#i feel like this is especially relevant because of the ongoing strikes

[all-made-of-stardust]

i've about had it up to here from horror stories from my friends regarding their jobs not respecting them, so i made this shitty meme.

know your fucking rights.

(had to crop the meme so you could read the text, id under cut)

(ID: the "don't make me tap the sign" meme, but cropped so that the image mostly shows the sign portion. the sign states "I once had a coworker who was forced to work a 36 hour shift with zero time given to sleep, eat, or even pause to catch a breath. this was 100% bc the company knew that she was desperate to keep the job so they purposefully exploited her, physically/emotionally abused her, and put all the blame on her bc she "didn't get the work done in time for her to go home." do not become this woman. do not give your boss a single SECOND of your own time that wasn’t explicitly agreed upon first. do not let your boss not pay you for overtime. do not let your boss abuse you like my company abused my coworker. KNOW YOUR FUCKING RIGHTS. KNOW YOUR OWN POWER." End ID.)

[fanby-fckry]

Who’s Who of Voxblr:

Voxblr Blogs:

🐺 666--vortex: Vortex

🕸️ angie-fluffy-bootz: Angel Dust

📏 baphometric-system: nameless background character; discourse blogger; presumably a Baphomet

🍸 bar-cat75: Husk

💀 be-gay-do-crym: Crymini

💥 blitz-the-o-is-silent: Blitzo (formerly blitzorodeo)

🍒 bomb-bitching-babe: Cherri Bomb

🎀 charlies-angel: Vaggie (formerly moth-gf)

💊 chillpilled-vibesmaxxer: nameless background character; imp

👓 creepz0: Burnie Burnz A.K.A. Creepzo

👯‍♀️ glitz-n-glam: Glitz and Glam (shared account)

🌈 hells-disney-princess: Charlie Morningstar

🎭 i-put-the-bi-in-bipolar: Dual, my hellsona/Sinner OC

🐸 jest-fizzarolli: Fizzarolli

🐑 lambchop-luvrgirl: the sheep demon from the Alastor prequel comic: A Day In the Afterlife

🍎 luci-goosey-666: Lucifer Morningstar

🌕 m00nlight-h0wling: Loona

🧪 mad-scienfish: Baxter

💰 million-dollar-mammon: Mammon

❤️ moth-pimp: Valentino

🪡 niffty-lady: Niffty

🐓 ozzie-king-of-lust: Ozzie A.K.A. Asmodeus

🐝 queen-bee-lzebub: Queen Bee A.K.A. Beelzebub

🧁 rad-velvette-cakes: Velvette

📻 real-radio-demon: Alastor parody account; nobody knows who runs this account

🩸 simply-moxxie: Moxxie

📢 sinnerjusticewarrior: nameless background character; discourse blogger; presumably a Sinner

📰 stolitzmemenews: a non-canon gimmick blog from the Anachronism Intermission, referencing the many Destiel Meme news blogs on tumblr.

🤠 strike-out: Striker

🏚️ theendisnear6669: nameless background character; Doomsday District resident

📺 voxblr4k: Vox

🐍 x-hiss-lord-x: Sir Pentious (Inactive, but not deactivated)

🫀 xoxo-millie: Millie

Relationships:

Alastor and Vox are rivals; Vox has a one-sided lust/crush/obsession

Angel Dust has feelings for Husk and is trying to work up the courage to tell him

Charlie and Vaggie are dating (like they are in canon).

Fizzarolli and Ozzie are dating (like they are in canon).

Millie and Moxxie are married (like they are in canon).

Loona, Queen Bee, and Vortex are a polycule

Valentino and Vox are dating (like they are in canon).

What’s What of Voxblr:

Ongoing Plots:

Fandom:

Like Tumblr, Voxblr has a large fandom culture. One of the most relevant fandoms is in-universe RPF, where Hellaverse characters engage in discourse, create fanworks, and ship each other.

Popular ships include Fizzarozzie (canon), and Radiostatic (enemies to lovers, not canon).

Niffty is a BNF fic author who specializes in RPF. Husk is her beta reader.

Radiostatic Rivalry:

Despite Alastor not having an official presence on Voxblr, his rivalry with Vox is alive and well. Vox often engages in Tumblr-style PVP with the Alastor parody account, @.real-radio-demon , and complains about Alastor’s popularity on the site.

The other Vees – especially Velvette – tease Vox over his rivalry/obsession with Alastor, often referencing its one-sided sexual nature.

real-radio-demon:

@.real-radio-demon is an Alastor parody account that popped up shortly after Velvette sent Vox a post from Niffty about enemies to lovers ships.

Nobody knows who runs the @.real-radio-demon account, with suspects ranging from Velvette to Niffty to Alastor, himself. Vox suspects the former, due to when the account appeared, but everyone seems to have their own take on the matter.

Hellaverse characters and IRL viewers alike are kept guessing by this account, which seems to have an uncanny amount of relevant information on Alastor and is simultaneously both in and out of character in its posts.

Vox can’t suspend the account because Queen Bee and Loona are fans and Vox knows better than to pick a fight with a Deadly Sin.

Voxblr Discourse:

Like Tumblr discourse, Voxblr discourse is, um… Well, it sure is something! Voxblr discourse is full of black and white thinking, parasocial hate, largely meaningless buzzwords, out of context drama, and a tendency to miss the point.

Niffty and Alastor are canceled. Radiohusk is problematic. Fizzaroli has antis. And of course, all discourse bloggers piss on the poor.

Obviously this is satire.

The discourse blog usually featured in my fake dash posts is @.creepz0 , run by Burnie Burnz A.K.A. Creepzo.

Websites and Brand Names:

.hell = general domain similar to .com or .org

.sin = domain name for websites owned by Deadly Sins

.vox = domain for all Voxtek websites

Archive of Our Souls = Archive of Our Own; free market fanfiction site not affiliated with Voxtek

AOOS = AO3; acronym for Archive of Our Souls

IHHOP (International Hell House of Pancakes) = IHOP (International House of Pancakes)

Sinstagram = Instagram

Tvitter = Twitter; owned by Voxtek; since rebranded to V, but nobody calls it that

Voxblr = Tumblr; owned by Voxtek

Voxflix = Netflix; owned by Voxtek

Voxify = Spotify; owned by Voxtek

VoxTube = YouTube; owned by Voxtek

VoxTV = an entertainment TV channel with no direct parallel; owned by Voxtek

WcDonnalds = McDonnalds

[dinopopduck]

Ezekiel Only Being Unaffected By Certain Kinds of Magic

Let’s just start with me saying this isn’t exactly a new theory. It’s the demigod thing, and it’s a fairly popular one. If you haven’t heard of this headcannon, I put as much as I can find here. If you have, I found a bunch of new stuff that I haven’t seen anyone else mention, so reading this isn’t a complete waste of your time, I hope.

I tried to keep this from becoming wordy, but it got really long anyway, because there was a lot to talk about here.

Ezekiel being unaffected by magic is sort of an ongoing thing in the show. He is influenced by it much of the time, such as by Santa’s Hat, Pan’s Flute, Prospero’s spell, lycanthropy, etc. When it comes to the stuff he was seemingly completely immune to, there is one link that connects them all.

Apple of Discord: Everybody knows this one. The Apple is a Greek artifact, meant to turn you into the worst version of yourself, and Ezekiel was only one completely unaffected. It’s blamed on “he’s already the worst version of himself” or whatever.

Zeus Lightning Bolt: the episode where Ezekiel ends up decked out in Greek armor, and is sent to pick up Zeus’ Lightning Bolt, which was freaking out and zapping everywhere. He picks it up just fine, and he’s then able to hand it off to Flynn. It may have been purely because of the Greek armor he was wearing, but Flynn did not seem so sure about that working.

Cindy’s Love Potion: Ezekiel is able to be near the potion without becoming obsessed with Cindy. At first, it’s blamed on him being obsessed with himself, then later Jacob tells Ezekiel that he was already in love with Cindy. It was an obsession, not a love, potion you literally spent the episode proving that blah blah, he didn’t even recognize her at first blah blah, anyway, I have a better reason.

There are two Greek mentions in this episode. First, the potion project itself is called Project Aphrodite, a Greek goddess. Second, the sunflowers; when asked, Jenkins mentions how sunflowers are a Greek symbol of unrequited love. In addition, “love” potions may have originated in Greece, or at the very least, were common enough to have multiple sites claim that, lol. At the end of the season, where each librarian uses their gifts to turn Apep mortal, this greek potion is what Ezekiel ends up using.

See a pattern here? Everything that he was completely unaffected by was Greek in some way. So, he has an immunity to these kinds of artifacts, but why? I vote demigod.

Anyway, moving on.

Here’s some magic he could have been immune to, or could not have been. Its pretty debatable.

Fortuna: Technically a Roman Goddess, but the show does acknowledge how similar they are to Greek Gods. He may have been affected by the spell, but broke out of it pretty quick. Some think he may not been affected at all; slot machines aren’t exactly fair, especially in a casino that exists to cheat completely. As for Ezekiel getting so upset over losing, what he says, “Not the guy that loses, I’m the guy that wins” sounds very similar to what he was saying in Point of Salvation, but that’s a whole nother topic.

Alternately, he was affected and this point shouldn’t be here. I don’t know, I’m not the writers.

Libris Fabula: He was a little bit affected, just far less than the others, as he acted pretty much the same. He did get a barely noticeable clothing change, became luckier than normal, and was just able to cast a spell for some reason? Speaking out that spell, it froze the guy, and a certain Greek God does have the ability to put people to sleep. Not really the same thing, but worth thinking about. Maybe. More on that later.

Most people think he was immune, but he could have just been similar enough to the character he was portraying that he didn’t need to change a whole lot.

These ones are barely worth mentioning, because have other reasonable (though I guess your definition of reasonable may be different from mine) explanations, but you could see them as magic immunity as well:

Silver Screen: Ezekiel gets into character the least, while Cassandra and Jacob are out singing and calling people by their character names. Maybe less affected, maybe just a spoilsport. Probably the last one.

Point of Salvation: Was the only one able to remember previous loops. Since they were in a video game, it’s explained that since he was the first through the door, he became the player while everyone else became NPCs. I mean, sure.

Christmas Thief: Saint of Thieves only used his truth telly power on Ezekiel’s mother, not him. Ezekiel did not feel obligated to say anything. Could just be that the guy wasn’t talking to Ezekiel. Or, earlier in that episode Ezekiel tells his mother he doesn’t steal anymore (at least for anything other than the Library, I assume, cause he still kinda does) and therefor that made him immune to the spell, since it only works on thieves.

Image of an Image: Both Cassandra and Ezekiel got their pictures taken, and Cassandra was the only one affected by the transfer spell. However, Ezekiel wasn’t one of the “chosen ones” because he snuck in, and jumped in front of the camera while Eve (one of the “chosen ones”, who was later able to be affected) turned away. Either that, or he just didn’t have time to feel the effect, since his picture was taken after Cassandra’s, and Eve’s was placed in manually.

That’s all the possible instances of magic immunity I could think of.

Next, we have some other stuff that is relevant to this point, but wasn’t necessarily artifact/magic immunity.

Prophecy Cube: Created by the Oracle of Delphi, who is from Greek mythology. This isn’t about whether Ezekiel was affected by something, as he was still able to use the prophecy glass/get stuck in the cube. Rather, it’s about the Zeus Challenge in the cube. They probably would have died in there, but luckily, Ezekiel had just happened to steal, and keep on him, the exact thing they needed to get through– a bunch of golden coins, and a prophecy that ensures at least one coin can’t be destroyed. Luck? Prophecy? Divine Intervention? Plot convenience? Okay its probably the last one but STILL

Also, Ezekiel getting pissed at Zeus.

Zeus’s Bolt (again?): There is a promo image I think for season 4? that has each of the Librarians holding their tools. Jacob had his axe, Cassandra had a notebook, Flynn had Excalibur, all normal, except for Eve and Ezekiel. Eve had this big staff thing I didn’t recognize, and Ezekiel had Zeus’ Bolt for some reason?

Lightning, just, in general: If there is wild electricity in an episode, Ezekiel is probably around.

Examples:

City of Light: Gets shocked and knocked backwards into Jacob by a very electrified fence, gets up right afterwards and is fine.

Broken Staff: The Zeus Bolt thing, you get it.

Image of an Image: Ezekiel electrocutes Jacob. Jacob was not really fine. He lived, though.

Point of Salvation: Ezekiel electrocutes Jacob part 2 Electric Boogaloo, but this time on purpose. He was not fine. He died. But don’t worry, he lived.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Mentioned a little bit above, Ezekiel, Jacob, and a student get stuck in the Zeus Challenge, and Ezekiel uses some coins he just so happened to steal recently. Throwing them on tiles shows whether or not lightning will strike if it was stepped on. Seriously, why is it ALWAYS Jacob?

The Dark Secret: Ezekiel is the one sent to wrap a cord around a lightning rod constantly being struck by lighting. “Why am I bloody doing this”, he asks? I mean, Zeus probably isn’t going to kill his descendent(?), right?

Werewolves: Have you heard of the Lycaon of Arcadia? It’s a Greek myth. Basically, this dude named Lycaon wants to test how smart and all-knowing Zeus is. To do so, he kills his own son, cooks him, and serves him to Zeus to see if he notices, ya know, no biggie. Zeus was like “wtf man” and brings the son back to life, and turns Lycaon into, you guessed it, a wolf. So, Zeus creates a werewolf of sorts, maybe one of the firsts. In Fangs of Death, Ezekiel just so happens to be the one (main) character to be turned into werewolf. So, if he was a descendant of Zeus, imagine how big of a “fuck you” that was to the god. That all being said, Ezekiel was turned by an Egyptian god, so that might not have been intentional. Also, they may have just been avoiding turning Jacob, because there is already a werewolf named Jacob and they didn't want another Twilight reference in that episode.

Family/Name: Ezekiel is adopted, and his adoptive mother mentions how she took him in off the streets. Because of that, we don’t know who his birth parents are, and whether or not he, or anyone else, knows is unknown. Soooo, we can take some creative liberties as to who his parents might have been.

As for his name, it carries some religious connotations. It should be remembered though, the meanings I’m talking about here are Biblical, not Greek, so again, might mean nothing for this argument. “Ezekiel” is “God’s Strength” or “God will Strengthen”. Jones might also be something like “God is gracious” or “God has favored”, thought different sites say different things. However, I’m pretty sure the name Jones came from his adoptive mother, and apparently Jones is a common last name in Australia. His first name is more relevant, because all of his siblings have themed names; Mercy, Charity, and Honor. So, either his mom named him differently because she knew something we don’t, or he already had the name before she adopted him. Either way, this probably means absolutely nothing. But what are we here for? To analyze a dead show like an English teacher analyzes the color of curtains in an 100 year old text. If it wasn’t for all the other stuff, I probably wouldn’t think about this too much.

Okay. So Greek stuff, lightning, and Zeus himself come up a LOT when it comes to this guy. So is Ezekiel the son of Zeus? Possibly, but a more popular theory is that he’s Zeus’ grandson. Because Zeus’ son just so happens to be Hermes; god of things such as luck, travel, money, trade, and most importantly, thieves. Oh, and animal husbandry/shepherds and sleep, I don’t know how much those apply but I will try.

Time for some comparisons, honestly most of these don’t even need to be explained so I’ll keep it short-ish, cause this shit has gotten way too long already.

Luck: Ezekiel, especially in the first season, likes to rely on luck, and tends to be very lucky in general. Examples where this is mentioned include Fables of Doom and Apple of Discord. “Smarter to be lucky then lucky to be smart!”

Travel: We can assume that he ended up traveling in his previous job (that being heists all over the world) fairly often, even before the Library. Becoming a Librarian with a teleporting door increased that of course.

