#originally he was referring to a scarf she gave him in another episode

[iwasforcedtomakethisbytum]

Help me ahhh i can't stop thinking about what I'd do if i were in charge of a reboot of 6teen

For starters it would be more serialized, the original already had some of that and i don't wanna it to be so serialized you can't watch episodes out of order but we have streaming now so why not just have more mentions of previous episodes or foreshadowing future episodes

I'm mainly just thinking about Jonesy and how i could to not be the most hateable character, but i still want him to be a bit of a jerk to be honest but dear Lord I'm gonna give him a little chill pill like maybe he shouldn't be a literal criminal in multiple episodes, i wanna keep him being a selfish dick but maybe instead of flirting with literally all the women it's mostly just with his friends i kinda like the idea of him being demisexual idk i just like it, i also gave him more necklaces, mostly they mean nothing and he'd be happy letting another wear them, but one of his necklaces is his cremation necklace and is just really uncomfortable with the idea of others wearing it

i made jude trans, again i don't remember why i hc it but it's fun, so my design for him shows his binder under his tank top, i feel it would be mentioned but not a lot outside of a joke or two, i give him the more girly hands the women are given as a way to hint it and maybe older photos could show him with long hair or a dress. I also gave him a scarf which one thing i did add was maybe he'd like crochet/knitting and made the scarf himself (i also like to think nikki carries an opossum around that Jude made) he rollerstates everywhere even when he bumps into everything! I don't know what to headcanon his family like, they almost seem neglectful in the series as they're usually mentioned leaving jude alone at the house i feel but does that mean they're bad

Jen i feel she'd roughly stay the same, but maybe she'd be complaining a bit more about shit, i imagine she puts up with her job and school and stuff she hates because she knows it'll help her get what she wants but she doesn't care for it in private. Her parents are divorced like the original but i feel her dad isn't really explained in the original because jen remembers him as a good dad and some lines may reference him having died (omg what if he died by suicide, no I'm sorry not today) but it's never said that he's dead explicitly so it would make me wonder why in the original jen only lives with her mom, did he flee the area, was jen an unreliable narrator and he truly did something awful that warranted him not having custody, did her parents both choose to let Jen's mom have full custody for some reason? I don't know but in my version i like the idea of it being mention that she has to move between the houses (wait would she even have too, i know 16 is a bigger deal in Canada so would that give her the right to decide to not live with one of them?) but in my version of the show jens parents would have split costody of her and that would be mentioned

Nikki is a bit more nerdy i feel i made her, i like the idea of Chinese being her home language, and maybe she can also speak other languages outside of English and Chinese, i feel she'd speak Quebec French, Spanish and ASL to varying degrees of proficiency i could see her maybe considering being an interpreter as a career, she'd still be into protesting the same stuff she has before, she now has a half shaven head, one thing i don't necessarily care for with redesigns is just making her really emo but she's not really that in the original i mean sure it's alt but i don't see it as really emo. I feel like her and Wyatt talk about anime a lot. I feel she'd be fairly distant from her friends at the beginning of the series, like she's there with them they've known her most of their lives but it's not like she opens up to them about things and might seem unemphatic to them but overtime she tries to care about them and open up more maybe starting with them saying they're bi, which one is just like "wait you hadn't told us this before?"

Wyatt is also just nerdier, he draws, he sucks at it but he does draw, he obviously in a band, and so is jude, he just gets to do everything wyatt gets really obsessed with things he likes and will be upset if you don't like them, he also wears his headphones almost all the time, usually they're no music on though, i feel the music his band makes is just stuff that stimulates the ears it's just "hehe brain go brrrr" he's really into written art as well like fanfiction and poetry, i feel it would also be mentioned he takes care of younger siblings a lot as it's mentioned he's part of a big family in the series, i see him on the younger end of the family but still, idk maybe he could also have nieces and nephews

Caitlin also is into art, i feel she'd really be into the idea of fashion design but doesn't know how to make/modify clothing, she is the best drawer of the group, you can still very easily tell she's an only child, i liked the headcanon of her being homeschooled before joining the same school as the rest of the group, you could make an argument the first episode could imply it by saying "she didn't start until grade 10" but that also could mean she just went somewhere else, but i do think it would be fun if she didn't stop being friends with trisha despit being a bitch and the others keep trying to tell her to not hang with her but she "sees the good in her" i think it would be interesting to see it play out

I feel their parents would be mentioned more in the series, they might not show up but they are teenagers/young adults living under their parents roof so i feel it would make sense for it to be brought up more, like maybe the mention of a curfew or them complaining about something they're parents are doing or complain about rules they don't understand

It would be kinda cool to have a moment where both jen and jonesy bitch about their home lives and maybe complain that the marriage shouldn't even happen

Well that's it, i could probably say more but my brain has been satisfied

[iviarellereads]

Wheel of Time full series spoiler thoughts on EOTW 29-38

A probably semi-regular weekly bonus to my reread blog, since sometimes you realize things on reread that just make you need to yell in a full spoiler space.

It's really fun to look back at the stedding as, oh, this is literally a little piece of another dimension. It might've grown the local seeds and supported the local animals, but it is obviously disconnected from the local reality, to block the One Power and all.

So many references to Hawkwing sending armies across the sea, and yet nobody really believes it, or expects the Return.

The farmer gave Rand the dark, plain scarf… and then Rand wears it around his mouth… almost like a… black veil on this Aielman… OK that's a bit too much ellipsis for me to keep going but I had to squint and see if the words really meant what I thought they did.

In Play For Your Supper, one of the songs Rand names is "Coming Home From Tarwin's Gap", now how would a name like that have made it as far as the 2 Rivs?

Rand starts having little thoughts on the road that he can't quite track the source of. "Too late now." in Four Kings, for example. LTT starting to slip in. Or the taint madness, if you prefer that explanation for the hallucinations. Either way.

Ishy treating oblivion as a reward. Cute.

I feel kinda sneaky putting Mili Skane's name down in ch 33. It's kind of a spoiler, we're not told it, but I like tagging the characters that appear, for future searchability. If she ALSO appears later in the series, well, I wasn't lying about the Companion entry.

Almen Bunt reminded me that Elayne's kids could have a stronger claim to the throne than she did, because of the bloodliney shit Andoran nobles use to measure their kin-distance from the first queen, but only if everyone involved admitted Rand's lineage publicly. And, only because it was Rand's body that she conceived with.

Which gets me on to how weird and icky the Moridin body swap is, because besides everything else, we don't talk enough about how the Dark One resurrected Ishy as Moridin into somebody else's corpse, that body's original soul had his own family and life, and first the DO took it to punish Ishy with continued existence, and THEN Moridin and Rand swapped balefires and then bodies so Rand's in some completely random dude's face and genes.

(I only had about 5.5 hours of sleep last night as I write this, can you tell?)

At any rate, EOTW 34 cracks things wide open for any show-firstie who looks at the X-Ray feature or the episode credits. Episode 1x07 lists Tigraine Mantear instead of Shaiel, so when the first season was finished, seeing so many people go back and start reading the books and be like, well hold on now… That was precious and priceless to witness.

“The Queen is wed to the land,” Thom said as brightly colored balls danced in a circle, “but the Dragon . . . the Dragon is one with the land, and the land is one with the Dragon.” For this to appear here, with Almen Bunt, when his next appearance is just after Zen Rand emerges and the Dragon is one enough with the land to offer a bounty of apples from the orchard on Bunt's sister's farm… Same chapter, same day, still sleep deprived, and I need a moment to just sit in this feeling of beautiful symmetry.

No doubt I'll come back to it when the quote comes up, but: Thom was twice Morgase's age when they were together. Given the dates we have as long as the Fandom.wiki is properly sourced because I don't want to go doing extra digging in the Companion and stuff, that means that 14 years ago, Morgase was 27 and Thom somewhere in the 50-60 range, 55 being a solid guess, putting her at 41 and him at 68 around the start of the series. I'm still very, very glad the show agreed with me that there was no need of him being so old, especially when his love interests skew so young, Mo being the exception but she still looks young.

So much of chapter 36 is just "yep, setup." I daren't even start listing or we'll be here all day and this post will be much longer than I try to keep them, even for two-weekers when the first week's not quite long enough to justify a post. But the one that gets me is Rand finding it funny, the idea of him wanting to be a king, when he will end up the de facto ruler of a decent chunk of the Westlands.

37 and 38 do little in the way of setup but to continue setting up just how much Byar's gonna nurse that grudge for the next 12 books or two years. Well, that and finally showing Perrin's golden eyes. Mo asks if this was foretold, and well, we know it was… just not in a prophecy she'd have seen. Verin has, though.

I will say, I prefer how Egg and Perrin rescued themselves in the show, even if the wolf stuff maybe could have been moved forward into season 1 to make it make a little more sense to show-onlys.

And, do we think Mo was Warder-compelling Lan not to go after Nyn? Or just reminding him that it's out of character and out of keeping with his guiding principles? I'd like to think Mo treats Lan better, BUT she does hand off his bond to Myrelle without telling him later soooo…

[sailorfailures]

YEAH IT’S YOU!!!! IT’S YOU ASSHOLE!!!!!!!!!!

[saimotass]

little things in v3 that make me appreciate the game slightly more (spoilers)

the fact that the two incest plotlines can directly be traced back to tsumugi, whose fantasy in her love hotel event deals with her and shuuichi being stepsiblings. the fact that brother-sister incest happens twice within this killing game (with korekiyo & miyadera, and monotaro & monophanie) could be just tsumugi trying to extend her incest fetish to the public.

tsumugi probably named monophanie that way because she knew that she wanted to make kaede the protagonist (at least for the first trial). monophanie sounds like monophony, a term in music that refers to a unified, completely homogenous sound, such as a single instrument in a piece, or every instrument playing the same exact melody.

tsumugi's place in the trial room is exactly where junko's was, right in front of monokuma. she wanted to copy junko's killing game so much that she wanted to take the role of being in her position.

because it's so ambiguous whether tsumugi ever says the truth at all during her entire confrontation, it's almost to the point where she doesn't even have her own identity, and tsumugi shirogane could just be another fictional character she made up for herself. she could have deliberately chosen to raise her voice and have blue hair to pay homage to sayaka, who technically started the killing game in the first place.

the monokubs all have different homages to various former contestants in the killing games. monokid is a guitar player like ibuki and has syo & junko's long tongue. monodam is a robot much like mechamaru, and his name could be a reference to gundam, while his attitude seems pretty similar to twogami's (wanting everyone to get along regardless of whether it's possible or not). monosuke has a gruff attitude similar to mondo, enjoys baseball like leon, and is associated with money like celes and togami. monophanie is sweet and shy but still obedient and cruel, like mikan and touko, and her color scheme brings monomi and chiaki to mind. monotaro has a scarf like gundam, uses throwing stars that bring to mind izayoi from dr3, and has a leadership quality to him like kiyotaka and twogami.

the monokubs have similar color schemes to the warriors of hope, with a few of them having similar traits to them. monotaro and masaru are both the "leaders" and hotheaded, and are orange-red. monophanie and kotoko are both submissive yet still scary, and are pink. monodam and monaca both control their friends and associates and become power hungry because of it, and are both green. monokid and nagisa don't have much at all in common, but are both blue. monosuke and jataro also don't have much in common, but are both associated with neutral tan colors.

tsumugi and the ultimate impostor both show up in this game, but tsumugi is impersonating them, which would probably be her dream -- she's essentially cosplaying a cosplayer who's cosplaying as someone with no identity.

tsumugi doesn't end up contributing a lot because she's an intern for team danganronpa -- she's not used to having a say in major decisions and big meetings, since she's low on the chain of employees.

you never actually see tsumugi's face in the shot of everyone after kaede's execution, probably because she was either smiling or just completely expressionless. she got away with murder by killing another person, and as such would probably be incredulous or ecstatic about the result of the first trial.

when kaede asks tsumugi about her favorite anime, she mentions hers, and her favorite episode of said anime is episode 53. she probably was lying here, and just said that number in a panic. she hadn't probably thought that far into her backstory as tsumugi.

tsumugi probably planned for shuuichi, maki, and himiko to still survive the school being destroyed, since she gave them some of the most emotional moments in the game, killing the people closest to them. shuuichi had the deaths of both kaede and kaito, maki had her breakdown after kaito's death, and himiko lost both angie and tenko within the same trial. it would make sense that she had planned for them to survive through the whole thing, even if kiibo kind of sidestepped her plan a bit.

at the end, before her execution, tsumugi seems actually pretty neutral about her plan failing, even saying that she's proud to have made a perfect copy of the original killing game's plan. this could mean that she intended for the entire thing to fall apart, bringing an audience surrogate, a masterful liar and criminal, and a gifted detective into the same season all together.

kaito's illness was either planned from the beginning, or implemented after tsumugi realized how close he and shuuichi had gotten, and how helpful kaito's been to him. kaede was an easier target because there was a believable reason to execute her in everyone else's eyes. kaito probably would have never killed if he hadn't been battling his illness, since he agrees to help ouma in chapter 5's plan knowing that his time is limited. tsumugi probably instilled a handicap on him, knowing that he was the most hopeful and optimistic of the characters besides kiibo, who she could easily manipulate since he was essentially just a standin for the audience itself.

the inclusion of the remnants of despair as a plot point for part of the game makes sense when tsumugi is revealed to have created the entire season. she's a huge fangirl and wanted to have a nod to the second game. it also would make sense as something that she would just randomly throw in as a means of fanservice to the audience.

the demo's whole gimmick of makoto, hajime, and hagakure being part of the game alongside the new characters is put in a new light after the reveal that the original games were just works of fiction in v3's universe. plus, it's implied that makoto and hajime are actors, which would make sense. technically speaking, everyone in v3 is an actor as well, and with tsumugi cosplaying as a bunch of previous characters in the final trial, chances are that the makoto and hajime actors aren't the original characters, merely portraying them.

tsumugi being the mastermind makes so much sense, and the theme of truth vs. lies makes sense in terms of her constant denial that fiction can't influence reality. as a big fan of danganronpa before becoming part of the games themselves, she's more than likely well aware of the effects that fiction can have on real life, and probably agrees with shuuichi deep down.

the parallels between tsumugi and junko are interesting, but the ways in which they die are the most. they're both crushed to death, and while junko's smiling the entire time (save for the very end, when the crusher stops momentarily, allowing her a bit of confusion as to why it isn't working before she dies), tsumugi is just blank the entire time. it goes to show how even though she got to live her dream and become her idol, she just didn't have the same dedication and devotion to the cause that junko did.

also, kokichi and tsumugi are both crushed, and both were suspected of being the masterminds, also being the representatives of two criminal groups. they're very good antitheses to one another when you start to compare and contrast the two.

i could keep going but honestly we'd be here for a while

[feeling--pink]

My Sweet Ride is an amazing episode of Phineas and Ferb and the only thing bad about it I that I wish we could have seen more people in full out 1950s clothes!! So I did that!! (Also including some MML kids because I love them and don’t draw them enough!)

Anyways!! If y’all want to see me rant about 1950s stuff for a very long time because I had a blast doing research for this project you should click the keep reading!! :D

Okay a quick prelude!! Not only am I going to talk about outfits I designed, but while doing research I was blown away about the attention to detail the original designers had for these outfits and characters so I’m going to talk about their outfits too! :D

Here are my sources if you want to look into this btw!! :D

https://vintagedancer.com/1950s/1950s-teenager-fashions-girls-fashion-trends-and-clothing-styles/ 

https://vintagedancer.com/1950s/1950s-teen-boys-clothing/ 

https://vintagedancer.com/1950s/1950s-hairstyles/ 

https://vintagedancer.com/1950s/1950s-dress-styles/ 

https://vintagedancer.com/1950s/1950s-womens-hats-by-style/ 

https://vintagedancer.com/1950s/1950s-womens-shoes-style/ 

Candace

Okay I’m going to start out by saying I just adore this outfit

That has nothing to do with anything I just really love it!!

I’m thinking I might make one of my own for Halloween but that’s off-topic

Okay- 1950s clothing!!

Candace is wearing a blouse (?) with a cardigan over the top, and a pleated swing skirt.

This is a classic 1950s girl’s style

More specifically its also a classic “preppy good kid” look

Which Candace absolutely is!!

Y’all should notice that all the skirts are past knee-length, which was standard of the time.

Candace also has a neck scarf, a common accessory, and a headband.

Ribbon headbands were still a thing in the 50s but the hard plastic headband was also coming into style in the later 1950s.

She’s wearing a pair of saddle shoes which were one of the popular options of the time among boys and girls

Her hair is long with curls at the end, another classic teenager look in the 50s!

While short hair was more popular among adult women, teenage girls often kept theirs long with slight curls on the end!

Bangs were also standard, but usually shorter than how I drew them

Sorry that bit’s inaccurate through all of them, it’s just easier for me to draw long!

Finally, in case you had any doubt about Candace’s outfit being time period, here’s an advertisement from the article I read:

Vanessa

To start off we have a blouse and pencil shirt for Vanessa

Pencil and swing skirts were the two most common skirts of the time

She’s also wearing a belt, which I modified slightly to look like-

The wide contour belt on the bottom right!

She’s also wearing a pillbox hat, one of the popular hats of the time!

Hats were generally not worn by teenagers because they were seen as “mature” 

But that fits pretty well with Vanessa’s character

It’s the same story with the pumps, which I also changed lightly to match time period ones a bit more

Now what made me make my original post about the outfits in My Sweet Ride was actually the hair

Specifically, Vanessa’s hair is modeled after the Bettie Page style

This hair wasn’t actually that popular with the masses because it was seen as too simple, not classy, etc.

BUT it was popular among rebel girls in the USA

And like!!!!!! Y’all the designers did SUCH a good job to get down into details like that!!!!!!!!

But yeah her outfit’s great!! Next one!

Stacy

For Stacy, I decided to change things up slightly and give her a dress!

Specifically, it’s a shirtwaist dress, which I modeled after the reference below

Why the shirtwaist dress you may ask? Idk I think they’re neat

I thought it fit the vibe I was going for so I did that one I don’t know what to tell you jkdshsf-

Okay so generally, the belt wouldn’t have been a different color but I wanted to tie the green I used in a little more

Btw sorry I changed her color scheme a bit

I honestly haven’t fully figured out her original color scheme so I modified it a bit so it would look nice for this!

Pastels were very popular in the summer after all

I tried to stick to everyone else’s original color scheme though!

Stacy also has a headband tied up into a bow, which was standard

And to change things up I put her in a ponytail (with the end curled) which was popular with the teens!

Sklsdjhdkj I sound very “how do you do fellow teens“ while writing this that’s unintentional sorry

Shoes are penny loafers, another popular shoe at the time

I liked the little bows on the ends of some of the ones I saw and thought it was very Stacy!

That’s about it for her!

Phineas

This has nothing to do with anything but I love drawing Phineas

He’s just a funky little triangle!! I love him!

I’ll admit here that I didn’t look into men’s hairstyles, so you won’t hear about that from me sorry!

Phineas is wearing a black button-up, standard. 

Black and white matched everything so they were the most common undershirt colors

Over that, he has a jacket that looks to be varsity jacket inspired, which was seen as super cool!

Full jeans were coming into popularity in the 50s but only with the younger generations

Finally, he also has saddle shoes like Candace does

So yeah it’s a solid 1950s outfit!!

Ferb

Ferb’s a greaser, need I say more?

