#yes i copied this off Wikipedia don't come for me

[sassy-radio-hazbin-queen]

This is my version of Loonatics unleashed. I decided to do my own version. So some major differences are.

1- The Loonatics take place in 2017 which makes it's a bit more relatable to us. I love the designs of the future but I have to admit I found it weird with all the new technology the phones still look very early 2000s 😂.

2- The looney tunes are there Great Grandparents not 300th Great grandparent.

3- Duck and Rev are Girls. I wonder how come there was only one girl in the team. There supposed to be descendants not carbon copies 😒. I mean we're they saying girls can't be descendants from boys.

4- Ace and Lexi are Fraternal twins. Guys I'm sorry I just can't seem to ship them. They are descendants of Lola and Bugs bunny who are in a canonical relationship. It's a cute ship don't get me wrong. But for me it's just weird.

5- The Loonatics are young adults. Wikipedia says there teenagers but these guys are in universitys?? There ages are. Slam and Tech 22, Ace and Lexi 20 , Rev and Danger 18.

6- Zadalvia is NICE to Danger.

7- There backstories. Starting with Slam Tasmanian.

First off he can Talk. I never understood why they gave Wiles and Roadrunner descendants talking abilities but not him.

He lived in Tasmania and has an Australian accent kinda like Hugh Jackman. Some humans said they were going to take there home unless Slam comes up with 100,000,000,000,000,000 dollars. ( Which is impossible) so he signs up for American wrestling. He goes to America but finds out it's not what he thought. However a meteor changes his life forever. He has a younger kid sister who is his biggest supporter and lived with his mom after there father walked out on the family. Loves to cook. His birthday is May 4th and yes the others do joke and say May the 4th be with you much to his annoyance. Zodiac is Taurus ♉

Next up Tech e Coyote

His backstory is kinda complicated. He was diagnosed with Asperger's when he was 4 and was often bullied to the point where he is TERRIFIED of public speaking. He has lots of stim toys and sometimes didn't feel like talking. During college he befriended a shy bullied girl names Mallory and eventually fell in love with her. Unfortunately there was an accident he caused by mistake and she ended up becoming the Mastermind. He tried with inventing again but after several accidents he was kicked out of the university. However a meteor changes his life forever. Birthday Dec 30. Zodiac Capricorn ♑.

Next up Ace and Lexi

I decided to do these two together since there twins so they basically lived the same lives. Ace is the older twin and is a daredevil who got in trouble with his parents alot. As for Lexi she was a very sweet girl who everyone liked. She was definitely the angel to aces devil personality. However this came at the cost of her getting bullied and Ace getting detention alot in high school. ( Because no one messes with a guy's younger sister especially if she is your twin) at college though he seemed to mature a bit and Lexi learned how to deal with bullies with her one passion Dancing. She loves Ballet. And Ace wanted to be a Actor like his Great Grandpa Bugs bunny. Unfortunately try outs didn't go well for either. But a Meteor changes there lives forever. There birthday is Oct. 13 making them Libras ♎

And now for everyone favorite talkative roadrunner Rev Runner.

Ok so like I said Rev is a girl runner. She had a pretty standard life. However her parents never believed she had ADHD just thinking she was faster than normal or not paying attention to them. Her younger brother Rip is 10 in this world and as far as she is concerned. She is more his mother than there own. Harriet and Ralph are pretty rich and practically use there kids to help make money. Rev being the oldest was put under a lot of pressure growing up. Ralph often would push Rev to her limits. To make things worse he was Willing to Marry her to some Creep to get more money. Luckily she got away. Unfortunately she couldn't take her brother with her. Something that still crushes her. She started work at a diner as a waitress. She was miserable until a certain meteor struck earth changing her life forever. Her birthday is Feb 1. Her Zodiac is Aquarius ♒

For the Final loonatic. My personal favorite Danger Duck

( this is the only gif of him are you kidding me 😂)

Anyway like Rev she is a Girl. And the youngest of the team. Her life wasn't exactly easy at all. Her parents were murdered in front of her by psycho clowns at age 5. Then she went through several foster homes with all of them sending her back cause she was a ' problem child'. None of them realized she was lashing out in grief. She practically grew up in the system. She had only one friend. Pinkster Pig. However when he got adopted he started changing and bullied her throughout high school. When she hit 18 she was kicked out of the orphanage and was homeless taking off jobs just so she can sleep somewhere. Her latest job and place was at a pool place. After a hard day of work. A meteor changes her life forever. Her birthday is July 25. Her Zodiac is Leo ♌

As for Zadalvia. Since she is an alien I decided to make her more like avatar. She has a striped tail. And is green skin. Her outfit is Blue. And she has Orange hair. She is 35 years old. Her backstory is pretty much the same. Except I decided to have Optimus ( I dont know how to spell his name) is possessed by the robo stuff he wears. There parents died when she was young and he became an adult. After years of ruling freleng he found a robot costume and put it on. Unfortunately it possessed him. He imprisoned his sister but she escaped with the help of a rocket. Resulting in the meteor. Her birthday is September 3. Her Zodiac is Virgo ♍.