Money: Steals very high-value items to sell. Also apparently likes to take money from his coworker’s wallets. And probably everyone else’s.

Trade: The aforementioned high-value pieces he steals are traded/sold for money. In Christmas Thief, we find out he kept none of the money or items, giving it away to others who needed it. That kinda fits this category, I think.

Thieves: I really don’t need to explain this. Unless you haven’t seen the show.

Animal Husbandry/Shepherds?: Basically the care of animals. Um, well he doesn’t keep cows or anything, but he has a tendency to “adopt” magical creatures that need help. Stumpy, Nessie Jr., maybe Frankenstein’s Monster as well?

Sleep: I mentioned earlier how Ezekiel froze a guy (not really in an icy way, just couldn’t move) by hitting him with his coin. Hermes is able to send people to sleep with his Caduceus (the snake wand thing). Yeah, it’s not really the same thing, though you could consider being frozen a kind of sleep. He could have just been lucky enough to find a magical coin, and lucky enough to figure out how to use it at the exact right time without even knowing what it did. It’s a stretch either way, really, and was never explained in the episode at all. Yeah, I can't find anything else that fits.

Hermes is considered to be a thief and trickster, and a lot of the things he is god of are Ezekiel’s main occupations. With all those similarities to Hermes, frequent events related to lightning and Zeus related things, and immunity to Greek artifacts, we can conclude that he is perhaps the son of Hermes, taking after his father in abilities and getting visits from grandpa.

Alternatively, his somehow IS Hermes, but I doubt that. He’d probably be way more powerful. He was also able to see the future with Prophecy Glass, which Jenkins claims is impossible for immortals to do (although in that case he was talking about a Prophecy Cube, but close enough). It’s more likely that he is a demigod.

Okay, that is all I can think of that is relevant. I binged the series about two months ago, and have been thinking about this theory. I went ahead and re-watched the episodes that I mentioned in more detail, as well as parts of others that I remebered. The reason I bring this up is because I may have missed things. I did not rewatch a majority of the episodes, more that I looked at a list of episodes on wikipedia and tried to remember what happened in them, watching clips and episodes if I needed to.

The show was cancelled, so we’ll probably never get a confirmation as to who Ezekiels’ birth parents were, and as such, you can’t prove me wrong! That being said, if I got any facts incorrect in this, please tell me so I can fix it. I’m not well versed on Greek Mythology, in fact I know basically nothing, and did the research as I went along. So again, there could be more. This is just what I found in like, less than a day of searching.

Join me next time on “How is Cassandra magical, where’d she get it from? Also, were we ever gonna meet her parents?” And “In the first episode of season 3, Jacob is just able to hit a heavy punching bag of its chain, across the room, at bullet speed, just because of a shift of his wrist, and later in that episode do the same thing to Apep, and it’s just…never addressed or spoken about again? Like wtf man?”

I'm probably not doing that

If you managed to get through all of this, thank you, and I hope this wasn’t too painful to read.

[mugionthewater]

Tsumugi Shirogane Deepdive: Prologue

I’m in a DR mood right now, and really enjoying revisiting Tsumugi in particular, so I thought I’d do a chapter-based retrospective focusing on all the cool Tsumugi material! A reread project especially rewarding for a character like Mugi, so I’m really excited.

In this series, I’m focusing a lot on all the foreshadowing, and also what we can extrapolate about Tsumugi’s true character along the way. I’ll be doing this chapter-by chapter, including the prologue as well as an installment for her Free Time Events.

Full spoilers for V3 under the cut.

The Pre-Prologue

We first see Tsumugi in the gym by the exisals to get their uniforms and their memories. Tsumugi herself has four lines of dialogue in this scene, nothing that particularly stands out, but there are a couple of things worth noting about how she (and everyone else) is dressed.

Kaede describes how she was kidnapped on her way to school, and it sure looks like that’s the case for almost everyone in the room. We’re used to seeing DR characters in flashy outfits that vaguely resemble school uniforms but actually reflect their individuality, so when the game first shows them in an ensemble lineup like this, it’s a lot more striking.

Not so much in this CG. While there are plenty of visual details that tell us about these characters (Saihara’s already hiding under a hat in his sprites; Iruma is revealing; Kiibo and Gonta are buttoned up and orderly, but Kaito’s shirt and jacket are undone to show a bold-colored undershirt), their uniforms look like they’re doing what uniforms are supposed to do: be bland and blend in.

What about Tsumugi? Tsumugi wears a basic uniform like everyone else, but this is where we get the game’s first indication that all is not what it seems with this girl. The clue is the blue. She is the only one in the lineup whose primary color isn’t a neutral tone. What’s more, it’s the same shade of blue Tsumugi is associated with throughout the game. Visually, part of her is already in character as Tsumugi Shirogane, SHSL Cosplayer.

Of course, there’s a much bigger item foreshadowing Tsumugi as the bad guy, which is that in advance of everyone getting their “memories”, the main emphasis is their new clothes delivered by the Monokubs.

There are a couple of reasons the clothes are significant. For starters, there’s a direct line to Tsumugi’s cosplay talent. For anyone inclined to suspect her before starting the game on account of her talent (and her general don’t-look-at-me-I’m-not-suspicious vibes), this is immediate theory fodder. This also primes the audience to look at the setting of V3 with a critical eye, between the contrast of the kids’ boring outfits and their flashy new ones and the Monokubs making explicit references to starting the “story“, there is an immediate suggestion of artifice that runs all the way down to their identities. Not for nothing is Kaede’s magical girl transformation visually similar to the memory light.

Another thing: pre-memory light, the person in the room whose outfit is the least uniform-y is Amami.

At the very least, it’s a look that’s noticeably more casual than what most of the cast is wearing. After Chapter 6, we know that Amami made it to the end of the 52nd Killing Game before he and Tsumugi were condemned to execution via participating in the next killing game- which he seems to be realizing in this scene- so it’s possible they’re coming right off the heels of the last killing game. It’s an ongoing mystery what his relationship with her was like up to this point? Does he know she’s the ringleader? Is “Tsumugi Shirogane“ anything like the person she was in the last killing game, assuming she was even there?

I’m not confident Tsumugi really switched to a new persona for the 53rd Killing Game, even though fake identities is kind of her whole deal. I’ll get more into why in this series, but I think a lot of the character we see in the game is the “real“ Tsumugi, to the extent that such a person even exists.

Introducing Tsumugi Shirogane: Professional Cosplayer, Sex God

If you go back and read the promotional blurbs for V3, Tsumugi’s mention her tendency to get so lost in thought that she’ll ignore everyone around her. This little trait isn’t super weird at first, until you realize later in the game that she doesn’t carry the shtick past the first chapter. It’s like she wrote the character blurbs herself, realized everybody has a wacky “thing“ that would come up immediately in the introductions, and came up with an act of low-grade wackiness so she’d fit in in the prologue.

This is great stuff, looking back. It gives an intro in brief to the many contradictions of Tsumugi Shirogane. On one hand, it’s overly phony and performative. But on the other hand, there’s a core of truth there about her character- she really is someone who stays in her thoughts without a care for anyone around her, albeit less in the cute way and more in the horrifying sociopath kind of way.

It also tells us something important about Tsumugi’s commitment to the Killing Game. She cares about maintaining the integrity of this world and its characters, but is pretty indifferent about maintaining a role for herself. She doesn’t give a shit about having a storyline or even much of a character. The pleasure of DR comes from what she can get as an observer/consumer. 

This is entirely consistent with what she tells Kaede and Saihara about herself and her feelings about cosplay in the actual introduction.

This is the ethos that makes me wonder how dishonest Tsumugi really is. She’s dishonest as hell, of course, but given that she later applies the entire DR LARP reality show experience as “cosplay“, what she says about her convictions largely rings true. She clearly cares about making her tribute an authentic one (lol), which extends to her being the primary creative director inside her fiction bubble.

It partly explains why she spends the next five chapters being little more than furniture. In her mind, her job as a producer precludes her from being a character in her own right, because doing anything to pull focus is tantamount to self-promotion, and, well, that’s an abuse of power that gets in the way of the story!

(sidebar: there are some fascinating things we could speculate about what she says about cosplay relates to her relationship with the rest of Team Danganronpa and the outside world, but this post is getting long, so I’ll save it for another day)

Like everything else about Tsumugi, it’s not until the end that you can fully contextualize how sinister she’s being here. What she passes off as a cute passion for cosplay is actually a bone-deep sense of consumer entitlement taken to a logical extreme. Tsumugi is a more vicious indictment of terrible nerds and a selfish fandom than anything Hifumi Yamada could embody. She loves DR so much, and feels so strongly that nobody should be participating in DR with any corrupt motives, that anything less than the real deal is unacceptable. To this end, she will happily transplant entirely new emotional realities on the others so that even the emotional torture of the Killing Game is authentic. In Tsumugi’s selfish nerd brain, this is the important part of the drama of Killing Games, and anyone who disagrees with her approach is a fake fan who doesn’t deserve any kind of creative control.

Anyways, there’s more to say about Tsumugi’s introduction, so moving on

Some pretty overt foreshadowing here. In the Japanese script, her reference is ep. 53 of Kiteretsu Daihyakka instead of Doraemon. I like the change for the dub, even though it’s pretty obvious. Someone who knows DR primarily through the dub is less likely to know about the franchise’s connection to Doraemon, anyway.

Tsumugi also points out the weird dragon statue in the hallway that will lead into a new part of the school down the line. It’s a neat little metatextual trick on the audience, because it’s the kind of thing that’s not suspicious at all on a first playthrough. She’s an NPC in a DR game, of course her dialogue is gonna point out plot devices that will be relevant shortly, but on a reread you know she’s being deliberate about it. This is far from the last time this kind of thing happens with Tsumugi.

Lastly, this charming observation from Kaede about why she’s maybe not so plain afterall.

Kaede puts it in the worst way possible, but it’s interesting that she, a person with a generally good read on people, decides immediately that there’s more to Mugi than meets the eye. Not only that, she relates it specifically to an audience spending a lot of time looking at her. If she were any less gross about it, Kaede making this kind of observation would land like a big clue.

This leaves us with the biggest question from the prologue: if Kaede wasn’t too busy being horny and gay, could she have put two and two together and thwarted the ringleader?

There is SO much more to say about Tsumugi, so I’m really excited to dig deep into other chapters!

[squeaksquawks]

tell a lil bit more about your Hawke and your Inquisitor 👀👀

HELL YEAH LET'S GOOOO

I kind of uhhhhhhhh went WILD and wrote POSSIBLY TOO MUCH so!

Athena Hawke entered Kirkwall as a cheeky but kind like 20 year old and left Kirkwall as a shell of a person HAHA. She's a warrior, so she had Bethany by her side and they were INCREDIBLY close, so taking her to the Deep Roads and making her a warden (a choice she made in a panic without thinking of what Bethany wanted) genuinely haunted/still haunts her.

She has the...worst case of RBF and people avoid her on the street when in reality mentally she's like "What should I get for dinner. Chicken? No. I had that for lunch." and Varric absolutely ribs on her for it and calls her some variation of grouch/grouchy which she HATES.

She romanced Fenris and it was very much a love at first sight of seeing a mans heart torn out of his chest while Bethany was in the background like "Athena. No. NO." She tried really hard to be Cool About It but it just lead to her like, glaring at Fenris a lot and him being like "...?" because, again, horrible case of RBF. When he left in Act 2 she was like "of course, take all the time you need." and then burst into The Hanged Man 20 minutes later like "VARRRICCCCCCCCCCC" in like, TEARS LMAOOOO. Eventually she and Fenris settle down and she finds a lot of comfort in how blunt he is, and I like to think he finds comfort in the fact that she tries to stay kind despite her life circumstances.

She loves Varric, adores Merrill, and would (and literally nearly did) die for Isabela. She and Anders are very co-workers esque and she thinks Sebastian's a drag HAHA

Athena's big thing is that she thinks Literally Everything is her fault and she could have, should have, done better. It informs a lot of her choices and obviously does not lead to the healthiest of mindsets. She also resents the fuck out of being The Champion because she resents that all of a sudden she is in charge of things and how did this HAPPEN (a common thread in my protags in different ways LMAOOO)

I think post Kirkwall she and Fenris shack up for a minute before they get back out there. I like to think all my protags take vacations after their games LMAOO THEY DESERVE IT. She also cuts her hair because it makes her think of her mom and is still keeping it short by the time Inquisition happens.

By the time Inquisition happens, because I love spice and sadness, she and Fenris are not necessarily broken up but they are a bit strained because of Hawke's tendency to throw herself into things even when they could be deadly, which Fenris would Prefer She Stop Doing.

Also, lil fun fact - Athena has a lot of patience and tries to stick to "no unnecessary murdering" until she snaps and goes wild. She IS a reaver, so. Circe........I do not have favorites, but, hypothetically, if I did, Circe Lavellan may possibly be my favorite.

She has the strongest personality out of her, Hera and Athena which was REAL FUN. She DOES NOT WANT TO BE INQUISITOR which is a very fun journey because by the time Samson tells her something isn't her business, I got really into playing as her and OUT LOUD, IN DISCORD, AS HER, I said "I am the INQUISITOR. EVERYTHING IS MY BUSINESS." When anyone would ask her if she thought she was the herald/believed in Andraste she HARDCORE AVOIDED THE QUESTION, just like she hardcore avoided questions about her intentions for the inquisiton after corypheus. (she did not know and she very much was like "we should be focusing on SAVING THE WORLD FIRST, HOW IS THAT NOT YOUR FIRST PRIORITY)

Circe was..............very popular. The way Cullen was animated made it seem like he had a GIANT CRUSH ON HER which my entire discord had a field day with, because for Circe humans are Always On Strike Two. (at some point there was a scene happening and Circe left the room and Cullen watched and my friend went "I THINK HE JUST CHECKED OUT HER ASS I AM NOT KIDDING") This became funnier when Cullen's plan was what ultimately saved Clan Lavellan because she very much was like "I owe this human man a life debt. I hate it here." Solas took her on that whole fade date and she was like "ahaha yes, FRIEND, FRIEND WHOSE FRIENDSHIP I VALUE," and she and Blackwall had a whole Flirty Thing going on until Bull showed up, which really tells you about what Circe's tastes are LMAOOO.

Circe and Bull are..............they...........mean so much to me..........They very much have a murder pact ("If I go mad"/"If I become an abomination") that they openly joke about to horrify people but ultimately would not if possible/would be in great pain if they had to go through with it! Which is fun! Circe would find comfort in Bull being like, a Thoughts Free Zone for a bit and then she'd be like Unfortunately I Now Have Feelings For This Man. She'd be very embarrassed about it all until she finally fessed up and then they'd be DISGUSTING TOGETHER LMAOOOOO. Just UNBEARABLY CORNY. Also, Circe would absolutely let Bull throw her in battle, and since she's a Knight Enchanter it's all very fun and chaotic.

Side note: Cole is absolutely a little brother to her, she dotes on him like crazy and adores being with him. She gets very defensive of him and spends a good chunk of her free time with him, especially after he becomes human and she can track him down more easily

Circe also would become more and more anxious of losing her personhood, of everything she's done be for nothing, of being remembered as a concept and not a living breathing thing - i'm talking like full on panic attacks, unable to sleep, having to be calmed down about it. - ESPECIALLY after Ameridan. She tries to (somewhat) prioritize joy after that, finally visits Clan Lavellan after avoiding them for literal years (I played Descent and Hakkon after the main game to give the game a better sense of time passing before Tresspasser), ect.

By Tresspasser she is Fed Up, not sleeping, not eating, and also her arm is doing That Whole Thing concerning the fuck out of Bull LMAOOO. The ongoing joke was that Bull had DEFINITELY suggested cutting her arm off at multiple points in time, and when it actually happened it felt very monkey's paw HAHA. She definitely freaks out on Solas and is like oh I gotta KILL THIS GUY!! Also, because it feels relevant, she DID NOT LIKE MORRIGAN and drank from the well.