No, really he has everything

The white t-shirt and jeans combo is exactly the greaser look, so much so that most teenagers avoided it to not fall into stereotypes

Tighter fit jeans were coming into style in the later 50s, so that’s also accurate

The leather jacket just amplifies the greaser look

The one thing is that for the life of me I couldn’t figure out what shoes he was wearing

So I gave him a pair of sho-loks and called it a day!

More about sho-loks in Milo’s portion!

Isabella

Isabella makes an appearance with the first (and only) poodle skirt of the group!!

Poodle skirts, while definitely what most people think about when you say the 50s, actually weren’t that popular among teenagers

The embroidered designs were seen as childish, so children and preteens wore them the most

But here’s a fun tidbit you may not have caught from the show, Isabella is, in fact, a child

(I don’t know why I built that up so much sorry ldksjfhkds)

Anyways I decided if I was going to give anyone a classic poodle skirt it might as well be Isabella!

I modeled it after this poodle skirt:

She’s also wearing a blouse with a peter pan collar, the most popular collar of the time

Another headband tied into a bow because it’s Isabella I had to give her a bow

Standard belt (nothing really to say about that)

And another pair of penny loafers with little bows because they’re cute gosh darn it!

Milo

Okay, I’ve been writing for a while but honestly a lot of the rest of these I just drew directly from reference so…

I did say I would talk about shu-loks here though and I will!!!

Now we know Milo is shoelace-adverse

And while there are plenty of slip-on options I found the shu-lok to be fascinating!!

As you can see above, the tongue snaps down to keep the shoe on your foot!! Isn’t that cool? :D

So yeah I gave Milo those!!  

Zack

We know Zack plays football so I gave him your standard sporty outfit

Sorry I just find girls outfits infinitely more interesting so I kinda focused on those skjhgfdss

Oh! I do have something to say here!!

Converse were your typical sports shoe for the 50s so he has those!! Almost forgot that tidbit!!

Yeah, thick soles with wrinkles and stuff were seen as cool among teens so they got popular!

Melissa

Finally, we have some patterned pants!!

Yeah- checkers, plaid, stripes, polka dots, etc. were all very popular!!

I just didn’t want to draw them a lot ‘cause it’s hard sksfjdhgs-

But I gave Melissa checkers because it would get the black and white of her color scheme and I liked the way the checkered pants looked!!

Girls did wear pants at the time by the way!!

During summer and weekends mostly since they weren’t allowed to wear them to school

Short-sleeved turtle necks were also a thing and I thought that combo would look neat!!

Also, converse because it went with the outfit and that’s kinda what she’s wearing in the show!

Hair in a ponytail and side part bangs, both popular!

Yeah okay, that’s about it for Melissa!

Amanda

By this point, y’all are hopefully getting the gist of 50s fashion so we’re going fast now

Blouse, swing skirt, penny loafers (different style but still penny loafers), headband

(here’s what I modeled the whole thing after:)

I do want to mention the pullover sweater because I thought I should include one and I really like the flower embroidery on them

Then finally we come to her hair!! I already mentioned the headband but I was specifically modeling her hair in the pageboy style which looks like this:

Obviously, it looks a little stylized but what can you do?

And that’s it!! I had so much fun doing research and designing this and I think they all turned out pretty good!! I’m going to do more go this in the futures so if there's someone in particular you’d like to see let me know!! I’m planning on doing Cavendish, Dakota, and Sara at least in the next batch!! 

[weekendwritingmarathon]

This weekly roundup includes fics written (at least in part) during the 1k1h sprints and/or the Weekend Writing Marathon events.

Fics are ordered first by fandom, then by word count from smallest to largest.

*

I’ll Follow You (Around The World) by vexbatch

Good Omens || Crowley/Aziraphale || Teen & up || No major warnings apply || 2,414 words || Complete

Summary: Crowley and Aziraphale meet up, sometime before the end of the world, to have a coffee.

Other tags: fluff, pining, first kiss

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Dancing By Myself (and baby, it’s the electric slide) by vexbatch

Marvel || Clint Barton || Explicit || No major warnings apply || 1,559 words || Complete

Summary: It’s Clint’s birthday, and Natasha actually got him a really nice gift. A really nice gift that he’d like to try out right now, thank you very much.

Other tags: trans clint barton, masturbation, violet wand, pwp

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An Intermission (or two) by @pherryt

Marvel, The Old Guard || none || General || Major Character Death || 1,590 words || Complete

Summary: Two short vignettes focusing on Andy and Bucky (Separately) before the next big story hits: Chapter 1: Andy isn't sure of her usefulness anymore, now that Superheroes are becoming a thing. Chapter 2: Bucky isn't sure of anything at all. Until he is.

Other tags: off screen character death, canon divergent winter soldier, Avengers, Implied/Referenced Torture, Battle of New York, Family, loss of self, Memory Loss

*

Outside the World by @pherryt

Marvel || winterhawk (bucky/Clint) || General || No major warnings apply || 4,767 words || Complete

Summary: Bucky doesn't really remember who he is, and what little he does remember is impossible. All his therapists have said so. There's no way he can be who he thinks he is - a character from a children's book. And yet, the world around him just doesn't *feel* right - its too dark, too colorless and doesn't match the vibrancy of his dreams. Dreams he tries to capture both on paper and on his walls. Bucky doesn't have any answers he can count on, just the hat he's kept all these years, but that guy that started following him - as vibrant and eye-catching as the pieces of Bucky's dreams - Well, he just might.

Other tags: Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat , White Rabbit, March Hare , Wonderland, Amnesia, Lost!Bucky, stranded in another world, Magic, Portals, past self inflicted hurts (but not self harm), Reunions, Riddles, names have power, Protective!Bucky, Sacrifices, allusions to greater conflict, bucky's friends never gave up, Pocket Watch, Top Hat, Recovering Memories, unwonderland, steve rogers, steven strange

*

Finding Me (And You) Along the Way by @pherryt

Marvel || winterhawk (Bucky/Clint) with side Steve/Sam || Teen & up || No major warnings apply || 10,031 words || Complete

Summary: When Clint retired - pre-Loki, pre-Avengers - he'd never expected that his leisurely world tour might be joined a couple years later by Captain America's best friend. A best friend who'd gone through things nobody should ever have had to go through and was just trying to find himself again. Even if Clint hadn't already promised Steve to keep an eye out for Bucky, he'd have caved in the direction of helping. There was just something about him...

Other tags: soulmates, soulmate miscommunication, telepathy (sort of) finding yourself, fluff, traveling the world, mutual pining, deaf!clint, retired!clint, nerd!bucky, soft!bucky, canon divergent, post winter soldier, journal, memories, scarf, minor references to nightmares and past abuse

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Square One by @pherryt

Marvel, The Old Guard || nicky/joe (pre Nicky/Joe/Bucky) || Mature || Graphic Descriptions of Violence, Major Character Death || 15,709 words || Complete

Summary: It's been nearly 50 years since James sacrificed himself to save Joe and Nicky from a very Merrick like fate. They had no idea he was about to become a presence in their lives once more, looking almost as young as he had then. James wasn't an immortal, so it should have been impossible, but there he was on the tv, clear as day.

Other tags: Temporary Character Deaths, temporary suicide, On screen suicide, Hurt/Comfort, Healing, identities revealed, Angst, Family, finding sanctuary, There's another one, Hopeful Ending, protective Joe, Protective Nicky, Supportive Andy, supportive Nile, talk about past joe/nicky/bucky, Forgiveness, Winter Soldier, bonding all over again, post winter soldier, canon divergent winter soldier, post old guard, Tired Bucky Barnes

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Not Your Guardian Angel (chapter 21) by @tryslora

Original Fiction (Welcome to PHU) || M/F/F (Shane/Pels/Jess) || Teen & up || Author chooses not to give major warnings || 3,464 / 83,881 words || WIP

Summary: When Pels wakes up, everyone she loves is there. Maybe they can heal from more than just the accident.

Other tags: Magic, College, Guardian Angel, Ghosts, Soulmarks

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Not Your Guardian Angel (chapter 22) by @tryslora

As Above || 3,513 / 87,394 words || WIP

Summary: Jess wants to hug Pels. She wants to confirm that she's alive and well, but... that's something they haven't done yet.

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Under the Surface by @pherryt​

Supernatural || destiny (Dean/Cas/Benny) || Teen & up || No major warnings apply || 25,842 words || Complete

Summary: Dean was kicked out of his pack because he couldn't turn into his wolf, but shifters aren't meant to be alone. He finds a traveling companion in Benny, who's been on the run from his own pack for years and is desperately lonely. It goes well enough, except that Dean keeps getting sick and Benny doesn't know why, so when they find what appears to be an abandoned village, they take refuge - only to find a lone wolf still lives there and he's not too happy to find strangers in his home.

Other tags: Found Family, Shifters, Wolves, Werewolf AU, touch starved, Alone, cast out, Traveling Together, Finding Shelter, Storms, Hurt/Comfort, Sick!Dean, hurt!Dean, Bad Pasts, Fluff and Angst, Pining, Mutual Pining, loner!cas, Magic, spells, Prophecy, Fantasy AU, not a/b/o, Shapeshifting, Domestic

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Wyerd by tryslora

Teen Wolf || Stiles/Derek/Jackson || Teen & up || No major warnings apply || 4,990 words || Complete

Summary: Stiles started writing the webcomic when he was sixteen. At the time, he thought the name was the height of wordplay humor. Now it's been picked up by Netflix for a six episode series covering the first published volume, and starring Derek Hale and Jackson Whittemore. What even is his life?

Other tags: AU-Actors, Comic Artist Stiles, Actor Derek, Actor Jackson, Getting together

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Have you posted a fic recently?  Any active WWM participant can Submit your fic here by midnight EST Wednesday and it will be included on next Friday’s WWM Fic Roundup post.

[bolddeducktionneverfails]

Launchpad’s Association With Della Duck: The End of The Runway?

Some time after the premiere of the DuckTales reboot, I came across speculation regarding Launchpad possibly being the father of the triplets; a claim that has probably followed the character since the debut of the original series. (A lot of us probably thought about it at least once when we were younger.) I wasn’t in favor of the idea, but I was still open to Launchpad having something else to do with Della. They’re pilots after all, so I figured some sorta connection could be made: Maybe Launchpad was a fan of hers or a flight school colleague. Were they best friends? Could Launchpad have been a friend of the triplets’ father? Maybe he was the one who brought the couple together.

As the show progressed, along with the Disney Duck media that followed it, Della's outfit changed colors. When “Dime Chase” aired, her Money Bin portrait depicted her without black gloves, tan shorts instead of a cream colored pair and her scarf was suddenly a shade of green as opposed to a peachy-looking color. In the previews for the IDW comics, her outfit pretty much fell in line with the newer painting, but I noticed how her scarf was now a shade of teal that was very close to Launchpad's hat. Then in "House of The Lucky Gander!", Launchpad showed competence and maturity when he went out on a dangerous mission to check on his old girlfriend. The release of IDW's second and third issues of DuckTales comics gave us an idea of what Della was like and she seemed like someone who could get along pretty well with Launchpad. And eventually, I realized that Ziyi may have gone missing...just like Della did. 

This was getting all too interesting. From that point on, I decided to consider the theory and continued to find other notable occurrences that could indicate Launchpad and Della having a past. I became convinced and took another stab at connecting the dots:

First, I started off with the concept of Launchpad trying to figure out what happened to Della like Dewey and Webby were. Maybe he was hoping his job with Scrooge would help him get some answers. Webby stated in "Dime Chase" that bad things happen to those who speak of Della Duck, so maybe he was waiting for the best time to ask; gaining the family’s trust and perhaps doing his own secret investigation in the meantime. Then, after trying to figure out Launchpad’s odd behavior in “The Last Crash of The Sunchaser!” and “The Shadow War”, I began to think that maybe he already knew that Della got lost in Space after taking the Spear and that he’s been wanting to help Scrooge find her because it might be his fault in some way. Maybe applying for the chauffeur job was his way of making up for his involvement. I also wanted to believe that maybe he’s been playing dumb to an extent because he's afraid of everyone getting mad at him.

When the description for "Nothing Can Stop Della Duck!" was released, it was very vague about whether Della succeeded or not with rebuilding the Spear. I was stuck in the mindset that it would be too early for her to make it directly to her family. I thought that maybe she would at least make it to Earth, but there would still be another struggle for her to face in order for her to make it back to Duckburg. After "Golden Spear" aired, I wondered if there was a catch to the ending. The switch happened so fast and the sky looked really eerie...I thought it was a dream Della was having after she had crashed elsewhere. But once IGN posted a clip from “Nothing Can Stop Della Duck!” to assure us that Della really was coming home this early in the season, I began to anticipate a family reunion involving Launchpad and Della being on screen together; finally revealing their secret connection to everyone and…

They don’t know each other.

Their very first interaction on the show is Della yelling at Launchpad and angrily running out of Donald's Houseboat to confront Scrooge about replacing her.

This scene should have been a devastating blow that cancelled out all of Launchpad's eligibility and should have prevented any other way to work around it.

But instead...it caused me to look further and reroute my ideas.

When Della told Scrooge the original names she had in mind for Huey, Dewey and Louie, I could have yelled...if I wasn’t watching TV so early in the morning...“Jet” is Launchpad’s first name in the Italian Ducktales dub and “Turbo” is his name in the Dutch version. “Rebel”, as far as I know, has nothing to do with Launchpad. It’s probably included because it breaks the pattern...unless this is referring to the fact that Launchpad is an (very) unorthodox airplane pilot.

A ʟɪsᴛ ᴏғ Lᴀᴜɴᴄʜᴘᴀᴅ’s ɪɴᴛᴇʀɴᴀᴛɪᴏɴᴀʟ ɴᴀᴍᴇs ғʀᴏᴍ ʜɪs I.N.D.U.C.K.S ᴘᴀɢᴇ

So...Della basically wanted to name her children after Launchpad in the same episode where they meet for the very first time? A lot of Disney research goes into this show, so it's really hard for me to believe the show runners would choose two names that just so happen to already belong to Launchpad.  Even without intentionally thinking of his alternate names, the words "jet", "turbo" and "launchpad" all go hand-in-hand with each other.

Why is the foreground telling us that Della and Launchpad have nothing to do with each other when the background is giving us every reason to doubt this?

This lead me into thinking of something I would have never fathomed:

What if LP used to be the father...but an event changed him into who we currently know him as?

One character turning out to be another isn't a new thing in the DT fandom. When Season 1 was still premiering, there were theories going around about Della being Magica and Webby being a de-aged Della due to a magical incident. I'm usually against these theories because they tend to involve two well-known characters with established histories. Neither of them would be able to exist at the same time; a sacrifice would have to be made and that doesn't feel right. But with HDL's father, we know so little about him, that it would be easier to merge his history with someone else who shares enough similarities with him: Launchpad and the father are both accident prone ducks with red hair and possible military involvement. With Della being a pilot with an unknown lover, that makes this an even better fit.

Fʀᴏᴍ ᴀ ᴄʜᴀʀᴀᴄᴛᴇʀ ᴅᴇsᴄʀɪᴘᴛɪᴏɴ ᴘᴀɢᴇ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ ᴏʟᴅᴇʀ DᴜᴄᴋTᴀʟᴇs ᴄᴏᴍɪᴄs

If Launchpad went through a change, then what type of crazy event could have caused him to become unrecognizable? The first thing that comes to my mind is the cosmic storm.

Issue 18 of IDW's DuckTales comics provided us with a story called "Money Grubbing Hooligans From The Deep!" . It's about a submarine pilot, who shares many similarities with Della, traveling a great distance to save Launchpad after someone mislead her into believing he was kidnapped and enslaved.

Her rescue mission caused such an unusual amount of seismic activity, that a tsunami warning had to be issued out across Duckburg. So basically, a pilot had secret intentions of helping a loved one, that involved traveling through strange weather patterns.

While the comics are not necessarily set as canon, they will sometimes loosely parallel certain events from the show.  Like how the first two issues revolved around Donald looking for a job and how that element was present in the pilot episode. “Happy Happy Valley!”  seems to be inspired by “The Town Where Everyone Was Nice!”. The plot for “The Incredible Shrinking Webby!” sounds similar to “The Most Dangerous Game…Night!” where Gyro’s shrink ray got out of hand.

"Money Grubbing Hooligans From The Deep!" seems to be partially inspired by “The Depths of Cousin Fethry!”. In that episode, Huey and Dewey answer Fethry's call about a discovery at the Mid-Atlantic ridge and trick Launchpad into stealing Scrooge's submarine in order to meet him. Dewey claimed that Scrooge wanted them to go on this "Totally non-suspicious trip to 'test the equipment.'" He also rips out the sub's radio, causing them to lose contact with Scrooge. When they reach their destination, Launchpad gets side-tracked by the call of a mermaid he previously dated.

Later on, Fethry realized that the monster they were trying to escape from, was actually a previous member of his krill team. He didn't recognize her at first because her body was altered by the chemicals in the hydrothermal vents. As he tried to jog her memory, he brought up a moment where they had shared a rib-eye together; it sounded very reminiscent of a date.

Then afterwards, Launchpad returns to the lighthouse after possibly helping his ex out of a situation. He wore an Aquaman-esque outfit, basically held a golden spear in his hand, and had color-coded creatures attached to him that matched the triplets in color and personality traits. 

So, in short, a vehicle was stolen under a false claim when the real intention involved a family member and a previous lover.

Back in February, PhatMojo showcased their upcoming DuckTales merchandise for the New York Toy Fair. People weren’t able to take pictures of the new additions at the event, but Phatmojo added pictures of a different display full of mock-ups and prototypes to their website; possibly from a section of their office. In the first row of the posable figure area, a mock-up package of Launchpad, dressed in the Chinese armor he wore at the end of “Gander”, was placed next to a mock-up package of Della’s Post-Spear design. 

(Sᴏᴜʀᴄᴇ)

For some reason, they’re the only ones with the blue sky background and gold label, opposed to the sunset background and teal label a lot of the Wave 2 toys have. This could just be an indication that these are story elements from Season 1 or maybe sunset and teal was decided after these mock-ups were put together and the final products will convert to it, but at the moment...this really makes the two pilots stand out…Below the figures were a couple of boxes with talking plush toys. One of which, had a Launchpad plush leaning on a toy of the Spear.

The placement of the items shown might not be completely random: Lunaris is placed under Della and he definitely has something to do with her this season. Donald is placed in between him and a figure pack that looks a lot like the triplets in space suits. And the figure packs containing Gizmoduck, Della Duck and Darkwing Duck are grouped together when they have a connection to the Moon. While Della and Darkwing are self-explanatory, Gizmoduck was involved with the Moon Level in the classic DuckTales video game. Perhaps this was hinting towards their involvement in Donald’s rescue or the invasion in general. 

PM could certainly be hinting something with Launchpad and Della too, LP’s outfit comes directly from the case of a missing loved one and the toy company is well-aware of what will happen in the future of the show. If LP has nothing to do with Della, wouldn’t there be some temptation to place Donald next to her instead? They’re twins, it’s a much better fit and the row would have been full of the original adventuring trio. 

If the packaging of Launchpad and Della’s figures were done as an indication between seasons, it’s kinda odd to have Macaw!LP in a group of Season 2 focused toys and especially being something that’s seen as a small running gag. It’s like, why not make a figure out of Launchpad’s look from “Depths”? It’s a similar situation, but more recent. The fact that this version of the character is getting a toy really seems to suggest that this subject will be brought up again with something significant attached.

