#spiting butch hartman

[redqueenmiku]

~1-9-2022~

Okay, so Butch Hartman posted this tiktok back around see date above where he "drew silver the hedgehog in the danny phantom style" and this so thoroughly repulsed me that I had to correct his wrongs and do it right. Don't ask why. It's better that way.

[fagbearentertainment]

I haven’t been watching the new fairly oddparents show but I rly like Poof’s (now named Peri #enbyicon) adult design and voice they’re giving pilot Cosmo vibes it’s great

[picturejasper20]

Thoughts on The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish

Today i watched the first episodes from The Fairly Oddparents reboot (semi sequel?) that starts a new kid protagonist, this case being Hazel Wells, who Cosmo and Wanda grant her wishes.

I can't give a total confirmation that this series is good or not because only a few episodes have come out and this opinion could change with time depending on how things turn out. Leaving that aside here are my first impressions:

In first point, yes, what most people have pointed out. That the animation style of this show is quite pretty to look at. It is a mix between 2D and 3D elements i haven't seen much lately in animated series. It kinda gives the series a ¨stop-motion¨ vibes to it. So, i do appreciate that in that area the series manages to separate itself from others visually speaking.

Moving on to the characters, i do like Hazel as main character. She is energetic in some ways but in not in way that can come off as too annoying in contrast to main characters i have seen from other animated shows. She is quite intelligent and more mature than kids at her age. She can give the feeling that she a bit older than 10 but i think that's the intention considering it is part of her personality.

And it isn't like she knows everything. She is flawed in her own way, can getting too caught up in what she wants, has trouble with working under pressure and doesn't think thinks through (she tried running away to see her older brother in the first episode). But she isn't a selfish brat. She is a balanced character.

On last point about her character, you can see that she has things hard since she moved to a new city without her brother and she doesn't have friends at the start but her parents are overall well meaning and care about her. She doesn't have this habit that kid-teen main characters have in Butch Hartman shows that are mistreated like garbage and everyone hates them for some reason. It feels more realistic in that regard.

For Cosmo and Wanda, I do enjoy the way they have been written so far. For once Cosmo is potrayed as someone who is more to get easily distracted but he isn't exactly dumb and Wanda is allowed to have her moments she messes things up as opposed to always being right. I do like how they see Hazel struggling and feeling sad and jumped at the opportunity to help her in spite of being retired. (This itself brings a problem to them because their magic backfires for lacking practice).

The first three episodes set up some interesting things that are going to come back later: -Hazel's father being a paranormal investigator, already putting a good potential conflict in there, -A fairy named Cookie that was supposed to be Hazel's oddparent but she gets rejected because of her not listening to what Hazel wants -The school principal is already getting suspicious about Hazel hiding something.

I do like the lessons in the first episodes too. There seems to be an going theme in this series about how adults can be unfair to kids (If i recall this was a bit of a thing in the original show) but kids can be still immature and have things to learn. So it isn't ¨adults bad and kids good¨, there is more nuance to that.

In overall the series has a good start and i'm looking forward to see how it plays with the elements that has established these first episodes.

[comradesbooks]

CRASH COURSE IN WRITING MAGIC SYSTEMS THAT NOBODY ASKED FOR

Disclaimer: I reference some popular media in this post to use as examples of what and what not to do when writing magic systems in fiction. In spite of my horrible sense of humor, understand that I’m not berating any series, I’m just making a point. Like what you like.

AHEM.

In a medieval or ancient fantasy world, magic is a staple, and while it can be a challenge at times to work with a magic system, I’ve found that effective magic systems have three clearly established factors playing into them. These factors are as follows:

1. Rules and Limits

2. Plausible Purpose and Canonical Background

3. CONSISTENCY

1. Rules and Limits. When it comes to writing a magic system, I feel that the most daunting part of it is the sheer amount of freedom you have with it. It’s to your custom. There are no rules until you set them, and if you don’t set firm rules in your magic system, you end up with a weird free for all that makes your story fall flat. The hero needs to reach the peak of some secluded mountain to battle an ancient wizard threatening to destroy the world? Let’s just teleport to the guy and hit him a few times with lightning until he dies! That’ll do it! With logic like that, you have a story that lasts less than 10,000 words. And no lonely soul in the wee hours of a Sunday morning is going to want to read that to pass the time. 

This is why rules and limitations are vital to any magic system. Say your aforementioned hero (who is currently trying to reach that wizard but has no clue where he is) works with magic or has a sidekick who works with magic. Now say that this world does have teleportation magic, which is pretty OP. How do we limit it? Well, maybe teleportation, although possible, is dangerous because it makes the user tired, which is pretty impractical when you’re getting ready to have a final showdown with an all-powerful wizard. This could lead to a side arc that the hero must go through in order to reach the pesky wizard, therefore adding conflict to the story and opportunities to meet new characters, develop your world, and lengthen your adventure.

