#toys vs void

[mordremrose]

So about Tixx and his Infinirarium being in the void fight

[theturncoattournament]

Who is the best turncoat character? (Round 3)

A tournament for characters who change allegiances and/or have a redemption or corruption arc during their stories

PROPAGANDA:

Catra- None submitted

Vargen- He starts out as the most villainous character in the comic. Has a diploma where he even is declared World Master of Evil. After Vargen tries to sabotage the stable the hero is building the hero decides to invite him to help, this is where his arc begins. In the end he becomes one of the hero’s closest friends despite a couple of relapses. Now he sometimes babysits, waters flowers and is a helpful part of the community. Look at him, he’s just a little void boy. Best boy even.

Vargen used to be known as Olympic master of Evil. He was the boldest of all the local criminals and always involved in the big things. An unofficial leader in the club the criminals had. Sometimes he uses his old skills to help others: the boy who wouldn’t be able to get a Christmas present because his parents didn’t have money and the stores were closed anyway? Vargen breaks into the toy store and leaves money and note so he can get a train toy. Vargen got separation anxiety too. This leads to a few relapses when he feels forgotten. However in the end he has left his criminal past behind him.

[kismetconstellations]

There are so many ways that Voltron: Legendary Defender failed its characters. From the unfathomably idiotic decision to kill Allura off in the finale, to putting Coran through the pain of losing his family twice over, to all of the "jokes" at the expense of Hunk's anxiety, weight, and stomach problems.

But, to me, the most egregious example of this will forever be the numerous ways that Shiro was mistreated, even though I fully believe that most of them were unintentional and the fault of incompetence, rather than maliciousness.

I never expected a show with a TV-Y7 rating that was made to sell toys to children to address this character's extensive trauma in any meaningful way. And, perhaps there was a push behind the scenes to sideline him in order to bring Keith to the forefront, due to Keith being the head of Voltron in previous incarnations, and Shiro essentially being a Canon Foreigner created exclusively for this series.

But, when you have: - A poorly executed attempt to recreate Shiro's fight with Zarkon in the Astral Plane, void of the stunning visuals, impressively fluid fight choreography, and emotional and narrative stakes.

(Shiro fighting the show's main villain and his predecessor hand-to-hand for control of one of the most powerful weapons in the universe, vs the Paladins fighting shadowy, faceless foes that none of them- aside from Allura- have any personal connections to or conflict with, even once their identities are revealed, with long-range weapons, inside of Honerva's head.)

- Shiro, the previously "undefeated" Champion of Zarkon's gladiatorial arena and a highly trained and skilled martial artist, being slapped across the bridge of his own ship.

-Shiro's personal abuser telling him that the arm that was forcibly grafted onto his body in an attempt to turn him into a weapon for the Galra Empire is "the strongest part" of him,

Slav, an ally, echoing the sentiment and arguing that Shiro would be "even stronger with two robotic arms", and the first half of Season Seven confirming as much by depicting Shiro standing, often completely mute, on the sidelines

until he's outfitted with a new prosthetic arm. Only then is he actively allowed to participate in combat, again, and promoted to Captain of the Atlas.

-Shiro winning an intergalactic arm wrestling tournament to prove that he isn't a washed-up retiree (at the ripe old age of twenty-six), with that prosthetic.

-Said prosthetic being a mirror of his abuser's.

-No acknowledgement of Shiro's essence being transferred into the body of his clone that is down an arm. Or, how he's coping with not only not having a right arm at all, but also having been dead for a huge chunk of time, trapped inside the consciousness of the Black Lion and watching on helplessly as someone wearing his face tried to kill everyone he loves, and then resurrected to be suddenly "retired" through no choice of his own.

-Aside, of course, from an all-too lighthearted and chipper comment on routine helping him get through "being in the infinite void of the Black Lion", and a throwaway quip about how "having my consciousness transplanted from the infinity of Voltron's inner quintessence into the dead body of an evil clone of myself" has left him "a little out of sorts".

-And, Shiro not getting to kill his abuser, or even best him in combat.

Instead, he lies beaten and helpless, once again, as Keith, his replacement, takes Sendak out.

It crosses the line from clumsy writing to infuriating negligence and ineptitude.

The repeated violations of Shiro's autonomy, and what seems by all rights to be unintended ableism, even though it borders on outright disrespectful, went above and beyond any terrible writing and direction that I anticipated gritting my teeth and slogging through when I decided to finally bite the bullet and watch this show. It's utterly baffling to me that no one seemed to stop and realize that, "Hey, maybe introducing and then reinforcing the sentiment that a disabled man's prosthetic is the 'strongest part' of him, and he's effectively weak and useless without it, is a bad idea", at any point in the creative process before these episodes made it to air.

I wholeheartedly believe that as much as other characters were wronged, Voltron: Legendary Defender and its notoriously hellish fanbase that was more concerned with who these characters were having sex with than the actual plot, did not deserve Takashi Shirogane.

Shiro; a gay man, ace pilot, ambitious space explorer, and scarred trauma survivor who was abducted and forced to kill for the entertainment of his captors, subjected to unimaginable torture, and had his body modified without his knowledge or consent twice, yet never let any of his experiences, no matter how grueling or dehumanizing, stop him from being gentle, compassionate, noble, brave, self-sacrificing, and everything that epitomizes a True Hero, right to the bitter end.

[risingshards]

Something I really like in Rebuild the Galaxy (the fun new lil Lego Star Wars miniseries) is how it echoes (probably not intentionally) Templar Games' Bionicle Mata Nui Online Game in the theme of building vs. destroying, taking an aspect of Lego play and putting it into the story.

In MNOG, Gordon Klimes from Templar described how they made Makuta the embodiment of destruction:

“'The void' above Makuta is indeed a swirling mass of lego pieces, though it's not supposed to be representative of his true form. Makuta is chaos and nihilism, Mata Nui is order and creativity.”

“For me Makuta represents the destructive aspect of playing with Lego. You would build something and then destroy it in order to build something new. Makuta is a maelstrom of swirling pieces, he represents the pile on the floor that all lego creations come from and will eventually return to.”

“Good and evil just wasn’t good enough any more. It didn’t make any sense any more. But this was okay, because from the beginning, that’s not what it was about. The Makuta wasn’t evil, and his brother, Mata Nui, wasn’t good.”

“We knew that while building was fun, it was just as much fun to destroy. They were two sides of the same coin, and neither were wrong: it was all part of the play, part of learning, part of having fun. Not good or evil: Creation and Destruction, equal powers in the universe, natural and necessary. Both good. Both bad. Both neither. It’s true, we’d painted Destruction a bit negatively - using words like “Infected” Mask, or “Monsters,” but we’d needed the conflict.”

“So the Makuta, for all its darkness and danger, was not evil after all, and he says as much at the end. The final act was the confrontation, not between Good and Evil, which was meaningless, but between Creation and Destruction, where everything comes from nothing, and goes back to it, eventually. This was the struggle between the Toa and the Rahi, and Mata Nui and Makuta, and a LEGO fan and her kid brother, building and smashing happily, in equal measure. Our world had gone a bit mad, but to us, this helped make some sense of it. We wanted to share what small comfort it brought.”

Rebuild the Galaxy uses something similar, having Jedi Builders against Sith Destroyers feeling like it takes the act of playing with Lego part of the story, which is really fun. And if something's gonna be effectively a toy commercial, I'd rather it be fun and light about it. The people working on it definitely have a lot of love for Lego, and it showed throughout the miniseries.

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Mario Land

Debut: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

So I was lying awake in bed, thinking. What is up with Mario Land? Everyone knows that the setting of the first Super Mario Land game is Sarasaland. Nintendo loves to vaguely allude to it in character descriptions for Princess Daisy! But where does Super Mario Land 2 take place? Well, it’s in Mario Land, of course! Now, Super Mario Land does not take place in Mario Land. It takes place in a Land, in which Mario is a participant, but he doesn’t own the Land, just as he doesn’t own the World or the Galaxy. But he does own Mario Land!

Nothing is really clear about how Mario came to own Mario Land. Nintendo Power once described it as his ‘kingdom’, while the Wiki describes it as Mario’s ‘private island’. Lots of people immediately remark on how odd it is that Mario owns a castle in this game, and they’re right! It is odd! We don’t think of Mario as an avaricious man. He is a humble, working class individual. He lives in a cottage with his brother despite being a world-renowned hero. Except here, where he owns an entire landmass, with a castle! My personal canon, in my head, was that Peach or someone else gifted him with a large chunk of land and a castle as a reward for his heroic deeds. It seems the most likely, given what we know about Mario! But why couldn’t he settle for a vacation home, or anything of the sort? Why are we placing the responsibility of land ownership on such a modest soul? 

I think what is the strangest thing about Mario Land, to me, is that despite being Mario’s Land, it is so devoid of allies. Mario Land is vast and untamed, a collection of wacky themed zones filled with creatures entirely hostile to Mario! There are no maids or servants from Mario’s Castle, who fled Wario’s invasion. There are no Toads or Toad houses to aid Mario in his quest. Mario is entirely alone in a Land that bears his name, but his name only. Once his only symbol of power, his castle, is gone, Mario is back where he began, all alone in this foreign land. All the material goods in the world could not fill the void of - wait I’m sorry I completely forgot a key detail of Mario Land 2’s plot is that Wario put all of Mario Land’s inhabitants under a spell! False alarm everyone!

Everyone in Mario Land is actually Super Nice actually and was just brainwashed by Wario, who has the power of dark magic. The Big Bird from Tree Zone and the Octopus from Turtle Zone, and also Spikey, they all love Mario and see him as their king. I was gonna say the Witch too, but it seems the witch was Wario’s friend. Or are they Wario’s minions? If so, where are the inhabitants of Mario Land? Are they in hiding? We never see them! Who does Mario rule over? Is Spikey a wild animal? A brainwashed citizen of Mario’s country? Or an ally of the wicked and greedy Wario?

