#there's people that have been fans since the early 2000's here

[retro-friki]

I would never criticize people who haven't "moved on" from a fandom because the Utena fandom mostly consists of fans who absolutely refuse to move on from that anime and that's why it keeps going as we know it today.

[mask131]

So... Wicked is coming back in style. And as such I need to make a little informative post.

Because since as early as my arrival onto the Internet, in the distant years of the late 2000s, a lot of people have been treating Wicked as some sort of "official" part of the Oz series. As part of the Oz canon or as THE "original" work everything else derives from (literaly, some people, probably kids, but did believe the MGM movie was made BASED on Wicked...) And as an Oz fan, that bothers me.

[Damn, ever since I watched Coco Peru's videos her voice echoes in my brain each time I say this line.]

So here's a few FACTS for you facts lovers.

The Wicked movie that is coming out right now (I was sold this as a series, turns out it is a movie duology?) is a cinematic adaptation of the stage musical Wicked created by Schwartz and Holzman, the Broadway classic and success of the 2000s (it was created in 2003).

Now, the Wicked musical everybody knows is itself an adaptation - and this fact is not as notorios, somehow? The Wicked musical is the adaptation of a novel released in 1995 by Gregory Maguire, called Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. A very loose and condensed adaptation to say the least - as the Wicked musical is basically a lighter and simplified take on a much darker, brooding and mature tale. Basically fans of the novel have accused the musical of being some sort of honeyed, sugary-sweet, highschool-romance-fanfic-AU, while those who enjoyed the musical and went to see the novel are often shocked at discovering their favorite musical is based on what is basically a "dark and edgy - let's shock them all" take on the Oz lore. (Some do like both however, apparently? But I rarely met them.)

A side-fact which will be relevant later, is that this novel was but the first of a full series of novel Oz wrote about a dark-and-adult fantasy reimagining of the land of Oz - there's Son of a Witch, A Lion Among Men, Out of Oz, and more.

However the real fact I want to point out is that Maguire's novel, from which the musical itself derives, is a "grimmification" (to take back TV Tropes terminology) of the 1939 MGM movie The Wizard of Oz. The movie everybody knows when it comes to Oz, but that everybody forgets is itself the adaptation of a book - the same way people forget the Wicked musical is adapted from a novel. The MGM movie is adapted from L. Frank Baum's famous 1900 classic for children The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - and a quite loose adaptation that reimagines a lot of elements and details.

Now, a lot of people present Maguire's novel as being based/inspired/a revisionist take on Baum's novel... And that's false. Maguire's Wicked novel is clearly dominated by and mainly influenced by the MGM movie, with only a few book elements and details sprinkled on top. Mind you, the sequels Maguire wrote do take more elements, characters and plot points from the various Oz books of Baum... But they stay mostly Maguire's personal fantasy world. Yes, Oz "books" in plural - because that's a fact people tend to not know either... L. Frank Baum didn't just write one book about the Land of Oz. He wrote FOURTEEN of them, an entire series, because it was his most popular sales, and his audience like his editor pressured him to produce more (in fact he got sick of Oz and tried to write other books, but since they failed he was forced to continue Oz novels to survive). Everybody forgot about the Oz series due to the massive success of the starter novel - but it has a lot of very famous sequels, such as The Marvelous Land of Oz or Ozma of Oz (the later was loosely adapted by Disney as the famous 80s nostalgic-cursed movie Return to Oz).

So... To return to my original point. The current Wicked movies are not directly linked in any way to Baum's novel. The Wicked musical was already as "canon" and as "linked" to the MGM movie as 2013's Oz The Great and Powerful by Disney was. As for Maguire's novel, due to its dark, mature, brooding and more complex worldbuilding nature, I can only compare it to the recent attempt at making a "Game of Thrones Oz" through the television series Emerald City.

The Wicked movies coming out are separated from Baum's novel at the fourth degree. Because they are the movie adaptation of a musical adaptation of a novel reinventing a movie adaptation of the original children book.

And I could go even FURTHER if you dare me to and claim the Wicked movies are at the 5TH DEGREE! Because a little-known-fact is that the MGM movie was not a direct adaptation of Baum's novel... But rather took a lot of cues and influence from the massively famous stage-extravaganza of 1902 The Wizard of Oz... A musical adaptation of Baum's novel, created and written by Baum himself, and that was actually more popular than the novel in the pre-World War II America. It was from this enormous Broadway success (my my, how the snake bites its tail - the 1902 Wizard of Oz was the musical Wicked of its time) that, for example, the movie took the idea of the Good Witch of the North killing the sleeping-poppies with snow.

[mamirhodessxox]

Last Friday Night

Dashing!Cody Rhodes x Playboy Model Fem!Reader

Desc: It’s the 2010’s also known as the trashy dirty messy parties decade besides the 2000’s, Cody’s career was just going off along with his best-friends playboy model career, after a successful WWE Match Cody throws a large party at his house for celebration & It gets messy real fast

Contents: Alcohol, Foul Language, Smut, Fluff, Trashy parties, Douche bag cody in the house, DASHING CODY FUCKING RHODES CHAT, Gets STRAIGHT to the smut so enjoy

{~I'm very serious with you guys interacting with my writing!!!! it would make me so happy & excited, the more comments & reposts the more inspiration i have to write :) Votes and comments are strongly appreciated so please COMMENT COMMENT COMMENT COMMEENNTTT the more comments the more content <3!!!~}

Cody was beyond full of himself, especially when he had this entire Dashing Cody Rhodes gig going on for him, The dashing part definitely got to him, Every goddamn person & their mother knew he was fine as fuck and so did he, his confidence being boosted as-well as his ego was apart of his character & success. He just won a goddamn championship & as his way of celebrating this Friday night? Turning the fuck up.

You & Cody had been best-friends since his early wrestling days within WWE which was the time you became a playboy model, you two were practically made for each other, the both of you being near each other had people questioning their sexuality, You were hot as fuck, he was hot as fuck, and you both knew it, who wouldn’t embrace themselves if they were as hot as you two?

Cody’s house was filled with flashing lights, drunk guests & loud obnoxious music & You knew you were at the right place when your driver started pulling into a neighborhood that sounded like a fucking rave.

You stepped out of the car & immediately Cody stepped out of his house & made his way towards you “The most important guest of the night finally arrives” he wraps his arm around your waist and walked you in while you laughed into his shoulder “Shut-up Cody you’re just saying that!” You & Cody had a strange dynamic that people automatically thought you dated, You two would hold hands everywhere, cling to each other, hell paparazzi found you two getting lunch one time with his hand comfortably against your ass. You two were once labeled as the decades IT couple no matter how many times one of you addressed you were “just friends” which was complete and utter bullshit.

Cody lead you to the kitchen and gave you a cup filled to the brim with alcohol just for you “Here you go doll-face, slow sips ‘kay?” You giggled nodding before kissing his cheek, you took a large sip of your beverage with him and hummed hooking your arms around his shoulder “y’did so good tonight in the ring Cody, I’m so proud of you” he smirked “Yeah? I won just for you gorgeous.” You smiled as you felt his breath fan over your lips, The party was such an obnoxious scene, Everyone was either drunk or bumping into you two about to get drunk or make dumb life choices, for example, You two went into the backyard where someone practically thundercunted themselves off of his roof and into the pool

And somehow SURVIVED? Cody laughed and took a swig out of his beer bottle before turning to you yelling over the music “Now, correct me if I’m wrong but I think we should go off somewhere more quiet, a little more intimate?” You smirked at the Idea & nodded while he set down his drink & lead you off inside his house & to his room.