Earlier seasons of The Fairly Odd Parents come to mind. For those who grew up watching Butch Hartman’s brainchild, you might remember Da Rules, a huge book full of all the rules a godchild and his fairies must follow during their partnership. While rules are made up on the spot in some episodes, there are quite a few that stick around throughout the series and act as a hindrance in Timmy’s hare-brained schemes. In one early episode, Timmy wishes that he was the best skate-boarder in the world. This is fun, until he is challenged by his evil babysitter to a skating contest. Because of the stated rule that he can’t make wishes to win contests, Timmy is stripped of his magical skills, and is forced to git gud on his own in order to beat Vicky. If it weren’t for this simple rule being established early on in the series, the episode would have never happened at all. It’s a simple and childish example, but it gets the point across well enough. 

Put bluntly, limitation and necessity are the parents of invention. If you don’t have rules, you don’t have conflict, and if your story doesn’t have conflict, then you don’t have a story.

2. Plausible Purpose and Canonical Background. Why does your world even have magic in the first place? Why does it exist? How does it exist? How does it affect your story and the characters in it? If it’s just a background element or plot device, either edit it out of your story, or rework your story to make it important, if you want magic so badly. If characters rely on magic for their way of life, make it clear how magic affects people and how they use it in their day to day lives. If magic isn’t a common occurrence, do people fear and shun it? This could be a driving force in your story. 

To add to this, magic systems are about as interesting as their origins are. Magic doesn’t just exist. That’s not unique. It should have some kind of explanation to it. Even if it’s vague, it’s fine, if there’s a good enough reason. Maybe no one knows its true origins and so it’s only crazy theories that exist, which could be up to the reader to determine magic’s origins in that world. Open-ended world-building and characterization can be interesting, if done well.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a good example. Skyrim introduces a new magic system to the Elder Scrolls series; the Thu’um. To put it bluntly, the Thu’um is an ancient school of magic that was used only by Dragons. Humans couldn’t use it until a goddess allowed them to use it to fight the Dragons in ancient times, because without it, humans had no chance of overthrowing their cruel masters. Canonically, the Thu’um is a very powerful kind of magic, which at one point was used to break a piece of Skyrim off during a battle between two Dragon Priests, Miraak and Vahlok. The story behind the human use of the Thu’um is pretty metal, and therefore, interesting! While it doesn’t have to be quite that brutal, there should be an interesting story to the magic, which could also play into the rules limiting the use of that magic. Using Skyrim as an example again, while humans can use the Thu’um, it requires decades of training to actually do anything with it because the practice is not natural to humans like it is to Dragons. While a handful of mortals have been born with the ability to use the Thu’um without much training at all, only very few have existed in history, and even fewer actually used their gift. The magic is insanely powerful, but has strict limits and rules, depending on who is using, limiting the amount of people who can use it.

Use of the magic system shouldn’t be all the same either. There are different people who are going to practice it, and those different people are going to have different perspectives on the craft. A great example to look at is bending in Avatar: The Last Airbender. While the bending of elements in the show is technically a martial art, it’s treated like a magic system. Each nation has its own style when dealing with their respective element. Waterbenders are more fluid in their motions when waterbending, while earthbenders are very rigid and forceful when they’re chucking rocks at your face. Firebenders are offensive and aggressive, while airbenders are defensive and agile, preferring avoidant tactics in combat. Variations exist, such as the three main Waterbending styles, according to Wan Shi Tong; Northern Style, Southern Style, and Foggy Swamp Style. Some intellectualoids like Toph are knowledgeable enough to make brand new techniques completely unheard of in their craft in the form of metalbending, lavabending, bloodbending, and lightningbending. Others, like Iroh, are even able to borrow from other elements to come up with completely new techniques, like lightning redirection and using different parts of the body to firebend when the limbs are bound. Having multiple ideals in a world not only creates organic diversity, but also opens the doors to conflict. What if two kinds of magic users with differing ideologies clash? What kind of chaos could ensue?

3. CONSISTENCY. It’s pretty simple on paper, but writers seem to struggle with keeping their magic systems consistent. A small example in High Guardian Spice would is the portal magic introduced in the first episode by Aloe. If you have a portal that can take you from Point A to Point B with no established limits, why didn’t Sage and Rosemary just teleport from their hometown to the Academy? When the girls get trapped in a cave, why didn’t they just magic their way out using portals? Avoiding plot holes is easy if you stay consistent. If you write yourself into a corner, consider reworking the previous two factors in your story. To prevent writing yourself into a corner, plan your novel out before you write it, and don’t be afraid to rework some things if you get stuck. They’re called drafts for a reason!

This little brainbarf boils down to:

You make the rules in magic systems. Those rules can be whatever the heck you want, but to make a good product, you need to stick to the rules you set, and still find a way to make it interesting.

Take everything I say here with a grain of salt, as I’m mainly a fanfiction writer, however I have worked with fantasy games, and have rewritten some magic systems to make them more “novel-friendly”. (*cough cough* Skyrim, I’m lookin at you *cough cough*) 

Just understand that everything I said is entirely correct and valid and if you think otherwise, you are automatically wrong in every way.

I can provide examples of my own work with magic systems, if anyone is curious. I can also write up a part two, if anyone is open to discussion! 

