#knows he was the hero Phantom but is basically retired now

[phantoms-world-and-more]

I would love for there to be more Wonder Woman and Danny Phantom crossovers. So in the I am putting an idea out there.

-You have Pandora and Clockwork (Kronos/Cronos) who I see acting as Danny's ghost parents if not mentors. The are educating Danny (who is either the Ghost king or will become the ghost king) in history of the Infinte Realms, the politics of the Infinte Realms, teaching about all the beings (besides ghosts) that deal with the Infinte Realms (gods, demons, angels, spirits, ect.). Basically they are educating him on the ghostly sides of things.

-But they can't really help him with his human side, supernatural politics/diplomacy has a lot more fighting/violence. So they need someone to teach/mentor him on human/mortal diplomacy. Enter in Diana both Pandora and Clockwork know her and she is really the only person in the mortal realm they would trust with Danny

-Diana as a princess was raised to be a ruler and she is the ambassador of Themyscira, valuable experience to help teach Danny. Pandora and Clockwork contact Diana to ask for her help.

-Danny at this point has retired as a hero (the ghost have mostly settle down by now) and is focusing on school and his ghost king duties. I see him going to college and double majoring in Engineering and Political Science (Jazz convinced him)

-Danny probably lives with Diana and goes to school in the city she lives in to make it easier on getting lessons (maybe the DC universe is a different universe then his own).

-Diana knows about his past experience as a hero and no the Justice League has no idea what is going on. Though she does inform Clark and Bruce that she has taken on a student/ward but that he is not a hero. Bruce is suspicious but can't find anything on Danny (making him even more paranoid).

-Diana is a great Aunt figure for Danny

Both diana and Danny say the most concerning things

The JL are wondering how they thought diana was normal before danny because the shit she says is so out of pocket

The second someone asks about Danny's parents she goes feral and starts insulting the person who asked

Sometimes she's seen tinkering with something and whenever someone works up the nerve to ask he what it is she says "Fenton anti-creep stick, I'm planning to use it. On the more disrespectful of me routes"

And you can't tell me Diana wouldn't get Danny to help mess with the JL '" to test your infiltration skills" " I must be sure the security system is up to standards" " no I'm not that petty"

And Danny loves it

He causes chaos with his aunt everywhere and the paranoid furry can't do anything because aunty Diana is going to protect him

[mrowtastic]

Ok I had a cool Idea about a dp x dc au that i want to throw out here.

The story takes place after the show. Everyone is in their early-mid twenties, (I'm thinking the Trio is around 22-23 and Jazz 26-27, depending), Everything that happened in the show happened here. It's been over five years now and Team Phantom is a well-oiled machine of ghost kick-assery.

The Drs Fenton are retired from the ghost hunting business. Inventing new gadgets and theories is their game and they enjoy it. They have gladly passed the torch to their two kids that they are so so proud of. (Maddie insists that they call at least once a week to chat).

Everyone has stuck together. Amity is healthier (ghost-wise) and is particularly peaceful. The gang goes to the same college (take your pick, i prefer Gotham thanks to ghosty biz), and realize just how much their ghostly know-how is needed outside of Amity. (Maybe Gotham calls in a favor and asks them to [spiritually] clean up her streets to help with the strain of everything?).

Team Phantom comes out of retirement to address the spiritual turmoil, hunt down naughty ghost, help the dearly departed to the other side, and steal mementos, haunted artifacts, and other dangerous occult items best left to the dead. The more morally-grey parts of the job force the Team into stealth mode. They work mostly at night but can work during the day depending on the mission. In order to stay anonymous they have motorcycles (with their assigned colors, the sporty kind) with helmets. (I'm imaging so many motorcycle chasing scenes. Maybe the Fentons invent a ghost whip that snags ghosts mid-chase? That sounds cool).

It's easy to get what they need between Sam's and Danny's wealth, Tucker's programming skill, Danny's engineering skills, Jazz's organizational skills, and Sam's ability to see the big picture. It's just like old times.

In a sense they make themselves a superhero group. To everyone else, however, they have come out of nowhere and are way to skilled to be newbies. It has the bats and other heroes scratching their heads. Shenanigans ensue. Constantine loves them and loathes them in the same breath. The Bats are running in circles because How do they keep getting away?

Everyone gets a superhero identity:

Danny: Sticks with Phantom. I know, boring, but no one outside of Amity really knows about him. (I'm thinking an info blockade from the government like in so many fics). He specializes in all the ghostly, magical parts of their exploits. Anything that needs to be done regarding ectoplasm and weird symbols is his business. Also is the only one able to make chemicals needed for their weapons and handle a hammer for repairs to equipment. I imagine him in either a black trench coat or motorcycle jacket with combat boots, black jeans, and regular black t-shirt. He wears goggles like Maddie's. (Like mother, like son). They make him look unhinged.

Sam: I'm leaning towards the name Thorn? She's the sharpshooter. The muscle. She can and will crack your head between her thighs and possesses 90% of the trio's impulse control (in most situations). I imagine her in knee-high, laced up, goth boots, leggings and killer skirt with a leather jacket and crop top. Her colors are still black, purple, and green. She is SWOLE. I love her.

Tucker: Now, I'm not sure what his name would be but he's basically the field tech. Having an on-site hacker is super useful. He's got twenty ways to get into every building. Security means nothing to him. He's great at stealth (not counting Danny cause ghost powers) and is great at thinking on his feet. His color are black and orange. Instead of wearing his red beret and yellow shirt duo he wears sneakers, tech glasses, a motorcycle jacket with a hoodie attached.

Jazz: Prophet is her codename. She's the lady in the chair. Tucker may make the programs that run the computer, but only Jazz can run them efficiently. She gets them where they need to go, gets them out of tough situations, gets info, assists Tucker, and so much more. Also, I want her to fly a ghost jet. I dont know why but she would be so cool doing it.

[rustyironskillet]

There is this DP hero au that has been floating my head for awhile that is pretty detached from DP but I find it cool so I am going to ramble about it to myself.

Basically, there is a school for heroes and while it is a very selective and secretive program, it host a camp during the summer for anyone who wants to be a hero, but you have to get recommendation from a hero.

Since Valerie’s dad works at Axion, he and Valarie the only two that are allowed to leave Amity (excluding when the Fentons go to visit Vlad). One of these work exertions, Valerie’s dad was helping out with some security and a villain attacked and tried to steal some tech. Some heroes quickly made their way to the lab only to find, Valerie had already dealt with the villain. Seeing her skill, the heroes gave her a recommendation to go to the summer camp and she had been going ever since.

Fast forward a few years, Valerie finds out Danny is Danny Phantom and joins the trio in fighting ghosts. However, as the summer is approaching, Valerie finds out that since she has been working with the heroes so much and has been considered very trust worthy, she is allowed to recommend one person to go to the summer camp.

Valerie takes this information to the group, who is surprised that heroes actually exist, and after a lot of thinking decided that it would probably be best if Danny went with her.

So when the summer finally arrives, Danny and Val head travel to the summer camp and meet all the other characters.

Here the show finally begins(my head has been formatting this world as a tv show, kinda like my hero or Owl house).

Instead of Danny being the protagonist, it is another person, a kid who was once saved by a hero and now wants to do the same. Danny will be the antagonist and the protagonists foil, a kid who didn’t get to choose being a hero and while both of them are on the same side, they have completely different ideologies regarding authority and government, the protag’s being that authority often times does want to help and if it doesn’t it’s your job to get involved and change it, come from their experience with heroes, and Danny’s being that authority doesn’t have your best interest in mind and you should just throw the whole thing out, coming from his experience with the GIW.

There is a good hand full of characters, kinda in the same vain as Assassination Classroom, and the ones I have made so far are the protag, a kid who specializes in demons and believes ghost exist but no one believes him, a teacher who is an ex-hero who retired after sustaining an injury that left him with a permanent limp, a teacher who is a veteran hero who had been in services for the same amount of time as ex-hero, an old nurse who's tired of kids hiding their injuries, and Valerie's and Danny roommates, Val's is a girl who currently questioning her sexuality and Danny's is a guy who can sleep through the loudest of explosions.

In the rest of the world, ghosts aren't thought to be real and don't really show up often. This is because there isn't enough ectoplasm to sustain them outside of Amity and the GIW have hidden any evidence of there existence. So Danny has to hide his powers from everyone except Valerie, which he does but he still give off a cryptic vibe and does and knows things that he probably shouldn't do or know. This has resulted in everyone thinking Danny has been possessed by a demon or became demonic due to the accident that happened to him.

I think I'll start writing the synopsis from some episodes later on but for know have the files on Danny (Danny design is insipired by @nicktoonsunite)

Here is Danny’s hero costume;

[dsmpsupersecretau]

NOOOOOO!!!

Can you at least tell us what the deal is with tubbo! Cause I know he’s hiding something! just give us the basic story of what you were planning!

tumblr keeps giving me ghost asks on my main and apparently, it's cause of this blog

so I might as well answer this ask, albeit extremely late (Sorryyyy)

If i can recall, Tubbo was planned to be like, a secret agent that was tasked to keep track of Wilbur/Phantom. That ended poorly as you can see.

Now he's stuck in a miserable little secretary Job working under Schlatt.

So uh, basically what I did have planned for the rest of the story (what I can remember of my plans), in list form:

- Wilbur, a very not dead, not kinda alive, was gonna be introduced in the second chapter, a very unpleasant meeting for Tommy and Ranboo

- Ranboo actually works in a library owned by Techno (who's a vigilante/retired hero known as the Blood God)

- Oh yeah Techno also holds anarchy book club meetings, with Niki and Phil (niki is also another retired hero turned vigilante/villain) (Phil is still a hero)

- Ranboo happens upon the actual truth of said book club, gets offered to join, yay :) anarchy club (he accepts mostly out of fear cause well, i mean, being in a room with two violent vigilantes and the top hero is going to be terrifying)

- Tommy worked at a balery owned by Bad, the bakery is definitely just a façade. Every single motherfucker there is in a cult lead by Bad. They keep trying to get Tommy in. He's blissfully unaware and thinks they're all weirdos.

^not super serious, they were planned to be a minor threat and mostly funny/incompetent villains. Generally ridiculous shenanigans.

- Nightmare was going to be this dangling threat over the entire thing. Not really appearing "on camera", just sort of There.

- Wilbur was brought back by Nightmare. Then got kicked. But he was going to be threatening but more of a "you just don't know what he'll do" sort of way. A walking false alarm.

^ He's also just genuinly kind of threatening to Ranboo. Belittles Tubbo low key.

this is over a year old and this is most of what i can recall. Eh.... if i had enough interest I'd rewrite stuff. But I already have plans for original comics and I've overall lost interest in mcyt-anything so ehhh...

(I had like entire huge arcs planned cause i tend to do that, bad habit that that ends up overwhelming me to the point of losing interest. Wanted to add Aimsey, they were going to either be a secret agent (like tubbo)(bubble coworker) or a rabbit themed vigilante.)

Some of the ideas ended up being rehashed into something more original (i have some sketches on this blog pf that lol), but the idea is in the backburner for now, probably would end up making it smaller than the au idea cause it would be overwhelming otherwise.

[lunar-wandering]

you know, out of all of my Monkie Kid AU’s, I think my Phantom Thief one is my favorite, and I’ve realized I’ve never talked about it here, so here we go!

Monkie Kid Phantom Thief AU

- so! Mei comes from a long line of Phantom Thieves (obviously she’s still the descendant of dragons, but like. shes Also A Descendant of Phantom Thieves) so she was trained to one at a rather young age.

- Pigsy, Sandy, and Tang are retired Phantom Thieves (or, well, Tang is more so “retired” than anything, he still sends out heist notices and steals something every now and again, but he is, technically, supposed to be retired.)

- when MK becomes friends with Mei, he also becomes her apprentice. He eventually got good enough to do heists on his own, but they still do heists together sometimes.

- now, here’s the critical part of this AU; everyone else stays pretty much the same.