All of this brought you to the current situation you were in now, getting sat on-top of the dresser in his room while he dug into your neck leaving hickey after hickey and tugged on your hair a bit as he stood in-between your legs, he pulled away and grabbed you by the jaw & slammed his lips against yours & even slipping his tongue last your lips while unbuckling his pants & pulling, “Anyone ever fucking tell you this is better than the goddamn playboy magazines I see you on everyday?” He teased while pulling away to rip off your shirt & bra, you couldn’t blame him rushing the situation since you were practically wet & aching for him

You sighed out as he pinched your nipples & bit at your neck while letting out a cocky laugh “Of course that fuckin’ turns you on, almost everything I do turns you on huh?” You let out a whine in response before nodding your head, You already looks disheveled, hair all sloppy, eyes glazed over, mouth parted, your hands clutched over his shoulders as you dug claw marks into his back while he would fondle your breasts & grin at you “Such a good damn girl for me aren’t you sweetheart?” He slid off his pants & took your panties off before aligning his cock with your entrance and holding onto your face while thrusting himself inside of you & letting out a guttural groan.

“So fucking tight f’me princess” He whimpered into your ear while you shoved your nose into the crook of his neck moaning, He slammed his hand against the wall behind you as he fucked further into you & filled you up to the hilt with his dick alone, You threw your head back letting out a loud moan before looking at him in the eyes “g-gonna fucking cum Cody!” You whimper out while he slapped your clit “It’s just that fucking easy for you isn’t it? All it takes is my cock to be inside of your pretty little pussy for more then 4 minutes & you already wanna cum and make a mess?” He mocked you while he started to pick up the pace.

You squealed and scratched his shoulders throwing your head back moaning “h-Holy shit cody!!” You felt like he was forcing you to your climax given the fact you felt that little feeling in your tummy, your body writhed against him while he continued fucking himself into you & rubbing your clit at a ridiculous place before sticking his tongue in your mouth & kissing you before groaning against your lips & spilling his cum inside of you while you had just hit your climax.

He held you close before picking you up & lying him down on his bed while he went to go grab a wet warm wash cloth but you teased him while wrapping around his blankets “Such a gentleman mr Rhodes” he looked over shrugging and chuckled “Only for the best.” He came back over to you & kissed the top off your head before cleaning you up “I think it’s safe to say you’re mine now sweetheart.” You laughed and tilted your head “Oh yeah? What makes you think that?” He looked at you scoffing “I just fucked you on my dresser shouldn’t that be enough for you?”

You laughed with him as he climbed in the bed with you ignoring the loud music & music surrounding the house & wrapped you around his arms while you fell asleep.

By the time you woke up the next morning you were more than hungover, in-fact, you were positive you were hot by a sledge hammer, You sat up groaning pushing your hair out of your face & huffing while Cody walked in with breakfast “Wakey wakey eggs and bakey” he plopped a plate on your lap while you rubbed your eyes glaring at him “I feel like I got ran over by a semi-truck.” He hummed “Well aren’t you just a little ray of sunshine!” You held up your middle finger & took a sip of the coffee he handed you “fuck you” he shrugged and set your plate of food on the night stand “Geez again? Wow you must REALLY be feeling me huh?”

You groaned out in annoyance and got up out of bed putting your clothes from last night “You’re not very funny codes.” He grinned and handed you a hairbrush “I’m fucking hilarious what are you on about.” You walked off to the bathroom but felt a quick smack on your ass and looked back to Cody walking off with a laugh.

Thank fucking god you did this on a Friday night because you were a hot mess.

🏷️ list: @ginswife @coolpastelartshoe @greatkoalawizard @cokolin044 @kotoriarlert @alicerosejensen @bunnybot55 @agent-dessis-posts @adollonyourshelf @valkyrurr @alyyaanna @niknakbucks92 @mini-rhodes @southerngirl41

xtripleiiix’s Masterlist

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

WIBTA if I posted my art from a zine early?

I (23nb) joined a zine for a semi obscure 2000s manga/anime as a page artist with two of my friends. I enjoy this media but I don't really consider myself in the fandom, I only joined because one of my aforementioned friends is a huge fan of it and the other friend is also a casual enjoyer and we thought it would be fun if we all did a zine together.

However.

Most zines have a timeline of around 9-10 months from beginning to publishing but this one's been in production for almost 2 years. I've been in a few zines and this one has the worst organization I've ever seen in any project. The timeline on the discord only covered the first 5 months and had no estimate for how long the production would be, but a year and a half for publishing is pretty unheard of. The only check-in for progress that I remember didn't even require sending in your piece, you just had to say if you were finished or not and only a handful of the 30ish people on the discord responded lmao. Both of my friends ghosted at this point and the Singular mod (there might be two mods. I can't really tell) didn't dm them to see if they still wanted to participate or anything. Since there is only one person doing everything me and a few others have asked if they need any help and every time the mod(s) say that they're fine. every month or two someone will ask how the production is going and the mod will answer, and then another month goes by and the cycle repeats. I think the zine has finally gone into its “preorder interest check” stage (so not the actual preorder) but judging by how long everything takes i estimate that it'll be another 2 months at least before it actually goes into preorder. Its also never been clear if this is a free zine or if the sales will be donated to charity or distributed among the contributors. Since there's Allegedly going to be a physical copy it's gotta at least use the sales money to pay for production and shipping costs, but I have no idea if I'll be compensated with a physical copy or any money, especially if I do the thing that I might be TA for.

So here's my actual question. WIBTA if I posted the art I made for the zine before the mod says it's ok to do so? A big part of zine etiquette is that you do not post the final piece until the zine is finished, and the repercussions for someone who does range from a mod dming them to take it down or being kicked out of the zine entirely or in the absolute worst case, called out and blacklisted in the fandom and zine circles (I don't think anything that serious will happen to me but I have anxiety so I'm always imagining the worst thing) Most of the people on Tumblr in this fandom are kind of annoying fandom mom millennial types so I don't really want to deal with any possible backlash from them lol. If I just posted my art on Instagram idk if any of them would see it, but they Definitely would if I posted on Tumblr since the zine originated on there and it's such a small tag. I'm also so frustrated with the experience I kind of want to write something cunty in the description about how it's a zine piece for a zine that probably will never come out but I know that's just being petty and would probably invite drama. Also since I drew this thing a year and a half ago it's a little busted looking so I might redraw parts of it, so posting it would still be kinda shitty but it would technically be a different piece from the original one I submitted to the zine.

What are these acronyms?

[misericordel]

(comes to the toa anniversary munday late with starbucks)

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is.

Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing!

Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together.

Name: leon

Pronouns: he/him or they/them. idrc

Birthday (no year): august 30th!

