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Earth Day Special! (4-Episodes. Too Many To List, Comission for Weird Kev 27)

Happy Earth Day everyone! It's a day to reuse, renew and recycle, reflect on the gifts mother earth has given us and hope it dosen't die horribly from big corporations and general studidity bleeding it dry!

It's also a time to celebrate how cartoons tackle envornmentalism, as Kev, my sorta producer and the guy who pays for the bulk of my commissions each month, is an environmentalist, and thus thought it'd be fun to take a look at a few episodes that tackle a green message and see how they do.

Today we'll be looking at the Rocko's Modern Life Classic "Zanzibar" and three more recent examples; OK K.O. Let's Be Heroes "The Power is Yours", Big City Greens "Green Greens" and The Ghost and Molly McGee's carbon zeor heroes. So join me under the cut as we see how yesterday and today's toons try to teach kids what they can do to help the environment.

Zanzibar (Rocko's Modern LIfe)

We start with the oldest episode here, all the way back from 1996.

Zanzibar is a musical episode, a genre I can't belivie I HAVEN'T covered before but love dearly. Sure sometimes it can be done poorly, but when done right it's a thing of beauty and Zanzibar does it right.

A lot of that is in who wrote it: Dan Povmire and Jeff Swampy Marsh of Phineas and Ferb and Milo Murphy's Law Fame. This is where they got their start and you can tell it's them by the beautiful music and self aware tone. In a great joke everyone dancing and singing is explained by the fact they rehearesed every thursday, except Rocko who wasn't aware this was a thing and is deeply confused. The episode knows it's a musical and an environmental episode when the general strategy to writing one was POLUTION BAD. PEOPLE WHO POLUTE ARE GROTESQUE CORPRATE MONSTERS WHO POLUTE BECAUSE IT'S FUN OR SEXY TIM CURRY POLUTION. We all know grotesque corporate monsters pollute because it's cost effective.

Instead, Zanzibar is pretty blunt about where the issues come from: When Rocko arrives to a full dump after the catchy opening tune, Ed's solution is that "There's plenty of room over there".. in a park. Ed represents callous assholes who dump garbage everywhere, but in a realistic sense: some assholes really are that callous about the environment or act like damaging it dosen't matter. Ed even sings a whole song about how birds and fish are "brainnnnlesss pinheads", which is both beautiful to hear and also gloriously obnoxious.

Thankfully our heroes instead listen to Captain Compost Heap, a wonderfullyd eisgned pile of compost that sings the spelling song, the signature piece of this episode and the one that has been grafted to my head since watching. IT's catchy has hell.. and that's by design as it teaches HOW to help the environment in a way kids could feasably try while getting stuck in their head so the lesson sticks. It teaches the steps: recycle trash to reuse it, conserve power, and don't you P-O-L-L-U-T-E the rivers sky and sea or else your gonna get what you deserve. Simple but effective and it even talks about ozone depletion in detail, one of the best examples i've seen of that, only topped by Futurama's Crimes of the Hot later. Gotta remember that one and a big piece of garbage for next year.

OUr heroes DO mak ea change and help the dump reduce... but it also shows there's limits to what we CAN do as CCH points out the biggest polluter, Conglom-O the souless corporation that owns most of the city and city hall... to the point the crowd that's gathered decides to give up and sing about how you can't fight city hall. What's neat though is that Rocko.. dosen't and decides you can at least TRY to hold corporations accountable. Granted Rocko has a big unruly mob on his side but still.

Granted the episode does make the issue of holding them acountable easy as all it hilarously takes is Rocko barging in, adresssing the board, and then his big unruly mob singing a song to convince them "sure why not". IN real life.. they usually won't or may SAY they will but not actually do shit, and if they do do things it'll be in a performative measure. But I get this is a 90's era cartoon aimed at children, if fun for all, and thus can only do so much.

It DOES however work around this with catharsis: ed's in charge of it and thus gets the thankless job of undoing all Conglomo's shit which at least shows how big corprate greedheads really don't have to put any work into actually fixing their act and foster it on someone else. it's just in this case the someone else is a callous asshole incapable of learning a lesson, so it works out. And all Ed leanrs.. is to be pissed Rocko gave him extra work, and thus is smited by the ozone layer for his insolence. A bit broad? Sure but it works well for it's time and even now holds up really well, being a funny, sharply written episode that knows what it is and what it's limitations are and thus just has fun with it.

The Power is Yours (OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes!)

OK KO is already pretty damn insane and it's great for that. It mixes subtle character development episodes, well done story arcs and a fun world with just about every genre of protagnist stuffed in and juiced up on energy drinks with wacky nonsense episodes.

This is one of those as well as one of OK KO's crossover episodes. While OK KO would do a proper big ole crossover with conteperary shows with Crossover Nexus, most of the time Ian instead focused on older properties. It's why the Grimwood Girls made their triumphant comeback here, why the Sonic crossover had a LOT of adventures of sonic the hedgehog homages, and why for it's first crossover... they choose captain planet.

Keep in mind Captain Planet, while aired on CN and grandfathered in as something owned by Time Warner Bros Discovery, originally aired on TBS and long predated the network. Of all the many great shows Cartoon Network had aired, it was a very left of field choice.

But it's one that clearly ian sincerly backed and rightfully so. The Power is Yours shows a love for Captain Planet while also lampooning the hell out of how over the top it is, which Given OK KO is already over the top in it's world, fits perfectly.

Here Lord Boxman, our resident baddy, gets help from evil efficency effort and former Captain Planet Villian Dr. Blight. He finds her sexay, so he gladly endugles her when she claims poluting and destroying the planet will somehow equal profit, a nice take on how most captain planet villians were greedy buisness types.. yet engaged in stuff that vastly outstripped the profit they'd actually get. There's a reason Captain Planet Villian is now short hand.

As a result the ice caps melt flooding the plaza, smog encroaches.. but only our lead KO gives a fuck. Rad is of course oblivoius and self intrested and Enid dosne't care a lot this early in the series.

Thankfully KO get shelp from Kwame, leader of the planateers played by returning acting icon Lavar Burton, who does a wonderful job. He gives each of the cast a ring.. including A Real Magical Skeleton and his buddy brandon, who have to share the wind ring.

Captain Planet is able to turn the tide and the animators.. just have fun with the series cartoony nature, having Captian Planet do the goddamn certified Jojo pose, complete with araki style art shift, above, suck up all the polution like a ballon and generally get to do looney tunes stuff.

As is standard procedure if I remmeber right, Captain Planet gets struck down and as is standard procedure fo rour heroes, Rad and Enid bicker and it takes KO using the power of HEART to get them to care about the environment which powers up CP enough to save the day.

The plot's simple.. btu what makes it work is how tounge in cheek it is: this is captain planet taken to it's most rediculous extreme and it works. The only thing missing is ted turner murdering people to really fit. And the ending.. improves on the source with Captain Planet pointing out what they've done.. really dosen't GUARANTEE the world is okay. We have to take systemic, group action to really make a change and not let the planet fall into a firey hell pit and while doing what you can is good, if exagerated for parody's sake here, climate change is something that's not easily fixed nor going away. It's a lesson we all need to learn and one well taught, mixnig the over the top parody and moralizing.. with a real message that lands because it's so seprated from what came before without feeling jarring. Captain Planet calmly telling a small child that it's not that easy.. works. The power is this episodes and the onlyt hing it was missing was a ted turner rampage.

Green Greens (Big City Greens)

Green Greens follows our favorite family as they try to clean up their own environment.. and also showcases how while Recycling IS a good thing, sometimes doing so can be a trial.

The ep kicks off with Bill finding out his garden is rotting. Naturally like 80% of his problems, it's cricke'ts fault, who has created a trash hole in the garden not getting that their crops are you know.. how they pay for food and stuff. As usual it dosen't sink in, not helped by the revelation Gramma has been aiding and abetting this nightmare. Tilly didn't know because "We knew you would snitch sweety" and I assume Gloria, their live in 20 something the family basically adopted in all but paper, didn't either.

Bill plans to clean all this up but runs into a problem thanks to said gloria; A flourcesnt bulb is among the trash and if not disposed properly it can leak into the enviroment, something I honestly forgot and is good to know. Wanting to both prove a point and not kill their yard worse than his son already has, Bill agrees to Gloria's suggestion to take it to an e-waste center. Gloria will drive and Tilly will tag along because she's a pure ray of sunshine while Cricket and Gramma will clean up the consequences of their actions.. which admitely isn't the biggest punishment as Cricket mocks bill about how he gets to play in the trash... though Gloria calling hi ma little racoon is adorable. She's a good big sister.

Gloria DOES have her limits though as our heroes end up in a traffic jam, and Gloria has big plans for tonight

Okay she just dosen't want to spend her saturday in traffic when her surrogate dad and sister can just take the train so their left on their own. What follows is an epic quest, as our heroes have trouble finding the chartruse line.. a gag I really like as Bill wonders if tha'ts even a color. They find help with an activist who is suprised anyone is actually doing something as fortold in the prophecy and guides them to their destination: beyond the bridge of woe to the e-waste center, it's frought with peril. Bill has an understandable question

And there's no real answer but I get their point: sometimes city planning makes it hard to .. you know actually recycle. not everywhere collects recycling. I know my town dosen't. And while Big City DOES, it's e-waste center is on the other side of town, in the shady and smog filled industrial district. It's not making it easy to do the right thing and it shoudn't be this hard to properly dispose of a lightbulb.

Our heroes treck through urban mordor.. and fine their on the wrong side. Bill does the understandable thing and goes laughing mad, scaring away some toughs and planning to just chuck it. TIllyt alks him down pointing out sometimes doing the right thing is hard.. but you should still do it.. even if it means crossing an industrial waste. And the thing is getting the bulb there for the one day a week, if that, it can be recycled... dosen't really fill them with any satisfaction.

What does that and gives them closure with their quest.. is the b plot> Cricket and Gramma are naturally hot mess. They do clean out the trash hole.. but now have a full trash can and a GARBAGE MOUNTAIN to deal with. Cricket does what I usually doa nd jsut stuffs it all in.. and it predictably backfires, spilling out all over.

They go with plan b: just stuff it in the neighbors dumpster.. and said neighbor says i'ts not very chill so they back off.. but does provide a solution. Recycling! The episode shows how recyling trash.. helps reduce it to a managable level, helping break down the issue of "well it makes it harder to have to sort the trash. it does.. at first.. but doing so helps reduce their trash. It honestly makes me want to try recycling simply because it seems like it'd help my room not be the wasteland it is.

It also delivers the episodes aseop: doing your part for the envorment is hard and often thankless.. but just doing your little bit with worth it. Just doing that much has already restored the soil around the crops.. and that's enough to make bill and tilly feel like their journey was worth it. And Gloria. she helped too. Probably.

Carbon Zero Heroes (The Ghost and Molly McGee)

Our final stop for this special, as we look in on the recently departed the Ghost and Molly McGee. Fun fact this is the first episode from season 2 i've seen.

This episode is also my first exposure to Ollie. He's our protaganist Mollie's boyfriend and thus to the shippers

That's somehow not an exageration either: See in season one Molly was heavily shipped with her closest friend Libby and her nemises turned friend Andrea, the former because they have adorable chemistry and compliment each other and the latter for both some of those reasons and because Disney shippers really love enemies to lovers. Given I ship both Sashanne and Lumity, I sympathize. So introducing a canon love intrest whose not either of them was always going to be a struggle. I'm a shipper myself, I get it. Sometimes it's hard. I mean i've been trying to ship this dog for several days

But i'm still not sure exactly who. It's a hard buisness and sometims you can go years without finding a character to pair with a character. Especially when ti's a cartoon british dog who already has a LOT of shit to put up with and thus needs someone SOMEWHAT stable. and also like 30's ish. What i'm saying is shipping wendy is harder than I expected and I get canon sometimes sucks.

I won't however bash Ollie for that as he was already being created byt he time season 1 aired, and thus the staff really didn't have time to pivot with the tides. At worst he's kinda bland as in at least this episode he's really just.. molly but a dude. That's it. Their adorable.. but unlike Libby or Andrea he dosen't really play off of her in an intresting way. his voice actor, who also has the voice of an angel in the musical number for this episode, feels he boosts her up, which fits.. but I still get that it's just not as intresting as Molly helping Libby with her shyness and Libby consequently help;ing Molly take about 10% off or Andrea's cool demeanor and slow reform contrasting Molly just going for it. It's not that Olly is TERRIBLE, he's just nojt AS good as the ships the fans had built up by the time he popped into the world.

So where were we.. ah yes. Someone help me ship this dog. She does pilates, can deadlift a grown dog man, and is the loving mother of one. She'as also easily startled but given her neighbor once slapped his ass in front of her as part of a game with his daughter and got shoved down the stairs for the same reasons while treating it as if it wasn't a big deal, you can see why maybe I want her to be happy

And oh yes the episode. Okay so our episode is kicked off by a lecture on how if we dont' fix climate change

And leaves the children all scared. Scratch, our ghost and Mollys ghost BFF, figures it's humanity's problem as he's dead. He dosen't have to deal with this and he certainly doesn't have a human body he forgot about. Nope not him.

Molly, being a go getter naturally dosen't take this lying down and wants to do something while Libby.. feels we're all fucked and there's ntohing we can do and has prepared a bunker. I was not expecting this to have a LIbby subplot about her survivial bunker for the inevitable fall of mankind, but here we are and it is glorious.

Ollie however agrees with Molly that they can do something so in classic kids tv fashoin tehy start recycling, pick up garbage, do all the carbon zero footprint stuff all to a catchy well done song.. and costume changes. I did say they were adorable, I prefer molibby but they aren't bad.

The episode also does something few kids shows have done, and something I like: While Big City Greens talked about taking small steps, Rocko foreshadowed what a bit task it was and OK KO showed whatever steps you tak earen't enough alone, TGAMM shows just HOW MUCH it'd take to actually leave a zero footprint. Our heroes bike everywhere, can't watch anything, can't have pizza, eat turnips they grew but can't cook them because gas (even though fire is an option. Whose for fire?), keep bugs off said turnips, miss a birthday party and are generally utterly miserable.. and it only improves the earth by .00000000003%. The hard truth is doing NO harm to the envronment in a world set up that way... is simply impossible without radical life changes two 13 year olds simply aren't capable of. They can't buy a farm or have the money to grow crops and can't bike up hills reliably. As a wise 10 year old once said

It's a hard truth.. but one kids NEED to hear. You can't do everything yourself, the world is hard to change and you shouldn't kill yoruself doing so. It dosent mean having a trash hole or nothing matters it just means saving the earth isn't something you can do by yourself.