And that's basically my version of the Loonatics hope you like them 😊

[theghostofcinnamonpast]

casually imagining a demon in the modern day venting that most of the demons in the ars goetia are the luckiest and/or smartest sons of bitches in the business. because they're all Big Names, right?

well they are Now. but most of these gals were two bit, know-nothing nobodies in the middle ages. sure some of them were important even then but for every Bael you had at least two dozen Andrases. nah, all these guys did was big up their entirely invented resumes and trade their name to one of a few score sorcerers in the early-modern period. who was going to care that rather than being "a grand duke, commanding 26 legions of inferior spirits" you were the infernal equivalent of geoff from accounting, when, if someone did have the guts and skill to summon you up, they'd mostly just be asking for petty information work any human spy or scholar could do better. "yes you are boss, right away boss, as you say boss" and the human walks off thinking that they're billy fucking big boots and you kick the can down the road until you can be bothered. at worst you'll be asked to explain the mysteries of the stars, and then you're just stuck having to explain basic calculus to some poor german before it was actually invented.

BUT

and here's the big BUT

they wrote these names down. they told these to students or to companions, and eventually someone compiles The Lesser Key of Solomon, with all the lies you've told any potential summoner, plus the ones the summoners added on to make themselves look good. and now you're cooking with gas. because as a demon you're still an immaterial being, right, still got no actual Matter in the strict sense to train or strengthen. so you're running solely on the attention economy. worship is power, but that's the gold standard, that's god stuff. a demon ain't getting any of that, but Name Recognition - for a demon that is the Good Shit. that's the power that kicks of a good old circle wide coup and stops you from burning out for centuries. if it worked that way, you'd find all the demons in hell fighting over the name Coca Cola. (i think some blue lass tried it most recently...)

so despite being small guttering flames in the chaotic inferno of... Well inferno, these bastards have managed to find the One Weird Trick to immense cosmic power and hard working demons like myself hate them for it. now anyone writing anything with a demon, or even just wants to look cool and edgy, what do they do? they open up a copy of the ars goetia and thumb through until they find a good name. hell they don't even do that these days. no they just swan over to List of demons in the Ars Goetia on wikipedia and skip even that step. so Everyone knows these names, or if they don't they Know The Vibe and so the rich get richer. all these bluffs and fabrications we started with? they're true now, if only because your average demon has enough propriety to get somewhat embarrassed about their teenage exaggerations after half a millennium.

we've all cottoned on to the trick now, and getting your name imprinted on some magical attestation in the mortal world is the demonic equivalent of a pyramid scheme now. it works - but you had to be in on the ground floor. unfortunately for poor sods like me, the ground floor was about five hundred years ago. so that just leaves us with the honest-to-goodness Seventy Two. and the one thing I really want to know is

which of them saw it coming? and which of them just got Lucky?

[fandomshatepeopleofcolor]

I work as a tutor in a program for aspiring teachers at an elementary school, and I stumbled on a book that I used to read as a kid- “Skippyjon Jones.” Basically, it’s about a Siamese cat who thinks he’s a Chihuahua and… hoo boy. There’s stereotypes galore- fake Spanish where they basically tack on an o or ito to a word, bandidos, and I kid you not- the Chihuahuas are mad that a bandit stole their beans. Yes, you heard me right- BEANS. Of course, there’s people who are like “it’s not racist snowflakes everyone’s so pc” but lots of Latine people and others have said that it makes them uncomfortable. I myself am Latine and cringed while reading it.

So I have seen these books but until you messaged me I'd forgotten about them for well over 8 years I think. I was given a skippy jon jones book back in 2007. (full disclosure I was in college but had not yet applied cultural appropriation to like media critically in fact I'm not sure I'd taken even one class on anthropology which is where the term comes from).

I'll try to dig up my copy but mean while I might just take pix of the books from my local library and talk about the specific examples.

Like don't get me wrong I understand you're sitting there uncomfortable in your observations about this series but I just want people to know that this is probably something how like Native Americans feel seeing their cultures appropriated in the HP series (or how Jewish people feel when they're examining the Goblins in the series for that matter).

Like the frustrating thing tho is that there's plenty of examples of this sort of thing in literature where white people have literally made fun of our cultures and bastardized them for their own gain.

TO BE CLEAR!!!!

There's a difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation.

Like ok I was just at starbucks today with a friend and granted I haven't really sat inside a starbucks more than like twice since the pandemic hit. Anyways I heard a ranchera song playing (I can't be sure if it was vicente fernandez my friend shazamed it). and like granted I've heard other non white artists playing at Starbucks before. but like its nice that they know their audience (somewhere in California lol) and there's nothing wrong with appreciating music from another culture you know? Just as long as its not some white person profitting of nonwhite cultures (looking at you madonna for the fetishization of black bodies in the 80's/90's, looking at you gwen stefani for the use of literal asian women as your entourage, looking at you ariana grande for blackface).

the difference is that Starbucks is endorsing our Mexican culture by playing rancheras by mexican singer/songwriters. meanwhile Judy Byron Schachner was treating Mexican culture like a play thing and profitting off of her bastardization.

mod ali

[jbirdwriting]

A GREAT EXAMPLE OF WHAT THE 90S LET HAPPEN IN MUSIC: 2001

EXCUSE ME, HERE CONVENES MY TEDTALK TITLED "A GREAT EXAMPLE OF WHAT THE 90S LET HAPPEN IN MUSIC: 2001"

Note: I'm not an expert on anything. One night I heard a song that I hadn't heard in a while and I fell down a rabbit hole and I wrote my journey down and shared it with a small group of friends. …now, you can have it. I wrote this in August 2022.

~~~

In 2001, Enya's Only Time broke onto the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, debuting on that chart at #88. In July. It lingered on the charts for thirty-two weeks in total. If you don't know this song--Yes you do. I mean, if you didn't, you will. (Apparently it's in the new Thor film.) But here, experience it and its official music video: Enya - Only Time

Celtic Pop New Age World Music--these are the major headings Enya existed under. Only 4 other Enya songs ever broke onto the US Billboard Hot 100 - 1989 Orinoco Flow (Sail Away), 1992 Caribbean Blue, 1998 Only If…, and 2004 I Don't Wanna Know (w Mario Winans ft P.Diddy).) In November 2001, Only Time peaked at the #10 position. That's right! Top 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100. I keep giving the name of the list because it is a non-niche'd/non-genre'd list. Unlike other lists such as… Adult Contemporary, Adult Alternative, etc.

Now, let's see what else was going on in the US Billboard Hot 100. And you should absolutely think about Only Time laid out (metaphorically) next to each of these songs.

We'll move down the chart a little for a couple movers/shakers coming up the charts under Enya for context. We'll start at number 12.

Number 12: Michelle Branch - Everywhere

This was the big breakout on a major label for Michelle Branch. Not much to say here. It was solid song and yes, I know it. But who was at number 11?

One of my favorite examples of cognitive dissonance in American music: Nickelback - How You Remind Me - and oh yes I linked it.

For a song/band that no one liked/everyone hated, they sure did really well! Nielsen Soundscan declared this song to be the number one most played song on US radio in the entire 2000s decade. Played over 1.2 million times on the radio from 2001 - 2009. I'd like to point out that the above linked music video has been played 131,205,632 times since March 2010.

Fun Bonus fact: Avril Lavigne recorded a cover of the song that was used for One Piece Film: Z (2012).

So then there's Enya doing her chill thing here at number 10. And the top of the alt-rock sandwich she's in at number 9? Staind - It's Been Awhile

Then we take a sharp turn and at number 8 is Ja Rule (ft Case) - Livin' It Up

This song peaked at some point on the list at #6 (but for this week it was #8 and moving up). Incidentally, this is around the era in time where I was not listening to as much rap, so I'm not familiar with this song. But! The album this song is from went triple platinum! Which… dang.

Then, the number 7 position, which was slipping, brought us Ginuwine - Differences

Another third-album release (by that, I mean that Differences was from Ginuwine's third album and Livin' It Up was from Ja Rule's third album) and a solid success. Differences peaked at number 4. Interesting fact--it was the first track on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart to reach the #1 spot without a physical single being available for retail. (That was a thing.)

A pause here! Let me remind you!

These are the top 10 colleagues of Enya's Only Time. A song for all your fantasy wistfulness needs.

…but now my hyperfixation is wearing off, so I'm not going to keep showing off as much.

Number 6 is Usher - U Got It Bad U Got It Bad was #1 on the Hot 100 chart for one week before getting bumped out for 4 weeks… Who bumped Usher out of the spot? The band everyone swore they hated for so long -- Nickelback. They battled it out with Usher topping Nickelback again for a few weeks longer. Usher was notably the only solo male act to have a #1 in the US Hot 100 in 2001. (Hey, I hate copying these statements from Wikipedia, but they are pretty succinct and factual.)

This song also performed very well in Australia, New Zealand, and Belgium.

Though this number 6 position was in November 2001, it went on to chart in 2002 as well.

Then came number 5, Nelly Furtado - Turn Off the Light

This song is a very vague memory in the haze of my mind. The only two songs I can think of and associate immediately with Nelly Furtado are… I'm Like A Bird and Big Girls Don't Cry. But Turn Off The Light is from her debut studio album and did quite well for her all over the world. At a glance, it performed better on mainstream charts than on R&B lists in the US.

The video is extremely 90s. Please watch it for your neon outfit desires.

Following up this perky number -- and remember, sharing the top 10 with Enya -- came number 4: Enrique Iglesias - Hero

Before we have to get serious - Look at baby Enrique and Jennifer Love Hewitt.

This is one of the best selling singles of all time, apparently, selling - as a single - over 8 million copies worldwide. I would not have guessed that. Except … it released on Sept 3rd, 2001. 8 days later, the World Trade Center buildings were attacked and collapsed. The song gained a life of its own because of that -- overtaking all of Enrique's previous successes. Eventually the song fell off the charge completely but re-entered later - not something songs typically do.

At number 3: Alicia Keys - Fallin'

R&B was a real sweet spot (for me personally) during chunks of the 90s, and I credit all those works for leading to the place where we find Alicia Keys. This song won three Grammy Awards. It was nominated for the Hot 100 Single of the Year but lost to Lifehouse's Hanging By A Moment. Don't think about that too long. I'll do that later. (Narrator: This was a lie. She never did - and cannot remember now where she meant to go with this side trail. I can only guess that she - she being I - meant to talk about how this song was the most successful song of 2001. It spent 54 consecutive weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart...)

Number two? Jennifer Lopez (ft Ja Rule) - I'm Real

This song feels bit like an 80s jam if we're honest with ourselves. It evokes not a little bit of early Whitney Houston and Paula Abdul. One of the songwriters on this song ALSO worked on Ginuwine's Differences. Maybe Troy Oliver should be credited for being on the charts.

And topping off this whole week at number one? Remember - in context with Enya's Only Time at number 10? Mary J. Blige - Family Affair

Personal anecdote; I was listening to Mary J. Blige back with What's the 411? (released in 1992… 30 years before I'm writing this) and it seemed to me like she didn't really land on the more mainstream lists until this song.

In fact, the song which I know Mary J. Blige for best is Reminisce, which peaked at 57 on the Billboard Hot 100, and 6 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart. I'm going to link it and I encourage you to have a listen if you don't know the song - but be warned! Flashing images! - there's fake lightning for the music video and it is rough - Are you forewarned? Okay... here you go. Mary J. Blige - Reminisce

Anyway, back on track!

This list of music all happened in late 2001, but I just wanted to share my journey through 'wait, remember when Enya got on the top 100 charts?' moment. And the memory of how completely and wildly diverse the range of music was that I listened to and was exposed to through general radio play. It wasn't the wildest music experience I had and I know that the 1990s had some weirder things going on (anyone remember when a compilation album of Benedictine monk chants hit number three on the Billboard music charts and was certified double platinum?), but… Thanks for coming to my TEDTalk (not really a TEDTalk). Or not. I had fun doing it anyway.

[maisietheweltoncow]

Famous People From Yorkshire

For context, today (1st of August) is Yorkshire day! Yorkshire is the largest county in england and is located in the north of England.

The Brontë Sisters

The Brontës were a nineteenth-century literary family, born in the village of Thornton and later associated with the village of Haworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. The sisters, Charlotte (1816–1855), Emily (1818–1848), and Anne (1820–1849), are well known as poets and novelists. Like many contemporary female writers, they originally published their poems and novels under male pseudonyms: Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Their stories immediately attracted attention for their passion and originality. Charlotte's Jane Eyre was the first to know success, while Emily's Wuthering Heights, Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and other works were later to be accepted as masterpieces of literature.

Barbara Hepworth

Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth was born on 10 January 1903 in Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire, the eldest child of Gertrude and Herbert Hepworth. Her father was a civil engineer for the West Riding County Council, who in 1921 advanced to the role of County Surveyor. Hepworth attended Wakefield Girls' High School, where she was awarded music prizes at the age of 12 and won a scholarship to study at the Leeds School of Art from 1920. It was there that she met her fellow Yorkshireman, Henry Moore. They became friends and established a friendly rivalry that lasted professionally for many years. Her early work was highly interested in abstraction and art movements on the continent. In 1931, Hepworth was the first to sculpt the pierced figures that are characteristic of both her own work and, later, that of Henry Moore. They would lead in the path to modernism in sculpture. In 1933, Hepworth travelled with Nicholson to France, where they visited the studios of Jean Arp, Pablo Picasso, and Constantin Brâncuși. Hepworth later became involved with the Paris-based art movement, Abstraction-Création. In 1933, Hepworth co-founded the Unit One art movement with Nicholson and Paul Nash, the critic Herbert Read, and the architect Wells Coates. The movement sought to unite Surrealism and abstraction in British art.

Dame Judy Dench