Another interesting thing about the picture of the display is the time that it was released: It was added to PhatMojo’s website during the time the Toy Fair was happening; February 16th to the 19th. A day later, Issue 18 was released on the 20th, when it’s original date was planned for the 13th, closer to Valentine’s Day. Two days later, a clip from “Whatever Happened to Della Duck?!” was posted to Disney Channel’s YouTube account and the following day, a promo begin to air...two weeks before the episode premiered. 

This was the episode to break up a long hiatus, so it was probably being promoted this early to generate hype, but like...a photo of a display with Launchpad and Della next to each other, a toy of Launchpad leaning against the Spear in that same photo, a story about a female submarine pilot wanting to save Launchpad and details about Della’s mysterious journey, all getting released in such a short period of time? This is looking a bit pre-planned...

Before “Whatever Happened” aired, I remember seeing some speculation about Della possibly being affected by the cosmic storm in some way. Huey asks her about this in “Nothing Can”, but it's left unanswered, similarly to Huey's question about Zeus controlling all storms in “The Spear of Selene!”. Could this be implying that Zeus was probably the one who created the cosmic storm? And if Della wasn't affected...couldn’t that leave the possibility that someone else may have been?

I didn’t catch this the first time I heard it, but Launchpad’s “a little lightning never killed anyone” quote from “Selene” sounds a lot like he was struck by lightning before. He said a similar thing in the latter half of "Woo-oo!' after he got a pile of snakes dropped on him. He's probably been bitten by snakes many other times and knew that the venom wouldn't be able to kill him.

Launchpad made joke in the DT joke book about getting struck by lightning and Zeus was mentioned along with it...LP has yet to be on screen at the same time as Zeus, or any other Greek deity for that matter. (A similar thing usually happens whenever the Duck Cousins are focused on. He's been on screen with Donald before, but they hardly ever interact.) Both the joke and the quote could have been referring to a past encounter. And judging by LP's avoidance, it could have been a negative one. He seemed a bit nervous about leaving the plane when it crashed on Ithaquack. We've seen Donald get directly struck by Zeus' lighting in “Golden Spear” and nothing special happened to him, but combined with the radiation of the cosmic storm? It's bound to do something to somebody.

Iɴ "Tʜᴇ Sᴘᴇᴀʀ ᴏғ Sᴇʟᴇɴᴇ", Wᴇʙʙʏ ᴛʜᴇᴏʀɪᴢᴇᴅ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴀғᴛᴇʀ Dᴇʟʟᴀ sᴛᴏʟᴇ ᴛʜᴇ Sᴘᴇᴀʀ, sʜᴇ ᴀɴɢᴇʀᴇᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ɢᴏᴅs ᴀɴᴅ ʙʀᴏᴜɢʜᴛ ᴛʜᴇɪʀ ᴡʀᴀᴛʜ ᴜᴘᴏɴ ʜᴇʀ ғᴀᴍɪʟʏ. Tʜɪs ᴅɪᴅɴ'ᴛ ᴘʟᴀʏ ᴏᴜᴛ ᴏɴ Dᴇʟʟᴀ's ᴇɴᴅ ᴡʜᴇɴ ᴡᴇ sᴇᴇ ʜᴇʀ ʜᴇᴀᴅɪɴɢ ᴏғғ ɪɴᴛᴏ Sᴘᴀᴄᴇ. Sᴏ, ᴄᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴛʜɪs ᴘᴏʀᴛɪᴏɴ ʙᴇ ғᴏʀᴇsʜᴀᴅᴏᴡɪɴɢ sᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ғᴀᴛʜᴇʀ ᴍᴀʏ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴅᴏɴᴇ?

Tʜᴇʀᴇ ᴍᴀʏ ʙᴇ ᴀ ᴄᴏɴɴᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ ʙᴇᴛᴡᴇᴇɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇᴠᴇɴᴛs ᴏғ "Gᴀᴍᴇ Nɪɢʜᴛ" ᴀɴᴅ Sᴘᴀᴄᴇ: Gʏʀᴏ ᴡᴀs ᴛɪᴛʟᴇᴅ ᴀs ᴀ ɢᴏᴅ-ᴋɪɴɢ ᴀɴᴅ ʜᴇ ᴢᴀᴘᴘᴇᴅ Lᴀᴜɴᴄʜᴘᴀᴅ ᴡɪᴛʜ ʜɪs sʜʀɪɴᴋ ʀᴀʏ. Aғᴛᴇʀᴡᴀʀᴅs, Lᴀᴜɴᴄʜᴘᴀᴅ ᴅᴇsᴄʀɪʙᴇᴅ ʜɪs sɪᴛᴜᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ᴀs ʙᴇɪɴɢ ɪɴ ᴀ "Gɪᴀɴᴛ Wᴏʀʟᴅ ᴏғ Nɪɢʜᴛᴍᴀʀᴇ Hᴏʀʀᴏʀs". Pᴇɴᴜᴍʙʀᴀ ʟᴀᴛᴇʀ ᴅᴇsᴄʀɪʙᴇs Eᴀʀᴛʜ ɪɴ ᴀ sɪᴍɪʟᴀʀ ᴡᴀʏ.

Issue 18 made me wonder if Launchpad could have been abducted by aliens. His character has a history of space travel and he’s been abducted by aliens before in the original Darkwing Duck series. Launchpad’s behavior in “Terror” really seemed to indicate that he may have gone through a situation where a shape-shifting creature, perhaps after turning into someone he trusted, attacked him and the mole monster movie was bringing that memory back. While he was talking about how anyone could be a mole monster, he stands in front of an alien poster. The poster for the mole movie is right next to it. 

In “Moorshire”, Launchpad got taken away by the kelpies, creatures that are known to shape-shift, in the remains of the golf cart he was driving. Huey noticed he was gone and went to save him before it was too late. Maybe Launchpad’s past self used to be an astronaut pilot and the aliens attacked him in his ship.

If Launchpad was somewhere in the area where the cosmic storm was, that would explain why Della pressed forward instead of turning around. Scrooge told her to turn back, implying she could, right? If not, I suppose the poor connection delayed his warning. Scrooge talking to Della at that moment may have been the first time he was able to contact her since taking the rocket. The way Della reacted to the video connection cutting in and out seemed like she may have struggled with it earlier. But if she could have turned back to dodge the storm completely and if it was simply a test-run like Scrooge had claimed, there was no need for her to deliberately go through the storm without a purpose. There had to have been something she was trying to get to in the direction of it and she felt like passing through was the best option.

Lᴀᴜɴᴄʜᴘᴀᴅ ʟᴏᴏsɪɴɢ ᴄᴏɴᴛᴀᴄᴛ ᴡɪᴛʜ Lᴏᴜɪᴇ ᴅᴜʀɪɴɢ ʜɪs ᴘʜᴏɴᴇ ᴄᴀʟʟ ɪɴ "Gᴀᴍᴇ Nɪɢʜᴛ", ɪs sɪᴍɪʟᴀʀ ᴛᴏ ʜᴏᴡ Dᴇʟʟᴀ ʟᴏsᴛ ᴄᴏɴᴛᴀᴄᴛ ᴡɪᴛʜ Sᴄʀᴏᴏɢᴇ ɪɴ "Lᴀsᴛ Cʀᴀsʜ". Tʜᴇʏ ᴡᴇʀᴇ ʙᴏᴛʜ ʙᴇʟɪᴇᴠᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, ʙᴜᴛ sᴜʀᴠɪᴠᴇᴅ.

There could be a parallel between Della's departure from Earth and her departure from the Moon: 

Donald didn't want her and the family to go into Space because it was too dangerous with HDL on the way. Penumbra didn't want Della to bring the Moonlanders to Earth because she thought it was too dangerous and didn't like the idea of Della's planet being better than hers.

Della promised to take the Moonlanders to Earth, similarly to how she wanted her family to go to Space, but the emergency launch being activated caused her to break it. This might be hinting that something sudden and urgent caused her take the Spear as soon as she did.

In "Dime Chase", Webby questioned if Della betrayed Scrooge and the Moonlanders felt betrayed when Della ended up leaving without them.

Della's urgency for leaving the Moon was so she could finally get back to her family. Based on the fact that she placed the family photo on the dashboard of the Spear when she first entered Space, family could have been a driving force in that situation too.

I find it extremely interesting that Scrooge compared the Sunchaser situation in “Last Crash” to the Spear incident while Dewey was desperately trying to resolve the mystery about his mother. As Dewey tried to find answers in “The Spear of Selene!”, Selene talks about how much Della loved a good mystery and also how much she loved her family.

Because of these things and the fact that Dewey is so similar to Della, this could be an indication why the whole Spear thing got started: she too could have been making a great risk to solve a mystery.

The dialogue during the scene where Dewey is outside of the plane may have been hinting this:

Webby and Louie try to talk him out of chasing the missing piece.

"Dewey, this is crazy! The mystery's not worth it!"

"I--I get it, but you can't give up the rest of us to find the one person we lost!"

Launchpad comes up to the window after this is said. The glass creates a divide between him and the rest of the group as he makes a statement that comes off as completely irrelevant. Huey takes the walkie-talkie from him.

"Dewey, our family is amazing! We're enough, let it go!"

Then, Dewey angrily chucks his walkie-talkie; losing connection with his brother.

So, maybe this is what could have happened: Aliens or something else could have caused the father to go missing for a long period of time. After realizing he disappeared, Della may have started an investigation that turned into a plan for a family rescue. Somewhere in this, she could have gone to Selene for help with the mystery. Maybe Della named the Spear after her friend to express gratitude.

It’s very possible that she had intentions of bringing her family together and letting the father know about their children, but after Donald voiced his negative opinion of the trip and refused to let her take the boys, her plans were disrupted. Somehow, she found out about the Spear and could have started reworking around this. Perhaps the father was trying to come home at this point and eventually got caught in the cosmic storm. He could have sent out a mayday but lost his connection. Maybe Della received his distress call or was given an idea of where he was and took off to help him.

Since Launchpad has been very secretive about his love-life and Della’s hasn't been directly mentioned anywhere, I feel like she may have not told Scrooge and Donald about the father for some reason or anything about him being the underlying reason for wanting to explore Space.  For a while, I've been headcanoning that the couple was mainly nervous about what Donald would think of their relationship and decided to hold off on the introduction until they felt ready. (Aside from giving Della room to grow as a parent, perhaps one of the reasons why Donald was sent to Space was because he would have interfered with Della discovering who Launchpad really is.) 

Maybe she kept getting interrupted or ignored every time she wanted to talk about the father to her family. That tends to happen to Launchpad when he has something interesting to say. There could be a running gag playing off of the popular version of Don Rosa's Duck Family tree where the father's face and first name are "censored". What if she purposely left the father out of her explanation because she thought she would be more likely be to discouraged? To be told that the three of them were enough, like Huey said to Dewey?

I ᴡᴏɴᴅᴇʀ ɪғ ᴘᴀʀᴛ ᴏғ Dᴇʟʟᴀ's ᴘᴏssɪʙʟᴇ ʀᴇsᴄᴜᴇ ᴡᴀs ғᴜᴇʟᴇᴅ ʙʏ ᴛʜᴇ ғᴀᴛᴇ ᴏғ ʜᴇʀ ᴏᴡɴ ᴘᴀʀᴇɴᴛs. Mᴀʏʙᴇ sʜᴇ ᴅɪᴅɴ'ᴛ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛʀɪᴘʟᴇᴛs ᴛᴏ ɢʀᴏᴡ ᴜᴘ ᴡɪᴛʜᴏᴜᴛ ʙᴏᴛʜ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇɪʀ ᴘᴀʀᴇɴᴛs ʟɪᴋᴇ sʜᴇ ᴅɪᴅ.

Donald probably didn’t give Della a chance to explain everything when she brought up her ideas of Space travel during such a crucial point in time. Donald was quick to call Della reckless and brainless in "Last Christmas". There was even a parallel being made between that situation and the one surrounding the Spear: There was an underlying motive, she made a big deal, wanted to spend time with her family, packed a bunch of supplies and Donald was opposed to the adventure. She was also searching for someone to make another part of her family happy. When Della shared her plans about the rocket, he could have shot her down by insulting her and caused her to lose her point as they argued. 

ᴀs sᴇᴇɴ ɪɴ "Lᴀsᴛ Cʜʀɪsᴛᴍᴀs" ᴀɴᴅ "Sᴋʏ Pɪʀᴀᴛᴇs", ʙᴏᴛʜ Dᴇʟʟᴀ ᴀɴᴅ Dᴇᴡᴇʏ sᴇᴇᴍ ᴛᴏ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴀ ᴘʀᴏʙʟᴇᴍ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴄᴀᴛɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇɪʀ ɴᴇᴇᴅs ᴀɴᴅ ɪɴᴛᴇɴᴛɪᴏɴs ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʟᴇᴀʀʟʏ.

After "Whatever Happened" premiered, I wanted to believe Della succeeded in her rescue mission, but got caught in the storm on the way back. That would explain why she was laser-focused on her boys, because she had already did what she needed to do. I had also thought her regret over the situation when she said "I will NOT fail them again!" mainly lied on the promise she made to her boys about finding a way back home. But what if she failed completely? What if she regrets ever stepping foot into the Spear because in the end, all it did was make her miss out on motherhood and did nothing to help the father? When it comes to the letter Della left behind, a lot of fans have been wondering why she wrote "I’m sorry" instead of "thank you". I first thought it was “sorry” as in “Sorry for ruining the surprise!”, but it could be “Sorry, but need to go on this mission!”, “Sorry, but I'm running out of time!”, “I'm sorry for whatever may happen after I do this!”. The letter sounds a lot like she had to do something against Scrooge's wishes that couldn’t wait. If this was just a test run, she could have definitely waited for certain conditions to be right.

After discovering that the moon mite was a mother, General Lunaris makes a statement that resonates deeply with Della.

"She put herself in danger, faced unknown threats, scoured this entire planet for any scrap of metal."

"...Because a mother would do anything for the sake of her kids."

The moon mite’s actions reflected Della’s. It wouldn't be as fitting if Della's decision was fueled by selfishness, therefore, she put herself in danger for something in relation to her kids.

Pᴇɴᴜᴍʙʀᴀ ғɪʀɪɴɢ ʜᴇʀ ʟᴀsᴇʀ ɢᴜɴ ᴀs Dᴇʟʟᴀ ᴄʜᴀʀɢᴇᴅ ᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴏᴏɴ ᴍɪᴛᴇ ᴡᴀs ᴠᴇʀʏ ʀᴇᴍɪɴɪsᴄᴇɴᴛ ᴏғ ʜᴏᴡ sʜᴇ ᴘᴜsʜᴇᴅ ғᴏʀᴡᴀʀᴅ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴏsᴍɪᴄ sᴛᴏʀᴍ.

Scrooge's flashback made it look like Della cared more about adventure than her family, but then in Season 2, we see her doing everything she can to come back home and see her express her desire to be a good mother. She loves her family too much to suddenly cast them aside. Della is flawed; she impulsive, but at this point in the series, it's hard for me to think of her messing up this badly without a bigger reason being attached to it.

Ok, ok, so, that could explain why Della didn’t recognize Launchpad's physical appearance and a possible reason to why Della took the Spear, but why doesn't he recognize her? And why does Della not remember his name? After his meeting with Della in "Nothing Can", I looked back and realized that Launchpad may have been showing signs of amnesia.

 In "Beware of the B.U.D.D.Y System!", he can't remember if he has a pilot's license or not and makes the most bewildered face as he tries to think about this.

I thought that was extremely odd...I mean, either you have your license or you don't. How do you just forget something significant like that? Being a pilot is his passion. In the joke book , he claimed pilot's licenses don't exist. Huey confronts him about how wrong he is and asks if Launchpad has one. He doesn't answer.

Launchpad isn't good at remembering the lyrics to songs. In "Last Christmas!" he didn't know a majority of the words to "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and had to improvise; mostly repeating the same phrase and forgetting the ninth day. In the description for the Theme Song Takeover video, the description highlights his forgetfulness. In "Moorshire", Launchpad is very confused about what golf is and constantly mixes it up with other sports. And in "Last Crash", he... doesn't seem to know what a parachute is…? In spite of all the piloting he does?

After Scrooge tells the kids not to tell Donald about their trip to Atlantis in "Woo-oo!", Launchpad quickly asks "Who is that?". I had wondered if maybe Scrooge referring to him as Uncle Donald was the part that threw Launchpad off. He was right there as Scrooge and Donald argued in front of the gate; saying each other's names. Maybe LP thought HDL were Donald's sons or the sons of a cousin. But seriously...Launchpad has been just about everywhere. So has Scrooge, Donald and Della. How can he know who Scrooge, the Richest Duck in The World, is without knowing who’s been accompanying him for many years? The family is so famous, he should have known about Donald and Della’s existence prior to working for Scrooge.

Wᴇ ᴅᴏɴ’ᴛ ᴇᴠᴇɴ ɢᴇᴛ ᴛᴏ sᴇᴇ LP’s ʀᴇᴀᴄᴛɪᴏɴ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴋɪᴅs ᴡʜɪʟᴇ ᴛʜᴇʏ’ʀᴇ ᴊᴜᴍᴘɪɴɢ ᴀʀᴏᴜɴᴅ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄᴀʀ. Mᴀʏʙᴇ ʜᴇ ᴅɪᴅ ᴛʜɪɴᴋ Dᴏɴᴀʟᴅ ᴡᴀs ᴛʜᴇɪʀ ғᴀᴛʜᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴡᴀs sᴜʀᴘʀɪsᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ғɪɴᴅ ᴏᴜᴛ ʜᴇ ᴡᴀs ᴛʜᴇɪʀ ᴜɴᴄʟᴇ ɪɴsᴛᴇᴀᴅ.

Webby describes Donald as one of the greatest adventurers of all time. Stepping out of the spotlight for a decade to raise the boys isn't long enough for him to be forgotten. Launchpad Is around the twins' age, so it's not like he was too young to remember hearing about their adventures.

Aside from forgetting about important items and significant people, Launchpad could be suffering from a loss of self-identity as well.

I had earlier speculations about LP being a spy since he briefly worked as one in the old DuckTales episode "Double O Duck" and joked around with the idea that he was only disguising himself as a bumbling pilot to retrieve more information about Della. Now, I think he would make a terrible spy since it's hard for him to lie...on purpose, but he still seems to have this double-life thing going on: he has two jobs with Scrooge. One he was hired for, the other one being more voluntary. He has a different outfit to go with each one instead of having a consistent set of clothes like everyone else. It's evident enough that he was going to wear his chauffeur look no matter what he was doing, but was later changed during production. Maybe this decision was done to illustrate how there is more than one side of him.

Tᴏᴘ, Lᴇғᴛ ᴛᴏ Rɪɢʜᴛ: Fʀᴏᴍ ᴏɴᴇ ᴏғ 2ᴠᴇɪɴᴛᴇ’s ᴘʀᴏᴍᴏs, ᴘᴀʀᴛ ᴏғ Cᴏᴠᴇʀ B ғᴏʀ Issᴜᴇ #4, ᴀɴᴅ ᴘᴀʀᴛ ᴏғ Cᴏᴠᴇʀ B ғᴏʀ Issᴜᴇ #5.

