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Based on actual events

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Swimwear Daisy

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Came up with this upon hearing EDM Park

Bonus under the cut

Too much spin

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Came up with this upon hearing EDM Park

Bonus under the cut

Too much spin

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Pro Racer Rosa

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Jimmy Olsen, opting to make some spare money on the side (there's a new camera that just dropped and it's worth more than his normal salary can afford), signs up for a Clinical Trial.

I DO NOT OWN THESE CHARACTERS OR THEIR WORLDS. I DO NOT INTEND TO MAKE MONEY WITH THIS POST. IF THIS POST IS ON TIKTOK, INSTAGRAM, YOUTUBE, OR ANYTHING OTHER THAN TUMBLR I DID NOT CONSENT TO THAT. IF THIS DISCLAIMER IS MISSING THEN THE POST WAS EDITED TO NEGATE IT.

It'll pay more than enough for that new camera he wants, and he just has to use his two weeks of saved vacation time from work to do it.

But he should have read the fine print.

Because he went to sleep in his bed, and woke up in what looks like a hotel room without any windows.

He pushes the emergency button on his watch, trying to summon Superman, but nothing happens.

Wherever he is, it's so well fortified that Superman can't hear the frequency the watch is going off at.

After the initial freak out though, the doctors come in and explain how the trial will work; two weeks of taking a pill in the morning and getting a shot in the afternoon, blood draws once every three days to monitor any side effects, consulting with a personal doctor every day, and he gets to basically actually have a two week vacation.

The secrecy, the doctors say, is due to it being a Government Run Clinical Trial, and they really are sorry for drugging him, but they figured it would be less stressful than throwing a black hood over his head on the way to the location.

Jimmy does not forgive them.

This is shady as shit.

But also, the doctors very notably did not say he could leave before the trial was up.

The best thing he can do is play along until he can find a chance to escape.

Except that the pills glow a little. The shots definitely glow, and not just a little. If he struggles, they sedate him and give him the meds anyways, and he wakes up in his hotel/prison cell, groggy. If he doesn't talk to the doctor about how he's feeling physically every day, they strap him down and run tests with various scanners.

There's no windows. The doors, every single one of them, need a key card and a thumb print scan to open. There is no cell phone signal; he knows because he overheard the armed guards complaining about it. No matter how many times he whispers for Superman, the Man of Steel doesn't come.

Hell, at one point, when Jimmy was actively struggling against getting injected again, he quite literally screamed for Superman, only for nothing to happen.

Everything is soundproofed, then.

He's not sure how long it's been, but he's fairly certain it's been over two weeks, unless they changed the schedule for the pills and the shots without telling him. Also, his hair is getting longer than it would have in two weeks.

And things are starting to get weird. Well, weirder.

His eyes sometimes glow red. One time he accidentally started floating. They held a jar of some strange glowing orb near him and his breath started frosting over.

He's sleeping more.

He can feel his heart slowing down more and more every day.

He knows he's dying.

And he knows that, for some reason, that's the goal; when he'd been in a sleepy haze, and the scientists and doctors had thought him unconscious, he'd heard them talking about him almost having the same biology as 'Phantom', and that all that was left was the brainwashing stage.

That they were just waiting for him to die before they did that.

But the closer he gets to death, the stronger he becomes. He hides it, of course, but it's difficult to hide a bent metal chair leg. He doesn't know if that happened due to enhanced strength or...or something else.

Then one day he looks up to see his eyes glowing red, but in the way that Superman's do before he uses laser vision. The floating gets more pronounced. He accidentally froze his morning coffee when he blew on it.

For some reason, his body appears to be developing the same or similar powers to Superman, and he has no idea why, or if it's permanent.

But he won't get answers if they refuse to tell him anything face to face.

So he pretends to be unconscious more; that way they'll talk more around him.

He learns that Phantom was a hero, despite the bullshit they're saying he knows one when he hears about one, who they took down.

That they experimented on him until all that was left was...the small glowing orb in a jar they kept shoving at his face.

And something in Jimmy knows that Phantom can still be saved.

If he can time it right, he can try to punch his way through enough of the guards and scientists to get to a part of the compound in the open air, somewhere he can get help.

Somewhere Superman can finally hear him.

He just has to do half the work.

Fine.

The more he plans, the more he feels an odd attachment to the orb in the jar. To Phantom.

Something inside him knows that's just a kid, and he can't explain how it knows.

Then, one day, when the timing is right, and he feels like he's on the cusp of...something, he strikes.

He takes a deep breath, just as they go to inject him again, feels his heart finally slow to a stop, and throws the metal table at the doctors in the room.

He doesn't even pause to acknowledge that his feet aren't touching the ground. That he's flying.

He's already across the room and grabbing Phantom, using the momentum to punch out the steel door.

The weapons they try to use on him to stop him sting, but Jimmy tanks it and barrels forward, breaking down door after door without stopping.

Then, after getting blinded by a sun he hasn't seen in an unknown number of days, he's out in the open air.

"Superman! Help!"

With an army rallying behind him, a rescued hostage in his arms, and Jimmy actively fighting off a nervous breakdown, Superman hears him.

