#that’s why i have so much bible lore just stored in the back of my brain

[lansolot]

lansolot my theater and classical literature enjoying blogger on my dash DO YOU have any favorite monologues from shows or books or anything else that you would like to share about

thank you so much for this ask! this’ll be quite the messy post, so do forgive me for that. however, i will make an attempt to organize it! also, i do apologize for any grammar or spelling errors i make. i’m half asleep at the moment

— 1

i could go on for hours about this play as it’s such a favorite of mine. i’ve already gone on a long tangent about horatio and hamlet in the past, so i’ll at least try to make this little ramble hamlet centered. despite how often i see people complain about how hamlet isn’t a good play and that shakespeare is too difficult to understand, i think that people should at least try to understand his works. especially hamlet, as i personally think that it’s an incredibly influential play of his. even though hamlet’s classic “to be, or not to be” soliloquy is quite popular, it’s incredible that it’s so popular and commonly studied by so many people. words love to fail me, but what i’m trying to say is that there’s something beautiful about literature written so long ago being so widely adored, related to, and studied by people today. it’s so fun seeing others relate to characters like hamlet and get all giddy when reading said books and realizing that hey, this character written about over 100 years ago is quite similar to me!

— 2

the amount of symbolism in the picture of dorian gray makes me insane. the amount of nature symbolism? the fact that basil is what oscar sees himself as, henry is what the world sees him as, and dorian is what oscar wishes that he could be in a different era? i could go on about this for hours if my words weren’t failing me

— 3

listen. i do not play about religious themes and, as you all know, symbolism, metaphors, etc. i don’t know many people that care about this book, but i’ll be rambling about it anyways. the death of ivan ilyich is FULL of symbolism. first off, whist. in the death of ivan ilyich, various characters play whist in order to escape from matters they deem as bothersome or dull. ivan ilyich plays whist to forget about the pain he’s in, pyotr ivanovich flees ivan’s home quickly to play whist and distract himself from the solemn atmosphere of ivan’s funeral. characters play whist in order to distract themselves from suffering, death, and monotony. it’s, as i see it, a representation of the more “trivial” activities that ivan and those around him participate in to flee from a life that’s lacking of enjoyment and liveliness. also, ivan being compared to a phoenix? a creature that shines brilliantly, returns to ash, then returns back to life? the fact that ivan lived his “golden days”, fell ill, and in the end, passed away and saw light instead of dark? god, this book makes me ILL. don’t even get me started on the fact that the chapters grow shorter as ivan dies to show himself slowly nearing his demise. and the fact that the number 3, a number heavily used in the bible, is so commonly used in the death of ivan ilyich, but especially during the last chapter? the fact that biblically it can represent a new life and resurrection… and the way that ivan ilyich resorts to god in his final days… and also, the fact that the saying “it is finished” is referenced in the books ending… someone please stop me from rambling too much. none of this makes sense bc i’m so tired but that’s ok

[clairenatural]

~900 words, destiel, reverse!verse. this is a continuation of my suptober reverse!verse here, with demon!dean and hunter!cas. It’s been sitting unfinished in my drafts for a month because I wanted to continue it but honestly I can’t figure out an overarching plot for these two so I figured I’d at least post this :)

Dean barely registers the motel door swinging open before a book is being thrown at his head. “Ow! Cas, what the fuck,” he growls, and prepares to retaliate, but Castiel has the look of pure fury on his face that always manages to render Dean motionless. 

They’ve only been on the road a few days, but Dean already hates it.

“You’re not a Knight,” Cas spits out, gesturing at the tome of lore that has just bounced off Dean’s skull. “The Knights are all dead. Cain killed them all.”

Dean rolls his eyes and bends to pick up the book, frowning down at the illustration of Cain slaughtering the rest of them. He remembers that day too well. “Yeah, well,” he mutters, snapping the book shut. “He didn’t kill me.”

“And why didn’t he?”

Dean sighs and tosses the offending tome onto the other bed, across from him. “You know we were all human once, right? All demons. Just souls who ended up in Hell, and I--well. I was there because of a deal.”

“A deal,” Castiel repeats, not following.

“Yeah, dumbass, a deal. Like one of those crossroads scams. But I made a deal with Lucifer himself--my eternal service for my baby brother’s life. Cain always kinda liked me for that, I think. He did the same thing, you know?”

Castiel stares at him, not buying it. “Cain murdered his brother.”

“Yeah, to save his soul.”

“The Bible says--”

Dean cuts him off with a scoff. “Come on, man.” He yanks open the drawer of the bedside table and pulls out the Bible stored there. “This?” he gestures with the book before giving it the same unceremonious toss as the one that had been thrown at him. As if on instinct, Castiel flinches. “First rule, Cas. Don’t believe everything you’ve read.”

The hunter is fidgeting with the cross hanging around his neck again--a nervous habit, Dean’s noticed. “So...” he starts, after a long moment. “What did happen?”

Dean shrugs. “Lucifer had a claim on Abel’s soul, Cain made a deal to replace him in Hell and let him go to Heaven, and the devil said yes, but only if Abel died by his brothers hand. You know the rest.” He says this as if it’s basic knowledge.

“And you---and your brother?”

Dean shakes his head. “No--God, no. Sammy was just a kid, you know? He deserved to live longer. That’s it.”

For the first time in the conversation, Castiel crosses the room to sit on the motel bed across from him. “And you didn’t?”

And also for the first time in the conversation, Dean is at a loss of what to say. He looks down, but he can feel Castiel still staring at him, and he hates it. He doesn’t know who this human thinks he is, staring into the very core of him like that. 

“Didn’t have much goin’ for me, up here,” he replies, finally, because anything else would be too raw and honest. “Figured I’d take my chances downstairs. And hey,” he looks back up at Castiel and grins, hoping the other man won’t be able to see through his regained composure. “For a while, it was fun as Hell.” He leans into the pun like a crutch.

Castiel seems undeterred. He frowns. “And after all that, Cain let you....walk away.”

Dean nods at him but has to look away again. There’s something about devout humans that always makes his skin crawl, but Castiel...his gaze burns like Holy water.  “As long I promised him I’d lay low. Stop the endless killing. So...I did.” He glances down at his hands. “Throwing your brother across the room was the most fun I’ve had in a while.” 

He looks back at Castiel, expecting to be chastised for calling it “fun,” but the human is staring at him with an expression of mild shock. Dean knows that look. It means he’s been underestimated. 

He both loves and hates it.

They hold eye contact until Castiel breaks it with a sigh, and suddenly he’s refusing to meet Dean’s eyes. “I did that, too,” he starts. “I took a deal to save my brother. My youngest brother.”

Dean smiles. “I know, Cas. Why do you think I chose you?”

And, well. Apparently Castiel doesn’t really have an answer to that, because they just sit there for a moment, staring at each other again, before he sucks in a breath and tears his eyes away. “He died anyway, though,” Castiel continues, quietly. Uneasy, Dean thinks. Or maybe just...unsure. “I sold my soul for Samandriel, and he was saved, but he died again, anyway. Three months later, And there was nothing I could do. I prayed, too, but--but nobody could help me.”

“I knew that, too.” Dean leans in, smirking again. He remembers hearing about it like Castiel was some goddamn celebrity. The demon who made the deal bragged about it. It was like getting a free soul, he said. It had almost made him blow his cover, just to teach the guy a lesson. "Doesn’t that just make you want to burn it all to the ground?” 

Castiel looks up and looks at him for another long minute. He leans in to mirror Dean. “Yes,” he finally replies, tone now completely even. “Yes, it does.”

[comicbookuniversity]

Dragon Ball Super and the Future

by Bunnypwn Gold

I am a huge fan of Dragon Ball, as I have stated here before and as I have written about in the past. My love and knowledge of this franchise is deep, and I will always be ready to enjoy what it has in store and wrestle with the ideas in it. And right now, it’s a great time to be a fan, because Dragon Ball Super is going strong. The anime has come to a conclusion and/or could come back in the future, and the manga is approaching the climax of its newest story, the Galactic Patrol Prisoner Saga. It’s amazing for a lot of reasons that I’ll discuss as I respond to this article by Kofi Outlaw, which praises the saga for going back to DBZ style storytelling as a “course correction.” While I agree with several points in this article, I also disagree with the basic premise and argue that the author is only saying these things about the saga because he has not been paying attention to how consistently better the manga has been than the anime of Super. I am using this response to organize my thoughts on how Super has gone so far, the divide between the anime and manga version of events, and the future of the series as a whole, not as a pro or anti stance against Kofi or his article, to be clear.

