#it’s about rebuilding. redoing. trying again.

[national-hockey-gay]

Making an Edit for Every Team in the NHL: The Edmonton Oilers (5/32)

(original quote)

[monabee-draws]

Some TimeBomb Analysis I felt was very heartbreakingly necessary in this trying time:

Ekko comes to realise by being in this world that Jinx was always Powder, in the same way that Vi comes to reconcile the two 'versions' of her, Ekko sees all the ways Jinx's savvy-ness and cunning and brains were always Powder. He gave her up for dead - like his dream of a beautiful Zaun - a long time ago, and painted the mural to show it. But being here with Powder makes him realise he can still have this is he's willing to take her as she is now, flaws and all.

So we all know Ekko is really talking about Jinx in the line "I used to dream the undercity could be like this", but I also think the opposite is true for his last line: "Can we pretend like it's the first time?" is about the kiss, but it's also about this version of reality. It's about Benzo being alive and Powder being Powder. It's about stepping back from his real world for a second to pretend that this is his real world. He was always going to go back, but just like his use of the Z-drive means that he could theoretically re-do and undo all of his mistakes ad infinitum, this is an acknowledgement that this 'redo' is how he wished it has been, and that it isn't real for him at the same time. Because it isn't the final time he will pull the plunger and reset. But he wishes that it was.

3. Jinx has a very difficult relationship with abandonment, obviously. But these lines encapsulate her journey towards accepting that no, actually, the people who love her will always refuse to give her up no matter how much she believes doing so would save them (including Silco and Isha and even Vander since the enforcers come after the kids for the stones she steals.) Never giving up on her empowers both Ekko and Vi in the final hours of the show. Their relationships with Jinx and the strength of that connection in the fullness and acceptance of all of its flaws and history means that they can do and achieve anything. Not giving up on her means not giving up even when everything falls apart around them. It's the crux of Ekko's time travel ability - he will always remember what really happened in all of those loops, he still carries those scars and physical damage, but he keeps trying anyways and that is what saves the world.

4. Jinx is the 'someone worth building for.' Yes, this line is about TimeBomb but it's also very strictly about Jinx. It's about Jinx needing to know that her life also have worth for herself. Her inventions have by and large been built for the sake of others - her toy weapons to impress the others/keep up with them, the canon for Silco. She rebuilds Sevika's arm because she wants to feel useful for someone again. But she doesn't value her own input into the world for her own sake. Ekko isn't asking her to fix the world here, or to make good on her mistakes. There is no 'fixing' or 'undoing' or even 'rewriting' the way Vi wants her too, the way the Zaunites do with her legacy. There is only something new. And her life is worthy purely for whatever creations she adds to the world, regardless of whether they can undo the past. There's something so achy about that coming from the Boy Saviour. He isn't really here to save Jinx from herself - he just wants her to know she can do that saving on her own.

5. Jinx always knew what she needed to do to break the cycle. But she grew up with too many people who never wanted to let go of the past. In the end, we see her airship fly not towards Piltover (in some desperate rewrite of her failed story in Zaun) but away from it. She gets out, she pursues something new, the image loops but moves towards a new trajectory with a different (better) ending, just like Ekko shows her is possible with the Z-drive.

Two sides of the same coin. She leaves Zaun to see something new, and he returns to Zaun to see it in all of its fullness. I think they'll be alright.

[bunnylovescat]

Modern AU - Tax Time, or Gentleman in the Streets, Freak in the (Excel) Sheets

Lan Wangji is an IRS auditor, recently transferred to the city. He’s sent to audit Lotus Piers Shipping after a few red flags were raised in their tax filings, his first audit in this city. When he arrives, he finds absolute chaos and gets annoyed about how little organization there is and how long it takes the receptionist to find the documents he needs. And then when he finds out there’s evidence of embezzlement and fraud…

Let’s just say he and Wei Wuxian don’t have the best of all meetings. It gets even worse when Jiang Cheng jumps in and blows up about it all because hey don’t talk to my brother like that, and brother why are you so stupid to fuck up the taxes like that.

(This involves LWJ using increasingly specific tax statutes and IRS internal rulings and the Jiang boys are just like…. Dude… touch grass…)

So Lan Wangji tells them everything they need to redo and what documents they need before giving them notice that he’ll be back in 90 days to go back over everything and if things aren’t like they were represented to the government and/or there hasn’t been an amended return filed things will not go well.

Meanwhile, LWJ and WWX keep bumping into each other… or rather LWJ keeps seeing WWX whenever he goes out into the city. Co-op owned farmers market? WWX haggling with old grannies and flirting with everyone as Wen Ning and Wen Yuan follow around behind him. Soup kitchen volunteer? WWX is kept on coffee refill duty, with Granny Wen and Uncle Four keeping a close eye on him to make sure he stays there.

Eventually LWJ is like. Sir, stalking me will not help your case. And WWX loses it laughing. LWJ has no idea how to deal with it so he just. Leaves his shopping basket in the middle of the Aldi to sit in his car and contemplate all the life choices that lead him here.

(Lots of internal screaming about the situation. Hot man is bad at tax and adulting is not the situation LWJ ever thought he’d be attracted to but here we are.)

Eventually it comes out that WWX and JC are essentially rebuilding Lotus Pier from the ground up after a family tragedy burned everything down and killed the rest of the family. So basically one business major with only two years of experience and one community college drop out with loads of customer service experience are trying to make a come back, despite other big corporations trying to make a move into their business.

(Looking at you Golden Carp Transport. Lots of shady there, and yet…)

The Wens were also left homeless from the fire, a huge, sprawling family from the northern part of the city, so WWX has essentially brought all of his second family in to help work it.

LWJ has a lightbulb moment and is like o. I fucked up. Hot man is bad at tax, but good at people.

JC is surprised when the Tax Man Cometh again, this time barging in, dropping a giant, color coded, tabbed, highlighted, and very detailed binder on his desk at 6 am, and being like. Here’s all the deductions to take, credits to take, and btw a list of clientele that are stuck in with Golden Carp hint hint nudge nudge, new customers do I have to literally hit you over the head with this or do you get it

JC, after his initial gtfo of my office moment, is like. Wait. What did my brother do to make you do this? What dirt does he have on you? Because pretty sure blackmailing a government official is very very illegal and legalities have not stopped him before.

LWJ has an immediate oh fuck, I’m being perceived moment and is just like. Tell your brother I did this and I will make you the most miserable of all people. And just … fucks off.

JC just groans and is like. How does my brother find these people? And gets to work.

When the 90 days are up, a different Lan comes by all smiley and tells them their refilling has been accepted and very well done on it. Meanwhile, WWX, who has very much been ‘Notice me Senpai’ every time he sees LWJ is like. What?

And LX gives him an updated version of, why does my brother like you again? He’s risking his employment for this?

So ofc the next time WWX sees LWJ he’s just like. I like you, I love you even though you’re a numbers nerd, please come home with me. And LWJ vows to make JC miserable, but later, after he shows WWX that he’s a freak both in excel sheets and in the bed sheets.

(This would involve a lot of math and accounting puns that WWX spent hours at work looking up on Google and trying out on the Lotus Pier accountant, who is just like. Sir. I’m trying to close the month and reconcile, I can’t read your brothers handwriting is this a 5 or an 8, please take your bad stand up else where.)

[ofskysanddragonsandstars]

Just another TFA x TFP crossover idea...

I know almost every long lasting transformers fan has done this, but here is my hot take.

So we know TFA takes place in the 2050s, and TFP fans assume TFP takes place in the 2010s when it was released. So instead of alternate dimensions, what about futuristic AU/reincarnation AU? Granted a LOT of the characters are different, so adjustments are going to have to be made, so bare with me.

Let's start with the war.

TFP ends with Optimus Prime sacrificing himself so that Cybertron can produce life with the Allspark, and with the Allspark returned, Cybertron is habitable again, and Megatron leaves, thus ending the war, which I will now refer to as the Great War. It is up to Team Prime to start rebuilding Cybertron. And naturally, they look to Ultra Magnus.

