#oh and he's a royal python for those who don't know

[lovelaceisntdead]

Here's some pictures of the boy cause a few people have been asking about him, his name is Noah and he is my special boy 🧡

[honey-minded-hivemind]

Thinking about your WOF Morph and and Wolverine...

[...]

Upon seeing the large, muscular new dragon, the scales on Morph's face shift to rose pink for a few moments before they gets them under control again. 'Calm,' they think to themself. 'I am calm and amazing and better than this...' Morph tries to think of an insult for the dragon, but his mind thinks of other things.

His scales shift to pink again. The mystery dragon notices and his glare hardens. Oh, not good. ...Though it is kind of a pretty sight. Maybe its the way the mystery dragon's scales shimmer like a rainbow python in the sun (though they do look just a little bit dull...hm, definitely needs some sun time. With them. On their platform. Morph's partners need to look the best, after all), or the white scales that litter his underscales like constellations on a clear night.

'Ah, jeez...I'm hooked,' Morph realizes. 'I'm hooked on a piece of trash that abandoned his egg. He doesn't deserve me. I should douse his face in venom for leaving the poor baby...then maybe turn those pretty scales into a rug. A really weird rug.'

Though part of them wanted this mystery guy around.

Forever.

[...]

Something tells me Morph isn't only a platonic yan but also a romantic yan

- 🧊

Yep. They definitely are. And so is Wolverine, once he gets attached. Surprise, those two get to know each other, raise little egg/newly hatched Reader together (because neither one is giving giving up) amd when it turns out Wolverine (Woebringer is his NightWing name) didn't abandon Reader but did an elaborate plot to save the from death incarnate, the NightWing island home, well... let's just say Queen Morph (Magnificent is their RainWing name) falls in love with him.

They get to discover things about each other, meet each other's partner/s, eat fruit, sleep whenever they need it, and don't have many worries... It's all pretty good, especially as Woebringer is a favored dragon of Queen Magnificent, Queen Magnificent gets another partner and bodyguard and friend all in one, amd they both get a cute little ray of moonlight, Reader!

But... everyone knows not to mess with the queen's spouses, or there will be dangerous, sometimes deadly, consequences... And everyone knows how the queen's new... bodyguard... acts around them, not letting anyone near unless the Queen explicitly says so...

Just DO NOT hurt their egg, or mess with it, or even speak about it, unless the queen asks you to say how lovely it is amd how lucky everyone is to be near it. Don't ever, and they mean EVER, mess with the dragonet who comes out, or the entire RainWing (and possibly NightWing) royal family/ies will rain acid and fire on your head...

(Yep. They got it bad for each other, plus dragon Storm, amd dragon Hank, amd maybe one of the other adult dragons? Anyone except Victor, as he's Logan's brother, so if he were part of Queen Morph's partners, they simply wouldn't get with his own brother. Because no. That woukd be gross, and I don't write that...)

[redthefortuneteller]

Both Snake and his snakes came from over the hills and far away

Right then, in regards to chapter 208, I'll be now focusing on my theory of Snake being originally a snake and originating in a facility owned by some sort of Dr Moreau type figure.

The flashback starts with Snake saying that since he could "remember" he was in a cage. Now I feel I should mention that from fan's translations it often came up as "when I woke up, I was in a cage." It would be great if someone who understands Japanese could be so kind as to clarify if there can be any double meaning to the word used in the original. Its meaning could change things a little bit. Regardless, he then says he didn't know why he was there nor did he know anything about the outside world.

So, from this I gather that he was born in a cage. In other words, captive bred. Forgive the reptile keeper term. It sounds dehumanizing, because it is. Unless we're talking about a snake. If he was born a snake, in a facility, it makes sense that all he remembers was being in a cage since he remembers.

Regarding the human mother and python father: I don't deem it necessary to waist time on taking what that repulsive charlatan said into consideration, as he's lying through his teeth to sell Snake's image as a product. If Snake says "It's all a lie." then it is so.