At the beginning, Kofi criticizes Super for having low stakes and focusing on making Goku and Vegeta the sole focus, increasing their power levels dramatically and leaving other characters to languish. He also said that there were a lot of gimmick fights. Overall, the story structure had changed to reflect this change in character focus and the villains were weak and unmemorable. This new arc, featuring fan-favorite villain Planet-Eater Moro and a range of great battles with his bandits for the Z Fighters to show their stuff, is a return to the DBZ structure, and it features all the brutality and high stakes of the old days. Best of all, it lays the foundations for a new future focusing on other characters.

I have to say, I agree with much of this. The focus on Goku and Vegeta as “Gods” and their super-special Saiyan-ness in the meta canon is really annoying to me. Elements of this were seen in DBZ, as the humans and Piccolo stop trying to catch up to the Saiyans, and it was all GT was about, making that series a big disappointment for me. The first three stories of the Super era are notably low stakes, as well, and I would have liked a little more tension. There could have been more focus on other characters and a larger cast in general, and that certainly would have been enjoyable. And to finish it out, I am very excited for what the Moro story means for the future. The whole thing has a “last chance to shine” feel for the old guard of characters we’ve known and loved for years, Goku is probably going to master Ultra Instinct and thus complete his journey as a martial artist, and it still opens up a lot more about the history and lore of the series to explore in the future.

Beyond that, I have a lot to disagree with. For starters, if you look at the Tournament of Destroyers and the Tournament of Power and just see a bunch of “gimmicky fights” and no stakes, you’re missing the point. I always loved the tournament stories in Dragon Ball, and both of these Super tournaments deliver on that joy. The manga had a lot of important differences with the anime in how these tournaments went, too. Before the Tournament of Destroyers, the manga went through a condensed version of the Battle of Gods events, only offering one extension in the opening to give an actual benchmark on Goku’s strength so we know where we’re starting as a series, an important gift the anime and movie fail to deliver. It then time skips past the Resurrection ‘F’ story, which I think is sad, but ultimately serves the manga’s purposes. After Goku got his God form, the next thing we see, before the Tournament, is Goku training with a new master, showing that he’s back on the path to martial arts excellence. By skipping the Golden Frieza fight, the manga passed on a story that only shows off how cool Super Saiyan Blue looks (a term, by the way, the manga invented because it’s better); outside of showing off this new form, the Golden Frieza story adds nothing. As Goku and Vegeta enter the Tournament of Destroyers, they build a team entirely focused on power, and lose one of their strongest members because of a test of intelligence. To further drive home the point, Goku’s final battle with Hit ends with him realizing that his strength allows him to outmaneuver an innovative and amazing fighting technique, Time Skip. He then forfeits the match so he can have a real fight with Hit later, where Hit can try to kill Goku and has time to train beforehand, which sounds a lot like a DBZ style story. It’s the first step in Goku relearning that technique matters more than power. In the manga, they also gave more love to Piccolo. In the anime, they had him be effectively useless, barely able to fight Frost, a Frieza parallel. The manga had Piccolo fight evenly with Frost, who later shows that he’s almost an equal with Super Saiyan Goku; Piccolo lost because of poison, not because he “could never hope to beat a strong person.” It’s not as cool as it could have been, but it’s more than Piccolo ever got in the anime.

Now, I have to vehemently disagree that Zamasu was a weak, forgettable villain who existed solely as a gimmick. The Zamasu story carefully builds and delivers on the many themes of the franchise that I identify as atheist. Throughout the series, Toriyama repeatedly introduced gods of varying kinds and levels of divinity for the sole purpose of tearing down the illusion of their importance and special qualities. Gods in this world are a verifiable fact, and not only are they just people with a particular job, but every time Goku and Vegeta meet a god, they treat them like anyone else and show them no special respect or deference. Goku and Vegeta are the best exemplars in the series of treating deities like normal people, something the series itself does regularly. It’s one of my favorite parts of the series, as an atheist myself.

So, here we have Zamasu, a deity who believes that he’s uniquely capable and qualified to rule all of existence and that mortals aren’t worthy of life. In the Bible, on more than one occasion, God decided to wash the world clean of humans because they had become too sinful; similar stories exist in other religions and cultures. In this case, Zamasu is motivated by intense and literal hatred of mortals, who he sees as not simply having “become too sinful,” but fundamentally incapable of being anything else. He extends this hatred to other gods who want mortals to exist and do as they please. His rise in Future Trunks’s time to be the almost-almighty God with a Capital G is the antithesis of what the series has said about gods and divinity on every level, and that’s exactly why he’s such an amazing villain. He also checks a lot of other boxes. He uses the power of a mortal who made himself into a god, Goku, to kill the gods and overpower the mortals. He also relies on a mortal, Trunks, to develop his power and another, Dabura, to create the opening he needed to start his plan. In working to bring the downfall of all mortals, Zamasu in effect worships at the altar of mortals and relies on their miracles to succeed, just as Goku has trained with several deities on his path to success.

Trunks is also notable, because growing up, Trunks didn’t have any gods to look to like Goku did. The first “god” in Trunks’s life was Goku, as both his mother and teacher would talk about Goku as their main inspiration for hope. Goku was made into a mythical figure that could have fixed everything, and that’s exactly what Trunks used time travel for, both times he employed the strategy. That’s why Zamasu taking Goku’s body was so impactful, because “hope” came to kill him. Goku’s ultimate failure to defeat Zamasu also tears down the idea of Goku’s “divinity” in the same way as other gods were taken down a notch. This results in Goku calling on Zeno for help. The development of Goku and Zeno’s relationship is interesting and important in setting up the conflict of this story. They become friends because Goku is the only person who treats Zeno like he’s not special, which seems to confirm that Goku’s relationship to divinity is proper. At the same time, Goku doesn’t like Zeno, because he knows Zeno is just a bored shut-in and likely doesn’t understand Zeno’s role. And really, Zeno doesn’t have a role like the Gods of Destruction and the Supreme Kais. He’s in charge because he’s the most powerful and can destroy all of existence with a thought. That’s exactly what Zeno decides to do when he sees Zamasu and the multiverse he had been ignoring, getting rid of everything because he didn’t like how it turned out. Not unlike Zamasu with mortals; in effect, Zeno is the thing that Zamasu wanted to become, and that story ends with his vision of reality being carried out. It was the ingenuity of mortal time travel that made some form of happy ending, because like in every other Dragon Ball story, you can’t rely on the gods for most anything. So yeah, Zamasu is an amazing villain and his saga was brilliant. My main criticism of the manga version was that the setup was rushed, so the death of Future Bulma happened off panel and the death of the rest of the mortals in existence was breezed by. Plenty of brutality and high stakes, if you ask me, though yes, I wanted to see it with my own eyes more.

Then we get into the Tournament of Power, a great tournament story that really drives home the point of the god-centric Super run. The Tournament of Power, if you didn’t guess, isn’t about power. It’s about teamwork, strategy, and skill. In the manga, this is made absolutely clear. The downfall of everyone in the tournament is that they rejected this basic premise or were wiped out by someone who would later meet their downfall for rejecting this basic premise, setting up their incorrect view to be knocked down in the end. Goku brought Frieza onto Team Universe 7 because he feared they would need his raw power, ignoring the possibility they bring in Yamcha or Chaozu for a friendly face that works well with their team. Hit reappears and shows that he has gotten way stronger. However, he loses to Jiren, Goku’s main opponent, in the opening of the tournament because he was relying on that raw power and abdicated the potential of his famed fighting technique. Multiple times, stronger and more arrogant solo fighters regard those fighting as a team as being weak and no threat. The main exception to those relying on teamwork being weak is Gohan, who was very strong and wanted to work as a team. In the anime, Gohan was made inferior to Frieza and ultimately lost trying to beat a lesser opponent. In the manga, Gohan, in his Potential Unleashed state and not as a Super Saiyan of any form, fought evenly with Hybrid Super Saiyan Kefla, who I suspect was the second strongest person on the field, and double-KO’d with her. In the fight, it’s implied that Gohan could go Super Saiyan while using his Potential Unleashed state, but chose not to so he didn’t have to rely on that kind of gimmicky power. It’s incredibly badass and satisfying.

