#this was one of the earliest episodes though

[darker-than-darkstorm]

They didn't just put him on Earth, mind you; they also broke the TARDIS and actually messed with the Doctor's mind to remove some of the knowledge he needed to fix it.

The earliest episode/serial I've ever seen in its entirety, "Inferno", shows he's removed the TARDIS console from the rest of the vehicle and is working on it in the garage (trying to brute-force and reverse-engineer a fix).

(For some reason, my local PBS station didn't have the rest of that season; a slightly-further-away PBS station did, but those stations came in fuzzy if they came in at all, so I never got to see "Spearhead from Space", "Doctor Who and the Silurians", or "The Ambassadors of Death", though I've seen the rest of Three's run)

It wasn't until the first story of the tenth season, "The Three Doctors" (which saw him unwillingly teamed up with One and Two — mostly Two, because William Hartnell was very sick and so One only had a minimal role) that his exile was lifted, the TARDIS repaired, and his knowledge restored. He'd spend the rest of the season and all of Season 11 traveling through space and time again rather than confined to Earth-based plots, before regenerating again at the end of Season 11.

... I miss Classic Who. I should watch it again.

“No! You can’t do this to me!”

The Doctor Regenerates - 02 of 12

The Doctor’s second regeneration - the one when the Time Lords caught up with him, put him on trial, sentenced him to exile on Earth and altered his appearance.

The War Games - season 06 - 1969

Spearhead from Space - season 07 - 1970

•      •     •     •     •

This fan-edit, by me, also uses footage from The Mind Robber and Inferno.

•      •     •     •     •

[locusfandomtime]

got bored and decided to check the date created of each hermitcraft member’s channel and now have to deal with the horrifying information that some hermits have been on youtube for longer than I have been alive

[victorluvsalice]

-->However, speaking of fun, we now we come to the part of the episode that I like to call "Is Fishing Fun?" Because I quickly realized that, if I wanted to put fishcake cans out on my shelves, I would need to have plenty of fish to turn into fishcakes. And currently the gang did not have plenty of fish. So, I decided it was time for Victor to resume the family business and took him off flower duty and put him on fish duty on the dock behind the store! He started out a bit slow, as evidenced by him holding a log there, but slowly started picking up the pace with a betta and a tetra. Meanwhile, Smiler started working on a new apothecary product, Red-Hot Tablets (tablets that make a Sim angry! ...look, all it required was three basil, so Smiler could make them really easily), and Alice --

-->Went upstairs and started watching "College Cram" once she ran out of fishcakes to make. Oi, Alice -- I said no fun until the shelves are filled! So, after a brief bathroom break (during which I realized I could put up those new "facilities" signs that came in one of the recent patch updates -- they do add a little extra something to the bathroom, don't they?), I sent HER out to join Victor fishing. And then I went, "well, if Victor and Alice are out there, might as well send Smiler too," and did just that.

-->And so the great fish-off began! With everyone standing there fishing their little hearts out to get enough fish to make loads and loads of fishcakes. And, I'm pleased to report, everyone did end up having a pretty darn good day out on the old dock --

Victor: Caught a couple of bettas, a tetra, a pair of tunas, an angelfish, a cichlid – and a “Captain Fishbones” Bonefish! Yeah, as you can imagine, THAT one stayed in his inventory to be brought home to live in the aquarium later.

Alice: Caught a tetra, a kissing gorami, a goldfish, a betta, a kitchen upgrade part, and a digitalistic sketchpad! XD Well, I had kind of meant to get her one of those eventually... She also got to Fishing level 4, which should serve her well when I force her to fish again to help fill these shelves. XD

Smiler: Caught a couple of angelfish, a tilapia, a betta, and a kissing gorami -- not the biggest catch, but then they started the latest, so it only made sense they'd catch the least. And hey, that is still a pretty good haul, all things considered. Certainly enough to make lots of fishcakes!

[graceoartyo]

Redrew one of my earliest Hilda drawings from 2021!! I just watched the finale and it was FANTASTIC. What a show. I’m going to miss it for sure, but it’s definitely the kind of thing you can revisit again and again without getting bored.

Althooouuughhhh…

I feel like there still could be so much more! I want to know more about the elves! About the puka! So many side characters could have gotten more episodes that I would have loved. More about some other characters who I won’t name for spoilers sake! This season answered a lot of questions, but it did’t answer all of them and it sure as heck raised a lot more. The Hilda team really did a fantastic job creating a world that feels alive and expansive, it still feels like there’s so much left to explore! I really hope we get some more Hilda media in the future, though I don’t know what form that would take.

Anyway! I love this show (and the comics) as it is, I just want more of it!!

[somerandomdudelmao]

Hopping back in the “when did Donnie get sick” train because of your latest update with memory ritual Casey, I think I have a pretty good guess as to what got Donnie.

The very long episode known as episode two, aka “carry the uncles.”

We see them extremely battered, can from the looks of it, both of them have a couple open wounds. While infection can get in though the holes on our faces (nose, eyes, mouth), it can also get in through the bloodstream, where it is usually identified by white blood cells.

Donnie is significantly more battered than Casey, who appears to be severely bleeding though his leg, plastron, side, and forehead. All prime locations to get into the bloodstream unnoticed.

(Another thing. Outsider cells can pose as insider cells, which is usually how stuff like cancer happens. I don’t doubt that when the kraang made that virus they took a few humans to make sure it was extremely lethal and wouldn’t get fucked over by Donnie’s white blood cells, as you said before that the area around Donnie’s grave turned so desolate that even other kraang vines were KILLED by the infection. (Which makes me think it behaves like the fungal virus of the last of us but worse.))

The earliest we see Donnie obviously pull his dramatics is episode six, primarily the first pannel of part two of episode six, kraangified.

This is the very same episode where he perched on Raph by using his spidershell’s arms.

Donnie was most likely feeling the effects even earlier, but because the episodes between 2 and six are more filler and elaboration (and also where people speculate he got it, episode three.) we don’t know.

I should note, people claim he got it in episode three when he ran a kraang over. This is likely not true, as you stated the infection killed kraang vines around Donnie’s grave. Why would you carry it on your body for long periods of time with how lethal it is? Wouldn’t you put it on one of your hounds or zombies?

From episode 6 onward, we see Donnie increasingly get more dramatic and need to rely on his tech more until he, unfortunately, goes poof from this plane of existence.

(One more thing I want to add is that this infection was most likely similar to a fungus or cancer, as it was eating up Donnie from the inside and transforming his cells into other cells, which is most likely how his blood turned pink.)

Anyway, theory time over, thanks again for giving us this wonderful series, can’t wait to see what happens when small donnie realizes why Casey got so upset over big donnie.

Wow, that's one BIG study.......

I'm not going to say anything because you've already said everything. But I will add here one new screenshot from a recent update as confirmation that you're right. Because if you look at the location of his injuries in both pictures....

[love-takes-work]

Highlights from the stream:

Here are the anecdotes shared during the epic draw-fest. Nearly all of them have been shared elsewhere at least once, but the new ones for me were about Greg Universe's orientation and the prototypical name for what Steven and Pearl's Fusion was going to be.

Rebecca Sugar loved Peridot's floating fingers and wanted to do all kinds of fun things with them before they would be gone forever. That's why we see her making arrows with them and biting them nervously in the episode right before she loses them.

When selecting clips for promotional use, they tried to be super careful about not picking anything that would show Peridot's real hands before the reveal had been aired. They didn't want a promo to accidentally ruin that surprise.

While doing the show they had an "eye theory" where the three main Gems would always have a different number of eyes showing. Pearl had both her eyes visible; Amethyst usually had one covered; and Garnet had either no eyes showing or three eyes showing.

With Rebecca and Ian's decision to get married and the characters Ruby and Sapphire being based on them, they figured well, of course now they have to get married too. (Though Rebecca and Ian got to do so AFTER their characters did!)

One of Rebecca's "post-Future theories" is that Steven gets a Gibson Hummingbird guitar.

Cookie Cat was originally based off of Cookie Puss, a very strange Carvell ice cream cake. It had a complicated backstory, which was appropriate for working with their own characters' complicated backstory. The branding and packaging of the Cookie Cat is important within the show.

