#this episode made me actually want to listen to invasion of the body snatchers

[just-an-enby-lemon]

"Even your friendly neighboorhood gas man [creepy voice] is a homossexual." Cecil Baldwin is the funniest man alive idc.

And he was making such a good point as well (about the relation between Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Lavender Scare).

[iantimony]

gut shabbospost

in the posting mines

listening: officially in partizan proper! i'm almost done with episode 1, i'm still in the "who are these people i do not care yet" phase of starting a new fatt season but it'll sink in soon. i knew a little about twilight mirage going into it but i know literally nothing about partizan beyond the name clementine kesh and that janine played a big deer robot so it's very exciting to see where it goes! i also listened to more synthtober and downloaded a new podcast that i have not started yet called the 7 bells podcast and it's a readthrough of the old kingdom trilogy because mentally i am back in that cycle of Ough Abhorsen

reading: perchance to dream (jinkandtherebels): xiyao dream incense but used in non-horny ways! very innovative for dream incense considering canon imo. forever onward, scion (oldestenemy): wizard101 fic, found it linked on tumblr, standard darkfic fare of Man This Could Be Fucked Up Or What but i liked the way it was written

watching: i watched invasion of the body snatchers (1956) on monday! helped run a grad student halloween movie night for my department, turnout was good enough that we actually ran out of pizza which was awesome. i'd never seen it before somehow so it was fun, definitely goofy in the 1950s movie way (when he slapped the kid's ass on the way out of the office in the beginning.........), i'm not 100% sure why the ending was the way it was? like, i feel like it would have been more interesting to leave the viewer in suspense of "oh no, will he be believed eventually?? will the pod people take over entirely???" instead of wrapping it up in a neat little bow. also "operator, please wire me in to the fbi/the governor" made me laugh a lot. imagine doing that today. making: laptop case done!! and i need to try on my tank top to make sure the straps are long enough but that's almost done too. pottery from the week attached as a screenshot of a fb message because i don't want to upload all of them here and can't be assed to paste them all into one canvas haha

misc: just got out of my first grief therapy session and i feel like a wrung-out rag :D which i KNOW means that it's good for me or whatever but ough. oughhh. also something might be really broken with my research stuff. im running something now to see if it fixes it but i have the Fear at the moment. this weekend i am going to drive for an hour to a bigger city to buy glaze because i kinda hate the glaze that my teacher provides, sorry angela, and then that way i can glaze things at home in between classes :3 but i need to figure out something else to do while i'm there so i don't drive an hour each way just for One Thing. i can go to trader joes. i can try and hit some of the good thrift stores. that's probably enough stuff.

[tmntkiseki]

Fast Forward

For a season that's much more lighthearted and takes place in the future, the brighter colors and more angular art style works (literally, the only things I truly dislike about the art style is the pentagon heads and how damn bright they made Raph's mask. My eyes actually hurt looking at it)

I also consider the gear the turtles wear this season a vast improvement over the original brown leather from the first five seasons. The dark blue armor they wear over their arms and legs makes them look more stealthy and I love the individualized chest plates.

The weapons from this season are an absolute chef kiss. I've already gushed before about how much I love the additional functions, such as Leo and Raph being able to toss theirs like boomerangs or Don's bō being able to produce winds/sound waves(?) when spun.

While they do sometimes make the turtles too goofy in this season (as in "he would not fucking say that" kind of goofy), I do agree that it is really nice to be able to see them finally act like teenagers out in the open instead of needing to hide in the sewers all day. They can finally get hot dogs like normal people now!

Compared to Chris Thorndyke of Sonic X, Cody Jones is nowhere near the same levels of annoying and there are actually quite a few episodes where he is genuinely enjoyable as a character (also, whichever one of you said that Leo's arc didn't feel complete until he got his own student to teach with Cody being that student: you're absolutely right.)

Listen: I get that the Inuwashi Gunjin are kinda boring as characters, but hear me out. Tragic alien bird men who are in a painfully similar situation to the turtles where they are the last four of their kind and who were genuinely never bad to begin with; unfortunately, they are seen as little more than a commodity between their forced servitude to Darius and their last appearance literally having them kidnapped in order to be displayed like trading cards.

Sh'Okanabo, as a concept, is absolutely terrifying. The entire deal with the Kanabo Drones and the Day of Awakening is basically a vampire/zombie apocalypse combo pack and the knowledge that he's already destroyed several planets before Earth... Like damn, imagine what they would have done with this guy had he shown up a couple of seasons earlier?

