#monster showdown 2023

[monstershowdowns]

WHAT IS THIS? IS THIS THE SOUND OF NIGHTMARES EMERGING?!

Monster enjoyers from all over the world, welcome to the Great Monster Showdown of 2023! 64 monsters, but only ONE can be the winner! Who will win the crown? YOU decide!

Our competitors are organised in 4 teams of 16 monsters each: Team Blood, Team Mystery, Team Flesh, and Team Teeth! As much as I would have enjoyed to make these names actually make sense, they don't! I just threw them in because I color-coded the names for better readability and thought it would look cool.

Also, I didn't use images because this would be way harder to read than it already is.

Below, an image ID of the bracket, along explanations of who came from what and some rules! Ignore that there's two "Slimes" competitors in here, they're from completely different medias. Now:

IMAGE ID:

A 64 character bracket. Below, our competitors:

TEAM BLOOD:

The Beast from Beauty and the Beast vs The Asset from The Shape of Water

Slimes from Slime Rancher vs The Monster from A Monster Calls

Pyramid Head from Silent Hill vs Sniffles from Happy Three Friends

Mothman the cryptid vs Greymon from Digimon

Every single Pokemon vs Medusa from Greek Mythology

Zoe from Monster Prom vs Rem and Ryuk from Death Note

Helen and Michael from TMA vs The Other Mother from Coraline

Slenderman from the internet horror vs Venom from the movie Venom

TEAM MYSTERY:

Mimics from Dragon quest vs Undyne from Undertale

Sirenhead the internet horror vs Galeem from Super Smash Bros Ultimate

Werewolves from folklore vs Dugon from Just Roll With It, Riptide

Clickers from TLoU vs King Crawler from Omori

Preeminent from Ninjago vs Nessie the cryptid

Mitzutsune from Monster Hunter vs Pennywise from It

The Rake from creepypasta vs Bendy from BATIM and BATDR

TEAM FLESH:

Godzilla and Mothra from the movies vs Woodcrawlers from Gemini Home Entertainment

Kraken from folklore and mythology vs Jabberwocky from Alice In Wonderland

The Bear from Anihilation vs SCP-682 from the SCP Foundation

Goliath from Gargoyles vs Barclay from The Adventure Zone: Amnesty

Draculaura and Ghoulia Yelps from Monster High vs King from The Owl House

Damien LaVey from Monster Prom vs Discord from MLP

TEAM TEETH:

Fresno Nightcrawler the cryptid vs The Death Angels from A Quiet Place

Jersey Devil the cryptid vs Slimes from Dragon Quest

Francoeur from A Monster In Paris vs Enderman from Minecraft

Necrodeus from Kirby Mass Attack vs Xenomorph from Alien

Adam Frankenstein from Frankenstein vs Summerween Trickster from Gravity Falls

SCP-999 from the SCP Foundation vs Akanin from Turma da Mônica Jovem/Mônica's Gang Teen

Cthulhu from The Call of Cthulhu vs The Thing from The Thing

END IMAGE ID

Once gain, the team thing means nothing, and it's only there to facilitate navigation and readability. Some things:

Tournamente will begin on the 20th of March, with the polls from Team Blood being released! You will have 3 whole days to vote.

Propaganda is free and should be tagged as #monsterpropaganda. Putting other competitors down to make your own monster look better is not allowed, however.

Happy monster showdown!

[beefy-babe-showdown]

ROUND 1C: MATCH 3

[crockpotshowdown2023]

[amazing-area-theme-tournament]

Welcome one and all to the Amazing Area Theme Tournament!

This tournament is to decide what is the best theme to walk around to in media, be it through a field, a desert, a volcano, or somewhere else.

Rules:

A maximum of 2 themes per series will be included

Only 1 variation of a track will be allowed (i.e. either a day or night version of a track will be included, not both of them)

Please be nice

An area theme is:

A music track associated with a specific location or environment

A theme that only plays naturally in a certain environment

An overworld or level theme

A battle theme that is unique to that locale (ex. Fire Emblem map themes, Monster Hunter locale themes)

An area theme is not:

A boss theme

A generic battle/level/overworld theme (i.e. a theme that plays regardless of environment)

Specific to an event (unless the area is the event)

Submissions close April 25th 2023!!

Inspirations are under the cut!

Inspired by:

@bangerbattlethemes @best-kirby-character-tournament @artificialkids-2k23-official @mad-scientist-showdown @multicolorhairswagtournament @orangecharactersmackdown @eggcrackerbracket @aroaceswagcompetition and many more!