Now, another question I have in my mind about the translation is when he follows with "I have no father." because the translation I got, admittedly not through proper means of a human translator, but through google, is that he said "It's all a lie. There is no father." "I have no father." can mean his father died, but "There is no father." can mean that there's no such thing as a father there, meaning it's not specifically that rock python in the cage the charlatan lied about. Regardless, what these two phrases can hypothetically both mean, literally, is that there is no father, end of story.

As a small side note, @abybweisse mentioned that the snake in the image above looked like it could be Wilde. Indeed, this snake is a royal python and Wilde is portrayed as a (albeit impossibly huge) royal in the anime and the in the musicals. If we follow the concept of there being no father, he could have been created in a test tube, properly referred to as in vitro fertilization: taking a mature egg and fertilizing it with a sperm cell in a lab. It is possible to artificially inseminate a female snake too, thus having no father (that one would know of).

But allow me to stretch my ideas a little and ramble on about snakes for a bit. There's a certain phenomenon that very rarely occurs with snakes called parthenogenesis, or virgin birth for those of you more poetically inclined. This means the animal reproduced asexually, without copulating with another of the opposite sex. I won't go too much into the offspring, for the sake of time. Suffice to say that they're usually not as strong or as well developed as the ones produced by two animals of different sexes. There is one species of snake that is an obligatory parthenogenesis breeder though, the Brahminy Blind Snake. But only females are born. They're all girls, always! No boys allowed in their club.

Then there is a more common possibility. This is the retention of sperm during copulation with a male by the female, for later use. So, you go out and acquire a beautiful rainbow boa that had been a breeding female in the past and has retired, you come home with her, set her up nicely, give her a few kisses (don't do this, you'll get salmonella)… and a few months later you open her vivarium and are greeted not only by your baby, but by her, still slimy, 15 brand new wriggling babies! No father (in sight)! Sometimes a female could even have babies from an already deceased father by having stored his sperm for he was oh so worthy. The lovely joys of Nature…

All silliness aside, if Snake was a snake to begin with, there's these three possibilities to explain the lack of a father. The mother could even have been captured from the wild while pregnant for instance. Whichever the case, it's important to note that snakes rarely stay around to care for their young. A few do stick around to protect them but that's the extent of maternal care they provide.

Then he adds "These snakes and I were all brought here from somewhere far away" He ends it with "We have no family." In chapter 202, page 9, Dan says "Snake and us are family", which leads me to assume he's talking about humans this time around, especially since he then says that that's what he thought until he met the circus troupe.

This made me feel hopeful in a way and sad in another. Hopeful because he definitely came from somewhere along with all the snakes as I'd suspected. Sad because I feel as though that's the only information we'll ever get, since now we're already at the circus part of the backstory. I reckon there's no chance of bringing up a flashback about a past older than the freak show. Wherever they came from, it wasn't the wild. He has a wide array of different species with him, and a green anaconda and a black mamba are from completely different types of ecosystems and different continents. These snakes weren't found in the wild all together with him, it's impossible. They all had to have come from a collection, a facility, somewhere that could provide the necessary husbandry to at least keep them alive. So I believe he wasn't in the wild with all the snakes and then they got captured and brought to England. I think they must have either been sold or something happened to the facility they were being held in (as it did with Finnian). The people that got in brought what they found back to England and sold them to a freak show. But then there's the issue of the orphanage… I don't know what to think about that. If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them. I've run into a wall here because I can't fathom someone placing a snake hybrid with loads of venomous snakes into an orphanage. Not only that but Snake said he'd been inside cages since he remembers and knows nothing of the outside world. Did someone tell him something about an orphanage while at the Noah's Arc? Does it concern one of the troupe members and not him directly?

Since this post is getting too long, I'll briefly mention the other points of interest about Snake: He had no name at all until the circus and Joker named him. The snakes had no names either and Jumbo named them.

So I should scratch what I've written about the names of the snakes in my master post as Jumbo made the kind contribution of dispelling what I'd been contemplating as an explanation for their names. By the way, Wuthering Heights is an absolute favourite of mine as well. Just remembering certain passages sets my heart aflutter. Seems I have found something in common with Jumbo. Never thought he'd read those sorts of gothic works… he struck me as having a more Zen philosophy mind and Wuthering Heights is quite intense.