As bots return to Cybertron, both Autobot and Decepticon have a lot of animosity towards each other. Afterall, this war lasted centuries. But with one leader dead and the other AWOL, they have to figure out how to coexist. But it is easy to fall back on old habits, so a council is but back in place, and unfortunately, it is most autobots. Once the decepticons heard that Megatron is still alive but off world, some decide to leave and find him. Some decide to remain and try to fix Cybertron for the better. So the council promotes mostly Autobots to positions of power, thus leaving out bigger decepticons starting the warframe fear. As for the protoforms, the council creates molds for new sparks, thinking hey, the war is over, why do we need fighters? We need bots who can fix things (construction), laborers, teachers, and so Cybertron starts to use the frase "cogs in the machine". Oops, here comes functionalism.

But those closest to Optimus Prime? The ones who fought with him and followed him because of what he stood for? The ones who were put on a pedestal for their actions on earth with Prime even though they don't care for any recognition? They notice it immediately. And they hate what Cybertron is becoming. But it is hard to do anything since they just finished a war. Rebuilding is at the top of the list, not idealism. But wasn't that what the whole war was about? Rising above your station, having opportunities, abolish the caste system, and no bot is better than the other. Well, Primus has a plan for that. Primus is frustrated with their children. They keep making the same mistakes, forcing them to choose a Prime. And their last Prime had to sacrifice his life for Primus and all Cybertronians. Well, if the children want to redo their past mistakes, might as well send back their latest Prime. But Primus and the Allspark can only create sparklings, not full bots. So, Primus and the Allspark places the spark of Optimus Prime in a protoform sparkling. We will get to that later.

So, we have a Cybertron that is rebuilding back its bad habits, Team Prime struggling to stop it, and decepticons leaving (of course that will come back to haunt us).

Now onto the Autobots.

Ultra Magnus, the right hand man of Optimus Prime, is naturally looked at for leadership. But he never wanted to the # 1. He truly believes in the ideas of Orion Pax, before he was Optimus Prime. But his understanding of legality and chain of command make him the perfect candidate to lead Cybertron towards order. But after his time on Earth, he has learned that maybe the most strict policies are not the best solutions. However, the council insists and public pressure wants a strong leader, so how can he say no? The only thing he can do is refuse the title of Primacy. He will not take on that mantle. He knows the type of bot who deserves Primehood, and it is not him. But the council needs some title, so why not use his name? Magnus means "big, large, great" - nomitive conjugation - (Latin nerd, I know), so why not use his name as a title? Thus, the title of Magnu begins to be synonymous with "ruler". Ultra Magnus finds this to be a slap in the faceplates. But at least they stopped inisting on Prime. So, with great reluctance (please laugh at that joke) he accepts the position. As to what exactly his position means, well, the council wants to appease the public yet remain in control. The council will surely write up the specifics later. But, I mentioned it before, Ultra Magnus knows the Law, so he takes it into his own servos. He writes up his own limitations and abilities, he just needs the council to sign off. They don't hurry to sign it. This is the beginning of Ultra Magnus' problems.

Ratchet will probably be the easiest to crossover. Both TFA and TFP characterize him as an old medic that has fought in the war from the beginning. After Predacons Rising, he shuffles back and forth from Earth and Cybertron. But Earth hasn't faced decepticon attacks in years so Fowler isn't around much anymore (and the man had a long career in the Army and as a special agent - it's time for him to retire), the Earth kids eventually grow up, so they don't need him anymore. As much as it pains him (even though he will never admit it), he returns back to Cybertron for good and sets up a clinic for war vets. Probably with Knockout. Which many autobots don't like. That's a problem. But as the oldest friend of Orion Pax, he lashes out against the council and their policies, which unfortunately causes him to be blacklisted further. His reputation as a war hero plummets. He almost wants to laugh at the similarities from before the Great War.

Bumblebee is going to be the hardest. In TFP, he has a character arc of young scout to experienced warrior. Yet in TFA, he is a young Elite Guard wash out and a comedic. Well, the only answer I can currently think of is memory wipe. But let me backtrack. Bumblebee technically killed Megatron in TFP, and news of that travels across autobot channels before Predacons Rising, thus before Unicron revives Megatron. So, autobots that begin to return to Cybertron consider Bumblebee as the hero who ended the Great War. But Ultra Magnus is orderly, so he keeps the autobot channel updated with Megatron being revived but AWOL. But communication can be tricky galaxies apart, so some autobots don't get the full message. Unfortunately, the council capitalizes on that, and since Ultra Magnus won't accept Primehood, maybe the scout who served under Optimus Prime for so long will. And if Bumblebee accepts the council's wishes, perhaps he will remain under their watchful optics. But the new warrior looked up to Optimus, no way can he take his mentor/father-figure's place. And Smokescreen is Bumblebee's friend, one who turned down the Matrix of Leadership when it was freely offered. This angers the council. With functionalism getting in place yet Team Prime against it, they need someone from Team Prime to endorse functionalism. And what better bot than the scout who ended the war. With using a similar science from the cortical psychic patch, they wipe his memory of earth, his friends, and serving with Optimus Prime. How do they get that science? Well, TFA Shockwave was the spy Longarm in the council. More on that later. There is going to be a lot of repercussions for that.

Smokescreen is the new rebellious teenager in TFP. His character arc goes from hot head that is unsure of his place in the galaxy to a steady bot with a close friendship with Bumblebee. There is a foil with Alpha Trion both being a mentor to Orion Pax and Smokescreen and both working in the Archives. And Cybertron needs to remember its history. Smokescreen becomes the new Head Archivist, following after Alpha Trion. He could keep with the Elite Guard, perhaps one day truly becoming a Prime, but after Predacons Rising, he knows that there needs to be another path. And who else knows the Archives better than him? He is no Orion Pax - or an archivist - but watching over Alpha Trion makes a mech learn a thing or two. Surprising everyone but Bumblebee, he starts to rebuild the Archives. He takes reports from returning bots, both autobot and decepticon, and organizes it. Returning bots also bring recovered treasures that Alpha Trion shipped off world during the Great War. Thankfully, he remembers where they went. He gets so caught up in restoring the Archives that, like Orion Pax, he notices re-occurring problems from before the Great War, but it is too late to stop it. The best thing he can do is publish every document to a public platform, no matter which faction it came from, so that bots can resist the council. But the public is tired from the Great War, it is too soon to read documents about it. And Sparklings are shielded from those documents, caretakers claiming it is too violent. But what is violent about a critical analysis of the caste system written by a gladiator? Exactly the fact that it was written by a gladiator turned tyrant. He is threatened with removal of his position by the council. Afterall, they happen to like their elite status and have no interest in giving that up. And he knows that if he is removed, the council will fill his position with a bot that will promote council propaganda. The honorific of Prime is no longer so significant nor synonymous with Primus and the 13 due to the council trying to justify Ultra Magnus as the leader, even though he is under their thumbs, and wanting to keep authoritarian government, bestowing bots who graduate council specific requirements at an academy the title of Prime, and it frustrates Smokescreen. He considers it a disgrace to Optimus Prime. But he stays quiet, yet secretly, when he sees a young bot interested in the Great War and before, he shows them the truth. Slowly yet surely, young bots start to question what the Great War was even for.

Arcee TFP and TFA actually have a lot in common for backgrounds. In TFA, she was a teacher and an intelligence officer, and in TFP episode "Sick Minds" she makes an offhand comment about knowing how to do research. I headcanon that before the Great War, Arcee was in an analytical job, and since I'm crossing over with TFA, she could also at one point have been a teacher. Perhaps the equivalent of a grad student while teaching? With rebuilding Cybertron, she brings back those skills and starts some sort of intelligence organization. Perhaps it is in correspondence with Smokescreen and the Archive. She is also a great mentor to Smokescreen and she easily takes leadership role in the field when necessary. Arcee is the one who finds out Bee's memory gets wiped. She is quick to anger - as we see in her interactions with Starscream and Arachnid - and demands the council to return Bumblebee's memories. This does not go as planned, and the council retaliates and she goes into a comatose state, bringing us into TFA. But she has friends, and they notice her absence.

