#new era merch is very bad quality

[tetrapaec]

The quality drop is actually insane. Can't find my non vip tit bag rn but II bag is a lot thicker, the print is prettier and it doesn't feel like it's going to fall apart at any second...

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Audrey Hepburn (My Fair Lady, Sabrina, Roman Holiday)—Growing up, Audrey Hepburn desperately wanting to be a professional ballerina, but she was starved during WWII and couldn't pursue her dream due to the effects of malnourishment. After she was cast in Roman Holiday, she skyrocketed to fame, and appeared in classics like My Fair Lady and Breakfast at Tiffany's. She's gorgeous, and mixes humor and class in all of her performances. After the majority of her acting career came to close, she became a UNICEF ambassador.

Jean Seberg (Breathless, Saint Joan)— Some of us watched À bout de souffle as a lil French undergrad and had the trajectory of our lives changed by Jean Seberg. She IS French new wave!! She is the moment!! She sadly had to work with a lot of shitty directors in her career but even so, she has this magnetic energy whenever she’s on screen. In her personal life, she was also very supportive of civil rights causes, and was even targeted/harassed by the FBI for financially supporting the Black Panther Party.

This is round 4 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Jean Seberg:

anyone who plays Joan of Arc is kind of hot by default tbh

she's gorgeous, she's cool, she has the original blond pixie cut

She donated a lot of her money to civil rights organizations such as the NAACP and the black panther party as well as Native American school groups, as a result of this the fbi ran a smear campaign against her and a surveillance campaign which is thought to have led to her suicide tragically.

idk if this is propaganda but the COINTELPRO and the FBI are widely blamed for her death. If the FBI was after her for supporting the Black Panther Party you know she was good

Audrey Hepburn:

"She may be a wispy, thin little thing, but when you see that girl, you know you're really in the presence of something. In that league there's only ever been Garbo, and the other Hepburn, and maybe Bergman. It's a rare quality, but boy, do you know when you've found it." - Billy Wilder

Raised money for the resistance in nazi occupied Hungary. Became a humanitarian after retiring. Two very sexy things to do!

where to begin......... i wont her so bad. i literally dont know what to say.

My dude. The big doe eyes, the cheekbones, the voice. The flawless way she carried herself. She was never in a movie where she wasn't drop dead gorgeous. Oh, also the fact she raised funds against the Nazis doing BALLET and she won the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her humanitarian work.

"It’s as if she dropped out of the sky into the ’50s, half wood-nymph, half princess, and then disappeared in her golden coach, wearing her glass slippers and leaving no footprints." - Molly Haskell

"All I want for Christmas is to make another movie with Audrey Hepburn." - Cary Grant

I know people nowadays are probably sick of seeing her with all the beauty and fashion merch around that depicts her and/or Marilyn Monroe but she is considered a classic Hollywood beauty for a reason. Ironically in her day she was more of the alternative beauty when compared to many of her contemporaries. She always came off with such elegance and grace, and she was so charming. Apparently she was a delight to work with considering how many of her co-stars had wonderful things to say about her. Outside of her beauty and acting ability she was immensely kind. She helped raise funds for the Dutch resistance during WWII by putting on underground dance performances as well as volunteering at hospitals and other small things to help the resistance. During her Hollywood career and later years she worked with UNICEF a lot. Just an all around beautiful person both inside and out.

No one could wear clothes in this era like she could. She was every major designer's favorite star and as such her films are time capsules of high fashion at the time. But beyond that, she had such an elegance in her screen presence that belied a broad range of ability. From a naive princess, to a confused widow, to a loving and mischievous daughter, she could play it all.

Look at that woman's neck. Don't you want to bite it?

[inkabelledesigns]

Hey, fellow Sonic fan here. I haven't partaken in the new Knuckles series, so I can't speak to its quality, but I can speak on knowing how that feels. It's really hard to be a fan these days.

Let me tell you something: I'm not as active as I used to be, but I got into Sonic because of Sonic 06. Yeah that's right, the game that's a 'cardinal sin' to enjoy was my introduction to this series and the reason I fell in love with it. My favorite Sonic games are all on the Wii and DS. That's my era of Sonic. I dealt with so much crap for liking Colors, Black Knight, Rush Adventure, and eventually Forces when that came out down the line. Forces was my breaking point after dealing with a lot of other fandom nonsense. I got so sick of people judging Forces before the game even came out that I actively stepped away from the fandom and stopped giving a darn about what other people thought about Sonic. Because yeah, there are a lot of people who are judgy about it, but for every one of those, there's someone out there who's chill. I will admit, I don't think Sonic Forces is a great game, but there's a lot of joy to be found in it for lots of different people, just like every other entry in the series. Sonic has something for everyone. And like heck am I gonna be judgemental of someone who has that as their favorite. We may have different tastes, but your taste is still valid even if I don't agree with it. It's when you go doing things that are dangerous to others and yourself that it becomes a problem. I am a professional when it comes to liking the stuff people hate, and it's not on purpose, it just kind of shakes out that way. And I'm here to tell you, it's okay to enjoy stuff other people don't enjoy, and it's okay to distance yourself from people if they try to make you feel bad about it.

If your favorite thing is a game others don't see the beauty in, good for you. How wonderful is it that you can see the beauty that others can't? If you love one of the comic series, good for you. If you have a Sonic show you love to death, good for you. If you love any of the movies and their spinoff media, good for you! If you're a merch enthusiast with favorite figures and plushies, good for you! Go LOVE something, and love it passionately! It doesn't matter what everyone else thinks, you are allowed to enjoy media however you like! And it does not make you a bad person, it does not make you someone with bad taste, it just means you love something. Like insert Ego's speech about critics from Ratatouille here, that is the vibe! If people are mean about it and don't approach you with good intentions, you are free to distance yourself from them. If you really want to, you can even mute and block them. Some people are not worth your time, and some people are worth having critical discussions and analysis with. You get to curate your fandom experience, you get to decide what you're willing to engage with, and you get to enjoy your media.

Believe me I get it, I've been so frustrated seeing a mess of things in the Bendy fandom lately, the arguments have been exhausting. But seeing your post today reminded me that sometimes, it's okay to step away and refresh. I had to do that for Sonic, and when I came back, I found myself with a very happy community in the comic dubbing space. I voice Rouge for Adrenaline Dubs, amongst other things, and I finally found people I vibe with through that. But besides that, not taking it all as seriously as I used to has been good for me. I still love Sonic, I still adore this series, but I'm also happier knowing that the people I surrounded myself with as a younger fan don't need to be the people I surround myself with forever, and that you can break out of toxic spheres and find people that are eager to connect with you over a common interest. Like I was in a toxic space with people who did not respect me or each other (and those are words I don't use lightly). I was so scared that if I left, I would have no one to enjoy fan stuff with, that I was not worth anyone's time to engage with. But I'm happy to say I was wrong. There are other people out there. The internet and social media can be great in how they bring us together, but a lot of people don't really think about who's listening when they talk, and that comes with pros and cons. Some people don't realize they're saying something that comes off as mean or judgy, and some don't care. As a wise friend once said, "don't attribute ill will to what is likely cluelessness." But if someone does have ill will, maybe they aren't worth your time.

I'm sending you many good vibes. I hope you get to find a space and people you vibe with, and I hope you have so much fun fandoming your way! Go out there and have a good time! Rooting for you all the way!

I debated making this post for a long time. Something's been eating at me for a while, and I couldn't figure out what until very recently.

So I haven't felt inspired to really work on my writing for weeks. The hate and anger being spewed toward the SCU in general, and the Knuckles series in particular, has really affected me more than I thought it did.

I came into the Sonic fandom by way of the movies. I love that universe, I love the characters, Knuckles being my favorite. My writing is primarily for the movieverse. That's what I'm comfortable with, and what interests me to really dig into.

Yes, I love game Knux. I've written some stuff for him, and that's great. He's fun to play with, too. But the SCU is where I 'live'.

I know the series is extremely polarizing. You either like it or hate it, and I get that it won't be everyone's cup of tea. I get that they did some things in it that were odd and didn't make much sense. I would have handled some things differently, too. It wasn't without its flaws.

But overall I found it a fun ride, and took it for what it was intended as - bonus content that likely won't have that much sway over anything upcoming in the movies. Not everyone will be able to see the show, after all, so they can't drop any major lore or additional stuff that's need to know for the rest of the verse.

I've seen more than one person claim that they hated the show so much they now hate the SCU in general. That Knuckles' portrayal was so different from what they were expecting, they're hurt and sad and angry about it. Totally get that. They feel betrayed. Understandable.

But what I'm feeling now is also a form of betrayal, because I felt accepted and welcomed into the Sonic fandom, and now that the SCU is viewed with such disgust and anger, moreso than before, I feel judged for enjoying it. I feel hurt and sad and angry that people are being so down on and dismissive of SCU Knux, a Knuckles I absolutely adore, simply because he's not being portrayed like he is in the games or other media.

Like someone came into a secret place I felt most safe and comfortable, took a look at something that made me happy, and sneered with a "You like that?"

I don't know where I'm going with this. I'm in no way policing what people can talk about, or saying they can't hate something I enjoy. I'm not saying they're not entitled to voice their opinion on something. They're as free to talk about it as I am.

But I'd be lying if I said this didn't bother me. More than I thought it would.

Maybe I'm being too thin-skinned, or over sensitive. Maybe I'm just sick of all the hate thrown around in general. Maybe I'm hoping that giving 'voice' to how I'm feeling will help me work through it and feel better.

All I know is that I'm feeling uncomfortable really engaging with a lot of the fandom right now, and it's making me really sad.

[groovesnjams]

“Beach House” by Carly Rae Jepsen

DV:

Seven years ago we covered every weird song Carly Jepsen released in the runup to E*MO*TION, and now we’re going to do it again. Because it’s Carly, sure, but also because The Loneliest Time seems set to be one of the year’s oddest releases. “Western Wind” came packaged with a consistent aesthetic, a clear buildup, promo budget: everything Carly usually doesn’t have. It suggested a plan, a future. “Beach House” drops now, and it’s over two months later - with no notice, days after an album announcement but not coordinated with that announcement in any way. It’s a bouncy song, it sounds like late summer, and it has to do with how Carly Rae Jepsen has dated creeps and frauds and serial killers, each described in the same jaunty way and each voiced by an uncredited male chorus. “Beach House” is profoundly strange in the same way as “Store” or “Everything He Needs”: it sounds nothing like anything Carly has done before, and also nothing like any song a nominally-pop artist in 2022 should release. "Beach House” has got more in common with Ethel Cain - subtly horrifying even as it exhilarates - than it does with anything attempting to hit a popular mood, much less hit the charts. Back in the E*MO*TION era, Carly sounded like she was constantly topping herself; if Dedicated was a disappointment, it’s because it often felt like it confined itself to refining or tweaking what she’d done in the years before: only a half-step forward. So far, this era is as if she’s forging new pathways through a forest, marking them out and remaking them in her image. As if each single is a new discovery. It’s not not confusing - but I couldn’t be more thrilled.

MG:

I’m significantly less thrilled with “Beach House” than DV. What felt whimsical and free from artifice a few years ago has now settled into a fairly predictable carousel of misdirects and mismanagement. A recent profile with Nylon magazine reveals "[s]he sent her publisher some 30 to 40 songs she was considering for the album, which she narrowed down from a hundred song ideas through a ‘mad, scientific process’ involving charts and voting systems.” I can’t put into words how frustrating I find that detail, especially with a song like “Beach House” as the ersatz prize for Carly’s listeners. Her catalog is saturated with pure crap, but in the past I was able to write that off as the auteur’s vision because it appeared like there was no label oversight, no big, bad A&R man telling her what the single was. What’s now clear is that there’s significant effort behind her song selection (and probably her singles, her album promotion, her tours, her merch -- all of which are woeful compared to the rest of the pop market) and we could hear more songs like “Western Wind” if we weren’t so subject to album curation via raffle and bingo.

Ostensibly, “Beach House” is meant to fit with “Western Wind” into a broader theme of “loneliness” for her upcoming album, The Loneliest Time. In the above interview, Carly talks of grief and distance, of lack and inability, and of craziness and she attributes all these qualities to the loneliness of lockdown during the pandemic. But little, if any, of that shows up in the formulaic quirkiness of “Beach House.” In this song she cavorts from Malibu to Canada, hooks up with so many men she loses count, and then complains “boys around the world/ I want to believe that/ when your chase a girl/ it’s not just hunting season.” This is not a song about loneliness, it’s a song about choice paralysis, about being sat in front of a buffet filled with things you don’t want to touch, much less put in your mouth. For what it’s worth, very little of “Western Wind” (which I still love) speaks to anything I recognize as loneliness, either.

All of this rankles me, but Carly is unbothered, explaining “I don’t want to have to feel like I am one thing, and I don’t want my album to feel that way, either. So I think I’ve shut off this idea of cohesiveness. I’m the thread.” Then call the album Carly Rae Jepsen.

[lesbiancarat]

Haha its fine! Im book anon for a reason so take all the time you need! Before I start, I wanna apologize for the possible asks you got about the merch and hybe in general. I didn't intend to cause stress and need to be careful bdjahdsj so slap me with a fish!

