#still baffled I didn't make most of these points in the original post...!

[withoutyouimsaskia]

Sometimes It's Fated (Sandman Short Story Part 2)

Part 1 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8

​GIF: Originally posted by @harleytudinous

Pairing: Morpheus/Dream of the Endless x AFAB reader

Summary: Reader Self-Insert. After restoring the Dreaming and locating the missing dreams and nightmares, Morpheus turns his attention to finding you, the human he believes fate has chosen for him. (Title inspired by Placebo's "This Picture".)

Warnings: Minors DNI. Dark!Morpheus. Soulmates. Angst. Obsessive and possessive behaviour. Tension. Threat. Dream manipulation. Masturbation. Voyeurism. Plot related cigarette use. Dubious consent.

Word Count: 2.5k

A/N: So I know I initially billed this as a two shot but the story has run away with me in the most lovely way. Part 3 will be coming soon. Thank you for all your kind responses to part 1, it honestly means so much to me. Hope you enjoy this one too. All my love, Saskia xx

Sandman Masterlist

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The veil of sleep comes down upon your weary body with a feather-light touch, trying to coax your mind back into the world of dreams.

Dreamscapes have been a whole new experience for you in the past month of your life. Before, you would wake with no recollection of what had played out. Not even the slightest inkling. Now, you remember everything.

They are staggering; bursting with details and ideas beyond your most outlandish daytime imaginings. The emotions that are conjured by them, both when asleep and also awake are just as bold.

And even though it's been 23 nights since it started you are still finding them predominantly jarring and disorientating. You are baffled by how other people cope with the sheer vividness. The unpredictability. Maybe they have become desensitised. You can only hope that the same will happen for you in time.

One thing you tell yourself with each sunrise:

Thank goodness they weren't nightmares.

At least, you don't think they are. There's no resemblance between yours and what you have heard others describe over the years, nor to those outlined in a dream decoding book you had checked out of the library last week. There's no obvious threat or fear. No re-living of traumatic events. Just weird subtext.

The first dream found you standing barefoot on a beach. A mirage distorted the particulars of the scene making it impossible to see further than half a meter in front of you. The temperature of the sand under your soles was verging on painful and as such, it forced you to walk into the unknown before you.

A groaning wind started to brew and lifted the sand into sparkling flurries. You shielded your eyes from the abrasive particles.

The sun was at its apex when you heard the ear splitting bangs. Unmistakably gun shots; you didn't last much longer in the dream and woke with a start.

For the next week, your dreams had been like a series of video clips edited into a supercut.

Raven wings. Black cats. Hellfire. Ruby red glow. Sprawling library shelves. Landscapes hewn by earthquake fissures. Hotel corridors. A handsome, blond haired man wearing sunglasses, holding a blood covered knife.

If you didn't know any better, you would begin to suspect that your new box of tea bags had been laced with a psychedelic. Alas, no. Your hypothesis was unequivocally disproved when you friends had been completely unaffected after stopping by for a Sunday afternoon catch up.

This quick fire of snapshots eventually stopped, transforming into lucid long form dreams. You often think back to the first one where it happened.

Standing in the the empty room, and the appearance of the figure dressed in black. The colour that had flashed in their midnight eyes had the quality of liquid silver. Sometimes you wonder if you see the same image in other dreams, standing in amongst a crowd.

From that point on, regardless of what dream you are in, you cannot shake the intuitive prickle down your spine that tells you someone is watching you.

You reason that it is nothing to be concerned about. Humans dream, and you cannot deny that some of them - swimming in a sea of clouds, re-visiting childhood haunts, trying out superpowers - have been quite fun.

You roll over on to your left side and close your eyes.

You dream.

The room you see is expansive in breadth and depth. Impressive windows bring brilliant light into the space which bounces off the ivory stone of the floors and walls. There are statues positioned at equidistant intervals, implying that the chamber is a gallery of sorts.

One effigy, fashioned from bronze, and rich in colour draws your attention. The lines and curves of its form intrigue you, despite not knowing the creature it was portraying.

You are about to move on when the feeling of being watched sparks through your skeleton.

Everything changes.

Clarity gives way to haze. Sun is swapped for moon.

You see a man across the room. He stands with a perfect posture. Graceful, powerful. His elbows are bent, fingers interlaced, palms facing upwards. Sheer black fabric floats around his frame. It moves languidly, giving glimpses of his bare body beneath.

The man's face is imperceptible. The distance between you too great but somehow you know you are the focus of his attention.

His robes fall to the floor with a gossamer sigh. The pale, unmarked skin of his slight form glows beautifully in the moonlight. You look down in embarrassment as arousal flushes through you, and you see that you are suddenly as naked as he is.

You gasp, and snap your gaze back up.

The sight you see is rather unexpected. The man is intimately touching himself.

You feel compelled to mirror him. You immediately reach between your legs. The man groans as you make contact.

All it takes is a little bit of attention on your clit before you are ready to slide two fingers into your core. The noise you make at the feeling of the stretch is salacious. The man echoes you with a sound that is just as dirty.

It spurs you on and you burrow deeper.

You curl your fingers until your legs are weak and quivering. You long to sink to your knees so you can finish in a more comfortable position yet you can't. An invisible force is preventing you.

It keeps you on display.

Just like the statues to your left.

You wonder if it is for the man's benefit.

You try to focus on him but it is impossible to do so through the trembling glaze over your eyes. All you are able to sense from him now is the sound of the rhythmic pump of his palm around his cock and his panting breaths.

Desperate whines escape your lips. You are teetering on the edge of an orgasm but you can't seem to lose your balance and fall into the abyss. The unsteadiness in your legs is too much of a distraction. You rub at your clit again in the hope that it will bring the satisfaction you need.

It does nothing.

You are so frustrated by your body's disobedience that it is almost painful.

"Please. Please. Please," you mutter under your breath.

A voice suddenly speaks next to you ear. A velvet voice with the timbre of a thunder rumble. It pours like a soothing syrup into your brain and commands you to do exactly as it bids.

"Let go."

You climax intensely, crying out in relief, squirting all over your fingers and onto your hand as you legs finally give way.

The fall jolts you back into consciousness and you wake with a barely contained scream of pleasure in your throat and adrenaline lighting up your nervous system.

Daylight is peeking through a little gap in the curtains. You take a deep, grounding breath.

That was obscene.

The context, the actions, the sounds. That sultry voice at the end. From the throbbing in your vulva and the twitching of your legs it seems like you didn't just finish in the dream.

There is really no point in looking it up in the dream decoding book.

You were clearly horny on a subconscious level. Or craving attention, hence the exhibitionist behaviour. The latter is not usually in your nature to seek out but if it is the reason, you might not have to wait long before the desire is fulfilled. There is a work event happening this evening that may require you to accept an award and address the crowd.

You love this time of year where community projects get recognition; a nomination alone is a sure-fire way of garnering publicity which in turn helps the charity's outreach.

But first, a normal day at the office. You throw back the covers and go straight to the bathroom to rinse off the evidence of your wet dream.

---------------------------------------------

Your right hand connects with the metal push plate of the function space's front door. The heels of your boots click and clack as you cross the threshold, moving from floor board to paving slab.

It's fortuitous that you brought a long, thick coat with you this evening for the wind is wintery and unforgiving. You stay close to the wall of the building to try and shelter from it as much as possible.

The pavements are slick with recent precipitation, streetlamps bouncing off of the water with caustic white light.

Then you see him; a figure cut from shadow.

He's breathing in such a laboured way that you wonder if he is sick.

Your phone is still inside the venue, currently being guarded by a colleague along with your bag but it wouldn't take long to retrieve it and call for medical assistance.

"You okay?" Concern colours the simple question.

His reply comes quickly and assertively, "I am well, thank you."

You nod, not entirely convinced for the stranger's response was as stiff as his posture, and reach inside the pocket of your coat for the box of cigarettes and lighter stashed within.

You settle one of the sticks between your lips and use your thumb to bring forth a flame. The crackle of smouldering paper and tobacco perforates the damp air and you take a needy drag. The nicotine taints and tantalises in equal measure, filling you with guilt and relief. You've been trying to give up but the little voice inside your head had won this evening. You close your eyes and focus on the pleasure it brings before flicking some ash into the tray mounted to the wall.

Your attention now back on your surroundings, the stranger steps into the scope of the streetlight. The angles of his cheekbones, jaw and nose are accentuated to an incredible extent in the gleam. His dark hair is being buffeted about the wind, locks of it very close to falling in the blue eyes that are unwaveringly trained on you. He begins to talk again, showcasing his deep baritone.

"I'm afraid I wasn't entirely honest with you just now. It is not how I envisaged our first interaction transpiring. I hope that you can forgive me for my deception."

You laugh nervously and take another quick drag. "It makes no difference if you're honest with me or not. I don't know you."

"You are correct. You don't know me. Not yet -"

"Oh," you cut in quickly. "I'm not looking for a hook up."

While you cannot deny that he is arrestingly beautiful, you are technically working and have never been one for one-night stands.

"You mistake my meaning. I have been searching for you for so long. I oftentimes doubted your existence however I was wrong and I find myself humbled to be in your presence at last."

The grandiose declaration is one of the stranger things you have heard in your life and you used to deal with drunken patrons when you worked at a university bar. Maybe he was intoxicated; it would explain a lot.

"Look, this might work on other people but I just came out here to have a cigarette -"

It is his turn to interrupt you now. "You will have no need of those going forward. Your addiction to them will be replaced by me."

"Excuse me?"

You are trying to sound incredulous, however, inside you are rather frightened by the turn the conversation has taken. His gaze is not helping either.

The crystalline eyes are embodying every part of the descriptor; a hard, chill inducing blue. Ash drops from the smouldering cigarette as a tremble of fear rattles through you. The man sees this and the ice suddenly melts to a warmer hue.

His tone turns soft and gentle. "We are supposed to be together. Our union is fated."

He's staring at you expectantly even after your two attempts at rejection. You swiftly stub out the part-finished cigarette and take ownership in ending the interaction.

"I've had enough of this. I'm going back inside now. If you try and follow me, I will speak to the venue's management. If you are still here when I leave later, I will call the police."

You turn towards the door.

He calls your name. Your full name. Middle name too.

Despite your brain chanting at you to go inside, you can't stop yourself from looking back at him. "H-how do you know my full name?"

The profound rumble of his voice resonates deep in your ears. "I know everything about you, Y/N."

He's right in front of you now. His posture is bordering between desperate and predatory. Like he can't quite decide if he is seeking comfort from you, or if he wants to consume you.

You are fumbling behind you to find the door handle. "Please get away from me," you say hoarsely.

He reaches for your hand.

You jump back and struggle to get out of his grip but his strength is inhumanly strong. His skin of his palm is glacial against yours and yet somehow, the touch makes heat snake up your arm and settle in your chest.

You become aware of an internal feeling that you've always had, like that of chapped lips. Low level but something that constantly nags. Something that existed every minute of your life until the moment he touched you.

You grip his hand and look up at his face in astonishment.

"Good. That's it. Look into my eyes. See what you know is there."

You do as he says, totally stunned by the depths that seem to reside within them. It's as if there are universes suspended inside. Maybe there are. Perhaps you could float among the celestial bodies if you asked him to show you how.

You feel so alive and overstimulated that you welcome the delirious thoughts taking over your mind.

You welcome him.

It's like there is a cord connected between your heart and his that is shortening in length. The intensity scares you.

"Give into the pull," he urges darkly, sensing your anxiety.

You obey, feet moving of their own accord and then you are standing before him, just centimetres apart.

He smiles triumphantly and presses you flush against his body.

His free hand comes up to cup your jaw, fingers brushing the sensitive skin of your neck. More heat sears through you from the additional skin-on-skin contact.

Your peripheral vision closes tighter and tighter with every passing moment. The outside world is gone.

He leans in further and you wonder hazily if he is going to kiss you or break your neck. Both options are equally viable given the behaviour he has exhibited. You keep staring at him regardless.

His irises flash silver as he intones his next sentence. "Y/N, I claim you as my soulmate."

-------------------------------------

Taglist: @herfantasyworldd @kpopgirlbtssvt

"Am I your dream girl? You think of me in bed. But you could never hold me. You like me better in your head."

[kingsmoot]

Oh it's definitely a lot of speculation! I am fairly certain the timelines line up that GRRM was openly supportive of the S2 writing before the "cut 2 episodes" directive and that his fallout with Condal began sometime after, though. It's also true that Condal's original statement about the cut season tried to frame it as a "creative" decision rather than a financial one. It wasn't until later that I think Hess(?) admits that it "wasn't [our] decision".

