#we went to see the new power rangers movie

[strangerthingssimps-blog]

Dacre montgomery x Reader

You and Dacre met on the set of stranger things 2, you were playing Dustin’s older sister in the series. You met at the meeting when filming first began. You were sat in between him and Joe keery. Most of your scenes you filmed were with Dacre, Natalia and Gaten.

During your first time interacting with him you recognized him from the power rangers movie that came out a couple of years ago.

“Wait a minute didn’t you play the red power ranger in the new power rangers movie” You say to him and he instantly smiles. “Yeah I did, you watched the movie?” he responds by starting a conversation with you.

“Yeah, I took my younger brother to go watch it. It was quite a good movie” You say to him. You two then started talking which was good since your Characters would be love interests on the show.

The first day of shooting was a really hard and long day. You were in the dressing room getting your hair and make-up done when Dacre came in to get his wig done and he saw you in your costume. Your hair was now really curly and was put in a ponytail for the shot and you were wearing a black top and ripped jeans and some black boots.

“Hey Dacre or should i say Billy” You say getting into character, he was wearing his first outfit and was getting his wig done. “Wow you look nice C/N” says as he finishes getting his wig done. You finally got a good look at Billy's character and you could tell he was the bad boy type.

Over time everyone could tell that you and Dacre had chemistry on set and off cameras. When it was the first romantic scene between you two you were a bit nervous since you had caught feelings for him and instead of an on-screen kiss you thought it was a real kiss. When it came to the kiss all the girls were hyping you up saying you could do this especially natalia she knew about your crush on Dacre and could tell dacre liked you too.

When it came to the premier of Season 2 it was revealed that you and dacre were dating when you came out the limousine holding hands and had matching outfits, at first the fans thought it was because of your characters but then it hit them that they were dating.

Season 3 was the hardest for you both to film because Dacre had to pretend to choke you in a scene when Billy was flayed and Your character was protecting Max, Mike and El. Your acting was that good. He actually thought he was hurting you and had to stop to make sure you were okay.

After Season 3, You and Dacre moved to Australia to live together, in 2020 You were called back in to act in season 4, Dacre went with you because he missed the other cast members especially Sadie and Joe. The duffer brothers decide to take it up a notch and decide to make the character you're playing pregnant with Billy's Child and kill you off as one of Vecna's victims.

It was shocking and heartbreaking to the fans when it was revealed by Nancy when she said “We need to bury them with Billy”. When it was time for the season 4 premier Dacre was your date again and the paparazzi loved seeing you together since they haven't heard anything about you two since the season 3 premiere. After that you and dacre went back to Australia.

In 2026, You and Dacre returned for a 10 year anniversary of Stranger Things. It was nice to reunite with the cast members, Most people pointed out that you had a bump. You were indeed pregnant with Dacre’s child. It was also revealed that you had gotten married in 2024, you had a beach wedding and both of your families were invited.

Let me know if you want a Stranger Things cast x you romance with any other characters

[popculturebuffet]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Review and Analysis: This Films What Makes Me Feel Alright

Hello all you happy turtles! It's time to grab some pizza and party sized cool ranch doritos and pull your old high school sketchbooks out of some ancient backback in your closet, it's time to talk TMNT: Mutant Mayhem. As a massive TMNT nerd who was beyond hyped for this film coming from the powerhouses of both Point Grey Pictures and one jeff rowe, how did the film stack up? How did it spin kick on it's own? And why did they think Bebop nipple piercings were a good idea? All this and more under the cut, with FULL SPOILERS so if you haven't seen the film, you've been warned.

A New Coat of Ooze: Mutant Mayhem's story of how it came to be is oddly familiar: a massive movie company who has an iconic IP has no idea how to use said IP on it's own, and taps creators who have had some recent noticable and well loved succeses to make them a hit.

If that sounds familiar.. it really should as it was sony's creative desperation to get something spider-man centric only they would get profit from out that lead to Into the Spider verse and i'ts sequel. So it's funny and endearing to me that a film that wouldn't of gotten away with it's utterly unique and grungy art style without spider-verse.. happened for pretty much the exact same reasons.

Like with spidey, Paramount.. really didn't know what to do with TMNT for a while. And it's weird because when they first aquired the heroes in a halfshell from mirage, they had a pretty solid plan: the 2012 show, while messy as it went on, started out really promising and was a huge hit. The IDW comics prior to it were a massive hit for the company and are STILL around today, having outlasted other long term idw liscenses like transformers and having kept a consistent continuity for a decade while also leaving room for crossovers with ghostbusters, the mighty morphin power rangers, the goddamn batman and now street fighter.

So what went wrong? Simple.. they tried WAY too hard to mimic the transformers formula with their theatrical film, Ninja Turtles, not only not getting that audiences were tired of "Micheal Bay makes a weirdly sexual comedy about your childhood and it may have robots", but what really made the franchise work. The sequel from what i hear is slightly better but it just wasn't enoguh. Not helping is they quickly lost their shit on the tv front, as after the 2012 series concluded, they launched the creative, hilarious, and gorgeous Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.. which proceded to last only two seasons because it wasn't an instant hit, aka the same issue most nick shows fell into, not helped by the fact that Nick also seemed to pick up Cartoon Network's bad habit of hating action shows. We DID at least get a really good Rise film that gave the series a nice epilogue, but it's still sad it sputtered out so fast.

So Paramount turned to something they really weren't using.. their film animatoin department.

Paramount Pictures Animation is neat to look into as it had a steep rise.. then fell right off a cliff. It was a bit spottier at first, producing two of the charlie brown films, Bon Voyage Charlie Brown (And don't come back) and my beloved Race for Your Life Charlie Brown... mostly for this theme song.. okay ENTIRELY for the theme song.

And scattered experiments like Cool World, which was so good Ralph Bakshi punched a man over what they'd done to his idea, Bebe's Kids, and Beavis and Butthead Do America.

It wasn't till the late 90's and the nick boom they really started seeing success with the rugrats movies, jimmy neutron, spongebob and even the failures like Hey Arnold and Wild Thronberries were still neat. And yes i'd like to talk about any and all of these films at some point, they made up my childhood etc etc.

Eventually they got a cushy partneriship with dreamworks, still releasing the ocasional original effort like Rango, Barnyard and TinTin (The last of which I WILL be covering next august, I simply didnt' have room in pirate month this year. Once dreamworks left.. it seemed like Paramount genuinely had no clue what to do with the animation divsion. We had things like Sherlock Gnomes or Wonder Park, and the ocasoinal spongebob movies but it's clear that with Nick constantly cutting itself off at the knees they had no idea what to do. The closest they got was the turdtastic loud house movie and the totally awesome Rise of the TMNT films on netflix, but they just had no idea what they were doing. I mean it's telling that their trying to get extra paw patrol tickets by promiting a double feature with saw X. I.. I wish that was just some stupid joke I made as it's comedy gold. Eventually they came across an idea: Stay the course in focusiong on ips they own.. but bring in someone who knows what their doing to create something truly jawdropping.

So for Mayhem Parmount brought in two proven successes. The first were producers Point Grey Pictures, helmed by friends, writing partners and permenant teenagers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Rogen has made quite the name for himself as a producer. While Point Grey started as mainly a way for Rogen to produce comedies starring himself and a pre-outing as a sex monster james franco, over time Rogen has proven to be REALLY good at making adaptations, with point grey having had a hand in both the Boys, which I haven't seen but seems to be a MASSIVE improvment over the original comics , which isn't hard but it's still nice they tried, and Invincible, one of the best superhero shows PERIOD and a fantastic adaptation that changes what needed it, moves around pieces and ultimatley creates something really special. So tapping him to adapt a big property like this was a no brainer. He even had animation experince thanks to Sony Pictures Sauage party and while this was Point Grey's first family production, it's clear it wasn't too hard for Rogen to adapt. As for their director they picked a hell of one: Jeff Rowe. For those not familar with him Rowe helmed the Mitchells vs the Machines, sony's first post spider-verse success and the film that helped codify the 2d on 3d style that spider-verse made popular and peanuts pioneered. And it was clearly just ont hes trength of word of mouth alone as Rowe went right from machines to mayhem and only got better. From interviews, the two worked really well together: Rogen was hands on but didn't make the mistakes lord did of being way TOO hands on, simply pitching neat ideas, adding to the film and clearly being heavily involved, while still letting Rowe steer the ship. Rowe in turn learned to have a good work life ballance and give his employees one, preventing the kind of nightmarish working conditions present on other flims such as, sadly, Across the Spider-Verse.

For the direction of the film Rowe was a fan of the franchise as a kid, specifically the toys. He recalled a really sweet story about he and his dad spent a saturday trying to find Tokka and Rahzar and really loved the toys designs and uniquely grungy astetic. As such Rowe really didn't lean into or heavily research the rest of the franchise. Which set off my alarm bells when I read it in a review close to release: after all a LOT of bad adaptations come out of the person adapting it not giving one iota of a shit about the source material. Eventually though I realized I was .. over panicking. What jeff meant was more "I don't want to be overly reverent to the material and see what we can do on our own with the basic concept' rather than "THE TURTLES ARE GOD YOU FOOLS GODS. GODS I SAY!". There are still little nods in there and bits taken from other series; There's a mention of the turtles taking in a knicks game (something that happened in out of the shadows), April's design borrows heavily from her design from Rise while still being unique, Donnie has glasses like the bay movies, there apparently was a miyamoto usagi sticker on a notebook (thanks tv tropes for noticing), and there's a TON of refrences to the 87 continuity as it's clearly the one rowe knew best. And while I do get a LITTLE tired of that being the one continuity most creators seem to lean on the most, I don't hate it and plan to binge the whole giant thing soon I just feel there's a LOT more turtles to pull from, paticuarlly the idw comics, the nods are neat stuff like them having their belts form that series, the various obscure mutants. The Ninja Rap even shows up. Rowe and Rogen clearly love them some turtles.. they just wanted to do something new with it and I completely love and respect that. The biggest swing and the one that's paid off the most was leaning on the teenage aspect. Rowe and Rogan were baffled that no other version of the franchise had done the obvious: Have actual teens voice the turtles. There are reasons for that: For the various tv shows it's simply easier to know the va's wont' age out of the roll, and to the 2012 and rise series credits, they both still tried to make the turtles feel younger and had va's that still made them sound sorta like teens, paticuarlly rise... but it's not at all a bad concept and i'm shocked it took this long for someone to try it.

Another aspect was having the boys all record in one booth. Rogen had the idea.. but Rowe had to explain that it'd be a sound mixing nightmare.. but eventually agreed to it when they tested it out and he saw how much having the four actors playing the turtles riffed off each other and just how much material they got out of the boys adlibs. It adds a natural feeling to the boys conversations: it feels like four teens riffing who just happen to be turtles. It was indeed an audio nightmare.. but the nightmare was worth it and Rowe was greatful and apologetic to his sound crew.

The final bit was simply taking from teen movies, the film even outright has the boys watch Feris Buller's Day Off, which gives me one of my faviorite lines in the film, courtesy of Raph: "Being in high school means you can hyjack a parade whenever you want. "

There's more to get into as we go but with the film opening decently and paramount being so confident in the film pre-release they announced a two season tv show and a sequel, the future looks bright for the green machines. So now we've seen how the pizza gets made let's see how it came out

Perfectly Sketchy: Rogen and Rowe's "Teenage Energy" philosphy went into the design. Rowe wanted to find a unique look for the film, but it was a bit of a puzzler at first: There's SO many incarnations of the tmnt, which one do you pick for this? Do you go with the mirage comics, the 87 cartoon? 2003? the next mutation if you huffed some paint? In the end Rowe decided

Instead he made a brilliant decision: if the film was going to feel teenagery, then why not have it look like the sketches teenagers make in their notebooks? It's an idea that just oozes brilliance and still fits the franchises history like a razor decked claw glove. Part of what made the early comics stand out was it's sketchy, frank miller-esque style, and the toys stood out for largely echoing that as much as you could in three dimensions at the time. So it still fit.. but did something entirley new with it. As as a result the film has a look that simply nothing else has: porportions on most things are off, the backgrounds arne't hugely detailed , did you when you were a teen?, but still pop gloriously, and the characters all have SOMETHING that would be off model anywhere else. One of the thugs in the turtles first act of vigilnate justice, for instanc,e has a weirdly crooked head with indents. It's a look that's perfectly stylitic, fits the series history, and it's a kind of weird that perfectly complintes a series that was already having our heroes fight space dinosaurs by the third issue. I especially love how the shurikens are not even yet still throw perfectly and Mikey's hey arnold head. It's a look that pops with creativity and the crew really took to playing with. It's a style that will, much like spider-verse lead to this, undoubtly lead to more unique swings and I cannot wait to see what people come up with as a result

Protecting a World that Hates and Fears Them

The film's core comes from a rather genius decision to simply pick apart a key part of the franchise... the fact Splinter keeps the boys isolated from humanity for most of their lives and encourages them to stay hidden. Now credit where it's due some continuties justify it well enough: sometimes splinters hiding from shredder, or already had a sweet rent free sewer apartment he set up for no reason, trying to find his lost son and complete his family while avoiding a mutated alley cat or simply was waiting till the boys could defend themselves. They often have a lot of enemies... but even that shouldn't mean they can't get an education or have friends. April and Casey stick by them no matter what. They should be able to at least try for a normal life or the idea of them WANTING more than hidnig all the time should really come up more. The only ones that have really tapped into this are the IDW continuity which is just now having the boys integrate post armageddong game, out of the shadows which from what i've read has a throughly intresting subplot about the boys wanting to become human and leos' resistance to the idea (which also makes him come off as a bit of a jackass honestly as it's not his choice and "We're turtles end of story" is not an excuse). We've had the turtles say move into an apartment but this is the first to just flat out ask: why CANT the boys at least try to live with humanity instead of under them? And if so why did splinter keep them apart?

