#the last gif is SO BIG there's like 350 frames

[jennalouisecolemans]

just some doctor/clara: [17/∞] very platonic twelve/clara (part 2) / (part 1)

[biggerorbigger]

With increasing worry she realized she was firm wedged in the frame, unable to advance or retreat. The worry grew in to real fear. She never meant to be this big, nearing 500lb.

When she met her feeder, she was a mere 150lb. She put on the first 20lb as she got comfortable in their relationship. It was at that point he told her that he liked girls with curves, so she put on another 20lb as a trial. He fawned over her. Taking constant pictures and videos of her growing body. When she stopped gaining he grew moody and annoyed. They spoke and he said he was only really interested at 200lb. At that point she was close, weighing 190lb, so the next 10lb seemed like nothing.

After 200lb it started to pile on. She has started to grow heavy enough exercise just wasn't fun, and he was making sure food was always at hand. It didn't help that he constantly praised her looks and was so handy, it helped silence the nagging feelings of doubt.

200 became 250. After that the feeding during sex, constant weigh ins, and weight gain shakes made 350 come within less than a year. And eventually she became 490, after less than 3 years together, an average of over 100lb a year.

This was her last chance. She had managed to hold on to a limited mobility, but her weight had plateaued there at 490. Her feeder was becoming aggressive, she new she had to get out. She didn't want this anymore, to be trapped in this body he built not for her, but for himself. A body he had molded into a sick warped parody of what she once qas.

When her feeder left for the grocery store she made what might be her last steps out of bed, steps to freedom. So with each step, her entire body quacking from the strain she knew she was closer to freedom. But as she hit the door frame out of the room she knew she was stuck. Wedged. Trapped.

It was within only a few minutes she heard the light click on and she saw him along the cameras he had setup. She gasped in shock. His face was if anything amused. She knew she had failed in her escape. She whimpered a soft "Sorry" to him. At this "Don't worry I will help you get out of there. It takes a bigger person to admit they are sorry..."

Then without a word he walked up to her, and shoved a clear tube into her mouth. Her eyes wide in terror. She tried to scream but couldn't. Then he clicked a switch, a motor whirred to life, and she could feel the slop pumping in to her. As she squirmed in pain both physical and emotional, he said "I said I would help. I will pump you up fat enough to break out, then I'm going to make you the biggest person the world has ever known or ever will."

All she could do was cry as he simply watched and she knew the pump would never ever stop.

My troubles hehe 🐷

[henry-alex]

if it's not too much trouble, a tutorial would be wonderful and so appreciated!! but no worries if you can't!

no worries at all!! i'm gonna do a full tutorial of how i gif, there's definitely more than one method/way to go about giffing, but this is what's always worked for me! (i’m only showing giffing and saving gifs, no coloring or sharpening, those can vary for each gif maker so i recommend just experimenting with those)

first of all, you’re gonna need a program you can screencap with, i use kmplayer, it’s free and looks like this 

so once you have that and have chosen a video/scene to gif, you’re gonna open it using kmplayer. to screencap you’re gonna press ctrl + g and this window will open up, you’re gonna want to make sure your settings look like mine

and before you go ahead and start screencapping, make sure you save your screencaps somewhere you can find bc the default setting for this is always impossible to locate on your laptop, so press the little envelope button and choose where to save your screencaps.

now you’re going to actually screencap your scene, so choose whichever scene you want and when you’re ready press start, and once you’ve captured enough of the scene press stop.

now you’re almost always gonna end up with way more frames than you actually wanted, which is fine, so i sort through my screencaps before i open them in ps bc it’s easier for me. in this instance, i had 88 frames when i normally like to have around 60-65 in each gif, so i’m deleting the extra one and then open photoshop.

one it’s open, you’re gonna press file - scripts - load files into stack.

now a new window will open and you’ll press browse and select all of your screepcaps for this one gif.

