#i should do some srs comics with them too though

[jesncin]

Okay but as a mixed race (black and white) twin myself I fuck with your Martian content severely.

AAH THANK YOU FELLOW TWIN!! I'm so glad you like my martian shenanigans!!!

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Week in Review (October 15-21, 2023)

Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong #1 is metahuman-heavy, establishing how the Titans of the Monsterverse found themselves on the same Earth as DC's finest and ending with Superman flying off to face Godzilla. It's early days, but the conveniently deserted Skull Island base the Legion of Doom storms into makes me pessimistic that any of the Monsterverse's human characters will show up. Rodan is also absent from the Titan line-up, despite appearing via flashback in the short Godzilla: Fight or Flight comic included in the Monsterverse Omnibus earlier this year. (Toho must be overcharging for Godzilla's supporting cast again.) It should be fun watching D-listers like Behemoth, Scylla, and Camazotz tangle with some of the world's most famous superheroes though.

Sales data for DC comics is effectively unavailable now, but anecdotally this one is doing gangbusters. The downside of snagging it now over waiting for the trade paperback is that DC disperses ads throughout the comic, instead of just at the end like IDW.

Toho announced a ton of U.S. Godzilla merch launching in the U.S. on November 3. Your mileage will vary, but the most interesting baubles to me are the Godzilla Minus One promo cards from UVS Games (to be sold on TCGplayer.com) and the trading cards from Surreal Entertainment (to be sold at Five Below). Very few Godzilla trading cards have been produced in either Japan or the U.S. since 2006, and most of those have been cross-promotions with Magic: The Gathering and Battle Spirits. I have a small collection of random cards from older sets (a couple of them signed), and it'll be cool to expand it a little.

Toho's Godzilla Day announcement also included some news on Godzilla Minus One's U.S. release, which I thought deserved its own section. Tickets go on sale November 3rd—including for "special Early Access Fan Event Screenings on Wednesday, November 29, 2023, in IMAX and large format theaters across the country." So Toho International has outmaneuvered Beyoncé in the competition for IMAX screens, if only for one night.

In other Minus One news, a couple new TV spots are out (and translated by the GODZILLA OFFICIAL by TOHO YouTube channel). One shows off a new Godzilla ability, if you're wary of spoilers. Its world premiere was held beneath the Godzilla Head in Shinjuku on October 18, where the incredible Godzilla Attack Truck also debuted.

IDW's Godzilla Valentine's Day Special, due January 31, dares to ask, "What if the old 'kill the monster or study the monster' argument was foreplay?" Zoe Tunnell, who I suspect is a Godzilla 2000 fan, writes, and Dani Pendergast illustrates. I'd like to thank them both for making a comic specifically for me. The logline:

Is there anything as romantic as seeing the world together? Hopping from country to country to take in the sights and splendor in the fleeting seconds before Godzilla smashes the skyline? Truly, there's nothing like the thrill of an international game of cat and mouse between an intrepid amateur kaiju researcher and a global kaiju-response lieutenant. But when you're up against Godzilla, it's hard to have a bigger "CRUSH."

SRS Cinema has picked up War of the Ninja Monsters: Jaron vs. Goura, the latest no-budget spectacular from Shinpei Hayashiya. The two monsters are basically Godzilla and Gamera, one-upping Giant Monsters Appear in Tokyo, which never showed its Godzilla and Gamera expies outside of the poster. Hopefully it'll be less headache-inducing than God Raiga vs. King Ohga: War of the Monsters. SRS is aiming to release it on Blu-ray and VHS in early 2024, with a DVD to follow later in the year.

Hoshi 35, Megumi Odaka's return to live-action film, opened in Japan on October 21. A new trailer is out too. SRS Cinemas has an existing relationship with production company 3Y, which previously made The Great Buddha Arrival and Nezura 1964, so I'd expect them to license this one too.

This Netflix ad for an online convention of sorts includes the first snippets of footage from Ultraman Rising, the Tsuburaya/ILM animated film it's distributing next year. The animation is miles above the Netflix Ultraman anime, that's for sure.

[kidflashimpulse]

i'd like to shout out Chris Jones, the artist for YJ Targets, for not drawing Bart weirdly skinny. Chris drew him to basically be on par with Tim, and his legs are the most muscular part of him (he has thigh muscle. i salute Chris). and the comics are more on model than the show so i'm just glad to see that's what he's SUPPOSED to look like (also: love the confirmation that Bart's built heavier than Ed. personally i don't think Ed is THAT skinny, but i still take the win)

for real, shout-out Chris Jones!! MVP

i totally get you anon, like HOW do you have a hero who’s whole thing is LITERALLY running and not have their thighs built/toned/thick af, it’s literally illogical otherwise. like i get their speed relies on their metagene but… they literally need to use their muscles for it and speed-metabolism or not, their legs get worked tf out lol

the same goes for ass too like when i read fics and my guy gets described as flat i’m like… are we talking about the same character here?? sdfghjkl /j /srs

in terms of him in animation, i think S4 generally has superiority with more consistency though not by a huge margin, S3 also had its good moments . (New Genesis episode, Illusion of control, Fighting Granny episode) His scene in his backyard with the legion is personally gold also because he generally looks great there in a way that it looks like how he’s SUPPOSED to (this is more in terms of face and in general lol) so that singlehandedly carries the season for me my only thing for both 3 and 4 are when his upper body feels a bit disproportionate to the rest of him (like u said, the legs should be and ARE his strongest muscle, anything else just doesn’t make sense). But whenever that happens it’s usually cause u can tell he hasn’t been drawn with as much care as when he’s a bit more of the focus. So i don’t get too fussed over it. When he’s in civvies he’s also generally drawn better so it could also just be the build of his suit, who knows. Point is, animators r doing their best with the time/money they’ve been given, so this all isn’t at all on them and just on us being crazy lol It’s nice though to see him and all the other characters drawn in a more consistently balanced way in the comics !

id tag chris to express our gratitude but maybe it’s not best to tag him under the context of a thicc thighs appreciation post LOL

but in the meantime, let’s enjoy a collage of our guy (who might I add is getting nerfed like crazy here, literally all his falls shouldn’t be happening but i’ll just pretend bro isn’t even trying too hard and taking it easy lmfao)

ALSO in general, his bart art is SO GOOD like look at these, amazing:

I love how he draws his smile in these lmfao

So if possible, please support Chris by buying some copies, they’re great to have as a collection and reasonably priced as well, here’s a link for those who may be interested:

(u can change the location i believe it should have global availability idk why it’s set to canada lol)

i also totally get you about Ed like… i’ve mentioned this ages ago but for Ed’s own sake he better have gotten way stronger by now (and considering how he ate that fight with Tim and Looker it’s pretty promising) so i also don’t think he’s supposed to be as crazy skinny as some of his animated moments might have him but yeah, Barts been in the game for so long now so it makes sense .

[erigold13261]

Hello. This is I the deranged JJK anon back with more comic info. Feel free to delete this ask bc I am profusely sorry for taking up your time and I really enjoyed the last answer./srs ...speaking of getting into the anime/manga, I cannot recommend it now bc the anime is quite gorery/depressing and the manga has jumped the shark

Satoru and Suguru are best friends, and it is highly implied that their relationship has romantic undertones.

Satoru's canon theme song by the comic author is "Shame on Me" by Avicii, which has many romantic lyrics.

Suguru wears Gojo Kesa as an adult, or a Buddhist monk outfit just because it is a "Gojo" kesa.

Satoru is from a family of prolific, rich sorcerers (or just an influential, rich and powerful family in the NSR world) who would probably not want a "scandal" if their heir was some flavor of gay. (below is more NSR world main HCs)

This could explain why the Satoru Suguru Shoko gang ran a phony scheme in the NSR world, maybe to escape harsh reality.

Hobie hates Satoru and Suguru for some reason, probably because Satoru is a snobbish rich brat.

Miles (bc he is sunshine reincarnate), Peni (the only Arachnikid who can communicate with the JJK gang (what is their group name) in Japanese) and Yu(also sunshine) have to work together to make them GET. ALONG.

They eventually do get along, since Nueva York is pretty messed up too and they want out

Yu adores Peni bc kits reminds him of his sister back at home

Speaking of Yu... T-boy Yu HC?

And Satoru and Yu both using neopronouns too bc silly is cool (blue/blues Satoru? pup/pups Yu?)

Satoru likes blues eyes bc Suguru thinks they are the most beautiful thing in the universe, and tells blues that all the time

Satoru could have a combo of space/psychic powers, like DJ Sub to some extent

Nanami used to hide his 30 percent side with makeup and hair, like what Eve did. After coming to Nueva York, he has stopped hiding. (Also bc the rest of the gang encouraged him to do so)

Shoko used to be a heavy smoker as a highschooler in Japan, and sure wants to smoke again although they know it isn't good for their glass/plant body

Noir agrees, and they both wish to smoke after they both get out

AroAce "So Done With Your Shit Gojo" Nanami... Satoru(flamboyant gay) and Suguru(literature gay/bi/enby) eventually becoming the cringe/j gay couple...(their annoyingness is on par with GhostFlower(Miles/Gwen) and Pavitri(Pavitr/Gayatri), although those four are far nicer than SatoSugu(Satoru/Suguru)) "I am anything but cis and straight" Shoko... "I used to be a girl and now I am a boy who likes boys and girls" Yu...

... sorry again for the ask dump. I know it's messy and feel free to dump this too

I actually love gorey animes and movies so that’s not a bother to me! Don’t know how I feel about “jumped the shark” stories though because the only ones I know really are things like Family Guy or Simpsons that have that trope and I don’t watch those shows really anymore (and they are an entirely different feel from a continuous narrative story).

Anyway you can keep sending this stuff in! I like learning stuff second hand for some reason, it’s a lot of fun! (I know a LOT more about One Piece than I should thanks to tiktok and one movie I watched not realizing it was part of a series lol)

Gonna try and give feedback to ALL points because I realized I completely forgot to answer something on your last ask because I skipped a sentence when rereading (about Eve and Nanami).

-Satoru/Suguru relationship: Oh cool! What if they were in a QPR? That would be neat for some reason lol! Also, could only think of the lesbian version of “and they were best friends” hehehe. But good for them (maybe, unless they are doomed by the narrative).

-Satoru theme song: This song has a really good beat to it! Only Avicii song I knew before was “Hey Brother” so this was a complete shift in what I thought the beat of the song was gonna be. But it seems to fit well with what I know of the character (could seem to fit better if I knew the more intricate details lol).

-Suguru and Gojo Kesa: Okay that’s actually really funny lol. To me that’s like a guy named Gene wears only jean jackets hehe.

-Satoru family/gayness: I can see that being a thing unfortunately. It would also make sense for Satoru to be from a famous/influential or powerful family as his powers would probably be a family trait and that kind of power (of reality manipulation) would definitely make a family well known and rich.

-Escape reality: Having the three, who all probably have higher-up families because of their powers, does make sense that they grouped together to try and escape their family life. It would also make them less empathetic (sympathetic? idk) to the common people and allow their scheme to continue without really feeling bad about it (because logically it makes sense to them, we are healing you of something no one else could, so you have to give something no one else could, your power).

-Hobie’s hate: Yeah. There’s also the fact the two (3 with Shoko) took advantage of people in vulnerable states for their own selfish reasons. The rich brat personality is just another facet for Hobie to hate.

-Get along (2 of the points): Okay, for some reason I immediately thought of Satoru, Suguru and Shoko (don’t know what their group would be called) would try and get Peni to help them scheme as a technomancer could be really valuable, but kit obviously does not want to trick people and definitely wouldn’t want to do anything related to medical stuff at the moment considering kits pretty recent past.

Miles, Peni, and Yu are hanging out and talking as best as they can with Peni helping out because I can see the three having a lot in common (which allows Yu and Nanami become like unofficially apart of the Arachnikid friend group and probably be really good assets in the Power Revolution). 

But yeah, Peni helping bridge the gap is a nice thing to think about. Even if it is just letting Satoru, Suguru, and Shoko be friendly or at least cordial with the rest of the group. They would mainly be doing their own thing, while Yu and Nanami are actually trying to be friends with everyone.