While our heroes were hitting rock bottom we get that bunker subplot, which is the best part of the episode. Granted I already liked libby a lot as a character but given her sometimes depressed nature, it fits perfectly that she simply decided instead of trying to change thigns to prepare to the end, and seeing the normally shy libby show off her zombie bunker is great. She even gladly invites Scratch. What's a bunker without friends. This plot is here for two reasons. the first is it's hilarious and provides a nice contrast from how.. rough the a plot can get as while there are some funny bits it's rough watching two well meaning 13 year olds nearly drive themselves nuts trying to fix climate change.

So instead we get another tween whose happily set up a zombie survivial bunker and counters Scratch's "those don't exist" with "People dont think ghosts are real either". Touche. She also has a blanket with spikes and a bed with spikes. Lots of spikes, canned goods and posters to prepare for the zombei apocalypse or any old apocalypse.

The other reason besides being objectively hilarious is it shows the other extreme: giving up, accepting the world will go to shit and errupt in fire and being prepared to live in a horrifying post apocalypse. And that itself.. isn't healthy. I mean having a bunker shockingly is as having somewhere safe and secure planned in case shit goes down, especially when your best friend has recently dealt with super ghosts, isn't that unresonable especially in these times. I can see why Libby's mom lets her keep it. They MIGHT need it.

The problem is just.. giving up: accepting the world will end instead of at least trying.

It's worth it to just.. try to make the world more sustainable. We can't probably entirely FIX climate change, but we can at least try. It's the lesson throughout all these episodes: climate change dosen't have an easy answer, but you can't give up.

So Molly and Ollie do.. but scratch encourages them.... ti's mostly to save ice cream as he realizes apocalypse food sucks, but it ends up being a good metaphor: that alone we can't save ice cream, but together we can. That community action.. is really what's needed> it might not fix EVERYTHING.. but we can at least try.

So Molly goes to town hall... which isn't as over the top as it might sound because she's tight with the mayor and has done a lot of community improvment. Of course their going to listen to her and her boyfriend and her future girlfirend and her army of racoons. She's earned it.

So Molly simply pitches a green intivaitve for the town which mayor patton oswalt naturally agrees to because he's a good dude and again, Molly has done a LOT for this town. He tried to make her mayor once. Simply doing their part, picking up trash, upping recycling, and setting up windmills... it'll only help them get carbon neutral by a decade from now.. but it's something, and shows you can acomplsih something by just trying. Also Scratch has become jabba the hutt from a lot of ice cream.

So that ends this retrospective and I gotta say.. not a bad episode in the bunch. All teach their lesson well without being patronizing or ignoring how hard going green CAN be. It was a great crop so this earth day, save a tree, try to recycle.. just do what you can. Do all you can do and it'll make the world just a little better.. and maybe tell a billionare to fuck off. I'm writing this in advance but Elon Musk will probably have done something that day. So thanks for reading and happy earth day.

#earth day #rocko's modern life #ok ko #ok ko let's be heroes #captain planet #big city greens #the ghost and molly mcgee

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that one scene from the simpsons

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please make every effort to vote <3

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Drew my favorite X-Men

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The Kablammiest Retrospective: KaBlam! Season 3 (Comission for Cory Bryant

Hey there kablamoids, wake your grammy as it's time once again for more Kablammy. I'm back on my Kablam retrospective for season 3 as I keep my heiner in the recliner. It also feels weird to be almost done with the series, with only one season and a bunch of fun odds and ends left before we turn the page on this retrospective.

Season 3 was a weird watch.. not in terms of content: Henry and June visiting Colonial Williamsburg, Sniz becoming a faith healer via a power washer, Lou Rawls singing about loving the action league, Loopy invites burping aliens to colonize earth, and Tod isn't struck down by god herself is pretty standard wacky nonsense for the show and I'm here for it.

It was a weird watch more because it both changed.. and stayed the same. Most of the founding shorts are still here and will be till the end next season and have largely settled into what they are. The end of the Off-Beats last season and the departure of Mike Brandon from Sniz and Fondue felt like they'd really change up the show.. but it really dosen't. Two new segments show up in their place, Jet Cat and Race Rabit, but both a only have two shorts each this season. There seemed to be no real intrest in replacing either short.

There's also only ONE pilot this season, something that'l lchange next season as from looking ahead, something i didn't do this time, the series does try more to fill the gap left by it's departing segments. In their place are some music videos with the zambonis, both good songs, but it feels like a Kablam that both knows what it is.. but also dosen't know what it's going to do with that extra space. IT seems to settle up more by next season as jet cat and race rabbit appear more often and more pilots set in to fill the void left by our faviorite ambigiously gay ferrets, but it's still a strange time for our faviorite cartoon cramaganza. So let's see how this season shakes out and how our faviorite segments do in this time of change.

Henry And June continues similarly to season 2, but there's a theme I only noticed as I sat down to write this; network interfernece. There's a lot of episodes where the show's format is changed due to the network deciding on some weird new trend or raitings stunt. Our heroes pivot to being an educational show, go to colonial willamsburg, deal with a writers strike. get sidelined when Mr Foot proves more popular, and deal with a pompus director from Saved by the Bell: The New Class.

It's a fun idea too.. and lowkey feels like venting as the shows star with the network was slowly falling due to them shuffling the show around randomly. As a result we get some true classics. We also get bits where Henry or June will have green or blue eyes , respectively, a nice little animation bit. Overall season 3 of Henry and June is fantastic and a nice new coat of paint ot an already stunning hot rod of a segment.

More Happiness Than Allowed By Law: Henry and June celebrate their birthday (and creaton by Mark Marek). Henry naturally beefs it by getting June nothing while she gets him a nice remote control car, forcing him to scramble for a new gift till he settles on a really nice mood ring. A decent segment, not much to say.

Money Train 2: This one is just a bunch of assorted segments, but said segments are gold. They try a fan of the month program to spotlight the fans.. only to get a convict, Henry pretneiously explains why we need villians, the two do some mountain climbing and eventually ask

And the two try to guess the mystery celebrity but end up pissing off Ben Franklin instead. This is also easily one of my favioroite back covers, which tend ot tie into the story more this season, as after June guesses the mystery guy is wesley snipes, we get a hypothetical money train sequel with him and ben franklin. In a time of ip revivals great , small and sometimes really fucking weird please whoever owns money train.. give us this sequel.

Your Logo Here: KaBlam! goes educational by network mandate, leading to a fun educational tv spoof as our heroes try to turn this very much non educational show into one and also grapple with Ed the Educational otter, the first otter i've wanted to punch in the face. Ed is smiley, takes the duos antics not very well and even tears up a comic book when talking about the joys of reading. Despite the fact comics are fucking rad and their in one. Naturally he ends up getting beaten up as he should for being an uptight dick. Still it's a fun tounge in cheek adventure and one of my faviorites of the season.

Holdeth the Pickle, Holdeth the Lettuce: Another favorite, this one has our hosts doing the show from Coloneal Williamsburg. Why?

The sheer nonsense of the idea coupled with our heroes growing frustration with how the actors WILL NOT break character even when they need power or an interview, cumilating in our heroes taking a swim only to get put in stocks... it's great stuff.

It's All in the Wrist: Another random segmetns episode and this one... isn't as fun outside of the end one where they make a kablam arcade game tha'ts just henry getting hit by things and June's reaction to this not reflecting the show.. is to have mr foot drop thigns on him. Honestly feels closer to their season 1 characterizations.

Year Round Fun: The KaBlam! writers go on strike and I wish i'd knew about this one when we did our writer's strike special last year as it shows WHY shows need writers as our heroes slowly break down without them, and has a fun ending as our heroes offer them to turn the page in good faith, but it's not in their contract. A really stellar episode.

The New Class: My faviroite of the season and it's not an easy choice, but the concept is once again nicely bonkers and meta: our heroes get a new director, the pretentious Glen R Dilworth, probably a gentle poke at Courage the Cowardly Dog creator and Sniz and Fondue pilot director John R Dilworth.

Glen.. is fantastic. He's a pretentious director.. whose previous credit was saved by the bell the new class, which he treats as high art, particularly hyping up Screech. Just the fact someone was this far up dustin diamonds ass is glorious, as is the specific reference. It's extra juicy as for some weird reason.. NBC is not streaming the new class. And it's not a rights issue as the new class DID show up their website apparently before everything was converted to peacock, so I have no idea why they buried this thing. I mean it could be terrible but i'd still at least watch some of it to complete the trinity.

While i've seen this character type before it works really well here, with Glenn's acting exercises, constant interuptions of the show and Henry beating him with a screech impression, luring him outside so mr foot can put glen in the trunk of his car.. and.... okay....

People Henry Has Had Killed Counter: 1

Great for Paper Traning: June brings a dog to set. It dosen't go well. You've seen this plot before and done better. Next

You'll Love Our Selection: KaBlam! installs an audience enjoyment meter o rama thing and it rates our heroes high.. but mr foot thorugh the fucking roof. So the show pivots to focusing on mr foot who rises to the occasion, while Henry and June struggle on the sidelines. The weird mr footcentric verison of the show is great as is his movie... i'ts the best use of the foot man so far and a nice break from him just mauling people or reading something. It's a fine gag but they've done it a LOT and you get.. numb to it after a while.

You May Already Be A KaBlammer: June hires an expy of Ed McMahon to be her sidekick and Henry is insecure the guy dosen't find him funny and tries a bunch of stuff to be funny.. then his mom shows up. It's a fun runner and the guest guy is genuinely hilaroius even if you don't ENTIRELY scope the refrence.. which i only.. half do. Like I've seen ed mcchamon once or twice and listend to the weird al yankovic song "Here's Johnny", but i'm not really up on late night with Johnny Carson and likely never will be and i'm happy with that. I know just enough for homages and that's fine by me.

KaFun!: A grab bag to close out the season and a really strong one for a change. My faviorite bits are JUne being disapointed she dosen't need deoderant so henry fakes she needs some to feel more mature, which just feels genuinely sweet , and the ending where it turns out Henry's on japanese knockoff Ka-Fun!.. which i'd love to see, paticuarlly prometheus and yoshi. I am a bit annoyed they didn't call it a manga and while I get the term wasn't as widespread as it is NOW it was something they probably coudl've looked up. Not easily but still.

For what's sadly the last time. And I went into these expecting them to be terrible... I mean the creator left and these wer emade without him because they still owned the IP. Normally that situation.. dosen't make great art.

And while Sniz and Fondue: The Final Chapters isn't amazing, it has one of the series best episodes tucked away and the others are decent. I was expecting a trainwreck and what I got was mostly

Nothing truly horrible, but only one of them really felt outstanding and bonkers. Brandon was right in that they coudln't quite get the dialouge down, as the characters talk with less weirdly specific slang and we don't get as much waxing lyrical, with only the fourth short doing it. the personality's faded out a bit thanks to Brandon leaving and you can tell. It dosen't have Season 2's clear sense of exaustion, which IS a plus, but it dosen't really have the soul of the series. Sometims a series CAN go on without a creator, and sometims it has to because that creator's a sex monster. Sometimes a work can be revivied with a fresh voice. But in this case, at least at the time Sniz and Fondue simply coudln't work without Brandon.

It's a shame the series ends with kind of a dull thud. I loved these shorts and their 90's style and wish Brandon was more determined to actually.. do something with them again. or nick but let's face it nick's genuine atittude these days tends to be

So I have no real hope of a revivial of Sniz and Fondue or KaBlam as a whole.. but I can dream can't i?

Solitare Confinment: The setup for this one is good. Fondue gets a computer... says he got it from some guy who came down from space. Had some issues with it

Fondue however gets addicted to solitare, and hides that he is from Sniz. From there.. the episodes decent but i've seen enough gaming addiction episodes to have seen better. The big with a burglar robbing them because Fondue's too distracted and telling themn "I'll call the police.. after one more hand" is fantastic though. The ending with Sniz as a computer is also sweet. Together they'd create Baltaro.

Penny-Ante Vigilantes: This is just the Ed-Touchables but not as good. Or, to use an episode that aired before this one, Homer the Vigilante but not as good. Either would be a better time than this which is just... bland, and while the twist was sufficently twisty, it's really not tha tfunny and Fondue didn't quite go far enough to justify his getting beaten by a big unruly mob. Also fondue got beaten up by a big unruly mob.

Hosed!: So you know how i've been saying there was one exception to the seasons blandness? Well snap me down, here it is. It's such a goofy, glorious concept I can't help but love it. Okay so a random burglar man steals some wheel chairs, using one to escape. Sniz is testing the new power washer fondue got him and accidently sprays the guy.. then Fondue assumes the guy was healed because he got up and walked. So our heroes.. become faith healers.. using a high pressure hose. It's such a bonkers premise I love it so much. It was a sign that MAYBE they coudl've kept going, as it has that same creativity and singularly weird brain the Brandon shorts did. Naturally they once again get chased by a big unruly mob.

Big Unruly Mob Count: 2

The Great Chilli Cookoff: Our final short and it's.. okay. It's a "our heroes compete" episode, this time for a ride in a fire truck which after binging enough Chicago Fire to consume a planet, I get it. But it's your pretty standard compettion episode.. albeit the heartwarming resolution to join chillis burns down a fire house

So at least the series ends fittingly. Also the fire house was having a cook off at all because their antics destroyed the last one. I gesture you to the adorable puppies above.

So that ends our time with these boys.. and i'm really sad to see them go. While Seasons 2 and 3 had issues... I still loved these characters and it's one of the prototypical "two dudes get into shenaigans show" Sniz and Fondue walked so Regular Show Could run and Close Enough could fly. And for that .. i'll always be greatful.

Action League Now Season 3 is excellent. I prefer Season 2 slightly more, but Season 3 is still top notch and hilarious, keeping the league as unlikeable idiots so the slapstick works better, keeping it creative with the settings, and keeping it fresh. There's not much new here and having watched mass quantities of Bluey recently, I can tell you I prefer when a show evolves.. but sometimes it dosen't really need to. This show is simple, stupid fun and it's all it wants to be, and it's gotten good at it. After seasons 2 and 3, i'm gonna love the league.

Flippers of Fury: In a very obvious GI JOe parody, which fits perfectly given Stinky is very obviously an old gi joe figure rekitted, Stinky must face his old ninja rival the red ninja with the help of Master Pu. This segment is pretty good.. admitely it has a decent amount of 90's "we saw a kung fu film once" type asian sterotyping with master pu, a very white guy is voicing him very badly, but otherwise stinky's training, how he wins just by using his plunger and the spot on parody of Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow help compensate. A solid start.

