#there's the reboot anime! ^^ maybe a bunch of movies too

[1000sunnygo]

You think one piece is ending? Because everyone arc I watch I just feel that there's more to come and I don't know if I feel anxious or really happy.

Yes it's ending, but there's still so much left haha

The final arc will consist of a great war among other things. Wano had 149 chapters, assuming the manga has 200 more chapters (it should have more), the 2.5 on average update rate per month including a few month-long breaks warrants almost 7 years. If 300, then 10 years.

Let's hope Oda stays in good health so he can complete his story and fully enjoy the long anticipated series completion celebratory vacation :')

[vicariousresearcher]

concept: hybrid needing a knot during their heat but none of the 141 has one...........they learn that two dicks is a good replacement

cw: heat, hybrid!reader, afab reader, double pen, underwear stealing, degradation, dub-con ish not really.

Canine hybrid! Reader who's been a bitch lately.

Mouthing off, flashing teeth, scrapping your claws at the leather collar banded over your throat, snarling like the feral animal you were when you first came to them.

Just being an absolute hellion to be around. 

The team think it ends there though. Just some mood swings and being territorial. You’ll get over whatevers bothering you.

You however were keenly aware of the changes going through your body; the restlessness that itched in your muscles, the almost overstimulating nature of even the most basic things, the more primitive part of your brain lighting up.

And of course the slick between your thighs. Having to change your panties in the morning because you’d soaked them through. And that's of course just throughout the nights. Days are worse. Spending all that time with the team, your body trying its hardest to convince you that the friendly pat on your shoulder was, in fact, not platonic.

And it's just getting worse the longer you ignore it. Accumulating in you locking yourself in your room after you were dumb enough to spar with Soap. All chidding comments and tangled limbs.

Getting tossed and restrained. Snapping teeth only to get a tug on your ear. Your face getting slammed into the mat and a goading ‘all that attitude and this is all you can do?’

Completely ignorant to the heat simmering under your skin and the patch of fabric between your legs where you’d soaked through to your pants.

……..

You practically ran away with your tail between your legs. Pissy and annoyed. Gaz saw the glare in your eyes as you walked past him in the hallway, recalling how Soap said the way to get you out of your funk was to beat it out of you because of course Soap thought that would work.

Didn’t take long for him to find the Scot and prod for some answers to what exactly he did. Rubbing some brain cells together they decided maybe a better solution was to be nice. Ask you to come watch a movie with em in the common room as an apology.

…….

They should’ve knocked, both decided silently. Assumed that you were in your room fuming and pacing like a caged lion.

What they didn’t expect to see was this.

Their dignified teammate, their hybrid, like this.

Lights off, straddling a pillow, bare from the waist down. Pitiful mewls muffled by the bunched-up fabric in your hand. Pressing it over your mouth and nose. Sticky noises from how fervently rode the slick soaked pillow. Choking when the seam caught over your clit.

All it took was one too thick swallow and your flattened ears perked up. Eyes snapping to the doorway. 

Took all of five seconds for you to retreat into the corner of your bed. A death grip on the pillow between your legs to maintain a semblance of dignity. The sneer on your face a perfect picture of humiliation and anger.

“This is why you ran off so quick?” Gaz said with a chuckle, breaking the silence. Pity creasing his brows as he connected the reason to your sudden change in behaviour.

He’s the one that moved first, leaving Soap at the door who was currently rebooting as he saw that the fabric in your hand was his boxers.

Took the time to adjust the chubbing in his pants before kicking the door shut. 

Pillows fluffed and padded around the bed like some sort of nest. Blankets-no-clothes strewn about. Ghosts hoodie here, Gaz’s track pants there. The shirt you wore having ‘Price’ on the breast. Just proving you’d been suffering like this for a while. Long enough to collect all this.

Your ears pinned back at their approach. Growl failing. Too high pitched, a needy whine.

The mattress sinks when Gaz places a knee on it. Up close he can see how dilated your pupils are. Feel the feverish heat your skin is emitting. One look and he knows you’ve gone nonverbal like how you do during stress on the field.

“Jesus, you had Price worried. Thought something was actually wrong with how you’ve been actin’.” 

Gaz says with a half smile. Like this was fucking funny or something-

As if seeing the impending snarl he closes in. Calloused hand smoothing over the side of your head, scratching the base of your ear affectionately. Voice sweet enough for the condescension to be drowned out.

“Shhh, you’re okay. It’s okay, pup. We’ll help.” 

Gaz’s smell is almost paralyzing. Dizzying in a way that makes you want to crack open his rib cage and live in his skin. You don’t even notice how your legs have been coaxed apart from the death grip you had on the pillow. 

Then Soap is up to your side, eyes locked down on the mess between your legs. Clit raw and puffy from your attempts at relief. Saliva building up in his mouth in anticipation of getting his face shoved between those thighs. Would you cry? Squirm? Pull his hair and ride his face?

Gaz’s patronizing voice in your ear stealing your attention long enough for Soap's fingers to ghost along your folds. A whine bubbles out of your throat when you flinch back. 

“Fuckin’ jumpy mutt.”

The look the two of them share is lost on you as you get manhandled. Soap wedges his hands under your ass and drags you forward so Gaz can slip in behind you. Your spine going rigid against Gaz’s chest as he flattens you against him, hooking his legs under yours and propping you open.

Long fingers clenched over your jaw, Gaz dragging your attention back to him. The look of uncertainty yet desperation on your face was enough to make him laugh.

“What? You don’t want him to touch you no more? You sit in here huffing his boxers like a dirty mutt but now that you have the real thing you shy away? Come on pup…” 

He kept his hold on your jaw while the other snakes around to hitch up your shirt's hem, letting Soap work without hindrance. Forcing you to keep your eyes on him. 

Soap doesn’t even have to work his fingers into you. Slick dripping onto the bed. Two sliding in so easily.  

“How often have you been like this hm? Is this why you disappear throughout the day? To get off?”

Three had your thighs jolting, straining over Gaz’s thighs. 

“Bitch in heat huh?” Soap says as he breaks his focus on your cunt to look at you. Neck arched back so your head can rest on Gaz’s shoulder. Lips parted to let out pathetic whines and whimpers. Gaz’s hand going under the hoodie to paw at your chest like he’s been wanting to since he set eyes on the obedient little hybrid who’d rip out throats at his suggestion. 

Four has your pussy squelching and wetness pooling into Soaps palm. A groan falling from his mouth at the sight. Freehand unclipping his belt.

“Stealing our stuff too? Hell, you even got some of Prices shit in here, you want to fuck him too? I’m sure he’ll be happy to hear bout that.”

The way your gaze slid down to him, humiliated yet so turned on made his grin widen. Cock straining against the seam of his pants.

“Doesn’t need any more prep.” Soap addressed Gaz from over your shoulder, pulling his fingers out of you. Showing off the excessive wetness in the low light, a shit eating grin on his face. “Mutt took care of that already.”

They just moved you like some doll. Soap taking you off of Gaz and setting you on top to straddle his hips while Gaz worked at his own pants. His hand presses down on your shoulder blades to see your spine arch all proper while he settles in behind.

Their obedient pet, kneeling on all fours, back bent and ass raised. 

Fluffy tail wagging as Soap hitched up the shirt so he could grope at her tits. Swollen and sensitive and needing a pup to latch onto them. 

The sound that came out of you when he took your nipple was pornographic. Shrill and needy, no semblance of the respectable hybrid of the 141.

Gaz was the first to push in. Gummy heat overwhelming, like nothing he’d ever felt. Not an ounce of friction.

“Hybrids can’t get pregnant from humans right?” Gaz asked, pulling out till just the tip was in. Head swimming. He only earned a bark of laughter from Soap.

“One pump chump huh?”

“Fuck off you haven’t been in her yet-“ 

You flattening your ass against his hips cut off the conversation. The feeling of him bottoming out finally scratching that itch that’s been building under your skin for days. 

Gaz tries to say something bout you being a “greedy mutt” but you just keep moving. Chasing that tightening feeling in your stomach. Slapping back hard against his hips so he can reach as deep as possible. 

Only for him to pull out when your bounces got more frantic. A growl builds in your throat, ears pinned back when you whipped your head around. 

“Was wondering where that attitude went,” Soap smirked, notching his fat cockhead against your entrance. 

They just kept on with this. Taking turns plunging into your pussy because neither of them are willing to stick their dicks between your teeth or risk the potential freak out with your ass. A silent competition to see who’ll cum first.

As soon as they’d feel that heat build up in their stomach they’d pull out only for the other to lodge in. Never leaving you empty for a second 

Drool dripped onto Soap's collarbone, Gaz’s fingers lodged between your teeth to keep you from latching onto Soap's neck and marking him. They weren’t stupid enough to enable that at least. Price would have their heads.

Not that you cared. Brain fuzzy as the restlessness you'd been dealing with for days got dealt with. Gaz’s position lets his batter against your cervix while Soap's dick curves perfectly so that his shallower movements let him grind against your g-spot.

All growls thinned out into whines as they both jeered and jabbed at you and each other. Gaz thumbing over your rim, Soap rough fingers meanly pinching at your puffy clit. Their stupid little hybrid who only took a couple hard thrusts and friction to cum.

Yet that wasn’t enough. You needed more to be satisfied. To be filled. Fulfill the animalistic purpose to be pinned down and bred.

Didn’t take long for either of them to get to the end of their ropes. Slowly pushing themselves into overstimulation from the repeated edging, pulling out just as they felt their balls tighten only to have to let the other shove past to get inside of you.

Blubbering came from you, attempts of begging. More you needed more. More of them. Needed to be stuffed full. Claws digging into Soaps shoulders to create bloody crescents. Crying out when Gaz slipped in too early. Bullying in to force you to fit them both. Stretch bordering on painful, eyes rolling back in your head. Coil snapping at the feeling of what your body can only understand to be being knotted.

Your clenching walls force them both still beyond small, deep thrusts. Between you and the feeling of grinding against Soap's veins send Gaz over the edge first. Your cunt fluttering as if milking all of his load. Rapid enough to finish off Soap. 

Fucked dumb was the best word for you at this point. Overstimulating from the feeling of being stretched by two dicks, the smell of both of their sweat gives you a heady feeling. A lingering taste of copper in your mouth from breaking through Gaz’s skin.

They let you collapse into your nest once pulling out. Shaking thighs and a tear-streaked face. Soap scoops up a fingerful of his and Gaz’s cum and pushes it back into your quivering pussy.

Your whine earning mean laughs. Tail thumping against the pillows. Ready for round two. 

……

Later a video is sent into the group chat with a text underneath saying ‘teaching the dog new tricks.’

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Magic: Return of the Asspull

So the word on Twitter is that there have been leaked reports of a new anime called "Dragon Ball Magic". I'm pretty sure it's all made-up bullshit, but I remember thinking Dragon Ball Super was a pipe dream too, and here we are. So I may as well discuss the topic here.

The whole thing comes across like a modern day Dragon Ball AF, where there seems to be a lot more emphasis on hype and speculation than tangible evidence. For example, there's a twitter account dedicated to gathering all the information available about the new series, but all it really does is amplify rumors and fanworks. When I search for the title on Twitter I mostly get skeptics making fun of the idea, or true believers talking about the show as if it were objective fact. Like AF, there's a lot of excitement but no clear picture of what the the thing actually is. The only real consensus I can find is the following:

Dragon Ball Magic will feature the Supreme Kai

Goku will be turned into a child, just like in Dragon Ball GT

Geekdom101 talked about this once, so that means it must be real.