-Yu and Peni: I love this idea. Especially the thought that Peni could get a kind of older brother figure because of how Yu sees her. Both being in pretty shitty situations (Peni having lost kits dad and Yu being away from all his family with just a single friend) would probably look for a type of familial bond without realizing it. (which also makes me think Yu and Noir would become pretty good friends once they work out the language barrier because of how close Noir and Peni are).

-T-boy Yu: Fuck yeah! (I don’t have much to add since I barely know him, but yeah! T-boy swag!)

-Neopronouns: Those are cool neopronouns! Will try to use them for the rest of this ask when I can! (I will be honest, I keep getting names mixed up because they are all new names to me and I don’t exactly have the names to faces memorized yet lol, so hopefully I don’t use blue for Suguru by accident)

-Eyes: Aw that’s sweet. I can see Satoru not liking blues eyes when blue was younger because… well it’s not common to have multiple eyes (not impossible, but not common) so maybe had some kind of resentment to blues eyes for a while until Suguru kept complimenting them, allowing Satoru to start loving blues eyes (also when I first read that I thought it meant blue as in color and was thinking how would Satoru like Purl’s eyes since they are a pretty blue color when not wearing their sunglasses).

-Space/psychic powers: It’s basically like a combination of Eve and DJSS’ powers which is such a dangerous and powerful combination to have. Which I feel like really fits blue a lot. I can see these powers not being super distinct from each other (like you can tell when Tatiana is using fire vs using time) and so they meld together making a seemingly single type of power instead of two distinct power types (I have no idea how to explain it better than this lol).

-Nanami 30%: OMG THIS! I forgot to address this in my other ask! I had something planned for it too! UGH!

Anyway, I was going to say I don’t think people would make fun of Nanami for his skin condition (I think that was how it was worded in the ask) but they do compare him to Eve, only because Eve is probably like the only person with this kind of condition that the people around Nanami know about. It would be like someone with vitiligo always being compared to Micheal Jackson because it isn’t a common skin condition that a lot of people would have heard of outside of a celebrity.

So yeah, I can definitely see Nanami being really annoyed with the constant comparisons and actively trying to hide his condition for a long while before coming to terms with it. It was more of an annoyance to hear and to hide the condition than anything else. 

Once he got to Nueva York, he might not have been ALLOWED to hide his condition. Maybe he had “bad behaviour” (it wasn’t actually bad, he just kept using his powers thinking it was fine but the counselors had to keep stopping him) and so he lost some privileges like hair dye and makeup. 

Thankfully the people around him didn’t care all that much. There were definitely comments comparing him to Eve (especially from Pav who explained how he is related to Eve) that annoyed Nanami, but he explained his feelings and the group apologizes because they didn’t know (maybe him and Pav’s relationship starts off a bit rocky because of this connection and Nanami having a hard time dissociating his feelings for his condition and Eve from Pav).

After Nanami gets hair dye and makeup privileges back, I do think the gang would encourage him to not hide it again and so he doesn’t (still has to grow out his hair though to get the 30% to outgrow the dye)

-Smoko Shoko (and Noir, 2 points): Oh her plant parts are absolutely hating the smoke she puts into her body, but I don’t think the glass part would be as affected as something more organic (the glass is organic as well but to a lesser degree like Tatiana’s rock body or Matvey’s metallic body). I wonder if her healing powers could help reduce any problems she might have with being a heavy smoker, that would be a neat thing to be able to do!

Her and Noir, when given access to go out for good behaviour, go and have a smoke together. They can’t really communicate without Peni or without their phones to translate stuff, but they just sit down at a park or beach and watch the sunset together silently as they smoke (they definitely are not allowed to smoke on Nueva York premises so they get a lot of their smoking done in this small time frame).

-Queering it up HCs: 

Love AroAce headcanons, good job Nanami!

SatoSugu and GhostFlower (didn’t know that was their ship name, cute!) being happy and annoying while Pav is sad and alone in Nueva York missing Gaya (you better believe they become the most annoying when reunited because of the time they were forced apart).

Trans Shoko? Nice :3 (also for some reason like the idea of her being a part of SatoSugu but in a queer platonic way. Like they are also dating her but in an emotional sense while SatoSugu are also just super gay for each other).

And then Yu is an icon with t-boy swag hehe

________________

So yeah! That’s all I got for each of your points! Don’t worry about sending in these asks, I do like learning about media second hand, it’s fun! So these asks are pretty fun to do! I’m just sad I can’t add a lot more ideas like I could for a media I know a lot about, but you seem to be having fun talking about this stuff (like I have fun talking about shit which is why I make long answers to asks lol) so that’s good!

Glad you are able to enjoy my ideas even when they might not all be correct with the source material in how people act or relationships with other characters! But hey, that’s the fun part lol. Sometimes a little mischaractization is fun hehehe

[o-wyrmlight]

Note: Unless stated otherwise, assume that all Cookie Run AUs I've made are diverged from the 'main' AU, Crumbled Castles. The backstory is applied to all of these AUs. Most of my stories will feature heavily around Dark Cacao and my history around him and yes I am biased. I just think he's a super cool character and I like him a lot.

Please also note that some aspects of these AUs may be prone to change in the future.

Backstory/Context:

The Ancients are not the founders of their kingdoms. They are instead inheritors of their respective thrones, which have been passed on through generations. Golden Cheese is an undecided exception.

Each of the Ancients have discovered Soul Jams, which each extends their lives in a semi-permenant manner. It doesn't ultimately protect them from death, but it does halt their aging process and give them extended lives.

The Ancients didn't travel together. Their relationship with each other is more or less more 'professional', like work friends. They do still care very much for each other, though. Pure Vanilla considers Hollyberry to be an aunt figure.

Pure Vanilla and Dark Cacao especially have very complicated relationships with their respective thrones and parents. Pure Vanilla grew up under a lot of pressure to be the picture perfect king, and Dark Cacao spent the latter half of his childhood to mid-adulthood under the supervision of a well-meaning but ultimately abusive father (Cacao Sr).

Said well-meaning father waged war against the Vanilla Kingdom because he was too prideful and anxious to ask for permission to seek out the Grapejam Chocoblade on their kingdom's territory. He ended up dying during this war.

In many AUs, the Dark Flour War has either yet to happen or doesn't happen whatsoever in the timeline. I'm still trying to conceptualize how it'd work in the cases where it technically should happen without overloading the story.

The Creme Republic is a corrupt society with a pristine surface but an ugly underbelly rife with propaganda and dystopian practices. Madeline is a strong contender against this and uses his surprisingly cunning ways to try to dismantle the government, to allow the Republicans to start anew. The Creme Republic also supercedes the Dark Flour War and therefore the cookies of the Council are not related to any Vanillian cookies.

Crumbled Castles

Is currently a comic! Check it out @crumbled-castles-crk if you're interested!

When Dark Cacao and Pure Vanilla find themselves in the wake of a shattered kingdom following the final battle of Dark Enchantress Cookie, the air is filled with tense uncertainty about what they stand to do next. Pure Vanilla remains adamant about his pursuit for the truth and his need to stop Dark Enchantress Cookie before she brings all of Cookiekind to its knees, and Dark Cacao hesitantly comes along.

Dark Cacao claims that it's to keep him safe, but in reality, his body is still badly damaged from when his son nearly struck him down with the Strawberry Jam Sword. Nonetheless he plans to do what he can, if nothing else, providing Pure Vanilla with the grace of company.

Pure Vanilla strongly desires to see to his peoples' safety and find his husband--Premier Custard Cream--and son--Custard I--alive and well. He also wishes to find his friends and stop Dark Enchantress. It's a lot to take on at once.

Dark Cacao desires to see Pure Vanilla safe while he himself grapples with ghosts of his past come back to haunt him. He struggles with guilt for not being able to fight alongside his kingdom, as well as the fear that he grew to be like his father, and that such reason is why Dark Choco nearly killed him. He also hopes that in traveling with Pure Vanilla, he'd be able to find Dark Choco and attempt to aid him with the sword.

Meanwhile, Dark Choco--struggling against the call of the sword and the pull fate has on him toward the dark--is wandering the kingdoms when he stumbles upon Madeline. Madeline deceptively acts the part of a 'himbo', if you will, manipulating his narrative to fit whatever means he deems necessary to achieve. They travel together, though Madeline himself doesn't have good intentions as they relate to Dark Choco. He seeks to find and destroy any Soul Jam he can, thereby keeping it out of the hands of the Creme Republic's government officials. Madeline is a cookie with good intentions but horrible execution that consistently ends up hurting the people around him, and it's something that he's going to end up needing to work on.

Relationships:

Pure Vanilla/Premier Custard Cream

Dark Cacao/Pure Vanilla

Madeline/Dark Choco

Pure Vanilla & Dark Enchantress

Dark Cacao & Cacao Sr

Madeline & Espresso

Dark Cacao & Dark Choco

Bittersweet Friends

Following the events of canon, Affogato Cookie finds himself losing consciousness as he flees the Black Citadel. When he awakens, he's surprised to find himself in a village, well taken-care of. They show little to no hostility or bias to him, which surprises him, and he decides to take it upon himself to do what he can to help this village as repayment.

When the village hears tale of Dark Cacao seeking out a new advisor a few months later, the village pressures Affogato (likely going by a different name at this point to stay undercover) into being their representative. Although Affogato is hesitant about it, he accepts, figuring that he can try using his cunning to rise up in the ranks once again and seize the crown for himself.

He very quickly discovers that the situation and Dark Cacao himself are very different from what he remembers. This is because Affogato has found himself 'charitably' placed in an AU that splits from Crumbled Castles. Long story short, Dark Cacao himself is vastly different from the one Affogato remembers, from his personality and attitude to the ingredients running in his jam, to when the events of the Strawberry Jam sword actually took place.

Affogato doesn't really know what to think about these differences, at first, but in the end, he decides that they aren't bad changes. This Dark Cacao shows a more genuine and softer care for his people than the one before, even though talk of discontent and rebellion has been starting to stir up due to Dark Cacao's absence on the battlefield. The absence is because he literally cannot battle because he's still suffering from the effects of the Strawberry Jam sword's curse.

Essentially, he and Affogato also share the fact that they both have bittersweet ingredients--Affogato being coffee and ice cream, and Dark Cacao being cacao-coffee (from his father's side) and chocolate. Their less strict views on sweet food is something that they bond over, and they eventually become good friends, even up until the point that Affogato starts trying to figure out how to help Dark Cacao with his injury.

When Affogato hears a plan for a attempt at Dark Cacao's life, Affogato warns the king and accompanies him as they make their escape. Dark Cacao ends up going to the Vanilla Kingdom, where he shows Affogato that kindness toward sweeter cookies exists out there. Dark Cacao speaks to Pure Vanilla and decides to spend this time away from home to find his son. Affogato as they travel tries to figure out more about himself outside of what he was forced to be just to survive.

Relationships

Dark Cacao & Affogato

Dark Cacao/Affogato(?)

Second Watcher/Dark Cacao

Affogato & Caramel Arrow

Pure Vanilla/Premier Custard Cream

Dark Cacao & Pure Vanilla

Dark Cacao & Dark Choco

Timeskip

Dark Cacao Sr--the cookie who started a war with the Vanilla Kingdom--steps onward blindly and unknowingly toward the day of his death. In the wake of the battlefield, Cacao Sr. is fighting with all he has in him when he finds himself suddenly and inexplicably in a place he's never been before. Floating before him is Timekeeper Cookie, who has made the decision to save his life and shove him elsewhere to see how his decisions affect the timeline, for no other reason than she's bored.

Cacao Sr. ends up about thirty years in the future, where his son is a king and his grandson nearly killed him, leaving him with a grievous injury that refuses to heal. Cacao Sr. attempts--and fails--to reconnect with his son, who is understandably very distressed with Cacao Sr. being there.