- Wukong only finds out that his successor is a Phantom Thief by accident (he didn’t even know what a Phantom Thief was before this). He finds out while secretly keeping an eye on MK at some point in between the events of Bad Weather and Impossible Delivery.

- the Demon Bull family has no idea. DBK genuinely doesn’t know how on the money his nickname of “little thief” for MK is

- Red Son, surprisingly, kinda admires Phantom Thieves??? like he finds them rather impressive for mortals.

- (he totally doesn’t have a celebrity crush on MK’s phantom thief identity, ha ha, no, what are you talking about?)

- MK doesn’t know that Wukong knows about him being a phantom thief. At one point however, he happened to send out 2 heist notices for the same time, on accident, and not exactly trusting his clones, he made Wukong do one of the heists for him, in disguise. He basically tried convincing Wukong that he’d “dropped something in the museum” and “they put it behind a glass case, so could you get it for me without being seen?”

- Wukong waits till MK’s dug himself into a hole trying to convince him before he tells him that he knows MK is a phantom thief.

- the heist actually goes somewhat okay, and Wukong enjoys himself far too much.

- Wukong wants to start doing heists himself but MK has to teach him the Phantom Thief Methods because using actual magic is Cheating.

- Pigsy, Sandy, and Tang also help teach Wukong how to Phantom Thief. mainly because they think it’s funny that they get to teach him something for once.

- Mei gets injured during a heist, and, funnily enough, Red Son had happened to be nearby, watching. He rescues her, for definitely no reason other than he doesn’t want the fun to end. He ends up discovering Mei’s identity while patching up her injury. In response he immediately promises to keep it a secret, but “isn’t it weird that there’s a phantom thief on a team of heroes?”

- Mei looks at him as though he’s an idiot, and this is how Red Son finds out that, oh, those heroes he’s been fighting for the past while? they’re all Phantom Thieves he admires.

- Red Son can’t take the next battle with MK seriously, MK makes a quip at him and he just starts blushing and teleports away, leaving MK incredibly confused and Mei incredibly amused.

- Red Son ends up baiting MK into stealing something.....just to see how he’d fight him as a phantom thief. no other reason, really.

-......this ends up becoming a weekly thing

[brawltogethernow]

So, I don't think I've ever asked you this... what IS the whole point of the Spider-Sense? It really seems like something that only exists for writers to ignore or work around when they want to inject Legit Tension into a story.

I’ve thought about this power so much, but never with an eye to defend its right to exist, so I needed to think about this. The results could be more concise.

Ironically, given the question, I have to say its main purpose is to ramp up tension. But it’s also a highly variable multitool that a skilled creative team can use for...pretty much anything. It does everything the writer wants it to, while for its wielder always falls just short of doing enough.

I went looking through my photos for a really generic, classic-looking example to use as an image to head this topic, but then I ran into the time Peter absolutely did not reimburse this man for his stolen McDonald’s, so have that instead.

A Scare Chord, But You Can Draw It

That one post that says the spider-sense is just super-anxiety isn’t, like, wrong. It’s a very anxious, dramatic storytelling tool originally designed for a very anxious, dramatic protagonist. I find it speaks to the overall tone of the franchise that some characters are functionally psychics, but with a psychic ability that only points out problems.

Spidey sense pinging? There’s danger, be stressed! Broken? Now the lead won’t even KNOW when there’s a problem, scary! Single character is immune to it? That’s an invisible knife in the dark oh my god what the fuck what the fU--

Like its counterpart in garden variety anxiety, the only time the spider-sense reduces tension is in the middle of a crisis. But in the wish fulfillmenty way that you want in an adventure story to justify exaggerated action sequences, the same way enhanced strength or durability does. Also like those, it would theoretically make someone much safer to have it, but it exists in the story to let your character navigate into and weather more dangerous situations.

For its basic role in a story, a danger sense is a snappy way to rile up both the reader and the protagonist that doesn’t offer much information beyond that it’s time to sit smart because shit is about to go down.

Spidey comic canon is all over the board in quality and genre, and it started needing to subvert its formulas before the creators got a handle on what those formulas even were, and basically no one has read anything approaching most of it at this point, so for consistent examples of a really bare bones use of this power in storytelling, I’d point to the property that’s done the best job yet of boiling down the mechanics of Spider-Man to their absolute most basic essentials for adaptation to a compelling monster of the week TV series.

Or as you probably know it, Danny Phantom. DON’T BOO, I’M RIGHT.

DP is Spider-Man with about 2/3 of the serial numbers filed off and no death (ironically), and Danny’s ghost sense is the most proof in the formula example of what the spidey sense is for: It’s a big sign held up for the viewer that says, “Something is wrong! Pay attention!” Effectively a visual scare chord. It’s about That Drama. And it works, which won it a consistent place in the show’s formula. We’re talking several times an episode here.

So why does it work?

It’s a little counterintuitive, but it’s strong storytelling to tell your audience that something bad is going to happen before it does. A vague, punchy spoiler transforms the ignorant calm before a conflict into a tense moment of anticipation. ...And it makes sure people don’t fail to absorb the beginning of said conflict because they weren’t prepared to shift gears when the scene did. Shock is a valuable tool, too, but treating it like a staple is how you burn out your audience instead of keeping them engaged. Not to go after an easy target, but you need to know how to manage your audience’s alarm if you don’t want to end up like Game of Thrones.

The limits of the spider-sense also keep you on your toes when handled by a smart writer. It tells Peter (everyone’s is a little different, so I’m going to cite the og) about threats to his person, but it doesn’t elaborate with any details when it’s not already obvious why, what kind, and from what. And it doesn’t warn him about anything else-- Which is a pretty critical gap when you zoom out and look at his hero career’s successes and failures and conclude that it’s definitely why he’s lived as long as he has acting the way he does, but was useless as he failed to save a string of people he’d have much rather had live on than him.

(Any long-running superhero mythos has these incidents, but with Peter they’re important to the core themes.)

And since this power is by plot for plot (or because it’s roughly agreed it only really blares about threats that check at least two boxes of being major, immediate, or physical), it always kicks in enough to register when the danger is bearing down...when it’s too late to actually do anything about it if “anything” is a more complex action than “dodge”.

Really? Not until the elevator doors started to open?

That Distinctive, Crunchy Spider Flavor

The spider-sense and its little pen squiggles go hand in hand with wallcrawling (and its unique and instantly identifiable associated body language) to make the Spider-Person powerset enduringly iconic and elevate characters with it from being generic mid-level super-bricks. Visually, but also in how it shapes the story.

I said it can share a narrative role with super strength. But when you end a fight and go home, super strength continues to make your character feel powerful, probably safer than they’d be otherwise, maybe dangerous.

The spider-sense just keeps blaring, “Something’s wrong! Something’s wrong! God, why aren’t you doing something about this!?”

Pretty morose thing to live with, for a safety net! Kind of a double edged sword you have there! Could be constantly being hyperattuned to problems would prime you for a negative outlook on life. Kind of seems like a power that would make it impossible for a moral person to take a day off, leading them into a beleaguered and resentful yet dutiful attitude about the whole superhero gig! Might build up to some of the core traits of this mythos, maybe! Might lead to a lot of fifteen minute retirement stories, or something. Might even be a built in ‘great responsibility’ alarm that gets you a main character who as a rule is not going to stop fighting until he physically cannot fight anymore.

Certainly not apropos of anything, just throwing this short lived barely-a-joke tagline up for fun.

One of my personal favorite things about stories with superpowers is keeping in mind how they cause the people who have them to act in unusual ways outside of fights, so when you tell me that these people have an entire extra sense that tells them when the gas in their house is leaking through a barely useful hot/cold warning system that never turns off, I’m like, eyes emojis, popcorn out, notebook open, listening intently, spectacles on, the whole deal.

It also contributes to Peter Parker’s personality in a way I really enjoy: It allows him to act like an irrational maniac. When you know exactly when a situation becomes dangerous and how much, normal levels of caution go out the window and absolutely nothing you do makes sense from an exterior standpoint anymore. That’s the good shit. I would like to see more exploration of how the non-Parker characters experiencing the world in this incredibly altered way bounce in response.

It’s also one of many tools in this franchise hauling the reader into relating more closely with the main character. The backbone of classic Spidey is probably being in on secrets only Peter and the reader know which completely reframe how one views the situation on the page. It’s just a big irony mine for the whole first decade. A convenient way to inform the reader and the lead that something is bad news that’s not perceivable to any other characters is youth-with-a-big-exciting-secret catnip.

Another point for tension, there, in that being aware of danger is not synonymous with being able to act on it. If there’s no visible reason for you to be acting strange, well...you’re just going to have to sit tight and sweat, aren’t you? Some gratuitous head wiggles never hurt when setting up that type of conflict.

Have I mentioned that they look cool? Simultaneously punchy and distinctive, with a respectable amount of leeway for artists to get creative with and still coming up with something easily recognizable? And pretty easy to intuit the meaning of even without the long-winded explanations common in the days when people wrote comics with the intent that someone could come in cold on any random issue and follow along okay, I think, although the mechanic has been deeply ingrained in popular culture for so long that I can’t really say for sure.

It was also useful back in the day when no artists drew the eyes on the Spider-Man mask as emoting and were conveying the lead’s expressions entirely through body language and panel composition. If you wiggle enough squiggles, you don’t need eyebrows.

Take This Handwave and Never Ask Me a Logistical Question Again

This ability patches plot holes faster than people can pick them open AND it can act as an excuse to get any plot rolling you can think of if paired with one meddling protagonist who doesn’t know how to mind their own business. Buy it now for only $19.99 (in four installments; that’s four installments of $19.99).

Why can a teenager win a six on one fight against other superhumans? Well, the spider-sense is the ultimate edge in combat, duh.

Why can Peter websling? Why doesn’t everyone websling? Well, the spider-sense is keeping him from eating flagpole when he violently flings himself across New York in a way neither man nor spider was ever meant to move.

How are we supposed to get him involved with the plot this week???? Well, that crate FELT dangerous, so he’s going to investigate it. Oh, dip, it was full of guns and radioactive snakes! Probably shouldn’t have opened that!

Yeah, okay, but why isn’t it fixing everything, then? Isn’t it supposed to be why Peter has never accidentally unmasked in front of somebody? ('Nother entry for this section, take a shot.) That’s crazy sensitive! How does he still have any problems!? Is everything bad that’s ever happened to characters with this powerset bad writing!? --Listen, I think as people with uncanny senses that can tell us whether we are in danger with accuracy that varies from incredible to approximate (I am talking about the five senses that most people have), we should all know better than to underestimate our ability to tune them out or interpret them wrong and fuck ourselves up anyway. I honestly find this part completely realistic.

*SLAPS ROOF OF SPIDER-SENSE* YOU CAN FIT SO MANY STORIES IN THIS THING

The spider-sense is a clean branch into...whatever. There is the exact right balance of structure and wishy-washiness to build off of. A sample selection of whatevers that have been built:

It’s sci-fi and spy gadgets when Peter builds technology that can interface with it.

It’s quasi-mystical when Kaine and Annie-May get stronger versions of it that give them literal psychic visions, or when you want to get mythological and start talking about all the spider-characters being part of a grand web of fate.

Kaine loses his and it becomes symbolic of a future newly unbound by constraints, entangled thematically with the improved physical health he picked up at the same time -- a loss presented as a gain.

Peter loses his and almost dies 782 times in one afternoon because that didn’t make the people he provoked when he had it stop trying to kill him, and also because he isn’t about to start “””taking the subway’’””’ “‘’“”to work”””’’” like some kind of loser who doesn’t get a heads up when he’s about to hit a pigeon at 50mph.

Peter’s starts tuning into his wife’s anxiety and it’s a tool in a relationship study.

It starts pinging whenever Peter’s near his boss who’s secretly been replaced by a shapeshifter and he IGNORES IT because his boss is enough of an asshole that that doesn’t strike him as weird; now it’s a comedy/irony tool.

Into the Spider-Verse made it this beautiful poetic thing connecting all the spider-heroes in the multiverse and stacked up a story on it about instant connection, loss, and incredibly unlikely strangers becoming a found family. It was also aesthetic as FUCK. Remember the scene where Miles just hears barely intelligible whispering that’s all lines people say later in the film and then his own voice very clearly says “look out” and then the room explodes?? Fuck!!!!