As the fight with Jiren nears its climax, Goku uses a strategy that could kill him in an attempt to overpower the foe who’s stronger than any God of Destruction. This prompts Roshi to step in and admonish Goku with the single most important line in Super. When Goku says he needs more power to beat Jiren, Roshi says, “Hmph…Power, y’say? Plain old fighting strength? Who the heck taught you that? Vegeta? Frieza?” This is a great moment, because not only does it push Goku to go for Ultra Instinct and focus on bettering himself as a martial artist once again, but it pushes back on the worst lessons fans take from the franchise. Goku isn’t cool because of his strength, and he’s not so strong because he can transform. It’s all about that martial artist’s journey, baby. Goku grew up constantly learning new ways to become a better martial artist than he was the previous day, and it was pure passion driving him; he got to where he is because he took every opportunity to better himself, with his transformations just a convenient way for the story to keep upping the stakes. Jiren is the pursuit of raw power incarnate, with indifference and constant dissatisfaction his reward, and all he wants is his dead master to tell him he’s finally a good fighter. He’s everything Goku was becoming, and Goku overcame him by returning to his roots. He was able to fight Jiren evenly with a technique that anyone, theoretically, could learn if they reached the same heights of martial arts mastery, as proven when Roshi uses an imperfect form of Ultra Instinct to trade blows with Jiren. The manga anchors this lesson because it focused on technique the whole time and built towards this moment: Super Saiyan God was just another technique that showed Goku he had a lot left to learn; the Tournament of Destroyers showed how boring life is when you’re so strong you can’t actually test yourself; Zamasu showed how power is corrupting and how the pursuit of it changes you; and the Tournament of Power shows how damaging and literally suicidal pursuing raw power over personal growth is.

And to put the nail on the coffin, Goku doesn’t beat Jiren with Ultra Instinct, but instead beats him by briefly working with Frieza; you can’t master the path of a martial artist in one fight. Android 17 wins the tournament for their universe by playing dead, an age-old strategy, and uses the Super Dragon Balls to wish back all the universes destroyed by Zeno. While that can be seen as lowering the stakes, it’s no more stake-lowering than any other time the Dragon Balls have been used this way in high-stakes stories, and the stakes in this case were the destruction of eight entire universes. That’s pretty darn high. Also, it’s a good time to point out that Zeno was the real villain of the Tournament of Power. He was going to destroy eight universes out of boredom, and then remembered he could instead let one survive by having them Hunger Games for his amusement. There are no stakes, no reason to fight, without Zeno. There’s going to be conflict with Zeno in the future, I’m sure of it.

The anime followed a very different route than the manga, focusing entirely on Goku’s raw power and how cool he is. They added a lot of filler moments to both increase the number of gimmick fights and silly, campy fun, too, which made the whole thing lower stakes and less brutal. As described in regards to Piccolo and Gohan, the anime also made other characters weaker compared to Goku and Vegeta to amplify the impact of their unique transformations. In the Tournament of Destroyers, the anime introduced the idea of Goku using Kaio-ken while Super Saiyan Blue, for no other reason than to let Goku use a bunch more strength after he proved he could win. I won’t get into it, because it’s a tangent, but the entire concept of Blue Kaio-ken is BS, and the DBZ anime is where the proof lies; the Super manga actually touches on that exact thing, since Goku trying something like Blue Kaio-ken against Jiren is what nearly kills him and prompts Roshi to step in. Anyway, the anime also elongated the Zamasu story with a series of gimmick fights meant to show off how cool the three Saiyans were, even though they knew from the start that none of them would beat Zamasu. That story featured a bunch of secretly alive people, too, lowering the stakes and overall brutality of Zamasu as a villain. The time between Zamasu and the Tournament of Power, including the lead-up to the tournament, was spent showcasing filler side stories that make the other characters, ignored for most of Super, look way cooler and stronger than they actually ended up being. For as much as I wanted to see more from Krillin, Tien, and Piccolo in the manga, at least Toyotaro didn’t jerk us around acting like they were going to be way bigger players than they were. And the way the anime presented Goku achieving Ultra Instinct was focused entirely on strength and treating it like a super cool new transformation, which it isn’t. So if you were watching that story, I could see how you come out of Super thinking that it’s less intense, more gimmicky, and glorified one or two characters to the detriment of others. That’s why I think you could only be as impressed with the Moro arc as a “course correction” if you’ve been paying attention to the anime and only just now got into the manga.

This brings and end to what I’ll call Phase 1 of Super and to a time skip past the battle with Broly (which I would argue was for the same reason the Golden Frieza battle was) and into the Moro arc, which I agree is a great story that brings back a lot of things Super wasn’t doing enough of. It even brings back the meta story structure of the Buu Saga, since the first part is a very Phase 1 storyline and the second half, after Goku and Vegeta are defeated, is much more of a DBZ storyline, just as Kofi described. It’s like saying, “Yeah, we want to pivot away from this, we’re done making that point.” Looking at the first part of the Moro arc, you can read it as a way of reinforcing the grand statement of Phase 1, that the constant jockeying for power and strength and the glorifying of a couple people to the detriment of others is a bad way to write a story. The reason that’s important to say is because that’s the way a lot of the meta canon has been going for a while, at least it seems to me; all the fun, original video game stories are about Saiyans and their super special Saiyan-ness and how super cool strong they can get. It’s why GT was such a disappointment to me, and as I said, it stopped several great characters from trying to become better during DBZ. I think Kofi is right to say moving away from that model of storytelling is a good and important shift in the right direction, though I can’t say if it’s for the same reasons. That’s because, if it’s not clear, I think that what Super did along the way in Phase 1, at least in the manga, was better, more important, and more complex than the simple glorification and valorization of Goku and Vegeta, loaded as it was with themes arguing against that model and continual demonstrations of why they need to switch back to a focus on their martial arts journey. The structure of the Moro arc only serves to reinforce and finalize this thematic argument. As it continues, we are undoubtedly in store for some truly amazing fights and a satisfying, climactic battle with Moro for the entire Dragon Gang.

I also want to make a very important point for how the series is moving forward. Kofi says that Toriyama is switching back to this DBZ style story because he “has learned a thing or two from his mistakes.” For one, the massive success of Super doesn’t really seem like a mistake for anyone to learn from. For two, it’s really in poor taste to imply that Toriyama is changing how he’s writing a story because of negative fan reaction. Allegedly, that sort of thing happened with the Buu Saga, which is why Goku came back and we saw Super Saiyan 3, the perfect continuation and parody of the Super Saiyan form, all because the fans didn’t like Gohan’s high school adventures. I don’t think that’s happening again, allegedly, and in my opinion it’s not exactly a good look to say that it is. For three, that almost literally can’t be what’s happening, because Toyotaro has much greater control over the narrative by now. For those who don’t know, the way Super is being created is that Akira Toriyama writes plot summaries, and then lets the different creatives develop it from there, free to add and subtract and move around what they will. The anime team decided to focus on power and how super cool Goku is, and that version of events reflects that. Toyotaro, artist and co-author of the manga, kept his eye on the martial arts journey while executing this long vision of Toriyama’s to introduce new levels of grandeur and warn against getting lost in it, and that version of events reflects that. Over the course of the series, each creative team was given increasingly greater control over the narrative, leading to greater divergences; the two Tournaments of Power might as well be two different stories. By now, in the Moro arc, with no competing anime version of the story, Toyotaro has much more authorial control than when he started, and that will only increase until, as I hope and predict, Toriyama officially hands off the series to Toyotaro’s capable hands so he can write new stories for the foreseeable future. So no, I don’t think it’s very accurate to say that Toriyama learned any lesson because Toyotaro is the one making the important changes in how the story is told, not Toriyama. Keep your eye on the prize, you know; forgetting Toyotaro’s role means forgetting that we can and probably will have new Dragon Ball that isn’t a video game or video game-related story after the passing of Toriyama. I think the long hiatus of the anime reinforces this: Toriyama has said that if the anime team followed Toyotaro’s lead, they wouldn’t make so many art mistakes, and allowing the manga to develop lead time could be a strategy to follow the manga as a source material in the future, rather than continue this confusing dual path.