This brings in the Wreckers. With Cybertron going backwards, Bulkhead returns to construction. At first, he doesn't mind. Afterall, he has the knowledge for it, and in Predacons Rising, he currently is all they have. Unfortunately, this comes to haunt him as it allows the council to make a case for functionalism. All that fighting, wasted. Bulkhead never gets the chance to be something new. Until Wheeljack reaches out. With his knowledge in engineering, Wheeljack becomes the chief engineer on cybertron. Meaning that he is in charge of building space bridges, figuring out planetary weapons systems, communication technology, space travel, ect. Meaning, he figures out what happened to Arcee. And Project Omega. Wheeljack has learned that going solo isn't always the best move. But he keeps things Wrecker style. Since he knows the council listens in on his new communication network, he reaches out to Bulkhead and Ultra Magnus on the old Wrecker channel. It is time to bring the band back together. Or so they think. The rescue mission of Arcee fails, Bulkhead's memory is also wiped, and Ultra Magnus forced into a deeper corner of the council. They try to wipe Wheeljack's memory, but he is the chief engineer who suffered torture under a cortical psychic patch, he is able to retain his memories, but hides that fact. Even Ultra Magnus thinks his memory has been wiped. Wheeljack keeps a low radar with the council and remains the chief engineer. But he is rebellious, so he informs Ratchet.

So, to sum up our main characters: 2 have lost their memory, 1 is comatose, 2 are in political peril, 1 is undercover, 1 is disgraced, and 1 is dead.

Now we get to the plot of this AU.

Ratchet is disgraced by the council and autobots don't like that he works with a decepticon, former or not. His ability to do anything is greatly hindered. But he is still a medic with a valid practicing license and naturally, Sparklings need check ups. Enter the revival AU. Ratchet never thought his deceased friend and leader would ever return, but science is indisputable and he is very good at medicine and he patched up the Prime hundreds of times. He knows Optimus' spark signature when he sees it. How is it possible? Well, Ratchet never considered himself religious, but after battling Unicron and seeing a revived Megatron, perhaps religion has some merit. And Spark signatures are unique to individuals. There are no accounts of repeat spark signatures. The only logical explanation is this is the work of Primus. But Ratchet has no love of the council, so with the help of Knockout, they meet with Ultra Magnus secretly. So, only those 3 know Optimus has returned. But he is only a sparkling, and hasn't Optimus sacrificed enough? So, Optimus is returned to his caretaker to live a life free of his past hardship. Like Optimus Prime said before he entered the Well, it is up to them to rebuild Cybertron for the better. If only they could do some serious changes.

So, little Optimus grows up in a Cybertron rebuilding and no one talking about the Great War. All he has is the propaganda the council gives out. So why would he need to go to the Archives to learn? He has his teachers and he knows his function will be to put out fires or haul things due to his size, even though a part of him desires to be an Elite Guard. He eventually joins the academy and here we have TFA fully kick in. He befriends Elita-1 and Sentinel the same, catches the attention of Ultra Magnus the same way (or so he thinks. The mech is the leader of Cybertron, of course he has his ways to keep tabs on the former Prime) gets kicked out after losing Elita-1 (or so he thinks - Ultra Magnus wants him away from the council, so kicking him out was the best he could do), yet Ultra Magnus, with the help of Wheeljack, pulls a few strings to get Optimus' crew. Team Prime is almost back together. Afterall, it's not like the council wants Ratchet on the planet, and how would they know it is the very same Optimus?

The TFA plot mainly stays the same, except the Allspark is a little different. Here, the Allspark was supposedly returned to the Well. How it gets into space, I am still working that out. I might have to bring in TFA lore for this, intertwining it with the return of the decepticons and Megatron. But Ratchet has a fit when they find it ("Optimus sacrificed his life so that relic would return to the Well! And this is the thanks he gets?) he almost is glad when it gets shattered into pieces. But the Allspark also terrifies him after seeing his friend give his life for it. Ratchet does his best to keep Optimus away from the Allspark, even though Primus seems to find a way for Optimus to keep interacting with it.

Now this is getting long, so I'm going to end it here. But there is still a lot more to cover in this AU! Specifically the Decepticons. And how does Bumblebee and Bulkhead get their memories back? Wheeljack? Does Ultra Magnus tell Wheeljack of Optimus' true identity when he helps put his crew together on Teletran-1? How does Ultra Magnus change from being a kind SIC to the strict military leader of Cybertron? Does he get redeemed? Or is he the example of a tragic tale of political bargaining? What happens to Smokescreen? Do the TFP kids meet Sari Sumdac? Do they meet the autobots in Detroit, or does Ratchet warn them to keep their distance? What changes happen with Sentinel's and Optimus' friendship once his former life is revealed? When happens when Optimus learns the truth?

[incognito-lionbeast]

Rotating an AU where Bingge is transmigrated into a younger version of himself from the SV universe at the same time as Shen Yuan. But unlike in the normal SV timeline, The System only minimally interferes with SY!Shen Qingqiu's choices (something, something about Bingge's transmigration...).

Not that Bingge makes it easy for things to change. He spends what's left of his second "childhood" waiting for the shoe to finally drop, suspicious of this "nice" Shen Qingqiu. Yet, he plays along anyway-- there are pieces he needs to setup. To redo it all. Reclaim his position of power, anyway. He'll just kill Shen Qingqiu again later. Or so he tells himself.

Not that it isn't sort of nice...

The Immortal Alliance Conference eventually comes again. Bingge plans to fall--he needs Xin Mo, after all--regardless of what Shen Qingqiu does. Though he does expect the reveal to finally shatter that mask of niceties his beloved shizun has worn for so long. Too long.

Yet, things don't go according to plan. Without the System breathing down his neck to push Luo Binghe down into the Abyss, Shen Qingqiu tries to--

Well, he won't succeed. Luo Binghe falls, taken aback by his master's compassion. An image irreversibly seared into Bingge's mind of his shizun braced over the edge of the abyss, reaching, struggling to hold onto an unwilling damsel.

Why?

He refuses that help. Falling, falling. The abyss awaits and he's prepared this time. How can he rebuild an empire without his generals, his sword?

Above, Shen Qingqiu is distraught and all he can think to say to Liu Qingge and the others who soon arrive is "He fell." Unable to fully process what had just happened-- and it wasn't even... To his eyes, it almost seemed like a genuine accident.

Straightforward as ever, Liu Qingge suggests that he--as in himself, no incurably poisoned Shen Qingqiu's allowed--could simply go after Binghe. If there'll even be anything left to find.

An idea that honestly might not have even occurred to him had Liu Qingge not suggested it. Of course, this meant that he wouldn't for even a moment allow his dear shidi to go on his own! That was his disciple! (And his dedicated meridian clearer!)

So what if he was poisoned? He also happened to be the most knowledgeable about the Endless Abyss!

TLDR: though it takes much longer than anticipated, both to find a reliable way in/out of the Endless Abyss and to find Binghe at all...

They manage.

Yet, after stewing for so long on that image of Shen Qingqiu trying to save him--unable to rid himself of that obsessive sentiment no matter how he tried... Something Breaks.

He spent a lifetime trying to please shizun, cursing him, tearing him apart... why is it only now that shizun's hands are soft? Why?

It's infuriating. He still wants to rip him limb from limb. He'd planned to. Meticulously. For the first time in over two hundred years, his eyes are hot with withheld tears. Allowing an awkward teacher-disciple hug, gripping Shizun just a little too tightly, clawed fingertips digging into his back, Binghe supposes.

If killing Shizun is no longer an option, then he'll simply have to have him.

[primreaperstuff]

I just had a thought: Everybody seems to be assuming that the Society of the Blind Eye (SBE) Dippers and Mabels in the Book of Bill were created during that summer. But what if they actually were what happened had Dipper taken that internship with Ford? I got the idea because the guys in the hoods look a good deal taller than the other Dippers and Mabels. I mean, it could just be the perspective, but I thought they looked like they might've gotten the chance to grow a bit more than the others. If you assume Left Hood is Mabel, (based off of their nose possibly being the same color as the rest of their face), it's also possible that she's lasted long enough in one timeline to get her braces off.

Alex Hirsch has said that Ford would've made the same mistakes with Dipper that he did with Fiddleford McGucket, so Dipper the Intern would've eventually ended up going insane like McGucket did. And McGucket originally founded the SBE as a direct consequence of Ford's bullshit. (Sorry Ford baby, I do love you-- but you are completely unfit to raise a technically-teenage boy full-time!)