Rags to Riches: The Mayor Unleashes a mummy's curse. I could really end it there, but the fac tit gets unleashed on the Chief, who doubts it at first is great. A decent episode if only for having a mummy's curse. I'm a sucker for a mummy's curse i've just seen it done better. And I say that a LOTTT IN THESE reviews.. but i've been watching cartoons for most of my life, never really dropped off them as a teen like most kids, and thus i've seen a LOT of these plots and both Courage the Cowardly Dog and Aqua Teen simply did a mummy's curse slightly better. That being said neither has the Mayor trying to sell said cursed items on a home shopping network, so this episode still slaps, so it's not like say "Penny Ante Vigilantes" where ther'es zero reason to watch it. It's still good, other stuff's just better.

Melty Dearest: Meltman becomes mom to a giant spider. It's funnier than it has any right to be and ends with meltman getting cocooned by a giant spider and I love the spiders googly eyed design so ... decent.

Tears of A Clone: If I had a nickle for every episode of an animated show i'd seen with this title i'd have two nickles.. which isn't a lot but it's weird it happened twice. This episode is a LOT of fun though as Bill the Lab Guy gets into cloning. The Mayor understandably orders it shut down: No clone saga's or inferno's in this lab.. but that's AFTER the league bumbles into it. So we get 5 or so of each league member all failing to do anything right and getting some of them killed and it's glorious. I also love the mayors scheme, stealing fine china.. whcih naturally, like most of the clones, ends up over a cliff. I do love when they toss shit over a cliff, it has a gravitas the other stunts sometimes don't. I mean they had to clean that shit up, and it was so worth it. I also like the solution: the mayor clones himself. And now he has 5 beautiful kidneys. he feels freaking amazing.

Art of Thunder: The Mayor steals a valuable bit of art by timmy, a 5 year old boy and that alone is great. I love these little bits of world buildindg, seeing how the action figures use the human world house. Naturally the league destorys it. A decent episode.

Mad Dogs and Englishmen: We find out WHY Stinky is such an asshole: it turns out in the war his own mother sold him out. He bonds with a real life dog named smelly, whose a good boy yes he is... btu was trained by the worst boy, the mayor so he tears up the league like dogs do and Stinky has to be saved by his tratirous mom. This episode is redicluous, shockingly heartfelt and a lot of fun. It's not the first time they did dog shenanigans but it's honestly even more fun than the dog as godzilla thing. I've seen that. I haven't seen an action figure try to emtooinally heal using a dog that turns out to be used by evil.

A Star Is Torn: The Mayor pretends to be a film maker to trap thundergirl. What I like abotu this one is Meltman spots the obvious issues.. btu Thundergirl is absorbed in the ego despite loosing everal limbs.. and the others are her agents. Seeing Flesh and Stinky talk alike hollywood agents in thier goofy voices just works for me. What can I say. Another solid one.

Melty's Girl: My faviorite of the season. Meltman got a girlfirend.. I and I expected this to turn into a "she's using him for the fame" or "she's secretly evil' plot as is standard. Instead.. she's just genuinely supportive and likes him

So the problem is that... Meltman really isn't WORTH IT. She thinks he can do better than just gathering the coffee, sets him up with his own office and even gives him a flashy new costume as dr melt

I just love this idea of someone being just.. generally dogshit at superheroing and having a super supportive partner who instead tries to hype them up. It's a concept i'l lhave to file away as it could be really good on it's own and it's grea there as Meltman only succeeds by accident and breaks up with his girlfriend.. not because she's bad but simply because she believes in this idiot and this idiot cannot live up to that.

Roughing the Passer: It's the all star game and the Mayor wants to quaterback but isn't being brought in as not only does the coach already have several all star ones, but the mayor also sucks suprising no one. So naturally his counterplan is "murder them all and then get to be put in coach", while the league TREIS to help but naturally does a few accidental murders itself. A fun episode and the mayor even gets his dream by becooming the ball... it's a fun one even if I don't recognize a single person because I don't follow sportsball.

Hit of Horror: Hodge Podge returns and he's started to wear on me as his only gimmick is having a dumb voice nad calling them action jerks and we don't see as much of him. He brainwashes the public to attack the league and their stupid enoguh to go out to a parade. Thankfully Bill the Lab guy has an antidote: LOU MOTHERFUCKING RAWLS. Who we're going to be talking about a LOT on this blog this year.

For those who dont know him

Secondly he's an r an db singer from the 60's and 70's. He was on the muppets, has the voice of an angel and I found out about him when I gorged on the garfield specials as a teen, as he performs an opening song for all but one of them. And their all fucking bangers. Every last one. The man is a legend so him singing a rendtiion of his classic "you'll never find" that says "your gonna love the league" instead of miss my lovin is fun. It's also fun just to see little action figure lou rawls. This episode is lou rawls out of lou rawls.

And Justice For None: The weakest episode of the season and naturally the last... it's a clip show trial episode. They win because the judges naturally get crushed. While Henry and June lampshade it being a clip show that.. isn't enough to save it. A weak ending to a great season.

Same as it ever was really. I'm not a huge fan of these shorts, zoned out a lot and still respect the hell out of them. Their gorgeous to look at they just aren't for me. I can respect however that, intetinoally or not they are a good allegory for colonalism. Yes.. really.

Stay with me: Prometheus tries to "edcuate the savage" but a lot of the things he's trying to force on bob.. are things he either dosenj't need or want. Bob seems entirely fine as is despite having less technological advances than his tall friendo, but Prometheus tries to force new stuff on him anyway rather than introduce what would be benficial (such as a couch or clothing) slowly. Blend it with his cave culture instead of just trying to replace it.

Hammock: Some fun hyjinks. I didn't say I was ambivilant about ALL of them

Ball: I forgot this one happened. I said all of them not "most of them"

Birthday: this one is REALLY fun as Prometheus forgets that most caveman see fire as bad when he lights Bob's birthday cake on fire.

Toilet:... how did I forget this one?

Treehouse: It's bart's birthday and everyone's having fun, but Homer realizes he forgot a present, so he goes to the shop of an asian sterotype who sells forbidden objects from where many fear to tred, and also frozen yogurt which he calls frogurt. He gives him a krusty doll but warns him it's cursed. That's bad. but it comes with a free frogurt. that's good. the frogurt is also cursed. That's bad. But you get your choice of topping. That's good. The toppings contain potassum benzoate. That's bad. Can I go now?

Bed: Bob tries to sleep on a bed. Shenanigans insue

Robot: Finally one I liked. Promethus makes a robot of himself but it goes haywire and ends up making a bob. They run off to reno and get married. Good for them.

Arctic: ICE FLOW NOWHERE TO GO ICE FLOW NOWHERE TO GO LOST IN THE BLINDING WHITENESS OF THE TUNDRA

Laundry: I have too much of it

Glue: GLUE GLUE GLUE GLUE GLUE GLUE.

I'm happy to say Life with Loopy made a comeback. Season 2 wasn't bad.. but it wasn't as consitantly fun or imaginative as season 1. Still amazingly crafted.

Season 3 on the other hand takes the series to new heights with a fun season of wacky nonsense. The concepts here are pitch perfect and capture the series premise well again: take something a kid would misunderstand or go through, and have whatever their mind could cook up play out instead of the more mundane solution. We've got burping aliens, mom being part of a secret government project, clones, ducks, bulls in china shops, dog prisons and the revelation Loopy's into aliens and also bi, neither of which suprises me. Loopy is the best of the recurring segments this season and it's not even close, and it's fun to see the show at full throttle. Like with Sniz and Fondue I think some exaustion was seeping in, and the break to make more segments worked out like gangbusters. It's why while I may not like long hiatuses, I can undrestand them as it means the show comes back a swining and loopy certainly swung

Send in the Clones: Those laughy daffy clones. Okay simpsons refrence aside this was a very good start to the season with a very relatable problem: Loopy wants to play with her dad, but he's so busy with the 80 dozen things he has to do. I love how the two have a genuinely close and caring relationship.

So her solution is to clone him a bunch. this goes poorly as not only is he TOO present now, she gets no privacy, but turning the washer into a cloning machine means their mom's nearly gone insane from doing laundry by hand. Her solution is to simply make too many loopys.. and yes that's the exact same one the action league later used.. but hey it works as the reason WHY it works is diffrent: for the action league chief simply wasn't able to corral the dumbasses alone, while with Loopy it simply overwhelmed her dad's into non existantance by asking all the questions that drive parents insane. Granted we're left with a lotta loopys but I assume they formed a colony on the moon after loopy lassoed it again. A great start

Big Burp Theory: Loopy burps and aliens come down to colonize the planet as a result of speaking their language

It's still not bad at all, and the solution of Larry solving things by farting, thus offending them, while I could see it coming.. is still a pretty good fart joke. Not amazing, but still decent.

Secret Agent Mom: This one is a LOT of fun: So once a month Mom plans a fishing trip for Dad and the Kids, but Loopy wonders what she does. She claims she's cleaning out the basement and she kind of is.. but it turns out mom's a secret agent for the government. Her mission though is what makes the episode: turns out there's an alien in the family basement, and he was SUPPOSED to share his secrets with them. Instead he sat around and ate a lot, sort of like what I do between reviews. And during them. I may relate to this guy just a bit too much. So it's time to send him home. I also like that once Loopy finds out mom tries a half assed denial... and then just lets her ride shotgun. It again speaks to how much Loopy's parents love her and encourge her weird shit. Hell loopy saves the whole mission by helping the guy exercsie as they didn't adjust his craft for his belly buddy. I call mine fred. So Loopy helps him get buff, they get him home, and no one wille ve rknow an alien was in the basement and probably farted it up a bunch

Loopy and the Snow Lady: This one is touching. It's tale as old as time: Loopy makes a snow lady, she comes to life but OH NO THE HEAT WILL KILL HER. Loopy does keeper her alive a while btu eventually dad wants the freezer space back. No really he wants to kill a sapient being to store steaks. JUST GET ANOTHER FREEZER FOR THE WOMAN MADE OF SNOW DADDD.

Instead Loopy plans to take her to winter world, but has to deal with snow lady getting sidetracked and enjoying the warm world. She's seeing the world AND she got the beach. She got it all. They do get her there in time though and loopy joins her as their latest attraction. Awwww.

Goin South: Another fantastic episode in a row as Loopy runs into a canadian duck trying to go south for the winter, eh, but he can't fly so Loopy agrees to help her new friend. What's nice is he finds a new home too, as they end up in the south pole with a bunch of pengies. The pengies gladly accept their new duck friend and it's a touching, funny ending for all.

Sweet Dreams; Larry keeps having a very boring recurring dream, so to help him Loopy does an inception. I really love the reason WHY the dream is looping: the guys in charge can't think of anything so they put him in reruns. It's such a hilariously petty and mundane solution and Loopy crashing it and accidnetly unchaning his nightmares allows him to be the hero and save her, and gives the guyzos plenty of new material. Now Larry's dreams will run for years and years to come.

Fang Fairy: This one's really fucking weird and I love it. As Larry refuses to get dental surgery, Loopy hears a joke about the fang fairy and takes it seriously leaving some fake teeth to proove she's right. She is but the fang fairy's a real dick about it and makes her a relcutant werwolf. Her family's response is to runaway despite having seen weirder shit at this point, so she finds out she's his first client in centuries nad he get sa job as Larry's dentist, presumibly scarring him for life

Bull In A China Shop: This one is really fun and as a clumsy kid myself painfully relatable: Loopy keeps breaking shit so she goes to a china shop to train herself not to.. and meets THE bull in a china shop who not only runs it but runs a support group for it, helping loopy and some others. While this would be more than enough what I like is tha tat graduation the three accidnetly break more stuff.. and the bull feels liberated, realizing that while it's one thing to be mindful, hating yourself for simply being a tad clumsy even when your trying.. isn't healthy. Granted the solution of leather knick knacks isn't really WORKABLE but like this message: sometimes your just clumsy and tha'ts okay.

Whale of A Time: One of the season's weaker episodes but it does have our heroes getting eaten by a whale. The Wedon'tknowtheirlastnamejustgowithit family is on vacation with something for everybody!.. except larry whose intended activity, the charlie chicken summer spectacular, is canceled. Turns out they were eaten by a whale and found a ton of treasure, so our heroes trick them into remembering it's for the craft, not the money. It's okay though the whale does look pretty damn cool. The puppets on this show are always so dang impressive.

In the Doghouse: Loopy goes to retrevie a ball from the neighborhood dog... whose running a prison camp and holds her, a boyscout and a mole against their will

Thankfully she helps them escape and helps the dog see that maybe playing is more healthy than a home prison.. granted anything is more healthy than that but still, baby steps.

Larry's Girl: one of my faviorites this season. I love a good dance episode and Larry needs a date... however he's also too "teenage boy" to consider his standards are too high. So Loopy goes to a dating service ran by cupid, whose giving computer dating a shot. He pulls up a tentacle alien and while Loopy's intrested, she knows Larry isn't into tentacle monsters. So instead she gets a girl that's TOO cool for schoool.. and for charlie chicken. Thankfully loopy trying to use the old arrow bit finds him a girl who is down with the chicken, and yes that's the term they use. THeir going to get high and watch charlie chicken and that my friends is true love.

Jetcat is based on a series of comic stories by Jay Stephens, as part of his comic strip oddville then as part of a dark horse anthology. He pitched four shorts based on it to nick, sold them all, and thus we get JetCat, a new segment for KaBlam!. I won't be reviewing the comics for the odds and ends as I ... didn't think of that when I set tha tup, but I wouldn't be opposed to doing it someday.

Jetcat is decent: I love the reason for the name as young Melaine Mcay flies like a jet and is fast as a cat and the costume slaps. The action is decent and it's goot a nice cartoony feel

It's problem for these two segments.. is Mealine's best friend Tod. The first ep covers him finding out she's jet cat which could've been neat as he's genuinely hurt, especially since she makes a bit dael out of "best friends telling each other everything". The problem is it then gets ruined by tod being a giant sized shit in a tiny body, demanding she get him shit and milking her guilt. He gets beat up by a robot for his hubris but it dosen't feel like enough nor like he really learned his lesson

The reason for this is the next short. I could've forgiven him for falling a bit into his vices once or twice or in diffrent ways.. but no the next short he once again tries to take advantage of being a superheroes best friend. And look wanting some of the perks with that fine. You want them to take you to another country to get pizza or take you flying or just bring you some cool shit from saturn if they happen to be by there fine. But Tod just geninely seems to think he's entitled to get shit from mealine because his friend's a superhero, asking abotu her secrets for a book report, not getting that might leave her a wee bit dead if her enemies read it. Why her enemies would be reading an elementary school report, I don't know, but given how many arch enemies tend ot be a person the hero knows, it's a risk she shoudln't take so Tod can get a d+.