And of course, we have to discuss the matter of the Mario Zone. Mario was not content with having a Land, he needed to have a Zone in that Land, which is also Mario! It is actually one big Mario, a mechanical automaton built in his likeness. Mario has always expressed an interest in making toys of himself, as we see in the Mario Vs. Donkey Kong series, so it stands to reason that his major construction project would be just that, but bigger! 

Or maybe the Mario Zone always existed, before Mario came to Mario Land. Maybe it’s named Mario Land because one of its most famous natural formations is a giant wind-up toy that looks like Mario! And Mario’s Castle is named that by coincidence. I don’t know! I don’t have answers to any questions, ever! I literally don’t know anything! I’m going to bed!

Just kidding! I’m not going to bed. This post is a bit, um... rambly. But I thought it would be a shame to conclude it without appreciating how whimsical Mario Land is as a whole! There is a giant pumpkin with haunted woods inside it! There is a hippo that takes you to space! There is a turtle that swallows you and takes you underwater to a whale! There is a house that is just kind of a normal house but forces you to be really small to enter it! But I probably don’t need to tell you all that! It’s kind of what makes SML2 so wonderful! 

Would YOU live in Mario land? Would you want a monarchy as long as Super Mario is your benevolent ruler? What do you think of the giant turtle? Please let us know what you think of the giant turtle in the comments below. I don’t know. 

[qprsmackdown]

Boatem (Hermitcraft S8) vs All Of The Mechanisms (The Mechanisms)

Boatem propaganda: I think they have dogpile sleepovers every night and take turns on which house they go to for them, there’s a whole schedule for it They built an area together and came up with the dumbest meeting ideas. They went moon mad together, they took a spaceship into the void together, turned the end of the world into a fun sleepover with no sleeping. I love them.

Mechanisms propaganda: look they're a band of immortal space pirates . relationships get complicated and i like to think they're all in a big qpr together because it makes me happy IM SORRY DO YOU THINK NOTHING WILL HAPPEN IF YOU STICK NINE PEOPLE (AND A SHIP) (HONESTLY DEBATABLE IF ANY OF THEM ARE PEOPLE) INTO A BOX FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS!! THEY JUST HAVE SUCH ENERGY AND LIKE THE LITTLE MOMENTS IN THERE PERFORMANCES WHERE THERE JUST MESSING ROUND AND AGHHHHHH!! ALSO THE CONSTANT ANGST POTENTIAL OF TOY SOLDIER CANONICALLY GOING UH OH ALL MY PARTNERS ARE DEAD GUESS I GIVE UP THEN IT JUST HURTSS!!! BUT HONESTLY I WILL DO ANYTHING FOR THESE LOT LIKE THEY JUST FIT SO WELL TOGETHER

[mysticbewitched]

mysticc, i need your help.

i'm a 17 years old girl, who is finishing high school this year. i do not want it. i want to be 14 again, and have my desired life. but i don't know how to do that. i don't know if i apply the law of assumption, i don't know if go to nondualism philosophy or if i go to the shifting methods.

it's a lot of things, but they doesn't matter to me, i just want to wake up in my desired reality with my dream life. it's like now everything that i know about nondualism, loa and shifting just disappears and I stop believing again.

please, help me. it's so desperate and confused.

— your 🐝 anon.

I understand that you're feeling confused and I hope to clear things up for you.

You see, you could dive into many methods as you pleased for wanting to experience your desired reality, but this is coming from an inner place of not understanding who you are.

Methods are pointless "shiny toys" to waste your time on without vital knowledge of your true self and faith in yourself as a conscious creator.

I realize that there is an all-out war on this platform of "Loa" vs. Nondualism and the most ridiculous part of it all is that both sides of the mirror don't seem to understand that the whole core of the Law of Consciousness goes back to Nondualism philosophy.

Nondualism is never something for you to "apply" in order to "get" your desires. Nondualism is not a toy or "another trend" for you to use in order to "try" out and "see if it works for you."

It is all connected to form the greater picture of it all.

People are absolutely missing the point of the entire greater picture behind everything and the absolute truth behind our infinite manifestation power and our ability to warp our reality.

There should not be any of these pointless wars going on. It is all saying the same thing at the end of the night, and none of these "separate" communities are actually understanding each piece that fits into the whole puzzle.

The ultimate objective here is: freedom from a false sense of self-identification.

You must understand that Nondualism is *not* a method for you to "try" for your manifestations.

It is only a lifestyle of living and a philosophy for understanding your true nature as awareness and the one reality of consciousness.

All of the concepts that you have learned, such as self-concept, consciousness is the only reality, "the void state", states of consciousness - it all directly goes back to the paramount foundation of Nondualism's philosophy.

The Law of Consciousness and Nondualism are honestly one in the very same. The only difference is in the approach of the way these teachings are being taught. These are just different terms to explain the nature of your true self as awareness and the role of consciousness.

You only believe that you are a person, and this is the deceptive game of the ego, but you are actually omnipotent awareness disguised in human form while observing and experiencing the life of a human being. You are the universe experiencing itself.

The issue here is how a vast amount of people in this community completely misunderstand and misinterpret teachings of the Law of Consciousness (you are *IT*) and approach the subject of conscious manifestation with an ignorant, ego-based view without truly knowing their power and cutting down to the beautiful core of who they truly are.

I'll say it once more, you guys are taking the completely wrong approach when it comes to understanding manifestation and what it means to live as a conscious manifestor after discovering who you truly are. Omnipotent and all-powerful.

Consciously manifesting your desires is only a pleasurable bonus of choosing to break free from victim mentality and live from the confident, peaceful mindset of understanding your true self, and how the game of your life actually works in truth. This is all purely about awakening from the illusionary dream of your life to who you truly are and experiencing living out your experiences from a transformed sense of self-perception.

You said that, "I just want to wake up in my desired reality with my dream life" - you see, this right here is the *whole problem.* This is coming from a place of complete ignorance and a lack of understanding.

The blatant ignorance of true self's nature.

You do not understand the whole purpose of manifestation, which is to recognize your true self behind your human disguise. This is simply about self-realization during your spiritual awakening.

You guys want to completely rush straight into manifesting your desires without taking the time to actually learn and understand the infinite and boundless nature of who you truly are.

Without understanding who you truly are, you continue to stay asleep in the dream of the reality that you have been creating all this time without realizing it and being completely ignorant of your omnipotent power as the creator of all there is.

Take a moment and look around you to just sit with your awareness and closely observe your surroundings. See the nature, the sky, your body's form, and the totality of life itself happening all around you - you created all of this. You are experiencing your own creations every day. Isn't it beautiful? You are infinite power itself.

Without knowing your true self, you stay stuck and continue to struggle in a vicious cycle with victim mentality, frustration, impatience, and complete ignorance on your manifestation journey. Yet, I have seen that so many of you refuse to open your eyes and understand the issue behind your struggles throughout your spiritual awakening.

None of this matters for a second unless you truly know your omnipotent power and your true self.

None of this is ever about manifesting your desires. You inevitably experience a personal Heaven on earth in your reality when you understand your true self as awareness.

Who you are is not the role of the human that you are only pretending to be in the game of life when, in truth, you are so much greater and more infinitely powerful than you could ever recognize. Your power cannot ever be put into any words to be described, and absolutely anything is possible for you.

Now, when it comes to consciously manifesting a desire from the perception of knowing your true self:

All you have to do is simply decide that something is done because you are the one in control of "reality."

Accept your desire as now already fulfilled with an inner mind of a confident expectation for its manifestation, and live your life walking by faith, knowing who you are with every step you take.

What is impossible for the limitless creator?

You can warp every single little bit of reality.

I hope that I was able to shed some light for you and put things into a different perspective for you to re-consider moving forward on your spiritual journey of enlightenment.

[thepariahcontinuum]

A RWBY x Parahumans crossover idea:

Which members of the RWBY cast would each member of the Slaughterhouse 9 try to recruit for their "Try-Outs" the way they did in Brockton Bay?

Hatchet-Face: Honestly, this one's a complete write-off. He died and was turned into Hatchet-Job offscreen so he never got a chance to choose a replacement because he was the one being replaced. Null and Void....But if I had to say anyone, probably Tyrian for matching serial killer vibes and Power/Aura nullification.

Mannequin: By far the easiest one to figure out; he'd pick Ironwood for the same reason he picked Armsmaster in canon.

Crawler: The important thing to remember about Crawler's selections is that he's not really looking for someone to join; he's looking for someone who's gonna be able to put up enough of a fight against him to help him evolve himself further. With that in mind there's only one natural answer and Crawler is actually crazy enough to try it: He'd pick Salem, just to see if he can outlast her.

Bonesaw: Riley's an artist first and foremost....I can imagine her pouting when Crawler picks Salem first because she wanted to pick the lady who makes her own monsters. After that I think her second choice, considering that the Nine do enjoy putting heroes through their try-outs.....Would be Pietro; because she can make zombies, but he amputated part of his soul and made a whole new soul out of it.

Burnscar: Burnscar forewent her chance to nominate someone in order to talk to Labyrinth who she was in the asylum with.....That does give me something to work with. If Burnscar's gonna pick someone, either to nominate or to effectively veto other from nominating it's gonna be someone she feels a connection to or an affinity with and there is a certain fire-breathing orphan with a lot of issues in Remnant isn't there.....I think Burnscar would pick Cinder, if only to stop another member from doing it.