I wouldn't put it past a traumatized older Dipper to figure out how to rebuild the memory gun (or maybe it never got destroyed in the first place?). At first he was just hoping to be able to sleep again but it takes its toll on his mind after awhile and he unwittingly ends up recreating the SBE (perhaps because he doesn't remember it-- or doesn't remember how bad it really was for people). Or alternatively, Ford, having been enabled for years by somebody who either can't or won't tell him no, proposes a truly horrible idea that even Dipper can't go along with. Dipper resorts to trying to wipe Ford's memory of the idea to ensure he never acts on it, but it fails and permanently ruins the relationship. Dipper is ashamed, alone, and afraid, so he uses the gun on himself so those bad memories of failure don't stop him from stopping Ford. It snowballs into repeated uses of the gun (turns out that forgetting what you're afraid of means forgetting why you don't use the gun more often!) until the poor guy can't bring himself to do anything in public without it. Dipper has enough perfectionist tendencies that, if something caused him to go off the rails, I could see him constantly using the memory gun to redo his interactions with people until they go exactly the way he's decided they're supposed to.

The dark path for Mabel would be worse in some ways. Imagine that this is a world where Mabel encouraged Dipper to take the internship instead of getting upset about it. Maybe she even unwittingly pressured him into accepting it when he was going to turn it down, because she thought it would be awesome for him, only to get hit with the horrible reality when the next summer rolls around and he's obviously Not Okay. She feels partially responsible and wishes he never had to experience any of the terrible stuff he alludes to, and that leads her to remaking/refinding the memory gun as the next best thing to making the bad things unhappen. Of course Ford figures out what she's done quickly, so she tried to use it on him to make him forget that internships and memory guns exist. It doesn't work and they get into a big nasty fight. Later Soos pops in to ask how things are going after some horrible event that Dipper no longer remembers, causing Dipper to regain his memory of the incident, so Mabel uses the gun on Soos and Dipper. Ford is angry, so Mabel bolts and hides from him, using the gun to prevent other people from reporting her whereabouts to him (and later McGucket, because you can bet Ford told him all about this).

It all spirals from there-- the key being that Mabel never uses the gun on herself because she's fully aware of how bad it is for people. She knows the SBE was bad, but reasons that it was bad because it was lead astray by the selfishness of people like Bud Gleeful rather than the fact that it existed to control people and dodge taking responsibility for anything. She self-rationalizes that PTSD and people actively seeking out monsters would be worse than the effects of the gun. Later she adds the rationalization that she's done it so often that there's no point in stopping because it would only mean that her targets would have to deal with both their trauma and the bad effects of the gun.

Either way, Gravity Falls ends up becoming like Lovecraft town where it's all nice-looking and stuff but you don't linger, go off the beaten path, or ask questions, lest you end up getting stuck there permanently like the Pines family. Just deliver the packages and go the fuck home before the sun comes down.

(Fuck, I forgot about the metal plate in Ford's head. Edited to account for that.)

[acowardinmordor]

I have mentioned this a couple times in a couple of ways, but I need to talk it out. It's my real life stuff, so scroll on if you're only following for the Stranger Things stuff. It's long, and I'm under NDAs, so its delightfully vague.

Real life is currently Real rough.

I am very susceptible to the desire to be the superhero. For good or ill, it's something I am capable of in my job. It's sort of my specialty. I get brought in on disaster jobs to land the plane. Or I get brought in because they know they need to run a skeleton team, and I am able to wear a lot of hats. Yeah, my rate is high, but I can cover several roles on my own. Not permanently, and not at full capacity, but if you need part of an artist and part of a modeller and part of a td and part of a fab designer and part of a construction and vendor manager, I can do all that. It's a weird skill set. When I have left projects midway through it takes multiple people to replace me. One time it took four.

I do anything I can, legitimately, to get what I know into other people's brains. I do not like single points of failure, either in rigging or in design. One person should not be the hinge for a project's success.

Just. look. I have been told directly, by industry legends who I deeply respect, that I'm exceptional. This is why I am susceptible to superhero dreams.

My current project is a shit show. Hand to god, if someone lit the building on fire, we'd be in better shape because insurance would kick in and we'd get time and money back to fix this mess. If it can go wrong, it has gone wrong. We were supposed to open four months ago. We are crossing our fingers to open before september. Every permit has had issues. Every product I order has had a turnaround issue, a sudden price spike, a stock issue, or a usability issue. We are massively over budget.

In theory my job title is Lead Design. In practice, my job is Get It Open.

That is not unique in my life. Sure, this is more disaster than usual, but this is my specialty.

The problem is that the company might not survive if we push to september. Like. Peoples income is hinging on me pulling some miracles. Not just the owners, though they'd be fucked. Artists and assistants and interns.

Yes, I could lower my standards and let this be meh.

But that is anathema to me. I have had the next chapter of FtB for months, but its still not right, so I keep retouching it and trying to make it good enough for my standards. This is not a place I compromise. I don't put my name on projects I won't stand by. And I'm in too deep. If I have to work 7 for the next two months, I will. I'll balance it with my body's tendency to try to kill me, but I don't let my projects fail.

It's so bad the owner dips out early and shuts down when told about whatever new bullshit we've encountered. So I've just stopped telling him. If it doesn't need his input to correct, he doesn't need to know its happening. He gets looped in as a 'hey we had an issue, its corrected, we'll be back on schedule in X days, which fits in schedule'

Again, this is my job. I am very good at it. I am paid well.

The pat that is making me insane is that about half the problems are things that I could have prevented if I'd realized earlier no one else was looking for them. Its stuff that shouldn't be my job, but I know enough to see the imminent issue, and bring in someone to prevent it. The other half are things that I specifically, explicitly pointed out as disasters in waiting, and was outright told that I was overreacting or that the thing I was asking for was unnecessary and a waste of time.

I don't believe in saying I told you so. Either they already know, or they won't listen if I say it. It's also crass. Its frustrating as fuck though. We have to rebuild stuff and redo stuff bc errors got missed. those errors would have been caught in a fab design review. I was treated like I was crazy when I asked for those drawings six months ago. We're getting fucked by it now.

So. Yeah, Everyday I ride my bike to the office -- cause yeah, I started commuting by bike which is great but also sweaty -- and my brain gives me all sorts of fabulous ideas and inspiration to write. And then work all day and suffer. And then ride home and am deluged by inspiration while riding. Then I get home and all the energy saps out of my pores and it takes hours before my brain has shifted gears enough to properly write. but then its past 9, on good days, and past 11 on bad days. Lately, its all been bad days.

Oh, and I'm having many more seizures than usual, my AC is crap so my house was over 90 last weekend, I angered my leg on my bike because I had to slam on the brakes, politics is Like That, and the guy I've had a crush on is being inexplicable.

So.

It's a very strange blend of infuriating, fulfilling, exhausting, and anxiety inducing.

I miss writing.

[mayasdeluca]

that finale was way better than i anticipated and the marina scenes we got were so cute. i love that they are just so happy and in love with each other and can’t keep their hands off one another...they’ve come so far from the first episode of the season until now. what a journey! 

i find it very hard to believe that carina deluca wouldn’t have any other dress to wear to a fancy occasion but...the scene in the closet went from cute to sexy in five seconds flat. that kiss?!?!? 🥵🔥 will be on repeat all hiatus! bless them. 

i’m glad that we got to see them cuddling in bed and happy and talking about their future a little bit. bringing up IVF as the next step for their baby future...i really hope we get to see it. i’m curious now with the added factor of them delivering yet another baby from this woman who was giving it up for adoption and we don’t know if she made it or not??? was that intentional and are they planning to connect the two/have marina adopt? i kinda hope not because carina really wants to be pregnant and i really want to see this journey for them. just the two of them, doing this together to grow their family. but i guess we’ll have to see what they do with it next season.

i still wish we would have gotten at least one more conversation like we did at the end of 6x15 of them talking about their feelings and communicating to one another about what it was like while they were separated, what made maya not run for captain and why carina really is ready to be back home. i didn’t mind that they had spoken to others about it throughout the process but it just felt like after all the effort into rebuilding their foundation, it would’ve been nice for them to just have that one more conversation to pull it all together. i guess they might have figured that’s what they were doing in 6x15 (especially since zaiver said he had fought to ‘fix’ them in that episode) but overall, i’m really happy that we got to see them fall in love all over again essentially in the second half of 6B and we got so many parallels/redos from the beginning of their relationship. at least we’ll have some of those great scenes to hold us over until whenever we get marina back again. now we have to try and get through these several months without them. 😭

also that cliffhanger with jack seemed pretty cheap....i’m sure he’s going to be fine and it was so abrupt but...goodbye dixon. you will not be missed! 