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Week in Review (October 29-November 4, 2023)

Like me, you probably haven't seen Godzilla Minus One yet, making Fest Godzilla 4: Operation Jet Jaguar last week's most spectacular new watch. Kazuhiro Nakagawa's ambitions grow with each entry in this series; this time, he was helped by veteran Rider/Sentai suit actor Kenya Saito inside the great new Jet Jaguar suit. The ending wasn't quite what I predicted, but still set up what should be a spectacular showdown last year.

I wish these shorts weren't effectively the last vestiges of tokusatsu in the Godzilla series; I wish even more that Toho would allow them to stay on YouTube. This one, along with its associated behind-the-scenes videos, will stay around until the end of the year, as an apology for the Godzilla Day VOD having such awful audio as to be unsalvageable. But that still means its discoverability will take a serious hit, and it's unclear what Toho actually gets out of this artificial scarcity. Maybe they're plotting to release all the shorts on Blu-ray in a few years. In any case, download this one post-haste.

While he didn't get a new suit, Megalon still made a triumphant return in the other short film released on Godzilla Day, Godzilla vs. Megalon. A sequel to Godzilla vs. Gigan Rex, it's also directed by Takuya Uenishi. The live-action footage in this one helps ground the over-the-top monster mayhem, and a weakened Godzilla displays some cool new tricks, although I found his finisher unsatisfying. As for Megalon, well, he finally shows the world just how terrifying he can be when he takes himself more seriously.

After a mercifully brief marketing campaign, the 37th Godzilla movie, Godzilla Minus One, is in Japanese theaters (and it's making bank). I'm trying to go in relatively unspoiled (always difficult as a Wikizilla admin), but what little I have read has been promising. The basic premise, which the early promos have largely masked, sounds like a kaiju story I wrote in college, which I couldn't be more thrilled by. If you're feeling daring, there's a second trailer out.

We'll get the first episodes of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters even sooner than Godzilla Minus One. Accordingly, Apple has ramped up promotion, releasing a behind-the-scenes video (above), the opening title sequence, and the first scene of the series. We also have names for a couple of the new monsters (the new Skull Island beastie is a Mantleclaw and the critters hatching from eggs are Endoswarmers) and better looks at a couple others.

I joked after the Godzilla Day livestream that it was such a technical fiasco because Toho had put all its skill points into releasing Godzilla Minus One. Similar could be said for the Fathom Events release of Godzilla 2000: Millennium. The showing I caught was fine technically (one brief frame rate hiccup aside), just... uninspired. The preshow was the same brief behind-the-scenes footage of G2K included on the American DVD and Blu-ray; the film used the same translation as the Blu-ray. And now that the novelty of actually being able to watch it has worn off, I've soured considerably on the Japanese version of this movie. The languid score and sound design are especially glaring in a theater.

Godzilla Voxel Wars, available on Steam and Epic Games, probably should have been released in a week less packed with more attention-grabbing Godzilla news. Still zero reviews on Metacritic! Haven't played it myself, but fellow Wikizilla admin Les is enjoying it.

Godzilla: Here There Be Dragons #5 also added to the Godzilla onslaught. Still impressed at how big a role the Giant Octopus had in this (and what a brutal ending for it and Ebirah), but the miniseries wrapped up a little too neatly.

Despite backing it on Kickstarter, I had nearly forgotten about Godzilla & Kong: The Cinematic Storyboard Art of Richard Bennett. Turns out the reason the book has taken so long to be published (the campaign ended last May) is the page count jumping from "around 200" to 424! It's off to the printer now, so the wait is nearly over.

Worth posting again: the third BOSS Coffee ad featuring the new ShodaiGoji suit. Very little original footage in this one, but some first-class editing.

And a few other happenings I'll keep to bullet points so you can finally stop scrolling:

I forgot to post about Viz publishing volume 7 of Asadora! Huge props for introducing a kyodai hero without derailing the story (I won't say how, but it's quite clever).

After its brief Japanese theatrical run, the black-and-white version of Shin Godzilla is "under consideration for further development." Home video next?

The newest Godzilla Battle Line units are Super Mechagodzilla and a second version of Godzilla '54 who strafes his atomic breath and ignores most status effects. I've had virtually no time to play since the new season started (this post was typed entirely in a Georgia hotel room, put it that way), but I hear they're both stellar.