So the smug shit instead wants to interview a supervillian out of spite and nearly dies for it.. yet I don't feel bad as he glosses over the guys genuinely tragic past just wanting death rays and shit. I mean I like death rays and shit as much as the next guy. Tod once again nearly dies for his sins... .which sadly is just "nearly" but i'll take it. So two decent shorts held back by one of the worst sidekicks i've seen in a superhero work. To the point.. he goes in the hall.

Welcome home you little shit goblin. So to explain this to both new readers and to cory, the hall of aggrivation is where I put characters who for one reason or another, really boil my ass. The most obnoxious shit heads imaginable. And specific verisons too for those who cross franchise lines, as the sins of one version aren't vistied upon another. For those curious whose who

Row 1: Julie Powers (Scott Pilgrim (Comics), Helen Lovejoy (The simpsons), Billy Butcher (The Boys (comics), Bernice (Luann), Daisy Duck (Legend of the Three Cablleros)

Row 2: Mindy's Mom (Animaniacs), Peepers (Sam and Max Telltale Games), Whizzer (See Peepers), Roger (Miraculous Ladybug), Yivo (Futurama)

Row 3: That Idiot What Opened UP the Necrionicon despite ash writing warnings in blood (Evil Dead), the Stone Head of Abe Lincoln (Sam and Max Telltale), Prowl (Transformers IDW Comics (First Continuity), Steph (Luann), Tweety Bird (Looney Tunes) Row 4: Todd (Jetcat), Henry Peter Gyrinch (Marvel Comics), The Two Shitheads from Biodome, Havok (Marvel Comics), The Batman Who Laughs (Dc Comics)

Now we're all caught up onto

I REALLY liked Race Rabbit. RR comes to use from Scott Fellows, who would go on to make my beloved tweenhood faviorite Ned's Declassified School Surivival Guide.. which I REALLY gotta cover sometime. Someday... for now though he made these shorts, one of Kablams few live action segmetns and it's only recurring one.

The formula is simple: Race Rabbit is a world class Racer, and also a really good guy who stops every episode to help some person in need, which his super chip/ai max never takes well. The series is weridly british and fun as Race races to both do his good deed for the day on time, from helping get teeth from the queen herself to a young boy to helping deliver baby food, and to outrace the Boolies, two "inbreed bulies from the upercrust" who wantj to catch him and stuff him but their way too slow. Race Rabbit is fun fast paced and lovingly nonsense, and the boolie sare dleightfully hammy. I love their second defeat especailly as the ypretend ot be a moose in the road.. and Race, having equipment to detect them, sees through it, drives on by.. and lets a car that specifically says "i break for no one" ram the bastard. Well one of them the other is trying to catch him. At any rate only two shorts this year but a LOT of fun

Like I said there wasnt a ton of Suprising Shorts, scaling back to the four or five of season 1. There's also almost no pilots this time: Patchead returns, we get some music videos and we get one pilot at the very end of the season. We do get new recurring-ish segments with Jet Cat and Race Rabbit, so I get WHY this was scaled back, I just miss it: some of my faviorite shorts in seasons 1 and 2 were these one off experiments and even the ones I wasn't super over the moon on like the Brothers Tiki were still a lot of fun to look at. Part of what makes KaBlam! special is it feels like indie animation given a platform at a time where that simply didn't happen and part of that is various one off shorts, creative little bits from directors you really DON'T see often on kids shows outside of pilot showcases like Oh Yeah Cartoons! or What a Cartoon. I appricate it even more now with the current indie animation boom: Nowadays shows like Helluva Boss, The Amazing digtial Circus, Orion and the Stars and more can just.. go straight to series or share the pilot to see intrest instead of having to go thorugh hoops. It makes me appricate how much harder these animators had it and what a wonderful platform this was.

What we have though is good so let's get to it shall we.

PatchHead: Demolition Mission: Apparently these shorts had most of the voice rerecorded for these versions. Something I forgot to point out last time. Anyway Patchead's at the races today and Torque Dipstick is the faviorite to win. I also like his weird plastic lantern jaw. it's great. What isn't.. is that he has a confederate flag on the back.

This dosen't necessarily mean Torque was present on January 7th, as lots of people just used that flag without thinking "Gee this was fighting for slavery, maybe I shoudln't put this on my nitro burning funny car vroom vroom. " I mean the web comic PvP frequently used the general lee from the dukes of hazzard as a gag in the 2000s.

Fun Fact: I had this issue once.

We just.. thought of it as a relic and not a relic of racisim. White dumbasses tend to do that.

Trying to stop Torque is Crash Kudzu. Yes folks to my most plesant suprise Nick Offerman has returned to KaBlam!

I don't know if he's in the other patchhead shorts, but one can hope. Either way it's just.. such a joy to see Nick Offerman on my blog. I hadn't realized just HOW little i've got to cover anything with him till we got to Patchead these last two times.

Kudzu is once again up to cheating shenanigans, this time sabotaging Torques car. SO Patchhead naturally JUMPS ON THE FUCKING THING, then repairs it in mid run like he was that kid from speed racer as Torque uses various dick dastardly inventions on his nitro burning funny car vroom vroom to combat them. It's just fun to see and the early cg holds up decently. It's not exaclty convincing, but the sureealness of the patchhead shorts means it fits it in fine. Our heroes win, and Torque credits patchhead for his help and gives him a helmet for his helmet.

Pizza Rocket and Hockey Monkey: These are two music videos each animated by Mark Marek but each for a diffrent indie rock band.

The first is PIzza Rocket by James Kolchaka. The name SOUNDED familiar but I couldn't place it till I looked him up. Turns out Kolchalka is an indie comics artist, writing Johnny Boo a series i've never read but have seen before. He's done a lot of anthology work and is also a prolific musican, having a ton of albums.

Pizza Rocket is a decent song. Not really my forte, but I get why this man is popular. The animation is decent, it's just again for a song that's not my thing.

Hockey Monkey on the other hand.. is magical. It's from the Zamboni's a band I also didn't know existed, but is truly magical. Their a band that entirely plays hockey based songs. That's it. that's their gimmick. And having gotten a love of Hockey from watching Letterkenny and Shorsey, i'm entirely on board with this. Kolchaka also cowrote Hockey Monkey so good for him. Their also still around and I hope thier stuff can be featured on Shorsey one day. I mean it fits Jared Kesso's style: the music used is mostly techno or rap, but he can vary it up, as evidecned by this brawl set to born to be alive. You probably didn't know that existed but your very welcome.

So Hockey Monkey is a deeply wholsome deeply fun song about how all the scientests and national guard are running around looking for the monkey but he can't be found because he's down by the pond playing hockey with the kids, and all the parents and teachers are running around looking for the children but they can't be found because their down by the pond playing hockey with the kids. And it's 123 the kids love the monkey and 456 the monkey's got a hockey stick and 789 having a good time yeahhhhhhh.

As you can tell I REALLY love this , and the video itself is fun, using black and white live action bits for the people running around and nicely minimalist animation for the kids nad the monkey. it's REALLY fun and wholesome. Great stuff.

It's time for our third Kablammy awards! ANd i've realized I SHOULD have been giving out an award for best overall episode, but since it'd be weird to bring that in halfway I thought of a compromise. I'm going to do ONE FINAL kablammy awards at the end of all of this in the odds and end episode for best overall shorts from each one. That'll include best episode for each season and overall best episode of the series. Onto the awards

Best Henry and June: the New Class. I have a big soft spot for saved by the bell, another thing I should've covered by now but haven't somehow, sot his was an easy win.

Best Sniz and Fondue Short: Hosed. It's not even close. You faith heal with a pressure hose and tell me you can do better. You can't.

Best Action League Now! Short: Melty's Girl. I didn't really hide how much I loved this one, and that's for good reason. The Dr Melt costume is hilaroius and the idea of trying to prop up someone as pathetic as Meltman as a solo hero is hilaroius to me. And keep in mind I LOVE me a b list superhero, I think any superhero can be great in the right hands.. but meltman in this context is the worst and this epsiode only backs that up.

Best Life with Loopy Short: This was a tough one as this season was REALLY good.. but my pick is Bull in a China Shop. Larry's Girl was cloes as I love a good school dance and a godo dating service.. but I just like the bull himself, from his upperclass voice to the aseop he teaches and the china shop just looks neat.

Best Startling Short (Includes Jetcat and Race Rabbit): Hockey Monkey. I mean Patchhead is once again close, it has Nick Offerman.. but that song is just too dang catchy.

Best Overall Short: Hosed. It's just.. so delightfully stupid and while it's not the last aired sniz and fondue short, it was the last produced and feels like a proper sendoff.

And with that we're done with season 3. It was a good ride and we have another at the start of may as we reach the END of KaBlam! (if not this retrospective) with season 4. Will it stick the landing? Will I survivie without sniz and fondue? Let's find out next time.

#kablam #action league now #sniz and fondue #life with loopy #prometheus and bob #jet cat #patchhead #race rabbit #long post

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popculturebuffet · 6 days

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when I was a kid for some reason I thought Lola Bunny's last name was "Rabbit" and that she was actually Jessica and Roger's daughter. And the reason she wasn't in the original Loony Tunes is just that she wasn't born yet

I mean can you blame me. Look them and look at her. She's got a good blend of both of their features.

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popculturebuffet · 6 days

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Chill Kong

Gif by Pixel Jeff || IG

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popculturebuffet · 13 days

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You are upset about the Star Wars Outlaws protagonist cause you've haven't seen an actual human woman in at least a decade

I'm upset because I wanted to play as the Commando Droid

We are not the same

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popculturebuffet · 13 days

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Top 12 Wedding Episodes (Comission for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy people and play that wedding march

Because it's time for another top 12 list. It's been a few months, but I do love me a good list and Kev was kind enough to offer, out of nowhere really, to back this idea i had.

Now while I might be single

I do love a good ship as we've seen. I like seeing what makes two characters fit together and how they work as a couple, the hyjinks that ensue, why they work or why sometimes they sadly don't last forever.

So it's not a huge shocker that I love a good wedding episodes. Weddings are big events where you can pack in most of the cast, plenty of shenanigans, and lot sof tenderness. There's tons of good approachs too wether it be your main couple tying the knot for a big celebration, two side characters tying it off to get the main characters thinking about their love lives, or some random people we never met before to still do the same. It can be a mess, not end well or end great but on principal most wedding episodes are a good time, so I narrowed down a pile of the ones I knew, got it down to 12 and now i'm serving it up like so much delcious wedding cake for you fine folks under the cut! Let's dig in.

12. Pilot (Reba, Season 1 Episode 1)

Starting this list off fittingly enough with a pilot. Reba is a show I have a lot of nostalgia for, a pretty standard sitcom anchored by a talented cast and a decent premise, and the pilot sets it up so perfectly i've honestly watched this one episode 20 or so times on it's own. It's just that good. Our setup is at family therapty, Reba Hart, played by music legend Reba Macintire, has her world collapse: her estranged husband Brock reveals not only has he been cheating on her with his dental hygenist, but he's gotten her pregnant, while a slip from youngest jake reveals Cheynne, their oldest and a senior in high school, is ALSO pregnant by her dumb but utterly charming and loveable boyfriend Van.

The first half isn't a wedding episode, but it swerves into one well in it's second half as Van, after being thrown out by his parents, proposes. Reba's reactoins to said proposal are good, as is her reaction to finding Van in Chyenne's room "Why are we the only house in texas without a gun?". Reba has fantastic comedic chops and it showed from day one.

Naturally chaos ensues as Reba tries to speedrun a wedding, not exactly HAPPY her daughter is getting married in high school, but correctly figuring she has no choice in the matter and if her life's going to keep going off course like this SOMETHING good can come out of it.

Naturally given how messy things are they only get worse and quickly: Brock being nature's most tan asshat refuses to come at first, and the episode gets a LOT of good jokes out of his hypocritical jackassery including revealing that his and BJ's wedding is going to be "something involving doves" nad BJ having the nerve to say "two wrongs don't make a right".

The Happy couple being teenage morons, also don't make it easy: Cheynne insenstively refuses to wear Reba's dress, Van wants to go to one of his football games instead of the wedding as scouts will be there, and Brock brings Barbara Jean (Reba's hilarous wail of "you were supposed to just bring ice" was great)

It all collapses in an argument pile that leads to a one of Reba's best acting moments in the series" You ruined it, you ruined everything, we were supposed to grow old together!" it's a gutting line that snaps everyone out of it, gets Chyenne to wear Reba's dress and leads to a heartfelt wedding, and a happy marriage.. though the whole "Accepting Barbra Jean thing" is going to take a whiole series. IT's an excellent episode with a lot of gags and it's remarkable how good it is as a wedding episode: Plenty of hyjinks, well done emotoinal moments and the drama dosen't feel schticky: Cheynne and Van's selfishness is deeply in character, and all the problems feel like stuff that could pop up in this sitautatoin. A solid start

11. Mr and Mrs Borks (Harvey Beaks, Season 2 episode 11)

This one is more in the getting to the wedding, hence being a little lower ranked but it gets to the heart of a good wedding episode all the same.

For those of you who missed it Harvey Beaks was a crminally underwatched and early canceled Nick show starring Harvey, a young optimstic cleanly bird and his two best friends Fee and Foo who his parents basically adopted but allow to live in a tree.

This one focuses on Harvey's parents Irving and Miriam as they run into your classic sitcom problem: OH NO THE MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE WAS SPELLED WRONG THAT'S A THING THAT HAPPENS. And I mean it probably DOES but it also probably dosen't go unoticed tilll we need a plot.

Thankfully Harvey Beaks does it well.. when harvey notices his parents marriage certificate is mispelled.. they fix it right away and easily at city hall. The reason we have an episode is Harvey badly wants to make a deal out of it since, for obvious reasons, he wasn't at their first wedding. Harvey quickly works one up using his own wedding plans, because of course he has them the precious bean, has his future mother in law conduct the ceremony and watch his baby sister/spawn from hell michelle, and it gives Harvey and Fee time to throw bachelor and bachelorette parties.

