#this obviously isn't every animation but also a lot of it is just straight up not finished 🥹

[shays-shack]

I once again forgot to use this account so here's a dump of the digital doodles and animations I've done lately

[bamfkeeper]

NSFW Alphabet: Sabretooth

a/n: I know this is more a Nightcrawler focused blog, but I will still write a few other X-men characters just because. And since I did a SFW of Sabretooth, I wanted to do a NSFW one too. So here he is, in all his bloody glory. I was a little more vulgar in this one than in the Nightcrawler one, but it fit for this character. As mentioned in previous posts, I try to mix multiple depictions of the character so it's not just based on a single one. So I take inspiration from comics, shows, and films. I might revamp this later. I hope you enjoy <3

Minors DNI. 18+ below the cut.

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex):

Sabretooth doesn't exactly get the whole aftercare thing, I mean, he isn't really known for his gentle nature.

When you first get together and fool around, he probably is the type to fuck and leave, or make you leave. He's blunt; he straight up tells you when you're done to get out or he will leave your space. He treats sex almost like an animal, one purpose: to fuck and then he will go on his merry way.

However if you continue your little relationship, then he might slowly start to understand what to do. He isn't typical by any means. You will be left with claw marks and bites, and you will bleed. It's unavoidable, those claws and teeth? Come on.

He wouldn't treat them normally, but he would lick them, his saliva has an antiseptic aspect to it, so he is 'cleaning' your wounds that he left but in his own way. It might feel weird, but just let him do his thing. That's probably the closest he will get to being gentle anyway. If they are deep enough he might tend a little more but honestly he feels like he does enough by cleaning them with his tongue.

Sabretooth is also generally pretty happy with himself after sex. He would be calmed down a bit from his norm, because he satisfied something primal in his nature. This might be one of the only times you can convince him to lay still for a period of time.

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s):

Sabretooth obviously loves his own claws, his weapon of choice on enemies and on you. He loves making you shiver when he drags them down your body with just enough pressure to make you squirm.

But he also has a big ego, so...he is pretty proud of his size.

He'd like your thighs and ass, kneading them like a cat and pawing at you every chance he got. He grabs your legs and loves how soft you feel, and he likes smacking your backside and watching his hips drill into you.

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically):

Prepare for a lot of it. He is messy and doesn't give a shit about what kind of mess he makes. Inside, outside, doesn't matter to him. He likes to spread it around your face if he shoots his load onto you, or likes watching you open your mouth and show him what mess he made on your tongue.

Can't hate a good creampie either, he loves filling you up. It fulfills that need that burns in his groin every time you have sex. Every instinct screams at him to bury his cock against your cervix and blow his load directly into your womb.

Or he tries to push as far in your ass as he can, listening to you moan as he fills you up, the head of his dick brushing your g-spot perfectly.

D = Dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs):

He doesn't really have any secrets, he's fairly open about what he likes. But he does have a strong desire towards scents. He doesn't like super perfumed body wash or soaps, he likes the natural smell of things, so he would prefer non-scented soaps rather than the ones that smell sweet or strong.

He likes smelling your groin a lot, especially in the mornings when the scent is the strongest naturally. You always wake up and feel him tugging your legs open so he can smell you. It does typically lead to other things...

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?):

He absolutely knows what he's doing. He's had plenty of partners in the past, so he knows just what to do in the bedroom.

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying):

Doggy feels most natural for him. He likes mounting you from behind and he can get a good grip on you when he's pounding into you. He also likes to bite on the back of your neck or your shoulder. Plus he always has a good view before he puts his dick on you.

Sometimes you ride him, gravity helps pull you down on his cock. But you don't get to ride him too often because he doesn't like being on his back for very long. He only has so much self control.

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.):

He'll make jokes every now and then, but it's all with the dirty talk he gives you. It's all very intense, and he will tease you a lot.

H = Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.):

He's a burly, hairy dude. So you can imagine how he looks down there, pretty untamed, not like that really matters. He doesn't see the point to shaving himself, unless you really, really wanted him to, he probably wouldn't ever do it on his own.

He has a hairy happy trail from his belly button that leads down to his pubic hair. His chest is hairy too, and you like to play with it and curl it around your fingers sometimes, which makes him roll his eyes but you do it anyway.

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect):

Sabretooth isn't romantic, he's more of a...let's fuck type of guy. His idea of romance is giving you a real, bloody heart torn straight out of an animal or person. And kissing you if he's all messy with blood from a hunt.

If you accept a lot of his habits, he might adapt and try to do something more typically romantic for you in return, or something that you'd see as romantic, whatever that may be. But don't expect him to completely change who he is to be a super romantic guy. And don't ever tell anyone if he does something like that.

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon):

He probably doesn't masturbate a whole lot, he might when he's feeling real pent up, but why would he masturbate when he has you to take care of all his needs?

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks):

Sabretooth is pretty damn kinky, he isn't ashamed about any of his sexual desires and is open with you about them.

He obviously loves predator/prey dynamics, he likes to pretend to hunt you in the woods and when he catches you, he fucks you into the mossy ground. It gets his instincts going and he feels like his cock is on fire when he's hunting you. Plus the sex that comes from 'hunting' you is honestly some of the best you've had. Prey pet names for sure.

Breeding is a huge kink for him. He likes making a mess, but he prefers to bury himself into you and fill you up, regardless if you can get pregnant or not. He will pound multiple loads into you and won't stop until you are squirting it out around his cock.

BDSM is something that's interesting to him, though not every aspect of it. He's a pretty big sadist, so his claws and teeth will definitely mark you up all bloody and you'll be bruised from his hard grip on you thanks to his strength. He'd probably be into impact play, so he'd like to spank you while he's fucking you.

I think he might find bondage fun just because you'd be completely helpless and it can tie into the whole predator/prey play too. Like a little bunny caught in a snare and he stumbles upon you, helpless to the hungry big cat.

I think he probably would have a thing for housewife type of behavior, things that aren't inherently sexual but can turn him on. So cleaning and cooking, bringing him beer or food while he sits back, I don't know I just have a weird feeling he would be into that.

I also think he'd be interested in CNC. It's something that you'd have to talk heavily about, but I think it would be something he would want to try.

L = Location (favorite places to do the do):

He's down to do it anywhere. He doesn't give a shit who hears or sees. But the bedroom is where you two can really let loose. He also likes doing it in the woods, he has a few spots he will take you.

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going):

Being submissive around him or showing submissive behavior will catch his attention. The primal part of him picks up on all of that, so speaking to him without eye contact, or when he approaches slightly lowering your head are things he instantly picks up on.

I also think if you make yourself vulnerable on purpose around him, he'd definitely like that. If you display your belly or neck, like laying down or seeming careless if he gets close are things he would eye closely, since most of the people around him (human or mutant) tend to be extremely cautious.

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs):

Sabretooth wouldn't really be interested in 'making love.' He's a primal mutant. He would want to give in to all of his desires, and he would want whomever he's sleeping with to do the same.

I don't think he would be into someone who challenges his dominance either. He'd take it as an insult and it would trigger his aggression. I don't see him as being a bottom at all, but that's just my opinion. So he wouldn't have any desire to take that position.

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.):

He's going to be pretty selfish, and he absolutely prefers receiving. He loves looking down and seeing you try to take him all in your mouth. It turns him on more knowing you're trying your best but still can't fit all of him. He will tease you and talk dirty the entire time.

"Awe, what's the matter...am I too big for you? Can't fit all of me in that pretty mouth? Don't worry...I'll make it fit."

Prepare for a deepthroat and possible face fuck because he gets a little carried away.

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.):

Rough, fast, unforgiving. He might allow you a moment to adjust when he first penetrates you, but he hardly waits long. There is nothing stopping him from going full on wild mode.

He likes to watch you squirm as he pushes deeper and deeper, watching your little hole stretch around him as you whine. He swears he could cum just from listening to you and watching you struggle to fit him.

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.):

He can actually cum pretty quick when he knows you're only going to get a few minutes to fuck, so he's down for a quickie, pretty much wherever.

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.):

Absolutely. He loves to experiment, especially if he discovers something he hasn't tried before, he'd want to try it out once.

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?):

He has enhanced stamina because of his mutation so...he can go for multiple rounds. His period to recover is practically nonexistent, thanks to that mutation.

He can also last a few minutes to much longer. It just depends, but he does prefer multiple rather than dragging out a single long orgasm.

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?):

He does not have any toys of his own, other than maybe a few BDSM items like rope or impact things. He doesn't care if his partner has any. In his mind, the toys couldn't compare to him so he could care less.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease):

A lot. Sabretooth is the king of teasing. He can be somewhat selfish, he will deny your orgasm just so when he finally allows you to cum, it feels like a huge wave washing over you rather than just a little jolt of pleasure. He will bring you up to the brink, but never push you over until he's ready for that to happen.

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.):

Sabretooth is loud, when he isn't dirty talking you, he is grunting, groaning, snarling. He makes animalistic noises rather than moaning or whining. He knows you like hearing him, so he will lean down and make those noises against your ear, while telling you how good you feel wrapped around his dick.

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character):

He purrs after he orgasms, he takes a moment to catch his breath and he will purr against you, but he catches himself before he does it for too long and acts like he wasn't.

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes):

Sabretooth is a BIG dude. So, obviously his dick is gonna be big. He's definitely a shower, but he grows a bit when erect.

Flaccid, his bulge is already big, so it can look intimidating before you even get his pants off. His ego always flares up when he sees how you look at his crotch.

Erect he looks near impossible to put into you, but somehow he fits. He's anywhere between 7.5-9 inches. He is girthy too, which is really what you feel when he fucks you.

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?):

He has a high sex drive, he can fuck anytime, anywhere. He gets horny from hunting, killing, fighting, all of his instincts flare up and it triggers all of the good feelings in his brain.

Sabretooth would want to fuck a lot, he could do it multiple times a day if possible.

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards):

Instantly, he likes to chill out after he has sex. A beer or cigar, then he knocks out. He doesn't bother to shower half the time, so he just likes to kick back and relax.

He might take a shower upon request, but he will complain and grumble about it.

If you like to shower after sex, he would let you go on your own while he has his beer or cigar. He's large, so you and him in the shower together would be awkward and cramped, plus he likes to have a few minutes of space afterwards.

If you are wounded, aka clawed up, he will watch you while you sleep for a bit and then he will fall asleep.

His bed is very soft, it's adorned with furs, pelts, and a thin quilt as the comforter, so you tend to fall asleep after cleaning up.

If you lay on him after, he will run his claws along your back lazily, making you shiver. Knowing those claws to maim and mutilate, but they only graze your skin. It's a strangely gentle gesture that you never reject. He does this until he falls asleep.