once all your screencaps loaded, you’re gonna go to window - timeline

and this window will pop up (make sure it says create frame animation and not video timeline, if it does just click the little arrow and change it)

click on “create frame animation” and you’ll see just one frame. you’re gonna click on the little lines in the top right corner (the ones i’ve marked in blue) and select make frames from layers like this

once you’ve clicked on that you’ll get all your frames, but they’re going to be reversed and you’re gonna have to fix the speed of your gif. firstly, you’re gonna click on the lines in the top right corner again - select all frames

and once they’re all selected you’re gonna click on that same button and then reverse frames

and then, while your frames are all still selected you’re gonna adjust the speed of your gif. your gonna click the little arrow that i marked in blue and click other...

then a window will pop up, and you’ll be able to choose your speed. 0.05 is the recommended speed, not too fast not too slow and your gif won’t look choppy!

now we’re ready to crop and resize! to crop your gif select the crop tool

and then you’re gonna adjust your ratio before actually cropping. now this really depends on what size gif you’re going for, this gif i’m making is gonna be 540*350 so those are the ratios i’m using. this is how it looks

once you’ve chosen your ratio simply make sure your gif is all centered and you’re cropping it the way you want and press the enter key so it actually crops. so now your gif is cropped, but the sizes aren’t right yet, it’ll still be too big.

to resize you’re gonna click image - image size

and then this window will pop up, where you’re just gonna put in your gif’s sizes. so again, i’m doing 540*350 like so

and then you press ok and there you have your gif! next step for me is sharpening, i use an action for that, and after sharpening - coloring, but i’m not gonna include those in this tutorial.

last, but very important step, is saving your gif!

to save it you’re gonna go to file - export - save for web (or simply use your keyboard - alt + ctrl + shift + s) like so

and a window will pop up. i’ll share what my settings look like, not everyone likes the same settings and some people will skillfully change those while saving different gifs, i don’t though bc i like the way my settings are!

now one last really important thing- you’re gonna want to make sure your gif is under 10mb bc that’s tumblr’s size limit for gifs, your can see your gif’s size here (in the blue frame)

last thing i wanna show your is how important sharpening is!

before-

after

and this is without coloring!!! you can really tell the difference once your gif is colored.

so that’s it!!!! it’s longer than i expected but honestly once you’ve practiced it’s gonna come so naturally to you you won’t even have to think before you do it. i really hope this helps and let me know if there’s anything else i can help with!

[burts-baked-bees]

Keep Me Warm (Hellboy One shot)

Pairing: Fem!Reader x 2019 Hellboy.

Rating: PG (all fluff but lots of language) 

Prompt: I was super fucking cold the other night and when I crawled into bed I couldn’t help but wish I had my own personal Demon Boyfriend to keep me warm at night. So this was born. It’s my first (of maybe many) Hellboy oneshots so be kind to me. I hope you enjoy!!

The bed creaked loudly as Hellboy took his place at the foot, his 350 pound frame threatening to break the small metal legs beneath him.

 “I honest to god can not believe that dad is doing this..” He sighed as he tried to pull the boots off his feet. His large hands struggled with the laces for a moment before his attention was grabbed by the door to his left opening. He watched as the bathroom door swung open and a large cloud of steam poured out over the freezing floor. The demon raised his brows as the form of a girl emerged from the steam, a towel in her hands drying her head of excess water.

 “That shower sucks ass.” She spoke as she patted her face dry. Hellboy leaned back on the bed with a smirk,

 “Can’t be as bad as the bath house Kyoto.” He chuckled as he finally discarded of his boots and allowed his hooves to meet the floor. He noted the way a bit of steam rose from his feet when they made contact with the cold wood. The heat in this shack wouldn’t last very much longer, and Y/n wasn’t a walking furnace like he was.

 “I saw more dicks that day then I ever want to see again. Human or otherwise.” She shuddered as she tossed her towel to the counter in the bathroom. She laughed a bit at the memory, and had she been looking she would have noticed the genuine smile that graced the man's lips.

