was definitely a good move!

Arrive at the marae, find and hug Mary, and soon get ushered inside the beautiful, ornately-carved and painted meeting house. Mary shepherded me into a one of the rows of a mixed gender and multigenerational crowd, which I assumed was there to watch a parade come through.....

.....Wrong. ‘We’ were there to perform the Tōia mai haka Pōwhiri Dance!!! ‘Tōia mai Te Waka’ means ‘pull up, the canoe’ and is part of an ancient canoe-hauling chant, now often performed as a 'haka pöwhiri' to symbolically pull the 'canoe' of the visitors safely onto the marae. Pōwhiri is a Māori welcoming ceremony involving speeches, dancing, singing and finally the hongi. (The traditional Māori greeting pressing noses together), followed by kai – a feast held inside the marae.

Panicking as the dancing and singing started, I grabbed Mary: “Are you sure it’s okay for me to be doing this?!” She retorted “We’re Maori, we wing it!”, giggled and left me to do exactly that – copying the moves as best I could during the few practice runs before the ceremonial entourage arrived and we performed for real – recorded on camera!!

I haven’t been able to find that recording but to get an idea of the event and excitement surrounding it, here’s a video of the same ceremony happening at Ōrākei Marae. Picture me, plopped in the middle of proficient dancers, trying to style it out!!

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To put this event into context:

Te Matatini is a nation-wide Māori performing arts festival of huge significance, comparable to something like the Edinburgh Fringe Festival attracting 60,000 people to an extravaganza of Māori culture, including art, crafts, food, fashion, film and most importantly, it hosts a competition for kapa haka performers from all of Aotearoa. Kapa haka is an art form that showcases Māori and Polynesian identity through song and dance. This year, ‘Ngā Tūmanako’, a rōpū (team) from Tāmaki (Auckland) beat extremely stiff competition and took home the top prize and title of ‘Toa Whakahuwaka’. As well as a trophy, the winning team brings home the ‘Mauri of Te Matatini’. Mauri are sacred stones believed to maintain life force, and this one is in particular represents the hosting rights for the next national kapa haka competition. When the 2019 winners first arrived back home in February, the idea of sharing the mauri amongst the marae of Tāmaki (Auckland) was put forward and agreed upon…skip ahead to my incredible good fortune to witness its arrival at Manurewa!

Moreover, as luck would have it, this ceremony coincided with Manurewa Marae hosting a meeting of ‘Te Kōtahi a Tāmaki’, a collective representing 33 marae in Auckland (more on this later)....Back to the main event:

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The Pōwhiri was followed by approximately two hours of speech-giving (all in Te Reo Maori) – then the hongi, then some yummy belly-filling of Māori dishes, where I also had the honour, through Mary, of meeting some of the community’s most respected members. Pictured - Sitting down over kai with Martin Cooper and Shane White.

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The biggest honour of all was being invited to the post-kai meeting (once again appreciating the totally random but perfect timing of coming here). The hundreds-strong crowd had thinned to about 25 people; seeing how intimate and important it looked, I whispered goodbye to Mary, grabbing my coat, only to get pulled back: “no no, stay, I’ve already checked and you are welcome”. It took a split second to weigh up being even later to meet my cousin or missing a unique opportunity (sorry again Charley!)

To my delight, the hui was held English, allowing me insight into the inner workings of the marae collective. During both my marae experiences on this trip, the hours of speeches were all performed by men, punctuated by beautiful singing from the women. From my newcomer’s perspective, the men seemed to dominate the proceedings of the events. Now the tables were turned. The chairperson for this gathering of representatives from 33 of Auckland’s maraes to discuss the key current and future issues for the very recently-formed collective -- was Tania Kingi, a confident, intelligent woman and no-nonsense spokesperson who clearly and easily commanded attention from everyone there; all the same men who had previously captivated the crowd with powerful speeches, now hung on Tania’s every word. . It was inspiring to witness this balance and mutual respect. Half way through the meeting, a slighty scruffy-looking man came into the hui and insisted on speaking to the room to tell of his situation living on the streets, that he’d been drinking, but wanted to tell us a brief history of his whakapapa (lineage), the names of his family and ancestors, and also the main reason he’d come in: for warmth and food, “Thank you for the feed, thank you for the coffee, thank you for the company, I respect this marae even though I don’t go to church on Sunday.”

The rest of the agenda was covered – anything from wheelchair accessibility for all maraes, to arranging solar energy workshops. The overall idea was to collaborate as a collective. Share successes, failures, recommendations, and knowledge - to work together for progress and independence from government monetary ties.

Spokesperson Tania Kingi said that this mauri stone coming to the different maraes in Auckland signals that we should be working collectively. “One of the driving principles for us all is that the mauri can unify. The mauri is bringing us together and connecting us to all the other marae throughout Auckland and preparing us for Te Matatini 2021.” Tania Kingi

What did I learn from this apart from that I desperately need a better camera phone? Clearly, a lot more about Māori culture, but also reaffirming what I’d discovered since arriving in Aotearoa - found it to be a friendly country and people in general, but in particular made to feel very welcome in Māori communities and not judged despite obviously being the odd one out.

I want to specially thank Mary Karena-komene, Tania Kingi, Rangi McLean, Shane White, Martin Cooper, Mereana Hona and everyone that I met for being so welcoming and allowing me such a memorable and informative experience.

Disclaimer: I’ve done my best with Maori references, but please excuse this pākehā for any mistakes or offense. My education has only just started and I hope it will continue, as I do the new friendships in Aotearoa. Ps. Please correct me if you see something. It’s the only way to learn. Aroha nui, ka kite ano Aotearoa <3

#wanderlusting #passportready #traveldiary2019 #aotearoatour #bottomoftheworldblog #manurewamarae #Te Kōtahi a Tāmki #TeKotahiaTamaki #hakapowhiri #mauritematatini #mauristone #tematatini #travelblogger #travelblog2019 #tikitour #maoriculture

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