Jeff Liu composed the Cookie Cat theme on a Game Boy and pitched it.

Rebecca has a "theory" regarding how Steven and Connie's faces kind of "fit together" with Connie's face sticking out at the top and Steven's face sticking out at the bottom.

Rebecca used to do a lot of fan comics, and learned a lot about storytelling while practicing with others' worlds and characters. They love when people make things based on these characters.

The original appearance of Rainbow Quartz was inspired by a music video from the Cars that Rebecca loved when they were younger. The Cars are referenced a lot throughout the show because their videos were a huge inspiration to Rebecca.

Lapis is very much based on a character from one of Rebecca's comics from the art school days.

Everybody on the Crew had different ideas of how Steven's head connected to his body and how his hair worked; Rebecca felt that they learned from everyone's various ideas.

If you've heard that Rebecca was against Finn being in a relationship while working on Adventure Time, that is not true. Rebecca worked on lots of the Flame Princess episodes. Finn and Flame Princess were still together when Rebecca left the show (last episode "Simon and Marcy").

Greg Universe's sexuality was never explicitly stated on the show, but Rebecca thinks of him as sexually fluid. Regarding him as bisexual is also completely valid--and appreciated by Rebecca as a bisexual creator who puts lots of their own personal traits into characters and feels that bisexual characters are pretty rare. Greg's gender on the show is pretty solidly established as male, so Ian says he is probably not gender fluid, but Rebecca is fine with alternate headcanons about that too.

Some of the earliest concept art from "Mr. Greg" was everybody in suits. Getting everyone in a suit was a primary agenda.

Everyone also wanted Connie to have a Space Camp outfit in the earliest concepts for her design in the movie.

Rebecca used to love doing signings while doing the show because it was like a chance to come up for air and go back to work energized by knowing how many people were touched by the show.

Rebecca Sugar wanted Pink Diamond to feel a bit influenced/inspired, design-wise, by the work of Iwao Takamoto. Rebecca loved his work in the Hanna-Barbera Alice in Wonderland and on Sleeping Beauty.

Rebecca drew the rough of the poster's art and Danny Hynes did the colors. Rebecca loves that they got to do this poster because they didn't get to do the final Comic Con with any art depicting Future or beyond (the finale of Future coincided with the emergence of Covid, so everything was closed down), so this is their way of "going rogue" and doing it!

An early prototype of a Steven/Pearl Fusion was called Coral. Rebecca said maybe they could share some drawings of this Fusion sometime. Rebecca shared this factoid with the viewers while drawing Rainbow Quartz 2.0, and mentioned that Ian boarded the scenes including their introduction.

Rebecca would often draw Garnet with a huge smile on her face whenever Garnet was the requested character--even before Garnet had made an expression like that on any aired episode. They had to be careful not to drop any Garnet lore before viewers knew what her center was about. For the short period before "Alone Together" had aired that they were doing conventions, some people were getting mysteriously grinning Garnets and not being familiar with that expression, but once the episodes aired, they understood for sure.

Shelby Rabara, Peridot's voice actor, is a professional dancer, and she choreographed the tap-dancing in "Mr. Greg" as well as provided the foot-taps that you actually hear in the show during the dancing.

Rebecca thinks of art and writing as just two different ways of expressing what you mean--they're not exactly as different from each other as most people think.

Everyone on the Crew was so excited about Steven's neck as an older teen. Mainly because figuring out how Steven's head joins to his body was an issue in original SU.

Unfortunately, while it was also kinda nice to see so many people enjoying Rebecca's drawings and commentary, there was a lot of rudeness and obnoxiousness in the chat. I know, I know, it's expected; I too live on the internet. But I'm disappointed to say the chat was full of people demanding Black Diamond, or repeating their own name and what character they want every 3 seconds (like, literally, pasting it over and over again for a long period of time), or harassing them about "weird Ed Edd and Eddy art," or spamming "REBECCA WHAT WAS IN THE CHEST," or wanting constantly for them to say hi to them personally, or repeatedly asking if Rebecca has read Homestuck. Or even writing snotty things like "maybe you should stop drawing and get up and give us a new season." Holy shit. can u not

(I didn't want to get a live-signed one, but I did get one of these to be sketched later! Mine is supposed to get Lion on it. I love Rebecca and the SU crew for bringing us new art and fun discussions in 2024.)

[crossguild]

i think one of the things that makes the one piece fan letter episode so special is that even though it's ostensibly about 'a letter from the fans to the straw hats' it's also 'a letter to the fans' and its entire message is 'we see you, we are you, and we love you!' from the team

it is, no joke, one of the most heartfelt and beautiful pieces of animation that any studio has ever produced.

it's similar to the 100 volume/1000 episode celebration in that even though the series we're all watching is about these wacky, insane powers and situations, at the end of the day we connect to the story because the emotions it evokes are real, and we might not feel them because our real life talking reindeer son left to join a pirate crew, but there are times in our lives where we've felt the same as the characters whose adventures we're following, even in a different situation

and to have the fans represented in the world, from all ages and walks of life, really is demonstrative of the sheer breadth and depth of the one piece fanbase.

one of the earliest SBS answers oda gave is this:

AND IT SHOWS!

it's genuinely such a special experience to be on this journey with a community of millions. when i see other OP fans in the wild, we've made an instant connection (shout out to that dude in toronto i stopped to chat with for like 20 minutes cause he was wearing luffy cosplay who teamed up with me to talk my friend into trying op!!)-- we might get the series through different mediums, we might connect to it in different ways, we might disagree about quite literally everything, but everyone's ultimately another piece of the puzzle that makes up the whole of the one piece fanbase, and without them we wouldn't be where we are. to have that so lovingly depicted in such a fun, exciting way was amazing!

and that last montage ended on this, which isn't just a message from this kid to nami, but from us to the crew, from toei & oda to us, from all of us to each other!

[lackadaisycats]

Hey, just a quick question!

When are you planning to release the official series of Lackadaisy?

I'm really looking for it, and I love your artwork!

Thank you! Official release dates, though...ah, flashbacks to years spent working in the game industry... Forgive my sidelong answers below. If I rattled off specific dates right now, I'd just end up being wrong, so I won't. There are just too many variables at work to pin it down yet. As we get closer to release dates on things, though, I'll speak up about it. I can say that before this year is out, we're planning to release some vignettes (mini-mini-episodes if you will). After that, we'll release one of 3 promised mini-episodes. The one presently in production is actually pretty sizable for a 'mini', and I feel it has some substance and pertinence to Season 1, so I hope it won't be disappointing that a season episode isn't the first thing to premiere. Season episodes, at the earliest, might start appearing in the later part of 2024 (though, again, we'll have multiple other things to share between now and then). Aside from the reality that animation takes a long time to do, the reasons for this release plan are multifold:

It gives us an opportunity to do the remaining setup work needed to make Iron Circus Animation operate more formally like a studio with an eye on long term sustainability.

It gives us time to smooth out our production pipeline and to get our team leads and other crew acclimated to how things will work going ahead.

It gives us time to fit in the merch fulfillment work for BackerKit.

It gives us a little more time to tighten up the longer episode scripts and to make sure the season as a whole feels right. (Tons of visual development is already happening for the episodes, though, as is music composition.)

[werewolfsmile]

The Eliot Spencer Details Masterpost

I have been recording details about our beloved Eliot Spencer on my latest watch through. And now, it's finally time to reveal the details!! If I have gotten any details INCORRECT, I beg of you to correct me, at which time, this post will be updated and credit given. (Note: S1 was aired out of chronological order. I am going by chronological episode numbers - aka the correct order - and providing the episode titles as well to minimise confusion.) !! This post contains details from Leverage: Redemption! Read the episode references carefully if you are wanting to avoid certain spoilers !!

Shirtless Moments

S1 E7 The Two-Horse Job: The flashback scene when Aimee asks Eliot what his excuse was for not coming back to her, we see him being dragged/tortured, shirtless. "Tell us what you did with the monkey!"

S2 E2 The Tap-Out Job: Eliot is shirtless for the fight match.