[cybergracie]

in other news i've been thinking of writing again... i have so many ff ideas for hyunie and i want to bring them all to life, but it's been SO LONG since i've really written and i used to do it with a partner, one pov v one pov and we would write back and forth. i don't even know if people do that anymore?? i have no followers but if anyone happens to see this... let me know if that's a thing or if that's just called collaboration??? idk when i "roleplayed" on gaia we literally wrote novels back and forth to each other and it was so nice... idk if i could write hyunie well i guess is my concern. but i'm going to try.

first off i constantly dream of hyunie as howl from howl's moving castle, so i would definitely want to try to convey that via howl!hyunjin or hyunjin!howl? idk if i would do a pure rip of the movie, just rewriting it in my words with him as howl, or play off the idea of him being cursed and searching for sophie his whole life but she is also cursed and she has to figure it out and make it a more realistic/modern approach? there's so much i could do here

next is an idea that has always been interesting to me and MEGA ROMANTIC is amensia!au where one of the couple is in an accident that wipes their entire relationship from their mind and they have to rebuild and try to maybe spark some memories by redoing their early stages. this is definitely a rachel mcadams movie now but i swear i had the idea first. i even started a group roleplay (this sounds cringe in 2024) where it was a group of friends and half of the couples were in a car accident. still a very enticing idea to explore with skz?

then of course i have artist!hyunjin or even just idol!hyunjin that i would base the romance off of art, maybe artist x critic or curator, because i want y/n or reader to be appraising his art and seeing it in a different way and he just becomes obsessive with the way she thinks. basically "i love the way your mind works" bc that's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me and i've always wanted to write about it

anyway. if anyone is listening out there. i'd love to know your thoughts.

[animebw]

Short Reflection: Gridman Universe

In some respects, Gridman Universe was nothing like the movie I expected it to be. I came in prepared for a multiversal mashup or Trigger's series of high-concept sentai reimaginings, and that's definitely what I got. But I also got something a lot weirder and wilder, a movie that in many ways is trying to be a definitive statement on the nature of Gridman itself. It's a film deeply obsessed with its own concept and place in the world, not simply as a means of reference-pandering for longtime sentai fans but as an examination of what it even means to exist as a story like this to exist and have meaning and let meaning be taken from it that may not even be there. And yet at the same time, it's also a big goofy crossover that feels like playing with all the toys in your toybox at once without caring much about making it all make sense because isn't the point of having fun to just, you know, have fun?

Which seems only fitting. Gridman and Dynazenon have been one of the most conceptually bizarre undertakings in Trigger's history, marrying the Saturday morning cartoon spirit of Ultraman with more existential, metaphysical themes and an eclectic directing style that feels more like a proper successor to Evangelion than anything else besides the Rebuilds. It's simultaneously pretentiously highbrow and shamelessly lowbrow, while also being just kind of unapologetically normiecore somewhere in the middle with how it depicts the awkward mundanity of normal life juxtaposed with mecha-on-kaiju action and universe-reshaping cosmic high concepts. It's a bizarre concoction that by all rights shouldn't work, and yet it does? Somehow, director Akira Amemiya has figured out how to make all these disparate tones sing together in harmony, and the result has been one of anime's most singular voices in the modern era. And this movie is just that on the biggest scale imaginable, throwing all restrictions to the wind and seeing just how far it can push this absurd, experimental niche it's carved for itself.

At least on paper, the plot is simple. Gridman protagonist Yuta Hibiki is working up the courage to ask out his crush Rikka Takarada, but that's all thrown into chaos when kaiju once again start appearing in his world. It soon becomes clear that some unknown threat is starting to merge universes together, leading to the cast of Dynazenon crashing into Gridman's world and kaiju going on the rampage. So the two groups must put their giant robots together- both metaphorically and literally- to face down the new threat and put the universe back in order. It's an extremely by-the-numbers setup for a crossover movie... at least until we get into the back half and reveal the nature of what's actually happening. And then things get so high-concept and reality bending that it's honestly kind of funny. I won't spoil the reveal of what's actually going on cause it's worth discovering yourself, but suffice to say, not only does it answer a lot of long-standing questions about the nature of this world in the trippiest way possible, it also sets up Gridman Universe as an answer to the question of its own existence.

See, in many ways, the mismatch at the heart of Gridman's aesthetics is the entire thematic point it's trying to make. Why redo a simple, straightforward sentai show as something so weighty and almost intellectual in its presentation? Why attach so much existentialism and cinematic complexity to something that's still, at heart, about punching big monsters in the face? Or, more broadly, why do we, as people, seek to draw meaning from art, even art as simple as giant robots fighting Godzilla? These questions may have been floating in the background of both TV shows, but they are the driving force of Gridman Universe. There are multiple times when characters will comment on the nature of Gridman, as a character, as a concept, as an idea, as an active force with a tangible effect on the world. The ultimate reveal of what's going on entirely rests on pushing this question to its logical extreme. It's simultaneously a celebration, interrogation, and deconstruction of the lizard-brain desire for popcorn entertainment and our ability to read deeper meanings where they may not actually exist, and whether or not it matters what a piece of art "intended" as long as you found something powerful in it.

There are so many ways a metatextual metaphor this tangled and self-fellating should have fallen apart. And yet, once again, by some magic, it all makes sense. Yes, the movie seems to say, Gridman is all these things. It's absurd rock-em sock-em action that speaks to your inner child, and it's weird-ass mind-bending sci-fi, and it's genuinely grounded naturalism that perfectly captures that particular teenage mindset of half-sleeping your way through life as you figure your shit out trying to put the world's bigger, more existential questions out of mind because hay, kaiju or not, you've still got college exams to worry about, right? It's all of these things at once, and it has a right to be all of these things at once, and you have the right to find power in them no matter how silly it may seem on the outside. And it justifies it all by once again just doing it all really, really fucking well. It's a bizarre, purposefully overthought stream of consciousness that's all about the importance of letting ourselves overthink the stories we love, putting our own meaning into them and forging our own relationship with them to better understand ourselves as individuals and a collective. It's an argument for art as an active conversation, even with something as simple and silly as this.

And yet, there's a problem.

See, while this movie is billed as a Gridman x Dynazenon crossover, it's really more of a Gridman movie. The title Gridman Universe is not an accident: this movie is centered on Gridman and its cast of characters first and foremost, with the Dynazenon crew mostly playing backup and hanging around for some character banter. Yomogi, Yume, Gauma, and all the rest are bit players meant to spice of a narrative that's all about Hibiki and his desire to go steady with Rikka. And unfortunately, this ends up confirming something I've believed ever since this series started:

The main cast of Gridamn is the single most boring aspect of this entire Gridman experiment.

Look, I'm sorry, but Hibiki sucks. He's an utter void of character and personality, as blank a blank slate as you can possibly get. Even your average isekai potato-kun tends to come off as smug and self-satisfied thanks to the power fantasy that guides the author's writing process, and while that's definitely obnoxious, it's at least something. But Hibiki's entire existence in both the show and movie is little more than taking in information, making bland observations, and spouting generic hero motivations whenever it's time for an action scene to happen. And you could maybe justify that in the show because he's technically a dormant passenger in his own body for most of that, but now that he's back to normal in the movie, it's painfully clear that the central figure around which this entire franchise revolves is little more than featureless white noise.