And that's why I led off with the screenshot of the tail-yanking scene from GT, because I was trying to find an appropriate image of GT Goku and the Supreme Kai, and... yeah, that's it.

The more I think about it, the more this feels like something an internet troll would come up with. Like, someone started with the stupidest moment in the worst Dragon Ball series ever, and built a rumor around it. Oh, and also the rumor namedrops Geekdom101, just to make it extra absurd. It's the sort of thing gullible people would flock to while everyone in on the joke would have a laugh over it.

I don't know enough about Geekdom101 to insult him properly, but I'm like 90% sure he's an asshole. Back when Twitter actually worked properly, I'd see his name trending and there'd be a bunch of people in the fandom going "Dammit, what's he done this time?" Does he have inside sources in the anime industry? I dunno, maybe he does, but I think he's got a credibility problem. I mean, he calls himself "Geekdom101", and his avatar is Golden Frieza with a pair of glasses and holding a lightsaber. His YouTube videos look like a clickbait parody, with things like "Kai-o-ken EXPLAINED" and "WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR". Also plenty of what-if and who-would-win videos.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and suggest that maybe this is a guy who makes a decent living off his fandom channel, and when there's not much going on, he'll cobble together a story just to keep the conversation going and draw more attention to his videos. Which... I mean, if that's profitable, so be it, but if Geekdom told me water was wet I'd want to double-check for myself.

As to the rest, even if Toei was really planning something like DB Magic, there's no guarantee they'd actually follow through with it. Plans change, and even if this were 100% legit, it means nothing without an official confirmation and a release date. That "Superman Lives!" movie with Nic Cage was a real thing... right until it wasn't.

But I find the concept too vague and too specific all at once. Like, okay, it's Supreme Kai and a de-aged Goku. Why them in particular? What are they going to do? It just feels like something someone made up to get a reaction from the fans. GT likers are supposed to get all excited or defensive about a potential GT reboot, and other fans are supposed to get upset that the Supreme Kai got the lead instead of their favorite C-lister.

Compare this to the early reveals for DBS: Superhero. Toei teased a few details, and gradually it became clear that the Red Ribbon Army was back somehow, and maybe there were some new androids, and there was a lot about Piccolo and Gohan, so it seemed like they'd be a big part of the story. It wasn't a complete picture, but it made sense from a promotional standpoint. People were more concerned with the CG animation than any of the characters or plot.

I mean, anyone can come up with this stuff. I mean, my uncle works for Nintendo, and he told me that the next anime is going to be called Dragon Ball Snazzy, and it'll be about Vegeta and 18 starting up a private detective agency. Or... I don't know, Dragon Ball Jazz, which is a prequel series featuring a young Dr. Brief and Gine as secret agents. Wait, how about Dragon Ball Spatula, starring Elder Guru and Launch as they explore the multiverse!

And you know, I'd probably watch any of these shows. Hell, I sat through GT, and it was awful! The bar's pretty low when it comes to making a Dragon Ball project that I'm willing to try out. But people have been clamoring for Dragon Ball Super II ever since the first series went off the air in 2018, and that was years ago. This Dragon Ball Magic business just sounds like the same old empty hype with a fresh coat of paint.

Or maybe the whole thing is real, but my advice is: Don't get your hopes up. Life's too short to get worked up over things that might never happen. If it actually comes to pass, then it'll still be just as much fun whether you believed it ahead of time or not.

[questinwitchface]

Hi, would love to hear about Sam and Bucky TV 👀

From this WIP game

Hello! Thanks for asking!

So the Sam and Bucky TV fic came from a prompt from @thatmexisaurusrex posted for The Daily SamBucky Fluff Diary, and if I'm remembering right, the prompt was "Sam and Bucky, trapped in a TV" or something very similar to that, and @funsized-loser reblogged with some tags that said "Kate and Yelena and Joaquin somehow control their actions" and "Kamala is there with her popcorn." You can view that post and those tags here.

Now, I love to write Kate/Yelena/Joaquin fics almost as much as I like writing SamBucky, so naturally, I was very on board with this. Basically, I decided that Sam and Bucky are indeed going to be magically trapped in a TV, and Joaquin is going to bring that TV back to the Compound where Kate and Yelena are going to try to help him get Sam and Bucky out of it. Kamala and a couple other characters will show up later, but the way that they decide to try to get them out of the magic TV is by playing videogames on it, trying to beat the games to get them out. And, of course, I went on my self-indulgent bullshit and decided that they were going to end up playing some of my favorite videogames of all time because that makes it more fun for me personally lol. Their logic is, if they beat the game, Sam and Bucky will get out of the TV, like in the Jumanji reboot.

Here's a snippet:

Kate nods, and goes to stand next to Yelena, who’s standing in front of the couch. Joaquín joins them, and together, the three of them flop onto the couch, staring at the screen. Joaquín instantly recognizes the movie that’s playing—it’s hard to mistake Clueless for anything else, even if the two leading characters have been replaced by Sam and Bucky. “This is bizarre,” Kate says, though she doesn’t look away from the screen. To be fair to her, it’s kind of hard to look away from the screen. Sam is killing it in that yellow plaid outfit, skirt and all. “How do we get them out?” Yelena asks. “Maybe we try changing the channel?” Kate asks. “There was a remote with the TV.” “Try it,” Joaquín says, though he’s got a feeling it won’t be that simple. They flip through the channels and find Sam and Bucky starring in a bunch of different movies, but changing the channel doesn’t seem to bring them any closer to getting Sam and Bucky out. “How’d this happen anyway?” Kate asks. “Yeah,” Yelena adds, turning to look sidelong at Joaquín. “All you said in your text was ‘SOS – Sam and Bucky in a TV #WizardsSuck.’” “I feel like that pretty much sums it up,” Joaquín says running a hand down his face. “We were working this mission, and we thought it was an alien. Turns out, nope. Wizard. And when we got too close, he poofed away—” “Poofed?” Kate asks, frowning. “What does that even mean?” “It means he made this cloud of pink smoke and then when it cleared, he was gone, like some shitty stage magician,” Joaquín answers miserably. “Then I turned to ask Sam what we should do next, and where Sam and Bucky were standing, there was just this TV.” Joaquín gestures vaguely toward the TV in front of them. “Obviously they’re stuck in there—I mean, that is them, right? I’m not crazy?” “No, it’s definitely them,” Yelena says, eyeing the screen. “That is Bucky’s scowl.” “I didn’t know an animated dog could scowl like that,” Kate says, sounding vaguely impressed.

[booksandfairytales]

CHARACTER ASK!!!! Okay! Let’s do Hiccup!!!

Ooo thank you!!

Send me a character!

First impression: "Aw, he's so awkward" and "cool! He draws like I do!" (I was 13 and recovering from getting some teeth pulled so I could get braces the first time I saw the movie, I didn't think about things too deeply)

Impression now: This man has been through so much and he may be fictional but I have a lot of respect for him. Hiccup is a great character and feels more...real than most other animated characters, if that makes sense? His mannerisms definitely have a lot to do with it. Most recently I watched Race to the Edge and it kinda helped me see Hiccup in a new light

Favorite moment: There's so many. I like a lot of his comedic moments, but also when he's determined and stands up for what he believes in. And basically all of his cute interactions with Astrid throughout Race to the Edge and the second and third movies. Literally love seeing them interact all couple-y. I also thought this was a great moment too:

Idea for a story: I'm not sure to be honest, maybe him telling Zephyr and Nuffink about his and Astrids' adventures? I feel like they'd have funny reactions! Storytime with the Chief of Berk with a bunch of Berks newest generation. Man would be accidentally creating his own legends haha I will say though im currently reading this amazing fanfiction that takes place a year after the third movie, called Pain in Solitude. And oh my gosh. It's so good, and the characters are so on point, I'm accepting it as canon

Unpopular opinion: ...I liked The Hidden World. The movie trilogy to me as a whole was so beautifully done. I mean, at that point , Hiccup and Astrid were engaged for a while, I feel like it was totally plausible for Toothless to want a dragon to love too. But then again, I am a sucker for love stories....

I also really don't want a live action (that part may not be unpopular, but I'm just really tired of all the remakes/reboots)

Favorite relationship: romantically, him and Astrid, they're so cute together. I also like how close he is with his parents, and his friendship with Toothless too of course!

Like dang. That was smooth.

Favorite headcanon: There's a lot of good ones floating around, but I don't think I have any of my own just yet. This is where it would be handy if I actually tagged any of my reblogs in an organized manner lol

Hmmm....he's a good cook, and designs a new axe for Astrid that becomes her new favorite. If I think of anything else I'll let you know!

[fostersffff]

The Big Gundam Watch, Part 12: Mobile Suit Gundam F91

Back when I started doing these write-ups, I was pretty certain I was just going to ignore F91. Reading up on it at the time, it was clearly an odd duck: it’s a standalone movie in the Universal Century timeline that takes place 30 years after Char’s Counterattack and 30 years before Victory Gundam, so outside of the manga-only continuation Crossbone Gundam, it didn’t seem worth checking out. But as I and found myself enjoying more and more of the Gundam franchise, I figured I should check it out anyway, especially since the F91 and the Crossbone Gundam are really cool designs.

As it turns out, I really like F91! Unfortunately, this is in spite of some major flaws, mostly stemming from the fact that it feels like a TV series they had to condense into a two hour movie... which it turns out is literally what happened:

So with that put out right at the start, let's get into it:

THE STUFF I LIKED:

I promise I won't start every entry like this, but with the knowledge that this was originally going to be a TV series, I think "the gang" they introduce is perfect. Seabook, Cecily, Seabook's Little Sister, Grumpy Techie, Normal Kid, Team Mom Punk Girl, Seabook's Cowardly Rival, a bunch of kids like the White Base Babies/Shinta and Qum, a literal actual baby- that's a Burger King Kids Club right there, perfectly suited to TV hijinks. Of course, you can't do a lot of goofy, ZZ-esque hijinks in a two hour movie, but they manage to slip some stuff in, and in isolation I thought they were mostly pretty fun.

I'm also really fond of the actual crew of the Space Ark, because they collectively remind me of my favorite version of Bright Noa; people way out of their depth and doing their best with way too much responsibility while being relentless dogged by Federation war hawks who- in a pleasant contrast to War in the Pocket- are maybe the scummiest bastards they've ever been.

With those two things mentioned; I don’t think it’s much of a secret that F91 was almost certainly an attempt at soft-rebooting Gundam. I think it was a noble attempt; unlike Wing, which I regularly derided as “the Universal Century again, but with arbitrary differences”, the differences here feel more considered. For example: Seabook is an amalgamation of Amuro, Kamille, and Judau, Cecily Fairchild is F91’s equivalent of Sayla Mass, but also, she also fulfills the role of a grown-up Mineva Zabi, and the F91 itself is actually pretty special compared to all of its contemporary mobile suits because of Seabook's mom's quirked-up design.