S4 E9 The Cross My Heart Job: Ehh he's not completely shirtless here but whatever. At about 16 mins in, Eliot and Parker are getting changed together, Eliot strips to a singlet then throws his shirt at me the camera. (I didn't include other scenes of Eliot in a singlet here because in this scene he's actively undressing, whereas in others he's not.)

Necklaces

The earliest sighting of his guitar pick necklace is S1 E2 The Homecoming Job. It continues to pop up frequently in episodes, though noticeably less in S1. I thought about recording every occurrence of it here but ... lmao it's in legit waaayyyy too many episodes for me to bother.

S2 E10 The Runway Job: Honourable mention of the necklaces Eliot wears with his fashion week outfit. The longer one is kinda dogtag-esque, the shorter one is ... I think it's a fleur de lis? He also wears a range of chain necklaces later in this episode.

S4 E18 The Last Dam Job: Bird pendant (possibly kingfisher) visible at 34 mins 39 seconds. Full credits to @wolves-in-the-world for this one including the time stamp! You can check out their reblog of this post with more details here!

Dammit Hardison

S1 E13 The Second David Job: The FIRST INSTANCE of dammit Hardison in the entire show! Said upon discovering each other in the gallery, around 4 mins 15 seconds.

S2 E1 The Beantown Bailout Job: Said around 22 mins 30 seconds, immediately following, "What are the odds that Eliot's crotch will actually explode?" Iconic.

S2 E6 The Top Hat Job: When setting up for the magic show and discovering the rabbit missing, roughly 19 mins 45 seconds.

S3 E3 The Inside Job: Running from security, around 31 mins 30 seconds.

S3 E4 The Scheherazade Job: Trying to enter McRory's at the same time, around 1 min 30 seconds.

S3 E5 The Double Blind Job: This is an honourable mention because this time NATE is the one to say dammit Hardison! 9 mins 15 seconds.

S3 E6 The Studio Job: Upon discovering the master tape isn't in the case, roughly 32 mins.

S3 E7 The Gone Fishin' Job: Eliot and Hardison running in the woods for their lives, arguing as always. This one is a bonus 'dammit' because Hardison says it straight back to Eliot after Eliot yells it at him! Around 21 mins.

S3 E12 The King George Job: Discussing Hardison's forgery work, followed by Eliot regretting touching anything. Around 23 mins 55 seconds.

S3 E13 The Morning After Job: Pretending to be cops and accidentally ending up with a prisoner to take back to jail, around 16 mins 20 seconds.

S3 E14 The Ho Ho Ho Job: Honourable mention of Chaos mocking Eliot by saying dammit Hardison. Roughly 21 mins 15 seconds.

(phew, S3 was rough on Hardison! given what Eliot was going through with the whole Moreau thing.... ooh that's delicious angst)

S4 E5 The Hot Potato Job: Honourable mention for Sophie saying it this time! While playing the role that was meant for Eliot, around 24 mins.

S4 E6 The Carnival Job: Mixing chemicals for a distraction, roughly 25 mins 30 seconds.

S4 E17 The Radio Job: Hardison running away from being thrown off a high floor, around 5 mins.

S4 E18 The Last Dam Job: Sneaking around at the Bellington Dam, roughly 13 mins 35 seconds.

S5 E1 The (Very) Big Bird Job: 'Accidentally' putting a brew pub menu in front of Eliot, around 10 mins 20 seconds.

S5 E15 The Long Goodbye Job: Emotional scene that we do not speak about, around 12 mins 40 seconds.

RS1 E1 The Too Many Rembrandts Job: After knocking Harry out and asking Hardison to help carry Harry, and Hardison refuses. 11 mins 40 seconds.

RS1 E2 The Panamanian Monkey Job: Upon discovering that security is headed to the vault where Parker is, and the only way down there is through the vents. Around 34 mins 10 seconds.

RS2 E1 The Debutante Job: We get 3! In this whole episode! Probably to make up for Hardison being gone for most of Redemption. Anyway! First one when Eliot and Hardison are in Ralphie Roy's place and Hardison has no idea who Ralphie is, around 23 mins 15 seconds. Second is when they're breaking into the elevator and Hardison won't help fight or move the unconscious guards, roughly 37 mins 40 seconds. And third, after the job when Parker says that Hardison was the one who took out all the guards. Around 45 mins 10 seconds.

RS2 E3 The Tournament Job: Right at the start after Eliot says gaming isn't a sport and Parker texts Hardison, so Hardison starts blowing up Eliot's phone. Lmao. Around 4 mins 20 seconds.

RS2 E4 The Date Night Job: After realising Breanna stole his truck, Eliot says dammit, then aims it at a grinning Hardison, since Breanna is already running away. Around 46 mins 50 seconds.

Dammit Parker

S1 E4 The Snow Job: Parker jumps out of a second floor window, Eliot catches her. 15 mins. (Parker gets a dammit from Eliot before Hardison does!!)

S3 E8 The Boost Job: Parker driving erratically, Eliot thrown around in back seat. (Technically there's a pause between dammit and Parker but I'm still including it) 35 min 35 seconds.

S5 E12 The White Rabbit Job: Searching the mark's house, Parker wants to steal a shirt. Again, this isn't technically a proper dammit Parker, as Eliot instead says, "Put it back! Dammit." But I'm still including it because it was aimed at her. 21 mins 20 seconds.

RS1 E9 The Bucket Job: Parker is pretending to be a hacker heavily modelled off Hardison. Not a proper dammit Parker as, again, Eliot only mutters "dammit" under his breath, but still counts to me. Just after 18 mins.

RS1 E10 The Unwellness Job: At end of episode, after Parker admits that she didn't even learn Eliot's name till after the team broke up the first time. 44 mins 30 seconds.

RS1 E13 The Hurricane Job: After washing up on shore and entering the Beacon Inn, Parker and Eliot are bickering about Maria. He doesn't strictly say dammit Parker but there's absolutely no doubt who he's directing the dammits towards. 3 mins 30 seconds.

RS2 E6 The Fractured Job: When farewelling Billy and Parker says next time she'll finish telling him about the robot bodies. Again, it's just dammit not dammit Parker but it's close enough. 41 mins.

RS2 E8 The Turkish Prisoner Job: Another standalone dammit that is most definitely aimed at Parker! When breaking Romero out, Parker says she's a firefighter (with far too much glee), around 14 mins 30 seconds.

RS2 E10 The Work Study Job: A full dammit Parker this time! When Parker reveals that it's super easy to steal from a university and produces a whole bunch of stuff, roughly 22 mins 40 seconds.

Very Distinctive Moments

S1 E2 The Homecoming Job: Eliot ID's the weapon from the gunshots, around 8 mins. Later, he ID's a guy off his knife fighting style, around 18 mins 50 seconds.

S2 E6 The Top Hat Job: ID's a CIA guy from his stance, roughly 7 mins 45 seconds.

S3 E11 The Rashomon Job: ID's the smell of peppermint on Hardison's breath, around 21 mins.

S3 E12 The King George Job: ID's former British paratroopers by their haircuts, 30 mins 10 seconds.

S4 E1 The Long Way Down Job: ID's a former spetsnaz guy by his footprint, 13 mins 45 seconds.

S4 E5 The Hot Potato Job: Honourable mention of Eliot ID'ing ex-military personnel by their stances, he just doesn't say very distinctive. 18 mins 50 seconds.

S4 E11 The Experimental Job: Honourable mention of Eliot ID'ing a helicopter by the whumpa-whumpa (there's 7 of them did you know). Around 7 mins.

S5 E3 The First Contact Job: ID's military satellite transmission by the static, 7 mins 20 seconds.

S5 E9 The Rundown Job: ID's a Navy Seal who enlisted between '90-'95 by his watch, around 16 mins.

RS1 E2 The Panamanian Monkey Job: ID's a drone (Breanna's) from the sound. 11 mins 50 seconds.

RS1 E3 The Rollin' On The River Job: ID's Russian mob by the tattoos, 36 mins 30 seconds.

RS1 E7 The Double-Edged Sword Job: Honourable mention for Maria ID'ing the way Eliot disarmed her gun, 7 mins 50 seconds.