So yeah, the Dragon Ball Super manga is better than the anime in every way, and judging the series by the anime alone is setting yourself up for disappointment. The Galactic Patrol Prisoner Saga showcases an amazing villain for the franchise, and it sets up more to explore in a future that values the contributions of the full cast. It also, to my eyes, foreshadows the end of the road for the Dragon Gang we’ve been following so far, and thus a potential new beginning with their successors; I mean, there’s no more time after this between Beerus and meeting Uub to use, and meeting Uub is the moment Goku passes the baton to a successor. This is a time to look forward to that bright future and reflect on the themes the manga has been developing as we head into it, as well as what the two versions of Super mean for the franchise as a whole.

[nomadicism]

Voltron: Legendary Planning Fail

Thanks to @ptw30​‘s post, “A Few Thoughts on DW/VLD Marketing” for reminding me that I’ve had a draft about VLD toys, merch, and marketing copy inconsistencies to complete. Read her post first.

I’ve been researching the toys and merch for several months now to follow-up on weird things that I noticed much earlier. I’m a toy collector who is also a designer and have worked in advertising/marketing, and in broadcasting at Cartoon Network. I left that world to design and develop applications in genetics/life-sciences, best decision I ever made (co-founded a startup in between all of that too. Good times). My experiences had me zeroing in on this show bible business that came up during that Let’s Voltron interview (March 28th, 2019). I’ve been suspicious about it for awhile, as the gradual unraveling of VLD’s narrative, lore retconning, and OOC dialogue and behavior of the characters (most egregiously in S8) is indicative of a lot of problems, and an incomplete or poorly-done show bible is at the top of that list. Now combine that with the weirdly slow-to-market of VLD merchandise and toys.

Both manufacturers and merchandise license program partners can’t get product to market in time to meet (or even anticipate demand) if they don’t have official assets from the show, and that includes anything that would have been in the show bible. When the show-runners let it out that their show-bible was the “loosest you’ll ever see”, and then complained about the elemental icons used on the toys by the manufacturer (Playmates) not matching their aesthetic, and after they redesigned them, Playmates didn’t want to use them, I was like: “Really? Y’all got hung up on that?”

It takes months, sometimes over a year, to design and test molds for toy prototypes and then to go into mass production and distribution. Traditionally, there is also a step where the IP holder has to approve the design concepts created by the manufacturer (toys and other merch).

The IP approval step could potentially have been made more complicated by the different players involved in the communication: WEP, DreamWorks Animation, Playmates, Studio Mir, and the most complicated layer of all, DreamWorks Classics, aka Classic Media. All of them could have been involved, I’m not saying that they all were, but it’s something to consider.

DreamWorks acquired Classic Media in 2011-2012 and formed them into a separate unit within DreamWorks Animation. Classic Media were the managers of the Voltron IP among many other brands in their huge IP library. That’s the short version b/c it’s complicated. IP ownership and licensing is not always as straight-forward as one might think, especially with these toy-cartoon properties from the 80s.

So where did the elemental icons come in during the creation of the show bible and toy design approval process?

Above: packaging inserts showing the elemental icons.

I kept the package inserts because—as a toy collector—I strongly felt that the packaging was done very well. The graphics are slick and look good. The ink has a nice saturation with a lot of color depth, range, and fidelity. The die-cuts are excellent and intricate. The packaging on the larger lion sets makes great use of aqueous coating and spot varnishes. Whomever designed the packaging knew what they were doing, and also understood the print production process (Hi! I used to do that too).

I kept these even though I always ditch packaging because I wanted to scan them for collage art. There is absolutely nothing wrong with these elemental icons, and they look reasonably well integrated with the graphic assets from DreamWorks and Studio Mir. These inserts were from the toys released in 2017.

The toy packaging gets more interesting when you see what marketing copy was sent to Playmates to use (or work from if it was from the show bible).

Above: Shiro’s package insert with descriptive text that says, “Long ago a mighty robot warrior, Voltron, was created to protect the galaxy from evil. Now, five young heroes must master the power of the Voltron Lions to defeat the Galra empire and restore peace!”

“Five young heroes” eh? They must have gotten that text early on because that’s kind of a weird way to say it when the Shiro packaging also says “…wise beyond his 25 years…”. I mean, 25 is still young, but that’s not what comes to mind when I read “five young heroes” on a toy box!

Shiro is the only one with a listed age in any of the packaging. I noticed this when I got these toys in 2017 and it reminded me that I had originally read that it would be five teenagers and I had to go looking for articles that I kept (yeah I do that b/c toys).

From this article on ActionFigureInsider.com about Playmates launching the VLD toyline in 2016:

“Let’s Voltron! Playmates Toys and DreamWorks Animation today announced plans for a new toy line based on the new DreamWorks Animation series Voltron: Legendary Defender, a re-imagining of the classic property featuring five teenage pilots and mystical robot lions, set to debut as a Netflix Original Series in 2016. Playmates Toys will serve as the master toy licensee and will create an expansive line of toys set to launch in spring 2017.”

and

“Voltron: Legendary Defender follows five unsuspecting teenagers as they are transported from Earth into the middle of a sprawling intergalactic war and become pilots for five mystical robotic lions in a battle to protect the universe from evil. Only through the true power of teamwork can they unite their lions to form the mighty warrior known as Voltron. Voltron: Legendary Defender premieres on Netflix in 2016.”

LULZ. That ain’t no fluke y’all. That loosey-goosey show bible and the initial story planning drafts/concepts must have had Shiro as a teenager. Oops.

Playmates got part of the message in time to slip-in Shiro’s age on his packaging, but why the discrepancy between the article in early 2016 and the 2017 toy release in the first place?

Obviously, things changed between the first story planning phases, the release of marketing copy to media, the release of production art assets to Playmates, and when S1 was made. There still would have been time to update that copy for Playmates and media in early 2016, given that S1 would have already been in production, with S2 to quickly follow by that time. The show-runners already knew before that article ran that Shiro was not going to be a teenager anymore (and likely many other toy-relevant details). Did they intentionally not update anyone who had a right to know, or did it just slip their minds? Did someone else in the chain of communication mess up? Did that disagreement over the design of the elemental icons take up a lot of time, or possibly include larger disagreements?

Since the first wave of toys were released in 2017, when Keith was in the Black Lion, they would have been designed for production and manufactured much earlier than that. Playmates can’t turn around on a dime to manufacture toys (not to mention design the packaging) to match the seasons. They need to have the information of what will happen in a season way ahead of time. This is one of many banal-yet-important reasons why your show bible needs to be tight, and your character arcs well-planned out.

We can see the first wave of the toys in photos from Toyfair 2017. There’s even a Zarkon figure, and various toys that are clearly for young boys (prop swords, masks, and the like). I remember seeing these photos right after Toyfair and thinking that Zarkon figure was looking pretty cool looking for what it was.

Above: Zarkon prototype figure with black bayard sword. Photo by Jim Kiernan for NerdyRottenScoundrel.com.

Since Playmates was able to create a prototype of Zarkon ahead of Toyfair 2017, that means that they began the design phase in early 2016 before the show first aired (possibly before that even). This also means that they knew that Zarkon had the black bayard, so that much was planned out.

Then in Toyfair 2018, Playmates had new toys, including prototypes for the Hunk, Pidge, and Allura figures, the HyperPhase lions, and the “Stealth Mode” translucent lions. It’s worth noting that photos of the Pidge and Hunk paladin figures show up on the inserts in the 2017 toys as they were originally intended to be part of that wave.