Venom becomes immune to it after hitchhiking to Earth in Peter’s bone juice and it makes him a unique threat while telling a more-homoerotic-than-I-assume-was-originally-intended story about violation and how close relationships can be dangerous when they go sour.

It doesn’t work on people you trust for maximum soap opera energy. Love the innate tragedy of this feature coming up.

IN CONCLUSION I don’t have much patience for writers who don’t take advantage of it, never mind feel they need to write around it.

[inkribbon796]

The Marvelous Misadventures of One: S. Marvin Argentum Ch. 3: In the Pit

Summary: Marvin realizes he’s in a bit too deep as the time continues to tick on.

Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4

Techno seemed to notice Thompson was in the club and instantly raced from the club and up the stairs, almost shouldering past people to get to the Sheriff.

“Sherman! Sherman!”

“Tech,” the huge burly man grumbled, crossing his arms in front of him. “I thought I saw yeh[1] slipping inta[2] town. What brings yah[1] over here?”

“I found a legate and it was awful!” Techno lamented, basically ignoring him, the two of them basically the same towering height.

Sherman rolled his eyes, “Let me guess, the fight lasted five seconds?”

“There wasn’t even a fight,” Techno complained. “I mean, bruhhh, he barely could defend himself. A dead leaf would have been a more satisfying fight.”

“So he’s dead?” Thompson asked.

“No, it would have been like killing a newborn puppy,” Techno huffed. “Come on, get in the pit so I can have a good fight.”

“Nah, I’m good,” Thompson scoffed and pushed Ghostbur towards the front. “Just bringin’ yer brother to yeh.”[3]

Techno looked annoyed, “Ghostbur, what are you doing here?”

“I’m helping my friends,” Ghostbur smiled.

“I’ve seen what your “help” does,” Techno rolled his eyes. “You here for Phil then?”

Ghostbur looked nervous, “I . . . uh . . . I would like to see him but I don’t know.”

“Did you bring some of the heroes with you?” Techno was looking at Marvin.

“Yah[1] know, we’ll go, we just caught yeh[1] at a bad moment,” Marvin tried to intervene.

“What are you three even doin’[4] here?” Techno leaned against the balcony railing, another fight starting up in absence of Techno.

“We were gonna[5] pick a fight with the Legionnaires’ Guildmaster, but Ghostbur here took us ta[6] see the Sheriff o’er[7] here. So we’ll just go.” Marvin jabbed his thumb at the exit.

“Taking ‘em[8] on, huh? ‘Bout[9] time someone did.” Techno hummed. Then he looked at Ghostbur and nudged him towards the other side of the balcony where the VIP area was. “Hey Ghostbur, why don’t you go say hi to Phil. He’s probably seen you already, so just head on over.”

“Wait a second,” Marvin moved to follow Ghostbur who was already moving to the VIP area.

Techno summoned and axe and moved in-between Ghostbur and Marvin.

“Look, you two make one wrong move against Phil and I’ll take your heads off,” Techno threatened.

“Not lookin’ fer a fight, I want ta get out ‘a here with Ghostbur an’ take care ‘a the hunters up north,”[10] Marvin told him firmly.

Techno braced his axe on his shoulder, “Just watch yourself.”

Ghostbur rushed over to the door and Marvin followed him, Techno opened the door for them.

“Phil!” Techno called out over the loud music. “We got company.”

Philza reached for the remote and turned the music down to a low whisper.

“Techno!” the little girl called out.

“Hey sis,” Techno smiled, walking over to her and kneeling down so the two of them could bump foreheads. “Enjoy the show?”

“You murdered them dead!” She screamed. “Blood for the Blood God!”

“That’s right, good job kid,” Techno smiled.

“Hey Ghostbur,” Philza greeted tensely. “Where’s Tommy?”

“Oh, he’s still in Brighton,” Ghostbur smiled. “He and Tubbo are having so much fun.”

“Right,” Phil kicked his feet up and stood. “Good fer[11] them.”

“You might wanna[12] know, Quackity’s here,” Techno told Philza, “I saw him when I was in the pit.”

“Okay,” Phil remarked as if he really didn’t care either way.

“I think I saw Fundy and that one slime guy with him,” Techno added.

Phil’s good wing puffed up, “Shit! Shit!”

Ghostbur gasped, clearly ecstatic, “What? Fundy? He’s here?”

Phil raced across the room and hit the intercom button, “Fundy! You furball, get yer[13] ass up here this instant! I wanna[12] know where you are!”

“Oh, Marv, have you met Fundy?” Ghostbur was floating a bit off the ground. “You have to meet him. He’s my son.”

“I think I have,” Marvin answered, more than a little surprised by that information.

Techno loudly cleared his throat. “So while we’re waiting for Fundy and probably Quackity to show up, you mind tell me what brings you to Arizona? Last I checked, Egoton was in Chicago, or something like that.”

“We were gonna[5] deal with the Legionnaires, but Ghostbur said he knew someone so we took a detour,” Marvin explained. “Really we should’a[14] stopped at the station, but we’ll go.”

“You needed allies, you two are alone,” Phil said in a way that made Marvin feel like the avian was staring through his very soul. “Why go fer[11] ‘em[15] now? The hunters have been bigger problems before?”

Marvin weighed his options. “Cause they’re workin’ with the CIA an’ Dark’s nemesis. An’ they’re gonna crash a weddin’.”[16]

Techno started bouncing on the balls of his feet, looking like a small child that had been gifted a full sized robot suit for Christmas.

Phil, however, let out an indignant, insulted huff, “Oi![17] Did that fooker[18] replace me an’[19] Tech with some other bastard? How dare he‽”

“Man, is there anyone Dark hasn’t pissed off?” Marvin chuckled.

“Seems ta[6] be a much shorter list ‘a[20] who he hasn’t,” Phil smiled. “Phantom taught him really well in that regard.”

“Huh,” Marvin commented. He realized that for being two demons of roughly the same age, supposedly, and being the same type of demon that Philza and Dark were kinda opposites. “So yeh[1] on the same hatin’[21] human trend as he is, never met a demon that was particularly nice.”

“Nah,” Phil smiled. “I love humans, they make the best things like anime, an’[19] memes, an’[19] the word: “fuck”. So I love humans.”

“How old are you?” Taylor asked.

The avian demon shrugged, “I don’t count keep anymore. 350? Almost 400? I don’t know.”

At that moment the door opened and Marvin stepped out of the line of fire as Fundy walked in, Quackity and Slime right behind him.

Quackity stiffened nervously when he locked eyes with Techno,

“Fundy,” Ghostbur smiled as he started to advance. “My little champion. How are you?”

Fundy hissed, all the hair on his head and ears standing on edge. “You touch me, and I bite you.”

“Hey, chill out fer[11] five seconds will yeh[1]?” Marvin snapped back. “He hasn’t done anythin’ ta yeh.”[22]

“Oh, he’s done more than enough,” Fundy snapped.

Techno spoke up, “Where’s Tubbo? This gonna[5] be a butcher’s army 2.0?”

“No, I just came here ta[6] catch up with some contacts, didn’t even know you two were in town,” Quackity denied, taking a step back as he glanced at Techno.

“Sides we’d need Ranboo for that,” Fundy muttered a bit too loud.

“Oi![17] You watch yerself,[23] Ranboo can do no wrong!” Phil shouted at his grandson.

“Are you kidding me?” Fundy shouted back, devolving into a series of frustrated, incoherent grumbling noises.

“Looks like a pretty important meeting up here?” Quackity smiled, looking around. “You all having fun?”

“Bruhh, these two wanna[12] take on the Legionnaires and the government,” Techno declared. “And I’m helping.”

“Wait what?” Marvin demanded before his brain could tell him that looking a gift horse in the mouth was a bad idea. “Since when have yeh[1] been in on this?”

“Since you told me that you were taking on the CIA,” Technoblade grinned. “That type of stuff is literally all I do.”

The hunter spoke up, they’d been mostly quiet up until now, mostly watching the situation fly wildly out of control, but now they interjected, “I’m going to duel the Guildmaster, take over the Guild and take them back on track to what our Guild was meant to be, protecting people and not making deals with people who are literally worse than demons.”

“So you’re saying that if you’re in control you’ll go against the government?” Technoblade said.

“If that means protecting people like we’re supposed to be doing from the start, then yes,” Taylor told him.

“Now that’s the type of thing I like to hear,” Techno grinned. “But if you back out on that, I will take care of you.”

“Right,” the hunter didn’t break eye contact.

“So, yer[24] gonna[5] help us fight them then?” Marvin asked.

“Heh,” Techno grinned. “Taking down the self-entitled discount Spanish Inquisition, and the government? You’d have to fight me not to come.”

“Get rid of the Legionnaires?” Quackity smiled. “Count me in, wish I had brought Sam and Sap, they would’a[25] made this a breeze.”

Then the casino owner turned to his two companions, “Fundy, Slime, if you two aren’t up for it, yeh[1] can go back to the hotel.”

Fundy seemed to have a fire burning in his eyes, “I can do it, I want in.”

Slime gave a huge, lopsided grin, “I will also come with Quackity from Las Nevadas.”

“You wanna[12] stay on your retirement couch, Ol’[26] Man?” Techno prodded, smiling at Phil.

“Shut!” Philza snapped, rolling his eyes when Techno laughed at him.

“I wanna[12] come with,” Techno’s little sister told them.

“No!” Thompson and Techno both told her. She pouted and deflated a little bit.

“I’ll take her back an’[19] meet you all there,” Thompson told them.

“So, kitty, you got a plan?” Quackity gave him a sharp grin.

Marvin paused for a second, “Yeah, I think I got one.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Accessibility Translations:

1. you

2. into

3. Just bringing your brother to you.

4. doing

5. going to

6. to

7. over

8. them

9. About

10. Not looking for a fight, I want to get out of here with Ghostbur and take care of the hunters up north

11. for

12. want to

13. your

14. should have

15. them

16. Because they’re working with the CIA and Dark’s nemesis. And they’re going to crash a wedding.

17. Hey! (or: Wait a second!)

18. fucker

19. and

20. of

21. hating

22. He hasn’t done anything to you.

23. yourself

24. you’re

25. would have

26. Old

[multifandomsoverseas]

My Hero Academia After-grad Headcannons

- 5 years after class 1-A gruduates: Kirishima has a bad run in with an erasure type quirk

- he doesn't lose his quirk, but combat is now an issue

- he becomes a teacher at UA

- 7 years after graduation: due to heart and blood complications, Iida Tensei sadly passes away peacefuly

- Tenya struggles with ingenium after this and tries to go for a teaching post at UA

- he fails

- they hire him as the new principal

- 8 years apres graduation: Kaminari recieves upseting news that the coltage he currently uses his quirk at may soon begin to cause sirius damage to his brain.