Shatterbird: I feel like Shatterbird would originally be interested in Cinder, glass weapons and a single-minded drive and she's capable; which is what Shatterbird seems to look for, she picked Hookwolf because he's a fighter. Failing that and given that Tyrian being picked by Hatchet-Man is basically a placeholder, I think Shatterbird would kill Tyrian and use that to bring Mercury in.

Siberian: Manton likes outcasts and people who remind him of his daughter....I toyed with the idea of Penny, just because "She came back from the dead" might give Siberian some hope but instead I settled on Nora....Because I kinda see Ren and Nora & Emerald and Mercury as being two sides of the same coin in some ways and having one half of each pair be targeted by the Nine opens up some fun ideas.

Cherish: Okay so Cherish wanted Alec specifically because it was Alec....But, I think she'd go for Whitley. The Schnee family is a mess, there's parallels to be drawn between their family Semblance and the fact that all of Heartbreaker's kids' powers have a theme; so Cherish would go for the Schnee who reminds her the most of Alec, who just so happens to be the one least equipped to defend himself and was also his Daddies' favourite.

Jack Slash: Ruby.....Okay, this sounds like a cop-out because protag Vs villain leader match-up but hear me out. Jack gave up his nomination to make his deal with Golem but before that he went to Oni-Lee first, didn't like what he saw and then went after Purity....He wants powerful people and after moulding Bonesaw into what he wanted her to be I think he'd see Ruby, someone who would be incredibly useful to him on Remnant as a new pet project.

[decepti-thots]

Tea emoji skybound?

Okay so I am behind at the moment and also, I want to do a full readthrough of the first year of the TF ongoing all in one go before the year is out and write an Actual Long Post, so I will not get too in the weeds here about specifics.

But I really, really like Skybound so far- the main TF comic at least. It is first and foremost just an astonishingly well crafted comic, from the art to the lettering to the writing. It works serially, it works visually, it works as a comic, in a way that is honestly not that common for many US comics right now. (I have been reading some Al Ewing stuff recently, his Marvel work, and I would compare Skybound's ability to make a serial narrative still feel satisfyingly complete in individual issues to the work Ewing did on stuff like Immortal Hulk. If that means anything to anyone.) Johnson knows his shit. He is writing COMICS, and his understanding of the medium is clear in every panel. (I cannot BELIEVE this is his first ongoing. Fucking hell.)

I also think it actually does something new with G1 reimaginings, which justifies yet another one of those existing. Sunbow is not, in the West anyway, a very widely mined part of the fiction for later stuff. Almost all the stuff we get tends to veer far, far closer to vaguely G1 Marvel influences. Johnson is taking those 'sounds good on paper, woefully underdeveloped in the cartoon because 80s Toy Ad' concepts and fleshing them out amazingly well. He goes completely seriously in on making that canon into a space opera that takes itself seriously, and he has enough earnestness that against all odds, it works. The earnestness is very important. It is not a comic going 'haha Isn't This Silly' at itself, which almost any writer trying to do this would do I think.

Oh, and it really makes the Cybertronian-Human dynamic compelling. If you want a work that shows why, exactly, the humans add something important to TF, I think Skybound is the comic that does that. It's got THEMES. It's got PATHOS. It's got CARLY, who I think is REALLY NEAT.

...I do not particularly care for Void Rivals, however. It is a very, very mid comic, though largely readable. It largely exists to me in terms of 'OK, it brought xyz lore concept in this month, good to know!' and not much more, alas. I don't hate Kirkman's work overall, but honestly. The comparison to Johnson almost feels unfair; there's just not that same wild creative ENERGY anywhere. It is a comic that exists to create splashpages in which you go. I Know That Guy! And I can't say I care much.

I have thus far not touched the GI Joe stuff. I should really do that, but. God. I'm just not that interested. LMAO.

Final thought: which is kind of ironic, because if I put this comic in conversation with any other TF work? It would be TF vs GI Joe (Scioli/Barber). It has that same deliberate engagement with the specific genre context the 80s stuff exists in, the sense of creating nostalgia for a version of the franchise that never actually existed, the granular love of and obsession with specifically comics that means so much of how the story is told really could not be in another medium and stay the same. Which is high praise, because I think TFvsGIJ is, in fact, the best TF comic ever written, hah.

[league-of-blorbos]

I've been working on listing as many parallels as I can between Kayn and Rhaast, because I'm just unhinged like that, so here's the ones I noticed so far under the cut:

Design:

SA Kayn has a diamond on his forehead and Rhaast has one on his chest 

Can represent their different mentalities as “brain vs heart”

Kayn is more methodical and efficient in his killings while Rhaast just likes to go in and kill as brutally as possible

Both lose their pupils after transforming and become more “inhuman” looking

Rhaast is obvious how inhuman he looks, SA’s skin turns ghostly pale and has shadows crawling up his arms (in LoR Kayn even gains claws after becoming SA)

The loss of pupils could be another way to show how removed from their humanity they’ve become, “eyes are the window to the soul”

Magic:

Kayn’s magic comes from shadows and Rhaast’s magic comes from the Sun

Day vs Night, Sun vs Moon, Light vs Dark, you get it

Their skins also play with this, Night/Dawnbringer swapped their red/blue coding but Kayn is still dark-coded and Rhaast is still light-coded, and in Odyssey Kayn is now light-coded (golden ora and bright stars) and Rhaast is dark-coded (literally a DARK star)

Kayn’s magic is “incorporeal” and Rhaast’s is “physical”

Kayn can pass through physical objects while Rhaast can use hemomancy to control minds and warp bodies

Kayn is fighting for intangible power and Rhaast is fighting for a physical body, both have what the other desires most

Backstory:

Both were soldiers with war-related trauma

Made for fight for someone else’s immoral goals; Kayn was fighting against Ionia defending from an invasion and Rhaast was fighting against Icathian slaves revolting

Can also play into how they are both reduced down to being weapons; Rhaast is literally trapped within his scythe and Kayn sees himself as a weapon crafted to fight against Noxus (“I am the weapon, you are a tool”)

Both their minds were scarred from witnessing horror they couldn’t handle; Kayn, as a developing child, couldn’t handle the violence of war and Rhaast, who began as a mortal human, couldn’t handle the existential horror of the Void

Other:

Both are fucking lonely and don’t wanna admit it

In all his versions Kayn craves companionship; base Kayn has unwavering loyalty to Zed and sees him as a father figure, Heartsteel becomes like brothers to Kayn even when he thought they’d just be another stepping stone in his career, and Odyssey Kayn sees Rhaast as a friend and still calls from him even after killing Rhaast for power

All the Darkin have been isolated in their weapons for centuries and once they’re free they try to remedy that loneliness; Naafiri embraces being a pack mother, Varus slowly opens his heart to Kai and Valmar, Aatrox calls for the other Darkin to join him for on last battle, and Rhaast chooses to toy and joke with Kayn instead of being cold towards him

Kayn and Rhaast have the potential to set aside their conflict, coexist, "allow themselves to blend" and not be lonely anymore, but both are too stubborn and selfish to even consider the possibility

[bugsinthebayou]

okay how do i get into the mechs ... i would like to know about these robots now i think

GRINS. HI. HELLO.

The Mechanisms are a steampunk space pirate storytelling band!! they are compromised of 9 members (up until one of them left). they retell myths n legends in space, tragic, and queer

they have four main story albums, a single, and two extra albums for extra stories

for the four main albums, you have to listen to all the tracks in order so i recommend listening on youtube

Once Upon A Time (In Space) is their first album. its fairy tales retold as an intergalactic war

Ulysses Dies At Dawn is their second one. this one is greek mythology

High Noon Over Camelot. oh boy high noon over camelot. my favorite mechs album and my favorite album just in general. arthurian legend retold as a space western

The Bifrost Incident. norse myth but eldritch horror

their single is Frankenstein (frankenstein except the monster is an AI), and their other two albums are Tales To Be Told volumes I and II. theyre both collections of extra songs that either work as standalone stories or fit into the same setting as one of the main albums but doesnt follow along the main plotline

they also have Death to the Mechanisms, which was a performance of some of their songs live plus a song of the same name as the album that describes how they died a final time. this was because they split up. no more mechs music </3

out of all of them i recommend hnoc the most. cuz its my favorite <3

i apologize for not explaining the albums further, but you asked about the mechs themselves so im gonna put more focus into explaining those guys

the mechanisms themselves are 9 immortal space pirates. they are immortal due to their mechanisms, mechanical replacements of certain body parts. they travel the galaxy on the starship known as Aurora, who is infact sentient and also dating the ship's engineer. they like to "have fun, violence, adventure, violence. violence." according to jonny

Jonny d'Ville - he/him. he's claims he's the ships captain. hes the first mate. he is the narrator to all of the albums and plays a number of characters. King Cole (ouat(is)), Ulysses (udad), Lancelot (hnoc), Galahad (hnoc), and the void (tbi) are a few. there's more, but theyre more minor. hes pretty shooty and has canonically committed every crime (that existed on a planet) except the sexual ones. his mechanism is his heart!