Where are you from? What is your time zone? i was born in virginia but spent like 90% of my life in the midwest ✌️ i'm central time

How long is your roleplay experience?

i've been roleplaying since i was a kid! i probably have around 10 to 12 years of "roleplay" experience

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole?

i started roleplaying on gaia online before the inflation really hit in the late 2000s (iykyk), and then i moved to deviantart took a break from that and now i'm here!

How were you introduced to TOA?

found it on twitter through a moot i think. the details are foggy at this point LOL

Do you have any pets?

yesss my two beloved chichis beethoven (bae for short) and skippy. yall may have seen em in the server but they're my babies and i spoil them so much. i've had them for around 7 — 8 years and my family adopted them from owners who neglected them a lot.

What is your favorite time of year and why? (Season, holiday, general period)

late spring early summer you will always be my it girl

What is your IRL occupation?

i have a fancy title for it but for simplicity sakes i'm a university receptionist

Some interests and things you like/enjoy?

hmmm main interests are probably fire emblem, j-pop and vsynths/vocaloid/pjsekai (spongebob holding his hands out meme) I WAS A VOCALOID FAN STARTING IN THE LATE/MID 2000S

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play?

other than fire emblem i play a lot of jrpgs. i've been really into balatro and fields of mistria lately! (ooo you want to buy fields of mistria so bad) also project sekai as mentioned above. gacha is a curse though

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon:

i've always liked most psychic and dark types. my favorite pokemon is blaziken bc of nostalgia haha

Tell us some funfacts and trivia about yourself!

much of my time spent writing here in toa is on company time bc i just happen to have access to a computer my entire work shift and it's generally quiet enough to do so

How did you get into Fire Emblem?

like a lot of people i first saw fire emblem in smash bros, then later on i think a year or two after awakening released i saw it on the shelves at my local gamestop and bought it because i recognized the namesake. of course i fell in love with fire emblem from that point haha (i have 100+ hours in awakening. lol )

What Fire Emblem games have you played?

i've watched playthroughs of a lot of em. for properly played though genealogy, blazing blade, sacred stones(never finished), awakening, fates conquest (never finished), three houses (golden deer + never finished blue lions), and engage!

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games:

first: awakening

favorite: genuinely a tie between engage and genealogy

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series!

veyle, sigurd, edain, caeda, tie between timerra and eldigan (yeah sigurd was actually beaten out by veyle. crazy times we live in.)

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason!

the very first one was cherche from awakening! very much was attracted to her weirdo onee-san vibes when i first played, and every playthrough after i would always put in extra effort to make her really good in my army haha

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳

y'all already know i go fucking rabid for sigurd von chalphy

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: chrom (BY CHOICE) - Fates: xander - Three Houses: claude - Engage: alfred bc hes a sweetie pie, though i almost s supported diamant instead

Favorite Fire Emblem class?

mage knight beloved

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable?

villager that needs a lot of extra planning to get anywhere good, or like a merlinus merchant type haha

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? (Black Eagles, Blue Lions, Golden Deer, Church of Seiros, Those Who Slither in the Dark, unaffiliated civilian, other - for example Almyran)

golden deer hehe

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent?

all banes. all of them. every single one. if you manage to reclass me they all go to neutral instead

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? (Firene, the Kingdom of Abundance; Brodia, the Kingdom of Might; Elusia, the Kingdom of Knowledge; Solm, the Queendom of Freedom; Lythos, the holy land of the Divine Dragon; Gradlon, the desolate land of the Fell Dragon)

firene bc i'm just a little guy. i'd die at port florra though.

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔(separate letters, to-ah, other?)

toe-uh. always have and always will

Current TOA muses:

veyle. feels weird to be a single muser.

Past TOA muses?

lesse iin order from my very best knowledge : sigurd -> cherche -> edain -> arthur (fe4) -> caeda -> askr -> timerra -> here i am now. that's probably a little worbled of a timeline though

Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again?

my first toa muse was sigurd! i certainly have been weighing in my hand if i want to pick him up again recently

Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? (If you filled this out last year, has this changed in any way?)

i gravitate to any character who suffers from the empathy disease i think if i were to give an answer that were all encompassing LOL i do like muses that are a little stupid though

Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could?

i cant handle the stoic type or the intelligent type. it's a running gag for me at this point that i'd be interested in writing laurent or miriel if i were smart enough to do so

What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? (If you filled this out last year, has this changed in any way?)

i love writing anything with/in relation to romance. it's like my bread and butter haha. i think i do conversations between characters best and have always struggled with writing things like fight scenes (though i have improved since i started)

Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”?

i'm pretty satisfied with what i've been able to write for veyle here. i do like when i get to write veyle getting angry/fighting back though!

Favorite TOA-related memories?

0 days since our last food discourse

Present or past tense?

present tense! started writing in it and it just kinda stuck with me.

Normal size text, small text, no preference?

small text girlie for lifeee

Got any potential muse delusions to share? 😉 

wouldn't you like to know weather boy

[kafus]

random infodump about the various pokemon related shit i do online and beyond (this is about fandom/community stuff and not my actual in-game accomplishments):

i'm a moderator for the ribbon master discord, which is a community dedicated to getting as many ribbons as possible on individual pokemon (i have many ribbon masters myself!) technically i'm also a mod on the community reddit but uh i just let the other mods handle the reddit lol. i've been in the rm community for 4 years now

not me specifically but ayano who i share a brain with runs the pokemon fansite blue moon falls which has a lot of comprehensive articles and custom coded tools pertaining to RBY/GSC and the rest of gens 1 and 2 (she's the reason that the internet has all those nice gifs of stadium 2's idle animations now btw)

in speaking of ayano, she's also a full odds shiny hunter and is a decently well known name in that community due to her resources and general friendliness lmao

i'm not as active /w it atm because my art focus has been more on human characters but for the majority of my life i was what people would call a "pokefurry" and i have a metric fuckton of pokemon artwork under my belt

on that note i've written pokemon fanfiction on occasion too though nothing major

i'm a casual VGC competitor - i ladder in-game relatively often, keep up to date with the meta, and i attended my first regionals this year and met up with a lot of pokemon folk in the process! i hope to attend more events in the future

i'm planning on getting involved with a local pokemon convention near me to distribute mystery gifts for old pokemon games the same way a toys r us would in the early-mid 2000s

i have been a part of and donated money to a few indie pokemon sites and projects, including pokemmo, gpx plus, and pokemon eclipse (previously known as pokemon the moon rpg when i was a kid and played it for the first time!). in speaking of eclipse even though i don't play it anymore i'm the reason that a 3d model for shadowobliveon exists lol

i know a tiny bit about romhacking and made a romhack of firered that lets me play the entire game as kafu once, with kaf as my rival. i also have a bunch of personal lost media of "story" videos i made as a young child by stitching together recordings of fake cutscenes i romhacked into pokemon ruby

i made all these really shitty pokemon fangames when i was around 10 years old and i'm kind of obsessed with them

apparently i'm a pokemon horizons fan now and people keep acting like im the second coming of christ in terms of likodot on twitter so maybe that means something (LIGHTHEARTED I AM JUST SHOCKED BY THE POSITIVE ATTENTION)

i own more pokemon plushies than what's healthy and i wish i could show them here but a lot of them are in a storage bag rn

my pokemon game collection is also fucking ridiculous but i'm too lazy to put all that together for a photo. for what it's worth i own at least one copy of every single mainline pokemon game before the 3ds era including all alternate versions (diamond pearl AND platinum instead of just one for example) and almost all spinoffs aside from like, 3 of them

i'm probably forgetting shit tbh the 2010s are like a blackout void to me sorry

i've been a pokemon fan since 2004 though when i was 4 years old i am in hell

[starwarsfandomh8speopleofcolor]

Not that I think they would have been shipped otherwise, but Reva and Obi-Wan were vastly different ages while Sabine and Shin are roughly the same age. If Reva was white I don’t think Reva x Obi-Wan would be as popular as Wolfwren

I don't want to argue with you about this... but I don't think you know what you're talking about here and I respectfully disagree. Like I've been in fandom reading fanfics since basically 2000 and age has nothing to do with it!!!