Cacao Sr. does everything in his power to help Dark Cacao with his issue with his son. This includes trying to figure out how Dark Cacao can protect himself when he's so badly injured, trying to find alternate means of understanding and connecting with his son, and doing what he can to seek out something that can at the very least help ease the curse that Dark Cacao is burdened with.

Relationships

Cacao Sr. & Dark Cacao

Cacao Sr. & Dark Choco

Timekeeper & Cacao Sr

Vanilla Extract

Following the Dark Flour War, Pure Vanilla Cookie exists within the ruins of his floating kingdom, living day in and day out within the recesses of his grief and regret. Instead of losing his memory as Healer Cookie had done, he ends up living out his days as a cookie who dedicates himself to never being walked on again.

He used to be a cookie that did everything he did to help everyone around him. It was frankly exhausting, stressful, and had him grow up under fierce anxiety, leaving him to neglect himself and his own health in favor of other people. Now, after his friends are (he believes) dead, Dark Enchantress allegedly defeated, and his kingdom in ruins, he can't be bothered to try to rebuild. He merely desires a quiet life without other cookies relying on him, and he decides that he will care less.

At some point, though, he finds Strawberry Crepe, waking up from their cyrosleep. Not wishing for them to grow up scared and alone, he ends up taking them under his wing and adopting them as his child. Strawberry Crepe's personality--therefore--is different from how it is in canon; they are still clingy and eager to learn, and a little temperamental, but they're more understanding of how far too far is and they help Vanilla Extract fix some of the Wafflebots to help aid in their survival. Strawberry Crepe is rather sheltered, though, and wants to explore the world--Vanilla Extract is against this, concerned that something bad will happen to them and also unwilling to leave his home.

When Gingerbrave and co. come up to the castle, Vanilla Extract essentially just wants them off of his lawn and to leave him in peace, so he tries to kick them out. When he realizes who Custard III is--his great-grandson--he relaxes a little and grudgingly lets them stay. He keeps his identity as Pure Vanilla under wraps, though, not wishing to return to that life of serving his people at the cost of his own safety.

When Dark Enchantress and her army comes up to the castle, though, Vanilla Extract has enough and loses his cool. He joins Gingerbrave and the others with every intention of getting Dark Enchantress out of his damn castle and just leave him and his child alone. Vanilla Extract recognizes Dark Choco when they meet, and this is when it becomes clear to the group that Vanilla Extract is Pure Vanilla Cookie.

In the end, Dark Enchantress gets kicked out of the castle, and Pure Vanilla is given the option to continue life as he had been or finally leave and do something else. He suggests to Crepe that they go with the group, since they've been wanting to see the world, but Crepe decides to stay with Vanilla Extract. Touched, Vanilla Extract--still wishing for Crepe to be able to see the world, now that the option is available to them, and wishing to spend more time with his great-grandson--says his final good-byes to the Vanilla Kingdom and accompanies the group. In a way, this is him finally closing the that grief-stricken chapter of his life and coming to accept whatever lies ahead.

Relationships

Vanilla Extract & Strawberry Crepe

Vanilla Extract & Dark Enchantress

Vanilla Extract & Custard III

Vanilla Extract & Gingerbrave and Co.

Potentially more in the future--as of yet, undecided

Runaway

When given the opportunity to escape a horrible father and the looking threat of war--if it means that you will leave everything behind in the process--would you take it? When you are in your mid-thirties, have left the front lines of the war to locate the damn sword your father is fighting for, and finally found it, would you be able to resist the temptation of freedom that comes along with it? Would you return to your family--your sweet baby son and your dear kingdom, and your damnable father of all people... or would you see the way to freedom and run away? Would you leave it all behind? In this AU, Dark Cacao did. And it haunts him.

Dark Cacao travels the kingdoms with the Grapejam Chocoblade secured to his back, wandering aimlessly and listlessly. It's difficult to enjoy the world now that you've finally escaped when the burden of what you left behind now weighs so heavily upon your shoulders. He travels from village to village, kingdom to kingdom, unknowingly making a name for himself as a fighter and a protector as he does so. Meanwhile he has no idea what happened to his son, and this knowledge haunts him.

It's dread that keeps him from going back--dread and fear. He doesn't know how his father would react if he returns. As the years pass, he doesn't know how his son would react, if he were even still alive. He doesn't know that over these years, his father has made an active effort to change, realizing the error of his ways, to take care of Dark Choco as well as he can. He doesn't realize that Cacao Sr. no longer blames Dark Cacao for leaving so much as he blames himself, nor that Cacao Sr. is adamant to his grandson that the little boy wasn't the reason his father left.

No. Dark Cacao doesn't know this. What he does know is avoiding. And he avoids it over many years as it haunts and plagues him, never really aging because of the sword he found and uses to this day. And eventually he meets an aged knight, speaking boldly and warmly about how he's fought and defeated dragons many-a time before. And eventually they are rivals. And eventually they are friends and traveling companions.

Eventually, the truth as to come out, Dark Cacao. And just like how you left your home, your father, and your poor, little son--any friends you make will leave you, too. You deserve to be alone after all of that, after all. Don't you?

Relationships

Dark Cacao & Cacao Sr

Cacao Sr & Dark Choco

Dark Cacao & Tea Knight

Dark Cacao/Tea Knight(?)

Potentially more in the future--as of yet, undecided

[lucianalight]

@loveroflokiforpoeticjustice sent me this and the article has many good points! (Clearly SR is going through a redemption arc :D ) Things that we've been saying since 2017(OK which one of you wrote this? :D ) and finally people have come to see them. I don't agree with everything in the article but there are some really good parts that I like to quote here too.

Yet, while Thor: Ragnarok was an entertaining movie, it wasn't a Thor movie. Nor a Loki one. It's telling that the Rotten Tomatoes audience score sits six points lower than the critics' score; almost always, especially for superhero movies, that dynamic is flipped. Waititi has said many times over the years that he didn't bother to read the Thor comics beforehand and he completely ignored the mythology. It made for a fresh slate to work with, which was needed. The problem is that it went too far in that direction. There was nothing in the movie that was inherently about Thor; it might have been a movie with any character plugged into his role. Outside of leveling up his powers, there was no growth for him, no continuation of the arc he'd had over the first two Thor movies and two Avengers movies to that point. Character development was thrown completely out the window.

I don't think Thor franchise needed a fresh slate. It was one of the most unique and rich universes of MCU. They just needed better writing and more interesting stories and there was more than enough basis for it from the previous movies. Instead of building up on that, they totally destroyed everything that came before.

As for Loki, God of Mischief, he was handled even more poorly. Where he'd always been a villain to reluctant ally in movies past, Thor: Ragnarok reduced him to the butt of the joke. Never is this more evident than the elevator scene. It was the one time in the movie where Thor and Loki actually had a meaningful moment. It might have been a transformative one for Loki, too, as Thor finally admitting he no longer had faith his adopted brother could be redeemed and that they should part ways clearly hit Loki harder than he had anticipated – perhaps it wasn't what he wanted, after all. However, the poignancy was barely allowed to register before the movie was onto the next joke, this one involving their "get help" scheme that, as Loki pointed out, was humiliating for him.

I think I've talked enough about why the elevator scene wasn't a good and meaningful moment for Thor and Loki's relationship as what Thor says is condemning Loki for not being like Thor, not following what Thor expected of him and basically for who he is, and Thor is also dismissing Loki's grievances in a way. But I generally agree with the main point of this paragraph.

Though Loki redeemed himself at the end and Thor learned to harness the power within, it was, in many ways, a regression for them both. At the very least, they merely treaded water. The characters were there to serve the jokes rather than the other way around, with character exploration and the established mythology both being sacrificed on the altar of the next punchline. Thor: Ragnarok was a great deal of fun, but not much else. While that was fine for a reset, Waititi's next Thor movie, Thor: Love & Thunder, needs to remember character continuity matters, too.

Considering what MCU's been doing in phase 3&4 I don't think they really care about continuity or character arcs anymore. Just jokes. So I won't hold my breath.

[kitausuret]

5-12 marvel asks

5. Favorite team: the easy answer here is, the Avengers! And there have been some really good lineups. I'm particularly fond of this West Coast Avengers lineup:

...and later on there's also a lineup with US Agent and Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter) that I totally adore.

The more complicated answer is, if they'd had time to develop, I'm pretty sure Flash's ragtag Space Knight crew would've ended up being an absolute favorite of mine. The Space Knights combined with the few folks he and Venom picked up galivanting across the galaxy would have been incredible all together but we'll never get to see it and I'll ALWAYS be upset about that.

6. Favorite run of your favorite team? ...well, uh, the Space Knight crew literally only appeared in Venom: Space Knight so. Yeah. That run. The only one in existence.

For the sake of keeping things interesting though, I also really like the Excalibur team, and Chris Claremont's run with them (Excalibur v1 #1-19, and then intermittently after that) is amazing. Claremont is far from a perfect writer but this series was SO much fun.

7. Favorite Silver Age comic: Ooooo, tough one - Avengers and Amazing Spider-Man are both really good, but honestly, I have to give this one to Spidey. Lee/Romita Sr. is absolutely unparalleled amazing-ness. Romita's pencils are so beautiful to look at and I think everyone should do themselves a favor and read some silver age Spidey. Just do it. GO. NOW.

Just. Just behold this unparalleled excellence.

8. Favorite solo hero: is it a cop-out if I say Spider-Man again? I loved Scarlet Witch's solo series, but ultimately I like her to be on a team, too. Peter Parker though? That man is a solo act if I ever saw one. And frankly I prefer it that way. I don't really like him being an Avenger, though I suppose I can accept him as a reservist, and occasional team-ups are fine but like. He's just so good on his own. Even his team-ups with Felicia, who he works well with, seem to always end in abject disaster. So yeah, let him stay on his own. (Panels from Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #89)

9. Favorite character introduced in the last ten years: this one's easy, it's Andrea Benton! I absolutely adore Jubulile van Scotter as well though. Both? Both.

10. Best development was answered right here!

11. Favorite ship? You mean I have to pick one? Well, why don't I go with a canon one, for once? PeterMJ will always be endgame. But they both have two hands, and Peter can have up to six. Ultimately though I don't think I could ever keep them apart. They will ALWAYS be soulmates of some kind or another. They're just amazing.

12. Favorite underrated character? Hmmm... probably Sam Buchanan, from Darkhold: Pages From the Book of Sins. He was one of the Darkhold Redeemers and Victoria Montesi's first emotional support blond himbo. (Her second was Eddie Brock (Toxin).) I love him.

[out-of-this-dimension]

Fanon Hot Takes(tm) - Part 1

Hi, today I decided to do something a little different-- I wanted to talk about common Star Fox fanon and my hot take on them.  A lot of people know about these headcanons because they’ve been so integrated into the fandom over the course of the long years.  This will include things I see that are very recurring in Star Fox fics.  I will not be linking any fics as examples and no, I will not be bashing any fics, just discussing how I think the tropes came into being and my personal thoughts on them.

To keep these posts from being super long, I’m going to break them up into several parts with me talking about various fanon things in each part.  This is Part 1 out of God-knows-how-many.  

Obvious disclaimer is obvious: These are my own personal feelings.  If you disagree, then that’s totally fine!  Variety is the spice of life and all that.

#1 - The Metal Legs Theory

Is there a better way to start the post off than by beginning with the metal legs theory?  This one has been around for ages, it seems, and I don’t actually remember where it began but I’m 99% sure it was at least popularized by Game Theory if not originating entirely from MatPat’s video.  I know the idea stems from the puppets used in the advertisements for the SNES game and how they had metal legs to help stand the puppets up.  Regardless of where or how it all began, the theory’s existed for a long time.  Adventures soft deconfirmed it with Fox’s legs appearing to be organic and Miyamoto hard deconfirmed it years later when Zero was released.  Still, due to the theory’s popularity, it exists in a lot of fanworks today-- sometimes stated as fact and sometimes as the butt of a joke. 