Thanks for reading. <3

*BAMF*

dividers by @/adornedwithlight

Cover picture cropped from X-Men Origins Sabretooth #1 (2009)

[ajortga]

opposites attract

pairing: jenna ortega x fem reader

summary: people would call you and jenna the old married couple from across the street, you'd always argue. you hate each other so much, but you love each other even more.

word count: 2.1k+

warnings: alcohol, goofiness, hilarious imo

based off request! (love you 🦦)

-

ME AGAIN. I JUST LOVE TO SEND OUT REQUESTS FOR SPECIFIC WRITERS 🙏🏻

Jenna Ortega! x Reader!

"In every friend group, there are always two people arguing"

holy shit this dynamic is so cute, it's like wherein obvi J and R likes to argue a lot, whether it be going out w friends, in set, sleepovers, literally just everywhere all the time.. In the end obviously they get together 🙈 YOU CAN DO ABSOLUTELY WHATEVER W THE PLOT IF YOU'D LIKE.

Completely understand if the request isn't taken!! I LOVE YOUR WRITING SM, I LOVE YOU

-🦦

-

It’s silent on set where Scream is being filmed. Silence would’ve filled your break room, that would be if you and Jenna weren’t damn yelling at each other over the littlest of things.

“You fucking cheated!” You accuse, pointing your finger at her as you go crazy and throw your Uno cards everywhere.

The tinier girl puts her hands up, putting one to her chest to pretend to be offended, “The Y/N is accusing me of cheating? When will I clearly won fair and square?”

That throws you off the edge, screaming into a pillow and kicking your feet, then throwing the pillow straight to her head. “I saw you looking at my cards dumbass!”

The atmosphere is chaotic as you two throw pillows at each other, one of them hits Melissa in the nose, “Hey!” She goes, throwing a pillow to Mason, which throws it to Jasmine.

Everyone is throwing their pillows at each other, screaming and laughing. Actually, not everyone is screaming, the only ones are you and Jenna.

“I WAS GLANCING AT THE SCENERY.”

“SINCE WHEN WAS THE SCENERY MY CARDS?” You yell, throwing the stuffed animal at her.

Jasmine nudges Melissa, who lets her pillow down and lets her friend whisper in her ear, “Who’s going to tell them that they’re flirting?” 

A cackle escapes the other actress, “She’s definitely always thinking Y/N is the beautiful scenery. In which she is, she’s like the days that have the best sunsets. She’s a sweetheart.”

That was true. Although Jenna won’t admit it. You were breathtaking. You were like the movie that everyone wants to watch again for the first time. Whose voice was a gentle lullaby that lulled those into a peaceful rest. A work of art, Jenna would say. A work of art she’d fucking hate, yet still buy it’s worth for billions of dollars more than they should be.

“Okay FINE! I peeked! I just saw that you had a yellow seven! That’s it!”

“Exactly!” You say, throwing the stuffed animal up and victory, “Nuh uh, you also said half-way through the game as a joke “I bet you have a blue four,” and I had a blue four!”

“FINE, but that was all!”

“Whatever.”

Mason rolls his eyes as he leans back into his chair, throwing a huge stuffed animal and making you collapse and go, “Hey!”

“They’re gonna get married one day, they’re like an old married couple,” He states, and everyone that hears agrees, except you two. You two are too caught up with arguing with each other, smacking pillows at each other.

“Asshole.”

Grunt!

“Bitch.”

Smack!

“Weirdo!”

“Goofball!”

Plomp!

“Silly!”

“Pretty!”

“Sweet girl.”

“Lovely!”

“Gosh, well aren’t they oblivious?” Jasmine scoffs, “Their flirting and don't even know it, they’ll use that as an excuse for another argument again. Melissa watches, amused, and laughing in the background with a cackle. You two are hitting each other with any pillows you can find.

-

liked by melissabarreram and 1,890,072 others

y/n_l/n this is very not an appreciation post for jenna, the first two i'm posting cause she told me not to but she cheated in uno and she's getting what she deserves! (someone save me from this mad woman)

#justicefory/n i hate you @jennaortega

-

melissabarreram: My babies #justicefory/n

liked by y/n_l/n

natalieortega1: Love you

↳ y/n_l/n: love u too!

crunchybaguette55: y/n is seriously blessing us with these photos

aliyah.ortega: nah why is jenna more flexible than me

liked by y/n_l/n

user839: watch jenna is gonna post something about her

jasminsavoy: lovebirds

liked by y/n_l/n

y/n'spersonalbag: SHE POSTED I'M EARLY

jennaortega: I hate you

↳ y/n_l/n: Ilyt

-

Melissa screams while the members of the cast begin to elevate up the roller coaster. 

“Oh god!” Mason shouts, while you two begin to lift off the floor from the free fall device.

“If the machine were to break and fall, would we bounce out of our seats or bang our head?” Jenna questions, looking down at her feet that are currently 100 to 150 feet off the ground.

You’re right next to her, yet you have to shout because of how loud the machine is, “Nuh uh! None of that stuff, if the machine were to break, then the starting point wouldn’t be as lifted and our feet would probably dislocate.” 

“Pfft, nonsense,” Jenna rolls her eyes, and you try kicking her but as you reach the top, it slowly begins to stop lifting up. 

“Guys!” Jasmine yells, looking down at the floor, she’s still holding her pretzel in her hand. The people below you now look like at least the size of a caterpillar. 

“It’s kind of tall!” Melissa says, but she’s giggling.

“No damn shit!” You say, looking at the floor and preparing for your heart to fly out of your chest, “Hold my hand!” Jenna jokes while you roll her eyes at her.

When you stop at the top, the machine makes a loud “TCCHhhHH” noise, and you are all still. 

“I DON’T WANNA DIE,” Mikey and Devyn cry, screaming.

“We haven’t even gone down- YET!” Everyone starts screaming as the seats you’re in descends at fast speeds. You all scream, high pitched, wails, singing to get your mind off of whatever. Devyn and Jasmine flutter their eyes and do a peace sign when the camera flashes. 

You close your eyes, the machine goes back up, then down, you’re screaming, laughing as Mason’s sandal falls out, “No! My shoe!”

It hits the person operating the roller coaster.

Somehow, your hand finds Jenna’s as you cling onto it, she doesn’t let go, giggling with you as you two fall. It was a nice moment, the breeze in your hair with the sunset saying hello. Except you don’t know if the moment got better or was ruined because before you can appreciate it, Jasmine screams, louder than she had when everyone dropped.

“My pretzels!” She screams, falling out of her hand and flying into the air, the cinnamon pretzels falling and smacking you and Jenna in the face as you feel a flash in your face again, you pose just as it clicks.

“I WANNA GO HOME!” Mason wails, “Where the fuck is my shoe? MY SHOE!”

By the time you reach ground level, everyone’s hair is ruffled, eyes dazed as your legs shake when you leave the machine.

You’re still holding hands with Jenna as you almost collapse on each other, you feel dizzy, probably because the machine was damn spinning and a pretzel got smacked into your face.

"You okay?" she asks, looking at your dizzied form.

"Mmhm, are you okay?" you ask, the feeling of throwing up going away.

She nods, letting you cling onto her as she hugs you tight.

"You're so weak," she teases.

"Says the one who screamed more from a pretzel being thrown in her face than the actual ride."

She smacks you, but nonetheless, still holds you tight to her chest.

Mason looks at the floor, and claps, turning happy, “My sandal!”

Everyone is groaning, Melissa is snorting and looking sick while Devyn and Jasmine shove their hands through the little amount of pretzels left in their bag.

You’re not surprised when everyone busts out laughing, pointing at the pictures of you on the rollercoaster. The first one, Devyn and Jasmine were making peace signs while somehow being able to do the slightest pose, Mason’s shoe is flying and you can see his mouth wide open with one foot barefoot, Melissa is smiling with cotton candy in her mouth, and you and Jenna are screaming and clinging onto each other.

The next one gets more chaotic, with Jasmine and Devyn looking horrified, the whole picture has pretzels flying and hits Jenna and you square in the head. Yet, the frame only catches Jenna’s face being smacked while you’re posing with your hands and blowing a kiss.

You’re laughing so hard, everyone is buying the photos, you can’t stop laughing as Jenna screams from the horror.

“How did they only take a picture when the pretzel gets to me?" She groans.

-

liked by jackchampion and 4,971,391 others

jennaortega i don't know how that little girl managed to hide all her bad photos on my phone but melissa took a photo of her falling asleep on my shoulder, i did not cheat! cancel!! @y/n_l/n

jasminsavoy: little? girl, you're the size of a strawberry.

↳ jennaortega: fuck you respectfully

y/n_l/n: NO i was sleeping because filming was so long

↳ jennaortega: yeah and you decided to sleep on my shoulder, do you know how heavy your head is?

↳ y/n_l/n: meanie

jennasorange: I love you Jenna please notice me

melissabarreram: Love!

natalieortega1: My girls

fruitrollupsa: omg someone confirm are they official

jackchampion: I saw you looking at y/n's cards

↳ jennaortega: no you didn't

↳ jackchampion: actually i did 🤓☝️

-

It was a little after sunset, where outside is painted a blue and purple sky.

“To a long day of maintaining our sanity for today’s long duration of filming!” Devyn says, raising her drink.

“To a long day of maintaining our sanity!” Everyone else cheers, you bring your drinks up and clank them with one another before downing it.

You liked it like this. Having parties every Friday with your scream cast. They were your family, most times you’d have sleepovers, play card games, video games, gossip. Silly photos were taken, and these polaroids were always hung on your wall of memories, Melissa holding her puppy while doing a bridge gymnastic pose, risking her skull from literally cracking.

You take the sip of beer in your hands, with a wide smile on your face. It’s nice knowing you have a group that you can easily fit in, you don’t have to think to speak, you can just do it freely.

A few minutes turn into an hour.

Melissa turns to you, pointing at you and smiling, "You're going to be the first one to get wasted, your cheeks are all pink."

"No their not!" You retaliate, a small slur to your words as you lean on the couch for balance.

"Right," Jasmine says, sarcastically as Jack and Mason are screaming at each other.

"Jack no! If you take that one off then the whole tower will fall! We can't lose!" Mason screams, the Jenga tower tilting.

You giggle.

You catch sight of Jenna and you throw your arms up, stumbling to her while slurring her name slightly, "Jennaaaa, where were youu?"

The brunette looks at you, confusion shown in her futures as she looks at your tiny self, looking up at her and tugging at the collar of her shirt. Your eyes sparkle.

"You're seriously already a little drunk?" She questions, amused as you groan and shake your head, "Noo, shut 'p. You're drunk tooo Jennifer. I literally am not drunk, I know waaht m doing."

"Right, right."

"Jennifer, kiss my forehead,"

"If you call me Jennifer one more time I swear to-"

"Jellybean?"

Jenna rolls her eyes, hugging you and kissing your forehead, "Love you," she murmurs.

"I love you tooo."