Said parties are cute... harvey throws Irvings as a kids party, to the annoyance of Irving's adult friends who apparently seriously thought an 8 year old should hire strippers... which given one is a moth whose angry at a child for taking his father's attention away from him and the other used to be voiced by Matt Berry, sounds about right. They then have to escape the island in time to get to the wedding.

The other plot is the one I prefer as Fee finds out her surrogate mom used to be a wild one and gives her one last night with her old gang. Through this we find what the relationship gave them both: for irving it gave him secureity and someone more assertive, and for Miriam stablility. Their happy with who they are now and what they have and it's really sweet to see. The ending with them roughed up at the altar is just.. too wholesome for words. A great episode

10. Apple Wedding (Adventure Time, Season 5, Episode 44)

This one is just pure fun nonsense. While Tree Trunks and Mr Pig are cute, the foucs really isn't on how cute they are together, even if the actual wedding in prison.. is really damn sweet all the same.

No the focus here is a classic case of the rest of the cast getting up to shit because of the wedding and i'm here for it as both plots are solid gold hilarlity. Finn has to keep LSP from crashing because she needs attention bad enough to try and make a wedding about her

While Princess Bubblegum slowly breaks down because she wasn't asked to officiate over local con artist the King of Ooo, played to perfection by Andy Daly. Seeing Bonnie at her pettiest is gloriously, up to including arresting him just to and then arresting EVERYONE because she can. It's a short, fun romp with a geninely heartfelt ending. And I don't have a segue or ending so here have jake playing with some pigs

Awwwwww

9. Port in the Storm (Chicago Fire, Season 12, Episode 6)

This is a recent one.. as in it aired back in late February and even with recency bias warn off.. this one's fantastic.

It's also a chance to talk about my love for Chicago Fire, the kind of show that sticks out on a list of sitcoms and animated episodes, but I love dearly, a show about the brave men and women of firehouse 51. The show nicely blends the usual procederal soapy shenanigans, from firey rescues to smoulding romances, with slice of life shenanigans, making 51 feel like a family.

As such two of their best getting married and leaving the show is a big deal as Sylve Brett and Matt Casey tie the knot after two seasons of will they or won't they, one season of actually being together, and two seasons of matt's actor going back to australia. With Britt's actress leaving the show, this left the show able to wrap it up with a wonderful, adorable wedding episode that underlines how much the two mean to one another.

Granted given the show we're on things can't go smoothly. This means hyjinks as Sylive thought she got Shed Aquarium but OH NO SHE GOT A FISH STORE. which is schticky.. but the way the place was run down adn the way Tony, the backwards capped genius and normally background guy who booked the store and REALLY dosen't get the diffrence, defends it like he didn't fuck up royally is hilarious. Matt is also entirely okay with it... Matt is a chill dude. Not a ton of personality but hard to hate him. I liked matt. We also get a tense rescue where Sylvie's held hostage before kicking the knife away.

The episode fucntions as both a big sendoff for sylvie, a big cumilation of a big couple, and a nicely done wedding in a fish store. Admitely a LOT of this is simply how invested I am in these characters, something we'll see again, but 12 seasons in fire more than earned this. Also they did peg it absolutely right: it's fun to say fish store. Even more fun to type it a bunch. Fish Store. Fish Store. Fish Store, Fish Store.

8. Urban Matrimony and the Sandwich Arts (Community)

Community had TWO good choices here, with Wedding Videography also being pretty good.. if mostly for Keith David's crippling addiction to encouraging white people

But the choice.. was always obvious. Urban Matrimony and the Sandwich Arts, a title that has not aged well, is a fantatsic episode. It's only lower on the list as I don't REALLY care about Shirley and Andre. Shirley spends most of her time in the group being self righetous and andre is just kinda there and his biggest role , this episode, has him wanting his wife to go back to how their previous marriage was and her telling him fuck no to that, especially after how he cheated.

This one's here purely for the antics of everyone else in the study group and they are gloriously. Britta, the team threw it on the ground guy, is horrified to discovered she's REALLY good at arranging wedding, while type a ace annie sturggest o see how that's a problem or the inevtible spiral into marriage britta castrophsies it as. We get great gags out of it too from Shirley's reactions to Britta's offer of help (Rampant laughter and dead silence for minutes on end a piece) and Britta's "it may suprise you to know I come from a long line of wives and mothers"

We also get Jeff who can't bullshit his way through a toast and starts spiraling due to his daddy issues. This leads to both Jeff and Britta getting hammred and almost gettting married simply because the two of them think it's invetible and awful, mocking their cynisim epseically since they've never BEEN in a succesful relationship. Through calming their stupidity down, Shirley and Andre reconcile in a genuinely sweet moment.

The other subplot is also perfect as Shirely, being the worst a lot of the time despite britta getting the crown, asks Troy and Abed to be "normal", a horribly offensive act especially when both characters are autisim coded. This episode really didn't help Shirely's rep either. You may see why may autistic ass dosen't exactly like her.

At any rate the two decide to try being normal and end up emotinless robots before deciding fuck it be themselves, a brief well done plot worth it for the image of them covered in silly string if nothing else.

7. Something Borrowed (How I Met Your Mother S2 Episode 21)

Another shenanigans episode, though this time it's also a heartfelt payoff: Marshall and Lily had been together since episode one of this epic tale of love, loss, trying to convince your kids to let you bone their aunt, and things that were a joke at the time but come off as a sex crime today. I loved HIMYM at the time and while a lot of it has aged like fine cheese on a bullet train into a sun that smells of raw tuna, it still has moments that are just plain fantastic and this wedding day is one of the finest of them.

So after a lot of shenanigans and a breakup, i'ts finally time for Lily and Marshall to get married. And naturally everything that COULD go wrong does as all the compromises Lily had to make for everyone else pile up into one headache after another, starting with the harpist being ready to give birth any day now which is

But the two bigger crisis are comedy gold: Marshall gets his hair done bad by LIly's beautican in traning niece, with a terrible dye job and in his freakout over it decides to just shave the bitch in the most hilarious way possible while jason sigel lets out the weridest and most glorious cry.

The other is comedy gold as for reasons known only to her, Lily's mom invited her ex boyfriend from high school scooter, who plans to do to the whole "I object thing", tries to win lily over and is generally just hilarious. It's not super good for her, at all, but Scooter is fantastic.

We also have a REALLY good runner with Barney, who befitting his status as a mixture of bill murray, bugs bunny and a sex offender's registry finds a way to make this work for him as he finds out when getting lily a drink if you say it's for the bride you can get anything. To his credit he does use his dark powers for good.

With everything going sideways the happy couple ends up outside, stressed.. and we get the heart of this episode as despite all the shnanigans.. lily gets her wedding: a small cermony with just her best friends and with Barney officating as he got certified just in case and despite trying to front... can't hide how much he's tearing up. Sure the wedding for everyone else goes sideways.. but this one for them.. was legend... wait for it.. dary.

6. My Fart Will Go On Adventure (Season 1, Episode 11)

The Great North is one of my favorite shows currently running, a cozy show about a family of alaskan weirdos who love each other unconditionally from longest night to longest day. It takes the best parts of bobs burgers and throws them into a new intrest setting, resulting in Fox's best animated comedy on right now, and that's with both bobs burgers and simpsons making comebacks.

The show has only gotten better with time, but it's first season was still crazy good and ended on a high high. After a season of being engaged, the show's power couple of eldest son Wolf and his girlfriend and our audience surrogate Honeybee. The two have just a genuinely adorable relationship: While Honeybee is the savier one, constantly reining her husband's accidently weirdly sexual or incestious statments (always toward his dad), with a "wolf no", she's just as goofy, the two having met on a film quotes message board and meshing perfectly.

So naturally their wedding's a cause to celebrate.. and to panic as it turns out Wolf accidently invited their mom, who left them and sent their dad Beef into a spiral. Wolf TRIES to keep who knows about this down.. but all of his siblings soon find out as they get roped into keeping this from Honeybee's "Normal" parents while trying to figure out if she's actually coming to ruin her son's big titanic themed wedding... which youngest Moon points out was just asking for it.

This results in hyjinks naturally as Beef takes the shaws around town, while the rest of the family plan a fake wedding. What really centers the episode despite it's gallons of great hyjinks.. is the emotional core. Wolf just wants a good wedding for his wife, and eventually decides this operatic bullshit isn't worth it.. and fitting the running gag accidently tells his in laws. And true to the series forgiving nature.. the shaws don't care. All familes have baggage, no one's perfect, and they just care their son in law loves their daughter and is going to care for her and that he'd GO to these lengths. It feels real and Wolf decides to let what happens happen.

We don't get Kathleen.. but we do get payoff to a great runner of Honeybee working on a suprise fo rher husband, hence why she wasn't aware of any of this shit: getting a cast member from the titanic... and she does.. the baby who was held up byt he villians creaming I got a child. Naturally for Wolf he loves it and we get an extra touching ending as Wolf admits.. he was kinda bummed... and Beef admits even if she didn't show up and his ex was a nightmare she left him something great. All of them.. and... just tyiping that i'm tearing up.

5. Happy Ending (Schitts Creek, Season Five Episode 12)

A season and series finale wedding. A list like this wouldn't be complete without one, nor a gay wedding. And frankly this one would get on here just on the strength of Cathrine O'Hara officiating a wedding in a pope hat, but said wedding is a genuinely tender affair.

As per sitcom law, there is chaos as David and Patrick's, the overdramatic pansexual oldest son of our family and his calmer and loveably down to earth partner, carefully aranged wedding day looses it's outdoor venue when it rains. David naturally isn't happy he can't control the weather and Patrick, knowing the love of his life well, prepared for the inevtible meltdown with a massage.. that gets a happy ending thrown in because Patrick sucks at phrasing. The fact the show got away with doing a happy ending joke in it's finale and made the episode still heartfelt is a masterstroke. I salute it.

Thankfully the town comes together, and we get a truly all timer ceremony, as well as tons of tiny moments between the family as they all prepare to go their seperate ways, with David being the only one staying. They entered town entitled assholes and leave it weird as hell as they were going in but a tight knit loving family and it shows with the wedding, using Moira's choir to sing "Precious Love" from a previous episode and the best, which Patrick lovingly sang for david, all nice little call backs fitting a fianle and this splended day. A truly perfect ending to one of the most perfect sitcoms of the 2010s. And it also had Moira/Catherine o'hara in a pope hat, the only way this really coudl've gone.

4. Leslie and Ben (Parks and Recreation, Season 5, Episode 14)

Naturally one of the best sitcoms ever has one of the best weddings ever.. and also another great wedding episode that simply didn't make the list.

Parks and Rec also thankfully didn't dance around the will they or won't they, something that's STILL happening in this, the year of our Magneto 2024: We had a season and a half of well done tension, then one of the most adorable and ballanced couples in sitcom history.

They also didn't waste too much time on the wedding, as one season after getting them together, the two tied the knot. They also did so cleverly: Leslie had just finally secured lot 48 as a park and defeated longtime foe and human foot fungus jeremy jamm, and realizing they had a big venue, everyone they wanted there and Ben's parents far, FAR away from the procediings as he preferred it, decided to go ahead and tie the knot. We get a fun treasure hunt as the main cast tries to secure everything in time, including pawn shop wedding rings before Ron naturally just makes some. There's also the usual complications.. in that Leslie's greatest rival gets super drunk and crashes the cermony and Ron gets arrested for rightfully decking his ass.

But the center of it, as it should be is on two people who belong together, and wacky antics, getting ron out of jail to give leslie away or what have you, it's about love. And punching Jamm in the face which is oh so satisfying.. also props for every man there ready to also pop him one. And April and Donna one would heathily assume. What i'ms aying is ron stopped the wedding from turning into the season 8 finale of letterkenny and I'm not sure how I feel about that.

3. Last Week Fights, This Week Tights (Gilmore Girls S4 EP 21)

It's criminal how little i've been able to talk about how much I love gilmore girls on this blog. It's the best, one of the best slice of life shows there is, ballancing it with some teen drama stuff.

The episode features the wedding of Liz and TJ, giving us our final side character wedding of the list, though it gets up this high because the show did a good job building up these two characters and making you care, to the point they thankfully stick around stars hollow for the rest of the series.

Liz is the sister of all time legend, diner owner, curmudgeon, and king of the backwards baseball caps Luke Danes. I cannot say enough about how much I love luke, the ultimate straight man to the ultimate town of weirdos, his future wife very much included.

Liz being reintroduced was intresting, in part because we hadn't really seen her: she struggled to raise her son Jess, not being there at times and when she was not knowing how to handle the mopey little cuss. Multiple looser boyfriends did not help.

Thankfully when she came back Liz also came back with a boyfriend who while still a hot mess, was also the best, TJ< a down to earth sort of guy she met doing renissance fairs, who speaks his mind and naturally annoys luke to no end. Yet Luke can alsso see that as much of a cave goblin as TJ is.. he's a LOVING cave goblin, genuinely carring for Liz. She makes his sister happy for a change and despite having had a distant relationship with her, her return with this idiot helps mend things. It takes a bit more with her son jess, understandably given he was at ground zero for her previous dating disasters, but he begrudginly accepts his mom wants him there.

So the wedding is on, and that of course means shenanigans as gilmore girls is often more sitcom than soap and i'm here for it. We get a cold open of kirk, the town oddball, who heckles the maypoll dancers before being reminded local dance teacher Ms Patty can and will end him.

The best of this though is the bachelorette party. Luke made the well meaning mistake of letting his sister and friends hold the party at lukes, including sherri, the made of honor who won't stop gunning for luke who isn't iteressted. Luke also fails to see an obvious male stripper setup coming, hilariously arguging with the guy about a package while Jess smugly leaves telling him to have fun. God I miss these two.

Finally the wedding itself.. is renissance fair themed, a truly inspired choice that brings back the towns former second trubadour and that guy who was on ned's declassified I like a bunch as the officiant.. and the bard as he sings a lengthy song about them being wed that's purespun gold while Luke and Loreli try not to loose it.

Yes our main character herself does have a part to play in this one, as Lorelei helps with the wedding prep.. and gets the invitation of a lifetime as Luke FINALLY shoots his shot after 4 seasons of will they or won't they. last episode he finally woke up, getting a self help book which went hilariously at first as you'd expect it too with Luke.. until it asked her who he most liked spending time with. He could see her face.. and thus takes a big chance asking her to the wedding, something that throws Loreli off but she still happily accepts.

As a result we get one of the best scenes in the show as at the wedding, naturally dj'd by kirk, all the couples are invited to dance.. and we get Luke and Loreli dancing to Sam Phillips reflecting light. It has begun and it is glorious.