My hot take: Surprise, surprise... the Metal Legs Theory has always been one I’ve personally felt neutral towards.  I really don’t have an opinion... it’s just kind of there to me.  It adds a layer of grit to the Star Fox universe that I personally don’t think appropriate for the likes of SF64 and SFAdv (Assault is dark enough that it’d feel slightly more at home but even still, it feels a bit too dark) but it’s not so over-the-top that I’ve ever discounted its value entirely.  I think it could be something fun to explore if you’re wanting to do a grittier take on the series (I mean, hey, I’ve done that before, it’s fun) but as something that’s canon?  I’m... not surprised Miyamoto shot it down when it was brought up to him.

To me, a lot of dark theories about Nintendo games are really interesting to think on but it’s probably for the best for the brand that they don’t really pursue them.  I don’t think the idea of forced leg amputation (particularly to become a pilot) is a subject that should be so easily tossed around games ultimately aimed for kids.  So, really, interesting concept, fun for fanworks, but not something I’d ever want to see be made canon.  Down for amputee rep in the series though, that would be nice... but maybe without the edgy, gritty vibe this fanon brings to the table.

#2 - James is Alive Theory

I somewhat tackled this in an old theory a long time ago about why I do think James McCloud is dead so my answer for this one is probably not going to be surprising.  The character that held James’s position in the original Star Fox for SNES was Fox Sr. and I want to acknowledge that he was later confirmed to be trapped in an alternate dimension in the Itoh comics as opposed to outright killed.  SF64 paid homage to this with James appearing at the end of the “true” route as an enigmatic figure that guides Fox from the exploding Andross base.  Zero does something similar to this in its ultimate level.

James’s death has been questioned for years however, with some people believing he’s still out there somewhere and others believing him to be trapped in an alternate dimension a la Benimaru Itoh comic style.  To be fair, the games have been very flakey about the fate of James McCloud-- to the point that no one really knows who actually killed James or how James actually died.  In some renditions, he’s sucked into a black hole allegedly.  In others, he’s allegedly straight up murdered.  And we don’t really know whodunnit, with some evidence pointing to Pigma, some evidence pointing to Wolf, and a lot of evidence pointing to Andross.  I think the mythos behind James’s death is honestly really fascinating and the fact that it is a mythos is really neat in itself because it adds that layer of mystery to his character.  He’s seen as the pinnacle pilot of the Lylat System, the person that Fox is constantly being compared to, and making his demise something of a legend even to the players really adds to his mystique.  So what are my thoughts about the idea of him being alive?

My hot take: I still do think James McCloud is dead or at least in a state in which he cannot be considered alive.  At the time of SF64′s production, I think it’s safe to say that all of the lore from Star Fox Adventures had definitely not been dreamt up yet (particularly the cut content from Dinosaur Planet that talks about death and the part where Andross somehow persists as a ghost).  However, even if you take a look at only SF64, I think the evidence points to James being dead all along.  SF64 is a massive love letter to archetypes, particularly sci-fi archetypes.  And if you think about it, James’s spirit returning from the grave to help his son honestly fits the bill pretty nicely alongside the other archetypes used in the game.  Throw in Adventures, where Rareware all but put the final nail in the coffin with the Cheat Token easter egg where (presumably) a ghostly, disembodied James gives Fox encouragement... yeah, the odds aren’t seeming good for James.

I’ve talked about my theory with James at large, I think, but to recap: my personal theory is that James is stuck in limbo a la Andross style in Adventures.  He exists as a ghost of sorts that cannot move on.  Perhaps due to magic, perhaps due to his own willpower to see Andross and his legacy destroyed.  I don’t discredit the idea he’s in an alternate dimension but I wanna point out that he’s also never seen in any of the warp segments (at least to my knowledge).  He does seem to go where Andross goes or seems to linger on Venom, leading me to believe he is haunting the planet or his old enemy in some way.

In general, I don’t like the idea of “oh no, but this character was alive all along” especially when their death is such a focal point in another character’s arc (Zero especially emphasizes that Fox rebooted the team somewhat as a revenge run against Andross).  It makes it all feel a bit cheaper somehow.  But... I’ve seen fans tackle the concept with really innovative ideas so I can’t say I hate it.  I just think if it’s done, it needs to be done right and extremely sparingly.  The overuse of fake deaths in Assault is one of my biggest gripes to date about the game’s story but that’s a rant for another time.

#3 - General Pepper is a Dictator and Corneria is an Empire

Ahhhh General Pepper, you fluffy doge you.  With that face (no, we won’t talk about his Assault design), it’s hard to think that this guy could be nefarious in any way.  He is, after all, a pupper (a ‘good boi’ if you will), and dog characters are generally depicted as “good guys”.  General Pepper should be no exception, right?  Haaaaa...

I’m not entirely sure where this came from-- I’ve been directed to a particular fic that I think at the least popularized the fanon approach of General Pepper being Secretly Evil(tm).  I’ll admit, I have not read the fic entirely yet but it’s on my ever-growing backlog.  But lately, I’ve noticed a surge in people adopting the headcanon that there’s more to this fluffy, fluffy boi than what meets the eye.  His Japanese title of “shogun” does not give him any favors, either.  And when you read the Star Fox subtext, it actually paints an interesting picture of what Corneria is really like and who General Pepper really is.  You never really see any leadership outside of General Pepper.  He seems to be touted as the single leader of Corneria.  The Cornerian army seems to have bases all around various planets, even attempting to control the climate of Fichina for... reasons?  Additionally, you never see any other “good-aligned” planetary forces explicitly referred to as being “Katinan” forces or “Macbethian” forces... it’s all just under Corneria.  And I think that is interesting.  It really implies here that Corneria is an empire in its own right, though the game never calls it such (likely due to the evil connotations of empires).  

My hot take: I absolutely am on board with General Pepper being a dictator and Corneria being an empire.  There’s some pretty hefty evidence for it in the games and it adds a delightful shade of grey in an otherwise incredibly black and white set up.  The Star Fox games can be so easily boiled down to “Corneria good, Venom bad” but adding in General Pepper being a dictator... lends into question the morality of it all.  Sure, Venom is clearly bad and Andross is also very clearly bad.  But how clean are Corneria’s hands really when it seems like they’re perfectly fine colonizing whatever planet they can?

I think the added fact of General Pepper being a dictator adds a fair amount to his juxtaposition to Andross as a character.  The two are pretty heavily paralleled as the leaders of their respective factions, their existence as characters basically born from the Japanese idiom "the relationship of dogs and monkeys” (the Japanese equivalent of “fighting like cats and dogs” for us Americans). You can take it a step further and think about how Pepper is a man of war while Andross is a man of science and innovation.  And further still-- how they used to be allies but took very different paths that led them to cross each other.

And it adds another layer of creepy to Andross’s line in Zero, where Andross mocks Fox for following the orders of dogs.  Being a head scientist, Andross would have known a lot of Pepper’s dirty little secrets.  With this headcanon, Fox might come across as idealistic towards Corneria, having his own biases.  But Andross, who has been burned by General Pepper in the past, might be more aware of his and Corneria’s flaws.  It takes that standard black and white conflict of “Corneria good, Venom bad” and chucks it out the window for something more interesting.  I don’t think it’s enough to absolve Andross of his crimes-- far from it, the guy is a maniac and commits war crimes like he’s out for a stroll picking wildflowers, not a care in the world.  But Pepper being a dictator and a very morally grey character adds a layer of complexity that I think rewards fans that are paying attention and I love when people capitalize upon it in their works.  

Now make no mistake, this does add a layer of grit to the tale and I did criticize the Metal Legs Theory for doing that as well.  The difference here is that it can be subtly in the background whereas the Metal Legs Theory feels like something that is overtly gritty.  And honestly?  I never see Nintendo acknowledging Pepper openly as a dictator.  I don’t see the black and white nature of the Star Fox series ever being openly challenged... but maybe subtly.  And I think for this series, that’s perfectly fine.  I like it when developers reward players for paying attention to the worldbuilding... even though in this particular case, the idea of Star Fox helping an empire does, again, call into question the morality of it all.  Sure, Pepper will probably never be like Andross in his villainy.  But, again... how clean are his hands?  And how nice is Corneria really, knowing what we do know about its relationship with other planets?

Anyways, I could ramble on and on about Corneria, Andross, and Pepper but I think a lot of it would fit better in a separate post so I will be ending Part 1 here!  Part 2 may be out soon, it depends on my attention span.  I’m still writing out the Star Fox Assault remake concept so that’s also taken some of my time up. Hopefully, I’ll have time to make some more posts and breathe some life into the SF fanbase on here. 

Send me any fanon takes or common tropes in Star Fox fics that you’d like for me to talk about.  

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

I’ve lately been hearing a lot of praise for Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man and how he was “comic accurate”, likely due to the popularity of the Spider-Man movies with No Way Home approaching. I feel like this is a very misguided interpretation of comics Spider-Man. I do not see his character as similar or equal to the one from the Ditko era, the Romita Sr. era, the Conway era, etc. It really baffles me because a lot of people latch onto superficial things such as Peter having a bad temper to define his character.

What do you think of this resurgence in Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man as a “comic accurate” Spider-Man?

So, Garfield and Maguire were both comics accurate in some ways and inaccurate in other ways, and almost in an inversion to one another.

Garfield was a more accurate Spidey, and Maguire was a more accurate Peter. Neither 100% btw.

But both are so much better than Holland.

I can understand though how a casual will mistake Garfield as comics accurate. Webshooters+more of a scientist+being funny as Spider-Man = the character.

But is true in a very oversimplified take on Spider-Man, but even then... you have to seriously ignore ALL the other stuff with Garfield.

You have to ignore the skateboarding. The too cool for school swagger in ASM2. His Dad's secret underground subway laboratory...

The thing is with ALL three live action actors, is that any of them could have gone more accurate if the scripts and directing had been on point.

But the sad truth is we're on this asinine roller coaster with Spider-Man movies wherein the Maguire movies were viewed as dogshit when Garfield was the new hotness. Then Maguire nostalgia intermingled with Holland being the new hotness meaning Garfield was now the dogshit one. But now some Garfield nostalgia is bleeding through.

Imo, they should have honestly just done Spider-Man 4 as a soft reboot ala James Bond movies and cast Garfield and Emma Stone as the new Peter and Mary Jane.

[one-boring-person]

I loved writing this idea, so I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it! Thanks for requesting @jawline-of-steel !💛💛

You Wanted To Talk To Me?

Edgar Frog x reader

Warnings: mentions of injury

A/N: this is heavily referenced to my other series, Only Traitors Consort With The Damned, which you can find on the masterlist.

Masterlist

"Man, just talk to her." Alan rolls his eyes as they stumble through the training course together, wet mud slicking their trousers and shirt fronts, hair and clothes soaked through from the pelting rain, bodies trembling from how hard they've been working.

"Talk to who?" Edgar responds, playing dumb as they throw themselves at a climbing wall, chests smashing painfully into the solid surface.

Neither if them speak for a minute as they haul themselves upwards, cresting the wall with some difficulty as their leaden arms struggle to hold their weight, their muscles screaming in protest, though they both manage it. From the top, the rest of the course is visible, a few other cadets just ahead of them, each of the pairs released from the starting point in "waves" so that they can be timed. Both of the boys sigh out audibly as they take in the view, not taking too much time as they swiftly climb to their feet and leap from the top, reaching for the heavy ropes hanging from a structure across from them, the rough material grazing their hands painfully as they slip down it a little. Ignoring the discomfort, they swing their legs in time with the momentum of the rope and kick off it, landing on a far platform, rolling as they land, ending up face first in yet more dirt, signifying the beginning of a net crawl.

"You know who I mean, Edgar. (Y/n)! You should talk to her." Alan manages to explain, voice strained from the exertion required to pull his body through thick mud.

"Why should I talk to her?" Edgar grits out, hands scrabbling frantically in the filth as he struggles to pull himself through this particular obstacle, glad to see the end if it not far out of sight.

"Because it's very obvious that you like her."

"I don't like her." The response is almost automatic, a reflex designed to protect his real feelings about their fellow trainee.