She sits you down to the couch where you get the sight of Mason, Jack, Melissa, and Liana are battling each other in Jenga.

"I'm not drunk, I just drank a little, I'm perfectly fine," she states. You don't say anything, instead distract yourself with the large jacket draped over her, you tug it, "I'm cold, give me that."

Jenna looks down at you, trying to take off her jacket, "Hey! What if I'm cold too?"

"Can we share?"

Jenna sighs, rolling her eyes, "Come here," you nestle into her as the jacket plays as a blanket.

It's not enough to cover the two of you, so she throws it into her bag and grabs a large blanket and lays it on the floor. The hollers of the Jenga crew grow loud as the tower tumbles over because of Jack.

"I TOLD YOU NOT TO DO THAT ONE IT WAS GOING TO FALL"

"OH YEAH, oops. I forgot." Jack says, putting his hands up in surrender.

The blanket is huge, it can fit at least 4 people.

"Hey Melissa, over here, let's turn into a burrito or something." The taller Latina that's non-occupied looks at you two, seeing the way you're already laying on the blanket, ready to be wrapped up.

You're squished in the middle as Melissa giggles and Jenna begins to roll over and wrap you 3 in the blanket.

"Oh my god," you three roll till the blanket space runs out, now you guys are cuddled, nestling into each other.

Cozy for sure, all of their arms are wrapped around you and each other as you close your eyes, getting comfortable.

"I hate you two," Jenna murmurs, both you and Melissa go "me too" before you two are silent.

"No you don't," you slur, "You love us."

"I don't, I love you guys," she giggles, and you and Melissa smile, hugging each other and letting the sound of music from the party echoing in your ears.

-

a/n: didn't know how to make them confess, so the ending is kind of suggested that they did? hopefully that's okay<3

[ponett]

I have now finally seen the Mario movie. It was Pretty Good. Here are my wordy thoughts on it. (I am going to spoil the entire movie. Duh.)

In many ways, the Mario movie does what I wish the first Sonic movie had done. They just took the characters and the premise and the world from the games, and made it a straightforward animated adventure movie. It's bright and colorful and remixes things JUST enough to include fun elements from multiple games, and it doesn't make Mario get adopted by James Marsden or whatever. It even has the music!

That's all you really need, right? Right...?

I'll get this out of the way up front. Chris Pratt was fine. He's fine

If anything, it really feels like they did the movie a disservice by letting us hear so little of the Mario voice in the previews. It took one scene for Pratt to disappear into the role for me. It was totally fine. If anything, I found Charlie Day's normal voice coming out of Luigi WAY more distracting, even if I did like him in the role.

Everyone else was pretty good, for the most part. Jack Black was obviously very good as Bowser, but I'm biased. Seth Rogen does the Seth Rogen laughs as Donkey Kong, but I thought DK was fun, too. (I liked his little rivalry with Mario where he was just constantly giving him shit.) The only casting choice I truly hated was Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong. I hated every line that came out of his mouth. He sounds atrocious. Just the worst. I swear to fucking god if they do a DKC movie and we have to hear him for 90 minutes

I did think Peach was lacking, but that was on the script, not Anya Taylor-Joy's performance. It's cool to see Peach fight, but it's one of those all too common instances where the writers put so much effort into making the main girl kick ass and be an effortlessly confident girlboss that they forgot to give her an actual personality. Not that I'd point to Super Princess Peach and its mood swing superpowers as positive representation or anything, but there's a happy middle ground, surely. Shrek was 22 years ago, just having the princess do flying kung fu kicks isn't enough.

Okay. With the voices out of the way, let's talk about the big picture:

It's way better than the words "Illumination Mario movie" implied, and I mostly enjoyed my time with it. The spirit of Mario is there 100%. But I'd also describe it as "ruthlessly efficient."

This was perhaps the main complaint critics had, and they were absolutely right. People have responded to these totally average reviews with "Well, what did you expect? Shakespeare?! It's MARIO!!" Like, yes, I would prefer it if the movie I paid to see had writing that was good instead of bad. What a shocker. My issue isn't that it's not "high-brow" enough. The problem is that it feels mercenary. It feels like an editor went through and deleted almost every line of dialogue that isn't some form of exposition, at the expense of the pacing. Any scene that's not a montage or some sort of action is kept as short as they could make it, with barely any room for embellishment, character interaction, or anything other than the bare minimum word count to hit all the typical Save the Cat Hollywood screenwriting 101 story beats to the letter. There aren't even as many jokes as you might think (and the ones that are there are extremely hit or miss, including a lot of the slapstick with Mario himself).

Mario and Peach's little arc together in the front half of the film is probably the worst example of this pacing. Even having read reviews that complained about how fast Peach goes from meeting Mario (by her admission the first other human she's ever met) to deciding to train him as the new savior of the Mushroom Kingdom, I was SHOCKED at how fast it was. They don't even lampshade it.

Peach takes Mario straight into the big training sequence where he learns how to use mushrooms and jump over platforming obstacles. Peach is apparently already a hypercompetent platforming pro and a great fighter, so there's no clear reason why she's taking the time to train this random guy to be half as good as her when the world is in danger. Then they set off on their adventure, Toad joins them, and we get a VERY brief travel montage. It's about thirty seconds total - just long enough to give Peach a line about how she wants to protect this beautiful world of hers to try and give her some stakes. We get the genre-mandated nighttime campfire heart to heart, which is exactly long enough to have Mario say he misses Luigi and to have Peach give the two sentence summary of her origin story and not a second longer. Then they reach the Kongs, and their big journey is complete. (They barely interact for the rest of the movie.) So much of the movie is like this - always ready to get on to the next scene as soon as a new one starts.

I'm not criticizing the script because I expect The Super Mario Bros. Movie to be a prestige drama - although there are certainly halfhearted attempts at a dramatic arc. The stuff with Mario's family was a fun enough idea, but again, ruthless efficiency. We get one quick scene with them at the start to give Mario some pathos, because I guess Save the Cat said he's gotta have some pathos. And then Mario gets his dad's approval amidst the action of the final battle in Brooklyn to resolve his arc, just so the movie can end as quickly as possible once Bowser is defeated. (Despite now having the approval of their family and their community back in Brooklyn, Mario and Luigi move to the Mushroom Kingdom off-screen without a single word dedicated to this decision, because that's where they live in the games.)

Look. I am not comparing it to The Godfather. Don't give me that shit. I am not asking for an extra half hour to explore Mario and Luigi's childhood trauma. I am not asking for the complex inner workings of the Mushroom Kingdom monarchy. I know this is gonna be a basic Hero's Journey adventure for kids. It just feels like it's turning down so many opportunities to have a little fun with the characters, to let them interact and play off of each other, to let there be some adventure on this adventure. This is the first time we've gotten to see these characters interact with fully voiced dialogue in a very, very long time! "Yeah, it's not High Art, but it's FUN!" Stories are fun! Character interactions are fun! The script could be having so much more fun!! It is adamantly against making the Story parts of this story-driven movie any more Fun than they functionally need to be!!!

Mario, Peach, and Toad's journey to find the Kongs is shorter than the training montage that precedes it. After the opening, Bowser mostly just sits in his castle and waits for the third act to start. Luigi's there, too, but he only gets one scene with Bowser and then the movie mostly forgets he exists until the climax. He doesn't even get to try and sneak out of Bowser's castle and get up to hijinx. He's just there to be a motivation for Mario, so he sits in a cage for half the movie. It's the bare outline of a script with action scenes added in.

Aside from the fact that it's Jack Black singing as Bowser, I feel like this overly-efficient script might be part of the reason why the "Peaches" scene stands out so much. It's a moment that didn't strictly need to be there to keep the plot moving or to provide an action setpiece. It's not even a reference to another Mario thing. It's just a fun and memorable little character moment that's there for its own sake. That's what the movie needed more of. To stop and smell the roses more often. To play in the space.

To be clear, this isn't a unique problem with this movie. Critics have been noting for years that second acts are disappearing from big Hollywood movies in favor of the Act I plot setup and the Act III action, even though Act II is supposed to be where you get to explore your actual premise. And lots of animated movies give me this exact same vibe of being too "screenwriterly," or feeling like they had an executive breathing down their necks and demanding changes based on focus testing. But these common issues are why I come away mostly feeling like the movie is on the better end of "average," rather than totally blowing my mind. You have seen this movie many times before, just not with Mario in it.

And, of course, there's the music. The score by Brian Tyler based on various classic Mario and Donkey Kong tunes (frustratingly all attributed to Koji Kondo) is absolutely beautiful, but it's unfortunately frequently overshadowed by the licensed music. Everyone already complained about things like the use of Take On Me in place of a lovingly arranged DKC medley, but it feels illustrative of the tug of war the movie is caught in the middle of, between wanting to be a lavishly faithful Mario movie and wanting to be a generic tentpole animated adventure movie. Every single licensed song used is the most obvious, overused song they could have picked for the scene. It reeks of cynical executive meddling and it took me out of the movie every time.

But there really was a lot of care and love put into this movie - more than probably any other video game movie ever made, not that that's a high bar. I don't want to underplay that too much amidst all my complaints spurred by the absolutely insane response to the reviews.

Aside from the countless background references that people will be picking apart for years, touches like the Captain Toad tune playing in the background of Toad's introduction or the Mario Kart 8 menu music playing in the kart garage really help bring it to another level of authenticity. I also enjoyed seeing some more obscure Mario enemies that felt like they were picked more for being fun to animate than for being nostalgic and marketable. No matter how many times I sarcastically pointed to the screen and deadpanned "reference. reference." I am not immune to noticing these things and smiling. I am not immune to the DK Rap. These alone don't make the movie good, but it's nice to have a video game movie that feels like it was made by people who like video games.

Most importantly, the animation is great throughout. It's leaps and bounds ahead of other Illumination work, and it's the best the Mario cast has ever looked. They even made Donkey Kong handsome, somehow. They're all so squishy and expressive, and they move so fluidly - especially in the action scenes. I particularly liked the more kinetic ones like the aerial Banzai Bill chase and the Mario Kart sequence. Truly, the Mad Max-inspired car battle on Rainbow Road where Mario literally does the speedrun shortcut is this movie firing on all cylinders.

Other, more hand-to-hand fights nail the Popeye-esque vibe Mario should be going for. He's an underdog who gets the shit kicked out of him by bigger, stronger opponents until he gets his signature powerup and turns the tables on them. My favorite animation of all probably came from the use of Cat Mario to turn the tide in the DK fight. They had so much fun making Mario move like a cat. Again, it feels like a choice made because it'd be fun to animate rather than just a nostalgia move.

It's that animation and that attention to detail that carry the film, really. They elevate it from mediocrity into being a fun watch for a fan like me, albeit one I couldn't help but pick apart with Anthony as we watched it at home. I'm glad I saw it, but there's a lot of room to improve with the inevitable sequel. I hope they do. I can't deny that I had fun with the movie, but I hope next time that fun is partially because of the script instead of in spite of it.