RS2 E4 The Date Night Job: Eliot ID's a guy as not having a distinctive anything - which is what is so distinctive. 20 mins 40 seconds.

RS2 E13 The Crowning Achievement Job: ID's MI6 off their search pattern, 6 mins 50 seconds.

Known Family

S1 E6 The Miracle Job: When discussing Bibletopia, Eliot says his nephew would like it. This is the ONLY mention of a nephew in the entire show, Redemption included; nor is there any direct mention of a sibling beyond this (which leads me to believe that this nephew is actually the son of a close friend/cousin/military buddy, rather than a direct family relation, but that's just my headcanon).

S2 E3 The Order 23 Job: When talking to the abused boy, Randy, Eliot says he has an uncle named Randy.

S5 E11 The Low Low Price Job: Eliot's dad owned a hardware store and he wanted Eliot to take over one day. But Eliot wanted to get out of that small town, so he joined the service. Fought with his dad the night before he left and hasn't been back since. He goes back at the end of this episode and knocks - but his dad never answers the door 😭

RS1 E9 The Bucket Job: While interrogating/torturing Eliot with Red Haze, Bligh says that Eliot's dad's friend from Vietnam has invited Eliot to join them for Christmas. At the end of the episode, Eliot goes to join them for dinner, only to get a message from 'J' that his dad was a no show. This 'J' is widely accepted as Eliot's unknown sibling but that is incorrect! 'J' is Eliot's dad's buddy from Vietnam!

RS2 E6 The Fractured Job: The ultimate Eliot family backstory episode!! (if you haven't seen it yet and don't want spoilers, skip this one!) Eliot was adopted by a black couple, Billy and an unnamed woman, after being abandoned/surrendered at a hospital as a baby. His father was a war hero who got none of the glory and sustained a wound, ruining his civilian career path, so Billy never wanted Eliot to follow in his footsteps. Eliot loved the stories of his dad in the military so joined up to be like him. His mother died while Eliot was on an op and he couldn't get leave to come back for the funeral, deepening the rift between him and Billy. Ultimately, they reconcile, (Eliot says his dad was always a hero to him, Billy say's he's proud of Eliot, they hug), and I cry every time 😭❤️ [Edit: Eliot being a baby at the time of being found at the hospital and consequently brought home by his adopted mother is unconfirmed and my presumption. We have no clear info on his age at adoption. Thanks to @nival-kenival for picking that up!]

Phrases: Ain't

S1 E4 The Snow Job: Said to Nate, right before Nate tells him to go skip some rope.

S1 E9 The Stork Job: Says it twice while conning Irina.

S1 E10 The Juror #6 Job: Upon being told to go help Parker instead of watching a sports game, Eliot takes his beer back.

S2 E2 The Tap-Out Job: Discussing the fights the mark runs, says they ain't the UFC.

S2 E3 The Order 23 Job: Said right before threatening to throw Randy's abusive father over the railing of a stairwell.

S2 E4 The Fairy Godparents Job: Upon spotting a hitman sent to kill McSweeten and Taggart.

S2 E8 The Ice Man Job: After hearing Hardison call himself the Ice Man, says he won't bail him out when things go wrong.

S2 E9 The Lost Heir Job: While trying to get Parker to the court room and end up cut off by the police.

S2 E11 The Bottle Job: When Hardison wants help to clean up Nate's apartment and Eliot refuses.

S2 E14 The Three Strikes Job: When Nate says to meet outside the ballpark but Eliot refuses because now he's sucked into the sport.

S3 E3 The Inside Job: Twice while arguing with Hardison about how to rescue Parker, once when Parker offers him a lift down the stairwell with her on her harness rig and he refuses. This is the most he says ain't in a single episode!

S3 E7 The Gone Fishin' Job: Once when the militia try to make him kneel, later when the militia kid catches him and Hardison near the train tracks.

S3 E11 The Rashomon Job: When Sophie changes her story to mock Eliot's accent and mannerisms.

S3 E15 The Big Bang Job: When confronting Moreau with Hardison.

S4 E1 The Long Way Down Job: Upon arriving at the base camp and complaining to Nate.

S4 E7 The Grave Danger Job: When looking for a buried Hardison and hearing the sprinklers.

S4 E10 The Queen's Gambit Job: At the end, swearing revenge on Sterling.

S4 E12 The Office Job: Arguing with Hardison about Eliot's sandwich while searching the warehouse.

S4 E13 The Girls' Night Out Job: When trying to convince Nate to socialise at the very start.

S4 E14 The Boys' Night Out Job: Exactly the same as the previous episode, so this one barely counts.

S4 E17 The Radio Job: In the patent office, when trying to figure out who lured Nate into this situation. The same scene is used later as a flashback.

S4 E18 The Last Dam Job: Warning Nate of the consequences of taking a life with your own hands.

S5 E2 The Blue Line Job: When ambushed by Marko when leaving the ice rink.

S5 E9 The Rundown Job: Once when going to wring information on the hit out of Riley, once when Hardison steps on the trigger plate of the claymore.

S5 E13 The Corkscrew Job: First time talking to Betty about how Leonard's a jerk.

RS1 E1 The Too Many Rembrandts Job: Twice when ambushed by RIZ thugs in the warehouse.

RS1 E2 The Panamanian Monkey Job: Once when discussing Ryan Corbett at the start, once when refusing to let Hardison have a turn with the diamond-tipped drill.

RS1 E3 The Rollin' On The River Job: When warning Breanna to be certain of her calculations for how to get him and Parker out of the casino's vault.

RS1 E8 The Mastermind Job: Once when discussing hiring people to overthrow a government, once when discussing how they're going to do like 6 things at once, including saving Harry.

RS1 E9 The Bucket Job: Said twice while talking with Blanche, after Blanche helped rescue Eliot from RIZ.

RS1 E14 The Great Train Job: While digging through the tainted soil with Harry.

RS2 E1 The Debutante Job: When trying to get to Volkov's plane with Parker and seeing that two guards are in the way.

RS2 E5 The Walk In The Woods Job: Talking to Paul after rescuing Harry, who was pretending to be Eliot.

Fun fact: for every ain't that Eliot says, Hardison says at least two more. And that's too many for me to bother recording!

Phrases: Y'all

Never. Not even once.

Hardison, on the other hand, says y'all all the damn time - every season, multiple times, sometimes even multiple times in the same episode.

Honourable mention for Chaos saying y'all as an incorrect mockery of Eliot's accent in S3 E14 The Ho Ho Ho Job.

... Okay, okay! So Eliot says it a few times in Redemption! But only in ONE episode!

RS1 E1 The Too Many Rembrandts Job: Said 4 times when playing a character and convincing people to clear out of the auction house.

That's it.

Aliases

These are all the names that Eliot's gone by or used on cons that I could find, not just full blown aliases.

S1 E1 The Nigerian Job: Detective Lieutenant Carden (the scene with this alias was cut from a lot of versions of this episode)

S1 E4 The Snow Job: Vince Fetkey, Hans Von Schwesterkrank

S1 E7 The Two-Horse Job: Brad Mackie

S1 E9 The Stork Job: Dale

S1 E12 The First David Job: Professor Sinclair

S1 E13 The Second David Job: Professor/Dr Adam Sinclair

S2 E2 The Tap-Out Job: Kid Jones (on the fight match poster)

S2 E4 The Fairy Godparents Job: Coach Brewer

S2 E5 The Three Days Of The Hunter Job: Earl

S2 E9 The Lost Heir Job: Officer Hilts

S2 E10 The Runway Job: Julian

S2 E14 The Three Strikes Job: Roy Chappell

S3 E1 The Jailhouse Job: Dr Abernathy

S3 E2 The Reunion Job: Lloyd Hickey

S3 E4 The Scheherazade Job: Guy Hamilton

S3 E5 The Double Blind Job: Phil

S3 E6 The Studio Job: Kenneth Crane

S3 E7 The Gone Fishin' Job: Agent Quint

S3 E8 The Boost Job: Skeeter

S3 E9 The Three-Card Monte Job: Detective Moffat

S3 E10 The Underground Job: Eric

S3 E11 The Rashomon Job: Dr Wes Abernathy

S3 E16 The San Lorenzo Job: Ray Laroque

S4 E2 The Ten Li'l Grifters Job: Charlie Siringo

S4 E4 The Van Gogh Job: Lieutenant (only granting him this one because CK played him in the flashback)