About a week ago the BPRD had sent a handful of Agents into the Russian winter to scope out a potential Wendigo outbreak. HB, Diamio, Y/n, and a few other footmen had been sent in to “contain” the situation as best they could and everything was going according to plan. That is until Agent McMonahan got himself bitten, and actually attempted to eat Agent L/n. They had taken care of the problem since then, and Diamio had gone back to the US with the remaining soldiers, but Professor Broom had asked Hellboy and Y/n to remain behind a few more days to ensure the problem was eradicated. It was meant to be one extra day or to on the base but instead due to the Russian winter the had been trapped on base without a means of getting home until the storm passed.

 “Gotta say darlin’, hell isn't even as hot as your showers. And I’ve been to hell, it's not an ideal vacation spot.” HB took his coat from his shoulders and balled it up before throwing at the girl across from him. She laughed and dodged the jacket as Hellboy flopped back onto the creaky bed. His red skin clashed dramatically with the off white sheets, and his greasy black hair sprawled out around his head; Y/n walked over to the bed and stood over his large form, her head shaking slightly at his actions.

  “Give me the pillow Red.” She laughed, “Before you get your nasty greases all over it.” He faked gasped, pretending to be offended at her comment before pulling the pillow out from under his back and handing it to her.

 “What’s that for anyway? Dry humping buddy?” He inquired, earning a whack to the gut from the same pillow.

 “You wish,” She snapped, “I’m sleeping on the couch because that bed is the only thing thats gonna hold you, and I’m not trying to get crushed in my sleep.” Hellboy propped himself up on his elbows and eyed the girl setting the sheet down on the small couch on the other side of the room. “Plus I’ve seen how much you drool in your sleep and drowning is not an option for me either.”

 “Yeah.” He laughed, “I get that from my dad.” Y/n snickered at him before sitting down on the now covered couch. Her e/c eyes locked with his yellow ones and they sat in silence for a brief moment, before Y/n became painfully aware of the fact that Red was shirtless and staring at her with drowsy eyes. She knew he meant nothing by it, and he was just exhausted from the past week (so was she), but for a brief moment she could see herself walking over to him and straddling his lap before drowning him in hugs and kisses that he more than deserved. But she was her, and he was him; no way that could ever work out.

 “You gonna keep giving me those bedroom eyes, or you going to bed?” His voice cut through her fog and she felt her face heat up from his words. There it was again, that feeling that maybe they could be more, but as soon as it rose up it was gone again. After all; he flirts like this with everyone. It’s just who he is.

 “I’m going to bed lame-o.” She retorted before grabbing a blanket off the floor.

 “You want the blanket off the bed?” He asked, “It’s cold as shit in here and I don’t exactly need it.” He held up the blue wool blanket in his stone hand as Y/n got herself comfortable on the couch.

 “I’m good HB. You can keep it. Russia won’t beat me, I’ll be fine.” Hellboy raised his brows in a ‘your loss’ sort of way before standing up and walking towards the light.

 “Naw honey, that's alright you get comfy I got the lights.”

 “Shut the fuck up you big baby.”

…..   

Hellboy was awoken by the sound of teeth chattering, and floorboards creaking. He jumped up from his lying position and grabbed his phone using the dim light of the screen to illuminate the body standing at the side of his bed.

 “Y/n what the fuck? It’s like-” He looked at his phone screen for a moment, his scrunched up face trying to take in the numbers on the screen, “-2 in the morning!”. Y/n reached out with her hand and brushed Red’s arm, he jumped once more when he felt the temperature of her skin. “Jesus Christ, your fucking freezing.” He breathed as Y/n laughed through her shivers.

 “Really?” She began pulling her blanket tighter around her, “I h-hadn’t noticed.”