And that only becomes clearer when contrasted against the Dynazenon crew. I had my issues with Dynazenon- much weaker villains, no real standout moments- but the reason I ultimately prefer it to Gridman is because everyone in its cast is full of life and personality. They're all still awkward, mumblecore teenagers for the most part, but they're believably awkward, mumblecore teenagers who come by their personalities with purpose and meaning. So you've got Hibiki and his pals bumming around not being much of anything while the script insists on putting all the focus on them, while you've got this much more interesting crew running circles around them in basically every interaction they have. Seriously, every second Yomogi is on screen is basically walking proof of how to write a "generic" protagonist well in contrast to Hibiki's extreme nothingburger of an existence. Yes, Akane Shinjou was a spectacular character, but it's clear that Gridman put all its writing chops into her and no one else, but Dynazenon spread it out evenly. And now that she's gone, there's nothing left to distract from how much the people at the core of this narrative just don't measure up to their much more interesting backup singers.

And that's not even going into the "romance" that's supposed to be the emotional center of this whole affair. Hibiki and Rikka's love story is one of the most generic "boy pines after girl until she falls for him" plots I've seen in a long time. The fact it's merely boring instead of actively painful is wholly thanks to how damn good both their voice actors are at selling the scenes between them; whatever chemistry these two have is wholly thanks to how good Yuuya Hirose and Yume Miyamoto are at playing believably low-key teenagers navigating the liminal space of a changing relationship. But the writing just gives them nothing to play off of, and it never feels like anything more than a one-sided crush on Hibiki's end, which makes Rikka's eventual reciprocation feel wholly unjustified. Which only stands out more in contrast with Yomogi and Yume's utterly natural couple dynamic and- hilariously- Rikka's own unresolved feelings for Akane. Yes, the most blatant queerbait this side of Kumirei makes another brief appearance in this movie, and the brief twenty seconds it takes up have more believable chemistry, intimacy, and yearning to be together than the entire rest of the movie trying to sell you on the watered-down heterosexual alternative. Talk about an unforced error.

Ultimately, Gridman Universe is at its best when it embraces the philosophy at its core. As a showcase of everything worthwhile about this franchise- the believable teenage moodiness, the overturned-toybox action sensibilities, the willingness to go trippy and weird and artistically ambitious- it's as good as this franchise has even been. As an argument for being such a bizarre mishmash in the first place, it's the stuff of high concept metafictional wet dreams. But if it wanted to be a true masterpiece, it needed to tie all those wonderful elements to a central narrative and a main protagonist that were actually worth a damn. Yes, we can find meaning in even the silliest of stories, but we can just as easily find even the most ambitious experiments lacking. And until Gridman figures out how to make its main cast even half as interesting as their spinoff bretheren, then this story's ability to reach me will always remain a half-measure. For that, I give Gridman Universe a score of:

6.5/10

Man, it feels good to be home again. Hopefully I'll find the energy to start watching more anime now that I'm on vacation. Fingers crossed!

[terriblygrimm]

really funny to me how the ahsoka show could’ve been a chance for disney to rewrite the sequel trilogy and they just aren’t gonna do that.

all this time that ahsoka has been elusive, she could’ve been silently and desperately on the hunt in the world between worlds, trying to go back in time to the point where it all went wrong. seeing the wrongs of the future (luke’s life and legacy crumbled and ruined, the first order, palpatine still alive, leia dying while her son is engulfed in darkness, bo-katan, a known terrorist, on the throne of mandalore)- and she, as a defender of justice and light (not a jedi - another thing dlf got wrong in the ahsoka trailer) is going through time and events trying to pinpoint where it all veers, thus making the sequel trilogy a non-canon, canon alternate timeline.

she ends up essentially “fixing” it, erasing the sequel trilogy events as we saw them, and they could start anew!! they announced a rey movie, right? why not have this be the NEW rey, the “right” timeline rey. she’s in this timeline restarting the jedi order - maybe she knows she’s a palpatine, maybe she knew all along & chose the light. maybe she’s a reformed darksider - who knows! maybe she’s older and a wise master under luke’s direction. who knows! and that would’ve been the beautiful, exciting thing about it! bc frankly, i like rey, but no one cares about another rebuild of the order set 15 years after a failed series. this rey movie could’ve been their redo!! ben could’ve been there, who knows! maybe they have a kid, maybe ben completed his training with luke too and he and rey were padawans together!! jedifinn! the tico sisters being badass! the point is the untold events would’ve been what pulled ppl in to see the new film!! to see the differences!!! all the while in the ahsoka series she’s like fixing these events, mando could’ve popped up as the now rightful leader of mandalore, luke could’ve popped up, anakin in clone wars flashbacks, the rebels, yadayada - all the same but with a different purpose.

but like… this was their ticket out. and instead they’re going to ruin heir to the empire by half-baking it into 6 other spinoffs only to make these sad remnants of sw characters (girlboss bo-katan, terrifyingly bad make-uped hera & co, randomly-calling-herself-a-jedi-again ahsoka, 1 cameo of young luke bc disney won’t pay for cgi and/or refuses to recast him, back-flipping grogu, and not-the-only-mandalorian-no-longer-the-protagonist-of-his-own-show din djarin fight the big bad thanos - i mean thrawn.

[the-faketiccit0by]

MONTY AND LUNAR AU (Sorry didn't mean to yell) So effectively Lunar isn't made of nano goop Right? He gets hurt, badly, Falling off the catwalk in gator golf. Monty effectively looses their shit, all sense of reasoning goes out the fucking window, So they take parts off of Sun, Moon, Bloody, hell, Even eclipse (who doesn't have the star at this point in time) and Rebuilds Lunar. Suns eye shoved into Lunars damaged socket, Moons leg replacing the mangled mass of plastic and metal, Bloodmoons hands, and A few of Suns rays to cover some particularly bad gashes all along Lunars face. Monty removes every reflective surface they have, covers Lunars 'new' limbs up with gloves and Longer pants as well as a shirt that Lunar couldn't take off and tells Lunar that his new limbs are sensitive so it would be safest to keep the clothes on. Lunar eats it up because why would Monty lie to him? Eventually Lunar meets Foxy who is, rightfully, concerned about Lunars state and asks what happened to his face. Lunar doesn't know what Foxy is talking about and before Foxy can go get a mirror hes dragged off by Monty and sternly told that if he so much as breaths a word about Lunars new... accessories Monty will slowly break him down and use him for parts. Lunar goes back to the daycare to look for his brothers, then Panics when he cant find them, Calls for the Computer who wont answer then runs back to gator golf in hopes that Monty Is also there. Monty assures Lunar that his brothers will turn up soon. Every time Lunar find out about his condition and what exactly happens to his brothers, Monty removes the memory (They don't want Lunars Mind completely gone) effectively resetting this morbid game, Lunar finds out once again, and is quickly told by Foxy to not go running to Monty about it. It then becomes a race against time to figure out where the star is, and how Lunar can fix everything before Monty finds out and resets Lunars memory's again. Eclipse has been humbled enough to help as well (also peeved by Monty's actions) and wouldn't mind a whole redo on the big brother role. Earth is (obviously) still intact and helps kinda knock Monty down, trying to figure out where exactly they are keeping the star and how she can prevent this from happening again. All while keeping Monty out of the loop on whats going on, they daycare's still being running as well and Its much harder when your 3ft tall and you and your sister have little to no experience dealing with the whole daycare by yourself, Sun had split apart the daycare lists and children evenly among the three of them, and now both were trying to juggle their tasks and Suns while the Moon, Sun, and the Bloodmoon twins are MIA.

I'm going to be writing this soon on ao3, after I'm done with my current story I just wanted another persons thoughts on it.

Damn I don't think I've gotten something in my inbox this big... Congrats sir/madam/person you get the crown 👑👑👑

[davidmariottecomics]

You Can Always Restart

Ahoy hoy!

I've mentioned a few times over the past couple of weeks (mostly in the "What I enjoyed" section) that I've been reading David M. Willis' Dumbing of Age. I'm all caught up on over a decade of webcomics! Woo! There are a lot of reasons that I like it. I find the characters compelling. I'm a big sucker for slice-of-life type stuff that occasionally gets spicy and that tracks multiple groups of folks all just kinda living their lives and the ways they intersect with comedic and dramatic effect. Lots of Beast Wars references and acknowledgement of how great IDW TF comics are (and the occasional nod to TMNT and Sonic and stuff too). A cartoonist with the initials DMW when I'm DWM. It's great! 