Visually, I really love this movie. I'm not very good at describing visual stuff, so I tend to avoid saying much more than "it's good" or "it's bad", but this movie uses a lot of unusual colors and lighting compared to what came before. Like, I would describe the most commonly reoccurring color in this movie's palette as "periwinkle", and this shot from the first conversation between Cecily and Iron Mask really highlights how important lighting is in this animated feature, which is not something I typically think about when watching animation.

Speaking of: it's crazy to think Unicorn's Riddhe Marcenas was never The Biggest Cuck in Gundam, because Iron Mask has been occupying that position since 1991. Not just literally, but every single word he says and action he takes is just barely not seething. Explicitly mentioning he came to terms with the guy his wife ran off with right before murdering him with psychic powers just to make her sad is peak Cuck Behavior.

Way back in my Hathaway review, I talked about how much I liked the scene of Hathaway and Gigi having to navigate a mobile suit firefight on foot, and for how good that was, F91 actually outdoes that movie. Like, not even 10 minutes in do we get the scene of the baby's mother getting instantly killed by a shell casing, and this is before the fighting starts in earnest.

I pointed this out in a separate post but man do I love the space rescue from Final Fantasy VIII, so finding out that (barring this movie having taken it from something else itself) F91 was the origin of this was a genuinely delightful way to end the movie. Also, even without that comparison, there's is something powerfully romantic about the visual of clinging to your loved one in the endless, uncaring vacuum of space.

THE STUFF I LIKED LESS:

For all the things this movie must have cut, there's an equal number of things it didn't and just rammed in there anyway, like the subplot with Annamarie and Zabine. In a ~50 episode TV series, they could have stretched her growing resentment towards Cecily, defection from the Vanguard, and ultimate clash with Zabine over like 10 episodes, and her death at his hands and his cold dismissal would've had way more impact than it did over the course of 10 minutes.

I mentioned before, Cecily is both a "what if" of an older Mineva Zabi as she appeared in the Zeta/ZZ, which also makes her the blueprint for Mineva Zabi as she actually appears in Unicorn. The flaw here is the Ronah family: unlike the Zabis, who rose to power and infamy with cloak and dagger, the Ronah family just... exists? And they have enough power and resources to form a fighting force as threatening to the firmly entrenched (but arguably stagnant/in-decline) Federation as the Crossbone Vanguard? It'd be easier to handwave if F91 took place, like, 100 years after CCA, but with only 30 years it's just bizarre.

Also not to let Cecily off scot-free, it's very not flattering how easily she fell for the absolute monarchy meme. Like, ok, she's 17 and definitely in over her head, but when Seabook came to rescue her I still don't understand why she was like "no, it's too late, they already convinced me facism is based".

Wiki diving on this subject indicates the Ronah family is basically a new money family that bought an old money name to sound more important, which is delicious, and even sort of ties in with Iron Mask being a Cyber-Newtype, but that's not really present in the movie. Never a good thing when I have to wiki dive to understand something better.

Speaking of this movie only taking place 30 years after CCA: this is not at all the fault of F91, because at the time it was made nothing had else had really been written to have happened aftere Char's Counterattack, but it's very weird to see people who should know better be like "there used to be these people called 'Newtypes', and a special kind of mobile suit called a 'Gundam'".

The Bugs are comically stupid. If I were being charitable, I could chalk this up to Iron Mask being a seething cuck and wanting to be as cruel as possible to the people he's killing, but the idea that self-propelled heat seeking sawblades are a more viable method of mass killing than the gas attacks in Zeta is bananas. (I wrote this right after watching F91, and now that I've had the chance to think back on Zeta- specifically how the first colony we see that got hit with the Titans' gas attack was still uninhabitable years later- I can kind of see the rationale behind the Bugs, but they're still very dumb)

Most of the mech designs in this are pretty great, but I gotta say I'm super disappointed with the Rafflesia. I kept waiting for it to bloom into a dope-ass Qubeley/Kshatriya lookin' thing but it was just the Final Weapon from Mega Man X4.

I mentioned I liked the mobile suit designs, but the Crossbone Vanguard in general is not beating the Star Wars allegations.

OTHER OBSERVATIONS:

I aspire to own the BEAUTIFUL LIFE TOMINO jacket in the way that other guys with different brain problems than me aspire to own the jacket from Drive.

There was a bunch of stuff in this movie I thought was very funny, intentionally or otherwise:

Despite how horrifying the scene gets, the War Museum fight kicking off with the curator announcing/revealing that the name of the museum is "Roy's War Museum" killed me.

Seabook jumping off the maintenance platform and audibly shattering his knees is incredibly fucking funny.

However, Seabook's mom hopping on a moped and immediately eating shit is maybe the single funniest scene in any Gundam media ever.

You're right, random citizen attending the Crossbone Vanguard propaganda rally: beam flags ARE awesome!

This sentence is just a literal observation of what's literally happening in the scene. Like, thinking about it, most attacks on colonies from space in the Universal Century would necessarily come from what would technically be considered "underground" because of how they're designed, but I'll be damned if it doesn't sound poetic. Tomino strikes again!

I've talked about SPEEN before, but it has literally never been SPEEN-ier than F91. Like, here's over a full minute of So Much Fucking Spinning (with the dub audio, where they added in sound effects for everything that's spinning for some reason):

If you don't count the numerous manga follow ups: lol, lmao

IN CONCLUSION:

In an alternate universe where F91 had the chance to be the TV show it was intended to be, I think it would have been successful in trying to soft reboot Gundam. There's a ton of stuff I really like about this, but the execution is lacking because of course it is, and judging it as is without considering hypotheticals, I'd probably put it about on par or just a hair above Char's Counterattack. It has almost the exact same pacing problems I had with that movie, but because it's effectively a clean slate and a single, unconnected, complete narrative, it winds up being a less frustrating watch.

Next up: Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory! This one is a coin flip, because I don't think I've ever heard a single complementary thing about this outside of Cima Garahau's design and the fact that it's a beautiful 90's anime OVA, but it takes place in a timeframe (smack between 0079 and Zeta) that is just so rich with potential that even if it's bad, it should at the very least be interesting.

[thesoftboiledegg]

After a season full of topical episodes, "All the Way Down" showed Futurama at its best: an episode explaining scientific ideas in a fun, entertaining way. This episode would be a great introduction to quantum mechanics and simulation theory.

Generally, I'm not a fan of simulation theory because people tend to get smug about it. "Nothing is real! Existence is meaningless! We're all just a bunch of ones and zeroes!" But if you're experiencing life, why does it matter if it's "real" or not?

If existence isn't real, then why don't you stop eating? Why don't you sleep on the floor instead of a bed? That sounds uncomfortable? Sounds like your experiences mean something after all!

I was happy that Futurama came to the same conclusion. Instead of feeling depressed because nothing matters, the characters realized that everyone's lives matter. One of the pre-commercial jump cuts implied that "our" Planet Express crew is in a simulation of their own, but what difference does it make? They're still people.

Additionally, I loved watching Amy show off her smarts. I think her ditziness makes people, including the writers, forget that she holds a doctorate. She held her own against the professor and challenged his thinking.

That being said...I didn't necessarily enjoy this episode. I had a blast watching "The Impossible Stream," "I Know What You Did Last Xmas," "Rage Against the Vaccine" (yeah, I know that's an unpopular opinion) and others. TV doesn't have to be fun to be great--I'm a Sopranos fan, and some of the best episodes are brutal--but I felt like I was watching an animated lecture.

It's a great episode, but I wouldn't say that I'll look forward to it when I eventually rewatch the whole series. Still, personal opinion doesn't reflect the quality.

However, that brings me to my biggest issue with the episode: the implication that a Bender from a higher dimension replaced "our" Bender. Some have said that our Bender came back, proving that the crew is in a simulation because the professor said it's a one-way trip--or maybe it's just a plot hole.

But I think the writing implies that our Bender is gone and another took his place. He reboots out of nowhere and tells the crew that he has a solution, just like our Bender did when he jumped down a level. Additionally, as previously mentioned, one of the jump cuts implies that our crew is also in a simulation. It's simulations all the way down!

I have the same issue with "The Late Phillip J. Fry" from the Comedy Central run. Fry, Bender and the professor jump two universes ahead, leaving the rest of the crew to die trillions of years ago. I also raised an eyebrow at the professor going back in time in "I Know What You Did Last Xmas." He probably came back to the same universe because if he didn't, he would've run into another professor--but you can't be totally sure.

Yeah, we're still watching the Planet Express crew, and it doesn't matter from a storytelling perspective. And it's debatable how canon this is since Futurama famously resets at the end of nearly every episode. But it's still unsettling.

If someone with an identical twin dies, and their twin takes their place, their twin isn't them. The original consciousness--the person that we knew--is gone forever.

This is also why "Jurassic Bark" doesn't hit as hard for me because Fry wasn't bringing Seymour back to life. He was making a clone. That clone isn't Seymour.

Maybe I'm taking a TV show too seriously, but if everyone's replaceable, then maybe "All the Way Down" isn't implying that every life is important after all. One simulated person is as good as another.

In any case, I can't deny that the ending was fantastic--probably one of the best endings that I've ever seen. The crew watches the world pixelate around them, but instead of having an existentialist crisis, Fry and Leela slowly lean in for a kiss. I almost cried, which is no easy feat! Very few movies and TV shows move me to tears.

The writers minimized Fry's role in season eight, implying that he's no longer the main character, but maybe Futurama said everything it had to say about his story. He can't be the "fish out of water" forever; at a certain point, he's going to adjust to the future.

I had some issues with this episode, and I disliked a few others (what the hell was going on with "The Prince and the Product"?), but overall, season eight had great gags, funny topical references, sweet moments between the characters--the Comedy Central run was pretty mean-spirited--and fresh takes on scientific concepts.

Ultimately, and I'm saying this as someone who's been watching Futurama since 1999, this revival was worth it. Futurama just won't die, and maybe it's a cash grab, but it's also because the fans love it so much.

[irxnlegacy]

@themckaytriarchy asked: Send me a “ 🔥 “ for an unpopular opinion.

I doubt MCU is ruined because of "wokeness" when these same haters love Spiderverse, Invincible, and The Boys that are just as diverse and those properties are big hits. People of color, women, and LGBT characters represented is not MCU's problem, so crying "woke" deflects the real problem: oversatuation of content. No more overworking CGI artists and pumping shows AND movies all at once. I did say t.v. shows are better because of better pacing, but after the Strike, it's best for Disney to stick to movies again. I was not joking when I suggested MCU should make a 2D animated film to stand out. A good way to capitalize nostalgia without making another reboot/remake.

@ismelodrama asked: 🔥

After catching up with Invincible and rewatching Rein of the Supermen (best movie ever ok?), Disney's Marvel SERIOUSLY needs better animation. It is too much to ask to hire Studio Mir or Wind Sun Sky Entertainment?! Steven Yeun animated a promo for Invincible season 2 BY HIMSELF and it's better quality than anything Disney made for Marvel.

@cxffeeshxp asked: “ 🔥 “ ~ Tumblr

Tumblr is trash because of how much it malfunctions with its useless updates. But I rather spend my time here than other social media platforms. I love looking up stuff about my favorite black female characters without a bunch of red pillers whining in the comment section. Kills the vibe. Why I avoid Twitter and Facebook like the plague, Instagram maybe next because it's almost as bad.