Godzilla trading card update: disappointment and confusion! The Godzilla Minus One promo cards were only available for a very limited time as add-ons to a $75+ TCGPlayer order. Meanwhile, nobody can find the packs of Surreal Entertainment cards that were supposed to arrive at Five Below on Godzilla Day.

Naturally, lots of toys revealed on and around Godzilla Day. Highlights include a Super7 Godzilla figure with an Imperial-inspired paint job, a Super7 SpaceGodzilla repaint blatantly based on Super Godzilla which sold out instantly, an S.H. MonsterArts Jet Jaguar '73, and Movie Monster Series figures for *inhales* Godzilla '55, Anguirus '55, Flying Stage Hedorah, Godzilla '64, and Minilla '67. The Godzilla Raids Again figures are both getting variants inspired by a Toy Dreams set from 2006. Bandai also started up another Movie Monster Series fans-pick-the-figure poll, but what's the point? They'll have every single Godzilla kaiju represented before the decade's half over. (And maybe by the end of the decade I'll be able to afford all the ones I want!)

[satoshi-mochida]

Anime-inspired hero action adventure game MIGHTREYA announced for PC - Gematsu

Assault Spy developer Wazen has announced MIGHTREYA, an anime-inspired hero action adventure game coming to PC via Steam. A release date was not announced. It will feature Japanese voice-overs with English and Japanese subtitles.

Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:

About

Join schoolgirl superhero Reya and her manager Nio as they embark on their journey as Hero Content Creators, fighting monstrous beings that emerge daily from another dimension.

Prepare for electrifying aerial superhero battles, boasting intuitive controls that anyone can master. Use the camera to lock onto targets effortlessly, then unleash a torrent of attacks with the push of a button. Dive into combat at exhilarating speeds, delivering lightning-fast strikes and chaining combos effortlessly.

Experience sensational combat against unexpected otherworldly threats, from small creatures to gigantic monsters. Unleash your power and send them crashing into floors and walls in anime-style showdowns!

Follow an engaging cast through the fun and cheerful hero streamer’s story! Featuring a stylish female protagonist, colorful side characters and creatively designed enemies.

Take advantage of three iconic weapons and over 30 unique actions and attacks to execute unique combos and jaw-dropping finishers to obliterate your foes.

Explore 38 stages and face 24 enemy types including powerful bosses.

Anime-inspired, heart-pounding hero action is waiting for you!

Watch a teaser video below. View a set of screenshots at the gallery.

Teaser Video

It's been a while, but I have something new to show you. #gamedev #indiedev pic.twitter.com/GsbXLN3Zi0 — Wazen K | Wishlist MIGHTREYA on Steam (@WZN__K) July 23, 2024

In-development teaser clips from 2023 can also be found on Wazen’s Twitter page.

[fairybluedreams]

Vote Bird That Carries You Over a Disproportionately Small Gap in the 2023 @ut-side-character-showdown!!

Let's review in-game actions:

The Bird notably struggles to get us across the gab due to it's small size, but continues to work hard and do it as many times as a person or monster may need anyways! Makes travel in Waterfall so much more convenient, and provides this service Free of Charge!! The Bird's theme song also fills our heart with determination to accomplish goals and do the amazing!!

Speaking of theme songs -- our precious bird's song can make sooo many awesome remixes too, case in point::

Headcanons for why the Bird carries us over to train are so wholesome ::

So as a final reminder:

CHERISH THIS BIRD & VOTE FOR #BIRDSWEEP

[mostlysignssomeportents]

How (and why) Biden should overcome the Supreme Court to end the debt showdown

’m coming to the HowTheLightGetsIn festival in HAY-ON-WYE with my novel Red Team Blues:

Sun (May 28), 1130AM: The AI Enigma

Mon (May 29), 12PM: Danger and Desire at the Frontier

I’m at OXFORD’s Blackwell’s on May 29 at 7:30PM with Tim Harford.

Then it’s Nottingham, Manchester, London, Edinburgh, and Berlin!

Is it legal for Congress to default on the US national debt? It depends on who you ask. There are a ton of good legal arguments for and against, so perhaps it comes down to what the (degraded, corrupt, illegitimate, partisan) Supreme Court says?

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/04/opinion/biden-administration-debt-republican.html

Put in those terms, it seems like the game was over before it began. Biden should just surrender, hand the most extreme wing of the (degraded, corrupt, illegitimate, authoritarian) Republican Party whatever it wants, even if doing so will push Biden’s approval rating even lower, dangerously close to the next federal election.