In truth, Edgar had had a crush on the girl for a good few months, having been interested in her as soon as he first laid eyes on her, nearly six months ago, when he and his brother signed up for the SRS. Neither of them had ever really thought about taking their vampire hunting that seriously, but this all changed when the dark-clad Soldiers converged on Santa Carla, their hometown, a couple of years ago, hunting down one of their own, who was seen as a traitor. The hooded men had come into the comic shop searching for some help, only to be confused by the Frog's zealous attitude and rough introduction to the supernatural side of the town, swiftly recognising potential in them. When their Hunt was over, the result of which they never found out, the men returned to the shop, offering to enlist them in the training program as soon as they turned the correct age, stating that the minimum age for joining the SRS is sixteen. Now at that age, the Frog brothers were quick to travel to New Orleans, where they found the headquarters and signed up, completing the theory section with flying colours before they moved onto the physically demanding practical side: hunting.

When they first started this stage, the two of them were easily overshadowed by some of the others in the group, despite already having four kills under their belts (so to speak), their smaller stature allowing some of the larger, physically stronger cadets to overtake them in the rankings, though it was much to their surprise when they found out one of the best was a girl named (Y/n). With a pretty much unknown backstory, the sixteen year old girl had shown up many of the other cadets, holding her own in many of the harder exercises, showing off her aptitude for shooting and fighting, flooring some of the most muscular rookies training with them with ease. It was no wonder Edgar developed a crush on her.

"Frog! I do hope you intend on moving soon, or you'll be stuck on clearing duty for a week!" A senior officer snaps at him from somewhere to his left, drawing him from his brief lapse into his head.

"Yes, ma'am!" He shouts back, knowing how they hate to be ignored.

"Get a move on!"

Gritting his teeth, Edgar follows his brother out onto the next stage - a variety of elevated logs providing bridges across a swampy areas of ground. In the pouring rain the logs have already become waterlogged, making them slippery and dangerous.

Approaching one, he leaps up and grabs the end of it, quickly heaving himself onto the narrow stretch of wood, catching his balance before he steadily steps along it, going with the incline as much as possible, biting his lip as his feet slip a little on the wood. Nearing the end of the log, he locates the closest one to it and jumps to it, landing shakily on the lifted end, repeating the process until he has safely crossed it, catching up to his brother as they run the last few kilometres across the marshy land, breathing heavily in the pouring rain. The finish line comes into view, the posts signifying its presence only just visible through the rain, the flags topping them slapping wetly against the poles they are attached to, concealing the familiar insignia of the SRS from view.

With one last push, Edgar and Alan throw themselves over the finish line, trying not to collapse in exhaustion as they quickly stretch out their stiffening muscles, neither of them saying a word until they've caught their breath back, going to stand with the other cadets who have already finished it.

"One hour, fourteen minutes and forty-three seconds. Not bad, Frogs, not bad." The drillmaster informs them as they get close, the two of them brightening up slightly at the sound of that; it's a new personal best.

"Nice one, you two." A familiar voice congratulates them, the two of them turning to find (Y/n) standing there, a genuine smile on her features, mud striping her cheeks like war paint, most likely the result of her team mate getting a little over-zealous on one of the obstacles.

"Thanks." Alan smiles back, looking to Edgar as he struggles to reply.

"Err, yeah, thanks, you did really well, too." He finally manages, blushing as he looks away, suddenly feeling very hot.

"Thank you." She acknowledges, making eye contact briefly before turning away, going back to her team mate.

"You're smitten." Alan rolls his eyes, looking over at his brother in exasperation.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Stop trying to hide it, Edgar, I'm your brother, I see all these things."

*

The drillmaster's words ring clearly in Edgar's head as he steps through the darkened corridors, making his way in and around broken furniture and piles of ceiling debris, his helmet limiting his vision greatly.

"Don't get caught off guard, or they'll have your ass for breakfast."

Of course, you'd hope that he was being metaphorical, but the cadets are all aware of one fact: he isn't. Not when they've all been tasked with clearing an abandoned hospital of the supernatural beings squatting there, particularly the wraithes and their carnivorous tendencies, most of which are to blame for the hospital's fall in the first place.

A piece of glass shattering behind him snaps him from his thoughts, the sound instilling a sense of fear into him as he slowly turns, freezing in place when he sees a shape in the hallway behind him. From where he is, he can't tell what it is, but he knows it won't hesitate to kill him, so he lifts the gun in his hands to shoulder level, cocking it gingerly, body shaking in fear. Aiming steadily, he let's the flashlight roam across the shape, only to let out a breath when he sees what, or rather who, it is.

"(Y/n)?!" He hisses out to her, surprised that she is in this part of the building.

"Edgar? Is that you?" Her voice floats back over to him, the cadet holding up a hand to shield her eyes from the bright light.

"Yeah, it's me. You found anything yet?" He responds, secretly pleased that she actually remembers his name.

"No. Have you?" She clarifies, coming over to him, her gun held comfortably over her abdomen as she stays prepared, ready to shoot anything dangerous.

"Not yet."

"That's good." She looks him in the eye, "I kinda wanted to talk to you, though this probably isn't the best time."

Edgar gazes at her, surprised at what she is saying, an eyebrow lifting under the visor of his protective helmet.

"You wanted to talk to me?" He asks, incredulous.

"Yeah, I do." She nods, looking away again, her fingers tapping nervously on the stock of the gun.

"What about?"

She is silent for a minute, before she takes a deep breath and responds, relaxing her shoulders as she tries to stay calm.

"I just wanted to tell you about how I feel about you. Edgar, I know this is weird because we don't really know each other, and you probably don't feel the same way, but I, well, I like you. A lot."

There is an awkward moment of quiet between us as he tries to figure out how to respond correctly.

"You...you like me?" He finally manages to ask, not quite believing what he heard before.

"Yeah, I do. I understand if you don't feel the same way, but I just thought you should know." (Y/n) explains, going to move past him, before he stops her with a hand on her arm.

"(Y/n), I've had a crush on you for the longest time, I just didn't know how to tell you." He informs her, waiting for a reaction.

"...really?"

"Yeah. Just ask my brother, he figured it out pretty quickly."

She smiles beneath her visor, clearly much happier now that the initial worry is over.

"I'm glad. Maybe when we get some free time, we could go on a date?" She suggests, adjusting her grip on the weapon.

Edgar smiles back at her.

"I'd like that."

[quinintheclouds]

Hey, I just read your post on ADHD/EFDD and was just wondering if you have read any research articles on this and if you have, could you tell me which ones because it all sounds super interesting and I need to choose a topic for my psych lit review and I’m thinking about doing something to do with all the stigma around and misconceptions about different mental health disorders.. it’s totally okay if not tho, I know it’s a big ask, but thanks anyway

That sounds like such a great topic!!! I would be HONORED to help :D 

The first person I think of when discussing the term EFDD is Dr. Russell Barkley. He’s one of the leading ADHD experts, and has been a spearhead for studying executive dysfunction in people with ADHD for decades. Very much ahead of his time compared to the DSM. I’ve had his book “Taking Charge of Adult ADHD” recommended to me so many times, but have yet to read it.

Here’s some free stuff, though! 

[reblogs appreciated because Tumblr hates posts with links and I wanna make sure this anon sees it!]

I tried to include some short stuff and longer stuff, some articles, images, videos, and comic recs, so you can choose based on your current energy and focus level :) I’ve also bolded links and key points of each source if you like skimming. Let’s go!

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Here’s an interesting article/study on EFDD! They found that “ADHD [is] associated with deficits in inhibition, managing one’s attention, self-directed speech and rule-following, self-motivation, and even self-awareness [...] ADHD therefore involves deficits in self-restraint, [...] selfsensing and imagery, self-control of emotion, and self-directed play for problem-solving.”

Thank you for motivating me to look up some articles, because I learned some new things, too! For instance, they assert that ADHD could also be called SRDD (Self-Regulation Deficit Disorder), but conclude the article by saying either SRDD or EFDD fits better than ADHD, and that the terms could be used interchangeably, because SR (self-regulation) and EF (executive function) are effectively talking about the same things. So his assertion is that even if the name ADHD never changes, it can still be scientifically classified as either of the other terms. I believe in recent years he’s preferred EFDD more and more.

[note that the above article/study is from 2011, back when we were on the DSM-IV, so a lot of research has been done since then]

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If that article’s a bit wordy or you want something more visual and up-to-date, here’s a really detailed PowerPoint presentation used during the 2018 ADHD Symposium! It’s long but well-organized so you can just read the big headers or you can read all the bullet points explaining it. Keep in mind this was a lecture, so some of it probably made more sense in person. I’m glad I read this, because I realize the terminology I’ve used is slightly off: according to the Symposium, there aren’t “subtypes” of ADHD, but the different names (ADHD-PI, ADHD-PH, and ADHD-C) are really just used to show the prevalence of certain symptoms in that individual. So they’re all terms for ADHD, but “subtype” was poor word choice on my part. 

Oh! I just found a video of him giving a lecture in 2012 using many of the same PowerPoint slides! Here ya go! It’s a bit longer than the other videos I’ve linked below (13min), but it might make the slides easier to interpret :)

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If you want a really short and basic overview, here’s a video explaining 5 main ways executive functions affect the brain and how they work differently in people with ADHD. [I put the video below as well if you wanna stay on tumblr] It’s from 2010, but it holds up. It only covers 5 big ones, so remember (if you can) that executive function affects EVERYTHING and the symptoms will affect everyone differently and at different levels. 

This is just the most basic overview and a good place to start:

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Here’s one where he talks about our Time-Blindness! (below) I was going to pick a couple favorite quotes to give you an idea, but that’d wind up being a transcript of the whole video because HE GETS IT. This is from 2014, but I CANNOT recommend it enough!!! He mentions that ADHD doesn’t have a deficit of attention, but rather a deficit of intention. He describes us as having a near-sighted sense of time, and talks about deadlines, “laziness,” etc.

 ALSO he talks about how our brains DON’T CONNECT our knowledge to our performance (back of brain to front) like everyone else’s, so we have the same level of knowledge and intelligence, but can’t access and use it the way others can. This is why teaching skills and organization/memory/time-management tips isn’t helpful -- we can learn them, but our knowledge and action centers are separated, so actually doing them/sticking with them is just as hard as before. 

If you don’t watch the whole thing, at least skip to 3:29 cause that part’s really funny and relatable (ok the whole thing is relatable):

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And of course, I highly recommend the YouTube channel How to ADHD! I have a couple friends who work on it, and they REALLY know their stuff! (They’re the ones who taught me during a game night that RSD isn’t a real term and it should be called “rejection-sensitivity” as part of the emotional dysregulation umbrella) 

I went looking and found this video (below) has the BEST explanation of it that I’ve seen in such a concise, entertaining way. I hadn’t seen this one before, but it even covers some of the things I mentioned in that post your ask is about! Especially the Internal Restlessness that I mentioned as the true “hyperactivity” we all share; even though some of us also express outward hyperactivity, both presentations come from the same restlessness in our brains.

^^^This has some great examples, visuals, animations, and different ways of explaining and thinking about our symptoms! If you want more about this, the description has a bunch of links to their sources! Jessica and everyone else who works on this channel is great at making the videos watchable for people with ADHD (even if we have to rewind sometimes)

Here's Jessica's official Twitter @HowtoADHD! (I was today years old when I found out that she follows me)

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And if you want something REALLY short and simple, here’s a 2 minute animation comparing living with ADHD to trying to film a movie with a director who keeps falling asleep [below]

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If you like comics:

My favorite ADHD comic artists are: ADHD Alien [@ADHD_Alien on Twitter and @adhd-alien on Tumblr]; Dani Donovan [@danidonovan on Twitter and @danidonovan on Tumblr -- we’re somehow twitter mutuals and she is such a sweetheart. She has some really good infographics, too!!]; ADHD Bri [@AdhdBri on Twitter and @adhdbri on Tumblr]; and dreamadept [@yume_dango on Twitter and @yume-dango on Tumblr]

They’re all well-researched, funny, genuine, intelligent, insightful, talented artists who depict ADHD in a very accurate and relatable way. Go check ‘em out and support them! :D

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I’m gonna stop there for now, but PLEASE feel free to add on to this with other sources, questions, videos, thoughts, comic artists, etc.!!! Hope this helps someone out there!