Also! Playlists. Everyone has a playlist! I use these while drawing to get me in the mindset so they're not in chronological order but here's Hawkes, Circes, and Heras which is the most work in progress since I just finished Origins and need to.....maybe take out the MULTIPLE songs about dying HAHAHA

EDIT: also because I played the games out of order and used the default world states for 2 and inquisition due to some Choices I made during Origins Circe is uhhhhhhh going to have either Fenris try to kill her or Hera and THAT'S GONNA BE FUN FOR HER

[cross-d-a]

if you're doing those characters then please give me more amazing takes on princess mute 🥺💕

OMG IM SO LATE ANSWERING THIS BUT HERE I FINALLY AM

Also omgg thank you SOSOSO much for asking me about Princess Mute?? THE LOVE OF MY LIFE??? You know me so well, vish!! I love and adore you so much!! Thank you for giving me the chance to blabber on about the woman I love!! ⁽⁽٩(๑˃̶͈̀ ᗨ ˂̶͈́)۶⁾⁾

ALSO! I’m gonna do my best to like- not spoil all my plans for whispers, haha

The rest is under the cut bc I just have a lot of FEELINGS~ about our resident zombie girl 

❤⃛ヾ(๑❛ ▿ ◠๑ )

How I feel about this character

OH BOY OK I JUST??? LOVE HER??? A LOT???? I wasn’t expecting to get quite so immediately and intensely attached to her?? But from the second I heard about her in the legend I was just gone. Completely done for. I’m generally a sucker for mythology, and there’s just SO MUCH that’s fascinating about the tale behind the Princess Mute and the South Sea King? 

Even though Princess Mute is so central to the myth, the South Sea King is deemed as the most important? I mean- duh it is his tomb, but Princess Mute is the catalyst? None of this would have happened without her? She’s main character material and yet she isn’t the main character of her own story?? She has practically no agency? It’s so? Fucking? Fascinating?? And there is so fucking much left unanswered? The myth says she turns into a goddamn monster?? Is this- figuratively? Or literally? Is she a monster for breaking gender norms and committing the ultimate taboo by killing the Emperor??? Like- holy FUCK? Like- LOOK at this pic from Ershu’s Expensive Powerpoint:

and a close-up for good measure:

(note the HORNS/HELMET?? the LIGHTNING STRIKE!!! 👀👀👀 how she’s dressed as a SOLDIER?? that SPEAR??? also she’s depicted as much bigger than the emperor!! which, of course, means she’s more important!!!!)

and, HELLO!! She’s called the PRINCESS MUTE. She is only known/named in association to someone else. Her name has been erased from history. It isn’t important to anyone. Which is so fucking ironic. She’s Princess Mute. Her voice has been stripped from her, just like her agency. This tale is the Mute Emperor’s and not her own. Her suffering means nothing to anyone. Her life means nothing other than for the Emperor to desire and the South Sea King to mourn over (and WOW!! ISN’T THIS JUST!! SO perfectly encapsulating Nanpai Sanshu’s female characters and their relevance to the story/male characters)

(so what is her goddamn name???? I mean, I know what I’ve named her, but sorry dudes. Again. I don’t wanna spoil too much :) )

also, WHY is the South Sea King covering her eyes when she’s sent off to sea in the origami boat?

What actually happens to her after this? The body we see of the South Sea King has long white hair so I assume he died pretty old? So why does she look so goddamn young? 

And- the million dollar question here (WHICH I HAVE A LOT OF HEADCANONS FOR BUT I DON’T WANNA SPOIL WHISPERS): What happened to her after she killed the Emperor????

ALSO!! WHY IS SHE HOLDING A DINGLAN RULER WHEN SANSHU FINDS HER IN THAT FIRST EXPEDITION?? (internet says it’s a “special ruler used for making shrines, carving wood statues and making tablets of gods. Later used in measurement of architectural scale; measuring instrument for the netherworld, wishes best for tomb owner) did she design her own father’s tomb?? is there more to her becoming a leather figurine than filial loyalty/sacrifice?? 

Why does she have a tattoo?? I go a bit into this in my fic, but from my understanding it was unusual for people (women especially!) to have tattoos during this time! (this is just from my research! if I am wrong please correct me!) 

For anyone who hasn’t read whispers, there were a a few tribes (minorities!) during this time who tattooed themselves (and to this day, they continue this tradition :) ). The Li were often attacked by invaders who assaulted the women and sold them as slaves. The women ended up tattooing their faces and bodies to make them less appealing, and it ended up becoming a tradition. When a girl came of age she’d get tattooed. Then we’ve got the Dai, who (from what I understand!) got tattoos of animals with characteristics they wished to embody, such as to show their virility and strength! So they’d tattoo tigers and dragons, etc.

So why does Princess Mute have one? Who gave it to her? WHAT ACTUALLY IS IT!!!!!! (eternal frustration that we never see a clear shot of the whole thing!!) It kinda looks like a heavily stylized fish? With some waves. But I am unsure! But it would make sense, considering the ongoing theme of snakes and fish throughout dmbj.

Also, her scars seem very strange. Like- if someone skinned her (YIKES!) then- her scars don’t really seem like they’re a result of skinning (double yikes!!). You’d think that for a woman who was the daughter of the King, they’d take more care to preserve her face?? So why does it seem like someone has done their utter best to ruin it? Did the Emperor do it himself? Did her father? Or did someone else do it?? Did she do it herself????

Also, I just wanna cut the bullshit with the creepy hand clam thing. A hand clam isn’t gonna wrap their fingers around Wu Xie’s hand to stop him from blowing himself up. Like. I get that it’s the censorship. I get it. But- you can’t tell me it wasn’t actually the Princess Mute who saved him. I just?? This moment is so powerful? It literally knocked the breath from my chest.

Princess Mute’s story is just so fascinating and tragic and I am just a mess over how she isn’t in control of her own story? She never is. Except for when she kills the Emperor. (AND when she saves Wu Xie) And I think that’s fucking telling. 

Of course, it felt like they had more of a storyline planned for her which never happened, but I’ll get more into that later.

Basically, I just have SO MANY QUESTIONS!!!

It’s like- I dunno. Seeing a gorgeous woman flip an obnoxious man over her shoulder and slam him to the ground without breaking a sweat and watching her walk away with stars in your eyes. You barely know anything about her but you’re already half in love and you just want to know more.

I’m super Gay for her, if you couldn’t already tell.

Honestly, she just perfectly represents all the female characters and their treatment in dmbj with all the extra PIZAZZ of the mysterious supernatural/mythological elements. She just makes me go feral and I adore her with my entire heart.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

NUMBER ONE I SHIP HER WITH MY CUTE AND PERFECT GF XIAO BAI!!!!!!!!

They are my two favourite (okay and my wife Su Nan!) female characters in dmbj. I think their stories parallel each other pretty beautifully? They’re both women in a powerful position, though with limited agency. They both defy gender norms and accomplish things (I’m counting killing the Emperor as Accomplishing Something) in a very male-dominated world. And- okay. I know the Princess Mute is technically dead. But she also?? is someone still doing stuff?? and pushing along the storyline?? as a zombie?? So I’m just gonna say that both of them aren’t truly killed off for the Man Pain like all the other female dmbj characters (except for Xiu Xiu, and I guess Chuchu but ChuChu’s situation is kinda....Iffy. At best.)

Also both of them are linked pretty heavily with Wu Xie? They both have an interesting relationship with him. And Princess Mute leads Wu Xie to Xiao Bai!!!

And okay this is spoiling a bit of whispers, BUT!!! Warehouse 11 was built atop the South Sea King’s temple. Isn’t that fucking important??? I stand by my headcanon that Xiao Bai is a Warehouse kid (descended from the Founders) and so she grew up there. And like- ignoring censorship bc I can AND because Reboot leaves a lot of supernatural stuff up in the air anyway- wouldn’t growing up atop an insanely powerful temple do something to you? Wouldn’t it affect you in some way?? There’s just!!! SO much potential between Princess Mute and Xiao Bai!! Plus!! I think it’d be great for Xiao Bai to form a relationship with another woman. She needs some female solidarity in her life.

And- well. I just ship Princess Mute with all the dmbj women, really. Princess Mute has two hands, why can she use them both?? I’ve got a couple Princess Mute modern au’s going and in one of them she just- sweeps A’Ning and Su Nan off their feet :)

I really can’t ship Princess Mute with any male characters, I think. There’s just- so much underlying trauma surrounding her agency and how she’s been used by the men in her life. Also, I like wlw & mlm solidarity. Let Princess Mute and Wu Xie wallow over their Stupid Crushes. Or Princess Mute & Xiao Ge. I’m not picky.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Purely bc of my own au, I am very much invested in Princess Mute & Li Cu (& spirit snake). As I mentioned before, there’s a running theme of loss of agency in their own lives and suffering the consequences of others’ actions. Plus, there’s a lot of supernatural happenings surrounding the both of them. Why wouldn’t they find a connection?

And, obviously, I adore Princess Mute & Wu Xie. Princess Mute saved Wu Xie and then Wu Xie was promptly obsessed (can’t say I blame him). They had such an interesting relationship in Reboot that was just- so fucking tragically dropped. 

My unpopular opinion about this character

SHE SHOULD BE MORE POPULAR!!!!!!!!!! She is so goddamn fascinating and gorgeous and I just!! Want!! Everyone to adore her as much as I do!!!!!!!! At least I feel a bit accomplished for swinging some readers over to her side in whispers!! That’s something!!! 

I’ve got like- a million au ideas with her. I’m going to be the creator of the content I wish to read!!!!!

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I WISH SHE COULD HAVE GOTTEN A SATISFACTORILY COMPLETED STORYLINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She just gets completely dropped after she leads Wu Xie to Warehouse 11. So once more, she is a plot device and not. And actual. Person. Her importance is tied irrevocably to the male leads. Her agency is not her own. Wu Xie cares so much about her, and okay, he’s trying to figure out a mystery and we all know how he gets when he’s trying to puzzle out a mystery-- but you can’t tell me he just- stops caring after he encounters Warehouse 11??? What happens to her after that?? Does she rot away in a box in Wushanju?? Does Ershu take her back?? I’m just?? WHAT????

I want to know her side of the story and not what everyone else has said. I want her to actually properly communicate with Wu Xie. I want her saving the day again and I want her being fucking badass and I want her and Xiao Ge being soft together and I want her and Xiao Bai to bond fall in love and I want everyone to just- fall in love with her? And care about her? And I want to to find herself caring about these fucking idiots too???? Can you imagine her and Liu Sang bonding over shitty fathers and lack of agency and Trauma?? Can you imagine Princess Mute getting her life back and the freckles returning to her slowly darkening skin and her being silly with Hei-ye bc he keeps shoving increasingly ridiculous sunglasses at her. And can you imagine her trying on jeans for the first time and picking out a cute bomber jacket and shoving a baseball cap on her head and dipping her feet back in the sea and befriending shibie bc she’s just?? that?? cool?? while Iron Triangle is off on the side fretting like she isn’t befriending some very dangerous creatures but it’s okay bc she’s a dangerous creature too and she understands fear and desire and hunger. 

I want her returning to Thunder City. I want her getting closure. I want her story to get closure. Period.

And I know it didn’t happen bc censorship and Nanpai Sanshu and just- a host of Other Things. But I want it, and she deserves it.

--

AAAHH VISH!!!! Thank you so much for letting me yell about Princess Mute!! Sorry I couldn’t go more in depth with headcanons but!! Like I said, I don’t want to completely spoil you for whispers, so I’ll keep those close to my chest for now 

٩(*ゝڡゝ๑)۶♥

[dandelion-wings]

Okay I went to bed thinking about Fischl’s Daryl-style Ordeal, but I woke up thinking about Lisa’s Nita-style one. And also about prices for power, and Lisa’s trepidation about that re: her Vision, and how that might interplay with how much clearer wizardry is on the subject and how wizards have to be willing. This steals very heavily from SYWTBAW, both the whole plot/Ordeal segment and Nita changing the Lone Power’s name, but I’m not trying to be original here, I’m just being recklessly self-indulgent.

(For clarity, Lisa is probably 13-14 here and more idealistic than her adult version, because both of those are kind of requirements for taking up wizardry!)

---

The pages of the Book of the Abyss are like thin steel, so cold that they burn her hands as Lisa turns them. Letters are scorched into them, etched with fire and lighting; in the Speech, but they seem to twist and turn on the page, symbols and syllables that she's only seen before as beautiful distorting into ugly, jagged lines that hurt her eyes to look at. A headache grows in her skull as she skims the pages.

Any minute now, the Abyss Mages will be here. They'll read the book and re-stabilize the Abyss with it, the same way that the most senior wizards keep Teyvat stable by reading the Book of the Petrified Tree. If it was that alone, Lisa would wonder the point of keeping it away from them. The Abyss isn't in the Book of the Petrified Tree, isn't part of the Powers' creation. She understands the appeal of letting it fall apart and dissolve away, but... that's still entropy, isn't it?  There's life in the Abyss, whatever awful forms it takes. That's what she's signed herself up to fight *against*.

Unless it's meant to be read by someone else. By her, by a wizard, the way the Book of the Petrified Tree is. But Lisa doesn't understand why it would be any better if a wizard reads it. What's described here is terrible, twisted, horrible and horrifying, the ongoing torture and transformation of a whole people that Celestia so cruelly condemned with their masters. It's not something that Lisa wants to have any part of speaking into being. Especially with the way it ends, the tight knot of Speech winding into a curling closed circle of something that cannot be, can never be, undone.

*"Condemned, forever, unredeemable and unredeemed."*

It isn't fair, Lisa thinks, with the furious conviction that her parents and teachers are already trying to beat out of her, the conviction that they sigh and attribute to her youth. It's just like her Vision--they didn't ask for this, are paying a price they never agreed to and were never even told would have to be paid. She won't read those words. And she won't let anyone else read them either. Her manual is clear: she can't destroy this Book without destroying the other. But the Book of the Petrified Tree changes, sometimes, as Teyvat changes. Why can't this one?

The words are etched into the pages. With fire and lightning, she thinks again, and reaches for her Vision. This will take precision and control, but Lisa is very good at those. With one hand at her throat, she holds the other over the cold-steel page and lets a tiny lance of lighting crackle from it, scraping at the twisted symbols of the Speech, etching them into new forms, new shapes. The glow of it nearly blinds her, leaves spots in her eyes when she's finished that are slow to blink away.

But that's only the first half of this. The Books are only real, truly real, when read aloud. Lisa flips back to the beginning of the relevant section, puts her hands on either side of the burning-cold book, and begins to read. The manual has told her what happens to those who read the Book of the Abyss. But at least she knows the price she'll be paying.

Immediately, she can feel that burning seep through her, into her, from her hands and her eyes and her mouth into her blood and her flesh and her bones. It tears at her, rushes painfully through her, saps her breath as if fire is filling her limbs and frost biting at her tongue. The headache grows stronger, her temples pounding, her eyes watering until she can barely see the page. Her life is being torn away from her in strips, if the manual is right, and the manual is always correct. Hours, days, years of her life with every line and every page.

A thought occurs to her, dark and seductive, curling like a cool breeze through the burning. She doesn't have to do this. She can stop any time, and the loss will stop, too. She doesn't have to give herself up to the whims of the Powers, doesn't have to pay this price for people who don't deserve it, who she's never seen, who will never even know to be grateful for it. She can close the book and go home and continue her studies, qualify for the Sumeru Academia like she's always intended, become a renowned scholar, teach generations more....