[ariminiria]

You know...even the live action Scooby Doo movies from the 2000's were MUCH more enjoyable then the crap that Hollywood throws at us now. Those people who worked on the LA Scooby Doo movies totally went all out!

They were a little bit bad in some ways, but at the same time they were so charming. And they weren't trying to be edgy, or anything more or less than the source material. They set out to strictly make a live action Scooby Doo, and they did.

I also think that Scooby Doo is a better candidate for live action than many things that have been adapted as such recently, because of the "monster of the week" nature of the show. Most of the episodes were unrelated, unconnected, and rarely referenced each other, except to sometimes mention old cases. But there wasn't a huge overarching plot to drag the pacing down and detract from the main focus, aka whatever case they were currently working on.

That's why I personally found the Mystery Incorporated reboot to be severely underwhelming. Definitely my least favorite iteration thus far. They focused too much on a "big" mystery instead of just. Ya know. Monsters. And they added too much supernatural element. I'll get into why the live action one gets a pass for that later, but the original cartoons and the What's New Scooby Doo phase only ever winked at supernatural realism. Like the cornfield episode where the creepy cat disappeared except for its red eyes at the end. But it was never really taken super seriously.

The live action movies came out to do their own thing and they set the bar from the get go. So sure, we're having Scrappy Doo try to eat Scooby's soul and the gang gets their bodies all swapped around, why not. They kept the tone consistent with the original material and that's what matters. And you didn't have to watch the other movies to understand whichever one you were watching, much like the original monster-of-the-week setup of the series.

Mystery Incorporated tried too hard to be dark and gritty, yet it still pretended it was being faithful to the original. But they reduced all the characters down to the most one dimensional cardboard cutout caricatures of themselves, taking one trait and blowing it up into their whole personality. Fred is a dumb jock who knows nothing but how to make traps. Velma knows nothing but books (and also she's a controlling emotionally abusive girlfriend now??). Daphne is overtly obsessed with Fred and that's her whole personality.

And then they tried to add an overarching plot in the background of each season. They imply that its similar to the cases they've solved this far - ie realism - but just a bigger threat pulling the strings. They're never ever clear of what is supposedly going to happen. Some vague and generic bad guy is planning something. What something, you might ask? What is the culmination of three seasons of insulting material and vague hints? Maybe a real estate scam? An inheritance scheme?

No. Quite literally out of nowhere at the end of the last season, they go through a portal into a shadow dimension and a whole bunch of people get eaten by a shadow demon that can only possess talking animals (for some reason) and it wanted Scooby but only managed to snag some pathetic bird. But it still wants Scooby tho! Anyways the shadow demon is literally consuming their town and the people in it (including the gang's parents cause yeah let's give the kiddies some nightmares) and somehow the power of friendship defeats the shadow demon but also sends them back to an alternate reality like Back to the Future and they all have really cool, better lives now. For some reason.

Honestly, it was insulting that they tried to even call that a Scooby Doo show. If they had made original characters and done their own new thing it would have been kind of interesting. But nah. Just something else where you can tell the creators hated the original material and were determined to twist it into what they wanted to watch instead of being faithful to the source.

The movies understood what they were doing and they didn't try to make it something that it shouldn't be.

[dreamerdagn]

so uhh I really enjoyed Honor Among Thieves

it was at least fairly campy but that meant it never had moments of unflattering seriousness, and the writing was pretty simple but that meant no cringe that I can remember. But the characters were fun, the aesthetic was cohesive and attractive, and I loved the acting and the character design. It was paced super well so that scenes hit all the beats they needed to but didn’t drag, and I always personally appreciate that because I get anxious easily and if the tension of a scene builds for too long it can become unenjoyable for me; if a movie is supposed to be tense and I’m there for it that can be fine, but I don’t generally sign up for that in a fun fantasy romp. Oh yeah and the jokes pretty much across the board got at least one laugh out of me, and then there was one in the middle that was exactly the same caliber as the rest and for some reason I completely lost it. It had a slapstick component that really sold it I think.

Anyway obviously no movie is for everybody, but I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this anyone, because if you don’t like you lose nothing. (Unless you’re deep into D&D lore, which...I’m aware exists but like. It’s all background noise to me even when I’m playing in that setting. I mean even then you might like this movie but that’s the one thing that you could nitpick I guess.)

I do want to try to see movies that are original, but it’s so hard for me to work up the energy to see movies...then again all of the last three I saw I liked, but I had to really really want to see them to be willing to. Nope and Everything Everywhere I saw at home tho, I hope that still counted towards their success...Everything Everywhere wasn’t a personal favorite but it was interesting, I was glad I saw in order to be in the loop, and I’m super glad of its success, both for being a fun mainstream movie that I enjoy more than most, and an Academy winner that I enjoy more than most of those. And Nope I just outright loved.

I heard Honor Among Thieves did well enough, but not enough to maybe be the franchise they were hoping it to be which...like...good. I really liked it, in fact I’d like to see it again, and sequel could’ve been fun, but...I’d rather get new stuff. (Also I had literally just remarked that I wondered what Justice Smith had been up to since Detective Pikachu, and I went into this having no idea he was in it, and uh...he was great, probably my favorite performance out of a bunch that I liked)

I definitely want to eventually see Across the Spider Verse, there’s no way I wouldn’t unless it gets completely panned, but idk if I’ll see it in theaters or not...but the big shock to me was how good the new TMNT movie looks? Like I’ve never actually watched a piece of TMNT media, I’m just a little too young to have nostalgia for the cartoon series and I never got into any of the reboots. But the trailer was absolutely delightful, the mood was fun and the animation style was really appealing. idk. we’ll see.

[floatinginwords]

Random thoughts

If twilight ever rebooted I’d love it if they just didn’t follow the books entirely

Meaning

Let expand of the entire Cullen family, more backstories and personality, the family dynamic they all established for each other like show me Rosalie and Alice being sisters and shopping together gossiping about Edward and his fixation in the new human m, let Emmett and Edward try to hang out but Emmets thoughts being so loud and bothering him. Everyone annoyed with Jasper when he alters others emotions for his own gain? (Also can we just cut out Jasper being a confederate soldier or at least have him acknowledge that and either apologize or be like yea that was wrong idk but that has always been weird detail just thrown there)

The couples doing more than just hold hands and kiss. Like we see the trust between Alice and Jasper, Emmett being the only one to make Rosalie laugh and Rosalie always rising to defend Emmett even when he can protect himself. Carlisle dancing with Esme in the empty house. The backstory of how they fell in love

Give Bella more and better things to do. Why does she not have the motivation or ambition to be more than just what she is when she’s with Edward. Maybe she does want to go to college and be something . Maybe she does and meets other supernatural entities ?what if she wanted to travel or wasn’t ready for a long term commitment. What if she didn’t take Edward back after New moon and dated other people?

Also between you and me I think the Edward and Bella relationship could be soooo much more romantic. I want to root for them other than the reason they love each other . I want to root for them cause they make each other better and cause they like each other and they’ve grown from past mistakes.

The pack and Jacob. I loved the dynamic of the pack and the connection they have together. But JUSTICE TO LEAH. My girl deserved better in every way. Would love for her to leave that pack and find her own she-wolf pack because she couldn’t have been alone that too sad.

BELLAS FRIENDS. I don’t know but anyone but she could use some support other than Edward and Jacob. Angela I could see as bestie material. I always thought of her as like a secret witch.

Speaking of that let’s expand the universe. There can’t just be vampires and shapeshifting wolves. I’m thinking why not other shapeshifting animals, or ghouls, witches, fairies, elves, trolls. Whose to say that they are the only ones? I’m not saying all these at once cause that’s be a lot but I’m just thinking that there should be more? What about hunters who know about this world hidden from humans? The potential man.

Also can the Volutri be more of a threat? The whole series we hear about them and the power they posses. They demand Bella to be turned, she does it though it would have happened regardless, and then they get mad about baby refrigerator but leave after the miscommunication. I haven’t read the books in a bit but I just don’t remember if they just had one long talk about it and they were kind of insinuating that they wanted the powers of edward and Alice in the voltori

That could have been a bigger problem but it didn’t feel like it ever was. Alec could have put a hit on them or that fight scene in breaking dawn pt 2 could of actually happened and we see the result of what happens

I’m just spit ballin here but let’s get some LgbtQ+ characters and have them dress according to their personality. AND BLUE TINT YEA and keep the soundtrack either as is or as a blueprint. Get more diverse casting.

Make it a series instead of a movie. I can see this as a cool animation or live action.

I’m probably missing a bunch of other points. But yea this is what I was thinking about today

[mystical-renaissance]

If I could reboot

Now I know reboots of classic and beloved shows of our youth are technically looked down on in certain fanbases for arguably good reasons. But here me out I’ve been thinking and pondering on something a question of which was “If I could reboot a show, what would it be? What would I change and what would I keep?, and the most important one of all how would it still feel like the original show or series and not step too far into fanfic territory?” ( and with that I mean your just doing your own thing and straying real far from the source material.)

So for what I came up with was if I could I would give the Powerpuff Girls another try. I know the 2016 version is one that is not in particularly loved especially by me & on top of that I didn’t really watch the show I just saw a couple of clips and from what I saw I didn’t really care for it. Which kind of saddens me because I loved the intro that CN released for the show when it was announced that they were brining them back. And also I love the PPG’S a whole bunch. So much so that when I found out that there was an anime version of the PPG’S I instantly wanted to watch it and luckily YouTube hade a couple of episodes uploaded and some were even dubbed which was helpful.

 And let me tell you I also loved the anime versions of these girls and the changes they made for them. I mean yeah at first when I watched it I was a little taken aback with what they have changed but to me they weren't that jarring. I liked how they weren’t really sisters and how they became a cute friends, I liked that they went the route of them being “magical girls” and transforming into the hero selves. On top of it all to me at least it still felt like it was the Powerpuff girls, nothing was too different that would have me to dislike or hate it. 

But what where here to talk about is what I would do if I was to revive this show. What I would do is combine the original Powerpuff Girls & Powerpuff Girls Z. Keep the 60s modern feel for setting and have the characters designs simple but close to an anime artstyle. Like for example Magical DoReMi’s style or say Studio Triggers style. Have the backgrounds in watercolor like in Sailor Moon or any old studio Ghibli movie. For concept we can take form PPGZ by having the girls 1) not be related. 2) have them hit by piece of an asteroid that landed near Townsville. 3) have the Professor be their gradian for helping them with their powers. 4) keep magical girls aspect of the show. What to take from the original PPG would be 1) their names. 2) their Villans. 3) setting ex: Townsville, USA. 4) Characters in general. 5) the girls personalities. 6) professor being single & a scientist. 

What would I add would have to be 1) I would add some characters from the ‘16 reboot. only because I feel like they could be better characters if written and handled well. For ex. Sapna  or even Bliss ( the one many didn’t like because of how she felt like a character the art directors kids made and forced the team and working staff to write a story about her and put her in the show.) But like I said she could be interesting if handled better. For me she is another super who works for Dick Hardly who works as an agent or sponsor for hero's in Townsville. 2) some characters from PPGZ.  3)  an monster island for where the monsters live not to far from the city. 4) other hero’s that were in the old show maybe some from the 2016 show (maybe) 5) an agency that sponsor's hero’s 

For the most part that's what I have in mind I might post some drawings that I have been working on. As well as more on this concept maybe get into more detail, but for now that’s it. If anyone has any suggestions or wants to answer the question of what they would reboot I would like to hear it.  