[notexactlyaninja]

that said, there is a problematic creator whose content i still like fan content of, but sheerly out of spite for the creator

THE DANNY PHANTOM FANDOM, AND HOW THEY HEADCANON DANNY AS TRANS TO PISS BUTCH HARTMAN OFF FURTHER

[lethalbutterfly]

4. Spiteful (Danny Phantom is trans because fuck Butch Hartman)

There are three kinds of LGBT headcanons:

Actual queer coding / metaphors ("Nimona is trans because her creator made her as a way to express his feelings as a trans person")

Vibes ("Link is genderless because I said so")

It's funny ("Phoenix Wright is asexual because he's the Ace Attorney")

[thegremlinprince]

I was born in the wrong dimension. The dimension i wanna be in is the world where Alex Hirsch either got to pick up or create Danny Phantom and actually did something cool and dark with it.

[raveyardantics]

Even though I love a good detail dump when I write, looking back, the only character whose eyes I ever actually describe in detail is Danny and tbh that's probably because if I think about the non-white characters' eye colors for more than ten seconds I start feeling like Gohan during the cell games

[chihuahua-art]

I’m a dummy and completely fell victim to this April fool’s joke and didn’t realize it until I had finished this art I made because I become a Being of sheer spite when it comes to Butch Hartman

Whatever, I cracked up about it once I realized and style matching is really fun, so I’m not mad

[ghoulishautism]

"Well they couldn't do certain things/were more limited back then/ insert third excuse here"

Explain Avatar

Explain Batman the Animated Series

Explain a show that isnt strictly in the US because I know there are really good shows that are unknown in this country and have gone on to become a huge staple in that culture

When you have limitations, you do the best you can to work within those limitations. Thats what Danny Phantom DID, in SPITE of Butch Hartman. Thats why its GOOD. Its good BECAUSE there were people on the inside actively working and fighting against those limitations

Don't blame the era because good art exists in every observable place in time, and always will

I do kinda hate the argument of "its a show from the 2000s" because it implies good shows (esp for kids) didn't exist until the 2010s and after

like ATLA,, Teen Titans, MLAATR, Samurai Jack, etc baby girls I am SO sorry those hoes said that about you

[nullifi-blr]

I am drawing Human!Techno now out of spite of Butch Hartman /hj

(he's technically a wereboar, but that's besides the point)

[tyrin1350]

I get a lot of people are offended by some of Lil Nas X’s content but can we stop pretending like this in particular something new and just so outrageous ? Men have doing parodies of pregnancies for a long time.

Y’all weren’t mad when Bill Cosby did it, or Arnold Schwarzenegger, or when Butch Hartman put in a cartoon 

“The Cosby show” S06E08: the day the spores landed.

Released November 9,1989

“Junior” which made $108.4 million in the box office

Released November 23, 1994

“Fairly odd parents” S06E01 : Fairly Oddbaby

Released February 18, 2008

Let’s call it out for what it is. being a person of color and openly gay he’s a double minority therefore he’s getting it from both sides

There’s a huge problem with Homophobia/Toxic masculinity in the black community especially in the hip hop game and then you have some of the white people that are simply racist, homophobic or both and just don’t like the fact that he is doing so well in spite of everything and at this point I feel people are just looking for a reason to cancel this man but hypocrisy is not going to get it done and what some of you fail to realize is a lot of his actions are just trolling and everybody that hates him is giving him exactly what he wants because there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

[daglout]

I don't think you appreciate how little I care about butch hartman's opinions. I'm not voting in polls to spite some middle aged guy who wont see, I'm voting because I think the blue hedgehog looks cool when people draw top surgery scars on him. Also I don't think trans headcanons should be promoted just to make their conservative creators mad or something?? Like I do not care about that. I love trans danny and I think he's a good kid, but sonic is a hedgehog that eats chili dogs. Sorry

#SONICSWEEP

[popculturebuffet]

Of Moons, Millionares and Mothers Part 3: Storkules in Duckburg! aka THE INCREDIBLE STORKULES TERRIBLE BUT WELL MEANING ROOMATE OUT OF MYTH

Hello all you happy people! And welcome and welcome back to Of Moons, Millionares and Mothers, my look at the season 2 arcs of Ducktales! This arc was paid for by WeirdKev27 and I truly enjoy his support. if you want to know how to commission your own reviews or to get a guarnateed review of me of your choice from me a month, stick around to the end. I realized that shoving all my plugs in up top may be driving people away and while I DO make them because I want to make a living off this, i’ts not fair to those of you who simply can’t afford to buy a lot of extra shit like myself to keep shoving it in your face. 

Previously on the Louie Inc Arc, Louie, after believing he had no skills and it was a matter of when not if he ws going to die, found his talent: seeing all the angles and thus being Sharper than the Sharpies. With newfound confidence and a chip on his shoulder from Scrooge saying he could one day be a bigger success than Scrooge himself, founding Louie Inc as a result. But what is Louie Inc? Does he actually have a plan or a bunch of buzzwords. And what does STORKULES, MANLY GAY OUT OF MYTH have to do with any of this? Join me under the cut to find out. 

We open with Louie giving Scrooge his sales pitch that is essentially...