Stray thoughts:

Overall, I would say I enjoyed the movie a lot more than Sonic 1, but probably not as much as Sonic 2. Not that these movies need to be pitted against each other.

I hated the Luma. I hated how hilarious they clearly thought the Luma was. They have the fucking Luma break the fourth wall to end the movie and start the credits. This is going to be a deep cut for fans of bad animated films, but the whole time I was just thinking of the little fish from Romeo & Juliet: Sealed With A Kiss who's just the director's kid saying random nonsense. You know I'm right

I rolled my eyes at the "our princess is in another castle" joke and several other jokes that would have been dated in a gamer webcomic 20 years ago but I guess they had to be there

How much of Brooklyn did Bowser's giant floating castle take out? We know 9/11 happened in this universe because the Freedom Tower is there, hasn't New York been through enough

I can't believe there's a Diskun easter egg

The dog is the most Illumination character design in the movie. It felt like it wandered on set from The Secret Life of Pets

Mario being a gamer and playing Kid Icarus of all things just made me remember this tweet:

Yes Anthony did get mad at me for being thirsty for Bowser

[alcalystrasz]

(This has been said a lot but idc)

He loses his bestfriend, he's destroyed and he cries because he thinks he's dead and he's going to blame himself because he'll think it's his fault. The song in the background is Heroes. And the lyrics, at this precise moment are:

"And we kissed, as though nothing could fall. And the shame, [changing to Joyce and Jonathan] the shame was on the other side."

Which is a clear queer coding. That means that Mike and Will kissed (= spent time together, very close) as though nothing could fall (= nothing could go wrong), and the shame (= of being gay) was on the other side (= the Upside Down, where Will is. Because he's the obvious gay one). And it changed to Joyce and Jonathan because they're Will's family.

And now, let's skip to Season 3:

This hug, from end of season 3 is a clear parallel of the first one we saw on season 1. His face isn't obviously the same. In season 1, we can see he's sad, crying and he hugs his mom desperately. But season 3, shows a confused, emotionless Mike who hugs his mother like he's in shock. Why's that? Well...

The parallel is to show Mike's feelings. In the end of season 3, when El kisses Mike, his eyes are wide open, he doesn't move and when she's done and leaves he doesn't move, instead he looks on the side with a super confused and shocked face. And in the original script (sorry couldn't find it), we saw that Mike's reaction was like this because it was written:

What is wrong with me?

So it was meant for him to be that way (and btw Finn played it well). And then, when Hopper reads his letter to El, we can hear his voice with scenes showing up. And when he says:

"And if I'm being really honest, I don't want things to change."

Mike looks back at Will's house before leaving with his bike.

This is a lowkey queer coding. Change is the liking boys realization from Mike's side. And why Hopper says "I don't want things to change" ? Because the change means the behavior change for Mike. He'll feel like a mistake, just like Will, he'll feel different, incapable of liking a girl like every other boys his age...

So what I'm trying to say is. That these two scenes are parallels to show Mike's improvement and changement over the seasons. Season 1 he was sad because of the loss of his bestfriend. But why would we only see Mike's POV and not Dustin's or Lucas' ? They also cared about Will. No, we only see Mike's because he's Will's love interest. And in Season 3 we see a total confused Mike hugging his mother, trying to understand what happened. Because what happened is that he understood, he finally admitted he was in love with Will. Why's that? Well, first he's confused by El's I love you, and kiss. Then he looks back at Will's house, knowing he just left. And finally he hugs his mom trying to figure out what's wrong with him. Cause he thinks there's something wrong with him, as seen in the script (try to find it yourself, cause I couldn't. But I remember sawing it on Twitter 'X' !). And it's even more possible because Mike's introduction in season 4, has a lot of queer coding. I'll try to list them all.

Rainbows on the letter (= signifies lgbtq+), One Way arrow pointing to an open closet (= one way arrow -> "only possible thing/explanation", open closet -> he's out to himself), Poster with a naked Dragon (= just like Steve or Billy, straight boys, have, almost naked women, on their walls, Mike has almost naked character, men and animals from dnd), poster from a movie with an almost naked man (= to understand he likes them naked, just a gay thing I guess ;-;). For this last point, yes there's also a woman almost naked, however since the movie is about men, being way superior to women (that's the movie don't blame me, and I can't remember its name, sorry), I'm not sure he'd really want to have this woman in particular in his room.

Also there's one of Will's binder under his bed, the same one where there are tons of his drawings and finally, I'd like to end up with Mike literally destroying El's letter when Nancy tells him he's late (who does that?). So yeah that's all I could find, there's probably more, which needs more attention and analysis but I did the minimum let's say.

So all of this, to say that season 1 and 3 hugs were parallels of Mike's feelings, and that the season 3's is more possible when we notice the character introduction of Mike in season 4. So yeah, he really had a Gay realization over there!

[mortimermcmirestinks]

I mean this in the most genuine way possible, why are you getting so hung up on the walrus vs fairy thing? You’ve gotten really rude for no reason over a dumb funny tumblr poll

[tone indicator for the whole post: sleepy, chill, a lot of shrugs and vague handwaves]

idk man. to your second thing, I'm not trying to be more rude than usual so I apologise if that's how it's coming across. also, I'm at least half doing a bit, and sometimes me Doing A Bit can come across weird in text

to your first thing, again, idk man, but I think part of it is that I tend to get kinda skittish around things where people, like... hmm. idk how to phrase it, but whenever people get really dismissive about the distinction between funny fantasy magic stuff and real-world stuff, it makes me kinda nervous, I guess?

like, I get really irritated about astrology and stuff. I feel like it's really important to be able to, like, keep a solid grip on what's actually really real -- like, with Goncharov stuff, everyone was being like "yeah goncharov is the greatest film ever", but when push comes to shove, people will admit that "yeah, this is a bit, we're doing a bit, Goncharov isn't a real movie", y'know? (some people refused to put down the bit, though, even when asked to (sometimes by people with mental health problems that were being triggered) and those people are assholes)

but for some reason with this walrus-fairy thing it seems to almost be going in the opposite direction? like as it becomes a bigger and bigger Bit, more and more people are coming out of the woodwork talking, basically, about how they just straight-up do not believe that science is real. and THAT makes me reeeeal antsy.

like, I know people mostly aren't thinking about it like this, and I'm overthinking it, but, like, think about it like this:

a fairy (in the way the question was originally intended by the OP, and the way that I am interpreting it, and to some degree I believe the way that most others are interpreting it) is an inherently magical creature; that is, a creature whose literal existence would mean that the basics of how we understand the physical world are wrong from from the foundation, and thus, all of science -- which is all built on that foundation -- is also wrong. this is not a case of "a new scientific discovery that builds on or recontextualises previous scientific history", this is a case of "the fundaments of science are incorrect in their base assumptions".

a walrus is literally just a regular animal. it's not a common animal in most parts of the world, but on a sliding scale of magical to nonmagical, a walrus is exactly as "mundane" as a squirrel, a dog, a cat, a bee, or, like, a car or a t-shirt (or a pine tree or a dollar bill or a sand dune or a cloud or the planet Venus...). walruses exist in our world and we know that they do -- not for absolute certain, because obviously nothing is absolutely certain, but as close to absolutely certain as it's possible to get about almost anything, so we can say that, in practical terms, it's an absolute certainty. I am more certain that walruses exist than I am certain that you, the person asking this question, exists.

if you live in a world where it's physically possible that a fairy can arrive on your doorstep, that means that literally every single element of our understanding of the physical nature of the world is fundamentally incorrect, and all of science needs to be thrown out immediately, because we can no longer rely on it safely -- which also means that every anti-science person from six-day-creationists to antivaxxers are, at a foundational level (if not in specifics), correct that Science Is Wrong.

if you live in a world where it's physically possible that a walrus can arrive on your doorstep... well, you live in that world, right now. is it likely? no. but would it mean that all of science is wrong? no. it would just be a strange situation.

like, this is obviously a dramatic overthink about a poll where most people are, let's be honest, not actually answering the posed question. the question that the vast vast majority of people are actually answering, based on what I've seen many many people say, is not "would you be more surprised if a fairy or a walrus came to your house", it's "would an imaginary sitcom character based on you be more surprised if a fairy or a walrus came to their imaginary sitcom house".

like, tons of people in the comments are talking about how the fairy is less surprising because of [insert Thing That Only Makes Sense As A Rationale Within A Narrative here], which means that they're not answering the question. which is also irritating, but in a kind of more minor way?

sorry, this is kinda rambly and got away from me a bit. basically the tldr here is that when you have hundreds of people saying "I would find it more normal for there to be magic than for there to be a strange animal" it makes me nervous because it reminds me, however unintentionally, of soft science denialism like astrology and crystal-healing people. basically this whole sitch is either like a very small microcosm of, like, science denialism or just uncomfortably close to that. for me.

oh, and for anyone who reads this and thinks that the huge wall of text means that I'm getting really pissed off: I'm naturally extremely talkative, this is me in my kinda default slightly-sleepy rambly mode, when I'm actively angry I tend to be pretty brief. that's why I wrote that tone indicator at the top after writing the rest of the post, I realised if I didn't clarify that I was chilling and shrugging people would think I was yelling and thrashing

[askbishopschildren]

I'm bored, so yall get a bunch of fun facts

TW for the Loki section mentioning suicidal thoughts

Koda, Mars' and Apollo's dad for those who don't remember, originally was sent to Heket as an offering from his village. They had pretty poor harvests and not much was working, but eventually Heket came by to see what else they had to offer and took a liking to Koda pretty quick. Frankly he doesn't know why she chose him, nor does he think he deserves it, but he's grateful nonetheless

Artemis physically cannot go more than a week or two without getting sick, their immune system is THAT bad

Artemis is also allergic to cats despite loving them.

Mars prefers to stay solo, however if he fucks up and pisses off either Astraeus or another bishop, he will cower and hide behind his momma. He's a giant mommas boy if you couldn't tell

When with the lamb, Astaeus goes on missionary a lot since he can use his bigger form if a life or death situation arises

Continuing on the missionary theme, Mars tries to go as much as possible solely to get away from the lamb since he hates them, both for hurting his family but also supplying his drug dealer with enough shrooms that he died

Speaking of that, Sozo is just straight up Mars' drug dealer. They talk a lot over mushroomos and regular shrooms alike. It's also how he ended up getting along with Iluquim as Sozo kept insisting they talk

Artemis is a damn good cook, as they spend free time especially when sick doing it just to kill time. They really enjoy the cooking.

Mars really does not respect his dad much, but in the end he still does love him. He just thinks he is really weak compared to other cultists, which he isn't entirely wrong about and Koda thinks he is correct aswell.

