#my best hope is that it gets like modern day reboot

[dontmindme2600]

Still in denial about the fact that Neo Yokio season 2 will most likely never be a thing

[rose-tea-and-strawberries]

A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes

How Ace and Deuce Fantasise About Their Crush, The Prefect

Reader/Yuu is female

Masterlist

Ace Trappola

Deuce is his biggest rival so usually his fantasies involve you choosing him over his fellow Heartslabyul first year

Usually he would be goofing off ‘studying or doing homework’ and his thoughts would inevitably turn to you and he gets hit  with the visual of your beaming smile and shimmering eyes lighting up in adoration as you praise him over his marks on a test like “Wow Ace! I can’t believe you got all of this right - you’re so much smarter and stronger and more handsome and better than Deuce in every way!” and he’d be filled with determination to actually study so you would kiss praise him

Sometimes he would daydream about you wearing his basketball jersey to one of his matches and cheering him on (which you do already anyway - the cheering, not the jersey wearing) and during a tense sports anime worthy match with fast action and slow motion and reaction cuts where your gazing at him admiringly (this boy is literally filming an episode of Haikyuu in his mind) and the scores are neck and neck and he’s about to throw the winning shot and he looks at you winks and is like “this one’s for you” and gets it in, single handedly winning the game and his teammates are freaking out and everyone on the stands are cheering his name and he’s handed the trophy as he’s lifted onto his seniors' shoulders and then you’re there (abandoning Deuce and Grim at the stands) and you congratulate him and you’re kissing him and he’s woken up 🙁

He’s the type of guy to daydream about you in a cheerleading outfit, waving around pom poms and cheering him on - not in a creepy, weird way but more in a cute, endearing way

During the Ghost Bride incident™, you were dressed in a wedding dress to match with all of the suitors’ groom suits and his mind did an application.exe has stopped working before rebooting and immediately got flooded with visuals of you and him getting married

Since he did punch Riddle on the reader’s behalf and flip out at Malleus over Malleus’ completely harmless ‘prank’ during the Spectral Soiree (real king behaviour, what a man *wipes tear*), he does feel protective over them so I think he’d these fantasies where he’s protecting you from danger and bridal carrying you away and you’re swooning over him like ‘my hero ♡’ and peck his cheek

He really does like writing Ace x Reader fanfic in his head, doesn’t he?

I think many of his daydreams would be more ‘what-if’ scenarios where he would lay awake in bed at night, the lights are off and his dormmates are dozing off on their own beds around him, and his mind wanders into how the events of the day would’ve played off if he actually did have the courage to act on his own desires, if he actually did admit he found your smile beautiful during lunchtime, if he actually did hold your hand on your way to class, if he actually did confess his feelings…

If the legends of old are true and that whatever you wish for, you keep, he really really hopes that he gets to keep you

Deuce Spade

It’s canon that he’s a romantic since he has an admiration for the King and Queen of Hearts’ relationship so his fantasies are very reminiscent of classical romances

I headcanon that his mother loves romantic movies and shows (both period and modern) and he loves to watch them with her (he prefers period films/shows over modern ones since he’s been a sucker for fairy tales since he was five)

Even though his fantasies of you are super innocent, he still feels super guilty over having them over his best friend. He thinks it’s wrong to think of kissing someone so kind and sweet when they only see him as a friend and he kind of hates himself for not hating the visions his mind cooks up.

He’s very protective in nature so his daydreams usually feature him saving you à la traditional fairy tale or classic silver screen damsel in distress and her dashing hero or knight in shining armour (not because he sees you as a damsel in distress - you don’t just fight off overblots and live in Twisted Wonderland without being the strongest person ever in his eyes - but because he likes the idea of being strong enough to protect you from danger or you knowing that you can always rely on him to protect you). This, though, also kind of stems from his inner guilt at not being able to save you from the harm you’ve already undergone.

He likes to imagine the two of you stargazing, your figures draped in moonlight as you kiss each other, or the two of you on a white marble balcony, surrounded by doves and baby pink blossoms falling from the trees around you, or the two of you dancing in a ballroom, or kissing in the rain, or giving you piggybacks, or picking you up and twirling you around as you laugh in pure joy, or giving you his jackets or every other cliche he wants and yearns so badly to have with you

Sometimes when he does something good like finish his dorm chores or come first in track club he imagines your voice cheering him on like ‘I knew you could do it, Deuce’ 

He loves it when his daydreams get domestic. His favourite one is when imaginary you and imaginary him are in a chicken coop, surrounded by baby chicks.

Whilst his fantasies are very idyllic and so flowery they could put a florist out of business, he does like the ones that tap into his past as a bad boy where he takes you joyriding on his magical wheel, your arms wrapped around his torso and head resting between his shoulder blades, or he impresses you with his mechanical skills as he fixes a car, or your patching him up after a fight (a fight that happened because imaginary you was being harassed by gang of goons and he came in and saved the day like an action hero)

When he was a stargazer, you were the one who earnestly gave your full support in his dreams and your belief that all of his wishes will inevitably be granted so would you mind terribly if he told you his hearts’ greatest desire

[corazon-calaveras]

The Crow Reboot Rant

NAH NAH NAH, WHOSE IDEA WAS IT TO MAKE ERIC DRAVEN LOOK LIKE A DISCOUNT VERSION OF JARED LETTO'S JOKER?!? IMMA THROW HANDS!!! 💀🔪

There's just so much wrong about this reboot and as a fan of the original crow movie and graphic novel I cannot even begin to express how much this disappoints me.

More to rant ahead, just know it's hella long.

I recently saw and heard more news about the crow reboot and upon seeing what to expect I no longer have any interest in watching the reboot, in fact I wish the fans continue to roast the hell out of it to show the people in charge of this reboot that this is NOT what the people want or need.

Now I just want to go on and say that I have no problems with Bill Skarsgard as Eric Draven. I think he's a hella great actor with lots of potential of doing a great job at being the next crow actor, but my issue is with the writers and the people who made the overall decision to make this cult classic "appeal to modern audiences" which that quote alone was enough for me to completely abandon all hope of this movie being any good. I was already skeptical enough about the reboot and my expectations were low but THIS...this definitely made my expectations drop even lower than they already were and that's surprising to me. Honestly at this point the three crow sequels were a lot better and that's saying a lot because if y'all have seen those you'll know they weren't that good either but at least they were entertaining. 😭 (In my opinion at least, feel free to disagree on that).

It gets even better when you find out that the inspiration for reboot crow was Post Malone and Lil Peep. 💀

Like...is that what appeals to modern audiences nowadays? Was that really necessary for modern day Eric Draven? Absolutely not! The original movie and comic took place in the 90's so LEAVE IT IN THE 90's! Not everything has to be modernized for the sake of appealing to modern audiences. What modern audiences need right now are original stories with good and compelling writing (which probably won't happen any time soon since Hollywood proved to be in the middle of an imagination drought).

Sure, one can argue that the original movie wasn't completely faithful to the source material, that being the graphic novel. However, Due to the unfortunate passing of Brandon Lee during the making of the film, James O 'Barr has stated that he had finished the film as a tribute to Brandon who was a sweet and caring man and so decided to write Eric Draven to have some resemblance to Brandon in the film as a way to honor him. With that in mind, it's no wonder people are much harsher about the reboot, myself included, and find that this reboot would be an insult to not only James O 'Barr but also to Brandon. (Those who know the tragic history of The Crow graphic novel would understand why that's the case but in short it was a way for James to deal with grief).

In my opinion, the original crow film does not need a reboot or a remake. It may not be the best or perfect movie in the world but it is a cult classic and is one of the most beloved movies that holds a dear place in people's hearts. Mine included. Which is why instead of making another movie based on Brandon Lee's crow, that the other crow characters get a shot at the big screen since Eric Draven isn't the only one who gets brought back to life by a crow. I can understand how this might potentially not gain enough traction because it's not the iconic Eric Draven, but I do believe that with good writing and loyalty to the source materials, that it can be very possible to make a good and fresh crow movie without piggy backing off of an already beloved and successful film with the help of the fans who most likely have read the other comics.

In my opinion, I don't think this reboot is worth anyone's time (at least for those who are hardcore fans of the Crow franchise) and I have no hope for this whatsoever. In fact, I'm gonna go rewatch the original movie for the millionth time and reread the original graphic novel because I've already accepted the fact that any potential of getting a good crow movie is officially out the window. Not only that but the book and film are my comfort watch and reads so there's that.

For anyone who wants to hear more details about the reboot I recommend looking up articles or watch videos about it on youtube since that's where I heard the majority of the news.

Brandon Lee will forever be the best Eric Draven out there, may he rest in peace.

[forestshadow-wolf]

twenty questions for fic writers (im so totally not 14 days late to this)

ty @losersimonriley for the tag

1.) how many works?

12

2.) total word count?

66,173

3.) what fandoms do you write for?

currently only modern warfare (reboot), but I always say I'm gonna dip into other fandoms (then I forget)

4.) top 5 fics by kudos?

keep me safe (ghoap/reader)

give or take (a migraine) (ghoap/reader)

Blossoms of Love (ghoap) (hanahaki au)

shotgunning and handjobs (ghoap)

what I (can't) have (ghoap)

5.) do you respond to comments?

yep! i definitely try my best to! ^_^

6.) what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

gotta be (Nothing) After Life because it's a post-canon mw3 fic where soap did not survive and Ghost is in the hospital because he does Not cope

7.) fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Shotgunning and handjobs.... yeah it's on the tin for this one

8.) do you get hate on fics?

nah, I'm not big enough for that

9.) do you write smut?

not often but yea!

10.) craziest crossover?

not really a crossover fic but I have a httyd cod AU called Preched Unlikely

11.) have you ever had a fic stolen?

uhm not that I am aware of?? I hope not

12.) have you ever had a fic translated?

nah, but again, I'm a small author, and I don't post too many fics

13.) have you ever co-written a fic before?

not officially, but I have recently had a spontaneous rp with @/sergeantwoods become a fic it's crack treated seriously bc... the rp was... soap chad my beloved

14.) all time favorite ship?

Ghoap! I- uh my blog...

15.) what's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

probably my hanahaki au or my httyd au, I'm definitely contemplating doing a complete rewrite of at least my hanahaki au bc that's probably the only way it'll get finished

16.) what are your writing strengths?

I like to think that I do dialouge pretty well, and I've been told that I write action well

17.) what are your writing weaknesses?

pacing, and grammar probably. I tend to use time cuts and chapter cuts more than I should as a cop out

18.) thoughts on dialogue in another language?

hell yeah bro-der! just as long as there's translations at the end bc you can gain alot via dialogue

19.) first fandom you wrote in?

CoD for Ghoap 💀 these dumbasses really got me writing fanfic LMFAO

20.) favorite fic you've written?

my favorite ones in the works would be my mw3 fix-it, or twin trunks (a smut fic). but of my posted ones might be either my halloween fluff fic (Trick or Treat!) or my wip soulmate fic (No strings attached (one string attached))

---

tagging: @queermentaldisaster @sergeantwoods and anyone else who wants to

[eva-knits12]

Movie Night With Chris Evans Characters

Steve Rogers:

Since he was frozen in the ice, Steve has a lot to catch up on, and that includes movies.

You introduce him to some of your favorites, and he likes them.

His favorite genre is musicals and classic films.

You show him TCM, and he finds a few favorites.

His favorites are Adam's Rib, The Music Man, The Seven Year Itch, Bringing Up Baby, anything Disney, anything with Doris Day, anything with Marilyn Monroe, anything with Audrey Hepburn (my personal favorite AH movies are Love in the Afternoon and Two for the Road), anything with Katherine Hepburn and Joan Crawford.

He also like Grease and The Greatest Showman and Mrs. Doubtfire and Popeye.

Movie nights with the Avengers are the perfect chance for him to catch up and cross a few films off of his list.

Steve does not like action movies or horror films.

You don't either.

So when the Avengers want to watch either, you and Steve go to your apartment or go to the classic movie theatre.

Modern cineplexes not only confuse Steve, they trigger his PTSD.

You and Steve will watch a musical, or a comedy, or even a classic film when the Avengers show action or horror.

He also likes the original Star Wars and the Star Trek reboots.

He also likes Wonder Woman.

The best part of movie nights with Steve?

You both get to cuddle while binging on pizza, popcorn, and candy.

Ransom Drysdale

Ransom has never had a movie night, not even with his ex.

Ransom finds it exciting, because it's the one night a week where you can have a casual date night.

You show him that you don't have to physically go to the cineplex to enjoy a movie.

It's cheaper to watch a movie at home anyways.

Ransom's favorites are anything Marvel, comedies, anything Star Wars, the Star Trek reboots, Adam's Rib, anything Disney, and anything with a good plot.

He knows you don't like horror, so you avoid it.

Ransom doesn't like horror, either. I mean, his family dynamic is almost like a horror film come to life.

You guys order Chinese on movie night, as Ransom has never had Chinese takeout at all.

For dessert, you guys have the fortune cookies, and some ice cream.

Ransom's favorite flavor is vanilla with chocolate sauce on top.

Ransom makes sundaes for you and Ransom on movie night.

Ransom and you look forward to movie night because every movie night is something new for him.

When you watch The Greatest Showman, Ransom actually enjoys it, and you both sing along to the songs.

You don't care if you both sing off-key.

For your birthday, Ransom presents you with tickets to see Hugh Jackman.

You hope Hugh Jackman performs the score from the Greatest Showman and from Les Miserables.

You had an amazing birthday, thanks to Ransom.

Colin Shea

Movie nights with Colin are an event.

Colin orders a pizza or gets those sandwiches he likes for both him and Eva.

Colin and Eva usually watch a comedy, a musical, or a classic film.

Movie nights are generally chill.

Colin and Eva spend more time stealing kisses and eating, and snuggling while watching the movie.

The movie nights turn into lazy weekends, in which Colin and Eva only leave the couch for showering, eating, and going to the bathroom.

Colin and Eva's favorites are comedies, anything Disney, anything Star Wars, and Back to the Future.

Even when Harper is old enough to join, it usually revolves around Disney and family friendly films.

Colin and Eva both like Grease, and sing along to the movie.

Colin and Eva end movie night with a romantic bath together.

Jake Jenson

Movie nights with Jake will include anything Star Wars, because it's your and Jake's favorite film franchise.

He also likes the MCU for some strange reason.

He also likes the Harry Potter films, but you really don't care for them, but that's okay.

You will watch them because they make Jake happy.

You can work on a knitting project.

You like the X-Men films, but Jake doesn't.

He also watches them to make you happy.

You order pizza, and for dessert, you have that huge cookie.

Along with the cheesy bread.

You also have popcorn mixed with M & M's.

You also watch the Star Trek reboots, and that's another franchise you and Jake can agree on.

You both like MCU films, too.

You also like Knives Out.

Movie nights with Jake are the best.

Andy Barber

Movie nights with Andy are the best.

You watch something that you both enjoy.

Knives Out, classic films, the Star Trek reboots, the original Star Wars, and thrillers turn you both on.

You also watch comedies and anything Disney when you need something mindless to watch.

When Joy Grace and Penelope Rose arrive, you all watch Disney movies, and anything kid and family friendly.

Joy Grace likes musicals, Beauty and the Beast, Enchanted, The Little Mermaid, and Spongebob Sqaurepants.

Penelope Rose like Winnie the Pooh, Dumbo, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Enchanted, and musicals.

When the girls watch, they also sing along to the songs.

They have each movie memorized and they also love Into the Woods.

Movie nights are amazing because you all get to spend time as a family.

Andy usually makes a pizza from scratch, and he even makes chocolate chip cookies.

The girls are usually in their princess nightgowns, and love cuddling with you and Andy.

Family movie nights are the best.

[multapohja966]

some fav things this year

Read

Detransition, baby - Torrey Peters' book. just adding a one more assurance that it is just as good as everyone says.

Shopping Star as a semiotechnical code modulating Greek femininity in pharmacopornographic capitalism - fun opulence of hard words discussing interesting things. (article utilising Preciado's analysis tools to discuss (post)recession Greece)

Chimamire Sukeban Chainsaw - Rei Mikamoto's insane gory gross, hard to explain, manga about a girl with a chainsaw trying to kill the person responsible for turning her classmates into grotesque minions.

One Piece - caught up finally. yes, it is worth it.

67,292 Things Car Guys Can Teach Transsexuals by Adrian Glenn - part of the 2 Trans 2 Furious zine. as a car guy associate and transsexual i deeply loved this one.

The Shape of Premodern Nonbinarity: A Conversation with Leah DeVun - I'll never stop talking about this article.

Watched

Bronson - Tom Hardy movie, biography of "Britain's most violent prisoner " Charles Bronson. It doesn't completely highlight everything essential about his story (having a less than nuanced view on untreated mental illness and its relationship with incarceration) but it's such a good fucking movie!! And at least artistically very loyal to who it's depicting (insane and absurdist).

this video of jack harlow at a chiropractic appointment - we live such weird fucking times. like it isn't heartfelt but it isn't disgusting either it's just, w-what? eh?

Little chinese everywhere - vlogger Yan who travels though less tourist heavy provinces in China, really respectful look to everyday life in more rural communities. these have given me a lot of peace and joy. a lot of extremely intresting architecture as well.

Inflatables and the adults who love collecting them - by furry youtuber Ash Coyote. Truly a gem of respectful by fandom, of fandom documentaries. Touching and lovely!!

MerPeople - don't touch netflix anymore but this documentary of the mermaid community and industry is incredibly good.

this rose ramdin x html jones vid - the well read terminally online gen z musical artists who get their estrogen money from twitter shitposting are the modern greek philosphers. in the sense that i'd sit on a stone public square step and listen to a convo like this for the whole day.

A normal creepypasta retrospective - there's hope for youtube actually

Cat soup / Nekojiru-sou movie

Earth Maiden Arjuna - early 2000s environmentalist anime series lovers make some noicee. this one is sooo lovely and gorgeous. real hidden gem.

Gigs

Sabaton - as expected, bit of a weird vibe in the crowd demographic :--------D but show itself is an insane fucking spectacle I'm happy I saw. You can really sense these men are swedish, the "my country hasn't been in an active war for two centuries" theater kid energy is wild. Tank on stage.

Death Grips - I'm pretty sure this rebooted my whole brain. Went with close friend, pretty sure my biggest bruise came form her hands.

Antti Tuisku - Farewell gig of the best pop performer in finland. I do not understand how he doesn't pass out on stage with everything he's doing. The jesus allegory album is forever my favorite, it's so genious in how it discusses fame so well while staying funny and self-avare. Neck hurt for the next week due to headbanging.

Suistamon sähkö - small gig yet one of the absolute best this year. (i cried) You need to see these guys live, the vocal ability of the main singers is absurd, it doesn't come through fully in recordings. And they create a very special atmosphere and community within their gigs, literally joined hands and danced in a circle.

[sigyn-foxyposts]

Day 4 - What would be your ideas for Sigyn Marvel Comic Reboot?

Like everyone else on here, one where Sigyn isn't a tragic abused wife as some modern media just loveees to turn her into because Loki is a villan! And those people can't love their wives nooo../s 🙄

I want her strong sides to be shown and for her character to develop more than to just be Loki's wife and that's about it! I want to see her relationships and I especially want Narfi and Vali to also have some more greater purpose in media, which is what I've included here!

So here are some of my ideas written into quite the story, because this way is easier to me! Sorry it's long, truly didn't intend it.

Sigyn is of high status, herself being a princess, but of Vanaheim and the daughter of Freya. Her father is secretly Iwaldi, a dwarf and a very talented blacksmith.

Freya had slept with him to insure she'd have an heir, resulting in a few daughters, who she'd love unconditionally despite hoping for a son. To one day over the throne!

Nanna, Idunn, Syn, Snotra, Var, Sigyn, Sjofn and Lofn were their names respectfully.

But this whole time Freya was actually married to the mysterious god named Odr, but who had neglected her love and would rather focus on traveling the realms than to be with her.

Freya only kept the marriage going for appearance and an old alliances sake.

She didn't care much for Odr because of his lack of interest and instead herself, focused on raising her daughters and kingdom.

A kingdom that would later be put in danger when Asgard threatens with war, after a failed attempt to make an alliance between the two, when Freya refused to share their magical powers with them!

Something the vanir people were very known for.

Freya tries her best to manage and sends her daughters, who were old enough to understand what was going on, to her brother Freyrs realm in alfheim.

There the girls were taught by their uncle and his partner Gerdr everything Freya herself had hoped to guide them through, womanhood.

Meanwhile the queen had to fight against Asgard's army, loosing many warriors in the process and eventually having to give up. Afraid she would loose more of her people!

At this point in time Sigyn and her sisters had grown into adulthood and as a peace offering, Odin forces Freya to make the difficult decision in promising to have some of her daughters get married to the Aesir.

Thinking that, through marriage and the offsprings they'd have, surely Freya wouldn't be able to keep the vanir's magic away from him. But she had plans up her sleeves.

Nanna was the first to marry, ending up with Odin's son Baldr and later having a son named Forseti. The only issue being that Nanna wasn't a sourseress and Freya had lied to Odin.

Resulting in Idunn being the next one to marry, who was actually a sorceress. She gets married to Odin's son Bragi and sadly the aesir were able to obtain Idunn's golden apples of immortality for their own gain, as her domain was over youth.

Because Idunn had acctually trusted the aesir and Odin had used her, she refused to try for children and her husband, Bragi loving her dearly respects that not wanting to try despite his fathers encouragements. That led the hopeful all-father to be enraged.

Feeling humiliated to be tricked by Freya the first time and now having to face stubborness, Odin instead chooses to give away Freya's remaining daughters to his most prized guards, instead of his sons.

One being a brave and young solider named Theoric, who Sigyn was soon to marry.

Sigyn was very much like her father, a hard worker with muscles of steel! She was passionate when it came to fighting techniques rather than magical skills.

So when Odin demanded that she and the rest of her sisters, who were not already sorceresses to join his wife Frigga's court and learn it, Sigyn was quite offended by it.

She wanted to become a Valkyrie more than anything, knowing that those positions were possible to join, but Odin refused to hear her out. Things only got worse when a certain prince started to play tricks on her as his adoptive mother taught the young ladies magic. It was Loki, the trickster god!

Sigyn never knew why she out of everyone in Frigga's court had to be the target. When little did she know Loki was very much intrigued by her, in all the ways.

They'd started off as enemies at first, like most because of Loki's behavior. But eventually through bonding over their strange family drama and similar lives, became pretty good friends!

Sadly, Loki had developed feelings for Sigyn, knowing from the very begging she would be eventually married off to Theoric. So he decided to not confess his feelings and instead ran off from Asgard.

Sigyn was understandably very confused and upset over her only friends disappearance and this actually affected her marriage, but decided to give Theoric a chance either way and bond like she had with Loki.

Apparently it payed off quite a bit as being a respected solider did not only get Sigyn place with the Valkyries but her and Theoric had something I'm common!!

So far life was getting better again and Sigyn's marriage was nothing but platonic, something she had made sure to voice very early on. Theoric being the good man he was obviously respected that and was eventually called out to battle.

Despite never loving Theoric that way, Sigyn did find herself quite nervous about what would happen to him and even had to admit she might've catched feelings for him.

But right when things only seemed to blossom for her, Theoric returns home and acts very odd from his usual happy self. Until it all makes sense when Loki reveals it was him the whole time, Sigyn was not only outraged at this but had so many questions.

And Loki would happily provide answers for her and fill on on everything she had been missing out on.

Loki had been so jealous he ran away and was planning on a way to actually confess to Sigyn despite her marriage. Luckily enough for him thought, he didn't even have to play a part in Theoric's sudden death as he had fallen in battle by his own doing.

Loki had only watched from afar.

After that Loki felt guilty, wishing he could've done something even if it would've been a very suspicious thing for him to do, considering he is a missing prince.

So he found comfort in one of the women warriors there, who had fought against Asgards army. Her name being Angrboda, someone he knew his adoptive family would never approve off and had children with her very recently.

But now people had seen Loki in Jotunheim with his little family, and it had been reported back to Odin in Asgard.

Loki admits he was selfish and apologized for not revealing himself sooner!

This would still leave Sigyn with a few questions though, had she gotten to know the real Theoric before his death or had that been Loki all along?

After taking these news surprisingly well and not freaking out as much as she, herself would've thought! Sigyn was unsure how to proceed and grieve, giving Loki his chance to rekindle their relationship.

He offers Sigyn the comfort she needs until she is ready to get back on her feet, never pushing to ask if she felt the same feelings towards him, after having confessed his attraction.

Once Sigyn feels better mentally, she let's the news of Theoric's death be known and his funeral is held. After even more support from her mother and sisters, Sigyn feels hopeful and Incuraged Loki to stop pretending and return to Asgard officially, with his new family!

Despite what Odin would think, because Sigyn wanted to see and meet them, she wanted to show how much she cared for them! Like Loki had cared her.

Loki was hesitant at first but tries his best and makes his grand return, proving to Odin that the news he had heard were true, Loki had made himself a family in Jotunheim.

This was the worst choice no one could've predicted, not even Loki and Sigyn. The next thing they knew, Angrboda was brought to Asgard with their children and treated horribly. When all Angrboda wanted was to fit in with the rest of the aesir gods.

Sigyn when she first saw Angrboda, knew she had to do everyhing in her power to protect that woman and her unique children.

Sigyn offers her home to be the familes as well and makes sure to care for Angrboda and their children daily! Quickly adapting to the fact that Hel needed constant skincare because of her skin condition that caused it to rot in certain places.

While two of their sons, Fenrir and Jormungandr were shapeshifters, meaning they took on other forms that weren't humanoid. Specifically a wolf and a snake.

Sigyn wanted nothing more than for them to feel as welcomed by her as possible, especially after what they had gone through to get to Asgard, and In return Angrboda gave something back. Forever grateful!

She reveals she was once a powerful witch and as a thank you offers to teach Sigyn magic, even more beyond what Frigga and the vanir was able to teach her.

This was the start of yet another blossoming relationship as Angrboda and Sigyn quickly bonded through the magic, the fact they both loved fighting in battles and hated Odin and the aesir for manipulating their people!

Now Sigyn wasn't only strong physically but even more skilled in magic. Able to heal fallen soldiers and help her fellow Valkyrie sisters on the battlefield! She even started to develop romantic feelings for both Angrboda and Loki herself.

Sadly happiness was never meant to last for them as Odin, soon reveals the nightmares that had been tormenting him, as well as seeing prophecies about Loki's children.

They were destined to destroy everything Odin had worked for, so to prevent this he tore apart the family. No matter how much Loki and Sigyn tried to comfort Angrboda, the poor anxious woman refused to let the old man win, only to be caught while trying to escape Asgard later that night.

Her children are forcefully taken away in the act and Angrboda puts up a fight, a battle to the death which results in her murder.

The giantess had fought as bravely as she did back when Loki had first seen her, refusing to give up on what she held so dear.

Not only was Loki heartbroken once he heard about the news, but so was Sigyn..demanding that they pay for what they did by at least, letting Loki keep something from this traumatic experience!

Odin taking slight pity on his adoptive son, still blamed Loki for everything that had lead up to this point. But either way was allowed to keep Hel, as the girl wouldn't be able to survive in her frail sickly state.

Yet took care of Fenrir and Jormungandr, their fates unknown to the remaining family.

Years later after grieving over their loss of Angrboda, Fenrir and Jormungandr. Loki and Sigyn while raising Hel together finally agreed to start a relationship, which ended up going so well for them that they tied the knot and got married not long after!

A few years later when Sigyn found out she was pregnant, she decided to resign as a Valkyrie after many eons of her service.

Wanting to focus on her growing family instead, especially since Loki had grown nervous for what could happen to their offspring as well. Would Odin take them?

Eventually after a lot of comforting, convincing and patience. Sigyn gave birth to two healthy twin boys that they named Narfi and Nari. Loki could never have been prouder and Hel, quickly adjusted to her new brothers entering her life.

Once Freya heard the news of her new grandsons, the old queen was overjoyed. In the past, when Forseti had been first born, at freya's request she asks Baldr and Nanna for permission to make him be the heir to her throne of vanaheim.

But Odin not wanting his perfect sons child to leave Asgard, refused to let the couple decide. Causing Freya to grow hopeless for her kingdoms future, as none of her daughters had mothered any children.

But now that Sigyn finally had, having twin sons! Freya felt like it was a blessing. Even if she didnt like Loki for his reputation, a part of her was thankful Sigyn had chosen Loki out of all, since Odin cared less about him and wouldn't suspect her to go for their children, to help her kingdom grow.

When reuniting with Sigyn, Freya asks to have one of her sons one day take over her throne and happily Sigyn and Loki both agree that it should happen, but that they should revisit this topic in the near future!

Over the years, as their children grew so did their personalites! Hel became a well behaved young lady but one to not be taking anything from anyone, she knew what she wanted..to be above Odin so she could decide things. So she could have control!

Vali was always a hyper and extroverted kid and showed excellent skill in magic, often trying to shape shift or create clones like Loki would. He admired his father!

Narfi unlike his brother was more calm and Introverted and skilled in magic as well, but wanting to be like his mother and learn how to heal and help people!

But suddenly a heartbreaking decision was made and Hel was sent off by to nifleheim once she was old enough to care for herself by Odin.

The young woman would rename the realm helheim, in her imagine and becomes a successful queen over the frozen and dead.

It was a difficult departure for all of them, but especially for the twins and Hel, as they were all very close and Hel still traumatized from the night her mother was killed.

Having to be reminded the same thing to when Odin had ordered Hel to leave, triggered Loki greatly and he wanted vengeance upon the man he once called father. He wanted to take something he held dear as well!

So for the first time in a long time he starts planning behind everyone's backs, even Sigyn's to insure she couldn't stop him.

So that she didn't have to worry about him! But the crime he would commit, causing Baldr's blind brother Hodr, to kill Baldr with a mistletoe arrow, after the beloved god also started to suffer from nightmares of his own death and prophecy.

When loki was eventually found out for his direct cause in the crime, he had officially caused the downfall of his family.

Brought to a cave, people wanting to kill him but unable to as he was a son of Odin, one of them. Odin to insure Loki would pay for the spilled blood, took his attention towards his twin sons. They took Vali and he was turned into a wolf, tearing apart poor Narfi.

Sigyn would be there to watch it all, be traumatized all over again watching someone she loved be killed.

When the whole ordeal was over, as she just fades and protects Loki from the serpants burning venom, that was now hanging above him. She prays to Hel to take care of their slained son Narfi and for Vali to have found a safe place to recover.

So as the couple awaited Ragnarok, Sigyn knowing very well she would fight to the death by Loki's side. Didn't know Vali had found Fenrir and jormungandr, being taken in by his older brothers and cared for, taught how to fight while in animal form.

Eventually learning how to control his abilities and turn into a boy again, then meeting up with the only person he could think of which was Freya, who he told everything and in return comforted him.

Meanwhile Narfi was welcomed by Hel in the underworld and became a god of life, thanks to his healing abilities, helping her aid the good dead in her underworld!

To be continued..

[thevindicativevordan]

thoughts on John Stewart? he’s typically called boring

You know how Hal is the one who gets accused of being the "Nostalgia Lantern"? Only sticks around because of a bunch of old timers who can't let go of the past? Hot take time: that's actually John.

He's my second favorite Lantern, and the first Lantern I was introduced to because of the DCAU. John is a cool character, an ex-Marine turned socially conscious architect whose analytical mind allows him to put together a plan as complex as a skyscraper, and his power ring finally allows him the opportunity to create on a scale he could only dream of before. Yes he lacks the swagger of Hal, the bravado of Guy, or the sensitivity of Kyle, but John is cool for the same reason as Batman: give him a little preptime and he can beat God. Unfortunately, John's popularity relies entirely on a cartoon that ended over a decade ago. Stewart fans continue to claim that he's the one true Lantern because of the DCAU, same as how Tim Drake fans claim he is the one true Robin, and both of them need to face reality. Whatever boost John got from the DCAU - to the point that yes at the time he could have laid claim to being the top GL like Jaime Reyes can for Blue Beetle - has long since worn off.

Some of the blame for that does fall on whoever at DC failed to capitalize on his popularity, whether that was Johns or Didio or whoever. John should have gotten his own solo book alongside Hal, they should have built the two of them up as equals. Instead John basically languished on the sidelines and never did more than play support during the Johns era, which was the era that redefined GL in the minds of hardcore comics readers. The best stories for John, the ones that flesh him out and define him as a character, are books from the 1980s and 90s. Mosaic is still regarded as the greatest John Stewart story with no real competition, and that is irrevocably tainted by the writer being a convicted pedophile. It's utter insanity that DC has made no real attempt to rectify that until recently.

Another hot take: I think John has been hurt more than helped by keeping all of his continuity intact. Take Katma Tui, his dead wife for example. His entire relationship with her is based on old comics from decades ago, comics nobody from the younger generations is going to read. Katma was one of the most important characters in John's life, but she's no Gwen Stacy. Average person has no clue who she is, and no reason to care, hence why most writers nowadays avoid bringing her up at all. Furthermore, Stewart lacks a clean origin retelling the way Hal got under Johns. During the New 52 they should have given Stewart a hard reboot, given he was mostly inconsequential to the Johns run with Hal, that wouldn't have upset things anymore than rebooting Superman and Wonder Woman did. They could have retold his origin, brought Katma back to life and done their romance in the modern day for a modern audience. Or tossed that relationship and put John with someone else, but it would have freed him from all the useless baggage the same way Aquaman and Mera were freed.

Since that didn't happen, I'm hoping that PKJ can be the world-builder John needs by giving him a soft reboot. Retell his origin, give John new friends outside his fellow human Lanterns, new love interests, stop calling back to Xanshi, and give him new foes that he can have to himself. DC Cosmic is big enough for John to carve out his own storytelling territory, but it requires someone who is more interested in the new than the old. Continuity only weighs John down at this point, and there's another big opportunity coming up for him that it would be a shame to waste.

With the announcement that Gunn is doing a Lanterns HBO MAX show starring John and Hal, this is another huge opportunity for Stewart. He's about to get another high profile adaption, one that could see John being a major player in the shared cinematic universe if all goes well. Right now is the time to start creating comics material for Stewart, whether for the purposes of adaption or simply because they need comics they can give to people which aren't decades old or irrevocably tainted by association with their creators. Last big break for Stewart went nowhere, I'm counting on the new management at DC not to repeat the previous regime's mistakes this time around.

[rewind-reviews]

So I’ve Been Playing... Wolfenstein: The New Order

Shooters are the genre I play the most, one of the first PC games I ever played was DOOM 2 and I have been hooked ever since. Be it trying one of the classics like Blood or something a little more recent like Postal Brain Damaged I will play them all but there is one franchise I always come back to, Wolfenstein.

Wolfenstein 3D captivated me when I was a kid even if I had games like Quake to play I would always gravitate to Wolfenstein, something was amazing about the early 3D to me so was the way the game managed to tell its story with no words just get up, kill some nazis and escape against unspeakable odds. Growing up I was always excited when a new game would come out the 2009 "remake" got me so excited I would watch the trailer almost daily hoping to one day get my hands on it. But those games aren't what we are talking about, I want to talk about the 2014 reboot Wolfenstein: The New Order.

Wolfenstein: The New Order was developed by MachineGames and is a soft reboot of the franchise. Unlike previous instalments focuses entirely on a single-player experience with no multiplayer component. Because of this the story needed to be top notch and man does it deliver.

(spoilers ahead)

The story begins in 1846 with our protagonist captain William "B.J." Blazkowicz flying into Deathshead's compound to put an end to the mad scientist who is creating not only super soldiers and advanced weaponry but also mechanical monsters prolonging the war and leading towards a Nazi victory. BJ is joined but two notable soldiers. Commander Fergus Reid BJ's right-hand man and a very headstrong, capable and overall brilliant tactician and private Probst Wyatt III, who unlike Fergus is overwhelmed by the horrors of the war that he is forced to witness at the young age of 18. After fighting your way up the shore, scaling the walls of the compound and losing countless men in the prosses you gain entry to Deathshead's lab only to be ambushed.

This moment is when I fell in love with this game. You are forced to make a choice, who will die Wyatt or Fergus? This choice breaks me every single time I play this game, the weight of this choice is so hard to put into words. By the time you get to this choice which is only about an hour into the game, you have spent so much time around these two people that you love them both. Do you save the kid who barely had a chance to live his life before war changed it forever or do you save BJ's best friend?

No matter who you save you escape but are wounded leaving a chunk of metal in BJ's brain. Luckily you are found by a polish doctor who along with his wife and daughter Anya care for you for fourteen years until asylum is shut down, everyone inside is executed by the hand of the Nazis and Anya is taken. After fighting your way out, saving Anya and stealing a car you flee to a safe place. Your mission is to find the resistance and to finish what you started 14 years ago, Kill Deathshead and put an end to Nazi reign.

Okay, enough story I don't wait to spoil all of it for you. So how does the game play? Its a modern take on a classic shooter, nearly every room you walk into in MOST missions is full of enemies for you to blast your way through however you see fit maybe, you want to hide behind cover and take them out one at a time, maybe you want to charge forward with a fully automatic shotgun in both hands or (and here is how I played most of the game) you sneak through prioritising which enemies you take out first, who can raise the alarm? who is strongest? if I get seen can I recover? will I survive? However you choose to play you will have an arsenal to back you up everything from the previously mentioned fully automatic shotguns, to assault rifles even a bulky metal monstrosity that can take down most enemies in one hit. You can also unlock different perks by completing challenges which is where I have an issue. The perks are extremely useful in this game letting you hold more ammo or grenades healing on stealth takedowns things along those lines. However unlocking these can be a nightmare. At the start of most missions, you lose all of your weapons leaving you with your laser gun and a knife sometimes a pistol if you are lucky, plus there are no guarantees you will get the gun you need to unlock that perk you so desperately want making the unlocks harder than they need to be.

During the later stages of the game as the locations and battles get more and more insane some of the enemies become way too hard to kill, and yes it makes sense in the context of the game but fighting them becomes less exciting and more of a chore or hell sometimes its straight up unfair. starting a level with next to no ammo and having to fight two heavily armoured shotgun-wielding nazis is a terrible experience that I honestly never want to slog through again. However, the story really is when this game shines the most, every location and character this game shows you is perfect they all show you how war affects different people. Wyatt or Fergus resent the fact they are alive and the war has cost them a life they never got to live, BJ is desperately holding on to a dream of the future with the woman he loves where he can one day be happy. Max learns that he needs to fight after the death of his father. Even Deathshead shows his own goals and has his reasons to keep fighting, there were moments in this game that crushed me making me feel like fighting this war is pointless, like I have no reason to carry on and there were others where I felt I had to fight to save the character I love so much or to crush the oppressive force that took someone from me pushing me forward to end this seemingly endless fight.

Does Wolfenstein: The New Order have its issues? yes, Is it a perfect game? no. There are a few minor things I didn't mention here like constantly taking fall damage or needing to be super precise while cutting paths leading to pointless deaths, but would I recommend you play this game? absolutely. I haven't been this quickly attached to characters in a long time. There are moments this game makes you feel you are fighting a battle you can't possibly win but you need to keep fighting, you need to be the bastion of hope.

Anyway, I gotta go I think I need to rest before a new colossus shows up.

[aquaburst3]

I watched some Aladdin the Animated Series episodes to create a lot of my TWST OCs. I heard a lot of people in the Aladdin fandom say that Mozenrath's one of the best villains in that series and is super underrated by modern Disney Channel villain standards. Honestly, I strongly disagree. If anything, he's pretty mediocre and doesn't hold a candle to the modern ones.

Mozenrath reminds me a lot of Bill Cipher where he's almost evil for the sake of it and has no moral compass. But that doesn't work for him. Bill works because he's a demonic triangle demon, so him being pure evil and wanting to cause trouble only thanks to boredom makes perfect sense. However, Mozenrath is completely human, so him being motivated by such a motivation just falls flat.

Don't get me wrong. Pure human villains can work. Fire Lord Ozai is a great example. Same goes for Belos. But even in those cases, they're still motivated. Fire Lord Ozai grew up in an empire that's inspired by imperialist Japan, so he took in a lot of those toxic beliefs. He genuinely believes that "spreading their empire prosperity" is for the best. Belos was a puritan, who was taken to a world with magic and immediately thought they were "savage" demons that needed to be vanquished. He cares that mindset into the modern day. Both of these guys' actions are motivated and make sense. Mozenrath, again, is the opposite where he has none. One could argue that his time with his dark sorcerer adoptive father messed him up bit, but even that makes no sense, because it seems like he was always like that.

The modern Disney Channel villains blow him out of the water. Having said that, I would love to see how a reboot would handle Mozenrath. While I think he falls flat in that version, I think if someone dove into his past more and gave him a compelling motivation he could be at least good. I'm hoping that I accomplished that with my "twisted" Mozenrath.

[glapplebloom]

I’LL CRUSH YOU!

The Mecha Sonic everyone loves originated from a Flash Animated Series called Super Mario Brothers Z by Alvin Earthworm. His idea of mixing Super Mario, Sonic and Dragon Ball Z has been done prior, but not as effectively as he did. It has the feel of Dragon Ball, the humor of Mario and some of the best animated fight scenes of the era. But the breakout star of it has to be Mecha Sonic. 

Now why did Mr. Earthworm chose Mecha Sonic to be his big bad? Because of all the Sonic Sprites, his was the easiest to work with. With long limbs and multiple angles, Alvin used the sprite effectively to build the terror people see now. He even used a technique modern Sprite Animators use: individually cutting the pieces to create new poses. Even I do this from time to time. So what is his story?

Mecha Sonic was really Metal Sonic: Robotnik’s greatest creation. Unlike the other Sonic robots, Metal Sonic kept persisting after each defeat: getting stronger and faster. One day, Metal Sonic decided to pull a Cell and absorb his brothers into himself. This created the Turbo Mecha Sonic we see in the series. And the first thing Mecha did? Crash the Death Egg onto the planet and kill all of Sonic and Shadow’s friends.

With his sights on the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic and Shadow were the only ones able to fight back and were on a losing effort. Their only hope of saving this universe: send the Chaos Emeralds to another universe. And that leads to the events of Super Mario Brothers Z, where both Mecha and the Hedgehogs travel to the Mario Universe and the slaughter he leaves behind there.

All this led to a boom in popularity for Mecha Sonic. Even today, many sprite animators still use Mecha Sonic similarly to how Alvin Earthworm did. Which kind of gave people a Mendela effect and associate Mecha Sonic more towards the SMBZ story than what he truly was: a boss fight that was pretty easy. I bet a lot of people who watched SMBZ but never played S3&K until Origins were surprised at how easy Mecha Sonic was.

I am a fan of alternate interpretations of characters. Heck, look at my work and see how drastically different some of the characters are to another. But my big issue with Turbo Mecha Sonic is the overuse of others using this specific Turbo Mecha Sonic. I’ve seen many fan series inspired by SMBZ use Mecha Sonic just like Alvin: character traits and all. It kind of waters down the effectiveness of the guy when another series has all the Sonic Heroes still alive and Mecha is still being treated as a threat.

Which is why in the Reboot, Alvin Earthworm decided to do something different. Instead of Turbo Mecha Sonic, he introduces Metallix. This is a modified sprite originally done by Dave "Entrail" Burns and easily modified since it’s a MM8 Bass sprite base. In the original, this was going to be Mecha’s Final Form when he gets all the Chaos Emeralds. Now, he is the form Metal Sonic (or Mecha Sonic) took to defeat Sonic once and for all.

This allows Alvin to keep the threat of the original Mecha while rebuilding his new design to show he is a much bigger threat than before. Compare the fights with the original Mecha Sonic and Yoshi to the more recent take on it. It’s much more brutal. It’s also why when I had to use him in Royal War Infinite, I went with merging him with Chara’s Soul to make him a unique take on Turbo Mecha Sonic. One that’s more driven to prove his superiority instead of one who wants mindless destruction like other’s take on him.

And for the finale, to show just how great an alternate take can be, we look at IDW’s version of Mecha Sonic.

[trainsinanime]

Netflix Tomb Raider

Right, let me try to get my thoughts a bit more sorted after watching the first episode.

Let's start with the obvious: First, I had a headache while watching this, so take everything I'm saying with a grain of salt. Second, I didn't like it very much, and this post will mainly be discussing why.

But first, let me say what I did like: I think Hayley Atwell is a great voice for Lara. I think the mansion fight was good. I think this version of Zip could potentially be fun.

With that out of the way, there are two main things: The story, and the way it's executed.

The story takes place after Shadow but mostly references the reboot game itself, tying it closely to what happened there and its characters. That means it inherits all the flaws that game had, but then it also doubles down on them. Even things that had gotten less annoying by Shadow are now fully back.

That means Lara is fully defined by her father figures and her relation to them. She's not doing any of what happens for fun, she's doing it because she hopes daddy (times two) will be proud of her. It takes only two minutes before she first hears praise from a father figure here. Nineties Lara Croft doing what she thought was right for her own reasons? Nah, can't have that. We're modern and emancipated and that means our heroine must be fully dependent on men. I am not fond of that.

This continues throughout the entire episode. Between Roth, Jonah, Zip and a random gentleman thief, Lara gets told over and over by men what to do and how to manage her emotions and heal from her trauma, and she gets chastised for any decision she makes herself. We could talk about whether that is sexist, but just as important is whether this is fun. For me, it's not.

The story also demands that we care about Lara's feelings about her dead mentor Roth, and her friendship with Jonah or Zip (but not that one random Spanish woman who was on screen only so the episode could pass the Bechdel test). Having played the games, I promise that I absolutely do not care about any of these relationships, and the show does nothing to make me care on its own terms either.

The opening features a scene where Roth insists that they steal an ancient box, and that they murder someone over it. Then he manipulates Lara into thinking that murdering this guy was absolutely necessary. The show seems to actually agree, but come on, the choice was, "let that guy kill Lara", "kill that guy" or "give that green box back to the guardians of the temple you just stole it from". You can't argue that murder was the best or only option here.

At the end of the day, the problem with the story is that I just don't care. The setup is plain old adventure story: At the start, Roth steals a thing (and Lara is also there). Some years later, someone steals it back. Lara will have to learn what that thing is and prevent disaster. Okay, but how do you make me care specifically? After all, we've seen this dozens of times. You make me care by making me care about the characters and their tribulations. Sadly, the tribulations are "sad that Roth is dead", and I cannot relate to that at all. The "all the men in my life are shouting at me telling me that I'm doing the whole being sad thing wrong" could be a nice conflict, actually, but the story doesn't see it that way. It insists that Jonah is right and Lara must learn to agree with that, instead of taking Lara's thoughts seriously.

That's the story. The other issue is the execution, and here's where I'm getting really controversial. All the reviews I've seen have praised the animation and the look of the show. And me, personally…

I just hate it. It's ugly. It's uninspired. Characters look stupid, and they're not particularly expressive, and they move in uninteresting ways through uninteresting environments. Frankly, Neo Yokio looked better than this.

Is something wrong with me that I just don't see the genius of this, or is everybody else insane? I had the exact same confusion around Netflix's Castlevania already, a show that has the same drawing style and in my opinion insufferable quippy dialogue, but everyone seemed to love that too for some reason.

Aside from looks, I also think the voice acting and dialogue aren't great. I love Hayley Atwell, "Agent Carter" is severely underrated, and I know Jonah's voice actor can deliver great stuff, he did so in the games. Both are trying their best here. But the dialogue direction seems to always be, "could you make it a bit more robotic, please?", especially for the minor characters. It doesn't help that the dialogue is just a giant heap of chlichés that we've seen over and over again. Maybe that is true to the Reboot game, but doing better was always an option.

Also, just a random aside, don't think I haven't noticed that Lara grunts and groans and expresses pain and distress all the time while the men (in particular Roth during the fight scene) generally don't. All more ways in which the job of the men is to be stoic and correct, and the job of Lara is to suffer.

All in all: I can't wait for the next reboot and for this era of Tomb Raider to be over.

[be-gay-do-heists]

hello yall :) the holy month of elul started last night, which is typically a time for contemplation, so since it is impossible for me to stop thinking about leverage, i decided to write an essay. hope anyone interested in reading it enjoys, and that it makes at least a little sense!! spoilers for leverage redemption

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Leverage, Judaism, and “Doing the Work”: An Essay for Elul

When it comes to Elul and the approaching High Holidays, Leverage might seem like an odd topic to meditate on.

The TNT crime drama that ran from 2008-2012, and which released a new season this summer following its renewal, centers on a group of found-family thieves who help the victims of corporations and oligarchs (sometimes based on real-world examples), using wacky heists and cons to bring down the rich and powerful. In one episode, the team’s clients want to reclaim their father’s prized Glimt piece that had been stolen in the Shoah and never returned, but aside from this and the throwaway lines and jokes standard for most mainstream television, there’s not a ton textually Jewish about Leverage. However, despite this, I have found that the show has strong resonance among Jewish fans, and lots of potential for analysis along Jewish themes. This tends to focus on one character in particular: the group’s brilliant, pop culture-savvy, and personable hacker, Alec Hardison, played by the phenomenally talented Aldis Hodge.

I can’t remember when or where I first encountered a reading of Hardison as Jewish, but not only is this a somewhat popular interpretation, it doesn’t feel like that much of a leap. In the show itself, Hardison has a couple of the aforementioned throwaway lines that potentially point to him being Jewish, even if they’re only in service of that moment’s grift. It’s hard to point to what exactly makes reading Hardison as Jewish feel so natural. My first guess is the easy way Hardison fits into the traditional paradigms of Jewish masculinity explored by scholars such as Daniel Boyarin (2). Most of the time, the hacker is not portrayed as athletic or physical; he is usually the foil to the team’s more physically-adept characters like fighter Eliot, or thief Parker. Indeed, Hardison’s strength is mental, expressed not only through his computer wizardry but his passions for science, technology, music, popular media, as well as his studious research into whatever scenario the group might come up against. In spite of his self-identification as a “geek,” Hardison is nevertheless confident, emotionally sensitive, and secure in his masculinity. I would argue he is representative of the traditional Jewish masculine ideal, originating in the rabbinic period and solidified in medieval Europe, of the dedicated and thoughtful scholar (3). Another reason for popular readings of Hardison as Jewish may be the desire for more representation of Jews of color. Although mainstream American Jewish institutions are beginning to recognize the incredible diversity of Jews in the United States (4), and popular figures such as Tiffany Haddish are amplifying the experiences of non-white Jews, it is still difficult to find Jews of color represented in popular media. For those eager to see this kind of representation, then, interpreting Hardison, a black man who places himself tangential to Jewishness, in this way is a tempting avenue.

Regardless, all of the above remains fan interpretation, and there was little in the text of the show that seriously tied Judaism into Hardison’s identity. At least, until we got this beautiful speech from Hardison in the very first episode of the renewed show, directed at the character of Harry Wilson, a former corporate lawyer looking to atone for the injustice he was partner to throughout his career:

“In the Jewish faith, repentance, redemption, is a process. You can’t make restitution and then promise to change. You have to change first. Do the work, Harry. Then and only then can you begin to ask for forgiveness. [...] So this… this isn’t the win. It’s the start, Harry.”

I was floored to hear this speech, and thrilled that it explained the reboot’s title, Leverage: Redemption. Although not mentioned by its Hebrew name, teshuvah forms the whole basis for the new season. Teshuvah is the concept of repentance or atonement for the sins one has committed. Stemming from the root shuv/shuva, it carries the literal sense of “return.” In a spiritual context, this usually means a return to G-d, of finding one’s way back to holiness and by extension good favor in the eyes of the Divine. But equally important is restoring one’s relationships with fellow humans by repairing any hurt one has caused over the past year. This is of special significance in the holy month of Elul, leading into Rosh haShanah, the Yamim Noraim, and Yom Kippur, but one can undertake a journey of redemption at any point in time. That teshuvah is a journey is a vital message for Harry to hear; one job, one reparative act isn’t enough to overturn years of being on the wrong side of justice, to his chagrin. As the season progresses, we get to watch his path of teshuvah unfold, with all its frustrations and consequences. Harry grows into his role as a fixer, not only someone who can find jobs and marks for the team, but fixes what he has broken or harmed.

So why was Hardison the one to make this speech?

I do maintain that it does provide a stronger textual basis for reading Hardison as Jewish by implication (though the brief on-screen explanation for why he knows about teshuvah, that his foster-parent Nana raised a multi-faith household, is important in its own merit, and meshes well with his character traits of empathy and understanding for diverse experiences). However, beyond this, Hardison isn’t exactly an archetypical model for teshuvah. In the original series, he was the youngest character of the main ensemble, a hacking prodigy in the start of his adult career, with few mistakes or slights against others under his belt. In one flashback we see that his possibly first crime was stealing from the Bank of Iceland to pay off his Nana’s medical bills, and that his other early hacking exploits were in the service of fulfilling personal desires, with only those who could afford to pay the bill as targets. Indeed, in the middle of his speech, Hardison points to Eliot, the character with the most violent and gritty past who views his work with the Leverage team as atonement, for a prime example of ongoing teshuvah. So while no one is perfect and everyone has a reason for doing teshuvah, this question of why Hardison is the one to give this series-defining speech inspired me to look at his character choices and behavior, and see how they resonate with a different but interrelated Jewish principle, that of tikkun olam. 

Tikkun olam is literally translated as “repairing the world,” and can take many different forms, such as protecting the rights of vulnerable people in society, or giving tzedakah (5). In modern times, tikkun olam is often the rallying cry for Jewish social activists, particularly among environmentalists for whom literally restoring the health of the natural world is the key goal. Teshuvah and tikkun olam are intertwined (the former is the latter performed at an interpersonal level) and both hold a sense of fixing or repairing, but tikkun olam really revolves around a person feeling called to address an injustice that they may have not had a personal hand in creating. Hardison’s sense of a universal scale of justice which he has the power to help right on a global level and his newfound drive to do humanitarian work, picked up sometime after the end of the original series, make tikkun olam a central value for his character. This is why we get this nice bit of dialogue from Eliot to Hardison in the second episode of the reboot, when the latter’s outside efforts to organize international aid start distracting him from his work with the team: “Is [humanitarian work] a side gig? In our line of work, you’re one of the best. But in that line of work… you’re the only one, man.” The character who most exemplifies teshuvah reminds Hardison of his amazing ability to effect change for the better on a huge stage, to do some effective tikkun olam. It’s this acknowledgement of where Hardison can do the most good that prompts the character’s absence for the remainder of the episodes released thus far, turning his side gig into his main gig.

With this in mind, it will be interesting to see where Hardison’s arc for this season goes. Separated from the rest of the team, the hacker still has remarkable power to change the world, because it is, after all, the “age of the geek.” However, he is still one person. For all that both teshuvah and tikkun olam are individual responsibilities and require individual decision-making and effort, the latter especially relies on collective work to actually make things happen. Hardison leaving is better than trying to do humanitarian work and Leverage at the same time, but there’s only so long he can be the “only one” in the field before burning out. I’m reminded of one of the most famous (for good reason) maxims in Judaism:

It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you free to neglect it. (6)

Elul is traditionally a time for introspection and heeding the calls to repentance. After a year where it’s never been easier to feel powerless and drained by everything going on around us, I think it’s worth taking the time to examine what kind of work we are capable of in our own lives. Maybe it’s fixing the very recent and tangible hurts we’ve left behind, like Harry. Maybe it’s the little changes for the better that we make every day, motivated by our sense of responsibility, like Eliot. And maybe it’s the grueling challenge of major social change, like Hardison. And if any of this work gets too much, who can we fall back on for support and healing? Determining what needs repair, working on our own scale and where our efforts are most helpful, and thereby contributing to justice in realistic ways means that we can start the new year fresh, having contemplated in holiday fashion how we can be better agents in the world.

Shana tovah u’metukah and ketivah tovah to all (7), and may the work we do in the coming year be for good!

------

(1) Disclaimer: everybody’s fandom experiences are different, and this is just what I’ve picked up on in my short time watching and enjoying this show with others.

(2) See, for example, the introduction and first chapter of Boyarin’s book Unheroic Conduct: The Rise of Heterosexuality and the Invention of the Jewish Man (I especially recommend at least this portion if you are interested in queer theory and Judaic studies). There he explores the development of Jewish masculinity in direct opposition to Christian masculine standards.

(3) I might even go so far as to place Hardison well within the Jewish masculine ideal of Edelkayt, gentle and studious nobility (although I would hesitate to call him timid, another trait associated with Edelkayt). Boyarin explains that this scholarly, non-athletic model of man did not carry negative associations in the historical Jewish mindset, but was rather the height of attractiveness (Boyarin, 2, 51).

(4) Jews of color make up 20% of American Jews, according to statistics from Be’chol Lashon, and this number is projected to increase as American demographics continue to change: https://globaljews.org/about/mission/. 

(5) Tzedakah is commonly known as righteous charity. According to traditional authority Maimonides, it should be given anonymously and without embarrassment to the person in need, generous, and designed to help the recipient become self-sufficient.

(6) Rabbi Tarfon, Pirkei Avot, 2:16

(7) “A good and sweet year” and “a good inscription [in the Book of Life]”

[lesbianakaashi]

The Forgotten Shounen: Katekyo Hitman Reborn

This is not a “Why you should watch/read khr” or anything like that. This is just me going into the deep dive and throwing my findings at you. I’m making this because khr used to be my favourite series when I was 15 (I had plushees, posters, tradingcards, the art book etc) and now as an adult I constantly find myself baffled at how unknow it seems to be.

1. Okay first what is khr?

Katekyo Hitman Reborn! or just Reborn! is a series by Akira Amano which was published in Weekly Shounen Jump from 2004 to 2012 (with 42 volumes) and got an anime adaption which run from 2006 to 2010 on Tv Tokyo (with 202 episodes and one OVA).

2. What’s it about?

Khr is a parody of the italian mafia and plays in a world where the mafia is heavily influencial. The protagonist is the japanese middle schooler Sawada Tsunayoshi who is known as “No good Tsuna” because of his failing grades, general weak and cowardly personality and weak physics.

He becomes aware of the mafia world when a 2 year old baby called Reborn arrives at his house claiming to be the greatest hitman and declaring himself his home tutor. Reborn was send by the 9th head of the Vongola famiglia who is ready to retire and looking for a new heir. Which of course, is supposed to be Tsuna and now it's Reborns job to shape him into a worthy sucessor.

Tsuna rejects the violence of the mafia world and refuses the position as the 10th. Thanks to Reborn and his general craziness Tsuna meets different people and starts to make real friendships. Reborn wants 6 of those friends to be Tsuna's future guardians, basically a group of people which will be closest to him in the vongola famiglia. Tsuna might have no interest in those positions but the friendships he builds with them become really precious to him.

Reborns arrivial also brings in the enemies of the Vongola family which leads to Tsuna being forced to engage in battles. Generally Tsuna openly avoids fights and prefers to run away but will put himself in danger for his friends' sake or because of something Reborn did.

Through out the series Tsuna matures and gains strenght but he never becomes a power fantasy. He's just a guy with many flaws who grows through the human connections he makes.

Personally I think the relationship between Reborn and Tsuna is one of the best student teacher reltaionships in all of manga only topped by Mob and Reigen from Mob Psycho 100. Especially the last arc really underlines their unique relationship to me.

Furthermore, khr offers a new and unique battle system: The flames. I'm not gonna go into to too much detail but the general idea is that one fights with their dying will flame which basically turns off your the savety switch so you can fight with everything you have. The flames are seperated into different categories such as: sky, storm, mist, rain, sun, lightning and cloud and have different attributes asigned to each one. Tsuna's use of the sky flame and his transformation when using it is still one of my favourite shounen transformations to this day.

3. What happened?

The series did really well and then not so well over the course of its serialisation. After the manga got an anime adaption it increased in populairty and video games, light novels, and other products such as CDs were created based on the series. Reborn is one of the best selling series of Weekly Shōnen Jump and has sold around 30 Million volumes overall. It was and still is very popular in Japan but rather unknown in the west.

According to the article "The Rise and Fall of Weekly Shonen Jump: A Look at the Circulation of Weekly Jump" khr was the 10th bestselling series in Weekly Shōnen Jump, with a total of 7 million copies sold in 2007.

This number increasing to 15 milion in 2008. Which placed khr into the 4th best selling series of 2008 in Japan.

Between 2008 and 2010 those sales declined but still kept strong with khr as the 6th top selling manga in 2009, 8th best selling in 2010 and then 24th best selling in 2012.

In November 2014, readers of the Da Vinci magazine voted khr number 17 on a list of Weekly Shōnen Jump's greatest manga series of all time.

After the anime came to an apprupt stop in 2010 for unknown reasons the manga sells took a visible hit. (Apparently the studio wanted to put the anime on halt because they were busy with other projects and give Akira Amano time to develop her story but I couldn't find any source for this claim) Furthermore, the rushed last chapters of the manga in 2012 declined the popularity of the series even more. There's no offical statement as to why the manga was ended in such a way but it's reasonable to assume that Jump either cut it considering the decreasing sales or Akira Amano choose to end it for personal reasons.

Nontheless, Tsuna not being included in Jump Force (a fighting game where you can play as different characters from Jump) in 2019 even tho he made it in earlier Jump Stars games also underlines the decreased interest in the series.

Rumors on a reboot or anime adaption of the last two arcs surface from time to time but are genereally unlikely. Artland the studio which made khr has gone bankrupt around 2015-2016. It might be taken on by another studio but rather uncommen especially with such an old series.

4. Art style

The khr anime ended over 10 years ago and the old art style might not be appealing to newer audiences.

Especailly because the anime adaption follows Akira Amanos old art style which heavily developed within the years. Here a picture comparing characters in the new art style:

A modern anime adaption in the new art style would be aesthetically pleasing. It would probably look similiar to Psycho Pass since Akira Amano did the concept art for this series.

(My personal art student hot take is that both art styles are unique and fun. Up to this day Akira Amano still has my favourite art style and even if the amount folds in the characters clothing is a little extreme I love it dearly.)

5. Criticism

The show is not without flaws and even if I greatly enjoy it it wouldn't be right not to adress them.

Daily Life Arc:

A lot of people view the first 20 to 25 episodes as fillers and quickly lose intererst in the series. This is due to the fact that Akira Amano inteded the series to be a gag manga and focuses the first chapters on world building, character introduction and comical narratives. It's rumored that the decision to develop the story into a battle shounen was made because the sales weren't doing well enough at first. So the first chapters/episodes may seem titidious but are necessary for the story and the development of the characters. The tonal shift from a more gintama like gag manga to a darker battle focused story can also be offputting to some viewers.

Either way a lot of people blame this arc when discussing why khr never got an english dub or didn't end up on Toonami. I've also read that the manga never finished serializing in the north america. However, it finished in other western languages like german and spanish.

Censoring:

The anime censors A LOT. From Gokudera's smoking habit, Yamamoto's whole character arc which deals with heavy themes such as depression and suicidal thoughts. The general bloodiness of the manga was censored and sometimes whole chapters and characters were left out even if those were important to the devolopment of others.

Filler episodes:

Out of the 202 episodes the anime has around 29 filler episodes which makes roughly 14 %.

Sexism:

Even if Reborn was written by a woman most female characters are rather flat and their storylines often tied to a male character in one way or another.

Genereal things:

Khr, like many other long running series, is sometimes criticised for a lack of world building or unpopular narrative choices.

6. Hope?

Khr isn't exactly dead. As stated before the series is still very popular in Japan and still gets new merch pretty regulary. There are also petitions floating around for a reboot or a new anime season but those never get a lot of traction. Furthermore #Reborn2期アニメ化 (#Reborn2ndAnimation) used to get some traction on twitter not too long ago. Last year the Anime News Network did a poll on which anime the readers would like to see a rebooot of and khr placed second.

Either way here's a collection of recent khr things I could find.

- In 2018 a new bluray set was released in north america

- The khr stage play reached yet another new season

- A mobile game was released last year

- Currently ongoing anime cafe event called "Concerto di Vongola"

- Last month there was an event with the former VAs and stage play actors where they discussed their favourite khr episodes.

- There has been an increase in blind reacts to the openings on youtube which might bring in a new fan base. The biggest one I could find had around 90k views and was made in 2019. On this note check out the soundtrack. The first openeing Drawing Days by SPLAY still makes me go insane (but I'm biased of course)

There also renewed hope for a new season/reboot because Shaman King, Inuyasha and Bleach got anounced for new seasons after a long hiatus. It's important to keep in mind that the circumstances for those series are differnt tho. For example bleachs new anime is often tied to the immense success of the gatcha game.

7. Conclusion

Khr is a series which used to be a flagship for Weekly Shounen Jump and is deeply beloved by it's fans, especially in Japan. It influenced other shounen series like bnha. It would be nice to see it gaining a bigger fanbase in the west :)

[thevindicativevordan]

those were great comic recommendations for a DCU beginner! happen to have a version for getting into Marvel?

Simultaneously harder and easier. Marvel's never rebooted so you can just start from the very beginning... but that means starting off with comics written in the 60s which might not be to everyone's taste, plus you'd have to work your way through decades of convoluted continuity to get to the present day. Restricting myself to the 616 universe I would recommend:

Spider-Man

Amazing Spider-Man by Lee/Dikto/Romita Sr. - Pondered for a while on whether or not to count the two separately, but honestly I think this reads better all together. Lee and Dikto tell you Spidey's origin and lay the foundations for Peter Parker, most of his iconic Rogues Gallery is introduced under Lee and Dikto including Doc Ock and Green Goblin. Much like how the early Golden Age Superman stories are worth checking out for how different Superman is character-wise, the early years Peter Parker is not at all the suffering saint most people think of. Peter becoming the figure we know him to be is a process that only begins with Ben's death, and it's not until Romita Sr. replaces Dikto that Spider-Man starts to settle into the character we recognize. Plus Romita Sr. is the one to introduce MJ, and thus his partnership with Lee is when the final cornerstones of Spider-Man are laid in my eyes.

Amazing Spider-Man by JMS - In many ways this run encompasses the whole of Spider-Man in one: Amazing storytelling peaks that will make you laugh and cry, yet also baffling valleys that will leave you wondering how the fuck Marvel ever thought this was fit to print. It's baby's first run for me and I've always loved it, warts and all. Fair warning this run has two of the worst Spider-Man stories of all time with Sins Past and One More Day, but it also has some of the best Peter/MJ interactions that will make you understand why people were so angry OMD broke them up, as well as the best characterization of Peter as an adult.

Spider-Man: Life Story by Chip Zdarsky - A great Spider-Man story that asks the question "what if the sliding timeline didn't exist and Peter actually aged in real time?" and answers it by telling one issue per decade of Spider-Man's life. Fantastic story with multiple twists that will surprise even fans who might think they know what's coming. Especially powerful is the ending which made me tear up the first time I read it, and likely will cause you to do the same. Not sure if they've put out a trade that includes the Annual Zdarsky did, but make sure to get that version if it does exist, Annual covers Jameson's arc throughout Peter's life. Zdarsky is one of the best JJJ writers and that Annual especially is a great companion piece to the main story.

Hulk

Hulk by PAD - Modern Hulk owes his existence to this run. Multiple Hulk alters which are a product of Bruce's multiple personality disorder, Hulk being cognizant instead of "savage caveman", and so forth all have their . Bear in mind this is a 12 year run on the character, inconceivably long by modern standards, so the quality varies. I really enjoyed the starting 2/3rds but the final stretch wasn't as good. Even so this is a run that obviously touches on and shapes every part of Hulk's world, from the main character himself to his supporting cast. Every Hulk fan should at least try it.

Planet Hulk by Greg Pak - Rest of Pak's run is worth checking out but this is the highlight. Basic gist is taking Hulk out of his comfort zone and putting him in a world where the aspects of the character that cause humans to be terrified of him instead cause the population to love him. To a world suffering under the tyranny of the Red King and the terror of the spikes, Hulk's rage and strength make him a symbol of hope. Interesting aspect of this story I want to highlight is that there's little to no Banner in this story, Hulk is basically in control for the whole ride. If Hulk as a gladiator and freedom fighter doesn't at least entice some interest out of you, capeshit probably isn't your thing.

Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing - Wrote a lot about this run already, so all I'll say here is that it's one of the greatest Marvel runs of all time, not just Hulk. If you're a fan of Hulk, horror, or just good writing in general, read this. Not only does it show Hulk's breadth and depth as a character, it's just damn good. Run also does a good job of teaching you about Hulk's history so if you like this run it will help point you in the direction of other Hulk stories you might enjoy.

Black Panther

Rise of the Black Panther by Evan Narcisse - Tells you the origin and titular rise of T'Challa on his journey towards becoming the always prepared hero we know him as. Simple and straightforward if a little rough around the edges.

Black Panther by Christopher Priest - This is the definitive Black Panther run. Priest took a character who had always had potential, but had just been used as a token, and turned him into Marvel's premiere badass on par with Batman. Format is incredibly 90s, the Dora look like Halle Berry instead of wearing the traditional Wakanda looks you'd expect from the MCU, but it's still a great run. You get to see T'Challa take on everyone from NYC thugs, to supervillains, to the Devil himself, and he always comes out on top. Only big drawback is that Priest wasn't sure a black main character would sell, so he used Agent Ross as a white audience stand-in which might be a turn off for those who want a book wholly focused on T'Challa. I personally found Ross amusing, he's basically Panther's Jimmy Olsen and regularly gets made the butt of constant jokes, but I wanted to give a heads up to anyone who didn't know about that aspect.

Black Panther by Reginald Hudlin - While Priest may have been the one to redefine T'Challa, Hudlin is the one who revamped Wakanda and the supporting cast. Shuri is introduced here, Wakanda having always been more advanced than the rest of the world is introduced here, T'Challa and Storm get married here, etc. If Priest isn't to your taste you may find Hudlin more enjoyable, and he writes a badass Panther as well.

Captain America

Captain America: Man Out of Time by Mark Waid - Updates Cap's origin story by having him awaken in the modern (90s) era. Straightforward but still good story of Cap struggling to adjust to life in the modern day while he also comes to grips with the reality of America vs. the idealized notions of his nation he once held.

Captain America by Ed Brubaker - The definitive Captain America run which served as the basis for the character in the MCU. Amazing mix of espionage and super heroics, Brubaker is my favorite writer for Steve and Red Skull, plus he's the one who made Bucky badass as hell by reintroducing him as the Winter Soldier. Steve, Sharon, Bucky, Red Skull, and the wider members of Cap's Mythos all have great showings here. If you're a fan of Captain America and want to read just one Cap run, this is the one you should read.

Captain America by Mark Gruenwald - Before Brubaker you could feasibly argue that Gruenwald was Cap's definitive writer. He spent a decade writing Cap and many of his stories would have a dramatic impact on the character. Gruenwald was the one who wrote Steve giving up the mantle of Captain America when the government tried to press him into being their stooge, and Gruenwald spends a lot of his run focusing on the personal toll Rogers code of ethics exacts on his life. If you want to see the origins of the Serpent Society and John Walker's tenure as Cap, this is well worth checking out.

Iron Man

Invincible Iron Man by Matt Fraction - Best modern run on Iron Man by far. Fraction does a good job trying to establish Tony as an A-Lister in the MU after the success of the MCU. Personally I really enjoyed Fraction's characterization of the Mandarin and his attempts to elevate Tony's Rogues Gallery (which was a mixed success).

Iron Man: Extremis by Warren Ellis - Right so Ellis is a shit apparently if you didn't already know that, fair warning if his actions are a deal-breaker for you. This is still one of the highest rated Iron Man stories however, a story that digs into the ethics of Tony's tech by pitting him against a domestic terrorist who has managed to upgrade himself with the titular Extremis.

Iron Man by David Michelinie & Bob Layton - Michelinie & Layton are probably still the definitive Iron Man writers in terms of how much of the Iron Mythos has it's beginnings in their time with the character. The duo had two runs, both of which left a permanent mark on the character. Their first run introduced many characters and concepts which you might have heard of. James Rhodes? Justin Hammer? The famous Demon in a Bottle and Doomquest storylines? All debuted here. Also this run updated Iron Man's origin by moving the events that turned Tony into Iron Man from Afghanistan to Vietnam (sadly leaving the origin in Afghanistan would've kept it from being dated and they eventually moved it back). Their second run contained another famous Iron Man story, Armor Wars where Tony tries to stop other people from abusing his technology. Overall while their time on the character isn't on the same level as other famous Marvel 80s runs, it's still worth checking out for Iron Man fans.

Fantastic Four

Fantastic Four by Lee/Kirby - What we think of as the "Marvel Universe" really began with this run, and this is still an entertaining read. Follow the adventures of the First Family as they deal with a variety of threats from the tyrannical Dr. Doom, to the omnipotent Galactus, to interfamily feuding.

Fantastic Four by Waid - If you don't want to start with Lee/Kirby because their style isn't to your taste than I think Waid works as an intro book too. He's got a good handle on the family dynamics, with each member of the family getting an arc that focuses on them.

Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman - My own personal favorite FF run. Hickman is one of the best Reed writers, and Reed is really the main character of this run. The Council of Reeds represent Reed's desire to "solve everything" and how that can go wrong, with the run emphasizing the importance of not losing sight of the people you're protecting. Franklin and Valeria, the children of Reed and Sue, also get a lot of focus here and this run is what made me love them as much as the titular four. Big high concept scifi mixed with heartrending family interactions is what defines the FF, and Hickman does that damn well. Dr. Doom is someone Hickman clearly loves and he writes him perfectly here, with the plotlines Doom's involved in helping to set up Hickman's Avengers run.

X-Men

X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills by Chris Claremont - Central to the X-Men's appeal is their struggle to protect a world that hates and fears them, with many drawing a connection to the Civil Rights movement. This story is one that goes hard on that connection, with a televangelist whipping up the nation into an anti-mutant frenzy that pushes the X-Men into allying with their greatest foe: Magneto.