GRRM definitely didn't go as hard as he could have but I think the way he kept teasing the post and the fact that he followed through with it is already really bad on it's own. GRRM seems to think it's a noble cause and that he's "saving" the show, but the reality is he's whipped up a frenzy of hate as a means to bully the writers. I understand his frustrations as the author, and I get that he helped Condal get the job but... It's Condal's now! To accuse him of having "no plan" while he is likely in the midst of petitioning for a bigger budget to actually accommodate his plan, after he's already had the rug ripped out from him last season, feels really cruel. It's hard to extend empathy to George when he's extending so little to the person HE picked to handle this adaptation.

I also agree that GRRM probably talked to Condal the most and that's likely why he's the target of his ire. But idk... GRRM has a lot of experience working in television and it feels like he should be more understanding of Condal's position. He gives passing mention to the constraints of writing for television, but it still feels like he expects Condal to have the same creative freedom of an author rather than a showrunner. GRRM was supportive of S1 and at least supportive of the untampered plans for S2 - so to turn on Condal so severely is just baffling.

GOT ended a failure and Execs need results to feel that ASOIAF properties are worth the continued investment- and even that isn't enough, given S1 was a massive success and the budget still got cut. GRRM's resistance to making big-picture sacrifices is why he ~can't~ be a showrunner. He CAN and SHOULD make creative suggestions- in his capacity as an Executive Producer. But the showrunner (Condal) has every right to reject those ideas if they do not make commercial sense. It's not all about creative integrity- it's show business, and it's Condal's job to consider both. Cutting characters and combining storylines is the most common way that this manifests!

Sorry to rant in your inbox about this... I took a break from socials post-season because the hate was so bad and I was just starting to poke my head back in when this dropped. As someone who really enjoyed S2, I'm... exhausted! But it's great gossiping about it with people who aren't just using George's post as further fuel to keep shitting on the show.

Hope your foot is okay<3

oh, please don't apologize!! this is interesting and a topic that i want to engage with, i appreciate you coming to my inbox!! (and thank you, my foot is fine now, i just hate medical procedures and wanted a distraction while waiting around being anxious at urgent care)

and yes i agree with everything you've said, i was just chatting with my friend @intomyth about how if nothing else (and there is a LOT else) it is irresponsible of george to point at one single person in front of his rabid fanbase and say definitively "i'm mad at this guy about this adaptation. the things i'm mad about are his fault." because, like... show AND book fans have proven over the years that they will create targeted cyber harassment campaigns over nothing (like twitter accusing liv of sleeping her way into this role just because they are rabidly misogynistic chronically online alicent antis who have lost all sense of decorum and perspective and do not perceive olivia cooke as a real human being with a job that she does well and not the evil bitch hag queen of westeros who stole rhaenyra's throne since none of that is REAL!!!) so i cannot imagine the kind of harassment they will concoct when they feel like they are raising their sword and shield in george's defense and with his blessing.

all in all while i can try to understand and/or speculate on george's personal feelings, i think his conduct was inappropriate. i don't personally agree w any of his "criticism" of the show in his blog post (bc it wasn't actually criticism...) and i think publishing it at all was the wrong move. it was rude and unprofessional and most of all strange.

and i am ALSO exhausted, dude!!!! i loved s2.1 - 2.5 and thought 2.6 - 2.8 were a total bust but at the end of the day... hotd is fun tv. that i like watching. in my free time. which i (like most working adults) have little of. the vitriolic hate tornado that has been built up around the dragons and incest show is very strange to and uncomfortable for me. do you guys watch tv like your life depends on it because someone is like... threatening you? is this how you earn your rent money? are you being forced by clandestine and inescapable circumstances to watch a show that makes you so angry it's permanently altering your health record? what gives, dude? what happened to watching tv because it's fun and you like it?

[foodfightnovelization]

Every Real-World Brand Mascot in the Foodfight! Workprint

Hey everyone! So as mentioned in my last post, I'm going to be poring through the entire workprint and pointing out every single time we see (or hear!) a real-world brand mascot. If you've been following this blog for a while or just binged a bunch of my posts recently, you might remember we did this for the finished movie and it turned out there were only 18 real-world brand mascots in the entire film! But with this workprint being from 2005, several years before a lot of the larger brands pulled out from the project, there are bound to be tons more, right? So, let's dive right in and play another game of "spot the cameo"!

#1: Chester Cheetah: Okay so this one is obvious since he gets his own fully-animated segment set to "Bad To The Bone", but he's the first one you see in the entire workprint and honestly he looks great, with the squash-and-stretch style of the early animation suiting him incredibly well. This segment was also used extensively in the original trailer as well as a crewmember's animation reel, so it's one a lot of people are already aware of, but hey- I'm listing all of these, for completion's sake.

#2: The Vlasic Stork: Just like in movie, the Vlasic Stork makes his first appearance here crashing into Vlad Chocool while he's in the middle of flying, although here Vlad has the ability to turn into a bat, whereas in the finished film he's still in his human form and simply awkwardly flaps his arms. Of note is that I can't quite make out what he's saying as he crashes into him- it sounds like he's yelling "Summer fear! Here come!" but that's obviously not right, so if anyone has a keen ear please let me know.

#3: Mr Clean: Once again, just like in the finished film, Mr Clean makes his first appearance here being splattered with poo water as Lord Flushington jumps out of a manhole. He gets a few more scenes later on in the workprint, even getting a line at one point (he says "Dusting for prints..." while the Ikes are investigating a crime scene, and according to the script from around this time he was supposed to be using baby powder to do this. Funny!) He also makes an appearance in the Copabanana, talking with Aunt Jemima as Dex walks into the club. Speaking of which...

#4: Aunt Jemima: Here's one of the many real-world mascots who didn't make it into the finished movie. Aunt Jemima was the mascot for a popular brand of pancake syrup for decades, until the company rebranded in 2021 over concerns the character could be seen as racist. Which I'm sure is true, but what I'm more focused on right now is how baffling her design is here. She doesn't really look like the Aunt Jemima character herself at all, instead looking more like a personification of the old syrup bottles (which were vaguely in the shape of a person). But it's so uncanny because it's this weird hybrid between both- the model and shape is clearly that of the bottle design, yet they've textured her so that she has clothes and a face like the actual character. It's like this weird halfway point where it doesn't look right as either. She was ultimately replaced by Mrs Buttersworth in the final product, with a scene where she spills syrup on Mr Clean being identical aside from the characters being swapped out. Something worthy of note is that this is one of the early character models that was found during the production of ROTTEN: Behind The Foodfight, and so is available for download on archive.org if you want to tinker with it.

#5: The Keebler Elves: The Keebler Elves, one of the only mascots seen fully animated in the workprint, are seen here witnessing Daredevil Dan crash his plane into their factory. In the finished movie they're replaced with creepy generic-looking gnomes, but it's clear they were always intended to be the Keebler Elves and were simply switched after The Keebler Company pulled out from the film.

#6: The M&Ms: By far one of the most recognizable mascots of all time, the M&Ms get a single appearance in the workprint, being led to a table by Charlie Tuna while the Green M&M tells the Red M&M she's suffering from "peanut envy". Of note is that in the script, it's the Red M&M telling this to the Yellow M&M, which I personally find bizarre as the joke doesn't land nearly as well if it's two guys having the conversation. If you're familiar with the Freudian concept of penis envy, it's a condition he alleged was a key part of female psychosexual development- and so the gag lands far better if it's the Green M&M, a woman, saying it. But even having said that, according to ROTTEN: Behind The Foodfight they accidentally modelled the Green M&M as a guy anyway so... I don't know what kind of gender confusion you'd call that.

#7: Charlie Tuna: Just like in the finished film, Charlie Tuna serves as the maître d' at the Copabanana, leading guests to their tables (and later getting his tail stepped on by Lady X). Of course here he's leading the M&Ms to a table, whereas in the movie it's that whole thing with the Roman gladiator who shoves his head up a cow's ass, but let's not get into that again.

#8: The California Raisins: There's not much to say here, as the California Raisins made it into the movie with minimal changes. But if you want to know something interesting, did you know the California Raisins were supposed to get an NES game back in the early 90s ? It ended up never being released, and so was lost for over a decade until a collector named Brandon Murphy happened across a prototype cartridge in the early 2000s, uploading the ROM online so that everybody could play it. I'd highly recommend looking the game up for yourself if you want to learn more, as although it's an incredibly fascinating story, it's also deeply tragic and doesn't quite belong on a lighthearted blog like this.

#9: Rosarita: So this is a more obscure one, but the character Vlad Chocool flirts with in the Copabanana is Rosarita, the mascot for a brand of refried beans. I would've probably missed this character entirely, but there's a similar scene in the novelization where she;s simply referred to as "Rosa" due to not being allowed to name any real-world brands, and so when I was writing my analysis I speculated about who this could be referring to. Sure enough, when I read the early script it was confirmed to be the Rosarita lady, and so it was fascinating to finally see her onscreen in this workprint. The character is usually depicted wearing a wide-brimmed hat and so seeing her without it you might just mistake her for a regular woman, but the flower in her hair made her instantly recognizable to me because I've spent far, far too much time on this movie.

#10: Chiquita Banana: Similar to the Keebler Elves, the Chiquita Banana lady was originally going to play the role of the bartender at the Copabanana, before being replaced by a much less visually appealing character called "Lola Fruitola". This seems to be a trend with Foodfight!- whenever a brand drops out, their character is replaced with an unflattering parody of them. Real professional, guys. Chiquita Banana is a little more complicated however, as in the draft of the script from around the same time the workprint was created, she was already replaced with Lola Fruitola. It's possible these storyboards were just drawn earlier on, and they just didn't bother replacing them even after the company no longer allowed their character to be used in the movie, but I can't say for sure.

#11: Sugar Bear: This is Sugar Bear, mascot for Post's Golden Crisp cereal. There's not much to say about him, since he's only seen briefly a few times during the workprint and he never does anything notable, but he IS one of the few brand mascots seen fully rendered and animated in this version of the movie.

#12: Punchy: Punchy, the Hawaiian Punch mascot, plays the same role as he does in the finished film- during the barfight at the Copabanana, he performs his signature move of offering someone some "punch" before literally punching them in the face. There's not much else to say about him, so let's move on.

#13: Twinkie The Kid: Twinkie the Kid is seen in the background of various storyboards during the workprint, but ultimately doesn't do much other than look far more visually appealing than he does in the finished film. There IS some early animation featuring a fully-rendered version of him, but for some reason it wasn't included in the workprint.

#14: Chef Boyardee: There's not much to say about Chef Boyardee either, as he only appears in the background of a few shots and doesn't say or do anything notable. For shame! Such a highly-regarded culinary expert deserves better than a mere background appearance.

#15: Pepperidge Farm: This is an interesting one as you don't actually SEE the character onscreen, but during the USDA meeting you hear the following dialogue- "Salts and sugars been competing for snack food supremacy longer than I even I remember!" "Pepperidge Farm remembers!" This is obviously intended to be the Pepperidge Farm spokesperson, and presumably had animation been completed while the company still allowed the character to be used, we would've seen him onscreen as well.

#16: Oscar Mayer: Oscar Mayer gets a few scenes throughout the workprint, but I'm going to save discussing them for the second part of my analysis, as there's one in particular I think is far funnier than it has any right to be and I don't want to spoil it. I think it's one of the highlights of the workprint, and it's truly a shame he ended up being cut from the finished film.

#17: Mr Pringle: As mentioned in my previous post, Mr Pringle gets a scene set in the real-world supermarket where he reminds Kaptain Krispy not to lose his temper after his chips get stomped, but he also gets THIS later on in the movie during the battle with Brand X! I mean god damn, he's flying around on a giant Pringle like he's the Silver Surfer! I just can't help but find that hilarious and awesome at the same time, I mean how many times do you see someone flying around on a huge potato chip? It's kinda bizarre to see him with arms and legs though, I'm used to him just being a head.

#18: Tootise Roll Owl and Tootise Roll Man: There's hardly anything to say about these characters, as just like in the finished film the only thing they really do is stand around in the background. The Tootsie Roll Owl is part of the flying squad used to take down the Xobytes late in the movie, but it's not particularly noteworthy.

#19: Sonny The Cuckoo Bird: The mascot for Cocoa Puffs, Sonny's only role in the workprint is also as part of the flying squad used to take down the Xobytes. In the finished film, he was replaced with a character called "Jetpack Jeffery", some sort of elf with a big jetpack and an even bigger tumor sticking out of his head. I have no idea why- it's such an odd character design, and elves and jetpacks don't exactly mesh together well thematically.

#20: Mr Peanut: Mr Peanut, the Planters mascot, appears very briefly toward the end of the movie to hand Dex a message from Lord Flushington about their plan to take down Brand X. He doesn't say anything, and in the finished film it's instead Vlad Chocool who informs Dex about their plan. It really is wild how so many well-known mascots were in the movie at this point, compared to the finished film where most of the ones used are somewhat obscure.

