#maybe chant storyboards-ideas

[alyona11]

If I find the right vibe mb I will stream on the weekends or mb tomorrow, but it'll depend on stuff

Just info for some of you who join the streams!

[fly-pow-bye]

DuckTales 2017 - “The Rumble for Ragnarok!”

Story by: Francisco Angones, Madison Bateman, Colleen Evanson, Christian Magalhaes, Ben Siemon, Bob Snow

Written by: Bob Snow

Storyboard by: Vince Aparo, Kristen Gish, Victoria Harris

Directed by: Tanner Johnson

The Fly says...

In Norse mythology, there’s this cosmically giant snake named Jörmungandr that encircles the Earth, constantly eating its own tail. It is told that Jörmungandr releasing its tail from its maw would begin a series of events known as Ragnarok. To make a long story short, it's the end of the world, though someone does insert a coin to try it again.

In the world of DuckTales 2017, this tail releasing happens every ten years, according to one of Scrooge’s epic speeches, and it's an epic speech he is well qualified for, as it's because of his ability to defeat Jörmungandr that the world hasn't ended yet. Huey has many science-based questions about this, because the kids wouldn’t get that the joke is that this mythological beast doesn’t exactly follow the rules of physics if he didn’t say “science-based.” Huey is going to be our designated plot hole revealer of the episode.

This story is being told to Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby, as even he knows that he would eventually have to pass the torch. Who it could be: could it be Webby, Huey, or Louie? Dewey asks if him getting left out means Scrooge is saving the best for last, and Scrooge just says yes in a manner that doesn't exactly convey confidence. Huey, the aforementioned plot hole revealer, asks why Donald or his mom couldn't have that torch.

Scrooge: I don't trust Donald and Della to cooperate on a jigsaw puzzle, much less the fate of the universe.

Yeah, because the boys have never fought against each other, ever. The real excuse is that they'd rather have a plot with these relatable youths. It's a shame; I would have loved to see Donald or Della do their trademark fighting styles against these mythological beasts. Yes, these kids would be far more likely to learn a lesson in the end, especially our designated lesson learner Dewey, but maybe Donald and Della could learn to cooperate, too. Alas, they never appear.

They fly to Valhalla, courtesy of Launchpad flying into a rainbow. Valhalla: so majestic, even Launchpad couldn’t crash in it as he makes a decent landing right in front of the building. I almost didn't notice that oddity.

Scrooge is ready to fight that giant snake, currently the size of the entire planet, as even the other kids have their jaws agape that Scrooge could remotely tickle him, never mind harm him. But don't worry, Huey’s question on how that could happen is explained: when Jörmungandr unleashes his tail from his mighty maw, he transforms into a duck-sized snake man-beast. Now it makes perfect sense, or at least that’s what Huey sarcastically says.

Passing by people wearing "Scrooge vs. Jörmungandr" t-shirts, they open the door to reveal the arena this fight is going to take place in, with pyrotechnics, a roped ring, and a bunch of fans rhythmically chanting. Huey finds this kind of arena quite familiar, and Launchpad is so giddy about what this will entail, he just has to say what this is.

Launchpad: Whoa! It's wrestling!

Audience: This is awe-some!

Launchpad: This is awe-some!

With Launchpad and the audience referencing the famous "this is awesome" chant, this episode reveals itself to be an episode about professional wrestling, which apparently ripped off these Valhalla battles according to Scrooge.

From the amount of pro wrestling I watched, there's one thing I know for sure: fowls and pro wrestling probably shouldn't mix. Whether it be the Red Rooster and his "fanbase" of "Rooster Boosters", or the Gobbledy Gooker that popped out of an egg and spent quite a few minutes during a pay-per-view doing the Chicken Dance with the late Mean Gene. If there's anything that can heal the relationship between these kinds of animals and pro wrestling, it's a well-liked reboot of a classic Disney cartoon about ducks.

As Dewey gets excited by the chance of having all of his bones broken and have people love him for it, the giant ouroboros in the sky transmogrifies into The Rattlesnake himself.

Well, okay, he's not a rattlesnake, and I'm sure most of Stone Cold Steve Austin's gimmick wouldn't fly on TV Y7 programming as he seems to be more like The Rock, but anyone could get the idea. It's Jörmungandr, the People's Champion and Chairman of the VWE. He's also said to be the beloved underdog, which does make sense considering the world hasn't ended in at least a millenium.

He begins this with a promo about how grateful he is to be in his arena, being cheered on by all the fallen warriors who died gloriously in battle, and he assures them that the rest of Earth will join them. The Rumble for Ragnarok 100: Maybe The 100th Times The Charm! They don't really say that subtitle. They do introduce his opponent, who, outside of this ring, is the beloved billionaire who has saved the world countless times.

But nobody would ever cheer a billionaire babyface, as Scrooge's gimmick is the heel Millionaire Miser, a cross between The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase and Irwin R. Schyster. Wrestling terms are used throughout the episode, and Launchpad does explain to the kids at home what "heel" and "babyface" means.

One term that doesn't come up is "kayfabe", the idea that these characters and their actions in the ring are portrayed as real, and that term could tie into one of the major plot points of this episode: that Dewey is completely offended that, in the ring, his uncle is seen as a bad guy. Granted, that term is more used to point out that pro wrestling is scripted, and this rumble is portrayed as completely legitimate. There's certainly no tired jokes about wrestling being fake.

After a botch involving a giant money bag taking out the intended color commentator for this PPV, who was clearly the late Gorilla Monsoon as a penguin, the replacement. Huey Duck is a veteran sports commentator, having earned his Junior Woodchuck badge in it, though his experience as a pro wrestling color commentator seems to be slim to none. In contrast, Launchpad's knowledge of sports entertainment even manages to give him the foreknowledge of what's going to happen, as Huey points out as the plot hole revealer.

There's a lot of humor with Huey not knowing what is happening on stage and trying the best he could, while misnaming wrestling moves and generally getting everything wrong in the process. There was a particularly disastrous wrestling PPV called Heroes of Wrestling which had a similar problem with one of its commentators. Ugh, I don't want to be reminded of that one.

Launchpad announces that there will be three matches, all of them the heroes of Valhalla vs. the dreaded Millionaire Miser.

Our first match is Strongbeard vs. The Millionaire Miser. As Strongbeard enters the ring, he decides to give one of the audience members one of his beard hairs, which has the ability to bestow his amazing strength. He's practically telling his opponent what he should do to defeat him. Wrestlers usually wait until they get in the ring before they do that.

As the audience chants his catchphrase, "fear the beard", and booes the Miser, Dewey tells his Uncle Scrooge that he shouldn't put up with this. Scrooge assures Dewey that he's just acting as the heel because it's the right thing to do, right before mocking the audience for not being the richest duck in the world like he is.

Much like in an actual battle, the Millionaire Miser has to use his smarts, as muscle is something he doesn't exactly have. The Miser tries to take down Strongbeard with his trademark Unbreakable Penny Pincher Hold, or, as Huey calls it, a sedative neck massage, only to be punched by a Beard Fake-Out. Dewey protests this use of what he thinks is a bad guy tactic, only to have food thrown at him.

He may or may not have gotten that gigantic hint from before, as he reveals that he stole one of the hairs on Strongbeard's chinny-chin-chin, giving him the strength to pin Strongbeard clean, scoring a point for Team Earth pretty quickly. This loss happened almost as fast as when fan-favorite-and-also-bearded Daniel Bryan got pinned in 18 seconds by Sheamus at WrestleMania XXVIII, and it's revealed to be just as well liked as that match as the audience showers the arena with boos and empty popcorn tins.

Dewey is not going to stand for this, and tries to convince the audience to stop cheering for a giant dragon man who wants to destroy the Earth, and start cheering for the billionaire that has prevented the destruction of the Earth multiple times. It's well established that this audience wants the Earth to be destroyed, as this event is literally for the Ragnarok, but his ignorance is a Dewey thing to do.

That ignorance angers one audience member so much that he decides to throw a wooden chair at him, a reference to the classic chair shot done many, many times in pro wrestling. The Millionaire Miser does manage to save him from an unintentional injury, as much as the fans really wanted that to happen. Unfortunately, this causes a different injury: this breaks Scrooge's back, forcing him to see what his next generation can do. It is heartbreaking to see Scrooge actually having to use his cane in ways other than hopping on enemy's heads, that's for sure.

Thankfully, Jörmungandr, as the babyface of the company, decides to rebook the second match as a tag-team match and not instantly declare victory over the Earth. Even Webby claims this makes Jörmungandr such a good guy, though Dewey disagrees. Scrooge does come to the obvious conclusion that Webby should be one of the team members, but he knows that he couldn't choose Huey because he doesn't know anything about wrestling. As for Louie...

He's too busy selling merchandise to the fans, somehow printing T-shirts of things that just happened. This is reminding me of another disaster, though not one related to wrestling, where a green person was selling T-shirts throughout the episode. Ugh, I don't want to be reminded of that one, either.

Scrooge suggests to himself that maybe Webby could tag-team with herself, but Dewey claims that he should fight. Scrooge tells him he's not ready, and Dewey ends up agreeing with that, giving up on the idea that Dewey Duck could be a champ...

...but Champ Popular can be a champ! Using a gimmick not too far off from the persona in his own 90's school sitcom dreams, he knows he can win the fans over by offering them lollipops. Even the music goes silent after that suggestion, as if it was a movie trailer. He decides to let him go through with this anyway, cheering him on, but telling Webby to do the fighting. In Dewey's mind, he knows this gimmick will turn the boos into woos. He doesn't look anything like Ric Flair!