In this telling, the Republicans have already won. The decision to let the GOP steal three Supreme Court seats, combined with the decision not to end the debt ceiling charade when Dems had the majorities to do so, means that from now on, we live in the GOP’s shithole country, where the only “freedoms” that matter are the freedom to control others’ bodily autonomy and gender expression; the freedom to exploit labor; the freedom to censor ideas that challenge white nationalist, imperialist messages; and the freedom to menace with open-carry assault weapons:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/19/opinion/republican-legislatures-abortion-trangender-education.html

In other words, we’re screwed. Might as well dig a hole, climb inside, and pull the dirt in on top of us.

Fuck that.

There are clear majorities in support of the Build Back Better agenda, and even for the watered down Machin Synematic Universe version we got through the Infrastructure Bill. If the Dems could mobilize voters — by convincing them that they were committed to doing things rather than capitulating — they could win strong majorities in 2024. Even in the gerrymandered, antimajoritarian America, electoral wins are possible — they just require overwhelming turnout, rather than the 50.00001% “victories” favored by “data-driven” Democratic consultants (victories that leave the party incapable of governing, and let monsters like Joe Manchin hold the entire nation hostage).

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe doing things won’t mobilize voters. But if we’re already going to stipulate that without significant majorities, the real President of the United States is the three-headed monster (Gorsuch, Thomas, and Roberts), and the billionaires who yank their chains, then what do we have to lose?

There are a lot of things that Biden could try to get through the debt ceiling crisis without giving up on the promises he made to the American people and the programs the American Congress passed. Here’s a couple interesting ones, courtesy of Brad DeLong:

“The Federal Reserve might simply record a negative balance in the Treasury account,” then create an “overdraft” account and pay the US’s obligations out of it;

The Fed could tell retail banks trying to clear government checks that the checks didn’t clear, and the banks could tell their depositors, “ your Treasury check has bounced, but do not worry, we have credited your account, anyway, and will handle this, and please be very grateful to us.”

https://braddelong.substack.com/p/debt-ceiling-what-are-e-fallback

Of course, there are lots of other possibilities: Biden could issue an Executive Order to the effect that the Debt Ceiling violates the 14th Amendment. Or that it violates the Contracts Clause. Or he could order the Treasury to start issuing coupon-free bonds. Or he could just mint the coin:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/23/23734654/government-debt-default-trillion-dollar-platinum-coin

Yes, each of these would end up in front of the (degraded, corrupt, illegitimate, partisan) Supreme Court, who would very likely strike them down.

But writing for The American Prospect, Ryan Cooper argues that this could still be sound tactics:

https://prospect.org/economy/2023-05-25-democrats-fear-supreme-court/

If Biden does something about the debt default, and the Supremes block it, then the default is their fault. What’s more, it’s a mess they absolutely do not want to get into, like deciding which of the US’s creditors will and won’t get paid when they sue over the default. And if the court won’t do it, will they give the president the power to “just pick and choose what gets paid? That would give him a de facto line-item veto over the entire budget, and the Court has already ruled that a law explicitly giving him that power is unconstitutional”:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_v._City_of_New_York

Basically, if the Supreme Court kills Biden’s attempt to resolve the budget crisis, then it becomes the Supreme Court’s problem, as everyone owed a federal payment “say, Social Security beneficiaries or military contractors,” brings a case — “There would be tens of millions of such potential litigants.”

So what should Biden do?

Call their bluff.

First, mint the coin. If the court strikes that down, issue coupon-free bonds. If the court strikes that down, declare debt ceilings to violate the 14th Amendment. If the court strikes that down, declare it to violate the Contracts Clause. Keep doing it. Throw in every solution including the kitchen sink — but never give into the GOP’s demand for Biden to violate his promise to the American people and unilaterally tear up laws establishing programs that make our lives better.

This is what Lincoln did when the Supreme Court blocked his attempts to end slavery. It’s what FDR did when they blocked the New Deal. The court doesn’t have an army, it can’t force its decisions on the American people. It doesn’t have a bureaucratic workforce and it can’t take over the administrative branch — hell, they don’t even have the keys to the office buildings.

The Supreme Court’s power comes from its legitimacy, not force of arms, and while they may not act like it, the Supremes know in their bones that without legitimacy, they are nothing:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/25/consequentialism/#dotards-in-robes

The justices in stolen seats have made it clear that they consider themselves to be “a de facto super-legislature that rules in favor of its own partisan policy objectives based on tendentious up-is-down reasoning or no reasoning at all.” This is an illegitimate proposition.