There's also some assorted Rory stuff I don't really care about. The setup for her affair with a married plank of wood, Jess coming back and being a dick. I mention it only because I have to.

2. Jake and Amy (Brooklyn 99 Season 5, Episode 22)

I also haven't gotten to talk about Brooklyn 99 a lot, but i'm glad to again and it will likely make most top 12 lists I do as long as it's elligible. Jake and Amy was yet another case of a good will they or won't they arc. This one took two seasons.. but that's all. Schurr Sitcoms seem to get that what comes AFTER is more intresting than dragging this out for a thousand years.

At any rate it was a classic story: Jake was an everyman slacker, Amy was type a as hell, they both worked well together and were competitive as fuck because they couldn't exactly process their relationship. They denied it, dated other people... tried to keep it professional.. then kissed in a broom closet and gave will hader a heart attack while he squaked like a bird. Tale as old as time

And I meant what I said: the what comes after was way more intresting: the two fought over getting jake a mattress, adopting her appartment, yet clearly loved each other and amy won in both cases not because "MAN DUMB WOMAN SMART".. but because jake lived in abject nightmare of an apartment and was just being stubborn, and Amy herself can be just as stubborn. They pull each other out of their heads when needed and it's never in question the two love each other.

So after an elaborate heist themed proposal, meeting the parents and all the usual shenanigans, we come to the wedding.. and this being a sitcom it can't come easy, as you've seen. Tis the law.

In this case an old foe of Amy's (Jake is disapoitned it's not one of his), calls in a bomb threat, and naturally her ex is on the bomb squad, teddy, who became weay more intresting after they broke up, proposing at awkward times including in front of his own girlfriend, and in general being the worst but in such a dull awkward way it's hilarious.

The two race to solve the case and do.. but the guy DID actually set bombs, forcing them to marry at the prinscint. Thankfully best man boyle is obessed with this relationship... the only time you'll hear anyone descrbing that as a good thing, and with the help of hitchcok and scully, again the only time tha'ts a good thing, the two have a loving marriage in front of their surrogate dad. A truly heartwarming, hilarious, and wonderful half hour of television.

Lisa's Wedding (Season 6, episode 22)

Look all of these episodes are great and heartfelt but while this is the only failed wedding on the list.. it's also the only one that could've won. The couples bellow are better... but no episode hits so many wedding episode faviorites in one sitting, AND hits the "the wedding falls apart" beat so well while still being heartfelt. This wedding may be in Lisa's Future, but it ties well to the present while also reminding us what the heart of the series is. I'ts also really, really fucking funny which given most of these series are comedies, was taken into account.

As you can see this one takes place in the WORLLLLDDD OF TOMMMORROOWWW as , after a really fun opening renissance faire set piece, Lisa encounters a fortune teller who tells her the story of her first true love

but since that episode hadn't been written yet and nobody likes milhouse, instead it's in college when she meets Hugh Parkfield, a british person whose just as outspokenly liberal as she is. She soon meets the parents and with a marriage proposal donkey and some melted robot flesh, their engaged.

The rest of the episode is all the prep for that, as well as check ins on everyone else, from Martin being phantom of the opera, to Burns being put on ice till they find a cure.. for 17 stab wounds in the back. It's a LOT of great gags piled on top of each other.

The core though is the simpsons preparing for the wedding: We get one of my faviorite gags in teh whole series when Homer prepares to plan the wedding at Moes (We can have it on a monday, there wil lbe fewer drunks) and...

To ... everything about Hugh meeting his future in-laws. EVERYTHING. Homer makes a shoddily built guest house, tells them to keep it down when their just quitely talking, Hugh falls through, and Homer accidently burns the british flag. This is all DAY ONE. That's not even getting into their night on the town with homer driving on the left, "We saved your ass in world war III", and an offscreen explosion at the pornography factory. As it tends to be with the best of golden age simpsons, this could easily just be a paragraph of jokes.

But all these Homer shenanigans are him trying to bond with his future son in law, he genuinely wants to welcome hugh.. it's just the straight laced stuffy hugh dosen't get Homer's charm. It's like a smaller scale version of homer's enemy, but rather than disecting the logic of the simpsons universe, it simply shows how homer would come off to someone who can't see his good side. Hugh is horrified by homer's antics but we, knowing him better, get he means well and Dan Casteleneta does a great job in showing just how entuastic homer's being, how hard he's trying. even when Hugh impliclty turns down his gesture of pig cufflinks by leaving them behind, even when homer's hurt.. he dosen't bring it up. He wants Lisa to be happy because his little girl is happy and that's all that matters.

And every simpson is trying: Maggie is eager to go shopping even if she dosen't get a chance to say so.. or anything in a great running gag I wish they'd phase out of later simpsons future episodes, as it seems she hasn't spoken since. She gets tons of personality here though as a punk teen and i'm here for it and the gag works here as they find creative ways to use it.

Bart is great being entirely happy, cordial to hugh, and talking about how he's in construction and getting all his agression out for law school, while Marge is just entirely touched and her giving Lisa a bit of her hair as something blue is so damn precious. The episode is a laugh fest.. but what makes it work is they truly treat it like this is going to happen and show just how supportive and loving the simpsons are. Bart even met his possible third wife at Hugh's Bachelor party.

They had one in his honor.

Bart had one in his honor.

Bart went to a strip club.

It makes the climax all the more gutting. While homer meeting the parents goes well.

And we get a really great moment from homer talking about how Lisa made him a better husband an da better man and when she points out he's babbling, he points out she's still teaching him. It gets to the core of why, despite how often she's embarassed or accidently humiliated by her dad, they love each other so much: Lisa is always there to help and Homer will always love her and when he HAS fucked up will go to the moon and back to fix it. Sometimes he'll buy a pony, sometimes he'll hire a private eye, sometimes he'll give up a blimp trip. But he'll always go the extra mile.

So Lisa goes to give Hugh the cufflinks... and points out it means a lot to him when Hugh scoffs not wanting to do this in front of "My parents and their friends". He agrees.. but then casually and dickishly announces they'll never see her parents again, having boldly assumed that Lisa wanting nothing to do with her family except maybe marge.

It's where all the sweetness comes in: the episode does a fantastic job showing that Homer and Bart are still jackasses even a decade later, that they ARE offputting at times.. but also showed just how hard they were trying. How much they LOVE lisa and are so happy to see her again and to set up her blessed day. Homer's gestures may of been entirely dumb and incredibly dangerous, it woudln't be homer if they weren't.. but he meant well. He didn't have to be told by marge "do your best to make hugh feel welcome", he was trying the whole time. It's what makes it so easy to turn on Hugh... he can't understand that Homer is a jerkass.. but he's also a niceass who loves his daughter. That as much as Lisa complains about them, she LOVES them.

So the ending is a tearjerker with Hugh leaving and Lisa in tears.. but it's a well done one, as Hugh... simply wasn't worth loosing her family. He's like Lisa, educated, smart, a bit smug.. but he lacks her heart. She deserves someone with a huge heart.. and also a bb gun. What i'm saying is Nelson probably has his shit together at this point even if he ha ha'd the wedding. Go seek him out. We do get a sweet ending as Lisa has a new appreceation for her dad and they happily walk off together with her asking about his stomach pump. This episode may be bittersweet.. but they certainly knew to leave us on the sweet.

Thanks for reading.

#weddings #the simpsons #the great north #reba #brooklyn 99 #parks and rec #schitt's creek #gilmore girls #harvey beaks #community #adventure time #chicago fire #how I met your mother

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popculturebuffet · 15 days

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Angel: You dad still has it bad for your mom, huh?

Charlie: You should have seen him during the first year she left.

(Flashback)

Charlie:*enters Lucifer’s room* Here Daddy, I brought you some nice- AHH!

Lucifer:*dirty and ragged. He has finished building a giant rubber ducky designed to look like Lilith* Good news, Charlie, I don’t need your mother anymore. I’ve created a replacement that is superior in almost every way!

Charlie:….Dad, that’s just a rubber duck.

Lucifer: Charlie! You will respect your new mother! Now give her a kiss! KISS HER! *accidentally drops ducky!Lilith, causing her to fall down the stairs* Oh My Gosh, Oh My Gosh, Oh My Gosh. *panicking* Alright, let’s get our stories straight, she tripped right?

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popculturebuffet · 16 days

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My little homage to Uncanny X-Men #158. Kev asked me to have Philli punch out glomgold so I let my x-men brainrot seep in. I"m happy with the result. It took me a bit in paint to find just the RIGHT shade to repleciate the cockrum cover. Well worth it.

Also art comissoins are open, just 5 dollars a character.

#ducktales #x-men #philli antrophy #zan owlson #flintheart glomgold

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popculturebuffet · 18 days

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Transformers More than Meets the Eye Retrospective: Dark Cybertron Part Deux (Patreon Review for Brotoman.EXE)

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to my more than meets the eye retrospective! It's the end of an era as we finish dark cybertron and bring an end to season one of IDW's transformers books. It's been a long road but we're finally done with an epic finale full of giant robot fights, douchebags getting suplexed and bisected dictators. IT's a good time.

To recap the last part:

Or for the long version, look at this link

When we last left off: Optimus was left at the mercy of a genocidal tyrant who wouldn't shut up, half the lost light was fighting for thier lives , the other half might of exploded , Starscream had concrete proof Primus hates him, and Bumblebee mostly stood around not doing much, which for once was actually the right call. Under the cut we finish that as three autobots debut, an autobot dies and another takes his place, and Shockwave tries to rewrite history without solving a mystery first, the blasphemy.

We open part 7 back on the Lost Light for the first time in a while as Hound is in command

Hound.. is a vetran soldier. I don't know much else and frankly I forgot he was on the ship, and had to look up if he leaves it after this season.. and he doesen't. How he's somehow in the chain of command is beyond me. I mean Blaster is still on board. How does Blaster rank bellow Hound? Blaster has casettes baby. He can do sound stuff.

Anyways the Amonites retreat, giving swerve a chance to realize he missed a call.. and everyone else to realise Magnus now has a LOT of problems as their all headed into Metroplex's eye. Impressive, not healthy you get it.

Inside the rodpod did explode but everyone was outside, so their safe though a legend was truly lost that day.

The Rodpod I

2013-2014 "An Embarrassment to Everyone but Rodimus himself"

- The TF Wiki

Skids does figure something out though: Turns out the reason the arrows looped them back around is that metroplex keeps shifting inside. They also notice Whirl's missing which can't be good. Speaking of can't be good Swirl calls.. and he's DEAD SERIOUS. How reality didn't fold in on itself is beyond me.

Yeah turns out the stuff they found in the water of Planet Danzig creates a "death plauge" And they need to get out now... then they need to get out now FASTER as the amonites are coming.

Back with Nova who continues to prattle about how he controls this unvierse, they can't beat him, his cybertronic turds smell like lilacs. Importantly it turns out I was wrong. the brand new space bridge isn't bumblebee, who escaped but Kup. Hazards of doing this in two parts without reading the second half first. Yes good ole Kup was apparnetly sucked into the dead universe during the infestation event, thank you editor box things, which wasn't on comixlogy unlimited at any point so I never read it. IT did feature the ghostbusters though so there's that.

Point is Kup's in danger. Our heroes , who have been taken from their prison cube to Nova's fortress, can't just up and run with him as his robot bones are brittle and he'll just snap if they move him. He then has nightbeat take thema way.. he dosen't say take them away but he damn well was thinking it.

Back with Shockwave he also mutters about how his plan is far from endgame but is less smug about it so I give him a pass. He's not happy Galvatron tore their space bridge in half but even without the ore he can fix this and has Galvatron carry off a bisected megatron, not trusting waspinator becuase "those damn kids always getting on my metallic lawn and such"

Back in prison turns out Nova has a reson to keep our heroes alive besides the sound of his own voice just not sounding as sweet if he's not berating someone else. He wants their sparks. Turns out Kup isn't a STABLE portal and thus if he wants to escape, he needs fresh sparks to keep the old man alight.

Things seem bleak.. when Rodimus gets an idea. He tells Nightbeat to look at his hand. While cyclonus wonders what the hell he's on about, which on a normal day would be entirely resonable with rodimus, turns out Rodimus has figured out how to free their old pal: The only time he's seemed like himself.. was when he was figuring out cyclonus, deducting the shit out of him. As he puts it it's shadowplay 101 to take away the part of a person that's most .. them. To supress it. So by giving Nightbeat a mystery to solve it fights it. Optimus is doubtful.. but is inttantly proven wrong: nightbeat HAS been trying to fight the brainwashing this whole time but Nova's so strong... but Rodimus presses on..

The answer of course is 190. It's a brilliant play and a brilliant scene: Rodimus rescues his friend.. simply by knowing him better. Rodimus may have a bunch of issues and the truth of this tally is a lot of them rolled up into one... but his strength is in people. He knows how to play them.. but he also knows how to comfort them, and forgetting that is what lead to most of his issues in season 1, ignoring what THEY needed or who THEY were. It's telling that after all he did and went through his two big moments int his crossover both come from empathy instead of his ego.

Nightbeat frees them while Rodimus prepares to come clean about what's been going on on the lost light.

Back on Cybertron Bee ambushes Galvatron and Waspinator, going full badass and telling Galvatron what he wants what he really really wants and he's sick of not getting what he wants what he really really wants. His blaster dosen't do much, immediate failure is Bee's brand after all, but it does distract him long enough for Bisected Megatron to shoot Galvatron and give us the greatest line ever

Bumblbee isn't happy with Megs chipper attiude, figuring the desolation of Cybertron is making him smile. That isn't, despite all his MANY flaws, Megatron loves this planet... he is however more than a little happy Starscream is in so much pain right now. Scoops calls Starscream out for using his position as Chosen One for his own personal gain while Starscream seethes.

Back with Team Magnus, turns out Whirl was being useful for once in a way that wasn't "shooting someone in the face" or "being hilarious" He was torturing an ammonite for informatoin, which isn't necessarily good but at least got us the info we need; Turns out the ammonites were still miffed and turns out I was wrong again: Whilr didn't END their war, just caused it to kick up with his murder, and they wanted payback.. and naturally Shockwave is behind this, having beefed them up in exchange for their help. Just as naturally the amonite explodes ove rit. Our heroes don't have time to process though as they get some fairly weak threats from above as two new players enter the game

Yup turns out Cybertron isn't the only planet with life as we meet Nautica and Chromia. Chromia won't play much of a roll HERE but is vital to another book whose lead we'll meet soon, but Nautica is a major part of the rest of More than Meets The Eye/Lost Light and i'm so happy to finally have her here. So ends part 7

Part 8 begins and ...

hey hey it's time to come over and have some fun with Megzy Taxi!