- that is the year present mic retires

- and pretty soon there is another loud blonde on the UA staff

- the next year (9 years after grad) shinsou comes to visit Denki at the entrance exams

- he meets a little girl with a quirk labelled villanous

- he remembers everything Aizawa did for him

- When Aizawa's vision starts to fail later that year, he becomes a part-time hero to take over that position

- (they probably adopt that child as well)

- jirou, mina, and aoyama visit every single UA carnival just to make sure nothing ever measures up to there concert

- aoyama becomes the school's go-to on anything to do with presentation

- basically UA's consulting razzle-dazzle

- 10 years after grad: momo helps out recovery girl in her spare time

- recovery girl is still alive and kickin

- dark shadow and tokoyami become one of UA's most frequent night guards for the dorms

- the teachers don't know it, but dark shadow often ends up doing the guarding while tokoyami comforts children who are having nightmares

- his range and control has improved enough that dark shadow could probably do his shopping at this point

- tsu and uraraka often work together at USJ on their days off

- the children are nightmares

- but the two pros are prettu happy with the arrangement

- and they haven't been attacked yet

- 12 years pass since grad: when eri graduates from whateverschool she goes to, she takes over for recovery girl

- for the first week or so, she takes her adoptive father to work with her, even though she is now in complete control of her power

- she just finds him really comforting

- not that she tells aizawa that

- shoji starts running the summer training camps and no one really knows why

- until he reveals that he still gets phantom pains in that one limb

- and he doesnt think that any kid should have to go through being attacked in a safe and comfortable environment

- (and also, sometimes tokoyami comes to the summer camps. He likes spending time with tokoyami. He wont admit it)

- koda often send over packs of birds to the school after a particularily big or threatening fight

- just in case

- the birds often pass by sero

- he SWINGS by occasionally to take the bakusquad to lunch

- no one knows how or why, but todoroki has suddenly become a fan favourite for commentating the sports festival

- class 1-a is really confused

- maybe its because of how blunt he is

- or his tangents about his father

- or even better, when he starts reminiscing on his sports festival day and looks incredibly confused and unbelievably stoic when he starts crying

- hagakure starts running mini training camps at UA

- the point of all her classes is that basically, if you catch her before she attcks you, you get the extra credit

- but sometimes she just sits back and drinks coffee

- because its hilarious how stressed the students always look

- 16 years of pro-heroing under their belt: midoriya's bones really start to protest

- he meet a sweet little girl who has a lion heart, an incredibly nervous nature, and a rather weak quirk called 'wind whispering'

- she is happy to hear that she can be just like her favourite hero

- she goes to shiketsu, but midoriya still finds time to train her from all mights old job

- no one knew that they had ever even spoken, so everyone is surprised when present mic passes his radio station down to jiro

- jiro who was now part time pro hero and part time top radio host in the world

- present mic was NOT jealous

- m***** moved to america

- where he was probably put in jail

- i dont really care about the grape guy

- on a better note!

- this was Amajiki's 5th year as number 3 hero

- guess who his biggest fans were

- yup

- mirio, kirishima, and fat gum (am i spelling that right?)

- they supported him SO HARD

- it was like BOOM! affection

- also, mirio andd amajiki stopped denying there love

- 17 years passed grad: sato can no longer deny his true passion for cooking

- so he works under the lunch robot thing at UA

- and then he takes over it

- and everyone loved his cooking

- 19 years after grad: Ojiro gets minor arthritus in his tail and works a bit at UA so he can stay near eri for healing

- then hee gets a full time job teaching extra credit martial arts classes

- he is the sweetest thing ever

- and the students are still trying to push him and hagakure together

- (because no one can prove that they arent)

- finally

- after 25 as a pro hero

- bakugo's quirk starts to majorly affect his hearing

- turns out it has been since middle school

- he needs to stay close to eri so midoriya offers him a job as a co- teacher in all might's old position

- bakugo accepts

- he brushes midoriya off when he tries to tell him that he would have made all might proud and totally doesnt cry in his room with kiri later that night

- kiri who may or may not have finally proposed

So there u have it. My after grad headcannons. Plz dont judge my ships or antagonize me... its just my idea and is purely 4 fun

[charlietheepicwriter7]

Baton Pass! AU Part 2

To see Part 1, go here or here

Bakugou’s Palace was indeed a playground; the school was now made of jungle gyms and plastic tubing, metal poles and mulch covering the ground. The Thieves were already in their clothes - intruders even in the mind of someone who didn’t know them - and the front door of the school, now plastic like a little kid’s playhouse, were chained up with a broken swing.

“What just happened!? Where are we??”

Shocked, the thieves turned to see Izuku, who was practically shaking with incomprehension. His school is now a playground??? There’s a weird cat thing???? His friends are dressed weird????? (okay, he’s kinda used to that last one, but this is different even by Yusuke’s standards). 

They’re all trying to get Izuku out of the metaverse so they can explain and Izuku is Not having it when Bakugou’s shadow arrives. 

Unlike other shadows, who look fairly close to their counterparts, Katsuki’s is different. 

Mainly because his look’s like a four year old, since that was when his insecurities started and overtook him. 

He’s dressed like in a hero costume - his hero costume, only as if it were recreated by a child. 

The shadow immediately starts cussing the thieves out (his voice is the same as teen Bakugou and its really unsettling). Then he notices Izuku, who has been standing there, horrified and loosely connecting things the thieves said before Bakugou interrupted to the Shadow. 

Bakugou is Livid that “Deku” is here after “he spent his entire life trying to get rid of Izuku, but he just kept coming back. Like a mold. or a rat.” 

Izuku is crying. The shadow mocks him for it, saying that if he was smart, he’d leave. “But Deku’s aren’t smart, are they?” So he attacks Izuku. 

The Thieves intervene, but Bakugou is an incredibly strong shadow, able to out maneuver them with incredible speed. 

Izuku, watching his friends being beaten by his bully, begs Bakugou to know why he hates Izuku, why he’s trying to hurt his friends. 

Bakugou scoffs. He rants about how “Deku is always looking down on him, thinking he’s so high and mighty for what? Being worthless? He doesn’t have friends, don’t fucking lie. No one would ever want a pathetic, useless piece of shit like him-” 

“Don’t you FUCKING say that about him!!!!”

Ryuji immediately comes to Izuku’s defense. He and the others refute Shadow Bakugou, praising Izuku’s good qualities and showing their support for him. Makoto notes that Katsuki is just throwing his own insecurities back on Izuku, which shocks him. Izuku is touched. 

But before he could say anything, Bakugou attacks, furious about these strangers standing up for his punching bag. He knocks them all back and is about to deliver the final blow when Izuku gets in between them. 

“Get out of the way, fucking Deku!”

“You don’t have the right...”

“Huh!? What’d you say to me?”

“I said you don’t have the FUCKING RIGHT!! To hurt them! To hurt me! You’re not going to touch them because I won’t let you!”

“Then you can fucking DIE!”

But Izuku isn’t listening anymore. He’s collapsed, clutching his head in pain. 

“Finally. Tell me, why have you let this fool hold you back from taking what’s yours? For years you’ve suffered under the boot of others; now, let them face your resistance! I am thou, thou art I - Your dream is closer than ever before! Now, call out my name and take it!”

“Come to me, Anansi!” 

Flames erupt all around Izuku. When they dissipate, Izuku is left looking like a cowboy wearing a long flapping-in-the-wind duster, colored all black with the exception of neon green accents. On his head is a black cowboy hat and his mask is a black stretch of fabric around his face - an outlaw’s mask. On his wrists are grappling bracelets and across his back sits a long sniper’s rifle.

“Kaachan... Bakugou. For years, I looked past the abuse. I brushed away the burns and bruises and offered my friendship to you, over and over again, only to get pain! Well, no longer! Your insecurities, your quirk... neither of these things are an excuse for how you’ve treated me!”

“You fucking... how dare you stand up against me! You damn pebble!” 

“I’m not a pebble! Like it or not, Bakugou, but I’m going to be the number one hero! And there’s nothing you can do to stop me! Now, Anansi!” 

Izuku is the key to defeating Bakugou’s shadow - he’s the only one who can keep up with it, with both Anansi (who is super fast) and with his grappling bracelets. Together, they manage to defeat the shadow and escape into the real world. 

Izuku is exhausted once he returns to the real world, vaguely realizing that he’s not going to be in any shape to clean the beach. The group hauls him back to his apartment, where they can be sure Futaba isn’t listening, and meet Mamadoriya, who is thrilled that Izuku is bringing friends home for once even if they’re older. 

They explain the Metaverse and how they’re the Phantom Thieves. Izuku is a little on edge, since the media had been portraying the thieves as villains, but is calmed after some explanation. It’s not a quirk and it’s not like there are laws against it. Besides, they had saved lives by changing hearts, both literally and future-wise. So they’re basically heroes!

(It’s not like Izuku has much respect for the law anyway coughstainfightcough)

He wants to help and they let him with minimal protests. It’s not like they can stop him since he now has the Meta-app, and isn’t it better to work as a group? So Izuku’s a Phantom Thief now. 

But what are they going to do about Bakugou? Izuku convinces them to leave it. It’s not like Bakugou can do anything more to him without risking his hero career. They should be focusing on Futaba. 

Secretly, Izuku doesn’t want to change Bakugou’s heart at all. Not for any sentimental reason; Anansi is there to remind him of every bad thing Bakugou’d ever done to him. No, it’s because Bakugou is a child. He still has time to change, given that the teachers at UA don’t cater to his ego. Izuku wants to give him the chance to change on his own. 

The group thinks they’ve solved what was going on with Izuku, but he corrects them. He was telling the truth, that his exhaustion was from hero training, but he managed to find a retired hero to train him. 

Speaking of his training, All Might calls him. Izuku, panicking, manages to grab the phone before his friends can see the caller id but accidentally puts it on speaker phone. So All Might introduces himself to the group at Toshinori Yagi, All Might’s secretary and the Thieves decide to involve themselves with Izuku’s training. 

****************************************************************************** Why I chose Anansi as Izuku’s Persona: 

Trickster god (most important part, since all other level one personas in P5 are Tricksters). 

Big part of oral culture, alluding to Izuku’s habit of muttering. 

God of writing and stories

Celebrated by American slaves as a symbol of resistance and survival. 

Uses cunning, trickery, and strategy in order to outwit stronger opponents, much like Izuku does.

Explaination of Izuku’s Persona outfit:

Cowboys were often seen as outsiders to society, with a high population of Men of Color and gay men. This is a reference for Izuku being on the outside of society. 

Westerns often have a “find your own justice” vibe that I thought fitted Izuku well. 

Outlaw mask - also on the outside of society. 

Long rifle - This will actually involve his quirk, just let me get to it later. 

Cowboy hat - I want Snipe and Izuku to do the “same hat” meme really bad.

[electronicdelusionstarlight]

Time to talk about the repercussions of one of the darkest donald duck comics in Italian History.

Specifically, PKNA #34.

"Nothing Personal" is technically a Bad Future AU story.

In the previous issue ("The Day That Will Come"), Donald's long time rival and occasional ally The Raider sacrificed himself during the uprising of the Time 0 Prison in order to save everyone on there, Donald included. This causes a problem, for the Organization, the major crime syndacate in the 24th century, has now lost their Top enforcer. So they "adopt" Trip, the Raider's byological son, who till now has mostly appeared in short stories featuring his disfunctional relationship with his father, and blame Donald for his father's death, thus turning the small kid into The Griffin.

So, the Griffin is now the new top enforcer for the Organization, and his first mission is getting revenge on the duck he thought was responsible for his Father's death, Donald Duck, the Duck Avenger.

And THAT's how Donald gets turned into a domestic terrorist.

Basically, he stages a series of bomb attacks on duckburg, claiming many lives, and then plants evidence that Donald is the man responsible for them, so that he can swoop in and play hero, giving then said evidence to J.J. Jameson Expy Angus Fangus, and so expose him to the public.

Donald is cornered in Ducklair Tower, his main lair, and the whole place explodes on him and the agents sent to capture him, causing yet another slaughter.

Now, the story is quite dark, and we do see a bad future where this events have come to pass, Donald now Phantom of the Opering in the underground of the ruins of Ducklair Tower and Angus becoming Donald Trump before Donald Trump was a thing and Two becoming the leader of the Organization and all that...

But we never see the repercussion on the main disney cast.

We only know the hill where Scrooge's Bin once sat is now home to the governor's palace, and we are told that his family left town in shame, but we see nothing else about them.

Does anyone else ever wondered how they managed?

The Triplets, one day they think they know their uncle, the other they discover he is a serial killer and terrorist? How did their friends react, at school, at camp? Did the police ever question them? Their Uncle just died and everyone says he's a monster but do they understand? Does anyone understand what just happened? To them? To their family? Who took them in, the spawns of a monster?

Scrooge left town, how did the news impact his business? Impact him? Was that the straw that broke the once great duck's back? Is he in a retirement on, old and alone, his great fortune gone with his nephew? His very feathers and blood, dying in infamy? With him gone, Rockerduck and Glomgold will have easy field for their schemes, like it happened in the wonderful life episode about donald being gone and Magica stealing the dime because of it, especially with Angus' corrupt phiscal policies, the economy will be in shambles.