Above: Prototypes for the Allura, Pidge, and Hunk paladin figures. Photo by Joe Moore for Toyark.com.

So salty that Playmates cancelled these.

Below, an excellent video from Toyfair 2018 where Pixel Dan asks the hard questions of the rep (if video doesn’t show here is the URL to it on YouTube):

Pixel Dan asks about the possibility of a Lotor figure, and what happened to the other villain figures from 2017 (e.g. the Zarkon figure, and there was a prototype for another robeast other than Myzax). The rep says those were pushed back, and there “will be more Lotors” (LOL) in the next phases in development. I’m pretty sure he got Lotor confused for Zarkon.

It’s important to note that Pixel Dan and the rep talk a lot about the slow distribution of the first wave of figures based upon what retailers were doing with their ordering and stock. That people weren’t seeing them in stores. The rep explains that the toys are made in response to demand and that’s also up to the retailers to order them, but there’s also some comments that I interpreted as though they didn’t have enough details about what to make in the first place.

For those who haven’t already seen me share ToyGalaxy’s excellent video about the action figure industry being broken, give it a watch:

The video above explains a lot about why Playmates had problems with distribution, as ALL manufacturers were-and-still-are having distribution problems. It’s really hard to find toys at stores, my partner and I go hunting all the time, the lengths we go to are absurd.

I’m certain that retail distribution problems contributed to demand for the toys and that’s partly why they were cancelled. But this problem with the show bible also contributes because if Playmates had future season information when they should have, then they might have been able to design toys that more closely matched the show, thus boosting demand once it hit critical mass. I also wonder how much time they lost in the beginning due to the back-and-forth over the elemental icons.

Other merch, like t-shirts should also have been in production before 2017. They would have required details from the show bible as well. We could have had lion slippers y’all. Just sayin’.

So about those Allura with the Red Lion t-shirts that @ptw30​ mentioned in her post:

Above: officially licensed t-shirts for Allura and Keith with the Red Lion, bearing the fire element icon.

Someone (ptw30? headspacedad?) called these shirts to my attention privately a few months ago—after S8 but ahead of Hot Topic’s recent new t-shirt release—and alarm bells went off in my head. Typically, this is the kind of error that you’d see in a knock-off, but these are officially licensed and they were linked to directly from the Voltron store page (at the time they had a re-direct promo image for merch on Amazon, in addition to what they sell on their own store page).

Descriptive text in the shopping page for all of the t-shirts of this style reads:

“Join the Paladins Shiro, Keith, Lance, Pidge, Hunk and Coran as they combine their lion mechas together to form Voltron! Help them take on the Evil Galra Empire with these officially licensed Voltron: Legendary Defender graphic tees, pullover hoodies and popsockets!”

Coran eh? Interesting choice for text about combining lions. Why no mention of Allura on her own t-shirt? And what the hell is a popsocket?

On another Allura t-shirt—which also has different product specification text indicating that it’s probably not manufactured by the company that made the t-shirts above—has descriptive text that reads:

“Voltron is the classic cartoon series that began in the early ‘80s. It is an animated show that brings back the nostalgia of classic cartoon fever. Not to mention a popular show pretty much stole the idea. (starts with pow- ends with -angers….) Voltron will always be number #1! This women’s junior’s shirt features a high quality character design of Princess Allura and Blue Lion.”

Why are they dragging Power Rangers in the text for an Allura t-shirt?

And actually, it’s incorrect. Power Rangers aka Tokusatsu Sentai shows came first. Voltron/GoLion descends from the combining mecha genre that began with Go Nagai’s Getter Robo series in the 70s, which was influenced by the Tokusatsu Sentai shows. So no, Power Rangers didn’t steal that idea.

Did anyone involved with VLD do their homework other than Tim Hedrick and May Chan?

We can see here that the t-shirts that are available on the Voltron store, and what’s available on Amazon are not always the same, even though the shirts say they are officially licensed. What’s going on here?

Some—but not all—of the t-shirts in the Voltron store list “From Trevco” in their description. Trevco.inc does licensing for branded merchandise, and selling t-shirts via Amazon appear to be one of their licensing product programs. Both DreamWorks Animation and Voltron: Legendary Defender are among the brands listed. Oh look, another layer in IP licensing cake!

Meanwhile, in the Hot Topic store, there’s a completely different style—in terms of aesthetic and design—of both VLD and Voltron DotU t-shirts being sold. I suspect that HT licensed VLD and Voltron DotU for in-house design, plus artist collaboration design, as these are exclusive for Hot Topic and I’ve not seen them anywhere else. That could mean they have a different kind of license than what Trevco and others selling on Amazon have. The t-shirts from HT don’t list any other manufacturer on the label, other than being made in Haiti. I kind of want to buy that weird Allura with Red Lion t-shirt to just compare them. (Surprising no one, I bought the Lot//ura and Black Paladin Shiro t-shirts from HT).

The difference in style between what’s on WEP’s Voltron store and Amazon, versus what’s in Hot Topic is very interesting, and I assume it has a lot to do with demographics for their respective markets (perceived or real). In a traditional merchandize licensing agreement, WEP and/or DW would still have to approve any designs created by—or if artist collaboration with—Hot Topic.

How long did that approval process take?

The recent release of t-shirts (Feb/March 2019) include a t-shirt with a scene from S5 (the chosen marks scene for Allura and Lotor). There are no MFEs, Atlas, white-haired Shiro, or anything else from S7-S8. There is a Keith t-shirt with his cosmic wolf, and a shirt with the Monsters and Mana designs, so they got something from S6.

Above: Funko Pops. I’ve got a poorly-painted Allura (her right earring and tiara y’all), both Shiros, and the Pidge, Hunk, and Amazon Exclusive metallic paint VLD Voltron (Pidge, Hunk, and Voltron not pictured).

The VLD Funko Pops came out in the end of 2018 but ahead of S8. I’ve seen them at Hot Topic, and online (Amazon, and BigBadToyStore.com), but I have not seen them at other retailers that carry Funko Pops like GameStop and Target. We go toy hunting to those all the time, in many different places. I guess that demographic of boys aged 9-12 just aren’t interested in VLD to demand it at GameStop and Target. At least Hot Topic knows what’s up.

The Funko Pops use Allura’s uniform from S1-S2, and have two designs for Shiro (Black Paladin, and his black outfit). How long did these take to license and approve? Funko Pops are the lowest hanging merch fruit, so they should have been an obvious licensing choice by the end of 2016 once it was clear that VLD was a hit. But we didn’t see these until just before S8?

Finally, apparently WEP and the Voltron Store don’t mind those elemental icons that the show-runners hated, since they have a lanyard with them on it in their store (image below):

It’s almost as if no one is on the same page!

If I didn’t know any better—oh wait, I do because this is kind of my thing—it looks like these elemental logos were designed to be like Boy Scout merit badges. That’s fitting as the toys were meant to be bought by boys aged 9-12, and are safe for children aged 4 and up. With over 15 years of professional design experience across multiple fields and domains of design, if I were designing these, that’s exactly what I would have done from Playmates’ end, especially if DW and WEP had told me that their target demo was boys aged 9-12.

Shouldn’t the show-runners and Studio Mir’s very different design aesthetic have been made clear in the show bible and in any discussions and communications with Playmates (and whomever else was involved)? Who was responsible for communicating that?

To be clear, I like Studio Mir’s aesthetic much better, but what I like is irrelevant when we’re talking about toys and target demographics for marketing them, vs what’s appropriate for merchandise that could be for all kinds of demographics.

I’ve been in situations where I’ve had to design in parallel with an outside agency, and in the dark with little communication between us. It’s an awful position to be in, and I’m surprised that DreamWorks didn’t know better than to make sure that didn’t happen between those designing for the show and Playmates and anyone at DreamWorks Classics and WEP that might have been involved in communications.

I spat out my coffee when I read that bit about the show bible, because damn, if you’ve ever had to design an ad campaign (which can last for years!) with a half-assed or incomplete branding guide and little-to-no marketing and romance copy (let alone a style guide to help your copy editors write it), then you’re looking at a huge mess once that thing finally gets finished.