Gunpowder Tim - he/him. master at arms! hes another one that sings often. he also plays the guitar. a few characters hes been are Oedipus (udad), Gawain (hnoc), and Loki (tbi). his mechanism is his eyes. hes also on the violent side. he blew up the moon, as detailed in the song Gunpowder Tim vs The Moon Kaiser from the ttbt vol 1

Ashes o'Reilly - they/them. quartermaster. they sing often and their voice is beautiful <3 they play bass aswell. some characters theyve played are Hades/themself (udad), Mordred (hnoc), and Sigyn (tbi). their mechanism is their lungs. theyre also a mob boss and arsonist and have been since they were 12 years old, described in their backstory song Lucky Sevens

Drumbot Brian - he/him. pilot. he doesnt sing as often but its great when he does! he plays a few different instruments. a couple of his characters are Merlin/himself (hnoc) and the robot spouse in Stranger (ttbt vol 2). everything except his heart is mechanical. he was thrown into space because he brought someone back to life

The Toy Soldier - it/its. its just there!! it sings often and plays the mandolin. some characters are Cinders (ouat(is)), Orpheus (udad), and Guinevere (hnoc). its a toy soldier. it was never human it just started walking one day

Raphaella la Cognizi - she/her. science officer. she is another singer!! and pianist!! her voice is heavenly tbh. notable roles are Ariadne (udad), Ygraine (hnoc (one song but it Slaps)), and Odin (tbi). her mechanism is a pair of wings!

Marius von Raum - he/him. doctor (not even a doctor). he sings and plays violin. and mandolin the wiki says. Heracles (udad), Arthur (hnoc), Thor (tbi). his mechanism is his right arm

Ivy Alexandria - she/her. archivist. she plays a few wind instruments, no singing. her mechanism is her brain

Nastya Rasputina - she/her. engineer. she is in gay love with the sentient starship <3. she plays violin, no singing. her mechanism is her blood, which is mercury. she decided to go Out (she believed that aurora was no longer the same starship she fell in love with because of all the repairs over the centuries theyve been alive, so she takes the final piece of the original aurora and exits out of the airlock, never to be seen again) sometime after hnoc

and there you are!! them!!

despite me giving some examples to who they play in the albums, thats not all the characters they play. theres also extra characters in narration i didnt mention (ivy and nastya both have been in narration tracks before) and theres also characters they play in the extra songs in the tales to be told volumes

i hope you end up liking them <333 heres a photo of them all together for u

[ID: A group shot of the Mechanisms. End ID]

[theturncoattournament]

Who is the best turncoat character? (Round 1)

A tournament for characters who change allegiances or had a redemption/corruption arc during their stories

PROPAGANDA:

Vargen-

He starts out as the most villainous character in the comic. Has a diploma where he even is declared World Master of Evil. After Vargen tries to sabotage the stable the hero is building the hero decides to invite him to help, this is where his arc begins. In the end he becomes one of the hero’s closest friends despite a couple of relapses. Now he sometimes babysits, waters flowers and is a helpful part of the community. Look at him, he’s just a little void boy. Best boy even.

Vargen used to be known as Olympic master of Evil. He was the boldest of all the local criminals and always involved in the big things. An unofficial leader in the club the criminals had. Sometimes he uses his old skills to help others: the boy who wouldn’t be able to get a Christmas present because his parents didn’t have money and the stores were closed anyway? Vargen breaks into the toy store and leaves money and note so he can get a train toy. Vargen got separation anxiety too. This leads to a few relapses when he feels forgotten. However in the end he has left his criminal past behind him.

The Grinch- None submitted

[dynared]

Most of the reception to Duke #1 and Cobra Commander #1 seems to be pretty positive

Although interestingly, there are complaints from both ends of the TF/Joe fandom. The Transformers fandom is worried that the soldier toys will take over the storytelling due to bad memories of the Michael Bay movies and the later IDW years when IDW tried to barnacle every franchise they had to the Robots in Disguise in the vain hope of trying to sell them again (and as such series' as Transformers vs Visionaries showed, utterly failed). The only reason we never got Transformers/Jem was because Jem sold so poorly that IDW was forced to cancel it despite fear of social media backlash.

Meanwhile, GI Joe purists seem upset at the presence of Cobra-La, an ancient society of biotechnology using humanoids and how it runs completely contrary to the brand's "realistic tomorrow" idea, where the heroes and villains are using next-generation military weaponry, but nothing that would fall into the realm of science fiction, something that both Duke and Cobra Commander seem to be embracing.

All that being said, I think the circumstances are very different and that the Energon Universe, while ambitious, is working really well so far and has the potential to continue to be amazing.

IDW rammed the Joes into the Transformers midway into both of their runs, when the status quo of both franchises had been established. Saying that the ensuing mixture did not work was probably the best way to put it, as Revolution was critically panned and viewed internally as a failure, putting the kibosh on a shared Hasbro universe when the company was desperately hoping to match the then-seemingly unstoppable Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Joe fans didn't want the unstoppable robots making their army men feel less important, and the Transformers fans didn't want more armed forces fellation that the Bay movies were accused of. And neither side wanted the plot to completely stop for ANOTER Hasbro license like the Visionaries, a toyline that bombed when it came out, or Jem, a series that sold terribly but IDW refused to cancel out of a fear of social media backlash due to it awkwardly tackling issues like body positivity and having numerous canon LBGTQ+ relationships, only canceling it when it was clear they couldn't prop the license up anymore and having to eat the bad press.

The Energon Universe, meanwhile, is being built from the ground up, with the connecting pieces being put in much more smoothly. Furthermore, by building out the world, it feels like Skybound can avoid a lot of the bigger issues with the franchise. With the Transformers, IDW2 bombed due to a lack of any grounding human element, so the robots felt less special than they should have. With Joe, the sci-fi flavor and government conspiracy angles play a lot better to a modern audience than straight soldier toys, something that's a lot less popular in 2024 than it was in the decade of decadence.

I'm sorry for the ramble, but while I get the trepidation, I think in the end, the Energon Universe has the potential to make the franchises feel greater, not lesser, by combining smoothly, and only having Transformers, GI Joe, and the Void Rivals covering three aspects of the universe, without worrying about the Visionaries or Jem showing up and awkwardly derailing the plot.

[thelovelydoggycatmadi]

Talking about the Villain Irene AU

tbh a lot of what my role-reverse/Evil Irene au is isn’t just “these characters are just have different values now but there core personalities haven’t changed” because that’s kinda boring to me.

I feel like some themes I’d toy with are this hole idea of “destiny” and “nature vs. nurture”

this hole thing starts because the divine warriors witnessing her kill her own child, decide to take a stand with Shad, instead of opposing under the pretense that there has to be another way to stop the void besides sacrificing life, that of which they want to protect.

And it raises this question of does this create a butterfly effect where the characters individual issues manifest in different ways because of that choice.

garroth’s golden child syndrome doesn’t cause him to push away his family and responsibilities but instead he embraces’s them and learns that he can use his status and charm to manipulate people. It manifest a narcissistic person whose views on people are rooted in classism and superficiality.

Zane’s neglect manifest into him being the “easy child” always stays out of peoples way, always apologizing for things that don’t need to be apologized for, and often being isolated. For fear of speaking up or stepping out of the comforting bubble he’s made for himself.

Vylad becomes overly dependent on Garroth and seeks his approval to stay in his step families good graces and has adopted garroth violent manic tendencies. He’s however, nothing without the people that protect and guide him.

Aaron’s no longer this unhappy loner and seeks out friends and family wherever he goes to subconsciously make up for the one he lost.

Zenix has a more outgoing personality and sees Zane as a brother and family he didn’t have, because he was shown kindness by him when no one else did, and takes him on expeditions for his research on the relics and the divine warriors.

[popculturebuffet]

Wanna Make Something Of It?: A Justice League International Retrospective: Justice League #1 Review

Keith Ian Giffen 1952-2023 "I"m sick of Darkseid, Darkseid has been passed around the DC Offices like a Bong"

Hello all you happy people and happy birthday to me. Each year either on or around my birthday, or in this case a month later because the end of 2023 was a cold and carpal tunnel hellscape and 2024 opened with bronchitis, I take a look at something special to me, something that means something: From the first apperance of the Legion of Substitute Heroes, to the first volume of Scott Pilgrim, to Scott Pilgrim Vs the World , to last years look at the uncanny x-men's rebirth with Giant Sized X-Men #1, i've always set aside my birthday to reflect on my past and celebrate it with something I truly love.

This year I decided on that.. for reasons that still break my heart. On October 9th at the ripe age of 70 Comics Legend and personal inspiration of mine Keith Giffen.. passed away. He had a long, good life and created countless amazing stories and characters.. but his loss will be a void that can never quite be filled.

For those who hadn't heard of him, Keith was a comic book writer who's best known for his work at DC, having helped redefine the Legion of Super Heroes and Darkseid with the legendary Great Darkness Saga alongside Paul Levitz, created the main man Lobo, the fourth wall breaking before it was cool Ambush bug, the incomprable Jamie Reyes whose first arc I covered this year, and of course, the one punch, the only, the bwahahah-ey Justice League international.

If your asking why it took this long to eulogize him if I respected him so much, the answer is simple: I didn't know. In an age where if someone dies it's usually blasted onto my news feed, even if I don't exactly google that person every day, I had NO idea Keith was dead till reading an amazon review.. which is the kind of sick irony he'd find hilarous, so I have that, but not exactly the way to find out one of your personal heroes died. So I scrapped my original birthday review plan (Letterkenny's Three Wise Men For the Curious) and decided to start a project i've been mulling over for a while now. So welcome folks to Wanna Make Something Of It: A Justice League International Retrospective, an ocasoinal look at this long run.

JLI has an intresting history to it so if you'll sit down i'll tell you

The Not Really Secret Origin of the Justice League International

It was the late 80's and DC Comics had just undergone a massive reboot with Crisis on Infinite Earths, the first true big event comic as we know them with tie ins and a massive reboot in the end as Editorial had felt the various alternate earths had made things too complicated. So a big blue murder man named the Anti Monitor tried to wipe out all of creation, leaving only five earths: Earth 1, where most of the action took place, Earth 2 where the heroes of the Golden Age, the Justice Society of america and their various successors lived, Earth 4, where the recently aquiried heroes of Charlton Comics like Blue Beetle, Peacemaker and Captain Atom resided, an earth not concidentally introduced for this crossover, Earth S, home of the Shazam/Captain Marvel Family, and Earth X, a world where the nazi's won WWII and only the freedom fighters stood in opposition. Basically any heroes DC felt like keeping and their shiny new toys.