Hellboy shifted some pillows around on the bed, put his phone down, and schooched to the side before holding out his hand. She looked at him with a furrowed brow, “I want your blanket dumbass.” She croaked as HB rolled his eyes.

 “I’m a demon sweetheart. Basicly a personal space heater. Your gonna die on that couch with how cold you are, so quit the bitching and get in.” Y/n weighed the options in her mind for a moment before her eyes locked with his once more.

 “I don’t know Red…” She sighed looking everywhere but at him.

 “Your cold, and I don’t bite. I’m not asking you to marry me.”

Y/n felt her stomach drop as those words left his mouth, he really did always make jokes at the worst times.

 “I hate you…..” Y/n groaned aloud.

Red chuckled as she slowly climbed into the bed beside him. She stayed wrapped up in her blanket as she wedged herself into the space between Hellboy and the mattress. His huge arms draped the extra blankets over her form and he pulled her close to his chest. The sudden envelopment of warmth caused a loud sigh of happiness to escape Y/n’s lungs as her hot breath hit Hellboy’s already heated chest.

 “You okay?” He asked as his hand ghosted over the small of her back.

 “Fuck Russia…” Y/n droned drowsily as she allowed her feet to become intertwined with Red’s under the sheets.

 “I’m not minding it too much.” He spoke softly resting his chin atop her head.

 “You only say that cuz your not cold….” She whispered.

 “That, and I’m not minding having you next to me like this.”

Y/n looked up at him for a brief moment, her eyes making out the rough shape of his face in the dark. Butterflies danced in her stomach as he gave a crooked grin.

 “Liar…” She whispered into his chest. He tightened his grip on her body for a second before chuckling lowly. “Just keep me warm.”

 “Anytime you need.”  

{tag @negansdirtygirl22 } :)))

[televisedbirdwatching]

A Picnic against Harbor Drive: Neighborhood Associations and the Fight Against Freeways

In his book “Portland in Three Centuries,” historian and PSU professor Carl Abbott writes: “On a summer day when the mountains and coast beckoned many Portlanders, 250 adults and 100 children spread their blankets and opened their coolers and baskets on a barren strip between four lanes of busy traffic on Front Avenue and an even busier four lanes on Harbor Drive.”

This postcard shows Front Street to the left, a grassy median, and Harbor Drive plus offramps. Steel Bridge in the background. From here.

The picnic took place on August 19th, 1969, organized by a fresh group of political activists. From the 1950’s through the 1970’s, traffic planners got a little highway crazy: a 1955 report by the Oregon Department of Transportation recommended the construction of 14 new freeways in the Portland Metro area. Even after Interstate 5 was constructed on the east side of the river, city planners wanted to expand Harbor Drive on the west side of the river, completely cutting off pedestrian access to the Willamette downtown.

Harbor drive no longer exists- today, we know of it as Tom McCall Waterfront Park. Though the park bears Governor McCall’s name, we can thank the efforts of a few civic-minded Portland families hosting a picnic on a busy median on a summer day. They called their group Riverfront for People.

Here’s a photo from one of the picnics. From here. 

The picnic was the first of a number of such demonstrations over the course of that summer. The protest was organized by Allison Belcher and her husband Bob. Allison said, “I was ironing clothes, as was the wont of females to do of that time and I heard on the radio that the Highway Commission was going to put this road right down through where the Oregon Journal property was along the river, so I called up Ira Keller [chairman of the Portland Development Commission—one of the city’s most powerful, mercurial figures] on the telephone and I said, ‘what are you doing, why are you doing this?’ He said, ‘You shouldn’t be bothered—you’re just a housewife.’” This quote and many of the other quotes from the RFP organizers come from an excellent interview conducted by Tim DuRoche, here). 

Allison started making phone calls, reaching out to people she had met through a shared interest in the upcoming 1970 City Council election. In the meantime, her husband Bob got in touch with his architect coworkers- folks interested in the historical preservation of west-side waterfront buildings and folks with a vision for a more vibrant Portland than the east side riverfront’s maze of concrete represented. 