And Superman is pissed.

~~~~~~

Clark has been out of his mind with worry.

Jimmy Olsen has been missing for seven months, and no one can pinpoint where he is.

He can't hear Jimmy's heart, and the only thing preventing him from believing that Jimmy's dead is the staunch refusal to do so, and Bruce reassuring him that the evidence in Jimmy's apartment indicated that whoever took him wanted him alive.

So after seven months of no word, he finally, finally hears Jimmy's hoarse, terrified voice scream for him.

He's there before he fully realizes that he's moved, and...

Jimmy's floating.

Jimmy doesn't have a pulse.

Jimmy's very clearly alive somehow despite that, ragged with unkempt blue hair and beard so pale the blue was almost white, skinnier than he should be, glowing pale red eyes, and cradling a jar with a glowing orb inside of it.

"They did to him what they were trying to do to me, and I don't know what they did," Jimmy gasps, hands shaking. "I can fly, I have laser vision, I have frost breath, I don't know what...I don't..."

Behind Jimmy, a small army of men in white suits rushes out of a hole in the wall, leveling strange weapons at his friend.

The same friend they experimented on, for seven months, and probably did irreversible damage to if they managed to foist Kryptonian abilities upon a human body.

Clark reaches out and closes Jimmy's eyes, cutting off and containing the laser vision his friend was gearing up to use from stress alone.

Then, slowly, Superman turns to look down at the men in white suits below him, who appear to be having the sudden and startling revelation that they'd messed up.

The Man of Steel loses a little time after that.

Or; The GIW opens a Clinical Trial to try to create a new halfa after experimenting on their captured subject, Phantom, so much that Phantom was forced into his Core. The Clinical Trial only lasts for two weeks; but after that they can keep whoever signs up for it indefinitely, because at that point they're so ecto-contaminated they don't count as human and fall under the anti-ecto acts. Then, they can create their own halfa and brainwash the halfa into doing their dirty work. Jimmy Olsen, desperate to escape, has been slowly adapting to have the powers of Superman, who is his friend and who would absolutely be able to save not only Jimmy, but whoever these scientists turned into a glowing orb. Since ecto is adaptable, it adapted to the powerset that Jimmy thought he needed. This includes the very last ability he got; invulnerability, but on a lesser scale than Superman's own, hence why anti-ghost weapons only stung him.

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In the canon context, there is something extremely funny about Phantom running around with so much ghost gear from Fentonworks.

I assume the Fentons make enough of a spectacle with their ghost hatred that everyone knows they're out here hunting Phantom for bloodsport. Like there's no uneasy truce or tense partnership going on like the Fentons have not partnered with Phantom in any way. There's not even any chance of a secret partnership because the likes of Jack Fenton would not be able to keep a secret like that.

Which really just leaves the conclusion that Phantom stole all that gear. All of it. Repeatedly. And he's still doing it. He's got some brand new FentonTech-of-the-week every week and he Absolutely is not supposed to have that. Like some raccoon in the trashcan the Fentons can't keep out despite all their broom-swinging and lid locks.

The ghost-net wristwatch that Jack Fenton is parading around with at 10am is on Phantom's wrist by 11am. Jack and Maddie have so many pieces of matching gear but if One piece is missing from One of them you can almost certainly bet it's clipped to Phantom's beltloop somewhere. Sometimes Fenton gear on Jack or Maddie will vanish and then reappear and the best idea anyone has is sometimes Phantom steals too many things and just gives the least fun pieces back.

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Jimmy Olsen, opting to make some spare money on the side (there's a new camera that just dropped and it's worth more than his normal salary can afford), signs up for a Clinical Trial.

I DO NOT OWN THESE CHARACTERS OR THEIR WORLDS. I DO NOT INTEND TO MAKE MONEY WITH THIS POST. IF THIS POST IS ON TIKTOK, INSTAGRAM, YOUTUBE, OR ANYTHING OTHER THAN TUMBLR I DID NOT CONSENT TO THAT. IF THIS DISCLAIMER IS MISSING THEN THE POST WAS EDITED TO NEGATE IT.

It'll pay more than enough for that new camera he wants, and he just has to use his two weeks of saved vacation time from work to do it.

But he should have read the fine print.

Because he went to sleep in his bed, and woke up in what looks like a hotel room without any windows.

He pushes the emergency button on his watch, trying to summon Superman, but nothing happens.

Wherever he is, it's so well fortified that Superman can't hear the frequency the watch is going off at.

After the initial freak out though, the doctors come in and explain how the trial will work; two weeks of taking a pill in the morning and getting a shot in the afternoon, blood draws once every three days to monitor any side effects, consulting with a personal doctor every day, and he gets to basically actually have a two week vacation.

The secrecy, the doctors say, is due to it being a Government Run Clinical Trial, and they really are sorry for drugging him, but they figured it would be less stressful than throwing a black hood over his head on the way to the location.

Jimmy does not forgive them.

This is shady as shit.

But also, the doctors very notably did not say he could leave before the trial was up.

The best thing he can do is play along until he can find a chance to escape.

Except that the pills glow a little. The shots definitely glow, and not just a little. If he struggles, they sedate him and give him the meds anyways, and he wakes up in his hotel/prison cell, groggy. If he doesn't talk to the doctor about how he's feeling physically every day, they strap him down and run tests with various scanners.

There's no windows. The doors, every single one of them, need a key card and a thumb print scan to open. There is no cell phone signal; he knows because he overheard the armed guards complaining about it. No matter how many times he whispers for Superman, the Man of Steel doesn't come.

Hell, at one point, when Jimmy was actively struggling against getting injected again, he quite literally screamed for Superman, only for nothing to happen.

Everything is soundproofed, then.

He's not sure how long it's been, but he's fairly certain it's been over two weeks, unless they changed the schedule for the pills and the shots without telling him. Also, his hair is getting longer than it would have in two weeks.

And things are starting to get weird. Well, weirder.

His eyes sometimes glow red. One time he accidentally started floating. They held a jar of some strange glowing orb near him and his breath started frosting over.

He's sleeping more.

He can feel his heart slowing down more and more every day.

He knows he's dying.

And he knows that, for some reason, that's the goal; when he'd been in a sleepy haze, and the scientists and doctors had thought him unconscious, he'd heard them talking about him almost having the same biology as 'Phantom', and that all that was left was the brainwashing stage.

That they were just waiting for him to die before they did that.

But the closer he gets to death, the stronger he becomes. He hides it, of course, but it's difficult to hide a bent metal chair leg. He doesn't know if that happened due to enhanced strength or...or something else.

Then one day he looks up to see his eyes glowing red, but in the way that Superman's do before he uses laser vision. The floating gets more pronounced. He accidentally froze his morning coffee when he blew on it.

For some reason, his body appears to be developing the same or similar powers to Superman, and he has no idea why, or if it's permanent.

But he won't get answers if they refuse to tell him anything face to face.

So he pretends to be unconscious more; that way they'll talk more around him.

He learns that Phantom was a hero, despite the bullshit they're saying he knows one when he hears about one, who they took down.

That they experimented on him until all that was left was...the small glowing orb in a jar they kept shoving at his face.

And something in Jimmy knows that Phantom can still be saved.

If he can time it right, he can try to punch his way through enough of the guards and scientists to get to a part of the compound in the open air, somewhere he can get help.

Somewhere Superman can finally hear him.

He just has to do half the work.

Fine.

The more he plans, the more he feels an odd attachment to the orb in the jar. To Phantom.

Something inside him knows that's just a kid, and he can't explain how it knows.

Then, one day, when the timing is right, and he feels like he's on the cusp of...something, he strikes.

He takes a deep breath, just as they go to inject him again, feels his heart finally slow to a stop, and throws the metal table at the doctors in the room.

He doesn't even pause to acknowledge that his feet aren't touching the ground. That he's flying.

He's already across the room and grabbing Phantom, using the momentum to punch out the steel door.

The weapons they try to use on him to stop him sting, but Jimmy tanks it and barrels forward, breaking down door after door without stopping.

Then, after getting blinded by a sun he hasn't seen in an unknown number of days, he's out in the open air.

"Superman! Help!"

With an army rallying behind him, a rescued hostage in his arms, and Jimmy actively fighting off a nervous breakdown, Superman hears him.

And Superman is pissed.