Actress Dame Judi Dench is known for her roles in many James Bond films including Casino Royale and Skyfall, as well as The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Dame Judi was born in York, North Yorkshire.

Sir Patrick Stewart

Sir Patrick Stewart is an actor, best known for his roles in the X-Men film series as Charles Xavier. He was born in Mirfield, West Yorkshire.

Jodie Whittaker

Jodie Whittaker shot to fame after her role in Broadchurch, and now plays the Doctor in Doctor Who, she is set to depart the role after a trio of specials in Autumn 2022 . She's from Skelmanthorpe, West Yorkshire.

Matthew Lewis

Matthew Lewis became a household name at the age of 12 for his portrayal of Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter film adaptations. He was born in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

Louis Tomlinson

Louis Tomlinson is best known as one-fifth of boyband One Direction, but now he's a successful solo artist! He was born in Doncaster, South Yorkshire.

Elizabeth Henstridge

Elizabeth Henstridge is an actress from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, best know for her role as Agent Jemma Simmons in Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Yungblud

Dominic Richard Harrison (born 5 August 1997), known professionally as Yungblud (stylized YUNGBLUD), is an English singer, songwriter, and actor. He's from Doncaster, South Yorkshire.

@she-nuwanda is this good? I hope it's alright.

[thestonelady]

😂you didn’t scare me off. Also Hi it’s anon 🤣 anyway I noticed that romance club seemed to blend the dark elves and dwarves in the game. Andvari is talked about as a dwarf (plus he’s small) but on the character page he’s listed under dark elves. They also seemed to blend mythology characteristics. Oh and last thing 😂 but thanks for the fic recommendations I’ll look into it! 😋

Heyo! 👋

You're welcome for the recommendations 😅 and I am glad I didn't scare you off 😅 you see, I have the habit to talk lengthy about subjects I am passionate about 🤭

An example of that coming up right now:

Yes, POTV follows the believe some scholars have that in Norse Mythology Svartalfar=Dwarf. As philologist and religious studies scholar Edgar C. Polomé (who also supported the Andvari=Alberich notion) wrote in 'Notes on the dwarfs in Germanic tradition' from a ridiculously expensive book:

(I hope no one gets pissed I screenshoted that 🙈 I am sorry, but I won't pay +150$ for one book. I already spent 15€ on my copies of the Völsunga saga and Nibelungenlied 🤪)

Personally, I have no idea what sources the writer, Alexandra, used. And don't get me wrong, I am no expert either, I am much more well-versed in Slavic mythology.

I could continue, but considering everything important is in that screenshot, just one last thing: when it comes to Andvari, don't bother with the English Wikipedia, their info is trash. German Wikipedia is your friend 🤣

On the second part, 'blend mythological characteristics' are you referring to the fact that, for example, the Tatzelwurm is a being from Alpine folklore and 'Nixe' is actually the German name for that creature, and therefore not Norse but Germanic?

Again, thanks for the ask 💜

[xinyuehui]

I'm a different anon (I don't remember if I've ever messaged you??... so! yea! hiiiii! <3), but I've just wanted to say a few words regarding "Chinese ppl don't say "I love you"": the only instance I've heard it in a c-drama (like, an actual "我爱你") was in "Advance Bravely" - and I don't really know Chinese, and yet I've found it... weird? Maybe not "WEIRD-weird", but nevertheless really uncommon. Also if you'd like to ramble about all those linguistic and cultural things FEEL FREE TO DO SO (I'm here and I'm listening and... I feel like I've heard about those red berries you mentioned in that meme, but the. is the dead deer. in white cloth. is it really a thing?? where does it come from?? please explain! <3)

Hello different anon!! It's not uncommon to hear "I love you" in cdrama these days, but it is weird because nobody speaks like that irl 我喜欢你 wo xi huan ni (I like you) is more common.

The red berry poem is 相思 Xiang Si by 王维 Wang Wei in the Tang dynasty. Xiang Si means love-sickness/yearning, Wikipedia translated it as "One-hearted"

The red berry/red bean comes from a legend in the ancient times where a woman who died from crying under a tree because her husband lost his life in the frontier, she then turned into a red berry, and so the red berry become a symbol and euphemism for missing someone.

Wang Wei wrote this poem for his friend 李龟年 Li Guinian. Explanation for the poem here.

Historically, lots of poets wrote poems for their "best friends" "知己 zhi ji" "soulmate" "good brother", I guess poets always have a way of expressing themselves flowery, throwing poems and paintings at each other flexing. You know, only rich people had higher education back then.

As for the dead deer poem, I honestly didn't even know until I watched A Girl Like Me they speak about it in episode 12 @/38:12. When I watched it I had the same reaction as Ban Hua "what are you talking about it's only a dead antelope" let's just say we are both as illiterate as we can be lmao

This one is from 诗经 ShiJing The Classic of Poetry

召南·野有死麕 Zhao nan · ye you si jun (I copied the translations from here)

In the wild there is a dead antelope, And it is wrapped up with the white grass. There is a young lady with thoughts natural to the spring, And a fine gentleman would lead her astray.

In the forest there are the scrubby oaks; In the wild there is a dead deer, And it is bound round with the white grass. There is a young lady like a gem.

[She says], Slowly; gently, gently; Do not move my handkerchief; Do not make my dog bark.

