#the concept is more appealing to me than the execution

[ponyatowski]

thanks for the tag!!!

last song: Aqqusernit by Nive Nielsen & The Deer Children (listening to dave k’s goodsir playlist rn and its breaking my heart)

favorite color: yellow

last book: im slowly making my way through Ota Pavel’s “How I Came To Know Fish” (finished “Death of Beautiful Roebucks” a while back and def enjoyed it more but my edition contains both novels so. im trying my best to finish it) also finally read “Brzezina” by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz some time ago

last movie: Cabaret (1972)❤️❤️❤️❤️

last show: The Great

sweet/savory/spicy: savory

relationship status: as ever

last thing i looked up: my library’s adress lol

current obsession: the terror😔😔😔😔

looking forward to: getting out of the house today

I was tagged by @nocylipcowa eons ago - thank you!!

last song: Ljubavnik by Čao Portorož

favourite colour: black

last book: Cambridge Introduction to Narrative by H. Porter Abbott

last movie: Conclave, I think?

last show: Transformers Prime

sweet/savoury/spicy: sweet

relationship status: [redacted]

last thing I looked up: 'Chancery Lane London'

current obsession: Transformers - or early modern politics, but that's more of a permanent state

looking forward to: tomorrow's breakfast

I'm tagging @ieidolon @technofinch @clove-pinks @ponyatowski @bestiarum @cavedwell and anyone who wants to join in :)

[synthaphone]

Allowing myself to go on a tangent about the nearly 26 year old virtual pet website that i am way too invested in.

So today they released the Candy Pteri. While I appreciate what they were trying to do here with it effectively having two designs that you get to choose between (The "Melted Candy Pteri" on the left is a Paint Brush wearable that can be removed to reveal the customizable base pet on the right), I think in this case, they have created two extremely boring designs when they could have easily created one strong design, or hell, even two strong designs if they wanted to do extra work.

Because with this release, we get a base Candy Pteri with no real lineart changes (like the rounded hair tufts and spines on the Candy Zafara), and an alternate design that's just... a drawing of a Marshmallow Peep™???

I would have WAY preferred a base Pteri where they did something like give it a little marshmallow dollop shape on its head and in place of the tail tuft, like my friend @darieyrie suggested. Or they could give it the Peep dot eyes and more rounded features! There's all kinds of ways you could do this concept.

I'd be less frustrated if the Peep wearable had any Pteri traits whatsoever, but its JUST a Peep that's been slightly microwaved. Which is a little funny, but even more than the Toy Poogle is just an iDog, the Candy Pteri does not have any deviation from its base inspiration at all. It's not actually an execution of the concept of "Candy Pteri thats based on a Peep" if there's no Pteri left at all!

(also are they just banking on the Just Born corporation (who make Peeps) never taking any action on this? it kind of goes beyond 'cheeky reference', its EXACTLY their product. I mean, it seems unlikely that they'll notice or bother doing anything if they do, but i don't really know why you'd risk that.) The saving graces of this design, imo, are that the pink and cream color scheme of the base pet IS pleasant (though the lineart and shading treatment aren't really my bag), and some people will enjoy the novelty of having a pet Marshmallow Peep™.

But really this is just the latest of a number of recent outfit and color releases that feel like they don't think people want Neopets. Like. This cardinal outfit that they also released today.

I love the idea of a cardinal Pteri! But this outfit literally takes away every distinguishing trait of the Pteri to make a high effort, nicely rendered, but stylistically incongruous generic cartoon cardinal????? Its not even a Neopet anymore!!! Even if I set aside my personal dislike of the overly rendered style they're using for more and more of the site assets, this wouldn't work with most of the rendering removed either, because it would still be a Pteri in pose and proportions only.

Not every new design and outfit that's come out in the past couple years has these issues and there have been a number I've really liked, and I DO think its great that the quality of the art has improved since the JumpStart era. But I would really appreciate it if the new pet colors in particular were designed a little more thoughtfully, so that they at bare minimum still resemble the species they're supposed to be outside of the rough pose and proportions. It sometimes feels like there isn't a rough draft or workshopping progress for new colors, and the members of the art team just kind of do their own thing and then the very first draft of an idea is what gets polished and released.

The current art direction for the customization aspects of the site just has me feeling like they've decided to throw out years of relatively cohesive art and world design for a strange jumble of ideas that don't really capture the appeal or feeling of Neopets to me.

[thenamesblurrito]

so. Transformers ONE was a good movie

i HIGHLY recommend going in blind, i do think it's incredibly effective with as few spoilers as possible beforehand! seeing it on the big screen is really really nice too, i encourage you to watch it in theaters without reading up on it first if you can!

long full-spoiler review and dissection of elements below (i reached the text block limit a couple times oops):

general stuff:

gorgeous. just genuinely visually gorgeous. so many details, colors, textures, everything was so beautiful. the stylization itself may not be my favorite but it was executed so well that i ended up loving it. their optics! their colors! their movement! the way the visuals serve the lore and the story is extremely well done too, i felt like everything i was seeing was deliberate, relevant, and a treat for the audience instead of just "ooo visual noise look at how powerful our cgi rendering is" (which is how i felt about the "live action" Lion King prequel(????) ad they showed before). all the little cameos and repaints and everything in the background? mwah. GORGEOUS MUSIC TOO AAAA THE WAY THAT TFP'S MOTIF IS IN THERE AAAA

the visual effects and action, the way they USED their roboticness/transformation sequences/vehicle modes in fighting and moving and emoting, it was VERY GOOD. Orion grabs a Death Tracker and RIPS THEM INTO PIECES BY TRANSFORMING AROUND THEM AND FORCING THEIR FRAME TO SHATTER. insanity

this is ABSOLUTELY the origin story movie the fandom has wanted. even if it wasn't your preferred origin story, this movie SHONE with love and respect for the franchise and drew on so many influences to craft a powerful version of the beginning we all wanted to see

in some ways i wish we had more, i think it would've been extremely effective to see things expanded upon, especially D-16's emotional descent and maybe some more Quints. actually looking at the content and pacing of the movie though, and the audience it's aimed at, i don't think there's anything they should've cut in favor of other stuff. i understand why it wasn't dwelt on more, but hooooo i would've liked to see Dee breaking apart a little more thru the middle of the film. apparently the novelization has more scenes of this and i would love to read it

i had so much fun watching this movie. it was a rollercoaster. it was a TREAT. i was sitting there enjoying every second both times i saw it because it was a good film that rewarded me greatly for being a Transformers fan, giving me so many easter eggs and injokes, while also being perfectly understandable and fun for a complete newbie. excellently balanced appeal to old and new fans alike

there was no wink to the audience about how stupid and childish a movie about robots is, there was no lampshading of how silly sci fi is, there was no betrayal of the emotional tone of the film. so many stories now kneecap themselves by mocking their very concept, and the audience watching them, in a very cinema sins-style irony poisoned way. this movie never does that. its humor is fitting, its drama is real, its emotion is all SINCERE and i love how i was never mocked by any part of the movie for engaging with it sincerely

this movie loved being a Transformers movie

anyways. specific stuff:

love how Wheeljack managed to explode everything despite not even being a scientist. he's just THAT good

THE INJOKES AND REFERENCES. "you don't have the touch OR the power." calling them Gobots. the corny More Than Meets The Eye bits. "don't be a glitch" is a headcanon swear i've been using for years now and they canonized it!! "High Guard, eject". "paging doctor Ratchet." the new take on "all are one". the really interesting way that the term Transformers is an actual significant in-universe name, and how Orion and Dee ARE NOT Transformers at first!

the sheer number of cameos is ASTOUNDING. what an excellent mix of masc/fem designs too, they really made it normal on this Cybertron which i appreciate! apparently Blurr exists here, his name was on the leaderboard!!!!!! good job Chromia i am so proud of you for winning. and the shots of the bots getting cogs at the end was aaAAA!!! <<33 my HEART! Jazz's little smile looking at his new doorwings!!

I GOT ALL MY SILLY OLD DEMIGOD FAVES I GOT THE THIRTEEN EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM AAAAAA ALPHA TRION MY GRANDPA god i'm so sorry you're dead but i can't believe you showed up on the big screen <<333 you and your rockin rhino unicorn lion alt mode. and your superpowers. god you're so cool. "old timer" NUH UH HE'S STILL BETTER THAN YOU!!!!! using Zeta for the thirteenth was an interesting choice! i did think he was Overlord for a hot second. it's the lips. Solus wasn't fridged by virtue of everyone else died too yippee!! ALSO MEGATRONUS THE COOLEST ONE WOOOO HES NOT JUST A FIERY EVIL GUY!!!!

the way Dee himself was, in a way, the Fallen of this continuity.... 😭

the way Sentinel was handcrafting his downfall with each touch of the blowtorch. carving the sigil of the Decepticons into the one who will kill him. dooming Cybertron in a moment of petty mockery. AND HE DOESN'T EVEN DRAW IT WELL IT'S LIKE A MESSY CRAYON DRAWING CMON

planetformer Primus in a blockbuster movie? CANONICAL EXPLICITLY STATED PLANETARY ROBO MPREG BIRTH IN THE FIRST FIVE MINUTES???? THEY USE THE WORD BIRTH. BORN. we are never escaping the reproductive insanity in this franchise

Shockwave you whiny tantrum throwing wuss. let Elita beat him up more. it's good for him. also love how that could be construed as a ref to her G1 resistance force

CASUAL MIND READER SOUNDWAVE???????

Elita was perfect, no notes. i would not like her if i met her but i respect her so much. she really is better in every way and down to business. Best First indeed

so much cool implications and fascinating timeline confusion. 50 cycles since the Primes were slaughtered? the way Sentinel leveraged their reputation to make himself beloved, casting himself as their peer? the way he didn't choose to villainize them, the way he apparently openly admitted to the loss of the Matrix and how it impacted the planet? when did cog theft start, and how old is Orion since in the novelization it states his entire generation is cogless? who remembers the og Primes? who is in the know about it all?? hoooghhghhh fascinating.

the implication that the High Guard worked with the og Primes?? the possibility STARSCREAM was a loyal guard for Cybertron's DEMIGODS????

okay i was not expecting a backstory for STARSCREAM'S VOICE in this movie but holy. god. the shippers will be going insane over this one. hoogh holy fit. what is wrong with you. the utter contradiction of being both an instigator and a coward when he gets in over his head and immediately backpedals

also obviously this is the I Love Divorce movie and megop shippers will be having a field day but i DEEPLY appreciate just how solid a friendship Dee and Orion have and how badly they fall apart, even thru a strictly platonic lens. i also appreciate how there was no forced comphet attraction/romance!! i was dreading the possibility of it, i mean Oplita was RIGHT THERE but they didn't force it at all thank youuuuuu. i would rather have this dynamic with its zero intended romance than awkward, OOC attraction shoehorned in to detract from the plot

Bee was actually good! like yeah he's def the kid appeal character and i prefer it when he's in a younger gen and not OP's peer, but he was wayyyyy less annoying than i was expecting! i think he fit the movie and did his job in it well, and i absolutely laughed at him multiple times. "i get to work for the GOVERNMENT! :DDDD" bee. please. the fact that he's been going insane and desperate after isolation for so long really helps make his character work instead of being just irritating

Airachnid you are so cool. you are TOO COOL. PLEASE TONE DOWN YOUR COOLNESS. i adore how she is not good at facial expressions thank you evil autism moments. love how her signature move is stabbystabbystabbystabbystabbystabby

Sentinel. god. Sentinel. SENTINEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i need to draw him getting ripped in half. it's like they distilled the worst parts of every single iteration and combined them into a SuperBad version. horrifically realistic kind of guy. i love to hate him. real Metro Man from Megamind energy. and megachurch pastor energy. the IRONY that Orion and Dee were probably actually helping him, that he was probably being genuine in the medbay when he said he loved what they did by racing, that he may have been honest when he said he was gonna have them fixed up in his own facilities and had them tour the mines! because them racing increased energon production by 150% and Sentinel needed that!!! he needed that for the Quintessons!!! i think he was being genuine when he first met Dee and Orion and then Darkwing ruined everything!!!