The Supreme Court can’t get any less legitimate. If Biden were to ignore the Supremes and make good law in the teeth of their pronouncements, it couldn’t make the situation any worse than it is today. The Supremes have set themselves against labor law, against climate resiliency, against bodily autonomy, against political accountability, against the rule of law itself. We should not — we must not — cede the power to overrule democratically elected lawmakers and the will of the people.

As Cooper says, Biden should tell the Supremes to go pound sand and then “raise holy hell in speeches and the press to make clear the grotesque irresponsibility of what is happening”:

Here’s an institution trying to cause a completely pointless national default, destroying untold jobs, businesses, and the credit rating of the country, whose elite members are all unelected, where five members of the majority were appointed by a president who took office after losing the popular vote, and one of whom occupies a blatantly stolen seat. Here’s an institution that has struck down anti-corruption laws by the bushel and is openly rolling in oligarch graft like Scrooge McDuck, while declaring itself to be immune from oversight. All that would add to the political pressure on the justices.

If Biden can’t do well for the American people they they will not turn out in the massive majorities that Democrats need to get minimal majorities. If Biden can’t do well for the American people, then Biden — who would lose an election to either Ron DeSantis or Donald Trump if it were called today — will turn America’s predators loose on its people for at least four more years:

https://jacobin.com/2023/05/2024-presidential-election-2016-donald-trump-joe-biden/

And let’s face it, it’ll be Trump. DeSantis is dead in the water. The GOP is the party of out-of-control, swivel-eyed loons who’ve been whipped into a terrorized frenzy by an evil, crapulent senescent Australian billionaire and his freak henchmen, like the taint-tanning frozen food failson. They aren’t going to elect “smart Trump.” They like “stupid Trump” (AKA “Trump”) too much.

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Hay-on-Wye, Oxford, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/26/mint-the-coin-etc-etc/#blitz-em

[Image ID: A kitchen sink. The Supreme Court building protrudes from it. Behind the sink is a window. Joe Biden grins from the other side of the window.]

Image: Joe Ravi (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Panorama_of_United_States_Supreme_Court_Building_at_Dusk.jpg

CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

[donnerpartyofone]

idk if it was on this blog or your film blog but i think i remember you posting about loop track (2023) and im watching it right now!! what do you like about it?? this is a fully genuine question and im sorry if i seem weird, im enjoying it too but im interested in your thoughts

It was me, and I mentioned it on both blogs! I'm gonna answer under a break because I really feel like people who appreciate oddball genre fare will do best to go into this blind, like I did. So anyway:

I didn't know anything about LOOP TRACK and I'm not usually turned on by movies about people who are lost and stalked in the woods (unless they're excellent of course, a good movie is a good movie). To me these things are like any other one-set premise where the aesthetics are really limited and the emotional expression is also pretty basic: entrapment, hysteria, etc. But in this case I was immediately magnetized to the performance of writer-director-star Thomas Sainsbury. I found his performance of anxiety really convincing and fascinating; without having the script tell me too much about what this guy is going through and why, I found myself studying his face and his movements intensely for information. Furthermore, as someone who will hide from people I know and like if I see them in public and I'm not prepared to interact, I find this type of pathologically fearful character extremely sympathetic. The way the film is shot compliments his performance with an atmosphere of extreme, suffocating dread, and when Sainsbury starts to perceive the presence in the woods, LOOP TRACK doubles its power. I love the way we are enticed to scan the woods with him for the dark shape, how it's never comfortingly clear whether you are really seeing the presence along with him, or whether your eyes are just organizing random visual elements into a kind of hallucination. (Incidentally I think a similar thing is achieved by IN A VIOLENT NATURE)

As you may or may not have discovered, some viewers who enjoyed the first 80% of the movie simply could not hang with the big reveal. I was not one of them! Yes, I was DEEPLY SHOCKED by the appearance of the big black bird. Yes, I found it starkly campy and even somewhat hilarious. But at the same time, a) I loved the design of it, very handsome and unexpected monster, and b) I admired the guts it took to make a movie like this, immersing the audience in an experience of grim terror only to whip out these kooky creature feature shenanigans at the end. Actually I must say that I thought the final showdown would have gone better if the monster build just weighed more; as it is, you get a pretty strong impression of a mostly-empty fursuit that doesn't feel as meaty and violent as it should just because of the obvious weight issue. But still, I didn't care; I was amazed by Sainsbury's wacky gambit, and by the fact that he took it so seriously! You really do not see movies like this every day, if ever. I couldn't take my eyes off it.