I will never get enough of this image. Megatron holdling his own legs, riding Bumblbee like a prom limo. I'm honestly disapointed Megs eventually gets put back together, I love this nonsense.

Back with Team Fuckup, prowl takes the lead.. and for once LISTENS to what someone else actually said deciding to be logical, reluctantly teaming up with soundave and telling Starscream to get his shit together. As for Rattrap he brought them here, as he really dosen't want god emperorship of a burning city.

Back with Team Magnus, Getaway disarms the standoff by revealing Nautica's autobrand. The Amonites break in and the team splits off: Ratchet and Magnus go with the new kids while Whirl and the others stay behind to keep the amonites off their backs. Ratchet breifly questions Chromia about her prounounds before deciding to drop it because the apocalypse is more important than finding out there's female robots.

The duo lead him to Metroplex's brain which is in his right shoulder

And we meet the final member of this trio, and while I love Nautica, she's easily the biggest introduction here for both the IDW comics (If not MTMTE) and transformers as a whole

We'll learn a little more about her as we go but windblade was a hyped intro... though apparently a contriversal one as she was part of a vote for a new transformer design.. and wasn't the one that won it. Protip DON'T do a fanvote if your not going to honor. Her Kabuki design didn't help, though I personallyt hink it's great; it gives her some unique flair.

Windblade's become important, being ported into both the Robots in Disguise cartoon and Transformers Cyberverse along with the movies. It's likely because the autobots didn't exactly have a tone of female characters, and Windblade's unique deisgn makes her stand out. Either way she's a welcome addition to the G1 pile.

Back with Team Rodimus, Rodimus finally explains the number: after a short recap of what happened with overlord and how he let Drift take the fall, he explains he told Magnus then the crew then invoked the crisis act: he let them decide if stayed as captain or not. He won.. but he carved the tally as a reminder of who he has to win back.

Optimus is.. less than sympathetic

It's unflinching harsh ... but i've come to accept it on this re-read as what Rodimus needed. We all need someone to tell us we're not as bad as we think we are, especially if your me or rodimus and have a lot of self hatred. But in this instance... Optimus is right. He's not here to tell Rodimus "You did all you could do". He fucked up horribly and SHOULD have just straight up resigned. He got two bots killed, lied to all of them, and then lied again and let drift take the blame. Rodimus is a good bot.. but he wasn't a good leader and Pipes and Rewind paid the price for it. Rodimus.. simply didn't want to give up: he wanted to still be the captain and redeem himself. And he COULD redeem himself without being in charge.. but hta'ts just not who he is. Everyone has to see him doing it. Has to see him. The attention has to be on him.. and Optimus knows this.

I will grant Rodimus stepping down wouldn't of been the best call either: Magnus is holding in there but just went through it, drift is gone, and as we saw today apparently hound's next in chain of command somehow. The only one who could POSSIBLY take over the roll and be okay coming out the other side at the moment is Ratchet and it's a roll he dosen't want. Rodimus shouldn't really be in charge.. but who else is there? And when we answer that question, will Rodimus, or ANYONE like this answer?

For now though those questions remained unanswered, as Kup is back up.. only to get a cyclonus chucked at him. Nova Prime is back, he's pissed and he challenges Optimus to a fucking challenge. One shall stand, one shall fall.

Back with Team Magnus, we get more of Windblade's deal: while the term dosen't come up yet, she's a Cityspeaker. She can communicate with titans like metroplex: while he can't TALK she can read his brain patterns. As for how this trio ended up here they were on Thunderclash's ship when they picked up Alpha Trion, who is usually with metroplex. He told them about Metroplex's crash and couldn't help him because he was so very close to something else and since the Vis Vitalis can't travel too fast due to Thunderclash's condition, Team Windblade volunteered for it and have done what they can.. but it's not enough.

Thankfully Magnus flashes on WHY they were brought here: to give Metroplex a jump using the quantum engines the same way they saved thunderclash. Magnus asks him tow ake up one last time.. and they hope: for a jump that will both revivie the titan and take the lost light and everyone in the titan home. "Burn bright metroplex, one last time".

Speaking of cybertron things aren't going well for Team Fuckup

Their attempts to attack the Necrotitan are failling, it's stomping i'ts way towards the triage center they have set up... Prowl flat out admits they need a miracle.. and sure enough a certain someone has been called many things..

I applaud the artists for all this glorious physical comedy with bisected megatron. While part of it's in the dialouge, props to Roberts and Barber, the visuals with this have been amazing

Prowl pulls a prowl and decides to just..try and shoot megatron. Despite megs both apparently having more of a plan than they do and being half a person and probably being able to easily survivie a shot to the head.

Turns out though Bee's faith.. was misplaced. Megatron hasn't changed and his plan is the truly awful "Evacuate like hell, let me call the DJD and we'll retake cybertron" Bee promptly drops him and calls him out, getting to the heart of things; Megatron was a freedom fighter.. but he isn't anymore. It's a cause he forgot for a campaign of terror, a talking point he ONLY brings up when he needs it. It's a good speech from Bee too. I don't have enough space for the panels sadly but you should still heart it in some form

"When I was in charge I stared into the darkness so long I let it consume me. I looked at our endless war, the friends we lost, the world we destroyed. But what I should have seen is our perseverance: we don't give up. And i'm not letting cybertron fall to anyone, not again. We make a stand for everything that's worth standing for. Our sacrifices won't be for nothing, We'll face shockwave and this monster together... and this time the good guys win.

And as he says the last part... hope arrives

Part 2 picks up right where this left off, as we're now down to just two main plot threads

Still some jumping around, jumping around get up get up and get down to be had, but it's now more contained. The Lost Light is back as Swerve proudly announces, and our heroes , fittingly crash into the planet. Bumblebee stumbles back into idiot mode a bit being genuinely shocked their somehow alive... in a comic where he's already seen Megatron and Metalhawk both come back from certain death. As Megs himself put it "Since when does anyone stay dead?". It's not a good sign of your ablility to lead when the previous leaders of both factions both didn't buy the explosion as a sign of death.

Remember: if there's no corpse and you didn't see their body turn ot ash or dust in front of your very eyes like poor hardhead, then there at least POSSIBLY alive. Say what you will about Rodimus as a leader, I have, Optimus has, Getaway has and will again, he knows damn well if there's no corpse or flaming bits of autbot in the atmosphere, their probably okay.

This plot point has always bugged me: NO ONE bothered to investigate and everyone just.. assumed they were dead. I get if they didn't have the resources but it dosen't sound like anyone tried. A loud explosion with again NOTHING left happened.. and they just assume the Lost Light's gone. I get the lost light couldn't contact them to prove they weren't dead.. but this is also a giant army that's had tons of bots go missing for less. Part of the Lost Light's mission is picking up various stragglers scattered throughout the universe who may not know the war is over. You see why maybe I didn't give everyone the benefit of a doubt going up the ass of a guy who can't bother to do the basic things to check if someone's actually dead!

So.. back to the good part. Inside Metroplex , Windblade understandably asks if he Mags knew he was throwing Metro at another titan. He wasn't, but figures Metro knew he was needed to fight another giant robot. Giant Robots can just.. sense these things.

The crew of the lost light reunites with Hound filling them in on why their here, and why they didn't call sooner: they did.. but STARSCREAM answered, something Hound and Blaster are pissed about. Also when Hound mentions the thumb, Prowl just.. can't reissit making a pissy comment about how "I thought you were looking for the knights of cybertron"

Megatron has a plan.. and this time it's not "Let me take over again that worked out so well the first time". He just needs a hand getting his half a body over to Metroplex's thumb.

Back with Team Rodimus Optimus and Nova have been punching each other, but turns out Nova has a secret weapon: adaptive armor. He can turn into any previous prime and thus uses this to gain the upper hand.. then turns into Optimus because he hasn't reminded anyone what a dick he is in the last 10 minutes. He starts to hit a wall as Nova continues to punch him, with Optimus finlaly breaking and reiterating why he's so intent on not being called Optimus Prime anymore: If he carries on the legacy of such horrible men.. he's endorsing it.. and them. All they did.

Back with Team.. .Something, things aren't looking good. Whirl is getting tired of killing people, which he admits is a bad sign, and Megatron prepares his hail mary: use the ore inside him and his space bridge self to bring the thumb back to metroplex. Bee dosen't know if he can trust him and Megs smiles as he peaces out.

Back with Optimus, Rodimus does what he does best: give a hell of a speech, this time explaning WHY he's always wanted to be a prime so bad

"You're wrong I never wanted to be Rodimus Prime, not deep down. Deep down I always wanted to be you. The real you not Orion Pax. When you became Optimus Prime, when you assumed the title the world didn't know the truth about Nova, Nominus and the rest. Back then being a prime meant demonstrating, no embodying certain standards. It meant decency, integrity and morality, all the things chancers like me pretend are unfashonable because deep down they scare us. And they scare us because we try to live by them but can't. Well guess what: you can. You can and you do every day. Thanks to you the word prime still means decency, morality and integrity. Listen the world will always need a prime.. but only if that prime is you. "

With this Optimus FINALLY snaps out of his self loathing and easily overpowers Nova. Turns out the real reason Nova dominated wasn't that he "controlled the universe". it was confidence. He used Optimus' own self loathing against him and once that was gone... and he made the additoinal mistake of hurting Rodimus... it was over.. was was the life of Orion Pax

With that Optimus is truly back.. I mean I never stopped calling him that but neither did half the cast. Our heroes are kinda stuck for the moment so we go back to Cybertron.

Team Fuckup is back to it's faviorite pastime: arguing. In this case Prowl is pissed at bumblbee's plan and our buddy once again has had enough of Prowl's shit over the course of the last season and chokes him breifly. If it were ANYONE ELSE this would be horrifying but it's prowl so

Scoops reveals the prohecy to starscream.. and the important part is the endgame as we finally get a sense of waht Shockwave's REAL plan is: to remake time and space as a constant present: no past, no future, just one NOW, one point in time. Forever. A stagnant nightmare that never questions or wants more.

For now though it LOOKS like our heroes have won as Megatron does what he promised and with his body back in full, Metroplex heals. now at full strength he easily finishes the Necrotitan and his intenral systems finish all the amonites.

Back with Shockwave though.. all of this was to plan.. or at least not so off plan he can't easily adjust: he has all the ores lined up, he has everything he needs, now he just needs to close up loose ends, having Metalhawk take Waspinator away.. and preparing to turn Galvatron into a battery. Good news is Metahawk seems to be recovering.. and thus only hides Waspinator. Good poor dude has been through enough and was entirley played. Unsuprisingly everyone else involved was a disposable pawn, with only Jhiaxus being in on it.

This sudden but inevetible betryal is also a good time to talk about the villians of this piece.. and how most of them are... meh. Shockwave himself is good, but spends most of the event in the shadows, despite us knowing i'ts him. The rest though are kinda one note, either fairly generic minons or in the case of Galvatron and Nova Prime, archetypes i've seen better. Owl House and Amphibia both did a better job of "villian who wants to return things to a worse time they think was a golden age", with more reasons why than "I'm an evil asshat." They fit their narrative pieces as "Sizeable threat who will be back later", and "The living embodiment of everything Optimus hates about being a prime".. but there's not much beyond that. Nova is just an expansonist colonalist asshole who won't shut the fuck up. That's all he is and neither book really built up how awful he is enough to make his return this big gasp. He's a big threat, he's evil and his murder of hardhead is legitly sad.. but he's ultimately just a gloating dickhead who goes down the minute Optimus looses his self loathin, excuses himself and lets hope in.

The story spends 3/4 of it's story.. on anatagonists who just aren't that intresting, and it's one of Dark Cybertron's biggest weaknesses. If your going to have a big bads minons take center stage they need to be charasmatic. These two dipshits weren't. I will give credit where i'ts due: the necrotitan was decent. I wish it had a less generic design.. but th eidea of this unstoppable giant monster of a transformer that simply by MOVING FORWARD decimates all in his path and whose one action decimates the one city cybertron has left, is terrifying and mostly well done.. but his generic design and taking up so much of the story makes it get tiresome fast.

So with issue 10 we're at a break in the story: the Necrotitan is FINALLY down.. though it's far from over. We also FINALLY get shockwave's plan and how all the pieces connect. In short all the various ores he seeded throughout his minons, such as putting death and ressurection in the necrotitan and change and life from metroplex. So all this, all these interactoins and plans.. was to get all the energy in place fo rhim to unmake the universe.

The idea of this .. isn't bad: that this complex as hell plan was all a masterstroke and he's almost won. The problem is it dosen't work narratively: the ores come up only in the setup for robots in disguise and overlords backstory in more than meets the eye. They aren't really that important.

Not helping is that Shockwave having this big plan in the background.. was something ANYONE reading this would guess> he's on the cover of the first issue, nova and galvatron both come off more as patsies than the actual plan and their plan of a new "golden age of cybertron" dosen't really fit Shockwave. Shockwave is a being of pure logic, why would he be nostalgic for an age of cybertron that failed horribly and lead to everything falling apart. He sees all the angles.. and thus sees WHY Nova and galvatron's day was done.

Instead we just spend most of the plot wondering how all this connects and it's just "oh the thing tha'ts associated with him was it, cool'> the actual PLAN is good, Shockwave wants to rewrite history to be one singular repeating moment, taking the complications and troubles of time away even if it takes the good with it. It's a truly horrifying concept, a world that can never change or grow and will jus stagnate in stasis for all time. The buildup to it just dosen't work. It makes all this epic battle.. come off like a distraction rather than some masterstroke. There were easier ways to pull this off in and out of universe.

Back with Team Fuckup who are slowly not livnig up to that name, Bee apologizes for choking Prowl for his insolence but Prowl's cool with it he deserved it. He's less cool with the fact their taking a break as Shockwave is still out there, but Bee insists they'll deal with it.. but deserve at least a second ot bask in having the lost light back. Unfortunately he also asks if Prowl has anyone he wants to see.. and we cut to Chromedome, with Bee blisfully unaware of HOW bad Prowl fucked over the lost light. At least for Domey's sake he's decided not to dig into metroplex's memory when asked: he's done enough of that shit and is finally saying enough is enough. No more.

Onto Megatron whose getting patched up and admits it probably isn't easy for Ratchet.. though weirdly, and in a sign of things to come despite Ratchet assuming Megatron's talk is intimdation.. Megs GENUINELy seems to be trying to make conversation and is complementing ratchet. It seems Bumblebee really got to him.