Onto the ask! But agreed, I mean before the big kpop boom we saw, this was very common. Build a decent fanbase and then move to Japan or China. (Of course sometimes you see INSTANT movement in other countries but that depends on the company and such but you know what I mean) but since we do have the more global kpop era, we may see more companies do America which isn't a bad thing. It makes sense buisness wise so they will jump on it after debut or something. Thus I don't see it a bad thing for kpop groups to promote in America because hey, if in Korea they do sell western artist music who also tour there, kpop groups can also do the same ya know?

Now onto the hybe comment, I will try not to speak too much on it so I will try to summarize. I think my theory is due with merch from their main artist, they think maybe it could work with svt which maybe could but svt has a different fanbase so throwing on random merch won't make fans really want to buy (not saying some won't which kudos to you! As a fan you are allowed to consume what you please except not be a bad apple about it) so thus like the infamous water bottles which was done for bts, they thought why not do it for svt because bts fans sold it out apparently for a 2nd wave of it being sold again. (Which to this day idk why someone in the hybe team thought this was smart. Like...this is just in bad taste imo) I do wanna agree that it appears that hybe doesn't seem to have a proper art team for svt because while sometimes wild, I do know for their main artist they do have thoughtful merch based around say an album concept I recall. Kf course they will make mistakes i.e. the water bottles. I do wish it can improve because even though it is capitalism, I think fans do want decent merch. We have seen interesting ideas like svt making their own magazine and selling it lol. Of course it is hard to please because some fans want subtle merch ideas while others don't mind the vibrant pastel colors we got or some want wild ideas like svt figurines or something. Overall I hope I didn't drag this too much as I just wanted to respond back to you, I agree with many points you said so yeah cx I say let's also wait as this is barely what, a year or even less of svt being under hybe properly. Especially when hybe had its rebranding and expanding so things are being changed, I know fans are worried about this which is valid but let's not panic just yet. Let's come back in a year to this and see what has improved and what hasn't. (OK but peldis sold the boys rings!? :o since when!? I haven't heard of this actually, when did this happen if I may ask?)

Oof yeah sadly with streaming, many view "oh you don't stream it means you aren't a fan" when isn't the case (which is why I personally don't like when certain companies also do "listening parties" which seems a bit ???) I do remember this popped up big in 2017 but many fans called it out so it quiet down a bit. Like we didn't see it so often where fans were causing problems over it so idk why this returned nor what the cause of it was.

But thank you!! It really was a nice closing chapter, I think when I have personal stuff settled I will try maybe get a new bunny? And oohh congrats on the album! (Note to hybe or pledis. Please make the us store a more common thing, it makes things so much easier! Am happy it was at your place quick so kudos to the us store. Oohh wonderful choices! I think for many fans anyone or heaven's cloud seems to be the popular picks? For me, I may have to say game boi or heaven's cloud as well! Those songs make me just so happy? Like game boy is just so creative with the way it was made. As a video game nerd, it is perfection. I could make an essay about this song lol and heaven's cloud is just...wow. I feel so at ease with the song, comfortable and soothed. Like you are on a cloud lol. Also that is totally fine! Rtl was a grower for me (I blame the mv, it didn't do the song jusitice) but it is a bop and can't stop humming the chorus at random moments. Overall a great summer album. Just imagine any of these songs performed live ndjansns

lol don't feel too bad about it! honestly they weren't that bad + i can always delete asks if i really don't want to answer them, i just always get a bit paranoid that things will get out of hand so i may end up getting more serious in those situations OTL

and yeah i agree! i don't think it's a bad thing for groups to promote in the US, as you said, it's similar to groups expanding their fanbase by promoting in china or Japan or other asian counties, it makes sense from a business standpoint and there's nothing wrong with promoting in different countries. i just wish that some kpop stans understood that western and/or global popularity is a bonus and not a requirement for success. while they do have a global appeal, at the end of the day kpop's main audience is korea, and groups that achieve popularity in Korea have already achieved what they set out to do. but there's unfortunately a decent chunk of international fans that prioritize western popularity over anything and can't fathom that a group can be successful without being popular in the US. or they just talk as if their groups western achievements are more valuable than their Korean ones and to me that starts to look like xenophobia... (sorry if I'm repeating anything i said before in regards to this, i feel like i am but I'm too lazy to go back and check OTL)

since you sent this ask hybe released the caratland merch which was actually really nice, and today they also announced that there will be birthday merch for cheol (and presumably all members from here on out). we don't know what the bday merch is yet but some carats are already a bit miffed that hybe is even thinking to capitalize off the boys' birthdays... i bring both of these up bc i feel like the caratland merch proves your point that hybe is capable of designing good and thoughtful merch, and honestly this does reassure me a bit. but on the other hand them trying to capitalize off the boys' birthdays also proves that they still don't fully understand carats wants and priorities as a fanbase. which, if the future of seventeens merch is gonna be quality merch with some shitty cash grabs in between, i can live with that. I'm not gonna like the shitty cash grabs and i think it would be in our best interest as a fandom to not go crazy buying those shitty cash grabs, because if we don't then hybe will hopefully stop wasting their time and put more effort into /quality/. but if we get quality merch for important events like concerts and fanmeetings, i can live with it. as you said too, it can take time for these things to change, and we should all recognize that. but at the same time merch specifically is market driven, so i don't think it's a bad thing if people like @ hybe on twt about any bad merch that comes out in order to drive that change dhfkfj

but also on a maybe more fun note in regards to the merch... with some carats being upset about the bday merch i was thinking about what hybe could do for merch instead that would fill the niche of being at intervals throughout the year that could still be limited time drops but that carats wouldn't be mad at them capitalizing on and then i was like duh! they could literally just make merch off of going seventeen! honestly I'm surprised they haven't yet. maybe not merch for every episode, but they could have a line of permanent gose merch w a basic logo or something and then release limited time merch themed around some of the more popular episodes at various points during the year. I'm actually kind of obsessed with this idea now and for once I'm like hybe/pledis please capitalize off of this!! dhfkgjg

they never actually sold them, but for seventeens 3rd anniversary, pledis planned to sell replicas of seventeens rings. after it was announced carats were understandably upset since the boys worked so hard for those. luckily pledis heard carats concerns and put out an apology and didn't manufacture them in the end. I'm glad that at least they listened to carats even though it would have been better if they had never considered the idea in the first place :(

oh yeah listening parties are definitely just another marketing technique to boost streams. i think like with a lot of marketing techniques, it just depends on the execution. imo if they're done well it can be a good way for fans to connect while listening to an artists music, which is mutually beneficial for the company, but i can totally see a situation where companies get greedy and push it too hard. i don't know anything about what happened with them back in the day, but if you're curious why SVT had listening parties leading up to your choice, they were set up by UMG, the American distributor that SVT worked with for this cb. in this case the listening parties weren't just for boosting streams, but also likely for UMG to gauge interest. SVT isn't officially signed to a US label yet, but UMG's data from the listening parties could be used to show US labels whether or not there's enough interest for them to be signed. which if that happens we'd almost definitely see a more permanent US shop!

ahh yes, once you're ready I'm sure it would be great to have another bunny companion 🥺

yes! heavens cloud and gam3 bo1 are both such feel good songs! my sister actually added heavens cloud to their Spotify after i made them listen to the album in the car dhfkf it's now one of 6 kpop songs they have saved (4 of which are SVT... my influence 💅 DHFJFH) I'm certain we'll see some of the songs from your choice at caratland this year, hopefully it's all of them but I'd especially like to see heavens cloud and wave 👀 I'm also still crossing my fingers for an i wish live performance bc i can't believe my favorite SVT b-side is one of the TWO tracks they haven't performed live not including the new album (the other one being network love, which i would also like to see live!)

[popculturebuffet]

Animaniacs: King Yakko Review (Comission by BlahDiddy)

Hello my beautiful technicolor rainbow! It’s time for Animaniacs, and while there is no balonga in my slacks there is one last christmas review for my friend to finish up, and after two visits to Acme Lab for the spinoff we’re finishing up with a look at Animaniacs proper.  Suprisingly for a show that stands so easily on it’s own it’s existance is entirely thanks to another show: Tiny Toon Adventures, which had largely the same staff, including ep and co-creator stephen speilberg and Todd Ruegger, who was brought aboard from A Pup Named Scooby Doo. Since TIny Toon was a colossal hit with tons of awards and merch, including some very good video games I wish Warner would find a way to re-release, I mean.. come on if disney can rerelease the disney afternoon games (If...not..for..switch), and LIon King and Aladdin games (If somehow FOR switch), then Warner, which has it’s own game stuido no less, can put together a collection of the good Tiny Toons games when the new show comes out soon. 

Point is it was a mass sucess and Warner Bros likes money, so they had Speilberg try to get Rutger to come up with another show for the two of them to do, something with name value. Rutger found his inpsiration when seeing the iconic warner water tower and taking some platypus characters, came up with our heroes and the rest is history.. well okay he retooled them from plataups’ to early looney tunes and other toons style characters minus the racisim of say bosko the tall ink kid but still, the rest after that is history. And the rest of this review is after the cut

The show was, and KINDA still is, a variety show: taking a page from looney tunes, as well as tex avery’s other work, the crew decided rather than just focus on the warners, to instead create a whole cast with various ensembles to work with so we got Pinky and the Brain, The Goodfeathers, Rita and Runt,  the Hip HIppos, Katie Kaboom, Chicken Boo, and my personal faviorite Slappy Squirrel.. and the bane of my existance, Buttons and Mindy.. or rather Mindy’s Mom. The kid did nothing wrong.  So naturally the first thing Animaniacs related I cover.. is an episode entirely breaking from format for one 20 something minute Warners cartoon. I do intend to do more animanics stuff in the future, so i’ll hopefully get a chance to talk about everyone, I just feel unlike with say house of mouse most people reading this probably know who they all are, and I can save any deep dives for if I cover the characters specifically. Spoilers: there’s probably never going to be a buttons and mindy deep dive unless someone tourtues me by paying for it. 

So with that out of the way, we can dive into the episode.. which I won’t be covering in my usual recap it point by point because the writers have freely admitted that’s not what Animaniacs is about. While some of i’ts SEGMENTS are more story based like Pinky and the Brain, Goodfeathers and Rita and Runt, most are just based on simple set ups to reams and reams of gags. And I love it. I grew up with this stuff not just Tiny Tunes and Animaniacs but the classic Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry and Droopy shorts. 

Their well timed, well executed feats of comedy and most have aged pretty well.. emphasis on MOST. I’m keenly aware why there are several gaps in the shorts for both Tom and Jerry and The Looney Tunes on HBO Max, including all of the Pepe LePew and Speedy Gonzalez shorts. Also all of Droopy is missing. 

My grumblin aside though, it is VERY NICE to have all the classic Warner and Tom and Jerry shorts at my fingertips and it was one of the biggest selling points of Max for me. Last year I gained an intrest in the old disney theatrical shorts, hence my various birthday specials, so I BADLY wanted to revisit the theatrical shorts I grew up with. And honestly.. Max is the best way to do that: their in crisp hd, in neat season collections (Though the Looney Tunes one is better sorted, tom and jerry’s seasons are just.. random smatterings of shorts across various eras), and most importantly EVERY SHORT they felt comfortable with putting up there is on there. Every. Single. One.  I make a big deal about this because Disney.. has only maybe 30-40 of their hundreds of shorts on there. Now lucky for me the vast majority are still on youtube and I get why some really arne’t suitable.. we probably don’t need the donald duck short where he prepares to shoot a penguin in the face or the Goofy short where his own reflection, the goofy equilvent of tyler durden I guess?, keeps saying “Hey Fat” to him. And yes BOTH of these actually happened. But.. there’s MANY shorts with no clear excuse why their absent like the triplets first apperance, gus’ only apperance, and one a friend told me about.. that time mickey built a robot to box a gorillia. Again not making this up, just wondering why you can’t restore the rest of these for plus. They’ve ADDED shorts ocasionally, but it still dosen’t make a whole lot of sense to just.. not have them all up there. and to not put them in some sorta collection for easier consumption but hey it’s Disney. They either full ass things or half ass it. There is no middle ground.  Point is Warner.. actually cares about their heritage in shorts and honors it and thus has everything avaliable in the best quality, so tha’ts nice.

My point after that detour is I really love this kind of humor, and now as an adult I can see the effort the timing, pacing and character chemistry these shorts had takes. And Rugger and co.. they got it. They got it down perfect. And this episode is a great show of that and just how they barely updated this format for the 90′s. But as I said it’s more about the jokes and basic setup, our heroes are slotted into x scenario and just left to run wild. It’s been the basic seutp for looney tunes, tom and jerry and all the gag based greats, and it works perfectly here. Sure there’s some setting and continuity with the warner lot, scratch n sniff, ralph, plotz and in the reboot Rita, but it’s mostly just our heroes go up against “X asshole” and it just works. 