As always, thank you for reading and forgive my rambling style of writing…

[viewer-of-many]

A dove, really flamboyant and loves to show off his magic tricks to anyone who takes interest in magic.

"ahh~ greetings fellow bots, welcome, right this way, you're about to see the fantastic magician himself, me! Ohohohoho!"

Taxidermied Canadian swallowtail butterfly, she always felt a heavy weight on her. She felt envious of Curionia. Always sad and pessimistic about life.

"this is so... Sad... You tried so hard impressing everyone... You didn't take care of yourself... I'm so sorry..."

Daddy longlegs, the one who loves to do tricks, and make horrible boring jokes on everyone. He's just happy to be alive!

"wow! This is un-Bee-lievable! Haha, get it? Because there's a bee botbot, no? Ok"

Dessert Rosy boa, calm and collected, but she does acknowledge her foul smell. But she is definitely a sensei type of bot.

"you bots really need to work on your footwork more, you'll run as sloppy as that hoagie over there, now again! But stiff up those shoulders!"

Tarantula, this bot really likes to play "hunt". He'd sneak up on someone and teasing them after an almost painful nibble.

"aw~ come on! It wasn't that painful! It was a little bite!"

Ball python, a very well mannered bot. Compared to the other animal botbots, who have to deal with their beast instincts, he has full control of his.

"oh me? It's true, I don't really worry about my instincts... I can control it, I don't know why, maybe it has to do with my brain or something like that"

Scorpion, absolutely a massive prick! He doesn't have any respect for anyone! Anybody who is a higher status than him, he'll try his way to squish them down lower to him. He loves the infamy he gets.

"why don't you wusses get your stupid whiney flashlight out of my turf, or else!"

Corn snake, so silly and fun! Always the best in personality!

"so what are we going to do today? Is it a game or a super cool party? C'mon! You gotta tell me! I just can't contain myself!"

Rhinoceros beetle, a very strong warrior. He wishes that he'd get to face his greatest opponent one day, but right now, he's a bit old

"*sigh* you there! Yes, bonsai tree, what's your name? Bonz-eye? Interesting, I saw you wield that sword, who made it for you? That's a fine blade you got there"

Dung beetle, he's just as gross and weird as Clogstopper.

"YO! What's up? Oh this? It's just my ball of poop, wanna touch it?"

Cicada: absolutely a loud little piece of sh- he can't shut up.

"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU! YOU'RE SO QUIET, SPEAK UP!"

Betta fish, an absolute escape artist. She loves to try and escape any containment. Also a criminal.

"hah! You really think this translucent tank can keep me in? Amateurs!"

(I won't be able to name the spider botbots, since that means looking up details about their alt modes, and I am very afraid of them.)

Risori the Ring Master(The type of dove used in magic tricks is Streptopelia risoria, the Barbary or Ringneck dove. He specializes in ring based magic tricks)

Pinpilio(taxidermy can also be called pinning, and Papilio is the genus of swallowtails)

Sonorgata(Sonoran Desert, where rosy boas can live, and trivirgata, the scientific name)

King Coils(ball pythons are also called royal pythons, and they like to coil up)

Sculstinger(A Centruroides sculpturatus)

Kerophi(kernels, like corn, and Pantherophis, the genus name)

Aloeox(Strategus aloeus, the ox beetle)

Saceroll(Scarabaeus sacer. has ball, will roll.)

Decibre(Brevisana brevis, the loudest insect in the world.)

Betti Byrin(Betta fish are in the Anabantoidei suborder, also referred to as labyrinth fish, due to a special organ they have)

[gardenschedule]

Looks like they made up in the end, this article goes into it.

I must ask about your Masked Singer song choice, “Love Me Do.” It was the first time a Beatles song had been performed on the show. Tell me about this letter you wrote to Paul McCartney asking for permission to do that.

Well, I have a friend who worked at Apple in London, and he said, “I think Paul will have forgiven you by now.” Because, you know, I played [Paul] in the Rutles. … So, I worked up the courage and I wrote to Paul �� I sent him an email. And he probably almost immediately said, “Yes, absolutely, of course you can.” The producers were very happy, but he said, “There's only one condition: You have to tell me when it's on, so I can be sure to miss it.”