#21: The Energizer Bunny: The Energizer Bunny, mascot for Energizer batteries, appears towards the end fighting off Brand X soldiers with some slick martial arts moves. While the Energizer Bunny does appear in the finished film (very briefly in crowd scenes) he never gets a chance to shine like he does here in the workprint, which is a shame because it would've been awesome to watch a tiny little rabbit beat the crap out of a bunch of grown men.

So that makes 21 appearances from real-world brand mascots in the workprint, only SLIGHTLY more than the finished film's count of 18. But the workprint has far more that are popular, recognizable and you'd actually see in most real grocery stores. The M&Ms, Pringles, Golden Crisp, Chiquita Banana. Compare that to Mr Bubble... Mama Celeste... Duncan Hines... you'd be forgiven for not even knowing who half of those are. Not that I necessarily think the movie would've been better if it had a scene where the M&Ms show up for 5 seconds to crack a penis joke, but I think it's a necessity if you're going to make a movie about a supermarket coming to life at night- for that premise to work you NEED to have characters and mascots you'd recognize from an actual supermarket, and so on that front the workprint succeeds where the finished film fails.

Seeing all these characters from existing grocery products makes Marketropolis actually FEEL like it's a supermarket rather than just a generic cartoon city. That being said, this whole thing is reminiscent of a kind of movie I've seen a lot of in recent years- I like to call them "Thing You Recognize" movies, because they're movies where they're clearly just showing off all the famous characters they own, in the hopes you'll like it because you saw a thing you recognized. You know what I mean, Ready Player One, The Flash, that horrible Space Jam sequel... they put Alex's Droogs from Clockwork Orange in the background of that one, like "Hey, remember the Droogs? You liked the Droogs, right?" And yeah, I liked the Droogs... when they were in A Clockwork Orange, not in your half-assed self-mastubatory children's basketball movie! I mean, what were they thinking? But I'm getting off topic now, and besides- Foodfight! isn't the cause of this kind of filmmaking, it's merely a symptom of it. I hope you enjoyed learning about all the cameos in this version of the film, and join me next time as I finish up my analysis of the Foodfight! Workprint!

[msperfectsheep-posts]

for that ask game you reblogged! I'm curious how you picked the roles for the extra characters in The Thrones of Stars, or any other behind the scenes sneak peeks you have to share from there |･ω･)

Sorry for the late response!! Thank you for this ask so much :)

For anyone curious, here's the story! It's a novelization of the Hoshimeguri no Kansokusha (eng: The Throne of the Stellar) event from 2018, but I worked hard to make it so that anyone could read it without any knowledge of the event or even the source material!

Now, here's the answers to your questions: (Some spoilers beneath the cut)

For the supporting cast + ZOOL, it sort of worked out from a base of an idea that I got from @zekkun-shion's post about ZOOL in Hoshimeguri, which I felt was a good start to build off of! I obviously changed some of the roles and ideas, but having each of them split up between the four main planets that aren't Eterno and Mistero made it easier to integrate them into the world. Another take I discovered while in the middle of writing The Thrones of Stars was @ enargeia's (Ao3, not Tumblr) story about ZOOL being on the various moons surrounding the main stars, which I thought was super awesome and cool! I didn't integrate any of that into my story aside from a few brief mentions of moons surrounding the stars, but it's something that's stuck in my mind and I love all the creative ways people try to put them into this story!

Now, as for the rest of the supporting cast, it was a little more vibes-based. I went with Tsumugi being on Lama because of this piece by @umii7love, since the outfit was so cool that it felt like a shame not to (I love her in the color green; she looks great!)

Rinto got put into the role as the blacksmith from the original story, since I didn't really love how the blacksmith treated Hope in the original story when he was more or less acting as a stand-in parental figure for the month before Hope decided to look for Curse. I figured that the visual of Rinto being the blacksmith was a little funny, but his personality and ability to handle Hope felt like a good match. Also, reunite Re:vale on Eterno! That's fun!

Kaoru was put on Sirena because I was looking between Alba and Sirena and I really wanted to make it seem like Carnelian was isolated and lonely, especially because a lot of his ideas in the original story come to fruition because he has no one to tell him no or to even think things through. I also felt that putting Kaoru with Sirena was a fun dichotomy, since even on the most relaxed planet, she's still busting her ass to get things done. Lastly, it was an aesthetic choice! I felt her pink hair would go really well with the general Sirenan aesthetic of bright and colorful, so her fate was sealed there.

Aya was put with Minami on Sirena, but her origin being Lama was something I used to help fuel some of the relationships between Orion and Sardinia and their respective stars. I wanted to show that immigration between stars was something that did occur, but not very often, and that people's nationalistic (? is it nationalism if it's for a planet, not a nation?) tendencies made them feel baffled at the very idea of leaving even a civil war-torn country for one living in peace. She serves a few different roles, which kind of ties into the fact that she's a plot device in i7 proper initially, but she also definitely grew into her own character quickly.

That leaves Shirou and Banri, who I put with Burst Roar for two different reasons. Shirou doesn't like. Do Much in the story itself, but that's also sort of the point of his character. He exists passively to cover everything Fang and the rest of Burst Roar isn't focusing on so that nothing gets neglected, so while they're dealing with an interstellar crisis, he's making sure their finances are in order. It's a sort of position that I wanted to give to a character that would make a fun cameo, but for anyone that's an anime-only and doesn't know him yet, then they're not going to feel too alienated. Banri, on the other hand, was put with Burst Roar because of a few things that are tied to the ending of the story that I have not published! I explain it pretty well in the narrative itself why he's with Burst Roar, but from a meta standpoint, it just Made Sense to me, and also him being a pilot felt like a relaxed role where people can approach him for advice at any time, but his job isn't to give advice quite like Tsumugi or Kaoru do.

With any characters I didn't mention that are part of the supporting cast, they fall into two categories: Exists in a small on-screen part, or exists off-screen for a role in one of my sequels. Otoharu falls into the first category, making a small cameo as Tsumugi's father on Lama, but his role is so small that I didn't think tagging him was appropriate. Meanwhile, Yaotome Papa and Ryo are both in the second category, with Yaotome Papa being name dropped as King Rigel, but he's never seen on screen, and Ryo's character name has yet to be revealed for a variety of reasons.

I wanted to push the narrative beyond what canon had to offer because these worlds that i7 gave me as a base allowed me to make some really fun lore and politics that feels wasteful to leave behind with just a novelization, so I'm hoping to use them some more when I write my original sequels working off of The Throne of Stars. For a lot of these supporting characters, their roles will be bigger in the sequels too, since I could only hollow out so much space in the original story for them.

As for a sneak peek scene, I guess I could allow a small piece!

Photographs like snowflakes fall from fingers onto the table, each of them a candid taken using some well-practiced tricks and a small hand mirror. Most of them depict at least one of two figures: a boy pretending to be a man, and a leader pretending to be a subordinate. Some photographs focus on other details, such as the blood under the boy’s fingernails or the dirt tracked on the floor far from the entrance. The assassin picks one, holding the photograph between his fingers as he drinks in the figures trapped inside. “Was there anyone else?” The other assassin nods with an easy smile, sitting back as papers shuffle between her well-manicured hands. The papers are handwritten, with small, sharp letters that detail the assassin’s observations. Most of the words are transcribed conversations held between the boy and leader, taking care to denote who was speaking by marking the speakers as “small” and “tall” respectively. A few rogue doodles, mainly of the leader, fill the margins in the way that ivy climbs up walls—decorative to some, a nuisance to others.  “Yes, clockmaker in the back.”  “No pictures?” “He didn’t come out.”  “Sad.” The assassins pick apart each others’ work, vultures gorging themselves on rotting carcasses until they’ve had their fill. It’s dirty work, but someone must do it—might as well have it be someone who can keep the dirty work neat.  “This is disappointing. It’s not worth a kill.” There are some things that aren’t worth killing, things that are too small, too weak, too unimportant. It’s a waste of time, talent, and resources. If death wants to bring more into her domain, she has plenty of other tools than the assassin lap dogs at her disposal. She is the queen eternal, ruling from her silver chair burning with the light of tortured souls. All will bow before her eventually.  “Probably not.” The assassin agrees. “Let’s head back to Escoria.” The assassins take their work with them as they melt into the night, disappearing into the miserable maw of earth that they consider their home. No trail of blood nips at their heels this time, nor the scent of death like an expensive perfume—they vanish like night being chased away from breaking dawn.  The boy and the leader may live another day.

[symmetrycrypt]

totk spoilers/salt and i ended up rambling lol

another reason why totk is so frustrating to me is because, it's not that it's just bad, but it's so much wasted potential. i look at it and think about how they had so many interesting things they could have done more with; small changes that would have gone a long way in at least pissing me off significantly less. i still think totk's biggest downfall is that it's meant to be "a direct sequel" to botw, yet it doesn't want to actually commit, but even viewing it as a stand alone game without connecting it to botw, it's still so weak on its own. but even saying that, they could have done so much more with it?? if you're going to completely disregard the previous game anyway, go all the way and make the game/story better??

obviously, i know a lot goes into making a game, and i don't want to dismiss the hard work a lot of people did put into it, but the overall end product is just so bad and disappointing, especially to long time fans of the series. i had such high hopes for this game, and the more i played it, the more i just grew actually angry. the gameplay itself was increasingly frustrating and boring to me, and the story- god. i personally cannot understand the sentiment that totk's "story" is "better than botw's". like, it could have been..? but its presentation is so fucking bad, and every time i deluded myself into theorizing as i was playing and thinking a potentially interesting, good plot twist was coming, it was the most fucking predictably story ever, even by zelda standards

(fun fact(?): i could go more into detail about this on another post and how the game's insane choice of extreme "tell don't show" ruined what otherwise could have been a clever, significantly less irritating reveal with subtle, proper foreshadowing, BUUUUT, basically i predicted the entire Zelda becoming a dragon super early on in my first playthrough based on context clues due to my own observations and piecing things together, and i actually felt so smart about it (if i was going to end up being right). BUT, then i got one of the infamous memory scenes, and they bring up dRaCOniFiCaTion, and i was like "...oh, ok so like. this is obviously what's going to happen then, they just so obviously basically confirmed it right here."

BUT I HAD HOPE. I HAD HOPE THAT MAYBE IT WAS A RED HERRING AND ACTUALLY, SOMETHING ELSE WAS GOING TO HAPPEN. but i digress. basically the point is, the game does not trust you at all to piece things together, and what otherwise could have been a really good plot reveal that was properly and subtly foreshadowed that you very potentially could figure out all on your own, becomes the most predictable thing ever which then leads to even more predictability, (after the whole zelda dragon thing and swallowing secret stones 🙄,, i just knew the final fight was going to be a dragon ganon, and what do you know.... dbdjgbkjdf ALSO, someone else at the time was like "if that's true, i bet dragon Zelda's gonna come in and join the fight, and WHAT DO YOU KNOW..???

now, predictability in of itself isn't necessarily a bad thing (especially if foreshadowin and hints are properly laid out in the first place (WHICH THEY WERE)), but the problem is, again, the entire presentation of everything in totk and how EXTREMELY "tell don't show" it is, and it just made me really fucking hate the story even more.

i started rambling when i didn't mean to, and i don't even remember what the original point of this post was going to be, but i'll just stop it there for now fdkjndfkjnfd I still really need to make a post comparing my two different playthroughs and how purposely ignoring the memories really helped the game's narrative (though still not by much), but the game really tries to BEG you to go find them still, which is just another entirely baffling game design choice i just cannot comprehend, everything about the memories in totk are so poorly thought out, but i'm not going to ramble anymore for the time being

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Once again, I take most news from scooper sites like DisInsider with a grain of salt... But some new particular claims they've made are interesting.

When one of their owners was asked about what animated projects - no specific studio, be it Walt Disney Animation Studios or Pixar - were in the works, the answer was... A new princess picture that's in early development, and a "pirates" movie. Supposedly an animated PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN project was in some form of development, and that it's unknown whether this "pirate" project is that or an original story about pirates.

No word on the Middle East-set fantasy film that Suzi Yoonessi had been attached to for so long, that could've come out this year... But then again, we know about that one's existence. The "princess" movie and the "pirate" movie, not so much.

Honestly, I'm down for an animated pirate movie from Disney, be it a POTC movie or an original project. A couple months ago, I posted about the upcoming live-action POTC reboot, and shared an idea I had:

My ideal PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN film would be animated. With designs based on Marc Davis’ exemplary concept art and resembling a 1960s Xerox-era Disney film, like a high seas JUNGLE BOOK or something incorporating the original 1967-era music of the ride. That’s what I would make, although I don’t know if the public would fly out in droves to watch that, lol.