S4 E5 The Hot Potato Job: Tom Boonen

S4 E12 The Office Job: Mr Dennis

S4 E14 The Boys' Night Out Job: Luigi

S4 E15 The Lonely Hearts Job: Jackson Cooper

S4 E16 The Gold Job: Tobias Bowden

S4 E17 The Radio Job: Cowboy (*cough* John McClane *cough*)

S5 E2 The Blue Line Job: Jacques "Jack" Labert

S5 E3 The First Contact Job: Willie Riker

S5 E5 The Gimme A K Street Job: Steven Turner

S5 E6 The DB Cooper Job: DB Cooper/Young Steve Reynolds (again, technically not an alias but whatever it's here anyway)

S5 E7 The Real Fake Car Job: Barry McElroy

S5 E11 The Low Low Price Job: Archer

S5 E14 The Toy Job: Carl

Honourable mentions of Eliot being called: "Rambo" by Hardison in S1 E2 The Homecoming Job [thanks @independent-fics for this!]; "Emeril" by Parker in S1 E3 The Wedding Job [thanks @aardvaark for this one!]; "Sparky" by Parker in S1 E10 The Juror #6 Job and by Tara in S2 E15 The Maltese Falcon Job; and "Skippy" by Hardison in S3 E7 The Gone Fishin' Job.

RS1 E1 The Too Many Rembrandts Job: Will Gallagher

RS1 E6 The Card Game Job: Glenn the Savage

RS1 E7 The Double-Edged Sword: Emmett Milbarge

RS1 E8 The Mastermind Job: Frank Farmer

RS1 E10 The Unwellness Job: Hank

RS1 E12 The Golf Job: Reed Wilkins

RS1 E13 The Hurricane Job: Calvin

RS1 E15 The Muddy Waters Job: Armus Vagra

RS2 E7 The Big Rig Job: Kris

RS2 E8 The Turkish Prisoner Job: Nick O'Brien

RS2 E10 The Work Study Job: New Blood, Caterpillar

Honourable mention of Eliot being called "Skipper" by Hardison in RS1 E16 The Harry Wilson Job.

Known Associates

This is in direct reference to hitters/people from the criminal world that Eliot knew or was aware of prior to the Leverage Team. Quinn is not included in this list due to that distinction (sorry Quinn).

S1 E3 The Wedding Job: The Butcher of Kiev

S2 E7 The Two Live Crew Job: Mikel Dayan

S3 E11 The Rashomon Job: Gutman

S3 E15 The Big Bang Job: Chapman, Damien Moreau

S3 E16 The San Lorenzo Job: Damien Moreau

S4 E4 The Van Gogh Job: Frank, Randall

S4 E6 The Carnival Job: Roper

S5 E4 The French Connection: Rampone

S5 E9 The Rundown Job: Riley

Trivia

S2 E6 The Top Hat Job: Eliot claims he only sleeps 90 minutes a day, and that he cured his claustrophobia as a kid by locking himself in the woodshed behind his house for a couple nights.

S3 E6 The Studio Job: Eliot is nervous to perform in front of an audience, to the point that Parker startles him and she's surprised that she did. Interesting to note that he seems to have no issue playing sport in front of crowds.

S3 E7 The Gone Fishin' Job: Eliot says he hates beets.

S4 E5 The Hot Potato Job: Eliot chews gum. He does this throughout a LOT of episodes across the seasons but I've only noted down this one episode for it.... thanks, past me 🙄 [Edit: thanks @nival-kenival for more info! Another confirmed episode is S1 E2 The Homecoming Job, and S3 E13 The Morning After Job!]

S4 E9 The Cross My Heart Job: Eliot says he fought a guy with a Nerf sword in Damascus, 2002.

S5 E11 The Low Low Price Job: Eliot drives an F-150 to his dad's house in Oklahoma. This is a THIRD vehicle that apparently belongs to Eliot, in addition to the Chevrolet Silverado and Dodge Challenger we see in other episodes. The F-150 is not seen again.

S5 E12 The White Rabbit Job: Eliot has 'special sedatives' aka a little psychotropic he picked up outside of Bogota.

Eliot mostly walks at the back of the group, presumably to be the rear guard and make sure no one falls behind. See ... just about every damn episode for evidence.

RS1 E3 The Rollin' On The River Job: Parker says that Eliot has cut his way out of an ice cave, escaped a gorilla enclosure, and catered a wedding for the mob.

Eliot is seen wearing glasses throughout various episodes. A flashback in S1 E1 The Nigerian Job shows him wearing presumably his own glasses. All other instances of him wearing glasses (that I can think of) are when he takes someone's glasses for a con. It is unconfirmed if Eliot actually needs glasses to correct his eyesight or not, but is a fandom headcanon. In S3 E1 The Jailhouse Job there is an interaction where Nate ribs Eliot for taking so long in a fight, and Eliot says it's because of new glasses. An argument could be made that this means Eliot does require glasses. [Thanks @independent-fics for picking this up - for pretty much all the details pertaining to Eliot's glasses!]

And there you have it! All the details that I've spent the last 3 months collecting!! Now it's time for me to take a good, long break because my brain is fried! 😂

Once again, let me know if you find any errors so I can update the post. Data from Redemption S2 is where I've most likely missed things, since I don't have it on DVD and it's sooo much harder to scrub through streaming footage to find things. When will they release RS2 on DVD I need itttt.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading! I hope this post can be a helpful reference for you!

[directdogman]

Commenting on DT fan OCs!

Alright, I'mma take a look at some DT fan OCs! I've been sent quite a few, so I'll try to keep my comments for each one short 'n' sweet!

great name, snappy dresser. diggin' the bowtie! the pins are also a fun accessory!

Another snappy dresser! Tied well to an existing location in-game and the idea to explain the stickers is cute! attire is unique/memorable and the blues/browns compliment each other well. solid design. I do appreciate him!

Yo, this guy was in the last one! what is this, a crossover episode???

the bandage on side of face is a nice touch! digging the pinstripe pants too! graveyard shift at a convenience store is also quite an authentic job for a DT side character to have too! very nicely done.

Solid OC! well-drawn, unique job and her fit's stylish (it probably goes without saying that i'm a sucker for TV heads with dogs on them. that's gotta be a given, right?) The stickers on the back of the head are also a nice addition! well done!

Stanley's a real cad, huh? pizza delivery guy with a novelty pizza phone head is genius - making him flirt with milves on the job is just inspired though. i almost wish i'd come up with this guy, as i can totally imagine people around town talking about him. excellent job!!!

he's aptly named for an arcade dude! dig the fit too, especially the black + purple fingerless long sleeve gloves! the decals on the phone are neat too!

I approve of his activities but the lack of a visible mouth threw me off, since i've seen these old toy phones before, ofc.

i was about to ask "how does he drink ocean water without a mouth", before realizing that id been bamboozled into asking the fandom-favourite question of: 'how does he eat without a mouth?', only to then remember that practically no DT characters have visible mouths.

i hope you know that you've strained my weary brain today. cool OC, though.

banana phone's a fun concept! also, i must say your username's quite fitting. crept up on me from my peripheral as I gazed upon the banana phone, like a bizarre centipede of some sort. well, i'd assume so. in hindsight, most centipedes i've encountered have been pretty straightforward with me. i guess i should be grateful for that.

i like mary's fuzzy phone matching the trim of her dress but martin's really got my attention. cool name, neat quirk (he kills people, that takes moxie. hell, even pizzaz too, dare i say?) The dial being a lil clock is a neat touch since it ties his interest into the design. also quite like the cord tail matching the phone head's colour. solid design!

i like his head-type and the attire/pale skin gives a nice bit of contrast!

hard to say how randy'd feel about him, as someone who's only seen his design and 2 lines of dialogue (as someone's personality dictates randy's opinion on them far more than their appearance.) if you feel they'd get on though, you're probably correct! (randy isn't too picky, after all!)