How did DreamWorks not catch that?

[ourwickedworld]

The Rambling Man Travel Review:  Athens, GA

The Rambling Man.  Travel Review:  Athens, Ga The Classic City!

It is like going back in time, my personal portal to the past.  Yes, it is a trip back to the college town I called home for 4 plus years.  But, Athens will always be a place that conjures up life’s best feelings:  love, passion, soul, heartache, and be so much more than a weekend getaway.

I arrive Friday November 9th, landing at Atlanta / Hartsfield International Airport. Athens is 50-60 miles Northeast of Hot Lanta, so I have a Hertz Rental Car in my future.  Yep, I am rocking a white Ford Fusion to embark on this trip. I hop on 85 North, hit the 316 East, and I arrive in Athens in no time.  As I approach my past, my present rolls down the window.  My first test upon arriving into any new town, I must take a smell test of any city.  I gulp in the air, and the South in general, but Athens specifically has its own smell. It is late fall, the air still warm. I smell water, soil, humid days, and the trees.  You can see the many plants, you can smell the many trees.  The many plants again near hibernation, a yearly tradition renewed as Fall turns to Winter.  

And that could be the theme, a ritual renewed, of this weekend getaway.  I have rambled into and out of Athens many times.  I ramble into a town where every street light reveals a picture in reverse, to quote the great REM.  Athens own REM…  I am rambling into a weekend ritual renewed.  

Where to start? How about an early afternoon stroll of campus?  My accommodations at the Hilton Garden Inn, on E. Washington  St. in downtown Athens, make the walk over to the University of Georgia campus darn right easy.  My destination is North Campus, adjacent to Broad St. and directly South of downtown and Broad St.  You will see the entrance to campus, and will be greeted by The Arch.  But be for warned, Georgia Bulldog lore has it that only graduates can walk under the arch, those who dare walk under The Arch without a degree will suffer great sexual dysfunction.  This may be a rumor, but, hey now, don’t mess with Southern Folklore if you ask me, especially when considering The Arch was molded in 1857. The University of Georgia, it is an old place, established in 1785.  And, to me in my humble opinion, helps to explain my theme…. Because going to Athens, it is a tradition unlike any other, a ritual renewed.  

Talk about walkability…  North Campus on the campus of the University of Georgia is absolutely fantastic, offering young, hopeful faces, vintage buildings, historic sights, and sounds of hope hovering all around.  After the flight, the walk gets my heart pumping.  I play some REM, Widespread Panic, and Futurebirds to take in some of Athens Music royalty on my walk.  Well, they are not quite all royalty yet, but I am taking in a concert tonight at the Athens historic legend itself, The Georgia Theatre.  And, hum baby, I get a chance to see the band Futurebirds. Oddly, and without notice,  I am in touch with my 19-year old former self. I am traveling in time tonight?

So hungry, I start to chew on my Red and Black ball cap. Food is right around the bend, but I have a few errands to run prior to catching a meal on the Rooftop Bar and the Futurebirds show at the Georgia Theatre.

It has been a long travel day, and if I did not get in the walk, I would have never been able to jump back into the rental car.  It is a quick errand, a brief drive.  I stop by the Package Store, somehow this is terminology for a place to buy liquor in the South.  I pick up a bottle of Jim Beam and a 2 Liter bottle of Coke.  The only thing missing…  Picking up a copy of Leonard’s Losers.  Leonard Postero was a native of Athens, Georgia, known for his syndicated radio show, Leonard's Losers. He was a 1943 graduate of the University of Georgia and served as an aviator in the United States Navy from 1943–45.

Leonard handicapped football games and provided a pamphlet, at the time. one could pick up at the Package Store.  I picked up a copy quite often late on Friday’s in the Fall, and it 20-years later brings motivation and joy as I, in a similar vain of the great Leonard, pick my own Loser’s through my Las Vegas Larry’s Losers Podcast.  Check it out…  But remember, nobody does it like Leonard, a true Athens legend.  We miss ya..  

My errands continue, a stop at the Old Apartment.  I am literally living a Barenaked Ladies song, The Old  Apartment.  Yes, this is where we used to live…  Not much has changed, maybe some new paint.  It is as if time stands still.  I walk up the stairs to the outdoor patio, my eyes see what we used to see. The pine trees willow softly under the soft November sun.  My car is still running, it may have been two minutes of my time, but the drive by of the old apartment is priceless.  

I ramble on, rambling back to the hotel, a fiv- minute drive back East towards campus and downtown.  I grab ice on my way up to my room, I drink two tall glasses of Jim Beam and coke.  The TV is kept quiet, as I sit in silence. The perspective of life, ever changing. Travel can bring emotions, so can going back in time, but I don’t have time to think.  I have a quick walk over to the Georgia Theatre for dinner!!  I bark out loud in a weird ritual almost getting in some practice prior to barking all day tomorrow for the big game in town.  

It is sweatshirt weather, a crisp fall night.  I sit upon a most perfect sunset and spectacular views of Athens.  The lights of space fuse to the Rooftop Bar, as I order the Pimento Cheese appetizer and a Purple Haze cold beer.  I fold one beer to the next, before eventually heading down to the music venue which sits just beneath my feet.  

The Band starts to play, and all is right in the world.  It’s Friday night….  And a Friday night in Athens, by almost any definition features live music.  

Stars were still coming from my eyes as dawn broke.  It is a football Saturday morning in the Fall in Athens Georgia.  But, hot dog, what a great show last night.  I pull myself out of bed, quickly rotating my head in every direction to locate my water bottle.  I see the leftover food I picked up after the show, Little Italy Pizzeria on Lumpkin.  Little Italy Pizzeria is Athens in a pizza box.  Let us not forget, Athens is a college town.  And, late night cheezy, gooy pizza is just what the Professor orders after some live music and some beers at the Georgia Theatre.  

The game is in a few hours, and my schedule is a bit tight, so I improvise a walk that is efficient on time.  I start my walk from the hotel and walk South on Milledge Ave.  The sidewalk below my running shoes has seen many footprints over the years, the traffic is moderate, and the sights and sounds are fantastic. To a degree, Milledge Ave., despite being a fairly major North / South thoroughfare, is the home to many college sororities. The antebellum homes turned Sorority Row is fairly intense and full of viewing pleasure, especially on a game day. And, frankly, this is what I mean by getting to know a city on an intimate level by walking its city streets. This walk is Southern Tradition, beauty, tradition, excitement, and a nice flat walk with a sidewalk to keep you safe.  

I meet up with a few old pals that made the trip into town for the game, Mike, Wayne, and Mark. Wayne has a friend with a tailgate, so we plan on experiencing one of the best possible experiences known to man, a tailgate prior to a football game in Athens. GA.  This is quintessential Classic City, college town, out of this world unique to Athens, and a must activity to truly understand why Athens is one of America’s premier cities and college towns.  

We grill out and feast on Pork Shoulder with a white BBQ sauce.  Some chicken chili was in the Crock Pot, and a big bucket of boiled shrimp and cocktail sauce sit on a table full of tailgate treats.  I sip on another Jim Beam and coke, we talk football and get loud.  

\The Georgia Bulldogs beat the Auburn Tigers, my friends and I ring the bell on North Campus, we then bar hop in downtown.  The town is happy, winning big SEC football games in November over one of it’s biggest rivals can do that to a town in the South, and the happiness is obvious.  This makes for a raucous and fun night of celebration.  At times, yes, this old cowboy felt like the oldest cowboy in the room, but beating one of these young Millennials in a game of darts had me feeling spry.  Bar games, what a country?  Give me shuffle board, darts, corn hole, billiards…  Downtown Athens can accommodate your inner bar game enthusiasm.  And the late, late night scene…  That scene can get you in trouble….  

I wake up early Sunday to catch the early Service at Friendship Presbyterian Church.  I would be remiss to leave out that the South is the Bible Belt for a reason.  And, the glory of a Sunday Service in the South is a most unique experience and education.  Regardless of faith, something good exists in the feeling one gets upon leaving church on a Sunday morning.  