[forevercloudnine]

new 52 scarebat ship meme

(I had @heroes-etc​ give me more questions, but for scarebat this time, since we talk about it 24/7 but I never post about it. These are from this ship meme.)

4. Their favorite physical feature on each other?

There’s only one feature of Bruce’s appearance that’s scarier when he’s not wearing the batsuit, and that’s his creepy blue eyes. Especially the way Greg Capullo draws them where they’re sickly pale and have ridiculously constricted pupils.

So his eyes would definitely be in the running for Jonathan’s favorite feature, even if seeing them would require Bruce’s mask to be off, which is something New 52 Scarecrow explicitly avoids. Yes, that character trait only exists to justify why Batman’s identity is still secret after Scarecrow mind controls and subsequently institutionalizes him in “Gothtopia,” but I think it’s interesting so I’m going to pretend it’s not shoe-horned in there for meta reasons.

Actually having to see Bruce without the cowl on would definitely permanently break the illusion of Batman as a nightmarish inhuman bat demon, which I’m sure is a large part of the appeal for anyone as obsessed with fear as Jonathan Crane. But Bruce’s creepy eyes would be a serious consolation prize. 

Bruce’s favorite of Jonathan’s physical features is rough, because Jonathan is famously not great re: physical features. I’m going to say his mouth, because a) that’s where the snark comes from, and b) the New 52 establishes that in one of their earlier encounters, Jonathan had sewn his own mouth shut, so it’s one of those things where a bad first impression turned positive later on leads to more fondness than if you’d made a good impression in the first place.

I just looked up the panel where he does it and I DID forget how incredibly gross his lips look here, which makes the fact that I have chosen it as Bruce’s feature seem really funny in retrospect. But I do think that seeing Jonathan’s mouth healed and unmutilated would be a reassuring reminder of how he’s stabilized since their first encounter, at least to the point that he isn’t hurting himself anymore. Also, Bruce buys him a lot of chapstick.

Bonus alternate answer that did not make it into the Google Doc:

9. How open are they with their feelings?

Bruce and Jonathan are both pretty competent deceivers in the New 52; Bruce always, Jonathan depending on how the writer is feeling (though you could argue that Bruce just has a stronger grip on reality, while Jonathan’s skill at obfuscation varies with how lucid he is).

...I was going to use Detective Comics #23.3 as an example of Jonathan being a good liar, but actually upon re-reading I’m realizing that only 1/4 rogues buy his attempt at manipulation. So maybe he’s considerably worse at hiding his intentions than he thinks he is. Regardless, he doesn’t ever attempt to disguise his obsession with Batman.

Whether or not he’d express romantic feelings or try to hide them is debatable. There’s no Masters of Fear equivalent in the New 52 establishing that he was ever mocked or punished for expressing romantic feelings for someone, though there is a flashback panel in his origin emphasizing that he was always lonely in this regard (and coincidentally doesn’t specify that his interest is in women, which is fun).

In Green Lanterns #17 he has some internal monologue about how fear is his romance and he needs Batman to feel it, but it is an INTERNAL monologue, so it’s not clear if this is something he would express to Bruce or keep to himself. Or if he’s even fully processed it himself, given how incredibly out of it he is in this comic. Most of his spoken lines are just kind of screaming incoherently. Bruce gets pretty snippy with a Green Lantern at the end of the issue for suggesting that Jonathan should be punished for his crimes as if he were in control of his actions. 

Bruce is a similarly complicated answer, since for all his deceptions and shadowy mystery he pretty much wears his heart on his sleeve when it comes to romance. It’s just that his heart doesn’t express or process emotions the same way as anyone around him, which can create conflict. His (seriously underrated) love interest during Scarecrow’s origin arc, Natalya, spent most of her time dating him thinking that he didn’t care about her for this reason. He was trying to express that he loved her, but he mostly did so through complimenting her skills, which she never took as serious declarations of affection because he wasn’t being straightforward and she was insecure.

Jonathan does not himself seem like someone who would be especially secure in the idea of another person having romantic feelings towards him, so I assume that while Bruce might THINK he’s being open with any romantic feelings he develops, he would in reality just be really confusing.

13. How do they react to being away from each other?

I actually think that in general, Jonathan is one of the few people who would have no issue dealing with Bruce’s tendency to unexpectedly go AWOL for long periods of time, given that he himself has a tendency to fixate on his work to the exclusion of everything else.

But New 52 Jonathan specifically probably has pretty serious abandonment issues due to his father putting him in “the pit” and dying before he could take him out, meaning that Jonathan was waiting for his dad to come back for him for God knows how long, until Jonathan Sr.’s employers finally sent the police to investigate. 

So while in general I think he wouldn’t be very clingy, any impression that Bruce had died or otherwise wasn’t coming back for him would probably be incredibly triggering. If Bruce could assuage this reaction by occasionally sending updates that at least indicated he was still alive, then I doubt Jonathan would have any problems with his absence.

(@heroes-etc​: bruce sending like a checkmark emoji once a day. jonathan hears his phone ping, looks at the screen, and goes hm. good. and doesnt respond.)

Bruce meanwhile has no problem ditching literally any love interest at any time if something crime-related comes up, unless he’s considering quitting the cowl for them (as Joker probably accurately fears will happen with Catwoman in Prelude to the Wedding). But I don’t think he’d stop being Batman for Scarecrow, nor would Jonathan ever want him to — he’s interested in Batman, not necessarily Bruce Wayne.

But even though Bruce wouldn’t have an emotional problem with distance, I think he would get similarly paranoid if they went too long without contact, though for different reasons than Jonathan. Unlike some other villains (*cough* Joker and Riddler), Scarecrow has machinations that don’t require getting Batman’s attention, so if he decided to continue with his less legal experiments, he would not feel compelled to get Bruce involved. While the “World’s Greatest Detective” would probably not have an issue keeping an eye on Jonathan while he’s in Gotham, he’s considerably less capable of that in space. And Jonathan is definitely a rogue he would be obsessed with keeping an eye on, even if he reformed. 

Batman & Robin Eternal established that Dick’s first supervillain conflict AND first mission leaving the country was chasing Scarecrow across the world for an entire summer, which is kind of insane considering how early it was in Batman’s career. Like, he did not have an army of children to watch Gotham for him while he was gone. He had one child, and he took that child WITH him. He left Gotham undefended for months, JUST to catch Scarecrow. Sooo that in of itself implies he wouldn’t be great at keeping his distance.

15. Does their view of themselves differ from their partner’s view?

Well, Jonathan occasionally sees Bruce as a giant bat demon, so yes.

Outside of that very obvious differing view, Jonathan in general sees himself and the rest of the rogue gallery as more vital to Batman’s identity than Bruce considers them; the extent to which he’s right varies depending on your interpretation of Bruce’s character, but it’s definitely not something Bruce would ever consciously think or say. 

This is related to something that’s definitely a misconception of his, though, which is that the majority of Batman’s job revolves around supervillains like him. In Kings of Fear, when Jonathan blackmails Bruce into letting him come on patrol with him (which is a whole thing in of itself), he’s shocked at how boring most of Batman’s work is. Which probably goes along hand in hand with sometimes seeing Bruce as an almost mythologically inhuman figure. 

In his defense, it’s not like he has a lot of context for what the minutiae of Batman’s job is like. He’s either fighting Batman, hiding from Batman, or imprisoned by Batman in Arkham, a place where everyone else also spends all their time fighting or hiding from Batman. Which would really skew your perspective.

Interestingly, Bruce and Jonathan are both people who pride themselves on being extremely self-aware. Both of them probably inaccurately. You can rant about how you have a perfect understanding of your troubled mental state all day long, but if you’re still dressing up like a monster at night to indulge the power fantasies you created as a traumatized child by scaring the hell out of people, there’s probably a level of self-realization you haven’t gotten to yet.

Bruce however is at least self-aware enough to regularly be able to analyze his way out of fear toxin induced hallucinations, which Jonathan is unable to do — when he’s not depicted as having become immune to his fear toxin due to overexposure (as he is in Green Lanterns #17), he can be defeated with the same formulas that Batman regularly manages to resist (like his honestly embarrassing breakdown in Nightwing #50). 

Which ties into the difference between how he sees himself and how Bruce sees him: Jonathan obviously visualizes himself as a “master” of fear. He actually has the same internal monologue about fear and trauma that Bruce does in Batman: The Dark Knight #13: “Make it your own... run to what you fear... stare it in the eye... until it whimpers and backs down.” But Bruce doesn’t see Scarecrow as conquering his fear; he sees him as addicted to it, to the point of his own detriment.

Which is interesting, because Jonathan clearly sees his Scarecrow persona as a way to regain control after being victimized by his father’s fear experiments throughout his childhood. I guess Bruce’s perspective would be that Jonathan’s father instead got him addicted to fear as a child, so his attempts at agency as Scarecrow are just a) reliving his trauma over and over and b) compulsively inflicting his own trauma on others. There’s probably some truth to that, even if overall it’s probably an oversimplification (and coincidentally pretty much EXACTLY what Riddler argues Bruce is doing by “funding” Batman in Batman Annual #4, so there’s that).

20. Did either person change at all, to be with their partner?

The obvious answer here is yes, because Jonathan is a supervillain with no regard for human life while Bruce is a superhero who has dedicated his life to protecting people. So presumably one or both of them would have to make serious compromises to be together. HOWEVER. Scarecrow’s primary motivation is to research, understand and inflict fear, while Batman’s modus operandi is making his enemies afraid of him. So despite their contradiction in morals, they’re uniquely positioned to advance each other’s goals, were they to ever join forces.

Bruce never has a problem using fear toxin on Scarecrow, presumably partially out of an “eye for an eye” sense of poetic justice, but also because Batman is practical and it’s a nonlethal weapon that’s always available to him while fighting Scarecrow. If he could have fear toxin customized for his own use, it’s hard to imagine him being unwilling to use it. In Gothtopia he actually advocates for using what’s leftover from Crane’s new formula on all the inmates at Arkham, which seems about as insanely morally ambiguous as it gets. Arguably, putting fear toxin in his smoke bombs would be considerably less wrong than drugging mental patients out of their mind when they’re supposed to be receiving therapy (this is also the issue where he illegally releases Poison Ivy because she did him a favor, which is both morally questionable and relevant to the current topic).

Jonathan obviously already thinks Batman is the most interesting possible case study in fear; it’s why he keeps coming back to Bruce and Gotham despite being one of the more independent villains in Batman’s rogue gallery in the New 52. So though he would have to give up actively kidnapping people (which would be a huge sacrifice, I’m sure), teaming up with Bruce would give him unrestricted access to his favorite test subject. Unfortunately, it seems very possible that he would fall back to old tricks if he ever felt that he’d gotten everything he could out of a partnership with Bruce. Fortunately, that would probably take a VERY long time.