Like ok off the top of my head just restricting it to star wars fandom do you not realize how many people shipped Jyn Erso and Krennic just because Diego luna has an accent???? (he's white passing otherwise)

People ship dinluke too!!! (pedro pascal is 48 and Luke is supposed to be like late 20's at the most? even if you go by mark hamills age in rotj and aged him up to early thirties that's still at least a dozen years difference in age).

Like can we please stop pretending that misogynoir doesn't have a HUGE factor in why Reva wasn't shipped with Obi? Like I'm not even saying I ship them but honestly look at daisy ridley and adam driver for crissake!!! there's an 8 year difference and that's not taking into account how John Boyega was like almost exactly Daisy's age.

look I know you follow us here and I don't want to make you feel bad but maybe don't do the white fans job for them when you defend their misogynoir ok?

mod laina

[yellowstarwater]

Okay so this is going to be my overall thoughts on Clone High season 2!

A lot of people have and will continue to complain about how it’s not as good or as funny as season one and that’s both fair and unfair. As a fanfic writer I know how hard it can be to continue writing a story after not working on it for a long time especially after working on new projects. And the same can be said for the show runners here, a lot has changed since they first produced season one. This was something that if it wasn’t for COVID it might have never been revived, so I can forgive them for it not feeling exactly the same as before after all it was twenty years ago. Jokes that worked then wouldn’t work now, I get and respect that. With that being said it could have been better.

For one besides Abe in the first episode no one seems to struggle with adjusting to 2023! That kinda of doesn’t make sense, I get not wanting to bring it up all the time but side jokes and cutaways could have worked. I also found it weird that we barely see any foster parents this season, you’re telling me that the Clones from 2003 parents weren’t freaking out when they suddenly came home after being gone for twenty years! I mean it’s not like the foster parents were important to the story but they could have shown some kind of reaction to them just showing up again?!

Like wouldn’t it have been funny if the foster parents were like super protective of their kids when they came back to the point of putting tracking devices on their phones or something?! I don’t know maybe not that but something! Also is John Stamos alive or dead after what happened? It’s also never addressed!

I do like the inclusion of all the new characters though, they do really add some new elements to the show and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. But again I expected this going into this season. Another thing that has changed is that besides Harriet no one seems to be trying to live up to or are pressured by expectations of their Clone parents. This was a running theme in season one for all the characters and yet this theme is just given to one person now? Sometimes the other clones might mention something but it’s very rare.

Now to get into the relationship that took up most of the season Joanfk, as a huge fan of the ship I was both excited and dreading to see how this relationship would develop. And that’s mostly because of the new intro, I personally don’t think the creators were ever going to make them a couple in 2003, they clearly seem to favor Abe/Joan which makes sense because during that time period the Friends to Lovers trope ruled most shows. I feel like Joanfk was done because they knew that a lot of the new fans wanted to see it, after all Joanfk shippers are one of the main reasons this show was not only revived but people kept talking about it until season two came out. I’m not gonna say that it’s not possible that they could get back together because Clone High is satire a parody of all the teen drama shows and movies it’s very possible that they could get back together again at some point. And honestly I hate the reason they gave for breaking them up being that JFK wasn’t smart enough both intellectually and emotionally for Joan to stay with him when throughout this season alone we can see that this isn’t even really true. I appreciate that they did this and even gave them a semi respectable breakup but (and I could be wrong) BUT clearly they’re not that into Joanfk. And yet still the biggest obstacle to Joanfk starts and ends with Joan not being sure how she feels about Abe (or even JFK sometimes) and not doing anything to resolve it.

Abe and Joan if the show had continued it’s run in 2003 this couple would have probably been end game, it’s the classic Friends to Lovers trope that the 90’s and early 2000’s loved. After all the show Friends basically coasted on this one trope as well as Saved by the Bell etc…Personally I think the Friends to Lovers trope can work if it’s done well Kim Possible is an example that I can think of that does this well and though some might not like Kim and Ron being endgame I think its actually done well and believable. And then there’s the times when I don’t think it’s done well (again this is just my opinion!) like with Danny Phantom. Don’t get me wrong Danny and Sam started off as cute and I did root for them…in season one after that the writers basically just dragged this trope out till the very end. And it didn’t help that (in my opinion) Valerie and Danny’s relationship was a lot more interesting. I mentioned this because Abe and Joan’s possible relationship seems to be something the writers want to drag out and this is bad because you could very easily lose your audience because of that. I get that dragging it out is part of the humor and satire but in a time where a lot of shows can easily be canceled (especially with the writers strike still going on) it’s not the best way to go. I will never like Abe and Joan being together as much as Joanfk (I really do think it’s the better relationship between the two of them despite what was said in episode seven) but I can at least get used to it and be happy for them if it’s not dragged out. Or they can make the three of them polyamorous I’m fine with that too!

The other couples are fine for the most part Confucius and Harriet will have their issues I can already see it but I am willing to give it a chance. Again the last episode (spoilers if you haven’t seen it) it makes sense that Harriet acted the way she did because again of all of the clones right now she seems to be the only one who feels any pressure about living up to her clone mother. And Confucius well he has rich foster parents even if he doesn’t qualify to get into a college he’ll be admitted it makes sense that he’s not worried about it or thinking about it.

Frida and Cleo are perfect, I only wish there had been more hints of them throughout the season but in like two episodes the pace and execution of this relationship was done perfectly and believable. It’s one of the few couples that’s just cute and has nothing else messing with it. Was it fair that Frida let go of Joan to save Cleo, not really but it made sense that she would save her girlfriend, over her girl friend.

Okay now to talk about the characters one on one.

JFK continues to improve and grow despite this being a satire teen drama show, he makes male friends, is in a committed relationship with one person where he Doesn’t cheat or even thinks about anyone else all the time. (Only one episode sorta counts) It’s hard but he accepts Joan’s decision to break things off with him even though he really does love her to the point of wanting what is best for her even if it’s not him. He even becomes friends with Abe and encourages him to pursue someone he still very clearly loves. I wouldn’t be surprised if we find out he was faking it in episode seven just to give Joan an excuse to leave because he was afraid he wasn’t enough to make her happy.

Cleo didn’t get enough screen time for someone who is a main character, and besides her relationship with Frida and squashing her beef with Joan. And the fact that most of the beef was between them fighting over Abe is strangely never brought up. She’s not given much to do throughout this season besides being Homecoming Queen. An episode where she has to navigate the world of social media like Instagram would have been interesting to see. Maybe in season three?