[lady-wren-of-tella]

Okie so one of my current interests is a game called five nights at Freddy’s(fnaf)!! I’ve liked this game series for a long time, it’s honestly one of the longest fandoms that I’ve been in!! Plus fnaf has also been a thing that I’ve liked for so long, I honestly don’t think that I’ll ever stop loving it cause it’s basically apart of my childhood and it’s still something that I love. But anyways, recently a teaser trailer for the movie came out and oh my godddd!!! It looks so good, I’m so bloody excited for the movie!! It’s been in the works for so long and now that we got a teaser trailer AND it’s coming out this year?! AAAHHHHHHH I’m kicking and screaming!!! And and, today a gameplay trailer was released for the new fnaf security breach dlc called ruin and ohhhhhhhh it looks so good as well!!! The design and atmosphere of the game is great, I can’t wait when it comes out so that I can watch gameplay of it!!! And and, I might be able to play it too since my older brother is gonna buy it when it comes out so yayyyyy!!

Okie okie, so my next interest is another video which is Resident Evil 4 remake(re4 remake) and ohhhhhhhh it’s such a bloody pretty game!! The graphics and gameplay is amazingggg!! And and the characters are so pretty too!! My favorite characters from the game are Leon, Ashely, and Luis- and you can call me a simp but I would gladly marry those three because god damn do they look so so pretty and beautiful!! I’m not too far into the game since I’m only watching two friends stream and play it but I’m currently rewatching their stream vods to refresh my memory. But ahhhhhhh the game is so gorgeous and everything about it is so great!! Asmskachkasjkwchajl and and the merchant in re4 remake, aaahhhhhhhh- I like wanna be his friend so bad!! I wanna give him a big ol’ hug each time I see him!! Currently I can’t play it since it’s on the newer gen consoles but whenever I can I’ll definitely 100% play it!!

Finally, my last current interest is an anime called Trigun!! I only recently got into it but ohhhh myyyy godddd does that anime have a grip on me!! The only reason I got into it was because I kept seeing a bunch of TikTok edits of the reboot version of the show which is called Trigun Stampede(I’ll refer to it as TriStamp) so I caved in and I started to watch it and I don’t regret my decision. I was not disappointed!! I loved the characters, the animation, the story- I just loved everything about it!! Then after I finished watching TriStamp a few weeks later I decided why not and I watched the og Trigun. And ohhhhhh myyyyy goddddd, my love for the show grew ten times more!! It was the same show and the same characters but just something about it was so different!!! I just loved it so much!! And and I also watch the movie as well(called Trigun: Badlands Rumble) because I just needed more content!! I’m genuinely so hooked with this anime, the brain rot I have of it is unreal. I recently got two funko pops of my two favorite characters from the anime and I plan to get the rest of the characters but I like wanna get more merch lol xddd Last weekend I saw two figures of two characters from Trigun, I didn’t get them and I regret not buying them but hopefully this weekend me and my brothers will go to the same mall and hopefully, hopefully they’ll still be there that way I can buy them!! There’s also gonna be a TriStamp figure and I want it so baddddd, and and there’s a Trigun and Trigun Maximum deluxe edition manga!! Shubsjjcknskhwkmkfnrk I wanna buy that tooooo!! I’m hoping I’ll be able to get both of these things sometime in the future(maybe even for Christmas but I doubt it.) but ahhhhhh just- the brain rot I have is unbelievable and this show just lives rent free in my mind rn

i've heard about the fnaf movie!! one of my irls loves fnaf and was telling me all about how excited they were for the movie. I dont remember him mentioning anything about the new game being released, but he was super excited about the movie.

ive seen so much abt resident evil (specifically about that one guy named leon) . it actually looks really interesting tbh

IVE SEEN REALLY COOL ART FOR TRIGUN ON TWITTER!!! the one guy with the yellow glasses has such cool character design and its so cool to see how different artists put their own spin on it

[foone]

Pick a show that sounds interesting and start watching.

Way more details under the cut

The Original Series (60s) and The Next Generation (80s-90s) are the first two: both are about a ship Going Boldly and finding weird space stuff. Either are good places to start. Both are dated, TNG less so. There's remastered editions with new special effects available if the old special effects are too much to hear.

Deep Space Nine (90s) is about a space station instead. It's got a lot of politics early on, and it turns into a war story by the end.

Voyager (90s) is about a ship trapped on the uncharted far side of the galaxy, trying to get home. Takes a while to find it's feet but has plenty of good episodes.

Enterprise (2000s) is a prequel, going back to before Kirk. It had a lot of problems but still has its fans. I would definitely not recommend this one as your first: the prequel nature means you'll miss a lot of references. It does have a neat thing: the entire third season is one storyline, about tracking down an alien plot to blow up the earth.

Discovery (2010s-2020s): this one is set during the original series, then jumps ahead to the future. It's about a historical Star Trek war, some Mirror Universe (an alternate universe full of EVIL PEOPLE with EVIL BEARDS) shenanigans, the first canonically gay character in Trek, several cameos from characters from the Original Series, but played by new actors because it's been 50 years. Another one that's not great to start with: too much continuity you won't understand. But if the other shows are too dated for you, they do explain enough that you'll get the gist.

Picard (2020s): The captain from The Next Generation comes back, goes on several adventures, we learn what happened to a bunch of TNG characters, and there's a big reunion. You shouldn't watch this until you've seen TNG.

Lower Decks (2020s): an animated comedy about some of the lower-ranked workers on the Star Ship . Definitely worth watching but its full of continuity jokes so I don't know how well it'd work if you're new to Trek.

Prodigy (2020s): an animated series aimed at a young-adult audience. Some aliens learn about The Federation (the Good Guys in Star Trek) and decide to escape to it, aided by a holographic version of the captain from Voyager. It has continuity stuff but since they expect to have a younger audience, they don't depend on them. It's fine to watch first, but it's a little different from standard Trek, so it's maybe not the best introduction.

Strange New Worlds (2020s): The adventures of the ship from The Original Series before Kirk was in charge, a Discovery spinoff. The continuity is complicated and while this has my favorite episode of the new shows (A FUCKING MUSICAL!), it's probably a terrible place to start.

That's all of them, minus some made for TV movies, the made for theaters movies, and The Animated Series.

The made for TV movies are all in the Discovery/Strange New Worlds continuity. You don't want to start with those.

The theatrical movies are set in the TOS continuity(for the first 6 movies) and then the TNG continuity (Generations through Nemesis), then the last three are in the Kelvin timeline: a reboot of The Original Series.

The Animated Series is just The Original Series but as a cartoon. Watch it if you want after TOS.

If you want to start with a movie, watch the 2009 movie called just "Star Trek". It's fine, and it gives you something of an idea of the characters. Neither the TOS or TNG movies are good starting points.

Anyway tl:dr let me give you some actual advice:

Pick one of The Original Series, The Next Generation, or Voyager, based on if you feel like 60s, 80s, or 90s scifi. Watch the first episode. (That's "The Man Trap" for TOS, "Encounter at Farpoint" for TNG, and "Caretaker" for VOY)

If you like it, great! Start watching the first season of whatever show it is, but maybe check a wiki or fan guide to know what episodes to skip. Star Trek pretty consistently has a very mixed-quality first season, so there's often a bunch of stinkers early on to scare you off.

If you don't like it, you have two options:

1. If you don't like the characters or the setting, try a different show

2. If you like the characters but hated the story, maybe look up "top 10 episodes for star Trek SERIESNAME". Pre-2010s they had very little continuity between episodes, so once you've seen the pilot you can watch just about any episode. Worst case, one character might have been swapped out for another as the cast wasn't fully static.

So yeah. I hope you know what you were getting into when you asked an autistic Trek nerd about which Trek to watch.

(Personally I started with TNG, watched a few TOS episodes, then watched Voyager, went back to DS9, watched most of Enterprise, and a few episodes of Strange New Worlds.)

Trick or treat

Have Kirk, crawling on the floor

[falsebooles123]

Dairy of a Horror Buff 8.20.22

CW: Horrors beyond your mortal ken. nah we're watching some fucked up shit today so maybe sit this one out if you don't want to see that.

UGH BITCHES BUT LIKE IN A GOOD WAY.

I was looking for a gif from there Shiny Happy People Short were there like Happiness more like Hap-penis lmoa gottum but apparently you whores can't appreciate fine art.

I got over that period of self doubt have formulated an action plan and I'll be OK. I just needed some time to emotional process shit which I think is like a good thing. Like is nature healing, like is daddy not repressing his emotions anymore???

I love that tumblr is 50% nihlistic goth mood boards. Keep up the good work ladies, gents, and assorted gentry.

so I was watching Betty Boop cartoons yesterday and I was like hey I haven't seen a lot of animated horror. Surely it exists maybe I should pop some of that shit in my gullet so today lets watch a bunch of fucked up shit online.

but first I kinda have to tell you about what I watched last night.

Stigma (1977) dir. Lawrence Gordon Clark

ok so this and the next one are a diversion from the original format of AGSFC. the last two of the original series are acutally original screenplays. This one was written by Clive Exton. This is also the last film of the series to be directed by Clark.

so the film is pretty basic plot wise. It involves a mother moving to a cottage out on the moors??? the heath??? whatever the fuck its called. one of those british prairie things shes there. and guess what else is there spoopy stones. specifically a stone circle along with what the discription calls a menhir. which is like a stone circle but its just like a single rock.

anyway there like

UWU LETS UNBUWWY THE ANCIENT EWWIL.

the momma gets hella cursed, starts spontanious bleeding, serving us titane realness.

I'm obviously talking about the whole body horror bathroom scenes but this is the only gifs on tumblr for what I feel is obvious reasons.

this film was actually pretty refreshing it gives us this 1970s banality horror vibes which I love. The plot is vague and ambiguious which is what a good ghost story should be. I really liked this.

The Ice House (1978) dir. Derek Lister

Ok so this is the last AGSFC episode of the original series and was also the only one not directed by Clark. Who the fuck is Derek Lister? Apparently he was a theater director who branched into television dramas I imagine hes a famalier name in certain circles but if your not into 80s british theater you like myself have no recollection of him.

Now am I horrible impressed by this film but lets be honest this is television movies meant to appeal to old stodgers. This stuff probably had no budget.

That being said Lister wasn't a poor sport at all, I like the sort of uncanny vibe of this. We have a health spa, creepy incestious siblings, and an ailing protaganist whose convinced theres something spooky in the old ice house.

This honestly gives me poe vibes, (might be the incest), it definetly feels like a classic ghost story in a lot of ways, the way that the horror is slowly metered out, the questioning of sanity, the sort of vague lore thats never spelt out.

Most people find this film to be a poor send off of this series and sure its not creepy and gothic but I honestly did love them trying new things out.

Ok so that was the end of the orginal AGSFC. Might watch the reboot might not now lets watch something fucked up.