This is an image from a 1932 planning report by Harland Bartholemew. Notice the riverfront green space on both sides of the river. During the war, the eastside riverfront would be lost to industrial uses and freeway I-5. Notice the “city beautiful” style buildings. City of Portland Archives. 

This gif from this bikeportland article shows ODOT’s proposal to widen I-5 along the eastbank of the river even further, creating a ridiculous overhang over the eastbank multi-use path. 

The picnic worked. The Riverfront for People organizers got the attention of Governor Tom McCall, who, even before the picnics, had spoken about his hope of creating a public greenspace along the waterfront. The alliance between the regular folks- the 350 people who showed up to have summer picnics on a highway median- and the political establishment built a powerful coalition able to resist the 1970’s hunger for more miles of concrete.

However, despite their new and powerful ally, Harbor Drive wouldn’t officially close until 1974. That’s five years of difficult political work to achieve their goal. This political work helped inspire a new generation of citizen leaders in Portland politics. Carl Abbott writes: “The process of neighborhood planning between 1957 and 1967 was as straightforward as its content. City Planning Commission reports make no reference to neighborhood groups or citizen involvement. They were prepared by city employees for their colleagues in city hall.” 

However, as part of the Harbor Drive campaign, Belcher and others began showing up to city hall meetings, demanding to have their opinions considered in the decisions that shape their city. Belcher said, “It was something new for Portland to go down to City Hall and testify—everything had always been run by these people who’d been in power for a long time and they didn’t discuss it with anyone. There really hadn’t been much change or access up to that point.” PSU professor Ernie Bonner notes that 120 people attended the January 14th, 1970 meeting of the State Highway Commission, where a closure date for Harbor Drive was officially set. 

Harbor Drive helped usher in a new era of citizen engagement in local issues. Allison and Bob Belcher protested alongside Vera Katz (namesake of the Eastside Riverfront Recreational path) and Gretchen and Steve Kafoury (Parents to commissioner Deborah, and longtime political officeholders themselves) to demand that the City Club of Portland allow women as members. Bob Belcher: “What began with Model Cities and then Neil Goldschmidt coming on to Council … was part of this something wonderful that was happening in Portland of that time. It was post-Kennedy—there was a huge energy in the air … there was a lot going on, all that turmoil in Vietnam, but there was an underlying current of all these things on a national level. …Our great virtue was the times energized us—it was a hopeful time. We were pretty outraged and we were young enough that we thought we could make a big noise about this.”

Their ‘young outrage,’ ability to build connections with establishment politicians like McCall, and savvy campaigns for councillors Anderson, McCready, and Goldschmidt would create the initial energy required to defeat the proposal for the Mt. Hood Freeway when it came up  in 1975, and would then help to divert the funds necessary to create the first branch of the MAX light rail line in the metro region. Activists were also successful in defeating a plan to build a 12-story parking garage on the site that is now Pioneer Courthouse Square.

A picture from the early days of the Marquam Bridge. Photo here. 

The west side of the city, with Harbor Drive. Look at all of that open space between the Standard Insurance Building on 5th and the riverfront! Photo Here. 

In 1973, councilman Goldschmidt became Mayor Goldschmidt, and created the Office of Neighborhood Associations. This plan helped formalize a pathway for democratic engagement in city politics. However, the neighborhood associations could be an institution that’s beginning to show its age. In 2019, Commissioner Chloe Eudaly picked a fight with the neighborhood associations in Portland. Quoting from this article in the WW, she argues “Eudaly says neighborhood associations too often represent white homeowners and exclude renters, people of color and immigrants. And, she says, they serve as gatekeepers who stand in the way of denser development and the construction of more affordable housing.”