I grab breakfast at the Last Resort Grill, a must see event visit into A-Town.  This place is so spectacular I would live in Athens full time just to go to the Last Resort every Sunday for brunch after church. I eat the Sunday Standard, two eggs any way you like ‘em, served with grilled new potatoes, crispy applewood-smoked bacon & one of their homemade scones.  For the grand sum of $8.95 cents plus tip, I eat like a king in the company of scholars and the kind hearted.  What a country to ramble city sidewalks and midnight streets, Athens is a true one of a kind college town.    

I head South in my Rental Car on Milledge Ave to the State Botanical Garden of Georgia and I walk the picturesque landscape lost in thought and music.  The Botanical Gardens are huge and make up several hundred acres, so it was most east to get lost in the beauty of a Sunday.  

I arrive back at the hotel, tired.  I turn on a movie in my hotel room, and I order takeout from Donna Chang’s before I hit the shower.  The shower’s warm water brings me back to the future, I have a long trip home tomorrow.

But it truly did not matter where I was, what I was eating or drinking at this point.  I was happy, most content.  The stars of Athens Georgia again are overhead, as I dream a little dream on a Sunday night in mid-November, a ritual renewed.  

What is the soul of Athens, Georgia?  It is the whispers of REM, Widespread Panic, the B 52’s, Drive by Truckers, Dayroom, Futurebirds keeping you comfortable every step of the way.  It is tailgating prior to a Big Game.  It is the ghosts on North Campus hiding in the past.  It is going to church on Sunday.  It is a cocktail and a night out at the Georgia Theatre.  It is the people who make the Last Resort EPIC.  It is, however, a place where you can be who you truly are without judgement or prejudice.  It is the Classic City!!

Scores: Walkability:  9 of 10  Drinkability: 9 of 10  Eatability:  9 of 10 Dudeability:  8 of 10

Can you catch a fish near or close to Athens?  Yes, several bass lakes, creeks, rivers to fish.  Can you hunt?  Yes, area well known for deer hunting, bird hunting.  

We Ramble On… Next Week, Santa Cruz, CA…  We head to the beach bro…  

To note, pictures.  We want to share some pictures…  Heck Yes…

We post some pics of the places, people, cities we Podcast and Blog about.  Check them out on Tumblr or on our Twitter Feed, @BarkmanPete

Thank you for lending an ear, happiness starts today.  The rambling man is part of The Pete Barkman Show and the How to live a Happy Life Series, this Segment:  The Rambling Man.  Travel Review:  Athens, GA

The Pete Barkman Show has other segments to consider:  Las Vegas Larry’s Losers, each football season see Larry pick the losers for any given week.  

The Rambling Man, travel review.  Enjoy unique travel experiences detailing the walbability, drinkability, Eatability, and the Dudeability of cities across the county.  

The How to Live a Happy and Healthy Life Series, we have covered suicide, trauma, journaling for positive mental health, Is Happiness Possible, All Change is Self-Change with more episodes coming as we move further into 2019.  

The Pete Barkman Show has covered the following news topics:  Mollie Tibbetts, Judge Kavanaugh, Does God Exist?, Great Rivalries, MLB, Tiger Woods, Colin Kaepernick, and Urban Meyer.  We podcast on relevant stories, breaking news, historical sports moments and record breakers.  

This is the Pete Barkman Show, podcasting News, Sport, Opinion. Home of Las Vegas Larry’s Losers and The Rambling Man.  Check us out…. Thank you..  Until next time…

[jungnoir]

mini cryptid hunter!bts au bc i was enabled

@clockwork-lullaby this was probably more than you were asking for but it’s happening

yoongi

the “logical” cryptid hunter. if you watch buzzfeed unsolved just think shane LOL

yoongi just has a really specific fear and it’s of demons

grew up in a really religious church playing the piano as a kid so he always heard about “exorcisms” being done on the church grounds late at night from his friends

yoongi isn’t as dumb but i mean he’s bored on a friday night and his parents are out for their anniversary so he goes and sneaks in with them to the church and the lights are on and he actually encounters a possessed church goer getting cleansed by a few priests but it’s just. like not working?

the person is absolutely livid and seething and speaking in a crackly voice and suddenly the demon notices him and his friends run but yoongi is just stone still

before the demon can try and hurt him it’s exorcised and yoongi is completely mortified and the priests are like “kid omg why are you here you could have DIED” and they tell him to never speak of it to anyone and yoongi’s smart enough to know that what he’s just seen is something way beyond his years

in fact he’s repressed it so much that even when he’s older sometimes he has to remind himself it happened and now hunting demons is just his damn calling

100% carries a dagger or something dipped in holy water and probably knows a bunch of bible verses that’ll make a demon squeal right off the top of his head

when not hunting demons, he’s usually just making fun of namjoon for getting spooked all the time LOL

him and hoseok are like the lethal duo for demons like god forbid you’re a demon and get on their bad side bc u will be finessed tf into a pile of ash

probably naps on the way to haunted sites and the first maknae to rouse him from his sleep is carrying him to their destination

(but never jimin bc jimin is not a heathen like the others ofc)

namjoon

ok i’m gonna crack on my boyfriend real quick: DUDE IS SUCH A BABY OH MY GOD!!! HOW DID HE GET HERE!!! WHY IS HE DOING THIS!!!!! WHY COULDN’T HE MAKE FRIENDS WITH NORMAL PEOPLE WHO DON’T HUNT THE SUPERNATURAL

he’s v smart and reads up on lots of folklore from all around the world so he’s your go to when you wanna figure out what’s been spooking the locals

namjoon says he doesn’t believe in the supernatural but this is usually said in a small, squeaky chant under his breath as he wanders through the cemetery during witching hour with his six dumb ass friends and why did he have to start that casual conversation with hoseok that one time in biology-

has never had a definite brush with the supernatural BUT 9/10 he’s gonna think a floorboard creaking is the hounds of hell coming after him

it’s even worse that he’s clumsy

if jin isn’t holding onto him he’s most likely gonna run and fall when something remotely worrying happens and they aren’t carrying an injured namjoon through another haunted house again, goddamit joon

his favorite subject is aliens and he’s constantly letting the boys know that they are out there and they are avoiding the human race bc the human race is, in fact, super fucking stupid

is also stuck between wanting to get abducted so he can be left alone or wanting the rest of the world to get abducted so he can be left alone

tough choices, really

if shit goes down namjoon is either hiding behind yoongi or hoseok and he only trusts those two to get him out safely

“the rest of you are despicably hopeless” “you trip on dust, namjoon”

jin

the Responsible Adult

also easily spooked as fuck skfjekfi

ngl he’s only slightly more calm than namjoon but that is not,,,, by much

they usually cling to each other to calm each other down (the fucking waves of anxiety rolling off of the both of them is truly just. terrible. they’re both so nervous you can feel it from right at home behind the screen of your phone from which you’re reading this)

jin babbles when he’s scared too, and starts singing old nursery rhymes his mom sang him when he was still scared of the monsters under his bed

but ok. his reflexes are WAY better than namjoon’s bc where namjoon is “scream and run”, jin’s is “punch and run”

dude don’t even know what he saw but he’s already swinging

jin knows ghosts are real because he had an imaginary friend as a child who resembled the old owner of his house pretty spot on

since he figured that out, he can’t sleep in his old room alone any more and will use any excuse in the book to share with his parents when he visits

jin is always carrying snacks for the boys bc cryptid hunting is brutal man,, here’s a protein bar and some holy water

uses a fanny pack to carry said snacks and while yoongi has made every joke in the book abt it, who is the one carrying the antiseptic in a conveniently stored place when said min yoongi gets a cut hm

hoseok 

ok ok hoseok had a somewhat similar experience to yoongi as a kid and is also a great demon hunter

his family taught him about the evil shits as a kid so he’s always been aware of them even if kids always called him dumb for thinking they were real

uniquely enough, his choice of weapon is a bow and arrow (also dipped in holy water but depending on what they hunt, he could use anything speared by his arrow)

he really REALLY loves hunting famous lore tho like one time they actually tried to find bigfoot and he was so excited the whole time he couldn’t sleep. he learned the mating call and everything