And that’s.. entirley what this episode is. The short is an homage to the graucho marx film Duck Soup, which given the warners were based on the marx brothers that isn’t a huge suprise, a film like brian’s song I have not seen, but genuinely want to. The basic setup is the same: An underqualified womanizer, though since htis is Yakko it dosen’t get past hitting on his chancelor, played by hello nurse, constantly, which is still.. ewwwww... but clearly not the same thing, becomes king of a small nation and ends up at war with another country. There were spies and other stuff in the original short but that was left out to streamline things.  But this homage stands on it’s own fine: The basic plot is this: Yakko, due to being a distant relative and the last one alive, becomes king of the small happy and very musical, as the wonderful opening number shows, country of Anvilania, which makes anvils and why yes there is one MASSIVE anvil gag as a result at the end. Yakko says he’ll try his best and geninely tries to with the shenanigans you’d expect, including Dot not gettnig Polka Dot’s are a thing and instead taknig any mention of it as a sign to polka, Yakko again hitting on his colleague and wanting ot get a new anthem because the current one by “Perry Coma’ puts people to sleep. Honeslty that gag didn’t do it for me: Partly because I genuinely know next to nothing about Como and he’s far past my generation.. and because despite this, SCTV did a MUCH better Perry Como gag over a decade before this episode that while still left me baffled as to why anyone cared about mocking him, was 80 times funnier and felt far less like you needed to know who he was to be funny. 

That being said it’s one of only three running gags, and jokes period that didn’t land for me. The other ones being the hello nurse bits, because it’s aged really badly to have Yakko harass one of his employees and his age is hte only thing that keeps it from scuttling the episode as he’s just 13 or 14. Maybe 15. 

So SO glad I now have that on hand whenever i need it. The other being the “Your highness” joke as it just.. dosen’t make much sense and isn’t very funny. But that’s it: a refrence i specfically don’t get and I doubt most of you will, and if you do fine we all have our frames of refrences, a joke that’s dated very poorly, and one that just.. didn’t land. And even then the Perry Coma thing’s third use to knock out the opposing army DID work for me as did the VERY clever joke of “Sire” “Maybe later”, so even the weaker bits still had some legs.  But getting back to what little plot there is the king of the rival country, upon hearing this, assumes he can easily intimidate a child into giving him the throne and goes to a royal reception. Instead, as you’d expect, the Warners mistake him for a party clown, show him no respect and fail to take his delcration of war seriously, and while in a REALLY great gag, and the reason i’m not doing a strict summary is 90% of the review would be me saying something to that effect, Yakkos’ call to action for his troops ends up having them all run off in fear, the Warners take out the army as noted above and then in one of the most GLORIOUS climaxes in the series history...

 In which the Warners give the bad guy “all the anvils” as he requested. I sadly coulnd’t find a clip of it but seek it out if you got hulu, my words can’t do it justice as they hit him with anvil after anvil in increasingly clever and insane ways till the guy finally gives up and it .. is glorious.  Other highlights not already mentioned include: The opening song, the bad guy dictator from the other nation not being able to hear because of his helmet and his attendee having to lift it, leading to Yakko taking off his helmet just to end the “what’ running gag, Yakko’s bit explaning his distant relation and more.  So yeah not a ton to say on this one. It’s a very good, very funny episode but also very typical of a warner cartoon in structure, just stretched over 22 or so minutes. As I said with few exceptions the jokes work, the anmation is crisp as always, and the climax is one of the series best. A crisp, quick watch and a nice quick review after a week of with some really tough ones behind me and ahead of me and a month of rather large ones a few weeks out. So yeah if you like animaniacs, even ifyou’ve seen this one worth a watch, if you have any more animaniacs you’d like me to take a look at feel free to comment or comission and until the next rainbow..

[mister-lady]

Logan

L - Language - what’s their love language? what’s yours?:

I feel like his love language would be words of affirmation or quality time, something along those lines. My love languages are very strongly physical touch and quality time jvkfkdjgkd

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O - Online - what is your f/o’s social media presence like, or what would it be like if they had internet in their world/era?:

He probably wouldn't post a crazy amount, maybe the occasional picture of himself because having confidence never hurt!

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G - Gush! talk about how much you love them 💜 : oh man,,, we're havin many blasts to the past now skfmgksjfnskark. Oh gosh i- where to start??? I kid you not when I very first discovered sanders sides after watching a few episodes and getting a general idea of what Logan's character was about I new right then and there that I would probably catch feelings for him and boy was in right aiskfovjfkdkgjd he was probably one of the first fictional characters that I fell super hard for, cause some I'll catch feelings for but eventually move away from the fandom and thats that, but when i got into Sanders sides when i did slightly fade from it anytime a new episode came out i was instantly brought back and especially since i created this blog i havent dipped out yet mvkfkdjgmr. I completely love him with every last bit of me it's really nice how he's calm a majority of the time and is normally the problem solver in the episodes and he wears a necktie constantly thats verie dumb but in a nice way and I wanna listen to him go on tangents about things he likes for the next hours liek,, I kid you not just to prove how gay and dumb I was (and still am of cours) the only reason I started reading the sherlock books was because Logan talked about it several times and it was the reason that I got into the BBC sherlock series on netflix like i cant explain the things he's done for me but it's been a lot and it's probably partly a reason why I kept drawing cause I was never crazy over it in the first place, I started it because I wanted to draw my favorite characters and I got so many cringey drawings of Sanders sides and Logan and I love it and dare I say even pushed me towards writing poems a bit frick I just,, so very gay and he's inspired me to do do much like its been... what.,,, 3 years ago??? 3 years of being an idiot over Logan and I regret absolutely none of it, the first merch of the series I got was a necklace with Logan's symbol on it and I've technically broken and fixed it twice which were very upsetting and I'd wear it more if I wasnt afriad of doin so again but it's still nice to look at and I really love him so much and I wanna hold him and just shower him in affection he needs it so much I wanna tell him puns and wear onesies with him and softly cuddle and read togryher

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A - Art - do they draw or paint? what about any other kind of art? what’s their favorite style/subject/another artist who inspires them?

Well, you already know he writes poems, and I feel like he's dabbled around in writing a little bit as well. Anything wordy I suppose. Hmm,, I'm not sure if I could pick just one particular thing that inspires him, tho he probably uses nature or experiences a lot for it

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N - Nostalgia - what’s your f/o’s favorite memory?

I suppose any main milestone like breaking a bad habit or achieving something that was really troubling! Anything that's a step closer to pursuing something to enjoy

[rantheon]

hypmic: thoughts

as of 25/3/2020 (i have not updated this since then but my feelings are roughly still the same)

might as well get this out of the way since matenrou’s album is out. half to prepare for the 2nd drb, half to organize my thoughts from 1.5 years in the making

that said, i talk about everything that comes to mind so this is just gonna be a dump of random thoughts :>

no it’s really long

aight so

the main part of hypmic is the music, which is pretty good, all things considering. each division has their own style of music, and each character, their style of rapping. this makes for some really fun and sick combos during the rap battles

i’m really floored by the seiyuus, they’re really trying hard and doing a great job

it’s also really nice that they bring in different composers? and no two songs sound too much alike or similar? it’s just a lot of effort put into the music and i’m all for it

hoodstar is my fav all-stars song. it’s so funky and fun? i could listen to it forever

ngl survival of the illest is a close second. i was not expecting to like it so much

plot… exists. that’s really all i can say about it-

listen. i’ll give them A for effort. i appreciate what they’re trying to do, continuing a linear storyline through the drama tracks and revealing bits of backstory in the manga. TDD era was lit af and the whole chuuoku endgoal + all the character interactions and revelations is pretty interesting

it’s just… predictable? like, very predictable? so much that it gets boring and old really quick? at least throw us a curveball, kr

there’s also the issue about how canon stuff are in exclusive (limited) drama tracks that can be difficult to get but that’s just Marketing so whatever, let’s move on

maybe they’ll drop some extra lore in the arb game, we’ll see

oh right, alternate rap battle

pretty cool game i guess? i was really only interested to try out the rhythm game, which i did, and it kinda... sucks. or well, it’s not bad but it’s not a contender against games like cytus, lanota, voez, etc. the beatmap’s a bit off and weird? i’ll just SS each song before i quit ahaha

but if you’re interested in more hypmic boys.png & a more casual rhythm game then go for it

here’s a (kind of) hot take: there’s so much content released that it all feels. saturated

i do love and appreciate the new content! but it’s just... a lot

i mean, you got new albums, manga, hypmic radio, stage plays, the arb game, the anime that’s supposedly out this year- and all of this within the span of about a year? it kinda feels like they’re riding on the popularity to just. try everything

good for them though, more Marketing strategies

mad respect to anyone who managed to stay sane for the past 6 months

i mean it’s not necessary to keep up with everything but with how active the fandom is, it can feel pressuring. especially when everyone’s screaming or yelling about angst or whatever

on that note, hot take #2: the fandom is intense. but not so much in a bad bad? it really depends which circle you step into and most of the ones i’ve seen have people that are super kind and lovely!

but it’s mainly intense and loud, it’s a slight tinge of entitlement going around in some circles, most if not all are very vocal about crying and everyone’s just screaming

but hey, the amount (and quality) of fanart and translation content etc is amazing & i always give my appreciation and love to them

with that stuff out of the way, hmm i’ll just ramble about something

like divisions

buster bros!!! is cute. good bro vibes. it’s also really lovely to read about how jiro and saburo didn’t like ichiro in the beginning, and now they’re willing to do anything for him? good stuff. they also have really good songs and i have equal love for all of them, but ‘ore ga ichiro’ remains forever undefeated with ‘requiem’ right behind. saburo’s probably my fav bc i can’t say no to smartass lil shits :’D

i will give my everything to mad trigger crew. the angry yakuza sison, the megane cop in leather and the military dork who loves to cook can have my soul right now. they fit my ideal types so well :’D not a big fan of their songs except ‘dead pools’ but i love listening to them on the drama tracks

hard to describe into words how i feel about fling posse. i love them very much, their character tropes are up my alley (i have a soft spot for gremlins, liars and gamblers) and nothing can ever top stella. but it’s kinda difficult to root for them? kinda? they’re the mystery division, you know? tied together with secrets and hidden pasts. even when i first got into hypmic, i wondered how they even got together lol. they do have cute moments though! and i’m eagerly waiting for them to open up to each other.

...ramuda ;;;;;

matenrou was my first. i got into hypmic bc of division battle anthem and the group with a gray wolf as their insignia. despite everything, they’re so… chill. jakurai has such a calming voice, doppo and hifumi yelling in the background of songs is so iconic, and they just want to have a good time. being giddy over assassin jakurai is just a perk, i swear-

dotsuitare hompo has nice songs. osaka dreamin’ night was catchy and tragic transistor was buckets of fun. but as a group, i don’t really… feel anything for them. they give me vibes of a plot device to progress the story along (sasara for samatoki, rei for BB/chuuoku) and there’s not much for me to get attached to. maybe in time! roshio having stage fright is really endearing, and sasara has the prettiest fanart ngl

i love bad ass temple!! if i wasn’t already into hypmic, this is the division that would make me dive in. i love love funky sounds, i’m really into their solos, and their dynamic? the “tired exasperated uncle taking care of two brats” vibes? kukou’s fangs? jyushi’s extra-ness? hitoya’s weird outfit? their entire drama track?? amanda?? i just love them

these next ones probably doesn’t count lol but i’ll say it anyway: i love the dirty dawg. ‘TDD legend’ remains to be one of my my go-to comfort songs. the drama between the four is both funny and sad, though it makes sense why they split up. at least they have their own groups now

not really into mad comic dialogue but i think they’re neat! they have nice fanart too

everyone hates chuuoku for ruining lives and that’s valid but. i want to know more about them? they’re obviously the Big Bad but seeing things from their perspective would be really interesting. and i’m genuinely curious about how chuuoku works: the inner workings of the district, how they handle giving out permits, the standard of living beyond the wall & for the women who chose not to, the clone factory

putting aside the music and plot, hypmic has the weirdest merch?? in what other fandom can you get a hypmic-themed bathtub, toothbrush, underwear, face masks and hotel rooms?

✧:･ﾟ*~ only in hypmic ~*:･ﾟ✧

[keons]

hi so I watched the 40 minute interview with Andrew Donoho where he talks about working with Tøp and his behind the scenes look into what the music videos he’s collaborated on were about, the video has bad audio quality so I transcribed the most important parts (to me) in the read more below to the best of my ability. There are some very interesting points that I think need to be brought to attention but I’m not gonna make y’all watch a whole long episode to discuss it so here is a list of my highlights of the interview: the really important points are in bold! 🤠

1. Part of the inspiration for the “seamless” transitions in The Hype mv where Tyler walks from the living room to the garage was from a gushers commercial that Tyler saw that did similar transitions. He liked that every time something was “handed off” the scene changed.

2. There are references/secrets about the Trench world in The Hype mv that we have missed. The paintings in the living room are significant somehow to the trenchverse.

3. It is in fact a strawberry kiwi capri sun not just a strawberry one!

4. In the original Hype mv there was going to be different scenes where instead of being inside a world in Tyler’s chest, there were going to be wardrobes inside the house that would open up into a different era/album cycle. The boys would be inside and wearing the merch from those eras in each wardrobe world. Andrew and Tyler agreed it was a little too “on the nose” because they like to speak through allegory and metaphors so the music videos are easier to put your own interpretation on.

5. Originally there were gonna build a house and blow it up instead of using after effects in post.

6. Andrew describes The Hype mv in a sentence: “We (the band, the fans) have something very special but it could all go away”

7. The inspiration for the flannel was Tyler’s idea. They asked what’s the most cliche rockband clothing and flannel was decided. They wanted to poke fun at the “I’m in a rockband” look and that’s where the multiple layers of unmatching flannel came from.

8. There’s a directors cut of Heathens that Andrew is never allowed to show, that’s a whole video not connected to any of the Suicide Squad stuff. :O!!

9. Tyler’s inspiration for the Heathens mv was about Johnny Cash when Johnny performed for prison inmates because he believed in redemption for them. Tyler is supposed to be portrayed as the “unreliable narrator” and it’s supposed to be up in the air whether Josh is real or not in the mv and whether or not Tyler was really a prisoner or not.

10. When discussing music video ideas with the boys Andrew described Josh as “layed back” about things but has really good ideas that are big and adventurous and more open. While Tyler is very “lazer pointed structured ideas of where things need to go and what needs to happen”.

11. There is a 60 page dense “bible” of the entire world of Trench that is fleshed out that Tyler and Josh all created. I repeat there is a literal Dema book that Andrew has downloaded onto his computer about the world of Trench. Andrew said they could make 10 feature films out of all of the content in that book *******

12. It was Andrew’s idea to start off with a trilogy to introduce and show what needs to be said about the world of trench and dema. But there might be more later on.👀

13. “There was one story that Brandon Rike had written into this “bible” about a person trying to leave Dema, and this imagery of a flower.” (This later became Tyler’s story) -Andrew. Everyone say thank you to Mr. Rike for coming up with what became Tyler’s story.

14. “The Clancy story was really fun, we were trying to find a way to market Trench and really open up this world for the fans that wanted to know more that wasn’t Tyler’s story.” -Andrew. He then describes how he came up with the idea of Dema.org, he was inspired by the Halo 2 marketing when he was 15. Long story short, the Halo game producers hid hints to the trailers and secrets to the new Halo game in a false website that fronted as a honey selling company. ? And for 7 months, they would hide more secrets in this fake honey selling website that would lead to hints about the new video game. “I fell in love with the way that was marketed and we (Tyler and Andrew) thought it was a good way to let the fans know that three videos wasn’t enough to describe the world of Trench and that those videos weren’t just all there was to say about Trench.” -Andrew.

In conclusion: this is alot ™ to take in. Your thoughts are welcome in the replies!

[thegoodomensdumpster]

List of things Crowley does in the internet era

 - creates malware that make your screen freeze and play obnoxious music over and over  - makes all the "Nigerian Prince in need of money" emails - created chain emails - created Blingee  - is behind every new conspiracy theory ( especially proud of the reptilian one as he used a video of himself as an inspiration ) - always suggests new stupid challenges for teenagers like the tide pods things - pop up ads windows - angry Steam reviews - angry YouTube comments - makes good Yelp reviews for very bad places - bought domain names for many random things to prevent people from getting them for their businesses - edits Wikipedia articles to add tiny bits of misinformation that are very hard to notice - tone polices people on Twitter - is obviously the one who told Adobe to make the previous versions of their softwares unavailable for users who bought them - was the first one to suggest brand mascots should be on Twitter - Tumblr ( just Tumblr, that's all Crowley's fault, all of it ) - gives terrible advice on Quora and Yahoo - gives five stars to products that are of very bad quality - didn't create rickrolling but claims that he did - still uploads movies in ten parts of 7 minutes each on YouTube - starts arguments on FB - has an army of bots that is constantly saturating governements and administration website so users can't use them - hacks people's bank and Amazon accounts sometimes and with their money, he buys them tons of Garfield merch that he sends to their adress

[des-shinta]

Access Flash!  On Gridman and it’s new anime.

  So Tsuburaya Productions recently branched out into the realm of anime with this collaboration with Studio Trigger.  And for those who haven’t been following, it’s with a series you 90′s kids might recognize.

The name Tsuburaya should need no introduction if you’re in the Tokusatsu or giant monster(Kaiju) Fandoms, but for those unfamiliar; Eiji Tsuburaya is the special effects wizard responsible for all the effects in the original Godzilla.  A Life-long fan of scale models and recreating the world in realistic miniature, he is in many respects considered the Japanese Counterpart of Legendary filmmaker Ray Harryhausen.  In example of his amazing talent and attention to detail, he was consigned during world war Two to make propaganda films of the Japanese military winning in engagements across the pacific and the productions for the time were paid so much attention to detail that no-one at the time was able to tell that they were fakes. He got a lot of flack for that after the war ended, and was barred from filmmaking in Japan for several years.

His company, Tsuburaya Productions has carried that fortitude for effects and quality storytelling with it throughout the decades.  Since 1966, their primary product has been the “Ultra Series” Franchise, Primarily focused in The titular Ultraman of the entry, and their adventures.

The franchise focuses on benevolent Giants from the M78 Nebula (though some originate from elsewhere as there’s actually an Ultra-multiverse) who act as troubleshooters for random giant monster calamities; bonding to specified hosts (or on occasion take human form themselves) to conserve their own powers while away from their own homeland; allowing the chosen humans to utilize their powers to defend their home and what’s precious to them.  The downside of the Ultra’s is that in planetary environments they can only use their immense powers for approximately 3 Minutes before they need to rest, as their powers are garnered from light energy given off by stars, who’s rays aren’t intense enough to sustain them in-atmosphere.

The currently running series, Ultraman R/B is actually really good, and has a lot to say on the subject of caustic fans who miss the point of the merits of a series due to only caring about the action/spectacle of a fight and adherence to Tropes, and not understanding what a hero may actually be fighting For.  While that might initially read poorly to some people as it attacking fandom (as a certain other current toku series does every week)--and that not helped by words from the Head of Tsuburaya from before R/B debuted--it’s more focused in social commentary refuting the Idea that the genre is message-less nonsense, and wants people to actually put thought into what being a true “Ally of Justice” means; Doing the right thing.  Links to 3 Relevant twitter threads discussing this: 1.  2.  3. For the interested, R/B is currently being fansubbed by the group Color timer, as Tsuburaya has not had luck in getting it officially distributed as of yet.  Crunchyroll, who’d previously been getting the import library, has recently begun dropping Ultra series left-and-right in favor of other licenses, with the only ones remaining being ones they originally subbed. If you’d like some older Recommendations, Ultraseven (available from Shout Factory) is considered the best overall series, And has multiple sequels with the adventures of Seven’s Son Zero (trying to list all of Ultraman Zero’s appearances is ridiculous, as he’s mainly been the star of a long collection of movie’s), and then 2017′s Ultraman Geed (available on Crunchyroll, the movie for the series also from MCS fansubs), focused in turn on the Son/Clone of Zero’s Greatest enemy Ultraman Belial which then had Zero act as a secondary protagonist part of that series’ Ensemble. Tsuburaya however has been having something of a hard time the last several years.  The chinese Company Chaiyo, using falsified documents, laid claim to many of the showa-era (pre-1989) ultraman series and all Distribution rights to All of The related content of the franchise from Tsuburaya, preventing them from making money internationally while Chaiyo flexed those rights themselves to make them an immense sum of money.  The litigation and lawsuits basically bankrupted the company as Chaiyo argued under the technicality of having a proper authentication of their document from one of Tsuburaya’s sons that the agreement was a foregone conclusion; requiring Tsuburaya productions have an in-part buyout from company Namco Bandai to continue running.

This is why recent ultra Series (Ginga, Victory, X, Orb, Geed, R/B), have ended up being awash with collectibles; Bandai over-merchandises every thing they can get their hands on.  Previously the merch licenses resided with Takara/Tomy (transformers, zoids), and were a LOT more restrained as while Tsuburaya Pro Knew merchandising was important to the longevity of a series as an additional revenue source...the storytelling of the series would come first.  with series before this, most of the toyetic items came in the form of scale models and figures of both the title ultra’s, some roleplay items, and an assortment of assist vehicles and jets the normie humans would use in battle to support the main protagonist against the situations of the week. That monetary support however helped, and in a newer lawsuit Tsuburaya won through and prevented Chaiyo from screwing with the company again...however, the legal distribution rights for their own assets are still in legal limbo, as the latest case only allowed them to claim Dominance over north-American distribution.  which while still a significant market is still small in comparison to the rest of the world; especially with the stigma these live-actions show have in the US. to the non-converted. Really, I think that’s part of the reason why they ended up pushing a new entry of a series that Chaiyo had NOT previously been able to touch at all.

Denkou Choujin (Lightning superman, though the title is localized as Hyper Agent) Gridman was a 39-episode Tokusatsu series that ran in 1993, and more recently was imported and subtitled to completion by the US Premium channel TOKU.

It followed the adventures of Naoto Sho and his friends Yuka and Ippei as they, after encountering the titular Gridman inside of a video game they’d been developing on a kitbash computer (Junk), must assist him in defending the computer realm from the attacks of Khan Digifer (subtitles writing it as ‘Digipher’).

Yes, we know he looks like the shredder from TMNT. Both Gridman and Khan originate from the “Hyper world”, a realm comparable to cyberspace where all entities exist as living data (*cough*Digimon*Cough*), and thus can manipulate less complex data to their own ends.  With Khan’s goal being the destruction/conquest of the computer world, which would allow him to transcend digital limitations and begin his conquest of the real world, ala Code Lyoko XANA means of devastating anything electrically powered which could lead to bad ends for those involved (like, say, screwing with a nuclear power plants regulation systems).

PLOT.  POINT.

Khan’s efforts are Assisted by Takeshi Todo, A classmate of Naoto and Co who is an introverted social outcast and Victim of bullying; though Khan’s manipulations have turned him into a selfish, petty man.  Khan uses him to create the series’ monsters-of-the-week by Takeshi programming them into a homebrew game similar to the one Naoto found Gridman in, with Khan’s incentive for doing so being to allow Takeshi some catharsis from the awful things that have happened to him in his life, oblivious/not caring towards the entities deeper machinations as making homebrew monsters in his game was how he’d previously endeavored to vent his frustrations in a healthy manner...that Khan has just taken to the opposite extreme.  Though the show makes clear that Takeshi is fully an Indoctrinated thrall of Khan’s power to even allow him those indulgences so he can’t see the outstretched carrot is naught but a Stick.

To Fight Khan’s attacks, Naoto uses the transformation trinket the “Accessor” brace to Digitize himself and fuse with Gridman, With the transformation cry “ACCESS FLASH!” allowing his body to be turned to data and fuse with Gridman to upgrade his capabilities.  Yuka and Ippei likewise assisting them with the programming and transmission of weapons and vehicles/robots that add additional arsenal to Gridman’s counterattacks.

And unlike Previous tsuburaya productions, Gridman was the first to have these assist robots...actually be able to combine with the core hero.

Now, you 90′s kids in the audience might be thinking, “Hey, this all looks familiar” And you’re right.  Because the series got imported in 1994.

In response to the rise of Power Rangers Adapting the Japanese super sentai series, there was in turn an attempt to make bank on...basically doing the same thing.

Saban made SEVERAL adaptations of other tokusatsu series from toei’s library; Making VR Troopers and Beetleborgs from Toei’s “Metal heroes’ franchise”, and Saban’s masked rider from the Kamen Rider series “Black RX”.  They did not do as well as Power Rangers, primarily because they repeated many of the same mistakes MMPR made but grew out of, and lacked quality storytelling to really keep people invested. While VR Troopers and Beetleborgs To this Day have their merits and defenders...well, the only thing Worse than Saban’s Masked Rider that Saban has made, is Power Rangers (Super)Megaforce...Though some argue That Samurai, Dino Charge and Ninja Steel are very close as well. But THAT is where We Find DIC in all this.

DIC entertainment Was a Company active in the late 80′s, 90′s and 2000′s most known now-a-days for being the original distributors for Sailor moon and it’s awful original Dub, and producers for Inspector Gadget, The Real Ghostbusters,  the 90′s Sonic Cartoons, the 90′s Carmen Sandiago series, and Alienators: Evolution Continues. Those were their “good” Productions, most of the rest of their library was schlock and terrible both at the time and looked back on in hindsight.

Stargate fans do Not talk about Stargate Infinity.

But in the Power Rangers craze, DIC made two contributions to this in an attempt to cash in on the Hype. The first...is the infamously awful tattooed Teenage alien Fighters from Beverly Hills.

A Transparent ripoff if there ever was one, while many of the PR-clones of the era are accused of being ripoffs, ALL of them with exception with this show ultimately did their own things.  TTAFfBH though?  No.  On every level it’s an awful, obvious knockoff, and only True Power Rangers Ripoff. Not-so for the series we (in the round-about way I’ve taken) should actually be discussing:

Yeah...Ironically, that name was decided on to avoid hedging in on Power Ranger’s naming conventions, SSSS was originally going to be imported as PowerBoy. No, seriously.  it ended up doing the opposite, but the intention was to have no relation.

The series...actually did a lot of things right.  Co-Produced with Tsuburaya, SSSS was pretty much a direct adaptation, with the plots of the week being adjusted to an Americanized setting. culture and subplots...just with the standard campiness expected of a DIC production...and even less of a budget than Power Rangers at the time had.

A Teenage basement band calling themselves Team Samurai (though why they called themselves that escapes me, I’ve yet to get the show on DVD so am working on memories from 1994/1995 and clips on youtube), end up involved in stopping that attacks of cyberspace monsters after their lead guitarist Sam Collins (Played by Matthew Lawrence, later the sidekick to Will Friedle when he would join the cast of Boy Meets World) somehow gets zapped into his computer and endowed with the powers of Gridman’s counterpart Servo, who then take up the duty of stopping the machinations of the Escaped military AI program KiloKahn (voiced by the ever-awesome Tim Curry.  Seriously) and his Human servant Malcom Frink (basically just takeshi’s character again) as their various attacks upon any devices connected to electricity can end-up having real-world consequences...Just as they did in the original gridman series. Astoundingly, SSSS ran Longer than Gridman did, totaling in at 53 episodes; padded out with creative re-cutting of battle-footage alongside getting some test footage for a Gridman sequel that...unfortunately never got made.  It was rumored that had SSSS done better a full sequel Starring a character named Gridman Sigma would’ve been greenlit to provide more footage and story for adaptation...but sadly by 1995 and the show’s end, much of the PR Ameri-toku craze had ended, and Gridman/SSSS became a backburner to history. ...at least, until 2015

Co-Produced by Studio Trigger,  Denkou Choujin Gridman: boys invent great hero was an animated short for the japan Animator expo.  taking place 22 years after the original series (and the opening several minutes acting as a recap of it), Former villain Takeshi Todo seeks his own redemption for his past actions when Khan (or potentially a successor) re-emerges with more power; Takeshi taking the form of the blue-bodied Gridman Sigma to engage in battle with Digital kaiju that now appear to be manifesting within the real world with intentions to rewrite reality. Again, PLOT POINT. ...which thus leaves us with 2018′s recently released SSSS Gridman.

High school Freshman Yuta Hibiki awakens one Day Sans his memories, and begins to see illusions of Giant monsters in the skyline.  Finding Gridman within a Junk computer at his friend Rikka’s Home, he sets out to uncover the mystery of his lost memories, why these monsters are appearing, and what it means for his world as the kaiju begin emerging into the real world, forcing him to fight in the real world as the new Gridman. The series is written by Keiichi Hasegawa, who over the years has written more content for  Tsuburaya than any other person; Writing on Utlraman Tiga, Dyna, Gaia, Cosmos, Nexus, Mebius, Ultraseven X, and Most of the Ultraman zero content. He has also worked on Kamen Rider’s W, Fourze and Drive, The Big O, and Zoids Chaotic Century and new Century Zero. the series is being directed by Akira amemiya, previous on the series inferno Cop Already, if you’re aware of the backstory of Gridman, a few things pop out at you.  First off:

The Kaiju apperaing as phantoms before they fully emerging intro reality?  While also echoing enemies in Digimon and Rockman.exe, This is the same thing that was showcased in the ‘boys invent great hero’ short and was the endgame the heroes were trying to stop in the original series.  Thus, the same inference: Khan’s successor--

 --(called  Alexis・Kerib) has succeeded in transcending the limitations of digital existence and now is seeking to conquer and Destroy the real world.

Kerib has set himself up as a benevolent ‘genie’ to the social outcast and kaiju Fangirl Akane Shinjo, and is then proceeding to do the same thing Khan himself did with Takeshi; use her and her social issues to create his minions and monsters, realize them in the real world and devastate it while incidentally dealing with her real-life antagonists. This all conveyed through Studio trigger’s excellent visual storytelling, when Akane heads home to find it empty, and her room’s floor populated with an insane amount of bagged garbage; something no-one with actual parents in their lives would let happen.  A pseudo-social outcast with no-one to turn to; no parents in their lives to give nurture and comfort, seeking companionship through the internet as a source for what can’t be found in real-life so they can be happy, only to be manipulated by a predator for the vulnerable?

All we’re missing is a marred-up desk and suicidal thoughts to make her a Yandere version of Chigusa “Atoli” Kusaka from .hack//G.U.  Still time to do that, too. I honestly feel like there’s a Lot more to say on this character and the nuances to her portrayal thus-far that makes her character and actions work in a far better light than those who endlessly try to excuse other utterly-irredeemable people who bear similarities in their backstory.  it’s clear she’s just lashing out and kerib--like Khan--creating an environment and unhinged mental state where she thinks any slight can be wished out of existence to make her empty life better.  And people lashing out?  They can be reasoned with, talked down and reformed.  Not-so with those who would, with clear thought turn others into victims and steal from them their own lives; those who are truly abusive in their conduct towards others for petty reasons or only received retaliation in response to their own awful conduct.  And yet the reverse is often shown to be true; the irredeemable given the chances they’d wasted before and the consequences of their actions ignored or handwaved to not be applicable, while people like Akane and Takeshi are left in the dark to suffer and be punished to start the cycle anew. However...this time there’s a twist to the kaiju attacks.

The people who died in the kaiju attacks...Die Retroactively.  Whatever Kerib is doing, it allows him and Akane to in limited way rewrite reality.  in the First/Second Episode, it’s revealed that The volleyball team at Hibiki’s high school were killed in the first attack, but it was noted when Hibiki and Rikka went to school the next day that not only was the school undamaged from the previous night’s attack, no-one remembered the girls that were on the team, or a team for the sport even existing. The best way I can describe the phenomena, since Kerib is appearing to manipulate the world as if it were one gigantic computer, is The kaiju metaphorically clicked on the folder containing all information on the volleyball team, and dragged it to the recycling bin; deleting their existence as the team, and killing off the girls part of it at the point the team would’ve been formed.

And even as hibiki is the newest person to take on the identity of Gridman--

--The battles at best are ones that will only prevent more people from Dying. As we’re only two episodes into the series right now, it’s unknown if any other bystanders caught in the crossfire are also being erased, or if it’s only focused on the targets Akane points out.  We just don’t know at this point. What we do know is this series is not supposed to have a direct connection to the original, but because so much of SSSS Gridman is based upon the worst case scenario from the original, that could mean anything at this point; even the posibility that reality itself has been rewritten and is the cause of hibiki’s amnesia.

As a Studio trigger anime series though, there are some things that fans have been pointing out. First off, the names of the volleyball team victims are an amusing collection of homages: Tonkawa  Sakiru > Tonka and Cy-kill  Toiko  > ToyCo  Kena-chan >  Kenner Doi Hako  > Toybox (Hako means box) Takara Nana > TAKARA and Seven (Nana means seven)  Cy-Kill was a Gobot from Tonka’s gobots series that was absorbed by Takara and transformers respectively.  ToyCo is a toys and collectibles retailer, as Was Toybox.  Kenner/Playmates was the US toy liscenser for SSSS toyline in the 90′s, and Takara...well, is Takara. the animation of course, is full-on Expected studio Trigger gar in it’s homages as well

Feel the Obari Pose! Expect the Obari Pose! Love the Obari Pose! “you know, when they do that, it makes it look as if they have a giant Di-” IGNORE THE OBARI POSE!   

but the well goes far deeper, my friends.

This is SSSSGridman’s character designer.  Just...look at that desk.  I spot 5 power ranger/super sentai mechs (Kyoryujin/DC megazord hidden on the top right), gaogaigar, The box for Brave exkaiser, Gurren Lagann, a 3rd-party Optimus Primal, and Shattered Glass Megatron. that last one is kind of important, as the director, Akira amemiya, is a Huge fan of shattered glass transformers.

Shattered glass, for those not in the know, is basically the transformers mirror universe originally created for the transformers convention botcon.  it’s a Universe where the autobots are the bad guys and Decepticons the good guys. For more info, I will leave a link to Chris McFeely’s transformers: the basics video on the subject. Watch him, it’s good stuff. Now why is that relevant? Every character in this show is based on a transformers design or color-scheme.  Most Significantly those from shattered glass. Akane?  Shattered glass Optimus Prime

Hibiki, Rikka, and Sho (who’s knowledgable on kaiju and Ultra series tropes) are cliffjumper (Classics-verse autobot who jumped into shatted glass), SG Sideswipe, and SG megatron.

The autobot Matrix

SG Starscream and Soundwave/ravage.

aaand just a few more for you all.

These four are based on the movie-verse Dinobots, and are gridman’s support programs turned into human beings.  the one on the top left whose name is Samurai Calibur (yes seriously) turns into Gridman’s sword the Gridman calibur.  The other three turn into the support mechs showcased below. oh, and for the checkback?   Sakiru Tonkawa from the volleyball team:

But it doesn’t end there.

The jet booster and drill cannon Combinations:

yes, seriously. The heavy arms configuration as well is a common practice seen with partial-combiner robo’s as well, particularly with those lacking certain combination limbs, particularly those part of the scramble city play gimmick these robot configurations are also homage-ing with the limbs and legs being swap-able.  And as all the support arms are based on Dinobots:

“Me grimlock have Anchor arms:  now am Jerk and everybody loves me!”

So yeah, to wrap things up, SSSS Gridman is Tsuburaya’s revival of a 90′s gem in an era where a lot of similarly-themed series exist and have done what it has since this series ( Digimon, .hack, Rockman.exe, Code Lyoko just to name a few), but is bringing it back with a fresh transformers-toned coat of paint for a new generation and original storytelling based on the worst-case scenario of the original series, and thus-far it is absolutely glorious, and I hope is able to follow through ‘cause I just generally love series in this little subgenre.

And I will leave you with 3 things:  First and second, The Anime’s opening mashed up with Gridman and SSSS openings (link and Link) and lastly an Image of hibiki’s English VA roleplaying with the original series’ toy sword while recording his voiceover:

SSSS Gridman is available from Funimation.

[scratchface]

Datastorm prompt: earrings. I'm interested to see what you do with this (also it was the first thing that came to mind after remembering literally all the other words for prompts you've already done)

There’s a time skip of undisclosed length in the middle of this one.

In the wake of the Tower, the Knights of Hanoi had disbanded with a whimper as the general public gradually learned what had happened. In the end, what was once a massive organization of over a thousand people burst open at the seams and spilt its contents all over internet. There were investigations of course; journalists hunting down the wayward former members for interviews and news pieces. Late-night talk show hosts spoke mutinously about the failure of the government and Sol Technologies to foresee the threat, and for their negligence in regard to the public’s safety. A terrorist organization had almost weaponized a VR game to annihilate all network-connected devices, and in turn almost brought a fatal and unprecedented end to the technological era. 

Even overlooking the economic calamity the Tower would have wrought, and the ramifications of such a modern famine on Japan’s tech-based markets, the initial fallout would have entailed the failing of planes, cars, traffic lights, banks, power grids, archives, and so much more. 

The entire country, and many others, seethed. And then, in almost no time at all, they got over it. There were exposés of former Knights, all talking about their experiences in what had almost been the most dangerous terrorist organization in history, and even more on the duelists that rose to stand against them, and then most people let it go.

Most, not all. Because with the terror, the relief, and the horror came fascination. Some were completely entranced by what Hanoi had dared to attempt, and hailed its leader as a fallen hero, an almost martyr that tried to free them from the constraints of their Wi-Fi enabled prisons.

And that was why Revolver had merchandise now. Such was the nature of capitalism. 

It didn’t matter to Yusaku. He didn’t care. And he certainly hadn’t spent the last three minutes staring through a store’s window at the lines of Revolver plushies, unable to walk away.

Except he had.

…They were cute plushies. 

Reluctantly, he stepped inside. The store was the typical VRAINS merch retailer, with posters and duel mats and all sorts of miscellaneous fannish nonsense, but there was a corner dedicated to the Knights of Hanoi, full of white coats and masks and Revolver. Not much compared to the three entire aisles and the whole wall the Playmaker paraphernalia filled, and yet Yusaku was drawn closer all the same. 

There was even a little display of Hanoi themed jewelry and keychains, most of which Yusaku put his nose up at, until something caught his eye.

The earrings were a decent-quality reproduction of Revolver’s iconic ones: brilliant blue faux jewels hanging above dangling gold bullets. They were clip-on versions too.

Yusaku very deliberately met the cashier’s eyes as he checked out. He had nothing to feel ashamed of.

Moving Yusaku out of his apartment was going to be easy, they both figured, but Ryoken had volunteered to help with the task anyway. It was a one-day affair, spent primarily on figuring out how to dispose of Yusaku’s defunct and honestly worthless furniture.

“What are these?” Ryoken asked, and Yusaku looked up from the single box he was packing to see. He didn’t have much stuff to pack in the first place, and it was all pretty self-explanatory, so curiosity had him padding back over to where Ryoken was sorting through his desk drawers.

Only to freeze in place when he saw gold and blue swaying from Ryoken’s fingertips. 

“Um,” Yusaku said, putting all points of his genius-level IQ to good use. 

Ryoken inspected the jewelry with a critical eye, the corners of his mouth slowly curling up. “Not bad.” He muttered, unclamping one from its mount. His eyes found Yusaku’s, intense and inquisitive. “Have you ever worn them?”

Yusaku felt his face flush, trying and failing to not think about all the times he had. And what he had done with them on. 

Ryoken openly leered then, a dark and knowing glint in his eye. He put on the earrings with the grace of experience, fingering them slightly so they swayed in place. The gold shined against his skin, and the blue accentuated his cold, pale eyes, and Yusaku couldn’t look away if he tried. 

“It’s a good thing we haven’t gotten rid of the bed yet.” Ryoken mused. “But you should have gotten two pairs.”

[kathillards]

misc morphicon stories

ok so i feel like i’ve talked FOREVER about all the wild shit that happened to us at morphicon (running into rangers at the car valet!! meeting chip lynn!! azim calling us his favorite ladies at the con!!) but i wanted to make a write up for all the stuff i haven’t talked about yet because i have to remember all this and i want you all to experience it too!! it was so fun oh my god if you haven’t been to morphicon... start making plans for 2020 guys it is legit INSANE best weekend of my entire LIFE

- ann marie crouch is AN ACTUAL PRINCESS SENT FROM HEAVEN we ran into her on our way back to the hotel one of the days and we were like omg it’s princess shayla we love you!! and she was so sweet and stopped and talked to us even though she was on her way out for a nap and she was in full shayla gear she looked so pretty! and we saw her on the way back too she had changed into casual clothes but still rocking it WE LOVE ONE MENTOR ONLY

- jessica rey is so funny and adorable omg we stopped by her booth to buy wild force pins (kat and abbey) bc the wf rangers come PREPARED w/ merch and nobody was there so we all just started talking to her and told her how we loved wild force and alyssa and abbey said she loved the ep where alyssa beat up the boys and she’s so cute and fun to talk to!! she told us about the shades of pink panel and i was like “is alyssa a pink or a white ranger” and she was like “lol i dont even know” also she had her handler take a staged candid of us talking to her because she loved us lmao. and then we were talking about white rangers and all of us were like “fuck tommy lives we stan alyssa only” and she laughed and immediately started telling us about what a dick jdf had been to fans the day before lmao (also for real...he’s a dick) and i was like YOU ARE THE SUPERIOR WHITE TIGER RANGER god shes so cool she loved us and didnt wanna stop talking but we had to move away cuz ppl were lining up for her behind us rip

- RICHARD AND ANGIE oh my god ok so i’d stopped and talked to angie on the first day and also the second day and i told her i’d come back later bc i wanted a photo w/ BOTH OF THEM and i did tell her how much i loved madison and vida like we are ROCCA SISTER STANS FIRST PEOPLE SECOND and shes so cute and she remembered us every time!! and then on the third day i finally got to talk to richard and he’s so sweet we talked about mystic force just at his booth for like ten minutes waiting for angie for the photo op, he asked us our fave episodes and i said dark wish and he actually remembered it so i think he might be the only actor at the con who watched his season. and we told him we loved the mystic force theme song AND HE STARTED SINGING IT. and someone had left him a green zeo figurine for...some reason and he told us “i dont even fucking know who that is” (but nicer lol he is very charming and polite) and we told him it was adam/johnny and he was like ohhhh lmao i love disney era actors not knowing SHIT about saban era. like he literally worked with johnny. i love him. AND THEN HE ASKED US ALL TO BE IN THE PHOTO and since kat paid for half of it we were like aight its a group thing and its the cutest photo i love disney era actors only

- i think i talked about meeting dwayne cameron already but god hes so sweet and i felt bad for him bc caitlin next to him had ppl she was talking to but he was all alone so me and abbey just went up and started talking to him and i told him i loved overdrive and i told him i recognized him as ethan’s bully and we talked about tyzonn and vella and just overdrive in general and hes so SWEET and he HUGGED ME SO TIGHT GOD i think he really enjoyed us like. actually loving overdrive and being able to talk about it. AND HE RAN INTO ABBEY IN CARS LAND AT DISNEY ON MONDAY AND GAVE HER ANOTHER HUG hes so cute (angie was also there with him I LOVE DISNEY ERA SOLIDARITY)

- met monica may and cerina vincent on saturday, not a lot to say bc i only talked to them a bit and took my photos but they are both so beautiful and elegant and classy and i told cerina i loved her in stuck in the middle :’) ranger ladies are so intimidatingly pretty god. also picked up this huge LEGIT spd poster and im gonna put it up in my room as soon as i can because oh my god its professional quality it looks so cool. we also talked to greg aronowitz bc kat wanted her poster signed and hes so cool we told him how much we appreciated everything he did for spd AND THAT WE WERE ON HIS SIDE ABOUT FEMALE RED FUCK DISNEY.

- god what else uhh we wandered around the toys section a lot on saturday/sunday bc we’d kinda. seen everyone. and there were a lot of panels on sunday so nobody was at the booths. i picked up those amazing rider/sentai prints from ceevee SUPER TALENTED SO WORTH IT. also got me a meteor storm figuart B) which i havent taken out of the box yet but i will

- HECTOR AT THE CAR VALET he literally announced he would be at morphicon the day before and then we saw him while waiting for our car and SCREAMED and he was so chill and cool and he came over and hugged us all hes so hot. AND THEN LATER WE RAN INTO SELWYN WARD AT THE CAR VALET and he also laughed when we squealed and came over and hugged us all and guys he smelled soooo nice i was like right up against him i could have died hes so handsome and perfect.

- we also ran into steve cardenas at the car valet like right when we were all leaving the hotel for the last time and we told him that we loved him and i said i was so excited that it was rocky coming back for the anniversary instead of fucking jason and abbey was like “justice for forever red!” and he was like hah i know right anyway every single actor in this franchise hates jdf lmao that was just the vibe of morphicon and it was valid

- fun fact we did not see jdf ONCE. not going to the con, not at the hotel, not ANYWHERE. just his crazy lines. he was like the douchebag cryptid. im glad tho he can stay that way.

- i talked about meeting andre on saturday night right??? hes so SWEET I LOVE HIM he was so happy when ben gave him his fanart of eddie and took a selfie w/ ben right then and there and also took a pic w/ me and abbey ugh i love him i told him he was so valid for being a power rangers youtuber and liking megaforce AND THAT HE’S THE BEST INTERVIEWER THEY’VE EVER HAD (i also told azim this, i’m very passionate about this subject, every other ranger interviewer sucks ASS)

- jason faunt at the elevators!! hes so sweet i told him how excited i was for the anniversary and he said yeah theres a lot more plot going on and told me to take a selfie bc they couldnt stop him here fhjggd i love that pic i love him AND THEN ALSO later we ran into NAKIA IN AN ELEVATOR AND SHES SO SWEET I SAID “WE LOVE YOU WE WATCHED ALL OF ZEO FOR YOU” and she was like aww thank you so much!! a literal goddess AND THEN LATER AS WE WERE CHECKING OUT karan walked by us to go to nakia and i was so excited i waved and said hi to her and she said “hi baby how are you” SHES SO WONDERFUL I LOVE MY MOTHERS

- i think i told the chris reid story already but like. hes so charming and was so nice even tho i interrupted his express checkout but like. i Had to tell him how valid ninja steel was i was literally like fuck the dudebros they’re so annoying you guys fighting w/ that one guy on twitter over the kcas was the FUNNIEST thing to EVER happen to this fandom and he laughed.

- we also went up to kelson’s booth later and told him how much we loved mick and all his roles!! and talked to him forever about all of them, told him we were kalish/disney era supremacists, told him HOW GOOD HE IS AT VOICE ACTING WE LOVE FLIT AND NORG IN THIS HOUSE he looked so happy :’) i feel like everyone just compliments him on boom which, no offense, but appreciate your voice actors guys. i told him we grew up on disney era and it was like new zealand only had twelve actors and he was five of them and he laughed and was like yeah. i also told him how we loved mick and brody’s father/son relationship and he was like yeah they ended up liking that a lot too which is why they sort of pushed brody’s real dad to the side so mick could shine more and i was like that’s LEGIT. i also told him the prism was brody’s mother and he agreed so that’s canon now. AND I TOLD HIM how fucking dark ninja steel went w/ his storyline literally being about slavery and human trafficking and he was like I KNOW RIGHT and we just talked about how dumb everyone is for being mean to ninja steel and chris showed up at this point too and we all laughed about it together

- ok and then tbh we just spent all of sunday loitering around the megaforce cast but it was worth it because they LOVE US oh my god we talked to them like all sunday about just. everything. azim’s gf jordan was there and she kept telling us to just stick around we talked to her a lot, we asked her about alex heartman and like where tf was he and she said he was working :( BUT AZIM AND ALEX ARE STILL CLOSE so victory. azim also told us a bunch of little stories like how he and the megaforce cast searched for a house to stay in together and ended up finding one at the base of a volcano and he and drew would race around the volcano in the mornings like the crazy people they are, we told him how much we loved andrew’s ACTING SKILLS and “do you see any tears” and he cracked up and said “they used to call me ‘freaky tiki man’ all the time because of that one line” and he told us about other fan encounters and things, we told him on saturday how we all met and became friends because we were the only ppl who loved and defended megaforce and he was SO TOUCHED HES SO SWEET GOD i would die for him. 

- cameron gave us (me and kat) all his money to buy him lunch from the food trucks and i guess just trusted that we loved megaforce so much we wouldn’t just run away with all his money????? and he was absolutely correct we got him teriyaki chicken with garlic noodles and he loved us. his handler also asked us to buy him food and gave us his CREDIT CARD dfhdgfjgdf like power rangers people are wild man. who just gives their credit card to random 20yo girls and just. trusts that they love this children’s show so much they won’t steal it??? i mean they were right and we didn’t but still. AND HE MADE ME AIRDROP one of my megaforce reaction pics to his phone because he loved it so much (it’s the one of jake and emma and orion looking super done, that i had ben redraw for me, so we showed them both pics and all three of them LOVED IT) and cameron even looked ben up on deviantart to see it fdgjkdfdg he loves usss. christina was telling us how they were talking about us at dinner and cameron told her that we were his favorite part of the con :’)) azim also mentioned that they talked about us at dinner because he said to kat “we were discussing that you look like that girl from 10 things i hate about you who was julia stiles’ best friend” LIKE IMAGINE. HAVING THE MEGAFORCE CAST. DISCUSS WHO YOU LOOK LIKE FDJGKDHFJGD they’re so cute ugh and azim and cameron hugged us all goodbye and john mark and christina said goodbye too and i just. love them. so much. 

- at one point cameron asked me and kat how old we were and she was like “twenties...as a group we are in our early twenties” and he was like “.... so old enough to know how a hangover feels right?” and we lost it dfgjfdkdgjh and i said “if i were an actor i would just be stoned the whole con” AND CAMERON JUST NODDED AGGRESSIVELY god the entire cast was definitely hungover and they’re so valid. except christina, we asked her and she said she only had a milkshake so maybe she was their designated driver. 

- andrew is so chill too (i mean i do think he is perpetually high but its fine) i think he just loves talking??? like he’s there for the babies (so many babies!! and they love troy so much!!! hes so adorable with them) and then he just wants to chill like we went up to him on sunday and he was like oh hey did you guys see this picture and he pulled out his phone and showed a pic of the megaforce cast doing a goofy zombie pose at their photo ops and he told us his backstory on each of their zombie poses like. who does this??? he’s so adorable.

- and ofc we stopped by christina again on sunday bc she’s THE FAVE and shes just so cuuute ugh and i told her i loved all asian rangers bc i am asian!! and she was like omg are you?? and i was like yeah i’m south asian and she was like omg so that’s all part of asia too OH I GET IT SO WE’RE BOTH ASIAN and i was like YES AND YOU’RE ALL MY RANGERS and she smiled at me it was like staring at the sun tbh. i love and would die for her.

- when we went to say goodbye to the megaforce cast cameron just looked at all of us standing around his booth and was like, so genuinely, “you guys are the best” and it still makes me cry thinking about it. AND AZIM’S FACE when we all said “megaforce’s defenders never surrender!” to him he had the sweetest smile god i really would take a bullet for the entire megaforce cast in a heartbeat. they are the sweetest angels & deserve the world. if any of you breathe a word wrong about jake holling in my general vicinity ever again i will fry your intestines and eat them for breakfast thank you GOODBYE.

[vivareverie]

"So, what now?"

That's a question I've had stuck on my mind for at least the past month or so now, regarding the state of my content production and my life as a YouTuber. It's a question that I've somewhat avoided asking myself for the past year, because I somewhat naively thought "Hey, everything'll just work out". Needless to say, that isn't the case, so here I am asking myself this question now.

Before I go any further I'd like to quickly clarify something: This isn't a depression thing. It might sound like a depression thing by the way I'm writing or the overall tone of this post, but I currently have zero mental health issues and require no sympathy in that area. All this is is an introspective look at my state of affairs, looking at what I did wrong attempting to grow my channel, and where to go next.

So, let's start from the start: My channel's success was lightning in a bottle. "Surprise! Your video has gone viral!" Starting with super short meme-y pony toy videos. Well... Admittedly that was at least a few years into my "career" at that point, but all my content before then just silly "Early-teen goofing around"-type videos, once I suddenly actually had an audience to make videos for, I obviously wanted to keep going. What's important about this "Era" is that I had a theme going on. I was the "Pony toy video guy", that was where my initial audience came from, watching my ~10 second long meme-y videos for a short giggle. These videos were very short, very easy to make, and had an audience... So, why did I stop?

Three big reasons: One, money. To make videos making fun of silly pony merch, I had to buy the merch, and, to put things into perspective, that Celestia toy alone was $50. Imagine that but for every single toy in every single video and it adds up quick. The good news is that I liked collecting them, and I had the money, but that was quickly running dry. You might ask "Well, couldn't you reuse toys?", and I did a bit, however...

Two, I hated reusing jokes, and still do to this day. Even back then I'd felt I used the "Celestia toy hits thing" joke 2-3 too many times. I suppose I'd somewhat considered it a running joke- but without putting a twist on it, it was just the same thing happening over and over again. Although "toy abuse" wasn't the entirety of my content back then- I did still try to be creative about it- but nonetheless I kinda felt that well drying up. Plus, finally, there's reason three, and this one is probably a bit obvious...

Three, I wanted to try out animation. It's history time: The reason why even my earlier pony animations looked at least half-decent was because I already knew ahead of time how to use Flash, the program used to animate MLP. This was because I used Flash to learn how to make terrible bodged-together video games, some of which are still online over on Newgrounds and Kongregate (And no, I won't be linking them (Maybe at a later date)), those games, although they were pretty terrible, did inadvertently teach me how to use an animation program, meaning that, when my YouTube channel kinda blew up, I suddenly had an entire genre of media to create with at my disposal.

Thus started "Phase two" of viv, the "Short goofy animation" phase. At the time I didn't think I was gonna ditch the toy video stuff, but after a short while I felt... More satisfied with my animation work. It took me a while to nail down why, but in the end I felt like I was "Undeserving" of the amount of attention I got from my toy content, and felt as if I had to "Earn" the amount of followers I was getting. My toy videos were recorded with terrible audio, a bad camera, very little care for lighting (One video in particular's punchline was ruined because I didn't think about lighting, "Applejack Wins" I believe was the name of that one), however my animations, with the exception of a couple of my early ones having framerate issues, were very "Clean" and felt polished, something I definitely couldn't say about the majority of my toy videos.

Likewise, my standards went up, and they went up fast. I did start off making more silly goofy short stuff, but I kept setting borders for myself making content more difficult to pump out. I wanted to make music videos, but I eventually said I didn't want to make them using pre-established "stuff you could buy on itunes" tracks, worried about potential copyright ramifications. A lot of my short videos were based on clips of songs, and I stopped doing those for the same reason. This was also a very similar (Albeit technically very different) reason why I stopped using show-style puppets, and although I technically could've continued animating show-style if I wanted, my standards had gotten higher still, and I wanted to start making animations using my own "Design" of puppets. Those are the horses you see in the banner of my Patreon page, the doofy ones with the fat noses. This starts what I'd call "Phase three" of viv.

...However, where I went, the majority of fans did not follow.

My earlier content was easy to digest, easy to share around, and easy to click on. Short doofy meme videos. Phase three of viv however- Although the content I was making was finally meeting my stupid standards, it ran into two problems. One, content production got slooooow. The entirety of the first couple of "phase three" years feels like I'd gotten nothing done, despite the, well, "Objectively better" quality videos coming out. I can count how many vivshorts I have on three hands, which is... Not a lot. It's good, and all of them are great, don't get me wrong, but throughout this entire "essay" I've been leaving out one giant big huge factor regarding my content: YouTube itself.

I'm sure you've heard this a million times before, but in case you haven't: YouTube does not promote channels that don't post often. The system likes channels that make long videos, and they like them posted every day.  This is... The complete opposite of the state of my channel, however. Especially these days, where my projects get larger, and the gaps between videos get longer. Unfortunately, the amount of production put into videos does not necessarily translate to views- Or at least not anywhere near the amount it does compared to my older videos.

I did make an attempt to make my channel more active with my Vivcast series, but, although that series has its fans (And I love you all much and you know who you are), I feel like all that did is hurt me during phase three viv. It littered my channel with videos that only a very niche audience would appreciate, and meant that newcomers would have difficulties finding the videos my channel was centered around when visiting my channel, which is, you know... A bad thing. All my Vivcast videos are now unlisted on my channel, but the playlist is still publicly available for those who still want to see them.

The second big reason why I got a huge dropoff of viewers from phase three viv was the change in style, or, more specifically, the lack of using MLP characters at all. I stopped being part of the trend, and went and did my own thing. It gave me more creative freedom, but it was less "Immediately appealing". It's far easier to click on "Rainbow Dash is Excited" than it is "The Second Day of Chrasmas". I've created a bubble of content that only those inside the bubble can enjoy, and this bubble is already inside the bubble of MLP itself, which, as much as I wish it wasn't so, has a huge huge huge stigma around it that to this day has never dwindled. Despite my content being less about the ponies themselves and more about the comedy or the writing or the animation, just the vague connection to MLP is a huge turnoff for potential new viewers who although might not care for MLP might still enjoy the content I may put out.

So, due to this, I have a dwindling viewerbase both because I'm not directly using MLP characters (Meaning the general MLP fans are turned off from my content) and also because I'm using pony characters in the first place (Meaning the non-brony side of the internet won't be looking at my content in the first place). I've inadvertently created a niche inside of a niche because I became complacent. I thought "Hey, if I make videos, the viewers will come, as they always have been", and that was true a few years ago, but I've diverted the train far far off course and not many people still want to stay on the ride.

...Okay, I should mention, no, 10k views per video is not bad in any way. That's really really good and many many many youtubers wish they got a fraction of the viewerbase I got, but it's all relative. In my case, I'd steered my life towards "Hey, I got a good following going, if I grow my following enough I'll be able to make YouTube videos for a living! That'll be super cool!" And that was okay for a long while, while I was "Doing the motions", while I was at college, while I was at university, while I was looking for a job and not finding any for... The entirety of 2017. That's a long time, that's, like, 4+ years at least. But, that whole time, it was fine. I was in no rush, I was in no hurry, no real problems, I'd gotten a little lazy and my content slowed down for it, but I didn't necessarily need the money so I wasn't churning out garbage 24/7 just to make sure I hit a threshold. I thought to myself "Hey, I'll think of something, eventually. 10k views per video isn't enough to make a living off of, but I'll make something that'll go viral again, eventually. It'll be fine."

However, that changed this January.

My new years resolution was to go back to making monthly videos. The Second Day of Chrasmas I made relatively quickly and I'd totally be up for keeping that going, I thought. But my free time was suddenly whisked away, and I was suddenly told I'd be "Working for the dole" for half the week, every week, for at least the next 6 months, or until somebody finally decides to hire me. If that's French to you, essentially that means that, in order to get the money I'm literally living off of, I'm now forced to spend ~15 hours every week doing tiring sweaty exhausting labour work, getting pricked, scratched, sunburned, and bitten, on top of the obligation I already had regarding finding work with the job employment agency I'm hooked up with, oh, and that's not even mentioning that I'm not earning any more doing this work than I was earning the entirety of 2017. essentially meaning that all the free time I'd grown complacent with the past year is now gone in the blink of an eye, and I'm getting nothing out of it.

...So I thought "Okay, 2018 will be the year I finally set my channel back on the right track." Suddenly that's something I can't do. I can't make videos that bring the views back when I literally don't have the time nor energy to make those videos in the first place. The past January shows it, I forgot to make the post-January update Patreon post because of how quickly the month passed by for me. My complacency led me down this track and now I'm paying the price for it.

Okay... So... What now?

This was the question I asked at the start of this post, and what you just read is my story leading up to this question. I don't know if I have the right answer to that question, but I have a few proposals.

One: Cut my ties with pony content entirely. This is a route I'd been intentionally avoiding because I didn't want to be one of "Those guys". You know, the "I'm grown up and more mature now, and therefore I cannot like or associate with pony anymore". That... In itself, I'd personally say is an extremely immature sentiment, cutting ties with who you once were is like denying part of your life existed. Likewise, if this were the route I'd take, I would never deny my association with MLP... However, I would be changing all my branding and future content to not be MLP related, and move into, say, video games stuff instead. That way I can tap into a very large audience of people that didn't exist within my bubble within my bubble. I may be able to grab that "Lightning in a bottle" once more... I wouldn't stop doing Bronies Reacts, though.

Two: ...Keep going. This is the significantly more risky route, but I still have unfinished business in pony content. The two big ones are Trigger Happy Horses and Brony Polka Animated, Trigger Happy Horses being very very well loved and a project I would be very happy to continue if I had the money and time, and Brony Polka Animated being a project I teased... Ah jeez, two years ago. Both projects would require at least several months straight of work to finish/continue, meaning no other content on my channel (Outside of stuff that maybe I could hire other people to edit (Which would imply I had the money to do so, which, I don't)), meaning it'd be super unlikely my channel would grow in any way from it. I'd still be inside my niche of a niche, that double-layered bubble. But... Maybe people would come back if they saw these projects as finished projects? I don't know, and I have no way of knowing- But I expect that may unfortunately not be the case.

Three: Do both... Kinda. Perhaps I could begin by doing new stuff that appeals to a larger audience and completely ignoring those huge projects on my backlog until I've reached a point of equilibrium- And then return to them once I've maintained a stability on my channel. Albeit, that implies I get to that point in the first place, I may be trying to throw darts at this invisible dart board for the rest of my life, meaning those projects go entirely unfinished forever...

...At the end of the day, if I want to keep doing YouTube, I'll want to be earning enough off of it to make it viable. This means consistent revenue, every month, every year. I'm getting a very nice fraction of that off of Patreon right now, and I thank all my patrons wholeheartedly for it, but... I need at the very least quadruple the amount I'm currently earning to get back to even attempting YouTube full time. Single time pledges won't really help either, I either need four times the amount of patrons I have or at least ten times the amount of views on my future videos, and consistently.

This revamp needs to happen. With it I'll be revamping the structure of my Patreon page before the end of the month, including probably removing the $10 and $30 pledge options... Which I feel like is kind of a terrible move because it's the last foothold I really have, I'll be cutting my revenue in half with that move alone, but I don't feel comfortable being pledged those amounts when the content I'm putting out is minimal at best, and entirely against what you were asking for at worst. Although I believe there is an option to pledge a higher amount than the given pledge amount, no rewards come with that, and nobody is obligated to do that for me.

Will this post do anything about my situation? Deep down I kinda hope it will, but really... I don't expect it to, and I've accepted that. You gotta deal with what life gives you, and when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. That term is thrown around so much it sounds like white noise so I'll turn it into a metaphor that actually means something: If you're given shit, make something out of it. Well, I've been given shit, so here I am figuring out what to sculpt it into.

It's midnight where I live now, so I'll be going to sleep. When I wake up I hope to have the answer to my question.

Good night.

- Viva

[sungwanns]

we all need a chan in our lives (*´з`) i'm not athletic either but i feel like if i ended up on his team, he wouldn't be mad even if when i cause the team to lose.

oohh the arm warmers...i had to go back to the victory song MV to remember them, and i totally agree with you HAHAHA. it's just so...random. actually now that i think about it, so is that skirt thing on chan's pants. er, i can't say i hate any specific outfit but...i'm not really feeling some of the extensions felix had for thunderous. i loved the extensions that matched his blonde hair, but those grey-ish ones that didn't match at all...man i thought they were part of his red hat at first - it just looked out of place for me.

what about your favorite outfits? do you have any?

ahhh man i feel you tho - there really is too much merch coming out XD and too many versions! just seeing the chart of all PCs per comeback made me dizzy. that sucks about han's PCs tho - i hope you can find some that aren't too expensive, or at the very least someone you can trade with. sometimes i wonder if fans just create artificial scarcity with these things...ohh but the levanter lenticulars are pretty - i'm glad you have seungmin's! manifesting that you eventually get all 8 (jisung's especially), and also with the skzoo plushies (・∀・)

oh wow that's dedication tho - getting up at 5 am just for god's menu. i kinda just saw it the MV in my recommended one day and...well here i am HAHAHA YOU SEE WHAT LONG BLONDE HYUNJIN DID?? aww i am you!! man i'm getting kinda emotional just thinking of that song...i'm all about that sentimental, platonic love songs that are clearly from the members to the members too - it's just too sweet. also i'm happy han saved the song from you-know-who for skz2020. actually i'm glad he seemed to cover a LOT of parts in a lot of the songs - as expected of the team ace (≧◇≦)

ohhh i totally see what you mean with my pace. the MV atmosphere + great beat + message of the song = amazing all around. i actually rewatched it after you mentioned it and...can i just say, i can't with seeing them again so young. thanks for reminding me of this masterpiece!

okay today's random question - are you watching any shows/dramas at the moment?

Oh i totally agree!! Even if you lost on his team he would be like it’s okay!! we tried our hardest!! He makes me so soft i could UGH :(((

RIGHT HAHA like it’s such an interesting choice ?? I imagine they wouldn’t be super comfortable to dance in either it probably gets super hot !! like even if they weren’t dancing, stage lights can be so hot in general WHEW. And i totally get you on the extensions!! I really liked the blond ones too i think it suited him really well!! Also felix looks amazing in red i think it might be his color

AH lemme think… OH uh going back to i am you i love her jisung has like this blond hair and has this black top and pants and it’s so simple but it looks so good on him?? and i think it compliments his dancing lemme see if i can find a picture hold on

LMAO i had to screen shot the left top one from his fancam so sorry for the bad quality but also while i was researching i found those bottom ones that i COMPLETELY forgot about which i cannot believe i did as i might have to mark it as my new fav for him !! i couldn’t get a good shot of the whole outfit but it’s totally visible in the mv !! i believe in TOP jisung supremacy

And then THIS seungmin…

bangs head against table repeatedly yeah i would say i like these looks a totally normal amount!! Do you have any favs!!

Yes there’s always new stuff coming out!!😭 skz spoils us but im so poor because of them … you’re so right though there’s just so many pcs to collect for each era that i don’t even want to know what that would cost 😵‍💫 PLEASE YOURE SO SWEET im manifesting that you always pull hyunjin or minho!!

but yeah i love waking up to watch the mvs right when they come out skz has me wrapped around their finger 😭 Like i’ll wake up, pull up the mv, try not to lose my mind over it, then go right back to sleep 😭 everything sounds so fresh at 5am LMAO That’s so funny that you found them in your recommended!! The first time i heard my pace i was actually at a festival and i was like ??? this goes so hard ??? and i had to write it down to look up later now look at me 😭😭 if skz wants you to be a stay they will find you!! But fr hyunjin is so dangerous like that😭 but i am you makes me so emotional too i love her!! i think platonic love songs are the best they’re just so gentle and sweet :(( But im glad jisung got a lot of lines in that song as well i think it really suits him!!

It is crazy to go back and see how young they all were!! jeongin even has his braces still 😭 but it’s especially crazy to me bc im 5 months younger than jeongin so i was just as young when that song came out 😵‍💫 it’s always a little strange to watch yourself grow older with someone!!

Oh!! I am watching a drama at the moment!! It’s called ‘my absolute boyfriend’ it’s on hulu it’s really good!! ive been watching it for a while now bc i can only watch a few episodes at a time bc so much goes on that it leaves me emotionally exhausted LMAO but it’s so good!! I would also recommend ‘well intended love’ it’s a c drama on netflix and i love that one too!! I like that the second season is very similar to the first but it’s just that the roles are kinda reversed?? it’s hard to explain without spoiling anything!! Besides those im not really watching any shows atm!! im still kinda recovering from supernatural unfortunately LMAO but do you have any recommendations?

Also hmmm let’s see if you could have any skz member do a cover of any song what member and what song would you choose?

[escarlatafox]

@mackledberries hey. I wanted to try talking to you again if that’s ok. I wanted to try and help you understand some different points of view.

It’s been a while and you might not really remember me. I went off to China for half a year like I said I would, came back and have been busy with other things. I hope you’ve been alright.

This is probably going to be very long, and for that I apologise. I like writing out long things and do my best to be very specific about the points I’m trying to make. There’s also, I think, so much to address that can’t even fit in this one post.

Let’s start off. I want to ask you. How many people do you think, if you quoted them something from the first ten seasons of the simpsons, would get the quote? What if you started talking about an episode from the first ten seasons of the simpsons? How likely do you think it would be that they would have seen, or at least know about that episode?

Now what about the past ten seasons of the simpsons?

Let’s narrow the category of people down to “people who like the simpsons”. People who have seen, and enjoy the show. What do people mean when they say “I love the Simpsons”?

There’s no secret of the fact that The Simpsons is long past its peak. I think I can comfortably say that we Simpsons fans are fully aware of this. There is some extensive debate and discussion about the decline of The Simpsons and exactly when this gradual fall took place, what episodes were turning points, etc.

I want to mark out two points of reference for how the show in its current incarnation differs from its classic era. The cultural relevance of the show (and by extension, how many people are paying attention to the new episodes?), and the show’s quality. Or in other words - how true is the show being to itself and its characters, as they have been established?

I’ll distinguish between “classic simpsons” and “post-classic simpsons”. even though we can argue about where the cutoff point between each should be and the fact that the show has arguably gone through more stages than just those two. I recognise all of those complex particularities, but when I say “classic simpsons” I’m assuming that a specific era comes to your mind that at least roughly aligns with my own, and when I say “post-classic simpsons” you also have a good idea of what I am talking about.

I think the two of us have fundamentally different ways that we approach our conceptualisations of The Simpsons and Simpsons canon, and that that is the source of some of our differences, so there are some things I’d like to map out here.

Simpsons, during the 90s, was classic Simpsons. It was at its most culturally relevant. It impacted pop culture a great deal and the vast majority of people were keeping up with it, watching the new episodes, and cared about the content of those new episodes. The show was itself because it had known no different. The foundations for its characters were laid down.

We then, during the 2000s and 2010s, witness a split. The cultural relevance of post-classic Simpsons rapidly diminished. Far less people were paying attention with every new episode. No one really cared anymore. And as the extensive debate among Simpsons fans demonstrates, the show had changed. It wasn’t the same anymore.

The entity known as “The Simpsons” was, however, still present in popular culture during this time. you would still see stuff about it, people write thinkpieces, there’s merch, there’s discussions, it maintains a kind of relevance. But here’s the important distinction I want to make: Classic Simpsons was the driving force behind the vast majority of any relevance it continued to maintain, the vast majority of any discussion stimulated on the topic of The Simpsons.

Post-classic Simpsons continues to put out new episodes, but is no longer relevant to people. People, at large, don’t care anymore. They aren’t paying attention. Classic Simpsons is still relevant to people, to this day, it has endured in minds and memories.

When people say “I love The Simpsons”, by and large, they are talking about classic simpsons. The distinction hardly needs to be made because recent Simpsons has fallen so out of relevance. So little people are paying attention or care. But they do care about classic Simpsons.

And The Simpsons characters, due to the incredible cultural relevance they gained and (thanks only to classic Simpsons) maintain to this day, are icons, in and of themselves. They are iconic. They are representations of concepts, of ideas, not just the character that they themselves embody. They encapsulate that, but also so much more. And what they encapsulate can be different depending on the individual. ...Well, with this paragraph I’m mainly just talking about Lisa. But we’ll get to that. It can apply to the other characters too.

Modern-day Simpsons is fundamentally different from classic Simpsons, it is for the most part poorly written, distinctly lacks cultural relevance and very, very little people care about it. And the characters are handled poorly.

You seem to take nearly 30 years of Simpsons canon and episodes all as one cohesive whole, and construct your opinions of the characters purely based on that.

I take other factors into account. If the current state of the show fundamentally suffers from bad writing, is culturally irrelevant compared to its former glory, and handles things badly, I’m not going to give it the same amount of weight as I do for the older episodes, obviously there’s a lack of cohesion and continuity in the show’s canon and you can pick and choose stuff.

What I don’t get is... why would you let something the modern-day show does ruin your perception of the show in its classic era? I’m not just talking about Lisa here, but rather ANYTHING that you hate that the show has done recently that does not align with classic Simpsons. You have the power to ignore it, I promise. At the very least, you don’t have to treat it with the same level of severity as if it was classic simpsons.

My view is that classic Simpsons is classic for a reason. It’s untouchable in any way by modern Simpsons. And this is the majority view btw, because people tend not to keep up with modern Simpsons and don’t care about it, even if they love the classics. It doesn’t have the same canonical weight, not by a long shot.

Classic Simpsons and modern Simpsons are two distinct entities. There was a lot of grey for a while there, debate over the cut off, but wherever the cutoff was, it’s long past by this point.

You take Lisa Simpson as a single whole, a single character spanning almost 30 seasons.

I have classic Lisa, maybe an ~intermediate/transition~ Lisa, and a modern Lisa, sometimes a Lisa Simpson who embodies all three, who has existed consistently for those thirty years as you assess, or sometimes I play around and add the first two Lisas together and leave out the third, modern-day Lisa. and then there’s Lisa Simpson the icon.

Neither of our approaches are necessarily wrong.

Correct me if I’m wrong about any of this, but from what I’ve seen of your blog, you don’t actually really have anything against classic-era Lisa. I recall you mentioning that you started hating her from the episode “On A Clear Day I Can’t See My Sister” onwards. Which is from the sixteenth season. So your perception of Lisa Simpson from seasons 1-halfway through 16 promptly soured as a result, since you aren’t inclined to treat parts of the show as separate entities(?).

Let me assure you that the Lisa Simpson who holds all the power and the love and the sway and the adoration and the fans that you complain of is the very same Lisa that you don’t have a problem with, for the most part, if this is the case.

Classic Lisa is loved by Lisa fans. She is my favourite Lisa, and who I would say is everyone’s favourite Lisa.

Classic Lisa is a symbol. A symbol of many things, including speaking out against injustice and standing up for what is right. The image of Lisa Simpson comes to represent these principles even when it is not classic Lisa. Because remember, classic Lisa is the one people remember and care about.

In a post of yours, you ask if people have been paying attention for the past few seasons. The thing is, of course they haven’t, and it’s strange that you even ask.

You are right to ask this in one respect: the Lisa speaking about the Apu issue was indisputably modern Lisa, airing in a modern Simpsons episode, and she has been modern Lisa for years and years. Your response to the outcry is: “this is completely in character for modern Lisa”.

The thing is, people were upset that the image and icon of Lisa Simpson and all of the things that represents, carrying that image, spoke and exhibited an attitude that contradicts classic Lisa’s. Not just that, even, because remember how I mentioned above that Lisa became an icon, I daresay to many girls everywhere like myself, inspiring them and becoming a rolemodel of sorts. Lisa Simpson, the symbol, was being used in a manner incongruent of what Lisa Simpson, the symbol, represents, even when this is occurring on a modern Simpsons episode. Because this is a character who looks the same, sounds the same as classic Lisa, and beyond classic Lisa has become a symbol. A symbol in whatever form of media she is in, in whatever year. And the symbol spoke and it didn’t match expectations.

The solution is not to argue that Lisa Simpson should not be symbolic of these things, and that her fans are the ones who have it wrong and that somehow they misunderstand her character. Because whether you like it or not, Lisa has become a symbol for these kinds of things, and she was one of the few characters that were able to be rolemodels for little girls like myself in the way that she was. I don’t think the solution is to tear that symbol down. You’d be tearing down an image in the media of a smart little girl who speaks her mind, who is depicted as passionate and with a bright future ahead of her.

Because I don’t know where I would be without Lisa Simpson. She was such a source of inspiration for me. As a little girl I admired her, practically worshipped her, because here was another little girl and she was really intelligent, who showed that it was good to work hard and be unafraid to speak your mind, stand up for yourself and for what is right, care about things, not stand for injustice. She’s my absolute favourite simpsons character for a reason. And this is the kind of impact she had on many other people. Would you really want to take that away, if you could?

I remember turning 8 years old and feeling really happy, because “wow, I’m the same age as Lisa Simpson!”. I felt so honoured just to share the same age as this fictional character.

When characters become so hyper-recognisable and entrenched in popular culture, sometimes they can become even more than the sum of their parts.

When I and other fans look at Lisa Simpson, we see classic Lisa Simpson, when we talk about Lisa Simpson, we are mainly talking about classic Lisa. Why? Because classic Simpsons is mainly all the Simpsons that matters and that really held any relevance. Because, as a result, the canon of classic Simpsons gets weighted much, much more heavily. Society as a whole weighs classic Simpsons canon more heavily because most people are familiar with it and have little to no clue of anything to do with modern Simpsons canon.

And when people say they love Lisa Simpson, they’re basically talking about classic Lisa.

But wait: you say. Even when they specifically refer to modern Lisa? What’s all that about?

I weight classic Lisa the heaviest, and then after that intermediate Lisa. anything after that is give or take. Those are the foundations. I don’t keep a tally of every bad thing Lisa might have done over the past five seasons and allow that to impact my thoughts on the recent eps. I mean I barely care or pay attention when I watch the new episodes anyway. If Lisa says or does something I disagree with, I do dislike those words/actions and it does impact my view of her... For that episode. Simpsons episode are self-contained basically, but, especially the modern episodes... really don’t matter, in my eyes. So everything resets and whatnot. There’s a lot of other areas I could articulate here but, yeah.

Classic Lisa is paramount, it is the primary lens through which the vast majority of people view her character, even when looking at later episodes. Because that’s the Lisa that people are most familiar with. And just because they haven’t seen every single episode or kept up with the show for the past ten years doesn’t mean their assessments are wrong. it means they fundamentally approach and treat simpsons canon differently.

And even if you do make a distinction and specifically hate modern Lisa, for the most part, you’re raging against a shell of a character that no one is actually paying much attention to anyway. Modern Simpsons aren’t culturally relevant, modern Lisa isn’t culturally relevant... I think I may be the very embodiment of those “rabid Lisa fans” that you hold in contempt. But I mean, I’m... not really that invested in modern Simpsons? Given everything I’ve said about how I treat Simpsons canon, is it really that much of a big deal? I just don’t understand. i mean I understand being upset with a lot of things about the show and stuff and the writing. that’s fair enough. Although I would like to point out another thing. I’m pretty sure that when people write for Lisa Simpson, they a) are thinking mainly of classic Lisa and Lisa as a symbol and pen her so sympathetically and stuff as a result. I think they also have the same “new episode=reset, only consider the early seasons” perspective. The way they write her doesn’t really match classic Lisa because they’ve been writing her differently for so many years. something like that b) they write her relying on the primary lens of classic/intermediate Lisa. They expect the audience to be wearing that lens. and for the most part, it works.

Like, if you only hate modern/post-classic Lisa... Your only real enemies are the current people working on the show, is what I think. And the thing is... Lisa is just one element of the bad writing that has been produced over the years. And no one particularly cares for the show as it currently is, so yeah... I think the current people working on the show would mainly be the only people you’re against. And like... the majority of Simpsons fans, including myself, are right there with you, buddy.

And apart from everything I’ve written here there are STILL plenty of things we disagree on when it comes to Lisa. But that’s no matter. I wanted to open up this dialogue with you. I want not only to help you understand some other perspectives but also get a clearer view of your approaches to simpsons canon and why you choose those approaches, etc. If there’s anything you’re curious about questions etc feel free to ask and stuff and I will like to hear your thoughts.

It’s really late for me right now and I’m absolutely exhausted so I’m gonna finish this up even though I’m not even sure I communicated across everything that I wanted to. I hope you will take the time to have a read through this and make a response. Hope what I wrote was decent enough.