Naturally Scrooge buys none of it. I mean he’s somewhere in his hundreds, he’s probably seen about 80 thousand pitches that amount to “I have no plan but give me money anyway”. There’s a reason there’s a Butch Hartman shaped crater on the lawn from where he threw his ass out. 

Scrooge does mentor the lad, or at least attempt to pointing out he needs an actual product or service (Louie rejects the idea of a lemonade stand as too easy), or as he puts it “Find a problem and create a solution”. 

While the basic PRINCIPAL isn’t bad, find something people want or need and provide it, phrasing it that way sounds like “find a problem people are having and exploit the shit out of that problem for fun and profit.” Granted that IS a guiding principal of business, it’s just not something an uncle should be teaching his kids. They should be teaching them about the anime and cartoons they grew up with as I do with my niece and nibling. 

He does show him a valid example of this in action in the form of Donald. Turns out Donald has found a good way to make money while he looks for a job, can relate: since Duckburg is facing a housing shortage, likely because several square blocks probably get destroyed by Scrooge’s Adventures, Glomgold’s Schemes, Superhero Battles, whatever creation went horribly wrong for Gyro, etc at least once a week. So he’s taken it upon himself to offer up the spare room to whoever can rent it.. and to steal Scrooge’s chandelier which even when caught he still takes anyway. Scrooge.. you called the guy a god-damn moocher in the season premiere, despite the fact he lives there soley because YOU offered and because he’s you know, being responsible and staying by his boys so they have their father figure around. So yeah I feel he’s doing this partly out of spite as is the McDuck way. I mean if your going to call him a freeloader just for being a responsible parent, then he’s going to take it up a damn notch.

Scrooge proceeds to laugh off Louie wanting a million dollars and gives him a dime instead because of course he was. Seriously Louie there are two other billionaires in town who are FAR dumber and far more easily swindled. Just go get star up capital from them. Hell with Glomgold all you’d have to do is tell him it’d upset scrooge and he’d literally throw money at you. Or give you a shark full of money. He needs the shark back though. He’s family. 

Meanwhile Donald prepares for his new tenant and finds.. THE INCREDIBLE STORKULES! Who to his mounting horror as he realizes it, IS the new tenant. And who throws him into the sun. Cue credits. 

So after Donald somehow survives being thrown into the sun, Storkules explains why he’s here: Zeus responded to his son playing the lute a lot like any rational reasonable 

No of course he responded to the “crime” of “playing his instrument a lot” with sending a swarm of harpies on the town then blaming Storkules for it and casting him out. What’s most shocking is not the action, this is honestly him staying the course of being a fucking disgrace, but that Zeus somehow ISN’T the biggest asshole i’ve dealt with this week. No that honor is reserved as always for this bitch:

Keep in mind she manages to be this obnoxious in only TWO scenes. Also keep in mind I had to put up with Julie for a MUCH larger chunk of the previous two volumes I covered before volume 5 yesterday for my Scott Pilgrim Retrospective and she is ALWAYS like this and you now feel my pain. 

This does create a problem though: Zeus casts Storkules out until he’s a responsible adult.. and thus paints Storkules as the bad guy... in a situation where the only other person in the story sent a swarm of HARPIES down at him for simply playing his music too loud. It just dosen’t work as a catalyst: Storkules objectively did nothing wrong. The only person he annoyed was a person who clearly dosen’t love, respect or like his son in any way shape or form anyway and essentially assaulted him and a bunch of innocent people via harpie and then cast him out. Zeus is an abusive asshole and i’ts weird the narrative sides with HIM and not our well meaning doofus. Zeus being an asshole with harpies is not a bad catalyst for the episode, and the harpies being unleashed is used well.. it’s just not a good catalyst for THIS story to try and portray an abuser as in the right. And make no mistake Zeus is a domestic abuser: he had his son mind controlled to try and MURDER innocent people, something Storkules begged him not to do, sent a swarm of creatures after him for the crime of playing his music too loud and in his next episode manipulatives Storkules sad emotional state for personal gain. Why would you try and paint THIS jackass as in the right?

Speaking of painting this jackass in the right sadly.. this episode does not do my boy donald justice. In most episodes he’s pretty nuanced and i’ts fair enough he’d be frustrated by Storkules as a roomate. Storkules has little sense of personal space, breaks his stove thinking theirs hydra in it, makes a mess of the kitchen making them a meal, and in general clearly dosen’t know how to live with a roomate much less in modern society. He has valid concerns and the episode COULD have used it that way.. but he’s also horribly impatient with Storkules. He refuses to get the guy just hasn’t had to live in a modern society and dosen’t know HOW to function in it and instead of helping him just gets mad again and again and gets really pissed when it’s clear Storkules dosen’t have a job and didn’t consider paying rent. He’s not WRONG to want him to pay Rent, despite what ironically the musical Rent would try and have you believe, but he dosen’t have any patience with the guy. And stork isn’t nearly coming on as strong as he normally does. The worst he does is cook the guy lunch and bring his donald fan art with him. Which we don’t see but I am assuming is mostly naked. What i’m saying is for once that while still bombastic, Storkules isn’t trying to force a relationship/friendship on him and simply wants to learn t be an adult from his best friend.. and Donald isn’t bothering teaching him.