Darkwing is the curly straw of this continuity

the Quintessons were hoooooooooooooooo. whoooooooooogh. hoohhhhhhhhhhhh. the biomechanical. the shapes. the textures. eugh. icky. creepy. excellent. the way their ships looked like the Nemesis. the way they're STILL a looming threat. i wanted to see more of them but i get why the movie wasn't about them. i hope we see more in the future

the way Orion is the kind of guy who, in an attempt to be selfless, keeps making selfish or thoughtless decisions was SO INTERESTING. it set up the dynamic of his and Dee's friendship very well, with Orion always wanting the best for his buddy but ultimately overwriting or ignoring what Dee says!! the way Dee clings to the social contract of protocol for safety because that's all he knows and his ANGER when it's broken, even when it's Orion breaking it, because that's not SAFE it's an UNKNOWN it has CONSEQUENCES WHEN YOU DEVIATE. and then it's revealed that the social norms have been a lie the whole time and Sentinel has "broken protocol" more than ever and Dee has no safety left because it was always broken. Orion wanted to be more, he could feel there was more. Dee just wanted security

Dee spent so much of the movie complaining and arguing and it was very funny and good characterization but it was also a hint at how much bitterness was under there the whole time. so much of his complaints were threats of violence. he always had Orion's back and then when he learns the truth he abruptly. stops. do you notice he doesn't really have Orion's back after this? he's no longer by his side? he's there, but he's not... there. he was the first to shoot an enemy and took joy in it. all of his emotions were so justified and then what he does with them is what makes it a tragedy. he didn't have to do this. augh

i really, really like the fact that they managed to pull off the ending without it fully turning into a "boohoo if we do anything violent we're as bad as the bad guys waaaa". the specific phrasing of "rebuilding cannot start with an execution" went HARD. and it's demonstrated in their actions too like, Dee was out for REVENGE and it was PERSONAL, Orion was fighting for JUSTICE and it was UNIVERSAL. Sentinel was beaten, everyone knew the truth. it was over. but Dee in his (very justified!) anger and broken trust was too overcome to back down. they were given the power to change their worlds, but Dee was thinking only of his world. Orion was thinking of everyone

ironic that as soon as Orion starts thinking of other people and considering what they need instead of forging ahead, Dee decides to center his own feelings and actions to the point of murder. even after Sentinel was dead, he just kept shooting, he did NOT AT ALL care that some of those shots were clearly hurting innocent civilians/going wide and shooting out into the city/damaging actual important infrastructure and not just Sentinel statues. i believe it's Bee who said "he's gonna kill everyone" and he proves it by attacking Elita and saying "I won't stop until every last one of his followers is dead". THE FACT THAT HE FELL SO FAR AS TO SEE ELITA, HIS PEER AND FELLOW FREEDOM FIGHTER WHO WAS THERE WORKING AGAINST SENTINEL WITH HIM FROM THE START OF THIS QUEST, AS ONE OF SENTINEL'S FOLLOWERS.... by the end of it, Dee really was nothing but blind anger

and the way kneeling was a common thread!!!!! aaaaaaa. Sentinel betrayed the world by kneeling to the enemy. Dee won respect by refusing to kneel. Orion gained followers by willingly kneeling to his peers. hooghh

Orion jumping and stumbling and falling this whole movie because he just THROWS himself into things because he BELIEVES in things, he's the one to take leaps of faith, to take that step out into the unknown! and Dee refusing to save him as one final nail in the coffin, so clearly feeling like Orion jumping in front of the blast was yet ANOTHER way Orion is forcing his hand, corralling him into doing something he thinks is best but did not consult him on, finally FINALLY saying NO and leaning in to the tragedy!! and in the exact same way Sentinel handcrafted his enemy in Dee, Dee has now handcrafted his enemy in Orion!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA and now that Orion took that last leap of faith and fell, now is when he RISES. ONE SHALL FALL AND ONE SHALL RISE. god. it reminds me of Spiderverse, the way they use falling and rising

the way the tragedy is worse for how well everyone was working together.... for one shining moment, the miners and the High Guard, the rescue mission, it was going so well. they were doing it. they were winning. it didn't have to turn to slaughter. if there was to be an execution it should've been by trial, by the voice of the people, not Dee deciding for Cybertron as Sentinel decided what truth was. augh.

in an abruptly different note, the way they have characters move and fly is so cool. i love the jetpacks. i love how flight is not "flyer" exclusive. it's fascinating and i think really fitting for the general city of Iacon itself. all those towers going up and down

THE TRAINS!! THE MOVING ROADS!! HOW COOL IS THAT!! LOOK AT THAT WORLDBUILDING IM OBSESSED WITH THIS CYBERTRON HOOGH. this movie was VERY good at building a rich, functional world of detail and making it very alien in a way i want to chew on forever. the moving mountains and greebled energon mines. the living planet. the deer!!! ooghghh. PRIMUS LOOKS LIKE A STAR

i do like this Primus actually, yeah it was a deus ex machina but that's the POINT. Optimus himself is an act of god and his presence heralds miracles. Dee couldn't bring justice to Cybertron because justice is restoration. justice is healing what was hurt and doing right by the wronged. yes that often means consequences upon the perpetrator but that's NOT what Dee was doing, he wasn't even THINKING of anyone else!! would killing Sentinel get ppl out of the mines? would it restore their cogs? would it bring equality to a clearly oppressive society? like he LIVED this (cogless bots with limited options, the talk of tiers as if they are social castes you can be demoted from, lower city levels where ppl can be banished, etc) but it was Orion who ultimately addressed this. i'm sorry if it feels like insult to injury to rub his Primacy in your face, Megatron, but stealing a cog just like Sentinel and declaring the age of Primes over, when it was the age of Primes ending that made you cogless and oppressed in the first place, is only an extension of your trauma, anger, and violence, and is not solving the problem!

a cog stolen from him at birth! and then he steals it from Sentinel in symbolic revenge, stolen again, but even that wasn't Sentinel's, it was stolen too! the way he discards the cog from Onyx, willingly gifted to him, to continue the trend of desecrating the dead! man. MAN. the name he took, the cog he took, the symbol he took, all from his hero, the one he looked up to, the coolest Prime, and THEN DECLARED THE AGE OF PRIMES OVER

the gilded pompous showmanship of it all was so gross, the way Sentinel's face was everywhere, the way he had instant access to everyone in Iacon via announcements that took over the media. but this was clearly derived from the previous Primes!! we see their statues, we see their stately tower, and unless Sentinel had all that built in "mourning" (which is totally plausible imho) he was really just setting himself up as an inheritor of that hyperwealthy standard! we don't know anything about the rule of the og Primes beyond that they're favorably remembered and loved (possibly because of propaganda but i think it was also genuine) and that they may have been losing the Quint war (considering that info was from jerkwad supreme i find it suspect) but just by comparison to Sentinel i think they HAD to be better rulers. there weren't cogless bots forced to mine for 20 shifts in a row back then!!! Sentinel is stealing their aesthetic as if that gets him the same power and acclaim. he's trying to steal their legitimacy. he paints himself across the face of Iacon to hide the fact the planet itself went into a coma because of him. he has ALWAYS been rejected. i call him a megachurch pastor but really symbolically i could say he's a fallen angel, and his visual design really fits too

i'm coming back to the deus ex machina thing bc i know it may be considered weak in a plot construction sense but i want to engage with it as literal. like, there is a literal in-universe god in the machine. they know it. they worship it, at least a little bit. i would consider this story to be analogous to Prince of Egypt, in that the deific is a real and tangible character with impact on the plot, and not a meta excuse to save the day. Orion made his choice, and as a result Primus made HIS choice. it's not necessarily a happy ending but if even Megatron acknowledges that GOD mandated this guy to be a Prime and the planet itself responds by COMING BACK TO LIFE.... i keep thinking of it like a cityspeaker, how they're the ones who commune with Titans to know their needs and tell them what needs to be done. is a Prime just the cityspeaker of Cybertron, able to help it remain healthy and functional?

the divine right to rule is REAL on Cybertron. you can like it or not but you have to contend with that when discussing fair leadership, political accountability, and representation of the masses re: Cybertronian government and Primacy

god i'm still so obsessed with the Thirteen i need to see them better i need to look at them. i love them. insane. i really need to invest in a chewtoy

also i know it may be a throwaway line but i'm very curious why Primus had to transform and sacrifice himself to save the universe. Unicron, maybe???

also how did Alpha Trion narrate the archival stuff telling the fake story of how the Primes died and the Matrix was lost. did Sentinel get a deepfake of his voice?? is that part of how he made the transition to power?? AUGH THE DISRESPECT KEEPS COMPOUNDING

Alpha Trion. my blorbo. my old man. holding you so tight. like an ancient rescue dog. im gonna groom you and give you treats and buy the biggest plushest dog bed from costco for you

anyways

good movie, guys

[regretevator-confessions]

I don’t understand the appeal of Gnarpy’s old design and why it’s missed by so many fans.

I love Gnarpy. Xey are my favorite Regretevator character, but something that bogs my mind is the constant obsession some Regretevator fans have with a design that was replaced due to behind the scene controversy. I will admit, I do feel bad that the design was tarnished as a result of its creator’s degenerate behavior, but I can’t help but ask why people continue to view the redesign as a terrible thing. Let me take you through a crash course about why I dislike the old design and how the redesign is actually the best thing to happen to Gnarpy in an artistic standpoint. Allow me to explain:

Let’s face it, the original design was bland. For what is supposed to be an anthropomorphic alien cat warlord with a superiority complex, the original design fails at conveying that. Good character design should be able to tell the viewer something about that character’s personality and who they are just by looking at them. The original design fails at doing that. It’s just a generic green cat with some antennae and glowing stuff, that’s it. There’s nothing that tells me xyr an intergalactic general, no attributes that makes xem seem otherworldly like an alien should be, and it just doesn’t match the rudeness, arrogance, and exaggerated energy of xyr in-game dialogue. Instead, it just made Gnarpy look like uninspired furrybait for the sake of furrybait, which to me is an insult towards a genuinely interesting character concept.

The redesign on the other hand is way more faithful to Gnarpy’s character than the original design ever was. Redesigned Gnarpy looks more cartoony, having more alien-like details such as four arms, four eyes, conjoined ears, double tails with pincers, and a red outfit with a yellow star badge. Not only that, xyr color scheme is more interesting, xey have a recognizable silhouette, and xyr new animations perfectly capture xyr pompous ego. Some may argue that the deviation from the blocky style makes xem less charming, but to me, I feel the opposite. The complex goofiness of the new design not only fits xyr personality perfectly, it also gives xem a sort of an Invader Zim/Peridot type of charm that makes me like Gnarpy’s character so much more.