Frida is one of the new main characters and I think she fits well with the show so far. Again love her relationship with Cleo, but besides that I think she’ll be like voice of reason character going forward. Not much to say besides that because well this is her first season on the show!

Harriet another new main character and again seems to be the one dealing with the pressures of being a clone the most. Wanting to be great because her Clone mother was Harriet Tubman makes a lot of sense and I think it touches on a lot of people’s fears of not doing anything important with their lives. I looked forward to seeing how she grows.

Confucius another new main character who is just trying to gain the attention of his foster parents. It’s very clear that attention is what he wants out of anything. You can see it whenever they show him on FlipFlop, and again the fact that he’s not worried about college makes sense whether he doesn’t want to go or knows that his parents will pay for him eventually. I look forward to seeing how he develops.

Topher the last new main character, there is a lot that someone can say about him, I’m pretty sure he’s now the favorite character whether it’s because you love or hate him. Honestly I like that they have a character that’s awful, do I think he’s closeted…maybe but I do believe that one of the reasons he was “white leveraging” Abe is to keep Abe’s attention to himself. I don’t think he had any friends before Abe was thawed out and he probably wouldn’t be able to hang around the group if it wasn’t for him. So it makes sense that he would “white leverage” him from telling Joan how he felt because then Topher would no longer have an audience because Abe would likely spend all his time with Joan.

Abe learns a bit throughout the season but I don’t think he grows much until nearly the end. He spends most of season pinning over Joan and…that’s it he doesn’t become friends with JFK until the last episode and as far a we know the reason why he even realized that he loved Joan was because Cleo had made her look hot in season one. It’s never addressed why he suddenly loves her, and yeah that’s it. Sure he’s “punished for his behavior” in the first episode and it almost makes it seem that Joan and Abe won’t be friends this season but that is quickly forgotten by the end of the episode. Again I do think the Joan/Abe relationship will happen or at least be addressed between them but it’s likely that it will be dragged for a while. I will admit that the moments where they’re together just being friends is nice though.

Joan changes the most throughout this season whether you liked the changes or not. It starts with her dating JFK which while I enjoyed seeing, it was never addressed on why she accepted his offer in the first place. Sure they slept together at prom but there wasn’t enough done to explain within the show why she agreed to date him. (Honestly it’s like the show runners were like, the Joanfk fanfic writers did that for us we don’t have to explain ourselves!) Then she becomes friends with Frida and Harriet which I thought was nicely done, then she and Cleo come to an understanding! But her feelings for Abe linger throughout the season and something that I noticed after episode ten is that Joan is codependent, if she believes that she doesn’t have a boyfriend or friends to support her then she turns into a monster. Season three will either address what she did in the first episode or throughout the season either way she’ll be punished for it. Even if she did realize at the last minute that what she was doing was wrong.

The rest of the cast was fine Mr. B’s backstory was compelling, I don’t know why the writers felt that Scudworth needed a love interest but…it happened? Candide is interesting enough we’ll see how it goes. Sorry not saying more but this is pretty long already.

[pielordcollin]

Intro Post + Blog Links!!

Figure I should make a proper pinned post !?

Hi there! I'm Collin PieLord, I'm a 2D animator and director who loves making many many things..

Here's my animation reel featuring some personal works (listed below) and some of my work for Eddsworld and more!

Here is where I post all of my personal art. Mostly just fan-art and these OCs but anything is possible..!

Here's more links for you..

Linktree | Projects I've Worked on

Here's some of my personal works and links to their respective Tumblr blogs..

OddBall Adventures is a comedy-drama fantasy adventure cartoon about three delinquents finding themselves in mischief, just trying to survive their crazy world.

I started this in 2014 on LittleBigPlanet with my two friends Dave and Caleb, and was ultimately got me into animating and writing in the first place- and since then I've made over 2 hours of animation with our incredible team and I'm just so joyful. Check it out!!

@oddballstudios | More Links | Latest Episode!!

Work in Progress is a teen comedy-drama, coming of age, animated series. Set in Washington State during the late 2000’s and early 2010’s, Work in Progress follows four friends dealing with the pressure of adulthood looming just over the horizon.

These are characters I've had for over 10 years and a story I've been tinkering with for a long time. The more I grew with the characters, I realized I just really wanted to tell a story about the different ways teenagers develop and the melancholy of maturity. We're all a Work in Progress of tomorrow selves! I took influence from various coming of age and slice of life comedies, most notably Freaks and Geeks and Lucky Star (weird combo but roll with it). I'm currently working on the first episode in my free-time! You can follow the production and making of it on it's Tumblr. I also post art of the characters all the time on here soo...

@wiptoon | Carrd

Operation Lost Cause is a drama thriller web-comic created by myself and @commanderrcat. Looking to find direction in his life, 22-year-old Louie Martin makes the decision to enlist in the military. Despite his lack of athletic prowess, his technological skills quickly catch the attention of the infamous General Arthur McCoy, who takes the young private under his wing.

Like all my projects this is a story that's become deeply personal to me to tell about struggling to find your place in the world and acceptance. Commander and I are both 50/50 on everything and it's just been a blast to work on. If you like comics about traumatized people and cute birds this is the comic for you!

@oplostcause | Official Website

Okay that's all for now! Thank you! Have a nice day!! <3

[solarwynd]

heyy I'm wondering whom do u think is most popular in USA? like take away fandom, solo fandom and payola between jm & jm but normally whom do u think so far reached casual listeners? seven def pushed to gp and I'm sure many heard it but i don't think he made them check out his album or even look more into him?

jimin was always the star in usa, the medias audience and everyone adores him. his peak started since 2019 which was double the rate of 2017 n it was growing up every year till last yr it was silent for everyone tbh but this year he did gained some casual listeners but it's not much of reach still I believe he's the most popular? jk had every push and hundreds of stages but the day after he performed at tsx his songs fell off 200k, if he gained those audience attention it wouldn't atleast fell? it's not measurements of popularity, bcz even if negative articles gave him hype but it's all social media hype so far? most of them called him as scooter client or bts member than jungkook, he didn't cemented his name yet. JIMIN is a brand himself since way back and now hybe is trying to launch jk as brand lol. jimin is household name every where so I don't wanna think from my solo heart but rationally I wanna discuss abt jm popularity vs jk

that's my take, dwhat about yours?

Truthfully I’m sure they both have casual listeners but I believe that jimin’s garnered more of a positive reputation with the music he’s put out that it’ll be exciting at the very least. Not to mention he left everybody on a song like “like crazy.” So naturally people will be interested in what he’s dropping next.

In terms of genuine popularity, jimin takes that too. The tokenism that surrounds jk is heavy to the point that the ratio of people that are here for him specifically pales in comparison to the people who just use him as a vessel to hate on jimin with. Besides that and I’ve said this before, He’s just palatable to the average person. But with being palatable comes unremarkability. His debut was an intentional rehash with no real creativity behind it. Just a farce of an early 2000’s to 2010 formula when people have moved well past that especially in the grand year of 2023.