Asking for rent or for him not to destroy the stove is fine, but not explaining WHY he needs either of those things or why he needs boundaries, he makes a roomate list, isn’t helping the guy. And this would be fine... but the episode dosen’t call Donald out on it for no real reason. It feels like it’s setting up for a “you should learn to wokrk with someone instead of just screaming at them aseop” that never comes and like with Zeus takes his side because shutup. I’d also LIKE to say this is the only time the writers reduced one of the cast to a caracture of themselves.. but I can’t.  Several episodes in season 3 forgot Louie’s character development and another episode in season 2, The Duck Knight Returns!, somehow reduced both Scrooge and Dewey to parodies of themselves with Scrooge SOMEHOW, despite Della as stubborn as she is being in his care and by his side for decades and Movies bein ga huge business, not having seen a movie since the 1920′s and not knowing how they work and Dewey being reduced to just hyperactive moron. It isn’t as common as other shows like say Regular Show, The Loud House or, for the exact reason I lost intrest, Rick and Morty, but I still expect better, especially since they went into this season KNOWING Donald would be gone for half of it and this would likely be one of his only spotlight episodes. 

Back at the good part of the plot, Louie is having a company meeting aka already treating Huey and Webby like his employees. Webby of course is glad to sign on, if little help in actually coming up with a product while Huey just wants to nope out. And if your wondering why Dewey isn’t involved Louie outright says he’d make a bad employee and while Dewey rises from his bed to object.. he stops halfway to opening his mouth and concludes he has a point. Best gag of the episode. Louie being louie easily cons Huey into staying by making Webby his charts officer. 

So the three have a corporate retreat at Funso’s... granted they don’t have a product but Louie figures this might help. Huey.. still wants out of this and suggest since they already spent what they had on ski ball “Company over?”. It’s clear that Huey just sees this as another one of Louie’s short sighted schemes... and while he’s not ENITRELY wrong, Louie has genuine ambition.. he just has no earthly idea what he’s doing and is shooting way too high.. but for understandable reasons. 1) He’s 11 at this point. 11 year olds aren’t great at business strategy or reinging it in. 2) he wants to live up to what Scrooge said to prove he can be successful and really be worth something like his mom was. 

But sometimes fate throws you one and the harpies bust in. And while Louie wants to do nothing and hope they go away Huey and Webby spring into action.. as does Storkules, who had to leave but warns donald there’s Orzo in the slowcooker and to not open it “LEST THE PASTA FAIL TO ABSORB THE BROTH!” Which is just.... Chris’ best line dleivery the episode. He says it like he’s saying the title of an old Stan Lee and Jack Kirby comic, i’ts wonderful.

So our heroes defeat them and Louie steps in to charge for the service and quickly comes up with a company idea and name “Harp-B-Gone” (A Subsidary of Louie Inc). Louie hires Storkules on the spot. Storkules proudly tells Donald he has a job the next day and goes off to it. What follows is our heroes hilarously shooting a commerical with Storkules playing a baby to promote themselves so they can help who needs it. They just need to find out what they want.. and thanks to the JWG and the harpies stealing it find out they go after people’s most treasured posessions   Cue Ghostbusters-Style Montage

And this isn’t just me saying thing. The Rewriting History Entry (Which as a series weirdly stops around mid-season 2 and I don’t get why frank hasn’t gone back and finished it since) states they specifically based this whole operation on ghostbusters and the entire sequence of our heroes cleanin up the town reminds me of it. The highlight of it is a glomgold cameo where he’s kidnapped.. and refuses to pay so Louie just lets him go. And were this an innocent person who couldn’t afford it, i’d call him a monster.. but it’s glomgold. he brought this on himself.. and also sues himself for it. Wonder if he won. 

So with their stars rising, our heroes get booked on the hottest show in town: Dewey Dew-Night! I had honestly forgotten there was a Dewey Dew-Night segment in there, and delighted I get to talk about this recurring bit.  It’s one of the shows funniest runners and just perfectly FITS Dewey: of course the most egotistical and energetic of the kids would not only want to be a late hnight host but make up his own show. I also love the slow evolution of it: it started as something everyone clearly knew about but he stlill tried to keep hidden, slowly escalated to him allowing the rest of his siblings (Webby very much included) and the giant man who stalks his uncle in, and by later this season he’s putting the show online in the web shorts and gladly shooting it into space, with Season 3 having him spend the first half of let’s get dangerous making a documentary that includes an episode of the show featuring Darkwing. It’s a small thing sure, but it’s the little things like this that make the show special. 

The show does reveal a problem though as it turns out they’ve GOT all the harpies and while Storkules merely wanted to help, Louie points out they need more to keep a buisness going and naturally never bothered to ask Storkules just how many there were. They need SOME plan to get going. Webby submits a legitamte and great idea, training the harpies as she’s been trying to do in the background of the episode and aside from a hole in the floor they are starting to listen. But Huey is an ass about it and not only shoots it down saying let’s keep the dangerous creatures contained, even though A) he has no idea WHERE they’ve been kept so he can’t verify it’s safe, and since i’ts Donald’s Closet no no it’s not. and B)There’s no where he knows of to keep them. He isn’t aware of the other bin till next season. and C) it’s not ehtical to keep creatures locked up forever epsecially since while the harpies are dangerous they arent’ MALEVOLENT and are clearly acting on instinct. oh and for D) at least she has a plan to keep the company going instead of just wanting to end this and cash out. 