Bᴏᴛᴛᴏᴍ, Lᴇғᴛ ᴛᴏ Rɪɢʜᴛ: A sᴄʀᴇᴇɴsʜᴏᴛ ғʀᴏᴍ ᴛʜᴇ Dᴜᴄᴋʙᴜʀɢ Qᴜᴇsᴛ ᴍᴏʙɪʟᴇ ɢᴀᴍᴇ, ғʀᴏᴍ ᴀɴ ᴇᴀʀʟʏ ᴘɪᴇᴄᴇ ᴏғ ᴘʀᴏᴍᴏ ᴀʀᴛ.

There was a long period of time where the IDW comics only featured LP in his chauffeur outfit on the cover, but depicted his piloting outfit on the inside. This went on until Issue 18. They probably had to revise all of his drawings to put him in that outfit, but it's interesting how they didn't go all the way.

Launchpad finds it extremely difficult to pretend to be someone else without acknowledging himself. In “B.U.D.D.Y”, when he asks Gyro for help, he splits himself into Not Launchpad and Launchpad to speak hypothetically but ends up confusing the two with each other. When he was pretending to be Donald in “Castle”, he quickly forgot he was supposed to be in disguise. He catches himself and tries to go back to being Donald, but he keeps reverting back to Launchpad. Fergus noted his "nephew's" drastic change in appearance and could sense he was confused.

Scrooge's confusion over Launchpad being a pilot in "Woo-oo!" may have had a double meaning. His ignorance towards Launchpad's mentions led him into being surprised, but combined with the fact that he can't recall getting his pilot's license, this could have been hinting that he was never a real pilot. Or at least, never an airplane pilot.

Like I had mentioned before, he could actually be an astronaut pilot. One of the requirements for being an astronaut selection candidate is having a certain amount of hours of flying a jet aircraft. This option is geared more towards candidates that start out from the military and as an old character description for Launchpad states, he may have had military involvement as a test pilot. 

Prior flying experience isn't needed to be a test pilot and a pilot's license isn't required to be an astronaut, but there is a six-week training process you have to go through to fly a military jet. Being another kind of pilot would explain why Launchpad has the basics of flying a plane and possibly why he can operate a sub exceptionally well without prior experience. 

If "Launchpad" isn't his real name, maybe it's something he remembered from his astronaut background. Was it a nickname he was given? An alter-ego he had previously made for himself? And after the amnesia confused him, it became something he fused with himself? 

Amnesia or not, one thing that's for certain is that LP has sustained a bunch of injuries; some of which were head injuries: He crashed into a wall in “Toth-Ra” while trying to catch Scrooge, he got hit with a golf club in “Moorshire”, he was rubbing his head after the Jeep hit the interior of the Sunchaser in “Last Crash”, and Scrooge caused him to hit the limo’s hood a few times in “Game Night”.

I suggested in my first Association post that Launchpad may have had a severe injury that kept him sidelined and one in relation to the head is looking very likely. The father was originally hospitalized for having a firecracker put under his chair and the show could be using that as a base. Amnesia could have occurred due to the whole Space incident being too stressful for him to remember or an outward force, like magic, could also be an explanation. Getting struck by lightning can also result in memory loss (as well as...many other problems). 

If Launchpad truly is amnesic, his awareness isn't in full like I had previously thought it was, it's partially hidden in his subconscious. He'll do or say certain things and maybe he's not exactly sure why, but there’s a deeper meaning connected to who he used to be. He can't remember who Della is as a person but he remembers things about her and probably bits and pieces of the incident. This could be why Launchpad's been dating around so much; he doesn't realize it, but he's been trying to make his way back to Della. Most of his relationships may have not been very long lasting. From what we’ve been let in on so far, they seem to be at this weird status where they still have feelings but continue to stay apart. Perhaps every time he tried to develop a serious relationship, something came up and got in the way. One of those things could have been his subconscious telling him that this wasn’t who he used to be with. Constantly trying to figure this out could have been what eventually led him to working for Scrooge in Duckburg.

Something was definitely happening in Launchpad’s mind during the events of  "Last Crash" and "Shadow War". After Scrooge accidentally refers to Della, we aren't able to see Launchpad's immediate reaction; the camera is very quick to focus on Beakley, but when Scrooge asks LP to hand him another parachute, the pilot instead hesitates and gives a look of concern. 

When the investigation crate breaks open and Mrs. B takes the Spear's blueprints from Webby's pocket, Launchpad is left out of these shots; preventing us from seeing his reaction. But when the missing piece flies up to the front of the plane, we see that he's in a tense pose with his arms drawn close to his chest. 

Launchpad completely disappeared at the end of "Last Crash" when everyone was leaving the mansion and likely didn't check on Scrooge until three days later. As Mrs. B guilt trips the boys into reuniting with Scrooge, Launchpad blinks excessively, sadly looks off into the distance and has a couple of outbursts. 

When Della is mentioned by name, the focus is on Louie with Launchpad's clenched fist next to him.

He's having all these feelings about something he supposedly has nothing to do with and he doesn't understand why. Mrs. B could sense something was wrong with him based on how surprised she was over his hesitation and the "why are you overreacting?" look she gave him when he responded loudly to her sarcasm. I'm convinced that the show-runners wanted to catch our attention without having to reveal anything yet.

This post is getting really long, so I'm gonna break it off into another part talking more about the amnesia theory with a case we've already seen, what kinds of special abilities Launchpad may have and some reoccurring themes that may be leading back to "Whatever Happened to Della Duck?!"

...Are you up for more reading? Continue here.

[prydon]

a ( VERY LONG) long island geek rundown

aka me just rambling on about paul for paragraphs upon paragraphs, complete with pictures.

so i went to the con with the lovely @haiileyrutledge aka maggie who drove me all the way there from the philly bus station (god bless), it was our first time meeting in person and i still can’t really believe we did this just a few months after we were just kinda joking about going together on twitter when we hardly knew each other

literally the first second we walked into the con, before we’d even gotten our badges, paul mcgann was sitting RIGHT THERE at his autograph table and i may or may not have started aggressively hitting maggie in the shoulder and freaking out and hissing “he’s there, HE’S THERE” and she had to drag me past him so we could get our badges

then we sat in on the panel before his to make sure we got good seats for his. it was a panel with wendy padbury and frazer hines and they were adorable!! by the end of their panel we were literally buzzing tho bc we knew what was next

when paul came in the first thing he did was squint up at the ceiling and complain about the brightness of the lights, like “oh this is quite harsh isn’t it” so they turned them down for him, much to maggie’s chagrin bc she’s a photographer and it made it very hard to take nice photos (look forward to her uploading her photos btw, she got some GREAT shots regardless of lighting)

then we all sang happy birthday to paul, per the interviewer’s instructions! it was v cute. someone uploaded a video of it on youtube. (i took one too, but it was much worse quality)

first question the interviewer asked was what the secret to paul’s eternal youth was, which paul took a SUSPICIOUSLY long time thinking about before finally just claiming it was his insomnia. how not sleeping is supposed to make you look better i have no idea, but it’s clearly not hurting paul’s appearance, despite him “not having slept since the nineties” (his words)

and so on went the panel. it was quite fun, and though i’d heard almost all the anecdotes paul told before, they weren’t ones he’d told a million times and the interviewer asked interesting questions about his brothers and some of his earlier roles.

he also asked him about holby- the most recent episode, even- which i was not expecting lol. he asked paul if gaskell was really dead, and paul was just like “lol it’s a soap, who knows what could happen” and joked about another soap character whose death had turned out to be a dream. 

also of note is that paul never called gaskell by name once and exclusively referred to him as “doctor death” lmaooo. i actually know why this is- he mentioned on a radio show a week or so ago that a holby city fan yelled “doctor death!” at him in the street once- but he didn’t....explain this background to the panel audience, so i’m sure many were baffled by it :”D the interviewer was like “so your most recent role, professor john gaskell-” and paul was literally like “ah, yes. doctor death!” asoifjsaij what a dork

^ this pic is actually from the sunday panel but god, actual dork with a heart of gold paul mcgann being juxtaposed next to menacing shots of “doctor death” was never not hilarious 

speaking of holby, I GOT TO ASK HIM A QUESTION DURING THE Q & A, and i asked him what it was like working with guy henry! he said working with old friends is tough bc they know all your acting tricks lol. he went on gently roast guy and say he’s looked like he was 40 since they were at rada and that one of their professors told guy that he was the kind of person who wouldn’t find real success until he WAS like 40 bc he just had one of those faces, and lo and behold, that was case. notably, paul said all of this while holding eye contact with me since it was my question, and i was literally trembling by the end of his response bc i can barely hold eye contact with my family members let along PAUL JOHN MCGANN

he also said “fuck” at one point. at another he pulled the cap off his water bottle with his teeth and maggie and i were both like...*sweating*

after that we got our photo ops! then managed to get some food in us, and then i went to get paul’s autograph and give him his bday gift, which i already detailed here [x] so i won’t get into that. notably he also called maggie photogenic and said their photo op looked like a housewarming photo of a couple just moving in. we were both dying afterwards.

theeeen that evening i attended a dinner party for fans with vip passes that the stars also attended! the food was v yummy. there was ice cream too.

unfortunately i didn’t end up at paul’s table, but i was at the table next to him so i may have eavesdropped. my table had jon davey, who plays cybermen and daleks and ood etc, and who was very funny and decidedly attractive, and who at one point pulled out his phone and showed me this video while nearly dying of laughter over it

paul was actually late to the dinner because he crashed a painting panel!!

^ here’s him painting his tardis picture with his dorky ass reading glasses on. what an old man. i love him

he did show up eventually, and ended up drinking a decent amount of red wine and i’m pretty sure got tipsy and at one point misheard the person next to him as saying “penis hands” and was like “penis hands???? PENIS HANDS???”

all my table ended up leaving early but paul’s all stayed hanging on his every word bc that’s the effect he has on people :’)) so i ended up scooting over there just to listen. at one point his assistant came over and whispered to me that paul HAD gotten the letter i gave him with his gift and he WOULD read it tonight and i was like “omg no it’s ok, i didn’t need him to reply asap or anything, i just wanted him to have it!!”

i left the dinner when paul left- his table were the last ones out- and maggie was outside the dinner waiting for me and may have collapsed into a fit of giggles when she saw paul. then we went to our airbnb and fuckin CRASHED because we were so damn exhausted

on to SUNDAY

i started placing bets on what paul would be wearing that day on sunday morning, since i know he only has like three different con outfits that he wears. lo and behold we get to the con and he’s wearing THE EXACT SAME CLOTHES AS SATURDAY. like, down to the scarf and shoes. they were 100% the same.

idk why he was, but he must have washed them, or he must be an ethereal being incapable of sweating because he was just as nice and fresh as the previous day [shrug]

we wandered around the dealer’s room for a bit, maggie bought a vinyl from a charity sale booth and i bought a couple dwms with bb eight on them bc why not

my lovely internet friends and fellow paul superfans @savageinkspillage and @paulmcgannlesbian both paid me to buy them autographs, and i was happy to oblige because it meant i got to talk to paul again

i went up to his booth and he said “good to see you again!!” and told me he was so touched by the birthday card :”0 and thanked me again for the drawing!

i told him what names to sign to for the autographs and there was an incredible moment where i told him to address one to “brittany” and his brain like. short-circuited and he tried to spell it out to me except he spelled it some ridiculous white mom way like “B-R-I-T-N-I-Y” or something and i just stared at him for a moment not sure if he was fucking with me before being like “.....no?”

once i told him “two t’s” he got it and said “like the place!!” and asked me if i knew where brittany was in a stern teacher voice and i was p sure it was france but not 100% so i was just like “d-don’t quiz me”

he also let me take pictures of him holding the autographs that i could send to my friends, which was very sweet!! here’s him with @savageinkspillage‘s.

he was very determined that we let them dry before taking them because he didn’t want them to be smudged, and blew gently on them himself like a dork.

before we could go, he also fully just was like “give me a hug” and got up and hugged me AGAIN. THREE PAUL MCGANN HUGS IN ONE WEEKEND. T H R E E.

then after he hugged me he noticed the bowie vinyl that maggie had just bought in the dealer’s room and was like “!!!!!! is that a vinyl!!!! can i see!!!”

maggie was like “of course” and handed it over and he was FAWNING over the thing and promptly informed us that it was definitely an original print bc it was made of a special sort of material only used to make records in the 70s, and that it had never been played. maggie said she got it for $10 and he was like “TEN BUCKS??”

he also sniffed it because apparently “that’s what you did with vinyls” and took it out of its sleeve (with maggie’s permission) and freakin’ messed with it to show us how bendy the materal was before giving it back to maggie and emphatically telling her to “treasure that”.

he asked us where we got it and i said it was at a table in the dealer’s room, next to where they were keeping his painting from the night before. upon hearing about the painting he was immediately like “noooo don’t remind me of that!! i’m so ashamed!!” and i was like “WTH PAUL NO IT WAS SO GOOD”

here’s paul’s painting!! it’s lovely!!

also at one point maggie’s hoop earring fell out and full on, like, made a break for paul mcgann and rolled behind his chair. she was embarrassed but he just picked it up and messed with it, feigning putting it on his ear and saying he wished he was a girl so he could wear earrings like that and i was like “you should get your ears pierced!” because he SHOULD. he just laughed.

we literally had a whole, like, probably 10 minute conversation with him and he was just so lovely and funny and warm and thanked me one last time for the drawing before we walked away soasifjsaoifj 

THEN it was time for his sunday panel!! it was a great change of pace from usual panels, it was called “doctor’s orders” and run by a podcaster who’d based it on advice columns- basically, he asks paul a bunch of questions looking for advice that he’d gathered from fans and paul had to impart his wisdom.

here are just a few choice tidbits from the panel:

q: what do i do if my boyfriend never puts the toilet seat down? paul: get rid of him

q: there are beehives in my house, what do i do?? paul: don’t kill them!! bees are our friends. move out. let the bees have the house instead

q: boxers or briefs? paul: briefs. *pointed look at audience* some of us need the support.

he was asked the trolley problem and said without hesitation that he would move the trolley to kill the one instead of the five. he also endorsed stealing from businesses to feed the hungry (unsurprising because *cough* he’s a socialist). he revealed that he shoplifted all the time as a kid as a right of passage in working class liverpool and asked the audience to raise their hands if they’d ever shoplifted. when a decent amount did, he called it a sign of a healthy society. he doted on his sons quite a bit which was adorable, and said he was the “soft touch” when they were growing up while mum was bad cop.

at one point he said if liverpool won the premiere league he’d “sit naked here in front of you” and then immediately was like “...i don’t know why i said that.” the audience was roaring with laughter the entire time. it was legitimately the funnest panel i’ve ever been too :’0 and we had front row seats!!

at the end, the host opened the panel up to the audience to ask their advice questions, and maggie asked one about how to survive while studying abroad in london next year. paul gently ribbed her at first being like “well, remember to sleep and eat” but then reassured her “you’ll be fine” and i could physically feel her melting beside me.

after the panel he chatted a bit with the women next to us, who i know to be old guards of paul mcgann fandom. i didn’t hear much but i did hear paul refer to “that brexit shit” lol.

the last time maggie and i saw paul, he seemed to be leaving the con and nearly tripped over a remote control cybermat on the way out, which was cute.

all in all...i really don’t have words for how amazing this was. i couldn’t have asked for a better environment to meet my favorite actor in, and i have gained so many wonderful memories that i can’t even keep track of them all, and i can’t wait to do it again.

[sailor-cresselia]

Zi-O 19 and 20: lol whoops waited a long time, might as well do them at once!

~We now bring you our Quiz Saga Liveblog.~

WhiteWoz’s Storytime Void is infuriating. Both because it’s so visually cluttered with all of the times displayed, and because the MULTITUDE of ticking sounds.

I love that the boys don’t have to stay still to transform. Seeing their transformation backdrops follow them like this, as their running, it’s great!

(I’m still pretty sure that Oma Zi-O’s bizarre chair is his transformation backdrop, by the way. At least, assuming that he’s not Another Zi-O.)

Is that a GOOGLY EYE on Another Quiz’s forehead?!

Sougo’s using the gun mode an awful lot lately.

“That monster is mine.” Yeah, it sure is, buddy. It SURE IS.

Hm, don’t think I noticed last time, but “The lessons of the past can’t be clouded by lies” is what’s playing over the shot of Rider Woz in the OP. Does that apply to the lessons of the future, as well?

Hey, Kamen Rider Quiz. You’re a little overpowered, there. We’ve already got ONE reality warper affecting our actions. We don’t need two, thank you very much.

I can FEEL the ‘We are not okay with this fight’ just RADIATING off of both Sougo and Geiz as this guy’s attacking them.

Geiz is still immediately here for the Woz’s nicknames, and Sougo’s getting a kick out of ticking off ‘his’ Woz. I love it.

The Another Rider and the Original Rider both existing at the same time… I haven’t seen the rest of the episode, of course, but I’d guess it’s a combination of “someone brought Actual Quiz back in time”, “Sequence Breaking”, and “The rules of time travel aren’t nearly as set in stone as they have been led to believe.”

(Yes, I’m sticking to that particular gun, come Helheim or high water.)

Sougo has a point ��� BlackWoz doesn’t come along for the fights, like, ever. He didn’t last time against Another Shinobi, not really. Not on his own; he was following Sougo to try and keep him away. So YES, Sougo’s calling you out on being out of character.

HI YES have I mentioned I really like when this season does ‘parallel version splitscreen’ shots? Like, during the Gaim arc with the two Sougos, and during “Fourze and Faiz” with Sougo and Geiz in the two respective time planes. It’s GREAT.

It’s a thing that the past few seasons have done, actually – these sort of split-views of characters. Ex-Aid used it a number of times for Emu and Parad’s conversations when they were fighting each other, particularly as Mighty Brothers XX L and R, where they went back and forth showing the suits in the ‘real world’ and the civilians in a mirrory, shadowy mindscape. Then, in Another Ending, there were several times during Genm vs Lazer that Kiriya and Kuroto were juxtaposed with their Rider forms. THAT was played a lot in the second half of Build – scenes alternating between having the armor and the civilian talking in the middle of a fight. To say nothing of the Takumi/Sento swaps, where they would sometimes change which actor was present when Takumi was talking. Sometimes. I really like that ‘form meets function’ aspect – remind the viewer who is under the mask, or who’s in the pilots seat, and it’s just really cool. The synchronized alt-selves talking is just another extension of that, be it a time-displaced Sougo or a Woz from a different timeline altogether.

… um.

Actually, whatever happened to “3 days from now” Sougo?

Suuuure, these are the only two options. Riiiight. “Take Quiz’s power (and totally kill your friend)” or “No More Mutants Riders.” Yeaaaah, we’ll get RIGHT on that, thanks Woz’s.

AHAHAHA NO. Uncle Tokiwa… ‘given how long it’s been stopped’ that watch is a Tragic Keepsake for Quiz, isn’t it? I mean, he’s from the future and all, so.

“Oh! Sougo, you have a lot of friends who like clocks! This one can stay for lunch too!”

“Um, uncle, no, this one has directly tried to kill me, actually, so maybe not-”

Ohhh. Right… Assuming the ‘riders lose their memories without their powers’ is true, which the characters all still believe is, even though i’m not so sure…

Taking Quiz’s powers while he’s… um, 2040 minus 2019 is…

Taking Quiz’s powers while he’s 21 years in the past is NOT a good thing.