That’s why GP didn’t take to him because there’s nothing impactful about him. Stack that ontop of back to back meh singles with a meh album to follow? That was never gonna turn people into full on fans en mass. And I know that’s what they were gunning for even more than those numbers because the tricks that they’ve been pulling are not cheap and him gaining fans would’ve offset that by even a fraction. Now he’s just stuck getting carried purely by burnt out armys expensive playlisting and thailand because there’s no real interest outside of that.

He’s almost the mirror image of all these kpop companies who were trying to force their groups into the american market back in 2019 except he had the benefit of being a bts member so people have already been exposed to him. It was a boost but it was squandered because in trying to push him to the forefront, all they did was show that he can’t stand on his own and get a hit by himself. I think the one song that we can somewhat gage his pull through is “too much.” because outside the other songs that one had the least amount of support. Even with two popular fts and playlisting, it pulled 4.3M filtered on global spotify & 598k compared to SMF2 4.8M & 638k with nothing.

So in conclusion, if somebody is truly popular and in demand they should be able to prove that off their own name without the aid of two ceos behind them and jimin was able to do just that.

[morning-purge]

Morning Purge #4

Dreamworks vs. Disney

This is a heavy debate as I personally believe that Dreamworks is better than Disney… let’s talk about it.

Dreamworks has come across the people of the world as silly child movies but in all reality, they teach us some of life’s biggest lessons along with real world situations too. Let’s look at “How to Train Your Dragon” for example. My wife, son, and I were watching the first one yesterday morning and I came across some situations that I didn’t notice when I was a child, as one typically does, and I was not ready for it emotionally.

Hiccup is a young Viking and the son of the chief, Stoick, and has a hard time coming into his position of the future Viking chief. His lessons in dragon slaying and training are interrupted when we was successful to take down the most elusive dragon in existence, a Night Fury. Toothless ends up becoming his biggest fan and a great friend to Hiccup. He lays down his life multiple times for the young kid, just in the first movie. It is probably my favorite animated trilogy of films out there.

The lessons that were just in this film were humility, treat animals with respect, treat people with respect, listen to those that you love, and many more in the future films and tv shows. Now, not to say that Disney doesn’t have great movies or messages, but with the way Disney is going, and becoming a huge conglomerate of other companies, they seem to need to feel the need to bend and include everyone, which in turn will start to exclude people. They are doing their projects more as a service to people rather than creating entertainment for people to enjoy. One big example is back in the late 90’s early 2000’s, Dreamworks came out with the two Christian films: “Prince of Egypt” and the prequel “Joseph: King of Dreams”. Now, as someone who grew up in a Christian household, I absolutely loved these films. Granted the money wasn’t there for them to continue making them, along with rumors that they were getting hate for making movies with one religion in mind only, but comparing their quality in movies and TV shows throughout the years since then, has made me notice that said quality has not changed and they have been great movies through and through. Not to say that some aren’t better than others, but overall the quality stays the same.

Disney has had its ups and downs and has its great movies and has its terrible ones. Again, I have the feeling that Disney is just trying to please everyone and it shows in their films. With all the controversy in their new upcoming Snow White film, there is plenty of proof here from what I am saying. I don’t have any problems with the communities or groups that Disney is trying to include, but it feels like they are pushing the need for that group or community to be accepted and need to integrate them into normal life, that they don’t realize that it’s already a norm. Disney should just start worrying about creating the best content they can for their viewers, like they did in the past, and stop worrying about pleasing everyone.

This is just my two cents and I’m more than happy to have a conversation about why Dreamworks is better.

Don’t forget to go follow me on Instagram and Threads too!

[i-am-autistic]

My hottest Jonathan Byers take as a Jonathan enjoyer is that while he has been undoubtedly sidelined. It's not like a major crime or close to character assassination. In fact I'm fairly certain the writers still have a lot of love for the character. Idk if yall remember what TV shows were like in the 2000s and early 2010s but when fans and writers didn't like a character, they'd either just die or barely get any screen time. Re-watching the show. While Jonathan isn't as prominent in s3 and 4 as he was in s1 and 2 he still always gets a storyline on his own, constantly involved in action(Him,Nancy and Lucas actually carry s3's final act action wise). S4 he doesn't get to be in much action anymore but he still gets the best action scene of the season for me and gets his own arc. I mean like can we just be honest and say he had much better writing in season 4 than Steve did. And also they had similar amounts of screentime. I thought he was the best written teenage male on the show in s4 by far. If you actually go back and watch it, he gets similar amounts of screentime in s4 to Eddie and Steve. Idk maybe I'm wrong here but I've seen writers literally kill characters, make them awful people, totally write them off the show,etc. The writers of ST have never really tried to ignore Jonathan or make him awful. They still use him a lot. S3 is a bit of an exception, not the rule. But I still think he gets great scenes in s3. Keep in mind Jonathan is also not the most popular character on the show, he's most likely the least popular lead character on the show. The writers have no real need to keep him there or give him big scenes. And this is sort of all happening while Stranger Things has an exceptionally large cast for a relatively short show. It's about 8 hours of content per season(little bit more in s4 I know) and there's about 17 leads in this ensemble. It's hard to give everyone extended amounts of time. Most shows with casts that big will have 40m X 24 eps for like 16 hours. Maybe they don't talk about Jonathan much or he's not in promotion much but even that is kinda false. While he's very tiny on the ST3 poster, he is the main money shot of the trailer for the main s3 trailer. He got his own corner! On the s4 poster, like him and Argyle got the same amount of space as Joyce,Hopper and Murray. He also was somewhat associated with a big part of the s4 iconography with Surfer Boy Pizza. I ngl thought they'd actually have him work at SBP but he didn't but it's still very much something he's associated with since it's his friend that brings it in.

[purrincess-chat]

So I have three criticisms about the fandom:

1. Why tf do people call Marinette a creepy stalker? They do realize she’s 14 right? She’s a young girl with a crush, not some s*x offender.

2. I don’t get why there are fights over the Lovesquare when it’s literally the same two people. At the end of the day, it’s the same fucking dynamic.

3. The way this fandom treats the creator like he owes them something is absolutely disgusting. They act like a bunch of self-important, entitled karens.

1. People forget what it's like to be a teenager with a crush. That and there is a trend in fandoms as of late that exercises this black and white thinking pattern. Either something is so morally pure and devoid of any wrongdoing or it's completely problematic and anyone that enjoys or consumes it is just enabling harmful narratives. There's no room for nuance. ML is written by someone who grew up watching old, old superhero cartoons and watching old, old superhero comics. That's evident in a lot of jokes and references and tropes that they use. The creator himself worked on several shows in the early 2000s, and you can see evidence of that time period in ML. While that objectively wasn't that long ago, the early 2000s were a much different time on TV. The teen girl practically basing her whole identity around being in love with her crush was a common trope around that time (see: Helga from Hey Arnold. Seriously yall Marinette ain't got nothing on Helga and her motherfucking chewed gum shrine shaped like Arnold's head). A lot of her behavior is meant to be exaggerated for the joke (as was Helga's). That's just how things were. 🤷‍♀️ But some people, especially if they didn't grow up in that era watching those types of shows or if they're not as socially competent and can't understand hyperbole, then that's likely where the Marinette is a stalker thing comes from. Also can have a lot to do with mob mentality. Someone people deem cool or smart says it once, so a bunch of underlings follow without actually thinking about whether it's objectively true or bothering to question it. It's a problem in society at large (I mean look at the American political system, or any political system rn honestly)

2. You and me both, nonny. Yet every time I go into the ladrien tag to find content to queue for ladrien Wednesday, I scroll past at least 3 "ranking the love square sides" posts and ladrien is always at the bottom because of some arbitrary, made up, noncanon reason that they've convinced themselves is true. I've said for years people just need to watch the show with their eyes open and employ at least a single brain cell, maybe go outside and touch some grass, talk to real people. Just as a start. 🤷‍♀️

3. That's not exclusive to ML sadly. People have been harassing creators and musicians for years. Not to be a Swiftie on main, but Taylor has put out 5 albums since 2020. And that's still not enough for some of her fans. People are still demanding she announce her next rerecord rather than just sitting and enjoying all of the shit she's already given us. Entitlement has become a societal problem that bleeds into fandom. Everyone wants things bigger, better, faster. Capitalism really did a number on humanity.