Funnily enough, one of the earliest sketches for crown has a similar bolted plate stuck to a mostly intact phone head. it was even sticking from one of the sides. or corners. i'd have to dig up the notebook, as it's been like 4 years since I came up with the character. Sorry, just made me remember since the earliest sketches had one too.

Copper phone head's a neat idea. Contrasts well with his attire as well (nice and complimentary.) if only his attempts to deter jesse from the za worked out as well, eh?

Alright, that's it for me! thanks for the submissions, these were real creative! good job, everyone!

[nyerus]

Guide to Watch TGCF Donghua Season 2

With the new season of the Tian Guan Ci Fu/Heaven Official's Blessing donghua finally releasing soon, I wanted to make a post explaining the different ways fans can watch and support it! Things have changed since season 1, so my old guide is no longer relevant apart from the infographics on how to subscribe to Bilibili CN (and the YouTube channel)!

And to be upfront: the main sites that are going to be broadcasting the donghua have been very sparse with information. I fully expect that we will have to wait until after the first episode releases to know all the details, so while I am making this guide to help people right now, things might change! Please keep that in mind and stay patient! I will post any important updates in the replies as I can!

Additionally, because of copyright/licensing, different sites are going to work in different regions. I do not know with 100% certainty what is going to work in a particular country. There's gonna be some trial and error!

So the main options we have for season 2 are:

Crunchyroll

Sub price: $9.99 USD per month for basic (local prices may vary)

Regions: Americas, Europe, Africa, Middle East, Oceania.

Pros: Easy to subscribe to if available in your region.

Cons: Unlikely for true simulcast so it'll be a bit delayed.

Link to main site (season 2 listing not up yet)

For app: download via App Store/Google Play Store.

Bilibili. tv (EN site/app)

Sub price: $4.99 USD per month (local prices may vary)

Regions: Southeast Asia only.

Pros: Airs earlier than Crunchyroll. Interface is in English.

Cons: If you want to watch it outside of SEA, you'll need a VPN.

Link to Season 2 on website

For app: download via APK link on website if you are outside of SEA. Otherwise use App Store/Google Play Store.

Bilibili YouTube Channel

Sub price: $4.99/$5.99 USD per month (local prices may vary)

Regions: Many -- EXCEPT Japan, South Korea, the Americas, UK, Australia, New Zealand.

Pros: Easy to subscribe if available in your region.

Cons: If you want to watch it from the regions listed above, you'll need a VPN.

Link to channel

It's the youtube app....

Bilibili. com (CN site/app)

Sub price: $9.99 USD for 3 months

Regions: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Pros: If they're gonna air season 2, then they might be the source broadcast if the EN site isn't. Also probably cheapest for those abroad.

Cons: Chinese interface may be intimidating. Not 100% sure if it'll air as normal.

Link to Season 2 on website

For app: download via App Store/Google Play Store.

(NOTE: If you are in Japan, it will be available on WOWOW. If you are in South Korea, it will be available on Laftel.)

F.A.Q.s

🔹What is the release date/time? Bilibili EN has announced it as 20:00 GMT+8 on October 18th. If it releases on Bilibili CN, it'll probably be the same time. Crunchyroll has stated October 18th, but has not yet announced a time as of the posting this guide. I checked. Japan and South Korea have their own release times, so please consult the relevant broadcasters!

🔹Can I watch it on Netflix/Amazon Prime/etc? These streaming services will likely only have it after the whole season concludes, and with a significant delay. For reference, it took several months after finishing for season 1 to be released on Netflix.

🔹Which platform should I choose? Whichever one you can actually access, and feel most comfortable using!

🔹When should I subscribe? Personally, I'll be waiting until the last day before release, just to make sure I have the most information possible. However, I'm sure the idea of doing that makes many people nervous, so... yeah. Whenever is convenient for you!

🔹Which one will have the donghua the quickest/earliest? Probably Bilibili CN & Bilibili EN. I suspect they'll simulcast with each other. I cannot be 100% certain about anything though, because of limited info! For season 1, YouTube and Funimation (now Crunchyroll) were delayed, and it's hard to say if they'll be better this time or not.

🔹Do I need a VPN for Bilibili EN or their YT channel? If you are outside of SEA, yes.

🔹Do I need a VPN for Bilibili CN? Probably not, unless you are in a country that restricts access to CN sites and apps (like India).

🔹Which VPN should I use? This will be up to you! It's best to research what the different options are, and what will work for your needs!

🔹How will I know I'll be able to watch season 2 from my region? The most surefire way is to subscribe to a platform that has officially announced to be serving your region (e.g. Crunchyroll for the Americas). Unofficially, if you can watch the latest trailer and other promo videos on your chosen platform, then there's a good chance you're okay! The exception to this is the YouTube channel, which has some of the trailers public, but has all of season 1 unavailable if you aren't in the right region.... Additionally, be mindful, because even if you're able to see season 1, season 2 might still be region-locked on certain platforms. (E.g. you can watch all of season 1 via Bilibili EN if you're from the USA no problem. But you can't access season 2 without a VPN to a SEA server.)

🔹What languages are going to be available and will there be English subtitles? While dubs for multiple languages have been confirmed, I'm unsure if any of these will be available on release. It'll likely be offered only in Chinese first. For season 1, there were hardcoded CN & EN subtitles for Bilibili on release. Funimation re-subbed the episodes (EN) for their own release, and Crunchyroll will probably do the same.

🔹I watched it on Funimation last time, can I watch it through them this time? No, they were absorbed (in some capacity idk) by Crunchyroll. So they are not distributing season 2 of TGCF, only Crunchyroll is.

🔹Is season 2 actually available in China and thus on Bilibili CN? Yes and no! As long as you are not in mainland China, it seems you will have access to season 2 through Bilibili CN. All promo materials and trailers seem to be available to us, which is a good sign! (They are not available for mainlanders, but mainland fans are able to watch via HK/Macau versions apparently.)

🔹Hopeful that it will be available, I would like to watch it via Bilibili CN, so how do I sign up and subscribe? To make an account, consult this reddit post. To subscribe, please consult the guide below! It's a little old (made it for season 1) but still works pretty much the same.

[pookietsunoda]

The Evolution of Red Bull's YouTube: A Parasocial Deep Dive

To explain this insane media crit essay I accidentally started, I was wondering to myself why Formula One seems to have a lot of personality-driven social media promo content. Some people have commented that the drivers are marketed a lot like Kpop stars (or pop singers or influencers generally), where relatable media content builds up an audience that gets emotionally attached to the celebrity as a person, not just their work. I wanted to trace the roots of this style of content and see how it evolved, using Red Bull as a case study because of their current strong social media presence and my hypothesis that their status as an extreme sports sponsor assisted them in making content focused on individual athletes.

Abstract/ Summary: Red Bull's earliest videos in the early 2010s largely do not focus on the drivers as people and are mostly montage-type content with occasional formal interviews. Then, Daniel Ricciardo begins to treat the camera in a more friendly and casual way, giving himself a greater sense of relatability/ seeming more accessible to fans. Red Bull correspondingly begins to feature more silly and unscripted content, which intensifies once Verstappen joins the team and begins riffing off of Ricciardo. We see a growth in personality-focused and "challenge" type content with banter towards the end of Ricciardo's time at Red Bull, which continues with Gasly, Albon, and Perez and brings us to today. Currently, YouTube provides a seemingly casual and relatable look at the drivers, largely through humorous challenges, and feeds our expectations that drivers are accessible and come off as authentic to us as fans.

I started with Red Bull because they seem to have their social media content game on lock, with high budget and creative video challenges that also do a good job at showcasing the personalities of their drivers. I theorized that the reason they excelled at this social media marketing strategy was because Red Bull (the energy drink brand) sponsors a lot of extreme athletes, who are in solo sports or sports with very small teams-- thus, it would make sense for them to promote their sponsored athletes with personality-focused content. (This turned out to probably not be true, but we will get to that.)

Part (Multi Twenty) One: The Old Men

During this time period (early 2010s), any driver-focused videos are pretty short and often more focused on visually appealing montages. Mark Webber and or Sebastian Vettel will be filmed doing some fun activity and then maybe speaking to a reporter about the outing in a relatively polished, professional manner. The premise of these videos is similar to the content we see today-- ex. Seb shears a sheep, Mark and Seb have a beach filler episode-- but the way they are edited is much different. The drivers' interactions with each other are not included in the video, and there is not much focus on their personalities.