But not as in shambles as Daisy must feel. Poor woman gets stood up by her long time boyfriend one night, him getting more distant and distant each passing day, and she misses him and she's angry that he won't even talk to her and explain why has he dumped her so uncerimoniously ("it's for her protection" thinks the superhero as he fights intergalactic vampires with the help of a goddess), and then one day wake up and find out that the very duck she loved was a monster, a terrorist, the very terrorist that has been laying waste to her city, killing her friends. Think of the shock, the anger, the grief...

What about Gladstone? Fethry? Do they blame themselves? Do they blame him? Do they wonder if things could have gone different? We know for sure at least one of them took the kids, if not for him for them and the family, but would they? Knowing that every day they would remind them of him?

Did Mickey ever wonder if he should have noticed... sonething? Great private detective he was, not even realizing one of his closest friends were a mass murderer all along...

What about Gyro? He used to be the Duck Avenger gadgeteer back in the days, does the weight of his actions stop him from sleeping at night? He gave weapons to a murderer and now people are dead for it after all...

Does Super Goof blame himself for his collegue's fall? The Ultraheroes Team wasn't a thing yet in the 90s, but they did have some team up before, could he with his incredible powers stop this from happening?

This is the darkest Donald Duck story not just because it is pretty dark what it is shown in the comic.

This is the darkest Donald Duck story because of the implications this will hold, forever...

At least until time gets rewritten and the actions of one small kid, lost in a time that isn't his, watched over a relic of a hero, haunted by the demon he might one day become, waiting for a father that will never return home, only for him to return, in The Day That Will Never Arrive, and save everyone from all this anger and grief.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Halloween Special Villains

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

Ah, Halloween, that magical, spooky time of year where ghosts and goblins come out to play and children dress up in the hopes of getting some delicious Halloween candy. But what about all of us who are trapped at home on the night of this pagan costume and candy festival? What do we have to keep us entertained?

Why, Halloween specials of course!

If there’s one thing Halloween delivers on almost as well as Christmas does, it’s spooky Halloween-themed episodes of cartoons, where the show is allowed to get darker and more disturbing than it usually does in some cases. And what is any special without a special one-shot villain? Gotta have someone stirring up some Halloween trouble on this spooky night. And since these characters are usually one and done with little in the way to go super in-depth about, I’d figure we’d look at five of them at once! They are:

Jack O’Lantern from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy

Pumpkinator from The Fairly OddParents

Bun-Bun from Underfist

Fright Night from Danny Phantom

Ron Tompkins from Toy Story of Terror!

I’m sure some of you feel there are some glaring omissions. Where’s the Flying Dutchman? Where’s Stickybeard? Well, I decided that this time around I’d go with characters whose major appearances and debuts are Halloween episodes; both those guys had major roles in non-Halloween episodes as well, so I’ll be saving them for full reviews at a later date. Also of note: I am aware the story of Toy Story of Terror! does not take place on Halloween, but it is aired as a Halloween special, so I’m counting it.

Actor: So if there’s one thing these guys aren’t lacking in, it’s the actor department, and this isn’t a huge shock since when you’ve got a holiday special you want to splurge a bit, you know?

Jack has one of my favorite actors ever, the always-awesome Wayne Knight. Knight just has that sort of voice that’s perfect for smug jerk characters like Mr. Blik or Dennis Nedry, so really it’s pretty fitting for a pranking trickster like Jack, though I will say that it’s hard to match Knight’s voice to the human version of Jack when you see him in a flashback.

Ron Tompkins isn’t too far behind in the impressive VA department, being voiced by none other than Stephen Tobolowsky, who you may remember as the overbearing Ned Ryerson from GroundHog Day (and how can you forget him? You see him repeating the same scene about thirty times). He does a great job at making Tompkins cartoonishly evil and mostly enjoyable, a tall order for a character who steals toys from children to sell online.

And if you thought the list of awesome actors was done, boy were you wrong! Star Trek’s very own Michael Dorn voices the Fright Knight, and Dorn’s voice is absolutely perfect for a cool, evil, undead knight.

Bun-Bun is voiced by Dave Wittenberg who is an insanely prolific VA, playing characters such as Henry Wong from Digimon Tamers (AKA the beast season of Digimon) to none other than Kakashi from Naruto. I think it goes without saying a VA this versatile manages to make the role work.

And finally, we have the Pumpkinator, who is played by Dee Bradley Baker, and if I sat here listing all the notable roles this man has played we’d be here all night. But here’s a small sample: Appa, Momo, Squilliam Fancyson and Bubble Bass, Klaus the goldfish, Cow and Chicken’s dad, Cinderblock and Plasmus, the Alien and Predator in Mortal Kombat, Lion and Frybo, Numbah 4 and the Toilenator, Remy Buxaplenty, most of the animals in The Legend of Korra… you get the picture. This guy’s a legend. He’ll do any sort of role, big or small, so even if he’s not playing the most complex character here, he’s at least giving it a unique spin with his voice because man, this guy has RANGE.

Motivation/Goals: Jack has a rather simple motivation: revenge. You see, ages ago he managed to steal Grim’s scythe when he was about to be reaped, and bartered for the scythe’s return, asking to be made immortal. Grim reluctantly gave him this, but, as Grim is not someone who likes being tricked, also cut his head off. As anything cut off with Grim’s scythe is permanently cut off, Jack had to replace his head with a pumpkin (of course). This lead to him being shunned as a freak, which just made jis desire for vengeance even stronger; I mean, wouldn’t you want revenge if you could only go to the ding-dong grocery store to get pudding once a year?

If you want to get even simpler, the Pumpkinator is your guy! He exists simply to blow up planets. Tat’s it. He’s very much just an obstacle Timmy needs to overcome so that he can undo his wish for every Halloween costume to be “real and scary” before the consequences end up destroying the world.

Bun-Bun is rather simple as well: he just seems to be a jerk. But they don’t just make him a simple jerk, no, this is a Billly & Mandy spinoff so things have to be taken to their ridiculous extreme. Bun-Bun turns out to be behind numerous extremely petty actions that affected the lives of the main heroes, having haunted Hoss as a child and made him afraid of monsters, made Billy afraid of spiders which estranged him from his son Jeff, and, uh, sawed off Fred Fredburger’s tusks. The fiend! As you might guess, there’s no real rhyme or reason to this, it’s just goofy absurdist over-the-top sort of thing you’d expect from Maxwell Atoms.

Ron has a relatively simple motivation, but frankly it might be the most evil out of all of these: the man steals toys from the children who stay at his motel to sell them for monetary gain. Yes, this is more evil than attempting to blow up the planet, you heard me. I have no idea how sick and twisted you have to be to think that stealing toys from children is acceptable. Funnily enough, this is the same sort of motivation Al (who was played by Wayne Knight, funnily enough) from Toy Story 2 had, though Ron takes it above and beyond.

And finally that brings us to Fright Knight, Much like most of the ghosts on the show, Fright Knight seems to just want to cause a ruckus after he’s released, attempting to take over Amity Park when Danny foolishly releases him. Later in the show he is freed to serve Pariah Dark, and after Dark is beaten he joins up with Vlad. In his final appearance of any consequence he is seen serving the Ultimate Enemy in the bad future. Basically the guy is just a really cool overhyped henchman.

Personality: So let’s get the easy one out of the way first: The Pumpkinator doesn’t exactly have a personality, because it is a big generic doomsday villain meant to act as an obstacle for Timmy to overcome. However, when it returned later in the episode where Timmy goes to Unwish Island, it did have one notable personality trait: an undying hatred for Timmy Turner, It’s a pretty relatable trait the more into the series you watch.

Bun-Bun is also rather evil and simple. He’s just a petty jerk, as can be seen by his crimes listed up under motivation. There’s not much else to him, same with Fright Knight who, again, is mostly just an overhyped henchman who acts as the hardcore badass serving whatever big bad of the week is out to get Danny (or he would have, but more on that later).

Out of all of these, Ron and Jack have the most personality. Jack is an unrepentant prankster who, at least when alive, was heavily implied to just not get he was taking it too far with his pranks (“too far” in this case being tricking people off of cliffs, at the least), and simply morphed into a bitter, jaded, vengeance-seeking supernatural entity after hundreds of years of rejection by society and isolation. Jack’s honestly pretty tragic in that regard, though it obviously doesn’t excuse his actions.

Ron is just a straight-up jerk, putting up a facade of being a charming, friendly motel owner while stealing toys from under his guest’s noses. As the truth comes out about him, he becomes more cartoonish and hammy, which really doesn’t help his case at all, and in his final scene he actually does something so cartoonish he almost feels like he doesn’t belong in the Toy Story universe.

Final Fate: Funnily enough, Pumpkinator actually gets the happiest ending out of anyone here: after being unwished by Timmy, he goes to Unwish Island and, after Timmy eventually journeys there, gets to have fun tormenting Timmy clones for the rest of time.

Ron probably has the second happiest ending, for a given definition of “happy.” Bonnie’s mother calls the cops on him for his theft, and when they show up, he somehow manages to trick them, run away, steal their car, crash it into a telephone pole when backing up, and then run off before they even move a muscle. It’s ridiculously cartoonish, and there’s no way this guy is gonna be getting off easy after that little display.

Onto Bun-Bun. Bun-Bun made one simple mistake: he put any trust at all int Skarr. For those not in the know, Skarr was the “Starscream” to Hector Con Carne, always hoping to overthrow him and take over his world domination schemes for himself before he ended up retiring from that life and becoming a reoccurring character on Billy & Mandy. So, when he joins up with the villain by betraying Underfist, what do you think he does? He betrays the villain, pushing Bun-Bun into hot cocoa and melting him, using his power of treachery and backstabbing to help his team save the world. It’s pretty amusing in that classic Billy & Mandy way.

Good ol’ Jack ends up getting sent to the underworld this time since Grim wasn’t putting up with his crap anymore, and it seems Jack still hasn’t learned his lesson about pranking. When last we see him, he’s now tormenting demons, who all start moving in on him while he laughs at his dumb pranks. The screen cuts to black and we hear a squishing noise. It’s safe to say he won’t have to worry about that pumpkin head causing him problems anymore.

Fright Night is easily the most tricky one to talk about because his entire intended purpose in the show got aborted. After he was brought back to serve Pariah, he ended up under Vlad’s control by episode’s end, but for some reason, nothing ever came of this and it was never mentioned again – well, except in the “Ultimate Enemy” special, in which the Fright Knight cameos at the beginning, acting as something of the hype man for Dan Phantom, softening up Amity Park for Dan’s attack. After that, though, he’s basically out of the series, save for a couple of brief cameos here and there.

Best Scene: Jack has the flashback to his origins, because not only is it perfectly dark for a show’s Halloween episode, you have to give props to anyone who managed to outwit Grim, even if he did end up paying a steep price for it.

Ron has his aforementioned escape from the police. I do think it’s a bit too cartoonish and silly for Toy Story, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t pretty hilarious either way.

The Fright Knight has the aforementioned scene where he mentions he’s serving The evil future Danny. Considering that’s his last real role in the series, at least he got to go out on a high note, though it still sucks nothing ever came of the plotlines set up for him.

Bun-Bun’s best scene is when he revealed that he was the architect of most of the protagonist’s woes. Again, it’s just classic over-the-top Billy & Mandy silliness, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

The Pumpkinator… just doesn’t have one. Sorry.

Best Quote: While most of these guys aren’t exactly a goldmine of quotes, Jack has one of my favorite quotes from anything, ever, and I even already referenced it above: “Three hundred and sixty-four days a year, I can't even go the the ding-dong grocery store to buy pudding! And do you know why?" The why, obviously, is the fact he has a pumpkin for a head.

Final Thoughts & Score: Frankly, this batch of Halloween hooligans is a very mixed bag. We didn’t fare quite as bad as Charlie Brown did on Halloween, but we only got one King Size candy bar out of this lot.