Overall, I know that art is subjective and I know that making this confession may have put me at risk of getting publicly executed (French Revolution styled). I just don’t get the appeal of such a bland design, especially one made by a creep. I like the way Gnarpy looks now and I feel that most Regretevator fans are too harsh on it solely because it deviates away from the original. Yes, it was a sudden change nobody asked for, but that doesn’t make it right to immediately hate it without giving it a chance (also it’s not like the developers had a choice). If you genuinely prefer the old design, have no ill intent on bashing you for your preferences. If you like it, all power to you. I’m just tired of hearing the vocal parts of the fandom complain about a fictional character just because they were changed. Old Gnarpy is dead, xey died behind the Shwaffle House parking lot. Just be glad Gnarpy didn’t suffer the same fate as Miché did: completely removed from the game.

.

[bisupergirl]

Can I ask why you don't like Jon Kent? Not that I disagree or anything. It's just that, as someone who really hated Jon's kid years for a lot of reasons (the writing in general, clois having a bio kid at all, etc.), I'm more interested in the opinions of people who hated him from the beginning as opposed to those who are only mad because of the age-up.

i don't like jon because i find the entire concept and execution of his character to be so, so dreadfully boring.

part of what makes him so boring to me is how fully centered around clark he is. he's named after clark's dad, he grows up in a small farm town just like clark, he looks exactly like clark did when he was his age, he's superboy just like clark used to be, he picked up clark's mantle when he came of age and he's carrying the legacy of the house of el on his shoulders—where does lois fit into any of this? there's nothing about jon's character that tells me he's lois lane's son. he's undeniably the son of superman, but what qualities did he gain from his mother? and even when trying to define him as his own character the narrative still centers on clark—what would superman do in this situation? how can jon act in a way differently than clark? it's still all centered around his dad.

and this leads into another reason why jon just sucks to me: i really feel like he doesn't benefit lois's character at all. in the early rebirth era she was relegated to being jon's doting mother and clark's loving wife. sure she got to anonymously write those books tackling corruption or whatever but that never got as much focus as whatever clark and jon were doing as superman and superboy. it's superman and his superson who looks and acts just like him, and then lois also gets to be there sometimes. idk! i think her treatment got better when she was allowed to return to the daily planet, but then obviously her work there doesn't involve jon. so it's either she gets to be an active reporter with interesting stories OR she has to be jon's apple pie baking mother who sits at home waiting for her husband to come back from whatever dangerous mission he's on. not a fan!

additionally—and i've mentioned this before when someone asked me about jon—i feel like most of the appeal of his character (at least for kid!jon) has to do with the supersons friendship with damian and i just don't care. i've lost SO much interest in the batfam over the years and i just can't bring myself to care about superbat jr. don't take this as damian hate btw because i don't hate him at all, the batman & robin series with him and dick is like. one of the first comics i've ever read. and i still have a lot of affection for him, but there's just nothing about his friendship with jon that i find appealing. sorry to damian.

as for aged up jon... i just don't care about him. i actually find kid!jon to be more annoying to look at than teen!jon, but either way i just don't find him super interesting. this is more of an editorial problem than anything else, but i find the way that he's focused on and favored over other more established superfam members to be so, so stupid and annoying.

tl;dr he's boring as fuck and i don't care about any relationship that he has with literally any character. sorry to jon.

[wystiix]

"just take it slow, and move your feet to the beat."

❥ pairing: furina x gn!reader ❥ synopsis: So it's all finally over, Furina was free from the restraints of the curse and now she could live as a normal human being. Oh, but oh shit! What is it like to live as a human? A very strange concept to grasp indeed. ❥ cw: post-archon quest spoilers (fontaine), angst, first fic so it may be a bit ew but anyways ❥ additional tags: second pov perspective, reader is not traveler ❥ word count: 2.7k ❥ notes: remind me to NEVER write again because what the shit why is this so long. but yeah anyways my first fic woohoo 🗣️🗣️ i jsut want to get this out of my drafts like please this has been bugging me I HAVE SCHOOL TOO OMLKSDJSAJ. also this is kinda based off my last relationship cuz like my ex pushed me away and allat yk (i'm praying to god they don't see this). but ye reader is kinda a bitch like towards the end btw. i wrote this mainly in a romantic perspective, but this can also be interpreted as platonic!! yahoo enjoy <33

Humans are complex beings.

Tapestries of contradictions, thoughts and emotions, all woven together into the fabric of mere existence. They can wear masks, putting them on as a display for the appeal of others. Other times, they put on a mask to deceive—making others believe they are something that they are not. Perhaps if they fake it just a little more to an extent, even the divine could be fooled.

People may do it to gain approval. Others may do it for self-satisfaction. Whatever their reason, they have the choice to remove their mask at any point.

Furina, on the other hand, had to put on that facade for five hundred years. All that, in order to fool the Heavenly Principles and to free Fontaine from its prophecy.

In that, she succeeded.

Ever since Focalors’ execution, she was freed from the curse that had been laid upon her for centuries. The restraints and pressure to conform to the public persona she had put on to please the citizens of Fontaine. That, of course, meant that she could finally live her life. Not as an Archon, but as a normal human being.

But how does one conform to the reality of human existence? Especially since she’d been in the guise of a god her entire life?

Furina was so used to presenting herself as a performer for so long that the experiences of mortals and her identity have been fractured and completely out of reach. She couldn’t even begin to grasp the nuances of mundane human interactions. Usually, she’d sit around, observing the humans– people around her. 

Differences flurried.

Some faces radiated with joy and their laughter could be heard like a choir of tinkling bells in the air. Others wept, perhaps even grieving, in the arms of their loved ones. Arguments erupted in one corner, and people’s raised voices could be heard.

Different faces and different emotions, all in one area. Very common human experiences—they all acted differently too.

As she continued to observe, it was apparent that they all had something quite similar: they all seemed genuine and had someone there to stick with them. If one person cracked a joke, they had someone to laugh with. If they were crying, they had someone’s shoulder to cry on.

Amidst all, the realisation struck her. It was painfully clear and it was being shoved right at her face. There was something they possessed that Furina herself lacked: authenticity.

Everything she did for the past five hundred years was an act. And she did it alone.

Sure, she was well-known throughout Fontaine—she did make sure to flaunt herself with a sprinkle of dramatic flair to protect her title as an “Archon” of the nation and to be seen as capable. She also had assistance from her Iudex, Neuvillette, working closely with him.

Other than that, she never had many friends throughout her life. She was lonely. Now that she wasn’t an “Archon” anymore, she felt she wasn’t needed. It was like she was going to get discarded now that she wasn’t making that false claim anymore.

That was until she met you.

You were but a passerby, strolling through the city, when the sound of soft sniffles caught your attention. Your footsteps led you outside the Opera Epiclese. There by the fountain, you caught a glimpse of Furina’s figure hunched over, her tears glistening in the faint light of dusk. The evening air was thick as you observed her from a distance. You hesitated, not wanting to intrude on her in her sorrowful and seemingly private state. Oh, but your empath instincts were acting up. Something urged you forward.

You took one step. Then another. And another. Until you found yourself standing before her, just a few feet away to keep a distance, each movement being out of impulse. Was your body on auto-pilot, perhaps? It wasn’t until—

“Lady Furina, is everything alright?” you asked gently.

Furina looked up at the sound of your voice, a little startled. Shit, was she not crying silently enough? In an attempt to mask the redness in her eyes, she quickly wiped her tears away and straightened up to her usual composed demeanour. Her crying was not a pretty sight, and she definitely did not want a passerby to see her in this state.

“I’m perfectly fine,” she lied in between sniffles, her voice wavering despite the attempt to appear nonchalant.

You stared at her. “Uhm, you sure? Your eyes seem all… puffy.”

Furina blinked, caught off-guard by your simple observation. “Puffy?” she echoed. She glanced down at the water fountain to examine her face.

While she was aware of the fact that she was not blessed enough to be a pretty crier, she may have underestimated how ugly crying actually was, because sweet Celestia she looked like she’d been stung by twenty angry bees. Her eyes were not only puffed up as you have mentioned, but her dark circles were more prominent, and her cheeks appeared inflamed and swollen.

“It’s nothing!” she insisted, waving her hand dismissively. Though, her gaze faltered as she glanced away from you.

You weren’t convinced. “It doesn’t seem like nothing.”

“But it is nothing. It’s not like I’m crying. I’m just…” she trailed off, unable to form a proper sentence. “Just… don’t look at me like this. I’m not particularly at my best look as of right now, and I’d hate to display myself openly to a citizen. It’s humiliating.”

The air was thick with shrouded silence, and her closed-off body language indicated her hesitance to continue this awkward conversation. 

“Hey, I don't know if this means much hearing from a citizen as you call it,” you said. “But it's okay to cry. I'm not going to judge you for it.”

Furina blinked at you, her tears still cascading down her cheeks.

You shifted awkwardly in your spot, attempting to stand straight. “I may be a stranger and all, but I consider myself a good listener,” you professed, before briefly rubbing the back of your neck. “Then again, you don't have to talk about it if you're not keen to. I apologise for intruding. I could always go—”

“No, actually, uhm,” she cleared her throat. “I could use some company. I suppose that I, Furina, shall grant you the honour to grace you with mine own presence. Sit with me, dearest commoner.”

She patted the empty spot next to her, and you complied.

“My apologies, it seems I haven't introduced myself properly. I'm [Name],” you say.

She nodded. “Furina. As you may have already known.”

And from that simple interaction alone, a newfound bond blossomed, akin to a beautiful rose that had just sprouted in a garden. That day, being the best throughout her whole five-hundred years of living, because she made the greatest decision ever—giving you a chance to sit with her and opening up to you, because then, she could also have the chance to be with you.

Furina had a mass amount of free time in her hands now that she was, well, free. And she was more than willing to do it all with you.

People like you were difficult to come by. You were attentive, open-minded, considerate and caring. Throughout your time with her, you’ve always adhered to her needs—from surfing with her, to purchasing her most-wanted item in her shopping list no matter how useless, to actually reading any book she recommended, to watching her direct a film. It was not like she could complain, you both thoroughly enjoyed each other's company.

Ah. Was this what she was missing out on throughout her whole life? She felt much calmer and… happier. She’d never known such a feeling, the fact that she was able to let her guard down around you, the warmth seeping through her entire being. Furina was starting to appreciate the little gestures, the little mundane experiences humans experienced through you.

Even so, a sense of doubt crept into her head, agonisingly swallowing her being little by little. There was a shitload of things she was capable of doing, she is the Furina who acted without any celestial or divine powers, which was beyond impressive. But when it came to relying on others, she was practically braindead and felt completely lost. Her first instinct was to isolate herself and push others away and you were no exception.

However, you stayed patient, trying to be the attentive and understanding person you were and listened intently.

“It’s like learning a new dance,” you would say as you stroked her hair, gently wiping her tears away. “You don’t aimlessly move around and expect to make a cohesive dance routine. It takes patience, taking baby steps and feeling the rhythm. Just take it slow, and move your feet to the beat.” You paused before adding, “I promise, I’ll always be here.”

She nodded, leaning into your touch. “And I promise to show you the same amount of affection you’ve given to me.”

One, two, three. Each basic step, slow and deliberate. Miss Furina had familiarised herself with performing arts, so it wasn’t a surprise that she was skilled in the area of dancing. This time, she was following your lead.

It almost made her feel bad that you'd be willing to do anything for her.

One, two, three.

However, like a rose in the garden, it was bound to die eventually. 

For your sake, she’d often mask whenever she felt any sort of negativity and play it off as something foolish. Hell, it felt foolish and idiotic. How dare she feel that way after the countless times you’ve reassured her?

One, two, three.