Apollo experiments with poisons a lot, including his own as a poison dart frog. His mother gives him heretics to test the poisons on, however he usually lets the heretics that praise Narinder go under the guise of escaping.

Apollo is also just very shy when it comes to Aym, and Aym is too dense to notice the crush. Baal is driven insane every time he sees it.

Mars and Apollo both used to cuddle in their mothers bandages/scarf when they were little, with Mars even throwing fits when Heket wouldn't let him do it when she needed to do something.

Gaia is the only one of the cousins, aside from Loki, to not be able to change to a smaller form to match followers just because shes already pretty small to begin with, considering regular followers go up to her shoulders.

Mars is physically the strongest of the cousins, but it's from overcompensating as he doesn't have any special abilities like the bishops or his cousins. Apollo doesn't have much either, but he doesn't feel the need to overcompensate like his younger brother

As for their abilities, Astraeus can use weapons/abilities of different zodiac signs ones at a time, Gaia can grow plants anywhere she wishes, Loki is basically a nerfed Discord from MLP, Artemis can manipulate shadows and make animals out of them, and Apollo can light bend but it isn't much.

Artemis is AFAB

Astraeus is the cousin who's the farthest from their bishop parent by a mile, excluding Loki obviously since he ditched them decades ago, just due to Shamura being so busy in general.

AAnd for a final bit, a section fully to a Loki infodump

So we all know Leshy was a total hardass on Loki when he was a kid, but it was BAD. Loki was pretty much dead inside when Ratau found him, to the point Loki pointed Rataus sword to himself just because he had no reason to stay alive anymore. Ratau recruited him by showing him knucklebones and getting him hooked, which is why he is such a big gambler now. It's so bad that he lost both his eye and his leg in two bets, both to Shrumy, as Ratau forgot to teach him safer gambling practices and he didn't learn his lesson the first time. Loki also liked to sing for Rataus cult back in the day, and to an extent still enjoys doing it when Lambert starts their cult. He genuinely loves his counsins when he meets them and likes to help them with any issues they might have, basically acting more like an uncle to them over a cousin.

There might be another part of this if I get bored again, as I have accumulated a lot of facts and infodumps over the months of these guys being around from talkin bout em with friends on discord :]

[beastabyss666]

Ok......So, the new HB episode is out, how unexpected for me. I apologize to my fellow readers for not reviewing the previous episode, but I was so tired and busy, having to deal with a lot of work. The cat must have got my tongue when I saw the dildo scene, I'm sorry. And what can I say......Actually, this episode is the best one in the 2 season at this moment. I mean, at least it wasn't that cringe and plot ruining as the other ones. ‼️TW‼️: Abuse, **cest

The animation looks pretty good in action scenes(and not so good in other, especially when some characters speak). The backgrounds look good, and I somewhat like the fact that the Sloth Ring is pink. Looks so sweet, bubblegum and cotton candy-like. But the floating pieces of ground are very cliche for a fantasy world. Also I think there were too many sound effects, when sometimes it feels like there's a lack of them. In principle, everything is as always. Stolas is a damsel in distress again, Moxxie and Millie are boring, Stella is evil(and extremely stupid for some reason), Blitzo is loud and annoying and spits cuss words every second because the authors think it's funny. Also Loona just...... didn't speak in this ep at all. No words. Don't know if it's good or not. The plotline of her going to doctor and being afraid of shots is pretty boring, tbh. I still have no idea why hellhounds are treated like some pets in this universe when they're competent and sensible beings. Also, I don't know if anyone told that or this is just me, but I absolutely hate the idea of putting fucking westerns in "Hell". I know Vivzie isn't so original and her universe is super bland and uninteresting, but shit, westerns just don't stick in the setting of Hell at all, it's not that vibe and it looks ridiculous. And that's not because I don't like westerns. Striker's song felt absolutely redundant, and Striker himself seems....unnatural? Seems like Vivzie made him that masculine bigot guy who's bigheaded and is obsessed with having a huge cock(because dicks are funny according to the writers). They have finally showed Andrealphus, Stella's brother, and there's nothing interesting about him to say. I'm just glad they didn't make him a stereotypical gay. Knowing Vivzie's "rep" and how feminine he looks, it would be predictable. As I've said before, he looks like a shameless Elsa ripoff, as his blue ice castle(covered with red fucking sky, god, these palette choices burn out my eyes). I've heard some controversial and suspicious stuff considering him and Stella(more precisely, someone says that originally they were going to have **cestuous relationship). Not sure if it's true, and I do hope that Vivzie won't go so far in making Stella an unredeemable villain.

I didn't see anything "weird" or vulgar in their conversation, it felt like puerility. I like to imagine that their relationship is like a niminy-piminy brother always cheering up and complimenting his little sis because he can. I've seen some cartoons with a similar character dynamic and a certain part of their fandoms found indecent connotation in this, and that's their problems in their depravity. And yeah, I know that my thoughts aren't true and they obviously have a manipulative relationship. Andre straight up insulted Stella and manipulated her, btw. If Viv really wanna do them having **cest – fine, another reason to quit watching this show. But something tells me that she won't dare to lose a bunch of fans and be yet again cancelled in social networks.

Summing up, this episode was pretty good by the standards of the season and bad by the standards of..... something qualitative I guess? Viv still hasn't learned how to separate drama from comedy, which makes it difficult, no, impossible to feel Stolas' sad shit. This character is one of my personal winners in the list of the most repulsive and annoying creatures and him always being sex-crazed about Blitzo pisses me off. How the hell are we supposed to take him seriously if all he wants is a dick? The rest of the time he whines about how unhappy he is and pretends to care about his daughter. Season 2 continues to look like terrible Wattpad fanfiction and it discourages from watching this series. It's not even fun to hate or criticize it anymore, it's just...... Ehh.

[accirax]

So I wanna share some additional headcanons I made up for Dan's sister Frannie, cuz it's been on my mind now for some reason..

As stated before, until future greetings say otherwise, she and Dan are fraternal twins.

Both like the colour purple (which is a frequent colour in their wardrobes) and wear glasses & beanies/hats too

I won't say she's a complete physical copy of Dan. She still has her feminine features, with longer slightly frizzy hair flowing down to her waist. They do share the same height though.

They are pretty much like Dipper & Mabel Pines, while they do share a lot of similarities with each other in appearance and certain interests, they are still pretty much polar opposites in every other way.

Frannie is lively, cheery & extroverted; loves to make new friends, while Dan is more quiet and usually keeps to himself.

Frannie's straight while Dan is aroace.

[This one is completely optional tho, for anyone who wants it] Dan is neurotypical while Frannie is on the spectrum (though this was never properly figured out & diagnosed 'til she was 12 - 13). She probably had to rely a lot on Dan in their early childhood because of this, which she is grateful for, though she does want to and tries to be more independent.

Dan operates more on logic & reasoning, but Frannie is more emotional, practically wears her heart on her sleeve and is very empathetic to everyone and everything around her. She's a lot like Gabby in that way..

Maybe that's why Dan bonded so well with Gabby on their season. In a lot of ways she subconsciously does remind him of his sister. (Granted Frannie isn't as wild & unhinged as she is but, you get it.)

When they were little, their duo nickname frequently used by family members & childhood friends was "Danny & Frannie". (Dan gets a little embarrassed when people call them that still. 😅)

Whenever Halloween rolls around, you just know their mom had them wear those matching/complementary costumes for twins as kids (salt & pepper, ketchup & mustard, PB & jelly, sun & moon, etc.). Frannie always loved that~ ^^

If Dan's favourite movie was Meet The Robinsons.. I'll say Frannie's is a mixed bag consisting of Bolt, Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph, The Princess and The Frog, Frozen, Big Hero 6, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Atlantis, Treasure Planet, Lilo & Stitch, and Zootopia. She really can't choose just one. 😅

OK that's all I got. What do you think? ☺

y'know, i hadn't really put together how similar Dan is to Dipper until you brought it up in the context him having this fraternal twin, but i see it now! how long until someone dresses him up as Dipper in a greeting, i wonder...?

these all seem very cute! i can't say i have any headcanons for Frannie myself, given that i hardly ever make headcanons for characters that already exist (barring ones i've created, obviously), much less characters that essentially don't. the "Danny and Frannie" is adorable, though, and i love the idea that Dan gravitated towards Gabby because he was reminded of his sister.

also, that's a great (if large) selection of movies. i have to vouch for Tangled, as that's one of my favorite movies as well. but we love the representation for "girls whose favorite movies are all animated." i hope she also knows nothing about live action classics, just like me <3

[orcinus-veterinarius]

i actually used to be a very "WATCH BLACKFISH!1!111" "eMpTy tHe tAnkS" seaworld = bad sort of person. It wasn't until I actually started listening to people who considered themselves "pro-seaworld" or "pro-animal welfare" until I really realized something.

People base their hatred against seaworld against exaggerated or straight up false information. Sources like PETA/SeaWorldofHurt or the dolphin project are the most common ones that I've seen. PETA in itself is obviously not a good source whatsoever (the claim that Corky killed Amaya still astounds me) and I lost all respect for The Dolphin Project when they criticized Winter's trainers after her passing and suggested that they were immoral for rescuing her and letting her have a permanent home with her caretakers instead of just... letting her die.

No, SeaWorld's orcas aren't forced to perform. I visited SWSA this summer and Tuar just straight up decided to not do the splash segment. Kyuquot soloed the entire segment and Tuar still got his fish. Simple as that. Dorsal collapse isn't caused by depression, there are perfectly healthy killer whales in the wild with collapsed dorsal fins. A lot of the claims like "they separate orca mothers and calves!!11" are outdated too. The last mother/calf separation that was not for medical reasons was Takara and Trua in 2009.

Is SeaWorld a perfect angel? No, of course not. There are plenty of valid criticisms against SeaWorld such as their cancellation of The Blue World Project or investing more into coasters than renovating their animal exhibits. Just if you're going to argue against SeaWorld, use valid arguments.

Also obviously don't go after the trainers. It's honestly disgusting when I see comments like "I HOPE THE WHALE EATS THE TRAINER". Those trainers know that animal much better than you, Beth.

Support your AZA accredited facilities.

Yes to all of this. The Dolphin Project is every bit as bad as PETA. They're probably worse in some ways... to my knowledge, PETA hasn't illegally released captive dolphins into the open ocean. It's infuriating that their pages are what pops up whenever someone googles any topic related to killer whales or SeaWorld, and it's why I don't trust most people who say "I did my own research." A Google search isn't research.