~~~~~~

Clark has been out of his mind with worry.

Jimmy Olsen has been missing for seven months, and no one can pinpoint where he is.

He can't hear Jimmy's heart, and the only thing preventing him from believing that Jimmy's dead is the staunch refusal to do so, and Bruce reassuring him that the evidence in Jimmy's apartment indicated that whoever took him wanted him alive.

So after seven months of no word, he finally, finally hears Jimmy's hoarse, terrified voice scream for him.

He's there before he fully realizes that he's moved, and...

Jimmy's floating.

Jimmy doesn't have a pulse.

Jimmy's very clearly alive somehow despite that, ragged with unkempt blue hair and beard so pale the blue was almost white, skinnier than he should be, glowing pale red eyes, and cradling a jar with a glowing orb inside of it.

"They did to him what they were trying to do to me, and I don't know what they did," Jimmy gasps, hands shaking. "I can fly, I have laser vision, I have frost breath, I don't know what...I don't..."

Behind Jimmy, a small army of men in white suits rushes out of a hole in the wall, leveling strange weapons at his friend.

The same friend they experimented on, for seven months, and probably did irreversible damage to if they managed to foist Kryptonian abilities upon a human body.

Clark reaches out and closes Jimmy's eyes, cutting off and containing the laser vision his friend was gearing up to use from stress alone.

Then, slowly, Superman turns to look down at the men in white suits below him, who appear to be having the sudden and startling revelation that they'd messed up.

The Man of Steel loses a little time after that.

Or; The GIW opens a Clinical Trial to try to create a new halfa after experimenting on their captured subject, Phantom, so much that Phantom was forced into his Core. The Clinical Trial only lasts for two weeks; but after that they can keep whoever signs up for it indefinitely, because at that point they're so ecto-contaminated they don't count as human and fall under the anti-ecto acts. Then, they can create their own halfa and brainwash the halfa into doing their dirty work. Jimmy Olsen, desperate to escape, has been slowly adapting to have the powers of Superman, who is his friend and who would absolutely be able to save not only Jimmy, but whoever these scientists turned into a glowing orb. Since ecto is adaptable, it adapted to the powerset that Jimmy thought he needed. This includes the very last ability he got; invulnerability, but on a lesser scale than Superman's own, hence why anti-ghost weapons only stung him.