The result was a new one world earth with a fresh coat of paint to let in new readers. It wasn't without issues: several corners of the DCU got torn up with my beloved Legion of Super Heroes getting some of the worst of it, with every resonable attempt to fix the retcons or bring characters back.. being shot down AFTER the story had already been started or happened, eventually leaving such a giant mess they rebooted in the 90's, while many a hero was left without an origin or clear history, Donna Troy having to have her origin redone again now her connection to wonder woman was gone, Hawkman became a hawk mess in part thanks to this very book, story for another time, and much more I don't have the time or patience to get into right now.

There was a lot of good in it though, as the reboot left room for new heroes like self promotional himbo with a heart of gold, Booster Gold, the now DC flavored Blue Beetle, and more, and for some the fresh start was badly needed, revitalizing Superman, and giving Wonder Woman and out and out reboot that, while taking her history away, exchanged it for one of the best runs on the character ever via George Perez. And eventually, after some growing pains, it gave us room for an all new flash after a lengthy murder storyline left Barry running out of steam. For all the damage it did i've learned over the years, the crisis still did a LOT of good and helped a lot of characters find their place in this brave new world.

One property vital to DC that needed this was the Justice League of America. A few years before the crisis, DC had noticed the sales of the League were down, and tried to revitalize it: the result was a book I hope to read and cover one day.. still called Justice League of America bu tknown to most as Justice League Detroit. The IDEA was good: feeling the league was a bit scattered after a martian invasion destroyed their iconic satalite headquarters, Aquaman called for them to disband and only those who could commit full time rejoin, leaving it with just him, Martain Manhunter, Zantanna and The Elongated Man. They soon added some fresh recurits in the cyborg steel, the horribly named in hindsight but loveable for her father daughter relationship with the Martain Manhunter, Gypsy and the sterotype tastic Vibe, who'd later be heavily reworked for the better by the flash tv series.

The idea was good but even from what defenders I could find after googling the team, the book had the good IDEA of making the team more of a surrogate family like the Titans or X-Men, but simply didn't seem to pull it off. It's part of why i'd love to look at it some day: the roster is good, with even the rookies being intresting Even Vibe at least had intresting power, a low income background not really see in the Justice League at that point, and cool shades.. even if him break dancing was very much

So I do really want to read this run and possibly cover it and if you'd like me to, let me know. It intrests me.

But while it intrests me now, no one at the time was really biting so DC decided to pull the plut. It really didn't help that , thanks to the crisis.. DC now had a wide buffet of characters they could suddenly ad to the league like Captain Marvel, the Charlton gang, and Dr. Fate.

So the team got the axe in the ties ins for Legends, DC's next big event that was also designed to bring the new team together. Legends has another really cool concept: Darkseid, god of evil and dc office bong , wanted to break earth's heroes for defying him so he could finally claim it and thus came up with Operation: Humilation. He sent his lackey Glorious Godfrey to earth , becoming tele-evanglist and far right loon G Gordon Godfrey, inspired by the times and sadly still relevant. Godfrey lit up an anti superhero fervor, causing Ronald Regan to ban superheroes while Godfrey spread the message of hate, helped by Godfrey setting up Captain Marvel to seemingly kill one of Darkseid's minons who was in fact a robot designed to die and scar a 12 year old for life.

The problem is the series is a bit too fast paced for it's own good, taking a message on how hate movements like this spread oh so easily with the power of tv, and speed running it so we go from Godfrey using real life hate tactics that are chillingly relevant, to the point we get scenes with a crowd nearly killing a 12 year old jason todd or a cop killing his partner after said partner lets Black Canary go then blaming her for making him do it, to ... him making people into murder dogs and storming the captial. In three issues. You have to nearly burn the country down to get people to do a insurrection everyone knows that.

On top of that like many an event after.. a lot of it's about setting up tie ins instead of it's core story so we get stuff like Jason being saved happening off panel or Darkseid deciding to take superman off the board.. and then doing it in a tie in.

That brings us to Justice League where one of the biggest fallouts of this event.. happens entirely in it's own book. I'm split on this as on the one hand, the end of the Justice League of America should happen in it's own book.. but on the other given they brought in another writer to end the book, I don't see why they didn't just cancel it early and say "To be continued in legends" and have Godfrey tied into the league's ultimate end instead of Amazo.

Alas instead Amazo and Despero clean house leaving the league battered, demoralized and in the cases of Vibe and Steel dead. Everyone whose left leaves.. .everyone except the person it means the most to, the person who almost never left and whose the heart and soul of the league for the Martain Manhunter vows it'll live on.

Cue the finale of Legends: With things escalating quickly, Dr. Fate, DC's Resident Mysterious Magic Man, gathers a bunch of heroes together to put an end to this: Batman, Martian Manhunter, Blue Beetle (Ted Kord), Black Canary, Green Lantern (Guy Gardner), The Flash (Wally West), Beast Boy (Going by Changeling back then), Mister Miracle (Scott Free), Superman and Captain Marvel (The future Shazam) to put an end to this, with Jonn clinching the heroes return to legality by coming in the save and Wonder Woman making her debut to the superhero community post-crisis by jumping in to help. The day is saved , and a new justice league is formed from the ashes of the old.

So you may be asking: Why this roster and why aren't Wonder Woman, Superman, the Flash and BB on the cover? Let's explore that under the cut as we delve into why this roster, the creative team for the actual book, and the first issue itself shall we?

Roll Call:

So you'd probably think given how team books work nowadays that future writers Keith Giffen and JM Demattis picked this team themselves, with maybe a member or two picked by dc editorial. It's what I assumed.. but nope, DC picked the team themselves, which .. does kinda bother me. A creator should really pick their own roster as chemistry is VERY important to a team book. It speaks to Giffen, DeMattis and Macguire's talents that, even dropping a few members in issue 7, the book comes off as natural as it does and said drops come off less as "this person we were saddled with isn't working" and more "they simply didn't fit into the group so we used the big rebrand to shuffle them out". DC may of picked the roster, but to their credit they choose well. As giffen himself put in the introduction of a collection of the first few issues back in 2008 "That call was DC's to make and as it turned out.. not too shabby"

So before we got into the actual book and who made it, I wanted to take a second to explore this roster as I wanted to show WHY DC might have choose them as I couldn't find any info on why this roster was picked, and simply have my edcuated guesses to go on

First who WASN'T added despite being front and center in legends: Each of the four members cut from the roster so to speak have good reasons for not being in the team. Beast Boy is the most obvious: he was never going to be in the League to begin with, they most likely wanted a titan to represent their flagship book for the crossover and choose one of the most popular.

For the Flash, Wally's a bit more of an actual misdirect as given he hadn't shown up since his decision not to take up the mantle, this was his big coming out party as the flash, with Wally deciding to embrace his mentors roll. It's also why he didn't take it up in story and likely out: he just put on the tights and didn't feel ready for the league just yet and the character would need some time in his own solo before it made since to plop him in a team book.

For Superman and Wondy it's also simple: Superman was being rebooted: He still had a LOT of his history, but major parts of it like his time in the Legion as Superboy or his cousin Kara were cut out, major villians were revamped, and his world was reshaped for the 80's while Diana was flat out rebooted by George Perez after sales had pretty much died pre-crisis, with said run now being one of my favorite comics and one I can't wait to complete some day and share with you all.

So that left the All New, All Diffrent Justice League with a roster consisting of Batman, The Martian Manhunter, Blue Beetle, Captain Marvel (Now known as the Captain or Shazam), Dr. Fate, Black Canary, Mister Miracle and Green Lantern (Guy Gardner). So for those of you less familiar with some of these guys, let's get aquanited, as well as figure out why DC choose them.

Batman: Batman is here because he's batman.. I could end it there but that'd leave the question of why Bats was okay to go but SUperman and Wonder WOman weren't. The answer is simple: Batman.. didn't get rebooted by Crisis. Things were changed like Jason Todd's backstory, some villians erased, some bits of history tinkered with, but that was standard for most post crisis heroes. He'd have a new defentiive origin with Frank Miller's year one, but Denny O'Neil had already soft rebooted batman back in the 70's, so he wasn't in as big of a rut. Crisis took out weird shit from the silver age that I love but understand why maybe it's best reinstated as a drug hallucination, thank you Grant Morrison, and Earth 2 batman, but it really didn't change who Bruce was, his status quo etc. Batman was selling well, Dick Grayson was super popular over in New Teen Titans, it was something DC knew wisely not to fuck with. Granted I haven't gotten as hands on with just after the crisis batman as I have Superman or Wonder WOman, so I could be wrong, but most of the changes were to villian backstories, stuff that was necessary and handy, but not things that really shook up who Batman was or what stories were going on with him like Superman and Wonder Woman. And since Batman is a lisense to print money, for better or worse, they stuck him on this team.