Anyway. I hope you enjoyed the rest of the flick, and even if you didn't, thanks for asking! I appreciate it.

[disneyparksattractionstournament]

Favorite Disney Parks Attraction Showdown: Round 2 - Group B

Videos and propaganda under the cut!

Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor: WDW Magic Kingdom

Splash Mountain: WDW Magic Kingdom (1992-2023), Disneyland (1989-2023), Tokyo Disneyland

Propaganda:

"It's a nice moderate thrill for a nice moderate thrill seeker"

"A great log ride with a funny animal section that likes not to remind you that it’s based on a weird racist movie. I rode the MK one as a young kid and remember the drop seeming massive. I rode the Disneyland one as a teen and remember the drop being merely very very big."

[monstershowdowns]

[fantastic-rambles]

Fandom: Durarara!!

Characters: Izaya Orihara, Shizuo Heiwajima, Others (mentioned)

Warnings: PTSD, Physical Disability, Mindfuckery, Dehumanization, Attempted Murder, Implied Suicide Attempt, Obsession

Word Count: 1.1k

Summary: [Post-Canon, light Izaya novel spoilers] Izaya remains haunted by the memories of the last time that he saw Shizuo, and in the still hours when everyone else is asleep, he reflects on the climax of the relationship that they shared. [Written for Shizaya Week 2023 | Day 2: Nightmare @shizayasweek]

- - - - - - - - - -

"I-za-yaaaaa!"

He bolts awake in a dark room, his heart racing, the cry of a monster still echoing in his ears. For a moment, he thinks that he sees a silhouette in the corner, the gleam of a white dress shirt… but no, it's simply a set of clothes laid out neatly on a hanger.

The glow of the clock on the side table tells him that it's a little before 6 am. Still a little too early for the sunrise, then, but Izaya isn't going to be able to fall asleep again anytime soon, so he pushes himself up to a sitting position before maneuvering to the edge of the bed so that he can ease himself into his wheelchair. As he manipulates the controls, it glides smoothly around the room, its machinery nearly whisper-silent. Which is only to be expected: it's the best that money can buy, with plenty of custom modifications, as even in his self-imposed exile from Tokyo, Izaya is still a man of means.

Opening his bedroom door is another struggle entirely, though. Briefly, he considers calling for Sozoro or even Nec—the hacker is probably awake—but he doesn't want anyone else to see him right now.

Eventually, he manages to tug the door open, rolling back quickly enough to not catch it on his chair, and leaves his room with a mental note to have Sozoro replace the door with something easier to open. Something that opens outward, perhaps. It’s not ideal: a sliding door would be the best, but the old man would probably balk at the sort of construction work needed to completely remake this place to Izaya’s needs. Besides, they’ll abandon this place soon enough when they move on to the next one where their services are needed, so it doesn’t make sense to spend too much time altering it.

Or perhaps he could just have Sozoro take off the door. But the last thing he wants is Haruto bouncing into his room while he’s asleep or busy to ask “Izaya nii-san” to play with him. Himari does her best to keep the boy away from him—not out of any consideration for Izaya himself, but in an attempt to keep his influence away from her little friend, which is quite endearing—but Haruto can be quite persistent. No, he still needs a door. Just a better one.

As he pours himself some cold barley tea in the kitchen before settling down at the dining table, he remembers replacing other doors. Too many of them, smashed down by inhuman strength. It was his fault, of course, for provoking Shizu-chan, but how could he not? It had simply been too entertaining, watching the monster prowling among his beloved humans as if he could be one of them and occasionally ripping off his mask to show everyone what he really was.

He’d only been one step away from achieving his goal, sending Shizu-chan past the point of no return while the Valkyrie he'd summoned brought him to Valhalla… but his little co-worker had ruined everything, leaving Izaya crippled and haunted by the ghosts of their interrupted showdown.

It isn't that he wants to die. If it was just that, Sozoro would probably be more than happy to end their contract and finish him off himself. It's not even that he believes in some sort of afterlife, really. It's simply a more appealing idea than just disappearing. But if he could leave some sort of permanent mark on the world, one way or another…

He'd intended to win. He still remembers the heady rush of euphoria as he watched the monster fall to its knees as it slowly suffocated. If he'd eradicated Shizu-chan from the earth, then it had to change somehow. There was no way that life would have been able to simply continue on as if nothing had happened: it was as preposterous as people ignoring a meteorite that had carved a crater into the heart of the city. His absence would be felt, remembered, passed down in legends like the Headless Rider. And Izaya would have been the one who'd done that, his own name and story eclipsing both Celty and Shizu-chan's.