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A cute commission i did for @yet_one_more_idiot ✨

This is a crossover of PPGZ x Miraculous Ladybug 💚❤️💙

I challenged myself to draw something more cartoonish this time to fit better the characters, I had fun stylizing this!

I focused more on the shapes and colors instead of small details

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Public Divorce, Episode Rewrite: Part 3

Firstly, gonna try and break these up more, they are VERY LONG.

Secondly, the Nora & Chloé-Focused Episode should have already happened by this point, I think. Like, somewhere between episode 4 or 3, we should have had that. So, putting it here, we can all pretend it was in one of the earlier things, ok? Ok.

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Flyweight

So, Alya has been pestering Nora about teaching Chloé some boxing. Nora has been reticent, mostly cause, ya know, this is the girl who punched her little sister. Yes, Alya’s assured them all that it was definitely instigated by her, that she said something she shouldn’t have, but even knowing her sister, Nora feels that Chloé punching Alya was too far. Alya counters that Chloé actually AGREES with that statement, and has not only apologized for the punch, but bought her new glasses, AND two pairs of back-ups! Nora is still reluctant. Finally, Alya tells Nora that if she agrees to teach Chloé, Alya will let Nora teach her, something she and Nora have been sniping about for a while. Nora agrees, and they make plans.

Things start ok when the girls show up. Sabrina ended up tagging along, so she gets taught a bit too. Nora is a bit blunt, but Chloé is honestly used to SO MUCH WORSE, and is still kinda emotionally numb, so doesn’t take any of it to heart. Nora is begrudgingly impressed by Chloé’s quick progress, and the 4 of them get on ok. Then, one of Nora’s teammates shows up while Nora is grabbing something from the back, and starts making an ass of himself. He starts making comments about Alya, Sabrina and Chloé being weak, which Nora takes exception to when she comes back. The two have it out, with Nora telling him to stop being a fly-weight, to stop taking his inferiority complex out on a couple kids. That maybe if he put as much effort into his boxing as he did into being a braggart, Nora wouldn’t have kicked his ass in every match they’ve ever had. Guy stomps off in a huff, and Nora goes back to teaching the girls. Tells them not to take his words to heart, everyone has to start SOMEWHERE…until the guy comes back, Akumatized into Fly-Weight. (Cause of course he is.)

Fly-Weight challenges Nora to a fight, which she accepts mostly to keep him from going after the girls. However, even though Nora is up against a super-powered magic madman, and taking several brutal hits, she starts WINNING - which is impressive as all get out, given Fly-Weight is fucking with gravity and how much things weigh - and Fly-Weight gets desperate. He targets Alya, planning to trap her to distract Nora, and Chloé knocks Alya and Sabrina out of the way. The way it happens puts Chloé in danger of being crushed under several tonnes of rock, and she would be if LB and CN didn’t show up right then and yank her out of the way. LB & CN sort of take over the fight (Nora has a couple broken bones at this point) and finally beat Fly-Weight by tricking him into knocking himself out.

After, Nora tries to awkwardly thank Chloé for saving Alya, and Chloé is just. Confused? What? Why is she being thanked? She risked her life? Well, yes. So? Nora does not like the tone of this conversation, given that Chloé seems to be implying that risking her own life DID NOT MATTER. And not in the “well, Ladybug will fix everything!” way, which, still not ok, but at least Nora could read as “coping with a near death experience”. Nora flounders for a minute, but does offer to teach Chloé some more martial arts - she got at least one good right hook on Fly-Weight - which Chloé accepts. Alya then pipes up that Mom called, Sabrina and Chloé are invited to dinner! Sabrina ends up bowing out (her dad heard about the Akuma, wants her home) but Chloé says “sure, why not?”

After an evening watching Chloé be utterly baffled by things like being genuinely complimented by an adult, or the twins asking for hugs and getting them, or the concept of being thanked, she pulls her parents aside and informs them they need to be cool with Chloé, cause Nora has a new baby sister.

o

Gamer - mostly unchanged, but Chloé isn’t there. End of the episode has André & Audrey arguing on TV, exposing some celeb drama about the video game tournament in the process.

o

Animan - no real change, except that there’s a quick jump cut to Nora’s gym, where she’s training Chloé. They both look at the TV, see the Akuma, and when he talks, Chloé recognizes Otis’s voice, says, “Is that your dad?”

o

Antibug/Vanisher

Right, so this is basically the Antibug replacement episode. 

Episode opens calmly, class just getting to school. Everyone is chatting, getting to their seats. Adrien’s a little concerned, cause Chloé and Sabrina haven’t shown up yet, but no one is overly worried. Then, just as class starts, Chloé kicks the door down. Like. Right off its hinges, knocks it out of the frame entirely. She looks worse than normal and frantically tells them all to drop everything, Sabrina’s missing! 