But now that I am somehow caught up, I've also decided to check out their earlier comics. I've just finished the original run of Roomies! now. Roomies is a proto-Dumbing of Age in a lot of ways and that's a big part of what has inspired this week's blog about revisiting and revising your old work. 

You Can (Always) Redo

Yes, that is a riff on the Rebuild of Evangelion titles which are also a pretty good example of what I'm talking about today. 

Sometimes, as a creator, you have a good idea. Sometimes, you have a great idea. And sometimes, you do not have the ability to properly execute your big idea. There are a million reasons for it, right?

Just to look at Evangelion. The original TV series, somewhat infamously, always had a very small staff working on it, was running up against tight deadlines the entire run of the production, had various curveballs thrown at it by both the creator and the studio that would significantly change the overall plot and focus of individual episodes while in production, and ends in a couple of really weird episodes that may or may not have had budget problems and/or time problems of being created in a major crunch. The last couple episodes weren't too well received, and so the ending got rewritten in a pair of films. And then a few years later, Hideaki Anno and Gainax decided to do the whole thing again over almost 15 years with the Rebuild movies.Plus manga and light novel adaptations/reimaginings. Plus this that and the other thing (not to mention Anno's Shin Godzilla, Shin Ultraman, and Shin Kamen Rider, which are a similar, but different thing).

All of these versions tackle the same basic material, but due to different sized budgets and teams and Anno's shifting interests and feelings as a person, they can get pretty different. One of the things I really like about it is seeing how each iteration and even just escalations within each version feel like they're usually trending toward something truer to who Anno is at the moment of creation (even if I think most of the endings are bad). 

If you have an idea you like, roll with it. Chances are, you've got something, otherwise why would you be interested in the first place. But in recognizing your limitations--be they budget or time or skill or editorial interference or whatever--know that you can also keep an idea in your back pocket to try it again, but better. 

The Walkyverse If you haven't taken the time to read all of Willis' webcomics, that's probably fine. They've been at it for like 25 years at this point, so it's a lot to catch up on. The long and short is there was an initial series: Roomies! about college roommates. That ended and some plotlines were refocused/retconned into a new series, It's Walky! That then spun-off into two other series: Joyce and Walky! and Shortpacked! And a ways into all of this, David looped back around to the initial concept of a story about college freshmen trying to acclimate to their new circumstances (and being semi-autobiographic, but now with the clarity of hindsight) and started Dumbing of Age. Most of the cast are folks from the various previous series, but reimagined and tweaked to fit the college plot. Some personality traits remain pretty true. Some ideas that just got touched on waaaaaaaay back in Roomies! are refined and actually executed deftly. 

There aren't a lot of ideas I had when I was young that I revisit and see if I can't make work better now with my expertise and skills, but there are definitely some things that I've poked at here and there. And for some of my more recent ideas, there've been lots of things I've revisited. Sometimes it's a concept that I feel like I'm getting to the 95 yard line on but can't quite get across to the goal, and so I see if I can't run a different play and break it. Sometimes it's a particular script that I look at and even if it is recent, I feel isn't terribly representative of how I write. But when I go through these things, I always try to make it a new doc so I can still go back to the old and see just how and what I've refined that might make it's way back or that might make itself into yet another revision. 

I think there's sometimes an assumption that live performance is the only medium in which you get a different variation of a work every time. But you can absolutely revisit your older comics works and ideas and find some new angle on them or reason to bring back something that never quite clicked when you did it in the past. 

Wrap It Up 

In some ways, you can even do this in licensed or corporate comics. Brian Cronin has a fun series over at CBR called Wrap it Up! Each entry looks at two comic series wherein the plotline of one series ultimately had to be resolved in another. I think the most recent--at time of writing--was about Adam Warlock's series getting canceled and some of those plots getting resolved in Hulk. I bring this up because while obviously starting from scratch is an option, sometimes you'll be given a chance to finish your story in another way: be it a different series or a one-shot or OGN. I've even occasionally seen stories more-or-less wrapped up across universes by using similar characters (I swear one of the Wrap it Ups is about a Namor story that gets "resolved" in Aquaman because it was easier to do a light retelling and then resolve the story there than it was to get new Namor stuff going at Marvel). 

A good idea shouldn't go to waste, and there's often going to be some way to circle back around to it. It's just a matter of keeping those ideas in sight so they don't get lost. 

And, as an extra little note: I have said before, when I'm scripting, I tend to practice bad habits. I do a lot of one-and-dones where I take a single pass and then have someone else read it and only make revisions after I've had someone else do a pass. I also do a lot of batch scripting with rewrites--which is where I will write say the first 5-10 pages of the script, leave it for a bit, plot out the back half, reread that first section and do my first round of rewrites, then finish the script having sometimes almost completely rewritten the first batch of pages. Unless something is actually egregious, I tend to believe you shouldn't revise until you've finished a draft and can see the thing in it's entirely. And, no, you probably shouldn't just get stuck revisiting and rewriting the same script or redrawing the same page again and again until you get it right. But maybe down the line, you'll get the chance to truly do it all over again, the way that reflects you now.  

What I enjoyed this week: Blank Check (Podcast), Craig of the Creek (Cartoon), Honkai Star Rail (Video game), My Adventures with Superman (Cartoon), The Broken Room by Peter Clines (Book), Crime Scene Kitchen (TV show), Dumbing of Age (Webcomic), Solve This Murder (Podcast), Cruel Summer (TV show), Praise Petey (Cartoon), The Loveliest Time by Carly Rae Jepsen (Album), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (Movie).

New Releases this week (8/2/2023): Nothing from me!

New Releases next week (8/9/2023): Nothing from me! Couple of slow weeks, but lots coming up the pipeline! 

Announcements:  I've mentioned it a couple of times, but I'm largely done with the con circuit for the year. There might be a thing in a couple of weeks, and if so, I'll be letting folks know ASAP! We're not going to be at Tucson Comic-Con this year. Love that show, but just didn't work out right. And at the moment of writing, I don't *think* I'll be at NYCC. 

This is kind of a soft announcement following them mentioning it on their Twitch stream, but Becca and I are working on a comic. We're co-plotting, I'm scripting, they're drawing, and their friend Duke who has lettered a bunch of their smutty stuff is on-board when we get to that part of things. If you're curious to learn more...

...Maybe join my Patreon! You get to see developmental stuff from this, and other work-in-progress projects. Plus this same blog, but without the part plugging my Patreon! And even more extra stuff! ORRRRR... join Becca's Patreon because they're also going to be sharing some of this comic developmental stuff! 

Pic of the Week: The neighbor's cat was chillin in our complex's courtyard and I managed to sneak some pets. The kitty is pretty nice, but often doesn't let people approach, so it was a nice treat. Or maybe it was the kitty's way of apologizing for frequently coming and hanging out on our landing and driving my cats wild. 

[best-evangelion-girl]

why are the things called that?

so to a lot of people who haven't spent hours reading the evageeks wiki, you're probably confused on the weird names for everything, especially with the differences between the original anime series and the rebuilds. I'm gonna attempt to explain everything to the best of my ability, and will also make it clear in all my polls whether I'm talking about something from nge or rebuilds.

so first off, what do I even mean by "nge and rebuilds"

so the anime "Neon Genesis Evangelion", sometimes abbreviated to NGE, was released in October 1995 and aired until march of 96. it consists of 26 episodes and is what is called the original series.

when the show ended, fans were really upset that there wasn't a proper conclusion to the mystery about the angels or seele, and that the last few episodes mainly focused on the mental turmoil of the main characters and them eventually coming to terms with reality and deciding that life is worth living. because of these complaints, the studio and the director of the series hideki anno decided to make a movie with an alternate ending to the series.

released in July of 97, "End of Evangelion" is considered by many fans to be the true ending of the series. the movie is a different episode 25 and 26 where everything sucks and seele invades NERV and tries to kill everyone to cause the third impact, Gendo attempts to start the third impact himself thinking he can reunite with Yui, but ultimately Rei triggers the third impact and gives control to Shinji before he must come to terms with humanity's purpose and find an excuse to live. basically, everyone dies and their souls are merged into one single entity, which means there's no more misunderstanding or confusion or hate in the world. Shinji eventually realizes that this sucks, and that life is about experiencing pain as well and joy, and everyone's souls rejoin their body. the movie then ends with Shinji and Asuka rematerialized on an apocalyptic earth in front of a sea of blood.