Whenever she felt out of sync and faltered, she would retreat immediately, often needing time alone by herself. You didn’t press further and would watch her isolate herself in her room. The rhythm was quite unfamiliar, but you shrugged it off. Perhaps it’d be something she’d get over and will be fixed eventually?

One, two, three.

That didn’t happen. It happened more and more often. The breaks occurred frequently, and Furina grew increasingly distant from you. The promise you bestowed grew emptier and emptier each passing day. 

One, two, three.

But she is trying her best. She really is. It’s been hard.

One, two, three.

“Hey, I’m not going to do anything. Just take it slow, breathe. Take a deep breath in… and out.”

One, two, three.

It had been months, almost a year now. You felt as though you were the one shouldering the burden of this relationship, leaving you utterly drained.

One, two, three.

The metronome ticked. The rhythm was far too unfamiliar for you.

One, two, three.

“I can’t do this anymore.”

Furina looked at you as you stood by her door, confusion etching her features. “Pardon?”

You sighed heavily. “How long will this last? Do I not matter to you?”

“...What prompted this?”

“I'm not sure, maybe for the past few months you’ve been actively avoiding me and completely shutting down my efforts to help you?”

“No, [Name], it’s not that! You just don’t understand. I just… I just need some time—”

“Don’t understand what, exactly?” you snapped. “I'm trying my best to be patient with you, I really am but I can’t do that if every fucking thing is about you. I feel like I’m the only one trying to put effort into this, but you keep pushing me away. It’s like you don’t even fucking care. C'est exaspérant, I’m tired.”

Her lip trembled and she could feel the tears form in the corners of her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“Shove it up your ass, Furina,” you place a hand on your forehead as if you were pushing back the impending headache that was forming. “I don’t want to hear it. How about instead of spouting empty apologies, you actually do something and try to put in some real effort, yeah?”

“But I am trying!” she protested.

"Sure you are. You don't even seem like you acknowledge the things I'm doing for you,” you retorted, trying to ignore the fat tear that rolled down her cheek. You averted your gaze away from her and got ready to leave. “I’ll just go.”

Furina’s heart dropped, more tears spilled from her eyes. She got up to grab your arm. “Wait, please. Don’t leave.”

You stood still, not turning your head towards her. “That’s new.”

“Huh?”

You jerked your arm away from her touch. “That’s new,” you repeated. “What happened to your ‘I want to be alone’s, hm?”

“Why are you asking such ridiculous questions?!” she croaked, almost sounding like a whine before shaking her head. “No, I won’t allow it! Stay with me for a little longer, please. Can we just talk about this later?”

“Give me one good reason why.”

“I’ll do better, I promise!” she pleaded. Archons it was hard to get her word across and think straight when her throat was practically constricting while she was fucking bawling in front of you, but her desperation palpable. She didn’t care if she looked ugly, she didn’t care if her eyes burned like hell. This was far more important.

“You’ve said that for the umpteenth time,” you take a deep breath to prevent yourself from exploding because this goddamn headache was not helping at all. “This isn’t the first time you promised that, you’ve been ‘promising’ that for almost a year. It’s losing its meaning and, if I’m being honest, I don’t believe it anymore.”

Furina couldn’t find the words to respond to that. The deafening silence enveloped the room shortly before you broke it with a sigh. “Yeah, I should get goi—” “I’m just afraid.”

The words hung heavy in the air, taking a while for you to process it. You wanted to ignore it but something was holding you back. “Afraid of what?”

“Afraid that I’ll end up pushing you away for good,” her voice was barely audible. “I don’t want to make things worse for you if I suddenly open up.”

“You know,” you shook your head, the frustration was bubbling up. “It’s actually ironic because that’s the problem. That’s exactly what you’re doing right now. You’re doing everything you can that pushes me away further than anything else ever could.”

She hated how she couldn’t deny it.

“So what now?” she sniffled, her tears flowing more freely. “You’re just going to walk away just like that?”

“I have to. You're exhausting.”

And you did. Those were the last words she heard from you before you walked out the door. You never entered it since.

One, two, three.

Promises are fragile things. In the end, they are merely just words. It's funny how words alone can shatter someone so easily.

Every day, Furina would sit by the same fountain where you met, hoping to catch the glimpse of your figure walking by. She would look into your favourite places and special spots where you used to hang out, hoping you'd at least be there and patch things up.

You never did, not even once did you come.

She could never do the same things she loved the same anymore, because it often reminded her of you. Each time, she’d envision your silhouette, leaving empty spaces in places where you would normally stand or sit next to her.

So here she was in this position again. The lonely vessel she always was since the day she was created for the sake of the prophecy. Was this her fate? Could she find any peace of mind at all?

“I shan’t sulk like this,” she scolded herself. “I am the Furina, for Archons’ sake! I know better than to further humiliate myself like this.”

She wiped away her tears and straightened up. Acting like this as if Teyvat just exploded over one person was pathetic.

Just take it slow, and move your feet to the beat, she recalls you saying.

There was still time to heal. You weren't there anymore, but she still had to keep pushing through it.

It’s like a dance.

That line still echoed in her head.

One, two, three. The metronome still ticked. She had to move on. 

Furina still danced. She still had to take it slowly, step by step. Eventually, she will regain her footing—just this time, alone.

[adobe-outdesign]

Can I ask for an Ice color neopet review? Cause uhh question to TNT: why is Bruce the only one not made of ice like the others??

(This is the last Neopet review request in the inbox right now. Send 'em if you have 'em.)

Ice was first introduced via the Ice Bori, which was exclusive to the Neopets toolbar (which was basically a rebranded Yahoo! toolbar). Ice was the only unique Bori color you could make and the Ice Bori still has restrictions to this day. On top of that, ice as a whole is a lab ray-exclusive colour, making it a pain to get for any species of Neopet.

For such an exclusive, rare colour however, ice always felt a bit underwhelming, if I'm being honest (and yes, that includes the super special Ice Bori). For one, it already shares a bit of concept with the colour Snow. The executions are very different, but there's undeniably some overlap there. And secondly, "ice" is just not a very exciting concept—it's just a regular Neopet, but made of ice. There is a bit of variation in how it's sculpted, as some pets are smooth like real ice sculptures and some are more polygonal, but it's more-or-less a copy/paste for each pet, without anything to really make them unique individually.

Being a very straightforward colour, Ice was not really affected much by conversion. Some pets had a few details tweaked for whatever reason, such as some becoming less polygonal, but otherwise ice still looks about the same as it used to.

Favorite Species:

Bruce: I lied when I said all Ice pets are the same. There are two exceptions: the Hissi, shown below, and the Ice Bruce, which is designed to look like a Brucicle (basically the Neopets version of those novelty shaped ice creams on a stick). Admittedly, it does bug me that this one stands out so much—I feel like it would've been better as it's own Bruce-exclusive colour, like you could have a Magical Red Brucicle ala fruit and veggie Chias)—but it at least has a fun concept, which is more than you can say for most Ice pets.

My only other issue with this one is that, unlike other Ice pets, the Ice Bruce got it rough with conversion, and completely lost the point of the concept. I do like the texturing of the converted version—looks more like ice cream, whereas the UC/styled version looks like cardboard—but why they thought altering it was a good idea at all is beyond me.

Hissi: The other Ice pet to actually have a concept, the Hissi is based off of the Snowager, and has a really cool design to match. The stripes give it some much-needed flavor compared to other Ice pets, and I like the bit of subtle transparency as well.

Cybunny: Out of all the standard Ice pets, I think I like the Cybunny the best. It's not the most amazing design in the world or anything, but the texturing is nice, complete with a few sharp unfinished angels and some scratchy lines. It's also nice and shiny, and retains a good amount of contrast, unlike some other Ice pets.

Least Favorite Species:

Wocky: One of the few Ice pets that was made worse during conversion for no real reason, the Ice Wocky is a bit of a mess. The shading is all over the place, the actual texturing is basically non-existent, and the polygons don't make sense with the body and are negated by areas that have a lot of detail, like the fur and the eyes.

The pre-customization version wasn't great or anything, but it was at least better shaded and the polygons were less intrusive, making it far more appealing than whatever we ended up with.

[aliusfrater]

your thoughts on a what if scenario with later seasons Sam relapsing on demon blood? Just something I saw online and curious what your thoughts are.

i've seen this concept lots and while it is interesting and has a lot of potential, the versions i've seen very often neglect to recognise the major factors that went into sam's addiction and how his addiction influenced his season four arc. like it's important to note that it started with grief as agency and agency channeled through the winchester familial ideal of revenge which was then manipulated into sam and ruby's sexual relationship and although his addiction wasn't in 'full swing' till the last 1/3 of season four, grooming, specifically his relationship with ruby and the rape/repeated coercion + his nonrelationship with azazel, is tied to sam's relationship with his ingesion of ruby's blood and it's a huge aspect of of the addiction. then there's also the part of it that relates to sam's usage of his abilities and its conflation with his perceivable independence and how that independence is conflated within the dichotomy of monstrosity (along with sam's personal conflation of it with his violated autonomy) especially re: his relationship with dean. the conditions were pretty much perfect for sam to develop an addiction, basically and i think that in a canon compliant relapse it'd have to include an event that echoes more than one angle of the initial circumstances that resulted in his developing of one in the first place.

i read a fic once (i didn't really enjoy the writing or the execution so i didn't bookmark it :/) where sam relapsed after he was force-fed demon blood while being held captive by the bmol then continued to use it until there was intervention from cas. the initial premise is pretty good but there's next to nothing about sam's season twelve arc that warrants his continued abuse of the demon blood. consider his 5.14 relapse, after which he's promptly locked into the panic room to be detoxed, something it's very possible he didn't fight against due to his reaction to dean and bobby doing the same to him in 4.21/22 ("no, he was right to say it. i mean, i don't blame him after what i did.") and his own shame regarding the possibility of relapsing while being knowingly affected by famine that quite literally led to him asking to be locked in handcuffs. if it's going to be a continuously explored set of actions i think that there just has to be more to his relapse than just the initial event and it has to relate to his stepping outside of his nonrole regarding the dichotomy of monstrosity either representatively or metaphorically especially wrt his independence or a simple need for control and how his agency and a sam-typical execution of agency works, much like how his initial experiences with addiction worked. continuing with the season twelve bmol example: we literally get another monstrous sam winchester mirroring character, specifically relating to monstrosity as it connects to violations of autonomy, magda's own mirrored panic room, synonymous familial dynamics, Otheredness, csa metaphors, etc. etc. that the narrative provided zero space for—sam is awarded the implication of a relationship with her but there's no direct/watsonian/relationship dynamic developmental extension of relatability of his own experiences with monstrosity to her and it's entirely up to the audience to make this connection through lines that imply personal experience directed to characters that are Not magda (a supernatural-typical abstraction of sam character exploration, sure but the nature of supernatural's reduction in quality often relates to assuming audience illiteracy) + she's killed within the same episode and is never mentioned again.

i haven't really thought about it past that though because it's not super appealing to me for the same reason(s) i think it's often neglected within the concept especially since the narrative doesn't really provide space for it lol like we got some pretty decent sam and lucifer scenes but past season eleven (and rowena's relationship with lucifer) they were mainly on jack's behalf and weren't really explored past that (minus the gaps jared's acting filled); i think the same would happen to sam should his addiction be the foundation of one of his arcs so i'm fine without it at all (unless anyone has some pretty good fic recs ;P)

[knockknockitsnickels]

My Personal Best & Worst Skins for Each Don't Starve Character bc I love to yap

Based purely on personal opinion, though if anyone wants to share their own thoughts pls feel free. I'm going to be basing these mostly off of the in-game sprites, which tend to have more vibrant colors than the portraits. I'm sorry for not including said sprites, but I was unable to find good pictures of them all. Also this won't be including the Culinarian/Challenger skins, since those are pretty simple and same-y.