[kohakhearts]

tonight's anipoke rabbit hole (actually something i've been largely contemplating since i started rewatching the os, but i've been contemplating it Even More tonight LMAO) is the does gary oak is ash's childhood best friend (established) discussion, which...maybe it's because i already knew the direction of their arc when i went back to episode one, but i think i actually disagree with the notion that episode one presents a continuity error, i.e. that it suggests gary doesn't know ash. to save you all from my ramblings i put them under a cut but tl;dr this is a hashed out conversation i'm putting my two cents into for no reason other than that i can and i want to.

i will say that like...takeshi shudo's novelization does kind of contest my reading here, but it doesn't explicitly say ash and gary don't know each other, either. (iirc, what it actually says is that ash knows gary sort of peripherally and has the impression of him being A Bit Of A Jerk, because he comes from a family of local celebrities and it's inflated his ego - which also debunks the childhood friends thing, just in a different way. all things considered, this does make it pretty clear to me that ash and gary were not originally intended to be childhood friends however the head writers of the silver league arc were part of the team from the beginning or at least fairly early on in the os, so. take that as you will.)

i say this in reference to both the original and the dub, but there are some interesting language nuances that get cut out of the dub because they...obviously don't make a lot of sense. but i was doing my rewatch with the dub, so let me talk about that first. 'cause i actually watched the scene a couple times trying to decide if it really did feel like it challenged the childhood friends thing. and...i don't think it does?

the first line gary says that makes everyone say he doesn't seem to know ash is "well, you must be ash," which. yeah. okay, that'd be a pretty weird thing to say to a guy you already know, but i have one (1) strong thesis here and it's this: that's just how ten year olds are, lmao. the second thing he says (regarding how late ash is) is "at least you get to meet me." that one...okay, fair enough. now i'm starting to sound like the crazy one for saying This Proves Nothing. but you can't tell me ash's response to this isn't straight-up weird, ok, because he just kinda c: and goes "gary?"

this is...a poor translation, for the most part, but i'll get to that in a second. even watching this with no knowledge of the original, that call and response kinda feels like someone playing along with a bit. there's no way that he knows this guy's name just from the cheerleaders he literally bowled over to get to the lab. it's clear he already knows it from somewhere else (and following with the novelization, it's definitely the family of local celebrities thing, although that same novelization stipulates that gary doesn't even attend school in pallet town, so this is all around just a really Absurd series of events - that's why i love it so much, but still).

anyway, then gary says "that's mr gary to you" and ash's c: turns into a o: he's like. flabbergasted lmao. and he only reacts again to be like whaaat you got your first pokemon???

the rest of their interaction is just "can i see your pokemon" and "sucks to suck, sucker," so not incredibly noteworthy other than that ash goes from, like, weirdly polite with his little "um, excuse me" to when gary fucks off and he's suddenly pissed.

so in my efforts to like, dig into this more, i found that fan subs don't...completely translate the intention here, either. mostly i only got to thinking about this tonight because i was making a Joke and i pulled up a scene from this episode and it happened to be this one. for whatever bizarre reason, my choice to download Every Episode Of The Pokemon Anime led me to downloading japanese raws, not the dub. but that's beside the point. i actually sat down and listened to this scene with no english subtitles, and i was like. wait. i think this fits my thesis. let me explain.

(it all started when i noticed that when gary goes from addressing ash to addressing the crowd around them, he switches from using the pronoun "boku" to using "watashi," which probably is meant to show that he's trying to come across as Serious and Mature. i have not watched all of gary's episodes in japanese, but i've watched enough to know this is pretty irregular. i thought it was really silly, especially when...put in context.)

SO, in the japanese version, that whole "at least you get to meet me" bit isn't there - that was the translators' attempt at working around something untranslatable, because the actual progression after ash bumps into him here is something like:

>you're satoshi, aren't you? >yeah, it's satoshi-san >or should i say satoshi-kun?

which is...where the nickname comes from, obviously. and it's why he gets that Look on his face...you know the one

(this whole scene is very expressive and i love it, lmao)

even in subs, this is a weird thing to translate, so most people seem to emphasize the reference to ash's tardiness, like in the dub. but it misses some of the character beats laid out here, unfortunately. the satoshi-kun to ashy-boy pipeline is very complex. the shortcomings of the english language and all that.

anyway, gary's next line being "that's mr gary to you" does imply something about honorifics, but when ash just calls him "shigeru," he actually says "hey that's shigeru-kun to you," which doesn't suggest that he's telling ash off for being too chummy with him, as a stranger, so much as he's trying to say hey, we aren't friends, make some distance. because the next thing he says is something to the point of "you're supposed to be my rival, but you're already falling behind."

then the polite little "excuse me" of the english dub is actually ash saying "shigeru-kun?" which does seem awfully polite of him, but then he immediately drops it in his next line and just refers to him as "shigeru" again, so i maintain that it literally feels like he's just humouring gary here a bit lmao.

also worth noting, when gary drives off, ash in the dub says "i'll show you," but in the original just repeats the word "rival," looking very Worked Up.

also, just in general, i do think some of gary's lines here are like...pure exposition. he tells ash he's professor oak's grandson because the audience needs to know it. that doesn't really mean that we as the audience need to - or even should - assume it means he thinks ash doesn't know it, because he clearly does. i mean, he knew his name. that probably speaks for something, lol.

anyway, back to my thesis: this literally just reads like classic "first day of middle school" fuckery. gary oak is literally displaying symptoms of 12-year-old girl syndrome and ash is playing along because that's what pals do, right. like all i'm saying is that these two entered sixth grade and gary suddenly was like hey you can't sit beside me anymore and ash just kinda shrugged and was like haha ok, you're so quirky, and then only later when he heard gary shit-talking him realized hey wait a second, you're a bitch, we aren't friends anymore (and if this feels like an exaggeration, i work with children in this age bracket and believe me when i say i wish it were shdfhjdk).

in conclusion? yeah, the childhood best friends thing makes perfect sense. did they have a fight before this scene? has it been Years? no. gary just woke up and decided to start shit one day. most compelling relationship of the century, if i'm being honest.

ADDENDUM: when professor oak sees ash, he says something about "thats right, there were four people scheduled to see me today," but gary already seemed to know ash was going to be there, which leads me to believe they have at least enough of an established relationship for gary to know becoming a pokemon trainer was a goal of ash's and he had in fact gotten his license. because clearly professor oak didn't give him that info!

[theworldvsyoshiko]

Finally, the ship launches.

I love that it lists them in boarding order. Obviously Terror Bird 1 is the most important here. Augustus, of course, is Lewis's pet rhino.

Altogether, it took five years and 12 days for Umeko to make her way off the planet. I think it's safe to say that wherever they end up will be better than this shithole.

The final state of affairs:

First off, research:

There is none.

Throughout the entire trip, they managed to research Pemmican and Noble Attire (for the stupid beret that the religious leader would want, if they'd gotten enough people to need one.) They spent a long time trying to research Microelectronics before I realized that it wasn't going to be finished in time to matter, then switched them to Firefoam. They got about halfway through by the end.

There just isn't a lot of time for research with such a small group of nomads. There are other priorities, like 'sleeping under a roof' and 'not being killed by bandits.'

Umeko Keith

Umeko's pretty overall competent now, at a 6+ in every skill but art, intellectual, and mining. That's pretty damn solid for only five years and considering all the crap she had to deal with. She's old enough to drink now, in some theoretical society where it isn't normal for 13 year olds to have a beer after work. And... still wearing that alpaca leather backpack she made in like her first week.

As a fairly well-augmented cyborg with 19 Shooting, Umeko's actually really good at this. Over the final year or so, she's handled some raids by herself while everyone else slept. If it weren't for her mediocre gear and lack of psychic powers, she'd be a near-Yoshiko-tier combat monster. My little girl's all grown up...

Umeko's crush on Choco has rebounded to full power, so perhaps she'll talk Choco into giving girls a chance some day. Out there. Among the stars. She's still super close with Lewis, too, although they've been too busy to hang out over the past half-year or so, and their relationship has suffered a bit as a result.

Lewis McLaughlin

I've downplayed Lewis's contributions a bit thanks to his horrible childhood education, but he hasn't turned out awful or anything. He's good with guns, animals, research, and plants, and that's not a bad spread. The fact that he's not good at construction or medicine been a bit of an advantage in its own right, because it left him as the one hauling corpses and cleaning while everybody else was dealing with necessities. It's not glamorous work, but it desperately needed to be done.

And I'll be honest, not sure this would have gone well if the group didn't have his trained rhinos to use as bullet sponges. The fact that they managed to save the one he bonded with is a miracle.

Lewis likes everyone! Even Vaov, whom Umeko and Choco are still suspicious of. Lewis is also straight and old enough that he considers them all valid romantic partners, so he's spent a lot of time asking girls out only to get turned down. He'll find somebody some day, I'm sure.

Curca Choco

Choco has practically been the main character for this last segment. I don't know if it's the fact that she has slightly better armor than the others or if she's just been lucky, but either way, she's walked out of almost every fight unharmed, often when everybody else is at risk of bleeding out or outright collapsed on the ground. Shooting/Medical is a good combination for the raid onslaught. Plus, the thing about Psychopath letting her drag corpses around with fewer penalties.

Because of that, though, she's pretty neutral on the others. Her opinion of literally everybody is between -5 and 0... the -5s being for people she had to turn down for dates recently, of course. Like I said before, everyone wants Choco.

Jedtchvozz Vaov

Vaov's by far the newest member, but she's gotten good at stuff in a hurry... partially because Umeko bought a pile of skilltrainers on that last shopping trip. Impid fire breath would usually be a great trump card for hard fights, but since this group never figured out firefoam and was usually living in wooden bases, I was saving it for an emergency.

Vaov likes everyone else decently enough, but only Lewis likes her back. She's crushing on both Umeko and Choco, but it wasn't meant to be.

-------------

The kids leave behind an, uh, interesting

and colorful

base for some future group of scavengers to find.

It's basically move-in ready. 38 kg of leftover pemmican, a bunch of guns, four bedrooms, a rec room that... isn't as good as it used to be, but hardly has any rhino blood now.

Looking back, I like how you can see the cycle of colonies... and the way that the last colony's value constantly climbed, rather more steeply than the others, thanks to the influx of raider loot.

That big dip in the next-to-last colony is when Umeko stepped out to give all of the colony's money and leftover trade goods away. That got them two allies, by the way. You'll notice that it didn't help a fucking bit in the final raids.

[blackstarchanx3new]

Creations AU, But I obnoxiously over explain it PT 4

Pages 91-120

NO I WON'T SLEEP TONIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT

OH OH

I WANT SOME MOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE-

Lmfao Michael I know you love your dad but does he abuse you or not? He does.

He flip flops on that it seems...

Ennard is obviously upset Michael would rather hang out with a FIIIIILLLTHY HUUUUUUUMAN.

People REALLY did not get Ennard's character on webtoon so let me go into another rant if you will:

People saw this scene, of emotional manipulation and putting someone down and went

"Ooooooo Ennard's JEEEEAALLOUUUUSSSS!~"

Bro.

What are you five? Like actually? The lack of emotional maturity and awareness about just how fucked their dynamic is genuinely ASTONISHED me.