His drink ripples in his cup, drawing his attention to the slight tremor of his arm. With a grim smile, he wraps his fingers around his wrist, tightening his grip until he's regained a semblance of control. Recalling their fight is making his heart start to race, just as it had when he'd realized that Shizu-chan had escaped his trap. But that had been alright, too.

In that moment, the other man had really seen him, been just as determined to kill him. They'd faced each other without any pretenses, only the purity of their feelings unfettered by any worldly concerns, just like the first time they’d met. Izaya had barely even felt his injuries at the time, captivated by the pure rage and violence before his eyes: no longer human, but a natural disaster in its own right.

If he had been consumed by that storm, it would have never been able to pretend to be human again. Izaya isn't sure what would have happened, but he knows that much. For all that Shizu-chan has done, for all that he hates himself and his strength, he's never killed anyone. It's the last thread to being "human" that he clings to desperately… even if it was just Izaya, his death at the other man's hands would have snapped that tether, sending Shizu-chan plummeting down to his own personal hell.

After that… would the Fighting Puppet of Ikebukuro disappear, drowned in its self-loathing? Would it finally renounce its claim to humanity and become more than a monster: a demon or a god, free of the flimsy chains of human morality that only bound it as long as it allowed them to? Shizu-chan has always frustrated him since he's the only thing whose actions Izaya can't predict. Even though he wouldn’t have been able to see the ultimate outcome, he would have left an indelible mark upon Shizu-chan, carved into his very soul. He would have been remembered by the one being that could be expected to be the last one standing when everyone else was erased from the face of the earth.

It had been his only chance. Because it's just as Simon said: Izaya's a coward. He'll never again find the courage to face Shizu-chan. It has nothing to do with the wheelchair, with the legs that could work again if he started rehabilitation.

Even if he lies to everyone else, he knows the truth. All he's doing is running away. And he'll keep doing it until the very end.

[grasshopperdoingdogpaddle]

First of all, bless you for running an active Xiaolin Showdown blog in the good year 2023. Second I think part of me will always be disappointed that we never got a sort of prequel episode for the monks-like, how did Clay find out he could manipulate earth? How did Raimundo and Kimiko find out about their elements (I would have been especially interested to see Kimiko partially bc I'm biased but also because her element had/has the potential to do the most damage if she "let it out" uncontrolled)? How did the Xiaolin temple find out about them, track them down, convince them to come? IDK, I just think it would have been a really interesting look into their pre-temple lives that never got fully explored

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It would have been nice to have some sort of ep that called back to their origins or how the temple discovered them. It definitely has to be more difficult in this era than it was back in Dashi's era, where magic and monsters were common knowledge and Xiaolin heroes were more famous.

Kimiko's probably got the most interesting story there, since she's the daughter of a big tech CEO, and judging by her deepest fear being a doll that's clearly been badly burned and melted halfway. There were probably a number of incidents with her firepower. And Kimiko's the type who'd love to travel, and her dad's very lenient, so there'd be no trouble convincing Mr. Tohomiko to let her train at the temple to help temper it.

I feel like Clay and Raimundo probably had more casual, gradual realizations to it, since both their elements slot in nicely to some of their daily activities anyway. Little things that come intuitively to them.

Clay finds himself having a much easier time of plowing and working with the mud, a real green thumb, and it's because the earth works with naturally. I imagine there was probably a big triumphant moment where he realized it definitely wasn't just a green thumb, maybe shooting up some columns of earth to protect Jesse or herd cattle from stampeding or something. And Raimundo probably casually used it to help with surfing or keeping cool.

Maybe Master Fung and Dojo kept an eye on global headlines and investigated local stories that could be about that? Could see that working for Clay and Raimundo.

I wonder how Master Fung convinced Daddy Bailey to give the temple a chance at all though. He seemed unconvinced about it when he actually came to visit, like all Master Fung had managed to get him to agree to was a trial period.

We could have even gotten some backstory on how long Omi's been at the temple and if they knew about how water powers/dots before or after he joined!