Back in the dead universe our heroes are stuck playing a game of "who wants to sacrifice themselves" before Rodimus tells them for the love of god stop it. No one's doing the big heroic sacrifice, they can find another way.. and sure enough.. Cyclonus hears singing.

We cut to swerves where sadly we don't get a ton of charcter interaction. The dinobots sing a bar song, some guy talks to brainstorm, and we DO get Swerve meeting his hero in blur.. only for Blur to find him annoying. Story of the poor guys life. It's not BAD character interaction what we get but it feels like Roberts and Barber were more intrested in plot progression than actually crossing over these casts, having them trade stories and really interact. There's a good moment or two like Hound pointing out how weird it is that after centureis of shooting their all having drinks, but in a 12 issue maxi series it's telling it took THIS long for any of the main casts of both books to interact and we're only putting aside one issue to do it that much. Part of the point of a crossover is to have interactions you normally CAN'T have. None of the lost lighters really get a chance ot talk to bumblebee or the others outside of a line or too.

We do get a good moment with Megatron at least: He calls bee in.. and asks him a question.. when does he think Megs came closest to victory? Bee of course is just a tensy bit horrified by the question.. but it has a point

It's a setence that gets to the heart of Megatron's arc here and beyond: that he really did have a point, really stood for something once: he was fighting simply so his people could be free... and the second he started a war, he lost sight of that and became a dictator.. and now he sees what he's become and dosen't much care for it. It's the start of one of the best arcs in all of More than Meets the Eye and one of the larger reasons why do this crossover: Without it we miss the start of one of it's best characters. We saw megatron in RiD and before this.. but it's here that Roberts fully takes the wheel after hinting what he could do in Chaos Theory and it is glorious.

So speaking of Glorious, Prowl tracks down Chromedome, who understandably has been avoiding his ass and wants to confront him for the whole memory erasure thing.. despite the fact doing so also cost Chromedome a lot, and was done ENITRELY because Prowl is an egotistical jackass who can't let go of control over his ex and who smuggled a dangerous criminal on board a ship because he can't let the war fucking go for five minutes. It shows Prowl is TRYING to change.. but still can't accept WHY he needs to, that he's got control issues. I mean it took bee fucking choking him for Prowl to actually start listening to him. Prowl wants to change.. but can't as long as he can't accept the consequence sof his own actions. On the bright side, Chromedome is REALLY not in the mood to take his shit and that leads to the greatest panel in all of comics history

Keep in mind Chromedome WARNED him. He fucking warmed him to get the fuck away. And he didn't so Domey POWERBOMBED HIM OFF A CLIFF. his expression of pure terror is just.. gold. Even after the poor guy DIED a heroes death he still can't accept rewind.. and boy did he pay for it.

So we get a brief intermission from this fight as Magnus asks Chromia if he can talk to metroplex, but the poor guy's mostly inert. He wants to ask about the knights... people had BEFORE but he figures with the raised stakes etc he might. no luck though.. Chromia already tried.. but he said no one deserves to know. Keep that in mind.

Magnus has to go break up a fist fight though, and Prowl is somehow getting lower than mocking someone's widow telling Chromedome everyone's too focused on the day to day and "HE NEEDS TO GET SOME PERSPECTIVE" and NO reaction image can represent the level of facepalm I gave over that.

Magnus breaks it up. Prowl is ONCE AGAIN a prick who ONCE AGAIN can't read a room telling Magnus "manhandling a senior officer is hardly behavior of the duly appointed.."

First off. You aren't you old crone. Autobot chain of command right now has you as Bumblbee's first officer. Rodimus is on Bee's level.. and Magnus is HIS first officer. Ergo, your on the same fucking rank.

Magnus corrects him.. he's not the duly appointed enforcer of the tyrest accord, but he STILL can make a citzen's arrest and lays out just why prowl sucks. And hearing this from someone as logical, as defferent to authority as magnus.. fucking slaps.

See this scene.. is why I fucking hate Prowl. He's confronted with the blood on his hands.. and refuses to accep tit wasn't worth it. The ends didn't justify the means. People DIED due to him.. and he still thinks it's okay. Magnus said it better than I could've dreamed but what the hell; Where does it fucking end? And how far is prowl REALLY from the people he's trying to stop? The events of the last two arcs are almost ENTIRELY on prowl not giving a shit who got hurt if things went wrong. A huge chunk of the unvierse nearly died.. and Prowl can't accept it wasn't worth it.

And here's the kicker: It really wasn't. There wasn't some greater good acheived. Putting Overlord on board caused Red Alert to self harm, killed Pipes and Rewind, and did more damage to Chromedonme's psyche, not to mention sent Drift off the ship. His black ops against tyrest, while well aimed... only caused the fucker to esclaate and had the lost light, the very people he clearly resents most in the world, not been there, genocide would've happened. Prowl is an arrogant, egotistical piece of shit who can never accept that while the FIGHT isn't nover, the war is, and he can no longer justify dooing horrible shit with it. And even if he could.. it's no excuse. Prowl just wants to do what Prowl wants to do without any consequences, and dosen't understand that's not what the Autobots stand for. Even at his weakest.. Bumblbee at least got THAT. He got that the way he was starting to think was wrong. He came out of loosing Iacon better.. Prowl came out the same. And all of cybertron ins going to pay for it. Thankfully for my blood pressure and for our heroes.. the lost light no longer has to foot the bill.

Magnus parts after the constructicons want to throw hands, not helping Prowl's case, and points out he's glad he has friends because "you'r the lonelist person i've ever met. "

So we end part 1 with Scoops revealing where he got all this.. Senator Shockwave. Yup.. and to confirm things are about to go sideways again, Metalhawk returns iwth his team and shoot starscream. Not fatally bu tonly because he's delivering a warning... just in time for Shockwave to send every last amonite there way, millions descending on the planet.

Part 11 and the cover, which is still shown in the trade loudly proclaims THE DEATH OF AN AUTOBOT. Sadly it's not prowl.

With the amonite's swarming Bumblbee has a plan RUN THE FUCK AWAY. Though it's for godo reason: with this size of event evacuation is SEEMINGLY the only option.. only for Perciptor to burst his bubble: This is happening EVERYWHERE. Ther'es no running.

Back with Shockwave he slowly becomes everything, everywhere, all at once, living all his timelines at once as they converge. Jhiaxus couldn't be a prouder mad scientest papa: turns out he's so into this.. because the student has become the master, easily succeeding him and both have the same goal.

Bumblbee regroups but to do so he has a big ask, one Magnus relays to metroplex; keep the amonites busy. He gladly agrees, though Windblade's a bit thrown off by magnus opening a conversation with "the world is ending". She.. she's new here.

Bumblbee assembles his own team to take down shockwave: Himself, Magnus (raw power), Getaway and Skids (Secret Agent Men), Brainstorm (Dead Universe Expert) and Megatron.. and whie Bee tries to sugacoat it, he knows what he is. It's made tricky by the fact they stil lhave an army to go through.. but Skywarp shows up with Team Metalhawk, including Starscream whose back to his normal level of ego and overconfidence. Missed that. Skywarp can take them directly in, while Soundwave plans to hold the line for megatron.. though ti's very clear Megs has changed... and has plans for when he gets back.

While they do that Prowl.. does something useful after his jackass parade last issue and forms devistator with the constructicons.. he dosen't want to and bee isn't happy to see it but metroplex needed backup.

So the team splits up with most of them taknig on mooks and screamer going for Jhiaxus, who turns out to have reactive armor. Starscream's got to prepare for one of his greatest weaknesses: a fair fight.

Meanwhile with Bee and Megatron, the duo find Galvatron whose injured. Megatron plans to just finish the bit but Bee gives one last speech to his new best buddy: He encourages him that this ten eyes for an eye attitude of his has caused nothing but an endless cycle of vengance and death with no defendants and points out anyone can be allies.. that goo dor bad.. they can make a new future and that Galvatron could be part of that. is it a tad naive? perhaps.. but it's a still a long ways from the bot who rejected metalhawk and the nails because they didn't fight in the war. Bumblebee's finally realized that to make ANY future.. they have to try something diffrent.. sadly.. he dosen't get to live long enough to do anything about it.

Bumblebee.. is dead. He finally turned the corner and he's gone. And it's telling how much of a turnaround he had during this crossover as i'm geninely heartbroken by it: bee really HAD turned around as a leader, realized how he failed, put his heart and soul into making things right, even turned the staunchest decepticon to his side with words instead of his fist.. and he dies suddenly, tragically and not even all that importantly to shockwave. He died.. because he was there and he could stop his plan maybe.

Megatron is livid as he prepares to fight shockwave who brags, but unlike Nova Prime actually pulls it off.

Back with the others, Magnus is about dead... when Brainstorm starts to feel a little woozy man.. then opens a portal: Optimus and Co have escaped.

Final issue. Whirl and Arcee hang out, sadly the only time they do though she wishes they had more. I forgot to mention she got a new paintjob, a new beginning.

Back with Team Optimus, it's explained HOW they did it: they heard the singing, realized they could make a gate and used Nova's corpse for their end, brainstorm for the other since he experimented so much with the dead universe. Problem is Cyclonus, Nightbeat and Kup all start to drop: they can't surivvie outside the dead universe and SOMEONE need sto carry them back.

So Rodimus and Brainstorm take the wounded back, with Brainstorm finding out he probably needs some of his magic juice himself. While he cooks that up a lot of fighting happens: the metroplex trio join in the fight though neither windblad nor nautica is that experinced, and Starscrema beats Jhaixus as Jhiaxus used some fancy shoulder blades.. and thus told screamer he had them.

At the end of all things Megatron denies he and bumlbee were friends.. but ti's clear they were. He's also horrified by Shockwave taking his idea that all bots are equal as meaning they all mean nothing. Optimus and Magnus arrive for backup.. but can't too much.

So both decide to take a crack at "I know your in there somewhere fight it". Optimus tries appealing to his old friend, the kindly senator he was before the senate turned him into the monster he is. This get shim shot and Megatron decides to try something else.

The impossible has happened: After realizing just how far he's fallen, what he's lost... Megatron.. has become an Autobot. For his people. For his future. For himself. And for his friend. It's honestly a brilliant idea if a risky one: take the greatest transformers villian.. and see what happpens when he truly tries to change. It reminds me of the many times my boy Magneto has reformed. And while it's a gamble, many fans apparently were not happy with this face turn... it's one that pays off as the series goes in my eyes. Megatron is trying to be better.. but it's both a process.. and something that won't go down well with those on the other side of that gun.

It's also something that's amazing it worked so well: before this in a lot of works Megatron was a bastard and you'd be forgiven for thinking this was an idea Hasbro kinda shoved in there.. because it was. Roberts confirmed at one of the cons that this was a mandate by them and he got the job. It's why this reformation takes place over 6 issues.

It's a testiamte to roberts and barber though.. that despite having to do a full 180, crazy.. it FEELS entirely organic to the story: Roberts had done enough background setup with megatron and had a full time travel story planned, so the framework to include him and have it mean something was THERE. He had to speed run his redemption but the fact he accomplished that in a few scenes and made it convincing.. is amazing. It's why i'm glad earthspark went with a reformed megatron as this arc is incredible from the jump depsite all this... and I can't wait to get fully started later this year. It's one of Roberts best acomplishments and i'm excited we're finally to it.

For now though .. it manages to reawaken the senator and in a truly heartbreaking scene they want to just let him go: after all, it's not SENATOR Shockwave's fault, it's what he became.. but The Senator CAN'T stop it: the time tive's part of of him.. and Optimus swears to remember him as he was before , with his new friend's help, putting him down.

So with that we have a few teases for the future: Starscream of course is back to normal, though the autobots, and cyclonus, make it clear he won't be able to slip back in THAT easily. Meanwhile poor soundwave breaks down a bit as he realizes what Megatron has done, and can't fahtom the betryal.. and galvatron steps in to be his new dad, setting up RiD season 2. Which thankfully is now out of my hands.l What matters is Optimus and Megatron. optimus makes sure this wasn't just a clever trick.. and it wasn't. That makes this complicated.. but the two step out of the ship, ready for what's next.

So Dark cybertron.. is mediocre. It has some really good scenes in it: Team Windblade are all great new additions for thir short time screen, the stuff with rodimus and optimus is truly special, Megatron's face turn is well done and Prowl gets powerbombed off a cliff.

Overall though.. it feels padded. It has good ideas, the necrotitan makes for cool imagery, but it tries to stitch so much together to make this big epic with enough space for everyone and everything, that instead feels bloated. While some GOOD shit like the antics of bisected megatron probably woudl've been cut down if this were 6 or 8 issues, the story would've been a lot tighter. We get a LOT of ground repeated: Prowl is pissy with bumblbee, Scoops yells at starscream. Nova Prime won't shut the fuck up. For all the great scenes ther'es a good chunk that's just the same shit happening again and again with only slight progress.

And as i've said it dosen't really "cross over" all that mucH: the casts of each book are largely seqestered from each other, so we never really get any conversation about how the lost light feels now they've had the journey and seen the consequences of leaving (i.e. starscream), or how those who stayed pooped the bed. We don't even get reactions to Bee's death.. the story just.. ends before anyone else finds out.

Dark Cybertron is really like a lot of event comics: it's longer than it needs to be, interrupts the flow of a good book to happen, and the consequences of it are better than the story of as a whole. It was slightly better on re-read and overall is better than robots in disguise, having more character development and less arguing.. but it dosen't save a bloated, messy story that wastes i'ts potetial trying to wring the maximum issues out of the story instead of doing it at it's best.

Next Time: We break from the lost light. Again. First up next month for SUPER MAY we ask the question "What's so funny about truth, justice and the american way?" Then it's Mighty Morphin Summer Baby! As I mentioned last time, we'll be ping ponging between BOOM!'s power rangers comics. I do have a special treat or two planned for the Franchise's 40th anniversary, a review of the movie, covering the first windblade mini series, but both are tbd at this point. I HOPE to cover them by the end of hte year, but it largely depends on my schedule. If all goes well you should get aan extra slice of transformers in August and MTMTE should be back by september.

When we return Season 2 begins! Megatron is the captain now, Rodimus is salty about that, and we see how everyone else adjusted to their new decepticon overlord. Thanks for reading.

#transformers #transformers more than meets the eye #rodimus prime #optimus prime #megatron #ratchet #swerve #ultra magnus #shockwave #starscream #bumblebee #prowl #prowl sucks

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