Apparently, they were supposed to hang out the day before, but Audrey and André dragged Chloé to something. Again. By the time Chloé escaped, it was late, and she when she got to the Raincomprix household, Roger was panicking because Sabrina didn’t come home. Chloé and Roger have apparently spent the whole night looking, but they couldn’t find her. Roger is at the police department, filing a missing persons report, and Chloé came to school looking for help. The class quickly rallies, and form a search party.

Most of the episode is taken up by the class searching for Sabrina. Chloé is leading the charge, and it quickly becomes clear that Chloé Is Not Alright, more so than normal. She doesn’t stop to eat, she won’t rest, refuses to take even a single break. Adrien tries his best to get Chloé to sit down for just a second, and Chloé nearly rips his head off. Everyone is growing increasingly concerned, but Chloé refuses to listen to anyone. She Needs To Find Sabrina.

A whole day passes, with no one finding anything. The next day, Chloé is even more exhausted and manic, determined to keep searching. While the class tries to think of a way to make her take a quick break, someone makes a comment that this is the longest stretch of time they’ve had in a while without André or Audrey turning up to muck around. Of course, this is when the pair show up. Both of them look terrible, like they’ve been put through the spin cycle, and as the kids watch, an invisible force starts throwing things at the pair, herding them away from Chloé.

Everyone kinda goes “ooooooh”. Yeah, Sabrina has been an Akuma for the past two days. She got fed up with Audrey and André taking her friend away, making her feel miserable, and just straight up ignoring Sabrina. Marinette and Adrien quickly find excuses to flee so LB and CN can show up.

The moment the Akuma is purified, and Sabrina reappears, Chloé is so relieved. She’s about to launch herself at Sabrina to hug her, but only gets one step before fainting. Apparently not sleeping or eating for over 48 hours is a bad idea. Chloé comes to rather quickly, and sees Sabrina hovering over her, full of concern, asking if she’s ok, if there’s anything Sabrina can do…and Chloé bursts into tears.

Later, when the two girls have rested and eaten, they actually have a talk, and. Well, there’s a lot of crying and feelings talk, but Chloé tells Sabrina that she thinks they need some boundaries. Because, she just realized she’s relying on Sabrina WAY too much to be fair. Like, yes, Chloé is going through a rough time. Yes, friends should be able to rely on each other. But Sabrina was Akumatized for 2 days, and her first concern was whether CHLOÉ was alright. And the moment Sabrina was out of the picture, Chloé just stopped caring for herself at all. She got so used to Sabrina taking care of her that she just didn’t think to do it herself. None of these things are ok, and while they probably both need a lot of help, (like, say, therapy) there’s little hope of that while André and Audrey are still making their divorce into a pathetic circus. So, the two of them need to work out where their boundaries are, because Sabrina is Chloé’s friend, not her caretaker or servant, and Chloé SHOULD be Sabrina’s friend, not her kid or her boss. Chloé also frames it a bit, like. Her parents have, so far, taken away Chloé’s sense of security, self-esteem, & trust. She’ll be damned if their actions take away her best friend.

(As always, Feedback is welcomed and encouraged! So are other people’s takes on the same idea!)

-

I love this all SO MUCH

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Pride Month Ask Game: The Mario Princesses (Peach, Daisy, and Rosalina)

Oho!

Peach:

Daisy

Rosalina:

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as a child being told "the moon controls the tides" with no additional explanation was like. oh okay. you want me to believe in magic? you're talking about magic right now? okay. fine

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Maid cleaning a massive chateau surely belonging to the richest people you’ve ever seen, and as she’s walking from room to room you notice that every single portrait is of her

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Fuck it, I didn't want to make a post on this but it's bugging the hell out of me so let's exorcize the thought.

Lilo and Stitch is an extremely good children's movie. I've been working at a daycare for over five years now, and out of all the children's movies I've shown to an auidence of twenty or so school-age kids (i.e. between the ages of 5 and 12), the only movie that's held their attention as well as Lilo and Stitch is The Emperor's New Groove, and the only one that's held it better is An American Tail. Of those three, Lilo and Stitch has won the vote of "what movie we will watch" the most. It not only entertains kids, but emotionally captivates them from start to finish, because it very thoroughly understands how to engage children on their level. It's a smart, tightly written children's movie.

The feat of story-telling genius it pulls of lies in its ability to reach both where children's imaginations want to go and where their lived real-world experiences lie - most children's movies focus on one or the other, but Lilo and Stitch dives deep into both. On the imagination side, there's Stitch's whole plotline of being a little alien monster being chased by other weirdo aliens onto earth because they want to stop him from running amok and causing havoc (which, of course, happens anyway in fun cartoony comedy/action spectacle). On the real-world side, you have Lilo's plotline of being a troubled little girl who has an abundance of very real problems that, like an actual child, she struggles to comprehend and deal with, as well as the many adults in her life that care about her to some degree but all struggle to fully understand her. Kids want to be Stitch and run amok and cause cartoony havoc. Kids, even the least-troubled kids, relate to Lilo, because all of them have been in a similar situation as her at least once in their lives.