Martain Manhunter: The Martain Manhunter is Jonn Jonzz, a cop from mars who got accidently kidnapped by an old man to earth and took up resdiense as a detective. Jonn would get a full mini establishing who he was post crisis I have not read by Giffen and Dematties but i'm now dying to now I know it exists. Jonn was a founding member of the justice league and a big hero during the silver age, and comes off as the JLA equilvent to the Avengers Wasp, not in terms of character, Janet and Jonn aren't like each other in the slightest but I do think they'd hang, but in being a hero who has a storied career almost entirely tied to one of their unvierses big super teams, but not much solo wise. The former has meant he's been bounced around a bit and even left out of the team in the new 52 for cyborg, but also means he's a treasured part of it, an elder statesman who gives the team a sense of a heart among a floating lineup. He also gives the team a power house, having most of superman's powers PLUS telepathy and shapeshifting. Jonn is one of my faviorite DC heroes owing to the justice league cartoon

Guy Gardner: Guy is an odd duck in that both John Stewart and Hal Jordan were wearing the ring, this being the first time all three earth lantern's wore it, so WHY Guy was chosen out of the three was a mystery given JOhn was, as far as I know, popular even then and Hal was the old reliable, back before everyone was sick of that and wanted them to remember they had 7 or so people more intresting. Guy was Hal's understudy. He literally didn't get the ring.. because Hal Jordan was closer, and thus was picked to become a space cop later. He was depicted intially as a school teacher before being resculpted into a jingoisitc asshole by Steve Engleheart, something that was cemented and fleshed out here. He also has a three stooges haircut, something I feel adds to his asshole charm and feel had to be brought up at some point.

Dr. Fate: Dr Fate is kent nelson, a vetran of the JLA's predecessor, the Justice Society of America. Originally the JSA was part of Earth 2, but was merged with Earth 1 so now they simply.. existed before our heroes, retired due to Mcarthyism, then came back into action when the new age of heroes launched, with deaging and such used to explain how their still around. Fate was chosen likely because he looks neat, they needed a magic guy, and they wanted a JSA rep on the team. He.. didn't really quite fit as it was clear DC didn't know quite what they were doing with him yet.

Blue Beetle: My boy ted, who I've already covered on this blog before, but this is his shining moment. For those less familiar or who missed the underated blue beetle film, Ted is an inventor who found out his uncle was planning to take over the world with an army of robots, and enlisted his close friend Dan Garret, who turned out to be the OG blue beetle and sacrificed his life to stop Ted's Uncle, passing on the mantle but not the magical alien beetle. Ted compensated by building a ton of gadgets, having plnety of quips and generally being plesant. Ted was part of Charlton Comics, a company DC had bought recently, and having his own series at the time, being fairly popular, and having an outfit created by Steve Ditko himself, he was a shoe in and a nice pick from the b-list. Grante di'm biased and this series is entirely WHY, but Ted's a fresh face in the dcu who comes in hot with plenty of experince and a cool ship for the group to fly around.

Black Canary: Dinah Lance was changed by the crisis, going from an immigrant from earth 2 to the daughter of the original. She was also made a founding member of the justice league to replace Wonder Woman because she as the only prominent dc heroine who who would've been active at the time. And yes she's wearing THIS for her time in the JLI

And honestly it's.. meh. I think they were trying to give her a less casual look, but the fishnets and black leather jacket just fit. Sometimes a superhero just needs something anyone could wear in the right order to have a super outfit. I'm not against civlian style costumes if it fits the hero and dinah's just.. fits. This one just dosen't suit her as it's a bit too bombastic.

Dinah's likely here both for her new jsa connection and new jla founder status. She's also here because the team needed a female member, alongside dr. light, who we'll get to later.

Captain Marvel: Billy is easy. While DC had aquiried their former rival Fawcett back in the 70's, and thus one of the best superman immitators there ever was and ever will be, Billy had been on earth S since they bought him, and like Dr. Fate is there to show off how the earths are all merged now. He's also another power house, and was someone dc was trying to push. DC.. never really knows HOW to push captain marvel and i'm hoping his current series by Mark Waid helps. If you haven't read it check it out, it's possibly the characters best that i've been able to have acess to (Since DC hasn't reprinted the golden age stuff quite yet). For those who haven't heard of him, Billy Batson is a ten year old who was chosen by a wizard to become his champion and thus can act out the movie big but with superman powers whenever he wants. I love him dearly and wish DC knew how to market him.

Mr. MIracle: Last but not least Mr Miracle is Scott Free. Scott is part of the new gods, Jack Kirby's big contribution to DC that also included bong of evil Darkseid. To keep the peace Darkseid and his counterpart Highfather did a son swap, HIghfather getting Darkseid's angsty son Orion and Darkseid getting Scott, who he gave to Granny Goodness, the God of Child Abuse, who gave him othe name to mock how he'd never be free. Naturally this strategy backfired as it only fired up young Scott to escape, becoming the escape artist, hero and wife guy mr miracle. The last part came courtsey of big barda, another one of Granny's charges who came to take Scott back, but was convinced that maybe hellpits weren't the best place to live, and married him in Kirby's last issue on the two. Scott is here to emphasis the new gods,s something DC was playing with more post crisis. His manager Oberon, a cheery fella with Dwarfism, is also here because Demattis and Giffen had a lot of material for the guy it turned out and Oberon is essentially the team's guy in the chair.

So with this motely crew assembled let's see what this dynamite creative team did with them as we begin the storied history of the justice league international... the international part comes later.

Starting with the cover. While usually i'll skip these in an analysis, it's both a habit I need to break and would be a criminal act here as the cover for Justice League #1 is my faviorite comic book cover of all time and my faviorite to see an homage of.

It's simple, but it's perfect. The group shot is well deisgned, showing everyone off, but in a way that's diffrent from the usual action poses we get. Their clearly ready to kick your ass then their gonna fuckin kick your ass, but it's in a way that's unique, shows the team's unity. It also is taken so seriously here.. that it makes it ripe for jokes later in the series. The wanna make something of it ffrom guy both echoes the tough image their going for.. but fits the goofy tone the series is really going to have as it settles in. This comic has been homaged to oblivion and rightly so. Even Keith's memorial image dc put out is this but with Keith and all his creations.

We open the issue proper with a declaration.

It's one of my faviorite opening pages in a comic: It's beautifully drawn by artist Kevin Maguire, sets up the setting well and sets up guy as having his head firmly up his own ass.. it's why he has the bowl cut you see, helps him get it up there nice and tight.

The issue smartly introduces the cast one or two at a time, letting each character get a proper introduction and seeing how they bounce off each other as they file in.

So first in is Black Canary, who marvels at their old headquarters recent reneovations. Our heroes start the run in the Secret Sanctuary, the Justice League's first headquarters built into a mountain in Happy Harbor Road Island. And if it seems familiar to some of you, it should as after the JLI were done with it the Doom Patrol moved in for a bit during Grant MOrrison's Run. Most famously and lastingly, Young Justice, another team I have to cover at some point, made this their main hq, the only team to really make it a home that wasn't a justice league. And to prove that point the JSA also stayed here briefly. It's this weird go to for teams who need a headquarters for five minutes.

Anyways Dinah remembers the good times and all the ghosts, guy's a dick about it humming the twilight zone theme, and assumes he and Dinah will have a sam and diane thing and not a "Stay 50 feet away at all times thing".

Next up is Mister MIracle, whose nervous about the gig, not sure if he belongs there. Out of the leaguers Scott tends to stick to the back, not shy or afraid to speak up when needed, but not as outspoken as his team mates. This nicely contrasts oberon whose all too happy for the box office as even if this lasts a cup of coffee. He's less happy when Guy makes a shot at his dwarfisim and Oberon's grumbling is hilarious.. as would've been him decking guy but we still got a few issues till someone finally does that.

Billy zooms in, shocked by all the press, showing his naivitie: even after all he just went through... Billy is still a bit shocked by just how profile this is and happy to be there. Enter the boys, Martain Mahunter and Blue Beetle, with Jonn not forgetting the whole LEgends fiasco so soon, and having a bit of a mope... though he soon makes a valid point to ted as he turns on the computer.. and shows the Detroit League. It's a nice reminder that even if the team wasn't like.. they were still close and still Jonn's proteges.. and most most of them are dead and those that arent quit due to the trauma. So doing this, while something he feels is necessary. Cue Guy banging a gavel and declaring the meeting started

We then cut to the offices of innovative concepts where we meet the heart and galbladder of this run, Maxwell Lord, a mysterious man in a suit whose watching a row of tv's. Max isn't evil like he'd later be retconned into being.. but he is VERY shady at this point, watching all the coverage on the league and in one of my faviorite subtle little things scratching the "of america' part out of the legue's name on a pad of paper.

I want to take a minute to point out macguire's facial work.. i'ts incredible, nicely detailed, realistic, but still cartoony enough to have tons of personality. Just looking at max you get his smugness, ego and sense of control all at once with him having barely said or done anything. There's been plenty of masterminds sitting behind a row of tv's, but you get Max's vibe immedietly while still wondering what his deal is and what he wants with the team, the latter being the main mystery of the books first year. Back at the Sanctuary, Dinah and Guy argue as SHOCKINGLY the experinced vetran with an eye for the teams legacy dosen't want sylvester calzone here running things. Oberon TRIES to intervene on Dinah's beahlf but get's literally brushed off and Jonn trying to be an adult in teh room.. gets Guy picking him up and making a green giant joke, both funny, both well done.. and enough to get even JONN pissed enough to enter a brawl.

Cue the goddamn batman.. and dr. fate whose here too. That's.. really fate's roll for their time on the team, their just.. here. While Giffen and Demattis did really try to work with most of the roster they were given, seeing who worked and who didn't, Dr. Fate just didn't fit this team. As you can see already.. a key part of this team is disfunction. Some become true companions eventually, but it's mostly a bunch of personalities that barely function together, fairly normal people who put on tights. It's the charm of the series: instead of just getting along or having the usual angst, these guys just make digs at each other and amble along, but DO get the job done and do deserve to be called the justice league. It's just a version of said league that dosen't take itself seriously and has fun with it, and that treats this group like people. Normally the Guy Gardner in the group would just be ingorned but because he actually DOES have the power to toss people around (and props to the creative ways he does), it leads to an actaul brawl.