[rumbelleshowdown]

-

Showdown 2023 Unused Prompts

Mystery

Misty town

Unexpected hero

Snowstorm

Jeweler

Butler

Thunderstorm

Piano, sand, green

Signet

Heart condition

Letter

Inheritance

Hey, honeybee

Forest spirit

Sacrifice, True Love, healing

Blood ran cold

Insanity

Pottery wheel

Goose

Candy shop

Coffee shop

Surfing

Skateboarding

Argument, fever

Terrible weather

Torn wedding

Theft 

Treasure

Hunt

FBI 

Hide-and-seek

Out of the blue

Skinny-dipping

Gardener

Warrior, monsters

Magical flower

Howl, claws, scream

Siren’s song

Lonely night

Magic ritual

Waves on the seashore

Mermaid

Crazy

Dancing on the street

Magical library

Witches

Double identity

Night walking

Suffocating night

Gloom

Swindlers

Haunted house

Dress made of gold

Golden hour

Salem the cat

Fairy circle

Secret affair

Kissing in the rain

Waltzing on the snow

Secret garden

Dove, blood

Drunken beauty

Cracked ice, anger

Night, street lamp, snow

Fairy murder, dark, mist

Liminal space(s) 

A single red rose

Lost, beautiful, frightened, found

“Lover don’t go.”

Awkward

Video

Zoo

Truth or consequences

Live wire

Black and white

Teaching how to spin

She was late

Baby won’t stop crying

Magic gone wrong

Love after the apocalypse

Lazy Sundays, puzzles, smiles

Horror movie(s) 

Firefighter AU

Fake dating, pizza, sports

Different fairytale AU

New experiences

Music box

Feathers

Slow dancing

Reflection

Forgotten anniversary

Gentle touches

Delicate

Wake up

Blood on the carpet

Trapped, light, voice, comfort

He wasn’t there

You are my hero

Please don’t go

His heart broke, literally

“I wish you were…”

“Don’t take him away!” 

“Don’t take her away!” 

“How could you?” 

“Pick your poison.” 

Blood in the water

Siren, almost, real, scream

Trapped in the dark

The Light One

(S)he will come back

Kiss the tears away

Smile bright as sun

Freezing water, rescue, please

I will protect you

I feel safe

There’s so much blood

Red as blood 

Flickering in and out

Now it’s too late

It’s just a nightmare

Don’t leave me alone

Please, wake up

Sacrifice, pain, light, laugh

Please help my Papa

Your father’s a hero

Thought I lost you

I was worried sick

Fever, confession, tears, light

Dark eyes, pure heart

Homemade soup

Sick, shame, silly, always

-

[cryptidjeepers]

 Scooby Doo Monster Bracket 2023!

Here is the bracket! We will start with the two qualifiers today, with round one starting tomorrow! Check back on this post for round updates

Masterpost:

I won’t be updating this post because it will become a monster in itself but check my tag for the most recent polls

Round one: Complete

Round two: compete

Semifinals: Happening now! March 2

Finals: upcoming

Contestants

Cleopatra/mummies (Where’s my mummy?) vs green ghosts

Halfbeard (Bcsd) vs The Ghostly gondolier (the scooby doo show)

Loch Ness Monster vs 10 000 Volt Ghost

Maldor the malevolent (13 ghosts) vs  Dapper Jack (Shaggys Showdown)

Bigfoot ghost (new scoobydoo movies) vs  Phantom (stage fright)

Tengu (bcsd) vs  Zombie island zombies

The spooky space kook vs  Phantom virus (cyber chase)

Demon of salem (bcsd) vs  Cat people (zombie island)

The Red Ghost (Gourmet Ghost) vs lord valdroious

Count zarko (scoobydoo & scrappydoo) vs Lord infernicus (sdmi)

Skeleton men (the scooby doo show) vs  Slime mutant (sdmi)

Marcella (13 ghosts) vs  Menacing metallic clown (wnsd)

Ghost of mother (bcsd) vs  Evil scooby gang (trick or treat)

Alaskan monster (sd & sd) vs  Captain skunkbeard (scooby pirates ahoy)

Captain cutler vs  the black knight ghost

dark lilith vs  Sarah ravencroft (witches ghost)

[cryptidshowdown]

Here is our official 2023 Cryptid Showdown bracket! Our first matchups will be:

Hodag v. Drop Bear Dahu v. Cactus Cat Skunk Ape v. Melonheads Loch Ness Monster v. Jackalope Tsuchinoko v. Kappas Fresno Nightcrawlers v. Squonk Questing Beast v. Alien Big Cats Mothman v. Jersey Devil

I'm planning to include a little paragraph about each cryptid when I post their matchups, and I will include image sources and info citations when I do that! I might space out the posts/voting a little more than is traditional since it'll take me a bit of time to get those put together.

I'm so excited to see who tumblr chooses to be our (un)official cryptid mascot!