The Scuzzies (2019) dir. Jimmy ScreamerClauz

so what got me on this path was rewatching Nyxfears Disturbing Movies megacut and she mentioned this creator. and I'm like this is the exact shit I'm looking for when it comes to horror shorts.

so one thing that fascinates me is that kind of uncanny 3d animation. I've never been the biggest fan of 3d animation, (through I unirionically like RYBY so take it with a grawn of salt), so that sort of early 2000s look where everything low poly and badly lit is never something I was exposed too.

HIs style feels like a low letter to that sort of thing.

The Scuzzies are what I am assuming are a reace of brownies or similer house sprites who live in some sort of fucked up crack house.

The owner has set up traps and the scuzzies are murdered brutally through a variety of methods that I don't want to describe.

The scuzzies then proceed to go back to their nest, sacrifice an elde3r to create a eldritch hivemind??? who proceeds to seduce the owner of the house and then brutally murder him.

This shit is like an acid trip. everything is disguisting and hard to look at and its feeled with blood and cum and shit, and a bunch of things that are also some combination of that. It's captivating in a really messed up way but I also could never show this to my family.

ok lets move onto something that doesn't involve bloody ejaculate.

Muse (2022) dir. Lunely

Ok I love how Letterboxd will literally not have some random B-Movie but will absolutely have a random animated youtube short. This is not tea nor shade I just love finding stuff like this on Letterboxd. It gives a kind of validity to a lot of smaller works out there in a weird way.

Anyway there are so many horror animations on youtube that they could never show them all but this one was cute. A young artist wakes up in the middle of the night and walks downstairs to her studio, she sharpens her sketching pencil as her muses silolette is cast by the flash of lightening.

it was cute I like this I need to watch more Calarts Short Films.

I Live In The Woods (2011) dir. Max Winston

Ok but is this a regular show character or a jojo character asking for a friend. This was horrifric. it starts out so cute until it goes entirely insane and is like how realistic do you want your stop motion gore and viscera.

Down To The Bone (2009) dir. Peter Ahern

Ok so this gives me big Don't Starve Energy.

Michael is a boy with really bad allergies. when his shitty babysitter kicks him outside he manages to sneeze so badly that he flips inside out. bloody nonsense ensues.

Who's Hungry? (2009) dir. David Ochs.

No little german boy don't get icecream.

oh mein gott zis haus es full of kinder-munchen.

so this is another calarts film and also one that I have seen before a couple years ago. Essentially two little kids are stolen by a ice cream man who turns out to be a cannibal. its definetly one that I recommend.

The Backwater Gospel dir. Bo Mathorne

OK so I'm not sure who Bo Mathorne is but I am obsessed. we're being served dark western which is one of my favorite genres/aestetics. Essentially we watch the townspeple of backwater get ready for church as the local tramp plays his guitar.

The Underaker comes to town, a shade that comes to take one life before he leaves. the local preacher rips the town into a fury to kill the tramp who he sees to be the cause of the harbringer. As you can imagine its a monster are do on mulberry street moment and thre is carnage bloody carnage.

Absolutely iconic we stan.

Felix the Ghost Breaker (1923) dir. Otto Messmer

so felix the cat actually has a really interesting history. It was made by either Pat Sullivan or Otto Messmer and was acutally rather big in the silent film era. At his point in 1923 it was beggining to lose relevency since fleischer and disney were having there pissing contest at this point and that urinating was captured in stunning surround sound.

Felix was also apparently a comic strip before this and it definetly shows, the animation isn't as fluid as I'm use to with 30s cartoons and the way that the style and the word bubbles are written are vary reminscent of early comic strips. Its almost an animated comic strip in that sense.

I can't say Iove this film but it is a cool part of film history.

Ok one more.

The Haunted House (1929) dir. Walt Disney

ok so this is pretty much the same vibe as the last couple classic animation shorts. Mickey Mouse goes to a house thats super fucking haunted sweetheart and the ghosts and skeletons and shit are like nobody leaves without singing the blues.

what an iconic movie. directors don't be afraid to put an entire fucking music number in your fucking movie.

so yeah theres some dancing skeletons bois and mickey mouse does a couple sight gags.

OK bitches I'm gonna simp for Elisabeth Shue in Adventures in Babysitting (1987) and watch Salad Fingers while bullet journaling.

[popculturebuffet]

One Year Anniversary: Top 12 Ducktales Episodes!

Happy anniversary all you happy people! Yes it was one year ago today I started reviewing animation and it’s been a ride to be sure. I’d always WANTED to be a reviewer: I love going on and on about stuff I love, really digging into it and picking it apart... but I could never get started. I tried youtube but I didn’t have the money for the equipment nor a proper shooting space to record, so my efforts.. were not great. And while I TRIED text reviews, my own looming pile of self hatred meant every attempt I made was shot down when it got hard as me not being good enough. 

But one year ago I finally got past that. I’d already been reviewing a bit, doing invididual issues of comics... but got way in over my head trying to do the current line of X-Men comics as it came out, and wisely bowed out of that. But that left a gap: I had nothing to cover week to week and with a demanding new job, I drifted into just doing in charcter chats, little fan fictions script styles. Not bad work, I should do some more at some point and I even got a comissoin once in a while, but nothing I could really live on and not what I wanted to do with my life. 

Enter Ducktales. I’d always WANTED to review the show.. and when the double premire happened, I decided fuck it, and put up my thoughts. And then decided.. hey maybe I can do this every week.. and slowly.. my work evolved, getting better and better, getting more and more likes. I picked up Amphibia when that came by week to week.

And eventually.. this went from a hobby, if one I was passionate about to a career. Not a largely paying one, as only one person was really intrested in paying me for it, friend of the blog and our fincial backer @weirdkev27, but .. it’s money and i’m now making about 30 dollars a month due to a comination of comissions and patreon. Other contributers are always welcome mind you, my patreon is here if your curious and comissions are 5 dollars an episode, but i’ts just nice to have money coming in. To have gone from simply WANTING to review things and make a living off it.. to simply doing it. 

And it’s been one hell of a year.. and not just because 2020 felt like hell or 2021 began with a full on insurrection. I feel like i’ve acomplished a lot in the year i’ve been doing this: I finished what I started with Ducktales season 3, getting better and better as I went. And I didn’t stop there with ducks: I started covering what brought me to Ducks in the first place, the Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, and while that retrospective has slid a bit on the schedule, I intend to get it back on track this month. I reviewed a bunch of Darkwing Duck episodes leading up to the Just Us Justice Ducks.. chronologically anyway. The actual airing order reads like someone took 50 issues of a comic, made it rain with them, then just started reading whatever ones they picked up randomly. I also covered some of Duck Master Carl Barks work with the classics Night on Bear Mountain, A Christmas for Shacktown and Back to the Klondike, with more to come. 

And the Duck didn’t stop at just reviews I did on my own: Kev comissioned two MASSIVE retrospectives from me: My first for him was Ride of the Three Caballleros where in just a few short months I covered the boys entire televisied careers together from the movie, to house of mouse, to mickey and the roadster racers, to ducktales (again) and finishing with the wonderful Legend of the Three Caballeros. It has probably the worst Daisy imaginable, but otherwise is really excellent and i’m glad I finally watched it. I also covered Don Rosa’s two stories with the boys as part of it. It was a fun ride and I enjoyed every minute of it... okay most of them again Three Cabs Daisy is the worst. And once that finished Kev started up another idea: Shadow Into Light: a look at Lena’s character arc from start to finish that has gone on to be my most popular series on this blog, and that finishes next week. And there’s more to come as after that there’s a short breather with a look at Lilo and Stitch’s crossover episodes.. folllowed by me looking at all three of season 2′s ducktales arcs. And I fully intend to have covered every episode of the series by this time next year, so stay tuned. 

Outside of ducks though I didn’t slow down. I restarted my Tom Lucitor retrospective, covering what i feel to be one of Star Vs’ two best characters, tied with eclipsa, and my personal faviorite as he redeemeed himself, found love and I bitched a lot about the horrible directions the series took and probabably will more as that’s still not done yet. I did what I always wanted to do and started looks at some of my faviorite comics ever, starting with Life and Times and adding in New X-Men and Scott PIlgrim. I also threw in the awesome comic Blacksad. I did pride month for the first time and not only came out publicly, but also did two whole arcs i’m proud of with The Saluna episodes of Loud house and the rednid episodes of OK KO, and generally just had myself a good old fashioned time as an out bi man reviewing childrens cartoons. 

I started Season 2 of amphibia with it’s lows of an endlesss road trip and highs of adding Marcy to the cast and giving us more of the silky voiced keith david. And finally Patreon wise Kev’s taken me on a hell o fa journey: In addition to the restrospectives i’ve covered some additional darkwing duck, and a simpsons homage to the duck comics... but also got a bit weird and obscure with detours like the lost animnaics sucessor Histeria, the apocalyptic comedy where Santa dosen’t know how doors work Whoops! and the adventures of Santa’s bratty teen daughter jingle belle. In short.. it’s been a long year but damn has it been fun and there’s more to come. I’d like to thank all of you for reading, thank my Patreons Kev and Emma for supporting me, and thank my family for doing the same.  So with that out of the way, I figured the best way to celebrate was to do something i’ve been wanting to do for a long time, something honoring the show that gave me this calling in the first place. And with Season 3 sadly being the last, and enough weeks having passed for me to digest it between the finale and today, I could think of nothing better than my top 12 episodes of Ducktales.

Ducktales is one of the best cartoons of the 2010′s. Brilliantly taking EVERYTHING that had come before, the comics, the original cartoon and every bit of duck media period to craft a masterful, unique and wonderful reboot. It was funny, it was insane, and it had damn good character arcs. By the end every member of the main cast along with major supporting cast members like Fenton, Drake and especially Lena, had changed and signifigantly at that. The show was everything I could’ve dreamed of and more and I miss it terribly, hoping DIsney will do a revivial movie at some point. For now though, Frank and Matt’s run on ducktales, as they called it and I do too since i’m a massive comic book nerd, it’s time to look back on my favorite tales of ducks. So grab your sharks, your number one dimes and your friendship cakes with clear gay undertones and join me under the cut as I celebrate one of my faviorite shows and my anniversary in the best way possible. 

12. House of the Lucky Gander! 

 So as i’ve gone on about before and no doubt will again, Donald kinda got the short end of the stick in season 1. While Frank and Matt had good story intentions, keeping Donald away from adventure since he had no interest in it, in practice it meant a beloved Disney Icon who they and disney HEAVILY promoted as part of the series and whose being here this go round was a big draw for fans of the comics.... was only in a quarter of the season and only got TWO plots centered around him in 23 episodes, with only one being the main plot of the episode. The PIlot and Finale both centered around the family more as a whole if your curious how I counted those so while he got plenty of focus in both, it’s still not a day in the limelight sort of thing. 

But unusually for Donald, he lucked out as his one big starring role for Season 1 was both one of my faviorites and one of Season 1′s most inventive outings.  A lot of the episodes enegy comes from a one two punch of a great guest star and one of the series best settings. The guest star is of course everyone’s faviorite overly lucky himbo Gladstone Gander. The show adapted the prick perfectly: The original Gladstone from the comics.. was the worst asshole imaginable, utterly insufferable. And for a villian, and Donald’s rival, that’s all well and good.. but his super luck meant he RARELY , if ever, suffered any consequences for being just...