“You will soon be forced to make some rather merciless decisions. Consider this practice.”

HEY WHITE WOZ. I’m not liking your expressions here. That’s waay more sketchy than someone who ‘supports’ their ‘savior’ has any business looking. Like, not even a creepy adoration sketchy, just. Plain creepy.

Oh no, that’s right, Another Quiz is Actual Quiz’s father. And now Mondo says that ‘he was talented, according to [his] mother.” Which means that in the proper timeline that he’s from… he never knew his father.

(Re-Ray plays quietly in the background)

Sougo has ZERO points. Poor Tsukuyomi only has three. Mondo quit it, you’re the GUEST here. Show some mercy on your poor, moronic host.

Geiz, what’re ya doing sneaking downstairs? (It could only be Geiz, because he’s wearing pants that fit.)

(gasp) GEIZ! You’re not wearing your harness! I was starting to think it was part of you!

(Congratulations! You didn’t do a violence!)

~skipping to the fight~

INSERT SONG: GEIZ TIME!

Okay, but really, when are they releasing these? And how many more are we going to get? Because so far I’m liking what I’m hearing, from this one and from Sougo’s in ep 16.

Not really sure what those sound effects are with your Ex-Aid armor today, though, Geiz.

Decade!OOO is Tajador. We want our bird.

BUT. Sougo’s movements are… eerily Eiji-like right now.

Hey, didn’t I say something about ‘when he stops being a knock-off, that’s when we need to worry?’ That would have been… right, last time was when I was watching the raw of episode 15. When Sougo was pulling off a pretty decent version of the Rabbit Tank Sparkling finisher. And then in 16, he was using Mighty Brothers XX pretty accurately, as well.

HM.

They go for the finisher, and the music stops dead when Hora freezes time. It’s disconcerting enough when that they do that with the background music. When it’s VOCALS that cut out, it’s terrifying.

Neither Geiz or Sougo are meant to take attacks from other Kamen Riders. It’s why Geiz was so poorly off after that curb-stomp Sougo gave him in the first part of “OOO and Genm.” It’s why Decade dealt so much more damage to both of them. And they just got hit with each other’s finishers.

WhiteWoz cares not for your puny ‘morals’ or ‘sense of right and wrong’ or ‘geiz’s growing realization that he’s not going to be able to go through with killing zi-o’.

WhiteWoz cares not for anyone.

Hey, Showy McSynth Pop? I don’t think it counts as winning if you hack the timeline to let yourself win.

So, Quiz’s backstory is breaking my heart. He just wants to see if his father actually loved his mother. That’s tragic. “Until she knows the truth, I don’t think my mother will be able to move on.”

About as equally tragic? Sougo’s line. “I think I understand.” said hesitantly, as he sits down, with restrained movements. Usually, when he’s Sougo (as opposed to Zi-O), the kids arms are almost constantly in some sort of motion. But he folded them and sat quietly down.

Sougo… what happened to your parents?

Geiz, baby, please tell me that the attack is at least partly a stunt? That you talked to Mondo before you guys came here?

Geiz??

(enter episode 20!)

We’re back to BlackWoz’s Storytime Vault! Hooray!

So: Sougo gets BlackWoz to help him and Mondo get out, via nifty Magic Scarf powers. Hora brings Another Quiz with her. And WhiteWoz is a total creeper calling them cowards.

The sunlight light overtaking Geiz and going into the 20 Rider Kicks logo is GREAT. Not only is it a great method for a transition, but it keeps us from seeing what Geiz is feeling – which it needs to, right now.

I’m pretty sure that was a sigh of relief from Geiz when Sougo and company left, after all.

The sequence breaking Another Riders seem to be a lot MORE painful to become than the Regular Another Riders… and those were already painful to watch. (Another Quiz’s eyes flashed red and blue briefly when he transformed, that’s nifty!)

Yup, I was right. The watch is a Tragic Keepsake. It was Mondo’s dads, and I think it broke today.

Sougo shows off his ‘Low INT, High WIS’ stats again. Did terribly at the quiz last episode, but can tell that Mondo’s not just here for his mothers sake. (Sougo, what happened to your parents?)

Geiz asks Tsukuyomi what Sougo would do. Well, he asks what “Zi-O” would do, and I eagerly await the day we get to see “Zi-O” become “Sougo” for him. Please let it happen. I’m still upset that nobody expect for Kasumi and Kazumin ever called Ryuuga by his name, this is almost as bad.

When she says that he’d try and prioritize Mondo’s feelings, he replies that “I guess we’ll have to fight. Make sure you tell him that.”

I don’t think that’s what you actually mean, Geiz. I think you’ve got a plan.

I hope you’ve got a plan. … one that you’ll be able to follow through on, because we know full well how that original plan is going.

And through these last two scenes – inside and outside of 9-to-5, the piano version of Over Quartzer is playing. It’s a thing of beauty.

Hm. “I guess we’ll have to fight”… Geiz, you were talking about you and Sougo, as opposed to you and Mondo, weren’t you? Because you went straight for Zi-O, not for Quiz. Clever boy.

Wait, when did you get Build?! I get that the watches are interchangeable, but you’ve been running Ex-Aid a lot lately, too.

(Now I kind of want to know if the Cross-Z and Genm watches are compatible with the Decade adapter…)

Sougo took a BEATING with that Build finisher, didn’t he…?

Nah, not as much as he could have… it looks like Geiz was pulling his punches, so to speak.

Sougo pulls the ‘which Woz are you?’ gag, and actually gets BlackWoz to refer to himself as such. Sougo gets a kick out of that, Tsukuyomi is dully surprised, and Woz is disgusted with himself.

Heehee… neither of them are telling their respective Woz’s what their own plans are. And neither of them are actually agreeing with their respective Woz’s goals.

Pity the respective Woz’s don’t acknowledge that last fact.

Sougo asks what Geiz would do… and when Tsukuyomi tells him that Geiz asked her the same respective question about him… that seems to tell Sougo everything he needs to know.

Low INT, High WIS. Sougo, you’re a deceptively devious little twig, aren’t you?

(WhiteWoz, knocking Hora down wasn’t necessary. Because I don’t believe for a SECOND that Geiz did THAT.)

Sougo, you deceptively observant little twig.

“So… Tsukuyomi said that Geiz asked her what I would do. I know I would let them interact. So, if he’s doing what I would do, then that’d be why he attacked me up there. So now I have to hold up his end of what he would do, and go straight to getting rid of the obstacle. So, I’ll take on RiderWoz, and let Geiz lead the father-son chat.”

So… The HeiGen Forever movie IS, in fact, canon, then? Because that’s the Double Ridewatch right there. And- pft – the Gaia Memory shoulder pads are temporarily little stick figures – pftHAHAHA! And they do the pre-transformation pose before attaching – this is absurd oh my god!

Of COURSE beating Another Quiz could work with Kamen Rider Quiz!

If a Riders power can only exist at one point in time; which still sounds fake, but I’ll allow it for now; the one that comes later seems to take priority. All the previous Another Riders were made after the Proper Rider already existed. That’s why the watches that our riders use had to be picked up in the present day – that way, they came into existence after the Another Rider did.

The exception to that is Shinobi, who didn’t exist at all yet, and was rendered impossible by being his own Another Rider.

In this case, Kamen Rider Quiz technically is the later iteration. He became a Rider in the future, and he’s here via time travel. So, chronologically speaking, Another Quiz came into existence in 2019, but Kamen Rider Quiz does not exist yet. So he can be considered the ‘replacement’.

SOUGO NO DO THE FINISHER IN THE LIGHT I WANT TO SEE IT PROPE-

wait it’s a Double finisher with CYCLONE JOKER? Maybe I don’t want to see it properly, Joker’s finishers are usually borderline body-horror…

Okay no, we’re good, it’s still iffy but it’s not nearly Joker Extreme levels of iffy, so we’re fine. I am A-OK with this finisher being a bootleg.

RiderWoz is OP. Sougo’s REALLY hurting after that.

Sougo and Geiz are. Not. Meant. To. Fight. Riders.

This scene with Mondo questioning his father is absolutely heartwrenching you guys. Made even more so by the piano version of Over Quartzer picking up where it left off earlier.

And then RiderWoz just has to come in and ruin everything. And use some TOTAL overkill on those attacks – oh GOD with actual lightning bolts and everything, and I had thought Quiz’s attacks were brutal when HE was doing them?

WhiteWoz cares not for your puny human morals or ethics.

Hey. HEY. What did those two watches just DO to Geiz? The bizarre vision thing is one problem as is, the electric shock is another, but something ELSE about that just effected him. Poorly.

WhiteWoz is in some serious trouble.

Hey. HEY. ProperWoz. What is that watch you just handed to Uncle Tokiwa? Why do you have Sougo’s upgrade?

I am glaring in the directions of BOTH Woz iterations. You’re BOTH super sketchy. But at least the first Woz is a more tolerable type of sketchy. At least he doesn’t seem to delight in other peoples pain.

SO I’m having fun with this again! Just have to hold out hope that they know what they’re doing with the previous riders, and keep going!

After all...

Mondo doesn’t seem to have lost his memories, now does he?

[miraculous-ash]

Marinath Theory (probably not what you're expecting)

You know, I had this long running crack theory that we were gonna get a plot twist with finding out that Nathalie was actually a time travelling Marinette from the future. (Remember crack theory)

(Also warning, this theory isn’t very spoilery, but it is made with knowledge/references to episodes in season 2 up to and including the episode Frozer. Like I said, it’s not very spoilery, very little is actually said. I think just two things, one referring to Frozer and another to the Queen’s Battle trilogy (and photos from them). But I’m just going to put this disclaimer here just in case.)

So this theory had it built around Marinette coming from a dark/sad future, back to try to do what she thought she could, at any length, to change the past in the hopes of fixing/creating a better future. This including working for Gabriel Agreste, who she knows to be Hawkmoth.

The main motive being Adrien, who we all know Marinette would do anything for. A trait that she shares with Nathalie. Maybe under the premise that she thinks it would have been better for Adrien had he gotten his mother back aka Hawkmoth succeeding with his grand plan.

So let’s look at the physical traits. They both have the blue bell eyes. Though Nathalie’s look more tired in a sad sort of ‘being done’ kind of way (which would fit the nature of the future she came from). Their builds are similar considering how diverse the people are within the show. Ears are pierced. Nathalie’s hair is obviously dyed, though the more natural part looks to be black with a blue sheen, similar to Marinette’s. Speaking of her dyed hair, let’s talk about her colour palette. Red and black. Hmm, who do we know has a red and black palette?

 It could be her way of paying homage to her old hero persona. Not to mention her outfit is like a more mature and bolder version of Marinette’s style, being a nice blazer ensemble. Also pink stems from red’s colour scale.

Let’s move on to some actions. Like I mentioned both Nathalie and Marinette always have the best intentions for Adrien. In the recently released episode Frozer, Marinette is willing to put her feelings for Adrien aside to help him try to woo Kagami.

For Nathalie, let’s go back to the origins episodes and remember the fact that it was her who let Adrien go into the school and told the gorilla that she would handle it. To which we later have Gabriel letting Adrien attend school after she arranged his schedule to make it work for him to allow it.

During the Christmas special, Nathalie is the one to feel for Adrien and remind Gabriel that it’s his first Christmas without his mom.

I now want to move onto an episode with actions that when put into this theory, make them better? If that makes sense, I hope it will.

Way back to the episode The Bubbler, with Adrien’s birthday.

In this episode we have Gabrielle asking about the birthday gift he “asked Nathalie to get.” Now I’m inclined to believe, from the way the scene played out, that Gabriel forgot to ask Nathalie to get the gift entirely and is just blaming it as her slacking opposed to his inept ability to be a father for his son. Not that Nathalie actually forgot after being asked.

So we move on to Marinette, who made Adrien a scarf and delivers it to his house where Nathalie is the one to communicate with her to take it for Adrien. Gabriel does his check in about the status of Adrien with his present and Nathalie in panic realizes she has a perfectly good gift right there.

But Nathalie doesn’t know that it’s a perfectly good gift. She doesn’t know what the box contains, nor whether it contains anything at all. She doesn’t know Marinette, doesn’t know what kind of person she is. For all she knew, Marinette could have been a bully seeking to prank Adrien.

But if Nathalie was Marinette, then she would know her past self and know what the gift was. Would know that Adrien did like it. Would know that if it came from his father instead it would strengthen their bond. Would know that her past self would be the type of nice person to recognize that and not say anything about who really gave him the scarf, accept it and move on.

And with all this knowledge makes the decision to remove her signed note from the gift and pass it off as Gabriel’s.

Like really if you watch this episode with this theory in mind it fits and can change the way you see it. Especially if you viewed it as Nathalie being awful for lying about Marinette’s present, it nicely fixes that.

Maybe this is where her name stems from also, maybe when picking a fake one, she decided to go with Sancoeur because it is close to sans coeur, the French translation of heartless. Because heartless is how she must now be.

So this theory was all fun and games until the queen’s battle arc came in and killed it with this:

Though if you do want to believe in this theory however crazy it may be. A simple fix for this scene is that it is completely platonic, and that Gabrielle is aware of who Nathalie is and that’s why she’s in on his big plan. You know, some comfort from his future daughter-in-law type deal happening? Ha ha ha *awkwardness ensues*

But either way, thought I’d share this now after that and before anything from the Hero’s Day special can kill it further

[ladyanaconda]

Kuni’s Infection

Here I bring another memime paladin au-inspired fic, this time inspired on ‘the aku infection’ episode from Samurai Jack, and a bit from ‘jack and the haunted house’ too! 

It definitely wasn’t his day.

He could bear having to pass through an entire mountain range because he couldn’t teleport. He could bear being chased by the Samurai’s magical copy and second-in-command (which he merely knew was referred to as the Commander) and a whole army of those beetle-like demons. He could bear turning into a mountain goat to carry Kuni as he ran as fast as he could, trying to get away without knocking her off his back.

But the one thing he could never bear was getting sick.

“ACHOO!” Aku barely avoided tripping as he gave another sneeze, and felt his irritated nose starting to run with mucus again. A consequence of taking off his cape to keep Kuni from catching precisely this illness, but the bad thing was that it affected his transformations to some extent. Thankfully, he hadn’t turned into a goose after this sneeze, so he guessed he’d manage to hold on until they were safe.

“Mr. Aku, they’re gaining on us!” Kuni yelled into his ear in worry, and his current sate made the volume of her voice sound ten times louder than it really was.

“Don’t tell me!” he snapped, managing to jump ahead of one of the beetle’s scythes. “These guys  never get tired or what?!” He caught a glimpse of the Commander flying atop the white winged horse-Pegasus, he recalled-a few meters above, watching him with his cold blue eyes. He seemed expressionless, but Aku could tell he was enjoying this. “Wait until I get my claws on-ACHOO!” the demon felt frustrated that his sickness had ruined the threat.

“I wouldn’t waste my energy on empty threats, Aku.” The Commander simply said, again displaying little emotion other than the subtle satisfaction and amusement at their situation. However, his gaze was set on Kuni, watching as she clung for precious life unto the demon’s body. When he was in the right position, and close enough, he grabbed a hidden ivory blowgun from the pegasus’ saddlebag, and aimed at the girl with accurate precision, before putting the tip to his lips and blowing hard.

Kuni yelped in pain when she felt something pinch her shoulder, but given the situation she felt now wouldn’t be a good thing to complain about it, Aku was already stressed out for the time being. Speaking of which, Aku noticed there was a slope just ahead, and soon he had an idea as how to get away… though he wasn’t looking forward to it.

“Kuni, do you like snowboarding?” he asked the girl on his back

“I have never tried it!”

“Well, there’s a first time for everything! Hang on!”

Just as Aku leapt off the ledge-and gave another loud sneeze-, he gathered enough energy to quickly shape shift into an emperor penguin, and his belly came into contact with the snow. Like he anticipated, his sleek body and the inclination of the slope he slid even faster, fast enough to outrun the beetle demons. But as he looked back, he noticed the creatures had stopped at the edge of the slope, and as the Commander flew by on top of the Pegasus, the beetles disappeared in tendrils of blue energy.

“I can see you are in no condition to fight me at your best, Aku! So for this only time, I shall allow you to go, but I won’t be as merciful the next time we fight!” With that, he flew off, whipping the winged horse into flying away.

And of course, Aku couldn’t resist taunting him even if he wasn’t heard. “Ha! What’s wrong, you hopeless copy of the Samurai?! Too fast for you-ACHOO!”

This time, the sneeze caused him to unwillingly shape shift into a bear-a much less appropriate form to slide down a snowy slope-and he barely had time to quickly take Kuni into his furry embrace and shield her with his arms as suddenly he started rolling down the mountain, Kuni’s scream of fright rang in his ears, but he couldn’t tell her to stop. He was yelling in pain.

Finally, they stopped when Aku’s body came into contact with a large pile of snow at the bottom of the slope, and he gave a big yelp of pain. To make things worse, soon the wind started to blow as another blizzard started.

“Damn it…!” the demon snapped, changing into his original form with a bit of difficulty due to his cold, and quickly looked down at Kuni. “Are you okay, Kuni?”

Much to his surprise, she was giggling. “We should do it again!”

Despite being partly irritated she had taken it as a game, he couldn’t help but sigh in relief that she was unharmed. However, he noticed there was something on her shoulder… It seemed to be a small needle of some sort, probably got stuck there when they were rolling down the slope. Carefully, he grabbed it and quickly pulled it out of Kuni’s shoulder, though the girl did wince a bit when he did so.

Aku gave another sneeze, and realized Kuni could die of hypothermia at this rate. He was feeling the effects of frostbite himself, his entire body was so cold it was almost numb, so he felt stiff as he grabbed his cape and cocooned Kuni in it. They couldn’t continue in this weather, and he had no more energy to even use his laser beams to warm themselves up. Maybe it would be best if he just kept Kuni warm, he felt so tired… And he couldn’t die of hypothermia himself, he just had to keep his little companion warm enough to survive until the blizzard stopped. He oulled Kuni closer into his embrace, rubbing her body thoroughly and trying to shield her from the cold wind as much as he could.  

Despite the wind, he caught a sound of footsteps over the snow. Aku squinted his eyes when he saw blurry shapes coming closer to him, and he instinctively embraced Kuni protectively. If they wanted her, they would have to take her from his dead, cold grip.

The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was two cloaked figured with red eyes…

 “Not to smart, is it? Going out into a blizzard with just a cape and a little girl? You could catch your death out there or worse.”

Aku grumbled under his breath, pulling the blanket tighter over himself, and Kuni closer to him to make sure she stayed warm. “Don’t tell me!” he said sarcastically, before he started to cough. It wasn’t that he wasn’t grateful, he was very grateful these two gentlemen had taken them into their warmer, snowless tent, but he got irritated when people pointed out the obvious. Sides, this coughing and running nose was irritating him further.

“The storm should pass by tomorrow, you and your little girl can rest here till then.”

“Thanks, misters.” Kuni thanked them, assuming Aku was in too much of a bad mood to do so himself. And she was partly right.

“You surely caught a nasty cold, friend.” One of the miner’s said, pouring some hot soup into a bowl and handing it to Aku, and another bowl to Kuni shortly after. “Here. This should give you your strength back and get rid of that cold.”