End of Evangelion, sometimes abbreviated to eoe, is basically Anno giving a big middle finger to all the fans who didn't like the original ending of the anime.

later, in the mid 2000s, Anno wanted to make a new evangelion story, this time a fully theatrical experience.

in 2007, "Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone" was released, in 2009 "Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance", in 2012 "Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo", and in 2021 "Evangelion: 3.0 + 1.0 Thrice Upon A Time"

all four of these movies together are called the rebuilds, the new theatrical release, NTE, and in the case of 3.0+1.0 specifically "shin eva" (similar to many other remakes of popular Japanese ips being labeled "shin", such as godzilla and kamen rider)

it is heavily implied in the lore and through external media that the third impact in EOE caused the world to reset, and this new universe that was created was the universe of the rebuilds.

the events of 1.0 and 2.0 play out largely the same as the original series, up until the end. when the tenth angel attacks, Rei is killed and Shinji risks everything to try and save her. unintentionally, his eva absorbs the angel and nearly causes the third impact before it's stopped. Shinji then wakes up about 15 years later to find that the world is extremely different, and that most of the people he knows are fighting against NERV. he comes to discover that the world was nearly destroyed, but pockets of civilization still exist. after seeing his boyfriend's head explode and understandably being traumatized, he eventually learns how to love life again by being part of a small farming community. the final movie ends with Shinji confronting his father, making him realize that his attempts to reunite with his dead wife were impossible and living in the past was only hurting himself and everyone around him, and then causes a final impact that remakes the entire world into a new world where the Evangelions never existed, and everyone is chill and also he and Mari are dating. another giant middle finger to the fans, basically saying "get a fucking life, nerds. get a girlfriend. stop living in the past."

hopefully that makes sense as an explanation for naming the anime and movies.

nge and eoe are the original series in the 90s

1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and 3.0+1.0 are the rebuilds from late 2000s to early 2020s

but what about the angels?

so the angels have names in nge but not in the rebuilds. in the rebuilds, they're just given a number. why is that? according to the lore, the dead sea scrolls were discovered by seele and laid out the plans for human instrumentality and gave names to all the angels. in the rebuilds, the dead sea scrolls were never found, and thus the angels in the rebuilds are not given names.

sure, some of the angels from the rebuilds look very similar to the angels from nge. but because a few are completely new, and they're mostly out of order, it's less confusing to just use numbers when talking about the angels from the rebuilds, and names when from nge. sometimes, when I'm talking about the angel's role in both nge AND rebuilds, I will use the name just because it's more convenient. (for example, I might say "bardiel was the angel that attacked and controlled Unit 03, which was piloted by Toji in nge and Asuka in Evangelion 2.0" even though it's called the 9th angel and not bardiel in Evangelion 2.0, it is basically the exact same thing and it's hopefully less confusing that way.

so yeah. names = original series. numbers = rebuilds

if you want me to give a shitty explanation about anything else, let me know. :3

[the-resurrection-3d]

rambling thoughts on the finale now that I've watched it again (spoilers, of course)

Even as I was watching initially on the discord, I was shocked by how quickly things were going by -- Luz gets murked not even 25 minutes in, for instance. I've been thinking over the series's cancellation -- I've seen it argued Dana should have cut more stuff out, but in fairness, it's hard having to make drastic cuts in a short amount of time, especially when cutting out certain characters would have meant redoing plot elements, not to mention skipping over or rewriting entire characters' backstories.

I think about Luca vs Encanto -- Luca had a lot of ideas pulled out, whereas Encanto very obviously tried to cram an entire mini-series into one movie. I like Luca better than Encanto for a bunch of different reasons, but I have to ask, Should you try to tell a simpler story better or a truncated story as best as you can? The answer seems apparent, but there is something to be said about Dana putting as much as she could on the table and all but outright asking fans to enjoy rebuilding her vision in their own. It's one thing when certain characters and ideas can be taken and made their own standalone stories, but not everything can, and given the state of the animation industry, the chances of that new show happening would've been slim, anyway.

A show like The Owl House -- a queer story cut short by a company that funded homophobic politicians while chasing woke brownie points for good publicity -- feels like the best-use case for Jenkins's idea of fanfic as repairing culture, as fans are now left to take this obviously compromised text and show our love by doing the reparative work of trying to fill in the cracks. Even if you don't engage with the fandom much, your perception of the text is still informed by these cuts, so there really isn't a reason not to think of the show as the sum of its canon and your own reparative fandom experience.

I compare TOH to SU a lot in my head, and the reason I'm willing to be so forgiving towards TOH for having a lot of dropped threads and blank spots is because, unlike SU/SUF, I don't feel like the creators wasted their time. Arguably there are episodes in season one that can be cut, but it's nothing like SU, which spent just so many episodes across every season prioritizing Steven's relationships to the humans in Beach City and neglecting its actual main cast, only for SUF to then stand up and admit it was all for fucking nothing.

Speaking of SU, though, the Collector fucking off back "to the stars" at the end gave me similar vibes to Spinel leaving with the Diamonds, though I will give SU the point here. Literally why is the Collector leaving when they've just NOW found a support system and friends? When their powers would be immensely helpful for rebuilding the Boiling Isles? "to the stars" TO SEE WHAT. WHOM. even on my first watch I thought this was fucking lame.

My main issue is that I felt like there was a big Belos-Luz beat missing, especially when their confrontation in the throne room was just him saying "oh you can't beat me." I would have rewritten that line, at least. I needed just a little extra, especially since he ended TTT with telling Luz he's doing this "for the good of [her] soul." I loved the death scene though (he's so mentally ill <3), as well as Arin Hanson's Titansona responding to Luz asking if they're "just as bad" as Belos with "do you smoke crack?"

[ilex-manor]

PC problems - I may have lost all my data

Late 2024 sucked for me, and to round it all off my hard drive died on me. I should have replaced it sooner, but I'm broke. As luck would have it, one of my brothers-in-law was looking to give me an old desktop PC he no longer uses, and already floated the idea of selling it and using the money on an upgrade for my PC. So, I have a new drive.

But all my data may be gone. My own fault for not making backups. I'd convinced myself that this wouldn't happen, because it's a HDD, and I was wrong. (Desperation makes you do the worst things, sometimes). I've not been able to access the old drive, but it is a HDD. I can't afford professional data recovery services, but the drive still powers up and my system sees it. I need a docking station or whatever-you-call-it to make the drive external, and another drive to make a byte-to-byte copy onto. I'm talking to family to see what we can do. There's hope.

I know I can rebuild from here, but a lot of things may be lost forever. The links are dead, or I can't re-create the project exactly, or w/e. All my released work is still online, of course. Feels... I can't put into words how I feel. My emotions are all over the place. Like the ball in a pinball machine.

The upcoming projects I posted about still stands, actually. Mostly. If I can't recover my data, I'll have to restart that blonde Fledgling. The updates to existing things I can just go do. I can easily grab the models off my Google Drive or the Workshop, de-compile them, and update from there. Will have to redo giving VV new eyeballs is all.

Another major issue that's looming is Microsoft axing Win10 later this year. My PC is too old to run Win11. It's old, period, and needs replacing before anything else breaks. I tried switching to Linux, and while I like what I saw, the lack of compatibility with Windows software is too big of an issue.

So... I'll have to try again to get more attention online to see if I can monetize my stuff. (The only consistent thing has been donation points I earn on Nexus Mods, and after more than a year-and-a-half that hasn't even reached the minimum amount you can withdraw to Paypal. lul). I'll make a Bluesky account, and see if I can post more frequent WIP posts. Simple "I finished that, I'm now working on this, I'll do this other thing next", every 2-3 weeks. I'm trying to find my footing, still, so we can probably write off January, but I'll restart.

Obligatory Patreon link