I'm a huge fan of the Rutles mockumentary All You Need Is Cash. I understand Paul originally wasn't on board with the Rutles. He wasn't thrilled with the movie or with your McCartney-inspired Dirk McQuickly character…

No. The person who was on board was George Harrison; we were good pals, and he's in the film, actually. As for Paul, my wife and I bumped into him in Regents Park shortly after with Linda [McCartney], and he said, “Oh, I'm not sure we’re talking to you!” And then just Linda loved [All You Need Is Cash]. She just loved it. And she loved me playing him. Obviously he wasn't quite so comfortable in those days, but I was very pleased that when they did the 50th anniversary of the Ed Sullivan performance, he asked me to come on the show with him and Ringo and do a Rutles joke. So, it's OK now.

Tell me about the iconic Monty Python performance at the “Concert for George” all-star tribute at Royal Albert Hall in 2002.

Olivia asked me if Python would come on. … She said, “Everybody's doing a George song. Would you do ‘Piggies’?” And I said, “We don't really do songs. We're not a singing group. You know, we do idiotic and rude things! So, why don't we sing ‘Sit on My Face and Tell Me That You Love Me’?” And she let us do it, so we did it! And I thought, “He would've been so happy that we did this. This would've made him so proud.” We insisted on doing something rude, and it lightened the mood. Laughter is close to tears, and if you can laugh at those times, it's really helpful. Because the rest of it was kind of very sad — like that the end with Joe Brown singing “I'll See You in My Dreams” with the petals falling, which is the most moving thing I think I've ever been part of. I'd have to go and cry a bit. And then Paul was great; he said, “Come here, you need a hug.” Every time he'd find me crying somewhere at the back, it was: “You need a hug. And it was very lovely, very nice.

Also this was about Eric lmao

I haven't seen Rutles, but I'm very curious. How do we know Eric Idle disliked Paul? Thanks for your great podcast and blog!

Hello and thank you very much for your kind words! :) It's my opinion that Eric Idle actively disliked Paul, although I don't have a quote from him saying "I dislike Paul McCartney." I recall that Idle once criticized Paul for having a massive ego in 1969 (I've searched but can no longer find the source- if anyone has it, please feel free to share); IDK if this assessment was based on personal experience (did Eric meet Paul in 1969?) or a second-hand judgment based on stories/complaints from George Harrison. In any case, we know that Eric had a close friendship with George, and it is therefore easy/natural to assume he was "Team George" in the 70s (and beyond). The other more compelling reason is that, as Ken Michaels rightfully pointed out to Neil Innes, Eric Idle's portrayal of Paul in The Rutles was "not flattering." While the other Beatles seem to be portrayed with love and good humor, Eric's portrayal of Dirk McQuigly is a bit... unsportsmanlike, IMO. Considering Idle adored George Harrison, it's understandable that he would not feel especially warm/charitable toward McCartney at a time when the Harrison/McCartney relationship was strained. It's also understandable, given all this, why Paul McCartney would not enjoy The Rutles. No one wants to be parodied by their ex-friend's new BFF! I think the cliche of “All the Beatles loved the Rutles except Paul because he can’t take a joke” might be a bit unfair. Most people understand the concept of “laughing at” versus “laughing with,” and I think it’s applicable here.  To be abundantly clear, YMMV, and anyone is free to disagree with me, Ken Michaels, Paul McCartney or anyone else in the universe at any time! I went on a google deep-dive to find any information on Eric Idle and Paul McCartney, and this is all I discovered:

Idle even said on occasion that he met McCartney at an event and Paul's reaction to seeing him was quite cold. On the other hand, in an interview with Richard Metzger in 2013, Neil Innes acknowledged that Paul had no problem with him, "although I understood that he was upset because some of Eric Idle's volleys in the film had been excessive." (X)

Thanks for the ask! p.s. We had two other anon asks with the same question. Hopefully this reply is satisfactory to all three anons!