But it'd also make for a solid animated adventure movie, because I'm always down for that kind of thing. I think WDAS sometimes does the straight-up adventure movie pretty well when they aren't doing musicals, and a high seas one is kind of a no-brainer. Former Disney director Chris Williams showed that in spades with his THE SEA BEAST. Even though that was a Netflix movie produced at Sony Imageworks, it felt like an old-fashioned Disney adventure movie out of the '50s or '60s rendered in up-to-date CGI.

As for the other movie, well... Another princess is always inevitable, there's always a new one to join the pantheon. The last one we had was Raya, and her movie wasn't a musical, which was a welcome change of pace. Wonder if the next one follows suit.

But again, that's all rumor-mill stuff. After all, this same site did say that WDAS was making an adaptation of BLUEBEARD and Pixar was making a movie called SUMER. And that's just the tip of that iceberg, there's always some project that gets reported that was never happening in the first place, or there was some misunderstanding from within the trenches. Like how MOANA was at one point reported as THE NAME GAME, a South Pacific-set adaptation of the Rumplestiltskin story.

I would love for there to be an animated pirate movie from WDAS, though. I would also love it if WDAS looked at a picture that didn't through once, and try again...

It happens... TANGLED's origins are in attempted RAPUNZEL adaptations from the late '90s/early aughts. THE LITTLE MERMAID and BEAUTY AND THE BEAST were once considered by Walt himself decades before they became a reality. THE SNOW QUEEN was worked on in the early 2000s, a long while before FROZEN became a thing... No reason they can't dust one of those movies off once more and try again.

I know a lot of Disney fans online continue to mourn, say, a project like GIGANTIC, their attempt at a feature-length JACK AND THE BEANSTALK set in a sky-world of giants. I'm still baffled as to how they couldn't turn KING OF THE ELVES into a feature, and COSMIC 3000 is a film I wish would've happened. Would've been a galactic banger, I feel. Plenty of unmade stuff in the morgue to choose from, if they're short on new ideas, eh?

Oh well, whatever moves forward, moves forward. Maybe D23 tells us later this year...

[wevelocityteampresents-blog]

A Better PC Than Windows

One of the things I love about the Wii U is how versatile its web browser is. The Wii U browser can visit any website and allows most of those sites' functionalities to work as they would on an average PC. I remember visiting this weblog on the browser and was able to skim through every blog post without issue. The ability to play videos in perfect quality was incredible! It's because of this that I was able to watch episodes of Sherlock Hound and Donkey Kong Country on my Wii U.

When I was still a user of Deviantart, I would use the (kind of flawed) Deviantart Muro tool to create art pieces using the Wii U's GamePad. Most of them were pretty terrible, but I owe that to my art skills at the time and DA Muro's restrictive nature. In fact, it was DA Muro's decline in functionality that stopped me from drawing with it again. Even though my experiences with the program on the Wii U's browser were less than stellar, it still gave me a glimpse into what it would be like to be a professional artist.

For the time being, the Wii U internet browser was an upgrade to what I was used to on the Wii or 3DS. While the Wii could play flash games and the 3DS allows you to download certain images, the Wii U can play videos in perfect quality, display pictures on both the TV and GamePad, visit almost any website while keeping their features intact, utilize message boards, and many more. I often found myself using it more than a computer, as it fit most of my online needs. I still use it to find references for characters or objects while drawing. Over time, however, the quality of the Wii U's browser started to drop.

First, Nintendo removed video playback, and then they removed the ability to play audio. If that wasn't enough, most websites just stopped working properly. Even though I can still visit websites like this weblog, I can't find certain blog posts or use the Guest Archive. I guess Nintendo did this to prepare for the Nintendo Network's shutdown. But even then, there are a few flaws with that.

The Nintendo Switch, despite being the best-selling Nintendo system of all time, doesn't have a web browser. It's ridiculous that Nintendo didn't include a web browser feature with the Switch. Every console before it had one. Even the DS has a cartridge that allows you to browse the internet and visit different websites.

The worst part of this is that the Switch CAN access websites. There's a dedicated app that displays certain web pages whenever I connect to an access point at a public area or play Pokémon Violet. Even if you run internal exploits to use the web tool as an actual browser, there's a high chance your Switch will lose the ability to connect to the internet. The fact that the Wii U, one of Nintendo's lesser consoles, has a functional internet browser while the Nintendo Switch doesn't is baffling. It's almost like they rushed the Switch out just to make people forget about their recent failure.

Even though most people might gloss over it, the Wii U's web browser is an incredible application that allows the console to be used as a semi-personal computer. This blog entry isn't condemning Nintendo for taking internet connectivity from a system like the Wii U, it's to show just how far they dropped the ball with the release of the Switch. While the Switch Lite fixes the bulky nature and unappealing look of the original model, it still can't browse the internet. Whatever the case, the Wii U's browser makes it fun to explore the internet and is accessible to many people. It's just sad that the Switch lacks it and Nintendo is willing to sweep their best features under the rug instead of fine-tuning them for more powerful hardware.

[sisterdivinium]

Regarding your post about the prevalence of Avatrice in Warrior Nun fandom (feel free to ignore this if you don't want to talk about it anymore). I also was very baffled by it. I only joined the fandom about half a year ago and while I like Avatrice, I was a bit confused that other ships, if they even appear, are often only there tangentially even when they are tagged. And that there is next to no gen even when the female friendships in canon are amazing too. Funny enough, I considered participating in the Avatrice Big Bang but decided against it because Avatrice would never have been the sole focus of my fic and I didn't want those who only want avatrice to feel like I'm not giving them the spotlight enough. But I do wish someone would run a general Warrior Nun Big Bang (someone who's not me, lol). Even if it would probably turn out 90% of entries would be Avatrice, I'd feel more confident participating.

Not at all, I'm glad to have some discussion going. It can be overwhelming at times but I find great pleasure in talking to people about these things, whether we agree or not, as long as we're all civil!

I'm not sure why people do that. Tagging other ships which have but the most marginal of a marginal status in their fics, that is -- I'm more like you in that I feel mortified at the very thought of potentially leading someone on in regards to that. There have been instances of my writing drabbles that had some background avatrice to them, but I couldn't bring myself to tag it as the focus was still doctor superion. Some of them don't even make sense without the avatrice lens, but they're still not avatrice and it wouldn't be fair to throw them in avatrice fans' faces just for the numbers, I think.

Then again, those of us who aren't invested in avatrice are more acutely aware of the fact that Other People Ship Other Things Too. I have wondered whether their tagging stories with pairings that barely leave a dent in the narrative isn't coming from a place of assuming everyone is into avatrice and that everyone considers the other pairings as simply accessory, like some sort of "bonus", as if none of us might like these other couples in and of themselves. It would be an ignorant thing to do... But not malevolent. Just a bit self-centred.

Gen is always another mystery, I think. There's an audience for it in every fandom, but it's the shipping that tends to take over. That Reddit post I linked to in the original post is full of people going "well, write it yourself!" and I think they are missing the point, ha, but personally I'm one of those authors who usually finds inspiration to write only when there's a ship involved (even if my stories revolve mainly around a Big Character Problem that isn't necessarily connected to romance but which ends up getting there nonetheless. Not sure where that comes from either, it just is what it is!)

Regarding a Big Bang, I won't say it hasn't crossed my mind to propose a similar event but just for alternative f/f ships precisely so it didn't get flooded by avatrice, LOL, and maybe something with a much lower minimum word count, as encouragement for people to try out making some fanwork for something that isn't their OTP, with lower stakes at play.

Like you, though, I would just not be willing to host anything that demanded that sort of logistics! :)

[snailchimera]

oh hey time to talk about Lavender Town.

When I was a kid my home life suuuuuucked. This was true for many reasons throughout my childhood and adolescence, but one that stands out from my early childhood is when my grandfather died.

He was the only adult in my life who really seemed to give a fuck about me at the time. I didn't get to visit him when he was dying in the hospital because my parents thought it would be too scary for me. I didn't get to go to his funeral because my mom thought I'd make a scene. Various adults ranging from my parents to extended family to teachers and the school counselor expected me to just "bounce back" within a couple of weeks, and when I was still an emotional wreck several years later people seemed to find this baffling and frustrating more than anything. I was told not to talk about him, especially to other kids. I was told to think about other things. Most of all, I was told this wasn't something kids should worry about or think about too much, as if I could just turn off grief because it wasn't age-appropriate. And the more people told me that I needed to get over this already, or at least stop making other people uncomfortable, the worse I got and the longer it went on. My mom was a fucking child therapist and she was the loudest about this, presumably because she was worried my behavior reflected badly on her as a parent. (She was in fact a terrible parent, and also she and my dad were having "scream at top volume and throw heavy things hard enough to dent walls" fights damn near every night, which did not help with missing the calm, friendly person who listened to me about stars and sea creatures, tried to teach me about fishing and beekeeping, and was at his most animated when showing off his collection of novelty piggy banks.)

But in 1998, Pokemon hit the US, and about a year after that my brother and I got Pokemon Blue and Yellow respectively. And in Pokemon Yellow, there was Lavender Town.

Lavender Town had regular people who came there to mourn their pokemon. Meaning pokemon could die. The whole game was constantly showing you how pokemon were an important part of peoples' lives in this world, how they were companions and helpers and did important jobs, how you should care about them because they were living things like you, how your pokemon were your partners. And they died. People missed them, and came to visit them and feel sad. And then, presumably, those people went on living their lives. Now there were other kid's stories (and books that were not actually for kids but I was reading them anyway) that acknowledged death and grief existed, but this was the first time I'd seen it as a normal part of a bigger world, something that just happened like birthdays or going to a new school. It was the first time I'd seen a suggestion that you don't have to magically stop being affected by grief, or stop acknowledging it, to move on and do normal life things again. You can be sad forever without it being the only thing you ever feel again; it's not one or the other. I started visiting Pokemon Tower in Lavender Town the way you'd visit a real grave, to tell my grandfather how I was doing and feel sad, and then I'd go do something else, in or out of game. And that's how I finally started to be a functional person again (at least until middle school, which was hell for exciting new reasons).

Pokemon games, especially the original pokemon games, do not have much in the way of plot or character depth. They are toys for kids with funny marketable mascots. But just by acknowledging that bad things happen, while being explicitly for kids, they helped me deal with this huge difficult event in my life.

Circling back around to the original topic of this post, I think it's important to remember that even happy, safe kids spend a lot of time feeling powerless, because kids literally do not have much power over their own lives. Lots of things are scary or hard or painful at any point in life. Power fantasies are cathartic for people, of any age, who feel like they don't have much control over their lives. This is especially true if they're afraid, sad, or frustrated. An adult swooping in to save a kid from all dangers is a parent's power fantasy; kids want, and need, to be the heroes of their own stories sometimes, even if realistically sending a 10-year-old off to fight the evil emperor or whatever is objectively horrific in concept. (I say this as someone who enjoys stories that examine how fucked up that would be in practice.) Having agency is a skill, and like most skills, it's something kids first develop through play. And if you try to shelter children from all fictional horrors, that can cause this really distressing dissonance for a kid who already has experience with Bad Things Happening in the real world, same as anyone who never sees their lived experiences represented in fiction.

I’m not sure exactly how to articulate it but—there is this bizarre base assumption i see from people discoursing about children’s media, and that’s the assumption that children are somehow unfamiliar with negative emotions. Like, maybe you’ve managed to completely forget your entire life before you turned eighteen, but kids spend a lot of time being hurt, and scared, and angry. A lot of people had terrible fucking childhoods, and a lot of kids are having terrible fucking childhoods right now. When i was a child, and i read books where bad things happened to kids, that was in no way shocking to me, i already knew bad things happened to children. It made me feel more connected to those stories, not less, and it made it more impactful when those child characters overcame it all in the end. That’s important for children. A lot of them are in desperate need of a little hope, and they aren’t going to get it from nothing stories with no conflict. They put conflict in children’s media for a reason

Also i see some of you handwringing over child protagonists going through, like, the most basic hero’s journey. Please, for the love of god, realize that you as an adult are going to understand children’s media differently than the actual kids it’s intended for. Because you’re all grown up now, you aren’t going to be able to relate to a child protagonist. You’re going to see a child in danger. The children the story is meant for are going to see a kid like them who is able to face hardship and triumph

[theminecraftbee]

Re: your winged!Grian origin post

I joined the HC fandom circa early s7, and I just want to say that I think we as a fandom are sort of retroactively putting importance onto the whole bird symbolism. Yes, it's important and does make some sense, but back then it definitely felt like probably 80% of winged Grians were Watcher Grian (inspired by ATUS) and parrot or chicken or any other wing was the outlier. I understand not wanting to place too much importance on any one particular fic, but it's hard to overstate just how much ATUS was THE watcher fic. No one except the most niche fans had watched Evo, but suddenly this was The One Thing About Grian (the most popular hermit) so everyone in the fandom had to read that to understand any fanworks, basically. And a huge amount of Watcher knowledge that became fanon, especially back then, was extrapolated from ATUS, full stop.