Lisa has never heard this voice before, the voice that comes so close to being her own, sounding like her own thoughts in her own head. But she isn't such a fool that she can't recognize the Lone Power speaking to her. And if it's paying her its personal attention--that means what she's doing is threatening it. Even with her eyes blurred and aching, her head pounding like a drum, her breath wheezing in her chest with every word, Lisa smiles in sharp satisfaction. She continues to read.

This is a price greater than even what she's come to suspect her Vision may cost her, and she knows that. But it's a price she knew upfront. The Powers never misled her about what they wanted, never pretended that they were giving her a gift when they were actually striking a deal. She made it for the knowledge they offered, for the ability to understand the world; she cared more about being able to hear the trees speak and the rocks sigh and the winds whisper, to hear their names in the Speech and sense in every syllable what they were made of, than she did about the power to change the words and change the world's nature with them. But one comes with the other. She can't understand the world and leave it untouched.

Cackling surrounds her as the Abyss Mages come upon her at last. Cackling that turns to cries of dismay as they hear the words falling from her lips, the whole world leaning in around her to hear itself described. They're too late to stop her from reading out the last sentence, the single line she changed in the short time she had, the only one she needed to: *"Condemned but not lost, to be someday redeemed."*

Any more is beyond the power of any one wizard, even at the height of their power, in the blossom of their Ordeal. Lisa had understood that the moment she started skimming through the Book. It will take many more wizards many more long years to effect any change. But she has made it *possible*.

[popculturebuffet]

Simpsons Review: Simpsons Comics #102 “Uncle Burn$” or Homercore Nudity!

Whelp out of all the commissions Kev has thrown me this one’s kind of a curveball. I mean it makes sense why cover it: It’s a pastiche of Donald Duck Comics done in the pages of the Simpsons long running comics. I cover duck stuff on here, and not only do I love the Simpsons but I tend to reference it for jokes a LOT. I just genuinely never thought of reviewing it till now, likely because earlier on in my new career of reviewing animated shows, I wasn’t really convinced I could do pure comedies. With my regular reviews of Darkwing Duck and as it comes out coverage of the Loud House (I still need to get around to Band Together), that’s no longer a real issue and I should consider doing the show in the future, especially since I have an unabashed love for the first 10 seasons and a few episodes beyond that. 

As you can tell, I love the Simpsons. While I do genuinely wish it would end and have no real intrest in the current seasons, though if you’d like me to take a look i’d be willing to. The show in it’s prime was funny, witty and each episode was crammed with jokes. And refreshingly for an adult cartoon show of it’s time,  the show genuinely wasn’t afraid to mix things up: Milhouse’s parents divorced and stayed that way for so long that them apparently getting back together decades later is itself a huge status quo shake up.  Lisa went Vegetarian which stuck thanks to sir paul mcartney, and then went Buddhist, both of which have never wavered since and both fit her well. Skinner and Krabbable started dating. Barney went sober for a few seasons. Apu got married. These are minor changes but the show does have things happen occasionally and doesn’t just snap everything back and it adds genuine tension to plots knowing they might stay the status quo They usually don’t but the occasional change gives things stakes. I could go on for days, but I couldn’t go on for 8 weeks, point is the Simpsons are awesome, and deserve the praise they get early on I just wish they’d stop as by this point people really have stopped carring and it’s time to pass the torch and Let Bob’s burgers be the wholesome family comedy that runs forever.. and even then that one should stop at 10 seasons. Or if not at least let the kids age dammit.  But that aside, while many of you simpsons fans looking at this probably have at least seen the comics, or a collection of them over the decades, many of you like me are wondering what the hell Bongo Comics is and how they managed to last so long. Bongo was founded by Simpsons Creator Matt Groening in 1993. Matt Groening had noticed that at the time there just weren’t any funny books on the shelves, funny books being comedy based comics primarily targeted for kids, with Archie and Disney being really the only ones left at the time. So he founded Bongo to rectify that, and given Fox naturally liked the sound of more merchandising dollars, the publisher was primarily used to produce simpsons comics, though looking at wikipedia there were one or two that weren’t including, of all things, a Coldplay comic tying into their album. Why did Coldplay publish a comic book at a primarily simpsons comic book company?

Though most series seem to be either short lived or one shots, there were a few exceptions: Naturally the company put out an annual Treehouse of Horror issue, there was a Bart Simpson ongoing focusing on him and the other kids of Springfield, I had a trade for that one once, and once Futurama premiered it too got a comic book that held through both cancelations. But standing above them all was Simpsons Comics, a 245 issue long runner that ran all the way up to the company’s closing, likely due to a combination of a lack of profits and the then upcoming Disney-Fox merger depriving them of the very heart and soul of the company. 

Naturally being a Simpsons fan I have a connection to these comics having gotten the trades out of the library multiple times as well as the collection of Bartman’s solo series, which was my favorite and I might cover some day. In addition to the Free Comic Book Day issues i also picked up scattered issues over my life since, much like Archie, Simpsons comics were a mainstay of bookstores and super markets and the decline of both comic markets is likely why the Simpsons comics started to peter out in the first place. The quality and memorability of the stories varied but they were a fun thing to have around and it’s sad to see them go, as well as see Disney not even make a remote attempt to bring them back or at the very least republish the vast library they now have access to. Also finally if your wondering yes, there indeed was a Simpsons/Futurama crossover. And no I have not read it.  So with that history, most of which I just learned some of which I already knew, in mind, it is very fitting the comic’s did a tribute to the Uncle Scrooge comics. Though it does feel very weird that I have yet to cover any Donald Duck or Scrooge comics.. yet i’ve already covered one of the Ducktales tie in comics and a Simpsons homage to it. I’m going to have to correct that but until then, join me under the cut as I dive into adventure with the Simpsons. 

This issue was written by Ian Boothby and drawn by John Delaney, I feel mentiong the writers and artists should be important in comic reviews and I kick myself for not having done that or gone into them as much before. Boothby was apparently the Ian Flynn of these comics, writing more simpsons comics than any other writer according to wikipedia and winning an Eisner for his work on the comic if sadly not this issue. He was nominated for an outstanding Canadian Writer award for it though so that’s good. Point is the guy is a decorated vetran of this series and it shows in how good this issue is and I felt he deserved some recognition as most Comic Book Readers, myself included up till now, likely weren’t aware he even existed nor took over the comic in the 2000′s. 

We open with Burns getting attacked by a mummy! Gotta say wasn’t expecting this as where we started out but the simpsons have started with wonkier premises to end up somewhere. I mean there was the time a bag boy strike ended up with them in Africa. Also i’d say Burns should call the police, being the kind of privileged white guy they actually care about protecting and all, but frankly the Springfield Cops don’t have the best track records with Mummies:

But no it’s just Smithers, who dove in heroically to save the company 15 dollars after Homer took a bet to see how many fire crackers he could jam in his computer’s disk drive. Lenny said 20 but he proved him wrong. And yes those are all actual jokes from the comic, this issue is very funny and feels very much like a Golden Age Simpsons episode. They also all gather to sign Smither’s cast.. which naturally is a legally binding contract.  Burns takes his loyal minion to get some quality medical care only to find an arcade because he traded the Medical Bay in for one during an outbreak of Pac Man Fever... again I really can’t top that and there may be a good reason why I haven’t covered the Simpsons till now. But yeah as Buns gives Smithers a roll of Pennies, he wonders who to have replace Smither’s on their annual summer treasure hunt.. which would come out of nowhere but we genuinely don’t know what they do most summers. I assumed Burns just road Smithers like a horse to play cricket while Smithers enjoyed it way too much. But a stray comment from Homer getting a Krusty Doll from a crane machine about being king of the treasure hunters leads to this. 

I mean it’s an easy joke but damn if it didn’t get a laugh out of me. So later at the old Simpsons place, because this comic is fantastic, Marge and Homer talk things over, but Homer insists Burns said he’d split the treasure, and Lisa wishes she could come along. And Marge says he should, especially for his own saftey.. and when Bart complains, says all the kids should go, she already packed their bags, she’s heading to Rancho Relaxo byyyyeeeeeee. Once again, this comic is amazing, and I would say this is out of character for Marge, but frankly that’s the whole point. Plus it really isn’t when she has to deal with 4 children on a regular basis, and her sisters, and a town gone mad.. yeah can’t blame her here. 

The next day at Burns Office, Homer is wearing his navy outfit.. or rather Donald’s Navy outfit. But given I did a quick google and found him having at least 4 different outfits during his time in the Naval Reserves, it’s not a stretch to assume the Simpsons Version of the Navy gave these out too. Seriously Ian Boothby has put more thought into continuity than most writers on the show proper. Also Simpsons Tide, season 9 episode, still very memorable and hilarious and not due to childhood nostalgia. Just looking up this bit had me laughing hard. 

I now  want to watch that episode sometime soon so thanks Kev. Anyway Homer seems to have misplaced his plants. Now I could spare you the image since I don’t do things panel by panel anymore and only use panels from a comic when relevant. Buttttt

This traumatizing of my audience brings me to a point about this issue and why it works. While there are tons of nods to the Donald Duck comics and what their homaging is very clear, the issue doesn’t REQUIRE you know them to enjoy it.  Knowing them I obviously enjoy it more, but most of the jokes aren’t reliant on you knowing anything about the barks comics and even someone with a passing knowledge of  the Original Ducktales can still get the reference if not why Donald is here. It helps this is less of a parody, with the exception of some jokes, and more of an homage, using stylistic elements of those comics while telling i’ts own story as a loving tribute to it’s predecessors. Speaking of one of those jokes poking fun at the source material, Burns is delighted Homer brought child labor, which kept me laughing for a good minute, and when the kids introduce themselves we get this bit. 

Not only am I 100% sure every version of Donald or Della did this to make sure they could tell them apart, very much including the reboot with Donald, but it’s a genuine hilarious bit. Donald’s response as they head off is “there’s somehting hooey Dewey and screwy about this. “ Also I will criticize the fact Bart isn’t the one wearing a blue outfit. For those wondering why, after all Maggie wears blue shouldn’t she get it, who haven’t seen this a LOT of merchandise early on had Bart in a blue shirt, due to early Merch being rushed out pre-show and since he wore one in some earlier concept art, he got to wear blue. He also wore it late into the 90′s. 

Sidebar: I just found this and while it isn’t a bad joke given his character it is  questionable to have a fourth grade boy tell you to buy him. Just saying. But the reason I bring it up is partly because the show itself referenced it at one point. 

As well as it’s sister show Futurama

And you remeber that Bart Simpson solo I mentioned? That one frequently, both in and out of story, had Blue Shirt bart show up for some variety. 

Also why yes each issue does have it’s own fun “Superman’s Pal Jimmy Oleson” Esque subtitle. And I love it so. Point is Blue Bart is part of the series legacy and this very comic company, so it’s VERY weird to not have that here. That being said there were  a few Green Shirt barts apparently as a printing error, so he could just as easily be 80 steps ahead of me. I just don’t know. 

Back at the plot Burns and the Simpsons show up at Frink’s lab, Frink rather obviously filling in for Gyro, with his own version of little bulb named F.L.O. who gladly shakes Lisa’s hand.. and releases a Pterodactyl but hey you can’t win em all. It’s a nice nod, though one only fans of the source matieral will really get, but the pterodactyl bit right after helps distract from it. Frink slotts into the roll well, as Frink has no reall affiliation with anyone and is basically, much like Gyro, there for various characters to go too when the story or joke needs him. Frink has two gadgets for them: Some Scuba suits that can go to any depth and a grappling claw that accidently gets him gripped to the pterodactyl. Also homer accidently switches suits with maggie, so we get an adorable shot of her serenely sleeping in a diving helmet while her daddy chokes to death. 

So the next day it’s out to the open seas where The Simpsons are doing all the work while Burns lounges.. which yeah this is a typical uncle scrooge adventure all right. While the man unlike Burns does work hard and do things for himself, he spent most voyages talking about the destination while putting all the hard work on Donald, in case you thought there was at least one universe where Donald isn’t miserable most of the time. Lisa wonders what he’s doing and we get this lovely bit. 

I just.. can’t stop finding that hilarious or a nice way to get the Uncle Scrooge bit in there while still fitting the Simpsons, and it at least explains what happened to Herb, whose been mentioned all of once in the 30 seasons since he last showed up. I checked. And yes for those unaware, which is fair, or who just now remembered Homer does indeed have a brother, one his dad had out of an affair who showed up twice, once with Homer unintentionally, and largely due to Herb’s own foolishness, ruining his life, the other time with Maggie helping him get back on top and him and Homer reconciling. He’s also voiced by comedic legend and your friend and mine, Danny Devito, whose still making us all laugh to this day and is a wonderful person from all accounts. Rock on Danny, here’s the only way I can think to honor you. 

But yeah it’s a good gag. Burns claims to be watching for a Giant Squid.. and turns out to be right. So it’s up to the simpsons to fight the giant squid, a sentence I genuinely didn’t expect.. I thought like the Griffins they’d just ignore it. 

I miss that show.. oh i’m aware Family Guy is still running but much like the Simpsons the show it USED to be is long gone. Anyways Bart tells a worried homer octopus suck out the innards and drink it first quipping “It’s not like you haven’t been drunk in the morning before homer. Homer chokes bart only for the squid to choke him which is easily the second best “Homer getting choked after Choking bart” gag i’ve seen.. the best being this one I found on youtube. 

Though personally my faviorite part of that whole bit is Bart’s proud “THAT’S BECAUSE I SOAKED HIM IN SLIME!” Anyways Lisa figures out a way to beat the squid, painting the likeness of each of them on it’s tentacles and letting the thing devour itself. Lisa lampshades it making no sense PHysics wise but with that she reluctantly accepts calling Mr. Burns, Uncle Burns and we’re off to our next location.  Next up is Mt. Donrosa, a very clear nod to Uncle Scrooge maestro Keno “Don” Rosa, an avid fan of Barks work who expanded on it and turned it into a solid continuity, most famously, and what got me into the ducks in the first place, with the epic “Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck” which I proudly own and.. well I did say watch this space didn’t I?  Enough hinting at the future as the Simpsons scale the mountain with Homer carrying burns up on a rickshaw. Burns however looses his lucky #1 penny, SUBTLE, and cuts Bart down to get it. We then get the best line of the issue:

Bart thankfully survives and we find out the Penny, much like Scrooge’s Dime is how Burns started his fortune.. for this issue and nowhere else but that’s standard for the Simpsons. Specifically loading it into a gun and threatning to kill Jasper’s grandfather with it during the gold rush, a nice twist. At the top of the mountain they find the fabled key of Strobl, which comes from the Taliaferro tribe.. more refrenes this time though I didn’t know them and had to google. Tony Strobl was an artist on the Duck Comics at one ponit  and Al Taliforino id forgotten about. He did the Donald Duck comic strip which I had heard of and weirdly hasn’t been collected yet despite Fantagraphics covering mickey, as well as reprinting barks and rosa’s respective works. 

The key is suspended in the air by what Lisa suspects to be magnetics, and while Burns plan is naturally “Have Bart swim in it and see if he surivives”, Bart, still pissed from the penny and not wanting to die today, grabs the Penny and uses his slingshot to fire it at the Key. The bad luck from the penny casues an erruption, but Bart once again saves the day and has them surf down, with naturally tons more great jokes.  The family enjoys some steamed Seafood, except Lisa whose eating Seaweed, while Homer enjoys a sting ray “It tastes as good as it stings, Ow, Ow.” ON to Goddfrodson Trench, an odd choice given Floyd Goddfrodson was barks equivalent for the Mickey Mouse Comics and not really a duck writer, but he still deserves the honor regardless.  Under the Sea, no accusations just friendly crustaceans here.. our heroes are close to the treasure but loose the map to the Jailbird Boys, aka Snake and his cousins, who found out due to Lisa’s blog. She didn’t want to loose any more readers to Sheri and Teri’s Olson Twin’s Fan Page.. which.. it’s 2004.. weren’t they dead by this point? Nope still alive? Still are today in fact? Alrighty then. Also this bit, and some of the other references are a bit heavy handed, I will admit that, but the jokes are high quality enough otherwise that it just comes off as a bit of an adorable wink more than laziness. 