I guess let’s just start with the black licorice of the bunch: Fright Knight. God, I wish I could love Fright Knight, I really do, but considering the overwhelming quality of most of Danny’s rogues gallery and just the fact this guy was totally shafted and everything set up for him was ignored there’s just no excusing how lame this guy looks, Michael Dorn or no. He has a great design and a cool concept, and the ideas for interesting stories with him were there, but he ends up being a 3/10, saved only by his cool first outing, great voice work, and awesome design.

Worse still is the pile of weirdly flavored candy corn that is the Pumpkinator. He has a cool design, but he’s not much of an antagonist to be honest. He’s just a cool-looking robot who wants to blow up the planet. That’s about it. There’s really not much to say about this guy, and his only other appearance doesn’t really add much. I suppose he serves his purpose, but I have to wonder, why even bring him back if he wasn’t going to do anything remotely interesting? I don’t like generic doomsday villains at the best of times, but if you’re gonna bring one back, at least try and do something interesting with them to justify their existence, otherwise they’re just gonna end up getting a 2/10.

Finally, we get into the good candy! Let’s start off with the tasty marshmallow bunny we got, Bun-Bun (isn’t that more of an Easter candy? Weird). Bun—Bun is a funy, goofy, cartoonish villain, perfect for the first (and sadly, only) outing for Underfist. The fact they went above and beyond to cement him as this ludicrous mastermind who just screwed with everyone’s lives for no apparent reason other than the fact he’s a jerk is pretty funny. I don’t think he’s gonna win any Villain of the Year awards, but I think a 6/10 is good enough for this above average nuisance.

Oho, what’s this? A… candycane? Well, it’s a bit out of season, but it’s still tasty! And that’s kind of where Ron is. I do like just how unabashedly scummy he is, and there is precedent for people like him in the Toy Story universe, but I feel he takes things to a cartoonish extreme. For crying out loud, the guy has a trained iguana that acts like a dog! He feels like he belongs in a different series than this one, but again, I don’t really think that’s a bad thing, because at the very least he is funny. He gets a 7/10, a bit higher than usual just because I love how ridiculously nasty his whole scheme is. Stealing from kids, what the actual hell.

YES! A King Size candy bar! Just what I was looking for! It’s just a generic Hershey bar, but hey, that’s a lot of chocolate, so who’s complaining? And that’s Jack, he is simply put a perfect Halloween special antagonist. Most of this comes from his voice work, since Wayne Knight is a national treasure, but his backstory and concept are worth praising too. His origin story is something of a twist on the old legend of “Stingy Jack,” the origin story of the Jack-O’-Lantern appropriately enough. While obviously there are liberties, such as substituting Grim for the devil, it’s a mostly accurate retelling, something that would go over most people’s heads unless they’re really into classical folklore. Jack’s a lot of fun as a character, earning himself a nice big 8/10, only being held back from a higher score because despite being rightfully beloved by audiences, he never really had a major role again, getting a minor shout out in Big Boogey Adventure and… that’s it. I think Jack could have been a really entertaining reoccurring antagonist in the same vein as fwllow ensemble darkhorse Eris, but alas, it was not to be. Maybe if Underfist had been picked up he could have been brought back for that, but the fact is it just didn’t happen. Oh well, might as well appreciate what we got.

And that’s it for this batch of Halloween goodies. Halloween specials seem a lot less prevalent than Christmas specials, but they’re no less important or fun, and as you can see, they do produce at least mildly interesting villains, sometimes. If only they could produce a villain so devilishly Halloweenie that he could perfectly embody the spirit of the holiday…

Hey, what’s that at the bottom of the bag…

Wait… is that…

OH NO.

[ecto-american]

October Nights C7 (END)

Ectober fanfiction || Day One | Day Two | Day Three | Day Four | Day Five | Day Six || On AO3

Summary: Danny may have died, but he is certainly not gone. And he refuses to be forgotten.

Day 7: Masquerade & Laboratory 

It had all begun in the lab, and it would end in the lab.

Sam's footsteps echoed as she stepped down the stairs into the basement of FentonWorks. The star attraction was closed, the large metallic doors hiding the swirling green of the Ghost Zone.

This had to be done quickly. Jack and Maddie typically weren't out of the house long. She could hear Tucker walking around upstairs, constantly checking to make sure that neither came home unexpectedly.

She kept the thermos clutched tightly in her hands. Of course, they were always welcomed to the Fenton household whenever. Sam and Tucker were basically family. Down to knowing where the spare key was hidden outside and that the Fentons had a small emergency cash stash in their bedroom closet. But it just felt so differently now that Danny died, and with the mission at hand, she couldn't fathom how they'd distract the adults so that she could release this ghost back into the Ghost Zone.

Wow...Was the ghost portal always this big?

She stared up at the size, and she reached out to touch the sides of it. Her fingers grazed over the smooth surface before pushing the button to open the doors. It sometimes felt like only yesterday and other times like a lifetime ago. The accident that changed everything. What an adventure it had all been...

All the ghost fights, the action, the heroic acts. So many good deeds, endless unique memories of her high school years. The Fenton adults were around, but it was the three of them that protected Amity Park. Valerie held her own weight, but it was that trio that struck true fear into the cores of ghosts. Their presence, primarily Danny's, kept them at bay, and it was them who swooped in to kick butt.

Few could ever say that they dated a literal superhero either. This secret between the three of them...it was a powerful bond. Of course they were best friends before this, and she would remain best friends with Tucker long after this. But this brought them so close, closer than she'd ever imagine being to others.

The accident changed her entire life, and with that adventure came such a circus of hell.

Watching the two boys she loved so much getting scraped up and burned. The late nights coaxing Danny on the phone after suffering yet another nightmare. He had such complex PTSD that he could never seek help from without exposing everything. At sleepovers, she'd hear him wake up in hysterics or staring aimlessly out her window. All the anxiety attacks from Tucker, the fool who would just never stop trying to take hits for her and Danny, as she had to hold his hand and cover his eyes to get him to finally go to the damn doctor. Even last year when a horrible attack nearly destroyed his right knee that required surgical screws and rods to fix. He still took pain medicine to manage it on bad days. Scarily, Sam had become almost too good at patching them, and herself, up. It made her more determined to become a vet.

Amity Park didn't always appreciate their efforts. They constantly dumped on Danny and all of his sacrifices. Tucker and Sam were somewhat known only vaguely as Phantom's helpers, but they had sacrificed a lot as well. All of their grades suffered. To some extent, they had figured out a system. They would have all graduated and been able to go to college. But it was doubtful that they'd really be rolling around in scholarships. The lack of sleep, the exhaustion both mentally and physically.

And of course...it all led to this.

Was it all worth it? Worth any of this?

Sam stared at the ghost portal, clutching the thermos tightly in her hands. She bit her lip, and she pushed her fist slowly against the closed button. The doors rumbled as they slid shut with a distinctive thud.

She couldn't do it.

There wasn't any way she could do it. Chuck the love of her life into this swirling portal to hell, this portal that ultimately lead to his death. This thing, deep down, it really was some hollowed shell of the Danny she knew. It was Phantom, not Fenton. But still, to abandon him here...To just toss him back in like discarded trash to be destroyed but his old enemies. She couldn't bear to do that to him.

This thing haunted her. It wasn't Danny. Danny would never treat her or Tucker like this, but she couldn't let this spectral stalker that looked and resembled him so much just be let loose.

She turned her back on the portal, and she walked up the stairs.

Tucker's footsteps hurried for the basement door, opening it when Sam had hit the halfway mark. Sam avoided eye contact.

"Did you do it?" he asked. Sam swallowed, and she shook her head no. She held out the thermos to him.

Tucker slowly came down a step, wincing. Sam jogged up the rest to hand it to him. He smiled a thanks, and he leaned against the wall, hand grasping the railing. They both stared at the thermos. It was silent.

"...Maybe it's best if we...don't…" Tucker said slowly. Sam blinked in surprise. He began to explain himself. "It'd just come back! The ghosts always come back. It'd just escalate, and." He paused, turning it over in his hand. "Not even just for our own sakes. I don't want Jazz to...you know. And it's just...I dunno."

She felt mild relief that they were on the same page. While he didn't say it, she could tell he was thinking the same as her: It wasn't Danny, but how can we still just do this to what used to be him?

"...We can always release him down the line," Sam finally spoke. Tucker only nodded.

123456789

They never released him. The thermos itself was locked, before it was locked again in a safe that only Tucker and Sam knew the combination to. Never once in her life did Sam ever seen the thermos move or shake, voices or anything come from it like she had seen ghosts before him do. It was silent and motionless. The years passed. Life moved on.

They went to the same college together there in Amity Park. Sam reprinted the tickets, and they followed Dumpty Humpty on tour as originally planned. After all...Danny wouldn't have wanted them to put their lives on hold because of his absence. On that trip, they ended up promising each other that it was time to retire from ghost hunting. Or retire as best as you could when you lived in Amity Park. But no more patrols, no more actively seeking out the danger. Losing one friend, they had both decided, was simply way too much already. Losing another would destroy them.

They both graduated, and then suffered together through graduate school as they worked towards their dreams: Forensic science and veterinary medicine. Jazz returned to Amity Park after finishing graduate school herself, freshly married to the love of her life. Before anybody knew it, Jack and Maddie were able to settle into a tear-jerkingly wonderful role: grandparents.

Tucker eventually met a girl and got married. Despite her claims that she could never love again after Danny, Sam did find somebody that she fell hard for, and she married too. Along with Jazz, they settled into their lives within America's most haunted city. Sure, ghosts were a common sighting. But it was home, and none of them could ever imagine a life anywhere else. They all remained close. Their children grew up with Jazz's, and they played together.

Over time, Jazz and her parents had all questioned, at least once a year, how they'd feel if they saw Danny's ghost. A natural curiosity and worry for the ghost hunting family. Jack and Maddie had continued their life's work with a surprisingly different attitude to it. More brutal, yet more sympathetic. But that was likely a natural reaction when you study ghosts and had to bury your child after their death at the hands of a ghost. Knowing that your baby boy died to a ghost, but also having that worry at the back of your mind of seeing them once more as a creature you openly hated.

Tucker and Sam always remained quiet during the Fentons' discussions on the matter, or they said minimal. They kept up their masquerade of being a bit curious, but overall disinterested. They did everything they could to even avoid the topic if possible. Of course they knew the truth, but they never spoke a word of it. Not even to Jazz.

Because after that final night, as they drove back to Sam's house, she and Tucker made a pact. They'd take that horror show they went through to their graves, forever leave the family clueless. There was no reason to ever utter a word about the experience anyway. Tucker and Sam knew Danny Fenton. He was their best friend for the entirety of their childhood and teenhood, the hero of Amity Park, like a brother to Tucker and Sam's first true love. And that thing that haunted them those October nights so many years ago just simply wasn't Danny Fenton anymore.

[tessatechaitea]

Wonder Twins #7

I didn't realize the Wonder Twins were Gen X.

Oh yeah! Zan had just saved the world by stopping a plot that was going to save the world.

I just realized I hadn't scanned the cover yet and as I did, I noticed the Wonder Twins fist/star emblem marks a striking resemblance to a goat.se riff. Zan and Jayna get taken off of monitor duty at the Hall of Justice now that they've stopped the League of Annoyance. You'd think that doing a good job would get you a promotion but those of use who have always done spectacularly good jobs know better. While everybody else works down to the lowest common denominator (because who wants to do more work than the next guy?! A fool, that's who!), good workers just put on blinders and do the job they were hired for until the time they're being paid for is up. Sure, that sounds like I'm describing a sucker who's been completely manipulated by the man! But I'm also describing a person who fulfills their end of whatever bargain they've agreed to! So when I say Zan and Jayna wind up giving tours at the Hall of Justice because they were too good at catching criminals, you'll understand why I went into the previous digression. Maybe? I don't know. Have you seen what state the U.S. is in?! Why are you picking apart my writing style?! Mark Russell takes a few pages to shit all over hockey fans and now I hate Mark Russell with a burning passion. Even though I'd hardly call myself a hockey fan. I mean, I loved NHL '93 (unless it was '92 (or maybe '94?)) and I loved going to San Jose Sharks games when I was still living in the Bay Area (plus my friend worked equipment for the Sharks and would get us free tickets). But it's not like I follow it much anymore. I just like the feeling of being angry at somebody for writing a satirical critique of sports fans rioting because they're so happy that their team won. Although why would I be angry when I've never done that nor think Russell's wrong in his pointed and humorous critique?! Oh, who cares why! Being angry is just more fun! Oh shit! I finally understand people's attraction to Fox News! I just watched a YouTube clip of somebody's Jeremy Roenick highlights from NHL '94 set to the song "More Than a Feeling" and it was pretty awesome. Also, that was definitely the one we played nonstop back in 1993 and 94 and maybe even into 95. Roenick unstoppable down with the puck while Sharks players lay splayed out on their back all across the ice. To stop the riot, Superman calls in Repulso! He's a guy whose super power is super stink and he's kept in a locked room with a bare table and a microwave and nobody wants to be his friend because he smells like a garbage dumb that vomited on top of the diarrhea it shit out while standing on its head so the stanky muck ran down his body absorbing all of his body odor and then somebody cut up a durian and tossed it in the mix.