The most popular videos at this time are glossy stunt type content. There are also more quotidian things like simulator runs, news interviews, and track walks. Also some wacky highlights include a random pop music video and cringe parody martial arts short-- of which Vettel is in both, for some reason. But this disproves part of the hypothesis-- Red Bull did not start making personality focused content. Their experience as an extreme sports sponsor likely gave them experience in making stunt videos, but not content focused on driver personalities.

Part 2: 2 Dan, 2 Furious

The style of content doesn't immediately change when Ricciardo joins the team in 2014, beyond him getting roped into doing a bunch of travel vlogs, which are also more on the slick montage side even though he does get to crack some jokes at times. More cool stunts, more media interviews. When Daniil Kvyat arrives, the style of content shifts a little to focus more on the interactions between the two drivers, ex. the 2015 season preview and some shorts. There are also early inklings of the sillier modern content with some challenges and a sketch.

Then comes... the 2015 Christmas video, the first of many Red Bull Christmas videos. This one is unabashedly silly and also seems largely unscripted, representing a pretty clear break in content style. Crucially, we hear and see the drivers talking and interacting with EACH OTHER instead of just talking to a reporter off to the side, which is honestly a huge reason why today's silly driver content is so enjoyable and seems more authentic. Kvyat does a pretty traditional, scripted-sounding holiday greeting (which, fair enough, English isn't his first language and this is in line with most of the previous marketing videos), but Ricciardo is very casual and tells the camera among other things to have a "pimpin' good time"-- like a friend, rather than a formal acquaintance. Much more in line with today's style of content except it's shorter. However, this style is not initially popular, gaining only 34k views-- way less than stunt content from the same time like the F1 Car vs Rugby Team matchup that gets 2 million views.

Part 3: Rise of the Unserious Kings

By 2016, Ricciardo is very comfortable with the camera and being goofy, eventually with a smooth faced, slightly feral baby Verstappen in tow. The channel starts experimenting with silly short-form challenges that include some seemingly genuine reactions. In this travel video, they include clips with audio of Ricciardo joking around to people they meet, and Ricciardo even talks directly into the camera, saying he's not sure if he's supposed to say this, but pokes fun at himself for sweating with nerves over some air turbulence.

DANNY RIC IS POSSIBLY THE NEXUS BEING OF THIS STYLE OF CONTENT. (And the *pairing* of Ricciardo and Verstappen changed Red Bull media marketing, if not that of F1 teams in general.)

Ricciardo has begun not only relating directly to the camera, treating it as proxy for the fan viewer, but consciously trying to give it (and therefore us) an "unfiltered/ authentic" look into his own life and the lives of F1 drivers. He relates to the camera/viewer in a much more personal and friendly manner, acting like we are his friends and building that parasocial connection. Even in more conventional video types like explaining racing kit, Ricciardo is casual and humorous, a style that seems to garner lots of views for these videos (the racing kit one is at 1.5mil).

The previous more formal style of video, whether drivers talk to an offscreen interviewer or into the camera, gives us more distance-- treating viewers as strangers who should be treated with respect but are not owed intimacy. Ex. this short clip of Max in 2016 after his maiden win with Red Bull: he talks to the camera and speaks directly to fans, but in a more formal way. (Not saying this is bad! He's basically a kid and this is what most driver content was like up to this point. Besides, we as strangers do not necessarily deserve to know everything about a celebrity!)

Additionally, the pairing of Ricciardo and Verstappen seems to be a comedy gold mine. (How many clips of these two being chaotic have you seen?) Max may not seem quite as comfortable talking directly to the camera, which makes sense because it's kind of awkward. However, it's a lot less intimidating to be casual and silly to another flesh and blood person, merely in front of the camera-- especially if that person is Danny Ric who is going to give you material to riff off of. (Thus, why interactions between drivers are so generative of authentic-seeming, personality based content).

Max takes to the assignment of matching Ricciardo's energy with enthusiasm. Take, for example, the durian-opening challenge and the biking track tour (featuring Max making a bunch of silly vrooming noises as he speeds ahead of Daniel). The 2017 Christmas video shows how well Max and Daniel riff off each other, letting viewers see that Max has a silly personality as well ("Ki ki ki!!" "Aye aye aye!!" *Max dabs on the camera* *they throw fake food at each other and cackle*). During 2018, Red Bull starts solidifying the style of personality-focused challenge content that makes up much of their channel now, though it's interspersed between travel content without much talking and some more glossy stunt/ travel videos.

Part 4: A.D. (After Daniel)

After Daniel's departure, this challenge style continues with Gasly and then Albon. Red Bull also starts pulling in people from Toro Rosso to do crossover challenge episodes on location where they compete against each other, like much of today's videos on the Red Bull main channel. Ex. Albon and Kvyat face off against Verstappen and Gasly in a set of lumberjacking challenges in Canada, including a good bit of back and forth banter, which turns out to be a pretty popular video (1mil views).

Videos from Max and Alex's driver pairing era are almost entirely focused on their kind of chaotic interactions with each other. The challenges are higher production value but also silly in concept, such as the two designing their own custom box carts, allowing them to show off their artistic skills (or lack thereof) and name them stupid things. The 2019 Christmas video is also a gem. I haven't watched a ton of videos from this time, but it seems almost entirely absent of the the montages to background music or formal interview style from previous years. There is still of course some glossy stunt content, like the famed zero gravity pitstop.

And then covid! After which the content is split between the Oracle Red Bull Racing channel and the Red Bull main channel. The racing specific channel has the same news interviews and sim runs peppered with some more lowkey challenges and videos focusing on individual drivers, whereas the more famous high-effort and locationally themed videos are on the Red Bull main channel. (Ex. this 2021 Austria-themed video of Verstappen and Perez versus Gasly and Tsunoda partaking in many silly activities, including wearing lederhosen and boat racing, overseen by Red Bull's resident Darth Palpatine-esque figure Helmut Marko.)

Conclusion

Today's F1 promo content largely aims to give viewers a more goofy and "unfiltered" idea of what the drivers are like as people, allowing people to get more attached to specific drivers and form parasocial connections with them. Yet it was not always so! We don't start seeing more dialogue-heavy videos that strive to provide a more casual and "authentic" look into the Red Bull drivers until midway through Daniel Ricciardo's career as he starts treating the camera like a friend, seemingly giving us backstage access to what the drivers are "really" like. Through a more casual style of speaking to viewers and a focus on interactions between drivers, Red Bull social media is able to provide an avenue for drivers to show a more casual and relatable side to themselves.

Red Bull's previous focus on highflying stunts, travel montages, and limited or formal instances of driver dialogue portray the drivers as larger-than-life badasses who live big and ultimately unknowable lives to us commoners. This newer, more intimate style of video tries to do the opposite-- yes, the drivers live these crazy lives, but they put their pants (or racing suits) on one leg at a time too! They are unserious and relatable and (seemingly) knowable to us, allowing us normal people to get attached to them. You must first be known in order to be loved, and if fans love your drivers, it's good for business!

This shift largely seems to mirror the decline of celebrity mystique and the rise of celebrity relatability. Ex. Beyonce's been famous since the 90s and is (as is her right) private about her personal life, which in part fuels her idol status but also is frustrating to some of her fans. Meanwhile, younger celebrities like Selena Gomez or Emma Chamberlain built their brand off of being chronically online and (seemingly) unfiltered.

Future directions of study-- comparing other teams' channels. Danny Ric may have been partially to blame for Red Bull's shift in content, but I would like to do a deep dive into other teams as well.

Note: I put "authentic," "real," etc in quotes because at the end of the day, we are still strangers seeing a piece of media and do not actually know what public figures are actually like as people! Also disclaimer, I'm not really a fan of Red Bull as an institution given their questionable response to Christian Horner's misconduct allegations-- this investigation is more out of them being a good case study.

[hexfloog]

i am sooo thematically consistent actually lmfao

My final contribution to Repostober 2024 :) Loose "redraw" of this sketch that I posted last year. Scan and words below the break.