Snake and co cut their air with Starfish used as throwing stars. 

The gang tie their air suplies to avoid dying, and Maggie, in a clever bit, talks with the starfish, since they communicate via sucking, to attack the Jailbird Boys. Again.. 

I genuinely don’t know, but our heroes find the fabled vault of Barks Billion.. named after Bark Barks, that polar bear from the sonic games.. no of course it’s named after Disney Duck God Carl Barks, who created the Duck’s share of Donald and Scrooge’s supporting cast: Uncle Scrooge himself, Daisy Duck, a fact I just learned but given he created her first short “Mr Duck Steps Out, shouldn’t of surprised me, The Beagle Boys, Magica DeSpell, Goldie O Gilt, Flintheart Glomgold, Gyro Gearloose, Gladstone Gander, The Junior Woodchucks as a whole, Neighbor Jones, John D. Rockerduck, The Number One Dime, Gus Goose, April, May, June and Whitewater Duck. Just the sheer impact he’s had on the comics on all continents cannot be overstated. He is also the one who refined Huey Dewey and Louie from hellraising little shits to the good little boys they are today.. well okay they were, thankfully the reboot has created much better versions. Point is what a man, what a man what a mighty good man, he is truly missed.  We get two great homer gags in the same page, one where somehow he’s put the giant key on a key ring and still can’t find it.. with Bart helpfully taking it from him, and then we get this, which I missed on my first read through. 

Naturally Burns betrays them, using a Gold Magnet, kay, to suck up all the gold and naturally planning to leave the Simpsons for dead to no one’s surprise. But thanks to Bart teaching Maggie how to use the spittoons, Homer gets one stuck on his head.. and starts getting sucked up with the Simpsons using them to escape. Naturally Lisa’s first instinct is obvious. 

But Burns weasels his way out by promising them free gold after their free lunch. Naturally the next day this turns out ot be a trick as their lunch came from frinks and thus, for now, their weightless.. but Karma gets Burns when he tries swimming in his new gold vault... only for the natural result of what happens when am an who never exercises and who doctors once described as having so many diseases packed into his body at once they tripped each other off and that a strong wind could kill him, trying to do with a similarly aged but still physically fit and well trained at swimming in money man does on a daily basis. 

We then close on a quick gag of weightless homer getting caught on fire and we’re out. 

Final Thoughts:  This was a really excellent comic. It captured the tone of the Simpsons at their best and while stiff in a place here or there, it’s mostly just really funny, entertaining and a nice and warm tribute to Donald and Scrooge’s long comics history, not really mocking it but instead just homaging it, while still throughly feeling like the Simpsons. It honestly feels like the Treehouse of Horor Segement on the shining, a bit that parodies something, but for the most part the jokes still feel firmly rooted in the simpsons and their cast. This was a treat to review and i’m glad Kev comissoned it and I may take a look at more Simpsons in the future. If you guys like this review, you can follow me on patreon at patreon.com/popculturebuffet, or if  there’s a specific simpsons or ducktales episode or a specific comic you want me to review, you can comission your own review for just five bucks. Just send me a direct message on here through Tumblr, or take a look at my ask box or submit. However you want to do it. I take payments through paypal and until next time: Happy Days are Here Again. 

[weebeestie]

PRE- FINAL 2 EPISODES THOUGHTS & ENDGAME SPEC! :)

Okay, I know nerves are running high and especially so among the crowd considering stuff like PR around Misha/Cas and “script adjustments” but having spent the past 24 hours re-watching the post-hiatus eps I am feeling pretty secure and positive going into the endgame! This is just my personal speculation based on my reading of the episodes themselves, just for fun and for me to check back with later as we near the end! So, here is what I’m expecting/hoping for by the finale (under the cut since this is kinda long):

General Spec

All of them live in the end (not counting stuff like death/resurrection or if in the last episode we get like a many-years-later-in-heaven kinda thing)

Cas comes back, probably human or close to human

Dean and Sam separate in the end--not estranged, just resolving into healthy independence while still loving each other and being in each other’s lives; no longer trapped in eternal tragic codependency

Endgame Sam and Eileen (a big part of the former point)

Endgame Dean and Cas -- *see below for notes

Even if Jack’s still a cosmic entity he will 1) survive, and 2) be allowed to live life as a kid and not be constantly chained to cosmic duty

Monsters and magic and stuff will remain; the afterlife/cosmic order will just be rebalanced like Amara’s wanted all along. I care less about the mytharc stuff than the characters so I haven’t thought much about this beyond the point that I think the guys will still hunt, just without the constant Apocalypse threats (Dean likes hunting, Sam likes magic, both of them love helping people, there are good ‘monsters’ like Garth or even Jack--they just need more than that and they need to have peace and happiness of their own, without constant impending cosmic doom)

The ending will be happy and I will c r y !!

The show will at long last spring for Zepp for the final scene bonus points if it’s on the mixtape!

The Biggie: Cas Was Right All Along and What That Means for Dean

The biggest thing that strikes me on this re-watch is Dean’s ongoing anger issues and struggle with truth. The root of Dean’s anger is that he feels trapped and oppressed by his life--highlighted by his conversations with Sam, Cas, Jack, and even Amara. As Dean repeatedly states, he believes that this oppression has been created by Chuck controlling them, pulling the strings. He fails to accept that they do have free will, and that the basis of free will is love. Chuck may be omniscient and control time and space, but he doesn’t control the feelings they have for each other (same as he didn’t orchestrate Amara’s thing with Dean). He is able to manipulate them to the extent that he can introduce obstacles through his powers and (as writer/creator) his deep understanding of their flaws. He is adept at playing on the weaknesses created by the trauma in their lives to push them toward outcomes he desires. However, Team Free Will’s proven ability to repeatedly thwart his narrative is based on the love that they have for each other, which is the true driver of their actions. It’s no accident that right before Cas tells Dean that he’s the embodiment of love, Billie tells him that he’s the embodiment of chaos. Love is what breaks the divine order of the system. LIKE CAS SAYS IN 15x02, Chuck may have built the maze, but they are the ones running it. They are real. So why does Dean feel so oppressed? Because he cannot, like Amara says in Gimme Shelter, accept his life. He can’t accept his truth. His self-hatred is the opposite of the love with which he breaks the bonds of the system to save others; and until he sheds this he can never be free, Chuck or no Chuck. Chuck isn’t the one oppressing Dean; Dean is. Because he has not given himself permission to fully shed the rest of John Winchester’s ghost, fully shed the scars of his time as a torturer in Hell (brought up by Belphagor just this season), fully shed the idea that he can never have the kinds of relationships with his loved ones that he truly desires, Dean is still trapped. He should take what Sam and Cas have each told him about himself in the previous two episodes to heart if he is to release himself.

*Dean and Cas

I am fully endgame positive, but not 100% sure where we’ll land in terms of like the...definition?...of their relationship? At the bare minimum I expect it to be made explicit, as in not just left implied or in the subtext, that what Dean feels for Cas is not just love as a brother or love as a best friend, but something more than that, even if the show ends at a place where Dean is like, still coming to terms with everything and they’re gonna take it slow. I do expect them to be together in the end though and do not think they’ll go with love-declaration-to-permanent-separation or anything like that as the final chapter of their relationship. I expect we’ll have a better idea what their endgame will look like post-15x19.

PR and Covid Stuff

The PR about Cas being permadead is just that...PR. If anything, it strengthens my feeling that when we get Cas back, it’ll be as a human (which has always been my ideal ending for him--which I think is the ideal ending for him!), so that has me kinda pumped!

Re: covid--the kind of script adjustments that they would have made to accommodate shooting restrictions would imo have no impact on what they intended for Cas. This kind of thing would be more relevant to stuff like bringing back a bunch of old guest stars for a final appearance--think things like a memory or vision of all the people they saved (or their souls), or if they wanted to resurrect a bunch of familiar angels and demons from the empty to fight Chuck or whatever. Like a big montage group scene kinda thing. There are limits on the number of people you can cram into a set at once under the new restrictions. It would absolutely not effect anything essential like the conclusion of the storyline of a beloved main character (and also they are not giving Cas a tragic ending that is also bury your gays, c’mon friends! they just aren’t). If you are someone who is worried bc you pay attention to PR/what actors say/etc, I would suggest you consider reports that Misha told people he had five days of shooting left post- wrapping 15x18. That is a substantial amount of shooting that suggests real story content, not some single random shot of Cas smiling beatifically at Dean when he reaches heaven or something that could non-meaningfully be cut without changing the main story. As far as I know, kissing is still allowed given proper safety and testing procedures are followed. I would love to see a deancas kiss (tho imo it’s only ‘necessary’ insofar as shutting up the idiots who are still claiming the confession was platonic) and I think a saileen reunion without one would feel weird--but these are not endgame requirements for me for either ship and I mention it only because I’ve seen people speculating about whether it’s allowed or whatever.

[extreme-technicality]

Im only messing with you 😘 while im here though could i have some fic recs puh-leaaase - 🍍

Ooh honey, you have no IDEA the can of worms you just opened :D (since this list is so long I’m gonna split it up into SFW Complete, NSFW Complete, SFW Ongoing, and NSFW Ongoing)

SFW Complete:

The Invisible Girl [sonamae]: OK SO it’s Hagakure-centric, with background Hagakure x Shouji and KiriBaku. My favorite part about this is that the romance is important, but not the focus. The focus of this oneshot is on the family she creates with Bakugou, Satou, Todoroki, Kirishima, and Tokoyami. Go read it, it’s great. BIG BROTHER BAKUGOU FTW!!!!!

Ground Zero [sonamae]: Speaking of Big Brother Bakugou, this is the next oneshot in the same series as the above one, but from Bakugou’s pov. Again, the romance is important but not a focus, and that’s so fucking refreshing and I love it so mUCH idk what else to tell you. Just go read these two. The rest of the series isn’t complete, but these two specific fics ARE, hence why they’re in the Complete section.

Lighting The Beacon [M3zzaTh3M3z]: This is one of the first bnha fics I’ve ever read, and I’m so glad this was my introduction to the fandom!! It’s a pretty fluffy oneshot, starting off with Kiri asking Baku out and Baku rejecting him because “who ever heard of a gay hero?” Aizawa hears about that (the basics, no details like names or anything), and things…start to change. Mic says he’s married to a man (its Aizawa), All Might comes out as pan, ace Midnight…and at the end, Bakugou asks Kirishima out very publicly. It’s so near and dear to my heart, and it honestly deserves more attention than it gets.

You’re only relevant until you’re older (they’re gonna talk about you over and over) [futurehearts]: Pro-Heroes Red Riot and Ground Zero are happily married and Baku has a reputation to slowly destroy :D (he’s soft, mainly for his husband, and he knows it…and now so does the rest of the world lmaooo).

Love Notes [PurplePersnickety]: Kirishima gets really, REALLY sappy love notes on his desk for a week or two and works to figure out who it is (spoiler alert, it’s Bakugou being a Soft Bitch). When Kiri asks him about it, he confesses everything and they date in secret for six months before telling the whole class (oneshot).

Sonder [Maplefudge]: I bet this bitch thought she wouldn’t get a shout-out well guess what you write good and there’s nothing you can do about it This is the first work of maple’s I ever read, and it’s perf <3 I’m love. It’s a look at the “totally platonic” (how much sarcasm can I add to two words?) Kiribaku from members of the class, over the course of 13 chapters. It’s full of fluff, useless mutual pining, obliviousness, and “platonic bro kisses”. Read it if you need to scream at some useless gays.

Anger Management [Julietwasanidiot]: The entire fandom is gearing up for S4 by writing hurt/comfort KiriBaku post-raid fics, and I am HERE for it. Because of when it’s set though, there’s going to be spoilers so if you’re anime-only you migt want to steer clear of this one. It’s got an ICONIC rice-and-anger line, though.

Stupid Mistakes [lemxnfox]: Kirishima and Bakugou got in a fight! They fight a lot, but this fight they’ve been fighting for six months and the class is #OverIt. They concoct a plan to lock the two of them in a room and force them to make up– and they DO. Side ShinKami and TodoDeku.

No More Fragments [Ischemia]: Canon-compliant…to a degree. Shinsou takes his place as the Superior Purple in Class A, gets himself a boyfriend (Kaminari) and a squad (the Bakusquad)…and loses it. Or does he???? Canon-typical violence, side Kiribaku, mystery plot.

Caught In My Own Web [anxioussaliorsoldier]: SHINSOU IS IN 1-A!!!!! And he fucks up when trying to use his capture weapon lmao. Kaminari finds him and they recreate the iconic Spider-Man kiss…and then Shinsou passes out from the blood rushing to his head. It’s cute guys.

Be Selfish For Me [A_Reflective_Projection]: WARNING– the entire thing is Aizawa asking 1-A to be careful as pro heroes, by taking them to a hero graveyard. It’s painful. It’s sad (especially when Aizawa brings up a classmate of his who died in their first year as a pro). It ends bittersweet, and there’s some good Dadzawa content in there. The most present ship is Erasermic, and that only really makes an appearance in the last chapter.

Closer [MikeWritesThings]: Fluffy Erasermic, canon universe, where Aizawa starts calling in to Mic’s radio show cuz he misses him. It’s sweet af ❤️❤️

Meaningless Holiday [dysonQueer]: It’s a sweet Valentine’s Day fic, canon-compliant, with established Erasermic for the soul. I highly recommend it if you’re having a rough day and you need some feel-good fluff

Come Back Toe Me [Milligramme]: Aged-up, Pro Hero fic where Kiri has a shit day heroing, but he isn’t physically hurt. Not until he breaks his toe on the coffee table, that is. He can’t stop laughing, and Bakugou can’t stop worrying about his dumbass boyfriend.

Kiss Me Through The Screen [Ischemia]: Aged-up fic with ShinKami as the main focus and some side KiriBaku, but…uh, most of the Bakusquad aren’t full-time Heroes. Kami dropped out of UA completely, and Shinsou never went in the first place. So, Kaminari is working at Jirou’s cafe and works as a SFW camboy at night, while Shinsou is a teacher and watches the stream nightly. Later there’s a plot around a stalker, again please keep yourself safe Pineapple Anon!!

If I Don’t Act… [SilentNorth]: This is gritty and painful, but don’t worry! There’s a happy ending :D (I rarely read/write/recc pure angst, you’re safe here my child). Kiri is a college dropout working two jobs, living with Mina as his roommate, and with a hero complex the size of Texas. Enter art student Bakugou, who can save himself thank you very much. Some mention of depression/attempted suicide, as well as slightly less than canon-typical violence, please keep yourself safe and skip it if that’s going to trigger you, Pineapple Anon.

Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all [theroyalsavage]: A Kiribaku “10 Things I Hate About You” AU where Todoroki asks Kirishima to fake-date Bakugou so he can date Midoriya. Everything is going smoothly until Kirishima accidentally falls in love *gasp*!!

The Skeletons Inside Of Us [firelord_zutara]: Erasermic, quirkless AU where Mic was the lead singer of Aizawa’s favorite local band in college. Aizawa has a crush on him, they lost touch after college, and they didn’t meet again…until their nephews (Aizawa adopted Midoriya, Shinsou is Mic’s sister’s kid) meet and by extension, the uncles. Background ShinKami and KiriBaku, written for EraserMic week (7 chapters).