New X-Men by Grant Morrison - This is the run that kicked off the modern X-Men era. Multiple other contemporary X-Men runs are written as a response to Morrison's time on the book, either rejecting their ideas (House of M) or attempting to continue what they set up (Whedon/Hickman). Here you'll see the Xavier Institute as an actual school for mutants, mutants as an allegory for the youth, mutants forming their own culture, and the crazy concepts you'd expect from Morrison. Cyclops taking his first steps towards being cool, Emma Frost becoming an X-Man, Cassandra Nova, Fantomex, the Stepford Cuckoos, Quintin Quire, so much of the Krakoan era is drawing on Morrison. If Claremont is too verbose for your taste, Morrison is my preferred entry point into the X-Men.

House of X/Powers of X by Jonathan Hickman - Since it's still relatively new and so many others have gone more in depth about these two books I'll keep it brief. If you've never cared about the X-Men you need to check this out because it completely flips the board over. If you're a huge X-Men fan you need to read this because it completely flips the board over while still rewarding those who have an encyclopedic knowledge of the X-Mythos. Hickman totally redefines the X-Men, their mission, their relationship with humanity, and the threats they face. Still hated, still feared, but no longer going high when others go low, this is mutants ascendant even as the threats stacked against them have never been greater.

Avengers

Avengers by Kurt Busiek - If you're interested in what pre-MCU Avengers was like, this is definitely the run to check out. You'll get to see the "classic" Avengers going up against a number of their greatest foes: Morgan Le Fay, Squadron Supreme, the Kree, Kang, and one of the most memorable Ultron stories ever.

Avengers/New Avengers by Brian Michael Bendis - This is where the modern Avengers was born. Bendis kicks things off by having Scarlet Witch murder multiple Avengers, shaking the team up to it's core. Eventually a New Avengers team is formed of Cap, Iron Man, Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Sentry, and Wolverine, with Bendis planting here many of the ideas that would become full fledged events later on.

Avengers/New Avengers by Hickman - "Everything Dies" is the big idea of these two runs, and that includes the entire Multiverse. A new Avengers team is created to handle any threat imaginable, but that team truly only exists as cover. The real threat is covered in the New Avengers book, following the Illuminati as they try to prevent the end of all life everywhere, due to Earths slamming into and destroying each other in Incursions. By far the most epic the Avengers have ever felt, this is a run that redefines the Avengers and puts the heroes in a position where they can't win... so they have to figure out how to not lose.

[mk-wizard]

Big Hero 6 The Series: It could have been better

Hello, friends. Today, I will be analyzing a TV series based on a movie that I fell in love with for its colourful themes, deep plot, compelling characters, great CGI and memorable messages. Before I get into it, I want to take a moment to say that I have quit doing videos. They are too big of a pain in the petunia to make and I write better than I speak, so I will stick to writing essays, reviews and more. Anyway, onto the analysis.

All I can say about Big Hero 6 the series is that it had a great concept, it presented some great ideas and tried hard to be a cartoon of the times, but it could have and should have been a lot better. The show’s downfall all centers around trying too hard to be kid friendly which makes the shame sting all the more because Big Hero 6 was already kid friendly even with its dark themes, sharp edges and intelligent writing. If anything, even the brightest kid friendly cartoons (Steven Universe, She-Ra, etc.) had those things and actually benefitted from them. By needlessly trying too hard, character development got scrapped, the edges were all smoothed out, storytelling was subpar, the humour was too silly and the executive meddling in the end produced a dismal final season. However, I don’t want this analysis to be one lengthy negative rant about how awful the series was because in its defense, awful is an unfair word. It did have potential and ideas which are worth carrying over to a reboot that I hope will be done someday in the future. Also, we should root for a reboot because Big Hero 6 would not be the first story that needs it before striking gold. Just look at how many times Spider-Man was rebooted in film before MCU found the version that worked. Anyway, I will list all the things in Big Hero 6 that could have been better in my opinion;

1- Go easy on the laughs and be more generous with the action. - I love adding comedy to my own writing because I think a good sense of humour makes everything better, but Big Hero 6 is not a stand up comedy routine. It is a superhero story where we expect action, suspense and life or death situations that are to be taken seriously first. The comedy should be for relief and with the right timing. Also, the chibi cutscenes and having characters act like fools aren’t funny. Ren and Stimpy are the exception not the standard and their way of making you laugh doesn’t fit an action series. In a show as big as Big Hero 6, real life physics and danger matters.

2- Make the villains menacing and gritty. - I admit that after having a movie villain like Yokai who was the stuff of nightmares, it is going to be a challenging act to follow, but it was obvious that the writers were trying especially with some villains who could have easily gone into some dark relatable territory. For example, Mr. Sparkles (the gentleman in the photo above) embodies social media and Internet personalities. Right off the bat, you have a long list of things which embody the dark side of that like scams, fraud, using social media to dox or harass, driving people to suicide, online predators, the Internet personalities being very depressed people in real life, and much more horrifying things. When you stop and look at it, Mr. Sparkles even looks like the Joker which hints how dark and scary he could have been if the stops were removed. The same goes for enemies like Hardlight who embodies online gaming, Liv with cloning, Obake an amoral and insane scientist, and Trina and Noodle Burger Boy (more on him later) being evil robots. Globby especially should have been painted and written in much darker colours rather being played off for laughs because he has many parallels with Clay Face. The only two villains who I can say were supposed to be campy, charming and comical were Baron Von Steamer and Supersonic Sue because they were a satire of the Adam West style villains.

The rest of them needed to be dark and threatening including Mr. Sparkles. In fact, I would love a rebooted version of Mr. Sparkles who gives me the heebie-jeebies. Going back to Noodle Burger Boy, I must confess that I was actually excited when I heard that he was going to be the main villain of the final season because I thought he was going to fulfill his master’s final wish and as a reminder, Noodle Burger Boy was based on a super robot for military purposes.

It would have been fantastic if Noodle Burger Boy was upgraded into a full military war machine with a new threatening look. For that, I think all of the villains deserve to be rebooted and have their full potential unlocked for better or for worse.

3- A show about geniuses merits genius level art quality. - I am usually forgiving towards art styles, but in the case of Big Hero 6, the oversimplified style with minimal details and lack of textures did not suit the show. The characters blend in with the background which makes them look flat and the special effects were extremely dulled down. I also know for a fact that Disney can do a lot better than this because I saw how superbly Tangled the Series was drawn.

You can see and almost feel the difference in quality, the number of layers and level of detail between the two styles. I think there was no excuse Big Hero 6 was not done in the same style and at the same level if not better as Tangled.

3- Don’t dumb down or flanderize amazing characters. - I absolutely detest it when characters are flanderized because it makes them one dimensional and grating. For example, Go Go is tough as nails and extremely calm, but she is not cold or hesitant towards helping her friends. She doesn’t require very special episodes for us to know that. If anything, the movie version of Go Go reminded me a lot of Garnet in how she deconstructed the broody character. She isn’t cold or emotionless. Just calm and mature. Another good example was how Honey Lemon was rewritten to be overly positive to the point of toxicity, naïve and oblivious with a juvenile obsession with stickers. Then you have poor Fred who was rewritten to be an incompetent fool. The spark that makes Big Hero 6 shine is that they are a team of geniuses meaning they are all intelligent. Even Fred is genius in his own way just not a scientific one. He has a vivid imagination, he is resourceful and can get himself out of tight spots. Please, don’t turn characters into dummies especially if their intelligence is a part of them. It doesn’t make them better or funnier. It ruins them.

4- Tadashi needs closure and honour. - I am all for Hiro making peace with the loss of his brother, but Tadashi is to the Big Hero 6 team what Uncle Ben was to Spider-Man. His loss was the catalyst if not the reason. He should never be forgotten. Moreover, there was never any true closure to him especially with the possibility that he may still be alive up in the air. After all, like Callaghan, his body was never found and it turned out that Callaghan was still alive.

With that said, who is to say that Tadashi was not secretly still alive and just hiding or being hidden? This is something that Disney really needed to clear up if not for the fans, then at least as a service to such an important character. Never just forget about them.

5- The format can only be episodic with a deep plots, continuity and character development. - Random episodes with a mere monster of the day is an outdated format which doesn’t fit Big Hero 6′s modern and bright setting. In seasons 1 and 2, when the episodes were plot heavy with character development, the series shined brightest. It also helped move the story along, but with the final season, plot was removed, closure was abandoned or poorly written if any was given, and characters were disallowed from growing. A good example at how plot and character development could have made this series and its characters better was the relationship between Hiro and Megan. Would it have truly survived or would they have broken up?

Would Richardson Mole have eventually lost interest in his obsession with besting and bullying Fred or would his obsession consume him compelling him to become a super villain? I do see quite a few similarities between Mole and Reverse Flash.

Then you have Karmi who is in my opinion, the biggest wild card of the bunch. She was intentionally introduced as an arrogant, prickly and unlikable yet complex character who rivaled Hiro bitterly.

Yet had a huge crush on his alter ego and as time went on, started to grow up and even form a friendship with Hiro. What would have happened further down the road with her? Would she have become a super hero herself? Or maybe even another love interest for Hiro kind of like how Black Cat is for Spider-Man?

Is Obake really gone?

What does the future hold Diana (Liv’s clone), Liv herself or the Sycorax the genetics company?

Is Alistair Krei going to become an ally to Big Hero 6 or an antagonist? There is also the issue at how little we know about the other Big Hero 6 characters other than Fred, Hiro and Baymax. What are Honey Lemon, Wasabi and Go Go’s backstories? These questions matter and while not every mystery can be solved, leaving none of them solved is lazy writing.

6- Executives, kindly stay out of the writing and any other part of the creative process. - I’m sorry, execs, but there is no nice way to say it. History itself proves that every time executives got involved in the creative process of any media, it got worse not better. Leave the writing to the creative team and the execs should only handle the legal stuff. Please. We understand that TV is a business, but writing itself is not. It is an art which you just don’t have a talent for. Let the creative people do their thing with the freedom necessary and you do your thing, deal? Deal.

7- Focus on Hiro and Baymax. - The are the main characters so keep them at the heart of the series no matter what happens around them. That is all I can say.

And that sums up all the things that could have made Big Hero 6 the series better, but this is all just my opinion. What is yours?

PS: I am well aware that the Big Hero 6 series is being retconned because a new series called Baymax is in the works as well as the long awaited sequel to the first movie. I am looking forward to both with an open mind. PPS: I also am aware that some people liked this show the way it was including the art style and I am cool with that. An analysis for art that includes cartoons is never right or wrong. It is solely based on opinion. I may have thought this series could have been better, but there are people who make arguments that it could have been worse.