Wilson: Imo the quality of Wilson's skins vary from pretty good to just kind of mid. Nothing stands out as a skin I really want, but there's nothing awful either. My personal favorites are a toss-up between the Verdant, Victorian, and Mad Scientist, but for now I'm going with Verdant because I like the vibe. Worst is between Survivor and Merrymaker - Survivor probably deserves the spot for being bland, but I decided on Merrymaker just because I hate the berries in his hair. I think the holly leaf motif is a cute idea, but the berry placement feels kind of random.

Willow: Willow's in a similar situation to Wilson where there are no skins I really love or hate. Best is probably forlorn doll - all of the details on her head make her in-game sprite a little busy, but the yellow eyes and red dress are cute. Honorable mention to Snowfallen and Victorian for also being cute though. Worst goes to Woeful because a) I have no idea what concept it's going for (Lizzie Borden???) and b) I hate whatever's going on with her hair.

Wolfgang: I recognize that the reference to Hulk Hogan has perhaps aged poorly but I can't not love the Giant. Look at his sick sunglasses and try to tell me this skin is bad. Worst is Incredible Strongman (mostly because of how his hair is drawn. It looks like he's wearing swiss rolls on his head).

Wendy: Best is the Moonbound - I like the hair color change (though the washed out portrait colors don't really do it justice), and the markings under her eyes which resemble tears (like runny mascara, if that makes sense) are a fun detail. Wendy doesn't really have any skins I hate, but my least favorite is Survivor - it's just a little bland, and I don't care much for the "bone" motif (her flower & the ones around her neck).

WX-78: WX is the first character discussed in this post where I think that almost all of their skins are fantastic. It's difficult to choose a favorite - I think using a nutcracker motif for the Christmas-themed Merrymaker set was an inspired choice, Snowfallen gives them this cool, ice-themed supervillain look (literally, I think it was inspired by the character Mr. Freeze from Batman), and while I get why people don't really like the color scheme, I can't not love the super sentai theme of the Midori Roboto (it also just appeals to me as a fan of cheesy 80s rock). With all of that said - I'm sorry, I adore their Guest of Honor outfit, it's so dumb. I think objectively Experiment is probably their actual best skin but I have to be true to myself. Worst goes to Gladiator - it doesn't look so bad in the portrait, but in-game all of the different colors - red, gray, & multiple shades of yellow - around the face area make this skin really busy. Concept's cool, but the execution's flawed.

Wickerbottom: My girl. She's got a few nice skins - Snowfallen gets points for making her look like an ice queen, & I think I like her Moonbound skin more than most other people (I just think the 3rd eye is a cool idea for her). That said, I think the Bewitched is the best one - it looks lovely, the witch theme is fun, & it's the only one which significantly changes up her silhouette. Worst is Volt Goat (a lot of the early Halloween skins were kinda bland, I'm surprised this is the first one I've mentioned).

Woodie: I was surprised by how many good skins Woodie has, since I remembered them being a bit underwhelming. I like his Roseate, Merrymaker, and Snowfallen skins quite a bit, and the last shred of Canadian patriotism in me really enjoys the Hockey skin, but his stupid hippy Halloween costume is too conceptually funny to not include. Sorry I'm really predictable at this point. Worst goes to Masquerader - it's way too busy, and on his in-game sprite you can barely see his mouth.

Wes: Triumphant is hands-down his best skin but shoutout to Lover for that smug lil pose he does in the portrait. I honestly don't think Wes has any bad skins - even the ones I personally think are ugly make really fun use of the clown scheme - so the crown goes to Mandrake for being boring.

Maxwell: Poor Maxwell, man. He's stuck with some of the worst skins in the game. Klei, please PLEASE stop trying to give this man facial hair it does NOT look good. Anyway his best is Gladiator for looking cool (though the portrait colors are REALLY washed out) and making way better use of the "dark magician" theme then some of his other skins dark wizard. Snowfallen is also pretty cool however it DOES lose points for the facial hair. Anyway everyone hates Dark Wizard and while it DOES look goofy as hell Moonbound is worse. I don't know why ppl don't mention it, Moonbound is way worse. #StopTryingToGiveMaxwellABeard #ShaveThatMan

Wigfrid: Like WX, I think almost all of Wigfrid's skins are really good and im gay. Moonbound wins the prize bc she looks like a magical girl and I love that. If I had to pick a worst one I guess I'd choose Guest of Honor. I still like it, the outfit's just a little plain.

Webber: Webber my beloved. I love the Rebel on concept alone & the Victorian for making him a lil sailor boy, but Snowfallen has my heart. I love the way he's colored to look like a snowman (the legs on his head being the "twigs") and that the fluff on his body resembles a sweater. Survivor is probably the worst, it's almost identical to the original aside from some messy hair and spiderwebs. However even the worst Webber skin still belongs to Webber, and is therefore adorable.

Warly: Warly my also beloved, who's also got a lot of great skins. I really like the Candyman, but Roseate is probably the best one - I like the little rose shape in his hair. Worst is ABSOLUTELY Carrat, but shout out to Head Chef (the chef hat in the portrait isn't actually part of his sprite) and the Triumphant for being disappointing (come on, "evil chef" is such a fun idea. Why didn't you make him Bobby Flay).

Wormwood: I probably should've used the in-game sprites for this post, since the coolest part of his skins (the blooming) isn't shown on the portrait. Case in point, my favorite Wormwood skin, Triumphant, looks really bland in the portrait, but when it blooms it opens up into this really cool & striking red eye. I tried to include a picture but it was really big & this post is long enough as it is so you're gonna have to trust me, it's cool. I again don't think Wormwood has any bad skins - I guess I'll go with Roseate since the leaves on his head look Uncomfortably like hair, but it's still good.

Winona: I am EXTREMELY gay All of Winona's skins are really hot fantastic and no I am NOT biased. I want to gush about all of them (SNOWFALLEN! VICTORIAN! THE FIXER! THE ONLY GOOD SURVIVOR SKIN!) but the best is the Swashbuckler. She's so good I'm going insane. I guess her worst is Moonbound? I like some of the ideas but I think it just looks kind of messy, esp whatever's going on with her hair & shoulders.

Walter: WALTER MY BELOVED! I mentioned earlier that Wigfrid's Moonbound skin makes her look like a magical girl, but Walter's actually IS a magical girl skin - his portrait even has him striking the Sailor Moon pose! I think some of his other skins are probably objectively better, but this one's still my favorite. Honorable mention to Triumphant just bc I like the idea (turning a boyscout into a dennis-the-menace style troublemaker). I'm going to give worst to Bee Costume just bc the eyeballs on his head freak me out (but I do think the idea of him dressing up as a bee for Halloween bc he's allergic is fun). Side note, a lot of Walter's skins have hats in the portrait but not in-game? I dunno what's up with that, I guess it's so they don't interfere with equipment?

Wortox: Unfortunately none of Wortox's skins really stick out to me in a positive or negative way. Favorite is probably a tossup between Survivor & Masquerade - went with the former based purely on vibes. I also kinda like the sea-serpent theme of Swashbuckler & gargoyle theme of Victorian. Worst is going to Draconic for being kinda bland & similar to the original. I guess you could make a similar complaint about Uncorrupted, but it's that way for LORE reasons so I wouldn't want them to change it.

Wurt: I really like aquatic monster designs, so i enjoy a lot of Wurt's skins, but the best is Victorian bc a) it's cute and b) deep lore. S/out to Merrymaker's cute sugar-plum fairy motif tho. I will give the worst to Verdant because I don't really like the colors (purple, green, yellow, cream, & brown are a lil clashy).

Wanda: Finally, Wanda. I really like the star motif in her Masquerader fit, and while Tinkersmith is super cute, it looks a little too similar to her original outfit for me (I'm also not a fan of Triumphant's sunglasses, but I like that her hair looks like a shadow hand).

Anyway the moral of the story is don't give Maxwell a beard. Thanks.

[mymp3]

wave ^_^)/ !!!! i hate to be predictable, but for the ask game - poor ryoji mochizuki ? :]c

VITY! waves back o/

Anyways here's Ryoji Mochizuki world’s most perfect boy ^_^

favorite thing about them

Where do I start. Nyx being the primordial being, God in the persona universe. All life comes from her. She’s the beginning and the end, she is death itself. Having death be put inside a small boy and his kindness and love making death want to be human itself. Wanting to repay that kindness and love, feeling guilt at the way it treated the small boy, ruining his life.

The fact that Ryoji is Death, is Thanatos, is Pharos, is Nyx. They’re all the same being. The concept and execution of that, who had no feelings either way before, being treated so kindly to the point where it takes forms this bond with P3 Hero. Protecting him from the first arcana shadow as Thanatos on the first full moon of the game. The culmination of these forms is of course Mochizuki Ryoji. Who’s become soft and sweet. He copies P3 Hero’s appearance and gender and is everything that he never knew he wanted to be.

He loves the world so much, loves humanity so much. He’s so endlessly kind and having that kindness be a direct reflection of P3 Hero makes it that much sweeter. The fact he created this form because of his desire to have it and desire to separate himself from Nyx is the sweetest thing in the world. Especially when they’re all still the same being. Ryoji just has a hard time putting that in perspective again, he doesn’t want to be that, (Evident by his dumb Ryoji phase) doesn’t want to go back to that. It’s so sweet. He’s the cutest in the world.

least favorite thing about them

I honestly don’t think I have one.

favorite line

“I know you better than anyone after all… That’s why I came back to you as Ryoji Mochizuki.” (I know this is kind of cheating. sry.)

brOTP

Him and Junpei are so good it’s unreal. Just bros being bros. They hang out, are the most frat of guys and its hilarious. But when Junpei is going through a rough time Ryoji always knows exactly what to say. I find it so sweet.

OTP

Ryomina

They are literal soulmates. They are one another. Mirror images. Love birds. Codependent cats. Made for each other in the most literal of senses. Ryoji made his form from Minato so they could spend time together. Minato taught Death kindness.

Sometimes I feel so like I’m making them up they’re so perfect.

NOTP

This is a bit odd to type out but pretty much anyone who isn’t P3 Hero with Ryoji? I see Ryoji as only being made for one person in particular, so the others just don’t appeal to me in the same way.

random headcanon

Can I cheat and put more than one. I’m gonna. These are all Ryoji post P3 unless stated otherwise.

- Ryoji going a step further and taking Minato’s hair and eye color. Draining a blue Minato used to have til his are bright and shining. The same way he absorbed his kindness.

- He is crazy codependent. Like crazy codependent. If he was able to touch Minato for a split second in November they would never be able to let go of one another. That’s why Minato had to avoid him in FES.

-He's really warm! Got that from Minato too so he's left with all the cold. Ryoji's fun to hug though :)

- Him and Minato watch over the world together in the great seal! Ryoji shares the knowledge while Minato catches up on rest and helps explain new concepts to him when he wakes up. He’s his doorman ^_^ (ha)

- He would really enjoy working retail if he ever got the shot. He loves people in general. Getting to meet them, talk to them, the whole shebang.

- He’s embarrassed of being Pharos. Like people get of old baby photos.

- Ryoji is metaphorically trans baby. Wanting to copy Minato and preferring being called Ryoji, a boy. It makes talking about Gods a bit difficult. Dysphoria and all. Poor thing experiences it in the weirdest of ways. But as Minato and Ryoji continue to be the seal, it’ll get easier.