Balancing these two very different stories, with very different tones and scopes to their respective conflicts, is a hard writing task, but Lilo and Stitch manages to do it in a way that seems effortless with one very powerful trick. The two plots are direct mirrors to each other, complete with the characters involved in each having foils in the respective plot. To break it down:

Stitch, the wild and destructive alien gremlin who everyone has labeled as a crime against existence, is Lilo, the troubled young girl who's viewed as a "problem child" by all the adults in her life. In both plotlines, Stitch and Lilo are facing the threat of being "taken away" from the life they know because they act out, and in both plotlines, we see that this is an unfathomably cruel thing to do to them and will not actually solve the problems they have.

Dr. Jumbaa, the mad scientist who made Stitch because making monsters is what mad scientists do, and who had no intentions of ever being nurturing or parental to anything or anyone in his life, is Nani, Lilo's older sister whose parents died when she was young and now is forced to act as a parental substitute despite not being mentally or emotionally prepared for that responsibility yet. Both Dr. Jumbaa and Nani are trying to get their respective wild children in line with what society wants them to be, and both are struggling hard with it because they in turn have a lot of growing to do before they can actually accomplish that.

Pleakley, the nebbish alien bureaucrat who ends up being assigned to help Dr. Jumbaa despite being mostly uninvolved in creating the whole Stitch situation, is David, the nice but mostly ineffectual guy who's crushing on Nani and wants to help her but doesn't really have much he can provide except emotional support. Ultimately Pleakley and David prove that said emotional support is a lot more helpful than it seems on the surface, as they give Jumbaa and Nani respectively a lot of the pushes they need to become better in their parental roles.

The Grand Councilwoman, who runs the society of aliens that is trying to banish Stitch forever for his crime of existing, is Cobra Bubbles, the Child Protective Services agent who is in charge of deciding whether or not Lilo needs to be taken away from her home forever for, ostensibly, her own good. Both are well-intentioned and stern, with a desire to follow the rules of society and do what procedure says is the most humane thing to do in this situation, but both lack the understanding of Stitch/Lilo's situation to actually help until the end of the movie.

Finally, we have Captain Gantu, the enforcer of the Galactic Council who is a mean, aggressive, sadistic brute but is viewed as a "good guy" by society because he plays by its rules (well, when he knows can't get away with breaking them, anyway), who is the counterpart of Myrtle, the mean, aggressive, sadistic schoolyard bully who is viewed as a "good kid" by other adults because she plays by the rules they established (well, when she knows she can't get away with breaking them, anyway). Both Gantu and Myrtle are, in truth, much nastier in temperament than Stitch and Lilo, but are better at hiding it in front of others and so get away with it, and often make Stitch and Lilo look worse in the eyes of others by provoking them to violence and then playing the victim about it - in fact, both even have the same line, "Does this look infected to you?", which they say after goading their respective wild-child victims into biting them.

The symmetry of these two plotlines allows them to actually feed into each other and build each other up instead of fighting each other for screentime. The fantastical nature of Stitch's plot adds whimsy to the far more realistic problems that Lilo faces so they don't get too heavy for the children in the audience, while the very real struggles of Lilo in her plotline bleed over into Stitch's plot and make both very emotionally poignant. When both plotlines hit their shared climax, they reach children on a emotional level few other movies can match - the terror of Lilo being taken away from her family, and the emotional complexity of that problem (Cobra Bubbles pointing to Lilo's ruined house and shouting at Nani, "IS THIS WHAT LILO NEEDS?" is so starkly real and heart-breaking), is matched and echoed in the visual splendor and mania of the spectacular no-way-this-is-going-to-work chase scene where Stitch, Nani, Jumbaa, and Pleakley all team up to rescue Lilo from Gantu.

The arcs of the characters all more or less line up. Nani confronts her own failures to be a guardian and parent to Lilo and resolves to do better and learn from her mistakes. Jumbaa, who through most of the movie protests to be evil and uncaring, nonetheless comes to not only care for Pleakley, but more importantly for Stitch too, and ends up assuming the role he never wanted but nonetheless forced himself into from the start: he is Stitch's family. Hell, the moment that reveals this is really clever - Stitch goes out into the wilderness to try and re-enact a scene from a storybook of The Ugly Duckling, hoping, in a very childish way, that his family will show up and love him. Jumbaa arrives and, coldly but not particularly cruelly, tells Stitch that he has no family - that Stitch wasn't born, but created in a lab by Jumbaa himself. But in that moment Jumbaa is proving himself wrong - because Stitch's creator, his parent, DID show up, and did exactly what happens in the story by telling Stitch the truth of what he is. It can't be a surprise, then, that later in the movie Jumbaa ends up deciding to side with Stitch, to help him save Lilo, and to stay on Earth with his child.

David and Pleakley go from being pushed away by Nani and Jumbaa respectively to essentially becoming their partners in the family. The Grand Councilwoman and Cobra Bubbles finally see how cruel their initial solution of isolating Stitch and Lilo from their family would be, and bend the rules they are supposed to enforce to protect and support this weird found family instead of breaking it apart. Gantu and Myrtle are recognized for the assholes they are and face comeuppance in the form of comedic slapstick pratfalls. And most importantly, Stitch and Lilo both get the emotional support and understanding they need to thrive and live happy lives as children should be allowed to do. It's like poetry, it rhymes.