This time, Aku did force himself to thank them. “Thank you.” He took a sip from the bowl, ignoring the boiling sensation he got in his tongue, it considerably made him warm up. The taste wasn’t either too good of too bad, it was a simple soup, but it was better than nothing.

“It’s okay, just be careful next time.” the other miner said. “The weather out there is no joke.”

“I can see that.”

“We’ve been mining up here for the last five years, and managed to mine these three priceless stones!” the first miner said in delight, holding up a basket with three beautiful, green-colored glistening jewels. “One more, and we can retire and leave this blasted mountain.”

“Will you stop with the showing off?! Pretty soon, the whole mountain’s gonna know about those!” the other miner growled at his companion.

“Don’t worry, we can keep a secret.” Kuni assured the pair.

“ACHOO!” Aku muttered under his breath at the sneeze, but shrugged at Kuni’s statement. “Considering thanks to you we didn’t turn into popsicles, I guess it’s a fair trade…” he sniffed to bring the running mucus back into his nose and avoid it dripping into his soup. Just then, Kuni gave a small cough, which made him panic. “Kuni, are you okay?!”

“Y-Yes, I’m fine, Mr. Aku. It’s was just a cough.” Kuni said. However, she felt… weird. She didn’t know how to explain it, but she felt tired and sleepy. Maybe it was because of the cold.

Yes, that was probably it.

                                                    Next Morning

“You sure you don’t need anything?”

“I’m not helpless, I’m just going through a temporary although rather unpleasant cold!” Aku repeated for the third time as he walked away, as always Kuni sitting on his shoulder. “But thanks any-ACHOO!” He growled and pulled up the scarf of his cape up to cover his nose and keep the cold air out.

The blizzard had stopped, as the two miners said, so it wasn’t that hard to continue on their way. Thankfully, the hot soup had partly cured his cold, but the miners suggested him to look for a warmer climate if he wanted to avoid it getting any worse, so the first thing he did was to find a way down the mountain and away from all the stupid snow. Unfortunately, though the blizzard was gone, the wind was as cold as ever, and he had to rub his arms in an attempt to keep his temperature warm. He thought of shapeshifting, but he didn’t want another episode like the one from yesterday, so he discarded the idea. He felt Kuni cocooning herself into the collar of his scarf, but chose to say nothing for the time being.

Aku started to think about what had happened yesterday. Something didn’t quite fit. The Commander had him in his hands, but he had let him get away. He doubted it was because the beetle things couldn’t follow, those creatures could crawl on anything, and the Samurai’s clone had no expenses in having them die trying to capture him alive. But he had just… let him get away. It made no sense. And then there was the black spine he had found on Kuni. Now that he recalled, he never felt any branches or spine bushes of some sort during his ‘slide’ that could have left a spine on Kuni, but it had to come from somewhere…

Speaking of Kuni, Aku noticed she hadn’t said anything since they left the miners’ tent, which was quite unusual considering she was constantly asking him silly questions about silly things.

“Kuni?” he looked over at his shoulder, where he saw Kuni with her eyes closed, and she was accommodated under his scarf as if she were asleep. When she heard his voice, she opened her eyes slightly, which he noticed had lost a bit of their usual shine…

“Hmm?” she inquired, struggling to keep her eyes open. “What is it, Mr. Aku?”

“Are you okay? You are unusually…. Quiet.”

“I’m just a bit sleepy…”

“That’s what you get for spending all night playing with your doll instead of sleeping.” He was partly irritated he had worried for nothing, but decided to let it pass this once. “Go back to sleep, girl. It’ll be a while before we get somewhere decent to sleep.”

Kuni let out another yawn and cuddled against his scarf, going back to her nap.

It took him a while, but finally after climbing down small cliffs and snowy hills (and having resorted to asking for directions, probably one of the most humiliating things he had ever done, from a climber after helping him up a rope dangling on the very same cliff), he arrived to a sweet, snowless ground path that led to a snowless, though rundown-looking village. Relieved, Aku slid down his collar and took a deep breath of the warmer air, his nose much better.

Now to find something decent to eat, and perhaps a good bed.

A bark caught his attention, and he turned in time to see a dog barking at him. The demon chuckles, he was pretty sure Sir Rothchild would be delighted to find one of his ‘de-evolved’ relatives here. He was used to animals reacting in such a way when he was around, probably they didn’t like the darkness of his aura, but what could he do about it? Darkness was part of him, no, he was born of it, and made of it.

Ignoring the dog’s barking, Aku continued on his way, looking around at the buildings and sniffing the air to find the familiar smell of food. However, he caught a different type of smell. Stopping in his tracks, he sniffed the air again, this time centering on this new odor. It felt like rotten, but at the same time it didn’t, it was mixed with the scent of blood, and it was coming from…

He realized Kuni had not spoken once ever since he asked her about her condition back in the mountain.

“Kuni?” Aku glanced to his shoulder and her again, and saw she was still asleep, but the smell was coming from her. Alarmed, he gently brought up his fingers to gently touch her, and then he felt she was freezing cold. “Kuni?!” he quickly but carefully took her into his hands, and examined her. Her skin was very pale, and her breathing sounded raspy, as if she had difficulty breathing. Despite the warmer climate, her body temperature was alarmingly cold, which let him know something was definitely not right. “Kuni, can you hear me?!” he gently but quickly shook her body with his fingers, she only managed to open her eyes little.

“D-Daddy…?”

If he were not so worried and in such a panicked state, he would have blinked in surprise. Wonderful, when humans hallucinated, the thing was very serious. “No, Kuni, I’m Aku!” he corrected her, although he was still shaken by her calling him in such a way. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m c-cold…” she whispered.

“Damn it…!”

What to do now?! She would die if she continued like this, but he didn’t know what to do. He’d have to take her to see a… doctor, they were called. The only problem, the Nameless Samurai didn’t apparently invest his resources on hospitals that much. He’d be lucky if he actually found a doctor in such a rundown village as this.

And ironically, he spotted an old building a few steps away which had the pint of being a doctor’s consulting room.

There was a line of thirty people outside, but he didn’t have to wait until Kuni died from being polite, so he made his way towards the door, ignoring the angry yells of protest from the people and robots alike who had been waiting for a good while, and didn’t even bother to knock the door as he simply went in. The place was a complete disaster, and he started to regret coming inside when he saw a surgery table in the middle of the room, and it had splatters of blood on it. And the ‘doctor’ didn’t give him a good impression either, he was wearing a mask that reminded him of a bird’s face and wore leather clothing.

“Good day, how can I help you?” the doctor asked n a surprisingly cheerful tone that didn’t go with his rather grim attire. The demon could tell the human was

“What do you mean ‘how can I help you’?! Aren’t you seeing her?!” Aku snapped, holding out Kuni’s trembling little form. “She’s cold and trembling! Do something about it!”

If Kuni hadn’t been so weak, she would have tried to hide back into Aku’s embrace when the doctor with the bird beak mask walked closer to take a good look at her. He touched her forehead, and noticed her pale complexion. He gave a small ‘hmm’ and went to one of the tables, returning a few moments later with a handsaw.

“What are you going to do with that?!” Aku asked in alarm. He didn’t like how that utensil looked.

“Well, I need to amputate her arm to get some blood samples-“

“WHAT?!” almost immediately, the demon pulled a terrified Kuni protectively against his body. “Are you nuts! She doesn’t have gangrene, she’s just has a low temperature, for goodness’s sake! Can’t you take a blood sample without chopping off any limb from her body?!”

“Well, if you seek a more… traditional treatment for it, I suggest you go to the apothecary in front. He has natural remedies for almost every ailment.”

Aku growled in frustration, wrapping his cape around Kuni’s body to keep her warm as he left, again ignoring the people’s angry exclaims before the next in line went into the doctor’s consulting room. The apothecary’s shop was as run down as the doctor, though the inside was even more disturbing. It was filled with shelves, which in turn were filled with glass jrs filled with… His nose was overwhelmed by the smell of the liquid which kept the contents safe from rotting, and the contents themselves were bizarre, though he couldn’t tell what some of them were.

“Hello?!” he called out in a hurry, covering Kuni’s eyes when he passed through a jar with a human heart in it. “Anyone here?!”

A crash coming from a doorway made him step back in surprise, just as an old man with white hair and beard walked out of it, clutching a cane. He was not as scary as the doctor, but Aku secretly questioned the man’s mental state judging by all the stuff he was exposing here.

“How can I help you?!” The old man yelled, though not with aggression.

“My friend is sick!” Aku said urgently.

“What?! You need to stick?!”

Aku growled in frustration. “I have no time for your pranks, old man! I need something for her cold!”

“Planks?! I don’t have any planks!”

His eye twitched in irritation at the old man changing his words, but then he sensed the man wasn’t making fun of him. Rather, it seemed he had a problem with his hearing, which explained why he was yelling; he tried to hear his own voice. Sighing, Aku knelt down to the man’s level and showed him Kuni.

“Ahh, the child!” the old man concluded, and got closer. Kuni was barely conscious by then, so she didn’t really recoil when he approached, though maybe the fact the apothecary wasn’t holding a bone saw helped too. The apothecary examined her complexion and touched her forehead, retreating his hand when he felt her skin was almost as cold as ice.

“Mmm, it looks like she got ill!”

“Oh, really, captain obvious?!” Aku snapped.

“What?! Who’s Chaplin?!”

It took him a lot of patience not to give the apothecary a smack in the head. “FORGET IT!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. “JUST TELL ME IF YOU CAN HELP HER OR NOT!”

“Why didn’t you say so before?!” the apothecary retorted, before gently lifting Kuni’s eyelid and noting it her pupil was very dilated. “It appears she’s infected with a very rare virus!”

“What kind of virus?”

“A deadly one! It weakens people little by little in a span of three days, if it isn’t cured by the third day the person in question dies-!” the apothecary became frightened when suddenly Aku lifted him by the collar.

“DIE?!” Aku yelled. “WHAT’S THE CURE?! I’LL DO ANYTHING FOR IT, JUST NAME A PRICE!”

“There’s no known cure for it, unfortunately! At least, not in medicinal terms! I don’t know how to explain it, but I’ve been told this virus can only be overcome spiritually!”

Spiritually?! What kind of virus worked on the spirit instead of the body?! And how had she acquired it?! She had been fine until after their encounter with…

The gears started to turn. That black spine he had found on Kuni’s arm, he realized where it had come from. He understood why the Commander had left just like that. He had planned this all along. Aku’s blood started to boil, he couldn’t believe-or actually, he could-believe Zintaris would go as far as to harm a child to get to him.

“You know, there’s a temple run by lizard monks nearby! Perhaps they can help her!” the apothecary finished. “But I recommend you keep her as warm as possible on the way there! That will slow down the infection!”

Although frustrated that he was apparently on a wild-goose chase, Aku wrapped Kuni in his cape again, nevertheless thanking the apothecary for the information, and rushing out of that place. Once he was at a safe distance, he stopped momentarily and started rubbing off some warmth unto Kuni’s shivering form. Three days to cure her of this thing, and if he kept her warm he could delay it. “Don’t worry, Kuni. You’ll get better, you’ll see.”

She didn’t seem to hear him, or if she did, she was too weak to let him know she had. Still, he felt a bit of relief when she snuggled deeply into his embrace, nuzzling against his chest, looking for warmth. He guessed it was an unconscious thing in humans to look for comfort and feeling protected when they felt weak. Aku forgot about his own cold and continued on his way, making sure Kuni remained warm all the way.

It took him some hours, but finally he managed to find the door to the temple. It was almost hidden in a snowy area, but as soon as he saw it he ran towards it, holding Kuni protectively to his chest, like a father holding his child close even if he didn’t notice it. Aku was momentarily the monks would not receive him, being a demon in a holy place and all that, but he was desperate, he was willing to wait outside while they tended to Kuni if it came to that. He knocked the door with one hand, panting heavily, and had to shrink down to normal-human size to avoid intimidating the monks.

A slate slid to the side, revealing an opening from which a pair of black eyes stared up at him. “Yes?” a small voice asked.

“I need help! Or rather, she needs help!” Aku said in desperation, holding out Kuni, who by then was almost as white as the snow around, for the lizard to see.

That was all the monk needed to see. The grate slid closed, and the door was pulled open, revealing a small red lizard in a monk’s attire behind it. “You are Aku, right? We have been awaiting you, the master was worried an ill fate had befallen you.”

“Pal, a mere cold is nothing compare to this!” Aku said, again looking down at Kuni in worry.

“Please, this way.”

Aku followed after the lizard, continuing to rub warmth unto Kuni as he took a look around. The lizards were seriously unto this, he saw plenty of them doing some… rather strange exercises, but he soon afterwards he set his attention down on Kuni again. Soon afterwards, the lizard brought him to a large pool in the middle of a cavern, with a swirling, blessed time portal which parted a waterfall. In a smaller pool in front of it, there was a much older lizard meditating.

“Master Ning.” The younger monk said, bowing his head in respect. “I’m sorry to disturb your meditation, but Aku has arrived.”

“Yes, the Rogue shapeshifter.” Master Ning said with a surprisingly welcoming smile. ”We were worried about you, we began to wonder if your quest had ended.”

“Not quite, Master.” Aku said, oddly respectful. He didn’t want to offend the guys who could save Kuni’s life.

“We are glad you are wit us now. Again, we extend our invitation. We believe the Pool of Convergence may be of use to you.” The old lizard turned around towards the time portal. “All factors of time and existence converge here and form an inter-dimensional nexus which we gaze into to study the infinite facets of reality. We have never attempted a physical journey but with proper conditioning you would be able to step into this crossroads and find your way home.”

Aku was staring into the time portal’s spiral forms with wide eyes, frozen in place while holding Kuni in his embrace. He felt the magic emanating from it, if what the lizard said was true, then all he needed was to step into it and he could go back and fix everything. However, he was still worried about his suppressed powers, he would not stand a chance against the Past Samurai in this state… and he wasn’t certain if Kuni was in condition to time travel.

“You seem weary, brother Aku.” Master Ning said kindly. “Come! The purity of our spring will refresh you. Come, come! Tell us of your quest. What do you seek?”

It took the demon a while to answer. “As you probably know, I’m from the past, I used a time portal to escape the Samurai’s blade and I wind up even worse than before, with most of my power contained. I seek to return to the past to end the Samurai’s reign of terror…” he realized he was deviating from the reason he had come here in the first place. “But right now, I came for another quest of utter importance!”

“Another, you say?”

“Yesterday the samurai’s copy of himself infected my friend Kuni with a virus that is killing her, and an apothecary told me you could help me!” But as the demon was about to unwrap Kuni to show them their condition, he realized his arms and cape were empty. “Kuni?!”

“Master! The pool!”

By the time they turned, it was too late. Kuni was floating a few inches above the pool, her eyes blank, her mind unconscious but her body moving as she charged up a white ball of energy aiming at the time portal. Aku’s heart skipped a beat when he realized what was going on.

“KUNI, NO!”

He could do nothing as she unleashed the energy ball towards the portal, obliterating it in an explosion of rubble and rock as the waterfall fell on top of the remains. Kuni’s eyes rolled back as she felt the unknown force forcing her to move leave her, and she fell back, she would have fallen into the water if a pair of large, black hands hadn’t caught her just in time.

“KUNI, WHY?!” Aku yelled at her in anger and frustration, his fiery eyebrows at their hottest. “THAT PORTAL MIGHT HAVE BEEN THE ONCE CHANCE WE HAD! WHY DID YOU DO IT?!” However, soon he noticed she was back into her near-unconscious state, again trembling as if she were suffering from hypothermia.

“Calm yourself, brother Aku.” Master Ning calmly said as he approached. “That was not precisely her own doing.”

“What are you saying?!” Aku snapped in dismay and confusion. “How can you be so cool about it?!”

“Anger clouds your judgment, it blinds you to the truth. You said she was infected with an illness, but I can see it is no normal illness.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!”

Master Ning calmly walked closer and touched Kuni’s cold forehead. “Somehow, a demon’s essence is creeping through her veins poisoning and posessing her body. It means to steal her soul, like it did to her own family.”

“What…?”

Wait a second… ‘like it did to her own family?’ Did this mean…?

They were dealing with the very same demonic entity he sensed in Kuni’s old home?

Kuni was still unconscious, but judging by her expression, Aku wondered if she was having a nightmare. The monks had gathered around her and had started to chant something, he had no idea of what, but he guessed they knew what they were doing.

“We are doing what we can to stave the spirit’s grip, but she must expel the entity by herself.” Master Ning explained.

“Isn’t there a way for me to help her?!” Aku didn’t want to imagine his little Kuni having to face the creature on her own. She was no warrior, and the soul eater was a powerful entity. “I’ll do anything!

Master Ning was silent for a few seconds before speaking. “You are willing to risk your life for the child?”

He didn’t need to think it twice. “I am! I will do anything, but tell me how!”

The lizard stared up at the demon in silence. He could tell Aku was truly attached to Kuni, and was serious when he said he was willing to do anything for her. “In that case, pay close attention to my words. The demon lies in her very soul, and while it is very risky, the only way to enter such a place is through a deep meditative state. The problem lies in the child letting you in, in her current state the demon might reject your presence to keep you from aiding her.”

“He can try, I will tear him to pieces as soon as I’m there!”

“It’s not that easy, brother Aku. If you’re not careful with your actions while there, you could do irreparable damage to her mind.”

That statement momentarily caught him off guard, but if there was no other way... “I will do it.” He said grimly, but with great determination and fire in his eyes.

Master Ning nodded. “Very well. Close your eyes and concentrate…”

Kuniiii…

She ran as fast as she could, but whenever she went she felt the demon was closing in. Initially everything around was darkness, but then it started to take shape and soon she found herself back in the old corridors of her home, but it was twisted and dark as the demon chased after her. Kuni ran into her parents’ room and closed the door, even though she knew it would not stop the creature, and hid under their bed, trembling and sobbing, especially when she heart footsteps just outside the door.

Kuniii… Don’t you want to see your family again…?

He was playing at her feelings. Of course she wanted, but the demon had taken them away, and now it came to take her away to. Kuni’s little heart accelerated when the door started sliding open, and the demon’s shadowy figure stepped inside.

Kuniiii…

She held her breath, trying not to make any noise as it walked closer, it’s raspy breath sending shivers down her spine. Finally, the demon lifted her bed, giving a loud shriek which sent her dashing towards the door, but it had slid closed shut, leaving her with no escape. Kuni tried in vain to open the door, and when she heard the demon coming after her she started to sob again, thinking she would not make it out of this.

Suddenly, the demon shrieked in pain when a beam of energy struck its chest, sending it flying against the shadowy wall.

“Kuni!”

Kuni reacted at the familiar voice, and she felt a pair of familiar black arms pulling her close. She returned the embrace, sobbing. “Mr. Aku!”

“Kuni, I’m glad you’re okay!” he said, but when he heard the demon snarling behind him he remembered they had to deal with it first. He turned around, pulling Kuni behind him as he bared his teeth at the creature.

The soul eater looked surprised when it saw the way its fellow demon was protecting its intended victim. “Why do you help her?! You’re a demon of darkness too!”

“I might not like humans, but this one is different! And you know what I hate even more than a soul stealer?!” Aku turned his arms into blades. “A soul stealer who dares to harm kids!”

The soul eater bared its teeth as it created a shadowy hammer with its own essence. “THEN DIE!”

Aku jumped forward, and the swords came into contact with the spectral hammer, making a loud metal screech, just as Kuni ran to one corner of the room to get away from the battle. Aku continued to block attacks from the soul eater’s hammer, and sent him flying with a slice of one of the swords. However, the soul eater merely regenerated in a swirl of black into a much stronger form.

“Damn show off.” Aku muttered under his breath, partly envious at the demon being unrestrained in the magic department. He barely had time to block a swing from the fiery sword the demon formed in its hand, and responded by turning into a spear himself and going right through the soul eater.

The soul eater exploded, but Aku could tell it was not over yet. He still felt the soul eater’s presence in that place, and his suspicions were confirmed when he saw the demon regenerating, this time into an even larger form than before that dwarfed even him.

“Hey, that’s my trick!” Aku cried out in frustration at being unable to change his size, but it became the least of his problems when he saw the soul eater forming a massive fireball in its claws. “Shoot!” When it was thrown at him, he jumped to avoid it, but instead of disappearing, the fireball turned and went back towards Aku everytime he dodged it until he used his laser beams to make it explode.

“Mr. Aku, be careful!” Kuni cried out in fright and worry.

The soul eater laughed evilly. “Zintaris didn’t lie! You really are helpless with most of your powers restricted!”

Aku’s eyes went open wide. “Wait, what?! You know the Samurai-?!”

“I admit, I had my doubts when he came into the girl’s house and offered me a deal. He said he could help me reclaim what you took from me!” it pointed at Kuni. “He even found a way to transport me from that old house! All he asked in return was that I destroy the time portal in the lizard monk’s temple, and you made it pathetically easier when I made the child go ill!”

“You will never lay a hand on her again as long as I live, smokey!”

“That child belongs to me!” with another roar, the soul eater charged up another fireball at Aku, only for him to make it explode with laser beams again.

“That child is not a property!” Having had enough, Aku managed to make himself grow larger, even though he felt a great deal of energy zapping away as he did so, to the soul eater’s size. “I will make sure you never torment her ever again!”

The soul eater grew angry and threw more fireballs, this time directed at Kuni, Aku was quick to react this time and jumped in front of her protectively, deflecting the fireballs with his blades. When the soul eater threw the last one, with one swift movement Aku deflected it back at its source, exploding into contact with the soul eater as it gave one last shriek before disappearing, all the shadows and twisted scenery along with it until everything was whiteness. Once the danger had passed, Kuni ran to Aku’s leg and embraced it, sobbing in fright. He knelt down and shrank back to normal size, embracing her in return.

“You are safe now, Kuni.”

Master Ning knew the battle was won when the girl’s expression changed into a calm one, the color returned to her face and the black tendrils that had started crawling vanished. Shortly after Aku, who had been in a deep meditative state, opened his eyes after returning to his own body. He immediately checked Kuni’s temperature, and sighed in relief when he saw she was warming up again, though she still didn’t wake up.

“Fear not, brother Aku, for the child is just exhausted after what just happened.” Master Ning said back to his amiable usual self now that she was out of danger.

Aku could tell that, he just wanted to be certain. He took off his cape and covered Kuni with it, smiling a bit when she started snoring lightly in a funny way.

Maybe it wouldn’t hurt if they stayed for a little longer, if only for her to take a well-deserved break.

[allisonswrittenwords]

Oh yes, we’re going for another episode of The Baby-Sitters Club TV show.

Try pretending to not be excited about the very idea of this!

First of all, a very happy Father’s Day to all of the dads, stepdads, grandfathers, uncles, and father-type figures out there.  Anyone can be a dad, but a father is what matters most.

That out of the way…

The Baby-Sitters Club (or rather, discussing it) is not a new or novel thing for this blog.  If you’ve been coming around here since last August, then you’re aware that I celebrated my 500th blog post with a recap, celebrated Halloween with a not-so-Halloween (but still, Halloween-esque) recap, and celebrated Christmas with an actual Christmas episode recap.  I also wrote about a Valentine’s Day-themed novel and wrote my first Goodreads review on my most recent read from the collection.

To think, it all started with a Great Idea that turned 30 years old in 2016…

I’m done tagging my posts!  I promise!

Anyway, me discussing The Baby-Sitters Club (book or TV show form) is not new or novel.  I loved the series and read them with passion between third and sixth grade, starting with Kristy’s Great Idea (#1) and working my way right through to Farewell, Dawn (#88).  While most of the books take place during ordinary parts of the year, there are a few that take place on and around various holidays.  The same goes for the episodes of the TV  show – there was only one actual holiday episode, but a few episodes that are holiday appropriate.

The episode in this timely recap fits nicely into this description!

Without further ado, I proudly present the Father’s Day-esque (they never actually come out and say “Father’s Day”) episode, “Stacey Takes a Stand”!

So let’s get this out of the way first…

  It’s the most non-threatening logo ever.   In a world of nostalgia, there is always some sort of nightmare fuel logo to open it up.  This is not one of those moments.

Anyway, we begin with that theme song I never mind getting stuck in my head:

One thing I’ve always loved about this show (aside from the fact that these are thirteen original stories that do not correspond with any of the novels) is that each introduction is different.  Thirteen episodes, thirteen different opening credit sequences.  The opening credits always wind up having a connection to the actual plot of the episode, even if it just involves our characters walking somewhere.

Like in these opening credits.

Gotta love the whole “Oh, fancy running into you here!” thing they have going on.  Like they didn’t know they were all going in the same direction and to the same place.  And I love the mix of summer clothes and fall clothes.  Seriously, some in sleeves, some in tanks.  I get the obvious vibe that this was a nice-weather day (and obviously a warmer, more temperate season, like late spring maybe?).  And of course, early 1990s awesomeness.  These clothes just scream nostalgia!

I’m really trying not to sound like a nitpick, but seriously, never figured these credits out.  I never cared when I was younger, but yeah, now I’m old, cranky, and cynical.

Oh, and obligatory episode title card…not featuring Stacey in any way, shape, or form.

But Mary Anne and Dawn are fine with filling in for Stacey on the title card.

As the episode begins, the girls are walking to a park, where Jessi informs the group that she has a great idea about the entertainment for their father’s dinner…they’ll be the entertainment!

Watch out, Jessi!  Only Kristy is allowed to have the really “great ideas.”  It was her great idea that brought all of you together, am I right?

And Jessi’s idea of entertainment?  Why, what she does best, of course!

Dance!

Choreography by Allison Venezio, age seven, and not a girl who lives, eats, and breathes the Ballet.

Again, I’m cracking up – Jam on it!  There’s generic dance music, and there’s Baby-Sitters Club Generic Dance Music.  Which is a capitalized title AND a thing.  The girls love the idea, but Kristy reminds the group that if they can’t decide on what to cook, then there isn’t going to be a dinner for the dads.

Dawn laments that her dad is not going to be there, but Mary Anne, ever the optimist, is happy to share her dad with Dawn.  Kristy, of course, has her stepdad, Watson.  Stacey is the only one who isn’t so excited, since her parents are divorced.  In fact, it is her dad’s weekend with her, so she won’t be able to make it.  The girls try to encourage her dad to drive her back that Sunday so he can attend with her, but Stacey says her dad doesn’t like visiting Stoneybrook.

The girls have to scatter, but not before Kristy reminds them that they have to think of something to cook.  Yep, telling me to cook or think of what I would like to eat makes me run off for the next thing too.

They agree to discuss their cooking ideas at the next meeting, and off they go.

Stacey, her mom, and Claudia are picking out the perfect outfit (dress, necklace, scarf combo) for Stacey’s visit to the theater on Friday night (on her dad’s weekend).  Stacey’s mom is surprised that Stacey’s dad had time to pick up tickets to a play, but Stacey informs her mom that a client gave them to her dad.  Mrs. McGill is seemingly exasperated by this.  She leaves the girls to their devices, suggesting that Stacey wear a scarf she has.

Stacey and Claudia discuss why Stacey didn’t tell her mom about the play, to which Stacey points out her mom’s reaction.

Next up (in our episode’s subplot), Stacey is bringing Buddy Barrett (one of the “Impossible Three” that Dawn managed to tame early in her BSC career) home from the dentist.  Buddy and Stacey discuss how often they see their dads.  Buddy tells Stacey he sees his dad on Tuesdays…but not every Tuesday.  Stacey informs Buddy that when he grows up, he could hang out with his dad whenever he wants.  Buddy says that when he grows up, he’s gonna hang around with Stacey.

Um….yeah.  Let that sink in.

Buddy’s apparently got a little crush on his babysitter.  I can refer him to numerous Lifetime movies about psycho babysitters, and movies about psychos who try to kill innocent babysitters and/or their parent(s)…usually the mom.

At the Barrett house, Dawn has been watching Marnie and Suzi (Buddy’s sisters).  After they’ve had dinner, the girls are ready to take the kids to play, but Suzi spills her milk.  Buddy, ever the attentive big brother, swoops in to help, but the sink is also clogged.  After a fight with a plunger, Dawn and Stacey decide that they will get Marnie ready for bed and that they can play checkers.  Buddy informs the sitters that it is already past Marnie’s bedtime, and that he is in charge, to which the girls are surprised.

Ok, well Dawn is surprised.  Stacey is just like “whatevs.”

Explain how the girl playing Dawn never got work after this?

At the next BSC meeting, the girls are discussing Stacey’s New York weekend, which includes seeing that play (turns out she is seeing Guys and Dolls.)  Stacey laments that New York is great, but she wants to have her life balanced so she can do everything she wants to do.

Oh, and they book babysitting jobs for Charlotte Johannsen (Kristy takes it) and the Barrett kids.  The group then circles back to the Great Father-Daughter Dinner Menu Crisis, and that’s when Kristy gets her Great Idea.  Because when one member has a Great Idea, they must share Equal Great Idea Time with Kristy.  So Jessi wasn’t allowed to have her moment alone in this episode.

The Great Idea Kristy has involves making the dinner a potluck, and the group decides on what will be made, and maybe it is just me, but Kristy is talking about Watson’s stuffing, the disembodied voice who keeps commenting on it just seems…annoying. I love these episodes for all the cheesy dialogue they have to offer, but the comments about how great Watson’s cooking is just seems…unnecessary.

Oh, and Jessi’s description of sushi gets a whole round of “EWWWW!” from the girls.

Because if there isn’t a screaming moment, there’s an “EWWWW!” moment.  Each episode is required to have something along these lines.

Mission accomplished.

Meanwhile, in New York, that weekend…

Stacey is talking to her dad as he gets ready to leave for the office…on a Saturday.  He tells her he would love if she wanted to go to high school in New York, and live with him.  He just wants her to think about it, and then he leaves.  Oh, and Stacey and her friend Jason are taking his sister to the Statue of Liberty in half an hour.  But of course, now she feels conflicted again, as her dad is now making her feel the way her mom does.

Stacey’s friend Jason arrives, but his sister is sick (as is he), so the trip is postponed till the following week.  Of course, Stacey won’t be there the following week (she’ll be in Stoney River, as he calls it), so she’ll have to miss out on the trip.

Back in her dad’s apartment, Stacey compiles a list of living in New York versus living in Stoneybrook.  She then calls her friends, who are busy working on perfecting this dance, which kinda coming together.  But let’s face it, they’re not The Fly Girls, only Jessi has any real rhythm, and the dinner is the next day.

  The girls hang up, and Stacey goes for a walk in the city.

I guess Manhattan in 1990 was safe enough for a pretty thirteen-year-old to walk around without an adult.  She’s coming back to her apartment when she gets a huge surprise (perhaps another one of those Great Ideas?)…

That’s right, if she can’t be in Stoneybrook, Stoneybrook’s will come to her!

The girls take two rowboats out onto the river and discuss rowing around the world together…well, in these distance shots, their dubbed-over voices do.

And then in closeup shots, Stacey tells the girls her predicament.  The girls reassure Stacey that no matter what, no matter where she decides to live, they’ll always be her friends, and that they would swim the seven seas to see her.

They leave, but not before Jason sees them leaving.  He had to go get cold medicine, and says his whole family has it now.

Um, Jason….that’s the plague.

The next day, the BSC is setting up Dawn and Mary Anne’s barn for the dinner.  The Barrett kids (as well as other charges) are helping out.  Dawn decides to have a heart-to-heart with Buddy about how he is allowed to be a kid, and let his mom be the parent.  He’s eight-and-a-half, so he doesn’t have to be the literal “man of the house.”

Stacey shows up at the setup, having taken the train in early.  She informs Dawn and Claudia that she explained to her dad how she felt about being bounced around, but she says she didn’t think he understood.  As a result, she didn’t push the subject of the father-daughter dinner to him.  She then offers to help finishing setup, and Buddy decides to go play ball and be a kid.

And the Buddy Barrett subplot is resolved.  Let’s see if Stacey’s story wraps up as nicely.

Stacey’s mom is doing her hair, and sorta badmouths Stacey’s dad not coming to the dinner, to which Stacey informs her that she didn’t tell him about it.  But her mom is doing exactly what Stacey didn’t want her to do, because it is what her dad does and it is making her upset.  So she takes a stand (see what I did there?!) and tells her mom how she is feeling.  Her mom resolves to stop being so hard on the whole thing (and her dad), and the two promise to share everything.  So Stacey goes first…her mom’s idea of hair for the dinner involves pigtails.  Which are cute in theory, but, you know, this is Stacey.

  Pigtails are so Mary Anne in the first four books.

And then comes the father-daughter dinner!

The girls are enjoying the dinner with their dads, and Dawn shows off the yellow roses her dad sent in honor of the occasion.  It’s at that moment that Watson (Kristy’s stepdad) decides to give a toast.  The dad in this episode is nothing like the written depiction of Watson Brewer, who Kristy described as “bald” in the first book.  When I think of Watson Brewer, third-rate Sam Waterston doesn’t come to mind.

Anyway, Watson salutes all of the daughters for their hard work, but it is a surprise appearance at the right moment that makes everyone notice.

Stacey’s dad has arrived, having found out about the dinner through Stacey’s mom.  He says they had a nice conversation on the phone (if you’ve read the books, you know this is sorta an impossible thing), and says that while he wants to see her more, Stacey should be where she is most happy.

And the main plot wraps up nicely, and just in time, because it is time for the part of the episode you all came to see…the dance number!

And um…wow.  It looks like a stereotypical dance recital in 1990.  The girls got it all together.  So much rehearsal over one week really paid off!

I’m actually wondering if these girls all had dance backgrounds (I think the girl playing Jessi does), because they don’t look half-bad, and while Kristy looks like me trying my hardest to dance cheesy, this is a legit tight dance sequence.

And seriously, is Jessi’s dad way too into this?  I think so!

They finish the dance, the girls celebrate their dads, and the opening chords of “Say Hello To Your Friends” queues up, which means we’ve come to the end of yet another episode of The Baby-sitters Club.  In 29 minutes, we’ve seen a child resolving to be a child and not the literal “Man of the House,” a daughter finding the perfect balance between her parents and their living arrangements, and a whole group of daughters dance for a whole group of dads and stepdads.

It’s the Father’s Day recap your dad won’t read.  But your mom probably will.  Because she remembers how much you loved the books and this will be nostalgia for her too.

I’m sure my mom will read this.

And as the girls walk off in search of their next babysitting jobs, we’ll close out this recap.

Stacey took her stand, Buddy learned he didn’t have to, and all the dads…somebody just tell Jessi’s dad this isn’t a Janet Jackson music video.

For the love of everything, Mr. Ramsey, stop acting like you’re getting your groove on just watching this!  And inform Mr. Spier of this as well!

Oh, and if you want to watch this episode, you can click play below.

Happy Father’s Day!

    Allison’s Written Words #FathersDay: “The Baby-Sitters Club” Celebrates Dads Oh yes, we're going for another episode of The Baby-Sitters Club TV show. Try pretending to not be excited about the very idea of this!

[bolddeducktionneverfails]

Launchpad’s Association With Della Duck: If Walls Could Talk

Part 1 | Part 2 || Part 3 | Part 4| Part 5 || Part 6 | Continued from Part 7

Sometimes in art, the composition of a scene gives away more information than the foreground is willing to tell us. The musical score and the colors can also be used to do this by invoking certain emotions. When Scrooge orders Launchpad to hand him the parachute in “Last Crash of the Sunchaser!”, Launchpad stalls and a brassy instrument buzzes in the background. Combined with his look of concern and Scrooge covering up his vague mention of Della with the kids, this musical cue seems to imply that something stung about Scrooge’s slip-up. Or that maybe he knew something was wrong and wanted to know who Scrooge was really referring to. Also, during the most intense portion of the episode, the sun begins to set, causing many warm colors to be present. Having this setting while the emotions are high, further invokes feelings of fear and suspense.

With that being said, let's see what additional information Della and Launchpad’s first meeting could be telling us.

Della's mystery theme begins to play as she descends from the stairs. She brushes her hand against a picture of Donald sitting on HDL’s eggs. The sound of a violin intensifies and subsides as she does this. 

Della looks at another photo of Donald taking care of the boys, then fixes her gaze on the family photo as she continues to walk. The violin comes in. She stops in front of Launchpad's photo with her head covering up most of it. The score briefly stops along with her. 

Della takes out her own copy of the family photo; the same one she’s been holding on to since the moment she first entered the Spear. After sadly staring at the drawings on the back of it, she places it over her side of Donald's copy. This gesture makes me wonder if this was her way of inserting the father into the picture. The boys are already being represented by their eggs, so why would she need to place them into the picture if they’re already there? I guess it can be argued that she was excluding herself because she wasn't present during most of HDL’s childhood, but a little afterwards, she says “I’ll take it from here.” She’s still optimistic about her role as a parent and belonging in the family so why would she block herself out as to think she didn’t deserve to be on the wall?

Pᴇʀʜᴀᴘs Dᴇʟʟᴀ ʜᴀᴅ ᴏʀɪɢɪɴᴀʟʟʏ ɪɴᴛᴇɴᴅᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ɢɪᴠᴇ ᴏʀ sʜᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʜᴏᴛᴏ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ғᴀᴛʜᴇʀ ᴀғᴛᴇʀ sʜᴇ sᴀᴠᴇᴅ ʜɪᴍ.

Remember how Scrooge was comparing the Spear incident to the situation happening in “Last Crash”? He was trying to protect Dewey, but the triplet continued to chase after a missing piece of a photo. 

When the piece gets stuck at the front of the plane, Dewey activates the parachute to launch himself up there. When the piece flies out the window, he goes right after it, putting himself in a dangerous area full of clouds. 

The main objective of the trip was to go to an event called E.X.C.E.S.S, which included the phrase "Fun for Dad!" on its flyer.

Tʜᴇ ᴘʜʀᴀsᴇ ɪs ʜᴀʀᴅᴇʀ ᴛᴏ sᴇᴇ ɪɴ ᴄᴏᴍᴘᴀʀɪsᴏɴ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ᴛᴇxᴛ ᴏɴ ᴛʜᴇ ғʟʏᴇʀ, sᴏʀᴛ ᴏғ ᴍᴀᴋɪɴɢ ɪᴛ ʜɪᴅᴅᴇɴ ɪɴ ᴘʟᴀɪɴ sɪɢʜᴛ.

There were also plans to find a lost heirloom but neither got accomplished because the plane gets stuck on a peak, much like Della getting stuck on the Moon. 