- He likes sunrises and cheesy rom coms and fairy tales. Classic knight and princess stories. Kind of has the most normal taste ever, but a romantic at heart.

- Speaking of normal, I think “Dumb Ryoji” is a representation on what Minato would have been like if Death was never sealed inside of him. Perfect friends with all of the right people, charming, a bit of a playboy, and best friends with Junpei.

unpopular opinion

I personally don’t imagine Ryoji with a sexuality. His human form was made as a mirror to Minato, and so interacting with him throws him off course. He acts different around him, it confuses him. I don’t see anything Dumb Ryoji does as being a real representation of who Ryoji is.

song i associate with them

My Ryoji playlist is just the most cheesy songs you’ve ever heard in your life.

Anyways I guess my pick is “Rhythm Of Love" by the Plain White T's. (yeah ik. please go easy on me he's so owl city 2010's pop to me.)

favorite picture of them

i like how pouty he gets when he's upset ^_^

[welcometoteyvat]

5.5 leaks, long post containing tempered negativity after sitting with it a couple days. Last post about this so I can exorcise this shit from my brain

tldr varesa feels like another egregious example of genshins colorism by giving her limited character status, and her design (which includes combat animations, character, and idles, not just her fit) screams fanservice no matter how I look at it

my problem with varesa is mostly exacerbated by decisions they took in natlan, mostly natlan’s current pattern of one 5* and one 4* per tribe (I also don't how they can release more natlan characters after 5.x is over if they keep this pattern). they really just made a character who's had 0 story presence thus far into a limited character, while the only representative from their tribe so far, a dark skinned chibi, is a 4*. besides being teased in like. one bulletin board and mentioned by iansan in the archon quest, varesa has not had any screen time whatsoever over the four whole natlan updates we’ve gotten. now you’re telling me that she’s the “rare” character that people are supposed to be incentivized to get to know and then pull for??? a nobody who exists only in offscreen mentions instead of the crazy strong coach girl from the same tribe, one of the six heroes of the entire nation, and someone featured in the travail teaser? miss me with that shit. the tribal chronicles will be centered around varesa instead of iansan, and idk this just rubs me the wrong way. 4* usually get much less character development and it just sucks that after years of being the only natlan character we knew iansan is sidelined for a pale skinned nobody. reeks of colorism yet again

my other problem is her design—she's a wrestler and inspired by luchadores, so couldn't they have made her cooler instead of clumsy and cute?........... out of genshin's context she'd look cute ig and I can see her as a vtuber model or smth similar. inside genshin idc for her because her design direction is not part of genshin's appeal to me. her attack animations are inspired by (?) wrestling moves—but genuinely I can't look at her attacking enemies with her butt and say it won't be taken as sexual by parts of the playerbase, and was probably intentionally designed that way to incentivize people to pull. "cant you just let women be cute and sexy for fun?" genshin designs don't exist in a vacuum and I just find this to be more blatant fanservice than previous designs and animations. also she just feels like a generic anime girl when natlan has been lacking on rep already, so she doesn't interest me. generally her attack strings turn me off and the way she's presented in terms of tropes (clumsy, shy, attacks with butt, big eater, cow girl) doesn't feel like it'll turn out well or be handled deftly

“hey op why don’t you like cuteness and fun and whimsy” I don't care for this execution of those concepts

[dolljunk]

I honestly have grown to feel indifferent to Barbie lately because of so many issues I personally have with the brand. Between the aesthetics being stuck in the mid 2010s, not a lot of options that fall between ultra juvenile or collector fare that isn't my taste, quality issues, or distribution in general, stewing in the negativity can weigh pretty heavily. I'm not the kind of audience Barbie is aimed at and there's only so many times you can say something isn't your taste when the range of dolls is so varied and wonderful outside of a singular brand. My heart will always have a place for Barbie, but even the flames of passion for disliking her has cooled to a relative indifference.

So I was honestly surprised when I saw the Dreamtopia mermaids in person, that sport the Odile sculpt, how much I really liked them. Not only due to the head sculpt, but it really feels like the first time in a long while where a mermaid doll can just be a mermaid. I always hated mermaid dolls that don't have organic looking fish tails, or have sculpted on details that break the concept of a mermaid, like sculpted on candy or stars.

 I also found it super appealing the mermaid body is posed in a neutral position, rather than having a tail jut to the side and being warped, as I find those kind of dolls to look really bad outside of the box.

And even though I am not a fan of sculpted clothing, I really love that this leans into the medium with all of the detail and greebly stuff isolated to just the top. I also love the fact that it isn't a weird abstracted top that's just covered randomly in crap, it's rooted in fashionable inspiration. This collection of Dreamtopia mermaids really reminds me of the 2021 Versace fashion collection, which is a really recent fashion collection for Barbie to reference since I feel like the hard limit for her inspirations stops around 2018 at best. I love the use of oceanic pieces that make her feel like a mermaid rather than some shopping cart filler.

And I am usually not a fan of UV printed faces, but I feel like the choices made actually make use of the medium rather than actively fighting against it, like the soft gradient lips that reference Asian beauty trends, the blush having a shine to it makes it feel much more intentional than other executions of UV print.

I also do appreciate how dark this Asian doll's eyes are since Mattel leans to unnaturally pale brown eyes for a lot of their dolls. For all the fantasy, I think this doll feels so rooted in reality and modern culture.

The only thing I ended up doing is slicing off the lower arms and drilling in holes to plug in arms from a jointed Barbie as I wanted some articulation.

I genuinely am surprised how a budget doll like this can remind me why I love Barbie so much.

[wilted3sunflowers]

This is my Miku pokemon trainer tier list

For this tier list its both my favorites and what i consider a very good miku design

Of course all of them are good miku designs but some shine above the rest

S tier- my absolute favorites Bug miku is so classy, so well thought out, and i think the brown looks amazing with her teal. Shes everything A close tie with bug miku is Ice miku her hair is everything to me im in complete love with this sharp miku. Water Miku is basic but that's all she needs in lovely simplicity, truly feeling like Miku in this world as a water trainer especially with her tan lines from her original outfit it feels like this is her off time from being an idol! Steel Miku had my heart as soon as I saw her with Jirachi. Which was my favorite pokemon when I was a child [it was prior before i even had any pokemon games of my own and only watched the movies] The colors, the motif of star, the hat and the hair its all wonderful to me!

A tier- Amazingly done concepts and totally miku! Rock Miku's dress and veil is lovely, i love they incorporated the veil as mock pigtails. If this was the verison of her without the dress then she would have been in S tier. I love the jester look but thats my own personal preference. She also reminds me of diance with the dress.

Flying Miku is gorgeous, the wispy hair, the translucent areas to mimic clouds and mist. It's an amazing concept and wonderfully executed design! Fairy miku i know is everyones favorite and it's obvious to see why, shes adorable and cute and I too would love to draw her. She has that appeal to her down to a T. Fighting Miku is something i've been waiting for this whole time. Of course no way they could do a pokemon collab with miku and not include farfetch'd! It's a sleek and simple design that takes traits of the original miku's outfit and tweaks them. Though she does kind of remind me of maka from soul eater just a small bit.

B tier- Great concepts! Electric Miku's lightening pigtails are so cute she looks like a little adventure/farmer of currents. She stands on her own as a design and as a tie to miku. Poison type Miku i would have done the same doing mucky/slime twintails though i probably wouldn't have thought to use the new alolan muk which is a very good look and helps add in the colors. It's a great design and while i wouldve put her in A tier some of her design elements hold me off. This is a top tier character design though trust me Dark Miku, i love she came with obstagoon. Though at first i couldnt even tell if miku had pigtails in the artwork. This reminds me just of a nice miku for a cover of an existing song which is not bad it's just how it feels. Normal type miku has good colors, shes paired with an active singing pokemon and while it's simple I think it conveys miku well enough. Though she keeps reminding me of the oversaturated stereotype of early 90s fashion. now on Ghost miku, shes higher than i'd actually put her but for her concept and simplicity of staying to miku but as a glitched out ghost version of her i do have to give props to that even if i find it more on the plain side. I think they succeeded in what was necessary even though this portrays miku AS the ghost instead of just a ghost trainer. ....honestly now that i type my words i feel like i was right and shouldve stuck with her in C tier.

C tier- too basic for my tastes yet still well done Grass miku is cute and all but if you told me she was unrelated to miku, i could believe you. Just that it'd be a fandom joke to call her 'green miku'

Fire miku, reminds me all too much of the anniversary miku song and im sure thats where they got part of the insipration from it but it doesnt really do much for me combined with the fire aspect and how her hair is shaped. I know its to mimic the pokemon shes with its just personal taste on that one. The silhoutte is good.

Ground type miku i had to keep looking up because i forget what shes supposed to be numerous times. Same case with grass miku, i could see someone telling me shes from x thing and unrelated to miku. I'm just not a fan of the design and colors but it's well done. I know when something is just my subjective taste rather than poorly done.

Dragon miku while i'm not the biggest fan of all the cowlicks going down the twintails i know it's purpose is there to mimic the spiked tail of a traditional dragon and i wouldn't want them removed. I think i especially just don't like the tacked on half shawl cape it feels disjointed. Yet i find its a nice concept they did both an almost knight look for her as dragon as always with the concept of knights and dragons battling. Now the knight trainer is battling with the dragon as comrades.

Psychic type miku- i think they started with the least interesting and noteworthy one honestly. It just looks, kind of uninspired but thats rude to say. I know shes here to fufill the concept of miku as a trainer in pokemon and well it just looks like she's her own trainer class that'd have multiple running around looking the same instead of a stand out like a rival or a gym leader in game.

[popculturebuffet]

Black Hair-Story Month Special: Black Hair in Animation

Happy black history month all you happy people ! Every year, often with an idea from my patron weirdkev, I try to do something for black history month. Black lives, history and culture matter and I should dive into them more than once a year.

Still Kev pitched and paid for an excellent idea spotlighting a tredn in animation recently: episodes on black hair.

Now i'll be upfront: i'm a white middle aged balding man. I do not know much about hair let alone the proud history of black hair and the far more shameful history of what white assholes either shaming it as casual racisim or outright coopting it.

I do know I LIKE that we're getting stories like this, to learn something from my children's cartoons. That kids have something they can relate to and other kids can learn about without asking awkward questions that make their freinds deeply uncomfortable.. or in the case of one of these episodes learning that very lesson. It's why diversity in animation matters: personal experience adds that much more to a work, and we shouldn't try to homogenize shit to appeal to everyone. In a time when DEI is being treated as some sort of boogey man by the right, it's good to say "no inclusivity rips". So I will be covering these as they are: pretty good to truly excellent episodes of television and a wonderful short that woudln't be possible at all if we didn't let black creators say what they want and didn't hyperfixate on bein "relatable" to everyone.. aka white cis assholes and no one else.

So join me under the cut for five excellent tales of black hair maintence, casual prejudice, living hair, oblivoius men, heroism, and goblins.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow (Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur) MGADD was one of Disney's best shows and the beginning of it's marvel renisance in animation. After a hiatus following that spider-man animated series everyone forgot happened, it was a bold welcome return.... that disney canceled after 2 seasons while also shelving a trans rights episode so "parents can have those discussions when their ready"

Yeah this show came out in 2023.. and is already over. It's sobering to realize how short a lifespan that was.. long enough to still have a decent run but way shorter for a show that had the praise, style and Laurence fishburne this show had. It took a solid concept from the comics that had a weak execution and made it something special. This episode highlights that. The premise is your standard kid genius plot: to get around a problem in their everyday life our science hero invents something that seemingly solves the problem but really just makes it worse till they confront the actual issue. To the series credit and my suprise it happens way less often than I thought: out of the series only 8/40. And in half of those the chaos isn't entirely her fault: in half of those it's someone else asking and in both cases things going wrong are the subjects fault: Devil took too much potion and Pops apparently does a mad science instead of being honest with his wife about his insecurities.