Life’s a Drag(on) [PurplePersnickety]: FANTASY AU!!! You know, the Fantasy AU from the third ending. But altered, juuuuuust slightly. Bakugou lives in(? ish) a village and helps a dragon when it’s hurt. A day or so later, a (hot) new guy comes to town named Kirishima, and the dragon keeps coming around. Shenaniganery follows. :DDD

Space Dust [PurplePersnickety]: Do you like Star Wars, Star Trek, Firefly, and/or Men In Black? Then you’re gonna fuckin LOVE this :DDD It’s got half-alien Kirishima, cyborg Bakugou, mention of a larger universe outside of the planet (outside of the oneshot too, lbr). It is a oneshot though, even if it is a long one, with canon/typical violence and mention of kidnapping and child experimentation. Please put your mental health and well-being above everything else and skip it if it’s gonna trigger you!!!

Achromatopsia [PurplePersnickety]: DID SOMEBODY SAY SOULMATE AU???? No? Well hAVE ONE ANYWAY!!! Kiribaku soulmate AU (oneshot), where you only see in one color until you touch your soulmate for the first time. Fun fact, achromatopsia is the complete inability to see any color!! I’m sure that’s not gonna have any bearing on the story whatsoever…

NSFW Complete:

A Cast for your Heart [KTG]: Heads up, this is LONG. 90 chapters, 268k, it’s magic and sex and drAGONS and angst and almost-dying!! The fantasy system is completely original, set in modern times, and the OCs??? Don’t get me STARTED. Kiribaku, Tododeku, and Seromina are the bnha ships present as well as a lot of OCxOC ships. There’s also a sequel set to come out this month (July 2019)!!

Long Time Coming [Madam_Muffins]: I’ve probably recc’ed this before, but I just. I just love this one so much, ok? It’s massive Kiribaku slow burn, outlining what might happen if Bakugou is just a little bit more emotionally constipated. Baku fucks up, gets help, he and Kiri get together (and fuck a little), and there’s elements of the Reincarnation and Fantasy AUs in there towards the end!! Go read it, madammuffins is my amazing tumblr mom and I love her to bits.

SFW Ongoing:

Engraved In Your Mind [Hejter]: FACEBLIND BAKUGOU KATSUKI!!! It’s canon-compliant, except for that little detail, but she writes it so WELL that now I can’t look at canon!Bakugou without thinking that he’s faceblind. Kiri finds out and starts working to build trust with Bakugou and help him on his path to becoming the top hero, and it’s GREAT. Slowburn Kiribaku. Like,,,SLOW.

Define: Oblivious [PurplePersnickety]: I bet you thought I was done with the Purple reccs. I’m never going to be done reccing Purple. Deal with it. I mentioned, in the summary for Love Notes, that there was a six month time skip? This is what happens in those six months. SeroKami and MomoJirou are side ships in this one.

The Right Thing [TuesdayTerrible]: Established Kiribaku where they’re graduated from UA, and living together, and being pro heroes…and then one day Baku finds a little girl who tried to kill herself cuz she was quirkless. Needless to say, this strikes a chord in Bakugou (cuz…yknow, he kinda told Midoriya to kill himself in like episode one and then it was never addressed again). He can’t stop thinking about her, and while we haven’t gotten there YET it looks like it’s gonna end with him and Kirishima adopting her and Bakugou apologizing for the bullshit he put Mido through. There is mention of a suicide attempt (clearly), skip it if that’s gonna trigger you!!!

Hands Off! [PullingAllMighters]: Much like Kiss Me Through The Screen, Hands Off! is a non-canon compliant aged-up AU where not everyone is a full-time hero. Kiri is, Kami and Sero are his sidekicks, Ochako is in a different agency, and everyone else is doing Other Shit. Bakugou hasn’t revealed his full backstory yet, but it looks like he was a Pro Hero until a year or so ago when something bad happened and now he’s got PTSD. His old apartment building burned down so he’s living in Ochako, Momo, Jirou, and Mina’s guesthouse until he finds a job and another place to live. This has a fresh take on the hero system, and I really really enjoy it so far!! There is, however, a fairly detailed scene of Bakugou being triggered so if reading that would trigger you, please don’t!! Keep yourself safe, Pineapple Anon!!! Endgame Kiribaku

Blood of my Hand [PurplePersnickety]: Is it obvious yet that I LOVE purple’s writing??? This, I believe, was the gateway work, and I’ve dived headfirst in and not looked back. Fantasy AU, slowburn Kiribaku, and it’s. I can’t even sum it up. There’s too much. It’s too good. Game of Thrones WISHES it could be what BomH is. There’s mention of slavery and past child abuse, please skip that if it’s going to trigger you!!

A Boy and his Dragon [VanHan]: Oh look, another fantasy AU. Have you figured out that I have a type yet? Kiribaku but the Kiribaku hasn’t really happened yet, cuz Bakugou is a literal child who got kidnapped and is probably gonna get sold. He doesn’t even know Kirishima is Kirishima, he just knows him as the cool dragon in the cage. This one just barely makes the SFW list, because there’s no explicit mention of fucking, but there’s a really really gross pedophile that shows up fairly early on and hasn’t died yet. There’s also graphic depictions of violence in the first chapter, and once you combine those two things I would absolutely understand if you decided to give this one a pass, too.

Everglow [Maplefudge]: ANOTHER fantasy AU?!?! In MY fic recc list?? It’s more likely than you think. This one just started, and it’s got that enemies-to-lovers shit going on. Dragons plus my favorite tropes = FUCK YEAH!!!

Crimson [Crocodillia]: I bet you thought I was done with the fantasy AU reccs, didn’t you? Well, HAVE ANOTHER!!! This one has strong HTTYD vibes, and I’ve literally never seen anyone try that before with these characters!! So far there’s only two chapters, but I am HOOKED and if you like HTTYD…you’re gonna like this, too.

Becoming Human [FoolishFortuna]: Demon!Bakugou becomes Human!Bakugou when he refuses to take a kid’s soul. I think we’re three chapters in and he just got to earth and met Kirishima, as well as a few holy people (Midoriya, Ochako, Iida, and I believe Tetsu). Now he gotta find his daughter and keep her safe. Kiribaku with some fairly graphic descriptions of torture and cannibalism in the second chapter, don’t read it if that’s gonna trigger you!! Also he pretty brutally rips apart the girl’s abusive parents.

Surviving for Second Chances [SilentNorth]: TWEWY Kiribaku AU!!! There’s some differences between the original game and the fic, for pretty obvious reasons (medium, objective, and character differences being a few), but this got me to FINALLY watch a playthrough of the game cuz I’m too broke to go and buy it myself!! Kirishima as Neku and Bakugou as Joshua, plus Mina as Shiki and TodoDeku as Rhyme and Beat. Canon-typical violence, and we just finished up Week 1!!

Love And Other Allergens [thefrailtyofgenius]: A Quirkless AU where Todoroki is a lawyer with a flower shop underneath his apartment. Todo finds out he’s allergic to one of the plants, buys a different bouquet every week instead of, yknow, asking for help like a normal human being (I say, knowing damn well I’d just buy allergy medication and not even try to figure out what I’m allergic TO), and accidentally falls in love with the cute (and absolutely fucking ripped) flower boy (Midoriya lmao). It’s LONG. The TodoDeku is extremely slowburn, and there’s a fuckload of side ships. An incomplete list: Erasermic, Kiribaku, ShinIida (Shinsou and Iida), and MomoJirou. Bonus Endeavor’s Bad Parenting, Midoriya Hisashi’s Bad Parenting, and both of those assholes getting locked up forever :D (I’m so serious about the length tho, it’s like 40 chapters or something).

NSFW Ongoing:

Mixing Signals [Shippeh]: Kiribaku aged-up, but they’ve tried to date multiple times and every time Bakugou fucked it up. Every time they broke up, they pretended like they’d never tried in the first place (which…oW), but this time. THIS time, Bakugou swears he’s gonna make them work.

Heartbeat Thunder [Shippeh]: This is one of the few ABO fics I’ll recc, because it’s not just “ooh heat sex fun times”. This has THOUGHT put into it. They’re confused kids goddamnit, let them be confused!!! Basically Kiri doesn’t ever want to rut so he’s suppressing everything about being an alpha, while Bakugou thinks that trying to hide from your secondary gender is stupid. They do fuck tho, which is why the fic is in NSFW Ongoing.

Take a Chance On Me [FanficIsMyThing]: The other ABO fic I’ll happily recc. Kiri is an alpha which lets him be a hero, while Baku is an omega so he’s gotta be a vigilante until the laws get changed. They run into each other on patrol a few times, Baku helps Kiri and crew out a few times, and every time Kirishima *mysteriously* fails to catch the vigilante Chemical X. They haven’t actually fucked yet, but there’s been enough sexy times to put this squarely in NSFW territory. And it’s not just sex!! I don’t wanna spoil, but it’s good I swear.

Opposed to the Typical [Heronfem]: A model/fashion designer AU featuring HoH!Bakugou, model!Bakugou and designer!Kirishima, as well as a metric shitload of others. Basically Kiri is an intern with Fatgum who gets called to help another studio with their fitting, gets assigned to Bakugou, figures out he’s HoH and handles it like a champ. Because he does it so well, whenever Bakugou needs to get his measurements taken again, they immediately call for Kirishima. And ofc they gonna fall in love :3c But its more complicated than that, and I don’t wanna give too much away, but make sure that you pay attention to any trigger warnings at the start of the chapters!!!

[talvin-muircastle]

When Unions are Anti-Rights:

Relevant to the ongoing protests and the root causes:

If you are Pro-Union and also supporting the current protests, I would like to engage with you on a couple questions.  

I have been wary of unions all my life.  When I was in elementary school, my mother was a non-union nurse at a union hospital.  When the nurses union voted to strike, she crossed the picket line.  She stated that her oath required her to go in. (As an aside, yes: I have a very complicated relationship with my mother, mostly very hostile.  That’s aside from this.)

The nurses on strike blocked an ambulance from entering the hospital.

They prevented a woman from visiting her dying husband, and he passed without her at his side.

The police would do nothing: they were Union, and so they looked the other way.  

When that wasn’t enough, they called me, a child, and told me if my mother came in to work they were going to kill my dog.

This is not worker’s rights.  This is terrorism.  Plain and simple: actions like this are terroristic.  You want something and you don’t care who you hurt to get it.   And that’s what I knew about unions for many years.

My feelings on unions have softened somewhat over the years, but I still have concerns.  My wife is now a union member, but her union does not use such tactics.  

I know some of you are out there protesting. I know that some of you are very passionate about worker’s rights, and I do support the idea that workers *have* rights, and have a right to strike, to collectively bargain, to organize for better conditions.

And that’s where things get complicated.

The Police, on the face of it, feel the same way.  They bargained for the best contract they could get to protect their members, and they are using their power to get as much for their people as they can.

And so we have cops that are above the law.  That can threaten, maim, and kill with impunity, because: Union.  

I’ve been here before.  

How do those of you who are both Pro-Union and protesting the current civil rights violations resolve this conflict?  

Are you willing to accept some limitations on union power to bring groups like the FOP and that nurse’s union and others like them into line, to allow them to exercise their rights while forcing them to respect the rights of others?

I hear a lot of talk about how Unions make things better.  A Union made this situation.   It is definitely not better.

I do not want a world without Worker’s Rights, but I do not want an organization able to dictate the rights of others outside its own membership, either.    Especially the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

How do you respond to this?

[madstars-festival]

HIRA MOHIBULLAH: “WITH ADVERTISING, I HELP THOSE WHO DON’T HAVE A VOICE”

Hira Mohibullah is an expert is telling stories that have a positive impact. We’re delighted to welcome her to our Final Jury this year representing BBDO Pakistan, where she is Executive Creative Director.

As the most awarded female creative in Pakistan, Hira Mohibullah believes that storytellers have a responsibility to tell the right kind of stories – especially in an industry as influential as advertising.

Her most notable campaigns include #BridalUniform, which raised awareness of the prevalence of underage brides; #BeatMe for UN Women, which challenged men to “beat” women (at something they excel at; and Chai Ka Nishaan (The Hot Tea Stain), a campaign that raised awareness on child burns caused through negligence around hot tea."

Since joining BBDO Pakistan four years ago, she has won more than 170 international awards for her work. A mother of two, Mohibullah is also an advocate for gender balance in the workplace and helped set up a day-care room at BBDO to encourage more working mothers to join the workforce. 

You live and work in Pakistan. Did you grow up there, too?

I’m a third culture kid, and so I don’t really know what place I call home. I grew up in the Middle East and moved to Pakistan when I was 14. I have very fond memories of my childhood and, quite contrary to popular belief, it was fun being a kid in Saudi Arabia! I had friends from all over the world, and from a very young age I was exposed to different cultures and languages, which I feel has shaped who I am today as a creative.  

What led you to a career in advertising: did you always dream of impacting positive social change through your work?

Growing up, I’ve hopped (all too rapidly) from one dream career to another. One thing that I’ve always known about myself is that I get bored with one thing real quick, and so the versatility that advertising brings to my life every single day is what makes it such a perfect match. Right after I completed my A Levels (after having taken every subject under the sun), I chanced upon the communication design course. There it was, my love for creative writing and design brought miraculously together. Advertising was the most obvious choice after that, and I’ve never looked back since.

In my twenties, while my friends were writing their personal statements for college applications full to the brim with life-changing struggles, I was wishing I had more of a story to tell. I grew up in a house with parents who did not believe in gender discrimination. They had two daughters and they gave us the best education to the best of their abilities. There was absolutely no pressure on us to fit a certain mould. With a great support system, I grew up living a sheltered life of privilege. But today, I realise that’s what my story is: with advertising I use my position of privilege to help those who don’t have a voice. It's all come full circle.

#BridalUniform was an incredibly powerful campaign, which won countless awards – including several at AD STARS. What challenges did you face in bringing it to life?

As with most pro-bono campaigns we do at BBDO, we had absolutely no money to spend on this one. So getting the word out to the entire nation, that it was not okay to marry off underage girls, seemed impossible. That challenge gave birth to a genius solution: we hijacked the biggest bridal fashion show of Pakistan, one that was already being covered by all major media channels in the country. We partnered Ali Xeeshan, Pakistan's foremost bridal wear designer and launched the Bridal Uniform: a merger between a little girl's school uniform and embellishments from a typical bridal outfit. Amidst the pomp and show, out walked the showstopper: a little girl wearing the #BridalUniform, symbolising the trade-off that happens when a child is deprived of her right to an education and instead is dressed as someone's wife. Without spending a dime, we were able to rack up one billion organic impressions.

Creativity can help to bring people together in times of crisis: are there any inspiring initiatives taking place in Pakistan right now? What is BBDO doing to keep its staff motivated during the coronavirus crisis?

It’s overwhelming to see everybody fighting on the same front, for the same cause. It’s brought the industry together in a way nothing ever has. Every brand I work on is doing their part to help the nation cope with this unprecedented struggle. We’re all working from home currently (being amongst the first few to implement the policy) and besides a few teething issues in the start, we’re meeting all our timelines even when the work has doubled in amount. My team and I usually get the brainstorming out of the way earlier in the day and then go our separate ways to finish off the pending tasks. Keeping meticulous checklists of individual workflows has helped me stay afloat by giving me a good visibility on the tasks lined up for the entire week.

What does your typical day look like?

I have two kids who I bring to work with me (a 6 year-old and a 7 month old) and in pre-COVID times, I used to joke about “traveling” to work because I would lug around all their stuff in a mini carry-on... everyday! These days in lockdown, I start early, get my 6 year-old’s homework done and ship him off to another room for his online classes while I find myself a quiet corner to tackle my checklist for the day.  

Do you have a process – is there a way you work through a problem? How much of your creative process happens subconsciously?

I’ve hardly ever had an idea strike me in a dream or in the shower, unlike many other creatives I know. For me, cracking a brief requires a formal session (always with a notebook in hand) where I start from a pain-point, deep-dive into real-world insights, colloquially unlock the idea for relevance, and finally tell the story in the voice of the brand. Also, being bi-lingual helps me tackle the creative process from two different vernacular angles.