TLDR. yes it's good not to raise one fic on a pedestal but I also think we shouldn't be trying to erase ATUS influence after the fact. Feels like a weird attempt to change history

(Also I swear this isn't ATUS propaganda I only read it the once. I just legitimately think it's an important part of hermit history and am trying to help, so sorry if this comes off mean or anything!)

so, disclaimer, i wasn't there in the fandom at the time, but my own like, editorialized thoughts on this, as opposed to informative (which means my own opinions are in here and you may not agree with them, this isn't meant to be a factual accounting of fandom history anymore):

i don't think you're entirely wrong, which is why i went out of my way to include it; at least on tumblr, i think that fic probably had an outsized influence on how people write watchers and the winged grian stuff. as someone who wasn't around, the main way i know that is "people still discourse about it", "specific design elements that weren't super present in canon (or present at all in hermitcraft canon) are really present in fanworks", and "i know full well that, while people claim cleo said she read atus, she only said that she read a fic where grian had wings and something about how he was sad a lot if i remember right, and the fact that people extrapolated that to mean atus says some pretty strong things to me". like, all of these things together is why i think atus clearly had a lot of influence here.

that being said, i do have people in my comments like "oh yeah i realized he liked flying so i drew him with an elytra a lot, and then i saw people adding feathers so i started doing that". that seems especially common with people who were, say, on the reddit at the time - they didn't have the fandom context that was causing it on tumblr, so they either A) originated giving him wings on their own or B) picked it up from other artists and made assumptions about where it came from.

the thing is that while atus clearly had a huge influence on the older fandom... i bet, show of hands, most of the newer fandom members who joined late season 7 and beyond? have not actually read atus. or, if they have, that isn't their main influence for the winged grian art - other winged grian art is. that's how stuff like this ends up spreading in the fandom. hell, that's what we're seeing with things like xb's fish properties - one or two people who were big in the fandom liked it, and other artists picked it up from them, and it wouldn't surprise me if it really does become a ubiquitous character trait of his that people are baffled by at this rate. the hermitcraft fandom does that a lot.

that newer grian artists don't have that fandom context so they are drawing him with wings because they know he is meant to have them, and are making up the reason they think he should have them. atus has, at this point, been mostly removed from the wings equation. the watcher thing hasn't - he's never losing that association - but specifically atus's influence isn't really a major factor so much anymore. besides, as i said: i see him with parrot wings far more often than i see him with purple ones these days, and it's a little silly to say that that's not because of season 7, when it absolutely is.

all of this is to say that when it comes to the wing stuff atus is absolutely important which is why i included it but i sort of get the sense grian would have ended up with wings even without atus, if only because of the parrot stuff in season 7 when combined with the fandom's specific love of non-humaning people.

as for the watcher stuff... so here's the thing. i think fanon watcher stuff is absolutely heavily influenced by atus and it wouldn't be an inescapable part of grian's character without it, if only because evo just is not that popular compared to hermitcraft and people wouldn't be dragging all the evo stuff up in the specific way hermitcraft fans do if atus hadn't happened. so many of the watcher tropes people use originate clearly from that fic.

and like. okay. i agree with people when they say a lot of those tropes would have cropped up around watchers anyway. i know the "the watchers are evil" thing is a massively debated plot point but it's such low-hanging fruit people would have grabbed it. i have seen the watcher statues, people would have grabbed the angel imagery. people would have grabbed the purple. it's more the specific confluence of ideas that seems to have originated with atus, and more specifically, the popularity of doing watcher stuff in the first place.

once again, to be clear: the watcher stuff has undergone a LOT of fandom mutation. i think most new fans hear about it and don't know about atus, and even maybe watch evo themselves, which is neat. but evo... is not as big as hermitcraft! evo is an old series! and like. yhs or even vault hunters don't get as integrated into the characters as evo does, and that's almost certainly because it blew up at one point. and while i think most current watcher people do their own thing, i think it would be disingenuous to say that atus didn't have an influence on the fact that the fandom does not let go of the watcher thing for grian, just like trying to claim that the superhero fic trend in dsmp didn't come from tommy's unbeatable method. like, yes, the people doing it now aren't necessarily doing it because of that fic, or using the tropes because of that fic; they've picked them up themselves. at the same time, it's hard to say the popularity didn't start there.

i also know it sucks to say that, since a lot of people have some shitty memories related to atus, which i won't comment on because i was really not there for that discourse and i don't want to put words in people's mouths. it also sucks because people hear that and think people are saying they aren't being original/they're making things up, or that it's bad that they do the watcher things, and they want to defend it. i get that. like i said, a lot of the tropes that we attribute to atus probably would have been associated with watcher stuff anyway. its just that watcher!grian would have been a lot more niche without it, i think.

(with the possible exception of if martyn had still done his thing at the end of last life; we have no way to know how much he was influenced by fanon or not on that, given that he and grian were the actual writers for evo lore and all that. that's a different can of worms though we're talking about hermitcraft here.)

this also comes from me as an outsider, someone who really only entered the hermitcraft fandom early season 8, and only started watching mid season 7 (after the turf war, even). this is my observation of the trends as i've seen them. it probably feels different when you're an insider, as well, and were there at the time this stuff came about. and i admit some of this comes from being someone who joined the fandom late and has had trouble picking up the why for the watcher stuff. i get it with the "grian has wings", that's constantly reaffirmed as a headcanon, but a lot of the weird specifics of watcher tropes continue to baffle me as someone who isn't really interested in watching evo and mostly just wants to do hermitcraft stuff. (i use the watcher stuff sometimes as it suits me, as i do with basically all the fanon. i'm mostly neutral to it i actually have stronger opinions about hels stuff than i do watcher stuff when it comes to 'things that are largely fanon', lol.)

anyway atus is also fascinating to me because it's like. reading it now it's like, okay? it isn't bad, i'm not saying that, but it's also not a masterpiece, and it very heavily reads to me as "this fic got lucky to be in the right place at the right time to have the influence it had, by being the first to do a trope other people would latch onto later", and i think that kind of way fics work is interesting as someone who writes fics myself. (for the record, that's kind of how i consider black box too - it's fine, it does what i wanted it to do, but also it is as popular as it is because it happened to be in the right place at the right time and was the first decently-written thing to do a trope other people would latch onto later.) i can see why people would be annoyed to have the stuff they do that they consider unrelated to it constantly attributed to it, especially given the amount that it's just become established fanon by now that people don't have to know any of the original context to be able to use.

uhhh that was long the tl;dr is that the wing stuff almost certainly would have happened eventually anyway from what i can tell and a lot of the tropes we use for watchers probably would have also shown up anyway, but it's also silly to pretend that atus isn't a huge part of why it's as popular of a set of tropes as it is, because it is a part of that. that doesn't make any of the tropes bad or unoriginal though and i think people should keep doing them they're cool

[tiredspacedragon]

Which Ta-Toa are you the most infuriated with in regards to how the fandom mischaracterizes them and why?

The scale of Ta-Toa misinterpretation, as far as I have seen, goes as follows, from least misinterpreted, to most misinterpreted:

Norik - Lhikan - Jaller - Vakama - Tahu

Norik's a granddad. We all know it. He's seen some shit, and his fondness for lizards and bugs isn't often talked about, but I think Norik is a pretty simple character to understand.

Lhikan could shift around a few places, really. He's where he is on the scale simply because so much of Lhikan is a mystery to us. We know his origins, and his end, but we know very little about what he was actually like as a Toa. As such, I figure pretty much any interpretation is fair game so long as it holds to the few things we do know about Lhikan: that he was steadfast, noble, serious, kind, and generally a model hero. Anti-hero Lhikan wouldn't fly with me, but otherwise, I think it's up to the individual whether they prefer stern Lhikan, or haunted Lhikan, or even dry humour Lhikan. He's a pretty flexible character in that sense.

Jaller's in the middle, but he's honestly fine. The only thing I would consider about him is that the fandom tends to over-focus on his Matoran personality, which isn't a bad thing, because it's still pretty accurate to his Toa self, but I would like to see/hear more post-Pit Jaller discussion. Yes, he's mostly the same, but he and the other Mahri were fundamentally changed by their time there, and I don't doubt that it's left them one of the most vicious Toa teams out there. For Jaller in particular, we got to see that for all his effort to set himself apart from the stereotype of hot-headed Fire Toa leaders, he's really quite typical, with a fierce temper of his own and a prideful, stubborn streak as long as the Pit was deep. I don't think he's misinterpreted so much as the harsher sides of him are more rarely acknowledged. He'll always be responsible Jaller, but he has as much of a wildfire in his soul as any other Ta-Toa.

Vakama is a special case, because the fandom recognizes two versions of him. There's canon Vakama, and uwu Vakama. uwu Vakama is the one who's an anxious bean, and he mainly comes from Vakama's portrayal in LoMN, which, as fun as a movie as it is, did its main character no favours by cutting all the scenes in which he shows his confidence, capability, and leadership skills before the final confrontation with Makuta. uwu Vakama is the reason we have discourse about how Vakama should not have been the leader of the Toa Metru, which grates on my nerves every time I see it, because canon Vakama's entire character (as a Toa) is built around leadership. It's his defining character trait, the part of him that rises to the front in moments of crisis. I don't actually have anything against uwu Vakama, I actually like that the fandom is able to love Vakama not in spite of his mental issues, but because of them. What annoys me is when people confuse uwu Vakama with canon Vakama, who has all of uwu Vakama's baggage, but isn't defined by it.

And of course there's Tahu, the misinterpretation of whom I have talked about before, so I'll try to keep it brief. Angry Fire-Baby Tahu existed exclusively in 2003. Not before, and not after. Proud, hotheaded Tahu existed elsewhere, but the popular conception of him as a boastful, thoughtless, rage toddler comes only from his portrayal in Cathy Hapka's Chronicles books. It baffles me that so much of the fandom's opinion of Tahu comes from this one part of his history. For one year, he was portrayed god-awfully, and it's like the other nine don't matter half the time. As if 2001 didn't first portray him as the Toa's de facto leader, who could rally the others behind him with inspiring words and actions. As if MoL didn't have him good-naturedly teasing Takua and didn't make a point to show that the poison was the source of his rage in the middle of the movie. As of 2004/5 didn't have Tahu listening intently to Vakama's stories and discussing with him about his fears and how he wants to improve himself, and 2006 didn't have him cracking jokes about himself and letting his pride relax. As if it wasn't a major part of 2008 that Tahu had grown tremendously into a cunning tactician and a great leader of Toa, while simultaneously revealing that he was the same way 100,000 years prior.

Simply put, people like to default to what's simple, or most iconic. Or in the case of Bionicle, what's most accessible and easily consumed. Norik, Lhikan, and Jaller are all perceived well because they're portrayed well in their most accessible appearances. Norik and Lhikan are dead-on in their respective movies, and MoL gets Matoran Jaller pretty much right, though maybe a little less serious than he is elsewhere. Vakama and Tahu, however, get screwed because of faulty portrayals in their most iconic arcs. As much as I love 2008, when most people think of the Toa Nuva, they think of them in 2001-2003, and the simplest and most convenient way to experience the story of those years is through the Chronicles books, which flat out portray Tahu wrong. It may be hubris on my part to say that, but I have come to believe it firmly. Compared to every other piece of media released in those years, the Tahu in Hapka's books is almost a caricature, disregarding most of his positive traits in favour of amping up his negative ones to ridiculous levels. Similarly for Vakama, his most iconic appearance is LoMN, which presents a very narrow, trimmed-down version of the character. In both cases, the altered version of the characters take the place of the true, complete versions that appear everywhere else in people's minds, resulting in interpretations of them that veer wildly off-course because they're based on sources that don't properly convey the essence of the characters. All in all, I can't really blame the people who do misinterpret Tahu and Vakama, because they were set up for it, but it does still bother me that the misinterpreted versions are the norm when the complete, far more likeable versions of the characters are right there in the books.