In the other half, Lunella dosen't use her creation: She creates a date for the dance, but it dosen't turn out well (Though I still count it as she intended to.. and also count the time she remolds said clone later in the season), and decides NOT to use a mind reading gadget for a sleepover. It only ends up an issue because Pops (Who unlike the above example didn't know about the superhero thing yet) mistook it for a remote because pops is good at many things but technology, respecting personal space and telling a dog apart from scottish david tenant alien dog are not among those things.

It also helps most of those cases that do happen.. are grounded in her insecurities in classic cartoon fashion: in this case a combination of being annoyed at her mom's instiance she take hair maintence seriously and a classmate calling her hair "messy" who Casey, Lunella's best friend, tells to go to her office. Which is code for "beat your head into the girls room stall till you learn your manners bitch", lead lunella to make a straightner.

There's also a reason why she can't just buy some her mom's terrified of it. literally. It's a fantastic cuataway as she throws the thing across the store like it's got a mummies curse. Let's be fair though: I'ts the marvel universe. That's absolutely possible.

I also like that Casey is supportive but repedeately emphasies Lunella's hair's fine: she just gets her friend needs to experiment. She helps her style and when the experiment goes wrong offers her a wig from her vault. I love that for some reason this child has a wig vault including a dolly parton and a punk look, thigns she'd never wear but hey you never know when you need to do cosplay.

Or just want to for funsies when you find it in a dying Party City. Whatever works.

Things going wrong in this case is "Lunella's hair falls out" or so she thinks. It instead gains sapience and commits a mass wig murder, killing both Sheba, Lunella's wig and all of Casey's other wigs to teach her a lesson. And to homage fatal attraction as all children's cartoons do.

Turns out Lunella's hair's sentient, and has become Mane, who is mad she never appricated her: didn't use the right comb, a hair bonnet, nothing. And she.. has a point. While trying to take over the world over it is a bit much even that's standard marvel buisness. I mean we wouldn't have paste pot pete if some guy hadn't decided to use his adhesive to do treason. And what kinda world would that be?

I also love the resolution: First Lunella admits her screw up to her mom.. not the living hair monster part, but everything else.. and despite being pretty militant about the hair thing and appricating it.. Adria and Mimi, her mom and grandma, are both sympathetic. Both get the pressures of the world's white nonsense: that her hair is too "messy" or "Unkempt" and both went to lengths to fit into that shit: Mimi tried hot combs, which sounds like pure hell and set her hair on fire and adria had a straightner accident. They both get it just happen and help her learn to appricate what she had: that yes hair takes effort.. but it's a part of her worth celebrating and it's something Lunella realizes: She liked it's bounce, it's look, how it fit in her helmet. You don't appreciate something like that till it's gone

Thankfully what took her hair wasn't neglect and male pattern baldness so unlike me she has a shot at getting it back. She first plans to use a relaxer, what both she and her mom goofed on using it.. but fighting it dosen't go well> While Devil easily ko's the hair dryer Mane uses as a sidekick mane morphs into a doppleganger and this mirror match is too much.. so Lunella instead.. apologizes. Is sincer and honest.. and thus gets her hair back. NO idea if her hair is somehow still sentient she just can't move but she's content, Lunella's content and in a nice bit of continuity Lunella uses a hair bonet the rest of the show.

Hair Today Gone Tommorow is an excellent episode. It set a high bar that only one other episode and the short cleared, covering a subject well, the prejudice one faces, in a fun way. The jokes are on point, including Casey's 40 wig funerals and Lunella's well meaning gym/science teacher's lesson boiling down to "robots amirite". It's excellent stuff and a good intro to the show if your curious to try it.

Hair Comes Trouble (Karma's World) Karma's World is one of two shows in this pile I hadn't seen before. It's also the weakest of all 5, though this episode's still great. It's just clear Karma's World is aimed at a younger audience without anything really there for adults. It was also produced and created by Ludracris.

Karma's World is your standard aseop of the week show from what I can gather, about a middle schooler named Karma who wants to be a rapper and raps. And... not very well at times. The intro rap is painful and the ending rap is not better. Now is it the dumbest rap i've encountered in a cartoon? Not by a mile. I mean it dosen't have the human torch talking about how a girl has gone on to another while he sings his funky song. It's just eh.

That said the rap Karma has about her crisis and her hair is REALLY damn good with a nice beat and some excellent flow. The show could do better and I get this is for kids.. but making music for kids is no excuse. It's not a remote one. If Phineas and Ferb can make a good song an episode, so can you.

Plotwise the episode works as it touches on accidental microagressions: Karma has a sleepover with her friends which goes well.. till they play a fashion game on tablet and don't want to just.. do Karma's hair feeling it's too messy. And when Karma prepares to use her hair bonet, a device used to keep hair safe and curly, her friends baragge her with questions about her hair and thent ouch it without her permission, all acting like she's over reacting. Even newly minted bestie and main character Switch thinks she over reacted.. when Karma.. didn't. Her friends didn't MEAN bad, they were juts curious. It's a nicely nuanced conflict; Karma is absolutely right to both feel uncomfortable and to set boundries. Having someone randomly touch you is not okay in any context. But you get her friends didn't realize they were being offensive. their just kids. Kids say stupid shit.

So like Lunella karma wants to change though unlke Lunella Karma LIKED her hair at first... it's just insecurity creeping in. Thankfully a talk with her mom gets her to see her hair is fine, it's part of her etc... and that it's okay to set boundries. That's a lesson just to this episode but a valuable one in general and especailly in this context: It's okay to be honest about something you thought was uncomfortable and just because someone else thinks you overeacted does not mean you did. Your autonomy matters at any age. And a talk with Switch making things clear gets an apology and Karma.. is fine answering questions at lunch. But it's now on her terms instead of being barraged and made to cry. There's a line between curosity and taking honest questions, and making someone feel bad.

This episode was decent. I didn't really vibe with the show but again it's just.. not made for me. It's made well even if some of the raps were weak, but it's for small children and unlike say BLuey isn't built to go beyond that. It is what it is.

Trial and Hair-Or (Fairly Odd Parents: A New Wish)

I'm so happy to get to talk about A New Wish. From what i've seen of it, I fell behind quickly and will watch it in fully with my friend @jess-the-vampire one of these days (I've been busy and we've had other stuff take priority when we do have time to watch stuff), but what i've seen is excellent, with nice Peanuts Movie style animation that's pure gorgeous and is how you do a reboot: everything happened but it uses a fresh angle to bring it back in this case the simpliest way: Timmy naturally moved on, Cosmo and Wanda find a kid who needs them in the kind and enthuastic Hazel whose struggling at first with a new city, her brother moving to college, and slowly making friends.

A New Wish freshens up everything that's badly aged about the original: Hazel's parents are loving and simply work a lot, but still make time for her compared to Timmy's mostly absent and neglectful at best parents. The cruetly of the world is toned down to realistic levels, and Cosmo and Wanda are scaled back to earlier season levels and the time between series clearly helped their marriage. Gone are jokes about Wanda being a nag, Cosmo being miserable and Cosmo is still stupid, as he should be, but not callously so. He simply needs to, as hazel puts it in the episodes best gag "work on his active listening skills".

Hazel herself is a nice pivot from timmy: She has diffrent intrests such as french fries, scary movies and shojo manga, and tends to be less Selfish. Not that timmy was lacking in giving, he'd often help his family, but Hazel is way more warm hearted. She still has the same short sightness most kids do, but unlike Timmy tries to learn from past wishes. A simple character change and a shift forward in time make everything feel new and combind with the animation and humor, it's easily one of the best reboots i've seen and hopefully will come back for season 2

All this praise said Trial and Hair-Orr is weak plot wise. Joke wise i'ts fucking phenominal as Hazel wishing for special hair gets her sentient hair whose offended she wants to pizzaz it up with something other than a bow. Hazel's various hyjinmks trying to trap her hair, from a war style look to the old west are pure fun and her father's obession with bows is adorable: Her mom was SUPPOSED to help her but got called away and while he mans well.. the man knows nothing.

My problem is the episode tries to frame it like Hazel was ungreatful or didn't appreciate her hair like Lunella.. but she does. She loves her hair. She just wants to jazz it up a little. Unlike Mane her hair diana is just.. a massive dick whose very fussy. The jokes in this one work VERY well but the attempted heart just dosen't. It's an episode that could've worked better, but is okay at least as is. If nothing else it'll always have this

I missed this dipshit.

The Great Tangle (Zookie of Planet Ruby)

Before this I had never heard of this show.. and there's a reason for that. Once again Nick devalued one of it's shows.. but even for nick the way this show was treated is bafflingly. So this show was a co production with Nelvana that seemingly aired normally for it's canadian airings.. but over here rather than air it themselves nick sold it off to Amazon... who did no advertising for it. They gave not one iota of a shit about this series and it pisses me off. I expect that from Viacom, nick is riddled with shows the network threw away for stupid reasons despite being a success by anyone elses metric. But while Amazon Prime used to be wonky with their animated shows they've treated most decently. I mean invincible's budget could use a boost, stop that shit it's making you enough money to buy the moon, but animated shows generally aren't in horrifying danger of being canceled after one season which i'm aware is a bar so low James Cameron's gonna have to fish it out and raise it again, but that's where we are with animation right now.

I'm glad it came up though as Zookie of Planet ruby has vibrant as hell animation and a fun sweet silly tone. The short of the premise is Zookie, a gerbile like alien with magic powers, escaped his tyrinical world and king after watching the videos of Ruby, a young content creator. We've gotten to the point where "characters making videos' Isn't painfully cringy as a premise again, and the two's friendship is nice and wholesome. It's mostly an excuse for a galaxy hamster to learn life lessons and outwit a tyrannical dog king and a tween nightmare. Also he makes a squirrel able to talk.

This episode is one of the series few half hour episodes and it's excellent. It tackles thing from a similar but still distinct angle from Moon girl. Like Lunella ruby sees her hair as just.. hair and her weekly wash day as something that takes 80 years and isn't worth it. So she decides to solo it. Rubu's Mom well meaningly TRIES to stay out of it.. but is panicky the whole time and understandably concerned when her daughter just.. dumps all the product in her hair and is okay with it.

It's a nicely done conflict: Ruby like any kid dosen't understand why something takes forever. As a kid I HATED clothes shopping.. and I still do unless i'ts a t-shirt, but I get it takes forever for a reason and you need new clothes and kids grow out of them constantly. But her mom should've just been honest or at least insisted on teaching her everything first. It's nice to let your kid be intendent but you have to make sure they CAN do something they want to do themselves.

So while making a video Ruby jams a whole ass ginger bread house in there and can't get it out. Her Grandma.. just wants to use the hot comb and it's a nice show of how good a mom her mom is: While Ruby's Mom won't intervene, simply telling her daughter her hair needs TLC... she doesn't let her grandma use the hot comb aka traumatize the shit out of her. It's a low bar sure, most people shouldn't let their parents torture their children, but not every person can clear it.