Who are your creative heroes and why?

Fernando Machado. He’s brave, unapologetically relentless, he has an eye for what will absolutely shake the world and he’s not afraid to do it!  

You recently spoke at TEDxLahore. What did you talk was about?

My joint talk at TEDx was about the importance of telling the right kind of stories. The stories we hear growing up shape us into the people we are today: they define our limits, our fears and our dreams. As advertisers, we call ourselves storytellers, and so imagine the kind of power we hold to change the lives of those around us. Moiz Khan and I talked about the stories we’ve told in our time at BBDO Pakistan, and how they have positively impacted our society.

As the most awarded female creative in Pakistan, do you have advice for others hoping to ‘make it’ in advertising?

No one makes it in advertising on their own! Find your tribe. Go out there and look for like-minded people and a place that matches your vision.

Are you working on anything interesting right now?

Pakistanis love their tea. They have tea for breakfast, tea in the afternoon and then in the evening. There’s tea with snacks and tea over gossip sessions. In a shocking revelation, we learnt that 80% of child burns happen due to hot tea spills. Now in a country where tea consumption is at an all-time high, there is considerable talk around removing tea stains from clothes but none around the perils of being negligent while preparing or drinking that tea. After a successful first leg of the campaign where we were able to bring down the number of accidents by 50%, we’re now working on Round 2 this year!  

You attended AD STARS in 2018. Do you have any favourite memories of Busan?

My fondest memory of Busan is going to The Library of Mystery Literature, a quaint little place which is a library, a cafe and a museum all rolled into one.  Due to an ongoing book-club, they were closed at the time I wanted to visit. I called up the owner, and with my receptionist translating everything for me, told her it was the only day I could come visit and she generously opened up the cafe especially for me. There I met the famous crime novelist Kim Seong-jong, read a crime novel with a cup of buckwheat tea offset against a book-reading in a foreign language… it was really something else.

Hira Mohibullah will judge the Brand Experience & Activation, Creative eCommerce, Direct, Media and PR categories at the AD STARS 2020 Awards. To enter, submit your work before 15th May via adstars.org.

[mst3kproject]

Tarantula

 I don’t know that this movie requires any introduction.  I’m sure we’re all aware that Leo G. Carroll was over a barrel when Tarantula took to the hills!  This time the film actually does have a tarantula in it, as well as Mara Corday from The Black Scorpion and the (hopefully) inimitable John Agar.  I’m pretty sure the only reason it was never MST3Ked was because somebody felt one black and white giant spider movie was plenty.  Somebody was wrong.

Matt Hastings is the town doctor in some middle-of-nowhere or other, who gets asked to look into a very unusual death – the corpse appears to be that of a hunchbacked ape-man in striped pajamas!  The dead man is identified as a Dr. Jacobs, but he didn’t look like that a week ago.  Jacobs worked for local Reclusive Scientist Professor Deemer, so Matt obviously asks him what happened, but Deemer won’t say. Over the next few weeks, Matt’s ongoing romance with Deemer’s new assistant Steve gives him an excuse to head out to the lab over and over, and he starts to learn the truth.  Deemer has developed a super-nutrient that produces uncontrolled cell growth.  Humans who take it turn into lumpy mutants, but other animals simply grow to tremendous size.  Even worse, one of those experimental subjects has escaped from the lab… and it wasn’t one of the bunnies, that’s a different movie entirely.

The humans who are injected with the super-nutrient are described as developing ‘acromegalia’, a dysfunction of the pituitary gland that causes the head, hands, and feet to grow and deform.  This is true – it was the condition that afflicted both Rondo Hatton (of The Brute Man) and Richard Kiel of (The Human Duplicators), and while its victims look nothing like the ape-faced sufferers in Tarantula, the side effects can definitely be fatal.  Somebody did do their research there, which makes it really quite annoying that they never bothered to spell-check – it’s actually acromegaly, not acromegalia.  Once again a movie gets the details right but blows it on the fucking obvious.  Similar gaffes happen elsewhere, too, as when Deemer carefully fills a syringe inside an isolation chamber as if handling something incredibly dangerous, then just squirts the bubbles out in the open air.

After watching The Choppers, it’s a relief to see that Tarantula actually had a budget and in many respects the movie looks pretty good.  The makeup may look nothing like actual acromegaly but it’s pretty impressive, especially the subtle changes we see in Professor Deemer as he responds more slowly than his colleagues.  The giant spider is achieved through Bert I. Gordon type matte shots and some miniature work, but all of this is of a very high quality.  There’s a shot of it scurrying across the road just after Matt and Steve’s car has gone by that’s practically seamless.  The desert scenery is gorgeous and the cinematography makes good use of light and shadow to show it off.  The only real failures are the nighttime attack scenes, which as usual are mostly too dark to tell what’s going on.  Since these are the only action pieces in the movie, that’s very disappointing.

Like The Black Scorpion, Tarantula is intended as a ripoff of Them! and the inspiration is much more obvious here even when the plot is not followed nearly so slavishly – we’ve got a story that starts in an investigation, here medical instead of police, and only gradually gets around to the giant insects.  Like the ants that could be anywhere, the spider lurks in the background of the movie, able to strike at any moment, but it just doesn’t work the way it did in Them!, because in Tarantula the characters are primarily concerned with things other than the title menace.  The opening shot of the movie is the deformed Dr. Jacobs staggering through the desert, and the rest of the film is much more about his death and those of his colleagues than it is about the spider.

We don’t see the process by which Deemer’s assistants were slowly altered and killed, but we do get to watch it happen to Deemer himself. We know, furthermore, that he saw the same thing happen to others, and that he is unable to stop the process.  That’s a far more potent source of horror than an absurd giant spider, and Matt’s investigation for most of the movie is interested in what triggered this baffling illness.  The giant tarantula is only a side effect of this work, and for most of the movie the characters aren’t even aware of it as it wanders the desert eating cows.  It’s only slightly more relevant than the Giant Gila Monster was to its movie, and once Deemer is dead and the movie’s focus changes, it feels like the writing simply gives up.  So far, this movie has been telling a story about science gone wrong, and the writers, makeup people, and actors were each giving it their all.  Now it’s just shooting at a spider, and effort is no longer required.

The tarantula-centric portions of the movie are also when we get the only really risible effects moments, which include the spider looking in a window to watch a woman undress, disappearing behind hills that aren’t there, and roaring as it destroys a police car in a POV shot.

Deemer dies when the spider knocks his house down on top of him, which I guess is a suitable mad scientist death in that he is destroyed by his own creation.  The odd part is that it’s completely unnecessary, because Deemer was on the point of death anyway!  Like his colleagues he has contracted acromegaly from the nutrient, and it’s clear from his appearance and behaviour that the condition is on the point of overwhelming him.  The feeling one gets is that the writers felt the movie had to end in a victory and there could be no victory over the acromegaly.  The spider is there to be defeated.

Obviously this is a distraction rather than a conclusion, and it’s a shame because if Tarantula had been about the nutrient and the acromegaly rather than about a giant arachnid, it could have been about the consequences of getting ahead of yourself in science.  The events at the beginning of Tarantula are literally a drug trial carried out too early and gone horribly wrong, but perhaps that didn’t have the same resonance it would have after things like Thalidomide.  Worse, the defeat of the spider is a big anticlimax.  There’s not enough time for a real rampage to happen, and then the monster dies when the air force drops napalm on it.  Not that this wouldn’t kill a spider no matter how big, but it’s over way too quickly and mostly just makes us think the tarantula wasn’t that formidable after all.

John Agar’s character is too bland to be really detestable but he is a slimy sexist douchebag as per usual.  There’s a bit where a woman opens her mouth to simply introduce herself and he still feels the need to interrupt and speak over her.  At another point he remarks, “you give women the vote and look what happens – girl scientists!” as if their very existence is a joke.  He’s a dick to the men, too.  When it seems that Deemer’s proven him wrong about something, Matt obsesses over it for days and actually does research specifically to try to show that he’s in the right.  And Tom and Crow would have loved that this is another movie in which John Agar seems to have the authority to evacuate a town and call in the national guard without saying why.

To the movie’s credit, not everybody in it is a sexist jerk.  Tarantula is very short on women, as old movies tend to be, but one of those women is a scientist and it’s not treated as ‘cute’ by anyone but Matt.  Deemer actually seems quite supportive of the idea of women in science.  He constantly urges his female colleague to be careful but this comes across as being more because he’s a worrier than because he thinks she’s not competent.  She was hired on the strength of a paper she wrote, and if Deemer is surprised that she turns out to be a woman he doesn’t let it affect his perception of her work.  She also has ‘feminine’ interests like shopping and going to the beauty parlour, and Deemer never shows any sign that he considers these incompatible with a scientific career.  When he scolds her, it is in a situation where he would almost certainly have done the same to a male colleague.

Matt’s relationship with Steve is utterly lifeless and the scenes in which the two attempt to be romantic are nothing more than dull.  This isn’t surprising, when Steve is basically a plot device rather than a character – Matt needs a reason to return to Deemer’s house repeatedly even though Deemer doesn’t want him there, therefore have him fall in love with one of the employees.  Steve doesn’t look into it at all, and frankly, neither does Agar.  There’s a bit where he seems more enthusiastic about meeting a rabbit than he does about spending time with Steve!  When Steve runs into his arms as the tarantula destroys the house, we just really, really, really don’t care.

‘Steve’ is short for ‘Stephanie’ by the way.  I didn’t mention that earlier because I’m a jerk.

As an attempt to cash in on Them!, Tarantula is okay but that’s about it.  It’s not very good, but it’s not memorably bad, and as a result it’s not very interesting.  The Black Scorpion used a more exotic setting and some fabulous stop-motion to give itself it’s own personality, but Tarantula has very little personality at all.  I’m getting so tired of films that ignore all their own best ideas… but don’t worry, I don’t intend to ever get tired of hating John Agar.

[sol1056]

HYPOTHETICALLY speaking

I’ve gotten enough asks and DMs already, and I’ve done all the research I can without getting into specifics. Rather than continuing to evade, I’m going to present a theory of how a hypothetical company might have had to put its plans on hold due discovery of a possible breach of contract. 

Note #1: do not expect any official statement publicly confirming or denying a similar situation, whether from a union or company. The private sector is not required to be make all their doings public, and is even less likely to do so if rumors (let alone explanation) could impact investor relations or stock values.

Note #2: although the situation presented here is, again, only a theory, the details concerning union involvement are not. I interviewed union reps from SAG-AFTRA, TAG, IATSE, WGA, AFL-CIO, IBEW, and AFGE, to get a sense of industry contractual expectations, various MBA and CBA terminology, and general union resolution processes per the NRLB. 

[sorry, typo: it’s NLRB, for National Labor Relations Board, whoops.]

Let’s posit that in the course of a hypothetical production studio (hereafter HPS) creating a television show, its management-level representatives (whether short-term employee or contractor, and hereafter ‘producers’) did significant edits on the final two seasons. In these edits, the producers repurposed used and unused artifacts from previous seasons or episodes, in two ways: 

the re-use of recorded dialogue, either left as-is or edited in some way to appear spoken by a different voice for a different character

the re-use of created scripts, edited and rearranged heavily to reflect a different storyline than originally intended

Additionally, some of that repurposed or edited dialogue was used in lieu of calling back the actor contracted for that specific character.  

If, in the course of these edits, not everyone was paid properly for their work, this would violate the Minimum Basic Agreement per SAG-AFTRA (voice actors) and WGA (writers), and possibly also the Collective Bargaining Agreement with TAG (for animators and animation writers). Additionally, even if payment was correct, the issue of creative rights (in regard to credits) could be at stake, if a writer’s work was edited without the writer’s awareness or consent.    

The full extent may not have been discovered until the final version aired. Upon seeing the released version and recognizing any of those three actions, a union member (per employment laws in California) would immediately pick up the phone and alert their union representative or shop steward. 

Representatives from the two (possibly three) unions would arrange a meeting with HPS executives and legal representatives. Before going further, one or both parties may require a full investigation: in part to confirm the validity of any complaints, and in part to confirm that all possible violations were caught. (As in, if you find three, there could be ten more hiding.) 

This would necessitate appointing union investigators, tasked with studying every image and line of dialogue in the finished product, along with submitted scripts, recording session tracks, post-production editing commits, pay stubs, even meeting minutes, emails, and chat logs, etc. 

Anything and everything that could help the investigators pin down the source of every element in the final version: when and by whom it was recorded, what its original purpose for was, whether it was duly paid and credited and in what form and to whom. If HPS’ product happened to be seventy-eight episodes of an eight-season series, this could be several months of carefully combing through countless documents. 

If the investigators found credible evidence that union members had been deprived of rightful payments and/or credit, the parties would meet again for the investigators to present their findings. If HPS agrees with the findings, it may arrange to cut checks, correct credits, and whatever other remedy is agreed-upon between the company and the union members. 

If the company disagrees (or the parties can’t come to a remedy that satisfies everyone), the complaint will work its way up the ranks. Eventually it’d land before the NLRB, who’d appoint an arbitrator or mediator (per the union-company agreements for complaint resolution). 

If the NLRB gets involved, the investigators would become witnesses on behalf of affected cast and/or staff. Depending on how fast it takes for evidence to be collected, the willingness of the company to right the stated wrongs, and other factors (such as the ongoing government shutdown which affects federal oversight agencies), it could be resolved quickly, or it could drag on for months.

Three more things to note. 

First, if the investigator(s) discover evidence that the payment or credit was withheld intentionally (implying personal malice), this doesn’t change the company’s obligation to pay/amend, should arbitration find in the union’s favor. The complainants (via the union) also have the right to indicate company actions that would satisfy them (reprimand, firing, demotion, etc).  

It could mean a two-part remedy, where the first part resolves the payment or credits owed, and the second part addresses the company’s actions towards that supervisor. Or the two parts may be considered two completely separate situations, and broken into two separate cases. Most often, it seems, they’ll be considered together, especially if the evidence for one applies to the other. 

If any of that baffles you, consider this analogy: at your job, your immediate boss cashes your paycheck and pockets the money, rather than paying you. Most companies will see that as the boss’ theft from you, and act as though it’s your responsibility to deal with the authorities per that crime. With a union in your corner, you’ll get paid, and it’ll be left to the company to recoup its losses from the person who actually stole from the company (your boss). 

Second, a significant complaint may mean it’s in the employee’s best interest to decline (or suspend) new contractual agreements with the company. That is, an employee’s willingness to take more contractual work can (and has) been used by companies as evidence the employee doesn’t really feel there’s a problem. 

It depends on the case and the circumstances; if the current complaint is seen as completely separate from the next contract accepted, this might not be an issue. If the two can be seen as linked in any way, it could undermine the complainant’s case if they accept that next contract. 

Third, and relevant to both of the above, if the complainants see an action as that of a malicious current or former manager, and want to signal they don’t bear a grudge against the company and doing so won’t work against them in the resolution process, they have several options. One is to accept the next contract. Another is to continue to openly support the company’s work and/or products. 

In either case, the union members would be expected to continue to work the current contracted project; most MBAs and CBAs prohibit strikes as retaliation. That said, there are just as many cases where someone had to accept the next project, because incoming money was more important when there’s bills to pay.

I’m not saying this is a ‘real’ situation at this point. I am saying that given the situation as set up, this could be the series of events. 

And given such, it would make sense that a company would choose to put off formal announcements of any future contracts with the complainants in question. So long as there’s an investigation, negotiation, or the process is wending its way towards arbitration, most companies would be on hold until after the situation is resolved to the satisfaction of all parties concerned. 

[douxreviews]

The Magicians - ‘Six Short Stories about Magic’ Review

By Ariel Williams

“Umber’s ass I’m drunk.”