This isn't cute or silly. Ennard is being abusive and he KNOWS he is.

Ennard DOUBLES DOWN on the verbal abuse claiming literally no one other than him will understand Michael.

This isn't from a place of understanding either. This comes from a "I want to trap you with me" place.

This isn't a "Even if nobody else does, I will always have your back."

This is "Nobody other than me likes your stupid ass don't leave me or you'll have no one"

Ya know. Abuse.

Also no I'm not addressing the obvious.

I had to sit through SO MANY PEOPLE not noticing the obvious...Yall gotta sit through me being cheeky about the obvious thing going on here. :)

Alright fine.

I'll mention it fuck.

Michael has beautiful very normal eyes- UwU

Coming from THAT scene, we jump into one where Bonnie and Michael are hanging out. Because we've established they are friends too.

Haha Bonnie why are you blushing?

BONNIE.

BONNIE WHY ARE YOU BLUSHING.

They're a little zesty that's all-

Is it one sided? Are they fucking boyfriends? Who knows...

Look the straight people have comics where the entire cast is straight.

Every single one of my comics the entire casts are queer that's just how it is-

Gayness aside: Michael seems comfortable around Bonnie:

We can deduce this from MANY THINGS:

He shared his interest of plushies, something he immediately hid from Mike out of shame, WITH BONNIE.

He runs up to hug Bonnie, William had to force a hug out of Michael so maybe Michael doesn't hug everyone?

He's shared his past with Bonnie

He ONLY met with Mike because of Bonnie's nudging so he trusts Bonnie's judgment.

Micheal jests here but it's obvious this shit comes from a place of genuine concern considering how Ennard is lmfao.

Bonnie continues to be an absolute chad because if you haven't noticed he IS my favorite character in the FNAF 1 arc. He is a devine entity with no flaws.

No we're not talking about his smoking, he is perfect. He's being enabled leave him be- Also he's a robot who gets no ill affects from it lmao

Also yes the screens are showing LOZ and animal crossing stuff hah. I liked LOZ even back when I made these pages. We had no idea what that'd evolve into....

Bonnie also references the other Freddy from Circus Rentals again, who we saw a glimpse of earlier.

Also him and Freddy ARE good friends. Okay.

From this interaction we can gauge a lot about why Bonnie and Michael are close:

Bonnie isn't controlling or possessive, he cares about Michael's interests and helps him indulge in them.

He's the opposite of Ennard.

Bonnie, is a pretty good friend.

Michael's wording here is very interesting.

Bonnie's the absolute best friend. He can tell when the vibes are off. He's upfront about shit. He knows Mike HAS some kind of alter motive and doesn't really hide that from Michael. But also acknowledges Mike's kinda just fucked up right now and probably needs some support.

Also people were confused as fuck why the claw machine/Bonnie is sparking

He's skipping using tokens or smth on the machine by messing with it's power. I thought that was obvious as hell but what do I know.

Because Bonnie's a bad boy.

It is also amusing Ennard is Michael's designated daddy therapist and Bonnie is Michael's Ennard therapist. Though who's to say if Bonnie doesn't know about William's shit considering there's a LOT we don't know about Michael and Bonnie's relationship at the moment.

If you're FNAF savvy you'll recognize a lot of characters in the claw hah.

anyways Bonnie again tells SOME stuff about other people without telling their stories for them. What Bonnie left out of Michael's story will be very apparent as we go on.

Something cool I just like about Bonnie: Bro just wants both of them to be happy. He considers both of them his friends and thinks them being friends could help each other out.

Bonnie's just a bro. True to his word he's nice to just about everyone. Even someone he started off on rocky footing with.

Despite Mike's weird behavior Michael is determined to actually be a real friend to him.

So Mike's rambling but the shit on the walls is 100xs more interesting than anything he has to say rn.

Specifically the FNAF rap lyrics being on the wall. X'D

Also a bunch of Freddy doodles are seemingly mocking him.

My favorite just might be "MEOW! YOU'RE A LITTLE MEOW MEOW!"

Anyways what Mike is talking about:

William with blood on his hands is humorous because his own faults led to his kids dying.

The Bonnie panel is pretty self explanatory.

Bonnie's possessed by someone, presumably the "Jeremy" he specifically asked about earlier on.

Something to note: he asked if Bonnie knew anything about Jeremy's death. As if Jeremy's death isn't CONFORMED.

This leads to the conclusion: Jeremy's body was never found.

So Mike's mission here is becoming more clear: Find out who's putting people in robots and why, find Jeremy.

This is smth Webtoon struggled to comprehend: This series does NOT spell stuff out for you. You gotta build an understanding by paying attention. You can figure a LOT out just by reading what the characters say closely.

Hehehe...That might not be true...You are the guy who carries around a giant kitchen knife at all times aren't ya? ;)

Or maybe he just means innocent people...

This isn't the first time Mike's been an unreliable narrator/protagonist and he only continues to be as the series goes on. Something people also STRUGGLE to comprehend:

Protagonists aren't always "Good people"

Mike is a morally grey person. As are MOST of my protagonists.

Mike bribes Bonnie with his vices and manipulates people. But he's not exactly a BAD person per say. He isn't TRYING to hurt Bonnie or Michael. He doesn't have ill will towards most people.

Something HAS made itself very clear though: Mike has nothing to lose.

Mike is acting the way he does because he presumably: Has nothing and no one.

And he's in a very dark place mentally. The man has seemingly no support system when it comes to keeping him from NOT trying to off himself at a place he has AWFUL history with. So there's that.

Even further: Freddy's is established to be DANGEROUS. Mike acting the way he does makes a lot of sense considering he is basically a lamb being thrown into a lion's den of "you can't trust anyone". The way he acts keeping people at arms distance and not being too genuine with anyone makes a lot of sense considering ya know: The owner is most likely murdering people for his sick robot fantasies and he for sure could be next.

Having said all that he does bring up a good point: What WOULD be the goal of putting people in robots be?

If you've been paying close attention you probably already know the answer to this or are coming to your own conclusions. I will avoid saying for now tho. ;)

Considering Mike's words...It's WAAAY more than just this "Jeremy" person who's gone missing though.

The "You" he's talking about here is clearly Jeremy.

PARANOIA PARANOIA PARANOIA EVERYBODY'S COMING TO GET MEEEEEE-

WELCOME TO THE MIND FUCK-

Alright enough joking. Shit's going down for the second time and we know the one behind it. Mr. Funny yellow bear in the cyan jacket aka "Fredbear"?

Shit never seems to go right with him around.

The goofy doodles continue to mock Mike as he comes to this realization, the drawings becoming more sinister and oozing blood.

This is a reference to one of the scenes in the Silver eyes book/graphic novel by the way because I love referencing FNAF shit in my doofy FNAF comic.

Ya see this shit is what I meant by "I like horror in my comics"

The writings continue to mock him because they're awful.

The lyrics from the FNAF fan song "Run run" are amusing to me. XD

"Lmao you tripped" and "watch your step" - GF

are also funny.

These show that despite this being a tense scene for MIKE, the one behind this is laughing their ass off at his terror.

Also a poster of the Golden Bear trips him. Because reality is a joke.

Weirdly this bear is not wearing the same get up as the one we saw stalking Mike earlier in the comic...

Weird.

Guys gals and pals.

This is buildup. :D

The fucking boarders of the comic are oozing, SOMETHING IS COMING. Mike's so scared he just sits there and cowers for a moment, he's terrified to turn around.

I woulda shat my pants so ya know. Kudos to Mike for not doing that.

The giant bloody head is just disturbing but there's some oddities with this that we'll get into later~

I really wanted this horrific mouth to show how fresh and sticky that blood be.

Like ew.

Mike's trauma really just on full display here.

The repeating "Remember to smile" will be familiar to those who have heard the FNAF 2 phone calls (I think it's from FNAF 2 it's hard to remember. X'D)

"Remember to smile, you are the new face of Freddy Fazbear's pizza"

Easter eggs: The poster of Freddy tearing his own head off is the poster you can see while trying to spawn Golden Freddy in FNAF 1.

This bear walking is warping he floor to look like Fredbear's family dinner.

Also uh, he's a headless figure...

But is the floating head...HIS HEAD?

Also the poster mocking Mike while he cries is so hilarious to me I'm sorry I'm mean to my characters.

Mike was apparently coping with his trauma well before coming here, assumably so much so he decided he COULD come here.

Seems Mike had to mentally prepare himself to come back to this place after seeing the bite, but also Jeremy's disappearance here.

Huh, normal hallway.

Must be all good now! :D

You know you're screwed when a poster is laughing at you.

The giant head is just lurking...

Mike just resigns to asking for this nightmare to stop.

This situation is like, straight terrifying though:

You're trapped, can't leave just walking aimlessly down a looping hallway with the symbol of one of your worst memories just behind you at all times. It's not outright attacking you, just lingering making sure you're aware of it's presence.

It's like an actual nightmare.

Yeah singing a little song will help buddy.

Oh hey, Cyan jacket Yellow bear is there amongst all the others...Funny.

Oh he's pissed now.

Nothing is working. Coping mechanisms ain't working here.

Ngl the "WHAT" panel makes me laugh.

It's so absurd.

Mike is still under the impression this thing is haunting him because of his in-action.

Hehe wait-

Those teeth aren't like the one from befoooooooore...

Mike's so fed up with this.

Also the titular "It's me" line from FNAF 1 and, everywhere in the series. I had to include it.

Mike's just exhausted.

Bro is beyond exhausted at this point.

Also notice how he mentions "The dark"

you afraid of the dark Mike?

Bro's having mood swings like crazy. Not that I'd blame him I'd be pissed off if this ghost was just taunting me like this too.

Seriously tho- Mike you cracked that door with that punch is your hand okay????

Also we can note something about Mike: he's apparently right handed, or at least leans on using his right hand.

Yes that's relevant. X'D

Oh hey, Cyan jacket bear is back.

How long has Mike been putting up with seeing this bear ghost?

Huh. So even Mike notices the difference...

Mike I wouldn't touch that thing-

Mike. You stopped going to therapy!?

Apparently in the past he couldn't feel this bear. So he HAS seen it before in an alerted mental state.

And oh no it's got him-

Big ol bear hug! :D

OH. LORE.

Stuff we know but conformed for sure.

Bear is listening.

Oh. HELLO THERE. HE CAN LAUGH.

Mike's confession is real funny apparently.

Considering ALL the notes/drawings on the wall, this character is kind of a sadistic ass so this reaction makes sense.

So: They share a birthday how cute.

Oh.

That terrible day was on Mike's birthday lmfao. Ouch.

Mr. Cody bear does this to people A LOT. Often enough he knows how they usually REACT anyway.