Knowing how much the fanbase loves the Dark Turtles, I don't think I need to explain those four in-depth. So much potential that was unfortunately never given the chance to fully blossom due to the second season getting cancelled in favor of Back to the Sewer.

Of all the episodes in Fast Forward, "Invasion of the Body Snatcher" and "Graduation: Class of 2105" are easily some of my favorites. The former shows that, yes, TMNT 2003 can be a lighter, softer show while still maintaining the characterizations of the turtles and Splinter (I genuinely cannot recall a single out of character line from that episode.) For the latter, while it does rehash the whole "Mikey would be the best ninja of his brothers if he just focused more" plot, the lighter tone of the season actually works in the episode's favor in helping it feel distinct from earlier episodes like "Touch and Go" and "Grudge Match." Beyond that, it is overall a very touching episode that shows just how tight the brothers are to the point that Leo, Raph, and Don didn't want to graduate to Chunin without Mikey (as well as how much Splinter wants ALL of his sons to succeed.)

Other honorable mentions: Future Shellshock, Obsolete, The Freaks Come Out at Night, The Journal, Timing is Everything, Race For Glory, Turtle X-tinction, DNA is Thicker Than Water, Zixxth Sense, The Day of Awakening

"Look, a glitch." "Beg your pardon?" TMNT 2003 once again sneaking things past the cenors

Back to the Sewer

The turtles go back to their original gear for this season and while I'm sad to see the Fast Forward outfits go, I appreciate that they use a darker brown for their belts and joint pads. (It looks a lot better than the original color imo.)

I also like the designs of the weapons from this season; I really like that the wrappings on the grips are a darker color than their associated turtles' mask (although the way they're drawn on Don and Mikey's weapons is a little odd; luckily this was fixed in Turtles Forever)

The Turtles are arguably at their most fashionable this season and while these designs were likely intended for toys that never came to be, it's actually nice to see the turtles' wardrobe get expanded between stuff like the sports gear and stealth outfits.

This is the season where the turtles openly address Splinter as "father" when speaking with him. While I never disliked that he was pretty much always referred to as "Master Splinter" for the first six seasons, I always felt like the turtles should have swapped between the two depending on the situation. (IE "Master Splinter" for more formal instances where he is being treated as their teacher and "Father" for moments where they are being affectionate or seeking parental support.)

While I have mixed feelings about Don's arc from the start of the season, I do genuinely appreciate that they did try to finally give him a significant character development arc (even if it did end up feeling like a watered down version of Leo's S4 arc and not something uniquely Don.)

As cringey as the mid/late 2000s gamer slang is, SuperQuest is easily my favorite episode from this season. They took advantage of the season's cyberspace plot to do something wacky yet fun with the turtles, and it gave us Hun's much beloved "hardcore gamer" line. Also Leo turned into a cat and then later a lion. Get it?

Wedding Bells and Bytes was a satisfying conclusion to Casey and April's romance, Back to the Sewer, and TMNT 2003 as a whole, even if I do question the choice of having Karai and Chaplin attend the wedding.

Also the Ninja Tribunal.

And having both Bishop and the Rat King watch from a distance.

Seriously, I know we always talk about Bishop, BUT WHY THE RAT KING?

AND WHERE ARE ROBYN AND UNCLE AUGIE?

Come to think of it, what are all the aspects of Fast Forward and Back to the Sewer that I am more than willing to defend on a given day? I feel like there is a lot more than I let on in my posts.

[words-writ-in-starlight]

Just saw Animorphs is getting a movie. Any thoughts?

I never keep track of media news, so asks like this are the only way I learn anything about movies.  I went out and did some research and...

Listen.

I’m going to try to go into this with an open mind.  I’ll read all the reviews and Internet comments when it comes out, and I might even go see the thing in theaters, if theaters are a thing again by then.  I work hard not to be completely consumed by my pessimistic nature about stuff like this.  I’ve been wrong about movie adaptations before--maybe I’ll love it and watch it a hundred and fifty times and finally revel in the Animorphs Renaissance I (and they!) deserve.