Anyway, that's just my take on things. I've been here a long time, and just because I don't always point things out or say anything as of late doesn't mean I don't still notice it. I've just gotten jaded I think. It is what it is, so I stay in my corner with my friends and just have as good of a time as we can. 🤷‍♀️

[jakeh2987]

Yellowcard- Ocean Avenue 20th Anniversary Retrospective

I’ll be honest with y’all; I never thought I would be writing about music again, at least not like this. Music is one of the things I’m most passionate about, and I love yelling very loudly about what I’m into at any given time or a new discovery I just made. But, actually sitting down to talk about music in a more in-depth and introspective way is something I thought I had left behind. From 2012 until about 2016, I used to write album reviews, and it was a lot of fun! I loved having an outlet to really dig deep into this love for music that I had, especially when I often couldn’t do so in other spaces in my life. Unfortunately, the music reviewing/critic community I fell into during that time became increasingly toxic and gatekeepy, which led me to step away from writing, and I’ve had a much less stressful relationship with talking about music since. It’s been really freeing to just be able to yell about whatever I love most, and I’ve found a lot of really wonderful communities who are fiercely anti-gatekeeping and encourage being unapologetically passionate about what you love, music or otherwise. 

So, that leads us here, the 20th anniversary of the release of one of the most important things of my life, Yellowcard’s album Ocean Avenue. I realized about a month ago that this utterly wild milestone was coming up, and Yellowcard had also recently reunited after what was expected to be a permanent breakup to announce a new EP (which is now out as of finishing this piece, and spoilers, it’s wonderful) and a tour in celebration of this anniversary, so this got the wheels turning for me. Ocean Avenue is such a special collection of songs for me, and I feel like I could have a lot to say about the album and my memories with it, so I thought it might be fun to take a crack at writing again.

Let’s go back to the summer of 2006; I just recently graduated middle school, and I was spending time with my grandparents at our summer cabin. I remember waking up early a lot of days that summer to catch the music video block on MTV before they’d switch over to their reality shows, and one of my favorite videos to watch was Yellowcard’s “Ocean Avenue.” I really loved how catchy that song was, how fun the video was, and I also really enjoyed hearing that sort of guitar and drum sound in music. Plus, they had a violin player in the band! How cool was that?!  I grew up around a lot of 80’s hair metal, and my younger sister later roped me into the boy bands of the late 90’s/early 2000’s, but there was something about Yellowcard’s sound that grabbed me and became the first kind of music that was really “mine,” for lack of a better term. So, we take a trip to Walmart one day, and I take a look at the CDs that are in the electronics section. I saw a copy of the album Ocean Avenue, and knew right then I had to have it. After a little convincing, I was able to get my grandmother to give me some of the spending money I set aside, and I don’t think I’ve ever ran to the checkout area faster than I did that day. Even better, I happened to have a portable CD player in the car with me, so I opened it as soon as we left and popped the CD in for my first listen. Little did I know just how impactful that day would be.

I could talk about how this album is a classic in the pop-punk scene, how Yellowcard has managed to have staying power for the last twenty years for so many people (despite a couple of hiatuses and albums that fans weren’t nearly as high on), so on, and all of that is very true, but I mostly wanna talk about what it meant to me then and what it means to me now after all this time. Ocean Avenue was the very first album I ever bought with my own money, and it was the album I really credit with lighting the spark that was my love of music. Without it, I absolutely have no idea where my journey with music would be, and that’s a scary thing to think about. I also vividly remember hearing the first notes of “Way Away” on that car ride back to the summer cabin, and despite it being my first time hearing the album, I remember instantly feeling this warm, comforting feeling, like it was something I had always known and was there whenever I needed it. And twenty years later, I still have that feeling. 

When I listen to this album now, no matter what I might be going through or where my life is at, I have this sense of reassurance that everything’s gonna be alright, that I’m gonna get through it and come out the other side of it. And that just means everything to me.

Thank you, Yellowcard, for the last twenty years of incredible music, the memories, and the reminders that yeah, no matter what life throws at me, I got this. Here’s to the next twenty <3 

[the-blue-brand-wrestling-blog]

The Blue Brand Wrestling Blog #1 - Wrestling News From This Past Weekend (WWE Payback, CM Punk & Tony Khan)

The Blue Brand Wrestling Blog

THEBLUEBRANDWRESTLINGBLOG.BLOGSPOT.COM

The Blue Brand Wrestling Blog #1 

Wrestling News From This Past Weekend (WWE Payback, CM Punk & Tony Khan)

Hey there guys & girls,

I’m Andy Mac, AKA The Blue Brand owner and creator (@The_Blue_Brand) on X / Twitter. I thought I would delve into the world of blog writing and what better thing to write about than my favourite pastime Professional Wrestling.

I started watching WWF back in early 2000 around the time of the Royal Rumble. I was instantly hooked and became an avid fan of the great one, the brahma bull – The Rock! I was 100% invested in his battle with the Big Show around this time before heading towards WrestleMania 2000’s fatal four-way (McMahon in each corner) match against the champ Triple H, Mick Foley and The Big Show. 

Since then, I’ve never looked back really, and I’ve been watching WWE for 23 years and counting. During this time, I’ve checked out TNA / Impact Wrestling, AEW and most recently Pro-Wrestling NOAH from Japan.

Anyway, maybe for a future blog I’ll write more about my introduction to the world of professional wrestling as a 9-year-old in the year 2000 and tell you who my favourites were. For now, I’m here to talk about this past weekend – 2nd & 3rd September and two stories I’ve decided to give my views on. Obviously, all opinions given are my own. Let’s get started –

WWE Payback – Saturday 2nd September 2023.  Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the PPG Paints Arena. 

Seth “Freakin” Rollins (C) Vs Shinsuke Nakamura – Winner, Seth “Freakin” Rollins. 

Match Length – 26:05.

I know most people coming out of this PLE are talking primarily about the women’s steel cage match between WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus and “The Man” Becky Lynch. Don’t get me wrong, this match was great and deserves all the praise and plaudits that is currently receiving, but for me personally the main event was the highlight.

First of all, it was extremely refreshing to see a different main event match at a PLE that didn’t include Roman Reigns or the Bloodline. Of course, I’m a huge fan of this storyline and the journey we’ve all been on the past few years, but it was nice to explore and experience something different.