It's part of what really grounds the boys in this incarnation and makes them feel so damn real. The other of course was the decision to have actual teens play them and riff off each other. We get them making unteiotnally douchey digs at each other, such as the other three mocking Leo attempting a batman voice, casually talk about how they'd like to meet drake or have brunch with tom brady, which leo no you can do better man, or do some goofy shit while april marvels at their stupidity.. and then double down when told it might make people like them less. By making the biggest attempt so far to make the turtles FEEL like teens instead of young adults, an evolution the franchise has been undergoing since the 2012 cartoon and honestly reaches it's apex here, it makes us feel for them that much more; These are just kids who simply want to be loved and accepted, like any teenager. That awkwardness, wanting to fit in, wanting to simply belong.. it's one of the most painful parts of a teen and transplanting that to the tutles wa sa brilliant move. One of the earliest scenes is what sells this the most: the boys going to see Ferris Buller's Day off.. and just wondering what it'd be like to be normal. That lost shot of them sadly returning to the sewer... looking on screen at something they only wish they could have... it's so heartbreakingly beautiful.

The reasons WHY Splitner restricts their time in the outside world and refers to humans as "the demon scum of the earth. They lust to destroy that which is diffrent than them"

Giving Splinter a deep fear of humans is a brilliant move. It's something that really coudln't be done in most incarnations as he's been the pet of a martial arts master who treated him well, said martial arts master living in a sweet sewer apartment after being clumsily blamed for murder, got reincarnated as a rat after dying in ancient japan, a martial arts master who turned his back on his heritage because his clan let his family die, became a movie star, fucked a spider lady, had said spider lady put him in gladatorial games, then got depressed after becoming a rat but gladly adopted his sons. Here they strip that away and we're left with a splinter who was just a rat who was yelled at by other animals, shooed by humans just for trying to survivie and whose only friend was a cockroach.. who he ended up eating after humanity killed the poor guy. Finding the boys also abandoned in the sewers and covered in ooze, as oozual, not only made him into a rat man.. but also gave him the one thing he never had: a family. We also get a REALLY adorable montage set to de la soul's eye know that makes me REALLY glad the copy right hurdles around them are gone so we don't have another spider-man no way home situation because the song both slaps and has a nice soothing tone that really fits. We'll get more into the music on i'ts own later, I just really love this montage.

It also makes what follows..

We see that Splinter GENUINELY tried to go out into the world.. and the result was humanity throwing things at him despite carrying 4 small children and said children nearly being hit by a car. It's a really unsettling sequence. While yeah everyone going "rat man" and throwing things is a bit on the nose... given how a LOT of humanity acts to LBGTIQ+ persons, People of color, diffrent religions I could go on but i'm depressed enough as is, it's not really that much of a stretch that they'd throw things at a rat just trying to show his sons the world. It reminds me a LOT of the x-men and it's honestly weird to me that the othe rbiggest mutant franchise int he world HADN'T taken a page from them sooner.

It gives the film nuance: Splinter IS objectively prejudiced, leo even says so directly, but you can see how those prejudices formed and why he's so terrified for his own kids. He's worried a world that hates and fears them will also hate and milk them.. a runner that while awkwardly phrased, I don't think Seth or Jeff have heard of the term milking before, is hilarious, especially the usual refrain of "we don't even have nipples. " He just wants them safe and happy and you can tell he really does love them. He taught them the martial arts to protect them.. and the how is also really clever and a really fun idae: instead of "I learned it from a book" Or "I happened to be owned by a ninja master" or "I was reincarnated" we instead get him teaching them.. via martial arts films, instuctional videos, and the ocasional youtube thing. I love it because it honestly makes way more sense than it should as shown in the animation: splinter watched the films, learned the movements himself and then taught the boys. It's also a nice bit of meta text as Jackie Chan himself is a practicing martial artist who makes martial arts films and did his own stunts. One of his films is apparently even in the montage. It's one of my faaviorite takes of the film.

One of my faviorite scenes is Splinter's biggest pet the dog moment: the pizzza party. Splinter brings in a bunch of pizza hut pizzas

It's neat because it both clearly misses the point, Splinter really dosen't seem to get that simply bringing down a bunch of pizzas to have a human style prom and having kelvin captain kirk cutout won't fill the void inside. I mean I could think of a lot of uses for a chris pine cutout, i'm not saying it's a bad gift and it's sweet he's trying SO HARD to get his boys to open up and Jackie Chan just nails the dad energy on this one. It's just clear that they don't want to stay there there whole lives as safe as that is.

What brings it to it's head is one of the films more brilliant decisions. Originally, while I haven't found many specifics the film had other antagonists: Baxter Stockman was originally the boys teacher (they went to school during the course of this film in this draft) and became the fly again, while Shredder was TCRI"s heavy in earlier drafts. Both were nixed, the former likely due to abandoing the school plot and the latter for the entirely on the mark decision that it was just too much. Shredder.. is THE arch enemy to the turtles. The one constant in every universe. So it makes way more sense to save him for a sequel and let someone else take the reigns. As Rowe has teased Shredder's going to be a bit of a wakeup call: just as the boys think they have it figured out .. in comes shredder to kick their asses. Which really has happened A LOT across the franchise, with it being a regular tradition that the shredder beats the shit out of the turtles the first time they fight. Even in IDW where they do rally and turn the fight on it's head.. he still easily handles them all one on one before they rally as a team. It makes sense to save their ultimate test for a sequel while still giving them one hell of a trial by fire

Instead we got Superfly, who better fit into the fantastic racisim narritive. If the boys want to get love and acceptance by fighting for a world that hates and fears them x-men style.. it only makes sense they have a magneto on that other end.

Like Magneto Superfly has a tragic backstory behind his hatred of mankind.. Superfly was the creation of Baxter Stockman and what they did with Baxter both completely floored me.. and drove me to tears. Instead of what he is normally, either a put upon target coerced into villany who strikes back at both the turtles and those who wronged him, or a narcsitic monster who will gladly do whatever he wants and kill anyone in his way, here... Baxter is just a deeply lonely old man who just wants a family. At worst he steals from TCRI.. but given we see their a horrifying company who wants the mutants as weapons and will gladly torture teenagers for a buck, it's not hard to side with him. It's really nice ot see a heroic baxter.. and sad to see him go so quickly.

It puts Superfly's hatred in perspective: like splinter he saw just what huamanity does and how his kind is treated and grew up having to raise his younger siblings. Like Splinter he seems to really love them. And like splinter his attempt to take his siblings topside.. went horribly wrong with them being chased by an angry mob for just..c oming to a snack bar. But it's right after that we get the clear diffrence: Splinter just ran in fear and while he trained the boys ot protect themselves, he just wants a line between himself and humanity. Superfly.. wants them all to pay. He wants to mutate the world that killed his dad and drove him and his siblings into hiding. The only way they can be accepted.. is if humanity is mostly gone and what's left are enslaved.

IT's that sadistic streak that ultimately defines him as a villian: the turtles just want to be accepted, splinter just wants to be loved, the rest of the mutant "cousins" just want a home and have been indocrinated and browbeaten into thinking there isn't another way. Superfly.. wants things his way: he wants blood, he wants revenge and if anyone stands in his way no matter their age or being his family he will kill them. It's that anger inside that makes him a true monster.

And that extends to his own family. Superfly's an abusive parent to Splinters flawed but loving one: The rest of the mutants turn stone quiet when he subtly/notsubtly threatens the turtles if they happen to disagree, and during the chase not only are they all desperate to get the thing back but Wingnut in paticular gets the most telling line

Wingnut: Superfly's almost here and he's not going to be as nice about this! Leo: You're not being nice! Wingnut: He'll be less nice!!

While the other mutants SEEM jazzed during the bowling alley scene, it's very clear later none of them were that enthused about the idea. Both sets are afraid to speak to their parental figure.. but the diffrence is clear in motion: the boys hide from splinter because they know he'll say no, it's a standard teenage thing and as seen with the pizza party when Splinter finds the various knick knacks they've picked up on their heroic journey, his response is to try to bring the surface to the sewer. It's awkward as hell and dosen't remotely work.. but it's still a sweet gesture and you still feel bad for him when the boys quickly leave to finish their half assed plan. Splinter ultimately wants what's best for his kids and even if he's not always right in carrying that out, I never doubted he actually loved his children.

This all brillantly comes to a head towards the end: While Splinter plans to just.. isolate the turtles after their nearly milked, the one time he seems GENUINELY angry the whole film, he still wants to save April, the one good human, who warned him the boys were in danger in the first place.

This leads to a touching bit in itself: the boys COULD fight the other mutants, their trying to do a genocide after all.. but instead the boys.. just talk them down. I mean i'm used to this kinda thing by now, most animation these days is about forgivness, but it still works: earlier when meeting each other the turtles gladly bonded with their cousins, who i'll talk about in more detail later: Mondo and Mikey were both chill, raph finally found some people who liked to hit stuff, presumibly while blasting Limp Bisikit, it was really sweet. THeir relutance to stop them added a nice dimension to things: they UNDOUBTLY want to stop superfly's plan.. but they genuinely like their cousins and see them as good people in a bad situation. Likewise the cousins are utterly destraught at the fight afterwords and miss the turtles. These are simply at the end of the day teens 20 somethings and whatever scumbug is who just wanted to not be chased iwth torches.

So it's utterly heartwarming when the turtles and splinter simply offer their home. They may not have humanity.. but they'd have each other. It's also YET ANOTHER idea that seems obvious in retrospect but most turtle series never really thought of: why.. can't other mutants stay with them? They usually order suplies and stuff descretley anyway or in this case take them out of nescsity, if they can afford pizza for 5 people reguarly, why NOT let other smove in. I mean I get it meta wise, you dont' want to overcrowd things. But it's a nice thought i'm glad gets realized: that the boys aren't alone and now have a whole new family to lean on.

And of course Superfly can't take that. To him there's only one way to go: never stop making them pay. I'll also say I like just how poweful superfly is: he's got strength inunerablity, and super smarts, which I thought was a nice touch. I assumed he woudln't have baxter's intellegence and I'm glad to be wrong. He's only stopped and only then breifly by sheer numbers.

What follows is a LITTLE on the nose, with superfly just.... saying outight he and splinter aren't so diffrent, down to both having said "You'll be safe if you just LISTEN TO ME".

That part.. dosen't quite work for me. What does work is the animation on splinter during the struggle between everyone else and superfly.. the dawning realization of what he is as Superfly states the obvious and his determination as soon as Superfly says "the diffrence is i'm not a punk". Superfly just wants to get revenge on a world that hates and fears him.. Splinter just wants his sons to be happy. And he finally realizes that even if there's a lot of risk involved, they DESERVE to live out there with everyone else. There is something better than hiding or murder.

I also like how Superfly.. drops the pretense: once his plans done he just goes on a massive kaiju attack: I also like how fucking horrific his form is: the whale part's a bit goofy at first.. but then you see how much STRENGTH that gives him as he destroys it. Even if we get the ocasional joke (I didn't need that horse is gold), for the finale Superfly is just a nightmarish, imposing threat that threatnes to run our heroes lives and also maybe end them. The glee he takes in crushing the boys alive... it's fucking terrifying.

I also love the bit of the boys panning... seeing all the destruction.. and seeing the media blame them too. Their trying to HELP people.. and get blamed. I'd suggest moving to krakoa but a lo tof shit has went down and living with one old man full of fear and regret is what started this whole caper. And the boys.. fight on anyway because it's the right thing to do. Despite all the hate... someone has to stop superfly. And in doing so.. April makes sure they get the glory and praise they deserve anyway.

Finally I love splinter's turnaround right before the final fight... where he admits he was wrong.. but hasn't FULLY turned around on humans. He's simply realized he can't let his baggage with humanity weigh down his sons. And it pays off brilliantly during the time square fight, as when Splinter is downed.. someone helps him up. And what I love is that while it COULD just be someone who saw April's newscast clearing the turtles and other mutants.. it's left ambgious. As far as we know it was just a nice guy and gal helping an old man up regardless of if he was a giant rat or not. It dosen't paper over all the films flaws with the rat man mob scene but it does help quite a bit.

The film brillantly tackles prejudice and I like how unlike most films.. there's no easy answers. Our boys have to do something big and loud to get accepted and it's not guaranteed to shield them, as seen with the stingers. THey find friends , activites and get what they want.. but it's likely not the end.. but that's okay. The important thing is for the first time the turtles are out of the shadows and into the sun. And it suits them. Seriously this last twist was brilliant and i'm shocked it took a tmnt this long to just.. let them be public since 87, and since media has evolved, it means when we get to the series we can actually explore what that means: how will they adapt? will everyone accept them? will april realize Leo is into her and it wasn't just a friend thing? there's a lot of questions I can't wait to be answered.