It's a very precise, smartly written movie. It's a delicate balancing act of tone and emotions, with a very strong theme about the need for family and understanding that hits children in their hearts and imaginations. It's extremely well structured.

...

So it'd be kind of colossally fucking stupid to remake it and start fucking around with the core structure of it, chopping out pieces and completely altering others, with no real purpose beyond "Well, the executives thought it might be better if we did this."

[wiltarrow]

oh shit, it's 3/21/23, 32123, palindrome day

[wiltarrow]

Round Robin-Prologue

"What's up Gotham!"

All the TV's, even the ones turned off, flicked to show an overweight man with long hair red hair and sideburns. Not a rogue many recognized, but he had all the right vibes. "This is Control Freak. And I'm hear to provide some top rate entertainment. My remote has gotten a lovely upgrade." He showed off what looked like a TV remote glowing with ethereal power. "So let welcome the main character in tonight's entertainment. Protector of Gotham, Batman's partner and bane of my existence - Robin."

He pressed a button on the remote and the screens flashed. Suddenly joining him in the white expanse was Red Hood, Spoiler, and Robin, in addition to one teenager dressed in normal clothes but has apparently slapped a domino on mid-transfer and one man whose face was covered in glowing light.

"Where are we?" Glowing face asked. "And is this a new nutjob?"

"Old nutjob." Civies kid answered. "Control Freak. Has a modified remote that he originally used control any technology in the immediate area. Later upgraded it with magic to either pull others in the TV shows he enjoyed, or to bring things from those shows to life in the real world. Likes to televise his crimes. He used to bother the Titans back when Nightwing was Robin. He got caught and actually manged to stay caught for years. Guessing he got out recently."

"Super-stalker knowledge go!" Spoiler joked

"When Nightwing...but he's in Bludhaven!" Control Freak exclaimed. He hadn't exactly kept abreast of the hero scene while he was in jail, but thought it a safe bet that if Robin wasn't active with the Titans anymore he'd be back home in Gotham. "Wait, I've seen pictures of Nightwing, did Robin get replaced as a pod person from Disco Hell?"

"I've been there and no, he's just like that." Civies kid said like it was a completely sane thing to say.

"This guy was from his Titan days? Yeah I get the confusion." Red Hood nodded. "That was when Nightwing was going through his 'Look at me Dad, I'm so serious and responsible I don't need you' phase'."

"I...honestly can't picture that." Glowing face admitted.

"So basically this guy got everyone who was ever Robin except the one he was after?" Spoiler chuckled.

That...of course there was more than one Robin. Ugh. Hold on... "Are you saying...Red Hood used to be Robin?"

"You said he like to televise his crimes? So this is being broadcasted to everyone in Gotham?" Red Hood asked with a growl.

"Most likely."

"PAUSE!" Control Freak yelped, pressing the button on his remote as bullets suddenly began to fly in his direction. He stared at what could have been his death frozen in real time.

"I was never Robin, so why am I here?" Glowing Face asked.

"Tsk." Robin sounded more annoyed by Glowing Face than Control Freak. "I told you using your 'We Are Robin' movement was usurping my rightful name."

"Get over yourself, Demon Brat." Civie's snorted.

Spoiler chuckled, than blinked. "Didn't you have a date tonight?"

"Yes I did." Civies said in a very low, very deliberate voice. "And if the best thing that's ever happened to me gets ruined because this guy used a plural when he meant a singular in the wrong city, he is going to find out why Batman himself is terrified of me breaking and going to the dark side. I follow his no killing code out of respect to him, push me far enough and see where I go!"

"Pause, pause, pause, pause!" Control Freak was taking no more chances. He paused everyone. "So....Robins are scary, who knew?" He chuckled nervously. Okay, he knew Robin was a brilliant leader and terrifying fighter. He was not expecting the amount of 'cool with murder' vibes he was getting.

"Well, on to tonight's festivities. My initial plan was to trap Robin in a video game he'd have to fight his way out of. We've got more Robins, but hey, I've got options!" Control Freak clicked a button and a social media poll opened up. "I made a poll online asking what video game Robin would have the worst time in and why? I've populated a picker wheel to spin for it. I was only going to do one Robin, but I have more than enough choices for all these guy. And Robin. Original Robin. If you'd care to come by to save your successors, you'll be more than welcome to join in the fun!"

"So without further ado let's SPIN. THE. WHEEL!" Control Freak grabbed the digital wheel and gave it a spin. "Let's go Oldest to Youngest. Red Hood, you're going to..."

"Persona 4! This video game was nominated because-" He pulled up a cue card, "'The main characters have to face their own issues and accept their inner flaws in order to survive and I don't think any of the Bats could face that level of introspection.' Thanks for your suggestion. Hopefully Red Hood will enjoy his time in Inaba!" Control Freak clicked his remote and Red Hood vanished in a burst of static. "Persona 4! This video game was nominated because-" He pulled up a cue card, "'The main characters have to face their own issues and accept their inner flaws in order to survive and I don't think any of the Bats could face that level of introspection.' Thanks for your suggestion. Hopefully Red Hood will enjoy his time in Inaba!" Control Freak clicked his remote and Red Hood vanished in a burst of static.