There's different translations but you get the idea. Tldr: I wrapped a hunted dear in white cloth, a young girl (who's heart beating fast) comes up to me in the forest, strapping symbolism, taking something off symbolism, something something symbolism 😳���🙊

Thank you nonnie for enabling me to write an essay (o′┏▽┓｀o)

[mytastessuck]

Gorillaz: Demon Day

1Ah, the magnum opus. This might not be my favorite Gorillaz album but when think of Gorillaz, they always bring this masterpiece up. As I brought up before, this album was responsible for getting me back into Gorillaz in the first place, my dad buying me a copy as soon as it was released. Needless to say, my hyper ass hyperfixated on this band. I looked up their lyrics, went to their site, read their lore, listened to their interviews and brought issues of Tank Girl. This album basically defined me from 10-15 and I will always be grateful to it for that. This stuff is the GOAT for alternative hip-hop/rock and we are basically going to salivate over it for 15 tracks.

1. Intro

Love this foreboding shit. The instruments, the voices, the zombie stuff...hell yeah. I never skipped this part when I put the CD in the player. When I heard, "Now entering the harmonic door..." I would just grin like a maniac.

8/10

2. Last Living Souls

This is some melodic shit! From the chorus to the verses to the bridge, this shit manages to keep you in while filling you up with your daily recommended dose of solipsism. This is an ass-kicker.

10/10

3. Kids With Guns

This song apparently caused a controversy because kids and guns are not supposed to mentioned in the same sentence unless you're doing a report on Call of Duty: Black Ops but I personally thought this song was just average...until you got to the breakdown. All that noise proceeds to drown you in audio goodness before cutting out before you drown. Hats off to you, guys.

8/10

4. O Green World

Love this. The mixing, the chanting, the singing and random screaming. I don't know what it is with Gorillaz and their more environmental work but they tend to hit the ball out of the park every time they go green.

10/10

5. Dirty Harry

This song has every thing you need for a 2000s track. Kids singing, nice beats, Bush-trashing...basically, it's an excellent time capsule of mid-2000s culture all thrown at you by Bootie Brown stomping on you. What I especially like about this track is how the laughter at the end fades into the far less comforting laughter of...

10/10

6. Feel Good Inc.

I don't fuck with this song anymore.

This song...I would wake up and run to the nearest room this song was playing. I would memorize episodes and timeslots of wherever this song dropped on. I would attack anyone who attempted to turn this song off on the radio. This was my favorite song of all time. This song introduced me to De La Soul. I played this song all the time...to the point that I'm absolutely sick of it years later. I also hate it when people hold it up as the ultimate Gorillaz song. Ya'll know they did better stuff, right? Hell, their B-sides have better songs! But...I respect the shit out of this song. And I'm still grateful to it for fueling my Gorillaz fanaticism.

10/10

7. El Manana

Man, this song used to depress the shit out of me. Even before the video came out. Damon's voice is so oddly sorrowful for a pining side. Thank god he's married because I can see the Maenads swimming up to his beach and tearing him apart for bumming them out with his crooning. I remember when a Wikipedia article was vandalized to suggest this song was about 2D singing to Noodle. Gross, right?

9/10

8. Every Planet We Reach Is Dead

Damn, the piano on this is tight. I remember finding out Ike Turner did the piano on this and telling my dad. My dad thought he died. And he did. A year later. I don't begrudge the music team for working with Ike. He was a genuinely talented musician and a rock n' roll father. Plus, his career was still down the toilet after this so it's not like they did him a huge favor. Still though, listen to the breakdown after the verses. That shit can send you into hyperspace.

10/10

9. November Has Come

MF DOOM. I've been a fan of this guy since the Danger Mouse collaboration and he shows why on this track. I knew that there was only one guy talking on this track and it still sounded like a couple of guys conversing. This dude ruled. RIP

10/10

10. All Alone

A song to shake your rump to and to scare you out of a chill out! I love two-for-one deals! This is where Gorillaz start to bust genres like they owed them money. Rap mixed with soulful singing is a great taste that should be encountered more often. Kudos.

9/10

11. White Light

Fuck yes. This track is short yet sour-sweet with its weird mumbling, scatting, guitar work and heavenly break. Man, I would kill to be somewhere where this playing live. I would mosh to this so hard...good on you, Murdoc.

11/10

12. Dare

It's there, indeed. Finally, a song you can dance to without getting self-conscious. I will work it out, Noodle. I will work it out to your singing and the crowd chatter at the end. You all shake it with me. I hate dancing alone.

9/10

13. Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head

This shit is spooky! Thanks Dennis Hopper for creeping me out well into my twenties. I still get shivers when I hear "Without the truth of the eyes, the Happy Folk were blind." The singing is nice too, tying everything together with even more nihilistic imagery. Ooo-ooo-AH.

10/10

14. Don't Get Lost In Heaven

Pretty nice. Nothing special but it's not suckage either. Just a nice faux-gospel theme to mellow out to. It's cool but I really like this song for being the perfect lead in to my favorite song on the album...