Change is Constant

I didn't have a good segway so.. CHARACTERS! MY WHEELHOUSE. LET'S GO.

Starting with the boys, their more of a package deal here. They still have unique deisgns, takes on the cores of their personalities, all you'd expect from a good tmnt adaptation.

What changes it up a bit is the recording together: while most sets of turtles have great chemistry, this one.. really feels like their brothers thanks to the shared recording: they talk over one another, dunk on each other and goof around. This has always been a thing, and part of the franchises charm, but how they do it here feels more real, helped by the fact they clearly took some adlibs in. Both the BTS bit where they try to comfort Donnie only to both mangle the lyrics and writhe in pain and the bit with the new york accents both sound like the boys just started riffing on the prompt given, didn't stop and they rolled with it because it was comedy gold. It also means a LOT more pop culture refrences.. but it works. It dosen't feel like too much

Admitely I don't know how current the refrences are to ACTUAL teens, but they work well enough and don't feel like their horribly date the film. Plus it'd be.. weird to have a turtles work that didn't reflect it's era in some way, as all 4 cartoons and most films and comics reflect their time either in writing or in the general vibe.

The downside to this is the turtles indvidual personalities, while present.. get kinda underplayed. Leo and Raph make it out fine enough: After the radience that was Rise Leo and ben schwartz being at his peak slacker doofus (while also still being badass), we're back to Leo being Teachers Pet. But thankfully like the 2012 film they play with it: like that Leo his brother's don't really respect him as a leader, but rather than the usual raph snarling at him like wolverine, here it's more just their his brothers, they woudln't respect him anyway and benig their dad's mouthpiece just makes them ignore him harder. He's the dutiful son but he's simply outnumbered. Raph dosen't get a ton of spotlight, but gets enough to be a fun little murder baby and probably my faviorite of the 4. Instead of the usual brooding loner, sometimes ultra violent sometimes just sassy, often both, here he's more an obnoxious older brother who picks on leo the most, is happy to do dangerous stunts and badly needs therapy. He's essentially Reese from malcom in the middle as a ninja turtle. He still loves his brothers and loves a good scrap, but he's got some issues to adress.

Mikey and Donnie likewise aren't bad but kinda one note: Mikey gets it the worst: he's a bit goofy.. but since they ALL are this incarnation it dosen't stand out as much. He gets some nice bits and one hell of a impariment shot, but not much else.

Donnie fairs better, but suffers from the unintended consequences of a good choice. As part of grounding things a bit, Donnie isn't a super genius. He's just a snarky little otaku who does really like tech, but on the resonable level of a teenage boy. As a result he dosen't get as much to do as most donnies as he's not hotwiring shit as often or making super lasers. It works for me, it's intresting to have a donnie whose just a normal kid who happens to be really nerdy, but it means plotwise he dosen't have as much to do as Raph as the ringleader to the boys mischief or Leo as the leader of the band during hero stuff. I get why: they only had a hundred minutes and it's remarkable they crammed as much in as they did, but it's something I really hope the series can course correct. I don't mind the boys riffing and hope it continues, but I also hope we get them more as their own people too.

As a final note I love Leo's crush on April. IT feels like a better realized version of the Donnie one from 2012. Instead of waffling over wether april notices or just dosen't want to turn him down which..

And then having it go from cute to "spiraling obessive dickhole", here April notices something's weird, but is clearly more intrested in the "giant talking turtles who can help my rep" thing and thus dosen't really pry. It only REALLY crosses into that at the end when he transparently asks her out.. and she waits till prom to ask "wait this is a friend thing right". But that could be nerves or her being just as scared of her feelings as he is with his. It also helps that while he's intrested in april romantically the two do bond: out of the four he' sthe most empathetic at her barf reputation, priortizes her not out of his crush but because she asked for their help and later works with her at her club. It's still somethign the series could work on, but for "a way to both mine jokes and get leo to go against his dad's wise council" it works fine. It's better than "how dare you ruin my ship you bastards" and "Mikey stop being a sex creep. "

So moving on to April herself, I mostly like this version. She's the third time this franchise has gone with a teen april and the third to have her POC. I've liked the turn to teen april as instead of being a big sister to the turtles, and essentially another authority figure when they already have their dad, she's on their level and it opens up fresh possiblities. Mayhem is the first with this take on april to have her be a reporter again, and it's honestly nice to see that work at a school level, having her TRIED to be on their equivleant of channel one.. and end up puking. And i'm not a barf joke man but walking back into the theater after a bathroom break to see her ralphing to "UnwritteN" may be one of my faviorite cinema moments of 2023, up there with walking back into Barbie to find she and ken now had cowboy outfits they'd apparently stolen.

I also love how it gives her a personal stake: she just wants to be loved same as the turtles and like them realizes this isn't WHY to do this. She also provides a nicely needed straight man to the goofier brothers without being reduced to the old sterotype of "Joy killing female foil. ", something her fellow teen aprils and most aprils in general have thankfully achieved. April is just a person and reacts with annoyance to the boys because their going on a 4 minute tangent saying new york sterotypes while mike does a rumpshaker.

We do have to unpack that mostly though and that comes from April being kind of a dick at time's. She's pressuery when the boys are undercover with SUperfly's gang.. even though she can HEAR what their saying.. and thus hear that he's clearly indocrinated the others and that the boys may not want to harm THEM. I get her not wanting Superfly to succeed, his plan is fucking horrible, but even for a teen it's weird she dosen't see the nuance. She can also be a bhit short with them, though the latter I acknolwedge in hindsight as being like the boys: she's a teenager and teens aren't perfect. This is still a great april and continues Ayo's streak this year of great voice acting roles.

The other mutants are great. I was worried: While the cast for them is fucking stacked and Seth called in a lot of his rolodex to fill it out, and himself as credit where it's due he tends to show up in shit he produces and bring his absolute best rather than showing up because he can, i've seen plenty of films fall flat because they tried to add too many characters from the source. Just this year I felt one of the biggest issues with Transformers; Rise of the Beasts is that they tried to jam so many autobots and maximals in, a total of 10 but didn't bother to give any of them but optimus, bee and mirage an actual character.

Here while the characters are one note, they have charming designs and work more as a unit like the boys, but are still friendly and likeable enough that your fond of them like the turtles and happy when they join the family. The breakout is easily natasha dimoscu's wingnut. I already loved wingnut, but this is easily the best verison: she's cheery kind and gets some great subtle jokes, the wifi one is fucking great as is her swiping Donni'es akira voices. All of them are pretty charming though. The only one to not really feel like a character is Hannibal frog, a sad waste of hannibal burgess, but everyone else gets something fun to do: Bebop and Rocksteady are rageholic morons who then get a sweet character arc as they realize their rage is because Superfly ENCOURAGED them to be constantly angry, and it's fun to see a version of them that's genuinely heroic. Not so fun is Bebop's pierced nipples.

I am genuinely baffled by this design choice. I don't doubt Bebop would get pierced nips, it' sin character. But why Seth thought anyone would want to see that, why he made HIS CHARACTER HAVE THEM, OR WHY HE MAKES IT SO PROMINENT will be a question that will haunt me for years to come. Or until we get creators commentary to explain why he hates viewers eyes. For the record I have nothing against nipple piercings, I just question why anyone thought giving them to Bebop was a good idea. OR their so large or

I also like Scumbug and i'm happy to see Splinter in his first relationship where his partner hasn't died horribly or put him in gladiator games. I did not need to see them make out with clone high level tounge. I"ll let this discord conversation with my good friend @kammieceleek handle the heavy lifting.

I mean their a cute couple but please, NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN. NEVER AGAIN NEVER

Anyways capping us off we have TCRI, who are decent enough. I like remaking them as this sort of paramilitary goon squad that shows the worst of humanity. Cynthia herself.. is fucking great. I like that to anyone familiar with Krang, it's DAMN obvious who she either is, or is a stand in for, with the name, apperance and Maya Rudolph somehow doing the Pat Fraley krang voice and tics while also doing a thick german accent. She's a brillaint combo of over the top hammy.. and an utterly sadstic monster, shocking the boys just for speaking, not carring that they don't really belong to her, and willing to kill them just to get her super weapons. She's what a remade krang should be: still over the top.. but also dead seriously terrifying. My only complaint is she's a bit OBVIOUS as a sequel hook. Like Rowe was really banking on that sequel and i'm never a fan of when films do this when they don't KNOW this story will continue. It is clearly, with the film slowly picking up more and more money and more than enough in merch, but he coudln't of known that.

So with that we just have one bit of buisness to wrap up

Yo Jeff Drop the Verse

The soundtrack for this flim is liquid gold. It's so good to my ears and full of such nice cuts. Guardians cemented my love of needle drops in film in tv: If you can pull it off well do it. And this film does it so damn good. The film skews to hip hop, likely due to wanting a "Tony Hawk Pro Skater" vibe, which really does fit teendom well. I will admit it's also pretty explicit here and there, so kids may be disapointed to find they can't stream these songs, but it's still a stacked selectoin

So before I break it down track by track, something I regret failing to do with spider-verse as like this reveiw it was massively behind, I whipped up a playlist as Parmount's own leaves out several tracks. While I get the what's going on bit being left out as that bit is a good suprise why it has'nt been added weeks out from the film I don't know. You can find it here

Ante Up is a song i've heard maybe once or two here, but is a perfect gag for the opening grocery run, while still showing off just what our boys can do.. even if their doing it for some party sized cool ranch doritos. Which is still a great reward.

Danke Scheon shows up in the clip of feris buller. This dosen't really count but I do think the film is a perfect fit, since John Hughes was an inspiration for this film, and it's an idealized version of the freedom the boys desperately want. Not a John Hughes film I was ever a huge fan of, but it works and that "You can hyjack parades whenever you want" joke is so damn good.

Now we come to a track I wasn't familiar with but is easily my faviorite now: Eye Know. I"m glad more films are using De La Soul's music, mostly because it makes ME want to know them better as I haven't heard much and even after really enjoying three is the number, thanks to the weird rights limbo it wasn't avaliable to stream ad nauseum when No Way Home came out. Thankfully just a few short months ago, the whole De La Soul catalogue is up. This song is a really gentle, really fun love song with one heck of a chorus, and it nicely meshes with Splitner raising his adorable little children. It's one of my faviorite scenes of the movie.

The next track is another perfect selection but for something more hilarious and badass: While Push It To the Limit verges on a parody of training montage music it works for one where we find out the turtles and splinter learned ninjitsu from movies,, instructional tapes and whatever they could scrounge up. HOw their learning is awesomely rediculous, so it needs backing that's cheestastic.

Love is an Illusion by Ronnie Walker was nice for Leo falling for APril. It's a really crisp, dreamy love song so it fits.

Okay look i'ts only there for a second, but I can't tell you how much I love Ninja Rap making a cameo on this soundtrack. The soundtrack is cheesy good and one of the more iconic ninja turtle songs for a reason. It's not as good as say Pizza Power or the various awesome theme songs, but it's goofy fun that fit the film it was in. It's also one of Vanilla Ice's better songs, though that isn't huge compettion especially since he made a weird as fuck sequel I still can't comprehend that was also compeltely ninja turtle free for some reason.

Cavern By LIquid Liquid is fun, a nice chill beat to meet turtles to.

Dance by ESG is already a fun song and fits the boys going full blast on their plan well. THat's.. about it. THankfully I have more for unwritten. I'm not a fan of Vomit humor most of the time unless you have a paticuarlly inspired twist like say. a mad scientest making everyone in the room vomit at a bar as a thought experiment leading to an image like this

That's just beautiful. But i'm just not a gross out guy, so this gag working for me was a lot... setting the most embarassing moment of April's life to FUCKING UNWRITTEN, a song I heard 998 times over the course of the 2000's as every fucking movie and tv show overused the hell out of this throughly mid song, it was transedeant. First and only good use of unwritten. Well done.

Now we come to what's easily the best musical bit of the movie. And it has some steep competition from Eye Know and another song we all know is coming, but the No Diggity Scene is just one of those sequences that once you see it you know "This shit is iconic". This is a scene that's now etched in tmnt lore and for damn good reason. It's also a brilliant way to get up to the chain to superfly and have a few weeks of sluthing and our heroes getting better pass as our heroes easily blaze through some goons and those shots of EACH turtle getting to burst in and lead the assault?

And look I admit this montage hits a sweet spot that was also started by guardians: setting an action montage to music that somehow fits despite having no right to. In this case a mellow smooth as hell jam perfectly complmenting some frantic action. So fucking smooth.

Wake Up in the Sky grew on me as let's face it, a song that has bruno mars saying fly a dozen times nad saying he's super fly works. I just don't like it a lot because trap is'nt something that fits me musically. I prefer more intricate beats or at least a really solid one thorugh the whole thing. The more relaxed beatwork here isn't for me, but I can't deny it fits Superfly's big debut well.

Fitting me much better is the use of Shimmy Shimmy Yay for the bowling scene. It's fucking great, a song that's never not awesome and that's also a bit low key while being way more my speed.

The use of BOTH major versions of What's Up? .. is an easy close second for best use of music int he film and one of the most brilliant masterstrokes. And this all comes to Seth Rogen. When the chase scene wasn't quite working, he suggested the slackcircus version of he man. It's also awsome in that the song's themes of isolation PERFECTLY fit what the mutants are going through. So not only did they manage to stick one of the best meme songs in human history in a feature film.. but they did so with it being ENTIRELY relevant. The switch from the 4 non blondes version to slackcircus is fucking genius and the song adds nice manic energy. It'll also hopefully give this song a rightful ressurgence as the heman cover is , while hilarious, also GENUINELY good. The original ain't too shabby either.

The boys version of butter is hilarious and got me to listen to the original which is alright. Mr. Lonely isn't a bad song, and perfectly fits Splinter's mope session.

Finally we have can I kcik it, an objectively awesome song. It fit the trailer perfectly and it fits our ending as our heroes are finally allowed to mingle with the surface adn get their happy ending beauitfully. A beautiful ending to a beautiful film.

So overall mutant mayhem is fucking awesome. If you haven't seen it after all this go see it, support the hard workers who made this film possible by supporting the ongoing strike and thanks for reading.

[wdxghosty]

Chapter 1 - Resurrection

Haiii! It's me again bringing you more fics, this is chapter 1 of Ophelia's backstory.

TW!!!- Mid writing

It’s 3:45 am, and I’m in a dark room illuminated by fluorescent light, from screens surrounding my bed. I linked up to all these tubes, I’m constantly getting shots, my mind has been infiltrated by that wretched beating sound coming from the heart monitor. I dont know how I got here, I remember being at the beach with my friends, we got on a boat with a bunch of guys we didn’t know, I think we got drunk. And after that, all I can remember is a splashing sound and I stopped breathing…

did I mention I can’t swim?

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

I grew up with three older brothers they all had their own interests but one of them went through a ninja/samurai phase, and I watched all those shows with him, Ninjago, Randy Cunningham, and Power Rangers Samurai, but my favorite was the one about the turtles.

They had a very passionate fanbase one i was a part of, I made so much fan art, and OCs hell one of my OCs was an obvious self-insert. Well she didn’t really look like me, she was tall, thin, pretty, the most confident person you’d ever meet, she would always be that one person people would go to if they had a problem, she was adored by everyone and hated by those envious of her. Nothing like me at all, I dont stand out in a crowd, I try my best to blend into the background I want to be almost invisible. Hell, she basically is an OC because she’s not one bit like me, comparing the two of us is an insult to her perfect being.

I made her so I could draw fanart of her and Donnie. Stupid right? I would draw the two of them in situations I imagine the two of us in. We’d go shopping together, and I’d give him the montage he deserved in the clothes dont make the turtle, in rise. I’d always be by his side willingly, helping him with anything he needed, in 2012. In the bay-movies, I thought I'd be the owner of his favorite cafe, and I'd always stay in late to make him whatever pastry I thought he’d want that day, and a coffee. When I got the finished product I was so happy sure I couldn’t let anyone see it out of embarrassment, but I was so proud of them.

Hmm… the beating is starting to slow down, and I hear a bunch of people running into the room, I think I’m gonna die. This reminds me of a short comic I made, Ophelia was assassinated by whatever villain and Donnie completely lost it. I wonder if he’d lose it if he knew I was seconds away from dea- everyone stopped talking and an irritating ringing sound replaced the beating.

“Ladies and gentlemen we are now landing in Manhattan New York, please get your bags from the overhead compartments, collect all your things, and thank you for flying with us.”

I rub my eyes open and get up from my seat. “I just had the weirdest dream ever. I was some random girl and I drowned to death, I think?” I take the two suitcases from the overhead compartment, and hand Nasir his.

“You have dreams of drowning all the time, yet you still go to the beach and crash into waves ten thousand feet taller than you. At this point, you’re seeing the future.” Nasir is one of my best friends, and also one of the most useful people I know. If you have a problem with somebody, just tell him and he’ll dig up some shit that’ll ruin their life.

“Oh my god, are you saying I’m psychic!?”

“No I’m saying you’re stupid, Stop standing there and move so we can get off this plane.”

Scoff, “Whatever, I can tell the future.”

“Your delusions cloud the part of you that's actually worth having, common we have to go before the Uber leaves us.”

Oh, I don’t think I properly introduced myself. My name is Ophelia Mafuta Chenett, you might ask “Why did you tell us your full name?” and my answer to that is, that's what the villaness does in every manhwa when they introduce themselves so that’s what I’m gonna do. I’m a soon-to-be freshman at Manhattan Institution of the Arts, (It’s not a real school) After passing the entrance exam I moved across the country to pursue my passion of becoming a fashion designer. Sounds stupid right? Doesn’t it sound like I'm some quirky girl from a 2010’s show? Well, I’m kinda going for that, as the main character of this world I have to keep up my spirits and believe that I can do whatever I want and even live in one of the most expensive cities in this godforsaken country. Oh, I’m also 17 years old, and my birthday is coming up soon so I'm basically 18, other facts about me, I'm from southern California, I have three older siblings, I’m 5’9 but basically 6’2 when I put my shoes on, into alt fashion, and I’m really big on video games especially when they’re story driven. Well, I think that’s it, you guys can just follow along on my journey to become… well, ME, aka perfection. XOXO byyyy!

“Please dont tell me you’re talking to your fictional 1audience again.” Nas slumped into his seat side eyeing you.

“They’re very much real I’ll have you know” She rolls her eyes at him and puts on her headphones.

“Drug addicts are probably so jealous of you, you dont need pills to get high off your ass, you were just born like that. You’re most definitely a crack baby.”

The two of them expected to get to their destinations rather quickly but, the traffic was honestly something that crawled out of the ninth ring of hell. Nasir got accepted into Princeton so he was especially irritated by the traffic. And Ophie got to campus two hours late but still managed to register and get settled in her dorm.

“Well it’s nice to know that all my stuff got here without issue.” then her phone started ringing, she got off her bed to check who called and her heart dropped. “Telli! Please dont tell me you left early, I'll hate it if you left early!”

“Nice to talk to you too Ophe, and no. I’m still in the lair because your plan landed hours ago and you haven't texted called or posted about it, so I knew after you got M.I.A. you’d unpack, and then pass out. We’re meeting tomorrow,”

“Oh… well that's embarrassing. It’s nice to talk to you again Telli, I've been so busy lately I forgot when we spoke last.” She flops onto the bed and gets under her pillows.

“Yesterday, at 5:45 am before when you were getting ready for your flight at 10”

“I’ll have you know I'm African, we usually leave ten hours before a flight, my mom was rushing me out of the house. And I find it shocking someone who’s never left the CITY is talking shit about me.”

“I've been to Tahiti before, what other countries have you been to?” she can feel the sassiness of his bum-ass eyebrows through the screen.

“OH let me correct myself. I CAN’T believe that someone who has never been to an airport IN HIS LIFE is talking about me.” She can hear him laughing his ass off through the phone, “So I think I win”

“No, I’m letting you off the hook. See you tomorrow Ophe.”

“By Tell, kiss kiss.”

She hung up the phone and rolled on her back staring at the ceiling. “Hmm… I’m an adult now. No more mom, no more siblings, just me. AAAH!” She screamed in join and kicked her feet. She hopped off her bed and dug through her bag to find her laptop, camera, and ring light. After clicking record she gets in position. “Ehem. You hear that watchers I’m a grown-ass woman now! and you hoes better prepare for Escapism season 8, watch me as I live out my college dreams! This is gonna be amazing, you know looking past all the exams and homework. Yeah, I know now I’m not special, I'm surrounded by other talented people. But I’m the MC, I’m better than them by default, and I’m special in general, all those current fashion designers that slap a print of a t-shirt and call it a day won't survive here. I have to watch out for the people who actually make their garments, but being able to sew doesn’t mean they’re a good designer and I’m BOTH. Everyone else on my wave length will become an ally or an enemy, but I crush all those who oppose me under the heel of my platform red bottoms rest assured. Well, that’s all for now bitches, see ya!”

She turns off her camera and gets back on her feet, “Well, I guess I'm done for today. I have three more days before orientation, and I don’t have my roommate yet. So I guess I should decorate my half of the room.” she turns her head and sees all the boxes stacked on top of one another.

“Or I could take a bath. She grabs her towel and opens the bathroom door, so she can bathe in boiling hot water while listening to Nightcore on repeat.

After her bath, Ophelia lays in bed scrolling through Tumblr when she starts to think of that dream she had on the plane. “That girl. What was her name?” she thinks to herself. Ophei tries to recall all she can about her, “She was on the bigger side. Short hair. I only ever saw her in muddy browns and greens.” she eventually drifts off to sleep, just to wake up again.”

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

“Sweetheart wake up.” She feels someone nudge her awake, “Hun you’ve been sleeping the whole class period.”

“Oh sorry Ms. Mayflower.” She scatters to put her stuff away and tries to leave the classroom before Ms. Mayflower stops her.

“Bear, sweetheart can we talk?” She pulls out the chair on the other side of her desk, and Bear sits down in it. “You’re failing this class, and I've talked to your other teachers and you’re not doing too well in their classes either. Is everything okay at home, did something happen with Mom and Dad?”

“NO. I um… I'm just not good at school, it’s just not for me.” Bear looks down at her lap fiddling with her fingers.

“Hun, you’re only passing art, but that’s an AP class we’ll have to pull you out if you keep this up.”

“But, math and science are hard. And I always try during PE I just never pass, and Mr. Brown SUCKS. A simile and a metaphor are basically the same thing, and nothing makes sense. And I like history but I never pass the test despite the fact I always get good scores on classwork.”

“Hun I’m sorry but me, including the rest of your teachers, have talked about it.” Tears start to swell up in Bear's eyes, as she stands up. “I’m sorry”

“It’s okay, you’re fine.” she leaves the room tears threatening to fall down her face, when she accidentally bumps into a small girl.

“What the hell is yours!- oh Beary, I haven't seen you all day. You look…cute.” she stares up and down Bear, and she decides to wear the sweet Lolita dress her dad got her today. She got self-conscious and covered it with a jacket but she left it in Ms. Mayflower's room.

“Oh thank you, my dad got it for my birthday.” she uses her arms to try and cover her body.

“Yeah, you look like a baby doll,” One of the other girls said. “You know the things babies throw up on?”

“Aww look at her skirt it has plushies on it. do you sleep with them?”

“No” she whispers

“What was that?”

“No, i dont sleep with them.” she raised her voice

“Oh, well I thought you still slept with plushies, considering no one’s ever sleeping with you.” the girls start laughing and bear laughs with them trying to play it off.

“What are you talking about she's sleeping with the bears on her skirt, dont diss her man!”

The girls continue to make jabs at her dress nitpicking every single part of it to oblivion

“Haha you’re so funny Bailey, but I need to go now.” She tries to leave before the girls see her crying, but she’s stopped.

“Noo, where are you going we’re having so much fun eat lunch with us.”

Isn’t it shocking how much girls preach about sisterhood yet be so cruel to their fellow “sisters”? They’re pestering her trying to get on her nerves, she just wants to leave and they won't let her. Tall and big vs short and thin if they were guys then this would be clear cut, but for women with’s a lot more complicated. One of the girls, the smallest one grabs her arm and tries pulling her.

“Common eat with us bear we know you can eat a lot. Oh! I didn’t mean it like that.” all the girls laugh with her, and Bear starts crying.

“Oh my god bear! Why are you crying?”

“If you keep wailing like that then someone’s gonna call Peta” at that moment she pushes one of the girls to the side but she falls on her ass and started crying. And at this moment the bell rings, and everyone flods into the hall they’re currently in.

“Oh my god! The bear threw Bailey!”

“She’s gone feral!” everyone started staring at her, and some people started recording. Then someone started barking at her, and a bunch of people joined in. so she just ran away. She hid in the girl's bathroom where she cried until the security guards forced her to go to class.

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

Then Ophie woke up with someone patting her back and tears trickling off her face.

...

That's it. Hope you all liked chapter 1 XOXO luv ya<3

[regaliasonata]

Conner McKnight, Tommy Oliver

Character Ask: Conner McKnight

First Impression

-Alright tbh, he didn't stick out too much to me. On one hand the idea of being selfish in not wanting to be a ranger is very understandable but he kinda came off as a jerk(and the women stuff he talked about got old fast...)

How I Feel About The Character/Impression Now

-Like him now, he still has his moments but Conner really holds a piece that each of the rangers give to the table to make everything whole.

Favorite Moment

-the moments where he fights or hangs our with Trent, there's also "Lost In Translation" which is always a nice callback.

Idea For A Story

-Based a bit on "Lost In Translation", Conner traveling the many universes to find his twin Eric.

Relationships

OTPs

-Conner/Trent and Conner/Ethan are really underrated. Squeeze in Conner/Dustin and we got ourselves even more of a party.

BROTPs

-Conner/Kira, obviously these two are best friends. Conner/Past Red rangers but it's mainly one sided as they either try to let him off easy or are annoyed by the pestering.

Unpopular Opinion

-Not sure how I feel about him being a leader, the idea is alright but I would've like to have seen Ethan probably taking control. Heck even Kira, though it's better like this so that way Tommy doesn't fully get the veteran card in having free reign amongst the group.

One thing I wish would/had happened in the show

-Too.Much.Forms....dude got three power ups and yeah I get each ranger having a super mode balances it out bit when the shield drains everyone else's energy and on top of that getting a battlizer it seems like overkill. (Plus if they ever adapted the Abaranger movie then he'd have 4....GIVE EVERYONE ACCESS TO THE SHIELD TO BALANCE IT OUT COME ON)

Headcanons

-He secretly wishes to have one of the other zords as his main.

-Due to seeing Abaranger he tapped into the grid and found other dimensions that have sentai teams and watches them like shows.

-He's got a thing for guys but still is new to it, just trying to understand a few things about himself.

-There's a secret wallpaper he has of the red rangers from the past teams....definitely not a crush thing, jokes aside he really admires some of the red's and wouldn't mind getting training lessons.

-During college Kira became a base player for a Japanese band and after attending a concert Conner became a japanese rock fan(TK from Ling Tosite Sigure, any Tokyo Ghoul fans out there).

-He actually attended the Wind Academy before Reefside but was forced to transfer back because his parents like to keep control over one sibling(seeing Conner the problem child), of course he retained an element and uses wind.

-Hugs, dude loves hugging his team.

-Sometimes it's nice to take the raptors or motorcycles out at night and stroll around the city. Especially when it's raining and he's got the music blasting from his speakers.

-Due to the dino gems the rangers each have a permanent mark from using them. Conner has a barely noticeable scale pattern on his neck leading down to his upper back, a bit like a cool wing mark.

-Conner will never admit it but he really loves it when a date, no matter guy or girl, gives him a bouquet of flowers. He's got a high sense of smell and the aroma rocks him to the core, reminds him of a simpler time and he even keeps one in his apartment.

-He became Trent's fashion model for two years and only relied on getting clothes from him because they are so stylish.

-He loves decoding with Ethan and even carries the blue ranger to bed sometimes whenever he falls asleep in his personal lab.

-Despite his best efforts he's hasn't been able to keep in contact with Tommy over the years. When they do meet up it's usually some small interactions like going to other planets or seeing other rangers. Due to this Conner went searching for mysteries himself and almost found Solon's ship on accident, in another timeline Conner became a Dino Fury ranger before 2023.

-Kira pretty much is like a sister to him and the two bicker all the time with the other team mates betting on who will be the one to make up in the end.

------

Character Ask: Tommy Oliver

First Impression

-Cool as heck, especially with seeing him as a kid in DT and finding out he had more appearances with the series prior, like legendary as heck

How I Feel About The Character/Impression Now

-still cool and stuff, love the depth I've learned about him over the years and he's definitely iconic in my mind. A bit of a reach whenever he's put on a full pedestal all the time because it does take away from everyone around him so it's nice to have some atmosphere when gives spotlight to others.

Favorite Moment

-Actually have yet to choose one but his first morph in DT is very iconic.

Idea For A Story

-Trying to piece his soul together with the lost fragments(2 reds, 1 white, 1 black and 1 green).

Relationships

OTPs

-Tommy/Jason, Tommy/Billy and Tommy/Adam because I love these three.

BROTPs

-Tommy/Kimberly, Tommy/Katherine, Green and pink always an iconic duo.

Unpopular Opinion

-Too much focus on Tommy, yeah he's THAT dude and we know it but let's not act like there isn't any other iconic rangers throughout the franchise to speak about.

One thing I wish would/had happened in the show

-Just a scene or two of him brushing his hair or even having Jason do it....like imagine how fun that could've been.

-Blowing the dragon flute out of his suit for laughs like the famous JDF meme.

-Seeing him and Zeltrax have a moment considering Zeltrax as Terrance Smith and the colleague of both Tommy and Anton. Plus it's darker when you find out Terrance had no family or connections before them so he kinda died in the end as Zeltrax without anyone remembering him. Like imagine Tommy finding out that he indirectly caused him to become a cyborg. In a perfect ending Zeltrax gets some peace in his demise and both Tommy and Anton set up a memorial for him.

Headcanons

-No matter who he's dating Tommy is a complete diva about his hair and needs specific products to keep it managed. Whenever someone compares the couple he loves his significant other but hair is HIS domain.

-He's a former Loreal model and has so much money saved up from those days. Katherine said one day that she'd shave it off just for fun and now he sleeps with his door locked.

-Tommy loves cooking and has a meal no matter what team he's on waiting after a mission.

-The main reason why he wanted to make Biozords was to possibly make them small and have pet zords to hold whenever a day gets stressful.

-In secret he wants to be a pink ranger just once, like to see the hype but considering his status it he might ruin it for other pink rangers because then the label about them will all be washed away under Tommy's legacy so he refrains.

-Before taking up martial arts he was into gymnastics and fencing for two years, hence why he's such a good sword fighter. Though compared to Casey, the Shiba siblings and the Rafkonian knights he's outclassed.

-He scammed the Reefside school district out of 20 million dollars.

-He still has a few of Jason's shirts to wear.

[gaffney]

Which Power Ranger color would every Duck be?

this is the best ask i've ever gotten lmaoooo

OK SO… jesse is the red ranger, no doubt. charlie is the green ranger. connie is the pink ranger. guy is the yellow ranger. fulton is the black ranger… they find him like 2 eps later because he wasn't with district 5 when they got their morphers, and we get an entire episode dedicated to the rangers teaching him how to ranger while he's like "wtf is going on". apparently this is now a show with episodes. goldberg and averman are bulk and skull.

adam is the silver ranger who also wasn't with them but, unlike fulton, wasn't found by zordon bombay. he was found by rita reilly repulsa!!! so adam was under the influence of Evil since day 1. he infiltrates the power rangers under the guise of being Good. they think it's odd but warm up to him except for jesse. adam doesn't turn Good until the penultimate ep where he realizes everything he's been told is a lie!!

in season 2, because this is now a show with several seasons, lord zedd "the dentist" stansson arrives to earth to see if reilly repulsa has taken over the world yet and is displeased to see that he got his ass kicked by a bunch of kids in colorful tights. so he tries to do it himself. to counteract this, zordon bombay calls in help from... more rangers... somewhere... this is a new season so they recycle the colors but idk maybe they've added a little white to the outfit. julie is the pink ranger but she removes the skirt. kenny is the blue ranger. dwayne is the yellow ranger and keeps the skirt. portman is the black ranger. russ gets added later as the quantum ranger which is really just red but somehow no one ever mentions that.

in season 3, zordon bombay dies. jesse mysteriously disappears with him, but it's like he was never there because they don't mention him ever. the kids think their days of fighting Evil as the power rangers are over but then ivan rick ooze tries to take over the planet. he's very slimy. charlie takes over as the red ranger. the team is out of whack. they don't understand their new mentor, orion, but they're just grieving their old one. he doesn't get a name because i can't think of any. adam's power suit won't work and he has to go into a cryogenic sleep coma and we barely see him the entire season. the kids go on a spiritual journey and get ninja powers or whatever the hell happened in mighty morphin power rangers: the movie (1995). after zordon bombay talks to him in a weird ass dream, charlie realizes he does not need to emulate jesse and is perfectly able to lead the team his way. they defeat the ooze.

in the scrapped season 4 we find out that zordon bombay is alive but was hidden somewhere in space for protection. he asked jesse to do this, but in the process, had to erase him from the other rangers' memories so they wouldn't try to find zordon bombay or jesse. this is why no one remembered him. unfortunately something went wrong and now zordon bombay AND jesse are corrupted by evil/brainwashed and now jesse calls himself astronema astrohall. astrall. idk. the rangers set out to save them... will they have to kill their old leader????? will adam wake up from his coma???? find out next on mighty duckin power rangers!!!

[str8sub4domdudez]

Here's a story I like very much. It has nothing to do with my Tumblr topics, but it's a lot of fun and has sequels.

It's a Superboy story based off the comics and the Young Justice cartoon.

Superboys - Part One

Archive Of Our Own

https://archiveofourown.org/works/19248841/chapters/45773932

I've included a few excerpts in the rest of this post.

Excerpt 1: Halloween Decisions

"But I think you would look lovely as a French maid!" Lex says to Clark.

"I am not cross-dressing this Halloween," Clark says for the tenth time.

"Fine. We could go as a real life couple. Intrepid reporters, Clark Kent and Lois Lane! I'll be Clark of course, and—"

"No, Lex."

"Or we could be Disney Princes. I'll go as Prince Charming and you as Prince Eric."

"That is the best you've come up with all morning. But still, no."

"I could be Koopa and you could be Mario."

"A little on the nose, don't you think."

"Well, yes, if Lois went as Peach and Jimmy went as the little mushroom fellow."

"Who would be Luigi?"

"Bruce, I suppose, but I hear he's going as the Phantom of the Opera. I know! I could be the Lone Ranger and you could be—"

"—Tonto?"

"No, Silver."

"Geez, Lex you are so bad at this. It's a good thing I agreed to marry you before we started dating."

"We're dating? I thought we were skipping that part."

"What about Ghostbusters? Then we could tease Bruce in his Phantom costume and hit him with NERF darts."

"Pass. I refuse to dress up as anything Bill Murray was in. Brilliant actor, but antithesis of sexy."

"We could always be Power Rangers."

"What is that. Some kind of video game? Oh, that's right! Those new Justice League members I keep hearing about!"

"No, Lex. It's a children's television show."

"Doesn't ring a bell."

"They made a movie recently?"

"Nope."

"Jon Lane is obsessed with them."

"I thought he was obsessed with Transformers. Did I get him the wrong gift?"

"No, I mean, yes, he loves Transformers, but Power Rangers have these robot dinosaurs and—"

"—Oh, the Megazord! I thought that was a transformer."

"Right and so the Megazord has all these people driving it like a car, and those are the Power Rangers."

"Fuck it. I'll go as Julius Caesar and you as Cleopatra."

"Lex!"

...

жжжжжжжжжжжжжжжжжжжжжжжжжжжж

"I feel silly," says Jon, trying on his costume in the dressing room at the costume store.

"Don't, just finish getting dressed," says Conner.

"Okay, but I'm not going out there. You guys have to come in here."

"Okay," says Conner. "Let me go see where Colton went off to." Just then, Colton comes walking up with chocolate milk and a donut. "Match! Did you run all the way to Double Nuts Pastries for that?"

"That depends. Which answer will get me in less trouble."

"Nevermind, just don't get frosting on the costumes."

"I won't. Is Jon done changing yet?"

"He changed into five different costumes while you were gone. He didn't like any of them."

"We could always go as each other."

"What?"

"Jon can be me, I'll be you and you can be Jon. All we'd have to do is wear each other's clothes. No fuss."

"Guys, come here," says Jon. "I'm finished getting dressed."

"Wow," says Conner, "you look like a very sexy RoboCop."

"I agree," says Colton, "very sexy indeed."

"I don't like this costume," says Jon, "I'm too skinny for this."

"We could go as Jocks." says Conner. "You could be a track star, a swimmer or a gymnast and Colton and I could be a football player, hockey player or wrestler."

"Or we could go as the Weather Girls and Jonny could go as Storm," says Colton.

Jon and Conner stare at him in disgusted and horrified expressions.

"You're saying you want us to dress up as overweight black women and Jon gets to dress up as Ororo Munroe?" says Conner.

"Fuck you! Martha Wash is incredible!"

"Screw that!" says Jon, "Let's all just go as X-Men. Or Avengers. Without having to be a different race or gender."

"That's not a bad idea," says Conner. "I call Captain America."

"I call Cyclops!" says Jon.

"We'll, fuck then… I guess I'll be Wolverine or someone. Although we would technically be going as a different species if we dress up as humans, mutant or otherwise, so we're already going as a different 'race'."

"Well, we're Caucasian-looking and it would be in bad taste to go in black-face. You could always be Gambit," says Jon.

"You have to be able to shuffle to be Gambit. I'll be… I dunno. Let's go home to figure this out. We can get Cosplay costumes online if we're going as comic book superheroes."

"Like you never wanted to be a comic book superhero," says Jon.

"I didn't. I'm supposed to replace Superman when he gets old. I never wanted to be any other kind of hero."

"Even for Halloween?" says Conner, "We could get those sexy first responder costumes. The skimpy ones for policeman, firefighter and EMT."

"The EMT is just a 'sexy nurse' costume for guys," says Colton.

"I'll be a sexy male nurse," says Jon.

"I call policeman!" says Conner.

"I could be a sexy firefighter," says Colton. "Fine. Do you guys want to get the standard costumes or look at designs online and have Dad order us tailored ones?"

"Tailored," says Jon. "It's hard being tall and skinny."

"Okay, that's cool," says Conner. "Let's do that then."

жжжжжжжжжжжжжжжжжжжжжжжжжжжж

"Cavemen?" says Roy.

"Cavemen," says Arsenal.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••

There are several fun characters in this story and one of my favorites is Jason Todd.

Here are a few excerpts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jason Excerpt 1: The Lecture Dodge

"Drink your beer," says Jason. "Lex won't mind, but if Clark sees I'm giving alcohol to a nineteen-year-old he's gonna try to guilt trip me."

"Does it work?" asks Jay.

"Does what work?" says Jason.

"When he tries to guilt trip you," says Jay.