Eudaly proposed an ordinance that would help bring new voices and interest groups to official budget, land use, and development discussions; discussions currently limited to the formally-recognized and geographically-based neighborhood groups. The WW notes “currently, six identity-based groups—including the Urban League, the Latino Network, and the Immigrant & Refugee Community Organization—receive funding,” but are not currently invited to participate in those discussions. Eudaly’s ordinance hoped to change that. 

2019’s Eudaly v. Neighborhood Association title fight portrayed the neighborhood associations as the white, home-owning, baby-boomer villains: a political vanguard keeping people with younger, fresher ideas out of the traditional channels of political access. These, of course, being the same villains who once organized to stop the expansion of two freeways, created a key downtown greenspace, forced the city to adopt a progressive view of transit planning, and helped establish systems for democratic engagement in city government.

The Portland west side waterfront today. Photo. 

In his interview with the Belchers, DuRoche asked “if we were in danger of becoming complacent or resting too much on the laurels of past successes —and forgetting how to organize and coalesce around neighborhood, regional issues—I was greeted with a rousing, “Yes.”

“I would frame it this way,” Bob Belcher elaborates. “With this event of 40 years ago, this was kind of like our neighborhood—downtown. We lived in Irvington, but in a way, we worked downtown, we played down there, we just wanted it better. …These days we’re grappling with a regional project [the Columbia River Crossing] that has a misunderstood impact on this city and surrounding, adjacent neighborhoods and all kinds of ramifications that we can’t begin to understand. It’s ended up to be not just a simple neighborhood issue that a lot of us in the past could identify with and get rallied to, with an Allison Belcher haranguing us to get out and go to the picnic. It’s far more complex … how do we make the point these days?”

The Columbia River Crossing is no longer the Freeway Fight du jour: attention has now shifted to the I-5 freeway expansion through the Rose Quarter. It’s worth taking another look at Bob’s words above: are freeway projects today really more difficult to understand, ‘far more complex,’ and not just ‘simple neighborhood issues?’

In my last article, I wrote about the Seattle Labor Temple; at one point, a bustling center for labor activism; today, nearly empty. Less than a mile away, three glass domes built by Amazon serve as a new kind of temple to the American Worker. It’s clear from these features of the built environment that the nature of labor has changed. Perhaps labor activism needs to change as well. Considering Bob Belcher’s perspective, how have the fights against freeways changed? How does transportation activism need to change? How do the traditional methods of civic engagement need to change?

However, I think the other thing to consider is the effectiveness of Allison Belcher’s simple protest- a picnic in an unlikely place- and the spirit of activism it inspired in the Portland community. At the end of the day, said Belcher and fellow organizer Jim Howell, it was really about giving their kids a chance to get to the river. If we let the freeway take over the riverbank on both sides, they couldn’t have that chance. “It wasn’t political,” said Howell. “It was Civic.”

-----

I tend to get deep into research holes while writing these. This is part bibliography and part recommendations. 

Carl Abbott’s book “Portland in Three Centuries.”

Carl Abbott’s book “Politics, Planning, and Growth in a Twentieth-Century City”

https://www.pdx.edu/usp/planpdxorg-riverfront-people

https://metroscape.imspdx.org/a-riverfront-park-runs-through-it?print=print

https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2019/09/11/chloe-eudalys-neighborhood-war-the-populist-commissioner-hits-back-against-critics-who-say-shes-strangling-portland-democracy/

https://www.portlandoregon.gov/archives/article/24741

http://rebelmetropolis.org/the-portland-riverfront-that-almost-was/

https://portlandtribune.com/but/239-news/463929-376278-learning-from-portlands-harbor-drive

https://www.cnu.org/what-we-do/build-great-places/harbor-drive

https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2019/04/12/chance-repeat-history

[junker-town]

Vader didn’t need the WWE to become a pro wrestling legend

White never held the WWE title. It didn’t make him any less great.

Leon White, a former college football star who captivated pro wrestling audiences as Big Van Vader (and later just Vader), has passed away at age 63. His son Jesse White, a former college football player and wrestler in his own right, broke the news on Twitter Wednesday morning.