Which Huey tries to.. but naturally Louie spent all their money on...

So their broke.. and Storkules has no rent money and feels like a failure despite having done NOTHING wrong. We do get a clever little nod to Disney’s hercules though “I”m not a hero, i’m a zero”. Webby rightfully glares at Louie who decides to fix it... by sneaking into Donald’s house that night to free the harpies. 

Though to the shows credit it’s a VERY bad idea, and Storkules coming in mid attempt and congradulating Louie when he lies about checking the door gets the kid to come clean. And it’s a nice character moment: He could still go through with it.. but it’s clear he realizes just HOW low he was about to sink to save his own skin and that as much as Storkules WANTS a paycheck and deserves one, it’s not worth hurting people to get it. Louie tries to justify after this.. but can’t. 

Unforutnately Donald took a lot of stupid pills this episode, yells about his no pets rule and frees them instead of you know, THINKING for five minutes.

So yeah NATURALLY Donald is an angry shit about it , refusing to actually TALK to Storkules about this or maybe admit this is partly HIS OWN FAULT. Yes their both at fault, Storkules shoudln’t of shoved a bunch of harpies in a closet. That’s a classic blunder. But Donald still opened it and isn’t called out on taking zero responsibility. Huey sees the fracas and just takes down their days without an accident placard, good stuff and he and webby arrive to help. Donald fights with Storkules and Storkules worries about loosing his friend.. lead to them going after the thing he values most aka donlad and hyjacking the house boat, though the kids manage to get aboard. 

As Storkules saves Donald, Louie realizes the most precious thing he has is  his merch and willingly gives it, and his buisness up to save everyone. It’s good character stuff and shows that despite his problems with greed, Louie IS a good kid and will do the right thing. It’s what seperates him from the Rouges Gallery the family faces: He has FLEXIBLE morals but he has morals when it comes down to it. So everyone tosses the stoff to help direct the hapries and make it home tying them up. Donald has a heart to heart with Storkules and agrees to help him find another place, but still considers him a friend and they hug. Awww.  One intresting thing I DID find out from rewriting history is they originally fully intended to have Storkules STAY on the houseboat. He was going to be a permenant member of the household, at least as far as Season 2 was concenred and plans were made for several episodes down the road: the whole bit with him in “The Golden Spear” was simply because he lived there, he was going to be the one Della met in the houseboat, obliviously guilting her about what she’d missed, and he was going to set off the kids subplot in “Whatever Happened to Donald Duck?”

This ended up not happneing for logistical reasons: Frank, and I swear this was the term he used, felt they already had the perfect Himbo in Launchpad and it was just too much HImbo energy for the two to coexist without one taking the others screen time or neither getting a lot. 

The next reason was having a god around simply broke the story: He cited the gilded man from “Nothing Can Stop Della Duck!” as a specific example. There were just too many hoops to jump to have him not break any story he should be around for.  Finally with Della being added to the cast soon there simply wasn’t room in the main cast. Della brought it up to 9, Storkules would make it 10, and as i’ve gone on about the show already had trouble ballancing it’s cast, something Frank admitted to. Adding him would both be too big a stiatus quo change and be one on top of the massive one of Della joining the cast. So he was dropped back to recurring and only showed up one more time. And while it was the right call I am dismayed he didn’t show up for the whatever happened to donald duck subplot and it does feel very weird he never adresses Donald being gone despite, at least for season 2, apparently living in Duckburg. Otherwise though as funny as this wouldv’e been.. yeah it was the right call. 

Scrooge returns... having been absent all episode because otherwise it wouldn’t work and easily saw Louie loosing it all coming.. but gives him a can of lemonade for his troubles and comforts the boy. The heart of htis arc and what makes it work at it’s best.. is these two. Scrooge GENUINELY wants to help Louie see his potetial successor in buisness: oh sure adventure wise he’s throughly covered.. but Webby, Dewey and Della all are more focused on the addventure part and that’s where their passion and talent lies, Huey’s better at science and given his close frinedship with fenton and how much that part of things seems to truly inspire him, i’ts what he was born for, and Donald just wants a regualar life and can’t manage his own life much less a company. 

Louie is the only one in his family whose the right fit to inhereit that part of his legacy and I feel that’s why he takes a special intrest in him and webby over the other two: While he loves all of them and will clearly again leave a piece of his fortune and empire to all of them, Webby is the most like him, as we later find out not coincidentally in the slightest, when it comes to adventuring and curosity and a love of exploration. But Louie is the most like him in other ways; He’s cynical, money driven and passionate. Scrooge simply wants him to be as good a person and buisnessperson as he can be and is trying to push him in the right direction. And does so here by pointing out that failure isn’t a huge problem..it happens, comes with the terriotiry and as we’ve seen with life and times, even with portions of it clearly not happening in this universe, he failed a LOT to get here. What matters is that he tries and tries to do it the right way. 

Scrooge also sympathizes as he was buying a lemonade company in cape suzette, giving Louie the can as a present... but laments there’s no cheap effective way to deliver the lemons. Louie notices the harpies going after the can after he throws it and Webby controlling them with it and muses that theyd idn’t think about what THEY wanted.. nad rightfully gets punched across the lawn by Webby, whose had to spend an entire episode having her surrogate brothers talk down to her and ignore her valid ideas. She dosen’t even open her eyes she just bops him one.

So we end with Scrooge having enlisted the hapries, Louie trying to take credit again and both realizing they might just steal the lemons instead of work for them. Ha ha ha their going to get so sued. 

Final Thoughts: This one was mediocre. It has some good points, Louies arc continues to fascenate me, Huey’s done with this shit attitude is hilarous, and Storkules is at his best in this episode: his crush on Donald is toned down from this..

To this

To the point I could see shipping them off this one if Storkules episode didn’t have him do eveyrthing short of .. well see above.  So it’s not WITHOUT merit: I love me a ghost busters style plot, there are great jokes and Chris Dimatopolis is a gem as always. Glad he’s getting work after this show on Invincible and hope he gets to play Darkwing again some day. But the Donald stuff and the fairly predictable plot drag this one down. I’ts fairly obvious they’ll run out of harpies, Louie will have spent the money and they’ll somehow get free. It’s not a terrible episode but it’s it’s sandwiched story wise between two straight up classics on both sides: the previous two episodes were even better than I remembered and the next two are incredibly good: Whateve Happened to Della Duck?! is one of their finest hours and The Outlaw Scrooge McDuck, while not making my best of list for the series as a whole is still one of my favorites for the season.  It’s just disapointing this one wasn’t nearly as good as I remmebered and it’s understandable why I forgot almost all of it, unlike the previous two episodes. Thankfully as I said better’s over the horizon.

NEXT TIME ON OF MOONS, MILLIONARES AND MOTHERS: I’m taking a break for a week. One of two weeklong breaks for the arc, the other being the first week of July where i’m on vacation anyway (Though i’ll be doing the episode I would’ve done for that week the week before to keep the pace up, so no worries),

 As for why, it’s my utmost honor to announce GOOF WEEK! Goof Week is a weeklong celebration of Goofy’s birthday. The idea came about because as I do for the big three, I intended to just do a shorts special. But Kev , the guy who made this very review possible, suggested doing the two part Goof Troop pilot. And since kev pays for a house of mouth episode a month anyway and thaks to you lovely people I hit my patreon stretch goal to review the goofy movie, I figured “why not make a week out of it. Hence Goof week. So next week we’ll have a review of the two part pilot for Goof Troop, the special Sports Goof, the House of Mouse episode Super Goof, your regularly schedule shorts spectacular, with The Goofy Movie for the grand finale! yaaahoooooieeee! 

When we come back i’ll be shuffling episodes around slightly so I can do the Della comics from the Ducktales Tie-In Comic before her debut and in time for Donald’s own theme week in June, i’ll be saving “Whatever Happened to Della Duck?” for the week after Donald Week. Instead next we get a fun wild west adventure as Scrooge tells a story of his outlaw days, his tension with goldie and his encounter with a certain robber baron as John D Rockerduck FINALLY makes his screen debut. Yee-Haw!

If you liked this review, subscribe and follow for more and consider joining my patroen, patreon.com/popculturebuffet. I have exclusive reviews, my most recent duck based one being an obscure carl barks story about wigs and the boys attempting to murder a guy with a blow gun, and your contribution helps me reach my goals and thus gets everyone, patreon or not, a bunch of neat new reviews. If you get me to 20 dollars a month, i’m currently at 15, EVERYONE will get a monthly darkwing duck reviews, reviews of the two remaning ducktales 87 mini series including the origin of GIZMOOOODDUUUUUCCCKKKK, and a review of the Danny Phantom movie The Ultimate Enemy. And with the month running out NOW’S the time to join. YOu’ll also get to pick one of the shorts for my Donald Duck birthday specail next month, so if you want to join in NOWS the time. But wether you can or you can’t, thank you for reading, i’ts been a pleasure. 

[ratsoupee]

Things I Would’ve Loved To See In A Danny Phantom Reboot

I’m a big enthusiast when it comes to storytelling, and Danny Phantom literally has so much potential. And I’m very upset Butch was too coward to go darker. So here are my thoughts on if DP had a reboot:

Deeper ghost lore and kinds of ghost, A lot of fanfiction I have come across have so many versions of lore that all totally make sense and are supper cool (e.g. Ghost core types, states of ghosts, the idea of ghosts being ghosts, ghosts’ obsession). Ghosts that wreak havoc upon Amity Park because they are so filled with rage and need to be contained and put back in the ghost zone. Ghosts that, despite having moved on from their past, stay because they want to see the next Cowboys vs Aliens 3 movie happen and only cause trouble for the fun of it (exhibit A, Johnny). 