8/10

15. Demon Days

When I first got this album and listened to it, I was disappointed to say the least. "Really? All that awesome shit and you finish it on gospel? I can't even understand what these guys are saying! Fuck it." I skipped it every time I played the album. It wasn't until years later when I looked up the lyrics and sung along to the song that the plug to my stupid brain finally went in the album. This song manages to talk about enlightenment without mentioning God. It tells us to live right without mentioning religion. It uses a choir. It's one of my favorite non-gospel gospel songs and it's one of my Gorillaz works. Praise them.

20/10

Album score: 10.01/10

Tune in next week for D-Sides. And if I thought I was unfair with this score...

[aelaer]

Hey aelaer, I have a question and since you seem to have been writing fanfic forever, I think you're a good person to ask this. I have a crossover idea with Doctor Strange and another universe, but to my dismay someone has already written something similar (not the same universe). I did have my story plotted out already, but there's some key concepts that can't be avoided I don't know if I should give up. I don't want to be accused of plagiarism even if the story is completely different.

Hi, thanks for thinking of me for your question! I have a tendency to ramble (and I ended up writing an essay for this) so let me answer you immediately: yes, you should still write it.

Now the rest of the answer delves into the why, in entirely too much detail as I am wont to do.

According to plagiarism.org, Merriam Webster defines the following items as plagiarism:

to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own

to use (another’s production) without crediting the source

to commit literary theft

to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source

For instance, if I were to state that the above was my own words, I would be plagiarizing both Merriam Webster and plagiarism.org (which is just irony at its finest).

Figuring out how to avoid plagiarizing words is easy: don’t copy-paste words that aren’t yours and declare them as yours. Slight rewording of the content doesn’t keep it from being plagiarism, either. The issue of ideas, however, is a good deal more difficult to quantify, especially in the creative space.

The Office of Research Integrity starts off by giving us a base point of idea plagiarism with the sciences in the following statement:

“In the sciences, as in most other scholarly endeavors, ethical writing demands that any ideas, data, and conclusions borrowed from others and used as the foundation of one’s own contributions to the literature, be properly acknowledged. The specific manner in which we make such acknowledgement may vary depending on the context and even on the discipline, but it often takes the form of either a footnote or a reference citation.”

This makes sense. In many educational systems kids are taught to properly site sources for information, which extends to ideas within the scientific community. If you are building your thesis on cancer research upon the discoveries of other researchers, they need to be referenced and cited properly (and it builds credibility for your own studies).

But how does this apply to creative writing, or indeed any creative medium? Obviously you don’t see footnotes for every source of inspiration in popular fiction across creative media, and it’s not like magical schools are banned from fiction because JK Rowling wrote a series about such a place. How do the rules of plagiarism of ideas that have a clear guideline in formal writing adapt to the creative arts?

To answer this question I am first going to turn to the modern legal system. Every country has its own set of laws regarding the protection of original works and ideas, but for the sake of ease the following is based on US laws and definitions. If you’re interested in your own country’s specific laws (and how they differ from what is stated here) I recommend a quick Google search.

Copyright is a concept that puts some (but not all) acts of plagiarism into a legal liability. It came into form as the printing press (and printed works) became more popular, but has grown significantly over the past 150 years as new technology and new ways to distribute media have come into play. As Wikipedia succinctly summarizes, “In law, copyright is the exclusive right, given to the creator of a work, to reproduce the work, usually for a limited time. Copyright protects the original expression of an idea in the form of a creative work, but not the idea itself. A copyright is subject to limitations based on public interest considerations, such as the fairuse doctrine in the United States.” This is how parody and criticism are protected, for instance.

It’s important to note that copyright protects the specifics, but not the actual idea. For instance, Marvel (and thus, Disney) have the copyright to the story of Stephen Strange, the arrogant surgeon that had a terrible car crash and went to Kamar-Taj and learned the ways of the Mystic Arts. However, if someone were to write about Trevor Baker, the arrogant baseball player that lost his arm in a car accident and went to a secret society in Japan to learn magic to become a sorcerer, there is no copyright protection. The idea is the same (and perhaps plagiarized), but there is enough difference to make it its own work.