"Not really, but it's not fun getting one of his lectures," says Jason.

"And what about one of my lectures?" says Superman coming in from the balcony.

"You've licked my ass before, Superman. Your pure Boy Scout routine doesn't work anymore."

•••••••••••••••••••••••••

Jason Excerpt 2: Tim's Kidnapper

When Tim wakes up, he's blindfolded and tied to a chair. He listens for any evidence that his captors are nearby and when he doesn't hear any movement, breathing or talking, he reaches for his utility belt. It's gone. That's going to make things a bit more difficult, he thinks. He tries to use his wings to cut the cord but they're gone too. Finally, he decides to do this the hard way and manually tries to untie himself. It takes him a lot longer than he'd like, but he gets the cord untied and frees himself. He rips off the blindfold to find he isn't alone in the room. A man with black hair and a white streak in his bangs, wearing a black and red costume is eying him curiously. Tim kicks himself for thinking he was alone. Time to bluff.

Before he can start a convoluted speech about having trackers on him, the man walks up to him and drops several tiny, broken pieces of tech in his newly freed hands.

"I thought we could use some privacy while we're having our fun," his captor says. "We've changed locations seven times while you were out. Old Brucie has no idea where you are."

"Who's 'Brucie'?" Tim asks stiffly.

"Now, now, Tim-Tim, I know all of your secrets. His too. As a show of good faith I even let you see my face."

"You won't get away with this!" Tim says, hoping he's intimidating (but kind of knowing he's not).

"Actually, I think I will. Now, give me your best bat glare. Don't hold back."

Tim tries not to acquiesce the man, but he pulls out Tim's utility belt and gives him a look. "Come on, Timmy. Be good and I'll give you your belt back."

Tim glares at him.

"That's just pathetic," says the man. He disappears for a split second and reappears sans utility belt. "You'll have to do better if you want your things back."

"I think I'll settle for esca—"

The cold barrel of the gun is pushed against his throat before he realizes that the man has even moved.

"If you want to escape, don't tell me that's what your going to do, just do it! Here," he says getting a coil of knotted cords from a nearby table and tossing it at Tim. "Untie these behind your back. Do it faster this time." The man lazily waves the gun around in Tim's direction, and he realizes he never checked the man like he normally would. Batman trained him to observe everything about his opponents and use everything about a given situation to his advantage, but he failed to notice the multiple obvious guns strapped to the man's legs, and he was so focused on figuring out the man's powerset and thinking of what to do next that he hadn't even taken in his surroundings. As he places the rope behind his back and starts untying it, he looks around the warehouse where the man has taken him.

"About time! Now make it look like you're concentrating on the knot and looking in random directions as you focus on your goal. You're being too obvious right now."

'Oh my God!' thinks Tim, 'This guy must have a really weird fetish.'

Tim presents the unknotted cords to the man and the man does a face palm. "No! No! Buy yourself some time. Keep it looking like you aren't succeeding and use that time to take in your surroundings. Have you even seen the weapons lying around?"

"You told me to untie the knots faster this time."

"But I didn't tell you to give yourself away! Jeez. Let's try the next step. Now that you are untied and have completely given yourself away, what do you do?"

"Are you teaching me?"

"Somebody has to. My faith in Bruce is completely crushed by his inability to prepare you for this. Like I said, I have a gun, I'm pointing it at your head, you're untied, I know you're trying to escape, what do you do?"

"Surrender peacefully and try better next time?" asks Tim. The man face-palms again, and Tim uses that moment to dive for cover behind a concrete barrier where he saw several metal poles.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••

Jason Excerpt 3: Batman's Apology

Bruce shows up at the LexCorp penthouse unexpectedly. He doesn't usually call first, but Lex is starting to wish he did.

"Where's Jason?" he says when he steps off the elevator.

"Hello, Bruce, how are you doing?" says Lex. "Now you try."

"Fine. Salutations, Lex. Now where's Jason?"

"I'm here," says Jason, stepping out of the staircase leading up to the next floor. "What do you want Bruce?" Jason looks at the package in Bruce's hands and knows it can't be some sort of gift or gesture of love. They're most certainly documents and mission dossiers.

"I want to apologize. I shouldn't have called you soulless, and I didn't mean to cut your throat back then. I was aiming for your shoulder, but the batarang banked off the pipe differently than I expected. I also wanted to give you this." Bruce holds out the package stiffly and Jason sees the greeting card on top of it that says 'I'M SORRY!' in big letters.

"This is a joke, right?" says Jason. There's no way he was aiming for my shoulder! There's no way that he would give me a present without an ulterior motive. And there's definitely no way he would ever apologize!

"Lex, he's a robot or an evil clone! What are you and what did you do with my father?!!"

"Jay," says Lex gently, "why don't you try using your ring to scan him?"

Jason hesitates, but then raises his ring and a shadowy aura lights up around Bruce as the ring scans him. The ring tells him unerringly that this is the real Bruce Wayne.

"This is impossible!" says Jason. "I don't believe you! What do you really want?!"

"Jason – Jay, I love you and I'm sorry for hurting you time and time again. I know I've been wrong to do and say the things I did. I wanted to do right by you and I haven't. Now, I want to change that. Will you forgive me, son?"

"No. I won't. You're years too late for some things and others you still can't take back. Do you believe me that I really have a soul?"

Bruce's mouth clenches into a line and he looks down. He raises his head to speak, but it's already too late. Jason has seen the truth in his face.

"No. You don't believe me. You think I'm a soulless zombie so why try to make amends. If I'm not your Jason, why are you willing to apologize for stuff that happened before I was a Black Lantern?"

"I don't know. I just know it's right for me to make amends. Even if you aren't the original Jason, you have his memories and his experiences. As far as you're concerned, I did those things to you. I intend to make up for it one way or another. I don't want to lose you, Jason. I want you back. I don't care who you date and I'll accept that you do things your way, but I need you in my life Jason. I don't want to be an absentee, neglectful father anymore."

"I don't believe you about the batarang."

"I didn't think you would. Either way, I want you to know I'm sorry. If nothing else, take this gift. I want you to have everything you need. These are brand new items from WayneTech Enterprises. I had them made specifically for you, but dumbed down versions will go to market in a couple of years."

Jason takes the package and goes into the living room. Lex and Bruce follow him in there and sit down in chairs on either side of the couch while Jason opens his gift on the coffee table.

He can't believe his eyes. They're bullets!! they're all color coded and there's a color code sheet in the box. He quickly goes through the list. Smoke bombs, knockout gas, tracer rounds, tranquilizers, adrenaline, Blue Kryptonite, X-Kryptonite and remedies for Joker Venom, Scarecrow's Fear Toxin, Poison Ivy's Sex Pollen and Bane's Venom – all in convenient bullets that are perfectly made to go in his Glock. Jason is astounded.

"If you have to use guns, I want them to be tools to you and not just weapons," says Bruce. "I wanted to show that I support you as a person even if we don't agree on the ethics of crime-fighting."

"Dad, I … Bruce. You know I can't stand you. I know what you think of me. I know what you think of my life choices. Why do you think I would accept this gift?"

"I don't think you will," says Bruce, "But I hope you do. You're my son and I love you. I've always loved you. That will never change. I thought the gift would be a good way to show you that I love you, instead of just saying it."

"I'm gonna need some other caliber bullets," says Jason, "For my other guns."

"Then I'll have them made," says Bruce. "Text me the details, and I'll have R&D manufacture them ASAP."

"I hate you, Dad. But I love you too. Maybe one day you'll believe me that I'm really Jason. But as long as you think I'm a soulless ghoul, we're never going to see eye to eye."

"We don't have to see eye to eye to care about each other. I don't hate you Jason. I could never hate you. And I'm sorry that I hurt you."

"This is too much Bruce," says Jason as he begins to glow in different colors. Violet and blue dance in his aura with the black and red that fades into indigo.

"Alright, son. Do you need me to leave?" asks Bruce.

"Yes. Please go."

"Alright, son. I'll call you. Maybe we can do lunch."

Blue overshines the other colors in Jason's aura.

"Maybe," Jason says. "Goodbye Bruce."

"Bye, Jay."

Lex sits next to Jason on the couch and Jason curls up in his lap. He can't understand what just happened – what would drive Bruce to act this way. In a place in his heart he won't admit exists, he misses Bruce. The truth is Jason is afraid to hope, but hope fills him now and it's overwhelming to experience. He tries to use his Black aura to block emotions out but it glows violet instead.

"What's happening to me, Lex?"

"I thought you knew that Black Lantern Power Rings can imitate all the colors of the spectrum. Your love and hope are greater than your darkness."

"It hurts, Lex."

"I know it does, Sweetie. A lot of old wounds were opened today, but maybe when they close this time there will be less damage than before. It's okay to feel things, Jason."

Jason cries.

[abuddyforeveryseason]

The Buddy for December 28th has been CENSORED. For shame.

You see the guy on the right there? The one who looks a bit like Buddy (had he not been censored)? He's wearing a nice pair of sunglasses, just like our friend Stan Lee. Happy Birthday, Stan. I know Stan Lee's legacy among comic fans is a bit controversial. Some people say he's a genius who invented 90% of the pop culture we enjoy now, either directly or indirectly. Others think he's an useless parasite and gloryhog who took credit for other people's ideas and ruled Marvel with an iron fist, even though he secretly despised superheroes and comic book fans.

There are a lot of actual books written about his life, weighing in on both sides. I'm a big Jack Kirby fan, and for a while there they were in a big feud with Jack frequently insulting Stan in his comics. For instance, the villain Funky Flashman:

But, I also think that, even if Lee was as unpleasant a person as some of the stories I read about him suggest, he did manage to turn Marvel into quite a powerhouse. He might've just been pretending to have created all those characters, but it was thanks to this vainglory that so many people got interested in comics.

Besides, Kirby's comics, even though in my opinion were much better, were never as popular after he left Marvel and Stan Lee. So, he must've been doing something right - or, at least, Kirby found out the DC management was just as bad as Marvel.

In his later years, Stan went through a lot of weird misadventures - he tried to create a Power Rangers-style show in the eighties, which in my opinion shows how he has an eye for good ideas - say what you want about the show itself, but Haim Saban did become a billionaire thanks to it. Stan also had an odd friendship with a drug trafficker and conman, though you can blame that on the conman being able to see an easy mark in the old man with Hollywood connections.

In the last years before his death, Stan Lee became famous for his appearances in Marvel movies - and a lot of new fans grew to love him as the face of Marvel, whether he deserves the role or not.

I can't really blame Stan for all the drama he caused, even though it sucks that a lot of creators were screwed over by it. He was born into poverty, he went into publishing to make money. He might not have been creative (if you believe all the stories that say as much), but I sometimes wonder, if he hadn't been a gloryhog, would stories I love still exist? Would Spider-Man? Or the Marvel movies?

That said, I'd never take credit for someone else's comics. My ego wouldn't allow it.

[theoversky]

I have a fanfic I wrote in my mind that Jason/Kimberly didn’t officially happened because ASJ had some kind of affair with Amy Jo Johnson (or an unrequired crush) or Saban took down J/K because of ASJ’s salary fight. Their sexual tension was pretty clear to me and I was a fucking kid. I mean, they were always next to each other, touching, giggling, protecting. Pay attention. Power Rangers’ couples never have explicit kisses, Tomberly got the only one kiss of all tv show franchise and Jimberly got the kiss scene cut (in the 2017 movie comics is hinted they kissed anyway).

With all problems with money and Saban, a new ranger would be in the show. It’s known that ASJ and JDF never had a good relationship. Saban, then, to tease ASJ, paired the bad boy with the main female protagonist (the sexual tension could have been a hint that Jason and Kimberly would be together at some point, but now is turned down to prop Tommy) and, to top everything, Tommy’s popularity had grown as much as Jason’s (maybe bigger). They took Jason’s leadership in order to piss off ASJ and gave it to his “enemy”, they took the girl, they took his popularity, they took his money and they took his favoritism for years. So I guess, in addition to all this problems with ASJ, Saban chose Tommy/Kimberly because it would be easier to deal with JDF.

We already know Tommy/Katherine is endgame, we’ve seen their future together with grandson and the comics have their son, JJ Oliver, as green ranger. Tomberly is a fan favorite but now that JDF is gone(RIP JDF) I don’t think we will have more about Tommy. I guess it’s better than kill the character on the franchise. I also believe if Amy Jo didn’t left the show, Tomberly would have been endgame.

To top my theory, I take the comics in count. We had Kimberly x Matt, Tommy x Kimberly, Jason x Trini and Zack x Trini, in this cronology. Zack x Trini were in a kind of relationship in “Forever Pink” comics, the same one that Kim is writting the letter breaking up with Tommy. In the same page, we see a message from Jason calling her by a cute nickname and saying is her turn to pick, things that couples do. The suggestion is that Kim broke up with Tommy because she fell in love with Jason. And one more time we use the comics here, in that moment of comics Jason’s mom is dead and he quit Omega Rangers to have a normal life. He’s dealing with grief alone because he wants that way, he said to Kim when she went to visit him. Leaving Jason alone, she meets Trini outside and Kim seems to be the only one thinking about how to make Jason feel better, so in my mind she will figure out how and Rocky, Aisha and Adam are the new ones Mighty Morphin red, yellow and black, so the time Katherine will replace Kim is coming. I can relate Jason and Kimberly’s proximity maybe… doing scuba diving???? Well, in “Turbo - Power Rangers Movie” it makes sense. They’re taking rest of PR, being normal teenagers, living their relationship. In the cronology between comics, tv show and movie, the Turbo Movie is the last time we saw Kimberly (no morphed) and she seems very, very close to Jason. After this, she is mentioned by (a jealous one?) Jason in “Forever Red” and recently, during Beast Morphers, Morphed Kim was present when Jason calls for help to fight against Goldar Maximus. Jason and Kimberly as couple also explains why Kimberly didn’t mentioned the boyfriend she wrote about in the letter (she said PERSON I BELONG WITH) and Jason doesn’t talk about Emily (his girlfriend in “Zeo”) at Turbo Movie.