The 87 series simply made him nicer, while Going Quackers simply removed his luck. No adaptation really got how to make this fucker work.. until this one. Here Frank split the diffrence: Gladstone is still smug.. but he’s no longer actively malicious. While he is an insensitive prick to Donald in this one, unlike the comics he’s not constantly bragging about his luck or how great he is or actively BAITING Donald to fight with him or trying to ruin his relationship or a million other reasons he sucks and I hate him.

This version by contrast... is generous. He’s not the most empathetic, because he doesn’t get how life works, but he does share the riches of the casnio with everyone and in a cameo appearance in “Treasure of the Found Lamp” gladly offers his nephews some diamonds. He’s got a nice surface level charm to him that makes you understand why people like him.. but it’s also clear ther’es nothing UNDER that of value, making you equally understand why Scrooge and Donald hate him. Gladstone in this reboot is a perfect example of why we need reboots or new adaptations in the first place: Because sometimes the original got something wrong or something can be done much better by the new writers. 

He’s perfectly paired with the setting: The House of Lucky Fortune, a mystical casino with an East Asian astatic based in the country of Macaw and provides two great plots. Donald’s really highlights his character: His understandable jealousy at gladstone earning the boys love through nothing while he struggles to make a living for them, and how he feels like a looser and like Gladstone is simply showing that off instead of just not knowing what empathy is. Having Louie be the one to bond with Gladstone was also just pitch pefefct, as is showing some depth for the boy by having himr ealize his hero is an asshole and be the one to help donald in the end. 

The other plot is just pure joy though and is where the setting REALLY shines: Scrooge and the rest of the kids try to leave.. but can’t find the exit. This is where the creative part comes in: The Casino simply morphs to keep people trapped, and caters to them, giving them whatever they want to keep them trapped. In the cases of the kids it’s all hilarious and adorably in character: Huey becomes entranced by a fancy water show, in one of his best bits of the season, Dewey gets a pet tiger who sadly did not come home with him and Webby gets to live the dream we’ve all had of stuffing her face directly in a choclate fountain. Scrooge’s escape is likewise clever: He simply prepares to get a room.. then books it as the check in desk is ALWAYS near the front. 

We then find out Gladston’es trapped get the whole mystical contest with absolutely gorgeous animation, i’ll talk about it in full some time but this episode is just a treat to watch, has a great arc for donald and had some memorable gags. I can’t help but smile when I watch it. 

11. The Dangerous Chemistry of Gandra Dee!  As I mentioned before i’m a superhero nerd so naturally Fenton was one of my faviorite parts of the show. Frank and Matt were just damn good at crafting superhero stories, and like gladstone improved fenton turning him from an awkward donald stand in to an awkward peter parker-esque science nerd who just wants to be a good person and the best hero he can be. He got into science not just because he thinks it’s neat, but because he honestly wants to help people and you can’t help but foot for him whenever he pops up. Lin Manuel Miranda is a large reason for that, bringing his incomparable a-game to the character. While we sadly didn’t get a ton of gizmoduck focused episodes, the fatct we got AS MANY as we did and that Lin didn’t drop out for a minute even with his busy schedule was a miracle and I’m acknowledging that. 

As for why this one, I feel it builds brilliantly on the previous Fentoncentric episode Who Is Gizmoduck?! which just BARELY didn’t make this list and uses the fact we haven’t seen fenton in a while as both a plot point and to move some things forward without having to spend screentime they clearly didn’t have. By having Fenton be just burnt out on superheroics it finds a way to both explain where he’s been, he’s been busy with his new job, and give us an interesting angle to the old “superhero is tired of the life” thing. He never once complains about saving people or stuff... it’s just like any job it gets tiring after a while. As someone who has his dream job but has struggled with it from time to time, I vastly relate. 

Though while I love my boy and Lin is game as always, the episodes real MVP is my other boy Huey. The episode has moved Huey up from being simply Fenton’s fanboy to being his best friend, and adorable as hell relationship. The two clearly respect and appricate each other and Huey is looking out for his buddy the whole episode. His love of love is also just really cute. Added in the mix is Webby, who in one of my faviorite gags of the series, finds out Fenton is  Gizmoduck because Huey is incredibly and insanely blatant with his unecessary coverup. But she of course is game to help while Fenton is trying to play it casual. We also just get a waterfall of great gags as everyone overdoes it wingmanning for fenton: Huey sets up an itallian bistro and tries to purposfully create a lady and the tramp situation, and sings opera (With Manny on acordian), the wonderfully 80′s suit from Fenton’s dad his mom gives him to wear, and Launchpad, who gives us a tremendous list of his exes, and plays my favorite song of the series: It’s a Date, a micheal mcdonnel riff. 

This episode also wisely ups Mark’s Beaks game as Fenton’s arch enemy, still keeping him hilaroius, with the guy acting like a bored teenager and guzzling so much nanite jucie he turns into a hulk, as well as said hulk mode leading to a ton of great gags from kidnapping the children (”I got your kids.. are they your kids? I don’t know how this family works), to “take that coach dad” to eating a pie with tins and all and wondering about said tins. But he’s an actual threat now, taking on fenton in one hell of a fight, and having an utterly transcendent scene where he hacks his way past gyro’s security while dancing.. and dabbing because of course he does. It’s a fun, well done character piece that’s mostly here for i’ts laugh but Fenton’s struggle with Gizmo overtaking his life, and finding out someone he truly hit it off iwth only wanted him for that.. it’s really good stuff and Lin’s delivery after Fenton finds out, the pure pain and betryal in his voice, is just excellent. Also that opera scene is poetry. 

10. Quack Pack!

One of the episodes that started my career naturally landed here. Not for that reason though: Quack Pack is a fun riff on sitcoms, specifically the tgif ones of the 90′s that Disney Afternoon Kids no doubt also watched, the kinds Disney Channel still makes today, and most importanly the kind the Disney Afternoon itself made like Goof Troop and well... Quack Pack. 

Riffs on sitcoms are nothing new and the last year has been FULL of them. 2020 gave us this episode, Beef House and the wonderful “The Perfect House” episode of Close Enough, and this year gave us WandaVision, my second favorite MCU project so far, right behind Black Panther, which used the sitcom deconstruction to create one hell of a character study. 

So you’d think with a year having passed and this concept happening as an entire mini series would dull this one.. but no. it’s still damn funny, having fun at the cliches while, again like WandaVision, having one of the main cast be responsible by accident but go along with it. The episode pivots from glorious affectionate parody of cheesy sitcoms, to that plus horrifying “Humans”, and a character piece for Donald. This brings Donald’s hatred and fed up ness with adventure to a head revealing his fondest wish is just to have a normal life and not loose anyone again. 

It takes one of his best friends to snap him out of it. Look Goofy is my second faviorite of the sensational seven, an episode with him was already an easy sell for me.. but the episode uses him really well. First for laughs as he’s gentically dispositioned to be a perfect sitcom neighbor.. but also for heart. With his family preoccupied and a bit hurt, i’ts Goofy who cuts to the heart of the issue, pointing out NO ONE is normal and even his normal domestic life raising Max, who we see go to prom with roxanne eeeeee, has all sorts of chaos. Normal is what you make of it and pining for some ideal that will never happen was just tearing donald apart piece by piece and by letting go of that.. he finally begins to grow as a person throughout the season. It’s also a great thematic tie in to the season’s overall plot with Bradford and what Makes donald, despite also disliking the chaos his family gets into, different. Donald accepted it and grew as a person.. Bradford clung to his hate and it ate him alive. Or turned him into a non-sapient kind of vulture. Before I close this part out Jaleel White is also excellent and I wish eh’d get back into voice acting. He’s so freaking good at it. Seriously man i’d love to see him and ben in a sonic property together as a mythology gag. Same with Jims cummings and carey. Just think about it whoever owns the sonic movies.. think about it. 

9. The Last Adventure!

Look I knew this was coming, you knew this was coming. But it had to be on here. The Last Adventure is not perfect: The lack of a build up episode like the previous two finales had really hurt this one: even at about 70 minutes, it still feels rushed in places and Huey, one of hte main characters of the season, dosen’t feel like he has a full payoff to his character like Dewey and Louie got. 

But despite those flaws.. this episode is just a damn good ending. Almost everyone gets a big moment paying off their character arc, everyone in the party that comes to rescue webby and huey, along with the two themselves, gets a moment to show off, and everything comes together to give us one last epic sendoff. There’s just moment stacked on moment stacked on moment from Launchpads heroic second wind and donning of the gizmoduck armor, to Webby’s tearful confrontation with Beakley, to Huey using the greatest adventure of all line to foil bradford in one of the most deligfhully nuts moments of the series, I could go on for days with just how triumphant this finale felt. While it left a lot of doors open.. that feels like part of the design. It’s the end of the fight with FOWL.. but our heroes will never stop adventuring, never stop going and never stop being in our hearts and the curtain call at the end is now my faviorite bit of end credits ever, perfectly giving the main cast and friends one last chance to take a bow in their own unique ways. I will always miss this show but I will never be disapointed by the note it went out on. 

8. The 87 Cent Solution!

Look some episodes are show stoppers, some are heartfelt tearjerkers, some are all this and more.. and some episodes are just clever and hilarious. The 87 Solution is the second funniest episode of Ducktales with me and my go to episode when watching the show. It’s just pure fun and with a clever premise: Scrooge notices 87 cents have gone missing, and already coming down with a cold, goes mad with paranoia as the kids slowly don face masks, something that has become even eeerier given everything, one by one realizing he needs to stop. 

While David Tennant is an EXCELLENT dramatic actor, his comedy timing is really something that shoudln’t be ignored and i’ts on full display here as his performance gets more and more deranged, to thep oint he thinks an 8th dimensional imp is repsonsible. He nicely balances the disturbing side of Scrooge’s paranoia, his distancing from his family, with plenty of great gags about it too, the standout being when he offers 2 million dollars to whoever took the money like he’s publicly appeasing kidnappers. It’s fucking brilliant. 

But while David is awesome as ever what really, truly makes the episode is my boy, one of my faviorite characters on the show if not my single faviriote FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD. Keith Ferguson is ALWAYS a dream as the character but this is his best performance by far. Part of this is the addition of Zan Owlson, Kev who I mentioned earlier’s faviorite Ducktales character. She’s not only throughly likeable in her own right, but provides the one thing Flinty was missing; a straight man.. or woman in this case. Scrooge wasn’t TERRIBLE in the roll, but can easily step away from his shit or foil it. Owlson has to put up with Glomgold’s nonsense while desperatly trying to stop him from undoing all her hard work with sheer force of jackass. The two jut play off each other brilliantly, Glomgold not getting sh’es not his employee but his equal and Owlson constnatly snarking at him. 