Also there's a typo ignore that i'm not gonna fix it lmao

Aaaand the "Mike is a freak" gag comes back once again. XD

Meaning he's been watching Bonnie and Mike talk to each other...

Stalker.

He's been stalking Mike in general since he entered the damn building.

Creepy.

Oh my. Oh dear.

Lore.

Why does everyone pat Mike's pretty head????

So Cody wasn't tormenting Mike because of a vendetta: He's just an ass.

He also doesn't want an apology showing he's got SOME emotional maturity to know it wasn't Mike's fault. This kind of maturity shows off even though he might have DIED as a child, he is not STILL a child. This is in stark contrast to a character like Ennard who keeps a childish mentality towards others.

Josh Afton was the one wearing the "Foxy mask" and inadvertently killed his own brother.

WOOPS. IT WAS JUST A PRANK BRO.

Seems Cody isn't over that...Getting pissed Mike even brings up his brother. Possibly angry Mike even KNOWS that much about him?

Cody just leaves.

Mike is terrified to be left alone, he'd rather hug the bear who's been tormenting him than be alone.

They take a peek back into the room and it's darkness is OMINOUS.

Cody's eyes also flash red when he's angry or annoyed, hold onto that detail.

And with that, THE IMAGE LIMIT FOR ONE POST HAS BEEN HIT.

Hope ya enjoyed the show so far we'll pick up again when I finish my blabbing.

[kraviolis]

ive got so many random boiling isles worldbuilding HCs in my head but i dont have a way to share them besides just random posts. so here's a random post about one of my headcanons.

there's no modern human holidays in the boiling isles (like christmas, passover, halloween, etc.) but there IS holidays that are widely celebrated by witches like samhain, yule, beltane, the equinoxes-- which i know people do actively follow and celebrate nowadays but i mean more of the ancient ways of celebration. like, live animal sacrifices and everything.

i like to think that demons have similar holidays to witches but different names/traditions. like witches have yule, but demons have krampusnacht. and obviously while there is a lot of similarity with how humans celebrated those holidays, there's obviously a creepy/weird/magic spin on them.

like on yule they do an animal sacrifice to the titan and then eat the animal & burn the inedible parts in a magical fire. but the sacrifice maybe isn't just straight forward, and is more like a hunting competition for the whole family where the one who actually kills the animal gets a special prize. like getting the best cut of the meat or getting to open their presents first.

im specifically imagining eda & lilith as girls both throwing everything they have at this beast they're hunting down and eda getting the kill in the end and gloating all smugly at lilith. with all my headcanons i usually default to imagining the clawthornes doing the thing to see if it's something that feels like it fits in with the world.

also samhain im specifically imagining to be like. less of a halloween or dia de la muertos type of holiday, but more of like... where they are appreciative and thankful to the titan for giving them magic by abstaining from using magic for the day or something. like fasting sorta. it's more of a serious holiday in my mind, where you spend it at home with family or you go to grand galas that usually have some type of charity aspect to them. the emperor's coven holds a samhain gala every year and invites mostly only the wealthy & powerful & their biggest supporters (the blights get an invitation every single year, for instance) & also the coven scouts who performed the best that year. usually theres also a charity auction.

krampusnacht for demons i think would be more set in legend & myth than simple tradition or reverence for the titan. it's 100% kings favorite holiday. it's gotta be about the Krampus, a terrifyingly powerful demon who could travel between the human realm and demon realm at will. maybe the krampus lost its powers somehow and got trapped in the human realm? maybe its even believed that the krampus was The First Demon or something. anyways, demons do sacrifices or more specific things to appease or give it strength so it can gather enough power to temporarily come back and give little gifts to all the demon children sleeping soundly in their beds before going back to the human realm to wreak terror on the human children. maybe that part is more like, for the kids, but the sacrificing stuff in krampus's honor is definitely the main point.

i can literally imagine a full owl house episode in my head of luz learning about yule & krampusnacht from eda & king respectively and trying to help both of them with their traditions and rituals and stuff but actually having a really hard time with some of the stuff-- like the hunting & sacrificing parts for sure (she is the daughter of a vet, after all) but like, they always did their best to follow the traditions of her human holidays that she shared even if they were apprehensive at first so she really wants to be active and engage with them and be more open minded. so instead of voicing her discomfort or upset over the more gruesome parts, she tries so hard to go along with it but at the very last second she ends up not being able to do it and takes off.

then luz feels so guilty bcus these traditions are obviously really important to the both of them and they're including her because she's family and she doesnt want them to think she's rejecting them but in the end king and eda are obviously just like "you dingdong you dont have to force yourself to do stuff you're uncomfortable with just to make us happy! we care about you more than any traditions, no matter how badly we want you to do them with us!" and they find ways to adjust their traditions, like instead of killing the beast they just capture it humanely and then let it go, or instead of doing live sacrifices they just get a pre-killed animal from a butcher and do the burning of the inedible parts, all so luz can feel better about participating in them :-)

and for samhain, i bet at first king never really celebrated it bcus he couldnt do magic but always liked getting to spend it with eda and pulling pranks on her bcus even she would abstain from magic for a day (she def does it bcus her dad has always been super into giving thanks to the titan and treats the nature of the isles with a lot of reverence due to his career as a palisman carver-- think about how eda encouraged luz to connect with the isles! her dad 100% did the same stuff with her!!)

after learning about his dad, king probably spends samhain in remembrance. i like to think the first samhain after he finds out about his heritage, luz & eda take him to pick some flowers and luz uses the memory-tweezers to show him what his dad looked like and they make a little shrine for his dad with the photograph at the center and all three of them spend the day together

[clairelsonao3]

5 Comfort Films

Thanks for the tag, @mysticstarlightduck, whose post is here!

Seems like everyone's doing this one today, and since I seem to be doing very little today except comforting myself after an extremely stressful day yesterday, I might as well go for it. (And maybe then I'll watch them all!)

(By the way, I'm well aware that the newest film on this list came out in 1991, and I make no apologies for that.)

Criteria: Like any top-5 style list, I had to come up with my own very specific criteria, because I'm an obnoxious, pretentious nerd. That means trying my best to include different categories -- I could easily name 5 musicals or 5 Disney movies, but I won't. So it's one musical, one Disney, one romcom, one dramedy, one straight-up farce, etc. Second of all, Christmas movies could be a category all on their own, so those are all disqualified (check back in December). Fourth, no sad endings (sorry Titanic, Moulin Rouge, and Casablanca.) Fifth, I cheated by naming a runner-up for each one that falls into the same category. Sixth... I'll shut up now. Here's the list.

The Sound of Music (1965) -- Honestly, just about any musical could probably find a spot on my comfort list, but it begins and ends with this one. Slow-burn romance, breathtaking cinematography, and arguably Rodgers and Hammerstein's greatest score make 3 hours go by like that. Even when the Nazis come on the scene you're never seriously worried anything bad will happen. Runner-up: Gigi (1958).

2. Mary Poppins (1964) -- Yes, Julie Andrews again. She herself could be a walking, singing comfort movie. There are a million Disney animated flicks that could make the comfort list, but by mixing animation and live action to perfection, this is automatically the best of both worlds. Even hearing Dick van Dyke's horrendous Cockney accent is like wrapping up in a warm blanket. Runner up: Beauty and the Beast (1991).

3. Pretty Woman (1990) -- I was probably well into my 20s before I realized, hey this isn't just a movie I watch every time it comes on TV for no reason. I actually LIKE it. It's one of those movies. The lightest, fluffiest movie about sex work ever made. A self-acknowledged Cinderella story. Runner-up: Just Like Heaven (2005).

4. The Breakfast Club (1985) -- Even though Ferris Bueller is also great and obviously the more conventional choice for a John Hughes comfort flick, I'm going to go with this one. Yes, it's a bit darker, but it's also funny as fuck, which is kind of my thing, it involves forbidden romance, which, duh, and also has a surprisingly hopeful and upbeat ending. Runner-up: Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986).

5. Spaceballs (1987) -- I thought way too hard about which film should get the last spot on the list. If the musicals are rainy-afternoon-watch-with-your-mom-in-the-living-room kind of movies, this is a late-night-premium-cable-parents not-home-watch-with-your-brother-in-the-basement-and-laugh-your-ass-off kind of movie. Every time I lampshade myself in something I write (and I do that a lot) it's a nod to Mel Brooks and the classic satirical style of comedy he perfected. Runner-up: Star Wars Original Trilogy (1977 et al.) (I know, not the same genre, but it's the source material, so whatever).

Hmmm... I'll gently tag @starlit-hopes-and-dreams and OPEN TAG because I'm seeing everybody get tagged in this and I can't keep them all straight.

[xenoblademisadventures]

Like, quick elaboration of what I mean by Xenoblade 2 copium. Also, obviously this doesn't apply to ppl who aren't stupid and defensive about criticism over a video game. But when I say that the copium is "misconstrue all criticism to be bigotry." I mean, like, you realize you can just say "honestly doesn't bother me" if you have to say anything. No need to make shit up.

And, like, the example with the character designs, it's like, I've heard shit like "ain't it sexist how everyone complains about Pyra's design but not Zeke's?" As if Zeke didn't actually have an acceptable character design. Or ppl responding to the criticism that 2's character designs prioritize sex appeal to straight men over literally anything else and then going "let women express themselves, sexist :/" As if there's any real bodily autonomy for a fictional fucking character. Or ppl going "Dahlia's design is gross" and then responding with "she was drawn by a woman therefore she can't be an instance of the artist jacking off to anime tits." Which, is a deeply stupid argument. Like, there's this weirdness where you can imply 2 is sexist and then copium ppl go "no u."

And then a lot of other criticisms go in a similar direction. Rex is a bad protagonist because his narrative arc isn't satisfying. There are a lot of reasons for that, such as him lacking a compelling reason to be part of the plot, his character motivations being really static, him embodying a really generic archetype of protagonist without having a particularly compelling spin on it, the fact that the plot keeps driving him into a wall before making something up on the fly to bail him out (which becomes an issue starting around Chapter 4), the fact that he's used to undercut multiple far more interesting character arcs because he's such a nice guy that Pneuma's and Nia's deeply rooted traumas or the imperialistic tension of Mor Ardain simply vanish instead of being properly explored, the fact that he probably shouldn't have been written to be a kid considering that some of the most important parts of his character are his *adult* love interests and the fact that he has a highly dangerous job that he's super experienced at doing, the fact that the English voice direction and acting just undercuts every dramatic moment involving the character, and a million other things that aren't on the top of my head. Criticize any of these things and you'll be met with deflections. Like "oh Shulk's not very good quit being a Xenoblade 1 purist" or "let men feel things the protagonist is allowed to fail sometimes" and other stuff that's more of a stock response than a real argument.

Fandom arguments devolving into stock arguments is pretty common as a whole. Just kinda dumb how often the arguments around 2 devolve into stock arguments that specifically misconstrue real-world issues.