However.  First problem I foresee, the last two things that were made by Scholastic were Goosebumps and Clifford the Big Red Dog.  I am not optimistic about what that portends for a book series best known for gore, body horror, war crimes, moral ambiguity, and the grim realities of how there is no such thing as a just war.  Offhand, I can’t think of a way to make a G or PG live action Animorphs movie that is...good.  Maybe if you bump it to PG13, we could talk (admittedly, the guy in charge of Picturestart has been involved with a lot of blockbuster YA movie adaptations, all of them with serious problems in my opinion but not always, like, ruinous problems, eg: Hunger Games, Divergent) but even then, they’ll probably end up cutting back on a lot.  Okay, I’ll live if they cut the body horror (I’ll complain, but I’ll live) but it is a series about war.  There’s only so much you can cut to get under a rating and preserve the actual point of the story.  This is the short version of my long ramble about how an animated Animorphs series would be better and more functional in basically every way.  Which brings me to...

Second problem I foresee, how much are these fools planning to adapt????  On the one hand, I think you could very competently turn The Invasion into a full length movie without, A, a huge amount of dull filler breaking your pacing into tiny pieces, or, B, losing any important plot or character beats.  On the other hand, I absolutely do not trust movie studios and I’m concerned that their desire to have Ax for the Alien Value will make them over-ambitious and try to do multiple books.  Don’t do multiple books.  The Invasion is plenty of plot for a movie.  If you desperately desperately want to shoehorn Ax in there (I don’t think you should do this!!!!  Scholastic, are you looking at my post?  Are you there, Eric Feig?  It’s me, Starlight.  Don’t do that!  And if you HAVE to do that, call me to check your plans!), you can just pop him on Elfangor’s ship and have an emotional beat about Elfangor’s death, or else have Elfangor give the kids an exact location and make it their first Morphing Caper to go get an alien.  Don’t do multiple books.  One book.  If this movie covers more than one book, I am going to be Very Upset, and I will without a doubt have reason to be Very Upset, because it will be a mess.

As some just...general concerns: 

I’m concerned that they’re going to make everyone a one-note character.  Specifically, I’m concerned that this is going to be a movie starring Protagonist Boy, also featuring Clown Boy, Nice Girl, Mean Girl, Alien, and Cautionary Tale.  

I’m concerned that they’re going to strip back the moral ambiguity to the wire, which is to say “everyone but Tom is A Bad Guy, no complications needed.”  I know everyone gets a lot of jokes in about the Oatmeal Book, but that book and others like it make the requisite legitimate points about the issues with fighting Controllers.  Those are real people!  Make sure you mention it!

The Yeerk Pool scene at the end of Invasion is an outstandingly good moment to underline that.  Hell, you can dredge up the later Yeerk Pool scene of the temporarily free Hork Bajir and humans forming a wall of bodies to buy the kids time to run, shove that in there (because we’re not going to do multiple books, right Scholastic????).  Foreshadow the absolute shit out of it with Tom and the other Controllers (hell, if you gotta, have Jake discover why Chapman is voluntary when he scopes out his office), and then come out swinging with the free hosts protecting the kids with their own bodies, and you’ll be able to minimize the “gore” rating while preserving the “body snatcher horror” aspect.

I’m concerned they’re going to overplay the humor.  These books work because they understand how to balance humorous scenes with serious scenes, and how to employ dark humor during dark scenes, and when there shouldn’t be any fucking jokes.  If I hear one joke during Elfangor’s death scene, I’m suing.

Basically, I’m concerned about these books getting the Percy Jackson treatment (or, apparently, the Artemis Fowl treatment), by which I mean that I’m worried they’re going to make an objectively terrible movie, which will be righteously hated by the fans and critics alike, and then they’ll go “okay, these books are poison, we will never adapt them into anything again.”  Which would be tragic on a lot of levels, most of all that it will mean I never get the animated Animorphs series we all deserve, ideally featuring one episode per book (except the Invasion, which obviously deserves a double-length pilot) and directed by, I dunno, Noelle Stevenson or someone else who will give us the bisexual Marco and gender-confused Ax and deeply traumatized Tobias I crave.  I would trust the She-Ra team implicitly with the Animorphs.  Not so much the companies that gave us The Maze Runner and fucking Clifford.

[hfwtrp-blog]

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Tumblr URL: N/A Timezone: eastern Triggers: the use of the word tittynope and probably eggnog, or something. mostly nah. Secondary Character: whatever nik wants tbh. or just give me a small tertiary character with no screen time and i’ll make them shine.