In the build up to this match we got to see a ruthless and more aggressive side of Nakamura that we haven’t seen in a very long time. On top of that on the night of the PLE the company released an awesome animated promo package with Nakamura narrating over the top of it about what he planned to do to Rollins in their match. Rollins sold this well during the match – I also enjoyed the personal touch with Nakamura taking aim at Rollins family in the build-up.

Both men made their way to the ring, went through the usual introductions before the match got underway. Heading in to this one I had put money on Nakamura winning, especially with The Great Muta being in attendance. But in the end after a match that lasted just over 25 minutes, Seth Rollins managed to get the win with a curb stomp. This match was refreshing in sense that we had a babyface champion defending his title successfully in the main event of a WWE PLE. I also loved the fact that the pacing of the match was really well laid out. The match was telling the story of an injured Seth Rollins dealing with severe back issues that had been highlighted in the lead up to this match – So naturally as any good heel should do, Nakamura attacked and went on the offence with strong moves on the champions back. I’ve got to also give Michael Cole and Corey Graves huge credit for really selling the severity of the back injury and the pain Seth Rollins was having to deal with. My only critique of this match was the actual end, it felt quite abrupt, not due to match length, but maybe I’ve become to accustomed to multiple kick outs from finisher after finisher in Roman Reigns and AEW main event matches.

Initially I was disappointed it also ended the way it did for Nakamura, a clean loss after being so savage before and during the match. But thankfully once the PLE went off air Nakamura assaulted Rollins on the ramp. This feud still has legs, Nakamura can be a whiny but savage heel who feels embarrassed losing this World Title match in front of The Great Muta.

Let’s see how this one plays out on Monday Night RAW tonight!

Tony Khan and CM Punk – AEW Release CM Punk after (another) backstage fight

I’ll start this with Tony Khan – The list of job titles this man holds within the company alone should show why this doesn’t work. I know people will be quick to tell me The Elite are VP’s and have different roles within the company… But let’s face it, Tony holds all the real power and authority and he’s shown multiple times that he isn’t capable of being a strong leader or showing true authority to members of his roster who act out or behave unprofessionally. Let’s be honest, CM Punk should have been gone after the press conference and fight afterwards with The Elite last year, this all occurred after he defeated Jon Moxley for the AEW Championship at All Out 2022 last September. The fact Khan was willing to bring him back, basically create a whole new show for him and allow the carnage to continue and expected it to be smooth sailing says it all. What did he expect to happen? Can you imagine Vince McMahon allowing this to occur?

Now I’ll quickly discuss CM Punk – As I write this there are reports online about WWE actually being interested in CM Punk last year before WrestleMania. The idea of him returning at the Royal Rumble 2023 and being eliminated by Kevin Owens was proposed. This would supposedly lead to him facing Owens in the main event of WrestleMania night one. This apparently was actually considered by Vince McMahon and Triple H. These reports also note that Vince McMahon is open to Punk returning and Triple H would consider it, however he would want long-term story plans etc… in place. All of this makes sense if you consider Punk showed up at a Monday Night RAW earlier this year in the parking lot.

In conclusion, Tony Khan in my opinion needs to hire proper management that can be in between himself and the talent – Omega and The Young Bucks don’t count, sorry Tony. CM Punk, well, if he really does get one last chance with WWE, my advice would be –

Make a deal like Brock Lesnar / Goldberg – Work a set amount of dates, only work in the ring on PLE and have a set amount of TV appearances. Be a special attraction, be the star that you were between 2011 & 2014 in WWE.

 Do as you’re told by Vince McMahon and Triple H – Learn from your mistakes in AEW. Yes, I blame Tony Khan for not being able to control his roster, but CM Punk also has to take responsibility for being a veteran who handles disagreements with fist fights. You can’t settle disagreements in this way in 2023.

I was a huge CM Punk fan back in his run with WWE, I couldn’t wait to see him in AEW. But due to a couple of fights and injuries, we were robbed of a full two year run and got a stop / start one year run. It’s a real shame, his career deserves to end better than this.

Anyway guys, I’ll stop rambling now. Thanks for reading if you managed to get through it all. I intend on trying to do between 2 to 3 of these posts per week as well as a few personal blogs and maybe even some gaming blogs (WWE 2K23 ‘My GM’ & TEW 2020 ‘Pro-Wrestling NOAH’ saves)

Please leave feedback, if it’s constructive then I’ll always appreciate it. I’m always happy to learn and to become better. Please keep it respectful though, everyone is entitled to an opinion.

Take it easy guys,

Andy

[lifeofa-fangirl]

Finally, finally had time to listen to Rush! entirely. And I'm very, very happy with what they've given us. I won't compare it to the previous albums, because I think we can all agree that's not a fair comparison. Anyone who was expecting/hoping for IBDL or TDI again has been living under a rock.

Spewing out some thoughts in no particular order.

This album was clearly made for international/US markets. I don't think that's a bad thing. I can only speak for Belgium, but they have more or less become a mainstream band here and this is album sounds like a mainstream band.

I will never understand why Supermodel was the first single because it is in my opinion the weakest song on the album. I personally would not have picked Gossip as a single either, even though I like this way better than Supermodel. Though I understand the reasoning, especially since it's their feature with Tom Morello. Just think there are better songs on the album.

Love the flow of the album. The Loneliest is a good note to end on and I think it's interesting how they follow they follow up love songs with negative feelings (Bla bla blah after timezone and Read Your Diary after If Not For You).

I was a bit worried about the variety of sounds on this album, but I actually ended up really like the mix.

Wanna give a big shout out to THOMAS FREAKING RAGGI! It's amazing how much he has progressed over time and how he's not afraid to be front and center and kick ass at it on this album.

Kool Kids... I wasn't a fan at all when I heard the live version. Now hearing this version... It's less bad than I expected, but still not a fan. I don't get the fake British accent and it's just not for me.

The Italian trio? ❤️❤️❤️❤️ I honestly was not expecting Mark Chapman to be in Italian, but I'm happy it is. I'm not mad the majority of the album is in English, cause it's still good and I get why this is the case. But I do hope they'll never completely stop doing Italian songs.

Read Your Diary. Some people need to listen to this and really listen to this and understand. That's all I'll say about that one, it gets all my love.

Don't Wanna Sleep is... again, it's not super bad, but far from my favorite.

Timezone and If Not For You. Ballads are a soft spot for me, but god, I need to find me someone who writes me a love song like this. I cringed a bit over the 'I'm fucking you tonight' line cause it feels so out of place, but in general just lots and lots of swooning.

Own My Mind is the perfect opener and it slays! I hope to get to hear it live soon!

Bla bla bla and Feel made me grin so much. They obviously aren't the most elaborate songs, but they are very Måneskin and fun to me. Baby Said is in the same ball park but better. I have questions that I won't get into, but I'll say I feel it's super catchy and makes me smile big time.

I love how I feel so many references in this album. Both lyrically (Bowie, Beatles, Michael Jackson, ...) but also musically. I'm getting late 90s, early 2000's rock vibes and I fell in love with music as a young teen in that era, so I love the overall sound of this album.

And that's all for now folks. I'm just a very happy camper and very excited to finally see them live in less than a month and a half.