Unfortunately, his plans for popularity doesn't work, as the lollipops are interpreted to mean that he thinks the audience are suckers. Webby shows up...and she's just Webby. I get that the joke is that Webby is just being her cute usual self, but it's kind of disappointing considering a lot of this plot hinges on embracing a character. It's not that the plot isn't there, as she gets booed slightly less, but it doesn't get to her as much as it gets to Dewey. Pretty much all the focus is on Dewey, and I think anyone can guess what's going to happen with this match even if the opponent wasn't going to be the ruler of the underworld.

Sure enough, Champ "Un" Popular and Webby has to fight Hecka, who is based on the Norse ruler of the underworld whose name is too similar to a word one couldn't say on Disney XD. What do you know, a reboot actually manages to do some research on Norse mythology besides "big dumb vikings". Hecka is joined by her pet wolf in both the myths and here, Fenrir, or "Fenny" as he's referred to on his dog bowl. This won't be the only "dog/wolf" joke in the episode.

She's also clearly The Undertaker, even referencing his trademark get up spot after a failed attempt to knock him out with a elbow drop. With the Undertaker, that happens after his opponent knocks him down, but Dewey can't even get that far because all of that booing. Scrooge is on the sidelines trying to get him to "embrace the boos", but Dewey just can't seem to shake off his lack of popularity in the ring. Dewey is all about his popularity, something that was shown with the "Dewey Dew-Night" shorts and pretty much everywhere else, so it's easy to understand why that alone would cause him to shiver.

He tags in Webby, who ends up doing a far better job at embracing her inner heel by comparing her opponents unfavorably to the Greek mythological warriors. She even manages to pin Hecka before good ol' Fenny interrupts the pin. Dewey tries to get a "cheater" chant going, but that's completely legal even in a non-Valhalla-rules tag-team match. Surprised that doesn't come up at all in this episode, especially with what happens later.

Webby does see Fenrir, and she tries to offer a belly rub. Get it, because while he's a mythological wolf, he's a still a dog! At first, it seems like that works, until Fenrir reveals that was just an act, and he throws her out of the ring.

As Webby slowly wakes up and tries to get back into the ring before this match ends in a countout, which is only implied, Dewey knows how to win. Unfortunately for Scrooge, he meant "win them over", as he tries to use his trusted lollipops to feed the puppy. Hey, it probably would have worked on Burger Beagle if he was still the glutton character he was in the original! Unfortunately, Fenrir is a non-walking and talking dog, and the audience calls him out for trying to feed candy to a dog. In those words; why would the Valhallans call him a dog?

Webby does show up to pin Fenrir and knocks out Hecka in the process, giving Champ Popular ample time to give Team Earth 2-0 and end this episode far earlier than expected. Of course, that doesn't work, and Fenrir gets out of Webby's pin to pin Champ Popular for the win, making the score 1-1.

But wait, Dewey was never tagged back in, and Fenrir wasn't tagged in at all, so this isn't a legal pin either way. It's possible that Webby was also getting pinned by Hecka at the same time, and there's nothing that disproves this. However, it seems that DuckTales 2017 is unwilling to have Webby show any kind of weakness even if it's all Dewey's fault. Launchpad reassures the audience that the world isn't coming to an end...

Jörmungandr: ...YET! (air guitars)

Deciding that Team Earth's lackluster performance is probably making his PPV not nearly as good as it should be, Jörmungandr rebooks the final match as well to be a battle royale, with just himself against all of the mortals of Team Earth. The rules are changed, too: people are eliminated if they fall outside of the ring, but one pinfall can also end the match for either team. This looks to be the third episode in a row that just turns into another giant fight scene with all of the beloved Disney Ducks, but it is separated a little.

While Webby distracts Jörmungandr with her own heel promo, Scrooge tries to give Dewey the pep talk. This unfortunately only ends with him implying that he's just not cut out for this, which only makes him feel worse. Gotta say, that's really Millionaire Miser of him, even if he's not wrong.

Back to the heel promo, Jörmungandr tells her he's not scared of Webby, and she adds that she isn't the one to be scared of.

It's the Millionaire Miser's Maid, the Shield Maiden, and she's a stunt granny! Sorry, I had to reference that one obscure TV special when I had the chance. I even see that she put on a costume similar to Thor's, who was the one that fought Jörmungandr in the original myths! This is also a reference to an original episode, "Maid of the Myth", which also references Norse mythology. Probably not a coincidence.

I have no idea how she could even be here, nor is it really even brought up. Almost all the other plot holes were pointed out, why not this one? Well, there may be a slight explanation to that one, as our designated plot hole revealer decided to leave the announcer's table because of his failures.

It's up to Louie this time to do his pep talk to both Dewey and Huey this time, and he's way more successful than Scrooge. He pretty much just gives up that t-shirt joke at this point in the episode just so he can fill this role. I guess they had to find someone, as everyone else was too busy either moping or fighting. Whatever, this comes just in time, as Jörmungandr's curb stomping of almost everyone around him is causing Valhalla to shake. Wait, I thought it was the Earth getting destroyed, not Valhalla!

Back in the ring, we see that I was slightly wrong: they can show Webby getting defeated on screen alongside her granny! The Millionaire Miser shows up too, alongside an unexpected swerve: the competent announcer was actually Captain Crash, and he's here to fight Jörmungandr!

Launchpad didn't realize nobody liked this when Michael Cole did the same thing for far too long, and he gets taken out rather easily...alongside the Millionaire Miser. I was thinking Scrooge had a no jobbing clause even outside of the ring, but here we are. Who could possibly save us now? John Cena? ... actually, they don’t seem to make a reference to John Cena as far as I can tell.

Well, we get the closest thing to John Cena even if he's way more like Bret Hart: Champ Popular, and this time it doesn’t matter if people boo him. In fact, he's knows he's so good, he shows it off in the most evil way possible: a bad joke followed by a high-five to signal that it was supposed to be funny! I do approve of the indirect bashing of the "fistbump in place of laugh track" trope!

So yes, it looks like Dewey has finally embraced his inner heel, and I'm sure Scrooge would be proud.

Unfortunately, it's here where the episode loses me. The whole episode was building up to a lesson about that it okay to do the right thing even if it would lead to a lack of popularity. However...the crowd starts to see Jörmungandr as a heel all of a sudden? It seems like he’s not fighting with honor, but now people are starting to boo him in a snap!

It doesn't make sense; they were cheering for the end of the Earth, and they were totally fine when his fellow Team Valhalla members were beating up kids before. He was a jerk before this scene and people still loved him. Maybe he's more of a jerk now, or maybe they noticed Valhalla was also getting destroyed by the coming Ragnarok, but the ending just seems like a tacked on way to make Dewey look like the good guy even when he was supposed to be the bad guy.

To make a long story short, the babyface and heel roles swap right in the middle of the match to the point where Dewey was able to borrow some of Strongbeard's impossible strength-giving beard. Why didn't Scrooge use that little hair he had in his part of this fight, which would have helped even if he had a broken back? Because Dewey wouldn't be able to learn his lesson that it's okay to do the right thing when people love you for it.

After the referee does what is clearly a fast count, as it seems like even he knows this episode has to be over in about a minute, Dewey is declared the champion, and he even gets awarded Jörmungandr's belt.

But, in a shocking swerve, the Millionaire Miser takes the gold away from him, and Dewey and Scrooge get ready for an extra main event. Broken back be damned: Scrooge knows he can beat up a little kid! ...wait.

The episode ends like Rocky III, complete with a cheesy 80's song playing in this scene and in the credits. Why is a wrestling episode referencing a boxing movie? Well, Rocky III had that one scene where Rocky had to fight a wrestler named Thunderlips, played by Hulk Hogan, for charity, so I guess it's fitting?

How does it stack up?

There are some neat references to pro wrestling throughout the entire episode, and I do like the story's idea. The second match could have been directed better, the ending feels really tacked on, and leaving Donald Duck and Della Duck out of this felt like a cop out. I couldn't get into this one as much as some of the previous episodes.

While I wouldn't say this episode is bad, I'd say this is slightly less quality than Challenge of the Senior Woodchucks. This would make it the least best episode of Season 3 so far. If anything, that's a testament to how good this season has been so far, but that means this only gets a 3.

Next, we have no idea, because the show's on hiatus again. However, I do have something for next week. In one week, I looked at the shorts. Next week, I look at some DuckTales 2017 commercials!

← Astro B.O.Y.D.! 🦆 The Commercials (Part 1?) →

[italicwatches]

Comic Girls - Episode 11

Today I have to decide whether or not to do a batshit thing to build hype for Smash. But also, it’s Comic Girls, episode 11! Here we GO!

-It all starts at the dorm, where the girls have gotten one of those career-goal surveys from school to fill out. Which has them in a bit of a trouble, since three of the four here already have their plans figured out and even Kaos knows her goals, she’s just struggling to, you know, achieve them. Of course, they all have to put down more than just the obvious first choice…

-So what’s Ruki’s backup plans if this manga train stops? She’d love to teach children. And Kaos gets all sad about the idea of losing Ruki and Tsubasa says, and I quote, “How could you leave Kaos behind to take care of other people’s children?!” And Koyume even backs her up. I’m sorry, Ruki, you’re stuck with this little pink blob thing for life.

-Opening!

-So why teaching, and especially at a nursery school of all places? Low supply, high demand, and she loves working with kids. Really, as much as she loves manga, Ruki would still be pretty dang happy if teaching was what paid her bills, and it’d be a lot more stable…She intends to get the license after she graduates, in fact, just so she has the option if things go sideways. …Just don’t draw any smut in front of them on accident. That’s how you got into this mess in the first place, remember.