Also I am not saying Trini or the others doesn’t care about Jason’s grief, but Kimberly seems to be the one who will REALLY try to do something, even if Jason had asked for space.

We can say too that Jason and Trini didn’t end up together now that on TV show they’re coming back to present Minh Kwan, Trini’s kid. It’s said she lost her father recently and they won’t kill Jason, Billy or Zack now that an actor of PR is recently dead. Zack and Billy are here and she calls Zack “Uncle Zack”. So neither Jason, Billy or Zack is Minh’s father. ASJ and AJJ are the only originals that didn’t return to 30 years special so why don’t make Jimberly endgame? In my mind they are! We already have JJ and Minh as rangers’ kids themselves, I would love to see a Jimberly kid. Another fanfiction: imagine if is a girl and she falls in love with JJ Oliver? lmao. JJ is SPD Green Dragon Ranger and I can bet Minh will be MMPR yellow.

ASJ is having problems with justice now and is unavailable to portray Jason. He also is a Jason and Trini shipper, he was clear that didn’t want Jason and Kim together, and that’s why I’ve fanficted about his posible affair with AJJ, but maybe he only doesn’t want more comparisions with Tommy. But it really seems awkward the way he turned down the idea of JK. Amy Jo Johnson is grateful to PR, but is working behind cameras and it seems she will write something for comics. Let’s catch up with 30 years special and AJJ comic addition. I hope jimberly shippers can have something good at least once.

Finally we have MMPR reboot in 2017, a movie that hinted Jason and Kimberly all the way, even in their comics. It’s a shame that we won’t see a sequence of 2017 movie because I can say it would have Jason x Kimberly x Tommy love triangle, something that I can think would have happened if all those problems with ASJ didn’t happened.

PS: just to make clear, I’m on ASJ side about his salary problems in that time. ASJ, Walter Jones and Truy Trang were 100% right.

[takerfoxx]

Even though exactly nobody follows me for my opinions about Gridman, this is still a fan blog, and I've technically been a Gridman fan since I was a little kid, even if only through Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad basically being my Power Rangers, because I wasn't allowed to watch Power Rangers (growing up in a conservative Christian household in the 90's was fucking weird, man). Still have the toys, in fact.

So anyway, given my nostalgic fondness for Gridman, of course I was all about the anime reboot. I loved SSSS Gridman, thought it was great. And while Dynazenon wasn't quite as good (felt the climax fell a little flat), it was still really good, and I enjoyed the hell out of it.

And now I finally got around to watching the crossover movie that serves as the franchise's grand finale, and...huh.

Well, let me put it this way. My reactions went about as such.

Man, it's been a while since I've watched this. Gotta recall everyone's names and what happened at the end.

Okay, this multiverse shit is admittedly kind of lame, and there's a lot of really out there coincidences, but it's still fun to see the two casts of characters hanging out and interacting. Feel sorry for both team's b-tier members, though. They get like maybe one or two lines apiece. Also, dafuq is up with Gauma's princess just showing up the hell out of nowhere! You'd think that'd be a bigger deal!

This play script is totally a meta-commentary on the writers' own frustrations in making this movie, isn't it?

Kaiju fights are still hype, though!

Wait, hold on. They're not actually...

They boomed me! They actually boomed me! They pulled a Rebellion Story and got me! Oh, this is good! Hell yeah, turn up the weird, I wanna see how this-

Well. This may be the stupidest climax that I've ever seen.

Eh, things ended on a nice note, I guess.

So, basically this movie's biggest problem is its villain. Like, we find out the reason for the different digital worlds colliding is because Gridman himself became corrupted and all the worlds that he created are merging. Okay, that's cool! I like that!

Except we find out that Gridman was actually corrupted by an outside force, who turns out to be this super-kaiju...whom we literally never heard anything about until the final fight starts and he just shows up and starts ranting in cliched super-villain monologues! Like, serious! Who even was this guy? Why is this franchise's final, final battle where all the characters team up and we have like a gazillion different new combinations and super-weapons against this fucking Dragonzord-looking motherfucker that we've never even heard of until the punching started and we get no exposition about until literally the climax of the movie? Why would we even care about this guy?

Seriously, if you needed a final boss, Alexis is literally right there! Just have this be part of his master plan! Or, hell, if you wanted to go meta with it, make it be Khan Digifer, the OG villain from the original show! Or commit and make it Gridman himself! Make the final fight be a "I know you're in there!" fight to redeem a hero corrupted by his own guilt and self-loathing!

And while it was fun seeing Akane again, the way they brought her back was pretty sloppy. I know it's Trigger and Trigger is ridiculous, but it usually feels like there's a method to the madness.

I mean, I still enjoyed a lot of it. The two teams interacting was fun, even if Yomogi did get relegated to sidekick. Sorry buddy, protagonist no longer. And poor Yume and Koyomi were...there, I guess? I mean, even Chise felt like she had more to do. Same with the NG high-schoolers. I guess they had lines. And it did feel like they were running down a checklist of everything they needed to cram in, like Yomogi and Gauma's reunion, the two protags having a heart to heart, etc. But I still liked it.

So, not upset that I watched it, but the final act left a lot to be desired.

[kittenofdoomage]

Did you see this? https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/supernatural-actor-nicki-aycox-dead-at-47/

I did 😥 man, fuck cancer. I never got the chance to meet her at a con but I have friends that did and said she was so lovely. I know she'd been fighting leukemia for a while.

I've also seen today that we lost Jason David Frank - Power Rangers was a big thing when I was a kid, I remember seeing the original movie and met him at London Comic Con, he was such a lovely person, from what I've seen and heard, he always went all out for his fans.

R.I.P to both these people who brought such joy to their fans and all the love to their family and friends 💔

[signalwatch]

Nintendo Watch: The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

I officially entered a new phase of life on Saturday when I went to see The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) with a cohort of second graders in support of my nephew's birthday.  I'm now an uncle who goes to movies he didn't select.  It's a good thing.

I am not anti video games, but I can describe my relationship to gaming as "apathetic".   The how's and why's of this phenomenon are uninteresting and best served in a dedicated blog post.  But even when we got our first Nintendo Entertainment System, I didn't have any Mario-related games.  I was spending my money on comics and tapes at the time.  Aside from a brief flirtation with a Wii and Mario Kart, never got into it.

That said, I recognize that Mario is essentially Mickey Mouse to a couple of generations.  I'm incredibly bad at predicting what will stick and what's a fad, and thought a plumber fighting turtles was just another thing that would come and go, like Ikari Warriors.  I'm still stunned anyone cares about Pokemon in this year of our Lord, 2023.  But the companies have gotten very good at punching the buttons that work well for children, year after year, as well as opening the gates for nostalgic teens and adults.  I'm pretty sure we already had a gritty Power Rangers reboot.

Back in the 1990's, I was offered the opportunity to see the Super Mario Bros. movie starring the late, great Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo.  Despite the fact I'd go see *anything* during this window, I took a pass.  All I remember is Steanso returning and saying "you dodged a bullet".  

A cynic looking to parrot the cultural complaints about He-Man in the 1980's will look at the new movie and say that this film is a toy commercial for the games and products of Nintendo.  That's only partially true.  Look, this movie is not something I would have seen if not for participation in family activities, but I get that for a lot of people, this is the first time the world of Mario has been fully realized in modern, cinematic terms, and without a whiff of that old hobgoblin of film-adaptations, a reimagining.  It's... Mario.  And Luigi.  And Princess Peach.  It's a celebration of Mario and Nintendo, and that's okay.  

It's 90 minutes-ish of telling a very Nintendo story about Mario doing all the shit he does in the games and defeating the bad-guy to save the not-in-that-much-need-of-saving Princess Peach.  

You know what my favorite part was?  There's no real learning or character growth.  There's no long stretches where characters talk about who they are and what they care about and you hear kids shifting and talking to their parents.  A scene or two happens, but only in dual-beat short scenes meant to pace the movie a tad.  It doesn't drive the plot.  Mario is not here to teach anyone life lessons, he's here to punch things and hop around.  This is literally a video game movie, and while modern video games can do complex storytelling for adults, that's not really Mario's niche to explore the workings of the human heart and psyche anymore than it's GI Joe's niche to explore the military industrial complex.  Kids don't give a shit about that, and neither do most young adults.  They came to see him put on a cat suit and drive the fuck out of Rainbow Road.

Speaking of, the movie is full of in-jokes, references, etc... as you'd expect.  YouTube will be littered with 20 Nintendo Easter-Eggs You Missed! videos for months to come.

Yeah, there's a bunch of big-name talent on the movie as voice actors, and they manage to dodge the goofy "It's a-me!  Mario!" shit without being weird about Italians.  You can look up who's in the movie, but I suspect you already know.

The movie is fine.  I won't make the mistake my friends who have kids make that declare "my kid liked it, ergo, this is a good movie."  That path leads to madness.  Instead, I can see that the film is intended to appeal in a certain way, and nobody tried to outsmart what Mario is or does and how his world works, and it's fine.  No weird re-do's on major characters or concepts thrown in that are anathema to actual fans.  No one is talking down to the audience, they're showing the audience the game in the coolest, boldest way possible.  If you like that stuff.  I'm still like "whatevs", but I had a good time sharing Junior Mints with my niece.  And my favorite part was probably the ape city and whatnot.  Quality Donkey Konging.

https://ift.tt/yqbsZfa

from The Signal Watch https://ift.tt/hvfxS2P

[halcyon-digest]

2004

Art Klaudt: Bragging to my aunt about attending school for 8 hours per week

Anonymous 1: dog died

ava: being obsessed with the movie “the emperor’s new groove” and receiving a copy of it on VHS and being so ecstatically happy

kate: Bush/Gore. Again I was like compulsory Republican as an 11 year old so I was all for Bush getting re-elected and couldn't have articulated why. It was everywhere, I remember seeing the news reporting on stupid internet animations people had made making fun of the candidates. I had one friend whose parents were Democrats who would disagree with me and made me think even just the slightest bit about why I believed what I believed. She was also an atheist, and I remember thinking "that's craaaazy I didn't even know that was an option" and thinking she was wrong but also incredibly brave for having the guts to go against the grain.

Anonymous 2: having to share a bedroom in the finished garage with my baby sister because we didnt have enough bedrooms for all the kids

Lucas: Don't remember anything, this was the year I was born

Anonymous 3: I was 13 in 2004. I think this was the year that I first had an o*****. It was in the morning, I was under my duvet with sunlight filtering through it. I think I was thinking about a particular p*********** drawing I had seen on the internet. I can remember exactly what the image was and sort of re-experience the way it made me feel, if I try, and the memory is more precisely of re-conjuring the image in my head repeatedly to get the effect of it, and the weird repetitive process of doing that, than the physical feeling itself.

Anonymous 4: Was 1 at the time, don't recall.

Anonymous 5: N/a

superswag: N/a

v0w0v: My best friend from preschool. We would play power rangers together and I was always the yellow ranger. We went to a christian preschool and on easter they gave us all eggs with biblical figures in them. I got a sheep and the girl next to me got jesus. One day we were allowed to bring toys to school and someone asked if the button on the bottom of my care bear did anything. I said it didn't do anything and remember a distinct feeling of superiority and disdain for knowing this thing that this other kid didn't know. One day we were shown germs under a blacklight and it was beautiful to me.

Anonymous 6: Dropping 15 library board books in a fishtank

Anonymous 7: seeing gorillaz on the family crt.

binnie: Very fuzzy...Kicked out of preschools. Possibly learning to spell ... distaste for how the word "you" is spelled given the placement of the letter "U"

Anonymous 8: My first family trip overseas

April M. Mildew: I cannot attach a memory to this year.

[bayalexison]

So a few days back I was reading Metallic_Sweet's Letters From Rohan to compare their FE3H LOTR AU fic to mine. Tumblr isn't able to let me reblog and add commentary to the final two chapters, so I'm doing it in a new post lol. So yeah, the final two chapters and the extras from the PDF version, more observations and comparisons from me!

1) Last time I mentioned I'm not sure about Hubert's role. At least I thought one of the Rohan characters because he's mentioned he's from Rohan. As I read further, it's revealed he actually takes on the role of Aragorn! That includes him being the Dunedain (folks that have longer human lifespans). and a Ranger! Instead of Hubert in Rivendel, he's been raised by a witch and uses powerful magic.