Around a month ago my father was diagnosed with a severe case of Pneumonia. He fought extremely hard and clinically was making progress. Unfortunately, on Monday night his heart had enough and it was his time. pic.twitter.com/hJYjumvxjH

— Big Van Vader (@itsvadertime) June 20, 2018

White was a unicorn in the squared circle, a 400-pound attraction who sold tickets and electrified fans on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. He was an eight-time heavyweight champion — twice in All-Japan Pro Wrestling, three times in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, and three times with Atlanta-based World Championship Wrestling. He also spent three years in the then-WWF, endearing himself to American fans but never holding even a secondary title in the promotion.

But White didn’t need a belt in his home country’s biggest federation to stake him claim as a titan of the sport. Vader was larger than life, an athletic minotaur of a man — he was even known as Baby Bull and Bull Power throughout his career — whose strength and athleticism made him a credible threat no matter where he wrestled.

But if you’re gonna appreciate Vader, you’ve got to start from the beginning.

So how did a guy that big and athletic wind up in wrestling?

White, a 6’4, 300ish pound center, was a popular gridiron recruit out of Bell High School in Los Angeles. Quick feet, freakish strength, and an on-field mean streak developed into a full scholarship at the University of Colorado, where his NCAA career peaked with a first-team All-American season in 1977. Invitations to the Japan and Hula Bowls, as well as the East-West Shrine Game followed. Months later, the Rams brought him back to the West Coast as a third-round pick at the 1978 NFL Draft.

Injuries reduced him to just one season in the league (though conflicting reports suggest he’d lasted a second and got to play in Super Bowl XIV, there’s no official record of this), but he remained healthy enough to begin a second career inside the squared circle. His training began in Minneapolis — breeding ground for the AWA and athletes like the Road Warriors, Curt Hennig, and Jesse Ventura — in 1985, but his size and bruising style made him a natural fit for the wrestling halls of Japan.

There’s where he’d earn the name Big Van Vader, his hulking frame now topped by a black mastodon mask that spewed fog. He debuted in front of a packed Sumo Hall crowd, a reverent audience stunned by the silent behemoth lumbering to the ring to challenge a worn down Antonio Inoki. In his first match with New Japan Pro Wrestling, he’d become part of Japanese wrestling history.

Here was this foreign newcomer, a scourge from overseas, taking advantage of the star who once shoot-fought Muhammad Ali. Inoki was a demigod in his home country, the kind of presence who could turn a wrestling career into an elected position in the Japanese Diet. The veteran had already fought once that evening, but welcomed the challenge in true Bushido fashion.

The American manhandled him. The crowd rioted. Pro wrestling was banned at Sumo Hall for the following two years. While Leon White may have washed out as a football player, Big Van Vader was a star; the scourge of Japanese grappling.

Vader was an attraction; a tough son-of-a-bitch who hit hard in the ring and blended in, as much as a 350+ pound man can, with the strong style that defined the nation’s wrestling at the time. He feuded with stars like Riki Choshu, Tatsumi Fujinami, and Shinya Hashimoto. He sparred with fellow gaijin Stan Hansen, who popped his eye out of his socket with a stiff punch.

No matter. Vader replaced the eye, took off his mask, and resumed walloping on his cowboy-attired opponent. The match lasted 13 more minutes.

Well yeah, he was tough. But was he good?

In his prime, White was a freakishly agile big man who hit like a truck and performed moves once reserved for cruiserweights. His clubbering forearms were a page out of his o-lineman playbook, ringing off the domes of bullrushing opponents. He could devastate wrestlers with one of the most brutal looking powerbombs in the business:

or flatten them with a not-exactly-graceful moonsault from the top rope:

That moveset, along with his behemoth size, made him a commodity back home. WCW signed him in 1990 but only used him sparingly as the the American company attempted to navigate the trademarks behind his name and gimmick. “Big Van Vader” belonged to New Japan, but “Vader” was eventually free to terrorize wrestlers stateside. Sadly, it meant saying farewell to the absurd mastodon mask he’d worn to the ring one continent over.

Vader was a legitimately terrifying force, streaking across the ring in homes across America every Saturday evening at 6:05 ET (TBS was weird back then). He Vaderbombed Sting so hard it gave him internal bleeding. He paralyzed, albeit briefly, a jobber named Joe Thurman. He beat the ever-loving shit out of Cactus Jack — better known as Mick Foley.

His ascension to heavyweight champion was inevitable. The only surprising thing about it was that it didn’t last a decade.

So why wasn’t he a star on par with Hulk Hogan or Shawn Michaels?

A decade of surprisingly real strikes in a product built on fake fighting left him with some enemies. His run with WCW left before the promotion could strike it big with its NWO storyline when he was fired in 1995 for a locker room fight with veteran Paul Orndorff. He was quickly snapped up as the pre-name change WWE’s newest monster. He beat up wrestlers and authority figures in the ring, then fell victim to behind-the-scenes politicking in the locker room.

An alleged title reign was scratched. Vader went from a monster to a high-profile jobber — the guys WWE pays to lose. He was fed to the superstars who found themselves pushed over him. He found himself going toe-to-toe with a lesser Savage — not Randy, not Fred, but Ben. He called himself a “big fat piece of shit.”

That WWE stint didn’t last. White’s time as a champion was nearly over — one last reign in Japan gave him a final taste of gold at age 44 — but he wasn’t forgotten. The mastodon who smashed clowns in the ring (though sadly, not literally) kept himself on the sport’s periphery. He became a feature on the independent circuit. He played conquering hero in a 2012 return to Monday Night Raw to turn Heath Slater’s lungs into soup.

More importantly, he fine-tuned his personality on Twitter. A previously unaccessible monster gave way to a goofy earnestness and a well-earned, if awkward, swagger. He retweeted fans. He told tall tales. He tooted his own horn, incessantly. He posted pictures from the gym where he looked like a keg a drunk Disney Fairy Godmother had regrettably made human.

"@officialTRWC: It's STILL Vader Time! @itsvadertime #bigvanvader #TRWC pic.twitter.com/YbA5x2AVQa"

— Big Van Vader (@itsvadertime) January 27, 2017

He still found time to play the heel. He called a New Japan showdown between high fliers Ricochet and Will Ospreay “acrobatics” and compared it to high school gymnastics. He worked that into a feud with Ospreay and, eventually, a first-class ticket to London for a match against the young Brit. While he was no longer the athlete that turned a go-nowhere Baby Bull gimmick into a culture destroying Big Van Vader, he proved he could still tell a story and rile a crowd, even at 61 years old.

The showdown in England wasn’t quite his last act — matches in Japan against old foes Choshu and Fujinami, among others, followed last spring — but White made it clear the end wasn’t far off the horizon. He tweeted out that doctors had only given him two years to live due to heart problems back in November 2016. Back in May, he detailed surgery he’d had done to help correct an irregular heartbeat.

But news of his passing Wednesday was still a surprise. It’s telling cancer didn’t come for the mastodon, because even cancer was too scared of the Man They Call Vader. Four decades of pro wrestling — defying physics through the air and then allowing them to catch up in a hurry when throwing kettlebell-sized fists — finally caught up to him. His heart, taxed supplying blood to a massive body like a single generator powering all of Disneyland, took a rest.

The memorials and accolades will soon follow. The WWE will create a tribute to the wrestler who was unavoidable in every other major promotion but their own. The fact Vader wasn’t a WWE champion was frustrating. The fact Leon White isn’t a Hall of Famer is inexcusable.

But the mastodon never needed Vince McMahon to turn him into a legend or a superstar. He became one the minute he tore through Japan and sent Sumo Hall into a frenzy with one match.