[prophecydungeon]

not quite to the date (yet) but ten years ago i posted a fic that is somehow still sitting on the front page of results by kudos and by bookmarks for the most popular ship in the most popular fandom on AO3 and i still don't know how that happened.

like... really genuinely truly i don't know what kind of WILD perfect-storm-level shit was going on to make this happen. the original post got eleven whole notes here on tungle (yeah i checked lmao). i am not, actually, a very Doing Numbers blogger or writer, nor had i ever been, nor will i ever be. as far as i know, there wasn't any wildass six degrees of separation thing that happened where someone very Doing Numbers made it Do Numbers. i didn't "advertise" it or anything (ppl who make fic graphics and have a posting/rbing/rting schedule.. i could never lmao), i didn't post it on every site known to man, i didn't tag it to hell, i didn't really do anything. it just fucking happened. and it's still happening!!! and i am just so fucking baffled. how did this happen. why are there people making tiktoks about this fic in the year of our lord 2022. how??????

i have a lot of very complicated feelings about this fic, with a lot of them boiling down to just, like, brain chemicals being very stupid, and i know that logically it's just brain chemicals gone bad! but it's still hard to shake ten (10!) years of feeling like my growth in writing is being constantly undercut by this thing that's created its own gravity well to keep sucking in kudos and comments when just about everything i've written since has been Better™ (which again, logically, i know is untrue -- i write for fandoms now that are relatively VERY small lol so of course nothing is ever going to Do Numbers again like this)

this fic was something i wrote after a very difficult-to-process series of events, so it was complete and utter wish fulfillment and it felt so good to write. the flip side of this, which in retrospect really soured the fic for me, is that i tried my damndest to live out the life i wrote in this fic. i went to grad school for linguistics two years later and TA'd, Just Like The Fic. it was supposed to be great! and those turned out to be the two most miserable years of my life. maybe not specifically because i was trying to live a daydream, but that disparity didn't help (though my friends certainly did). so in a way, aeiw is this image of a failed dream -- i'm not in linguistics as a field, not even remotely, and i likely never will be; i don't want to ever go back to academia, even though i will likely need to get another masters (derogatory) in my current field at some point.

BUT. i promised that this is not a negative post so i will pivot here to say very genuinely that i am so, so grateful to all the friendships and good times this fic has brought me. thank you to all the people i met because of this fic or while writing it. thank you to everyone who's gotten to know me for totally different reasons/fandoms/etc and then been like WAIT A SECOND. (it's so funny, every time.) thank you to everyone who's ever left kudos and said a kind word. (i still get kudos emails nearly every day just for this fic.)

and thank you to the incredibly beautiful personal anecdotes people have left on this fic, holy shit. i have a folder in my email for those specifically. here are some excerpts from comments that made me tear up:

Hey, so...you probably don't still read comments on this fic because it's so old and so wildly popular*, but I hope you see this. [...] I just started my first year of University as a Linguistics major, and I know for a fact that I wouldn't have figured out what I wanted to study had I never read this fic. I've always had trouble with school, and struggled to find subjects that weren't wildly difficult or insanely boring-until Linguistics. Now, I'm excited to learn and pursue my degree-maybe even a master's eventually. I just wanted to say thank you for this sweet story that stuck with me for all of these years, and helped me find what I want to do.

*i do. i read every single comment. every single one.

[...] Reading this, I don't understand how anyone could say that you, the writer, did this alone and will only ever be alone for this story.** I mean, we're separated by computer screens, but I feel that I was transported into your story in a way that transcends what is expected of the written word. Maybe this is my biased opinion as someone who has grown up in a secondary orality culture, but I just had to let you know that this story was more than the written word is often perceived to be. If that makes sense. I felt like I was there, getting the story and so caught up that I couldn't stop reading. And you might not be the narrator, but you're essentially god and you breathed life into these characters and I'm so in awe of you. You make it seem so easy! What's worse is I know it's not, so here I am, seeing something unfold with what looks like practiced ease when I know just how much work you've put into writing to get you to this point. I'm so proud of you! And it feels silly to say but I am, and I wanted you to know. [...]

**this is one of the most incredible things anyone has ever said to me.

[...] I first read this a long time ago (at least 6 years) when I was really Going Through It and this fic - specifically Dean - really resonated with me.*** It gave me an inkling (pun intended) of hope. And it was the first positive representation of tattoos that I'd seen. I started planning tattoos I wanted soon after reading this, using them the way Dean does in this to identify the important and best things in my life and figure out how to represent them and always have them with me. I just got my third done and I love all of them. So thank you for the impact that you've had on my life, and for writing such a wonderful story.

***i was really Going Through It as well. i'm doing great now and i hope you are too.

thank you to past me for writing this fic and finishing something "long" (lol..... lmao). thank you to past me for writing unabashed wish fulfillment, something i would lose the capability to do for a long time (dw, i got it back). thank you to this fic for irrevocably fucking up my AO3 statistics.

so anyways, ten years on i'm doing great. new career. new gender. new fursona. i live in a super cool area. i got like seven anime figures of this one horrendous guy. my sick tattoos have gotten even sicker. here's a portrait of the author for good measure:

and here are some fun facts about the fic that idr if i've ever shared before:

the scene at the very end where cas goes to get tattooed by dean? my beta wrote that for me. yes, the whole scene. thank you.

i don't remember who it was that carried a bike up some stairs but i always hefted my bike up onto my shoulder when walking it up my outside stairs so i pictured whoever that was doing it too (and i still have that bike! i refurb'd it last year!)

i think i own every vinyl i mentioned... i think

i definitely own led zeppelin's entire discography on vinyl

i finally bought a pair of rough-faced amethyst plugs for myself, something like two years ago? took me a while to get there

that sex scene was in there because i felt like i "had to" include one lmaoooo i had no idea what i was doing and i've written way better p*rn since then

when i turned 24 i did actually listen to 4 + 20 by csny first thing in the morning

soooo much of the tattoo and piercing stuff was so fucking pretentious of me.... but really, be thorough when looking for piercers and tattoo artists, stay safe, there are a lot of great resources out there

i actually pretty legitimately don't like showing my tattoos irl just because people can be really annoying/weird but i also just enjoy wearing long pants and long sleeves lol

...also yeah i do dress Like That. unironically.

some things i have written since then that i am very proud of:

P vs NP, RvB

the more i run (the farther away it seems), destiny

quema, bleach

in the details (not the devil), haikyuu!!

apsidial precession, destiny

and so in conclusion........ thank you. but i'm still baffled.

[skiyoosmi]

‼️ NO WRITER, NOT EVEN ONE, DESERVES TO GET THEIR WORKS PLAGIARIZED ‼️

so, idk where to start with this one because my mind's still a mess with everything's that's been happening as of lately — and i didn't want to create an issue in this community and as i said in my previous asks, irl's will know that i can be such a bitch sometimes BUT i try my best to be nice; hence, this situation is baffling to me. i really didn't want this situation to reach this point but if the other party does not cooperate then, that leaves me no choice but to post this —

REAL writers know how hard it is to conceptualize new stories, characterize the people they're writing for— it doesn't even end there; there's still outlining, then writing itself, looking for plot holes (then redoing some paragraphs, if not the whole work itself), trying to make a satisfying ending, and so many more processes we have to undergo before the publishing itself! imagine the disappointment, frustration, anger (and so many more negative emotions you can think of) that we feel when we come across someone who decides it would be "nice/cool/fun" to copy-paste our work :)

PLAGIARISM — if there's anything i hate most in this world, it's this — people who steal or use things that aren't theirs and then proceeding to take credit for it.

@koshikoshi — i tried to keep this between us two by dm'ing you but i think you blocked me right after i sent you the first message because i can no longer send my next ones. will that stop me from calling you out? no.

below are some proofs (a comparison between our date of posting + the contents itself) to show you guys what i'm talking about because i cannot just simply let this go (they even cut out the last bits of the drabble in what seems like a pathetic attempt to make it look "original" and "theirs" lol) —

i tried dm'ing them but as shown in another set of photos below, i can no longer do after sending the first ones

(honey, you were so bold with posting a plagiarized work yet the moment you get caught, you back out? fight your battles properly, will ya?)

anyways, this is also a warning for those who are intending to plagiarize my work ‼️ i may look easygoing, comical, or funny sometimes but i know what my hard work's worth is — if you think, i will just sit idly and watch you all copy, paste and post MY works, you're wrong.

ps - for the umpteenth time, i also have a bitchy attitude if you bring it out of me :)

[mllemaenad]

On the topic of Fallout, do you enjoy 76 more now that it has NPCs in it?

I mean, I did. There was definitely a point there where my opinion was "Well done, Bethesda, this is an improvement". They lost me again, hard, with the "One Wasteland" business. I do not enjoy being mauled by level 68 ghouls when I'm just trying to scavenge some adhesive. I haven't touched it again in months. I know that was built for people to better enjoy the multi-player aspect, but I had been enjoying wandering around on my own, reading the terminals, chatting with the NPCs, and building myself the ugliest shack in the wasteland.

But yes – I did think that giving the game living people, and thus some actual stakes, improved it tremendously. There was a point, early on, where I was running around frantically because there's a plague and none of these people are vaccinated (Ha, that wasn't even topical at the time). I liked that you could find people camping in old settlements, and trying to pick up where the original inhabitants left off. I liked that some of the people were previous inhabitants who had evacuated before it was too late, and were now returning. I liked that traders stopped by my C.A.M.P. It didn't necessarily undo the damage of having an empty world to start with, but it did make things much better.

Mind you, I did find the actual plot of Wastelanders a bit baffling. Do we ... have the kind of economy where it would make sense to break into a vault in order to steal a lot of gold? Gold is not exactly the most useful metal, and if you're just into shiny things you can find enough jewellery in abandoned houses and shops to deck yourself out without going to half as much effort. The Hub is barely set up yet, Shady Sands wouldn't have known what to do with that much gold even in the era of the original Fallout, we know the Capital Wasteland and the Commonwealth won't get their shit together for centuries, yet, and - I mean, New Vegas is relatively unscathed, but these people are still living in a ruined city in the middle of a desert.

I know they keep talking about using the gold to improve their settlements ... but who the hell even wants that much gold? You'd expect post-apocalyptic wealth to be, well, clean water, arable land, livestock, seeds, lumber – the kinds of things that other Fallout games tell you are valuable.

I wish that story had been more about rebuilding the institutions the original Appalachians started, so it had more continuity from the base game. They had elements of that, but it was flavour rather than the focus.

"Vault heist" felt like a story that would make sense in Fallout 2 or Fallout New Vegas, but not so much here.

[rhaenin-time]

Reblogging with better organization, a few things I left out, and without the previous "reply" because it was misogynistic trolling nonsense by a member of what I can only describe as a community of the dysliterate (willfully and functionally illiterate by choice, rather than circumstance) that was wasting space on a long post. You can find their original reblog here if you're so inclined for nonsense (or to know who to block).

Worry not, I'm sure they have plenty of alt-accounts where they can still obsessively read this and get off on telling themselves how wrong I am.

The willfully dysliterate troll:

Sure… that’s what happened… Aemond didn’t at all claim a dragon just as several Targaryens had, Rhaenyra included, and then get jumped for an imagined crime.

So I suspect the whole baffling "Aemond didn't steal Vhagar because he couldn't have because you can't steal a dragon" phenomenon stems not just from the blatant misreading of Dany's "a dragon is not a slave," moment, but moreso from people not understanding how ownership works. As in, ownership is something we make, not some objective, divinely ordained right.

The kids weren't wrong for faulting Aemond for taking Vhagar. They were simply unwise for confronting him themselves rather than reporting him.

But Aemond is already in the wrong before the confrontation starts. Rhaena was technically incorrect about Vhagar being “hers to claim” without Viserys's or Rhaenyra's consent, but she was absolutely right to be angry at Aemond and to point out that he did not have a right to claim her. Especially since Rhaena had good reason to expect that Viserys and Rhaenyra would not only permit her but would prefer her over Aemond.

Oh no, now here come the people screaming that, "You cannot steal a dragon!"

These people love to cite Daenerys this one time, as if “a dragon is not a slave” doesn't just mean that dragons cannot be subdued the same way a human can. As if it wasn't a comment on the institution of slavery itself. As if she wasn't about to free a city full of enslaved people. Because I have seen so many takes based on this moment that honestly look like this:

A dragon being able to say yes or no, and let's be honest, often based on blood and vibes, doesn't mean you can't steal the right to claim them if an entire culture, and then dynasty, forms itself around creating, protecting, and regulating that right. The fact that you can't force a bond doesn't mean that it's a fucking free-for-all game of finders-keepers.

Is anyone honestly convinced that if Saera had made it to Balerion, Jaehaerys would or should have said, "Congratulations for sneaking past the dragonkeepers to get to the dragon that's genetically and by now psychologically predisposed to accept a rider with your blood. That proves you're worthy of being a dragonrider with unrestricted access to a war dragon, for some reason."

If an Old Blood of Volantis had managed to sneak into the catacombs and bond with one of her dragons, would Dany have said, "Well, that proves you're worthy! Here you go." Or even, should she have said that?

If we invented magical shoes that made you fly, but once one person puts them on they can't be worn by anyone else, are you honestly going to argue that you can't "steal" a pair of shoes simply because they end up fitting?

“Ownership” is a socio-political construct and not some objective rule of nature. And that being a socio-political construct makes it no less real.

Targaryens derive their power from their monopoly over dragons because they have the power to enforce that monopoly. They own the dragons because they have the power to enforce that ownership. That's how ownership works. It's not some divine rule ordained by the gods. It's a rule they made because they had the power to make it.

🐲

🐲

And again, that does not make that rule any less 'real'. Because that's how most 'rules' are formed.