And of course both things hit their peak in the climax with the family staging a fake funeral (Though no one told donald it was fake), and we get the funniest scene in the entire fucking show as Glomgold burts in in a white suit, money shades and full dance number to “All I Do Is Win’, which when first watching this I was convinced the song was somehow accidnetly on in the background but nope. They got it after using it in the test phase and the scene is better for it. Glomgold twerking on Scrooge’s casket, trying to get on it to dance, and having to be placated like ac hild is the icing on this very rich cake

And the reveal scene is also gold as Glomgold gets into a YEARLONG staring contest with a baby, fails to steal more than the 87 cents and, in my faviorite touch, put on an imp costume just to make scrooge seem crazier... then keeps the damn thing on the rest of the time for no explicable reason. The episode is the show at it’s comedic peak while giving Glomgold a chance to be a genuine threat and that’s Glomgood. 

7. Let’s Get Dangerous!

Frank’s Rebooted Version of Darkwing Duck is probably his greatest achivment with the show. While this show is a team effort, something I slowly realized as I reviewed the show, it’s very clear from the way he talks, how well he knows the show and how much effort was put into porting Darkwing into the reboot that this was his baby. While redefining ducktales for the 2010′s was clearly a huge dream of his... doing the same for the master of suprise was an even bigger goal. And as a huge fan of superheroes i’ve seen my fair share of half assed takes on laired and complex characters. The XCU alone is one giant grab bag of missed opportunities for me. 

So i’ts no exageration when I tell you Frank.. nailed it. In one of the most brilliant moves i’ve seen for a superhero work Frank worked his love of the show into the reboot.. by having Darkwing have been a show, one Launchpad loved.. and so did Drake, who was inspried by the show to become an inspriation himself and while his attempt to do that through a zack snydery reboot failed, Launchpad encouraged him to do it for real. Drake was still himself, but the meta aspect and the toning down of some of darkwing’s more obnoxious traits that didn’t work in a universe that, while patently rediciulous still took it’s characters seriously, he made a BETTER version of the character.

This is where all that comes to it’s peak, and hoppefully convinced Disney to let Frank , and possibly matt, run the reboot. And no, even if Point Grey is producing that dosen’t stop that: Thanks to Invincible i’ve now realized that Seth and his friend Evan producing the show dosen’t mean it’ll be RAN by them, nor unrelated to this. It just means their helping make it and if anything given how lush and gorgeous invincible’s animation is, it’s a VERY good sign their helping out with it if it’s true. 

But wether this versoin continues or not, Frank gave it his best shot. Part of his diffrent angle is having Drake as a rookie here and as such here we see him truly struggle: he’s had his origin, he ahs the cape, he has the gadgets (in a brilliant turn thanks to fenton, who he actually likes... but is so far the ONLY person to not get he’s Gizmoduck), and the city.. but no crime to fight and no real idea how to go about his lifelong dream. The events of the episode slowly shape him: WHile he already had the spirit for darkwing, never giving up, looking good in a cape etc, this episode gives him the heart the same way it gave his original it: With Gosalyn. Dimantopolis and Beatriz just play off each other perfectly, as the two go from neimies to slowly bonding as Drake realizes this kid needs him and that he needs to fight for more than just filing the ohle inside, and goes to hell and back to help her get her grandpa back, with one of the best moments of the episode to me being when Launchpad helps her realize how hard he’s been working at it, an exausted drake refusing to acccept that he can’t get her grandpa back because he promised. He grows from simply trying to live the dream.. to surpassing the original. We also see more from Launchpad, who grows into his new family and helps push his boyfriend and newa dopted daughter in the right directions. The episode really evolves these characters from the simple disney afternoon versions, who while awesome were made into fully fleshed out characters. Gosalyn still has her edge but now has a hard lesson to learn about doing the right thing, forced to give up someone she loves for the greater good but finding a new family in the process. 

Part of what makes the episode work though as while it is funcitonally one big darkwing duck reboot pilot that’s awesome, heartrending and a joy to watch... it’s still a ducktales episode in parts without either part hurting each other. Huey plays a vital role, figuring the ramrod is too good to be true.. and discovering just how it is, then when captured, slowly unravling why Bradford’s there and being at least in part responsible for outing him as a FOWL agent. While this is largely Drakes story the rest of the cast is still vital to it: Scrooge trusting in huey, Louie serving as his logical counter and Dewey meanwhile bonding with team darkwing and helping Gosalyn, knowing exactly where she’s been and providing a nice foil. The episode is just one long and impressive love letter to the original show while creating it’s own thing and that’s really this reboot in a nutshell. It also has some of the best fights of the series, with the first fight between darkwing and bulba, where our hero, unlike his original counterpart, easily troucnes bulba using his speed and skill, is the standout. 

6. Woo-Ooo!

I covered this one recently so I won’t go on for too long.. but I will say I hold this one up as the gold standard for first episodes. In one hour, hell even in jus the first half we get a sense of the whole cast, the tone of the show, and the world we’ve been thrust into. It gets all the table setting out of the way by weaving it into a compelling story of Scrooge getting back in the game, finding a reason to get back to what he does best in those he loves most and setting up the season long arc effortlessly in the process. The worst I can say about the episode is it sets the bar a bit high for Season 1 and a lot of the first half really struggled to reach these heights. This episode is a masterwork and the perfect showcase for what the series would be at it’s height. 

5. Moonvasion!

Speaking of Golden Standards, Moonvasion is one of the best season finale’s i’ve seen. it’s not THE best.. but that’s a really high bar to clear and that spots currently taken in my heart by “The Crossroads of Destiny” from Avatar the Last Airbender. But while not the best of it’s kind, it’s sitll the best the series put out and is an utterly satisfying epic that ties up season 2. 

While I love the Last Adventure, it had a LOT to tie up and was really hampered by having to do all of that with no direct lead in. Moonvasion by contrast hits the ground running with the Moonlanders arriving on earth and all hell breaking loose, and the episode itself breaking into two stellar plots. Scrooge leading an army of every ally he has against the invaders, and Della seemingly going for reinforcements.. but really just trying to keep the kids safe from it, to their anger once they find out. 

Both sides end up going badly: Scrooge looses most of his army as Lunaris was one step ahead of him and is left iwth Beakly and Launchpad, while Della ends up marooned.. and finds Donald. The reunion between the two is the highlight of the special, as the two argue as you’d expect (And Dewey cutting in seemingly to stop it.. only to rant at Donald for costing him “ten years of turbo” is the best gag of the episode), before embracing. 

Our heroes naturally find ways to bounce back though. Louie, capping off his growth for the season, convinces his mom they can’t just hide.. and in the second best scene of the episode sings the lullabye she wrote.. one Donald sung them every night

And no sooner than Della gets her step back and realizes that dangerous or not she and her newly reunited family have to get back in there, do the cousins show up on Fethry’s giant shrimp/girlfriend Mitzi, and our heroes head back. 

Scrooge’s plot hits i’ts peak though as he’s forced to accept the help of an unlikely and unwelcome ally: Glomgold, who turns out to be exactly what they need: While his plan is as stupid, short sighted and insane as you’d expect, complete with forcing Scrooge to dress up as santa just to piss him off and dressing his sharks in parkas (”I call them sharkas”), the sheer lonacy throws Lunaris off as he dosen’t know how to deal with this and Glomgold not only gets the better of him but gets his company back as part of his scheme.  “You were prepared for our best but not our dumbest!” “And i’m the dumbest theirs ever been! Muahahahaha! Wait...”

And of course our other heroes arrive just in time to save things.. and the episode still manages to pull off what many works struggle to, something tha’ts very hard to: a SECOND climax. Lunaris decides to just say fuck it and blow up the earth and i’ts up to our core family to kick his ass in space. Epic space battles, Della’s girlfriend meeting the family and more insues and an emotoinal, action packed and fully satisfying finale is had by all... and it’s all topped with one of the best sequel hooks i’ve ever seen as FOWL makes themselves known to us.. and prepares to strike. 

4. How Santa Stole Christmas! This one will also be short as i’ve talked about this one.. a lottttt. The initial review, my best christmas specials list and my best of 2020 list. I stand by all of that: this is a unique and wonderful christmas special, i’ll be watching it every year, and i’ts full of charm, humor and gay subtext. In short it’s this series but on christmas footing. 

3. Last Crash of the Sunchaser! 

Another one I covered very recently, this episode is a master piece of suspense, slowly building tension as our heroes get closer and closer to the truth about Della.. and to death, the simple but deadly stakes making this an absolute nailbiter from start to finish. This is some of the series best pacing bar none... but what seals it is the ending: the masterful flashback finally explaning whatever happened to Della duck, our heroes lashing out at each other.. all cumilating in the best Scene of the show. I said it might be in the review but no I can confirm: Scrooge bitterly ruminating over things while we find out just how much he’s lost... ending with him tearfully and angrily sitting once again alone in one hell of a powerful shot echoing Scrooge’s first apperance. Damn fine stuff. 

2. Escape from The Impossbin Only one episode not only matches Last Crash in mounting tension and atmosphere but suprasses it. With FOWL and Bradford’s true nature now out in the wind, this episode uses that to create tension and rattles it’s two most unshakable characters: SCrooge’s normal boundless confidence is shot, not sure he can win this time against an opponent who knows him as well as he knows himself while Beakly slowly unravels, pitting Webby against the boys.. and pitting herself against Webby when Webby sees her terroizing them is only dividing them. Both plots start out funny enough but slowly escalate in tension and stakes until by the end your on the edge of your seat. The Beakly plot is the standout of the two, giving Bentina the starring role she badly needed, having gotten even better in light of the finale. Everyone is at the top of their game and everything builds up to one hell of a twist ending and one hell of a badass boast from our heroes: Their down.. but their far from out and this is far from over. 

1. Nightmare On Kimotor Hill!

I”ll be reviewing this episode in full later this week as part of my Lena retrospective, but I stand by putting it up top. This episode is ducktales in it’s purest form and focuses on it’s best original character as Lena grapples with her self hatred and her past. That core helps anchor an amazing concept: going into the Kid’s dreams and finding out their greatest desires. The results.. are all gloriously rediclous and are easily the best gags of hte series as a whole: Dewey’s high school musical santa claus is going ot high school nonsense from getting a’s in Dewology to running away from the abstract concept of a love intrest, to not getting the sybolism of himself crying a moon made of his own tears. Louie quite literally becoming garfield, and my faviorite scene of the show: Huey, wanting to be the tall older brother..g iving himself horrifcly long leg. While everyone else is just understandably baffled, what makes the scene is the banter between Dewey and Huey, with Schwartz and Pudi at their best as Dewey first freaks out and then asks what the hell man, while Huey defends his weird decision (”I”m not good at imagination stuff okay!”), and then tries to get a jar of pickles. Each dream is just so oddly and wonderfully specific to each kid and each one of the triplests dreams, as well as violets being color coded down tot he backgrounds is a very nice touch. The visuals here are just peak ducktales, using the setting for all it’s worth and the climax is utterly emotoinal and heartbreaking... and Lena’s break from her abuser, finally realizing she has the power now is not only a wonderful metaphor... but also just so damn cathartic. And that’s why this one’s the best to me personally: it just packs so much into 20 minutes: some of the series best and most creative jokes, a gripping emtoinal arc, and so much more. It’s just that damn good and tha’ts why it’s the best... that and starting Huelet for me. Seriously that LIbrary scene is so fucking cute. 

Thank you all for reading. If you liked this artcle, join my patreon and help me get to my stretch goal for monthly darkwing duck reviews, a review of super ducktales and more after! Until the next rainbow... it’s been a pleasure.