Spookier ghosts, just give us way meaner ghosts! Ghosts that have eyeballs hanging out! You can’t just give us funky ghosts and funky ghosts only. From the physically gore-ish to the psychologically horrifying ghosts (Like Penelope Spectra!), I would have loved to see these kind of ghosts and episodes.

Different cultural interpretations of ghosts. Of course, done respectfully, with deep research and understanding of said culture. So many cultures touch on the spiritual aspect of ghosts and spirits. It makes for incredible stories and ideas.

Danny Phantom being Trans, need I say more? (Butch Hartman can suck a dick)

Danny Phantom with much more unique, mysterious powers, he’s a Halfa, of course he’s a mystery, a phantom! While other ghosts have powers solely linked to an obsession or something they relate to closely, Danny doesn’t have that. He’s a mystery. I want seasons of Danny exploring and discovering powers he doesn’t have the means of understanding or controlling because it’s just that bizarre and one of a kind. Maybe he can tap into the memories of ghosts when they are extremely emotional, something about having the human connection?

Hilarious quirks about being a half ghost, like Danny showing up in photos looking like a cryptic entity, being super silent, scaring the shit out of people. Fun ghost stuff.

The bullies need to have their character development moments!! They had so much potential for character growth and exploration. Topics like toxic masculinity, abuse and bullying could’ve been explored through them! GIVE THEM THE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT THEY DESERVED

The friendship between Tucker, Sam and Danny being tested in the form of their own self reflection. People have also written good fanfiction about it, and the one I love the most is when Sam is being questioned about being friends with Tucker and Danny because of her favoritism towards unconventional-ism to spite her parents (Of course, Sam loves her friends with a passion). Or maybe when Danny has had a tough day (i.e getting found out by his parents and just showing up to Tucker’s home) and the two have no idea what to do, but in the end, they just needed to be there for Danny and likewise. Friendships like relationships are complicated. I would love to see these things being explored.

Danny’s ghost powers becoming a little more unpredictable in the later season. In relation to the earlier comment about ghosts obsession, ghosts can also become powerful with fickle emotion, especially aggression. Danny has always tiptoed the line of human and ghost, but when he gets too angry in a particular episode, he goes absolutely feral, intense ghost form and stuff. It’s a new thing he has to struggle with and it even makes him fear becoming ghost.

More Danny and Jazz moments, because siblings need so much screen time to annoy each other. But also, I would love moments where Jazz has Danny’s back and sometimes, covers up Danny’s disappearances in front of their parents with humorous excuses.

Danny’s secret is revealed to his parents in an unfavorable situation, and his parents struggle to accept and understand Danny’s revelation. Jack and Maddie have spent their whole lives thinking ghosts are bad, and the only way to solve a ghost problem is to shoot at it. With Danny, its a whole ‘nother stack of cards to deal with. From the fact that their son is no longer human, throwing a wrench into everything they know about ghosts, to holy shit, we actually killed our son. Maddie especially finds it harder to accept, believing that they need to help Danny get rid of his ghostly half, even if it meant destroying his core. But Danny doesn’t need help, he’s long accepted that he’s Halfa. Slowly, the Jack and Maddie learn to accept it, and a comically unsure about their jobs as ghost hunters.

Hey that movie about Planet something, never existed. Saving a planet from an asteroid is suppose to be the peak finale of Danny’s reveal to Amity Park as a half human half ghost?? Get outta here

Instead, let’s have a season finale of an epic ghost showdown that even Danny himself, will struggle terribly to defeat. He has to face off against a ghost that even with the help of his friends and his ghost powers, seems almost impossible. Even the ghosts of Amity Park are threatened if they ever get in their way of world domination, and they don’t hesitate to crush the cores of the ghosts. Its a culmination of the past relationships he has made with the ghosts, friends, family, allies, and even nemesis, working together to stop an ultimate evil. Because when he first faces off the ghost, he’s alone, and in their final showdown, he has people who will stick with him thick and thin. With everything he has learnt, struggled to control, and mastered his ghost powers, there is an epic showdown.

Trust me, I have so many ideas for the season finale showdown in my head. The ghost having the power to just grab and destroy a core, or control it. They have their ghost armada and they enjoy playing mind games, torment any poor soul who dares get in her way. Danny Phantom attempts to stop her in the ghost zone before she can enter the human world, but he gets absolutely destroyed, almost having his core taken from it and you can bet that shit will hurt like hell. He gets trapped in the ghost zone, too weak to make it back to the human world and alone, until Vlad of all ghosts, manages to fish him out of the ghost zone and Danny finds that the humans and ghosts have taken refuge from the big Ghost boss. 

As much as I dislike Butch Hartman and his homophobic cowardly ass, make no mistake that he pioneered a generation of cartoon and art. He made a style uniquely distinct that even artists reference when it comes to character design. But his stories have so much potential that we can’t shy away from. We need more mature themes for kids to learn, more openly LGBTQ+ friendly episodes and of course, more diverse characters and cast.

Feel free to add more! There’s just so many ideas for a DP reboot, and they really are amazing

[saschagemruler]

Every time I see a post about Butch Hartman I feel filled with spite and rage and my desire to rewrite Fairly Oddparents is reawakened