I know the phrase "rewired my brain" gets thrown around a lot in fandom but I honest-to-God think Ghost Channel really did it. If it's not THE formative thing in my taste for horror, it imprinted pretty damn hard on my little babby brain. To this day, the memory of watching it for the first time stands out as my earliest experience where I've needed to pick my jaw off the floor and then marinate for a bit.

For those not in the know, Ghost Channel is an episode late into season one of Code: Lyoko. It is freely available to watch online, but if you're even a little interested in watching it, I highly recommend watching it in sequence, despite the episodic nature of S1.

Original scan, from 2009ish:

I'm sure I've mentioned it, but before I realized the importance of archiving my art I threw away virtually everything I had relating to CL >___< Later, I thought it might be fun to redraw some pillars from my childhood fandoms and this sketch happened. I've posted a few things for Repostober so far that were products of this same effort.

Reinterpreting this in 2024 was a challenge. My taste in horror hasn't changed much over the years, but the way I enjoy it definitely has. The 2009 scan reads as an in-your-face tribute to the episode (to me, at least), but these days I'm a much, MUCH bigger fan of subtlety and the power of implication. Redrawing it 1:1 bugged me a little since I didn't feel it'd meet my current standards or do the episode justice. I'm a firm believer in "less is more" so I spent a loootttt of time grappling with a good 'redraw' that 2024 me would accept while still passing as... well... a redraw xD I suppose it is still conceptually the same.

Jeremie is easily my favorite in the CL gang which definitely has nothing to do with the fact that I seem to have a proven history of latching onto the prodigal child with glasses and I've always found it crazy poetic that one of the only (or maybe the only?) big bad's true manifestations in the show is in his image. Something something thematic parallels, you love to see it >:) CL already has this habit of depicting shit that I would normally attribute to the modus operandi of a supernatural, demonic force so of COURSE I was gonna get in on this LMAO

Unfortunately, unless I find a hidden stash of old CL fanart somewhere... or enough time passes for me to draw this again... this is probably my last CL art for a while </3

On a more technical note for as much time as I gave myself for this I really popped off, especially on the background o___o Code Lyoko BG art goes super hard in general though, I don't think I would have settled for anything less. Had tons of fun with the VHS effects, learned lots of new little tricks to distort images for future projects.

Also this piece is called "ENDKAMPF" in my files lol

[wangmiao]

An Incomplete History of Zhang Luyi & Chen Minghao's Friendship

Do you like Pangxie's chemistry in Tibetan Sea Flower? Do you feel that they are really old friends? Besides the fact that Zhang Luyi and Chen Minghao are very good actors, they are indeed old friends, and the earliest record that I can find of them working together dates back to 2006. However, CMH was in the 1996 class of acting at the The Central Academy of Drama, while ZLY was in the 1999 class of directing at the same university, so I figured they definitely got to know each other before 2006. So more or less, on Chinese social media, people usually assume that they've been friends for almost 20 years.

Before I dig into the history, I want to mention that some Pangxie scenes are actually improvised by ZLY and CMH on set. CHM has played Pangzi several times, and is insanely good at it, so he knows about Pangzi and the character dynamics inside out. While ZLY is new to the DMBJ universe, he did read all the DMBJ novels before the filming of Tibetan Sea Flower, so he has very insightful understanding of the characters and relationship dynamics as well.

For example, according to an interview of the director, this iconic & funny "拜年/new year's greeting" scene in episode 6 was improvised, and the director just decided to keep it in the final cut. In a BTS footage, Pangxie putting peanuts on Feng's very wrinkled test paper in episode 9 was also shown to be something that ZLY and CMH came up with during rehearsing.

The History

In the first paragraph, I mentioned that they went to the same undergraduate university. Another thing that connects them even more is that they went to the same graduate school - Peking University's School of Arts, and both have the master's degree in arts. ZLY fans sometimes just endearingly call CMH “师哥/shige" because of all of this.

In 2006, ZLY and CMH were in the stage play 琥珀/Amber. Here are some rare photos of 26-year old ZLY and 31 year old CMH LOL:

Both of them continued to do a lot of theatre works, some tv/film roles, and also attended grad school in the coming years. ZLY got his breakthrough leading role in 2014, and started to lead in shows/films.

In 2016, ZLY and South Korean actor Jang Hyuk starred in the drama 新海/New Sea, and CMH was seen sharing the following scene with ZLY. Unfortunately, due to China's ban on South Korean entertainment content in the same year, this drama will probably never see the light of day.

Then, I think some of you already know this, in late 2016, CMH directed the stage play Big D, and ZLY was his lead actor in this play. According to different news articles, the tickets of this play were sold out in either 5, 7, or 8 minutes (LOL no idea why there were such discrepancies, but they were sold out within 10 minutes for sure).

In 2018, they appeared in The Sound which is a very good variety show about dubbing. Celebrities were asked to dub domestic and international shows/films (sometimes in both Chinese and English) to show case their voice acting skills and language skills. What's really funny is that ZLY is one of the typical introverts who can be a clown when he's surrounded by people he's familiar with, but once you put him in an unfamiliar environment, he gets nervous and shy. So after he and CMH entered the room together, he just naturally and subconsciously stood right beside CMH, the one he was most comfortable with, even though he was supposed to team up with another actress (who was off screen). He got really confused for a minute when all the other guests and hosts were questioning why he didn't stand beside his teammate LOL.

Both ZLY and CMH are really very low key actors in c-ent, so you don't see them in public events a lot. The last time that they were spotted chatting in public was during the premiere of the movie Under the Light last September.

Anyways, thanks for reading! I hope this can bring some insight into their friendship. You can tell they are just so comfortable with each other, and shooting Tibetan Sea Flower seemed to be such a fun experience for them. I hope they get to work together again soon in the future!

Edit: if you noticed my tags and saw the reply of someone requesting to know why ZLY was picked as Wu Xie: I made a long post here.

[sepublic]

So this hypothetical episode from the TOH pitch bible basically confirms this character as Proto-Vee;

She’s also got a bit of Adegast mixed in with the puppet motif and offer of an easy, conventional way to be a witch too! And the communication with mirrors to explain to loved ones about being replaced by a doppelgänger made its way into Yesterday’s Lie… Creepy Luz was one of the earliest ideas.

Also I gotta say, the parallels between Lake from Infinity Train and Vee are even stronger now! I remember speculating Creepy Luz as being sympathetic like Lake, and I was so vindicated when it turned out to be the case! Turns out they would’ve been even more similar at one point, though I wonder if Proto-Vee was always going to be misunderstood, or just an enemy like Adegast.

[kierancampire]

One of my earliest memories was looking for a present for my mum, and I saw this bear that was blue/green in colour, it had a blue ribbon, and it was in this gold trimmed glass case, with a bright light shining on it, and I instantly just felt a connection and knew that was the one. So I bought him, well I guess dad did technically, and I covered him in vintage foiled Christmas stickers, and gave him to mum, but I guess mum sensing my own love for him said I could keep him

As a child I was obsessed with Scooby-Doo, back when I had a memory I used to be able to name you all of Scooby's relatives and what episodes they appeared in. I wanted to make him something tied to Scooby-Doo but not super obvious, and even though he was my least favourite character, I decided on Fred

Fred, the one in the black hoodie, has been with me through so much in life, I musta had him for 23+ years by this point. I still sleep cuddling him every night, if I wake during the night I always have to make sure he's still there, I even still take him out on adventures with me occasionally. One day I saw someone selling a new condition Fred, and just to keep my memory alive of when I bought him, I got this new condition Fred, this new one sits on my shelf to stay nice and pristine

My sister used to upset me by dropping Fred out the window, hurting Fred also hurt me, and one of my greatest fears in life is losing him. He's been with me through so much at this point, everything I've gone through, he's been there, the amount of times I've hugged him while crying or for comfort. A funny/spooky thing is, I once posted about Fred online, and wanna know something weird? Multiple people responded saying they had their own Fred, but the weird thing is, a majority of people who had him also called him Fred, and also because of Scooby-Doo! Fred's about the only permanent thing I've had in life, so he's very special to me