He glanced at the wheel. "Hmm, glad it didn't go with Mafia. That would have been easy mode for him. Actually..." he shuffled through his cards, "so I initially agreed with 'Mafia, because in order to win they have to become the head of a criminal empire as something that would suck for Robin.' But given Hood and this guy." Control Freak pointed to Civies. "Plus that current Robin was, uh, in the process of drawing a very sharp sword when I froze them," Control Freak gulped, "I think that's actually up their alley and I don't want to encourage them to make a revenge hit on me so I'm removing that from the board. Sorry." He tossed the card over his shoulder and the option vanished from the pickerwheel.

"On to the next..." He stopped at looked at them. "Okay, Robin's obviously the youngest, but I have no clue about the others. So let's go with Spoiler because I at least tangentially know who she is."

"Bloodrayne! This one was chosen because 'As a half vampire Robin will have to kill people and drink their blood to play. Plus he'd look hilarious in that bustier." Control Freak blinked. "Well, I'm sorry your crossdressing dreams have been dashed as the one girl Robin was the one who got this one. Hopefully we'll still see some good blood drinking struggles. And now for our two mystery guests. Eeny meeny miney...You! We're going with Domino guy first. Let's SPIN THE WHEEL." Control Freaked watched as the wheel ticked right where Mafia had been and counted his blessing before taking in where it had landed.

"Splatterhouse (Remake). Nominated for 'Robin is agile and clever. This game requires sheer brute force and to not just kill your opponents but pulverize them and feed on the violence you're causing to heal and power up.' Control Freak looked a lot less relieved. "You know, the back of the box blurb said this one was about rescuing the heroes girlfriend. I could put in his girlfriend in place of the Protagonists....but I think I want to keep living afterwards. Ah what the heck, he's going to try and kill me anyway, let's make for a great show. Don't worry, my guy date night is back on!" He pressed the remote and Civies vanished. Another click in the towards the screen assured his date would be gone too. "But let's not dwell on that. Next up, out second Mystery Guest, let's see how this goes."

"How appropriate to go with our light guy, 'Eternal Darkness'. Let's see the nomination 'Eternal Darkness because everyone in Gotham knows you can only trust yourself, but the game forces to to experience hallucinations when your sanity is low and you can never be sure I stuff is real or not and I think not being able to trust his sense would drive him crazy'. Oooh, watching a Robin hallucinate and be paranoid about everything he sees, while being out of the splash radius? Count me in! Man, too bad we didn't get to send Nightwing here, it would have been a blast. Oh course it's not too late if you want to stop by." Control Freak grinned.

"And now where to send the smallest bird in the flock. One last time, say it with me. SPIN. THE. WHEEL." Control Freak grabbed the side of the picker wheel and gave it the strongest turn yet. It spun around in a fury, before slowing down and settling in the last game.

"I guess 'Demon Brat' was prophetic as little Robin is going to Devil May Cry 3. Let's look at the nomination. 'Devil May Cry 3, because the series focuses on gunplay, which the bats are forbidden from'," Control Freak looked up. "Guess I wasn't the only one out of the loop on Red Hood. Continuing, 'and three in particular because it's a prequel and Dante isn't this cool controlled customer yet. He's an overreactive teenager(i think he's 19) who thinks he's far cooler than he is. He's so cringe it would be hilarious'. Well, that's what we got. Seems like Robins the right age for some chunnibiyo shit, so maybe it's fitting, who can say? You'll all find out in the coming nights."

"Oh, you thought you'd get to watch it all go down now? Sorry to disappoint. This is the teaser trailer. We'll being starting the show tomorrow night and doing one episode per weeknight. Same bird time, same bird channel. See you tomorrow." Control Freak aimed his remote at the screen and with the press of a button all the TV's turned back to normal.

But in Gotham city, nothing was normal. Oracle was contacting as many people as she could, while trying to impress that Dick should be kept out of Gotham. Criminals scurried and hid, fearing the wrath of the Bat without any of his minders left. And Bruce...Bruce was staring at the screen that had just gone dark, a million thoughts running through his head. His fists and jaw clenched.

Control Freak would pay.

~~~~

Okay, so as the screencaps were evidence for I did make the picker wheel and I did spin it for each Robin. I feel the need to say this because...most of the felt too fitting. Tim was mad because he was on a date and gets the game with the big focus on romantic relationships. Steph gets the character who's goal in becoming a badass warrior is getting revenge on her evil father for destroying her family. Duke and his light powers get a game titled Eternal Darkness. Damian gets a game where his character's roll is defined as the heir of a powerful demon. It was randomized, I swear!

Also the organized Crime game was initially on the board, but after rolling for Hood I decided to have CF remove it as Crime Boss Simulator wouldn't exactly be torture for a crime lord and he was a little less sure about the other Robins at that point. But I didn't remove it on my board, cause I figured what were the odds And Guess what Tim got? Splaterhouse was technically a reroll.

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“average person eats 3 spiders a year” factoid actualy just statistical error. average person eats 0 spiders per year. Spiders Georg, who lives in cave & eats over 10,000 each day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted