#not a fantastic explanation

[19871997]

connor mcdavid // fantastic mr fox

[internetgiraffekid1673]

ThePandaRedd Appreciation Post: Bill and Ted

This is me screaming into the void that I think my two favorite characters in the comic scene are Ted and Bill from the Pandaverse (the comics universe created by ThePandaRedd's tiktok skits). I freaking love these two because they are hilarious and I gotta say it somewhere.

Consider this a ThePandaRedd appreciation post.

Bill is a very long running Pandaverse character and is a professional henchman in Gotham City. He has been henching long enough to see the formation of the goonion, have batman steal so many of his bones that they're kept ground up in a jar, see the rise and graduation of every robin, batgirl, or other, and become so tired that he can backtalk his most consistent employer---the Joker.

Bill is a jaded henchman, mostly in the job because it's the easiest way to get money in Gotham, and because he's kinda in too deep to quit now. He's one of the best advertisers the goonion has, strongly discourages other people from henching in Gotham, and has so many residual medical issues from getting brutally beaten up by the batfam that he just doesn't care anymore. While he is regularly employed by the Joker, he has also been seen working for the likes of Penguin, Black Mask, and Bane, presumably when the Joker is in Arkham. Most other characters treat him with some instinctive respect for having stayed in the Gotham henching game this long, and he could absolutely go toe to toe with Superman if not just easily secure some Kryptonite and whoop his ass. Fortunately for Superman, Bill sticks to the Gotham scene.

Ted, meanwhile, is a relatively new character, and he has recently moved to Gotham from Coast City (where the Green Lantern lives). Suffice it to say, he is not aware of all of Gotham's idiosyncrasies and is still learning the wheel. If Bill the henchman is to be believed, Ted dropped out of the high school they both attended and may or may not have moved to Gotham for ease of employment.

One of his first appearances was when he'd just joined the GCPD and was trying to covertly get some info on the villain scene by asking Bill about how to start a career in henching. While Bill did not discover that Ted was working for the GCPD, he also gave away pretty much no valuable information since he instead launched into a rant about why anybody would be so suicidal as to try to START henching in Gotham City. His most recent appearance has him presumably out of a job again and noting some of his findings about Gotham as a Coast City Transplant (batburger's overrated, gang territories are gerrymandered, Robins are scarier than Batman, you'll be gifted with a water filter a gas mask and a gun upon moving houses if you send advance notice, etc.)

So, why are these two gag characters from a comic book tik-tok creator my favorite comic book/comic adjacent characters? Because they do exactly what they are designed to and narrow in on the every day.

Comic Books are a sci-fi/fantasy genre that focus on impossible stuff happening, frequently at a pretty grand scale. And while it is super cool to read or hear about stuff like Batman and his adoption problem or Superman being a basically god while still being the most human ray of sunshine ever, that's not even close to my favorite stuff.

No, my favorite type of media to consume is the kind where we get a peek into the everyday of someone in a vastly different circumstance from ours, and feel just how normal they are. I find a lot of comfort and humor in recognizing that even in very unfamiliar circumstances, there will still be simple, everyday things that persist.

Bill might be a goon in a city with some of the most insane and terrifying vigilantes ever, working for some of the most insane and terrifying villains ever, and the city is explicitly a commentary on the general shittiness of urban environments like New York, but that's not what he cares about most of the time. Instead he's busy explaining why you shouldn't smoke to his fellow goons, or dealing with the fact that his employer won't keep a reliable schedule, or having a crisis that he regularly has to run away from a 12 year old dressed like a traffic light or else die trying, or trying to convince people to mask up during quarantine, or promoting that fellow goons "do bad shit safely." And I like to think that if I somehow ended up as an evil goon in someplace as nonsensical and dramatic as Gotham City, I might respond similar to Bill after a while. And that level of normalcy and sanity persisting in such a fantastical environment is both very funny and very comforting. Human nature will persist.

Ted is similar. Everybody who has experienced moving cities knows that it can be disorienting and confusing and even a little scary as you try to figure out how things work, but you'll figure it out regardless and probably have a fun(ish) time doing so. Ted shows that the same principle applies even when those differences get cranked up to 11 and include superpowered and/or impossibly determined and crazy people. He makes my own experience moving cities where I joke and complain about the differences feel validated and it's just so funny to see someone react so normally to such an abnormal situation.

Ted's experience is something that can actually he applied to my own life, like when I learned about Rural vs. Urban stupid zoning laws or trying fry sauce after moving to the mountain west and having to defend my stance that it is an abomination. So seeing someone like yourself doing the EXACT same thing in such an insane circumstance both strikes a chord of truth and makes me laugh myself to the floor.

I also really appreciate that the PandaVerse in general has connected lore for what is basically a gag series used to affectionately parody comics. Something about people actually caring about their jokes enough to make connected lore makes me so so happy.