When Dewey and Scrooge are speeding through the plane, Scrooge has a rope tied to his waist and Launchpad holds on to the other end that’s tied to the parachute. The pilot is connected to what’s happening, but he’s very perplexed about it. 

Earlier, as Scrooge instructs everyone to stay put, Dewey inches over to the second pilot chair where the missing piece is stuck onto the base. When Dewey causes the plane to shake, Launchpad is suddenly placed in that chair after we’re given a shot of it being empty. 

Perhaps this was some sort of error, but this scene does follow a moment where Launchpad needs to be saved after a bunch of cargo traps him in the jeep. 

There also seems to be another error where Launchpad suddenly appears in the jeep when the driver’s seat was empty in the previous shot.

We see the missing piece stuck to the jeep before this happens.

Scrooge’s comparison can serve as an explanation to why Della had the photo of herself climbing into the rocket  in “The Golden Spear”. It might be a meta thing to express that connection. Otherwise, it would be very strange for Della to be hanging up an regretful moment without destroying the photo in some way.

Aʟsᴏ ᴘɪᴄᴛᴜʀᴇᴅ ᴏɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴀʟʟ ɪs ᴀ ʙʟᴜᴇᴘʀɪɴᴛ ғᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ Sᴘᴇᴀʀ, ʜᴇʀ ᴅʀᴀᴡɪɴɢs ᴏɴ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴀᴄᴋ ᴏғ ʜᴇʀ ғᴀᴍɪʟʏ ᴘʜᴏᴛᴏ ᴀɴᴅ  ᴘᴏssɪʙʟʏ ᴛʜᴇ ʙʟᴜᴇᴘʀɪɴᴛs ғᴏʀ ʜᴇʀ ʀᴏʙᴏᴛ ʟᴇɢ.

After quietly commending Donald on his parenting, Della notices Launchpad’s photo and shifts into a more sour demeanor as she wonders why this stranger is up on the wall. When the picture first appeared in “Storkules in Duckburg!”, I had a strong feeling that it was supposed to be Launchpad depicted in it. He’s looking a lot more like himself as opposed to the messy, white-haired individual wearing a teal scarf and no boots. He’s still kneeling on the ground, smiling and giving a thumbs up, but now it’s much easier to tell that there’s a plane in the background. We’re shown that the Sunchaser caught on fire when it crashed. Donald is in the photo now, panicking and running away with the back of his shirt on fire. Launchpad is a bit singed from the fire, but he’s not fazed at all.

Lᴀᴜɴᴄʜᴘᴀᴅ's ᴘʜᴏᴛᴏ ɪɴ "Nᴏᴛʜɪɴɢ Cᴀɴ" ᴄᴏᴍᴘᴀʀᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ "Sᴛᴏʀᴋᴜʟᴇs" ᴠᴇʀsɪᴏɴ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʀᴏᴅᴜᴄᴛɪᴏɴ ᴀʀᴛ ʙᴏᴛʜ ᴍᴀʏ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ʙᴇᴇɴ ɪɴsᴘɪʀᴇᴅ ʙʏ.

When I realized it was Launchpad in the “Storkules” version, I thought they were obscuring him in a similar way that they did with Duckworth before they officially revealed him. Even though the wall wasn’t as detailed as it became in “Nothing Can”, everyone else was very easy to recognize right off the bat. They could have easily made Launchpad look closer to himself. Giving him red hair would have been a huge clue, but instead, they left that detail out and gave him different clothes. Because of my new theory, I think this was alluding to Launchpad looking notably different in the past. Later in the episode, the photo disappears and the wall reverts to what it used to look like in “Shadow War”. It came off as something we weren’t supposed to see for very long, but this could be representing Launchpad going missing. When the wall changes again in “Nothing Can”, it could be hinting how LP changed after his disappearance.

Tᴏᴘ: Tʜᴇ ғᴀᴍɪʟʏ ᴘʜᴏᴛᴏ ᴡᴀʟʟ ɪɴ “Tʜᴇ Sʜᴀᴅᴏᴡ Wᴀʀ!”

Mɪᴅᴅʟᴇ: Tʜᴇ ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇᴅ ᴠᴇʀsɪᴏɴ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴀʟʟ ᴛᴏᴡᴀʀᴅs ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴇɢɪɴɴɪɴɢ ᴏғ “Sᴛᴏʀᴋᴜʟᴇs ɪɴ Dᴜᴄᴋʙᴜʀɢ!” ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴀʟʟ ʀᴇᴠᴇʀᴛɪɴɢ ʟᴀᴛᴇʀ ᴏɴ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇᴘɪᴅsᴏᴅᴇ

Bᴏᴛᴛᴏᴍ: Tʜᴇ ᴡᴀʟʟ ɪɴ "Nᴏᴛʜɪɴɢ Cᴀɴ" ᴡɪᴛʜ Dᴇʟʟᴀ ᴇᴅɪᴛᴇᴅ ᴏᴜᴛ.

While I’m glad that LP was confirmed for the mysterious photo, I still don’t understand why Donald has is up. They’re not exactly friends...they hardly ever interact with each other and Donald’s not enjoying himself in the picture at all. Maybe Dewey took the picture and put it up there, but still...the fact that a picture of Launchpad is included while Webby and Mrs. Beakley are excluded, is extremely peculiar...all three of them are supposed to be honorary family members, yet Launchpad is the only one surrounded by blood relatives.

Oғғɪᴄɪᴀʟ ᴍᴀᴛᴇʀɪᴀʟ ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ ‘87’s Lᴀᴜɴᴄʜᴘᴀᴅ ɪs ɢɪᴠᴇɴ ᴡʜɪᴛᴇ ʜᴀɪʀ ᴇɪᴛʜᴇʀ ʙʏ ᴄᴏʟᴏʀɪɴɢ ᴇʀʀᴏʀ ᴏʀ ɪᴛ ᴡᴀs ᴏɴᴄᴇ ᴄᴏɴsɪᴅᴇʀᴇᴅ ғᴏʀ ʜɪᴍ ᴛᴏ ʟᴏᴏᴋ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴛʜɪs.

Tᴏᴘ, Lᴇғᴛ ᴛᴏ Rɪɢʜᴛ: Bɪʀᴅɪᴇ sʜᴏᴡɪɴɢ Lᴀᴜɴᴄʜᴘᴀᴅ’s ʙᴀʙʏ ᴘʜᴏᴛᴏ ғʀᴏᴍ “Tᴏᴘ Dᴜᴄᴋ” ᴀɴᴅ ᴘᴀʀᴛ ᴏғ ᴀ Dɪsɴᴇʏ Aᴅᴠᴇɴᴛᴜʀᴇs ᴍᴀɢᴀᴢɪɴᴇ ᴄᴏᴠᴇʀ.

Bᴏᴛᴛᴏᴍ, Lᴇғᴛ: Lᴀᴜɴᴄʜᴘᴀᴅ ᴀs ʜᴇ ᴀᴘᴘᴇᴀʀᴇᴅ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ Vɪʟʟᴀ Dᴏɴᴀʟᴅᴏ Hᴏᴍᴇ Sʜᴏᴘ ᴘᴀɪɴᴛɪɴɢ ᴀᴛ Tᴏᴋʏᴏ DɪsɴᴇʏSᴇᴀ. Dᴇʟʟᴀ ɪs ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇᴅ ɴᴇxᴛ ᴛᴏ ʜɪᴍ ᴡɪᴛʜ ʜᴇʀ sᴏɴs ɪɴ ғʀᴏɴᴛ. 

Bᴏᴛᴛᴏᴍ, Rɪɢʜᴛ: A ᴄʟᴏsᴇ-ᴜᴘ  ᴏғ Lᴀᴜɴᴄʜᴘᴀᴅ ғʀᴏᴍ Tʜᴇ Gʀᴇᴀᴛ Lᴏsᴛ Tʀᴇᴀsᴜʀᴇ Hᴜɴᴛ ʙᴏᴏᴋ  

Tʜᴇ "Sᴛᴏʀᴋᴜʟᴇs" ᴠᴇʀsɪᴏɴ sᴇᴇᴍs ᴛᴏ ʀᴇsᴇᴍʙʟᴇ LP's ᴅᴇsɪɢɴ ғʀᴏᴍ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀɢᴀᴢɪɴᴇ ᴄᴏᴠᴇʀ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴏsᴛ. Cᴏᴜʟᴅ ᴛʜɪs ʜᴀᴠᴇ ʙᴇᴇɴ ɪɴᴛᴇɴᴛɪᴏɴᴀʟ?

Right on cue, Launchpad enters the houseboat to introduce himself to Della. He stands in front of Donald’s parenting side of the wall. The placement of the photos become inconsistent for the next two shots: 

Della starts off in front of Huey and Louie’s portraits but when she begins to confront Launchpad about being replaced, the pictures have shifted to the left; putting her in between Launchpad’s photo and the original family photo. This shot hides the faces of Della’s first two drawings, but the third one is left visible until she stops in front of him.   

When Della grabs Launchpad by the collar, the photos have shifted to the right. The original family photo is suddenly hanging around their heads. LP slumps forward when he realizes that Della isn’t happy with him and that causes his head to point towards the drawings.

She brings LP down to her line of sight to glare at him as she makes it clear that she’s the pilot around here. This brings their heads together below the family photo with Launchpad being even more in line with the direction of the drawings. The third drawing is peeking from behind LP’s head and the way LP is scrunched down makes him resemble it more. Unlike most shots the third drawing appears in, the lower half of the body is missing.

Della loosens her grip as she marches up the stairs. Launchpad seems to press himself against the wall to get out of Della’s way (or did she force him to move over?), causing his head to be placed in the family photo, his right arm to be in his own photo, his left arm to be in the photo of Donald with the triplets in the inflatable raft, leaving the rest of his body in the photo of Donald and the boys fishing. Having Launchpad put in front of the family photo seems to support the idea of Della wanting to have the father “in the picture”.

It also reminded me of one occurrence after another: It made me think of how the Launch light in the Spear was in the same direction of the family photo during the beginning of “Whatever Happened”. There may have even been some subtle wordplay going on with the “Emergency Launch” being activated in “Golden Spear”.

That made me think of Launchpad’s dialogue when he was talking to Scrooge over the intercom in “Shadow War”. The scene briefly gives us a look at Magica-Possesed Lena eavesdropping on the conversation. Then the camera immediately goes back to LP the moment he says “launching their mom into Space and orphaning them”. The way he recaps the situation makes it sound like this is the first time Launchpad is checking on Scrooge. The episode takes place three days after “Last Crash”. Why did it take him so long? He doesn’t even appear at the end of that episode when everyone, including Duckworth, is leaving.  We’re left wondering where Launchpad is during Scrooge’s time of need. In spite of hearing Scrooge’s side of the Spear incident, Launchpad never takes the time to blame Della. Wouldn’t he want to defend Scrooge? 

Looking back at “Last Crash” made me think about the scene where the plane is about to fall off the peak. As the children pile the blame onto Scrooge, the Sunchaser leans forward where Launchpad and the hula girl bobble figure are. I’ve noted in the past how the figure could have been placed there by Launchpad and how it could be representing Della since it wears some of her colors. The plane leaning on their side rather than the back could definitely be an indicator that Scrooge wasn’t the reason why Della went missing. Launchpad isn’t able to respond to the flashback because of the plane, but he draws attention to himself in general as he tries to interrupt the argument.

Speaking of which, something else that’s worth noticing about Launchpad’s placement on the wall is that his head is right next to Della’s third drawing. When he lands there, his hair bang seems to be bring attention to it by keeping it visible while having the other two drawings hidden. 

This drawing seems to be getting a lot of attention in general: When we first see the back of the family photo in “Last Christmas!”, we're given zero indication of what the third drawing looks like. It's hidden... like Della’s lower half. Then in “Whatever Happened to Della Duck?!”, we find out why her lower half was hidden and what the third drawing looks like. 

As Lunaris talks about the sacrifices the moon mite made for her child, Della looks at the front of the family photo. The top two drawings are visible, but the third is not. 

When Della shows her kids to Penumbra in “The Golden Spear!”, she isolates the third drawing by noting that their heads aren’t really shaped like eggplants.. It's the only one with a head-shape that closely resembles the fruit. 

For a while, I've been thinking that there could be some foreshadowing going on with the entire back of the photo. As soon as I saw the second drawing, I immediately thought of Gladstone due to the eyebrows and curly hair bang. I couldn't figure out who the first one could have represented but then I saw suggestions about it possibly having to do with Fethry; the cone shape on top of the head could be like a hat. It would make a lot of sense for these two drawings to be referring to them since they're both Duck Cousins with debut episodes that follow the same formula and shared similarities to Della's situation on the Moon.

One of those formula components included “being heavily compared to one of the triplets". Gladstone had his episode with Louie on land. Fethry had his episode under the sea with Huey. Dewey has yet to have an episode that follows the special formula and Space definitely seems like it could be the next environment to be featured. 

Donald's on the Moon now, so the third drawing could be hinting to something involving him, but I don't think he's being depicted here and they don’t share a lot in common. Dewey is often compared to Della, but he’s similar to Launchpad too. The fact that Della let Penumbra know that her children didn't really have eggplant-shaped heads in spite of what she drew, could coincide with the idea that Launchpad didn’t always look the way that he currently does.

���Depths” compared Launchpad to Dewey when he rose out of the water with a serious expression on his face, that was similar to the beginning of the episode when Huey disrupted Dewey from his bath. Dewey was expressing how he wanted to see something exciting happen and Launchpad ends up coming from something exciting. If the first two drawings truly did represent Fethry and Gladstone and if Huey and Louie had episodes with them where they were compared to their cousins, that means Dewey will be compared to another family member. If it’s the father, that means he’s still alive and will accompany him in that episode.

Towards the end of “Nothing Can”, after the Gilded Man fight, Della states "Man, Donald sure is missing out on some quality family bonding." He's not the only one; Launchpad was completely absent during the family’s time of need. (Well, and Duckworth.) He was just seen in the houseboat and we’re led to believe he lives somewhere in a separate area of the mansion’s garage. If he was still on the premises, he should have heard what was going on. Where could he have gone?  Because Launchpad has had other unexplained absences, this is feeling very deliberate. Aside from remarking about Launchpad being immortal in “Game Night”, Louie did mention how Launchpad leaves for “non-suspicious reasons”. I’m convinced they're saving Launchpad for another important family moment.

---

In a couple of other posts I’ve made, I discussed the set-up of Launchpad’s room in the garage and how he sleeps hanging suspended in a starry atmosphere. 

But as I observed it some more, I came to realize that not only is this area made up of string lights and glow-in-the-dark celestial objects, but it also includes a red hammock, a blue pillow and a green cover. 

On the ground level of the garage, he has a red couch, a green-ish teal curtain and an area of blue to indigo-colored posters on his wall below the string lights. There’s also large areas of gold and brown, much like the chauffeur outfit he wears. 

Whenever red, blue and green are grouped together on this show, it more than likely has something to do with HDL and whenever anything is reminiscent of stars or the Moon, it’s hard not to think of Della.

Webby’s room is pretty interesting too. Last August, I wondered if some of Webby’s belongings could have been hand-me-downs from Della’s childhood or that maybe the items were originally intended for HDL’s nursery. There are two pairs of aircrafts hanging down from the ceiling as well as moons, stars and hearts throughout the main section of her room and the bathroom.

Tᴏᴘ: Wᴇʙʙʏ's ʀᴏᴏᴍ ғʀᴏᴍ "Tʜᴇ Gʀᴇᴀᴛ Dɪᴍᴇ Cʜᴀsᴇ!"

Bᴏᴛᴛᴏᴍ: Wᴇʙʙʏ's ʙᴀᴛʜʀᴏᴏᴍ ғʀᴏᴍ "Jᴀᴡ$!"

It’s also possible that this was originally Della’s room after she moved out of the one she shared with Donald and then later wanted to re-purpose it for a nursery. Another thing that could be indicating that Della could have been involved with the room is how Webby’s sleeping area has a blue bunny, a green-ish teal pillow and a red cover. There’s also a telescope to look out the window over the bed.

Wᴇʙʙʏ's sʟᴇᴇᴘɪɴɢ ᴀʀᴇᴀ ғʀᴏᴍ "Jᴀᴡ$!"

___

At the end of “The Shadow War!” where Della was watching the news report, I was convinced that she acknowledged Launchpad when she put her hand on his side of the screen. Now that we know they don’t know each other, I believe this was meant to be a meta hint. Dewey and Louie are also on this side, but her hand covers their faces while leaving Launchpad’s easy for us to see. 

Maybe it was Scrooge she was acknowledging at that moment, but this isn't exactly made clear; perhaps because of the camera's angle. When you acknowledge someone you care about on screen, and you haven't seen them in forever, you're gonna want to place your hand on their body a leave their face open to look at. Completely blocking their face or put your hand next to them, is a strange impulse.

 Wʜᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ sᴄᴇɴᴇ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ʟᴏᴏᴋᴇᴅ ʟɪᴋᴇ ɪғ ᴛʜᴇ sᴄʀᴇᴇɴ ᴡᴀs ᴄʟᴇᴀʀᴇʀ ᴡʜᴇɴ sʜᴇ ʀᴇsᴛᴇᴅ ʜᴇʀ ʜᴀɴᴅ. I ᴏᴠᴇʀʟᴀʏᴇᴅ ᴛʜᴇ sᴇᴄᴏɴᴅ sᴄʀᴇᴇɴsʜᴏᴛ ᴏɴ ᴛᴏᴘ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ ғɪʀsᴛ ᴀɴᴅ ᴇʀᴀsᴇᴅ ᴛʜᴇ sᴛᴀᴛɪᴄ.

I had thought the screen was clear enough for a moment for her to see where she was putting her hand, but I suppose the static and goggles made the scene hard for her to read. That would explain why she failed to notice HDL until the screen changed to focus on them. Still...the screen could have been more distorted to give us a better idea of how she was looking at it, but we're able to recognize everyone and where they're placed. Launchpad didn't have to be on that side, he could have easily been placed where Mrs. Beakley was put.

 Another reason why this could be some meta stuff going on is Donald's absence. There was an empty spot where he could have gone and he was present before Della's scene, yet he was excluded from the news report. Now that Donald is the one stuck on the Moon, this could have been foreshadowing his disappearance.

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Back in March, the official DuckTales social media accounts changed their profile pictures and banners to be themed around new artwork of the family skydiving. Launchpad is the only one left on the plane, carrying what seems to be a jetpack at the doorway of the hatch. After the May episodes were released, video on demand services such as iTunes and Amazon Video set this artwork as the image for their Volume 4 pages.

Tᴏᴘ: Tʜᴇ Fᴀᴄᴇʙᴏᴏᴋ ᴠᴇʀsɪᴏɴ

Lᴇғᴛ: Tʜᴇ ɪTᴜɴᴇs ᴠᴇʀsɪᴏɴ

Rɪɢʜᴛ: Tʜᴇ Aᴍᴀᴢᴏɴ ᴠᴇʀsɪᴏɴ

In every variation of this artwork, the Sunchaser is always facing the Moon; which is peeking behind a cloud. This reminds me a lot of the second cover for Issue 18, where this also could have been used to represent Della. 

The fact that this element remains consistent in each version of the artwork, seems to imply significance. The composition of the first version also seems to hint at Donald's imprisonment on the Moon.

Alright, time to conclude this update with some later-in-the-season speculation!

 Continue here.