-Well, Koyume’s thinking she could always fall back on her family’s sweets shop! She knows most of the recipes already! Oh hey it turns out Kaos’s folks also run a small shop, but they do traditional Japanese confectionaries, not Western sweets like Koyume’s folks. Koyume suddenly totally wants to do a fusion collab. East meets West! They’ll take the treat community by storm, Kaos! Would anyone even buy that…They could build it into a great cultural icon! Have enough space to do events, work with up-and-coming idols, it’d be the coolest! Koyume please focus on your actual current plans and not your wild ideas for if those plans don’t work out.

-So what about Tsubasa? Nothing. And she is NOT putting down anything her parents would want god dammit! …Tsu, you got issueOMINOUS CHANTING. We can never escape. I’m sorry what were we talking about? Oh, right, jobs. Tsubasa is having to figure out actual plan Bs to continue her rebellion. How about being a superhero? No, that’s too unrealistic. A professional swordswoman, maybe…You, you know what, let them help—

-SUZU IS HERE

-FROM THE CRAWLSPACE

-SHE WANTS TO BE A GHOST WHEN SHE GROWS UP

-Actually she also wants to be a caregiver. There’s lots of demand for it back home, as she casually starts to lower a rope to come down to the ground. …Suzu, you’re as much of a dork as Tsubasa. Also she really does want to be a ghost when she grows up. KAOS RUN FOR IT SHE’S COMING FOR YOU

-So after they banish Suzu to the shadow realm, back to this damned form. Tsubasa still has no idea what to write after ‘manga artist’. And Kaos…Kaos has the problem that she has no idea of anything she could do. She’s much too clumsy to help out at her parents’ shop…And she’s the only one without a serialized gig! She’s doomed, DOOMED she tells you! And cue Ririka to come check up on them.

-Soon they’re all talking over coffee and tea, and she explains her own past…How she was facing much the same decision. She was nearly serialized when she was your age, you know…But, she gave it up. The pressure of being a professional manga artist just…took the fun out of it for her. The freedom. It’s a bit embarrassing to admit in front of actual working pros, though she did get to to release a one-shot volume, “The Afternoon Smells Like Oranges”…

-Kaos perks up. Because wait. Wait wait wait. YOU’RE Rika Sonoda-sensei?! You still have fans! Look at all these reviews! And Ririka is embarrassed, most of all to admit that even under that, she just, couldn’t hold up her end of things…It’s one of the reasons why she runs this dorm, to give people a better place to work, to find the strength to be able to do what she couldn’t. Because there is nothing that makes her more proud than seeing an artist become strong enough to stand as a professional…And of course, she still does some hobby work from time to time.

-…Kaos wants to see it. Right now. Right now right now! Koyume also wants to see it! Nnnnope. (It’s all incredibly trashy yuri manga, isn’t it. I remember the flashback scene, I know you were pushing for girls smooching on the cover!)

-But then it’s a firm cut to the notice going up. The dorm’s final days in its current state. Everyone’s got to have their crap gone by February 2nd, because that’s when the wrecking crew is coming. It’s a painful moment for all of them…As Ririka decides she wants to make their remaining time special. And since nobody has deadlines, she needs help going through the storage room…Full of the history of everyone she’s held in these dorms. It’s all got to get organized, boxed, and ready for its next home…And treated right.

-There’s tons of history and weight in this little storage room. Sketches, photos, reference books…Everything that years and years of growing young professionals used. All carefully stored in closed book cases, to keep them safe from the ravages of time. Tsubasa and Kaos end up talking about those damn career forms…Tsubasa just gave up and wrote “manga artist” twice. Let them try and call her on it. But Kaos…Kaos still doesn’t even know if she’s confident enough to write it once. She absolutely wants to be a manga artist…But she gets so scared…

-That’s normal. It’s a scary thing to do. All you can do is just…Put the fear aside, and keep pushing forward. Focus on the dream. Now, come on, help her get this poster down…And when that poster comes down, there’s something behind it. A simple drawing on the wall. A little cheer for the artists still to come, written by someone who long since left this place. The history hits her like a freight train, and she properly realizes she’s standing upon the shoulders of giants…!

-Hard cut to Kaos and Koyume trying to get all fired up. Which mostly means a lot of wiggling and shouting.

-And then it’s night time, and Kaos has been working her ass off all day…When Koyume goes to get her something to drink, and finds Tsubasa and Ruki sipping cocoa. Everyone’s having a bit of a late night, it seems…I can only assume it’s the last night in the dorm, or close to it.

-But then the next meeting, when Kaos brings four storyboards to the meeting with Mayu. She, needs, to, have, SOMETHING accepted before the dorm shuts down! So, each of them is a little different…The first is a rom-com, borrowing some skill from Koyume. It’s…Well, it’s very Kaos. Her idea of strong and manly is firewood-chopping and mighty lung capacity. And full of ridiculous dad-jokes. Because her best concept of ‘manly’ is, well, her own dad. That’s kind of adorable, actually.

-So next. It’s a naughty comedy! She pulled from Ruki but it was like 2 in the morning and seemed like a good ideate the time even if now it feels like a terrible plan in the stark light of day. Also Kaos’s super simple chibi stylings don’t, entirely, work with eroticism. And also the height of perversion that Kaos can internally parse into her art is panty shots. Oh and the firewood again. You’d think someone so thirsty could go heavier.

-Third storyboard…It’s a comedy isekai! You know, that actually has a lot of potential meat on the bone. Meat that Kaos wasn’t really able to properly use, because it’s very cliche…Though Mayu points out that it just needs one good twist. Find a way to make the protagonist stand out, and…he’s chopping firewood. I’m sensing a pattern. Mayu is quietly despairing…

-When the fourth one comes up. It’s core slice-of-life, with a lot of the lessons she’s learned in her life so far…And without a lot of the real zaniness. No, without the over-the-top comedy, the cutesy art is able to just be…cute, and let the real heart shine through. The feel of a girl running on genuine fears and loves, passions and anxieties…It, it’s genuine. Mayu has to admit that she’s a bit brain-drained from chewing on all of these, as it’s been hours now, but…Let her hold onto this one. She wants to read it again in the morning.

-And so Kaos is off…Having left behind her manuscript with Mayu. For a simple, heartfelt manga about four plucky lesbians by the name of The Lord of the Ri—Er, I mean, Comic Girls. Yeah, that. Kaos is full of uncertainty herself, but as she walks home under the light of a full moon, and remembers that simple cheer that was on that wall, from someone who themselves finally escaped rejection hell on their last days in the dorm, she feels like she’s at least gotten her path forward…

-Even if she ends up staying up half the night in fear. Until she gets a call! From her mother! Oh, wh—ANOTHER CALL! It’s from Mayu! Who lets her know…She’s been APPROVED! She made it! She’s getting published! Not just that, they want her to expand Comic Girls into a two-parter! If the surveys come back well, it could even be serialized! Oh god, OH GOD SHE MADE IT! Making it. You ain’t there just yet, kid. Deep breaths!

-And everyone hears and YES you did it! You DID IT! Even Suzu is there, openly admitting she only shows up out of nowhere.

-So when the morning arrives at school, everyone’s got those career forms. Tsubasa’s is simple: Choice one? Manga artist. Choice two? “There’s nothing else.” It is true to her. And Kaos?

-…Kaos no.

-Kaos you’re doing into my bad place. That’s my bad place, stay out of there. I have it just comfortable for me. But anyways she wrote manga artist in the first choice so that’s the important bit.

-Episode 11: My Life Has Reached Its Peak

-Credits!

Well, much like Kaos’s own manuscript, this episode skipped a lot of the absurdist comedy to just…Be really from the heart, for a minute. And it hit fuckin’ hard, too. I guess now we will see what happens in our wrap-up, and if Kaos can stand on her own two feet, next time in the finale. Episode TWELVE of Comic Girls! Wait for it!

[perpetually-jungshook]

Without You: Bloodstone (Part 18)

Genre: AU, bts!werewolf, fantasy, angst

Warnings: language, violence, suggestive content

Word Count: 3.9k

Summary: Werewolves, contrary to popular belief, are usually gentle creatures. Except for a very specific set of circumstances, they would never hurt a human (on purpose). The few unfortunate times when mistakes were made put a permanent dark mark on the beasts and people began labeling them as monsters. What the human population failed to recognize was the fact that they were protecting us from something much more sinister. Luckily, a few survived and the gene was passed down hereditarily until one day finding its way to me… in the form of my best friend.

Link to: Storyboard (reference pictures) | General lore post | Intimacy lore post Prologue | Previous | Masterlist | Next

Loyalty is often as blind as justice should be, as unstable as a lightning storm ought to be, and as misplaced as an opinion in the truth.

Chapter 18:

Jimin says nothing as I return his sweater, my shoulder aching from where he punched me. I don’t complain. I also don’t try to stop him as he retreats to his room, biting back the “thank you” that sits on my tongue because I think I’ve already pestered him enough for one day.

Heart climbing into my throat, I quietly make my way down the hall to Jungkook’s room, every bad scenario swimming through the front of my mind like a movie on fast forward. Had he woken up? Had he gone looking for me? Or worse, had he alerted anyone else? I slowly push the metal door open to find the raven haired boy sprawled out on his bed, face turned toward the wall. A vague sense of fear that he’s faking it permeates through me, but Jungkook’s breathing is rhythmic and he’s never been a good actor.

Keeping my footsteps quiet, I slip off my shoes, scoot him over a bit, and crawl under the blanket to lie beside him. What time is it? I glance at Yoongi’s watch, still fastened around my wrist. Four in the morning. Three hours of sleep? Here I come.

I dream about… not the demon, but the little girl who Halsahm occupies. She’s trapped in a small room that is mysteriously fitting, almost as if it’s her own skin. She is screaming.