"But Aemond just wanted the birthright he unfairly denied! A connection to their heritage!"

Nevermind that him being "deprived" of a dragon and "bullied" for it goes against both book!canon and the rules that the show established. That plenty of Targaryens have gone without dragons, and even more have gone into their teens or adulthood before claiming one. Nevermind that. Let's talk about that "birthright."

What's important to understand is that Aemond wasn't challenging the idea that Targaryens should hold dominion over dragons, or the power structure behind it. Because Aemond's sense of entitlement to Vhagar originates from the very socio-political construct that he disregards.

He wasn't challenging his family's, his culture's, dominion over dragons. He was challenging and disrespecting the way by which his family, and their culture, maintain and enforce that dominion amongst themselves. And why? Was it for good reason? Not really. He was sneaking around because he knew he wasn't allowed to claim Vhagar, and he thought he deserved Vhagar.

So what does Jaehaerys have to say on the matter of whether or not a Targaryen can "steal" a dragon?

The funniest part about people who argue that Aemond couldn't have stolen Vhagar because you can't cite Jaehaerys because Jaehaerys would have disinherited Rhaenyra in the first place... is that they're basically arguing that if someone is a misogynist, you must therefore disregard everything they've ever said or done.

Interesting... So, since it's mostly people from Team Misogyny who make that 'argument' I'm just gonna go ahead and use their own logic and... ignore it in the name of basic reasoning.

🐲

🐲

Well that's awkward.

Saera actually has the more sympathetic justification of the two.

She never put the claim of the heir to question. All she was being punished for at the time was daring to fuck. Yes, she played cruel pranks but that was not what she was being punished for. Yet Jaehaerys was so enraged by the mere attempt to claim a dragon that he dismissed any chance of forgiveness and shipped her off to the Silent Sisters.

Saera's "crime" was defying unjust, misogynist rules. And the reason she wanted a dragon was to escape the unjust consequences of her 'crimes'. The whole reason she had to try to 'steal' a dragon is that she actually was denied a dragon for unjust, misogynistic reasons. All Aemond would have had to do is wait.

People like to pretend as if his "boldness" in claiming Vhagar proves him "worthy." That Vhagar "chose" him. And yes, while he initiated a bond and Vhagar accepted, it's not as if Vhagar in that moment could sense every contender in the world, and out of everyone, decided to honour the "worthy" Aemond. He snuck into the flying shoe store when it was closed, and the shoe ended up fitting. But the shoe could have fit any number of people in different circumstances. That's why dragonlords took steps to manage those circumstances.

Taking Vhagar, heedless of the authority and judgement of the elder and more experienced Targaryens, sneaking around because he knew he wouldn't be allowed otherwise, and lucking out that Vhagar liked his scent wasn't a sign he was "worthy". It proves he has no respect for the system put in place to manage such a dangerous power, and we see that made manifest.

So worthy

You get a lot of takes around this moment like, "The Dance was a product of Targaryen arrogance alone! Those stupid Targs gave nukes to children and had NO system to ensure that dragons were handled responsibly."

And then will proceed to say: "What no, Aemond didn't STEAL Vhagar you can't STEAL a dragon he HAD to sneak around because you just know Rhaenyra would have convinced Viserys to say no otherwise. So what if previous generations seemed to have had strict policies about who got a dragon and when? That was clearly WRONG dragons aren't SLAVES except Saera was definitely wrong for trying to take a dragon to escape the consequences of being a whore. Stealing a dragon should be punishable by death. Also, Aemond did nothing wrong him not having permission to claim a war dragon was him being OPPRESSED. Everyone else was wrong for getting mad at him and Viserys was wrong for not punishing the others but him letting Aemond keep Vhagar was DEFINITELY not a sign of his weakness the only sign of his weakness was not punishing Luke the significantly younger child. It's no wonder Aemond lost control of Vhagar but it wasn't HIS fault for having no respect for how his family traditionally viewed dragons or Viserys's for letting him keep Vhagar. It's just proof targs are dumb foreigners who thought they could domesticate dragons and give nukes to children."

And around and around it goes...

The funniest part is that when I point this out people never rebut with actual points they're just like "tHaT's NoT hOw It WoRkS! Ownership is ownership!" And I think it has a lot more to do with them wanting to take certain kinds of ownership for granted as this objective, divinely ordained right, and how something as seemingly insignificant as exploring how fictional dragon family can create and enforce their own kind of "ownership" over a symbol and source of raw power challenges that worldview, and they're often completely unwilling to examine that.

In conclusion:

Rhaena and Baela probably grew up with stories about Jaehaerys and generations as far back as Valyria regarding how dragons were managed. They knew what was up. Viserys doing nothing was a sign of his weakness, and Rhaenyra not pushing was likely only due to Aemond's eye and her precarious position in that moment. Neither are a confirmation of the idea that "you cannot steal a dragon."

The whole point of that scene in Fire and Blood was the important matter (Vhagar) was pushed aside because Viserys didn't want to deal with 'drama'. And because of Aemond's eye Rhaenyra was not in a position or mindset to push in the moment, especially when she was already dealing with the revelation that Alicent was actively turning her brothers against her.

Rhaenyra was not just the heir to the throne; she was also the future head of the family and highest ranking dragonrider. If she didn't want Aemond to have Vhagar and if she would have had Viserys say no had Aemond asked, then yes he did indeed “steal” Vhagar.

So yes actually it was a pretty good trade for Aemond.

Gotta love how when Daemon was out of the picture for ten years the justification for usurping Rhaenyra was that her position was too "weak" and that she's a fox whispering sweetly as she's surrounded by hounds and she's just making it too easy to take the throne. So after Alicent proves to be a threat by stabbity stab stabbing her while trying to stab Rhaenyra's son after Aemond jacked a war dragon without permission and it was revealed Alicent has been actively coaching her brothers against her, Rhaenyra decides to strengthen her position by marrying Daemon to make it clear she won't stand by if Alicent tries to usurp her and suddenly the usurpation is justified for the opposite reason.

Hmm... It's almost like there was no right choice for Rhaenyra.

[rockysavannah]

Videl vs. Pan! A Bored Burp-Off!

Description:

WARNING THIS STORY CONTAINS: Female Burping.

If you’re not into any of the above things, please do not read!

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This could be considered a distant sequel to 'Bulma vs Chi-Chi! A Baby Shower Burping Contest!'.

Pan and Videl are sitting at home one day, bored out of their minds. After a couple of accidental eructations from the pair, they decide to have a burping contest, with a wager set in place to make it more interesting. Will Videl achieve victory, or will her daughter dominate? There’s only one way to find out.

I hope you like it. Any constructive criticism in the comments section is welcome.

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Originally uploaded back on March 7th, 2017 on Writing.com.

This story was co-written with Jokermask18/JWAPPEL in my interactive.

Since Writing.com basically requires people to need a paid membership in order to do anything on their website, it’s practically impossible for many people to write and read there. Therefore, I’ve decided to post some of the chapters from my interactives onto my other accounts as full-fledged stories so that they can reach a wider audience.

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The Art of the Thumbnail is a blend of two images. (Since no one had drawn this concept...).

Videl by Seiya-Dbz-Fan.

Pan by Krizart-DA.

Text by me and Jokermask18/JWAPPEL.

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Son Videl, Son Pan, and Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, and Dragon Ball Super © Funimation, Toei Animation, Shueisha and Akira Toriyama

(A/N: This is a collaboration with Jokermask18 A.K.A. JWAPPEL.)

Content Advisory! This story contains:

Female Hyper Belching

Taunting

Series: Dragon Ball

Characters: Son Videl, Son Pan

Synopsis: Videl and Pan try to alleviate their boredom by having some gassy fun.

If you’re not into any of the above things, please do not read!

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It was a quiet Saturday afternoon for the family of Son Gohan. The man of the house was out on business, leaving his wonderful wife and daughter to fend off the onslaught of boredom by themselves. The duo engaged in a multitude of recreational activities—watching television shows and movies, playing video and board games, even training—but nothing could keep their interests for more than a few minutes at best. Both were currently lounging around in the living room, Pan lied half-asleep on the couch and Videl was playing with a paddleball. Videl checked the clock and her eyes widened at the time.

“Oh no, it’s almost dinner time!” she exclaimed, loudly enough to capture the attention of her daughter, “I better get cooking!”

“…Huh?” Pan muttered groggily, until the weight of those words truly hit her, “Wait, dinner?! That sounds great! I’m starving!”

The eleven-year-old girl’s sudden burst of energy got a small chuckle out of her mother, “Well, you’ll have to ‘starve’ for a little longer, because it’ll take awhile to make enough food to satisfy your appetite.”

Pan’s lips curled downward, “Can I at least get a soda to hold me over.”

With an approving nod from her mother, Pan moved faster than a normal human could track, seemingly vanishing into thin air for a split second, before returning to the same spot, only with a root beer in hand. While Videl was getting up from her chair and heading for the kitchen, Pan began chugging the contents of her can. The carbonated beverage cascaded down her esophagus before landing in the pits of her stomach, mixing with the boiling green acids that were already dwelling there, and forming large bubbles of gas from the chemical reaction. Pan put her right hand on her belly when she heard a low rumbling deep inside. She felt pockets of air shift around within her tummy, before some of it was dislodged and evicted up a valve at the top of the stomach. Pan barely had time to register what happened before a juicy belch blasted past her lips, catching her by surprise. Videl stopped in the kitchen and turned to look at her daughter, who just sported a look of content on her face.

“That felt good,” Pan commented with a giggle.

“Pan, you should show better manners than that,” Videl reprimanded with a stereotypical parental finger pointing.

Pan scoffed internally, wishing that her mom would loosen up once in a while, like what her dad said she was like as a teenager. Alas, Videl’s acceptance of her role as a housewife had meant that she sacrificed much of her cooler (in Pan’s opinion), tomboyish personality, so it was unlikely to happen anytime soon.

Videl was about to get the ingredients and kitchen ware needed to make a meal fit for a demi- and quarter-Saiyan, but was stricken with a sudden pang of thirst. Wanting to quickly quench it before getting to work, she fished through the fridge and picked out a can of Jetap, before popping it open and spraying some of the alcoholic liquid on her cheeks. Pan snickered at this, while Videl took a large swig of her drink, draining the can in a matter of seconds. Once the intoxicated fluid splashed into her gut, a similar reaction that happened in Pan’s abdominal area occurred here too. As soon as Videl removed the can from her mouth, a beery burp rippled out of it, having the length, volume, and smell to be comparable to her daughter. When the three-second-long eructation ended, Videl’s cheeks lit up in a scarlet flash.

“Ooohhh my goodness! Excuse me!” she apologized with her left hand clasped over her mouth.

There was a period of silence in the house before the juvenile giggling of the youngest Son member promptly shattered it. “Nice one, Mom! I didn’t think… that you had… it in you!” her compliments were intersped by fits of laughter.

Videl’s level of embarrassment continued to grow, “T-that was just an accident, sweetie. I didn’t mean to.”

Pan rolled her eyes and gave her an unconvinced smirk, “Not buying it, Mom. Dad told me how much of a tomboy you were back in the day and I bet that you miss that time.”

Videl widened her light blue irises, baffled at how her adolescent daughter managed to back her into a corner like this. Then, she started to think about Pan’s words; about how her ‘tough girl’ days were when she was at her coolest. But that was just a persona, right? An act that she didn’t need to keep up when she met her high school sweetheart. Without that, she felt comfortable sporting a more feminine appearance, like her wedding gown when she married Gohan, or the red dress and black leggings when she attended Bulma’s ‘39th’ birthday party. On the other hand, her feistier attitude did earn her some respect from her former classmates at Orange Star High School, and she still found some amusement when she thought back to the times that she beat various members of the student body in burping contests. Perhaps it would not hurt to relive some of that glory one more time.

“Maybe… you have a point,” Videl admitted.

Pan’s grin grew wider, “Great, because I’ve got an idea for curing our boredom: a burping contest!”

If possible, the Son matriarch’s eyes grew wider still, “Really? Well, what are the stakes?”

Pan tapped a finger on her chin in thought, “If I win, you order as much food as I want, when I want, for the next three months; If you win, I’ll do all of yours and dad’s chores on top of my own for the same time.”

Videl pondered Pan’s proposition. The risk was great, but so was the reward. After a few moments, she reached her decision, “Game on, young lady,” Videl answered with a smirk that matched her daughter’s, finally regaining her uncouth appreciation for the immature art of burping.

“Cool!” Pan’s eyes shone in anticipation, thinking that this would make for a gross, but fun, bonding experience.