[ancatss]

ososan s3 thoughts bc why not

osomatsu san is a huge comfort series for me so im gonna ramble abt it <33 bc like the title says why not

ok thoughts on chars and things; osomatsu- just kind of basic so far which is funny 2 say when talking abt oso but still djkf idk how to describe it well; i love whatever he has going on with the ais. it really shows alot abt both characters it’s so cool; i hope he gets some nice moments this season after the movie i kind of became an oso fucker

karamatsu- i love him more and more every day, i’m hoping he’ll get some development this season bc im seriously in love w him. we keep getting these snippets of angst for him that hint to greater emotions and although they’re always kind of sugarcoated with this comedic overtone (like a lot of angst in osmt- i feel it’s with kara especially because even characters like totty have gotten serious development and with him it’s always always played off as comic relief, the thing he keeps hinting at wanting to avoid- it was explored a little bit in the movie and i think the movie is canon because things from it were brought up in the szn) i’d like just a bit more

choromatsu- pretty basic so far- the thing w ichi when the ais/riceballs were first introduced is really really interesting. it might have just been nothing but im looking too much into it bc i can- as i talked abt w oso and as im gonna talk abt again, the ais kind of losing each matsu one by one is really compelling to me, and i get the feeling choro is gonna be the next one to go. maybe kara will make some sort of comment like ‘hmph its just u and be bruzzahs’ (*wow i should rp kara /j /hj*) and how did a choromatsu discussion turn into a karamatsu gush sjfklf

ichimatsu- i love his little side plot/development with the origami hehe thats a cute hobby for him; the whole radio show thing going on hes just weird this season jsdkf- but hes also already angsty w the whole things about the riceballs; like i talked abt with choro i really want to see how he reacted to them/why he reacted the way he did expanded upon more. the last episode where he interacted w the riceballs a lot was so good; the choro thing kind of reminds me what i love about this season so far, it has a lot of the brothers just being brothers yk

jyushimatsu- not much from him yet except for also kind of falling off the side of the riceballs- hes been really really cute this season though like when the ais were playing shogi <33 hes just so sweet i wish all jyushi kins and likers a very good evening

todomatsu- GOD THE EPISODE WHERE HE LIKED THE GIRL FROM THE STORE MADE ME CRY i am not joking. well more like tear up but still- it also might have made me cry bc i love kara so much and i was jealous but were gonna ignore that, i LOVE totty being in luv! even if its with a girl who only talked to him out of courtesy lmao im pretty certain theyre not going to do anything w her again but that whole arc was just so ‘classic totty’

totoko/nyaa- THEY ARE LESBIANS!! I’m so so happy we’re getting more development for nyaa bc i love her a lot and im happy we’re getting to see how totoko acts outside of hanging w the matsus/being w her family on her own; the wrestling thing is funny jdkg but i loved the episode where they came up w the idea so much (poor choro) nyaa with a ponytail is something i never knew i needed

the AIs/Riceballs- i still don’t trust them; they had like ONE cute moment but fr they freak me out, they had one moment in an episode that actually creeped me out like it was some dystopian horror anime (/srs) the ignoring oso thing is interesting doe- I was a little skeptical of them adding new main characters when we already have such an established cast of iyami, chibita, etc (although they haven’t been used that much this season sadly, it is still only a few episodes in tho) but i feel like it’s working so far! i should have had confidence the crew could do it jfk

other: the theme song is so so good i rewatch it every day and the ending is so cute (totoko+nyaa lesbians!!), the animation is as great as ever and even slightly improved in some parts?? for the little commercial images (eyecatcher type things) i dont know how i feel about the slightly changed artstyle yet but ill get used to it; the first episode made me laugh so hard the kny ref was perfect and the seiyuus always make me laugh so that bit was great too

I’m loving this season so far aa nobodys reading this but if u r then thanks ig?? why listen to me anyways i love kara bye

[tomaturtles]

TAG GAMES GALORE bc i just got through my mentions on desktop and saw i missed some tag games i got tagged in </3 ty guys ily i’ll tag people in the end and anyone who gets tagged is free to pick which one(s) you wanna do if any :] starting with one @cinnamqn tagged me in!! Thank you Cinna :D 💖💖 List 10 different female faves from 10 different fandoms, then tag 10 people! 1. Amy Rose (Sonic the Hedgehog) 2. Gwen Tennyson (Ben 10) 3. Starfire (Teen Titans/DC) 4. Webby Vanderquack (Ducktales) 5. Stephanie Brown (Batman/DC) 6. Trainer Leaf (Pokémon) 7. Uraraka Ochaco (Boku no Hero Academia) 8. Amethyst (Steven Universe) 9. Luz Noceda (The Owl House) 10. Toph (Avatar The Last Airbender) Next up is two I got tagged in by @thinkfvst!! Ty Rae 😁 💖💛 10 songs on shuffle that come up on your Spotify 

1. Turn it Off - Paramore 2. Build You Back - Dark Signal 3. Lucy - Skillet 4. My World - SR-71 5. The Climb - Miley Cyrus 6. Re:Re: - Asian Kung-Fu Generation 7. So Am I - Ava Max 8. Hero - Skillet 9. Yo Girl - Heathers the Musical 10. Two Birds - Regina Spektor --- Favourite colour: pink!!!!!!

Last song: Your Guardian Angel by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

Last movie: i Think it was Son of Batman? It was probably a DC movie

Watching: been watching the ‘66 Batman show to fill the Funney DC Show-shaped hole in my heart after i ran out of DC Super Hero Girls and Teen Titans Go episodes to watch on Netflix and it’s been a blast <3 (also to clarify Batman ‘66 isn’t on netflix. but it should be) 

Reading: I just got done reading Robin War + We Are Robin + Batman and the Signal yesterday while our power was out and it was great :]

Sweet, spicy, or savoury: mostly sweet or savoury but depends on my mood tbh. rn i could go for some chocolate

Tea or coffee: Coffee (as long as there’s sugar) -- And last but not least a few by @arataka-reigen, thanks Gi!! 🥰💛💖  5 Things That Make Me Happy  1. Engaging with my hyperfixations +  Infodumping to friends about them + listening to them infodump about their interests 🥰🥰🥰🥰

2. I’ve been picking up felt sewing again and i really like it!! It’s cool having a plushie you made yourself :D

3. Doing stuff with my friends!! Both irl and online but missing my irl friend group + my fav cousins rn since we’d usually always meet at this time of year </3

4. Drawing my fav characters <3

5. Going to bookstores/comic stores and browsing the stuff in there (esp comics and manga!!) -- 3 ships: gwevin, robstar/dickkory,uuuuuuuuhh that’s a niche one but i can’t think of anything else rn so speedamy

Last song: Never Too Late by Three Days Grace

Last film: other than the one mentioned earlier i watched Mickey’s Christmas Carol with friends the other day :]

Currently reading: [vaguely gestures] dc comics bc i’ve started reading several comics and finished very little. debating on picking either 90s yj, new teen titans or super sons back up next

Currently consuming: i had some soda earlier

Currently craving: the willpower to finish a way overdue secret santa gift </3 i only have the bg left to finish

17 Questions 17 Answers

Nicknames: Toma, Duda, Dudinha (the last two from my irl name)

Zodiac: Libra

Height: 149cm (4'10?)

Hogwarts House: hufflepuff

Last thing googled: adam west fairly oddparents

Song(s) stuck in my head: Storybook by Heather Dale

# of followers: 1779

Amount of sleep: 6 to 7 hours,8 if i get to sleep in

Lucky number: 8

Dream job: despite having a whole psychology degree i have No idea </3 i think i’d like to work with kids though!!

Currently wearing: a nightgown (it’s pink with a bear plushies stamp :) )

Favourite: 

Song: Face Down by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus made it to the top 5 im both my last spotify wrappeds so let’s go with that

Instrument: lowkey attached to the electric keyboard bc i took classes on it for quite a while even if it didn’t stick much

Author: i haven’t been reading consistently enough to answer this JKHJK

Animal noises: CATS

Random: i love plushies. my fav activities when going out include going to toystores and checking out the plushies. i have too many already but is that going to stop me from getting more? no

Recent picture: currently obsessed with this ttg screenshot

and now for TAGS (no pressure to do any, also feel free to do just one or all of them depending on what you feel like doing!!) @cinnamqn @thinkfvst @arataka-reigen​ (if you guys wanna do one of the ones you didn’t tag me in jkghjk) @clown-prince-of-lies​ @aliens-on-neptune​ @zinatina​ @ohnonotthemagain​ @your-nightmares-ex​ @biconkuroo​ @brucewaynegf​ @tilltherachis​ @cookiecabbage​

[popculturebuffet]

Loud House Reviews: The Loudest Thanksgiving

It’s almost Thanksgiving! And a vastly diffrent one than in recent memory: Most of us are slimming down family gatherings to just whose in our house, you know because theirs a pandemic going on and it’s not worth risking your life for it. To those either guilting their families into it or doing so because MAGa or some such I only have this to say. 

Speaking of Black Friday i’ts spread over a week and it’s cyber deals mean I got a ton of graphic novels for a dollar a piece and my christmas shopping almost done. So in other words, boo Maga, yay safe and responsible captalisim.  But while the holiday may be diffrent, as well as the pseudo holiday attached that spawned a wonderful musical and many many injuries, one thing stays the same; Holiday Episodes. And despite being the less popular of the three holidays, Thanksgiving still produced tons of great holiday episodes and specials. And with everything being so busy I simply didn’t put too much thought into what to do for Turkey Day.. well okay the day proper i’m going to eat, spend time with family and watch a bunch of mystery science theater 3000, stay the course even in these troubling times, just with only the 4 other people who live in my house. But in terms of episodes I thought i had nothing.. then I started actually thinking on it and what do you know I have three things I want to do for the holiday, though one might wait till next year, and possibly a fourth. But given my workload currently, i’m not one to back away from a challenge, so welcome to a three or four course meal of reviews. First course: The Loud House thanksgiving special, the loudest thanksgiving.  I originally wasn’t going to do this one, mostly because due to my large workload and constant battle with procastination, I keep having to push back the latest episode review, and I have to do that one soon, as there’s a new episode in december and a christmas episode i’ve put off watching for far too long , as I INTENDED to watch eleven louds a leapin for every chirstmas up till now and never got to it before the season was over.  But just like elven louds.. Nick forced my hand.. and by that I mean the SPINOFF got a thanksgiving episode that’s also a sequel in some fashion to this episode. If I wanted to cover that episode this thanksgiving or the next I had to at least watch the original. And frankly, this close to the holiday there was no reason not to review it. So with that out of the way. 

Let’s Get At Er. This is The Loudest Thanksgiving... after the break

The Loudest Thanksgiving takes place during season 3, and still pre-casagrandes spinoff launch despite the christmas special taking place earlier. This is actually easy to explain: The Loud House runs on Comic Strip time... i.e. the characters don’t age unless the writers decide they do. But while the spinoff was in motion at this point, it was still a season off airing wise, and ill advised raitings stunt mini series wise, so in order to keep the Casagrandes fresh in people’s minds presumably, they did a crossover that at this point wasn’t a crossover but now technically is because the show exists but this existed before the show. 

It’s just a show, and I should really just relax. Point is this is a pre-crossover crossover, the two families meet for the first time, the man already said pitter patter, let’s get back at er.  So we open with Flip serving as our magical snowman narrator and regaling us with the tale of steven. Every compastionate can you imagine it... and i’m fucking with you, it’s of course abotu that time the louds and the casagrandes tried having thanksgiving together. 

We then cut to Lori and Bobby being all cute, as usual, and both talking over the phone as each show off their thanksgivings to each other and the enusing family shenanigans. On Lori’s side Lynn is wearing baggy pants so she dosen’t miss the game or the meal by going to the bathroom.. because that’s how pissing yourself works. Look if your going to do something that gross, stupid and broish just woman up and wear an adult diaper. The twins are guarding Lynn sr and the food, poorly, and Lisa has invented a Gravy Squriting robot. I can only see this ending one way. 

Yeah those single function robots really get useless once the exestnetial crisis kicks in. 

On the casagrandes side, Rosa is likewise guarding her kitchen, Frida is painting and Hector plans to sernade eveyrone because Hector is the best and you all should know that. Even with the recent Bobby Abuse he’s still awesome. As for the Mercado, CJ and Ronnie Anne are running the annual canned food drive because CJ is better than the best and should really be used more often.  Both wish they could be there.. and both honestly talk about possibly spending thanksgiving with each other and just one of their family. It’s not a wild proposition: Both are going to college soon, both are in a longterm relationship.. they plan to get married down the line for now. If things hold they will eventually have to figure this out. Of course rather than fate let them figure this out themselves, Hector overhears on Bobby’s end and Lincoln, whose busy A Clock Work Oranging himself so he can stay awake during dinner, overhears on Loris, leading to an emergency family meeting for both sides.  Both families are worried their prospective teenager going to another house of their longterm significant other for one year will mean they get all the holidays. Having never had a relationship last long enough to worry about this, I don’t quite get it as in my experince watching couples juggle this.. they usually just alternate years, spoilers the solution the episode goes with, or trade off christmas and thanksgiving, both fair solutions. Buuut as much as this bothered me at first the more I thought about it the more it actually made sense: People.. aren’t always rational and won’t always do the smart or correct thing, especially when it comes to their children. And with Lori leaving college and the casagrandes being togehter for thanksgiving for the first time in about 5 years, with both ronnie anne and her mom not having had a proper one in some time due to her mom needing to work thanksgiving, presumibly because of the eternal curse of gravy chugging contests, they have valid emotional reasons to go a bit nuts and do some irrational and assholish things. They just don’t want to loose their big sister and big brother, and that’s fair. It may not be at all accurate but it’s fair. 