‘Six Short Stories about Magic’ is literally that: six short stories about magic. It’s fun to see how all the stories fit together, like a puzzle. How it drives the plot forward, gives us a deeper look at other characters. 

Penny

Penny’s short story is basically the introduction to the others. He travels to the underworld, exchanges Game of Thrones spoilers for Benedict’s location, and then he’s a total jerk to Benedict (in his Penny way). Benedict tells him the key was taken so he heads into the underworld library with Sylvia (the magic mafia kid), where she introduces him to Cassandra, Alice look-alike who writes everyone’s book using her magic future-seeing powers.

Poppy

So we start with a sex scene between Quentin and Poppy. Poppy’s trying to short-circuit Quentin’s anxiety and it isn’t going well. Quentin’s worried about the plan, but he’s going to do it anyway because to finish the quest he needs to change, to become a hero. Poppy says that’s stupid, what they need to do is be who they are and accept the consequences. Later, Alice says the plan can’t work. Harriet says she’s looking for a battery. They all go to the underworld; Quentin and Poppy can’t find the key so they leave and see Alice on the way out.

I liked Quentin and Poppy’s conversation. Is it better to be unapologetically yourself, or should we be striving for change? I feel like the answer is a combination of both their perspectives. We probably should try to change, but not to become a hero (or some other vague title) but a better version of our own selves. And, with that, it is important to accept who we are and the consequences that comes with that, but also to work to mitigate those consequences through personal growth. I thought it was interesting to consider.

Alice

Alice has a conversation with Harriet, who tells her to help them because the library isn’t what it seems; it only dispenses knowledge to those they deem fit. Alice says that’s the right thing to do because knowledge in the wrong hands is dangerous. Then she has a conversation with Fen, who tells her Alice’s pain isn’t the same as Fen’s because Alice can find what she lost: knowledge. So Alice goes to the library and maybe strikes a sketchy deal with them.

Once again, I liked the opposing perspectives. Both Alice and Harriet have good points. It isn’t right that the library is selectively withholding information. Like, it would have helped a lot if Penny didn’t have to risk his life to find information on god-killing last season. But Alice is right, too. That kind of knowledge in the wrong hands could result in chaos. If god-killing books were available to everyone magicians and hedges might be killing gods left and right, and we all know how well that worked out last time. I think the real question here isn’t should information be available to everyone, but who should get to decide who’s given what information.

I also liked Alice’s conversation with Fen. Alice might’ve been trying to comfort Fen, by saying she’d been through something similar, but Fen was right. What Alice lost wasn’t the same. I think that’s an important thing to keep in mind. It’s good to try to relate to others through your own experiences, but also to recognize that no one’s experience is the same. 

Eliot

Eliot and Margo make it out alive (yay!). Eliot’s grown disillusioned with Fillory, but still wants to fight for it. It saved him, so he wants to save Fillory. They’re appealing in court before a marsupial. The end.

Fen

Fen and Julia meet some new fairies. Turns out, they’re slaves to the McAllistairs. Julia convinces Fen to help because no one should be enslaved. They learn the magic cocaine Julia used to reel in Alice was actually fairy cocaine. Like, literally, it comes from their body parts grinded into powder. Which is pretty concerning.

I love the Julia-Fen team up. It’s fun seeing Julia get to play nice with anyone and its nice getting to spend some more time with Fen. I also loved that Julia never chastised Fen for saying the fairies should remain slaves; the way she softly spoke to her made it seem like she was really trying to understand where Fen was coming from, because Fen does have very good reason to be afraid of and even malicious to the fairies. But in the end, Julia was right. 

Harriet

We see a glimpse of Harriet’s past and her relationship with the library. We learn that the head librarian is her very overprotective mother. She wished Harriet would explore the world from the safety of the library, but Harriet wanted real-world experiences. We see the beginnings of Harriet’s fight against the library’s policies. And then we see present day Harriet petitioning her mother for the library’s help with the quest. But the librarian fears this might be what causes the great blank spot, while Harriet says letting others help might be the only way to fight it. Needless to say this reunion doesn’t end well; Harriet and Kady find the battery (a case full of fairy cocaine), Harriet runs off with it, and another librarian breaks the mirror bridge (they’re in-between path to the library), and Harriet and Victoria are stuck or dead, really I don’t know. Oh, and all this is happening in silence; just ASL and captioning.

I think this is the most powerful short story. And I think that’s because this isn’t the story of a girl who’s deaf or even of magic. It’s the story of a girl’s damaged relationship with her mother, damaged by their different worldviews (The librarian apprehensive, Harriet adventurous) and experiences (or lack thereof). And it all comes off as real, like an ongoing relationship we only see a small snippet of it.

They also both have good points. It’s understandable for a mother to want to protect her child. She still has a point regarding access to information; especially because it is possible sharing that information could lead to the blank spot. But Harriet’s right, too. We can’t ever know what’s going to happen, but refusing to leave a library or refusing to share information won’t protect your daughter or keep the world from ending. Sometimes all we can do is trust people and help them to help you. It’s tragic, how their story ended. And it’s sad to see, in that one short glimpse, all the ways it could’ve ended differently if they’d made different choices.

Penny (again)

None of those stories really helped Penny. It turns out he skimmed through the Quentin and Poppy sex scene and the answer was there: basically, don’t be a jerk. Everyone’s lonely and sometimes that makes people do stupid, selfish things. Like pretending you lost the key in order to spend time with someone you thought was a friend. So Penny gets the key back from Benedict and sets him up with a sweet map-making job in the underworld. He ships the key off so Quentin and co get it in time, but Sylvia blocks Penny from leaving the underworld. So now he’s stuck. His life really always sucks.

Bits and Pieces

-- I think having Olivia Taylor Dudley play Cassandra was a great call. There’s intrigue, wondering how and if Alice becomes Cassandra. I felt more interested in Cassandra because she had the face of one of our characters. Olivia Taylor Dudley did a great job and seemed to have fun with the role.

-- Fen’s turned to drinking to distract from her loss. Maybe Eliot’s rubbed off on her.

Eliot: “Yes, I do want to make a final statement. I hate Fillory. It's a backwards, malodorous shit hole full of animals who are smarter than they're supposed to be and humans who are so much dumber. And what you would call indoor plumbing we on earth would call a war crime. But, when I was drowning, Fillory saved me. And now it's my turn to save Fillory. But I can't do that if my head's in a basket, so if it pleases... you guys, I demand that this trial slash peasant uprising be dismissed. Your honorable wombatness.” Penny: “What the shit is this? Why is he talking to a marsupial? This is not at all relevant!”

Julia: “Look, I have this tiny spark of magic, and it seems like when I use it to do good things, to help people, it-it grows. I didn't ask for it, and I can't get rid of it. If I want it to be anything but a burden, I have to use it.” I love this. She can’t change it so she’s going to make it her own. And make it good. I love how we saw how hard it was for her to get here, because it makes that choice seem so much more powerful.

Four out of four marsupial judges.

[krixwell-liveblogs]

Arc Thoughts: Prey

In which everyone hunts everyone else.

There’s one big question Arc 14 of Worm has left me with: How do these Arcs just keep getting better?

I mean seriously, let’s look back at the progression in this Arc:

14.1: In which we got attempted mind games from Cherish and learned that someone among the Undertravelers (probably Trickster) has a potentially lethally upsetting secret. Only one of the weakest chapters in the Arc because the rest were so good.

14.2: Solid rescue operation of one of my favorite characters from Siberian.

14.3: Epic chase scene, and excellent Amy development.

14.4: In which Jemily Piggot is delightfully devious and Amy continues to be fantastic with her latest contribution of Atlas the giant beetle.

14.5: Taylor and Weld fighting together nearly seamlessly, big asshole kitty getting some much-needed attention, fantastic tension as the Undertravelers try to escape the blast zone, Taylor learns to fly... So much good stuff.

14.6: That Amy and Victoria scene was so good! Honorary mentions: Taylor’s tangent about eating bugs and Regent being beautifully on the ball.

14.7: Some pacing/tension issues drag this one down, but the descriptions of the Bakuda barrage was amazing.

14.8: AND THIS IS WHERE THE ARC WENT FROM GOOD TO FUCKING AMAZING. The miasma is one of the best concepts Bonesaw could drop on the city and I love it so damn much. Honorary mention: Sundancer’s spiel on being alone and the way it ties in beautifully with what was about to happen to her and everyone else.

14.9: AND THEN IT JUST GOT EVEN BETTER (even if I was being a bit of a dunce)

14.10: Really good dialogue between Jack and Amy as he tried to get her to betray her morals and join up, followed by a pretty good hallway knife/gun-- wait a minute. Jack. Literally brought a knife to a gun fight. Or was it Taylor who brought a gun to a knife fight?

14.11: Well that’s certainly a way to go about curing Rachel and Lisa! And then there’s Jack’s parting message and Cherish’s fate.

Interlude 14: Sierra Interlude? Don’t mind if I do! I had some trouble getting through the earlier parts of the Interlude but once Taylor showed up things got really good.

Interlude 14.5: LEGEND IS SO GOOD FOR KID WIN. Shame they’re probably not getting another chance to talk. ...oh yeah, and the Triumvirate are working with Cauldron despite two of them apparently knowing what’s up. That’s a pretty good curveball reveal. BUT KID WIN GUYS

In short, really fucking good Arc. Quite possibly the best one so far, even!

This was the climax to the Slaughterhouse Nine plotline (though Jack at least will likely become relevant again when we find out how he dooms the world), which has been going for 3.5 (or 5, depending where you count from) Arcs now, and I really think Wildbow nailed it. The miasma was a really amazing way to end this sequence, and I appreciate just how unwilling the Nine were to give in, how much they had to be whittled down before they left - it made it feel like this was an amazing accomplishment by the protagonists even though the core of Nine ultimately got away.

Even if Taylor doesn’t feel that way. Taylor is weird about acknowledging her accomplishments, though it all makes perfect sense with regards to her character.

The Arc title

Everyone was indeed Prey, except maybe the Protectorate. And even they were caught in the miasma.

The Undertravelers hunted Siberian, who hunted Amy. The PRT/Piggot hunted the Nine and the Undertravelers, and when parts of the Nine slipped away from the Protectorate, the Undertravelers took up that hunt (after being Crawler’s and the PRT’s prey at the same time), while Legend was hunting Siberian. And so it went on until the miasma struck and made everyone downtown the Nine’s prey in a sense (not that that’s much of a change from the norm), as well as feel like everyone else’s prey. Jack tried to prey on Amy’s insecurities. Then we had Taylor hunting the Nine again at the end, though they ultimately got away.

Sierra and Charlotte avoided the miasma and even they ended up as prey for the metaphorical ravens.

Prediction review

Rolling over all the way from Arc Thoughts: Infestation:

And, if someone attempts to kill Jack Slash, they will either fail, or do it too late.

Yeeah, nobody succeeded at that. Anyone who manages to do it later in the story will be too late according to Dinah. I’m going to consider this one proven correct.

And now for predictions from Arc Thoughts: Snare:

Due to an accident while writing the End of Interlude 13 post yesterday, I know the title, or original title if it has been changed, of Arc 14: Prey.

Who’s the prey, exactly? After hearing Piggot’s plan, I’m inclined to think it’s both the local villains and the Slaughterhouse Nine. The Nine are at the bottom of the parahuman food chain for a change, being hunted by the Undertravelers and the Protectorate, but the PRT is also hunting the Undertravelers and other local villains.

I suppose there’s still civilians under the Nine on the overall food chain, but the Nine have already been preying on them quite a lot, so that shouldn’t be enough for an Arc title.

…oh. Oh, right.

I was already going to predict that Siberian was going to be in the spotlight next Arc, because of the focus she got in Interlude 13. Of course that ties in with the title Prey. She’s probably the next tester, which means the nominees are going to be her prey.

That doesn’t invalidate the other interpretation, though. I’m inclined to think both are correct.

I think I was right here, except I was thinking too specifically. I later added that everyone’s prey, in the chapter thoughts of 14.1.

So is the next Arc going to give the spotlight to only Siberian, among the Nine? The Nine’s numbers have been reduced enough that Wildbow can do that now, especially if they continue being reduced.

No. At the time I was writing this, I still thought the plotline might go on for a bunch more Arcs.

I don’t think the Undertravelers are going to let up on their ongoing assault against the Nine, but Taylor might start being a tad more cautious thanks to Grue’s input. Maybe that’s what ends up saving them from the Protectorate’s explosive backstab?

I haven’t really seen her be that notably more cautious, really. And the thing that ended up saving them was Piggot tipping her hand while making sure they’d all go into the blast zone.

And finally, I think there’s a good chance we’ll finally learn what the Travelers’ deal is. Hell, if my theories on that are anywhere near right, that might even be another reason for the title.

Not yet, but we’re definitely building up to it, what with the massive secret and the Sundancer development. Roll over.

From a post made shortly after Arc Thoughts: Snare:

Oh yeah, one more prediction for Prey: I suspect one or more of the minor protagonists is/are going to die to Siberian, or at least get mauled. Maybe even one of the major protagonists. This would mirror the Case 01 video, perhaps even closely.

The Nine have actually been remarkably non-lethal to the named characters. They’ve slayed hundreds, maybe thousands of redshirts civilians, but only, what, five characters whose names we knew? Four of which were incredibly unsympathetic? Though some more may have died in the miasma.

Predictions for Arc 15 before reading the title

This is a hard one. There’s not much to go on as far as where the story is headed next.

It’s possible we’re about to learn more about the Travelers, but I doubt that’s the main plot. Likewise, I don’t think dealing with the Chosen is that big of a deal for Taylor at this point, especially since they’ve lost their leader.

It is also very possible that we’re heading into the second boss battle Arc, though it’d be a bit curious that no strong indication of that (except Eidolon mentioning that another Endbringer strike was due soon) appeared at the end of Prey like what happened at the end of Buzz. If we are heading into that territory next Arc or in Arc 16, I think we’re in for the Simurgh attacking Brockton Bay.

If she does, we might see some of the characters start to question why two Endbringers would attack the same location in a row like that, lending more credibility to Coil’s “Noelle draws Endbringers” theory.

I suppose it’s also entirely possible that the miasma was the boss battle of this section and we’re not getting attacked by all three Endbringers like I’ve been theorizing, in which case we’d be moving into an Interlude Arc.

But that’d feel kind of anticlimactic, even though Prey was a fantastic climax to the Slaughterhouse Nine plotline, and unless the chapters in the Interlude Arc were themed like the ones in Sentinel, it’d call into question why we had two Interludes in Prey. Though that can still be explained by thematics and threads, wanting Legend’s Interlude to be clearly tied to Prey.

So yeah, I’m not really sure what to expect. Let’s see if the Arc title gives me any ideas, shall we?

Predictions for Arc 14: Colony

Colony. That, to me, sounds like we’ll be focusing on the rebuilding of Taylor’s territory and its community for a while. Maybe all the territories, even, turning the city into the Undertravelers’ colony?

But that sounds like a really anticlimactic premise on its own. We may focus on that, but something needs to not go smoothly to make the Arc interesting. It needs more conflict than just “how do we fix up this building”. Dealing with the Chosen still doesn’t sound all that interesting after tangoing with the Nine.

I’m not saying I expect the upcoming Arc to be boring. I’m saying that if I’m right about what the title implies, I don’t really know how Wildbow is going to prevent that. I do trust that he will, though, in some way.

Perhaps the title is less literal. Maybe it’s about the cohesiveness and cooperation as the heavily hurt and fractured people of Brockton Bay band together to defend their colony, their home, against the Simurgh or another threat?

Or maybe it’s a colony in the sense of an additional area taken and controlled from afar? But I can’t imagine Taylor wants to take another piece of territory, away from her current one.

This next Arc is very hard to speculate on, jeez. In any case, I’m looking forward to starting on it and finding out what’s actually going on. See you soon!