“You look a little tired,” Seokjin sounds amused as he pushes some reheated scrambled eggs onto my plate. He made breakfast an hour ago, but I had overslept, meaning everyone but the eldest wolf, Hoseok, and I had gone outside for training. “Late night?”

You have no idea…

I smile as best as I can with my limbs feeling like concrete, “I didn’t sleep well.”

“Oh and that’s why you smell like Hepatica flowers,” Hoseok gives me a knowing smile. My cheeks flush with heat. “Don’t worry, Eun. This isn’t a prison.”

Seokjin bobs his head in agreement, “We just want you to be safe.”

Relief settles over me like a pleasantly warm blanket. Hopefully they think I just went for a walk. A really long walk. But no harm, no foul right? It’s not like I had actually done anything wrong. Jimin and I just went to that field, I had a vision… and he punched me. My skin suddenly feels a bit clammy. Why? He punched me because I was chanting Halsahm’s name.

Something settles unpleasantly in my chest, an ominous kind of feeling.

I had said a demon’s name aloud.

Hoseok’s head tilts curiously, “You okay?”

I nod, poking at the eggs on my plate. He probably knows I’m lying, but at this point it’s too late. Should I tell them? At the very least I should ask.

“What happens when you say a demon’s name out loud? Erm, Namjoon sunbae told me it was bad and I’m just curious.”

Seokjin looks to Hoseok, who shrugs and replies quietly, “Namjoon’s grandfather said something about… saying their names makes them stronger. We’ve never actually tested it.”

“Makes them stronger?”

“More powerful,” Seokjin clarifies. “We don’t know how or why but that’s the assumption that was handed to us by the old pack before they stepped down.”

“Meaning our parents and grandparents,” Hoseok throws in.

“The fact of the matter is, we don’t want to test that kind of theory, yeah?” Seokjin gives me a tight lipped smile.

“What hyung is trying to say is, don’t do it,” Hoseok adds bluntly, but then his expression softens, “We only want to  keep everyone safe. Don’t worry about it, okay?”

“Thanks,” I somehow manage to get the word around the lump in my throat. To avoid questions, I start shoveling food into my mouth, hoping the conversation moves on. It thankfully does as Seokjin mentions a restaurant fire in town which was apparently broadcast on the news this morning and Hoseok complains that it’s been clogging up his sinuses all day. I don’t really see how that’s possible, but maybe it’s a werewolf thing.

I decide not to bring up demon names again, hoping that Jimin had been wrong. He said I was muttering “Halsham,” a one letter difference to Halsahm. Could that…? Would that change anything? Had he misheard? I am too frightened to ask.

As uneventful minutes slip into hours and uneventful hours slip into days, I start to relax and my body and mind both return to some sort of equilibrium. The exhaustion from the not-exorcism wears off, the warmth of early summer bathes the abandoned village, and Munhee decides to have me practice my tolerance for magic. The progress is slow, but after a week I’m able to maintain and create the green flame.

It’s small, only about the size of a flame from a standard lighter, but it doesn’t matter. I am performing actual magic. From scratch.

“Kookie look!” I present my palm with the little flame, which is flickering proudly. Well, it’s not proud. I am. But at this point who cares? I’m doing magic.

“That’s nice,” he grunts, one arm hanging off the mattress he’s sprawled out on, the other draped over his nose, shielding his eyes from the dim light of the room.

“You didn’t even look.”

“You already showed me-”

“But this one’s bigger than before,” I’m not sure whether it’s disappointment or irritation that trickles into my chest at my friend’s lack of interest.

Jungkook lifts his arm, opening his eyes just a crack before scrunching his nose, “Looks the same to me.”

Definitely irritation.

I take a deep breath, extinguishing the flame, “Alright. I guess I’ll keep working on it.”

He must hear the change in my tone because the raven haired boy slowly pushes himself into a sitting position, “Eun, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that. I’m just a little tired.”

“Okay.”

“I’m serious,” Jungkook scoots closer, letting his legs fall off the edge of the mattress until we’re sitting shoulder to shoulder. “Show me again.”

I fight a frown in favor of concentrating on my palm. I can feel the energy circling there, getting warmer, but never hot. Munhee told me to focus on this energy, notice the way that it moves like a living creature. She said I need to feel it, then condense it into as small a point as possible. And lastly, in my head, create a metaphorical spark.

As abruptly as a branch snapping, with the same kind of cracking sensation, the little green flame blossoms in my hand. It’s weightless and now familiar. I’ve noticed that the color of mine is a bit deeper than Munhee’s.

“It’s pretty,” Jungkook watches the faint flicker, a small, somewhat forced smile turning up the corners of his lips. I know he’s been out all day exercising and is probably exhausted. I don’t think I can blame him for his lack of enthusiasm at something so small. He cocks his head, “Can I touch it?”

“Sure,” I say quietly, also trying for a smile. I rest my hand in his lap and Jungkook reaches out eagerly, only hesitating just before his fingers touch the flame.

“Is it hot?”

“No. It doesn’t really feel like anything at all.”

Jungkook winces as he quickly passes his finger through the small, flickering bud of green, but then he visibly relaxes and does it again.

“Weird. I thought it would burn.”

“I did too.”

His hand drops. I withdraw mine. The pause is awkward and long, something that usually doesn’t happen between Jungkook and me. He lets out a quiet sigh attention going from the green flame sitting in my palm to my eyes.

“Noona… suggested something to me today.”

Noona? Since when had he started calling Munhee that?

“What did she say?”

Jungkook leans forward, perching himself on the edge of the mattress, gaze dropping to the floor, “She said that… we should… think about moving into different rooms.”

“What? Why?”

“Something about focusing on our ‘areas of study,’ but I think it’s really because she wants us separated. I’m tell you, Eun. There’s something not right about this place.”

I never told Jungkook about Halsahm. I never told him about my adventure to the Hepatica field with Jimin. For some reason, my instincts told me to keep it to myself. Maybe I should say something. After all, my best friend is my closest ally. Keeping Jungkook in the loop would only be beneficial. Right? He’ll probably be angry with me for waiting this long, but as they say, better late than never.

Just as I open my mouth, a knock on the door interrupts the conversation. I decide that “late” will have to be another, later time.

“Come in,” I extinguish the flame on my palm, closing my fist around it and letting the invisible energy spill out of my hand.

Of course it’s Munhee that peeks inside, “Just checking in with a quick question.”

My relationship with her has become… strange. Guilt plagues me every time we make eye contact and I have a constant, subtle fear that she’ll find out what I had done. I don’t think she would be mad, maybe disappointed or hurt. Would she stop my magic training? Would she make me leave? Or would she separate me from Jungkook, do something to him? The thought haunts me. She wouldn’t. Munhee has only been honest and open with me, mostly kind, though sometimes blunt and harsh in her words. But she’s never harmed me. She doesn’t seem like the type who would do something like that. At least, not with the pack protecting Jungkook.

Wait, would the pack protect him? Yes, he’s one of them, but does the imprint override the bond between wolves?

My mind is almost too crowded to hear Munhee’s next words, “Would either of you like to visit your parents tomorrow?”

I exchange a glance with Jungkook before asking, “Visit them?”

We’d been given access to a phone and I’ve spoken with them on several occasions, continuing to be very vague about our current situation, our “academic field trip,” but assuring them that I’m doing well. It’s kind of odd. I don’t feel homesick. Do I miss my parents? Sure. Almost anyone would. But I’m not upset about being away from them. I’m not even worried about demons “coming to get them.” The pack has it handled.

Still, it would be nice to go and physically see them.

Munhee nods, “Yeah, Namjoon’s grandfather has all the documents and everything set up. Passports, letters of recommendation, even a transcript for an abroad class or two.”

“He can do that?” Jungkook tilts his head with curiosity.

She laughs lightly, “Well, your parents already know what’s going on. All we need to do is convince Eun’s and it’s easy to forge these things when you know what they’re supposed to look like.”

I want to ask, “Why not tell them the truth?” But I understand. Werewolves? Demons? That could lead to mass hysteria. Even “witch hunts” to root out evil spirits. Or worse. When Jungkook first transformed, yes, he had been violent toward Munhee, but he had been feral. He had been protecting me, running on instinct. Could anyone blame him more than a cat protecting its kittens? A bear its cubs? The only difference is their lycanthropic nature.

I had been so afraid of what he would do to me, but… they’re just people. They might not be human, but they are sentient, logical creatures even in their wolf forms. Could the general public see that? Could my parents? Might they look past the long teeth and claws, the massive bodies, the piercing amber eyes? Or would they be just as scared as I had been? Would they try to exterminate them like cultures in the past?

“As long as I know what our story is, I’d like to go visit them,” I decide with a small smile. Jungkook nods his agreement, looking uneasy.

Munhee returns my smile, “Alright. I’ll arrange a ride and get your stories straight. Be ready to go after breakfast.”

With that, she walks back into the hallway and shuts the door behind her, leaving Jungkook and me alone again. I turn to my friend, “You okay?”

The raven haired boy takes a deep breath, replying after a long pause, “Yes and no. I’m happy I’ll get to see my parents… but what if I hurt someone?”

“Jungkook, you’ve gotten your transformations relatively under control. All you have to do is stay calm, right? Calm and happy.”

More conflict crosses his expression, “But what about you? What if something happens to-?”

“I’ll be next to you the whole time. Our parents know we’re friends. They’ll probably want to see both of us. My mom loves you,” I reassure him. “It’ll be fine.”

And everything is fine. My parents don’t suspect a thing and praise us for our fabricated studiousness. Jungkook’s parents praise us for our actual progress, his father seeming very empathetic towards me in particular.

It’s fairly refreshing to get out of the bunker and away from the forest. I guess I had been so invested in training, practice, and mysteries that my task-oriented mindset didn’t give me time to think about home all that much. My heart hurts as we leave in a nondescript black van, waving goodbye out of the tinted windows that we know our parents can’t see through anyway.

The trip is long, monotonous and the man driving says nothing, just sits there, doing his job and looking like a stereotypical badass government agent, sunglasses and all. Jungkook and I sit quietly in the back seat, our fingers laced in the space between us. It’s weird, how only a month and a half has passed, but so much has changed- and yet, some things remain the same.

Taehyung is the one who meets us at the edge of the forest instead of Namjoon, who made sure we got into the car safely this morning.

“Hey there, kids!” Taehyung waves enthusiastically, a big smile lighting his expression. He slings an arm around both of us, giving a half salute to the driver, jostling Jungkook, “Thanks for dropping them off safe, Daesuk!”

The bronze haired boy pauses, half frowning, half pouting, whispering, “Or… was it Gisu? They all look the same. But don’t tell them I said that.”

The driver continues to stare blankly ahead. Behind his sunglasses, I can’t even tell if he’s looking at us anymore. Taehyung is not off put by this. He waves animatedly again, “Tell hyung’s grandpa Taetae said hi!”

No reaction. It’s almost comical.

Still beaming, Taehyung leads us off of the road and into the forest. He warbles about little things like how it’s summer now so different flowers will be blooming and everyone will be able to stay up later, etcetera. Jungkook seems to listen intently. Meanwhile, my heart hurts. Seeing my parents reminded me what not feeling in mortal danger all the time felt like… what being able to unconditionally trust everyone around me felt like.

The sound of my name permeates through the fog of thoughts.

“Eun-ah~ do I have to kiss you to get your attention?”

But the growl is the thing that pulls me fully back to the present.

Taehyung laughs, “Relax, Kook. I wouldn’t actually kiss her. Maybe. Unless she wanted me to.”

Jungkook growls again. I laugh lightly, shaking my head to clear it, “Yeah no worries there. I wouldn’t kiss him if he paid me.”

The older of the two gasps, “Excuses me? Between my rugged good looks and witty charm, I’m irresistible.”

I roll my eyes affectionately, “Anyway…”

“Right, I was gonna ask you a question,” Taehyung trots ahead a few steps, easily hopping up on top of a fallen tree and extending his hand to help Jungkook and I over it. My raven haired friend drops down immediately, but Taehyung continues just as I reach the top, making me pause. “So are you and Jungkook a thing?”

I almost choke on air. Jungkook isn’t much better off.

“Wh-what?”

The bronze haired boy gives a genuine laugh, “I mean, you guys share a room, he’s imprinted on you, you’re best friends, it’s like a cheesy romance novel.”

I glance down at Jungkook, trying to read his expression as neither of us dare to answer. I’ve always thought he was handsome, smart, determined. Really, I could find no faults in my friend except his excessive cautiousness, which eventually turned out to be both valid and helpful, and the fact that he chews with his mouth open.

Taehyung looks amused more than anything else, so I stall for time, “Why does it matter?”

“Just wondering if you’d thought about intimate bonding yet.”

“Intimate bonding?” I ask, something about the phrasing making my heart flutter nervously.

“Yeah,” Taehyung nods, wiggling his eyebrows, “I mean no rush because that’s a big decision-”

“Like, the werewolf equivalent of getting married?” I take a shot in the dark, cringing.

He shrugs, “Something like that. But more permanent.”

My cheeks are burning.

“Werewolves are mated for life,” Taehyung hops off of the fallen tree, leaving me on top by myself. “So if that’s the path you wanna take, gotta choose wisely yknow?”

“She’s turning twenty in a few weeks,” Jungkook’s upper lip pulls back a bit. “Do we have to start talking about forever now?”

“You’re turning twenty too,” Taehyung doesn’t seem bothered by the slight aggression at all, tone light and curious. I lower myself down to the ground carefully. “All I’m asking is if you’ve thought about it.”

“No, she hasn’t-”

“Relax,” I place a hand on Jungkook’s shoulder, making the small amount of bright amber that had started to crawl into his eyes dissipate. “He’s not suggesting anything. Just… making us aware.”

“Right,” the bronze haired boy gives us a boxy grin. “Aware. Anyway, let’s go. I wanna be back before dark.”

The rest of the walk back to the bunker is long, hot, and makes me a little bit sweaty and uncomfortable. Mostly sweaty. Jungkook still can’t remain in control for long after transforming, maybe ten minutes tops, so to avoid any unintentional mauling or other danger, Taehyung smartly suggests they stay in human form for a majority of the time. But this means our travel time doubles and I’m miserable for reasons that seem… slightly irrational in the grand scheme of things.

The Hepaticas are going out of season. The flowers are wilting. I can see the limp petals falling around the plants as we walk past them. Out side of the clearing, they don’t grow as densely, but they do pepper the forest floor noticeably. We’ve been here so long, living this life that I hadn’t even known was an option. I think the Hepaticas just remind me of that and a time when life was much less strange. Much less guilt ridden. I glance at Jungkook.

I use the flowers as an excuse to not think about what Taehyung said. It’s not important. Not right now. As the abandoned town comes into view, I quicken my pace to walk next to Jungkook, lacing our fingers habitually.

But then both boys stop at the smeared line that marks the edge of the forest, attention swiveling to our left. Taehyung starts bouncing excitedly, “You two know the way back from here, right?”

Jungkook looks at me, expression conflicted. I’m about to ask why, but the sound of heavy pants and claws against gravel proceeds the appearance of four massive wolves colored auburn, soft grapefruit, ochre, and blue-grey by just a handful of seconds. Seokjin, Yoongi, Hoseok, and Namjoon. They’re probably going for an evening run.

“Give me your shirt, go ahead,” I nod my encouragement. “I know the way back.”

Taehyung apparently doesn’t need any more convincing. He’s stripped down to his shorts as soon as I finish my second sentence. Jungkook hesitates though, giving my hand a squeeze before he pulls off his shirt and kicks off his socks and shoes. The instinct to follow the pack must be strong because as soon as he’s liberated of his clothes, save the elastic shorts, the telltale cracking reaches my ears and the raven colored wolf is bounding away.

I collect Taehyung’s belongings and start along the lantern marked path to the little shack that hides the entrance to the bunker. Despite holding two almost complete outfits, my hands feel… empty.

It’s quiet when I open the mistletoe doors. Setting the boys’ shoes next to the entrance, I decide to go take a shower. Maybe I’ll indulge myself after, put on a movie and idly practice magic while I watch it. A small smile lifts the corners of my lips.

My parents are okay, everyone around me has proved themselves trustworthy, Jungkook is out having fun, we’re safe here, and life is good.

As usual, time stands still in the bunker. I know it’s night outside. The stars are out and the crickets are chirping, but I can neither see them nor hear them. The soft fluorescent lights don’t change. It remains quiet. I finish the movie and extinguish the flame in my hand. They’re still out? It’s not particularly strange or worrying. I guess I’m just bored. With nothing to actively worry about, my mind will start to wander and that’s when homesickness will set in.

I put on another movie.

About halfway through, the sounds of voices and laughter cause me to press pause. The six rowdy boys file in through the mistletoe doors that I had left open a crack. Seokjin playfully pushes around Hoseok, who is cackling hysterically while Yoongi watches on with… is he smiling? Namjoon looks like he’s lecturing Taehyung, who is obviously not paying attention. Of course Jimin isn’t with them. Predictable. But Jungkook’s gaze immediately lands on me, his expression brightening.

He rushes forward, but I stop him with a hand up, hovering just in front of his chest. I wrinkle my nose, “Sweaty.”

“You or me?” Jungkook giggles, a bright flush to his cheeks and a shine on his bare chest and forehead.

“Definitely you,” my face warms and I shoo him away to take a shower.

Seokjin pops his head in to say hello, but other than that, I’m left alone as everyone goes to their rooms, probably to clean up. I don’t blame them. I turn the movie back on and am content watching it, idly playing with the green flame in my palm- until a shadow slowly slides into view. I look up and am surprised to find Jimin.

He looks bored as usual, and his voice is low with what might be irritation, “Taehyung told me to give this to you.”

The boy with the coffee colored hair presents a single Hepatica flower. My eyes widen in a mix of surprise and apprehension. It’s bright purple and hasn’t even started to wilt, but…

“Taehyung got this for me?”

Jimin scoffs, “I told him to shove it up his ass, but he insisted.”

Does this have something to do with that more than awkward discussion earlier? Was he suggesting something more than a discussion about my friendship with Jungkook? Something about himself?

I take the flower with a hint of hesitation, “Tell him I said thank you.”

Jimin gives a nod that looks suspiciously like an eye roll before taking his leave.

A small pinch forms in my throat, but I decide that I won’t say anything about this unless Taehyung brings it up.

✩✩✩♔✩✩✩

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[craftmanatee]

Felidae (1994) Review

So I just watched a sort of old animated film, about cats investigating murders of other cats, and it has an adult and sexual theme... uh... READ MORE ABOUT IT

This film... is blurry to me.

The film stars a cat named Francis who moved in with his owner at a new place. He quickly finds out about a murder spree that is happening among the cats of the neighbourhood and from there, he is undergoing an investigation to find who the murderer is.

The story, and the lore behind the motive of the attacks and why things are happening is actually pretty interesting. It has some cool ideas, but it is plagued by inconsistencies and annoyances.

First of all, I watched the film in English. The film is originally german, and so the lip syncing and the script are probably different. I tried my best to forgive the dubbing, but honestly they ended up doing a mediocre job. And for such a grim story with grim visuals, I honestly regret not watching it on german. I think they probably did a better job, and (Forgive me for this) the german language would fit just nicely to such an adult theme.

Animation Quality

I also have to mention that the animation is both good and bad. There are select shots I think are... pretty clever and cool, and then there are the nots. The film is actually well animated, or has a quality to it, but it does go back and forward with the quality. So the animation is “Bearable” at worst. Pretty alright at best.

Alright, my first gripe with the film, and it went on CONSISTENTLY is how the pacing just does. Not. STOP. It goes on, and on. Not in a slow pace, but in a consistent speed. There is no breaks, or moments. There are some, but the whole film falls into a blurry mess because most of the film just flies by in one speed.

You can see this during the opening and the first shots of the film. Just, left and right shots of the cat (francis) walking around, exploring it. But you just HAVE to watch him walk from room to room, you dont jump cut to each room, no no. You watch go from door to door. That is just bad storyboarding I guess, but what sucks is that there is no atmosphere to it. Those shots simply had no intention to show anything. And most of the film is like that.

The english dub did not help with this, I honestly think that the english dub made it worse. The scenes progress too fast for the dialogue and the thought behind them to kick in for us. HECK even the characters dont get time to think. It falls into one of those animated films where sometimes the characters have to speak over each other just to save time and fit in within the timeframe. It is a mess and is unfortunate.

However, there are some key scenes that make this film, unordinary.

First of all, I also want to say that I think the film has some interesting choices, some amazing ones and some... regretful ones.

For one, the film is Adult themed, meaning it will show gore, sex and... contain naughty language. The cartoony style of the film is so weird to have juxtaposing with lines such as “he is too old to get it up for any feline” or, something like that. So weird to hear and see this cartoon, almost disney esque designs along with an adult film. One of the first visuals for this is plainly the gore on some murdered cats. That is fine and dandy, it sets up the expectations and assumptions for the film going forward.

Then not too long after, we meet this interesting character choice in an animated film, especially for its time, and it is basically a blind cat. This character was actually, very well done, I never thought I would be happy to see such a choice. Heck she even animates in a way that makes sense, like who would have- oh... no nevermind this film is merciless.

I try not to spoil it, but I had a mini-game of thrones moment.

The parts that stand out the most is the dream, and nightmare sequences.

Francis the cat ends up having dreams and nightmares. Maybe just one or two, the film does not give itself time more than these two. But honestly, the grotesque nightmare sequence is pretty damn amazing. Even the dream sequence was actually well done, even for the benefit of the story. Heck, truought the film I noticed there were some foreshadowing here and there. So... kudos? The nightmare and dream sequence were probably animated by completely different studios. They were both way too good/pretty to be animated in-house.

And then there are the parts that stand out, for the bad reasons.

Lets start with the first big bad standout. The sex scene.

There is a sex scene between Francis and an egyptian cat lady. God damn, they fucking handled it so... cat like and realistically that it just... does not fit within the film. I hate this scene, but it does play a role. They even added the silhouette of crows fuckin! I mean Aaawrgh, it just does not fit the god damn designs of the characters. I did not assume the film to be like this. But... honestly, the film feels more important because of it.

There is also the laboratory log tape scene. This is probably the most brutal and gory part of the film. I, also hate this scene too. Not because of the gore or brutality, but how it was handled. You basically have these cats being experimented on, and they actually show this healing serum, fucking melt the back skull of a cat. They are trying to make a healing serum of some kind but it always ends up the opposite in an acid sort of way. Again, I hate the way they handled the scene by mostly being memorable for its gore. I did not get a mood, or feeling or any kind of emotional attention other than just a realistic depiction of what is a brutal action. There were no, scary lighting or anything. It was just... shot for shot a doctor, trying to get a serum to work. Log to log.

Most of the film is like this.

There just are no moods of any kind. I think the only mood the film gave itself to in a particular scene was the cultist/sect scene. There was electricity, chanting, shadow, lights flickering. Probably the only scene crafted to have some kind of... mood.

I am lying, a little bit. The final fight scene had a mood too. But, it was pretty typical... Fighting, fire, orange... danger. But I wanna save that for later...

Characters

Francis (Main character) is, pretty gosh darn straight forward. I kinda like him, and not. He just does not seem believable and I think a big part of it is the english dubbing.

BlueBeard (Sidekick) is oddly placed. I think at first he was gonna be the anti-hero but he just ends up being some... sidekick to the main character. He is the only character with the most personality, and he delivers it well. Except for the way he pees...

Khan (Anti-hero) is the blockiest cat Ive ever seen. Nothing too much about him other than, being incredibly cartoony.

Felicity (Supporting character) Yeah...

So... honestly, I dont find the characters to be in anyway interesting other than Felicity. For the most part, the characters, as cats, should be taken in an anthropomorphic way. The situation, the investigation. It all plays out like a noir film, and I think the characters as CATS do it pretty much ok. It is simply made a little more interesting because they are cats. But that also delivers a fuck ton of inconsistencies.

The story inconsistencies are there, and you are made aware.

You just have to bite and take it in anyway. Im sure the actual book has made these inconsistencies to be believable but, fuuuck the placement of things in this film.

I mean, since when could francis know how to use a computer?! Hes not a god damn fucking mutant cat! god damnit...

The Film in the end receives a “NICE TRY”

This cat noir story, is not well made in animated form. But, for its odd choices, I honestly think you should give it a watch. It is only 1h 18min long, and is not entirely predictable in the way you think.

A film, both good and bad. But should not be disregarded.

Nice Try Felidea!

(SPOILERS)

2 final bits of Awesome things from the film

Bluebeard assumes that the first murdered cat they see was done by humans. This line is oddly well foreshadowed. What is made even better is that nothing mentions how Bluebeard was right all along. Ive just came to this conclussion thinking about the story.

And the ending fight with the ending slice actually made me burst into laughter. Probably the most over the top awesome thing in the film. I thought it was funny and ... well cool in the right way.

[fly-pow-bye]

DuckTales 2017 - “The Ballad of Duke Baloney!”

Story by: Francisco Angones, Madison Bateman, Colleen Evanson, Christian Magalhaes, Bob Snow

Written by: Colleen Evanson

Storyboarded by: Jean-Sebastien Duclos, Mike Morris, Sam King

Directed by: Jason Zurek

Not full of balogna.

Here’s an interesting way to start this "ballad": begin with a scene from the season finale that didn't really have a conclusion. I just saw as a good way to include a beloved villain in a montage filled with cameos from previous episodes. There was clearly more to this story, but it wasn't important compared to the whole "sorceress just took over the entire town" plot.

In particular, Glomgold’s shadow ends up throwing him into the ocean. As he shouts “curse you, me”, he ends up nearly drowning, only to be saved by some fishers.

Specifically, he wakes up to find himself caught in a net. Glomgold reacts as well as one would expect, telling these fishermen to get their hands off of him. Turns out, that's not the right word to say.

Lady: Whoa, fisherperson?

The "gag" with her is that she wants everything to be more socially conscious, though I'm not sure if this is supposed to be one. Their names, from left to right, are Fisher and Mann, something Fisher point out almost immediately to defend this stranger's wrong word. Glomgold isn't having it, and asks them if they knows who he is. They don't, as they're simple fisherpeople. He tries to exclaim in a dramatic way, until he realizes...

...even he doesn’t know. Yes, this episode starts with that cliche where someone loses all of his memories after a bump in the head, or a bunch of water going through it in this case. However, they use this as an excuse.

After the theme song, we cut to a report showing what exactly happened between Glomgold’s disappearance and now. A new CEO just barged into Glomgold’s absence, as she literally pushes away his silhouette to reveal herself. Her name is Zan Owlson. I swear, I misheard it as Van Owlsing, and that still made sense. Glomgold is practically a vampire compared to her.

Even the newsreporter decides to tell the viewers that this new CEO is not insane. We get a small bio of her past: she was the top of her class, and she ran a charity called Change for Chicks! No, Johnny Bravo, she means literal chicks. Unlike her predecessor, she cuts a lot of funding dedicated to revenge and sharks. Even moreso unlike her predecessor, she is completely open to make deals with long-time rival company McDuck Enterprises, as we see her shake hands with its CEO.

In other words, she’s exactly the opposite of Glomgold in every way, as enhanced by the news cutting to a Simpsons-esque file photo gag of him eating shrimp in an unflattering manner at a charity auction. Maybe the one from The Golden Lagoon from Agony Plains?

It’s also shown by the old Glomgold logo being replaced by a treasure chest filled with a bunch of people. She doesn’t even include herself in this, definitely not something Glomgold would do.

Zan Owlson: At Glomgold Industries, our community is the greatest treasure of all.

She even makes an outright reference to the Glomgold motto that Glomgold just made up to get those henchmen he hired to like him in Woo-oo. What happened to those guys?

We cut from the newsreport, which we barely get back to, to a fisherperson's wharf, where Louie and Webby are planning on going fishing. While it’s a day in the limelight episode for Glomgold, that doesn’t mean we don’t get to see the nephews and honorary niece.

Webby is all about hunting fish in a more barbaric way with a stick, while Louie just wants to fish with a fishing rod. Louie is more of the straight man here, though they seem to swap back and forth between scenes depending on one's viewpoint. They do realize that they forgot one thing that would help them immensely, and there happens to be someone with a South African accent.

While his beard was dyed by several unfortunate squid ink-related accidents and his accent has changed, it’s clearly the duck that attempted to kill them and their uncle several times over. They react very similarly to Bart and Lisa Simpson reacting to Sideshow Bob, but this bearded guy has no idea who this Glomgold guy is.

He rechristened himself “Duke Baloney”, just like the humble sandwich meat, in his words. This does not go well with Louie, who already makes the obvious quip about his name. Webby has to take him aside to talk about this.

Webby and Louie get into their conflict, though for Webby, it's a little less defined and more just "she doesn't agree with Louie's idea". Louie thinks this is all just an act, and he even says he should know because it takes a con artist to know one. Webby, on the other hand, thinks that he really is suffering from this and needs to go back to his old self. Either that, or maybe this is Glomgold turning into a good person like a reverse werewolf, her reasoning changes throughout the episode.

They do humor the idea that maybe this guy is just a different person altogether, but then he gets caught in his own rope trap.

Duke Baloney: Curse you, rope!

Louie & Webby: It’s him.

This is a slight hint that this will probably not be permanent. That would be an odd way to write off a huge arch-nemesis!

Glomgold invites them over to what I now realize is the closest TV-Y7-FV equivalent to a bar, offering them a bucket of fish heads, to Louie's disapproval. I’m sure real ducks eat a lot worse than that.

Webby tries to show off a Missing poster with Glomgold on it that also seems to function as a wanted poster due to tax evasion! Oh, how unrealistic, everyone knows rich people always get away with that. Unfortunately, all this gets is scorn from Baloney’s fellow crewmates for even suggesting he’s related to that tyrant. This is a "bully-free zone" according to that one fisherperson, after all. That's pretty much it for the socially conscious aspect of her character.

Even Louie joins in on this chants along with everyone else. Sure, he was totally against the guy, but the boy just wants his free Pep! However, Webby notices the money happens to have a very fancy money clip. They decide to stay back to investigate this from afar.

A general theme that pops up in this episode is that Duke Baloney may have amnesia, but his inner Glomgold continues to show more and more. This especially comes in once we see a McDuck Enterprise company get involved. While this doesn't entirely revive his memory, he does get a sudden dislike for "that boat."

This is especially shown with disagreements with his fellow crewmembers. The crewmembers are okay with being #2, However, considering #1 is owned the richest duck in the world, I wouldn't blame them for not wanting to fight a battle they can't win. Duke Baloney, on the other hand, doesn't see that as impossible.

One clever bit is that he does the cliche “look at me, I’m a pretty lady and not a trap” gag, and realizes he could get more fish if he did something for the ladies, too. He never does realize that, if this plan did work, he would get some really messy fish guts. All in all, aside from the dynamite, he just seems like this misunderstood guy who’s down on his luck.

At least, that's what Webby thinks. Louie accuses her of being naive about this, as that’s what she assumed when she was a humble deliveryman and a humble pastry chef. Yeah, Louie, you invited him to a party, if I remember correctly.

While looking at Baloney trying to convince his fellow co-fisherpeople to do a plan that is oddly similar to that Scottish guy. Webby & Louie, continuing to spy on this kind fellow to confirm their different suspicions. Louie says that he's going to be thrown in a pit full of sharks with bombs strapped on to them. Webby says that's ridiculous...

...and we immediately cut to Duke Baloney's plan to get fish, which just happened to get to the part involving sharks with bombs strapped onto them. They don't have womp womp music, they're not that blatant most of the time.

This whole scene is funny, though; it's just like that scene from The Infernal Internship of Mark Beaks where Glomgold details his plan with similar drawing. Speaking of plots that weren't resolved in the episode that could use a continuation...that one. Louie and Webby still can't see what any of this could prove, so Webby has an idea that Louie is not a big fan of: record investigation!

Granted, Louie getting hit in the face probably didn't help in any way. I like how the next scene shows Louie walking into Webby’s investigation room. See, anything can have a consequence, even slight gags like that one.

She gets out her board, with a drawing of the moneyclip, a picture of Glomgold, and a picture of Duke Baloney, and...nothing else. She couldn't find anything. Not only is there no record of Duke Baloney, there’s no record of Flintheart Glomgold before he came to America.

In order to find more information and possibly either reveal Glomgold's evil plan or bring Glomgold back to normal, they decide to do a plan involving a certain rich duck. If one can ask why would they want to bring Glomgold back to his former self to terrorize the McDucks, just wait.

Meanwhile, in Duke Baloney’s dreams, we see a bizarre sequence full of odd imagery. Some of it is obviously referencing what will happen in the future, some of which possibly not even in this episode. One of the big ones that isn’t addressed again is that shot on the bottom left. Everyone knows Glomgold is evil, but…is there a more spiritual reason we don’t know about?

That’s not the only unanswered question, either. The shortest description I could say is that he constantly gets a message from what looks like his younger self that the boiler room is out, who slowly turns into Zan Owlson. No connection is made to how Glomgold would be familiar enough with the new CEO to have her appear in his dreams, since all of this happened after he got amnesia.

While most of this dream sequence's symbolism is subtle, there is one line that just whacks you right in the head.

Duke Baloney: This GOLD! It’s GLOOMING onto me!

Yeah, that’s pretty forced. It's at the end of the dream sequence, they may have felt that they needed something blatant at the end to make him wake up.

He wakes up, and his final reaction to all of this? To essentially tell himself to "never mind all that." Hey, it’s not like those dreams mean anything, anyway!

While Duke Baloney is getting welcomed into the family of fisherpeople and telling himself that nothing can possibly ruin this day, in comes Scrooge McDuck. He was invited by Webby and Louie the to talk it out to see what's really going on.

We don't get to hear their conversations, and neither do Louie and Webby, so Webby tries to read their lips. Of course, she does it in a way that makes it seem like she was right all along, even making them say "oh, that Webby was correct all along, huh? I wish I was his housekeeper's granddaughter!" However, while she may be able to read lips, the next move shocks both her and Louie. They look like they're going to fight...

...and then they hug it out. After all the time of Webby seemingly succeeding at everything she does throughout Season 1, it’s a little refreshing to see her actually be wrong for a change. Nobody’s perfect...I learned that with the last episode. Scrooge tells them he's far happier this way, and they should just let him be Duke Baloney.

Webby and Louie accept this, and decide to go back to their initial plan of fishing. However, a storm is brewing.

Duke Baloney, who somehow has that missing/wanted poster, decides that even if he was this Glomgold fellow, he wants his life at the sea. He throws the paper, but it hits him right in the face, symbolically proving that any kind of face turn with him is ultimately futile.

The storm starts happening, and Baloney sees Webby and Louie in trouble. Being the hero that he is now, he tries to. However, he gets hit by, and ends up nearly drowning in the same way he did in the beginning of the episode.

We get another scene from Baloney’s subconscious, but this time we get an outright memory rather than symbolism. In particular: this one is right from one of Baloney’s repressed memories. I decided that outright spoiling it wouldn’t add anything to the review, but the best hint I could give is that I really do mean Baloney’s repressed memories. That shot from the dream I had on the top right is a pretty good hint of foreshadowing this, too.

I will say this: the first thing I did after watching this episode was look up whether or not any of this had any basis in the original comics. The simple answer is not really. While Scrooge first meets Glomgold in South Africa, Glomgold was already grown-up and clearly evil from day one. This flashback adds another dimension to that entirely.

There is one important-to-the-plot takeaway from this, a literal one, I might add, but I’ll talk about it later.

Everyone’s cheering him on to save the kids, and it appears that maybe, just maybe...no, of course not. What did you think was going to happen? No, he made his decision. He says it in such an epic way, that I decided to make this a GIF. A really small GIF to fit Tumblr's restrictions, but I had to keep that animation as smooth as it was.

Duke, er, Flintheart Glomgold: (in his usual Scottish accent) Because I'm Flintheart Glomgold...and I always will be! Ha ha ha ha ha!

I know I implied that I didn't want to spoil, but this scene is just so amazing. It's a lot smoother, they needed to animate it on the ones. It's an impressive sight seeing him laugh with all that lightning behind him.

I did give him a little bit of a That seems to work in his favor, as he happened to have his a spare grey beard in this pocket this whole time. It makes more sense when you watch the episode, trust me.

We somehow fade to him being surrounded by his crewmembers and their friends under very calm weather. This is the one scene transition that doesn't really add up to me. Was the storm in his head the whole time? These former crewmembers only accuse Glomgold of stealing from children rather than attempted murder, which seems to go with that theory.

One thing's for sure: Duke Baloney has left the building, and now it’s Glomgold’s time forever. He starts a Glomgold chant that even he expects no one will join in, as he dives into the water.

This chant continues with him going into his formerly owned organization, where Scrooge was talking with Zan Owlson about how using nickels would save more money than dimes.

Scrooge and Glomgold making a big deal, mostly due to Glomgold still having an all-important money clip, referenced. Yeah, Scrooge treats it like it’s this big deal, suggesting there’s something more to it than just gold. Honestly, considering the Number One Dime twist in The Shadow war, it could be anything at this point.

Also, I am so glad they apparently didn’t decide to push the reset button to prevent any potential plots with Van Owlson, since she barely did anything in this episode other than show her apparent benevolence. Quite a few plot points to this new story arc...at least, I hope it’s a new story arc. I have no reason to believe it’s not.

Oh yeah, and no Dewey in the episode for the first time ever. Not even a mention. How weird!

How does it stack up?

Despite only having an A plot, it is indeed an A plot this time. I can’t wait to see what happens next with this future plot this time. There's some very interesting twists to the classic Glomgold character, and I’d say it could pay off in the future. No bologna here, that’s for sure.

Next, America may not be getting their cartoon, but they will be getting their DuckTales 2017 appearance!

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[fly-pow-bye]

Powerpuff Girls 2016 - “Buttercup Vs. Math”

Written by: Haley Mancini

Written & Storyboarded by: Jaydeep Hasrajani, Leticia Abreu Silva

Directed by: Nick Jennings, Bob Boyle

Yeah, that's the fight we all wanted to see.

The episode starts with the rascally little green princess skating across the school, racing against her best friend, Maylyn! If you don’t remember, she’s the leader of the Derbytantes, the somewhat-villains-turned-friends-of-Buttercup from Princess Buttercup. While the toyline treats them as villains to throw burgers at, in the show, they’re more of a bad influence than anything else.

Maylyn: Whoever gets to (mocking tone) math class first gets to be the baddest girl in school!

Buttercup: And the first to call Blossom a nerd?

Oh, that loving sister she is! They play up on how Maylyn and Buttercup are totally bad people who don’t care about math, and pick on other people who do. They skate across their bodies, and Buttercup even tears Barry's head off!

A paper mache Barry made for show-and-tell, that is. With this and the mermaid bit in Summer Bummer, they're really upping the fake-out civilian death scenes. After that bit of roller derby, Ms. Keane shows up to tell Buttercup that she can never step foot in her class again. After getting praise for her apparent explusion from Maylyn, Ms. Keane gives Buttercup the real reason: she tested into honors math!

Yes, the rascally little green princess that was always shown to be a problem child is an honors student in math! Blossom takes her hand, knowing fully well that, as the nerd of the Puffs, she too will join Buttercup in her honor to be among the smartest mathematicians in the school. Ms. Keane makes a small correction, subverting their and our expectations.

Ms. Keane: Sorry, Blossom, you tested into regular math. For everyone else!

Bubbles: Hey, I’m everyone else!

(small fart sound)

As far as I can tell, that wasn't another Bubbles fart gag. Maybe it represents the brainfart this twist was.

This does makes me think back to Viral Spiral, which has a similar theme with a girl getting into a STEM field one would think Blossom would be into. Quite a few people were taken aback by Bubbles being the programming genius. I assumed that they gave Bubbles the ability to program to make programming seem less like something only nerds like Blossom take a part in. Math does not get the same treatment in this episode.

Another big difference is that Buttercup isn't too happy about her newfound genius. Why should she hate being better than Blossom at something most people would think she wouldn't be? Her being seperated from her sisters? No, it's because she's worried that her roller derby friends will see her as a nerd! She reassures Maylyn that it's just a class and that she'll still be the baddest girl in school, but she doesn't buy it.

Not helping matters is that her class is filled with stereotypical nerds who chant that Buttercup is a "math queen". Not only is Buttercup being cheered on by nerds, she's being called something one regal step away from "princess". One of them does this whole bit where he calls his chewed up pencil a "mathemagical wand", which causes Buttercup to tell him to "just not". Yeah, take that, you math-loving nerds. Also, please get into math!

Originally, I thought that this episode was going to be a ripoff of Bart the Genius, and that Buttercup actually cheated her way into this class. The teacher puts up a complicated geometry problem.

Buttercup initially refuses, trying to keep her status as a bad girl, causing the rest of the students to start randomly shouting out numbers like this is a game of Numberwang. After everyone else gets into a frenzy, Buttercup off-modelly screams out the correct answer: 5. Not a lucky guess, either; she did it all in her head. Not an answer that would work in a real world that expects shown work, but they still do the "math queen" chant anyway.

So no, not Bart the Genius. It's Buttercup the Suddenly-Out-Of-Character Actual Genius. Even in the show, Buttercup is disgusted by that, though for different reasons.

At the dinner table, Bubbles and Professor keep the chant going, to the annoyance of Buttercup. To my surprise, Buttercup brings up Bubbles being a "computer geek". Bubbles takes out her notes and attempts to explain how computer geeks and mathmaticians are different, until Buttercup eye lasers them in what seems like a rare occurence of her using a power they once said was exclusive to her. Maybe they couldn't find a way past the fact that most Computer Science degrees require higher math as well.

Meanwhile, Blossom desperately studies to try to gain back her title as the Puff's "math queen". Of course, in a way that makes Blossom look level-headed in this situation.

Blossom: There must have been a mistake! Ask me anything! ANYTHING!

Bubbles: What’s 2 + 2?

Mutant Hair Beast Blossom: FOUR, THE ANSWER IS FOUR!

Blossom is made out to be a pinhead because she's studying. I mean, Blossom could have done the right thing and just suddenly know everything like Buttercup! This starts a subplot, as she spends the rest of the episode reading math books.

While the Professor is driving the Puffs to school, Buttercup tries her best excuses to get out of this math class. She complains that her hair is too messy, and she can't see the whiteboard! The Professor gets an idea, much to Buttercup's chagrin.

It doesn’t work out, as the Professor helps her eyesight with glasses, and combs back her hair, turning her into another accessory for potential dress-up dolls.

Not helping matters is when four of the Derbytantes show up to see Buttercup’s new image. Buttercup wants to be accepted by these bad influences, but the bad influences don’t want to be friends with a nerd. At this point, they made their decision.

Maylyn: Whoever gets to lunch first gets to be the baddest girl in school! ...and call Buttercup a nerd!

Buttercup gets trashed by people she considered friends, and she still considers them friends. Buttercup angrily throws her math book in the garbage, vowing to never do well at math again. Barry then shows up to throw his uranium he brought to school in the garbage, the mixture turning the entire school into graph paper. The closest this episode gets to making sense!

It also spawns an evil Isoceles triangle named Isosceles! He wants to bring order to the universe by turning everyone, from The Mayor, to puppies, to even Bubbles into numbers for his massive equation! Blossom decides to put her studying to the test and takes a look at Isosceles' huge math problem. She looks at all the variables, uses all of her smarts, and...

...she gets the wrong answer. The monster even turns her into a 0, as if this is some sort of karmic revenge for her heinous crime of studying. That’s pretty much the end of the Blossom subplot; Blossom studies so hard and yet she's a zero in the end. It's sad to see my favorite by default get the shaft, but maybe not too sad. She was kind of a jerk.

After that, this episode becomes yet another tally to the board of “times Buttercup had to save her damsel-in-distress sisters”. It’s fine for the lesson learner to have to save the day by herself, and Buttercup being the rascally little green princess, she tends to be one even with lessons she’s already learned, like "don't succumb to peer pressure".

It takes take her a little while to figure out how to deal with this situation. Her first plan is to crack this equation with her fists! Silly Buttercup, that trick never works! At this point, the Puffs should just stop attempting to end fights prematurely, because everyone knows what's going to happen next. The question isn't even about if Buttercup is able to succeed, but how badly she will fail.

In this case, very badly. It’s not only a Monster Punch, Girls Down, but a Monster Punch, Girl Bruised, too! I wanted to see more people getting bruised in this action-comedy show that's a reboot to an action-comedy show that had villains getting bruised seemingly once an episode, but I don't think this is what I thought.

As violence wasn’t the answer, Buttercup has no choice but to show off her math skills. Buttercup puts on her math crown, and prepares to...

...“nurd 0ut”! I was going to point out that they mispelled nerd, but nurd is an actual alternate spelling. Why they spelt out with a 0? Maybe they just thought they had to throw a number in there because math. For Buttercup, Isosceles shoots his arms out with various math problems for Buttercup to solve. Gotta say, Isosceles is giving Buttercup an easier time than Blossom, who had this rediculously large equation to solve.

Buttercup: Time to solve for x!

I may not be a math king, or even a math jester, but you can't! There's no equals sign! x could be any number, and the fraction would still be valid! This was probably supposed be some sort of quip before an action scene, but considering this problem and the answer they give for it, the quip should have been:

Buttercup: Prepare to be simplified!

It's just as cheesy, but I think that's what they were going for.

With each math problem, she draws up the answer with her “mathemagical wand”. She doesn't call it that, as she does have her limits. This seems to be their attempt to make math more fitting for Buttercup's character, as she swings her pencil to throw the numbers as projectiles.

This battle of math is finished off with a pi grenade, the school goes back to normal, and the untransformed students start raining from the roof. After saving the day, everyone cheers Buttercup. Even Blossom got over her jealousy, accepting her fate as the non-"math queen".

Buttercup: I guess I’m good at math and punching!

Yeah, how did punching go again?

Oh yeah, like that.

Despite this, Buttercup gets a new nickname: "Mathlete". Buttercup doesn't seem to hate it as much, probably because there's nothing regal and/or feminine about it. Ultimately, Buttercup learns it’s okay to be good at math, even if she wants to be a bad girl. Speaking of which...

The Derbytantes show up, not to end Buttercup's friendship that they don't deserve, but reveal that they were only bullying math nerds because they’re not good at math. They instantly become good again so that Buttercup can be their tutor. See, that bully was bullying you for having glasses because they want glasses. I don't buy it.

The episode ends with Buttercup still in that honors math class, seperated from her sisters. Who wants to bet they'll forget about that? I'd imagine it'd be a pretty safe one.

Does the title fit?

Buttercup does, indeed, fight a giant mathematical monster. It also has a slight double meaning with Buttercup’s resistance to her status as the “math queen”. It also accurately shows that only Buttercup gets to fight anything in this episode and in most of the show.

She never really does punch numbers like the title card seems to suggest, though.

How does it stack up?

As suggested before, this episode reminded me of Viral Spiral. It shows a Powerpuff Girl getting into a STEM field, this time focusing on the M rather than the T or E. It's a little harder to make doing math look like a superheroic act than programming in fish guns, but they way they did it here is good enough. The idea was done better in Divide and Conquer, but that's not a surprise.

This episode feels far more forced than Viral Spiral. I guess they couldn't give Bubbles two STEM fields to be an expert in, and it would be too predictable for Blossom to be the math wizard, but the episode doesn't do a good job convincing me that Buttercup could be a great mathematician. To me, her battle with math looks more like Buttercup trying to reject this new character trait the writers are forcing onto her.

Your mileage may vary, but to me, this episode can go to 7734.

Next week, Blossom goes to camp! Will she get scared stupid? Find out next week!

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