This being the show that it is, Ruby's solution is to have her best friend use his magic butt sparkles, techincally tale but semantics, to make her hair okay. I also love the quick cutaway that shows Zokie just uses a painful machine for style and only dosen't for Ruby because her bones aren't built that way.

Instead he magics the hair which makes it grow, and grow and eventually envelop the town, fred and her house, leaving the two alone in a gingerbread house with a mysterious hair creature.

Said creature is the tangle in her hair that caused all this whose happy... and mildly upset Ruby wont' take over her. She also tries the creepy stalker route to that planning to keep her forever when Ruby understandably plans to RUN, RUN, RUNNNNN.

The solution naturally sin't that as her hair has smothered the town.. but to finally ask for help. It's only with her mom, more sparkle sparkle magic, and fred's grumbling can they start to fix the tangle.. and actually help her. It's only with love, understanding and patience that this works. Tangle goes away but she'll be back in like.. a week.

The Great Tangle is a fun story that tackles the issue from a very simple idea of "Why does hair care take so dang long". Because it's necessary to make hair good and simply takes a while. It also has a good joke for two, a lot of great animation. Admitely ZOPR isn't the funniest show to me personally.. but it does have great animation, fun characters and a lot of creative energy. This was the third show in this batch to do living hair.. but none of them had the hair take over the whole town and unlike the last two where the hair was kind of a jerk tangle was obesessive and went a bit too far.. but wasn't outright EVIL she simply didn't understand that kidnapping a child forever is frowned upon. She's more a sympathetic monster than a sympahtetic monster who goes right to taking over the world or just a dick.

Hair Love

No celebration of black hair in animatoin would be complete without the wonderful academy award winning short. I have not seen i'ts spinoff series young love. I intend to and feel bad as it seemed to just.. stop at one season. Then again it's hard to tell if it's a viewership problem or David Zaslav just decided fuck it.

At any rate Hair Love is a truly excellent short following a little girl as she tries to get her hair ready using a hair blog... one revealed towards the end to be her mothers. It's a nice reveal as you can possibly figure it out... but it helps add a punch. She wants her hair nice for some reason... and that being part of it really helps explain it.

She tries but being a small children, that dosen't go well. She also has a cat but he's mostly there to meow disaprovingly at her dad, who tries his best or just a big bow but is clearly NOT the one who does this. He also gets into a boxing match with hair.

Hair Love is a sweet short about celebrating your hair, and about effort. The dad basically give sup but once he gets WHY his daughter is so determined, doubles down, uses his wife's videos and gets it done. It also has a truly incredible nad heartbreaking twist: the wife/mother.. is coming out of cancer treatment. The short implies and the series seems to confirm she's fine, it's at the very least in remission and her hair slowly grows back over the credits.. but it's the final button on the short that makes it all tie together. Hair Love is beautiful, worth watching.

Honestly.. all these episodes are worth your time. Moon Girl easily won with Hair Love a close second, The Great Tangle RIght behind it, the karma's groove ep after that and fop at the bottom.. but none of the episodes are bad and all tackle diffrent sides of black hair: Learning to apricate it, the challenges of accidental well meaning racism from your friends, proper matience, making sure your hair isn't an asshole, and that the time and effort is worth it for those you love. This is a wonderful collection of episodes and I was happy to review them. Thanks for reading and i'm pulling for you, we're all in this together.

[struggle-but-its-all-ocean-floor]

Now that chapter 2 is ending (is Hobi's new album still chapter 2?), I really wanted to go over the albums again. I haven't listened to most of them in a long time, and never one after the other, so I thought it'd be interesting to see how I feel about them now... Long post ahead!

Happy

Production: Not the best production, in true Hybe style. It's like there's a filter of white noise. Also, imo Jin shouldn't sing so much in falsetto. The Running Wild chorus sounds a bit weak bc of it. When he belts it's too much as well. They need to find a balance with him. He sounds amazing in Heart on the Window, for example.

Favorite/least favorite song: I'll Be There/Falling

Rating: It's an okay album, but the production sounds "grainy" and the songs are nothing to write home about. 7/10

Indigo

Production: It's decent, but not amazing. RM's English sounds garbled. There are maybe too many collabs. The album's flow could be better. Some songs are too heavy. Knowing how good RM can be, I think all the tracks sound unfinished and unpolished.

Favorite/least favorite song: Yun/Closer (only song I don't like)

Rating: The vision was there, but the album is still very rough, not like RPWP. 7.8/10

RPWP

Production: Pretty good production. Out of Love ruins the flow of the album, so does the interlude. Overall the flow could be better. It goes back and forth between fun and darkish. I felt a bit exhausted listening to the album but maybe my attention span is gone.

Favorite/least favorite song: Come Back to Me/Out of Love

Rating: It's a good body of work. Without a few songs it'd be excellent. But despite many moments of brilliance, imo the album is a bit draining and overstuffed. But he achieved his vision. 8.3/10.

JITB

Production: Good production, but Hobi's rap style isn't appealing to me. I don't like the edgy, dark sound he went for, it's excessive. The instrumentals are all very good, but then I don't like his rap, it makes the songs unnecessarily heavy. I also don't like his lyricism. What If, for example, is so out of touch.

Favorite/least favorite song: More/Pandora's Box?

Rating: The songs are overall good, but the album is a bit of a miss due to the rap style and lyrics. JITB is interesting and ambitious, but I think he failed in executing the concept. Like Indigo, it's not quite there, but I can't say it's not a good album. 7.7/10.

HOTS

Production: Good production, the features lighten up the album. His songs are better when sung by/with other people tbh. JK and Yunjin ate. Imo Yunjin did her best work ever in this song.

Favorite/least favorite song: NEURON/what if... or lock/unlock

Rating: HOTS is more commercial yet more polished than JITB. You can see the growth, but it feels like a bunch of easy listen songs that don't really have a connecting thread. It's a nice album, but a bit empty. I think that's on purpose, it gives OST. 7.5/10

D-DAY

Production: Decent production, not amazing. Yoongi did some interesting things, Snooze and Amygdala are raw, but the songs don't touch me. Most tracks are mid (People Pt. 2, D-Day, LGO,...) and even though most aren't dark I felt drained. There's too much screaming and autotune, and Yoongi's rap isn't as raw or dynamic as before. He usually gets it right but this was Soundcloud level rap at times (eg. Huh?!). Even Snooze doesn't resonate with me...

Favorite/least favorite song: Polar Night/Life Goes On

Rating: It's hard to judge this album fairly because it was such a disappointment to me. Agust D and D-2 are masterpieces and this album pales in comparison. It's very average, even the lyrics can't touch the other albums. 7.5/10

FACE

Production: Okay production, but Jimin's voice doesn't sound clear at all. The album isn't really my style. Why are the solo albums so heavy? They needed some color and more dynamic production. Lyrically I'll admit I don't get what he's saying, but it's been ages since I read the lyrics. The use of random sounds bothers me. I hate the voice over in LC.

Favorite/least favorite song: Letter/Interlude: Dive (the breathing, water, and gulping sounds are disgusting, sorry)

Rating: The album isn't my thing. It's a bit flat too. I only really like LC, SMF Pt.2, and Letter. I actually prefer SMF over LC. 7.8/10

MUSE

Production: Terrible production. The autotune's too much. I don't like how Jimin sings, it sounds artificial and grating. The songs are all mid imo, slightly annoying even because of how Jimin sounds... There's not a single track I truly like. I hate Sofia Carson's voice.

Favorite/least favorite song: Who/Slow Dance

Rating: The album really isn't much, but would be a 1000x better with decent production. 6.9/10

LAYOVER

Production: Decent production, not very smooth. V's vocals aren't crystal clear. Imo his voice sounds a bit flat, whiny/nasal, and even pitchy, especially in Rainy Days. If his tone were richer the songs would sound better. Maybe there's too much autotune or smth.

Favorite/least favorite song: Slow Dancing/Rainy Days

Rating: It's a very easy listen album, but nothing special. I don't have much to say about it. 6.9/10

GOLDEN

Production: Good production, by far the best of the solo albums. This was the first time I listened to Golden in full, in order, since it dropped. It's weird it starts with 3Dl I would've chosen a different track. JH singing "I wanna see it in motion, in 3D" in his thick ass voice is so unnecessary. The ending too... It was a ride listening to the tracks in order. The explicit version should've been last - it's definitely the cringe version. But the album flows much better than I remembered. All the songs are pretty different so it never gets boring. It's a pretty dynamic and exciting tracklist, very pleasant.

Favorite/least favorite song: SNTY/Hate You

Rating: I know I've gotten used to the cringe parts, but Golden's a very solid pop album and a very good debut. It doesn't reinvent pop music, but it's very, very solid. Jungkook elevates the songs a lot, he did a great job singing them. Listening to Golden again in its entirety after listening to the songs in random order every day made my appreciation grow. 8.5/10

Final thoughts: I was surprised by how weak I found the albums. Chapter 2 has a lot of good music but the albums aren't necessarily amazing. In RM and Hobi's case the growth was clear. Their second albums were more polished and their vision clearer. But some albums like D-DAY and Layover were uninspired. I don't think there was really a vision for those albums. It was just about releasing music. Happy was uninspired but the vision was happy music Ig. In the end I rated Golden higher than RPWP. It probably seems biased and wrong, but I'm not directly comparing the albums when I rank them, in the sense that different genres have different standards. RPWP is much more brilliant than Golden, but Golden is a better pop album than RPWP is whatever it is, because imo it misses sometimes. Regardless, to me RM, Jungkook, and Hobi are the winners of chapter 2. They had and showed the most growth, variety, and ambition.

PS: If you made it this far, thank you! I'd love to hear your thoughts!!

[biomic]

while he definitely could've worded it better, i think simon bennett actually has a point about power rangers needing to move away from super sentai *dodges tomatoes*

i've lost count of how many times someone's posted the coolest shit i've ever seen from sentai, rider, or ultra, and all people in the comments have to say about it is "oh lol it's like power rangers". power rangers is most people's first impression of tokusatsu, and that's obviously not gonna be indicative of the wider genre unless someone actively chooses to dig a little deeper (which they usually don't)

stuff like godzilla, ultraman, and kamen rider came out of creatives using original, fantastical concepts to say things about the world around them, power rangers came about because an american executive found a cheap way to make half a show and sell toys. that's not to say the latter has never tried to be more than that or that the former is free from capitalism informing/hindering its creative decisions (lol.), but that's why one is an enduring media institution that's jumpstarted countless careers while the other is seen as "that one kid's show from the 90s with the goofy costumes. wait what do you mean it's still going"

a reboot that does something totally new is probably the only way for PR to dig itself out of that reputation with people who aren't hardcore fans. i think about how that voltron cartoon, before that became a shitshow of its own, was a huge hit with an audience who had zero nostalgia for the original show because it was trying to do more than appeal to the people who grew up with the original. similarly, you look at RTD's relaunch of doctor who and most of the things he brought to the series were basically sacrilegious to longtime fans. killing all the time lords, blowing up gallifrey, having the doctor KISS a WOMAN??????? the show's ruined forever now (still going strong 15+ years later)

and most important TO ME is that this is also a definite net positive for sentai too. i don't think it's a coincidence that right around the time toei ended their partnership with power rangers and hasbro we started to get huge shakeups to the series' formula with zenkaiger, donbrothers, and king-ohger, resulting in sentai's first year of being profitable since kyoryuger. they no longer have to consider how concepts will be marketable to an american audience as well as their japanese audience, which means we can do whatever the hell we want now. is that not the ideal scenario? i just don't see how the adaptation process is beneficial to either franchise at this point besides being tradition