So thus began the great Guilt Off of 2018. ON the Loud side they START with a fairly soft pitch, the twins simply offer her food early, and she takes it because honestly I would too. Then again, i’d also take free food in just about any situation, so i’m not really a good gage for this. As long as it’s not poision i’ll probably eat it if it’s free. The next two are a little.. less subtle, with the kids talking about Lori’s roll in the annual thanksgiving skit.. which I’m assuming is soley for Lynn Sr. as no one else seems to be going to their thanksgiving. Which granted theirs valid explinations for why their neighbors didn’t go, the mcbrides and mr grouse have their own families and while Mr Grouse rarely gets to see his, he now has neighborly friends after the last holiday special happy to help. But Pop Pop.. makes no sense as his girlfriend, the only plausable reason he wouldn’t be there, was said to not have much family in her debut. So he’s just.. absent from thanksgiving for no reason. Thena gain we later find out this play is movie length, so maybe he was just trying to escape that which in that case, who can blame him. Rita almost reigns things back in with the mother’s trump card: parental guilt. Almost. She then almost crushes lori’s hand but it’s funny enough.  At the Casagrandes, their opening move is largely the same only Rosa wins in terms of execution, cooking up some of bobby’s faviorites to specificially target him. Frida paints him into a painting, again the Casagrandes win his one in terms of effort. They do tie in the last bit, as Maria and Ronnie Anne try the same sort of guilt slining with the same bone crushing.  Eventually both teens get fed up with the next bit; For Lori, Lucy gives her a long overdramatic poem about an empty chair which is easily tied with one bit later for best bit of hte episode.. which granted when I can only think of two or three gags that really made me laugh...

Bobby likewise gets Hector telling the story about a realitvie not going to thanksgiving. Both get angry.. which for Lori, isn’t all that suprising, if entirely warranted. For Bobby though? It’s like pissing off a dolphin. IT’s hard to do and very much not something you want to actually pull of. Both families are forced to admit they eavesdropped, and are incredibly worried about this whole situation, with Lynn Sr selling lincoln up the river for telling them... this man’s capacity for selling out his children is as awe insprising as it is truly pathetic. 

So the two teens go back to their rooms to figure something out and come upon a reasonable solution: just have one of the families host and both come to it. That’s more than fair. But given we still have a full special to pad out, both families are still treating this like a competion: while the louds win the coin toss, both sides are determined to win thanksgiving. IT’s far from the most insane contest i’ve seen this month, x of swords was happening and i’ve seen a russian yank a goblin out of the demonic alligator skin he was using as a puppet. And we don’t know for sure Arrakoa and Krakoa didn’t have a trial over a baby turkey being adorable as one of the challenges. Other challenges included getting drunk, an eating contest, telling someone to murder a kitten and a wedding, all of this is actual stuff that happened in this recent crossover, I have made up nothing. 

So after the break and Flip realizing oh shit the audience is back, the war begins. The Louds are preparing for war, with Lola putting out a picture of herself instead of bobby and laurie because of course.. still not a half bad gag. The Casagrandes arrive and in in a passive agressive move that was already done a year before this special by Brooklyn Nine Nine and better, brought their own food.. though the roast pig is a nice and unique touch. Points for that.  And this.. is where the special gets tedious. Yeah while the IDEA of this episode was really good and I was excited to cover it in practice it’s just similar gags on both sides done for both halves: The first being “let’s guilt them into staying” and the second being “Let’s one up each other” with only two bits really working: Frieda having a painting and the louds annual skit.  And the skit is because it raises a LOT of questions: Why is it 90 minutes, who played the adorable turkey in the years between babies? Was it just whoever was youngest? Who wrote this? Who is this for besides Lynn Sr and Pop Pop? Who all has sat through this thing at some point? Is that why the mcbrides don’t come over for thanksgiving? It’s just.. fantastic is what i’m saying.  

But otherwise this part is just the family trying to one up each other with food, or toasts, or song, before devolving into a big fight. What makes it not work is.. there isn’t a lot of personality there. You have these two big, plentiful, intresting casts, even at this stage with the Casagrandes far less established and fleshed out. And instead of finding interesting ways for them to play off one another meeting for the first time, and to use that to also flesh the characters out more for the inevitable spinoff, it’s just 

For most of the second half. Thankfully it DOES manage to bring things around as after things degenerate into a food fight, the families decide to just ASK the two of them where they want to go.. and find them entirely missing.  It then turns out, in a nice twist, this is where Flip came in. Since his place is the only place open 24/7 and 365, barring fishing season, Bobby and Lori fled here to flee their insane families.. who then follow them there because Carlos and Lisa have them chipped. I was suprised at first Carlos had a tracker on bobby but honestly, i’ts just common sense. The man is like a golden retriver in a man’s body. Here’s an artists interpretation

Both families breifly bicker before Lori and Bobby announce their starting their own family thankgiving with blackjack, and hookers. They really shouldn’t of let Flip in on the brainstorming session. Both families don’t want that, and apologize, admitting they just didn’t want to loose them and both genuinely offering to let the other have them next year. Flip, who despite having a “pay for my colonoscopy jar” with a picture of his ass on it, is somehow the voice of reason and just suggests trading thanksgivings every year, everyone accepts, and we do get a genuinely heartwarming ending of both sides gathering everything for a gas station thanksgiving. Honestly reminds me of king of the hill’s airport episode, but in a very good way and still unique enough circumstances to work.Also Flip, of all people, donates the cans needed to finish the can drive.. granted i’m not sure if they WANT any of that meat, but hey, he meant well and it made me really like the character.  We get a heartwearming duet between hector and luna and sono the whole family and we’re out. 

Final Thoughts: This was disapointing. I’ve listed most of my complaints already, but overall it wasted a good premise of two families coming together, and even the feud parts could’ve been funnier. As it is it’s just.. ehhhhhhhhhh. It has some good parts, and bobby is an angel here on earth as always. But the whole just feels padded. Like this was SUPPOSED to just be 11 minutes, got bumped up, and thus here we are. It’s not the worst Loud House has done, i’ve seen and heard of muccch worse, but for a holiday special it just feels stale and i’ve seen way better thanksgiving specials. And i’ll be getting to that.  If there’s an episode of a cartoon you’d like me to cover, just pop in my ask box or dms and you can comission a review for 5 bucks a piece. Discounts on bulk, 15 for movies. Until then , happy thanksgiving.

[generouslyandrogynousdragon]

Things the Artemis Fowl movie got wrong

A list in several parts

Right at the start, we have multiple problems, the biggest of which is that Artemis surfs, apparently? In the book, he is described on the first page as not being athletic, and throughout the books he is consistently one of the first to get winded and complain about how much physical excercise there is going on. Literally page 1, Disney, could you not even read that much of the books?

Angeline Fowl is dead. Right there, right off the bat, the entire premise of the movies is wrong. The entire plot of the first book revolved around Artemis' dad (Colin Farrell did a good job, but he wasn't meant to be there if they were being consistent to canon) being missing and Artemis, having taken over the Fowl empire, trying to raise ransom money to save him. But right at the end of book one, we see the first chink in Artemis' 'glorious bastard' facade, when he trades half the gold he got for his mother's health being restored. No Angeline, no start to the redemption arc. (I'll get to that bit later, don't worry.)

Domovoi Butler. Where do I begin? First, his actor. He does a damn good job with the amount of freedom Disney gave him, but he is hamstringed from the start, and you can tell. But worse than that, by far, is the fact that they call him Domovoi or, worse, 'Dom'. No, Disney. Bad Disney. Butler never reveals his first name in the books, it's part of his training that he is forbidden to speak it. It's part of what makes the reveal in a later book work emotionally so well.

Holly Short. Don't get me wrong, again, Lara does a great job with what she has to work with, but she is held back too. In the book, she and Artemis are not friends. Not by a long shot, not for at least 3 or 4 books do they move beyond a grudging 'I don't like you, but I need your help so I'll put up with you for now' relationship. They also cut out something massive about her character in the name of diversity. Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favour of greater diversity in movies, but this was something integral to the base canon.

Commander Root. Dame Judi Dench is a precious gem, but she shouldn't have been in this movie. At least not as Root. The biggest plot point about Holly is that she is canonically the first ever female L.E.P. Recon member, with Root getting scrutiny for allowing her in. (Side note: Kinda like Judy Hopps in Zootopia, right?) Root was a pot-bellied, cigar smoking elf badass, so completely changing all of that for diversity just makes the movie suffer. Also, much as I love her, Judi Dench cannot pull off the gravelly, 100 packs a day voice of Root, though bless her for trying.

Foaly. Finally, a good characterisation, though again, he could have done with being less serious and throwing a few more quips. Foaly was literally the comic relief of the books, so making him super-serious here doesn't work.

Mulch Diggums. Finally, Disney got it right. Josh Gad is having a ton of fun with this role, and it shows. This is how all of them should have been, true to canon. A lowlife pickpocket, and some of the truest to canon scenes belong entirely to him. (The goblins scene, for example.)

Juliet Butler. I will raise my hand and admit, it has been several years since I read the first book. But I don't remember her being in it at all? I could swear she didn't show up until book 2, when Arty and Dom (if fictional characters could kill me, I'd be dead twice over for that) go off to the Arctic to get Fowl Sr back. Wasn't she brought in to watch over Angeline while they were gone?

Artemis Fowl Jr. Poor little baby bastard child. They did him dirty in this. He starts off in the surfing scene, which right off the bat is awkward and at odds with what we know of him. No big deal, though, since the very next scene we see him in the therapist's office, and this is the truest to his canon self that we see him in the movie. But after that, he's...an insecure child who doesn't believe in the tales Fowl Sr told him? Not a criminal mastermind, running a criminal empire by himself? Not the glorious bastard that we hated and loved in equal measure throughout the book? Not the next James Moriarty? A massive chunk of his character is just gone, and so when he tries to kidnap Holly, it feels like such a dissonance that it gives me whiplash. And of course, his character arc is gone. If he starts off a good guy, where does he go? What's the point of him? The whole point of the ending of book 1 was that he had grown as a person, that he wasn't as selfish and heartless as he thought, hence why he gave up half the gold he had won to save his mother.

The plot. My god, where do I begin? The presence of certain scenes, like Mulch with the goblins and the oak tree at Tara, indicate that someone knew at least the basic plot of the books, which makes the rest so much worse. It loosely - emphasis on loosely - follows the first book, but adds in extra bits for no reason. The whole reason you wanted to make a movie about Artemis Fowl was because the plot of the book was so successful, so why change so much of it, Disney?

To wrap up, I want to ask why that last scene was necessary? Why on earth did Mulch get captured, it literally added nothing to the plot other than to give us a narrator. If you wanted a narrator that badly, why not just get Morgan Freeman - don't tell me you couldn't afford him, you're f***ing Disney - to do an omniscient 3rd person narration voiceover?

In conclusion, the only saving grace of this movie was Josh Gad as Mulch, although the rest of the cast do the very best they can, and give decent performances. If this wasn't an Artemis Fowl movie, just another generic technomagical kids movie, it would be a solid C. As it is, the sheer disrespect they showed, not only to the source material, but to Eoin Colfer's original vision, drags it down to an D-, with only the honest effort of the cast saving it from an F.

I thought I couldn't be disappointed like this by a movie adaptation of one of my favourite book series again, not after how they did my girl Saphira so dirty in the Eragon movie. But somehow, they managed it. Well done, Disney. Another spectacular failure from a movie adaptation of a series with so much potential. Okay, rant over, and sorry to mobile users.