Fate... doen't fit into this. Fate is an enigma, mysterious and distant. So they simply.. don't work well in a jokey sitcom. It's clear the duo LIKE the character, they'd reinvent him soon enough, but he just didn't fit what they were going for.

So that begs the question how BATMAN does.. and he answers it, cowing everyone else into stopping it and getting guy to sit down before dryly reading out the charter. Bats is the boss in this workplace sitcom, and he's a mean one, being an utter dick to dinah at one point.

This moment horks me off.. but it's also a perfect encapulation of batman's leading style: shut up do what I say. Even someone whose his EQUAL , and who founded the team before him and thus has senority, he just tells them to shut up when she's making a valid point: their fidgity because this meeting is nervous nad because they just went through some crap. What I like is that despite having BATMAN.. the dream team dosen't glorify him. He's still batman, he shuts down the room with a glare, is a tactical genius and thus great at leading in the battlefield.. but it's very clear even this early on he simply.. can't lead this team well. He has a barking "do what I tell you style" and expects them to be good soldiers, treating them like a group of sidekicks instead of experinced heroes.

It's not something the group pull out of thin air either: Batman used to have a team of his own, the Outsiders, formed after Batman walked out on the league for refusing to let him rescue Lucius Fox and turned in his badge when Clark wanted him to sit this one out as a league member. He found a bunch of other heroes along the way, and choose to make them into a team, but it was very clear that the outsiders were partners, and weren't treated as full equals, with the exception of Black Lightning who Bruce felt was on his level. He wasn't bad to the team, helping find the younger amnesaic Halo a home, setting them up with day jobs, but his style is very much "listen to me or there's the door. "

The problem is while the outsiders were mostly fresh faces to being heroes or out of practice like metamorpho or black lightning, Bruce can't let that guard down even whent he heroes have more than proven themselves. It popped up in a crossover with the New Teen Titans where he started ordering that team around, with Dick eventually having to tell him to shut the hell up and let Dick lead his own damn team.

So while it's midly grating here it fits: Batman is so determined to keep this league together he's treating them like his backup i nstead of experinced heroes, two of whom HE'S BEEN ON THE LEAGUE WITH BEFORE.

Anyways Bats does have ONE good point in his leadership so far: he wants the team to keep a low profile. While it's hard given the army of camera's outside, the team dosen't know each other, hasn't trained together yet, and needs time to be in full shape. After all they just barely got superheroes back in the popular opinon: while Godfrey DID juice up people's emotoins, it dosen't mean it won't swing back to negative easily if they fuck up.

Unfortuantely for them... someone else has other ideas.. and i'ts not fate because their in the room. At the UN Kimyo Hoshi is in the bathroom puzzled by receving a JL signal device from Max and not sure if she'll accept. Kimyo is the second Dr. Light, a hero unlike her predecessor and a scientest from Japan who got her powers during the crisis. She.. wont' be here long as while the issue plays her up as a member on the cover, she never fully joins the league. More on that in the future. For now she exits the bathroom.. to find herself a hostage. Terroists have taken the UN. THankfully she activates the device and while Batman's very confused dr. light has one, rallies the team to go anyway.

Naturally Brucey Boy is cautious, having most of the team get in the bug, while he sends Fate and Billy to scout ahead. Guy WANTS to but Batman's response to the idea of sending a human bulldozer who barely listens to him into a tense hostage situation?

The team enters and despite the disfunction so far... it goes easily: Guy seals the premiters and probably invents some new swears, beetle does his best as the guy in the chair in the bug

And Fate.. well fate left and told Billy batman would understand and left the ten year old to explain this.

The league clean house.. but Batman notices a problem: these guys are ameture, clumsy and their equipment is oudated. Something else is going on here.

Time for that is passed soon though as Guy dive sin and finishes the job quickly. It's a nice sequence overall that shows the team REALLY is this good: this is a setup sure, but they don't know that. The lead terroists plans to detonate himself and batman... tells them to clear the room and let him, knowing somethign we don't as the man prepares to fir eon him and after they exit we get a wrapup via news as Max once again watches

So yeah SOMETHING made the leader kill himself, and max is behind anything. not a MASSIVE twist as the batman conversation set it up, but still a neat one: Max has plans for the league. I also like the focus on optics here: it's something I don't THINK the league had done before, the idea of how the media views a superhero team. This verison of the league isn't bad.. but Batman's refusal to talk to the press allows them to paint the narrative they want instead of the league controlling it. It's what gives Max a leg up on slowly wrestling control of it and makes him a compelling character from the word jump: Unlike Batman, he clearly gets optics, having set this up to force the league into the spotlight bright and early and removing the of america part to give the team a bigger calling. His tactics for doing this are also brilliant but we'll get more on them as we go.

For now this issue.. is as good as ever. Amazingly drawn, sharply written and nicely snappy, setting up the team, the myth arc with max and the situation their in all in one issue while modernizing thigns a bit: instead of space monsters our heroes are now fighting terrorists. Not that I mind fighting a godo space monster, but I get trying to give the leauge something diffrent and more part of the world. And part of the world is a major part of this series: putting the League more into our world an dhaving to deal with things like the media, other nations, etc. It's a brilliant start

Next Time: The last heroes of a dead world try to save ours while a greedy bearded man wonders who he can exploit this and the team gets some gold.

[aemiron-main]

What's With All The Miniatures and Shrinking? Featuring Welcome To Marwen, TFS, The Incredible Shrinking Woman and More (Inital/Intro Post Re: The Miniature Stuff in ST)

So, I was talking about Wilbur about the weird miniature version of the Creel house that we see in one of the TFS BTS videos:

And then, I started thinking about TFS and ST and all of the weird references to miniature/fake versions of things etc. I'm still working on another, larger analysis re: Welcome to Marwen, the Singing Detective, The Twilight Zone, TFS, It's A Wonderful Life, and Hawkins not being "real," but for now, in this post, I just want to talk about the weird "shrinking"/miniature stuff in ST and TFS and how it also connects to the weird invisibility stuff in ST and TFS. Let's get into it.

The Incredible Shrinking Woman

So, there's a VHS tape of The Incredible Shrinking Woman in the Family Video VHS store:

And interestingly enough, the main character of The Incredible Shrinking Woman is a woman named Pat Kramer- which immediately made me think of Patty Newby, and what I talked about in this post re: Patty, Suzie, Orphan (2009), and how Patty connects to the whole "small woman" thing, and NINA/Argyle's "NINA could be a small woman" line. And in The Incredible Shrinking Woman, Pat ends up shrunk due to an exposure to experiment chemicals- which is the same reason that was publicly given for Barbara's death in S2, which is interesting considering all of the Patty-Barb parallels and the fact that Patty plays "Barbara Allen" in the Dark of the Moon play in TFS. It's also interesting that Argyle specifically talks about not being able to see a small woman- versus Patty asking Wonder Woman to make her invisible, something that Patty says she knows isn't "technically canon," likely referring to Wonder Woman's invisible jet, which renders her invisible when she uses it, and also has its own AI system which is connected to Wonder Woman's brain so that she can manage it telepathically, which makes me think of Patty's weird powers-like abilities/her ability to somehow find Henry in the void etc etc, and the whole "invisible jet" thing makes me think of Project Rainbow trying to turn the USS Eldridge invisible by sending it to Dimension X:

Anyway! There's some thoughts re: The Incredble Shrinking Woman. Now let's look at Welcome to Marwen.

Welcome To Marwen

So, Welcome to Marwen is on the S4 Board:

And in Welcome to Marwen, Mark Hogancamp creates a miniature fake WW2 village called Marwen to cope with his PTSD- and he imagines that the village and everyone in it is real/the lines between reality and imagination become extremely blurred for him. And I already talked in this post about Mark's eye scar versus Brenner's eye scar (which, Brenner and the idea of a fake Hawkins/Hawkins not being entirely "real" is something I'm going to dive into more in that big analysis I mentioned), but now, I just briefly want to talk about Welcome to Marwen in general.

The village of Marwen not only reminds me of Scott's miniature town (which we'll get to in a second), but it also reminds me of S3 Will's literal miniature DND village, which is extra interesting considering Will's Brenner parallels, and specifically, his Brenner Sr parallels during that S3 scene, with Will being dressed as Will the Wise & Will the Wise's Saruman the Wise parallels versus Brenner Sr's Saruman parallels, like I talked about in this post, versus what I talked about in that initial Mark Hogancamp scar vs Brenner scar post re: Brenner Sr.

And speaking of the toys/miniature people coming to life in Welcome to Marwen, it's interesting that Spellbound, the song that plays at the end of S4, talks about toys coming alive/going "beserk":

Anyway, my main point with this is just that it involves a fake miniature town with fake, miniature people and that the lines between fiction and reality get blurred, and that Will putting the villagers into peril to try and get Mike and Lucas' attention is very similar to the scenarios that Mark Hogancamp puts his villagers (and his own alter-ego) into.

Argyle’s Small Woman Lines, Scott's Mini Town, and Things You Can't See

So, we also have Scott talking about how you "can't see" the electromagnetic field around his miniatures, but it's there- versus Argyle talking about how a "small woman would be hard to see" and Eddie saying to steve that there was "nothing you could see" versus Joyce saying "why is nothing happening"- all of which makes me think about Patty (a small woman) asking Henry what he sees during TFS when he's in the void looking for her mother:

So, we have this whole idea that things are still real even if you can't see them, versus being unable to see a small woman/the idea that people are still real even if you can't see them, and then we also have Lonnie saying that people are "more real" outside of Hawkins, and then ALSO saying that if Jonathan left Hawkins, Lonnie could "see" him more- which then connects to Scott's whole "you can't see it but it's there" thing (and also implies that the people in Hawkins aren't "real"):

Which, re: all of the invisibility stuff, it makes me think about how Project Rainbow was originally supposed to turn the USS Eldridge invisible- and technically, it did: by sending it to Dimension X. And so, when we compare that to all of the invisibility references surrounding Hawkins, part of me wonders if Hawkins itself, just the town, somehow exists in another dimension/possibly even Dimension X somehow, but anyway.