You may note that, under that copyright definition and the current state of US law, all fanfiction are copyright infringements. Alongside that, all fanfiction can be considered a plagiarism of ideas in the eyes of some original creators. However, you’ll find that most authors, studios, and creative organizations are tolerant and sometimes encouraging of fanfiction and other fan-derived works so long as it’s not done for profit and clearly stated to be a fan-derived work (one time commissionsseem to be a grey area that most seem okay with, but something like art prints of copyrighted or trademarked characters is not something I���ve found definite rules for, and I imagine that it is also on a case by case basis; publishing written fanfiction works widely for profit is a big no for most creators). For more on this subject and how fan-derived works have fared legally, take a look at this wiki article, which mostly looks at cases within the United States but is still an interesting read. For more details about specific cases you can go to the sources linked.

You’ll note that, since copyright law does not protect ideas, that it doesn’t really fall into the scenario prompted in the original ask. The reason I bring up copyright is that it is important to recognize the differences between copyright and plagiarism.

I think Sara F Hawkins (an actual attorney, unlike me) states it best in her article about it. She has a whole list of the differences between copyright and plagiarism, but I think for the sake of this topic, this point is especially relevant to us: “Plagiarism is a violation of moral, ethical, or organization norms not laws.”

So let’s look at this case from those three viewpoints (for the sake of ease, I am using this definition to show the difference between ethics and morals. I don’t know if it’s right, but it’s useful).

Moral: The plagiarism of ideas and where it stands on a moral ground really varies from person to person. For instance, one may accuse me of plagiarizing @amethyst-noir​‘s ideas with the embellished or different spins on the prompts and asks received in her inbox. However, my moral stance would be that this falls into inspiration rather than plagiarism because there is enough of my own work within these prompts. This is a stronger argument as I also have her full support (as well as the support of a couple of the anons), but even if I didn’t, I think that if you put enough of your own spin onto the base of an idea, you craft it enough to make it your own. Many, many stories follow the same general plot lines and tropes; that does not mean they are all plagiarizing each other. Furthermore, the original ask makes it sound like you, anon, did not know this story existed after crafting the outline, making the argument null. How can you plagiarize something you did not know existed? You can’t, not from a moral standpoint.

Ethical: Unfortunately this one is a bit harder and the one you seem most concerned about. There is no one culture amongst the fan fiction community, and even every fandom has its own set of different communities with their own sets of norms, leaving this not entirely possible to predict. Instead I would rather critically examine the key plot points that are the same as this writer and figure out if they are relatively common tropes or entirely too specific to each other. For instance, if there’s a kidnapping, that’s in half the fiction out there. It’s way too broad a trope to be considered an idea one can really plagiarize. However, if both your story and theirs feature a kidnapping of the same character in the same spot with the same method after a very similar series of events, then there may be more people that see the similarities between them.If you want to take precaution against overzealous fans of the other work, upon publication of your own story, you can outright mention that you found a work similar to yours well after beginning your story and that any similarities are unintentional, with a link and a positive plug to the story in particular. You could even reach out to the author themselves before publishing, but I don’t think this is necessary, especially since you are crossing over a wholly different world (which already distinguishes itself as a different piece of work in regards to the base idea in most cases).

Organization: The authority on transformative works is usually considered to be AO3. AO3 would not pull a work for very similar ideas; if that were the case, the hurt/comfort, chatroom, and E-rating categories would be much, much smaller than they are now. So no worries on that end.

I cannot predict the behavior of your reviewers, anon, and without specifics I cannot say how similar your work is to this work already published, but I hope that everything I outlined above gives you an idea of where to go from here.

I am going to end this essay of an answer with something I found in my research on this subject. I came across this fantastic article by a Jonathan Bailey about the plagiarism of ideas and how they apply in US patent law (unlike copyright law, you can patent ideas), and what it would mean for the creative space if they were applied similarly. I recommend reading the whole article, but this passage especially stood out to me:

The best thing that we can do is realize that, in the eyes of the law, the value of a creative work is in its execution, not the idea behind it. As such, we have to take it upon ourselves not only to be original, but to carry out our visions the best possible way.

I think that should be a mantra everyone working with both original and derivative works should take to heart. Supposedly every story has already been told, so we may as well just tell the stories with our own spin, in our own words, and our own specific ideas that make them distinctly ours. That is how we make them unique and memorable.