So thank you ThePandaRedd for creating Ted and Bill, continuing along with them, and making me smile.

Seriously, all this was to say that ThePandaRedd is cool, you should go watch his stuff, and that Bill and Ted are hilarious.

[secretagentspydetectiveninja]

based french turnabout airlines fixed the time zone problem by just straight-up inventing an overseas territory of borginia in the pacific ocean called "nouvelle-borginie", which is where the plane takes off from, thereby solving the otherwise ridiculous problem of a plane taking off from a european country, flying to a country in asia to refuel, then turning around and landing in france, a different european country

[lord-squiggletits]

Panels that are stuck in my mind giving my Pharma-obsessed brain something to chew on like a rawhide again and again.

Ratchet in the heat of the moment calling Pharma a horrible Autobot/doctor, but later in a calm scenario, NOT talking to Pharma, saying that "most of his life he was a fantastic doctor..." MMmmmmdhjggjghkjhfkjfd

[redux-iterum]

On the topic of deer, if a human or a car were to kill a deer in the Clan territory, and the cats found the carcass right afterwards (so they know it's fresh, not rotting or sick) would they eat it? Since its pretty much inconceivable that the cats could take a deer down themselves, I feel like outside forces would be the only way this scenario could occur.

It's an amusing thought to imagine a Clan just gathered around a deer carcass having an absolute feast for as long as it lasts.

It's got to have happened at some point - or at least they grabbed a bit of it for the Clan. Just tear off chunks of the thing and bring it home. Good meat oughtn't go to waste!

[anti-dazai-blog]

y'know, it's kinda ridiculous that dazai eventually won without much difficulty. in recent chapters of the manga, we witnessed for the first time that dazai was struggling so hard, which showed him less omnipotent than he was, and more human at the same time. but it turns out that he was making a fool out of fyodor all along!!!! he lost to the power of alliance!!!! ...excuse me? then what was meursault arc all for?

i love bsd, but there are too many things that annoy me, and the flaws of the series are rarely talked about. so im reaaally happy to see you criticizing the series. i love your blog sm, please never stop posting!! 💕

YES EXACTLY!!

Dazai’s omniscience does NOT help humanize him. All that it does is give him more accountability in everything that happens. He doesn’t get the luxury of pleading ignorance because at this point, the story has made that no longer believable. 

No matter what, Dazai knows everything all the time, doesn’t make mistakes in his plans and strategies, and is capable of anything. If this is the case, which I said it was semi-jokingly in the early days of this blog, he really can be held accountable for pretty much anything and everything happening. Which I’d really rather wasn’t the case.

One of the main themes of bsd is humanity. No one’s special or perfect, everyone’s a human being trying their best to get by. The Meursault arc did a pretty decent job of humanizing both Dazai and Fyodor, two characters who were previously shown as (intellectually) flawless, by having them struggle in their battle of wits against each other. Having both of them mess up or miscalculate in some way made them seem like real people and not just two algorithms playing chess. 

Having Dazai reveal in this final episode that he knew everything all along, everything went according to his plan, and there was never any challenge to begin with entirely defeats the purpose of the arc. What are we supposed to take away from this? That Dazai automatically wins any fight because he’s Dazai? That removes all stakes. 

Why continue watching a show if you’ve already been told that one specific character will always win—and not only that, but it won’t even be a struggle for him to get there, because he knows everything about everything all the time. 

I really, really hope that this was an anime-only ending. Asagiri can still fix this. Admittedly, bungo stray dogs has always been character-focused rather than plot-focused, so while I trust Asagiri to handle the characters better than this, I’m not really sure what to expect plot-wise. But I’m gonna hope for the best.

[vulpinesaint]

ABOUT TO CRYYYYYY. OH MY GOD....

[jesncin]

We all know how you guys feel about evil twin archetypes, so any thoughts on Cobalt Blue? Found out about him fairly recently and LORD his backstory feels like a telenovela

I just briefly read up his wiki and WHOA WHAT IS THAT BACKSTORY, haha. It's interesting, from these DC evil twins (Ma'alefa'ak for J'onn and Golden Boy for Johnstantine) so far, a lot of what makes them not work for me is their often unfounded hatred for their twin. Especially when it's "assigned hatred since birth" it's funny seeing the narrative force these twins into projecting any kind of hatred on each other.

Malcolm/Cobalt Blue got his revenge already by killing off the doctor that separated him from the Allen family, but then? By circumstance of Barry having a better life he just decides to hate him too, haha. Very similar to Johnstantine deciding to hate his unborn twin just because John weirdly projected his twin having an easier, better life than him (which,,,is factually untrue, his twin didn't even get to be born). It's all so drama~

I think it's cute that Flash fam has generational twins though! It's often forgotten in twin representation that it's an inherited gene and therefore tends to occur in a family multiple times!