(yoongi brought earplugs specifically for this reason)

he used to be easily spooked as a kid but now he’s steeled his nerves, if only to become the best monster hunter he can be

does copious amounts of research with joonie (listen ok they have sleepovers together and just geek out over the possibilities of some cryptid existing somewhere and hoseok gets stars in his eyes imagining what could be. namjoon loves analyzing the logic and sets hoseok on the right path since he tends to get a bit daydreamy when it comes to the famous stuff)

imagine him just freakin slaying a demon in front of the boys and getting a cocky lil smirk on his face

“calm down buffy, your ego is gonna be too big to fit in the van home”

jimin

ngl first thing he thinks about when his friends talk abt the supernatural is unicorns and fairies

he’s not v acquainted with the darker stuff

honestly doesn’t know why he’s hanging out with them all but he’s just happy to be here

always asks questions about what the boys know or have experienced. he’s really interested and he gets v empathetic

“no taehyung we can’t watch the poltergeist tonight, you know how uncomfortable it makes namjoon and jin” “we hunt these things daily u know that right”

v interested in magic

anything the boys find that involves magic, jimin is 110% hyper focused on the subject

he does his own lil research in his own time but he can’t help reading creepypastas sometimes

he doesn’t know any better ok!!!

also carries snacks but in a backpack bc he really can’t get behind the fanny pack

jin: they’re convenient

jimin: they’re a fashion abomination is what they are

one time they were hunting a monster that jumped out at taehyung and jimin just fuckin

decked it

like no thought just a right hook to the eye(s)

there were multiple eyes and jimin couldn’t stop whining abt the residue on his hand as they ran back to the van to hide

he’s just having a good time with his friends and didn’t really sign up for the monster bit but that’s okay

taehyung

so uh

taehyung can talk to the dead

this has actually been a thing he could do since he was a kiddo and similarly to hoseok, he was shunned for it because nobody believed him

he communicates with past relatives or family friends of his often for his family (who also know and find it kind of lovely what he can do) and sometimes passes on things for the dead to their living family

like he’ll order orange tulips sent to the home of a grieving widow bc her recently deceased husband asked him to do him that favor, something her husband had been planning on picking up for her the day he died

or he’ll quietly look after his classmate whose mother died because he was asked to. he’ll share his lunch with her and make sure she eats because her mother just knows she’s not well

when he met hoseok (who is really the heart of this lil group), he just felt so much relief at finally being understood

he’s really a great mediator for ghosts when they encounter them and he’s so helpful at leading them to the afterlife if needed

he’s really not scared of much to be honest. he finds everything so fascinating

sometimes it drains him being kind of a connect between the human and spiritual world but he’s so glad he was born that way, it’s helped him meet so many wonderful people and he loves who he is

and yeh ok taehyung abuses his power like the lil shit he is sometimes

tae: did you wash the dishes

jk: *clearly lying* yeh

tae: the ghost standing next to you begs to differ

jk: ...for the love of god taE NOT AGAIN

jungkook

ok, like i said,,, dude is an adrenaline junkie

jungkook does not give two flying shits he will deadass fight a headless forest demon in his living room if he has to

jungkook fears no man or god

strongest member so he’s always the one to carry namjoon when he inevitably hurts himself and has to be helped

even tho he’s not easily scared for his own life, he is scared for his family and friends

his worst nightmare is losing any of them to something they hunt

sometimes he’ll line windows and doors in his house with salt discreetly, just enough for it to work and just enough that his mom won’t yell at him for wasting perfectly good salt

is always researching protection spells and things just in case he’ll ever need em, usually consults yoongi for help too

“who do you think would win in a fight between mothman and a wendigo”

genuinely cannot function on an empty stomach and the boys have to stop by convenience stores to buy him like six cups of instant ramen just to satiate him

of course jin has some snacks in his handy fanny pack if needed (and has made painstakingly clear if jungkook mocks said fanny pack that he will be banned from getting snacks from it for the rest of his “measly young life”)

jungkook has some good sense and hasn’t said a word (but he has thought a copious amount, for sure)

[theda-rison]

Writing Journal (6/29/2020)

(I was keeping this as I was buying time, so it goes across a few days)

June 24th

So I had to miss these past two Link Roundups (though I did have some really great stuff to share) on account of laptop issues. But everything’s under control now which like… I like for reasons aside from being able to show you guys the random stuff I find XD

It’s also the reason why I haven’t been updating the Writitng Journal portion of this blog even though I’ve done SO MUCH.

To wit:

I got serious about making the comic I started in 2013 (it was in script form and then in novel form and then in script form again) the focus for this July’s Camp Nano.

I had wanted to do all of June as a “Gettin’ Back In It” month of writing short stories, but got sidetracked by…

I ended up rewriting the mythos of Wee Jas for the DND game I’m in. Her old stuff just seemed very flat and predictable and obviously written by a guy. The most egregious part of that is probably the whole, “She was in love with the god of chaos and they had a volatile, but very sexy relationship-- it was True Love!” which made me cringe right out of my entire being as I read it. Like, how dare you do this to my girl, no one deserves this. I don’t deserve this, you don’t deserve this, this character does not deserve this.

So I did a bunch of reading and made a ton of notes and then rewrote those notes to make a coherent plotline.

Then I wrote idk how many words of a first draft which was very Stream of Consciousness as I was basically reading my notes about her old lore and translating it into a real story.

It was at this moment, reading this crappy first draft that I was like, “Holy shit, 4 months of not writing fiction has made me UNABLE to write, oh god, Camp is next month, what the fuck am I going to do? Do I have to relearn everything again? That took years!” But…

Some kind soul apparently started reading a fanfic I wrote a couple years ago, and left a comment on almost every chapter, so I had to go back and read all the chapters just to understand what they were referencing in their comments (because I sure as hell don’t remember what I wrote years ago off the top of my head). Reading stuff I’d written made me like, “Oh, wait, that’s how I used to write!” and “Wow, this is pretty good, I’m pretty funny!” and also, “Oh, hey, a typo” *fixes it and goes back to reading* And that was a really good thing, it jogged the part of my brain that stored all the info about writing and so...

Then, though I was trying to work on a short story for a competition, I ended up redoing the first draft of Wee Jas’ myth into its second draft, and making it read the way I wanted it to; like a text that’s been translated (similar to how the Eddas look, where they’re formatted like poetry but because they’re in English, none of it rhymes?). And that version ended up being almost 7k words. I’m really happy with how it came out though there are a couple things I want to fix as far as word usage and making it sound more dramatic like an epic poem normally does.

I also decided I wanted to do a bunch of hymns surrounding things that happened in her life, and one for each follower. I’ve only written one so far, because....

I started working on the “show bible” for my comic (this way I have something to give my artist as far as art references) I think I was looking at old notes for it and was like “Hey… this… is actually not as bad as I remembered it being,” not that I thought the ideas were bad (I love the ideas, that’s why I’ve held onto it for so long) but that the organization was bad because I didn’t know how to write or even how to organize my ideas back in 2013 - I was an undergrad who thought she was going into History and ended up switching - but looking at it all now, it ended up not being that bad. I ended up with 38 pages in it, but there’s still a lot to do to totally flesh it out. I don’t know if I’ll finish it before Camp starts, but as long as it’s tiny things that are left out, I don’t think it’s too bad if it is unfinished. I could also find some Super Motivation and end up finishing it during Camp as well. Either is okay.

June 26th

I’ve also been working on a binder to try and keep track of things from a publishing perspective, I already have one for working on stories/books/comics/whatever, but I wanted some place I could keep track of like, if I’m querying something or if I send something in to a zine or anthology or whatever. I also have a friend who posts things to Medium and I’ve been thinking of doing the same and being in the partner program. Maybe I’ll do like one short story a month or something like that, idk yet.

June 28th

So I’m still waiting on that laptop, but it should be here in the next couple days. Then I can get it set up and get everything all ready for Camp. And be all ready to just…

Write ENTIRELY too many words >D I’m very excited.

June 29th

It’s here! I’ve set it all up! And just in time for Camp, too! I’m so excited :D