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Muse’s name: Thomas Cian Quinn  ( unless the show comes out with anything official ) Age: 17 Birthday: February 12th Height: 180 cm Sexuality: demiromantic and a question mark on the kinsey scale. Occupation: occasionally sells drugs  ( ? )

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•  His palms are rough and calloused. •  He’s hopelessly conflicted over the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. •  Thomas has an oral fixation, a bad habit he developed in misguided attempt to ease the severity of his vocal tics. He bites his nails, chews on pen-caps, prefers hard candy, and is always someone you can count on the have a spare stick of gum. •  When money is short, Thomas sells his medication, or procures items from the pharmacy to meet demand. I haven’t come up with a comprehensive list of brands, but I know he takes at least two types of drugs; neuroleptics and SSRIs. •  Additionally the bags under his eyes are the result of chronic insomnia, though it’s unclear whether his prescription makes it worse or if he rolled the genetic lottery with that one too. •  He has a big issue with letting go, both of the good and the bad. He’ll hold grudges 5ever and has a one track mind about most things. •  He plays the drums; as a musician, he enjoys jazz. •  While his father was initially from South Park, his mom was from out of town, but they took the house and moved shortly after the divorce. As things are he hasn’t spoken to him in a long time, and he’s basically nonexistent in Thomas’s life. •  His mother works late most nights, bless her soul. •  His favorite musical groups include Underground Resistance, Monolake, and Parov Stelar. Incidentally this entire app was created while listening to Chambermaid Swing. Fun times.

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There was a subtle irony to childproof lids, one he never could put his finger on until it closed against his thumb. Then there was the throbbing to consider, the pain itself being of no great consequence to such heavily abused hands, but it rang with a persistence that emulated the most stubborn of paper cuts, or burns. Broken blood vessels aside,  and the thing he hated most was having to stoop down to the tile to get the pills he’d dropped.

It made him miss the comfort of his bedsheets, made him hate the mountains, the snow, and waking up above all else. He could remember hating this too, but the ease with which he swallowed them down spoke for itself. Thomas glimpsed his reflection as the medicine cabinet closed; curly hair, tired eyes. Stared just long enough to rub the sand out of them before his feet moved out into the hall.

He could remember his father saying their house had character, but like so many things that had come out of his mouth Thomas later realized that they were just a nice way of saying worn, broken, and far louder than necessary. All the same he’d become quite superstitious about it over years, naming each draft and rusted hinge that called out to him as he passed. But the floorboards—  they were the most difficult to appease, and he didn’t blame them at all. Had his purpose in life been to be trampled on until the day he gave out under foot, he’d have been pissed off about it too, but sympathizing with their anger didn’t make living with it any easier. Just outside her room was the worst of it all, and every now and again he suspected his mother of planning it that way. He clapped his hand over his mouth, proof of a habit he couldn’t break and a fear he still had, for nothing was quite as nerve racking as leaving your home in silence so sleeping dogs could lie where they may.

He didn’t breath until he was down the stairs, didn’t let his fingers slip until they reached into the coat closet for his winter wear. Thomas would complain about it as much as the next person— the wind, the rain, the ice. Two-and-a-half feet of snow gave them all that right, but they were empty words words followed by equally empty threats to move someplace warm, or go up to the city. Truth was he reveled in the weight of a feather-down coat, knowing full well that there was nothing in this world that fit him quite as well.

So at first, when he finally edged outside, he found this peculiar sense of victory in staring back at the Sun. Then he slid the zipper up all the way, knotted the scarf round his neck. The collar reached high enough to hold his lips in place, and he tasted metal with each muted profanity.

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This is just research on tourettes. Thomas has coprolalia, a rare and specific type that includes profane language. While media likes to hype up tourettes and make it seem like it always includes cursing, it’s actually a complex vocal tic that only affects 10-15% of the sub-group. In addition, he was also shown to have have simple motor tics  ( blinking, twitching, scrunched expressions )  throughout the episode. Individual tics are inconsistent throughout one’s life, but the syndrome itself never goes away. Every case is different and there is no one pill for it, but the severity of symptoms can be managed with medication. The older people get they typically come up with better ways to mask or suppress their tics, which is  ( theoretically )  the stage Thomas would be at now.

The severity of tourettes is often exacerbated by stress, fatigue, and moments of extreme excitement. People with tourettes often have more trouble banishing unwanted thoughts to the back of their mind, so it’s harder for them to move past moments of emotional distress. It’s unlikely for a child with tourettes not to have an additional comorbid disorder  ( 84-87% ) and after considering things I thought that OCD fit with creation of Thomas better than the others, which is why he’s got that too.

I researched a lot more, but I think those are the basics. Feel free to shoot me any questions you have regarding the syndrome. At this point I have enough research on tourettes to write a paper if I need to …so thanks?