Superman is a dick. Get this guy some friends with no sense of smell. Or at the very least, an Xbox Gold account.

After the hockey riots, some "the end of the world" riots take place because Zan and Jayna screw up something or other. Basically what that means is that Repulso gets to be let out of his airtight containment unit again! He's a pretty optimistic guy for being sealed away by Superman (which is just Superman's way! Is somebody a problem? No problem! Put them in the Phantom Zone!). He's so happy and not bitter about his living arrangements that I feel like Zan and Jayna had better figure out a way to give him a better life before this issue ends. Because if Mark Russell fails this character he created before this issue is over and I have to face reality after snot crying about a fictional person, I'm going to be pretty upset when I continue to buy Mark Russell comic books because what other choice do I have? Am I going to stop reading DC's best written comic books because Mark Russell betrayed poor Repulso? Of course not! What am I? A person with integrity?! Repulso winds up getting his ass beat by rioters as Repulso's handlers flee the chaotic "end of the world" downtown riot scene. Luckily the Wonder Twins are headed downtown to save his life and maybe become his friend or something? Please? After Zan and Jayna save Repulso, Jayna goes to Superman to tell him everything sucks. He gives her a big speech about how being a hero is lonely work because you don't always get to fuck the hot chick at your secret identity's workplace and also fuck an Amazon warrior while also getting to fuck anybody at all whose initials are "L.L." and also have a best friend who is the coolest guy in the world with a butler who makes the best pancakes. Sometimes you're a fat jerk who smells who even Superman won't fucking give the time of day because Superman has this speech about how being a hero is lonely and that's a good thing so you should embrace your loneliness because who wants to put up with your super stink, fatty?

Jayna is a way better hero than Superman. At least in this comic book that's all about her and not Superman so of course she's going to outshine him!

Oh yeah, the ant in the above picture is Jayna. It can't smell. Wonder Twins #7 Rating: A+. I should probably be less cynical when reading Mark Russell comic books because he's as earnest and serious as he can be while also providing lots of jokes. He takes writing seriously because what else is there? If your message isn't going to matter, why bother? (is his philosophy. I think. It's not my philosophy! I don't think? Maybe it is! I just write things that matter in a much different way than Mark Russell writes things that matter.) I should probably read Superman's speech and be inspired by the idea that you don't do good because you want adulation; you do good because it's the right thing to do, even if the entire world thinks you're an asshole for doing it. Even if all of the other superheroes think you're a stinky fuck and only keep you around to use as a tool to oppress and manipulate the masses without having to use logic and reason on them (because, let's face it, the people doing terrible things don't understand logic and reason. Or they're do but they're just selfish and greedy so nothing is going to reach them anyway (which maybe is part of Superman's message?)), you're still a hero at the end of the day. You can still be proud of your stinky self. And even if the life is lonely, you should remain positive and upbeat because Superman really doesn't want to be reminded that you exist every time you complain about the lack of reasonable living conditions. Being a hero is a state of mind, says the guy who also looks great and is invulnerable and has the best wife and a cool son and doesn't have to fear death! So inspiring!

[adamarinayu]

DuckTales + Danny Phantom = Phantom Duck AU?

So I suggested this before as a joke, but the more I think about it the more I like it? So I’m just gonna ramble for a bit about it.

But yeah basically the idea was an AU that takes place during Donald, Della and Gladstone’s teen years, when they’re 14 (like in DP), where Scrooge is a jack-of-all-trades adventurer ghost hunting business tycoon, and Donald, Della and Gladstone are being raised by him (and taken along for the ride).

And yeah the story would be like... barely the same. Basically something would happen to Donald to turn him half ghost, and Della and Gladstone, being there when it happens, are the only people to know and are his closest friends, confidantes and allies. Scrooge, though he loves his nephews and niece to death and back, has a very negative opinion of ghosts and employs scientists, such as Gyro, to create weapons so that when Scrooge and the cousins are adventuring and they come across a ghost, they can deal with it. Because of this, the trio chose not to tell him of Donald’s accident.

Sometimes Fethry gets involved and eventually finds out about Donald, but he’s not being raised by Scrooge so he’ll just randomly show up when he wants.

It would very rarely take place in school, like DP does, or even in Duckburg, since they’re a family of adventurers.

Glomgold is Scrooge’s nemesis and, like Vlad, is a half ghost himself. He has absolutely no interest whatsoever in Donald, except trying to use him against Scrooge, and strictly considers himself to be Scrooge’s enemy, not Donald’s. However, he does often try to turn Donald against Scrooge, since Scrooge very clearly loves his nephew, and has even attempted to bioengineer another “Donald” specifically to use against Scrooge, with various rates of success and failures, since Donald refuses to betray his uncle/family.

Now for the triplets and Webby! The triplets and Webby are from 20 years into the future, where Della has still disappeared with the Spear of Selene and Donald has long since retired from ghost hunting. Donald and Gladstone have become distant due to this, as Gladstone works with Donella Duck (basically the Dani Phantom of Phantom Duck, the slightly younger, female clone of Donald (more like a clone of Della who is half ghost, tbh, so more like an artificial triplet than a clone?), and the only success of Glomgold’s) to keep ghost hunting and protecting people, and Donald and Scrooge have completely fallen out due to Della’s disappearance. Shortly after Donald and Scrooge start talking again, but before they’ve really made up, Huey, Dewey, Louie and Webby are sent back in time by Everett Ducklair (the Clockwork of Phantom Duck) to aid the trio, but the triplets do not realize that their uncle- the duck raising them- is the famous Phantom Duck until they meet him in person. Webby, being a huge Donald Duck and Phantom Duck fan, had figured it out already and wasn’t aware that they didn’t know.

They have to hide their true identity from the trio, of course, and become seasoned ghost hunters in the past, where they return to frequently when they’re needed. Donald and Gladstone, 20 years into the future, had long since forgotten what those four looked like and were not aware that they were their nephews...

However, something happens in the kids’ time, where they have to reveal the truth to their uncles and encourage Donald to retake his hero work to save the world- again. It’s not until Donald becomes the Phantom Duck once more that Scrooge learns of his secret identity.

On the ghost side of things, ghosts would include, but not be limited to; Rockerduck, Magica de Spell, Lena de Spell, Poe de Spell, Mark Beaks, Duckworth, at least one Beagle group, Everett Ducklair, Lyla Lay, Uno/Odin Eidolon, among others.

OKAY QUICK lemme explain about Uno because I love him so much. He’s an artificial ghost created by Ducklair (master of time) to live out in the “human” world, and is a direct aid/ally to Donald and a good friend. When Della disappears and Donald gives up hero work in exchange for safely raising his sister’s children, Uno continues helping Gladstone and Donella, but keeps tabs on Donald as Odin Eidolon. Donald knows who he is, mind you- Uno was created using ectoplasm, so even in disguise Donald’s ghost sense would find him out- but the children aren’t aware that he’s a ghost and just think he’s Uncle Donald’s weird friend. That’s pretty much it.

Okay, now I’m done. This was actually really fun to write out... Even if this AU doesn’t go anywhere (I need to get back to The Family Trap and want to figure out more about Stargate: DuckTales...) this was just fun to think of XD

[jayne-hecate-writer]

My Star Wars DVDs...

Hello there my Darlings, I have asked you here today so that we can discuss something that is rather close to my heart, so much so, that rather than just write this blog as I think it up, like I usually do, I have actually researched this one. Now before we get going, I will assume that you have all seen Star Wars...

Oh fuck yeah! I am going to talk about Star Wars and so now all of you nerds reading this are no doubt are sharpening your Wolverine claws, in readiness to tear me a new one for mixing up the basic facts. If that were not bad enough, you purists are then going to bite my head off for coming out and saying proudly that Jar Jar Binks was really not that bad and I actually quite liked him! Go on hate me.

If you are still reading this, then be warned, what I am about to discuss may contain spoilers, particularly if you have not seen all of the Star Wars content available.

However, before we get there; this blog is not me trying to work out the story of episodes eight or nine, nor is it me looking for hidden meanings in the stories. Instead, this piece is about my love of Star Wars, my personal journey both with and within the franchise and how I discovered some surprising things about myself and the world, as I explored the Star Wars universe.

My first real memory of Star Wars was seeing The Empire Strikes Back, upon its release, when I was probably no more than eight or nine, which would have been around 1982. The memory is hazy and to make matters more interesting, I saw the film in a British Army cinema while living in Germany, so it is anyone's guess how long after official release that was. Upon release of this movie, I can recall utterly falling in love with the Empire and in particular the AT-AT walker. The nerds among you will now be wondering if I call these great beasts at-ats or Aye Tee Aye Tees. This is by itself a complex question and one that I believe both Dave Filoni and Pablo Hidalgo have given ambiguous answers too, so I can hardly give an opinion, can I?

With the release of Return of the Jedi; I was again in a foreign country and I did not see this movie until it was shown on television! This is almost a blasphemy, but in my defence in lived in a country that was not English speaking and I do not know if the army cinema was still going at that point.  

My Dad did of course show us all of the movies when they came out on VHS, but these were rentals rather than bought movies when back in the days of our youth, we rented the movies that we wanted to see, rather than collected vast sets of tapes, like we do now with DVD.

The next step for me came when I met another Star Wars fan and we house shared for a few years. At least once a month, we would go through the movies, starting with good old VHS and then moving into DVD when they became more common. My friend at the time also introduced me to the idea of collecting real movie props and well made replica props. Genuine prop blasters used in the Star Wars films were made from real guns, modified with added on parts. I seem to recall that the Storm Troopers used blasters modelled on the Stirling SMG, a gun I recognised because my Father was issued one while in the Army. My friend had a plastic replica toy, full sized and painted white with a bright orange tip. I was super impressed by this gun, even more so because it had Star Wars printed on the side in the the iconic logo font. These days I would be less impressed by such a toy, but this is only because I am now familiar with the replica props made by many You Tube users, that look screen ready.

In 1999 I got my first really good job on an activity centre in North Wales, working as a climbing instructor. On my first day on the job, I stood in my very first staff meeting and in front of a group of about twenty people, none of whom I knew, I laid my nerd credentials on the table for all to see. In my strong and determined voice, I informed my new team that I very much needed a day off in the middle of the summer season to go and see the new Star Wars movie: Episode One - The Phantom Menace. There was a lot of laughter from my new colleagues, but their laughter quickly faded until the summer and the movie came up in conversation once again, on the day it was released. My manager had forgotten that he had agreed, months in advance, for me to have the day off to see the movie; until I reminded him of his decision of course.

There was a lot of concerned faces and then a few happy grins as our conversation was remembered. My manager and I then set out in the company Land Rover, with half of the other instructors along for the ride to the cinema in Bangor just to see a brand new Star Wars film. The prequels came out over the next few years, but that first film remains strong in my mind for the memories it brings. Especially as a few days after seeing it for the first time, the Boss and I escaped again to watch the movie for the

second time. Yes, I know that many of you disliked this movie, but I enjoyed it and I actually thought that little Jake Lloyd was rather cute as Anakin.