Videl pulled out at least eight more cans of soda from the fridge and divided them between herself and Pan. After all, one needed the right ammunition for this kind of thing. Pan reached for her first one and chugged the whole thing in less than a minute! With a smirk, she then thumped her chest and let out a nasty sounding burp that sounded like it came from a hardened trucker. Videl was actually a little proud of her for that. That is, until she remembered she was looking at her competitor. The daughter of Mister Satan figured her turn was up and attempted to copy her daughter's opening move. Unfortunately, she ended up choking on most of the soda and launched into a coughing fit.

“You're losing Mommy,” Pan taunted in a sing-song voice before belching again. This one was ever bigger than the last, being five seconds long!

Videl's eyes narrowed as her competitive fire was beginning to reignite, “I'm not finished yet!” She began chugging her second soda, this time nearly matching her daughter's former pace. Pan was on her second soda as well, though sipping it in a leisurely fashion. It was clear she wasn't worried and this made Videl all the more angry.

Thumping her chest, the daughter of Mr. Satan unleashed her first real belch in the contest. It was decent, though only half as big as Pan's first attempt. Videl scowled, knowing she'd once been able to do much better. Pan responded with another huge belch that won her the bout and began opening her third can. Videl did the same and managed to start off with a belch that surpassed her daughter's previous attempt! The good feeling that came with that was quickly destroyed when Pan unleashed a belch that blew her mother's hair back! Once again, the daughter of Mister Satan felt oddly proud even as she began opening her fourth can. This truly was a bonding experience.

The contest continued on in this way. Videl had actually started to regain some of her old skill but it didn't seem to help. Pan dominated each bout and only grew cockier over time. “Get ready to order Mama, cause I am hungry!” The daughter of Mister Satan only scowled more deeply at this taunt. She refused to let her daughter win. It wasn't just about what losing would cost her either. Now, it was about pride.

But honestly, Videl was getting flustered. She had to admit that her kid was good. Scratch that, Pan was very, very good. As they went through what was now the seventh can for both of them, mother and daughter soon realized that it was almost over. There were only two cans left and one of them would belong to the victor. It was clear from her grin that Pan believed she knew which one it would be. “Ready to give up?”

But Videl refused. If there was anything left over from the Videl of old, it was that. She wondered, not for the first time, just what had happened to that girl? The tomboy who had dominated boy and girl alike in belching contests since she was seven! She even remembered winning a few farting contests in her time. Looking at Pan, she realized that she missed those times. She wanted them back. It was time for her to start thinking like the old Videl again, but how?

After the duo each finished their seventh can, Pan effortlessly belted out another first class burp. Though it was comparatively less powerful than her previous ones, it compensated with an odor that made the matriarch of the Son household go green in the gills. While Videl, with watery eyes, was coughing and trying to fan away the foul fumes, Pan was looking bored. Sure, she was certain that she would be able to pig out on as much food as she wanted to when this was over, which definitely appealed to her Saiyan nature, but there was another thing that her alien instincts craved: a good fight. Her father had gone on about how unladylike and badass her mother was as a youth, so Pan expected at least something resembling a challenge, just to make her victory feel more earned.

However, right now Videl was not proving those stories true at all. In fact, her burps were barely able to get much reaction out of Pan aside from condescending amusement. Either the stories were lies or Videl had simply lost her edge. In any case, Pan found it disappointing, not simply because of the aforementioned lack of challenge, but because she had a lot of respect for mommy dearest. All of the tomboyish tales about Videl, not just of how she shattered gender stereotypes by utterly decimating sexist boys in belching contests, but also of her beating up bullies and leaping into danger to stop criminals. It helped influence Pan into shaping her personality to mimic the mother that she idolized, both as a tomboy and as a hero.

Meanwhile, Videl’s mind raced to find a way to gain an edge over her daughter. Maybe she could use the Dragon Balls to wish for her old personality back. No, that would seem like a waste to use something so powerful to win such a juvenile event. Besides, what would Gohan say about it when he returned home? Nevertheless, if she cannot do that, then how will the daughter of Mister Satan triumph over the gaseous greatness of Pan? Suddenly, she thought back to what her husband said when he taught her how to fly all those years ago.

He said that you have to focus your energy from your stomach, she recalled in her head. Then, she also flashed back to when she heard Gohan say that his mentor, Piccolo, could fire ki blasts from his mouth, Wait a minute. That’s it! Videl breathed deeply and concentrated hard, gulping down air to fuel her belch. She soon felt a spark of ki in her belly and smiled, Alright, she thought, silently thanking Gohan and Piccolo for not teaching Pan telepathy, I’m on the right track, but I should try to limit how much ki I use. Otherwise, Pan will know what I’m up to and just copy me, then, I’ll be screwed.

And so, the metaphysical energy continued to manifest in her stomach, acting like fire boiling water to produce steam as it stirred up more gas than any normal human ever could. When she felt enough build up, Videl proudly forced out the gas using her ki creating a shockwave that blew away Pan’s orange bandana. When it finished, Videl sighed in relief and giggled at the befuddled face of her daughter.

“Wh-what was that?!” Pan exclaimed.

“Well, Honey, I guess I was just a little rusty,” Videl replied, lips curled up into a smirk.

Pan narrowed her eyes in suspicion. She may be somewhat naïve, but she was not stupid. The daughter of Son Gohan found it weird that her mom could just pull out a totally awesome eructation at the eleventh hour after a series of mediocre burps. In addition, Pan could have sworn that she felt a minuscule ember of ki coming from her mother, specifically in her tummy.

Maybe… The quasi-Saiyan pondered for a moment, before dismissing the idea entirely, There’s no way. That’s just ridiculous. She probably just got lucky, that’s all.

Putting the notion aside, Pan opted to pop open her eighth can of soda and began chugging it. Videl soon joined her and in a matter of seconds, both had completely drained their aluminum canisters of their sugary liquid contents. Pan patted her packed paunch playfully, feeling it press up against and peek out under her shirt. It was an expected result given that eight cans worth of delicious carbonated goodness filled that gut of hers, not including the can that she had taken a swig of before the contest officially began. Videl rubbed her own bulging belly, starting to wonder how this competition would affect her figure afterward. However, she pushed that thought out for the moment, instead focusing on the here and now.

“Well, do you want to start the final bout, little lady?” Videl inquired with a smirk.

“Sure, but you’ll regret it, trust me,” Pan replied, matching her mom’s smirk.

Pan proceeded to gobble down as much precious oxygen as possible, making her abdominal area inflate even more so. She held her breath, and after a while, she was starting to become blue in the face, which made Videl frown in worry. The mother was about to ask if her daughter was all right when Pan decided to unleash her outright abominable eructation right in her face. It was by far her greatest/grossest one in the whole competition. Pan’s oral expulsion of air lasted an astounding ten seconds, actually shattering some of the windows, which Pan had a feeling would come out of her allowance even if she won. However, the smell was again in a category of its own, as the guttural belch blast carried a sickly green cloud of gas out of Pan’s mouth. Said gas cloud was composed of an amalgamation of every food and drink that the Pan had devoured over the past week, which to a full blooded human would have been a month’s worth of nourishment.

“How was that, Mom?” Pan giggled smugly after finishing.

“Ohhh…” Videl moaned, wholly discombobulated, “That was so nasty! I think that I’m going to hurl!” she slapped both hands over her mouth to keep herself from doing so.

Pan giggled even louder, savoring her mother’s disgusted demeanor. Eventually, Videl regained her bearings and threw a piercing glare at her daughter, at which Pan only snickered, “I take it that you didn’t like my magnum opus.”

That straw broke the camel’s back, Screw it, Videl thought, I don’t know if it’s the lingering nausea or seething anger, but I’m going to put this brat in her place, no matter what! That’ll knock her arrogance ass down a peg.

Then, she got into a battle stance, her legs spreading out two feet apart and bending at a 90° angle, and closed her eyes. The quarter-Sayian cocked her left eyebrow, confused. “Uh, mom, what are you doing?”

However, Videl closed her eyes, tuned her  daughter out, and took deep breaths. Pan frowned at the silence, but widened her eyes as she felt something weird happen in her mother. Once again, the daughter of Mister Satan manifested her ki in her stomach, though now it was much larger, to the point that Pan could clearly sense it.

Huh? Why is there so much ki in her stomach? Unless… Pan thought, until her eyes widened in realization, It’s true! She did do it before and she’s doing it now!

As Pan was trying to process the current situation, Videl pressurized the gas in her stomach by charging up ki in order to increase the power of her burp. Meanwhile, a glow formed in her stomach, the heat of her ki causing her to sweat profusely. After a while, she felt a huge burst of energy finish building up pressure in her belly. This feeling made her smile in anticipation.

“Oh, boy, here it comes,” Videl exclaimed excitedly.

“Here what comes?” her offspring questioned.

Videl ignored Pan and used her energy to channel the gas out of her belly. The glow intensified as it, the ki and the gas traveled up her body before entering her mouth, causing her cheeks to bulge outward and filling Videl’s mouth with a light bright enough to make her puffed out cheeks translucent. Then, she raised her head slightly away from Pan to avoid possibly hurting her and became the first person in history to burp out a blast of energy.

“*buuuUUUrrrrrrRRUUUuuuuuuuUUUCH!*”

Suddenly, her mouth snapped open and she belched out a large yellow ki beam, which rocketed past Videl's lips and barely missed the top of Pan’s head on its trajectory through one of the broken windows. The burp itself echoed throughout the house, shattering the remaining windows, and knocking down several books, expensive plates, and other belongings. The duo looked to see the blast vaporize some nearby trees, both of them gawking at the trail of burnt grass and destroyed foliage.

“Whoa, even I didn't expect that,” Videl admitted with a blush.

Pan turned back to her mom, “That… was… awesome! Let’s keep going! I want to do that too!”

Videl paused for a moment, but then chuckled at the absurdity of the situation, “Ok, but the loser gets punished for six months in lieu of three.”

“Deal!” Pan shouted, her eyes shining with enthusiasm.

Both remembered their unfinished cans of soda and grabbed them for the true final bout. They were going to need it!

Once the beverages had been consumed, the empty aluminum husk that previously held them were discarded and Pan began the final bout by pausing to focus her ki then:

“*BRRRRrrrRRRRRUUUUUuuuuUOOOOOOOoo-oooooOOOOOOOrrrp!!*”

A big energy blast shot from her mouth, twice the width of her mother's effort, though it only did a little more damage to the house by burning a few extra holes in the walls.

Videl applauded politely, then sucked in and: 

“*beeeeeeEEEEEELLLLllllLLRRRRRrrroooOOOOOaaAAAAARRRRrrrrrRRRRP!!!*”

She not only managed to outdo her daughter, but shot out a stream of ki balls from her mouth in rapid succession. Pan was forced to jump on top of her chair in dodge in a rather comedic fashion. Videl laughed out loud at this when she was finished and an evil gleam suddenly entered her eye. Turning her gaze towards the ceiling, she forced out a small burp that resulted in a single ball of ki knocking some debris onto Pan's head, the quarter-Saiyan scowling in response.

“Okay Mama, you've had it!

*BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRP AAAAATTTTTTTTAAAAAAAAACCCCCCKKKKKKKKK!!!!*”

Videl's eyes widened as her daughter unleashed a huge belch that contained a variation of one of Vegeta's most powerful moves. It packed enough force to blow her through the wall of her home and leave her smoking on the already slightly scorched lawn. Pan laughed at the sight and began jumping up and down in an absurd little victory dance.

“Yes! I win! HAHAHAHA, I am the best!” This bratty sing-song voice awoke something in Videl and she slowly pulled herself to her feet, her eyes ablaze with fury. Pan watched with a mix of confusion and concern as her mother assumed a basic power-up stance and began speaking in grunts, as though she were on the verge of transforming into some new kind of super form. In fact, it wouldn't have surprised Pan at all if that were the case.

Little did the young girl know that during all this, her mother was reliving her past, watching various images of her rough and tumble self flash and the victories she'd achieved flash before her eyes. Everything from belching contests to looking best in a bikini passed her by. They were soon replaced by new images of Pan besting her younger self in all these same events. Other scenes were also included such as a rice eating contest and a farting contest. Every last one filled the Videl of the present with even more rage.

“No! I… Will… Not… lose… to a… little… girl! Even if she is my own daughter!” Pan watched in amazement as her mother's slightly higher than average power level suddenly skyrocketed, her aura blazing to life around her. Videl then bellowed, “Ka… Me… Ha… Me… 

*HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRP!!!!!*”

The mightiest belch under the heavens, contained within the signature technique of both the Kame House and the overall Son Family, shot from Videl's mouth. It zeroed in on a horrified Pan and created a great explosion that destroyed the entire house! Pan lay amidst the rubble, somehow only dazed, “You win, Mommy.”

“Oh yeah!” Videl cried out in a rather good impression of her father, “I win! I'm number—oh crap!” The daughter of Mister Satan looked upon what was left of her home and decided to let Pan off the hook: she would need all the help she could get in order to collect the Dragon Balls and restore everything before Gohan got back!