[thuviel]

I'm 10 months on T!

I've pretty much hit a plateau in changes, which is not strange considering my T levels have apparently been consistently low the past couple months. I'm gonna start increasing the dose a bit so we'll see what happens. The only thing I have to report this month:

Shark week still here, normal pain levels still

The dark fuzz on my stomach has connected to my chest so my whole abdomen is pretty much covered in hair now

Apparently I'm half a centimetre taller???? No idea if this is from T, it shouldn't be possible for me to grow anymore, like at all. But I got measured by a doctor and she used the same method as last time and I was taller than before so who knows what's going on omg

Some days my voice sounds like it has dropped a bit but then it goes back up immediately the day after and stays higher again so no permanent drop this month

[scorpiusmalfoylovesoscarwilde]

I made a meme do you leik it :)

[merriclo]

can video essays please go back to being like. an actual thesis. or a genuine discussion. or a proper explanation of events and concepts.

[hopeinthebox]

late to the party as per but finally giving this one a go - AND pestering some music favs with a tag <33 @cordiallyfuturedwight @banghwa @thvinyl @aprylynn @pauls-mccharmly @monismochi @thatredwine @huhfeatjhope 💜 and anyone else who fancies a go

[kazamajun]

I hope there never is a fully English or fully Japanese dub for the Tekken games, the representation of everyone being authentic to their primary tongue in the majority of cases is way more meaningful and tbh as someone who can understand multiple languages + the majority of my friends are polyglots, I can't even agree that it's 'unrealistic' lmao

[iris-nonsense]

I... i don't think that's how it works... what do you mean magma can burn fire like ???

[un-pearable]

twice while watching separate brothers asked “why do they have knights” and “if they’ve got all this tech then why do they use swords”. because it’s FUN . NEXT QUESTION

[carlatsukinamistolemyhamsandwich]

Carla and the accidental marriage au?

I have actually written a whole fic themed around this before (because accidental marriage is one of my favourite tropes), so if you haven't already, I'd recommend checking out my Forgotten Gods one shot.

I'm afraid I completely gave up with the sentence limit for this one ^^;; Also I set this in a fantasy AU because I just think it's more fun ;)

TW: forced marriage

Five line ask game (now closed)

You really, really should have thought this plan through more.

In all fairness, it's not like you were the only person who'd jumped to conclusions when the dreaded Wizard King of the Frozen North had demanded the local Lord's only daughterーyour dearest and most lovely friendーbe delivered to the border before the week's end, lest the entire population of your small town be subject to his wrath. Everyone knew wizards were pure evil, even if they were almost entirely the subject of legend in current times, the great King Karlheinz having purged most of them from the land. For days the town had been rife with whispers of just what they thought the Wizard King might do to the poor girl, each new theory more awful and twisted than the last, until you could no longer bare it. And so, on the day of the deadline, you'd helped to sneak your friend to a neighbouring village and gone in her place with nothing but a small knife in your boot.

When the Wizard King's servant had arrived, a young man with an eye-patch and a grin that said he meant trouble, it was only the thought of your friend being dragged away in your place that gave you the courage to lie to his face and be led off to what you thought was your doom.

You'd expected any number of things upon being dragged into the white marble palaceーto be tied to a sacrificial altar like the girls in the stories, or thrown into a bubbling cauldron as part of a potion that would bring some great malady to the landーbut not once had it occured to you that you would find yourself tossed into a room fit for royalty and told to dress yourself in a splendid white gown. Perhaps it was part of some dreadful arcane ritual, you'd thought, as you'd slipped the soft fabric over your skin, praying to the gods that your end may at least be a swift one.

You'd kept up your prayer as you'd been led down grand halls lined with exquisite paintings and were presented to both the most beautiful and most terrifying man you'd ever seen in your lifeーa man you were most certain was the Wizard King, for now you'd seen him you could not imagine anyone else bearing the title.

His voice was like rolling thunder as he levelled you with an assessive stare, though you'd been able to focus on his words, too preoccupied with the thought that you’d stupidly left your knife with your clothes一not that you truly thought it would have been enough to harm the man in front of you. No, there was little you could do but accept your fate, knowing that as long as your friend was safe whatever scarifice you'd made was not in vain.

You were lead to yet another chamber, this one granderer than the last, with some arcane altar at the center and you fought back a shudder as the Wizard King took your hands in his own, his skin the same temperature as the frozen wastes surrounding the palace. He began to recite something in a language you'd never heard before and you fought not to shake as you waited for whatever spell he was undoubtedly weaving to wash over you.

What you were not prepared for, however, was for a ring to be slipped over your finger and as a pair of cold lips covered your own.