Thinking about it, Hubert does fit book Aragorn but with black magic instead of the "healing hands" and the Arwen romance. Book Aragorn has a bit of a gruff personality and a gadfly at times, so I can see why Metallic went for Hubert. Movie Aragorn is a tad more serious book Aragorn having "I'm unsure about returning as king" and there's more focus on his love for Arwen. That's Dimitri to me. Both valid interpertations!

2) Letters from Rohan's version of the final few battles and ending went differently from the book and movie versions. There's one part where Hubert does some huge magic explosion similar to the big battle in The Game of Thrones show 2nd season/Song of Ice and Fire second book. Byleth is also the one going to the king of the dead and the dead army with the lords helping. While Until the Stars didn't show the final battles, it's heavily referenced and similar to how the book and movies went.

Something I forgot to mention is there's references to Ferdinand and Constance between childhood friends and taught under Jeralt, but then they lost contact with each other after stuff went one with the Nuvelle noble house. After sending a letter to Constance, she helps out with the war and the two I believed reconciled. There were some dialogue between them at the beginning and I wished there was also some at the end, but I understand why with the both of them changed since their seperation.

The PDF version has a few more extra ending scenes that isn't posed in the AO3 version. Ferdinand and Annette sailed to the Grey Havens first, and then later Hubert, thus ending Gondor's line of kings. Metallic mentions in the PDF notes Ferdinand and Hubert actually sailing to the Undying Seas together. The book version, (and heavily implied in the movies too) Aragorn and Arwen's son continues where Aragorn left off with the son being crowned moments before Aragron passed away.

The Annette goes to Grey Havens I was taken aback, especially if she's supposed to play the role of Sam. There's no mention of what happens to Lysithea in the original story and the PDF end scenes, but I'm assuming Lysithea went to the Grey Havens first and then Annette/Lysithea happens? Until the Stars I referenced Ignatz going to the Grey Havens with Rhea, Seteth, and Hanneman, similar to the book and movies.

There's also more differences Letters from Rohan did compare to the book and movies, but I'll that here haha.

So yeah, I think that's all of my comparisons between Letters from Rohan and Until the Stars! Metallic Sweet's version does well brining the FE3H cast in Tolkien's setting and Ferdinand and Hubert's courtely love is sweet. I mentioned before I thought that fic's prose is superior to mine's and I still do. Still, it's cool to see how we approached Tolkien's most famous work differently. I don't know how many of my FE3H/Dimileth peeps are into that pairing, but if you are it's worth a read!

(I might also try to leave a comment on the fic when I have time!)

[anthonysstupiddailyblog]

Anthony's Stupid Daily Blog (857): Tue 23rd Jul 2024

My sister is doing some sort of seminar at university over the never two days so I said that I would look after Luna for her. I'd been planning on beginning to take Luna to the arcades every Thursday after school when the six weeks holidays are over anyway but I decided I might as well take her today since the sun was out and it would save me having to play her stupid board games in the house with her. I had only intended to give her £10 in change to play a few games but she got so invested in the games and was having such a good time I ended up spending thirty fucking quid on her just so she could win tickets to exchange for prices that were probably made by little kids in a sweat ship for two pennies. When I was working at Minchellas at South Shields I would go to the arcade while I was waiting for my bus to arrive and then I would just give the tickets to the parent of some kid when it was time to leave because I have no use for a plastic bowling set or a knockoff Power Rangers gun. The games at the South Shields arcade used to give you several dozen tickets every time you would get past a certain level but the games at this arcade we were at were a fucking ripoff. I was on this one game where you shoot aliens with a laser gun for a good ten minutes and destroyed every single one of the little green cunts that tried to step up to me. All that for eleven fucking tickets. Bullshit. There is one game in that arcade where you drop a ball in a hole and it pays out 300 or so tickets but Luna didn't like this game and insisted we keep playing the shitty ones where you bust your balls for hours for almost zero reward. I was feeling knackered after about twenty games but luckily Luna found some virtual reality headset machine so while she spent the next ten minute riding an imaginary rollercoaster I spent the same amount of time imagining I was back in my imaginary room watching my imaginary TV. After she got done picking out her prizes (a little plastic doll and a lollipop that she had about three licks of before she chucked it away) we went to McDonalds on the way home where she grossed me out by dipping her fries into her milkshake before scoffing them down. For a while when Luna was a baby we were a bit worried because she was refusing to eat. Oh we ain't worried about her any more, she'll fucking eat anything as long as it's smothered in a milkshake. She'll happily sit watching a Disney movie dipping broccoli and sprouts into a McDonalds chocolate shake. So we're halfway to getting her to eating a properly balanced diet we just need to eliminate the milkshake part and she'll be grand. I saw that racist piece of shit Hulk Hogan endorsed racist piece of shit Donald Trump at a rally. They probably bonded over the things they said when they were secretly being recorded that they stress they wouldn’t have said if they knew they were being recorded. I'm guessing that since Hogan knows that most people are aware that he's an irredeemable bigot he doesn't have to hold it in anymore plus since he got that big payout because of his sex tape leak he doesn't have to worry about watching his mouth because he's financially set for life now. I can't imagine that there were that many voters who were on the fence over whether to vote Trump or not who have now decided to do so after a ringing endorsement from a former professional wrestler. I' m not saying there weren't any but it must be single digit figures the amount of people who weren't sure if Trump was racist or not for their likely who are now convinced he must be if Hulk Hogan has given his stamp of approval. I can not stress how happy it will make me if Trump loses again this November not just because he is a dick but because there are a lot of dickheads, Hulk Hogan included who will be incredibly upset if he doesn't lose. The last four years of seeing all the Breitbart wankers and the Fox News dopes lose their shit and come up with pitiful defense after pitiful defense for Trump has been incredibly entertaining and I could do with another four.

[trumpkara]

Chapter Two: To Those Few

The decision to run for president was made in the quiet of his studio, a promise to himself alone. But Linkara knew that announcing it to the world would be anything but. He spent the next few weeks in a whirlwind of preparation, reaching out to friends, family, his Nana, and trusted advisors. He needed a plan, a platform, and a team that believed in his vision. Believe in the great Linkara. This wasn't a whim or another flight of fancy - this would happen. He was certain.

Linkara's first call was to Harvey Finevoice, a longtime friend and occasional collaborator on his show. Harvey had a knack for public relations and a suave demeanor that contrasted sharply with Linkara’s earnestness, but there was no one he trusted more.

"Are you out of your mind kid?" Harvey screamed into the receiver "You’re a comic book reviewer, not a ding darn politician!"

"Exactly," Linkara replied, leaning forward earnestly. "I'm not a politician. I'm a regular guy. A guy who loves DC, Power Rangers, apple pie, the LGBT, and, most of all, this country. I believe it can be better. I think people are ready for someone different, someone who understands them."

Harvey sighed, rubbing his temples. "Okay kid, let's say I believe you. What’s your platform? What do you stand for?"

Linkara smirked his infamous smirk. He had spent sleepless nights thinking about that very question. "I stand for honesty, integrity, and the belief that everyone’s story matters. I stand for standing up for the little guy. I stand for making sure Frank Miller never gets work again. I want to promote creativity and the arts because they teach us empathy and critical thinking. And I want to ensure that everyone, no matter their background, has a chance to succeed."

Harvey took a swig of whiskey, weighing the sincerity in his words. "Alright kid," he finally said, "I’m in. But we need to do this right. We’ll need a campaign manager, a speechwriter, and a strategy."

Over the next few days, Harvey assembled a small but dedicated team. 90s Kid, an old friend with a background in political science and marketing, agreed to be his campaign manager. He was over the top but passionate, qualities Linkara desperately needed. Linkara also reached out to Alison Pregger and Phelous, other internet reviewers and a trusted allies.

With his team in place, Linkara scheduled the announcement. He had fat chance of getting on CNN or even the smallest of news sites. So he did what he always did, he talked to his fans. They decided on a live stream, a medium where he was comfortable and where his fans could interact directly for a small fee. The announcement would be held in his studio immediately after a Pokemon Red stream.

As the countdown to the live stream began, Linkara took a deep breath and looked around at the familiar faces of his friends and colleagues. They believed in him, and that gave him strength. He stepped in front of the camera, the bright lights illuminating his determined expression.

The Pokemon Red stream went to shit. He couldn't beat brock and he accidently released his starter.

"Oops, butterfingers" He laughed, after all, how could he possibly focus on a game right now?

"For years, I’ve reviewed comics, movies, and television shows, sharing my thoughts and opinions with all of you. I’ve always believed in the power of stories, in their ability to inspire, teach, and bring us together. Today, I’m here to share a new chapter in my story."

He paused, letting his words sink in. The live chat was already buzzing with speculation and excitement.

"I’ve watched the state of our country with growing concern," he continued. "I see division, fear, and a lack of understanding. I believe it’s time for a change, for a new voice to step forward. That’s why I’m announcing my candidacy for President of the United States."

The chat exploded with reactions, ranging from disbelief to enthusiastic support. Linkara raised his hand to calm the flurry of comments and they naturally obeyed.

"I know this sounds unconventional," he said with a smile. "But I’ve always been an unconventional guy. Just look at my robots! But I’m not a politician. I’m one of you. And together, we can make this country a place where every story is heard and respected."

He laid out his platform, speaking from the heart about his vision for education, the arts, and equal opportunities for all. He spoke of the need for honesty in leadership and the power of community. And most of all he directly addressed Trump.

"You've had your time in the spotlight Drumpf" he said with a smirk "Now, it's Linkara's turn"

As he concluded, Linkara looked directly into the camera, his expression resolute. "This campaign is not just about me. It’s about all of us. It’s about believing that we can be better, that we can do better. Join me in this journey, and let’s write the next chapter of America’s story together. Because I am a man... and together we will be MEN."

The stream ended, and the room erupted in applause. 90's kid slapped him on the back and knocked the wind out of him. Harvey Finevoice raised a glass in toast and tried to wink, accidentally blinking instead. Linkara felt a weight lift off his shoulders. He had taken the first step, and there was no turning back. The journey ahead would be challenging, but he was ready. For the first time in a long while, he felt a sense of purpose beyond the confines of his studio, the four walls that had contained him so long.

He was ready to take on the world.

[charlesandmiranda]

Kyoto to Tokyo: Staying in Kawasaki

We left at checkout from Kyoto (2/11) and took the shinkansen (aka the bullet train) to Tokyo. We initially had two plans: visit a temple we like that has a flea market on Sundays, and visit Yoyogi Park where the rockabilly guys perform on Sundays. We were staying in Kawasaki where our friend was taking us to a restaurant, which is about 45 minutes from Shinjuku, and closer to Kyoto.

Our only mistake was not stopping in Kawasaki to drop off our bags. We thought we could take them to Shinjuku and put them in a coin locker while we were doing things. The coin lockers, while plentiful, were all in use, so we dragged our bags 15 (normal) minutes to the shrine, poked around the market, and decided to skip Yoyogi to get back and drop off our bags. Carrying bags and switching hotels often was the negative of our travel, taking a lot of energy and time we could have put elsewhere.

The name of this shrine is Hanazono shrine, we've visited it at some point on nearly all our trips to Japan!

After Hanazono shrine, we rubber banded back to Kawasaki, where we were staying for the night. Our hotel was pretty old style, somewhere between a love hotel and a business hotel, in a quiet and older part of the city, but about 10 minutes from the station where the restaurant we would be visiting was. We ate lunch, relaxed, and charged up before meeting our friend. Shops like this that sell rice or noodle sets are plentiful and cheap.

The restaurant we went to for dinner is called Kaiju Sakaba, a bar and restaurant owned by Tsubaraya, the tokusatsu (think Power Rangers as an example) company that created and produces Ultraman, an extremely popular Japanese superhero. There is a new Ultraman show every year, so costumes are always being produced and maintained for broadcast and live events. Every Sunday, the restaurant has a costumed actor come and visit the patrons. When you enter the restaurant, you have to be scanned to see if you are capable of becoming an Ultraman. If not, you are allowed to dine among the villains. It's cute, the monster themed food and drinks are very good. We got our photo taken with the Alien Pitt, a reoccuring monster that was originally made in the 70s and has been used in the last few seasons. This is almost certainly a screen used costume.

Every dish and drink is themed, for example the salad plate asks a quote from a villain character from the original Ultraman series, who tries to bargain with a child to get permission to take ownership of the world. When you finish eating, you use the utensil on the dish to indicate your answer. I said no, the employees threatened me.

The walls are lined with signatures from actors, writers, and voice actors from Ultraman shows. There are also a lot of high end toys and decorations. Videos of monsters eating at the restaurant play and a loop of episodes where the Ultraman of a given series gets beat up by monsters plays.

We had our photo taken with the Alien Pitt, and one with our friend. She said she visits the restaurant often with her family. It was a very cute experience.

After we parted ways with our friend, we checked out a Taito game center nearby; which is a chain of arcades we've seen all over. We played a bit of House of the Dead (A zombie shooting game; this appeared to be an updated remake of one I remember seeing in movie theater lobbies and arcades back in the day), raced each other in Mario Kart, tried our luck at more claw machines, and used a Purimania machine, which is like a photo booth on steroids; it has tons of options for stickers and makeup and automatically applies tons of filters to warp your face into an "ideal" anime-ized version of yourself. They are a little off putting at first but at the same time, I do think they're kinda cute! haha