Alice In Wonderland

And now, let's talk about Alice in Wonderland, because it's definitely inspo for ST, and there's SO many references to it in ST and TFS- but today, I want to focus on the Alice in Wonderland references that centre around shrinking/changing sizes, as well as the chessboard stuff in Alice in Wonderland, and how that connects to the idea of Brenner moving the Creels around like pieces on a chessboard/like dolls.

So, I already talked in this post about the chessboard imagery with the Creel & the ideas that Brenner was manipulating the Creels both on the night of the murders and leading up to the murders, and moving them around like pieces on a chess board, as well as all of that versus the chessboard in Alice in Wonderland, and now I'm sitting here wondering if there's any literal "moving them like dolls/like chess pieces" stuff going on re: the Creels, especially considering that weird mini TFS Creel house. Brenner, quick, do you have like. A Creel terrarium going on here???

And also, in S1, they used the song "White Rabbit," which constantly references Alice in Wonderland, and specifically, talks about how "one pill makes you smaller"- which makes me think about Soteria being pill-shaped and how El says that Henward is "too big" to escape through the tunnel right before El removes soteria.

Especially since White Rabbit plays after El escaped HNL via the tunnel in S1 and ended up at Benny's/the song is connected to that HNL tunnel.

And just as a little side note, it's interesting to me that they specifically chose to describe Henry as "little" Henry in the Weekly Watcher, especially with the context of all of this weird shrinking/miniature stuff.

And all of this makes me think about the whole "one pill makes you smaller" thing vs a.) El literally appearing as a smaller/younger version of herself during NINA and b.) what I've talked about re: Henward being subtitled as "boy" during NINA despite seemingly being a grown man.

There's more to talk about re: all of this and ST vs Alice in Wonderland but I'll save that for another time because this post is just meant to be an intro/overview post re: the weird miniature/shrinking stuff in ST.

DND Minis

Also, the party literally all have MINI equivalents of themselves-

-for some reason, they're drawing out attention specifically to the idea of miniature versions of the characters.

There's also the whole "Hank the Ranger" mini that Scott paints & how a.) "Hank" is a nickname for "Henry," and b.) the lyrics "hungry ONE" play over the scene of Scott painting the Hank the Ranger figure. And like I talked about before, we have Will's S3 village- where he puts the villagers into peril in an attempt to kick Lucas and Mike into action, which is interesting, because it's like. Yes, of course, the villagers are fictional, but also, like I mentioned before, Welcome to Marwen (a movie where the "fictional" villagers often feel very real) is confirmed inspo- so that makeas me wonder about Will's Brenner Sr parallels and the idea of Brenner/Brenner Sr somehow pulling strings in Hawkins and putting people into peril etc etc, I need to think about it more & I'll save that for another time because this post is getting too long already.

And also, speaking of minis in general, El has the miniatures that she made out of clay for her diorama- which is interesting because in TFS, Patty and Henry talk about how Wonder Woman was "sculpted out of clay," and also, Erica's Lady Applejack DND mini reminds me of Wonder woman, with the pose and the hairstyle:

TFS almost reminds me of a dioarama, with how it's contained on the stage- which makes the upside down Rebook box that El uses for her dioarama interesting considering all the of the references to the UD in TFS and what I talked about in this post re: what looks like the UD outside of the Hawkins High window in TFS.

Anyway, there's SO much more to talk about re: DND minis in this show, but I'll save that for another time/the point I'm just trying to make here is that a.) they DO keep drawing our attention to fake, miniature versions of peope and b.) these fake, miniature versions of people connect back to TFS (see: Will's Brenner SR connections and the sculpted out of clay thing vs El's clay diorama minis).

Beetlejuice

And now, we're onto Beetlejuice, which is also on the S4 board:

So, in the attic of the house in Beetlejuice, there's an attic- and in this attic, there's a miniature version of the town, where a miniature Beetlejuice ends up residing- and like I talked about in this post, Scott's miniature set has a miniature version of Beetlejuice's grave in it- which is especially interesting considering that it's anachronistic/Beetlejuice wasn't out at the time of S3.

And so, the miniature town in the attic in Beetlejuice makes me think of the Creel attic, and Henry spending so much time up there with his spiders- and Wilbur @reikunrei perfectly tied this part all together by mentioning The Bride of Frankenstein and the scientist that makes mini versions of people in jars:

Which then makes me think of how Henward compares himself to a spider in his monologue, his spiders, which are in jars, just like the people in jars from The Bride of Frankenstein- which is interesting because that then draws a parallel between Henry himself and the people in the jars/the idea that Henry is in some sort of "jar"/a miniature version of him:

And it's also interesting to me that Henry found the spiders in a vent versus all of the references to people in vents in ST (see: Erica in the vents in S3, which, interestingly, we also get a scene of S4 of Erica painting minis/she seems to have her own miniature of her DND character, Lady Applejack, so she's tied to the miniature stuff and the vent stuff versus the spiders in the vents later ending up in jars just like the miniature people in Bride of Frankenstein) and the way that El says that Henward is "too big" to go through the vent/tunnel in the NINA basement:

(and also, the vent thing gets even more interesting when we consider the fact that in TFS, Henry doesn't find the spiders in the vent- instead, he brought them WITH him from Nevada in his suitcase in jars. There's something rattling there re: all of this weird miniature/shrinking stuff vs TFS and the fact that Henry's spiders in TFS were never actually outside of the jar in the Creel house vs TFS feeling weirdly "self contained"/not aligning with filmed canon- almost like it's in a jar) And then re: Bride of Frankenstein and "small women," that brings us to this post that I made re: TFS, Patty's Mom, and Patty and music box imagery and how Patty's mom resembles/is posed like the literal small woman/tiny ballerina inside of Nancy's music box- and then when we look at Bride of Frankenstein, there's a tiny ballerina inside of one of the jars:

Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

And now, we have Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, which is on the S4 board:

In Dream Warriors, we see Freddy's dollhouse- and it REALLY reminds me of the Creel house, specifically, that weird miniature TFS BTS version of the Creel house, and also reminds me of the boarded up version of the Creel house, considreing how Freddy's dollhouse is boarded up:

This dollhouse was built by Kristen, and ends up acting as a portal to Freddy's nightmare realm- which makes me think about the scene of the Creel house getting split in half by the gate in S4/the portal imagery there. And speaking of Kristen, Kristen is able to pull people into her dreams- which makes me think of Patty in TFS and all of the references to things being "her dream," like I talked about in this post.

But then, Patty also tells Henry that it's his dream/there's a whole thing there re: shared dreams, so it seems to go a bit further than the way Kristen just pulls people into her dreams:

And also, in Nightmare on Elm Street 4: Dream Master, Kristen talks to Alice about her nightmares, and Alice tells her to take control of her dreams and "think of someplace fun," which is basically what Patty says to Henry in TFS, when she says to "make it a nice dream"- so Patty seems to get paralleled to both Alice and Kristen (which is very interesting considering Alice's character as a whole, but that's its own post), and Henry seems to get paralleled to Kristen (and a bunch of other Nightmare characters/there's ones with stronger parallels to Henry than Kristen, but again, that's another post).

(and just as a little fun fact, the actress who plays Kristen is also named Patricia)

Anyway, I went on a bit of a tangent re: Nightmare on Elm Street, but I just wanted to bring up the whole Freddy's mini dollhouse thing vs the weird mini Creel house/the Creel house in general and all of the Patty-Henry dream stuff. Not to mention all of Alice Creel's dollhouse imagery versus Freddy's dollhouse- what the hell is going on???

Conclusion

I’m not really sure what the hell is going on here, but there’s SOMETHING here. I don't even really have a coherent thesis or anything but my point is just that there's something weird going on re: shrinking and miniature versions of people and places and that also somehow ties to all of the references to invisibility/not being able to see things.

And I mean, if Brenner wanted to run experiments on an entire town, it'd be easier to do it on a tiny town, right?? Like how Scott LITERALLY runs an electromagnetic field experiment on his miniature town. And I'm also staring at the Mindflayer appearing with that giant hand and reaching towards Will- when you think about it, that's the exact sort of thing that somebody in Scott's miniature town would see when he reaches towards the town/this giant hand reaching down. Are the people of Hawkins just little DND-esque miniatures to the MF/shadow???

Also, all of this stuff re: miniatures/small versions of people makes me think about all of the pocket stuff in ST/Mike's weird letter-shaped pocket etc etc versus a.) mini people being pocket-sized and b.) the idea of pocket dimensions, and things like a bag of holding in DND, which is much bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. Is Hawkins itself some sort of pocket dimension? Does NINA take place in some sort of pocket dimension???

Long story short: I'd love to know what the hell is going on. Are there literal miniature versions of the Creels running around somewhere in some sort of ant farm-esque Brenner experiment???? Like a little "Freddy's Dollhouse" sort of thing but with the Creel house??? What the hell was up with that miniature Creel house for TFS that never got used in the play??? Is Hawkins itself some sort of weird miniature experiment town??? Is Hawkins as we know it "fake"/not "real" and is the UD the "real" Hawkins/the original Hawkins???

I'd just love some answers LMAO