After the release of Revenge of the Sith; things on the Star Wars front went quiet for a while. True, there was the Clone Wars cartoon, but the very first season of this was a stylised set of war movie shorts that never really gave us the strong characters whom we knew and loved. Later revamped seasons used a different style of animation that was more story oriented; but I am still trying to gel with the seasons as they are. Sadly and according to the Lead Star Wars Story Group writer, Dave Filoni, the Clone Wars came to an end before he was able to finish the story.

With the Sale of the Star Wars franchise to Disney, things looked bleak. A close friend of mine messaged me via Facebook to inform me that just like him and all of his favourite super heroes; Disney now owned my soul. At the time I felt like it was a sad day indeed. How wrong I was. George Lucas appointed Kathleen Kennedy to head of Lucas Film as he retired and she took the franchise to a whole new level.

Most recently Rogue One came out and for the first time in my adult life, I found myself sat with my girlfriend at a midnight showing, on the opening night of a movie so powerful, I spent most of the final act weeping. As the titles rolled at the end, the audience as one mind stood and they clapped a furious applause. As I wrote at the time, it felt as if I had found my people. 

Which now leads me to this time, when as I write this, I have The Force Awakens playing on Blu-Ray, having worked my way through the whole fucking set set. Some time ago, I discovered within the forums of Star Wars fans that there is a suggested play list for all of the movies. Now obviously, our Great Holy Father Lucas says that we should watch them in numerical order. But if we do this, it leads us to some uncomfortable moments in the story, moments that Star Wars fans like Seth Green used to great effect in his TV show Robot Chicken.

We start with Episode One - The Phantom Menace

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMG2PQ7oIr0

Second comes Episode two - Attack of the Clones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DFOE0td1Yw

Third is Episode three - Revenge of the Sith.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7FMh3YtK_w

That is the official prequels in all of their slightly hammy goodness and I love them. They do however lead us as intended into the original trilogy.

The fourth movie is Episode Four - A New Hope.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cizlx6ODhuE

Fifth comes Episode Five - The Empire Strikes Back

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMMVrYly73k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpE_xMRiCLE

Sixth in the list is Episode six - Return of the Jedi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvfp5l7kgo4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qAKXK_aLeA

That is the original child pleasing trilogy with all of the goofiness of stone age technology teddy bears bringing down the vast industrial complex of the empire with just logs on ropes.

Up next is the newest trilogy, only one of which has so far been released.

The seventh movie is Episode Seven - The Force Awakens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaOSCASqLsE

Later this year comes Episode eight - The Last Jedi.

In 2019 we can expect Episode nine – which is as yet still untitled.

Before you even start to think it, I am not here to theorise along lines of

what these movies are going to be about or how the death of our Princess Carrie Fisher will affect them. What I will add though is the thought that the other films and TV shows in the saga have to fit into this story line somehow, but where and when? If we insert them into the time line, we can put The Clone Wars after episode two and then rebels after episode three. At the end of rebels we can insert Rogue one and somewhere in here will be the new Han Solo movie, due out in summer 2018 (forty one years after Han Solo first hit the big screen). When asked if we should watch them in this order, it seems that official opinion is that the main films are in order with the other films and shows can be put in around them, pretty much when you fancy. But this does not work for me, I want see the progression of our characters. I want to see the story arc played fully.

This brings us onto the now famous Ernst Rister order, named after the man who developed it. His playlist puts them in a strange order so that the big reveals can be kept. After all, what good is it learning that Anakin and Padme had children, when the big reveal of episode five is that Luke is Vader's son? So with that in mind, his order goes as follows.

Episodes four and five in order. Flash back to episodes one, two and three in order. We then finish up with Episodes six, seven, eight and nine. Again the other films and shows can be watched when you like without upsetting the basic story too much.

For all of you baby Anakin haters, there is also the Machete Order. A dirty playlist which removes episode one all together, but still puts the rest roughly in the Ernst Rister order. The big difficulty with this dirty playlist is that when you watch the Clone Wars series and then Rebels, some of the plot makes no sense, especially if you are a fan of Maul in those later stories. Seeing the terribly sad closing of Maul's storyline in Series three of Rebels did once again move me to tears. Not bad for what is in effect a kids cartoon show. Don't judge me too harshly though, Father Lucas does get a little freaked out by us hardened Star Wars fans and he does remind us all from time to time that he did make them mainly as kids movies!

Now with the release of the breath taking Rogue One and the fabulous Rebels, I wanted to put them into the time line and the viewing schedule. Oh yeah, did I not say that I was a bit of a Star Wars nerd? Given that I own most of these on DVD now and with my being physically rather broken thanks to illness, I have the means to try to sit down and watch these things  

in one go. I have since discovered much to my consternation that it is no longer possible to do all of Star Wars in a single day. Using an adaptation to the Ernst Rister method, I fitted Rogue one, Rebels and The Clone Wars into the set too and this was the watch order that I experimented with, along with my darling partner and it led to some serious discussion between us over whether it worked.

Jayney's viewing order.

Rebels season 1 - 3.

Rogue One.

Episode Four.

Episode Five.

Episode One.

Episode Two.

The Clone Wars Season 1 - 6.

Episode Three.

Episode Six.

Episode Seven.

I will add episodes eight and nine along with the Han Solo movie to this list as soon as they are released.

So what have I missed out? Well to start with there is the infamous Christmas Special... That horror is available on You Tube (I am not linking to it, if you want to look for it, that is up to you) and I have watched it. Well some of it, well I had to and I can confirm that it is nasty! I can see what Father George has disowned it!

I have also missed out the Ewok Movies. After all, in their day the Ewoks were considered to be as popular as Jar Jar became in the prequels. I have also missed out the animated series Droids, mainly because I don't think that it is considered cannon any more. According to my research it is available on DVD, but some of the less scrupulous cartoon networks on line also have it available. Now that you know this, be warned. If you want to show this series to your kids, the on line experience is likely to expose you and your kids to the sort of hardcore porn that is frankly frightening. This is after all how these unlicensed websites pay for their bandwidth. I have also not included the new animated series of short individual stories, called Forces of Destiny. This because at the time of writing, they are not officially  

out yet out.

My biggest omission by far though is the written word, those stories of the expanded universe (known in Star Wars circles as the EU, probably the only EU half of Britain will allow discussion of!) of star wars, books that introduced us to fabulous characters such as Grand Admiral Thrawn, who later became a central part of Rebels. There are so many books, comics and shorts here, that it is all but impossible to fit them all in, let alone read them all in one lifetime. Unfortunately, The Star Wars Story Group have also stated that many of the original books are no longer considered cannon. They no longer fit into the Star Wars Universe, removed like a bad cutting in a row of vibrant plants.

Finally, I have also ignored the impossible viewing experience of the Time Machine Order, which takes the movies back to how they were when Jedi came out and before father George fiddled with them. My reason for this is simple. Face it people, that time has passed. From now on, Solo shoots second, Young Anakin appears as a Force Ghost in Return and Vader when revealed beneath his helmet, will always have lost his eye brows. So my fellow fans, wipe your tears away and move on. It is not the 1980s any more! More importantly, when I checked my old VHS editions of the original trilogy, it is the widescreen revamped version from the early 2000s. Bugger!

So you may ask, what was like like watching Star Wars in such a complicated and comprehensive way? Did it fulfil my viewing needs? Was the great reveal still a resounding shock? Did it work?

Well, ahhhh… No.

Now I can maybe see the point of viewing them like this if you have never seen them before. As a story teller myself, I can see the benefit in the mechanism of the flashback, I really can, but for me, it made the whole story too much of a mess. Flitting about in the time line made it a pain to follow. It also put some of the more boring elements of the saga right in the middle of the story. Namely following the terrifying end of Empire, where we witness the power of Luke’s failure on Bespin, we dived straight into a low grade trade dispute and encountered the jelly brained Jar Jar Binks. The lesson here is this, do as the Holy Father says, watch them in order.

Now on the subject of Jar Jar, I must say that I was genuinely taken by the theory that he was a secret Sith Lord. The evidence was there for Jar Jar turning out to be on the Dark Side, but it appears that the story was changed following criticism of the character by fans. The only person who knows the truth of what the Holy Father wanted to do with Jar Jar is the Holy Father himself and Lucas has been less than keen to discuss it as fully as I (and many others) would like. Instead, several members of discussion forums and even You Tube have dissected the theory, examined the evidence and stated their conclusions. Maybe Dark Jar Jar would have been an interesting way to go, but when you look at what we have in the story arc, it is Jar Jar who creates the special laws that put Palpatine in place. What bigger hint towards his fall into the darkness is there than that? I like to think of Jar Jar afterwards, once the Jedi are all but gone, with him sat alone in his world of empty rapidly fading power, lamenting on the choices he made. It is so sad and it was this type of thinking that gave me a new sympathy for him as a character.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rHyf0FBvt4

Meanwhile another development has occurred in the franchise that also appeals to me and it is something that comes up time and time again. If Anakin was destined to bring balance to the force, how was he to do it if he had to pick a side? By choosing between the light and the dark; he created an imbalance that Luke carried on into episode seven. Maybe this is why the Jedi order collapsed around him and why Ben Solo became Kylo Ren and followed Snoke? Maybe this is what is meant by Luke in the trailer for the new film when he says that the Jedi must end? Sadly I am not going to explore that line of thought. When the new film comes out this winter, I do not want to have spoiled it for myself by concentrating on theories and trying to work out the story. Instead, I prefer to wait and find out. Only then can I discuss it.

However, there is another area for clues that we can discuss and that lies within the story of Kanan Jarrus, in series three of Rebels. After he is blinded during his duel with Maul, Kanan escapes from the Sith temple with the help of Ezra and they take the Sith and Jedi holocrons to the new Rebel Base. It is here that Kanan sits in combined self pity and misery until, that is, until he encounters the fabulously interesting being called The Bendu. The Bendu is neither a creature of the light nor of the dark, but rather something else. He states that he is of the Grey. Thus The Bendu is

balanced in the force, he sees both the light and the dark, the Ashla and the Bogan and I would love to see the story take this arc. This is clearly preferable over the moralistically easier writing of “good over comes evil and everyone lives happily ever after”. As a plot device this vagueness is far more interesting. This is especially so when given that The Bendu is barely understood by Kanan or Esra and is capable of so much more than either Vader on the Sith side and Kanan on the Jedi.

When you look at Rogue One, there are again these moments of grey, acts of good carried out by the Empire and acts of evil carried out the Rebels. Neither Jyn Erso or Cassian Andor have led lives free of the dark side, Cassian pretty much admits as much towards the final act of the film as they prepare to take the Imperial transport. The result is that this film is darker, grittier and more believable. As we see Cassian and Jyn give up everything that they are to make the universe safer, maybe they have moved more into the light? But in doing so, they have walked through an awful lot of dark to get there. It is for this reason that I think that the stories should be viewed in Time line order

Maybe when Yoda states that there is another, when talking to Obi-Wan as he fears for the loss of Luke in episode five, he is referring to Kanan training Ezra? Providing of course that the Rebels of Lothal survive the final season of Rebels as it leads into Rogue one.

Of course, The Bendu is not the only Force wielding being not to follow so blindly the doctrine of the Jedi or the Sith. There is also Ahsoka Tano, Anakin’s former apprentice from the Clone Wars. She leaves the Jedi order and yet still wields the force and a pair of white sabres. Her loss in the Sith Temple was another moment that brought me to tears as I watched Rebels. The same Rebels that appear in Rogue One, with the Ghost appearing in several scenes, Chopper rolling through one scene and a PA call for Hera. Could they make it any more obvious that the Rebels end up in the world of Episode Four?  This is why the Ernst Rister Order does not work for me, it leaves out far too much important detail.

Well there you go. This must be one of the longest posts I have written and it has taken me days of research, days of watching Star Wars and hours of thought to compile my argument. Was it worth it? The answer to that is obvious. I was watching Star Wars, of course it was worth it.

[sorayahigashikata]

Chapter 21: "Sports are serious business."